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Editor: Sharon Van Der Werk. Sunday 18th December 2005. |
 The Next Tasmanian on the Tour By Nicolas Rolf Last month in November, my brother and I attended the GP in Melbourne . He played Affinity and I piloted my loyal MUC deck. While I made day two thanks to three byes I won the previous month, my Brother scrubbed out badly. Come the second day he played in the PTQ for Honolulu with his same Affinity deck. While I slugged through the main event, he sat over in the side event area absolutely crushing all his opponents because none of them run enough hate to deal with Affinity.
So While I finished a distant 37 th in the GP, my Brother snagged a ticket to Hawaii . In the lead up to the PTQ I didn't hear the end of it. He even refused at times to help me test of the PTQ because there was no reason for him to do so. With play testing a problem I decided I'd go with the same deck my Brother played, the extremely hated, Affinity.
A week before the event, however, I went and looked over the decks played at the Pro Tour. To my delight there was a strange rogue concoction played by two Dutch players, Frank Karsten and Kamiel Cornelissen. They finished 32 nd and 33 rd respectively so I decided to give their deck a go and found out that is was actually a very fun deck to play as well as being efficient.
Here's the list I played:
Dutch Gifts
1 Plains 5 Island 5 Forest 1 Genesis 4 Farseek
Sideboard:
The only change I made was to add in an Arcane Laboratory to the sideboard because I was afraid of the U/G Desire matchup. After a full week of playing the deck, I figured out most of the basic interactions with Miren, the Moaning Well, Eternal Witness and Genesis to make “infinite” of any card, namely Mindslaver if you could get the 22 mana you need for it.
The most apparent plan in the deck is to go for the Solitary Confinement + Genesis lock. This guarantees you victory in game 1 vs. almost anything Aggro. It can also be accomplished post board thanks to Meddling Mage. The Dutch obviously knew this would let them beat most of the field for Extended i.e. Goblins and Affinity. Surprisingly though I noticed that Kamiel lost two matches to Affinity, which I thought was odd.
Anyway, I scrounged together the cards to make the deck; I even got a hold of some duel lands for it. By the time I had done this there was one day left before the event. I found some slips for my deck; play tested till late in the Morning and then the day was upon me.
After crawling out of bed to wake my Brother, we get a lift to town where we purchase lunch and the nutritious breakfast of Mc Donald's. We then make our way to Venue and behold the huge 14 person turn out. I hand in my deck list, pay and then it's time for the first round. I had to win this event, if I lost my brother would forever taunted me that he made it to the Pro Tour first.
Round 1 - Jarrod with U/B Ruel Affinity
Great hand vs. Affinity, lands and a Gifts Ungiven, that's all you need game 1 and is a keeper vs. any deck in the first game. Because unless you've scouted you won't know what your opponent is playing and this hand lets you answer most threats. The deck played at as it was supposed to, I stalled until I played Gifts Ungiven, about turn 5 or 6, went for the Solitary Confinement + Genesis lock and he had no answer. That's about how your Affinity matches go game 1. Got to love Solitary Confinement, I'm just glad no one ever makes you sit there for the full 50 turns. Honestly if someone did that it would be nearly enough to make me concede with boredom.
Game 2, I open with a Cabal Therapy naming the angry Frogmite, saw 2 Darkblasts and an Erayo, Soratami Ascendant, those being the only cards of note. So being the sleep depraved magic genius I am, I decided to play a turn 2 Kataki War's Wage when he had a black mana open…….. Yep that's how great I can be at times. So, he played the Erayo and passed the turn. My memory is a bit hazy at this point, it's been well over a week and I took no notes, but what I do know is that at the end of his 4 th turn I played a Fact or Fiction, which he countered via Disrupt and flipped his Erayo. Because I'm so good, I can even help him flip his own Erayo, oh yeah! In the end, thanks to playing a few dud spells to trigger Erayo each turn, I managed to make five 4/4 flying angels to swing for the win with a rather large Decree of Justice.
1 – 0
Sideboarding:
+1 Disenchant +1 Naturalize +1 Wrath of God
-1 Mindslaver -4 Counterspell
That's what I did for this match, it's not how it should be done, I just never had time to practice sideboarded games and it's proven that Tasmanians can't sideboard properly. In hindsight it should look like this: +1 Disenchant +1 Naturalize
-1 Mindslaver
This is providing you want to go for the short game via Solitary Confinement and Genesis. When you sit down and look at this deck, it's wonderfully diverse; if you wanted you could take out the Confinement lock as they will bring in cards to deal with it, this creates card advantage for you, as they will more then likely take creatures out. But if you plan on going for the short game name Disenchant and Echoing Truth with Meddling Mage. Alternately you could go for a solid recursion engine of Kataki while using Cranial Extraction to take away their 1 answer, Darkblast. But that shouldn't be done unless you want to be really trixsy.
