Decklist (WARNING: link contains spoilers)

Day 1

2 byes because life is grand.

Round 3-Mirror (2-0)

Game 1

After Thoughtseizeing him on turn 1, no offense to my opponent, but I could tell he didn’t know what he was doing with this deck. He kept a hand of 5 land (none of which cycled), Thoughtseize, and Fatal push. This is not a 7 card hand vs. any deck. Anyway I resolve a Jace, Wielder of Mysteries and am able to easily win.

Game 2

He casts an Inverter of Truth with 6 cards in the yard into Jace, Wielder of Mysteries and Ipnu Rivulet on the table. So, uh yeah, I won.

Round 4-Underworld Breach (3-0)

Game 1

He goes off and I sit and look at my hand of 3 Fatal Push and 1 Hero’s Downfall and giggle.

Game 2

Game 3

He draws land, land, and more land. I take my sweet time comboing him.

Round 5 – Mirror #2 (4-0)

Game 1

I get my Jace, Wielder of Mysteries on first.

Game 2

We spend our turns ripping each others hands apart, but I get these innocuous Thassa’s Oracles in play and literally go the distance with the rarely seen Thassa’s Oracle beat down plan. #acheivementunlocked.

Round 6-BUG Delirium (5-0)

Game 1

He gets back Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath and Thoughtseizes my pants off.

Game 2

Turn 0 Leyline of the Void luckily for me. Thief of Sanity puts in work stealing a Nissa, Who Shakes the World and Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy while all he can do is chump block with his Tireless tracker as I kill and counter his Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath over and over again.

Game 3

Turn 0 Leyline of the Void but I end up just killing him on turn 6 with Inverter of Truth into Thassa’s Oracle when he taps out.

Round 7-Mirror#3 (6-0)

All I have in my tourney notes from this round is that somebody ripped a discard spell vs the other guy to win G2 and that in G3 I ripped/had Ipnu Rivulet to kill him (best 25 cents I ever spent).

Round 8-UG Ramp/Delirium (7-0)

Game 1

Query: What number other than inifinite/equal to your life total is the scariest number to have a Walking Ballista cast against you for? Answer: 0. I play Inverter of Truth, put 3 cards back in the library, have the game over next turn, pass. Opponent untaps, casts Walking Ballista for 0, casts Traverse the Ulvenwald and searches his library for Ipnu Rivulet and decks me. Live by the sword, die by the sword – am I right?

Game 2

I am able to navigate a Scavenging Ooze and countermagic to cast Dig Through Time and set up a win through Ipnu Rivulet, just had to fade him rolling 5 creatures in 8 cards to self mill.

Game 3

I misread my hand as having a Mystical Dispute that isn’t there, woopsy, and proceed to take a card I might not have taken with my Thoughtseize. Ends up not mattering at all. Moral of the story: play the busted deck, not the deck that can’t beat the busted deck everybody is playing.

Round 9-Underworld Breach (8-0)

Game 1

I’m a turn too slow and might have been able to win on the play.

Game 2

He keeps 2 land, one of which is Lotus Field and doesn’t draw a 3rd land until it’s way too late and I get to play around everything.

Game 3

I think I goofed and kept a hand that wasn’t nearly good enough. I kept a not combo hand that interacted a little but not nearly enough. Should have mulled.



8-1 not too shabby.

Day 2

Round 10-UR Ensoul Artifact

Game 1

He puts me in the ground.

Game 2

He floods.

Game 3

He does an interesting play of trying to never attack into my Thassa’s Oracle so that I can’t play inverter to get it back. There are worlds where this line works out but I kinda doubt that this is one of them. Rule of thumb for me personally: don’t play a deck that makes 5/5s and then not attack with them.

Round 11-BUG Delerium (9-1)

Game 1

I Thoughtseize him and Fatal Push his Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy and he does a whole lot of nothing/floods on removal.

