I'm not going to start this article out on a cliffhanger — I finally qualified for a Pro Tour! This article details how it happened.

We didn't invent new decks, or “break the format,” or do anything truly spectacular. We copied decklists from the Pro Tour, just like every PTQ regular does. However, since we did win one of the first Unified Team Constructed PTQs going undefeated, we must have done something right, and that means you might learn something about this format from our little adventure.

First, the facts:

Unified Team Constructed Standard - PTQ Charleston
Visions Cards and Games
Montgomery, AL
2006.3.25

Seat A: Counterangel
Gregory Kelton

Deck design by the Dutch, championed by Kamiel Cornelissen

4 Firemane Angel
1 Meloku, the Clouded Mirror

4 Wrath of God
4 Faith's Fetters
4 Lightning Helix
4 Compulsive Research
4 Mana Leak
4 Hinder
2 Gifts Ungiven

2 Zur's Weirding

2 Boros Signet
1 Izzet Signet

2 Boros Garrison
4 Steam Vents
3 Sacred Foundry
4 Adarkar Wastes
5 Plains
5 Island
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds

Sideboard:
1 Shard Phoenix
2 Ivory Mask
2 Descendent of Kiyomaro
4 Jushi Apprentice
2 Pithing Needle
2 Meloku the Clouded Mirror

Our Seat A is CounterAngel, as piloted by Greg Kelton. Greg qualified for his first Pro Tour at Honolulu in the first PTQ of the season with Billy Moreno's MadnessTog. He made Day 2 with an Orzhov Aggro-Control list through playtesting and diligent Internet research from his teammates. Witness the following:

DCI Constructed Ratings for Magic: The Gathering as of March 26, 2006:
Gregory W. Kelton — 1951
Gadiel Szielfer - 1950

Greg had a typical pre-tournament crisis when CounterAngel failed to perform well at the Friday Night Magic tournament just before the PTQ. He wanted to audible into something, anything else, or he wasn't going. We determined it was possible for us to run a Zoo, Gruul, Ghazi-Glare, or watered-down Triad Control (Lox Control) list, but we had no testing nor any kind of sideboard tech. During this last-minute playtesting, the Angel deck began performing much better, so Greg elected to play it instead of destroying all of our previous playtesting work.

In my opinion, this should be called, “CounterPhoenix” or “Phoenix Control,” because there was a simple card conceptualization error in R&D: Firemane Angel is clearly a Phoenix. It flies, is fiery, renews one's life force, and comes back from the dead. The deck also plays very much like a CounterPhoenix deck circa Stronghold. You counter stuff, blow up the board with Wrath of God (in lieu of Nevinyrral's Disk), then reanimate a threat over and over until it finally wins. In this case, Firemane Angel gives you life instead of removal. The deck can also play Shard Phoenix, for crying out loud, which is stellar against many Orzhov decks.

The Gifts Ungivens were performing badly until we figured out that you can just Gifts for lands and an Angel. It's a very slow deck, so the land thinning becomes relevant. That turns Gifts into an Inspiration-plus, because you know what you are getting. Additionally, there are times when you Gifts for bombs like Angel, Shard Phoenix, Meloku, and Zur's Weirding and your opponent is forced to give you things he doesn't autolose to.

Seat B: Heartbeat Combo
Matthew Warner

Deck Design by Maximilian Bracht

4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Kodama's Reach
4 Remand

4 Drift of Phantasms
4 Muddle the Mixture
4 Early Harvest
4 Heartbeat of Spring
2 Weird Harvest

1 Recollect
1 Savage Twister
1 Invoke the Firemind
1 Maga, Traitor to Mortals

10 Forest
10 Island
1 Mountain
1 Swamp

Sideboard:
3 Savage Twister
3 Iwamori of the Open Fist
4 Vinelasher Kudzu
1 Naturalize
1 Meloku, the Clouded Mirror
1 Keiga, the Tide Star
1 Pyroclasm
1 Umezawa's Jitte

Matt is in the B seat piloting Heartbeat Combo, one of the stronger decks you could choose from all the “sucky decks” in Standard. The combo kill is lots of mana from Heartbeat of Spring and Early Harvest into Invoke the Firemind or Maga, Traitor of Mortals. You should always kill with Maga given the choice, because it's immune to Shining Shoal and a few other things like Muddle the Mixture. Against Heartbeat, a correct Extraction should hit Early Harvest because it disrupts the combo that leads into both kill cards, which should buy you plenty of turns.

I kept throwing Carven Caryatids in his face, but Matt is a stubborn player, often insisting his choices are correct without even playtesting them. I don't believe this is an optimal sideboard, but the maindeck is solid enough to win with the combo even if a little disruption shows up. Even Matt admits that too often Savage Twister is not enough against the new, improved Aggro decks sporting crazy burn, Moldervine Cloaks, and Bathe in Light. I think the real problem he won't try Carven Caryatid is because I use them to poor effect in an infamous Wall deck that loses my team every Emperor game because they insist on playing “good” casual decks.

