Hello again! About this time last year I actually started playing Magic again after a months-long hiatus, just in time to play in the most important Friday Night Magic of the year, otherwise known as the State/Province/Island/Kingdom/Duchy/Territory championships. I had a pretty good showing for my first tournament back in a while, and I wrote a report about it on this very website! You should go read it right now, then come back to this report. I promise I'll wait for you until you get back before I go on with my report.

Okay, now that you have surely read how I skipped out on a round (a match loss) last year to go hear my wife's audition, but still finished in the Top 8 only to drop from the tournament after I won my Quarterfinals match to attend a party with her, you know a little more about me and from where I'm coming.

After the Top 4 appearance at States last year, it was a less than stellar year on the Premiere Tournament scene. The only bright spot was an absolute smashing my team put on display at the team PTQ in Phoenix, where the only match we lost all day was a concession in the Top 4 by a teammate, because the rest of us had already won our matches. I felt as though I had good decks and a good working knowledge of them, but it just didn't seem to work out at any of the PTQ's, GP's or at PT: Seattle; I just turned in a lot of .500 performances, taking what seemed like outrageous amounts of bad beats in the process while watching people who make mistake after mistake vs. me succeed anyway. I was obviously doing something wrong, but my friends and I just couldn't find what that something actually was.

In preparing for the State Championships, I decided to wipe the slate clean and start with a new attitude towards Magic. I would play a deck that I enjoyed playing, and I would play it a lot before the scheduled tournament - unlike other tournaments where I knew how a deck worked but had little actual experience playing the deck... Oh, and it had to beat Affinity on a somewhat regular basis. With those points in mind, here is the deck that I played for States:

2 Kumano, Master Yamabushi
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Eternal Witness
4 Arc-Slogger
3 Viridian Shaman

2 Electrostatic Bolt
4 Oxidize
4 Magma Jet
2 Kodama's Reach
2 Rude Awakening
2 Fireball

12 Forest
9 Mountain
1 Okina, Temple To The Grandfathers
1 Shinka, The Bloodsoaked Keep

Sideboard:
3 Naturalize
3 Isochron Scepter
4 Plow Under
2 Zo-Zu The Punisher
2 Kodama's Reach
1 Rude Awakening

A quick note on Champions of Kamigawa: I am not looking forward to filling out decklists for the next two years if all the cards in the block are titled this long. I think it took me longer to write the CoK cards on my decklist than the rest of the cards combined! "Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers Who Started the Great War Between Spirits and the Samurai but Forgot to Shut Off the Oven Before They Left Their House So We Had to Build them a Temple and Here It Is" should not be a card name! Who can possibly remember these names? My group of friends refer to the cards more often as 'the legend pumper land' (or good nicknames, like "Reach Around" for Kodama's Reach) rather than the actual name of the card. Is anyone else experiencing this problem?

My testing involved a lot of games vs. B/G decks (knowing that it would be a popular deck, plus it looked like a viable deck), Affinity (that convinced me that I really did want four Oxidize maindeck), Ironworks (which all of us played to death in FNM tourneys), and random other decks in which such lessons as:

• When Big Red casts turn 3 Arc-Slogger, you probably lose
• When you cast more land searching spells than the other green deck, you probably win
• Fireballing your opponent's team for zero is a fun play when Horobi, Death's Wail is in play
• Having diversified threats is a good thing vs. an environment in which everyone wants to play Cranial Extraction

I really didn't test all that much vs. Tooth and Nail decks because I already knew how to play against them, but also because I didn't expect too many of them with the Cranial Extraction hype.

On to the tourney! My wife's audition for the Metropolitan Opera competition wasn't until the following weekend, so I was totally in the clear to stay and actually try to win it this time! This is what my group of playtesting partners/friends wound up playing:

Owen Davis: B/G non-Death Cloud
Phimus Pan: W/G control (similar to BGates' Nevada-winning list)
Adam Prosak: Affinity (the only smart one among us)
Ryan Rocco: U/G Rude Awakening

Round 1: Tim Hutton with Affinity
Tim is a nice guy, and looks really familiar to me; apparently he feels the same, and tells me how familiar I look to him as well. Now that we have it established that we have seen each other before (since you never see the same people at Magic events), we can play some Magical spells!

