Anyone who knows me or heard me talk about states leading up to the tournament knows how bad I want to win a state championship. Having numerous top 8's and even a second place finish has done nothing but make me want it more. This year I vowed to go all the way, I even went as far as telling many of my friends I was going to win. No, I was not being cocky. I said this with a little bit of jest but I do believe that if you don't go into a tournament thinking you will win you probably should not be playing.
States is one of my favorite tournaments every year. You have a brand new set leading into a budding brand new format. There is so much room for growth and brewing that it is a dream for people who put the time in before tournaments to do testing. Also there are so many great people at the tournament all with new and exciting decks.
Leading up to states I was pretty set on playing esper control, (blue, black, white). The deck would play out alot like solar flare but without Liliana and better cards for the current metagame. I had a list together and tons of games under my belt. I felt really good about my deck choice and thought I really had a chance to win it all this year. I was beating mono red, solar flare, tempered steel all easily and had great SB plans for every deck. Then I play tested against Wolf Run Ramp. Man were my eyes opened. Within 5-10 games I was ready to sleeve up Primeval Titan for the first time. So after getting in alot of testing with my new deck choice I was ready for the crazy day to start. 105 players registered making it the biggest LA state tournament in history.
Artifact Creatures
3 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Wurmcoil Engine
Creatures
1 Acidic Slime
1 Birds of Paradise
3 Primeval Titan
4 Viridian Emissary
Instants
4 Beast Within
Planeswalkers
4 Garruk, Primal Hunter
Sorceries
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Rampant Growth
3 Slagstorm
Basic Lands
9 Forest
3 Mountain
Lands
4 Copperline Gorge
4 Inkmoth Nexus
2 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Rootbound Crag
Sideboard:
1 Ratchet Bomb
3 Sword of Feast and Famine
2 Tree of Redemption
1 Viridian Corrupter
3 Ancient Grudge
3 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Slagstorm
1 Devil's Play
We talked alot over the week about how to change the deck. Add the 4th titan? Thrun main? SB tech vs the mirror? I tried all these but just found that I liked the deck to much as is and all the numbers just felt right to me.
Round 1 Jeremy Shapiro
Jeremy is a really solid limited player with multiple money finishes at Gp's. I sa down ready for what I expected to be a long grueling match. He lead off game one with a plains into elite vanguard. I look at my hand with lands, viridian emissary, slagstorm, and a titan. I feel there is no way I can lose this game, so I play a land and pass the turn. Then something strange happens. Jeremy swings for two and plays a celestial colonnade! For those of you who dont get why this is strange...colonnade rotated out of standard a few weeks ago. So I call a judge over and explain what happened. Alot of my friends playing close by got a kick out of me calling a judge so quickly in round 1. Some people had not even started their games and here I was with a match win. So I decided to walk the room and check on what people were playing and how my friends were doing. Almost all my friends won their first rounds so everyone was in good spirits. 2-0
Round 2 Chase Usey
Chase is a good friend of mine and had done some extensive testing with me over the week leading up to the event. Chase usually plays more aggressive decks but today was on my control deck, since none of the agro decks appealed to him. I knew almost all of chases 75 so winning game one was going to be easy since he wasnt running many counters main besides some mana leaks. I won the important die roll and played a turn 2 emissary and a turn 4 Simulacrum. I just kept attacking with these threats and a Nexus until chase had to do something. This allowed me to land a titan and force lethal on multiple fronts. For game 2 I brought in some Thruns and swords. I stuck a turn 3 Thrun and rode it to victory. I did make a awful mistake in this round. I had out a emissary, a solemn, and a bird with 6 lands. I had a sword in hand and knew chase had a doom blade. So I cast sword, equip my birds and he blades in response. I just put my bird straight in the graveyard. Who wants to float mana and equip another creature? Not this guy it seems. If you play your deck correct in these matches its really hard to lose. In game one you can keep running your cards into their mana since they dont have many counter spells. Or you can just cast the cheaper creatures they cant really afford to counter and just ride them for turn after turn forcing them to do something. 2-0
Round 3 Brian Basoco
Second round in a row against a good friend. Brian has been on multiple magic road trips with me and even saved me in GP Dallas when I didnt really have a place to stay. I knew this was the mirror since we talked between every round. I mulligan to 6 the first game after losing the die roll and dont like my chances in this game at all. Brian importantly lands the first titan of the match and I am immediately under the gun. I cast my own titan but know that I am behind and likely to lose. On his turn Brian decides to cast a Wurmcoil, much to my confusion. I untap and attack with a nexus and my titan. I get the last 2 Inkmoths in my deck and wolf run my attacking nexus for 7. Brian cannot attack back for enough to kill me so we are onto game 2. I really feel like Brian should have won this game, if he went in on the poison plan the turn he cast the Wurmcoil I would have just been dead. I bring in some swords, ancient grudges, and a devils play. In game 2 I make another embarrassing play mistake. Brian has out a titan while I have out an emissary, a solemn, and a beast token. He casts a slagstorm precombat which I let resolve...with a beast within in hand. So instead of turning his titan into a token I have to hit one of my own lands and block. Opps. I go on to win game 3 thankfully. I take a few minutes for myself after this match to collect my thoughts and make sure nothing like that happens again. I feel very lucky to be 3-0 with 2 mistakes of that level happening.
