Post Grand Prix LA - Part 6

Chris Atashran had to have had the best Sealed Deck I saw all day and was one of my few gunslinging losses with my first Sealed Deck that I posted below. While I opened VERY well, Chris’ deck is exactly the deck I was hoping for when they handed out product.

I did think there was a loss coming as my deck delivered Wall of Reverance and Wild Leotau but he had Dark Temper for the Wall and managed to clog up the ground. I settled in to play a long game and wait for my Naya Charm but Chris had other ideas as Master Transmuter went to work with Sanctum Gargoyle and Armillary Sphere stripping all the lands from his deck.

I was also stripping lands from my deck but the old fashioned way, one after the other from the top of my deck. It didn’t matter though, Chris found Tidehollow Sculler and was able to make sure there was nothing to worry about. He was still feeling his way through the new cards but he had reached a point where he could have nailed my hand during my drawstep by returning Sculler and putting it back into play. As it was he was able to play it, put the CIP on the stack and bounce it with Transmuter to permantly remove cards from the game.

Transmuter seems clearly destined to be a Block staple but I was wondering if it has a place in Standard. In control matchups the Sculler/Transmuter tricks combined with the new Disrupting Scepter seems like it could be a valid strategy out of sideboards at the very least.

Thoughts on Transmuter in broader formats than Block Constructed?

So in the end my first Sealed Deck went 3-1 and did not lose more than three matches while gunslinging and two of those were against draft decks — actually there was a fourth but my opponent was playing his Standard deck with Remove Soul and Wrath of God. Here is the deck I built; I won’t be able to give you the full card pool but I will list some of the notable sideboard cards and standouts in the colors I did not play:

Conflux Prerelease Deck One

Wall of Reverance
Meglonoth
Wild Leotau
Knotvine Mystic
Naya Charm
Aven Trailblazer
Gleam of Resistance
Rhox Meditant
Knight of the Skyward Eye
Ember Weaver
Spearbreaker Behemoth
2 Rhox Charger
Druid of the Anima
Topan Ascetic
Valeron Outlander
Sigil Blessing
Armillary Sphere
Bloodpyre Elemental
Magma Spray
Fiery Fall
Hissing Iguanar
Bant Charm
Island
3 Mountain
4 Plains
6 Forest
Naya Panorama
Rupture Spire
Ancient Ziggurat

Sideboard:
(These are basically cards I thought about playing, would consider playing that color for, or that I actually sided in.)

Scavenger Drake
Grixis Battlemage
Salvage Titan
Blister Beetle
Drag Down

Manaforce Mace (Lot’s of people seemed to like this card but I couldn’t get on board with the casting cost)
Mana Cylix (I would have played this if I didn’t already have great mana)
Obelisk of Jund

Worldly Counsel
Frontline Sage (Absurd card!)
Resounding Wave

Naturalize

2 Lapse of Certainty
Paragon of the Amesha
Angelsong
Asha’s Favor (I am not a big fan of Auras but I really wanted to give this a try on Big Blamps)
Nacatl Hunt-Pride (I think I should have played this. It was a nice finisher in plenty of games I watched on the day)

Exploding Borders
Nacatl Outlander

Skyward Eye Prophets

Dragonsoul Knight
Where Ancients Tread

Esper Comorants
Sphinx Summoner
Sludge Strider

Suicidal Charge (FYI, this card is apparently quite good)
Blightning

Round 4: Brett McGarry

Brett was running hot coming into the final round of the tournament and was thrilled to have done as well as he had to this point. His deck was terrific and he played pretty well despite being very nervous about playing me — which was flattering but not warranted. His Dawnray Archer worked me over real good in game one — I have never seen that card be as effective as it was in this game — but eventually a combination of fatties and Hissing Iguanar left him choosing between the lesser of two evils every attack step.

The more I mulligan, the more games of Magic I win. Mike has been talking up mulligans quite a bit over on 5WFlores and it is really the easiest way to measurably improve your game. Don’t keep hands that don’t or can’t do anything. I kept a hand with a two drop, 4 lands, and two land cyclers despite knowing I should pitch it back. The deck had been performing seamlessly for throughout and I just told myself that good cards would come — a classic indicator that I am about to lose a game.

I did play the Spearbreaker on turn 6 but I also drew few other action cards. Brett had O-Ring for the fattie and tore me apart with his Bant guys and a difficult-to-kill Elspeth.

