#craig wescoe

[cardboard-crack]

[rancidnanersmtg]

Curious about Modern? Craig Wescoe goes over some of the most popular decks in the format hoping to convince readers of hopping into one of the most competitive formats in Magic.

I’ve seen some of the magic duders on tumblr wanting to get into modern but not sure how to start. This article should likely point you in the right direction. 

[island-delver-go]

WMCQ

Only 198 competitors showed up. Unfortunately this includes Craig Wescoe and Fabiano among others. Round 1 should be going up soon

[43percentemo]

Wescoe's deck is so refreshing to watch in play.

So many black borders

[friendlymulligan]

Orzhov Aggro in Born of the Gods

With Craig Wescoe's article coming out just in time for FNM (which I highly recommend reading for anyone interested in the aggro player mindset), I'm seriously debating running his Orzhov Heroic brew for tonight. I'm missing several pieces - including a few of the uncommons and commons and many of the cheap rare playsets - but none of them are particularly expensive and if I can find trades before FNM I may actually end up running this as an experiment.

Barring that, I'll probably make minimal changes to my current Orhzov Weenies deck. Since I still lack Brimaz's, and don't intend to gather any at least for another month when, I believe, the price will drop to around $20, there's not a whole lot of changes to be made. I'll probably run a full playset of Judge's Familiar in replacement of the Dryad Militant's and a single Boros Elite in order to combat the new slew of removal (particularly Drown in Sorrows). Additionally, I'll look and see if Revoke Existence can fit in the sideboard somewhere.

I'll be back with an update post-FNM with a possible analysis of any new format changes and what I ended up running.

[intrepidguardian]

Mile-High Melee Report

Mile High Melee Report 031113

The biggest tournament I've ever been to. Seven rounds of Magic. I was nervous, but excited at the same time. I had been playing around with what kind of deck I wanted to bring in and was trying to figure out how to make Boros Humans really work when I found an article by Craig Wescoe about “Boros Champions”. The list was fascinating because it ran Gideon, who I was decidedly unimpressed by as Gatecrash was released, and Ajani Caller of the Pride, a planeswalker I was familiar with in my G/W Exalted Humans build. You can read his article -here- but suffice to say that as I got a little practice in with it and read and re-read the articles he wrote and watched him play it on TwitchTV, I was starting to pick up on some of the subtleties and why the deck could surprise a lot of people. I made a few minimal changes in the mainboard with some meta choices in the sideboard and ended up with this:

Creatures (26)

4 Champion of the Parish

4 Dryad Militant

4 Elite Inquisitor

2 Knight of Glory

4 Boros Reckoner

2 Silverblade Paladin

4 Restoration Angel

2 Thundermaw Hellkite

Spells (10)

2 Faith's Shield

4 Searing Spear

2 Ajani, Caller of the Pride

2 Gideon, Champion of Justice

Land (24)

11 Plains

3 Mountain

4 Sacred Foundry 4 Clifftop Retreat 2 Slayers' Stronghold

Sideboard

3 Nearheath Pilgrim

2 Rest in Peace

3 Boros Charm

2 Oblivion Ring

2 Frontline Medic

2 Flames of the Firebrand 1 Gideon, Champion of Justice

The big differences from Wescoe's second list in the mainboard are Elite Inquisitors over Precinct Captains. Both do a good job as dual-purposes creatures: they're both 2/2s with first strike for WW and can attack while still being able to defend you or a planeswalker (Vigilance for Elite Inquisitor and leaving behind a 1/1 soldier for the Precinct Captain). After talking it through with a store owner and my teammate Autumn, I came to the conclusion that Elite Inquisitor may serve my deck better because outside of spot removal or a bad combat, Elite Inqusitor will always be able to get in the way of creatures on the ground, while Precinct Captain needs to get through to your opponent to leave behind any sort of defense. Precinct Captain has a lot of value on a empty board if he can just gradually improve board presence and force removal or a wipe from your opponent, but for the purposes of this deck, which is admittedly slower than other builds, I felt like having a more defensive creature would serve the deck better.

And then I put in two Thundermaw Hellkites.

Defense? What?

