Hello friends, magic players and people who random stumbled onto this page!
It's been a long time since I've written anything resembling a tournament report but I want to try and get back into the habit.
This past weekend Gamer's Paradise (site!) held the Fall Tcgplayer States and several folks, including me, from our local shop made the trek up.
GP always holds killer events but they went out of their way to make this one special. They gave away golden envelopes similar to Star City Games' hidden treasure promotion to everyone who signed up. This drew in a bigger crowd than normal and definitely made people more excited than usual for States.
States is in a weird place right now with the "regular" States that's been in place for a few years competing with tcgplayer Fall & Spring States AND the upcoming Star City Games States as well as a third tcgplayer event to be added. I can still remember the first States I attended and how cool it felt to be able to compete for the title of State Champion. That all seems to mean very little when up to 5 other people can share the crown in the same year!
Despite the strangeness of multiple similar tournaments our crew was very excited about the event and there had been a lot of discussion about what the best deck to bring would be. I had been playtesting this crazy Mono Blue deck over the last few weeks ever since Joe Holland (local mini-boss) showed up to a tournament with it and was pretty well set on running my own version. It felt very powerful and was very difficult for people who'd never seen it before to play against. I was jazzed to have an under the radar deck to bring to a decent sized event.
As you all probably know, Pro Tour Theros kicked off on 10/11 and the break out deck was, of course, Mono Blue Devotion. While the list I'd been playing wasn't exactly the same it shared all of the most important cards with this new deck. The jig was up! Master of Waves, Thassa and Nightveil Specter all shot up in price and all of a sudden I felt like a Magical Hipster. Despite a strong inclination to jump ship at the last minute I wrapped a scarf around my neck, got on my bicycle and sleeved up the following:
4 Judge's Familiar
4 Frostburn Weird
4 Tidebinder Mage
4 Omenspeaker
4 Nightveil Specter
4 Thassa
4 Master of Waves
2 Bident of Thassa
1 Jace, Architect
2 Cyclonic Rift
2 Claustrophobia
2 Rapid Hybridization
20 Island
3 Mutavault
Sideboard
3 Jace, Memory
1 Jace, Architect
1 Rapid Hybridization
2 Negate
2 Swan Song
2 Dissolve
2 Domestication
2 Prognostic Sphinx
I had been really unimpressed with Cloudfin Raptor in personal testing and so, despite him being all over the Pro Tour coverage, I left him out. I still feel like he forces you to overextend into sweepers but if Supreme Verdict and Anger of the Gods aren't part of the metagame then he is powerful. My sideboard was generally pretty bad and built largely around the idea that I was favored vs. everything but Supreme Verdict decks. I planned to board into a lot of counters and Jaces in those matchups but that didn't actually end up being very good.
I've been running my mouth quite a bit so I'm going to skip ahead to the actual matches.
Round 1 - UW Master of Waves
My opponent was one of the regulars from +1 Gaming in Metairie, he's a nice enough guy and certainly not a pushover.
Good - I was able to fight through multiple Supreme Verdicts and Detention Spheres and came away with the win, 2-1.
Bad - I attempted my Verdict sideboard plan with mixed results. While I ended up winning the match on the back of Jace in game 3 it did not feel particularly strong.
Ugly - Round 1 vs. Supreme Verdict.
Round 2 - UW Pillow Fort
This round's opponent was pretty quiet at first but as the match went on he opened up a bit and by the end he was super friendly.
Good - I managed to win game 2 after Cyclonic Rifting my opponent's pile of enchantments.
Bad - I lost this round 1-2 largely thanks to Aetherling across the table.
Ugly - Getting both my Thassa and Nightveil Specter Pacifismed in the same turn. Sphinx's Revelation with X = 9.
At this point I was a bit discouraged. I thought/knew Verdict decks were a bad matchup going into the tournament but I didn't expect to face it so much. Meanwhile my friend Ryan was 2-0 with the same 75 and had been battling Red and Green decks so far!
Round 3 - RG Monsters
My opponent had a really well done Bike Scout on a Speeder Bike playmat that I was impressed with. I told him the Biker Scout is my 3rd favorite Star Wars thing and he seemed puzzled that it wasn't 1st!
Good - Tidebinder Mage did some serious work this game locking down Stormbreath Dragons and Ember Swallowers left and right.
Bad - My opponent wasn't able to do too much in either game as I won 2-0.
Ugly - The expression on my opponent's face when I played a Tidebinder Mage.
Round 4 - BW Midrange
I was facing off against one of my car-mates Brian and one of us would be out of contention for Top 8 with our 2nd loss! Meanwhile Ryan and John, the other 2 that rode up with Brian and I were also paired up. Conspiracy!
Good - I managed to win the match 2-1 thanks to some very good draws on my part and some less than stellar ones from Brian.
Bad - I kept a loose hand in game 2 and was promptly Thoughtseized twice. I lost that one.
