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Before the Tournaments

The Metagame

This is the third weekend of tournaments since the June 3rd restrictions, and with the restrictions comes a shift in the metagame.  Bant Aggro, Counterbalance Control, and Necropotence combo are gone, replaced by Zoo and Red Burn, Life from the Loam-based control, and Elves combo.  Necropotence, of course, disappeared after being restricted.  With Necro gone, decks no longer needed to hate out Necropotence, so Zoo, Loam, and Elves could shine again.  Now that their main prey was gone and their main predators out in force, Counterbalance, as well as Bant and similar decks, faded into obscurity.  In short, the metagame has shifted from blue to red.

 

The Deck

Back in January, one Saturday afternoon I had just finished 1-3 drop with a Zoo deck, and was looking for another option.  One of my clanmates, possibly jokingly - or possibly not - suggested I play Flash.  Having nothing better to play, I threw together a Flash deck, using the recently-released Heart Sliver to make the Virulent Sliver kill a lot better.  About ten minutes before the tournament, I was looking for a potential source of card advantage, stumbled across Ancestral Vision, and threw it in on a whim.  It helped me win round 2 among others, putting me into the top 8.  Although it may seem odd to play a suspend 4 card in a combo deck such as this, Ancestral Vision was the key to my success against control decks.  If I could win turn 2 with counter backup then I would win, but I couldn't do that often enough with Flash restricted.  If the control decks were able to overwhelm me with card advantage, then I was sunk - but Vision, as a card advantage source of my own, would let me draw enough counters of my own to force a Flash through.

The Virulent Sliver and Heart Sliver kill was, at that time, the best of the options.  At that time, most decks were playing Tormod's Crypt or Relic of Progenitus as their graveyard hate, and not Leyline of the Void.  In my opinion, the presence of such graveyard hate made any win conditions that would lose to Crypt or Relic impractical.  Although I can, in theory, use Pithing Needle or Echoing Truth to combat them, needing three cards instead of two to win slows down Flash to the point where it loses.  (For the same reasons, I played 2 Heart Sliver where I only need one - if I draw one, I can ignore it and fetch the other, rather than having to find Brainstorm to put it back.)

There are two win conditions that I know of that do not rely on the graveyard: the Sliver kill, and the Disciple of the Vault kill.  The Disciple kill is 4 Disciple of the Vault, and at least 5 artifact creatures that will die (or be sacrificed) immediately: (Phryexian Marauder), Shifting Wall, Phyrexian Dreadnought, and Arcbound Ravager with Ornithopters have all been used.  While it is just about completely invulnerable to disruption once Flash resolves, its downside is that at least nine cards in your deck must be useless if you draw them - 4 disciples and at least 5 artifact creatures.  I usually play an extra two artifact creatures, so that if one of my disciples is inaccessible for any reason, they still lose 21 life.  This, however, means that 11 out of the 60 cards in my deck are worse than useless if I draw them.

The Sliver kill is 4 Virulent Sliver and one Heart Sliver.  You get five slivers, each with haste and four instances of Poisonous 1.  Only three need to be unblocked in order for you to deal 12 poison counters, which wins the game.  The bare minimum of cards used for this is 5, however I usually play one extra Heart Sliver, so that if I draw one I don't need to find Brainstorm.  However, although it uses fewer slots in your deck than Disciple, it is way more vulnerable: Any removal of your Heart Sliver will stop you, as will Engineered Plague, Engineered Explosives, Ghostly Prison, and all sorts of other cards.  Mogg Fanatic means that sometimes you lose if you don't have Force of Will in your opening hand.  Furthermore, if the opponent has three or more blockers, you cannot win, and if one Virulent Sliver is stranded in your had, you cannot win if your opponent has even one blocker.

Despite all those disadvantages, while Necropotence was unrestricted the sliver kill was still the best.  Necro had very little that punished the sliver kill, and similarly with the control decks that fought Necropotence.  Aggro decks were somewhat rare, and I could play around burn in the same way that I would play around counters against control.  Meanwhile, the extra 5 slots I was able to play gave me room to run Ancestral Vision, allowing me to match control decks in card advantage, and win.

