Feeling the Blues with a Pale Redness

Hello everyone and welcome to another Magical Blog Entry. Originally, I had planned to write the tournament report and share my thoughts on the Ban & Restricted List that will be happening on January 27th. I had to change that plan when I noticed this article was getting a little too long. Therefore, expect the B&R post to come up some time this week. And tomorrow I have a special guest that sent in an article about resource management! Now, let's begin!

Last weekend I had the (mis)pleasure of participating in a Modern GPT. It was a small ordeal consisting of only thirteen players. Luckily, it wasn't just thirteen players, it was some of the best thirteen players in Puerto Rico battling for those coveted Byes for Grand Prix Richmond. The Metagame was rather diverse in spite of the size of the player pool, with even some room for interesting decks. There was an Affinity build with Mishra, Artificer Prodigy and URw Magnivore deck. As for me? I went into the fray with the UWR Midrange deck that won Grand Prix Prague the week before. My record? 2-2. And I don't feel like I deserved the wins. Holding onto this virtual 0-4 record, I had to re-examine my entire skill set. Definitely, I'm not a terrible player. I've done quite well for myself and have been able to shift between archetypes throughout the years. This time around I've just realized that I'm completely out of it. Played a UWR Midrange deck where my match against UW Control involved me trying to play his Control game.

Unfortunately, that was a recurring theme all day--me playing the Control game. Being too conservative. There were plenty of cases where I should have just ran out a turn 3 Geist of Saint Traft and just make him have the answer. I may have tried to adjust in-game and off-game, however I didn't truly know until World Magic Cup Finalist, Jorge Iramain, pointed out that I was playing too cautiously around a Lightning Bolt with my Vendilion Clique. In retrospect, he was right. I should have played the Clique a turn or two earlier, because it was going to die at the moment that Bolt was drawn. Might as well play her as soon as possible get the information and if she lived great, if not, well, that's a shame, but now I know what he has in hand. Before we continue, you can find the deck list here.

The changes I made was due to not having Aven Mindcensors, thus I replaced them with Spell Snare. Of course, I liked Spell Snare so much, I swapped out Mana Leaks in favor of the Snares. The other notable change was made to the mana base. Suggested by a friend out of fear for Blood Moon, we decided to go down one Arid Mesa to up the Island count to three. Theoretically, three Islands gave is the potential to fetch for them and assemble Cryptic Command mana before a Blood Moon came down. His suggestion made sense and came with little expense. Maybe some percentage points in terms of consistency had to be sacrificed, but it was minimal and did not come back to bite me.

Right now, writing a regular ol' tournament report seems a little underwhelming, especially since my memory is notoriously bad. I may remember some details perfectly, yet my memories all tend to be rather fragmented. I'll still try my best, so onto the recap!

Round 1 - UWR Magnivore, Michael Torres

There's not much to say here.

On Game 1 he kept a land-light hand and got stuck on two Steam Vents for most of the game. We both never saw a Geist of Saint Traft  and mostly finished him off on the back of a Thundermaw Hellkite.

Game 2 was a different animal. I actually turn 3'd or 4'd Geist of Saint Traft catching him completely off-guard. He tried to stabilize with Ajani Vengeant, but Remands allowed me to keep the beats going.

He later admitted to removing his Pyroclasms post-board due to not seeing the Geists, which is completely understandable. In his position, I'm not sure what I would have done. Considering that this style of UWR had won a GP the week before, keeping the 'Clasms post-board would have been reasonable. I don't fault him, however, for siding them out. Having four possible dead cards after 'Board is not what you want. That said, maintaining a pair of Pyroclasms would have been ideal--just not the full set.

2-0

Round 2 - UW Control, Omar Marrero

This match is the fuzziest as I keep confusing it with my Round 4 match.

All I know is that I lost two games to one and don't even remember how I won the one game. Marrero, though, has been playing his version of UW Control for a very long time and definitely was very comfortable with it, unlike myself. The deck was lent to me the night before and, unfortunately, I'm not as sharp as I used to be when it came to picking up a deck last minute. His version, which is very well set-up, was packing Maindeck Kitchen Finks and, I believe, a full set of Restoration Angels. Ergo, it was very difficult for my Geists to get through. Third game I remember the most as it came to a point where I realized that I was not at the top of my game. I clearly misunderstood the role I was supposed to be playing, yet noticed so late in the game that I figured my best chance was to revise my game plan and see him again during any facet of the finals. Fortunately for him, he topped; I didn't.

I did want that rematch. 