Seat C: Ghost Dad
Kenneth Nagle

Design by Clan Cymbrogi of MODO, and championed by Benjamin “RidiculousHat” Goodman

3 Plagued Rusalka
4 Dark Confidant
4 Kami of Ancient Law
4 Tallowisp
4 Thief of Hope
2 Descendant of Kiyomaro
4 Ghost Council of Orzhova

4 Shining Shoal
4 Sickening Shoal

3 Pillory of the Sleepless
1 Strands of Undeath

4 Godless Shrine
4 Caves of Koilos
1 Orzhov Basilica
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
1 Tomb of Urami
6 Plains
5 Swamp

Sideboard:
2 Cranial Extraction
2 Pithing Needle
1 Spirit Link
1 Enfeeblement
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Terashi's Grasp
3 Bottle Cloister
3 Castigate

I deviated from the list in Ben Goodman's article by throwing in a Kami of Ancient Law over Descendant of Kiyomaro and an Orzhov Basilica over a Plains. The Koala is a stellar utility creature right now, and the Basilica makes it very easy to cast Ghost Council.

The sideboard was good for me during the tournament — at least, as far as my usual sideboards go. Spirit Link is an innovation by Phil Smith to use against beatdown decks because it's a very fast Pacifism with life gain applications on some of your larger men. I decided to trim the fourth Pillory of the Sleepless for it because I've never needed to cast more than two Pillories in a game (with one to pitch to Shoal).

Bottled Cloister is tech for the Orzhov mirror, which should happen 33% of the time in this format. Cloister is two cards each turn and it protects your hand from discard and Cranial Extraction. Also, the only card that Orzhov could possibly play to kill it is a sided-in Terashi's Grasp. Therefore, my plan in the Orzhov mirror is to assume the game will go long and just maximize my card drawing. Cloister is also immune to Persecute while it's in your hand.

You actually don't need Umezawa's Jitte. It's still a good card; I just use it as a repeatable threat against Control. What you don't want to do is make your entire game plan into Umezawa's Jitte, because you will just lose when that goes down the crapper because of Faith's Fetters, Pithing Needle, or swaths of creature removal and sacrificed effects. Many Aggro decks are faster than Jitte, many Control decks like you playing Jitte, and many of the Combo decks could not care less about Jitte. What has happened is R&D has created an environment to punish Jitte usage as best they can, and it has started to show. You can still play or board four of them if you really want to, and no one is going to argue with you.

The Castigates were an audible when I decided I didn't have enough disruption against non-Aggro decks. Castigate performed beautifully, especially since it's my only discard spell.

I've been told by my team that this is a perfect deck for me. I am a slow player, so I need to beat down — but I also like tricks and bad cards, like Trinket Mage into Necrogen Spellbomb or Oath of Ghouls recurring Mindless Automaton or Etched Oracle. It's beatdown, but it's a card advantageous beatdown that gives you more things to think about. I enjoy decks that create complicated board positions for both me and my opponents.

Fact:
I added one Dark Confidant to my Arcane Gifts lists solely to increase the complexity of using Sensei's Divining Top correctly.

Card Clashing
The interesting aspect of Unified Team Standard is the card clashing. All three decks have some clashes, which I'll discuss in detail.

Pithing Needle
The Needles were needed in the Ghost Dad and CounterAngel deck, so we split them two and two. Needle is basically required because Ghost Dad loses hardcore to Meloku, the Clouded Mirror. If they untap with Meloku, you are probably dead right there. If they drop Meloku, it better be with only five lands out, and you need a Pillory immediately to swing right through it. You have to keep swinging with Thief of Hope and Koala — because if they are picking up lands in defense, they can't do much in their main phase or with countermagic. They also don't want to gang-block too greedily because of your vast number of Shoals. Pillory the tokens and keep getting in damage.

Meloku also happens to blank your Strands of Undeath. If you just sit on a Thief of Hope, they will end-of-turn Fireball you every turn with flyers resistant to Pillories and Shoals. The CounterAngel deck needed Needles to stop Ghost Council and to create redundant dead cards in the opponent's deck in the late game.

Terashi's Grasp
Terashi's Grasp also gets shared between Ghost Dad and CounterAngel. I have no real reason for Grasp; it's simply a catch-all solution card because the metagame is so wide open. CounterAngel used them for things like Phyrexian Arena and Pithing Needle on Firemane Angel.

It's also Arcane, by the way. Just in case you missed that.

Descendant of Kiyomaro
Both Ghost Dad and CounterAngel make excellent use of Descendant of Kiyomaro. Descendant is an absolute house against the W/G/R one-drop creature decks because their removal is damage-based, unlike Putrefy and Mortify. In the Orzhov Aggro mirror, Descendant can block the “protection from black” creatures like Hand of Honor and Paladin en-Vec. In the end, we decided to go two and two for Descendants.

Remand
Remand is an extremely efficient tempo card that could go in both Heartbeat and CounterAngel. In the end, we put all four in the Heartbeat deck, where we feel it's better. Heartbeat can greatly punish a player for attempting a big spell, Remanding it, and untapping into a kill. CounterAngel can't really do that; it just gains some life and waits around to Helix, Wrath, Fetters, or counter the same spell again.

(To be honest, another reason we gave Matt the remands is that he refused to play Heartbeat without them.)

Compulsive Research
Hinder
Mana Leak
It's possible to run some extra card drawing or countermagic in Heartbeat Combo — but since we have a dedicated blue Control deck we can't split the good blue cards that evenly.

Seating Arrangements
We had a big discussion of what Seats the decks should go in. We assumed that:

• You can't play 3 Control, 3 Aggro, or 3 Combo decks. There's most likely one Aggro and then two Control or one Control, one Combo.
• Every team will have a Good Player.
• The Good Player is going to sit in Seat B — the middle, where the Good Player can easily communicate with the two Bad Players.
• Since everyone has to play different decks, the Good Player is not going to play the Aggro deck. One of the Bad Players will be playing the Aggro deck. That means the Aggro deck will be in Seat A or Seat C.
• We put our two best decks against Aggro on the sides. That's CounterAngel and Ghost Dad.

