This is the story of how four little Goblin Outlanders helped me to make Top 8 of the recent Edison PTQ.
First off, sorry I haven’t updated in a couple of weeks. For those of you who don’t know, I am nearing the final stages of completing a book. It isn’t about Magic at all, but online marketing, and I am writing it with my longtime friend and teacher, David Szetela. If you want to be a dear and order a copy from Amazon.com (of which like $.15 or so will trickle down to YT), I certainly won’t stop you (hint, hint):
Okay, back?
Yes, yes.
So I am working on this book, which has been eating up most of my writing, that is blog-writing time. However I was much berated at the recent Edison, NJ PTQ about my blog-writing delinquency, so, um, here’s a blog post, I suppose.
Most of you probably only care about my deck list, so I will supply that now so that you can go ahead and copy it down on a nearby paper napkin in crayon and be on your way:
Blightning Beatdown
4 Anathemancer
4 Blightning
4 Boggart Ram-Gang
4 Demigod of Revenge
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Goblin Outlander
4 Flame Javelin
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Tarfire
4 Auntie’s Hovel
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Graven Cairns
6 Mountain
2 Reflecting Pool
4 Savage Lands *
1 Swamp
My deck was 60 correct cards (but see the land asterisk at the end).
The main difference between this deck and crappier versions of Blightning Beatdown is the Goblin Outlanders main and more Protection from White side. Basically Blightning blows out most decks, but has a horrible Kithkin matchup (traditionally). Most of you probably remember I played Blightning at the Philly 5K and lost to the eventual winner, Kithkin savant Corey Mann, in that Blightning / Kithkin nightmare (Corey by the way Top 8′d this PTQ as well… That guy should just always play Kithkin).
My strategy was to just play a ton of Protection from White and demolish Kithkin. I played against a lot of White decks, actually, and this was a great solution. I in fact beat the Kithkin dream draw in a matter of seconds with the double Outlander draw, which is very difficult to race. I even had Black Knight for a while, but I cut it to play Doom Blade when it became obvious U/W was going to be the deck to beat.
My sideboard, if I had it to play again, would have been different. Stillmoon Cavalier was not the strongest card, but the most relevant in the only matchup I lost. I would play four now, because I was always happy to draw it, and because Bitterblossom was not any good. The rest I would fill out with Terminates, possibly switching the core Doom Blades to Shriekmaws to better fight Baneslayer Angels (run around Glen Elendra Archmage better). Stillmoon Cavalier is also a great Baneslayer Angel foil, if you didn’t figure that out. He is hard to deal with in the long term, and jumps in front of that classy lady all day.
For those of you still reading, the tournament:
Round 1 – Eddie Wong with U/W Baneslayer
This is how my day started.
I lost the flip.
I played a Goblin Outlander.
He played a Broken Ambitions and revealed a Baneslayer Angel to my Anathemancer. I didn’t want to draw Anathemancer (knowing his deck probably had very few nonbasic lands) and anyway it probably would have some utility in the graveyard, so I left it on top to disappear. He shipped the Baneslayer, looking for lands.
The game went on, with him stumbling on lands somewhat. I was able to get him to about four with a Goblin Outlander and Demigod of Revenge, but he had Archmage (which I weathered down), Reveillark, another Reveillark, the squad. Now he was attacking me back. I Lightning Bolted him to one with his re-bought Archmage on the stack.
Then he played Glacial Fortress. Lucky ducky!
He only had seven lands in play and had gone nigh-all in the previous turn; I declared with the mighty Outlander on the table. He tapped all my guys, leaving only three lands up. I flipped back that turn two Anathemancer for the one point. He had two more Cryptic Commands in hand!
Second game I had my Doom Blades and Stillmoon Cavaliers in. The sideboarded matchup was much simpler. He would make some play that costs five, I would tap two to deal with it, and get in for five. His draw was not optimal but I still had bonus Doom Blade and additional removal in hand at the end, so I thought it was probably an okay matchup.
1-0
Round 2 – Oliver Simon with B/U/R Fae
Game One Oliver stalled on two. It didn’t really matter what I did.
I sided in Bitterblossom for the only time on the day.
On my second turn I ran one of them Blossoms out there. Oliver stared at it for about forty-five seconds before finally sending a Broken Ambitions its way. “Just having a little fun,” he chuckled.
Oliver was the one to stick Bitterblossom.
The rest of the game was a battle of Anathemancers and Blightnings, which he eventually won.
In the third I only played three spells, but two of them were Anathemancers
I had one in the graveyard and one on the board with Oliver on three. He really needed a Lightning Bolt and a Cryptic Command. I was sure I had it, but he had a surprising Thought Hemmorhage to take out my down Anathemancer. The other, of course, was eventually lethal.
