Pattern Recognition #313 - Slow Grow 5, Weeks 1 and 2

Features Pattern Recognition

berryjon

22 February 2024

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Hello Everyone! My name is berryjon, and I welcome you all to Pattern Recognition, TappedOut.Net's longest running article series. Also the only one. I am a well deserved Old Fogey having started the game back in 1996. My experience in both Magic and Gaming is quite extensive, and I use this series to try and bring some of that to you. I dabble in deck construction, mechanics design, Magic's story and characters, as well as more abstract concepts. Or whatever happens to catch my fancy that week. Please, feel free to talk about each week's subject in the comments section at the bottom of the page, from corrections to suggested improvements or your own anecdotes. I won't bite. :) Now, on with the show!

And welcome back! This is my first report for the Slow Grow Tournament, and I'm eager to get into it.

WEEK 1

There are no card switched out this week as it's the first week. Instead, I'm nervous as heck, shuffling and gold fishing while waiting for things to start.

ROUND 1 - FIGHT

Pantlaza, Sun-Favored is first, and who in their right mind thought a Cascade Commander that makes Maelstrom Wanderer look weak was a good thing? Wizards? No one is going to step up and accept this? Fine. I'm second, with Anikthea, Hand of Erebos third. Our fourth player is a relatively new player who has a Hakbal of the Surging Soul deck.

That hasn't been properly constructed. Or sleeved. So Pantlaza and myself do a crash rebuild of her deck becuase all the cards are there, they're just not there. Which takes us between five to ten minutes and we get her deck sleeved and shuffled while we should be playing.

Look, I love new players. New players are important.

COME PREPARED PLEASE

Anyway, once we actually went into the game, thinks went quickly-ish. I had a turn 2 Prismatic Lens, and the Enchantress deck rolled on to taking First Blood from the Dinosaur deck. He responds with a Raging Swordtooth that takes out my blocking Servos and starts to go stupidly wide. I recover with a [Whirler Rogue]] and her pair of Thopters, but I'm just enough of a balance that neither the Dinosaur or the Enchanter deck can hit me without leaving themselves wide open.

The Merfolk deck is doing ... something, but I'll be damned if I know what. I didn't write anything down.

Anyway, I play Darksteel Juggernaut and it's an 8/8 with no evasion. So naturally, it gets hit with a Path to Exile because the Dino didn't want something that could be bigger than anything he had to be on the table, ignoring how it would have to attack each turn, and thus spend most of the game tapped. But hey, extra land!

I drop Enchanter's Bane, and proceed to invest more heavily in the three-way balancing act between the Dinos and the Enchantments, and prevents the latter from playing their Nyxborn Behemoth because they were afraid to pay 12 life each turn to keep it.

But time was called, and I had a Psychosis Crawler on the field, and two cards in hand.

Then I draw a Tidings into a Coveted Jewel (free thanks to Saheeli), into a Thirst for Knowledge into Reverse Engineer into an Echo Storm onto the Coveted Jewel. In told? I draw NINETEEN (19) cards in the turn and come in second place for it. 5 points.

ROUND 2 - FIGHT!

Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit and his Partner, Sam, Loyal Attendant are first. Anje Falkenrath is second, I am third, and Shorikai, Genesis Engine is fourth.

I get Etherium Sculptor on turn 2, and so does Shorikai, and we become Sculptor Buddies! (High Five!) On Turn 3, I put down the Retrofitter Foundry for free, and a discounted Magnifying Glass. The Food player drops Treebeard, Gracious Host, and the game becomes archenemy at that point as his engine is rolling. I play carefully as Shorikai is a bigger threat, but Anje comes through with removal and my own Into the Roil to help keep it and its huge Hobbits down. Sadly, he fires off a Toxic Deluge to wipe most of the board, but Saheeli, being Saheeli, can start my recovery far quicker, and the Shorikai deck stumbles when his bevvy of token:Pilots are suddenly all dead.

