Five With Flores

The future of beloved Jund Mana Ramp is uncertain due to M10 coming soon (sadly I probably won’t even get to play it in its current form in a PTQ). However some friends have asked for a sideboarding guide. Here goes!

For easy reference, here is the Jund Mana Ramp deck list I would play:

2 Makeshift Mannequin
3 Shriekmaw

4 Broodmate Dragon
4 Kitchen Finks

4 Chameleon Colossus
4 Civic Wayfinder
4 Cloudthresher
4 Rampant Growth

4 Banefire
3 Volcanic Fallout

4 Fire-Lit Thicket
8 Forest
2 Mountain
4 Savage Land
2 Swamp
4 Treetop Village

sb:
1 Shriekmaw
1 Terror
4 Anathemancer
1 Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
4 Primal Command
3 Caldera Hellion
1 Volcanic Fallout

By popular demand, the sideboarding swaps for the Jund Mana Ramp deck…

B/W Tokens
+3 Caldera Hellion
+1 Volcanic Fallout
+1 Terror
-3 Shriekmaw
-2 Banefire

B/W Tokens is a deck where Jund Mana Ramp is a slight but not overwhelming favorite. The main problem is that you can get stuck with Shriekmaw hands that are worthless against B/W Tokens. Volcanic Fallout is okay but nothing special, usually trading one for one with Spectral Procession but not doing a whole lot else.

That said, Jund tends to win the games where B/W has a “regular” draw on basis of card quality. They play something, you play something better. Most of the time you will want to kill Ajani Goldmane in any way you can as quickly as you can.

The games Jund loses are usually games where the opponent has a very disruptive Tidehollow Sculler draw or locks you out with infinite Ajani + Persist creatures.

Sideboarding we just swap Shriekmaw (very bad) for Caldera Hellion (very good). One thing you might consider doing is to NOT Devour with Caldera Hellion, allowing it to die. This can give you a future option of Makeshift Mannequin, especially on the opponent’s turn. Terror is pretty good because it can kill like a 10/10 Mutavault.

Cascade Swans
+4 Anathemancer
+1 Shriekmaw
+1 Terror
+4 Primal Command
-3 Broodmate Dragon
-4 Cloudthresher
-3 Volcanic Fallout

This is pretty impossible.

ElfBall
+3 Caldera Hellion
+1 Shriekmaw
+1 Terror
+1 Volcanic Fallout
-4 Cloudthresher
-2 Chameleon Colossus

I’ve never played agaisnt ElfBall with Jund but this is how I would side.

Elves
+3 Caldera Hellion
+1 Shriekmaw
+1 Terror
+1 Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
-3 Cloudthresher
-3 Volcanic Fallout

Elves is a much more competitive matchup than most of the other creature decks because they [also] have Chameleon Colossus. I have personally never lost a game where I drew so much as one Shriekmaw; I am willing to use Shriekmaw for defensive speed. Basically you want to stretch most of Phase II with a better board and keep damage off (remember they can kill you with Profane Command).

Sideboarding is a bit tricky; you are taking out creature kill and swapping in different creature kill. You need all your Banefires to kill Chameleon Colossus and in some cases first turn mana accelerators depending on the tenor of the game. I would be fine playing versus Elves any round but it is not a super easy matchup like G/W Tokens or Five-color Blood.

Fae
+1 Anathemancer
+1 Terror
+1 Volcanic Fallout
-3 Shriekmaw

Fae is a favorable matchup for Jund Mana Ramp… and you still lose some of the time. Terror is in for Mistbind Clique (their main threat against you).

Five-color Blood
+1 Shriekmaw
+1 Terror
+4 Anathemancer
+2 Primal Command
-4 Cloudthresher
-1 Banefire
-3 Volcanic Fallout

Five-color Blood is a blissfully easy matchup main deck and it just gets better sideboarded. Remember the original tension our group described RE: Civic Wayfinder v. Bloodbraid Elf. Five-color Blood might be able to sting you with Sygg, River Cutthroat, but if you are going to lose, it will usually involve being on the wrong end of a Putrid Leech (I never have though). You want to tax the Leech as much as possible with Kitchen Finks and Civic Wayfinder. If you can stick a Chameleon Colossus at any point (and presumably defend it from Cruel Ultimatum) you can’t really lose. I have withstood Cruel Ultimatum out of Five-color Blood several times. Just not a dangerous matchup for Jund Mana Ramp.