Then Necropotence was restricted, and the metagame shifted.  Zoo decks came in with its Mogg Fanatics, and control went out.  Necro was gone, while Elves combo brought its swarms of creatures onto the battlefield.  Between those two, the disadvantages of the sliver kill were no longer negligible, while without needing Ancestral Vision against control decks, the extra slots freed were less of an issue.  So for the Saturday Morning tournament, I played Flash with the Disciple kill.

 

The First Tournament - Saturday Morning

The Saturday morning tournaments sometimes don't fire, and rarely get a lot of people.  This one was not one of the rare cases, but at least it fired - with 24 people, about the same number of minutes late.

Decklist

1 Flash 2 Protean Hulk 2 Summoner's Pact   4 Disciple of the Vault 4 Phyrexian Marauder 3 Shifting Wall   4 Force of Will 4 Daze 3 Thoughtseize   4 Mystical Tutor 1 Vampiric Tutor 1 Demonic Tutor 1 Imperial Seal

1 Brainstorm 3 Ancestral Vision 3 Cunning Wish 1 Echoing Truth   1 Elvish Spirit Guide 4 Polluted Delta 2 Flooded Strand 3 Underground Sea 2 Breeding Pool 3 Steam Vents 2 Island 1 Swamp

Sideboard:   2 Brainstorm 3 Gush   1 Lim-Dul's Vault 1 Krosan Grip 1 Summoner's Pact 1 Lightning Bolt 1 Volcanic Fallout 1 Through the Breach 1 Echoing Truth 1 Reins of Power 1 Reclaim 1 Sprout Swarm

Match Reports

(Some replays are missing.)

 

Round 1

My opponent was ROLLED, playing Merfolk.  Merfolk is one of the worse matchups for Flash, as it has both disruption and a decent clock.  It's often hard to assemble enough cards to punch through disruption before the Merfolk deck kills you.  I don't remember - or have the replay of - game 1, but I lost it.

Game 2, ROLLED stuck himself on one land - an island - by Wastelanding my Underground Sea.  It was a bad move, because I had plenty of lands, while he didn't.  I ended up winning by beating down with a Disciple of the Vault and a 3/3 (Phryexian Marauder).  Game 3 was somewhat similar - he Wasted my Breeding Pool, leaving himself stuck on a Mutavault.  In that case, he had to in order to stop me from Flashing him out, but it wasn't enough.

I've played a couple more matches against merfolk since then.  Unlike this one, I won game 1 in both of those matches.  In one I lost both games 2 and 3, in the other I lost game 2, and won game 3 when my opponent's double-wasteland hand with no other lands ran into my turn 3 kill with Thoughtseize backup off of basic lands.

 

1-0

Round 2

My opponent was sneakattackkid, playing elves combo.  In terms of theory, the matchup against elves is pretty hard for Flash to lose - Flash is a combo deck that goes of on turn 2-4 with disruption, while Elves is a combo deck that goes off on turn 2-4 without much disruption.  In practice, that's exactly what happened this time, and all the other times I played against Elves over the course of the weekend.  Aside from walking into a Guttural Response in game 2, I won handily.

Useful note against Elves: If they have an Essence Warden in play, and you're using Disciple Kill, play Flash on their turn.  Since they're the active player, they stack their Essence Warden triggers first, meaning that your disciple triggers resolve first.

 

2-0

Round 3

My opponent was xkorpio, playing Pox from what I remember.  Normally, Pox is an extremely favorable matchup.  Despite all their discard and land hurting, it's almost always possible for me selectively counter spells, keep drawing cards, and keep Flash out of my hand - and thus out of his reach - until I can position myself to cast it and win.

For all that they have discard, disard is often an insufficient defense against combo because when you run out of discard, they can keep drawing their combo pieces.  Especially with Ancestral Vision, that is how I beat Pox.

