Mono Red in Standard (Feb 2015)

Some nice things being said about my version of Mono Red:

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/30314_CEDTalks-Patrick-Sullivan.html

http://www.starcitygames.com/events/coverage/deck_tech_monored_aggro_with_j.html

Cheers,
Simon

Magic Online Infect in Modern Update

While I decided to play legacy instead of modern at SCG Houston (although I ultimately couldn't play legacy due to playing in the Standard Open), I did ship my list to a friend:

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=80084
Since I last wrote about infect it has come back onto everyone's mind due to CFB Pantheon playing it at the last Pro Tour (Washington DC).

The nice thing about a big team playing the deck is that it has led to several high quality articles being written about the deck.

The best of these:

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/30279_The-Pro-Tour-Infect-Primer.html

http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/the-pantheon-deck-tech-infect/

http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/keep-or-mull-infect/

http://www.patsgames.com/ *(Article by Orry Swift)

I don't agree with everything in the above articles but they are mostly on the right track.

Despite seeing these new lists, I am pretty sure my 60 is pretty close to correct but would be willing to accept my sideboard could still use some more work. The big variation between my list is that I am not playing the full 4 Become Immense. As good as the cards is, I just don't think you can afford to be playing x4 Become Immense. This is something I could see myself being wrong about in time but I think a middle ground is stronger than going to the full 4 as advocated by CFB or playing 0 as advocated by Orry.  

Creature [13]

1 Ichorclaw Myr

4 Blighted Agent

4 Glistener Elf

4 Noble Hierarch

Instant [19]

2 Become Immense

2 Apostle's Blessing

3/4 Groundswell

4 Might of Old Krosa

4 Mutagenic Growth

4 Vines of Vastwood
0/1 Twisted Image

Sorcery [6]

4 Gitaxian Probe

2 Distortion Strike
 

Enchantment [2]

2 Wild Defiance

Land [19]

2 Forest

2 Pendelhaven

2 Breeding Pool

4 Inkmoth Nexus

4 Windswept Heath

4 Wooded Foothills

1 Misty Rainforest

Sideboard [15]

1 Carrion Call

1 Sylvan Scrying

1 Wild Defiance

1 Dryad Arbor

2 Dispel

3/4 Nature's Claim

2/3 Spellskite

1 Twisted Image
2 Spell Pierce

The only card that I am on the fence about from the main deck is Twisted Image vs. Groundswell. I have been playing the main deck Twisted Image lately to save on a sideboard slot as well as being pre-boarded against Spellskite. You also sometimes win because you get to Twisted Image your Pendelhavened creature or trigger Wild Defiance. :)

Sideboarding Guide (in progress)

Abzan

Splinter Twin

Amulet Bloom

Affinity

Mirror

The biggest thing to remember is that you can easily sideboard out Gitaxian Probe and/or Mutagenic Growth depending on the match.

-Cheers-

 

SCG Houston February 14/15 2014 - Standard Open 26th Place Report Ty Thomason

Play the deck with the best mana.

That has been rule #1 in my playgroup, ever since the first time I heard it. I think it was Zvi Mowshovitz who described it in the creation of the Mythic deck. You can usually tell a Zvi creation by the mana base. Sometimes the best mana is shared by many decks, so you need other tools. In a small format like standard, that is rarely the case. Spell lands are also a factor in evaluating the best mana. Kessig Wolf Run, Gavony Township, Celestial Colonnade are huge bonuses.

The best mana in standard is Caryatid and Courser. There are only two relevant spell lands in standard: Radiant Fountain and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. I value proactive over reactive, so I’ve been playing Nykthos. After PT KTK, Robert Berni was excited about a green devotion deck that killed with Villainous Wealth. Will Lowry was a fan of the RG Monsters deck with 4 Crater’s Claws. We combined the Constellation engine of the first with the consistency and flexibility of the second to create Dr. Claw, our GP San Antonio deck:

 

Dr Claw

4 Elvish Mystic

4 Sylvan Caryatid

4 Voyaging Satyr

4 Courser of Kruphix

4 Polukranos, Eater of Worlds

4 Eidolon of Blossoms

2 Arbor Colossus

2 Hornet Queen

2 Genesis Hydra

3 Boon Satyr

4 Crater’s Claws

4 Wooded Foothills

4 Temple of Abandon

4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

10 Forest

1 Mountain

Sideboard

2 Genesis Hydra

3 Nissa Worldwaker

2 Xenagos, God of Revels

2 Reclamation Sage

4 Nylea’s Disciple

2 Setessan Tactics

This put six players into day 2, and I had the highest finish at 25^th place after conceding to David Ochoa in the last round when we were playing for 9^th. The deck was a machine in game 1, almost always killing with lethal Crater’s Claws with X routinely greater than 20. There were some issues in post board games against sweepers and Elspeth. The rest of standard season I played GB Whip, but most of our crew stayed with the Claw.

