Each attempt to post this as an article on 5-Color.com resulted in a slightly larger fail than the previous attempt, so I figured I’d just post it here as an article.

(All pictures I took from the event are available here with comments)

Event: 5-Color Event that busted out at Matt Sharp’s guilt-inducingly wonderful Day of 5-Color.

For years, Matt Sharp, Brian and Jenny have braved 90-120 minute trips to play at PA and NJ events and I decided to return the favor, and I was lured by free pizza.

Deck: I had played rebels for far too long. At almost 6 months the deck lived through more events than everything but my previous Yavimaya-Control deck. The deck morphed through mid-range to mid-range with heavy disruption to “Why does no one play Angus Mackenzie?” at around 1 AM Saturday and this deck was born.

I very much liked playing Big Sorceries and wanted a creature deck to mirror this, originally topping out at 9 with Woodfall Primus but this gladly phased out to nothing more than 7. I also wanted every finisher to fly so I could play Moat which is profoundly fetchable with Idyllic Tutor. The deck tries to ground stall until I can kill with a flyer as you’ve probably figured out but there are some neat oddities of it like Silent Arbiter + Maze of Ith completely stopping the world, Seasinger almost always works because most people eventually play an Island.

Changes to make: Preacher –> Callous Oppressor, Earthquake–> Firespout or Starstorm, Angus Mackenzie/Peacekeeper/Else –>Mind Stone, Lightning Angel(?)–>Battlegrace Angel

Synergy, uuh…..

7-6-2 Aggro OR Angels Riding Dragons OR Sir Moatsalot

Creatures 4 Yavimaya Elder 4 Windbrisk Raptor 4 Wall of Roots 4 Wall of Blossoms 4 Vorosh, the Hunter 4 Stoic Angel 4 Simic Sky Swallower 4 Silent Arbiter 4 Seasinger 4 Preacher 4 Plumeveil 4 Peacekeeper 4 Numot, the Devastator 4 Lightning Angel 4 Exalted Angel 4 Eternal Dragon 4 Carven Caryatid 3 Angus Mackenzie Spells 4 Wrath of God 4 Vindicate 4 Unmake 4 Swords to Plowshares 1 Sol Ring 4 Savage Twister 4 Propaganda 4 Pernicious Deed 1 Mox Sapphire 1 Mox Ruby 1 Mox Pearl 1 Mox Jet 1 Mox Emerald 1 Mox Crystal 4 Moment’s Peace 3 Moat 4 Lightning Helix 4 Invincible Hymn 4 Incinerate 4 Idyllic Tutor 4 Ghostly Prison

4 Fellwar Stone 4 Fact or Fiction 2 Earthquake 1 Demonic Tutor 4 Darksteel Ingot 4 Damnation 4 Collective Restraint 4 Coalition Relic 4 Chainer’s Edict 1 Black Lotus 1 Balance 1 Ancestral Recall Lands 4 Wooded Foothills 4 Windswept Heath 4 Volcanic Island 4 Underground Sea 4 Tundra 4 Tropical Island 4 Taiga 1 Swamp 4 Simic Growth Chamber 4 Selesnya Sanctuary 4 Seaside Citadel 4 Scrubland 4 Savannah 4 Polluted Delta 4 Plateau 1 Plains 1 Mountain 4 Maze of Ith 4 Jungle Shrine 1 Island 1 Forest 4 Flooded Strand 4 Bloodstained Mire 4 Bayou 4 Badlands 4 Azorius Chancery

Round 1 vs Jesse playing Midrange

Jesse		Terry
Life	Change	Life	Change
17	Stoic Angel	18	Skyshroud Warbeast
14	Stoic Angel	15	Skyshroud Warbeast
17	Swords (Stoic)	14	Fetch
14	Stoic Angel	11	Psychatog
12	Shockland
7	Eternal Dragon
2	Eternal Dragon
0	Eternal Dragon

I beat the snot out of him with Stoic Angel who died, had another one played who also died, then killed him with Eternal Dragon.

Jesse		Terry
Game 2
18	Shockland	16	Prophetic Bolt
		13	Shriekmaw
		16	Lightning Helix
		13	Lightning Bolt
		9	Stoic Angel

He played seven creature removal spells to take out my fatties. I killed his first Debtors’ Knell, but couldn’t overcome his second and he killed me with my Stoic Angel.

Jesse		Terry
Game 3
16	Exalted Angel	24	Exalted Angel
14	Shockland	16	Spectral Force
6	Spectral Force
	Scoop

I won this game for 1 reason: I played Seasinger and he didn’t read it. He played Spectral Force after killing my Exalted Angel and I stole it the next turn when he played Watery Grave. This game also had an oddity where my Exalted Angel was killed by his Shriekmaw who swung and I responded with Plumveil which he countered, I played another, and he Putrefied.

