PTQ Gatecrash: Ft. Lauderdale, Fl

This article will be a little different than the PTQ articles I wrote for Ocoee and Tampa. I want to focus more on what it means to be a professional Magic player rather than talk about the mechanics and theory behind Return to Ravnica limited. With Gatecrash coming around the corner and the hype of new shocklands and new legendary Commanders, we're about to say goodbye to one of the best and most complicated limited formats Wizards of the Coast has ever printed. We wish you well, Return to Ravnica.

What does it take to be a pro gamer?

A few months ago, I registered for a semester at the University of Central Florida preparing to take a strong course load of science classes to prep and improve my candidacy for medical school. Although I absolutely love science, I couldn't decide whether the studying and monotony of spending long hours everyday behind a book was for me. Did I really want to be a doctor? This thought process eventually lead down a path of self-reflection and re-prioritizing things in my life. What did I really want to accomplish in life? What are the things I always dreamed about achieving but never thought even remotely possible? The first thing that came to mind, was the Magic Pro Tour.

When I first picked up Magic back in 2007, I played a ton of casual Magic with friends in the University of Florida dormitories and we would use our creativity to forge the best decks we could with dollar rares and bulk cards we picked up from booster packs scattered through random Walmart and Target runs. The game was interesting from the first time I picked it up, so I was always eager to learn more. To see how the best players in the world would play, I used to watch the Pro Tour coverage on the stream or on YouTube just to see what it was like. The highest level of Magic on the pro scene was really interesting and I admired those who were able to think on that deep of a level, but I didn't want to turn Magic into something ultra competitive for myself. Competition and I have had some problems in the past.

For those of you who don't know me, I used to be a pro Halo PC player back in 2005 and I've had my taste of the top. Although my time in the spot light was thrilling, thankfully it was brief. It hit me towards my final days on the ladder; I realized I wasn't accomplishing anything of worldly significance by being pro other than boosting my own ego sitting in teamspeak and vent lobbies discussing and gossiping over clan politics. The title of 'pro' held a negative connotation in my mind for many years afterwards. After learning how to play Magic, I allowed the dreams of the Pro Tour to evade me. I simply liked having Magic as a hobby and nothing more.

2012 was a strange year for Magic. A few months ago, countless articles reported that Magic: the Gathering was experiencing one of the highest growth rates in Magic players in the game's history. However, this year also brought a lot of problems to light. The charismatic and casual/competitive-friendly Tristan Shaun Gregson of Team Channelfireball was fired on charges of stealing product from the retailer and the extremely popular Evan Erwin of Star City Games disappointed the casual community by moving his 'casual content and spoilers' into premium content that stirred up a ton of discontent among a casual fan base of thousands. Furthermore, the Players Championship earlier this past summer reported extremely low viewings and the Magic community at large was disinterested. Disinterested with seeing the Top 16 best Magic players in the world that season compete against each other across 3-4 different formats? ... What? Although the amount of players playing Magic is increasing, people who took the reigns to help make Magic exciting on a professional and casual level were... well, a disappointment. The lack of huge amounts of support for the Players Championship were from the anonymity of the competitors. Who were they and what was their motivation for playing? What struggles did they endure during their life and what did they give back to the community? What qualities about them made us want to love them and follow their journey? Whether by fault of the players themselves or the lack of in-depth coverage by the Pro Tour, the story of our players would be nothing more than win percentages and statistics. Our so-called 'champions' would go unnoticed.

Fast forward to a few months ago when I had this epiphany that I wanted to compete in a Pro Tour one day. The goal I set out for myself was more than just competing in a championship for a card game; I wanted to inspire others to dream big. As we get older and our expectations become more realistic, we realize how far off and distant the goals we considered in the past really are. We consider that the work and dedication necessary to reach them far surpass what we are capable of or willing to put forward. Part of maturing is understanding our limitations and doing the best with what we have. However, I think the other part is constantly challenging those limitations and trying to exceed them every day. Spend every minute being better than you were 60 seconds ago. There's only one chance at life, so take every shot and make every shot count.

For me, the Pro Tour would be that shot.

So.. What happened in Tallahassee and Ft. Lauderdale?

As you would have guessed, I opened another foil mythic in Tallahassee that I had to pass. This was starting to become painful..

