The first thing I noticed about Premodern was that I was very
bad at it. The overarching gameplans and individual technical decisions felt
unfamiliar despite my familiarity with many of the actual cards. In my first Premodern MTGO league, with Dreadnought, I couldn't intuit how hard I should jam the combo, or
if I should first dig for protection, or whether I was equipped to win an
attrition battle (play for the long game). It also took me time to learn what
the various decks in this format are capable of. Seven or eight MTGO leagues
wasn't enough to prepare me for everything out there; in the event
itself I faced three or four intricate decks for the first time.
After Dreadnought
didn't feel right to me, I tried a variety of tempo/reactive decks. I thought my general Magic skillset would translate to these decks more than
something like Replenish, Oath, Survival, or Enchantress. I do not recommend
consciously avoiding the best decks in the format! That's a very bad way
to win Magic tournaments. But I wanted to try some fair Magic decks before moving on to the broken stuff.
The first deck I tried was straight UB
Tog. I liked its combo matchups but aggro felt hard. I hated Foil in the deck,
and didn't love Gush either. These cards make sense in Dreadnought where
you are willing to go down cards and lands to win the game ASAP. Psychatog, on the
other hand, cannot win the game nearly as early as a Dreadnought. Tog is meant
to gain control of the game and then win with a giant Tog turn 7 or later. It
wants to keep its lands in play to win counter wars. I cut the Gushes and Foils
for Fact or Fictions and other counters (Annul and Circular Logic, though in
retrospect maybe Leak would have been better). The deck felt a lot better with
FOFs, but I still felt behind against aggro and Landstill seemed like a
nightmare the one time I faced it.
Next I tried Gro-A-Tog (GAT). My initial
version had Foils (which I hated, for largely the same reason I hated them in UB
Tog), Accumulated Knowledges, no Meddling Mages, no Sleight of Hands, and the
ever-controversial Mox Diamond. Noted Mox hater Lanny made a compelling
argument against Mox in this deck, and what he said matched my experience. Low land
count decks really just can't play Mox Diamond; I tried to make it work by
playing more card advantage, but it was too much of an uphill battle. I went
from thinking Mox was among the best cards in the format to thinking the only
decks that could play multiple Moxen were decks with a very high land count
including spell lands to mitigate flood (i.e. Terravore decks). However, without
Mox, GAT felt too clunky. And the manabase was shaky in general and atrocious versus mana denial decks. Given something like a third of the format
plays Wastelands and/or Ports, this struck me as too significant a downside. Lastly, a
fundamental issue with the strategy of playing a quick Dryad and growing it is
that Dryad doesn't actually get under the powerful things your opponents are doing:
if you play a turn 2 Dryad and your opponent plays a
Dreadnought/Survival/Oath/Standstill/Hermit Druid, you have possibly just lost
the game.
I next tried to build Esper Tog from the ground up. I had such a bad
experience with City of Brass and Gemstone Mine in GAT that I tried to construct
a manabase without them. That doesn't really
work, though. A fetchland manabase is too shaky because you have to choose one
basic or the other when you fetch. This is obvious to most Premodern
players, but I was so used to fetching duals in modern formats that I was counting fetches as a
full source of each of their colors--it doesn't work that way. I learned the
hard way that to play a 3-color manabase, you need to play the rainbow lands, making
it so that a 3-color manabase is functionally a 5-color manabase and you gain
essentially nothing by sticking to only three colors.
I kept thinking about
how most decks I tried were losing to Burn, but I never put in the effort to try
Burn myself. I told myself: too bad against Dreadnought, too hard to get a leg up in the mirror, too basic. (Obvious cope.)