2-0
Round 3 – Rogelio Badillo with G/W Overrun
Game One involved a crisis of faith. I blasted and Blightning’d Rogelio down to no cards, but obviously he topdecked a Siege Goat Commander. I had been managing the board with Goblin Outlander, but was in a spot where I could be raced. My grip: Flame Javelin. He went O. I accepted and sent the Javelin at him instead. I was rewarded with Lightning Bolt and Demigod of Revenge, closed from nine-ish.
Game Two I couldn’t beat two Siege Goat Commanders, though it was exciting.
Third game Goblin Outlanders and especially Stillmoon Cavalier were beyond key. I was able to race through it with a Burrenton Forge-Tender on the table.
3-0
Round 4 – Justin Liu with Kithkin
Justin stalled in the first, but there wasn’t much he could do: I had the double Goblin Outlander draw.
Second game he had the optimal curve of 2/2, 2/2, three 1/1s, pump. However I countered with double Goblin Outlander and Stillmoon Cavalier, that is, three of seven. Thanks to Blightning I was able to easily win this race. The plan held!
Justin went on to make Top 8 with me.
4-0
Round 5 – Andrew Harwell with Reflecting Pool Control
Andrew had some unfortunate draws: Double Reflecting Pool in Game One; double filter land in Game Two. He eventually got there for Kitchen Finks mana but gave me too much initial time in both games to be competitive.
5-0
Round 6 – Chas E. Hinkle with Doran
Chas had a very good curve draw in Game One but I was able to blast away all of his guys and beat him with Ram-Gangs. So obviously I sided those out for Stillmoon Cavaliers and removal.
In the second I had a Stillmoon Cavalier but no Black mana to pair with my Reflecting Pool, so I was stuck on just Red. His deck got me right back.
In the third I shipped to six but ended up with four spells: Two Goblin Outlanders and two Anathemancers. I purposefully played only one Outlander at a time (to match Doran or Wilt-Leaf Liege) but unfortunately he drew two Maelstrom Pulses. If he didn’t draw the second Pulse (or a Nameless Inversion) I think I would have won. I had enough lands in play and two Anathemancers down. He was on 10 with six nonbasic lands in play. I took a total of 22, but 15 of them came from a Doran, so if my second Goblin lived, I think I would have had time to enact the Anathemancer plan.
Oh well.
5-1
Round 7 – Elizabeth Albert with G/W Little Kid
I got the first one on tempo with first turn Figure of Destiny. Her creatures were of course bigger but she couldn’t do much because I had presence starting early.
The second game I was pretty surprised to lose. She tapped for Oversoul of Dusk and I tapped and struck with Demigod of Revenge with another Demigod, Lightning Bolt, Doom Blade, and Flame Javelin in grip. Elizabeth already had a Kitchen Finks, so when she played Wilt-Leaf Liege I took 12, which put me to 5. With the Overoul in play there was no possible way to race! Just one more life point and I was pretty sure I had it. But I guess that’s why people play Oversoul of Dusk.
The third was interesting. I won on the back of a lost Lash Out clash. I got one of her little guys with the Lash Out, which revealed a [second] Celestial Purge to my Mountain. So I just never played my Demigod of Revenge for many turns… Not until she would commit mana. Anyway I had a Goblin Outlander and Stillmoon Cavalier on the battlefield.
I actually made a possible mis-play on a late game attack. Elizabeth had a Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers and Llanowar Elves to my 2/2 and 2/1. I double-struck. She had a Snakeform for what had been a pretty violent Stillmoon Cavalier. Before going to blocks, I dropped the Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers with Doom Blade, forcing her to block with the Llanowar Elves if she wanted to keep value on the Snakeform (getting in for two).
Asher Manningbot commented that I should have let her block, and then Doom Bladed the Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers, preserving my Stillmoon Cavalier. I was operating under the Zvi Mowshowitz paradigm (or perhaps an incorrect interpretation of it) which is that if I control all the information, that I can make a play where I am certain of the outcome. I knew Elizabeth had to use her last creature if she were going to keep value on the Snakeform, which would leave her with no creatures. G/W Little Kid can only defend a Goblin Outlander by racing or by committing. If I put her to no creatures, she would have to commit. I was rewarded with a tap out for Oversoul of Dusk, which gave me the spot to stick Lightning Bolt and Demigod of Revenge, stranding the Celestial Purge she had been milking.
So… Screwup or no?
Asher said I would have had much the same turn, but also a Stillmoon Cavalier if I had waited for a block for the Doom Blade.
6-1
Round 8 – Nick Batdorf with Blightning
Nick’s deck was not set up for the mirror. He had cards that would have been great for my failed matches against Doran, but were highly inefficient against another Blightning deck. For instance he had Earthquake, Terminate, and Stillmoon Cavalier main deck.
In the first Nick stalled so I had to setting for two-point Anathemancers. However I got like a 22-point life swing by pointing two different Blightnings for four different Flame Javelins I was actually pretty flooded but eventually closed it with a Goblin Outlander.
