2024-02-23 MC Chicago 75k Standard Open with WU Jerrys (9-5, 32nd)

Introduction

Standard RCQ season has been going for a while, plus Wizards revived Standard Showdown events. Then since I didn't pre-register for the big ticket limited events at MC Chicago, I had to fall back on the Standard Open.

Previous to this, I was playing Domain in local Standard events. The archetype was fine previously, but I think Domain has fallen behind the curve at this point in the rotation timeline. While other decks are abusing Novice Inspector, Domain has plateaued its card choices, trying to do the same thing as a year ago.
The only real variations are in the sweeper suite - Temporary Lockdown main, or trying out No Witnesses from MKM, and various SB choices. Additionally, it doesn't really do anything through turn 3 at which point Boros Convoke has probably killed you.

Two weeks ago I attended RC Denver and a friend (Jerry) went 5-2 in the Sunday 5k with this list. His performance was more robust than that of our other mates (3-3, 2-3), both solid players who are already qualified for RC Dallas in Standard this season.
The deck plays powerful cards & synergies, and comes in at just enough of a meta angle to catch people off guard. As of today, the "Azorius tokens" archetypes is the sixth most popular Azorius archetype in the format, behind Control, Tempo, Midrange, Soldiers, Artifact Aggro, Aggro.

Benefits of playing an off-meta deck: everyone in the event has a plan vs Esper Midrange, but they'll have to expend a moderate amount of mental energy to adjust to this deck, not knowing the exact card choices of the archetype unless they have also studied Jerry's exact decklist.
So in honor of Jerry lending me the deck, I rechristened the deck "WU Jerrys", since it produces so many tokens that I just call them Jerrys.

Decklist

• I think modern deckbuilding utilizes three core tenets: play good cards, build synergies (plural), and have an X-factor that can run over the game.
  
• Play good cards: all of these cards are tried-and-tested staples of UWx strategies in Standard. No More Lies, Wedding Announcement, Virtue of Loyalty, Wandering Emperor - these cards are a pretty high floor of power level.
• Build synergies: The one-drop suite of Spyglass Siren, Novice Inspector, and Warden of the Inner Sky establishes the board and smoothly transitions into the midgame. Not only do they enable Warden, but they can crew Subterranean Schooner which does a decent Smuggler's Copter impression, then grow via Virtue of Loyalty and Wedding Announcement.
• X-factor: The Christmas-land scenarios where a deck does something that's basically unbeatable. In other decks, this could be a turn 2/3 Amulet Titan kill, turn 1 Grief-scam, Pioneer Rakdos Vampires cheating a big vampire in on T3 at the PT, Esper Midrange's sequence of Deep-Cavern Bats into Raffine.
  For this deck, it's Invasion of Segovia + Virtue of Loyalty. The absolute nuts would be 1 drop into Schooner on 2 into flipping Invasion on 3, but realistically that's more of a T4+ play. But getting it off makes the board virtually unbeatable, and can hold up Wandering Emperor, countermagic, or Destroy Evil/Elspeth's Smite.
  
• I think the deck is generally favored vs Esper, which plays a lot of 1-for-1 removal which are inherently bad vs cards that make 2+ permanents.
• While drafting my sideboard guide, I noticed I was cutting Regal Bunnicorn and bringing Destroy Evil in virtually every matchup. So I made those changes to the base deck.
  Trimmed a Schooner and Spyglass Siren to incorporate 2 Novice Inspectors.
  Added a Cryptic Coat for power reasons replacing the second Bunnicorn.
• Speaking of which, Destroy Evil is kind of insane these days, to the point where 3 toughness instead of 4 is often an upside.
  
• SB: Elspeth's Smite is anti-aggro, including Glissa Sunslayer which is unbeatable in combat.
• SB: Disdainful Stroke is anti-domain & control. Should switch to a mix of Stroke/Negate
• SB: Doorkeeper Thrull comes in vs Boros Convoke which I encountered a fair bit in Arena Bo3 testing, as well as Domain and potentially Bx decks that lean heavily on ETBs besides the Deep-Cavern Bat.
• SB: Tocasia's Welcome is for every UBx matchup (Esper and UB).
• SB: Sunfall is for UBx, Convoke, GB, and any other flavor of midrange that tries to play 3+ creatures.

 SB guide picture

Rounds

• R1 Francisco Gonzalez Iturriga on UB Midrange LWW (1-0)
  
• R2 Chris Castro-Rappl on UB Midrange WW (2-0)
  
• R3 Brendan Brown on Slogurk Legends WLW (3-0)
  In SB game, opponent attacked with a Slogurk and attempted to Takenuma for extra damage. Got them with my one sideboarded Elspeth's Smite, sorry opponent thanks for being cool about it.
  
