One version of the story is I went 9 and 5 in the first annual Community Cup and thanks to the work of Bubba, Erik, and Mike in the Multiball Events, the Community triumphed over the Wizards team.
That is not the version I will be telling you today. I'm telling the long version.
54 Swamps
It's 4:30 am, NYC time on Wednesday, November 4th. The last hour of sleep has been absolutely terrible as I am unable to stay asleep. I somehow manage to be woken up by my alarm (I'm surprised I was able to sleep) and go through the motions of gathering my thing. I start up Obi-Wan and go to scrape the frost from the windows.
My Late Nite UB ice scraper snapped in two. Yet another thing my old supervisor has done to try and screw me over. This does not deter me, however.
Windows mostly clear I start my trek at an unfamiliar hour, driving the roads I have driven so many times at dusk, but now at dawn.
No traffic, not even at the Whitestone.
I find the parking service no problem, and almost instantly I am on a bus to JFK. I sit next to a man with a Kindle. Turns out he is on my flight, but I do not learn this until much later when we're both at the gate and he comments on the book I had just picked up- Neil Gaiman's "American Gods." He tells me I'm in for a great ride.
He has no idea how right he is.
I grab breakfast at 7am NY time, or 4am Seattle time. I go to my gate and ravenously devour my Dunkin' Donuts approximation of breakfast. With time to kill, I end up at a Chili's and order a Coke. The bartender tries to convince me it costs $200, but I'm distracted by the classic "Saved by the Bell" on the TV. You know, the one where they go to the Attic and get caught by Zach's mom with fake IDs. I leave five bucks for my three dollar fountain soda. I'm a sucker for fountain pop, ever since I started bar tending. It has a soul that the canned stuff lacks.
I meander to the bookstore and pick up the aforementioned Gaiman piece and a novel about biker gangs, fed by my love of "Sons of Anarchy."
I board the plane and change my watch to Pacific time. I turn off my electronic devices and begin to work my way through the new mythology at my finger tips.
The time flies almost as fast as we do. I spend the early half of the flight bemoaning the editing done on our in flight movie- the fantastic "500 Days of Summer." Not a dirty film by any stretch of the means, but they censored some pretty tame stuff, by my count.
I keep looking out my window and am amazed by America. I do nothing but gape at the Rockies as we traverse the range.
We land an hour ahead of schedule and 240 pages in. I get to the hotel and grab a bite, and then sleep.
Two hours later I begin getting ready and make arrangements to meet the crew for dinner. I watch the Yankees on their way to their 27th championship and remember the pain of being a Mets fan. 2010 will be our year.
Dinner time. I make my way to the lobby and meet Erik and Thomas (hamtastic and Tweaker). It is surreal. We make our way to dinner thanks to the lovely Wizards staff (Tolena and Marcella) and are soon joined by Adam and Eric. We're informed that one of our team members will not be playing, so Wizards hired a ringer.
Then Hall of Famer Randy Buehler walks over and introduces himself. I thought he was just in the area. Turns out he's the ringer.
I get to play Magic with a legend on my side.
I fight every urge to text all my friends right then and there, but I manage to e-mail one from the bathroom.
He congratulates me on my work on Pauper. I almost die from the smile on my face. I am grateful he is on the team, as now the pressure from Sebastian's declaration that I would be the best player for the Community fall from my shoulders- we have a ring on our side.
More people join the party-Mike, Walter, and Sam from our team- Chris and Mike from Wizards. Pete's plane is delayed, but he arrives at some unnatural hour.
We eat, we befriend each other in real life, much as we have done online, and of course, we talk about Magic. There's some smack being talked on all sides of the table, and obscene pieces of cake. There are stories.
Before the latter half of our party arrives, Randy shares a story from the days of CMU. At one play test session revolving around Necropotence, a player in frustration cries out for help:
“How many Swamps do I need to have two on turn two?”
A fair question, considering the importance of turn two in the deck, between the pump knights and Hymn.
Without missing a beat, Erik Lauer, the Mad Genius of Magic announces:
“Fifty-four.”
Absolutely correct.
