Thoughts on Temur Elementals, Amonkhet and The Value of Losing

It’s been a while since my last Grind Journal post, and with reason: there hasn’t been much to report on the grind front. Over the past 2+ weeks my grind has been mostly ups, with a recent brief losing period. As much as I want to be able to report nothing but wins, the fact is that periodic losses, disappointing tournaments and even losing streaks happen to all of us from time to time. It’s important to be able to stay grounded during these periods and recognize them no differently than a winning streak. Losing periods are not permanent.

While I’m on the topic of winning and losing, it’s incredibly important to be able to appreciate your effort during a losing period, no matter how bad the losses may feel, and no matter how poorly you may have played. Yeah, losing stinks, but losses are a necessary part of our growth. Without them it’s more difficult to develop the insights, strategies and perspectives you need to win. The gameplay and mindset strategies you find on this site are a result of what I’ve learned through winning AND losing. Simply put, my goal is to transform both my wins and my losses into guideposts that can help others grow. You should strive to do the same for your own growth.

One item worth noting since my last Grind Journal is that I did reach Mythic on August 6th, which is probably the fastest I’ve ever climbed the ladder in a single season. I’ve primarily been playing Standard with Temur Adventures, while also jamming variations of Temur Elementals on the 10th and the 19th. I’ve also played a bunch of Amonkhet Remastered Premier drafts, and despite some real dud performances, it still has been a fantastic set to draft. More on that later.

Some Notes on Temur Elementals

Temur Elementals is a super fun archetype with some extremely raw power. As previously mentioned, I’ve always been a fan of Genesis Ultimatum, specifically in an Elementals list. The meta was never right for it until now, so when I saw my friend Kyle Cramer playing it on his Twitch stream, I figured I’d give it a try.

On August 10th, I posted a 6-7 record with the 60-card version, and a 5-5 version with the Yorion version. For me, the two decks performed fairly equally, but I personally think that the Yorion version is the clear way to go if you choose to run this archetype. Aside from the obvious edge that Yorion gives a deck filled with ETB effects, Risen Reef and Omnath will rip through your deck in a flash. I’ve come close to milling myself multiple times when playing the 60-card version. Additionally, there are just so many different ways to supplement the Elementals package, and playing Yorion as a companion gives you the room to incorporate whichever Planeswalkers you prefer and the requisite 3-4 copies of Aether Gust. Here is my latest list:

Currently, the litmus test in Standard is whether or not a deck can compete against Sultai. Combining Terror of the Peaks with the Elementals package and Genesis Ultimatum, Elementals definitely has the raw power to go far over the top of Sultai and eventually bury it in card advantage. Unfortunately, its inability to do so consistently is what keeps this deck from overtaking Sultai as the best deck in the format.

Notably, I haven’t been very impressed with Ugin, the Spirit Dragon in an Elementals list. He’s primarily there to give you additional end game against Sultai and the mirror match, but even in those situations he’s not optimal. By the time I can play him my board presence is typically well established, but so is my opponent’s. An Ugin minus X with a full board generally ends up being a huge net loss for me, while my opponent will often have the ability to untap and easily recover with a Nissa or Casualties of War.

Additionally, Ugin not being able to exile lands with his minus X ability is one of the biggest downfalls against Nissa decks. Rather than play 2-3 Ugin in this list, I really like maindeck Mass Manipulation. If you hit it off of Genesis Ultimatum it simply goes to your hand. Much more often than not, a resolved MM is going to be backbreaking for your opponent, and generally much more effective at ruining your opponent’s board state than Ugin. If you simply can’t do without Ugin, try running some combination of the two in your 8+ mana slots as I currently am. You’ll find that MM is much more assured and reliable way of swaying the game heavily in your favor.

Adventuring in High-ish Mythic

Ultimately, I didn’t have as much success with Elementals as I hoped I would, and ended up switching back to Adventures on the 11th-18th for laddering. I felt more comfortable with and confident in Adventures, and I needed to lock in a list for the Red Bull Untapped Qualifier V (RBV) on the 15th.

I only played about 8 matches on the ladder during this time, as I spent a good deal of time drafting Amonkhet Remastered. However, one of those 8 matches was possibly the best match of my life so far. Playing against Bant Control, I finished the game with 14 seconds left and 4 cards in my library. With less than a minute left on my timer, I swung out with Uro, two Lovestruck Beast and two 1/1 humans from Heart’s Desire. My opponent was at 36 life, and they cycled in a 2/2 shark, then cycled in a 4/4 shark, backed by two Arboreal Grazer.

With 4 copies of Lucky Clover on the battlefield and before blocks were declared, I cast Stomp to kill both sharks and an Arboreal Grazer. I then cast Aether Gust on the second Grazer to deal 13. With seconds dwindling, I cast Beanstalk Giant and used the Fling I wished in on the previous turn to take the match 2-1.

