Monday, February 7, 2011

SCG Open Report Part 1: Standard (19th)

Recently, the Star City Open series has skyrocketed in popularity due to an impressive prize structure and the appeal of back to back tournaments in 2 different formats, and therefore double the chance to get some cash money.  With Indianapolis being withing reasonable driving range, plenty of the guys from Ann Arbor decided to head down and teach some lessons about Standard and Legacy.  I was able to borrow Show and Tell/Sneak Attack from Amir to play in the Legacy event (more on that in a later article), and had a Valakut list that was performing at or above 50% against every major deck that existed pre-besieged, and it even got some awesome new additions.

Then I discovered the existence of this monstosity:




















Yep, that's right.  I played Flayer Husk in the 2nd largest constructed event of my life.  The deck has 8 creatures with 0 power, over 20 cards that can be considered close to unplayable in their appropriate limited formats, and 17 basic mountain to top it off.

So what would possibly cause me to believe this deck is good?  The secret is Contested War Zone.  For those of you who didn't realize the power of the card when it was first revealed, allow me to simply inform you that it is more awesome that you can possibly imagine.  You have a land that taps for colorless in a mono-colored deck with a bunch of artifacts, but it doubles as a Glorious Anthem whenever you want.  Add in the 8  dudes with battle cry along with Goblin Bushwackers, and your creatures aren't looking so anemic anymore.

When going through lists that existed online, and testing the deck in the hotel room Friday night, I can to a few conclusions.  First is that Lightning Bolt is just terrible in the deck.  Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking, but its true.  Obviously this deck doesn't perform well in topdeck mode, and you can't afford to have any spells that don't immediately make creatures.  In addition, bolting them will only deal 3 damage, but even a lowly flayer husk germ token will probably be able to deal more than that once you get going.  Flayer Husk was necessary both as another 1 drop creature and an artifact, which is something the deck is short on.  Wardriver was always underwhelming, but at 1 AM I couldn't come up with any better alternatives so I ran 4 (the correct number is probably 2 or 3).

Somewhere around 550 people showed up for standard, so an exciting 10 rounds were ahead of me.  Good thing my deck didn't require much thought.

Round 1: Vs. Kuldotha Red
Game 1, my opponent mulligans to 4 before leading off with a 0 drop artifact and a rebirth.  My 2 rebirths and warzone kill him fairly quickly when he doesn't do anything else.

I board in Forked Bolts, Sparkmages, and the Arc trail for Devastating Summons and Wardriver.  When on the draw post-board, I simply wanted to be the control since I figured I was better prepared for the mirror than he was.  Summons+Bushwacker is bad since they will have blockers, although summons is pretty good if you can get it for 4.

Game 2, I get Sparkmage active on turn 3, and 2 forked bolts along with some blockes deal with his rebirth and summons tokens.  His warzone trades hands for ~3 turns of token attacks from both sides, but he can't beat the sparkmage and runs out of gas.

1-0

Round 2: Vs. Mono-Black Control
Game 1, he doesn't have a sweeper and dies on 4 after playing some black removal spell and a Phyrexian Rager.

I bring in the Tuktuk and Jinxed Idols for Flayer Husks and 2 Wardrivers

Game 2, he has turn 3 black zenith, and although my follow up plays are enough to get him to 4 he plays 2 Phyrexian Crusaders and I can't break through for the last few points

Game 3, he mulligans to 6 and I have turn 3 Tuktuk.  However, it ends up not mattering since he doesn't have a sweeper and is dead on 4.

2-0

Round 3: Vs. GW Vengevine
Game 1, my opponent opens on birds into cobra into a ton of Squadron Hawks.  I flood slightly, but still get him to 9 before he attacks with a Hero of Bladehold and some Vengevines to kill me.

I board in all the creature removal for 4 Wardriver, 2 Husk, and 1 Mox Opal.

Game 2, his turn 2 squadron hawks ups his hand size to 9, allowing him to discard 2 vengevine.  I can't kill him that turn, so he gets back both vines the next turn.  Still with all those guys in play, I make an all out attack  to put him to 1 with a burn spell in hand, but he has Obstinate Baloth and I fall 1 point short of killing him against before Garruk overruns to kill me.

2-1

Round 4: Vs. Valakut
Game 1, I win the roll and kill him on 3

I board in just the Tuktuk for a Flayer Husk

Game 2, I have a starting hand where I can kill him on 3 through anything except him playing Pyroclasm on 2. Obviously the odds of him having it are decent, but I can't actually slow roll creatures in the matchup since I need to kill him before he gets a Titan.  I go for it, and get swept.  Obstinate Baloth into Titan makes it not very close

Game 3, I play 6 cards on turn 1, then Tuktuk on turn 2 attacking him to 8.  He is forced to play Pyroclasm to  not die, but the 5/5 gets him.

3-1

Round 5: Vs. Pyromancer's Ascension
Game 1, he has some spot removal spells to deal with my Goblin Guide and Signal Pest, but still dies on 5.

I board in Tuktuk and Jinxed Idols and Wardrivers

Game 2, he plays a bunch of removal spells, but eventually runs out.  I go for summons bushwacker with a warzone and active mox opal, and he mana leaks the summons, so I just pay for it and kill him the next turn.

4-1

Round 6: The mirror (but with fetchlands)
Game 1, we get into a race since my opponent thinks he's ahead, but I have warzone+bushwacker on 4 to kill him from 16 out of nowhere.

Unsure how I boarded this round, but it was probably similar to round 1

Game 2, I have double rebirth after he mulls to 6.  I get to steal his warzone, and he makes a bad attack allowing me to keep his land then dies the next turn.

