Zvi's PT Chicago Report - Day 1 *Top 8*

**I did a ton of testing for this Pro Tour, as did my teammates. In the end, I decided to play a Fires of Yavimaya variant that Seth Burn insisted on calling Chevy Fires [Ed. Note: We'll make sure to get Seth to tell the story on the name in his next column], and I convinced three of my teammates to do the same. There were grave doubts, late testing sessions, panicked cries of "this deck can't win!" and "this format is horrible!" and other things less printable. There were last minute splashes of black for Tsabo's Decree from some of them. But I stuck to my guns. The development of the deck will be discussed elsewhere, but I decided in the end to go with this decklist:

The final decision was that I was going to channel the spirit of Magic. Magic was never supposed to be about saying no to every spell your opponent casts, or finding a way to cast Blaze for 25 on turn three. It's supposed to be a creature war, with really cool creatures fighting it out in the Red Zone. At some point, we lost sight of that because the cards made the best decks about things like buying back Forbid or untapping Tolarian Academy . But now things have returned to the way they should be, and the fundamentally strongest deck in the format involved bashing people over the head with 5/5 monsters. And should that not be enough, the deck got even better when you get to bust out a lot of heads every now and then.

Round 1: Bero, Peter Monoblue, Draw-Go (kills with Air Elemental )

The matchups against blue are about me having a lot of questions and them having both not enough answers and not having the right ones. Then later on it's about there not being a good answer, because of Kavu Chameleon and sometimes Obliterate . Anyway, blue decks need to have the right cards to fight the good draw, and the 'good draw' is really easy to get. The first two games we split. Both times he had trouble getting his mana in the early game, and used Memory Lapse to keep the counters flowing until he could draw out of it. One time he did, and one time he didn't. When I tried to use Rishadan Port in game two he wrecked me with Teferi's Response , and for the rest of the match I ended up using Port only as a threat. Just because you can draw two cards doesn't mean I can't make a spell resolve if you're not careful, and that makes them still solid. The other advantage is that he ended up discarding Response in game three. Anyway, game three is looking grim as Scott Johns comes over to watch. He has a ton of lands out, I got nothing and he's basically in total control. There's only one thing that can stop him, and luckily I'm holding it in my hand: The Big O. The problem is I can't get to eight mana and have a good hand to recover with, and if he's holding Thwart he will definitely recover just fine. We sit there and then he finds his Air Elementals, or he gets to whatever mana level he was waiting for before casting them. The first one hits, and a turn later the second one hits. I take an extra eight damage to postpone the second half of the game as long as possible, since I'm still short on mana in hand and he's clearly not wise to what's about to happen and therefore not holding lands. So finally, when I'm down to seven life, I tap all my lands and creatures, scoop them up into one pile, and as I put it then, 'KA-BOOM!' Off goes one cantrip, off goes a second cantrip, it resolves. I play a land. The big plan here is to play a Chimeric Idol with the three lands I had when I cast Obliterate . So two turns later, I try and cast Chimeric Idol . He Memory Lapses it, and plays his third land in as many turns. Ah that's right, Chimeric Idol . Nope, didn't quite catch that, Lou. I got it! No, I lost it again, Submerged. Then Counterspelled. Then finally I draw the next card in my deck, and it's - Chimeric Idol ! This one goes the distance. Scott says he can't believe I won that, and I just say "Oh ye of little faith." The spirit doesn't lose!

Round 2: Schick, Mark, Nether-Go

Another round, another first turn Island . This time there are Swamps involved as well. In the first game he starts by casting Tsabo's Web (every time the first Web came out against me the whole tournament I'd moved Rishadan Port to the side if there was one on the table before my opponent said what he was casting), then he takes some damage but basically establishes control of the game, and then he casts Bribery . At this point, I know the game is very likely his, and I think for a bit about whether to concede and move on to game two before he sees I have Two-Headed Dragon . But the game isn't quite in the bag yet unless I know his hand, so I let him see it. He smiles and takes Jade Leech anyway, and kills me a few turns later. Game two a Dust Bowl blows up his Salt Marsh , he can't cast anything and by the time he finds land he's facing down an army led by Two-Headed Dragon . It wasn't pretty. Game three I forget which hole in the Nether-Go plan I went through, but I found one.

Round 3: Gerado Gordinez, Blue Skies

Another round, another first turn Island . But this time, the sigh was premature - his deck was one of the good guys after all. Anyway, I start on the standard plan, playing out test spells and trying to use Rishadan Port and sheer speed to get threats in before he can get counterspell mana. When he played a Sky Diamond , I figured that had given me the opening I needed and tried for a 5/5. He used Thwart , and soon I was staring down a Rishadan Airship and realized I wasn't facing another control deck at all. His creatures fly and he has counters, but my mana acceleration is better and my cards hit a lot harder. I kept putting out threats, and after a Thwart and a Foil he ran out of ways to stop me. Rishadan Airship can put me on a really fast clock while I'm doing this, especially in multiples, but I kept using Assault on them without missing a beat. Game two I came out with a stream of creatures again, this time not playing around counters since all he had was Thwart and Foil . If he's going to Thwart something, he's going to Thwart it, and the same with Foil . The faster he's forced to do it, the more the cost hurts. So out comes a stream of creatures. He plays an Island , taps UU into his pool and casts Gush . Then he plays a land. Judge? He asks why I called for a judge, I tell him, he quickly realizes I'm right and I let it go as an honest mistake. The spirit wouldn't like me pulling rules cheese. I think that was the turn he played Wash Out , which bought a little over a full turn, but without a clock that stayed on the table (an Airship died) all that means is that his best tempo card is used up simply to stall the game. On the next turn, he again plays a land, taps UU into his pool and casts Gush . Then he plays another land! This time I'm calling a judge over. One mistake, shame on him, but two of the exact same mistake in two consecutive turns is definitely shame on me.

