Modern Musings: Grand Prix Richmond 2014

Hello CasualNet! As many of you know, GP Richmond went down earlier this month as the largest (not close) constructed Magic tournament in history. The format was Modern and players from all over showed up with their decks to test their mettle against a vast field of competitors. An avid fan of the Modern format and competition, I decided to take a car of friends up the east coast to join the pilgrimage of Planeswalkers. The journey from my hometown of Orlando took about twelve hours (pit stops and meals included) and yes, it rained the entire way up. We had maybe 30 minutes of respite from rain at the beginning of the trip, but my windshield wipers were on for most of the trip. Regardless, the trip was smooth enough and my crew made the journey enjoyable (yes, Gilbert Gottfried reading 50 Shades of Grey IS as ridiculous as it sounds). We arrived Thursday night, giving us a whole day to rest and familiarize ourselves with the area and venue, which is a practice I recommend and hope to continue in the future. Come Saturday morning, it was go time.

Due to the noticeable uprising in UWx-based strategies from last year and the unbanning of Wild Nacatl, I felt like Infect might not be the best choice to take to Richmond. Both decks pack a ton of maindeck removal and keeping my 1/1 men alive long enough to sicken my opponents was not going to be an easy task for 10+ rounds. For that reason (and because I was quite curious about trying the strategy) I decided to take Primeval Scapeshift to the GP. Maindeck Anger of the Gods and Lightning Bolt allows me to sweep away any errant 3/3s and opposing Mana Leaks lose power when I have eight or so lands, including a Cavern of Souls. Choosing Primeval Titan/Prismatic Omen over Cryptic Command/Peer Through Depths came from my desire to have multiple win conditions, giving me extra game against Blood Moons and Slaughter Games. The rest of the deck is fairly standard, but here's the list I took in case you were curious.

Creatures (8)

4x Primeval Titan
4x Sakura-Tribe Elder

Spells (26)
3x Anger of the Gods
3x Farseek
4x Izzet Charm
2x Lightning Bolt
3x Prismatic Omen
3x Remand
4x Scapeshift
4x Search for Tomorrow

Lands (26)
1x Breeding Pool
1x Cavern of Souls
4x Misty Rainforest
2x Scalding Tarn
2x Steam Vents
4x Stomping Grounds
3x Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
2x Forest
1x Island
6x Mountain

Sideboard (15)
1x Bonfire of the Damned
1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1x Combust
3x Counterflux
3x Nature's Claim
2x Obstinate Baloth
2x Sowing Salt
2x Spellskite

Due to the sheer volume of participants at the GP, Star City Games had to move some of the players to a different ballroom, but I was lucky enough to remain in the main hall. After the player meeting (where I opened a Twitter account with the express purpose of checking pairings), it was off to round one. Here we go.

Round one was against a pleasant fellow named Lance Cooper playing Jund Lands. Game one was rather non-interactive, with him casting only a few spells while I ramped; a resolved Primeval Titan sealed that game. Game two he had to mulligan to four, so it unfortunately wasn't much of a game. (1-0)

Round two was against UR Storm piloted by Tyler Sangston. Game one we took turns setting up; I amassed a bulk of lands while he added counters to Pyromancer Ascension. He got me down to 6 life on turn four, but I had Scapeshift and Prismatic Omen when I untapped to win the game. Game two he overwhelmed me with two Pyromancer Ascensions and Lightning Bolts rather quickly. Game three I drew a Counterflux and a Nature's Claim to keep him off Grapeshot and Pyromancer Ascension respectively, and eventually resolved a pair of Primeval Titans to deal lethal damage via angry lands and giants. (2-0)

Round three I played Michael Rahn piloting America Twin. Game one I countered his first Splinter Twin and killed the associated Deceiver Exarch, but could not fight the second round of the combo (where he showed me a THIRD combo in hand). Game two I played an early Spellskite that fell to his second Path to Exile after I countered the first. I tried to combo at eight lands with Remand and Izzet Charm back-up, assuming his four open mana couldn't get past two counterspells. I tapped my excess lands to float mana after the land exchange and went for Scapeshift. This was the game-losing mistake, as he countered with Swan Song—which could get past both counterspells—and I was tapped out and unable to react to his Splinter Twin making a thousand 1/4 pokers. I should have realized that I didn't need the mana if the spell resolved (as he'd be dead) and I would have time to tap the mana if he attempted to counterspell; a disappointing loss to my own misplay. (2-1)

Round four was Gerald Freas on Patrick Dickman's recently popular Tarmo-Twin. Game one, again, I was able to stop the first but not the second Deceiver Exarch + Splinter Twin (resilient little 1/4 jerks). Game two looked better, as I ramped up to six mana rather quickly, even if a Deceiver Exarch at upkeep tapped one of my lands (an Anger of the Gods + Lightning Bolt would handle him #feelbad2for1s). When my opponent repeated the same play at six lands, I foolishly let it resolve, tapping my second blue source and keeping me off Counterflux mana. I paid dearly for this mistake as he suited up his Exarch with a Splinter Twin and made short work of my folly. I don't know what I was trying to fake here, he knew I had Counterflux from an earlier Gitaxian Probe; stupid mistake. (2-2)

Two losses to blatant misplays left me pretty severely on the tilt. Not to say I would have won game three, but I should not have lost on those turns. I took a moment to roll my eyes and remind myself that I can do better if I just slow down and play carefully. This helped somewhat and I began round 5.

