The Devil is in the Details – SCG Super IQ Finals Special Edition

Hello again True Believers! Excelsior!! Sorry, channeling Stan Lee, still reeling from the amazingness of The Avengers. If you read my normal feature this week you know that I made the finals of the Star City Games Super Invitational Qualifier Standard Tournament that was held at Amazing Discoveries this past Saturday. I split in the finals with The Pendulum, Donald Sheldon. I originally was not going to write a tournament report as I was saving that topic for my FallfromHell teammate SnapCastro Mage. However, due to my performance and the overwhelming support of the community who expressed interest in hearing my account of the day you all receive this article.

As I discussed in my previous article, “Evaluating Choices for the Metagame”, I ended up playing Mono green aggro due to having my wisdom teeth pulled just four days prior. I figured this would be the best choice for the field as I was expecting some new tech to arise and I didn’t want to have to think that much. I played a fairly similar list to the one I played in Phoenix with a few small changes. I did not play Swords and I put Overrun into the main deck. The list I played ended up looking like this:

The deck is really aggressive and generally wins before turn 7 or 8. The plan is to accelerate into as many creatures as possible and win with an Overrun on turn 5. Champion of Lambholt ensures that no mana dudes or spirits will be able to chump your team. And champion plus Overrun makes sure no opposing creatures can absorb the damage. Green Sun’s Zenith allows for the right creature in the right situation and Phyrexian Metamorph gets to be the best creature on the board no matter what.

Round 1- Justin playing Jund Wolf Run

Justin is a good friend of mine and it isn’t always fun to play a friend this early in a major tournament. Unfortunately sometimes it happens. Game 1 ended up going long but I managed to hang in there for 3 turns against a Grave Titan. I eventually drew an Overrun and attacked. Justin blocked enough damage to go to 1 and be able to counterstrike for the win on his next turn. The only catch was that he didn’t know my one card in hand was Gut Shot which quickly hit him for lethal. Game 2 saw him Titan up on turn 6 and win soon after with the help of triple Inkmoth Nexuses/Nexi. Game 3 I led out with an Elf on 1, Elf & Strangleroot on 2, and double Strangleroot on 3 to apply pressure. An Acidic Slime the next turn sealed up the game.

1-0

Round 2 – Joseph playing Esper Spirits/Delver

This ended up being a good matchup for me. Joseph was playing Favorable Winds which meant he was one slot down on threats. Game 1 ended in a close race with a few missed opportunities by Joseph allowed me to steal a win. Sideboarded Corrosive Gales and Ratchet Bombs made quick work of game 2.

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Round 3 – SnapCastro Mage playing U/B Control

Round 3 saw me staring across the table at fellow FallFromHell teammate Christian Castro. We wished each other good luck and began our duel. Game 1 saw a couple of Black Sun Zeniths’ wipe my board to clear the way for Jace to wipe my memory. Game 2 I don’t really remember but I got the victory. Game 3 saw Christian unable to find lands and counters for my spells. My early pressure of Strangleroots and a slime keeping him off double black meant the black sun would stay away and allow me to ride the geists to victory.

3-0

Round 4 – Jason playing R/G Wolf Run

Jason handily smashed my face into unrecognizable mushy bits this round. Game 1 he Slagstormed 3 times and my hopes were crushed. Game 2 I faced down 2 Inferno Titans and 1 Primeval Titan. I managed to Metamorph 1 of them but couldn’t catch up. I wished Jason good luck in his future matches and he would end up making Top 8.

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Round 5 – Adam playing G/W Aggro Humans

Adam is a good player from Phoenix and I knew I was in for a fight. Lady Luck in the form of variance had other plans forcing Adam to mulligan to 5 game 1. He ended up dying on turn 5 to an Overrun before he even hit his third land. Game 2 saw a mulligan to 6 for Adam but a Champion of Lambholt and a small army overran on turn 6 for the victory.

4-1

Round 6 – Donald playing R/G Aggro

Before the round standings were posted. Jason whom I lost to was in first and Donald was in second both 13 points. There were seven or eight 12 pointers but I was in third place and felt comfortable about splitting in. Donald agreed and we intentionally drew into the Top 8.

4-1-1

Top 8 – Aaron playing R/G Aggro

I ended up in 7^th place and was paired up against fellow FallFromHell teammate, Aaron Lettes. I don’t remember much about this round except that the matches were close and I won both my games with an Overrun. Aaron made a great showing in one of his first Top 8 showings. I was proud to have played against him.

Top 4 – Erik playing Frites

I came out fast both games and applied enough pressure to force a victory with little effort on Erik’s part. Game 1 seen him searching for an Unburial Rites to no avail and my team smashed in for a win. Game 2 saw him only muster a pair of birds before having to block and die soon after.

Finals – Donald playing R/G

I found myself faced with Donald again and for the second time agreeing to split. We both got an Invitational invite, $300, and played for the Open points. The winner would receive 4 while the loser would get 2. We played 3 great games with Donald edging me out in game 3 for the victory.

All in all the tournament was a fun one. There were door prizes, event coverage, great participants, and most of all I performed well. Full event coverage can be viewed here: http://amazingmtgcoverage.tumblr.com/tagged/super-IQ-standard provided through the hard work of Chris Zaborowski and Chet Maleszewski. I encourage everyone to come out to Amazing Discoveries in Tucson to game and talk strategy. I always like to meet readers and fellow Magic players.

A special shout out to my FallFromHell teammates: SnapCastro Mage and Mr. January for going 4-2 in the Standard portion, Aaron Lettes for making top 8, and Sean McCusker for winning a box in a side event draft. Honorable mention to Ron Lukes and Zach Davenport, although they came up short they gained valuable tournament experience.

If you have any questions or comments please post below. If you like this article then please click the like button. You can also email me [email protected] or follow me on twitter @fallfromhell. Thanks for reading.

Jeffrey McCoy

Team FallFromHell