Top4 @ Legacy Loot with Punishing Zoo

Two local Legacy Dual Land tournaments were slated to take place on June 10th, the weekend before GP Vegas, one at Scholar's in Bridgewater and the other at Die Hard Games in Pawtucket. Both events had been on the calendar for some time and there was reportedly some back and forth between the two stores about a re-scheduling, but a compromise couldn't be reached. Thus, me and many other Legacy players based in MA had a choice of tournaments to attend. I ended up deciding on Die Hard's. While it had worse prize support it had cheaper entry and started later. Plus, I hadn't been to Die Hard in almost two years and felt like going there again.

Over a month ago I "locked-in" Bant Stoneblade as the deck I would play in the main event at GP Las Vegas. I played it almost exclusively in my weekly events since then, but a few days ago realized I wasn't as confident with the deck was I wanted to be for the GP and would probably be better off playing a Green/Punishing Fire deck. Unfortunately, I'd been neglecting Maverick almost completely since SCG Worcester, so that wasn't an appealing alternative. The "solution" I found to these apprehensions was to try Punishing Zoo. It has a lot of the same advantages Punishing Maverick offers while being a bit more straightforward to play. I decided to put Zoo to the test at Die Hard's event this weekend. Here's what I registered:

Punishing Zoo, 6/10/17
Creature Spells (20) 4x Noble Hierarch 4x Wild Nacatl 3x Qasali Pridemage 2x Scavenging Ooze 1x Gaddock Teeg 4x Knight of the Reliquary 2x Thalia, Heretic Cathar	Noncreature Spells (17) 4x Green Sun's Zenith 4x Lightning Bolt 4x Swords to Plowshares 3x Punishing Fire 1x Sylvan Library 1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Lands (23) 4x Wooded Foothills 4x Windswept Heath 2x Savannah 2x Taiga 2x Plateau 1x Forest 1x Plains 1x Dryad Arbor 3x Grove of the Burnwillows 1x Karakas 1x Skarrg, the Rage Pits 1x Wasteland	SB: 3x Surgical Extraction SB: 1x Gaddock Teeg SB: 2x Pyroblast SB: 1x Wear / Tear SB: 1x Reclamation Sage SB: 1x Enlightened Tutor SB: 1x Null Rod SB: 1x Ethersworn Canonist SB: 1x Grafdigger's Cage SB: 1x Umezawa's Jitte SB: 2x Blood Moon

There were 25 people at the tournament compared to 30 at Scholars, a near 50/50 split between the two stores. Some people bemoaned that they would have rather played in a single 55 player event, but I was content to play 5 rounds of Legacy regardless.

My rounds went as follows:

Round 1: Food Chain (2-0)
Round 2: Grixis Delver (2-1)
Round 3: Grixis Delver (2-0)
Round 4: ID
Round 5: ID
Quarterfinal: Grixis Delver (2-0)
Semifinal: Omni-Sneak (0-2)

I ended up claiming the 3rd place prize of 2 Revised Scrublands (Unfortunately I noticed after leaving that one of the Scrublands is in very sorry shape - while probably sleeve playable, it is definitely worthless).

My matchups weren't varied, but I gained the valuable knowledge that its difficult for this deck to lose to Grixis Delver. We'll see how I feel about this over the next few days...but if someone is going to play Zoo at the biggest Legacy event of the year, it should be me, right?

Why You Should Play a Sword in Your UWx Stoneblade Deck

The principal haymaker in the Stoneblade archetype is its namesake card, Stoneforge Mystic. While Stoneforge Mystic is a potent enabler, the actual payoff of the card is the powerful Equipment she brings with her. The two Equipments that will be found in every Stoneblade deck are Batterskull and Umezawa's Jitte. However, there are a few more Equipment cards worth considering for Stoneblade. I see the Sword cycle as filling a crucial role in a Stoneblade deck against the Legacy metagame, and would almost never consider playing Stoneblade without one of these Swords in my 75.

