Pattern Recognition #273 - Slow Grow 4 - Weeks 3 and 4

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

2 March 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.

Previous Articles in Slow Grow 4 are:
Deck Choice
Commander Choice Discussion
Weeks 1 and 2

And welcome back after my usual boilerplate of an introduction. This week, I'll cover Weeks 3 and 4 of the Tournament, with the usual flair and descriptions that I can muster. But there's also no sense in keeping you waiting, I'm no carnival busker who gets paid by the word! Also, depending on word count, I may have a special for you at the end.

WEEK 3

IN: Prismatic Strands, Eladamri's Call, Haze of Pollen, Heroic Intervention, Mirror Shield
OUT: White Sun's Zenith, Jareth, Leonine Titan, Phantom Nishoba, Jazal Goldmane, Kindred Summons

This week's cards that I am taking out continue my theme of "These are WAY TO EXPENSIVE" to cast, or no longer fit with the way I'm adjusting the deck. Trimming a few more Cats means that Kindred Summons is now less and less viable, and was barely viable in the base deck anyways! Taking out White Sun's Zentih was a hard choice, but it's 1 in the 99, and I have to hold up mana for it, which is always a problem in these kinds of decks.

I drop in two more Fog effects, with Haze of Pollen also a Cycling card in case I need the extra draw, and Prismatic Strands has Flashback - a cost of which involves tapping a creature. Hey, guess what Mirri is! Eldrami's Call is a cheap way to pull a creature out of my library, and given that I'm slimming creatures, having some way to Tutor one out seems like a good idea. Heroic Intervention needs to explanation or justification in a deck, while Mirror Shield is another source of Hexproof, beating out Mask of Avacyn by dint of being slightly cheaper.

On to the show!

Round 7! FIGHT

Marneus Calgar is first with 17 points, I'm second with 15. Eva-1 is third around the table with 13 points, and Firkraag, Cunning Instigator is fourth, riding high with 26 points.

The day does not begin well, and I wind up milling to FIVE, keeping a hand of three lands, a Hungry Lynx and Wing Shards. Not the best, but I can't ask for anything better. On the bright side, Firkraag also mills to five, and we're off to the races! Sadly, I loose on on First Blood to Calgar when I misplayed, dropped the Lynx, and made someone get a Rat token. A Rat which then swung to hit someone else.

Pardon me while I sit in the corner, weeping over messing with myself. I don't regret the Lynx at all, but some days, it just doesn't work out. Then another misplay happens when Mirri suicided on a Goblin Spymaster. However, the Lynx kept doing its work, and there's four Rats on the table when I'm ready to go for a nice trick.

For you see, Mirri is now Goaded thanks to Firkraag, but I have a response! I cast Rout, and then follow it up with Heroic Intervention. Calgar is tapped out, but I'm worried about a Free Counterspell, but if I can blow up the board, and get 4 +1/+1 counters on Mirri and the Lynx when all the Rats die, that would be amazing! So naturally, Big Daddy Calgar drops a Fierce Guardianship on the Intervention.

I die, screaming in agony. Well, inside my mind, naturally. I don't want to disturb the other tables. Mirri is going to be on her third casting, and that's not good for me. But I pinch-draw mirarris wake, and that hits the table while people rebuild. Firkraag - and I never get his name right, I'm editing as I go - is rebuilding, but has an empty hand. I draw Soul's Majesty and cast it for 4 thanks to Mirri, getting Three lands and Nissa's Pilgrimage. No one believes me. But I keep trying to rebuild my hand, and then I'm stuck with 2 Forest, 3 Plains, Tranquil Thicket, and Elfhame Palace. Yeah, this isn't good.

Time is called, I drop my hand to show that yes, I was truly flooded, causing people to realize I was telling the truth. Calgar decides to go for the ropes, but a tapped Mirri prevents him from really hurting me. So he casts For the Emperor! with only a few creatures on the board, which Eva-1 attempts to Dispatch, his Commander, only to run head first into a proper Counterspell. Calgar wins, and I come in second.

Round 8! FIGHT!

This table takes the name of the Carpool Table as at long last, I sit down across from my brother. He's driving myself and one of his friends to the tournament, and the friend is at the table as well. My brother is playing Lathril, Blade of the Elves, and he has 19 points. I'm second around the table. There's another Calgar player to my left with 19 points, and Vishgraz, the Doomhive is fourth, also with 19 points.

If I take any of them out, it's points for me for taking out the player with the highest point total at the table, and they don't because they're at the same level. Woo-hoo!

