After finishing up with exams last semester, my restless mind and I took to researching this new Modern format and asking a lot of questions: what are the common paradigms of the format? What decks were doing well in the top tournaments and why? Furthermore, I needed to address personal concerns: did I have enough money to buy a Modern deck? And did I have the audacity to tackle a new format under the competitive spotlight?
'Well, I have a few weeks off so why not at least take a peek..' -my last words as a Modern scrub
I spent the first few days out of school trying to understand the Modern format as a whole. I began by reading and re-watching the reports from Pro Tour Philadelphia back in 2011 from Samuel Estratti's 1st place finish with U/R Splinter Twin combo all the way to Stanislav Cifka's 1st place finish with Eggs Combo in Pro Tour Return to Ravnica in late 2012. The format has evolved so much in the past couple years that top tier decklists and sideboards alike have struggled to keep up with the new metagame through the plethora of Modern bannings/updates and the influx of new cards as power crept spells are printed with every set. Looking through all the material for the Modern format was tedious since pages and pages of decklists and articles were written across several years by amateurs and pros alike dedicated to pinpoint where this eternal format would eventually settle. This research was proving to be quite the challenge. A couple days later, I made the final decision to compete in this Modern PTQ season.
When I made the decision to compete in the PTQ Gatecrash season a few months ago, my life completely changed. In the past year, I struggled through some hardships that were very difficult for me to overcome; some I have yet to overcome. Without spending time on details, finding direction when my mind was clouded with anger, the unwillingness to forgive, and the unwillingness to ask for forgiveness was near impossible. One nostalgic moment of clarity sitting in a park one afternoon spiraled into a cornucopia of questions. Like Mewtwo from the first Pokemon movie, I asked: 'What is my purpose?'
At the end of the PTQ Gatecrash season, my purpose was to inspire. Although running the gauntlet at 4 PTQs was really difficult, I made a strong point to attend, prepare, and compete to my full potential at every single one. I wanted to prove to myself that I could accomplish the goals I set for myself. I wanted to prove that I had the dedication and the passion to continue competing even when getting so close to the invite just wasn't good enough. I wanted to prove to Casual Net and the Magic community that you don't have to be a jerk or be condescending to be good at this game. I wanted to set an example and a precedent for a real Magic: the Gathering champion.
For this new season, I carry the same goal. Last season, my friends, family, and Casual Net supported me when I traveled across Florida to compete for the Montreal invite. Although I did not win the invite, I cannot express how grateful I am that I had loved ones in my life rooting for me on the sidelines. Support is my theme for PTQ Dragon's Maze. Life is tough; it throws a lot of curve balls our way and often times we are unprepared to face what's coming. The fear of failing or the fear of our inadequacies often propels us away from working towards what we want and standing for something greater than ourselves. For those fortunate enough, loved ones push them past these insecurities and right into the gauntlet where they have the opportunity to fight for their time in the spot light. I choose to compete this season to support the players of Casual Net. I'm not only representing myself when I attend these PTQs, but I'm representing my team and the hard work and dedication our players put into these events. By participating this season, I'm hoping to be a good role model, teammate, and leader for Casual Net. This season, we will dream bigger, compete harder, and support each other.
Now that the sappy stuff is out of the way, let's focus more on Modern and the Maitland PTQ. If you didn't have the opportunity to read PTQ Dragon's Maze: From Modern, With Love, take a quick skim over it just to get a bit of context, since the first half of this article is essentially a continuation of the major paradigms of the Modern format discussed there. The next half of the article is dedicated to a quick look at the Kiki Pod deck I took to this PTQ, some of my opinions about the deck, and a brief summary of the Swiss rounds in Maitland. We have a lot to cover and there's a lot of information to go through.. Están preparados para empezar?
