5-Color Magic The most electrifying format in Magic
The day started out looking less then optimistic on my part, a much less than tuned deck that had a grand total of three games of testing behind it, not so much to see if it worked but to see if the manabase was OK, which it wasn’t… so changes had to be made on the way down.
Upon getting there it was as expected, another day at COD with the usual who make the 2 hour drive from Wisconsin and the 12hr crew (props on making that drive). We postponed the start to allow our beloved Scott Morgan to show up, and when he did we were finally underway. Important to note that all of the oldschool have caved putting on sleeves including myself and Bush; not Scott tho, what a PIMP!
GAME 1: I had an Uber fast start, winning the die role and playing a first turn Kitchen Finks off Mox Sapphire, Mox Emerald, and a Foothills. Turn 2 I played Volrath’s Stronghold and Loam getting back foothills Next turn I dredged binning Shriekmaw, and an Auger of Skulls, and a Land. Basically I was living in Christmas Land and a recurring graveyard toolbox pretty much got me there.
GAME 2: This game got a little more hairy. Both games I didn’t see too much along the way of dicard and this one really bit me in the ass. He ended up with a Turn 4 Liliana and a turn 5 Garruk. This is the first time I had even herd of either of these plainswalkers and needless to say had no idea what they did. He used them to his advantage but I was thankfully able to stop his tutoring with a Mindcensor and Striped the Plains which he had tutored for the turn before. E. Call for a Tombstalker which took out the Garruk and a Vindicate for the other left him with a 3/3 and not much else. Duress his hand to see a Wrath, Bolt, and Ideal. This is the first time I had any idea what he was playing. Few more turns of beating took home the W for the me team.
Fastest Flash round EVER!!! Dave and I being good friends and having driven down with eachother and knowing how this matchup should work out, decided that an Intentional Draw would be more fun and shake things up a little more seeing as it was round 3.
GAME 1: I felt pretty confident going into this one, it SHOULDN’T be a bad matchup for me, and everything worked its way out pretty much as expected. I had a Bottomless Pit making us both live and die by the topdeck. Despite my playing atleast 6 threats and him playing a good 4 of his own which both people had to answer, he won the topdeck war and that was about it. No idea what he killed me with.
GAME 2: I keep my open and he Muls to 6. Good for me right? WRONG! I went Fetch go, he went Tundra go. I played Land go, he attempted to Waste it. I tried to Fetch to allow me to Trickbing his Waste and he stifled my fetch. Super down in tempo and feeling dejected he walked all over me, bad times.
I’ll put what I remember which may be totally wrong, Terry took much better notes. GAME 1: Sum it up the Rebel chain got there. I had some amazing Tainted Pacts to try and keep me in it but they just got there.
GAME 2: Lots of discard and a Damnation vs. his discard and rebels. E. Call for Mindcensor helped me a lot, along with Terry thinking one of his Sorcerys was an instant. Again Bottomless Pit kept us both in topdeck mode for most of the match.
GAME 3: This one involved 2 board sweeps from me, but in the end a Phyrexian Totem, Hypnotic Specter, and Shriekmaw(?) were able to squeak in exactly the right amount with time winding down.
I honestly thought that there was another round after this one and was, much to my surprise when I found out I counted wrong. Come on I only have to count to 4 in my profession ;)
GAME 1: His early position of Trinket Mage and Warbeast took its toll. Blazing Specter on my Side, I set up to finally be able to blow him out. I blocked the Trinket Mage and 2nd main Cast Rise to bounce his Warbeast and get my Specter back leaving him one card in hand and me with a Raven’s Crime in hand to get rid of it for good. Misplay on my part, I didn’t play the fetch in my hand first and activated the one on board which ran into a mindcensor. Mindcensor causes my fetch to fail along with the one I then played from my hand. Should I have played both of the lands and could have activated in response and gotten rid of the Warbeast that killed me.
