Unfortunately my pre-release story begins a lot like most of my recently big event recaps have; with me feeling sick and feverish the night before the event itself. As previously mentioned I have a chronic lung infection that flares up pretty much every winter and my options for treating it involve powerful anti-biotics who's side effects I find unacceptable or "moving to Arizona". Since I find neither particularly palpable I typically try to gut out winters on a year by year basis but it's safe to say this *significantly* affects my ability to play Magic competitively. Undaunted I forced myself out of bed on the morning of the event and with Leon's assistance managed to navigate the hour long subway ride from my apartment to the Hairy T North.
Once we arrived at the North end store I was shocked to find that about 20 other players had already registered; Leon had insisted we leave at precisely 11 AM so he could help set up the tournament so we were there about an hour and change early. By the time the event started we had swelled to 44 players and staff had pulled out additional tables and chairs. In order to ensure that everyone played fairly this tournament was run with a pool registration; players opened 3 packs of SoM and 3 packs of their chosen faction and after registering what cards were in the packs passed the pool to someone else. This person would then confirm that they had received exactly the same pool that had been listed; if a player was later found with cards in his deck that weren't on the list during a random deck check he/she would be immediately disqualified. After opening and registering a fairly mediocre pool for someone else (more on this later) I was passed the cards I would use for the rest of the tournament:
White Cards - (14):
1x Revoke Existence
1x Sunspear Shikari
1x Whitesun's Passage
2x Ardent Recruit
1x Kemba's Legion
2x Leonin Relic-Warder
1x Leonin Skyhunter
1x Loxodon Partisan
1x Master's Call
1x Victory's Herald
1x White Sun's Zenith
1x Halt Order
1x Riddlesmith
1x Screeching Silcaw
1x Shape Anew
1x Steady Progress
1x Stoic Rebuttal
1x Turn Aside
1x Cryptoplasm
1x Mirran Spy
1x Neurok Commando
1x Quicksilver Geyser
2x Spire Servant
1x Treasure Mage
2x Turn the Tide
Black Cards - (5):
1x Grasp of Darkness
1x Instill Infection
1x Necrogen Scudder
1x Plague Stinger
1x Go for the Throat
1x Blade-Tribe Berserkers
1x Oxidda Daredevil
1x Scoria Elemental
1x Spikeshot Elder
2x Blisterstick Shaman
1x Burn the Impure
1x Concussive Bolt
1x Crush
1x Gnathosaur
1x Goblin Wardriver
1x Ogre Resister
1x Rally the Forces
1x Blight Mamba
1x Carapace Forger
1x Copperhorn Scout
1x Cystbearer
1x Molder Beast
1x Slice in Twain
1x Tel-Jilad Defiance
1x Viridian Revel
1x Wing Puncture
1x Withstand Death
1x Fangren Marauder
1x Lead the Stampede
1x Tangle Mantis
Artifacts - (22):
1x Contagion Clasp
1x Glint Hawk Idol
1x Golden Urn
1x Horizon Spellbomb
1x Grafted Exoskeleton
1x Horizon Spellbomb
1x Infiltration Lense
1x Iron Myr
1x Neurok Replica
1x Palladium Myr
1x Razorfield Thresher
1x Sylvok Lifestaff
1x Vulshok Replica
3x Copper Carapace
1x Gust Skimmer
2x Hexplate Golem
1x Shriekhorn
1x Signal Pest
1x Spin Engine
1x Training Drone
1x Seachrome Coast
When I first looked at this pool I was pretty disappointed; in particular I had been looking for more copies of key Mirran commons like Burn the Impure and Leonin Skyguard. I also had just enough good blue cards to force me to waste time looking at it but not enough to justify actually playing the color. Technically the Seachrome Coast would have made it possible to splash but unfortunately the two best blue cards in the pack had UU in their casting cost (Cryptoplasm, Stoic Rebuttal). Like most Mirran players in the room I found myself firmly planted into red/white; at least my rares supported this idea (Spikeshot Elder, Victory's Herald and White Sun's Zenith).