Ugly - Brian kept a solid hand with no black mana in game 3. He died before a swamp came off the top.
Round 5 - Junk Midrange
Yet another opponent with a sweet playmat, this one was a swirl of digital color that was very mesmerizing.
Good - Tidebinder Mage got to do some serious work locking down a couple of big Wurms and a Smiter across the match. I won it 2-0.
Bad - My opponent was up 36 - 8 at one point in game 2 thanks to the Whip of Erebos.
Ugly - I managed to win that one!
Round 6 - BR Midrange
I believe this was another +1 Gaming alum that's friendly with several people from our crew. We talked a little about the crazy people running Mono Blue before we started and he made a comment like "Who would want to play that many basic islands?". I thought for sure I was in for a mirror match the way he phrased it but no such (bad) luck! When I opened on Islan, Judge's Familiar we had a good laugh.
Good - I battled through a ton of removal and several Trading Post activations to win this one 2-0. I think I played correctly past Ratchet Bomb and Anger of the Gods.
Bad - I don't think his draws were particularly good.
Ugly - Nightveil Specter stole an Anger of the Gods off the top of his deck. If he'd drawn it the game may have turned back his way.
Round 7 - Mono Blue Devotion
Joe Holland was my opponent this round, the fella that turned me onto this deck in the first place. It was a strange feeling to sit down across from him knowing that he had a lot more experience with the deck. Joe was super friendly and talkative with me, he definitely felt good knowing that he was ahead of the curve to some degree.
Good - Nightveil Specter was absolutely ridiculous for me this match stealing multiple action cards across our 3 games. I managed to win 2-1 after flipping a Cyclonic Rift from the top of Joe's deck.
Bad - Joe had Aetherling in his sideboard instead of Prognostic Sphinx which was a straight upgrade in this matchup. I felt outclassed!
Ugly - I played pretty badly in game 3. I had a Cyclonic Rift in hand with more than enough mana to overload it but got myself wrapped up in trying to play around whatever was in Joe's hand. I ended up attacking with my team and leaving myself open to a blowout when all I needed to do was play the rift pre combat.
My buddy Ryan was a lock for top 8 at this point and would be able to draw in for the final round. I was the lowest of the 6-1 players and would have to play my final round if I got paired down. It's one of those bad situations where my opponent is unlikely to scoop me in because if they lose they get nothing and I'm not allowed to offer them any incentive to do so.
Round 8 - The WIn and In! BW Control
My opponent was extremely friendly and talkative. We were one of the few matches at the top table that was actually playing it out and so there was a bit of a crowd.
Good - I won 2-0 pretty decisively. I feel that these Black Based midrange decks are a pretty good matchup for Blue.
Bad - My opponent was stuck on lands in game 2 and showed me a Merciless Eviction that would have been pretty bad for me.
Ugly - Nightveil Specter ripped 2 lands off the top in game 2.
I finished the Swiss rounds in first place, the only player with a full 7-1 record with no draws. I was pretty excited to be on the play throughout the top 8 but my happiness didn't last too long. I found out that my opponent in the Top 8 would be Esper, probably the deck I was the least confident facing.
Gamer's Paradise took a lot of photos and had us fill out these Top 8 surveys similar to the ones SCG posts in their coverage. It was pretty cool to be treated as if I was important and people would want to know things about me.
One of the questions was something along the lines of "What is your worst matchup" and I listed Esper. Sure enough, that was my opponent for the quarterfinals.
Top 8 - Quarterfinals - Esper Midrange
My opponent was Jared, one of the consistently high finishers at Gamer's Paradise. He was super laid back and friendly and I enjoyed our match as much as one can enjoy being beaten about the face and body.
Good - I put up a pretty good fight in game 2 despite mulliganing to 5 on the play. Jared's deck was very cool, I told him it was the first Esper deck I'd seen that actually seemed to want to kill the opponent.
Bad - Supreme Verdict + Far//Away is a pretty tough combo. I drew quite a lot of lands in both games. Ashiok took almost all of my creatures.
Ugly - The amount sleep I was going to get that evening.
As soon as the match was over Tony, one of Gamer's Paradise managers, came running over with a box of Theros, a playmat and some other goodies. My car-mate Ryan was also defeated in the Quarters and so we were able to head home after a very long day of Magic.
I had a fantastic time at the tournament and I'm pretty stinking proud that 2 copies of my deck made the top 8 of an event this size. There were over 130 people in the event and even more hanging out and playing in side events or just trading! Slidell overall made a good showing with several of our players in the top 30 and the ones who fell out of the main event winning packs in the side events.
If you have a chance to go to one of Gamer's Paradise's events you should definitely go, even though States itself means basically nothing at this point you still get to play high caliber Magic for great prizes. I know I'll be at the next big event they hold trying to improve on this performance!
If you liked this article, or if you hated it, please let me know. I really enjoy writing about Magic in general and would love to know if there's something I can do better.
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