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What is it that happens when one just has a hunch about something? A feeling, an inkling...a vibe, perchance? No one knows for sure, but the riveting tale of my Pro Tour: Charleston experience will probably take everyone in the right direction.
I meant to test for PT: Charleston. I swear, I really did. Sure, there's my no-testing policy that has been firmly in place for over a year now, and I'm not one to consolidate my principles easily. However, seeing as how I was playing with a team, I didn't think it would be fair to my team-mates to avoid any work while they beavered away.
With this in mind, as soon as the third set came out on Magic Online, I asked Rasmus Sibast if he had any decks I could borrow. He said he didn't, but could easily get me one the next day, and asked what I wanted. I said I didn't care... any control deck just to mess around with and get a feel for the format. See, I'm not a picky guy; I don't ask for much. Even still, Rasmus failed to deliver. I asked him again the next day, and he said he'd have it the next day. The following day I get the same response. And so on. Finally, it was time to go to Charleston. Without testing.
At this point, some would panic. Many would stop eating, and maybe rip their own eyes out. Normally I might have done the same, but for some reason, I had a good vibe about this tournament. I just felt it, as I happily took my personal limo to the airport without a single Magic card or decklist on me.
As I waited at the airport, I considered “testing in my head,” as it's called. While I'm not one of those who advocates the ridiculous proposition that this is just as effective as live testing, I don't think anyone can deny that it is better than nothing at all. As I learned in AP Psychology this year... my bad, that's for another time.
When I finally arrived in B-E-Autiful Charleston, South Carolina, I of course met up with my team-mates, John Pelcak and Chris McDaniel. As we went to our hotel to drop off our stuff, we discussed how we had no clue what we were playing - other than a Boros deck that John had tested with Gerry Thompson. Since he would be our aggro player, and he swore it was the best aggro deck, Chris and I didn't argue. Our thoughts of Magical cards were shoved roughly aside, though, when we saw that our hotel came packed with sweet facilities such as a swimming pool, hot tub, and basketball court. As we walked back, discussing the Aethermage's Touch deck we were going to crush with, I predicted that that would be the breakout card of the tournament, followed closely by the jump shot.
We laughed at how ridiculously unprepared we were, but I assured my team-mates we would do fine. I had a good vibe, I told them. Besides, we had the team specialist on board; how could we go wrong?
Somewhere around this point, my phone rang. My phone rings a lot, so I'm used to this phenomenon by now, but not often does the caller ID say it's one MARK ZAJDNER calling me. Wow. This was exciting. I picked up eagerly, and to my disappointment, I heard a familiar high-pitched Danish accent. Now don't get me wrong, Big Oots is awesome... but he just doesn't roll with, well, copious amounts. Regardless, Rasmus asked me if we still needed lists. I told him that we had an awesome Boros deck and our Aethermage's Touch deck was also well on it's way, but I guess it couldn't hurt to hear what established professionals such as himself, Das Hopper, and Oliver Ox were going to run.
Apparently, when John had asked Rasmus what he was playing earlier, Rasmus had skilfully danced around the question. He was too big-time to tell washed-up folk like my team what they were playing, it seemed, but he had changed his mind. Still, it paved the way for a good team name. Anyway, when we got to the site, they gave us their U/G/R and G/W/B Control lists, as well as their Boros list (which had evolved a little from the one John had given them a few weeks before).
We made some changes to the lists they gave us, got the cards we needed, and went back to the hotel. At that point, I put in my first practice games for the event, four of them against Chris. Winning two of them, I felt confident enough that we could eat and go to sleep and be good to go the next day. After trying to walk through the drive-thru of Wendy's and getting the big deny, I had an even better vibe about the tournament. I mean, anyone who suffers that has to be lucky the next day, right?
As we made the gruelling five-minute walk from our hotel to the event site, we met Jeroen Remie and Ruud Warmenhoven on the way. When they asked us if we tested. We answered, and they said it was going to be too bad not to have us around next year. I told them that as much as I hated to admit it, if I really needed a good finish at Worlds to stay on, I'd probably test for it. I also told them that, to be honest, it didn't really matter, since we were about to do great at this one. I let them in on the secret of that little vibe I had, and for some reason they thought the concept laughable. Then we talked about soccer.
Good vibe in tow, I sat down for my first round on Friday with the following deck:
This deck was built to beat other control decks. We expected most teams to put a control deck in their B Seat since the best players tend to run them. The deck worked in terms of beating the control decks - I went 4-0-1 against them - but there were a fewer control decks in the B Seat than we expected. For example, I didn't play against a single GWB or GWBU deck, which almost every team had.
