2001)

Now you may ask yourself, “Why would I possibly want to read an article from a guy who went 2-3 and dropped in a Grand Prix Trial at Origins?” Did I mention that it was a “bug-testing” day for IBC? How about the fact that our group went into the event to scout the decks and check the metagame? This checking of the field helped one of our teammates get into the top 8 in two Pro Tour Qualifiers. Do I still have your attention? Good, then read on. I think you will find this very informative about the IBC field and its most popular decks.

Dave, Travis, Kiet and I went into the Thursday night tourney with four decks. Dave had Gomar (White, Blue, Black control), Travis and Kiet had Arena (Red, Black, White control), and I had beatdown (Green/Red). In play testing, all of the above decks did very well. Dave and I felt that we had the tier one decks. Kiet and Travis thought their decks were very strong, but needed some field action.

Travis, our best beatdown player, decided not to play the green/red deck because of a horrible night of IBC play testing. Seriously, it didn’t win a single set of three games. Our group called it a fluke.

“Even High Tide decks sometimes crash,” said Dave. “It just hit a bad streak.”

“Travis!” Yelled Troy. “The green/ red deck is GOOD! You see, if your opponent stumbles, they lose! If they accidentally snagged heir pant-leg on a nail, they lose! If they slow down to catch their breath, they lose! You got to play it. If they stumble, they lose!”

Dave then exclaimed (amidst a thunder of laughter), “so if red/green will only win if the opponent is stumbling, should you concede when their decks do well?” Dave then proceeded to simulate a tournament encounter:

R/G player:(at the start of the game) “Do you have a good hand?”

Opponent: (looks at hand) “Yes, I do.”

R/G player: Well, I scoop!

On the way down to Origins, we laughed about this the entire way. Our group decided to play different decks to learn about the IBC metagame and get some insight for the Friday and Saturday IBC qualifiers. My red green choice was out of humor and because the deck was easy to play. The deck list went as follows:

Green (14)
4:Blurred Mongoose (has to be blocked to be killed)
4:Thornscape Familiar (makes red cheaper)
3:Thornscape Battlemage (pings creatures - clears the path)
3:Kavu Titan (big fat monster - trample is good)

Red (14)
4:Skizzik (trample haste critter)
4:Scorching Lava (kills regenerators like Spectral Lynx)
3:Urza's Rage (good solid burn)
2:Flametongue Kavu (clears the path)
1:Ghitu Fire (big X spell)

Gold (8)
4:Raging Kavu (surprise haste creature, fits mana curve)
4:Yavimaya Barbarians (great against blue decks)

Land (24)
10:Forest
9:Mountain
4:Shivan Oasis
1:Keldon Necropolis (when you have to resort to throwing a creature at your opponent)

Sideboard:
2:Flametongue Kavu (against other creature decks)
2:Jade Leech (against mirror match)
3:Thunderscape Battlemage (enchantment control for Arena or Domain decks)
3:Dodecapod (for discard decks)
4:Overabundance (for control decks)
1:Obliterate (for control decks)

This is a very popular deck list, and I wish I had the source to credit. The deck is fast and relentless. Land drop, creature. Land drop, creature, attack. Land drop, creature, attack. It is very consistent. Unlike the fires deck in type 2, this IBC deck does not have a solid one-drop creature (mana producer). Therefore, you are better playing a “bear” for the second turn. A “bear” is a two mana casting cost creature that has a power of two (this named after the green “bear” cards that are 2/2 for 1G).

We got started around 5pm in the Grand Prix Prix Trial with a small group fighting for three byes in the Grand Prix in Denver, Colorado. How far is Colorado from Ohio or Michigan? You better enjoy sitting in the car for a day. Personally, I would fly; therefore, I wouldn’t go! The event was purely for metagame analysis.

Round1:
Sandy Mann
Deck: Black/Blue/Red control

Game1:
His deck was built very well as he removed my creatures, Undermined my spells, and sealed the victory with burn.

Game2:
I had a quick Blurred Mongoose drop and applied pressure for five straight turns. He was running into serious land trouble, and my deck capitalized on it. He stumbled on his mana draw.

Game3:
I went into overdrive with creatures as he used burn and Spite/Malice to clear the board. He was in good board advantage when I top-decked a Ghitu Fire. He didn’t have a counter and I took his five life to zero.

1-0-0

Round2:
Doug Price
Deck: Black/White/Red control

Game1:
Not too out of the ordinary for a red/green deck... I played creatures and land every turn and whittled his life down to six. His red removal was non- existent since he did not draw any red mana.

Game2:
Another poor mana start was capitalized by the speed of my red deck. Do you see a pattern here? He was able to get some control on the board, but red/green accidentally wins. Ouch.

2-0-0

Round3:
Max McGuffin
Deck: Red/Green

I remember another comment from Troy during playtesting, “if you play a red/green mirror match, it will be a dogfight.” Time to test the fight.

Game1:
With a perfect play of familiars and Raging Kavus, he was able to play a Skizzik with kicker on turn four. I didn’t get a point of damage against him. He used Scorching Lava to clear the path for his Thornscape Familiar, Raging Kavu, and Skizzik.

