The decklists for Top 8 are available from PES
This was mine:
Valakut | The Rusty Machete
16 Creatures:
4 Primeval Titan
4 Overgrown Battlement
3 Avenger of Zendikar
3 Oracle of Mul Daya
2 Terastodon
16 Spells:
4 Explore
4 Harrow
4 Cultivate
4 Summoning Trap
4 Primeval Titan
4 Overgrown Battlement
3 Avenger of Zendikar
3 Oracle of Mul Daya
2 Terastodon
16 Spells:
4 Explore
4 Harrow
4 Cultivate
4 Summoning Trap
28 Lands:
11 Mountain
6 Forest
4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
3 Terramorphic Expanse
3 Evolving Wilds
1 Raging Ravine
11 Mountain
6 Forest
4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
3 Terramorphic Expanse
3 Evolving Wilds
1 Raging Ravine
I had spent the weeks leading up to the event brewing up a variety of decks, and came up with several that were very close to versions that saw tournament success such as monogreen elves and U/R control. Ultimately none of the decks I came up with had success against monored in testing, and were put on hold successively. I settled on playing Valakut as I had played the deck on Magic Online for a few months and it wasn't that different post-rotation. Additionally I believed we had the optimal list of the best deck in the format, and there was no excuse not to play it.
The Trusty Machete in the sideboard was included to represent this blog. And is a major part of what made this list better than the rest. Other details like not playing Wurmcoil Engine due to its ineffectiveness in the mirror and running 0 Khalni Heart Expedition and 0 Lightning Bolt because both cards are useless in "comboing" into turn 4 Titan. Expedition only interacts well with Harrow, which was a card that was strong enough on its own. Maindeck Terastodon was another feature of our list that set it apart, and was amazing all day.
Before the tournament started, I saw that local ringer Curtis Tate was going to be piloting Monogreen Eldrazi Ramp. I told him his deck was bad and mine was a better ramp deck. He disagreed, so I threw down the challenge. If he 0-3'd the tournament, he would have to play a tribal deck of my choice at the next major Constructed event. He accepted on the spot and we were underway.
Round 1: Some guy with Monogreen Elves
Game 1: I keep Battlement, Explore, Explore, Titan, 3 lands on the play. After both Explores and the draw steps, I'm stuck on 5 mana on turn 4 and can't do anything. He casts Ezuri and kills me.
SB: +4 Arc Trail +4 Pyroclasm -2 Terastodon -1 Avenger -4 Summoning Trap -1 Oracle of Mul Daya
Game 2: I am on the play. My opponent has the option to turn 3 Monument or Garruk. He chooses to Monument to protect from a possible Pyroclasm, which would kill his board. But due to this line of play he doesn't have the overrun + Monument line which would kill me next turn. Due to this turn of being alive my Titan easily kills him.
SB: nothing
Game 3: I cast a Pyroclasm for Archdruid and Arbor Elf. Then Explore into Arc Trail for Archdruid #2 and Joraga Treespeaker. Titan kills his Garruk and Fauna Shaman, then him.
At this point Curtis Tate is 0-1. 2 more levels to go.
Kurtis Droge is 0-1 as well, having lost to turn 4 Argentum Armor. He was playing U/B reanimator, which had 1-9'd Monored and 1-5'd Monowhite Artifact Aggro the night before. Playskill does have its limits.
Round 2: Colemann with Eldrazi Ramp
Game 1: He mulligans to 6, and plays Chalice for 1, Chalice for 2 on consecutive turns. I kept a hand that could turn 5 Titan and lived in fear of his Titan on 4. Fortunately for me he actually casts Growth Spasm into another Chalice, and my Titan beats his next play of land, go.
Sideboard: +4 Acidic Slime -1 Avenger -2 Oracle -1 Harrow
Game 2: He apparently kept 3 lands, Terastodon, Wurmcoil, Ulamog, Pelakka Wurm on the play. At the start of his turn 6 he had some Elephants and 2 lands.
Curtis is 0-2. One more to go.
