Falling Stars

bit of extra fun during the trip!   On Friday, she and her partner Jim took me to 80s night at Barberalla for some fun before the event.  I also got to spend a lot of time petting their sweet cat Bug and silly dog Subi! 

Speaking of dogs, about a month ago, we had to say goodbye to our beagle Benji after his fight with cancer took away his quality of life.  On Friday, as I was petting Subi, I thought that I’d really like to win this tournament for Benji (or “Benjaroo” as I called him), even though he doesn’t know anything about Magic.  This win is dedicated to the memory of my beloved friend, my forever Beagle, who’d have greeted me upon my return home with a loud round of barks and howls and a look of “Where have you been!? It’s time to feed me!” ❤ 

Deck Tech

Last year, I was underprepared for this event, making way too many deck changes based on theory and not actual testing. I played Counterburn at the Hurricane in 2023 but I have not been able to find success with it again, last year having a poor finish with a build of it with Atogs.  I made some further tweaks for Lobstercon to a better but very middling result.  I think that deck just needs too many things to line up for it, as it asks its burn spells to win the game by targeting opponents but also keep it alive as removal spells.  Every burn spell used on a creature needs to be replaced to do enough damage to win the game if Black Vise isn’t effective in the match. The deck has too many hands that make you say “How do I actually win a game with this?”  It can obviously do well but I turned my attention to full Atog decks, which solve the lack of passive damage that plagues Counterburn. I began working on my build a month or so after Lobstercon, just enough in case I needed to order anything.  After Thanksgiving, I got much more serious and began testing a game or two multiple times a week.

Artifacts (17): 3x Ankh of Mishra 1x Black Lotus 4x Black Vise 1x Chaos Orb 1x Mox Emerald 1x Mox Jet 1x Mox Pearl 1x Mox Ruby 1x Mox Sapphire 2x Relic Barrier 1x Sol Ring

Spells (16): 1x Ancestral Recall 2x Chain Lightning 1x Demonic Tutor 1x Earthquake 1x Fireball 4x Lightning Bolt 1x Mind Twist 2x Psionic Blast 1x Time Walk 1x Timetwister 1x Wheel of Fortune

Creatures (7): 4x Atog 3x Sedge Troll Lands (20): 4x Badlands 2x City of Brass 4x Mishra’s Factory 4x Strip Mine 3x Underground Sea 3x Volcanic Island

Sideboard: 2x Copy Artifact 2x Falling Star 2x Gloom 2x Jalum Tome 2x Red Elemental Blast 1x Sol’kanar the Swamp King 2x Shatter 2x Terror

I owe a lot of thanks to Simon, aka mtgmisprint, for the many suggestions he made during our post-Christmas testing session with the Falling Stars group.  Almost everything he suggested was incredibly relevant during the tournament (as you shall read) and really took this deck from good to great.

Maindeck

Much of the maindeck is standard. We have our format and archetype staples and power cards, including a complete set of Moxes.  There’s a few choices I wish to highlight and explain the development of.

• Sedge Troll
  I knew I didn’t want to play Serendib Efreet in this deck.  It may be the best creature in Old School but that’s only so when it’s part of a package of creatures. The damage combined with the slow clock of just 3 damage per turn makes makes it a major liability or even impossible to cast below 10 life.  
  
  I had initially targeted Sedge Troll for this slot but dismissed it for lack of Swamps.  I was testing Su-Chi due to being easy on the manabase and the game-winning interaction with Atog and Fireball.  It proved to be too much of liability with mana burn and Simon suggested Sedge Troll, even if would be a 2/2 sometimes. Derelor was another card I looked at and liked but Troll tested well so I went with it.
• Relic Barrier
  These were completely the suggestion of Simon.  I had four Ankhs and one of them became one of these. They play really well with the mana denial strategy and work extremely well in conjunction with Ankh and Vise.  As you will read in the round-by-round, these were crucial to my victory.
  
