Not having played any standard for a few weeks left me feeling a little lost as to where to start. Thankfully I did some testing with Jeff Moseley the Saturday before the Invitational and settled on running either Mono Red Aggro or Mono Blue. Unfortunately, while we were testing SCG Providence was in full swing. The two big winners? Mono Red and Mono Blue. Well I am glad we spent all day testing when I could have just picked up the 1st or 2nd place deck from the week before.
Since Mono Blue made first I figured it would have a bigger target on its head - the best ways to counter mono blue are UW control and Mono Black. Thankfully mono red can slide underneath both of these decks. I wanted to be as aggressive as possible. I saw Tom Ross's build after his article went live during the week but having never played his version of the deck I thought it would be safer to stick with mine. After a little bit of tweaking I arrived at the following:
Standard Decklist
Maindeck:
Creatures (27)
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4
Foundry Street Denizen
3
Legion Loyalist
4
Rakdos Cackler
4 Burning Tree Emissary
4 Firefist Striker
4 Ash Zealot
Lands (17)
17 Mountain
Spells (16)
4
Madcap Skills
4
Lightning Strike
4
Shock
4
Titan's Strength
The sideboard was interesting because I had no idea when I wanted to bring in Eidolon of the Great Revel, so I just cut it for Gore House Chain Walker which I really like against the Jund matchup since it bashes though Sylvan Caryatid. It also increased my Burning Tree Emissary nut draws. The rest of the sideboard is pretty straight forward.
The best cards by far were the 4 searing blood and the 4 skullcrack. They both came in almost every round.
Sideboard:
3 Gore House Chain
Walker
4 Searing Blood
4 Skullcrack
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Seismic Stomp
As usual I was on RUG delver because delver, cantrips, counters, stifle and burn just feels so right. I decided to play a 1 of True-Name Nemesis main since it is basically like lightning bolting them every turn. You just get them with it sometimes game 1 and then they sideboard thinking you have more than 1 in your 75. Other than that the maindeck is pretty standard.
Legacy Decklist
Maindeck:
Creatures (12)
4
Delver of Secrets
4
Nimble Mongoose
3
Tarmogoyf
1
True Name Nemesis
Lands (18)
4
Misty Rainforest
4
Scalding Tarn
3
Tropical Island
3 Volcanic Island
4
Wasteland
Spells (30)
4
Brainstorm
4
Daze
1
Spellsnare
4
Force of Will
4
Lightning Bolt
2
Spell Pierce
4
Stifle
2
Forked Bolt
1
Gitaxian Probe
4
Ponder
I decided to be on the red burn spells plan rather than submerge. I think that this plan is very strong against BUG delver which I presumed would be a large part of the metagame (which it was on Sunday in the legacy open). I however didn't play and BUG delver decks at the invitational. I made a last minute change in adding a Gilded Drake since I also thought that sneak and show would be reasonably popular. I thought about playing a 1 of Venser Shaper Savant instead but I had never tested it and didn't have a sweet Russian one with me so I declined.
Sideboard:
1
Grafdigger's Cage
1
Ancient Grudge
1
Envelop
2
Destructive Revelry
2
Spell Pierce
1
Pyroblast
1
Red Elemental Blast
1
Gilded Drake
1
Vendilion Clique
2
Forked Bolt
2
Grim Lavamancer
Friday
Standard
Round 1 (Dan Musser w/ Mono Black) -
G1 - I came out the gate with some one drops and just attacked for 2 each turn. Dan devour fleshed me a couple of times and I used my titans strengths to knock his life total down whenever he tapped out.
G2 - I was devour fleshed again this time several times and a huge desecration demon made it hard for me to stay in the game.
G3 - Searing blood and skullcrack did a lot of heavy lifting as he tried to lean on blockers to close out the game, while I just burnt him out.
Afterwards I apologized for setting him on fire as I know its a bad feeling...He just nodded his head and we chatted for a bit after we were done.
Afterwards I apologized for setting him on fire as I know its a bad feeling...He just nodded his head and we chatted for a bit after we were done.
Round 2 (Greg Price w/ Mono Black) -
G1 - Out the gate I come and I just play dudes and pumps until he is dead.
G2 - He dies after playing Whip of Erebos because I just race him to death.
Round 3 (Derrick Roper w/ RW Burn) -
G1 - I play as many dudes as quickly as possible and I am patient with my burn which I use to burn him out when he tried to EOT Warleaders Helix me. Oh yeah and he played turn 2 maindeck Satyr Firedancer. Shock is a good one.
G2 - He gets to Warleaders Helix me and searing blood me a couple times leading to my very quick death.
G3 - This game is really weird since he is able to control my guys and even play x2 Warleaders Helix gaining 8 life. Then he magma jets me for 2 and keeps both. I presume I am dead but 1 of the cards he kept was Mutavault, so instead he dies...He definitely bricked a little but that keep, keep was really bad.
Round 4 (Wing Chun Yam w/ Mono Black w Green) -
Legacy
Round 5 (Jeff Kruchkow w/ TES -
G1 - Storm my face off on turn 1 with a cabal therapy to make sure the path is clear.
G2 - Storm my face off on turn 2 with a thoughtseize to make sure the path is clear.
Oh yeah, I had the force of will both times...
Oh yeah, I had the force of will both times...
Round 6 (Mason Lange w/ Jund) -
G1 - I constrain his mana with Wasteland and Stifle and he keeps making me gain life with his grove of the burnwillows, this makes it really easy for me to race him.
