An Interview with SPDC 27.03 winner DrChrisBakerDC!

This week I had a fortune to win our MPDC tournament, so instead of me interviewing myself (an article for the future), we will have an interview with our SPDC winner! His UR deck managed to win both "high-profile" Standard Pauper tournaments this week!

Hello and congratulations on your win, DrChrisBakerDC!

•         Could you please introduce yourself?

                 Thanks for the interview, Raimundas.  I am Chris Baker - 28 year old Sports Chiropractic Physician currently practicing in San Jose, CA and creator of thedraftbrewery.wordpress.com

•         What is your identity as a wizard?  (Colors and archetypes you prefer, favourite cards and formats)

                 I got Azorius when the Return to Ravnica Quiz came out and I like how it fits.  I definitely prefer to play long, grindy games where I try to win by not dying and having my opponent scoop before I've even presented a lethal damage (i.e. Dimir Mill). 

         I prefer to find the brew that will win the most, and this philosophy holds true in my favorite format, booster draft.  In my draft group I am known as a flex player, someone who can and will draft whatever is open.  I'm not afraid to abandon my first 4 picks if the signal is there to put me into different colors that will hopefully increase the chance my deck will be good.  

         I actually hate constructed in (almost) all formats.  So many pros provide info that solves them and they tuns every deck so fast that there's no real discovery process unless it's your full-time job to create the content.  I got into standard pauper IRL at the ChannelFireball Game Center before I knew about pdcmagic.com, thus I was able to brew my own decks with all the drafts commons from which I always have an ample supply.  The games feel like you're playing a draft in terms of power/interactions and brewing the decks feels like the drafting portion of deckbuilding.  It's perfect :D

•         How did you start playing Magic? MTGO? Standard Pauper?

               6th grade recess.  A friend who didn't even know the rules was teaching me.  He thought that having a land in play meant you could play anything that costs that amount.  He did not understand what the tap symbol meant.  Hence, turn 1 Mountain, 4x Jackal Pup was a legal play.  We had much to learn. 

            Comic shop within walking distance from my house enabled me to witness seasoned players in action.  They taught me booster draft basics and that quickly became my favorite.  I didn't understand how to play the games well, but each individual pick was thought-provoking and fun.

            I quit playing in high school then learned about MTGO when Mirrodin came out.  I only played for one summer.  Enough to get addicted,   realized I had a problem, then sold all my cards so I'd go outside. 

            A little gem called MtG:  Battlegrounds for PC and XBox got me really         excited to rediscover magic.  It combined Mortal Kombat and MtG in a one vs one real-time dueling game.  I wish Atari would remake that        game with updates for the 2014 gamer.  I liked RTS games like           Warcraft II & III, Age of Empires, Command & Conquer, etc so         giving MtG some life beyond turn-based strategy challenged me to                work toawards the #1 ranking on XBox Live (for like a day, but I was pretty good). 

            I finally got back into IRL magic in college when my school hosted a tournament.  I brought some dumb suicide mono-black beatdown deck from my middle school days and took it down.  We did a Time Spiral draft as a group after and I lost in the finals.  I felt outclassed since it was my first time seeing the cards as we cracked the packs and           I passed a bomb in Stonewood Invocation for Avator of Woe p1p1 and could have had a nutty GU aggro/morph deck. 

            My family moved to Eastern Pennsylvania and Northen New Jersey while I was in college, so now I had no high school friends at home.  I randomly went to a card shop to sell my old magic collection and I ran into Jon Sonne and his friends team drafting.  They told me to watch him to learn.  I did and his team crushed.  One had to leave so they          asked if I wanted to fill the seat for the next draft.  No pressure, just   joining some pros to draft! Opening Firemaw Kavu into Riftwing Cloudskate and drafted a nice 2-1 Izzet deck to win the team draft earned their respoect, so I was accepted into their group and they taught me a ton every time I was home from college breaks. 

            I've been playing competitvely (mostly limited) ever since then. 

