I went to GP San Antonio this weekend and lets just say I had an interesting showing. Now, to give you an idea of what type of person and player I am (to better set up the story), I should probably give you a short history. I'm someone who got into MTG while I was in school, like most of us probably. I started in Oddessey Block and was playing with pre-cons until I could get the cards to build my Goblin Sharpshooter - Seedborn Muse - Kamahl, Fist of Krosa deck. I was a fan of synergy, but also a fan of laying down fat beats. But most of all, I was a "noob".
Basically, that changed because of Cockatrice/MWS giving me a glimpse of what a real standard metagame was without having to pay an arm and a leg for a deck... and in addition to that web forums like these where you get to talk to other players about what's good and what isn't.
I pretty much quit the game because I moved and went to college... or at least quit going to FNMs. I still went to a lot of pre-releases. Then when I graduated, the old crew said they were going to a major tournament in Austin,Tx (we live in Houston). I couldn't go to that, but I realized how serious they were about playing so I decided I could get back into the game and I'd have people to playtest against. That was this past summer... I picked up RG Beatdown and got back into serious standard play. And then the transition to Jund Midrange was really easy because the core of Huntmaster and Thragtusk I already had.
I tell all this backstory to kind of highlight the fact that I never really considered myself at the GP level. And that brings us to the present. My friends saw that the GP was coming to Dallas and San Antonio in November... we were able to all get the San Antonio weekend free so we made the plan to go. This is the deck I brought:
A note about the singleton Hellkite. I was wanting to put 2 in there, but at the last minute I wanted to add a third Deathrite Shaman main. And I also went from 3 Olivia to 2 last minute because a friend of mine (also playing Jund), only had 1. But I actually liked Olivia at 2. I was going to take out 1 Keyrune for the 2nd Hellkite, but I had a feeling that if I took out that 3rd Keyrune in addition the 4th Dreadbore I had already taken out... I'd be leaving myself open to the aggro match a little bit more.
And another note about GP tournaments (and I'm sure a lot of other tournaments follow this structure). Some people have byes awarded for various reasons. Enough planeswalker points give you byes I think, you can get 3 byes for winning GPTs or Grinders. I wasn't good enough to get a bye, so I had to tough it out with the other noobs in Round 1.
By the way, 804 people showed up to the event and it was going to be a 9 round day 1.
Round 1: Bant Control
Game 1- I don't have a play by play of how things went, but I wrote some notes down on my life total pad about what key plays happened. I remember this guy seemed to be playing a version of Bant that didn't have counters, played Snapcaster, Resto and both Charms... and Garruk. Well... Keyrune + Wolf Run pretty much beats that. That combo got him down most of the way before just the Wolf Run in general won it late game. 1-0
Game 2- Sided in Connections, Duress and Slaughter Games. My life total read 20, 19, 18, 17, 16... that was from Underworld Connections getting me 4 cards over the course of the game before I was basically able to just Keyrune him down while removing threats and riding away to victory. 2-0
Overall 1-0
Round 2: GW Aggro
Game 1 - He got the fast start, but Thragtusk got in there just in time to stabilize. 1-0
Game 2 - Again, another fast start... Thragtusk got in there, but I also needed help from Garruk this time. I don't know if you guys know how the GW matchup usually works, but if they have cards in their hand you have to watch out and keep a lot of blockers open because they can play 2 Rancors and a Silverblade Paladin in a turn and get a surprise 12 damage in on you if you get careless. Garruk was in play for 4+ turns, and I got all the way down to 1 life... and it almost got to the point where I was considering Ultimating Garruk. But because Resto is an issue, I opted to play it safer and -3 hoping to draw more answers for the potential comeback attempt. Turns out I would've won either way. 2-0
Overall 2-0
Round 3: Mono Red Aggro
Game 1: I don't remember what he played, but both Thragtusk and Huntmaster got into the mix... and it wasn't enough. Hellrider finishes me off and he doesn't lose a point of life. 0-1
Game 2: He gets an early 6 damage in, then Olivia hits the table and just dominates by killing everything and swinging for like 6 in the air. Prompting them to either Tragic Slip (something few people play), or 2 burn spells... or something like Mark of Mutiny. 1-1
Game 3: He mulls to 4, and actually has a good 1 land hand with 3 1 drops. Gets me down to 14 as I try to slow him down with creatures. Then Thragtusk enters the game and he scoops at 20 life. 2-1
Overall 3-0
Round 4: UW Flash/ Splash Black
Game 1: Guy from Louisiana that's like 16 years old. I'm guessing he had a 3 round bye because he was talking about winning a tournament and getting his trip here basically paid for (except for travel expenses I assume). Keyrune gets some damage in before it gets charmed. Was able to get Thragtusk to resolve (maybe via Caverns, I forget)... a little rules lawyering keeps me from gaining the 5 life (they are big about declaring triggers at GPs). Resto and some Lingering Souls tokens hit play, but I Bonfire for 4 (hard cast) and finish him off with some beats. 1-0
Game 2: I mull to 6 and keep a 6 land hand. We both draw go for the first 4 turns until Resto sees the floor. I realize fast that I have to draw a threat and get it into play to stop him. Thagtusk? Counter. 2nd Thragtusk? Charm + Mills it off the top of my library with that UB Mill land, leaving me with the Beast token (but not before getting a few hits in). A third Thragtusk gets in (again, rules lawyering keeps me from gaining 5... need to remember to call it out as I play it) Pike hits the table, Lingering Souls hits the table... Pike hits me once but only puts me down to 6. I have the Ultimate Price in hand to ensure he doesn't hit... I know he doesn't have a counter because he's tapping out to play multiple Lingering Souls/Flashback in order to sneak in enough damage to beat me. I hardcast Bonfire for 3 to get rid of all the tokens. He D-spheres the Tusk, I immediately counter that with Abrupt Decay to get him back. I forget my extra Beast token, but it doesn't matter as I topdeck Wolf-Run for the win. The guy leaves the table mad that he lost 0-2. 2-0
Overall 4-0
After Round 4: I won the last match so quickly that I realized I might have time to get something to eat. I wasn't completely sure where the nearest food place was. This GP was held at a convention center right on the river walk. It's the main tourist attraction in San Antonio. I was able to find a place two blocks away, but was too afraid to order as I realized the round must be ending fast. But now that I knew where it was, I could come back after the next round.
Round 5: Jund Mirror Match
Game 1: Thragtusk hit play on both sides of the board. I struck the card advantage war first by playing Rakdos Return for 4 (revealing a maindeck Slaughter Games). At that point it was just a slow death. I couldn't get a dominating board position, but Deathrite Shaman got in there for a lot of damage while making sure he had no real way to kill me. Garruk finished him off. 1-0
Game 2: Thundermaw Hellkite gets in on his side. I counter with Thragtusk... and we race. But I have Deathrite Shaman to keep me ahead in the race. I remember being SG'd twice. One 2 Garruks. Another hit Ultimate Price that he saw from the first SG. But I already had the cards in play to win the game. 2-0
Overall 5-0.
After Round 5: I quickly run to get food. Make it back in time... but realize I forgot my dice at the table (probably long gone by now). And because my sleeves were starting to look a little rough, I bought new sleeves along with new dice at one of the nearby vendors. Hey... if you start 5-0 in your first grand prix, you deserve it.
Round 6: G/W
Game 1: This guy main decked Unvenwald Tracker and Intrepid Hero. Loxodon Smiter get in, and he's able to kill off all of my creatures by making them fight his Smiter. He doesn't take a point of damage. 0-1
As the game ended, I realize with horror that I can see the back side of Huntmaster through my new sleeves. Hoping to save the match, I call a judge immediately and tell him what is going on... and thankfully because of my candidness I don't get a matchloss, just a warning. And because of the crowd watching the undefeated's play, someone got me some checklist cards and we were able to move on. I wish I could say I called myself out because I was doing the honorable thing, but the truth was, I knew eventually someone was going to see it because it was SO obvious. Coming clean was my only hope... and it was a legit situation where I didn't mean to cheat so I don't feel guilty for only getting a warning. I apologized to my opponent and moved on.
Game 2: Wolfir Avenger... I got to play against it for the first time... and it's ridiculously good against us if they slow play it. We were well into late game. He puts Rancor on it and suddenly I have a problem. He gets a bunch of swings in. Thragtusk gets me 5 of that life back and I chump block with said Thragtusk to save damage. It gets to a point where my hand has Rolling Tremblor and Dreadbore and he only was able to regenerate twice. I have 11 in play. All I have to do is draw and... BONFIRE! Ok... I need to leave two lands up for Dreadbore, Bonfire for 8... make him regenerate his creature and perhaps finish it off with Dreadbore. He regens his wolf... I adjust his life total from 10... minus 8 from Bonfire... is 2. I look at the 2 I just wrote down and the 2 lands I have untapped because I wanted to have Dreadbore mana open. Did I just punt the game? Avenger Regenerated and tapped, letting my Beast token attack for the win... but wait! Faith's Shield with Fateful Hour activated, giving himself pro-green. Well, since he's at 2 he can't attack anymore... Vampiric Nighthawk joins the party on my side of the board. They both swing in. Block + Regenerate the beast and give himself pro-black to fight off the Nighthawk. We both play creatures to try and gain board presence, but mine are bigger. He has to Gavony his team to make them big enough... which leaves me open to kill his Avenger with the Dreadbore still in my hand... because God damnit I punted the game nearly because of him and I sure wasn't going to let him live if I had anything to say about it! Anyways, when I killed the Avenger, it was basically game over as I had more creatures. 1-1
Game 3: Multiple avengers, I lose. 1-2
Overall 5-1... undefeated no more.
A note about the near punt: Obviously it was bad play on my part. And I don't even remember why I thought keeping Dreadbore mana open would've been good in hindsight. The worst part of it was it was in front of a crowd, including one of my friends that I came with. "Bonfire for 8" became the go-to joke of the weekend.
Round 7 BR Zombies
I'm playing against a guy that looks like he's in his mid 30s or 40s and obviously a lot more mature than a lot of players. I think he might've been some kind of pro because he talked about being from Colorado and flying in to the tournament.
Game 1: 1 drops and Messengers get in... huntmaster gets in, shaman gets in, but it's not enough and he flies over me with a Hellkite to win the game. 0-1
Game 2: I had a weird hand where I had Rolling Temblor, two Decays, Keyrune, and Olivia. I make it to turn 4 only having to face a Diregraf Ghoul. And I potentially make a misplay. I could've just played Olivia turn 4 and tried to get her above burn range turn 5/6 while having a blocker on the field. I decided instead to hold back. If he swings with his 1 creature I could just Decay it and play Keyrune next turn. If he plays another, I could untap and Temblor both away... with mana open to Abrupt Decay. He's sitting their mystified that I haven't played anything turn 4 and doesn't even attack (he tells me after the game he was playing around Wolfir Avenger), but plays a Messenger. I temblor them both away, leaving the Messenger back on the table with a +1/+1 counter. I didn't count on not drawing a 5th land by now... so that was all I could do. On his turn he plays Aristocrat. So before I can even untap again, he's already dealt 10 damage between the trigger the creatures. I could play Olivia now, but it's just going to block the Aristocrat and die... so I lose. 0-2
I'm pretty sure the right play in this situation is to just play Olivia turn 4, hope they don't have the answer and try to get the insta-win. We'll see this philosophy come into play against aggro later (or maybe next round).
Overall 5-2
Round 8 BR Zombies again
Game 1 he gets the early aggression out. I get my first miracle Bonfire for 4, wiping the board. Huntmaster + Wolf gets in for 4. Hellkite brings him from 10 to 0 in 2 turns. 1-0
Game 2- Very tricky game Vampire Nighthawk gets in there. I think I hardcast Bonfire for 1 to clear up some creatures. It looked like I had the game under control because he would only have 1 creature in play at a time... but he managed to get two Hellriders in there... and then next turn Conscipt's my Nighthawk for the win. 1-1
I notice that suddenly the zombies in his deck have pretty much disappeared and he's transformed into kind of BR midrange with Hellriders and Conscripts.
Game 3- I drew two of my three nighthawks and that was basically all I needed against this slower post sideboard deck. 2-1
Overall 6-2
After round 8... I'm told that x-2 automatically makes day 2, and some x-3s might make it. So I have to win and I'm in.
