2025-05-18 Vibes Championship of the Americas (0-4)

Introduction

After scrubbing out of RC Hartford [link], I signed up to play in Vibes Championship of the Americas at Hartford. For $20 entry, plus buying starter kit ($30 for two starter decks), it's pretty good value since playmat + promo are included as entry

 

What is Vibes? 

Vibes is a Lorcana-esque Trading Card Game (TCG). The art is based on an NFT art series called Pudgy Penguins. Also the game is "Web3" which means it has crypto connotations & stuff.

Gameplay characteristics

Parentheses will be used to describe the approximate Magic equivalent. 

• Cards can be played face-down as rods (lands), which can be flopped (tapped) to produce fish (generic mana).
• Penguins have colors. Fish can be used to summon any color of penguin, but color determines what actions (spells) the penguins can flop pudge for (convoke)
• Cycles (turns) involve players drawing, playing penguins (main phase), opponent does the same, then an action phase (priority round) which can be repeated if additional actions happen.
• The end of turn involves a vibe check, where players determine which penguin has the most vibe (power)
• Winning the vibe check awards you with Baron Fishpockets (idk, initiative?). The winner then puts the top card of their library in as a flopped rod, and the loser draws a card. Then the next cycle starts and if the player with Baron Fishpockets has 15+ cards out, they win.
• Also Baron Fishpockets determines who gets to take the first moves per cycle. 

Gameplay

• Establishing early board presence is important to take actions (convoke spells), as well as accelerating on rods.
• Both players draw on each turn, and both players "receive" a card when the vibe check happens. This means that there's a lot of resource parity, which gives repeated removal an edge.
• Starter decks feature pretty basic mechanics, of course. But even with just one set released there's already a massive gap in card power level. Imaging the difference between a 2/2 1G with vigilance vs Bunkus (Hogaak) or Bizmo (Thassa's Oracle).
• There are also rareish trap lands that can be revealed as actions.
• Since the game is won after a player wins the vibe check and has fifteen permanents at the start of their turn, players close in on 15 permanents at approximately the same time.
• This leads to a couple of showdown turns where many things happen.
• Unlike Magic, if the source of an action (ability) is removed in response, the act is countered
• The game is run as best-of-1 since parity is pretty core to the game. There aren't enormous benefits to going first, while cards that can flop opposing penguins are better on the reactive side.

Round Summary

I lost four rounds. I'll chalk it up to a combination of not understanding tempo priority of Baron Fishpockets, valuation of cards-as-rods vs their front faces, not buying upgrades, and plain old-fashioned bad luck.

2025-05-17 RC Hartford with Jeskai Control (2-4)

Introduction

Skipped RC Minneapolis despite dual-queueing, wasn't feeling it. Hartford is driveable so hopped in a car and away we went.

Decklist

• Casey Miller took down RC Minneapolis with the deck, so surely it's good right?
• The theory was that Jeskai Control had a good matchup spread, especially against public enemy #1 UR Prowess. I tweaked the SB a bit - Obstinate Baloths out since Pixie is virtually absent from the meta, add some Ghost Vacuums for various matchups - Omniscience, Jeskai Oculus, Stormchaser's buyback, delirium, etc.
• I practiced the deck for a few dozen matches on Arena, felt okay. Took it out to a paper event just to test casting the spells and physical manipulation of cards. Printed out tokens for Three Steps Ahead & Shiko copies.

Swiss

• R1 Adam Bruce on UW Omniscience (1-0)
  G1 I hold two removal spells. He reanimates Omniscience, casts a second one. I try to remove the first, he bounces it and gets to stick two Omnis. I concede early for time since I have nothing left & he's still at 20.
  G2 we durdle around. I crunch his life total down, removing creatures. I have a Ghost Vacuum on board. He hits 10 mana and double Omnis, but has no gas left and dies.
  G3 he misses land 4 and I have answers gg
• R2 Ryan Condon on UR Prowess LL (1-1)
  Both games I'm able to stabilize, getting to 21 life in G1 and 17 life from 1 in G2. But then by recurring Stock Ups opp is able to sculpt his hand enough to one-shot me, since this build of Jeskai isn't really able to deal with that.
• R3 Daniel Deckman on Jeskai Control LD (1-2)
  He looks familiar. We actually played at MagicCon Vegas 2023!
  G1 goes long, my understanding was I could play for a mill victory since we both have more removal than threats but then I find a clump of a bajillion lands while he churns through his deck enthusiastically and is able to bash me with a Shiko before I can find another Get Lost.
  G2 draw
• R4 Adam Broeking on Jeskai Oculus WLW (2-2)
  Game 1 I stabilize at 5 then turn the corner by bashing with Marang River Regent, then next turn copy it with Three Steps Ahead and bash again. He puts up a bunch of blockers iirc Siren + two Oculus, top deck my second Three Steps Ahead ggg
  Game 2 draw poorly, first hand is 4 lands + high curve cards, second hand has a couple cheaper interactions but then draws into the same as the first
  Game 3 idk, took it down.
• R5 Adam Snook on UR Prowess LL (2-3)
  G1 I get slow rolled into a turn 5 one shot from 19
  G2 my notes don't show much but I die who cares about the details
• R6 Michael Belfatto on UR Prowess WLL (2-4)
  idk, he knows the matchup better than I
  Temporary Lockdown is absolutely needed to stabilize, but given about ten turns UR will find their Into the Floodmaws to sweep them away. G2 he briefly miscalculates lethal with bouncing Temporary Lockdown on an Authority of the Consuls + Stormchaser's Talent but I still die a few turns later.
• R7 Quinn Tonole on Mono R LL
  My drop didn't register I guess. Didn't actually play this one.

