Grand Prix-Oakland Report

by Tony Pagliocco | posted at 2010-03-08 23:57:00
tagged: MTG, Magic, Magic the Gathering, Grand Prix, GP, Oakland, Tony Pagliocco

 

My re-entry back into Magic was not the smoothest of journeys. Once I got back in, I was sort of astounded at how much had changed, and how much really had not changed. At the time (August '09), there was one dominant deck, Jund, and it was essentially reminding me of when you played either Rebels or Rising Waters in Block. 

 

Reinventing my card base online and in real life was also going to be a challenge. When I sold my collection, I never ever considered what it would be like to rebuild from scratch. That made it very challenging to be able to get back in and be competitive right away. Lucky for me, the PTQ format was Sealed so I was able to at least use my Limited skills to try to a) build up my card base of a new set and b) be able to be competitive in PTQs without having to spend a ton of money on cards to build a deck.

 

After making Top 4 in a Zendikar PTQ, I realized I was hooked again and wanted to get back on the PT. Even though my overall accomplishments on Tour were zilch, just to get back to that level of play again was a motivating factor for me. Being as competitive as I am, I need a focus or goal to make something fun yet competitive. That is what brought me to Oakland…

 

A Grand Prix, close to home, a format I was ok with and could get cards for – seemed like a good deal. I had been playing RUG Scapeshift since the Zendikar PTQ season ended and it was reasonable to purchase on MTGO and was just as reasonable to purchase live as well.

 

I had attended one PTQ in Phoenix where I went an unimpressive 3-2 drop. Even then, something wasn’t clicking, even after 200 playtest games on MTGO. I just wasn’t feeling the deck like I had with others in the past. I had played many combo decks and loved most of them all, but this felt like a dirty combo that either worked great or left me on the defensive all game, and I don’t like that feeling. Nonetheless, I decided to take it to Oakland with me because I was averse to buying a whole new set of cards for a GP.

 

So here is what I brought with me to Oakland, and what I was going to play in the Grand Prix:

 

4 Coiling Oracle

4 Sakura-Tribe Elder

4 Wood Elves

 

4 Cryptic Command

4 Search for Tomorrow

4 Peer Through Depths

4 Remand

4 Scapeshift

3 Repeal

1 Into the Roil

 

1 Breeding Pool

2 Flooded Grove

4 Forest

4 Island

1 Mountain

4 Steam Vents

4 Stomping Ground

2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

 

Sideboard:

3 Negate

3 Ravenous Trap

2 Into the Roil

3 Fracturing Gust

1 Krosan Grip

3 Shadow of Doubt

 

Overall I had a lot of experience with the list above and the sideboard was ok but I don’t think it was optimally tuned for the metagame. I took it to the GP Trial the night before the main event and went 0-1 versus R/G Scapeshift, something I wanted to play but couldn’t get Tarmogoyfs.

 

But I did!!

 

My buddy Jeff used to own one of the biggest card stores in Phoenix, and still does buying and selling of cards. I found him on the floor of the GP and was happy to see a face from home. Jeff was more than gracious to help me build R/G Scapeshift the night before, with almost no notice. To top it off, whatever Jeff didn’t have my friends Emo, Bob, and Justin came through with, everything else I needed like it was nothing. That made me smile, that there was still that community and friendship in the game that allowed people access to resources they might not usually have. The friendship and ability for people to work together made me very happy! Now I had a deck I felt FAR MORE comfortable with and knew that I could possibly do some damage depending on the factors and variables I faced.

 

Below is the list I ran at Grand Prix-Oakland.

 

4 Bloodbraid Elf

4 Kitchen Finks

4 Sakura-Tribe Elder

4 Tarmogoyf

 

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Punishing Fire

4 Scapeshift

4 Search for Tomorrow

3 Umezawa's Jitte

 

5 Forest

4 Grove of the Burnwillows

6 Mountain

1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood

4 Stomping Ground

1 Blood Crypt

2 Treetop Village

2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

 

Sideboard:

1 Swamp

3 Ancient Grudge

4 Blood Moon

2 Firespout

2 Thought Hemorrhage

2 Ravenous Trap

1 Relice of Progentius

 

I love the list above much better than RUG because of the speed, consistency, and because Scapeshift is secondary to the beats. It can win multiple ways and doesn’t mean I auto-lose to an Extirpate or one counterspell. I can lay out multiple threats, establish board control with recurring Punishing Fire, or even rip a Scapeshift for the win while they are worrying about my threats.

