GP Columbus was quite the grind, and it was a ton of fun. Battling with faeries, I managed to take down a grinder, make day 2, and then ID the final round into the top 64. Read on for the first part of the full tournament report!
First up is the list:
First up is the list:
U/B Faeries | The Rusty Machete
10 Creatures:
3 Vendilion Clique
3 Sower of Temptation
4 Spellstutter Sprite
28 Spells:
3 Bitterblossom
3 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Thoughtseize
2 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Smother
1 Innocent Blood
3 Vendilion Clique
3 Sower of Temptation
4 Spellstutter Sprite
28 Spells:
3 Bitterblossom
3 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Thoughtseize
2 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Smother
1 Innocent Blood
22 Lands:
4 Mutavault
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
4 Island
1 Swamp
4 Wasteland
1 Underground Sea
4 Mutavault
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
4 Island
1 Swamp
4 Wasteland
1 Underground Sea
Besides the cards I talked about before the event, I've gone with black as my secondary color. Smother is a solid removal spell against Zoo and Merfolk (among other decks), Bitterblossom is a decent clock that doesn't require a mana commitment, especially against control decks, as well as a great combination with Umezawa's Jitte, and Innocent Blood rounds out the maindeck as a fifth kill spell as well as an additional out to Emrakul and the only out to Progenitus. Other blue cards that make the maindeck include a couple of Daze, mainly because they're quite strong on the play and give the deck an additional way to interact with the opponent in the early turns of the game.
The sideboard is where the black cards really shine. I've already talked about how awesome Engineered Plague is. Leyline of the Void is by far the best card against graveyard-based decks (except for possibly Survival, where it's still solid by all means). The final three Innocent Bloods can replace Bitterblossoms against aggressive decks, and Dark Confidant shines as a source of card advantage and a clock that, between Brainstorm and Jace, deals surprisingly little damage. I was really happy with the list, and ready to battle. Having only one bye, after arriving at the event I decided to enter a grinder on Friday evening.
Round One- Aluren
My opponent mulligans on the play and leads with a fetchland, while I have one to match. He then plays a second fetchland and cracks them both for a Wall of Roots, which I untap and Smother it, feeling that he may be light on mana and wanting to deny any chance he may have of comboing on his next turn. He misses his third land drop, while my third turn consists of Wasteland plus Bitterblossom. I eventually Thoughtseize him a few turns later and see a hand containing all four Alurens. Nice deck.
Sideboarding: I bring in Confidant to help me dig for answers and fight through therapy, while Smother comes out since he doesn't have small creatures that are worth killing. I bring in a couple of Plagues since they shut down his combo, and since I know that most Aluren decks board into the Natural Order plan I also up the count of Innocent Bloods to four. Other cards that leave the maindeck include Jitte and Sower because they are too slow.
For game two my opponent leads on a forest and then misses his second land drop for a turn while I have turn two Confidant. He hits a second land on three and spends some time messing around with Coiling Oracles and Dream Stalkers, which net him some cards but don't really do anything aside from clog up the ground. I develop my board with Vendilion Clique into Jace, and eventually a Bitterblossom speeds up my clock while buffing the multiple Spellstutter Sprites that are sitting in my hand.
1-0
Round Two- Zoo
My opening hand isn't the strongest, but it has a Thoughtseize and a Brainstorm as well as some late game cards (Jace, Sower), so I keep blind on the draw. He leads with turn one Taiga into Wild Nacatl off a mulligan to six, and I can feel this game slipping away fast. I draw a blank and Thoughtseize him, hoping to contain the number of creatures he can play and then Brainstorm into an answer for the Nacatl. I see a hand of Bolt, Chain Lightning, Goyf, and Grim Lavamancer. It's tempting to take the Goyf here, but he might miss the land drop, and this deck really can't beat a Lavamancer, so I take the one-drop and hope. He hits a Plateau and attacks for three, thinks, and then passes. There is the power of Daze at work!(Sometimes, they have the fear. - K)
I draw a Force of Will, play a fetchland, and pass. He draws another land and attacks before running out the Goyf, which I Force. Meanwhile, I am able to Brainstorm into a Smother for the Nacatl, and he is left with no pressure. After trading a few more cards one-for-one, I am able to stick a Jace to bounce his Knight of the Reliquary, which he replays along with a Grim Lavamancer. I Sower the Lavamancer and chump the Knight with it, then bounce my own Sower with Jace to retake the Knight while a Vendilion Clique trades with a Wild Nacatl that he drew. While Jace is dead having been on bounce duty three times, I'm left with a Force and a blue card in hand with a Force on top of my library for anything he can possibly draw, and he is dead withing two turns.
Sideboarding: Innocent Blood comes in for Blossom.
Game two he mulligans again (at least I think so, because he kept a hand that had no plays until turn 3). The Knight he is considering playing he again refuses to play into the Daze I don't have, while I have time to set up a hand with multiple Sprites and removal. By the time he finally goes for the Knight, I have a Sprite in play with four mana up and I'm able to play two more Sprites in response to counter it. I untap and suit one of them up with Jitte, and my turn after that involves an Innocent Blood and a Jace, which is more than enough to deal with the rest of his hand of Elspeth and Chain Lightnings.
