Q&A: CTQ Winner Caleb Spicer
One of the most interesting
things about the beginning of NRG Championship Series CTQs has been seeing the different metas for different locations.
Consider the May Modern CTQ at Collectible Corner in Normal, Illinois. There were three Tron decks in the top 8, which is something that hasn’t been seen in a while.
One of them was Caleb Spicer’s Eldrazi Tron deck, which he piloted to a win, claiming six at-large points. Caleb took the time to answer some questions about the tournament, the deck and Magic overall.
First, Caleb’s winning decklist:
Eldrazi Tron, by Caleb Spicer, 1st place, Modern CTQ
Casey Laughman (CL): How long have you been playing Magic? What got you into the game and what keeps you interested in it?
Caleb Spicer (CS): I’ve been playing Magic since Born of the Gods. What got and keeps me interested in Magic is that it’s always changing. There are so many creative and skilled magic players that I look up to.
The main thing that keeps me interested is wanting to be the best — I want people to look at me as a great magic player. I love competition, and going to CTs/CTQs, PPTQs or SCG Opens lets me be competitive.
CL: Do you play multiple formats or do you mostly/exclusively play Modern? If you play multiple formats, what appeals to you about the differences between them? If you are a Modern specialist, what is it about the format that makes it the one you want to play the most?
CS: I play a little bit of standard but mostly modern. I used to love playing Standard until Splinter Twin … I mean Felidar/Saheeli was a thing. I hated that I had to always be scared of tapping out or I’d just lose the game, or that decks couldn’t be viable unless they could beat the combo. What I like about Modern is you can pretty much play whatever you want and you still have a chance of winning.
CL: How do you feel about the overall health of the Modern format right now?
CS: I love Modern; I think it’s really healthy at the moment. Most people say “it’s too diverse,” but to me that what makes it fun. I wouldn’t like it if it was a two-deck format.
I don’t think it’s a format you “have to” keep up with. There will always be fringe decks in every format and all the “known” decks are still there.
CL: What made you feel that Eldrazi Tron was a good choice for the Modern CTQ?
CS: I feel like Eldrazi Tron’s only bad matchups are Affinity and Jund Death’s Shadow. It’s probably one of the best decks in the format. It has a good match-up against the popular decks like Burn, Abzan, Jund or Gx Tron. Also, unlike regular Tron, I don’t just lose to Blood Moon.
I feel like people underestimate the power level of the deck. Since it plays Tron lands and Eldrazi Temple, taking me off either doesn’t slow me down most of the time. Also, Chalice of the Void has gotten me so many free wins.
CL: In your experience from the tournament, what were the best match-ups you played against? What were the worst?
CS: I went in hoping to dodge Affinity. I knew I could win (the tournament) if I did. I feel like I had no bad matchups throughout the day.
Round 1 I lost because I got greedy against Bant Eldrazi. I had a choice of either cracking an Expedition Map to assemble Tron or play Chalice on 1. I chose Tron, and that was a mistake.
He played double Ancient Stirrings and got two Eldrazi Temple. I played a Thought-Knot Seer and saw two Eldrazi Displacer and two Drowners of Hope, and I knew I couldn’t beat that. If I would have cast Chalice on turn 2, I could have just assembled Tron a turn later. He wouldn’t have had an Eldrazi Temple or the mana to play Displacer on turn 3 and Drowner on 4, and I might have won that game.
After my round 1 punt, I played two Gx Tron, Jund, Burn and 8-rack, and it was easy to make it into top 8. In top 8 I fought my friend Liam, on G/R tron, and won in two. I played Skred in the quarterfinals, and like I mentioned before I don’t fold to Blood Moon, regardless if it was on turn 2. Having Map and Mind Stone helps a lot in this matchup; also Walking Ballista doesn’t require you to have colorless mana.
In the finals I played G/B Tron and lucky for me, he had the one-of basic in his hand every game, so my Ghost Quarters were basically Strip Mines. I eventually won by beating him down with Ballista and Matter Reshapers.
CL: Were there any surprises in any match-ups? Say, a match-up you thought would be good turned out to be bad, or vice versa?
Not really. On top of playing one of the best decks in the format, I feel like I’m a really strong Modern player and know every matchup pretty well.
CL: Does winning the CTQ and getting the at-large points make it likely that you’ll try to play in the CTs and other CTQs that are coming up?
Absolutely, I think what Nerd Rage Gaming is doing is amazing and I’m lucky to be a part of it, I’m definitely going to travel and try to go to every event possible to be in the championship.
Caleb Spicer won a Modern CTQ in May. Casey Laughman is editor of Nerd Rage Gaming. Email comments and questions to claughman@gmail.com.
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