Likewise, I wasn't winning much against Dreadnought, but didn't
feel like learning how to play Dreadnought myself. I claimed I was concerned
about beating Gaea's Blessing (or at least I was concerned with the amount of
time it would take for me to figure how those games played out where your long
game revolves around Brain Freeze and the opponent has multiple Blessings). In
Magic it's important to have a plan, and if you sculpt your entire strategy
around that plan (in this case, Brain Freezing the opponent on turn 15), you had better be
sure it will work. I wasn't sure. (Less obvious than the Burn cope but still likely cope).
I was low on free time the days prior to the event and I
resigned myself to playing something bad. Then a few days before the event Lanny
dropped a Youtube video featuring a GAT list with 4 Mages, 2 Togs, 4 Sleights, 2
Dazes and 0 AKs. This looked on paper like it shored up many of the deck's
weaknesses. I had found AKs to be very clunky but I was afraid to cut them with
Diamonds in the deck because I wanted raw card advantage. Replacing AKs with
Sleights made the deck less clunky without having to play Mox, and Sleights
fixed the mana by providing cheap card selection. Mage also helped with the mana
because the deck plays 13 white sources and only 8 green and black sources, so
you want to play as many blue cards as possible, then white cards next, and as few green/black cards as possible. Mage often eats a removal spell/counter, but it's an easy to cast
2-drop and that's one fewer removal they have for your win conditions. And you
simply cannot afford to have multiple Dryads/Togs stranded in your hand, which
happens often against mana denial decks. I ended up wanting a 9th rainbow source, so I added a single Mox back into the deck. Moxen are horrible in multiples
but I think you need the extra rainbow source, and it's great with Gush and
Armageddon. The one copy was amazing for me and I could imagine playing two,
though your land count becomes sketchy at that point so I would stick with one
for now. Lastly, Daze offers another way to reduce clunkiness and compliments
the Mages because you can more often come out of the gates with a 2-drop and
force your opponent to play into the Daze.
I was worried about various Terravore
matchups, but there aren't many cards you can board against them; I did add a
Tsabo's Web at the last minute after realizing I had the sideboard space. I
wasn't sure what was the best hate piece against Burn but wanted some help there
since that deck is structurally advantaged against GAT's tempo strategy, and punishes the 4 City of Brass. I considered Chill and Sphere of Law. The issue with Chill is that you have a lot of card selection and want to draw into hate that is still relevant later in the game. The issue with Sphere is that it's 4 mana and Goblins has Naturalize. Lanny suggested maxxing on Hydroblast and that made sense to me. I played 5
Blasts and no other Red hate. To round out the anti-Red strategy, I boarded a third Tog, which is necessary to stabilize the board and turn the corner before they burn you out,
especially given that GAT's other creatures die very easily to Red's burn (and in
fact I board most of them out). Psychatog also has the added bonus of being good
versus Terravore decks by exiling lands from my graveyard.
I played the
following list:
6 Island
4 Flooded Strand
1 Plains
4 Gemstone Mine
4 City of Brass
1 Mox Diamond
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Opt
4 Portent
4 Meddling Mage
4 Quirion Dryad
2 Psychatog
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Fire/Ice
4 Counterspell
2 Daze
3 Gush
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Armageddon
Sideboard
2 Duress
4 Hydroblast
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Psychatog
2 Engineered Plague
2 Ray of Revelation
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Armageddon
1 Tsabo's Web
As for the tournament itself, I can't remember a lot of the
specifics except for my mistakes, which I always remember, so I'll dwell on
those as usual. Given that I don't play much paper Magic, one of the goals I set for myself was to not forget any Portent triggers.
Round 1 vs. Tinker Fling
This was a matchup I had never faced
before. GAT seems favored due to the usual dynamic of pressure+disruption being good against combo. I failed to realize I was supposed to bring in Engineered Plague for
Devourer. I probably threw away game 2 by not realizing my opponent could play a
Sol land and go off; I went shields-down when I didn't need to.