Greg thinks this logic possibly won us the tournament, giving us good matchups all through the tournament. I think it has more to do with the fact that the Orzhov decks were all in the A and C seats, which is where we could handle them with our sideboards. Our Heartbeat deck just gets bent over by many Orzhov lists.

Next comes the tournament report itself, where all our preparation paid off. I'll try to be as detailed as I can, just in case you are interested in how to play Ghost Dad.

Round 1 — Team Blitzkrieg
Opponent — Tim with Monogreen Aggro

Game 1:
Tim begins with straight Forests, which is very weird to me. He has a Dryad Sophisticate, a Moldervine Cloak, and a Kodama of the North Tree. But I have Tallowisp and Pillory of the Sleepless, then I drop Ghost Council who “trades” with North Tree. In the meantime, Tim has dropped two more Dryad Sophisticates. The funny thing is I've played the game with Swamp, Swamp, Plains, Plains, Plains. With no more North Tree worries because of Ghost Council, I play a Godless Shrine untapped and drop two Pillories on his two Dryads, then swing through. Two more turns and the Pillories kill him by themselves.

Sideboarding:
-1 Strands of Undeath
-2 Dark Confidant

+1 Spirit Link
+1 Enfeeblement
+1 Umezawa's Jitte

Game 2
Tim gets a draw that includes all untargetable creatures. Silhanna Ledgewalkers, Moldervine Cloak, Giant Solifuge, and Kodama of the North Tree outclass my Tallowisps and Pillories of the Sleepless, and I simply die because my creature removal is inactive. I'm able to live a turn by stacking damage, then Shining Shoal twice for seven damage to his face, leaving me at one. He plays a Might of Oaks with damage already on the stack, but it doesn't matter because I die next turn anyway.

Game 3
I use Plagued Rusalka very defensively to keep Moldervine Cloak off of Dryad Sophisticate, since I have nonbasics this game. I get a Tallowisp, Thief of Hope, and a Ghost Council in play, which trumps his North Tree. He also drops multiple Skarggan Pit-Skulks, which become fodder for Pillories and Shining Shoals. He can't mount any kind of offensive and dies.

Individual Games: 2-1
Individual Matches: 1-0
Team Matches: 1-0

Round 2 — Team Two Guys and a Metro
Opponent — Luke with Gruul

I believe the joke was you are supposed to figure out which one was the metro. My guess is that Luke is not the metro.

Game 1
This game is very interesting because I lose the game on turn 1. I don't lose the game because of a mulligan decision: I lost it on my first turn. Can you guess why?

I keep a hand of Godless Shrine, Plains, Swamp, Orzhov Basilica, Tallowisp, Thief of Hope, Dark Confidant. My opponent plays turn 1 Forest, done. I draw Ghost Council. What should I do?

If you're me, you play tapped Godless Shrine and lose the game.

Just like I thought he might do, he drops an unblockable Dryad Sophisticate. My Tallowisp can't block — and then endless Scab-Clan Maulers, Dryads, and Giant Solifuges backed by burn and Skargg, the Rage Pits run me over. With two opening basics, he would have had to do something about Tallowisp before enabling Bloodthirst via Dryad. This tiny hiccup might have been enough to get my foot in the door without Shining Shoal.

Sideboarding:
+1 Spirit Link
+1 Enfeeblement
+1 Umezawa's Jitte

-1 Strands of Undeath
-2 Dark Confidant

Game 2
I play a Dark Confidant against his slow draw of a single Frenzied Goblin. Bob delivers a Thief of Hope straight into my hands, and I use a Rusalka to kill both Bob and Frenzied Goblin. Luke plays two Scorched Rusalkas, and I counter with Tallowisp. When he attempts to Char my Tallowisp out of the way, I pitch a Pillory of the Sleepless to Shining Shoal three of it to his face and search up an Enfeeblement.

This doesn't phase him because he has Burning-Tree Shaman, making me wish I'd searched up Spirit Link instead.

I have a Thief of Hope, but he has Giant Solifuge — and I take lots of damage blocking. The board clears into my fresh Ghost Council against Burning-Tree Shaman and Scorched Rusalka. He is at three life from painlands, Shining Shoal, and Shaman pain, while I'm hanging on at six. I swing to force a block and he doubles up on Ghost Council, saccing his team to Rusalka me to four, then untaps into Char with me at four and him at three.

Individual Games: 2-3
Individual Matches: 1-1
Team Matches: 2-0

With lots of time left on the clock, I walk over to watch Greg play his match. It's CounterAngel versus an Orzhov Husk+Promise deck. His opponent plays a Nantuko Husk with a Promise of Bunrei in play and attacks for six, keeping two Promise tokens. Greg rips a Faith's Fetters and uses it on the Husk, which hits and sticks. His opponent goes to Mortify the Fetters, but Greg's last card is Hinder. Greg's dead Angel is handing him one life a turn.

Two more Promises join the field, then a Mindslicer and a Plagued Rusalka. Rusalka pops Husk for eight tokens, and Greg's new Firemane Angel gets Mortified. With nine lands out and a land in his hand from a Boros Garrison, Greg rips Compulsive Research into Firemane Angel, Lightning Helix, Lightning Helix. He keeps the two Helixes and uses them during the draw step to get out of lethal damage range and forcing his opponent to discard a godly Ghost Council. Greg then rips Wrath of God, then a land to begin reanimating Angels, and then Zur's Weirding for the game.