In the second I was pretty desperate for lands but was stuck on three. I did however win two Lash Out clashes, which are about as devastating as can be in this kind of a match. The second revealed a Flame Javelin, so I decided to keep that piece. I had a Tarfire and a Lightning Bolt in hand, so along with six from Lash Outs, I only had to do about five points of damage.
7-1
Top 8!
Round 9 – Lucas Siow with Reflecting Pool Control
We ran the ID. Lucas was the eventual PTQ winner.
7-1-1
Top 8 – Chas Hinkle with Doran
A bit of the anti-climax… I got paired against the only deck that beat me in the Swiss rather than one of the three Kithkin decks or the G/W deck (I had beaten two G/W decks of course).
Chas crushed me in the first. I think he played four Wren’s Run Vanquishers whereas I didn’t draw a single Lightning Bolt. I did however draw Blightning, but he kept revealing Wilt-Leaf Liege. Awkward.
In the second I accidentally drew eight cards!
My sleeves were a ragged mess after the Swiss, so I traded with Josh.
Yadda yadda yadda.
Sticky?
Whatever.
I somehow drew eight cards and had to force-mulligan to six.
I probably couldn’t have beaten Chas’s seven 4/4 draw with nine cards.
5th
You don’t put that many hours in for fifth place, but I walked out of the tournament with a now-respectable 1972 rating, which is amazing for the World’s Greatest Tee Shirt. I’ve put on about 200 ratings points since I started wearing it!
That’s it!
Hopefully it won’t be another two weeks before I update again.
But I can’t promise anything for now, sadly.
Much love,
LOVE
MIKE
* Not actually Savage Lands. I played the Grixis tri-land but I don’t remember the damn name. I wrote “Savage Lands” down on the paper napkin I scribbled over to Josh but he gave me the Grixis ones to ensure that I would not, you know, accidentally tap for Green or something. In fact Savage Lands can put the opponent on a bad read because Blightning Beatdown and Jund have many cards in common, but it is actually better for the opponent to put you on a Grixis read, which can — if briefly — lead to some poor short term evaluations and plays. Long story short, I can never remember the name of that land and would rather write this whole paragraph than look it up. So there.
This list is 72/75 what I have been featuring every related blog post and video. Josh Ravitz supplied the physical cardboard and told me that I had too many cards for Reflecting Pool Control (my best matchup) and elected not to supply me with Thoughtseize, instead gave me some Lash Outs. The Lash Outs were great!
ROUND ONE – Merfolk
I played against Curtis, an old friend of WillPop aka Will Price of Progress aka Will Price (boring) from Top8Magic.
Game One I rolled the ‘folk, no probs, won at 19 drawing two Blightnings.
I hadn’t really thought about sideboarding against Merfolk and sided out Blightning for Infest, Hell’s Thunder for Gutteral Response.
Basically got runner, runner-runner’d out of Games two and three. In Game Three, it was literally 14-19 my lead and I ka-powed through two Reveillarks and all his little guys with Infest and a Mogg Fanatic. My grip was double Demigod of Revenge versus nil. He ripped Reveillark #3. Okay, well, I guess I’m sending Demigod #1 to his doom. Back come Merrow Reejeery and Sower of Temptation (no targets). However he has a Windbrisk Heights and some man land action. He comes in for six or so and forces me to pick up a Ghitu Encampment. No probs I have Sulfurous Springs to get back in there with Demigod and have to take two points to play my Demigods. The prob is… He ripped Loxodon Warhammer off of the Cryptic Command off of the Windbrisk Heights. So now I have two Demigods, am north of 10 life… and can’t attack.
Still he has no card in hand. I have to leave my guys home in case he draws a Merfolk for Reejeery tap but once I have active mana I can defend with Ghitu Encampments on the ground.
What is the single worst card he can pull?
Sower of Temptation!
Nil into ‘Lark into Cryptic into Loxodon into Sower?
Magnanimus!
Actually not magnanimus at all.
He takes my 5/4 and… You know how it went.
0-1
ROUND SEVEN – Reflecting Pool Control
I won five or six straight to go 6-1 at this point. Details at Top8Magic. Brian did a bonzer job by the way, updating on-the-go all day from his iPhone (have I mentioned we live in the future)?
6-1
ROUND EIGHT – Disaster!
So you are on a six round run.
You have beaten Story Circle on Red (on turn three, with no Blossom on board) and Story Circle on Black in the same game — without siding in Everlasting Torment; you’ve won the 56/60 mirror against probably a superior player (upcoming You Make the Play); you’ve pulled out a close one against the Fae by ripping Gutteral Response exactly when you needed a Gutteral Response.
Now you are two games from Top 8.
First.
Turn.
Windbrisk Heights.
Man!
Game One I only pulled five spells… and one was a Hell’s Thunder — it doesn’t even count!
Yet I have gotten him to two with a really brave Mogg Fanatic.
He’s on two.
If he’s not lethal next turn, it’s close.
You pull Incinerate!
