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By: runeliger, Sebastian Park
May 21 2009 12:18pm
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With Alara Reborn fully legal in all formats in real life, I've been attending all sorts of paper events recently. There was a PTQ in San Diego (which is about 2 hours from where I live) and this past weekend was Regionals. So, after I did terribly (going 3-2 drop at the previous PTQ) with an aggressive GB Elves deck, I decided it was time to listen to Brandden McDoogle. For those of you who don't know Brandden McDoogle, he's the premiere deckbuilder for the Seattle area and by far the most talented deckbuilder I know. His resume includes all sorts of PTQ winning decklists and is also credited with the resurgance of Storm leading up to Grand Prix Los Angeles earlier this year (With his list making top 8). So when he said he had a GB deck that was "destroying tokens" and performing quite well, I immediately decided to play the deck. A few numbers I tweaked (as he sent me a pre-Alara Reborn version), but this is the deck I played 9 rounds with at Regionals. 

M210 GB Rock
Deck Designed by Brandden McDoogle - Played by Sebastian Park at LAX Regionals 2009
Creatures
4 Cloudthresher
2 Civic Wayfinder
3 Shriekmaw
4 Devoted Druid
3 Noble Hierarch
4 Chameleon Colossus
2 Llanowar Elves
2 Kitchen Finks
2 Lord of Extinction
26 cards

Other Spells
2 Primal Command
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
3 Loxodon Warhammer
2 Profane Command
2 Maelstrom Pulse
12 cards
Lands
4 Treetop Village
1 Swamp
1 Mutavault
4 Llanowar Wastes
5 Forest
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
3 Twilight Mire
22 cards

Loxodon Warhammer

 

The tweaks from the original?
Maindeck:
-1 Kitchen Finks, -1 Civic Wayfinder -1 Shriekmaw -1 Garruk Wildspeaker
+2 Maelstrom Pulse +2 Lord of Extinction
Sideboard:
-2 Murderous Redcap -2 Liliana Vess
+2 Maelstrom Pulse + 2 Hurricane

A few things before I get to the actual matches I played in. Sunmesa had done some ridiculous amount of advertisement in hopes of attracting 410+ players, but only 259 people showed up. Although this was a tad disappointing, Sunmesa still had some really cool events going on for this tournament. They offered a set of planeswalkers to the top finisher of an all commons/uncommons deck and an additional prize support to a team event. The team event was very interesting. On the back of the deck registration sheets was a section where you could put down your name and the name of one other person.Basically they added up the constructed rating of both you and your teammate and then divided by the number of match points you had at the end of the day in order to determine a winner. The top three teams with the lowest scores would win prizes ( two boxes for first, one box for second, and half a box for 3rd). I entered this side competition as Airizel with my PTQ buddy and good friend Brian Lenhoff. He was playing BR aggro. I was keeping track of his record too, so I'll add a secondary section of information at the end of each round. In terms of the meta, I expected BR aggro, BW tokens, some 5cc, GW tokens, and other GB decks to be in force.

Round 1 (Blightning Aggro):
After everyone had registered and the decklists had been collected, the tournament finally started. I was paired up against Blightning round 1. I say Blightning because my opponent was playing a suboptimal build of the BR aggro deck.

I won the dieroll and elected to go first. Game 1 was rather one sided. He began by Magma Spraying my (Noble Hiearch), after which I played a Devoted Druid. He refused to burn my druid and instead played a Goblin Outlander. Shrugging off this slight misplay, I tapped the Devoted Druid twice and played Primal Command, gaining 7 and searching for a Kitchen Finks. Later I played a Loxodon Warhammer, and no number of spells could have possibly bet me (as my notes show I constantly stayed above 15 life).

I recall not sideboarding at all for this game and instead just shuffled my sideboard into my deck and took out the exact same 15 cards. (Just a sidenote. Yes, I sideboard by boarding my entire board in and removing cards I don't need for the matchup.)

Game 2 was far more in his favor, as he went Figure of Destiny, Hellspark Elemental, Boggart Ram-gang. I Shriekmawed his Boggart Ram-gang and when he played a second Figure of Destiny managed to Maelstrom Pulse it. My notes show me playing Kitchen Finks (which got Magma Sprayed) and a Devoted Druid (which was Terminated). Luckily, I managed to play a timely Chameleon Colossus, equipped a Loxodon Warhammer to it and proceeded to win the game and match (as he only has Flame Javelin as an answer to such a creature).