Greg's deck just seems to love him today.

Round 3 — Team Tabasco
Opponent: Brian with IzzeTron

I apologize for not remembering this team's name. I'll just call you guys Tabasco.

Game 1
I get a Plagued Rusalka, a Tallowisp, and a Kami of Ancient Law as my rag-tag team of beatdown. I lose Rusalka to half of an Electrolyze. I Pillory a Meloku and a Keiga on subsequent turns and keep on swinging. The Pillories do the rest of the work before Meloku tokens can go offensive.

Sideboarding
-3 Plagued Rusalka
-3 Sickening Shoal

+1 Spirit Link
+2 Pithing Needle
+3 Castigate

Game 2
I get two Thieves of Hope into play. One meets an Electrolyze, but the other keeps bashing. Brian drops Meloku, and I deploy Needle and Pillory to disable him. He keeps taking his utility beats until a Keiga hits... But that gets a Pillory, too.

Unfortunately, he assembles Tron and he's able to Repeal the Keiga and replay it in quick fashion. I can't seem to resolve a Ghost Council, but the Thief and Pillory are still draining away. He implodes his own Meloku to kill the Pillory.

He is at two life when I have the Shining Shoal for his Electrolyze on my Thief of Hope, draining him to one. Painfully, he Remands it — but I only have a Plains in my hand and can't finish him with a Thief drain. His Keiga sits there and I drop a Kami of Ancient Law. He makes a good play by playing Pyroclasm, which I Shining Shoal for the win... But he has Electrolyze to clear the Kami before I can Shoal any damage to it.

I take a Keiga hit, then a Keiga and Ryusei hit. I rip another Shining Shoal. His team attacks for lethal damage, so I play the Shoal for just one to draw the game. He does have a Remand, so I play it again. He uses a Repeal on a Signet to draw a card, but doesn't find anything and the game is a draw as we both die.

Originally, I thought he could Repeal his Keiga and live, but apparently combat damage sitting on the stack remembers Last Known Information for cards like Shining Shoal. Last Known Information is also how Maga kills you in case you Boomerang or Repeal him in response to his lethal life drain.

Game 3
I'm still up a game, so all the IzzeTron deck managed to do was burn lots of time off the clock.

I play turn 1 Needle on Meloku because I could potentially curve very well because of my Confidant, Basilica, and Ghost Council. Bob eats a Pyroclasm, but my Tallowisp (and surprisingly, my Ghost Council) stick. He's assembled the Tron by now, but he's a bit light on colored mana. Keiga comes down and my Pillory gets Remanded. He casts Tidings, which seems like a stellar card against Orzhov in general. The Pillory sticks and he gets very low.

He is doing a lot of math and it's obvious he is trying to Blaze me because of the random Electrolyze at my face, but he's short of seventeen from Invoke the Firemind and passes.

I play a Shizo and swing for lethal damage with Ghost Council, then Pillory finishes him. I was actually holding the Shizo as long as possible so he would not see it coming... But I also forgot this was the last turn! I should drop it in case he Repeals the Pillory or something.

Individual Games: 4-3-1
Individual Matches: 2-1
Team Matches: 3-0

Round 4 — Team Two Fat Guys with Butz
Opponent - Greg Wilder with Zoo

I was against one of the fat guys. Butz was the guy in the middle.

Game 1
He starts with Kird Ape, Scab-Clan Mauler, Watchwolf, and then Bathe in Light and kills me through my blockers and a Pillory.

Sideboarding:
-1 Strands of Undeath
-2 Dark Confidant

+1 Spirit Link
+1 Enfeeblement
+1 Umezawa's Jitte

Game 2
My mana is only Caves of Koilos and two Plains, which powers out a meager team of two Plagued Rusalkas, a Tallowisp, and a Descendant of Kiyomaro.

That sounds like a lot of creatures, but they're holding off a Savannah Lions, a Kird Ape, an Isamaru, Hound of Konda, and presumably a hand full of burn. I sacrifice the Rusalka in my main phase to kill Savannah Lions... But Greg thinks that's worth a Bathe in Light. I sit on defense and he also sits. I try the same thing again and Greg plays Bathe in Light, apparently not caring about Descendant of Kiyomaro.

Still I sit, and he Lightning Helixes Tallowisp, which dies. He plays a Moldervine Cloak and crashes with Kird Ape, which I just take. I Spirit Link my Descendant and swing for three damage and six life since he's tapped out, which he did not like at all. I also Pillory his Kird Ape.

On my next attack, he plays Flames of the Blood Hand in response to my life gain... But it's only delaying the inevitable as he's never going to beat me on cards in hand, and I'm at fifteen life. I Shoal the Flames to his face anyway and he dies a couple turns later.

Game 3
Greg mulligans and has Isamaru that gets in a hit. I have one, then two Tallowisps. Greg stops dropping lands after his second hits the board, and he's locked out of Red mana. I Pillory his Isamaru and get in there with fat Tallowisp beatdown against Zoo.

He plays... Isamaru to clear the Pillory, then Isamaru. When it's over, he shows me a hand of seven burn spells he can't cast.

Individual Games: 6-4-1
Individual Matches: 3-1
Team Matches: 4-0

Since my games were fast, I got to watch Matt for a bit. I see he had to go off for an imperfect Maga for twenty through two Naturalizes. 20/20 Maga is holding the fort against Nezumi Graverobber with a Jitte and some friends. The Graverobber is going nuts on his graveyard because of a Heartbeat of Spring, and it's also blanking the Recollect in Matt's hand. Matt draws a Top and spins it, seeing Mountain, Muddle the Mixture, Invoke the Firemind. He passes the turn, but he's facing lethal damage the next turn.