The problem? Previous turn he picked up Burrenton Forge-Tender and played it.
Yeah.
No!
Game Two I was maybe tilting. I kept five lands (no Ghitu Encampment), Tarfire, Everlasting Torment. The only other spell I pulled the entire game was a second Everlasting Torment.
6-2
And that was the tournament.
I played the last round to see if I could get away with a $100 Top 16 prize.
Opponent was Fae.
I shipped to Paris four times in the two games. The real pisser was I had to ship a “perfect” two-land hand… but both lands were my two Reflecting Pools! No! Even against the Fae this was a pretty bad disadvantage. I could have won either game if I hit a break, but in Game Two he played three Cryptic Commands when any other response spell meant that I was going to get there.
And that was the tournament.
Josh says I was on tilt the last 1.5-2 rounds, but I think I played pretty well overall. I do not regret my deck selection by even one card, though I think three Everlasting Torments might have been better than four (final Lash Out).
MichaelJ is sick! No voice! Please forgive me, but I wanted to do a video on the deck I am playing at the Star City Games $5K before, you know, the Star City Games $5K.
I wanted to pretend-play eight matches on MTGO, pretending I was in a PTQ or whatever, but I went 6-1in the first seven, and I got a “draw” … However I wasn’t playing real Magic so the draw was irrelevant. So I just played the eighth (basically the nightmare matchup of Kitchen Finks, guys with large toughness, and Wilt-Leaf Liege for my Blightnings) … and got there easily. This solidified my choice of Blightning Beatdown for the $5K.
This is how I described the match on November 24:
8. G/W Little Kid
Game One – You probably know I made a deck with all G/W cards and Wilt-Leaf Liege for Block that won one PTQ (that I know about). I actually started thinking about this strategy again for Standard just because Wilt-Leaf Liege is so good against Blightning and Cruel Ultimatum. So basically, alongside Kitchen Finks and better guys than are in my colors — let alone my deck — this is the nightmare match.
Luckily he had a slow opening, which was my only saving grace. One too many lands came into play tapped so he couldn’t overrun me with superior forces. I stuck a Blightning that was pretty ironic. A turn or two later and I would have been eating 4/4.
Anyway he got out a ton of 4/x and 5/x creatures (with Liege boosts) but I had a late Bitterblossom to get in for a tiny amount of damage… eventually burned him to death.
Game Two – I side out Blightnings (obviously) for Everlasting Torments.
I luck out that his third land is a Mosswort Bridge, meaning my Figure of Destiny is 4/4 before he has a Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers in play. This is just what I need to get in -one too many times-. Then it’s all Hell’s Thunder and burn to the face. No sweat, thanks to his stumble.
And this here is the corresponding video:
DON’T FORGET!
I said way up top (and if you read the previous post) I am sick as hell. Meaning my voice is like cigarettes ground into gravel. Forgive me this one time, I really wanted to get the content out to you.
MichaelJ is sick! Also some things are not available at any price. Others are available for between $4.99 and $24.
First of all, sorry for the few / lame updates the past week or two. I am back in New York and have been in I think five cities in three days (Cleveland, Richmond, New York, Ft. Lauderdale, New York again) between Thanksgiving and now. Most recently I flew down to Florida for less than 24 hours to do a speech, back in the office the next day (today).
I am wiped from traveling and the speech / presentation.
Millionaire copywriter Dr. Harlan Kilstein let me do a presentation at his Tactic7 seminar which was daunting. I have done presentations about being awesome at Google before but… like… only at Google or at seminars talking to Googlers. So yes, it’s a big honor to be one of the few online marketing experts to actually present at the epicenter of the online marketing universe, but the stresses are very different. Sure it can still be intimidating, but when you are speaking at Google, you are sharing with a room full of professionals who basically get paid to be there.
Presenting at Harlan’s made me nervous because the situation was reversed: Entrepeneurs and students were paying to hear me speak. Yes it was Harlan’s event and I was just a guest speaker for the day but the people present paid a deep four figures to sit in that packed room so it was important for me to do a good job.
Luckily I aquitted myself quite adequately.
Unluckily — and if you know me in real life (instead of just listening to my videos) you can probably imagine this — I spent a lot of my speech shouting at the top of my lungs. Specifically I repeated THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR five or ten times, Gregorian chant style (if Gregorian monks, you know, shouted THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR at the top of their lungs).
So I have no voice now.
Which is kind of horrible because I am going to do a video on my Star City Blightning Beatdown tonight. I kind of have to. I did the footage more than a week ago, intending to do the video while I was home in Ohio, but wall to wall family stuff came up for a week and the raw files have been sitting on my computer for however long. But the Star City $5K event is less than two days from now… So when you get to see the video (which will be later tonight, getting back to the “sorry for the few / lame updates the past week or two” bit up top), you will have to deal with my non-voice. I am the equal and opposite of Blackagar Boltagon. My voice is THAT un-powerful at present.
