“Yes there is.”
It was crunch time.
Evan (our team “captain”) was playing in game 3, match 3 – we split the other two matches 1-1.
“[card]Gifts Ungiven[/card].”
“Sure.”
Things did not look good for Evan. The setting: the first stop of the 2012 Canadian Magic Tour, the Teams Open in Montreal. The format was Modern, his opponent, playing UW Tron, and had just resolved a [card]Gifts Ungiven[/card] at the end of Evan’s turn. His board was a lone [card]Loam Lion[/card] (he was playing Tribal Zoo), and 7 lands of various types. Evan’s hand consisted of a single card that he had been slowrolling/bluffing for a while (a fetchland). The life totals were 20-2 in Evan’s favor. But there was the potential for local ringer Rob Anderson to lock up the game (and the match) if his Gifts’ choices were good enough. His entire team was advising as he went through his deck, pulling out:
[card]Timely Reinforcements[/card], [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card], [card]Path to Exile[/card], [card]Kozilek, Butcher of Truth[/card].
First of all, what would you do? The three of us agreed on the answer pretty quickly: he could not be allowed to gain any life, to keep Evan’s topdecks live. This meant Kozilek and Path went to his hand, which now contained 4 cards. He untapped, played Kozilek, drew 4 cards, played a land, and passed the turn.
Evan drew another fetchland. He played it, and passed the turn.
Rob drew a card, played a land, and attacked. Annihilator 4, Evan dropped his Lion and three lands into the bin, took 12. He cracked his fetchland (the top of his deck had in fact been a land) and dropped his land into play. Rob’s hand was 7 cards at this point. Evan had one draw to pull through on this one. “I don’t have anything, just flip it!” came from Anderson.
Untap, Upkeep, flip onto the table:
[card]Tribal Flames[/card].
Rob extended the hand, revealed his hand of 7 blanks (what were the odds? Pretty low, probably), and that was the match. A relieved sigh came from Evan. The last draw step possible, and his deck delivered.
3 Formats, 3 Players, 1 Team, 1 Tournament.
Welcome to the Teams Open.
But let’s start at the beginning.
Here is why Magic is better than chess.
Before you sit down to play, before you show up to the tournament site, you have decisions to make. You have data to examine, trends to predict. You need to examine card availability (especially in older, non-rotating formats) and you need to select a deck for yourself, which means you need to examine your own play skill, since everyone is better at playing certain kinds of decks. Every so often the game changes, as a new set is released. There is new ground to break and the rewards for getting there first can be extremely high! And then, even if you know everything about a format, what kind of a tournament it is (PTQ, GP, PT, FNM, etc.) also should modify your deck choice!
Someone once told me that “The best chess games in the world have already been played”. If that’s true, isn’t that so sad? Like speaking Latin, a very complete and good language but with no new words being produced.
By contrast, new tech is being produced all the time in Magic. Formats evolve, mature, and then evolve again. I love finding new tech.
Now, take everything I just told you about selecting a deck for a tournament, and multiply it by 3. This is the allure of a Trios Open. In addition, one of the formats is Modern, currently one of the most wide-open formats I’ve ever seen.
My name is Johnathan Bentley, and I have Brewer’s Disease.
One of the reasons I like building decks is it’s easy to criticize but difficult to create. It’s easy to complain, but much harder to do something about it. If I see a boogeyman of the format, I immediately want to kill it, with a new creation, because I love a challenge and feel compelled to do so. Modern was this format.
The best Extended deck I ever played was Thopter-Depths, also known as Dark Depths-Thopter, or DDT. DDT was the kind of deck that deserved to be known as the boogeyman of the format. Here’s why:
DDT could kill on Turn 3 (with disruption!) with a 20/20 Flying Indestructible creature. A “God Draw” could do it on turn 2.
DDT could grind the game out, while simultaneously gaining life and making creature combat miserable for the opponent.
DDT had two 2-card combos, with three of the pieces costing 2 mana, so they could both be searched out with [card]Muddle the Mixture[/card] if needed. [card]Muddle the Mixture[/card] could also be used to protect the combos.
DDT had many expensive cards which meant everyone couldn’t play it, as they didn’t have access to the cards: [card]Dark Depths[/card], [card]Dark Confidant[/card], [card]Chrome Mox[/card], and more.