He draws Mountain and pops the Top for Invoke the Firemind for thirteen when his opponent's Jitte could put him up to eleven, winning the game and match for our team.

This is when his opponent, presumably Mr. Butz, jumped up and called the judge for cheating. Matt needed both Mountain and Invoke in his top three cards, because Transmuting Drift of Phantasms for Invoke wouldn't have been lethal. I'm told that Mr. Butz quickly retracted his accusation because he was the one who cut Matt to the lethal Top, Mountain, Muddle, Invoke configuration on top of his library.

Did I mention that Matt's also a Level 1 DCI Judge?

Round 5 — Team LOL Alabama LOL
Opponent — Henry Lu with Orzhov Aggro-Control (Discard, probably courtesy of Olivier Ruel)

I'm playing Henry Lu, a young Asian-American. I've seen him play at the Guildpact Prerelease abusing Gelectrode, Orzhov Euthanist, and Repeal in tandem.

Game 1
I pitch a Sickening Shoal to kill his Dark Confidant, then get one of my own Confidants active for a couple turns before it gets Mortified. I put a Ghost Council down, but it eats a Mortify, too — a removal spell that's so good apparently I can't be bothered to run it.

Henry deploys Paladin en-Vec, but I have another Ghost Council and some utility Spirits. I begin attacking for chunks of his life and he blocks the Ghost Council, but he eventually can't stop it even with Umezawa's Jitte against my utility Tallowisps, Koalas, and Pillories on his Shrieking Grotesques.

I've never playtested the mirror matched, so I have no idea what to do. Based on Ben Goodman's teachings, I know the games go long with attrition, so I try:

Sideboarding:
-2 Kami of Ancient Law
-4 Shining Shoal

+1 Enfeeblement
+2 Pithing Needle
+3 Bottled Cloister

Game 2
Henry starts the game slowly and is land-light. However, I'm surprised by a turn 3 Phyrexian Arena, remembering that I sided out some number of Ancient Laws. I have a Bottled Cloister, which he reads, and we go into attrition mode.

Henry has a Paladin en-Vec just like in game 1, but he misses a couple of land drops even with Arena going. He has to use Mortifies on my Tallowisps and Ghost Councils, which take up his whole turn because he's still missing land drops. I, however, make all my land drops but I can't effectively fight a Paladin en-Vec in the long term even though I have a Pithing Needle on Umezawa's Jitte.

This game really showcased the power of Bottled Cloister. When I cast Strands of Undeath, he discarded two Cranial Extractions (a four-mana Cabal Therapy without Flashback). He also played three Shrieking Grotesques as Dusk Imps.

But in the end, he was drawing significantly better off Arena than I was off Cloister. Eventually I die due to lack of gas and a way to stop or race Paladin en-Vec.

Re-sideboarding:
-2 Pillory of the Sleepless
-1 Tallowisp

+2 Kami of Ancient Law
+1 Terashi's Grasp

He doesn't seem to have any good Pillory targets at all, nor will they last very long, so I board a couple out for ways to kill Phyrexian Arena.

Game 3
He gets a turn 2 Dark Confidant but I use a Rusalka that I refrained from playing on turn 1. He has another Confidant, and I have another slow-rolled Rusalka.

I get a Tallowisp, then we implode Ghost Councils... But I have second one. With only a Plagued Rusalka on defense, I decide to just go totally aggro on him. I play a Needle on Plagued Rusalka, then Pillory his Rusalka, and come crashing across. He puts up some defense, but none of it includes Umezawa's Jitte before Enfeeblement steps in.

Individual Games: 8-5-1
Individual Matches: 4-1
Team Matches: 5-0

Fact:
My opponent played first in all three games.

Greg lost the CounterAngel mirror match hardcore due to zero playtesting. Want a whack matchup? How about not casting Compulsive Research on yourself because you'll lose? Since Firemane Angel decks can't kill each other except when one of them is manascrewed, the player that wins is whoever has a larger library when Zur's Weirding hits the table.

Round 6 — Tang Nation
This team features Shawn McGee in the A slot — an old friend of mine from high school in Gulf Breeze, FL. We were big into Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs) games when the Internet was just a fledging beast.

Fact:
Shawn's mother was once startled into finding a gun upon hearing an intruder when I entered Shawn's house looking for him.

My opponent is Wade Hosler, the brother of the man I bought my initial collection of Magic cards way back in the Fallen Empires era. He thought the game was demonic. His green deck consisted of every green card he owned, plus every Forest he owned. From this collection and Ice Age soon after, I built my first deck ever around Norritt, which paved the way for other broken Imps like Putrid Imp and Stinkweed Imp.

Fact:
Wade's mom has cut my hair multiple times in her own barber shop.

Game 1
Wade has a Dark Confidant, but I have a Tallowisp plus Sickening Shoal. I get a Dark Confidant of my own going, which gives me plenty of cards to overwhelm him by making his Descendant of Kiyomaro small.

I decide to not go with the Jitte plan.

Sideboarding:
-4 Shining Shoal
-2 Sickening Shoal
-2 Pillory of the Sleepless

+1 Enfeeblement
+2 Pithing Needle
+2 Terashi's Grasp
+3 Bottled Cloister

I'm not about to make the same mistake twice and lose to Phyrexian Arena again.

