What Catches My Eye

During my preparations for GP Melbourne 2016 I aired a suggestion to my friend and testing partner Graham King regarding potential decks for the event. My suggestion was to try and update a 2011 style Gush list for the current meta game. For those who were not playing at the time, Gush in mid 2011 was a monolithic institution. There was ‘a’ Gush list with and the decklists rarely varied by more than a few cards.  The idea was to abuse the GushBond engine to deliver a lethal Tendrils of Agony or Tinker into the newly printed Blighsteel Colossus. It was even powerful enough for Rich Shay to pilot his version through the Swiss portion of the Vintage World Championship undefeated.

The idea was promptly put into the ‘too hard basket’ but apparently I was not the only one with the idea.

Sarven McLinton made equal 4^th position in a Swiss + 1 tournament with the following spicy list:

Sarven McLinton – Gush Control

4 Misty Rainforest

1 Polluted Delta

1 Flooded Strand

2 Underground Sea

2 Tropical island

3 Island

1 Tolarian Academy

1 Library of Alexandria

1 Black Lotus

1 Sol Ring

1 Mana Crypt

1 Mox Sapphire

1 Mox Jet

1 Mox Ruby

1 Mox Emerald

1 Mox Pearl

1 Time Vault

1 Voltaic Key

1 Fastbond

2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

1 Blightsteel Colossus

1 Snapcaster Mage

1 Trygon Predator

4 Force of Will

2 Mana Drain

2 Mental Misstep

2 Flusterstorm

4 Gush

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Dig Through Time

1 Brainstorm

1 Ponder

2 Preordain

1 Merchant Scroll

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Vampiric Tutor

1 Time Walk

1 Tinker

1 Tendrils of Agony

1 Hurkyl’s Recall

1 Steel Sabotage

Sideboard:

2 Nihil Spellbomb

1 Grafdigger’s Cage

1 Ravenous Trap

1 Yixlid Jailer

2 Trygon Predator

2 Nature’s Claim

1 Hurkyl’s Recall

1 Forest

1 Notion Thief

1 Mental Misstep

1 Abrupt Decay

1 Illness in the Ranks

There is a lot I love about this list. It really is a blast back from 2011. In a world where the combat step has become such a battlefield it is refreshing to see someone want to just go over the top. I am not sure who Sarven faced in his rounds but he only dropped two so there must be something right in the list.

The first thing I noticed about this list is the absence of Red. Quite often these Gush lists would splash Red for Ancient Grudge and Empty the Warrens as well as opening up the sideboard at the cost of weakening the mana base. In a tournament where Illness in the ranks and co. are seeing play Illness in the Ranks really loses some of it’s lustre. Without red he has room for fully four basics in the 75 which is rare to see and gives quite a leg up against the Wasteland decks. He also has the extra land in Library of Alexandria and full acceleration which leaves him with a very solid mana base.

Whilst I can get behind the loss of red there are some decisions that do not sit well with me. For one, Sarven has too many win conditions. For a deck which ideally is seeing 20+ cards in a game should not need Tinker + Tendrils + Jace + Time Vault; leaving aside the question of Jace for the moment, I would not select more than two of the other options. Cutting the Time Vault and the Voltaic Key would allow him to run the missing Preordains which would smoothen out the deck as a whole both pre and mid combo. Snapcaster over Regrowth is another head scratcher as Regrowth can find a second land or a spent Fastbond/Gush making it the clear better choice in this deck over the wizard.

If I were to pilot a variant of this list I would be looking at something along the lines of:

Joshua Butler – Gush

4 Misty Rainforest

3 Polluted Delta

2 Underground Sea

2 Tropical Island

3 Island

1 Tolarian Academy

1 Strip Mine

1 Black Lotus

1 Mana Crypt

1 Mox Emerald

1 Mox Jet

1 Mox Pearl

1 Mox Ruby

1 Mox Sapphire

1 Sol Ring

1 Fastbond

2 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy

1 Blightsteel Colossus

4 Force of Will

4 Mental Misstep

2 Flusterstorm

4 Gush

1 Ancestral Recall

1 Dig Through Time

1 Brainstorm

1 Ponder

4 Preordain

1 Merchant Scroll

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Vampiric Tutor

1 Time Walk

1 Tinker

1 Tendrils of Agony

2 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Regrowth

Sideboard:

4 Leyline of the Void

3 Yixlid Jailer

2 Trygon Predator

2 Nature’s Claim

1 Hurkyl’s Recall

1 Forest

1 Abrupt Decay

1 Illness in the Ranks

Overall I feel that this version would be a little more consistent. The addition of the Preordains and the streamlining of both the main deck and side board mean there will be less variation of hands and mana. I also chose to use Strip Mine as the 16^th land as I feel it would be more useful in the Dredge and Shop matchups  than the Library in the mirror. Considering we plan to end the game earlier than most, I felt that this was not too much of a concession.

With a full set of both Misstep and Force, the more traditional dredge hate of Leyline and Jailer seemed more fitting than the various cards in the previous list.

The Vryn’s Prodigy is a testing slot that allows the deck to be a little more consistent when mana hungry and lets us drop the Drains in favour of additional Missteps which are a concession to the Pyroblast heavy meta game. Unfortunately I think this is the reason I would be hesitant pilot this deck in a tournament. There are simply too many red blast effects in the meta for this to truly flourish. It may be as consistent as the current crop of Dark Petition storm lists but fold to additional hate. Either way it was a good thought experiment and you should probably keep an eye out for this deck in the future as it may be poised for a come back.

