I guess I have to start with the mandatory introduction, since nobody on here will know me. I’ve been playing for years, but I’ve never bothered to compete in anything tougher than an FNM until just recently. I’m a pretty average Magic player with no Top 8 performances in anything more exciting than Friday Night Magic tournaments…at least until recently. I’m a Spike/Timmy, which means I really want to win but I prefer to do it with big splashy cards whenever I can. Lately, my splashy card of choice has been Bonfire of the Damned. What can I say? I like cards that keep getting more and more threatening the more land I throw down on the table.

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to play in a more competitive tournament in 2012, and last weekend I got to check that off my list. Adam drove us almost four hours across the state to Goldsboro so we could compete at an SCG Super Invitational Qualifier, and I think we represented The Dugout pretty well. Adam brought a mono-green miracle based beatdown deck, and I brought this:

G/R Aggro

Josh Cornwell

1st Place at Star City Games Invitational Qualifier on 06-24-2012

Standard

Creatures (24)

Planeswalkers (3)

3 Garruk Relentless

Lands (23)

Spells (10)

Sideboard

Deck Overview

This list is basically just the evolution of this one that I started experimenting with a few weeks prior to the Super IQ tournament. I wanted to run a streamlined G/R Aggro deck without having to see as many clunky hands with lots of high cost threats, but I wanted to keep the Primeval Titan and Wolf Run elements as a backup plan. The new version has less burn but much more acceleration and a sideboard capable of giving Solar Flare and Frites headaches. Honestly, I was scared of Brad Nelson Solar Frites deck and I overloaded on hate for it. Luckily, a lot of that hate also helps in the Solar Flare and Zombies matchups.

With the exception of a couple one-ofs, I was more than satisfied with the deck. I seemed to be able to race just about anything, and Bonfire of the Damned is a beating against just about everything. The only problems I had with the deck itself (as opposed to my play mistakes) were tied to late games in which I would draw a string of lands and mana dorks.

Card Choices

Shimmering Grotto

This isn’t that great, but I was irritated enough with Evolving Wilds coming into play tapped to cut the last copy, and I couldn’t find another Unhinged Forest or Mountain. Once, over the course of the whole tournament, I activated it for a black mana to save me two life on a Dismember. Otherwise, it could have been just about anything else and I wouldn’t have known the difference. I might leave it in just because several people asked me what I was naming with my Cavern of Souls and then looked at me like I was insane when they realized what card I was actually playing.

No Cavern of Souls?

This was just an issue of not having access to any. However, I’m not sure how many I would play. I haven’t had any issues playing around or pushing through counterspells (except for a loss to Solar Flare in which he kept a hand with three).

Viridian Emissary

Most of the mana hungry green decks seem to run either Birds of Paradise and Borderline Ranger or Rampant Growth and Solemn Simulacrum. This deck isn’t all that mana hungry; I just want to be swinging with guys as soon as possible. If I accelerate some, that’s great, but I’m perfectly content just swinging for two for a while. The best thing about Viridian Emissary is that people never seem to know whether or not to block him. Even without Kessig Wolf Run in play, I’ve been able to bluff him through bigger blockers after my opponent counted my lands. I’m almost always content with two more damage…especially with so many X burn spells in the deck.

Huntmaster of the Fells and/or Garruk Relentless

I like Garruk a lot better. He’s a lot more versatile, and he can keep the Wolves coming even after a Day of Judgment or a Terminus. In a pinch, I don’t even mind trading him with a flipped Delver of Secrets. Part of me wants to cut Huntmaster of the Fells altogether in favor of a fourth Garruk. However, I think having Huntmaster of the Fells as a one-of Green Sun’s Zenith target is still necessary. There were plenty of times that the life gain was relevant, and a few times in the tournament he flipped for even more value. Most of the time, though, I didn’t care whether he flipped or not…swinging with lots of 2/2 guys was enough to do the job.