Fog
+4 Anathemancer
+1 Volcanic Fallout
+4 Primal Command
-3 Shriekmaw
-4 Broodmate Dragon
-2 Chameleon Colossus

Fog is a deceptively super easy matchup. In Game One you basically need to do six damage fair and square. If you can do six damage you can usually win with Volcanic Fallout, Cloudthresher, Banefire, and Makeshift Mannequin. Always evoke Cloudthresher — that sets you up for Makeshift Mannequin (you can’t really ever get creature damage in once you are at six mana). If you have to discard, discard stuff like Broodmate Dragon; you are just never going to get damage in that way.

Primal Command is good many different ways. Drawing extra and then braining their Howling Mines is fine. Shuffling your deck up in the middle of Stage Two (successfully) is basically game right then and there (they will deck).

Anathemancer is better than most of the other creatures even if they don’t have a lot of nonbasics. You really just need to sneak in a small amount of damage to dominate them, and they will be less apt to blow a Fog on a two damage packet than, say, a doubled-up Chameleon Colossus.

G/W Tokens
+3 Caldera Hellion
+1 Volcanic Fallout
+1 Shriekmaw
+1 Terror
-2 Chameleon Colossus
-4 Banefire

G/W Tokens is an extremely easy matchup. I am not sure which is easier, G/W Tokens or Five-color Blood but they are both extremely easy and you almost can’t lose. So if this is the case, play so they can’t kill you out of nowhere with an Overrun, because it’s one of the only ways they can ever win. Unlike B/W Tokens they don’t have a persistent source of creatures or any way to keep you from demolishing them turn after turn with superior spells.

Sideboarded you just max out on creature kill and kill all their guys (i.e. the only way they can win).

Jund Mana Ramp
+1 Shriekmaw
+1 Terror
+1 Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
+4 Primal Command
-4 Kitchen Finks
-3 Volcanic Fallout

This sideboarding strategy assumes they are running some terrible Fertile Ground deck with no Chameleon Colossus; if they have Chameleon Colossus you have to leave in all your Kitchen Finks, so instead pull Black removal.

Red Decks
+1 Shriekmaw
+1 Terror
+4 Primal Command
-4 Cloudthresher
-2 Volcanic Fallout

You are about a 20-25% dog game one; you are that much of a favorite sideboarded. You want to gain seven and grab Broodmate Dragons to race.

Reflecting Pool Control
+4 Anathemancer
+1 Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund
+4 Primal Command
-3 Shriekmaw
-3 Kitchen Finks
-3 Volcanic Fallout

Reflecting Pool Control is one of the easier matchups for Jund Mana Ramp. Philosophically you need to utilize your Trish cards (Civic Wayfinder et al) to keep pace with Reflecting Pool Control’s card advantage while establishing what pressure you can. You can usually jockey for a fair amount of damage with Treetop Villages. The most annoying thing is if they can hurt you with a Plumeveil; that will usually take a lot of wind out of your sails. That said, you are heavily favored main if you can get them anywhere near where you need to get them and then point Banefire. Their deck is quite slow so you can often hit multiple Banefires to win. Shriekmaw is not nearly as bad as it seems because you need to suppress Walls, plus Shriekmaw has fear; nevertheless we side him out.

Sideboarded you can really only lose if they have a large number of varied sideboard cards, viz. Pithing Needle and Runed Halo AND THEY DRAW THEM. Your offense is irresistable otherwise, with Anathemancers and Banefires as near-auto-wins. If they tap for Broodmate Dragon you kill them with Karrthus (if you are a miser like WillPop anyway), and you basically win any game you can stick a Primal Command (usually Time Walk + Anathemancer).

