Being Iterative in Deck Construction: U/W Pull Control at GP Birmingham by Holt Hauser

I’m two days back from GP Birmingham, and it was an absolute killer of a GP. The Scottish Magic community rallied when we got to see Gary Campbell, the Godfather of Scottish Magic, take down the Legacy Main Event, becoming the first Scotsman to win a GP and the eldest GP Champion in Magic History. Team Vault was out in force, and we were joined by some good friends who have all but retired from the competitive Magic circuit. I got to spend my nights catching up with teammates and friends after a recent break from the grind, and I left feeling really inspired to get back to competitive Magic.

The thing that made my weekend, though, was something about the game. I was lucky enough to have one of those awesome opportunities where you get to see hard work pay off up front, rather than trying, hoping and wondering if your work is making a difference. This week, I’d like to share that experience with you as a case of being iterative as a player.

An iterative process is one that requires multiple repetitions of a process in which the results aren’t deterministic. The outcome of the process becomes clearer and more realized as you repeat the process – you eventually see a trend of what the most common result is.

I would argue that the game of Magic is special in its iterative nature. The common advice that a good player shouldn’t be results focused is partially due to this fact – even if you have the statistically best matchup, play your best, and take all the best lines, you can still lose. As we play and practice this game, we discover new results, combinations, and interactions in the game. Things can happen due to variance or other factors that we might not expect. Of course, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a single best answer, highest percentage line, or best way to build your deck – it just means that we have to properly reflect on what we’re doing to suss that out, instead of taking the first few results as the end of that process.

I think it’s worthwhile to frame how we play the game of Magic as being an iterative process.  We must focus on developing our playstyle through repetition and data collection which will eventually lead to reliably convergent results in the long term – hopefully, a greater win rate.  Being aware of that will help you continue to improve, and make changes that will positively impact your performance. Let’s take a look at an example of this in the process of deckbuilding through my experiences at GP Birmingham, and how it helped me win some games of Magic.

 

Iteration 1: Playtesting

Before GP Birmingham, Team Vault was in the full swing of playtesting. We were laser focusing our efforts to brush up our skills in both Standard and Legacy, two formats that had their own complications from my point of view. Legacy, of course, is probably the broadest format of Magic, and the interactions, sequencing, and skill involved in navigating it are some of the hardest to get a handle on. Standard, on the other hand, is much more nuts and bolts Magic – but at the time of playtesting [and at the time of writing this], the Team got the sense that no one really knew what the heck they were doing. There were some archetypes being established, but overall the power level felt very flat. Tournament results were mixed, and deck dumps were similarly ambiguous. In other words, the format had yet to be solved – and that meant we were going to have to do some legwork on our own.

I shuffled up R/B Midrange and sat down across from Alex Riley to do some testing at my first practice back. He was playing what some of us on the team would affectionately refer to as a ‘Riley Pile’, which Bryan Gottlieb had been working on. The list was as follows:
Bryan Gottlieb’s U/W Control

Mainboard	Sideboard
4x Seal Away 2x Search for Azcanta 1x Negate 1x Essence Scatter 1x Blink of an Eye 4x Disallow 2x Gideon of the Trial 4x Cast Out 3x Settle the Wreckage 2x Fumigate 3x Teferi, Hero of Dominaria 3x Pull from Tomorrow 3x Syncopate 6x Plains 4x Island 4x Glacial Fortress 4x Irrigated Farmland 3x Meandering River 2x Ipnu Rivulet 2x Field of Ruin 1x Memorial to Glory 1x Scavenger Grounds	4x Knight of Grace 3x Negate 3x Lyra Dawnbringer 2x Invoke the Divine 1x Nezahal, Primal Tide 1x Supreme Will 1x Silent Gravestone

And through testing, I got absolutely crushed. I think in the space of maybe 10-15 games pre and post board, I only managed to take down one or two. The ability to play a fair game, access to a  Planeswalker that both lets you grind value and win the game, as well as a way to get miles ahead in the late game with Pull From Tomorrow meant I was getting stomped again and again. It had a strong edge in the mirror by having 0 dead cards (cast out cycled, and removal could be used for Gearhulk – the same could not be said for their deck). I could not believe how much of an upgrade the U/W deck had gotten in Dominaria, and I loved it. So, I decided to sleeve this 75 up at the next PPTQ I went to.

    I managed to get a very comfortable Top 8 burying my opponents in card advantage. I faced two easy control mirrors against U/W Gearhulk decks, smashed up my teammate who was on G/U Stompy (turns out Fumigate is a pretty great card), and but took a loss against some explosive starts from Mono-White. In the quarterfinals, I lost to Martin Porter running a U/W control deck as well, but running the Gearhulk package. However, I got crushed in games two and three with a post board plan involving History of Benalia, and Karn, Scion of Urza. It was a bit disappointing losing a matchup I thought was favourable, but Porter played well and has a lot more experience than I do playing the archetype, so it was fair enough. That being said, History of Benalia was something the Team had discarded during testing as it gets caught by Negate, but this made me want to reevaluate the decision a bit more.

