2001)

Searching For a Ray of Hope – GP: Minneapolis Trial in Grand Rapids, MI
Dave Andrews

For those of you who haven’t been faithfully studying every tournament report to track my progress through the IBC season (shame on you!), I’ll review how it has gone. With four PTQ’s behind me, my track record has been less than stellar. I’ve seemed to develop a knack for randomly losing in the most senseless ways, and have started to feel like the only article I’m qualified to write about this format would be titled “The Drop Column and You – A Magic Player’s Guide to Getting Home Early.” It hasn’t helped that since Origins I’ve barely had time to play Magic, let alone do any thorough playtesting, due to recently increased responsibilities at work. So, as the Grand Prix Trial in Grand Rapids on September 1st approached, I was hoping to get caught up with the latest trends in the IBC format and hopefully use the smaller tournament to build my confidence back up and get my season on track.

On the Wednesday before the tournament, I sat down to put a deck together. I hadn’t had the time lately to even keep up with the latest IBC tech on the Internet, but I had a few goals for deck construction. First, the two most important colors in IBC seem to be blue and red, so I figured I might as well play both of them. Besides, I really wanted to play with Fire/Ice, partially thanks to the number of times I personally have had a land tapped by an opponent who was preparing to cast something he didn’t want countered, which I figured was a pretty nice trick from a removal spell that even had the possibility of going 2-for-1 vs. creatures with 1-toughness. Also, I am pretty fond of Mystic Snake, as it is the most punishing counterspell available, and one of my favorite cards from Apocalypse. That plus the two coolest bears around, Gaea’s Skyfolk and Blurred Mongoose, cemented green as my third color. I also wanted to look for opportunities to gain card advantage other than with the Mystic Snake and Fact or Fiction, and Thornscape Battlemage and the amazing burn-and-replace spell Prophetic Bolt seemed to stand out. Finally, at the end of the 4th round in the last PTQ I’d played in, I tallied up the number of decks that didn’t have blue that I and three of my friends had played against, and the answer was 2 out of 16, which made maindeck Gainsay seem like a pretty good idea. Here is the list I drafted up:

4:Gaea’s Skyfolk
4:Blurred Mongoose
4:Thornscape Battlemage
4:Mystic Snake
4:Fire/Ice
4:Urza’s Rage
3:Prophetic Bolt
4:Fact or Fiction
4:Gainsay
4:Yavimaya Coast
4:Shivan Reef
4:Shivan Oasis
6:Island
3:Mountain
4:Forest

On Thursday before the tournament, I got to play a few games against Troy Skinner’s Domain, Black-Blue-Red, and Black-Blue-White. The deck won some, and it lost some, often based pretty much on what kind of draw each deck got, and I continued to feel frustrated at the very random nature of the Invasion Block format. I searched carefully for mistakes I was making and did notice several, but for the most part, the deck with the better opening hand was the winner. That evening, I didn’t even really feel like going to the Grand Prix Trial to randomly lose to some player with 200 fewer rating points than me, and considered doing something else with my Saturday instead. Besides, even though I felt maindeck Gainsay would be a good idea at a PTQ, I figured it probably would not be so good at the Grand Prix Trial, as I thought the metagame would be a bit more G/R, if not just generally a little more random anyway. However, I resolved to leave the Gainsay in if I went to the trial, to see just how bad it would be if it really did turn out to be a bad metagame call at a future PTQ.

On Friday I decided I should put a sideboard together, just in case. However, it certainly didn’t seem like the best plan for digging out of my recent slump would involve playing a barely tested deck with a completely untested sideboard, especially since I couldn’t shake the idea that I wanted Sleeping Potion in the board to help deal with Spiritmonger. This is what I put together:

4:Jungle Barrier
2:Flametongue Kavu
2:Disrupt
2:Tranquility
3:Sleeping Potion
2:Scorching Lava

When Saturday morning arrived, I woke up feeling like playing some cards. I was determined to play perfect Magic for the day, and with a little luck I wanted to start digging myself out of the IBC slump I’ve been in. As I headed off to Grand Rapids, I started to feel as if good fortune was on my side that day, as every slow driver politely switched into the right lane to keep from holding me up, and nearly every traffic light I came to was green, so I got to the tournament site in plenty of time despite getting a late start on my normally hour-long drive. A little help from above was exactly what I needed to get my IBC season on track, and I seemed to be receiving that help from the very start of the day.