White Weenie
+3 Caldera Hellion
+1 Volcanic Fallout
+1 Shriekmaw
+1 Terror
-2 Broodmate Dragon
-4 Banefire

Sideboarding White Weenie is slightly different from sideboarding G/W Tokens. White Weenie is a harder matchup than G/W because Burrenton Forge-Tender can kold your sweep, plus White Weenie can get really wicked fast draws like Isamaru, Wizened Cenn, Procession, Ajani, and so on. Therefore we side out Broodmate Dragon and leave in Chameleon Colossus on basis of speed. You just want a faster body on the board.

That’s it!

LOVE
MIKE

Currently Reading: Nikolai Dante: Hell and High Water

Features two new decks (kind of), an update to G/W Mana Ramp, and my recommendation for this week’s PTQs… which includes, unsurprisingly, 100% more Chameleon Colossus!

So I built the deck from Imagine a Thornling Wearing a Behemoth Sledge… just thinking about “good cards” rather than its context in the metagame.

In playing the Elves strategies from Standard Elves and then working on the subsequent Top Decks (premiering tomorrow on the mother ship) I realized that I really wanted Chameleon Colossus in… decks. Not just the G/W Mana Ramp deck, but other, say, mana ramping decks you may have seen here or say in the Pittsburg Regionals Top 8

For the G/W Mana Ramp deck I decided to move away from the original sort of G/W Tokens-ish model, re-contextualizing my threats. Out went Twilight Shepherd in order to help make room for Chameleon Colossus. I also changed the mana acceleration package, moving away from Rampant Growth and adding Wildfield Borderpost and Knight of the White Orchid, replacing Cloudgoat Ranger.

This made for a deck that was much less capable of exploiting Ajani Goldmane… So I also reconfigured the Planeswalker situation. This is what I ended up playing:

G/W Mana Ramp v. 2.0

2 Behemoth Sledge
4 Wildfield Borderpost

4 Kitchen Finks

4 Chameleon Colossus
4 Fertile Ground
3 Garruk Wildspeaker

3 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Knight of the White Orchid
2 Martial Coup
4 Path to Exile
4 Spectral Procession

5 Forest
6 Plains
4 Treetop Village
4 Windbrisk Heights
4 Wooded Bastion

sb:
1 Behemoth Sledge
4 Cloudthresher
4 Aura of Silence
2 Martial Coup
4 Hallowed Burial

I played about five matches, but they felt much less relevant and conclusive than the previous night’s work with the first version of G/W Mana Ramp.

Five Color “Bounce”?
His mana base was very expensive (as many of them these days are)… But he didn’t do anything outstanding with that mana. Sure he played a Cryptic Command, but like sending Boomerang at my Wildfield Borderpost several consecutive turns was not beating anyone. Then I got Knight of the White Orchid card advantage and it was a mess for him, more-or-less.
1-0

Dominus Deck Wins
This was like a deck I suggested for Block Constructed PTQs last summer… U/R Mimic, Clout of the Dominus, and even the big Dominus itself!

His guys on the board were very good but I just stalled out of getting killed, got a little life back with the Behemoth Sledge, and won with Martial Coup and ‘walker card advantage. Dominus is pretty cool… I didn’t realize he could steal things like my equipment and a Planeswalker.
2-0

U/W Fog
Obviously this is a horrendous matchup but I felt like I could win either game, especially Game Two.

Game One I made a college try of it but eventually conceded when it looked like he wouldn’t make any truly catastrophic mistakes. Game Two was the annoying one. He played a Howling Mine on turn two and I missed four consecutive land drops anyway. I had to run Knight of the White Orchid for no value, stuff like that.

Anyway he drew all four Cryptic Commands in the first 34 cards which is why I lost, ultimately. I was very close to burning him out with Cloudthreshers and I was able to completely suppress his Howling Mines. On the last turn he played a Broken Ambitions that didn’t even resolve but he showed a four, trumping my Borderpost, and I got milled for my library (he had no Fog and no remaining Mine at that point).

