Pattern Recognition #361 - Slow Grow Finale

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

27 March 2025

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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 everyone to the last issue of this year's Slow Grow Tournament! Weeks 5 and 6 are before me, and I'm still at the bottom of the standings when this starts. Will I pull myself out of effectively last place? Who knows!

Yeah, you've all seen the trend this year. There's no avoiding this roller coaster to the ground.

WEEK 5

IN: Fall of the Thran, Shared Animosity, Cavalcade of Calamity, Impact Tremors, Growing Ranks
OUT: Terramorphic Expanse, Avenger of Zendikar, The Mending of Dominaria, Vengeful Regrowth, Titania, Protector of Argoth

The removals were all very simple. They were all expensive cards with MV or higher, and I wanted to at least pretend that I was getting my mana curve under control. And taking out the Expanse was because I wanted to trim a single land, and it was on the block after Evolving Wilds was gone.

Moving in though, was a little more direct. Fall of the Thran is technically Mass Land Destruction And Thus BAD, but that's only if it isn't allowed to fully resolve. The plan with it is simple. Blow everything up, and use my Commander's advantage of being able to pull Deserts out of the graveyard along with the Saga doing pulling of its own to get the best results and give me a resource advantage. Shared Animosity is in as an additional boon for my attacking Sand Warriors. Yes, it's not that great, but it scales with the number of attacking creatures, and the card itself is cheap. Cavalcade is another attacking-for-value card, one that doesn't synergize with my other make-my-Warriors-grow types of cards, but it is a great way to double the damage I'm throwing out and to deliver damage even if the creatures are blocked.

Impact Tremors is a late add, and I really should have done so much earlier. Passive damage when creatures enter the battlefield? Yes please!

And lastly, Growing Ranks (but not of Itlamoc, or of the Dead) was a cute inclusion I made to give me some passive Warrior generation if I can't draw or recycle any of my Deserts.

But on with the show!

ROUND 13 - FIGHT!

Commodore Guff is going first, Imotekh the Stormlord is second (hey, haven't played them yet!), Jenson Carthalion, Druid Exile was the new Commander for the Twenty Ways To Win deck that I played back in the first week and first round. I'm last in points and in turn order.

Jared mills to five, and I keep an opening hand with 3 lands, a Desert, and Arcane Signet. So I Signet on Turn 2, play my Commander on turn 3, and drop the Desert on the same turn to get my ball rolling. Sadly, Jared took First Blood, but that's OK.

Nekron player fetches the One Ring on their next turn, and starts that BS. Then Jared, Turn 3, does something odd. They cast Shiny Impetus on the largest creature on the board. Hazezon himself! That's awkward. Anyway, I realize that I need to do some board cleanup, so I am able to cast Cavalcade of Calamity and throw Sand Warriors at Guff to kill him and Hazezon goes at the relatively defenseless Nekron. Relatively being the operative word here as it's a hit on the One Ring's protection.

Guff drops Tamiyo, the Moon Sage and uses her to lock down the One Ring with three counters on it, putting the Necron on a timer. I promise to not kill her, but to keep her away from her ultimate. And I keep that promise.

Next couple turns are quick, but I have a plan. I have something dangerous. I have five Commander Damage on the Nekron player, and they are low on blockers. I have been playing Deserts and I have 8 Sand Warriors now, thanks to a couple of recursions fro the Graveyard.

And I have my alternate Commander in hand.

I check the board state and I'm in the clear. I play Jetmir, Nexus of Revels, and he's creature number 10. The Party Is In Full Swing, and I swing out. The Nekron player takes Hazezon, for 8 Double-Striking Trample, which if it connects, is Comander Kill on him. I throw a couple Sand Warriors at Gruff's Planeswalkers to cut them down and the rest at Jared. Jared is down to 8 life, and the Nekron throws everything in the way, leaving them with a mere 6 points of damage away from dying at the hands of my Commander.

The Planeswalkers are mostly dead again, but they have plenty of mana and card draw. And they play Nevinyrral's Disk to give everyone the side-eye.

The Nekron player responds, on their turn with Their Name is Death, killing my board. Which is a damned shame. A real damned shame.

Because I have a backup plan. A vicious and evil backup plan. I have enough mana. I cast my Commander again, and follow that up with The Fall of the Thran.

No more Lands. And if the Planeswalker uses one of their mana rocks to pop the Disk to take out the board state again... They destroy my Saga, which means no one gets their lands back. Except Hazezon is in play. And I haven't played my land for the turn. So I play one of my Deserts out of the graveyard, and start the Warrior train rolling again with a grin.