The tournament had exactly 32 participants for 5 rounds of Swiss under the expert eyes of head judge Glenn Cannon. The prizes had even been beefed up a bit thanks to a generous donation by CardShark. The stage was set for a good day of Magic.

Round 1 vs. Joe w/ Domain

I got a turn 2 Mongoose to start the assault, but Joe had played first and begin accelerating, with a turn 2 Star Compass followed soon after by Harrow, leading up to his turn 5 Legacy Weapon. Thankfully I was able to put out some creatures to keep the Weapon from targeting my lands, including a Mystic Snake that countered a Global Ruin if I remember correctly, and a pair of Battlemages that each took 2-point shots at my opponent’s face. The game ended with a flurry of Prophetic Bolt, Urza’s Rage, and Fire/Ice, and we moved on to game 2.

I started game 2 with a mulligan, and then proceeded to come out with another turn 2 Mongoose followed by more 2-drops. My opponent got Collective Restraint on the table, and from there I paid mana to attack until he got a second Restraint on the table. After a few burn spells to my opponent’s face, I drew into Tranquility, and turned loose the army that had been loafing on the table to take the 2nd game.

Games: 2-0
Matches: 1-0

Round 2 vs. Matt Seguin w/ Red-Green Beatdown

Not only did I have to play the first game with 4 dead cards in the maindeck (Gainsay), I also lost the die roll and had to play second versus this very fast deck. However, I was able to get the board stabilized in this game while at 10 life, due in no small part to the Battlemages. From there, it was a race to burn the opponent out before he burned me, and thanks to Prophetic Bolt and Fact or Fiction, I was able to reach 12 mana first, so I face-Raged Matt before he had the mana to make similar use of the Urza’s Rage in his hand.

Matt’s deck was a bit different from the standard Red-Green in that it had maindeck Dodecapod instead of Raging Kavu, as Matt felt the Kavu was always running into bears anyway. I’m not sure if that is a good idea, but it turned out to be a real pain in this match, as in this matchup I really try to hold on to Fire/Ice until I can get a 2-for-1 with opposing Thornscape Familiars and/or Raging Kavus. When Dodecapods came down instead of Raging Kavu, it turned out I had taken extra hits from the Familiar unnecessarily, and only Urza’s Rage and Prophetic Bolt could take out the ‘Pod, and I needed those to go the face.

Anyways, Matt put in the Raging Kavus for the second game, which helped to make Fire/Ice better, but giving him a little extra punch. This game was much scarier, as I was at 4 life when I stabilized the board, but once again superior card-drawing let me burn Matt out before he was able to burn me.

Games: 4-0
Matches: 2-0

Round 3 vs. Al McCandless w/ Red-Green-black Beatdown

Take your standard Red-Green deck, add in a few Voids and a Spiritmonger or two, and you get Al’s deck. Game 1 was very interesting, as we pretty much just spent the early part of the game trading creatures for removal. Thornscape Battlemages were key in this game of critters vs. removal, and we both drew several. The deciding moment in this game came when I was at 9 life and Al was at 10. We had just traded critters to clear the board, and I topdecked my 3rd Thornscape Battlemage for the match. I considered holding the Battlemage until Al played a creature first, but elected to play it with a face-shot to try to get in a few swings to bring Al to lethal burn range. However, Al took out my topdecked Battlemage with a topdecked Battlemage of his own, and that Battlemage brought me to death’s door, and Al’s burn pushed me through it.

During game 2, Al had even more removal, as I got my early Jungle Barrier Terminated. Things went from bad to worse when Al dropped Spiritmonger, and I began praying to draw the one random Sleeping Potion I had sided in since I had seen Al with a Shivan Wurm in play earlier that day. My prayers weren’t answered, and the Spiritmonger did me in.

Games: 4-2
Matches: 2-1

Round 4 vs. Steve Black w/ Black-Blue-Red Control

This round began with a deck-check, and when the judges returned, Steve was given a game loss for misregistering his deck. I can’t imagine how anybody can get losses for not correctly registering a deck – with so many things that can randomly go wrong, registering your deck is one easy thing that you have complete control of. Why do a careless job, and potentially throw away your entrance fee and hours of work invested in a tournament when a game loss might eliminate you just to save a few minutes of going through your deck and registering it correctly? Anyways, it turned it to be very important this match, as my opponent played so slowly during game 1 that without that game loss, there might not have been time to complete the match.

