Well, I am back in Scarborough a month after my last visit when I had a successful night with my Angel – Martyr deck. However, we now have Planar Chaos in the Magic mix.
The draw is made and there was a wry smile – “You’ve got a bye!”
“What! You’re kidding? I travel two hours for a bye! Ho hum, 3 points closer to winning then.”
Well this was not what I wanted as I was looking to play in my pod and sitting around for an hour was not what I had come for. To be honest, maybe this article needs a bit of Timeshifting much like MTGTwincast this month. So I’ll briefly cover my less than impressive display to begin with, before moving onto the main thrust of the article.
Wayne was playing an Orzhov based deck based around flyers and life swapping. Blind Hunters and Ghostways, even the odd Ghost Council and Sengir Nosferatu designed to ebb away my life as my opponent’s grows. Game 1 was an utter disaster for me, as I didn’t see a single Martyr and removal took down my Angels as soon as they hit the board. Despite attempts to stabilise Wayne controlled the board really well to push for a deserved win. Onto sideboarding, and Wayne really knew his stuff with Leyline of the Void appearing along with Moratorium Stone to take away my graveyard. Luckily I was able to Mortify and Fetters the threats accordingly but it was a tough battle and I won with one minute left on the round with a pumped up Akroma, Angel of Fury. My opponent wanted to go for third game but time was called as we were still clearing up.
Disaster! Mana screw struck but really this was my mistake as the mana base wasn’t set right after taking the deck to three colours, and so I never saw any white sources. My opponent beat me to death with a Greenseeker and Groundbreakers. Onto Game 2, and I hadn’t seen enough of my opponent’s deck to sideboard properly. The result was a mauling to the Greater Good and Protean Hulk combo. Then the lock of Gleancrawler in play and Groundbreakers in hand. We played the third as a friendly where the deck showed its true colours despite having my Martyrs Extirpated from the game!
Nevertheless, the event did help me look at my deck. I’d added black for Mortify and other cards to the board. The Mortifies really worked well and were more versatile than the Seals of Fire. My error though was that the deck was predominately white and when putting in the black sources the balance of the mana base wasn’t retained.
So, onto the Timeshifted part of the article ….
Welcome to Rochelle’s big night out! As regular readers of this site will know my long suffering girlfriend plays Magic! Okay, she hasn’t become an addict like me but she comes with me as this is better than me wandering off on my own. Now Rochelle has been at the point of giving up on more than one occasion and I couldn’t blame her if she did as I only asked her to give it a go as shared interest. Fortunately just when Rochelle was at her lowest Magic-wise she had a day when almost everyone fell to her! She played Snakes at Doncaster which fitted her style of play like a glove. She went out and eclipsed both myself and play test partner Sonny going 4-2 for the day in September. In fact her record was better than ours combined. Rochelle still doesn’t have lofty goals – one match win and she is satisfied, two and she is delighted. She won’t be doing any PTQs or Nationals Qualifiers in a hurry, though the former is mainly due to playing on a box in shop window in PTQ Nottingham and some ignorant prat in round three who treated her like crap, Rochelle doesn’t like the pressure of the bigger events or playing where she is hopelessly outclassed.
And so to Scarborough, TO Kev Scott decided to split us into the different pods and Rochelle was playing with the other female players. Yes, Scarborough has quite a few female players who have taken to game like ducks to water. The other reason was DCI reporter is a perverse little ‘horsefeathers’, which has an uncanny knack of putting travelling companions together in round 1! And don’t tell me it hasn’t happened to you at some stage.
I got to watch my girlfriends first round match whilst on my bye and what I saw was quite shocking. Connor was playing Green Stompy, with creatures dropping like flies and then being enhanced by Blanchwood Armour, Might of Oaks, Giant Growth and Might of Old Krosa to name but four. Game 1 saw Rochelle mulligan to 5 on the play and with two Plains in hand she chose to stick. Unfortunately by the time she drew more land Groundbreakers had been coming in and there is only so much a Condemn or two can do. Game two and Connor played Forest and dropped Bird of Paradise, then next turn dropped another land and cast Putrefy on Rochelle’s Selesnya Guildmage, and then took out her two elephants in consecutive turns with two more Putrefy. It emerged later that he had two of them in his starting hand and then drew two more. Rochelle was gutted at the comprehensive defeat but her deck just didn’t fire and Connor played his deck to perfection.