The night draws to a close and we make our way to the hotel. I watch the coverage and the champagne on the Bombers. My last thoughts before slumber are:
I can't believe I am here
I love this game
The Phillies suck
I cannot wait for tomorrow.
“I heard you went undefeated in draft, so I had to smash you”
Day two begins on the East Coast. It is 7am there when I wake up, but only 4am on the West Coast. I try to find my way back to sleep, but to no avail. ESPN keeps me company as I drift in and out of semi-sleep. Finally a little before 7am for real, I get ready for the day.
After the shower I see my phone- Pete has arrived and called, looking for the walk I had offered earlier. We meet in the lobby, and I recognize him immediately.
Pete Jahn is a writer I have always admired. He is a man who loves Magic and wants to share the game with the world by making it friendly and accessible. He has been writing for years and never seems to tire, and I wish I could make it to 300 as easily as he has made it appear to me.
We walk and get to know each other. It is sunny and brisk outside, a rare occurrence over the next two days. Like so many other times during this event we share a love of Magic and stories about the game that has brought us together. The sidewalk literally runs out, informing us it is time to return to the hotel for breakfast.
Once there we meet Mike Gills and the other Community Team members. We eat and chat, choose our way too cute avatars for the pairing process, and prepare to walk over. Then Aaron Forsythe makes an appearance, complete in an R & D jersey. He came to game.
I run upstairs twice- once to change into my tie, and the next time to grab a flash drive. Then we trek across the parking lot and make our way to Wizards.
Up the elevator.
Past the dragon.
Into the room where there are a dozen or so machines set up, for us to game upon. Mark Rosewater is there, and shortly afterwards I recognize Mike Turian and Alexis Janson poking their heads in. We move our swag out of the way, claim chairs, and log in, ready to draft Zendikar.
One of the nice things about this event is that it was “casual.” While we were competing, the point, as it was communicated, was to have a good time and win prizes for the community. Therefore, helping each other make the correct plays was not only allowed, it was encouraged.
Draft one gets underway, and I sit patiently for draft two. We all queue up, and then it fires.
You can follow the draft here. I learned after the fact that Randy knew he was sitting between both me and Pete, so he kept feeding us the goodies and going Mono-Green. It worked for me.
A note about my first pick: I took the Sell-Sword because I did not want to be fighting for Red. With four good Red cards in the pack, I would much rather risk taking a card in the best color than fighting with my neighbor in pack two. This worked out to a T.
This is the deck I ended up bringing into battle for the first three rounds:
Creatures
0 cards
Other Spells
2 Welkin Tern
1 Kor Aeronaut
1 Windborne Charge
2 Paralyzing Grasp
1 Kor Skyfisher
3 Steppe Lynx
1 Reckless Scholar
1 Whiplash Trap
2 Merfolk Seastalkers
1 Kor Cartographer
1 Windrider Eel
1 Shieldmate's Blessing
1 Sky Ruin Drake
1 Cliff Threader
1 Kabira Crossroads
1 Shepherd of the Lost
2 Æther Figment
0 cards |
Lands
8 Plains
9 Island
17 cards
|
 |
Round one I am paired against Adam and his Gruul flavor. Game one was tough, as his (Glazing Gladeheart) made my assault with 2/2s seem paltry, but I managed to get there, at a healthy life total. Game two Adam has to sacrifice his only Mountain to a Harrow to stop my Cliff Threader from connecting. This allows me to play out my army unmolested and I quickly move to 1 and 0.
Round two is Aaron Forsythe and his Mono-Black affair. Randy lets me know he has Mind Sludge, so I play around the beastly spell and avoid the spell entirely game one. Game two I side in Cancel but end up using it on some other spell and manage to not get blown out my Marsh Casualties. This match featured one of the best things about the Challenge: Trash Talk. Aaron was seated across from me, so we were able to keep up a witty banter. This is far nicer than playing online where banter might be misinterpreted at disrespect or insulting, this was all in good fun, and all parties gave as well as the received. Being able to talk smack with Aaron was definitely one of the things that will stick in my memory for quite some time.