In game three I felt like I was always one turn away from taking control but Brett’s deck kept exalting his fliers and I could not squeeze through enough damage to kill Elspeth. My sideboarded Naturalize took out an O-Ring midcombat but the creature under it was not exactly a game changer — I think it was Aven Trailblazer — and Brett took the first pack from the bounty that was on my head. He also won the first flight of the day despite being incredibly nervous during the final turns of the game when it looked like he would win with his friends peering over his shoulder.

Good games Brett and congrats on your first tournament win!

Round 3: Kesley Weeks

My deck fired on all cylinders this round with Knotvine Mystic powering out Meglonoth and basically ending the game in three swings. The card is absurdly unfair. I thought it seemed fine when it was previewed but it is just a total game changer. Your opponent can never reasonably attack you on the ground — and I even had Spearbreaker backup for him — and they are forced to play into your combat tricks with gang blocks.

Game two was fun as I had Topan Ascetic and one of my Rhox Chargers as well as a Bant Charm for his foily Cliffrunner Behemoth. I also got to parlay Druid of the Anima into a turn three Rhox Meditant. The fun part was using a mid combat Glean of Resistance. He decided to not block the 2/2 which was able to do the final 10 damage all by itself.

Glean of Resistance — and all the basic landcyclers — are some of my favorite cards in the set.

Glean was used over the course of the day as an ersatz Fireball with the Ascetic, to counter the tapping mode of Naya Charm, and to regularlly assure Knotvine Mystic mana on turn three. Sylvan Bounty is one of the only good answers to a Banefire, and Fiery Fall was such a good removal spell for me on the day that I was usually cycling the Glean in order to find the Mountain I needed for Fiery Fall.

Updates did not quite go as planned yesterday. I had hoped to post updates throughout the day and in between rounds of my flights. The first update went up pretty fast but after that it was pretty much non-stop Magic for the next 11 hours as I pitted my Sealed Deck against other competitors, giving away a Conflux booster if I lost a tournament match or gunslinging game.

My opening Sealed Deck aquitted me quite nicely giving up a minimum of packs losing only to Elspeth in the final round and a couple of draft decks that could easilly out-tempo a Sealed Deck.

I played a handful of Constructed matches, borrowing a red Burn deck from someone who’s name I have embarassingly misplaced. I lost one game to five color but it incinerated the rest of the challengers — including a timely rip of Demigod of Revenge to squeak out a win against an opponent at 10.

Anyway… I am going to catch up on my updates while flying home to catch the Superbowl. There is wireless Internet access on the flight which is both cool and bizarre. Cool because I can chat, email, and update via my iPhone (good thing I did not bring a laptop because, let’s face facts, I would just be running midair Modos) but bizarre because the plane I am on is not exactly a model of cutting edge aviation technology.

The armrests basically have plates with the no smoking symbol soldered over the ashtrays and thumbwheel controls for the audio programming. Basically it is like being on a bus that is capable of time travel.

Round 2: Joe Garcia

“Its Murphy’s Law of tournaments,” laughed Joe Garcia as we sat down to play. Joe and I had been talking between rounds and he relayed a win that included Wooly Thoctar, Banefire, and Titanic Ultimatum. “If you talk to someone about a deck you will play them a round later.”

In game one we traded blow back and forth with Wild Leotaus on each side. Court Archers game him an edge in the race and by the time I tried to slow things down he was able to finish me off with Banefire.

The second game underscored the abilty of Wall of Reverance to change a game. I was gaining between 5 and 7 life a turn buy neither Joe or I were getting much damage through. Joe had O-Ringed my Behemoth so the Meglonoth was mortal, which meant neither of us was really attacking. I was well over 50 life and waiting on Naya Charm which showed up at some point to lock up the game.

Game three saw a turn four Meglonoth followed up by Rhox Charger. The game notation consists of maybe four pen strokes.

2-0 on the day so far against Banefire.

Round 1: Andrew Hurwitz

There is not really much to say about this round. Andrew seemed like a really nice guy who did not get very good draws in either of our games. I had been on the fence about Knotvine Mystic coming into playing round one but quickly became a believer. Hitting your Shard colored three drops on turn three has gotten much easier with the addition of the Ziggaraut, Spire,and basic landcycling.

The Mystic came down and I had six mana to work with from turn four on in both games. Even without a six drop it was fine for playing a Rhox Charger and having two mana to cycle or play Sigil Blessing.

After the match Andrew good naturedly showed me the Banefire he never had a chance to play in either game.