I liked the initial list, but it didn't seem to have that “oomph” that an “aggressive midrange” deck would want – that one singular threat that could come down and swing a game. It's probably due to me not playing the deck enough, but I questioned how good Restoration Angels and Gideon could be at closing out a game. So instead of the third Ajani and Gideon, I put in a few Thundermaws to act as haymaker cards just on the thought that it would maybe make my topdecks better. Plus, I had visions of pairing it with Silverblade Paladin or using a -3 Ajani on it to really swing a game around. As for the sideboard, I had a general idea of what I wanted to do:

3 Nearheath Pilgrim

2 Rest in Peace

3 Boros Charm

2 Oblivion Ring

2 Frontline Medic

2 Flames of the Firebrand 1 Gideon, Champion of Justice Nearheath Pilgrim and Flames of the Firebrand for aggro matchups, Rest in Peace for anything abusing the graveyard, Frontline Medic for Sphynx's Revelation (or clogged boards in general), and the Boros Charms, O-Rings and the third Gideon for most of my control matchups (I was imagining going up against Wolf Run Bant and wanting O-rings to get Rhox Faithmenders out of the way).

I will qualify everything I just said above with the statement that I am not very good at sideboarding.

Round 1: Naya Blitz 2-1

My first match of the morning was against the fastest aggro deck in Standard right now. My opponent and I talked briefly and he told me that he had been playing since Alpha.

That's not intimidating at all.

I'll admit game one had not played out very well – he did exactly what he wanted to do (Boros Elite => Burning-Tree Emissary => Lighning Mauler) and I did not draw a way to stabilize. Game 2 was a stroke of luck for me because he had to mull to four. Something I realized later talking to other players is that if the deck can't start well, it's hard for it to come back into the game. Meanwhile I was sitting pretty with some lands, a Nearheath Pilgrim, Boros Reckoner, and a Flames of the Firebrand. There was a point where he had a Boros Elite with two Lightning Maulers and I wiped them all out with one Flames and he never came back. Game 3 we both kept seven, but I Searing Spear'd an early Champion of the Parish after having my own Champion backed by two Nearheath Pilgrims and a Boros Reckoner. We swung back and forth for a while, but my life gain put me too far ahead for him to win a race.

1-0 Round 2: American Control (Lucky Charms?) 2-0

I think this was the deck that took second place at Pro Tour Gatecrash, but I didn't see enough of it to really be sure. Game one saw an early Dryad Militant followed up by a Silverblade Paladin and a Restoration Angel. He had a Restoration Angel of his own, but didn't get the charms he needed to win a battle against my Double-striking angel. Game two I got a very aggressive hand: Two Champion of the Parish, a Dryad Militant, Silverblade Paladin, and land. He durdled around because he kept a hand with lands that had to come in tapped and that let me get in some early attacks. I had both Champions, the Dryad Militant, a Silverblade Paladin and a Restoration Angel on the field facing an empty board and four lands. I was nervous because I didn't have a Boros Charm to respond to a Supreme Verdict (Just a Boros Reckoner in hand), but when I passed the turn, he drew, took a look at his hand, and scooped it up.

2-0

Round 3: Naya Blitz 0-2

After my first go-around with Naya Blitz, I thought I had a good matchup against it and for whatever reason, kept a hand with two Searing Spars, a Dryad Militant, a Restoration Angel, and no lands that made red mana. He ran me over pretty fast with one of the deck's quick openings and I never had a chance. Game two was even worse – I had to mull to five and ended up keeping three Plains, an Oblivion Ring, and a Dryad Militant. He had a slow start as well and dropped only a Lightning Mauler. Feeling like I had to be the aggressor, I O-ringed it and swung in. He responded with a Frontline Medic followed up by Domri Rade and had our two creatures fight. I drew a few more land and that was it.