Game 2

He leylines me and then we come to the part of the deck I hate where I have to go for it where if he has a reponse I die. That is definitely, for me at least, the worst part of playing this deck. Having to go for lines where if your opponent draws thoughtseize, rivulet, etc… ya donezo. Anyway, moral of the story is he didn’t, I should worry less, and now I’m pretty sure I’ve moved up the schedule of my heart attack from age 78 to age 77.6. Worth it.

Round 12-UR Ensoul Artifact (10-1)

Game 1

If I didn’t have a tap land for my 4th land I win, but I do, soooo, poop.

Game 2

Game 3

I mull to 5, have 3 passages, and get bowled.

Round 13-BUG Inverter (10-2)

Game 1

He has 2 push and 2 erebos’s intervention, otherwise known as napkins in this scenario, and I easily smoke him.

Game 2

He plays inverter with 3 cards in graveyard I have a Thief in play and hero’s downfall on his 1 blocker and deck him the other way.

Round 14-RDW (11-2)

So this is where paying attention goes along way. In the final round of day 1 my round 14 opponent was in the “feature match” area and I overheard him talking to Frank Karsten after the round saying how he beat the mono r mirror.

Game 1

So when I face against him and see a hand of 3 land, 3 push and an inverter #letsgo! I cast a personal record 5 Fatal Push in one game. #alltheacheivements

Game 2

I end up taking an interesting line where I find myself with a kalitas in play and a languish and a little bit of other biz in hand vs. a board of 4 tapped mountain 1, untapped ramunap ruins, a bomat (with 2 cards underneath) an attacking hazoret, 0 cards in hand and 2 1-drop critters exiled via light up the stage. As I saw it, I had 2 lines: block 5 go to 11 languish his board and have 5 cards vs nothing or take 5 go to 3 attack with kalitas(cause i’m doubting he’s blocking) he goes to 6 and languish and give myself 6 power and him being on a 3 turn clock. I gambled went for the latter and ended up killing him 3 turns later.

Round 15-Mirror #4 (12-2)

Here’s where we get frisky. On paper I have to play this match to get into top 8, but my opponent notices that we can pretty safely draw into the top 8 – him being very safe and he points out that one of the matches that I assumed had drawn was actually playing. So, after some discussion while shuffling, I decide to take my opponent up on his offer and intentionally draw and cross my fingers that I am not gonna feel like a silly goose in an hour’s time.

As they announced the top 8 players I noted that one player with my record had not made the top 8. While uncomfortable, I think this might be the best kind of work out because in those 40 seconds it took for them to announce if I had made it into the top 8 or not I’m pretty sure I sweated out all the calories I had eaten that whole weekend. #notasillygoose

TOP 8!

Quarterfinals- Mirror #5

Game 1

We both keep our seven’s. He goes tapped land. I thoughtseize taking his thoughtseize leaving him with languish, inverter, and some other not great cards. I end up setting up a situation where I cast dig having inverter in hand and going down to 0 cards in graveyard. He casts dig in response and I mystical dispute his dig, tapping him out and I find oracle – gg.

Game 2

He casts Thief of Sanity. I cast Liliana, the Last Hope and start heading towards ultimate while also keeping his Thief at bay. He sets up an Inverter loop by playing one with one in his graveyard. The only problem is I’m able to use dispersal (#everypartofthebuffalo) to get his inverter out of play and ultimate Liliana to which he conceded.

Semifinals- Mono R splashing eldrazi

Game 1

I keep a decent but slow hand on the draw vs my friend Ben Weitz. My hand is temple, island, swamp, inverter, oracle, censor, hero’s downfall. It ends up being just a turn too slow. 🙁

Game 2

He misses a land drop or 3 and I crush him with kalitas. Though he does show me that he brought in Thought-Knot Seer.

