Both of them had a lot in common: They both had written Week in Review for the Sideboard, and they were both members of Team Your Move Games. And the match kicked off with both of them admitting that they had no idea what each other were playing.
"Alex is like the estranged grandfather of the YMG family," Cunningham explained."He doesn't keep in touch as much, so I'm not sure what he's playing." Alex is also considered a long-time master of the Grand Prix format, though he hasn't been traveling to them nearly as frequently since his card store started doing so well.
Cunningham is a more recent Your Move Gamer and one of the funniest writers on the internet. He's had some off-and-on success on the Pro Tour circuit, but is admittedly trying to escape the realm known as"Pro Tour Hell."
After thinking a while, Alex said,"Oh! I do know what you are playing now... I remember reading that email. I don't remember the tech cards or anything, but I'm pretty sure I know the deck."
Game 1:
After winning the die roll, Alex kept his first seven, while Jeff went fishing for a better set of six. Cunningham kicked things off with Island, and Chrome Mox imprinting a Psychatog, while Alex laid an Oath of Druids. Alex suggested that Jeff Counterspell the card, but he chose to keep any counters he might have for later problem cards.
"Scepter?" was the question from the"ffej," while Alex chose his response carefully by saying"Fact or Fiction." The Scepter finally resolved, imprinting Fire / Ice. Alex cast a Scepter of his own, which also resolved, imprinting something slightly more troublesome - he would be generating an extra Counterspell a turn from the pesky artifact.
Jeff tapped Alex's Scepter at the end of his turn, starting a war of responses, as Alex Cunning Wished for Rack and Ruin, countered Jeff's Ice on his Scepter, while Jeff responded to the counter with a Fact or Fiction of his own, netting Vampiric Tutor and a land, while sending another Scepter and two land to his graveyard.
Did you get all that? Considering all the aggressive decks in the field, ending up with a control-on-control matchup was almost a welcome change.
Almost...
Jeff cast Vampiric Tutor during his upkeep while Alex was tapped out, ensuring he could resolve whatever spell he wanted to. He chose Cunning Wish as his tutor target, and then Wished for Shattering Pulse, ridding himself of Alex's Scepter. Rack and Ruin from Alex got rid of Jeff's Scepter in return (and a Chrome Mox), setting the game practically back to square one with only Alex's Oath and a bunch of land on the table.
Another Scepter from Jeff resolved, again imprinting Fire / Ice, while Alex cast an end-of-turn Cunning Wish for Shattering Pulse. Draw, go, draw go, drawgo, drawgodrawgo, got played for seemingly endless turns as both players refilled their hands for the inevitable counter wars to follow.
Finally, after each player had rebuilt their hands enough to discard three times, Alex cast Cunning Wish on Jeff's end step, netting him a Fact of Fiction, which he promptly cast. The Fact obtained Alex one pile of two Treetop Villages and another pile of Brainstorm, Fact or Fiction, and Counterspell. Alex chose the Blue pile, and built up a monster hand.
Alex's Shattering Pulse with Buyback kicked off the counter war in earnest, as the final stack contained two Counterspells from each player, as well as an Ice activation from Jeff - but the net result was that Alex destroyed Jeff's Scepter and bought back his Shattering Pulse.
Another Fact of Fiction with Jeff tapped out saw Alex"fleep ovar a mon-star" set of cards in Treetop Village, Fire/Ice, Cognivore, Brainstorm, and an Island. Alex picked up the Cognivore, Treetop, Island pile, laid the Village on the table, and passed the turn. Treetop Village entered the zone on Alex's next turn and was joined by a twin, as Shvartsman clearly planned to kill Jeff off with his trampling manlands. Jeff's Fact of Fiction netted a Counterspell and a Land.
On Jeff's turn, he put Alex to the test by saying"Upheaval, floating Blue, Blue, and Black," but Alex had yet another answer in"Forbid with Buyback," forcing Jeff to choose whether to counter the Forbid, or to try and win again later. Jeff chose the latter and cast Cunning Wish, which Shvartsman Mana Leaked away. Things were not looking good for the snarky Canadian.
Another Village attack dropped Jeff to seven, and sacrificing a Bloodstained Mire dropped him to six, meaning he would need to find an answer now or else Alex would finish him next turn. Jeff cast a Psychatog, resulting in another end-step counterwar where Alex tried to Ice the Psychatog, but was foiled by a Counterspell and two Dazes to his Forbid.
Oath was put on the stack and Alex reclaimed a Cognivore and a Krosan Reclamation with another Reclamation, and put the Cognivore directly into play. Psychatog attacked and was blocked by Cognivore. The Tog was pumped, Shvartsman cast a Moment's Peace - and with damage on the stack, Jeff cast Cunning Wish for Fling, and chucked his Tog directly at Alex's head.
The Russian simply said,"Yep, that'll work," and the players moved on to Game 2, proving as usual, that the Pros know better than the reporters.
Game 1 time: 44 minutes
Cunningham 1 - Shvartsman 0
Sideboarding:
Jeff
In: Haunting Echoes, Boomerang, Diabolic Edict
Out: 3 Engineered Plague
"Ah, there's nothing better than a good fling," punned Cunningham, to polite chuckles from the crowd.
"Did he slow-roll the Fling?" Alex was asked while the players shuffled for Game 2.
"Nah," the Russian responded,"you have to set up for that card the entire game or else you lose. He played that exactly right."
Game two kicked off with Chrome Moxes on both sides and an early Isochron Scepter from Jeff, which was promptly Naturalized by Alex. A second Scepter from Jeff imprinted another Fire/Ice, and was again Naturalized by Shvartsman, but this time Jeff had the Counterspell waiting for it.
Treetop Village thumped Jeff for three, and Alex cast Oath of Druids. Shvartsman had two Treetop Villages in play, while Jeff only had one copy of Fire/Ice a turn - meaning that he could only keep one set of the Green beaters at bay. The result was his life dwindling by three per turn, as he kept digging deeper into his deck in search of answers. Fact or Fiction from Jeff flipped over a Psychatog, two lands, a Vampiric Tutor, and another Scepter. Jeff chose the pile of Tutor and two lands, sending the Psychatog and the Scepter to the graveyard.
The Villages kept up their relentless assault, dropping Jeff to eight life. Another turn passed, and this time Jeff found a Boomerang to slow Alex down, sending a Village back to Shvartsman's hand.
At this point time was called for the matches at large - but three minutes remained for the Feature Match players.
Jeff told the judge standing near the table that the game was very complex and he still needed time to think about his plays, even though there were only three minutes left in the round. The judge told him that he would need to continue playing at a normal pace and everything would be fine.
Jeff cast Vampiric Tutor during his end step, drew the tutored card (probably an Upheaval), and then cast Isochron Specter. Alex attempted to counter the Scepter, but Jeff had a Counterspell of his own and imprinted another Fire/Ice. He passed the turn to Alex, who drew, and passed the turn himself. At the end of Alex's turn, Jeff Iced two of Alex's lands, while Alex tapped them in response to float the mana. He then cast Hunting Pack, creating four 4/4 creatures before sending it into Jeff's turn. If Cunningham couldn't answer the four beast tokens on this turn, the match would be over.
Fortunately, Jeff had the Upheaval in hand, and resolved the spell, sealing the match.
Cunningham 1 - Shvartsman 0
After the match, Alex quietly expressed his dismay at the speed that Jeff played the last five minutes of game two - but Jeff responded that they had both played relatively slowly for the entire game, and his play speed was simply in character with how both players had played through the rest of the match.
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