With Fate Reforged added to standard, I went back to green devotion. Whisperwood Elemental helped vs sweepers, and Ugin helped vs Heroic, a previously bad matchup. At the same time, the deck I liked previously, GP Whip, seemed to be negated by the new speed of the format and bigger over the top threats. Recurring Hornet Queens isn’t very effective against decks with Ugin. Will Lowry won a PTQ with a list similar to this. Dr Claw was becoming more and more known and popular, especially in the Texas area.

Trying to come up with ways to beat the mirror lead me to Garruk, Apex Predator as an answer for Ugin. Doomwake Giant plus more enchantments could keep them off devotion to avoid lethal Claws. Black spells also could help against control decks, as well as giving Merciless Executioner for Heroic matchups. I looked at the GB Ramp decks and decided to cut Hornet Queens for Genesis Hydras and a more explosive Nykthos game. The list I registered for SCG Houston incorporated these ideas:

GB Ramp
 

4 Elvish Mystic

2 Genesis Hydra

4 Sylvan Caryatid

3 Voyaging Satyr

4 Courser of Kruphix

3 Doomwake Giant

4 Eidolon of Blossoms

4 Polukranos, World Eater

3 Frontier Siege

2 Garruk, Apex Predator

3 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

6 Forest

1 Swamp

4 Llanowar Wastes

4 Temple of Malady

4 Windswept Heath

4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Sideboard

2 Arbor Colossus

2 Genesis Hydra

2 Merciless Executioner

4 Nylea's Disciple

2 Reclamation Sage

3 Nissa, Worldwaker

I wasn’t too concerned with control matchups since in my testing Genesis Hydra was usually enough by itself to get around counters and the threats were diverse enough to beat any specific removal. Thoughtsieze and Read the Bones were in the sideboard at various points, but got cut to make room for higher impact cards. If I wanted something for control going forward, I would play Whisperwood Elemental, but I’m not sure you need it. The third Nissa may have been excessive with fewer forests overall.

I started the tournament off fairly well. The small field meant every player with three losses would make day 2, and I finished day 1 at 7-2 so I was ahead of the curve. I played against RW Aggro twice and went 1-1, Abzan Aggro once 1-0, Abzan Control five times 4-1, and RG Beats 1-0. The deck did what I hoped it would do, but my losses came to mana issues. I kept four land, caryatid, courser, siege on the play against RW game one, but drew nothing but lands the entire game and died. Losing the first game on the play was frustrating, a wasted opportunity. Sure enough I won game two but lost game 3 on the back foot the whole time because of course he has Seeker of the Way. The loss to Abzan Control I kept a mana-light hand on six cards and couldn’t deploy a large enough threat to interact with his Tasigur. After this matchup, I decided to stop bringing in all the Nissas and consider Merciless Executioner for the Abzan Control matchup (I was already bringing it it versus Abzan Aggro).

Day two started out with wins against Mono Red twice, but then I lost three matches in a row. Twice I lost to Abzan Aggro, one match where I flooded in two games, the other where I mulliganed to five twice. The other loss was to Jeskai Tokens, which might be a bad matchup. The final round I defeated Abzan Control to finish at 10-5. My tiebreakers were good enough to get me $200.

I can’t say the tournament wasn’t a success, but I was hoping for a better finish, especially at the start of day 2. I was really happy with the way the deck performed and wouldn’t be upset about playing it again. I was very excited to see Robert Berni win the tournament with the other deck I had helped work on. I’m feeling better and better each new set about my deck building skills.

The tournament was a lot of fun and I really hope Star City Games comes back to Houston soon.

 

Thanks,

Ty

 

 

SCG Houston February 14/15 2014 - Standard Open 10th Place Report Simon Christie

I posted here previously with the decks I was going to play this past weekend.

Friday

Friday night was spent contacting people to make sure that I had all the cards I would need for Standard (thank you Rudy and Mark!). Not playing standard consistently means that I have some gaps in my collection when it comes to standard only format staples. Thankfully a couple of friends came through for me and on Saturday morning I made the final tweaks to my decklist. I did make a couple of changes from the list that I had said I was going to play. That was mostly based on the fact that I didn't know how good magma jet was going to be, so I trimmed down to just 2 Magma Jets and played 2 Hordeling Outburst instead. I debated using 2 more Goblin Rabblemaster's but I wanted to make my Monastery Swiftspears and Foundry Street Denizen's more powerful.