Round 9 UWR Midrange
So I went to table 46... and when another guy got to the table claiming to be the player playing, we realized it was me that had the wrong table. I found out I was at table 45... but didn't make it in time for the match to start, so game loss. Kind of stupid that it went down like that, but those are the rules. 0-1
Game 2
Giest, Huntmster, Resto (removal'd) on Giest... next turn he tries with Giest again... double block with my 2/2s so he can't charm one away... he lets it die. Plays another Giest... I play Thragtusk and it gets sphered. The Beast and Giest stare at each other for awhile until it gets removed. Bonfire for 2 happens and clears the board. he slowly builds up a flying army with Moorland Haunt... Deathrite Shaman gets in there. Pillar that would've killed me doesn't because I gain 2 life by removing my only creature (Huntmaster) in the grave. I play the Olivia in my hand... now both of us don't have a hand. But I'm at 2 life, he has 2 1/1 flyers in play and enough mana to activate Haunt. Haunt's ability removes the creature from his graveyard as part of the cost, so I wouldn't gain life if he used it in response to my shaman. With no red mana left over to kill 1/1 flyers, my only hope was he wouldn't think to remove it in response. But he did... so I lost 0-2.
Overall 6-3
I was really mad that I didn't make sure where I that I had the right seat and it cost me a game. UWR midrange is tough for me, but it's a very winable matchup now with caverns and shamans main and with all the stuff I would've boarded in.
I had a good 30 minutes to walk around and stew over the loss. And having not been in a GP before, I didn't know the nature of these things. How many 6-3s made it. I had someone telling me that only x-2s would've made it... and so I was ready to just get.away from this place and go home in shame. But when they put the pairings up, I wanted to at least know what my standing was. I would have to be in the top 128 to make it. I was 118.
The dream was still alive.
Day 2: I got some sleep, woke up early, ate some raw eggs, punched some giant haunches of frozen meat and then climbed up some stairs and I was ready.
Round 10 GW Aggro
This guy I was playing was playing with had this whole starcitygames getup. Complete with deckbox, Tshirt and sleeves. Probably a pro that was being sponsored by SCG.
Game 1: Turn 3 Olivia, I kill a dork and swing in for 4. He trades back with Resto Angel. I Rakdos Return for 4 to bring him to 12. Resto eats removal, Olivia finishes the race. 1-0
Game 2: Huntmaster, Thragtusk, Huntmaster. The only major threat ended up being a Resto soulbonded with Silverheart. Ultimate price killed Silverheart and the rest of the team took this guy out. 2-0
I sign the sheet and go to drop it in the box, and I happen to look at the name of my opponentl: Brian Kibler. That name sounds familiar.
I confirm with my friends a few minutes later that I just took out a Pro Tour winner 2-0 to start the day off.
Overall 7-3
Round 11 BR Zombies... I take note of how many aggro matchups I've been facing between BR Zombies and GW Aggro. Yet no Frites (not that I'm complaining).
Game 1: I have an awesome hand. Farseek, Keyrune, Huntmaster. I literally draw nothing but land the rest of the match. 0-1
Game 2: Turn 3 Olivia, gets some work in. Thragtusk hits the table soon after and the game is over fast. 1-1
Game 3: I mull all the way to 4. Two lander - > 1 land -> 1 land -> 2 land. I lose. 1-2
Overall 7-4
Probably out of serious top 16 contention, but I could probably play for 32 or 64 and walk away with some money.
Round 12 BR Zombies... I swear to god make it stop!
Game 1 He gets out the early aggression. Thragtusk sees play, but trades with a messenger. I don't draw enough gas to stop him. 0-1
Game 2 Huntmaster sees play early, only drops 1 creature in the first two turns, plays a turn 3 Underworld Connections. I comment on the odd choice of sideboard. He tells me it's good against control, which I have to agree... but I dont know if it's good in a zombie deck. But actually, at the pace I was playing, UC probably could've done the work. Unfortunately he had 5 lands in play, 5 lands in his hand after activating UC twice. He scooped knowing he wouldn't recover in time. 1-1
Game 3 He gets stuck on 3 lands so he can't play his business spells. Huntmaster + Keyrune wins it for me. 2-1
Overall 8-4
Round 13 GW again
We speak before the match and it turns out he's from Houston as well, although I'm from the southside and he's from downtown. But I recommended the game store I play at and he said he might check it out.
Game 1: Sublime Archangel + Gavorny + Thalia (preventing me from Farseeking and Keyruning) = loss. 0-1
Game 2: I have a heavy removal hand and am able to just deal with everything. Avenger + 2 Rancor? Sever'd. Later in the game Huntmaster is in play and a wolf... he has Intrepid Hero. I flip the Huntmaster and kill his Hero, he taps it to kill Huntmaster (didn't think that one through). I Ultimate price his other creature and get in for the win. He later tells me he misplayed because he could've Rancored the unflipped Huntmaster and Hero'd it down. 1-1
Game 3: I remember this being a pretty back and forth game. I forget what happened for a lot of the beginning. But eventually I get two Keyrunes into play (can only activate one at first) and he drops Sigarda and the race is on. He swings to put me at 7. I Thragtusk to put myself back at 12. Then on the other side I kill off his only blocker and swing back for 11 (Thrag + 2 Keys). Resto sees play EoT and gives him the extra boost for the win. 2-1
Overall 9-4
Round 14 R/x aggro
Game 1 Huntmaster and Thragtusk get me there. 1-0
Game 2 he keeps a 1 land hand, I turn 4 Olivia and take it to the HOUSE! 2-0
Overall 10-4
Round 15 GW for the 5th damn time
The standings had me at 81st place. And it seemed like I had a good shot at a top 64 spot by winning this round.
Game 1 He plays maindeck avengers... and I saw 3 of them. I was able to remove a few, but it ended up being too much. 0-1
Game 2 He keeps a 2 land hand. I don't notice this until I realize it's turn 5 and Olivia is on the table with two dorks on his side. I ping 1, but he responds with Resto. I ping it again to get the counter and to try and put him off on mana. I got another dork before he charmed my Olivia (saw it coming but really wanted to keep him on 2-3 mana) I don't remember exactly how things went from here on out, but he played a few more dorks. Got in with Paladin + 4/5 Resto (Gavony) a few times. I played a Hellkite to try and block his Resto but he Oring'd it and swung down to 4. Thragtusk gets me to 9 and kill the Angel to unbond it from Paladin. I can deal with his ground army for a while thanks to two Severs and a flipped Huntmaster that can chip his life total away 4 damage at a time.
At the end of the game, I try to sever two of his pilgrims again, and I see Resto for the third time this game. Resto takes me to 4 next turn... and now I'm out of removal for it, so I have to win the game now. It was Me 4 - Him 6, he had Resto, 3 lands, Gavony, two mana dorks and cards in hand. I have a flipped Huntmaster, a wolf token... 9 lands including Wolf Run. After thinking about what to do for two minutes I finally make a decision... I swung in with the two creatures and I know the only way I can lose is if I Wolf Run something over 5 and he has the Charm. He blocks with his two dorks and Wolfrun the Wolf for +2/0 and trample. My opponent responds with Gavony predictably, making his dork trade with the wolf and he took 4 damage to go to 2. And then he put a +1/+1 counter on his Resto and I realized that when I thought I had 2 turns left to race him I only had this one. I realize I can still salvage the game by playing both my Rakdos Keyrune and Abrupt Decay (on the Oblivion Ring removing Hellkite... which I just now noticed), flipping Huntmaster back over to his day side... gaining two life... bringing Hellkite back into play to block (could've Decay'd the ORing earlier and won but I just flat out forgot it was in play). 1-1
Game 3: After the potential top-64 saving play I made to win the last game, I felt really confidant about game 3. I keep a 2 land hand with Rakdos Keyrune, Thragtusk, Sever, Garruk, Olivia. I'm on the draw... so I figure I have to go for it. Thats a pretty good anti-GW hand other than the 2 land. So we start... I get the Farseek on turn 2... but after he had played Thalia on turn 3. I never recover in time and he wins. I still like my decision to keep but I know some will disagree with me. 1-2
Overall 10-6
Overall against GW 2-3
I ended up placing 91st. I was really proud of what I was able to do at my first GP event even though I didn't win any money.
A few notes:
-Olivia is really good against aggro. I like her at 2 right now. I think the people that don't like her against control don't like playing her, and then seeing her get beat by Angel of Serenity or an Unsummon or whatever. But against a lot of decks it was game-changing. I didn't use her "steal" ability once. It was always pinging.
-I played a lot of aggro decks... I guess we're correcting back toward aggro with Caverns becoming a factor against Bant. No Frites decks at all. Frites and Control will probably correct back towards anti-aggro.
-I only got Garruk to work in 2 games. If this aggro trend keeps up (probably wont), it might be time to switch back to Relentless.
-I didn't like Rolling Temblor. It just didn't feel like it was doing enough against Zombies or GW definitely because of the bigger creatures they can play. It's supposed to be anti-Giest. But I get the feeling that I could've stuck Knight of Infamy in there and that would've done a better job.
-Vampire Nighthawk was awesome
-My version maindecks Shamans, only has 2 Bonfire, 7 single target removal spells, 2 Olivia and 3 Rakdos Keyrunes as potential turn 2-turn 3 actions against aggro... some decks want to play Pillar and maindeck Nighthawks... and yet I didn't actually do that bad against aggro. I went 10-6 so I must've been doing something right to beat all the zombie decks and mono red.
-Wolfir Avenger is hard for us to deal with. Could potentially go 3 Sever main and 4 keyrune if this becomes a popular anti-jund, anti-thragtusk card.
Edit: I forgot to add one more thing. I wanted to thank the people of this forum. That whole back story bit kind of showed how inexperienced I was when it came to serious standard tournament play (lets not even go into legacy and modern)... but I believe a lot of help getting the deck right. You guys helped point me in the direction of Deathrite Shaman and I probably wouldn't have risked Cavern of Souls and Wolf Run in the same deck without people coming out and saying that they've tried it and it can work. And then just knowledge of whats out there, what's hard to beat, things we need to worry about.
Nicely Done! That Kibler list is a pretty good one and he top 16'd with it last week.
I kind of hoped to see more of the deck, but it seemed like one of those matches where I got good opening hands and he didn't and I just took it to the bank.
HOST: Xtreme Games
LOCATION: Lindenhurst, IL
EVENT: SCG IQ
ROUNDS PLAYED: 5
MATCH POINTS: 8 (2-3)
Round 1: G/W Humans
Game 1: (LOSS)
Game 2: (WIN)
Game 3: (LOSS)
-
Round 2: Bant Midrange/Control
Game 1: (LOSS MULL TO 3...)
Game 2: (WIN)
Game 3: (LOSS)
-
Round 3: Hoof there it is!
Game 1: (LOSS)
Game 2: (LOSS)
-
Round 4: Opponent dropped before playing
Game 1: (WIN)
Game 2: (WIN)
-
Roun 5: U/W Flash
Game 1: (LOSS)
Game 2: (WIN)
Game 3: (WIN)
Well I beat UW Flash as you can see. Almost had the GW Humans game but turn 2 Thalia just destroys our deck when we are on the draw. I almost beat my buddies Bant Midrange deck as well but didn't have a removal to even the game out. Hoof there it is matchup G1 I had him down to 2 life and then he got an Angel of Serenity down and took my Thundermaw and Olivia which would have killed him next turn. I have made the appropriate changes to my decklist now but at the time this decklist was pretty meh vs all this Tier 1 going around. I will hopefully have something better to report by weeks end.
You should retire, I saw his tweet about your match "my deck doesn't beat t3 Olivia".
Dark, you're magic famous
It was crazy, the only pro I know by face is Gerry T and only because I just happened to see the time he won back to back Weekly tournaments with some kind of UW control deck. And he was there also. But I could kind of tell how serious a player was by how old they were, what kind of swag they were rolling with and just how they carried themselves in general. I see a guy in a leather jacket (in Texas), with like all kinds of SCG stuff on him and I'm like "this guy has to be a very high level player" and then of course I recognized the name but still wasn't sure because there could be more than one Kibler.
Edit: And I just found out that Matthew Pratser (the runner up) was the round seven opponent I was talking about.
Im glad this deck is getting some good runs in. I havent been seeing it around as often. Congrats on your games in the GP
I don't know why the deck isn't getting the run it used to. I guess it's just because it can't beat BOTH Aggro and Frites/Flash, you can either maindeck Shamans or maindeck Nighthawks/Avengers. There really isn't the room for both at the moment.
Maybe this is where Garruk Relentless can comeback as the PW of choice, as much as I love the ability to draw 5-6 cards against control decks... perhaps having the extra "removal" is the bigger deal.