Is UR the best deck? and public discourse

There were some RC commentators who expressed the opinions that UR is powerful but not ban-worthy, people are too ban-thirsty, but most importantly grinders are too lazy to solve for the problem that is UR in the metagame. This is pretty nonsensical. There are several thousands of very experienced players trying to solve the format, but it keeps rotating because new busted cards come out and obsolete the old ones. Standard is now in this weird ebb and flow of power creep, where a card like Nowhere to Run will define a meta, obsoleting X/3s, putting people back on X/4s, only to be pushed out by repeated creature value. Sure, we shouldn't kneejerk ban everything. But the problem isn't that grinders are lazy, it's that Standard is a tough freaking format now where everything is powerful but simultaneously not good enough. Might write up a post on how to fix Standard later, idk

I chose my deck based on flawed premises

1. The top decks are approximately the same power level.
2. Jeskai has a solid matchup into UR, and resolving Temporary Lockdown mostly wins the game.
3. I acquired enough practice with Jeskai from playing it on Arena and briefly in paper.

Conclusions & Takeaways

• I didn't do quality prep for the tournament, therefore I wasn't so practiced & in tune with my deck that I was able to zone in on the key decisions for my matchups.
• Coping that I didn't get the sweaty UR practice that I needed. 

2025-05-10 D&A RCQ Judging

Introduction

Third judge write up! I've been judging at this store on and off since 2018 which is ... old to think about.

We got 10 players, which is a fine number for 5 rounds top 4. 9 is bad because you're over-doubling the number of rounds from 8 people single elim, and it's not 14-16 where the majority of people get eliminated from playoff contention quickly & you have a lot of irrelevant matches.

There but for the grace of my generosity go I

I lent my Jeskai Ascendancy deck to a local, offered a couple tips, then left him mostly to his own devices. Thanks to reading my blog, he piloted the deck to first seed in the Swiss with a 3-1-1 record WWWDL. My observations and notes:

• He prioritized beatdown lines over value. This is fine, beatdown is definitely an axis you can lean on. But Emry recursion + Stock Up value beatdown is also a form of beatdown.
• Take some time to read Jeskai Ascendancy. It has two triggers. It interacts with Emry & 0 drops to go infinite P/T, then the looting lets you loot as many times as you want. You can then make infinite mana by looping Moxen and cast all non-creature artifacts from your yard. With two Jeskai Ascendancies, you can also cast Kappa Cannoneer with your extra untap trigger. Secret mode, Jeskai Ascendancy can just be used for discrete pumps + looting
• Fell off as the day went on - noticeably after round 3. This is due to a lack of experience playing >3 rounds, fatigue, skipping lunch & water, etc. All things to be aware of when competing.

Rulings

Cards
Question
Answer
Superfluous commentary

Past in Flames
Does PiF grant flashback to cards that enter the graveyard afterwards?
No, PiF only affects instants and sorceries that are in the graveyard as it resolves (CR 611.2c)

Urza's Saga
AP controls a Saga on 1, plays a land. NAP says that they've missed their trigger.
This is a missed trigger. By this, we are referring to the second chapter ability of Urza's Saga. Adding a counter is a turn-based action that cannot be missed, but AP has failed to demonstrate awareness of the chapter ability by taking an action that presumes the stack is empty.
It didn't matter AP was dead as heck.

Ideas Unbound
NAP cast an Ideas Unbound during the previous turn (draw three, discard three at beginning of end step). They did not discard cards and we are now on AP's turn.
Missed trigger policy. Since choices needed to be made, it becomes a GRV and a warning. Opponent does not receive a warning, since they are never required to remember an opponent's triggers for them.

Indomitable Creativity
AP casts Indomitable Creativity, then goes to shuffle their cards to the bottom of the library.
Resolving Indomitable Creativity requires shuffling the entire library. In this case it was caught during resolution, so AP was informed

Flame of Anor dealing lethal damage to creature equipped by Blade of the Bloodchief
Damage kills creatures when state-based actions are checked (CR 704.5g). The order of Flame of Anor doesn't even matter, because the creature dying from damage is a state-based action that always follows resolution of the spell. That said, you do resolve spells with multiple steps/modes in order from top to bottom.

Gemstone Caverns with luck counter, player taps it for C
Game Rules Violation

Warnings

Situation
Warning
Fix

Situation: Active Player (AP) has two lands. Casts cantrip. Attempts to cast a Murktide Regent off 1 mana, delving 6 cards. Non Active Player (NAP) calls me immediately.
Warning: Game Rule Violation (GRV) - they have performed an illegal action.
Fix: Assess for cheating, then apply a simple back-up since it was caught immediately.

In Conclusion

Event went smoothly. I could have been more on top of slow play. Was able to be present for all players and matches, lots of space to maneuver. We were missing a table marker for #4 but I describe it as a test in object pattern recognition.

2025-05-03 Genesis RCQ with Jeskai Ascendancy (4-0-1, 3-0)

Introduction

Running it back with Jeskai Ascendancy after a semifinals finish. What's neat about the deck is that it can really push the Urza's Saga beatdown plan, unlike Breach. Which is weird to think about, but the density of non-artifact spells in Breach (Underworld Breach, interaction spells, Malevolent Rumble) diluted the artifact count enough that I never found myself doing construct beatdowns (also because you would just win with the combo).

