GP Chicago - Jason Welsh

After picking up 3 byes and a travel award at a GPT two weeks before I decided to make the trip to Chicago.

I didn't have a lot of time to prepare but I knew I wanted to play something that wouldn't be too mentally taxing over two days, assuming I got that far. I won the GPT with a Counterbalance deck I'd thrown together and was generally disappointed with the enchantment. I knew I wanted to play Trinket Mage, Thirst for Knowledge and Vedalken Shackles at three mana and I noticed how bad that many 3cc cards was with Counterbalance in legacy. Initially I wanted to shift the enchantment to the board, keeping one Top main deck and having a second in the sideboard (as I'm running Trinket Mage a full set of 4 wasn't really that important) but I soon gave up on that idea when I realised that practically every deck would be boarding in Krosan Grip, assuming I'd just not draw Counterbalance in game one. I changed the sideboard to 4 Spell Snare instead of Counterbalance and Top, this infact gave me a better out to and early Goyf or Counterbalance from my opponent. I was tempted to play them main deck, but decided that there would be enough decks running very few 2 drops just because CB and Spell Snare are played in the format and I don't want to have dead cards in game one at a GP.

Here's the list I ended up taking with me:

3x Stifle
4x Daze
4x Force of Will
4x Thirst for Knowledge

2x Umezawa's Jitte
2x Vedalken Shackles

4x Spellstutter Sprite
4x Meddling Mage
3x Trinket Mage

1x Pithing Needle
2x Engineered Explosives
1x Zuran Orb
1x Meekstone
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Tormod's Crypt

4x Flooded Strand
3x Polluted Delta
2x Tundra
2x Volcanic Island
3x Island
1x Plains
1x Academy Ruins
3x Wasteland
4x Mishra's Factory

Sideboard

4x Spell snare
3x Burrenton Forge-Tender
3x Red Elemental Blast
3x Pyroclasm
1x Pithing Needle
1x Tormod's Crypt

Before round one I did some mingling and got a few friendly games in. I even had a bit of a crowd at one point as people came to see the tech in 'The British Deck' (I had both Meekstone and Zuran Orb on the table against a Zoo player, I was on 2 or 3 life but just about keeping it together with a Jitte on a Spellstutter Sprite). The player meeting was really well done and everyone was amazed by the turnout. 1228 players enrolled in the main event, making it the largest American GP.

During rounds one, two and three I ate some food, watched some games and caught up with the players I'd been talking to earlier in the day. Soon enough it was round 4 and time for me to take a seat.

Round 4: Counterbalance (Korey McDuffy)

I won the role and kept my starting 7 while Korey wasn't quite so happy and went to 6. I lead with a fetchland for a basic Island, to play around both stifle and wasteland. At the time I had no idea what to expect and I had another fetchland in hand if I needed white for meddling mage. He played an Island and passed the turn. I played my second fetch, this time no poping it, and passed back the turn. He plays a fetch and goes for Top, clearly playing around my daze (I have two in hand). When he goes to make a threat (I think it was a Tarmogoyf) I respond with Force of Will pitching Daze, and comment how useless it was when he was playing around it. By this point I'd drawn the third and ripped the fourth next turn. Naturally he plays straight in to all of them, he's a good player so he's kind of expecting the second one, but the third and fourth were just so unlikely.

I don't remember much more about the game as it lasted a solid 48 minutes of the 50 minute round. He was also playing Trinket Mage to tutor out useful cards like Explosives and Pithing Needle so it was about as close to a mirror as I was expecting to see. I remember one turn where I had him on the back foot, I had a Shackles out that had stolen his Trinket Mage, and I was also beating with a Meddling Mage and Mishra's Factory. He top decked (admittedly with the help of Brainstorm, Top and fetchlands) a Sower of Temptation and took my Medling Mage (naming Goyf). I wasn't too fussed by that as I still had the board, but I was worried he would block his Mage with my Mage, allowing him to play his hand full of Goyfs, so in my turn I let him have his mage back, with the intention of taking his 2/2 flier to go the distance over the top (I was far enough ahead that he couldn't race my two power with his four). The problem was he'd played a Pithing Needle naming Shackles something like a full half an hour before, and I'd forgotten it was there. We were on mage number 3 and Pithing Needle number two at this point so a lot of stuff had been named, and a lot of it was now playable again. That turn cost me the game as he got in with his flier over the next 6 or 7 turns. I raced him, hoping to rip something relevant, but only managed to drop him to one before he finished me off. With under two minutes left on the round (and 5 cards left in my library!) we called it a match.

I was a little annoyed with the loss as I would have had the win if I’d kept the shackles tapped, and one of the cards left in my deck would have saved me near the end, but that's just the way it goes. Was still a fun match though, and Korey is a good player so I can't complain.

3-1 (0-1 in games)

Round 5: Natural Order (Avery S. Cappel)

Game one was awesome, I dropped a Meekstone as soon as I realised what he was up to. He ordered out a Hellkite Overlord, but couldn't afford to swing with it as I was on 14 life, had a Jitte with counters and a Zuran Orb on the table. I couldn't afford to do too much either as he had a massive blocker that would rip my guys apart if I swung. We both did nothing for a while until he played another Order, this time for Progenitus. I still had enough land and counters to soak up the damage and he'd he left with a pair of dudes that weren't going to untap. At one point he swings in with Progenitus, dropping me to 4, then plays Natural Order saccing the Progenitus (replacement affect puts it back in his library) and tutoring out the very same 10/10 powerhouse. Next turn I rip a fourth Island, allowing me to swing with Spellstutter Sprite, which he blocks with Hellkite Overlord, get up to 4 counters on the Jitte, give the overlord -4/-4 and steal it with Shackles. I win two turns later.

