Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir Quarterfinals (Standard): Ivan Floch vs. Mike Sigrist

[@Dylan-cm1br]

Ivan is so chill I love watching him play

[@jazzyjay4595]

Man this was one of my favorite era’s of standard. The decks were all so different. It seemed like every time we have Blue/Black control on video it was losing but somehow still made it to the top 8 with Ivan Floch. I chose to play a Blue/White control deck in this standard so I could rely on a true sweeper and played much more heavily on counter spells like Nulify (UU counter target Creatue or Aura spell). There was also plenty of cheap removal to play like Last Breath (W1) and Devouring Light (WW1). The mana base wasn’t the easiest with double blue being almost a necessity but the cheap removal being white but the upside to having white outweighed that. You could also rely on Elspeth both as a finisher and a sweeper instead of just running Pearl Lake Ancient. I won many FNM and Game Day events in a very competitive Ohio scene. I talked a lot with Jim Davis about the creation and possible evolutions of the deck. Ended up adding Medomi, The Ageless as a secure finisher to timewalk my opponent when I knew i had plenty of counterspell back up. Loved that deck more than any other standard I’ve played, mainly because everyone was high on Abzan and Thoughtsieze

[@kaiterenless1888]

I like how in the side board discussion Sigrist is whispering like he's afraid Floch is lurking somewhere nearby...

[@skylar5257]

Ivan got me into control back in 2016 and always watching him play these games was like watching my favorite basketball team. Because of him I haven’t fallen out of love with control since.

[@LOLVAMPIRE123]

Ivan is such an amazing control player! Control all the way!!!

[@Nkuilo890]

23:05 You can tell he was so proud of that joke. Probably was waiting to do that all tournament.

[@rami8444]

This is a match of awkward facial expressions. Derp vs Smirk.

[@hayleyberry3437]

Mike Sigrist will be known has the man that changed standard ! Abzan aggro most played deck for 3 block .This game was the one got me in love with Abzan and built my first tier 1 deck

[@replaylord6450]

14:30 Segrist almost walks out of frame that's something i would do not the mention his "Woops" face as he stops

[@AirsoftGunner352]

Mikes facial expressions drive me nuts lol

[@Vardaris]

He is so funny I feel he is always like: "Well, look at that I may win... how interesting and surprising"

[@projectworld4023]

Is Ivan a Control Specialist? I always see him play this

[@Turn2Ugin]

He knows what he likes

[@GrandMasterKybok]

Three words I hope ivan floch will see, "Curse Of Swine." I use curse of swine with drown in sorrow. With bile blight in my side board. Curse of swine will end a ton of big guys late game and is pretty good early game. Just understand it won't "remove" the threat but you don't have to waste your big removal on it. I'd only keep silence the believers because it gets better with more mana. And dammit he needs some nullify.

[@YourExalt]

I hate hand shuffling so much ugh, I can't help but notice it. ;-;

[@Riptose13]

its a really good tactic, however. You dont want the other player to be able to guess a card to be discarded at random and pick your best spell. If you keep them all in place, the other player might know where in the hand a card might be, and play accordingly.

[@Archangel72985]

Riptose13 The flicking however is unnecessary and obnoxious. It is a tactic to break your opponents concentration but you can randomize your hand in a quiet manner and you do not need to be doing it constantly either.

[@keithfilibeck2390]

Riptose13 name a standard card that causes you discard at random that anyone plays.

[@letchegaray]

Keith Filibeck Black cat...

[@PhyrexianMetal]

Archangel72985 Thats not why the majority of players do it. It's actually a concentration tactic FOR whoever is doing it. If i'm hand shuffling when i'm "f6'd" on my opponent's turn, it isn't because i'm trying to disrupt my opponent's play; it's because i'm thinking and it's something to do. when taking a test such as an ACT or an SAT, those providing the test will often give advice as to things to do to firm up your concentration; little vices to channel your attention through while you are thinking by stimulating multiple parts of your brain at once. Hand shuffling is exactly one of those vices for magic players. In my case, i try to even get a rhythm going; but maybe that's just because i play and listen to a lot of music. I have to assume cards hitting each other is a pet peeve of yours, which is of course something you're aware of better than anyone, but please don't assume or lead others to believe players with real proven skill (not nearly including myself in that category) would have such a lack of confidence in their play as to use such cheap tactics. This is the ProTour. Pen tricks and Heart of the Cards don't get you there, and if they did, the people who are actually good at this game would very easily clean them off in when things really start to get rolling.

