Pattern Recognition #271 - Slow Grow 4, Part 1

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

16 February 2023

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Good day everyone! My name is berryjon, and I welcome you all to Pattern Recognition, TappedOut's longest running article series. I am something of an Old Fogey and a definite Smart Ass, and I have been around the block quite a few times. My experience is quite broad and deep, and so I use this series to try and bring some of that to you. Be it deck design, card construction, mechanics or in-universe characters and the history of the game. Or whatever happens to catch my attention each week. Which happens far more often than I care to admit. Please, feel free to talk about my subject matter in the comments at the bottom of the page, add suggestions or just plain correct me.

And now it's the time that you (or at least I) have all been waiting for! How my Slow Grow Tournament is going! So, it's time to regale you all with the tales of my games, my ups and my downs, and ... yeah, it's not going so hot. But still, onward and upward as some people say. Who? I have no clue.

WEEK 1

Round 1! FIGHT

I am at a table with Dihada, Binder of Wills, Emmara, Soul of the Accord - one of the Starter Commander decks for helping introduce new players to the format - and Mishra, Eminent One. Play goes in that order, with myself being last. Look, I'm unlucky, OK? This is demonstrable fact.

Anyway, the first turns are pretty smooth. People play lands, and on turn 3, Mishra plays Farid, Enterprising Salvager, and shit, there goes my First Blood point. I drop Mirri on curve, and get ready to mark down the 1 point for Mishra, once the inevitable happens. But turn 4 rolls around, and Dihada drops Captain Lannery Storm! At this point the only player without a creature is Emmara(!) and I'm expecting the hasty Captain to swing at them. So is Emmara, and so is Mishra. Emmara is already reaching for their dice to roll down their life total and I'm reaching for the points sheet to mark it down and Dihada swings!

At me.

Because a 3/3 beats a 2/2 and a 3/2 trades with a 2/2, and Dihada is openly ignoring the player who can't defend themselves for 'the trade'.

I block. Naturally. They collect their Treasure token, but then they tell me that Mirri is dead.

I point to Mirri. "First Strike."

The look of dawning realization on their face? That was, in their words afterwards, and not mine, the first of every single possible misplay they could do. Emmara finally plays their Commander after spending too much time accelerating and thinking that a board presence is for other people, and Mishra does the smart thing and swings at Dihada with Farid, dealing three and taking First Blood.

I Skullclamp Mirri so she's a 4/1 First Striker, and swing back at Dihada, and start accelerating. There's not a lot in this deck, but surprisingly a fair bit of sorcery based fetching. There's an unstable equilibrium going on, but I break through it first when I play Raksha Golden Cub on turn 5, tapping out. Turns out, a T4 Hedron Archive works wonders for getting a Clamp into play and equipping it. Anyway, people don't see him as a threat at the moment, and I'm utterly thankful for the bad decision making process of most people in this store. They will learn, oh yes they will. Even if I have to drag them kicking and screaming into mediocrity.

In fact, I even had to protect the Clamp from Emmara's [[Reclamation Sage by pointing out how Mishra could turn his Artifact Lands into Warforms, and swinging, which he's doing, so why not take out his renewable source of 4/4's and lands in the same action? He buys it!

I hit Dihada again, limiting attacks against me, and now they're at 7 Commander damage. Turn 6, I move the Clamp to Raksha, making Mirri a 5/4 Doublestriker, and Raksha is now a 6/5 Doublestriker with Vigilance. Do you see where this is going? Raise your hands! The table doesn't until I swing again at Dihada, who still doesn't have a board state. They're up to 17 Commander damage.

Dihada's turn rolls around, I have a massive blocker, so they do their thing - and Mortify Raksha. I draw 2, and they put nothing out to stop me. Emmara builds board state, Mishra hits me with Warforms this turn and the turn previous, and no one sees me Clamping Mirri and taking Dihada out on turn 7. Commander Kill! Woo! Minimum 3 points!

Emmara makes an odd play, and casts March of the Multitudes for 8 on their Main Phase, and I have to explain to them that, no, the Soldier token generated by Emmera cannot be used to pay for the Convoke cost on the March. But hey, they have a blocker up should I go swinging!

So I swing at Emmara, thinking them to be the most viable target at this time. Which is true in a way. But they then Condemn Mirri, and I can't recast her this turn. That's not good. They then cast Dictate of Heliod on their turn again (Flash is a thing!) and swing back at be for lethal while my shields are down. Too bad for them I have my own Condemn and Stirring Wildwood, which means I can block one attacker and bounce another one. So I do so, dropping me down to 7 life instead of dead. Time is called, and Mishra swings into my nigh-empty board state, taking me out.

3 points on the round.

Round 2! FIGHT!