Games two and three were swift, he does his thing then I do my thing (including a Meddling Mage set to Natural Order).

4-1 (2-2 in games)

Round 6: Aggro Loam (Rafael S. Coqueiro)

Both games I get meddling mage down naming Life from the Loam. Both games it doesn't matter as he powers though with massive guys. In game one I play Trinket Mage for Meekstone. I have the mana open to play it there and then but get greedy and keep Stifle open instead. Naturally he plays Thougthseize and takes the game.

4-2 (2-4 in game)

Things weren't looking good at this point, I needed to win out to make day two. I knew I could do it, all I had to do was focus. The deck was good enough, I could have won the rounds I'd lost if I'd played better so I would just have to play better for the rest of the day.

Round 7: Dreadstill (James King)

My opponent leads with a Mishra's Factory, clearly not wanting to give anything away. I happen to have my Pithing Needle in my hand so I play it naming Factory. His turn three is quite odd. Island, Standstill, go.

About 10 minutes later we're still on draw go, until he finally goes for it with Dread. I'm happy for him to resolve the big guy as I have Engineered Explosives in hand and pop it for one, hoping he doesn't have another stifle. The card advantage I gain from his standstill is easily enough to take the game.

Game two he gets an early Dread on the table, and I have no way out of it.

Game three I see why he played the Standstill despite the Pithing Needle, he's playing Mutavault and Blinkmoth Nexus. They aren't enough to deal with my Trinket Mage after I've fetched a Pithing Needle though. He tries for a Dread but I have Spellstutter Sprite. I countered the Dread rather than the stifle as I was worried he may have Trickbind in hand and I had to answer to a resolved Dread. My wizards, Jitte and Shackles are enough to finish it off.

5-2 (4-5 in games)

Round 8: GWR recursion (Witness, Genesis. He may have been playing Survival but I didn't see it) (Aaron D. Lefkowitz)

Game one he gets T1 Birds, T2 Magus of the Moon. Neither of us can play spells for a long time as he beats with his 2/2 dude. The game goes long when I find a Trinket Mage that he's not willing to swap with his own 3 drop. I get a Shackles down at one point, and use it to grab his BoP. With access to a third colour and a second blue mana each turn I soon bring the game back. I did mess up at one point though, I played Pithing Needle naming Genesis. This is a legal play but doesn't do anything. Play mistakes with 1cc artifacts seem to be the theme of this event for me. I take game two in short order as I manage to keep him back on mana and board presence while my guys get it done.

After game one we were starting to run out of time, we had enough time for a second game but a third wasn't likely. At this point Aaron said he would like to play it out, but if he won he would scoop to me anyway as he was X-1-2 at that stage so couldn't make day two, and I'd flown half way round the world to play in the event. As it happens it didn't come up but it was still nice of him to offer it.

6-2 (7-5 in games)

Round 9: Ubwg Fish (Michael Kammer)

Game one took forever as we traded guys, removal and counters. He managed to take the first game with Mystic Enforcer when I could only drop him to 5. We had about 20 minutes left, and he pointed out we should play faster as a draw was no good to either of us. We'd not been playing slowly at all, it just takes a while to get there with a Spellstutter Sprite. I pull back the second game in record time, then we hit the third. We're both X-2. We've both travelled from Europe to play in the event (Michael is from Germany) and we both want to make day two. I literally take him from 18 to 9 with just a Spellstutter Sprite. I trade counters with his removal, he trades removal and counters with my bigger guys. I find a Mishra's Factory to speed things up, just as time is called. He's on 5 and I have a turn. I find a second Factory and Sprite with a Thirst, he rips a Mystic Enforcer on turn 4, I draw Force of Will for the turn, and can't get enough though. I could have swung with both Factories and one Sprite, dropping him to 2, then finished him off on what would have been turn 7, all the while leaving a blocker (I was on 2 from an earlier Enforcer). Unfortunately for me I didn't get a turn 7 and as he wasn't willing to concede both our tournaments finished there.

I've been thinking about that last turn, and I realise now I could have won despite his blocker if I'd just played the Thirst for Knowlegde in my own turn as soon as I'd drawn it. I would have been able to play the second Factory a turn earlier and used it to pump the first, dropping him to 4, then swung with two factories and two Sprites on turn 5, exactly enough to win.

I'm happy with my deck choice, though I would drop the Wastelands for two more Islands and a second Academy Ruins. I feel the quantity of 3cc spells is great against the overly present Counterbalance decks and getting to 3 mana is important. Whenever I Wastelanded someone it always felt like they'd just done it to me.

I'm not 100% about Daze. Against good players it does nothing as they just take a turn longer to do stuff in the early game and I almost never used the alternate cost as the land drop was too important. I think It could be replaced with Mana Leak quite easily and I will try that out at the next Legacy event in Reading.