PTQ Gatecrash: Tampa - Robert W.

Party the night before? Check. Have to wake up early? Check. Wanting to go to sleep for 10hrs of Magic? Double check. The life of a Tournament goer. Or at least for me anyways. As many of you already know, PTQ Gatecrash in Tampa occurred a few weeks ago. I was pretty stoked about attending the event, mainly to meet some more of the casual netters (who were all awesome by the way), but also to play some fun games of Magic and have a great day.

The event was sealed, not my favorite format by a long shot. I feel that it's just too luck based to be considered that competitive, but boy was I wrong on that one! Watching someone win with dudes and a single Teleportal every match without any rares or mythic rares in his deck is pretty amazing to see.

With 151 people in attendance, I ended up making Top 16 (16th place exactly!) after 8 rouds of swiss. It was a long and grueling day of combat tricking my way to victory. here's the pool of cards I had to work with:

Green (10):
Golgari Decoy
Axebane Stag
Death's Presence
Korozda Monitor
Deadbridge Goliath
Rubbleback Rhino
Drudge Beetle
Giant Growth
Savage Surge
Towering Indrik

White (11):
Ethereal Armor
Avenging Arrow
Security Blockade
Sphere of Safety
Azorius Justiciar
Seller of Songbirds
Keening Apparition
Sunspire Griffin
Eyes in the Skies
Concordia Pegasus
Angel of Serenity

Black (13):
2x Launch Party (one of them was foil ;D)
Catacomb Slug
Cremate
2x Drainpipe Vermin
Mind Rot
2x Sewer Shambler
Shrieking Affliction
3x Stab Wound

Red (13):
2x Pursuit of Flight
Viashino Racketeer
Survey the Wreckage
Racecourse Fury
Minotaur Aggressor
Gore-House Chainwalker
Electrickery
Bloodfray Giant
Bellows Lizard
Batterhorn
2x Annihilating Fire

Blue (7):
Syncopate
Downsize
Dispel
Crosstown Courier
2x Chronic Flooding
Blustersquall (Foil ;D)

Multicolored (20):
Dramatic Rescue
Heroes' Reunion
Slitherhead
Frostburn Weird
Blistercoil Weird
Izzet Charm
2x Goblin Electromancer
Counterflux
Search Warrant
Skull Rend
Rakdos Shred-Freak
Sundering Growth
Golgari Longlegs
Dreg Mangler
Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage
Common Bond
2x Grizly Salvage
Armada Wurm

Lands/Artifacts (4):
2x Azorius Guildgate
Transguild Promenade
Izzet Keyrune

After flipping through all the cards and taking out the bombs I had to work with, I was ecstatic I already paid for my entry fee by opening both Armada Wurm and Angel of Serenity, but also 3x Stab Wounds? This pool was nuts!

I could have gone a few different directions while making my deck. Angel was an auto-include as she just flat out wins games when she hits the board. The WWW in the casting cost makes it a little rough for making a multi-colored deck, but having the Transguild Promenade and Guildgates would help right? Wrong. My blue was crap, flat out. I didn't want to go red because of all the RR (double red) spells that would end up in the deck and the lack of fixing that I had. black had some awesome removal options, but no creatures, so I went straight to Green. Armada Wurm was an auto-include was were a majority of the other White and Green creatures. After about 15min of putting together all the cards I wanted to play with, I ended up registering this deck:

Creatures (13):
Angel of Serenity
Azorious Justiciar
Seller of Songbirds
Keening Apparition
Sunspire Griffin
Concordia Pegasus
Rubbleback Rhino
Drudge Beetle
Towering Indrik
Golgari Longlegs
Dredge Mangler
Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage
Armada Wurm

Spells (10)
2x Grisly Salvage
Eyes in the Skies
Giant Growth
Savage Surge
Shrieking Affliction
2x Stab Wound
Launch Party
Common Bond

Land (17):
Transguild Promenade
3x Swamp
6x Forest
7x Plains

Looks pretty good, right? Now some of you may be wondering 'Why didn't I play Deadbridge Goliath?' or '2 Stab Wounds over 3?'