2-0
Round Three- Merfolk
Game one he is able to resolve an early Aether Vial, which I'm not terribly concerned about. Vial is not as deadly against this deck as it is against Counterbalance decks because you can focus on finding hand disruption like Clique and Seize rather than countermagic, and even then your Forces are still fine for protecting your spells from their Forces. I land a Bitterblossom and Sprite a hardcast Adept while his Vial gives him access to Reejerey, Kira, and Lord of Atlantis. I have a Smother that's pretty much dead and a Vendilion Clique at the ready, and for some reason he attacks his guys into my token and sprite. I double-block the Kira and trade the Clique for the Lord, leaving Smother to kill the Reejerey on my next turn while he draws more Aether Vials and concedes.
Sideboarding: Spellstutter Sprite out, Engineered Plague in. Innocent Blood in, Bitterblossom out. Possibly also Bob in and Force out, depending on their list. Spellstutter is one of the worst cards against merfolk, and Blossom is pretty marginal in that we really don't need it to win as either Jitte, Sower, or Jace are usually more than enough to win on their own. Bob can help find Plague, but Force is good at making sure it resolves, so that switch is considerable as well.
I mull to six to start game two, and he leads with Island on one and then Mutavault on two with no plays, making me suspect that he needs UU or three mana for any of his spells. I use Wasteland on his Vault accordingly. However, he draws an Island for Lord of Atlantis, which I attempt to Force since that card is very hard to beat and my hand is light on hard removal (though it does feature a Plague). He Dazes my Force, which I pay for using my untapped land. Guess he didn't see that one since he proceeds to Force my Force by pitching a Coralhelm Commander.
I'm pretty far behind at this point, but I manage to stick the Plague on three, which should help. Meanwhile, he's stuck on two lands but powers out two more Lords of Atlantis, beating my for six on his fifth turn. My decision to play out the plague instead of an Innocent Blood pays off as I draw a Smother and am able to use my four lands to Blood and then Smother away two of the Lords. He again misses on land on plays a Coralhelm Commander, attacking for one with his final LOA. With his three cards in hand to my none, I'm still behind, but I get super lucky and topdeck another plague to assemble the hardlock.
3-0
Round Four- Zoo
She mulligans to six for game one, while I get to keep a seven with Wastelands but no kill spells, which may be a little greedy knowing the matchup but game one is rough on the draw anyways. She has a one-drop (Nacatl if I remember correctly), but Wastelands do their job and she gets stuck for multiple turns being unable to cast any spells. Eventually I find an answer to the cat and get some guys down to deal enough damage to take the game.
Sideboarding: Same as before.
For game two she mulligans to five while I keep a strong seven that includes an Innocent Blood that I'm able to cast on one to kill her first creature. Again, Wasteland sets her back to one mana, and she attempts to burn he out with Bolts while I set up a Vendilion Clique backed up by faerie friends to beat her down.
4-0
Round Five (Finals)- Dredge
Dredge was a matchup I'd helped a friend test but had not battled with against my deck, so I knew how his deck worked but I didn't feel comfortable trying to beat it with my 75. I knew Leyline would be super important postboard, and that game one would be very difficult. Luckily, I win the die roll, and I open a seven containing two Sprites, Clique, Sower, Jitte, and two lands that make colored mana. Do I keep?
I did, and talking to people after the game most people agreed with my choice. The hand isn't super strong, and it doesn't have a Force, but game one is rough anyways, and I thought that this hand had at least some chance of winning the game because it had some (albeit anemic) beats and some counter power starting on turn two. He leads with land into Careful Study after keeping his seven, but he doesn't have a dredger to discard. Maybe I'll have a chance after all!
I untap and pass, while he attempts another careful study, which is met with Sprite. After thinking, he uses the second land that he playing to Breakthrough for zero, dumping his whole hand, which now includes a dredger, into the yard. I knew it was time to race, and Sprite got in while Clique came down during his next end step. I knew the only card that was in his hand, and didn't want him to draw (read: dredge) anything else, so I targeted myself, but my hand of Sower, Sprite, and Jitte was so good I decided not to take anything. I Sowered a Narcomoeba that he had hit and I bashed for four. On my next turn I send in the team and have two sprites up to stop any Dread Return nonsense while he's dead in one to my army of flyers.
Sideboarding: Leyline comes in, as does one Engineered Plague, while Smother and Blood come out. The removal is awful against dredge, while Plague can at least shut down Ichorid or Narc. Jace isn't great either, but blue cards pitch to force and are therefore better than equally blank black cards.