Part of the deck's power is having multiple synergistic packages that play off each other. A list of synergies - italicized for basic ones

• Emry/Tamiyo/Mox Amber
• 0 drops + Emry
• Emry + artifacts
• Cori-Steel Cutter + 0 drops/cheap spells
• Emry + Jeskai Ascendancy + 0 drops (+ Mox)
• Urza's Saga + artifacts + Tamiyo
• Urza's Saga constructs + Cori-Steel Cutter for trample
• Mox Opal + artifacts for metalcraft
• Emry + Cori-Steel Cutter for haste
• Tamiyo + Mishra's Bauble and Preordain - notably, trimmed from this deck
• Stock Up + good cards
• Kappa Cannoneer + artifacts - 1 card package
• Emry + SB Phlage

Decklist & Change Discussion

• Preordain, Flame of Anor, and flipping Tamiyo: aggressive Tamiyo play makes sense online where half the field is seemingly Boros. Local meta is heavily overindexed on UB so less interested in spells that say draw a card.
• Portable Hole - this card is largely for Boros and UB. It's not dead vs other archetypes, but the efficiency and target spread is crucial for those matchups.
  
• Cori-Steel Cutter: Four-of is gas.
• Fetchland mana base: dropped 4 Spire of Industry, added two fetches, added two fetchables. Basic mountain hedges vs Harbinger of the Seas, then flip Flooded Strands to Arid Mesas accordingly.

Swiss

• R1 Asham K on mana-screwed Jeskai Wizards WW (1-0)
• R2 Eric D on UB WLW (2-0)
• R3 Kevin M on Boros Energy (3-0)
  G1 lose the die roll, then they go Guide of Souls > Galvanic Discharge Tamiyo + Ocelot Pride okay
  G3 Pithing Needle on Goblin Bombardment was big game vs double Bombardment hand + Voice of Victory
• R4 Anthony D on UBr WW (4-0)
• R5 ID, 2nd seed going in

Top 8

• QF Eric D (7) LWW
  
• SF Josh M (3) T4 split, concession
• F Sean T (4) on UB WW

Conclusive Thoughts

• Deck is good. Like my Temur Otters time, I benefited a good bit from my opponents not knowing the matchup & therefore not able to assess threats properly.
• Cori-Steel Cutter is a very primary kill axis and adds a lot of agency to the deck.
• Jeskai Ascendancy - I describe this card as the worst card in the deck until it isn't.
  
• Board state management was a little tricky at times. Between several lands, Mox mana, creatures, artifacts, new constructs/monks vs old ones, Cori-Steel Cutter equips ... things get messy. To make things slightly easier for myself, I should source some white sleeves for my monk tokens.
• One thing I made sure not to miss was my own Bauble triggers, perhaps overly so. I checked every upkeep, didn't miss a one - but also checked/double-checked many times when I didn't have one. Probably should be using my reminder token more so it's less disruptive.
• Scheduled to judge some RCQs this season, should probably push for L2. Main requirement would be working a multi-judge event & writing a review.

2025-04-19 D&A RCQ with Jeskai Ascendancy (3-1-1, 1-1)

Introduction

For Modern RCQ season after the Underworld Breach ban, initial consideration was towards Amulet Titan. However, for some reason it seems like it's actually worse now relative to the meta? My current theory on Amulet Titan is that it needs to Titan on T3 to be competitive. Which is problematic - sure the deck might have a 33% chance to have a T3 Titan going, but then quick maths you're expecting to mulligan 3 times per game to get such a hand. But savvy statistics readers will understand that's still a 30% fail rate (0.67 ^ 3).

So instead I elected to play the Breachiest Breachless deck, which is Jeskai Ascendancy + Emry combo. The deck goes off by having the following:

• Emry, Lurker of the Loch without summoning sickness
• Jeskai Ascendancy
• A: Mishra's Bauble in hand/graveyard/battlefield
• B: Two of the same Mox in hand/graveyard/battlefield

This allows you to

1. Make Emry & any other creatures arbitrarily large
2. Loot through your deck one at a time as many times as you want
3. Make infinite mana of any color with Mox Opals
4. Cast all your non-creature artifacts from the graveyard if you like
5. If you had a card in hand to start with, stick a second Jeskai Ascendancy and also cast all the artifact creatures you want out of the yard by targeting them with Emry with your extra untaps
6. Give a creature or two trample + haste via Cori-Steel Cutter

I built the deck for FNM and 0-3'd.

Decklist

Driving home, I reflected on what led to my 0-3's. I narrowed down a few possibilities.

1. I'm playing the deck wrong. Incorrect keeps/mulligans, sequencing, Preordains, land sequencing, holding spells, etc. -- all the decision points
2. My opponents were playing better than me (corollary to 1)
3. The deck is bad / my opponents' decks are better
   
4. The deck isn't tuned for the meta / me

I felt fine about 1, can't do much about 2&3, so I focused on 4.

