Well as I’ve said before I really like states, mostly because the format for it is always new standard, which is really fun to test for and figure out. I’m a sucker for undercosted creatures so the reveal guys from lorwyn caught my eye immediately when I saw the spoiler. Undercosted guys always have potential but the one that seemed most insane to me was wren’s run vanquisher. First off, it’s a 3/3 for 2 if your deck can support it, automatically making it comparable to watchwolf. But most importantly it has deathtouch. Why is this so important? It trades every single day with a certain ubiquitous 40 dollar card that also costs 1G. I also played rebels back in the day and I know the power of making creatures without having to actually cast creatures from your hand. Wren’s run Packmaster and Imperious perfect gave me hope that elves could be the new rebels. While they aren’t quite that broken since the guys you make can’t also make more guys, the mechanic is still quite powerful. Unfortunately outside of these guys and llanowar elves the elf tribe seemed to be lacking just a few playables. How, oh how, was I to get around this?
After playing at the prerelease the solution presented itself: Nameless Inversion. A tier 1 common in limited should at least be decent in constructed right? As it turns out, it’s better than decent, it is fantastic, enabling tribal on your goyfs, making vanquisher easy to cast on turn 2, and killing all kinds of things at instant speed for a mere 2 mana. I quickly built the GB elf deck and it was the first deck in my team’s testing gauntlet preceding states. Nathan Crouch quickly adopted the deck as his own because he likes beating other people at magic, even during testing, and the elf deck was definitely accomplishing this. During that time, the 2 packmasters and 2 naths I had in the list proved to be unnecessary and in some cases detrimental, with the packmasters often sitting dead after a wrath and the naths being very unimpressive against aggro. Lee suggested we try Masked Admirers, a card I had noted as being interesting but not fitting with the aggressive theme of the deck. Well it turns out I was really wrong, and it quickly became obvious that this card was nuts. At first we had 2 and 2 Elf Harbingers to fetch them or other 1 ofs, but I found myself getting masked admirers every single time, so we just cut the stupid harbingers and all the other crappy 1 ofs and upped it to 3 admirers. After playing at states, I can honestly say I wish I’d had 4.
We built R/G, elementals, WU fish, Goblins, U/W control, Relic teachings, Dorandeck.dec and a homebrew terrible monoblack discard deck featuring howltooth hollow and nihilith. None of them could reliably beat the Elf deck, it seemed like when the deck lost it was either beating itself or Nate was playing it like a donk. I continued to try and build something that had a shot against it, putting together a kithkin deck on the Wednesday before states. Lee played it against me and in a practice game the following occurred:
Lee has 2 stalwarts and a Knight of Meadowgrain against my board of vanquisher and 2 0/1 goyfs. He O-rings my vanquisher and attacks for 6. Seems safe right? I slaughter pact his Knight and block his 2/2s with my 2/3s.
After this little blowout I am convinced that I just had to play the elf deck. The last additions to the deck were 2 profane commands, which are just insane if you draw them late and you’re even a little bit ahead. The night before, I couldn’t play in FNM but I arrived later to find that Mike Lam and Nate had taken 1st and 2nd with the deck. Now it is FNM, but I still can’t be disappointed with a result like that. Somehow we managed to put 3 copies of the deck together, thanks to Uncle Ian. Meanwhile Lee spitefully maintains that the deck is stupid (not bad, just stupid) and decides to play UR aggro, which I think could be a good metagame choice if people load up on control elements and spot removal, since it has very few creatures that need to stay alive and lots of fire that can go to the head. It turns out the field was more diverse than that though, and he lost a game to troll + warhammer. Yuck. Anyway, here’s the deck I played at states:
ALVES!
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Wren’s run Vanquisher
4 Imperious Perfect
4 Llanowar Elf
3 Masked Admirers
1 Leaf Gilder (Yes, I am terrible at magic)
4 Thoughtseize
4 Nameless Inversion
3 Slaughter Pact
1 Eyeblight’s Ending
2 Profane Command
4 Treetops
4 Gilt-leafs
4 Llanowar wastes
5 Forest
3 Swamp
1 Urborg
1 Pendelhaven
SB:
3 Darkheart Sliver
3 Riftsweeper
3 Seal of Primordium
4 Stupor
2 Eyeblight’s Ending
The name comes from a fateful encounter at the end of a night of playtesting at Lee’s. As I go to leave I notice a pack of “Alf” playing/trading cards. I insist that it we open it and use its contents as obnoxious tokens for our elf machine. Only after doing this for a few games do I realize the obnoxious pun, already conveniently built in…ELVES….ALVES…ugh, I need to die in a grease fire. Seriously though, these cards are amazing, and I will show them to you upon request. On to the games!
The tourney was 169 people, so 7 rounds of swiss! If that sounds wrong to you, then congratulations, you are more on top of things than pastimes. After round 2 we learn that it’s actually 8 rounds. Neat!