So the judge comes over. I explain my version of events, including that I caught him trying to play an extra land last turn. He basically agrees with some hesitation, which goes away after I go through every play and turn of the game and demonstrate that he could not possibly have not played a land this turn. The judge agrees. Gerardo gets no penalty, which I definitely considered generous but I didn't mind too much. I caught him both times, no harm done. At the end of the game he exposes his hand, and it's about six Islands. I can understand how that can make a player frustrated.

Round 4: Gaaloul, Cedrik W/U Angel Control

Blinding Angels were what we were afraid of in testing, more than any other card. This matchup was the one we feared more than any other matchup. But it's not like Fires doesn't have a chance. Sometimes they get two bad draws, or they mess up a Fact or Fiction or Wrath too early or get Dust Bowled out or something. I lost one quick game to Blinding Angel , and took one quick game when he had a bad draw. The last game came down to a relatively early Fact or Fiction . The five cards were Wrath of God , Blinding Angel and a few solid cards; I forget, but think Opt or Absorb or something like that. Wrath of God wasn't good for me, it almost never is, but Blinding Angel was worse. I didn't have a Two-Headed Dragon , I didn't even have a Birds of Paradise . If he played it that was game. But my hand did have plenty of threats and he had plenty of cards in his hand already. I had a standard procedure for these situations. Blinding Angel or no, sir? He chose no, and it cost him dearly. Untapping, he was actually forced to discard Wrath of God and one of the other three cards he got from the FoF. I played Kavu Chameleon , he cast Wrath of God . I played a second one, he played his third Wrath. The creatures kept coming, and Blinding Angel never showed up.

Round 5: Gary Wise, W/U Angel Control (Feature Match)

Again, I have to play the worst possible matchup, this time against Gary Wise. He announces at the start that he's there only to have fun. Let me tell you, that's really annoying. I kind of want to win, Mr. Wise, and it's not going to make me feel better about losing or winning to know that you're just in it for kicks because you didn't do any work. And God help my tiebreakers. Oh well, that's not really the point, so cut to the chase. Game one my draw is horrible, my first spell is Battery, Blinding Angel comes out and I lose. Game two he starts with a bunch of dual lands and I keep a hand full of land but not much else. I put out Dust Bowl , he tries to Fact or Fiction but ends up having to take a lonely Plains , and never finds his second white as a Jade Leech goes the distance. Game three his deck works again. He even has Disrupting Scepter going against me. My first version of U/W actually had Disrupting Scepter in it, so that I could deal with Obliterate and Urza's Rage as well as just gain good old card advantage.

Round 6: Douglass, Morgan (U/B control)

I was starting to wonder if the format had run out of blue decks to throw at me. Apparently not. Next up was a U/B control deck without Nether Spirit ; it killed with Air Elemental . I think the black's primary purpose was Tsabo's Decree . Game one I start casting threats and he dies; I don't remember the details. I played so many games against blue decks that they all start to blur. Game two I remember though. Obliterate is in my opening hand, but otherwise the early game is a disaster. I can't get anything out early. When I do try and cast spells, everything but Fires of Yavimaya is countered. He lets me have a total of three of those, and plays out a Glacial Wall . I put out a Chimeric Idol , but there's no reason to activate it. Meanwhile, he casts Accumulated Knowledge for one, then two, then three, then four. Then he discards. He casts Fact or Fiction a few times, plays more lands and discards some more. He still can't find any of his Air Elementals. At this point I've stopped casting spells and am even discarding threats; he probably has Dominate or even Desertion , and if he doesn't it's not like I can get through his countermagic. He actually says " Obliterate already so we can get on with this game." Meanwhile, he's using Dust Bowl on my nonbasic lands so I can't get to eight. Finally, I start to have a little backup and get a few Ports in my hand. He finds an Air Elemental and casts it. I draw Karpulsian Forest . I guess now is the time. Ka-Boom! He Thwarts it as planned to have lands to play, but I get to go first. Worried a little about Foil I don't cast my Bird right away and just play a Karpulsian Forest . He plays an Island . I put the Bird out and play a Port. A few turns later, he's dead from Chimeric Idols.

Round 7: Romero, Ellis, Monowhite Rebels

Game one I come out with an army, and his side can't keep up. I side in Flashfires and Earthquake , which normally gives me a big advantage. Game two I have Flashfires in hand, but I never see red mana until it's already too late. It was either one or two turns after it would have won the game; if I had it on turn three it would have been a massacre. Game three I have the opposite problem; he refuses to play more than one Plains . I try to get an offense going, he gets an opening and has the Parallax Wave , and I can't find the fourth land for Flashfires without my Birds and Elves. When they come back, Mageta is waiting for them. I never get the lands to stay in the game. Man, I hate rebels!

That was the end of day one. We bought some Chinese and went back to the room. All four of the Fires decks our team played made day two, leaving us as the only ones playing Two-Headed Dragon . Adrian Sullivan went 4-2-1, which is normally enough, but his early losses and draw landed him in 99th. Frown. I was a lot less happy about 5-2 than I would be about 6-1, but you can't complain. We got a decent amount of sleep, I vastly overpaid for a real breakfast, and it was time for day 2.

- Zvi Mowshowitz

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