•         Your favorite (Standard Pauper) deck ever? Your favorite card?

Deck:  BUG Flicker.  Card:  Ghostly Flicker.  I tried to fight that deck so hard when I first played against it but even bad versions of it were not remotely beatable by my other brews.  I improved the list and never lost with it once it all the IRL tournaments I played with it.  I had not discovered PDCmagic at the time but I was already writing articles about it at thedraftbrewery.wordpress.com and someone took my list to a second place finish at a MPDC worlds event.  Kind of sad actually because he decked himself in the finals, which should never happen with Gravepurge in the deck. 

•         What led you to playing the deck you won with?

I won SPDC 27.03 with Izzet Control.  I had been testing numerous decks trying to break Treasure Cruise - came in 2nd place with UW the week before, but was leaning toward Bu after seeing that deck have success.  I had been testing UR for 3 weeks and my roommate saw me play a few games with it.  He suggested that I run that deck in the next tournament.  The list was rough, with Font of Fortune main and Forge Devil in the side.  I cleaned it up and brought it prepared for battle against  heroic aggro and mono-black in mind.

•         Would you play that deck again in a tournament? If no, why?       

Yes, it's quite good.  The consistency the deck has with that much card draw fundamentally operates on a different level than every other deck in the format.  If the meta shifts and it's a bunch of Izzet mirrors then the main/side need to change or I just need to brew up the kyrptonite (something with a lot of counterspells).  The problem is that some people just play the same deck every week no matter what, so if you hedge against the mirror you now more likely to get rolled by Mono-Red and other heroic aggro decks.  I wouldn't overreact - these things have a way of balancing out.

•         Could you explain some of the more interesting choices in your decklist? Like Force Away, Traveler’s Amulet and Tormenting Voice.

Force Away is Voyage's End #5 against any heroic deck.  Sometimes we don't have removal in the early game and then the heroic creatures grow out of range and we can't kill anything with 4 toughness.  At that point we rely on boucning the creature and killing it with Nullify or the removal when it lands again.  It's also great at baiting out a Gods Willing and then responding with removal to kill it dead! 

Travler's Amulet is just a worse version of Evolving Wilds.  Paying 2 mana to get 1 land is super steep, but it fixes and enables Treasure Cruise.  I started with 4 but the card is very tempo negative in multiples.  I would encourage people to try 3 but I was happy with 2. 

Tormenting Voice was the ephiphany the day before the tournament.  Font of Fortunes is basically just Inspiration, which is terrible.  You don't want a slower card than Divination.  I learned that Voice was great from playing KTK limited.  It's perfect on turn 2 or in the mid-game since you know what you need to draw and what you can safely discard.  Wild Guess never saw play only because of it's restrictive mana cost.  There are very few times when the card is worse than Font of Fortunes - when you think your hand is perfect as is (it usually isn't even when you think it is) and when you topdeck it after being hellbent.  Overall, I'd argue it's one of the best cards in the deck because of it's role as an enabler - it significantly helps in getting the stack of dominos to initiate it's fall. 

•         We have seen similar decks playing creatures, why did you choose to leave tokens as your only finishers?

For game 1 in most of my control decks I like to completely blank cards that my opponents will likely play.  The one card that I hope to blank is Nullify.  That card is fantastic in this format, but the restrictive cost does limit its application.  I also invariably get a 2 for 1 against decks playing removal spells since there is nothing like Ashes to Ashes or Branching Bolt in the format. 

The token finshers are also key because I am able to play creatures while also immediately filling my graveyard for Treasure Cruise.  The graveyard only exists for Treasure Cruise!

•         A short recap of the tournament? (Match-ups, opponents, interesting situations)

Lucky for you guys I made a video replay analyzing my tournament already.  Check it out to get inside my thoughts here:  http://thedraftbrewery.wordpress.com/2014/11/03/izzet-control-spdc-27-03-1st-flawless-victory/

•         How did Coral Barrier in your sideboard perform?