Quite simply, this deck was terrible against anything but pure control. Midrange decks were already bad matchups, and as the deck on the other side of the table leans more toward the aggressive side, the worse the matchup becomes. This was shown quite clearly with my less-than-stellar 3-7 record against decks that weren't control. Electrolyze is only good against Rakdos and Boros; the Green-based aggro decks just don't have any targets for it. While Savage Twister is solid, it's also very slow and largely ineffective as long as your opponent doesn't over-commit. Muddles, Invokes, Research / Development, and Train Of Thought are almost dead cards.
I'm really not sure what we could have done to solve this problem. I was not the only one who faced it, either. Kenji and Masashi had four and five wins respectively with very similar lists, so clearly something was wrong. (Rasmus is a master and 10-4ed, but his team-mates couldn't come through in the clutch with the good decks.)
Round 1 versus Manamaze.com (Rogier Maaten) with UG Aggro
Game 1 I mulliganed on the play but still started out fast with Signets and Research to refill my hand. I think Simic Sky Swallower made an appearance on turn 5 or 6, and with Savage Twister and counter backup there was no looking back.
Game 2 he started things off with a turn 3 Halcyon Glaze. I couldn't believe my eyes as I just sat there, staring dumbfounded, at the Drift Of Phantasms in my hand. At the last minute, we had decided to give my Carven Caryatids to Chris to make his WGB greedy deck just a bit greedier, and I replaced them with the second-rate Drifts. I guess this is one of the few times they are better. My glee was short-lived, however, as the Drift quickly got finished off by Gather Courage. A second one was nowhere to be found, and I took way too much damage before I finally got a Niv-Mizzet into play. With a few more life I would have easily taken control at this point, but instead I barely died.
Game 3 looked bad as I mulliganed to five, but his draw was not stellar. I quickly refilled with Research and Drift was great for holding back his offense of Simic Guildmage and Plaxcaster Frogling. When he committed a third guy to the table, I Twistered them away. At that point, it was only a matter of time. Rogier battled hard, because that's what he does. Sky Swallower didn't care though, and killed him anyway. John and Chris had also made short work Julien and Wessel, so we started nicely with the clean sweep in the fake feature match. Just for reference, Argentina was up 2-0 at this point.
1-0
Round 2 versus Krumb Kicks Puppies (Mike Krumb) with WGB Glare
Game 1 I mulliganed on the play and he started off with a Selesnya Guildmage. That wasn't a problem, as I Electrolyzed it, but Loxodon Hierarch was. My deck just can't kill a creature with more than two toughness. I did my best, conjuring up a plan that would almost certainly allow me to take control if he didn't draw a land to kill me with Selesnya Guildmage. Since he hadn't played a land the turn before, this seemed like a good idea. He drew the land.
Game 2 started off similarly, but this time around there were Drifts in my deck that could actually block his guys. Unfortunately, I didn't draw them and was getting bashed by the same crew as in game 1. I drew some cards and got Sky Swallower into play as well as some Drifts to block but he had Glare to tap them and kill me. I don't remember the details of this one, but I do know that just like the first game I was one untap away from taking full control.
Chris had smashed Gerry and it would all come down to Pelcak's game 3 against Billy P. He was looking good after a strong start, and at one point got the chance to peel a land to win with Demonfire when Billy was tapped out. Just to make it clear, peeling a land means that, or Seal Of Fire, or Lightning Helix, or Char, but yeah. He more than likely would have won anyway, as his hand was stacked, but it was still nice to see John in top from for top-decking. It was the first time for him on the weekend, but fortunately not the last. Here I got to experience the best feeling in Magic, losing your match but winning the round. It just doesn't get any better than that. Oh, and just for reference, Argentina was up 4-0 at this point.
2-0
I rushed off to the players lounge to see 5-0 and 6-0 before hurrying back to play round 3.
Round 3 versus D-25 (Ryuichi Arita) with URW Arbiter and stuff
Game 1 I was on the draw but he quickly showed URW, which was exactly what I wanted to see. On the downside, his deck wasn't Firemane and had nuisances such as Court Hussar and Grand Arbiter, both of which I had to read. Even with the Arbiter in play, I had such a big mana advantage that I could win counter wars anyway. When I won one over Savage Twister, to kill that and the other dudes that were beating me down, then refilled with Train Of Thought and finally summoned Simic Sky Swallower, the first game was mine. Yes, I know that wasn't particularly enlightening, but to be honest all my rounds against UWR decks are really a blur in my head right now and are all mixing together. Maybe it has something to do with the twelve beers and three White Russians from earlier tonight... who knows?
