GP: Boston Report

I went to Grand Prix: Boston because it was there. It was only a few hours from New York City, and I had a ride. So me, Mike Pistulnik, Alex Shvartsman and Marc Pashover took Mike's car. Back at my place, Mike shows me the first original deck I've seen since worlds, an Oath of Druids/Static Orb/Rootbreaker Wurm pile that looked interesting but couldn't beat any of the major decks. In general, Static Orb decks have stayed too inconsistent to be practical in Rath Cycle. We showed our decks: I had Rude Awakening, Mike didn't know what to play, Alex had Living Death, and Marc had an Oath of Ghouls R/B control deck that is very difficult to play properly. We set off for Boston. On the way, we speculated on a lot of decks, and I came up with a new deck I'm planning to test for friends in the Qualifiers. Don't worry, it's probably horrible anyway. We ran into horrible traffic, ate the horrible food at the hotel and returned to our room for playtesting.

Alex had been pushing me since Thursday to use Oath of Druids in the Awakening deck. At first, I thought he was crazy because I would deck myself, but after I thought about it I realized that just wasn't going to happen. We agreed that Spike Weaver would be a good creature to put in to increase the Oath's power. This allowed us to use 6 sideboard slots for Sligh and Hatred, rather than 8 for Chill and Propaganda, and this was better against both decks. It also gave us extra beef, and a solution to all weenie decks. Alex tested a White Weenie and a Sligh as testing dummies, and Mike decided to build my Awakening deck, card for card. My instincts told me 3 Skyshroud Forest was the right number. I played a few games, but knew how the deck worked (I built it), so I got some rest while I helped Mike get used to the deck. I dropped by the tournament hall to pick up the extra Oaths and secure some information. So me and Mike played this deck:

"Rude Awakening"

This took into account the metagame I thought I'd face: Sligh and Hatred (Oath/Weaver), Living Death (portcullis/licid), Humility (Tranquility/leak), Awakening (leak/licid) and Counterpheonix (leak). I didn't have a really good answer to Counterpheonix, but after losing to the Sped version in testing I decided to add the leaks to my sideboard to give me some hope. I'd prefer Scragnoth for them, but Leaks are needed for Humility and Awakening too. I only had 1 Portcullis because I didn't have room, it's hard to side out any cards, multiples are useless and the card isn't always useful. Plus, it was expected.

I signed up, claimed my two byes, and started scouting. Oh, I'm sorry, watching matches. With the new scouting rules that there are no scouting rules, it would be folly not to inspect the field. I just wanted a general idea, anyway. I saw a lot of Sligh. We went to breakfast, where Brook North and Eric Kesselmen were lamenting their decision to play Sligh but at least had cool shirts. They had expected a Hatred-filled tournament.

I went to get my easy first round pairing (since many good players have 3 byes).

Round 3: Dan OMS, Sligh Oh well, forget the easy part. Go tiebreakers! I expect to beat sligh, and saw him and Steve O playing sligh vs. sligh from one deck while they had byes. Good practice, but he must have been really, really bored. Game 1, I play Awakening, and use Whispers and Capsize to win easily. Game 2 I put out Oath of Druids, get a Tradewind Rider and 2 Spike Weavers (killing the first to make room to Oath), with Awakening, and killed him with a 6/9 Tradewind. His deck is Mike Long's from worlds with 4 Wasteland in the SB instead of 4 Mountain. 3-0, 2-0

Round 4: New Constructed Player, Rude Awakening Second round, and already I'm in a mirror matchup. And this guy has no byes! He seems to know what he's doing, but I get a better game 1 draw. Game 2 I have Dominating Licid, which is really hard to deal with in the mirror matchup. He left his Feeders in and sacked them when I tried to take them. He put in Scragnoth, but by the time he got one to 4/5 I had Tradewind/Wall of Blossoms up. He conceded the second game right before time was called. If he hadn't, we wouldn't have finished (but the game was mine in the long run). Once the Awakenings come out (I left 1 in but discarded it), the match takes a long time. Next to us is a true nightmare 4th round match, I think Randy Bueler against Darwin Kastle. Ouch. 4-0, 4-0