• R4 Ben Holt on Boros Convoke WLL (3-1)
  
• R5 Andrew Elenbogen on Esper Mid LWW (4-1)
  
• R6 Matthew Holderness on Boros Convoke LWW (5-1)
  Doorkeeper Thrull was huge. Held a Sunfall in hand SB game, observed that opponent was representing Resolute Reinforcements, then cast Sunfall off-curve on turn 6 making it irrecoverable for him.
  
• R7 Matt Sikkink Johnson on Esper Midrange WLL (5-2)
  Game win was from tardiness, then I got smoked. His list was running Temporary Lockdowns
  
• R8 Michael Martin on RB Midrange WW (6-2)
  Made it to day 2. R4 and R7 losses mean that my breakers put me in the upper crust of 6-2s making it to day 2 (23rd of 68).
• R9 John Aki on Esper Midrange WLW (7-2)
• R10 Brian Zeng on Sultai Squirming Emergence LWL (7-3)
  Lose game 3 on a mulligan decision. Mulled to 6 with hand shown.
  Didn't have a white source so I bottomed Destroy Evil instead of Invasion of Segovia. Topdecked Seachrome Coast, then got wrecked by an unanswered Founding of the Third Path that filled up their graveyard and rebought a Duress.
  
• R11 Michelle Y on Mono R WLW (8-3)
  Some concerns about slow play. G3 countered first Urabrask's Forge, then pressured & survived the second. Perhaps shouldn't have blocked tokens early, but was trying to bait out spells.
  
• R12 Federico Giardini on Esper Mid LWL (8-4)
  G3 he plays Lord Skitter on 3. I make a Knight token. T4 he plays Raffine, attacks with rat token + Lord Skitter. I didn't expect the double attack. Should have made a second Knight token and double blocked, instead auto-pilot blocked the token, then Raffine got to connive a bajillion times from the rat tokens.
• R13 Daniel Garcia Ross on BG LWW (9-4)
  Doorkeeper Thrull and Sunfall huge. Also playing around Tranquill Frillback, which can answer multiple of my powerful enchantments for relatively low cost.
  
• R14 Aaron Miotke on Domain LWL (9-5)
  Maindeck Temporary Lockdown, then beaten by uncountered Herd Migrations in G1/3.
  G3 kept a medium hand with no countermagic, possibly wrong in the matchup but I didn't run into any Domain during testing so unsure.
  Opponent made top 16 on breakers, while I cashed out at 32nd for $500.
  

Thoughts

• Deck was solid. Needed to tighten play up on day 2 - avoid auto-piloting priority passes and combat passes. Take a second to review board states and new information. Also applies for drawing cards & spellcasts.
  
• Barely missed a few EoT triggers, similarly need to not miss those.
  
• Ought to play more competitive online Magic. Standard Showdowns and RCQs aren't building good habits, and most local players aren't on meta decks.
• Thoughts on Standard - there's a lot of play for strategic decision-making as well as space for brewing (Sultai Emergence, whatever cftsoc is playing this week, etc.)
• If you're trying to spike an RCQ, picking up Esper, UB, Mono R, really any of the top 10 meta decks is fine.
• Other side of the coin: the same approach is flawed for larger events (opens, RCs).
  Suppose you play Esper/Dimir Midrange like 25% of the field. Everyone knows about Esper. Everyone has a plan for Esper. Given those factors, simply being a better player isn't going to elevate your Esper winrate to 80%.
  Exhibit B: showing up with Temur Rhinos to RC Denver.
  
• Cashed two MagicCon opens in a row. Dissatisfied with this performance, since there were a few decision points I should have clearly played better.

Chicago asides

• Deep dish is a tourist trap, but you can enjoy it as long as you treat it for what it is. Which applies to a lot of things actually. (what it is is a hefty casserole dish)
• Chicago dogs are an absolutely fascinating construct. even after all these years. It's rolled around in the garden (onions, mustard, pickle spear, sport peppers), features neon green relish, and a dash of celery salt. The cardinal sin is to ask for ketchup on your Chicago dog (there's a hot dog in there too in case you missed it).
• Italian beef sandwiches are enjoyable as well. We actually hoteled in River North, which is an upscale downtown neighborhood and not at all how The Bear depicts the area lol. What really makes an Italian beef is the Chicago-style giardiniera.
  
• Malort
  
• Chinatown and Little Vietnam on Argyle are still mandatory stops on my Chicago visits. I should try to explore some of the smaller shops/restaurants next time.

2024-02-18 Dragon Snack Games RCQ MKM Limited Win* (6-1-1)

Introduction

First time the store was running a limited RCQ. Fortunately we had several experienced players and an L5 judge on hand to keep things on track. I had played one prerelease and several Arena Bo1 drafts before this.