Round three is against the one and only Mark Rosewater with an aggressive Black Red deck. Game one he is unable to punch through against my Crossroads with Skyfisher backup. Game two he beats me down but I think I stabilize, although very far behind. I cautiously attack, and on his crack back, he casts both Slaughter Cry and Vampire's Bite on two different creatures to put me to negative life totals. Game three he stumbles on mana and is never able to recover. It was quite a sight, because at one point there were five Wizards gathered around MaRo's computer trying to decide the optimal play. As an aside, in non-sanctioned play, this is a great way to figure out the best play and also how to improve your play. And yeah, it helps when the people looking over your shoulder are former pros.
At the end of the first event, I'm the only undefeated player which gives the community a bonus point, putting us in the lead 59 to 58. As a reward, I get interviewed and photographed.
After a quick lunch and a tour of Wizards (the parts we can see anyway, it is time for 100 Card Singleton.
In the weeks prior to the event I had a chance to see all the decks the Community had developed and was immediately drawn to White Weenie.
Shocking, I am sure.
I took the initial deck list for a few spins and was pleased with how it performed. After a few days, I swapped decks with Tweaker, taking RG and again, enjoying how the deck would go about its business. While White Weenie was more or less your standard “apply pressure and Armageddon” build, the Red Green deck had some nice tricks with cards like Punishing Fire and had some true reach.
About a week before the Cup, Tweaker vents in the room that he is having no luck with White Weenie. I, of course, spring forth (like a burly protector) to offer the swap.
He takes it.
We are both pleased.
Here is the list I ran:
I love this deck, I love everything about it (mostly the fact that months of pimping Pauper WW had prepared me rather well for this style of deck) and I was confident that unless I faced a broken Reanimator strategy (like Danger Mike was running), I would be in good shape.
In round four I am up against Chris with his Grixis special. Game one he is unable to get started and I roll him. Game two I am unable to get started and he rolls me. Game three, things get interesting. I apply the early beats and think I am in good shape, as he is stumbling on mana. Then taps out to cast Time Warp.
Okay, no big deal, he just paid five mana to draw a card. I can deal.
Then he casts Temporal Manipulation.
Now I start to get nervous. I have not seen much of Chris' deck at this point, and I do not know if he has some sort of way to abuse these turns. He plays a land, and passes. A few turns later, he is dead and we are shaking hands, bemoaning his awkward draws.
The pairings are announced for round five, and I am up against the man, the myth, the legend, the Potato, Mike Turian.
Awkward.
And he is running Reanimator.
Can I just scoop now?
There is very little I can do against his deck in game one, and the sideboard helps very little unless I draw the Grunt or Samurai for turn two. These do not happen. Sure, I make a game of it, loudly bemoaning my luck, and saying how it is an honor just to compete against a member of the Hall, but I fall quickly. At some point during the match, Lee Sharpe, watching Turian tutor of a titan of terror goes “Entomb. That card is pretty good. That's why we banned it in Extended.”
Obviously.
After the match, we shake hands and he utters those immortal words: “I heard you went undefeated in draft, so I had to smash you.”
He was not mean about this at all, he had the biggest smile in the world on his face. I laughed and shook his hand, and then we chatted about Magic, and I joked that it took a Hall of Famer to stop my streak.
As an aside, Mike is now my new Magic idol. He wants to win, for sure, but he does so with a smile on your face. He smashed me, no question, without mercy, but he did so without malice and with a joy that I cannot begin to communicate with mere words. That is what I want to be: someone who can win, have fun, and put the opponent at ease, all at once.
Round three is against Erik Lauer's Simic Good Stuff featuring the Pickles Lock. These games are not all that memorable, as my army trounces him in game one and three and his card advantage crushes me in game two. However, it was Matt Tabak who was piloting the deck in game one, and Lauer took over for the last two thirds.
Round seven, last round of the day, pins me against none other than Forsythe, again. I know from scouting (because it is so hard to know what people are playing when you are less than ten feet from them) that he is running a traditional UW Control build with the Painter-Grindstone and Thopter-Sword combo. I am not intimidated, and we sit down for game one.
