SA: Dragon’s Lair Adelaide (14 Players) 06/12/2020 | Deck Lists & Tournament Report

This event marked the third straight event Junk placed 1st in in Adelaide, despite the deck underperforming in other regions and the increasingly popular webcam meta, it seems to be almost a silver bullet to most decks that are seen in Adelaide. Steve and I have already talked about the deck in our previous tournament reports (Junk 1st place October; Junk 1st place November), so in this one I wanted to focus more on which cards shone in specific matchups and focus some attention on the sideboard as well.

MVP cards: This event the old guard shone, Tarmogoyf, Deathrite Shaman, Siege Rhino and even blade splicer stood out being fast clocks, punishing tempo-negative plays from three of my four opponents.

R1: BUG Midrange (Sarv), 1-1 draw, As is typical for Sarv piles, this deck felt like a tempo-midrange hybrid with the deck being able to protect the queen, or grind 1 for 1s and slamming a haymaker threat at the end of curve, and of course Ancestral Recall recursion comes included. In game 1, Sarv tried to play out threats early to later protect, but I chained three removal spells, followed by a goyf and voice of resurgence which let me push through enough damage as I faded a couple of important draw steps. Game 2 saw Sarv casting 4 Ancestral recalls, but I felt I could eek out a win, alas it was not possible as Sarv beat me with 6 or so odd cards still in hand, and since both games were a long grind we were not able to finish game 3.

R2: Delve Kess Pile (Kupe), 2-1 win, Wow! It was awesome seeing such a classic making a comeback, and more surprising was when Kupe, a well known Zoo aggro player resolved a ponder into a baleful strix. I was crushed in game 1, by Kupe chaining three removal spells into a treasure cruise and true name nemesis, which was enough to seal the deal. games 2 and 3 played out quite similarly with my playing conservatively to the board in order to play around board wipes, this is where the equipment package shone, allowing me to convert lingering souls tokens and dorks into cards and then slapping a batterskull on my siege rhino in game 3, Kupe’s true name nemesis and gurmag angler were no match for this monstrosity.

R3: Nono black tempo/midrange (James), 2-1 win, as is usual when playing vs James Arthur, nothing is very easy, each of those three games were extremely close and probably some of the most fun and intense magic I’ve played in recent times. Game 3 was where my life total bounced between 3 and 7 for seven straight turns as I managed to barely cross the line with three extremely lucky draw steps back to back, with deathrite shaman gaining me life, swords to plowshares dealing with his glorybringer and then an eternal witness to deal with Vendilion clique which was James’ final threat.
The most important part about this match was game 2 where I finally had a chance to play opposition agent and have it stick, it shut off James’s knight of the reliquary and I managed to ‘get’ him as he cracked his fetch, it definitely felt powerful, almost oppressive in that instance, as James was forced into dealing with it, and then it was brought back into my hand thanks to Meren of Clan Nel Toth, which then provided me enough value to grind the game through.

R4: 4C Kess Pod (Michael Hearn), 2-0 win, if you play in Adelaide, Michael is always the final boss, waiting at the top table for whoever faces him in the final round, it was no different in this event either. In Game 1 a Questing Beast, backed by Karakas went the distance, I nearly gave Michael the game, during a turn where Michael was at 4 life, his Liliana, the Last Hope shrunk my Questing beast, I could have bounced it with Karakas at his end step, replayed it and killed him but I just chose not to, Michael gave me a huge scare as he found a time walk with spellseeker, but its better to be lucky than good and he fizzled, allowing me to close the game the next turn, in game 2 Jitte came in clutch as it does in every midrange mirror, killing two of Michael’s threats, one of which was a really scary glorybringer. Renegade rallier also provided strong value as it brought back a deathrite shaman, despite Michael taking a mulligan and missing a land drop, it came quite close.

Sideboard talk

My sideboard has been relatively untouched for a while, I took out the inquisition of kozilek to add a veil of summer. Carpet of flowers and choke felt really good as always. Sylvan Library might be the next on the chopping block, it is a card that is good vs straight combo, and hard control, but decks are not exclusive, almost every deck creature threats, that pressure your life total, making Sylvan Library more and more underwhelming, and the recent printing of Hullbreacher might be the last straw. Some cards that I might want to include are Ashiok, Dream Render, Thragtusk and Elderspell.

Junk is highly customizable, and can adjust its role depending on the matchup. If you haven’t already tried it, make sure you give it a go! You don’t need expensive Power cards to play it, and it consistently beats up on Power-ed decks every month over here 🙂