In game 1 I took a mulligan and kept a hand that was light on early pressure, which I think is very important to beating the Black-Blue-Red decks. Nevertheless, I was on the beatdown when I made a very subtle but costly mistake. I had a Blurred Mongoose and a Thornscape Battlemage in play, and my opponent had one blocker ready to trade with one of my critters when I attacked. I had a strong gut feeling that my opponent was holding a Void. An experienced player should always pay attention to gut feelings, as generally a gut feeling is the result of experience subconsciously coming to a conclusion that your conscious mind is too busy at the moment to work out. There is definitely a difference between a solid gut feeling based on experience and pure unsupported paranoia about a potentially troublesome card in your opponent’s hand, and this definitely felt like a solid gut feeling. Based on this feeling, I considered attacking with only the Battlemage, so that my opponent would trade with the Battlemage, then call 2 with his Void to remove the Mongoose. I had somewhere in the neighborhood of 8-9 lands in play at the time, and a hand consisting of another land and an Urza’s Rage, so a Void for 3 could take out my win condition. However, I couldn’t reason out why I felt my opponent had Void, and decided to ignore my gut feeling and attack with both, as those 2 points of damage could be important in a close match. As it turned out, my opponent traded with the Mongoose, and did have the Void, which took the Battlemage out and forced me to cast the Rage for only 3. Steve had control of the game from that point on, I got burned out while he lived on at 9 life, and we moved on to the next game with less than 15 minutes remaining in the round.

In game 2, I got the early pressure that I had been missing during game 1. I came out with Mongoose and Skyfolk to start beating, and by the time he was able to deal with those I had the burn ready to head-shot this game to its conclusion. With Steve’s game loss, this added up to the match.

Games: 5-3
Matches: 3-1

Round 5 vs. Tony DelBarrio w/ Solution

At this point, I was at 9 points with good tiebreakers, so I was in a position to draw. Tony was also at 9 points, but his tiebreakers were in the bottom half of the 9-point players. I offered the draw, but since I like Tony, I warned him that even though I was offering the draw I didn’t feel he had the tiebreakers to accept my offer. Then we looked a little closer at the pairings, and realized that every 9-point player with good tiebreakers had been paired with a 9-point player with bad tiebreakers, preventing anyone at 9 points from drawing in. Tony seemed really eager to make top 8 at this tournament, and I told him that I was relatively certain that he would make it in by drawing due to the pairings, but that there were problems with that plan, such as if someone else decided the same thing or if someone naturally played to a draw. I told him I’m about 75% sure he’d make it in, but if I were in his seat, I’d play. I mention that maybe I’m a bit cocky, but in that situation I like to take my destiny into my own hands, and just expect to win when the pressure is on. He elected to play rather than draw, which I feel is the right choice, even though it did actually end up eliminating him from the top 8 when he would have made it by drawing. It is so much easier to drive home knowing you did everything to make the top 8 and got beat fair and square than it is when you draw yourself out of the competition when you could have played and had a chance to make it.

Anyways, game 1 of this match was very close, and surprising Tony with the maindeck Gainsay when he went for an early Fact or Fiction may have been the deciding factor. When it got down to the end of the game, Tony was on the offensive with a pro-red Voice of All and a Spectral Lynx, helped through my forces by a Stormscape Apprentice. A little more steam and I would have ended the game at 0 life instead of 4, but I was able to hold out through careful play until I reached 12 mana, and I face-Raged during Tony’s end step and again during my turn to send him from 16 to 0.

Game 2 was the textbook game for my deck, as Gaea’s Skyfolk brought his life down low, and burn spells finished it off. That’s what the deck was designed to do.

Games: 7-3
Matches: 4-1

Quarterfinals vs. Brian w/ Red-Green Beatdown

Once again I had 4 dead cards in my maindeck, and I was going second versus an unforgiving deck. However, I was very careful to get 2-for-1 with Fire/Ice, and Thornscape Battlemage helped stabilize the board, and my life total went no lower than 4. The finishers this game were a combination of burn and Gaea’s Skyfolk.

