So, where does the story begin?

I would like to say it was when I qualified for the Invitational at the StarCityGames.com Open in Los Angeles. But that’s not the real beginning.

I would also like to say it was when Jeff qualified for the Invitational at the Legacy Invitational Qualifier in Tucson, since it cemented both of us to go to Indianapolis. Again, that’s not the real beginning.

No, the real story began two weeks before the Invitational. I was preparing to go to a local hip-hop event, but literally minutes before we were about to leave, I have a sudden epiphany that hey, I’m going to an Invitational. While my brother and I had made the trek up to ManaWerx every so often and played at Pop Culture Paradise for Standard and their weekly Legacy events, playing just twice a week was not going to cut it if I’m going to be playing versus people who have won these kind of events before. Also, the Invitational was going to be in Indianapolis. Compared to Phoenix, several major surrounding cities are just hours away: Columbus, Cincinnati, Nashville, Detroit, and others. The competition for this event was going to be much higher than any event I’ve ever played in. With all of the pros raving about the payout of the Invitational in Baltimore just a few months back too, there was no way this was going to be a 150-man Invitational either.

Mind you, I’ve played in exactly zero Grand Prix, one PTQ (which I quickly 0-3’d), and only four SCG Opens prior to the Invitational. While I have managed to cash in every Legacy Open, my idea for testing for these events was jamming approximately 60-70 games on Magic Workstation or Cockatrice and hoping for the best. This wasn’t going to cut it for the Invitational, and realizing this only two weeks before the Invitational sounded like a losing formula. We had to step it up.

So my bright idea? Let’s grind out a couple of Standard events around Phoenix. We had about a week and a half to do so, and not only do we get to play a ton of Magic, we could also try to grind some Planeswalker Points and grab some byes if we decided to play in a Grand Prix later in the year.

I was armed with UW Delver and Jeff was bringing RG Aggro to these events. While the idea was fun, it simply didn’t help. Throughout five or six Standard events, I played against exactly two UW Delver decks. I promptly lost both matches. Given that we were attending the Invitational, I definitely needed to brush up on the mirror match. We changed gears on the Monday and Tuesday before our flight, and we got a couple guys together at Pop Culture Paradise and Manawerx and they helped us out a ton in our playtesting sessions. After these last couple playtesting sessions, I was locked in UW Delver for the Standard portion of the event.

You may have noticed by now that I haven’t talked about Legacy at all. The answer is easy: I didn’t test for Legacy. We simply had no time to playtest Legacy since we needed to learn Standard. I was simply hoping that my experience with Legacy was going to carry me through the Invitational.

Unfortunately, testing can’t prepare you for some things. After arriving in Indianapolis on Thursday, I was feeling a little sick. Maybe it was the crappy, overpriced breakfast burrito at the airport that did it in for me. Maybe it was the two crying babies in the plane that kept me awake on a 6am flight when I should have been sleeping (my brother and I spent the night at the airport playtesting some more, go figure). Either way, the current situation was obviously not ideal. The taxi ride from the airport to the hotel was a depressing feeling. I had felt that I had just spent $600 to travel to an Indianapolis hotel and sleep.

We spent a majority of Thursday looking for a convenience store to grab some things to make me feel better so we lost a lot of testing time at the hotel. We could only sneak in an hour or so of playtesting at the hotel before we were overcome with the urge to sleep. Fortunately I did feel better when I woke up so we were ready to battle.

For those wondering, here are my two Invitational decklists:

UW Delver



RUG Delver



For the most part, my decklists are pretty standard (pun intended). The 3 Geist of Saint Traft/2 Blade Splicer was done because I had a flex slot and I liked the way Geist can steal games but I also liked the way Blade Splicer can grind out games, especially combined with Restoration Angel. What can I say? I wanted the best of both worlds. I was pretty happy with this choice.

The RUG Delver deck has a tiny bit of changes. Gitaxian Probes are used as an easy cantrip, and the Snapcaster Mage replaced a Nimble Mongoose because I anticipated a heavy Sneak Show metagame. Buying back Stifles and Spell Pierces felt better in that sort of metagame than a Nimble Mongoose that is quite weak in the face of a giant demon or a flying spaghetti monster.

The Invitational started at noon (which is a nice change from the Opens, which start at 10am), and after the player’s meeting, the pairings went up. I was paired up versus Jackson, a kid who I learned qualified through an Invitational Qualifier. He was visibly nervous at the beginning of the match. He was on a variant of UW Delver and splashed red for Pillar of Flame and Bonfire of the Damned, which is pretty sweet. I took game one, but he managed to take the match 2-1, now 0-3 lifetime in Delver mirrors. It was close all three games and I was a little disappointed that I couldn’t start off the Invitational with a win. I knew that the winner of the previous Invitational (Max Tietze) had scraped into the Top 8 with a record of 11-5 or close to that, so an early loss wasn’t going to hurt.

