I would love to open this article with some regaled tale of playtesting, about how I played a lot of last minute games and cracked the format. I would love to talk about the warm crepes, drizzled in caramel and covered in powdered sugar that we ate for pre-game food. Even better, I would love to open with how close I was to holding the US Nationals trophy, and what you and I can both learn from my experience in this event going forward.
Instead, I’m going to flash forward to 1:45pm the day before Nationals and go from there.
The scene: a distraught hotel room with a comforter and some pillows spread across the floor, pounds of Magic cards lying on them like a makeshift cardboard person just waiting for a bolt of lightning to spring alive. There was no paper left, so the table was full of decklists scribbled out across pages of the Hyatt guestbook. Conley shoved one toward me.
I picked up the brown piece of paper, it formerly chronicled a breakfast menu, and held it as though it were an ancient tablet Indiana Jones himself had recovered. I studied its contents just as the fictional archeologist would have and nodded.
“So, Soul Warden, huh?
In the two weeks before the tournament I was completely strung up in prior family commitments. I had drafted as much as I possibly could in the sparse time I had, as draft knowledge is irreplaceable while I knew I could pick up almost any deck in the format and be fine. But, with time waning, I was still in search of a deck. I kicked open the door to the room with the one person I knew I could count on for an innovative decklist.
The window shades were down. The lights were dimmed. I felt like the world should have, just for these few seconds, turned black and white. An embroidered silver plate on the table should have read, “Private Investigator,” and Conley’s name should have no longer been the one given at birth, instead replaced years ago by the moniker, “Tracer Bullet.” Before he uttered his next words, he should have tipped his fedora down until it touched his nose and moved only the left side of his mouth.
“Soul Warden. Take it or leave it.”
I took it. Together, we ran with it.
I’m sure you’ve seen the decklist by now, and if you haven’t I’ll include what we ended up with shortly. What you might not know, though, is that it originally splashed Blue for Aven Mimeomancer. We quickly realized the bird wizard just wasn’t necessary. It was good, but not worth the Tectonic Edges we were giving up. When we moved onto a Luminarch Ascension sideboard plan, the Edges became crucial in disabling manlands. We stripped Blue, buffed up on Brave the Elements and Kor Firewalkers, and played as many games as we could. We tested a handful of games against Naya, Jund, U/W, and Destructive Force. It boasted good results, and was fun to play as well. Despite me being out of commission and Conley being deadly ill, we came up with a pretty good deck in about 6 total hours.
As with the past two nights, as well as every single night I stayed in the hotel room over the weekend, I had immense difficulty sleeping. I don’t know what the problem was. I wasn’t jetlagged, and I was tired. I just couldn’t sleep.
My mind wandered, and around 4am I finally decided to put it to use. I thought up decknames for our deck since we never decided on one. Eventually I hit upon Soul Sisters, and immediately knew that would be our deck’s name.
Creatures (24)
Planeswalkers (3)
Lands (8)
Spells (25)
This deck was insane, in every possible way. It made no sense that a deck like this would ever be good, but, to quote Ari Lax, “we found the one format where Soul Warden is a good card.” Despite my distaste for all White Weenie strategies, this deck had a lot of decisions to make, was a ton of fun, and very powerful. I would happily play it again.
The short version is that you use your eight Soul Wardens to catapult your life and make your Pridemates and Ascendants ridiculous. For once, there’s really nothing for me to explain. It’s the kind of decklist where you look at the cards, nod your head, and figure out exactly what you’re supposed to do. In fact, Conley, Tom Ross, and Kyle Sanchez all simultaneously made this deck and came within just a handful of cards from each other. There are just enough cards in Standard to make this deck work, and most of them are scripted. Once you get to 4 Soul Warden, 4 Soul’s Attendant, 4 Ajani’s Pridemate, it’s as if you’ve stepped into Hogwarts and a levitating quill just keeps writing the rest for you.
There are two things I will explain.
First, I agree 23 lands seems low. Here was me and Conley’s theory about 23 versus 24. You are, at your core, a white weenie deck. I love lands. I really wanted to play 24 lands. You have things to do with your mana. But, at the end of the day, you are still White Weenie, and if you flood out you lose. We wanted to mitigate the chances of that happening by playing 23, though I definitely can’t fault anybody who wants to cut an Oblivion Ring for another plains.
The one Sun Titan in the sideboard is just because we realized Felidar Sovereign was bad and wanted something big versus U/W. Today, I would definitely fit in 2 or 3 Sovereigns for the mirror because I expect this deck to be majorly popular for a while.
