2009 States Battle Report

States was a great experience. Us guys (Vern, Second, Josh, Peter, Blong, Xay, and I) did a lot of emailing and some play testing (PT) a few days before the tournament and it was a very positive experience. We emailed each other every day with ideas during the day, then at night we would play test them out and return to everyone with our findings the following morning. Our teamwork is a direct result of how well we all did at States. Way to go Team! In fact, I think our Magic Team needs a name! I suggest “Team Vizzerdrix” or not.

I didn't get back from Florida till the Tuesday night before States. While in Florida I didn’t get a chance to play at all, but I did PT a little Wednesday and Thursday night. I also got to spend a good 3+ hours PT Friday night with Blong and Peter. More PT would have been useful but not possible for me.

I felt somewhat confident in my deck choice, my sideboard (SB) was up in the air but I still knew that I was playing the best deck. I was nervous before the tournament and there were moments where I could see myself in the top 8 and then there were moments where I saw myself going 0-3, like how I did at GP: Mpls. I didn't really have a goal or a set expectation before the tournament. I didn't say, "I want to be in the Top 8 or Top 16 or the top half” or anything like that. I didn't know what to expect. I just kept on telling myself that I wanted to do well, boost my DCI score, support my brothers, and have fun!

In the end, I ended up going 5-3 and giving my last opponent the win because his tiebreakers were better than mine. We did split the prizes evenly; 6 packs each for the both of us. He ended up getting 12th and I ended up getting 30th place at State.

Here’s my deck: 4 Bloodbraid Elf / 4 Broodmate Dragon / 4 Sprouting Thrinax / 3 Borderland Ranger / 2 Siege-Gang Commander

2 Chandra Nalaar

4 Blightning / 4 Lightning Bolt / 3 Bituminous Blast / 3 Maelstrom Pulse / 2 Terminate

4 Savage Lands / 4 Verdant Catacombs / 4 Dragonskull Summit / 4 Rootbound Crag / 3 Swamp / 3 Mountain / 3 Forest

SB: 3 Malakir Bloodwitch / 2 Thornling / 2 Duress / 2 Mind Rot / 3 Jund Charm / 2 Terminate / 1 Maelstrom Pulse

Round 1 vs. Mike’s Dredge Deck

Game 1: By turn 4 he had 2 Crypt of the Agadeems in play and was able to make 12 black mana. He Unearthed a bunch of guys and attacked (J: 5). He also Unearthed two Extractor Demons, milling himself for 20+ cards, refilling his graveyard. He Unearthed a bunch more guys the next turn and I lost.

I got scared that I might lose my first match and go 0-3 like how I did at GP: Mpls. I sided out Blightning because it’s worthless to make him discard his Unearth creatures.

Game 2: He doesn’t draw a Crypt till turn 6 and can’t keep up with all of my two-for-one spells.

Game 3: He plays a turn 1 Hedron Crab that I Bolt. He gets stuck on two lands for a while and never gets out of Stage 1 until its too late.

2-1, 2-1, 1-0

Round 2 vs. Brandon’s Jund Deck

Game 1: He double Blightnings me and wins.

Game 2: I double Blightning him and win.

Game 3: He mulls to 6 on the draw and I get my Broodmate out first while he’s still stuck on 5 lands. I win!

2-1, 4-2, 2-0

Round 3 vs. Robert’s Bant Control Deck (Rhox War Monk, Day of Judgement, Sphinx of Lost Truths, Baneslayer, Flashfreeze, Path to Exile, etc.)

I recognize Robert because he’s a pretty good player from Monster’s Den.

Game 1: Robert’s on the draw and we both get mana screwed. We both play our two lands in our opening hands. It was weird because I never drew a land unless he drew one first. I Bolt and double Blightning him through out the beginning of the game because I don’t want to discard cards at my end step. I eventually draw my 5th land while he’s stuck at 4. I play Chandra and she goes ultimate winning me the game.

Game 2: Robert doesn’t get any U mana in his first 5 land drops. Chandra goes to 8 loyalty before she’s O-Ring’ed. He plays an unkicked Sphinx of Lost Truths, which I Terminate at the end of his turn. I Blightning him, which gets countered, then I play another Blightning, which gets his last two cards, one which is a Baneslayer. My creatures finish the job.

