When we left off last week, I had endured a brutal week of testing. My original brews, various attempts at aggro, all fell short at the twin giants of Valakut and Eldrazi Ramp. Make no mistake, Primeval Titan is the axis that this meta rotates on. Everything I built would either be not fast enough, or not disruptive enough. I wasn't a good control player, and my attempt at U/W control couldn't seem to deal with either Primeval Titan decks, no matter how it was built.

I'm not a control player at heart, and I was focused on winning, so I thought the best course would be to stick to my guns. Play green. Play beatdown.

I won't bore you with the particulars of our playtesting or gauntlet because frankly, they weren't super productive. We found we had decks that could beat either U/W or Primeval decks, but if they were a favorite to one they were a ridiculous dog to the other. Our attempts at aggro were mostly fruitless, with the frontrunner being the Glint Hawk/Quest for the Holy Relic metalcraft aggro deck. We had versions both with the Quest and versions without. The Quest version was more explosive but also more dicey; if it didn't draw Quest it was just too slow to beat Eldrazi or get blown out by a Day of Judgment. The version without was fairly consistent, but still a bit too slow.

I didn't trust any aggro deck for a fairly lengthy tournament. It frustrated me to look at a selection of decks that packed straight-up weak cards (Ornithopter, Llanowar Elves, Ember Hauler, among other stinky selections) when the other decks were playing format-defining powerhouses. I tend to hate casting weak-but-synergistic cards, which is likely what drew me to Mythic in the first place.

With that in mind, I decided to settle on the best beatdown deck in the format: Green Eldrazi Ramp. It was consistent, it had mana ramp, and it was casting the most powerful cards in the format. I settled on this list the Friday before States, hoping to take my lumps at FNM before the long day ahead:

[cardlist]

[Creatures]

4 Joraga Treespeaker

4 Overgrown Battlement

4 Primeval Titan

2 Wurmcoil Engine

1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth

1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

4 Explore

3 Cultivate

2 Growth Spasm

3 All is Dust

4 Summoning Trap

[/Spells]

[Lands]

4 Eldrazi Temple

1 Eye of Ugin

4 Verdant Catacombs

4 Khalni Garden

3 Tectonic Edge

10 Forest

1 Swamp

[/Lands]

[Sideboard]

4 Memoricide

4 Obstinate Baloth

4 Nature’s Claim

2 Ratchet Bomb

1 Terrastodon

[/Sideboard]

[/cardlist]

I sleeved up this juggernaut and went to town on my local FNM, winning every game en route to a perfect record on the night.

Oh wait, actually I went 2-2 drop. The deck was strong, and it's nut draws were absolutely the best thing you could be doing in the format, but it wasn't interactive. My opponents could do anything they wanted and I was forced to sit there and watch. Listen to me, wanting to interact with my opponent! I felt like a bad beatdown player, actually wanting to play Magic with my opponents.

But it was too late to change decks, I had made my choice. I was going to win States, and this deck gave me the best chance I felt. Winning was everything, so I went to bed set on Eldrazi.

Then I woke up at 8:30am. I woke up not looking forward to spending a long day playing a deck that wasn't fun, wasn't interactive, and I didn't have a ton of faith in. If sticking to my guns meant my first States was going to be a boring and likely frustrating affair, then my guns needed some anti-adhesive.

I pulled up all the usual suspect MTG sites, and sifted quickly through every non-Primeval Titan deck I could find. I settled on Patrick Chapin's U/w/r build mostly because I knew U/R Destructive Force was a solid choice with a lot of game against the field and this list looked similar, and it ran Venser, the Sojourner, who I'd been dying to play since I traded very hard to get them and as you might have read on this column, I was a big fan of his potential.

With that change of heart, I pulled the always-smart 8:30am no-testing audible:

[cardlist]

[Creatures]

4 Sea Gate Oracle

2 Frost Titan

[/Creatures]

[Spells]

4 Preordain

4 Mana Leak

2 Stoic Rebuttal

2 Pyroclasm

3 Lightning Bolt

2 Into the Roil

1 Volition Reins

4 Spreading Seas

1 Ratchet Bomb

4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

2 Venser, the Sojourner

[/Spells]

[Lands]

4 Celestial Colonnade

4 Scalding Tarn

1 Arid Mesa

1 Tectonic Edge

2 Glacial Fortress

1 Evolving Wilds

7 Island

4 Mountain

1 Plains

[/Lands]

[Sideboard]

4 Negate

4 Flashfreeze

2 Flame Slash

1 Day of Judgment

1 Volition Reins

1 Celestial Purge

1 Jace Beleren

1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

[/Lands]

[/cardlist]

Yup, one hour before the player meeting I decided to switch to a deck I've never played, an archetype I've never played, and I wasn't totally sure what all the cards were there for. But I wanted to play Magic, and I wanted to interact. I would be doing a lot of that today.

A short while later and we were at the venue, I had to keep looking at my deck, as I couldn't register it from memory, a sad departure as usually I know my deck by heart.

Round 1: U/W Control

Early on in game 1, I was able to stick a Jace and proceed to play draw-go for a while as we countered each others spells. Eventually he ran out of Tectonic Edges and my Colonnades were able to go get there, thanks to the tremendous card advantage provided by Jace.