SCGs website stated that the event would start at 10:00am...but the pre-registration email said the event would start at 10:00am EST. So yeah, that was annoying. I decided to aim to be there as close to 9:00am as possible, so that I would be good either way. I generally take the baby shift from 9:00pm-1:00am then pass the baby off to my wife. So I got into bed around 1:00am.

Saturday

3:00am - my slumber is disturbed by the noises of an unhappy baby. I get up and manage to get him to calm down and go to sleep after a while. He floats in and out of sleep for the next couple of hours (as do I). I get up at around 5/6:00am and make a cup of tea and start to wake up. I take the dog out for a walk and walk over to the bakery near my house to grab some breakfast. After some food and helping out with the little one as much as possible I head to the site.

Round 1 - Andrade, Abel (RW Tokens)

Game 1 - My opponent plays a couple of Hordeling Outbursts, then a Stormbreath Dragon and I lose before I can draw 1 more burn spell with my opponent at 2 life (I had two draw steps to draw a burn spell).  

Game 2 - I get my opponent to 1 life and then lose...

The day is looking ominous.

0-1
Round Loss.

Round 2 - Kibodeaux, Clark (Abzan Aggro)

Game 1 - I lead with 1 drop into removal spell and just tempo out his little guys that die to almost all of my removal. Abzan Aggro is the deck that I want to play all day. The deck durdles around with its mana too much and searing blood really does a number on it.

Game 2 - He keeps jamming 3/3's and I draw the wrong removal suite in order to deal with them. I still get him down to 8 but he has too much control over the board.

Game 3 - My opponent tries to race and almost gets there since he has double Siege Rhino but I manage to burn him out.

1-1
Round Win.

Round 3 - Brady, Hal (Abzan Aggro)

Game 1 - I play dudes and spells and end the game at 17 life.

Game 2 - He plays an early 3/3 and then a sweeper. Then he plays a Siege Rhino. I get him down to 7 but he then plays another Siege Rhino and is able to race me back. A big draw to me this weekend was playing Prophetic Flamespeaker since it survives through Drown in Sorrow and helps rebuild your board post sweeper. It was in these sorts of matches that I want exactly that effect.

Game 3 - My opponent mulligans and I just smash with little red guys.

2-1

Round Win.

Round 4 - Keulemans, Tony (Red Tokens Splash Black?)

Game 1 - We trade back and forth while he plays Hordeling Outburst. I have Goblin Rabblemaster though and can create my own goblins while whittling his down.

Game 2 - I try a new sideboard plan of taking out 15 cards from my main deck and bringing in 15 cards from the sideboard...I take out - Foundry Street Denizen, Mardu Scout, Frenzied Goblin, Firedrinker Satyr and Magma Jet. I manage to save my Goblin Rabblemaster in this game from an Arc Lightning with a Titan's Strength. That gives me enough tempo to take control. Oh yeah and my opponent sighs when he sees prophetic flamespeaker.

3-1

Round Win.

Round 5 - Skelton, Kyle (Abzan Mid-Range)

Game 1 - I kill some of his dudes and play my own guys to race. Searing Blood is MVP again. Trading a random guy + a Searing Blood for one of his blockers is the same thing as Lightning Strike to the face. Sure your opponent got a 2 for 1 but by that time you should have already got 2+ points of damage in from that creature so you shouldn't mind too much. Card advantage doesn't matter when your opponent is dead.

Game 2 - He manages to sweep the board and wrestle control with a Courser gaining a bunch of life.

Game 3 - I go full on aggro and my opponent has a Courser that cannot block. All weekend I was very impressed with Frenzied Goblin and Goblin Heelcutter. When I would curve into turn 3/4 Heelcutter it was almost impossible to lose. The dash mechanic is also particularly good against sweepers since it stops you getting X for 1'd every time.

4-1

Round Win.

Round 6 - Miles, Adam (RW Tokens)

Game 1 - I lose game one when we are racing since he drew double Stormbreath Dragon.

Game 2 - I side into my bad mono red control deck and patiently kill his stuff and eventually land a Prophetic Flamespeaker which gets chained to the Rocks. When it gets unchained from the rocks I go crazy.

Game 3 - We get into a race again, only this time I have scouring sands to help me out.

5-1

Round Win.

Round 7 - Hinojosa, Rolaund D (Abzan Aggro)

Game 1 - I fail to read that Heir of the Wilds has deathtouch but I win anyway...awkward.

Game 2 - I get Wingmate Roc'd. I make an obviously bad attack this game and my opponent calls me on it (I was dead anyway) but it gave me info for G3. I like to do this if I am going to lose a game anyway because it makes my opponent think about what tricks I may or may not have in my deck (Titan's Strength, etc.).

Game 3 - My opponent mulls hard and it lets me run him over pretty quickly.

6-1

Round Win.

