Zvi's PT Tokyo Report (Part 1 of 2) *Champion*

It started at the Invitational, where I finished last. Normally that would be a bad thing, as I like losing even less than the next guy and I like having the worst record of all even less than that. But there are definite advantages. One is that I stopped worrying anywhere near as much about doing badly because I couldn't possibly do any worse than I'd already done. Last place is pretty much hitting bottom. It also got me even more committed to testing than I am usually. When I test, I normally do really well. This reminded me that when I don't test I don't do very well. Finally, there's the now famous “Invitational Curse,” which is that the last three players to finish last at the Invitational (me, Gary Wise and Steve OMS) have gone on in that year to win a Pro Tour. I decided I was making Top 8 in Chicago, even though I had no idea how or with what deck, and tested like mad. I did make top eight, and proceeded to get smashed in the quarterfinals by Brian Kibler.

That's like when you hit the top of the deck, say “land, please” so you can cast a Wrath of God - and draw Coastal Tower. As I always say to myself in situations like that, “be more specific.” This time I decided it was block, I was broken in block, and I was winning. Although of course I had no idea how or with what deck. What I did know was with what team, which meant I was already way ahead of the game. At the time the team didn't have a name, but my playtest team was me, Seth Burn, Brian Selden, Scott Johns, John Ormerod, Ben Ronaldson, Warren Marsh, Kai Budde and Patrick Mello. This team is amazing, and even the people put in as local playtest partners pulled through. The only problem was that Seth Burn got distracted by life outside Magic and couldn't come or test all that much.

The full story of our playtesting is too long to be told here (I really am sorry about the whole “My Fires” thing, I didn't realize) so I'll just go over the really short version and I'm sure either me or someone else will write it up in more detail. The short version is that first we had B/R and R/G, then W/U got suggested by John Ormerod as a way to deal with that, and Scott Johns took that decklist and swapped Sleeping Potion out for Fact or Fiction, getting the maindeck we ended up playing. Later U/B/R became our #1 deck for a long time, and W/U was getting beat pretty badly by Kai's version (it included 4 Repulse) so the deck got discarded. Near the end, U/B/R was off its pedestal finally so around the same time a few of us looked at W/U again. I put the Acolytes back in the deck, returning to Scott's original configuration, as it became clear we needed them and that everyone was playing red anyway. (They didn't have all that much choice really.)

The final piece of the puzzle was figuring out a way to stop R/B/U, and again John Ormerod came to the rescue and suggested Pure Reflection. We tested it, and it was amazing. A bad matchup had become a good one with nothing more than a card that no one else in the known universe understands and a total of ten sideboard slots. That's a lot, but the others were Gainsay and Disrupt which are great board cards in general. After Scott Johns sold me on Crusading Knight, the only fight was over the two Aura Blasts, which were paranoia slots against Domain and Teferi's Moat. I argued we didn't need them, but the only thing we wanted to replace them with was a card or two for R/G and we couldn't get one we liked.

I got to Narita Airport on Tuesday. I did this because when I bought my ticket I thought I would be meeting the British on Tuesday for last minute testing and I'd therefore, knowing them, get in about 100 games or so over lunch. The problem was that there had apparently been some sort of miscommunication and they couldn't afford to come until Thursday, which meant I was stuck at the airport for a while until Scott and Brian arrived Wednesday afternoon. I grabbed a few extra books, including the Complete Hitchhiker's Guide, bought two more at the airport, brought double my normal quantity of music, and hoped for the best. I didn't feel too badly about spending the extra day in Japan because it gave me a chance to get a head start against jet lag. I also bring 4 copies of every common, 4 copies of every uncommon except for 2 missing Cremates, and 4 copies of most of the rares, so that I can make virtually any last minute change or even audible if I have to without rushing around for the cards.

As it turned out (to skip ahead a little), the only person to actually get any cards out of those boxes was Mike Long. All my possible last day sideboard options were there, but I didn't change a single card. There was traditional last minute testing and worries about cards no one would play against us (in this case, Overabundance). There was the traditional scramble to try and read the metagame as accurately as possible. I show the deck to Omeed and Mark Rosewater at the Airport, and Buehler sees it at the Masters Grinder. At the time it didn't have a good name (my decklist had “Holy Pikula!” written on it for deck name, which is rather unoriginal and bland although I was thinking of them being pro-red). During day two Pat Chapin and Eric Taylor would suggest the name “The Solution” and it was quickly approved.

