Cool Story Bro

This past Saturday, I traversed the Ohio highways in order to compete in the Columbus TCG Player 5k. Players may see 5k and not be impressed with the prize structure enough to make the journey, but the money is only part of the reason to attend TCG Player events like this. The real reason I was motivated to get up at 6 am to make this drive was for the perks of making Top 8.

All of the players that top-eight this event obtain enough points to play in the Max Point Championship at the end of the year. In addition, you are qualified for the new Invitational that will take place this summer. Qualifying for two amazing tournaments in addition to the $5000 prize payout makes these events a priority for me in my Magic schedule. This was evident in the attendance as well as we had 253 players crammed into the Columbus Convention Center for the tournament.

Lately I’ve been playing exclusively with Abzan Aggro and having great success along the way, so I saw no reason to alter my course. After some quick changes, my deck was ready to go. I didn’t want to alter the list too heavily but I did want to fit the full four Hero's Downfall into the main deck because of how important it was to my success at the Pre-PTQ that I won.

After playing the deck with all the Downfalls, I will say that my decision was absolutely correct. There weren’t many times that I didn’t have an answer to what my opponent was doing and that felt great from a very aggressive deck. Many wins come from playing one or two creatures and then backing those up with removal. You can also use some of your removal (Valorous Stance) as a way to protect your threats, which makes this strategy particularly potent.

With my TCG Player points, I got myself two byes. Then I picked up a quick win round three as I curved one, two, three and then two removal spells in game one and Anafenza, the Foremost plus removal for every threat my Abzan Midrange opponent cast.

After that, the tournament went downhill quickly though. In round three, I was paired up against Temur Ascendancy Combo, but it mostly played out like G/R Devotion. None of that really mattered because I mulliganed three times in two games and did not put up much of a fight before he defeated me. He assembled the sick combo of Temur Sabertooth plus Nylea's Disciple in game two, so I would have had to draw very well to defeat him that game anyway.

Round five was an epic adventure through the mirror. Game one was incredible and although I lost, it was a blast. After all, who wouldn’t mind losing to the combination of Feat of Resistance and Become Immense throughout the course of game one against Abzan Aggro? It was awesome and bold of my opponent to be playing these sweet cards in his deck. Those aren’t the things I want to be doing, but they are still sweet.

Game two, I applied too much pressure too quickly and he was unable to keep up. Game three was amazing and I would have liked to see how it ended, but we ran out of time. That’s right, in the Abzan Aggro mirror that usually takes seven minutes per game, ended in a draw.

Round six was exactly what you expect from a Commander deck. Wait. We were playing Standard, so yeah his deck was out there, but it was also a ton of fun to play against. You never knew what he would play next. Some of the cards were typical Sultai Control cards, but then we had the Aetherspouts, Frontier Siege, and to top off the match, Villainous Wealth!

These are cards that you cannot play around and I had to sideboard creatively in the match to even have a chance. His threats were so diverse and even if I found a way around his eclectic removal suit, I still had to deal with the sweet combo of Aetherspouts into Villainous Wealth. This was the only time I wished I had access to Thoughtseize.

So going into round seven, my attitude was not the best. I had just fallen to 3-2-1, which is awful and definitely put me out of contention for Top 8. My friend was still in the running though, so I decided to push onward. I thought about my article from last week too and used my own words to motivate myself.

Rounds seven, eight, and nine my deck started functioning the way I know it can and I took all three matches in two games. I played against Abzan Midrange, U/B Control, and Abzan Aggro to finish out the event. I’m confident in my ability to win all of these matchups and my results show that confidence is justified.

So, at the end of the day, I ended with a record of 6-3-1, 25th place, 10 TCG points, and a $50 consolation prize to help pay for gas. The result was not everything I hoped for, but if things had gone slightly different in the beginning of the day, I believe I could have top-eighted with this list. We will see what happens with Dragons of Tarkir, but as for now, I’m loving my deck where I get to attack with the awesome Warden of the First Tree.

Sieges

Over the course of the TCG event, I heard stories from the floor about all five, you heard me, all five sieges seeing play at the event.

This struck me as quite odd, but the more I thought about it and the more I discussed it with my friends, the more it started making sense. Yes these enchantments are a little clunky, but they are like planeswalkers in a sense because they generate a constant advantage if allowed to be in play for multiple turns. Let’s investigate all of them to see what we’re really working with.

[cardimage cardname='Outpost Siege']

I’ll admit that when I saw this card, I thought it was a bad version of Chandra, Pyromaster. I think we all did. After playing against it a couple times, I thought that it was good enough that we should have a split of both red cards so we could have them in play at the same time.