Game 1: We both take some mulligans, as I mull to five and he to six. Luckily for me, Tim doesn't have a great draw and I am able to develop my board with the help of some timely Oxidizes. Tim winds up drawing a lot of land, but none of them are Blue to play the 2 Thoughtcasts in his hand, and Tim concedes once I play Arc-Slogger while he has no creatures on the board.

I sideboard out my slow cards and bring in more hate including a card I love against Affinity: Isochron Scepter. Reusable hate is fun!

Game 2: I pull up what I call the Affinity Draw: 2 land (one of each color), Oxidize, Naturalize, Viridian Shaman, Eternal Witness, and Isochron Scepter. All I need is one land to really make it tick, and I draw it on my first draw. My turns go something like: land Oxidize, land Naturalize, land Viridian Shaman, land Eternal Witness for Oxidize, Isochron Scepter imprint Oxidize and activate, land Arc-Slogger. It was a fair game.

1-0 Matches, 2-0 Games

Round 2: Nathan Allen with Affinity
Nathan is a stereotypical Gamer, complete with black trench coat indoors at a Magic tournament where it is already starting to get warm (further complicated that we are in Phoenix, land of 2 seasons: Summer, and Almost Summer). Maybe people are just a lot cooler than I am, but it's almost always shorts and a T-Shirt for me at large Magic events. We get deck checked, and both come out clean even though Nathan had some spare cards in his deck box that weren't sleeved. Once he puts those away and we shuffle up, we get going!

Game 1: Once again, I get the Affinity Draw and proceed to destroy everything Nathan puts into play, starting with his threats and finishing with his lands. The score pad looks like Me: 20-17, Him: 20-19-17-13-7-0.

Sideboarding: -2 Kumano, Master Yamabushi, -2 Kodama's Reach (around), -2 Rude Awakening, +3 Isochron Scepter, +3 Naturalize.

Game 2: This game is much closer, as Nathan is able to work my life total downward with a Disciple of the Vault while I do not draw creatures but am able to kill his artifact threats. When I am finally able to kill his Disciple of the Vault, he Shrapnel Blasts me down to nine, then proceeds to draw another Disciple of the Vault the following turn. I Magma Jet to kill it, and Nathan Shrapnel Blasts me again down to three. I get to put an Arc-Slogger on top, and Nathan doesn't draw another Shrapnel Blast to kill me before I can kill him with the Arc-Slogger.

2-0, 4-0

Round 3: Ryan Scott with Urzatron Tooth and Nail
Ryan is also a very nice guy, and enjoyable to play against. Good times!

Game 1: Ryan runs into the typical Tooth and Nail deck problem; he has plenty of mana and could cast anything in his deck, but doesn't draw any of his business spells before I kill him.

Sideboarding: -4 Oxidize, -2 Electrostatic Bolt, +4 Plow Under, +2 Zo-Zu the Punisher.

I go with the mana denial plan, and hope I can play it before he can play his. Zo-Zu The Punisher also looked to be amazing vs. other Green decks, but especially Tooth and Nail. I also wanted to side out the Viridian Shamans, but I valued the 2/2 body and the ability to blow up Oblivion Stones and such more than pulling more land out of my deck and adding another Rude Awakening.

Game 2: Remember what I said about getting my mana denial first? Yeah, that didn't happen; Ryan plays 2 Plow Under, 2 Reap and Sow, 2 Mindslaver, at least 1 Eternal Witness for a Reap and Sow, and a Tooth and Nail for Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker: Creature Who Everyone Wants to Play in Combo Decks and Who People Wish Was in Onslaught Block to Play in Goblin Decks (see what I mean about these card names?) and Sundering Titan. Fortunately for me, he doesn't have many ways to kill me until he draws his Tooth and Nail, and by that point I have already put him at four due to a Eternal Witness I played on turn 3. He is unable to play aggressively with his Sundering Titans, since I can swing back and kill him pretty easily. I kill his Kiki-Jiki the following turn with a Magma Jet, but I just cannot come back from such a huge mana disadvantage and fold once I cannot draw lands and he Tooth and Nails again.