I See Red

Today I will be going through my preparation and how I selected the deck I played at GP Melbourne 2016. In the coming days I will also be releasing a round by round analysis so to be sure to check in for  check that out.

My highest calibre results have always been with Workshop  Control decks but looking at recent results I saw that the best performing Workshop lists had all been Aggro varients. I have never been comfortable with these aggro lists and I was not as confidant in building a Workshop Control deck as I had been prior to my GP winning performance in Sydney last year. Without good local data nor the confidence to build a good Prison deck I had to look at my other options. I was unable to pick dredge due to lack of cards so failing all else I started looking at blue decks.

Thinking about the expected field two things stood out to me.

          1) With the upsurge in Workshop Aggro (Trike/Ravager etc) and Mentor decks I expected there to be very few Null Rods in the field.

          2)      With Storm being held up as one of the better decks I wanted to play a list with Duress effects.

Duress for those who don’t know, is one of my favourite cards in all of Magic. The information, the disruption, and the ability to walk your opponent into traps  make resolving the card just so satisfying.

With these in mind I was looking at various decks which could abuse both of these points. This led me building two decks: Jaime Cano’s top 8 Burning Gifts list from MKM Series Madrid (with some additional hand disruption) and an old version of Angel City Vault as popularised by Brian DeMars.

A few sample hands from both lists made me realise that the changes I had made to Jaime’s list changed how it would play out its draws and caused a small amount of internal tension which made me uncomfortable. I turned to focus on the Vault deck and my good friend Graham King agreed to come over to test it with me. A few games into the testing session and I had realised that the deck was just too inconsistent for my liking. I either won on turn one against his Oath deck or it went Magicarp and could only Splash before it died. Having gone down two dead ends I went looking and found Andy Probasco’s list from the Power 9 Challenge.

Not only was it a painter list, similar to the one I had done well the month before, but it also now had the addition of Duress (with baby Jace recursion). Further testing with Graham showed that the deck was really weak to Abrupt Decay. The Nihil Spellbomb in the main had done very little in testing so I was very comfortable making the switch to a Misdirection. Melbourne’ Vintage scene had me worried about a large Workshop presence so I also switch over the Duress’ main deck into Thoughtseize. The final list I registered was:

4 Scalding Tarn

1 Polluted Delta

1 Misty Rainforest

3 Island

3 Volcanic island

2 Underground Sea

1 Tolarian Academy

1 Strip Mine

1 Black Lotus

1 Mana Crypt

1 Sol Ring

1 Mox Emerald

1 Mox Jet

1 Mox Pearl

1 Mox Ruby

1 Mox Sapphire

2 Grindstone

3 Painters Servant

1 Blightsteel Colossus

2 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy

1 Dack Fayden

4 Force of Will

4 Pyroblast

3 Mental Misstep

3 Thirst for Knowledge

2 Gush

1 Misdirection

1 Dig Through Time

1 Brainstorm

1 Ancestral Recall

2 Thoughtseize

1 Yawgmoth’s Will

1 Demonic Tutor

1 Treasure Cruise

1 Time Walk

1 Tinker

Sideboard:

1 Mindbreak Trap

1 Duress

1 Toxic Deluge

1 Shattering Spree

3 Ingot Chewer

1 Mountain

2 Grafdigger’s Cage

4 Leyline of the Void

Thoughts on the change of ownership of TheManaDrain

For those who may not be aware, themanadrain.com is a forum dedicated to the Vintage format. For many years it has been held up as “the” place to discuss Vintage with the worldwide community. It is certainly the largest English speaking Vintage forum. Other forums around the internet do have Vintage sections but they are generally quite small, or at worst, really misinformed about the format. 

I personally started using themanadrain back in 2011, shortly after becoming interested in Vintage. It has been a great place for me personally as I was able to see how other Vintage players, including the adepts such as Menendian or Elias viewed the format, and in many cases exchange ideas with people around the world.

Themanadrain has changed hands a number of times and until most recently it was owned by Starcitygames.com who has used a very “Hands-off” approach to the organisation and running of the site for many years. This has led in part to the deterioration of the forum over the past decade or so. The forum software/interface looks old, the forum itself seems to go through seasons of activity, and many of the old sections are defunct. The mana drain is not as relevant as it once was.

Changes in how people talk to each other online have also affected the old powerhouse. The addition of Facebook, Twitter, Twitch to peoples online communication, has crept in at the edges of themanadrain’s sphere of influence. Facebook especially is littered with thousands of Magic groups, including Vintage focussed ones. All in all, themanadrain was in need of a makeover.

Recently Andy Probasco purchased themanadrain off its previous owners and this is what he had to say about it:

Hey guys, it's Andy Probasco, your friendly neighborhood Brass Man - new owner and operator of www.themanadrain.com. I'm sorry for the delay in putting up this message. There was only expected to be a short downtime, and this message was going to be delayed until a redesign in a few weeks. Some technical problems made that impossible, so I wanted to let everyone know what's going on. 

