Zvi and the Magic Invitational, Part 2
**From the beginning, I was pretty sure I was going to play Awakening in Block Party. I talked to a lot of players about the format, although I didn't get a chance to do much real testing before coming to the Invitational. The only Ice Age block deck was Necro, but I felt with only Mind Warp as its discard it was too weak to be seriously considered. Mirage block's blue was inferior to Rath Cycle's, so the only two serious contenders were Sandsapoise and Ertog (since Squandered Resources was banned). Sandsapoise is only supposed to be good in a creature heavy environment, and as in the other formats I wasn't going to play a combination deck. I didn't feel Ertog was as good as my teammates thought it was (they were the ones who used it), and regardless it wasn't my style. Urza's Block and Rath Cycle had most of the decks: Bargain , Squirrel Prison, Urza Stompy, Urza Black, Hatred , Rec/Sur, Awakening , Counterpheonix, U/B Rath Cycle, Rath Red. In general, all the decks outside of Rath Cycle were unable to take advantage of Awakening . Even if the Rebels or Mercenaries got played, the whole engine still loses to a Spike Weaver lock. Counterpheonix, the greatest threat to Awakening in Rath Cycle, is too slow for the threats from other formats. In general, Rath Cycle was unique because it had excellent cards, especially control cards, but it didn't have any really fast threats. The only real 'I win' card was Living Death , and it costs five mana. The worst that could happen early was a Survival, which isn't anywhere near as bad without a Squee or Krovikan, or a red or black creature rush. Every now and then Hatred would kill you, that's about it. This was my decklist:
This was almost exactly my Boston decklist, but with two Sharks in the sideboard for a Tranquility and Portcullis , and two Sharks in the maindeck for three Spike Feeders. If the deck is before your time, here's how it works: First, except Awakening , all your cards are good control cards: Defensive creatures, counters, Capsize , Whispers, Legacy's Allures. The deck works fine without Awakening , and against other decks with Rath Blue in them you take them out. Your creatures are great with Tradewind: Wall of Blossoms for cards, Spike Weaver for infinite fog. With Awakening on the table the deck gets really good. You put each Awakening on the stack under 6th Edition rules. So before it resolves, you float mana from your lands and use your Tradewind Rider to bounce a card (often a land). Then your mana and creatures untap and you can bounce again and get your mana again. You get a second untap on your opponent's upkeep. Before you only got two Tradewind uses per cycle with one Awakening , now it's three. There are basically three sideboard configurations. Against creatures you go to four Weaver, four Oath of Druids and stabilize the creature situation until you win. Against other decks that can use Awakening you take them out for Mana Leaks, and put in Dominating Licid if they also have creatures. Against combination and other non-creature threats like Bargain , you keep Awakening and put in the Leaks for Legacy's Allure . If they have Islands you go to four Hammerhead Sharks, otherwise you have to use Weavers to fill out the deck but you're so strong it should be fine.
First round of Block Party, I faced Dave Humpherys. He played first turn Conclave, I put down a Hammerhead Shark and he avoided playing any Islands for the whole game. He was playing Replenish . I hadn't considered Replenish , because I assumed people who would play Replenish would just play Bargain instead. Apparently I was wrong. Still, I thought I had a gigantic edge because I didn't think Replenish could handle real Counterspells, especially Forbid . Game one, I start winning with Awakening , but he goes for an unprotected Replenish and I don't have my first counter yet! Oh well, these things happen. He brought back more than enough enchantments to win the game. Game two, he uses Attunement and doesn't discard any enchantments (he discards three lands). So I felt I had an opening and went for Tradewind Rider, and with the Tradewind active the next turn I locked him for the win. Game three he stalled on land, so again I went for a fourth turn Tradewind Rider and locked him down.
The next round, I played against the player I least wanted to play in this format, Kai Budde. He was playing Awakening as well, but with Dismiss and Mana Leak instead of Tradewind Rider and Hammerhead Shark . We both thought that gave him a large edge. Game one, I had a good Awakening hand but no Awakening . I knew that if the game went on much longer he had the advantage, so I tried for Spike Weaver . I figured if he countered it that was fine, and if he didn't that was also fine. He countered it, untapped and played Awakening . That was what I was hoping for. I untapped and Whispered, traded counters, and on his turn I Capsized one of my lands with buyback in response to his trying to, killing his Capsize and leaving me with all the buyback cards. I quickly won the game after that. Game two Kai put in an extra land and I didn't, but he drew less land than I did, had to discard, and then I got enough mana to cast Tradewind with counter backup for the win before he got four mana for double Counterspell . That was match.