2-1

Shorecrasher Mimic / Finest Hour Deck
We traded the first two; third game I just made a gigantic error that seemed like a cool play at the time. He had Elspeth and was launching Rhox War Monk at me. I blocked with a Spectral Procession token and sent my token to Exile to mise a card. I was going to Martial Coup with a ton of gas left — Spectral Procession, Chameleon Colossus, etc. — but then I realized that he would just kill me with Treetop Village + Elspeth!

I had no recourse but to string out blockers until I could find another Path to Exile or my own Elspeth; I found neither. He won by a mile but if I had played correctly, I would have won by a mile.

Funny… while I was making the play it seemed like a brilliant one!

2-2

Some Kind of ‘brew
It was a homebrew of some sort.

3-2

I quit at that point… This version of the G/W was not / is not ready for prime time yet.

Some people have been asking Will Price on Twitter if G/W is for real (I guess they didn’t want to ask me directly) … I think G/W can be good but neither of the decks I presented is likely to be the best deck. If I were playing this weekend, I would 100% play this:

Jund Mana Ramp v. 3.0

2 Makeshift Mannequin
3 Shriekmaw

4 Broodmate Dragon
4 Kitchen Finks

4 Chameleon Colossus
4 Civic Wayfinder
4 Cloudthresher
4 Rampant Growth

4 Banefire
3 Volcanic Fallout

4 Fire-Lit Thicket
8 Forest
2 Mountain
4 Savage Land
2 Swamp
4 Treetop Village

sb:
4 Anathemancer
1 Shriekmaw
1 Terror
3 Caldera Hellion
1 Volcanic Fallout
4 Primal Command
1 Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund

Yes, this is our Jund Mana Ramp deck, minus one Makeshift Mannequin, all the Gifts, and replacing those with one Swamp and four copies of Chameleon Colossus.

Will is also down with this swap.

He says that the great thing about this is that all the people who didn’t like Gift of the Gargantuan will now feel vindicated, even though this isn’t a change based on what they have been saying at all. We just analyzed the metagame and saw a gap for a very good threat.

B/W Tokens - Already a good matchup… Chameleon Colossus makes it even better.

G/W Tokens - Awesome matchup… The change yeilds very little difference (but arguably makes things worse as it reduces our ability to set up devastating Shriekmaw plays); should still be a great matchup.

Cascade Swans - Our worst matchup… that no one plays. Change is arguably better because speed matters here.

Faeries - Good matchup where Chameleon Colossus is just our best threat

Elves - Good matchup where Chameleon Colossus is a nearly unbeatable threat for them.

So for most of the matchups in the format, Chameleon Colossus is a net positive. Ergo, welcome back, buddy!

LOVE
MIKE

P.S. I started testing yet another new deck and it has actually been really awesome! I will blog about it tomorrow-ish See ya then and all that.

Currently Reading: Gotham Central Vol. 2: Half a Life (Batman)

By the way Rucka is one of my favorite writers (Checkmate, Queen & Country and all that) and Lark is one of everyone’s favorite artists… I think I read somewhere that they both consider Half a Life the best story they’ve ever worked on. Just sayin’.

Just going to apologize up front.

I had two sheets of folded up paper in my man-purse. I threw one of them away. I pulled the other out just now to write this (terrible) tournament report and realized I had thrown away my notes from the actual tournament I played in and kept one probably from like a PTQ last summer or perhaps an old grocery list.

So basically I am going to get ~80% of the details wrong, not remember anyone’s name, etc.

Deck:

You know the deck.

Car ride:

I rode in with Josh, Chris Lachmann, and two of Josh’s good friends, Eugene and Sharbel. The last time we had more-or-less this configuration was a Philadelphia PTQ (the one I played Slide), which was minus Sharbel. Chris won, Josh and I finished in the packs (aka first loser). Josh played G/W Tokens, Eugene played U/R Swans, Sharbel played Blightning Beatdown, and I played my Jund Mana Ramp deck obviously.