The Role of a Sword in "Fair" Matchups
Outside of True-Name Nemesis, Stoneblade typically consist of creatures that are fragile and line up poorly in combat against Legacy staples such as Tarmogoyf, Thalia, Young Pyromancer, and Baleful Strix. It is often difficult to attach Jitte to one of these creatures, and to have it survive multiple combat steps to get value out of the Jitte. On the other hand, while Batterskull comes with its own sizable 4/4 body, it can be inefficient to put into play and Equip without the help of a Stoneforge Mystic. A Sword provides an intermediate option between these two. It can reasonably be cast and equipped without a Stoneforge Mystic, and grows any creature in the deck to be a sizable threat with some form of evasion and threatening triggers. In some fair matchups, the evasion and triggers even make a Sword the first Equipment you tutor for. Furthermore, after sideboarding opposing fair decks will usually have more ways of interacting with your Equipment. Having a 3rd Equipment gives you redundancy against this interaction, and ensures your Stoneforge Mystics remain relevant in long and varied games by adding a threat with a different dynamic to your deck.

The Role of a Sword in "Unfair" Matchups
Batterskull and Umezawa's Jitte tend to be lackluster against spell-based combo decks. While Stoneforge Mystic into Batterskull on curve presents the fastest clock most Stoneblade decks can muster, this is often too slow, and the lifelink, vigilance, and activated abilities tend to be irrelevant. Likewise, Umezawa's Jitte loses a lot of use against decks without creatures (Griselbrand, Emrakul and the like hardly count as creatures!) and is also slow to present a clock. A Sword perfectly compensates for the weaknesses of both Batterksull and Jitte against combo: it increases your clock and has triggers that interact with your opponent. Furthermore, since unfair decks generally don't play creatures, the chance of triggering your Sword is very high. With this kind of Equipment available, Stoneforge Mystic transforms from a slow, clunky clock to a dynamic and compact threat in these matchups.

Which Sword Should I Play?
All of the Swords are powerful cards that can play the role I describe here, but they each have a unique set of advantages and disadvantages. Ultimately, deciding which Sword to play can come down to your preference or expected meta.

Bant Maverick Update

Last week I decided to sleeve up a Bant Maverick deck again for the first time in years. After playing some Modern recently I just wanted to Geist people out.

I crafted a pretty stock list with no Brainstorms, but went off the deep end with the 2 flex slots, playing a Dromoka's Command and an Elspeth Knight-Errant. While Dromoka's Command was a sweet blowout against Burn, I realized playing some anti-combo Blue cards maindeck was a luxury I could afford.

I changed the 2 flex slots into Spell Pierces and took the deck to a Dual land tournament the next day, going 3-3 (Wins: BUG Control, UR Stax, Grixis Delver. Losses: GWb Maverick, Omni-Sneak, Miracles).

While I got to Geist some people out which was awesome, the reality is time has not been kind to my angel-toting friend. A relentless string of widely adopted printings have eroded Geist's playability in Legacy to the point that it is all but obsolete. These include:
True-Name Nemesis
Council's Judgment
Gurmag Angler
Monastery Mentor
Thought-Knot Seer, Reality Smasher, etc.
Leovold, Emissary of Trest
...and more I probably forgot.

Geist may still find its way into my decks once in a while, but its competitive time over. Ironically, one recent printing looks like a perfect replacement for Geist even in this deck.

As soon as I saw Spell Queller spoiled I practically screamed "BANT MAVERICK!!!":

• Can be protected by Mother of Runes to negate its drawback
• Maindeckable combo interaction that's still relevant in fair matchups
• Flying, 3-toughness body is great with Equips & Exalted

After the Dual land event I decided to get my hands on some Spell Qullers and simply swap the 3 Geists for them. Here is the list:

Bant Maverick, 2/27/17
Creature Spells (23) 4x Mother of Runes 4x Noble Hierarch 2x Stoneforge Mystic 2x Qasali Pridemage 2x Scavenging Ooze 1x Gaddock Teeg 1x Scryb Ranger 3x Spell Queller 4x Knight of the Reliquary	Noncreature Spells (14) 4x Green Sun's Zenith 4x Swords to Plowshares 2x Spell Pierce 1x Sylvan Library 1x Umezawa's Jitte 1x Sword of Fire and Ice 1x Sword of Light and Shadow
Lands (23) 4x Windswept Heath 4x Misty Rainforest 3x Savannah 2x Tropical Island 1x Tundra 1x Forest 1x Plains 1x Dryad Arbor 1x Gaea's Cradle 1x Karakas 4x Wasteland	SB: 2x Surgical Extraction SB: 1x Grafdigger's Cage SB: 1x Swan Song SB: 1x Negate SB: 1x Path to Exile SB: 1x Reclamation Sage SB: 1x Phyrexian Revoker SB: 1x Pithing Needle SB: 1x Ethersworn Canonist SB: 1x Gaddock Teeg SB: 1x Winter Orb SB: 1x Enlightened Tutor SB: 1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant SB: 1x Council's Judgment

One way to look at this deck is as a stock GWb list with 3 Quellers and 2 Pierces replacing 4 Thalia and the 5th mana dork. A land in the manabase I miss a lot when playing Punishing Maverick is Gaea's Cradle-the card is insane in Maverick decks, and makes the 2nd Ooze and 2nd Sword very appealing. I'd also like to point out another card I used to play in Bant Maverick that got upgraded: Envelop. Invasive Surgery is now a strictly better option. However, I'm currently on the more versatile Swan Song in this slot. Very much looking forward to playing and refining this list more.

A Modern Renaissance

Modern is a format I've relegated to the back burner for several years, having last played it regularly during 2014. Since then, a flurry of bannings and unbannings have occurred, and decks have risen and fallen. By now, Modern has become a nearly unrecognizable format.

A few weeks ago I decided to play in SCG Modern Regionals on a lark, mostly because it was being held at my LGS, Gaming Etc. My Modern collection had been decimated from years of disuse. I could put together some sort of Zoo deck from my Legacy collection, but had my eyes set on something a bit different. After buying a few cards and asking around to borrow others, I ended up with this:

UW Midrange, 2/4/17
Creature Spells (16) 4x Wall of Omens 4x Blade Splicer 2x Vendilion Clique 2x Snapcaster Mage 4x Restoration Angel	Noncreature Spells (19) 4x Path to Exile 4x Spell Snare 3x Mana Leak 2x Cryptic Command 2x Ojutai's Command 1x Blessed Alliance 1x Detention Sphere 1x Engineered Explosives 1x Supreme Verdict
Lands (25) 4x Flooded Strand 2x Hallowed Fountain 5x Island 2x Plains 4x Celestial Colonnade 2x Glacial Fortress 1x Mystic Gate 4x Ghost Quarter 1x Moorland Haunt	SB: 2x Grafdigger's Cage SB: 1x Dispel SB: 2x Negate SB: 1x Condemn SB: 2x Stony Silence SB: 2x Aven Mindcensor SB: 1x Pithing Needle SB: 1x Celestial Purge SB: 1x Detention Sphere SB: 1x Brimaz, King of Oreskos SB: 1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant

UW Midrange/Control is an archetype that has existed in Modern for a long time. You may recall John Finkel playing such a deck at the Players' Championship in 2012. This archetype got a significant boost with the printing of Flooded Strand into Modern, cementing one of its greatest advantages: a rock-solid manabase that can support two of the best lands in Modern, Celestial Colonnade and Ghost Quarter. Beyond the manabase there are a range of builds that can be played, from "do-nothing" Sphinx's Revelation control to value-oriented midrange.

I was naturally interested in trying a UW deck since Celestial Colonnade (which I had never played with) and Cryptic Command are two of my favorite Modern cards. The midrangey builds looked perfect for me due to their focus on creatures and blink shenanigans, one of my favorite things in Magic.

For my creature suite I went with the non-traditional choice of Blade Splicer over Kitchen Finks. Blade Splicer is card I have very fond memories of as it was the bread and butter of my first competitive Magic deck. It does some things better than Kitchen Finks and other things worse. Running Blade Splicer also opened up the possibility of playing Ojutai's Command for further cuteness (Update: this interaction does not work the way I want it to). Adding a Moorland Haunt was irresistible as well (I even considered jamming a Venser, the Sojourner somewhere in the 75 but that was too much). Otherwise, I think the list was pretty standard.