Game 2
I get hit by a Castigate that takes away my Terashi's Grasp instead of seemingly better cards like Ghost Council or Bottled Cloister. Wade has a turn 3 Umezawa's Jitte to justify this play... But I'm able to Sickening Shoal and Plagued Rusalka his only two guys so the Jitte doesn't activate.

I make some small errors this game with my Rusalkas because I'm a bit short on land. Wade has a Plagued Rusalka and equips a Jitte to a Descendant of Kiyomaro, but he doesn't kill my Rusalka before I block, giving me a free Jitte Fog and also losing his Rusalka before damage. This allows me to keep my Sickening Shoal + Ghost Council still at the ready.

I kill the Descendant next turn and he drops a Ghost Council, which I implode with my own. He gets land-flooded, and I have a second Council that finishes him without me needing to get Bottle Cloister active.

Individual Games: 10-5-1
Individual Matches: 5-1
Team Matches: 6-0

What these two games don't detail is all the collusion and tie-breaker math going on at the three top tables. Being the 5-0 team, we had some power in determining who made it into the Top 4 with our match result. With a draw, we would knock out the other Huntsville team and promote the fifth seed up. With a win, the other Huntsville team would win in on tie-breakers.

We briefly discussed this with our friends.

“Hmmm... Seems like you need us to cooperate so you get something. Because you know, it seems like with us first seed and you fourth seed, you should auto-concede to us.”

This seems totally ludicrous to our friends, but it's simple game theory: Why can't we crush your dreams instead of our Round 6 opponents? These Huntsville guys are hardcore Spikes; there's little doubt in my mind that they wouldn't fully embrace a dominating position for profit. I personally have zero sympathy for someone like that asking for help when they're supposed to be the “good” players.

Of course, these are all forms of bribery, punishable with disqualification. And Matt and I are both Level 1 DCI Judges, so we report the match exactly as it played out — our team won the round, 2-1. Matt even played his game out when both Greg and I had won already. The two of them were having great fun pushing away other teams' cries for dream-crushing, citing, “We are playing a game of Magic: The Gathering. Leave us be.”

Semifinals — Team Dodging Coathangers
Opponent — Effridge with Rox Control

These guys are the other team hailing from the Huntsville Area. I'm playing against my friend Effridge, whose deck was built at Phil's place at 2:00 a.m. that morning. It's a W/G/B Triad Control deck, which I just call Rox Control.

Phil and Brett subtly tried to get Greg from my team to join their team the night before. Greg, Phil, and Brett are considered the “good” players at our shop. This must have made Effridge feel unwanted, which is not the sign of a good team.

How do you get a team name that's a euphemism for abortion past the censors? (I was wondering that myself — The Ferrett)

Game 1
I get Cranially Extracted on turn 3 for Ghost Council of Orzhova, then face the combo of Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree plus Umezawa's Jitte. My Tallowisp valiantly fights with Pillories and Sickening Shoals, but I eventually lose my board to those two dang cards. When he Extracts three Shining Shoals from my hand and one from my library, I scoop because I'm too far behind to mount a comeback.

I sideboard in thirteen cards:

-3 Plagued Rusalka
-4 Shining Shoal
-4 Sickening Shoal
-1 Descendant of Kiyomaro
-1 Ghost Council of Orzhova

+2 Pithing Needle
+2 Cranial Extraction
+1 Umezawa's Jitte
+2 Terashi's Grasp
+3 Bottle Cloister
+3 Castigate

Game 2
I choose to draw first.

Effridge plays an early Orzhov Basilica. I drop a Pithing Needle on Dimir House Guard, which I'm fairly certain he runs. He plays a Signet on turn 3. I now play my Castigate and I see Wrath of God, two Faith's Fetters, a Loxodon Hierarch, and a Cranial Extraction.

I take the Cranial Extraction to set my deck up for the long game.

He fires back a Castigate off the top for my own Cranial, and I put out a Dark Confidant. Bob finds me a Ghost Council before he gets Mortified. I go for Kami of Ancient Law. After that connects, I add a Descendant of Kiyomaro to the board... Which prompts the Wrath.

I deploy a Tallowisp and a Ghost Council. For the rest of the game, Effridge is unable to do anything about Ghost Council plus a guy. Faith's Fetters gets fizzled, and I use Thief of Hope's soulshift to ensure that I always have a sacrificial lamb standing by the Council's side. He doesn't ever get two kill spells in tandem to finish the Ghost Council before it attacks into Loxodon Hierarch more than once to win.

Game 3
Effridge plays first, and launches some Signets. He frowns when my Terashi's Grasp kills his Phyrexian Arena. I have a Thief of Hope out when he drops Loxodon Hierarch; I attach Umezawa's Jitte and swing, which kills the Hierarch. He has another Hierarch, but I have another Thief of Hope.

My board is five tapped lands, a Thief of Hope, plus equipped Umezawa's Jitte. He drops an Angel of Despair, blowing up my Jitte as he smashes my face with Hierarch. I draw nothing of relevance and take nine....

...Which is when I lean over to my teammates and moan, “I've lost my match.” I draw a Pillory and put it on the Angel and take another Hierarch hit.

I get a Bottled Cloister down now that my hand is empty. The Cloister delivers a Pithing Needle to shut off his Vitu-Ghazis. I also get a Ghost Council, plus more random guys.