One concept that I think is really vital to understanding Modern and how to sideboard for the format is the concept of silver bullets. Since Modern is filled with a good number of archetypes that are trying to accomplish wildly different things ranging from casting a lethal Grapeshot, amassing a sizable token army, or even dedicated to casting the oppressive Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, every deck has a lot of ground to cover in order to 'handle' everything the format is capable of throwing at you. This is where the 'silver bullet' comes into play. Generally, a silver bullet is a card that single-handedly disrupts an entire strategy and is usually difficult to interact with. Since players can't stuff in a format's worth of hate cards in their sideboards, players have to rely on picking the correct bullets for matchups their deck is not favored in.
Here's a list of common Silver Bullets:
Ethersworn Canonist, Rule of Law, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben: Against U/R Storm and Eggs
Stony Silence: Against Birthing Pod and Mono Red Affinity
Linvala, Keeper of Silence and Torpor Orb: Against Birthing Pod and U/R Splinter Twin
Ghost Quarter and Sowing Salt: Against Tron Variants and Scapeshift/Valakut Combo
Aven Mindcensor: Against Birthing Pod and Tron Variants
Chalice of the Void: Against Infect and Red Deck Wins (RDW)
Izzet Staticaster: Against Token Strategies and Mono Red Affinity
Relic of Progenitus/Rest in Peace: Against Eggs, Jund, Melira Pod and other graveyard-dependent strategies
Echoing Truth: Against U/R Storm (Empty the Warrens win-condition) and helps Combo completion against opponents' silver bullets.
Spellskite: Against Infect; also helps protect creature-based combos (Birthing Pod and U/R Splinter Twin)
Nature's Claim/Ancient Grudge: Against Mono Red Affinity, Infect, and Birthing Pod
Pyroclasm/Volcanic Fallout: Against Tokens and other creature-based strategies.
Leyline of Sanctity: Against Jund and RDW
Blood Moon: Against Tron and decks running 3 or more colors.
Slaughter Games: Against Combo
I'm probably missing a handful of cards, but here's a good list of the more common ones you'll run into. Silver bullets are really useful for slowing down or even shutting down certain strategies long enough to steal a win before your opponent can respond. How do you know what strategies your deck will have problems against? This is where we have to take a look at specific timings and analyzing the decks and sideboards we expect to play against.
2) Timings:
Essentially timing is focusing on your opponent's key cards, knowing how to play around them, and how to tell if your opponent has or doesn't have the card in hand. This concept is more arbitrary than the idea of 'fair/unfair' decks and the concept of silver bullets I talked about earlier, so I'll use a specific example to get the ball rolling: Kiki Pod vs. U/W Control:
First Scenario:
Supreme Verdict can be cast (at earliest) on turn 3 with the help of an Azorius Signet or a Talisman of Progress. If our opponent casts a turn 2 Signet or Talisman, their mana is locked up on turn 2, which prevents them from casting a 2 mana counterspell such as Mana Leak, Remand, or Negate; this provides us an opening. We can sneak in a Birthing Pod that is largely unaffected by the Wrath-effect and will make any creatures we top deck post-Wrath-effect that much better, since every top-decked creature is an upgrade with a Birthing Pod in play.
Second Scenario:
If our opponent simply casts a Wall of Omens or doesn't cast anything on turn 2, then we have exactly 2 turns until we have to worry about the threat of a Supreme Verdict. As the Pod player, we'd be more inclined to play more creatures on turns 2 and 3, since our opponent's only possible responses are point-removal spells or countermagic. If our U/W Control opponent elects to play an early attrition game by trading 1:1 their removal spells for our small creatures, we don't mind since the quality of our spells in the mid to late game is much higher than the U/W Control player. If we decide to commit an early Pod to the battlefield, we could invest into tutoring up Thalia, Guardian of Thraben on to the battlefield to delay our opponent from casting Supreme Verdict one turn. Buying one turn for Pod is crucial and usually is just enough time to set up the Pod chain necessary to kill your opponent before they have the opportunity to untap their lands.