Games 2-0, Match 1-0 (Brian also won 2-0 beating TurboMill, 6 points total between us).

Just a quick aside here. Three people from my area, Payman Ghorbani (the man who generously lent me about 60 cards of my 75 list, including some awesome forests), Brian Goldberg (last year's City Champ), and Ross (sorry, forgot his last name) were playing TurboFog at this tournament. I personally was against it (I didn't feel then and now that TurboFog had gained enough to make it a viable deck) and got a chance to watch Brian play the deck. He lost 1-2 against RB Aggro as a well timed Everlasting Torment and its "Damage can't be prevented" clause destroyed the deck. The other two split their matches.

Round 2 (RW Kithkin):
So after watching Brian lose, round two quickly started. I was paired up against RW Kithkin, a deck that eventually evolved into the RW BoatBrew deck (and also a deck that seems to be re-emerging as BW tokens takes a larger portion of the metagame).

I lost the dieroll and quickly started getting beat. He went turn 1 Figure of Destiny, turn 2 pump Figure, play a Windbrisk Heights and turn 3 Spectral Procession. I was able to Shriekmaw the Figure of Destiny, but couldn't stop the Windbrisk Heights from being activated, revealing Ajani Vengeant, which helixed my Noble Hierarch. The game went back and forth until he was able to Banefire me for the game.

My sideboarding consisted of: -2 Lord of Extinction -1 Primal Command -1 Cloudthresher +2 Infest +2 Maelstrom Pulse.
I didn't feel against a non tokens based deck that I needed 4 Cloudthresher, so I cut back to three and also took out a Primal Command for the cards needed.

Game 2 was rather one sided due to a playmistake on his part. He again had a quick start, going Figure of Destiny, into Knight of Meadowgrain, into a Windbrisk Heights and Wizened Cenn. Unfortunately for him, this was exactly the start I had hoped for. Turn three I simply tapped the necessary mana and Infested the board away. The following turn I played a Garruk Wildspeaker and he was never able to recover.

Game 3 was very interesting. On the play, he again played a Figure of Destiny into a Knight of Meadowgrain while I ramped my mana with Noble Hierarch into a Kitchen Finks. However, on turn 3, his face twisted as he missed his land drop and simply swung in with his creatures. I played a Treetop Village and passed the turn back. At this point, he plays another Knight of Meadowgrain and plays a Windbrisk Heights, freshly drawn off the top of his library. The interesting play on my part comes here. My hand consisted of Garruk Wildspeaker, Shriekmaw, and a Primal Command. Knowing he was lacking mana, instead of opting to Maelstrom Pulse his Knight of Meadowgrains this turn, I chose to put the Windbrisk Heights on top of his library and shuffle his nonexistant graveyard into his deck (effectively moving shuffling away his 3rd land). My reasoning was to keep him off his mana and prevent him from attacking and flipping the necessary card he needed to win with. Luckily, this move paid off as he missed yet another land drop, which allowed me to draw into a Maelstrom Pulse, wipe away his board by evoking the Shriekmaw for the Figure and pulsing the Knights before eventually winning with an Overrun off of Garruk Wildspeaker's ultimate. Feel free to comment on whether this was the correct play. I still feel it was.

Games 4-1 Match 2-0 ( Brian unfortunately lost to the mirror, so we had 9 points total between us)

Round 3 (5 Color Control):
I win the die roll and he takes a mulligan. Man I'm good at this game. Anyway, I follow my Noble Hierarch with a Devoted Druid and then play a turn 3 Kitchen Finks, opting not to run into a Broken Ambitions by accelerating into the Ouphe. He Maelstrom Pulses the Finks, which still is able to get in for 3 the following turn off of the Hierarch's exalted ability. I try to cast a Garruk Wildspeaker, but it's met with a Cryptic Command, but I'm able to resolve a Loxodon Warhammer. My opponent successfully Wraths the board away, to which I respond with a EOT Cloudthresher and proceed to hit for 10 damage and gain 10 life off of the Loxodon Warhammer. He has another Wrath of God for the Cloudthresher and he plays Ajani Vengeant in hopes of keeping my Kitchen Finks tapped, but I'm able to Profane Command him for exactly enough.