After that, it's a game of constant defense, and I end up in second place on life totals behind the Food deck. Five more points.

I resolve to get a damned way to get around or through that life total monster some way.

ROUND 3 - FIGHT

Bartolome del Presidio is first... Wait. What deck is he in? Not in the Clavileno, First of the Blessed or the Carmen, Cruel Skymarcher deck. I know that The Professor built a Budget Precon level deck with him as the Face Commander (watch it!) but there is no Precon Deck with that creature as the Face... What gives?

JUDGE!

I'm Second with a second Frodo and Sam deck third, with Tivit, Seller of Secrets in fourth. (I don't face him next week, but he apparently put Time Sieve into his deck.)

Anyway, I am off to a slow start, and have to do some quick public threat assessment and diplomacy to keep Saheeli alive for a full round to score me the two points. I play Coveted Jewel, and it gets passed around the table, but is kept out of the Vampire's hands as we all play keep away with the Treasure. I wind up negotiating with Tivit to get it back so I could fire off Saheeli's Directive for , and I get two Rocks and Myr Battlesphere, which helps stabilize my board state, but doesn't do enough. I wind up in third and 4 points.

14 points total on the Week. Not great, but it's only the first week. Let's see how the rest of this shakes out.

WEEK 2

IN: Sculpting Steel, Blightsteel Colossus, Cityscape Leveler, Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain, Rite of Replication
OUT: Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor, Chief of the Foundry, Swiftfoot Boots, Prototype Portal, Maverick Thopterist

This first week is starting to remove some of the clutter from the deck. I want big swingy Artifact, and I want as many of them as I can get. Sculpting Steel and Rite of Replication start in on that for me, while Cityscape Leveler is not only an 8/8 Trampler, it's also a "Destroy target non-Land Permanent" effect on casting. Not when it enters the Battlefield. When you cast it. Yeah, sure that means I don't get the bonus for making multiples, like say, Meteor Golem, but I want the heavier hitter now, with the followup next week.

Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain is a legitimate second Commander in a deck as artifact heavy as this, and if I draw her, I can keep the gravy train flowing. I put her in without a second guess.

As for removals, Varchild is just gone. He's useless to me. Swiftfoot Boots is also tossed as Saheeli can't wear them. Yes, it's a haste enabler for my big stompers, but it still costs to Equip. Gone. Prototype Portal... I know why this is good, and the card it copies stays on the battlefield, but you need the card you want to copy in your hand, and the mana to start making copies on that turn or later. I can understand why this would be in the deck, but it won't synergize well with how I'm doing it. Maverick Thopterist is gone for being dumb. Yes, he has Improvise to make him cheaper, yes, he makes Thopters. No, I don't care.

Lastly, Chief of the Foundry. If I was building Saheeli into a "Go Wide" deck, which is extremely viable, but I'm not doing it, cutting this card would be unthinkable. Instead, the difference becomes less pronounced as the native power and toughness of my creatures goes up. It's a good card, don't get me wrong, but just not the way I want to take this. Thank you for your service.

ROUND 4 - FIGHT!

I'm at a three player table (Table 7/8, and 8/8 is also 3 players. Myself, with Food Deck Number 3 going first, the Merfolk deck form last week (who managed to sleeve up 98/99 of their deck, leaving an Island undone - PROGRESS!) going second and hoping to Explore her way to Victory, and myself in third.

Draw my first hand and its garbage, go for the second one....

Duplicant, Blightsteel Colossus, Unstable Obelisk, Pilgrim's Eye, Mountain, Island and Seat of the Synod. This is very workable as I have four Artifacts in hand to Accelerate with Saheeli, one of which is an Artifact Land for extra value. Gameplay starts as usual. The Food Deck drops a T1 Essence Warden and takes First blood on me and then their lifetotal starts to go crazy. The Merfolk deck gets a slow start and I am sad to say is effectively a non-entity for the game. I draw a Prismatic Lens on Turn 1, play the Seat, cast the Lens on Turn 2, a third land on Turn 3, and cast Saheeli, creating a Servo.