It might just be that this is a really diverse meta that has seen holes for aggro to sneak into... and Jund just isn't dominating but that doesn't mean it's impossible to win with.
It's like, with aggro killing you before t5 and control playing infinite life gain in thragtusk and revelation, where does Jund fall in? Can we reliably stave off zombies and aristocrat, while closing before multiple resolved tusks or a big revelation just seal the deal? Sure, if we have perfect answers, the deck rocks, but at this point, with the meta the way it is, I'm not sure we're super well positioned.
It isnt at all the Jund is bad, but as others have said, it is really poorly positioned at the moment ~ you can build your 75 to only beat so much, and the deck largely folds to whatever your not ready to beat.
What makes it worse is that the meta is split broadly into three extremes: Aggro OR Control variants OR Reanimator, and there isnt a lot of cross over in the card you would want against each deck (there is some, but the specific 'power' cards don't really cross over).
As a midrange deck, you have a less certain strategy and are inherently at least somewhat reactive ~ this can lead to really horrendous matchups. Compare this to an aggro or control deck ~ your role is the same every game, so the plans and themes are more familiar. Playing midrange necessarily involves an appreciation of subtly shifting role and boardstate that does become easier with experience, but is incredibly difficult in such a wide-open metagame.
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It's like, with aggro killing you before t5 and control playing infinite life gain in thragtusk and revelation, where does Jund fall in? Can we reliably stave off zombies and aristocrat, while closing before multiple resolved tusks or a big revelation just seal the deal? Sure, if we have perfect answers, the deck rocks, but at this point, with the meta the way it is, I'm not sure we're super well positioned.
I think we're fine against zombies. I was like 3-1 or something like that against Zombies at the GP. Not that that's a big sample, but we have a lot of cards that game enders and we basically just need to draw two or three of them to win.
I'm far more afraid of Frites... which ironically I saw no run against yesterday.
Frites arent as popular with all the Zombies and Rx Aggro about ~ both matchups are really hard for Frites.
Maybe the aggro jund in the primer thread is the answer. Seems like the idea is to just race them. I kind of hope it is because that's more the style I like playing.
I've been lurking on this board since I returned to Magic Mid-October when a friend bought me RTR Fat Pack as birthday gift. Two weeks later, I constructed a standard (read generic) Jund Midrange.
Week one, 20+ people, 2-2 drop.
Week two, top 8, loss in first round.
Week three, top 8, split top 4.
week four, top 8, split top 4.
Week five, top 8, loss in first round.
week six, top 8, split top 4.
Week seven, top 8, loss in first round.
Things about my meta: Thalia everywhere. Zombies 2-3 per week. Frites and Deadeye combo thing, and lots of GoST.
So, I consistently lose to Frites. I've faced it four times in seven weeks without a singe match win. My other losses have been to a combo deck with Deadeye dude and zealous conscripts for infinite once, U/W humans twice, G/W humans thrice, Bant once, Zombies twice, and RDW once, from what I can find on my match life total sheets. I'm positive I lost at least two mirror matches, but I can't find those sheets.
I've tried to balance the midrange against aggro game one and control after boarding, but Frites can just, uh, win however it apparently wants to. I've lost to Craterhoof only once against this guy, the rest of the time my Slaughter Games turn it into a combo-less, hardcasting match, but he wins those.
I have lost every game that Acidic Slime showed up in, particularly when it blinks or gets unburied. I really miss Stifle.
My weekly FNM always has five rounds of Swiss, but I'm not sure just how many people enter each week.
It started with FNM and our shop had the biggest turnout (ever) that wasn’t some sorta special event day or weekend. We ended-up with 26 paying players and I was juiced for some action. I thought I was prepared and presented my deck of 76:
Now I am sure you are wondering how in the world I got a total of 76 cards. When going over what is currently happening in MTG, I had a moment of indecision and thought a one-of, of FERVOR might just turn the tide against Aggro. However . . . I believe it actually didn’t make a difference. It actually became my 1st card to pull when time for the SB and especially after my full weekend action (I will follow this post with another about Saturday), it is a card that is just unnecessary.
ROUND ONE: I was matched against a pretty good player (and friend) named MC. He was playing a pretty aggressive G/W Human deck. I was excited since I knew this would be a tough match-up and iffn I could survive; it would bode well for me.
Game 1: SUX FOR ME . . . I ended-up with a total of 14 cards for the game total . . . 1 Nighthawk, 2 Duress and 11 miscellaneous lands. I was actually happy to have made it as many turns as I did. My star dude was (surprisingly) Nighthawk.
Game 2: SUX FOR HIM . . . he drew a total of 2 lands (after mulling to 5) the whole game so I just had Thrag put him out of his misery.
Game 3: Finally a ‘good’ game till my deck decided I should get back to drawing only lands again (towards the end). We both had semi-full battlefields, but we were both top decking when he got his Mayor to flip and he kept using the bloody 2/2 Wolf Tokens to sac to my Demon and keeping him tapped till he finally got me (he ended the game with 4 life). Again, Nighthawk was my little blessing in disguise and kept me in the game despite allll the lands I kept drawing (everything except Wolf Run that is).
ROUND TWO: The screen posted my next match location and I sat down and waited. After about a minute or so, my son (who works @ the shop and was playing/helping with the tournament) came to me and told me the guy (some new guy who I had never met) had just gotten a call and had to leave. Well . . . even with the ‘win,’ since I didn’t get to play anyone that completely took me out of the top 8. I just kinda wondered aimlessly wondering why me??? Why Me??? WHY ME?????????
ROUND THREE: Being 1-1, I was matched with another player named Lyle also 1-1. We had played before and I knew he still played a variant of Vampires/Burn. I was a little disappointed since I typically don’t have issues with that particular deck but was glad to get to play.
Game 1: He got a Nighthawk out early and began his small (but effective) beat down/life gain till I was able to secure the board with my own Nighthawk. He had a couple of burn spells to play on me and my Nighthawk, but a timely Ultimate Price for his Nighthawk followed by Hellkite ended it.
Game 2: He ended up drawing a few smaller vamps and I double Huntmaster’d him for a pretty easy win. Having two in play and double flipping them is pretty devastating.
So . . . I ended-up finishing 2-1 and just out of the top 8. Fortunately, three of my boys finished seeded 1st, 4th and 5th and the two oldest played for 1st place in the final round. My first round opponent (MC) finished seeded 3rd and eventually finished ranked 3rd for the tournament. Since my wife and her Burn deck had decided to finish 1-2, she and I headed to Dairy Queen then home.
While disappointed, I was glad I would get to be playing again allllll day Saturday (which will be my next post). I was also happy my 2nd oldest (who won) was playing a very similar deck to mine . . . so maybe I did have some hope???
It started with FNM and our shop had the biggest turnout (ever) that wasn’t some sorta special event day or weekend. We ended-up with 26 paying players and I was juiced for some action. I thought I was prepared and presented my deck of 76:
Now I am sure you are wondering how in the world I got a total of 76 cards. When going over what is currently happening in MTG, I had a moment of indecision and thought a one-of, of FERVOR might just turn the tide against Aggro. However . . . I believe it actually didn’t make a difference. It actually became my 1st card to pull when time for the SB and especially after my full weekend action (I will follow this post with another about Saturday), it is a card that is just unnecessary.
ROUND ONE: I was matched against a pretty good player (and friend) named MC. He was playing a pretty aggressive G/W Human deck. I was excited since I knew this would be a tough match-up and iffn I could survive; it would bode well for me.
Game 1: SUX FOR ME . . . I ended-up with a total of 14 cards for the game total . . . 1 Nighthawk, 2 Duress and 11 miscellaneous lands. I was actually happy to have made it as many turns as I did. My star dude was (surprisingly) Nighthawk.
Game 2: SUX FOR HIM . . . he drew a total of 2 lands (after mulling to 5) the whole game so I just had Thrag put him out of his misery.
Game 3: Finally a ‘good’ game till my deck decided I should get back to drawing only lands again (towards the end). We both had semi-full battlefields, but we were both top decking when he got his Mayor to flip and he kept using the bloody 2/2 Wolf Tokens to sac to my Demon and keeping him tapped till he finally got me (he ended the game with 4 life). Again, Nighthawk was my little blessing in disguise and kept me in the game despite allll the lands I kept drawing (everything except Wolf Run that is).
ROUND TWO: The screen posted my next match location and I sat down and waited. After about a minute or so, my son (who works @ the shop and was playing/helping with the tournament) came to me and told me the guy (some new guy who I had never met) had just gotten a call and had to leave. Well . . . even with the ‘win,’ since I didn’t get to play anyone that completely took me out of the top 8. I just kinda wondered aimlessly wondering why me??? Why Me??? WHY ME?????????
ROUND THREE: Being 1-1, I was matched with another player named Lyle also 1-1. We had played before and I knew he still played a variant of Vampires/Burn. I was a little disappointed since I typically don’t have issues with that particular deck but was glad to get to play.
Game 1: He got a Nighthawk out early and began his small (but effective) beat down/life gain till I was able to secure the board with my own Nighthawk. He had a couple of burn spells to play on me and my Nighthawk, but a timely Ultimate Price for his Nighthawk followed by Hellkite ended it.
Game 2: He ended up drawing a few smaller vamps and I double Huntmaster’d him for a pretty easy win. Having two in play and double flipping them is pretty devastating.
So . . . I ended-up finishing 2-1 and just out of the top 8. Fortunately, three of my boys finished seeded 1st, 4th and 5th and the two oldest played for 1st place in the final round. My first round opponent (MC) finished seeded 3rd and eventually finished ranked 3rd for the tournament. Since my wife and her Burn deck had decided to finish 1-2, she and I headed to Dairy Queen then home.
While disappointed, I was glad I would get to be playing again allllll day Saturday (which will be my next post). I was also happy my 2nd oldest (who won) was playing a very similar deck to mine . . . so maybe I did have some hope???
Sounds like a great weekend.
Just a heads up, B/R Zombies is the hottest thing since 01' Spears, so you're going to want 4 Pillar of Flame's again. I would even have 2 Tragic Slips for the Vampire.
Also, Since both Garruk's Legend rule each other, you might as well just run 2 PH's. He's the better one, anyway, and always ends up winning the game by himself if not answered.
I would also drop your Mizzium, Sever and Slaughter games. They're just not super awesome against the new speed of the meta, and Mizzium + Primal Hunter is hard to hit consistently in the same deck.
Your duress and Keyrune's can be moved to the sideboard for the pillars to shore up your aggro matchup. They really are necessary.
After my dismal FNM, the boys and I took off early Saturday morning for Tucson, AZ. We decided to try our decks @ a SCG SUPER IQ. Here is a reminder of the deck I listed:
So we got there, paid the $100 for the four of us and got our decks listed. They announced we had a total of 70 people registered and it would be 7 Rounds. Top 8 would play for tops and top 16 got prizes/money. The first parings began and off we went.
Round One: Played a guy named David who was playing an Izzet Counter deck w/ Hypersonic Dragon as his ‘bomb’.
Game 1: We both started kinda slow w/ tapped lands till I got in a Huntmaster and started the beat down. He only had a couple of counters and only a couple of Pillars along with a Staticaster. I finally got a Thrag down and won w/ 27 life.
Game 2: I got a Shaman on turn one since he had a tapped land. I just beat him down w/ my Shaman till I was up 23-10 life. By then, I had three Thrags in hand. He countered the first two but I got the third one to stick and won two turns later after I Ultimated his Dragon. I finished with 26 life and was now 1-0 and 2-0 in games.
Round Two: Next I played Michael. He was playing one of those 4-color Reanimater decks (U/B/R/G).
Game 1: This started with us matching land for land till I got my Nighthawk out first. Twice I got hits in before he stuck a Thrag and we hit back and forth till I got my Demon in for the win. I only had 7 life left.
Game 2: Pretty much the opposite of game one. He got a Nighthawk in and started beating on me. At one point, he finally got his Thrag out and whooped me w/ 25 life to spare.
Game 3: It ended-up being my Nighthawk (again) against an early Thrag for him . . . till my Hellkite came to play and he lost with me with 32 life. I was feeling pretty happy and good about things at this point since I was 2-0 and 4-1 in games.
Round Three: Played John and my first B/G Zombie match.
Game 1: He started with mana issues due to me whacking his Cavern with my Ghost Quarter first turn. He started with just the Cavern and a Swamp in his hand and I guess figured would draw into more mana. He still whittled me down with his Zombie hoard with just two, then four at a time. I got my Demon on turn four and eventually he ran out of creatures to sac and my Demon took him in three turns. I had 9 life.
