A few weeks ago, I was reading a top-notch Multiplayer Free-For-All tournament report on StarCityGames.com….
…And then I woke up. That got me to thinking about why there are no top-notch FFA tournament reports on StarCityGames. It probably has something to do with the fact that there aren't any FFA tournaments other than the Weekly FFA Tournament, and nobody else who plays in that writes for SCG.
It was up to me to write a good FFA tourney report… And to write a good one, I probably needed to win. So I needed a good deck.
Naturally, I thought of Warp World.
When you stop laughing, I'll still be here.
Take your time.
Now, you're probably thinking to yourself, “Hey, I saw a Warp World deck in Peter Jahn's column some time ago! This guy is pawning off Jahn's jank on me, trying to make a quick buck!” But that's not the case. You see, my deck ran more recursion than his did. Let me run you through the deckbuilding process.
First, of course, I needed Warp Worlds. I decided to run three, although in retrospect four would have been a better idea, given how quickly I needed to go off (the FFA Tournament metagame is almost entirely combo, at least in the finals). I also needed Galvanic Arcs, the most efficient victory condition.
(There are other options, of course, but most of them are inferior. Goretusk Firebeasts deal slightly more damage – but they are also useless if you draw them before going off, don't allow you to take care of pesky creatures, and are easier for most decks to kill. Triskelon is slightly better, but the amount of time taken to remove three counters is significant, and this deck often runs low on clock time anyways. Pardic Arsonist sucks, because I never ever get threshold. Sparkmage Apprentice takes waaaaay too many Warp Worlds to kill somebody, and again it leads to timing out. Arc also goes nicely with Bramble Elemental.)
And, of course, I needed a way to recur the Warp Worlds. Enter Eternal Witness.
To ensure that I could go off quickly enough to thwart the combo decks, I needed acceleration, and a lot of it. I went with two Birds of Paradise, four Wild Growths (land destruction is virtually nonexistent in this metagame, except for decks that destroy all the lands at once with some crazy combo), four Fellwar Stones (it's great in an FFA – 90% of the time, you'll have Green or White on command), two Overgrowths (accelerating two mana for 2G? Sign me up!), and three Wood Elves ("comes into play” effects are very nice with Warp World, obviously).
I also ran a single Heartbeat of Spring, an idea I stole from Jahn. Since most decks don't have a way to win the turn a Heartbeat comes out, you can generally safely play out the Heartbeat, and then combo out the next turn. Doing so lets you win two turns faster or so, which is huge in the FFA metagame. It also helps with when you Warp World and turn up not quite enough lands – one Heartbeat, and you're set on mana for the rest of the turn.
To provide me with large numbers of permanents that I owned, I ran Hunted Troll, Fists of Ironwood, Bramble Elemental (which is great when you have both Fists and Arc in the deck and you aren't paying its mana cost), Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, and a Forbidden Orchard (the guy I borrow cards from only had the one).
Then I threw in some lands.
Here's the decklist I used:
Now, on to the actual tourney report!
For those who are unfamiliar with the Weekly FFA Tournament, it's a two-round, single-elimination tournament. You play a FFA with up to six guys, and the winner advances to round two, where plays six or so guys. The winner of that gets a fabruous prize from the sponsor, MTGO Traders, typically worth between five and ten tix.
Round One
My table contains Linkor, playing a green-black monstrosity that does something with acceleration, Consume Spirit, and Shriveling Rot (no, I don't know what); JGoldstein, playing lifegain with Ageless Entity, Auriok Champion, and a billion Wrath of God effects; and micaelrossignol, playing UB Reanimator.
I start off strong, with turn 1 Birds and turn 2 Overgrowth. Linkor brings out a Sun Droplet (which is great in multiplayer, in case you don't know), and JGoldstein tries to rival me in acceleration… And fails, when I play a Wood Elves and a Hunted Troll. (I give the Fairy tokens to Linkor, because he doesn't look like he's about to beat me down).
On his fourth turn, JGoldstein brings out a Sun Droplet of his own. I give my Troll trample with Fists of Ironwood (making him about a million times better in the process) and sit there looking menacing (I'm holding a Heartbeat of Spring, but I don't have a Warp World yet, so I can't go off).
