Henry Romero
3/23/2012 11:24:00 AM
Hello, my name is Henry Romero, and this is a report about my first Grind Prix Top 8. It just so happens to be my first article as well. My story starts in Portland, Oregon with team Boom // Bust. I drove up to Seattle for the Grand Prix with a couple of teammates: Dexter Hagerman, Kale Satta, Caleb Chambers, and Ryan Bemrose. I guess I'll start my article the same way my first day of the Grand Prix began, staring down this puppy.

The pool:

Blue
1 Thought Scour
1 Deranged Assistant
1 Invisible Stalker
1 Memory's Journey
2 Shriekgeist
1 Claustrophobia
1 Civilized Scholar
1 Chant of the Skifsang
1 Selhoff Occultist
1 Fortress Crab
1 Nephalia Seakite
1 Tower Geist
1 Mystic Retrieval
1 Lost in the Mist
1 Relentless Skaabs
1 Increasing Confusion

Green
1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
1 Young Wolf
1 Hunger of the Howlpack
2 Dawntreader Elk
1 Scorned Villager
1 Full Moon's Rise
1 Villagers of Estwald
1 Spidery Grasp
1 Splinterfright
1 Gnaw to the Bone
1 Clinging Mists
1 Festerhide Boar
1 Briarpack Alpha
1 Lumberknot
1 Make a Wish
1 Hollowhenge Beast
1 Grizzled Outcasts
1 Grim Flowering
1 Moldgraf Monstrosity
1 Ghoultree

White
2 Burden of Guilt
1 Sanctuary Cat
1 Silverchase Fox
1 Ray of Revelation
1 Spare from Evil
1 Unruly Mob
1 Gather the Townsfolk
1 Chapel Geist
1 Gavony Ironwright
1 Paraselene
1 Smite the Monstrous
1 Thraben Purebloods

Red
1 Faithless Looting
1 Curse of Stalked Prey
1 Nightbird's Clutches
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Curse of the Pierced Heart
1 Talons of Falkenrath
1 Hinterland Hermit
1 Brimstone Volley
1 Fires of Undeath
1 Markov Blademaster
1 Afflicted Deserter
2 Russet Wolves
1 Pitchburn Devils
1 Rage Thrower

Black
1 Gruesome Deformity
1 Deadly Allure
1 Victim of Night
1 Vampire Interloper
1 Walking Corpse
1 Skeletal Grimace
2 Black Cat
1 Village Cannibals
1 Reap the Seagraf
2 Falkenrath Torturer
1 Curse of Oblivion
1 Vengeful Vampire

Colorless
1 Traveler's Amulet
1 Heavy Mattock
1 Warden of the Wall
1 Demonmail Hauberk

The pool was just weak, which was too bad. Black is very strong in this format, but apart from a Victim of the Night and possibly a pair of Falkenrath Torturers the black in this pool was fairly unplayable. I'm not against splashing for removal, but splashing for victim is straight wrong.

So black's out. The other colors aren't exciting either, there just aren't any bombs to immediately pull us into another color. When you get a pool that you are not very confidant in, it is very important to find some small aspect of it that you are confidant in; such as combat tricks. I figured that if I could steal a few games with some tricky combat steps I might be able to squeeze into day two for a fresh start.

Other notable decks I like in sealed are the UW skies deck, or any sort of blue-based tempo deck. At first look, the blue can be deceiving. There is a Nephalia Seakite, a Tower Geist, a Civilized Scholar; removal in Claustrophobia, and even a bomb in Increasing Confusion. But that's about it.

The problem with the blue is the lack of tempo. In innistrad/Dark ascension sealed, blue has a few cards that really shine, and they aren't the fancy rares. They are the Silent Departures, the Grasp of Phantoms, and the Griptides. Without these tempo cards, the deck really just becomes a green deck that gives up a few points of power and toughness for evasion.

The green was the deepest color by far. There was ramp, fatties, combat tricks, and fixing. These are limited cornerstones. White was fairly deep as well, and the lack of WW spells made the mana-base solid enough to support a red splash.

I sleeved up the following 40:

1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
2 Dawntreader Elk
1 Scorned Villager
1 Villagers of Estwald
1 Spidery Grasp
1 Festerhide Boar
1 Briarpack Alpha
1 Hollowhenge Beast
1 Moldgraf Monstrosity
1 Ghoultree
2 Burden of Guilt
1 Silverchase Fox
1 Gather the Townsfolk
1 Chapel Geist
1 Smite the Monstrous
1 Faithless Looting
1 Brimstone Volley
1 Fires of Undeath
1 Pitchburn Devils
1 Rage Thrower
1 Traveler's Amulet
8 Forest
6 Plains
3 Mountain

I was not ecstatic about the deck, but I certainly felt like I had a shot. And with a little help from lady luck I found myself with an 8-1 record sitting in 19th place on the way to day 2.

