That may sound like a fairly standard introduction, but it’s not all too common of an occurrence for me. For a lot of you, having a great time is probably something you’d expect. If you go to a Magic tournament, you have fun. After all, seeing friends, meeting new people, and playing Magic are all things that are just inherently fun. Unfortunately, it’s quite easy to start taking all of this for granted when you do it so often.

The social aspects of Magic tournaments are a constant, so often times the only distinguishable feature between tournaments is your result. I’ve played in a lot of tournaments in the last few years, but aside from a few, the only ones that really stand out are the ones I’ve done exceptionally well at. This is where I and, most likely, many of you could improve.

We all want to win every tournament we enter, but unfortunately only one person actually gets to, and that person likely isn’t you. In a game with such a high fail rate, it’s incredibly dangerous to become too invested in your results. If you place too large an emphasis on succeeding, it’s easy to become dejected when you inevitably fail. And if you become dejected, you’re only more likely to fail. So it’s rather important to have other ways to enjoy yourself at tournaments besides winning.

If you weren’t aware, I did not in fact win GP New Jersey. I went 11-4 which was good for 51st place. So not too bad, but not too good either. Squandering a solid start would normally be a pretty large impediment in me having a good time; but, as I mentioned, this tournament was a bit different than usual for me.

As I stated earlier, a lot of the social interactions at different tournaments feel the same, and that’s because I normally see the same faces at most events. And while it’s still fun hanging out with people I see a lot, it’s refreshing to catch up with people you haven’t seen in awhile.

A few people I saw at this event are partially responsible for how much Magic I play now. Magic isn’t exactly the type of game that appealed to me when I was younger. I started playing because it was something to do, and I liked competing. There’s a decent chance it’s something I would’ve got bored of pretty quick had I not made a bunch of friends playing the game. I kept playing because I just looked forward to going to my local game store after school and having a good time. However, my competitive nature took over pretty quick and suddenly all I wanted to do was get better at the game.

It was definitely fun catching up with old friends, but the biggest reason I would consider last week a success despite my underwhelming finish was the fact my team, Team MGG, debuted our new roster. The team started last year with Jim Davis, Kevin Jones, Dan Jessup, Pete Ingram, and myself. Playing on a team definitely changed the way I view playing in tournaments. I grew up playing team sports and the mutual investment you and your teammates have in each other is something I missed in Magic. I’m happy whenever I see my friends do well, but it’s not exactly the same as seeing someone you’re working with succeed.

We announced this year our roster is Jim, Dan, myself, Ben Friedman, Frank Skarren, and Brad Carpenter. In addition to our new roster, we also got new jerseys. After I incessantly complained to the company’s owners about our jerseys for a year straight, they finally gave in and got new ones.

I told you I had a good time. Don’t I look thrilled to be there?

I’m proud to have served my community well. No longer will you be subjected to the eye-blinding, neon-yellow, embarrassment to clothes, we used to have.

Jim, Dan, and Brad attended the SCG Open in Dallas while Ben, Frank, and myself attended the GP in New Jersey. The Dallas crew had a rough showing after catching some sort of plague, but we we’re doing pretty well at the GP. For the majority of the tournament we were battling alongside, and even across from, each other at the top tables. As I said, it’s dangerous to be too invested in your own success, but working as team severely mitigates that. I’m genuinely happy to see my teammates do well; to the extent that it makes any weekend worthwhile no matter how poorly I do.

That’s why when I was knocked out of top 8 contention by Frank in round 13 by getting a bit unlucky, I was hardly even upset about it. I knew Frank had a rough time after failing to convert in consecutive win-and-ins at GP Pittsburgh, so while I would've liked to have crushed him, I was glad he was getting another shot here.

Unfortunately, Frank went on to lose a another win-and-in, but fellow GM writer and Guru, Ben Friedman, salvaged the weekend for the team with a 2nd place finish. It would’ve been pretty rough if none of us cracked the elimination rounds after some strong starts, but fortunately Ben was able to close it out. I can definitely speak from experience that 2nd place stings, but it’s still an amazing feat and it was great to have a team member put up a big finish on the first weekend.

My tournament wasn’t the most eventful so I’m not going to go through all of it, but there’s definitely some stuff I want to touch on.

I had been testing Standard a ton the during the weeks leading up to the GP because I had a string of Standard tournaments to play. I played an RPTQ, the MTGO Standard Championship, and a MOCS Monthly all in a row prior to GP New Jersey. I felt like I had a pretty good understanding of the format going into the GP. Mardu () Vehicles and Four-Color Saheeli were clearly the best two decks by a notable margin, and Constrictor and Temur () Tower both boasted slightly favorable matchups against one of the big two at the cost of being fairly weak to the other. Saheeli just seemed to have a tiny edge over the field though, and for the last week I stopped playing everything else. I was happy with where my testing led me, and I thought my list was perfect for the event.