Round 3: S. Boggemes with Valakut
Stephen is Kyle Boggemes' cousin, and I know he's pretty good.
Game 1: I lose the die roll and mull to 6, keeping Cultivate, Cultivate, Terastodon, 3 land. He had Titan on 5 and I die.
SB: +4 Acidic Slime -1 Avenger -2 Oracle -Summoning Trap
Game 2: I play Battlement into Cultivate. He plays Oracle and reveals Khalni Heart Expedition, then a Mountain. He has only 1 Forest in play, 3 Mountains, and a Valakut. I can either Summoning Trap on my turn or Slime his Forest. If the trap hits Avenger, then I want to mainphase the trap so I can land fall. However if he hits another Forest off Oracle or just has been slowrolling one in his hand, then I want to EOT the Trap to protect my Titan from the possible Primeval Titan from him, which would kill mine before mine could attack. If I miss on the Trap I am very far behind. I played the Slime to try to keep him off green mana, but his Oracle reveals a Forest, Valakut, and his second Oracle plays the 2nd Valakut from the top of his deck. My Trap gets an avenger, but it is not enough to beat Inferno Titan plus lots of Valakut triggers. I asked a few good Valakut players about this, and the consensus was the Slime play was correct, so I didn't feel too bad.
Curtis Tate is in game 3, at 10 life. Opponent has Bolt, Bolt, metalcrafted Galvanic Blast. Opponent concedes the game. So close. He still agrees to play Tribal Creature of the Sea at a tournament. So all was not lost.
At this point Matt McCullough is 1-2 playing the same 73, having lost to Poison this round. I am -1 Terramorphic +1 Evolving Wilds from his list. He should've obviously played my list. :)
Round 4: D. Brierly with U/W Control
Game 1: As most U/W matches go, they don't do very much game one and only have 4 Mana Leaks and 2-3 Cancels for Permission. I played around the Leak and resolved a Titan, which killed him in one.
SB: +4 Slime -4 Harrow
Game 2: He begins the game with Leyline of Sanctity. He plays mulitiple Ousts, keeping me stuck on land since my Oracle of Mul Daya has missed every turn. The second Oracle I play prompts a Day. I Slime his Leyline and a second Slime takes out Celestial Colonnade. After this he manages to Jace into 4 counterspells in a row, but my Acidic Slimes eventually kill the Jace. The Slimes begin the beatdown on him and a Summoning Trap later he dies to Titan.
At this point the car that I went to States with leaves as everyone else is out of contention. I arrange to leave with Curtis and friends, as Andrew Crouch is still x-1 playing Monoblue Artifacts.
Round 5: J. Newton with U/W Control
Game 1: He is paralyzed by the need to keep up his Mana Leaks to not die. As a result the game progresses to a state of me having active Oracle and him sitting behind 2 Wall of Omens. He casts a Wurmcoil with 2 mana up. I cast Titan with 5 mana up and he dies.
SB: +4 Slime -4 Harrow
Game 2: He plays a Leonin Arbiter, which does nothing. And a Frost Titan, which kills me as he also has Flashfreezes for my Titans.
Game 3: He again believes Arbiter is important. I trap into a Titan after he counters a threat, and I can't search. However he can't kill the Titan so on my turn I pay 2, crack my Expanse, and attack to get Valakut triggers to kill his Arbiter and 3 him. My Titan meets Condemn, but now I have 2 Valakuts in play. I play some Mountains from Oracle and dome him in 3 point increments after he uses Tectonic Edge on one Valakut. I made the awkward play of running a Titan into a Mana Leak after Terastodon was Deprived, on the read that he just didn't have a Leak. He did and I wasted a threat for no reason. I had another Titan revealed to my Oracle, which he couldn't answer the next turn.
Round 6: J. Kedrow with U/W Control.
Game 1: He played Gideon. I played Avenger. He cast Day, and 6'd me. I cast Avenger #2. He cast Day #2 and attacked again. I cast Terastodon. He died.
