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It was very clear to me early on that Caw was the deck to play. It was hard to argue against its numbers, and it was the only Standard deck I had played in the past year. I even played it before it was Caw-Blade, circa Worlds of last year. After discussing card choices with Adam Yurchick and Gerry Thompson, and reviewing the results of recent Nationals and the TCG Player $75K, I arrived at the following list:
[cardlist]
[Creatures]
2 Emeria Angel
2 Phantasmal Image
2 Sun Titan
4 Squadron Hawk
[/Creatures]
[Planeswalkers]
2 Gideon Jura
3 Jace Beleren
[/Planeswalkers]
[Spells]
2 Dismember
2 Into the Roil
2 Mana Leak
2 Mental Misstep
2 Psychic Barrier
1 Day of Judgment
1 Timely Reinforcements
4 Preordain
2 Oblivion Ring
[/Spells]
[Lands]
3 Plains
4 Island
1 Arid Mesa
1 Halimar Depths
2 Scalding Tarn
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Tectonic Edge
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Azure Mage
4 Flashfreeze
2 Day of Judgment
2 Revoke Existence
3 Timely Reinforcements
2 Torpor Orb
[/Sideboard]
[/cardlist]
There are some card choices that might stand out:
I’ve found that the Sword is very hit-or-miss without Stoneforge Mystic. Gerry has been advocating cutting down on them for a while, and I eschewed them altogether. I’m not interested in spending 5 mana just to have my dude killed and losing a turn. I never once missed them. Sure, there are situations where it’s insane, but I feel that there are more situations where it’s just a dead card. Drawing them in multiples is the worst, and you don’t want to just jam your deck full of Swords. It makes the deck weaker against U/B, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take.
Since I’m not playing any Swords, Inkmoth Nexus isn’t worth running. I still want twenty-seven lands, so I included a Halimar Depths as a random utility card. The deck has a bunch of singleton and two-of cards that are good in specific matchups, so Halimar Depths helps with finding them.
2 Sun Titan, 0 Consecrated Sphinx
This was my way of hedging against U/B. Sphinx is bad against it since it dies instantly every time you play it. Sun Titan at least gives you some value. There’s also the potential of blowouts with Phantasmal Image. If U/B isn’t popular in your meta, I’d recommend a split of one of each.
The mirror is all about reaching 9 mana so you can play your 6-drop, leaving mana up for Mana Leak. Psychic Barrier trumps that plan. The card is live in the early game as well, countering Squadron Hawk, and is perfectly fine against almost any other deck.
2 Mental Misstep, 0 Spell Pierce
Everyone plays around Spell Pierce, so I get more value by bluffing it and not actually playing it. The Missteps allow me to run my spells into Spell Pierce and “get” people. They’re also pretty good against Goblin Guide.
Most people I talked to about my deck called me crazy for not running any Swords, but Gerry made Top 4 of SCG Boston without them, so I feel somewhat vindicated in my choices.
Time to battle!
Round 1 vs. Evan Berry (127th)
Mirror match. Game 1, I am a little short on lands and don’t exactly draw the best cards in my deck. [I think I might have misplayed, though, as I countered a Squadron Hawk with Mana Leak, when I really should have used Psychic Barrier. I was planning on saving the Psychic Barrier for the late game, but I really needed that Leak to counter his Gideon, which got me pretty good.]
Sideboarding: +2 Azure Mage, −1 Timely Reinforcements, −1 Dismember
Games 2 and 3 go much better, as Azure Mage proves its worth. Game 3 especially is a blowout as my opponent keeps a land-light hand and I Tectonic Edge him into oblivion.
Round 2 vs. Paul MacKinnon (8th)
Mono-Red. Game 1, my opponent mulls to 6 and I think I’m doing pretty well once I’ve drawn the miser’s Timely Reinforcements, but Hero of Oxid Ridge makes that whole plan silly and I lose pretty handily.
