Tournament Report- 40+ player event (6 rounds and top 8).
Round 1 - Skred Prison (W 2-1)
Game 1 on the play, knew what he was (because i made the deck for him to play) but with a basic and fetch in hand went fetch shock to get my bird in play. He turn 1 Blood Mooned...and the rest didn’t go so well. Game 2 he had a ton of removal to my creatures, but eventually got over his head. Game 3 he slammed a bridge (i did bring in disenchants) which I quellered...and the following turn he stuck a second. Luckily he never found land 4, and the cards in his hand were unplayable. Lesson learned here, bridge could be a problem for this deck.
Round 2 - Affinity (W 2-0)
Game 1 on the draw, memory of the game is fuzzy...but I basically just kept a flyer back to deal with his plated creature and out damaged him, luckily found a path for his master. Game 2, i was trading my flying dudes for his, and finally company let me down by only finding me a supreme phantom. Of course, top decking 2 more and creating an army of 3 / 5 creatures felt pretty good. Again just keeping a single creature back to protect from lethal threats. He is one of the better affinity players and did create a situation for himself to win when I almost didn’t block due and his aether grid would have got the last 2 damage he needed. Alas, match felt pretty ok.
Round 3 - Jeskai Control (W 2-0)
Game 1 just played the threats game and got his health total low before the board wipe. Moorland haunt took over the game for a bit keeping threats on the table and allowing me to repopulate to where he had to snap board wipe. A lucky top deck company got me the “lord lock” duo and the lord I was holding back in my hand took me to the finish line. Game 2 I slammed my Geist on turn 2 and got some serious value out of it before it got ambush vipered, he wiped the board but I held back most of my threats and let geist do the work. Finished it up. Learned in this match up just how much jeskai control values helix at times, and how blanking it by a sacrifice or rattlechains really makes their math unhappy.
Round 4 - KCI (L 0-2)
Not even going to get into it. The deck stumbled on lands both games and there was nothing I could do. The match seems terrible as it is...was glad if my deck was finally going to stumble this is where it happened.
Round 5 - Jeskai Control (W 2-0)
Game 1 I blanked out his removal and just flew over his head. Game 2 was much more involved as Izzet Staticaster took over the game for a little bit. But 3 collected companies later I established a board state he couldn’t just blank out...and had my queller to protect against his settle the wreckage he intended to use to blow me out.
Round 6 - Draw Into Top 8
Top 8 - Abzan Traverse (W 2-0)
Game 1 showed the power of Supreme Phantom. His Grim Flayer did not match up well versus my Phantom. Quellered his fatal push, copied the lord...and flew into victory. Game 2, Rest in Peace showed up and lined up very well with what his hand was trying to do. He bought himself some time with lingering souls but ran him over.
Top 4 - G-Tron (L 0-2)
Kinda like my KCI match, i watched as the deck failed hard. I had to mull to 5 because the only lands i saw were off color to what I had going on in my hand or colorless (more on that later). My opponent is on a 20-0 streak with the deck (including a 1k win recently) and when he got turn 3 tron (karn game 1...ballista game 2) that is all she wrote.
My obsessive watching of videos this past weekend paid off...deck was fun and felt like I could handle the removal heavy matches that I would fold to as humans. My local shop is mostly Tron/Burn...though a few of the top players at the shop run KCI so i was concerned about that also. So my sideboard was geared toward being able to give myself a better chance against those decks but I either didn’t respect Tron enough or just didn’t bring the right tools to the battle.
So I got lots of time to ponder this before I play again. My first move will be to cut the Kataki for Stony Silence. I’m likely going to cut at least 2 of the damping sphere and both my unified will to bring a playset of ceremonious rejection. The other spot may just become another Geist for the matches where I want to go fast. The tron player said Geist causes problem, and when it showed up tonight it was amazing. I don’t like the disenchant, but blood moon does cause problems for this deck (priority, white/blue/green on fetches) and so does bridge so it feels like it’s a necessary evil. The deck itself does not feel like it needs “cute” answers to things, it just needs straight up answers to the decks that make it sad.
Final thoughts on the land base. I was running 1 Moorland Haunt. 1 Gavony, and 1 Canopy tonight for my “utility” lands. None of them really screamed at me they were going to take over the game...but Moorland haunt did at least show up. I never ran into issues with having the land I needed to cast my creatures (minus opening hands) so I’m currently pondering if there is any value/merit in considering making them ghost quarters just to combat my local meta’s tron infestation...but not sure if that would be enough.
Round 1 - Skred Prison (W 2-1)
Game 1 on the play, knew what he was (because i made the deck for him to play) but with a basic and fetch in hand went fetch shock to get my bird in play. He turn 1 Blood Mooned...and the rest didn’t go so well. Game 2 he had a ton of removal to my creatures, but eventually got over his head. Game 3 he slammed a bridge (i did bring in disenchants) which I quellered...and the following turn he stuck a second. Luckily he never found land 4, and the cards in his hand were unplayable. Lesson learned here, bridge could be a problem for this deck.