2-0, 6-2, 3-0

Round 4 vs. Jarod’s Boros Bushwacker Deck

I recognize Jarod because he always wears a University of St. Thomas hoodie. He’s always quiet and a little intimidating like Peter.

Game 1: He keeps an awkward hand and doesn’t play anything until a turn 3 Kor Skyfisher. I Blightning him for two Plains. On the next turn, I throw a 2nd Blightning at him. He discarded two Rangers of Eos, that’s when I discovered that he was playing Boros. On his next turn he played a Ranger of Eos. By then he’s too far behind to catch up. After the game he told me he kept a 4 land and 3 Ranger of Eos hand. *nice!*

Game 2: He’s off to a fast start with a turn 2 Steppe Lynx. Steppe Lynx swings in for 4, thanks to Teetering Peak, but I Terminate it. Unfortunately for him, I double Blightning him again and is soon in top deck mode. Broodmate Dragon eventually finishes him off.

By this point in the tournament I’ve already played Blightning 9 times! NICE!

2-0, 8-2, 4-0

Round 5 vs. Pearson’s Eldrazi Green Deck

I’m seated at Table 1. Pearson accidentally sat at Table 6 until the person who was to play at Table 6 said something. Pearson’s a nice guy. I see him and his brother at the Source all the time.

Game 1: He eventually plays out 4 Great Sable Stag and two Nissa Revane. Two of his GSS are 4/4s thanks to Oran-Rief, the Vastwood. I’m forced to block poorly and not block his GSS at all at times. I was able to kill two of them but eventually his 2nd Nissa Revane is at 7 loyalty and I lose.

Game 2: He eventually plays out 2 Oran-Rief, the Vastwoods, 3 GSS, Nissa Revane, and Garruk. By this time there’s a nice crowd of people watching our match. I fight on despite the amazing advantage he has over me. I survive an Overrun of 4 creatures courtesy of Garruk going ultimate by Bit Blasting one of his Nissa’s Chosens, Cascading into a BBE, which double blocks with another BBE, killing his 6/6 GSS, Cascading into a Terminate which kills another Nissa’s Chosen (J: 9). He plays his 2nd GSS and Nissa starts searching for her Chosen again. I hold back his attacks with a Seige-Gang Commander, which eventually shoots down a GSS. He plays his 3rd GSS. By this time I’m laughing because he’s played GSS so often that it’s getting ridiculous. I top deck Chandra and shoot down the GSS, but his two Nissa’s Chosens finish me. A couple of people told me that I played my cards correctly and that there’s nothing you can do about 7 GSS. Their comments made me feel good.

Pearson kept on saying that he felt like a Jerk because he kept on playing his GSS against me. I told him not to worry about it, stuff like this happens sometimes. I wished Pearson luck and throughout the rest of tournament we would talk and update each other after each match.

After the match, Blong suggested that I should of put in my 2 Mind Rots against him. Dang it! Out of all of the decks that I made SB notes for I didn’t make one for Eldrazi Green! This totally hurt me! Blong was right, those Mind Rots would of stripped him of his Planeswalkers and potentially a Monument. DARN IT!!!

0-2, 8-4, 4-1

Round 6 vs Mark’s Naya Lightsaber Deck

Game 1: Mark goes turn 1 Noble Hierarch, turn 2 Woolly Thoctar, turn 3 Woolly Thoctar, turn 4 GSS, turn 5 GSS. I take care of the first Thoctar with a Terminate and able to chump block the 2nd one, before the 2 GSS & Thoctar finish me off.

Game 2: Mark goes turn 3 Woolly Thoctar, turn 4 Wooly Thoctar. BBE was able to Cascade into a Maelstrom Pulse, but Mark plays a turn 5 GSS that eventually finishes me.

0-2, 8-6, 4-2

Yesh… what horrible luck to run into 10 GSS in 4 games… At this time, I really needed a break and to get my head back in the game. So I got some fresh air, used the bathroom, drank some PowerAde, ate some snacks, sat down, did some stretching, and listened to some music.

Round 7 vs. Chris’ U/B Control Deck (Vampire Nighthawk, recursion spells, and counterspells)

Game 1: He gets stuck on 2 lands and I smash him.