Tallahassee was a bit of a weird case. I was pretty sick the week before the PTQ and I wasn't sure I was able to attend at all. The professors at my university also decided to pack every exam under the rainbow the couple weeks before, so I wasn't able to conduct any practice or research since Tampa, so I went into the event blind and just for fun. We also ran into a situation where someone 'took' some of our cards off a table. Luckily, one of the co-owners of Gamescape in Tally, Benjamin Bloodworth along with Stephen's efforts caught the culprit on tape and we were VERY fortunate to recover the cards. After the whole fiasco, we ended up leaving quickly because the mood had definitely changed from having a good time to 'let's get the fuck out of this awful city.' Doesn't help that we're all mostly Gator fans too. No hard feelings, Tally.

This is the deck I ended up playing in Tallahassee. My sealed pool had a Desecration Demon and a Dreadbore in it, but the support for Black and Red was a little lacking. I liked Bant (G/W/U) Tempo back in Tampa, so I decided to give it a try and hope that my read on the format a couple weeks ago was still sound. Unfortunately, that was wishful thinking as I played against every Bant deck in the room that day and finished with a 3-3 record. The lack of hard (unconditional) removal spells around 2-4 mana made it difficult to apply mid game pressure and I usually fell to the wayside as my opponents played huge creatures in the late game that could easily outclass the size of most of my creatures. I did learn a few things from my opponents like overrating some cards and underrating others. Win some, lose some.

As for Ft. Lauderdale.... spirits for the team were high and I intended to cultivate that the week before. I finished up the Tampa article a few days before the event to rally up the team to make sure we were as hyped as humanly possible for this event. We were walking away with that invite and that was that.

After travelling all the way to Ft. Lauderdale the day before the event, Felicea, Evan, and I found our room and did some small travelling around the city while we waited for the other caravan to get into town. We stumbled upon Miami Subs that I could NOT resist walking into and we feasted upon their 'terrible for you but oh so good' menu. Afterwards, we swung by Coolstuff Games in S. Florida to see if they had anything interesting going on. The store was about the same size as the Winter Park location with a lot of EDH going on. Unfortunately, we got snagged by a trading shark that would not let up on trading with us, so we were unable to get any Commander games in before the others got into town. We headed back to the hotel to briefly meet up with the others and get some rest. After some late night chatting with Evan and laughing at Felicea's mid-rem cycle in-coherency  we only ended up getting an hour or two of sleep. It was completely irresponsible, but what kind of adventure would it be without some laying back and enjoying the moment?

The next morning, we went out to the port where the convention center was located and prepared for the day. With a breakfast full of muffins and coffee along with the determination that outclassed anyone in the room, I was ready. After Tampa, I spent all of my preparation on the Draft portion of Return to Ravnica and knew that if I made it to the Top 8, I would be going to Montreal; no questions in my mind. I just needed to survive the swiss portion one more time.

After all was said and done, I received my final pool and here's the list I sleeved up in Ft. Lauderdale:

Creatures (12):
1x Keening Apparition
1x Azorius Arester
1x Korozda Guildmage
2x Sunspire Griffin
1x Centaur Healer
2x Axebane Guardian
1x Trestle Troll
1x Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
1x Azorius Justiciar
1x Sluiceway Scorpion

Spells (11):
1x Druid's Deliverance
1x Ultimate Price
1x Rootborn Defenses
1x Eyes in the Skies
1x Launch Party
1x Slime Molding
1x Knightly Valor
1x Collective Blessing
1x Coursers' Accord
1x Assassin's Strike
1x Horncaller's Chant

Lands: (17):
3x Golgari Guildgate
8x Plains
5x Forest
1x Swamp

I know what you're thinking. Collective Blessing and Trostani, Selesnya's Voice in the same sealed pool? Holy shit. The deck is phenomenal and I couldn't have asked for a better pool. The bomb cards were also in the colors of the archetype I played the most and had the most success with. I also knew Selesnya was favored against the archetype I expected to face the most that day: Izzet aggro. Out of the 4 PTQs this season, this was my favorite and most powerful deck built. Let the gauntlet begin.