Now that the format has been evolving through multiple big tournaments, I think we can all agree that the siege is much better than Chandra. The enchantment has been seeing tons of play and it should probably get more spots from other archetypes other than R/W Aggro too. They pair well together because drawing extra cards is never a bad thing.

The second ability comes up often as well. The best way to fight tokens is with cheap sweepers like Drown in Sorrow. If you have a red siege on dragons, you can force your opponent to take tons of damage if they want to kill your guys. Often you can put them in a checkmate position where they can’t block or kill any of your guys lest they die. The red siege is amazing and it will continue to see more and more play. If you have red mana, add this to your deck. That’s how good it is.

[cardimage cardname='Frontier Siege']

The other siege that we know is decent is Frontier Siege. Most often we are seeing the mana mode being used because it generates such a huge advantage for decks that want to reach the mid and late game more quickly. Utilizing this card allows us to legitimately cast Ugin, the Spirit Dragon or Garruk, Apex Predator reliably.

The second mode almost never gets chosen but I have seen it used in combination with Hornet Queen to Plague Wind the opponent. If you want lots of mana as quickly as possible, this is the route you need to go.

[cardimage cardname='Citadel Siege']

Now we’re getting into cards that have not been seen in play at competitive level events. The two modes on Citadel Siege seem at odds with each other. One mode controls the game by tapping down one of your opponent’s creatures. The other mode buffs one creature per turn with two +1/+1 counters.

I thought about trying this card out in an aggressive deck like R/W Aggro or Abzan Aggro, but this is not what I want to be doing on four mana. It’s possible that line of thinking is incorrect and this enchantment is more like Ajani, Caller of the Pride with the upside that you can tap your opponent’s creature instead of making yours bigger. This incremental advantage adds up quickly as well as allows you to break through your opponent’s bigger creatures.

[cardimage cardname='Monastery Siege']

In my Top 10 article, I rated this card highly but we have not seen it much in the metagame. I thought it would primarily be used to fuel the graveyard decks for delve shenanigans, but it did not work out in practice. I do believe it should be seeing play though, but in an archetype that needs protecting rather than fueling.

If we choose dragons and make our opponent pay two more mana each time they want to interact with us, we may be able to assemble a hero to defeat the villain. U/W Heroic seems well poised to use this card. You can still choose the loot mode if you are behind in order to find the pieces you are looking for too.

[cardimage cardname='Palace Siege']

The worse of the sieges was even spotted in play this weekend. It was seen in play from a U/B Control deck that was playing against someone with red cards. The ability to drain two life each turn adds a huge buffer to the control player’s life total. That’s a hard advantage to overcome. Abzan Midrange or Control could use this card also, because it could be used the same way or it could start regrowing its threats against other control decks.

Even the bad sieges seem playable and we need to reevaluate our stance on them. Yes they are enchantments, but that doesn’t automatically make them bad to play in your deck. All five have unique, versatile applications. So, whatever you’re playing, try out some sieges and see what you think. From a financial perspective, I would start getting these as throw-ins on your trades immediately. I could see these all going up some in value. They are great for casual players as well, so start stocking up.

If we are heading to a metagame with even more enchantments than we already have, my argument for maindeck Reclamation Sage gets stronger as well. I’ve loved this card in the format and don’t see myself taking it out until rotation. There are lots of other options for getting rid of enchantments as well, just make sure you are prepared for this type of permanent in your 75.

Tiny Leaders like Cube Draft decks

The hype has finally swallowed me up and dragged me into the new format. At the TCG event I saw some of my friends playing Tiny Leaders. That led myself and my other friends to start talking about the format.

Once I realize how sick Dark Confidant and Inquisition of Kozilek are I started thinking about what I could play alongside them, I quickly dove into building my first decklist throughout the course of the event. I decided on Jund because everyone is trying to do broken things in the format and Jund seems like a great color combination to stop them from accomplishing their gameplan.

This is not your average casual format. Decks in this format, like Elves, can win on turn two or three easily and the rest are playing Legacy staples as well as having pseudo extra cards in hand thanks to your general being castable multiple times.

One of the main motivating factors for me starting to play this format was one realization. Tiny Leaders decks are extremely similar to Cube Draft Decks. If you like Cube Draft, you will probably like Tiny Leaders. It’s more casual competitive than Commander. In fact, most of my deck was taken straight from my cube.

The converted mana cost constraint is also extremely interesting. Sure there are a lot of Legacy staples that you will play against, but there are lots of other cards that are only good because this format exists.

This format is really catching on because it’s another way to use your Legacy-playable cards more often. Danny Brown put together a complete list of all the Commanders for this format. If you have not seen that list yet, here is the link.

The format is fun, so if you have the cards, put a deck together and start playing.

Until next time,
Unleash the Force!

Mike Lanigan
MtgJedi on Twitter
Jedicouncilman23@gmail.com