Round 5: Darwin Kastle, Living Death I like playing against Death at this point, but obviously don't want to play Darwin this early. Game 1 I play a quick Awakening, steal a Hermit Druid and Whisper, then began to Capsize all his land. He got his Hermit Druid going, and Reclaimed his 4th Living Death, but I countered it and he got down to 2 cards in his library with his Druid. Here, he called over a judge to concede, which is a really weird rule I understand but don't think I agree with. Games 2 and 3, I don't get enough mana (I keep an Island and 2 Whisper draw drawing first), but almost recover because I discard a Weaver, Licid and Tradewind and he almost can't Death even though he's milled half his library. I go away believing I have a big advantage against Darwin. 4-1, 5-2

Round 6: Keith Keeling, Humility/Orim's Prayer Hammer is next to us trying to talk his opponent into drawing. He says that drawing now and drawing later are the same, and that it's all about making second day, and a lot of other fast-talk. I was most impressed. I decided that I'd take my chances against Prayer; I'd practiced with Keith that morning and while he's a good player, after Dan O and Darwin I considered myself lucky. And I had 5 really good sideboard cards. Game 1 I get a 4th turn Weaver, his Prayer gets countered and while Humility bounces in and out of play and we fight counter wars he just dies. Game 2 is total mana screw for him. 5-1, 7-2

Round 7: George Wilkenson, Suicide Black We decide to draw in to second day after I make sure he has a rating. When I find out what he's playing, I'm glad I didn't flip the coin. 5-1-1, 7-2, 34th place after day 1.

Round 8: Unknown Player, White Trash This format has a lot of skill in playing, but there aren't that many different decks. Playing a Forest and Island is enough for my opponents to know my deck within two cards (hint: they call it Scandinavian Awaking in the Decks to Beat), although not my sideboard unless they watch one of my games. He plays a plains. That leaves two possibilities: White Weenie and Humility/Prayer. He playas no land turn 2; why didn't he mulligan? He plays City of Traitors! Finally an original deck! I thank him, and he proceeds to play Bottle Gnomes and Mindless Automoton (countered). He had a 3 City of Traitors draw. The deck is weak against me, though, because it depends on Treasure Hunter and Automoton and shadow to win, and can't use Awakening well; I just counter his major threats and capsize his Plains (he also had Maze of Shadows). Game 2 I have to burn Capsize on Soltari Visionary, and he uses Winds of Rath twice to kill a Spike Weaver, but I then establish control. 6-1-1, 9-2

Round 9: Unknown Player, Sligh When I find out what he's playing I start to think that I got my two byes again today; I was wrong. I lose a game to a quick draw, win one with Oath of Druids (he has to kill off his creatures). Game 3 I can't play the Oath because he has Goblin Bombardment, I'm kinda low and he has 4 Price of Progress in his deck now. I make my first mistake of the tournament (countering a Scalding Tongs because I assumed it was the Goblin Bombardment I'd just bounced), but manage to pull it out because I pulled Sonic Burst with Sonic Burst. It really shouldn't be that close. 7-1-1, 10-3

Round 10, Unknown Player, Rude Awakening His version has a lot of white depletion lands to sideboard in Light of Day, but they don't hurt him. Game 1 I summon creatures and just kill him. Game 2 the Dominating Licids drive him crazy. With the Licids and Leaks in the sideboard, and no Propogandas main deck (the biggest mistake these decks make, I think), you should win the majority of the mirror matches against players without Licids. Good guy, though. He whispers with 'da buyback'. 8-1-1, 12-3, 4th

Round 11, Hatred Game 1 I draw nothing and he wins. Game 2 he Parises and draws 7. Game 3 he rituals out Bottomless Pit and I get a 5th turn Tradewind lock. Wow. 9-1-1, 14-4, 3rd

Round 12, Steve OMS, Living Death He Parises 3 times in two games, drawing nothing the whole match while I capsize. I let him back in the second game by letting him get Capsize mana (they have a random Capsize in the SB for Portcullis), and have to Whisper for a Forbid to win, or would have if he'd tried to Living Death. 10-1-1, 16-4, 2nd