How do we know if our opponent has the clutch card to kill us or not? Every turn is a bit of a dance between us and our opponent. For this example, if our opponent commits an early Wall of Omens to the board and we're NOT applying early game pressure, it's 'unlikely' that they have a Supreme Verdict in hand because they're ultimately feeding the Verdict one of their own creatures once they do cast it. It's also possible that they elected to keep a hand that has few lands in it and they're using the Wall to dig deeper in their library for more lands. Either route, the tell is the same: they don't have a reliable way to cast Supreme Verdict. If our opponent is not playing a single spell on their turns 1-3 and even allow some of our creatures to resolve, that is tell that they probably do have the Verdict in hand. If our opponent casts an early Signet or Talisman to the battlefield, they may not have enough mana sources in their hand or might be baiting us to cast a Birthing Pod so they can answer it with their Detention Sphere or Oblivion Ring in hand. At this point, we have to weigh the probability of our opponent holding the removal spell and how badly this hurts the route of play we're electing to take in this particular game.
Hundreds of theoretical lines of play exist when we start conducting hypothetical timings, but knowing some of the key cards in our opponent's deck and when they're likely to cast them is crucial in matchup analysis and condenses the amount of difficult plays we need to focus on when we're actually sitting down playing Magic at high-level events.
Before this season, I was experimenting with a unique Sideboarding technique that I had seen a small number of players use at Pro Tour: Return to Ravnica. Going into Game 2 and 3, players would shuffle their entire sideboard into their library then pull out 15 cards and start the next game. This technique is interesting because it 'masks' the amount of cards you're bringing in from your board against your opponent. I didn't know exactly how important this was until I started to understand how to Sideboard for Modern. The way you want to Sideboard for your deck changes when you're on the Play and when you're on the Draw because some cards may be better depending on what side of the coin flip you're on. By masking the amount of changes you're making to your deck, you give your opponent less information and they don't know exactly how many cards from the board to prepare for, since they have to prepare for any possible variance of 0 cards all the way to a full 15 cards. For Maitland, I started using this strategy from Rounds 4-8 and I noticed a substantial difference in how my opponents were approaching each game. Quite frankly, they seemed afraid. I'm not sure if this psyches out your opponents or not, but it definitely illustrates a high-level understanding of your deck and how to Sideboard for it, so it's something that won't go unnoticed in your opponent's eyes.
One risk to Smoke Screening is taking out the wrong cards or missing a crucial card from the Sideboard. I overcame this problem by memorizing my Sideboard and going into Sideboarding very slowly to make sure no stone was left unturned. Another subtle risk to using this technique involves time constraints, since sideboarding eats more time if you use this technique. Solution? If time on the clock is low and you need to 'rush' your plays, don't. Playing a well-executed game is significantly more important than playing a game of speed. The biggest part of any match is keeping calm and making smart decisions; Sideboarding is no exception.
My Round 5 opponent in Maitland asked me if I 'smoke screened' all the time. Not sure if that's the official name or not, but I like it; has a nice ring to it.
Now that we've covered some of the technical theory behind Modern and constructed play, let's take a look at Kiki Pod and my diary of PTQ Maitland.
