To begin, I did not succeed in my book, because I did not win a playmat. I did however successfully take 3rd on Game Day number 2. I’m going to talk about the decks that I found interesting that made the Top 8 both days and of course who won and possibly why. To be honest you will be surprised what made the Top 8 and yet what I predicted was somewhat correct. The two decks that won this weekend were two very good and known decks, which had very good pilots – Alex Hunt and Joey Kurtz were this weekend’s victors.
To start off let’s see what Alexander Hunt played. Look familiar?
Delver Spirits
| Creatures (18) 4 Delver of Secrets 3 Phantasmal Image 4 Snapcaster Mage 4 Drogskol Captain 3 Dungeon Geists Spells (20) 4 Ponder 4 Gitaxian Probe 3 Vapor Snag 3 Mana Leak 1 Gut Shot 1 Divine Offering 4 Lingering Souls Lands (22) 4 Seachrome Coast 4 Darkslick Shores 3 Glacial Fortress 2 Moorland Haunt 2 Evolving Wilds 5 Islands 1 Plains 1 Swamp | Sideboard (15) 2 Negate 2 Celestial Purge 2 Flashfreeze 2 Divine Offering 3 Revoke Existance 1 Dungeon Geists 1 Dismember 1 Marrow Shards 1 Surgical Extraction |
Does this look familiar? Yep, you guessed it – Jon Finkel’s list from Pro Tour Honolulu that he took 3rd place with. The changes that Alex made to his deck were mostly made in the sideboard. He changed 2 cards in the mainboard. Alex ended up cutting the 1 Revoke Existence and 1 of the Vapor Snags for 1 more Dungeon Geists and 1 more Mana Leak. It made sense because people at Amazing Discoveries were playing decks like Wolf Run and Heartless Summoning. The extra counterspell and the extra “removal spell” become relevant in these match-ups. Yes, I consider Dungeon Geists a removal spell because it taps down a creature for as long as it is out.
Alex made big changes to his sideboard for Game Day He ended up playing 1 more of Negate, Celestial Purge, Revoke Existence and Divine Offering. He also added some new things to the board such as the 2 Flashfreeze and the 1 Marrow Shards. The reason for those changes were because the metagame down here is Wolf Run and token based. The Flashfreezes were a good audible because titans are the big things to counter in Wolf Run and most of these players are playing around Mana Leak so the hard counter spells are really good. The rest of the cards are good for the token matchups – the Revoke Existence, Divine Offering, and Negate deal with the enchantments that pump there tokens and the Negate counters the big things like Planeswalkers or token generators like Midnight Haunting and Lingering Souls. The Marrow Shards was good tech early if you were able to kill the tokens before they get bigger. Stupid Intangible Virtue and Honor of the Pure!
So this next list is Day 2 winner Joey Kurtz list—and the only thing I lost to that day twice.
Wolf Run with blue?
| Creatures (16) 4 Primeval Titan 4 Huntmaster of the Fells 3 Solemn Simulacrum 2 Phantasmal Image 1 Acidic Slime 1 Birds of Paradise 1 Thrun, the last Troll Spells (19) 4 Slagstorm 4 Galvanic Blast 4 Rampant Growth 4 Sphere of the Suns 2 Green Sun’s Zenith 1 Whipflare Lands (25) 4 Inkmoth Nexus 2 Kessig Wolf Run 4 Copperline Gorge 4 Rootbound Crag 1 Island 5 Forest 5 Mountain | Sideboard (15) 3 Beast Within 2 Ancient Grudge 2 Karn Liberated 2 Garruck Primal Hunter 1 Naturalize 1 Whipflare 1 Combust 1 Autumns Veil 2 Thrun, the Last Troll |
Now I was scared and confused when Joey played a turn 2 Rampant Growth and fetched an Island. My initial thought was Phantasmal Image and I was correct. I was confused what purpose it served, but I quickly realized that it copies some of the best creatures in standard: Titans and Consecrated Sphinx. What I didn’t anticipate was having a Karn defeat me games 2 and 3 of both the Swiss and Top 4 rounds. Every time Karn stuck, everything went downhill. It’s an auto loss against my blue black deck because my only way of killing it is another Karn. This leads me into what I played that got me an acceptable 3rd place finish.
U/B Control
Now I had no idea that GP: Baltimore was going on and that some top named pros were doing well with Blue Black Control. I built this the night before Day 2 not looking at any sources; I was just ball-parking it. Although after looking at Day 1’s undefeated lists of Blue Black control at Baltimore the list I made and the list that some of the pros made were fairly similar. I went the route of “everything on my opponent’s side of the field must not live.” To quote my good friend, Aaron Lettus “IT MUST DIE!” I agree completely in this format: everyone has multiple creatures that need killing. That’s why in my deck I am playing 20 removal spells and 4 Snapcaster Mages to flash about half of that back between the mainboard and the sideboard. The one of’s in this deck were so good and relevant every time I saw them, except for the 1 Increasing Confusion that never got sided in ever. Thanks Ryan Spivey.
The Army of the Damned is that 1 of surprise that just wins you the game when it hits. The way the deck wins is by killing or countering everything your opponent does for the first 5-6 turns and then drop a huge bomb. Well, when nobody else is playing control, control just becomes that much better – kind of like Red Deck Wins. Army of the Damned won me about 4 of my games especially the most important one that won me the match in Top 8 against my good friend Ryan Spivey. Let’s take a look at what he played.
B/W Tokens
Now when Spivey said his list is different, I didn’t believe him. Then, Game 2 he dropped a Shrine of Loyal Legions against me on turn two—a sign for trouble. Luckily my Batterskull was able to race by gaining me life and then a Karn forced him to pop the Shrine at 13. Fortunately, I have mad topdecks and found myself a Curse of Death’s Hold after the Shrine had popped. Now I’m pretty sure I remember Spivey saying that Hero of Bladehold didn’t belong in the deck because it didn’t do much. I agree completely. By the time you actually get a Hero out, you have already won or lost the game—if anything, it is overkill. He also decided that 1 Elspeth was better than the 3rd Sorin. I again agree because Elspeth gets you more tokens faster and can potentially gain you life. Sorin is cool but mostly makes an Emblem and then dies so it’s another Honor or Virtue but for 4 mana, that’s bad.
So here are the decks that made Top 8 both Day 1 and 2 that I think most people haven’t seen as a tier 1 deck.
B/G Wolfrun
This deck is my good friend Aaron Lettus deck—remember the “Everything Must Die” guy? Well Aaron is playing a deck that I love because it reminds me of Mono Green. All you do is ramp into big creatures, but Aaron added black. This makes it better because now you can actually kill stuff. The Wolf Run package is cute too, but not necessary.
This next list is one of the decks that I lost to on Day 1 roughly. Same concept, different cards.
R/G Gruul
Now this deck belongs to our good friend Brian Kobel also known as Mr. January. Now I helped him build this deck and obviously he did good—at least that’s what I saw—I mean, a Hellrider out and then next turn Strangleroot Geists and a Pheyrexian Metamorph copying an Geist swing for 10…yeah, that sounds like GG to me. This deck is meant to be very aggressive, but I really like it because it’s not like every aggro deck where it just runs out of gas and then dies. The Geists, Huntmasters and Phoenix are cards that provide that extra pressure to end your opponent. But, enough about what I think, I want to hear your thoughts about any of the decks that you just saw.
Please comment below your thoughts, concerns, and questions you might have. Thanks for taking your time to read this and there will be more to come.
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the Snap Cast