Five With Flores

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

1 Cruel Ultimatum
2 Pyroclasm
4 Wrath of God
2 Condemn
2 Bant Charm
1 Makeshift Mannequin
2 Remove Soul
2 Negate
4 Esper Charm
4 Cryptic Command

sideboard:
2 Condemn
3 Runed Halo
2 Resounding Thunder
1 Remove Soul
1 Negate
3 Jund Charm
1 Cloudthresher
2 Glen Elendra Archmage

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.

LOVE
MIKE

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