• Preordain: I think this card is a crutch for bad hands. It can also flip Tamiyo aggressively, but I want to play some Stock Ups. Stock Up is insane - it's card advantage, it's card selection, it's only 3 mana
• Portable Hole: 4-of in online lists. This makes sense in online metas where Boros is #1 and UB #2. Unfortunately my FNM meta is half-Eldrazi and 0% Boros so this is a trim. I would pack 1-2 for FNM, 3 for a local RCQ, 4 for an RC.
• Cori-Steel Cutter: the hot new hotness. A powerful plan B. Having two on board usually takes over the game, I would play more if I had them. Does things with Emry.
•  Kappa Cannoneer: I cut to one, card is great against a lot of stuff but is super high investment. As a standalone plan B it's a solid package.
• Sink Into Stupor: I've yet to see this card or make it work. I think the mana base could use an extra fetchable, and will probably swap it in the future.
• R removal: Flame of Anor, Unholy Heat. I wanted Heat for cheap interaction, can find it easily enough off Stock Up, I don't expect my wizards to live much to really get Flame of Anor value.
  

Swiss

• R1 Brad A on Jeskai Ascendancy WW (1-0)
• R2 Dylan P on UR Steel-Cutter WW (2-0)
• R3 Sam M on Jeskai Steel-Cutter LWL (2-1)
• R4 Max S on UR Demilich (Phoenix MIA) WW (3-1)
• R5 ID
  

Top 8

• QF Joseph B on UR Twin WW
  Knew what he was on, got to keep an Aether Spellbomb in both openers. With that, easy enough to pressure him while he has to play tempo vs Spellbomb
• SF Collin S on Boros Energy LWL
  Really sweaty G2 and G3, RC-level match. Lot of back-and-forth interaction, he Wrath of the Skies'd me to the stone age. I had to use Mox Opal as a Lotus Petal to escape Phlage in G3... twice. Almost escaped it a third time too. Ended up losing to Goblin Bombardment + Ajani shenanigans ... lot of small decisions in that last game that could have done differently, but it ended up coming down to too small of a life total with two Spire of Industry.

Conclusive Thoughts

• Deck is good. I think 3 Ascendancy is a fine number, but I want 4 CSCs.
• Cards I'm looking to trim: Pithing Needle, Sink Into Stupor, Orim's Chant, Strix Serenade
• Remembered all my triggers today, Mishra's Bauble triggers always mess with my memory.
• I think my only oopsie (caught immediately) was trying to attack with a new Monk token, but I had put the CSC on my Emry.
• Will try to judge more this season

2025-04-12 HotG Fredonia RCQ Judging

Introduction

Second judge write-up, following my first recounting SCG DC 2024.

This is my second time being asked to judge for the store. The value proposition is that the store manager can effectively hire me for the day, then run the front of the store by themselves without having to worry about anything going on in the back. Hoping I can talk to some local LGS stores and make the same case to them, but not optimistic.

Most stores aren't really interested in growing / supporting the competitive scene, but maybe reducing the friction of running an event will work.

Judging Philosophy

The thing about competitive Rules Enforcement Level (REL) is that it doesn't exist to "get people". To borrow from the MTR, "Rules Enforcement Levels (REL) are a means to communicate to the players and judges what expectations they can have of the tournament in terms of rigidity of rules enforcement, technically correct play, and procedures used."

The whole comp REL framework exists to create an environment that facilitates competitive play in a consistent fashion, prevents/reduces cheating, handles gameplay & tournament errors, and maintains tournament integrity.

On Penalties

Penalties are not something to award for the sake of awarding penalties. Penalties exist to drive better behavior. In this post I will comment on each penalty I awarded.

Rulings

Cards
Question
Answer
Superfluous commentary

Cards: Lantern of Insight + Griselbrand
Question: Griselbrand's ability is activated to draw seven cards. Lantern of Insight requires the top card to be revealed at all times. How does this resolve?
Answer: Cards are drawn one at a time. Each card is revealed as it's drawn, but it's easiest to just count out 7 cards and show them as your drawn cards.
Superfluous commentary: Also worth mentioning that nothing can be done while the ability is resolving. Cards being drawn one at a time is relevant for Dredge things, but that's not in modern atm.

Cards: Dryad Arbor + Devourer of Destiny
Question: Can DoD cast trigger exile Dryad Arbor?
Answer: Yes, Dryad Arbor is green.

Cards: Devourer of Destiny + Kozilek's Return
Question: Can I choose how to stack my cast triggers from these two cards?
Answer: Yes, see CR 603.3b "If multiple abilities have triggered since the last time a player received priority, the abilities are placed on the stack in a two-part process. First, each player, in APNAP order, puts each triggered ability they control with a trigger condition that isn’t another ability triggering on the stack in any order they choose. (See rule 101.4.) Second, each player, in APNAP order, puts all remaining triggered abilities they control on the stack in any order they choose. Then the game once again checks for and performs state-based actions until none are performed, then abilities that triggered during this process go on the stack. This process repeats until no new state-based actions are performed and no abilities trigger. Then the appropriate player gets priority."

Cards: Emrakul Promised End
Question: How does taking extra turns work after time has been called? (not actually asked - they handled correctly without intervention)
Answer: Five extra turns are taken, the tournament mechanic does not consider who takes or controls the turn(s)

Cards: Surgical Extraction + Archive Trap
Question: If I were to cast Surgical Extraction targeting my opponent's card, could I then Archive Trap them?
Answer: No, Archive Trap cares about whether your opponent searched this turn. The controller of Surgical Extraction (i.e. you) is the one searching during the effect.

Cards: Terminus + Consign to Memory
Question: Is Miracle a triggered ability?
Answer: CR 702.94a "Miracle is a static ability linked to a triggered ability. (See rule 603.11.) “Miracle [cost]” means “You may reveal this card from your hand as you draw it if it’s the first card you’ve drawn this turn. When you reveal this card this way, you may cast it by paying [cost] rather than its mana cost.”"
Superfluous commentary: I chose to read the CR word for word to minimize any possible confusion.

