Adam Yurchick
1/1/2013 10:00:00 AM
Hello World! If you're reading this, that means we made it through 2012 and onto 2013! While we gamers know that nothing has really changed with the calendar (except perhaps the weather), New Year's festivities celebrate the health and success of the past year while setting the stage for a grand year ahead.

The New Year creates a natural period of reflection; we recall memories of the past year while looking towards the future. Ideally we look at ourselves honestly, learn from our successes and mistakes alike, and therefore grow older and wiser each year. As Magic players we often have a lot to remember about our beloved game. An entire year is plenty of time for a whole lot of games...We remember the friends, the travel, the cards themselves.

Players look back on their tournament results from the past year. I look back fondly on the decks that I did well with, and always try to learn from them and replicate their strategies in future decks. This past February I did well in a Legacy Grand Prix with a UW Stoneforge Mystic / Jace, the Mind Sculptor deck. I knew the ins and the outs well. I had practice in the SCG Invitational Legacy portion (4-0) and a SCG Open the next day (4-0, 0-3). I had also been playing with various Uw fish decks in Standard for the past year, which included Stoneforge Mystic and Jace, the Mind Sculptor before they got banned. Knowing the general deck and strategy well meant it was a natural choice for me. I tend to do well when I am very familiar with a deck because it makes everything else go smoothly. I mulligan better, maintain a better grasp of what's going on in games, and make decisions more efficiently. My natural ease in piloting the deck paired with my strong knowledge of the Legacy format (I'm nostalgic for the old cards) allowed me to comfortably outplay opponents the majority of the tournament. It reinforced the fact that investing time into the right deck pays huge dividends in future tournaments.

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I learn from tournament failures, whether it be from choosing the wrong deck or making a blunder in the critical moment. In May I headed to Barcelona for Pro Tour Dark Ascension. I didn't put in much constructed preparation before arriving, so I put all my faith in my team. Alex Hayne had spent the previous month on a cruise ship crafting the perfect UW Miracle deck. After seeing it in action most of the team, myself included, were on board. I put in games, but not nearly enough necessary to expertly pilot such a complex, difficult deck that completely ignores many of the basic tenets of Magic and plays completely uninformatively. I got COMPLETELY crushed in the tournament, with my worst ever start in a Pro Tour, and Alex Hayne won the tournament. Congrats! Had I been more thorough in my investigation of the format, I would have realized that playing any variety of the possible Green decks that dominated the tournament would have been a much, much wiser choice. Those decks would have been much more intuitive to pilot and played much more to my strengths and limited time frame. Given my strong grasp on the limited format and strong tournament mindset, I imagine I would have done quite well in that event had I piloted Green deck. If I chose a green deck early on I also would have been a strong test partner for the team and a great teaching tool for opposing UW miracle players. I thought picking a UW control deck was choosing what I knew, but in reality it was a completely different being, and playing a traditional green aggressive creature deck would have hit my wheelhouse.

Most recently I have Grand Prix Indianapolis to look back on. It was my first big live event in quite some time, so I was having the time of my life just being at a Magic tournament. I was excited just walking in the hall and seeing friends I had not seen in a while. A special shout out to Brandon Burton (sandydogmtg) who was literally the first person I saw when I went through the double doors. Our chat got me feeling good and ready to crack my sealed. Speaking of sealed deck, I had a sleep-in special, so I got to arrive at noon and build a pool that had been preregistered by judges. Props to Pastimes for a very nice and smooth process, and to the judges for registering them all perfectly to my knowledge. On the other hand, slops for not having enough product registered, the were short some amount and some players had to wait for product to be emergency registered. I guess I'm partially to blame for that, as I registered the sleep in at zero hour the night before online, minutes before the cutoff. I was on two byes, so I raised my hand and got in on the first batch of sealed decks handed out so I'd be sure to make round 3.

My sealed pool was featured in the coverage, so check it out here and see what you would do...

Share your build and the logic behind your choices in the comments section!

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This little article explains my own thought process behind the build.