[@TheKaneECO]

excuse me how could Ivan counter Hero's Downfall with Disdainful Stroke?

[@Fatlord27]

he wasn't countering with disdainful stroke, he was discarding a card to given his sphinx hexproof per its effect

[@TheKaneECO]

Ohhhh I see thank you.

[@FeeleySkarin]

I just cant belive the "see oponents hand" ability. It feels so damn op.

[@dreslab2022]

+Hej Svej What card are you referring too?

[@pirate0bloodyskull]

+David Smith Thoughtseize.

[@dreslab2022]

pirate0bloodyskull It's not that OP, information is a really important part of the game and if you can keep it safe or try to outsmart your opponent that way then you can start to become a better player.

[@jayceehampton6121]

How is it OP when you can make a deck that can do the same thing?

[@peewee130946]

Jaycee Hampton its. Op because everybody uses it so now if you don't use it your at a huge disitvantage

[@cat4luny4]

23:00 Playing arround charm

[@Drecon84]

Why wouldn't Ivan block the vampire. Was he actually scared for Bile Blight or Drown in Sorrow? And even if he was, was he going to just not block for the entire game? Really weird decision.

[@69Yosiel69]

Yeah... He was playing around Abzan Charm putting 2 counters, but there's a maxim new players need to exercise 'Always Makes It Have It'

[@SaucyNight]

i thought what was even more bizarre is that at 25:40ish Sigrist put all 3 plus one counters on his Herald. If he had put one on Herald and one on both rocs, plus 1 sorin and each would able to kill sphinx outright without trading, as well as having 8 damage get through no matter what.

[@lightninghelix199]

23:05 mike plays urborg with ivans on the field legendary rule? it could have saved ivan a turn.

[@christianhuang9673]

legendary rule changed. Now both players can play legendary creatures at the same time.

[@lightninghelix199]

ok that wierd tho theres only 1 urborg.......

[@M0th3ater]

Game one, around 9:30, he could have won by pumping the deathdealer with the fetch and plains and the two temples :|

[@syntheticlegion]

2:50 whoa shots fired on americans

[@FreakyJellyFish]

where can i get the deck lists for this?

[@benoitrenaud9800]

www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=8286&d=247649&f=ST

[@FreakyJellyFish]

thank you

[@ghostware6057]

So, I might just be ignorant and missing something really obvious here, but if Ivan hated that deck so much, why did he play with it?

[@alexnguyen3803]

Jacob Robinson Because he is one of the best control players ever.

[@bariltrailette]

Why he can counter a mana cost three with a counter spell can only counter a 4 or grater.

[@ThePnguin]

He didn't. He discarded it to activate the Prognostic Sphinx's ability. It did look like he was countering Sigrist's spell, but he was just showing that he was using the Sphinx's ability

[@bariltrailette]

thanks

[@Asadarion]

hahaha mikes face when he started walking away xD

[@AeonAxisProductions]

no sweeper? there would be if he kept with blue white its called mass calcify

[@TheMissthebus]

Which doesn't kill half the cards in Abzan Aggro

[@AeonAxisProductions]

TheMissthebus well now we got crux of fate which is awesome

[@alexnguyen3803]

DeanGuitarsForLife! as a U/B control player, Crux of Fate is pretty bad. the fact that it cant wipe a whole board and is five mana is just so bad. Hoping Wizards makes a better boardwipe

[@alexnguyen3803]

ozfan6 The thing i hate about vault is that it wipes your walkers and my deck using walkers as win cons

[@alexnguyen3803]

i run 1 PLA 2 ugin and 1 Ashiok.

[@Flowerman557]

I hope I'm not the only one who noticed, but Ivan was using polluted delta all wrong in game 2.

[@Flowerman557]

Huh... good eye. I guess I missed that.

[@hansgruber1686]

were are the temur decks ?

[@Vardaris]

You won't see any of them at least until the new set, temur are just not good enough at the moment (which is sad actually)

[@hansgruber1686]

i liked them pretty much.....but well i am not playing on that level :)

[@robotetanus]

Magic with out some sort of competitive control option is pretty bad.

[@drop0ut606]

fortunately the blue black is very much a competitive control option.

[@rylon30]

Sadly that is no longer the case in 2016. Control feels dead.