Last-minute cards:

I tried to buy Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund on-site and it was like $8. No way. So I am running around trying to mise Karrthus to no avail. I go back to the dealers. Five dealers. No Karrthus. Karrthus is sold out! Part of me grins; the other part is like “Man, I hope I don’t hit any mirrors.”

I am writing down my deck list with two Terrors and Phil Napoli (aka PNaps) flips a Karrthus at me. “I thought you didn’t have any,” I say. Phil grins and says he didn’t have any in his bag. His car was another story. Due to the generosity of people like Good Man Dan (also playing same 75 due to following the two blogs and listening to the ‘casts) Will and I had Tyrants to spare.

Most of my deck including signed fancy basic lands was courtesy of Josh Ravitz; Luis Neiman (aka Luis not Vargas, Stan Bush heartbreaker) generously provided my final Kitchen Finks and a set of deadly Anathemancers.

Blah blah blah.

Tournament.

Round One - Blightning Beatdown

Again, I don’t have my notes and have therefore successfully lost most everyone’s name.

As I’ve said previously Blightning/RDW and Fae were the two decks I was most frightened of. The reason is that I think I have a good matchup against Blightning/RDW but my deck can stumble inside of turn four, and the Red Deck might put me in a no-win position before I cast anything meaningful. Fae I have a great matchup there, but Fae is Fae and I have lost to enough Mistbind Cliques over the past two years to have any moronic ideas about Fae’s demise (Josh actually theorizes it might be the best deck again as soon as next week in the PTQs).

Anyway this Blightning matchup was super easy. No real details. He didn’t kill me. I won the flip. I ran out my accelerators and speed-bumps and dropped at least two Broodmate Dragons per game. He tied up his cards going in the hole trying to contain the Dragons, but you know how that goes.

1-0/2-0

Round Two - U/R Swans

I actually got paired against Eugene super early. Eugene has a great fear of Treetop Villages, which ended up being warranted in this matchup. I did like nine with Villages in game one. Eugene hit all his land drops but they were like Ghitu Encampment and multiple Mutavaults, so even though he hit like seven in a row he couldn’t play his UUU cards such as Plumeveil and Cryptic Command, ergo, couldn’t defend himself until it was too late.

Game Two I drew multiple Anathemancers; there is a reason I have that card as #1 overall from Alara Reborn. It’s just the best threat that has been printed in some years. It’s a Lightning Bolt when it comes down and hits for another four like every time, so seven damage for three mana, and then if the opponent doesn’t have a specific answer to it such as Runed Halo or Pithing Needle, he is just going to lose 100% of the time to the blowback.

2-0/4-0

Round Three: U/W Reveillark

He had beaten Good Man Dan the previous round, so maybe he had a good matchup v. our deck.

Game One I got some damage in with Treetop Villages and Civic Wayfinders. He got a Sower of Temptation and started to attack me for four while I just kept picking up lands. Then he super sized a Figure of Destiny, which was pretty awful. I managed to play a Broodmate Dragon but declined to block when he attacked me just with his super duper Figure of Destiny (had he attacked with both 2/2s, he could have also activated Windbrisk Heights). I took. I think I would have been dead if he had attacked more vigorously for the two previous turns; however he later said he feared of Volcanic Fallout. Turns out I got just enough time to pick up Banefire. Ha ha!

Game Two I got land and spells, including big super spells, but he successfully played Gather Specimens on both my Cloudthresher and a Broodmate Dragon. I had a Banefire but was forced to point it at my Cloudthresher instead of playing for a win because I had no life gain in my deck (if I had so much as a Kitchen Finks I would have played like Craig Jones); I looked at the game over the next three turns and there was just no way I could stay alive long enough to win by topdecking a second Banefire unless I could buffer my life total by at least two points. Anyway, I figured I could try to get in with the Broodmate… but another Gather Specimens. Guess I got what I deserved.

Game Three I kept smashing his board with Caldera Hellion and once he had UUU3 up I didn’t play a creature until I had Shriekmaw backup (it was a Cloudthresher at end of turn to set him up, obviously, which was worth a Fireball and more. This deck was pretty easy to beat once I knew not to get blown out by Gather Specimens.