Game 3 was
really close. I had an early Dryad that got Pyroclasmed. I Maged a Devourer since it seemed my opponent was trying to get
to 7 mana, and then drew another Mage and named Tinker. By doing so I exposed
myself to Pyroclasm, but the opponent had more copies of Tinker in his deck, so it
was clear to name the more plentiful card that would kill me on the spot. My opponent had two Tangle Wires
to slow me down and two Defense Grids to shut off my counters, but fortunately I
dodged his two remaining Pyroclasms as the Mages chipped in,
eventually dealing lethal.
I forgot to draw off Portent one time.
1-0
Round
2 vs. Landstill
This is probably a tough matchup. They
have inevitability with Decree, so you can't play draw-go. Therefore you have to keep
pressuring them, but that's difficult against all their interaction, especially
when you're on the draw.
Game 1 I failed to mount enough pressure and eventually
couldn't break through a Decree. I made an embarrassing mistake where I thought
I floated 2 mana off Gush and planned my whole turn around casting an Armageddon, but actually only
floated 1 (having forgotten I cast a cantrip earlier in the turn) and Time Walked myself with only 3 mana available.
Game 2 (I think?) I went
turn 1 Dryad and was able to leverage it to victory. I believe my opponent
ultimately dealt with it but it kept them off-balance so I could resolve a Mage
with counter backup, or something along those lines.
Game 3 featured an absurd
moment. We were low on time and trying to play fast. I kept running out pressure as best I could to keep them
off-balance. At one point I cast a Mage and somehow didn't name anything. It
wasn't until I drew a second Mage two turns later that I realized. I asked my
opponent and she too thought I hadn't named a card with Mage. I was resigned to treating it as a Grizzly
Bear for the rest of the game. But my opponent called a judge, and (after giving
me a warning) the judge ruled that I could now name a card!? Apparently, the ruling is clear-cut, but it felt unfair (to my opponent). I suppose the
logic is that my opponent is required to remind me to name something, and she
failed to do so? In any case, I looked at my opponent's graveyard, saw she
hadn't cast a FOF yet, and recognized that FOF would break open this game, which
to that point had been a war of attrition. I named FOF and, of course, my
opponent drew FOF a turn or two later. My Mages barely got over the finish line
in a game I likely lose if I don't get to name something with my Mage...
2-0
Round 3
vs. medvedev Burn
I faced my old friend Joe, whom I hadn't seen in 11 years. I don't
remember too many specifics other than that I felt less under the gun against
this creature-light version of the deck. One game I was able to close out quickly because Joe cast two Flame Rifts. I won in three games.
3-0
Round 4 vs. Burn
This time my opponent was playing a more traditional Burn list with more
creatures. I noticed my opponent was using a "Pro Tour 2005" deckbox, so I asked
him if he played in one of the PTs back then. He said yes, Philly '05. I
remember that event very well as I played a Junior Super Series side event and caught some of the action in the feature match area. I've also read Gadiel
Szleifer's winning tournament report several times. I was sad to learn my
opponent remembered nothing from the event, not even the deck he played! I again
don't remember many details about our match but I managed to win in two games.
I forgot another Portent trigger but remembered later on in the opponent's same turn and he let me take the card. My forgetting-Portent counter was now at two. Fortunately the counter wouldn't go up for the rest of the event, but I would still get burned by this card later.
4-0
Round 5 vs. Merfolk Stiflenought
Like every other round before the top 8, I didn't know what I was up against. I was on the play and after my opponent went
Island + Portent, I played Mage naming Dreadnought. My opponent untapped and
cast Waterfront Bouncer, revealing he was on Merfolk, and I felt silly about
my Mage name. I cast another Mage on Lord of Atlantis. A turn or two later, my
opponent bounced my first Mage and cast Dreadnought + Stifle! Then he later
bounced my second Mage and cast a Lord of Atlantis! I hadn't seen Merfolk
Dreadnought before, but I realized I had named correctly with my Mages after
all. The game took forever due to the opponent's Winter Orb, Looter, and
Waterfront Bouncer + Squee, but I was able to attack my opponent to low enough life to force him to keep bouncing my Mages every turn, taxing his mana under the Orb. I
barely got over the finish line around turn 20.