Game2:
Max is a really cool player who cited that the decks were both near perfect. He gave me some encouragement as we went into the second game. I sidedout the barbarians for the Leech and we went at it again. I had no “bears” that lasted beyond his burn, and I had to drop the fourth turn Jade Leech. It held off his swarm for only one turn until he played his second Skizzik. Smash me. I began to learn the valuable lesson of Skizzik. How quickly I forgot it the next game.

2-1-0

Round3:
William Han
Deck: White/Black Arena Angel

Game1:
Talk about your awesome players. I really liked this guy and he was professional and mature in his demeanor. He had some discard and removal, but his deck did not capitalize on the arena that he played. He stumbled. I won. I saw that he was playing with those lands that come into play tapped and can be sacrificed for “friendly” colors. I should have known that those were keys to his victory path.

Game2:
I came out fast, but not furious. I was holding the Thornscape Battlemages to clear the path for my other creatures (which at the time, totaled zero on the board). I held onto the Battlemages too long because I wasn’t applying any pressure to his life total. So with four mana on the table, I decided to play the Skizzik without kicker.

Me: “Tap four for Skizzik.”

William: “No kicker?”

Me: “Nope. (pause) Go.”

William: (looks at card) “It dies, doesn’t it?”

Man. I am the worst player ever. For a moment, I thought that the kicker was, “creature gains haste until end of turn.” Wow. I drifted off into a parallel universe where my worst nightmares came true. I was met by the comic storeowner who commented, “WORST PLAY EVER!”

William and I laughed at this for minutes as he proceeded to gain tempo and slow the damage down until he was at four life.

Suddenly, I became very nervous about the Desolation Angel. I looked at the mana on the table and I stared in horror. Those common tap-lands can be sacrificed for two mana! Wow, Angel with kicker on the fifth turn. He saw my deck stall out, played the Angel with four life, and he won handily. Awesome job, William.

Game3:
I start working on him pretty well until he got down to twelve life. He really slowed down my attack with Hobble! What a great card engine! The Death Grasps to follow lifted his life into the heavens. 12, 17, 22, 28! Man, it will be difficult to get his life down again. I made a mental decision to go for the Urza’s Rage with kicker instead of holding lands. That way, if he goes for the Desolation Angel, I can burn it out instead. I get one Rage off for10, and he went down to 13 with the Arena in play. He gets the Angel, I kill it with a Ghitu fire, but I still lose to a Spectral Lynx on the board. He had the right idea of playing the Angel. I had almost enough on the board to get him down to zero with the Ghitu Fire. Well, the lands didn’t show up after the Angel hit the table, so William won a well-fought game. Why can’t all magic players be this cool?

2-2-0

Round5:
Rob Kinyon
Deck: Red/White/Blue (Stars and Stripes) Lightning Angel

Game1:
Rob was in good spirits and greeted me happily. It was getting later in the evening, and it was nice to find someone wide-awake and friendly like in the previous rounds. He was the first one who said that he would probably go to Denver if he got the slots. More power to ya! We exchanged stories about him getting land-screwed (couldn’t draw red) and my Skizzik mistake, and we shuffled our decks for what was to be a real beating!

I dropped some early creatures, and he dropped Goblin Legionnaires. Very cool! He got out a Meddling Mage and banned “Flametongue Kavu” from my deck. The combination of his quick creatures and a Lightning Angel smashed me into the ground. Drawing red in a green/red deck is also a good thing too. We both laughed at the fact that he “cursed” me with his land-screw story.

Game2:
I had a slow land problem this game as he plowed over me. A transparent image of Troy Skinner appeared behind him and said, “If they stumble, they die.” Little good that did me, I WAS STUMBLING. It probably wouldn’t matter since he rolled with the Legionnaires, Meddling Mages, and Angel for the second time. It was a great deck, and he was happy to provide me with a deck list.

Red/White/Blue (Stars and Stripes) Lightning Angel

4:Stormscape Apprentice
4:Goblin Legionnaires
4:Meddling Mages
4:Lightning Angels
4:Skizzik
4:Urza’s Rage
4:Fact or Fiction
4:Fire/Ice
2:Prohibit
2:RagingRiver

4:BattlefieldForge
4:ShivanReef
4:CostalTower
4:Plains
4:Mountain
3:Islands
1:CrosisCatacombs

(My apologies if I miscopied the deck, I was trying to decipher some of the numbers and writing and I may have made a mistake).

This last game loss put meat 2-3-0, so I dropped. Is this a sad ending to a late night Grand Prix Trial? No way! Dave, Kiet, Travis and I were excited to get back to the hotel and talk about the metagame. The range of decks at the tournament excited our team. “They will never know what hit them,” Dave exclaimed as we tuned our blue/green sideboards for the next day. We got a g good night’s sleep, woke up early, and proceeded to the PTQ with the idea that our new decks were going to wreck some people.

They did.

(Continued in PTQ, New Orleans @ Origins, 7.6.01)

Rate Article

5 (best) 4 3 2 1

Discuss Article

Click here to discuss this article in forum or leave comments for the author.

RSS Feed

This article is provided to you by CardShark.com - A Better Way to Buy and Sell Collectable Games Online. Please check out the rest of our site - you won't be disappointed.

View More Articles