Sideboarding: +3 Flashfreeze, +3 Timely Reinforcements, +1 Day of Judgment, −2 Phantasmal Image, −2 Psychic Barrier, −2 Mana Leak, −1 Tectonic Edge
Games 2 and 3 work out pretty well for me, as I am able to bury him behind multiple Timely Reinforcements and Gideon. In Game 2, I catch him with his pants down tapping out with a massive Shrine of Burning Rage in play, sneaking in an Oblivion Ring to get rid of it. Game 3, my opponent floods out pretty badly after I deal with his initial threats. I try my best to punt the game, since Timely Reinforcements in fact only gains you 6 life when you have less life than your opponent, and I neglect to counter a Lightning Bolt that would kill my Emeria Angel with a Mental Misstep. [The second mistake wasn’t really that relevant, as he was at 1 life and I had lethal on board. But I did give him outs to win when I wasted the Reinforcements for no reason. Better lucky than good, I suppose.]
By now, I’m hoping that my luck holds out while I try to tighten up my play.
Round 3 vs. Dan Lanthier (3rd)
Dan is a former National Champion who’s looking to get back on the PT by running Splinter Twin. Game 1, I am stuck on lands a bit, so I can’t apply any pressure. I can’t afford to tap out play any threats, so we play draw-go for a while. I am able to deal with three of his Spellskites, but eventually he plays triple Deceiver Exarch at the end of one of my turns and I don’t have enough mana to fight through the Splinter Twin.
Sideboarding: +4 Flashfreeze, +2 Azure Mage, +2 Torpor Orb, −2 Oblivion Ring, −1 Day of Judgment, −1 Timely Reinforcements, −2 Sun Titan, −2 Phantasmal Image
In Game 2, I have a decent hand, but none of my sideboard cards. I am able to pressure him early with a Squadron Hawk and an Emeria Angel, but he is able to resolve a Deceiver Exarch a couple of turns before I can kill him. The counter war over the Deceiver leaves me without enough mana to Flashfreeze his Splinter Twin.
Well, I’m playing somewhat better, but not getting as lucky. Again, ’tis better to be lucky than good. I’m feeling pretty good about the draft, so with luck I can pull off a 3–0 and be in good shape to make Top 8.
The only players I recognize in my pod are Chris Taimla, a new player I know from London, and Mike Culligan. I start out taking Pacifism over Azure Mage and a couple of other good Blue cards. By the end of that pack, I pick up a second Pacifism and a few solid White flyers. I have a Shock and some mediocre Red cards, but I am not committed to it by any stretch of the imagination. In Pack 2, I am passed a Garruk, so I jump right into Green. Because I lose a few picks, I am scrounging somewhat for playables, but I do manage to pick up the Empire Tron.
Draft Deck 1
2 Pacifism
9 Forest
8 Plains
Round 4 vs. Andrew Noworaj (45th)
Andrew is one of the guys I roomed with in Nagoya, so I know we are in for a low-stress, high-jokes game. Game 1 is fairly close, but I succumb to a Spirit Mantle on a Siege Mastodon. Game 2, Andrew Diabolic Tutors for a Sengir Vampire and gets a hit in with it a couple turns later, but I am able to trump it with a Crown of Empires. Despite a Timely Reinforcements, I have the board pretty much locked down and am able to win without too much trouble. He tries to disrupt me with an Oblivion Ring on my artifact, but I have a sideboarded Demystify to ensure that Sengir is locked down for the rest of the game. Game 3, I manage to stabilize at 2 life, tapping down a Sengir Vampire with a Crown of Empires and making a token every turn with Throne of Empires, but not able to get any damage through. I brick for a few turns, but have enough of a board presence to feel comfortable attacking with a Greater Basilisk. I get a few hits in with it before trading it for two of Andrew’s creatures. The entire time, I’m drawing lands, so I’m pretty much dead to any card. He tries to go big with a Spirit Mantle on Vampire Outcasts, but I have a Pacifism to stop the shenanigans. Then I have the best possible draw: Scepter of Empires. I go off for a couple turns with the trifecta before attacking with about a million tokens.