Round 13, Jon Finkel, Living Death (same as Steve OMS) There are three kinds of Magic players: Amateurs, Pros, and Jon Finkel. He refuses to draw, using the following reasoning: If we draw, I'm 2nd seed (he's automatically first because he's 12-0). If we play, and I win, it's a bad matchup for him and I'm still 2nd; if he wins, I'm not and it's a good matchup. Plus he has a better chance to avoid Steve OMS. He's right, of course. So we play two games in which I put up valiant efforts but Finkel draws and does everything exactly right; Game 1 I gamble on him not having 1 of 3 Living Deaths for the Tradewind Lock and lose, then he gets good stuff, game 2 he gets quick Oath of Ghouls/Survival down before I can counter. I put up a valiant effort, but Finkel just took me to school. 10-2-1, 16-6, 5th seed

Quarterfinals, Sligh (!) I'm really, really happy to be playing against Sligh this late in the tournament; the final 8 were 1 Sligh, 2 Awakening, 2 Counterpheonix and 3 Living Death. Game 1 I play Allure, Allure, Weaver, Tradewind, Feeder, Feeder and he can't get around it for enough. Game 2 I play 2nd turn Oath of Druids and he has to play burn with 1 damage spells (Goblin Bombardment). I'm done quickly. 11-2-1, 18-6

Semifinals, John Finkel again. Game 1 get 4th turn Awakening and Capsize all his lands to win quickly. Game 2 he starts to get control so I have to drop Portcullis, but he Lobotomizes Capsize. Now I have to win by using Legacy's Allure and killing him with a Hermit Druid and Coffin Queen. At any rate, he uses Oath of Ghouls x2 with Scroll Rack and Survival to find what he needs, Capsize Portcullis and cast Living Death. Game 3 I play Weaver beatdown and counter 2 Living Death, but he has the 3rd and wins. 11-3-1, 19-8, 4th Place

Overall, I think that Rath Cycle is a great format because it is so skill intensive when the good decks play. It has six decent archetypes, three of which will dominate the tournament scene: Counterpheonix, Awakening and Living Death. The problem is that the good decks have probably all been built by now, but that isn't a certain thing by any means. Since most of my team is qualified, I'm probably going to write an overview of the qualifier environment, but someone going to Lisbon has asked me (and everyone else) to wait until after that Grand Prix to talk about his deck, and I will honor that request. Props:

Jon Finkel, for being the best player in the history of Magic and going 13-0. But please realize that just because we don't measure up to your god-like standards (and how many people do?) doesn't mean we're bad players.

Grey Matter Conventions, for running the whole thing smoothly if not on time. We need to find a way to not have the whole tournament wait for two players with a 20 min deck-check time extension.

Whoever played Minion of Zvi. I'm serious; someone played a deck with Dream Halls, Mana Severance, Pursuit of Knowledge, Sift, Meditate, Pandemonium, Sliver Queen, Benthic Behemoth. I think he went 1-3, but that means he won a match! Thanks for a valiant effort.

Alex Shvartsman, for Super Secret Tech (Oath of Druids).

All my other opponents. Once again, I had no problems with anyone. I think part of that is my attitude, that I'm here to have fun and maybe get some money too. If you're nice to your opponents, your opponents will normally be nice to you.

Level 5 Rules Enforcement. It is a little strict in several ways. The judges seemed to come down a little too hard on worn sleeves, and I'm not sure the game loss for drawing the 7th card off a Paris is necessary; one possibility is a forced mulligan down to 5. And calling over a judge to concede is an unenforceable rule. I know that most of the time, only people who were at worlds followed it.

Slops:

Everyone who copied Mike Long's deck (you know who you are). Sligh is a deck of last resort; you should play it only if there's nothing else. In LA the deck was too good to pass up, but otherwise Sligh has never been worth it.

Good luck qualifying, everyone!

Zvi Mowshowitz Team Legion