Cards: Snapcaster Mage + Force of Negation
Question: I cast Snapcaster Mage targeting my Force of Negation in the graveyard. Can I pay the pitch cost to flashback my FoN?
Answer: No, flashback is an alternate cost. Part of casting a spell is choosing how you're casting it, alternate cost is applicable. You cannot pay two alternate costs at the same time. Additionally, because the game events were legal, the game state will remain as it is (i.e. no rewinding the Snapcaster Mage).

Cards: Utopia Sprawl + Damping Sphere
Question: Does Damping Sphere apply to a Forest enchanted by Utopia Sprawl?
Answer: No, Utopia Sprawl adds a triggered mana ability (CR 605.1b) and that is what is producing the extra mana, not the Forest.

The Harbinger of the Seas / Blood Moon section

Cards: Harbinger of the Seas + Utopia Sprawl on Stomping Ground
Question: Harbinger of the Seas enters play, what happens to the Utopia Sprawl?
Answer: The Stomping Ground is now an Island, so Utopia Sprawl is now illegally enchanting it and is put into the graveyard (CR 303.4c, 704.5m)

Cards: Harbinger of the Seas + Leyline of the Guildpact
Question: Leyline was in play. What happens to the lands after Harbinger comes in?
Answer: The effects apply in the same layer, so we apply timestamps - the most recent effect rules. (CR 613.1d, 613.7)
Superfluous commentary: Dryad of the Ilysian Grove also applies in the same layer.

Cards: Blood Moon + Ugin's Labyrinth
Question: Under Blood Moon, what happens to the card exiled under Ugin's Labyrinth?
Answer: Nothing. It remains where it is, exiled under the Mountain named Ugin's Labyrinth which has no special abilities - it's a Mountain. (CR 305.6) As for keeping it in exile, reference CR 406 for Exile.

Warnings

Situation
Warning
Fix

Situation: Active Player (AP) has two lands. Casts cantrip. Attempts to cast a Murktide Regent off 1 mana, delving 6 cards. Non Active Player (NAP) calls me immediately.
Warning: Game Rule Violation (GRV) - they have performed an illegal action.
Fix: Assess for cheating, then apply a simple back-up since it was caught immediately.

Situation: AP looks at their opening hand for mulligans, realizes that they have eight cards. Calls judge.
Warning: Mulligan Procedure Error - they have made an error "during" the mulligan process.
Fix: Forced to take a mulligan.
Superfluous commentary: The remedy & philosophy for this is to remove/minimize leeway for abuse and to return the game state to a situation that is not-incorrect, and fairer. Someone asked later about applying the "Thoughtseize fix", the colloquial term for Hidden Card Error fix. This would not be appropriate, since we have a remedy that brings the game back to a fair play state without giving players additional information. Also would leave the space for possible abuse by someone who always draws 8 -- if the penalty for drawing 8 is a free Thoughtseize for your opponent and a warning, maybe there's a world where it becomes the spiky thing to do that twice per tournament.

Situation: NAP cast a Damping Sphere on the previous turn. AP takes their turn. Has access to seven (7) mana. Casts Karn the Great Creator (4), uses ability to find a Liquimetal Coating (2). Casts Liquimetal Coating for 2 mana.
Warning: Game Rule Violation (GRV) for both players
Fix: Rewind game state to point of illegal action. Remind players that they are both responsible for maintaining the game state.

Situation: AP announces that they're casting Writhing Chrysalis. NAP passes priority. AP says okay, moving Writhing Chrysalis forward and then grabs two Eldrazi Spawn tokens.
Warning: Remind AP that due to their out of order sequencing, they have missed their trigger.
Fix: Ask opponent if they would like to put the trigger on the stack.
Superfluous commentary: This is why it is good practice to announce cast triggers. Trigger policy is rough - you can get punished for not noticing things immediately. Understanding when to slow down game actions & cover all your bases is part of the learning curve for competitive tabletop. Not ideal, but necessary.

In Conclusion

I think I did a more complete job of announcements this time around. Made sure to be very visible and present throughout the event. Players made good use of my presence. Hoping to keep it going and keep demonstrating what a well run RCQ looks like.

2025-02-08 RC Charlotte with Temur Breach (5-4)

Introduction

After 4-4ing with Amulet Titan in Portland, my Grinding Stations finally showed up in the mail.

Played a couple of Modern leagues, did some goldfishing, printed out some tokens to help track game things. Specifically, I think that tracking floating mana via pen & paper for this deck is suboptimal, while manipulating a couple of tokens to represent floating mana is superior.

Tokens I made:

• Floating mana: colorless (Urza's Saga), blue, red, green
• Urza's Saga Ch. III trigger
• Grinding Station untap trigger + mill three cards ability
• Mishra's Bauble trigger reminders (several)
• backside of Tamiyo
• plus Eldrazi Spawn, Clue tokens, Construct tokens, Blood token (for SB Vampire's Vengeance), Swan Song bird token

Decklist

• Copied Beenew's decklist from the previous weekend.
• Decklist is quite tight, basically card is powerful
  
• Stock Up is insane as card selection. My thesis is that the closer to eternal formats you get, the more powerful card selection/cantrips are, and Temur Breach is the most Legacy-like you can get in Modern right now.
  Maybe UB wants it as well.
• Two Breeding Pools, no Hedge Maze, no Stomping Ground, one Commercial District
• If I had to do it again, I'd probably switch those - 1 Breeding Pool, 1 Hedge Maze, 1 Stomping Ground. Sometimes you get into awkward mana situations, mostly when I wanted an untapped red source on later turns but didn't have the opportunity to tutor a R surveil land on earlier turns.
• Put a Surgical Extraction in to be cute, did nothing all day.
  