Game 2 I came out of the gates quickly with a Rumbling Slum, which elicited many exclamations in foreign-talk from our opponents. I thought we might just have them right there, but quickly they matched and more with a Niv-Mizzet. Right around this time both of my team-mates were done, and we were 1-1 in the match count, meaning it was all on me to hold up my lead over Ryuichi on the now three-versus-three game. We decided that I could probably race the Niv-Mizzet with a second Rumbling Slum, but a barrage of Court Hussars somewhat put a halt to that plan. With both of us at one after trading many blows, I was finally able to kill his Niv-Mizzet with one of my own. I thought this would mean a draw on my upkeep, and with ten minutes left that probably would allow me to win the match 1-0-2. Then he gunned me down with three burn spells, only two of which I could counter. I hadn't expected him to keep in the useless Electrolyzes and Helixes in his deck, but it's not as if I could have played any differently if I knew.
Game 3 I just had to bash him real quick since we had under ten minutes left. So I did. Turn 3 Slum with a slew of counter-backup was enough for the squad to remain perfect on the day.
3-0
Round 4 versus 1700.3 (Wilfried Ranque) with UBR Control
Game 1 I was on the draw but got off to a solid start with some Signets and Research. After a small counter war over something not too relevant I transmuted for Train Of Thought and used it to refill my hand. Sooner rather than later I ran a Sky Swallower out there, after making sure that my opponent didn't have Hit/Run (Chris' opponent had those). Then I won. In other words, this was an example of the textbook way games should play out with this deck against other control decks.
Game 2 was a whole different story. On turn 3, he played the enchantment that lets him draw whenever I draw. I'm not sure what it's called, but something tells me it is Psychic Possession. From now on, when I say Psychic Possession assume I am referring to the enchantment for 2UU that makes you skip your draw and allows you to draw whenever they do. Anyway, after reading the card, I decided it would be a rather large problem, so I remanded it. The next turn he just threw it out there again and I had nothing; it stuck. For a while neither of us did much but eventually he played a second Psychic Possession and I tried to Voidslime. He had a counter of his own, and it was downhill from there. I battled hard, trying to get in beats with Rumbling Slum and Niv-Mizzet whenever I could, but they were getting more bounced than not with Rise/Fall, and Izzet Chronarch was making sure I was locked out of the game. I played a bit more after I knew it was over to get more information about his deck, but I still conceded at a very high life total to have time for a third game. Oh, and somewhere in there he used Twisted Justice to kill my Simic Sky Swallower and draw a million. This really sounds like it would matter, but in actuality was completely irrelevant as his pair of Psychic Possessions gave him more than enough cards and made enough of mine useless to crush me anyway. In the meantime, John won and Chris lost so it was down to my third game.
Game 3 was fast and I don't have any notes on it. I do know I came out of the gates quickly with Slum, counter-backup, and possibly another creature and it wasn't close.
4-0
Round 5 versus Double SHU desu (Shuu Komuro) with UGW Midrange
Game 1 I mulled to five on the play, but his only pressure was in the form of Court Hussar and Civic Wayfinder. With Compulsive Research and Train Of Thought I got back into it card-wise, but those creatures were putting me at precariously low life. On one turn I tapped out to Twister away his newly played Hierarch (he used it to regenerate his other guys) and was pretty sure I could stabilize if I got to untap, given my hand. Unfortunately, he had Demand for a Selesnya Guildmage to pump his guys and kill me.
Game 2 I mulliganed again and he started off with the same type of offense pecking away at my life total. On one turn I played Rumbling Slum and he responded with Simic Sky Swallower. I valiantly tried to race but I couldn't even make it close. John and Chris both lost also, just to get them all out of the way at once, ya know.
4-1
Round 6 versus Jomesy is PERFECT! (Maximilian Bracht) with URW Firemane
Game 1 I was on the play and the game played out pretty much the way I explained earlier is the textbook way my deck plays out against other control decks. Start with Signets and stuff, counter-war, refill with Train Of Thought, finish with Sky Swallower...
Game 2 I mulliganed and he played an early Muse Vessel, to which I responded with Rumbling Slum. Anything of relevance he had was met with some sort of counter from me, and the Slum went all the way.
At some point, the most evil man ever to sling spells, Hans Vomit Hoh, grabbed my graveyard and started thumbing through it. I took great pleasure in rudely informing him that he wasn't allowed to do that. I am kind of upset that I failed to tell him that “perhaps next time ve call ze judge.” Bonus points if you understand why.
I think John and Chris both won also.
