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Main » Articles » Baltimore to Mirrodin

Baltimore to Mirrodin

Ben Hayes
Posted on September 23, 2010
 Reddit

Last weekend I attended the Baltimore Open. I also said that I would write about decks in Post-SOM Standard today. I didn't do very well at the Open, but lots of cool stuff happened, so I'm going to give you a little bit of a tournament report and a little bit of my brewing.

Standard Open

I decided to go to the Standard Open on Thursday. I figured I would either play Dredgevine or Mythic, as those are the two decks I've been playing on Magic Online, and I've been doing pretty well with both. The most eventful thing that happened on the ride up was the driver pointing out the window at a battleship and asking if it was a baseball stadium, to which the person in shotgun replied "no Tony, that's a battleship".

So we get to the hotel and I start putting a deck together. I decide on Mythic with Eldrazi Monuments, which myself and some friends have been crushing MTGO with. At some point before the start of the tournament I chicken out and just register Josh Utter-Leyton's exact 75.

Round 1 – Mythic

Game 1

He wins the roll and plays Linvala on turn 3, to my board of 2x land 2x Hierarch. He won that game.

Game 2

I keep a hand of 3x land, Hierarch, Birds, Jace, Sovereigns. Despite activating Jace's brainstorm 4 times, and shuffling every time, I do not see another spell the entire game. I'm not exaggerating.

0-1

Round 2 – GW Eldrazi

Game 1

Game goes kind of long, he resolves a Primeval Titan but forgets to use the ability when he attacks with it. He has Mystifying Maze active but is at a very low life total due to taking an early Sovereigns hit, so I'm able to overwhelm him.

Game 2

I destroy him with a hardcast Conscription on some unreasonably early turn.

1-1

Round 3 – Mono White Eldrazi

Game 1

I'm land light, with most of my mana coming from Birsd and Hierarchs. I Mana Leak two Day of Judgment's that would have ended the game on the spot, but his All is Dust resolves and I can't recover. If I'd drawn another land in the early game I would have been able to resolve threats and have Mana Leak, but it wasn't to be.

Game 2

Smash him quickly with Sovereigns

Game 3

Same deal as above.

2-1

Round 4 – Mythic

Game 1

I win the roll and Sovereigns him before he can Sovereigns me.

Game 2

He has the Hierarch, Cobra, Cobra, Cobra, Knight etc etc etc hand.... except that his "etc etc etc" is a Telemen Performance... which hits my Lotus Cobra. I have a quick Jace and Sovereigns. Even though he didn't actually play a "real" big spell, all those attacks allow him to get me down to 2 life fairly quickly, so my Sovereigns has to play D.

He made a huge mistake this game by attacking my Jace (3) with two Lotus Cobra's, and me with one Lotus Cobra, which allowed me to trade in my Birds of Paradise for another brainstorm. I get a Linvala down and I have a manland. We have a standoff for a while of his Cobra, Cobra, Knight, Birds to my Sovereigns, Linvala, Manland, with me at 2 life. I have a Conscription in hand, but only 7 lands. If I can draw an untapped land, I will win with a double Conscripted Linvala. Anyway, he draws a creature on his turn and plays it. Then, he attacks with just a Lotus Cobra, and before blocks he tries to active his Knight, which he can't because of my Linvala. I eat his Cobra and we're back to even. On my turn I draw a blank. On his turn, he draws another creature and passes. On my turn I draw a land and attack for 24 in the air. GG

3-1

Round 5 – Turboland

Game 1

I'm one turn short of killing him before he gets an active Mystifying Maze and then takes ALL THE TURNS.

Game 2

My only choice this game is after I play Sovereigns, whether I should put him to 100% dead next turn or kill his Jace. He has an Oracle of Mul Daya in play as well. I choose to attack him, and on his next turn he plays Cobra, Brainstorms with Jace and I never get another turn.

3-2 Drop. I'm still in contention for prizes, but the event is 10 rounds and I'm not interested in playing 5 more rounds for a shot at $100

Other than mulligans, I feel the only choice I had the entire day was whether to attack Jace or my opponent. People say that with Jund, you just cast your spells and you win or you lose, but I think that statement can actually be applied to plenty of decks in the format. I couldn't be happier about the upcoming rotation.

Instead of continuing to bang my head against Standard, I decide to go out to Fogo for the first time and it's awesome. Obviouslly it's expensive, but you don't really understand how cool being served endless meat on swords is until you've tried it. I'm already looking forward to going again.

After Fogo I meet up with Drew Levin and talk about Legacy. I'm planning to play his Painter Counterbalance on Sunday, so I get some sideboard tips from him and get to sleep.