1-2, 3-2

Round 3 - Gr Tron, Paul Vallejo

Ah, Tron. The scariest of the decks I faced all day. And Mr. Vallejo couldn't get his Karns! Fortunately for him, the replacement was equally fearsome. It's one of the better replacements this deck probably has for those that can't get their Karns in time--Myr Battlesphere. Said, Battlesphere even sees play in Vintage! So, a turn 3 Battlesphere is nothing to scoff at, especially if you don't draw answers to it, or can't block it. It's 12 damage every time!

First game, despite giving it my best shot, it wasn't enough to stop that Battlesphere, and crashed in for lethal around turn 5. I don't even remember what hand I kept. The flurry of Myrs was too much.

Second game presented a very interesting mulligan decision. Again, I don't recall the exact content of my hand, but it went something like:

Arid Mesa, Stoney Silence, Spell Snare, Path to Exile, and a few other cards that weren't quite relevant at the time as they wouldn't come online long after I've disrupted Tron's game.

Here lies my problem, I had Stony Silence, a card that shuts down almost half of Vallejo's deck, especially if they kept a hand with Tron lands and Chromatic Stars/Spheres and no Forests. I needed that second land, though.

So, this is Game 2. You are on the play. You see that hand. Do you keep? Maybe you do. Arid Mesa for a Hallowed Fountain, will let you Spell Snare a Sylvan Scrying and Path to Exile whatever monster comes down. At this point, you probably know he doesn't have any Karns in his deck, but you still aren't sure. All things considered, that does not even sound like a terrible plan. Drawing that second land had rather large probability of locking Vallejo out of the game forcing a game 3. What happened? The Fear.

I shipped the hand for a six card hand that seemed much more aggressive, which consisted of Geist of Saint Traft and enough land to play it on turn 3. I don't regret that decision either, as I got him down to four, where a topdecked Path to Exile would remove his follow-up Wurmcoil Engine, allowing me to get in for the win.

What would you have done?

Needless to say, 0-2, 3-4.

Round 4 - UWR Midrange/Control - Javier Rodriguez

As mentioned above, my memory is unable to separate Round 2 and Round 4 from each other. I did go 2-1 and one of the games I won was purely on the back of Burn spells. Fortunately, I did remember two specific scenarios from this match which were crucial for my realization--the one where I've been playing like shark poop. The Vendilion Clique scenario mentioned earlier is the first one and the second, though less, polarizing play involved me with a Celestial Colonnade on the battlefield and another in hand, facing double Tectonic Edge.

In this situation I was completely flooded. Had around 10 lands on the board, three more in hand, not to mention all the fetchlands that had hit the bin at that point. Fearing that the streak would continue, I figured that one of my outs would be to draw a Tec. Edge of my own, a third Colonnade, or a Cryptic Command to protect my Colonnades from my opponent's Tec. Edges. Set on this plan, I continued attacking with the one on board, which kept getting bounced by Cryptic Command until he decided to finally pull the trigger on his Tectonic Edges.

The Command Chain may have been a mistake as he pointed it out, but I'll concede that sometimes you just want to dig deeper into the deck in search for an actual Closer. Regardless, my friend suggested that I should have played the second Colonnade into the other Tectonic Edge, because that would just constrict the opponent's mana a bit more, if we take into account that he was stuck on around five lands.

Although he may have a good point, losing my Colonnade also seems sketchy. Yes, I get to capitalize on the mana stumble, however, what good does it do if I can't win the game thereafter? What if I don't draw my Thundermaw Hellkite? What if I don't draw Geist of Saint Traft? Put simply, what if I didn't draw any action at all?

You could argue that not doing anything would still give him enough wiggle room to get out of his land problems and eventually overwhelm me with his rather large grip of cards. On the other hand, allowing my Colonnade to be destroyed and me not drawing into anything useful would still give my opponent enough time to draw the lands he needs to get out of Stage 2 and into Stage 3. Either way, I'm giving my opponent turns the difference here is that I get to have an actual plan to win. Regardless, I would love someone to voice in their thoughts.

My terrible performance aside, I can see why this deck took over Grand Prix Prague. It is a very flexible deck in-game and quite customizable off-game. Being able to deliberately choose from such a massive pool of Sideboard and Maindeckable cards is a huge plus for this deck. Furthermore, this deck's worst match-ups are few and far-between. Would I battle with UWR again, given the chance? Absolutely. At least until the B&R updates next week. Just make sure you are clear about which roles you should be assuming in each game and match-up. Don't be tapping out for Geists over Electrolyze when your opponent has a Steel Overseer about to go active with a board full of artifacts. That Overseer should see lightning!

I'll reiterate, do not let my poor performance deter you from playing a perfectly fine deck. Instead, take these words and learn from my mistakes. Until next time!

Always affectionately,
Chris