Once I'd figured out what colors I was playing constructing the deck was pretty easy. One of the very first things I'd noticed while reading the Mirrodin Besieged Spoiler is that the factions had essentially flipped roles. In SoM Infect/Phyrexian decks were typically speedy aggro builds that tried to end the game before turn 6; beating them with Metalcraft/Mirran decks became a function of surviving these early turns and holding on long enough to play a ridiculous 6CC "bomb" or two. In MBS however the Phyrexian decks had by and large the more powerful and of course more expensive cards and the Mirran faction was relegated to trying to win the game before it really got started through flying, cheap removal and the Battle Cry mechanic. Additionally while the Phyrexian faction had the most powerful cards in the format their decks lacked both speed and consistency. From turn 5 onward an Infect player's spells would likely outclass most of what the Mirran faction had to offer but barring a very solid pool of SoM cards the first 4 turns clearly belonged to the good guys. This pushed me towards attempting to build the fastest aggro deck possible; if I couldn't hang with the plague-ridden zombies in the late game I decided to focus all of my efforts on ensuring that we'd never get there! Naturally of course this strategy was not without some risk; Sealed deck formats are traditionally much slower affairs that focus on attrition and the proper application of big, expensive bombs. While I still intended to play my Angel and the White Sun's Zenith my deck would otherwise fly in the face of traditional sealed deck theory; the result could well be a complete disaster. Once I'd finally built the initial deck I kept pouring over my cards to make sure I hadn't missed anything and complete some last minute "tweaks". In particular I decided to remove a Signal Pest and my lone copy of Rally the Forces to include a last minute Go for the Throat and the extra Swamp necissary to cast it. This obviously argued with my "win the game before it starts" strategy but I just couldn't resist the point and click kill option at that point and I felt and still feel that it made the deck stronger. When round 1 started this is the list I ultimately ran:
"Goblins Love Catpeople" - R/W Speed Aggro:
Creatures - 14 (15):
1x Spikeshot Elder
1x Glint Hawk Idol
1x Goblin Wardriver
1x Iron Myr
2x Leonin Relic-Warder
1x Leonin Skyhunter
1x Sunspear Shikari
2x Blisterstick Shaman
1x Palladium Myr
1x Spin Engine
1x Vulshok Replica
1x Ogre Resister
1x Victory's Herald
Spells - 9 (10):
1x Copper Carapace
1x Slyvok Lifestaff
1x Burn the Impure
1x Contagion Clasp
1x Go for the Throat
1x Revoke Existence
1x Master's Call
1x Concussive Bolt
1x White Sun's Zenith
Land - 17:
7x Mountain
8x Plains
2x Swamp
What makes this deck good?: Blisteringly fast and extremely aggressive this deck should have no real trouble dominating early games in the Sealed deck format. For a sealed deck the mana curve on this build is ridiculous; 3 solid 1 drops (Goblin, 2 Equips), 6 hyper aggressive 2 drops and an Iron Myr and finally 5 solid 3 drops make for an incredibly quick swarming strategy. Even better virtually all of these early monsters had some form of value added; 5 of them functioned as removal, 3 have some form of evasion ability (flying, can't block), 2 of them were mana Myr and 3 of them had random useful abilities (Shikari, Wardriver and Vulshok Replica). Even the deck's combat tricks and removal spells were somewhat under-costed at 2 and 3 mana; although getting maximum value out of the Contagion Clasp typically meant paying 4+ mana later on to proliferate the -1/-1 token it distributed. Of course even a deck geared towards dominating the first 4 turns needs ways to finish opponents off in the mid to late game and while this deck wasn't exactly loaded with them cards like Concussive Bolt, White Sun's Zenith and Victory's Herald filled this role nicely. Probably the best example of these concepts all coming together occurred in my first round against a fellow Mirran player. I cast an end-step Master's Call with a Lifestaff toting Goblin Warcaller already in play and attacked my surprised opponent for 7 . When he left back a couple of blockers I dropped a White Sun's Zenith on his next endstep to create 4x 2/2 Cat Tokens, untapped and cast Concussive Bolt with active Metalcraft to alpha-strike for the win.
What problems does this deck have?: Predictably any deck that goes this far out of it's way to control the early game has to sacrifice something; in this case mid game power. When your entire mid/end game consists of an Ogre Resister, a Concussive Bolt and two WWW spells you'd rather not cast until you have at least 6 mana it's safe to say you won't be the favorite in a long game. Additionally while this deck is excellent at controlling artifacts and creatures with 3 or less toughness it struggles against larger non-artifact creatures. For example my one loss on Saturday resulted primarily from my opponent playing a couple of 4 toughness red creatures with Battle cry; I had kept a slow hand full of removal and drew very few creatures. When I finally lost the game I had a Burn the Impure in my hand still simply because it wasn't worth spending on a 1/1 Myr token and it couldn't kill my opponent's 4/4 beatstick. This vulnerability is ultimately why I decided to risk draw consistency on splashing a single black spell; otherwise I would completely be at the mercy of cards like Carnafex Deomon, Horde Smelter Dragon or Consecrated Sphinx for example.
If you could do it all over again how would you make this deck better?: Oddly enough there is in fact very little I would change about this deck given the card pool I was passed. Copper Carapace was way more effective than I had originally thought in such an aggressive build; it consistently outperformed Sylvok Lifestaff and I probably should have included 2 copies in the main deck at the expense of said Lifestaff. I also found myself frequently sideboarding out the Iron Myr for Rally the Forces in game 2 but that may have been because I played all Mirran opponents and they usually had a decent amount of artifact removal in their pools.