Game 2: My first game with mana issues. I pulled only B/R/colorless and never any green. I held two Farseeks from my opening hand for the game. He whooped me in about 5 or 6 turns.
Game 3: He got the jump on me again and all I could muster was a Shaman and one Demon swing for 7. He finished me off with 11 life and I was now with my first loss and on the day 2-1 and 5-3 in games.
Round Four: My next opponent was named Ben and he actually finished 6th in the tournament. He was playing a deck that I was completely unfamiliar with and because of that, defeated me easily.
Game 1: He started the first few turns doing nothing but playing lands and fetching lands (of all five colors). I got an early Nighthawk and was just swinging away for 2 at a time. With all his manna, he eventually played an Increasing Ambition. I then played a Slaughter and not knowing his deck, I pulled just 1 Thrag. Looking through his deck scared me to death though. He only had a few creatures in it . . . 1 Thrag, 1 Angel of Serenity, 1 Grisel, 1 Hellkite, etc. Next turn he plopped his Door to Nothingness and won a turn later . . . he won with 6 life and I had 31 life.
Game 2: Since I had just a little idea of his deck, my turn 4 Slaughter pulled his Ranger’s Paths into exile. He had only played one. But, since I never drew my other Slaughter, he was able to pull his Thrag to boost his life and played his Door to Nothingness with me at 25 life and him at 13. I was now even at 2-2 and just 5-5 in games.
Round Five: Next was Ron and his B/R Zombie deck.
Game 1: He got out early and fast. I had manna issue number two on the day and he whooped me with his original 20 life. My issues weren’t just a lack of mana, but a lack of any colored mana.
Game 2: While I did get an early Shaman out, he thug-lifed my Olivia, burned my Thrag and his Aristocrat eventually wiped me out with him only down to 18 life. I can see now why that match-up is so feared. Quicker n snot and I never really felt like I had a chance. Now I was 2-3 and 5-7 in games.
Round Six: I now got to play Brian and my only matchup of the day against Craterhoof.
Game 1: A pretty evenly matched game with me with a couple of Thrags and him with a couple of Thrags and then his Hellkite for the win. He ended with 26 life.
Game 2: I thought I was in control and had him down to 7 life and me at 22 life when it happened . . . in one turn Craterhoof made his presence known and it was over. He was swinging for 27 and I was now down to a record of 2-4 and just 5-9 in games.
Round Seven: Well, while all hope was lost, I was now playing a guy named Seth and two of my boys had already beaten him. So I thought I might have a chance. He was playing a Jund mirror.
Game 1: I got my Nighthawk out early and started the beat down. By the time he got rid of it (with Vraska), I was way ahead and he just never pulled any other real threats. I won with 13 life left.
Game 2: Same as last game, but he got his Nighthawk and started the beat down. He got his Thrags up and running and beat me with 25 life.
Game 3: Unfortunately for me, mana screw #3 on the day and he finished me off with his Demon swinging for seven. He finished with 20 life and I ended the day 2-5 and 6-11 in games.
After it was allll said and done, my second oldest finished 43rd, I finished 42nd, oldest 37th and youngest 23rd (after losing in the final round just missing the top 16). None of us were all that happy on the two hour drive home so we just listed to the Arizona basketball game.
I felt over matched in only two of my games . . . one due to ignorance (on my part) and not enough Slaughter Games and the other just pure speed and aggression. I do know a B/R Zombie deck won the tournament w/ a Red Burn taking second place . . . maybe that is where I should be going next???
After my dismal FNM, the boys and I took off early Saturday morning for Tucson, AZ. We decided to try our decks @ a SCG SUPER IQ. Here is a reminder of the deck I listed:
So we got there, paid the $100 for the four of us and got our decks listed. They announced we had a total of 70 people registered and it would be 7 Rounds. Top 8 would play for tops and top 16 got prizes/money. The first parings began and off we went.
Round One: Played a guy named David who was playing an Izzet Counter deck w/ Hypersonic Dragon as his ‘bomb’.
Game 1: We both started kinda slow w/ tapped lands till I got in a Huntmaster and started the beat down. He only had a couple of counters and only a couple of Pillars along with a Staticaster. I finally got a Thrag down and won w/ 27 life.
Game 2: I got a Shaman on turn one since he had a tapped land. I just beat him down w/ my Shaman till I was up 23-10 life. By then, I had three Thrags in hand. He countered the first two but I got the third one to stick and won two turns later after I Ultimated his Dragon. I finished with 26 life and was now 1-0 and 2-0 in games.
Round Two: Next I played Michael. He was playing one of those 4-color Reanimater decks (U/B/R/G).
Game 1: This started with us matching land for land till I got my Nighthawk out first. Twice I got hits in before he stuck a Thrag and we hit back and forth till I got my Demon in for the win. I only had 7 life left.
Game 2: Pretty much the opposite of game one. He got a Nighthawk in and started beating on me. At one point, he finally got his Thrag out and whooped me w/ 25 life to spare.
Game 3: It ended-up being my Nighthawk (again) against an early Thrag for him . . . till my Hellkite came to play and he lost with me with 32 life. I was feeling pretty happy and good about things at this point since I was 2-0 and 4-1 in games.
Round Three: Played John and my first B/G Zombie match.
Game 1: He started with mana issues due to me whacking his Cavern with my Ghost Quarter first turn. He started with just the Cavern and a Swamp in his hand and I guess figured would draw into more mana. He still whittled me down with his Zombie hoard with just two, then four at a time. I got my Demon on turn four and eventually he ran out of creatures to sac and my Demon took him in three turns. I had 9 life.
Game 2: My first game with mana issues. I pulled only B/R/colorless and never any green. I held two Farseeks from my opening hand for the game. He whooped me in about 5 or 6 turns.
Game 3: He got the jump on me again and all I could muster was a Shaman and one Demon swing for 7. He finished me off with 11 life and I was now with my first loss and on the day 2-1 and 5-3 in games.
Round Four: My next opponent was named Ben and he actually finished 6th in the tournament. He was playing a deck that I was completely unfamiliar with and because of that, defeated me easily.
Game 1: He started the first few turns doing nothing but playing lands and fetching lands (of all five colors). I got an early Nighthawk and was just swinging away for 2 at a time. With all his manna, he eventually played an Increasing Ambition. I then played a Slaughter and not knowing his deck, I pulled just 1 Thrag. Looking through his deck scared me to death though. He only had a few creatures in it . . . 1 Thrag, 1 Angel of Serenity, 1 Grisel, 1 Hellkite, etc. Next turn he plopped his Door to Nothingness and won a turn later . . . he won with 6 life and I had 31 life.
Game 2: Since I had just a little idea of his deck, my turn 4 Slaughter pulled his Ranger’s Paths into exile. He had only played one. But, since I never drew my other Slaughter, he was able to pull his Thrag to boost his life and played his Door to Nothingness with me at 25 life and him at 13. I was now even at 2-2 and just 5-5 in games.
Round Five: Next was Ron and his B/R Zombie deck.
Game 1: He got out early and fast. I had manna issue number two on the day and he whooped me with his original 20 life. My issues weren’t just a lack of mana, but a lack of any colored mana.
Game 2: While I did get an early Shaman out, he thug-lifed my Olivia, burned my Thrag and his Aristocrat eventually wiped me out with him only down to 18 life. I can see now why that match-up is so feared. Quicker n snot and I never really felt like I had a chance. Now I was 2-3 and 5-7 in games.
Round Six: I now got to play Brian and my only matchup of the day against Craterhoof.
Game 1: A pretty evenly matched game with me with a couple of Thrags and him with a couple of Thrags and then his Hellkite for the win. He ended with 26 life.
Game 2: I thought I was in control and had him down to 7 life and me at 22 life when it happened . . . in one turn Craterhoof made his presence known and it was over. He was swinging for 27 and I was now down to a record of 2-4 and just 5-9 in games.
Round Seven: Well, while all hope was lost, I was now playing a guy named Seth and two of my boys had already beaten him. So I thought I might have a chance. He was playing a Jund mirror.
Game 1: I got my Nighthawk out early and started the beat down. By the time he got rid of it (with Vraska), I was way ahead and he just never pulled any other real threats. I won with 13 life left.
Game 2: Same as last game, but he got his Nighthawk and started the beat down. He got his Thrags up and running and beat me with 25 life.
Game 3: Unfortunately for me, mana screw #3 on the day and he finished me off with his Demon swinging for seven. He finished with 20 life and I ended the day 2-5 and 6-11 in games.
After it was allll said and done, my second oldest finished 43rd, I finished 42nd, oldest 37th and youngest 23rd (after losing in the final round just missing the top 16). None of us were all that happy on the two hour drive home so we just listed to the Arizona basketball game.
I felt over matched in only two of my games . . . one due to ignorance (on my part) and not enough Slaughter Games and the other just pure speed and aggression. I do know a B/R Zombie deck won the tournament w/ a Red Burn taking second place . . . maybe that is where I should be going next???
I think you were actually hindered by Slaughter Games. It's a card that will make you feel good when you played, but it seems you would have been better of playing your own game when you got 0-for-1'd for pulling that Thragtusk. I wouldn't recommend playing any in your MD, and it's questionable even in your SB. Against UW Flash, it's OK. Why do you play deadly allure, by the way?
Also, is there any real reason for using CAPS LOCK, it makes my head hurt. Reading your decklist is extremely uncomfortable for me
EDIT: Duress MD? That is very questionable... I would remove Duresses and a Slaughter Games and put in removal.
EDIT: Did you ever see Fervor? It seems like a really, really janky card...
I think you were actually hindered by Slaughter Games. It's a card that will make you feel good when you played, but it seems you would have been better of playing your own game when you got 0-for-1'd for pulling that Thragtusk. I wouldn't recommend playing any in your MD, and it's questionable even in your SB. Against UW Flash, it's OK. Why do you play deadly allure, by the way?
Also, is there any real reason for using CAPS LOCK, it makes my head hurt. Reading your decklist is extremely uncomfortable for me
EDIT: Duress MD? That is very questionable... I would remove Duresses and a Slaughter Games and put in removal.
EDIT: Did you ever see Fervor? It seems like a really, really janky card...
I actually really like Slaughter Games MB. As I do a better job learning all the other decks, I feel it will only get better. And, while I only pulled the 1 Thrag, it was like one of his only 5 creatures and it was also the 1 creature that beat me in game 2. In the future I might play 2 Slaughters.
I did side out Duress quite a lot. I am going to pull it for next Friday . . . just not sure exactly what for yet.
Fervor is gone for now . . . it was always SB games 2 and 3 for almost all my matches and just didn’t seem to offer what I wished it gave.
I actually really like Slaughter Games MB. As I do a better job learning all the other decks, I feel it will only get better. And, while I only pulled the 1 Thrag, it was like one of his only 5 creatures and it was also the 1 creature that beat me in game 2. In the future I might play 2 Slaughters.
I did side out Duress quite a lot. I am going to pull it for next Friday . . . just not sure exactly what for yet.
Fervor is gone for now . . . it was always SB games 2 and 3 for almost all my matches and just didn’t seem to offer what I wished it gave.
Those changes do make a lot of sense to me on paper I'd say add more removal. You seemed to lose games when you couldn't answer the opponents' threats, even though you had time and mana to do stuff. I think that indicates that your removal/threat density isn't high enough, and you are slightly unfavoured in the long run when you are trading resources with him. Dreadbore, Sever the Bloodline, Bonfire of the Damned and Ultimate Price are all cards you could add, depending on what your meta looks like. Oh, and 4th Huntmaster could be a good choice too. I'm still not a fan of the Slaughter Games.
Round 1: vs. U/G Delver 2-0
Game 1: He sees both of his first creatures removed, and 4th turn Thundermaw closes out the game before he sees another.
Game 2: He mills himself early to build up a Pike, tossing the Invisible Stalker that would have won him the game. For this game, I boarded out my Mortars for Shamans. I Duressed his counters away, Charmed the pike, then swarmed him with Nighthawk+Kessig, Tusk, and Hellkite.
Round 2: vs. U/W Combo/control that transformed to U/W Flash after boarding. 2-1
Game 1: According to the lifesheet, he went from 20->18->14->8, and I went from 20->24. So I think it was Shockland himself and then Nighthawk + Kessig. I saw nothing of his deck game one, making game two impossible to predict, so I boarded in what I normally do against islands and shuffled up.