The tournament went poorly for me with a final record of 3-6. I honestly wasn't expecting to do well considering how rusty I was with the format, coupled with the fact that my deck probably wasn't very good. Indeed, I got punished for numerous play and sideboarding mistakes. However, I had a great time overall, and my interest in Modern has been re-invigorated and I've bought the remaining cards for the UW deck.

I also decided to give Zoo a spin in a local monthly event two weeks later.

Zoo, 2/18/17
Creature Spells (27) 4x Noble Hierarch 4x Wild Nacatl 4x Tarmogoyf 2x Qasali Pridemage 2x Scavenging Ooze 1x Voice of Resurgence 4x Knight of the Reliquary 3x Loxodon Smiter 2x Stormbreath Dragon	Noncreature Spells (11) 4x Path to Exile 4x Lightning Bolt 1x Domri Rade 1x Elspeth, Knight-Errant 1x Chandra, Pyromaster
Lands (22) 4x Windswept Heath 4x Wooded Foothills 1x Arid Mesa 2x Temple Garden 2x Stomping Ground 1x Sacred Foundry 2x Forest 1x Plains 1x Mountain 1x Horizon Canopy 1x Stirring Wildwood 1x Ghost Quarter 1x Kessig Wolf Run	SB: 2x Grafdigger's Cage SB: 2x Blood Moon SB: 2x Kitchen Finks SB: 2x Stony Silence SB: 2x Gaddock Teeg SB: 2x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben SB: 1x Ancient Grudge SB: 1x Dromoka's Command SB: 1x Pithing Needle

Its a Big Zoo deck pretty similar to those that emerged in the aftermath of Wild Nacatl's unbanning. My curve goes up to five with Stormbreath Dragon in true Kibler style. I was reminded of the power of this card when I had the misfortune to play against it with the UW deck. Pro-White, Flying, Haste, and even Monstrous are all real things.

This tournament fared better than the first. I ended with a 4-2 record for 11th place out of 40-something players. My familiarity with Big Zoo in Legacy and the fact that its a reasonably forgiving deck definitely helped, but again I made several poor plays and sideboarding choices due to my inexperience with the format.

There are a few things I'd like to refine with the list. A 23rd land is needed in order to play 5-drops, and the manabase was sometimes sketchy in terms of colors (Red in particular), so the 2nd Arid Mesa is going in, and Raging Ravine will possibly replace Stirring Wildwood. In the sideboard I'll try cutting the versatile Dromoka's Command for a more dedicated removal spell like Fiery Justice.

Overall, I'm looking forward to play some more Modern. It will make for a nice change of pace from Legacy every so often.

Tournament Report: Top8 @ Winter 1K with Punishing Maverick, 1/28/17

I ventured up to the frozen wastes of Southern Maine this weekend to sling old pieces of cardboard.

Here is the list I played:

Punishing Maverick, 1/28/17
Creature Spells (21) 4x Mother of Runes 3x Noble Hierarch 1x Birds of Paradise 3x Stoneforge Mystic 2x Qasali Pridemage 2x Scavenging Ooze 1x Gaddock Teeg 1x Scryb Ranger 4x Knight of the Reliquary	Noncreature Spells (14) 4x Green Sun's Zenith 4x Swords to Plowshares 3x Punishing Fire 1x Sylvan Library 1x Umezawa's Jitte 1x Batterskull
Lands (25) 4x Windswept Heath 3x Wooded Foothills 3x Savannah 2x Taiga 1x Plateau 1x Forest 1x Plains 1x Dryad Arbor 3x Grove of the Burnwillows 1x Karakas 3x Wasteland 1x Thespian's Stage 1x Dark Depths	SB: 2x Surgical Extraction SB: 2x Pyroblast SB: 2x Crop Rotation SB: 1x Bojuka Bog SB: 1x Reclamation Sage SB: 1x Phyrexian Revoker SB: 1x Pithing Needle SB: 1x Ethersworn Canonist SB: 1x Gaddock Teeg SB: 1x Sword of Fire and Ice SB: 1x Garruk Relentless SB: 1x Council's Judgment

A few comments on the direction of the list:

• Lately I've been playing without Deathrite Shaman and haven't really missed it. Despite the versatility of Deathrite Shaman I always find myself coming back to Noble Hierarch due its its consistency as a mana creature. The surge in BR Reanimator may make this shift look foolhardy, but in testing the matchup Deathrite Shaman had almost zero impact even turn 1 on the play, either because they had a Chancellor reveal or turn 1 fatty. The expected uptick in TNN after GP Louisville could mean more x/1 hate in sideboards which is very good against mono-1 toughness mana dorks, but I think people already have this hate due to the presence of Death & Taxes and Young Pyromancer.

