The CEDH 5k

  One of the big feature events at this convention was a CEDH tournament that had a prize pool of $5000. Definitely not something to scoff at for sure. I hadn’t initially planned to play as I opted to buy a pre-release voucher instead. I ended up using that voucher on day one and realized I didn’t really have a “big” event to attend the next day, which led to me registering for the CEDH 5k. I didn’t know what to expect, but I was really excited because it would be the most “real” tournament experience I’ve ever had in magic: the gathering. The stakes were a little higher than the average FNM and people would be trying to win. 

So what deck did I end up bringing? My personal longest standing deck: Derevi, Empyrial Tactician.This deck has been with me for what can essentially be my entire time playing magic. I bought the original preconstructed version of the deck way back in 2013 and proceeded to never actually play the game for the next 6 years when I got to college. From there I learned what commander was and wanted to really do the deck justice. I’ll talk more about the deck later, but the important part is getting into what happened during the games.

A quick disclaimer. I’m going to be talking about cards as if you(the reader) already know what they’re doing so definitely look up cards so you don’t get lost in my explanations. I’m also not going too deep because I’m writing this at 10pm after like more than 12 hours of MTG Con today and I have notes so maybe I will focus on each game more individually when I travel back from Baltimore.

Game 1 seemed innocent enough. I was facing a pod of mostly control decks which is where I kind of want my deck to be actually. Derevi’s ability lets her essentially break parity on most of the classic stax lines and I’ve specifically designed my deck to dodge artifact hate with as few mana rocks as possible. I had some good expectations going into the game, my mulligan was fine with some early counterspells and ramp. The other decks were an Oloro, a Shalai and Hallar, and a Blue Urza, so all kinda staxy like I said. The first good play I made was countering an early jeweled lotus out of Urza. Keeping Urza off the field is key to stopping any of the deck’s shenanigans. The first thing that kept me ahead was the urza player following up with a winter orb. This would normally mean that we can only untap one land per turn, but with Derevi I completely dodge that by being able to use her ability to untap my own lands after attacking. At some point in the early game I also had the choice to tutor either a drannith magistrate or bloom tender to the field. While I initially wanted the bloom tender for ramp, I realized that the Shalai and Hallar player would be able to cast their commander through all of the existing stax so I went with that to shut them down. It allowed me to maintain some level of control and interaction, especially when other artifact hate pieces were thrown into the mix. I also tutored up a toski to the field in the late game so that I could keep digging for win attempts and interaction. Toski + derevi on a board that can’t really cast spells would allow me to always have the mana needed to stop whatever people were doing. Unfortunately this would mean that the game would go really really really really long. The stax kept adding up from every side with the last board state of the game featuring an archon of emeria + back to basics lock. What this means is that 90% of the lands don’t untap. We ended up drawing because the board was just hard stalled. I think the biggest thing I could’ve done was try to more aggressively go for wins. It was clear that everyone else was just trying to slow down wins without any real interaction. I was just afraid of being the first to try to win and give the game to the next person to win. By the time we hit turns I finally had a hand with enough counterspells and a win attempt, but no turns to go for it. In fact, our game took so long that we were the last to finish. Judges and players were crowded around our table wondering if the game would end in a reasonable amount of time. Round one ended with our table being the only draw out of the 40+ tables.

Game 2 was really funny because 2 of my opponents were the same as the last game. It turns out being the only table to draw really messes with the swiss system pairings. The fourth player just happened to be the bottom seed of the winners so he was stuck with us. I was facing the Shalai and Hallar and the Urza deck from last time with our new challenger being Yuriko. I won’t spend too much time talking about this game. It was really just the same thing. Stax cards were being thrown around and I maintained a good level of control, but not actually being able to advance my boardstate. This was mostly thanks to a clutch carpet of flowers with a mono blue deck at the table. It helped me not worry about missing more than a few land drops in the early game. The Yuriko player would’ve been scary had they not been caught up in trying to dismantle the locks we assembled. One interesting misplay I made was when the Urza player did a desperate intuition. They curiously put a fetch land in the pile with the other options being a draw spell and a cyclonic rift. Of course we would give them the fetch land. This was during combat on my turn and I had the chance to rest in peace to exile the other cards from their graveyard. I chose instead to hold up the mana for an aven mindcensor in case one of the other players tried to accomplish something. He surprised all of us when he used that fetchland to put a mystic sanctuary on the battlefield untapped and was then able to grab his cyclonic rift. It put all of us on high alert because if the cyclonic rift resolved, it would dismantle all of our control pieces and he would be able to win with what he had. I had completely forgotten that Mystic sanctuary was a card that could be fetched and I definitely would’ve played differently had I known about it. Unfortunately, I feel that was the moment that guaranteed we would go to turns. It was funny because the Urza player didn’t fire off the cyclonic rift, it was the Yuriko player who did. It set off a chain of events + a judge call that essentially put us at turns. Once again, I ended up sitting there with all the interaction I needed, but it was all for ensuring a game draw. I don’t think I messed up in not trying to go for it earlier. We all knew that Yuriko could win fast, and Urza presented a winning board state much faster than the last game. I don’t regret any of the actions I took besides the rest in peace, but that was a lack of game knowledge more than anything.

Game 3 was probably the worst one I played today. Once again, someone from my last game, the Urza player, came with me. We sat down with two very interesting and off meta decks: Sram and Daryl. Yes the Daryl from the walking dead if you must know. Urza and I for sure kept wayyyy too greedy hands expecting to hit something early one. Unfortunately, we were both punished and allowed Sram to get so out of hand with auras that he just ended up alpha striking the Urza player. He would’ve killed me too had I not hit a timely spellseeker to grab a bounce spell. Unfortunately again, I made a mistake and bounced the Sram too early without even trying to politic in getting him to kill daryl first. That was probably the missplay that decided the game right there. From there he could never suit up his sram and Daryl was allowed to pop off with untappers, deathtouch givers, and a massive board that I couldn’t block ever. I dug as deep as I could, but any creature I played would’ve died to Daryl. I kinda got ran over, but the game went to turns with Sram and Daryl tying for second place. I think I came into the game with too much of a greedy mindset as well as not knowing how to adapt given how long and similar my first two games were. Definitely a stamina thing and a lesson in why you absolutely NEVER keep one landers. 

There was a round 4, but due to no shows I ended up not playing so I ended the day 0-1-3. Overall, I guess I’m satisfied with how I performed though I definitely will be bringing a deck that can try to win faster if I ever decide to participate in a tournament again. Most of the people were nice, we were all having a good time during our living nightmare boardstates so it didn’t feel as painful. I still wish I could’ve made some better mid game decisions, but what can ya do.

Wow, that was probably the longest article yet! If you read all of that I appreciate it. Reflecting on the games you play can definitely make you a better player and that was kinda what this was. If you have any specific questions about moments in the game I most certainly happy to answer stuff in the comments whether it’s here or on twitter. The last day of the con is tomorrow and I will definitely be reflecting on the experience as a whole so look out for that tomorrow night!