Rather than give the play by play of every round, I'd like to talk about a few key plays that came up for me on day 1. First of all, Spidery Grasp is insane. I can't express how much utility this card is. Upon my first evaluation, I simply classified this card as a “Giant Growth” and moved on. On day 1, I used Spidery Grasp to blow out my opponents in many ways. First, I used it to untap my creature under Claustrophobia to block an attacker, and swing in the following turn for lethal demanding a chump. Second, I used it to untap a Moldgraf Monstrosity enchanted by a Burden of Guilt to a tapped-out opponent and swing in for 10 with trample. I used it to pump my opponents creatures into Smite the Monstrous range. And of course, I used it on an unblocked creature to “Shock” my opponent for the win.

Innistrad limited is one of the most skill intensive limited formats I have every played. It is very close to constructed in a way. If we were to put “True Limited” and “Constructed” on two opposite ends of a spectrum, Innistrad limited would fall more closely towards constructed.

For this reason, it is very important to have a “game-plan” within your deck. As good as the BREAD scheme is (Bombs, Removal, Evasion, Advantage, Dudes) it is much less relevant to Innistrad than to previous limited formats. You wouldn't start a constructed deck brew by trying to assimilate your deck into the BREAD scheme. It simply wouldn't work. This is because “True Limited” is centered on one idea, that is the idea of card advantage. In contrast, “Constructed” is traditionally centered on tempo.

It is for this reason that a card like Silent Departure can be taken over a Charmbreaker Devils, first pick. Although in traditional limited the card advantage provided by Charmbreaker Devils would be too overwhelming to pass up, the speed of Innistrad limited calls for tempo over card advantage.

Let me put it another way: turn 1 Llanowar Elf (Avacyn's Pilgrim) is better than it's ever been.

After some techy plays involving Faithless Looting, Moldgraf Monstrosity, and Smite the Monstrous, I found myself heading into day 2 with Caleb Chambers, Kale-Satta and Ryan Bemrose.

Day 2 I felt much more confidant about. I really feel like I have figured this draft format out. My advice is really to try and stick to black, white, and red. They have the most synergy and splashability between Burning Oil, Fires of Undeath, and Lingering Souls. The decks that I am really looking to draft in this format are any combination of the previously mentioned three colors with lots of humans and sac outlets. This is the best archetype for 3 reasons:

1) Many of the cards that you are looking to have in your deck can come very late, as they are not too important for any other decks. These are cards such as:

Elder Cathar
Selfless Cathar
Skirsdag Flayer
Avacyn's Collar
Thraben Sentry
Wakedancer
Gather the Townsfolk
Unruly Mob
Village Cannibals
Falkenrath Torturer
Galvanic Juggernaut
Altar'sReap
Undying Evil
Skirsdag Cultist
Fling
Break of Day
Rally the Peasants

2) The deck hinges around a common theme. All of the cards work well together, and while the power level of no single card alone is very overwhelming, there are many plays that can help to out tempo the opponent.

3) If your opponent makes a play mistake, they will lose. I cannot emphasize this last point enough. In most games of limited, there are very few defining plays to a game. Maybe you forgot to play around Village Bellringer and lost, maybe you got 2-for-1'ed and that cost you the game; when playing with a deck like this however, your opponent is faced with a difficult decision every single turn. Their removal is blanked due to your excessive amount of sac outlets, and they must leave back an excessive amount of blockers every turn due to the fact that half of your creatures are “pseudo-Archbound Ravengers.”

I sat down for my first draft pod, and two seats down was LSV. I was very excited! Although I never got to play him, I'm sure I will sometime in the future. I first picked a Lingering Souls, got passed two Gather the Townsfolks, and soon enough the deck was made.

I sailed through my first draft pod off the back of a Manor Gargoyle and a Heavy Mattock.

I actually had a very awkward game playing against UB Zombies in this pod. My opponent began the match with a game loss for a misregistered deck, but by the fourth turn it was very clear why my opponent had won his first round. I was at 17 life staring down a Walking Corpse, a Diregraf Goul and a pair of Diregraf Captains, I was very far behind. I untapped with every intent of conceding, but a Lingering Souls with flash back meant that the Rally the Peasants in my hand would be lethal on my following turn. On my opponents next turn he attacked me down to 3 exhausting all his resources, but this allowed me to untap and 20 him.