4 Color Kiki Pod - Maitland
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Avacyn's Pilgrim
2x Llanowar Elves
1x Wall of Roots
1x Qasali Pridemage
2x Wall of Omens
1x Spellskite
1x Phantasmal Image
1x Ethersworn Canonist
1x Izzet Staticaster
2x Kitchen Finks
2x Deceiver Exarch
3x Restoration Angel
1x Murderous Redcap
1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence
1x Glen Elendra Archmage
3x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1x Zealous Conscripts
Spells (5):
4x Birthing Pod
1x Chord of Calling
2x Misty Rainforest
3x Scalding Tarn
1x Arid Mesa
2x Gavony Township
2x Grove of the Burnwillows
2x Copperline Gorge
1x Stomping Ground
1x Steam Vents
1x Sacred Foundry
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Temple Garden
1x Breeding Pool
2x Rugged Prairie
2x Forest
1x Mountain
Sideboard (15):
3x Path to Exile
3x Chalice of the Void
2x Dispel
2x Sowing Salt
2x Ancient Grudge
1x Creeping Corrosion
1x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1x Aven Mindcensor
This Kiki Pod list is very similar to Ari Lax's list from his Top 16 finish at GP Toronto. This list is a bit of a budget list that doesn't include a full playset of Noble Hierarch and instead I replaced them with 2 Avacyn's Pilgrim and 2 Llanowar Elves. They functionally do the same thing and the Exalted is only marginally relevant. The fact that Noble Hierarch can generate Blue mana is a huge bonus, but I couldn't justify spending $100 for a playset of Hierarch to get Blue mana. Instead, I used 3x Scalding Tarns to search up Blue and Red mana sources, since they are the most 'famined' source of mana you'll need when playing this deck. Another subtle difference is the lack of a 4th Kiki-Jiki Mirror Breaker in my list and instead I replaced it with a single copy of Chord of Calling. After testing, I felt like the 4th copy of the legendary Goblin was somewhat superfluous, while the Chord is useful in the mid and late game and acts like a 5th copy of Birthing Pod. The Sideboard is almost identical to Ari's list with the exception of -1 Obstinate Baloth in favor of +1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. For this tournament, I didn't expect to play against many Jund decks and I had the 3x Chalice of the Void in the board for RDW and Affinity, so the Baloth is largely irrelevant most of the time. I added in Thalia because it gives me a better matchup against Blue-based decks and I wanted another card against U/R Storm and U/W Control in case I lost Game 1 against them.
I chose to play Kiki Pod because it has a ton of flexibility going into many different matchups. Since the deck is full of silver bullets, the deck tends to have an answer for almost everything in any given situation that most decks are largely unprepared for in Game 1. Going into Games 2 and 3, if your opponent brings in Aven Mindcensor, Stony Silence, or Torpor Orb, Pod has the ability to play a very Standard game using creatures with persist and the backbone of Gavony Township to remove their -1/-1 counters once they've persisted, which gives us a way to play around the hate cards and gives a very strong board presence of resilient creatures going into a grindy late game. The deck also has the ability to be extremely explosive and win in just a few turns if your opponent doesn't know how to interact with the Pod chain. And even if they do, there are always alternative routes to completing the combo. Here are the two most common routes:
Route 1:Deceiver Exarch, Birthing Pod, a mana creature in play, and two lands. We use the Birthing Pod to sacrifice the mana creature to search for a Phantasmal Image coming into play as a copy of the Deceiver Exarch. We use the untap/tap trigger on the copied Exarch to untap the Birthing Pod. With our untapped Birthing Pod, we use it to sacrifice the copy (since the Phantasmal Image copy now has a cmc of 3 mana) and search our library for a Restoration Angel. Using the blink trigger for the angel, we blink our original Deceiver Exarch and untap the Birthing Pod one last time. Using Pod, we sacrifice the Restoration Angel and search our library for a Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. With the Kiki-Jiki and our original Deceiver Exarch, we can produce near-infinite tokens of Deceiver Exarch using the tokens to untap our Kiki-Jiki and attack our opponent for near-infinite damage. GG!
The second route involves a Birthing Pod, two lands, and any one of our 4 mana persist creatures (Murderous Redcap or Glen Elendra Archmage). We first use the Birthing Pod to sacrifice our 4 mana persist dude, then place persist on the stack. The 4 mana creature returns with a -1/-1 counter and we search our library for Zealous Conscripts. Using the Conscripts, we untap our Birthing Pod and use the Pod one more time to sacrifice the 4 mana guy holding a -1/-1 counter and search our library for a Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. Finally, Kiki-Jiki creates a token copy of Conscripts and the token untaps the legendary Goblin so you can again create near-infinite tokens of Conscripts and deal near infinite damage to your opponent. GG again!