Round 8 - Blanchard, Mac (Mono Red)

Game 1 - I have more burn spells than him, so I just burn out his guys. I also use a Titan's Strength to "counter" a burn spell. :)

Game 2 - In game 2 I side in Prophetic Flamespeaker. The end up shutting down his whole game plan (Hordeling Outburst) and then I play Scouring Sands.

7-1

Round Win.

Round 9 - Jessup, Danny (Abzan Mid-Range)

A non-feature, feature match.

Game 1 - Frenzied Goblin go. He is on Abzan mid-range and he is busy durdling around while I just keep playing threats. Eventually he plays Tasigur and dies because he killed some other random guy not called Frenzied Goblin.

Game 2 - My opponent plays turn 4 Siege Rhino, Turn 5 Siege Rhino, Turn 6 Tasigur and then died. He is a little unhappy after the match to say the least...oh well.

8-1

Round Win.

Wow that was a long day of Magic, especially after losing round 1...

Sunday

A pretty close repeat from the day/night before except this time when I leave the house I forgot to shut the garage door and I forgot my pen so I had to come back home to get it...lack of sleep is so rough.  

Round 10 - Blackmor, Jason R (RW Tokens)

Game 1 - We trade aggression back and forth and I get him down to 2 life and brick for 2 turns in drawing a burn spell to finish him off.

Game 2 - He manages to wrestle control of the game quite quickly as he plays all 4 Hordeling Outbursts...I do have the scouring sands part way through to disrupt him but he is dealing me big chunks of damage and burning out the guys I do play.

While I am sitting down for my off camera feature match they call my name for legacy and I put my hand up, they say that they have me down. After I lose in standard I head over to legacy and I have a game loss already since I am 5 minutes late (I am fine with that). I am paired against Jonathon, Job and we start to shuffle up. The judges then come over to tell me that I am not allowed to play in both events...I begrudgingly drop from legacy since the EV should be higher in Standard (unfortunately). The judges couldn't give me a good reason as to why I was not allowed to play in both events but promised I would get a refund so I didn't make too much of a fuss.

9-2

Round Loss.

Round 11 - Walker, Avery (RG Aggro)

This is a feature match so I need to find the video and i'll link it.

G1/G2 - The same thing happens both games. I keep a 7 card hand of 1 threat, 3 burn spells and 3 mountains. This is not an ideal hand but it is about as good as a 6 card hand and it has a lot of interaction at least. In both games I don't draw any more creatures and just get flooded on more mountains. There was no play to either of these games from my side. Afterwards, I lament with Avery a little saying that this is a good matchup for me. He thinks it is a good matchup for him...so who knows. I think my 17/18 burn spells that kill all of his guys gives me the edge but who knows.
After having to drop out of legacy, it is a little rough to start the day 0-2...

9-3

Round Loss.

It is at this point that I begin to wonder if yesterday was a fluke and maybe I should have dropped to play legacy...

Round 12 - David, Christian (RG Aggro)

Well I guess I get to find out if I was correct or not in this being a good matchup.

Game 1 - I play 1 drop into searing blood and just tempo him out using my burn spells to clear the way.

Game 2 - I use burn spells to clear the way again and finish him off with a lightning strike while I am still at 16 life.

10-3

Round Win.

This was a big win for me since I don't know how this can be a bad matchup unless I only draw 1 threat...

Round 13 - Milo, Jb (Abzan Control)

I have played against JB at several events now and I have a 100% win percentage against him. From my recollection, he likes to play grindy and/or control decks, so I assumed he would be playing Abzan or UB Control.

Game 1 - I win game one despite him playing 2 Courser or Kruphix and gaining 1 life off of each and also playing a Siege Rhino and gaining 3 life. Stoke the Flames and Frenzied Goblin are a thing...:)  

Game 2- I get killed quite quickly by Courser into, Siege Rhino into removal spell + removal spell.

Game 3 - I make good use of the dash mechanic to apply lots of pressure to JB while also protecting myself against drown in sorrow. Foundry Street Denizen + Mardu Scout is 5 damage a turn...that is no joke.

At some point during the match our neighbors next to us let me know I messed up a Goblin Rabblemaster trigger (not attacking with a Foundry Street Denizen). We call a  judge and rewind the situation so that I do it correctly...oops.

11-3

Round Win.

Round 14 - Grace, Tannon (RG Devotion)

Game 1 - I lose because I Titan's strength a searing blood to the bottom of my library on turn 2 when I am looking for land number 3, so that I can curve out properly. If I keep the Searing Blood I just crush him since he plays Xenegos and it bricks my team long enough for him to gain control.

Game 2 - I am on the play and he cannot do anything as I fully aggro/tempo him out of the game.