Here's a brief summary of the rounds:

Round 1: Selesnya Mid-Range (with Black splash)

Played against a very quiet guy conveniently named David as well. In Game 1, he knocked my life total to a very low 9 life with a very large Wayfaring Temple and an army to support it. With Trostani and Collective Blessing on the board and very few creatures, I was dying quickly. After playing a Sunspire Grififn to stabilize, my opponent slapped a Stab Wound on it and would slowly drain me to death. At 7 life during my upkeep, I drew into a Korozda Guildmage. I read the card a couple times, then look at my battlefield consisting of TWO black sources. Oh. My. Goodness. I cast the Guildmage and gained 5 life from the Trostani trigger and passed the turn. After my opponent entered the read zone with his 9/9 temple, I used the Guildmage's second activated ability and sacrificed the wounded Griffin and said 'put 4 tokens into play?' My opponent passed priority and I said 'Trostani triggers for the 4 tokens?' and my opponent again passed priority. Then, the most painful words my opponent probably heard that day 'I gain 16 life?' He says 'what?' He reads the Guildmage then looks at the board and reluctantly oks the life gain. Then, I put all 4 tokens in front of the Wayfaring Temple to guarantee that it dies. After his temple finally falls, he concedes the game. He didn't want to shake my hand and didn't wish me good luck. Harsh. In my head, I realized 'I have a combo in my deck.. O_O' I take a swift 2-0 victory after he's demoralized in Game 1.

Round 2: Grixis (U/R/b) Aggro

I didn't think it was possible, but I played against an even more quiet individual named Dairon. We had almost no conversation, so it was strictly business. Since I predicted Izzet/black to be the most dominant deck at this PTQ, this was an easy 2-0 sweep in a little less than 10 minutes. I wished him luck and quickly rallied around the room offering emotional support for everyone during their matches. In this round, I spent a lot of time standing behind teammates during their rounds as they played, sort of playing the coach role. Dairon came up to me often throughout the day and asked how I was doing in the rounds. Fortunately for him, he destroyed the entire field and finished the swiss portion with a X-1-1 record and made Top 8. Good on him.

Round 3: Bant (U/W/G) Mid-Range

I played against a conversational guy named Adam. He made some pretty blatant misplays in Game 1, so I knew that this set would be a little easy. After making unprofitable combat trades in the early game, he had no army to deal with my Collective Blessing in Game 1 AND 2, so the match ended in a clean 2-0 win. Up until this point, I hadn't used any Sideboarding in Rounds 1-3, so I was feeling very confident with the main list as is.

Round 4: Rakdos Aggro

Played against a very confident guy named Chris. After a couple misplays, I knew fatigue was getting to me and I ended up throwing the match away with an 0-2 loss. My opponent would eventually finish with a X-0-1 record and make the Top 8.

Round 5: Selesnya Mid-Range (with Blue Splash)

I played against an Orlando regular at Coolstuff named Michael. He was a bit of an odd player, but I ignored it and focused on the game at hand. In Game 3, we hit a huge stalemate that was ultimately taken into turns because time in the round had elapsed. With judges and teammates surrounding the match, the pressure was on. On my final turn after swings, his life total still remained above 0 and we resolved for the draw. Immediately afterwards, Ed asked the judge how static abilities on creatures work. Frankly, I was really confused. After a bit of clarification from the judge and my teammates, I didn't realize my Rhino token via Horncaller's Chant had Trample.

Ugh. 

I've never cast the card before, but that's no excuse for not knowing about mr. trampling rhino. Since I didn't physically assign Trample damage during the damage step, it's treated as a missed trigger and the extra point of damage I needed to kill off my opponent went missed. I felt really defeated after this realization.

Round 6: Izzet Aggro

After two excruciatingly poor misplays in Rounds 4 and 5, I sat across a refreshingly friendly and upbeat player named Cody. With some really fun games and joking around, I took a 2-0 victory. Luckily, Cody was trying to leave in order to get back home in Tampa since it was getting late, so he was content with the outcome. We wished each other well and both finally were able to forage for some dinner.

Round 7: Bant (U/W/G) Tempo

This round would probably be the most important throughout the entire day. With a 4-1-1 record, I needed to win out the rest of the swiss for a chance in the Top 8. Any record of X-1-2 or X-2-1 would not make it. These next two rounds were it.