Game 2 - Simmo with B/W/g aggro
Game one and I have no idea what my opponent is playing, but I keep a hand with Cabal Therapy anyway. After I see an Overgrown Tomb I Therapy for Hypnotic Specter and get one, but he proceeds to just draw another Specter off the top, like the Tasmanian pro that he is. I take 1 hit from it and wrath the turn after, thus ending my flying chums life. Poor Simmo is out of luck and draws nothing much for the rest of the game until I go all the way with my angels.
Game two his deck does what it is apparently supposed to do. A few quick Vindicates on my lands, followed by a Braid's Cabal Minion ends my life reasonably quickly; I never stood a chance. The next few turns held a Sword of Fire and Ice on a Spectral Lynx, which is enough to make most players cry. Pursued by a well timed Haunting Echoes = I scoop.
Game three, we traded a few removal spells, my Wrath of Gods for his creatures, his Vindicates for my lands and some discard to make my hand smaller. When late game came around, I realized what my deck is supposed to do! It was so clear; I'm supposed to cast an Eternal Witness for an Eternal Witness for an Eternal Witness for a Recollect. This allows me to make “infinite” 2/1's and out aggro my opponent, clearly the best control plan ever. I managed to pull a win off with this plan, much to the bewilderment of my opponent.
2 – 0
Sideboarding:
+1 Wrath of God
-1 Mindslaver -3 Counterspell
I'm sure you're wondering, “why the Engineered Plagues?” that wasn't a goblin deck. While that is true, Nantuko Shades and Spectral Lynxes look a lot less aggressive when they can't even make it into play. With the Meddling Mages, don't try and be techy like I did, just name Vindicate, it's safer. Hypnotic Specter isn't too much of a deadly threat, losing your lands, however, is. Against anything black, keeping your Genesis recursion in your deck is dangerous, even though I won off it later in the tournament, you risk dead cards because of the Withered Wretches that now see common play. So taking the card out is a feasible option.
Game 3 - Ryan with U/G Desire
After winning the dice roll I choose to play and open with what seems to be a promising hand against U/G Desire. Having watched Ryan's previous match I knew what he was playing and this gave me an advantage on knowing what to keep. For my first four turns I play nothing but lands until the end of his 4 th turn. He plays a Heartbeat of Spring giving me double mana and allowing me to cast two of the powerful Gifts Ungiven at the end of his turn. Is it possible to lose after that? Well the answer should be no, but in this case it was yes. On my turn I played an Eternal Witness and instead of retrieving a Cabal Therapy I went for a Mindslaver I couldn't use, and passed the turn without even using the Therapy's flashback. He had triple Early Harvest; needless to say I lost that game and was pretty ashamed at how poorly I played so I resolved to do better.
Game two was probably one of the most stupidly one-sided matches I ever played vs. Desire. I managed to draw into all 3 Meddling Mages and named, Cunning wish, Brain Freeze, Echoing Truth. A very stupid point in the match was when I forgot what my Meddling Mages had named. This prompted me to take his turn with Mindslaver and try to deck him. After wasting a large amount of time and putting the opportunity to win the match in jeopardy I realized my mistake and went all the way with my Mages.
The final game went incredibly quickly; if my memory serves me correctly he played something like 4 Heartbeat of Spring. He tried to pull off a Mind's Desire at one point, but he managed to snag nothing except for lands, which was quite amusing. I was quick to make a huge number of angels and go all the way in one turn.
3-0
Sideboarding:
+ 3 Meddling Mage + 2 Cabal Therapy + 1 Haunting Echoes
- 3 Moment's Peace - 2 Wrath of God - 1 Pernicious Deed
This is, in my view the best way you can sideboard for this matchup. You can bring in the Naturalize and Disenchant to try and abuse the Opponent's Heartbeat of Spring and then destroy it, but it's more in your interests to let it live. The other option is to bring in the Arcane Laboratory and attempt to soft lock them under a recurring Counterspell. You may consider changing between plans in game 2 and 3 if you need to. The opponent probably won't bring in much, and if you can name Cunning Wish with a Meddling Mage you can lock them under Solitary Confinement and they will have no answers.
Game 4 - Tom with Dredge-A-Tog
I came into this match expecting to lose and even tried to make my opponent accept an intentional draw. With him politely refusing it was on to shuffling up for game one. I did nothing for most of the game, occasionally trying to force through some draw spells, which mostly were countered. My opponent got his Life from the Loam cycling engine online and did nothing except draw and counter my spells for about 5 turns, at which point, with Genesis, Psychatog and Wonder in the bin he played out a Psychatog. At that point I though there was no way I could win, I guess I just got lucky. I drew a Mindslaver. Played out a Heartbeat of Spring to bait counters, I saw none so I played the Mindslaver took his next turn and decked him.