Game 3

We both mull and I keep fabled passage, watery grave, oracle, inverter, push, discovery//dispersal. Ben leads on turn 1 mutuvault. I draw t1 second oracle and play fabled passage. He goes t2 battlefield forge attack for 2 with mutavault. I fetch for an island. I draw 2nd inverter. I shock watery grave and play oracle and bottom 2 cards. He plays land #3 and plays fercocidon. I draw 2nd push, play discovery and see ipnu and 2nd passage, top top, play ipnu for turn. He casts bonecrusher giant and attacks for 3 putting me to 13 but doesn’t play a 4th land. I draw fetch and play inverter setting up for a win next turn. He plays land #4 (ru roh) and plays Thought-Knot seeing my hand of push, push, inverter, and oracle. Obviously he takes the latter. He can’t really attack on this board and passes the turn. I draw fabled passage for turn, attack him for 6 putting him to 12 and play passage (to turn on revolt) and pass turn wanting to double push and then inverter next turn. He had other plans. He attacked me with thought-knot, ferocidon, and giant. I push the thought-knot so I have lethal over 2 turns in the air and drawing a card would make that not possible. I take 2 from the bonecrusher and go to 10 and my oracle goes to the bin and then he gives me the bad news. Second main phase he casts thought-knot #2 taking my second inverter and having 10 power in play so now I can’t attack to try and win over two more turns and my tourney is over. 🙁 There was an alternate line Ben proposed to me after the match saying i could have cast second inverter after cracking passage instead of holding up double push (didn’t think of that) however he showed me that he had me covered with ability of being able to kill his own thought knot with strike and 2nd giant in hand so it didn’t matter.

Even though I didn’t win, or even make the finals of the grand prix, this was one of my favorite weekends of magic I’ve ever played both from a fun perspective and an achievement perspective. I made the top 8 of a GP with a good friend/roommate Max Milechman, check. Lost to a friend who went on to win the tournament with a sweet deck, check. Finally won a match in a GP top 8, check. Qualified for my 5th pro tour, check. Didn’t lose the mirror match the whole weekend, check. I’m not sure if this was the result of being super skilled or super lucky, but either way, I’ll take it.

Sideboard Plan (Quick use it!/ or at least play any version of the deck until they ban it) (Yes it’s that good)



Red Deck Wins

-4 thoughtseize -2 thought erasure -1 jace -1 mystical dispute

+2 kalitas +1 tasigur +1 hero’s downfall +1 languish +1 legion’s end +1 tyrant’s scorn +1 cry

Mono Black

-4 thoughtseize -2 thought erasure -1 jace -1 mystical dispute -1 censor

+2 kalitas +1 tasigur +1 hero’s downfall +1 languish +1 legion’s end +1 tyrant’s scorn +1 cry

+1 jace, vryn’s

Mirror

-4 push -2 censor -1 oracle

+1 thief +1 hero’s +1 tasigur +1 jace, vryn’s +3 mystical

(If you see pack rat/leyline of the void your going to want push/brazen borrower)

UW Control

-4 push -1 oracle -2 censor

+3 mystical +1 tasigur +1 brazen borrower +1 hero’s +1 jace, vryn’s

Breach

-4 push -1 lili -1 hero’s

+1 damping +3 mystical +1 thief +1 jace, vryn’s

BUG Delirium

-2 censor -2 push -2

+1 brazen +1 thief +1 jace, vryn’s +3 mystical

Heliod

-2 censor -1 dig

+1 brazen +1 hero’s

BUG Inverter

-4 push -2 censor (-1 dig if leyline)

+1 thief +3 mystical +1 hero’s +1 jace, vryn’s (+1 brazen if leyline)

Niv2Light

-4 push (-1 ipnu on the draw)

+3 dispute +1 jace, vryn’s (+1 hero’s on the draw)

UR Ensoul Artifact

-2 censor -4 thoughtseize -2 thought erasure -2 jace -1 ipnu on draw/1 discovery//

+2 kalitas +1 legion’s +1 hero’s +1 languish +3 mystical +1 brazen +1 tyrant’s +1 jace, vryn’s

Spirits

-2 erasure -2 censor -1 discovery// -1 dig -1 oracle -2 jace

+3 mystical +1 tyrant’s +1 legion’s +1 languish +2 kalitas +1 jace, vryn’s