After much deliberation, Effridge plays a Cranial Extraction for Shining Shoal, which I don't play in my deck anymore. While he's looking through my deck, he sees I have two Ghost Councils in it, plus the one in play makes three, so that means I have one under Bottled Cloister. In reality, I sided one out because of Cranial Extraction, but it had the side effect of screwing my opponent into thinking that I had a backup Ghost Council should he succeed in killing the first one. That said, Ghost Council is so insane against control that you probably should play four no matter what.

That Ghost Council plus the random Spirits from my Cloister pull me back from a life deficit of three to twenty-eight to win the game past a gauntlet of Wrath of God, Mortify, Faith's Fetters, and Loxodon Hierarch. The Council was just unstoppable and finally killed him when he land-flooded.

Individual Games: 12-6-1
Individual Matches: 6-1
Team Matches: 6-0

I confuse my team now by saying I won my match when I had already told them I had lost. I find out that our match wasn't relevant, because we had already won the round.

Phil was extremely mad after his match. Greg drew all his Wraths, Helixes, and Researched a ton of times. He also had Needle on Ghost Council and Phil took eight off Dark Confidant for two other Ghost Councils that sat under Faith's Fetters... But in the end, we beat them fair and square in a 3-0 sweep. They got a box as a prize, but I think he was mad because he thought the team with better players didn't win.

See, normally if a team from your local shop is in contention for a PTQ win, that's a big deal for them. You might wish them luck, or even stay to cheer them on. We did have one fan, Matt's friend Mike, ditch his ride to watch us play in the finals. I would call this good sportsmanship and camaraderie. For his fandom, we treated Mike to a steak dinner.

Magic is a game we play for fun. It's how we spend our free time amongst friends.

....Or you could act like Phil.

The truth is, we came prepared for this tournament. We made a team, playtested, theorized, and acquired all our cards. We didn't try to steal members from other teams, we didn't build decks at 2 a.m. the night before the tournament, we didn't force a player to play a deck he's never played before, and we didn't show unsportsmanlike conduct.

Finals — Team Tabasco
Opponent — Brian with IzzeTron

Great — a rematch with IzzeTron. He's got boarded Repeals and Melokus game text on his side.

Game 1
Brian starts with a mulligan to five. Greg calls over to ask me how it's going, and I report the double mulligan. Of course, it's unsporting to cheer for opponent's mulligans, so I tell Greg that I'll play my match and he'll play his, unless he wants an update every turn.

With a mulligan to five, Brian never really gets off the ground. I have Tallowisp and Koala beats, a Strands of Undeath to strain his mulligan, plus a Shining Shoal to put him low when he deploys Keiga. Down comes a Pillory and he's staring at lethal damage.

He goes to Confiscate my untapped Ancient Law, which would free up his Keiga from Pillory. I blow up my Strands of Undeath and he smiles and scoops at this obvious game-winning play... But he had to go for it.

Sideboarding:
-3 Plagued Rusalka
-3 Sickening Shoal

+3 Castigate
+2 Pithing Needle
+1 Spirit Link

Game 2
Again, Brian mulligans to five on the play. He stalls pretty hard on two mana while I just make land drops. I choose not to play my Thief of Hope because I don't want him to Remand into lands, since I've got five land drops ready. When he gets a third land, Tendo Ice Bridge, he plays a Compulsive Research and gets some feedback from his team about what to discard. He eventually bins Keiga and a Mana Leak.

I hit him with a Castigate, seeing Invoke the Firemind, Keiga, Mana Leak, and Telling Time. I go for the land screw and take Telling Time, then drop Thief of Hope. He draws and says go. I trade a Thief of Hope for a Mana Leak. He draws a land. I then play Thief of Hope, but he drew a Mana Leak last turn.

When he hits five lands, he plays an Invoke the Firemind for two by melting two Tendo counters.

I play Castigate number two and take the Keiga he was going to drop, leaving him with just Mana Leak, lands, and a Signet. He clears my board with a Pyroclasm, and I soulshift into Koala. He doesn't Leak the Koala when I drop it, and then I play a Tomb of Urami.

I run the Selenia Gambit (my Tomb of Urami token, a present from Greg) against his two sideboard Repeals. He goes to tap a Steam Vents... But he's got nothing. My Koala eats a Pyroclasm, but Selenia smashes him dead while I'm holding Shining Shoal. His Repeal was three cards down — almost a Telling Time away.

Individual Games: 14-6-1
Individual Matches: 7-1

Matt's Heartbeat lost to a Char, so the pressure was on Greg's CounterPhoenix to win in games 2 and 3. The game goes long and eventually Firemane Angel beatdown wins it because of a Pithing Needle on Shard Phoenix, which I found out totally owns Orzhov's skull.

I'm a bit too nervous to watch, so I take three walks around the strip mall before I find out we won. I find out that Greg destroyed his opponent.

Team Matches: 8-0

We just swept a PTQ undefeated, in a new format! I suppose I should write an article or something.

Greg is some kind of invincible lucksack when it comes to PTQs. He's currently undefeated in Swiss rounds of the last three PTQs he's been in. He drew chaining Lightning Helixes to answer Bobs all tournament.

Conclusions
Our seating arrangements were spectacular throughout the day. The CounterAngel deck fought against endless Orzhov decks, using Shard Phoenix to annihilate the weenie versions and it boarded in extra Melokus against the Control versions. Our Heartbeat deck hit an Owl matchup, where it used Vinelasher Kudzu to great effect. Against Owl, you can Kodama's Reach a land into play then fail to find the second land.