Game 3: This game may look lopsided on paper, but it was extremely close. I mulligan to five, and Ryan mulligans at least once to start. Neither of us do anything important until I play an Arc-Slogger and start going to work on his life total. On the turn before I kill him, Ryan plays and activates a Mindslaver. I know at this point that I have 2 activations remaining in my library for Arc-Slogger. Ryan passes the turn, so I untap and reveal my hand. I draw my card for the turn, and then Ryan asks me how many cards I have left in my library. I reply "Nineteen," and Ryan frowns, disappointed that he could not kill me or do anything more than just Time Walk me and kill my non-Arc-Slogger creature. He does exactly that, draws for his turn, and then concedes once he realizes he has no way to deal with my creature. We congratulate each other on a close match, and sign the slip.

Did you catch it? Gold star if you did!

Ryan should have won the match. He just has to activate my Arc-Slogger twice during my upkeep, and I will lose the game on my draw step. There was a judge watching the match, and he deemed that even though I did draw my card somewhat quickly for my Mindslavered turn, I was not intentionally rushing the turn so he would miss the correct play. I can honestly say that I did not attempt to influence his decision at all, and that I was just deflated by being Mindslavered the turn before I was going to win the match after fighting back from a mulligan to five cards. I drew my card without thinking too much about it, and Ryan did not stop my turn at that point to kill me. He admitted afterwards that he missed it, and I was very fortunate that he did.

3-0, 6-1

Round 4: Adam Prosak with Affinity
I love playing close friends in large tournaments, especially when there are over 100 other people I could be playing in the course of the day and not have to play friends in the Swiss rounds. I wasn't too upset about it, but it just kind of sucks, you know?

Games 1 and 2: I don't do a single point of damage to Adam the entire match, and his draws are very good and just smash me. I don't think there is much for me to say here you haven't seen before. Adam is a good player with good draws from his deck, and I have no chance to keep up. The one thing I did learn is that when you don't draw your three-mana creatures (Viridian Shaman and Eternal Witness) it makes it very hard to win, since you need the card advantage generated by those cards to have a chance versus their good draws. Adam and I decide to play a few more games afterwards (de-sideboarded) and he 3-0s me. I decide to move on the rest of the tournament and try to forget about that vicious beating.

3-1, 6-3

Adam also points out a better sideboard strategy for my deck after our match and I decide that I would try it later in the day if I played Affinity again. Good man, that Adam Prosak.

Round 5: Nick Hamon with Urzatron Tooth and Nail
Nick seems like a nice enough guy at first impressions, if just a bit more intense than your usual Magician. He was fun to play, and we chat a bit after our match about key plays. He is definitely someone else to say "hello" to at future tournaments.

Game 1: Nick runs into the same problem Ryan ran into earlier with his deck: lots of mana, nothing to do. Nick manages to Mindslaver me twice, but is unable to do anything that moves his game towards winning.

Sideboarding: -4 Oxidize, -2 Electrostatic Bolt, -2 Viridian Shaman, +4 Plow Under, +2 Zo-Zu The Punisher, +2 Reach.

I decide to put the extra reaches in, as I would like the extra lands so I can withstand the mana assault I knew was coming in game 2. Once again I pray that I can play a sideboard card before he starts in on my mana.

Game 2: So much for praying. Nick Reap and Sows four times this match, starting on his turn 4. He has control just about the entire match, as each time before I can cast a game-swinging spell he blows up my land or Mindslavers me. I don't remember too many details except that I felt like I wasn't ever really in this game.

Sideboarding: -2 Kodama's Reach, +2 Viridian Shaman.

