Down And Dirty - Winning With Wizards: City Champion!, by Kyle San... http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/print.php?

Article=15743

Down And Dirty - Winning With Wizards: City Champion!

by Kyle Sanchez

Before I get started on my congruent conquering of the Austin, San Antonio,

Houston, El Paso, Marble Falls City Champs region, I’d like to talk about the
City Champs system.

First of all I’d like to point out that our region of City Champs spans from El
Paso to Houston, the second largest City Champs district of which I’m
aware. The first is poor Hawaii, who got thrown into the Los Angeles region.
I mean really, City Champs should be a local program, and forcing the
Hawaii or El Paso players to drive/fly/swim an unusually large distance is
absurd.

Last year’s program was super loose, with each city getting a Nationals
invite. But this year, it seems like they tightened up a little too much. Giving
a Nationals invite to each city isn’t a good idea, but dividing one up between
Houston, Austin, and San Antonio is just as stupid, given that SA and
Houston are two of the biggest cities in the freaking country, and have three
and a half hours of driving between them. Not to mention the 750 miles and
11 hours of driving between El Paso and Houston.

I only played in four or so City Champs events, won all of them, and just
rode it out until the finals. A lot of the events wouldn’t get 8 people. I’m not
sure on the overall numbers, but this program doesn’t seem to be working.
And the fact that they took away all the States events means that Wizards
is going to have to come up with something new and not too flashy to cater
to the tournament-level people.

Wizards
Suggested by Kyle Sanchez on 2008-04-20 as a potential
deck for Standard
As written about in http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/15743.html
Print this deck!

Maindeck: Sideboard:
Sorceries
2 Pithing Needle
Creatures 4 Ancestral Vision
2 Magus Of The Tabernacle
1 Arbiter Of Basic Snow Lands
1 Oblivion Ring
Knollridge 2 Teferi's Moat
10 Snow-covered Island 2 Evacuation
1 Snow-covered Plains

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1 Magus Of The 4 Flashfreeze

Lands 2 Negate
Tabernacle 4 Adarkar Wastes
4 Vedalken 4 Calciform Pools Stats:
Aethermage 4 Desert Average mana: 1.58
3 Tolaria West Average creature mana
cost: 3.81
Enchantments Snow Lands Average creature power:
2 Oblivion Ring 1 Mouth Of Ronom 2.37
Average creature
toughness: 2.75
Instants
4 Cryptic Deck Composition:
Basic Snow Lands: 18.33%
Command Creatures: 10.00%
1 Pact Of Negation Enchantments: 3.33%
2 Remove Soul Instants: 18.33%
Lands: 25.00%
4 Rune Snag Legendary Creatures:
16.67%
Snow Lands: 1.67%
Legendary Sorceries: 6.67%
Creatures
1 Arcanis The
Omnipotent
3 Teferi, Mage Of
Zhalfir
3 Vendilion Clique
3 Venser, Shaper
Savant

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I talked about this deck two weeks ago, but I have a bit more to add. I've
been playing with it a lot in preparation for the illustrious City Champs Finals
this past Saturday.

Evan Erwin chimed in on the forums, supporting the deck and a few of his
own additions. While I wholeheartedly agree with Oblivion Ring is greater
than Negate, I can't support the addition of Crovax. His Crovax decision

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was made before he probably knew about Magus of the Tabernacle, which
is fair, but now that Magus is around Crovax has no place in this deck. Not
only does he cost double White, he also isn't even a Wizard, meaning you'd
have to play something like two main deck and a third in the board, or two
to three in the sideboard. Either way it’s space I don’t have, and I don’t
really need him. He’s a blank against any White deck, and he also brings
the stats down on all my dudes, killing Vendilion Clique before his trigger
even resolves.

Seriously though, Magus of the Tabernacle might be the answer to this

format. He's extremely hard to kill with modern removal excluding
Shriekmaw, which will be too late for them anyway since they will have to
pay for all their dorks during their upkeep. And the fact that you can curve
out into him on turn 4 on a fairly consistent basis, given a turn 3 Wizardcyle,
makes him the perfect weapon against both Bitterblossom and the various
Tribal guys running around. He also doesn't have the downside of pumping
all your opponent’s Kithkin, like Crovax.

The addition of Oblivion Ring also adds some subtle combos to the deck.
For instance, against a lot of the aggro decks, after you land an Arbiter it’s a
very powerful play to O-Ring your own Arbiter. With Venser and Cryptic
Command it’s almost impossible to lose. This enables you to take some
more beats for a few turns, then bounce the Ring back to your hand to gain
all the life back. From there you can use the O-Ring to take out one of their
permanents or reset the game again. After doing this a few times the
opponent will probably realize that he can mana burn, so using this trick will
most likely only work once or twice.