Game 2 was a bit of a disappointment. I played a turn 2 Meddling Mage, I can't remember what I named, but it didn't really matter. He stalled on two lands and my Meddling Mage went all the way while I stayed back behind a pair of Counterspells.
4-0
Sideboarding:
+ 3 Meddling Mage + 2 Cabal Therapy + 1 Haunting Echoes
- 2 Wrath of God - 1 Pernicious Deed - 3 Moment's Peace
Sideboarding against any Psychatog deck is situational to what you play in game one and what you see in that game. You need to evaluate whether or not a confinement lock will a valid option for the next 2 games. Is the opponent playing any form of enchantment removal? If you didn't play any enchantments will he bother siding any in? Probably not, however your opponent will play Pernicious Deed post board if they saw a Decree of Justice first game, the same is true for them bringing in enchantment removal if they saw Solitary Confinement. So it's really up to you to judge what is worthy in the situation.
Game 5 - Otway with Aggro Rock
I remember pretty much nothing of the first 2 games. Game one I was able to take thanks to angels and the other he used Withered Wretch to remove my graveyard recursion engine, including my Moment's Peace. Game 3 was a tough match, but I didn't really care because I was locked into the top 8 already. He opened with a Duress and while I played out lands he swung in with creatures such as Wild Mongrel and Dark Confident. The late game saw me living of a top-decked Moment's Peace for a turn and then drawing into the powerful Gifts Ungiven. I decided to wait to cast it until the end of my Opponent's turn and sit back on the Moment's Peace in my graveyard. Oh how wrong I was, it seems whenever I'm in a good position to win a match I miss a key play and suffer because of it. At the end of my turn Otway activated the Withered Wretch he had in play that I had over looked, taking the Moment's Peace. On his turn he cast Cabal Therapy, fearing he would name Gifts Ungiven I used it early even though I knew I'd only get 1 card. That's about the point in the match where I lost. After scooping the next turn, I asked if he would have named Gifts, it turns out he was going to name Moment's Peace or Decree of Justice.
4-1
Sideboarding + 1 Wrath of God + 1 Naturalize
- 1 Mindslaver
That's really all you need for this matchup as you deck should be able to beat it anyway, if you feel you can't beat Withered Wretch bring in Meddling Mages. I took out the Solitary Confinement because I was afraid that my opponent was playing enchantment removal, which of course he wasn't. But it's a valid concern when deciding to keep the Confinement in or out of the main deck for games 2 and 3.
The top 8 was announced and the pairing were up, so it was time to get serious and stop making all the same mistakes I'd been making all day. My gracious brother comes over and tells me I'm going to lose horribly because he's already qualified. This just makes me more determined to win though.
Quarter Finals – Steve with White Weenie
My first matchup is against a guy named Steve (I'm pretty sure that was his name, come and slap me around next time you see me if I got it wrong).
Game one, sees some early drops by my opponent, including the usual White Weenie suspects like Suntail Hawk and Hand of Honor followed by an Umezawa's Jitte. My double Moment's Peace however stalled the game until I could find a wrath effect to clear the board and make enough angels to swing for the win.
Game two I was on the draw and drew a hand with no land, so I shipped it back. My 6 card hand only had 1 hand so I threw that back as well. This made me proclaim that I would open 2 lands and 3 Moment's Peace in my new hand. Instead I picked up 3 lands 1 Eternal Witness and 1 Moment's Peace. The deck couldn't really give me anything bad from this point and preceded to hand me a Fact or Fiction and a Gifts Ungiven while I stalled the game with Moment's Peace. My poor opponent, however, didn't side in any enchantment hate because he saw nothing to use it on in the first game. So I gifted for the Solitary Confinement + Genesis lock and sat under that while I made enough angels to swing for the win.
5-1
Sideboarding:
+ 1 Wrath of God + 1 Disenchant
- 1 Mindslaver - 1 Cabal Therapy
This matchup is a rare one and is heavily in your favour as they are just pure aggro with no disruption or answer to your Genesis recursion.