  I had been running Copy Artifact in my main deck when I was running Su-chi and the removal of Su-chi moved the Copies to the sideboard, freeing up 2 slots, one of which went to the second Relic Barrier.
• Earthquake
  When I ran Su-chi, I ran two Fireballs because attacking for 4 with Su-chi and then eating it with Atog to power a massive game-ending Fireball is equally powerful and hilarious.  With that interaction gone, changing one Fireball into an Earthquake helped shore up aggro matchups.  It’s a card I ran in my main and found useful in Arabian/Temur Aggro at Lobstercon X-Pts and I was happy to have it back.
• Psionic Blast
  Even though it’s a pretty standard card, it was originally not found in my Su-chi build.  I had an free extra slot due to the Copy Artifact move; I cut the third Chain Lighting to make room for a second copy.  I really like it as a 2-of here as it can finish games or kill a certain 4/4 flying lady (or her vampiric counterpart).

Sideboard

• Copy Artifact. Clearly great in the Robots and Atog matchups, it’s a very versatile card.  It also comes in against The Deck, where it can make an extra Vise or Ankh for you or add another Mishra’s Factory to the board.  Copying their Jayemdae Tome or Disrupting Scepter lets you match them on card velocity.
• Falling Star. The absolute best card against aggro.  It’s devastating.
• Gloom. In testing, I found the White Weenie matchup to be difficult.  This ends that if you can resolve it.  It’s also a really solid card against The Deck and Esper Skies, making their removal cost 4 or 5 and Serra Angels (when they play her) 7 mana.  It interacts really well with Ankh and Black Vise as well.
• Jalum Tome. Simon’s suggestion.  It’s a card I’ve long wanted to get into decks because in decks that don’t need pure cards (i.e., you’re good once you hit so many lands) and just want to dig to break board stalls. This card is really good on rate for that..  Further, in your aggro matchups, you need to board out Wheel of Fortune and Timetwister and need something to refuel.  I had planned Jayemdae Tome for this role, for a clean 2-for-2 swap but Simon suggested Jalum Tome in place.
• Sol’kanar the Swamp King. My fun-of-one-of.  I was between him and Gwendolyn di Corci and actually took photos of both configurations for my deck photo submission, planning to decide morning of.  I opted for Sol’kanar  because I expected to play against mono black and he’s lights out there.  They can’t block him or remove him, being immune to Terror.  Gwendolyn is really good against control and her 5-toughness means she also works well against aggro as she is difficult to remove cleanly. Perhaps she will make it in as a maindeck at Lobstercon, a 1-Strip format? (Also, complaint: I ordered a Legends copy of Sol’kanar on 1/10 from a Texas seller and they didn’t ship it for four days so it didn’t make it in time.  I really didn’t want to play the Time Spiral foil one I had lying around….)
• Terror. A clean answer to 4- and 5-toughness creatures.  Really good against opposing Atogs. This just helps shore up the removal package when Chain Lightning is bad, which is pretty often.

Noninclusions: 

• City in a Bottle. I don’t own one and don’t see myself acquiring one until after I complete my sets of dual lands (I only own 3 Volcs, 3 Undergrounds, 1 Tundra, 1 Plateau, 1 Scrubland).  I could proxy it here but I like to think forward to non-proxy events like Lobstercon so I didn’t want to play it.
• Blood Moon.  This card is much better on paper than it is in practice.  It randomly shuts down decks but a lot of those are matchups I expect to win anyway.  Against The Deck, where you’d think it shines, it’s not as helpful as they can activate Jayemdae Tome still and dig for Mox Pearl or basic Plains to cast Disenchant or Mox Sapphire or basic Island to cast Blue Blast.  Blood Moon is better here than it is in 2-color deck with Islands–Fellwar Stone give the opponent an Island if you have one.  Blood Moon had a pending slot when I ran Su-chi but the non-bo with Sedge Troll removed it from competing for a slot.

The Rounds

To help make my reports, after each round, I record a voice memo with notes on each game.  This time, I had some trouble keeping the games straight or even remembering key details, even right after the match end.  My voice notes make a bit less sense when I listened to them after the fact. X_X  The gameplay photos do help jar memories loose though, at least.  If my opponents have corrections, they are probably right.

