Small report on my quarterfinal finish in Toowoomba on the weekend. I went 3-1-1 and came 6th in swiss. (RG Channel Monsters (8pts) was the deck I played)
I ran pretty hot, but I don’t know how much of that is the deck just being built to run hot and mulliganing
R1 – 2-0 v jund
G1 I had a turn 1 channel Karn into Lattice
G2 I got a field of the dead running but he minsc and boo’d a Questing Beast, I got lucky to find an inferno Titan that traded with it and my zombies cleaned up.
R2 1-2 v elves
My only loss in swiss.
G1 I got an early channel Ugin and quickly cleaned up
G2 she quickly got +4 power from a lot of lords and beat down
G3 a Regal Force drew seven cards and I couldn’t do anything busted by the time I got the Hoof
R3 2-1 v UBG Graveyard shenanigans
Game 1 I punt by getting my mana crypt dazed. My blood moon would have gotten dazed first if I played a land, but thats so much better for me. He also kept me down with a Force and I couldn’t recover fast enough for his t4 Uro to kill me.
G2 I landed t2 Trinisphere and he was stuck to one spell a turn, it bought heaps of time, though he still got a quick tasigur out, a t4 Nissa who shakes the world and another creature I have forgotten was enough to get there.
G3 I played a t2 channel Emrakul
R4 2-1 against mono red
G1 was interesting, I had an ancient tomb Trinisphere hand, he was on the play and landed eidolon, I took four for my Trinisphere and he followed with Pyrostatic pillar and I thought I was done, as I didn’t really have time to cast the two ramp spells in my hand. On t4 he casts a bonecrusher giant, and I rip Golos off the top, who stablises me at 8 life. Next turn I get to the inferno titan I had in my opener, and he’s stuck under his own eidolons.
G2 i had a manacrypt to accelerate out one of my few dorks, which got dispatched then I got burned out before I could get anything going.
G3 I had a T2 sneak attack, T3 activate for ilharg + Emrakul, with a Gearhulk for extra.
R5 ID against Time Vault.
I was tempted to not ID, i dont think ID’s are a good part of magic. But I knew he was on a combo deck and those are scary for me, and I haven’t played, let alone top’d an event in forever. We did play one game, I punted and could have had a t2 blood moon, but instead he got a kaldra down, then the moon was too late. I eventually died to kaldra + batterskull after oathing onto Ulamog and being forced to chump with him.
Top8 1-2 against Winota.
Game 1 I had a fantastic start with t1 mana crypt, explore + rampant growth, giving me enough mana for a very fast Through the Breach Emrakul. My opponent was going to have two winota triggers the next turn, his start was also extremely strong but mine was just a turn faster.
G2 I look at my opener of fetchland, Chrome Mox channel, Kozilek, some other cards. I decide to keep, thinking that any green card off the top gets me a t1 Koz, any green land gets me a t2 koz. He starts with an. Ignoble hierarch, I rip an into the North, fetch, shock, Channel down to 7 and bring out kozzy. He rips a karakas off the top, but he didn’t play a threat and just attacks with Heirach. I still feel OK as koz drew me a lot of gas and I play an ancient tomb and ramp up to six mana. Unfortunately, he has the bolt to finish me off. If I had gotten a basic instead of shocking myself, I may have won. At the time, the red mana felt more important as I had no other red sources, though I didn’t need red mana immediately.
G3, I mulled to six and was given a hand of Eye of Ugin, Channel, forest, Fetch, Magus of the moon, something. I keep, thinking that this is a t3 channel into Ulamog, Ceasless Hunger, or if that fails, t3 Magus against the 4c deck. The channel line is risky because it costs me 16 life, or 15 if I draw a green land. On the play I think its good enough.
He leads with a dork into a t2 3 mana thalia! If I had played my Eye of Ugin on t1 or t2, I could have gone ahead with my plan, however that line prices me in and makes my backup of t3 magus impossible. In this case, I got punished, because he had his basic plains (and a bolt, if he really cared!) so he could play a white plume adventurer to quickly reduce me to a point where Channel was not possible.
Try the deck, it’s fun! Nothing felt extremely weak, I don’t know if I should be playing Forbidden Orchard but it didn’t hurt or help in any games. The rest of the deck felt fine, though I very rarely drew my dorks, meaning I very rarely had my opponents removal live.
| Player’s Standing | Player’s Name | Player’s Deck List Link |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Aaron Sadler | UWr Time Vault |
| 2nd | Carl Frankel | Naya Winota |
| 3rd – 4th | Jonathan Wei | 5c Jegantha Lands |
| 3rd – 4th | Hannah Nixon | BG Elves |
| 5th – 8th | Dylan Kidd | RW Moonshine |
| 5th – 8th | Tyrone Phillips | |
| 5th – 8th | Ben Nielsen | Jund Lurrus |
| 5th – 8th | Andre Abelita | Mono Red Goblins |
“This win was incredibly rewarding as I have been working on the deck for a while and all of the elements that I have built into the deck played a part in this event. The deck:
- Is very resistant to Blood Moon which helped in the Blue Moon matchup.
- Can be extremely fast if needed, which showed in the semi-finals against 5C Lands where I mulliganed hard for quick combos.
- Has the ability to stablise against creature decks with multiple ways to get Batterskull into play.
- Includes synergies which play into a control plan if the combo is not available. The untap effects which are usually dead cards outside of the combo are key when combined with Mana Vault or Grim Monolith to power out a Kaldra or Sea Gate Restoration, among many other powerful cards.
- Is also a blast to play!”
– Aaron Sadler