There’s also the well known Venser / O-Ring combo, in which you cast the
O-Ring and with the remove trigger on the stack, use Venser to bounce the
O-Ring. The leaves play trigger will stack, resolve, and then the remove
trigger will resolve, removing the chosen creature forever.

I added another Tolaria West to the deck as land #27, mainly because I
didn't feel #26 was enough and I don't mind drawing into it late game. I've
also always been firmly on the standpoint that you can never have too much
land in decks like these. Managing the T-Wests is very important for this
deck, and dropping it on turn 1 is almost never right because there are so
many zero casting cost cards that swing matchups. Going for a Desert,
Ancestral Vision, Pact of Negation, Mouth of Ronom, or even Calciform
Pools can swing an entire matchup around.

Desert is almost impossible for both Faeries and mono-Black Rogues to

deal with. Pact of Negation gives you late game protection on the rare
occasion you need to do things during your turn. Mouth of Ronom is the key
to Teferi Advantage, as well as being able to deal with a large portion of
other dudes in the format, and Ancestral Vision is the fuel to the fire that
keeps the food flowing when facing Faeries, Fascists, or an Elf army.

My real issue is with the sideboard. The format is so wide open right now its
almost impossible to expect a certain number of decks. Clearly I have to be
prepared for Faeries, but that matchup usually comes down to the

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better/really lucky player.

4 Flashfreeze - Although not "necessary" for the R/G matchup, I'd still rather
have the card there to squelch any chance they have in that matchup. They
can also double against a random Dragonstorm deck, or a mono-Green
Warrior deck.

2 Teferi's Moat, 2 Evacuation, 2 Magus of the Tabernacle - This is really

more of a dedicated six-slot against aggro/tribal decks. Teferi's Moat and
Evacuation are basically the same card with different names. Magus of the
Tabernacle, on the other hand, is essentially a splashable Wrath of God
that also locks down a good portion of their mana resources. The best part
is when you slap two of 'em down.

2 Negate - No one has the kind of love I have for Negate, but don't hate, its
great, gonna change the format some day.

2 Pithing Needle - This is primarily for those GB Rock decks, or basically

any deck that runs Treetop Village along with some other target it can nail.
Like Greater Gargadon or Garruk Wildspeaker. You really only want to bring
them in against Treetop Villages, but they also double against Spinerock
Knoll and charge lands. You could also board them in against other slow
control decks to stop cards like Scrying Sheets, Dreadship Reef, Mouth of
Ronom, or Faerie Conclave.

I keep going back and forth on whether or not I want to include Crib Swap to
the main deck. You really don't need it, but not having it there feels kind of
stupid. It’s a tutorable removal spell. What the hell? But then I'd have way
too many White cards, and not enough true sources, which means I'd have
to add Terramorphic Expanse, Boreal Shelf, and possibly Nimbus Maze. I'd
gain Wrath of God, possibly Condemn, and Aven Riftwatcher for the
sideboard. I wouldn't have to worry about mana, but I'd lose the ability to
play at instant speed since the addition of Wrath and friends would cut back
on the counterspell/wizard count, and would make the deck more awkward
than the symbiotic relationship between an Elephant and a Dung Beetle.

The Swiss

There were only fifteen or seventeen players, so we played four rounds with
a cut to Top 8.

Round 1 I played against a GB Rock player with all the usuals: Garruk,
Goyf, Village, and Thoughtseize. I lost game 1 due to mulligans/mana
screw, but rallied the other two games behind an unanswered Teferi's Moat
on Green. His sideboarded Eyes of the Wisent weren't relevant in the
slightest.

Round 2 I played against a RG Big mana player. Game 1 I got stuck on

three lands with a Calciform Pools that enabled me to cast a Teferi around
turn 6 or 7 to block a Treetop Village. He had an Incinerate for it, and was
able to resolve a bunch of big mana dudes to overwhelm me through
Radha, including an extremely troublesome Akroma, Angel of Fury.

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Game 2 he stuck to the Treetop Village plan with some scattered Goyf
attacks until he had me down to 7. He had no cards left in his hand and I
had the chance to either play Arbiter of Knollridge to bounce back to 20, or
Teferi's Moat to shut down every creature he has in play, then follow up with
the Arbiter on the next turn. I obviously went with the Moat path, and I even
had Cryptic Command backup thanks to Calciform Pools. On his turn he
drew Molten Disaster, and had exactly 10 mana to make it Split Second to
get around my counters.