DDT could play both counterspells and hand disruption, which are both effective and hated by newer players.
DDT just felt evil, somehow.*
So, what did I decide to brew up for Modern? A deck that has shades of DDT.
[deck title=Fae-Twin]
[Creatures]
2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Vendilion Clique
2 Pestermite
2 Mistbind Clique
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Spell Snare
1 Spell Pierce
1 Mana Leak
1 Condescend
1 Dead // Gone
1 Repeal
3 Remand
1 Cryptic Command
2 Vedalken Shackles
[/Spells]
[Lands]
3 Mutavault
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Steam Vents
1 Breeding Pool
2 Cascade Bluffs
1 Stomping Grounds
1 Academy Ruins
5 Island
1 Forest
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
2 Spellskite
3 Deceiver Exarch
3 Splinter Twin
1 Dead // Gone
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Mayor of Avabruck
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
– I resisted the temptation to name the deck ‘RUG Deck Twins’.
After you’ve built any deck, before you take it to an event, you should ask yourself and be honest about the following:
- What is this deck’s plan against Aggro?
- What is this deck’s plan against Combo?
- What is this deck’s plan against Control?
- What does this deck offer that isn’t currently available in another deck?
- What’s the best deck in the format, and is the matchup favourable?
- What’s the most likely deck to be played, and is the matchup favourable?
- How do you beat the Red deck?
We can call this list the Simple Seven. You should be able to answer these seven simple questions before you take your creation to a tournament.
Here are my answers to the Simple Seven:
What is this deck’s plan against Aggro?
The plan is to use the countermagic to buy time and keep problem threats off the board. Every threat that slips through we will burn out with either [card]Lightning Bolt[/card] or [card]Grim Lavamancer[/card]. Additionally, we can steal their creatures with [card]Vedalken Shackles[/card] if needed, since we will typically have access to about 4 or 5 Islands every game, and some decks are just dead to this card. [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card] will help us get more mileage out of the burn spells and our [card]Remand[/card]s. Most of our spell-like effects are also flying creatures, so we will pick away at their life total. Our top of the curve cards ([card]Mistbind Clique[/card], [card]Cryptic Command[/card] and [card]Splinter Twin[/card] out of the sideboard) should win us the game in short order.
What is this deck’s plan against Combo?
Since the far majority of combo decks in Modern will plan to go off on their turns, we will never ever tap out on our turn and use our disruption ([card]Vendilion Clique[/card], [card]Spellstutter Sprite[/card], [card]Mistbind Clique[/card], [card]Remand[/card], [card]Spell Pierce[/card], [card]Spell Snare[/card], [card]Mana Leak[/card], [card]Condescend[/card]) to slow them down or stop them. It will be dangerous for them to try and go off when we have all our mana available, so this will stall them, for a short time at least. We can accelerate our clock by throwing [card]Lightning Bolt[/card]s at their face, so as to not give them any extra turns to try and go off. Game one is admittedly not great against non-creature based decks, as the metagame necessitates having many cards in the maindeck that are dead against some of these combo decks.
What is this deck’s plan against Control?
Drop a few instant speed threats (even using end of turn Snapcasters Flashing back nothing if need be) and pick them down slowly while using countermagic to stop them from stopping us. In this match-up we play the beatdown role, which the deck is surprisingly good at. [card]Vendilion Clique[/card] is the all star here as it is an instant speed threat that attacks for 3 in the air on turn 4 and will replace the best card in their hand with a random card. If you can get a [card]Mayor of Avabruck[/card] down the game turns in your favour significantly. Against any decks playing [card]Path to Exile[/card] it becomes more important to save your [card]Spellstutter Sprite[/card]s. [card]Mutavault[/card]s beat for 2 when you have nothing else to do. All that being said, there aren’t that many good control decks in Modern right now, the format’s still pretty diverse.
What does this deck offer that isn’t currently available in another deck?