Game 2: He transforms into U/W Flash. I fought tooth and nail in this match against Augur of Bolas, Restoration Angel, and Snapcaster Mage along with his board wipes. His army bumped me 8 times for death, and I only saw one Thragtusk. This match and the next two are the reasons I'm bringing 4 KoI to bear Friday.
Game 3: He concedes to take someone home, but he really wanted to battle through game 2 first.
Round 3: vs. U/W/G/r Control (splashing R lands for Kessig, Wolf Run) 0-2
Game 1: He tempos and wipes my creatures and beats my head in with a Pike, first with one Angel token that I'm able to Decay. He picks up a Dissipate from -2 on Jace, so when he Miracles Entreat with me at 17, the Mortars in my hand can't stop him.
Game 2: I get my Shaman out first turn, followed by a second one soon after. Once they're Terminused away, I dont see a single other sideboard card (I boarded in all 15 cards!). Once again, he miracles entreat, and I don't have an answer.
Round 4: vs U/W/G Mill/Fog. 2-0
Game 1: He uses a book to force me to draw cards and defends himself with fogs. Unfortunately, he filled my hand with 3 Pillars and 2 Spears over the coarse of 3 turns. He successfully milled half my deck, but I emptied my hand into his face.
Game 2: Once again, I board in my board, and it wasn't even close. My Thragtusk landed, thanks to Cavern, and I didn't need a single other offensive spell. I just emptied his hand with 2 Duress, 1 Appetite, and a timely Slaughter games turn 3 that ate his Supreme Verdicts, including one in his hand.
Cut to Top 4, I finished Swiss 3-1 overall.
I face the U/W/G/r control player again, and this time I have a much better plan of attack.
Game 1: His lifetotal bounces up and down repeatedly, due to Tusks, and Angels, and more Tusks, but my one-sided Wraths make it unfair for him. I credit two Bonfires and Two overloaded Mortars along with Nighthawks and Hellkites for this win. He went over 25 life four times this game.
Game 2: In with 15 cards, out go 15 removal. I resolve myself to trade with his first Tusk when it shows up, but my Slaughter gets the rest out of his deck. When my second Slaughter shows up, I get his Resto angels, leaving Moorland tokens and angel tokens as his only win condition. He doesn't draw the Entreat, so I win after a few big attacks. Duress and Appetite and Slaughters make this game cheatingly easy. I felt vindicated after losing two and out to him in the Swiss.
Split first and second with the other regular Jund player in the store, making for a satisfying night.
This was only my second Monday there, which does have carryover people from Fridays in addition to a couple control players who game elsewhere on Fridays. My Sideboard worked overtime this week, since I didn't face any of the Midrange/Aggro decks that typically come out for FNM.
KoI is definitely going into my deck. Azorious Charm is just mad beats!
I also have to solve the Tusk/Resto abuses of G/W/x lists. Overloading Mortars proved the most effective method of killing Tusks, but it's slow and reliant on good mana development. Perhaps I'll try Tributes this friday.
Basically, that changed because of Cockatrice/MWS giving me a glimpse of what a real standard metagame was without having to pay an arm and a leg for a deck... and in addition to that web forums like these where you get to talk to other players about what's good and what isn't.
I pretty much quit the game because I moved and went to college... or at least quit going to FNMs. I still went to a lot of pre-releases. Then when I graduated, the old crew said they were going to a major tournament in Austin,Tx (we live in Houston). I couldn't go to that, but I realized how serious they were about playing so I decided I could get back into the game and I'd have people to playtest against. That was this past summer... I picked up RG Beatdown and got back into serious standard play. And then the transition to Jund Midrange was really easy because the core of Huntmaster and Thragtusk I already had.
I tell all this backstory to kind of highlight the fact that I never really considered myself at the GP level. And that brings us to the present. My friends saw that the GP was coming to Dallas and San Antonio in November... we were able to all get the San Antonio weekend free so we made the plan to go. This is the deck I brought:
4 Huntmaster
4 Thragtusk
3 Rakdos Keyrune
2 Olivia
1 Thundermaw Hellkite
4 Farseek
3 Dreadbore
2 Sever the Bloodline
2 Bonfire of the Damned
2 Ultimate Price
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Rakdos Return
2 Garruk Primal Hunter
4 Woodland Cemetary
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Blood Crypt
2 Kessig Wolf Run
2 Cavern of Souls
4 Forest
3 Duress
2 Rolling Temblor
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Sever the Bloodline
3 Slaughter Games
2 Underworld Connections
3 Vampiric Nighthawk
A note about the singleton Hellkite. I was wanting to put 2 in there, but at the last minute I wanted to add a third Deathrite Shaman main. And I also went from 3 Olivia to 2 last minute because a friend of mine (also playing Jund), only had 1. But I actually liked Olivia at 2. I was going to take out 1 Keyrune for the 2nd Hellkite, but I had a feeling that if I took out that 3rd Keyrune in addition the 4th Dreadbore I had already taken out... I'd be leaving myself open to the aggro match a little bit more.
And another note about GP tournaments (and I'm sure a lot of other tournaments follow this structure). Some people have byes awarded for various reasons. Enough planeswalker points give you byes I think, you can get 3 byes for winning GPTs or Grinders. I wasn't good enough to get a bye, so I had to tough it out with the other noobs in Round 1.
By the way, 804 people showed up to the event and it was going to be a 9 round day 1.
Round 1: Bant Control
Game 1- I don't have a play by play of how things went, but I wrote some notes down on my life total pad about what key plays happened. I remember this guy seemed to be playing a version of Bant that didn't have counters, played Snapcaster, Resto and both Charms... and Garruk. Well... Keyrune + Wolf Run pretty much beats that. That combo got him down most of the way before just the Wolf Run in general won it late game. 1-0
Game 2- Sided in Connections, Duress and Slaughter Games. My life total read 20, 19, 18, 17, 16... that was from Underworld Connections getting me 4 cards over the course of the game before I was basically able to just Keyrune him down while removing threats and riding away to victory. 2-0
Overall 1-0
Round 2: GW Aggro
Game 1 - He got the fast start, but Thragtusk got in there just in time to stabilize. 1-0
Game 2 - Again, another fast start... Thragtusk got in there, but I also needed help from Garruk this time. I don't know if you guys know how the GW matchup usually works, but if they have cards in their hand you have to watch out and keep a lot of blockers open because they can play 2 Rancors and a Silverblade Paladin in a turn and get a surprise 12 damage in on you if you get careless. Garruk was in play for 4+ turns, and I got all the way down to 1 life... and it almost got to the point where I was considering Ultimating Garruk. But because Resto is an issue, I opted to play it safer and -3 hoping to draw more answers for the potential comeback attempt. Turns out I would've won either way. 2-0
Overall 2-0
Round 3: Mono Red Aggro
Game 1: I don't remember what he played, but both Thragtusk and Huntmaster got into the mix... and it wasn't enough. Hellrider finishes me off and he doesn't lose a point of life. 0-1
Game 2: He gets an early 6 damage in, then Olivia hits the table and just dominates by killing everything and swinging for like 6 in the air. Prompting them to either Tragic Slip (something few people play), or 2 burn spells... or something like Mark of Mutiny. 1-1
Game 3: He mulls to 4, and actually has a good 1 land hand with 3 1 drops. Gets me down to 14 as I try to slow him down with creatures. Then Thragtusk enters the game and he scoops at 20 life. 2-1
Overall 3-0
Round 4: UW Flash/ Splash Black
Game 1: Guy from Louisiana that's like 16 years old. I'm guessing he had a 3 round bye because he was talking about winning a tournament and getting his trip here basically paid for (except for travel expenses I assume). Keyrune gets some damage in before it gets charmed. Was able to get Thragtusk to resolve (maybe via Caverns, I forget)... a little rules lawyering keeps me from gaining the 5 life (they are big about declaring triggers at GPs). Resto and some Lingering Souls tokens hit play, but I Bonfire for 4 (hard cast) and finish him off with some beats. 1-0
Game 2: I mull to 6 and keep a 6 land hand. We both draw go for the first 4 turns until Resto sees the floor. I realize fast that I have to draw a threat and get it into play to stop him. Thagtusk? Counter. 2nd Thragtusk? Charm + Mills it off the top of my library with that UB Mill land, leaving me with the Beast token (but not before getting a few hits in). A third Thragtusk gets in (again, rules lawyering keeps me from gaining 5... need to remember to call it out as I play it) Pike hits the table, Lingering Souls hits the table... Pike hits me once but only puts me down to 6. I have the Ultimate Price in hand to ensure he doesn't hit... I know he doesn't have a counter because he's tapping out to play multiple Lingering Souls/Flashback in order to sneak in enough damage to beat me. I hardcast Bonfire for 3 to get rid of all the tokens. He D-spheres the Tusk, I immediately counter that with Abrupt Decay to get him back. I forget my extra Beast token, but it doesn't matter as I topdeck Wolf-Run for the win. The guy leaves the table mad that he lost 0-2. 2-0
Overall 4-0
After Round 4: I won the last match so quickly that I realized I might have time to get something to eat. I wasn't completely sure where the nearest food place was. This GP was held at a convention center right on the river walk. It's the main tourist attraction in San Antonio. I was able to find a place two blocks away, but was too afraid to order as I realized the round must be ending fast. But now that I knew where it was, I could come back after the next round.
Round 5: Jund Mirror Match
Game 1: Thragtusk hit play on both sides of the board. I struck the card advantage war first by playing Rakdos Return for 4 (revealing a maindeck Slaughter Games). At that point it was just a slow death. I couldn't get a dominating board position, but Deathrite Shaman got in there for a lot of damage while making sure he had no real way to kill me. Garruk finished him off. 1-0
Game 2: Thundermaw Hellkite gets in on his side. I counter with Thragtusk... and we race. But I have Deathrite Shaman to keep me ahead in the race. I remember being SG'd twice. One 2 Garruks. Another hit Ultimate Price that he saw from the first SG. But I already had the cards in play to win the game. 2-0
Overall 5-0.
After Round 5: I quickly run to get food. Make it back in time... but realize I forgot my dice at the table (probably long gone by now). And because my sleeves were starting to look a little rough, I bought new sleeves along with new dice at one of the nearby vendors. Hey... if you start 5-0 in your first grand prix, you deserve it.
Round 6: G/W
Game 1: This guy main decked Unvenwald Tracker and Intrepid Hero. Loxodon Smiter get in, and he's able to kill off all of my creatures by making them fight his Smiter. He doesn't take a point of damage. 0-1
As the game ended, I realize with horror that I can see the back side of Huntmaster through my new sleeves. Hoping to save the match, I call a judge immediately and tell him what is going on... and thankfully because of my candidness I don't get a matchloss, just a warning. And because of the crowd watching the undefeated's play, someone got me some checklist cards and we were able to move on. I wish I could say I called myself out because I was doing the honorable thing, but the truth was, I knew eventually someone was going to see it because it was SO obvious. Coming clean was my only hope... and it was a legit situation where I didn't mean to cheat so I don't feel guilty for only getting a warning. I apologized to my opponent and moved on.
Game 2: Wolfir Avenger... I got to play against it for the first time... and it's ridiculously good against us if they slow play it. We were well into late game. He puts Rancor on it and suddenly I have a problem. He gets a bunch of swings in. Thragtusk gets me 5 of that life back and I chump block with said Thragtusk to save damage. It gets to a point where my hand has Rolling Tremblor and Dreadbore and he only was able to regenerate twice. I have 11 in play. All I have to do is draw and... BONFIRE! Ok... I need to leave two lands up for Dreadbore, Bonfire for 8... make him regenerate his creature and perhaps finish it off with Dreadbore. He regens his wolf... I adjust his life total from 10... minus 8 from Bonfire... is 2. I look at the 2 I just wrote down and the 2 lands I have untapped because I wanted to have Dreadbore mana open. Did I just punt the game? Avenger Regenerated and tapped, letting my Beast token attack for the win... but wait! Faith's Shield with Fateful Hour activated, giving himself pro-green. Well, since he's at 2 he can't attack anymore... Vampiric Nighthawk joins the party on my side of the board. They both swing in. Block + Regenerate the beast and give himself pro-black to fight off the Nighthawk. We both play creatures to try and gain board presence, but mine are bigger. He has to Gavony his team to make them big enough... which leaves me open to kill his Avenger with the Dreadbore still in my hand... because God damnit I punted the game nearly because of him and I sure wasn't going to let him live if I had anything to say about it! Anyways, when I killed the Avenger, it was basically game over as I had more creatures. 1-1
Game 3: Multiple avengers, I lose. 1-2
Overall 5-1... undefeated no more.