Round 1: Ian with Mono-Black

Game 1: There was some confusion in that Rick misheard the pairings and thought we were playing and we almost played the wrong match. Fortunately, that was sorted out because Ian was paying attention to the announcement.  I won the die roll and felt really good about my opening line: City of Brass (FBB which Ian sold me last year), Sol Ring, Ankh of Mishra.  Ian played a Swamp and passed. I cast Time Walk on my next turn but failed to produce a land on either turn.  Ian “reclaimed” the City of Brass with a Strip Mine.  That left me without a land for several turns while Ian played a Royal Assassin.  I would only see one more land, again a City of Brass, for the rest of the game and it too was met with a Strip Mine.  A Sedge Troll met a Paralyze and I didn’t really cast much else.  Order of the Ebon hand closed out the game.

Sideboarding: 
-3 Ankh of Mishra, -1 Wheel of Fortune, -1 Timetwister, -1 Relic Barrier, -1 Black Vise 
+2 Falling Star, +2 Jalum Tome, +2 Shatter, +1 Sol’kanar Swamp King

That allowed me to attack for 5.  Ian cast a Greed and went down to 4 life looking for an answer to an unblockable Sol’kanar, which he did not find.

Game 3: Ian mulliganed to six and said “This is ok.”  Swamp, Dark Ritual, The Rack, Hymn to Tourach.  It took my Atog and City of Brass, so the pain wasn’t so bad.  I Strip Mined his first land and I believe his second.  He played a Strip Mine and let it sit.  I had a Factory and a City of Brass in hand so I played the Factory to make him use the Strip Mine.  By turn 4 or so, it was the epitome of an EC game: nothing was in play.  I held the City of Brass because I didn’t have anything to cast with it and wanted to make sure it wouldn’t die to another Strip before I drew a threat.  I cast a Black Vise turned on after a few turns of Ian not drawing more lands to cast things.  I got a Sedge Troll which was only a 2/2 but could regenerate if needed thanks to the City.  I finally drew a Swamp-type land and attacked for 3 to reduce Ian to 6. I tossed two Lightning Bolts on the table for the win.

1-0

Round 2: David R. with 5C Arboria Fog

I planned to just rely on my burn spells, finishing the game with a Psionic Blast and a Lighting Bolt after a small attack that was successful because he had tapped out to cast Arboria but had played a land that turn.

Sideboarding:
-2 Atog, -1 Wheel of Fortune, -1 Mind Twist
+2 Jalum Tome, +2 Shatter

In sideboarding, with all the cards flying around and after seeing its lack of impact when I cast it in the first game, I decided I no longer need Mind Twist.  Wheel also seemed unnecessary.  I kept Timetwister in because if we reached a state where I was running out of cards, a reshuffle effect to reset libraries would be good.  Jalum Tome seemed perfect here for card selection, as choosing 3 of 4 cards to keep each turn is unspeakably good.

Game 2: David unfortunately mulliganed to 5 again this game.  My hand was slow but serviceable, having Earthquake, Lighting Bolt, a Troll, 3 lands.  I drew a Vise on my first draw step and played it, despite it not being great due to his reduced starting hand size.  He cast a turn 2 Howling Mine.  My turn 3 Sedge Troll met a Blue Elemental Blast.  My Mishra’s Factory got a couple hits in.  I cast a second Vise and that put him in a tight spot because I think we had 3 Howling Mines down by that point and he couldn’t keep his hand size small enough.  He cast a Demonic Tutor unsure of what he wanted and opted for a Disenchant on one of the Vises.  I was drawing so much burn that it didn’t matter and ended the game much the same way, with Bolts and Psionic Blast.  I had a Fireball in hand still that I didn’t need and that Earthquake from my opening hand that I never cast.

I felt bad that David had to mulligan to five twice in this round but I think it would still be an uphill battle for him even with a full starting hand.  I have so much passive damage in Vises and Ankhs that his Fog strategy doesn’t line up all that well.  Giving me cards to find burn and keeping his hand full with Vises makes it tough for him.

