Take Me Out
Oh, how long it’s been. Sludging through Thragtusks and trudging through Unburial Rites—where has all the time gone? I’m left here. My pockets are empty, and my spirit’s run dry. I’ve been here all this time, and I didn’t see what was right in front of me.
Creatures (11)
Lands (13)
Spells (36)
- 3 Plains
- 2 Dissipate
- 8 Island
- 3 Unsummon
- 2 Rewind
- 2 Syncopate
- 2 Think Twice
- 2 Essence Scatter
- 2 Runechanter's Pike
- 4 Thought Scour
- 4 Azorius Charm
- 2 Sphinx's Revelation
Sideboard
And he shows me, my muse, exactly what I want to see. He puts it in front of me, practically handing me a decklist. Virtually.
He…he literally handed me the decklist.
Gerry Thompson, aka "The Nut," has been around me for quite some time in Roanoke. We’ve settled. Things just are.
He sees things, takes them apart, and rebuilds them. This usually ends up making them more efficient. Stronger. Better.
Usually.
There are times when he falters, like all of us, and everything ends up going to shambles. None of us can help it. It just happens sometimes. But for all of that, there is that single, solitary moment in time when he produces the best possible version of the best possible deck, and he wins a tournament.
Or I win a tournament.
I’m not actually sure what I contribute to the equation. A barnacle. A leech. You can call me whatever you want. [Editor’s Note: If you insist!]
Sometimes I have opinions. Most of the time, those opinions are wrong/stupid/outdated. Things change much faster now than what I’m used to, and adaptation is difficult. I’m getting slower. Weaker.
Older.
I can feel it in my bones, creeping on like a fungus or some Vine Trellis grasping at my ankles every time I walk out the door.
Or don’t.
Most of the time, I don’t even bother. I can make a bowl of cereal. Watch some Netflix. Play Magic Online.
Or not.
There are occasions when I’m on top of it. My game is up there with the best of them, and I play my heart out because I want to win. I end up winning because I willed it so. Sure, luck is probably involved. But luck is inside of everything we do every single day. Just driving to the grocery store to pick up some Corn Pops. You can forget to look one way or another and just get obliterated.
Life happens.
But the thing that gets me the most, and the thing I haven’t really been able to shake for months, is when you don’t even know what you’re doing wrong. And then someone shows you, and you feel small. Someone breaks you.
Not intentionally, of course. I know that for all it was made out to be, this article was meant to be constructive. The most baffling thing of all is that I am generally aware of the mistakes I make since I tend to see them immediately after committing them. I thought I played this game well. Very well. In fact, I was proud of the bluffs. I reveled in them because I thought they helped to gain me something. What I gained was an illusion of immortality, and everything came tumbling down after throwing away game 5.
For those of you who didn’t watch the fifth game, here is what happened:
I played an Izzet Staticaster on my turn 3 against Ben Weinburg and his army of Humans. I used it to kill an Avacyn’s Pilgrim to slow him down. What I forgot was that he had a Mayor of Avabruck in play. His creature didn’t die. I did. And everything just went out of control from there.
But that wasn’t even my biggest mistake. After all the pain of watching the match slip away, I was quickly reminded by Gerry of a much larger mistake that I’d made just a turn earlier in the game. This mistake is actually what caused me to lose. This mistake is the one I didn’t realize I had made and the one that ultimately froze me.
I didn’t use Pillar of Flame on his Avacyn’s Pilgrim on turn 2.
This play would have slowed him down to the point where Izzet Staticaster would have invalidated more creatures than I could count. This would have turned the tide in my favor, buying enough time for me to resolve my bigger spells like Sphinx’s Revelation and Restoration Angel. This could have won me the game, but I was so focused on the other, more glaring mistake that I failed to recognize the actual turning point.
My axis of failure.
And this was it. With subtle brilliance and an uncanny ability to wade through bull***, he opened my eyes. This was the moment when I realized that no matter how many years I put into this game, there is always going to be someone who is smarter than me. Stronger than me.
Better than me.
And there is absolutely nothing I can do about it. Gerry has a natural talent unlike anything I’ve ever seen in a human being. His ability to dissect a situation, breakdown the possible outcomes, and execute a play based on probability mixed with gut instinct is just baffling. He has played "the perfect game" before, and I’ve seen it on camera. I’ve seen it live.
It was overwhelming.
I don’t want to mislead you. I don’t think Gerry Thompson is the smartest person I’ve ever met. In fact, I don’t even think he’s the smartest Magic player I’ve ever met. The fact that I know there are players that exist that are even better than him makes me feel insignificant.
But it makes me want to try harder.
This is that initial hurdle that I have to get over before I reach my goals. This is that personal struggle that so many people write about. This is my fight because my greatest enemy is…
Me.
So If You’re Lonely
You know I’m here, waiting for you.
So what’s with that U/W Flash decklist at the top of the page? Well, Flash has been the style of deck I’ve tried to play in basically every event since they gave me Sphinx’s Revelation and took away my Ponder. Unfortunately, a little card called…
…was giving me problems. With the counterspells in the deck being actively bad for so long due to Cavern of Souls, the deck had to change. Eventually, it adapted to what you see pop up every now and again. Yes, that U/W/R monstrosity featuring Boros Reckoner that *gasp* Gerry Thompson played at Pro Tour Gatecrash. It is quite amazing to see a card that is so good against aggro decks be so misleadingly bad against control.
Who would have thought that Centaur Courser couldn’t compete with Nephalia Drownyard?