I sideboarding plan for 5CC (at least this version, which didn't seem to run that many aggresive creatures) is the following: -2 Lord of Extinction -2 Primal Command, -1 Shriekmaw, -2 Kitchen Finks +3 Mind Shatter, +2 Makeshift Mannequin, +2 Guttural Response

Game 2 played out exactly as it should have on paper. Although he was on the play, I resolved a turn 1 Noble Hierarch, turn 2 Devoted Druid, and when he tapped out for a Mulldrifter turn 3, I was able to cast Mind Shatter for 4 on turn 3. Interestingly enough, I didn't realize how good Mind Shatter was as I thought it merely read "discard X cards," not "discard X cards at random." Luckily, a spectator called a judge to clarify and my opponent's hand disappeared down to 3 cards. After drawing another card and casting Esper Charm on himself to draw more cards (playing another land), I followed it up with a turn 4 Mind Shatter for 4 (this time off a land instead of a Devoted Druid. This effectively allowed me to end the game quickly with a Cloudthresher swinging. Devoted Druid is good.

Games 6-1 Match 3-0 (Brian lost to BW tokens this round, so we move up to a combined 12 points)

Another sidenote. At this point, the majority of the TurboFog players in the room, with the exception of Brian, have X-2 or X-3 records. Even Brian has a X-1 record, having lost round 1. It's all very interesting how TurboFog played out.

Round 4 (Faeries):
This round, they moved all the top tables to the otherside of the room. The side of the room that had no AC (something one will notice if you spend enough time here). On the brightside, there was much more arm room at the top tables than elsewhere.

Game 1: Cloudthresher beats Faeries. Chameleon Colossus beats Faeries. Combine the two with Loxodon Warhammers and the game ends up going in your favor. I would venture to say that this deck matches up pretty evenly against most of the field, with the exception of Faeries, which is a very good matchup all around. Aside from a Bitterblossom resolved turn 2, I was able to control th game with a a Chameleon Colossus and a well timed Cloudthresher to take away his board position. To be fair, he had trouble drawing a third blue source (He didn't have 3 blue sources until turn 5).

Sideboarding: -2 Primal Command -2 Kitchen Finks -2 Lord of Extinction -2 Shriekmaw -2 Civic Wayfinder -1 Devoted Druid +2 Hurricane +2 Guttural Response +2 Maelstrom Pulse +2 Makeshift Mannequin +3 Mind Shatter
Why no Infest? Unlike other matchups where they have ground creatures, there's no point in boarding in a card like Infest that can harm me as well when I have 8 different ways to wipe his board already, 6 of which are at instant speed.

Game 2 played into my hand as well. I was able to resolve to prevent a Mistbind Clique from championing a creature by evoking Cloudthresher and then at the end of his turn I Makeshift Mannequined my Cloudthresher back into play and proceeded to swing to eventually win. The game ended rather quickly as my gameplan was executed.

Games 8-1 Match 4-0 (Brian beat Jund Aggro, bringing our total points to 18 points)

Round 5 (BW Tokens):
Sitting fresh at table 5, my opponent throughout the game had problems with both my deck and me personally. An early Loxodon Warhammer cemented my victory as my life total ballooned all the way up to 50 at one point. His problems with me started when he forgot about exalted and I called a judge in order to prevent him from taking back his block. He had blocked my Noble Hierarch (which was equipped with the hammer) with only one token and had proceeded to move his token to his token pile. When he realized I wasn't moving my creature to the graveyard, he noticed the Hierarch's exalted ability and tried to move the tokens back (citing his thinking). Although I wasn't 100% sure what he was doing, I quickly called a judge in order to prevent any miscommunication. I feel still that this was the right move regardless of his thoughts of me.

Sideboard: -2 Shriekmaw -2 Lord of Extinction -2 Devoted Druid +2 Hurricane +2 Infest +2 Maelstrom Pulse
FYI I board out Devoted Druid in order to avoid overextending into my own Infest.

Game 2 ended very quickly as my Maelstrom Pulses kept his tokens in check as I beat in with my manlands. In the end he emphatically dropped out of the tournament claiming that he didn't want to play people like me again. I was a bit taken aback by the fact he dropped (as after all, this was the X-0 table during round 5). That said, it made for a very interesting story among my friends ("Did you hear? Sebastian beat a guy to the point he dropped!"). That said, I'll reiterate that I still feel that calling the judge on him game 1 was the correct move.