Finally, on my fifth turn, I draw a Warp World. I cast the Heartbeat, then play the Warp. Luckily, I flip over an Eternal Witness, as well as plenty of land (I have something like twenty permanents that I own at this point, and get another ten from miscellaneous Hunted Trolls and the like). I play Warp again, and again, and again. Each time, I use the Galvanic Arcs to hit JGoldstein. Why? Because he has an Auriok Champion (he flips one up something like five times in six Warps, with about two permanents in play), which gives him a large sum of life each time I put some tokens into play.
He draws lots of cards with a conveniently-flipped Well of Lost Dreams, and reveals that he has a Rout. Now I just have to hope that I can kill him before he gets enough mana to cast it (a Rout would destroy me, as my entire deck was in play). It's an intense sequence, but I finally manage to kill him just as he gets to seven mana (flipping a land, tapping it, waiting for me to Warp again, tapping his new land, et cetera). Fortunately for me, he decides not to demolish me purely for spite, and I quickly polish off Linkor and michaelrossignol. Onward to round two!
Round Two
Now that I'm at the finals table, featuring decks that are actually capable of winning (Shriveling Rot? Whuh?), the competition will be stepped up a notch.
- My opponents are Crenne (who claims to be female, but I know better), playing Red-Black Goblins (no Patriarch's Bidding, though, as far as I can tell)
- arthurmauk, playing Affinity
- Arterial Death, playing a janky but awesome-when-it-works Splinter-Radiate-Mycosynth Lattice deck
- And Maldonado, playing something blue-red with counters, Isochron Scepter, and Final Fortune.
I open with a Birds, arthurmauk plays two Frogmites, an Ornithopter, and some irrelevant cards, and nobody else does anything interesting. I play a second-turn Heartbeat of Spring, having picked up some slightly negative vibes from arthurmauk and figuring that I'll have to combo out as fast as possible.
arthurmauk: i hate warp world {s}
arthurmauk: don't worry, i'm going after musteval first
Then arthur plays turn 2 Arcbound Ravager and Myr Enforcer. I try to look small. Then I Warp World on turn 3. I only owned six permanents at the time, so it sort of sucked. I end up flipping an Eternal Witness (getting back the Warp), a Bramble Elemental that was given a Galvanic Arc, two lands, and a Fellwar Stone. arthurmauk, on the other hand, gets himself an Arcbound Worker, an Arcbound Ravager, and two Cranial Platings.
Musteval: :/ not my greatest warp ever
Fortunately for me, my first-striking 4/4 manages to drive the Ravager over to Arterial Death. This will, hopefully, give me enough time to get off the Warp again, this time more permanents in play. I play a Fellwar Stone, Arterial plays a Howling Mine (we were in cahoots at this point, as neither of us wanted arthurmauk demolishing the rest of the table), and arthurmauk Shrapnel Blasts away my Elemental. All good things must end, I guess.
Then he plays an Ornithopter and attacks me with an 8/2 Arcbound Ravager. I curl into the fetal position and block with a Saproling. A Hunted Troll with available green mana makes me feel better.
(I give the tokens to Arterial, on the condition that he not attack me. Isn't conniving fun?)
Then Arterial plays a Heartbeat of Spring. Cahoots again! A 7/2 Ornithopter beats down my door, leaving me at nine, but it is too little, too late. On my sixth turn, I Warp World again, and this time, my luck is better. I flip over approximately one billion lands, while Arterial Death gets two Heartbeats. I'm set on mana for the rest of the game, in other words.
I don't get a Witness, but the one in my hand seals the deal. I play it, get back Warp, tap all my lands, and play the Warp. Crenne has a Galvanic Arc that reduces me to six, and I suddenly realize the dangers that Shrapnel Blast poses… But it's too late for that now. I Warp again and again, and eventually my Arcs defeat arthurmauk. In his last gasp, he Shrapnel Blasts me to one life. I then defeat everyone else in turn, leaving Arterial Death for last (cahoots do pay off, to the tune of the second-place prize).
And I win.
With Warp World.
Go me.
After the game, I find out that Arterial Death had some instant-speed direct damage, but the immense lag from the billions of Warp Worlds kept him from noticing the Shrapnel Blast until I had already won, several minutes later. F6 claims another life. (F6 passes priority for the rest of the turn; everyone else pressed it, because otherwise they would time out from the huge number of triggered effects that occurred each Warping.)
If you'd like to see the tournament rather than just reading about it, the mygames.dat is here. You can find instructions on how to view the games here.
I hope my humble little tournament report has given you some small insight into the nature of humanity. Or something.
--Musteval
(Musteval on MODO)
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