If you have any specific questions, please post them in the forums and I will happily answer them.
Back to Nationals.
In was the morning of the event. I hadn’t slept well, but it was okay. I got up over an hour before anybody else would attempt to wake up and hit the snooze button, and took my time in the morning to relax and enjoy.
Nationals has always been special to me. I’ve been attending them since they ran the JSS side by side with Nationals, and being so close to the best players in the country year after year is what inspired me to keep playing. My first major non-JSS tournament was Nationals. I had never played on the second day though, always opting to drop out — even at 5-2 — to JSS the next day.
But this time, there was nothing holding me back. No weight from the JSS, expectations, or anything else dragging my feet. It was freeing to know I had spent the last two weeks not worrying, and that I still didn’t worry. I would go out, play my best Magic, and see what happened.
Breathe in, breathe out. Collect the last Ajani’s Pridemates I needed, have everybody give me weird looks, and then the tournament began.
I will apologize in advance for the brief match descriptions, but the deck is very consistent, fast, and essentially does the same thing every game so I am going to summarize what happened in a way that I am not typing the same exact thing 14 times.
Round 1 — R/G Valakut
Conley and I knew this would be one of the big decks of the tournament. We figured we were advantaged against them, though they could definitely win.
Game 1 goes real long. My life total hits 94. He messes up early with a Harrow by sacrificing a Mountain instead of a Forest, but he still manages to Valakut away all of my Serra Ascendants. Eventually the board state is this.
It’s my main phase. My board is two Soul Wardens, and my hand is Ajani’s Pridemate. Kor Firewalker, and Brave the Elements. He has one card in his hand. I am at 94, he is at 4. However, he just cast an Avenger of Zendikar for 13 plant tokens. My plan is to unload my guys, then Brave past the next turn to kill him. I play the Pridemate. He Bolts it, using his last card. I play the Firewalker and pass the turn. He untaps, draws… And it’s Inferno Titan! That’s probably the worst card he could have drawn. I get a couple more turns, still don’t see an Elspeth, and die.
Game 2 I roll him with Soul Warden into Pridemate.
Game 3 he has Titan on turn 4 and I get crushed.
0-1
Round 2 — Naya
In our testing, it was pretty simple. If they had Sparkmage and we didn’t have Pridemate, or if they had it turn 2 on the play, they won. Otherwise, we crushed them.
He didn’t have it either game, my Ajani’s Pridemate hit sky heights, including above 20 one game, and I crushed him.
1-1
Round 3 — Jund
Jund seemed pretty favorable in our testing. I was playing the Jund side, and there were a couple of games I was winning with well timed Maelstrom Pulses. Most of the time, though, I just wanted to throw my deck against the wall in frustration.
Game 1 I am on the play and have a pretty good Pridemate draw, game 2 he has a bunch of removal and a Malakir Bloodwitch to kill me, and game 3 I have the nuts of Soul Warden, Pridemate, Soul Warden, Pridemate, untap, Pridemate, Crossroads, Leave W up to Path to Exile in response to Maelstrom Pulse.
2-1
Round 4 — Destructive Force Titan
This match is a GGSlive feature match against David Williams. I’m pretty excited to be on GGSlive and play against such a regaled player. He knows what I’m playing because Conley works with Dave, and early in the game I realize what he’s playing.
Game 1, I keep a hand without Pridemate and naturally draw it on the second turn. I have a very aggressive draw and beat him down quickly.
Game 2 is where the drama hits. If you were watching this match on GGSlive, hopefully I can clarify what went on.
He plays a land, and I play a Soul Warden. He plays a land again and says go. I play a Pridemate, gain a life, give it a counter, and pass the turn. He plays Knight of the Reliquary, says go, and I untap, draw, and start to think about the turn.
See the problem here?
At this point, the table judge intervenes and tells me I missed my Soul Warden trigger. It is a mandatory ability, and it has to happen. I move over to up my life one and naturally tick Ajani’s Pridemate up one. While Williams understands the lifegain, he tells me to not move the Pridemate up one because I missed the trigger. I start thinking everything through, and the judge intervenes by informing us that the Warden Trigger is now put on the stack and that, as a result, I am able to put a counter on the Pridemate.
What followed was a mess.
Williams began arguing with the judge at an escalating level, which eventually led to an appeal, which eventually led to the table judge’s ruling being upheld and both of us receiving a warning, which Williams also objected to and continued to vehemently argue about.