Round 4 Heath Vizier
Heath was a really nice guy I had never met before. I knew heath was on mono red for sitting next to him the round before. I lose the die roll and look and a hand with titan, garruk, bird and 4 lands. This hand isnt bad but it just cannot beat his deck on the draw. I mulligan into 3 lands 2 emissary and wurmcoil and *snap* keep. I play the wurmcoil on turn 4 while still at a healthy life total and ride it to victory. I mulligan to 6 game 2 and get crushed. I have a good hand game 3 and get out a turn 3 thrun followed by a turn 4 tree. I win the game from there despite going to 1 life at some point. 4-0
Round 5 Dylan Smith
Dylan is a great guy and a good friend. We are again on the mirror match and talk about drawing before the round starts. We are in first and second place at the time I believe and I kind of like the idea. It is a round early to draw, and I usually dont like doing this kind of thing but looking around the table I liked our match ups next round. If we got paired up against the other draw decks, which would likely be solar flare or control decks, we were both ok with this. I did not feel like flipping a coin this match, since he is a good player and I felt like he would not be an easy match, I took the draw. 4-0-1
Round 6 John Freitas
ANOTHER good friend of mine. John and I go way back. We even played on a team pro tour together. I got luckily paired against him this round since he was 5-0 and could scoop to me. It was nice to have another round off and know that I had just locked up another top 8! 5-0-1
Round 7 Jody Keith
You guessed it, another good friend. Jody and I drew both being locks for top 8.
Round 8 Top 8 Grant Bordelon
Grant seemed really happy to be in top 8 and told me this was his first one at any decent sized tournament. I told his congrats and wished him luck. He was playing a blue black control deck but stalled on lands in both games and was never really in either one of them. One funny moment happened when grant cast dissipate on my Thrun in game 2. We had a good laugh about it since he was so far out of the game anyway.
Round 9 Top 8 Lyall Alfred
Another mirror match was in my future for the rights to play in the finals. I mulligan to 5 on the draw and get crushed. In game 2 I mulligan to 5 on the play and get crushed. After this I am pretty sad and quite mad. To get that close again and lose that way was heartbreaking. I tried to keep my feelings to myself, be professional and wished my opponent good luck in the finals. Lyall went on to win the tournament, showcasing the power of this deck, so congrats Lyall. My friends could tell how disappointing this loss was for me and did a great job of making me feel better. Thanks for all the support and congrats from everyone, it really does mean alot. I just wish I could have brought home the title I wanted so bad and put that championship plague up in my local store.
Overall the tourny was great. Nick Buras did a GREAT job head judging his first event. Everything was run smoothly and on time. I really enjoyed the hour later starting time for extra sleep. Congrats to Kyp Maher on another good showing, losing on his win and in for the second year in a row. I know next year you will be in that top 8 with me! Also great job Coleman, with what I believe was a 9th or 10th finish. Drawing in the last round and missing on breakers. Now standings were not posted before the last round, my only gripe about the tournament all day long. But to any of you in the future, if there is any doubt as to if you will make it in with a draw just play it out. I would rather have my fate in my own hands and play for it then wait and see if I make it on breakers. Im glad Garruk is finally getting to shine, he has been criminally underplayed since being printed. Many of my opponents misplayed versus him and drawing 6 with him just felt so good all day. I dont think I lost a game all day where I drew with Garruk and even won a game or two that I might not have because of him.
I do think that this deck and other versions of it are the best decks in standard right now. The version that is more mono green with dungrove elder seems awesome to me and I may try it out soon, I really think it may be the way to go forward with this deck. I cannot wait to attack with elder and a titan at the same time. I might make a few changes going forward if you want to run this version. I think 1 Thrun main is not a bad idea, UB and solar flare are getting better at fighting you game one and this is another threat that is hard for them to answer. I did not really like the swords a whole lot but the may be necessary. A swamp and memoricide is not out of the question for the mirror. I personally would like maybe 1 or 2 more acidic slimes to just keep ahead on lands. Hitting a wolf-run can sometimes be the difference in a win and a loss.
Other than this deck the UB control decks seem like the only control strategy that can really keep up. You have to play tight and know the match-up but it is winnable. Not to mention UB can just beat up on the other control decks, what may be the best match up for them. Another deck I love right now is the token deck. I feel it has real game versus all the other decks out there right now, surprisingly. Ill be the first to admit I wrote that deck off as gimmicky. The real dark horse deck right now has to be mono black infect. It seems to have good game vs most decks and can get a few free game wins verses unsuspecting, unprepared opponents. As for what I will be playing this week in standard? It will probably be UB control with some spicy cards. But I have been wanting to have more fun while playing lately and that has me leaning towards playing burning vengeance. I will be working on a URB version most likely with a light green splash.
Tannon
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