2011)

Modern Magic?

What is Modern Magic?

I'm not completely sure myself. All I know is that it is basically everything from 8th Edition on up. So why not call it Extended 2?

This all started when my wife, who doesn't play Magic, was invited to a Modern tournament on 10/30/11 at a store in Catskill, NY called Kirwan’s Game Store.

This article is going to be written a bit different from others that I have written in that it will be written over the course of two or three weeks. Today is the first day:

Monday October 17, 2011
Today I started thinking about Modern Magic. I decided I wanted to play in the tournament. The winner gets an All Hallow’s Eve from Legends, not sure if it's a English or Italian, I just know I will probably not win. Doing some research on Modern Magic most of the decks appeared to be creature based aggro decks. I am not an aggro player. I'm a control freak! Also being a draft player moreso than a Constructed one, I didn't have a large card pool to choose from in building my deck. That meant I was going to have some fun with this tournament! Other than my Commander/EDH decks I really only have cards from drafting and my planeswalker collection.

Wait a minute…planeswalker collection? Yes! I need something to trade all my draft cards for and what could be better than planeswalkers?

Also while doing my research a Standard deck caught my attention: Solar Flare. So I decided to build a deck based on Solar Flare. Wait a minute, why play a Standard deck at a Modern tournament? Because I do not follow the pack, I run in the woods in a completely different direction, sometimes even backwards!

Looking over my cards I realized I didn't have most of the cards needed for Solar Flare, so I decided to combine what I did have with planeswalkers. Here is my first draft of the deck:

1cc
1 Elixir of Immortality - I love this card. I have over 100 in MTGO due to always drafting one!
3 Gitaxian Probe - will allow me to see if my opponent is holding back or planning on countering something

2cc
4 Think Twice - instant card draw is really good, not sure if there is something else that would be better than this

3cc
1 White Sun's Zenith - possible kill card
2 Timely Reinforcements - love this card too
4 Jace Beleren - still one of the best card drawing cards out there, and I can win with the ultimate ability
1 Blue Sun's Zenith - more instant card draw and another alternate win condition
3 Forbidden Alchemy - a way to dig deeper to get answers to threats, and things that go to the graveyard will be reclaimed with the Elixir

4cc
4 Day of Judgment - a must in a format that appears to be aggro based
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant - make the tokens for a win condition
4 Ajani Vengeant - removal
1 Chandra, the Firebrand - another win condition

5cc
1 Batterskull - primary win condition
1 Elspeth Tirel - as long as I have one creature in play I will be gaining life until I can use the ultimate
1 Gideon Jura - another win condition or removal
1 Venser, the Sojourner - fun interactions with the next card on this list or just to reset a planeswalker or hide it before using Elspeth Tirel’s ultimate

6cc
1 Contagion Engine - kill an army and build up some big planeswalkers

10cc
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth - I never want to lose to mill and the only creature in the deck

Land:
1 Ghost Quarter - with graveyard shuffling this is unlimited and is the only way the deck gets around man lands
1 Inkmoth Nexus - alternate win condition
2 Sulfur Falls - one of 5 sources of Red
3 Clifftop Retreat - the other source of Red
3 Plains
4 Celestial Colonnade - more win conditions
4 Glacial Fortress
7 Islands

Sideboard:
2 Sun Titan
2 Timely Reinforcements
2 Negate
2 Oblivion Ring
1 Condemn
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Dissipate
4 Mana Leak

The main idea of the deck is to get some planeswalkers in play and work up towards their ultimate abilities. The sideboard allows me to switch to a counter based control deck. The Sun Titans will be sided in against most control decks that side out their removal when they see that it is useless against my deck.

Now that Innistrad is online I can get the cards needed to test this deck out online. So I'm off to test now!