I know he has Oblivion Stones, Solemn Simulacrums, Sundering Titans, and other things to blow up with them. I also want the 2/2 body since our previous games have taken all but 3-5 minutes left in the allotted round time. I was pretty sure I couldn't lose in that time, but I definitely wanted to win as a draw at this point wouldn't help at all.

Game 3: We have about three minutes as we begin, and I open up the best hand I've seen all day versus T&N even though it was only six cards: 3 land (2 are Red), Zo-Zu The Punisher, Plow Under, and Arc-Slogger. I play a 3rd turn Zo-Zu The Punisher, and the party begins! Nick is stuck on three land for a couple of turns while Zo-Zu The Punisher gets to swing twice, then Nick draws a land and plays Solemn Simulacrum. I draw my fifth land (set up from an earlier Magma Jet to the dome) in order to Plow Under Nick's Urzatron pieces (it's a combo with Zo-Zu The Punisher!). Nick replays his fourth land, and plays an Oblivion Stone. Time is called, and we have five additional turns after this one. I draw a Viridian Shaman on Turn 1 of extra turns, and think about the situation. Nick is at eight life, and I have an Arc-Slogger in hand as well as the Viridian Shaman. I have two more turns after this one to win the game, and at this point I know Nick is surely playing for the draw.

I cast my Viridian Shaman and destroy his Solemn Simulacrum, swinging in for two more and putting him at six. He plays his land and goes to four, then passes the turn. On extra turn #3 he activates his Stone before I can attack, and I play a land and Arc-Slogger, thereby giving him one turn to have an answer, as well as giving me numerous outs even if he does have a way to deal with the Arc-Slogger like Duplicant. He draws his card and concedes. Great match! Zo-Zu the Punisher was the definite MVP, doing fourteen damage to Nick on his own. I finally drew sideboard cards versus T&N, and it worked! It's funny how those things work out.

4-1, 8-4

Round 6: Eric Melen with Affinity
Eric recently was in the finals of a Block Constructed PTQ with Affinity, so I knew he had some idea how to play the deck. I also knew that unless he played better than he did in that Top 8, he would make some mistakes and give me a good chance of really capitalizing with my hate. I know this because Eric accidentally flips an Arcbound Ravager while he was pile shuffling his deck, and who am I to turn down free information?

Game 1: The Affinity Draw. I blow up everything Eric plays, and eventually kill him with an Arc-Slogger. I end the game at 20 life.

Sideboarding: -2 Reach, -2 Ride Awakening, -2 Solemn Simulacrum, +3 Scepter, +3 Naturalize.

Adam was right saying that the Sad Robot is awful in this matchup. Keeping Kumano, Master Yamabushi in gives me another large creature and his ability is nothing to sneeze at either, considering the whole "remove from game" thing. Behind me right around that time I hear a voice saying, "Wow, Anthony is good at States. Just don't tell him this is a PTQ, cause then he might not make Top 8!" Laughter ensues. Even though it hit a little close to home, it was a funny comment and made me relax some. As it turns out, it was Owen Davis talking to Adam Prosak, my two best friends at the tournament and playtesting partners. Thanks a lot, guys! Thanks for the vote of confidence!

Game 2: A much closer game! I manage to blow up some of Eric's early plays, but he gets out an Atog and a Moriok Rigger, both of which are very good against me. On one crucial turn, Eric only has two artifacts in play (land and Aether Vial) and attacks with both of his creatures into my fresh Viridian Shaman. I block his Atog, and Eric lets it die, as he does not want to lose all of his ability to play creatures/spells if I were to destroy his other artifact next turn. That particular attack put me at six life, since he has a 4/4 Rigger. I draw Fireball on my turn, and decided that the last card in my opponent's hand is not an Atog or Ravager, since I was sure he would have activated his Vial last turn so he could sacrifice it to keep his Atog alive. I Fireball the Rigger for 4, and it hits the graveyard! I made a correct call, even though it was a risky play. Eric then proceeds to not draw another threat, while my next few turns involve playing an imprinted Scepter and a Master Yamabushi.

