Steamboat Rider

I never thought a 13-year old kid I play Magic with could change my life but he did.

A little background on me: I’ve experienced bullying from fairly minor teasing in grade school up to actual relentless physical bullying from within my own friend group in junior high. I identified as a weirder kid/nerd, I was definitely introverted and for the most part took until college to really come out of my shell.

I met this kid through FNMs at the store I frequent. Now that I’m older and have had plenty of time to gain self-confidence, I consider myself to be a pretty friendly person to everyone at that store, we encourage that kind of community in general. After we knew each other a little better and he became more of a regular, I started helping him with decks, even leant him a standard deck for a few months for tournaments.

One day during FNM he asked me if he could talk to me privately after our match. Unfortunately he was upset about another match at the time, but he wanted to thank me for being as generous as I had been as magic was really his only escape. He started to tell me more about how he had been bullied at school, how he felt like his school wasn’t taking him seriously, and some of the things the other kids had done to him, and it broke my heart a little bit. Afterward I walked over, gave him my cell number and told him to text or call me if he ever needed someone to talk to.

It wasn’t until about a month later that we actually started talking more outside of the store. We found out we connected on a lot of levels, especially music and of course Magic. Beyond that I understood the experience he has been going through in school, and as the oldest of four I don't think he really had anyone that he could talk to that wasn't his parents.

We've since spent a lot of our time discussing all of these things to great length. I gave him my old turntable for Christmas and started loaning him some of my vinyl collection, we've discussed countless deck ideas no matter how stupid they ended up being, I started trading for cards for decks he wanted to try when they were a bit (a lot) out of his price range. He recently invited me to see him perform in a school musical and it was really great to see the more outward part of his personality shine through in that setting. 

I grew up an only child, and he's basically become the little brother I never had (Hilariously enough he even kinda looks like I did at that age before I became the long-haired weirdo that I am now). Likewise, he’s never had an older brother so it’s a new experience for both of us. However, what’s most important to me is that he will always have someone to talk to, vent to, cry to, and just be there for him, with or without the brother title.

Over the past few months I’ve been delving back into my past via a number of outlets. Listening to old albums/bands that I haven’t listened to for a while (this week has been Feist, Wolf Parade, Santigold). Getting back into manga (reading Food Wars per a friend’s suggestion). Beyond these because I still live in my hometown I am constantly surrounded by reminders of pre-college life. 

This past few weeks I’ve already been to the beach more times than I probably was all of last year (which is mildly upsetting to think about). It’s been incredibly beneficial for a number of reasons, but mostly just because it is incredibly mentally cleansing. I spent the better part of my childhood going to the beach everyday over the summers because day camp, and I loved every moment of it. I actually haven’t ever lived more than 5 minutes away from a body of water. My first trip this summer was guided by a need to clear my head. Thankfully the causation turned out to be an overreaction to a situation, but it’s also pointing towards the actual source of the problem. 

I went through a long patch of being incredibly shy and awkward and weird. For that reason when I was younger I started to cling more to whatever friends I had that would stick around. Unfortunately I also grew up in a time where I have long lines of emails/blog posts to remind myself of how fucking shy and awkward I was. 

The real benefit from all of this was just giving me a better appreciation of the people that I form relationships with now that I’m less shy and awkward. Whether they be romantic, familial, or platonic, I take my relationships very seriously. I’ve started to over-extend, and become more vocal about this fact with a lot of people. 

The MTG community (or at least the one within my LGS) has been incredibly fruitful, warm, and welcoming. While nothing will quite be the same as the core group of friends I had at Ringling, it’s nice to have a similar group dynamic in my hobby. Beyond that, the people I connected with the most are the ones that I can talk about non-magic stuff with. I’ve spent hours in parking lots, driveways, 24 hour diners, etc. just having very good talks, and this is what really solidifies these bonds for me.

The problem arises when I feel like I put forth a lot of effort into these relationships but don’t always feel the return. As mentioned in my last post, I sometimes forget that friendship is a two-way street. I might just be grasping at straws here but I’m still pushing towards growing the friendship. I have incredible trouble cutting ties, and I don’t like to give up on something that I feel like has merit still. I just don’t know when to say when or if it’s worth weathering the internal stress that I’m causing myself. 

I will send a medium-resolution file of my work along with several words describing it, and you will find one that offends you deeply and try to validate your opinion by asking a group of mutual peers if they're just as offended by using vague notions towards common bonds that should constitute their offense and words like "pejorative". 