I was paired up against a guy I've met a handful of times at Mega GC in Gainesville, Joshua. He and I've had several discussions about Magic in the past, so I knew he was more than a competent player. We enjoyed some pre-game jitter conversation about what it would be like to get the Top 8 and win the tournament before starting the round. In Game 1, we played the same exact spells for the first 5 turns. After some profitable combat trades, I came on top. In Game 2, he stabilized towards the mid game and slammed the bane of my existence, Angel of Serenity and swung in for lethal. Game 3 would be the deciding factor of who still had a shot at the Top 8.

Our round was going into the late stages of time and was drawing up a large crowd. Teammates, friends of friends, and judges were collectively crowding around us. This was the feature match. Since this was the clutch game and I knew my opponent had Angel of Serenity, I knew I had to amass a large number of creatures in order to seal this game away if it went into a board stall. And a board stall it was. I committed an early Trostani to the board to start the army building and force a ton of late game pressure on my opponent by making 2/2 Knight tokens every turn off of a Knightly Valor. I simply needed time. Then the dreaded words: a judge called time in the round. With only 5 turns left, I couldn't get enough time to amass the army I needed and on my Turn 4, alpha-striked with ever creature I had. Unfortunately, it only took him to 8 life and he moved onto the last and final Turn 5. On his turn, he looked at me and we exchanged a very subliminal exchange of words 'what now?' With no board presence, a low life total, and no relevant cards in hand, Josh knew there was no way he could secure victory.

Josh: 'What happens now? With a draw, neither of us can make the Top 8'
Judge: 'You have to make a decision'
Me: 'You can't make it to Montreal anyways'
Josh: 'I've never made Top 8'
Me: 'It's your turn, your choice'

He knew I wasn't going to concede the round because I was ahead on board and I was presenting lethal one turn away. Although I felt bad that he couldn't make it to Montreal because of prior commitments, I made it clear in the beginning of the match that getting the PT invite was the most important thing to me that day. After some consideration and weighing this extremely difficult choice, he opted to concede. I asked if he was sure and he said he was. I shook his hand and thanked him before promptly putting my head on the table.

I couldn't thank Josh enough for what he had done. He was, in no way obliged to give me the win, but he gave me a fighting chance for the Top 8. I was still live in the tournament and it was because of his good sportsmanship. Unfortunately, fatigue was getting the best of me and I knew that not staying hydrated and not resting the night before were taking their toll. I needed to keep myself calm for just one more round. Without any room for rest because time in Round 7 had just elapsed, I moved into the last and final round immediately after.

Round 8: 5-Color Control

In the final round, I sat next to Ed, the TO of CoC Milennia and very skilled Magic player as we both fought for a spot in the Top 8. I sat across a guy named Michaelle  that I had played and lost to in Round 2 of the Ocoee PTQ. I knew he was a good player, so I was expecting nothing less than a difficult round. Unfortunately, he drew into great fixing and a ton of gas while I ended up getting flooded with lands in both games. It was a bit of a heartbreaker, but I ended up losing 0-2. I wished my opponent luck and walked away from the tournament table in disappointment. Michaelle would also later compete in the Top 8.

With a 5-2-1 record in Ft. Lauderdale, I placed 18th with a 68.8% win percentage.

I definitely was somewhat crushed because I felt like I had one of the best decks in the room and I knew I had one of the best grasps on the format as a whole. I sat down for a little bit with Travis and Stephen who were awaiting results and hanging out. Fortunately, Travis, Jules, and Ed all placed in the Top 16, so I was very happy for them. After the loss in Round 8, a few people came up to me, including Dairon to shake my hand, pat me on the shoulder and told me that they really enjoyed the games I played and said I really deserved the Top 8. Without gushing too much, it was really a great feeling that people got to see the games I played in and really enjoyed them. Then..

Judge: 'David Jetha!'
Me: 'What?'
Judge: 'Come here!'
Me: 'What did I do?'
Judge: 'Here.' Hands me 8 booster packs*

I reluctantly took them, then looked at them, then looked back at him. 'What are these for?' The judge responded: 'you got 16th place, take them.' I was a little in disbelief, but I found out a little later that two players were disqualified for cheating and so we all got bumped up 2 slots. Well then. I walked up to Josh who was talking to some friends and handed him 4 of the booster packs. We exchanged no words, but simply understanding. Then, we sat down and had a friendly pack war with some of his friends and laughed about how broken Lobber Crew is. I rejoined the team afterwards for some last minute pictures and a little discussion over all the trading going on in the sidelines throughout the day. Afterwards, we said goodbye to some and stayed for drinks and dinner with others. Overall, it was a great day.