2-0

Round 3: Rick with Mono-Green with Red Splash

See, Rick wasn’t wrong that we were paired, he was just 2 hours or so too early! 

Game 1: I felt really good about my opening hand because my opening line was going to be great.  I felt less good about it when Rick mulliganed once. That’s right, it was Underground Sea, Mox Jet, double Black Vise.  Rick played a land and a Llanowar Elves after taking 4 to the Vises.  A Strip Mine took out my Underground Sea on a later turn but I had a second. Black and Blue mana wasn’t my issue as I had a hand full of red cards and no red mana.  I don’t remember the specifics of what Rick cast, just that I was run over pretty well.  My mana issues meant that I couldn’t keep up with swarm of creatures. My Vises didn’t do anything after doing just 6 total damage, which is where he ended the game, at 14 life. Rick never saw the red part of my deck in this game.

Sideboarding:
-3 Ankh of Mishra, -1 Black Vise, -1 Wheel of Fortune, -1 Timetwister
+2 Falling Star, +2 Jalum Tome, +2 Terror

Game 2: My hand was good in that it had a lot of burn in it, including gamebreaker Earthquake, but was a little risky in that it only had one red source.  Strip Mine or Mishra’s Factory was the other land.  I kept it because Earthquake is so good that as long as I don’t get totally run over before I can cast it, it was worth the risk.  Fortunately, Rick did not have a Strip Mine so I was able to hold back his early creatures one at a time, forcing him to use Avoid Fate and two Giant Growth to keep his guys alive to my spot removal.  That conserved my life total well until I cast a Falling Star that took out two guys and cleared the board. But you know green’s guys keep coming and they did.  I cast another Falling Star.  I was worried about a Strip Mine on my only red source in all this but I had Demonic Tutor that would be able to get Ancestral Recall (and did) and replace my red source should it come to that.  I drew three while he rebuilt.  He had two Argothian Pixes and an Elvish Archers when I cast Earthquake with X = 1.  My +4 trade mana was reduced to a +3 when he cast another Giant Growth on the Archers to let them live.  His only land was a City of Brass for much of the game and that ran his life total down to 6 after the Earthquake and I finished it with a Psionic Blast and Lighting Bolt.

I opted for the Tome figuring I could cycle to find a red source if he did Strip Mine me.  I was holding Ancestral Recall and cast it on his upkeep because it  put me at 8 cards.  I cast my Troll with regeneration mana up and then cast a second one.  He was at 10 life when I attacked on a clear board to put him at 4 and ended it with Psionic Blast.  (The photo you see on right is a recreation of my board at the end of the game.  I forgot to take any photos during the match!) 

3-0

Round 4: Simon with Workshop Atog

Game 1: Simon won the die roll, saying that this was the first one had had won all day.  It was coincidentally the first one I had lost all day.  I mulliganed to six and my opening hand wasn’t great.  Simon’s was, although he had to think for a bit how to play it.  He cast Black Lotus, Sol Ring, a Mox and Wheel of Fortune, discarding an Ancestral Recall (that’s was the hard decision point, letting that go). Remember how my hand wasn’t great?  Think I’d welcome a new one?  My opening hand had three red mana sources in it (of 10 in the deck) and the Wheel hand had none.  He cast an Icy Manipulator and copied it and then got a third one.  That was when I said “I’m not going to have any mana for the rest of the game” and scooped up my cards for game 2.

Sideboarding:
-2 Black Vise, -1 Ankh of Mishra, -2 Chain Lighting, -1 Earthquake, -1 Fireball
+2 Copy Artifact, +2 Shatter, +2 Terror, +1 Sol’kanar the Swamp King (he’s bigger than a Su-chi)

Game 2: I had an explosive start that matched his from Game 1.  I had a Sol Ring, a Mox Jet, some other stuff.  I used a Strip Mine on his tapped Strip Mine to protect my colored mana source. I’m a bit hazy on the details of this game other than that it was not close and I was out in front the whole game.  I greatly restricted Simon’s mana with the Strips and a Relic Barrier and I don’t believe he ever did much of consequence.  I got him down to 10 or 12 life and attacked with an Atog and a Troll (I think).  He had just two mana up and I contemplated “What could go wrong?” as I sacrificed a few artifacts to the Atog (I knew the answer: Terror, which he had the manato cast).  I had a Fireball in hand that would let me finish the game if that did happen, as long as I kept Sol Ring.  Simon gave me a really good blank stare, a bluff that he could do something.  That made me nervous but had enough vibe of “Well, get on with it! End the game!” that I saw through it, although with a bit of nervousness.