Similar to DDT, this deck has the ability to play a long game where it kills you with many small fliers, or deal you a large amount of damage with a combo kill. As long as you have 2 cards in your hand, they have to respect the possibility that they could be facing down a million hasted fliers next turn, and play around accordingly. You can counter their boarding strategy. If they get Twin’ed out game two (or even if they see [card]Pestermite[/card] game one and suspect the combo) they will bring in hate for [card]Splinter Twin[/card], and die to Faeries. This deck has 2 incredibly strong lines of attack that have Synergy with each other. You also gain access to [card]Engineered Explosives[/card] as a one-sided [card]Wrath of God[/card] when you need it (on 1 or on 0), and it can be recurred with [card]Academy Ruins[/card]. Extra [card]Splinter Twin[/card]s can be put on things like [card]Spellstutter Sprite[/card] (strong) or [card]Mistbind Clique[/card] (stronger) or even [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card] if the situation warrants.
Since everything is played at instead speed, you tend to win the information war. This is probably also the best [card]Vendilion Clique[/card] deck in the format. [card]Vendilion Clique[/card] probably makes the Top 10 list for strongest cards in Modern. Another incredibly strong card is [card]Vedalken Shackles[/card], which can randomly win games if opponents don’t prepare accordingly.
What’s the best deck in the format, and is the matchup favourable?
An important caveat to this question – you can’t name the deck you just brewed, even if you think it’s correct.
I would say the best deck in the format is probably Blue-Red Storm, since it’s likely to win almost every game 1 against the field right now. It is extremely fast, and resilient against discard since it plans to use the graveyard anyway. The matchup isn’t a blow-out, it’s certainly winnable. My best advice is to win the die-roll, since turn 2 Tarmogoyf can be a very strong tool in putting the game away quickly. Game 1 of the match is unfavourable. Also, it depends on which build they are running.
Another contender for best deck in the format is UR [card]Splinter Twin[/card]. Fae-Twin deck can present a fast clock in a hurry while still leaving up counterspells and removal. After board, they’re probably not bringing in much hate for the Twin combo, and [card]Vedalken Shackles[/card] seems really strong in the mirror.
What’s the most likely deck to be played, and is the matchup favourable?
I think the most likely deck to be played would either be Jund or Zoo. This deck matches up quite well against Zoo, and pretty well against Jund. Against Jund, all their spells cost more, but their removal is much better than ours, so it really depends on how many [card]Bloodbraid Elf[/card]s they draw. Vendilion any Bloodbraids away that you can, preferably at the end of turn 3. Against Zoo, you tend to lose only if you kept a slow do-nothing hand (hint – don’t do that). You have early counterspells (MVP: [card]Spell Snare[/card]. I can understand it being an 8 dollar card right now) and burn to keep the early creatures away, and your late game tends to be much better than Zoo’s. Going late, [card]Spellstutter Sprite[/card] tends to be a hard counter against their disruption (Path, Bolt, [card]Tribal Flames[/card], [card]Lightning Helix[/card], etc.).
How do you beat the Red deck?
[card]Spellskite[/card] out of the sideboard is amazing. Also, there aren’t a lot of answers to a [card]Tarmogoyf[/card] in Red. [card]Spellstutter Sprite[/card] and [card]Grim Lavamancer[/card] are also amazing in this matchup.
————————
I had a less polished version of this deck built one week prior to the event.
Evan, who was playing Modern, made the call that the list wasn’t ready for the big leagues – it needed to be tuned a little more. He was correct, the previous version didn’t have much game against Storm or Dredge (which Jedi Master Felix Tse ended up playing, and we had the inside scoop). The tuning will continue.
So, Evan sleeved up Tribal Zoo.
Local Aggro guru Zach Spence chose Blue/White Humans and crushed with it.
I was playing Legacy, and decided to play Bant Stoneblade. The list was pretty close to a stock list, and after playing a full day with it, I’ve come to an epiphany about Bant Stoneblade:
The average Bant Stoneblade build is too unfocused.
It’s not the best Knight of the Reliquary deck. It’s not the best Brainstorm/Jace deck. It barely has a critical mass for Force of Will. It’s not the best Stoneforge Mystic deck. It has shades of all these real decks, but it fails the test of: “What does this deck offer that isn’t currently available in another deck?”
Nothing.
What it does allow, is the illusion that it can do all these things. But really, no one deck can do all these things. Maverick’s Knights are better, Blue/White Stoneforge plays a better Jace/Brainstorm deck (Snapcaster flashing back Brainstorm or Swords is stronger than basically anything Bant Stoneblade does), Merfolk is a much better Force of Will deck (as is UW Stoneforge), UW is a better Stoneforge deck (so is Maverick).