So what does this have to do with this blog post’s headline ["Not Available at Any Price!" if you forgot]?
While I was at Tactic7 I met up with fellow presenter, quality human being, and Career RenegadeJonathan Fields, an imminent Amazon.com best seller and expert in social media (you know, like this blog). Jonathan turned me onto Twitter. So if you want to follow me on Twitter (no one is following me on Twitter, please follow me on Twitter, I want to feel popular), I am unsurprisingly FiveWithFlores, that is, Twitter.com/FiveWithFlores. Apparently I previously registered my Madmanpoet self some time in the distant past, but I have since forgotten the password to Madmanpoet’s account. Poor Twitter.com/Madmanpoet. You are alone forever. Long live FiveWithFlores!
Jonathan pointed out the agile use of “not available at any price” in a sales letter he showed me, and I just found something also not available at any price (though my use is dramatically less agile).
I was perusing 80sTees.com, home of The World’s Greatest Tee Shirt (sorry… still not in stock in M, L, or XL… did anybody bug them yet? I didn’t [yet]), and came upon this Decepticon belt:
I am not sure if that Decepticon belt is cool or lame; only that it is bright purple. However I have the following little mice turning gears in my noggin:
1) It’s only $4.99 (meaning that if it turns out to be lame, I blew less than a latte), and
2) It fits up to 38 inches (meaning I’m good… Is there anything more embarrassing than buying a belt you can’t fit into?)
So I’m thinking to myself, “Self, there is a reasonable possibility this belt is lame. Maybe there could be some other belt that is definitely cool, or at least not lame?”
So I came upon this belt:
IT IS NOT AVAILABLE AT ANY PRICE.
Zero dollars?
Really?
I had to double-take.
This Thundercats belt is $0… You know, like my lifetime winnings in individual Pro Tours.
Yet it is in stock.
How can this be?
When price = $0, that throws the whole cool / lame cost / benefit matrix completely out of whack. Free things are basically automatically cool, or at least not lame.
Then I read that you actually have to buy a Thundercats tee shirt to get the NOT AVAILABLE AT ANY PRICE belt “for free.” Oh, that’s how they get you. Actual commerce and product purchases. The arrogant bastards. You have to pay them before you get goods and services. How gauche. Maybe they should just let me buy The World’s Greatest Tee Shirt instead of it being out of stock. Did I mention “bastards”?
Anyway, I was leaning towards this one, because then I can pretend that I didn’t know there was a double entendre (my life is more or less non-stop shenanigans, and pretending I didn’t know I was committing a faux pas is basically my favorite scam):
The only problem is that if you have a daughter and you want her to be proud, independent, free-thinking, and strong, you have to at least THINK ABOUT / consider certain ridiculous actions and intentional unintentional double entendres, especially if you want to dodge the ire of the Mrs. For the unmarried among you, there is a high benefit to relatively low cost in dodging the ire of the Mrs.
So what is a man to do in order to shotgun a free Thundercats belt?
There is the Underoos-looking route:
Or alternately the hipster “I found these Underoos crumpled under my bed” route:
Personally I like the second one more, but I am worried the Mrs. will mistake it for a ratty old shirt and will accidentally throw it away.
This is more difficult than “Figure of Destiny” or “Tarfire the Birds of Paradise” on turn one.
So long story short, video + Magical post later tonight.
Thanks everybody for continuing to love what Mike Flores loves. If I can get my free Thundercats belt in time for the Star City $5K, it will match my deck of choice (Blightning Beatdown, obv).
LOVE
MIKE
Firestarter:
What is actually more difficult? Figure of Destiny / Tarfire the Birds of Paradise on turn one or Underoos-looking Thundercats shirt / “distressed” Underoos-looking Thundercats shirt?
Game One – Elementals is a deck that I tested early for the States format. Properly built, it can be hell on the Reflecting Pool Control suite, it has fast — sometimes uncounterable — Cloudthreshers for the Fae, and Reveillark for a legitimate Stage Three game plan. The reason I discarded it is that Elementals often got slow draws against The Red Deck that could not be corrected (Shock your Smokebraider, &c.); and the slow games without Mulldrifter just seemed like a lot of comes into play tapped lands and glacial Harbingers.
In this game he actually has some Fulminator Mages to slow me down and a Horde of Notions.
I start on Bitterblossom and triple Mogg Fanatics. I kill the Horde two-for-one and he follows up with a Reveillark.
I just attack all in to get damage in.
He borrows a play from my States Jund Mana Ramp deck and runs a Gift of the Gargantuan for a Mulldrifter and Fire-lit Thicket; but I have Flame Javelin to finish.
Game Two – I didn’t sideboard (maybe I should have taken out Demigod of Revenge?) … I opened on Ghitu Encampment and pointed my Mogg Fanatic at his mana guy.
He played another mana guy and I came in with another Mogg Fanatic and Hell’s Thunder, then repeated the previous Mogg Fanatic play.