Game 2: He plays a turn 3 Vampire Nighthawk that eventually gains him 8 life. He protects Nighthawk with a variety of counterspells. Eventually my two-for-one spells are too much for him. He does draw a Soul Manipulation to counter one of my creatures and to bring back his Nighthawk but I have Bolt ready for it.

2-0, 10-6, 5-2

Afterwards, I told Chris that I really like his deck and he let me look through it. He said the he’s won games with just one Vampire Nighthawk that he’s able to bring back from the Graveyard multiple times. He calls it a control deck that also has a lot of two-for-one spells in it like Soul Manipulation & Countersquall. Cards like Soul Manipulation and Soul Stair Expedition make people’s removal spells less effective because they keep on killing Nighthawk and he keeps on bringing them back. Coolness!!! I’m going to try my own build. I think I have a new Ante deck idea!

WHEW!!! Finally!!! I finally get to that coveted 5th win! That means that I’m going to win 3 packs. If I get another win, that means I’ll get 9 packs!

Round 8 vs Mike’s Agro Naya Token Deck (Lotus Cobra, Noble Hierarch, Woolly Thoctar, Master of the Wild Hunt, Emeria Angel)

Game 1: I keep an awkward hand with 5 lands and two removal spells. I should of mulligan’ed but didn’t because I wasn’t thinking clearly. Mike goes turn 2 Lotus Cobra which I Bolt. He plays a turn 3 Thoctar which I Pulse. He plays a turn 3 Master of the Wild Hunt and then a turn 4 Emeria Angel. Next thing I know he’s making 2/2 Wolves and 1/1 Bird tokens every turn and I get pulverized.

Game 2: I draw answer to everything he plays. He plays a turn 2 Cobra and I bolt it. He plays a turn 3 Thoctar and I Terminate it. He plays a GSS and Chandra comes out to burn it. I Blightning him for his two last cards and eventually beat him down.

Before game 3 we start talking about our chances of making top 8 and our tiebreakers. We figure out that his tiebreakers are better than mine but he’s really scared because it seems like my SB plan is better than his SB plan against me. He asks me what my Constructed rating is and I say near 1700, he replies back that his is near 1800 and wants to protect it, which I totally understand. So I give him the offer to taking the win, as long as he gives me 3 more packs. He takes the offer, thanks me, and we proceed to the final game. Granted I’d rather take the win because 3 packs isn’t worth a lost to me, but since he had better tie breakers and had a higher DCI rating, I decided to go forth with it. I should have suggested that I get 8 packs and he gets 4 because he was really scared of my deck, but I didn’t want blow my chances of not getting this insurance policy.

Game 3: I’m on the draw and mull to 5, he mulls to 6. He plays a turn 3 GSS and another one on turn 4. I top deck Chandra and shoot one of the GSS down. The other GSS kills my Chandra, then he plays a Woolly Thoctar. Thoctar swings in (J: 12). I top deck a Bit Blast, targeting his Thoctar but flip over a Terminate which gets shuffled into the bottom of my library. I top deck a Bolt to take care of GSS. He plays an Elspeth and starts swinging with a 5/5 Flying Lotus Cobra (J: 7). I Bit Blast the Cobra and Cascade into Maelstrom Pulse for his Elspeth. He has 1 1/1 Soldier token in play which brings me down to 5. He Bolts me (J: 2). I draw a land and he draws a Noble Hierarch making his solder a 2/2 and I die.

1-2, 12-7, 5-3

Whew… what a day… what a draining, but very fun day…

Afterwards I quickly went to the Vendors and sold some cards to cover my entrance fee and to make some cash to bring to my wife. Then I talked to a few people about their day and collected my packs. By that time the Top 8 where playing already and I quickly glanced to see what decks where up there and I think I saw 3 Jund decks, 2 Naya decks, 1 Boros Bushwacker deck, 1 Dredge deck, and something else.

Great Sable Stag is truly Great! All three of my match losses came from Great Sable Stag. I’m going to analyze my deck and matchups to see what changes I need to make. I’ll post up my analysis tomorrow. We’ll see if I continue to run Jund, I want to see what decks did well at States, if not I’ll try that U/B Nighthawk Control or W/U/R Control deck instead.

I can’t wait to see what my new DCI score is! Thanks to all of the guys for letting me borrow a bunch of cards! Way to go Team Vizzerdrix! I’m just kidding about the Vizzerdrix name. Way to go to TEAM!