Interview With a Top 8 Regionals Player Running Mono White Kithkin
May 21, 2009
Here’s an interview I did with a top 8 player at Regionals. His name is Norm and he played mono white Kithkin. He got 8th place at the 2009 Pittsburgh Regionals. You might know him from his blog, Casual Magic.
| Mono White Kithkin - Norm Huelsman | |||||||||||
Creatures (22)
Spells (13) Lands (25) | Sideboard (15) |
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Dee: Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Norm: I started playing during Ravnica/Guildpact and when it comes to competitive play, I still feel like a newcomer. With that said, I try to play competitive magic at least once a week and I’ve been on the competitive event scene only about a year. The 2008 Regionals was my first real competitive constructed event outside of an FNM.
How did you discover the deck? And why did you decide to run it?
I discovered the decklist on DeckCheck.net. I was thinking that I might want to play B/W Tokens myself but I was lacking some of the cards and I didn’t feel that confident because I hadn’t tested with it.
I have been playing Kithkin for a while and earlier in the year I was leaning toward a Vengeant Weenie build, but I would constantly have mana problems and bad draws. I switched back to mono white Kithkin for an FNM and the deck played so much smoother and I knew I wanted something in this direction.
At FNM the night before regionals, I ran mono white Kithkin with Glorious Anthem and zero Wilt-Leaf Liege. The deck played ok but just wasn’t very good overall. I went 2-2 that night.
I was actually thinking about playing R/G elves the next day because it seemed to be faster and good with all the trample. As I was looking for other ideas and possible decks, I saw the mono white build I ended up running because it just made sense to me.
This may seem silly but I really liked the fact that Wilt-Leaf Liege is a four drop, making my early turn decisions a lot easier. The fact that you have another creature that is 4/4 and pumping everything else is a huge difference to me.
You beat B/W Tokens 3 out of 4 times in the tournament. What was the key to beating what many consider to be the best deck in Standard?
I think the key to beating tokens is getting your pumps first. If you can get a turn three Spectral Procession and turn four Ajani then you will be in a really good position attacking for six.
If I could, I would always use Path to Exile on the first Kitchen Finks. Path kept the ground clear and prevented the additional life gain. Also if you don’t get the tokens plus Ajani, your other creatures can get big fast.
Most of the token decks ran two Wrath of God which isn’t enough against my fast start. IMO I felt that most of the token decks were just too slow against me. Also I didn’t see anyone else playing a deck like mine so my deck was a little unexpected. I got a lot of comments that were surprised with my mono white deck.
With only 15 Kithkin and 4 Rustic Clachan, did you ever have problems playing Rustic Clachan untapped when you needed the mana?
Except for the first game in the finals (where I basically misplayed) maybe one other time. I can’t really remember. My strategy is to try and hold the Rustic Clachan as a combat trick unless I need the mana early.
I usually didn’t have any issues. One really lucky fact is that I didn’t experience any major mana issues. When I’ve played Kithkin before, I usually experience a match or few games where I either don’t see any land or just get flooded. Maybe I’m just getting better at shuffling. I usually always had a Kithkin in my opening hand and if I needed to play Clachan first, no worries.
What do you think are your good matchups and bad matchups?
I never saw a red deck all day. They were either under preforming or I just got lucky. I say this because I think my best matchup would have been against Blightning.
By the middle of the day I thought that B/W Tokens was my best matchup because I was having a lot of success there. I was scared to face a control/lark deck because I typically don’t do well in those matchups and I don’t have a lot of experience playing against them. Overall I wasn’t too worried about it because I felt that I had the tools to play against any deck.
I didn’t test or see any of the Bant variants so I’m not sure about that matchup.
What was the MVP of the deck?
Such a hard question, but I’ve got to go with Ajani Goldmane followed by Figure of Destiny, my favorite one drop.
What was your best or favorite play in the tournament?
I have two favorite plays.
The first during round one, I was playing against Naya with Bloodbraid Elf. Game two and I’m taking beats from a turn three Woolly Thoctar. I get Spectral Procession and I have two Windbrisk Heights in play each hiding a Wilt-Leaf Liege. I think I also have a Goldmeadow Harrier in play.
Turn five I attack with Spectral Procession tokens. He can’t block the fliers and I activate both Hideaway lands for 9 damage. The game is over next turn. What is really awesome about this play is the fact it happened again next round. The look on the opponent’s face was priceless.
My other favorite play was game two of the finals. I have a level 1 Figure of Destiny and two Wizened Cenn in play on turn three. My opponent plays a second Stillmoon Cavalier on his fourth turn and is at 5 life. I swing with the team and have four open mana. He blocks a 4/4 Figure and a 3/3 Cenn preparing to take 3 damage and probably praying for Wrath of God on his draw step. Before damage I pitch two Rustic Clachan to my unblocked Wizened Cenn for the game. He never saw it coming.
Well, that’s it for this interview. I want to thank Norm for his time.
Make sure to check out his blog at casualmagic.wordpress.com. He recently published his regionals tournament report. And finally if you like beating down, definitely try out his decklist.
2 Responses to “Interview With a Top 8 Regionals Player Running Mono White Kithkin”
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Absolutely solid plays there Mr. Norm !
Sweet play with the Rustic Clachan F.T.W.
[...] on May 21, 2009: I posted an interview with Norm about his decklist and his Regionals [...]