Game 2 was a mirror, he stuck a Jace Beleren on turn 3 and despite some back-and-forth, he was always ahead on tempo and pulled it out. We only had 11 minutes before time as we started Game 3.

I felt that the game was locked up as I had a Jace, TMS Brainstorming for a couple turns, even though I was still a bit mana light at 5 lands. My opponent was tapped out and I tapped out to resolve a Venser, figuring his ultimate would give me the game. While Venser resolved, he spent his turn casting Volition Rein s, stealing my Venser and putting him to 7 loyalty. I had a Volition Reins in my hand, but only 5 lands. My draw step yielded a 6^th land, but it was a Celestial Colonnade, forcing me to wait another turn.

My opponent cast ANOTHER Volition Reins, opting to steal my land instead of Jace, and ticking Venser up to 9. My draw step yielded another blank, leaving Jace's Brainstorm as my last hope. I drew a Mountain, and went for it. Volition Reins got my own Venser back, who immediately went Ultimate. I passed the turn back and time was called during my opponent's turn, giving me 3 turns to take him from nearly full life to zero.

I had yet to play with Venser's ultimate in a non-playtest environment, but it's not quite like playing Magic. It's like playing Candyland with your 4-year old niece, where you let her move any number of spaces regarding of dice rolls. No matter what I had in my hand, they were all Vindicates. I cast a Frost Titan and Spreading Seas, getting back my stolen Colonnade and systematically eliminating all of my opponent's lands. On the final turn of before it would be declared a draw, I was able to eek out a win.

1-0

Round 2: Elves

This match I felt was in my favor due to the mainboard Pyroclasm and Lightning Bolt, but I didn't see either of those in my generic opening hand. By turn 5 I was dead from a combination of several Elves and an Overrun.

Game 2 I kept a hand with several anti-aggro cards and was able to keep the swarm in check before landing a lethal Frost Titan. Game 3 was a bit slower, but eventually a Frost Titan landed and took the game home, with my graveyard containing countless counterspells and burn cards.

2-0

Round 3: Goblins with Equipment

Similar to last round, I kept a generically good opening hand but it wasn't tailored for such a fast deck and despite keeping them at bay, eventually he got there before I could stabilize.

Games 2 and 3 followed the same path: Loaded up with Pyroclasms and Lightning Bolts and 10 counterspells, nothing stuck and Frost Titans hit the board while I was still at double-digit life totals.

3-0

Round 4: Quest for the Holy Relic Aggro

I played against Josh Hall, a local CoolStuff player. We both knew what the other was playing, and I knew it was a horrible match-up pre- and post-board. I had no answer for the Quest, and since it triggers from casting and not entering the battlefield, my counterspells didn't really stall him either.

He easily won game 1 but unlike the two previous rounds, I didn't have much to board in. Against Elves and Red I boarded in 7/8 cards, but as my Flashfreezes and Celestial Purge weren't any good against a mono-white deck, I could only bring in 3 cards. My deck flailed around in game 2, feeling like it still carried too many dead-weight cards, and I took my first match loss on the day.

3-1

Round 5: R/b Aggro

While trying not to get on tilt, I was still discouraged by the amount of random dork aggro. The deck was loaded out mainboard for U/W mirrors, and Primeval Titan decks. Game 1 I kept a great hand (on the play) of: Scalding Tarn, Scalding Tarn, Mana Leak, Pyroclasm, Sea Gate Oracle, Jace, and Venser. Despite his Goblin Guide trying to help me along, I never saw a third land and got overrun.

Game 2 went in my favor much like previous games against aggro, using Bolts and counters to stall until a Frost Titan sealed up the game. Game 3 I kept a dicey hand, it had a Pyroclasm and Bolt with 2 lands, but no red. Despite that, it had a few counters and I thought it might be good enough. In hindsight I probably should have mulled, but I don't know what I would have drawn that would be better. If I draw a red land it's a blow out. Of course, he landed 2 Goblin Guides, overturning lands two at a time, and never found a red source. I was able to hold out a while, but in the end I was in range of his burn, and with that I was out of top 8 contention.

3-2

Round 6: U/G/B Infect

These were a quick two wins, he said his deck dominated other aggro decks but with my Bolts and counters he never got more than 3 poison counters on me.

4-2

Round 7: Valakut

Finally, the big boogeyman. I felt confident since the deck was supposed to be good against it. Game 1 was a close affair, but I couldn't draw extra Spreading Seas to keep his Valakut number down and he eventually got me low enough for a Bolt to finish me off.

Post board I had the game in total lockdown. Soon I could cast a Frost Titan with counter mana backup, my hand had 3 Flashfreezes, I was in control. Then he played Gaea's Revenge. I read it. Looked at my hand. Read it. Looked at my hand. Next turn I had to cast the Frost Titan early for defense, but with a quick 2 Bolts (paying the extra for Frost Titan's ability), my lone defender was off the board and with him, my tournament was over.

4-3

All in all I was happy with my audible. A 3-0 start fumbling to 4-3 is never exciting, but a lot of that was bad luck and probably suboptimal play. I couldn't blame a bad deck choice, as it performed incredibly well and I believe there's only a couple tweaks I would make, and that's mostly local meta-based.

In the end I had a lot of fun, and that's probably the most important thing.

Tune in next week where I'll go over what I learned from States, and digest the results from around the nation and predict how the meta evolves going forward.