Game 3 - Tannon mulls to 5. I keep a reasonable 7 cards hand. He is at 6 life and he plays an Elvish Mystic and says go (we are playing quickly since I think I have won and he thinks he has lost) when I have an Eidolon in play and a stoke the flames in hand. I say ok and touch my lands. I look at my Eidolon and Tannon says "come on you missed it." This is when I should have stopped and called a judge. The judge may or may not have ruled in my favor but I really needed to slow this game down and take charge of what is happening. Instead I go on mini tilt. I don't know if I have lost yet but I know I am not winning next turn like I should have. It is worth mentioning that I am stuck on 2 lands and that is really constraining me on being able to win this game.  I  keep committing to the board but keep taking 2 damage in order to do that. I take 10 damage this game from my own lands and eventually Tannon untaps and casts Whisperwood Elemental and his manifest is a Polukranos (I don't know this yet of course). I end up using my stoke on the Whisperwood Elemental instead of him (which is a mistake since I should just all out attack then burn him out the next turn the only time the stoke him plan might be bad is if he draws Nylea's Disciple). Eventually I get him down to 2 life and I am at 10 life. He has 1 turn to kill me. He has a Polukranos but not enough mana to make it lethal. He counts up his on board damage (I have no blockers and I am tapped out) then he flashes me the Arc Lightning...I concede the game...the only problem...he is at 2 life and I have an Eidolon in play. So yeah, that happened.

I came to game and I got gamed.

11-4

Round Loss.
Round 15 - Geeo, Jacob D (Abzan)

I am tilted. I know that this last round is hugely important for my final standings and if something really weird happens (DQ or something) I could even sneak into the top 8 (not likely but still). More important is that I really want to top 16 after I threw away my chance to Top 8.

Game 1 - My curve for this game is insane...I drop a turn 1 Monastery Swiftspear. He goes land go. I Dash a Mardu Scout to hit him for 4 life and say go. On his turn he plays a Sylvan Caryatid. I play Goblin Rabblemaster and attack. He plays a turn 3 Siege Rhino going to 15 life. I untap play goblin heel cutter and attack for 14 damage. He untaps and plays another Siege Rhino but I just heelcutter attack him dead despite his two big blockers.  

Game 2 - My opponent sticks a turn 3 Courser and it gains him a ton of life. Then he also sticks a Siege Rhino and smashes me with it.  

Game 3 - My opponent mulligans and Frenzied goblin shows up to do some work alongside his other little red pals.

12-4

Round Win.

My final list is here.

Props -

My self built/ untested list for being good (that rarely happens)
Baked Goods
Jeff Chen for Winning Legacy!
Wild Slash for being the best card in Standard. People who are playing red and not playing x4 of these are doing it wrong.
Propetic Flamespeaker for surviving through all the Drown in Sorrows
Getting the 8 points I needed to make the Columbus Invitational
My awesome wife for looking after the baby for 2 days

Slops -  

My misplay(s).
The tournament being on Valentines Day
The tournament being at NRG Stadium instead of George R. Brown
$10 parking
SCG for not letting me double queue

The deck was a good choice and it really put people to the sword. Game 1 I think you are favored in a lot of matchups and then G2/3 you get to make the most of your sideboard and really stick it to your opponent when you get to be on the play. I had a lot of players mulligan aggressively against me because their hands were just too slow and then they lost because they mulliganed. I also had a few players not mulligan solid hands (4 lands, 2 siege rhino, Tasigur for example) and then just get run over.

All in all, I exactly met my goals (no overachieving here!) but I am left feeling disappointed and that I left a huge opportunity on the table. 

Cheers,
Simon

SCG Houston February 15 2015 - Legacy Premier IQ Winner Report Jeff Chen

Flapping My Way to the Top (Misthollow Griffin, I Choose You!)

Hi, my name is Jeff and I am a Legacy player.  If that sounds like the intro of an AA meeting, it’s probably because the only MTG I really play is Legacy (Editor – I know about your dirty little Tiny Leaders secret ).  To me, no other format has the great balance between sheer number of viable decks and powerful cards, so why play anything else?  

 

The Deck

When I heard there was an SCG Open coming to town, I started looking for a deck to play for the Legacy 5K IQ.  In Legacy, due to the plethora of decks available, I tend to have deck ADHD and change decks on almost a weekly basis if I’m not preparing for a large tournament. Combine that with my tendency to play non-mainstream decks and love of terrible cards (Necromancer’s Stockpile can really be a thing, I swear!), I fell in love when I saw Jonathan Job’s GP New Jersey Food Chain list.