This match, however, was an extremely, extremely frustrating loss - in each of two games, I had Flash in my hand but could not draw the land to play it, and he made me discard it.  Although in theory I can play Cunning Wish for Reclaim to retrieve a discarded Flash, I still didn't have land.  For the bright side of this, see the interlude between this tournament and the next one.

 

2-1

Round 4

My opponent was ZZZSAN, playing monored.  This was another matchup that's good in theory, but I lost due to not drawing lands.  Overall, however, I'm glad these two losses happened, despite all but cursing the shuffler after each of them.  As with last match, see the interlude after this tournament.

 

2-2

Round 5

My opponent in round 5 was Wizard not of the Coast, playing Natural Order Thresh.  Unfortunately, I lost the replays for all but one of the games.  (I don't even remember whether this match was 2 or 3 games.)  My path to winning matches like this is that these decks are only light control decks.  For example, in the game I have the replay of, by the time I played Flash WnotC had only seen, in terms of counters: a Daze which I (Thoughtseized) early on, and two Force of Wills, one pitched to the other, which I forced.

 

3-2

I squeezed into top 8 with 8th place, on tiebreakers.

 

Round 6 (Quarterfinals)

My opponent was Kerrick_, playing Zoo.  I lost the replay for game 1, but apparently I lost the game as well.

Game 2 I could have Flash-ed turn 2, but in worrying about Pyroblasts, I waited until I could Thoughtseize him.  It turned out to be the right play, as he had exactly one Pyroblast.  I took it and won.

Game 3 I had Mystical Tutor and Cunning Wish, as well as three lands.  I could Wish for Summoner's Pact, Tutor for Flash, and win - except that I played Underground Sea too soon, and he Wastelanded it.  I played wish anyway by floating blue, playing a Marauder and Daze-ing it, and replaying the land, but he killed me on his turn.

 

Final tournament result: 8th place.

 

Interlude - Saturday Afternoon

Analysis

There were two main lessons I took from this tournament, and my reactions to both were connected.

The first lesson was that control decks were moving out.  The Flash deck I played in January had many card choices tuned for beating control decks, such as Ancestral Vision instead of Brainstorm.  This Flash deck still reflected some of those choices, including playing only one Brainstorm maindeck while playing three Ancestral Vision.

When I expect to face control decks, it's better to draw three cards and keep them on turn 5, than to draw three cards and put two back on turn 1.  In control decks, the question that decides the game is: When I cast Flash, who is able to play more counters?  If they have more counters than I do, I lose.  If I have as many as them or more, I win.  In contrast, against aggro decks the question that decides the game is: Do I find and cast Flash before they kill me?  When aggro decks are more common, I want to filter cards quickly to combo quickly, while when control decks are more common, I want as many cards in hand as possible to have more counters than them.

The second lesson was that 17 lands and an Elvish Spirit Guide is not enough.  I got landscrewed by Wasteland in rounds 3 and 4, losing both.  In the quarterfinals Wasteland destroyed the third land I needed to cast Cunning Wish, causing me to lose that round as well.  I would need more lands, and they should be basics if possible.  Of course, Brainstorm would help to find lands, but I also wanted to increase the land count.

I made the following changes after this tournament:

Maindeck:

+3 Brainstorm (2 moved from sideboard)
+2 Island
+1 Flooded Strand
-1 Daze (moved to sideboard)
-3 Ancestral Vision (moved to sideboard)
-1 Imperial Seal
-1 Elvish Spirit Guide

Sideboard:

+1 Daze (from maindeck)
+3 Ancestral Vision (from maindeck)
+1 Research/Development
+1 Pact of Negation
-1 Sprout Swarm
-2 Brainstorm
-3 Gush

 