After the rest of the usual preliminaries, including a long, unsuccessful attempt to explain 'All Your Base Are Belong to Us' on Wednesday night, we get to the player's meeting, which consists mostly of a series of reminders of how split cards work with various other spells. Afterwards, I get up like lightning, rush to see my pairing before there's a mob around the area as there always is day one, and then run to the trash and retrieve the list from the players' meeting to start a team database of what everyone's playing, which I hand off to Warren Marsh. It's time to go win a ProTour.

As a side note, if at any time you're curious about anyone's exact decklist, the Sideboard has them all.

Round 1: Law, Albertus Hui Chin

Looking at his decklist afterwards, it turns out Law was playing a solid version of R/G, with the primary variation being that he only used two copies of Skizzik. Unfortunately for him, his deck refused to produce decent mana, stalling with a Necropolis and a Forest one game and again failing to operate properly in the other. He was playing R/G, so I didn't sideboard. He did get to start putting out Jade Leech and similar cards in game two, but he was way too far behind to put up much of a fight. If either deck falls behind in this matchup, it's very difficult to catch up. Afterwards, I asked him how he had sideboarded so I could use that information to predict how other R/G players would react. He revealed he'd brought in Thunderscape Battlemage in case I brought in or had Teferi's Moat, which was something we had hoped would happen. Unfortunately, Scott Johns had a feature match this round against Kamiel Cornelisson (not that I can blame Mark Rosewater or anything, that's a great first round Feature) and therefore word of our deck would as usual be all over the place some time around round 2. In fact, I heard Baby Huey commenting “You know who had a really horrible deck? Scott Johns with this W/U deck with four maindeck Crimson Acolytes. ”
1-0

Round 2: Ranque, Wilfried

Again my opponent's deck just flat out refused to operate properly. Game one he starts with only blue sources and can't cast anything, then later on gets out Salt Marsh and untaps it before dying to Crimson Acolyte and other beatdown. Now the big question is: What is his third color? He must have one, because if he was running only two colors it would be virtually impossible for him to have nothing worth casting. So either he's playing white or he's playing red. My first instinct is that his hand was full of red removal, because that deck was much better than any W/U/B decks in our testing; when someone showed me his team's version of that deck with a few days to go we used it for practice because we didn't have a good version and I tried to talk him out of it in return. At any rate, I think about how likely each deck would be to get stuck with nothing it could cast. A B/R/U deck would literally have to have a hand full of Yawgmoth's Agenda, Pyre Zombie, Crosis the Purger, Void, Terminate, Ghitu Fire and Urza's Rage. Everything else would have gotten cast, including any counters. For contrast, a white version would have gotten stuck with his gold counters, both Dromar's Charm and Absorb. He also would have been stuck with Hobble and Rout and Teferi's Moat. I decided that it was more likely that a white version would be stuck with nothing to do than a red version, and boarded that way as far as I dared - I hedged my bets a little, but not much. Either way, Gainsay and Disrupt were going to be good. Sure enough, he turned out to be playing white, but once again could not get a very good draw and my sideboard cards disrupted him more than enough to let my creatures finish the job.
2-0

Round 3: Okada, Wataru

Looking back at Okada's decklist, I can see that his deck was much more unusual than I thought it was at the time. When we played it seemed just like a normal R/B deck that splashed blue for what was probably Recoil and either Fact or Fiction or more likely Probe, and possibly Crosis. He had all of those, including seven of the card drawers and two copies of Twighlight's Call! But I never found out about all that, instead playing against it as if it were a normal Red/Black. I didn't put out Crimson Acolyte, but I did play two Voice of All and two Galina's Knight, and he drew a lot of red removal. He began shooting Scorching Lavas at my head, but without Overabundance burn isn't enough by itself. Everything had Protection from Red, as he complained after game one, and I was smiling to myself wondering if he knew I used four maindeck Crimson Acolytes. Huey knew, so word was getting out to some extent. Game two also went smoothly, as he again couldn't remove or block my creatures.
3-0