We had limited time for
game 2 and I won the match 1-0, though I seemed well ahead by the time game 2
ended. Having won game 1 and there being so little time remaining, I didn't have
to take any aggressive lines and was able to control the game until the round
ended.
5-0
I double-drew into top 8. During this time I caught up with Ty Thomason, my teammate for Pro Tour Valencia 2014 whom I hadn't seen since!
5-0-2
Quarterfinals vs. Angry Hermit
I had never played against this deck
before (unless you count Extended FNM in 2003). Game 1 I had the play due to
being the higher seed and cast an end step Opt. My opponent responded with a
Worldly Tutor for Dreadnought. I untapped and cast Mage, naming Dreadnought. Then the next
turn I Meddling Maged a Hermit Druid. I was stuck on a City and a Mine which was now
down to one counter, but I had nullified basically my opponent's entire deck.
Eventually I found a third land and cast yet another Mage. Being unfamiliar with
the matchup, I wasn't sure what to name, and I had a bunch of removal in hand
for a Hermit, so I named Dreadnought for a second time. I probably
should have named Shallow Grave or Reanimate. Still, double Mage seems almost
impossible for them to beat provided I have any other interaction, and I had plenty of it.
Game 2 I kept
a one-land plus Mox hand OTD that had a Portent to dig for more lands. My hand also had 2 Meddling Mage and a
Counterspell. I cast Portent turn 1 and saw an Island, a cantrip, and another
Counterspell. I considered shuffling because I really wanted more lands, but I
kept, hoping a couple of Mages and Counterspells would be enough to lock my
opponent out. I put the Counterspell third from the top because I already had a Counterspell and didn't want to expose the second to a Therapy (or let my opponent see it with a Duress). On my opponent's turn 2, he cast Duress, taking Counterspell, then cast a Hermit off a Lotus Petal. I untapped and played Mox Diamond, discarding my second and only other land, and cast Mage. I could either name Krosan Reclamation, which would beat a hand without a reanimation spell but lose to a reanimation spell, or name a reanimation spell. I had a Mage in hand and Counterspell on top of my library, so I plausibly needed to survive only one turn before I could lock out the opponent or at least temporarily stop him from being able to go off. And if he used the Krosan Reclamation on his next turn, I could win the following turn with either the second Mage (which the opponent knew about and would have to Therapy) or the Counterspell on top of my library (which he did not know about). Essentially, I thought I could beat Krosan Reclamation, so I decided to name a reanimation spell. The opponent had only two lands and two cards in hand, so I named Reanimate with Mage, on the basis that he'd need another land to cast Shallow Grave (since he would also need to spend a mana to activate the Hermit).
Was this correct? I don't know, as I had never played the matchup before, but it worked out. My opponent used Hermit, then flashed back Therapy to take my Mage, then shuffled Shallow Grave and Hermit into his library with Krosan Reclamation, and passed the turn. I drew the Counterspell that I had seen with my turn 1 Portent, which locked the game up because he had no way to Therapy it out of my hand without putting Druid on top of his graveyard. I countered the Shallow Grave and was off to the semis.
Before the semis the
top 4 split the remaining prize, which came out to $1,200 each.
Semifinals vs. Stasis
My semis
opponent was on Stasis, another new experience for me. I again had the play game 1 as the higher seed. My opponent mulliganed and I and had a great hand, which I believe was turn 1 cantrip, turn 2 Dryad, turn 3 Mage, with Daze backup. My opponent just went "Island, go" the first two turns. On turn 3 I cast Mage and it resolved [I believe I did not have to use my Daze to force it through]. I punted the game when by naming Chain of Vapor. I knew to name either Chain of Vapor or Stasis. In theory the opponent could Chain the Mage and then cast Stasis down the road, but that would require him having both cards. Without understanding the full capability of the Stasis deck, I thought the opponent was likely too far away from being able to set up the lock on his next turn. And I can't recall the full contents of my hand, but I think it had a Counterspell to stop a Stasis if the opponent cast it later. On that basis I named Chain, but on his turn 3 my opponent went Forsaken City + Stasis and I was soft-locked from there.