Across the 4 PTQs, overall I went 20-8-2 in rounds with a 71.4% win percentage with 2 Top 16 finishes and 1 Top 8 finish. With almost no FNM appearances this season, I managed to place in the Top 50 ranked players in Florida this season; that was a pretty amazing feat.

But the victory behind this season was more than just the statistics. This season, Casual Net became a real team. We grew not only as players, but as a family. Even though it's already been 4 events, it's still amazing how we can always keep coming back together for these events, meet a ton of great people, and enjoy the experience of Magic and the camaraderie it ensues.

So we revisit the question of what it takes to be a professional Magic player. As it is in sports, academics, and any hobby, being a professional and a champion is more than being skilled, it's a state of mind. When you walk into an event, you know that you put in enough preparation and dedication into competing in that event that you're confident that you'll walk home with a first place finish; anything less is disappointing. I believe that being a champion or a professional should be more than simply the raw statistics. A professional accepts their limitations and continues to challenge them. Champions impress other competitors with their maturity, humility, and passion for the game. Champions carry a state of mind not only to expand their own knowledge and depth of understanding of the game, but to cultivate a community that carries the same aspirations of competing on the tournament scene and playing the highest level of Magic possible, whether that be on the Limited or the Commander table.

For myself, I feel like I've grown a lot over the past few months. I'm fortunate to have the blog as a way to record the whole journey and as a tool to hopefully encourage other players to take on the gauntlet. Right now, I'm reluctant to call myself a professional, but I definitely feel like a winner at the end of the day.

Be involved in the community, help new players, and never stop having fun. Stay inspirational and you may be a champion yet. Until the next season, Magic players.

Check out the MTG Casual Net Archive and connect with us on Facebook!

-David J.

Some special thanks to Casual Net for the season:

First, to my admins..

We could not have accomplished this much without your hard work and dedication. Both of you have given so much to the group and have helped me with both advice and guidance. I hope that our efforts together will bring more success to this group and our team as we move forward.

Our top finishers..

Robert Williams - Top 16 in Tampa
Jules Jeannin - Top 16 in Ft. Lauderdale
Travis Comnick - Top 16 in Ft. Lauderdale
Stephen Poindexter - Top 32 in Tampa
Chris Hogg - Top 32 in Tampa
Javier Remy - Top 32 in Tallahassee
Felicea Van - Top 32 in Ft. Lauderdale

Everyone who attended and hopefully had an amazing time on this journey..

Javier Remy
Stephen Poindexter
Emily Weber
Evan Forster
Gyula Gorezcky
Nick LoCastro
Chris Hogg
Jules Jeannin
Robert Williams
Travis Comnick
Justin Ashori
Matt Kiep
Luke Christakis
Felicea Van
Geovanny Perez

And of course to my non-Magic/muggle friends and family who have supported me throughout this journey. You guys are my inspiration and make me want to be a better person everyday.

COMMANDER! Review: Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius

Let's face it, when everyone heard that we were going back to Ravnica, I imagine there was nothing but rejoice. The days of awesome mana-fixing lands, strong multicolored cards, and a limited format that would be discussed for years to come, Ravnica represents a renaissance of how sets would be designed and how Magic would be played for the next decade. One of the most iconic creatures (other than Dark Confidant) was none other than Guildpact's monster, Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind. The Izzet lord played his role as one of the most popular Legendary creatures in the set and an all-time favorite in eternal casual formats (not to mention a tier 1 general in Commander). After our hiatus from the Ravnica plane, we come back and see that our old friend has aged a little and learned a few new tricks.

'He has no patience for minds that do not inspire him or explode by trying.'

Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius is generously costed at 2UURR, which maintains the same mana cost as his older version, the Firemind. He has a 5/5 Flying body and the ability to draw a card whenever he deals damage to a player. Good so far. His activated ability for UR allows him to deal one damage (ping) to a target creature or player. Fortunately, if you elect to target an opponent, the Dracogenius's triggered ability will go on the stack and you'll be able to draw one card. This looks pretty sweet, but is one damage good enough?