Round five was against a cheery Kiki-Pod player named Carey Vaughn. Thanks to David, I'm super familiar with how this deck plays and know how to keep the deck behind. In game one, a timely Anger of the Gods kept him from comboing the following turn, giving me time to cast Primeval Titan. Although he matche
d me with a Phantasmal Image for Titan, my following Prismatic Omen made sure his creatures and life total were not long for this world. Game two his Avalanche Rider kept me off key lands and Glen Elendra Archmage protected him from field-wipes as he chained a Birthing Pod into a Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker that feverishly made an army of Zealous Conscripts. Game three had an Anger of the Gods and Bonfire of the Damned retard his board state while a Prismatic Omen sped up my plan. Soon I had access to free, uncounterable Lightning Bolts via Valakut and fetch lands; feels good, man. This was enough to clinch the match. (3-2)

Round six was a little surreal. The round started and I had no opponent, so I called for a judge like a good little boy and was instructed to call back after 10 minutes or when my opponent showed up. Eight minutes into time it looked like I was about to get lunch, but my opponent sat down just in time. He smiled at me and said "I know I'm late, but let's get this started." We started the match with him at a loss and it was easy to see he... wasn't totally in it. Regardless, we played a very light-hearted match where I kept a terribly situational hand, but he had very little action other than Spell Snaring my Prismatic Omen, Izzet Charm, and Sakura-Tribe Elder (really, STEve?!). After several turns of "draw, go," I eventually developed a critical mass of lands and cast Scapeshift for the win. Not the hardest-fought victory, but it was relieving to see someone who was really just in it for the lulz. He laughed as he left saying he was gonna play Living End next round and hope he doesn't get deck-checked. What a silly dude. (4-2)

Round seven I faced Big Zoo by Larry Suriel. Game one he did well playing around my Anger of the Gods and had Path to Exile for my defensive Primeval Titan, and eventually overwhelmed me with Loxodon Smiter, a 4/4 Knight of the Reliquary, and a 3/4 Tarmogoyf. Game two played out similarly, with Anger of the Gods only sweeping away half of his threats while the rest lived to die another day. Obstinate Baloth bought me a turn, but I could not get to eight lands fast enough to combo him to death with Scapeshift. This loss put me at 4-3, out of contention for day 2.

My last two rounds didn't even show up, so I snagged some free Planeswalker Points for being patient. My official final record was 6-3, but it was more of a 4-3. Not enough to make day 2, but that made Sunday much more stress-free. Brandon and Chris J. had day 2 records, so we still had to get up early, but me and Chris H. spent the day making trades, checking out vendors, and splitting the world's most pathetic Born of the Gods win-a-box (the best card in our half was a Temple of Enlightenment; wat).

Sunday's Haul!

Overall I don't regret going to the event or choosing Scapeshift as my deck, even if I didn't do as well as I had hoped. I regret some of my plays but, hey, live and learn. Richmond was a blast and I recommend traveling to anyone looking for something new from their Magic experience. Traveling for events lets you meet all sorts of cool people and gives you an excuse to get out of town and see the world. Shout outs to Chris Hogg, Chris Janus, and Brandon Kohrs for taking the trip with me and being a great travel crew (sorry my phone directions took us to a military base, but we lived, so it's ok). Thanks for reading and I hope this article has you consider exploring outside of your LGS. Until next time, CNG!

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-Javier Remy

Modern Musings: Jumping into Modern

This time last year, Magic took up a gigantic part of my time. If I had to guess, I'd say that I probably played in more than half of the 5k's, PTQ's, and other small tournaments offered within an hour driving distance. This year, however, has been totally different; life's hit hard. Between school, work, attempting to establish some kind of social life, and having a relationship to attend to... let's just say that Magic has been back on the back burner.

Because of this new lack of free time that I've grown accustomed to, I hardly ever get to play in any standard events anymore. I've played maybe 3 or 4 FNMs in this past months which has led me to sell off the majority of the standard staples. I've got G/R and Jund Monsters built for when I do have the chance to jam some games in, but other than that there hasn't really been much of an incentive to buy into the format.

At this point, I figured I have two options:

1. Play casual magic in the forms of EDH and potentially draft, or
2. Invest into Legacy and Modern

The first option is kind of "eh" with regards to my play style. While I do love me some EDH and drafting, I get very bored of the multiplayer politics that comes from playing EDH and he lack of doing something broken that comes from drafting. As far as the second option goes, Legacy--while a very fun format to both play and watch--isn't played as much competitively in Florida, which doesn't really give me the incentive to spend over a grand on a deck that's going to come out of its box maybe once every two months. So I've ultimately fallen unto Modern as the default format to play. There are a bunch of events in my local area that I can play in, and a lot of players have also defaulted to this as their format of choice because of how easy it is to get into. It also helps that I love playing all of the different types of decks and seeing what everyone else comes up with.