Vintage was once described to me as "The format where every player in the top 8 gets dinner together afterwards." There are many things I love about vintage but this is the core truth that makes vintage a part of my life. My closest friends are the people I learned the game with, and the people I met while playing.When TheManaDrain.com was founded over a decade ago, there weren't many ways to play "Type 1". There was no Vintage Championship, and if you weren't one of the lucky few players to live near a vintage shop, there was no way to learn about it. The TMD community changed all that, it set a new standard with strategy content and major vintage tournaments like Waterbury and the Bazaar of Moxen. In a few years Wizards of the Coast and StarCityGames picked up that ball and ran with it.Today we have a passionate international community. We just had the largest Vintage championship ever. Players anywhere in the world can play in tournaments every week on Magic Online. There are more Vintage writers, streamers and podcasters than ever before, and the Vintage Super League broadcasts Hall of Fame players battling alongside community pillars.Vintage has never been bigger or better than it is today. But TMD has not caught up. Here's my vision for how we could.

TheManaDrain is the hub of vintage

TMD can't be the only source for Vintage content online - but if you visit TMD every day, you shoudn't miss anything. If there's something going on in Vintage, I want a link to it. If you're producing vintage content, I want to use TMD to direct people to it, whether it's paid or free, even if it's a link to a "competeing" website, because in vintage, the competition should all be willing to grab dinner with each other after the event.

TheManaDrain is the landing page for new players

If you had never played vintage before, and you wanted to learn about it, how would do it? If you google "Vintage Magic the Gathering" today, themanadrain shows up on thethird page, and that result is a year-old thread.The vintage community has been doing a great job getting new players into the format. TMD hasn't been doing as well. If you meet someone who sounds interested in vintage, I want you to be confident that you can give them a link to www.themanadrain.com, and they'll be able to quickly learn the ropes, learn the terminology, and learn what makes the Vintage community so great.This means cultivating a community where new players aren't afraid to ask questions, but it also means designing the site in a way that people can quickly find information that matters to them.

TheManaDrain is the greatest community of magic players in the world

To me, vintage has always been about relationships over cards. Not because "it's only a game." It's been so much bigger to me than a game. Competition is important to me. I love it and I love how it pushes people. But I know that competition with friends is as good at is possibly gets. Some people think that high-level competition and a welcoming community are at odds - but I know nothing could be more complementary.The kind of vintage player I want on TheManaDrain:

• reaches out to new players, is never hateful or exclusionary

• has strong opinions about the game, but expresses them in a civil way

• is happy to post about what they've been playing, but never exaggerates or lies about results

• is gracious in victory and humble in defeat

• contributes to the community at large, by running or attending tournaments, writing articles, producing video content

If that's NOT you? I don't want to kick you out - I want to win you over. Try it out, you might be surprised. I'm going to investigate reputation/karma systems to help the community police itself, but it might be a while before we find the right fit. I'm not going post a codified list of bannable offenses. If those values don't resonate with you, don't worry - there are other places to talk about vintage, and you probably wouldn't have liked this site, anyway.

How are we going to get there?

Together, and probably not without making some mistakes. Over the next few weeks we're going to see some changes. If you don't like the direction things are going, tell me. There will be a metadiscussion board for talking about the direction of the site, but if you have concerns in the meantime you can email me at aprobasco@gmail.com, or message me on facebook as tmdBrassMan.I'll update this page with any new information about the site's status.I'm really looking forward to making TheManaDrain the greatest community in magic againThanks, - Andy Probasco

Andy wants themanadrain to be a signpost. A place for players to meet and if they choose, to go elsewhere together. If this becomes a thing, I would love to be one of those who took part in putting it together. He wants to drop some of the elitist attitudes of the past which made posting a very jarring experience for some. This is a direct contrast to the previous format of the site as it was seen as a place for high-level discussion of the format, where you were expected to know the basics before diving in.

This may be a bit of a culture shock to long term members but I hope it does catch on as Vintage is in need of fresh blood, and the world-wide nature of the internet may cause new pockets of Vintage to rise up in a way that it is not possible at the moment.

To point at another site/forum which I think provides a good roadmap for the site is WOTLabs

Wotlabs (about World of Tanks MMORPG), has many features I would love to see at the new manadrain and I think Andy would also. Links to streamers, articles, defined sections including “Purple player interaction centre” which was similar to the old “Ask an Adept”, new player zones, sections for the various “trees” or Archetypes. This open, yet detailed forum (without the elitist attitude of its users) is a forum done well.

One of the big things I wanted to talk about is the place of a forum within the Magic context. Facebook groups etc are a big thing however a forum does hold special significance for many players. A major factor of this significance is the permanency of a forum. Facebook or Twitter posts fade away into darkness where they can only be found with a herculean effort. On a forum, changes in the format and other things like high level discussion stay where they can be found by others for years to come. Old decklists and comments on the minutiae of card choices etc serve as a reminder and a history of the players passion for the format and its community. This is why Themanadrain.com is such an important site and I hope to see it reborn into a new era of prosperity.  

I wish Andy all the best with the ownership of themanadrain.com. I think he has the best interests of the forum at heart and I am sure many, including myself, are more than happy to help him achieve his vision for the site.

A Reflection on GP Melbourne

The eternal events at GP Melbourne this year were an extremely positive experience. It was great to see all the players who travel from around Australia that you only get to see at these larger events. I had the pleasure of squaring off against both the always lovely David Brotchie and the best barbeque chef I know Socrates in the Vintage event. I also had plenty of conversations with the likes of the Canberra and Brisbane crews. There are just too many of you guys and girls out there that I cannot name you all and it means a lot to me even to just say “Hi”.