But things are changing once again. With the release of Dragon’s Maze (which is basically just the Triwizard Tournament), we have some new toys to play with. Did you know that they gave us one of the best green and white creature spells to date? Yes, Voice of Resurgence!
Wait—no, not that one.
Advent of the Wurm isn’t all that flashy (despite being able to be cast at instant speed). You know what I mean. The card isn’t that exciting. Sure, you can make a "surprise Wurm" in the middle of combat. You can use it in conjunction with Rewind to do some very dirty things to your opponent. You can even use it to put a valid clock on a control opponent.
What’s wrong with this card again?
Basically nothing. Other than a mildly difficult casting cost, Advent of the Wurm seems like a fantastic tool for Flash players to utilize. In a recent Versus video, Gerry *gasp again* played this list against Bard Narson:
Creatures (8)
Lands (25)
Spells (27)
Oh look, we do have some Voice of Resurgence in the sideboard for the other blue decks!
But that’s neither here nor there. Advent of the Wurm lets you play an entirely different game than what you were playing with Boros Reckoner. With Reckoner, you didn’t really want to play too many Supreme Verdicts because your goal was to one-for-one the opponent until you found a Sphinx’s Revelation to lock everything up. In this deck, you aren’t really trying to do that. You’re just trying to clog the board so that your opponent can’t attack you profitably and ultimately find a Sphinx’s Revelation to put the game away.
The difference here is that Supreme Verdict is actively good since the only creatures you’ll likely be losing to it are Augur of Bolas and the occasional Snapcaster Mage. When you have the option to blow your opponent out in combat with Advent of the Wurm, they will definitely think twice before attacking without a trick. At the very least, you’ll be able to present your opponent with a very large creature for a small amount of mana.
Traditional U/W Flash decks tended to rely on the opponent’s actions to dictate what spell they played each turn. If something needed to be countered, you countered it. If they didn’t cast anything dangerous, you could use Azorius Charm or Restoration Angel to just ruin their day. With Advent of the Wurm, your biggest threat is now running alongside the rest of your deck. You can go back to that place where all you have to do on your own turn is…
Play lands.
Of course, the benefit of having cards that say "instant" on them means you can cast them on your own turn if you need to dig for lands or answers to particular situations. But the biggest upside I can think of for this archetype is that your opponent will never know what to play around. When you rarely give out information, the guessing game will be the biggest hurdle your opponent has to get over. If they play the wrong spell in anticipation of your hand having one card or another, it can lead to some seriously tough spots for them.
The above list isn’t exactly what I would play in an upcoming event. It looks sweet, but it still needs some work. Plasm Capture is probably a little too cute, and Snapcaster Mage feels a lot worse without cheap removal spells to flashback. I think more Rewinds are in order, though it is pretty mediocre against decks like Naya Blitz and Mono-Red Aggro.
Unsummon and Selesnya Charm both seems pretty bonkers against Sire of Insanity. Just remember than you can cast Unsummon in response to the trigger from Sire of Insanity, getting rid of it permanently (though you will lose your hand). You can also just put a 5/5 into play against it and hope to win the race!
As for the sideboard, I am very happy with the prospect Renounce the Guilds, and you probably want a lot more. Giving yourself outs to a lot of problematic permanents is pretty insane, as I can just imagine how difficult it is for this deck to beat a Falkenrath Aristocrat. Without the standby combo of Azorius Charm into Thought Scour to mill it away, it looks like you’re probably losing that battle (unless you have a lot of surprise Wurms at the ready to do battle).
Renounce the Guilds just feels like the perfect fit since you don’t actually have any multicolored creatures of your own in the maindeck. It gives you an answer to Obzedat, Ghost Council as well as Assemble the Legion, all for a paltry two mana. The fact that you can use Snapcaster Mage and Augur of Bolas along with it is just icing on an already delicious cake.
I think one of the major problems this deck will run into is that it plays far too many four-drops without acceleration. I would love to see a list that tries to incorporate more green into the mix plays things like Farseek. Farseek is a great card at the moment because it helps you cast your Supreme Verdicts a turn early and ramp into your Sphinx’s Revelation. The problem is that at that point you’re probably playing too many mana effects or virtual mana effects with things like Thought Scour.
The deck would need a complete overhaul, but I’m not quite ready to give up on Advent of the Wurm just yet.
While the Standard Open at #SCGNJ wasn’t very exciting, as it looked like a carbon copy of decklists from a few weeks ago, I am confident that people just haven’t played enough with the new cards to find homes for everything just yet. The release of a new (smaller) set is always tough for those who don’t have access to everything or the time to playtest a lot.
I am very happy that my buddy Chris VanMeter won the tournament with G/B/W Reanimator, and the inclusion of Sin Collector in that deck seemed sweet. I am looking forward to battling with the deck a lot once Dragon’s Maze is released on Magic Online in a week or so.
Dragon’s Maze doesn’t look like it’s had that much of an impact on the surface just yet, but I can see some of the new cards creeping into established decks. At the very least, I might get a few sweet bad beat stories involving Sire of Insanity.
Thanks for reading.
strong sad on Magic Online
@strong_sad on Twitter
P.S. I don’t want anyone to think that Gerry Thompson and I are anything but friends. Good friends. His criticisms are always appreciated and reciprocated, and I couldn’t ask for better. Nothing in his "One Game" article should be received any other way. We always try to help one another when we need it, and I’ll be cheering (at home) for him and Brad Nelson during Pro Tour Dragon’s Maze.