R1: Christ (no, not that Christ) playing UG tempo/aggro thing
Game 1: He gets a Garruk and makes a beast, so I have to blow my Garruk on it. Then he does it again, and I blow it up again. I am pretty behind on tempo at this point but I almost stabilize. Unfortunately he has a fairy conclave and teferi, so my Nameless inversion can’t stop me from losing. After he blocks my desperation all-in so that his teferi lives, I scoop them up.
Game 2: I thoughtseized this game and took a Garruk, leaving a sower and 2 rune snags. He sowers, and I play garruk and kill his sower somehow, adding a counter. He plays a wall at 18 life. I overrun for 23 and win on turn 5.
Game 3: He floods viciously and I win with some guys or something
R2: Manuel playing RG aggro w/ horizon canopies
Game 1: He comes out of the gate quickly and I have to keep taking beats from his goyf, since if I block with mine it will trade with a mogg fanatic, and that is unacceptable. He draws War Marshall which is really good against me (and in general). I am taking hits from a Tarmogoyf and 2 goblin tokens when I concoct a crazy scheme. I attack with my goyf and bring him to 9. I play a leaf gilder to chump for a turn, planning to go to 1. If he draws nothing, or draws a normal creature and I get a removal spell, then I can double nameless inversion my goyf for the win. He attacks and I chump, then he sacs a horizon canopy and plays mogg war marshall. Whoops. On to game 2.
Game 2: This game took a while because of his matyr of ashes, and in the process I wasted four counters from a Garruk on an Overrun that only hit a treetop village because he killed a goyf in response. I just didn’t think about the cards he revealed off martyr or I would have seen that that was possible. Regardless, he was playing catch up the whole game, and his burn becomes awful when it has to go to my creatures instead of my face. Masked admirers sealed the deal.
Game 3: I don’t remember this game at all, but by the time it was over, I had learned that slaughter pact is really really good against martyr of ashes.
After this we take a lunch break at the wendy’s, where I learn that Nate is also 2-0 with the deck. I eat some chicken nuggets and Eric Knowles talks loudly about ???ting on peoples’ heads, then calls me a fag. Good times!
R3: Nate Crouch with the 74 card mirror
G1: I win the roll and he thoughtseizes me. He takes something good but my hand is just nuts. I go vanquisher, vanquisher, kill your guy, perfect, kill your guy and he has no shot.
G2: This game stalls out and he gets me low with early beats, but I make my Imperious Perfect a turn before he does and stabilize. I then draw 3 Masked Admirers and bury him in card advantage. He fails to draw the profane to finish me off and dies to my card-fueled army.
I crushed Nate but I didn’t crush his dreams, assuring him that he can easily run the table and top 8. As it turns out he did, and even had to play and win round 8 vs. Mike Bernat. Nice JORB Nate.
After this match I was so busy talking about the matchup with Nate that I forgot my deck at the table! This would have been a disaster but fortunately one of the guys playing next to me brought it back. This was the solidest move possible but I unfortunately did not get his name, but I probably remember what he looks like for now. To this gentleman: Your beneficence will not go unpunished. Find me at the next event to receive your reward.
R4: Matt with Kavu Justice
I really do not think this deck is any good, not his in particular but the archetype in general. I look forward to seeing the states top 8 lists to see how many there are.
Game 1: I thoughtseize him and see Brion stoutarm, some double white guys, a kavu predator and an edge of autumn. I take the edge, hoping to mess with his mana and out-tempo him. It works and by the time he plays Brion, I have removal for the game win.
Game 2: This game was pretty unfair. I went turn 2 and 3 Vanquishers and then just played removal for every other card he had, including double eyeblight’s ending for his double Brion Stoutarm. Well, that’s why I boarded them in.
R5: Wes with BGU discard/good stuff
A strange homebrew sporting stupors, cloudskates, call of the herds, tarmogoyfs, and psi blasts. I actually think these were the only cards I saw all match, but there were probably some others in there somewhere.
Game 1: I play out some creatures and thoughtseize away one of his stupors to keep some card parity. Once I stick a Garruk, it is over.
Game 2: He stupors away some cards and Keeps bouncing my Tarmogoyf with cloudskate, then cloudskate, then another cloudskate. This wouldn’t be that big of a deal except that I have drawn all 3 swamps and no 2nd green source, so I lose.
Game 3: I drop an early tarmogoyf as an 0/1, which he seems a little surprised at. He doesn’t have a psi blast and stupors me instead, making my goyf gigantic, and suddenly it all makes sense. The next step in the plan involves me attacking with a lot of creatures until he dies.
Wes was a good dude and playing him was a lot of fun. I advised him to stay in and go for prizes because I thought his deck was interesting and maybe had a shot, but I don’t think he stuck around.
R6: Mike/Chris Wawszczak with mono U Fish
Mike is a good guy and a solid player from down in the UChicago group. If our two groups could combine playtesting for the sealed or extended season, I feel like we could be quite a force. However the North/Southside divide may make this impossible. We shall see. Note: I thought his name was Chris, and I have Chris written in my notes, but on the tcgplayer page it says that it’s Mike. Will the real Wawszczak please stand up?