In play order, Abaddon the Despoiler is first, I am second, Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa is third and Captain N'ghathrod is fourth. Tapped Lands suck, and my opening is all Tapped lands, but I'm hoping and praying, and I am rewarded! I play a Blossoming Sands on turn 1, and draw an untapped land on turn 2! Woo! Out goes Fleecemane Lion. Ixhel drops a Myr Convert, and.... is that even in the Precon...? Scryfall doesn't show a printing in the Commander set... Oh, never mind. It's not Commander exclusive, it's in ONE, so the printing uses the ONE set symbol and not the Commander version. Crisis averted! For now.

But T3 rolls around and I draw first blood on the good Captain, so that's 2 points minimum. Mirri drops on curve, and starts swinging at Ixhel because fuck poison counters. This will be a theme of the day, but I wind up taking 6 on the crackback, and lose Alms Collector to the stupid Phyrexian.

The Abbadon player is trying politics very hard, and they're working for the most part, though I just wish they spent more time playing the game than talking. Deal making? Sure! Putting the game on hold so you can talk and talk and talk and talk? Not so much. Anyway, Ixhel throws down a Phyresis Outbreak and everyone is at 3 or more Poison counters now. Mirri dies, but hey, this means she'll be cast for the third time next time!

I wind up having enough mana that I can cast Taj-Nar Swordsmith and go grab the Hammer of Nazahn, which gives me an indestructible blocker, rather than putting out Mirri again and risking her dying. I'm in a very precarious position at this point, but Behemoth Sledge comes through in a very tight clutch to give me some lifegain to go with things. But I'm climbing, I haven't won yet.

However, the good Captain is able to close out the game with a 35/35 Nighthowler, which means I'm in last place on life totals. 2 points for me.

Not a great game, but hey, here's hoping Round 3 is better!

Round 3! FIGHT!

This round did not open well. Hand 1 had no lands. Hand 2 has Lands, and then another bad hand. I'm left with a hand of five - 3 Lands, Arahbo, Roar of the World and Leonin Shikari.

The Table is myself, Magnus the Red - that can't be right. That deck is . How can it be the Commander? No, wait, it's Magus Lucea Kane. Much better. The actual 40K Demon deck is next with Be'Lakor, the Dark Master, and Shorikai, Genesis Engine.

Thankfully, one of lands is a Basic Plains, which means I can drop the Shikari on turn 2, and tap the 'Nid player for 2 on Turn 3, getting First Blood. 2 Poins minimum! Yay! Then I stall out while Eva-1, sorry, Shorikai develops their board state, and the Magus decides to drop and copy a friggen Hierophant Bio-Titan, meaning my ability to attack them is now kaput. I can get Mirri to 6 or 9 power easy, but 12+? That's a problem. In fact, it gets to the point where I'm stalled out and other decks that have 6 years worth of refinement and development are just naturally out-valuing me.

Eva-1 starts on the 'Nid player with being given unblockable, and I'm being worn down by the Demons as I have to carefully curate who I attack and how with Mirri to keep her tapped. It's difficult, and at points came down to "Let me attack you, you block with a Pilot, and this is the only thing keeping me in the game and keeping it from being a 3 player game.

Then the Demon player decides to Drach'Nyen and kill a Bio-titan, meaning the equipped creature has +12/+0 and Menace. Put that on a Demon with Flying and I'm dead.

2 points.

7 points on the week. It was a mess, and wow this deck has problems going against all the decks from the past couple years. The acceleration is sorcery based, minimal rocks. No Mana Dorks. And the mana curve on this deck? It's horrendous. I knew this deck was going to need work, but gold fishing it only gets you so far.

Time to get some work done.

WEEK 2

IN: Arcane Signet, Brushland, Shadowspear, Holy Day, Fog, Blacksmith's Skill
OUT: Staff of Nin, Argentum Armor, Curse of Bounty, Zendikar Resurgent, Jedit Ojanen of Efrava, Sol Ring

So, let's get the obvious out of the way. You can all do basic math, and you can all see that I switched out 6 cards when the format called for the removal of 5. And that I removed Sol Ring from the deck. Which, I'm pretty sure, you will all call me crazy and stupid over.

Well, you would be right on both counts. You see, the Store has altered the rules.

• Sol Ring is now banned. Fast Mana is bad, and it adversely affects the players who don't have the money to spend on that sort of cards. Decks with one of the affected cards can make a substitution on Week 2 as a free switch.

This does nothing to address the other 0 and 1 cost mana rocks, and it hits the one thing that's already in every deck by default. So, why?

As it turns out, one of the other decks in the Slow Grow is playing the Lathril, Blade of the Elves deck this year, and I know they're an experienced Elfball player. They dropped a Swamp on Turn 1, played Sol Ring, then turn 2, their Commander. Turn 3? Ruthless Winnower, and at that point, they soft-locked the entire table. And honestly, I can see the worries.