There was a different atmosphere at the GP venue this year. This GP was the first Australian GP run by Chain Link events and it was also, once again, the largest Australian main event which nearly reached its cap of 1,100 players. The main event, from what I saw, ran smoothly and I did not see any major flaws in its running. I did not play in the main event, so my opinion may be somewhat distant from those who were playing in the event and may be missing many of those small details. CL events were also very generous with a playmat given to every competitor in the side events, in addition to those who played in the main event. This was a fantastic and unexpected addition to the tournaments.

Any judge calls were swiftly attended and dealt with in a professional manner. It was also good to see the judges using the Magic Judges Twitter at many of the strange and wonderful board states not just in the side events but continually throughout the weekend. I personally had my game against my Dredge opponent when I Pyroblasted his Bazaar of Baghdad in game two.

(Lachlan) "Pyroblast your Bazaar." Just a regular old Vintage match. pic.twitter.com/qwIOh2Ppxx

— Magic Judges (@MagicJudges) 5 March 2016

However, some aspects of the side events a lot of room for improvement in their structure and execution. I will be writing a letter to CL events in a more concise manner but there were some aspects of the side events that did not meet my expectations. I understand that this was the first event in Australia for CL Events and they proved very responsive to feedback prior to the event regarding the scheduling of an additional Highlander event so I am sure that with enough encouragement, at least some of these will be addressed before their next GP, which I am sure will be bigger and better than Melbourne.

The areas in which the side events did not meet my expectations were:
The Queue
The Rules Enforcement Level
The Round Cap
The Timing
The Multiple Restarts

In order to sign up for the side events there was a rather long and unruly line. Stretching across the hall floor it was slow, taking over an hour and twenty minutes to traverse it, and was constantly being cut through and crossed by hundreds of people every minute. Perhaps signing up online would have been the better option but as I had changed my mind to sign up for the Friday Highlander event at the last minute that was not an option for me. I really feel that splitting the lines into days or specific events would have been a much more efficient use of time and floor space. At the very least it should have snaked along a wall as to ensure it was not being cut through. It was especially dreadful for me as within 15 minutes of being in line I had a roaring migraine which I had to endure for the entire trip. Once at the front of the line I was told that I had to go away and fill out a form, which could have been supplied at the start. Once I had completed the form the same gentleman serving me told me that I had not needed it, checked his computer for 5 minutes before asking for it from me again. This was particularly infuriating given my headache at this point and I was just asking to be put through as quickly as possible. 

I was also shocked after I signed up to find that many of the side events such as the Highlander and legacy events were run at Regular REL. I was really surprised to find such a large event with real prize support and prestige on the line run as a regular REL event. All other events of this nature around Australia in the past have been run at Competitive REL. This was also especially disappointing for the Highlander Rules Committee because they use the decklists, which are not required at Regular REL, to determine the direction of the format as a whole. There was also confusion on the Saturday as at least one of the staff taking registrations for the event was advising competitors that the event was to be run at Regular REL causing confusion as some players had not written decklists based on this information. This was quite distressing to myself as I have kept the decklists from every large Vintage event in Australia since 2011 as I was quite worried that it would be downgraded to Regular REL to accommodate this.

The Round Cap was personally, the largest area in which I feel that CL Events dropped the ball. Having all the side events capped at 5 rounds, with no top 8 was completely unheard of at Australian GP’s. Even the 64 player Legacy event was capped at five rounds would not have even been enough to determine an undefeated player. At best these events were Swiss +1 and at worse not enough for a viable Swiss tournament structure. This structure left many players, including myself, feeling deeply dissatisfied with the quality of the tournament being run. Similar events have been run worldwide but for a country with such a deeply rooted and established eternal scene it felt like we were being disrespected in the eyes of the TO. While I am sure that this was not the case, I hope that this will be improved in the upcoming GP’s run by CL Events.

The next two items are somewhat linked to each other and they are the timing of the rounds and the multiple restarts and repairings. Before the Vintage event I rushed to write a decklist down for one Nicholas Chmielewski. Ten minutes before the tournament I was extremely worried as his deck had not been finalised and I was helping him complete the final steps. My worry was unwarranted as the event did not start until 25 minutes after the scheduled start of the event. This was compounded by the multiple restarts over the weekend for repairing etc. One Legacy tournament was restarted at total of four times in a single round. Multiple players dropped from the Legacy and the Vintage had some players rumble discontentedly at this.

However, I don’t want this to be taken as a negative overview of the GP Experience as hosted by CL Events. I had a truly amazing time which would have not been possible without the hard work and dedication that the staff and judges put into this event. Having run my events myself I know some of the Herculean task it is to put up a great event and the work put in by the organisers should be celebrated. The comments above are only the major areas that I saw easy improvement that would turn this great GP into a truly memorable experience.

A Game of Highlander Part 2

After four short rounds in the Highlander event at GP Melbourne we had only one final round to determine who our winner would be for the largest Highlander event of the year so far.

Both our winner from the last game (Paul Mitchell) and the new challenger (Brandon Owen) were coming into this round undefeated. A win here would secure the tournament and all the bragging rights until MASTERS which is coming up over the Queen’s birthday weekend.

Brandon had brought his own version of Dimir Control to the tournament now it was time to face the final boss in the form of Paul’s Blue Moon deck.