Unfortunately by the time Round 1 began I was already feeling sick and worn out from the trip to the store and the excitement of the event. I'd started feeling deep bone chills again on the subway ride up and they were consistently getting worse as the afternoon wore on and my fever continued to rise. This is probably the reason why I remember very little about the matches I actually did play. I know I faced three people I know and consider friends and that I won 2-0, 2-0 and 2-1 although the games were closer than those scores indicate. I also know that by about 20 mins after my 3rd round had ended I was so nauseous that I felt unable to continue the event. Unfortunately current Magic Floor Rules don't allow for a 5 minute "puke" break and rather than risk losing a round on time or potential judge action I decided to drop from the tournament. It's safe to say that I was not particularly happy about this; while I knew my pool wasn't good enough to win the entire tournament I felt *extremely* confident that I could get a 1-1 split out of my next two rounds and thereby finish in the top 4. Unfortunately at that point neither my stomach or my lungs seemed willing to co-operate and after getting a ride from Leon's father to the Finch subway station I began the hour long ride home alone.
Adding embarrassment to injury I didn't actually make it all the way home before throwing up; in fact I didn't even make it to the bathroom/garbage receptacle and ended up throwing up all over a young new Transit employee named Chad. The subway commission had long ago removed passenger seat garbage bags and unfortunately I wasn't quite able to hold off my nausea long enough for Chad to grab me a bag from the operator's station. Somehow it seemed bitterly appropriate that the TTC's (Toronto Transit Commission) slogan was "Ride the Rocket"; my stomach certainly felt like it had. Later on that night after arriving home and crawling into bed I would discover that somehow I had managed to finish 7th overall (and won 2 packs) despite dropping in round 3; apparently my tiebreakers were killer.
Well folks there you have it; my Mirrodin Besieged Pre-release experience in it's full technicolor (yawning) glory. While obviously the day ended on a somewhat negative note for me personally I think it's important to remember that when I wasn't on the verge of throwing up I had been having a LOT of fun. Despite severe reservations about the balance of the pre-release format I actually liked the faction packs in the end; getting to custom tailor my deck a little bit before I even opened packs added an interesting wrinkle to the sealed deck experience. Once again I'd particularly like to thank the Hairy Tarantula North for running such an awesome/fun event so smoothly and fairly; the deck registration/checking process in particular was a nice touch and I appreciated how efficiently the whole task was accomplished. Until next time folks remember; always snap include the rare Angel in your sealed decks and don't try to build a deck-type your card pool won't support. Otherwise, keep it weird.
Creatures - 14 (15):
1x Spikeshot Elder
1x Glint Hawk Idol
1x Goblin Wardriver
1x Iron Myr
2x Leonin Relic-Warder
1x Leonin Skyhunter
1x Sunspear Shikari
2x Blisterstick Shaman
1x Palladium Myr
1x Spin Engine
1x Vulshok Replica
1x Ogre Resister
1x Victory's Herald
1x Copper Carapace
1x Slyvok Lifestaff
1x Burn the Impure
1x Contagion Clasp
1x Go for the Throat
1x Revoke Existence
1x Master's Call
1x Concussive Bolt
1x White Sun's Zenith
Land - 17:
7x Mountain
8x Plains
2x Swamp
What makes this deck good?: Blisteringly fast and extremely aggressive this deck should have no real trouble dominating early games in the Sealed deck format. For a sealed deck the mana curve on this build is ridiculous; 3 solid 1 drops (Goblin, 2 Equips), 6 hyper aggressive 2 drops and an Iron Myr and finally 5 solid 3 drops make for an incredibly quick swarming strategy. Even better virtually all of these early monsters had some form of value added; 5 of them functioned as removal, 3 have some form of evasion ability (flying, can't block), 2 of them were mana Myr and 3 of them had random useful abilities (Shikari, Wardriver and Vulshok Replica). Even the deck's combat tricks and removal spells were somewhat under-costed at 2 and 3 mana; although getting maximum value out of the Contagion Clasp typically meant paying 4+ mana later on to proliferate the -1/-1 token it distributed. Of course even a deck geared towards dominating the first 4 turns needs ways to finish opponents off in the mid to late game and while this deck wasn't exactly loaded with them cards like Concussive Bolt, White Sun's Zenith and Victory's Herald filled this role nicely. Probably the best example of these concepts all coming together occurred in my first round against a fellow Mirran player. I cast an end-step Master's Call with a Lifestaff toting Goblin Warcaller already in play and attacked my surprised opponent for 7 . When he left back a couple of blockers I dropped a White Sun's Zenith on his next endstep to create 4x 2/2 Cat Tokens, untapped and cast Concussive Bolt with active Metalcraft to alpha-strike for the win.