The Servo is a blocker, and the Food player doesn't go for it, nor the Merfolk player. In fact, I take a little to the face for it because I need the Affinity. I cast Pilgrim's Eye on Turn 4, getting another land, then I uptick Saheeli (to 6) to reduce my next spell by for the Servo, the Seat, the Eye and the Lens. I just have the Blightsteel and a couple other cards, nothing serious. Well, Nothing Serious (tm), and the Sharding Sphinx I just dropped. But I really need that other land to cast the Blightsteel next turn.

Instead, the Food Player casts and activates Hithlain Rope to do some mana fixing (they wanted the second ), giving me the Rope. The rope I am about to hang themselves with as it's an artifact.

Turn 5. Miss the land drop. That's ok. 4 lands. 1 rock. 7 artifacts. Saheeli upticks to 7. I cast Blightsteel Colossuss and the Merfolk player who has only been in this game for three months has no idea what this means.

The Food Player immediately shifts into PANIK NO KALM mode as I explain to Merfolk what the Blightsteel does and why it's in the deck. To hunt and prey on the runaway life totals of Food decks and she asks if I'm going to attack her with it.

Of course not. Food deck first.

Which is good because the Food player spends his turn bulking up his board state, getting ready to weather the storm. I keep the Rope, just in case, and on her turn, the Merfolk player Explores into a Curse of the Swine, and I politely ask her to please wait until after I've killed the Food player before she takes out my Blightsteel, and she agrees.

Turn 6. I smile. The Food Player sees doom coming for him.

(picture entitled "The Turn Before Disaster")

I Ult Saheeli.

You know what's better than one Blightsteel?

TWO BLIGHTSTEELS

I throw everything and the kitchen sink at Sam and Frodo, and they throw everything in front of the two Blightsteels. I get through with doubled Servos, doubled Sphinxes, doubled Eyes, and the Blightsteels wipe out their board for SEVEN poison counters left over. I get 8 Thopters out of the deal thanks to the doubled Sphinxes, meaning I'm on the aggro path here. I recast Saheeli, and drop a Scuttling Doom Engine for free and then Unstable Obelisk. I then use both my Ropes to draw and pass them over to the Merfolk deck, knowing one of those tokens is going to be in exile.

Food Player, clutching their metaphorical pearls, draws. Draws again thanks to ... something or other. And they get the clutch.

Toxic Deluge for 11.

Board wipe except for my Commander, and they take another six from the dying Doom Engine. Time gets called, and they can't rebuild form their life total of 28 to overcome me. The Merfolk player casts their commander again, and I kill it with the Obelisk.

I take first by the skin of my teeth over the Food deck and taking 8 points, Food is second, and Merfolk third. Sorry Merfolk!

ROUND 5 - FIGHT

Player going first is Galadriel, Light of Valinor, a Commander change from Galadriel, Elven-Queen that is slowly adding and removing all the voting cards in favor of mana fixing and Alliance triggers. We'll see how that goes. The Food deck from last round is back, then Magus Lucea Kane. We get into joking about the proliferation of Universes Beyond decks, and how by this time next year, actual Magic will be the exception in terms of product being made, and the surprise that no one was running any of the Doctor Who stuff this year.

NOTE TO SELF - Cybermen Squadron from the Villains deck.

Saheeli on turn 3 thanks to a Mind Stone, and I start to uptick her to make Servos. I don't get much in the way of resources, and there's a lot of politicking. I get Myr Battlesphere out, and my opponents are worried I'll uptick my by-then 8 Saheeli, but when all I had were Myr and the Battlesphere, it would be a waste.

There was a lot of politicking going on, and while I had Whirler Rogue out and enough Myr, I was playing a balancing act of my own. And Saheeli just kept growing until I had something worth copying. The Food deck was going off again, and everyone agreed he had to go down. So I supported as best I could as the other two did their thing. Time was called, and I made a mistake.