Games 10-1 Match 5-0 (Brian beat a GW Tokens deck, brining our total points to 24)

Round 6 (BW Tokens):
Ah. BW tokens once again. My opponent and I both had a deckcheck this round (As it seems anyone who sits above table 4 needs to be deckchecked at least once), which meant that we would have a time extension. That said, I always spend the full 3 minutes allotted shuffling, which made it pretty funny in retrospect as two judges were hovering around my table as I went through the motions of shuffling before I presented. Remember guys. Deckchecks occur after you present the deck, so make sure you have your deck fixed with the correct number when you present the deck. Another interesting note is that I was sitting next to Lu Cai who was piloting a ridiculous Cascade deck (a deck featured ina coverage report that is either already up or should be up soon). The first cascade I saw? Bituminous Blast into a Maelstrom Pulse. Man that deck is good.

Because of the added time constraint (and the fact I'm missing a page from my notebook), the notes on this round are a bit sketch. That said, Game 1 I was wrecked by a Zealous Persecution which combined with his many tokens to kill me. Game 2 I had a fast start off my acceleration ((Noble Hiearch) and Devoted Druid), which left him in the dust. Game 3 I couldn't draw a Loxodon Warhammer (something I couldn't draw all three games) and in the was killed by his overwhelming creature advantage. That said, we both agreed that had I drawn a warhammer in either game 1 or game 3, that I could have easily taken this match, a sentiment a couple of the spectators agreed upon. Oh well. I made sure to get a bite to eat (thanks Rob for hooking me up with that Subway Meatball sub!) and proceeded to the next round.

Games 11-3 Match 5-1 (Brian beat a Grixis Control deck, brining our point total to 27)

Round 7 (BR Aggro):
Honestly. There's really not much to talk about this round other than that I got blown out. Game 1, I mulliganed to 5, which made beating a strong Figure of Destiny, Hellspark Elemental, Boggart Ram-Gang + burn draw hard to beat. Game 2, I mulliganed again (this time to 6), which had me crushed in the face of yet another Figure of Destiny, Hellspark Elemental, Boggart Ram-Gang + burn hand. Losing two in a row is a bit tough, but I knew that's how the cookie crumbles so I made to stay focused for the remaining two rounds.

Another aside here would be that Constantine, the pilot of this deck, is an amazingly cool guy. In talking to him before the match, I told him that I couldn't make it to Nationals even if I qualified (I'll be in Seoul with a NSLI grant studying Korean), while he said he definitely wanted to go. I suppose a higher being (God maybe) took that into consideration when he gave us our draws.

Games 11-5 Match 5-2 (Brian beat Faeries! Our point total rises again to 30)

Round 8 (5 Color Control):
Despite losing twice in a row, I still felt I had an outside shot at the top 8. I was still sitting pretty at table 10, and was #19 in the standings. Although I had thought about dropping earlier in the day if I had lost two rounds, at this point (having played magic for 10 hours) I wanted to finish in the top 8 or at least 9th in order to get the box of boosters that they had.

Game 1 I set out to do just that. The story of this game was my Garruk Wildspeaker. 5 Color Controll still doesn't have a legit answer to planeswalkers. Sure they have access to Maelstrom Pulse too, but that's only one card. The pressure of Garruk Wildspeaker was able to take me to a victory as his Wrath of Gods couldn't compete with a Loxodon Warhammer equipped Beast token (ones that kept showing up after he wrathed).

Sideboarded the same as round 2.

Game 2 was again the blowout I had hoped it would be. A combination of end of turn shennanigans with my Cloudthreshers and Makeshift Mannequins, followed by a strong (Mindshatter) for 3, leaving two mana open to prevent a Broken Ambitions definitely won me the game.

Games 13-5 Match 6-2 (Brian loses to 5 color control this round. Our point total still rises to 33).

After round 8, Brian and I (Airizel) were #5 in the team rankings. We both agreed that if we both won our matches the following round, we had a good shot of taking 2nd or 3rd in the team competition and taking home extra boosters. Motivated by this detail, I prepared myself to play round 9. Also, just another sidenote

Round 9 (BW Tokens):
The key to the BW matchup really seems to be the Loxodon Warhammer. All the games went exactly the same way as round 6, except because I had a Loxodon Warhammer in play I was able to gain life back from my attacks back at him. I won both games in a quick fashion, executing my gameplan and playing my Cloudthresher + warhammer combo to perfection. In talking to my opponent, he pointed out that Loxodon Warhammer determines this matchup. I really can't say I disagree.