Although one damage is largely irrelevant in the scope of Commander, drawing one card is not. Drawing one card for two mana is a strong bargain and becomes insane when it's an actual engine that you can do multiple times. In Commander, the spells are huge, the creatures are fat, and removal is premium. However, sometimes you need simple effects to stabilize the board in your favor. The Dracogenius does a great job of having a simple ability that keeps the board at a manageable size and doubles up as a win condition. How so? Your opponents will often have smaller creatures like Weathered Wayfarer, Fauna Shaman, or Master Transmuter that need to die immediately, but you don't want to waste a removal spell or a Wrath-effect to do so. The Dracogenius plays the role of clean-up crew on the battlefield and prevents these cards from every going online until your opponent deals with the dragon himself. This shuts down mid to late game utility creatures, which can play a vital role in your strategy, but more on that later. As a win condition, the Dracogenius can deal nearly infinite damage to your opponent given enough time and your opponent is unable to deal with him. I use the term infinite to describe the 1 damage and the 1 card you get from every activation. Consider that the cards you draw are lands: you play these lands in order to fuel more damage and more cards for Dracogenius activations.  Consider that the cards you draw are spells: these spells will help further you in the game by either providing more creatures to commit to the board or countermagic/removal to prevent your opponents from getting their engines online. All in all, the Dracogenius is a 1 card engine that can either fuel you into a strong economy (resources like lands and cards) for the late game or just win the game outright if the dragon goes unanswered.

You mentioned earlier that the Dracogenius can shut down mid to late game utility creatures using his activated ability to shoot them for damage; how can I use this to my advantage?

Much to the enjoyment of casual players, Commander is a format of politics. Politics plays a huge role in Commander, because not only are you trying to convince your opponents to be your allies, you're also trying to subliminally force your opponents into playing in a style that's conducive to your victory. A simple example would be: if I play a ton of Wrath-effects, my opponents will play creatures more sparingly or will play more Graveyard recursion to counter-act all of the board wipes. Now I know that my opponents will have battlefields with a low/light number of creatures, they're more likely to keep creatures in their hand and try to bait premature Wrath-effects, and they might dedicate a few more slots in their deck towards creature reanimation. Now I can use this information to my advantage and dedicate more slots in my deck towards hand disruption and graveyard hate. I also know that my opponent probably won't elect for early aggression, so I can play a slower-paced game if I choose.

For the Dracogenius, shutting off your opponents' mid to late game utility creatures does a few things. First, you force your opponent into playing their utility creatures much earlier so they can avoid getting pinged to death by your dragon. Second, your opponent needs to play larger creatures in the mid to late game, so your dragon is unable to kill them as easily. Lastly, your opponent needs to have a removal spell handy by turn 6, when they expect to see your dragon hit the battlefield. How do we respond to these subtle changes? If our opponents are opening up with earlier utility creatures, then we can play a couple 'lower-impact' removal spells to knock them out early like Electrolyze, Fire/Ice, and Izzet Charm and play an attrition-style early game while we wait for a mid to late game control push. For the second change, our opponent will want to cast larger creatures in the mid to late game. Fortunately for you, you came prepared.

If we know our opponent is going to play giant monstrosities, why not borrow them and not intend on giving them back? Using theft abilities like Insurrection, Mass Mutiny, and Gather Specimens towards the mid to late game can be huge when your opponent is trying to bombard you with giant creatures. Using sacrifice effects like Goblin Bombardment, Greater Gargadon to rid the board of them afterwards is a huge tempo crusher for your opponents. Creature theft also allows you to play very offensively and push for tons of damage that your opponents would find it difficult to prepare for. What happens if I steal all the things and it's not enough to kill them? Fortunately, it comes back to our general, the Dracogenius. His activated ability provides a huge amount of reach when your opponents are at a low life total that puts them in a very uncomfortable position.

