SA: Dragon’s Lair Edwardstown Win-a-Grim Monolith 18/08/2024 | Deck Lists & Tournament Report

SA: Dragons Lair Edwardstown “A Tale of Two Brothers” | Deck Lists & Tournament Report by Dean Kolpin

Another Grim Monolith was generously up for offer from Phil for the victor of todays festivities. There were 16 players making up 4 rounds at the recently opened new store location.

After a recent top 8 placing at the Bluebell Open MTGO event and Raj also winning the prior Grim Monolith event with Grixis itself, I felt somewhat confident with my deck choice into todays tournament. My prior tournament outing involved several combo opponents whilst playing Domainitiative. Ouchies!

Having seen several pointings towards Initative and a few depointings towards powerful combo enablers and tutors I knew stack interactivity was where I wanted to be.

Rd 1 vs Raj (Jund Goblins)
“Oh no, an end game boss in round 1?!” I was thinking to myself as we sat down and talked our usual banter prior to slinging luxury cardboard. Game 1 I kept a hand forgetting Raj had been venturing into the goblin realm as of late. Fortunately early delve threats alongside creature removal and stack interaction made quick work of the little gremlins.
1 – 0 (2 – 0)

Rd 2 vs Phil (8-point Dimir Thoracle)
Phil jokes constantly about being washed up at magic so I knew this was going to be a bloodbath. Game 1 resulted in a loss after a mulligan to 5 followed by mana screw and Psychic Frog combat damage. Game 2 I remember landing a cheeky Sheoldred and Gurmag to proceed with the beatdowns. Of note, this game is the only game where I cast Lutri all day, it was used to counter a Spell Snare and force through an Expressive Iteration.

Game 3 is where a little bit of drama occured. A magic oopsie you might say. After resolving an Opposition Agent responding to a fetchland I was able to pick up Phil’s deck and tactfully try to sculpt together what could be in his hand and how far away I was from certain death. Whilst sifting back and forth through Phil’s deck I am some point look down and notice several black sleeved Dimir cards on my playmat and think that I must have dropped cards from the deck whilst looking through. Without thinking I place what is actually my hand into Phil’s deck and shuffle it presenting it back to him after fetching the basic land required. Some amount of turns later Phil draws his “2nd” Daze and proceeds to congratulate Raj for his excellent deckbuilding skills conceding the game with the combo in hand. It is only after the tournament that I realise my folly and have a good laugh with Raj & Phil when retrieving my missing cards. Can’t win a matchup? Gaslight your opponent into conceeding!
2 – 0 (2 – 1)

Rd 3 vs Lou (Sultai Control)
Already being at a disadvantage with only 55 cards in my deck and 17 lands, it comes to no surprise to know that Game 1 I experienced mana screw and swiftly lost to Sheoldred’s passive effect. Game 2 Lou flooded. Game 3 however was more on the weird side, I executed my control / tempo gameplan with card advantage thanks to Flame of Anor and Expressive Iteration whereas Lou found no card advantage whatsoever. I just grinded him out.
3 – 0 (2 – 1)

Rd 4 vs James (Rakdos Eclipse)
Being the 1st and 2nd seed respectively, also knowing that in this build of Grixis Lutri I had no
lifegain outside of a single Cling to Dust in the sideboard and Sheoldred’s passive I proposed an Intentional Draw. Thankfully my opponent agreed and we proceeded to go and enjoy lunch before going into the top 8. I had somed delicious nigiri that I alas forgot to grab chopsticks for.
3 – 0 – 1 (1 – 1)

Top 8 vs Shane (Nadu Walks)
After the traditional top 8 photo and pretending to not be blinded by the sun I ventured back inside to find I was paired against Shane. The last time I recall playing Shane he smushed me with a particuarly aggressive build of 5c legends. Yikes. Thankfully someone in passing mentioned that I should be good playing into combo, as such I immediately felt more relaxed. What proceeded to happen was Spellseeker fetching either Eladamri’s call or Ephemerate and myself being forced to hold up mana every turn to not die to either infinite turns thanks to Eternal/Timeless Witness, Ephemerate & Time Walk or being drowned in card advantage thanks to the hottest new design mistake off the conveyer belt. Nadu, Winged Wisdom. This dirty little avian proceeded to draw my opponent 8 cards in game 1 which was pretty much instant death.

Game 2 was a lot longer than the 1st wherein I was trying to take the control role and eventually get to a point where I’m ahead on mana to be able to stick threats and not die the immediate turn thereafter. Thankfully one such opportunity arose where I was able to cast my newly acquired Fire Covenant whilst my opponent was tapped out of Ephemerate mana. This 3 for 1 yielded the gap needed to push ahead and win. Unfortunately game 3 proved impossible to surmount thanks to both Witness creatures and Pre-War Formalwear the infamous “bin chicken” was very prevalent and refused to bow down and stay in the graveyard. I had not bought in any exile effects and now believe that to be a mistake. Ashiok, Dream Render would have been an amazing card to try and prevent tutoring & recursion of Nadu or the infinite turn combo.

It was after this round and finding a Thoughtseize on a play table that I realized I was playing with a 55 card deck. After asking around Raj realized his Thoracle deck had extra cards. It was then I theorized my folly and had a good ol’ laugh with everyone about my stupidity.

Shane proceeded to win the Semi-Finals as well after getting paired against Lou. On the flip side of things Russell won his own Quarter Finals and beat James on Rakdos Eclipse in the Semi-Finals.
After expressing that they both had only 1.5 hours to go to their next Sunday destination both brothers decided to split the finals and Grim Monolith.

Congratulations Shane, Russell and the rest of the top 8!

Grixis Deckbuilding Considerations:

If there’s one thing I miss most since the most recent points update, it’s Deathrite Shaman. This insane 1 mana “Planeswalker” that does it all. I was really excited to trying Psychic Frog this event after hearing how absurd it is in legacy. Psychic Frog & Murktide Regent go together like frogs and flies (get it, because Murktide flies?)
With the inclusion of Murktide I otherwise wanted insurance for tapping low / out for a threat, hence Force of Will being selected also.

My points ended up as the following:

Murktide Regent – *
Mana Drain – *
Force of Will – *
Gush – *
Lutri – *

Going forward I’m going to try experimenting with the following:

Deathrite Shaman – *
Snapcaster Mage – *
Dreadhorde Arcanist – *
Murktide Regent – *
Mana Drain – *
Gush – *
Force of Will *

I believe without the inclusion of Fury in my deck Lutri is less warranted. However I can see Fury finding it’s way back into my 75 with the uptick of Aggro and R/B/x creatures in my local meta.