After words were exchanged and die were rolled, it was Brandon that elected to be on the play. 

Fortunately for his opponent he had to take a mulligan down to six in the face of his opponent’s seven. Brandon starts the game off with a Flooded Strand signalling a slower more controlling start. Paul of the other hand looked to put himself first in the long game by suspending an Ancestral Vision on turn one and following it up with a Sensei’s Divining Top and a Ponder on turn two against Brandon only other play of a tapped Faerie Conclave.

With things looking bleak for Brandon so early he tried to stay in the game with an Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver which due to Pauls aggressive stance in the early game resolved. Ashiok exiled the Force of Will on top of Paul’s library as well as the Izzet Charm and a land. No creatures yet but Ashiok was out of burn range for now which means that he had some more time to play with. Time he may have had time but Paul was about to start pressuring him on a different angle.

The very next turn Paul cast a Back to Basics locking down all of Brandon's lands apart from a single Island. Without the lands he was expecting, Brandon activated Ashiok before casting a Preordain which found a Thoughtseize which was cast off another non-basic keeping three lands permanently tapped down. The Thoughtseize did take a very scary Grim Lavamancer but leaving behind the equally scary cards in the form of Stormbreath Dragon, Crypic Command, and Mana Leak. At this point it looked like Ashiok would need to get there before Paul reached the mana for his dragon which was only two land drops away.

Even more devastating for Brandon was his opponents Ancestral Recall off the top (along with the Visions on a single counter). Ashiok did manage to hit a Vendilion Clique giving him an out the following turn to the Stormbreath Dragon which was most likely going to come down and ruin any chances he had of turning this game around. He used the final trick up his sleeve to Stifle the cast trigger on the Ancestral Visions which resolved meaning that Paul missed an all important land drop that turn.

Paul saw that the Vendilion clique was a threat to his victory and so cast his Cryptic command in the main phase to bounce the Ashiok, clearing that problem, and drawing a card. Ashiok came down the next turn at the cost of another permanently tapped land but it did not manage to find another creature and could only exile Dack Fayden and two other spells. Still digging through his deck, Paul once again bounced the Planeswalker, this time with a kicked into the Roil and ended his turn with two untapped Islands signpoasting the Mana Leak which had been revealed earlier in the match to Brandon's Thoughtseize.

Brandon could do nothing the following turn and could only watch helplessly as Paul cast the Stormbreath Dragon, which went on to deal damage for two turns before he would find some resistance. When Paul wen to cast the Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy, Paul cast his own Mana Drain which was in turn targeted by a Mana Leak and Brandon conceded that he could not win that game and both players went to their sideboards.

Brandon went on to concede that he had made an error earlier in the match by not fetching due to his opponents Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth playing right into the Back to Basics which was on the field at the time. Laugher is heard coming from the judge down at the other end of the table exclaiming that he had “dodged a bullet” by being on break when the Judge call regarding Humility vs Opalescence had been made. That particular call had been tweeted out from the official Magic Judges Twitter account not once but twice.

(PJ) "JUDGE!"
...
"No..."
We have the great side events #gpmelb pic.twitter.com/8LBV4vLCp5

— Magic Judges (@MagicJudges) March 4, 2016

(PJ) Seriously... The best! Why isn't 7pt highlander a pro tour format? #gpmelb pic.twitter.com/ShPyJ4z93h

— Magic Judges (@MagicJudges) March 4, 2016

 Both players took this time to quieten down and make the last few changes to their boards.

Good luck is called and play begun for the second game of the final match of the tournament.

In a mirror of the first game, Brandon elected to be on the play but chose to mulligan to six in the face of Paul’s keep of seven. Obtaining perfect information from his opponent, Brandon casts a Gitaxian Probe revealing:

Logic Knot
Fiery Confluence
Ancestral Vision
Desolate Lighthouse
3 Mana Lands

After racing me to see who could write the contents of the hand faster, Brandon played a Creeping Tar Pit and passed the turn.

Looking to set up his long game, Paul suspended the Ancestral visions before passing the turn back. Brandon looking to press his advantage cast the Hymn to Tourach forcing the discard of a Scalding Tarn and a Desolate Lighthouse. Unfortunately Brandon has no follow up play and both players play land god for a couple of turns. I got a sneak peek into Pauls hand at this point to see a Counterspell which spelled bad news for Brandon.

The players fought over the Ancestral Visions with the Brandon's Negate being hit by a Mana Leak and the Visions resolved. Unfortunately for Paul he missed a land drop and sensing weakness in his opponents’ defences Brandon goes to cast the Trinket mage in his hand to get a Sensei’s Divining Top. His opponent tried to cast Ancestral targeting himself but this time his draw three would not resolve as Brandon's freshly drawn Mana Leak sends it to the Graveyard. Paul did manage to bolt the Trinket mage at the end of the turn to keep the beard clear.

Smelling an opening due to his opponent being tapped out due to the combined casting of Trinket Mage, Sensei’s Dinining Top and Mana Leak Paul cast his Vedalken Shackles which very effectively shut down combat as Paul would be able to take either the Faerie Conclave or the Creeping Tar Pit should either attack.

Trying to find an answer to this new problem, Brandon stumbled for a couple of turns which was enough for Glen Elenda, Archmage to join the battlefield for Paul, despite Brandon's return counterspell. Now armed with a 1 mana counterspell for non-creature spells, Paul looked to be moving into a rather comfortable lead.

