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& Kyle Sanchez
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The star's prepartions for this event varied considerably. On one side, you have people like Kevin Cron that put in a large amount of time testing out their deck against a gauntlet. Then you've got the ones who got advice from the Type One crowd, like Ben Bleiweiss, who had to totally rebuild his Suicide Black build (he eventually had to cut the Black out entirely) after I told him that Withered Wretch was better than Black Knight. And then you've got the people like Adam Chambers, whose preparation consisted of Knut telling him "I have a deck for you. It involves combat math."
Ben Bleiweiss (mono-Blue)
How'd you pick your deck?
I expected there to be a lot of Fish-type decks here and a lot of Workshop-based decks, and this deck is really good against these decks. It's weak matchup is Oath, but Oath has seemed to fallen out of favor in the recent Power 9 tournaments.
What playtesting did you do?
I looked at Steve Menendian's article about finishing in the Top 8 of Gencon with his mono-Blue control deck. I then collaborated with Carl Winter and made modifications to the deck for the current metagame.
Did you ask Type One players for decklists or info?
I just read the article really. Carl only had me change three or four decks within the maindeck and sideboard.
How satisfied with you with your choice?
Very. If I'd known the environment better and knew how to play certain matchups better, I'm positive that I could've made Top 8. The times I lost were because I didn't know how to set Chalice of the Void or which spells I needed to counter.
What do you think about the playskill level that you've seen today?
There were certain players who were very dedicated who had a very good idea of how the matches played and how to play their decks, but the majority of the players made a lot of play mistakes and it something that can be corrected if they worked on their technical games more than any other aspect. For instance, I had three players during the day that cast multiple spells into my Chalice of the Void each game.
Adam Chambers (U/G Fish)
How'd you pick your deck?
Knut gave me it.
What playtesting did you do?
I've never played a match of Type One. This tournament was the first time ever. In the first round, my opponent played Goblin Welder, but I killed him before he got to use it, so after the match I needed to ask him what he was planning on returning with it.
Did you ask Type 1 players for decklists or info?
Knut sent me over to Ben Kowal. He gave me his sideboard. Carl Winter gave me the extra cards that I needed.
I think you might have some of my cards in there too.
I think I have your Force of Will and Tropical Island?
How satisfied with you with your choice?
It played great. It was just amazing. All I needed to do is just play Mongrels and Vials and Jittes. It was great every match. I got a few crucial games through Chalice of the Void where they didn't get to play any spells that game.
What do you think about the playskill level that you've seen today?
I mean, like, my opponents ("Be nice!" warned Ken Krouner), well, I don't know how to play the format, but I had opponents who burned unnecessarily, played Mana Crypt for no reason and lost a few flips. The kid I played one round towards the end was kind of unprofessional. He would say "keep" before I even got to think, which gave me a lot of information about what his hand looked like.
But then again, I have no idea how to play this format so I don't even know if some of the things my opponent did were wrong. The last round I played I got wrecked by Daze just because I have no idea how people play in this format. A lot of the matches there wasn't even any play, so I can't really tell. They played control decks and nothing happened. (Krouner: "You're such a great interview, Chambers...")
Kevin Cron (Welder-less Stax)
How'd you pick your deck?
It's the deck that I've succeeded with for the last three events. I upgraded a little bit.
What playtesting did you do?
Plenty! I ended up testing against all the archetypes that I saw here today.
Did you ask Type 1 players for decklists or info?
Well, members of my team, yes.
How satisfied with you with your choice?
Overall, I was satisfied. Specific card choices didn't turn out very well.
What do you think about the playskill level that you've seen today from the pros?
I would say 50/50. I saw some play very well and be rewarded for it and others making awful plays or awful deck choices.
Chad Ellis (Goblins)
How'd you pick your deck?
Basically, I looked at the Food Chain Goblins deck and thought to replace the Wastelands with City of Traitors. City of Traitors also lets you play a Matron on turn 2, so you don't have to totally rely on Goblin Lackey. The irony is that you should be good against Fish with Vials, Gempalms, and stuff, but I lost every match, mostly because I didn't draw them though.
What playtesting did you do?
Various things in my life made it hard to prepare. A lot of my friends that I thought I was going to borrow cards from didn't come through, so I had to make due with what I could.
Did you ask Type 1 players for decklists or info?
No, but I read all the articles on Star City and checked out the forums.
How satisfied with you with your choice?
Like I said, it was really the only deck that I could make, so I guess yes and no.
What do you think about the playskill level that you've seen today?
People seemed to play pretty well. People made some mistakes against me, but nobody was horrible and the decks were pretty tightly constructed. It definitely didn't feel like a weak field to me.
Rich Hoaen (Stax)
How'd you pick your deck?
I didn't like any of the lists that I saw online, so I asked Zvi for a list and took that. He gave me 55 cards and no sideboard, so I had to figure out the rest.
What playtesting did you do?
I played maybe six games against Josh Rider.