Round 5 vs. Mike Culligan (31st)
Game 1 is ugly, as my opening hand is all Forests and White cards. I mulligan into all Plains and Green cards, but decide to keep anyway as there is a good chance I’ll draw a Forest. I don’t draw a Forest in time, and I get creamed by an assortment of Blue and Green Hexproof creatures. Game 2, I curve out and win handily with flyers and Honor of the Pure. Game 3 is my opponent’s turn to mulligan as he goes down to five cards. He has a decent start with turn-two Alluring Siren and a turn-three kicked Lurking Crocodile. Crikey! My hand doesn’t have much early action, and all I have is a turn-three unkicked Lurking Crocodile. Mike tries to get clever by trying to get me to swing my 2/2 into his 3/3, but I point out that the Crocodile does in fact have Islandwalk. The missed attack from his Croc doesn’t end up mattering as I play a bunch of creatures while he is stuck on three lands.
Round 6 vs. Alexandre Savoie (54th)
[I had an official feature match, so you can check it out on the mothership.] I don’t have much to add to it other than that I was very confused by the Smallpox. It actually hurt him more than it hurt me, since I had a bunch of cheap creatures and his was a control deck that needed to hit its land-drops. I knew what he had in his deck, and I sideboarded in an Autumn's Veil and a Demystify, but it ended up not mattering, as he didn’t draw Mind Control Games 2 and 3.
All right. So far, I’ve 3–0’d my last three professional-level drafts!
My next draft pod is quite a bit tougher, as it includes players who I know to be good, like Marc Anderson, Dan MacDonald, Alex Hayne, Matt Mealing, Andy Van Leuwen, and Shaun McLaren. I start out taking a Fireball out of a weak pack and am passed a bunch of solid Blue cards. I am definitely committed to Blue, but my second color I’m not sure about. I have some mediocre Red cards and some mediocre White cards. Pack 2, I basically only take Blue cards since nothing else is really coming. Pack 3, I open Aegis Angel and intend to move in on White, but I am passed two Gorehorn Minotaurs after that and no White cards, so I stick with U/R. Here’s what I end up with:
Draft Deck 2
2 Ice Cage
1 Redirect
1 Fireball
10 Island
8 Mountain
I am pretty happy with the deck, but the sheer number of Illusions in my deck makes me a little worried about playing against stuff like Gideon's Lawkeeper. I don’t usually like to play eighteen lands in this format, but I feel that it’s necessary with the high number of 4- and 5-drops. I do have double Azure Mage and Fireball, so flooding out wouldn’t be all that bad.
Round 7 vs. Andy van Leeuwen (38th)
My mono-Illusion deck lost pretty hardcore to his mono-targeter deck. I know I’m in for a bumpy road when the first two creatures he plays are Gideon's Lawkeeper and Goblin Tunneler. He even has stuff like Goblin War Paint to fizzle my Ice Cages. To be perfectly honest, I think if I played him a hundred times, he would beat me a hundred times. It was that miserable.
Shortly after Round 7, a judge finds me, holding a deck list in his hand. Uh-oh. That’s never a good thing. Turns out I miscounted my deck list and forgot to register my Tectonic Rift. Oops. The timing is just awful; I would have been happy to take a game loss against Andy, but now I have to win two straight games in my next match. If you’ve been paying attention, I’ve actually lost every single Game 1 today, so needless to say, I end the day on a sour note.
However, it was nothing a good steak with good friends couldn’t fix. I went to The Keg—which is kind of like a Ruth’s Chris for those of you not familiar with it—with Mike Vasovski, Rich Hoaen, and Josh Rider. Vegetarians may wish to skip the rest of this paragraph. Whenever I go out to eat at a nice place, I try to eat as many different animals as possible. Sushi is usually my go-to meal for this purpose, as I can eat beef, chicken, salmon, crab, shrimp, surf clam, snapper, and tuna in one sitting. I do love a good steak, though, so I went with a seafood sirloin, which is a modestly sized steak accompanied by lobster, shrimp, and scallops. HAAAAUMPH! Having slept about two hours the night before and just eaten a huge meal, I was all set to sleep like a dead man. Things didn’t go exactly according to plan; I woke up after two hours and couldn’t fall back asleep. I still had my trademark Five-Hour Energy with me for just such an occasion.