A quick run through my pool showed solid cards, but was lacking anything I'd solidly classify as an atom bomb. When I saw the three Auger Sprees, I was pretty much set on what I'd be playing. I spent time looking things over and seeing what Rakdos options I had, which included a solid looking BGR deck on the table. It was light on two drops and creatures overall, both of which I value really highly in this format, so I ended up staying away, but other players have different opinions on that. The BGR deck had plenty of removal and would have been pretty powerful, but it did not seem optimal. There was also a pretty reasonable Selesnya base deck abusing Grove of the Guardian, splashing into Azorius or Golgari or both. I laid these out and they did not seem like the place to be for my initial deck. During the time of my byes I shared my deck with many people and had them look at the possible Selesnya build for games two and three, but most liked my BR approach better overall. When it came down to it, I think the lack of removal in GW made me steer clear of Grove of the Guardian. I did note it as an option against opposing GW decks where a wealth of creatures, not removal, would be optimal.

The straight BR Rakdos deck I laid out was just too perfect for me to stay away. It had a perfect creature curve, great removal, and good support spells featuring Thoughtflare on the splash. It was a great aggressive deck that would punish sloppy sealed builds, sloppy keeps, and sloppy play. It was also perfectly suited to the control role with a great removal suite and some solid card advantage. I decided early on I was going to play Electrickery. I figured I wanted an extra out to Pack Rat, and the card just kills so many things. It can create card advantage and works as a combat trick in some situations.

Aggressive as I was, I still would mostly be choosing to draw first as I think the extra card is just so important and makes the mulligan much less painful. More than that, I just don't want my opponent to have that luxury, as my aggressive deck can punish a stumbling opponent very well. I also knew I wanted 18 lands. I wanted to be sure to hit my land drops and curve out, because if my deck started with an aggressive draw, most opponents would not be able to deal with it. My deck completely lacked game ending bombs, so I had to get aggressive and end games before opponents could play theirs. My removal could get me out of some spots, but I was pretty weak to any Planeswalker or creatures with toughness greater than four. My 22nd card was going to be Inspiration, but in the last moments of my deck building time I decided a creature count of 13 was too low, and that Voidwielder was just better. I sure am happy I made that switch. In hindsight it is obvious, as Voidwielder is just a really great card and a much better splash than a draw two, especially seeing as Voidwielder is essentially card advantage anyways, plus a tempo boost. It won me tons of games all day, and I never sided Inspiration in. Rakdos was efficient and awesome against everybody and I was never really temped to switch into anything else all day.

Round 3 came, and…Adam Yurchick vs. BYE ! I was conservative in thinking I had two byes, as apparently my pro level status garnered me three. I was pretty stoked that I did not have to play and was still sitting on the 3 byes I've grown accustomed to. A free win was awesome and gave me time to relax and chat with some good people. I was in great mental state throughout the day and played good, solid Magic against everybody. I used my experience to sculpt the development of games and used my cards optimally. One thing I was paying particular importance to was the judicious use of my removal. My removal was a selling point of the deck and I was heavily reliant on it to win games. I knew that blowing it on the wrong target in search of immediate gain would often be a blunder, no matter how tempting it was. I saved my Auger Spree for critical moments, once relying on two to kill a large Chaos Imps. I even found myself winning games with Auger Spree in hand! There was one particular game where I had an opportunity to use Auger Spree and did not, only to take 10 damage from a Cobblebrute paired with Rogue's Passage, which put me into a very perilous position. I pulled that game out, but I lost another earlier where I turned down using Auger Spree on curve turn 3, playing nothing instead, and ended up losing the tempo war and never being able to recover. Using removal judiciously led me to success, but clearly I need to think even more deeply and think about racing math, and also not miss opportunities to use removal when the tempo gain is too important to pass up.

This was my sealed feature match for Round 6.

After my 9 (6) rounds of play I found myself at 9-0. I certainly got lucky throughout the day to be where I was, and I was also fortunate to not play against any of the more offensive cards in the set. I did fall to Gau's Pack Rat, but he only drew it once. There were no Collective Blessing, no Armada Wurm, no Planeswalkers across the table. I avoided Mizzium Mortars too, but I bested my round 9 opponent whose deck featured two Supreme Verdict and an Angel of Serenity.

I knew my deck was capable of beating anybody and putting up that perfect result, so I built it to make that happen and made it happen. I often study the X-0 decks of limited Grand Prix in search of patterns, and what I most notice is that often the decks look unspectacular except for their consistency and aggressive nature. Multiple opponents and railbirds commented that my deck looked like a draft deck, and it was that feature which drew me so strongly to it. While opposing decks may have been more powerful and held more inevitability, my deck was operating on a different set of rules, namely that of brutal consistency. I avoided too many mulligans, and when I did my draws were just as fine as any. I had relatively smooth draws all day long and had a nice mix of spells and lands. My 18 land deck without many ways to sink mana got flooded sometimes, but I got full value from my cards because they were always helping me win; my game plan was the same every game, and all my cards helped that end. I played well, got lucky, and put myself into great position for the second day.