 

In building the sideboard, the two decks I was not worried about or thought would show up in minor numbers would be Red and Dredge. Red is an easy matchup against RG Scapeshift due to the lifegain and amount of board control you can maintain. Dredge I saw as being played very little because of the amount of Dark Depths and Zoo I saw coming in the metagame.

 

The GP had 783 people in it, which meant 7-2 was going to make Day 2. I had 0 byes, so it was off to the races for me!

 

Round 1 Patrick Smith – Dredge

 

So the one deck I put out of my testing/metagame pile I'm paired against first round; just my luck. I was unhappy about it as I didn’t know the matchup as well as I should and I hate that feeling of being unprepared. Game 1 was close, I got out early beats and was able to serve enough to get him low but a couple of dredges by him and I was locked out. Game 2 I don’t see any of my Ravenous Traps (I only had 2), and he is able to get a quick lock on the game. So, first GP in four years and I start with an 0-2 game count. NICE

 

Loss 0-2

Overall 0-1, 0-2

 

Round 2 Joseph McGough – Faeries

 

Joseph was not a happy person. Very anti-social, maybe because we were both 0-1, I don’t know. Joseph was playing fairly standard Faeries and to be fair, the games were good. Game 1 his own Dark Confidant did him in because he got low enough so I was able to double Bolt and attack for the win. Game 2, he had a nut draw with double Thoughtseize and double Bitterblossom. He took away any base of consistency I had in my draw. Game 3 I came out quick with turn one Search, turn two Tarmogoyf, turn three 'Goyf, Bolt. When he got Bitterblossom out I could recur Punishing Fire and he lost ground too quickly.

 

Win 2-1

Overall 1-1, 2-3

 

Round 3 Forrest Ryan - Mono B Pox

 

Forrest was playing a monoblack deck that I absolutely loved: lots of discard, removal, and a way to keep generating threats with Bitterblossom and Jitte. The bad news for me was that I had no way to keep up with him because I overcommitted and he was able to control me out. Even in game 2, I was unable to stabilize at any point because of his Thoughtseizes and when I would get a creature out, he had removal to get rid of it. The only thing I think he needed was Phyrexian Arenas, but he may have had them in the board. I was about ready to Scapeshift game 2 for the win but he Duressed me and then Extirpated my Scapeshifts and that’s all she wrote. I really like the idea of this deck and out of the five playing it, two made Day 2 and all five of them ended Day 1 with winning records. I thought it was a great call for the field.

 

Loss 0-2

Overall 1-2, 2-5

 

Round 4 - Benjamin Ng - U/W Control

 

Benjamin was a great young man to play against, very cheerful, very happy to be gaming, reminded me of those who play “for the love of the game” as opposed to just wanting to win all the time. Game 1 and 2 were fairly similar, me applying early beats, him clearing the board, and then me Scapeshifting for the win. RG Scapeshift has so many threats that when you think you’ve gotten control of the game, you’ve lost it again. He had three counters for two 'Goyfs and a Bloodbraid Elf, and I was able to Scapeshift safely the next turn. My only sideboard options were both Thought Hemorrhages and even they didn’t do much because he sided out Crovax and I named Crovax lol. Good games, good times.

 

Win 2-0

Overall 2-2, 4-5

 

Round 5 - Ben Seck – Elves

 

TBS!! The Ben Seck!! I have known Ben from back in the MTG IRC days where we’d all spend our days chatting on IRC and using Apprentice to play MTG (for those youngsters who don’t know, Apprentice used to be the free version of MTGO but without all the cool art and slow loading times). Ben and I caught up for a few and it was really cool to just chat it up about life now that we’re adults.

 

Game 1 he went off turn three, with no resistance from me. I kept a 0 burn hand but I didn’t know what he was running either. Game 2 I kept a perfect hand of Punishing Fire with two Burnwillow Groves. He was unable to keep up with my burn as I drew a Bolt and I ended up sending the crew in for the win. Game 3 he was going off but then stalled, I played a timely Firespout and reset the board. He did try to go off again but it fell apart and I Scapeshifted for the win.