Ryan was playing the Hope’s Crusaders pre-con with a few extra cards thrown in to improve its power. Like most younger players Ryan is on a budget and just likes playing. Game 1 and it was a joy to see turn 2 Watchwolf, turn 3 Griffin Guide and turn 4 Moldervine Cloak. Needless to say it was a short game. Game 2 and Ryan pulled back a game with his weenie barrage of creatures overwhelming and overpowering the creatures on Rochelle’s side. Game 3 though saw Rochelle’s white green beatdown deck ‘combo’ again to fly in for the win.
Rochelle had played Anthony before and lost, so she was wary coming into the game. Anthony was playing white Rebels with red support – Rebel Deck Wins ?!?! I missed this match as I had finally been called to play my second round which was running to time. Game 1 was equally matched by all accounts with each side curving out and dropping creatures. However, the balance swung Rochelle’s way when she used her shiny textless Wrath to clear the board. Well, clear her opponent’s side as Griffins come in on her side and she then played creatures out faster. Game 2 and despite suspended rift bolt mayhem Rochelle was able to easily beat Anthony with her sideboarded Paladins. However, what made me smile was Rochelle commenting on her opponent being more interested in her cleavage than what she was doing with her cards.
This is the deck that I originally built for Rochelle but which we have between us tweaked to where it is now. The deck fits Rochelle’s style of play without too many tricks which would complicate things for her. If in doubt you beat it up, if you get overwhelmed, Wrath and start again. Finally, we threw in a couple of alternate win conditions just in case.
Rochelle’s deck
Qty Card name
4 Brushland
4 Temple Garden
6 Plains
6 Forest
2 Vitu-Ghazi, the City Tree
1 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Pendelhaven
3 Loxodon Hierarch
3 Savannah Lions
3 Watchwolf
3 Selesnya Guildmage
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Adarkar Valkyrie
3 Call of the Herd
1 Debtor’s Knell
3 Wrath of God
3 Condemn
3 Griffin Guide
3 Moldervine Cloak
3 Faith’s Fetters
2 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Congregation at Dawn
Sideboard
Qty Card name
2 Indrik Stomphowler
1 Call of the Herd
1 Faith’s Fetters
1 Wrath of God
3 Paladin en-Vec
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Condemn
4 Sacred Ground
1 Loxodon Hierarch
So, how can the deck be made better for the future? Well, between us we have had an idea: Kavu Predator, as life gain is lurking around every corner with Martyrs, Faith’s Fetters, Lightning Helix and the like. In a twisted game, don’t forget when an opponent’s creature is condemned the Predator gains the counters. The second change is that we are going to make sure Rochelle arrives in plenty of time and has time to warm up. Too many times Rochelle loses her first match and takes a few games to settle into her groove so maybe an early start will see her finally 3-0.
Anyway, lessons been learnt and now it is time for the roll of honour in Scarborough.
Early Pod
8. Ryan Stennett 0 Hope’s Crusaders +
7. Kris Blackstone 3
6. Anthony Pickerill 3 Boros Rebels Don’t Win
5. Sarah Chew 3 Dimir Deck apparently doesn’t rule
4. Rochelle Wadner 6
3. Patrick Holbrook 6
2. Connor Slater 6 Green Stompy
1. Leo Saffin 9 Red Green Land Destruction
Well done Leo.
Late Pod
11. Jonathon Lukas 3 Weenie inc. White
10. Chris Annadale 3
9. Luke Berry 3
8. Mark Pailing 3
7. Wayne Humphries 4
6. Mark Pinder 4
5. Nathan Edwards 6
4. Richard Vincent 6 Blue White Control
3. Talen Phillips 6 Dragonstorm
2. Ross Sampson 6
1. Zead Said 9 Multicolour Mayhem
And well done Dr Zead, back home from Sheffield. It’s a small world ain’t it as Zead normally plays with Steve McAleer at Patriot Games in Sheffield.
It turns out not to be a blow-out after all, as in our prize support we get a Ghost Council and Simic Sky Swallower, I win a promo card from entering and then the biggest coup of the night: “You write for Twincast?”… “You’re Wilecoyote aren’t you? I read your articles and I like them.”
So a moment of fame as well :-)
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