Game 3: Simon led on a Sol Ring (lots of those this round, eh?). But I had an extremely powerful opener of land, Mox, Mox, Sol Ring, double Relic Barrier.  I iced his Sol Ring for the entire game and it never once tapped for mana.  We went back and forth for many turns, controlling and restricting each other’s mana.  I held two Shatters in hand and eventually used one on a second Sol Ring Simon copied so I could free up my Barrier for Factories.

Somewhere in all this, Simon made a joke about “Maybe I need to stop recommending cards..” as he was the one who told me to play Relic Barrier and now it was beating him.  He got a second Icy and was able to keep my Atog at bay… but just for a turn since two is less than three.  I was able to use my three ice effects to overwhelm his and turn off his Icy Manipulators on his end step, freeing up the ability for my Atog to attack.  With that many artifacts, it was lethal.

This match really felt like the total Old School experience.  There were lots of power cards and two blowout games. But one really really good one.  It was very tense.  Near the end when we were approaching time in the round, I commented that everyone should be over here watching us because the game was so epic.

4-0

Round 5: Patrick with The Deck

My last round at Hurricane in 2023 was also against The Deck.  Is there a better final boss for a tournament?  I didn’t know he was playing it until a couple turns into the match but I felt good when I found that out.  The Deck is generally one of the best matchups for Grixis Atog. But The Deck is great and even greater in the hands of a strong player, so I couldn’t let up and get too relaxed! 

Sideboarding (I think, I forgot to take a photo of it for this round):
-1 Earthquake, -2 Chain Lightning, -2 Psionic Blast
+2 Copy Artifact, +2 Gloom, +1 Sol’kanar the Swamp King

Game 2: I kept a one-lander thinking he wouldn’t Strip Mine me on the first or second turn because that’s not what The Deck does.  The upside to my hand was high, with two Glooms and a Mox to accelerate it out turn 2 if I could draw a second land in the two draw steps I’d get before my Turn 2 main phase. That “that’s not what The Deck does?”  Well, it did this time, at least. He Stripped my land but it ended up not being a big deal.  I think I drew lands on consecutive draw steps on turns 2 and 3 and cast the first Gloom on turn 3.  It did not resolve, meeting a Counterspell.  My follow-up Gloom on turn 4, however, did resolve.  He cast a card that had this art:

He accidentally revealed a Blue Blast from his hand so I knew to hold the Sol’kanar the Swamp King in my hand a bit longer.  I cast a Sedge Troll and that brought out the Blue Blast.  Awesome!  Now it’s Grixis legend time!  Red Blast.  Ouch. This is the moment I realized Grixis cards are vulnerable to literally every removal spell in The Deck and I’d be boarding him out for the next game.  (Also, this made me glad I didn’t play Gwendolyn as she has the same problem and she’s actually meant for this matchup!)  I was able to work his life total despite the Angel hitting me and I got him all the way down to 2 life.  He cast a Regrowth to get a Counterspell back to guard against a would-be lethal burn spell, going to 1.  I drew a Fireball after that and held it for several turns, eventually casting it when I was at 5.  I targeted the Angel because he would be forced to counter it had it targed him.  I was bluffing a second burn spell; he chose not to counter the Fireball and I passed.  He played a Factory after that and finsihed off the rest of my life with that.  I see why he chose to let her go.

Sideboarding change:
-1 Sol’kanar, +1 Psionic Blast. Maybe a second?  I had not seen the Angels in game 1.

