Starcity Games 5k Standard - St. Louis
Josh Hendricks
Friday, July 2, 2010
So here is a tournament report from an unknown Decatur native that took a rogue G/W build to the Star City Open in St. Louis. First off, here’s the deck I took with me.
As you can see the list is fairly similar to a Mythic build. I simply decided that I didn’t want to play blue because I liked so many of
the options in white and green. Here is a short explanation on some of my card choices.
The core of the mananbase/mana acceleration is similar to Mythic with a full set of
Cobras and
Hierarchs with 3
Birds of Paradise. The
idea is to ramp quickly into tough threats. Nothing shocking here.
Speaking of threats I have a variety of them, including a full set of
Baneslayers, Knights, and
Emeria Angels. I think all of these guys
are a pain to deal with and each can end a game quickly.
Elspeth and
Gideon are both here for two reasons. The first is to enhance my army for bigger, flying beaters as well as kill creatures
and remove blockers. The second reason is to have removal for the same planeswalkers in Super Friends, which is one of my worst matches.
I also have a limited amount of removal in 2 of each Path and
Day. In the first few turns my opponents would think that I was running
either
Vengevine Naya or Mythic – neither of which run
Day of Judgment.
So a few opponents would run out their hands with tons of critters only to be blindsided by a
Day of Judgment! I also chose to run 2
Sejiri Steppe. Considering again that most Mythic builds have but one
Sejiri Steppe, I felt I might catch some people off guard with the
second copy.
However, the glaring threesome (heh heh) in my deck is
Admonition Angel. This angel was a beast all day. I was never unhappy to see it
and it almost always swung the game huge in my favor.
Round 1 vs. R/G/U Land Disruption
I wasn’t actually familiar with this deck, but I guess the idea is to play BBE’s into stuff like
Spreading Seas and
Resounding Wave to
screw up my mana and then use
Rolling Terrain to destroy the others. Game 1 he got off to a great start and managed to keep me down
until a few BBE’s took me down. I was already lamenting my auspicious start and damning my bad luck of having to mulligan to six.
Game 2 I get even more nonplussed as I stare down at a no-land hand. I mull to six and set off. An early
Knight of the Reliquary
followed by a
Baneslayer finish him off fairly quickly. Game 3 I find myself mulliganing AGAIN, only this time to 5 cards. Despite the
setback I manage to get the early Knight and another
Baneslayer. I get in some beats and he finds a
Resounding Wave for my angel, but it
is only a temporary measure. I finish him off a turn later as he reveals a hand chocked full’O’land.
Match 2-1,
Record 1-0
Round 2 vs. Eldrazi Green
This is a younger kid (maybe 14-15) and right away I can see his deck box has a huge green mana symbol plastered on it. I smile to myself
and wonder if it’s a ruse. It’s not. Game 1 I can see that I am correct in my assumption as he leads out with a
Llanowar Elf. I get
out to a blazing start with Cobra and Knight. He plays an
Awakening Zone on turn 3 followed by an
Eldrazi Monument on turn 4. With
three creatures in play and infinite sacrifices for his Monument I start to wonder if I have a way to deal with it main board. Then I
topdeck an
Admonition Angel and remember why I put them in there! I play the
Admonition Angel followed by a
Forest, remove the Monument
and swing with the
Baneslayer that was hanging out. Game 2 I board in 3
Quasili Pridemage but never see them and never need them as he
gets off to a slow start and I finish him off in fast order. Then I start to wonder how he won his first round. This kid made more play
errors than I could count and even pointed them out to me when I wouldn’t have noticed. Game two he played a first turn
Forest, passed
the turn, I played my first turn and passed, and then he showed me a
Joraga Treespeaker and said, “Oh, I was supposed to play that on turn
one!”
Match 2-0,
Record 2-0
Round 3 vs. Jund
Oh the Jund Menace. After some playtesting I was fairly confidant against Jund so I went into this with good expectations. Game 1 I get
the god draw and lead out with a Hierarch followed by Cobra, fetch land and Knight. Turn 3 the Walletslayer comes out and I am shocked
when he doesn’t
Terminate or
Maelstrom Pulse it. He plays a
Putrid Leach and passes the turn allowing me to untap my Knight, which is
almost a guaranteed victory for me. I get one swing in and pass then turn. He plays a
Sprouting Thrinax and passes the turn again. I
rip a
Sejiri Steppe and something occurs to me. He’ll think I’m playing some form of Bant and assume that I’m only running one
Steppe.
I figure if I play the
Steppe, he’ll think it’s my only one and waste a removal spell on his turn. I play the
Steppe and swing, then
pass the turn. Sure enough he untaps and immediately taps two mana and announces his intention to
Terminate my
Baneslayer. I tap the
Knight and grab my second
Steppe and watch as his face turns to surprise. My plan worked exactly as I had hoped! Game 2 he mulligans to
six, gets stuck on one land for a turn and I crush him in due fashion.