Morph formats are inherently mid-size, if that makes sense? Lots of cards will trade into a 2/2 with no (combat) abilities. The combat tricks are very high quality, reminding me a bit of ONE. A successful trick will almost always blow a game open, and vice versa a counterplayed trick can lose the game.

Fixing is above average in terms of quality and availability. More on that during discussion of my draft deck.

Sealed Pool

• Blue was the deepest color but low on creatures. Black had some okay individual cards but not deep enough.
• Red green and white covered all the bases: bodies, fixing, removal, tricks. Even Treacherous Terrain as a win-con since nobody else researched the MKM List cards ahead of time. Also very powerful to have your opponent on a one-turn clock that they don't know about.
• Might even have had too much fixing - Gravestone Strider played defense duty very well and I don't think I filtered with it at all in any games.
• Changes, probably cut the Absolving Lammasu for a Push // Pull. Consider adding a second Mountain for late game.
  

Sealed Rounds

• R1 Nick R on RW WW (1-0)
  
• R2 Michael N on GRu LWW (2-0)
  
• R3 Aaron M on RGW WLL (2-1)
  
• R4 James B on RWG WLW (3-1)
  
• R5 ID (3-1-1, 3rd in Swiss)
  

Draft deck

• P1P1 Vein Ripper, hadn't seen the card before but clearly S-tier bomb
• P1P2 get passed Hide in Plain Sight and another rare. Either a 3-rare pack or neighbor is setting me up in green I'll take it.
• For the rest of the draft I tried to keep myself open, picking up numerous pieces of fixing and morph disguise creatures to keep creature counter reasonable.
• White was clearly not open, and pack 3 passed an early pack with two Rubblebelt Mavericks neither of which wheeled.
• Blue was a back-up plan but very splashable.
• Because Vein Ripper was a first pick it allowed be to draft the color balance. Green was a ramp color but never had to be a primary (it wasn't open enough to be a primary color). The color-fixing between Escape Tunnel and They Went This Way (my unofficial invitational card) also doubled as deck-thinning for finding my Vein Ripper.
• I should have played Make Your Mark and a Plains over Cryptex and an Island. Cryptex would have been better if I had two-three more graveyard payoffs/enablers.
  

Draft rounds

• QF Michael N on GBr splashing Incinerator of the Guilty. Won via insane topdecks
  
• SF Aaron M on RGu. Won via mana screw
  
• F Patrick P on WB. Not terribly aggressive, but high quality removal suite. He had to boardwipe 7 creatures in G3 with Vein Ripper out, then I rebought it with Macabre Reconstruction.

* I split the finals and gave Patrick the invite.

Thoughts

• I enjoy formats with quality fixing that enables moderate amounts of nonsense.
• Cheap 1/3s and 1/4s are key to stalling out board states. Much worse if people are appropriately valuing combat tricks.
• Bo1 league draft continues to be vastly different from paper pod & Bo3. Generally I think pod draft power level is down because you're actually fighting over lanes and cards, and you have a general idea of threats you'll run into.
• Enjoyed playing against all of my opponents and battling it out (and the triumph)
• Got to do the top 2 split draft I had been thinking about. Instead of proposing a fixed split: put all prize items into a pool, then draft them with finals winner getting first pick. That said I misplayed my pick 1 because shiny treasure go ooh
  

2024-02-10 RC Denver with 4C Omnath (4-3-1)

Introduction

I qualified for the RC Denver previously with a Beanstalk Omnath list. Amulet Titan was identified as one of the top decks during winter, so I practiced with it at weeklies. But as the event approached, Rhinos was identified as the top deck and it generally held a 60% or so winrate vs Titan, so I decided that playing a deck weak to the top dog & targeted by everyone else was not the way to go.

The matchup matrices ahead of Denver weekend suggested that 4C "control" was favored into the major decks, and I figured that Teferi + Chalice + removal is a much better deck in open decklist events.

Decklist

• Nothing spicy imo.
• Test of Talents is a choice for specialized Cascade hate & applicable in other matchups. Not great especially against their plan Bs.
  

Rounds

• R1 Ethan King on "5C" (Naya) Creativity LL (0-1)
  
• R2 Logan Christiansen on Temur Rhinos WLD (0-1-1)
  Opponent lined up all their interaction perfectly in G2.
  They misplayed G3 and declined to concede vs a board state of Teferi + Elesh Norn + W6 on turn 5.
  
• R3 on WB Taxes LWL (0-2-1)
  Misplayed horrifically against Archon of Emeria. Fortunately didn't see their Leonin Arbiters.
  
• R4 Joshua Lynn on Rhinos. WW (1-2-1)
  Answered their rhinos in G1 and G2 landed a T2 Teferi.
  