Games 15-5 Match 7-2 (Brian also beats Dark Bant! Our point total rises to 39!)

Results:
So in the end, I finished a decent 12th place individually (missing top 8 on tiebreakers) and combined with Brian to take 3rd place (We won by a total of .79 points!). In total, after splitting the team prizes with Brian, I took home 9 draft sets (which is the equivalent of 27 packs for those of you who don't know).It was a decent performance, given the fact I didn't desire to win the event (since taking an invite away from someone who actually could go to Nationals would have been terrible). Although I didn't make top 8, I had the marvelous opportunity to do a coverage report on the top 8, so look for that soon!

Wrapup:
The event pushed my Total rating above 1850, so I'll have a bye at the next GP I attend (yay!). Considering I've only played eight real life constructed events (two of which were FNMs), I'm glad it's already up here. The next stop is 1950! As for anyone interested in playing this deck, I'd recommend taking out the Lord of Extinction for another Kitchen Finks and either a Shriekmaw, Maelstrom Pulse, or a Civic Wayfinder. I felt the card was underwhelming and should be replaced. Once I get the Maelstrom Pulses online, I'll definitely be playing this deck in the queues and the daily events as it posts a decent 50/50 matchup across the board.

Lastly, for those of you who are curious, here's the decklist Brian took to Regionals (finishing a solid 6-3 at 46th place).

RB Aggro
Played by Brian Lenhoff at LAX Regionals 2009
Creatures
4 Boggart Ram-Gang
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Goblin Outlander
3 Anathemancer
4 Demigod of Revenge
4 Jund Hackblade
23 cards

Other Spells
4 Flame Javelin
3 Volcanic Fallout
1 Banefire
4 Terminate
12 cards
Lands
4 Graven Cairns
4 Sulfurous Springs
4 Auntie's Hovel
3 Ghitu Encampment
9 Mountain
1 Swamp
25 cards

Anathemancer

-Sebastian Park
AKA runeliger
runeliger AT puremtgo DOT com
www.airizel.net

Bonus Top Eight Coverage! 

(Editor's Note:  As of publishing time, decklists from this regional had not been made public.  However, there will be sample decklists of the GW archtype included in the coverage section.  Sadly, the cascade deck goes unknown.) 

Top 8 - Lu Cai vs. David Neill

Nine rounds of swiss. Almost twelve hours of Magic. All of this comes down to one match to determine who makes it to Nationals. Lu Cai, a veteran on the Los Angeles Magic scene,  lost only once in his trip to this top 8 piloting a rogue Cascade deck that has met both the ire and admiration of those who’ve had the (dis)pleasure of playing against it. David Neill, playing a GW Token deck has also fought his way to the top 8, losing only once. As the players shuffle up and the crowd readies, Lu jokes around about how long it takes as David smiles on. Despite the banter, these guys are ready to play Magic.

Lu wins the die roll elects to play. Unhappy about his opener, Lu goes to six while David keeps his initial seven. Lu plays a Vivid Creek while David plays a Windbrisk Heights and passes the turn back.  David plays another vivid land (very 5 color control like) and passes to David who takes a pain from the Brushland and plays a Steward of Valeron. The Steward doesn’t stick around long as Lu responds by Maelstrom Pulsing it. David takes another pain damage from his Brushland in exchange for three Spectral Procession tokens. Lu simply draws, plays a land and says go. David swings with his three spirits and takes Lu to 17 before activating the Windbrisk Heights to play a Kitchen Finks. Lu, acting more and more like 5 color control by the second, dismisses the Kitchen Finks with a Cryptic Command. Lu then plays his own Kitchen Finks, bringing his life up to 19. Seeing Lu mostly tapped out, David responds with an Overrun, dealing 12 damage, taking Lu to 7. Lu swings back with his lone Kitchen Finks taking David to 13 before playing a Rhox War Monk and shipping the turn back. David summons Ajani Goldmane to his aid and swings with his 2/2 vigiliance Spirit Tokens, bringing Lu to 1. Sighing as he draws, Lu plays a timely Maelstrom Pulse, hoping to stop David’s offense. Attacking the Planeswalker with his War Monk, and David with his Kitchen Finks, David sends the Monk on a Path to Exile before taking 3 damage from the Finks. David untaps, draws a card, gains two life off of his Ajani Goldmane and then plays a Cloudthresher ending the game.