And they understand the play, how I can bounce back faster in the face of all this.

So the Nekron player tries to combo off once the Thran has finished resolving, and I happen to have 12 Sand Warriors in play from six Deserts coming out of the graveyard and onto the battlefield. They have the mana to do so, and if they don't, I kill everyone.

They barely hit their combo, and that's when the Disk is cracked, blowing everything up. They drop Chandra, Awakened Inferno and start putting Emblems on me to kill me before I can come back. I come in second, but they lose a point for killing the player in last place.

...

holy shit, Jetmir and The Fall worked

ROUND 14 - FIGHT!

I am first at the table, and tied for last in points with the second player, Gandalf, Westward Voyager (again!), and Caesar, Legion's Emperor in the third spot, but more points. Rounding out our table is a non-Tournament Hakbal of the Surging Soul deck that is still barely out of precon stage.

I have Parallel Lives in hand, and keep. Then Caesar rolls out a land, Sol Ring and Rakdos Signet on turn 1. That's not a good sign. And yet, Gandalf is able to deliver First Blood on Caeser with his T1 Elves. Gandalf and I come to the same agreement we had with Dogmeat last time, we focus on them, then roll off for first place, call time, then we reset the game state back a bit to play it out for the non-tournament player.

I go on to play the Lives, and then next turn play a Desert and slap down Map the Wastes to get a total of 12 Sand Warriors! Woooo! But at that point, Gandalf kills Ceaser, and I lose the roll off to take 2nd place. Hey, I won it last time, this is just fair. We then roll back the board state a little, and play out the rest of the game for Hakbal's sake. I win that, but it doesn't count, and Gandalf and I spend some time walking him through how his deck works, and the combos and synergies in it.

ROUND 15 - FIGHT!

Satya, Aetherflux Genius is first, Morska is back and in second, I'm third, and Gandalf from last table is last in turn order. Morska missed a week, and has 2 less points than I, so I'm not at the bottom of the standings!

I mill to 6, and Morska takes First Blood on me with a Mother of Runes of all things!

You know what? I ran Clerics before it was cool, before Onslaught. I've killed people with a Samite Healer. I can respect that.

Early game is very quiet, but Gandalf has his commander out, and then casts Caged Sun to trigger his Commander.

I have Coat of Arms atop my library, and while he gets double of all his mana now as his original Caged Sun calls , the copy goes . And the Satya player's face says it all. He is studious about keeping up counterspell mana at all times, even when it would be to his advantage to do something else, and I keep Coat in my hand to keep him honest and slowed down massively. And the others forget the card is there, but Satya and I? No, we're playing the best game of 'I know you know I know you know' ever.

I get up to TWENTY Warriors because of land recursion, and I'm about to commit. I have a backup plan, and everyone else is getting up in problems.

Then Satya pulls out an infinite Combat Combo with Lightning Runner and is able to beat me down.

Oh well. That's the week.

WEEK 6

IN: Soul Warden, Essence Warden, Anointer Priest, Purphoros, God of the Forge, Warleader's Call
OUT: World Shaper, Unholy Heat, Eccentric Farmer, Turntimber Sower, Scaretiller

The cards going out all all cards that when I had them in my hand, just didn't seem worth it to play now. They are much better cards in a Yuma deck. Except Unholy Heat, which requires Delirium, and that's quite iffy.

Cards going in are three Soul Sisters (and I need to fill out my collection of those quite seriously, as I'm missing playsets of several), to gain life when creatures enter, and two more Impact Tremor effects to hurt people when creatures enter. You know, what I like to do all the time!

As this is the last week, there will only be two rounds, and they will be 75 minutes each, rather than 50. This is to give the store time to hand out prizing at the end, rather than have things drag on.

I'm also tapped out, and have to go to work in the morning, so I'm grateful for the option to peace out early.

ROUND 16 - FIGHT!

Dogmeat is first, Satya is second, and I am third at our table of three, but I have lowest points.

I don't have a lot of notes about this round, as my focus was on something else.

The Dogmeat player didn't want to be there. At all. They were sullen, abrasive, not actually hostile, but their actions and their words were fully indicative of a person who would rather be somewhere else.

Ladies and Gentlemen, and everyone betwixt and between and outside that... no one is forcing you to play. It's just a game. Go and have fun. If you sit down to play Magic, and it's a chore?

Value yourself and be somewhere else. Participating in Magic (because I can assure you, no playing was going on on Dogmeat's end), and hating every minute of it isn't good for you or for anyone else.