Daybreak Ranger

This card is poopy. I boarded him out in every single match. I kept thinking he would be useful, but I always found myself wanting more burn from the sideboard. This guy always seemed like the weakest link that had to go.

Thrun, the Last Troll

I loved Troll Ascetic in Mirrodin Block, so naturally Thrun has been one of my favorites in Standard recently, but he’s been disappointing me of late. I want him against counterspells, but all of the decks running counterspells seem to have access to a bunch of Phantasmal Images, which makes him poorly positioned at best. Couple that little issue with me wanting to tap out for X effects and forgetting to leave mana up to regenerate him, and he just leads to too many disappointing situations.

Bonfire of the Damned

I always want four of these. One-sided Wrath effects are pretty good, I hear. And honestly, for a deck with so much mana acceleration, it isn’t uncommon to hard cast Bonfire for two or three to clear out blockers before attacking. What’s even more fun is to swing several Strangleroot Geists into Restoration Angels, smile at the blocks, and then play Bonfire second main phase to finish off their Angels.

Red Sun’s Zenith

While Bonfire of the Damned and Strangleroot Geist were the star players, Red Sun’s Zenith was the crucial sixth man. I closed out several games by pointing this at my opponent’s life total or by removing a game breaking threat, and removing creatures from the game is relevant a lot more often than one would think. I’m pretty sure I brought in the third and fourth copy for every single postboard game.

No Swords?

I could never decide whether or not to keep a few in the maindeck, but I always found myself up against decks that could deal with them too easily. Sure, it’s nice to hit with a third turn equipped Bird for 5+ damage, but there were just as many (if not more) times that the Bird just ate a Gut Shot in response to the equip and I spent my third turn doing nothing. There were also plenty of times in testing that I was facing down blue, black, or green creatures and might as well have been playing a more expensive Vulshok Morningstar. Not playing Swords actually worked to my advantage, though, because many of my opponents admitted to bringing in artifact hate after sideboarding. I conveniently have very few targets for artifact destruction…

Playing the Deck

This deck is very straightforward. You want to drop guys as quickly as possible and swarm your opponent. If given the choice, many decks want to drop Birds on the first turn for acceleration and mana fixing, but not this deck. Accelerating from one to three just isn’t as important as swinging for a point on turn 2.

Vs. Delver

Play out all your guys and swing for the fences. Don’t hold anything back unless they just stuck a Geist of Saint Traft and you want to trade with it when they attack. Hard casting Bonfire of the Damned for 1 just to kill an unflipped Delver of Secrets is almost always the right play. After game 1, Wurmcoil Engine, Wolfir Silverheart, Thrun, and Daybreak Ranger come out for more burn and the Dismembers. Go ahead and keep swinging, but be wary of Gideon and Consecrated Sphinx. It’s usually best to save a Red Sun’s Zenith for power plays like these.

Vs. Esper Control

Game 1 is rough. Phantasmal Images slow you down a lot when they copy Strangleroot Geists, and there really isn’t much you can do to answer a resolved Elesh Norn unless you have eight mana and a Red Sun’s Zenith in hand (or get lucky and topdeck a Bonfire of the Damned). After game 1, Surgical Extraction is your friend, and Phyrexian Metamorph gives you a much better answer to Elesh Norn.

Vs. Zombies

Just try to race them in game 1. Trying to win an attrition war is a losing prospect, and you want this game to end rather quickly either way. After game 1, Surgical Extraction takes care of Gravecrawler and/or Geralf’s Messenger, so you just conserve your life total and make one for one trades until you grind them out.

Vs. Wolf Run Ramp

I can’t say much more than…race! They’re going to go bigger, so you need them to be at as low a life total as possible when they stabilize. Then you go for the burn plan. The key cards to look out for in this matchup are the sweepers (Whipflare, Slagstorm, and/or Bonfire of the Damned). If you can properly navigate the balance between putting enough pressure on the board and not overextending into one of these, then the race and burn plan is manageable.