3-0/6-1

Round Four - RDW

I played against friend and Broodmate Dragon + Makeshift Mannequin godfather, Spencer Reiss. He was going to play the Jund but was allocated RDW in the deck distribution shuffle. I feel like this matchup is about a 70/30 in favor of Spencer’s version in Game One, provided he wins the flip (which he did). Spencer generously offered the lay down if I was planning to go to Nationals anyway, but I assured him I was only going to go if I had a reason to, so he took up the opportunity to blow out the Old Man.

Game One I didn’t actually play a spell. I shipped into a low action hand that was at least going to make its drops and gambled on a sub-optimal draw on Spencer’s part to try to mise into dropping the Broodmate Dragon, knowing that I was probably going to lose whether I shipped or not; at least this hand had a plan. What actually ended up happening is that I activated my Treetop Village to block and Spencer Incinerated it; then I packed.

Between games I declared that Spencers’ first land was going to be Ghitu Encampment, I was going to hit my mana gathering spells, Primal Command his Ghitu Encampment and gain seven life on turn four or five, then he was going to concede to my Broodmate Dragon on turn six.

It turns out this is exactly what happened!

Game Three I had a slow draw to his pretty solid one, but Spencer was stuck on three for about two turns. His fourth land, coming maybe turn five or six, was a Ghitu Encampment; I put it on top of his deck three turns in a row, gaining seven while hitting my land drops. Then I played the first of three Broodmate Dragons. I couldn’t start dropping Dragons earlier because I was low enough that if Spencer had two burn spells he might kill me on the spot, but if I made the repeated Primal Command play, I could keep his mana tapped (ensuring he couldn’t fizzle my next Command), guarantee he couldn’t play Demigod of Revenge even if he topdecked another land, and net 1-2 life per cycle while hitting enough land drops to play Broodmate Dragon with enough mana to activate Treetop Village as a chump blocker if need be. It ended up working out.

4-0/8-2

Round Five - Reflecting Pool Control

The entire tournament I probably made lots of errors that are not going to make it into this terrible tournament report, but really the only one that mattered was in Game One of this match. I had a hot hand with three Banefires, and I started pointing them as soon as I had enough mana for them to go Hellbent. My opponent Ben made me pick up one of my two Treetop Villages after my second Banefire, and I picked up a Savage Land the next turn, which also comes into play tapped. In kind of like one smooth, lazy, motion I dropped the Savage Land instead of the Treetop Village and fired again. Ben asked how many cards I had in hand; he was now Ultimatum-online. The five life he gained that turn kept him out of dead that turn whereas I had to drop Broodmate Dragon, Cloudthresher, and Treetop Village, keeping the Banefire. I shot him to two. He hid behind a Plumeveil for about three turns until he had a Broodmate Dragon of his own to kill me. Had I played the right land, he was just dead; instead he sat on two until he drew a Wall of Reverence to go up four. I died with Fallout as my top card.

Game Two I got him with Anathemancer, Banefire, and Primal Command. The sideboarded matchup is like 75% in favor of Jund Mana Ramp, maybe more. They have like two cards that are more powerful than any of seventeen cards in your deck, and they basically pack if you ever resolve a Primal Command (in fact I was dead on board when I picked up a Primal Command, which I used to go not dead on board thanks to +7, and I got an Anathemancer, which stuck). Of course if it hadn’t stuck, I would have still won on the blowback.

Game Three Ben got me in the complete lockdown - Three Runed Halos and two Pithing Needles (one on Treetop Village, one on Anathemancer). This one could have gone either way for a long time, even after his Cruel Ultimaturm, and I had lots of pulls to win on the spot even with all those permanents down. As late as the last turn I could have drawn a Primal Command (he didn’t have a counter) and won the same way I won Game Two (except putting Runed Halo on top instead of gaining seven). However I blabbed about this and he figured out to just put another Runed Halo down on Anathemancer Live and learn.