Round 4: Aristocrats 2-0

I'm calling this deck Aristocrats because I saw both lovely ladies with some creatures that love being sacrificed. However, I also saw some value cards that I don't think were in Tom Martell's build, namely Vampire Nighthawk and Bonfire of the Damned. Game one was pretty back and forth: I had a good opening of Champion of the Parish => Elite Inquisitor => Boros Reckoner which put early pressure on her. She responded with a Blind Obedience turn 2 which kept her around because all her spells could be Extorted. She followed that up with a Miracle Bonfire of the Damned that cleared my board, but I was able to follow up with two more Reckoners over the next two turns. She managed to get to mana to cast Lingering Souls two and Extort both times, letting her sit behind some tokens and hopefully stabilize. I managed to draw my Thundermaw, which cleared out the tokens and sent us to game two when she didn't draw anything relevant. In game two, she took a mull to six and got stuck on two lands (Blood Crypt and Dragonskull Summit). Meanwhile I had two Elite Inquisitors backed by Knight of Glory which put pressure on her because she couldn't draw land to answer my threats. Eventually she drew a third land to play a Vampire Nighthawk, but it couldn't block the Inquisitors (protection from vampires) or the Knight of Glory (Protection from black). I followed up the swing for six with a Boros Charm and sealed the game.

3-1

Round 5: Aristocrats 1-2 Game one, the board got clogged pretty fast. I had two Inquisitors, a Restoration Angel and a Knight of Glory against his Cartel Aristocrat, Champion of the Parish, Doomed Traveler, a Spirit Token and a Falkenrath Aristocrat. I still managed to get him to two life while I sat at (what I thought to be) a healthy 13 life. He plays a Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, uses the Emblem, sacs the traveler with Cartel Aristocrat for Pro-white, Tragic Slips my Restoration Angel and swings for 13. Game two I aggro out, curving into Champion, Knight of Glory, Silverblade, and Ajani, Caller of the Pride and he doesn't come back. Game three had another clogged board, but the difference was that he had a Boros Reckoner chipping away at my life total. He plays an Aristocrat and swings with it and the Reckoner and I'm forced to block with Resto and make her indestructible with Boros Charm while he was at eight life. If I topdeck a Thundermaw, I have the mana to play it and I can win. I topdeck a Knight of Glory and extend my hand. Another loss didn't feel good, but it was nice to be talking with an opponent the whole game and we both complimented each other's play, so it was a nice, competitive game.

3-2

Round 6: Naya Midrange 2-0 In the back of my head, I was starting to realize that my chances of making the top 8 were slim. Still, I wanted to finish strong in case I managed to sneak in. Game one against this Naya deck went as well as I could hope – I didn't take damage and had the removal to kill his early threats. He didn't see a white source until turn five, while I was able to play Gideon, Champion of Justice for the first time against him. He tried to put a Loxodon Smiter, then a Boros Reckoner, then a Ghor-Clan Rampager in the way, but he ran out of gas and Gideon beat him down. Wondering if I could do that again, I sided in the third Gideon and some more spot removal as we went to game two. He had to go to six cards and got stuck on two land while I played out Gideon and had a hand full of spot removal. I drew into a Boros Charm and smashed Gideon into his creature when he was 13 life. His next turn, he played Garruk Relentless and made a wolf. I had an O-ring, Searing Spear, and a Boros Charm while he was tapped out, so I speared him, then on my turn O-ringed the token, had Gideon attack as a 5/5, gave him double strike, and took the win.

Round 7: Grixis Control 2-0

This match kind of scared me – I'm an aggro player by nature, so control decks with all their access to field wipes tend to make me cringe a little bit. Game one saw Gideon run rampant for a while before dying to a Snapcaster => Dreadbore play, but I had another Gideon and finished him off the following turn with a burn spell. Game two I had a good white-weenie opening with Dryad Militant, Champion of the Parish, and Knight of Glory. He had a Rolling Temblor for me, but saw no other action because he didn't see a black source and had a hand full of black removal, which he showed me after the game. Gideon came down and ended things relatively quickly.

So I ended the tournament at 5-2 (11-5 if you add up all my wins and losses) which got me into 13th place. I saw the rankings and noticed that had I won one of my losses, I would've had enough points to crack the top eight. It was frustrating, but I wasn't mad at any of my opponents – moreso I was beating myself up a bit for keeping bad hands (Really? Two searing spears with no red mana available? You kidding me?)

Anyway, I had a few takeaways from playing this past weekend.