5-1
Round 7 versus Two-Headed Giant (Steve Sadin) with URW Firemane
Game 1 I was on the draw, but this game also began just the way I want it to against opposing control decks. However, there was a catch: it took me a bit too long to draw Simic Sky Swallower and put it into play. Since he was gaining life each turn with Angel - which became Angels - in his graveyard, once I did get the Sky Swallower in play it was still going to take a ton of attack phases to actually kill Steve. Meanwhile, he was throwing random burn spells at my head all game in the form of Electrolyzes and Lightning Helixes. This wasn't suspicious; there's nothing else he can do with those anyway. However, two turns before I finished him with Sky Swallower, with ample counter backup and everything I could possibly want in my hand, he played some Train Of Thoughts for one, played a land, played some Signets, and Demonfired me with Hellbent for exactly my life total. Yep, didn't see that one coming. Most of the builds I had seen of that hadn't fit Demonfire.
Games 2 and 3 I crushed him with Slums. Man, am I glad I played Slums. I almost played Vinelasher Kudzu instead. They seemed kind of on par with each other when I was thinking about it, but Rasmus emphatically told me that Kudzu was awful and Slum was sick. So I played Slum, and got to write for a million games that “well, I just played Slum with counter backup and won.” It's nice how things like that work out sometimes... Anyway, John won and Chris lost so we took it home. Mike and Steve both said in their own reports that they think Steve would have beaten me if he didn't side out his burn spells. I mean, sure, he randomly stole game one off of me that way. Regardless, though, I'm pretty sure leaving those in is terrible. In my opinion, that'd be something like bringing a machete to a gunfight. Unless it's your dead mother's lucky machete... yeah, never mind. Anyway, I don't think they can blame themselves for that one, at the very least not because of the sideboarding plan.
6-1
Wow, X-1 after Day 1 was pretty ridiculous. I had almost forgotten what it felt like to do well in a tournament, but the last two times I was X-1 after Day 1 of Pro Tours, I was still playing Magic that Sunday. And remember, I don't side draft because I don't like playing Magic.
In addition, as you can see, we played nothing but real teams all day. Not only did this let us complain that “Man! We got the most unlucky pairings ever and we're still 6-1!” but also it gave us some sick tiebreakers and an extra helping of confidence. Personally, I don't think that last one is ever an issue, but I do think it helped the squad overall. Oh, and those tiebreakers would turn out to mean more than we'd ever expect them to.
Then some unimportant stuff happened. Fast forward to Day 2.
Round 8 versus Why Would You Do Zis? (Anton Jonsson) with UGW Midrange
Game 1 I mulliganed and crushed. It came back to that age-old problem where I can't beat a Hierarch.
Game 2 he mulled to five and I was looking good attacking with Slum. Then came a point where he was at nine and had one card in hand and nothing in play except lands. I held Voidslime, Compulsive Research, and two lands. He played Court Hussar, and I countered it. I could have chosen not to do so and save it for a potential Sky Swallower, but it seemed better not to prolong the game and keep the pressure at a maximum. If he hit another Hussar or Hierarch, he could find himself quickly back in the game. Even if he did peel a Sky Swallower the next turn, I had my draw step and three more draws from Research to find an answer, right? To cut a long story short, I countered the Hussar, drew four lands on my turn. He peeled Sky Swallower, I drew more land, he drew more good cards and I lost. Bleh, that was actually kind of long anyway. But I could have made it longer, so there. John lost too, so that was that.
6-2
Round 9 versus Servus (Sebastian Aljiaj) with URW Firemane
Game 1 took about forty-five minutes by itself. Basically, things started out like they do against an average Firemane deck, but the whole dimension of the game changed when he started Dream Leashing my double lands. This mana swing is really a big deal, but more importantly I was fearful of just running Sky Swallower out there when I had the chance in fear of Copy Enchantment. Had I just played the Sky Swallower, I would have beat him in ten minutes. Instead, I waited till the last possible turn, where I had to play Sky Swallower and hope he didn't have Copy Enchantment. He didn't, and the game took a turn in my favor. However, as I was beating the crap out of him with Sky Swallower and stopping all his attempts at doing anything with the superior hand I had built up in the early game when we were just jockeying for position, I drew nothing but lands. Eventually he stabilized when he got to twenty mana and could bring back two Angels a turn.
At this point, we had already won.
I won game 2 in five minutes with Slum despite a mulligan on the play.
I don't have any notes on game 3, but we drew. I'm pretty sure I was in good shape to win it, though.
7-2
Round 10 versus GG Jirou (Takahiro Suzuki) with Rakdos
Game 1 he mulliganed to five and I had a pretty solid draw on the play, which lead up to a turn 5 Simic Sky Swallower. That said, I almost lost to his burn, which caused me a good deal of worry. If he was one turn away from killing me when mulling to five, my chances in games 2 and 3 couldn't be good...
