Magic the Gathering in Ontario - Regionals 11th Place Part 2: Deadly Insects

Who knew insects could be so deadly? All hail Gigapede, new king of the U/G Sideboard!!!

Welcome to the second part of my tourney report. At this point, I am seeing a lot of G/B and a lot of Wake. I've played against G/B before with mixed results. G/B was something I wasn't worried about, but Wake scared the crap out of me. Wake is a difficult deck to play and expensive to build. This generally means that scrubs won't be running it. Also at this point, our team was doing well as we are sporting four 3-1 records. I know this is marginal but definitely unexpected. Viner seemed to have managed to get things under control after a first round loss and Charles was making adolescent boys drool uncontrollably at his foil Birds and foil Angels. Our two R/G decks were also doing better than I had imagined at 3-1 and Dennis (who got a first round bye) was doing alright for himself. Anyways, I was still in disbelief that Hansen was 3-1 (I expected him to finish one game below .500). Back to the event.

Round 5 - Matt Tee playing MBC (yay for me, another opponent that will Smother my Hounds)
Matt was also a nice kid. I am quite surprised that I haven't run into too many idiots. I wasn't thrilled about the threat of auto-losing the first game but if Kurt Angle can win a medal with a broken neck, then I can beat MBC the first game.

Game 1: I get out a second turn Mongrel. He tries to Edict me on his turn but a Rootwalla takes the hit. I bring out another Hound and Matt sees his life total go down lower than a White House intern. He Smothers a Mongrel but I respond with an Arrogant Wurm and a Lizard at the end of his turn. Next turn sees him packing up his cards after I flash him a Logic. At this point, I'm kinda liking seeing a Coffers on the other side. Lets see how he deals with Compost.

Game 2: Turns two and three I drop Composts. He sighs, knowing that this will be difficult, if not impossible. I bring out an Aquamoeba and a Mongrel and he Bloods twice, giving 4 cards, yielding me a Lizard and 3 lands. I bring out a Rootwalla and take him down to 16 (pumping once). He Smothers the Lizard which nets me another two cards. Out comes a 4/4 Wurm and it gets Edicted. I play a Gigapede and pass. On his turn, he looks at his lands (6 Swamps) and shakes his head. I swear it's as if I could read his mind. He was saying in his head, "If I only had one more land, I could Edict and Echoes". As predicted, he Edicts and I get the Insect back during my Upkeep, not wanting to keep him in the game. I play the Gigapede and pass. He Echoes (I forget to draw from Composts), taking most of my creatures (including Wonder). He passes. I swing for six. He Bloods. I play the Insect and pass. He Mutilates. I play the Insect and pass. He does nothing but look at his hand and use it to scoop.

Comments: So far, MBC has proven to be a cake walk. Gigapede has made me a believer. However, this will just provoke people to side Plague against U/G. I gather my things and talk to my fellow Londoners. I say to Charles, "The worst I can do now is 4-5 and I think I can live with that".

9-3 games, 4-1 matches

Round 6 - Namir Faraj playing Burning Slide
Nice guy, we exchange pleasantries and proceed to play. When I realize that he is playing Slide, I have mixed reactions. A part of me wants to be happy as I will most likely win after boarding. The more reasonable part of me is praying I draw into my Quiet Specs and that he doesn't see an Angel the whole match.

Game 1: This game is very long. I rush him with creatures and he resolves a face down Angel. I let him attack me the following turn as I have no Wonder. Next turn I Unsummon the Angel and Logic it when he finally brings it back down. He waits to bring out the Angel as I am beating him down and he couldn't afford to spend six mana for one of mine. Soon after the Logic takes his Angel, he Wraths. I am left with almost nothing in hand and he drops a Faithful. He pummels me with the Cleric for five turns and I eventually play two Wonders and a Lizard. He eventually manages to get a Slide and two Rifts out with me at 5. I swing with two Wonders for the win. I shake his hand after only one game as that game felt like an entire match. One small note on the game was that he couldn't resolve a Wished for Morningtide. I guess he didn't like Quiet Spec much.

Game 2: This game was quicker as my second turn yields 3 Rays via Spec. The expression on his face says it all. I proceed to play creatures and Logic the Morningtide. He never plays an enchantment. I guess that he is waiting for me to bring out a token so he can at least use it. I deny him of the pleasure with a steady stream of other creatures. I would only bring the tokens out if he Wrathed. He does and asks if I had a Logic. I proceed to tap for a blue mana and he extends his hand for the second time this match.

Comments: That first game took a lot out of me. I really had to do a lot of thinking there. It also gave me little time to gather myself for the next match. "At least I'm guaranteed to go above .500" is what I said to the group. Please don't mistake me for a negative person. I just know that opponents get harder as you win. At this point, I am very happy with myself, as I haven't made any crucial mistakes. Also, I realized that U/G wasn't a good deck to play today as the field seemed to be out for it.

11-3, 5-1

Round 7 - Justin Casier playing Wishing Tog with only 1 Upheaval and a Future Sight
Game 1: The first game sees me beating him down with Arrogant Wurms and Wonders (I tend to be killing a lot of people with Wonders today). He doesn't see much (if any) card draw and can't remove my creatures.

