2001)

More IBC Than You Can Shake A Stick At -- An Origins Report, Part 1

For the last 5 years or so I’ve had this little summertime ritual. Every year, I start planning a trip to the Origins gaming convention in Columbus, OH. Then, as the event approaches, I start thinking about how much it will cost and the scheduling conflicts that may be occurring that year, and start thinking I shouldn’t go. For the last couple of years, when Origins time rolled around, I did not attend. This year, however, for some reason I decided to go.

I chose . . . wisely.

What the hell was I thinking? Not going to Origins? Origins is capital A Amazing, the greatest gathering of nerds and geeks on this planet. What could possibly be better than a weekend of 24-hour gaming of all kinds?

This year, I played a little more Magic than I usually do. I usually try not to play too much Magic at the conventions, because there are so many other games that I can’t find tournaments for elsewhere. However, the back to back Invasion Block Constructed PTQ’s were too attractive to ignore, and when Mike Guptil announced a third IBC PTQ to begin at 10:00 pm on Friday night, that pretty much sealed the deal for playing much of anything else. I was destined to spend my Origins weekend exploring the battlegrounds of the interesting new IBC format.

I traveled to Origins with Marcus Anderson, Travis Cullum, and Kiet Ngo – a fine group of Magic players to share a weekend’s accommodations with. I was packing plenty of decks I considered playable for IBC – a U/W/B control deck similar to Go-Mar, a R/G beatdown deck, a B/R/g agg-control deck, The B/W Arena deck everyobdy has, Bill Fleming’s U/G aggro deck, and, believe it or not, Jungle Fever, which despite looking like a really good draft deck, I was considering playing, since even though it doesn’t have any terrific “auto-win” matchups versus anything, it doesn’t really have any “auto-loss” ones either. (A not quite current Jungle Fever list can be found at http://www.card-shark.com/content/view_article.asp?article_id=63 .)

Upon arriving at the convention on Thursday, we were all set to get our IBC feet wet with a Grand Prix Trial for Denver. I chose to play the U/W/B control deck, hoping that the Desolation Angel would catch opponents by surprise in a deck that otherwise was nearly Go-Mar. I also felt that playing control would give me a good chance to see the strengths and weaknesses of opposing decks while using the Grand Prix Trial to feel out the field in preparations for the PTQ the next day.

I ended up going 2-3 with the U/W/B deck -- not exactly the results I was hoping for. Putting 2 blue mana together turned out to be quite tough in a field littered with Vindicates, and things just didn’t seem to be going my way. I think my favorite moment was game 3 versus Scott Herzberg’s Domain deck. He played a Mana Maze, which made the 4 Gainsays I proceeded to draw after that just terrific. What a joy.

I tried to console myself with a little booster drafting. I drafted a pretty nice 4-color deck with plenty of mana fixers, some fat critters, and some neat toys like Allied Strategies, Ceta Sanctuary, and a Nightscape Apprentice – Thunderscape Battlemage combo. You know what happens when you play Allied Strategies, Sleeper’s Robe, and Ceta Sanctuary with both opposing colors? If you’re me, you deck yourself in the second round. I definitely had card advantage, though!

I may not have done too well on Thursday evening, but I was pretty excited nonetheless. As I looked around the Grand Prix Trial at the decks that people were playing, I got the feeling that the U/G aggro deck would be very good in the field. There were very few fast decks, with a lot of three-color control or agg-control. After seeing the field, I had no doubt about which deck to play the next day.

Travis came to the same assessment regarding the field as I did – play beatdown. He hadn’t been having much luck with R/G, though, so he decided to play U/G as well. After seeing how well it performed during a testing session earlier that week, Marcus was also eager to play the U/G. That left Kiet as the only player in our hotel room that wasn’t preparing Mystic Snakes and Blurred Mongooses that night. The next morning, however, even he decided to jump on the bandwagon, and traded for the cards he needed to field the deck in the PTQ. I’m guessing he’s pretty happy with his decision to do so, since he was able to pilot the deck to his first PTQ Top 8, going 6-0-2 in the Swiss but losing in the first round of the Top 8.

U/G Aggro
By Bill Fleming
4:Blurred Mongoose
4:Kavu Titan
4:Gaea’s Skyfolk
4:Mystic Snake
4:Exclude
4:Repulse
4:Temporal Springs
4:Rushing River
4:Fact or Fiction
4:Yavimaya Coast
10:Island
10:Forest

Look at how simple that list is: a bunch of 4-of’s, and some basic land. The last time I went to Ann Arbor for playtesting, I was packing a U/G/b aggro deck with Life/Death and Undermine. Bill told me he had started with something similar, but just decided what the best cards were, and simplified. The result is simple, elegant, and effective.

The sideboard I played for the first PTQ looked like this:
4:Jungle Barrier
4:Gainsay
2:Disrupt
2:Tranquility
3:Dodecapod

Round 1 vs. Bill Whitlow with Domain

I think that the days of playing Fertile Ground in Domain are over, thanks to all the Vindicates and Temporal Springs in the environment. Both games were very similar – I would swing with an early creature, and Bill would get Collective Restraint and then use Global Ruin with only 3 land types in play, using a duplicate basic land and Fertile Ground. Then I would cast Temporal Springs on the land with Fertile Ground, and bounce Collective Restraint with Rushing River. During game 2 I actually had to Rush two Restraints, but had a Mystic Snake for one and a Gainsay for the other.

Games: 2-0
Matches: 1-0

Round 2 vs. Neil Murphy with U/G/b Aggro.