One of the first things I always hear people gripe about Modern (and to a greater extent, Legacy) is that the price of admission to start playing is exponentially higher when compared to Standard. While I agree completely on this, everyone has to understand that unless a card is completely broken and becomes banned or restricted, your deck is never going to lose the value that you put into it. I'll use the Affinity deck I put together in December 2012 as an example. At the time, I think I spent maybe 200ish dollars total on the deck. Since then, not only has the price of Mox Opal spiked to more than double its original value, but I've only invested maybe an additional 20 dollars into the deck buying foils and random sideboard cards. Compare that to my standard decks, which have seen me go through Mono Blue Devotion and G/R Monsters variants and spending probably double that amount in just the span of around 6 months.

If you want to invest into a format that's fun, diverse, and allows for essentially any play style to achieve victory, I'd suggest giving Modern a shot. There are so many options for every person's play style that I'd be astonished to find anyone who says they don't like any of the decks that are offered within the available card pool. For those considering what decks to check out first, I'd suggest this flow chart:

Now don't go dropping all your money on the first deck you lined up with, but rather use this as a guide to see what kind of decks are doing what you like to do in magic.

Modern decks in my opinion fall into one of four categories:
·         Aggro: trying to kill your opponent with dudes before their fourth turn
·         Control: not letting your opponent resolve anything, or killing everything they have until you ultimately kill them
·         Midrange: control the board a little bit, and win with value over the course of the game
·         Combo: don't interact with your opponent and laugh as they can do nothing to stop you from winning

Aggro is probably one of the more commonly seen categories of decks that people tend to play. Decks that fall in to this category would be things such as Naya or RG Beats, Affinity, Merfolk, BW Tokens, White Weenie, Infect, and any other deck that wants to beat down with a flooding of dudes on the board. These decks rely on cheap resilient threats backed up with burn and removal to clear the path to victory. A lot of these decks are also very cheap, as most of the power cards are very inexpensive and the expensive cards can be played with substitutes that are essentially the same.

Control has gained a lot of popularity as of late with the recent pro tour showing of the power of UWR control. Decks in this category include the aforementioned UWR, and also Grixis and UW control variants. The goal of these decks is to ultimately grind their opponents out of resources until they can begin to profitably attack them. Be warned that if you’re planning on building on of these decks that it may take a while due to the price of the cards being exceptionally high. There are some shortcuts like using Mana Leak instead of Remand, but a lot of the lands and core cards like Cryptic Command and Snapcaster Mage are very integral to the decks performance.

Midrange are usually more popular in a metagame that has a lot of aggro decks, and not a lot of control. Decks in this category include multiple Birthing Pod variants, Domri Naya, UWR Geist variants, and multiple others. These decks wade out the early game assault of the aggro decks while trying to get under the control decks buy playing haymaker after haymaker. You could technically file Birthing Pod decks under the combo category, but I see it more as a deck that has a bunch of value creatures with a potential combo inside of it.

Combo is probably the most interested and fun kind of deck to play, but horrendous to play against or watch. Eggs, Storm, KCI, and Ad Nauseum would be examples of decks that fall into this category. These decks tend to play a game of solitaire against their opponent, hoping to hit all of their pieces and eventually kill. The bad thing about these decks is that Wizards has banned so many of the “good” cards that make combos consistent. Instead of a quick turn two or three kill. You’re usually going to see a playing “go off” on turn four or later.

Once you figure out what kind of deck you want to play proxy it up and bring it to battle! See if you like the interactions that are available to you or if you might want to switch decks before you invest too much into it. And if there’s one thing I can’t stress enough, it’s that if you enjoy playing the deck, don’t listen to anybody else’s opinion on if it’s “bad” or “unplayable”. The fun about playing in any constructed format is the fun of finding the answers that make your bad matchups great, and your great matchups even better. There’s always going to be some kind of hate for whatever deck you’re playing. Just ask anybody who’s played affinity before ;D

Before I end this, I’d like to throw out an aside that I’ve been tasked with managing any kind of video content for the website. I’ve got a few ideas swirling about, one of them being video deck techs and possible live recorded matches of local players. If you have a brew or deck that you’ve come to fall in love with, contact me either through Facebook or in person and we can work out when to get some recording in. Just make sure to send me a deck list, and a reason as to why you think your deck should be featured.

That’s all I have for you this week ladies and gents. Hopefully school doesn’t make me want to commit sepukku anymore and I can get down to playing more games and putting out more content. From what myself and the other admins have talked about, there’s going to be some pretty cool things going on for the group in this coming year. Let’s just hope everybody has the time to get it done!

Til next time Casual Net!

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-Robert W.