Round 4: Freneau, Philip

When we sit down, Freneau thanks me for helping him tune his deck on Thursday. At the time I'd thought it was a great deal: I got to see AlphaBetaUnlimited's deck, and in exchange all I had to do was help them out. Since I didn't expect our deck to be played by anyone else, I had no problem helping their deck get better against the general field without helping it against us. Game one goes according to plan, as I stabilize and then take control. Game two I draw only two Coastal Towers for land, and although I have plenty of tools and two drops they can't come out fast enough to stabilize. Game three was the tricky one, and if I hadn't made top eight I probably would have looked at this as where I ‘lost the ProTour.’ I was doing fine, and then suddenly out popped a Kavu Chameleon. I used Repulse to send it back and put down a Meddling Mage on them, but he used Thornscape Battlemage to kill it off under a Crimson Acolyte and put it back. I locked it down with a Stormscape Apprentice, and drew a second Meddling Mage with Exclude in my hand. Should I name Kavu Chameleon? They were really bad for the field, although very good against us, and the situation was far from secure. I named Thornscape Battlemage, thinking he had three more of them and probably just one more Chameleon at most. He topdecks the second Chameleon, and I'm helplessly looking at two Exclude while the second one beats me senseless. Turns out he had four! I could have won this match, and maybe could have won after that by trying to kill the Chameleon more aggressively. Conclusion? Heard in the voice from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: “You have chosen. poorly.”
3-1

Round 5: Chapin, Patrick

I ask around and it's revealed that he's playing B/R/U, with the note that he ‘Urza's Raged someone out.’ He's just had a feature match, which is probably the only reason we don't have one now, so it's not a big surprise I found out. He asks about events while he was out of the loop, and I update him as much as possible. The actual match is another non-entity though. At no time does he get to play a red source, although I'm still naming ‘Void’ on Meddling Mage and red on Voice of All. Without red he never has a chance.
4-1

Round 6: Norris, Pete

Norris is playing the non-Godzilla English B/R/U ‘good-stuff’ deck, which is like a R/B deck that splashes blue mainly for Recoil and Crosis, the Purger. Game one all goes according to the usual plan and I win without trouble, but game two he keeps playing creatures against Pure Reflection, which I put in thinking he was a deck that he wasn't, and he killed me with two 6/6s instead of just one. When the Blazing Specter came out I realized my mistake, and I boarded back to where I should be, with the blue just making Crusading Knight a lot worse and protection from red more vulnerable. I beat Pete back at GP: Manchester, and we're having a blast playing for the second time in a row. He's got an attitude that he's basically just happy to be there, and that's great for the fun factor. He was also expecting to lose and said so, which is a great confidence builder. Game three my draw is terrible and I get no pressure and very little to do, but his deck doesn't seem to be doing anything either. I'm convinced I must be getting killed given how much time I've given him but he can't draw anything either and I draw out of it before he does and I win the game anyway. Normally once this deck stabilizes it can't mess around too much between Void and Pyre Zombie, but he who draws nothing still loses.
5-1

Round 7: Malherbaud, Pierre

Why splash red or white when you can splash both? That seemed to be Pierre's attitude, as suddenly I was looking at Chromatic Sphere and duallands for every color except green. I basically had no idea what was going on, although I was fairly confident he was playing some sort of control. He's getting down low, I think down to 6, but then he puts out Teferi's Moat to slow my offense to one point a turn, and then drops another on white to slow it to nothing. I'm counting on Voice of All to win this game, and there are three left. I get Meddling Mage, and guess Rout. I get another and name Spite and Malice. I think I named Recoil third. None of these turned out to actually be in his deck except for one Spite and Malice which he'd already cast. That's one of the rewards of going rogue in a format where I almost always know what to name.