You see, I had, by this point, Bosh, Iron Golem, and Unwinding Clock in addition to not a lot of other things because I was hoarding cards in my hand that were otherwise useless. Due to the way things were, I had the last turn, and the 'nid deck to my right was asking me to throw the Unwinding Clock at the Food player, and I'm not quite getting what he's tying to do as he's asking me if I have a response so I crack my Commander's Sphere for nothing, and I don't have anything. He swings and hits the Food player down.

My turn, I draw another land and play it. I cast Magmaquake for five, destroying all the Commanders except for Saheeli - who survives with 2, and collect those points, then I swing for the defenseless Food Player, dealing all the damage I can, then I throw Bosh and the Battlesphere for another 15 damage. I dealt nearly 40 damage to the Food player in a single turn, with others joining in, and in the end?

I'm in second with the Food player having one more life point than me. SO CLOSE! I misunderstood what the 'Nid player wanted, and I missed out on 1st! Darn it! He wanted me to throw the Unwinding Clock at the Food player's last Blocker, which would have allowed his Ravener to get through and do enough damage to put him down to fourth.

My bad. 7 points instead of 8. Still I've more than doubled my total points.

ROUND 6 - FIGHT

I'm first. Deep Clue Sea is second with the Face Commander. Marneus Calgar is third, and the same Galadriel as last time is fourth.

At this point, the Judge comes up to me and informs me specifically for this blog post. Because he reads it. He tells me that each week, tables are randomly assigned, then the second and third tables are matched up by the points earned that day, rather than overall to the tournament. Fine by me.

My opening hand is stupidly good. You know what? I'm not going to tell you. I'm going to SHOW you.

(I couldn't ask for a better opening hand if I tried)

Yeah. Shaeeli on Turn 2 with a protective Servo. Then I have the Loyal Drake for additional card draw. And Tidings for even more. And Scrabbling Claws, because why not?

Naturally, I was unassailable, but couldn't close the game out on anyone until the Morska, Undersea Sleuth decided that I was the threat. To be fair, I was. He had over 15 Clues, Armed with Proof, Detective of the Month, and then Merchant of Truth. So yeah, that was lethal. He swung at me, and I was ready to take the loss when Gladriel swung in!

Galadhrim Ambush for the Save! Amazing! Beautiful! High Fives were delivered for the save.

The poor Detective looked at me. I looked at him. He knew what was about to happen to him.

One Magaquake later and a Cityscape Leveler to deal with the things that Magmaquake didn't kill left facing down a mostly empty board, and I got a full set of points for killing everyone's Commander. I swung at him with my team, and knocked him down to 6 life.

As a note, I was still at 40 life at this point. I had Thopters coming out of the woodwork. The only one who was. Because no one could get through my blockers. Time was called, and I wasn't going to get another turn, so I cast Unstable Obelisk and seriously, people need to read that card. It's not just a mana rock.

The Detective recasts his Commander and give him Haste ... somehow. Not sure. But without Detective of the Month to make him unblockable, I was untouchable, so he went for the person he didn't like. The one who had prevented him from winning and taking me out. Galadriel. He swings for lethal!

I crack the Unstable Obelisk because mana is not a problem for me for the second time this evening and I take out his Commander. SAV...?

No, he Path to Exile's his own Commander, preventing me from getting the save point, and gaining enough life to put him back up into second place.

The other two players are in no state to close out the game, so we roll through back to me and I take home the win. 9 points for 1st place, 1st blood, killing all opponents Commanders, and keeping Saheeli alive for a full round. That's 24 points on the evening, third highest overall for the week, and sitting at 38 points grand total, a mere 10 behind 1st place. I'm 7th overall.

Four more weeks to go.

See you all next week when I talk about something else! Maybe Thunder Junction, maybe I work on my Custom set some more, maybe I talk about Mechanic E? We'll see.

Until then, please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job (now), but more income is always better, and I can use it to buy cards! 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!