Aaron gets the Thopter combo out quickly, but I am able to apply pressure to keep him on the defense. He then casts Enlightened Tutor end of turn and I click through it, which is the stains since I was holding Aven Mindcensor. He fetches Moat, and stalls my attack. I continue to play out men and then he rips Humility. Now, I'm sorta stuck, unable to attack with him at a decent life total. I draw a Disenchant and consult with Randy. After some discussion, I nuke the Humility and manage to whittle Aaron to seven life. I then rip Elspeth like a champ, give my Soltari Champion with a +1/+1 counter on it an angelic blessing, and swing through for exactly lethal.
Game two I stumble on mana and am overwhelmed by the combo of Salvaging Station and Chromatic Star for card advantage. He eventually cycles the White Decree for a few 1/1s, and my Crusade helps to power them up. A few more lock pieces down and we are on to game three.
Here, I get a strong draw and again, apply the pressure. Then he drops a Porphyry Nodes that I should not be worried about. I have a steady stream of creatures in hand, including a Stillmoon Cavalier and I am building towards an Emeria, the Sky Ruin. While Aaron may be able to kill one dude per turn, I will not have to worry in the long game.
But I do not think this through and blow my Disenchant on the Nodes, trying to win now. As the spell leaves my digital grip, I realize I need one to stop the combo that I know he is running. I burn an Unmake to keep Meloku off the table and whittle Aaron down to three life.
Then he gets off the combo. If only I had held the Disenchant.
I am one big mistake from being 6-1. I am upset, but cannot complain. I am 5-2 playing good Magic. Besides, that night, there is more fun to be had. Before the festivities, however, the scores are updated with the Community team lagging behind. To help make up for the disparity in skill level, Mike institutes a multiplier round, affectionately called Multiball. There will be two Multiball events: one sealed, one Momir Basic, comprised of three rounds each; each round of sealed uses an entirely new format and packs, as determined by rolling a D20. At the end of each event, the difference between wins and losses are taken, and then multiplied by the total team score for the corresponding day two event. For example, if the Community went 2-1 in a Multiball event, the score from the corresponding regular rounds would be multiplied by 1.5; if we sweep, our score is tripled.
It made sense at the time. We tap Erik for Momir and Bubba for Sealed and head off to fun.
Since we are all Magic players, fun includes Zendikar Sealed, 8th Edition Foil Drafts, and a game of Elder Dragon Highlander.
Did I mention I love this game?
8th Edition Foil drafts were...interesting. Signals were impossible and I swear I saw three straight packs with the same rare run of Maro, Obliterate, and Deflection. Mark Gottleib took the gambit and ran the triple Obliterate special. I, on the other hand, ran a decent Blue Black deck (tough choice, considering I was passed a pack with double Dark Banishing, and had to pass one to Lee Sharpe, who was also in Black). I play a few games here, some Zen sealed there, and take home a few foils for my troubles.
In one of the Zen sealed games, I take down Erik fairly quickly and we select the foils for our prizes. One of which is Windborne Charge- a card that was topdecked against Erik twice earlier in the day to prevent him from sweeping the draft alongside me. So of course I ensure he gets the Sorcery He ensures that it will never be played, promptly ripping the shiny charge to shreds. If you see Erik ever, have him sign Windborne Charge- it's his card now.
I wrangle Erik and Pete for an EDH game after watching the Wizards play a few games of the new hot craze. I have my Darigaaz deck, Pete has Starke, and Eric has Oona. It is no real contest, as I am unable to keep board position and Pete wins easily. Still, it was a ton of fun.
The most fun about EDH, though, was the two days leading up to the event. I was frantically looking to put a deck together just to have one on hand. However, my paper collection is much larger than I realized and unorganized, so I spent days just sorting through cards to find the gems to make my deck and then whittling down the ones I believed would maximize the fun for everyone.
And I never got to play my general from the Command zone.
I trudge off to my room, exhausted. While no longer on Eastern Time, my mind lies somewhere between Chicago and Boise, and I know I have to have a good day on Friday to give the Community a chance to win this thing.
“I hate this deck!”
I check my phone and it is six in the morning. This is a good thing- I normally get up a little after six my time, so waking up now is not all bad. I stay under the covers, watching ESPN in an attempt to get ready for the day. I wash up and get my bag together, charge up the iPod and head downstairs for some grub.