Main Deck

4 Misthollow Griffin

4 Baleful Strix

4 Deathrite Shaman

2 Genesis Hydra

2 Vendilion Clique

1 Noble Hierarch

1 Tidespout Tyrant

1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

4 Food Chain

4 Brainstorm

3 Manipulate Fate

2 Dig through Time

4 Force of Will

1 Misdirection

3 Abrupt Decay

3 Underground Sea

3 Tropical Island

1 Bayou

4 Misty Rainforest

4 Verdant Catacombs

2 Polluted Delta

1 Island

1 Swamp

1 Forest

Sideboard

3 Duress

2 Disfigure

2 Venser, Shaper Savant

2 Leyline of the Void

2 Grafdigger's Cage

1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

1 Toxic Deluge

1 Abrupt Decay

1 Karakas

Jonathan is generally regarded as the expert on Food Chain and is well known in the Legacy community for playing and advancing the deck.

When I first saw the list, the first thing I noticed was no Fierce Empaths.  In my previous experiences with the deck, it had always felt so awkward as you constantly have try and balance all the cards that are terrible without Food Chain (Fierce Empath, Aethersnipe, Grielbrand, Emrakul, etc.) yet somehow get down Food Chain and protect it.  This list with Genesis Hydra streamlined all of that into just the 2 Genesis Hydras, Tidespout Tyrant, and Emrakul.

Another card I noticed it playing was Dig Through Time.  I believe Dig Through Time is particularly powerful in A+B combo decks, meaning decks that require you to assemble card from set A with card from set B - think Sneaky Show or Reanimator.  Here, Dig Through Time does a great job of finding the combo piece you’re missing and failing that, finding plenty of quality cards for you to stay alive.

The third thing I noticed about this deck was the general tone of the deck.  To me, this particular version of the deck plays more like a mid-range/control deck that happens to have a combo kill option.  Instead of having to rush out the combo and getting destroyed when it fails, I found that I was actually winning most of my games merely by grinding my opponent out with recurring Phantom Monsters.

Of course, then there’s the combo.

For those who aren’t familiar with the Food Chain / Misthollow Griffin interaction, here’s how it works:  Food Chain allows you to exile creatures to get their CMC + 1 in mana of any color you want with the restriction that it can only be used to cast creature spells.  Each time you exile Misthollow Griffin to Food Chain, you net 1 mana of any color you want.  See where this is going?  Once you have your arbitrarily large amount of mana, you can use it to cast a huge Genesis Hydra (to get the Tyrant) or the Tidespout Tyrant itself if it’s in your han.  Then you use your cycling Misthollow Griffin to bounce your opponent’s board.  As a finisher, you then bounce your Genesis Hydra, recast it getting Emrakul out, bounce Emrakul, then cast it to take your extra turn where you attack for lethal.

Even without going infinite, Food Chain can be extremely threatening if you have resolved a Manipulate Fate, allowing you to get all of your exiled Misthollow Griffins onto the field at once.  In addition to that, when you have Food Chain + Misthollow Griffins together, you can do a variety of tricks such as giving your Misthollow Griffins vigilance by exiling and recasting them after you attack with the flock, chump blocking / neutering Batterskull or Umezawa’s Jitte by blocking then exiling the Misthollow Griffin before damage, or merely saving them all from sweeper such as Terminus by exiling them in response.

Having only played the deck for about 2 months now, I am by no means an expert on the deck, but I’ll walk through my thought processes for the changes I made.

For reference, here’s the list I played at the 5K:

Main Deck

4 Misthollow Griffin

4 Baleful Strix

4 Deathrite Shaman

2 Genesis Hydra

2 Vendilion Clique

1 Noble Hierarch

1 Tidespout Tyrant
 

1 Dimir Charm

4 Food Chain

4 Brainstorm

3 Manipulate Fate

2 Dig through Time

4 Force of Will

1 Misdirection

3 Abrupt Decay
 

3 Underground Sea

3 Tropical Island

1 Bayou

4 Misty Rainforest

4 Verdant Catacombs

2 Polluted Delta

1 Island

1 Swamp

1 Forest

Sideboard

3 Duress

2 Disfigure

1 Venser, Shaper Savant

2 Relic of Progenitus

2 Grafdigger's Cage

1 Abrupt Decay

2 Umezawa's Jitte

2 Golgari Charm

As you can see, I was very happy with Jonathan’s main deck and only changed 1 card - the Emrakul.  To me, I felt the Emrakul was a win more card as once you bounce your opponent’s board with Tidespout Tyrant, if they don’t concede (say you’re at < 3 life against Burn), you can continue by recurring your Vendilion Clique until they have only lands in their hand, then recurring your Baleful Strix until you draw as many Force of Wills as you want.  I was willing to give my opponents 1 turn to kill me with no board and no spells in order to not have another dead (if you aren’t going infinite with Food Chain) spell in the deck.

