Rocky Mountain Yetis

“Most everyone is mad here.”

I now have this curious habit of every winter and summer, scheduling late nights and early mornings to play Magic the Gathering with a whole host of amazing folks from all over the world. And I am oh so grateful to do it. Thank you David Firth Bard and team for organizing this great event every year and to all my opponents for making this event a blast.

This Summer Derby sported the Atlantic format and I played my favorite TwiddleVault deck. My current version runs Glasses of Urza and it’s the best 60th card for the deck since it helps in a lot of different situations. I ran a similar deck in the Winter Derby this year to the Top 16 but fell short of my first elimination win. I’ve been playing a version of this for about three years now and recently wrote up an Ode to Glasses from my May matches where I finally got to play the TwiddleVault mirror in a league finals. But let’s get to our matches this summer!

Batch I – Down the Rabbit Hole

Alex Blanchette – Power Surge
“Have I gone mad? I’m afraid so. You’re entirely bonkers. But I’ll tell you a secret. All the best people are.”

Alex is on a fabulous brew. I appreciate his take on applying mana burn in the Atlantic format this Summer Derby. Game 1 he plays lots of mana and a candelabra. Oh boy. He hits me with big burn and takes me below 10 life. I play an erhnam djinn but he disintegrates it. We play draw go a bit and see 12 new cards from my howling mines. I get nothing. He gets nothing. He attacks me to 4 with a giant factory and candelabra. The turn before I die I draw a much needed twiddle and can go off. Game 2 I get a turn 1 library. On his first turn he balances it away and makes me discard to 4 cards in hand. Ouch. I eventually draw two lands so I can play howling mine, then time vault, then twiddle. He adds one, then two power surges to his side. Continual damage sources are not what I want to face when taking endless turns. I’m able to kill one with a blue elemental blast. I can recall the blast and kill the other one. I slowly take my turns at low life and use all 4 recalls but am able to take enough turns to get there with ernies. 

Nic Scar – RUG

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!”

Nic came out on the attack. Game 1 I start with a library that he immediately strips. He plays sol ring and lotus to add a pixies and serendib to apply fast beats. I die quickly. Game 2 starts slower. I can reb 2 dibs and recall my ancestral for value. Recalls allow me to stop his guys and slowly pull ahead and win at 1 life. Game 3 I mulligan away a 7 of strip, trop, 3 mines, and 2 recalls, thinking that on the draw, it’s not fast enough against his blitz. I end up keeping a very similar 5 card hand with strip, trop, 1 howling mine, recall, and twiddle. I draw another howling mine. I play strip mine into tropical into howling mine and he chaos orbs my tropical to slow me down. He plays pixies and then dib. I draw another blue source and cast time walk with a chance to recall it. But he has the reb and stops me in my tracks. On his turn with me tapped out he can recall two bolts and kill me. I had a string of recalls in my hand if he didn’t have the reb but he did. I’m now 1-1 in the derby and not off to a great start.

 

Josef Malek – Unknown

‘What does it call itself, I wonder? I do believe it’s got no name — why, to be sure it hasn’t!’ She stood silent for a minute, thinking: then she suddenly began again. ‘Then it really has happened, after all! And how, who am I? I will remember, if I can! I’m determined to do it!’

I apologize, Josef, that I have no memory of this match whatsoever. I woke up at 5am to get some Summer Derby matches in and immediately after this match I left for the airport to go on vacation. If you see this and remind me of your deck, hopefully it’ll jog some memories that I can include here. Josef was an enjoyable opponent to play but that’s everything I remember. 

James Lebak – RUG
“Flamingoes and mustard both bite. And the moral of that is—“Birds of a feather flock together.‘ ‘Only mustard isn’t a bird,’ Alice remarked. ‘Right, as usual,’ said the Duchess: ‘what a clear way you have of putting things!“

Game 1 He starts with a taiga, a turn 2 factory, a turn 3 taiga, and attacks with that factory. I start with a first turn howling mine. Turn 2 I leave up two blue mana, but the spell never comes. Turn 3 I can time walk with the mine in play, then transmute out a vault with 2 twiddles in hand and win. Game 2 I get the goods. Demonic tutor, mox, howling mine, 2 cities of brass but whatever. He drops a turn 2 copper tablet. Thats going to bite! My turn 3 is tutor for time walk and he doesn’t have the reb. I regrowth the walk, recall both, add an ernie and outrace the copper tablet. 

Batch II – Off with their heads!

I’m 3-1 so not out of the running but not out of wonderland. I’ve got to run hot against four more tough opponents to make the playoffs.

Frederic Plats – LionDibBolt

‘Well! I’ve often seen a cat without a grin,’ thought Alice ‘but a grin without a cat! It’s the most curious thing I ever saw in my life!’

Game 1 He wins the die and starts with tundra, savannah cats, lotus, dib. Sheesh. I play island, go. 