My opening hand is 4 Lands, Traverse the Outlands, Raksha Golden Cub, and my seventh card, I can't tell because my handwriting is messy. However, I do topdeck the Sunspear Shikari on Turn 2, play it, and then swing for First Blood against the Doomhive because Infect needs to die in a fire, and he's proud of his Infect Deck.

Still not enough to be worth getting Solemnity for. Anyway, Calgar doesn't have a blocker, so I tap him for First Blood, but I have my eyes on the Infect player. After all, when he casts Norn's Decree on curve, things are not going to be fun at all.

Then Calgar throws down a Space Marine Devastator, taking it out. Hurray! And the Elfball deck is missing land drops, which isn't helping them any. But I'm chipping away at the Doomhive, and finally get him to 20 Commander damage as he's desperately throwing everything he can in the way. And who cares if I'm taking Poison counters. If he's dead, no one else is proliferating them at all!

So I go for the swing, taking someone out with Commander Damage! Woo-hoo!

And Lathril casts Putrefy on Mirri, taking the point for the save.

AAAAAARRRRGGHHHHHH!

So naturally Calgar swoops in on the defenseless Doomhive and takes him out. Insult / Injury anyone? No, it's For the Emperor! again.

Then Lathril follows this up with the ball rolling, and takes out 13 creatures with Eyeblight Massacre, including my board. Thankfully, I hadn't recast Mirri yet. He also adds Ruthless Winnower to the board, which hurts Calgar more than me because I had spent my turn casting Kemba, Kha Regent, and equipping her. So she makes tokens that I can then sacrifice to the Winnower. Death neutral! Sadly, my recast of Mirri requires that I sacrifice her to chumpblock an Abomination of Llanowar.

But Time is called, and I'm the last turn. I'm not winning, so I pass the turn. On my End-step, Elfball casts Elven Ambush to double his Elves in play, giving him 8 more. This would mean he has the most life and would win! Oh, right, he has Essence Warden in play, meaning he is gaining life for all these Elves.

So Calgar responds by casting Swords to Plowshares on his biggest creature he has - my handwriting is bad. Something starting with a K? - just to gain more life. And in fact, it's enough to put him over the top of Lathril's lifegain!

So Lathril taps Imperious Prefect for an Elf token. And all this is being done "In Response" to the initial Ambush. Lathril gains 1 more for the token coming in, Swords resolves, then the Ambush, which now sees the additional token from the Prefect. When the dust has settled, Lathril has 57 life, and Calgar has 53.

And I'm in third, but I get +1 from the First Blood. Woo!

Round 9! FIGHT

This was a sad game. Magus Lucea Kane is first, Mishra, Eminent One is second, I'm in third, and Jinnie Fay, Jetmir's Second, a commander change out of the New Capenna Precon, is fourth. As we play, I point out that I was considering Jinnie as my Commander, but Mishra was confused as I would be adding a color to the deck. So I borrowed the Commander (WITH PERMISSION), and showed it to him. I asked him, "What don't you see?" pointing at the casting cost. Jinnie Fey's player got it, but it was Magus who had to spell it out.

There's no required .

And so, a player was enlightened! Woo!

I get first blood on Magus Kane with Mirri, Nazahan shows up with his hammer to make Mirri Indestructible, and I'm sitting on Prismatic Strands most of the game. It stalls out, and no one can gain a real advantage as long as I keep Mirri tapped swinging into creatures she can't kill, or be killed by.

No, literally. My notes for this table are 5 bullet points long. That's it. Man, what a low-down end to the week.

WEEK 4

IN: Hedgewitch's Mask, Blackblade Reforged, Dawn Charm, Seedling Charm, Dromoka's Command
OUT: Temple of the False God, Herald's Horn, Leonin Relic-Warder, Raksha Golden Cub, Traverse the Outlands

He, guess who forgot this was supposed to be a Voltron deck, and not something else? One of the weaknesses in the way I went into this tournament was that I wasn't focused on the endgame here, and let myself get sidetracked a little with the "Save People!" points. Which don't really come up that often, and I'm beginning to regret it. Hedgewitch's Mask is there to act as a pesudo unblockable for Mirri with the prevalence of larger creatures out there. It's also cheap to cast. Blackblade Reforged is necessary, and should have gone in at the same time as Shadowspear, but I'm an idiot.

I also threw in three modal spells. It turns out, I didn't actually own a Dromoka's Command before I bought one out of the bulk bin before last week - too late to actually put it in the deck, mind you. But putting it in now seems like a good choice, as at the very least, it turns Mirri into a 4/3 and removes a creature, but also acts as protection from a burn spell. I don't see a lot of Auras or enchantments out there, but when I do, having another way to remove it will be nice.