Notably, in that match I had to steal my opponent’s Ugin with Mass Manipulation to kill their Dream Trawler, which had beat me up all match. I also had to fight through one of their copies of Mass Manipulation. My summary here definitely doesn’t do justice to how thrilling this match was. Another reason I need to start streaming sooner than later.

Fortunately, RBV started at 7AM EST on the 15th, so waking up at 6:10 AM was much more reasonable than waking up at 1:30 AM to play a tournament. Unfortunately, I dropped after doing 3-4, though only two matches were actual wins.

• Izzet Aggro - L 0-2

• Mono Green - W 2-1

• Jeskai Winota - W 2-1

• Sultai Midrange - L 0-2

• Bye

• UW Control - L 1-2

• Simic Flash L 1-2

The Sultai Midrange list I played against wasn’t a stock list by any means, and its creature suite consisted of God-Eternal Kefnet, Questing Beast, Uro and 4 Cavalier of Gales to grind out the opponent and draw tons of answers. It seems like a list that is designed to win the mirror and I may experiment with it going forward it.

After going 3-4 in RBV, I got back to laddering that day and on the 17th, reaching as high as 260 in Mythic rankings with Temur Adventures. On the 19th though, I definitely had one of those days on the Constructed ladder, which followed two straight days of poor drafting performances on the Limited ladder.

Sometimes, Winning and Losing is Beyond Our Control

When things are going fairly well and you’re playing your best, it’s easy to forget what losing streaks really feel like. That’s what happened to me earlier this week. After doing pretty well with Amonkhet Remastered drafts this past weekend and reaching Platinum, I did a total of six drafts on the 17th and 18th, with my best one being a 3-3 finish.

GBx variants have been my most successful approach thus far, especially when you can pick up cards such as Gravedigger and Trial of Ambition and back them up with cartouches. I also was able to draft a couple decks with Driven to Despair, which is just an absolute house. Here is a list I finished 6-3 with.

Sometimes drafts just don’t go well, but it’s important that you still try to determine specifically how you contributed to those outcomes. For me, some of my losses were due to simple punts, while others were due to poor drafting or deck construction. In fact, there was one juicy RB deck I drafted with 6 removal spells. Rather than make it a midrange deck and focus on killing everything and jamming giant Cerodons, I tried to make it aggressive as well, including multiple copies of Cartouche of Zeal, Bloodlust Inciter and other small creatures. A rare deckbuilding flub, for sure.

Mindset Tip: Additionally, it’s easy to make such a strategic deckbuilding error when you’re in the middle of a losing streak. The more you remember the previous losses, the more you focus on trying to make up for them. Instead, it’s important to put those losses behind you and focus on drafting and deckbuilding the best that you possibly can. If you’re truly focused on improvement, make sure that you’re coming from the perspective of “I’m on the right track and I’m dedicated to improvement,” rather than “my Limited game is insufficient and I need to improve it.”

Going into Wednesday, I decided to get back to Constructed to prepare for Red Bull VI. Unfortunately, I posted an 8-14 record that day. After starting 0-5 with Adventures, I decided to switch back to Temur Elementals (Yorion). It didn’t get much better from there, going 3-2 in the next five matches. I alternated between the two decks a few more times before calling it a night.

On the day, I went 1-5 against Sultai, despite trying different sideboarding approaches. It’s possible that playing Uro maindeck over Aether Gust in Adventures is just downright wrong. However, my most frequent issue that day was flooding out. It seemed as if I was flooding out over and over again. For my last two matches I cut my 27th land for a third Uro, and I ended the night on a positive note with two more wins.

Sometimes, winning and losing really is beyond your control. Some days, no matter how much you tweak your deck, how many different decks you try or how clearminded you may be, you simply aren’t going to have a winning record that day. Take notes on the lessons you learn in those losses, and step away from the platform if you feel your frustration preventing you from playing your best Magic.

And for the record, that’s how you need to look at those days, no matter how many losses you may rack up. Rather than being a day when you got stomped left and right by every deck, it was a day when you didn’t have a winning record.

In Closing

Red Bull VI is tomorrow, and I’m looking forward to playing a tournament at an optimal time. My goal is to reach Day 2, and I’m confident I can do that, at a minimum.

I’m also planning on getting back to drafting and will start posting some screenshots, results and a deeper analysis of my experiences in Amonkhet Remastered. It really is a fun and versatile Limited format in which games are typically long and grindy. It also has an abundance of removal in all colors, which can give you game in almost any archetype.

Thanks for reading, and good luck to everyone playing in RBVI and SCG events this weekend!