Game 2 I don't remember well but my opponent never came close to setting up a lock.
Game 3 was wild. We were under a Stasis for many turns. I discarded around ten cards to hand size. At one point I discarded a Ray of Revelation to hand size and went for it on the opponent's upkeep, thinking the situation wasn't getting any better. The opponent Thwarted [I think] and I thought I probably couldn't win anymore. My opponent went on Gushing and untapping multiple Forsaken City while I sat there either playing a land and passing or discarding to hand size. I figured my only chance was to never spend my mana until I could build up enough lands in play to win a counter war over a Disenchant effect. That included the 2 Daze I had been holding for a long time. Eventually, on turn 25 or so, I had accumulated five untapped mana including a rainbow source. In my hand I had a Gemstone Mine (still with a land drop to make), a Seal of Cleaning, a Counterspell, 2 Daze, and some threats. I also had a Ray of Revalation in my graveyard. My opponent had five lands untapped. I figured now was my best shot to resolve a Disenchant, as I had two of them (and my opponent didn't know about the extra rainbow source in my hand to flashback the Ray) plus counter backup, and I could cast all of them while still holding up mana for a Daze from my opponent.
I cast Seal of Cleaning. Opponent Counterspelled. I Counterspelled his Counterspell. He Arcane Denialed my Counterspell. I Dazed his Counterspell. He paid, going down to zero untapped mana. I Dazed his Counterspell again. Seal resolved! (Also Arcane Denial resolved.) I didn't even have to use the Ray in my graveyard. I played my Gemstone Mine and passed. On the opponent's end step, I flashbacked the Ray to remove the Stasis (rather than activate the Seal). I figured it was better to keep a free Disenchant in play for a later Stasis. The Ray resolved and I got to untap. I deployed a Dryad, a Mage (which got countered), and then lastly a Tog, which represented lethal on the following turn.
My opponent untapped and cast a bunch of low-impact artifacts in Powder Keg, Black Vise, and Claws of Gix. Presumably those were all bait for me to crack my Seal in response to his next play, a Chain of Vapor on the Seal. I let that happen. My opponent then cast Stasis, going down to 3 untapped lands and one card in hand.
I took my turn (and did not untap). By casting an Opt from my hand, my Tog and Dryad were exactly[?] lethal even through the Claws of Gix. The question was whether to play around Chain of Vapor. My opponent had only cast one Chain the entire game (on his prior turn) and had seen a lot of cards, but had just one card left in hand. I figured this situation probably isn't getting much better for me. Yes, I can re-cast Seal to blow up the Stasis, but that requires playing two cards out my hand, taking me 3 points off lethal [if memory serves]. Then I would give my opponent more time to draw into a Chain, plus he had the Keg that would begin ticking up. I thought it was worth going all-in, and so I did. My opponent didn't have the Chain and I had won a game I thought was lost 15 turns ago.
Finals vs. Burn
I punted game 3 and arguably game 1 of this match.
Game 1 I mulliganned into a hand with Mine and City as the only lands and
was behind from the get-go. I cast a cantrip on turn 1, and my opponent matched that with a Lavamancer off of a Mountain. On my turn 2 I cast a Dryad, which was exposed to the Lavamancer if my opponent had fetch land plus 1 mana spell, but I had no choice but to get a clock down. On my opponent's turn 2 he cast Incinerate targeting me. This seemed like a wild play and made me think the opponent was all in on burning me out. On my next turn I cast a Swords on the Lavamancer to pump the Dryad to a 2/2. The critical decision was on my opponent's turn 3. I had a 2/2 Dryad with a Counterspell, Swords, and Sleight in hand. My lands were just a City and two Mines, each with 2 Mining Counters. One of my Mines was tapped and I had 2 mana open. I was at 14 and my opponent cast a Volcanic Hammer targeting me. I had to decide whether to use my Counterspell.