5-1, 10-4

At this point I am hoping to draw in, as my only loss on the day was currently 5-0-1, having intentionally drawn in the last round to set him up for the Top 8. I'd have to wait for standings to be posted. As it turns out, I had the worst tiebreakers among all of the 15-pointers. Apparently my other opponents decided to keep on playing and losing, so I was forced to win and get in, just like last year.

Round 7: Josh McClure with B/G Death Cloud Control
Josh is a pretty cool guy, but I know him best as the only person besides Phimus Pan who must have all his cards in foil. Phimus and Josh hit me up every week for new foils I might have acquired. I know Josh is with the B/G deck from talking to him earlier, and I was confident I had a good chance.

Game 1: This game was all about mana advantage early. We both begin by developing our boards, but Josh gets out ahead with two Rampant Growths on his third turn, setting up a Death Cloud for three on the following turn that leaves both of us with no cards and creatures, but with a 4-2 land advantage for Josh. My next two draws are Kodama's Reach and a land, however, and I get right back into the game. Josh continues to draw poorly after his Cloud, although he does manage to Rend Flesh my first big threat after the reset. Josh manages a Molder Slug, but I get an Arc-Slogger to stick and am able to outdraw and outlast Josh. I had a Rude Awakening in my hand for the kill about two turns before I won this game, but I had seen Josh discard a Hideous Laughter earlier in the game to his Death Cloud and he had been holding the same card in hand for a few turns. I figured that as long as I had another play, why risk getting killed like that?

Sideboarding: -4 Oxidize, -3 Viridian Shaman, -2 Electrostatic Bolt, +4 Plow Under, +2 Reach, +2 Zo-Zu The Punisher, +1 Rude Awakening.

It's all about mana advantage in this match, and all the cards I side in are to further that concept.

Game 2: Another close game! The game involved a lot of my creatures getting their flesh rended, but with still being able to get some early beats in with the aid of a path-clearing Fireball on the opposing team. Josh finally plays a Molder Slug and gets to swing a couple times, but I get an Arc-Slogger to stick with the life totals at 10-8 in favor of me. I do not have more than two activations left in my deck, but the Arc-Slogger definitely changes the face of the game. Josh has to go on the defensive, and on the next turn Death Clouds for one, wiping both our boards and both our hands. Lucky for me, the last card in hand was a Magma Jet! After it went upstairs, I got to put an Eternal Witness on top of my deck. The freshly cast Eternal Witness regrew a Fireball, and Josh conceded after his next draw phase.

6-1, 12-4

Another Top 8 at States for me, and this time, I didn't have to leave early for anything! Last year I thought I had a really good chance to win it all, so I was excited to see what I could do this year.

Quarterfinals: Jordan "Mycosynth Lattice" Drummond with Affinity
Jordan's last name used to sound exactly like 'lattice' but on the match slip it said Drummond. I was going to ask him about it, but he was so full of 'the Fear' regarding my maindeck artifact hate that I didn't want to distract him from thinking about it all. Jordan is a nice young guy, and has definitely gotten better at Magic since I've known him. I think he was worrying a bit much about the match beforehand, and I had a feeling that would work to my advantage.

Game 1: I have to mulligan to 5 to start my Top 8, but luckily Jordan also mulligans to 6 on the play. My hand is less than stellar, but I have to keep it: 3 lands, Arc-Slogger and Kumano, Master Yamabushi. As it turns out, Jordan kept a 1-land hand (Blinkmoth Nexus) and never really drew anything he could play besides a 1/1, while I drew some removal and land and played a 5th turn Arc-Slogger that went the distance.

Game 2: Jordan is on the play, and I mulligan again but still manage to kill his first few artifacts. Unfortunately, he also has lots of colored creatures this game in the form of Disciple, Atog, and Rigger. I don't draw enough removal to kill his colored creatures, and eventually succumb to the combination of Rigger and Atog.