Somewhat to my surprise, I was in a near-mirror match for the second round. However, Neil elected to go with some larger creatures (Kavu Chameleon and Anavolver) and with less bounce. He also had dual-land access to black mana for the Anavolver and Spite/Malice, but I’m not sure if the Spite/Malice was main decked or from the sideboard.

The bounce in my deck kept me ahead in the race, and Neil found that the Kavu Chameleon put him in a tough spot, as each game reached a point where he had only enough mana per turn to replay a Kavu Chameleon, while I had mana to Repulse/Rush/Spring it and play a bear the same turn, getting in enough damage to eventually just run my bears into the Chameleon to finish off Neil’s life total.

Games: 4-0
Matches: 2-0

Round 3 vs. Sam Gilly with U/W/b bears

Sam’s deck was interesting, with Voice of All (maybe sideboard, not sure), Meddling Mage, Rout, Exclude, Repulse, Fact or Fiction, etc. Our decks actually played quite similarly, which made the die roll quite important. I won that die roll, and proceded to win the first game, pretty much by having a slight edge in the tempo.

During Game 2, Sam went first, and I also got to find out just how bad a Voice of All can be for the U/G deck. Pro-green Lynxes are one thing, but at least they’re bouncable. A pro-blue Voice is much, much worse. I brought Sam down to 8 this game, but was not able to win it.

I was a little nervous about that Voice going into the third game, but Fate decided to step in and decide this match, and hit Sam up with some mana-screw. Sometimes it just pays to be the 2-color deck.

Games: 6-1
Matches: 3-0

Round 4 vs. Jeremy Thomson with Goblin Trenches/Fervent Charge

Jeremy’s interesting deck was built around Goblin Trenches and Fervent Charge. It also included Spectral Lynx, Goblin Legionnaire, Flametongue Kavu, Order/Chaos, and the dreaded Voice of All (although once again I don’t know if it was in the main or the sideboard). During game one, the Voice was either in the sideboard or hiding somewhere in the deck, and I managed to win before he was able to get rolling particularly well.

During Game 2, He was able to assemble some goblin tokens, and clear the path with Flametongue Kavu while I didn’t have any bounce available. The game winner this game turned out to be the Chaos half of his Order/Chaos, cast in response to my casting of a Mystic Snake as a surprise blocker, preventing me from blocking with anything.

Game 3 I managed to keep the Trenches/Charge combo away with Tranquility, but multiple Voices of All halted my offense with Jeremy at 13. From that position it was only a matter of time before he was able to bust through and finish me off.

Games: 7-3
Matches: 3-1

Round 5 vs. Justin Morford with Domain

Justin’s Domain deck had Pernicious Deed for removal, but did not have what I feel should be Domain staples – Evasive Action and Vindicate (although it is possible he just did not draw any). Pernicious Deed costs 5-7 mana to defend against my army, and Rushing River/Temporal Springs keeps that cost from being spread across multiple turns, and Mystic Snake can stop it once we are up to that amount of mana. Without inexpensive answers early in game 1, and without being able to protect his Deed from my Snake with Evasive Action, I was able to beat him with a Titan and a Skyfolk before he got set up. During game 2, he unfortunately did not draw a Harrow or any color of land besides green and white.

Games: 9-3
Matches: 4-1

Round 6 vs. Les Murray with U/W strangeness

Les’s deck was a perfect matchup against mine. Not only did he have the dreaded Voice of All, but he was also running main deck Standard Bearer, which left my bounce spells unable to remove his Stormscape Apprentices or Meddling Mages. Both games found me unable to get through his multiple Voices and Tappers, and I went down in two straight. I wish I had some interesting details to tell, but I just plain got smashed here.

Games: 9-5
Matches: 4-2

Round 7 vs. Michael Yohman with 5-color strangeness

This round I faced another odd deck. I won the die roll, and came out with a Skyfolk and a Titan, then sat back on bounce spells and harassed him with Temporal Springs. He assembled his colors of mana and played Protective Sphere, which I had to Rushing River twice to finish him off before he really got rolling.

During game 2, if I remember correctly, I think I saw Goblin Trenches again, but had a Tranquility. I beat down quickly with a turn 2 Skyfolk and a pair of Blurred Mongooses, and finished off the match.

Games: 11-5
Matches: 5-2

Round 8 vs. Ronald Martin

Going into round 8, I knew someone at 6-2 would make Top 8, but that it wouldn’t be me, as my tiebreaks weren’t good enough after picking up my losses too early. I guess I slacked off a bit, since my notes don’t include what Ronald was playing. The only thing I have noted was that I won 2-0, and that in the second game I had to double-mulligan to a five-card hand with Forest, Island, Blurred Mongoose, Exclude, and Repulse. Not too shabby.

Games: 13-5
Matches: 6-2

So, I finished the first PTQ with a 6-2 record, with tiebreaks bad enough for 10th place. P.E.S. is never stingy with prizes, though, so 9th-16th got a half-box for our troubles. That 9th-16th also included Marcus, and as I mentioned before, Kiet managed to dodge the Voices of All en route to a 6-0-2 Top 8 appearance. By this time, Mike Guptil had announced that due to the Origins event book erroneously printing the starting time of the PTQ at 10:00 pm instead of 10:00 am, he had arranged to have a 10:00 pm PTQ as well. So, while I wanted to watch Kiet’s first Top 8 run, I was left with limited time to get a good meal and to head back to our hotel (about a mile away) to fetch some Wash Outs to deal with those darned Voices of All in the next PTQ.

That wraps up this report. One PTQ down, two to go...

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