+ Gideon is a BAWS. No, seriously. Because he's only a creature during your turn and is immune to most destruction or damage-based spot removal, he can be very hard for some decks without certain instant-speed cards to deal with. In that way, he kinda reminds me of Obzedat, Ghost Council. He can still lose out to stronger sorcery-speed removal or just take a few beats to the face from some creatures, but he still feels very strong in this deck.

+ Continuing on about planeswalkers, I almost forgot how good Ajani, Caller of the Pride is. His +1 isn't devastating, but he makes Elite Inquisitor able to profitably swing into a Thragtusk and block the token that comes after. Gideon and anything enjoying an Exalted boost can suddenly hop over opposing blockers and hit to the face for 3-5 double strike. Plus, he's cheap mana-wise and durable, most likely being able to come down with five loyalty. Combined with Gideon, these two planeswalkers are actually adept at handling control decks, something I never thought would be possible without Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. + Restoration Angel is still a fantastic card, even if I can't do all the flicker tricks that Wolf Run Bant or some other decks love to do. Surprise blockers, reassigning a soulbond are all cute tricks, but really she helps promote what I think is a diversion from the typical thought-process for aggro: she encourages you to leave mana up. In a deck that mainboards six instants and four creatures with flash that can side into more, leaving mana up is a great habit to get into because it increases the number of cards your opponent has to think about. Yes, four mana up is likely a Resto, but if there's a red in there, that could be a Searing Spear or a Boros Charm or even just a Faith's Shield. This deck doesn't really beat face the way decks like Naya Blitz do, but in my opinion, it's the combat tricks that push this deck into the competitive realm.

+ I was torn between Elite Inquisitor and Precinct Captain leading up to this weekend, but I am very glad I ended up with Elite Inquisitor. Don't get me wrong, Precinct Captain is a terrific card (and I'll likely be leaning on him more when the Innistrad block rotates out) but as I may have stated earlier, he needs to get “through” to really be effective, and the two decks that do that the best are GW Humans (with Rancor/Selesnya Charm) and UW Humans (with Wingcrafter/Spectral Flight). In this deck, there isn't a card outside of maybe Searing Spear that can get his damage through (Maybe Volcanic Strength, but we'll get to that later). Here, Elite Inquisitor was very good at sitting and slowly poking away at my opponents. Still, Precinct Captain is great with Silverblade Paladin and Ajani, so I'll make sure my playset of Captains is close at hand. -Naya Blitz is a tough matchup. Part of it may be the deck and part of it may be that I'm not accustomed to being the non-aggro player in a given match. Some sideboard adjustments may help, as will more practice against the specific deck. -I think 24 lands was the right number for this deck, but for the wrong reasons. The Thundermaws were not very good – I barely saw them in two games and I found myself wishing I had a cheaper spell that didn't have RR in its cost. -Mulligan decisions and sideboarding are still two weaknesses in my game that I don't feel like I addressed well coming into this tournament. I'm not really sure how I can improve this outside of practice or asking people for advice. Moving forward.

It's been about a week since the Mile-High Melee. I've had some time to mull this deck over, practice some, and talk to a few teammates about adjustments. This is where I'm at right now. Creatures (26)

4 Champion of the Parish

4 Dryad Militant

4 Elite Inquisitor

4 Knight of Glory

4 Boros Reckoner

3 Silverblade Paladin

4 Restoration Angel

Spells (10)

2 Faith's Shield

4 Searing Spear

2 Ajani, Caller of the Pride

2 Gideon, Champion of Justice

Land (23)