Game 2: He kills all my creatures and attacks me with Tog, point by point. I never see a Compost.

Game 3: He kills everything I can throw at him. I finally draw into my Gigapede but to my dismay, he names Insect when Plague came into play. He proceeds to attack my Tog as I stare at the Insect in my hand, along with the one doing some yard work. He finishes me off with a Wished for Read the Runes.

Comments: Justin is perhaps the nicest guy I have played against. In the third game, I made a mistake and he let me take it back. He told me that to him, there were more important things in life than winning. This surprised me as the move was important and letting me take the move back may cost him a Nationals invite. I know that there are few that would have done what he did and I commend him for it. After the match we talked about what he did and why he did it. I am glad to say that he got his invite, despite being a better person as opposed to a better player. Thanks for the match Justin, and good luck at Nationals. The standings were posted and I was at 25th place. I thought this was pretty good considering I didn't really playtest and I'm a total rookie to competitive play.

12-5, 5-2

Round 8 - Bill Ruderman playing R/G
This is the matchup I had wished for. I like playing against R/G with bounce at my disposal.

Game 1: WOW!?! My good hand turns into a bad one when he Hammers my blue Beast. I get beat down by Hounds, Lizards and Cats.

Game 2: I finally get to board in my Turbulent Dreams! I bring out a turn 2 'moeba and then a Hound. He pulls out the Bridge and all I can do is attack with a 'moeba. He Guides my Mongrel, hoping to prevent it from attacking. I proceed to put big creatures out as he burns me. He plays a face down creature which delays my plans. I bring out a token and know it will be over soon. He flashes back a Firebolt, tapping out. PERFECT! I tap two blue mana and pitch two cards, returning his Cat and Bridge. We then shuffle for the next game after a lethal attack.

Game 3: After this match, he tells me that he boarded out Bridge. The Dreams must have really messed with his head for him to do that. Anways, this is quick. It was procedure ('moeba, Mongrel) and he concedes after going down to 8. I couldn't kill him the next turn but I guess he thought it was a battle no longer worth fighting after a Guided Elephant was dismissed for one blue mana. FYI, I had another Unsummon and a Dreams in hand when the game ended.

Comments: Losing the first game really worried me, as it only happened once before and I'd lost that match. At this point, my confidence is at a high as I am now ranked 15th. Jon (one of the guys I came down with) tells me that I surprised him. He tells me that he knew I wasn't a scrub, but he expected Charles and Viner to do better. I told him that I probably know my deck better than most people know theirs. I also told him that I haven't made any big mistakes. I lost because either I got mana screwed (which is a risk I decided to take so it's still my fault, I hate people who claim to not lose except by being screwed) or my opponent just played better. I know that I didn't beat myself.

14-6, 6-2

Round 9 - Andy Kornet playing MBC
Oh man, another deck running Smothers. Do people really hate Mongrels that much? C'mon people, they're only 2/2. What's the big deal? Anyways, Andy tells me that he's a scrub and that he is playing for bragging rights. I guess his friends give him a hard time. I sure hope that he did better than they did. {Hey, watch what you're saying there. We in Sarnia love ol' Andy and we were amazed at his awesome performance. Sarnia - our scrubs can beat your scrubs any day! And for the record 3 of us did better than him. Trent}

Game 1: He can't draw enough removal to save him from an onslaught that only U/G is capable of. He spends a turn Tutoring while I hold a Logic. I play a token and then Logic his Mutilate. Onto game 2. I have yet to lose a single game to MBC.

Game 2: I play aggressively and am rewarded by a resolved Mutilate. I play the Gigapede and after having him kill it three times, it eventually takes 16 life (that was all he had) from him and I extend my hand in relief.

Comments: I felt really bad for him, as it would have been great for him to go 7-2 to tell his friends. I also felt really bad for taking the match in about seven minutes. {Don't feel bad for Andy - he was ecstatic about performing so well. Feel bad for the people that got beat by his 1547 rating (1640 now).}

The Aftermath
I felt relieved that I would get some of my money back from this. Me and Viner were talking about how I was gonna shoot up in points, seeing as I had entered the day with a 1693 rating (1780 now). I think everyone in our group was happy for me as I stepped forward to claim 24 packs. Everyone in our group came out at least .500. I was very pleased to not have played against Wake but was disappointed to not have played against B/G or more R/G. I was also surprised to have done so well with all the hate pointed towards U/G.

Props
- The group (Charles, Mike, Dennis, Jon, Hansen and myself) for a good group effort.
- Justin for being a nice guy to play and a better person to chat with.
- My girlfriend Kelly for being able to play Magic (she played R/G and Slide for me to test against).
- My deck for not forcing me to mulligan too many times and for being almost all foils to provide the intimidation factor.

Slops
- Cory for being a sore loser, a disingenuous handshake, and not admitting that you lost to me (and not a freaking deck check).
- Tog for providing me with my two losses, without ever casting an Upheaval.
- Moving apartments for preventing me from doing serious playtesting.

John Michura