To answer the first question, I'm stupid. While sorting my cards, I wasn't sure which of my Green and Black cards were my secondary and tertiary splashes. I set the Goliath aside in one of my corner piles while sorting the cards because of the GG (double Green) in its casting cost. He must have been lost or shuffled in with the rest of my cards and I forgot to register him in my list as a result. I ended up side-boarding him in every single game after Round 1. As for the Stab Wounds, I wanted to have a 2-1 split with Launch Party. I was afraid of having anything with 3 or more toughness getting Stab Wounded, so I figured using Launch Party to get rid of them would help me get some serious value.

And now for the good stuff. Tournament report! :D

Round 1: Rakdos Midrange

My first round opponent seemed to be a pretty nice older gentleman. We sat down, said our good lucks and set off to game one. He didn't really do much except play a couple dudes which I dispatched quickly. I was playing very cautiously because of a suspected Rakdos, Lord of Riots, so the game turned into a swing with one creature and leave the others back so none of his creatures can push for damage. My conservative strategy worked and we moved to the next game. Game 2 was long and grindy; we kept trading blows, but he eventually stabilized behind a Lobber Crew and a bunch of creatures with Defender and constantly pinged me to death to move the match to game 3. Since I knew his game plan, I made sure to keep a very aggressive hand. Going from a 2-3-4 CMC creature followed by curving out into Armada Wurm with Populate backup the following turn made quick work of him. 1-0

Round 2: 4-Color Good Stuff

I sat down and said my hellos as we shuffled up for the first match. I kept up a lot of pressure throughout the game and eventually over ran his defenders. Game 2 was pretty rough since I kept drawing into land I didn't need while he had multiple kill spells for my dudes. He quickly got me down to 0 for another Game 3. In this match, I got clever. I brought in a pair of Sewer Shamblers from the board to punch through with Swampwalk and quickly tempo-ed him out with 4 damage/turn. 2-0

Round 3: Bant (U/W/G) Control:

This fine young gentleman was my first loss of the day. Game one was long and grindy with him spamming removal spells until I ran out of gas and quickly losing afterwards. Game 2 was a little more interesting where I had game on board and he used a clutch Detention Sphere to commit to an alpha strike that swung for lethal. 2-1

Round 4: Grixis (U/R/B) Things

I don't remember too much from this round, but I do recall him being land screwed both games for a quick 2-0 victory. 3-1

Round 5: Jund (B/R/G) Amazingness

This was the highlight of my day hands down. It started off with us getting deck checked and we just sat around for about 10 minutes. In Game 1, he ended up finishing me off with a Guttersnipe and some Sorceries and Instants. Game 2 was a little rough, since he took a mulligan to 5 and couldn't keep up with my onslaught of creatures. Now, Game 3 is when it gets interesting. He takes the play and I take a mulligan down to 5 cards. My hand consists of a Swamp, Forest, Plains, Stab Wound, and one irrelevant card. He makes the first play throwing down a creature that I quickly kill with Stab Wound. After about 4 or so turns of me doing nothing, I have an Armada Wurm in hand with 5 lands in play. I Grisly Salvage into 3 lands and 2 creatures and opt to take the land to cast the Wurm next turn. After I pass, he has a board state containing Trestle Troll, Guttersnipe, Slitherhead, and Drudge Beetle and brings me down to three life the next turn. I slam down the Armada Wurm and grin at his startled face. I look at him in the eye and say "If you have an instant or sorcery in hand, I'll scoop right now." He responds with "I don't..." and doesn't rip one on the next turn. This is where I almost fell out of my chair. I ripped Angel of Serenity off the top, slammed her on the table and exiled his entire army. This guy looked distraught. I swung for 10 and passed. He drew his next card, set it down for a second, then picked up all his cards. THIS GAME WAS THE SINGLE MOST INTENSE GAME OF MAGIC I'VE EVER PLAYED!!! 4-1

At this point, I was going crazy. I ran to our group of casual netters playing EDH and retold the story of my victory like a billion times ('literally' -DJ). I could actually make Top 8! I couldn't even begin to believe how well I was doing. The celebration; however, was a little short..

