Magic Deck Vortex: MOMP 10: The Outsider's Journal 3

Welcome back to Memories of an Old Magic Player. This is part five of this series, where I relate the story of my voyage through a sea of Magic players en route to trying to actually play ten rounds of a State Championship Tournament.

Take a look at the previous parts before continuing to refresh your mind or to pick up on an important piece of the story that you need.

Ryan looked very confident, as if he had the upper hand here. I began thinking to myself, "Does he? Let’s go over a few important things to know as we walk across the room to the table."

Knowing all of this, I still didn’t feel confident. He was playing a slightly faster, but less powerful version of my deck. Ryan chose to run his deck with Green added so he could get the mana acceleration of Birds of Paradise and Llanowar Elves, while getting strong creatures like Ravenous Baloth.

I, on the other hand, chose to run mono-Red and utilize more LD spells, a ton of creature hate with Oblivion Stone and Starstorm and the like, and use Blistering Firecat and Stalking Stones to kill at my leisure.

We had never played the decks against each other as we never dreamed this match up would happen. Perhaps we were right in the thought that we would be the only two LD decks in attendance. What were the odds of this match-up actually happening?

“Age my ass. Good player before rookie more like.” With that I sat down. I then smiled brightly and offered my hand. “Hi, my name is Chris, how are you doing today? What have you seen so far?” Patrick and Tysene both laughed, and I realized now that the pressure would really be on as we had an audience for the game.

Ryan noticed this at the same time. Being one who loves to be the center of attention, he replied with a smile, “It looks like Tysene has chosen sides. He is sitting next to me.” I noted that his voice quivered slightly as he spoke, and the nervousness left my blood, only to be replaced with the confidence that only adrenaline can provide.

“What’s up Patrick? You’ve been my best friend for almost ten years now, you better get over here.” I nodded to the chair next to me.

“I am an independent, third party, unbiased witness,” he proclaimed, and he pulled up a chair into the middle of the hall and sat between us.

“What a punk. That’s ok; I don’t need a cheerleader for this whooping. Ryan… you do know what time it is right?” Patrick’s eyes lit up as I was getting ready to use the line in game play.

“It’s around noon I would guess,” he replied with a smile. I took that as a concession to allow me to use the line on him.

“Oh no my friend, it’s ‘GO TIME!’” We all laughed at that and the shuffling ceremony began. Patrick started digging around in his box and revealed the official die to be used for today’s event and set it in a place of honor amidst the battlefield. I nodded to Ryan, and he rolled first. I followed and won the roll, and with that chose to play. I then grabbed the die and threw it at Patrick who grumbled something about respecting the die.

Playing first was very important to me, in my mind, as I needed to outpace the second turn Stone Rain potential that Ryan possessed; especially since my deck didn't give me a lot of mana to begin with. One of the things I had to sacrifice to play this deck was mana acceleration. I had thought to play Green in my initial play testing, but I ended up deciding that being able to play more creature hate in the form of mass destruction, which would kill my own acceleration, outweighed the need to kill a land on turn two. Especially since the main decks I feared were Affinity and Goblins and neither of those decks cared for one second whether I killed a land on turn two. However, both cared greatly if I was Starstorming and Oblivion Stoning every turn, and so I decided to go mono-Red.

In the end, it would have paid off for me to not really care about my going first, because Ryan had a really sweet opening hand. He opened with a Bird, followed by an Elf and a Rampant Growth turn two. Yes, that means on turn three he had six mana available. I played my third Mountain and tapped down to play a Stone Rain and actually felt a little foolish even beginning to aim at his mana supply; however, I decided that I would be better served to play a little cautiously, as I knew that he could throw a lot of meat on the table very quickly with six mana available.

I took my hand off of the Stone Rain and weighed my options. I had an Oblivion Stone in hand and could put it down on three, Demolish a Green on four (as I knew that most of his land destruction was actually Green-based in Plow Under and Creeping Mold), and then board wipe on five. I decided to go that route initially and played the Stone. However, on his turn, Ryan checked me by not playing anything. He held cards and yet put nothing into play. I looked up at him when he ended his turn. I could read his mind like an open book and yet there was a hint of cunning that revealed that I could be misreading him.

When he passed his turn, he again allowed his voice to quiver while speaking only one word. “Go.” And with that he cleared his throat and repeated it more boldly.

I changed my strategy again. I untapped and added my fourth land to the board. Instead of casting my Demolish, I too passed turn. However, when I passed my turn, I did so by feigning uncertainty, as if to say, "I don’t understand why you didn’t do anything the previous turn. You didn’t play a land, you didn’t cast, and you didn’t attack with your Elf. I don’t know what you are doing." In reality, I knew exactly what he was doing, especially having the experience of playing Ryan in the past.

One of the cards in his hand was a regenerating Troll Ascetic. He knew that once he played it, I would most likely Starstorm or pop the Stone. The ensuing destruction would kill all his mana-producing creatures and most likely his Troll on the following turn, which would leave him with nothing. By playing it as if I didn’t know what was going on, I lured him into thinking that I didn’t have the secondary board sweeper. His following turn he drew another land and added a second regeneration to the table. This time he played the Troll using both of his creatures as mana, which again cost him an attack and meantthat he had lost two points of damage on me. I ended his turn by playing a Starstorm for two; killing both the Bird and Elf, and in this game it meant that I killed two lands as well. It also forced him to regenerate the Troll during his turn.