Wishboard

Flash is a combo deck.  More than that, it is a combo deck that relies on a restricted card.  That is a glaring weakness in the deck.  Combo decks, by nature, have certain cards that they just lose to - in Flash's case, the major one is Leyline of the Void, but it's not the only one.  Aside from targeted hate, Flash also relies on a restricted card - the deck can only play one copy of Flash, but except in a few weird cases (see Sat. morning Round 1 game 2, and Sat. afternoon Round 4 games 1 and 3), it needs that one Flash to win.  If I lose the Flash, whether discarded, countered, or removed from the game, I can't win until and unless I get it back.  With Wish in the deck, if Flash is removed from the game, Cunning Wish can retrieve it.  If Flash is discarded or countered, I can wish for Reclaim.  While I have Cunning Wish in the deck, I put other wish targets in the sideboard - if my opponent plays Counterbalance I can Wish for Krosan Grip, I can wish for Lightning Bolt to kill Meddling Mage or Volcanic Fallout to kill two mages, or I can wish for Summoner's Pact to find Protean Hulk or Vampiric Tutor to find Flash.  (In the tournaments, Lim-Dul's Vault was there instead of Vampiric Tutor - since the weekend, I've taken Vault out, put Imperial Seal back in the maindeck, and moved Vampiric Tutor to the sideboard.)  Some of the wish targets - such as the Pact (both of them), the tutor, and Echoing Truth and Krosan Grip have come in handy many times.  Some, such as Reclaim, bolt, and fallout, are only occasionally useful, while some such as Through the Breach, Research/Development, and Reins of Power, are useful in theory but haven't been necessary in practice yet.  However, all of them make the Flash deck more versatile and more reslient to hate, allowing it to win games it otherwise could not.

 

The Second Tournament - Saturday Evening

Being a little low on sleep, I took a nap between tournaments, waking up in time to join the Saturday evening tournament.  Unlike the Saturday morning tournament, this one - and the Sunday one - always start on time, and occasionally with enough players for 6 rounds.  This one got 31 players, making it 5 rounds.

 

Decklist

I had saved the changes mentioned above before my nap, so on coming back online, I joined the tournament with the following deck:

1 Flash 2 Protean Hulk 2 Summoner's Pact   4 Disciple of the Vault 4 Phyrexian Marauder 3 Shifting Wall   4 Force of Will 3 Daze 3 Thoughtseize   4 Mystical Tutor 1 Vampiric Tutor 1 Demonic Tutor

4 Brainstorm 3 Cunning Wish 1 Echoing Truth   4 Polluted Delta 3 Flooded Strand 3 Underground Sea 2 Breeding Pool 3 Steam Vents 4 Island 1 Swamp

Sideboard:   3 Ancestral Vision   1 Lim-Dul's Vault 1 Daze 1 Research/Development 1 Pact of Negation 1 Krosan Grip 1 Summoner's Pact 1 Lightning Bolt 1 Volcanic Fallout 1 Through the Breach 1 Echoing Truth 1 Reins of Power 1 Reclaim

 

Match Reports

Round 1

I faced Bear Named Snuffy, playing Life from the Loam.  This matchup is one that is hard to lose - Loam has Chalice and Leyline of the Void, but doesn't have much that stops you from taking your time to remove them and win.  In game 1, despite drawing 2 Disciples, I hardcast both of them and played Flash on turn 3.  In game 2, he had a Leyline at the beginning and a Chalice for 1 on turn 2.  On turn 3 I played Cunning Wish for Krosan Grip, on turn 4 I played a second Wish for Lim-Dul's Vault, on turn 5 (technically, at the end of his turn 6) I played Grip on Leyline and then played Vault, then untapped, drew Demonic Tutor thanks to vault, played it for Flash, and played Flash, winning on my turn 6.

 

1-0

Round 2

My opponent was rukcus, playing a UGW deck that I call Thresh Is All Grown Up.  It's of a similar style to old thresh decks, but instead of Mongoose and other thresh creatures, it plays creatures such as Lorescale Coatl.  As he plays counterspells, this match comes down to one thing: When I cast Flash, who has more counterspells available to cast?