Round 8 vs. Dan MacDonald (39th)
Dan and I go way back, so if I had to lose, I wouldn’t mind that much losing to him. We’d talked the day before, so we pretty much knew what was in the other’s deck. He first-picked a Chandra and had assumed that I had cut him off from Red, but I explained that it just wasn’t coming. I had slightly better information than he did since I was feeding him in the draft, but any edge I would have gotten from that didn’t matter since I had to mulligan while he curved out.
I’m still in contention for Top 8 at this point, but I’ll have to go undefeated and even then it would come down to tiebreakers. As much as I don’t want to beat myself up over the deck-registration error, truth be told, I’m very upset with myself. There’s no way to know if I would have won that match without the game loss, but I made things much harder on me than they should have been.
Round 9 vs. Alex Hayne (33rd)
True to form, I lose Game 1 on the back of a mulligan. [I don’t recall too many details of that game, but looking at my score pad, it wasn’t close—he was at 20 life when I died.] Game 2 is a back-and-forth affair. He starts out with some early aggression until we reach a stalemate with my Belltower Sphinx and Amphin Cutthroat holding off his team of Aven Fleetwing joined by a couple of ground durdles. Azure Mage is very good at breaking stalemates, as I draw into a second Belltower Sphinx and begin attacking with one and leaving his twin back to block. My card-draw engine only lasts for a few turns; it’s taken out by a Sorin's Thirst, but by then, the damage has been done. Alex tries to get back into it by playing a Doom Blade on one of my Sphinxes, but I’m ready for it. I counter with a Redirect and force him to destroy his own Aven Fleetwing instead. We have to call a judge over to verify that I can indeed do that, but I already know it’s a legal play since the only thing I’m targeting is the Doom Blade. My old friend Duncan McGregor comes by and backs me up. I have enough of a board presence to start attacking with both flyers, but Alex makes it close with a Blood Seeker and double AEther Adept pecking away at my life total. It isn’t enough, and we shuffle up for Game 3. This time it’s Alex’s turn to mulligan, and I have the dreaded double Phantasmal Bear draw. They both trade with an AEther Adept, but not before getting some damage in. My Dragons also make an appearance, though the first one eats a Doom Blade. The second one sticks, and when he declines to chump-block with his Devouring Swarm, I Fireball him out. I even hold two lands the entire time to play around Mind Rot.
While I’m certainly not happy to 1–2 the pod, I’m finally playing some good Magic, at least. As long as I can keep playing tight, I can still make a run at Top 8. I just need to catch a few breaks on the way.
Round 10 vs. Ben Moir (12th)
This proves to be a fairly frustrating round. Ben is on U/R Twin, and Game 1 is very strange. Despite going through several cantrips and using a Shrine of Piercing Vision as a Demonic Tutor, he can’t quite combo off. This sounds like I should have won easily, but I’m unable to pressure him due to his Grim Lavamancer, which starts pecking away at my life total once I run out of Hawks. Even once I have enough mana to starting getting in there with Celestial Colonnade while leaving mana up to disrupt his combo, he’s able to kill it with a combination of Deceiver Exarch and Grim Lavamancer. I try for a Sun Titan later only to have it Mana Leaked. I have the mana to pay for it, but it would leave me tapped out and I have the second Titan in hand anyway, so I let it happen. The second Titan resolves, but Ben finally combos out on his last turn to live while I’ve run out of counters/Into the Roils.
For Game 2, I decide to send back my opening hand of Tectonic Edge and no other lands. The next hand is exactly the same—except without the Tectonic Edge. The next hand still has no lands. I see a land in my four-card hand and snap-keep. Despite mulling to four, I play a turn-three Jace Beleren, only to have it Mana Leaked. Boooooooooooooo!
I don’t miss a land-drop after that and start getting in there with Celestial Colonnade, but his sideboarded Dragonmaster Outcast eventually gets me.