This deck was relatively difficult to pilot, but was a lot of fun because it had many different lines of play and it often kept my opponents on their toes since they couldn't read how important any particular creature was to my strategy. #stampofapproval
The day before PTQ Maitland, Cool Stuff Games was hosting a small Modern FNM to get people excited about the event. After some back and forth bantering between Orlando-people on whether to play or not, I finally decided to take my deck and do some playtesting. Frighteningly enough, this was only my second actually playing the deck. I didn't really know what to expect, but I just decided 'why the hell not' and see how far I could go. Evan, Felicea, Brandon and Jules also came by to test out their decks with Stephen and Matt scouting out the field to see what was in store for the next day. After the night, I easily went 3-0-2 and made Top 8 out of 30-something people and got 5th Place overall. By itself, this FNM wasn't impressive, but it was nice to play against a bunch of different decks and see what was important in the matchup and what wasn't. This also helped me cement my Thalia sideboard decision; she did work.
The next day, I showed up early to the venue to sit around and enjoy some sunlight outside the store. As people were filing in, the event was looking to be MASSIVE. After the team assembled and we started filling out decklist sheets and discussing last-minute sideboard options, we sat and awaited the beginning of Round 1. Before a big tournament, I tend to be a little reclusive and kind of quiet. The room moves a little slower and I'm immersed in my own world. I don't know exactly whether I'm just 'in the zone' so to speak or if I'm just overwhelmed by the amount of conversation and people going on around me and taking on a reserved persona is a way of coping with my overloaded senses. I used to get the same feeling before an Orchestra concert where'd I'd have to perform some sort of grandiose harmony with the Cello and the tempo of the entire piece was dependent on my leadership of my section. These high-level events are similar to my old music performances because once they begin, I can only pray that preparation and the drive to compete will help guide my team and me through the trenches. This is the real deal. 174 participants at Cool Stuff Games - Maitland..
Round 1: ---
I sat down at my table and began shuffling up the deck. The first round is always a little frightening, since you don't know what type of convoluted strategy you'll run into and it often sets up the tone for the entire day. No one wants to lose the first round. I sat across an empty chair until the head judge, Bryan called for the round to begin. When everyone started presenting their decks to cut and deciding to be on the play or draw, I simply kept shuffling. I raised my hand and called Bryan over and asked what to do. He was enforcing the 3-10 rule; if your opponent doesn't show after 3min, then they receive a Game 1 loss, if they don't show after 10min, they receive a Round loss. Well, I was a little peeved because I showed up to play and not sit around. I mean, seriously, who misses Round 1? After 3min, one of the judges, Justin came over and wrote the Game 1 loss on my slip. After this, I just put the deck on the table and stayed seated while watching what other players next to me were playing. It was kind of amusing to watch a SlipperyBogle.dec completely destroy a U/R Storm player. A couple minutes later..
Justin: 'Looks like you don't have to wait the full 10minutes Congratulations, you're moving to Round 2'
Me: 'O_O What happened?'
Justin: 'Someone entered an incorrect DCI Number in the system, so consider this a Bye'
Well then.
I packed up all my stuff and got ready to do rounds around the room and lend emotional support to everyone running the gauntlet. Although I strongly dislike Byes because they hurt your tie-breakers later in the tournament, it gave me ample time to scout the room and to listen to the battle scars of all our teammates. After the round, the team stood at 2-7 with Felicea and I with the only wins. Honestly, I was feeling a little worried at this point, but we needed to press forward.
'You got the only bye in the room? I guess this is why you're captain' - Stephen
'Why yes, yes it is' - My witty subconscious
Round 2: U/W/r ControlIn Round 2, I had an actual opponent named Jared. He works for Cool Stuff Games and I've seen him around very often. He was an upbeat guy and was really pleasant to play against. We had a little bit of small talk before getting into the match. In Game 1, he used an early Detention Sphere to exile my two Birds of Paradise and used 3 (yes, 3) Spreading Seas to keep me off White and Red mana so the game was a long match with neither of us applying any pressure. With a stagnant board, he cast an Ajani Vengeant and threatened to use it's ultimate and destroy all of my lands. With turn after turn with almost little to no action, Ajani's loyalty slowly ticked up. Uh-oh. After the final loyalty counter, and all my lands were blown off the board, I was left with a lonely Birthing Pod. Weirdly enough, I kept playing the game since he didn't have any immediate way to kill me and I could maybe draw into some creatures to use with the Pod. After he had a 2 power creature on the board that kept pinging at my life total and I didn't draw into any lands, I scooped up and we moved to Game 2.
