Five With Flores

So this is the follow up to Thursday’s post about what to do on turn three. If you haven’t read it, check this out first: You Make the Play

I was actually quite proud of myself that I broke patterned thought and “slowed down” with the “turn two” play of Rampant Growth on turn three… I went for Swamp like most of you said you would.

But what is our strategy here? By what tactics will we accomplish our goals?

In this matchup we want to minimize creature damage. We want to keep him contained so that even if he rips the combo, it won’t immediately kill us. Our resources are limited… but so are his, so the short term objective is to get a two-for-one on your Firespout or Jund Charm. How do we ensure a two-for-one? How do we preserve card advantage?

I feel there is no point in playing the Civic Wayfinder at all at this stage.

However, there might be an even better play hiding in our options… an no one suggested it.

Josh Ravitz says to say “Go.”

That’s right, do nothing. But sulk.

Play possum. I’m stuck on two Forests. Do your worst. Give him a bad beat story for later.

The plan is to play Firespout next turn regardless. We are likely to pull off the two-for-one. But what if we play dead? Will he over-commit? We have the maximum chance of a three-for-one if we sit. Think about it.

What do we get from a Rampant Growth? Very little. In this game we are not on a harsh time limit. We are not going to play Chameleon Colossus next turn (probably). We are going to play Firespout. We can play Firespout with the resources at hand, in hand, and already on the board. The difference is that we can put the ball in the opponent’s court for additional card advantage extraction.

Why commit Civic Wayfinder if we are just going to blow everyone up?

Don’t we want more opposition coming to the party?

I think Josh makes a very compelling suggestion, and not obvious at all.

I don’t know if there is a right answer, but if I had the same situation again, I think I would pretend to be manascrewed. This one is not a resource race. If you kill their guys, you are likely to succeed.

I’m sure most of you find that “solution” thought-provoking, at least.

Did you like this type of problem?

Thanks for reading,

LOVE
MIKE

This is an interesting play that I was presented with at the 2008 New York State Championship.

My opponent was a very good player playing R/W Kithkin Backlash (and I knew he was playing Kithkin Backlash).

I was on the play… This was my opening hand:

Firespout
Jund Charm
Chameleon Colossus
Civic Wayfinder
Fire-Lit Thicket
Forest
Forest

A fine hand against a non-Red-hating beatdown deck, I think you will agree; if not the speediest (but you don’t necessarily have to be the speediest to win this matchup in Game One).

I made Forest, Forest my first two turns; he played Knight of Meadowgrain on the draw.

So on turn three, I had an interesting pull: Rampant Growth (turn two pluck being Kitchen Finks).

My “scripted” play from my opening hand was obviously to start getting ahead with Civic Wayfinder.

So here are the questions:

What play would you make?
What play do you think I made?
What is the right play?

Follow-up tomorrow. See you then!

LOVE
MIKE

Just a quick update about my performance at the 2008 New York State Championships.

I’ll probably write something more substantial about this tournament — and outlining my deck of choice, maybe with a video — in the near future, but I figured I’d update you as to how I did.

I went 6-2, tied for the eighth position, but based on a second round loss I finished middle-of-the-pack in the Top 16.

The deck was great and performed as i thought it would. The only change I made from the previous post was to swap two Lash Outs in the sideboard for two Shriekmaws (which I foolishly bought on-site for $3 each). The reason was that I didn’t want to be too far behind against multiple Burrenton Forge-Tenders. In the sparse testing I did against the Weenie White decks, I crush unless they have multiple Burrenton Forge-Tenders; if they have multiple Burrenton Forge-Tenders, it’s really a question of how many of those little buggers “multiple” is… I don’t think I can easily beat three if they have anything else, and even two Forge-Tenders is rough.

R1 - Won 2-1 v. Faeries
R2 - Lost 0-2 v. the Red Deck
R3 - Won 2-0 v. Reflecting Pool Control
R4 - Won 2-1 v. Reflecting Pool Control
R5 - Won 2-1 v. Kithkin Backlash
R6 - Won 2-0 v. the Red Deck
R7 - Lost 0-2 v. Faeries
R8 - Won 2-1 v. Faeries

Versus the Red Deck in Round Two in Game One all my mana came into play tapped and I was just a turn off; it’s pretty frustrating to be on the play with a Rampant Growth and two Kitchen Finks and getting hit with a Stigma Lasher!

Game Two I had Lash Out to allegedly fix my draw and hit a Rampant Growth but sat on four mana for turn after turn with multiple Primal Commands and Broodmate Dragons in my hand, withstanding four (!!!) hits from a Demigod of Revenge and never playing anything.

I don’t have any real excuse for Round Seven; sometimes you just lose. Game One he got the monkey Faeries draw and successfully played his cards in the order they came. Game Two I had a Gutteral Response to cover a Cloudthresher but his answer was a Spellstutter Sprite. If the Cloudthresher resolves it’s a blowout for me; it didn’t so I went from twenty-ish to zero in two attacks thanks to multiple Scions. He showed a great deal of strategic ddiscipline in not blocking my Chameleon Colossus with his second Scion of Oona — I think most players would have crumbled and blocked — and that non-block was highly instrumental in his winning. Just the right play under pressure; the sad part was I was playing for Top 8 and he wasn’t! Random pair-down; he got me, then he didn’t even make it.

That said, I think the Jund Mana Ramp deck is superb against Faeries, though. Two other wins on the day, all the tools… You win most of the time, but not all the time of course. And on the draw, sometimes you just get Clique-Clique locked and never make any meaningful plays.

All in all, not my best New York State Championships. The sad thing is, the deck is probably done. In case you have occasion to play a deck that is generally very good against the Red Deck, very good against Faeries, and smashes Five-color Control (this is the ultimate reason I played the Ramp deck), I suggest Jund Mana Ramp (I make no claims about Reveillark or the mirror, friends).

Final Deck List:

1 Broodmate Dragon
4 Firespout
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Jund Charm

4 Civic Wayfinder
4 Chameleon Colossus
4 Cloudthresher
2 Farhaven Elf
4 Gift of the Gargantuan
2 Primal Command
4 Rampant Growth

4 Fire-lit Thicket
8 Forest
1 Mountain
4 Savage Lands
2 Swamp
4 Treetop Village

sb:
3 Mind Shatter
2 Shriekmaw
2 Broodmate Dragon
4 Gutteral Response
2 Primal Command
2 Lash Out

Some additional links care of BDM at Top8Magic.com:

NY States: Broodmate Dragon Misses By That Much
NY States: Playing for Shards of Alara Boosters

LOVE
MIKE