What problems does this deck have?: Predictably any deck that goes this far out of it's way to control the early game has to sacrifice something; in this case mid game power. When your entire mid/end game consists of an Ogre Resister, a Concussive Bolt and two WWW spells you'd rather not cast until you have at least 6 mana it's safe to say you won't be the favorite in a long game. Additionally while this deck is excellent at controlling artifacts and creatures with 3 or less toughness it struggles against larger non-artifact creatures. For example my one loss on Saturday resulted primarily from my opponent playing a couple of 4 toughness red creatures with Battle cry; I had kept a slow hand full of removal and drew very few creatures. When I finally lost the game I had a Burn the Impure in my hand still simply because it wasn't worth spending on a 1/1 Myr token and it couldn't kill my opponent's 4/4 beatstick. This vulnerability is ultimately why I decided to risk draw consistency on splashing a single black spell; otherwise I would completely be at the mercy of cards like Carnafex Deomon, Horde Smelter Dragon or Consecrated Sphinx for example.
If you could do it all over again how would you make this deck better?: Oddly enough there is in fact very little I would change about this deck given the card pool I was passed. Copper Carapace was way more effective than I had originally thought in such an aggressive build; it consistently outperformed Sylvok Lifestaff and I probably should have included 2 copies in the main deck at the expense of said Lifestaff. I also found myself frequently sideboarding out the Iron Myr for Rally the Forces in game 2 but that may have been because I played all Mirran opponents and they usually had a decent amount of artifact removal in their pools.
Unfortunately by the time Round 1 began I was already feeling sick and worn out from the trip to the store and the excitement of the event. I'd started feeling deep bone chills again on the subway ride up and they were consistently getting worse as the afternoon wore on and my fever continued to rise. This is probably the reason why I remember very little about the matches I actually did play. I know I faced three people I know and consider friends and that I won 2-0, 2-0 and 2-1 although the games were closer than those scores indicate. I also know that by about 20 mins after my 3rd round had ended I was so nauseous that I felt unable to continue the event. Unfortunately current Magic Floor Rules don't allow for a 5 minute "puke" break and rather than risk losing a round on time or potential judge action I decided to drop from the tournament. It's safe to say that I was not particularly happy about this; while I knew my pool wasn't good enough to win the entire tournament I felt *extremely* confident that I could get a 1-1 split out of my next two rounds and thereby finish in the top 4. Unfortunately at that point neither my stomach or my lungs seemed willing to co-operate and after getting a ride from Leon's father to the Finch subway station I began the hour long ride home alone.
Adding embarrassment to injury I didn't actually make it all the way home before throwing up; in fact I didn't even make it to the bathroom/garbage receptacle and ended up throwing up all over a young new Transit employee named Chad. The subway commission had long ago removed passenger seat garbage bags and unfortunately I wasn't quite able to hold off my nausea long enough for Chad to grab me a bag from the operator's station. Somehow it seemed bitterly appropriate that the TTC's (Toronto Transit Commission) slogan was "Ride the Rocket"; my stomach certainly felt like it had. Later on that night after arriving home and crawling into bed I would discover that somehow I had managed to finish 7th overall (and won 2 packs) despite dropping in round 3; apparently my tiebreakers were killer.
Well folks there you have it; my Mirrodin Besieged Pre-release experience in it's full technicolor (yawning) glory. While obviously the day ended on a somewhat negative note for me personally I think it's important to remember that when I wasn't on the verge of throwing up I had been having a LOT of fun. Despite severe reservations about the balance of the pre-release format I actually liked the faction packs in the end; getting to custom tailor my deck a little bit before I even opened packs added an interesting wrinkle to the sealed deck experience. Once again I'd particularly like to thank the Hairy Tarantula North for running such an awesome/fun event so smoothly and fairly; the deck registration/checking process in particular was a nice touch and I appreciated how efficiently the whole task was accomplished. Until next time folks remember; always snap include the rare Angel in your sealed decks and don't try to build a deck-type your card pool won't support. Otherwise, keep it weird.
yeah nina my difference between 4-1 and 3-2 was an island in game 3 of round 5, so with my tie breakers I finnished in 8th, right behind you.
ReplyDeleteGood job keeping it together as long as you did - hope ya feeling better.
ReplyDeleteLol, thanks guys. I finally managed to finish a 4 round tournament tonight, albeit by playing only 3 rounds lol. Apparently this article got featured on TWIM so now I am forever known as "the girl who threw up on the Subway dude!"... lol, still awesome to be featured on Mananation but DAY-UM
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