 

Iteration 2: GP Birmingham Main Event

So, Legacy didn’t go so hot. After effectively getting 3 byes since my opponent no-showed for Round 3, I ended 4-4 and learned that I’m probably not the best D&T player out there. But that’s cool – we had a backup main event just in case I was a massive scrub, and I knew just the deck I was going to bring. After how hot I ran at the PPTQ, it was going to be a cinch to crush my way through Day 1 right? Even better, I’m going to try and use some of that sick tech that knocked me out of the Top 8, and see how well my opponents deal with my pivot into a deck that can start clocking them as early as turn 3. The list I registered was an identical main deck, with some tweaks to the sideboard – namely that the Knights of Grace became History of Benalia, and one Lyra Dawnbringer became a Fragmentize, as I was expecting a lot of hate for her.

As you can probably tell from my over the top hype, the main event did not go so great. The first round, I played B/R and twice managed to stabilize the board after taking some damage from a Heart of Kiran, before drawing some lands and dying. ‘Meh, it’s just bad luck I thought’.  Then I played against G/B the next round. I got demolished by Thrashing Brontodons and Hearts of Kiran again, while Seal Away rotted away in my hand. What the heck is going on? I took a match win off the Bant Superfriends deck, but I was supremely disappointed by History of Benalia which got straight up stomped by the likes of Carnage Tyrant. I took another loss to R/B in a similar fashion and it was lights out. I won my final 2 rounds to finish a disappointing 5-3. What the heck, had happened? Where did the power go from the list?

   So I reviewed my matchups. What were the problem cards and which did I prioritize? I know I probably prioritized Scrapheap Scrounger a little too highly versus Bomat Courier.  Heart of Kiran was ridiculously powerful against me, and I had no way to deal with it on turn 2 besides being on the play with the 1-of Negate or catching it with a Syncopate. Seal Away looked god awful in the face of Heart and Brontodon. I had so many matches where I felt like I got ahead, and just petered out by never having a way to grind advantage or get ahead on resources because I never drew a Teferi or Pull from Tomorrow. And Jeez did History of Benalia look bad – I’m pretty sure the only time this deck wants to make 2 powers worth of creatures is when the opponent has 0 cards in hand, and I’m about to emblem Teferi. Something went wrong here – and I needed to think long and hard about where I could make changes to improve.

 

Iteration 3: GP Birmingham PTQ

While I was smart enough to realize there was something off, that doesn’t necessarily mean I was clever enough to figure out how to fix it, or how much I could just chock it up to ‘Magic is haaaaaaard’ (or ‘Pilot competency’ as most folks call it). Luckily, I have a squad of people who help me by letting me know when I do something stupid, but also they have great suggestions for deckbuilding. So, at about midnight after some number of drinks, I enlisted the help of Dan to help me figure out what the heck had gone wrong with this U/W List, and hopefully fix it.

   When I described the sequencing to Dan and other teammates I had been working on the list with, I got the feeling that the poor results stemmed from deck-building issues. Heart of Kiran was everywhere, and not having interaction for it until Turn 4 (we had Blink of an Eye before that, but not the best answer really) was a serious issue. I also had the consistent issue of doing well enough to stabilize the board, but not finding my payoffs with enough frequency that I took over the game. We would be at 6 lands, no creatures on board, and I’d draw some counterspells or reactive spells, and eventually, something would resolve that I couldn’t deal with. Either I need more payoff cards that would run away with the game, or I needed greater card selection.

This was especially the cast post-board when often a Fumigate wasn’t going to take all your opponent’s threats, so you needed to be able to turn the corner quick. Finally, I need a good catch-all for problem permanents in the early game, especially post board. There were so many issues I had with cards that resolved on turns 1 or 2, like Heart of Kiran, Bomat Courier or Arguel’s Bloodfast, and sometimes I got overwhelmed by not having enough ways to deal with Chandra’s, Nissa’s or Karns.

In order to address these issues for the PTQ the next day, we created the following list.

U/W Pull Control

Mainboard

Sideboard

2x Seal Away 2x Gideon’s Reproach 2x Search for Azcanta 1x Negate 1x Essence Scatter 1x Skywhaler’s Shot 4x Disallow 2x Gideon of the Trial 3x Cast Out 3x Settle the Wreckage 2x Fumigate 3x Teferi, Hero of Dominaria 3x Pull from Tomorrow 1x Hieroglyphic Illuminations 2x Karn, Scion of Urza 2x Syncopate 6x Plains 4x Island 4x Glacial Fortress 4x Irrigated Farmland 3x Meandering River 2x Ipnu Rivulet 1x Field of Ruin 1x Memorial to Glory 1x Scavenger Grounds

2x Sorcerous Spyglass 3x Negate 2x Lyra Dawnbringer 1x Angel of Sanctions 2x Invoke the Divine 1x Fragmentize 1x Nezahal, Primal Tide 1x Supreme Will 1x Cast Out 1x Hour of Revelation

In the main deck, we changed the removal suite to be more aware of Heart of Kiran and cards like Thrashing Brontodon that made our Seal Aways look bad. We cut two of those as well as a Syncopate [which we too often were siding out] and added two Gideon’s Reproach and a Skywhaler’s Shot. While Gideon’s Reproach has the downside of having to be used in the combat step, it played extremely well for dealing with early game pressure. Skywhaler’s Shot performed fantastically, acting as a sweet answer to the big aggressively costed creatures in the format, as well as offering some incidental deck manipulation to make sure you could hit that fourth land.