At any rate, I have Stormscape Apprentices out to stop his offense and he's going to get decked and I'm well out of Urza's Rage range despite the kicker, but we get into a war over Voice of All. I stupidly hold back my second Crimson Acolyte, so he burns several Repulse to bounce the other one and kills the Voice, leaving two in the deck. I get more aggressive than I need to given that Dromar is locked down and he probably can't kill me, and Fact or Fiction to get my third Voice. That was the only way I could lose, but I had no way to know that for sure, and it did get me the tools to come over for the kill. I put in Aura Blast and the anti-blue squad, and he plays a second turn Meddling Mage; and calls a judge to make sure he gets the name of Stormscape Apprentice right. I name Benalish Heralds with mine, because that would be very bad right now and other players boarding the Mage are boarding that too. He of course didn't play those either, and my second Mage is down on Rout since he could have been holding it the whole game one. But he doesn't get a Moat down and I just out-creature him for the win, and after congratulating him on having a great record with an original deck and wishing him luck I'm into day two in the position I want to be in. Brian Selden is also at 6-1, and all but one person playing the deck has made second day. (Ben Ronaldson lost his last round to finish 3-3-1.)
End of Day 1: 6-1, 10th Place

Day 2

Round 8: Jorstedt, Mattias

I get the information that he's playing B/R, press for more details and get that he's playing heavy discard. That comes in handy when my opening hand is six lands and an Absorb, which I now know I can keep. Sure enough, his first spell is turn three Bog Down which gets two lands, and even though I start off topdecking more lands I draw out of it nicely. My other win came from a bad mana draw, with Mattias needing to play a second turn Lair off a tapped land, and unable to play his Nightscape Familiar that turn because I'd named it with Meddling Mage, after which I easily took the game and the match. I'd like to offer more details, but I'm a little fuzzy on this one.
7-1

Round 9: Fujita, Tsuyoshi

I'm told he's playing R/B, but a first turn Island quickly informs me that I'm wrong before any damage is done. All I can really do is play creatures, so I don't lose any time before he makes it clear he's playing B/U control. I go on the offensive, but I don't have enough punch to make it through and he starts to get Agenda going. I try to take advantage of his being only able to cast one spell a turn, but it's not quite working and chump blocking with a rat lets him stabilize at one life. He gets out a Shambler and a Scuta and it looks like my days are pretty well numbered. I put out what I expect is my last creature, countering his Undermine. At end of turn, he taps three lands and then goes to Recoil out of his graveyard. There's a judge who happens to be watching, and by the current rules that's three mana burn and game one. (Only 1 spell per turn, thanks to Agenda) I don't feel all that great about it but I'll take it. Game two I sideboard in Crusading Knight, Disrupt and Gainsay and manage to cast more stuff than he can deal with.
8-1

Round 10: Jones, Craig (Feature Match)

I was wondering when they'd figure it was time to give me one of these. Craig is on an amazing run at this point with the British B/R/U good stuff deck, which is the same deck I beat Pete Norris with a few rounds ago, although I don't quite realize it until afterwards. I don't care for the deck because I don't think sacrificing the mana base is worth it compared to what the deck gains, but against us it definitely helps because the deck gets to run Recoil for Meddling Mage and Crimson Acolyte. Game one I win as per the normal matchup. Game two he plays a turn two Lair and although he plays a Nightscape Familiar I assume I'm in good shape. Instead, he uses Recoil to stall my counter-mana for a turn and get down a Blazing Specter. I have to discard two cards to get it Repulsed at the end of his turn so I can Exclude, but he casts Void for 3 and that devastates my hand. Another Void kills both my Apprentices and I'm in deep trouble. I topdeck some creatures to get back in on the action, but a Pyre Zombie goes all the way for him when a Gainsay stops my attempt to use Absorb to buy time. In game three, I got off to a quick start but I didn't have an Acolyte so his Pyre Zombie started to pick off guys. I got him pretty low and I thought that a Crimson Acolyte I topdecked would get the job done but I couldn't keep a card in hand because I needed all of them in play and he had the Recoil for it, and although I had a ton of time to draw an out and had a lot of them, this time none of them came up.
8-2

[Ed. Note: Zvi submitted this right before leaving for GP Sweden, but we expect to be able to run his conclusion either Tuesday or Wednesday.]

• Zvi Mowshowitz