Cephalid Colosseum was activated to try and find an answer but only a Tropical Island and a Deathrite Shaman were forthcoming. As Paul was tapped down and his Shackles no longer a threat the Creeping Tar Pit was able to swing for some free damage.

Paul cast a Ponder at the start of his turn and went into the tank. He seemed to really struggle to find the correct line and was thinking for quite some time. He elected to keep the three cards on top and had three cards left in his hand after the raw. Glen Elendra swung in for a little damage and he passed the turn. On his opponent’s draw step, however, he cast a Vendilion Clique. The Clique resolved but the duress-like effect was stifled. Pithing Needle came down and Paul once again seemed top struggle with his various options. With the obvious choice of using the Glen Elendra staring him in the face we well as the cards he had access to in his hand he once again tanked for a few seconds. In the end he elected to allow the Pithing Needle to resolve. The Needle named the Shackles.

Paul however was playing tricky and cast Fiery Confluence on his next turn to destroy the Needle and between the Vendilion Clique and the Glen Enendra Brandon was reduced to a mere 5 life points.

Brandon did nothing on his turn but popped the top and attempted to cast a Heroes Downfall on the Clique when he was attacked but the spell was Remanded and he was forced to concede.

Both players agreed that it would have been an uphill battle for Brandon and that the Back to Basics in Game one had been backbreaking. 

Both players desideboarded quietly and the lights went out on the Friday Highlander at GP Melbourne

A Game of Highlander

After dropping from the Highlander event I sat down to cover the games at the top tables. Today's article is a recap of the top table in the penultimate round of the tournament.

The round 4 match I covered was between Paul Mitchell (my round one opponent) and Michael Hearn who was on the evolution of Lachlan Ward-Smith’s MASTERS winning Tolarian Vault deck. This deck abuses Tolarian Academy and various untap effects to generate an ungodly amount of mana and put that toward a putting a Time Vault into play with a way to untap it every turn.

Both Paul and Michael chose to keep their seven card opening hands satisfied that they had the good to carry them to victory. Paul who won the die roll and had elected to play started the game with an Island and a Sensei’s Divining Top before passing to his opponent, ready to play the long game. 

Michael however was not looking to play a long game it all. His opening turn consisted of Mishra’s Workshop into a Grim Monolith and Voltaic Key. He used the monolith mana to play a Time Vault and untap it using the Voltaic Key. His second turn was only a Breeding Poll, which he later admitted to top decking, to continue to combo to allow him to take all the rest of the turns.

“And I though my turn one was good” remarked Paul.

Having not been presented with a win conditions yet, Paul asked that Michael play it out until he did so Michael obliged and eventually presented him with the Planeswalker Ugin. In the process of doing so he clearly advertised which deck he giving Paul more information to help his sideboarding which giving away no more information of his own. Michael was free with conversation between games letting everyone know that it was the second time during the tournament he had had a turn one victory. Both players had a laugh and Paul kindly says that “I can assure you at least we have plenty of time”

Both players spent quite a while in their sideboard clearly working out the appropriate response to what information they had been given in game one. Shuffling up for game two Paul quips “I’d wish you luck but that worked out really badly for me last time; how about reasonable luck?” and both players find amusement in the joke.

Both players took a mulligan to six cards before settling on their opening hands. Paul’s Grim Lavamancer was replied to by a Seat of the Synod by Michael. Paul seemed to hesitate before leaving up mana after playing his second land. His opponent was in no such mood and played a Signet to accelerate his mana production for the following turn. It was cut short however when Paul cast Dack Fayden stealing Michael’s Seat of the Synod leaving him without a blue source. Unfazed, Michael continued to build his mana base with two additional signets threatening six mana the following turn if he had a land drop (that was not Academy).

Cementing himself in the control role, Paul cast an Ancestral Recall and Brainstorm the following turn before fetching to shuffle away the unwanted cards. Dack Fayden continued to dig him deeper into his library discarding an unwanted Mental Misstep and Wandering Furnace.

Confronted with such a powerful sweep of cards going to his opponent, Michael had to do something but he was running low on cards at this point and whilst he managed to resolve a Pithing Needle naming his opponent’s Dack Fayden, his Fabricate was hit by a Negate. The game was basically over the next turn when his opponent destroyed two of his three signets and the Pithing Needle with a Fiery Confluence. Dack Fayden stole the last Signet and Michael was left with only two lands in play.

Michael could only shake his head as a Vendilion Clique and Sarkhan Dragonspeaker quickly finished his depleting life total. Perhaps a little more dejected than after his first game, he went straight to his sideboard changing a single card. Paul also took some time checking his board but ultimately did not make any changes.

Having lost the last game Michael elects to take the play and both players call for a reasonable game 3. Michael umms only slightly before choosing to keep his opening seven cards. After having mulliganed once Paul looks up to the heavens and errs for quite a while seemingly on the edge about his new hand. Michael senses  this and tries to sum up his opponent  and must have felt elated as Paul dejectedly chose to mulligan down to only five cards.

“Five of the best” he exclaims before seeing his hand and lightens up as he keeps and scries.

Both players play Land Go on the first turn but things become spicy when Michael Signet is effectively shut down by a simple unassuming Null Rod. This is especially devastating as Michaels land base at this point also included a Tree of Tales. His Crop Rotation was quickly Negated and while an off-the-top Academy provides some hope for him in the form of a Reclamation Sage, his hopes were dashed of the rocks of a Crypic Command followed up by a Thundermaw Helkite. Both players extended their hands for the handshake and everything was silent until after the decks were put away.