Game 3: He cast an early Serra Angel and I cast two Lighting Bolts on her, taking a risk that he had a Counterspell for the second one.  I wasn’t in a position to race an Angel and needed her off the table.  Fortunately, he didn’t.  We jockeyed back and forth for board position.  It was pretty tense and I don’t think either of us felt in control of the game or that confident it would end in our favor.  I cast a Wheel of Fortune into seven non-land cards.  I cast an Atog, which he countered.  I then cast two more Atogs and passed with 4 cards in my hand still.  He asked how many I had left and didn’t like the number, saying “that is a lot of cards.”  He cast an Ivory Tower, which counteracted my Vise.  I had a second Vise soon after and I cast two Ankh of Mishras the turn after his Tower.  He was forced to answer whatever I was doing and fell to 4 cards in hand, turning off my Vise, although he was under Gloom at this point, which I was making more a nuisance with a Relic Barrier that iced his Sol Ring. His hand size grew back because the Ankhs kept lands in his hand but the Tower negated the Vise.

I played another Vise and I attacked with two Atogs and a Mishra’s Factory.  He activated his Factory and announced a block on my Factory; there is a good reason I didn’t use Relic Barrier but I don’t know what that was (it might be that it had been destroyed by this point).  I sacrificed the Factory and another artifact to make my Atogs 3/4s and take him from 10 life to 4.  I cast a Fireball with X = 2; I could have done X = 3 but I needed to tap a City of Brass to do it and my life was 9. If he had a counterspell, I could die in two turns to his Factories still on board and that was too much risk.  It resolved and he took the damage and went down to 2. He did have a Divine Offering for one of the Vises; that took him to 1 life because he had to tap a City of Brass to cast it.

He untapped with 6 cards in his hand.  I was quick to point out that because of APNAP, his Ivory Tower trigger went on the stack first and then my Vise one, meaning he would lose the game with the life gain on the stack.  I had been relying on this fact to close out the game.  He had to get two cards out of his hand in order to not lose.

Time in the round was called.  Turn 0 was right now.  The rest of the tournament gathered around to watch how the final moments of the match to decide the winner of the tournament would play out.

He counted his mana several times and had just enough to cast two Swords to Plowshares on my two Atogs to get down to 4 cards.  But because those cost 4 mana each (thanks, Gloom), it took away his ability to attack with his Factories.  He drew a card and passed, unable to cast whatever it was and unable to play a land because I still had the two Ankh of Mishra in play.

I untapped with no threats, drew a Badlands which I held, getting momentarily sad and nervous that it wasn’t a burn spell and this would slip away.  I realized that it didn’t actually matter what I drew because…

he had 5 cards in his hand and it was the same situation as the turn before: if he didn’t have an instant to cast, he would die to the Vise before the Tower could gain him life.  He looked his cards and realized he couldn’t do it.  He tossed her hand on the table: two lands, two Red Blasts, and one Counterspell. He shook my hand and congratulated me on the victory.  

5-0

Conclusions

I had a really fun time this weekend, both spending some time with my friends and playing Magic!  I really enjoyed the Grixis Atog deck.  It creates a lot of really difficult game states in which opponents are presented with several bad options that require looking ahead several turns–do they hold that land and take damage to the Vise or play it and take two from the Ankh?  It’s almost impossible to play through that turn after turn and not make a mistake.  The complexity of the deck makes it interesting and also a really strong choice.  Atog is a very skill-testing card that reminds me of a favorite from Modern’s yesteryear, my old friend Arcbound Ravager, although Atog is even more difficult to play because the boost is temporary and doesn’t transfer through removal.

I owe a lot of my success to Simon and the suggestions he made.  If you were keeping score, every suggestion he made was relevant in the tournament and helped me succeed.  The Relic Barriers he suggested were instrumental in my defeating him as well.  I hope he will continue to give me some advice despite that. :p 

The Top 8 Finishers
Front row: 3rd Place Patrick (my 5th round opponent), 8th Place Ian (my 1st round opponent)
Second row: 4th Place Kyle, Me, 2nd Place Simon (my 4th round opponent), 7th Place David
Back row: 5th Place Robin, 6th Place Joe