Glad he did, Shriekmaw has fear.

Round 2 vs Mike Leitham playing Aggro

Mike		Terry
Game 1
19	Fetch	19	Mogg Fanatic
18	Fetch	18	Mogg Fanatic
17	Burning-Tree Shaman	17	Burning-Tree Shaman
11	Simic Skyswallower	14	Burning-Tree Shaman
9	Char	17	Lightning Helix
8	City of Brass	23	Simic Skyswallower (lifelink)
2	Simic Skyswallower	16	Burning-Tree Shaman, Sea Drake
1	City of Brass	13	Burning-Tree Shaman
0	Simic Skyswallower

He played guys. Seasinger ate it from Mogg Fantastic. Burning-Tree Shaman swung and while doing so Windbrisk Raptor and Simic Skyswallower flew overhead.

Mike		Terry
Game 2
19	Fetch	19	Fetch
13	Vorosh, the Hunter	15	Sea Drake
17	Swords to Plowshares (Sea Drake)	14	Fetch
5	Vorosh, the Hunter	9	Tribal Flames
0	Vorosh, the Hunter	8	Fetch
		5	Chain Lightning
		2	Chain Lightning

Vorosh won the game. Not me, Vorosh. he ended the game as a 24/24 and had he not grown Mike would have received the extra turn required to burn me out. I wasn’t sure what he had so Lightning Helix sat in my hand the the entire game waiting to be the world’s best Healing Salve and spearing my “Don’t Let Him Draw Sudden Shock” voodoo doll.

Round 3 vs. Tony Easterlin playing Good Discard

Tony’s deck is listed as “discard control” but the elements are efficient kill methods with disruptive cards. The deck’s control elements are what I’d consider tempo advantage over card advantage.

Game 1 – Tony conceded game 1 after accidentally drawing an extra card during a Rhystic Tutor. He insisted that he take the game loss for drawing extra cards.

Tony		Terry
Game 2
19	Fetchland	17	Tarmogoyf
		12	Tarmogoyf, Aven Mindcensor
		6	Tarmogoyf, Aven Mindcensor
		5	Fetchland
		0	Tarmogoyf, Aven Mindcensor

I was killed. By Tarmogoyf. My answers were stopped. By Aven Mindcensor. I lost.

Tony		Terry
Game 3
16	Exalted Angel	17	Nantuko Shade
13	Lightning Angel	21	Exalted Angel
10	Lightning Angel	18	Nantuko Shade
3	Lightning Angel, Exalted Angel	22	Exalted Angel
0	Lightning Helix	26	Exalted Angel
		29	Lightning Helix

He saw Bayou, Scrubland, Undeground Sea and 2 Mishra’s Factories this game. I was ok with that. I had a fast start of a turn 2 morphed Exalted Angel into a turn 3 attacking Exalted Angel followed by a turn 4 Lightning Angel. A Serendib and a Sea Drake slowed down Exalted but not enough to overcome his land stall.

Round 4 vs. Mike Noble playing Dragon Combo

In testing before the tournament I went about 0-75, maybe my luck would change.

Game 1 – I attacked a few times, he laughed and did an arbitrarily large amount of damage to me. And I was a real jerk about it.

Game 2 – I BEAT THE LIVING PISS OUT OF HIM WITH NUMOT, THE DEVASTATOR. My opening hand was six lands and a Unmake, which was fine. I played four lands, he Wheel of Fortuned and my idiocy was nicely swept under the rug. Turn five I played Mox Ruby, a land and played Numot. I destroyed all his black sources followed by all his blue sources followed by his life total.

Game 3 – I mis-played and lost a game I may very well have lost anyway. I had a Pernicious Deed out and walked into his combo by playing a dude thinking that his two reanimation spells could overcome my Deed. I didn’t realize he’d pitched on of the two reanimation enchantments meaning I could have Deeded in response to the Dragon CIP trigger RFGing his board. Mind you, he wouldn’t have walked into this and would have simply waited. In the meantime, he was at 13 and I had an Angus Mackenzie as a seven turn clock.

After the tournament, Matt Sharp and Mike Leitham played 2-land belcher in unsleeved powered decks where Matt’s had beta power, creating the following.

This shot better shows the beat power and Matt’s smile belies the sound of money flying out of his deck.

Beta power!

;

Beta power smash!

I think land proxies have really helped as shown by #2 being taken by a player with no cards otherwise much above $8 in value. If your local area hasn’t taken to this practice, I strongly encourage you to. Thanks to Matt for his infinite generosity providing prizes for a tournament with no entry fee. I got chocolate!

And finally a riddle: What Magic card also describes how Yu-Gi-Oh! players seem to fail to pull up their pants?

Crevasse! Appropriately, The End.