Game 2 I was the one who mulled to five and naturally I got steamrolled. To make things even better, Chris had already lost his match somehow so the pressure was on for game 3.
He mulliganed. I drew a lot of Remands. I had a fast Simic Sky Swallower. That, ladies and gentlemen, is pretty much the only way this fine deck can beat a deck of the aggressive variety. Luckily, I did at just the right time. Now John still had to win game 3, and it came down to a big judgement call. He had Skyknight Legionnaire in play along with two Mountains and a Boros Garrison. We were contemplating what to do with the Giant Solifuge in his hand, against a UGB Control deck that had left its four mana open on their turn. We pretty much agreed on the fact that the guy was holding Voidslime, so casting the Solifuge before combat was not an option. When we attacked with Legionnaire, he Putrefied it, tapping down to just one land. Now, we had to decide whether to run the Solifuge out there post combat or do nothing in fear of Rolling Spoil. John was leaning towards holding it, sure his opponent had the Spoil. Chris and I both felt that it was better to just play the Solifuge. First of all, there is a good chance the guy would have spoiled Boros Garrison on his last turn anyway. Additionally, just sitting there was almost a sure way to lose the game since, obviously, the longer a control deck gets against aggro the better shape they are in. So, we played the Solifuge post combat, it beat down for a ton, and we won.
8-2
Round 11 versus Schere Stein Papier (Harald Stein) with UGR Aggro
Game 1 I mulliganed to five on the play and got bashed by a plethora of animals I can't ever kill ever, like Burning Tree Shaman and some Blue/Green 2/3 flyer [Trygon Predator? — Craig.]
Game 2 I didn't mulligan, but the outcome was the same. John won and Chris drew a very frustrating game 3 in which his opponent's peel count was in double digits and he still couldn't have possibly lost if the game was played out.
8-2-1
Round 12 versus Raaala Pumba (Big Cheats McBeats... err... Willy Edel) with Zoo
Game 1 he opens up with an innocuous looking Temple Garden, putting it into play tapped. I do nothing and on his turn he puts another Temple Garden into play. He put it right into play tapped, but then also tapped his other one and summoned a Watchwolf. Now, I knew the game was already over (I can't beat three toughness, remember) but clearly I wasn't conceding yet. I also knew that he was going to take two damage, but I didn't point that out quite yet either; I assumed and hoped that he would account for it himself. He passed, so I reminded him, and he took two. On the next turn, Savage Da Mize'n'Cheetz tried to pull something similar, putting a third land into play untapped and casting Burning Tree Shaman. Again, he failed to take damage and again I reminded him. Nothing else of incident occurred, and I died in short order.
Game 2 he started out with some random land and followed it with Boros Garrison. On his next turn, he tapped both lands to play some two-drop and was going to have to burn. But he didn't burn, or at least didn't own up to it until I reminded Big Daddy Stackadeck to do so. He then played a second Boros Garrison. On his next turn, he played another two drop that he was going to have to burn for. Again, this guy tries not to burn. I mean, is he serious? Is this guy for real? What is he trying to pull here??? The next turn is where things just get out of control. This is when Mr. McBeats taps his pair of Boros Garrisons and proceeds to move a Rumbling F***ing Slum from his hand onto the playing area. I don't hesitate at this point. “Judge!” I'm absolutely pissed. I describe what happened, and the previous incidents of this idiot trying not to take damage, and he gets nothing more than a warning. Then I lost. Both of my team-mates lost too. In about ten minutes.
8-3-1
At this point, absolutely steaming, I go to the player's lounge and try to relax. Luckily, some thirty-seven people ask me if we won so I get to relive the misery time and time again. Many people ask me what I expected when random players were at the top of the standings. Sometimes you just have to agree with people when they are right. Our top four hopes had been pulverized, but we just had to buckle down and win some ante matches to salvage the weekend.
Round 13 versus Shows up with dip. Dips (Jeff Cunningham) with UGW Midrange
Game 1 on the draw I didn't feel confident in the least, as I had already been walloped by similar decks. And then I heard Morgan whining. This time, though, I got a quick Sky Swallower and was able to race his guys. I love the games like this when you just don't have to think for a second... Just to keep everyone informed, Morgan was still whining.
