Around the Web: Gifts from the Winter King
bdm | December 8, 2008 | 7:03 pmUmmm…are all the Elves decks hiding? There were none in the Top 8 of the GPT we posted awhile back and now the 83 person field at the Winter King has churned exactly zero Elves decks into the Top 8 of their $3,000 extravaganza. And it is not like they did not show up in force according to Alex Stambaugh who worked the event as a judge. He said early on Saturday via Facebook that the field was dominated by Elves and red decks. I was not sure if that meant All-In Red or Goblins or Burn. Two of those three archetypes moved into the Top 8 so…still not clear on that one. I am also not clear on the decision to feature Dominus of Fealty in Casey Miller’s All-In build. Any readers out there have an idea why you would want to inlcude that over the tramply, land-eating Deus of Calamity?
You can find all the Top 8 lists here over on TCGplayer.com.
I am guessing that having decks like the ones played by Robert Graves and Brandon Burk sporting maindeck Night of Soul’s Betrayal went a long way to keeping the green men in check. Here is the winning list:
Gifts Rock
Robert Graves — Winner
2008 $3000 Winter King
1 Etched Oracle
1 Eternal Witness
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Ravenous Baloth
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Selkie Hedge-Mage
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Chrome Mox
4 Engineered Explosives
1 Firespout
4 Gifts Ungiven
2 Night of Souls’ Betrayal
2 Putrefy
1 Reclaim
1 Smother
4 Spell Snare
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Vedalken Shackles
1 Academy Ruins
1 Blood Crypt
2 Breeding Pool
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Overgrown Tomb
4 Polluted Delta
1 Snow-Covered Forest
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
1 Swamp
2 Twilight Mire
1 Watery Grave
4 Wooded Foothills
Sideboard:
3 Ancient Grudge
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Clearwater Goblet
1 Deathmark
1 Firespout
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
2 Jund Charm
1 Putrefy
1 Ravenous Baloth
1 Smother
2 Vedalken Shackles
Funny. There was a discussion earlier this week on the Wizards Extended boards about whether recursive Etched Oracle is awesome or clunky and terribly slow.
I’m rather surprised at the lack of Life from the Loam in this deck, given that there’s just the one Witness and one Reclaim.
If I recall correctly, there were 2 players playing the gifts deck at the Winter King this weekend. For the most part, the good players stayed away from elves, while the not so good ones played it regardless of the giant bull’s eye targeted on them.
Loam was really bad from what I heard brandon and bobby talk about it.
The All-in red list is 57 cards. I bet there were some number of Deus’ in the missing cards.
The tournament metagame early on was primarily composed of Elves, Mono Red Burn, and Fae, along with a smattering of other red decks (Including Zoo). There were a couple of Tron decks which did reasonably well. Fae fell aside as the red decks moved toward the top of the standings, with the burn deck appearing pretty awkward for them.
Bobby’s deck is affectionately titled “Sunburst Gifts” and I will leave it to red decks and fae to discuss Clearwater Goblet with skeptics.
The field was alot of Burn Deck Wins, and alot of elves, they both kind of battled themselves out for the most part. But my good friend B. Reeves did top 8 with a decklist he and I had came up with…. And BBurks has an extremly solid team together as you can tell, with Bobby winning and himself in the top 8….
Bobby is a part of Team Mystical Teachings, and he has a tournament report and sideboarding guide over on our website, TeamMysticalTeachings.com