My second match paired me up versus Vintage extraordinaire Brian DeMars. I won game one, lost game two, and won game three on the back of a flipped Delver and Spirit tokens. Finally won the mirror! The win, not only against the mirror, but against a relatively known player was a bit of an uplift for me.

My next match began with this sequence: Delver of Secrets, blind flip Ponder, cast Ponder, cast another Delver of Secrets, flip him…yeah, that’s all she wrote. All I saw was a Copperline Gorge and Avacyn’s Pilgrim so I put my opponent on Naya. The next two games were unfortunately in his favor, and he even beat me on a mulligan to five in the deciding match. Admittedly, my seven was pretty weak, and I was surprised with he cast a Birthing Pod. Maybe I shouldn’t have been, but regardless, my inexperience with Standard was definitely shown in this match.

For example, he cast Fiend Hunter, exiling my Restoration Angel. I cast a Phantasmal Image with no other creatures on my side of the board, copying his Fiend Hunter to exile the Fiend Hunter.

See where this is going?

My Angel came back, but since I was forced to target the Phantasmal Image with the Angel, I had to sacrifice the Image to its trigger. This caused his own Fiend Hunter to come back and re-exile my Restoration Angel. A bonehead move, at the Invitational no less.

Luckily I redeemed myself the next round in another UW Delver mirror match. A turn one Gitaxian Probe on my part reveals a keep of triple Restoration Angel, Gut Shot, and three land. Even though I have a Delver of Secrets, I decide to not lay it out turn one, instead choosing to cast a Snapcaster Mage on turn 2 to bait the Gut Shot. He bites and burns the Gut Shot on the Snapcaster Mage and when I blind flip a Vapor Snag off of the Delver, the game is all but over. Game two was much less eventful as I land a Geist of Saint Traft with Sword of Feast and Famine.

So Day 1 of the Standard portion of the Invitational was over, and I was pretty satisfied with my results. 2-2 isn’t much, but considering I had barely lost those two matches and my two wins were versus Delver, I was happy with the result. A 3-1 record in Legacy would put me into Day 2 of the Invitational.

The first round in Legacy has me paired up versus a fellow RUG Delver deck. I manage to take both games rather quickly and move up to 3-2. The next matchup is versus a BUG Tempo deck. It’s pretty similar to the Gerry Thompson BUG lists from awhile back, with Dark Confidant, Tarmogoyf, Hymn to Tourach, and some counterspells. In game one, I mulligan to five, keeping a hand of double Force of Will, double fetch, and Wasteland. I put most of my opponents on Sneak Show in game one unless I know what they are playing, simply because of the talk going into the tournament that “If you’re not playing Griselbrand, you’re doing it wrong.” Of course, I lose to double Tarmogoyf.

Game two is mine because he can’t handle Tarmogoyf’s pressure while being Wastelanded out of the game. He also flips a Jace off of a Dark Confidant. The four damage brings him down to close to lethal and he scoops it up. In game three, he leads off with a turn one Wasteland, pass. This, to me, implied a land-light hand. I saved my Wastelands for his colored mana and I was rewarded with several turns of draw go on his part with no lands in play. With this win, I went to 4-2.

Round seven was a nailbiter. My opponent is on BUG Control and we split the first two games. In game three he begins with what is probably the scariest draw for any deck not running basics. Turn one Entomb Life from the Loam and turn two, Wasteland your land. I manage to topdeck a Tormod’s Crypt to stem the bleeding and let me have some land for a little bit. I manage to deal some damage to him with a Mongoose but he Innocent Bloods it away. Soon, he gets the Wasteland engine going. He tries to Wasteland my fetchland at the end of turn so he can dredge back Wasteland to waste the dual land I grab with the fetch land, but I don’t fall for it. He is clearly surprised when I let my fetchlands go to the graveyard and not fetch. At this point, I had a Volcanic Island in my hand and my remaining two Volcanic Islands in my graveyard. Three Tropical Islands were also in the graveyard, so there is only one dual land left in my deck.

Luckily all of his Jaces have been dredged away, leaving his only win condition as a Creeping Tar Pit. I draw three Wastelands after he Life from the Loams for the Tar Pit. This buys me a ton of time as he is spending his turns dredging back the Tar Pit instead of Wastelands, so I can land in more damage with some creatures. Eventually I get him down to 4 life. A Lightning Bolt from me gets Forced, bringing him down to 3, and I draw another Bolt soon after to finish him off after a long, grindy game and me never having more than 2 land in play.

So at this point I’m in Day 2. I was pretty happy about this, and the next round was pretty relaxing since I knew I was locked in for Day 2. My Round 8 opponent is yet again on BUG Control and we go to game three before I am able to take the match.