Game 2 started out in similar fashion, but when I dropped the Simic Sky Swallower he responded with Dovescape. By the way, Morgan had not, in fact, stopped whining yet. First that StarWarsKid kept his hand. Then that he played a second land. Then he was the luckiest player on earth for having that Signet to accelerate his mana with, and so on. Staring at the Savage Twister and Invoke The Firemind in hand, I thought I was still in decent shape. Then Morgan lost, so the moaning and complaining was meaningfully reduced as he actually tried to help out his team-mates. Anyway, I got Jeff down to one, but the last cards in his hand being two Chords Of Calling and Selesnya Guildmage were enough to finish me.
Game 3 was nothing like the first two. He started out with an assortment of monsters that I had been scooping to all tournament, including but not limited to Loxodon Hierarch. At this point, I noticed a magical little fact. I don't actually just lose to it. It's tough, but once in a blue moon I draw Drift Of Phantasms to negate it. Such was the case here, seemingly for the first time all tournament I had drawn my sideboard card. In fact, I drew two of them, which allowed me to sit back forever. However, victory still eluded me as the top of my deck just provided land after land after land. After countering a Dovescape and two Chords Of Calling, I finally got a Simic Sky Swallower to put him on a clock. Other than that, though, I was still drawing nothing but lands. It was nerve-wracking since he could draw anything really, but luckily he was very flooded as well. On the last possible turn before I killed him, he had (I think) seven outs in the three remaining Guildmages and a set of Supply/Demands. Maybe he had a few more, I'm not sure, but he definitely had a lot. As it happened, he missed and I won. Chris won also so it didn't matter that John's opponent had Skullmane Cauldron and Dark Heart Of The Woods against his Boros deck for the quick win.
9-3-1
Round 14 versus Nate's A Jerk (Nathan Waxer) with UGW Midrange
I got crushed. Game 1 he had all those aforementioned unbeatable creatures and counters for my Twister.
Game 2 I mulliganed and actually drew Drift again, making it a streak, but he had Glare and counters for anything relevant I tried.
John won easily, and it was down to Chris for what we thought was a sixth, maybe fifth place finish for a few dimes. After winning game 1 in about thirty-five minutes, it was looking good for Chris. At some point around here, though, I noticed BDM and Buehler kept walking around our match and the table behind us. I asked them if this meant that somehow we had a shot. Being in eighth, we didn't even try to figure some long-shot scenario, just assumed we were playing for money and Pro Points. They then explained that if two matches went the right way one team with thirty-one points would make fourth. We knew we had ridiculous tiebreaks, so that could easily be us.
Now we just had to win this match. When we Nightmare Voided him early, things were looking up, but little did we know that the guy would draw literally perfect for the rest of the game. I would go into more detail, but you can probably read about that in Chris' account of things. To sum it up, we drew Debtors' Knell at the last possible turn and the way the two decks were, the guy could have literally stacked the rest of draws (and it looked like he did!) and we would have won anyway; his deck just couldn't beat a Knell. By the way, just to keep it clear, I am not implying that this guy is an enormous cheater like a certain other opponent I played in this tournament, just that he was really lucky. These three guys were actually pretty friendly, and actually I'm sure they'd agree.
10-3-1
And the two other matches went the way they needed to go! Now, we just had to hope our breaks held up, and they were almost five percent higher than the next team with thirty-one points. In my previous Top 8s, it had been a lock; the announcement was just a formality. This time, though, it was everything, and I knew the two-second gap between “In 4th place, with thirty one points” and the team name would be the longest two seconds of my life.
I was right, but when they finally announced that it was indeed us in the final day, it was just sheer excitement as I high-fived my team-mates, then did a lap around the whole entire room high-fiving those I knew and those I didn't alike.
Sure, I don't want to do well bad enough that I'll test, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't feel good. It took over a year, but I was back.
Some random stuff happened between this point and actually playing out the Top 4, but it was only interesting if you were there. So I'll spare you. The only thing of note is that before playing I explained to the judges that my opponent was working the Casey McCarrell circa 1999 so they better watch him like a hawk. The staff agreed to do so.
Top 4 vs. Raaala Pumba (Filthay Von Cheatenhoffer...oh, I mean Willy Edel) w/ Zoo
Game 1 I won the roll and he mulliganed. As he drew his six, I had no shame and openly chanted “Five, five, five, FIVE!” Unfortunately, he didn't go down to five. On the bright side, though, I had the stones in this matchup. I had multiple Remands, which allowed me to stall until I had enough mana to put down a Simic Sky Swallower very early. Since he had nothing on the board at that point I easily was able to race. At this point I was ecstatic. The main reason my matchup was impossible is because game 1 was 99.9999% to him. Games 2 and 3, on the other hand, should be something a lot more reasonable like sixty-forty him, or maybe fifty-fifty. This meant that winning game 1 would lead to me winning my match, and since we expected Chris to outplay his opponent in the control mirror that would be the match for us even though John had an impossible matchup as well.