Here's what I registered for Sunday:

[cardlist]

[Creatures]

2 Painter's Servant

2 Trinket Mage

4 Tarmogoyf

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

4 Force of Will

3 Daze

4 Brainstorms

3 Ponder

4 Counterbalance

4 Sensei's Divining Top

1 Grindstone

1 Engineered Explosives

4 Swords to Plowshares

3 Firespout

[/Spells]

[Lands]

2 Island

1 Plains

4 Flooded Strand

2 Polluted Delta

2 Scalding Tarn

3 Tropical Island

3 Volcanic Island

2 Tundra

[/Lands]

[Sideboard]

4 Pyroblast

3 Krosan Grip

2 Path to Exile

1 Firespout

1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

1 Pithing Needle

1 Trinket Mage

1 Painter's Servant

1 Tormod's Crypt

[/Sideboard]

[/cardlist]

The deck was awesome. I lost my first round to Burn 1-2, in game 3 he just sandbagged Fireblast and Vexing Shusher until he managed to get me to 4, and then killed me in one magnificently uncounterable turn, despite being under a Counterbalance lock.

Round 2 I go to time with Dreadstill in game 3, but we've previously agreed that if one person is clearly going to win, then the other will scoop. On turn 5 of extra turns, I have him completely locked out with tons of backup in hand, and he graciously concedes.

Round 3 I beat Storm. Game 1 I cast Top, and then Counterbalance, and he concedes immediately. Game 2, he starts to go off but ends up one mana short of casting the last card in his hand (Ad Nauseam). I'm not sure if he realized that I would get Force and a blue card back off his Ill-Gotten Gains, which would force him to use a Duress and therefore be one mana short. In any case, I won.

Round 4 I drew against UG Madness. He crushed me Game 1 by resolving Survival on Turn 2. Game 2 I mostly locked him out, but it took me forever to kill him while playing around Grip and other potential sideboard cards. We only have a couple minutes for Game 3. I'm pretty far ahead on extra turn 5, but my opponent definitely has plenty of outs, so we draw.

Round 5 I lost to Mono G Madness. Game 1 I lock him out and have a Tarmogoyf to end the game quickly. Game 2 he gets some Vengevines out, but I have Tarmogoyfs to block. Unfortunately for me, he resolves Lumbering Satyr, and then crushes my face. Game 3 I mull to 4 and his first turn is; Forest, Fyndhorn Elves, Lion's Eye Diamond. Sacrifice Lion's Eye Diamond pitching Vengevine, Vengevine, Arrogant Wurm, other card. Madness in Arrogant Wurm off LED mana and return both Vengevines, attack for 8, go. I lost that game and dropped at 2-2-1.

So that was my weekend, shortly after dropped I was in a car heading home. It was a good weekend, even though I didn't do particularly well. I feel like I'm in a bit of a slump in terms of live tournaments. I'm still doing very well on Magic Online, but I haven't had a good live showing in a while. It hasn't gotten me down though, and I'm looking forward to the two upcoming GP's and the Boston 5k. Scars of Mirrodin looks sweet, and I've definitely been brewing.

Post-SOM Standard

Looking at Zendikar Block, it seems like most of the decks will translate really well to the new Standard format. Here are a few lists I've been working on;

"UW Control"

Sideboard Options:

  1. Flashfreeze

  2. Celestial Purge

  3. Nihil Spellbomb

  4. Spell Pierce

  5. Negate

UW Control will still be a big player after the rotation. It is a great Block Constructed deck, and it gets much better with M11 and SOM. I was on the fence about the viability of UW Control because of the power of Vengevines post-rotation, but now that we have Nihil Spellbomb to Trinket Mage for, I'm back on board. If I were going to play this in a tournament right after rotation, I might even have the Spellbomb main, as I think tons of people are going to be running the extremely powerful Fauna Shaman / Vengevine engine.

Speaking of Vengevine...

"UG Aggro-Control"

Sideboard:

  1. Flashfreeze

  2. Nihil Spellbomb

  3. Spell Pierce

  4. Negate

  5. Mind Control

I really want to find room for Garruk in the above deck, and I almost certainly wouldn't run the deck without him, I'm just not sure what to cut. I'll be testing the deck this week and if I can't identify a weak link, I'll probably shave some slots down to 3ofs to fit at least 2 Garruk.

Finally, here's a RU deck that I really want to be good.

"RU Planeswalkers"

Sideboard:

  1. Flashfreeze

  2. Negate

  3. Forked Bolt

  4. Pyroclasm

  5. Arc Trail

  6. Mind Control

  7. Cunning Sparkmage

The goal of the deck is to ultimate Koth as quickly and reliably as possible. I haven't played a game with the deck, and I'm worried that the plan might not be consistent enough. If you have to play the control game, it seems like you'd get to a point where a lot of your cards just don't answer what your opponent is doing, so that's a big concern. I think there is potential for a list like this, but I'm not quite happy with that one yet.

Have a good pre-release, and I'll be back next week with more about the new Standard format.

-Benjamin Hayes

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