Magic the Gathering

Tournament Reports

2nd place at Grand Prix Denver, part 1

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Hey Everyone! In case you didn’t know this already, I’m sort of a big deal. Well, perhaps I’m more of the next best thing to a big deal hehe. I don’t want this article to be about me and how cool I think I am, but more as a tool for those of you who have PTQs or tournaments left with the current Lorwyn/Shadowmoor Block Constructed action.

This experience provided me with a tremendous boost in my playing abilities, as well as confirmation of what I had been saying all along “Faeries is THE best deck in the format.” Holding off on running Faeries has cost me quite a lot. I was ignoring what I preached was the truth. My rating going into Grand Prix Denver was 1747, the lowest it had been in several years. This also meant I was to start the 9 rounds of Swiss with ZERO byes. And on top of that, I didn’t have all of the cards I wanted. I knew I wanted to play faeries I just didn’t know what version. From the results of GP Kobe, I saw something that had interested me, obviously the winning deck.

I thought the deck was fantastic! However, I know myself and I know that many of the cards in the deck just don’t work for me:

1. Vivid Creek - I don’t know why a person would play a Vivid land in a deck that is only 2 colors. On top of that, I feel like I draw too many lands in 23-24 land decks and with Peppersmoke and Cryptic Command, I feel like 24 lands would be the peak of my land capacity.
2. Pestermite - As much as I like this card, I feel it’s very inferior to cards that actually do more than block bitterblossom tokens.
3. Sower of Temptation NEVER works for me. It always dies and I am left with a total feeling of betrayal. Without a Scion the Sower is an easy target for removal. If you are fortunate enough to have Sower and they do NOT have removal or you DO have Scion it’s MONEY. However, I like to gamble in casinos and NOT in MTG. At least most of the time ;)
4. Oona, Queen of the Fae I do enjoy opening an Oona in a draft, but at 6 mana she’s a pretty big mouth to feed. What also gets me is that she does NOTHING against the bigger Cloudthresher. Yes she can become a millstone and deck your opponent of useful weapons but ultimately she does NOTHING vs. 2 of the creatures that do the most harm vs. Faeries, Thresher and Colossus.
5. What’s with the 3 ofs?!?! Cryptic Command is awesome! Thoughtseize is awesome! The ONLY thing worse than running 3 of them, is running 2 or then again running 1. There is a reason why restricting a card was terrible when you wanted to play 4 of something, and you only played the 1 card because that was the ONLY option. Of course you do what you can and hope that 3 or 2 of a card balances things better, but I think those 2 cards are must be at 4.

So, here’s my little diddy:

If you hadn’t heard, Stillmoon Cavalier was the hottest card in the game on Friday and early Saturday of the Grand Prix. I had the chance to buy the last 4 available at our sponsor’s site Coolstuffinc.com for $4.99 and I thought that was a bit too much for what I felt was a mediocre card. Additionally, it would have been a 30 minute drive for me to go pick them up and that was just too much. So, I waited to get to Denver. Where I found that ALL of the dealers had sold out on Friday at $15 a pop! Then, Saturday morning found no success for me as everyone and their mother was buying this guy.

I met up with Magic Superstars Antonino De Rosa, Billy Postlethwait and David Irvine to write up my decklist and grab some always valuable advice. With 5 minutes before start time, Antonino told me that some guy just pulled out some Cavaliers for $20 each! I ran up and bought the last 4 that he had. So this tourney already had me in for $110. :(

Round 1 Kithkin

Game 1 - We started out racing! I drop a Turn 2 Bitterblossom and Turn 3 Thoughtseize reveals main deck Pollen Lullaby! Which is what I take and then take the game on two consecutive Scions for the win (I end at 3 life.) He made a mistake by not transforming his Figure of Destiny during his main phase and I’m able to respond with a Peppersmoke during my turn in response, this play added to his demise.

Game 2 - He comes at me very fast with T1, T2, T3 drops. I drop T3 and T4 Cavalier and it totally puts a halt to his offense. I realize that these guys might be pretty good for me. ;)

1-0 Matches :: 2-0 Games

Round 2 Kithkin/White Hybrid Red/Green

Game 1 - He played multiple Kitchen Finks but I’m able to kill them with Nameless Inversion + Peppersmoke combo. With 2 Finks in his yard and me dwindling in life (3) I play Puppeteer Clique and grab 4 life to win at 3.

Game 2 - I mulligan to 5, BUT I lay a turn 3 and turn 5 Cavalier which holds his entire army at bay. He hardly touched me and the Cavaliers brought home the victory with me at 10.

2-0 Matches :: 4-0 Games

Now, I believe that the first two rounds of a Grand Prix SHOULD be won relatively easily. Mainly, because the “better” players have 3 round byes. Your matchups get increasingly more difficult through the tournament.

Round 3 Faeries

Game 1 - He plays a turn 1 Thoughtseize on me taking my Bitterblossom, then follows it up with a turn 2 Bitterblossom of his own. My Mutavault does some damage, as I clear the path with Peppersmokes. This allowed me to regain some momentum as he is only drawing lands. I turn the game around by Thoughtseizing him. He dies to his own Bitterblossom.