I was looking for a card that could act as an engine piece, as well as give me some card selection. I cut a Cast Out in favour of a copy of Hieroglyphic Illumination, which is nothing new as they fill a similar slot. The real game changer was adding Karn, Scion of Urza in the deck. I expected often times the tick up was going to draw me lands, so I cut a land, and a Blink of an Eye since I was already adding more targeted removal.

Turns out that Karn is completely busted, and won me so, SO many games. The U/W Pull deck is there to grind resource advantage, and out card your opponent; Karn plays extremely well into that strategy. Usually when I slammed this card, even just straight up on turn 4 when they have a Chain Whirler or Heart in Play, the opponent was always in this uncomfortable spot of trying to decide whether they have to invest (at least) two combat steps into dealing with Karn, or are they going to have to just decide that their only hope is to race my life total. Spoilers: Almost every game, both answers were good for me.

As for the sideboard, we completely abandoned any sort of creature strategy. I felt like the point of this deck is that it’s the biggest, most grindy deck that will just out-card you, and playing any sort of weedy creature plan ended up just making you less consistent. Histories – out. In their place, we put in two Sorcerous Spyglass, a Fragmentize, and an Hour of Revelation.

Fragmentize was extremely medium. It did its job on the draw when you just want to kill that Heart of Kiran and play a tap-land, or their Bomat Courier, but I didn’t even bring it in on the play in those matchups. I’d look to find something better for this slot.

Sorcerous Spyglass performed literally at the same level as Karn for my PTQ. There are so many threats that decks are bringing in post-board that this effect just crushes. I had a game where my opponents went T1: Bomat Courier, T2: Bomat Courier, Bomat Courier. In the previous iteration of the deck I would have no outs to that much early card advantage – instead, I slammed a Spyglass, saw my opponent had two cards he couldn’t play in hand, and pretty much straight up won the game. There were few matchups where I didn’t want this effect because it deals with so many things… Heart of Kiran, Scrapheap Scrounger, Chandra, Arguel’s Bloodfast, the various flavours of Nissa, Karn, Vraska, Angrath, the list goes on. Many decks cannot beat you in the long game without these cards, and Spyglass gives you the extra benefit of the peek, so you know what else to play around.

I ran Hour of Revelation as sort of a third Fumigate, but also to beat the G/X decks that have so many different types of permanents to beat you. I’ve had a few games where this was much, much better than Fumigate, and I couldn’t win without this effects, but I’ve also had a few where blowing up my own Planeswalkers or Cast Outs is a serious issue. Most of the time, however, if you have more than one Planeswalker resolved, you’re winning, and if not, you can just animate Gideon of the Trials, or tuck Teferi to his own ability before you slam it.

We also cut one of the Lyra Dawnbringers because we felt that so many decks were prepared for it now, and having it take 3 sideboard slots was a bit much. Instead, we put in Angel of Sanctions as a great threat and catch-all against so many of the planeswalkers that appear post-board against us. I felt like both of these cards were pretty much what you sign up for when you run them – when they survive, they will win you the game. When they don’t, it probably means you lost the game, because you had to run it out without protection. Angel of Sanctions was meant to mitigate that somewhat with the Embalm ability, but I didn’t have the opportunity in my games to test that theory.

Overall, I ended up having an awesome tournament at the PTQ. My results were nothing special – I barely lost my win-and-in for top 8 and finishing 4-1 – but the games were amazing, and the deck felt like it had new life breathed into it; the answers were finally lining up to the threats. That was something I had participated in creating – and it feels good to see how Leo Lahonen who took 2nd place at GP Birmingham made some similar deckbuilding choices!

Looking forward to Iteration 4, 5, 6…

Just because we had a reasonable tournament doesn’t mean we should sit on our laurels. Whether you succeed or fail in an iteration, that doesn’t stop the process. We never get to say that the task of improving our deck, and ourselves as players is finished; that process is never-ending. Likewise, I’m looking forward to further testing this list, and hopefully getting closer to filing down the best configuration for my next big tournament, and figuring out what efforts and decisions I need to make to become a better player.

Do you reckon this sort of iteration is helpful? Or maybe you have a more efficient approach to playtesting, getting results, and growing as a player? Leave a comment, or hit me up on twitter @CapnPowerHaus, and tell me what you think!

 

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Author: Holt Hauser
California Native turned Honorary Scot, Holt helped form Team Vault with Connor Murphy and has been Team Captain since it’s inception. Alongside his commitment to the tournament grind and the gaming community, Holt has a passion for overly complicated theories – both in his MTG articles, and in his PhD research about the therapeutic applications of traditional games.