Considerations:
(1) If I counter, my opponent can Bolt Dryad in response and I lose my entire clock;
(2) I'd have to tap City of Brass to counter, so I'd only be saving 2 life;
(3) I felt I was behind (i.e. I need to take risks);
(4) I was constrained on mana;
(5) I wanted to increase my clock; and
(6) my opponent clearly didn't have any creatures, nor did he have any other sorceries (otherwise he would have cast one over the Incinerate on turn 2; he clearly had just drawn the Hammer). This made me worried that if I didn't use Counterspell now, my opponent could take advantage of me being mana constrained by not casting anything into my open two mana until he had built up enough burn to cast a flurry all in one turn cycle.
Considerations (3) through (6) point towards casting the Counterspell now, but if consideration (1) came to fruition I'd be in very rough shape. I thought about the decision for awhile and unfortunately this led to consideration (7): by thinking so long I was telegraphing to my opponent that I was holding a Counterspell (or Blast), and since I wasn't certain what to do I used this as the tiebreaker to cast the Counterspell.
He had the Bolt for my Dryad to punish me for spending the Counterspell and my entire clock was gone. I never had a chance after that.
Unclear if the game was winnable if I held the Counterspell. The fact I had a Swords to remove my own Dryad for life later on in the game was perhaps enough reason to go all-in on protecting my Dryad. But, again, I was so constrained on mana that my opponent could plausibly just never cast anything good into Counterspell mana for the rest of the game until it was time to unleash a flurry of burn spells all at once.
Game 2 I was low on resources with a Mox Diamond hand on the play, but it had two Togs. The first one got Pyroblasted while the second one stuck, and then I kept drawing Gushes off the top for the win. I set up a lethal Armageddon when my opponent was sitting on two Cursed Scrolls.
Game 3 I tried to limit the damage early but had two Cities of Brass and two Gemstone Mines as my lands. My opponent had turn 1 Lavamancer, which I took a hit from rather than Swords because I had Fire in my hand and my opponent's deck had a lot of creatures. He Wastelanded the first City and cast another Lavamancer, forcing me to Swords immediately. I Hydroblasted the second Lavamancer.
With no more creatures on the opponent's side to worry about, the game turned into a race against burn spells. I stuck a Dryad and a Psychatog and, after taking some burn to the face, I was at 10 life. In my hand I had lands, Sleight, Fire/Ice, and Seal of Cleansing. My opponent was at 19 life and had a Seal of Fire, 3 Mountains, and a Barbarian Ring (which would have Threshold if he had literally anything that went to the graveyard, so I assumed it would be turned on). He had two cards in hand, which I was pretty sure was some combination of instants and lands.
I began by Sleighting into a Gush, then Gushed into a Portent. Dryad became a 3/3. With what I had in hand I had exactly lethal--Fire opponent down to 17, cast Portent, Dryad becomes a 5/5, tap both Gemstone Mines to use their final mining counters and put two additional cards in the graveyard, discard my entire hand and remove my entire graveyard to pump Tog to a 12/13, deal 17.
First, though, I cast Portent on my opponent to determine whether I needed to go for it immediately. If I saw a creature or a land, I could safely forego attacking for lethal and simply win the following turn. Unfortunately, I saw a nightmarish set of cards in Pyroblast, Fireblast, Fireblast. I could have given my opponent the Pyroblast, pumped Tog a bunch now, and tried to win the following turn with Dryad, but if something goes wrong and I don't win the following turn, I very likely lose. Without me having guaranteed lethal next turn (opponent could kill the Dryad), I chose to shuffle, and because my opponent seemed to have solid odds to kill me on his following turn, I decided to go all-in and try to win immediately. If my opponent killed the Dryad, he'd have to use multiple burn spells (something from his hand plus the Seal). And he'd be down to 5 on almost no resources and I'd have a Tog left over to deal the final 5 damage over the next couple of turns.