I don't remember Game 2 very well, but I took the play and committed an early Birthing Pod to the battlefield that he answered with Stony Silence. After using a Chord of Calling to fetch up Qasali Pridemage to blast the Stony Silence, I had the Pod chain sufficient enough to search out my combo kill him with Thalia backup on the battlefield on turn 6. In Game 3, he again shut off my Birthing Pods. Luckily, I drew into a pair of Restoration Angels that I used to quickly eat away at his life total. Since both Lightning Bolt, Lightning Helix, and Ajani Vengeant can't kill the Angel's 4 toughness, his only out was drawing into Supreme Verdict. After a couple draw steps and no Verdicts, he extended the hand for the concession.
For some reason, my head wasn't in this game. I just couldn't focus and it definitely showed. I played against a guy named Michael that I've seen before around the tournament scene. In Game 1, he opened up with an early Godless Shrine supporting a Gravecrawler. I thought to myself: 'what the hell is this?' I soon found out that he was playing a B/W/R Zombie, Token, Combo deck using Fetch lands, Bloodghast and Blasting Station to deal tons of residual damage off of a Blood Artist and Geralf's Messenger engine. Needless to say I wasn't prepared for this one and I lost the round to a ton of early aggression (not to mention a pair of Oblivion Rings in his sideboard.. whattt?). This round was a bit of a 'slap in the face' and I knew I had to put my game face on or the rest of the day would result in the same fate. I wished Michael luck and went outside with Emily to get some fresh air and regain some clarity.
In this round, I was paired up against a guy named Rajen from Wake Forest in NC who actually knew Nick from high school. In Game 1, he cast a pair of Ornithopters and put on the pressure with a Cranial Plating that dropped me to 9 life. Fortunately for me, I kept a hand that had Deceiver Exarch and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker that threatened lethal damage on Turn 4. With no red sources on my opponent's side of the board, I knew I didn't have to worry about Galvanic Blast nor Shrapnel Blast, so I went for the combo and we moved to Game 2. On a mulligan to 6, I kept another hand with Izzet Staticaster, Restoration Angel and Kiki-Jiki in hand. Living the dream twice? Since most of the Affinity deck's creatures only have 1 toughness, the Staticaster ripped apart his army before he could apply any reasonable pressure to my life total. This ended in a quick 2-0 victory. After this match, I had a ton of time leftover, so I ended up actually doing some trading. I don't think I've actually traded cards in a long time, so it was kind of refreshing. I then lent my deck over to Emily so she could play against Nick in a Pod vs. U/R Storm show match, while I went to scout the room and check on how people were doing (I think she won w/Pod >:D).
Round 5: R/U/G Scapeshift/Valakut ComboThis matchup was against a very friendly individual from Tampa named Nicholas. In Game 1, we both opened with early ramp and didn't really interact with each other's strategies. After laying down a Prismatic Omen and casting Scapeshift with 6 lands in play, he was able to search up a pair of Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and 4 lands that set off 12 triggers worth of Valakut (since the Prismatic Omen makes them mountains too) and dealt me 36 damage to my face. It burned. In Game 2, I was able to race his Scapeshift and assemble a standard Birthing Pod chain using Deceiver Exarch and we moved to Game 3.