Sideboarding: +4 Flashfreeze, +2 Azure Mage, +2 Torpor Orb, −2 Oblivion Ring, −1 Day of Judgment, −1 Timely Reinforcements, −2 Sun Titan, −2 Phantasmal Image
I wish Ben luck and try not to let the match bother me, but deep down, I’m very upset. I’m not normally one to go on tilt after a loss. I’ve done plenty of losing in my day, and win or lose, I’m usually in good spirits. A run like this is enough to crush the soul of almost anyone, but I’m determined not to let my somber mood lead to sloppy plays. There is still a Top 16 and a pro point on the line, so I need to move on.
Round 11 vs. Nina Illingworth (43rd)
I haven’t met her before, but I’ve heard that Nina is an FNM champion from one of the stores in the Toronto area. She’s built up her rating to the 2000s strictly from winning FNM each week, and Nats is one of her first major tournaments. I had scouted her deck earlier, but it proves to be unnecessary as she puts her deck face-up on the table when she sits down, revealing a Squadron Hawk. Despite being a mirror, the match is over pretty quickly. Game 1, she has a land-light hand, and I am able to stay ahead of her at every turn. Jace Beleren ensures that I’ll win any wars of attrition, and I set up my play of “run Gideon into Spell Pierce with Misstep in hand” perfectly. I even have the second land to play for the Pierce, but it is a Tectonic Edge, so I’m able to do both. Game 2, my Azure Mage runs away with it (I only boarded in one, mise!), and I outmaneuver her attempts to get back in the game.
Sideboarding: +1 Azure Mage, +2 Revoke Existence, −1 Timely Reinforcements, −2 Dismember. I brought in the Revokes because she was playing Oblivion Rings.
This is probably the best I’ve played all tournament, and it certainly helps me to get my confidence back. All I have to do now is win one more round.
Round 12 vs. Mitchell McCulloch (18th)
I ask Mitchell if the Top 16 is relevant to him, and mention that I am trying to hit Level 3 this year. I don’t want to make it sound like I expect people to scoop to me, because I don’t. I will never fault someone for wanting to play Magic at a Magic tournament. I’m just hoping to catch a break for once. I get no-sir’ed, so we battle. Mitchell’s first play of the game is a turn-two Fauna Shaman. Oh, man. Vengevine is kind of a nightmare for me. He goes nuts with it, but I’m able to set up a line of play that would lead to victory. I have both Timely Reinforcements and Day of Judgment in hand, with plenty of land and double Tectonic Edge. While he is stocking his graveyard with Vengevines, I plan to double Wasteland him turn four, let him attack me with all his Vengevines, then play Timely Reinforcements on turn five, and wipe his board on turn six. This would leave him with no hand, two lands, and no other permanents. Things go as I planned, with one major snag: The turn before I am going to clear the board, he draws (draws, not tutors for) a Hero of Oxid Ridge and has exact mana to play it with the two Birds of Paradise to kill me.
Game 2, Mitchell once again has a turn-two Fauna Shaman, which I snap-Dismember. He plays a second while I play a kicked Into the Roil followed by a Day of Judgment to prevent it from becoming active. He then naturally draws two Vengevines anyway. I tread water for a few turns with a couple of Timely Reinforcements, but can’t find a second Wrath to stabilize, and die to his massive army.
Sideboarding: +3 Timely Reinforcements, +2 Day of Judgment, +2 Flashfreeze, −2 Mana Leak, −2 Psychic Barrier, −2 Mental Misstep, −1 Halimar Depths
As a further kick in the nuts, Mitchell misses Top 16 on tiebreakers, while I would have squeaked in at sixteenth with a win.
And so ends a personally disappointing Nationals. As much as I want to complain about my bad luck, there were definitely things that were in my control that I could have done better. While I didn’t do very well, I still had a good time overall, and it was certainly a good feeling to be featured in the official coverage. I unfortunately have to skip GP: Pittsburgh, as the money I would have to spend on the trip is probably better used buying textbooks and fixing up my car. I’m still definitely going to the PT, and with luck, I can convert it into a Worlds invitation. I’m fairly close to qualifying on rating, despite my 7–5 at Nationals, so I just need to have a decent showing.
Anyone have a good Modern deck?
Until next time,
Nassim Ketita