In game 1, despite being able to cast Flash with a single counter backup on turn 3, I slowroll until I have a second counter on turn 6.  It turns out I worried too much - all he had was one Spell Snare, and I won.

In game 2 I again slowrolled with Flash and Hulk in hand on turn 3, but this time, he played a Knight of the Reliquary on turn 4, leaving one mana open.  At the end of his turn I wished for Pact of Negation, then played Flash on turn 4 with the Pact proving unnecessary.

 

2-0

Round 3

My opponent was FatManInALittleCoat, playing a deck that looked somewhat like Loam, and somewhat like Rock.  I'm not sure what to classify it, however, like Bear Named Snuffy's deck in round 1, it didn't have a critical mass of disruption to give me trouble.  Game 1 I set up a turn 3 win with Brainstorm seeing literally nothing that could hurt me, which incidentally made me unsure what to take with my turn 1 Thoughtseize.  Game 2 I got a turn 3 win - on turn 2 he played Thoughtseize, and I played Brainstorm with a Island, having a Flooded Strand in play, then Forced his thoughtseize.  He sacrificed his wasteland to destroy my strand - which was in my opinion a very good play, because I might have hidden cards with Brainstorm that I wouldn't want to shuffle away.  It was definitely a play that I wouldn't have thought of, but was the right play nevertheless.  However, his hope wasn't the case - I had hidden two disicples that I wanted shuffled away, and had kept in hand Vampiric Tutor and Summoner's Pact, winning the game and the match.

 

3-0

Round 4

My opponent was sneakattackkid, playing elves, a rematch from round 2 of the morning's event.  Everything I said about the matchup then applies now - Flash wins on turn 2 with a good hand and by turn 4 with most hands and has disruption, while elves wins in the same time period but with little if any disruption.  Game 1 I won in the upkeep of his turn 4, going off on his turn due to his Essence Warden.  Game 2 he mulled to 4 with an Essence Warden and a Guttural Response and mana to cast elves to cast them, but I played around both successfully, playing Thoughtseize turn 3, then Flash in his upkeep.  Of course, what he said is true - beating a mulligan to 4 is not exactly impressive.  It's still a win, though.

 

4-0

Round 5

I faced Beckman, another elves player.  After drawing too many blanks and losing game 1, I had a turn 2 win game 2, while game 3 I was lucky enough to have an opening hand with Demonic Tutor, Protean Hulk, two Forces of Will, a Daze... and one land and a Disciple.  I kept, drew Flash on turn 1, Shifting Wall on turn 2, and a land on turn 3, winning immediately.

 

5-0

Being 5-0 in a 31-player tournament, I'm first place after the swiss rounds.  The changes I made earlier - mainly the extra lands and (Brainstorms) really helped.  Now onto top 8...

 

Round 6 (Quarterfinals)

I had a rematch with Bear Named Snuffy, who I had beaten in round 1.

Game 1 he goes first and plays Chalice of the Void turn 1, putting a stop to my plans to play Vampiric Tutor for protean hulk and a turn 2 win.  When I draw hulk anyway on turn 2, the second part of that plan gets back on track.

Game 2 was fun, notably due to a mistake I made that cost me the game.  He went first of course.  After brainstorming and tutoring for Flash, on his turn 4 he played Leyline of the Void, which I Dazed and countered, floating a blue mana.  I used that mana and my two other lands to play Cunning Wish for summoner's pact, and then he played Chalice of the Void for 0, making me unable to play Pact.

And there, I misplayed.  With two basic islands in play, I should have played the pact in response to chalice, since with disciple kill I can win on my upkeep, in response to the pact trigger.  Instead, I played a basic swamp on my turn, planning to Demonic Tutor next turn for the protean hulk.  But he played Devastating Dreams for 3, aptly devastating any dreams I might have had of winning game 2.

In game 3, I had a turn 2 kill, but he had Leyline.  With both of us stuck on 2 lands, his reluctance to use Wasteland to bring us down to 1 land each let me Tutor for echoing truth, then tutor for Flash, then play Echoing Truth when he finally activated his wasteland.  I still needed another land, but I got it on my next draw step and won.