“And I started off so well” is the only wistful remark by Michael during this time.

Friday Highlander - My Story

I hope everyone out there is is resting up from the GP weekend. Overall the weekend was a good one with plenty of Magic to be played. This was the first GP in Australia run by Chain Link Events and was by no means a poor tournament experience. I did have some issues on site but that is for a different post. The next few posts will explore the Highlander event, my role within it, coverage of the final two matches at the top table, and a rundown of the whole event.

I had only decided the day before that I would definitely be playing in the highlander event bar another severe attack of my migraines. I borrowed what I needed from friends and managed to get the deck together. I even had a decklist written out before I was told that the event would be played at Regular REL and therefore did not require decklists. 

I had decided to bring my version of Channel-Mirror to the tournament as my weapon of choice for taking down the tournament. I believed that Channel was one of the best chances for me to take down the event as I had not played much highlander in the weeks preceding the event due to my condition making travel to tournaments not really viable. It had not changed its position in the metagame, nor had its optimal deck construction changed heavily so I knew my previous experience would still be relevant. Channel-Mirror is a rather strong combo deck that can be quite resilient to many of the common avenues of attack against traditional combo decks such as counters or graveyard hate. The problem with the deck is that it can be inconsistent at times, needing to draw the “right” hands etc. I have often said that Channel is the best deck in the format if you are willing to be lucky. In this particular tournament however I was not lucky. I ended my tournament at 1-2 after a nightmare round one and a rather unlucky game three in round two I decided that I would play one final round before dropping to do coverage.

The list I devised and played was not too dissimilar from standard lists for Channel Mirror. The erratic nature of the decks opening hands and lack of great matchups (despite the similar lack of poor matchups) has left few pilots with a great amount of experience with or against the deck. Perhaps the inconsistency of the combo should resign the deck to the annals of history but I do enjoy playing it and it is certainly one of the best decks to goldfish. It’s just so different from every other deck in Magic which makes it refreshing to play.

The decklist I would have registered had the event been Competitive REL would have been:

You will have to forgive missing Duress/Thoughtseize in the mainboard

Bloodstained Mire
Wooded Foothills
Misty Rainforest
Polluted Delta
Verdant Catacombs
Tropical Island
Underground Sea
Bayou
Watery Grave
Overgrown Tomb
City of Brass
Mana Confluence
Peat Bog
Hickory Woodlot
Chrome Mox
Lotus Petal
Mox Diamond
Sensei’s Divining Top
Darkwater Egg
Shadowblood Egg
Chromatic Sphere
Chromatic Star
Kaleidostone
Scroll Rack
Implements of Sacrifice
Pentad Prism
Skyship Weatherlight
Lich’s Mirror
Deathrite Shaman
Wild Cantor
Birds of Paradise
Elves of Deep Shadow
Dimir Infiltrator
Elvish Spirit Guide
Composite Golem
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
Eladmri’s Vineyard
Gitaxian Probe
Ponder
Thoughtseize
Duress
Inquisition of Kozilek
Personal Tutor (1)
Regrowth
Channel (2)
Demonic Tutor (3)
Grim Tutor
Fabricate
Rhystic Tutor
Diabolic Tutor
Increasing Ambition
Dark Ritual
Nature’s Claim
Spell Pierce
Muddle the Mixture (1)
Shred Memory
Abrupt Decay
Cabal Ritual
Into the Roil
Brainstorm

SB: Forest
SB: Shield Sphere
SB: Dystopia
SB: Massacre
SB: Slaughter Pact
SB: Elixer of Immortality
SB: Pack Rat
SB: Planar Portal
SB: Sadistic Sacrament
SB: Heroes Reunion
SB: Unmask
SB: Pernicious Deed
SB: Xantid Swarm
SB: Dark Confidant
SB: Nihil Spellbomb

For those who are not familiar with the deck I will give a quick rundown (I will provide a more in depth review at a later date). The deck’s combo involves finding and casting Channel which gives you the ability to pay one life at instant speed to add a single colourless mana to your mana pool. The important clause here is that you gain this ability until end of turn, you don’t have to decide how much life you want to pay then and there. Once you have this ability you use this colourless mana to cycle through your deck using the tutors and baubles to find a Lich’s Mirror (usually) which has the replacement effect of when you die you shuffle up all cards in play, your hand, and cards in your graveyard, and then you draw seven cards and your life total becomes 20. You then use the new seven cards at your disposal to cycle through your deck once again and repeat Ad Nauseum. Quite often you announce a spell such as a tutor and hold priority and kill yourself using the Channel ability. This lets you draw seven new cards and then resolve the tutor to find the Mirror again.

Once you have enough cards/mana at your disposal you find the Emrakul which triggers and additional turn. If your opponent can answer the Emrakul after you swing (and your opponent does not scoop to the first Emrakul casting) you ensure you can keep going off using the Mirror to gain more and more additional turns. In full competitive mode you can use this to indefinitely prolong the game (particularly if you are comboing in game 1). Because there is no loop happening in this combo you can continue to combo without risking being called for slow play if you continue to make your plays in a timely manner. Each time you mirror (without a tutor on the stack) you are risking that you draw 7 lands and cannot continue the combo.