But because I had work the next morning, I left the store before everything was done, so I didn't find out about this until Thursday evening, so I simply moved one of my Week 3 changes forward. Guess which one that is for an internet cookie!

Anyways, the removals, with one exception, all have one thing in common. They're too damned expensive. Cost 6 and 7 is something I can't risk in this deck if the acceleration doesn't happen, so... no. The exception to this is Curse of Bounty, which is removed because it's a non-bo with Mirri, and I don't have the mana rocks to support such a thing. I'm sure someone out there can use it, but not in this deck.

Zendikar Resurgent is out. Costing is too much, and it does to little for when it hits. Sure, drawing cards helps, but there's only 23 creatures in the deck. No where near enough to fire that off. And mana doubling? Sure, Mirari's Wake does the same thing, but costs less. There are plenty of options to accelerate my mana other than at the end of the game, thank you.

Staff of Nin costs , and all it does is draw me a card once a turn and tap to deal a point of damage to something. OUT. I'm in now, I can draw better. Just have to remember to put Return of the Wildspeaker in sooner rather than later.

Argentum Armor, while it has a nice effect, requires cheating, otherwise it's 12 mana to cast and equip. Which... isn't going to happen. OUT.

Jedit Ojanen of Efrava was already scraping the bottom of the barrel for Cats in this deck, so it's a gonner as well. the extra Cat token isn't going to help, and Forestwalk isn't a guarantee. Bye!

Moving in though, if I have to justify Arcane Signet to anyone, anywhere, then something has gone horribly, horribly wrong. I mean, yes, there are a rare few decks where it's not needed, but this isn't one of them, so in it goes.

Brushland actually required thought as it was this or Temple Garden. I've discussed the balance between a Painland and a Shockland before, but in the end, I decided to go for the Brushland as while it can't be fetched with the few cards like Grasslands that are already in the deck, it also doesn't enter tapped unless I pay two life. And for most of the games, that isn't going to matter. So the Painland it is. Also, I just wanted an excuse to use my new printing of it, rather than my older 7th Edition one. Nothing against the 9th edition printing, I just like this better.

And this is a deck that's going to work on Voltron with the Commander, so I blinked and Shadowspear was in the deck. No, I don't remember putting it in there, it just showed up and that was that. I'm not about to argue with one of the most powerful pieces of equipment I own.

Holy Day and Fog are here because I want to start having options to farm the +1 point for saving another player. I know I should have gone for Dawn Charm, but I had simple on the mind, not the better options. That's the plan, and I'm sticking to it. I just hope it works. Eventually.

Lastly, the last minute addition when Sol Ring got removed was Blacksmith's Skill. This card was more important to me than other options (Heroic Intervention is still to come) was that it can protect non-creatures, such as my Equipment. Other options are going to come, but for now, it's this it.

Let's get to the fights!

Round 4! FIGHT!

First at the table is Christopher Lee... I mean Syr Konrad, the Grim. This is a modification of the Necron Precon, which plays well with the recursion going on in that deck. Second is the same Magus Lucea Kane from Round 3 last week. Third is the other Shorikai, Genesis Engine going around. I'm last in turn order, but now that the second week is here, taking out the top player gets you an additional point at the table. In order, the points are 5, 6, 5, and 7. Lovely.

My opening hand is five lands, Blacksmith's Skill and Leonin Shikari. I keep, and hope to draw into some gas. I drop it on curve, and then swing at Konrad because I know how deadly it can be, and I want to start working on them. The others... well, I've mentioned the despair inducing threat assessment around here before? Well, no one saw what was coming until it happened, even as I'm mentally screaming bloody murder about it. I drop Mirri, and keep up the pressure, but I'm stalled out by Konrad himself, and the 'Nid player is going to town on their creatures and copies. Shorikai is also building board state to defend themselves against the evil aggro deck named me.

Then Konrad turns the board over. Literally.

Living Death

The Konrad player deals TWENTY damage to the other three players, and gets a couple creatures that I had killed with Mirri's swinging back into play. And I try to rally everyone against him, but the other players think that that was it, and they can focus on bigger threats.

So naturally, Shorikai drops Karn, the Great Creator. And I'm screaming my bloody head off on the inside because I'm the only one with activated abilities on artifacts. And he upticked Karn, good and cool.

But all was not lost. I had Opal Palace in play, so I could recast Mirri with it and she enters with 2 +1/+1 counters as it's the second casting. A 5/4 Mirri is a lot more dangerous than a 3/2. But without the ability to activate the Equipment costs of my Artifacts, I'm screwed! I'm trying to get someone, anyone, to help kill Karn, but no one sees the problems. I mean, yes, it's soft-locking me, but I still have options.