• R5 Jaime Gonzalez on UR Murktide WLW (2-2-1)
  Cut Halflings in this matchup, but generally favored as long as I have fetches on turns 1-2. Especially important on the draw in SB matches. The tricky part is remembering that you can't cast a turn 2 W6 AND get a basic Plains. It just doesn't work like that.
  Also helps when your opponent mulls to 5 in two different games.
  I did Subtlety his T1 Ragavan (me OTP) in G3 with him on a mull to 5. Heads-up play from him, he bottomed it and I cast a Chalice for 1 on turn 2
  
• R6 vs no show (3-2-1)
• R7 Caleb Mears on Living End WW
• R8 Leonard Routh on Amulet Titan LWL
  G1 and G3 he kind of just had unanswered One Ring that took over the game. G1 it was a Ring into Grazer ramp into Cultivator Colossus for roughly ten lands. G3 it was double Amulet into T2 Ring. FoV on the Amulets but no Binding ... doubt that I'm supposed to FoV singleton Amulet.
  Dropped afterwards.
  

Thoughts

• Very happy with my deck choice and card selection.
• Very disappointed with my play in games 2 and 3.
• Woke up from Friday nap with a severe headache, combination dehydration and altitude adjustment. Would recommend overhydrating if traveling to the city in the clouds.
  
• Went to a fantastic steakhouse called Guard + Grace in downtown Denver on Friday night. Every course was excellent, service was fantastic even though they were clearly experiencing an super busy night. My biggest regret was not taking a seat that faced their open kitchen.
• Venue was rough. Low ceiling (20 ft) or so. Decor and amenities not really updated since the aughts. Oh, and the local city government is purchasing the property to turn into a homeless shelter "homeless navigation campus".
  
• Which I find to be crazy. Hypothetically, that convention center can bring in two thousand people per weekend which should be around a million dollars of economic spend. But it must not be that busy, or the homeless problem is so bad, that the city would rather spend 26MM (up-front) and way more in the future rather than have it as an economic driver for the area.
• Vendors lacked new & staple cards, as expected for Dreamhack RCs.
  
• More snow in Denver than Buffalo, wowee.
• Ton of sprawl, from the limited bits of the region I saw. Downtown was dense enough, but the greater metro definitely took the opportunity to spread out a bit.
• Low score, oft-tied Superbowl was intriguing.
• Superbowl ads are fascinating. Some observations:
  Huh I wonder how many locations they shot in for this
  Temu did a mobile gaming ad but for Chinese Amazon. I checked their website. The prices are all worse than Aliexpress, but UX is all about the 90% OFF SALE GET IT NOW OMGGGG!111
  American sportsball imperialism ad. You can tell it was the NFL's because it lacks the urgency of everyone else's thirty second slots.
  and then there's reverse sportsball imperialism
• Since I booked my flight for Monday @ midnight and everyone else flew out in the morning, I hung out in the lobby and basically LFGd for an airport Uber. Of my erstwhile companions, one was a limited lover who had earned a grand TWENTY Festivals in a Box off the MTG Arena event, and the other dropped out of the main to play in Legacy side events, doing fairly well in those.
• So you know how online recipes start off with enormous blobs of nonsense and only provide the recipe at the end? This is that but in reverse.
• I did a learning topic on the subject at work - the problem is that SEO and the online content business model do not incentivize providing you with good recipes. Instead SEO rewards high keyword count, high engagement duration (i.e. scrolling through the whole page), and high uniqueness (a life story followed by a distinct recipe). Also, the website doesn't directly make money from you using the recipe, so they're making money from affiliate links, ad banners, and selling your data in all likelihood.
• Getting back to the RC, after spending more words discussing ancillary subjects than the event itself. This was my most successful run yet (0-3, 2-4) and the most successful of our local contingent (0-4, 1-4, 2-4).
• Thoughts on Modern. Domain Rhinos was definitely the secret sauce for the weekend.
  Rhinos is probably the best deck by a little too much right now, since it has a two-turn clock and the best free interaction.
  Orcish Bowmasters should exit the format, and take The One Ring with it. Bowmasters oppresses X/1s and draw spells. But as long as The One Ring is out there Bowmasters is needed to keep it in check. The other problematic part is that it's too hyper-efficient. You can remove it, yes. But you're going to be trading down on tempo and/or resources every time. The counterplay is to... not play X/1s and draw spells?
• MH3 is almost guaranteed to rotate the format, as well as the Universes Beyond that will inject modern-legal cards. I hold no positive expectations for this. Who knows, maybe we'll see Gut Shot + put the top one card of your library into your hand {R/P}{1} as an answer to Bowmasters.