5-1

Round 7: Vs. UB Control
Game 1, I win the roll and kill him on 3

I board in Koth, Idols, and Tuktuk for Flayer Husks, an Opal, and 2 Wardrivers

Game 2 I simply flood massively and despite him taking 15 damage on turn 3, I can't get through for the last 3 points after a Zenith

Game 3 I have turn 3 Koth and he has no answer

6-1

Round 8: Vs. Drew Levin with Valakut
Game 1, I have a hand setup to kill him on 3 with rebirths, warzone, and a signal pest.  He had better plans, by playing turn 2 cobra, turn 3 Fetchland+Harrow+Titan+Khalni Heart Expedition, block to not die, kill you.

I board Tuktuk and Jinxed Idols for 2 Wardriver, 2 Flayer Husk

Game 2, he doesn't have pyroclasm and scoops on 3 even after blocking with an Overgrown Battlement.  A small argument begins between Drew, myself, and the spectators involving exactly how much damage he was taking after blocking (according to my notes he would have gone to 2), but he just says it doesn't matter he's going to die regardless and scoops

Game 3, he indeed has the pyroclasm.  I attacked him down to 12 before getting swept but Tuktuk comes down a turn too late to net me a 5/5.  Still, further beats assisted by Warzone and Chimeric Mass put him in a scenario where I can kill him if I draw any other creature before he plays Titan.  However, 100% of my draw steps over the course of the entire game are lands, and I get eliminated from top 8 contention is a pretty depressing manner.

6-2

Round 9: Vs. Caw-Go
Game 1, I have a rebirth on 1, but he has spreading seas for my mountain preventing me from playing the double red spells in my hand.  He taps out for Jace on 4 which would've let me kill him if I can play Bushwacker, but I whiff that turn.  Gideon comes down the next turn with him at 2.  I hit land to kill Gideon with my Bushwacker and team, then he plays another Gideon.  As he's been brainstorming with Jace, I figure he likely has a wrath, and don't use my 2nd bushwacker to kill the other Gideon, simply allowing it to fog twice.  He triumphantly rips the wrath with Jace and Elspeth in play, then gains 2 life with Elspeth to be outside of bolt range, thinking he's safe.  Summons+two 0 drop artifacts+bushwacker teach him a lesson about safety.

I board in Jinxed Idols and Koth since I haven't seen Hawks yet and Tuktuk is bad vs. Jace and white removal

Game 2 he simply never draws a wrath despite playing 2 Gideons and some walls

7-2

Round 10: Vs. BR Vamps
Game 1 he opens on 2x Vampire Lacerator and a Dark Tutelage.  While his 2/2's are bigger than my 1/1's, my Chimeric Mass for 4 makes it impossible for him to attack and he takes at least 14 damage from his own cards before I just kill him.

I board in Tuktuk and all the removal spells for all 8 battle cry creatures, a Mox Opal, and a card I can't remember.  Since he has infinite removal I don't want creatures that only do something in multiples.

Game 2, he plays a Pyroclasm that catches me off guard.  Since that card kills every creature in his deck, and he played a creature on turns 1 and 2, I figured he had something like marsh casualties in his deck at best.  Still, I was leaving back a few guys to play around casualties and have removal for the guys he plays after he kills 2 of his own guys.  Once he plays the 2nd kalastria highborn, however, he's gained too much life for me to kill him before slowly getting drained out by a highborn and a bloodghast.

Game 3, I have turn 1 rebirth, and he immediately trades pulse tracker for a token.  We both play a lot of removal, but he is trading 1 for 1 with rebirth tokens and eventually runs out of gas.  He tries to Go for the Throat of my Tuktuk after bolting it, but I inform him of its artifact status and he dies 2 turns later.

8-2

I ended up 19th on breakers, good for a solid $50 cash (made even better by the fact that I was just handed a $50 bill after the proper paperwork was taken care of).  Still, despite an awesome performance, I felt there were many ways in which the day could've gone better.  My loss to Drew was reasonably unlucky, although he is an extremely competent player who had an awesome weekend overall.  More importantly, my sideboard for the event was pretty random and terrible.  I essentially threw together cards that I could obtain before the event started, and the list can be improved significantly.

Here's what I'd recommend for upcoming events.


















Dustin suggested Skitter of Lizards as a reasonable 1 drop creature, and its something I think might be reasonable.  Tuktuk was awesome all day and definitely should be a 3x in the board.  Jinxed Idol was less impressive, but does what you want against slow control decks.  You can really only board in 7 cards for the aggro matchups (you have to board out 7 cards), and 4 Forked Bolt+3 Sparkmage are good there.  Mark of Mutiny exists as a way to force through the last damage against decks with big creatures.  Titans, Baneslayer Angel, Wurmcoil Engine, Hero of Bladehold, or even an Obstinate Baloth are all awesome targets for the card.  The only issue is that you pretty much have to kill them the turn you play it or you just made their guy even better.  Trusty Machete is just there as your trusty companion, making your draws better all day.
I mean, it worked for me, so it must be good, right?

Thanks to Ari, Dustin, Jacob, and Todd for lending me cards for the deck.  Also props to Ari for going 0-2 drop with my exact same maindeck.  While this may seem like a bad day for Ari, he got to eat at Fogo de Chao for essentially half price, and therefore he had a better day overall than I did.

My Legacy report be coming shortly, complete will a full analysis of my thoughts on Legacy as a format and several suggestions for decks.  Until then, best of luck attacking your opponent with 0/1's.
Posted by Matt McCullough at 6:42 PM
Labels:

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)