Swiss

• R1 Brandon Louie on Temur Breach WW (1-0)
  G1 OTD, turn 2 win. Good start.
  G2 We play a little more, he makes me play it out the combo and I'm ??? then he goes for the Consign to Memory replicate 2x on my untap trigger (I have access to Swan Song in the yard). Unfortunately for him my hand contains more artifacts that I am able to cast, untapping my Grinding Station and ggs
• R2 Nate Rooyakkers on Domain Zoo WLW (2-0)
  4 Doorkeeper Thrull in the maindeck but those are really speed bumps
  G1 OTD T2 win hello okay
  G2 I think he found like 4 pieces of hate and I died
• R3 Tyler Fritz on Bw Necro w/ Ketramose WW (3-0)
  I get T1 Thoughtseized both games but win anyways
• R4 Evan Sonnenberg-Rhim on Temur Breach WLL (3-1)
  G1 I win OTD T3
  G2 He shows a slow start, I tap out on T2 for my Grinding Station with Swan Song in hand, he T3 kills me.
• R5 Stephen Crumpton on Rw Hollow One WW (4-1)
  G1 OTP T3 win
  G2 he has an incredibly anemic draw, holding up a relatively obvious Wear // Tear but has no bodies to threaten me so I eventually play through
• R6 Marquel Corrigan on Boros Energy LL (4-2)
  I get clobbered? idk G2 I had to mull to 5 and he had multiple hate pieces
• R7 Mark Bost on Amulet Titan WLW (4-3)
  Solid gaming, G3 I lead with an Urza's Saga + Mox stuff. On turn 3ish I forget to first-main Emry an artifact, so my first swing with a Construct is only a 7/7. I Nature's Claimed him, putting him at 24 .... would have put him on an actual clock forcing blocks, instead he lives at 1 chumping with Collector Ouphe & another thing, then is able to bounceland-Boseiju multiple turns in a row to live.
• R8 Anthony Alaimo on Amulet Titan WW (5-3)
  This match was quite breezy compared to the prev, I guess he just kept less threatening hands?
• R9 Zachary Medford on UB LL (5-4)
  G1 he double-Thoughtseizes me cool
  G2 I keep a 0 lander with double Mox double legend turn 1 that was sick
  Unfortunately I lose because I start off my Breach turn by escaping a Malevolent Rumble with ~12 cards, then the 3 Grinding Stations were all in the bottom 5 cards of the deck. Should have looped Emry-Mox to dig properly & have usable mana, but I think my loose play would have been salvageable if the Grinding Stations were anywhere above the literal bottom 5 cards.

Conclusions

• Deck is dumb, format is dumb
• I started feeling sick (throat soreness Saturday morning) and didn't improve over the day
• Definitely started to feel the drain on hours 9 & 11, made game-losing, match-losing misplays both rounds
• 2-7 on die rolls for the day that was pretty unlucky
• Getting two T2 wins was nutty, the 0 land hand was great. It's insane that there's a deck where those things are possible
• Had a great match in a side event on Sunday vs a UW Affinity player shout out to Ryan G, where my win came from endstep-Otawara on his Mox Opal, taking him off Haywire Mite mana, then he only had the ability to cast one 3 mana counterspell vs my double Breach + 0 mana artifacts + Grinding Station hand. Some solid back and forth while playing interactive Magic.

Ban talk (2025-03-31 waiting room)

• Underworld Breach absolutely should be banned. Card is too good and only ever breaks things.
• There's a chance they ban Malevolent Rumble with the argument that it's an enabler and it goes into multiple decks like Eldrazi. This is nonsense because you're not dealing with the actual problem e.g. Faithless Looting getting banned then Hogaak coming out and being broken.
• Ugin's Labyrinth should be banned. Interacting with it isn't realistic, and banning fast mana was one of the defining format rules (see also: consistent turn 3 kills getting the ban-hammer) until they changed the format identity to being the format where you buy thousands of dollars of direct-to-modern cards + power creep.
• I don't think Mox Opal should be banned. I think it was dumb as hell to unban it without an accompanying reprint though.
• Shifting Woodland should go. It only ever goes in combo decks as a cheesy plan C ex. Nadu, Eldrazi, Breach. It enables the most nonsense thing in Amulet Titan.
• Unban: Fury. Shouldn't have been banned in the first place, keeps RW & other creature decks in check

2025-02-08 RC Portland with Amulet Titan (4-4)

Introduction

Per my last RCQ report, I haven't played in an RC since Denver last year.

Breach is the nemesis of the format, but I don't own a complete set of 3 Grinding Stations yet. I've gotten a decent number of reps in with Amulet Titan, so I decide to jam that for the weekend.