Not cool.

Round 3 my opponent and I both got deck checked, and both received
game losses. I forgot to register the 2 Negate in my sideboard, so they got
replaced with a Plains and Island, while my opponent only registered one
copy of a card he had two copies of. He was playing a Kithkin deck, and in
our one and only game he got stuck on two lands, which gave my Cryptic
Command's even more value in the Counter/Bounce modes.

Round 4 I drew safely into Top 8 and enjoyed an extremely messy Gyro
from the Greek shop next door.

Quarterfinal

I played the same GB Rock player from round 1. Game 1 was the long
slow-paced game that my deck loves to play. He tried for some early beats,
but an Arbiter evened the life totals. From there I was able to land an
Arcanis through Teferi and he couldn't keep up with me drawing four cards
per turn.

I sideboarded in Teferi's Moat here, but didn't feel that I needed Evacuation
or Magus since his deck is brutally slow, and no doubt watered down to fit in
Extirpates, Eyes of the Wisent, Krosan Grip, and whatever whatnots that
might come in.

Game 2 I was a little mana light and he was able to get some quick beats in
with Tarmogoyf and Treetop Village. To make matters worse he Extirpated
my Vedalken Aethermages, so I was unable to fetch an Arbiter… not that I
had the mana to cast him anyway. I put up a bit of a fight with some
Vensers and Cliques, to buy some time while my Ancestral Vision was
unsuspending. When it resolved I drew into three lands, and ran out of gas
while his Garruk made all of his dudes huge and trampling.

Game 3 he mulliganed once, and I had an awesome hand that included

turn 1 Ancestral Vision with a bunch of counters and Calciform Pools to give
me more mana. He went with the Village route again this game, which
eventually died to a Teferi. From there I was able to Wizardcycle for Arcanis
and finish the game off with a ton of cards in my hand.

Semifinal

Here I was matched up against recently PT: Hollywood qualified Mandee

Peralta, a longtime testing buddy from San Antonio. Mandee was playing a

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RB Goblin Grave Pact deck that has been giving me fits at FNM these past
couple of weeks. Grave Pact is a tricky devil to play against. Letting it
resolve so I can either Cryptic Command or Venser it later on is a key play,
but Thoughtseize and Extirpate means it’s a shaky ordeal since he can strip
any card in my graveyard from my hand at Split Second speed.

Game 1 I was on the play, which is huge in this matchup, and had a
plethora of counters to halt his efforts. One of the more subtle plays that I
was attempting in this matchup was holding back a Desert in my hand,
knowing that he would try to bait out a Mogg War Marshal or Mogg Fanatic
to resolve a Thoughtseize on turn 3 or 4. This gives the other counters in
my hand a little bit more value since I won't have to worry about the meat of
his deck and can counter the cards that matter like Grave Pact, Siege-Gang
Commander, and Marsh Flitter.

Mandee tried to go for the Liege of the Pit route this game, which was easily
countered by Venser. He replayed him on his next turn, and I used a
Vendilion Clique to strip a Siege-Gang Commander from his hand. He
started attacking with the 7/7 again, but I sat back and took it until I used an
Arbiter through Teferi to jump back up to 20. From there I started racing
him, getting in 10 damage with Venser, Teferi, and Arbiter, using a Cryptic
Command to bounce his Mogg Fanatic. He tried to bring in Gargadon
during his turn after he took 7 from the Liege, but I had another Cryptic
Command waiting to tap all his attackers.

This is a matchup where Magus of the Tabernacle really shines, as the only
way he can possibly deal with it is a Grave Pact plus sacrifice outlet.
Evacuation and Teferi's Moat do the same thing, but given that he has a
high number of both Red and Black goblins I decided to leave the Moat out,
and just focus on Evacuations and Magus.

Mandee mulliganed twice in the next game, and went for the double
Bitterblossom special. This was perfect for me since I was able to
Wizardcycle on turn three, fetching a Magus of the Tabernacle to
completely demolish any chance he had of winning the game since he was
stuck on two lands. I started using Venser and Cryptic Commands to
bounce his lands, so he scooped.

Finals

The plaques were brought to the table, and mountains of cash were
sprawled about the worn game table by Latin ladies in tight white shirts and
equally binding dark blue jeans. The lights from above centered in on us,
and I was forced to wipe the sweat that was dripping down my brow. The
ladies, stricken by the heat, ripped off their pearly white tank tops to reveal
matching jet black bras. A seemingly random fire hydrant was cracked open
by a seemingly random crowbar, and the water soon engulfed the play
area, creating a septic pool of watery lady goodness.

