I don't get to play in Magic tournaments during the week very often.
Work, Wife and Warcraft leave me struggling to balance the important things with the extra stuff. It's really a good problem to have, too many things I want to do, but it's a little disappointing to show up on Fridays and hear about the great games I missed.
This week I was able to sneak out and play on Wednesday at Magic Comics. The format was Standard and there were around 20 folks there all chomping at the bit to sling some spells.
I brought Gerry Thompson and Michael Jacob's 5 Color Control deck from the recent Star City Invitational with a couple of minor changes based on what I knew would be at the shop.
Here's my list followed by the changes:
Creatures
Sun Titan x 3
Phantasmal Image x 2
Elesh Norn x 1
Instants
Desperate Ravings x 4
Forbidden Alchemy x 4
Mana Leak x 4
Gut Shot x 3
White Sun's Zenith x 1
Sorceries
Ponder x 2
Day of Judment x 3
Unburial Rites x 1
Enchantments
Oblivion Ring x 3
Artifacts
Ratchet Bomb x 1
Pristine Talisman x 3
Lands
Island x 4
Mountain x 1
Plains x 2
Swamp x 1
Shimmering Grotto x 3
Ghost Quarter x 1
Sulfur Falls x 4
Glacial Fortress x 4
Seachrome Coast x 4
Blackcleave Cliffs x 1
Sideboard
Nihil Spellbomb x 2
Ancient Grudge x 2
Celestial Purge x 3
Phantasmal Image x 1
Ratchet Bomb x 1
Blue Sun's Zenith x 1
Dissipate x 2
Timely Reinforcements x 2
Day of Judgment x 1
The changes from the Invitational list were -1 Blue Sun's Zenith, -1 Pacifism, -1 Dissipate for +2 Day of Judgment and +1 White Sun's Zenith main deck.
I also swapped 1 Ghost Quarter in the sideboard for a 2nd Dissipate.
I changed it that way because the local players are much more aggro minded and I was sure I'd need a turn 4 Day of Judgment more often than I'd need to deck them with a big BSZ. I also dreaded having to explain WHY I can Pacifism a Hexproof dude and it wasn't relevant in the games I played before the tournament.
I got to Magic Comics about 10 minutes before the tournament and scrambled to pick up the Sun Titans and commons I was missing. Brian was a huge help, hooking me up with Elesh Norn and several tough to find uncommons like Timely Reinforcements, and I also scored a neat Squee deck box.
The shop lets regular players run a tab during tournaments and cash out at the end, something I was grateful for tonight as I'd failed to bring any cash with me. I racked up about $25 worth of product, sleeved everything up and got to shuffling as the pairing went up for round 1!
Round 1 - Frank - W/u Humans
Frank is a guy I've only just gotten to meet at the shop, he's an old school Magic player with a huge collection and all kinds of great stories about the game and a solid player.
Good - Day of Judgment and Ratchet Bomb worked over time in this matchup to handle nasty stuff like Geist of St. Traft, Honor of the Pure and Moorland Haunt tokens wearing Angelic Destiny.
Bad - Frank stomped me in game 2 with Geist into double Honor of the Pure for roughly 1 million.
Outcome - Win, 2-1, thanks to Sun Titan looping Ratchet Bomb to keep Angelic Destiny off of his tokens.
Round 2 - Brian - Grixis Control
Brian has been a ridiculously huge help to me as a new player with a limited collection, going so far as to trade for entire decks for me to buy at discounted prices. We both laughed going in to this match because we knew our 2 control decks would make for a long, drawn out set of games and lots of draw.go.
Good - White Sun's Zenith was an all star, making 9 cat tokens at the end of Brian's turn and then attacking for 18 in game 1 then coming back around when I was down to 2 cards in my library to finish it out. Our first game took right at 35 minutes, we each answered the other's threats as they came and I only won through careful play and Brian not knowing about WSZ.
Bad - Game 2 was much less interesting as Brian stumbled on Blue mana and wasn't able to answer a White Sun's Zenith for 4 after killing a Sun Titan on turn 5.
Outcome - Win, 2-0, largely on the back of a horde of Kitties.
Round 3 - Vincent - W/u Humans
Vincent was new to me but I'm sure he's been around before because he obviously wasn't new to the game. He was very cheerful throughout our match and never got discouraged no matter how things were going for him.
Good - Day of Judgement and Ratchet Bomb were again just ridiculous against his little guys, as was Phantasmal Image as a copy of Fiend Hunter. Elesh Norn eventually came out in both games to lock out his Haunt tokens and push through the damage.
Bad - Unlike Frank, Vincent was running Leonin Relic Warders and was able to gank my Talismans and Ratchet bombs a couple of times which was a bit annoying.
Outcome - Win, 2-0
Round 4 - Alex - W/u Humans
Alex is just a crazy nice fella who was easy going and friendly from the first second I met him. We played last week in a draft match where we both pulled upset wins out of our asses but didn't have time left to finish the round so it felt important to have a decisive victory in this one.
Good - I really felt like my deck was in control throughout the majority of this match as there was never a time when I wasn't holding multiple answers for anything he could do. Just like the other W/U games Day of Judgment was essential along with Ratchet Bomb to answer his little guys before they could finish killing me.
Bad - In game 1 Alex suited up a Haunt Token with Angelic Destiny to stand in the way of my Sun Titan. Had I not ripped a Ratchet Bomb to clear it out the giant Angel Spirit could have run away with the game. Alex also sided in a Phyrexian Rebirth against me and used it when Sun Titan, Phantasmal Sun Titan x 2 and Elesh Norn were ready to swing for the win. I was holding Unburial Rites and a Ratchet Bomb so it didn't end up mattering but that was fairly scary.
Outcome - Win, 2-0
Round 5 - Kyle - Illusions
At this point I was the last undefeated and offered a draw but Kyle wanted to play, I'm guessing his tiebreakers were very good and he hoped to end up in 1st with a win. I hadn't met Kyle before but he was super friendly, something I'm happy to say was true about everyone I ran into over the night.
Good - Between Gut Shot, Day of Judgment and Ratchet Bomb I was never in too much trouble in Game 1 from the tiny blue fellas. I also experienced the strength of Pristine Talisman as it halved the clock of his early Phantasmal Bear, allowing me to wait until he committed more to the board before Wrathing. It's a good feeling to have no fear of death when your opponent Vapor Snags Elesh Norn 6 times in the same game!
Bad - Aside from the Sextet of Vapor Snags, I also was run over by a curve of Bear, Lord, Image, Image backed up by 2 Leaks in Game 2. This was the only game where I stumbled a bit on colored mana, I needed to play Day of Judgment but couldn't get a second white producing land until turn 5.
Outcome - Win, 2-1
I finished the tournament in 1st place as the only one undefeated with Alex in 2nd and Brian in 3rd. Magic Comics paid out store credit all the way to 7th place which is really impressive. I put a large dent in my tab, squared up with the shop and headed home to get some sleep as it was 11:30 PM.
I really enjoyed playing the 5 Color deck and definitely intend to keep playing it for a while.
There's a tournament on Friday the 16th and then another one on Saturday the 17th which is a qualifier for a Grand Prix. I'll probably have to skip the Saturday one for family reasons but I'm excited to play again so soon!
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