Last Saturday, Free Your Mind in Portland held a Trial for GP: Las Vegas in the Extended format. Friends of mine had been talking about going - and since I've never been to Vegas, playing some Magic sounded like a good excuse. I hadn't decided whether to go or not, but I figured that if I won some byes on Saturday that would cement my decision. As it turns out, advertising for the tourney was a little late getting out and we didn't get the required thirty-two people to give away byes. It ended up being a 24k event with twenty people, a $100 cash prize for first, and an official DCI judge who had the requisite Alcatraz shirt to prove it.

It should be noted, first of all, that I don't know the first thing about Extended other than Jackal Pup, Fireblast, and Cursed Scroll are some good. But Magic is Magic, and the more brokenness in the environment, the better, because it means I don't have to endure through fifty-minute rounds. Much to the surprise of anyone who knows me, I didn't play Sligh. I did loan my deck out to a friend, though, so Pups were still represented. In the interest of mass destruction at large, I played Pox. I also did not want a deck that loses to Sligh. That would be embarrassing.

Pox for Dummies
10 Swamp
5 Plains
4 Scrubland
4 Caves of Koilos
4 Duress
4 Gerrard's Verdict
4 Funeral Charm
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Vindicate
4 Pox
2 Nether Spirit
4 Chimeric Idol
4 Cursed Scroll
3 Scalding Tongs

The sideboard is subject to change based on the expected metagame, of course, but these cards should probably be present in some numbers. In my case, they all were.

Perish
Wrath of God
Sanctimony
Seal of Cleansing
Ankh of Mishra

Round 1 vs. Corey Mantor with German Dragon

Game 1: This looked to me a lot like the type 2 Wildfire deck of old. Naturally, Corey got out some artifact mana and a Voltaic Key and then played a Karn, Silver Golem of all things. Meanwhile, I was attacking his hand and getting some land and a Scroll in play. I decided to let Karn hit me one time before Vindicating it so that I could get an Idol in play that turn. The Idol went all the way, backed up by heavy disruption on all fronts. He played something called Temporal Aperture this game that I had never seen before, but it looked menacing anyway. I was compelled to Pox to make sure he couldn't activate it.

Game 2: Sided out Funeral Charms for Seals of Cleansing. An early Verdict netted me an extra three life, but I had to Plow a Masticore to give him life as well. This game saw Corey getting even more artifact mana and having an active Aperture much earlier than I would have liked. In the interest of killing all his resources, I Poxed twice this game. The second time I was on two life and had already taken a pair of hits from the evil Covetous Dragon that I had to get rid of. Poxing at two life is Some Good. After that, I Scrolled and Tonged him to death next turn before he could get something else out to mess with me.

Games 2-0
Matches 1-0

Round 2 vs. Gabe Barnes with Forbidian

Game 1: I really don't remember much about this game. I got off to a decent start and got to Duress a Force of Will. I was able to set up a Scroll and eventually get him down to three with it before it got Rushing Rivered and countered on the way back down. Meanwhile, I Plowed the odd Ophidian here and there and gave myself a headache trying to split broken Fact or Fictions. Eventually there was a 'Phid that I couldn't kill, and that paved the way for a Masticore that killed me in five swings after shooting both my Nether Spirits into the graveyard. I know I shouldn't have put both on the table, but it was in a desperate attempt to get in the last few points of damage around the Ophidian. Then he dropped the Masticore. D'oh!

Game 2: I don't remember the three cards I pulled, but they weren't the right ones. Earlier I'd been debating on whether to use three or four Ankhs, but I ended up cutting one for more creature control since I expected a lot of green and WW. I wished I would have had the fourth Ankh, because my Perishes collected dust all day. I made the mistake of keeping a one-land hand this game because it had some good one-drops like Duress. The second land was too late and the best I could do was make an Ankh that he took eight from while he was Thawing. Like I said, I'm new to Extended and this was the first time I've seen Thawing Glaciers get played. I think it is amazing. It's practically my number one Vindicate target when playing against these Draw-Go types. Well, he Wasted most of the lands I drew and I never got going, so heavy Masticore beats ensued.