Round 6: Izzet Aggro

In Game 1, I let my opponent's Frostburn Weird get in for too much damage while I was trying to get him down to a low enough life total to kill him. He ended up killing my only blocker and finished swung in for the last 4 points of lethal. Before Game 2 is when things get a little rough. I got deck checked again. To anyone who's never been deck checked before, they sort all your cards by color and land and give you back the pile of cards the same way. This organizes all the cards and disrupts all the 'randomness' of drawing certain cards. I shuffled 5-6 times and we went into Game 2. I kept a hand with four land, two creatures, and a Stab Wound with no Swamps. I drew into EVERY black card I had in my deck and couldn't play anything. Needless to say, he won that game. 4-2

I was dream crushed. so close to the Top 8 within my grasp and it was gut wrenchingly taken away from me. I could still make Top 16 though, so I continued on.

Round 7: Rakdos Aggro

This game was against a girl I've met before at coolstuff before, but I don't think she recognized me. her name was Nhi (I think that's spelled right?) and she's very fun to play against. She was the only person all day to actually converse with me during our games which was a nice change of pace. Game 1 begun with a turn 2 Gore-House Chainwalker on her side of the board and a prompt Stab Wound on my side. I eventually pushed in for enough damage to make a quick Game 1 sweep. In Game 2, I stumbled on lands and we quickly traded games to a final death match in Game 3. This game went a little slower than the other two, but I eventually created an overwhelming board state and swung for lethal. 5-2

Round 8: I don't even know

Since both Stephen and I were both X-2 so far, we both joked about having to play against each other. We got close to being paired last round so it was pretty much guaranteed we'd get paired this round. We talked about this before the round had started and decided that we'd either draw or let the other win so that one of us could get a spot in the Top 16. I apparently had better tie breakers, so he walked up and said 'you win.' We sat down and he dominated me in Game 1, so I'm actually very glad I didn't have to play against him.

Overall, the day was pretty amazing. David made Top 8, I made Top 16 with Stephen's help, and he got 29th. Everyone who played did awesome and I definitely can't wait to go to another PTQ. Thanks for reading and be sure to show some support for the next tournament we all go to!

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-Robert Williams

COMMANDER! Review: Isperia, Supreme Judge

Sup MTGcas, Javier here. With the Player's Championship now over and September 29th coming closer and closer, it's spoiler season! Like Christmas in July (or Sept. in this case, but you know what I mean)! The Return to Ravnica prerelease event is just weeks away and I hope you're as excited as I am to go back to one of the most popular planes in the multiverse. With the vast city of Ravnica looming before us, we look to Isperia, Supreme Judge, the new leader of the Azorius guild for a little bit of order.

'I serve only justice. But through that duty, I serve all of Ravnica.'

Now where have we seen this sphinx before? Ah yes, as Isperia the Inscrutable from Dissension a few years back. Well, time has passed and our old friend is more authoritative than before. Her stern composure hearkens to her title as judge, but her enormous frame implies she may also be the executioner. Posted above what may be described as some sort of Hallowed Fountain, this sphinx overlooks the megalopolis she has sworn to keep in line. In other words, I think this art is pretty rad and Isperia is an intimating force.

Boasting a sizable 6/4 body, Isperia is no slouch in combat and will dispatch players quickly if allowed to roam the skies unchecked. But crashing into the red zone isn't usually what U/W is best at (current Standard not withstanding, curse you Delver of Secrets!) Isperia's ability is a great boon to control players hoping to protect themselves from swarms of creatures at any point in the game. Not unlike Edric, Spymaster of Trest, who rewards opponents for attacking other players, Isperia penalizes opponents by giving her controller cards, which leads to a more uncertain attack. Card advantage (especially in Commander) is an extremely important asset as games tend to be a bit on the longer side, so drawing cards passively gives you more and more options to win with.