I also made a “judgment call” in Game Three; I don’t know how much it mattered. Ben tapped down for something (a Mulldrifter maybe?) and I had an Anathemancer in hand. At this point I had a Makeshift Mannequin and he had his Needles already. I could have played the second Anathemancer and hit him for four or five, plus an attack. Instead I played Broodmate Dragon, which merely drew Wrath of God. He had enough mana the subsequent turn to play both Wrath of God and Runed Halo on Anathemancer so I never got that damage in. As the Dragons never hit him, either, I have been wondering about the relative efficacies of both plays. Like I said, I didn’t feel like this was a clear error, and Ben won by enough margin that I can’t point at it like the Game One Treetop flub as a clear match loser.

Ultimately, the thing I am bitter about is not the Treetop Village screwup (okay, lies), but that the crowd really was looking for me to topdeck Karrthus when he tapped out for Broodmate Dragon, and I felt like Ben’s win really robbed the crowd of what they were looking for — nay — deserved. Ben won the next round and made Top 8, though I don’t know if he won or not.

4-1/9-4

Round Six: Fae

I played against Morgan, who I had successfully not bought Karrthus from for $8.

I felt like I made maybe 1.5 relevant errors in my previous match, but in the games against Morgan, I feel like I made about 20 errors in each of the two games I lost (sorry for ruining the suspense). You tell me.

Game One Morgan played Bitterblossom on the play, turn two. My first play was Treetop Village, and my second Fire-Lit Thicket. I looked at the Volcanic Fallout in my hand and said to myself “I need RR for this,” and — not thinking — Thawed up a Mountain! No! Morgan then showed me Scion of Oona on turn three to play his land untapped, and passed. So I have a Volcanic Fallout but I assume he is going to autopilot the Scion down at the end of my turn, so I do nothing when I should have played Gift of the Gargantuan. Not playing Gift of the Gargantuan this turn probably cost me the game. Why?

Morgan didn’t in fact play the Scion so I wasted my turn. He played it the next turn, and at this point I had a fourth land and ran out Cloudthresher for four as I had a bonus Thresher, Mannequin, and Fallout all in hand, as well as a dead Shriekmaw (Shriekmaw isn’t dead-dead, just not very good against Fae). So on my next turn I play the Gift I hadn’t played. Probably fearing another Cloudthresher, Morgan throws a Broken Ambitions at it. He wins the Clash.

Flipping over my only Swamp, which was the second card.

Okay. I don’t have a Swamp anymore. Meaning I can’t play Shriekmaw, or Mannequin, or the next Shriekmaw I pulled, or any of the Broodmate Dragons I might draw, unless I get my hands on a Savage Land.

Blah blah blah. Morgan’s draw isn’t even that good. He eventually kills me with a Mistbind Clique. This is horrendous because my highly card-advantageous deck was able to bleed him for his hand, and I actually lost with both Cloudthresher and Volcanic Fallout in hand! How badly did I have to play to be able to say that? But the real pisser is that I could have avoided all the drama by getting Swamp on turn two, which would have given me three shots to Mistbind Clique before I lost.

Game Two Morgan is manascrewed and I get him with a pair of Finks even though I am also manascrewed (degrees, etc.). Game Three I literally said “Just don’t topdeck a Cryptic Command,” when I passed with a double Dragons, Kitchen Finks, and Treetop Village all on board, Fallout and Banefire in hand… He chuckled and showed me the Cryptic Command on top; his alpha strike put me to -2.

And that’s game boys!

4-2/10-6

Round Seven: Bant

Okay, playing for pride (and packs) at this point

Game One I shipped to five, and got a playable if not-very-good hand of acceleration and a Broodmate Dragon. He went Rhox War Monk, Rafiq, Noble Hierarch, and that new-fangled Armadillo Cloak-Hammer thing. I gloriously double-blocked the War Monk, which of course just resulted in two dead Dragons. I conceded with him on 36 life and me on no cards.