 

6-0

Round 7 (Semifinals)

Round 7 was a rematch against FatManInALittleCoat, my opponent from round 3.  Three things about this round: One, this matchup didn't get any worse since a few hours ago.  Two, the one-sidedness of this matchup means the games really aren't worth looking at.  Three, I'm an arrogant jerk when theorizing about my victories, and I haven't yet figured out how to stop being the aforementioned arrogant jerk.  I'm working on it, though.

Incidentally, before this match there was a discussion between me and FatMan about who would be paired with whom for the semifinals, based on quarterfinal pairings.  I said that it was the 1st seed v 4th seed and 2nd v 3rd, where your seed was either your place in the swiss or that of your quarterfinals opponent, meaning I would face FatMan.  Which, as seen, was true.

Anyway...

Game 1 I had a Mystical Tutor in hand, but didn't draw a Summoner's Pact - or anything else that would fetch the other combo piece - until turn 4.  With 4 lands in play and one in hand, I was set to Flash next turn - except that he played Devastating Dreams for 4.  Two turns later, I drew another land, and won the turn after that - turn 7.

Game 2 was another game where I had a good hand in terms of combo pieces, and a horrible one in terms of both disciples (didn't want them) and lands (didn't have them).  After Thoughtseizing my mystical tutor at the start, I ended up with only a basic swamp, and three Disciples stranded in hand.  I hardcast one, but Devastating Dreams killed it and my swamp.  I eventually drew two lands including a fetchland, brainstormed the other two disciples away, drew one again, eventually drew a mystical tutor, and Flashed and won.

 

7-0

Round 8 (Finals)

My opponent was AthosTheMusketeer, with Merfolk.  This is probably the only truly bad matchup I faced all tournament.

Despite that, and despite two Cursecatchers, I won game 1, playing Mystical and Demonic tutors each a turn late (while there was only one 'catcher in play), playing Echoing Truth on a 'catcher on his turn 4 causing him to sacrifice that one, and playing Flash on turn 5 with 2 mana left open, which was enough to pay for his remaining 'catcher and the Daze he had, rendering my Force of Will backup unnecessary.

In game 2, it's possible that I made a critical mistake.  But then, it's possible that that mistake wouldn't have mattered anyway.  The play for the first 2.5 turns was:

Athos plays first.

Turn 1: Athos plays island, Cursecatcher; Javasci plays Polluted Delta, go.

Turn 2: Athos plays wasteland, attacks with cursecatcher.  At his end of turn, Javasci sacrifices Polluted Delta to fetch Island, then plays Brainstorm.  Athos plays Spellstutter Sprite, Javasci plays Force of Will targeting the sprite, Athos sacrifices Cursecatcher to counter Force of Will.  Sprite comes into play and counters Brainstorm.  Javasci untaps and does nothing on his turn.

(Brainstorm here is probably also a mistake, but it's not the one I was referring to.  And I kept a one-land hand, which is not good against a Cursecatcher.  But that's also not the mistake I was referring to.  Maybe I lost because it was late and I was sleepy and thus sloppy?)

Turn 3: Athos plays Island, taps Island and Wasteland for Standstill.  Javasci plays Mystical Tutor in response, fetching Brainstorm.

I had a second Mystical Tutor in hand as well as Protean Hulk, so I figured I could brainstorm into a second land, then tutor for Flash.

And that is the mistake.  He only had a Spellstutter Sprite in play, and I was at 16 after his attack this turn.  I believe i should have tutored for Flash, giving me about 15 turns to draw a second land, as well as enough counters to force it through after breaking the standstill.  As it was, I was fighting a losing battle post-standstill, and lost.  On the other hand, it's possible that I would have lost anyway, since either way, I had to give him 3 cards.

I think the real mistake was not sideboarding in Ancestral Vision.  Vision has been my weapon against this type of deck since January, but I had won without them in game 1, so I left them out for games 2 and 3.  That is something I should never have done.