11 Plains

2 Mountain

4 Sacred Foundry 4 Clifftop Retreat 2 Slayers' Stronghold

Sideboard

3 Nearheath Pilgrim

2 Rest in Peace

2 Boros Charm

2 Oblivion Ring

2 Flames of the Firebrand 2 Zealous Conscripts 2 Blasphemous Act Mainboard Changes -2 Thundermaw Hellkite -1 Mountain + 2 Knight of Glory +1 Silverblade Paladin Sideboard Changes -2 Frontline Medic -1 Boros Charm -1 Gideon, Champion of Justice +2 Zealous Conscript +2 Blasphemous Act See, this is what I'm talking about when I say “sideboarding is my weakness.” I don't feel great about this sideboard, mostly because my reasoning for the acts and the conscripts seem weak, but after doing a lot of talking and thinking about this (some playtesting too), this is the best I can come up with. -Conscripts against Midrange/Control (mostly to swing games or get value with Restoration Angel) -Blasphemous Acts for a wide range of decks (I think it has application against Naya Human because of how many creatures they want to play). Plus, the off-chance of turning it into a 13- damage burn spell with Boros Reckoner. If you've got any suggestions or comments about the deck, lemme know! I might do a deck-tech on Autumn's Golgari Aggro deck soon, so stay tuned!  

[intrepidguardian]

GW Humans feedback?

So at the last FNM I went to, I went 4-1 against what boiled down to different rehashes of the golgari theme. Saw some zombies, saw some loleth trolls, no big deal. Got my ass kicked by UW control, though. Still, I was fairly satisfied with how I performed. Anyway, here was the list that got me to 4-1. Creatures (27) Champion of the Parish x 4 Doomed Traveler x 4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben x 3 Elite Inquisitor x 2 Serra Avenger x 2 Mayor of Avabruck x 4 Silverblade Paladin x 2 Loxodon Smiter x 2 Sublime Archangel x 2 Sigarda, Host of Herons x 2 Enchantment (6) Rancor x 4 Oblivion Ring x 2 Instant (3)  Selesnya Charm x 3 Lands (24) Plains x 10 Forest x 6 Sunpetal Grove x 4 Cavern of Souls x 2 Gavony Township x 2 Sideboard (15) Knight of Glory x 3 Loyal Cathar x 4 Intrepid Hero x 2  Rest in Peace x 3 Rootborn Defense x 3 It's a new meta, so I guess we all have to be adjusting to it. I saw Craig Wescoe's article about UW Aggro and how it won a tournament in Hartford recently:http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=10759  After reading his article and looking at my unfavorable control matchup, I decided to toy around with my deck and try a new build. This is what I'm thinking of making: Creatures (27) Champion of the Parish x 4 War Falcon x 4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben x 3 Elite Inquisitor x 4 Mayor of Avabruck x 4 Silverblade Paladin x 2 Loxodon Smiter x 2 Sublime Archangel x 2 Sigarda, Host of Herons x 2 Enchantment (6) Rancor x 4 Oblivion Ring x 2 Instant (3)  Selesnya Charm x 3 Lands (24) Plains x 8 Forest x 4 Temple Garden x 4 Sunpetal Grove x 4 Cavern of Souls x 2 Gavony Township x 2 Sideboard (15) Pithing Needle x 3 Knight of Glory x 3 Rest in Peace x 2 Rootborn Defense x 2 Triumph of Ferocity x 2 Garruk Relentless x 2 Sigarda, Host of Herons x 1 Now, here are my questions: -Am I barking up the wrong tree here? I really want to play humans and I think green compliments humans better, but am I just wrong? Should I be bothering with GW if UW is gonna be more competitive overall? (I know that's a meta-dependent question, but I wouldn't mind anyone fielding it.) -Assuming I stick with GW humans, where do you think I should take it from here? I've been thinking about adding things like Champion of Lambholt or Wolfir Silverheart, but even with eight dual-lands, double G and double W in the same deck seems to be asking for trouble and from what I've heard from GW Midrange players, Silverheart is kind of vulnerable.  -What is the big deal with Fiend Hunter? It really seems like a more vulnerable O-ring that doesn't conflict with Thalia. I'm probably missing something and I'm not trying to be arrogant or anything, but I really don't see the appeal. Could someone explain?  -Any other thoughts/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Sorry if that's a lot to... sift through.

[secondmainphase-blog]

Craig Wescoe is one of my favorite pro players because, well, in addition to being really good at Magic, he is a good, reasonable, respectful human being.  This article offers 7 practical exercises for becoming a better Magic player, but rather than focusing solely on strategy and skill, Wescoe also speaks to composure, confidence, and sportsmanship (sportspeopleship? lol no, doesn't work).  I appreciate the way Wescoe sees a Magic player as a person, a whole person, with emotions and reactions and choices.