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. 

2025-02-08 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.

2024-10-05 SCGCON DC JUDGING

Introduction

This is my first post on the blog about judging, so it's going to be a lengthy one. If you're not super into discussion of rules, policy, or my unrestrained navel-gazing feel free to scroll down to the Takeaways section.

Judging in General

There's a whole philosophy to judging. But at its core it's about providing a positive gaming experience to everyone involved.

There's a bunch of aspects that are all important, but if I had to organize judging in a sort of hierarchy of needs:

• (top level) Hiccups are handled, numerous events going on concurrently, well-organized with clear hierarchy and escalation paths -- big tournaments/convention tier.
  
• Errors are handled, cheaters are caught, competitive integrity is maintained.
• People have fun.
• The rules are being followed.
• (bottom level) An event happens at all.

Now, all of these are important. You can't achieve the higher levels without the foundations.

My History with Judging

I got into judging MTG around 2018, certifying as an L1 and part-timing a large local FNM (~40). Since then I've been on-and-off through moves, the pandemic, different judge organizing bodies, returning to solo judge the large local FNM for a year, etc. It's funny when other judges say I'm really good for an L1 - I've played hundreds of Magic events including dozens of RCQs, some GP level events, and judged several thousand event-people by this point. But without a requirement for stores to staff RCQ judges, I've yet to make the move for L2.

Saturday Assignment: Pioneer Regional Championship Floor Judge

Took quite a few calls. Got all the card rulings correct, took a few error calls that I could have done better with. I awarded several warnings when they were appropriate, but not always using the textbook reason which I could do better with.

Sunday Assignment: Modern 5k Deck Checks

Doing deck checks, I found that my player experience was not unique - many players are also playing mismatched playsets of cards. 2 foil, 2 non-foil, in different arts. Presumably this is due to difficulties in sourcing 4 matching non-foil copies, or they prefer the heterogeneity.

Did have to award a game loss due to a mismatch of basic land count. It was 2/2 basic Swamp/Island vs a listed 3/1 split. Why it had occurred: player was using the desaturated Double Feature lands which are not obviously colored to the land type. Would not recommend.

Calls

• Cards involved: Elesh Norn Mother of Machines, Overlord of the Hauntwoods
• Situation: Player controlled ENMoM, resolved OotH ETB to make one Everywhere token. They should have created two with two triggers.
• Ruling: This is not a missed trigger, since the player demonstrated awareness of the trigger. However, they did not handle the replacement effect correctly which should have created a trigger. Game Rule Violation (GRV) to the player, Failure to Maintain Game State to opponent (FtMGS).

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.