I end the day at 6-2 and in 36th place. A 4-0 in Legacy was surprising even to me. Day Two, of course, was going to be much more difficult so I wasn’t sure if I could replicate my results from Day One.

My Round 9 opponent was Alex Hon on Solar Flare, but this match was done in 15 minutes, mainly due to my insane draws. He’s forced to Phantasmal Image my two Geist of Saint Traft, burning a flashed back Unburial Rites. Soon, a flipped Delver and Blade Splicer deal 7 to him, bringing him to 19. He attempts a Terminus, but a Snapcaster flashing back a Mana Leak gives me nine power to take game one. Game two has me casting a turn four Restoration Angel with a turn five Sword of War and Peace and finishing him off in two swings.

Being 7-2 feels pretty sweet, but the feeling wasn’t going to last long. I drop two matches in a row, losing to Christoffer Andersen with Esper Spirits and Todd Anderson with UW Delver (this was a feature match). I made several misplays in each match so I wasn’t in the least surprised in the result. Even so, I had no time to dwell on it as the last round of Standard was up…and it was against the formidable Adam Prosak.

I fight off an army of Blade Splicers in game with thanks to a Sword of War and Peace, which hits him for 9 damage and a Gut Shot finishes him off. In game two, he has a turn two Ratchet Bomb and begins to tick it up. I overload the board with a Blade Splicer and a Phantasmal Image (copying Blade Splicer) to force him to crack the bomb to stop some of the pressure. After the Blade Splicer and Image die, the Golems and some Moorland Haunt Spirits get him down to 7. This pressure forces him to cast a Day of Judgment. I Mana Leak it to tap him out. This leads the way for me to create yet another Spirit via Moorland Haunt and play a sandbagged Sword of War and Peace all the way back from my opening hand to improve my Standard record for Day 2 to 2-2.

So far I had done a good job of replicating my Day 1 performance. Would my Legacy performance do the same? Unfortunately, it does the every opposite. I manage a pathetic 0-3-1 record in Day 2, by far the worst Legacy performance I’ve ever done in recent memory. I was one match win away from cashing in the Invitational. Needless to say, I was a little disappointed with this. However, after I lose the mirror to Canadian Thresh master Ben Wienburg, he informs me that this was the first Invitational he’s ever cashed at, even with the byes he gets attending these events. His comment puts my performance into perspective and makes me feel a little better. Just the fact that I managed to get within one win of cashing in the toughest field I’ve ever played in is probably something I should be proud of—and for my first time in such a field, nonetheless.

After failing to cash in the Invitational, I turned my sights to the Legacy Open. I played RUG Delver (surprise!). It was relatively uneventful so I’ll spare you guys the details. For those who are curious, here were my matchups:

Round 1 – BUG Control (Nicholas Spagnolo) – 2-1

Round 2 – Reanimator – 2-0

Round 3 – RUG Delver – 1-2

Round 4 – Tezzeret (Adam Prosak) – 1-2

Round 5 – Burn – 2-1

Round 6 – Dredge (Ben Wienburg) – 2-1

Round 7 – Maverick – 2-0

Round 8 – UW Miracles – 2-0

Round 9 – UR Delver – ID into Top 32

I got 29th place, good for $100, but best of all, still maintaining my streak of Top 32ing Legacy Opens!

What did I learn over the weekend? Three main points:

Playtesting: Sure, I’ve seen a ton of articles and advice on playtesting, but I never really took it to heart because I’m not a grinder, even in the very light sense of the word. I don’t attend PTQs or even Grand Prix. Furthermore, playtesting is far more than just playing games. You get far more value out of discussing lines of play, which hands to keep, and learning particular matchups than just simply trying to win playtest games.

Variance: I can recall three matches that I lost due to a “lucky” topdeck, and I can recall three matches that I won due to a nut draw. Variance doesn’t seem to rear its ugly head over the course of a four-round Legacy tournament or a weekly Standard event, but in a 16-round tournament, the variance really does come to bite or save you. Variance happens. It’s a part of the game. If it wasn’t for variance, many of us wouldn’t be playing Magic. If you desire to go far in Magic, it’s definitely something you have to learn to deal with.

The generosity of Magic players: Never had I seen so much support for what my brother and I were doing this weekend. People in droves were offering to lend cards, playtest, and all in all, help out with our endeavors this past weekend.

It’ll be a huge list, but thanks to:

Billy Gogol

Kourtney Clatterbuck

Eddie Caudill

Leon Kornacki

JFK

Phimus Pan

Mike Lester

Matt Shaffer

Nathan Cardinell

Joe Veth

Donald Everett

Edwin Young

CJ

Daniel Sharpy

Adam Prosak

If I forgot anyone, I’m sorry. There were simply too many people to name. Without you guys, it would have been impossible to do.

This concludes my lengthy tournament report. Thanks for reading. We’ll see you guys at SCG: Las Vegas!

Jason

@mtgtwin1 on Twitter