Then Karn tries to sideboard. Only now, two days later, do I realize that I should have yelled for a Judge to do a Deck Check because either the player added more than five cards to their deck, or their deck was less than 100 cards in total. But at the time, I didn't think about that, so the rest of the table had to point out that there is no sideboarding in Commander, there is no 'Outside the Game'. He was trying to pull a The Reality Chip or a Thundersteel Colossus, I couldn't tell.

Shit, when the store opens later, I'm going to have to give them a call. And sorry for the language.

edit: Called the store. They know about the issue, and the player in question will have their deck reviewed as well as being warned about that. They apologized for the complacency at that time, and we will be better moving forward. They're good, we're good, and it's a compliment to them for when the Judge reads this! Hey!

Anyway, back to the game. Magus Kane drops Hardened Scales, and I can't work around that. Sadly, I am quickly dropped to four life. Anyone can kill me as I don't have a defense. Stirring Wildwood blocks Syr Konrad and dies. I Holy Day away one of the 'Nid attackers, and then with no hand and no untapped creatures, I'm down and out with my killer taking the extra point. 2 points for me.

Round 5! FIGHT!

Abaddon the Despoiler is first, 9 points. Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait is second with 11 points. I'm third with my 7 points - remember, points are only updated at the end of the week, not between matches. And Dihada, Binder of Wills is fourth with 6 points. My opening hand has 2 Plains, but no Forest, so I toss it. Second hand is viable, and hey, there's Leonin Shikari! Cool!

I'm sure you can see where this is going, so I will tell you that I get First Blood on Aesi. After that, the game stalls out, and I'm forced on the defensive. Dihada builds a combo of Odric, Lunarch Marshal, Queen Marchesa and Jazal Goldmane, which is pretty deadly. Other than that, the game is pretty boring, and my notes literally say "very uninteresting, couldn't do anything". I wind up fourth on Life Totals. 2 more points for me.

Round 6! FIGHT!

It's my first three player table as our fourth dropped out for the evening early. So I'm now sitting to the right of Be'Lakor, the Dark Master, then across from the regular store Champion, now playing Chatterfang, Squirrel General. He had grabbed the Strixhaven precon, and now that he's no longer allowed to play Meren of Clan Nel Toth, he's just switched to another deck in the same colours and has decided that he's going to use all Infinites, all the time.

Ugh.

Everyone casts a creature on turn 3, and the Demon decides to swing at Chatterfang, given that attacking a 3/2 First Striker is a losing battle. He gets through, and takes First Blood. I swing at him for a couple turns, and he responds by using Chaos Mutation to give me Temur Sabertooth. Hey, it works, it works. I'm thin on mana, and it's turn 7 when I manage to play Mirari's Wake to stabilize my mana base, and recast Mirri.

But then Chatterfang drops Pitiless Plunderer. For those of you not aware, this is a two card infinite combo where you sac a creature to Chatterfang, and the Plunderer makes a Treasure token. Chatterfang now sees the Treasure token enter the battlefield and makes a Squirrel, so you tap and sac the treasure, sac the new squirrel, give something +1/-1 until the end of the turn. But, the Plunderer sees the Squirrel die, so he makes a Treasure. Chatterfang sees the treasure and makes a Squirrel. Infinite Combo. He can wipe the board at any time.

So the Demon player wipes the board with Blasphemous Act, taking out Mirri again. I can't blame him, but the player with the deck is playing with a deck that sneezes and recurs creatures from the graveyard, so he just recasts his Commander, gets the Plunderer back and we're back to square one. A Divine Reckoning doesn't help, as he keeps Plunderer and will recast his Commander. The advantages of a 3 cost creature.

However, thanks to the Wake, I have 10 mana and a Herald's Horn open. I cast Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith, and while Chatterfang asks if I'm going for the Hammer, I point out that Indestructible doesn't stop toughness modification, so I go for Swiftfoot Boots instead, put it onto the Battlefield and equip it to my only creature.

Hexproof on the other hand, is viable for protection from Chatterfang.

At this point, I realize that I have enough mana to cast my Commander for a fourth time, and I do so, knowing it could die at any moment. I collect the point, and the other players realize that Chatterfang is on his third life, while Be'Lakor, the Dark Master is... one mana short a fourth cast, but casts for a third time anyways.

But there's nothing I can really do to Chatterfang, so I can't build a board state to protect myself, and time is called. Chatterfang can take out one of us with his creatures, and Be'lakor offers to take third as he knows he's going to miss a week anyways whereas I am not. I get second and 4 points on the week, putting me at 15 at the end.

That's it for Week 2! I'll see you next week with a different subject, then the week after that will cover Weeks 3 and 4. Here's hoping for some improvements. I have plans, not much to work with, and not a lot of time to pull it off.

Until then please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job, but more income is always better. I still have plans to do a audio Pattern Recognition at some point, or perhaps a Twitch stream. And you can bribe your way to the front of the line to have your questions, comments and observations answered!