Publishing this morning of 2025-03-23 but backdating it to the event date sorry for the delay

Decklist

• This is a relatively stock Aftermath Analyst for February 2025 with some spicy meatballs. It has the ability to infinite-mana combo with Analyst, which can then go wide with infinite Primeval Titans or just find the one-Dryad and make a copy or infinity while going off.
• I decided to add a Collector Ouphe to the maindeck that I could find with my tutors, as well as one Bojuka Bog. 62 cards maindeck as a result, only three Urza's Sagas, a Hedge Maze and a Misty Rainforest for SB blue cards.
• I think Dryad Arbor is a bad GSZ target if your opponent has any form of interaction ever. If we're in a pure goldfish format, sure go for 0
  

Sideboard

Tried to get cute.

• Colossal Skyturtle and Seal of Removal are theoretically answers to Harbinger of the Seas.
• Collector Ouphe to fight the elephant in the room.
• Consign to Memory for Eldrazi
• Gemstone Caverns for being OTD
• Yasharn hypothetically an answer to Breach - turns out it dies to Unholy Heat and Flame of Anor
• Vexing Bauble solid Saga target
• Keen-Eyed Curator big graveyard hater + beater
  

Swiss

• R1 Quentin Wilebski on Temur Breach on GR ramp LWL (0-1)
  Copied from Discord notes.
  G1 keep a hand with Crumbling Vestige, Mirrorpool, Grazer, Ouphe. Go for the Grazer line. Don't find a green source. Die on turn 3. Could/should have sequenced to T2 Ouphe
  G2 win. Kept a 6 with double Ouphe + Yasharn, draw Selesnya Sanctuary. Op was playing around GY shenanigans, Pithing Needle on Aftermath Analyst. I decline to correct him.
  G3 get 2x Nature's Claim one on Amulet one on Saga, Torpor Orb. Breach Claim my Vexing Bauble Whiffs on lands. Find a Lotus Field with double Amulet and Titan but can't Bog with Orb out
  
• R2 Joseph Peo on GB Cardtypes LL (0-2)
  G1 I Bojuka Bog him with two Nethergoyfs. Off his Saga he finds a Nihil Spellbomb, casts Witherbloom Command and Overlord of the Balemurk to swing with 7/8s
  G2 hand was funky
  Boseiju, Hanweir Battlements, Map, Amulet, 3 GSZ
  I should have run Map out. Got Thoughtseized turns 1 and 2 whatever
• R3 Henry Hughes on Boros Energy LWW (1-2)
  Win G3 at one life ggez
• R4 Noah Schmeissner on 4C Breach WW (2-2)
  My cards work, I guess. No notes, as I recall it was swift.
• R5 Chase Stalsberg on UB Oculus LL (2-3)
  G1 I get counterspelled, G2 I mull to 5 and get T1 Thoughtseized T2 Psychic Frog
  Didn't get to play a whole lot, really. Opponent did mulligan both games fwiw
• R6 Tyler Novak on Temur Eldrazi WLW (3-3)
  G2 got land-destroyed out of the game
  This matchup is nonsense, and is entirely based around whether they have the busted start or a pile of cards.
• R7 Dillon Wernimont on RW Energy LWW (3-4)
  G1 I go for a double Titan play then turns out he has both Galvanic Discharge for 6 + Thraben Charm to kill them. The other two games were quite the beatings, so I kind of won three games (if I had gone for basically any other line G1)
• R8 Spencer Asral on Temur Breach LL (4-4)
  G1 my GSZ eats a Swan Song and he recurred the one-of Haywire Mite with Emry
  G2 notes say that I forgot that Summoner's Pact can just find an Ouphe, then I died

How does the loop work

1. Have an Amulet (or Spelunking) out, ideally two Amulets
2. Find/cast Aftermath Analyst
   Find a way to get Lotus Field onto the field then into your yard
   Primeval Titan, Tolaria West, etc. to do these things
3. Sacrifice Aftermath Analyst, bringing back lands that generate nine or more mana after accounting for Amulet/Spelunking
   (have delirium online, sometimes this requires finding an Urza's Saga as pre-requisite work to sacrifice to Lotus Field for delirium)
4. Sacrifice enough lands to generate nine+ mana when they come back
   
5. Shifting Woodland to copy Analyst in the yard for 2GG with delirium online
   3G to sacrifice it
6. You have now established infinite mana
7. Assuming that a Simic Growth Chamber + Tolaria West was part of step 2, declare that instead of a net positive mana land to loop sacrifice + ETB, you will sacrifice SGC which brings it back allowing you to bounce Tolaria West. SGC couldn't have been part of the loop earlier, because then it would be bouncing lands and not allowing you to loop. I mean, the loop could be performed at instant speed with infinite land-bounce triggers but that is generally suboptimal.
8. Tolaria West transmute for more Pacts, finding a Titan that finds Valakut & Mirrorpool.
   optional: Pact for Dryad of the Ilysian Grove
9. Repeat loop, now with the ability to sacrifice Mirrorpool copying Primeval Titan to find more lands
10. Make (in)finite copies of your Shifting Woodland-copying-an-Aftermath Analyst, milling your deck
11. Copy Aftermath Analyst while holding priority, copy Dryad of the Ilysian Grove in your graveyard
    After Dryad-copy resolves, sacrifice Mirrorpool targeting your Dryad of the Ilysian Grove
    Allow Analyst-copy to resolve, continue looping but now you have Valakut + mountains so your opponent dies

Conclusions & Takeaways

• I should have just been playing Underworld Breach for the weekend deck posted insane win rates
• An Amulet Titan pilot did win the event with a streamlined list, but his semifinals Boros opponent hard-dropped the ball with his Molten Rains
• Most players don't actually understand how Amulet Titan works, to their own detriment
• The only way Amulet is playable atm vs Breach is the ability to T3 infinite loop nonsense. Consistent T4 Titan just isn't enough any more.