On my next turn, I decided to further throw Ryan off the trail. I played it off as if the Troll were not even on the board by Stone Raining a Forest. On Ryan’s turn, he attacked with the Troll and passed turn. Having only three lands on the table for mana really hurt Ryan. He could only play another Bird or Elf since he needed to retain the mana needed to regenerate the Troll. He could not play another Troll in the fear of losing them both. Having an Oblivion Stone in play hanging around with the needed five mana to activate it really blocked him from casting further. Minus a Creeping Mold, he really had nothing that he could do. I fully intended on getting him out of Creeping Mold range in my next turn.

I ended Ryan’s turn by Mountaincycling a Cougar, getting my sixth land. My draw resulted into another Starstorm, which proved without a shadow of a doubt that I was the King of Starstorm that day. The bad news for Ryan was that during the previous draws, I had accumulated another Stone Rain and a Molten Rain. With six mana now available, I removed two of his Green mana sources from the table, which left him with only a single Mountain on the board to try and regenerate his Troll.

The inevitable set in as I played my land, Starstormed his Troll away, and then played a face down creature. Ryan conceded at that point and we moved onto our sideboards and game two.

I really had no fear of losing the entire match at that point. I was pretty certain of losing game two, as if he could Stone Rain my Mountain on his second turn, he could wreck me before I had anything established. However, what it did mean was that in game three I would be going first. That balanced all the momentum of his acceleration as I was bringing in two more Oblivion Stones and three Pyroclasms. With a total of four Starstorms, four Oblivion Stones, and three Pyroclasms, his Elves and Birds did not stand a chance. Plus the Pyroclasm alone would take away the Troll threat.

We finished shuffling and launched into game two. As boldly predicted by myself, I was completely owned. Ryan set his Bird down on turn one and Stone Rained my Mountain. He then laid down an Elf and another Stone Rain. Finally, he Plowed my third land. Once I was able to draw it and play it again, I was staring at Ryan’s six, and then seven mana, to my one. He Stone Rained my land and set a Baloth on the table, at which point I happily conceded and moved on to the third and deciding game.

Game three proved something to me: my deck was for real. Whereas before I was still waiting for the other shoe to fall, this time I saw my opening hand and I knew that day was something special. Not only did I get the needed Pyroclasm, but my first three cards drawn were Pyroclasm, Stone Rain, and Starstorm, as if the deck was planning Ryan's demise without me. The hand then filled out with lands and away we went. I burned up his Bird on turn two and Stone Rained his Karplusan Forest on three, leaving him with only a Mountain. When Ryan drew his card, his fans each groaned and he gave them a look saying, “GUYS! SHUT UP!”

It didn’t matter, whatever it was. I had drawn a Demolish and a Molten Rain to finalize the game, yet they were still whispering. Oh, I guess I should point out that after getting dominated in game two, Patrick slid his chair over to Ryan’s side of the table.

“Wanna see what I drew?” Ryan asked with a worried laugh. I thought for a quick second about saying no and just finishing my abuse of him, but then realized that I should allow a friend an out. "I can’t just beat him and take his pride too. I have a few more rounds to do that. I should enjoy the game with him," I thought.

“Yea, what did you get?” He revealed a Rampant Growth, which would have been nice had I killed the Mountain and not the Karplusan Forest. He then played a Mountain. "That would have turned the tide slightly."

How wrong I was. I killed another Mountain on my follow up turn, and Ryan luckily drew a Forest, which turned into two Forests. I noticed now that I only held one LD spell, and he had two sources of Green. With a sigh, I killed one and relied on my top deck skills. Unfortunately, I was relying on drawing, and Ryan had a fist full of fun.

Once he drew into his mana pocket, which I was not too happy to see, he began throwing beasts onto the table. First a Baloth, which brought a Starstorm, then a Troll which yielded a Pyroclasm. Then an Arc Slogger, which brought the newly drawn Oblivion Stone to the forefront.

The battle continued on like this for numerous turns. Each time I was able to draw another piece of removal and each time he drew another land. In time this caught up to Ryan, as he continued to draw more and more land. At that time, I looked and counted his available mana. He had eight lands in play, and I felt a little embarrassed to be playing land destruction.

I sent in a Firecat for seven. I pointed the card at Ryan like it was a Lighting Bolt, which brought a slight laugh from the crowd. The next turn I drew another Firecat and likewise I pointed the card like a Bolt. Finally, I drew was a Siege-Gang Commander. Like the previous two rounds in which I had drawn him, the Commander hailed the beginning of the end for my opponent.

Before the game ended, Ryan finally drew another Arc Slogger and put him into play. I was initially concerned at that, as he had hit me a few times during the course of the game. However, I had lethal on the board, and as I attacked, he launched his library at me… leaving me at two life. It was not enough. I blew up some Goblins in his face for the victory. "Thank God for Goblins," I thought happily to myself.

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