Ok, so I understand killing my opponents' early-game utility creatures and stealing their giant creatures in the late game, but how do I prevent them from killing my Dracogenius before I can set this up? The strategy here is an aggressive mana curve and bait. Ideally, we would like to play a very strong suite of 3-5 mana spells that our opponent would be very reluctant to allow to resolve or wreak havoc on the battlefield. By increasing the power level of our 4-5 mana spells (like Bribery or Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker) , we are attempting to bait our opponent into using a removal spell of some kind to destroy it, consequentially decreasing the likelihood that they have an answer to the Dracogenius. By having an aggressive curve (or spells that are at a low mana cost), we ensure that we're putting a ton of pressure (good spells) on the table and force our opponent to react to it. If our opponent reacts to it, we can resolve a Dracogenius. If our opponent does not react to it, then they simply die. Another benefit to playing the Dracogenius with an aggressive curve is our mana is limited. Since we want to sink mana into Dracogenius activations, the spells we have available to cast during our Main Phases must be at a lower mana cost so we can maximize the amount of activations we can use at the end of turn. Maybe our mana curve can be low enough to utilize Firemind's Foresight; one can only dream.

What does Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius have in store for the upcoming Standard season? I won't comment on Standard too much, but I really like Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius as a win condition for U/W/R or U/R/B control decks. Unfortunately, the Dracogenius competes with Olivia Voldaren, Nicol Bolas Planeswalker, and Entreat the Angels for slots as the finishers. I'm hoping that after rotation, the Dracogenius will see some serious Standard play and a top-tier deck premiers a copy or two as the win condition.

Now to finally address the elephant in the room: how does Niv-Mizzet compare to his older predecessor, the Firemind? At mythic level, the Dracogenius outclasses his older version by having a larger body. However, the abilities on both cards force you into building your deck with largely different play styles. The difference is in the reward. Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind rewards you for drawing cards, while Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius rewards you for sinking mana into dealing damage to your opponents' faces. Why does the reward matter? First, we have to look at what drawing cards and dealing damage entail.

To draw cards normally, we do so during the Draw Phase. Furthermore, the Firemind's activated ability requires you to Tap him to draw a card. If we were to maximize the Firemind's 'dealing damage capacity' we need to increase our Draw Phases and Untap Phases; but how do we do this? By taking extra turns. Firemind players can elect to play spells that allow them to take extra turns, but there are only a handful of cards in the game that have that ability. The simplest way to take extra turns (without literally taking extra turns) is to have a stabilized board state and control the game. When you're in the driver seat of a multiplayer Commander game, you're able to dictate the tempo of the game and choose whether to be reactive or proactive. If you're sitting with the Firemind on your side of the field, you have no reason to be aggressive because the Firemind's activated ability nets you a card, while attacking does not. The Firemind literally rewards you for playing a defensive/control-style game.

How does this compare to the Dracogenius? The Dracogenius rewards you not only for being reactive (keeping mana open to respond to your opponents' spells) but rewards you for being proactive and attacking with the Dracogenius and dealing damage to players using his activated ability. Dealing large amounts of damage in Commander is important for aggressive strategies and the Dracogenius is no lightweight. Furthermore, the Dracogenius also benefits from taking extra turns. The Untap Phase is very important for the Dracogenius because it allows you a fresh line of new mana that you can use to sink into his activated ability to ping more creatures and players for more cards. Electing to play a control-type strategy also helps increase the amount of Untap Phases you can get to maximize the amount of activations you can use. Ultimately, the ability to be reactive and/or proactive gives the Dracogenius a lot of flexibility and gives the pilot behind the deck the ability to decide how they want to approach any particular game.

After all this banter, which one is better??

Unfortunately, I think the Firemind is still a better competitive option because of it's easy-to-win combos with Ophidian Eye and Curiosity and it's popular Combo/Control strategy that has captivated the hearts of many control players. However, I think the Dracogenius is a better designed card. The card is elegant and simple to understand for new players. It's also more versatile and I think it's a fixed version of the Niv-Mizzet that still wins with any infinite mana combos you're able to muster to satiate the combo player audience. With the negative stigma that surrounds playing Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind as your Commander, I think the Dracogenius is well-suited to appease players looking for a strong U/R candidate as a Commander or as a finisher in their U/R/x list of 99. What kind of deck will you create with Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius? Until the next Commander, Magic players!

Check out the MTG Casual Net Archive and connect with us on Facebook!

-David J.