[@drop0ut606]

Control just won the pro tour lol

[@rylon30]

A midrange kinda deck that's heavy on big creatures and removal, we don't have a "classic" control deck with a decent amount of counterspells and raw card advantage along with sweepers.

[@pharmtekbobby]

"Life totals don't matter with this control deck..." and then....dead.

[@TankP0wnz]

Meaning Mike's life total doesn't matter to Ivan.

[@jpd6101]

I, personally, think the UB Control Decks suck with out at LEAST two Perilous Vault. Without Doomblade and Ultimate Price, you can't keep one for oneing (

[@jpd6101]

I shouldn't say suck, I should say don't work as well.

[@dingding12321]

lol poor Mike. he just had to play against Owen's control deck and now he's here in top 8 playing against more control

[@beanh17]

19:47 Mike casts Herald of Torment without taking damage from either of his painlands. And no one saw that.

[@JakeTSloan]

Floch had an Urborg in play.

[@HardWorkingFamilyMan]

Floch's deck is so bad I could not stop laughing, GO SIGRIST!

[@andrewchan1837]

Ivan floch looks like gsp.

[@KhanGarth]

he's playing Dimir colors and using Abzan sleeves....ok then

[@SHADOWCLOUDGAMING]

I just don't understand the annoying hand shuffling in magic. The only somewhat reasonable excuse is that it doesn't let your opp know where your cards are but that doesn't even matter. It's just a learned thing that magic players do because they feel like it makes them look like a pro. Just put the cards down or stop. It's not hard.

[@Turn2Ugin]

It's a tick

[@SHADOWCLOUDGAMING]

@@Turn2Ugin It's not. A tick is a physical compulsion. Hand shuffling is learned and practiced and is 100% intentional.

[@Turn2Ugin]

@@SHADOWCLOUDGAMING i guess, just seems like every dude i know who does it is somewhere on the spectrum.

[@SHADOWCLOUDGAMING]

@@Turn2Ugin I definitely believe that but that doesn't make this an autism tick. I believe people see pros doing it and they want to emulate it and perpetuate it.

[@SHADOWCLOUDGAMING]

@@Turn2Ugin I know people who learn how to do it just to piss people off in tournaments.

[@Thesunburntcrack]

Wizards...... where Ab makes an Ob sound....

[@chayseedward5312]

Noooo ivan nooooooo!

[@AeonAxisProductions]

does everyone who plays card games professionally CONSTANTLY SNAP THE CARDS AND SHUFFLE THEIR HANDS LIKE COME ON you already know whats there THEYRE NOT GOING ANYWHERE

[@TheMissthebus]

All I have to say to you is Hymn to Tourach.

[@ich3730]

DeanGuitarsForLife! if u would play on such a high level, with money on the line, u would love to do that for the stress reduction

[@RiddlerKeepz]

DeanGuitarsForLife! Basically, they do it either as a habit or stress release. Thousands of Dollars on the line, you'd do it too.

[@Vizzztor]

Dude just stop shuffling the cards in your hand. Just stop.

[@jayceehampton6121]

Víctor de Croy Dude, chill. Can't change someone's habits. And besides, it's better to do so anyway.

[@peewee130946]

Jaycee Hampton no it's not better a little ok a lot is just annoying

[@Sarpro72]

Thoughtseize and clones of it are so uninteresting to watch and rather irritating even as the viewer.

[@modernminded5466]

I get close being kinda bad from a viewers perspective as it isn't always clear what it does. But why is thoughtsieze uninteresting _or_ annoying?

[@Sarpro72]

@@modernminded5466 it’s been an insanely powerful card since it was released and an auto include in any blue/black control deck. 1 mana to view your opponents hand and take their most powerful or useful card is an insane effect, and similar effects cost 2-3 mana more. I recall on multiple occasions pros stating that the person who casts thoughtseize on turn 1 was just straight up way more likely to win. My playgroup has two people who use the card regularly, and for me it’s become one of those cards that just makes me sigh every time I run into it.

[@modernminded5466]

@@Sarpro72 Ohhh, clones of thoughtsieze. Thought you meant clone effects. Well, yeah, it's pretty good, I guess. It was certainly a tat over-pushed in standard, but it's a pretty fragile card in many senses, and one of the most "sideboarded out" cards in any deck that runs it. It's pretty important, though, in certain formats. It's one of those tools that allow durdly midrange decks to compete with insanely fast combo-decks.