Semi finals – Simmo with B/W/g Aggro
Game one was nothing spectacular, I won with a large Decree of Justice like always. Game two I went down to an unexpected Exalted Angel equipped with a Sword of Fire and Ice, for which I found no answer. Game three was by far the hardest game I played all day though, this I how it happened, to the best of my memory. The game started with the usual small creatures from him and the land searching from me. Then my opponent played a Braid's Cabal Minion. At that point I thought "ok I can deal with this I have a Wrath of God in hand. Come my turn I untap, lose a land to Braid's and cast the wrath clearing the board. On his turn he draws and plays another Braid's, which is very bad for me. He passes the turn and I lose another land to Braid's. I draw an Eternal Witness; play it and a land, retrieving my Wrath of God. On his turn he plays a Nantuko Shade and then uses Vindicate to destroy my second white source so I'm unable to play the Wrath. I lose another land to the Cabal Minion and draw a Sensei's Divining top. At this point I'm down to 3 lands with a second white source floating on top for next turn. I figure I'll chump with my Eternal Witness, untap, sacrifice my Divining Top and play the land then Wrath. But for some reason he only attacks with his Nantuko Shade, dropping me to 1. On my turn I lose my Witness to Braid's, draw my land and Wrath. My opponent draws a land and passes his turn. On my turn I top 3 before draw, finding a Witness and use it recur a Counterspell to stop him being able to draw into any threats. Lucky enough for me, I counter a Spectral Lynx on his turn and my Witness eventually goes all the way with a Sakura-Tribe Elder and Genesis.
6-1
I take a moment to recover from my tense match, drink some water and watch people pack up all but one table for the finals match. Once again my brother comes over and tells me I can't win and should just concede, to which I tell him where to stick it and that I'm going to win this no matter what. So I get up and ask around about Otway's deck, to see if it's possible to Confinement lock him game one, but no one seems to know and then, Otway is ready to play.
The finals – Otway with Aggro Rock
This was it, both of us wanted to win the trip so there was going to be no prize split. What would ensue, however, were 3 of the stupidest games of magic that I reckon have ever happened in the finals of a high R.E.L tournament in Tasmania .
Game 1
Both of us keep our opening hands and Otway begins by making creatures such as Dark Confidant and Wild Mongrel. I ramp up my land count play a Heartbeat of Spring. Otway Plays a Jitte equips it and attacks, I take the pain and Otway passes the turn. On my turn I make enough angels to deal lethal on the coming turn. Otway swings and I drop to dangerously low life. I untap and attack with my angels and… he scoops. He forgot that Jitte could gain him life and realizes after the match because someone shouted it out.
Game 2
This game starts like a normal game. I clear the board with Wrath of God and buy time with Moment's Peace, while he launches and offensive and rips my recursion from my graveyard with Withered Wretch. After a long attrition war it comes down to me with lands and a Divining Top and Otway has a Troll Ascetic equipped with Sword of Fire and Ice. I keep stalling the game by finding a threat with my Divining Top and he keeps swinging while drawing lands. Eventually my top 3 is just land and I can't find anything to deal with the Troll. So Otway swings in and I scoop. That seems like a reasonable game, until you realize that I was on 9 life and the Troll Ascetic only did 7 damage. I had become so intent on trying to avoid a hit from the creature that I thought if it came through once I was surely dead, so I just scooped even though I could have lived.
Game 3
Otway played this game very well, but lost due to my savagely bad sideboarding skills. The final game was touch and go from the beginning until I played a Heartbeat of Spring and just passed the turn. Otway played his turn as though the Heartbeat wasn't there and took burn from it dropping him to 7 life. On my turn, knowing I was dead the following turn, looked at the top 3 cards of my library with Sensei's Divining Top. And what was there I hear you ask? Well, because somewhere along the line I justified keeping it in over Solitary Confinement, a Mindslaver was sitting there starring at me. The one card I should always take out no matter what vs. anything aggro because it's too costly. So I drew it used it, took my opponent's turn, burnt him for 4 with his pain land, Elves of the Deep Shadow and Sword of Fire and Ice. On my turn I used an Eternal Witness to grab my Mindslaver back and finished him off.
7-1
I won. I still can't believe I overcame the semi finals match and then won because I didn't board out Mindslaver. But what can you do. I received some product and was put down as the winner of the tournament.
Well, that's about it, I'm glad that I was able to qualify for the Pro Tour because if I didn't I'm sure I would never have heard the end of it from my brother. As for my deck choice, Dutch Gifts, I believe that even though the Dutch themselves abandoned it, it has potential to be at very least tier 2. This deck is incredibly powerful and I was able to take a tournament with it without even knowing what the deck really does, because there is nothing written about it anywhere. If you have a ptq coming up I seriously recommend you test this deck, it has an incredibly strong game vs. anything aggro and can out control all the control decks expect classic U/B Tog.
If I remember by the time of the Pro Tour I will be sure to find Kamiel Cornelissen and Frank Karsten and thank them for the deck, because without it I probably wouldn't be writing this article and I wouldn't be going to Hawaii . Good Luck to all of you who are still trying to qualify, hopefully this article has helped you or at least provided you with a good read if you didn't just skip to the end.
Cheers,
The Co.
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