G2 - I get beat up by an early tarmogoyf with back up punishing fire to machine gun down my grim lavamancer as well as my delver.
G3 - This game was really weird since we were racing and I made the decision to let his bob live for 3 turns so that it would deal him some damage. I knew it was a risky play but he was already at 8 life and I had a burn spell in hand. It ended out working ok but it was a tough couple of turns.
Round 7 (Joe Losett w/ Miracles) -
G1 - He takes over the game early and manages to lock me out. I think I shifted my play pattern too much Game 1 because I knew what he was playing.
G2 - On one EOT I have 8 cards in hand and announce clean-up (I have one threat in play already and a bunch of counters in hand), Joe plays a spell in response letting me not have to discard. Later in the game I manage to ambush his top with a destructive revelry turning off his instant speed miracles and clocking him for 2.
G3 - I manage to destructive revelry him again while he is a little choked on mana.
After the match I say it feels good to avenge Jeff Chen's (Esper3k) loss to him in the top 8 at SCG Dallas. He says - "Oh the Asian Kid." I cannot stop laughing and when I tell him that Jeff is older than he is we both begin to laugh. We also talk about Destructive Revelry which I absolutely love and he says he thinks it is very underplayed as well.
After the match I say it feels good to avenge Jeff Chen's (Esper3k) loss to him in the top 8 at SCG Dallas. He says - "Oh the Asian Kid." I cannot stop laughing and when I tell him that Jeff is older than he is we both begin to laugh. We also talk about Destructive Revelry which I absolutely love and he says he thinks it is very underplayed as well.
Round 8 (Greg Smith w/ Imperial Painter) -
G1 - He takes a bunch of damage from ancient tomb and every time he tries to combo I bolt his painter in response. He made a weird attack one turn with his painters servant while my goose was only a 1/1 but I wasted and stifled my own wasteland to thresh my goose and ambush his painter...I also removed a goose in this game to Force of Will - See it is Blue!
G2 - I burn him out from 18 life with a grim lavamancer, x2 lightning bolts and x1 forked bolt...I was surprised too. Oh yeah my lands were a tropical island and a wasteland so I let his blood moon resolve to help bring on the burn. I also removed a Land this game to Force of Will a pyroblast on my grim lavamancer...that was weird and good.
I had a great showing after day 1. Both my decks felt good and I played well in all of my rounds. The loss to storm was one of those where variance reared its ugly head and there wasn't a lot I could have done to salvage that round.
Saturday
Standard
Round 9 (Chris Vanmeter w/ Jund) -
G1 - I mull to 5 but try and put up a fight, if I had drawn a land a turn sooner I may have been able to race, as it stood instead polukranos just machine gunned my dudes and smacked me in the face. I did kill his turn 2 Sylvan Caraytid on turn 2 with a titan's strength.
G2 - I go 1 drop, shock your elf, 1 drop, shock your elf, 1 drop and he concedes. He never blocks this game for fear of titans strength and because he also needs to develop his mana :).
G3 - Chris mulligans and stumbles on mana. I keep representing titan's strength and he doesn't trade with my 1 drops since he needs to develop his manabase.
Round 10 (Rudy Briksza w/ Jund) -
G1 - He kills me with giant monsters.
G2 - I tempo burn him out.
G3 - One of the weirdest games ever that I almost win despite him having an active Whip of Erebos. I did get to searing blood a Satyr in this game and redirect to Xenegos which felt pretty good. He eventually draws a scavenging ooze off the top to gain a bazillion (10) life and I have no out to that.
This game was very, very interesting and was the first time that I really wanted at least some access to a treachery type effect out the sideboard.
This game was very, very interesting and was the first time that I really wanted at least some access to a treachery type effect out the sideboard.
Round 11 (Thomas w/ Esper) -
G2 - Turn 3 Fiendslayer Paladin. I actually had the firefist striker but he just killed it. GG.
Round 12 (Jessie w/ Burn) -
This goes similarly to how round 3 went. I am not sure who is supposed to win this matchup but I presume it is not me.
Legacy
Round 13 (Bernie w/ UW) -
I lose to restoration angel... This is legacy right?
Round 14 (Trevor w/ Sneaky Show) -
He turn 2 show and tells me both games with counter back-up, one game he also probes me first.
Oh know the wheels are well and truly starting to fall off...
Oh know the wheels are well and truly starting to fall off...
Round 15 (Danny Jessup w/ RUG) -
I play the control role all 3 games and just play around everything patiently (daze, stifle, submerge, etc). I did have a nutty turn one game where I Gitaxian
Probe (paying mana) and draw the perfect card (lightning bolt) so that I can stabilize the game when he is super far ahead. He had a flipped and an unflipped delver and x2 lightning bolts and a stifle in hand. So I went from dead to winning the game. The probe was super good...what he didn't know was that I run 8 burn spells and x2 grim lavamancers. Afterwards he questions me about bringing in grim lavamancer and I try to explain I have to bring them in because I have no submerge and they deal with goyf stand off's as well as delvers. He is pretty unhappy after the match.
Round 16 (Sam Pardee w/ UWR Delver) -
We play 3 games and the 3rd game is a doozy. We both have 5 lands in play on turn 5 in the delver quasi mirror. I keep representing stifle and he doesn't want to crack his fetches. I end up winning a long drawn out game where I deal with all of his cards through REB, Bolt and Ancient Grudge.
Day 2 was a long hard slog but I managed to at least keep my head and close out strong in the end.
After the end of the day, I wound up 26th out of 454 people. Not a bad showing for the largest invitational ever.
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