Zvi's Worlds Report *10th Place*

**I came into testing for Worlds expecting a nightmare. We would play three formats. Draft I felt I would be fine in. The other two, however, would be the Magic pro's worst nightmare: Established Constructed. Standard was a normal evil for day one, ensuring that almost everyone with net access would have a solid deck, but what was worse was day three and mbc. We'd been placed right in the middle of a PTQ season. Again, the format would become mostly known and everyone's deck would be solid. As I've said before, after the first few weeks I don't envy PTQ players.

So I did a lot of testing. In Standard, at first I was going to play Flores Black, which was winning me game after game. (There's an upcoming article about that.) My backup deck was Magpile, which I liked a lot, but had some unacceptable match holes. (There's an article about that too.) Then I realized that neither of the decks I wanted to play were going to work out. My next thought was to return to Accelerated Blue. I thought this was darn funny after US Nationals, and so did Guevin when he heard about it. I added Brainstorm to the deck to ensure second turn Monolith and shrink the deck, tuned the deck, and liked my version, but again it wasn't acceptable. The problem this time was that the cards were just too expensive. You got these hands with all these huge spells. I still liked it better than the previous two decks, but it wasn't the answer either.

Then I thought I had the answer after seeing Noah's deck from European Championships, and it was Stompy. While I didn't like a lot of his choices, the Treetop Bracers were brilliant. Suddenly I had that moment when a deck clicks in your mind and goes from decent to really good. I may talk more about the work after that, but it's not particularly relevant. What is important is that I was ready to play the deck until Gary Wise came up with a variation on Angry Hermit inspired by the US amatuer championships, a deck I never particularly liked in its original version but I had to respect for its results. His idea was to take out Poacher and Hermit for Blastoderm and Earthquake. At first I thought this would make the deck even worse. Poacher was that deck! But then Gary started going through matchups. Almost every time, he claimed it got better. I thought to myself 'no way,' but I looked at each one and found I couldn't really argue with him. As he put it, when the Blastoderms aren't that great the Earthquakes are amazing, and when the Earthquakes are mediocre the Blastoderms are amazing. I started trying the deck out and soon I was playing it. Gary then learned that Kai had a very similar deck which the European Alliance was going to play, so we joined forces for Standard only to tune and test. I'll end up doing a separate article on the deck at some point, so I'll skip ahead to the trip.

As usual, the logistics of the tour were made easier by a lucky break. This time, me and teammate Scott Johns were on the same flight to Brussels. We then went together to secure a room in an obscure but cheap hotel for the five people who would be staying together there: us, Seth Burn, Brian Davis and Alan Comer. They showed up later in the day. We went to player registration and met up with everyone, went to the barbecue until we realized how long the line was, and then headed back. Davis was convinced by Seth and some last minute testing to go with Trinity, and Comer and I went with Son of Hermit. The next morning, we met with the other group from the Best Western hotel and scrambled for the last few cards. I learned that Jumble would be playing Tinker, so I found room for one Rack and Ruin, but its utter uselessness outside that matchup made one my limit. Besides, we were pretty much toast there anyway.

Son of Hermit

Designed by: Gary Wise

Round 1: Matej Brezavscek, Ponza

This matchup comes down to getting your land. If they don't land lock you, only Lightning Dragon can save them. Once I went third turn Yavimaya Elder land wasn't going to be a problem game one. I put out a Blastoderm, he put out a Masticore and then put out a Lightning Dragon. I used Plow Under to set him back to three lands so he couldn't pay echo. He dropped a second one. Then I attacked with Blastoderm, used Earthquake for four to kill the Masticore, and used an Arc Lightning to finish the game. Game two, I again got out a quick Yavimaya Elder to secure the situation. Together, my maindeck mana disruption and Uktabis from the sideboard managed to take care of all his mana over the long term. After a while I had about seven basic lands while he sat on about two or three mana waiting for the end to come when I drew a damage source. A few Plow Unders later I got a Blastoderm to wrap things up.