Match 2-0,
Record 3-0
Round 4 vs. Time Sieve/Open the Vaults combo
I make my way to thetable and see a small, neat looking skinny kid and immediately assume he’s playing U/W of some sort. My inkling is
confirmed when we roll the dice, shuffle up and he leads with an Island. He begins playing a pair of
Howling Mines and I suspect that
I’m up against some sort of combo deck. I play out a few early threats when I see a
Time Sieve hit play and then I realize what’s going
on. He gets stuck on five lands as I’m bringing the pain and just when I’m threatening lethal the next turn he sacks the
Time Sieve, 2
Howling Mines, and 2
Prophetic Prisms to take an extra turn. He misses his sixth land drop again and opts to play Time Warp. He draws
again, looks over his hand and I ask if I just got lucky, or if he got unlucky. He tells me he got unlucky and scoops. Game 2 I board
in 2
Pithing Needle and 3
Quasili Pridemage hoping to disrupt him long enough for the win. I play out an early Needle naming
Time Sieve
and begin the ramp to victory. He plays two Borderposts and a turn later I play the
Admonition Angel with a fetch in hand. I remove his
2 borderposts leaving him with a paltry 3 mana and proceed to the red zone.
Match 2-0,
Record 4-0
Round 5 vs. Red Deck Wins
I lose the die roll (did I mention that I haven’t won a die roll yet?) He leads off with a first turn
Goblin Guide and I start to wonder
how good my game is against RDW as I didn’t test for it. I play a BOP which gets
Searing Blazed the next turn followed by a
Noble Hierarch
the next turn which also gets
Searing Blazed. By the time I get
Baneslayer Angel into play I’m at 3 life. He untaps and shows me the
Lightning Bolt for the win. Game 2 I board in 3
Quasili Pridemage and 3
Wall of Reverence. While the Pridemages don’t directly have any
effect on his deck, I felt it necessary to lower my curve as much as possible. Game 2 I get the
Wall of Reverence plus
Baneslayer thing
going and he has no hope. Game 3 is much the same with one interesting note. He has
Goblin Guide and
Kargan Dragonlord on the table (no
level counters), he taps out to
Mark of Mutiny my
Baneslayer Angel (I also have a Wall in play) and swings out. I block the Kargan, take
6 from the stolen Angel , 2 from the
Goblin Guide (netting a land) and go to 3. He passes the turn and I get back my (now) 6/6 Angel. I
play
Elspeth, pump the Angel swing for 9…gain 9 and then gain 9 more when I pass the turn. Back to 21 life and he concedes the next turn.
Makes me wish I had played Red Deck wins all day!
Match 2-1,
Record 5-0
Round 6 vs. Mythic Conscription
This match was against Channel Fireball contributor John Penick. I guess he’s supposed to be a good player. Turns out he was. Game 1 I
mulligan to six and lose the die roll…again. He gets an early Jace to start bouncing my
Baneslayer, but at least he hasn’t pounded my
face in with a +10/+1- trampler yet! His start is weird because he draws a ton of mana creatures and not a whole lot of gas. I get an
Elspeth and start using
Lotus Cobra in the air to take care of his planeswalkers. After murdering 2 Jace and getting a few licks in he
eventually sticks a
Baneslayer Angel and starts getting to work on my life total. I’m at 6 just as he casts a second
Baneslayer followed
by a
Knight of the Reliquary. I finally rip an answer in
Admonition Angel and play it. I only have a
Forest, so I plop it down and
remove his Knight from the game knowing that it would mean the game if he stuck. He untaps and swings with both angels. I hate to lose
my
Admonition Angel at this point so I chump one with the birds and take the other five, dropping me to 1. I untap and draw a fetch land.
Would have been prettier had I been at more than one life! I drop the fetch and remove one of his
Baneslayers but I still need a flying
blocker to deal with the other one. Thanks to exalted triggers his angel would be bigger than mine so although it pains me, I remove the
8 counters from my
Elspeth and go ultimate! Feeling as though I can get back into this game I pass the turn. He rips a land, taps 8 mana
and hard casts a Conscription on his Cobra. Even with a bunch of little indestructible dudes the trample damage is enough to finish me
off. Arg, tight games! Game 2 I mulligan to 6 and look down at a one land hand with 2 mana dorks. I decide to keep as I am on the play
and I have a
Day of Judgment. Last game he played out tons of creatures and I figure he’ll do the same here and over extend into a crushing
wrath effect. Boy was I wrong. He played a
Noble Hierarch and then started dropping planeswalkers! First comes Jace and the turn later
he drops an
Elspeth. I stumble on land drops and at least once he uses Jace to bounce my
Birds of Paradise. This one is over before it
begins and I get the first taste of match-loss.