{Tournament Report}

My first round was against eventual champion Paul Mitchell who was on his U/R Blue Moon list. As with the Modern lists it is a strong control deck which uses Blood Moon as an essential lock piece against many of the greedy 3+ colour mana bases that litter 7pt Highlander. With even some mono Red lists suffering under a Blood Moon it is a clearly powerful play and a great cornerstone for the always powerful U/R shell.

The games were quick, vicious and in my opponents favour. In the first game I kept a decent hand which unfortunately faltered when I played blindly into Force of Will, Mental Misstep, Izzet Charm, and Mana Leak; each time assuming that he must have been spent. Against the blue decks you have to keep throwing bombs at your opponent until one sticks and unfortunately for me after we were both spent my opponents’ deck was much better at recovering than my own. After drawing a few useless mana rocks a Thundermaw Hellkite quickly ended the game.

The second game was defined by an early Blood Moon and Paul was able to effectively keep me off abrupt decay mana with the help of a Null Rod. I had made an error in sideboarding by siding out my Into the Roil which left me short of an additional out which again in hindsight would have been useful in the situation I found myself in.

0-1 (0-2 games)

In Round two I managed to lose the dream matchup. My opponent, Karill Radvaisky, was running a three colour, no land destruction, no counterspell, and no discard deck. Despite being on the play in game one and three I managed to lose. This match showcases why this deck is not as popular is it could be. I almost considered leaving the tournament after losing this one.

In game one I did go off on my third turn with a rather lovely stack whose first iteration of the combo involved drawing my new hand of seven, drawing two additional cards (plus adding a Blue and a Black mana to my mana pool), and THEN resolving my Scroll Rack ability drawing 5 additional cards making the cards seen total for the new hand 14. With two coloured mana floating and 14 brand new cards there was almost no way I could fail to continue to combo from there. With a single black mana and seven new cards the fizzle ration is roughly 9%. After three or so rotations I tutored for the Emrakul with the intention of continuing to combo as he would have had mana for Council’s Judgement/Oblivion Ring after I had swung but he conceded as soon as the Emrakul was announced.

Game Two was rather unfortunate as I kept a slower hand which needed to tutor for both the Channel and the Mirror (it did have the mana and tutors though) which did not match up well to his hand of Qasali Pridemage into Jitte/Equip. On my final turn I had seven life and channel was cast. I had two black mana but only Diabolic Tutor in hand which left me one life short of tutoring for the Mirror and continuing to combo. Innumerable variable would have changed that game into a win for me but I chose the keep the hand I did and was punished.

Game three was just awful to play. I hand a hand that combo’d on my turn 4 (after his turn 3). It was a land light hand so I was just hoping that he did not have Null Rod etc but I assumed this was not the case because of the Jitte the previous game. Things were going swimmingly until he revealed an Ethersworn canonist to his Dark Confidant on the first flip. My Channel and Emrakul sat useless in hand (I had Muddled for Channel the turn before) and instead of drawing any tutors or creature destruction (of which there were 12) I continued to draw lands and mana rocks. I eventually had to crack my rocks to dig deeper into the deck and brainstorm away the Emrakul after I was below 15 life in order to find SOMETHING but no answer was forthcoming. My plans quickly hinged on his dark confidant flips but it was eventually removed and my opponent won the game handily.

I was shocked, I could not believe that the dream matchup had gone so lopsided but still extended the hand and looked for my next opponent.

0-2 (1-4 Games)

James O’Brien was my third round opponent and we were both tired. These games were a more casual affair (as most are in the 0-2 bracket) which ended in a distinctively different fashion from my previous games. My opponent was on some sort of BR midrange deck (sorry I didn’t take notes on this deck) and he kept a sketchy one lander and I went for an early combo which unfortunately fizzled. I had gone off with just a draw of seven cards (with some spare mana floating) and had drawn 4 lands, a Sensei’s Divining top and a couple of creatures. Even looking at the top three cards with the Top did not allow me to continue to combo. I did have a fetchland so I used that to look again and found the Channel so I cast my creatures and prepared to go off again. It took a few turns to gather the resources again but my opponent did not put up much resistance because of his mana situation putting him in the game too late and I was able to get an Emrakul on the board again.

The second game went quickly with a turn 1 or two channel and an Emrakul after a single Mirror. This game was a quick and brutal as those I had received earlier in the tournament. James was a good sport and we played another match after we had signed the match slip which was a not as one sided as our previous games had been.

1-2 (3-4 Games)

Overall my deck was not as well metagamed as it could have been. I went a little overboard in the anti aggro department with fully 10 or so card choices directly aimed at that matchup. Channel is a deck where you have only a few flex slots to play around with so while you have 8+ cards for the matchup you want the wide variety to ensure you have the right four cards to bring in against your specific opponent. With hindsight I would definitely have made some changes such as bringing in the Planar Portal to the main deck given the metagame in the room.  Other small changes I would make going forward would be the reintroduction of Preordain and a slight shifting of the flex slot configuration between main and side.

I believe Channel-Mirror still has what it takes to be a competitive Highlander deck. Grim Tutor losing a point was a great shot in the arm and made up for the point that Muddle the Mixture had gained a few sets prior. Its inconsistencies can be smoothed out with practice and practice with it I shall.

See you next time when I run down the first match I covered at the top table in the penultimate round of the event.