Time for Blightning!
The bad news… He discarded Gift of the Gargantuan and Horde of Notions (a little scared of Makeshift Mannequin in this spot).
“Luckily” he followed up with a Harbinger for another Horde of Notions, then played Gift for that Horde (pretty nice)… but managed to miss his necessary land drop.
With five mana I sent Incinerate and Hell’s Thunder #2.
His fifth land came into play tapped!
… But he had the dreaded Mannequin. How anticlimactic. In for five.
I flashed a Thunder from down under, putting him to one. He can’t do 15 the following turn.
1-0
2. Faeries with White
Game One – He opens with Arcane Sanctum, then Secluded Glen into Bitterblossom.
I skipped an attack with my Mogg Fanatic to preserve the option of a two-for-one (learned that from Brett’s video); he tries for the Scion, but I burn it.
But his double Mistbind Clique is really much more clever (or at least effective than anything I had this game).
Game Two – I sided out two Tarfires for two Gutteral Responses. I wanted the threat of being able to mess with his Cryptic Command set to Fog… but didn’t really have anything worth taking damage sources out just to force through with extra mana. I came out quickly with Figure and Mogg Fanatic, and we are to Game Three just like that.
Game Three – I open on turn one Fanatic and turn two Blossom; however I stick on two with a hand full of awesome threes. He has a Loxodon Warhammer so my goal becomes to not let him use it on me.
Anyway, once I start to get a little mass he sees the writing on the wall and points a Cryptic Command at my squad… but that’s why I have Gutteral Response (even if I only sided two of them, see above).
It would have definitely been better to side out Incinerate instead of Tarfire. Tarfire is just better against his guys (no one has three toughness), plus Tarfire is cheaper and a Goblin for Auntie’s Hovel. Oh well, that’s why we test.
2-0
3. Reanimator
Game One – He opens Swamp.
I go first turn Figure.
He goes Island.
I’m in. No pumps. He runs Agony Warp. Ha ha, I didn’t pump. Awesome Blossom.
Now it gets weird… Cunning Lethemancer?
The joke’s on you: I discard Demigod of Revenge.
He evokes a Mulldrifter; I evoke the Chris Pikula rule and Tarfire the Lethemancer.
Then he Beacons up his Mully… I play my own five mana Black spell, being a Demigod of Revenge… for Demigod of Revenge.
He points Profane Command at one of my Demigods but passes the turn on three, convenient for my Blightning.
Game Two – I put in three copies of Thoughtseize, dropping a trio of Hell’s Thunders. In hindsight this is probably wrong as there is a particularly good synergy between his Lethemancers and my Thunders. But with a deck as unpredictable as his, I think Thoughtseize is right… just a question of what to pull; I think Flame Javelin?
I drew Thunder anyway.
This game I stuck a pair of Bitterblawesomes. He played Blackman style and kept Warping my jones to only take one from my Thunder and eat a token.
He kept Warping tokens whereas I stuck Blightning the flash on Thunder until he was at 11 and I was gripping circa ten.
3-0
4. Jund Mana Ramp (possibly Jund Quillspike Combo)
Game One – I shipped Swamp (only land) with double Blossom into Hell’s Thunder and five land… make that six land after my draw step.
He opened on a Jund tri-land.
I went Fantastic.
He played a Devoted Druid and the juices started flowing.
I don’t think he can combo me if I have a Fanatic in play.
I just killed his Druid based on my hand.
He followed up with Garruk and a second Druid. I hit him with Thunder and pointed a second Fanatic at his second Druid.
He went Chameleon.
I went Demigod.
I did the math and realized I had to kill Garruk or the Chameleon would go intensely large + trample. Unfortunately my Demigod was not comely to the Elves and Eyeblight’s Ending got him.
Game Two – Paris to five.
Off curve; third turn Bitterblossom… against his Finks. I start to accumulate tokens and get a Figure.
He Jund Charms and I’m afraid he is going to kill my tokens and Figure and reset his Finks… but he just eats these two Hell’s Thunders that were hanging out in my graveyard. Then he evokes a Cloudthresher to actually kill my tokens. But Figure makes it in for four!
It’s a race!
… Until he plays a pair of Finks and sends Eyeblight’s Ending at my Figure.
I rip all lands of course.
3-1
5. Tokens
He opens on a Fire-lit Thicket.
I answer with Sulfurous Springs into a turn two Bitterblossom. Ouch ouch.
His first move is Nantuko Husk.
I want nothing to do with that and Tarfire it, following with Figure of Destiny.
A follow up Blightning reveals to Soul’s Fires (have I mentioned how good Blightning is?). I have 13 more points in my hand when he concedes.
Game Two – I remove four Mogg Fanatics for four Infests; mulligan a one lander.
I get a quick Figure of Destiny; his first move is again on turn three… a Sprouting Thrinax. I just draw lands and he eventually kills me with Sarkan Vol.