He attacks me, time walks, attacks again, plays dib and says go. I’m at 10. I play another land and a time vault. It’s all I can do. He attacks me to 2 and says go with two untapped tundras. I can play my third land and tap out for timetwister, but I need to pull a rabbit out of my hat. Facing lethal, I draw gold. I get lotus, time walk, jet, howling mine, and wheel. I can play time walk and howling mine off the lotus and mox. I draw demonic tutor and think. I’m afraid of facing disenchant or mana drain with his 2 tundras, so I recall and time walk again and then DT for another twiddle, tapping down one tundra. He doesn’t play disenchant, so now I can twiddle for extra turns and win. Game 2 I keep a hand of island, strip, howling mine, recall, chaos orb, ernham, and twiddle. Decent in a bunch of directions and better since he mulliganed. He starts with library, lotus, dib. Interesting. He wants to race. My game plan is to orb his dib and strand him with nothing and eventually strip his library before he gets to 7. I drop my two lands then play chaos orb. He plays his own chaos orb, and uses it successfully on my island. I don’t draw mana, but I can tap my lone land to orb his dib. I find another mana to play howling mine. I have a spare mine, recall, and vault in my hand but I don’t want my vault to die. He plays a fifth land but casts nothing. I play a sylvan library instead of a second howling mine. With only 3 land, I’m afraid of the energy flux. He EOT disenchants the sylvan. I’m confused why not the mine but I see later that he had a dust to dust. He psi blasts me to 10 and chain lightnings me to 7. Scary. I play ernie with him at 11, then attack him to 7. I strip a land, leaving him with one untapped volc. I play time vault and twiddle it. He could reb it, but that doesn’t put me in a bad spot and he only has 3 cards in hand. He doesn’t and I can recall it next turn and ernie takes the last of his nine lives. 

Koos Cramer – The Deck
“Why, they’re only a pack of cards, after all. I needn’t be afraid of them!”

But I was, I was very much afraid. We all know Koos is a great competitor. I didn’t know what he was on, but I assumed he was wielding the fierce the deck. Game 1 I have a library. He has a library. He swords his own factory and balances. I have a howling mine and library in play, but I can’t quite get to 7 in hand. He is using his library while I counter a chaos orb and mana drain a city in a bottle. I have recall for time walk, but can’t resolve that with counter backup. Then I draw wheel and want to use the counterspell to protect it. I want to postpone playing the wheel, wanting to get that extra time walk turn. After my mana drain, I recall for 2 going for the time walk. He counters it. Next turn he mind twists away my twister, wheel, and mine. He can then attack with factories, play time walk, play serra, then recall time walk for the win. Game 2 I start with a turn 1 howling mine, which is a bit risky against 6-7 disenchants. Luckily, he can’t kill it on turn 1. He starts with underground sea. I draw and play library. He plays plains. I strip it. I’m able to resolve ancestral, and recall for ancestral. I get off a mana short, then time walk with 2 mines in play plus library and he concedes. Game 3 He starts with a turn 1 library again. I also have turn 1 library. What a match. He plays time walk when he can. I rebuttal with time vault and twiddle. After I get 2 blue lands into play, at the end of his turn, I draw with library. I look at my hand and have 8 cards, but no fourth land. I decide to cast ancestral to either bait a counter, or draw into land. It resolves. On my turn, I can play 2 moxen and a land, mana short his last 2 lands, play vault and twiddle. Next I braingeyser for 5 and twiddle and get the goods to win.

Nic Allard – BRW Goodstuff

“I’m late I’m late for a very important date!”

I won the die roll and get a very good hand. Volc, pearl, howling mine, demonic tutor, twiddle, sol ring, and timetwister.

I opt for the turn 1 mine over the twister. He starts with library, lotus, hippie. My second turn I cast demonic tutor for vault and twiddle it. Then timetwister, then transmute out a second mine and pass. His second turn he plays scrubland, lotus again and sedge troll. My third turn I go off and win with a counterspell ready for a disenchant. After game 1 he has to run and concedes the match to me. 

Capncakes – TrollDisco and Legends

“Sometimes I’ve believed 6 impossible things before breakfast.”

