Locations
To catch you up, dear reader, I decided to "not play very hard" in the current season of Premodern League.
I finished first in both of the first two seasons... and didn't win either of them. In Season One I had it in my head that as first seed - given that I was going to be on the play the whole Top 8 - I should do something extreme to take advantage of that.
So, with a little help from Rich Shay (though I can't imagine Rich will want credit for this), I came up with this:
Weird, right?
Complete nonsense!
Four copies of Black Vise main deck! Wastelands! Flame Rifts!
I lost the 1-8 to eventual champion Lan D. Ho, but somehow managed to beat Burn decks in my consolation matches, despite being overloaded with cards that were awful in the mirror.
I was first seed again in Season Two- playing a more conventional Red Deck- and lost to the invincible SWB in the Finals.
This season? I deliberately skipped a lot of weeks, eased up on the accelerator. First seed not only didn't do anything for me the past couple of Top 8s, I actively chose a weird and sub-optimal build because of it.
The only problem?
The Season Three Finals were only two weeks out, and I was out of the Top 8 completely! So, needing a sweep or two, I decided to buckle down and play the best deck.
"Polar Shrimp"
Polar Shrimp | PreModern | Michael Flores
- Creatures (4)
- 4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
- Instants (31)
- 1 Annul
- 1 Chain of Vapor
- 1 Impulse
- 2 Flash of Insight
- 2 Thwart
- 4 Accumulated Knowledge
- 4 Counterspell
- 4 Foil
- 4 Opt
- 4 Stifle
- 4 Vision Charm
- Sorceries (6)
- 2 Sleight of Hand
- 4 Portent
- Sideboard (15)
- 2 Annul
- 2 Hydroblast
- 1 Blue Elemental Blast
- 2 Essence Flair
- 1 Brain Freeze
- 2 Dominates
- 1 Flash of Insight
- 1 Misdirection
- 1 Powder Keg
- 2 Tswabo's Web
If you've been paying attention to the explosive popularity of Premodern on Magic Online over the past month or two, you've probably seen this build in the hands of NJMIKEL (Noah to his friends).
Noah put in the work alongside the greatest of the Dreadnought innovators, Dr. David Raczka himself. It's called "polar" because this version plays the so-called "poles" of the game. It has even faster and leaner cantrip action to try to assemble the combo early... But a ton of card drawing to win long games.
The combo? What is this combo?
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Phyrexian Dreadnought is probably the strongest creature in Premodern. It's a 12/12 with trample for just one mana! The downside is that it kills itself... Unless you do something about that. Stifle will prevent the Phyrexian's unhealthy self-image, while Vision Charm will return it to play in a better mood. Vision Charm is particularly great because if you use that instant as the back half of the combo you will also automatically protect your Dreadnought from opposing sorcery speed removal.
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Polar Shrimp is optimized for a turn three combo. This is kind of odd because Raczka has always been one of the biggest proponents of Impulse. But this version has only a single Impulse, subbing in a couple of copes of Sleight of Hand to lower the curve, or increase the frequency of multiple-spell turns early.
Most 12/12 decks fight for turn two, and use Daze as the first line of Dreadnought defense. This deck prefers to play Thwart (hence the shift from turn two to turn three). I can tell you from recent experience that Thwart-into-Foil feels pretty unbeatable when you only have to attack twice.
Playing multiple Thwarts does put pressure on your Islands in play, so another strange aspect of this deck is that it plays only a single Gush. "But isn't Gush the most broken card in Dreadnought?"
No. Dreadnought is the most broken card in Dreadnought. Gush is great, of course, but Polar Shrimp makes up for its absence by playing Accumulated Knowledge in the main deck, along with lots of Flash of Insights between main deck and sideboard. Even with only the single Gush, this deck is not short on card draw.
I took test draws obsessively after putting together this seventy-five; but didn't end up playing the deck in an actual game until the League weekly... On January 1!
I must tip my hat to Jenn the Judge. The fact that we had a mid-week Premodern tournament firing in the heart of Manhattan on an actual national holiday is such a testament to her efforts toward the community.
