The major differentiating element is that this deck plays Rhox War Monk over Kitchen Finks, which is sometimes worse but sometimes quite dramatically better (for example, Jamie ran all over Tsuyoshi Ikeda in the Top 4 gaining tons of life with Spiteful Visions in play).
The super tech was Bitterblossom in the sideboard. Jamie rode his awesome blossoms to beat Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa in the deciding game of his Top 8 match.
Here’s the obligatory video…
I actually had to go back and edit that just now. I think the opponent (playing what looked like Michael Jacob’s B/W Tokens deck) actually missed a kill the turn I tapped out for Oona. Yay us?
This one is kind of like a Who’s the Beatdown? redux.
It wasn’t really intended that way… The first part especially is about the Reflecting Pool Control deck Mike McGee used to make Top 8 of the Star City Games $5,000 event. But game play gave us a rare opportunity to observe the control deck switching roles.
I guess it all came down to turn one, where the opposing beatdown deck played Ghitu Encampment. Because I was on the play, this let me Remove Soul his first play and buy a ferocious amount of time.
Then it was Kitchen Finks, Kitchen Finks against an opponent with no creature set up to block.
Normally a deck like Red Deck Wins or Blightning Beatdown is a challenge for Reflecting Pool Control. However instead of playing a sit-there attack-acceptance strategy where we would win (hopefully) after a lifetime of draw-go Magic, I saw multiple Finks as an opportunity to attack.
A lot of the readership (viewership?) has been asking for full matches. So we will probably be following this one up with Game Two… and why we didn’t side in something that would seem obvious to most of you.
Until then… Don’t get played.
LOVE
MIKE
P.S. Oy! Mike’s deck list:
2 Island
3 Remove Soul
4 Wrath of God
3 Condemn
2 Cascade Bluffs
2 Flooded Grove
2 Cloudthresher
4 Cryptic Command
3 Jace Beleren
2 Mulldrifter
4 Vivid Creek
3 Vivid Grove
1 Vivid Marsh
4 Vivid Meadow
1 Negate
2 Ajani Vengeant
2 Cruel Ultimatum
4 Esper Charm
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Mystic Gate
2 Sunken Ruins
4 Reflecting Pool
Wherein Michael J. Flores further discusses the one thing that matters most in the Reflecting Pool Control mirror match and displays a long back-and-forth battle between competing Stage Three strategies (possible spoiler: the one from Shards of Alara wins).
Last week in Top Decks I described a frustration with the Reflecting Pool Control mirror matches which was instrumental in my switching to Jund Mana Ramp for the New York State Championship.
That frustration was / is that the Reflecting Pool Control mirrors generally come down to State Three, where one player resolves Cruel Ultimatum and eventually wins… regardless of what either player did or how hard the other player fought during State Two.
After identifying this, I simply decided to switch from a paradigm of mana efficiency and card advantage in Stage Two (where most “Magic: The Gathering” is played) to a strategic game revolving around beating my opponent in Stage Three, that is, saving my Cryptic Commands for his Cruel Ultimatum even if if meant falling behind his Mulldrifters (or at least not scooping up some juicy Mulldrifter targets) during the second Stage.
This, I believe is still right.
The problem is that especially in sideboarded games, the crafty Reflecting Pool Control player can just play to force his Cruel Ultimatum regardless; for example he can wait until eight mana and play Cruel Ultimatum + Gutteral Response, or set up with a Vexing Shusher. It is basically impossible to outsmart this strategy. Like even if you sit back with double Cryptic Command on eight mana you will fail if they simply went first. Grok?
I know you grok.
Even in Game One situations, he can wait until nine mana to cover with a Negate.
So I just decided to avoid this dance entirely and play a more proactive Mind Shatter + Gutteral Response strategy at the New York State Championship.
So speaking of the New York State Championship, I made a video based on our reigning Champion Stephen Carpenter’s Reflecting Pool Control deck. Here is the aforementioned Reflecting Pool Control deck:
Reflecting Pool Control
1 Adarkar Wastes
4 Vivid Creek
3 Vivid Meadow
3 Vivid Grove
4 Reflecting Pool
3 Mystic Gate
2 Flooded Grove
2 Sunken Ruins
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Cascade Bluffs
1 Yavimaya Coast
1 Oona, Queen of the Fae
4 Mulldrifter
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Cloudthresher
So interestingly, I immediately got into a Reflecting Pool Control mirror match where my opponent outdrew me on Cryptic Commands and got a slew of two-for-ones on me. Yet I was able to win it in State Three because he blew three Cryptic Commands on Cloudthreshers and Esper Charms and was out when it came down to the one card that really matters in the Reflecting Pool Control mirror: Cruel Ultimatum from Shards of Alara.
This was a really interesting back-and-forth battle. I hope you like it.
PS I won Game Two very quickly with three Kitchen Finks on offense so it never came down to Stage Three shenanigans.