Game 1: I win the roll and go turn 1 elf, turn 2 perfect. He resolves an ancestral visions, which I believe is a necessary component of him having a shot at winning this matchup, but by that time it is too late and my massive elf army is totally unstoppable. I give him an extra turn by playing something before my attack step so he can counter it and tap me out with cryptic command, but I was too far ahead for this boneheadedness to matter.
Game 2: I get behind on tempo this game and the power of my deck dramatically decreases in this situation. He resolves a visions and I can’t overcome the card advantage.
Game 3: I triple mulligan into a no-lander and lose via not playing any spells. Considering how many games of magic I play, this doesn’t happen that often, but it’s still pretty frustrating. At least Mike is someone I didn’t mind seeing get the victory. I am careful to pile shuffle thoroughly for my remaining matches.
R7: Max w/ controlling BG elves
Game 1: I saw this guy playing next to me earlier and his deck was very similar to mine. He had damnation however, as I learned game 1. Fortunately I had not overextended into it and I was able to keep laying threats. He almost stabilized at 3 but I was able to chain an admirers into another guy and then pact one of his blockers for the win.
Game 2: This game was more of a back and forth, but I was still the aggressor. He traded some troll ascetics early for some Vanquishers of mine, which pretty much secured in my mind that he was not running warhammer as well. This was a shame, because it would have been much easier to win if he was. I get him down to one with a village but he stabilizes. Then he shriekmaws a guy and begins beating me down with the maw. I do my best to look like I’m holding removal so he doesn’t alpha strike, and it does restrict him to just attacking with Shriekmaw, giving me more turns to find a profane command, but I can’t find it in time. I took a nameless inversion in this game with Thoughtseize so that I could get him to 1 with Village, but I probably should have taken the shriekmaw instead. Getting him to 1 doesn’t really accomplish anything if I can’t bust through for the last point of damage. I was thinking of profane command but whether he was at 4 or 1, profane wins the game equally so that doesn’t actually matter.
Game 3: Again my deck is just more aggressive than his, and the numerous wall of roots he draws are underwhelming against my 5 power/deathtouching force. I am in a good position but have not necessarily won the game when he scoops.
R8: ID into the T8.
I’m not totally sure about all the decks in the top 8. I know Merfolk won and my teammate Nate made the T8 playing basically the same deck as me. Lee also went 6-2 with the RU deck, which is not bad considering that it’s kind of underpowered.
T8: Mike with W/u mesa control
Game 1: I get him down to 9 but he wraths and then stabilizes. I just don’t draw much gas this game, and then he drops sacred mesa with plenty of land out. I keep playing and thoughtseize him so that I can see more of his deck, then pack it in.
Game 2: I get a very quick start, meanwhile he leads with island, island, coldsteel heart naming white. I am tempted to seal of primordium his heart and deprive him of white, but if he plays 2 plains in a row and then wraths, I will be in deep trouble. I also have perfect out, so I don’t really need to commit more guys to the table until he deals with that. On his turn he plays a scrying sheets and foresees. This is the signal I needed that he is light on white. I untap, seal his heart, and play a vanquisher, and still have enough to make an elf eot. He plays a martyr. I draw and thoughtseize him, taking wrath, and he martyrs in response to go up to 21. I attack and he goes back to 13. He basically needs to draw another wrath in order to survive, but does not. He has a condemn for my perfect but I played another pre-attack and so it’s still 14 damage.
Game 3: This game was a long, drawn out affair. I apply incremental pressure, trying not to over-commit to the board, which is easy because my hand is threat-light to begin with. I hold back on attacking with my treetop village because I know he has condemn. Lee insists afterwards that this is a mistake, but if I get in there with treetop, he will condemn, and then if he draws wrath for my regular creatures I will have no clock at all, and you need a clock vs. control. That is my reasoning anyway. He is forced to condemn a goyf and the next turn finds a wrath and wraths away 2 elf tokens, which I consider to be good deal for me. My treetop village then takes him from 11 to 2. On the turn where I attack him to 2, I stupor him first, hitting a useless porphyry nodes and a condemn that he must have just drawn. After attacking I think I’ve got it, but he rips sacred mesa right off the top and can make enough tokens to block and kill village. A removal spell would be bad for him, as would a creature, but unfortunately I have neither, and after a few turns of drawing neither I lose.
My deck kind of crapped out on me in the top 8 and in round 6, but it was still a good showing and it did put 2 people into the top 8 so I can’t be too disappointed.
Props:
Team evil squirrel, obvs
Eric Knowles, aka “big mama”
The Rockford crew
The Uchicago crew
The guy who returned my deck after round 3
Nate for getting a T8 finally
Mike for being really asian
Slops:
Alf. What a bizarre show.
That’s it, and will probably be it for a while till I write another T8 report since I am awful at limited. Till next time, good luck and play well players.