Round 2: Roger Miller, Replenish

This matchup is all about mana disruption. The plan that involves them keeping four mana and not winning is so bad that it's not worth bothering with things like Reverent Silence. Thran Foundry counters both Tutors so it makes some sense but again it's not worth bothering. Anyway, I get my disruption in the wrong order game one and I fall a turn behind. I drop Blastoderm and start attacking, but it looks like he's going to win. But I get a break, because when the time comes for Replenish he doesn't have one yet, so he dies to my creatures. Game two I get to put in all the extra disruption, but he goes first and has the mana draw. I start hitting his mana including a Boil for two, but he just manages to get into position in time thanks to Hibernation. But again he loses because he doesn't have the Replenish. Plow Under helps this, and there were many turns he couldn't use Attunement because of card count, but that's not how you're supposed to win the matchup.

Round 3: Dave Humpherys, Blue

Dave complained before the round to Justin Gary that this pairing had happened because they'd complained about the pairings going up before the lunch break, when he was going to have an easy match. I say his deck was Blue rather than Accelerated Blue or Magpile because he never got a chance to show which deck he was using. He used Counterspell and Miscalculation, and a probably sideboarded-in Ticking Gnomes game two, and played lands. I used my disruption to keep his mana in check. Game one I forget how exactly I did it. Game two, I started trading threats for counters and then he put out Ticking Gnomes. The turn he paid echo, he tried to use his last two lands to use a Rishadan Port. I responded with Boil, taking out four Islands. I used a Splinter to take out the Ticking Gnomes, and after trading Ports for a while and using a Plow Under used a Tectonic Break for three to ensure he'd never have mana again. A Yavimaya Elder starts attacking and an Avalanche Riders and Uktabi Orangutan help finish him off. "One of these days," he remarked, "I'll beat you."

Round 4: Robin Pong, Magpile

I won game one with the usual plan of playing out my threats and playing around Daze and Miscalculation when you can until he was overloaded, but I then misread his deck. He had shown me Rewind and Scrying Glass game one, and I did not see any creatures. Near the end, he got to five mana and used three Treachery to steal my board, but I had a hand full of red spells and he was at three so I ran him out of counters. In Magpile, Rewind is clearly worse than both Thwart and Foil, as well as the usual suspects of Daze, Miscalculation and Counterspell, so you wouldn't play Rewind unless you wanted more than 20 counters and didn't want to use Annul. Scrying Glass also makes some sense in Accelerated Blue but very little in Magpile. And while Magpile can have some copies of Treachery, three is already pushing it and if you draw three there are probably four and that would be nuts. So I sideboarded as if he was playing Accelerated Blue, and when he played turn four Thieving Magpie game two I didn't have Arc Lightning or Masticore in my deck. Without enough immediate disruption, his drawing two cards a turn quickly won the game for him. It's odd, because he basically won the game because he (at least I think) seriously misbuilt his deck. Game three was kind of sick. I get a bunch of quick mana, and he gets off an Accumulated Knowledge while I'm setting up to start the swarm of threats: The plan is Blastoderm, Blastoderm, Plow Under, Plow Under, then go from there, probably with the Avalanche Riders in my hand since I'll have red by then. I play Blastoderm with two mana open. He uses Counterspell. I cast Blastoderm with two mana open, since I have two Elves and four Forests. He casts the second Accumulated Knowledge, then uses Counterspell off the top. He untaps and uses two Treachery to steal both Elves! Suddenly I'm looking at two Plow Under and two Avalanche Riders and nothing to cast them with. I say go and he uses Accumulated Knowledge for three. Next turn he uses the last one to draw four! The traitorous Elves have nothing to do except attack me. Ten turns later, I die to some rather savage Llanowar Elves, as Kibler put it later. Oh well, I'm still 3-1, and that's on target.