Round 2 - Affinity (W 2-0)
Game 1 on the draw, memory of the game is fuzzy...but I basically just kept a flyer back to deal with his plated creature and out damaged him, luckily found a path for his master. Game 2, i was trading my flying dudes for his, and finally company let me down by only finding me a supreme phantom. Of course, top decking 2 more and creating an army of 3 / 5 creatures felt pretty good. Again just keeping a single creature back to protect from lethal threats. He is one of the better affinity players and did create a situation for himself to win when I almost didn’t block due and his aether grid would have got the last 2 damage he needed. Alas, match felt pretty ok.
Round 3 - Jeskai Control (W 2-0)
Game 1 just played the threats game and got his health total low before the board wipe. Moorland haunt took over the game for a bit keeping threats on the table and allowing me to repopulate to where he had to snap board wipe. A lucky top deck company got me the “lord lock” duo and the lord I was holding back in my hand took me to the finish line. Game 2 I slammed my Geist on turn 2 and got some serious value out of it before it got ambush vipered, he wiped the board but I held back most of my threats and let geist do the work. Finished it up. Learned in this match up just how much jeskai control values helix at times, and how blanking it by a sacrifice or rattlechains really makes their math unhappy.
Round 4 - KCI (L 0-2)
Not even going to get into it. The deck stumbled on lands both games and there was nothing I could do. The match seems terrible as it is...was glad if my deck was finally going to stumble this is where it happened.
Round 5 - Jeskai Control (W 2-0)
Game 1 I blanked out his removal and just flew over his head. Game 2 was much more involved as Izzet Staticaster took over the game for a little bit. But 3 collected companies later I established a board state he couldn’t just blank out...and had my queller to protect against his settle the wreckage he intended to use to blow me out.
Round 6 - Draw Into Top 8
Top 8 - Abzan Traverse (W 2-0)
Game 1 showed the power of Supreme Phantom. His Grim Flayer did not match up well versus my Phantom. Quellered his fatal push, copied the lord...and flew into victory. Game 2, Rest in Peace showed up and lined up very well with what his hand was trying to do. He bought himself some time with lingering souls but ran him over.
Top 4 - G-Tron (L 0-2)
Kinda like my KCI match, i watched as the deck failed hard. I had to mull to 5 because the only lands i saw were off color to what I had going on in my hand or colorless (more on that later). My opponent is on a 20-0 streak with the deck (including a 1k win recently) and when he got turn 3 tron (karn game 1...ballista game 2) that is all she wrote.
My obsessive watching of videos this past weekend paid off...deck was fun and felt like I could handle the removal heavy matches that I would fold to as humans. My local shop is mostly Tron/Burn...though a few of the top players at the shop run KCI so i was concerned about that also. So my sideboard was geared toward being able to give myself a better chance against those decks but I either didn’t respect Tron enough or just didn’t bring the right tools to the battle.
So I got lots of time to ponder this before I play again. My first move will be to cut the Kataki for Stony Silence. I’m likely going to cut at least 2 of the damping sphere and both my unified will to bring a playset of ceremonious rejection. The other spot may just become another Geist for the matches where I want to go fast. The tron player said Geist causes problem, and when it showed up tonight it was amazing. I don’t like the disenchant, but blood moon does cause problems for this deck (priority, white/blue/green on fetches) and so does bridge so it feels like it’s a necessary evil. The deck itself does not feel like it needs “cute” answers to things, it just needs straight up answers to the decks that make it sad.
Final thoughts on the land base. I was running 1 Moorland Haunt. 1 Gavony, and 1 Canopy tonight for my “utility” lands. None of them really screamed at me they were going to take over the game...but Moorland haunt did at least show up. I never ran into issues with having the land I needed to cast my creatures (minus opening hands) so I’m currently pondering if there is any value/merit in considering making them ghost quarters just to combat my local meta’s tron infestation...but not sure if that would be enough.
2 Botanical Sanctum
1 Breeding Pool
1 Cavern of Souls
4 Flooded Strand
1 Forest
1 Gavony Township
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Island
3 Misty Rainforest
1 Moorland Haunt
1 Plains
1 Temple Garden
2 Windswept Heath
1 Birds of Paradise
4 Drogskol Captain
1 Geist of Saint Traft
4 Mausoleum Wanderer
3 Noble Hierarch
2 Phantasmal Image
4 Rattlechains
3 Selfless Spirit
4 Spell Queller
4 Supreme Phantom
Spells (8)
4 Collected Company
4 Path to Exile
1 Blessed Alliance
3 Damping Sphere
2 Disenchant
2 Kataki, War's Wage
2 Kor Firewalker
2 Rest in Peace
2 Unified Will
1 Worship