Four-Color Saheeli ? Aether Revolt Standard | Andrew Jessup, 51st Grand Prix New Jersey

• Creatures (17)
• 2 Tireless Tracker
• 3 Rogue Refiner
• 4 Felidar Guardian
• 4 Servant of the Conduit
• 4 Whirler Virtuoso

• Planeswalkers (7)
• 3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
• 4 Saheeli Rai

• Instants (4)
• 4 Harnessed Lightning

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Attune with Aether

• Enchantments (7)
• 3 Oath of Chandra
• 4 Oath of Nissa

• Lands (21)
• 1 Island
• 1 Mountain
• 1 Plains
• 5 Forest
• 1 Evolving WIlds
• 2 Game Trail
• 2 Spirebluff Canal
• 4 Aether Hub
• 4 Botanical Sanctum

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Tireless Tracker
• 2 Walking Ballista
• 1 Dispel
• 1 Metallic Rebuke
• 2 Natural Obsolescence
• 2 Negate
• 2 Release the Gremlins
• 2 Authority of the Consuls
• 2 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship

Buy This Deck

Ben was also planning on playing Four-Color Saheeli in the event and he had a pretty innovative list. If I wasn’t content with how my testing had been going, I may have been tempted to jump on ship with him. We talked about the deck a bunch though, and we both seemed pretty confident that our respective lists were better. Taking the results of the GP into account, it’s kind of funny that it’s still hard to tell who’s list was better for the event. Ben obviously did much better than I did, but my list was only a few cards different than Corey Baumeister’s.

Even still, I was very happy with the deck overall and I would probably register the same 75 tomorrow if I had to. If you do decide to pick up the deck, I suggest practicing your dice rolling skills. I was lucky enough to go 10-3 in die rolls on the week. My record on the play was 9-1 and my record on the draw was 0-3. My final record in each matchup was: 5-2 against Mardu, 2-1 against , and 2-1 against the mirror. I was pretty happy with my sideboard plans in each matchup as well.

VS Mardu Vehicles (Play)

• -2 Oath of Nissa
• -3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
• -2 Tireless Tracker
• -1 Saheeli Rai
• +2 Natural Obsolescence
• +2 Release the Gremlins
• +2 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
• +2 Walking Ballista

VS Mardu Vehicles (Draw)

• -1 Oath of Nissa
• -1 Rogue Refiner
• -3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
• -2 Tireless Tracker
• -1 Saheeli Rai
• +2 Natural Obsolescence
• +2 Release the Gremlins
• +2 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
• +2 Walking Ballista

VS Four-Color Saheeli (Play)

• -1 Oath of Nissa
• -3 Oath of Chandra
• -1 Rogue Refiner
• -2 Whirler Virtuoso
• +2 Walking Ballista
• +2 Authority of the Consuls
• +2 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
• +1 Tireless Tracker

VS Four-Color Saheeli (Draw)

• -1 Oath of Nissa
• -2 Oath of Chandra
• -1 Rogue Refiner
• -1 Saheeli Rai
• -2 Whirler Virtuoso
• +2 Walking Ballista
• +2 Authority of the Consuls
• +2 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
• +1 Tireless Tracker

VS B/G Constrictor (Play and Draw)

• -2 Whirler Virtuoso
• +1 Tireless Tracker
• +1 Dispel

***

Having played hundreds of matches with Four-Color Saheeli at this point, I can confidently say it has no place in Standard. The deck creates play patterns that are just entirely unhealthy for what’s intended to be a low power level format. Aside from the fact that you can just lose on turn-four, whenever I’m too far behind to come back while playing Four-Color Saheeli I stop playing Magic the way Richard Garfield intended. I start throwing away resources, giving up the board, and doing just about anything that gives me a slightly better chance of cheesing my opponent out with the combo. And it works a terrifyingly high percentage of the time. But with all that being said, the repercussions of two instances of bannings occurring in Standard in such a small time frame would be far too severe. With Magic, and specifically Standard, seemingly suffering from its first drought in years, this seems like the last time you would want to do anything to affect consumer confidence.

I suspect that R&D is going to try and throw something in Amonkhet to deal with the Saheeli and Gideon problems. My best guess for what that card is would be Pithing Needle. Pithing Needle would do a reasonable job against both Mardu Vehicles and Four-Color Saheeli. It shuts off all the biggest offenders out of Mardu Vehicles and Four-Color Saheeli: Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, Heart of Kiran, and Saheeli Rai, and has some other potential applications in the matchups as well. Pithing Needle is also relatively easy to answer and potentially card disadvantage, so it’s not exactly too good. But if what Amonkhet brings to the table fails to stymie the prevalence of either archetype, I expect a ban of both Gideon and Felidar Guardian with the release of Hour of Devastation.