2025-01-18 HotG Fredonia RCQ (4-1, 1-0)

Introduction

Realized that I haven't played in an RC since Denver eleven months ago. Skipped Dallas for Asia trip, skipped DC to judge it instead. 

Standard is great, as previously established. There's definitely a top tier of decks, with a number of weaker but competitively viable options.

Tier 1: UB Midrange, RG Aggro, UWB/UB Bounce
These decks have the fewest overall deckbuilding weaknesses, are very proactive, and have large removal coverage.

Tier 2: GW Dorks, GB Midrange, Zur Domain, R Aggro, UWR Convoke, W Tokens/Control, UW Oculus
Tier 2 decks have some angles vs tier 1 decks but are generally fun-policed by at least one of them.

Tier 3+: UW Convoke/Midrange, RW Aggro, RUG Otters, UG/BUG Terror
These decks have clear weaknesses in that they are not as proactive, interactive, or powerful as would befit a T1 deck.

Decklist

MTGGoldfish features Nicole Tipple's 14th place Atlanta decklist as the default version. Wasn't happy with the land base - slightly too many painlands. For this event I went with Saulliert's manabase since they've been grinding a decent amount of Esper on MTGO. It trades a Restless Anchorage for Restless Reef, and an Underground River for an Island.

On the spell side Saulliert trades 1 GftT + Kaito for 2 Sheltered by Ghosts. I like the Sheltered by Ghosts idea as an aggro hedge, but want to preserve the number of Kaitos. Moving a Kaito to the SB doesn't make sense to me so I trim Spiteful Hexmage instead. imo Hexmage is the cutest card in the deck, stock is already down to 2, doesn't too too much with the deck, worst of the one-drops.

For gameplay, Stormchaser's Talent is a better T1 play OTP, while Hopeless Nightmare is better OTD. Turns 2+ being able to bounce & repeat one of those is probably your best game.

Sideboard

• Trying to hedge against a wide range of stuff
• RIP is premium GY hate that hopefully speedbumps GY decks fast enough to kill them
  
• Pest Control, Temporary Lockdown, Shrouded Shepherd all kind of compete for the same spot. For PC and TL you want to bait the opponent into overextending into it which is a sort of bait spot
• No More Lies is for the Sunfalls and 4-5+ drops of the world
  

Swiss

12 players, 5 rounds cut to top 4

• R1 Christian B on GR ramp WW (1-0)
  He didn't have a ton of ramp action, got some Hopeless Nightmare bouncing going & cleared him right out
  
• R2 Alex B on RG Aggro WLL (1-1)
  Kept sketchy two-landers in both SB games. G2 was a UW hand with 3 Nowhere to Run, drew black source on turn 4 and died to a solid wide start.
  
• R3 Athena P on UW Eerie WW (2-1)
  Killed stuff and bounced anything with aura enchantments
  
• R4 Joshua B on GB Midrange WLW (3-1)
  Some grindy action. G2 I fuck up and put a Nowhere to Run in the yard for no reason. But it doesn't matter, I kept a three lander & draw five/six lands in six/seven draws. My Kaito gets Blot Out-ed which seems really good in a world where UB is a deck to beat.
  G3 is a bit of back and forth but I go wide & go value which are both good into GB
  tl;dr Glissa into Nowhere to Run land is dead Glissa
  
• R5 Tom Z on UR chaff WW (4-1)
  Going into R5 we have two 3-0-1s, two 3-1s ... but first place has already played everyone in spots 2-5 so we have a pair down situation. I take the moment to explain some context to my 8th place opponent for whom this is their first RCQ -- he is 2-2 with the worst breakers and we are facing a top 4 cut. I ask once for a concession, he passes, we proceed.
  

Top 4

Semifinals homie scooped by Jordan

Finals vs Marc D on RG Aggro LWW (RCQ winner)

G1 I keep a mid hand with all colors covered by three painlands. I was concerned with the mana, but really I should have been concerned that my hand didn't have any proper removal to pressure the opponent.

G2 I deliver a multitude of otter tokens and tempo TTABE him out. He unlucks into three Innkeeper's Talents in hand.

G3 I draw a perfect opener of three different fastlands, Stormchaser's, Pixie, TTABE, and I think a Nowhere to Run. Meanwhile Marc mulls to 6 and gets a bit stuck on 2 lands. I draw into a Hopeless Nightmare which accelerates the pressure.

One of the more tedious things vs this deck is that moving first on blocks is often quite bad, given the tricks from both sides. If you move first and get tricked the board state rapidly deterioriates. If you block without a counter-trick you probably get blown out and die.

Conclusions & Takeaways

• Esper definitely feels like a top dog of the format. It plays incredibly efficiently with its mana with very powerful 1 mana plays, can play at instant speed, and can drive card advantage by sticking a Kaito.
• Speaking of card advantage ... Kaito is basically the one source of raw card advantage in the deck. The important thing with Kaito is to play him into tempo ideally so he gets to activate at least another turn.
  Like the SB Up the Beanstalk in Temur Otters, I don't get the point of sticking a card advantage engine in the SB. Just play it as your 61st card whatever.
• Fighting one mana enchantments with 2+ cost answers probably isn't the right answer.
• Plan to add SB Shrouded Shepherd... looking at cuts on Loran and Temporary Lockdown. White is the tertiary color and 3 is the top of the curve.