Adding Dawn Charm is, to be honest, something I should have started with. Fog effect, protection for Mirri, or emergency counter-spell all in one package! On the other hand, Seedling Charm, from Visions, was an impulse inclusion, and I should have put Evolution Charm in instead. But This can remove a pesky Aura temporarily, but more importantly, I can regenerate Mirri with it, or give her Trample if one of my other sources isn't available.

Leaving the deck finally is Temple of the False God, although I haven't seen it all tournament so far. Herald's Horn is losing effectiveness as I'm down to 18 Cats in the deck, and while affecting Mirri is nice, it's not going to help in the long run. Leonin Relic-Warder is another card being removed for not pulling its weight, and too much of a removal magnet. Raksha Golden Cub finally joins his other friends in the 'WAY TOO EXPENSIVE' club, and gets tossed to the side, while Traverse the Outlands, the one time I cast it, just seemed like a waste because I have difficulties getting Mirri or anyone else high enough in power to cast it. And it costs .

But enough! It's time to play some games!

Round 10! FIGHT!

First at the table is Shanid, Sleepers' Scourge, an Alternate commander for Dihada with 24 points. Vishgraz, the Doomhive is second with 26 points. I'm third with 24 points, and Adrix and Nev, Twincasters is fourth at the table with 21 points. I compliment them on their choice, and ask if they've cut Ruxa at all. They haven't. Bonus!

Anyways, I lose out on First Blood to the Doomhive and his Turn 2 Plague Stinger. Infect vs Commander Voltron is a go! On the other hand, I do drop a T2 Leonin Arbiter which does frak all in terms of limiting people's searching. They aren't!

Then the Doomhive drops a Mana Crypt on Turn 3, and then his Commander and we have a small discussion about why Sol Ring was banned, but not anything else in the Fast Mana area of the game. He then drops out Ixhel a turn after. So the Twincaster throws down a Curse of the Swine for 3, ripping up Ixhel, the Plague Stinger and a Grateful Apparition. I knew I liked this person for a reason!

The game stalls out as such things do, and while I'm looking for evasion or something for my Commander, I and Shanid start trading Commander hits, but I see my chance to pivot towards taking out Mister Infect when I draw Divine Reckoning. So I drop it! And it hits!

And he peaces out with Teferi's Protection.

(insert swear word here of personal preference)

The game rolls to an end with Shanid and I having scored 18 Commander damage on each other, and with him having the next swing, which doesn't come.

Not a good game, not the worst. It's telling when the best swings I can make go against another Aggro deck.

Round 11! FIGHT!

This is a three person table as people are starting to drop and leave. Jinnie Fey, Jetmir's Second from last week is first in points and at the table with 31. Dihada, Binder of Wills has 25 points, and is going second. I'm last in all relevant measures. I drop Mirri on curve, and hit Dihada for First Blood as he cast his Commander and not a viable blocker.

Jinnie Fey plays Scute Swarm, which is a really amazing. Then gets terrifying when she plays Boss's Chauffeur and Impact Tremors and Smothering Tithe in quick succession. She can make Tokens for days, and make the Chauffeur impossibly huge. I get Lifelink onto Mirri, and play to the player, who doesn't like to take the initiative, and with Rouge's Passage, aim at Dihada.

The fact that I have Stalking Leonin aimed (secretly) at Jinnie Fey has nothing to do with that choice at all, now is it? And a hand without any Fog effects. I'm running a very fine line here with my bluffing. So I could swing and protect myself from the crackback. But Jinnie keeps growing, and there's nothing I can do about it because if I kill without exiling the Chauffeur, he drops out... checks notes ... 30+ new creatures. With Impact Tremors.

Then she drops Life of the Party, turning it into a 43/1. Yes. She swings for lethal against Dihada, and I can't score the saving point. At that point, I read the writing on the wall, and concede, taking second place.

Then time gets called as we're shaking hands. I jokingly suggest to the Judge that the bonus point for finishing before Time is called be reinstated. It was an intense balancing act, but not Balancing Act. And I was too busy focusing on not screwing up that I didn't take as many detailed notes as I could have.

Round 12! FIGHT

Mishra, Eminent One is first (22 points), Leinore, Autumn Sovereign is second (21 points), Ixhel, Scion of Atraxa is third with 34 points, and I'm last. It's going to be one of those games, I can tell you that already.