For game 2, Jungle Barrier came up huge, and my life never dipped below 17. I had good draws throughout this match, and was thankful to be moving on to the next round.

Games: 9-3
Matches: 5-1

Semifinals vs. Matt Seguin w/ Red-Green Beatdown

Once again I sat down against Matt’s Red-Green deck with maindeck Dodecapod, and this time that Dodecapod really gave me fits, as I couldn’t find a burn spell to deal more than 2 damage. That ‘Pod drove my life from 20 to 17 to 14 to 11, and from there was joined by a bear to bring me to 0.

Unlike in our first match, Matt left the Dodecapods in for game 2 of this match. Nevertheless, I was able to wrestle out control of the board, and steal game 2 after Matt had mulliganned into a less than powerful draw.

I started the critical 3rd game with a mulligan, as my opening hand contained only 1 land. My 2nd hand also contained only 1 land, but it had 3 2cc spells, including Blurred Mongoose, which is guaranteed to trade with an opposing creature, and Fire/Ice, the potential 2-for-1 removal spell. It also had a Thornscape Battlemage which can be so key in this matchup, provided I could get to 4 mana. I resolved to play error-free Magic and kept the 2nd 1-land hand. I managed to make my first 2 land drops so was able to defend myself early, but did miss a few land drops on my way to 4 mana. As the mana slowly came from my deck, I played very carefully, dipping down around 7 life before stabilizing the board with the help of Jungle Barrier. I looked to turn to the offensive before my opponent drew too much burn, but stayed careful not to push too fast, always careful to leave enough mana for an emergency Mystic Snake in case Matt threw Ghitu Fire at me. Once the mana started to flow, it kept on coming, helped out a bit by multiple Fact or Fictions. Despite stumbling a bit early in mana, I was able to keep the table in control until I could bring my burn to bear on Matt’s head, and managed to find my way into the final match.

Games: 11-4
Matches: 6-1

Finals vs. Rocky w/ Kowal.dec

As game 1 got rolling, I realized my mana troubles weren’t over with yet. I started with 2 land in my hand, and drew only 1 more for quite a few turns. I did start with a Blurred Mongoose in my hand, and drew 2 more, but was afraid of overcommitting for fear of Pernicious Deed. Passing an opportunity to drop a Mongoose gave me the opportunity to Gainsay a Fact or Fiction, which Rocky thought was safe while I only had 2 mana. As Rocky continued making land drops, I figured he did not yet have Pernicious Deed, and figured I’d better drop all 3 Mongooses to try to get as much damage in as possible, since land didn’t seem to be showing up any time soon. Rocky had (or drew) the Deed, and wiped out all of the Mongooses, and took over game 1 from there, eventually winning with Spirtmonger.

In game 2, I was tight on land yet again. However, I was once again swinging early with Blurred Mongoose. I attacked Rocky down to 14 and drew and played another Mongoose. Rocky dropped a Spiritmonger while at 6 life which could have ended my assault, and he Undermined the Ice I tried to use to tap the monger during his end step. The Ice was the bait, however, as I had the worst card in my sideboard in my hand: Sleeping Potion! I put the Spiritmonger to sleep, swung with the Mongoose brothers for 2 more turns, and moved on to the 3rd game.

After 2 games with no more than 3 mana for most of each game, I was hoping for a good draw. Once again, I was light on mana, and could only drop bears onto the table. However, game 3 was also Rocky’s turn for mana problems, and while the amount of mana he had wasn’t so bad, he didn’t have any green mana. When my bears brought him down to Rage range and I finished him off, he showed me a hand of all green spells, including Jungle Barrier, Pernicious Deed, and Spiritmonger, any of which could have ruined my day. The Magic gods certainly were looking out for me that game.

Games: 13-5
Matches: 7-1

So, at the end of the day, I had 3 byes for Grand Prix Minneapolis, the generous prize support provided by Glenn Cannon and CardShark, and, most importantly a renewed confidence in my ability to play in the Invasion Block Format. From here, I just have to keep some steam rolling into the remaining PTQ’s this season; I’m not ready to give up on this season without at least making one PTQ Top 8!

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