Eventually, the dust settled after a good five or ten minutes of judge rulings and arguing and a rather unhappy Williams continued.
It came back to the game, and the trigger was on the stack. This whole time I had been thinking about not using the trigger because, after all, it was my mistake and my hand was almost certain to blow him out in a way that would make the trigger irrelevant. More important to me, I think it would have been very sporting and honorable to not put the counter on. However, in the end, I ticked it up one. This is Nationals, and my rationale is that if I am being given a legal advantage I should take it. I still felt incredibly bad about the whole situation though, and I publicly apologize to David Williams for the mess it created. If I had just been competent enough to remember my trigger we would have never had this issue.
Back to the match.
Williams’ demeanor has completely changed from the friendly tone of earlier. He continues to be furious. He used harsh tones when talking, and tried to be aggressive with his words. At one point he stared at me for a while and then, in a hurried, aggressive tone, asked me to please respond to how many cards were in my hand despite him never asking. He kept muttering about how stupid this was, and about how he was going to quit Magic because of how unbelievable it was that he got a warning for my missed trigger.
If he were any other person, I would think he was tilting.
However, in my mind, this was David Williams, poker professional. If anybody in the tournament had mastered not tilting, it was him. I figured he was just trying to rattle me and try to get me to miss more Soul Warden triggers. I kept a calm demeanor and played both carefully and slowly, casting a couple more creatures and then had Brave the Elements when he went for his Destructive Force, and that was that. I offered him my hand after the match and told him I wouldn’t be offended if he didn’t want to shake it based on the poor turn of events, but he still shook my hand which I appreciate.
I still am not sure if he was actually tilting or not, as he spent a while after the match arguing with judges up front, which made me feel worse.
For those curious, I looked at my scorepad and did the math after the match. That Pridemate did three extra damage over the course of the game. Assuming everything I had written down was correct, had I actually made my final attack, he would have ended the game at -4. The extra counter did not matter.
3-1
In any case, I was in a 3-1 pod for the first draft. It was time to tighten up and get ready to draft. If I could just 3-0, I would feel pretty good about my chances the next day. The cutoff was rumored to be x-3, and I felt like I could easily 3-1 or 4-0 Standard. If I could 3-0 this draft, I could 2-1 the next draft and still make top 8 as long as I didn’t 2-2. I had been playing tight all day aside from missing that Soul Warden Trigger, and I felt like I could 3-0 this draft. There were only two people I recognized in this pod. John Penick, who was to my left, and Axel Jensen, one of my roommates, who was two seats to my right.
As you might have learned last week, I love attacking in M11 Limited. White is my favorite color, and it’s not close. U/W is my favorite combination. I try to never play Red, and I prefer not to play Black. I like to keep my options open, though.
Sounds like the perfect time to open Triskelion!
I took the artifact rare and then got passed Blinding Mage over Cudgel Troll. I saw an Aether Adept third alongside Cultivate, and felt Mike Flores echoing in the back of my head like Obi-Wan, telling me to never pass Aether Adept. I look it and a bunch of good U/W cards kept flowing, plus I felt like I was putting Penick right into GB. A couple late copies of my favorite common in the set — Inspired Charge — made it around. My deck kept getting better in pack 2 despite some weird signals early on, and then in the third pack I grabbed up a second pick Sleep and two more Squadron Hawks to go with my first. It was kind of frustrating because in the second and third pack cards I wanted would not be anywhere, then they would all come in the same pack. Oh well, I guess that’s not a terrible problem to have. It’s just weird to see no good White or Blue for four picks, then get passed a pack with three good cards between those two colors.
Overall, I was really happy with my deck.
3 Squadron Hawk
1 Triskelion
1 Blinding Mage
1 Azure Drake
1 Wild Griffin
1 Cloud Elemental
1 Silvercoat Lion
1 Phantom Beast
1 Palace Guard
1 Aether Adept
1 Water Servant
1 Augury Owl
1 Cloud Crusader
Spells
2 Inspired Charge
1 Ice Cage
1 Condemn
1 Foresee
1 Sleep
1 Diminish
1 Cancel
The sideboard had a second Phantom Beast, a second Cancel, and a Celestial Purge of note.
Round 5 — B/w
In every match of every high level draft I have done so far since the switch of Pro Tours to half Constructed half Limited, I have played the person next to me every time. Usually it is the person I want to play the least. Fate spares no exceptions, and round 1 I am paired against John Penick.