Round 5: Filippidis Gianis, Spirit Blue

Ah, another blue deck. Remind me, who was it that convinced me I only needed three Boils? Regardless, I'm happy to see Islands. Things are going fine, but in response to Plow Under he casts Opportunity. When he discards, out pops a Nether Spirit and I realize what his strategy is. (Spirit is rather good vs. Blastoderm.) I get another Plow Under, but he's back to six again and again he responds with Opportunity and again discards a Nether Spirit. I play the whole game one turn behind, and his extra cards lead him to victory. But this time I know what's happening on the other side of the table. The plan is simple: Do NOT let this man have six mana. And if possible (Foil can't be stopped) don't let him discard either. I think about taking out Blastoderm for Masticore but the man is still playing blue so I decide I don't have a choice. Game two is easy: I have a bunch of threats, but I have a Port and he had four mana including a Dust Bowl on my turn, so I try to win the game right here and say go. He goes to use Dust Bowl and I respond with Boil. That's game. Game three, I use my Rishadan Ports carefully to make sure he can't cast Opportunity. Meanwhile, he has Nether Spirit out from a Foil, so my triple Blastoderm draw isn't looking as good, but I still have to try. Number one gets through, and it seems like it was his choice to let it happen. Number two gets shot down, but number three resolves and the beatdown is on. With the help of some friendly neighborhood Elves, he goes down.

Round 6: Sang-Seok Lee, Black Control

Game one a turn one Duress fizzles, since my hand is two creatures and five lands. I have an Elder, and I have to leave it open to Eradicate but he doesn't have it. With the Elder giving me extra cards I decide to go for Masticore, since I don't really have another option and I can probably maintain it without too much trouble. When I'm down to one card with a Masticore and an Elder he tries Persecute Green, but I show him Earthquake. I untap, sacrifice the Elder, discard a land, and he knows he's going to die to the quake so he scoops. Game two, I misboard because I think I'm looking at Flores Black or a close variant and he'll have the discard to kill Masticore, plus he'll have Eradicate for it. So I take them out. But it turns out he's playing a Masticore-based normal Black Control deck with four Vendetta as his spot removal, and although he does have Yawgmoth's Will and Vampiric Tutor he doesn't have the good targets even after boarding besides Perish. I know this because I used Splinter to take out four Chimeric Idols game two. However, he drew one of his two Skittering Skirge, and seven turns later I died to it. Realizing what his deck really was, I boarded Masticore back in. Note that this exact build is clearly wrong: Vendetta may be the best removal spell in general, I can't say for certain (although I don't agree), but one of them should be a Snuff Out if nothing else, and the sideboard should have better Vampiric targets.

Game three got complex. We battled over lands for a while, and I drew all four Avalanche Riders but had to work around his Dust Bowl since he kept drawing lands. Masticore kept dying to Vendetta. Finally, it came down to him having Yawgmoth's Will and Vampiric Tutor in his hand with all four Vendetta in his graveyard with him at 7 life facing down a Masticore with a Skittering Skirge in play but an Avalanche Riders in my hand. He spends a while thinking. I know from watching him he has two of the three pieces of Vampiric-Ritual-Will, so I know he's really thinking and not stalling for time. Still, it's very frustrating with time running out and your opponent about to go to 1 with Arc Lightning in your deck. He does what he has to and kills the Masticore. The Riders trades for the Skirge, and I cast Llanowar Elves to go in for the kill but he draws Perish. There's about twenty seconds left when I try to resolve Splinter on Masticore in time to say go before time runs out, but I can't make it because of a 4-level Keg he thinks about using. Finally, we get into extra turns with me at 7 and him at 1. I think about Llanowar Elves and Birds of Paradise since he has a zero level Keg to use, and he calls a judge about slow play, not realizing that time has run out. The judge manages to explain this. I have one last chance to draw Arc Lightning, but I can't. I chump with the Bird to stay at 4 life at the end of the game, and the match is a draw. I'm 4-1-1 at the end of day 1.

I was happy with 4-1-1 until I saw my draft pod for day 2. The first player I noticed in it was Finkel, and then it got worse. Kai Budde was there too, as were Sigurd Eskeland, Warren Marsh, Terry Tsang and Daniel Clegg. My last opponent was the last player and I expected that he was NOT going to know what hit him. I literally was wishing I could go back and concede that match to go to 4-2 and get out of this table, but that's not allowed. The one good part about this table was that it had a lot of people who like drafting black and a lot of people who know how I draft, which includes not touching black with a ten foot pole. So we went back to the hotel, and I was just hoping I could escape this table alive.

Coming up next: Draft and Day 2

- Zvi Mowshowitz

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