As for the sideboard, I prefer Relic of Progenius over the Leylines because you can also bring it in against the Tarmogoyf decks and it conveniently gives you another way to exile Misthollow Griffins that made it into your yard.

With the banning of Treasure Cruise, I expected to see the return of many old decks and cards.  Golgari Charms are there to take care of True-Name Nemesis and the Umezawa’s Jittes were for creature decks like Death & Taxes as well as life gain for the Burn matchup.

The Tournament

Round 1: Goodspeed, Brendan (Esper Stoneblade)

Game 1: Brendan led off with basic Island into Scrubland -> Thoughtseize. Wow, I haven’t seen this in a long time.  I managed to cast Manipulate Fate and Food Chain’d out my flock, but Brendan slowed me down with Lingering Souls.  He eventually got a Batterskull onto his TNN, but I had knocked him low enough on life where my Griffins + DRS could race and kill him.

-2 Genesis Hydra, -1 Tidespout Tyrant, -1 Dimir Charm, -1 Forest, +1 Abrupt Decay, +2 Golgari Charm, +2 Umezawa’s Jitte

*Against decks that are pretty disruptive like this one I don’t tend to like the full combo.  Just making a bunch of Griffins is usually enough to do the job.

Game 2: From my notes, I Force’d a T1 Thoughtseize, had my DRS StP’d, then went with a flock of Griffins beating him down.

W (2-0)

Round 2: Baker, Daniel (Shardless BUG)

Game 1: Daniel tries to Thoughseize me early on, but I Misdirection it back to him and he reveals Misty Rainforest, Liliana of the Veil, Abrupt Decay, Toxic Deluge, and Tarmogoyf.  He discards the Deluge, likely thinking that I’m on combo and probably regretted it when I Manipulate Fate later on and overwhelm him with Griffins.

-2 Genesis Hydra, -1 Tidespout Tyrant, -1 Force of Will, +1 Abrupt Decay, +2 Disfigure, +2 Relic of Progenitus

Game 2: We grind at each other, killing everything on the board.  I Clique him at one point, seeing double Abrupt Decay, Force of Will, and Ancestral Visions, which means I have to play carefully to get a Food Chain to stick long enough for me to get Griffins out.  I eventually manage to get double Food Chain and have Misdirection for his second Abrupt Decay, which let me get the Griffin flock out.

W (2-0)

Round 3: Rodriguez, Christian (RUG Delver)

Game 1: I keep a greedy hand of Underground Sea, 2x Brainstorm, 2x FoW, Misthollow Griffin, Baleful Strix and I’m promptly punished the way RUG does to people who are greedy.

-1 Dimir Charm, -1 Misdirection, -2 Genesis Hydra, -1 Tidespout Tyrant, +1 Abrupt Decay, +2 Disfigure, +2 Relic of Progenitus

Game 2: Christian destroyed me with T1 Delver, Forked Bolt on my Deathrite Shaman, Lightning Bolt on my Baleful Strix, Stifle for my 3rd land and Force backup for my Food Chain.  I don’t feel as bad as he also had dispatched Jonathan Job earlier in the tournament.

L (0-2)

Round 4: Jimener, Isaac (Burn)

Game 1: Isaac leads off with Arid Mesa and passes.  Ok… I play my land and pass.  He fetches a basic Mountain (uh oh), plays a second Mountain (damnit) and plays Eidolon of the Great Revel.  I eat 2 damage to Abrupt Decay it but he has triple PoP and burns me out.

-2 Vendilion Clique, -3 Manipulate Fate, -2 Dig Through Time, +1 Disfigure, +1 Abrupt Decay, +3 Duress, +2 Umezawa’s Jitte

*Clique, Manipulate Fate, and Dig Through Time are all just too slow.  If I’m going to win this matchup, I need to disrupt and combo or get Jitte online.  Raw card advantage won’t do much for me here.

Game 2: I make sure to fetch out all my basics, play a fetch land and never play a land for the rest of the game.  I get Umezawa’s Jitte online and he can’t kill me before I get enough counters onto it to pull out of burn range

-1 Abrupt Decay, +1 Disfigure

*Abrupt Decay can be too slow on the play vs their fast 1 drops

Game 3: This one is a nailbiter.  He starts burning me down but I also have Deathrite Shaman and disruption to slow the bleeding.  The game stalls with me having a Misthollow Griffin vs his Eidolon of Great Revels and Vexing Shusher and I’m at 6 life.  He Searing Blazes my Misthollow Griffin twice over the course of two turns without Landfall then goes for the Fireblast to my face.  I have the Misdirection for the Fireblast to send it back to his Eidolon and I get a Deathrite Shaman and eventually a Umezawa’s Jitte online before he can finish me.