 

Win 2-1

Overall 3-2, 6-6

 

Round 6 - Brandon Tabaldo - Dark Depths

 

Brandon looked like he was having zero fun as well. It wasn’t until game 3 that he lightened up a bit. Game 1 he didn't see much of his deck or combo until later and he was forced to play reactive to my creature rush. I ended up swinging for 14 with my creatures, Treetop Village, and a pumped Jitte after he drops me to 2 with his 20/20. Game 2 was equally as close, although my play error cost me the game. He knew I had three burn spells in my hand and he played out a Vampire Hexmage. I burned it at EOT, but it turned out he was putting it out there to remove my burn from my hand. When the game ended, if I had targeted him with that one Bolt instead of the Hexmage that was doing nothing, I would have won. However, if he had drawn a DD, I’d have lost so it’s a tough call. Game 3 he gets the nut draw, turn 2 20/20, I lose. Best draw possible, but it happens.

 

Loss 1-2

Overall 3-3, 7-8

 

Round 7 - Shawn T Meyer - Dark Depths

 

Shawn was a good guy, his 8 year old was playing in the tournament as well. It was great to see MTG spanning generations. Shawn explained he wasn’t too comfortable with his deck choice, he preferred playing straight Thopter Foundry, but his friends convinced him otherwise. To be fair, the two games I won he had to mulligan heavily and even when he got some card advantage, they weren't good draws. We ended up going close to time but I pulled it out with a mass attack of 2 'Goyfs, Kitchen Finks, and a Sakura-Tribe Elder. 

Win 2-1

Overall 4-3, 9-9

 

Round 8 - Christian Keeth - Zoo

 

Game 1 he got a game loss for a bad decklist. Game 2 we brought out our beats on both sides. We traded back and forth but my burn made the game playable for me, and I drew into a Scapeshift for the win. Not the most interesting round, but good times, and good company. Christian was very cool and we both knew a lot of the same players from Las Vegas. I felt bad he got a game loss because his friend was trying new stuff out with the list and forgot to take out some of the cards he put in.

 

Win 2-0

Overall 5-3, 11-9

 

Round 9 - Jason Rosellini – All-In Red

 

The final round was anticlimactic; Jason was playing All-In Red which is a perfect matchup for me. Games 1 and 2 were pretty much the same for me, him dumping his hand quickly, me using burn to take out some of the beats and then me using Kitchen Finks and Jitte on my dudes to keep my life up while I positioned the board favorably and put him into a reactive state against my proactive state. Once he had to deal with my threats instead of me having to deal with his, the game finished itself. Jason was a nice kid and we had both had a long day at that point so it was good to have a nice quick match to end the Grand Prix experience. Game 2 was especially nice as I had double 'Goyf out and a Finks and all he had left in his hand were three artifact removal spells for my Jitte which didn’t even hit the board until he was almost dead.

 

Win 2-0

Overall 6-3, 13-9

 

Conclusion

 

Overall, not the best GP for me. I would have preferred to make Day 2 and have a shot but in fairness I didn’t test as much as I should have, I switched decks the night before the GP, and I’m still getting the rust out of my MTG brain. I think that overall it was a very well run Grand Prix, and I’m looking forward to going to Houston as well. I think my break from MTG was good but I did miss the game. Next stop is New Mexico for the PTQ in March. Let's hope I can do it there! If I had to run this deck tomorrow in a PTQ, here's what it would look like:

 

4 Bloodbraid Elf

4 Kitchen Finks

4 Sakura-Tribe Elder

4 Tarmogoyf

 

4 Dead/Gone

4 Punishing Fire

4 Scapeshift

4 Search for Tomorrow

3 Umezawa's Jitte

 

6 Forest

4 Grove of the Burnwillows

6 Mountain

4 Stomping Ground

1 Swamp

2 Treetop Village

2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

 

Sideboard:

3 Ancient Grudge

4 Blood Moon

3 Firespout

3 Thought Hemorrhage

2 Stingsouger

 

For other choices, I would also look at some of the Rock variants popping up as well as the Monoblack deck that is listed on the Grand Prix-Oakland coverage page. These three are my top three for my choices at the moment. They're not necessarily the most powerful decks overall, but best against the metagame I think.

 

Good luck at the tables, thanks for reading!!

---