A note about the near punt: Obviously it was bad play on my part. And I don't even remember why I thought keeping Dreadbore mana open would've been good in hindsight. The worst part of it was it was in front of a crowd, including one of my friends that I came with. "Bonfire for 8" became the go-to joke of the weekend.
Round 7 BR Zombies
I'm playing against a guy that looks like he's in his mid 30s or 40s and obviously a lot more mature than a lot of players. I think he might've been some kind of pro because he talked about being from Colorado and flying in to the tournament.
Game 1: 1 drops and Messengers get in... huntmaster gets in, shaman gets in, but it's not enough and he flies over me with a Hellkite to win the game. 0-1
Game 2: I had a weird hand where I had Rolling Temblor, two Decays, Keyrune, and Olivia. I make it to turn 4 only having to face a Diregraf Ghoul. And I potentially make a misplay. I could've just played Olivia turn 4 and tried to get her above burn range turn 5/6 while having a blocker on the field. I decided instead to hold back. If he swings with his 1 creature I could just Decay it and play Keyrune next turn. If he plays another, I could untap and Temblor both away... with mana open to Abrupt Decay. He's sitting their mystified that I haven't played anything turn 4 and doesn't even attack (he tells me after the game he was playing around Wolfir Avenger), but plays a Messenger. I temblor them both away, leaving the Messenger back on the table with a +1/+1 counter. I didn't count on not drawing a 5th land by now... so that was all I could do. On his turn he plays Aristocrat. So before I can even untap again, he's already dealt 10 damage between the trigger the creatures. I could play Olivia now, but it's just going to block the Aristocrat and die... so I lose. 0-2
I'm pretty sure the right play in this situation is to just play Olivia turn 4, hope they don't have the answer and try to get the insta-win. We'll see this philosophy come into play against aggro later (or maybe next round).
Overall 5-2
Round 8 BR Zombies again
Game 1 he gets the early aggression out. I get my first miracle Bonfire for 4, wiping the board. Huntmaster + Wolf gets in for 4. Hellkite brings him from 10 to 0 in 2 turns. 1-0
Game 2- Very tricky game Vampire Nighthawk gets in there. I think I hardcast Bonfire for 1 to clear up some creatures. It looked like I had the game under control because he would only have 1 creature in play at a time... but he managed to get two Hellriders in there... and then next turn Conscipt's my Nighthawk for the win. 1-1
I notice that suddenly the zombies in his deck have pretty much disappeared and he's transformed into kind of BR midrange with Hellriders and Conscripts.
Game 3- I drew two of my three nighthawks and that was basically all I needed against this slower post sideboard deck. 2-1
Overall 6-2
After round 8... I'm told that x-2 automatically makes day 2, and some x-3s might make it. So I have to win and I'm in.
Round 9 UWR Midrange
So I went to table 46... and when another guy got to the table claiming to be the player playing, we realized it was me that had the wrong table. I found out I was at table 45... but didn't make it in time for the match to start, so game loss. Kind of stupid that it went down like that, but those are the rules. 0-1
Game 2
Giest, Huntmster, Resto (removal'd) on Giest... next turn he tries with Giest again... double block with my 2/2s so he can't charm one away... he lets it die. Plays another Giest... I play Thragtusk and it gets sphered. The Beast and Giest stare at each other for awhile until it gets removed. Bonfire for 2 happens and clears the board. he slowly builds up a flying army with Moorland Haunt... Deathrite Shaman gets in there. Pillar that would've killed me doesn't because I gain 2 life by removing my only creature (Huntmaster) in the grave. I play the Olivia in my hand... now both of us don't have a hand. But I'm at 2 life, he has 2 1/1 flyers in play and enough mana to activate Haunt. Haunt's ability removes the creature from his graveyard as part of the cost, so I wouldn't gain life if he used it in response to my shaman. With no red mana left over to kill 1/1 flyers, my only hope was he wouldn't think to remove it in response. But he did... so I lost 0-2.
Overall 6-3
I was really mad that I didn't make sure where I that I had the right seat and it cost me a game. UWR midrange is tough for me, but it's a very winable matchup now with caverns and shamans main and with all the stuff I would've boarded in.
I had a good 30 minutes to walk around and stew over the loss. And having not been in a GP before, I didn't know the nature of these things. How many 6-3s made it. I had someone telling me that only x-2s would've made it... and so I was ready to just get.away from this place and go home in shame. But when they put the pairings up, I wanted to at least know what my standing was. I would have to be in the top 128 to make it. I was 118.
The dream was still alive.
Day 2: I got some sleep, woke up early, ate some raw eggs, punched some giant haunches of frozen meat and then climbed up some stairs and I was ready.
Round 10 GW Aggro
This guy I was playing was playing with had this whole starcitygames getup. Complete with deckbox, Tshirt and sleeves. Probably a pro that was being sponsored by SCG.
Game 1: Turn 3 Olivia, I kill a dork and swing in for 4. He trades back with Resto Angel. I Rakdos Return for 4 to bring him to 12. Resto eats removal, Olivia finishes the race. 1-0
Game 2: Huntmaster, Thragtusk, Huntmaster. The only major threat ended up being a Resto soulbonded with Silverheart. Ultimate price killed Silverheart and the rest of the team took this guy out. 2-0
I sign the sheet and go to drop it in the box, and I happen to look at the name of my opponentl: Brian Kibler. That name sounds familiar.
I confirm with my friends a few minutes later that I just took out a Pro Tour winner 2-0 to start the day off.
Overall 7-3
Round 11 BR Zombies... I take note of how many aggro matchups I've been facing between BR Zombies and GW Aggro. Yet no Frites (not that I'm complaining).
Game 1: I have an awesome hand. Farseek, Keyrune, Huntmaster. I literally draw nothing but land the rest of the match. 0-1
Game 2: Turn 3 Olivia, gets some work in. Thragtusk hits the table soon after and the game is over fast. 1-1
Game 3: I mull all the way to 4. Two lander - > 1 land -> 1 land -> 2 land. I lose. 1-2
Overall 7-4
Probably out of serious top 16 contention, but I could probably play for 32 or 64 and walk away with some money.
Round 12 BR Zombies... I swear to god make it stop!
Game 1 He gets out the early aggression. Thragtusk sees play, but trades with a messenger. I don't draw enough gas to stop him. 0-1
Game 2 Huntmaster sees play early, only drops 1 creature in the first two turns, plays a turn 3 Underworld Connections. I comment on the odd choice of sideboard. He tells me it's good against control, which I have to agree... but I dont know if it's good in a zombie deck. But actually, at the pace I was playing, UC probably could've done the work. Unfortunately he had 5 lands in play, 5 lands in his hand after activating UC twice. He scooped knowing he wouldn't recover in time. 1-1
Game 3 He gets stuck on 3 lands so he can't play his business spells. Huntmaster + Keyrune wins it for me. 2-1
Overall 8-4
Round 13 GW again
We speak before the match and it turns out he's from Houston as well, although I'm from the southside and he's from downtown. But I recommended the game store I play at and he said he might check it out.
Game 1: Sublime Archangel + Gavorny + Thalia (preventing me from Farseeking and Keyruning) = loss. 0-1
Game 2: I have a heavy removal hand and am able to just deal with everything. Avenger + 2 Rancor? Sever'd. Later in the game Huntmaster is in play and a wolf... he has Intrepid Hero. I flip the Huntmaster and kill his Hero, he taps it to kill Huntmaster (didn't think that one through). I Ultimate price his other creature and get in for the win. He later tells me he misplayed because he could've Rancored the unflipped Huntmaster and Hero'd it down. 1-1
Game 3: I remember this being a pretty back and forth game. I forget what happened for a lot of the beginning. But eventually I get two Keyrunes into play (can only activate one at first) and he drops Sigarda and the race is on. He swings to put me at 7. I Thragtusk to put myself back at 12. Then on the other side I kill off his only blocker and swing back for 11 (Thrag + 2 Keys). Resto sees play EoT and gives him the extra boost for the win. 2-1
Overall 9-4
Round 14 R/x aggro
Game 1 Huntmaster and Thragtusk get me there. 1-0
Game 2 he keeps a 1 land hand, I turn 4 Olivia and take it to the HOUSE! 2-0
Overall 10-4
Round 15 GW for the 5th damn time
The standings had me at 81st place. And it seemed like I had a good shot at a top 64 spot by winning this round.
Game 1 He plays maindeck avengers... and I saw 3 of them. I was able to remove a few, but it ended up being too much. 0-1
Game 2 He keeps a 2 land hand. I don't notice this until I realize it's turn 5 and Olivia is on the table with two dorks on his side. I ping 1, but he responds with Resto. I ping it again to get the counter and to try and put him off on mana. I got another dork before he charmed my Olivia (saw it coming but really wanted to keep him on 2-3 mana) I don't remember exactly how things went from here on out, but he played a few more dorks. Got in with Paladin + 4/5 Resto (Gavony) a few times. I played a Hellkite to try and block his Resto but he Oring'd it and swung down to 4. Thragtusk gets me to 9 and kill the Angel to unbond it from Paladin. I can deal with his ground army for a while thanks to two Severs and a flipped Huntmaster that can chip his life total away 4 damage at a time.
At the end of the game, I try to sever two of his pilgrims again, and I see Resto for the third time this game. Resto takes me to 4 next turn... and now I'm out of removal for it, so I have to win the game now. It was Me 4 - Him 6, he had Resto, 3 lands, Gavony, two mana dorks and cards in hand. I have a flipped Huntmaster, a wolf token... 9 lands including Wolf Run. After thinking about what to do for two minutes I finally make a decision... I swung in with the two creatures and I know the only way I can lose is if I Wolf Run something over 5 and he has the Charm. He blocks with his two dorks and Wolfrun the Wolf for +2/0 and trample. My opponent responds with Gavony predictably, making his dork trade with the wolf and he took 4 damage to go to 2. And then he put a +1/+1 counter on his Resto and I realized that when I thought I had 2 turns left to race him I only had this one. I realize I can still salvage the game by playing both my Rakdos Keyrune and Abrupt Decay (on the Oblivion Ring removing Hellkite... which I just now noticed), flipping Huntmaster back over to his day side... gaining two life... bringing Hellkite back into play to block (could've Decay'd the ORing earlier and won but I just flat out forgot it was in play). 1-1
Game 3: After the potential top-64 saving play I made to win the last game, I felt really confidant about game 3. I keep a 2 land hand with Rakdos Keyrune, Thragtusk, Sever, Garruk, Olivia. I'm on the draw... so I figure I have to go for it. Thats a pretty good anti-GW hand other than the 2 land. So we start... I get the Farseek on turn 2... but after he had played Thalia on turn 3. I never recover in time and he wins. I still like my decision to keep but I know some will disagree with me. 1-2
Overall 10-6
Overall against GW 2-3
I ended up placing 91st. I was really proud of what I was able to do at my first GP event even though I didn't win any money.
A few notes:
-Olivia is really good against aggro. I like her at 2 right now. I think the people that don't like her against control don't like playing her, and then seeing her get beat by Angel of Serenity or an Unsummon or whatever. But against a lot of decks it was game-changing. I didn't use her "steal" ability once. It was always pinging.
-I played a lot of aggro decks... I guess we're correcting back toward aggro with Caverns becoming a factor against Bant. No Frites decks at all. Frites and Control will probably correct back towards anti-aggro.
-I only got Garruk to work in 2 games. If this aggro trend keeps up (probably wont), it might be time to switch back to Relentless.
-I didn't like Rolling Temblor. It just didn't feel like it was doing enough against Zombies or GW definitely because of the bigger creatures they can play. It's supposed to be anti-Giest. But I get the feeling that I could've stuck Knight of Infamy in there and that would've done a better job.
-Vampire Nighthawk was awesome
-My version maindecks Shamans, only has 2 Bonfire, 7 single target removal spells, 2 Olivia and 3 Rakdos Keyrunes as potential turn 2-turn 3 actions against aggro... some decks want to play Pillar and maindeck Nighthawks... and yet I didn't actually do that bad against aggro. I went 10-6 so I must've been doing something right to beat all the zombie decks and mono red.
-Wolfir Avenger is hard for us to deal with. Could potentially go 3 Sever main and 4 keyrune if this becomes a popular anti-jund, anti-thragtusk card.
Edit: I forgot to add one more thing. I wanted to thank the people of this forum. That whole back story bit kind of showed how inexperienced I was when it came to serious standard tournament play (lets not even go into legacy and modern)... but I believe a lot of help getting the deck right. You guys helped point me in the direction of Deathrite Shaman and I probably wouldn't have risked Cavern of Souls and Wolf Run in the same deck without people coming out and saying that they've tried it and it can work. And then just knowledge of whats out there, what's hard to beat, things we need to worry about.