• I think Pyroblast is well-positioned right now due to the presence of Show & Tell, Leovold, TNN, and Miracles. Council's Judgment is another card that has utility against the same decks. Also, it is worth noting that classic Sneak & Show has emerged as the dominant variant of S& T in the post-GP Louisville meta, which is great news for Maverick since Omniscience-based S&T is one of our worst matchups.

• Dark Depths is also relevant against the many TNN decks as it allows you to "go over the top" of those decks if you can't interact with TNN. It looks strong against the GP Louisville winning True-Name BUG deck in particular. Another route to try would be maindeck Sword of Fire and Ice instead of Dark Depths. This would also greatly improve game 1 against Miracles.

• Horizon Canopy hasn't been doing it for me lately in this deck. Cycling is good, but the damage it inflicts as well and the cost of losing a land (I'd often have Canopy out but wouldn't cycle it because I needed the mana) are relevant factors. I almost never searched for Canopy with Knight, but there were plenty of spots I wanted to search for a 3rd Savannah. 

There were 38 players at the event, so it would be 6 rounds with a cut to Top8. Here is how my swiss rounds went:

Round 1: Death & Taxes (2-0)
In both games I had a good mix of interaction and threats while my opponent flooded. I made a few blatant misplays (I'm often rusty during round 1 in the morning) but didn't really get punished for them.

Round 2: Burn: (2-0)
Game 1 was tight but I managed to get a sizeable Knight and Ooze in play while my opponent ran out of gas. I took an interesting line using Knight for mana to Zenith out Teeg instead of attacking with it one turn to cut off Fireblast as a draw for him. Game 2 my opponent had a somewhat slow hand and I had lots of good plays: turn 1 Hierarch (Bolted) into turn 2 Hierarch + Plow his creature into turn 3 QPM away his Vortex (waiting for him to take 2 of course). I landed SFM and + Jitte and got 2 counters, which trumped his Ensnaring Bridge.

Round 3: Mono-G Cloudpost (2-1)
I quickly died game 1 to Needle on Wasteland + Ugin despite having a turn 2 Knight backed up by another Knight. Candelabra is a hell of a card. Games 2 and 3 my opponent foundered in the face of Wasteland + Exalted beats.

Round 4: Miracles (0-2)
Game 1 he was on a mulligan and after some turn 3 Batterskull beatdowns he stabilized and I was inundated by his threats. Somehow I managed to fight through multiple Mentors and Angel tokens with Punishing Fire and Jitte. I ran out of gas though and succumbed to Jace. Game 2 I was on a 5 card hand that quickly lost to Counterbalance backed up by Mentor. This matchup is gross.

Round 5 RGu Lands (2-0)
I had great tools for the matchup in both games: multiple Knights in game 1 and Knight and Ooze in game 2.

Round 6: ID

The meta had a ton of Burn and BUG variants (Shardless, Team America, Aluren, TNN, etc.), with only 3 Miracles decks and 0 Eldrazi decks. The super interesting Top8 was:

My short-lived Top8 ended in the Quarterfinal vs RG Lands (0-2). I had anemic draws in both games that couldn't get it done. The final would be Lands vs Miracles 1 with Miracles 1 taking it down.

Overall, the event was solid: would drive 2 hours to Maine for Legacy again.

DECK: Esper Deathblade, 1/13/17

Here is my current Esper Deathblade list:

Creatures

Noncreatures

Lands

Sideboard

Imgur Album with full size images

DECK: Punishing Maverick, 1/8/17

This is the latest Punishing Maverick list I'm tinkering with:

Creatures

Noncreatures

Lands

Sideboard & Tokens

Imgur Album with full-size images