Game Two he played Gaddock Teeg and Meddling Mage on Volcanic Eruption, which was not really good for my hand or plan. I just kept playing two-for-ones (Civic Wayfinder, Civic Wayfinder, Gift of the Gargantuan) and putting him in a spot where he couldn’t really attack me. Then I got to the expensive guys and won with a series of Alpha Strikes from the high ground.

Game Three it was his turn to go to five. He was screwed on Ancient Ziggaraut, which prevented him from being able to dig out of my massive advantage on the board with a Wrath of God. Basically he played a guy, I played a two-for-one, he played a bigger guy, I killed it with a two-for-one. I think I drew all three Hellions this game.

5-2/12-7

Round Eight Jund Cascade Ramp

Game One he was “winning” the whole game with his little Cascades with Bloodbraid Elf and getting damage in; I ramped a bit and played two Dragons; he played two Dragons. He attacked with both his Dragons and two Treetop Villages, tapping him to one. I dealt myself two during combat and blocked to one life thanks to Cloudthresher. The counterattack was for 15; Banefire took care of the remainder.

Game Two I thought it was kind of interesting we were playing a faux mirror and his main deck Anathemancer did a total of one damage in Game One whereas any Anathemancer I would draw would dop like super infinity. Anyway he played a Spellbreaker Behemoth, which I was pretty sure was going to kill me. I had to cut Shriekmaws because I didn’t think they would be very good, whereas I had to keep Kitchen Finks in my deck because he played Chameleon Colossus.

Lachmann later asked me how bad the hand was that I kept in order for me to have lost to a Spellbreaker Behemoth, but I kept a very mana-y hand with a Broodmate Dragon. Our mirror model is based on the game being decided in Game Three by complete domination of metrics (cards, board, bombs, possibly just Karrthus), so we usually dump all the Finks and just play the two-for-ones and things that cost six or more. So I had no answer to his simple Blastoderm. I ran out a couple of Dragons, but he just kept playing Bituminous Blast + evoke Shriekmaw or Bituminous Blast + Maelstrom Pulse. So Game Three.

Game Three… I don’t actually recall how I won this one. I think I got some Shriekmaw two-for-one on his Gruul-colored threats, I Banefired his Colossus, and had enough six mana threats to out-last his Bituminous Blasts &c. Unlike Game One this one wasn’t particularly close… I just don’t remember the details other than burning out a Chameleon. Sorry, long day

6-2/14-8

Honestly I feel like this version of Jund Mana Ramp might just be the best deck in Standard. I can track my first loss to a very clear error, and my second loss was just circus magic. “Circus” as in it was like I was driving a clown car I made so many mistakes. Story of my life, right? Just gotta play a little bit better and I’m Top 8; oh well, I didn’t. You have literally no blowout matchups, and you can beat any deck; in fact you are a clear favorite against numerous top tier decks such as Reflecting Pool Control and G/W Tokens, and basically any “creature” deck that is smaller than you are.

I know some readers don’t like Gift of the Gargantuan, but I feel like you need it to make plays relatively early and to lace the deck together; there are only 23 lands and you are very mana hungry.

One thing that I have been kind of bothered by is that if I had played Maelstrom Pulse instead of Gift of the Gargantuan I probably would have just gone 5-0 to start, eliminating any and all Runed Halos, which would have allowed me to easily win Game Three against Reflecting Pool Control. Also if the “Fog” deck picks up in popularity, Maelstrom Pulse is a great tool there, especially any turn they tap out. Given the nature of the threats in this deck (seven uncounterable burn spells, access to four Primal Commands in sideboarded games), I think that adding Maelstrom Pulse can put that matchup on borderline unwinnable for Fog. Just a thought.

Tee Shirt:

I have played three tournaments with the You’ve Got the Touch tee shirt now. I didn’t win any of them, but I haven’t so much as made an individual PTQ-level Top 8 in two years. However, I have finished in the prizes in every single tournament, despite playing Green each time, whereas before starting to wear this shirt, I had not finished in the packs since Regionals 2007. So… touch or no?

LOVE
MIKE