I kind of hoped to see more of the deck, but it seemed like one of those matches where I got good opening hands and he didn't and I just took it to the bank.
You should retire, I saw his tweet about your match "my deck doesn't beat t3 Olivia".
Dark, you're magic famous
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I watched the dude take down PT AVR haha. I would known who it was and probably have misplayed.
3 Rakdos Keyrune
Creatures
1 Knight of Infamy
4 Huntmaster of the Fells
4 Thragtusk
2 Thundermaw Hellkite
Legendary Creatures
2 Olivia Voldaren
Instants
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Ultimate Price
Planeswalker
2 Garruk, Primal Hunter
Sorceries
2 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Mizzium Mortars
1 Sever the Bloodline
3 Dreadbore
4 Farseek
2 Pillar of Flame
1 Rakdos's Return
1 Forest
4 Blood Crypt
4 Dragonskull Summit
2 Cavern of Souls
1 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Woodland Cemetery
1 Rakdo's Return
3 Appetite for Brains
1 Mizzium Mortars
2 Slaughter Games
1 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Underworld Connections
2 Vampire Nighthawk
2 Deathrite Shaman
2 Liliana of the Veil
HOST: Xtreme Games
LOCATION: Lindenhurst, IL
EVENT: SCG IQ
ROUNDS PLAYED: 5
MATCH POINTS: 8 (2-3)
Round 1: G/W Humans
Game 1: (LOSS)
Game 2: (WIN)
Game 3: (LOSS)
-
Round 2: Bant Midrange/Control
Game 1: (LOSS MULL TO 3...)
Game 2: (WIN)
Game 3: (LOSS)
-
Round 3: Hoof there it is!
Game 1: (LOSS)
Game 2: (LOSS)
-
Round 4: Opponent dropped before playing
Game 1: (WIN)
Game 2: (WIN)
-
Roun 5: U/W Flash
Game 1: (LOSS)
Game 2: (WIN)
Game 3: (WIN)
Well I beat UW Flash as you can see. Almost had the GW Humans game but turn 2 Thalia just destroys our deck when we are on the draw. I almost beat my buddies Bant Midrange deck as well but didn't have a removal to even the game out. Hoof there it is matchup G1 I had him down to 2 life and then he got an Angel of Serenity down and took my Thundermaw and Olivia which would have killed him next turn. I have made the appropriate changes to my decklist now but at the time this decklist was pretty meh vs all this Tier 1 going around. I will hopefully have something better to report by weeks end.
WUBRGProgenitus
BGWUAtraxa, Praetors' Voice
BGW Ghave, Guru of Spores
BGRKresh, The Bloodbraided
BWRKaalia of the Vast
RWUShu Yun, The Silent Tempest
BUGrimgrin, The Corpse-Born
RDaretti, Scrap Savant
It was crazy, the only pro I know by face is Gerry T and only because I just happened to see the time he won back to back Weekly tournaments with some kind of UW control deck. And he was there also. But I could kind of tell how serious a player was by how old they were, what kind of swag they were rolling with and just how they carried themselves in general. I see a guy in a leather jacket (in Texas), with like all kinds of SCG stuff on him and I'm like "this guy has to be a very high level player" and then of course I recognized the name but still wasn't sure because there could be more than one Kibler.
Edit: And I just found out that Matthew Pratser (the runner up) was the round seven opponent I was talking about.
I don't know why the deck isn't getting the run it used to. I guess it's just because it can't beat BOTH Aggro and Frites/Flash, you can either maindeck Shamans or maindeck Nighthawks/Avengers. There really isn't the room for both at the moment.
Maybe this is where Garruk Relentless can comeback as the PW of choice, as much as I love the ability to draw 5-6 cards against control decks... perhaps having the extra "removal" is the bigger deal.
It might just be that this is a really diverse meta that has seen holes for aggro to sneak into... and Jund just isn't dominating but that doesn't mean it's impossible to win with.
What makes it worse is that the meta is split broadly into three extremes: Aggro OR Control variants OR Reanimator, and there isnt a lot of cross over in the card you would want against each deck (there is some, but the specific 'power' cards don't really cross over).
As a midrange deck, you have a less certain strategy and are inherently at least somewhat reactive ~ this can lead to really horrendous matchups. Compare this to an aggro or control deck ~ your role is the same every game, so the plans and themes are more familiar. Playing midrange necessarily involves an appreciation of subtly shifting role and boardstate that does become easier with experience, but is incredibly difficult in such a wide-open metagame.
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I think we're fine against zombies. I was like 3-1 or something like that against Zombies at the GP. Not that that's a big sample, but we have a lot of cards that game enders and we basically just need to draw two or three of them to win.
I'm far more afraid of Frites... which ironically I saw no run against yesterday.
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Maybe the aggro jund in the primer thread is the answer. Seems like the idea is to just race them. I kind of hope it is because that's more the style I like playing.
R1: RB Zombies 0-2
R2: jank homebrew 2-0
R3: GW stuff with sigarda 2-0
R4: Mono red 2-1
Sideboard -
R1: -3 Victim of Night +2 slip and +1 appetite
R2: N/A
R3: -1 slip +1 garruk
R4: -1 slip +1 zealous
(246-174-26)
Week one, 20+ people, 2-2 drop.
Week two, top 8, loss in first round.
Week three, top 8, split top 4.
week four, top 8, split top 4.
Week five, top 8, loss in first round.
week six, top 8, split top 4.
Week seven, top 8, loss in first round.
Things about my meta: Thalia everywhere. Zombies 2-3 per week. Frites and Deadeye combo thing, and lots of GoST.
So, I consistently lose to Frites. I've faced it four times in seven weeks without a singe match win. My other losses have been to a combo deck with Deadeye dude and zealous conscripts for infinite once, U/W humans twice, G/W humans thrice, Bant once, Zombies twice, and RDW once, from what I can find on my match life total sheets. I'm positive I lost at least two mirror matches, but I can't find those sheets.
I've tried to balance the midrange against aggro game one and control after boarding, but Frites can just, uh, win however it apparently wants to. I've lost to Craterhoof only once against this guy, the rest of the time my Slaughter Games turn it into a combo-less, hardcasting match, but he wins those.
I have lost every game that Acidic Slime showed up in, particularly when it blinks or gets unburied. I really miss Stifle.
My weekly FNM always has five rounds of Swiss, but I'm not sure just how many people enter each week.
It started with FNM and our shop had the biggest turnout (ever) that wasn’t some sorta special event day or weekend. We ended-up with 26 paying players and I was juiced for some action. I thought I was prepared and presented my deck of 76:
2 RAKDOS KEYRUNE
CREATURES (13)
4 THRAGTUSK
3 HUNTMASTER OF THE FELLS
2 VAMPIRE NIGHTHAWK
2 DEATHRITE SHAMAN
1 DESECRATION DEMON
1 THUNDERMAW HELLKITE
LEGENDARY CREATURES (2)
2 OLIVIA VOLDAREN
PLAINSWALDERS (2)
1 GARRUK, PRIMAL HUNTER
1 GARRUK RELENTLESS
INSTANTS (4)
2 ABRUPT DECAY
2 ULTIMATE PRICE
SORCERIES (13)
3 FARSEEK
2 DREADBORE
2 DURESS
2 RAKDOS’S RETURN
1 BONFIRE OF THE DAMNED
1 MIZZIUM MORTARS
1 SEVER THE BLOODLINE
1 SLAUGHTER GAMES
1 FERVOR
BASIC LANDS (3)
1 FOREST
1 SWAMP
1 MOUNTAIN
LANDS (21)
4 BLOOD CRYPT
4 ROOTBOUND CRAG
4 OVERGROWN TOMB
4 WOODLAND CEMETERY
2 CAVERN OF SOULS
2 KESSIG WOLF RUN
1 GHOST QUARTER
2 LILIANA OF THE VEIL
2 KNIGHT OF INFAMY
2 GOLGARI CHARM
1 ZEALOUS CONSCRIPTS
1 THUNDERMAW HELLKITE
1 MIZZIUM MORTARS
1 MAGMAQUAKE
1 SLAUGHTER GAMES
1 UNDERWORLD CONNECTIONS
1 ULTIMATE PRICE
1 DEATHRITE SHAMAN
1 DEADLY ALLURE
Now I am sure you are wondering how in the world I got a total of 76 cards. When going over what is currently happening in MTG, I had a moment of indecision and thought a one-of, of FERVOR might just turn the tide against Aggro. However . . . I believe it actually didn’t make a difference. It actually became my 1st card to pull when time for the SB and especially after my full weekend action (I will follow this post with another about Saturday), it is a card that is just unnecessary.
ROUND ONE: I was matched against a pretty good player (and friend) named MC. He was playing a pretty aggressive G/W Human deck. I was excited since I knew this would be a tough match-up and iffn I could survive; it would bode well for me.
Game 1: SUX FOR ME . . . I ended-up with a total of 14 cards for the game total . . . 1 Nighthawk, 2 Duress and 11 miscellaneous lands. I was actually happy to have made it as many turns as I did. My star dude was (surprisingly) Nighthawk.
Game 2: SUX FOR HIM . . . he drew a total of 2 lands (after mulling to 5) the whole game so I just had Thrag put him out of his misery.
Game 3: Finally a ‘good’ game till my deck decided I should get back to drawing only lands again (towards the end). We both had semi-full battlefields, but we were both top decking when he got his Mayor to flip and he kept using the bloody 2/2 Wolf Tokens to sac to my Demon and keeping him tapped till he finally got me (he ended the game with 4 life). Again, Nighthawk was my little blessing in disguise and kept me in the game despite allll the lands I kept drawing (everything except Wolf Run that is).
ROUND TWO: The screen posted my next match location and I sat down and waited. After about a minute or so, my son (who works @ the shop and was playing/helping with the tournament) came to me and told me the guy (some new guy who I had never met) had just gotten a call and had to leave. Well . . . even with the ‘win,’ since I didn’t get to play anyone that completely took me out of the top 8. I just kinda wondered aimlessly wondering why me??? Why Me??? WHY ME?????????
ROUND THREE: Being 1-1, I was matched with another player named Lyle also 1-1. We had played before and I knew he still played a variant of Vampires/Burn. I was a little disappointed since I typically don’t have issues with that particular deck but was glad to get to play.
Game 1: He got a Nighthawk out early and began his small (but effective) beat down/life gain till I was able to secure the board with my own Nighthawk. He had a couple of burn spells to play on me and my Nighthawk, but a timely Ultimate Price for his Nighthawk followed by Hellkite ended it.
Game 2: He ended up drawing a few smaller vamps and I double Huntmaster’d him for a pretty easy win. Having two in play and double flipping them is pretty devastating.
So . . . I ended-up finishing 2-1 and just out of the top 8. Fortunately, three of my boys finished seeded 1st, 4th and 5th and the two oldest played for 1st place in the final round. My first round opponent (MC) finished seeded 3rd and eventually finished ranked 3rd for the tournament. Since my wife and her Burn deck had decided to finish 1-2, she and I headed to Dairy Queen then home.
While disappointed, I was glad I would get to be playing again allllll day Saturday (which will be my next post). I was also happy my 2nd oldest (who won) was playing a very similar deck to mine . . . so maybe I did have some hope???
Sounds like a great weekend.
Just a heads up, B/R Zombies is the hottest thing since 01' Spears, so you're going to want 4 Pillar of Flame's again. I would even have 2 Tragic Slips for the Vampire.
Also, Since both Garruk's Legend rule each other, you might as well just run 2 PH's. He's the better one, anyway, and always ends up winning the game by himself if not answered.
I would also drop your Mizzium, Sever and Slaughter games. They're just not super awesome against the new speed of the meta, and Mizzium + Primal Hunter is hard to hit consistently in the same deck.
Your duress and Keyrune's can be moved to the sideboard for the pillars to shore up your aggro matchup. They really are necessary.