I was eager to get drafting and put my experience to use. I told myself that morning I'd be looking to go into Green by default as I think it's the best color and sets me up for optimally Selesyna, or alternatively a Golgari base deck. In the first draft I opened Teleportal and pretty much stayed that path the entire time. My draft was featured, so check it out here.

I liked my deck but in the end it just did not get there. My first win was grueling, also covered here.

I did not even get to play Magic against Fennel, and just got rolled, in a match that was also covered here.

I could have mulled in game 2 to an out for Pat Rack, but that just seems silly as my hand was strong. I even put myself in a position to win through his turn 2 Pack Rat and would have done so exactly had I'd drawn a Teleportal.

My match three against Ben Stark was awesome and also very close, but my luck ran out. I got him real good game 1 with a Street Spasm in combat to kill his creature getting Giant Growth'ed and another. I thought I had game two in the bag with a good start followed by bombs, but he had other plans. My Chaos Imps were met with Aerial Predation, and Carnival Hellsteed with Selesyna Charm, and his creatures rolled me. In game 3 I made a keep on 6 with two lands and excellent three drops, including two removal spells, but I did not hit my third land until too late and fell to his great draw. It was a sucky way to go out but that is how it goes.

In draft two I put together a more aggressive UR deck also featuring Teleportal. I think it was honestly worse than the first deck, but it performed. It drew consistently against my first opponent, who stumbled on mana on game, and I ended the match quite quickly.

Next I was up against Utter-Leyton for all the marbles in another featured match here.

I've never played him in a sanctioned match, certainly not a feature match playing for Top 8, so it was a cool experience. He is a world class competitor and someone to learn from. I paid special attention to his body language in an attempt to glean information from the highly robotic player. His face in game one revealed he did not like his hand and was light on action, but I did not do much to punish this. As game 1 went on I started to not play optimally and was punished for it, but I got there in the end by playing more spells. I shook it off for the rest of the match and kept my focus. Had I lost game one, winning the match would have been quite difficult mentally and for my deck in this weak matchup. In game two I pretty much just got rolled. Before game three I was thinking and had the idea that Izzet Keyrune would be a good one to bring in. It would help accelerate me to my higher impact cards, including Hypersonic Dragon, which was my best card against his GW Centaur deck. I looked at my 7, and it featured Hypersonic Dragon, Izzet Keyrune, and Annihilating Fire, which is another great card against him. It only had two lands, an Island and a Mountain, but it put me in position to win the game just I as planned. I hit a land, followed by another two turns later, and I won the game pretty handily by always having action.

I drew with Chris Fennel in the final round, and I was in the Top 8. My position in the draft was incredible, with the less experienced players Tyler Lytle and Brian Demars to my right feeding me, and limited guru Ben Stark and THE LSV to my left. I would have control over the best two players in the top 8 and could really set myself up to win the draft. I even started on Pack Rat and was in a downright enviable position for anybody. At that point I should have taken note that Pack Rat is optimal in a Golgari deck, which features cards like Grisly Salvage to find it and Scavenge creatures to discard. My second pack featured the Gatecreeper Vine which I will always regret. I should have taken that, went into green, and would have ended on a really powerful GWB deck that I prefer in this format anyways. Instead I ended up on the aggressive red route I had been on all weekend. My resulting Rakdos deck was quite, quite good, but the bottom line is that I could have had any great deck in my position and let the best one slip by me. I fell in the quarterfinals, again to Chris Fennel and his great GWB deck. In game two I went all-in on a Rakdos Cackler with Deviant Glee and Pursuit of Flight backed by Auger Spree, but his draw featured Selesnya Charm, Arrest, Vraska, the Unseen, so it did not go so well. Ben Stark, directly to my left, built a solid GB deck and handily won the tournament with a 2-0, 2-0, 2-0 record.

The tournament was a success and a great time for me, a good end to the year. Still, it leaves me yearning for more success and more importantly more self-improvement as a Magic player and a person. I look forward to a great 2013 and look forward to writing even better articles and sharing more of my Magical experience. Let me know what you want to see and I will do it! I will be back to doing some more video features in 2013, including Standard matchup videos with one Frank Lepore! That's going to be a hoot, be warned, so stay tuned!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Adam Yurchick