To quote the meme, go outside and touch grass instead. Do something for yourself instead.

Anyway, I have an opening hand of 4 lands, Impact Tremors and Warleader's Call. And Sol Ring.

Turn 1, I drop Krosan Verge. Turn 2, a Mountain, cast Sol Ring, and crack the Verge to get Sheltered Thicket and Scattered Groves. Turn 3, Commander, and Scavenger Grounds to get the ball rolling. My Impact Tremors gets countered by Satya, but Warleader's Call goes through on the followup and Satya basically goes 'oh shit'.

I cast Sevinne's Reclamation on the Impact Tremors. on the next turn.

While this is happening, Dogmeat gets their Commander out first, and while I have Hazezon for the trade, they stay back that turn allowing Satya to take First Blood on Dogmeat, which doesn't make them feel any better about themselves. Instead, they Equip their Commander and they keep throwing themselves into my regenerating Sand Warriors. Over. And Over. And over, even to the point where Satya leaves them an easy opening and they still go after me for ... whatever reason. I don't want to escalate.

I even poke them back with my Cactus Preserve (which would put it into the Graveyard) with the easy kill and they got angry, demanding to know exactly what I was doing and why.

This goes on until Dogmeat gets and equips Mage Slayer and they kill me. Not with Commander Damage though, which they thought it was phrased more like Thorn Elemental or another super-Trample effect. Not much I can do about that except pack up.

I'm still cleaning my space as Satya casts Cyclonic RiftGC (that they had in their hand for a while), and finishes Dogmeat off. Dogmeat isn't happy about that either, but at this point, Satya and I don't care. We played, we enjoyed ourselves, Satya saw what I was doing with my attack with the Preserve, and said that they would have obliged me my plan, but he also wanted to see how Dogmeat would react.

And I was about to draw Dune Chanter with Sevinne's Reclamation in the graveyard. And Doubling Season in hand, waiting since last turn. I would have been able to play them all with careful card ordering, and get out 3 lands for 12 Sand Warriors for 24 damage to each of my opponents, and be able to sweep past their blockers for lethal.

But it's over and done with.

ROUND 17 - FIGHT!

Sidar Jabari of Zhalfir is first, I'm second, and for the last time, I play Gandalf. He and I greet each other like the old friends we are now, and we all settle in for a nice casual game of three player Commander.

Then Sidar drops the Lightning Greaves and puts Knight Exemplar into their graveyard with Entomb.

This deck... lacks anti-flying that isn't a board wipe. So Gandalf and I wind up fighting the Knights, and sadly, they're too focused on graveyard recursion that they fail to notice that they kill me with Commander Damage until it actually happens. They get the +1 for the Kill, and -1 for taking out the lowest player.

Such is life.

Final Results:

Deck Name              WEEK:1  2  3  4  5  6   TOTAL 
Heads I Win, Tails you Lose 19 15 12 12  9  7   74
Endless Punishment          10 11 16 17 11  5   70
Creative Energy             14  9 13 12  9 11   68
Death Toll                  13  9 12 12 12  9   67
Planeswalker Party          12  6 11 11 11  9   60
20 Ways to Win               6 13 11 10 10  8   58
Necron Dynasties            10  6 10 13 12  5   56
Explorers of the Deep       12 11  8  9 10  6   56
Eternal Might               -- 12 14  8 13  9   56
Scrappy Survivors           -- 10 14 13 10  8   55
Jump Scare                  11  7  7  9 12  8   54
Hail! Ceasar!               10  7  8 10  9 10   54
Explorers of the Deep       12 10  7  8  7 10   54
Eternal Might                8  9 11  9  9  7   53
Family Matters               9 11 10 11  7  4   52
Enteral Might                9  7 11 12  6  6   51
Elven Counsel                9  5  7 13  9  7   50
Food and Fellowship         10 10  8  9 11 --   48
Desert Bloom                 7  6  9 10 10  6   48 <- ME!
Calvary Charge               8 11  8  5 -- 12   44
Miracle Worker               9 --  8  7 -- --   24
Jump Scare                   7 -- 10  6 -- --   23
Jump Scare                  12 -- -- -- -- --   12

For participating, I got three packs of Jumpstart Foundations. First pack was Horrors, with a bulk Rare, second pack was Legion with Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, and lastly was Heroic with...

Brigone, Soldier of Meletis.

Oh... oh my... She's giving me ideas.

Thank you all for reading! I'll see you next week when I put together my tournament retrospective and a deck rebuild. Hopefully.

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!