After my dismal FNM, the boys and I took off early Saturday morning for Tucson, AZ. We decided to try our decks @ a SCG SUPER IQ. Here is a reminder of the deck I listed:
2 RAKDOS KEYRUNE
CREATURES (13)
4 THRAGTUSK
3 HUNTMASTER OF THE FELLS
2 VAMPIRE NIGHTHAWK
2 DEATHRITE SHAMAN
1 DESECRATION DEMON
1 THUNDERMAW HELLKITE
LEGENDARY CREATURES (2)
2 OLIVIA VOLDAREN
PLAINSWALDERS (2)
1 GARRUK, PRIMAL HUNTER
1 GARRUK RELENTLESS
INSTANTS (4)
2 ABRUPT DECAY
2 ULTIMATE PRICE
SORCERIES (13)
3 FARSEEK
2 DREADBORE
2 DURESS
2 RAKDOS’S RETURN
1 BONFIRE OF THE DAMNED
1 MIZZIUM MORTARS
1 SEVER THE BLOODLINE
1 SLAUGHTER GAMES
1 FERVOR
BASIC LANDS (3)
1 FOREST
1 SWAMP
1 MOUNTAIN
LANDS (21)
4 BLOOD CRYPT
4 ROOTBOUND CRAG
4 OVERGROWN TOMB
4 WOODLAND CEMETERY
2 CAVERN OF SOULS
2 KESSIG WOLF RUN
1 GHOST QUARTER
2 LILIANA OF THE VEIL
2 KNIGHT OF INFAMY
2 GOLGARI CHARM
1 ZEALOUS CONSCRIPTS
1 THUNDERMAW HELLKITE
1 MIZZIUM MORTARS
1 MAGMAQUAKE
1 SLAUGHTER GAMES
1 UNDERWORLD CONNECTIONS
1 ULTIMATE PRICE
1 DEATHRITE SHAMAN
1 DEADLY ALLURE
So we got there, paid the $100 for the four of us and got our decks listed. They announced we had a total of 70 people registered and it would be 7 Rounds. Top 8 would play for tops and top 16 got prizes/money. The first parings began and off we went.
Round One: Played a guy named David who was playing an Izzet Counter deck w/ Hypersonic Dragon as his ‘bomb’.
Game 1: We both started kinda slow w/ tapped lands till I got in a Huntmaster and started the beat down. He only had a couple of counters and only a couple of Pillars along with a Staticaster. I finally got a Thrag down and won w/ 27 life.
Game 2: I got a Shaman on turn one since he had a tapped land. I just beat him down w/ my Shaman till I was up 23-10 life. By then, I had three Thrags in hand. He countered the first two but I got the third one to stick and won two turns later after I Ultimated his Dragon. I finished with 26 life and was now 1-0 and 2-0 in games.
Round Two: Next I played Michael. He was playing one of those 4-color Reanimater decks (U/B/R/G).
Game 1: This started with us matching land for land till I got my Nighthawk out first. Twice I got hits in before he stuck a Thrag and we hit back and forth till I got my Demon in for the win. I only had 7 life left.
Game 2: Pretty much the opposite of game one. He got a Nighthawk in and started beating on me. At one point, he finally got his Thrag out and whooped me w/ 25 life to spare.
Game 3: It ended-up being my Nighthawk (again) against an early Thrag for him . . . till my Hellkite came to play and he lost with me with 32 life. I was feeling pretty happy and good about things at this point since I was 2-0 and 4-1 in games.
Round Three: Played John and my first B/G Zombie match.
Game 1: He started with mana issues due to me whacking his Cavern with my Ghost Quarter first turn. He started with just the Cavern and a Swamp in his hand and I guess figured would draw into more mana. He still whittled me down with his Zombie hoard with just two, then four at a time. I got my Demon on turn four and eventually he ran out of creatures to sac and my Demon took him in three turns. I had 9 life.
Game 2: My first game with mana issues. I pulled only B/R/colorless and never any green. I held two Farseeks from my opening hand for the game. He whooped me in about 5 or 6 turns.
Game 3: He got the jump on me again and all I could muster was a Shaman and one Demon swing for 7. He finished me off with 11 life and I was now with my first loss and on the day 2-1 and 5-3 in games.
Round Four: My next opponent was named Ben and he actually finished 6th in the tournament. He was playing a deck that I was completely unfamiliar with and because of that, defeated me easily.
Game 1: He started the first few turns doing nothing but playing lands and fetching lands (of all five colors). I got an early Nighthawk and was just swinging away for 2 at a time. With all his manna, he eventually played an Increasing Ambition. I then played a Slaughter and not knowing his deck, I pulled just 1 Thrag. Looking through his deck scared me to death though. He only had a few creatures in it . . . 1 Thrag, 1 Angel of Serenity, 1 Grisel, 1 Hellkite, etc. Next turn he plopped his Door to Nothingness and won a turn later . . . he won with 6 life and I had 31 life.
Game 2: Since I had just a little idea of his deck, my turn 4 Slaughter pulled his Ranger’s Paths into exile. He had only played one. But, since I never drew my other Slaughter, he was able to pull his Thrag to boost his life and played his Door to Nothingness with me at 25 life and him at 13. I was now even at 2-2 and just 5-5 in games.
Round Five: Next was Ron and his B/R Zombie deck.
Game 1: He got out early and fast. I had manna issue number two on the day and he whooped me with his original 20 life. My issues weren’t just a lack of mana, but a lack of any colored mana.
Game 2: While I did get an early Shaman out, he thug-lifed my Olivia, burned my Thrag and his Aristocrat eventually wiped me out with him only down to 18 life. I can see now why that match-up is so feared. Quicker n snot and I never really felt like I had a chance. Now I was 2-3 and 5-7 in games.
Round Six: I now got to play Brian and my only matchup of the day against Craterhoof.
Game 1: A pretty evenly matched game with me with a couple of Thrags and him with a couple of Thrags and then his Hellkite for the win. He ended with 26 life.
Game 2: I thought I was in control and had him down to 7 life and me at 22 life when it happened . . . in one turn Craterhoof made his presence known and it was over. He was swinging for 27 and I was now down to a record of 2-4 and just 5-9 in games.
Round Seven: Well, while all hope was lost, I was now playing a guy named Seth and two of my boys had already beaten him. So I thought I might have a chance. He was playing a Jund mirror.
Game 1: I got my Nighthawk out early and started the beat down. By the time he got rid of it (with Vraska), I was way ahead and he just never pulled any other real threats. I won with 13 life left.
Game 2: Same as last game, but he got his Nighthawk and started the beat down. He got his Thrags up and running and beat me with 25 life.
Game 3: Unfortunately for me, mana screw #3 on the day and he finished me off with his Demon swinging for seven. He finished with 20 life and I ended the day 2-5 and 6-11 in games.
After it was allll said and done, my second oldest finished 43rd, I finished 42nd, oldest 37th and youngest 23rd (after losing in the final round just missing the top 16). None of us were all that happy on the two hour drive home so we just listed to the Arizona basketball game.
I felt over matched in only two of my games . . . one due to ignorance (on my part) and not enough Slaughter Games and the other just pure speed and aggression. I do know a B/R Zombie deck won the tournament w/ a Red Burn taking second place . . . maybe that is where I should be going next???
I think you were actually hindered by Slaughter Games. It's a card that will make you feel good when you played, but it seems you would have been better of playing your own game when you got 0-for-1'd for pulling that Thragtusk. I wouldn't recommend playing any in your MD, and it's questionable even in your SB. Against UW Flash, it's OK. Why do you play deadly allure, by the way?
Also, is there any real reason for using CAPS LOCK, it makes my head hurt. Reading your decklist is extremely uncomfortable for me
EDIT: Duress MD? That is very questionable... I would remove Duresses and a Slaughter Games and put in removal.
EDIT: Did you ever see Fervor? It seems like a really, really janky card...
Youtube Channel
I actually really like Slaughter Games MB. As I do a better job learning all the other decks, I feel it will only get better. And, while I only pulled the 1 Thrag, it was like one of his only 5 creatures and it was also the 1 creature that beat me in game 2. In the future I might play 2 Slaughters.
I did side out Duress quite a lot. I am going to pull it for next Friday . . . just not sure exactly what for yet.
Fervor is gone for now . . . it was always SB games 2 and 3 for almost all my matches and just didn’t seem to offer what I wished it gave.
Those changes do make a lot of sense to me on paper I'd say add more removal. You seemed to lose games when you couldn't answer the opponents' threats, even though you had time and mana to do stuff. I think that indicates that your removal/threat density isn't high enough, and you are slightly unfavoured in the long run when you are trading resources with him. Dreadbore, Sever the Bloodline, Bonfire of the Damned and Ultimate Price are all cards you could add, depending on what your meta looks like. Oh, and 4th Huntmaster could be a good choice too. I'm still not a fan of the Slaughter Games.
Youtube Channel
12 players
Final score: Jund splits with Jund for first and second without playing.
My Jund kicked out Huntmasters for a few weeks, but I'll be bringing him back in. Keyrune presently is out of this list for my meta.
3 Deathrite Shaman[/CARDS]
Round 1: vs. U/G Delver 2-0
Game 1: He sees both of his first creatures removed, and 4th turn Thundermaw closes out the game before he sees another.
Game 2: He mills himself early to build up a Pike, tossing the Invisible Stalker that would have won him the game. For this game, I boarded out my Mortars for Shamans. I Duressed his counters away, Charmed the pike, then swarmed him with Nighthawk+Kessig, Tusk, and Hellkite.
Round 2: vs. U/W Combo/control that transformed to U/W Flash after boarding. 2-1
Game 1: According to the lifesheet, he went from 20->18->14->8, and I went from 20->24. So I think it was Shockland himself and then Nighthawk + Kessig. I saw nothing of his deck game one, making game two impossible to predict, so I boarded in what I normally do against islands and shuffled up.
Game 2: He transforms into U/W Flash. I fought tooth and nail in this match against Augur of Bolas, Restoration Angel, and Snapcaster Mage along with his board wipes. His army bumped me 8 times for death, and I only saw one Thragtusk. This match and the next two are the reasons I'm bringing 4 KoI to bear Friday.
Game 3: He concedes to take someone home, but he really wanted to battle through game 2 first.
Round 3: vs. U/W/G/r Control (splashing R lands for Kessig, Wolf Run) 0-2
Game 1: He tempos and wipes my creatures and beats my head in with a Pike, first with one Angel token that I'm able to Decay. He picks up a Dissipate from -2 on Jace, so when he Miracles Entreat with me at 17, the Mortars in my hand can't stop him.
Game 2: I get my Shaman out first turn, followed by a second one soon after. Once they're Terminused away, I dont see a single other sideboard card (I boarded in all 15 cards!). Once again, he miracles entreat, and I don't have an answer.
Round 4: vs U/W/G Mill/Fog. 2-0
Game 1: He uses a book to force me to draw cards and defends himself with fogs. Unfortunately, he filled my hand with 3 Pillars and 2 Spears over the coarse of 3 turns. He successfully milled half my deck, but I emptied my hand into his face.
Game 2: Once again, I board in my board, and it wasn't even close. My Thragtusk landed, thanks to Cavern, and I didn't need a single other offensive spell. I just emptied his hand with 2 Duress, 1 Appetite, and a timely Slaughter games turn 3 that ate his Supreme Verdicts, including one in his hand.
Cut to Top 4, I finished Swiss 3-1 overall.
I face the U/W/G/r control player again, and this time I have a much better plan of attack.
Game 1: His lifetotal bounces up and down repeatedly, due to Tusks, and Angels, and more Tusks, but my one-sided Wraths make it unfair for him. I credit two Bonfires and Two overloaded Mortars along with Nighthawks and Hellkites for this win. He went over 25 life four times this game.
Game 2: In with 15 cards, out go 15 removal. I resolve myself to trade with his first Tusk when it shows up, but my Slaughter gets the rest out of his deck. When my second Slaughter shows up, I get his Resto angels, leaving Moorland tokens and angel tokens as his only win condition. He doesn't draw the Entreat, so I win after a few big attacks. Duress and Appetite and Slaughters make this game cheatingly easy. I felt vindicated after losing two and out to him in the Swiss.
Split first and second with the other regular Jund player in the store, making for a satisfying night.
This was only my second Monday there, which does have carryover people from Fridays in addition to a couple control players who game elsewhere on Fridays. My Sideboard worked overtime this week, since I didn't face any of the Midrange/Aggro decks that typically come out for FNM.
KoI is definitely going into my deck. Azorious Charm is just mad beats!
I also have to solve the Tusk/Resto abuses of G/W/x lists. Overloading Mortars proved the most effective method of killing Tusks, but it's slow and reliant on good mana development. Perhaps I'll try Tributes this friday.
R1 - 5 color Door 1-2
R2 - BR Zombies 2-0
R3 - GW Kibler 2-1
R4 - BR Zombies 2-1
Too tired right now to post thoughts and how I sided.
(246-174-26)