Game 3: I mulligan again, but this time into an outstanding hand that I have to keep and hope: Forest, Oxidize, Viridian Shaman, Magma Jet, Scepter, and Naturalize. I Oxidize his Aether Vial on his turn, and my first draw phase nets me a land. Jordan plays an Arcbound Worker and passes, missing his second land drop, so I Naturalize his land. I get another land on my next draw phase and the rout is on, with Viridian Shaman going to town on the Worker. Jordan doesn't play another land for about 4-5 turns, and when he does I draw another Viridian Shaman to smash it and take the match.

7-1, 14-4

Semifinals: Brian Keller with B/G Death Cloud Control
Brian is a cool kid, and always shows up to PTQ's and other premier events. I feel pretty good about this match going in, as I have a fair amount of mana acceleration to keep up and keep me out of "got wrecked by Death Cloud" range.

Game 1: Brian plays a bunch of lands, while I play lands and creatures and spells. What a concept! Brian does in fact play a few creatures that get in the way of my burn spells, but he doesn't so much else. The end score is 20-0.

Sideboarding: -4 Oxidize, -3 Viridian Shaman, -2 Electrostatic Bolt, +4 Plow Under, +2 Reach, +2 Zo-Zu The Punisher, +1 Rude Awakening.

This plan worked very well in the last Swiss round, so I figured I'd try it again!

Game 2: I play some early creatures who get about 1 attack each before they are killed by Brian's removal, while Brian plays removal spells and lands. On Brian's 7th turn he casts Rude Awakening and deals fourteen damage with one card remaining in his hand. I have an Arc-Slogger in play, and figure there is no way that I don't die the following turn to another Rude Awakening. As it turns out, the card Brian has in hand is a Rend Flesh to kill my Arc-Slogger. With Brian at eight and myself at six, we go into a topdeck race. I draw a Rude Awakening, but only have six lands in play. Brian continues to draw land, while I hope to draw another land to kill him (my mana base is such that even an echoing decay doesn't save him). I never wind up drawing the land, but I do draw a Kumano, Master Yamabushi and Fireball on back to back turns to finish him off.

8-1, 16-4

Finals: Adam Prosak with Affinity
Woo, two friends in the finals together! This is much better than playing each other in the Swiss rounds. Adam and I agree to split the booty and play for the plaque and the title of Ohio Arizona State Champion.

Game 1: When I said "play", what I really meant was "roll over and play dead to a great draw by Affinity while mulliganing to a must-keep hand of six where one-for-one removal isn't enough because you couldn't draw any three-drop creatures". Adam just overwhelms me with threats then combos me out at the end.

Game 2: When I said "play" what I really meant was "keep a decent hand of 5 cards and die on turn 4". I literally have no chance all game and Adam just goes to town on my life total. If Adam were a Magic card, he would be:

Adam Prosak, 2-time AZ Champion
WWW (really White)
Creature: Human Magician
2/5 (big...pants)
Protection from Anthony Avitollo

What an anti-climactic end to a great day. At least I lost to a good friend and good player in the finals, and not someone who I felt as though I should win 99% of the time. I guess we'll just have to settle it next year at Champs!

Here's to a better year than last year at important tournaments (raises frosty mug)! Thanks for reading, and feel free to email me with any questions or love/hate mail!

• After the tournament, I convinced Adam let me take home the State Champion plaque to see if it would impress my wife. Those who read my last report know how much my wife likes Magic.
• Also relating to last year, my wife and I still do not have cell phones... I just can't get over how much people annoy me with them. Tell me, if you are at dinner with five of your friends, Why Are All Of You On The Phone? Aren't your friends right there with you?
• Owen and Phimus both started Champs at 0-2, and recovered to respectability by actually winning some matches. Rocco dropped at 3-3 or some such record.
• Congrats to all the B/G players that played Grim Reminder in their sideboards. I have played that card in Extended in a Rock-heavy environment and been extremely pleased.
• Props to Ray Powers and the judging staff for a well-run tourney. Special thanks to Steve Walmsley for being cool with the Mindslaver play, and the foil Reanimate!
• My wife was not impressed; she said I could hang it in the closet. Can't win them all!

Anthony Avitollo
anthonizzle42AThotmail.com