This matchup was a little strange since it was largely non-interactive, so we were both just trying to get ourselves in an advantageous board position to flat out win the game, so any small plays would be largely irrelevant. In Game 3, I kept a lackluster hand with mana dorks, few lands and one Sowing Salt. If I could get my opponent to play an early Valakut, I could force a Sowing Salt past some countermagic and take away his only win condition. After being delayed several times by a Volcanic Fallout from the his sideboard and a pair of Cryptic Commands taking out a my Birthing Pods, he finally laid down a tapped Valakut, I had a dilemma. My opponent had 2 Commands in the yard and supposedly a Snapcaster Mage in his library to buy them back; he only had two cards in hand. I had the Sowing Salt and just enough mana to cast it, which would remove all copies of Valakut in his deck and remove his only win condition. I also had a Glen Elendra Archmage that I could bait his counterspell with. Do I risk him top decking into a Scapeshift next turn? Staring down his board full of lands and my own board with only 4, I took the risk and went for the Salt. Unfortunately, he had a THIRD Cryptic Command waiting and I conceded the match after seeing a Scapeshift several turns later.
I didn't feel too bad about this round since we both played a really tight set and the better decisions at the end of the day won out. I wished him luck and joined up with the rest of the team eating sandwiches outside. Apparently there was some hype about bread that I completely missed out on and Robert forgot to buy me a sandwich from Jimmy Johns. Woe is I.
In this round, I played against a guy named Evan (not the bubbly Treefolk on our team) who seemed a little on edge, but was nice enough to have some small conversation. After a long stalemate in Game 1, I made a Combo kill with Spellskite backup that he couldn't interact with. In Game 2, Evan started rushing the game a little because time on the clock was starting to run out. In Game 2, he set up a Sun Titan engine that I couldn't interact with that allowed him to continuously recur Tectonic Edge to destroy my lands and kept me off the appropriate colors I needed and eventually swung in the red zone for lethal with an animated Celestial Colonnade. After Game 2, I knew my opponent was on the tilt and was starting to lose focus because he kept his eyes strongly focused on the clock and not the game. In Game 3, I took a fast win off of a Birthing Pod chain combo with time in the round being called forcing the concession from my opponent. Shortly after packing up my deck, I moved to Round 7 with no warning.
In this round, I faced an opponent named Michael who had his girlfriend sitting next to him offering emotional support. Michael was piloting arguably one of the more difficult matchups for Pod, G/W Hate Bears. The deck features a lot of silver bullet cards like Aven Mindcensor, Leonin Arbiter, and a ton of land disruption like Ghost Quarter and Tectonic Edge to punish decks playing greedy mana bases. Since Pod requires a lot of fetching for creatures and lands (shuffling the library) and uses a 4-Color mana base, G/W Hate Bears is well positioned to mangle me with ease. In Game 1, I played an early Birthing Pod and used it to pod away a Kitchen Finks to search up a Restoration Angel to apply mid game pressure, aaaaaand my opponent cast an Aven Mindcensor in response. Ugh.. I looked at the top 4 cards and was expecting to blank the reveal and..... there's a Restoration Angel! I laid the card on the battlefield and said 'lucky much?' My opponent did not look happy. A couple turns later, I cast a Kiki-Jiki that Michael couldn't respond too and I went semi-infinite damage with the angel I put on the battlefield earlier. In Game 2, my opponent was struggling getting the right colors he needed and that bought me enough time to get a sizable army on the board supported by Gavony Township. With some boarded in Path to Exiles, I was able to clear his board and took to the red zone enough times to take him down in a 2-0 sweep. He looked a little disappointed after the match, so I hoped that he continued to play and wished him good luck in his next round as I mentally prepared for Round 8.
A couple years ago, I was drafting Scars of Mirrodin with a couple friends at a local card shop in Orlando. I wasn't experienced in competitive Magic, but opening a new set and practicing some of my limited play was really fun back then. In the final round of the draft queue at an FNM, I was paired up against a player who we'll call 'Burton.' Burton was unfriendly and blatantly condescending. In a strange combat scenario of Game 3 where he sat only a few creatures and a low life total, he called out that I made an announcement incorrectly and that I had skipped my combat phase. To avoid conflict, I let the notion slide. At the time, I didn't now any better and I didn't want to be ostracized as a noob or be labelled as inexperienced; call it pride, call it embarrassment. As a result, I ended up losing the round and my opponent walked away with prizes. This was definitely one of my most memorable feel-bad moments.