GAME 2: Lots of discard and 2 removal spells allowed me a fairly easy victory, which did however take 2 Tombstalkers since the first one was answered. Tombstalker and Totem took home the win.
GAME 3: VERY CLOSE game. He knocked me down slowly with a mindcensor and other tiny guy until I cleared the board. He then played Hirerarch which I also answered. Finks took me from 1 back to 4 and Night’s Whisper back to 2. Unfortunately for me, a giant Mystic Enforcer and being at 2 doesn’t give me nearly enough time to come up with an answer.
Took home a new card to add to my destroyed card collection, and those in the Wisconsin area should expect to see my lit on fire Mishra’s Workshop in 5C tournament play soon. The day ended sadly for 2 reasons, Wisconsin lost its title as 5CWC’s for the first time in history, and my bud Dave lost with a Flash list that I view as almost 100% optimal that we put a lot of time into. Overall after almost a two and a half year hiatus from competitive 5C, I feel like my return went quite well.
Far as the event goes, good day and a great time. I’d like to thank Ryan Dubios for loaning me a good portion of the deck so I didn’t have to spend $300+ I don’t have to put a deck together, and to Dave for loaning me Goyfs. I would like to especially thank Ben Carp for loaning me 4 Moxen and a Recall no questions asked to replace the ones I had to sell to make some school payments.
And Last but on least, upholding my promise to the East Coast crew, my list.
Nathan Moersfelder 2008 Worlds 6th Place MONO-BLACK CONTROL 250 Cards RED 20 1 Burning Wish 1 Recoup 2 Flametongue Kavu 2 Red Elelemental Blast 2 Pyroblast 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Blazing Specter 4 Rise // Fall WHITE 20 1 Weathered Wayfarer 1 Balance 1 Academy Rector 1 Moat 4 Swords to Plowshares 4 Vindicate 4 Gerrard’s Verdict 4 Aven Mindcensor GREEN 26 1 Living Wish 1 Regrowth 1 Eternal Witness 1 Recollect 1 All Suns’ Dawn 1 Crop Rotation 1 Life from the Loam 3 Trygon Predator 4 Tarmogoyf 4 Kitchen Finks 4 Pernicious Deed 4 Eladamri’s Call BLUE 23 1 Cunning Wish 1 Ancestral Recall 1 Merchant Scroll 4 Fact or Fiction 4 Shadowmage Infiltrator 4 Dimir Cutpurse 4 Shadow of Doubt 4 Trickbind BLACK 65 1 Demonic Tutor 1 Grim Tutor 1 Mind Twist 4 Duress 4 Thoughtseize 4 Raven’s Crime 4 Hymn to Tourach 4 Stupor 4 Unmask 3 Bottomless Pit 4 Augur of Skulls 4 Hypnotic Specter 4 Nantuko Shade 4 Shriekmaw 3 Tombstalker 4 Dark Ritual 4 Night’s Whisper 4 Tainted Pact 4 Damnation BROWN 20 1 Chaos Orb 1 Black Lotus 1 Mox Crystal 1 Mox Jet 1 Mox Emerald 1 Mox Pearl 1 Mox Sapphire 1 Mox Ruby 1 Sol Ring 4 Chrome Mox 4 Fellwar Stone 3 Phyrexian Totem LAND 76 4 Windswept Heath 4 Wooded Foothills 4 Bloodstained Mire 4 Polluted Delta 4 Flooded Strand 4 Underground Sea 4 Badlands 4 Scrubland 4 Bayou 4 Watery Grave 4 Blood Crypt 4 Godless Shrine 4 Overgrown Tomb 4 Gemstone Mine 4 Mishra’s Factory 3 Swamp 4 Wasteland 1 Strip Mine 1 Volrath’s Stronghold 1 Maze of Ith 1 Savannah 1 Taiga 1 Plateau 1 Tundra 1 Tropical Island 1 Volcanic Island