Game Three – Mulligan again; turn two Bitterblossom.
I spend a bunch of turns Incinerating Marsh Flitters; mana is pretty tight this game. He has four Goblins from his Marsh Flitters and I have some Bitterblossom tokens. Eventually I draw lands and play a ton of Blightnings and Demigods.
6.
He plays Birds of Paradise (always trouble).
I play Figure of Destiny turn one over Tarfire.
Luckily he has no explosive turn two and I Tarfire his Birds and get in for two.
Blightning reveals Wrath of God and Garruk Wildspeaker.
He Oblivion Rings my Figure of Destiny; I deal four anyway with Hell’s Thunder, then play another Figure. He plays a Liege of some sort, which I burn out, prompting the concession.
Game Two I remove four Flame Javelins for four Everlasting Torments.
He opens on Murmuring Bosk, plays the 0/4 Harbinger and goes and gets another Mosk. My Figure bounces off of it until he deigns to play a Shriekmaw.
Hell’s Thunder in.
He goes 4/4 of his own – Chameleon Colossus.
This looks like it might be an interesting game except I have three Hell’s Thunders and a plenty of overload damage to race.
5-1
7. Jund Mannequin
Game One – He opens on Birds of Paradise. I open on Figure of Destiny, which earns an Incinerate. Okay; slow game this one. Blightning and Blightning snag six life, Violent Ultimatum, Firespout, Chameleon Colossus, and Makeshift Mannequin.
He tries to slow the old man down with some Fulminator Mages but I have enough lands this game. He switches gears and drops a diffeent Chameleon. Meanwhile I send three Flame Javelins at the face and finish with a Tarfire for the perfect 20.
Game Two – He mulligans into a weak hand and quickly concedes to Mogg Fanatic and some burn spells.
6-1
At 6-1, given the imaginary eight rounds of my imaginary tournament, I am in ID land. Top 8? Heh.
I decide to play one more because I don’t have any footage (look for this video to come up later in the week).
8. G/W Little Kid
Game One – You probably know I made a deck with all G/W cards and Wilt-Leaf Liege for Block that won one PTQ (that I know about). I actually started thinking about this strategy again for Standard just because Wilt-Leaf Liege is so good against Blightning and Cruel Ultimatum. So basically, alongside Kitchen Finks and better guys than are in my colors — let alone my deck — this is the nightmare match.
Luckily he had a slow opening, which was my only saving grace. One too many lands came into play tapped so he couldn’t overrun me with superior forces. I stuck a Blightning that was pretty ironic. A turn or two later and I would have been eating 4/4.
Anyway he got out a ton of 4/x and 5/x creatures (with Liege boosts) but I had a late Bitterblossom to get in for a tiny amount of damage… eventually burned him to death.
Game Two – I side out Blightnings (obviously) for Everlasting Torments.
I luck out that his third land is a Mosswort Bridge, meaning my Figure of Destiny is 4/4 before he has a Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers in play. This is just what I need to get in -one too many times-. Then it’s all Hell’s Thunder and burn to the face. No sweat, thanks to his stumble.
Wherein Michael J. Flores discusses the beginnings of his preparation for the upcoming Star City Games $5000 tournament in Philadelphia, PA. This article features initial deck selection, card choices, and testing with a modified version of Blightning Beatdown.
So there is a big Standard tournament coming up the first week of December.
It is a Star City Games $5000 tournament (you know, the kind Alex Bertoncini always wins) in Philadelphia, PA. I lived in Philadelphia for four years, and won my first PTQ there with a heavily metagamed B/R Necropotence deck.
Aside:
Recently, over at Top 8 Magic, I have been thinking a lot about my deck selection over the past couple of years. It all started when Brian David-Marshall accused me of being the Greenest One of All in a recent Top 8 Magic Podcast. [In case you haven't been reading Top 8 Magic... which you should be] I have been some kind of Green in 80% of my last 20 individual Constructed tournaments. I even did a spreadsheet breakdown.
Yep, down 199 rating points over that time period.
On balance, the twenty individual Constructed tournaments before those I was Green only about 1/3 of the time. Instead, I was up 146 points, qualified for two Constructed Pro Tours, crushed a late summer Standard with my U/W “Wafo-Tapa” deck that won five straight NAC Qualifiers (Steve Sadin, Julian Levin, yours truly, some guy not in our crew, and Chad Kastel), finished Top 16 in that respective NAC, and of course finished two-then-one in the New York State Championships in consecutive attempts.
I am not 100% down on Green at all (in fact, Critical Mass was one of the best decks I ever developed, hands down)… But I think Brian probably has a point that I am biased towards Green.
But not in Philadelphia; when I won that PTQ, it was with B/R.
End aside.
Speaking of B/R, I have been heavily impressed with Oscar Almgren’s Blightning Beatdown since I first stumbled upon it and made the initial Blightning Beatdown videos.