Game 1 I beat him pretty fast with a Squadron Hawk plus fliers plus Inspired Charge draw. He is playing a slow Black deck with Viscera Seers, Reassembling Skeletons and the like, so it isn’t too difficult.
Between games he reveals that he refuses to play Green under any circumstances, so he shipped the Cudgel Troll and all of the Green and kind of got screwed as a result.
I sideboard in Celestial Purge.
I have another fast draw, and am pretty happy. However, a turn 3 Royal Assassin threatens to make things difficult. I hit it with my sideboarded Celestial Purge and he scrys for 1 off of his Viscera Seer. I summon up a few more fliers, but he decides to make things a lot more difficult by casting a Sun Titan on turn 6 — returning Royal Assassin! I punch through for some damage and then next turn threaten lethal with an Inspired Charge despite his Royal Assassin activation, but he topdecked a Doom Blade and starts to lock the game down. I draw an Augury Owl and Scry three and find… Triskelion! Perfect. I chump the Titan, untap, and Triskelion him out for the final three points of damage.
4-1
Round 6 — R/W
I have no idea what he’s playing to start with as he’s over on the other side of the table. Game 1 isn’t even close either. He casts three spells the whole game: Condemn, Goblin Balloon Brigade, and Crystal Ball. The Condemn he uses on my Wild Griffin early, the Brigade chump blocks the turn before he dies, and the Crystal Ball scrys every turn starting on turn 4, each time putting both cards on the bottom.
Needless to say, I was feeling pretty good.
I hate, hate, hate it when this happens. I have no excuse for what happens next besides that I made a terrible mistake.
I open my hand, see 6 lands and a Palace Guard. Instantly my PV, Ken Krouner, and Rich Hoaen senses are tingling all at once and telling me to mulligan. I, of course, figure why not. The only way I think he can win is an aggressive opening, and I’ll probably draw some guys to crush him.
Nope.
He has the aggressive start for me to stymie — Brigade into Piker into Warlord’s Axe — but I drew nothing. At the end of the game I had something like four spells and 12 lands.
Game 3 I tighten up and get back in it. I keep a respectable hand of four spells three lands. For better or worse, I get what I deserve and flood out terribly and only see two or more spells the entire game.
It’s my own fault for losing that one.
4-2
Round 7 — W/B
I want vengeance for my last match. This guy was my unlucky victim. His deck is pretty much a mishmash of Silvercoat Lions and Barony Vampires. While I do love those cards in general and will continue to fight for my right to play Silvercoat Lion, I was able to quickly steamroll him in two games because I had faster starts and Palace Guard power.
5-2
After finishing, I immediately began to assemble a dinner crew. I just wanted a couple of other people. I started by asking Alex West, who asked a couple of people, who then asked a couple of people, and, much like amoebas, jellyfish, or bunnies, suddenly we had some 20 person conglomerate of people. To make matters even more hysterical, as our group is walking out of the convention center, a group headlined by Brett Blackman that is looking for food sees us walking, realizes, “hey, they’re probably going to go get food,” and just follows us at a stalker’s length behind us. We already had more than enough people! This wasn’t going to do. Fortunately, with some clever jaywalking and stoplight shenanigans, we managed to lose them as to not double the size of our group.
After eating some delicious Thai, everyone else went out for shenanigans but I just wanted some relaxation time before I failed to sleep for the third night in a row. I went up to the hotel room, grabbed my iPod, and aimlessly wandered the streets of Minneapolis listening to music as I went and just letting everything go.
Breathe in, breathe out.
I eventually found a large fountain and sat next to it, closing my eyes and calming myself for the next day. I hatched a plan to wake up early in the morning, go get a relaxing breakfast by myself, listen to music, and then show up at the site just before play, ready to go. It sounded wonderful.
I went back to the room and went to sleep, sitting on my 5-2 record with high hopes for the next day.
You might already know the ending, but you’re going to want to see how I got there.
Next week: An in-depth explanation and analysis of why David Ochoa and Josh Utter-Leyton (a.k.a. WrapterBot and WebBot) are actually robots, the $5,000 mismulligan, and why you might have seen me and three others running through the convention hall, through the doors, and up an escalator all while yelling “NO!” on Saturday night.
I’ll see you then! Until then, feel free to post any questions you have in the forums or send them to me at gavintriesagain at gmail dot com or via Twitter @GavinVerhey.
Talk to you next week!
Gavin Verhey
Rabon on Magic Online, GavinVerhey on Twitter, Lesurgo everywhere else