I found this game interesting for a couple of reasons. The first, is that I feel like I did not deserve to win. I had kept a slow hand, but I got very lucky and somehow won. The second is that I wondered what I would have done had I been in my opponent's seat.

Recently I realized how to put the following idea into words: The further you are ahead, the more spells you can afford to play around. This means that when you are very far behind, you should play around very little, and when you are very far ahead, you should play around everything you can think of. If you had to mulligan to 5, and your opponent has a very strong deck, then it isn't vital that you play around Blasphemous Act. Inversely, if your deck is much better than your opponents, there is no reason to play all of your creatures out into his 7 untapped red mana and just cross your fingers; it's the only way you can actually lose!

Now, If I had 2 Diregraf Captains, a Diregraf Ghoul, and a Walking Corpse in play, and I am at 20 life, I would feel very confidant about my position. I would be playing around everything! I might even Claustrophobia a Spirit token to play around Rally the Peasants.

Anyways, I managed to 3-0 the pod without much effort.

11-1

For my second pod, I forced the same archetype. After opening a Fiend of the Shadows, and getting passed two Gather the Townsfolk (people really underestimate this card!) I felt even more confidant.

I drew with my thirteenth round opponent, Craig Wescoe.

My fourteenth round opponent was unfortunately disqualified from the tournament. I intentionally drew in the fifteenth round and soon enough found myself in my first ever Grand Prix Top 8!

My Top 8 draft did not go so well. I knew that I wanted to be in white, black or red. The problem was that the only first-pickable card in my pack was Briarpack Alpha. Naturally I took it. The next pack brought me a Death's Caress followed by a Wild Hunger. Soon enough I found myself in a Jund deck lacking synergy or bombs.

It was about the middle of pack 2 that I realized that I was in the wrong colors. There were heaps of blue and white cards coming to me, with minimal playables in my colors. I had to make a decision: do I keep taking mediocre Jund cards, or do I switch colors? I decided to stick with Jund. My reasons for this was that pack 3 should theoretically bring me some action, due to the fact that the guy to my right wasn't seeing much besides blue and white cards either.

In pack three, I opened a Snapcaster Mage, an Invisible Stalker, and a Butcher's Cleaver. “Saucy pack!” I thought.

I took a Darkthicket Wolf.

Knowing that the power level of my deck was much lower than that of the rest of the tables, I decided that I would try to pick up more aggressive creatures, and simply try to “win first”. This is another interesting topic to bring up. It in some ways is related to the previous discussion about playing around fewer cards when you are far behind. The real reason that you don't play around cards when you are very far behind is that you cannot win if your opponent has them. Some times, if your opponent has a Wrath of God, it does not matter how hard you play around it, you are still going to lose. In cases like this, it is proper to play as if your opponent does not have Wrath of God. (Why play around a card you cannot possibly beat?)

The same reasons listed above apply on a much smaller scale: a bad limited deck. With a bad limited deck, it is important to try and win quickly. This is because if the game goes long, they will have more time to assemble their superior strategy and draw their better cards. If you cannot beat your opponent's good cards once they resolve, they to beat your opponent's good cards before they resolve.

The Top 8 deck lists can be found here.

The Top 8 was not very eventful for me. Game 1 I just played lands and then died. Game 2 I didn't play lands and died. Gotta love limited.

Apart from my punt in the Top 8, I was very happy with my results. Also, I would certainly suggest trying out the BWR human decks if you haven't already, the archetype is very powerful and with the right cards it can be unstoppable.

Lingering Souls in Modern

Speaking of Lingering Souls, check out this deck I used to close a local PTQ.

BW Tokens by Henry Romero Finished 1st Place at 2012 PTQ Barcelona - Portland, OR - 2/18 Main Deck Sideboard 2 Hero of Bladehold 4 Tidehollow Sculler Creatures [6] 3 Ajani Goldmane Planeswalkers [3] 4 Honor of the Pure 4 Inquisition of Kozilek 2 Intangible Virtue 4 Lingering Souls 4 Path to Exile 4 Raise the Alarm 2 Smother 4 Spectral Procession Spells [28] 3 Arid Mesa 2 Godless Shrine 3 Isolated Chapel 4 Marsh Flats 2 Mutavault 4 Plains 1 Swamp 4 Windbrisk Heights Lands [23] Deck Total [60] 3 Disenchant 3 Duress 1 Kataki, War's Wage 3 Kitchen Finks 1 Kor Firewalker 2 Relic of Progenitus 2 Slaughter Pact Sideboard [15] View a Sample Hand! Solitaire this Deck! Click for full deck stats & notes!