At least my Arbiter arrives on Turn 2 right on time, but Leinore - probably a better Selesnya Commander than mine - drops Orzhov Advokist, which doesn't help much. Instead, Ixhel comes out pretty much right afterwar, and starts to get +1/+1 counters on him, but his beating of me is diverted to Mishra once he starts to get his Artifact Engines online.

I go nowhere in this game, make no progress, and after Mirri dies to removal, because everything dies to removal, I get stomped by super-huge Selesnya creatures.

seriously. That's the game. Nothing of note happened. Nothing interesting, just Leinore getting exponential growth with Hardened Scales and Doubling Season and at that point, what else can I do?

Actually, I can do something else. I mentioned earlier that my brother is playing Lathril. So I asked him if was willing to talk about his own experiences. He said yes! And so over Pizza before Week 4, I asked him about his first three weeks.

Q: So, why did you pick Lathril, Blade of the Elves as your Commander?
A: I'm an experienced Elfball player, and unfortunately, Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury wasn't available in any reasonable time frame up here, so this was the next best thing.

Q: That makes sense. I'm an experienced Voltron player, and I know you like your Elves. Did you do any testing of the deck before the tournament began?
A: Nope. I got a hold of the deck at the last minute and literally cracked the box and sleeved the cards the day the Slow Grow Tournament began.

Q: I know you haven't been taking notes like I have, and it's been a while. So what do you remember about the first week?
A: You know how Sol Ring got banned? That was me. Played it on the first turn, got Lathril on the first turn, then Elvish Winnower on turn 3, and that was that. I locked the game down and no one enjoyed it.

After that though, I either got mana flooded or screwed and never got my game on, and I ended the first week with 9 points.

Q: Moving into Week 2, what were your exchanges, and why?
A: I added Essence Warden, Deathrite Shaman, The Great Henge, Priest of Titania and Throne of the God-Pharaoh. I also substituted Cryptolith Rite for Sol Ring at the last minute, and your suggestion of moving one of my Week 3 changes forward a week helped. I took out Casualties of War, Ambition's Cost, Pact of the Serpent, Golgari Guildgate, Tergrid's Shadow and as mentioned, Sol Ring.

The plan was to remove high mana value cards, as well as those that I didn't feel were pulling their weight. Yes, Casualties of war is good for removal, but in my view it's too expensive for what it does. Ambition's Cost might have been good if it were Instant speed, but as a Sorcery, it's not. And I removed Tergrid's Shadow because why would I want to sacrifice two of my own creatures? That's what a proper Boardwipe is for.

And Guildgate is a Tapped Land, and I can't understand why you're keeping so many in your deck. And Pact of the Serpent just doesn't scale well in my view. And, like Ambition's Cost, it's sorcery speed.

Q: How did your second week go then?
A: It held to the same theme really. I won one game handily thanks to Throne. Being able to tap all my Elves for mana or for other reasons meant that I could generate a lot of damage on my end step. In fact, my win was because I tapped down for Lathril himself, then had Throne out for the follow up.

Sadly, none of my other games went as well. People recognize Elfball, and you told me that this deck got to the final four last year, so people at the store have a history with it. I was boardwiped repeatedly, and ended up with 19 points after the week.

Q: And now it's Week 3! What modifications did you do to your deck?
A: I took out Cultivator of Blades, Crown of Skemfar, Foul Orchard, Pride of the Perfect, and Eyeblight Cullers. In exchange, I added Circle of Dreams Druid, Fyndhorn Elves, Vraska, Golgari Queen, Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat.

Q: Non-Elves in an Elfball deck?!?! WHAT?
A: It's a minor Aristocrats side to the deck to deal with boardwipes, and I haven't drawn Poison-Tip Archer Anyway, I'm trimming down the lands to 36, but adding in more Dorks to help compensate. Elves and Dorks are pretty easy to come by. And creature based card draw and other advantage works better with more creatures.

Vraska is there for removal, as well as more card draw. She's good, and I don't expect to get to her final ability.

Q: And how did Week 3 go?
A: Well, Blood Artist won me a game, thanks to creatures dying. It works really well with Vraska! In the second game, I got a Save point when one of my opponents swung for lethal at another opponent, and I Putrefy'd his Commander. He lost out on the Commander kill point in the process though. I mean, who has a Voltron Commander without Hexproof or protection? I won that one on life totals at the end though. The third game wasn't interesting, but I'm doing good.

Q: Thanks for this! We'll probably do this again after week 6, and do a final round up.
A: See you tomorrow, when I pick you up for the carpool.

That's it for Weeks 3 and 4! I'll see you next week with a different subject, then the week after that will cover the last two weeks. Here's hoping for some improvements. I have plans, but they're not coming to fruition.

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!