Game 2 - He Thoughtseized me again on Turn 1 taking my Bitterblossom. However, I rip a turn 3 Bitterblossom despite his attempts to keep me from my destiny. I take his Scion with a Thoughtseize and that’s all that really takes place as he begins to flood for lands.

3-0 Matches :: 6-0 Games

Round 4 Doran

This matchup is a hard one for me. Not only because Doran and Colossus are so good, but I don’t draw the color of lands I need. He mulligan game one and I mulligan game 2.

3-1 Matches :: 6-2 Games

Round 5 Faeries

Game 1 - I Thoughtseize Turn 1 and view Cryptic Command, Nameless Inversion x 2, Mutavault, Swamp, Sunken Ruin. I take his Cryptic Command and play BB next turn. He keeps drawing removal killing my little Faeries and I keep taking damage. Around Turn 8 I Thoughtseize again, I view Sower, Sower and Spellstutter Sprite. He takes one of my tokens with Sower #1 and I run in with 3 tokens killing the Sower with a EOT Peppersmoke. I kill Sower #2 with my next EOT’s Peppersmoke. Spellstutter meets with a Peppersmoke when he tries to counter my Scion and he’s got 2 mutavaults in play. Note 3x Peppersmokes.

Game 2 - Once again, I turn 1 Thoughtseize, taking his Scion from the grip of Mistbind Clique x 2, Nameless Inversion, Peppersmoke and random lands. Bitterblossom turn 2 seals the deal. 13 life.

4-1 Matches :: 8-2 Games

Round 6 Faeries splashed White for Wispmare

Game 1 - Actually came down to us both being at 1 and both of us having Bitterblossoms. On my turn I Peppersmoke both of his blockers and swing with 2 tokens for the win. 1 life.

Game 2 - His hand was terrible Turn 1 I Thoughtseize and take his Wispmare. On turn 2 I lay my trademarked Bitterblossom. I didn’t know that he trademarked the ole top deck the wisp mare move and he killed my BB before I could get a counter. So, at this point I go into Mistbind beat down mode. 13 life.

5-1 Match :: 10-2 Games

Round 7 Faeries

Game 1 - I turn 1 Thoughtseize finding Peppersmoke x 2, Mistbind Clique, Cryptic Command. Turn 2 comes my BB and I win at 5.

Note: I found that a lot of players opted NOT to aggressively mulligan for either a T1 Thoughtseize or a T2 Bitterblossom. If I had not had it in my grip majority of the time (as indicated) I would have mulligan at least to 6.

Game 2 - This wasn’t very special as I had a very aggressive hand with NO Bitterblossom. I do see that he is running Broken Ambition, Cryptic Command, Peppersmoke, Mistbind Clique, so I take the Cryptic Command as I feel that is the only card in his grip that can push him back to parity. He did lay a Stillmoon Cavalier and tried to go aggressive on me. However, when he would try to pump to kill me, I would consign before damage. So, to summarize, I took 6 damage from the Cavalier instead of the intended 12 because I bounced him 3 times. 6 Life

NOTE: for this matchup, I sided in Consign to Dreams when I’m on the draw 2nd or 3rd game. You MUST keep in mind that Stillmoon Cavalier is VERY good vs. Faeries. IF I’m on the play for game 2 or 3 I might consider playing Cavalier.

6-1 Match :: 12-2 Games

Round 8 Kithkin

Game 1 - He mulligans. I come out with T2 BB and play 2 Scions to win this one easily.

Game 2 - It’s a little bit harder, NOT TRUE. It’s actually easier. T2 BB, T3 Cavalier, T4 Cavalier, 5 Life, Victory.

7-1 Match :: 14-2 Games

At this point, Antonino and company tell me to draw in no matter what, because you don’t want to take a chance of being 65th or higher. I don’t know what my standing is and I don’t want to look. So, I go into round 9 looking to draw.

Round 9 Mono Red

Ok so Mono Red is very good Vs Faeries, but pretty much bad vs. the other top decks. I offer the draw. My opponent says, “I heard our record from today carries over to tomorrow. So, I’m going to play.” I said you’re guaranteed to make it to day 2 if you draw or win, but you’re not if you lose. Any way, he kicked the crap out of me.

In case you’re interested, he plays Stigma Slasher every game and wrecked me.

So, I get upset, thinking I’m not going to be able to make day 2 I’ve been X-2 in my last 2 Grand Prix and have not been able to make day 2. I come to terms with not making it in because I had zero byes and I felt that I deserved to NOT make it because of that fact.

Day 1 record was 3-0 vs. Kithkin 4-0 vs. Faeries the 2 “best” decks in the format, and it was mainly because of the Cavaliers in the Kithkin matchup.

I’m gonna conclude this as Part 1 of the series.

1. If you ARE a good player, the “Best” deck will always result in a decent finish. I’ve procrastinated playing Faeries since Lorwyn came out. It has cost me 100s of DCI points and money for that matter.
2. If you identify a card or cards that help your deck win, there should be NO cost too high
3. If you do want to be a “serious” player, then you need to plan. Your rating will not get high enough if you think you can screw little kids during FNM. You have to do well at bigger local events such as PTQs, States or Regional contests.
4. Have faith. Just play as well as you can, your record will reward you for your effort. I ended up 53rd out of 64 to make day 2. In fact, I thought the money was for top 32 or higher. (It was for the top 64.)

– Lee