One thing we can learn from this is not to play Magic on an empty stomach. It leads to stupid mistakes, like not Parising those one-land hands against control. After this round we had a short lunch break, so I got to rectify this situation and was in possession of better decision-making capabilities for the rest of the day.

Games 2-2
Matches 1-1

Round 3 vs. Robert Sedani with Sligh

Game 1: Game 1 should probably be a loss for me, but I don't think he made the best use of his cards. I Charmed an early Pup and attacked his hand while he tried to play creatures and throw burn at me. When the numbers all added up in my favor I Poxed, leaving him with no hand, no critters, and two lands. I played a Scroll to keep his future creatures in check and beat a couple times with an Idol that he didn't have burn for when he needed it. All he needed at the end was to peel a Fireblast or Ball Lightning and I was crispy, but it never happened.

Game 2: As I was told by the guy who loaned me the deck:"Against Sligh, the name of the deck changes from Pox to Sanctimony." I think I also switched out a Nether Spirit for a Seal of Cleansing cause I don't wanna get Scrolled to death. I drew Sanctimony in my opening hand along with a Funeral Charm and some other goods, so I kinda figured it was game already. First turn I Charmed a Pup again, then immediately dropped Sanctimony after that. Now the plan is to protect against Anarchy, so on the next turn I went Duress, Verdict to empty his hand. After that I played an Idol and a Scroll and aimed Vindicates at his land while Scrolling him and his weenies and sending the Idol over for beats. He Incinerated the first one, but I had another. I won at fifteen life.

Games 4-2
Matches 2-1

Not that anyone cares, but Dangeruss was 6-0 in games with my Sligh deck at this point.

Round 4 vs. Mons Johnson with Goblins, of course

Game 1: You know Mons' Goblin Raiders? This is that guy, so naturally he had goblin.dec with Lackeys, Recruiters, and Ringleaders. Between those three cards, he can make more goblins than you can imagine. It was a pretty cool deck, though, and he was splashing white for maindeck Orim's Thunder and some sideboard stuff. Mons always builds cool decks. Usually he has some strange tech I've never seen before that everyone dismisses until it shows up a few months later as the hottest thing. It's hard to say exactly what happened this game, but both of us did damage in very small increments until it was all over. My Scroll ended up racing a couple Goblins, and at one life I thought his Seal of Fire killed me - until I looked at my hand and saw the Plow. I had a Nether Spirit in play, so I Plowed it to put me at three before I took the Seal damage. During my next upkeep, I Scrolled him to death. Neither of us could believe that I survived.

Game 2: Sanctimony in for the Pox, of course. This game I got slightly manascrewed - just enough to let him pull Recruiter/Ringleader tricks on me. This is an unusual combo for a competitive Extended deck so maybe I should explain. Goblin Recruiter lets you put any number of goblins on top of your library when it comes into play. When Goblin Ringleader comes into play, turns over the top four cards of said library and any goblins go into the player's hand. You know what Lackey does, and the rest you can figure out for yourself. Once it gets going the rush never stops, and my life total went 20, 15, 9, 7, dead without even any burn being thrown at my head.

Game 3: Another close one. I was able to stop the goblin madness before it got too out of hand, and my Idol swung right past his Flunkies for a few turns while I kept everything else out of play. I also did at least five damage with Scalding Tongs. He eventually got some Ringleaders and stuff, so it was a race that I won at four life.

Games 6-3
Matches 3-1

Round 5 vs. Todd Burdett with Meddling WW

Game 1: His deck looked pretty much like the Worlds version with Scrublands for a sideboarded Perish and the rebel chain. No Soltari Monks is good for me. We played back-to-back matches, so all the games kind of run together. In this one, my disruption was too much for him to handle and I was never really threatened before I killed him with an Idol and some Tongs.

Game 2: This was the closest out of all our games. Eventually I was able to Wrath away his army and got him down to an empty hand, but I peeled Vindicate one turn before I would have died to his Scroll. I had the double-Scroll action of my own, so I was able to end it after that.

