I forgot all about this until I saw the thread despite looking forward to it since Madrid ended. Thanks for posting this. Looks like it'll be an early morning for me again tomorrow.
As for the tournament, I'm expecting to see a lot of the standard fare: UR Delver, RUG Delver, Pod, Scapeshift. Those are all pretty strong choices at the moment, and well suited to take on a big open field. I'm also expecting to see some UWR Ascendency lists like we saw at Worlds, though I'll be surprised if it has a big presence at the top tables. It's an interesting deck but weak to a lot of things that are already very good in Modern like Abrupt Decay and graveyard hate. Given its showing at Worlds I doubt it will be able to take many people by surprise and I suspect that will hurt its results a bit.
I think some kind of BUG brew, whether it be BUG Delver, midrange, or something more on the controlling side of the spectrum has potential so I'm hoping it'll make a break out in this tournament but my expectations for that are quite low.
The rumors of BGx's demise have been greatly exaggerated it would seem...
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In my dream, the world had suffered a terrible disaster. A black haze shut out the sun, and the darkness was alive with the moans and screams of wounded people. Suddenly, a small light glowed. A candle flickered into life, symbol of hope for millions. A single tiny candle, shining in the ugly dark. I laughed and blew it out.
Many thanks to HotP Studios. Special thanks to DNC for this great sig.
What the hell is going on in that image? I think somewhere, underneath all those dice and blurriness, I spot an Affinity and White prison deck or something.
Basically Dezani has obviously cracked a sad about modern (not surprising if you watched him play affinity at madrid), and has gone full troll mode and is playing GW prison style deck ala T Woo. Playing martyr of sands + serra ascendant and copious ghostly prisons, sphere's of safety and runed halos to shut down anyway for his opponent to win. Frank being a wise man, just played chalice on 1 (shutting off dezani's only removal) and just built massive flying blockers so Dezani got decked. Since his 6/6's couldn't swing past blockers.
A single Mistveil Plains would have won the second game for Dezani
Ya, dont know why you wouldnt play one or two in the deck.... its fetchable, it helps get sideboard cards back from the graveyard and it has very little downside (coming in tapped sucks but easily worth the downside)
Hopefully the GPT lists are indicative of the overall metagame. The format has a lot riding on this GP. If Delver cannot be convincingly overthrown here, I do not hold out much hope for TC surviving past January. I also wouldn't hold out much hope for the format shifting away from the URx Delver metagame; with 2 GPs under its belt, not to mention Worlds, it would have more or less proven itself to be the best deck. Given that its MTGO prevalence has been almost 20% over the past month, with a paper share of about 12%, Delver is more than entering BGx Midrange territory, which is not what we want to see in this format.
That said, I am cautiously optimistic that Junk and Pod have what it takes to carry this event and prove that Modern is still saveable.
Tzu Ching Kuo wins on 1 land the whole game. Despite what the announcers say, 1 land is not the best for Burn and probably 99% of the time leads to a loss. Now I don't think there was anything special that he did in the game, just playing all of those 1 mana "Lightning Bolts" was pretty cool.
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Legacy - Sneak Show, BR Reanimator, Miracles, UW Stoneblade
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/ Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander - Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build) (dead format for me)
http://magic.wizards.com/en/content/fact-sheet-grand-prix-milan-december-2014
Coverage
http://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gpmil15
Stream begins Saturday, December 13 at 1 pm local time (CET)/4 am PT/7 am ET/12 pm GMT, and Sunday at 9 am local time (CET)/12 am PT/3 am ET/8 am GMT
http://www.twitch.tv/magic
As for the tournament, I'm expecting to see a lot of the standard fare: UR Delver, RUG Delver, Pod, Scapeshift. Those are all pretty strong choices at the moment, and well suited to take on a big open field. I'm also expecting to see some UWR Ascendency lists like we saw at Worlds, though I'll be surprised if it has a big presence at the top tables. It's an interesting deck but weak to a lot of things that are already very good in Modern like Abrupt Decay and graveyard hate. Given its showing at Worlds I doubt it will be able to take many people by surprise and I suspect that will hurt its results a bit.
I think some kind of BUG brew, whether it be BUG Delver, midrange, or something more on the controlling side of the spectrum has potential so I'm hoping it'll make a break out in this tournament but my expectations for that are quite low.
'78 CB750F, '09 CBR600RR
http://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/gp-milan-move-forward-scheduled-2014-12-11
Many thanks to HotP Studios. Special thanks to DNC for this great sig.
Angel Pod 111
Comboless Pod 1
Affinity 111
RG Tron 1
Junk 1111
Scapeshift 1
Jeskai Ascendancy Combo/Control 11
Midrange Zoo (with Siege Rhino) 1
TC Burn 1
UR Delver (with Blistercoil Weird) 1
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
Best tournament ever
Basically Dezani has obviously cracked a sad about modern (not surprising if you watched him play affinity at madrid), and has gone full troll mode and is playing GW prison style deck ala T Woo. Playing martyr of sands + serra ascendant and copious ghostly prisons, sphere's of safety and runed halos to shut down anyway for his opponent to win. Frank being a wise man, just played chalice on 1 (shutting off dezani's only removal) and just built massive flying blockers so Dezani got decked. Since his 6/6's couldn't swing past blockers.
Ya, dont know why you wouldnt play one or two in the deck.... its fetchable, it helps get sideboard cards back from the graveyard and it has very little downside (coming in tapped sucks but easily worth the downside)
That said, I am cautiously optimistic that Junk and Pod have what it takes to carry this event and prove that Modern is still saveable.
I feel like delver is due to get 3-4 top 8 spots. Its just too good not to.
Which I am totally on board with. I think Tarmo Twin is the best version of Twin right now. I also love the double Batterskull. Very cool.
EDIT: Jesus Treasure Cruise is so good in Delver....
'78 CB750F, '09 CBR600RR
Premodern - Trix, RecSur, Enchantress, Reanimator, Elves https://www.facebook.com/groups/PremodernUSA/
Modern - Neobrand, Hogaak Vine, Elves
Standard - Mono Red (6-2 and 5-3 in 2 McQ)
Draft - (I wish I had more time for limited...)
Commander -
Norin the Wary, Grimgrin, Adun Oakenshield (taking forever to build)(dead format for me)Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.