Vs. Pod Variants

Pod isn’t a pretty matchup. They’re playing a lot of the same creatures but with a much better late game. The key is keeping creatures off the board entirely. Bonfire of the Damned is probably more important here than in any other matchup, but since this is not a control deck at all, you have to be aggressive and force them to make trades. Needless to say, with that strategy, the card that scares me the most in this matchup is actually Blade Splicer. When your game plan is to flood the board with 2/2 and 2/1 creatures, 3/3 Golems with first strike make for unhappy board states.

I’ve written a grand total of two tournament reports in my time. I found writing descriptions of each match to be extremely boring, and those were for relatively short tournaments. Even though I took decent notes at this one, I just can’t bring myself to write out a play-by-play for seven rounds of Swiss plus the Top 8. Instead, I’m going to skip that part altogether and just share some random thoughts and highlights.

The Good

-Not having any opponents who were bad sports or jerks. That’s always a plus. Of course, you do get some of the subtle insults like, "I was bound to get mana screwed eventually because things have been going perfectly all day." I can never figure out if the implied, "You didn’t beat me, bad luck did," is intentional or not. Oh well…

-Playing against a variety of decks! Delver was everywhere, but I only faced it twice (2-1 and 2-0). I also got to play against B/R Zombies (2-1), Esper Control (0-2 and 2-1), G/W Aggro (2-0), and W/B Tokens (2-1).

-What might have been my best play of the night: Blocked Restoration Angel with Inkmoth Nexus (no mana to pump with Kessig Wolf Run). *opponent shrugged*Â Next turn, played the Garruk Relentless that had been dead weight in my hand the whole game and fought the 2/3 Angel. My opponent had two mana open; enough to Mana Leak (but I had enough to pay for it), and enough to flash in Snapcaster Mage, but not enough to save the Angel with the Vapor Snag in his graveyard. Woooooo!

The Bad

-The fact that half our lighting was from black lights…ugh. It made a lot of playmats look pretty awesome, but other than that, it put an unnecessary strain on my eyes.

-Spending too much time burning Gideon when I should have just sent it at the player in my one loss. At one point, I even hit Gideon with a non-lethal Bonfire (for five or six) with no creatures on the board to swing and finish him off. I might have lost that game anyway, but I should have known better and gone for his life total. I drew a Red Sun’s Zenith the turn before I died and realized that it would have been lethal if I had attacked his life total rather than the planeswalker…

The Ugly (aka You know you’re at a Magic tournament when…)

-Someone across the room yells, "Bonfire for four?!?! Okay! Next turn, Sun Titan, Image, Image, Image… Get at me bro!!!" I wish the exclamation points here could do justice to the animation in this guy’s storytelling. I might be a little off on the quote, but still… Wow.

-You have to listen to random people saying things like, "If you aren’t playing <insert card name here> in <insert deck name here>, you’re doing it wrong."

-You hear a loud thud and turn around to see that somebody behind you just sat down and demolished a chair.

Next Time?

And finally, changes to the deck. There are definitely some things about this deck that I want to change. I don’t know if I’ll play this again, but I would play this instead if I could rewind time:

G/R Aggro

Josh Cornwell

Test deck on 07-01-2012

Standard

Creatures (22)

Planeswalkers (3)

3 Garruk Relentless

Lands (23)

Spells (12)

Sideboard

Basically, I’m just ripping the Thruns and the Daybreak Rangers out of the deck altogether, moving the extra Red Sun’s Zeniths to the maindeck, and filling the sideboard slots with bigger threats (Batterskull and more Primeval Titan). Part of me really wants to find room for a Swamp in the sideboard as well, but I don’t know if it is worth it.

With an invite to an SCG Invitational in hand, now I just need to figure out which one to attend. Atlanta is coming up in September, but Los Angeles is in December. Atlanta is easier, but I’ve never been to California before, and I’m thinking this might be a good enough excuse.