At the pre-States Top 8 Magic Mock Tournament, Brian David-Marshall kicked all kinds of bum with Matt Ferrando’s version of Blightning Beatdown — which didn’t even have Bitterblossom or Demigod of Revenge if you can believe THAT — and recommended it for States on basis of our previous Mock Tournament prognostication with Jushi Blue, B/W Deadguy Ale, &c.
However for myself, Josh Ravitz had already [physically] made me my Jund Mana Ramp deck and told me he would punch me in the face if I didn’t play it. Josh himself, though, smartly switched to Blightning Beatdown! He finished a match out of Top 8 in New Jersey, parallel to me.
So anyway, based on many factors — including a deliberate effort to broaden my color choices, my frustrations with playing Reflecting Pool Control mirrors, and my hatred of plus desire to quash the First Among Equals — I decided to at least try out Blightning Beatdown as the initial weapon of choice. I really love this strategy and its combination of pressure, domination over the Fae, and the namesake card Blightning itself.
For reference, here is Oscar Almgren’s original LCQ-winning version:
4 Bitterblossom
4 Ashenmoor Gouger
4 Blightning
4 Demigod of Revenge
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Goblin Deathraiders
Here are the modifications I made for this one:
-4 Ashenmoor Gouger; +4 Hell’s Thunder
-4 Goblin Deathraiders; +4 Mogg Fanatic
I like the relentless pressure that Hell’s Thunder gives you when you already have a little momentum. Neither 4.4 for three mana is particularly good against beatdown, but the Shards of Alara option is a much better racer. Ashenmoor Gouger is better against the Fae, but Hell’s Thunder is much better against Reflecting Pool Control. Those are obviously the two most popular decks, and the First Among Equals is already a cakewalk, so I wanted to err leaning the other way.
Josh played Goblin Deathraiders at States, but no Tarfire. Basically both of us — and Oscar himself — all ran some combination of these Goblin cards. I just wanted more fast action (which might be in slight conflict with this deck’s Ghitu Encampments and annoying basic Swamp).
I borrowed Oscar’s mana base in the entirety; no complaints so far, really, other than I mulligan more than I am used to and I don’t particularly love the Swamp; on balance Josh loves the Swamp and says you might need 26 lands in this strategy (I don’t know if I am that brave, though).
As for the sideboard modifications, I really wanted to play with Gutteral Response because the only way the Fae can get out of your tempo games is usually with multiple Cryptic Commands, and Gutteral Response v. Cryptic Command is about the best fight you can expect in Standard. I really don’t like Magma Spray and if you are already playing Everlasting Torment, I just don’t see the value in it; those are the side justifications.
A brief card breakdown:
Bitterblossom
Unsurprisingly, the best card in the deck. It feels so much better in this deck than in the Fae. I really like the pressure this card provides against control — which typically operates in that old school “remove the threats” way even in 2008 — allowing you to sit back and set up with burn spells. Just such a great card… which is why I and everyone else hates it so damn much. But hey, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!
Blightning
Probably my favorite card to play in the deck. You just feel so powerful resolving this on turn three. Do you realize it only does one fewer damage than a Flame Javelin? Ka-pow! My favorite play is attacking with my 2/2 Figure of Destiny on turn three with mana open, and playing the chicken game. Nope; let’s go to damage. Grumble Grumble. Here, have a Blightning. Grumble Grumble.
Demigod of Revenge
Ferrando didn’t play this card at all! Honestly I don’t play it very much on account of stalling. It is still like the best big guy in Standard, and one of the scariest possible threats against any kind of Counterspells.
Figure of Destiny
Obv.
Flame Javelin
Obv.
Hell’s Thunder
As above; we replaced Ashenmoor Gouger with this guy, 4/4 for three for 4/4 for three. Ashenmoor Gouger is mostly better against Faeries and Hell’s Thunder is mostly better against Reflecting Pool Control. Of the two most popular decks, one is a near bye. So we went with the card that was / is better against the other one, that is more likely to tap out for a Firespout / Wrath of God and give you an open to brain for four.
Incinerate
This is probably my least favorite card in the deck. I can see going to two copies for 26 lands per Josh’s suggestion, and / or swtiching to Lash Out. But no official changes as of yet.
Mogg Fanatic
Mogg Fantastic! I re-added this to the strategy (if you recall my pre-States Demigod Deck Wins videos all featured Tattermunge Maniac) based on the Brett Blackman video. He could not stop ranting about how bad Mogg Fanatic is for Faeries. In.
Tarfire
I actually have loved this card so far. Not powerful, but a Goblin for my Auntie’s Hovels… and it works nicely with this deck’s often tight mana.
As for testing format, I decided to do eight rounds in the Tournament Practice room as an initial run.
Wherein Michael J. Flores discusses the beginnings of his preparation for the upcoming Star City Games $5000 tournament in Philadelphia, PA. This article features initial deck selection, card choices, and testing with a modified version of Blightning Beatdown.