Games 8-3
Matches 4-1

I made it in at top seed and Russ squeaked in at seventh with Sligh after dropping the last two matches. Some other guy played almost the exact same deck that I did, but he had Kegs instead of Tongs and Gemstone Mines in there somewhere. He went 2-3, so go figure. He thought it was the Tongs, but I'd doubt it.

Quarterfinals vs. Todd Burdett with Meddling WW again

Game 1: He was not too happy to be facing me again, since he thought it was his worst matchup of the day. I went up to twenty-nine life early from a Verdict and him Plowing my Idol. I was able to ignore his attack for a few turns while I concentrated on destroying all his resources. Against WW, I leave their land alone and make sure they have no hand. Then it's just a matter of wiping those creatures out of the way and making sure you can get rid of Scrolls. When I finally got to Pox it was crushing, and a Nether Spirit and Tongs went all the way.

Game 2: I brought in a couple Wraths and a couple Seals of Cleansing in exchange for Pox or something. This game was mostly about waiting to get my second white mana before I took too many beats. I finally did get it, and I got to use one of the two Wraths in my hand on four of his creatures. It's hard to recover from that kind of card advantage, and he never did. Once again, the Idol was a porn star. Russ and my Pups finally got knocked out by TurboPhid when the guy drew all four Masticores in game 3.

Games 10-3
Matches 5-1

Semifinals vs. Gabe Barnes with Forbidian again

Game 1: Gabe was just coming off a mirror match, so I sat around for the last 45 minutes while they Thawed on each other and ended games by decking. I still have a hard time understanding how that kind of game is fun... But to each his own. In the first game I was able to run him out of cards early on and get two Tongs and a Scroll out. Eventually he reloaded with FoF and was able to start doing some things. He got a Masticore and a 'Phid on the table, and it was a race, since I Poxed us both down to thirteen life earlier. I was a turn from killing him with my artifacts, but I was dreading the Rushing River to mess it all up for me. Naturally he had it, and I couldn't recover in time.

Game 2: This time I figured I was better off pulling Funeral Charms for Ankhs. I got to open up with a Duress for his Force of Will and I didn't see that much in his hand to worry me. There was a Fiction and I almost took it, but I wanted to resolve a Verdict next turn. I did and it gained me three life. It was a Glaciers that he dumped - and when he played another one, I Vindicated it. Those things are very bad. The hand destruction went a long way, and I baited some more counters out with Pox and more discard. Before long I drew a Nether Spirit and cast it triumphantly. It swung and swung and the best he could do was to put a Snake in front of it. I Plowed it and he played another one. I Plowed that one too, and kept on swinging until it was over.

Game 3: Turn 1 Duress on a Disk. He had another Disk and a 'Phid. Turn 2 Ankh. Turn 3 Duress the other Disk and Duress his other spell card. Turn 4 Verdict resolves. His hand had been taken apart, and he took like eight points of Ankh damage before he stopped playing land and I got a Nether. Nether swung until he put a 'Phid in its way - and I went for it and cast another one, since he wasn't in a position to safely play a Masticore. I also dropped an Idol that got through and I attacked with one of each for a few turns until I killed him. I was holding one Spirit back to keep the Ophidian from drawing cards. I still don't know if it was the right play because he had to block to keep from taking too much damage... But I really didn't want him having more cards. Gabe is a really good player and it was probably my toughest match of the day.

Games 12-4
Matches 6-1

Finals vs. Brendon Herzog with TurboPhid

It was now ten at night, and I'd been there since noon. I offered to draw and split the money, since I was now hours late for other obligations. His rating was like 150 points higher than mine, so when the judge informed us there had to be a winner he wanted the win in exchange for the money split. Fine with me, since we each pocketed $75 after I conceded him the match. If there had been GP byes on the line I would have played it out for sure, but spending another hour there versus a potential $25 gain seemed like a pretty easy choice.

Games 12-4
Matches 6-2

Thanks to Dustin Veniti for loaning me the deck. It's fun to beat down with foil Nether Spirits and Idols. If you're still reading, I'm assuming you're not bored out of your skull, so maybe that means I'm doing something right.

Eric Olson