This time, my opener is equally intriguing. I have a Leyline and a Brainstorm with a couple Sprites and a Sower as well, but there's only one land, and it's a Wasteland. I keep based purely on the raw power of Leyline and the fact that it might just win all by itself if he boarded in Needle instead of Chain. He keeps as well and has Chain for my Leyline on his turn one, signalling trouble to come. I miss on a blue land and Waste his land in an effort to slow down his engine. He eventually finds a discard outlet while I mise the Island after missing for a turn to Brainstorm into more land. He makes a huge mistake by not discarding an Ichorid on my end step, meaning that he misses the upkeep trigger and can't bring it back that turn. I am able to flash in a Sprite to block and remove one of his bridges, while he is only dredging once a turn and is hitting a bunch of blanks. I land an Engineered Plague on horrors to stop his lone Ichorid, but he dredges into another bridge. Here I misplay and Sower his Narc instead of hardcasting Leyline, because I think that he'll be able to assemble three creatures to Dread Return Iona when in fact the Ichorid he can bring back won't generate a token when it dies to Plague because the Leyline would exile it. He dredges into a Cabal Therapy to punish my mistake and strip my Leyline, but he still is unable to assemble the requisite number of creatures to get back Iona because I Sowered his Narc. I draw a Brainstorm and hit a Leyline and a fifth land to get the enchantment into play anyways, and his only play is to hardcast the Therapy he draws to strip my Sower and hope to get there with token beats. I've stacked another Sower on top of my deck, though, and I also am able to Waste his only land that same turn, prompting the concession.
5-0
Overall, I was really happy with how the deck performed. I felt like I played pretty well, despite a couple of punts, but more than anything else my opponents played very sub-par and I got a couple of lucky hits. Not losing a game was really encouraging though, and knowing I'd have three byes was also a huge relief. I decided to battle the same 75 for the main event.
Round Four- Tendrils
I keep a strong hand and Brainstorm in response to his Duress. I have to show him a Force since I'm only able to bury the other two on top of my deck and not the third. I have blossom on two, but I know that I'm going to run out of lands. My disruption will consist of a sprite, two Forces, and a blue card, so hopefully I can draw something to back that up. He spends his first few turns playing land and manipulation while I draw two Smothers and an Innocent Blood, denying access to my second force since I don't have a card to pitch. I have to sprite a chant, and then he has many rituals into a tendrils for lethal. In retrospect, I could have forced an early ritual to cut his black mana, but I'm pretty sure he could have gone off next turn again and I couldn't have drawn anything to stop him.
Sideboarding: Removal comes out, as does Jitte, while Confidant and Leyline come in. Having life loss can be dangerous, but I just want early creatures to apply some pressure. Leyline isn't exciting, but it can stop Ill-Gotten Gains and Cabal Ritual at the very least.
Game two isn't exciting as I have to mulligan several not-even-close hands into a four carder that can't even cast the Dark Confidant it has on two, and I die having not cast a spell.
Round Five- Leyline/Helm Control
I'm playing against Jeremy Pinter, a friend from the Lansing area, so we know what each other is playing. I feel like the matchup should be okay for me, though I definitely have some blanks in my deck during game one. I have Brainstorm on one to dig for a way to protect my Blossom on two from Spell Snare, but I only hit a Thoughtseize. He is able to Brainstorm in response and reveal a hand with all lands and a Brainstorm, which I take. He stacks a Counterspell on top of his library to hit my Blossom, and I can't believe I didn't run it out on two and then have Thoughtseize plus sprite active on three. I am able to resolve a Jace and start fatesealing him while he tries to keep it in check with a thopter token and a Mishra's Factory, which I deal with (get there, Smother). He eventually is able to Force through a Helm to go along with the Leyline he had in play since the start of the game since my Sprite can't counter anything.
Sideboarding: Confidant in, Leyline in, Blood out, Jitte out, Smother out. Sower is marginal, but again it's a blue card for force whereas Smother is not. I think I ended up splitting 3/1 on Leylines to Smothers since Leyline only shuts down one of his combos and Smother is okay against Factory sometimes.
I have a decent hand that Wastelands him a couple of times, but he has back-to-back Engineered Plagues that I can't answer, so I move to the mana denial plus Jace plan since my Sprite and Clique are dead in my hand. I fateseal multiple lands to the bottom of his deck since he was stuck on three and I Wasted him again, but he draws up to four anyways and resolves Leyline. The next turn, with Jace at nine or eleven, he has Helm with Force for my Force and I'm dead again. It didn't occur to me to Clique him in response to the Helm to check for Force because I could still cycle a card out of his hand even though the creature would die instantly when it hit the battlefield. I thought he would have forced my Jace had he had a force earlier. Turns out it was the one non-land card he drew during the period I was fatesealing him. Still, that was a mistake on my part, because there was really no downside to playing the Clique there since I can't remove the Plagues.
After 0-2ing off three byes, I was feeling like day 2 was probably out of grasp. I knew I wasn't playing well, and luck didn't seem to be with my either. I'll continue my report, including my change of fortunes, later on this week.
After 0-2ing off three byes, I was feeling like day 2 was probably out of grasp. I knew I wasn't playing well, and luck didn't seem to be with my either. I'll continue my report, including my change of fortunes, later on this week.
The winner of the Fantasy Draft for the GP was Michael Servis, who picked Island (9), Force of Will (24), Brainstorm (20), Wasteland (16), and Aether Vial (4) for total score of 73; the three highest scoring cards that were picked were Force of Will, Brainstorm, and Wasteland, and he was the only person to have picked all three.
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