Building a control shell around Isperia seems like the way to go here. Cards that give you a passive bonuses such as Rhystic Study and Luminarch Ascension can help you incrementally build your resources, leaving mana open for responses such as counter-magic or removal that you might draw off of the trigger (responding to an attacking creature with a top-decked Condemn seems pretty effective AND flavorful). As you will surely become a target once you generate enough incremental advantage, defending yourself is the next step to victory. Mass removal such as Austere Command or Evacuation can protect you from early beat-downs, while cards such as Ghostly Prison and Moat limit the creatures that can attack you at all. Quick observation: Angelic Arbiter + Angel Song = Time Walk; not the worst.

Isperia's ability also triggers off of attacks declared on your planeswalkers, making them even more dangerous as well. While planeswalkers are usually kept in check by periodic attacks, the card draw threat from this general means keeping your Superfriends' loyalty high is easier than usual. Planeswalkers with powerful emblem ultimates like Tamiyo, the Moon Sage and Venser, the Sojourner can very easily be protected long enough to ultimate and usually mean the game is over when they do. Gideon Jura gets a quick shout-out here for combining awesomely with Isperia and providing insane potential for card draw.

Some drawbacks to playing Isperia in this fashion are single creatures that are hard to deal with and opposing control generals. Although you will likely handle opposing swarm strategies such as Rith, the Awakener with ease, generals like Rafiq of the Many who usually attack with one creature minimize your card draw while still putting up big numbers. Similarly, Hexproof creatures like Thrun, the Last Troll will attack into you and your general with impunity, knowing they're safe from your Path to Exile and will "trade" with your general with regenerate mana open. As for the control mirror, Isperia gains power when your opponents attack you, but does very little to stop Jhoira of the Ghitu suspending big spells or an Oona milling your library into oblivion. Possible responses to these strategies are Fog Bank for Rafiq, Wall of Denial for Thrun, and the aforementioned Luminarch Ascension for Jhoira and Oona.

As far as comparison to other legendaries is concerned, Grand Arbiter, Augustin IV helps control a board by slowing your opponents down and speeding yourself up, making your turns more valuable. However, Isperia's ability is more combat-focused, so a more salient comparison can be found in Gwafa Hazid, Profiteer. Gwafa prevents your opponents from attacking you straight-up with his Pacifism-like ability, at the cost of giving your opponent a draw. Isperia moves the card-advantage in the other direction, albeit with a less direct ability for altering combat. The two Legends have a similar list of problems - namely Hexproof and the control mirror - so they don't complement each other in the most robust way. It's not necessarily a bad idea to put Gwafa in your Isperia deck, but he'll often act as a more redundant ability than as a diverse threat.

Isperia, Supreme Judge is playable in all other formats as soon as Ravnica hits, but I can't really see him making a big splash. In Legacy, most U control lists use either non-creature win conditions like Blue Sun's Zenith in High Tide or go for smaller aggressive creatures while making sure you don't stop them such as Delver of Secrets (again!) in R/U/G Threshold or Lord of Atlantis in, well, Merfolk. As far as Standard goes, we still have over 150 cards to see from RtR, so it really is impossible to guess how Isperia will fit into the new metagame. The most I can say is that with the Titans gone, we will likely see a much more diverse list of threats hitting the board around the 6-mana slot and hey, maybe Isperia will make the cut somewhere. At the very least this dude is the bomb of a life time in Limited and I will first pick the sphinx in a heart beat. In a land where creatures turn sideways and 6 power fliers win games, Isperia reins queen.

As you can see, Isperia, Supreme Judge is an enormous flier with a great ability for giving passive card draw against aggressive decks. Isperia is a solid choice for a control general and even if she's not generating card advantage, she remains a large body to turn sideways. I hope you enjoyed this quick synopsis of Isperia and feel free to leave any comments pertaining to the article of the general. Until next time, deck builders!

Can't get enough Commander/EDH content? Check out the Commander Series on the MTG Casual Network Archive!

-Javier Remy

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