The deck gives up the ability to do one thing really well to be able to do many things in a mediocre way.
I’m done with the deck, in its current form.
If you’re going to play Bant colours in Legacy, I think it should look something like this. I’m probably going to play something similar at my next Legacy event:
[deck title=Bant Stoneblade, by Adam Cai]
[Creatures]
2 Aven Mindcensor
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Mother of Runes
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Scryb Ranger
3 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
3 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Vendilion Clique
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Green Sun’s Zenith
[/Spells]
[Lands]
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Maze of Ith
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Savannah
2 Tropical Island
2 Tundra
3 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Karakas
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Choke
1 Stony Silence
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
2 Enlightened Tutor
2 Path to Exile
3 Spell Pierce
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Tower of the Magistrate
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
I think this deck can better play the role of the beatdown in the UW Stoneforge matchup, while still maintaining a good matchup against the Delver decks. The sideboard [card]Enlightened Tutor[/card] package allows you to not be a complete dog to combo, as does having [card]Green Sun’s Zenith[/card] to search out things like [card]Gaddock Teeg[/card], and [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card] into [card]Bojuka Bog[/card] and [card]Green Sun’s Zenith[/card] into [card]Scavenging Ooze[/card] are both pretty strong against graveyard based decks (one of the reasons I’m currently enamoured with [card]Knight of the Reliquary[/card] decks). [card]Geist of Saint Traft[/card] in particular seems like one of the best Sword carriers around, since you can use [card]Mother of Runes[/card] to give it protection from whichever creatures they have to block with, if needed, and it can’t be targeted with [card]Swords to Plowshares[/card] or [card]Jace, the Mind Sculptor[/card].
I went 3-2-2 on the day – yes, I drew twice. Once was because I played against an Elf combo player who took a 20-minute turn, and the other one was against a rather slow UW Stoneforge player who took game 2, I should have conceded like 4 turns earlier and I might have had game 3 had I done so. Our team went 3-2-2 on the day, despite both Evan and Zack doing better than I did (Zack went 5-2, I think Evan went 4-3).
The teams format might be the best type of tournament I’ve ever played.
Here are some reasons why I think Team Events are better than regular events:
- You can ask for and give advice in the middle of a match. If you’ve never done this before, you’re missing out.
- The first one who finishes their match can get food for the other two if needed.
- You can go over various plays later, to see if they were correct in hindsight, without having to meticulously describe the situation.
- You have people who will share in their bad beats with you, since they are quite literally their bad beats too.
- It’s so much more social than an “individuals” event.
- Card availability is less of an issue as you have 3 people’s collections on your team, and there isn’t a lot of overlap between formats.
- Since you’re playing against 3 times the opponents, you tend to get to see more interesting decks on the other side of the table.
- There’s something different about being on a team, in that you can discuss your deck and card choices 100%. When you’re in the same tournament as your friends, there’s always that chance that you might be paired up and have to play.
- You can lose your match and win the round.
- It really is somewhat of a bonding experience. Sounds corny, I know, but I think it’s true.
I am greatly looking forward to the next Team event. Thanks to Kyle Ryc and everyone else involved for throwing a fantastic tournament! I’m looking forward to this season of the Canadian Magic Tour. (Still waiting to hear if there is an invitational – fingers crossed!)
Oh, and the attendance was basically double what was expected. I’d say the interest in this type of event (Teams) is there. Tournament Organizers, take note.
That wraps up my report. To anyone else who tries out the Modern list above (which is a lot of fun, by the way), please let me know how it goes. It should be noted that I don’t have a lot of UW Tron in my meta, so if you do, I’d adjust the 75 to be on the Twin plan in the main deck.
Thanks for reading!
Johnathan
fightingmongoose on Magic Online
JohnMBent on Twitter
* DDT is the commonly used short form of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, a pesticide that was once widely used but turned out to be so harmful it almost made Bald Eagles extinct in the contiguous United States. There is now a worldwide ban, under the Stockholm convention. So maybe this contributed to it feeling evil?
Johnathan Bentley has been diagnosed with Brewer’s Disease and as such is compelled to try new things, rather than stick with boring ‘stock’ decklists. Aside from winning CMT Ottawa 2011, he has yet to put up an incredibly notable finish – this makes him: Under the Radar.