Game 2 was a reality check as he started out with a bunch of creatures I couldn't kill, and as per normal I didn't draw Drift. On one crucial turn, after playing a Signet, I had three mana open. I could save it to potentially Voidslime something, or use it to Compulsive Research. Regardless of what I did, I was Twsitering the following turn. After consulting with my team-mates, I went for Research. I thought, and they agreed, that if he had burn he probably wouldn't run it main phase anyway, so the counter would be no good for that. Also, if he had another guy, it would die to my Twister anyway. What I didn't account for was Sunforger. Sure, I knew he had it in his deck, but firstly I thought he might board them out and secondly he only had two copies so I couldn't really assume he had it. Sure enough, he played it, equipped it, and attacked me down to four. Pretty much - he did everything possible except take his one damage like a man from his Burning-Tree Shaman from using the activated ability of equipping Sunforger. At the time, I didn't notice. I was a little too busy trying to come back from an impossible hole to catch him stealing a point of life that wasn't going matter in the least, but the principle applies all the same. Anyway, the judges that had promised, vowed, and sworn to watch Cheater McCheaterson for anything shady at all didn't notice either; it wasn't until I watched the video coverage of the match that I noticed myself. I digress, though... On my next turn, I cast the aforementioned Savage Twister, tapping out in the process, as much as I hated to do so. Then I got Charred and lost.
Game 3 started off with a mulligan on my side, but otherwise well: I had early Signets, a Remand, and a build up to a quick Simic Sky Swallower. Thing were looking good, even though he had several creatures in play I knew the Twister in my hand would take care of those. Unfortunately, the turn after I played Sky Swallower, he played another creature, then played a dual land untapped. For the first time in his entire Pro Tour career, he took the two damage to do so. It was nice that Big Willay was cleaning up his game a tad, but it wasn't so nice that he was obviously gripping Bathe In Light and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. I figured I had to wait until I had enough lands to Twister for five and Voidslime his Bathe In Light, so I played that way and we traded turns doing nothing for a few. During these turns, I drew nothing but lands, but I wasn't quite out of it yet. This is where things get sticky, though...
One turn before I could Twister with Voidslime backup, my esteemed opponent draws and gets excited. After consulting with his team-mate that presumably cheats a little less and plays a little better, he decided to cast Sunforger. He had already played a land, leaving five open. This meant that he still had enough to equip the Sunforger and cast the Bathe In Light that I absolutely knew he had. Oh, it's important to note that the Bathe to get his guys past my Sky Swallower was lethal. Thinking about the situation and consulting with John, (Chris was busy picking up our only match win) we argued the pros and cons of each possible way of using my Voidslime. I could counter the Sunforger, I could counter the activation of equipping it, I could counter nothing to hold for the Bathe In Light that would end our tourney... During our deliberations, we finally decided that we had to counter the Sunforger. If we just countered the activation, he'd play Bathe and kill us. If we saved the Voidslime for the Bathe, then we'd have to block any creature he equips with Sky Swallower, and obviously that was going nowhere. Sure, I'd get to clear his board with Twister and Voidslime on the next turn, but I had no more spells left in hand and he had five cards, many of them likely to be action. Therefore, the play was to just counter the Sunforger and hope that he had been bluffing the Bathe really well the whole time. It wasn't very likely to win the game, as he almost surely wasn't going to be good enough to pull off a bluff like that, but it was the only plan we had. We countered the Sunforger, after thinking forever he played the Bathe In Light, and I packed it up. Our run was over. In frustration, I checked the top of my deck to see if I was going to draw spells, ever. The top two were Niv-Mizzet and Steam Vents, in that order. This comes into play later.
10-4-1, 4th
Despite a quick exit in the single elimination rounds, we weren't too upset. To begin with, we didn't even expect to top four with ten wins and a draw, so the extra grand and four Pro Points compared to fifth was a meaningful little something to be happy about. Additionally, with our horrendous matchups, we knew we were a long shot to make the finals. For some reason, the commentators picked us, but I don't understand why. They realized that John couldn't win, so that was right on, but they also said that my deck was designed to beat aggro, despite the fact that the exact opposite is true. Even more baffling, they cited all the worst cards in my deck as reasons I should win... Muddle that counters maybe three spells, Electrolyze that kills two of his creatures, basically everything I board out. They also said that Chris would win. This was right, but for the wrong reasons. If I'm not mistaken, they said we had that matchup on deck, while we had decided that they were slight favorites in that department but Chris would certainly outplay them for that match. Of course anything could happen, but being our best matchup we had to count on it and hope to pull out one of me and John's to win the round. All in all, that was just a roundabout way of saying that we weren't too disappointed with our performance. A good vibe can take you so far, but only so far.