My deck is starting to become more of a control deck relying more on removal and reactive planeswalkers and less on overwhelming the board with big creatures. This past weekend I managed to go undefeated into the elimination rounds and win the tournament without dropping more than two games overall. Here is my recap:

Round 1: G/W Aggro

Game 1 was pretty cut-and-dry; I had the removal in the early game, I had the Prophet, and then I slammed the Aetherling during my opponents turn and continued to beat down. Game 2 was my first loss of the day, losing to double Voice of Resurgence followed up by a complete flood of lands. Game 3 was where things got interesting. I kept my removal up, and managed to blow out my opponent who had kept a hand with several 1-butts with my timely Golgari Charms. I followed up with an Ashiok, who after whiffing the first activation managed to find a pair of Fleecemane Lions. I played them out one by one, followed by a Prophet and some monstrous activations (Sylvan Caryatid doing some serious work), and killed my opponent with his own creatures. 

Round 2: G/U Devotion

This matchup was not exactly an easy one. I had to have all of my removal at the ready. Game 1 I beat through with enough removal for his creatures, as well as some very well timed Cyclonic Rifts thanks to Prognostic Sphinx scrying my deck into better form. Game 2 saw my opponent mulling down to five, leaving me with the ideal hand of Thoughtseize and removal, drawing into the 2nd Thoughtseize to lock him out entirely.

Round 3: U/W Control

This matchup is usually not easy for me in the first game. With some luck, however, my opponent tapped out at all the wrong times and couldn't find a 2nd white source to wrath my board until I had already resolved an Aetherling and started in on the beatdown plan. Game 2 I naturally moved into my usual control sideboarding plan, featuring Mistcutter Hydra as the star. I started strong by clearing out his Elixir of Immortality while he was short a mana of activating it. Several turns of playing lands and passing eventually led to my drawing of two Mistcutters. Since he had a Mutavault up I was sure that it was destined to be blocked and then Verdicted away. I landed the first one for seven, and he took it straight on. He followed up with a Banishing light and a pass of the turn. I followed up with an even stronger Mistcutter for 8, which he also willingly accepted. He dropped a Jace, digging for an answer that just didn't seem to be there for him. it gave me just enough time to land Garruk, blow up his Jace, and continue the Mistcutter beatdown. I later learned that he had sided out a lot of his board wrath spells because of my lack of creatures shown in the first game. 

Round 4: Drew with my opponent to land seats 1 and 2 in the Top 4. Thankfully my breakers were good enough to land me the top seat. Besides, I had no interest in playing against the R/W Burn deck. I told my opponent I'd see him in the finals. 

Semifinals: Jund Walkers

My opponent spent a lot of time setting up shop. Read the Bones, Courser, and Xenagos were early to the party. I landed my early removal and resolved a Prognostic Sphinx to continue to stack my deck until my opponent was left with nothing. Game 2, my opponent had brought himself down to 10 life between two Thoughtseizes, two Read the Bones, and a shockland. Eventually, I was able to topdeck an Aetherling and play it out with mana to blink. He was on a two-turn clock, and with just a Rakdos Return to hit the last few cards in my hand, I was able to pull through with the unblockable, unkillable, shapeshifter. 

Finals: G/U Devotion

My opponent from Round 2 had bested the R/W Burn player that I narrowly dodged with an intentional draw in Round 4. So a familiar match up, but certainly not as well played out as I had hoped for me. Game 1 was an absolute slaughter. He hit all of his bombs as his deck clearly intends to do, and even with a late game RIft, he still fought back and beat me down. Game 2 was a different story: He saw his accelerants and his Coursers, but nothing else of note. I slowly but surely chipped away at his life total with the ever trustworthy Prognostic Sphinx, showing him Cyclonic Rift into Cyclonic Rift into Aetherspouts, ending in my opponent conceding and moving onto game 3. This final game played out a lot like our previous match: he mulled to five, and I saw two Thoughtseizes. I ripped his only mana accelerant and his early game threat. The first one he was able to play was met with a Putrefy, while Kiora ticked her way up to her ultimate. A party of Mr. Belding Krakens beat through his chump blockers and I ended six rounds of Magic with a playmat and my first Game Day taken down. 

To sum things up I absolutely love playing this deck. I started playing this as Simic Flash with Master BIomancers and Prime Speakers, evolved it into the BUG creature heavy toolbox, then shifted it into this more stable mix of removal, planeswalkers, and difficult-to-remove threats. While this now more closely resembles the block-constructed BUG Control deck that saw top tables at Pro Tour Journey, I feel it's a fantastic contender for standard and something I intend to play out into Khans.