A rather uneventful game one for Lu, who did not play any of his deck’s namesake, the cascade cards.

After side boarding, Lu keeps his initial 7 and repeats his vivid land go opening. David plays a Windbrisk Heights, hides a card, and shifts the turn back. A couple turns later, David makes the first move, playing a Kitchen Finks, going to 22. Lu plays Bloodbraid Elf, cascades into a Rhox War Monk, and takes David to 19 with his hasty elf before passing the turn. David plays a Wilt-Leaf Liege and uses the now 5/4 Kitchen Finks to take Lu to 15. Lu Pulses the Liege and swings back with his Monk and Elf taking David to 13 while going back to 18. David resolves a Cloudgoat Ranger and takes Lu back to 15. Lu, after a long pause, plays another Bloodbraid Elf, again flipping a Rhox War Monk before swinging with both his elves. David elects not to block and goes to 7. Unfazed by the new monk, David plays another Wilt-Leaf Liege before taking all of his creatures into the red zone. After blockers are declared, David reveals the card under the Heights he played turn one… it’s an Overrun! Lu counts the damage and is in disbelief as he dies from the Overrun. His hand? 3 Maelstrom Pulses and a Wrath of God. Clearly Overrun wins games.

Congratulations to David Neill for his victory and his invitation to US Nationals!

Special thanks to the Sunmesa Events staff and the judges for making this Regionals event and this coverage report possible.


 

 

 

6 Comments

nice play by Salgy at Thu, 05/21/2009 - 15:06
Salgy's picture
5

nice move on bouncing windbrisk and shuffling away.

Well done by Javasci at Thu, 05/21/2009 - 15:23
Javasci's picture
5

Well written, well done. I agree with both the round 2 game 3 strategy, and the round 5 judge call.

Regarding round 2, I think your using Primal Command to attack his mana-light hand was the right play. At the least, it was a risk that paid off; but it's less of a risk and more of a good play, since even if he draws more lands he'll be off to a slow start, I'd think.

I once managed to keep a Dragon Stompy player who kept a one-land hand, off of other sources of mana via a Thoughtseize, Duress, and FoW, long enough to kill him with a 2/3 goyf and 2 1/1 slivers. So plays like that seem good to me, since they worked for me.

Regarding round 5, IMO it's not his right to "take back" a block at that point if he didn't realize there was an exalted trigger. If he messed up, that's his fault. And calling a judge is the right thing to do.

I just really hate people who consider enforcing the rules as they are "impolite", or any variation thereof. The game is meant to be played according to the rules of the game, and doing so is not "impolite".

Well, to be completely fair... by Dr_TRex at Thu, 05/21/2009 - 15:33
Dr_TRex's picture

The exalted trigger really should have been announced before the blocking... But taking back the wrong block certainly wasn't his right.

And that mystery cascade deck sounds extremely similar to 5 color blood. There's a few variants running around, and no one seems too certain which is best. here's a link to an article on them: http://mtgsalvation.com/1039-thirst-for-knowledge-boiling-blood.html

Well regarding game five I by Anonymous (not verified) at Thu, 05/21/2009 - 17:18
Anonymous's picture

Well regarding game five I had a similar issue with cascade played card.... I think it's fare to get a ruling (not always rude) if you aren't certain if exactly when you can interrupt a cascade combination.

Great Article by Basic Land at Thu, 05/21/2009 - 21:53
Basic Land's picture
4

It was nice to read all about your coverage. I look forward to more of these, especially the Cascade decklist.

Primal Command on Heights by Effovex at Fri, 05/22/2009 - 02:28
Effovex's picture

I think you should probably have gotten a creature out of the Primal Command. The Heights would have come into play tapped, meaning you'll basically see the previous turn redux, which isn't a problem for you, whereas shuffling his library gives him a shot at a land to play something relevant. If you leave the heights on top, you KNOW he's stuck at two mana for another turn, and it's going to be too late for him when he gets to 3 (not to mention his best 3 mana play is what, Spectral Procession? and you could have gotten a thresher out of the command)