I didn't feel bad that I lost. I didn't feel bad that I didn't get prizes. I didn't even feel bad that I may have made a mistake. I felt bad from the way my opponent treated me. It was obvious that I wasn't as good at the game as he was and he used this information maliciously to gain an edge and take advantage of a situation simply for prizes. Consequentially, this draft queue would discourage me from drafting at this store for several months and I was very xenophobic to new players when travelling for Magic for fear of them taking advantage of me.
In a way, this experience helped shape the type of player I strive to be. I love meeting new players and I love encouraging new players to keep playing the game. The blog itself, was designed to help new players looking to understand Magic on a higher-level. I never want anyone to go through that negative experience that I had several years ago and Burton was the Magic player I did not want to become. In Round 8 of the Modern PTQ in Maitland, I had the opportunity to avenge that casual player that was mistreated some years ago as I sat across the table the same person responsible for that feel-bad moment, Burton.
In Game 1, I took the play and cast an early Birthing Pod on turn 2. After my opponent searched up his last Tron piece, I cast Deceiver Exarch on turn 3 during his Upkeep to prevent him from having his Tron mana available on his Main Phase. This prevented him from casting his Karn Liberated in hand that was revealed off of his Ancient Stirrings. On my turn 4, I used the first Pod chain with Deceiver Exarch and combo-killed him before his tron was relevant. Sniped!
In Game 3, I took a mulligan to 6 on the play and was feeling a little on edge. My hand had one Copperline Gorge, one Llanowar Elves, and one Sowing Salt and 3 other irrelevant cards. Oh my word. This hand is extremely risky because the R/G Tron player probably still has a playset of Pyroclasm in his deck after boarding and I might lose my elf early. I also don't have extra lands, so if I don't draw any, I will automatically just die to an array of bombs he'll be able to cast on turns 4 and 5. What do I do?
I ended up finishing the day at 21st Place with a 6-2 record and a 61.1% win percentage out of 174 participants. Although this finish is a little lackluster, I felt like it represented a lot of what Casual Net is capable of. As a team, we tackled a format that we had little to no experience in and we made a strong showing. 9 Players. We had 9 players competing in Maitland this past weekend who had little to no experience with Modern and were able to salvage enough pieces to put together a deck, and compete in this PTQ under the name of Casual Net. I think that's amazing in itself; more important than any amount of top finishes. Fortunately, we had a handful of players do really well! I'm really proud of you guys.
Jules Jeannin went 5-3 with Melira Pod
Matt Kiep went 4-3-1 with R/G Tron
Felicea Van went 4-4 with Mono Red Goblins
Evan Forster went 4-4 with B/W Tokens
John Wyly went 4-4 with RDW (Red Deck Wins)
I want to take the last part of the article (and each article that succeeds it) to thank everyone who came to cheer on and represent the team in Maitland. Personally, I take a lot of pride in the team and in what we accomplish, so I think this moment of gratitude is really important to show recognition and appreciation for the people who took time in their schedules to lend their support and attend. So many thanks to (in alphabetical order):
Evan Forster
Jules Jeannin
Brandon Khors
Matt Kiep
Nick LoCastro
Stephen Poindexter
Javier Remy
Felicea Van
Emily Weber
Robert Williams
Johny Wyly
I also wanted to thank the head judge, Bryan Prillaman and another local judge, David Greene for running a very successful and smooth event out there at Cool Stuff Games; you guys put up with a lot and I can't imagine the work put into running these events.
I'm going to be looking for a new job this semester while taking classes part time, so I'll be pretty busy with organizing my life and trying to save up money. I'm going to do my best to compete in the next few events this season, so I'll keep everyone updated when I can attend. I hope to see everyone soon; until the next PTQ, Magic players!
Check out the MTG Casual Net Archive and connect with us on Facebook!
-David J.
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