I was also happy to see that Raaala Pumba was taken down in the finals and failed to add their names to the list of those who have won a Pro Tour. As a member of that club myself, I'd much rather have my buddies Kaji and Saito join me than those guys.
I wasn't too disappointed, that is, until I peeped the video coverage of our match when I got home. It didn't take a forensic scientist to figure out that when Cheetor P. Mizenheimer cast that wretched Sunforger, he had seven mana, and not eight. It's pretty obvious what that means; many people informed me that they noticed it as soon as they saw me after I played. Quite clearly, if he had only had four mana left after casting Sunforger, (which he did) I can let it resolve. Then, if he equips, I Voidslime it and on my turn I Twister his board away and start bashing with Simic Sky Swallower. If he doesn't equip, in order to save mana for Bathe, then I just Twister anyway and Voidslime his Bathe and then start mauling with Simic Sky Swallower anyway. But we were absolutely sure he had eight! As retarded as it sounds, his lands were somehow piled in some way that a regular land looked like a double land and totally fooled us. I mean, we honestly discussed the fact that if he had one less we'd be fine before we were out of the tournament yet.
So did we blow it? Yes and no. Sure, we made an enormous mistake. Sure, by we I mean I since I was physically playing the cards and casting the spells and shouldn't have to rely on my team-mates to tell me things like how much mana my opponent has. For a few minutes, I felt terrible. I thought I had thrown away a Pro Tour, since we had great matchups in the finals and we were certain that if we got through Raaala Pumba, Cak was adding an oversized novelty check to his collection. I didn't know what to do... of course I had thrown matches before - everyone has - but certainly not of that magnitude.
Luckily, before I sliced, jumped, or drank poison, I decided to look at that good old coverage video one more time. Would I have really won if I made the right play? It turns out that no. Maybe that's the only reason I'm still alive and telling the world about it right now. It turns out that right after he draws the damned Sunforger that did me in, the coverage crew gets a great shot of his hand. If you pause it at just the right moment, you can see that his six cards are the Sunforger, Loxodon Hierarch, Char, Faith's Fetters, the Bathe I read him for, and a Temple Garden. Additionally, as I mentioned earlier, my hand had Voidslime, Twister, and lands and the top two cards of my deck were Niv-Mizzet and Steam Vents, in that order. I was at eleven and he was at sixteen.
I don't think I need to explain why this means I was drawing dead, but that's why I get the big bucks so I will anyway. Let's say he equips on his turn. I Voidslime that. I untap draw Niv-Mizzet. I Twister his team, swing with SSS, putting him to ten. I don't have enough mana left over to play Niv-Mizzet so I pass. He plays his Hierarch and equips it with Sunforger. On my turn, I draw Steam Vents. I can attack him down to eight and play Niv-Mizzet. Then he would Fetter it, swing, and Char me for exactly my life total. If I held back SSS in fear of Fetters, he'd just play Bathe attack and Char me.
Let's say he takes a different route and doesn't equip the Sunforger. Then on my turn I draw Niv-Mizzet, Twister, and Voidslime his Bathe. This is a bit better for me because this way he doesn't have Bathe In Light. Then I attack him down to ten with SSS. On his turn he still plays Hierarch and equips. On mine I still play Niv-Mizzet and either attack with SSS or not. If I do, I still die to Fetters Char. If I don't, he Fetters going to a ridiculous eighteen life and then has a bunch of options. He can attack with the equipped Hierarch. If I decided not to trade SSS for it, I die to Char. If I do, I'm still in bad shape because any creature is a death threat. If he has drawn nothing these turns, he can just pass and use the Sunforger to find instants until I am dead. To sum it up, I would have lived longer if I had made the right play. I would have felt better about myself, too. But I wouldn't have been any closer to winning the match, and that helped me more than any book titled “Ten Reasons It's Not Worth It.”
Of course, I don't want to do anything like that again, but after an entire weekend of playing what I felt was excellent Magic I can't beat myself up too much about a big yet meaningless mistake, even if it happened at the most critical point in the tourney. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to redeem myself in front of the cameras on a Sunday sometime soon.
Until then,
I'm Gadiel M. Szleifer.
Second fastest player to one hundred Pro points. (In terms of number of Pro Tours) (maybe?)
Youngest player ever to one hundred Pro Points. (I think)
First player eligible for the Hall Of Fame in the class of 2013 (I'm almost positive)
On the train for one more year, whether anybody likes it or not (for Godd*mn sure!)