Tuesday October 18, 2011
Looking at my deck you see 13 planeswalkers and numerous other win conditions. The deck lacks a few things though. How do I deal with artifacts or enchantments? Other than the very slow Ratchet Bomb and Oblivion Rings I don't really have a way. So I decided I'm going to try to squeeze a Karn Liberated and a Silverchase Fox into the sideboard. The Fox will work great with Sun Titan. Yesterday I play tested a few MTGO games with a deck similar to this (I didn’t have all the planeswalkers to match it perfectly). While I can't say my play testing was perfect I did see that this deck stands a chance. Off to bed for tonight. More testing tomorrow.

Wednesday October 19, 2011
The tournament on October 30th is going to force me to break some key big tournament rules:
1: Sleep before a tournament - now that I have a new job I work nights and will be going to this tournament after having been awake since 6pm the day before.
2: Eat during the tournament - I am now eating healthy and trying to lose weight through Weight Watchers, currently having lost 15lbs down to 195! And it is very hard to eat healthy at a card tournament!

Monday October 23, 2011
With my new work schedule (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday 11pm-9am shifts), I'm having a hard time play testing. But I haven't had a hard time thinking of the deck. I'm thinking that my sideboard needs to be much more confusing for my opponent. To do that here is what I am considering removing:
2 Timely Reinforcements
1 Condemn
1 Ratchet Bomb

I am going to add in a third Sun Titan, 2 Spellskite and I am going to move Kozilek to the sideboard. In Kozilek's place I will add 1 Karn Liberated. That will put me at 14 planeswalkers and no creatures main deck.

What I'm expecting:
1: Creature based decks
2: Control based decks
3: Random scrub decks
4: Net decks
5: Burn decks

How I will beat each:
1: Creature based decks will not recover quick enough against Day of Judgment. I may add Wrath of God as well or go with two copies of each in case they have a way to stop one.
2: Control based decks will see that I am not playing creatures so they will side out their creature removal. That is when I will side in my whole sideboard. Still not sure what I will take out but that will probably depend on what my opponent is playing. If we go to a game three I have the option of going back to no creatures because they will think I play creatures and they just didn't see enough of my deck.
3: There is never a better way to prepare for a scrub deck than to play one yourself!
4: I will look into net decks this weekend at work to see if there is anything to be worried about.
5: Burn decks will not have enough ways to deal with my planeswalkers without wasting their burn on them so I should be able to hold off long enough cast Timely Reinforcements.

By now either I've lost all readers or they are getting impatient so my next entry will be my finalized deck list then the tournament report!

Sunday October 30, 2011

When I arrived at Kirwan's I was amazed at the size. The store has two rooms, each roughly 150 feet long by 40 feet wide. The store not only runs Magic tournaments but also Resident Evil, Yu-Gi-Oh, and others. The store has a snack vending machine, 2 drink vending machines, 4 TV's hooked up to video game systems, another TV that was playing Sunday football games. The store sells video games, movies, Magic cards, miniatures, and many others. When you first walk in you will notice a case that houses the power 9 along with a gold Legend of Zelda Nintendo game!

The tournament was scheduled to start at noon and we arrived about 5 minutes before due to a nice 12 inch October snowstorm the night before. Unfortunately our tournament didn't start on time due to many people who said they would be there not showing up. We finally started around 3pm. We had 10 people. The store was also doing a costume contest and had two employees dressed up (one as Sorin I believe, and the other as a dead ringer for Liliana from Innistrad). There were also 4 players dressed up, one as a Lego character, another as a character from Stargate, a werewolf, and Jigsaw from Saw! The kid in the Jigsaw costume registered as Jigsaw and even signed up for a DCI number as Jigsaw. No one knew if Jigsaw was a boy or girl and Jigsaw did not speak! Jigsaw played the part very well and eventually revealed her gender during the tournament, but it added some suspense and excitement to the tournament. Anyway, here’s my final deck list that I revised after some last minute purchases.