I brewed this deck up with a good friend of mine Marcus Furr and team Boom // Bust. The idea sprouted when we were searching through old standard decks and is modeled after LSV's BW Tokens list from Pro Tour Kyoto. The deck is very powerful, and although it looks fairly straight forward, there are a number of tricky plays that come up that are important to anticipate.

First, with Windbrisk Heights. You almost always want to put an Anthem effect under this land. The reason for this is that if you are attacking with 3 or more creatures, you really aren't worried about trying to get more creatures, you simply want them bigger. That said, different matchups call for different things.

Against a quick, creature-based aggro deck like Boros or affinity, sometimes more tokens is optimal. Against a combo-deck like Storm or Twin, it is often that a Relic of Progenitus of a Duress is more important than an Anthem.

Hero of Bladehold is an allstar in this deck. On its own, a Hero can activate Windbrisk Heights. Hero was actually the last addition to the deck. In testing, we originally had 2 Kitchen Finks in this slot, but we kept finding Kitchen Finks very mediocre in many matchups, and we wanted another card that could really just win the game. Hero fills this role perfectly.

One of the strongest aspects to this deck is the amount of disruption this deck offers. With 14 main-deck disruption spells, and access to even more out of the board, this deck has very little problems against any sort of deck that has a linear attack plan, or minimal answers to a steady stream of tokens.

If I were to play this deck again, the only changes I would recommend are in the side board. I would cut one Kitaki War's Wage for one more Relic of Progenitus. I would do this because the Affinity matchup is already so good, and because of the rising popularity of graveyard-based decks such as Aggro Loam.

The Matchups

Affinity
Like I said above, the Affinity matchups is very easy. It generally comes down to them trading their Signal Pests and Memnites for spirit tokens and inevitably getting ground out by our resilience and card advantage. The games you lose are the ones which they are able to deal 10+ points of burn directly. Raise the Alarm is generally underwhelming because most of their guys have evasion, and Ajani is fine but not excellent.

+ 3 Disenchant
+1 Kitchen Finks

-3 Raise the Alarm
-1 Ajani Goldmane

UW Tron
This is probably the hardest/worst matchup, but I have played it a ton and it has become quite trivial. Always take their Gifts, and try to play as aggressively as possible. The games that we win are the ones that we chain a couple hand disruption spells, and resolve a token generator. Removal is generally pretty terrible in this matchup. Raise the Alarm is a very important card in this matchup because it is instant speed. This allows both playing around Wrath effects and baiting Remands.

-2 Smother
-4 Path to Exile
-1 Ajani Goldmane

+3 Disenchant
+3 Duress
+1 Kitchen Finks

Storm
This matchup is extremely linear. The only thing that really matters is disrupting them (since they won't do much to disrupt you). The games that we win are the ones where we resolve either a Relic or chain a couple hand disruption spells, and follow it up with a couple tokens. The games that I have lost are the ones where I kept a quick hand without much removal with the intention of racing. Do not try to race combo decks with this deck. You will lose every time. One of the best parts about this deck is its ability to transform from an aggressive deck in some matchups to a control deck in others. In this matchup, we are the control deck.

-2 Smother
-4 Path to Exile
-3 Ajani Goldmane

+3 Relic of Progenitus
+3 Disenchant
+3 Duress

Splinter Twin
This matchup can be very swingy. Similar to storm, it all comes down to disruption, only this time we have much more of it. Raise the Alarm is very important in this matchup because it allows us to leave up mana to prevent their combo, and something to do with our mana if they decide not to go off.

-3 Ajani Goldmane
-2 Hero of Bladehold

+2 Slaughter Pact
+3 Duress

Jund Loam
To be honest, I've played this matchup only a handful of times, and it wasn't even existent at the time of my PTQ. From what I can tell, the matchup is very favorable for us. If we resolve even a single Anthem effect, their Flame Jab becomes very mediocre, with the second Anthem shutting down their Seismic Assault; we can win without much contention. Smothers should be left in to deal with Tarmogoyf and Bob, but too much removal is never a good thing in this matchup. We also leave in inquisition because it hits Seismic Assault and any Pyroclasm effects that they could be boarding in.

-4 Path to Exile

+3 Relic of Progenitus
+1 Kor Firewalker

Overall, the deck is very fun, and one I would certainly recommend. It has a couple of matchups that it can almost never lose (aggro in general) as well as having a very favorable matchup against most of the field. I would not recommend this deck in a very Tron-filled metagame, but it looks like that deck has been dying down quite a bit. If anyone has a PTQ left, or is just looking for a deck to run through a smaller modern event I would certainly recommend trying out this deck.

Thanks for reading,
Henry