Match 0-2,
Record 5-1
Round 7 vs. Jund
I go into this match thinking, “ok, I’ve got one loss. If I can win the next 3, I can top 8.” After one land drop I can see that I’m up
against Jund…and I am thrilled! I still believe this is a good match for me and play with confidence. The only problem with this matchup
is he is not running
Lightning Bolt main board in his Jund build. Instead he’s running 4 copies of
Forked Bolt. I find out early as he
Blood Braids into a
Forked Bolt and offs my
Noble Hierarch and my Cobra. I’m finished off shortly thereafter. Game 2 I play out my mana
dorks a little more cautiously and manage to stick a
Baneslayer. I get in a couple of swings without him finding an answer, but eventually
he gets a Bloodwitch and passes. I draw a
Sejiri Steppe, play it, give the angel pro-black and swing in with an exalted trigger putting
him at 6. Ok. Just need one more swing and I can force a game 3. He untaps and draws, then opts to swing with his Leech and Bloodwitch.
SHIT! He drew a removal spell! There’s no way he would swing if he didn’t just draw removal! I untap and swing as my suspicions are
confirmed with a doom blade. I still have 2
Noble Hierarch and a
Stirring Wildwood. If I can get him to swing with the Witch again,
maybe I can topdeck an
Elspeth or
Thornling to put him down! On his turn he plays a Bloodbraid and cascades into another
Forked Bolt!
He offs my two
Noble Hierarchs and feel my chances starting to fade. I topdeck the
Elspeth and realize that I don’t have enough mana to
play her and activate my
Stirring Wildwood. Dang! If only he had cascaded into ANYTHING but
Forked Bolt. I play the planeswalker and
make a soldier token which will be needed to block one of his attackers in order to stay alive. Of course Jund topdecks removal in the
form of
Deathmark and offs the soldier so he can swing for the win. God I hate Jund!
Match 0-2,
Record 5-2
Round 8 vs. Super Friends
Now the wind is completely out of my sails as I realize that my hopes of a top 8 are completely dashed. However, I have faith as I can
still win out for a chance at top 16 because my tiebreakers are amazing. Especially because John Penick is still undefeated.
I shuffle up for next opponent considering my next two matches “must wins.” Game 1 I keep a very suspect hand as I only have 1 land and
1
Birds of Paradise; however, as I have already mulliganed to 5 – I decide to give it a try. Well, it didn’t work out to well. I don’t
see another mana as my opponent plays an early Jace followed by an
Ajani Vengeant. I scoop before he can fateseal and see any of my deck
and we shuffle up for game 2. Luckily, as he even admitted, he had no idea what I was playing and decided to sideboard as though I was
playing
Vengevine Naya. He was, of course, wrong. This game goes on for what feels like an eternity. I play a turn 3
Elspeth which
gets
O-ringed. I follow the next turn with a second
Elspeth. He
O-rings his
O-ring to kill off both
Elspeths. I manage to topdeck my
third and final
Elspeth and play it. He grimaces as I pass the turn and this
Elspeth sticks for the entire game. My sideboard, which
was altered on Friday night, includes 3
Dauntless Escort and 2
Pithing Needles and 2
Thornlings. I manage to needle his early
Gideon and
start beating face. I get him down to 3 life when he starts to stabilize and our games grinds down to a crawl. We both have many
permanents and I’m just looking for the opportunity to punch some damage through but he has 3
Wall of Denial, 3
Seagate Oracle, a Jace,
an Ajani, and a
Gideon all on board. Not to mention a couple of
Celestial Collonades and a metric assload of mana. With only four or so
minutes left in the round I notice a judge standing behind my opponent. The Super Friends pilot is taking FOREVER on each of his turns
so while he has his head down I look at the judge with raised eyebrows and point to my watch. He nods and begins to watch my opponent
for slow play. I eventually rip a
Day of Judgment and play it as a one-sided wrath thanks to
Elspeth’s ultimate ability. That gives me
enough room to swing for the win…on turn 3 of extra rounds!
Match 1-1,
Record 5-2-1
Round 9 vs. Naya
This deck was more of a homebrew running Bloodbraids,
Ajani Vengeants,
Behemoth Sledge,
Wooly Thoctars and
Path to Exile. Neither of
these games are close as
Baneslayer backed by
Knight of the Reliquary wins game 1 and in game 2 I remove 6 permanents with Admonition
Angel. How this guy was 5-2-1 like me is beyond rational thought.
Match 2-0,
Record 6-2-1
I check the standings after the last round and see that I finished in 28th place. I was disappointed that I couldn’t have turned one of
my draws or losses into a win and bashed my way into the top 16, but overall I’m extremely pleased with my performance. The deck itself
did incredibly well considering how many mulligans I took (I believe I averaged 1 per match) and the fact that I kept 2 starting hands
that I had no business keeping. I did finish better than Jerry Thompson and Patrick Chapin (both of whom were playing net decks). I
also had the good fortune of playing against a lot of really great guys. It’s always nice to avoid the douche bags at these big events.
Feel free to ask any questions you might have about the tournament or my deck. Thanks for reading!
Josh
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