In game 3 I had to mulligan to 5, and had only one land, daze, wish, hulk, and shifting wall.  He played Cursecatcher, I Dazed, he forced.  It was, more or less, all downhill from there.

One might think I would be inclined to blame luck for that.  In game 3, I had to mulligan to 5, and he had Cursecatcher, Force of Will, Lord of Atlantis, Merrow Reejery, Spell Snare, and Stifle.  (The latter two I saw with a Thoughtseize.)  Similarly, I could definitely blame bad luck for my losses in the Saturday Morning tournament rounds 3 and 4, getting stuck on 1 land after a Wasteland, with Flash unluckily drawn and in hand, where it was vulnerable to discard.

But the fact is, the fault wasn't that of luck.  In rounds 3 and 4, getting stuck on 1 land was clearly my fault - while 17 land may be enough in many games, playing 17 land is not a good idea with Wasteland around, and as mentioned, I changed the deck after that tournament (and before this one) to play three more lands, as well as three more brainstorms.

And in the finals on Saturday Night, the fact is, my loss was the fault of the many mistakes I made in game 2 - above all, the mistake of not sideboarding in Ancestral Vision.  If I had won game 2, I wouldn't have needed game 3.

 

Analysis

My feeling about Flash is that it's a deck that can win every game, making it the player's job to turn that "can win" into a "does win".  In other words, the outcome of the game is almost always in the control of the player.  Which makes it my favorite kind of deck - I'm a control freak.

I have this feeling because, after looking at the games I lost, I can almost always find something I could have done better, and won.  In round 6 of the Sat. night tournament, although I won the match, I lost game 2 to a critical misplay, as I mentioned above - I should have cast Summoner's Pact in response to Chalice of the Void for 0.

As a less obvious example, I feel that I could have done better in the finals if I had sideboarded in Ancestral Vision, to let me compete with the merfolk deck on card advantage.

Improvement Areas

A major area that I found could use improvement in Flash is that I drew "too many blanks" - that is, too often I would need a second combo piece and draw land or worse, (Disicple of the Vault).  With apparently more people playing Leyline of the Void as opposed to Crypt or Relic, I recently considered switching to Reveillark kill, perhaps with Abeyance in the wishboard - but I'm not by any means certain.  Because my weakness in the first few tournaments was drawing too few lands, I don't believe cutting lands is the answer.

Epilogue

I was planning to cover Sunday's tournament here also, but considering it's already taken way too long to write this, I think I have to stop.  To summarize, I played the exact same deck - 75 cards - as Saturday night, since that had worked so well.  I went 4-1 in swiss, my loss coming in round 3 to an Affinity deck.  Assuming he had no disruption, I walked right into a Spell Snare.  Despite that, I made top 8, losing to zoo in the quarterfinals due to drawing too many blanks.

Those three top 8s, plus a Standard Daily Event, put me at 12 Qualifier Points, and I spend Monday and Tuesday trying to get the remaining three.  Despite spending all day Monday, and the morning Tuesday, playing ABC queues and a Daily Event, I got only one QP from Alara Block.  Tuesday afternoon, I decided to sit in the Classic 8-man on the off chance that I could get it to fire - which succeeded, and I won it.  At 14 QPs, I played another ABC queue which I lost, and tried to fire the Classic queue again - which succeeded, and I won, putting me at 15 QPs.

At the time I submit this article, I'm currently logged off from MTGO, losing all the rounds of the MOCS championships (having not logged on since long before they started), using the sum of various annoyances at WotC - triggered by the Player Rewards program - as an excuse to pay more attention to getting ready for college.

- Javasci, a. k. a. Robert F. Johnson
- Classic player and erstwhile deckbuilder since 2006
- Member of Clan MagicEternal since Sometime After That, But Still A Long Time Ago
-- "True success in deckbuilding is not when you win with your deck, but when others win with your deck."  - me