SB: +4 Slime -4 Harrow
Game 2: I resolved a Terastodon after he countered a lot of spells. The Don made him an offer he couldn't refuse. 3 Elephants for 3 white producing lands. He attacked me with 2, and I blocked. I used Valakut on his untapped guy, and 9'd him back. He died 2 turns later after he ran out of elephants and I still had mine.
Round 7: F. Searber with Valakut
I had been seated next to Frank almost the whole day so we both knew it was the mirror.
Game 1: My notes are as follows:
Don.
1-0
Sideboard: -1 Oracle -2 Trap -1 Avenger +4 Slime
Game 2: He mulls to 5 on the play and manages Explore into Cultivate into Slime into Wurmcoil. My keep was 3 Expanse, Battlement, Battlement, Summoning Trap, Oracle of Mul Daya. I hit no untapped lands and got Slimed once so I had to settle for Trapping into Terastodoning his 2 Forests and one of mine after he landed Wurmcoil. My token traded with his and my 9/9 ate another token while I took 8 to go to 10. He eventually gets to the 6th mountain for Valakut, and puts me to 5 since I had taken another Slime hit. My Oracle of Mul Daya works pretty hard this game, constantly shuffling with Expanses until it finally finds an Avenger, which kills him from 33 in one turn, before he could find green mana for the Harrow in his hand to kill me.
Round 8: C. Walton with U/W control.
Game 1: I keep 6 lands Summoning Trap on the play since I know he is U/W. My Trap manages to find an Overgrown Battlement after a real threat is countered. He taps out for Elspeth Tirel, and +2's. The Don makes him an offer which he also couldn't refuse, and Elspeth turns into an Elephant along with two white sources. They team up to take down my 9/9, but as Chris is stuck on 3 Islands the rest of the game I wait till I can play two threats in one turn and win.
SB: +4 Slime -4 Harrow
Game 2: This game goes super long and I make the critical mistake of playing my last threat, an Acidic Slime, into open mana and getting it countered. He rips a Sun Titan to get back a Colonnade, which is lethal in 2 since I am at 6 from Baneslayer beats early. I have the land to be able to Valakut his Sun Titan, but the Colonnade ends me.
Game 3: This game comes down to him having Baneslayer with Jace, and me casting Avenger for 9 tokens with 2 Oracles in play. I don't get enough lands off the Oracles so I only have double landfall. I kill his Jace by attacking with 4 2/3's and send the other 5 at him. He goes to 16 after blocks. He casts another Slayer and sit with both on defense. I get a bunch of lands into play next turn with my double Oracle hitting, and a Cultivate and my tokens grow massively. He dies to the alpha. Killing the Jace stopped him from digging to a Rachet Bomb or Day of Judgment, both would result in me very likely losing. I was 4 damage short of killing him the turn previous.
Round 8: ID
At this point I know what everyone else in the Top 8 is playing. They all are good matchups with the exception of Stephen, who was my one loss in the Swiss.
I exit in a disappointing fashion as games 2 and 3 of the Quarterfinals I mulligan to 6 and 5 against U/R control, keep reasonable hands without green mana, and fail to draw any before being Fatesealed and Frosty'd out. Congrats to my opponent for winning States!
I felt very good after making my first Top 8 of any large tournament, and felt like I had played well throughout the day. I could pinpoint 1 obvious error, which means I probably made 3. Which I can accept. I mulliganed pretty consistently throughout, which was an area of my game that I knew needed work. With the PTQ the next day, I was excited to battle on my Top 8 playmat.
I went to dinner with Curtis Tate and Co. We had a great time telling stories and writing up a list for Tribal Seafood. Such hits as Kraken Hatchling with Eel Umbra are sure to shake up your local Standard tournament scene in the near future.
Props:
Matt McCullough for working on the list that got me there.
Brennan Hasse for the cards.
Kurtis Droge for driving.
The Don, for making offers they can't refuse.
Trusty Machete, for being dependable.
Slops:
Curtis Tate's round 3 opponent, for not beating him.
Green sources, for being oh so elusive during the Top 8.
Lessons Taught.
1 comment:
I knew the Don would be a hit as soon as I saw him. But he was only in jank range for a short period of time :(.
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