So how did I do?
I needed the sweep, right?
Well... I didn't need the sweep, really. But I was out of Top 8 and I did want to give myself a little cushion. Because the last second-to-last thing I want is to have to play SWB in the quarterfinals.
Round One - Roland with GAT
Roland Chang is one of the Eternal community's greatest heroes. A multiple time Eternal World Champion, Roland is also the first person I ever saw playing Mono-Blue Dreadnought in Premodern! (We unintentionally drew at a TaoHaus meetup leading into my first LobsterCon.)
Tonight, though, he was with Grow-A-Tog, a deck he's been iterating on for months. GAT is like Dreadnought... Lots of cheap cantrips, Gush, and Counterspells. Only it has more nonbasic lands to support a very different creature suite of Meddling Mage, Quirion Dryad, and of course Psychatog... Instead of just four Dreadnoughts.
GAT has multiple advantages over Dreadnought. You can just play a threat instead of being forced to "combo" a threat into play. You have your pick of sideboard cards and spoilers due to a full set of Mox Diamonds and another of City of Brass. The main disadvantages are that selfsame mana base and... well... Not having Dreadnoughts.
In Game 1 Roland's mana just didn't cooperate. He made his land drops but played only a single actual Island all game, versus like three Cities. At some point in the mid-game I let Roland play the first Accumulated Knowledge; I played the next two. Later, he tried to cast the fourth one, but I cast Flash of Insight with Flashback to eat the AKs out of my own graveyard.
In Game 2 I had the coolest play:
Roland played a Quirion Dryad.
I thought for a long time, then tapped two Islands and played Gush. I Foiled his Quirion Ranger, then targeted him with three Vision Charms. Between my Gush, Foil, and Charms (and his creature!), I had a heck of a lot of Storm for Brain Freeze.
Brain Freeze (or Vision Charm into Brain Freeze) can potentially work in the mirror match; but I think it's even better against GAT. Why? Remember when I pointed out they don't have Phyrexian Dreadnought? That means they also don't have Stifle. Against the mirror match, you might do a ton of work but then get caught for only a single 
.
My big Charm-Freeze wasn't enough to kill Roland, but it was enough to put three AKs into his graveyard, which I exploited the next turn to refill my hand.
My thought process was that Dreadnought would be difficult to keep alive. Roland had Swords to Plowshares, Pyroblast, Disenchant... not to mention Meddling Mage. Brain Freeze seemed softer than in the mirror, where the opponent might just Stifle it.
1-0 /2-0
Round Two - DTao with Elves
David Thomas Tao is one of my best friends, and one of the main people who welcomed me into the Premodern community to begin with. Most recently, David finished second at the Premodern Championship at Eternal Weekend. But I haven't played Premodern with him in what seemed like years.
Prior to Game 1, DTao dropped a copy of Multani's Acolyte... So I put him on Elves. That meant "turn two jam" if I could. Most Elves decks don't play Naturalize in the main, meaning that they usually have to jump through Survival of the Fittest to answer a Shrimp.
Turn.
Two.
Jam.
2-0 / 4-0
Round Three - Taylor with Snap Cradle
The popularity of Premodern on Magic Online has had one serious, if previously unanticipated, side effect: New deck lists!
Taylor (second in League standings going into January 1) was armed with one such. It has the trappings of a "regular" Elves deck, topping up on Deranged Hermit; but, instead of grinding out games with Survival of the Fittest, the Snap Cradle deck can make you pick up all your permanents with...
We didn't get there, though. Sorry Snap Cradle fans!
I just jammed with Counterspell backup on turn two in Game 1.
In Game 2, Taylor kept one land with multiple mana dorks. I had the Powder Keg, and then used my Portents "offensively" to keep him from drawing lands for several turns.
Manascrewed opponent? May I suggest attacking for twelve twice?
3-0 / 6-0
Four Gushes or one, Dazes or Thwarts, turn two or turn three... Dreadnought was great! (No surprise there). I still have a week to go, but can't complain abought how I spent the tail end of New Year's Day.
LOVE
MIKE