It's not a powerful card but it did stall some some 1/1s and 2/1s, and dealt some unblockable damage with the Corals against islands and they can block Flurry of the Horns.  They are not insane but I like them for now. 

•         What card did you miss the most/Is there anything you want to add after the tournament?

My deck didn't need anything else for this particular tournament.  For future tournaments I would look to add Negate #4, 1-2 Cancels, and 1-2 Benthic Giants.  Also potentially moving some Negates to the main over some Nullifys or Voyage's End. 

•         What do you consider to be the best archetypes at the moment?

Izzet, W/x Heroic aggro/Tokens, Mono-Red Aggro, Bu Devotion Cruise, and potentially an unknown control deck that has not been successful yet, but it will have a good Izzet match-up. 

•         What is your strategy against these top decks with UR?

Kill/counter their early creatures, draw millions of cards, finish with Flurry of Hordes and Rise of Eagles which are at a minimum a 2 for 1.  We will likely need to choose to go small/fast or big/slow to deal with the control decks - not sure about that match-up yet.  The mirror is a crap-shoot of whoever draws enough lands and counterspells at the right time. 

•         What’s your opinion on GB Dredge deck, which took second place recently, it looks like a strong deck against UR Control?

I think it looks pretty sweet.  I like it much more than the Delve GB decks -  it's more recursion based, kind of like Reanimator except we have Unmake the Graves instead.  The deck isn't fast enough to get enough threats under counterspells and disruption, though, so Izzet can selectively pick what is important to deny.  The card advantage is good/grindy and they do present a ton of must-answer threats.  I'd like to test it more. 

•          Do you think there are any metagame differences between SPDC and MPDC tournaments?

        Yes, because different players show up to each event.  The format isn't leading to the pro tour so there will always be players with pet decks, unwilling to conform to best decks or unwilling to build other decks. I hope card availability isn't an issue ever!  Ultimately, I would bring the same deck to both tournaments so the difference is pretty insignificant.

•          General opinion on Treasure Cruise in Standard Pauper?

Broken.  Can be countered but there's no way to remove cards from the opponents graveyard.  Not bannable.  Requires work to get the Ansestral like pay-off - can't jam it in every deck.  I wouldn't fault people for trying, though. 

•          Do you belong to Standard Pauper Players clan? (If no, why?) What benefits do you feel from being in the clan?

Yes, Standard Pauper Players.  I like reading about players/ideas in the community on this website, but you don't have to be in the clan to make an impact on the standard pauper community.  I think it's just about making friends to play with. 

•          If yes, what led you to join the clan?

I believe Adner told me to join after reading some articles I made before I started playing online. 

•         Do you have any tips for a new Standard Pauper player trying to Top 8 his first tournament?

Follow pdcmagic.com for the latest competitive decklists.  Pick one you like.  Practice with it in the 'Just For Fun' room (that's the only place I can find a random game throughout the day).  Practice tweaking/brewing and coming up with orignial ideas to improve match-ups you commonly run into.   Try them out on your own first and draw conclusions based on how your ideas affect the game - not neccessarily on just results. Ask experienced players questions to get different perspectives and you'll be beating them in no time!

•         Props

Jamuraa for creating pdcmagic.com and sponsoring SPDC

Gwyned for teaching me to host and sponsoring the M-Core All-Star League

Rremedio1 for guest hosting SPDC every time I've been unavailable

Mundisv for the thoughtful interview and for tweaking/crushing with the list the next day at MPDC

Maltercio for the ggs in the finals with Mono-Red then swtiching to my exact 75 and top4ing at MPDC the next day

Channel Fireball for hosting standard pauper events at the Game Center last year, effectively roping me into the format

Treasure Cruise for taking me (and most of us) on a joy ride that feels like it never ends!

Thanks for the interview again, Chris! If you guys want to see more UR content, you should visit the Twitch and Youtube channels of our community member - benne433! If you like the content, don't forget to leave a response, that's what keeps community publishers going!