W (2-1)

Round 5: Vickers, Brandon (BUG Delver)

Game 1: I have plenty of lands and Strixes, which is what BUG Delver doesn’t want to see.  I eventually combo off after he’s exhausted his hand.

*Same sideboarding a vs Shardless

Game 2: He’s playing the Jim Davis build and has T1 Delver, T2 Wasteland, Stifle, and the Delver goes the distance.

Game 3: He has a Tarmogoyf that beats me up for a while until I get Manipulate + Food Chain and he can’t effectively attack anymore.

W (2-1)

Round 6: Smolinski, Kenneth (UG Cloudpost)

Ken is a player at my LGS - first one I faced at the tournament!

Game 1: I counter his spells that let him ramp too much / find Cloudposts while I get the combo going.  He has a Repeal on my Food Chain to stall for a turn, but can’t kill me before I go off on my next turn.

-3 Abrupt Decay, -1 Misdirection, +3 Duress, +1 Venser, Shaper Savant

*I boarded out Abrupt Decays since I think the only thing they have that’s relevant is Candelabras or Expedition Maps, both of which are terrible to Abrupt Decay.  I wasn’t sure if the list normally runs Phyrexian Revoker or not but I wasn’t going leave them in on just that chance.

Game 2: I T1 Duress him and of course he has a Phyrexian Revoker in his hand and me without a Force of Will.  Alright, we’re on Griffin beatdown plan then.  He eventually drops a Primeval Titan, but a timely Vendilion Clique allows me to strip the Emrakul out of his hand while an earlier Dig Through Time had found me Venser to bounce his Phyrexian Revoker and I was now free to go off.

W (2-0)

Round 7: Nelson, Erik (UWr Stoneblade)

Erik is a friend and another local player.  We consider IDing here and putting us both in a win-and-in position next round but ultimately decide that it’s best to just guarantee one of us into the T8.

Game 1: Erik has a great hand with Force of Will, Stoneforge Mystic on T2, and True-Name Nemesis on T3.  Mine is just better for a T4 Food Chain kill with protection.

-1 Dimir Charm, -1 Misdirection, -1 Forest, +1 Abrupt Decay, +2 Golgari Charm

Game 2: Erik has another T2 Stoneforge Mystic, T3 True-Name Nemesis, but I yet again have the T4 Food Chain kill with protection.

W (2-0)

Round 8: ID into T8

Top 8: Phillips, Jase (UWR Delver)

Game 1: I slowly start griding him out with Baleful Strixes and Manipulate Fate but he gets down a True-Name Nemesis that starts to kill me.  I have an active Deathrite Shaman that’s keeping me alive, but that will only last so long, especially against a red deck.  The key turn comes when he attacks me with the True-Name Nemesis and I’m at 2 life.  I activate Deathrite Shaman to exile a creature and in response, he casts Lightning Bolt, targeting me.  I snap cast the Misdirection I’ve been holding most of the game and after a brief discussion with the judges, they confirm for Jase that I can indeed change the target of his Lightning Bolt to his True-Name Nemesis.  Jase can’t recover from that and I beat him down with a hardcast 4/4 Genesis Hydra.

-2 Genesis Hydra, -1 Tidespout Tyrant, -1 Misdirection, -1 Dimir Charm, +1 Abrupt Decay, +2 Golgari Charm, +2 Disfigure

Game 2: Jase mulligans to 6 and has T2 Stoneforge Mystic.  I ignore it because I have Force of Will + Misthollow Griffin, Manipulate Fate, and a Food Chain, which goes the distance.

W (2-0)

Top 4: Hebert, Daniel (ANT)

We split in the Top 4, so both Daniel and Andrew Sullano conceded to Shane Remelt and myself since they had long drives home and didn’t care about the plaque.  I dodged a bullet here!

Top 2: Remelt, Shane (UWr Miracles)

Shane’s a good friend of mine, but I wanted the shiny plaque!

Game 1: I get Strixes, Manipulate Fate, and Griffins online before killing him with the combo.

-1 Misdirection, -1 Forest, +1 Abrupt Decay, +1 Venser, Shaper Savant

Game 2: Long and grindy the way Miracles likes it.  According to my notes, I have a lone Baleful Strix that manages to deal 10 damage to Shane, but he eventually grinds me out with Jace + varying Miracles and I scoop when he Terminuses me leaving me with 0 cards to his billion in hand.

Game 3: This one is pretty quick.  I get out double Baleful Strix and a Deathrite Shaman.  While Shane’s dealing with that, I sculpt my hand for the Food Chain combo kill.

W (2-1)

Thanks for taking the time to read my rather lengthy tournament report (this one got out of control)!

I’m Esper3k on MTGTheSource, so if anyone would like to discuss the deck, you can find me there!

Jeff