Final deck list:
Land (25):
1 Cascade Bluffs
1 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Lavaclaw Reaches
1 Buried Ruin
1 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Island
2 Sulfur Falls
2 Dragonskull Summit
3 Clifftop Retreat
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Celestial Colonnade

Spells (35):
1 Elixir of Immortality
2 Red Sun's Zenith
3 Gitaxian Probe
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 White Sun's Zenith
3 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Jace Beleren
1 Chandra, the Firebrand
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Gifts Ungiven
3 Day of Judgment
4 Ajani Vengeant
1 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Batterskull
1 Gideon Jura
1 Elspeth Tirel
3 Jace's Ingenuity
1 Contagion Engine
1 Karn Liberated
1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker

Sideboard (15):
1 Black Sun's Zenith
4 Mana Leak
3 Negate
2 Spellskite
1 Dissipate
3 Sun Titan
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

Round 1 vs EJ (Green/White Type 2 Tokens):
EJ didn't have a Modern tournament deck but he wanted to participate, so he played his Standard Token deck. EJ also works at the store.

Game 1: I see he is playing green white right away and I feel confident. That feeling goes away quickly after I clear the board with Day of Judgment and he plays a Hero of Bladehold followed up a turn later by 2 Midnight Hauntings. They did quick work of me. I don't side anything in.

Game 2: I play first and manage to get Ajani out. He Oblivion Rings it. I then get Gideon out. He Oblivion Rings it. I die.

I did not do a single point of damage to him and realized that I had way too many lands that enter the battlefield tapped. Every land I played both games came into play tapped, slowing me down quite a bit. I wish I had kept Think Twice for early card draw and Timely Reinforcements for the life gain and ability to block while waiting for Day of Judgment!

Round 2 (0-1) vs Tyler (Mono White Standard Puresteel Paladin):
Tyler was a nice kid just looking to have fun.

Game 1: He gets out a turn 1 Elite Vanguard, knock me to 18, turn 2 Puresteel Paladin, doesn't attack, followed by a turn 3 Silver Inlaid Dagger, attacks me down to 11. By turn 5 I am dead having cast nothing more than 1 Gitaxian Probe. I side in Black Sun's Zenith.

Game 2: I manage to get out Elspeth Tirel, Jace Beleren, Ajani Vengeant, and Gideon while keeping his creatures off the board with 2 Day of Judgment. At the end of the game he had 7 equipment in play along with 3 Day of Judgment in hand! He had managed to get me down to 5 before I stabilized.

Game 3: At the end of the game I had Nicol Bolas, Gideon, Jace, Ajani, and Elspeth, Knight-Errant in play while winning with Elspeth tokens and a finishing blow of Red Sun's Zenith. He again knocked me down to 4 before I stabilized.

Round 3 (1-1) vs Spencer (Black/Blue control):
Spencer was the little kid dressed up as a Lego character. He loved to talk!

Game 1: I get Ajani in play and keep his only island tapped stopping him from countering my spells. I manage to use the ultimate ability from Venser and Ajani while beating down with Batterskull. I also had Jace and Chandra in play. All he played was a Liliana's Specter and a Spellskite.

Game 2: I feel bad because Spencer said he was too scared to play against my deck so he gave up. He did stand a chance though due to playing discard and counter magic.

Round 4 (2-1) vs Josh (mono White life gain):
Win this round and I make top 3.

Game 1: Between Martyr of the Sands and Serra Ascendant he gains way too much life, going to 81 before beating me down. After I sideboard he states he held back because he thought I had counterspells.

Game 2: Somehow I manage to hold him off and manage to get Contagion Engine in play with Ajani, Jace, and Elspeth Tirel and am able to use all three ultimate abilities destroying his lands 2times, mill him for 20 and make my creatures indestructible! He was up to 37 before I made him draw out his deck with Blue Sun's Zenith.

Game 3: He out races my Day of Judgment and beats me down quickly. Afterwards I talk to him and find out he is not playing one of the best cards he could play in Proclamation of Rebirth!

Overall I finished 2-2 in rounds and 5-5 in games and had a lot of fun. I doubt I would play this deck again but if I did I would put Timely Reinforcements back in and would find more lands that did not come into play tapped. It was nice learning about the format of Modern and nice to play at a new store and meet new Magic players. I also was told by a few different people that a deck similar to mine is online called either Super Friends or Planeswalker Control! Until next time!

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