I am pleased with Ghost Dad's IzzeTron matchup. Monolithic Legends make good Pillory targets, though Meloku's game text is still murder. The thing is, IzzeTron takes time to get online and you have Shining Shoal to protect your creatures. Your guys don't have uber combat stats, but they can draw you cards. Putting Pillories on Keiga, Meloku, and his tokens lets you swing right through. The blue decks heavily rely on their bomb Legends to make the opponent lose their combat phase, and many times that doesn't happen against Ghost Dad. Usually their Tron will come online but they are at an extremely low life total against a deck with Pillories, Ghost Council drains, Thief of Hope drains, and Shining Shoal.

Tallowisp is one mighty two-drop. If your hand is Spiritcraft-heavy (and especially if you're on the defensive), he's better than Dark Confidant, since the three toughness is excellent on a card drawer. He blocks animals and can't be cleared by Shock, Electrolyze, or Pyroclasm. He's also deceptively not worth a Putrefy, Mortify, Last Gasp, or three Jitte counters. Tallowisp knocks all the power out of an opposing Remand. The Shoals become truly amazing tempo cards with a Tallowisp in play.

Shining Shoal is one stupid-good tempo card; it almost completely hoses the color red all by itself. I've had Zoo Char my Tallowisp, taking five while I simply discard Shining Shoal. I've heard Zoo players say there's no card in Standard they fear more than Shining Shoal.

Thief of Hope is solid. He's best at making Wrath of God decks cry with openings like Koala, Thief. Against attrition, you play your soulshiftable guys before Thief of Hope so you can get maximum threats, just like in Limited. Then there's the triple-Thief of Hope-plus-Shoals beatdown draw.

Ghost Council of Orzhova is not overrated. Ghost Council is a premiere threat against White-based Control packing Wrath of God and Faith's Fetters.

I believe Ghost Dad is the best overall Orzhov deck, but the other two Orzhov configurations (Discard and Control) shine where Ghost Dad doesn't. For example, I'd say Ghost Dad is 60% against the Aggro decks, 40% against Control decks, and 35% against Combo. It's a solid all-around deck that doesn't have any unwinnable matchups. It's possible to draw multiple Bobs and Ancient Laws and run over Heartbeat and it's also possible to get an active Ghost Council against Control.

Then again, you can also draw Bobs against Aggro or get run over by Protection from Black guys in the mirror. That's Magic. But because of all the card drawing, it can keep up with Control for some time and attrition the Aggro should it not die to tempo.

Discard Orzhov has inflated percentages against Control and absolutely crushes Combo, but it doesn't have White Shoal or the defensive capabilities of Pillory and Tallowisp against the Aggro decks.

You don't want Ghost Dad against a Heartbeat or Greater Gifts deck (a “Top” deck). The CounterAngel deck is also a bad matchup because of the relative ineffectiveness of the removal package. At some point, recursive Shard Phoenix just buries you.

Our Heartbeat deck simply can't beat an Orzhov Control deck. Cranial Extraction rips it apart, and Ivory Mask elicits a scoop. The Guy Plan doesn't work either unless it catches them totally with their pants down. A bad Critical Mass deck just isn't very good against Orzhov Control. The Orzhov Control deck could just sideboard into a half-and-half deck and crush whatever Heartbeat tries to do with little effort. This is why the Guy Plan is probably just plain bad for Heartbeat in Unified Constructed Standard because it borrows too many good cards. Clashing problems could be avoided by using cards that might bolster matchups across the board. One possible sideboard for Heartbeat is:

4 Gigadrowse
4 Vinelasher Kudzu
4 Carven Caryatid
X Silver Bullet
X Silver Bullet
X Silver Bullet

With Heartbeat Combo, you can't sideboard too much in or out because it's a combo deck with a large core. If you have Remands main, they can come out for Kudzus against Owl, Gigadrowse against countermagic's blue sources, and Caryatid against Aggro. The Silver Bullet slots are for two- and three-mana cards you might want to Transmute for in certain matchups. These include Savage Twister against Aggro and Naturalize or Boomerang to clear out cards like Ivory Mask. Even Compulsive Research or Train of Thought might deserve a place.

Discard-based decks rip Heartbeat apart because unlike past combo decks, Heartbeat can only go off once it's assembled all its pieces and enough mana. The only way the opponent doesn't die is by playing as much disruption as they can, which only includes countermagic, instant-speed ways to remove Heartbeat of Spring, and lethal burn. For savage tech, a blue deck could include some number of Ghost-Lit Warder so when the Heartbeat deck plays Weird Harvest, you get three or four Convolutes that are immune to Remand, Mana Leak, and Muddle the Mixture while your opponent also has a Heartbeat of Spring in play.

Recommendations
I want to petition for premium reports with more detail. From just the life total changes I recorded, I can recall my games. I also write articles for free. I'd hope that if you were a Pro Magic Player and getting paid to write, you could describe your games as best you could by taking in-game notes to jog your memory. Most players read tournament reports looking for help on how to play the deck in the pilot's hands. If the report can't communicate that, you should make up for it with lots of style.

Speaking of style, I highly recommend Capcom's Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition for the Playstation 2. It's by far the best action game I've ever played, with over 50 hours of game time on my save file. The game emphasizes ssssstylish gameplay, and the move list and combo system is so vast that no two players truly play Dante the same way. You should be able to get it at Wal*Mart for $19.99.

I've got a doozy of an article series coming. Hope to see you in Charleston!

Kenneth Nagle
NorrYtt
NorrYtt@gmail.com
2006.3.26
Format — Unified 3-Person Team Standard (Guildpact)