The other challengers slowly arrive as well, and we all gather around a table with Mike Gills. He starts asking us about MTGO, and how to engage other communities. With two success stories, Pauper and Classic, at the table, it was a chance for us to talk face to face, instead of over the digital medium.
At some point, Mike Turian, complete in the Turian Steelers jersey arrives and observes the conversation.
What it comes down to is that MTGO wants to be able to support more styles of play, but getting those communities going is the hard thing. Pauper and Classic both had strong player bases to draw from, but the other newer “alternate” formats, like Kaleidoscope, do not have the same luxury. What I took away from this meeting was that if you want to see a format online, start a community dedicated to said format. Hold events and create a forum. Make noise but be constructive, and be active. Above all else, do not give up easily- if people like your format, it seems that Wizards takes note.
Finally, it is time to go game, and we take off for Wizards to play some Unified Standard. Here is the list I took into battle:
I was less sure of what to play in Standard, but Pete suggested Bant since, in his words “it was like a really good Pauper deck.” I was initially wary, shirking it for a home brewed GW Tokens list before coming back around on Bant, mostly after learning how to mulligan properly. I feel good, but this is far and away the format for which I am least prepared. I was making sideboard changes right up until we sat down, but still felt ready to blow some stuff up with Mold Shamblers.
So of course I get paired against Turian. Again. In the Bant Mirror.
I have to attack for two into the man who loves attacking for two.
This is not nearly as big of a blowout as our previous match. In game one he sticks more Exalted creatures, Scute Mob, and Jenura and just out creatures me.
Game two I am able to apply enough early pressure to overrun. I feel good, considering this is my first win against Turian all weekend.
Game three we both stumble out of the gates, but I am able to recover faster thanks to my Heirarch. However, he has Ranger of Eos for two Heirarchs and I am not able to get back into this match.
Against Turian, everything was a lifegain battle. It did not matter how much damage was dealt, since it would just be undone the next turn. More than once during this match I exclaimed loudly “I hate my deck.”
This match, and the others showed a wide disparity of tech between the Community and Wizards. Our decks, for the most part, were stock with a few substitutes here and there. Wizards, however, had some stock lists, but were running far more “potentially powerful fringe” cards, like Knotvine Paladin. I think it was this second layer of examination into cards that helped to separate their decks from ours. Looking at the records, were were even in Limited, but got dominated in Constructed, so next year's team, listen closely: spend more time than we did testing Constructed.
I know for me, I was handed a deck and tried to play if a dozen times, without really examining other options. I wish I had.
Round two is Lee Sharpe and his Landfall/Warp World deck. Having tested against Pete's list previously, I know exactly how to win against this deck and do it in back to back games.
Round three is against Eric Sorensen and his Mono-White Control deck, packed to the gills with Wraths and Planeswalkers. I know we split the first two, and neither are very close, with the winner dominating the loser. In game three, however, he stumbles on mana, finally reaching three when I reach six. I then Mold Shambler his third Plains and he scoops.
I will not lie, I felt a bit dirty doing it, but I felt that I was there to win for the community, and I was going to do everything I could to make sure that happened. Sorry Eric.
Round four I draw Tom LaPille and the so called Grixis Planeswalker deck. I feel good about this pairing as I have numerous ways to handle Planeswalkers and I know I can get the jump on his deck since he takes the first few turns to set up and lacks strong early defenses (that I know about). Game one he sets up Planeswalkers early and Vengeant keeps me out of this one. In game two my deck does exactly what it is supposed to do and attacks Tom before he can establish strong defenses. My O-Rings help keep those nasty walkers off the board and I get an eyebrow raise from my kicked Shambler.
I love commons.
Game three I mulligan a one lander into a three lander with some decent action, provided I draw one of my fourteen Green sources by turn three. I was hesitant to go down to five since my deck lacks any sort of way to gain card advantage and Tom's was a machine in that department.
We all know how this one ends up.
I do not see a Green source until turn ten, and by that point it is far too late. I shake hands with the man who made us better at Magic and go to lunch, ready for the IPA draft.
“Maybe you should write up a guide to IPA”
IPA worried me. This is a very skill intensive format and a polar opposite of Zendikar drafting. In IPA, slow tricksy decks with lots of card draw and expensive creatures are good. In Zen, you really want to come out guns first. I had never drafted full IPA for real, and my last remembered experience with the set was a triple Invasion Rochester draft in Neutral Ground New York.