Did you ask Type 1 players for decklists or info?
I read a couple articles on Star City, but I didn't look very far into anything.
How satisfied with you with your choice?
It's been great. I've been drawing well. I don't know the format, but I get to play a lot of powerful cards so it seems fine.
What do you think about the playskill level that you've seen today?
Not very high. It's gotten better as I got deeper into the tournament, but early on, it was pretty bad.
Ben Kowal (U/G/W Fish)
So, what are you playing today and why?
I am playing a hybrid of Ashok Chitturi's U/W Fish and Jacob Orlove's Worse Than Fish. I like the Wild Mongrels because they're really good in the Fish mirrors, and I'm running Meddling Mages over Spiketail Hatchlings because, well, they're crap.
How much playtesting have you done?
Really, very little. I've played probably ten games with the deck. Rich, *he points at Rich Shay*, has really been my only testing partner. I've goldfished, but other than that, nothing.
How have you liked it?
It's been really solid. The only problem card has been Standstill. I don't think I've cast it at all in seven rounds. If I were to go back, I would probably replace them with bounce or some additional counters like Daze or Misdirection.
What have you thought of the Pros' playskill?
I watched Zvi lose to an error that is very obvious in Type 1 terms, but less so to others. It seemed like most of them were doing very well for the most part. I was expecting a few to do better than they were, but overall I think they've done well.
Anything else?
I think the event has been really well run. I love this venue: it's roomy, has lots of seating, plenty of food. Everything is very accessible. There is space in the aisles, the clock is easy to see, and the acoustics are very good. This is as close to a Richmond event as you can get.
Craig Krempels (Gifts Belcher)
How'd you pick your deck?
I just picked some of the highest-finishing lists at the Star City database that looked pretty competitive
What playtesting did you do?
No, no. The last time I played Type 1 was actually probably like 8 months, maybe a year ago.
Did you ask Type 1 players for decklists or info?
Nope, I picked up everything right on my own.
How satisfied with you with your choice?
Not very. It's too conflicted.
What do you think about the playskill level that you've seen today?
Generally mediocre. None of my opponents impressed me, but I was less than impressed with my own play today as well.
Josh Rider (Grow-A-Tog)
How'd you come to play GAT?
I hated every other deck, and I was going to play Ken Krouner's Wizards deck, running Peek, Duress, Meddling Mages and Cabal Therapies. He eventually brought up Quirion Dryad and I just took it from there.
So you built your own deck?
Yeah.
How much playtesting did you do?
*shakes head and raises eyebrows*
So I'm assuming none?
*nod*
How've you liked it?
It's' more fun than what everyone else is playing. Everything else seems really boring. Though whenever I'm topdecking, my cards seem worse, but I like growing my guys and attacking with them.
Did you ask any Vintage players what to play?
I asked Steve Wolfman, who plays Type 1 a lot, and he said that my list was better than KK's, but no one else.
What did you think of the playskill of the Vintage players?
Some are pretty good. I like Eli Kassis's deck a lot because it's so versatile and is a mish-mash of other stuff... but I think that's all I'll say on that. It's like playing a local Type Two event; the skill level is fairly average, though here there are much more solid players at the top tables.
Ken Krouner playing Wizards!
What are you playing today?
I played a Wizards deck kind of like Fish, but with different creatures and worse mana.
What kinds of creatures did you play?
The creatures were: Grim Lavamancer, Shadowmage Infiltrator, Meddling Mage, and Voidmage Prodigy.
Were you playing Aether Vial?
Yeah.
Did you do any playtesting?
Well, I played two games. Nothing other than that. I wanted to play a deck at least somewhat of my own design and I played something similar to this in Extended, so I was comfortable with it.
What did you think of the Vintage players' playskill?
It's hard to tell because I don't know the format. I didn't notice any real difference from PTQ players. I didn't see any mistakes that I could notice right away or take advantage of. My third round opponent was very good though. I think his name was John Blake who was playing Grow-A-Tog.
Did you have fun today?
Yeah. It was nice to be playing with some of the older cards again. It was a little frustrating because I didn't know what to expect from my opponents. I was a little on edge because I didn't know what to name with Meddling Mage and whatnot.
How did the pros do today?
The only play errors I saw from them came from them not knowing the format. When you have a player on the level of Adam Chambers, who is better than all of the other 172 players in the room, the other people just really don't have a chance. He only made one mistake and that was because he didn't know what to expect from his opponent.
Thanks a lot, Ken.
You're welcome.
Ken is one of the nicest guys on the Magic set and was definitely able to give a good overview of the field. Though he didn't put any long hours of playtesting into his deck, it was nice to see that he wanted to play something of his own design rather than just netdecking off the "Decks to Beat" list. It seems like most of the Pros today have done that; playing well established archetypes, but tweaking them to fit their own playstyles. Well, everyone except Chambers, but with him sitting at 6-0-1, it's really not my place to criticize him.