Except I forgot that he could kill my Tog on his next turn in response to my Portent trigger, leaving me with nothing. And so, my play worked out horribly--when I went for lethal, the opponent used a Fireblast and Seal to kill my Dyad. With the Portent trigger on the stack the following upkeep, and with me having 0 cards in my hand and 1 card in my graveyard, my opponent used Barbarian Ring to kill my Tog. I was left with nothing but a City of Brass. Even though I was ahead on life 10 to 5 and my opponent was also out of spells and almost out of lands, it was almost impossible to kill my opponent before he burned me out, which he did.
Going all-in on the Tog was a mistake. At a base level I simply didn't realize my Tog would die the next turn. Moreover, my general logic was faulty. Essentially, I figured: if my opponent uses burn to kill my Dryad, those same burn spells are going to kill me soon anyway. If I don't kill my opponent, I'm likely to lose next turn. Plus, my opponent could draw Pyroblast for my Tog later. Therefore, I should go for the win.
Setting aside that I didn't realize my opponent could kill the Tog with the Portent trigger on the stack, the issue with my logic is that my play only wins in scenarios where my opponent has nothing, i.e. where I am likely to win anyway. In almost all relevant scenarios under which the game is still in question, my opponent has exactly one instant in hand, and my goal should have been to figure out how best to beat that.
I believe the best play was to shuffle with Portent, then pump Tog not all the way, but just large enough that my opponent is dead to either of my attackers the following turn, even through a blocker. This forces the opponent to either (1) kill my Dryad now and go down a bunch of resources with me still having a Tog in play (and cards in hand to protect it), or more likely (2) take the damage and try to topdeck a burn spell or Pyroblast. Because my opponent ended up drawing a Jackal Pup the following turn, I believe that if I had made the right play, I would have won the tournament.
Concluding Thoughts
I really liked my version of GAT. I poo-pooed the deck earlier in this article, describing two fundamental problems I noticed in my testing:
1. The mana is bad, especially against mana denial decks. This is still the case, but the 1 Mox Diamond helps a bit, and the 4 Sleights help a bit more. I therefore think this deck is a solid choice if you don't expect a ton of Wastelands and Ports.
2. The plan of casting an early Dryad and growing it doesn't actually get under the major threats of the format. This is also still the case, but without AKs and with Dazes the curve is sufficiently low enough that I think the deck won't fall too far behind. Meddling Mage helps a ton here too, providing a proactive threat that stops the opponent's scariest card. These changes to the deck give it a more reliable tempo plan.
And I would note one positive trait of the deck as well, which is that the card quality is very high. It's a 5-color deck and can therefore play the best cards across every color. Its sideboard is potent. On the flipside, there's no way to hate out this deck from the opponent's sideboard.
It's too bad I punted the finals. I was so mesmerized by the Portent decision and then the Psychatog/Dryad/Fire math that I lost sight of the range of cards my opponent could have that would relevantly affect the outcome of the game. But it was a really challenging match after a lot of challenging rounds, in my first Premodern tournament, so I can't be too upset. Most of the games over the course of the tournament were decided by tight edges and complex decisions. A welcome departure from modern-day Magic, which revolves around cards that snowball until the game is decided in a landslide. Premodern is a deep and challenging format!
Props:
The event organizers and staff for running a fun event
The participants in the event for being friendly
My friends I saw for the first time in 10+ years
Andy, Mike, and Lanny for helping me out
GAT for being a skill-testing deck
Premodern for being a skill-testing format
Exactly one copy of Mox Diamond
Slops:
Portent
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