A debate has been brewing this last week over the importance of Mana Leak in Standard, and while both sides laid out well thought out arguments, I think the real card in contention here is Snapcaster Mage. In a recent reddit AMA, Mark Rosewater said he would have liked Snapcaster to be red, but Tiago Chan, the Invitational winner and designer of Snapcaster Mage specifically wanted the card to be blue. Which is ultimately a good thing because Snapcaster is quintessentially a blue card, and not just flavorwise, but in terms of how it tests the skills of its caster. Many blue cards appear underwhelming at first glance, but in the right hands they can have a positively devastating effect on a game.
Brainstorm, for example “only” draws you one extra card, but the insane amount of manipulation it provides so drastically increases the quality of your hand that a single Brainstorm can change the course of a game. How devastating is Vapor Snag right now in Standard? And you do not even break even on card parity, you “lose” a card in the exchange when casting Snag. But just like Brainstorm, a well timed Vapor Snag can turn a game completely around for the blue caster. While both of these cards need to be used at the correct time to be truly powerful, Snapcaster Mage also demands correct application to achieve good value, but with additional layers beyond Brainstorm and Vapor Snag; considering now you have to select which spell to flashback coupled with how important a 2/1 body is. Sometimes the correct play is simply to jam Snapcaster on turn 2 as a bear.
Looking for a cheap alternative to bring to Friday Night Magic? Want to give another deck archetype a try but scared off by the cost of things like Snapcaster Mage or Primeval Titan? Well look no further than Stefano’s list from FNM the night before the pre-release! You will find a number of popular cards such as Delver of Secrets and Vapor Snag. But do you know what you will not find? Any rares at all, minus the Grafdigger’s Cage in the sideboard. Give it a look!
Stefano's Blue Skies
| Creatures (23) 4 Phantasmal Bear 4 Porcelain Legionnaire 4 Delver of Secrets 4 Stitched Drake 4 Phantasmal Dragon 3 Stormbound Geist Sorceries/Instants (15) 4 Vapor Snag 4 Ponder 4 Mana Leak 3 Gut Shot Land (22) 20 Island 2 Ghost Quarter | Sideboard (15) 3 Grafdigger’s Cage 3 Corrosive Gale 3 Negate 2 Steel Sabotage 2 Flashfreeze 2 Dismember |
I could have won this game easily. I had two different ways to keep my opponent from locking me out, but instead I let his Venser live and I never got another combat step again thanks to his Stonehorn Dignitary. Game 2 went much the same as I never drew a counterspell and he resolved his combo once again. Looks like my chances of making top 8 were going up in smoke…….
And then my opponent attacked with his Stonehorn Dignitary into my Geist of Saint Traft, Spirit Token and untapped Moorland Haunt. I made another 1/1 and snap blocked the pesky Rhino. After his Dignitary died and he used Venser’s blinking ability on a land, I realized I could win this game. So I did, and then won Game 3 off of Delvers and countermagic.
The quarterfinals were a quick, uninteresting mirror match. My semifinals opponent was playing a Grixis control deck, and I lost fairly decisively in Game 1. While he just buried me in card advantage and a plethora of removal the first game, he managed to resolve 2 Curse of Death’s Hold in the second game, effectively blanking every creature in my deck except for one Dungeon Geists and the one Phantasmal Image in my hand. I had virtually no way to win the game, but I still did not concede. I figured when he played a Consecrated Sphinx I could copy it with my Image and then draw a lot of cards……
So he played a Sphinx, and I copied it. On his draw step we both drew until we had well over 20 cards in our hands. At the end of exchanging all our Sphinx triggers, my opponent had 10 cards left in his deck. I instantly recognized I had a way to win the game: I could Snapcaster Mage my Thought Scours and target him. After getting in a counter war over a Vapor Snag on his Consecrated Sphinx (so he couldn’t actually kill me) I managed to resolve 3 Thought Scours and milled him out of the game. Game 3 was a game of protecting Delvers while he stalled on lands and died to a pair of Insectile Aberrations. I split in the finals with Clint Burnell, getting the invite and a share of the travel voucher.
This is not so much a tournament report though as it is a story illustrating a few key concepts that are important for winning:
- You will make Mistakes.
Everyone screws up, even the greats. Bob Maher, Jon Finkel, Luis Scott Vargas, they’ve all made blunders in high profile matches. Do not dwell on the mistakes you make in a game, because if you do, you can snowball those mistakes and toss a game that was within your reach even after making that mistake.
- Always look for a Route to Victory
Remember, you are looking to win the game. There may be an unconventional way to do it, but always try and stay flexible and find that way to win
- Never Concede
The easiest way to lose any game is by giving up. You may think you are dead, but do not just concede. (There are actually points where conceding a game is strategically correct-mostly due to time considerations). Do you need to get lucky and topdeck like 5 cards? It can happen. Do you need your opponent to make a grievous error? That can happen too. You are not dead until you are dead.
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