That was a while ago.
We had the opportunity to do some practice IPA drafts, more to familiarize ourselves with the cards and feel of the format than anything else. Pete Jahn noted my draft decks seemed pretty good, so he asked me to write up the group primer for IPA.
I will not give the long version here, but to put it bluntly, I wrote that drawing cards and mana fixing was good, and to try and set yourself up for a three color special, specifically to take advantage of the Apocalypse enemy colored cards.
At dinner on Wednesday, I had joked about this primer with Randy, and he added something to the effect of “Don't forget the Snidds.”
I was seated in Pod Two, next to Randy who bird-dogged my draft and helped me immeasurably. As it turns out, Randy was feeding Mark Gottleib who was feeding me. I moved into Blue after a second pick Exclude and drafted a decent Dromar splash Red (for Magma Burst) deck. I feel that my biggest mistake was picking a Helionaut over Evasive Action, and I chalk that up to lack of experience with the format. You can follow my draft here.
Here is the deck I ran:
These matches, sadly, were rather boring. In the first round I go for the sweep of Mark Gottleib ( I had already beaten him in a practice draft) and we split the first two, only to have him lose to mana screw in the third.
Round two was against...Aaron Forsythe. Again. Once more,I split the first two but he succumbs to mana screw in the third match and I sweep in for victory.
Round three is Matt Tabak and his absolutely nuts Dromar flavored deck. It was like my deck on some serious Bonds style (alleged) steroids. He won easily, despite my attempt to keep myself in the game.
My favorite story from IPA, however, was from the match between Erik and Lee Sharpe. Erik attacks with a Charging Troll into a Vodalian Serpent. Realizing his error, Erik bemoans his misclick rather loudly. Lee, obviously, blocks. Erik has the pump spell to take down the blocker. He ran the sickest MTGO bluff ever. Lee was distraught, but I could see the gleam of joy in defeat.
My overall record on the weekend was 9-5, and considering two of my losses were to Turian, one was a mental mistake against Forsythe, one was to awkward mana, and one was to the best draft deck at the table, I can call this weekend a success on a personal level.
Multiball!
Some of the best moments of the weekend came watching Erik and Mike play Momir Basic for multiplier points. There is nothing like waiting on eight for that Hoverguard Sweepers that will win you the game. What is more intense is when you can hear everyone yelling at every drop, and moan when Wizards goes for ten and hits Myojin of Seeing Winds.
The Minnesota-Canada connection managed to get us two wins in the Momir Basic- it could have been three if not for a Pentavus misclick.
It came down to Bubba in sealed. Three matches, three formats. The random sealed generator (Mike Gills' D20) determined we would see the following sealed formats: MED1-2-3, Tempest-Stronghold, and Ravnica Block.
It was scary in the last match, but Bubba got there, tripling our score from the draft round.
We wrapped up and went to dinner, and after a few minutes, Randy had finished his match against Mark Gottleib, ensuring a 12-12 match split between Wizards and Community for IPA draft. However, since both Worth and Matt Tabak swept their pods, they got a few extra bonus points.
Mike came down.
The scores had been tabulated.
This picture says it all:
Keep slingin commons-
-Alex
8 Comments
Thanks for the inside report Alex. I watched as many games as I could but it is nice to get the context which is missing from casual observation. Sounds like a blast. I said to you in private, your skills are on a roll...go win a PTQ now.
" If you see Erik ever, have him sign Windborne Charge- it's his card now."
...
Oh, you would do this... wouldn't you! I guess I have that coming. :D
Is it possible to have nostalgia for something that happened less than a month ago? Because reading this brought back awesome memories...
lol. If I were you Id be collecting all the Windborne Charges I could get my paws on. :D
congratz alex, thanks for all the pauper contributions. And yas next year is our year. Go Mets!!!
try as i might i cannot see ant mols shamblers in that bant list
They got cut off in editing. They are the three missing cards.
-Alex
Sounds like an amazing time. Thanks for sharing it with us, Spike!
Well done guys, well done :)
Ivo.
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