The last round of Block Party was on day two, and I played against Chris Pikula and his Squirrel Prison deck. I always felt that deck depended too much on drawing Opposition and Deranged Hermit , but when it does (as he did) it is excellent. Randy Buehler covered this match. First game, he left just one blue mana up on turn five. I decided to go for Awakening , since if he had the Annul , of which he probably only played 2-3, it was going to counter the Awakening anyway and I thought I could win anyway unless he also had the Hermit. He had both, and I was in trouble. I managed to get down three Tradewind Rider and two Wall of Blossoms , but he had Squirrel tokens and I was down to 3. He attacked, and I said "Block the Elvish Lyrist and two tokens, bounce one before damage goes on the stack, so I've dealt with [counts five] tokens, I take one." Then Pikula said I'd said 'two' and not 'four.' I couldn't believe it, but Bob Maher (who came for the Grand Prix and to hang out) confirmed it. I asked if he was going to hold me to it, since I clearly intended to block them all. I said I definitely wouldn't hold him to it but I wouldn't blame him either way. He decided to call the arbiter, David Price, and go with whatever Price decided. I was fine with that; if Price says it's fair play, it's fair play. Price decided if I just screwed up Pikula could hold me to it. Only later I remembered it's a lot easier to be generous than to be generous for someone else. So I lost the game. Pikula's explanation later was: "I felt like I was going to lose the game, so if I wasn't going to hold you to it I might as well just scoop." And he was 5-0 at the time. He's apologized for it since then (Hacker made him feel bad about it), and it's over with.
Game two, I drew only two mana but I get out an Oath of Druids , then start casting Wall of Blossoms looking for lands. He declines to Oath and plays Deranged Hermit (instead of Morphling , probably the right play, which he realized later) and I started Oathing. I managed to draw enough lands while I Oathed to keep the Opposition and his creatures tied up so he couldn't attack and kill me. When I was about to have enough creatures to start bouncing tokens and escape, he let me out to try and attack for the kill. I cast Awakening and won quickly while Spike Weaver kept me alive. Game three I traded my counters for his creatures, and we ended up with a Spike Weaver and Wall of Blossoms on my side and a Deranged Hermit on his. He cast a second Hermit and I just kept drawing counters. I spent three turns using Weaver, and drew Oath of Druids the turn I was going to die. Too late. The whole game I had Awakening and didn't draw a single Capsize or Whispers. Pikula went to 6-0 and I went to 4-2.
I'm pretty sure Awakening was the right call for this tournament, and that the Tradewinds belonged in the deck. They were amazing every match, and even more than that they let you sideboard Oath of Druids , which I think is amazing. The sideboard should still have had two Tranquilities in it, but I couldn't find more than one. I didn't worry about not bringing them because they're a common in the current draft set, but I only found one lying around. Card access did have a significant impact on the Invitational players. All of them managed to get a set of the power Type I cards, but more obscure stuff (like Awakening ) wasn't as easy. In particular, it was often impossible to switch to a deck. Baberowski and Budde played their Awakening without Tradewinds because of when they did well with the deck originally. Kai made the finals of GP:Birmingham with just three Tradewinds, and he sideboarded them out and put in Grindstone and Ertai's Meddling . They liked this strategy enough to board in Verdigris against me to kill any Grindstones I brought in. Other Awakening players put in Dominating Licid at the time, copying my Boston sideboard from earlier in the season, and that left them helpless. The problem was that was largely a metagame decision for that tournament, and without Tradewinds the deck is much less stable. They didn't like them as much because they didn't have the extra creatures to activate them more often. When I designed the deck, I added creatures until I felt it had enough to consistently activate its Tradewinds.
Block Party was a lot of fun, and I think they should sanction the format, banning and unbanning cards as needed until the blocks are more balanced. For example, Thawing Glaciers can probably come back, as can Zuran Orb . It gives people a chance to keep playing their old decks. It's great to sit down and suddenly start thinking "what does Awakening do about Squirrel Prison?" Everyone can play the deck they enjoy the most, and they never need new cards for the format. They're going to seriously consider this format, possibly even pushing it in addition to making it sanctioned. Try it out; it's a blast.
Part 3 will include the disasterous Solomon Drafts, where I get to go over all my horrible mistakes.
Zvi Mowshowitz
All questions, comments, and responses welcomed at
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