My opponent was the same RG Big Mana player from before… the guy that
ripped that vicious Molten Disaster off the top.

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I won the die roll and had a sick opening with Calciform Pools and a turn 1
Ancestral Vision, which is probably the nut draw for this deck. I was able to
hold off his forces for a pretty long time, but he kept getting in Treetop
Village damage. When I went for a Clique he used an Incinerate on it, while
I took away his Siege-Gang Commander. Eventually I landed a Teferi,
which killed his Village and died to another Incinerate. He was almost out of
cards so I ran out the main phase Arcanis with Pact of Negation backup.

He drew and played a Garruk on his turn, which I didn't really care about
since his Beasts wouldn't get past Arcanis and he didn't have any dudes to
make Garruk dangerous. Arcanis got on line and I was able to get another
Teferi, then an Arbiter, which only gained me six or seven life but was a big
enough body to seal the deal.

I boarded in Teferi's Moat and Flashfreeze here, taking out Rune Snag,
Magus, and a Desert. I've found that a lot of the time, in matchups where
you don't need Desert, it’s pretty handy to be able to board one out since it
won't hurt the mana too much.

I mulliganed into a pretty slow hand, but it had turn 1 Ancestral Vision so I
couldn't really turn it down. I topdecked a Calciform Pools on my second
draw, but all I had in my hand was a Venser and Arbiter. On his side he had
an extremely quick start with turn 1 Elf, turn 2 Troll Ascetic, turn 3 Garruk.
On his turn 4 he dropped a Cloudthresher via Garruk, which fortunately
drew out a Remove Soul. On his next turn he activated Treetop Village and
tried to Overrun me, but I had a Cryptic Command to tap all his creatures
and bounce the Village back to his hand.

Vision resolved on the next turn, but I only found more land. I was still in
alright shape since I had Venser and Arbiter in my hand, which I'd be able
to cast next turn thanks to Calciform Pools. He led out with Garruk next
turn, and untapped two lands to play a morph, which I knew was Akroma
from our games in the swiss.

On his next turn he floated four mana and activated Garruk. I responded by
bouncing his morphed down Akroma back to his hand with Venser. He
replayed it with the mana he had up and dropped a Radha. I drew for my
turn and realized I have no possible way to beat a morphed up Akroma
without some number of Cryptic Commands and a reasonable clock. I had
neither, so I scooped.

Game 3 I once again had a Ancestral Vision on turn 1. No Calciform Pools

this time, but he did make the mistake of attacking into my Desert with his
turn 1 Llanowar Elf. He did resolve a Radha though, and when he attacked
and chose not to add mana with it, I made the trade with my Vendilion
Clique, which nabbed a Troll Ascetic. He didn't have another three-drop
thanks to Clique, which also revealed a mana-tight hand with Bogardan
Hellkite, Cloudthresher, Garruk, and a Siege-Gang Commander.

I let Garruk resolve on his next turn. He made a token, so I used my Venser
to bounce the Elephant and attacked into Garruk on my next turn. His
Siege-Gang Commander met a Flashfreeze, and I was able to Wizardcycle

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for Arcanis, while still having tons of gas in my hand thanks to the now
unsuspended Ancestral Vision. His Cloudthresher and Bogardan Hellkite
were both countered, and I was able to get Arcanis down via Teferi and ride
the card advantage to the City Championship Crown.

Shadowmoor definitely has a negative impact on this deck, but the more I
think about the way Shadowmoor is going to shape the Standard format,
the more I think a UW control deck to be a top notch contender. Whether or
not it contains Wizards is yet to be seen, but it’s not completely out of the
question. Arbiter of Knollridge really is insane, and definitely one of the
most underrated cards in the current format. In the right deck he allows you
to cheat the game, and gives you a safety net for the games where you
stumble or can't keep up, as well as being a sizable finisher that can also be
tutored up.

Someone's always coming around here trailing some new kill

Says I seen your picture on a hundred dollar bill
And what's a game of chance to you, him is one of real skill
So glad to meet you Angeles.

Sanchez

....

Top 5 Picks

1) On the Beach - Neil Young

2) D.A.N.C.E. - Justice

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3) Everyday Struggle - Notorious B.I.G.

4) Styrofoam Boots/It's All Nice on Ice - Modest Mouse
5) Grogamager - Meff Jeyerson

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