Somehow I’ve made it through the gauntlet and am one win away from the playoffs. Let’s get this tea party started. Game 1 I mulligan to 6 and keep library, sol ring, wheel, vault, but no colored mana. I start with library. I play no cards and go up to 6 in hand. He plays a hippie which will even out my library. He then adds a Tetsuo Umezawa and a Gwendolyn Di Corci. Sweet. His hippie eats my wheel. I still have a recall but am losing cards fast. I play the land I draw, sol ring, glasses of urza and reveal he has Dib, braingeyser, shatter, badlands, and underground sea. Ouch. I demonic tutor for twister and hope I dont have to discard it. On his turn gwendolyn and hippie eat my twister and a land. He plays sengir with shatter mana up. I think I can transmute into lotus and play recall, but I get my math wrong and dont have enough mana to get back twiddle, lotus, and transmute. So I just recall and cast timetwister but don’t get what I need and we go to game 2. He starts the assault with a dib. He attacks me to 9 then taps out for a juzam. I can transmute out time vault, cast 2 twiddles and he concedes to my 3 recalls. Game 3 I keep trop, lotus, mine, 2 sylvans, ancestral, and braingeyser. I debate if I should save the lotus for the geyser, but I want the mine out early. If he spends mana on killing it, I can probably sneak through ancestral. He starts with mox, mox, land, dib. The race is on. My first turn I draw twiddle and play Trop, lotus, mine, sylvan. He casts demonic tutor and thinks. We joke if he will get the library that he hasn’t drawn all derby. I’m sure he picks mind twist. On my second turn I draw for turn, draw from mine, draw 3 for ancestral, draw 2 from sylvan for a total of 7 new cards. I love this deck. I keep 3 twiddles, and counterspell. I play another trop, thinking I’ll twiddle his dib to keep up my life while drawing lots of cards. On his third turn, he plays a 4th mana and mind twists me for 3. He hits land, braingeyser, and counterspell. My third turn, I see 4 new cards and find a time vault. I play my third land, vault, twiddle and with 2 more twiddles I get there. I secured Top16 for the Summer Derby!

Top 16 matches – Let’s play croquet!

Scott Bradley – TrollDisco (streamed on Old School MTG Live)

“It’s rather curious, you know, this sort of life! I do wonder what can have happened to me! When I used to read fairy tales, I fancied that kind of thing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one! There ought to be a book written about me, that there ought!“

Game 1 is intense. I go first and start with ancestral and glasses of urza. He has disk, mind twist, and demonic tutor and plays his mana vault for fast mana. My second turn I pass with UU up and counter his mind twist. My third turn I play howling mine. His third turn he tutors for and casts ancestral. Turn 4, he plays disk and I mana drain it. My next turn I strip his library, and twiddle his underground sea during his upkeep to delay his disk one more turn.

I pass again and his second disk resolves. But before he can untap it, I use the opening to go off and win. I enjoyed the commentary on this. Mano hated glasses of urza but it did me a solid here. Game 2 I mulligan to 3 with demonic tutor, ancestral, and volc. He chaos orbs my volc and I dont recover. I do play a sapphire and pearl and hurkyl 2 factories, but he REBs it. On to Game 3. I’m on the play and Scott mulligans to 6. I play turn 1 sylvan over mine because him having a turn 1 shatter for the mine would be really bad for me. He plays volc. On my turn I strip his volc and play howling mine. He plays another volc. I chaos orb it. His third turn he plays a factory and is out of colored man. My next turn I win when he can’t cast any spells. 

Will Magrann – The Deck (streamed on SupraliminalFilms)

“What is the use of a book,’ thought Alice, ‘without pictures or conversations?“

Game 1 Glasses of Urza shows me he has no counterspells but 2 disenchants. I use the window to play all 4 recalls on time walks and gain a bunch of resources but still have to timetwister and come up empty. I pass. We have some back and forth, he does deck things and plays mana and draws cards. I play an ernie which he ignores. Eventually at my end of turn he taps his library to draw a card. He has chaos orb in play and 4 untapped mana. In response to his library activation, I twiddle my vault. He counters it. I mana drain his counter. He counters my counter. But I have one more twiddle and gain an extra turn in my end step with him tapped out. I use the third twiddle, find the fourth twiddle, play a second ernham and a sylvan. The ernies attack him to 16, then 12, and I can attack him down to 4 on my last extra turn. But with Sylvan, I draw demonic tutor to regrowth a twiddle and attack for lethal. 

Game 2 I mulligan to 6 he goes to 5. He starts with ancestral. I play time vault. I have wheel and want to get a clear opening. He disenchants my time vault. With him at 3 cards after mulliganing to 5, I choose to play out mine over casting wheel. He mind twists my wheel, braingeyser, and mana short. I’m behind and never catch up. Game 3 I start with library. He starts with library. I draw a card and strip his library. He plays 3 moxen and balance. I wait 3 turns to activate library again, which is a winning play if he doesnt find an answer. He recalls the balance and I discard more cards. I try to get back to 7. He taps out to play serra angel. I use the opening to play land, mox, twister. He drops another angel and I’m on a 2 turn clock. I have time walk, mana drain, and mana short. I have plays. He attacks me to 5. He has fireball I learn later but smartly didn’t walk that into my mana drain. I mana short him and he responds by disenchanting my mox. I go and have to choose if I draw with library or hold up the mana for a recall into time walk. I hold it up and cast ancestral. I can’t library after that. I don’t get what I need. My next card was recall but I still needed to find another turn in the next 3 cards. If I could have mana drained his fireball I probably could have won but he played too tight for that. Well done.

Begin at the beginning,” the King said, very gravely, “And go on till you come to the end: then stop.”

This concludes my adventures in this year’s Summer Derby. Thanks again to the organizers and my opponents and I look forward to the next adventure!