I ended up 11-4 overall at GP Vegas this weekend on GW Elves. ended 6-3 day 1, and went 5-1 on day two to finish 143rd which cashed. I know there were two other elf players from Kansas City that also day 2'd on similar lists.
Round 2 EldraziTron 2-1, 2-0
Game 1 Played turn 4 Chord to snatch Vizier, dropped Ezuri and his life total.
Game 2 Turn 3 Tron into All is Dust, T4 Ballista on 4, didn't go well from there.
Game 3 Hit Tajuru Preserver and 2nd Archdruid off of T3 Collected Company. Drop Ezuri and swing for lethal. Opponent reveals double All is Dust in hand.
Round 3 Burn 2-1, 3-0
Game 1 Nut handed by burn.
Game 2 Nut handed by elves with Mystic, double Nettle, Heritage, double Archdruid t2.
Game 3 Chord for Vizier t4 to combo off, chord in Ezuri for lethal.
Round 4 Scapeshift 1-2, 3-1
Game 1 Combo off and explain that I can respond to bolt on Vizier by untapping again.
Game 2 Turn 3 Anger of the Gods followed by turn 4 Primeval Titan.
Game 3 Attempted to combo with double Devoted Druid and Ezuri, but Ezuri was bolted in response to overrun. Scapeshift for lethal the following turn.
Round 4 Gifts Storm 1-2, 3-2
Game 1 Turn 3 storm.
Game 2 Turn 4 elfball.
Game 3 Fetched for a forest, Collected Company hitting Archdruid Nettle end of turn. Draw Eidolon of Rhetoric, realize I can't cast without any white mana sources. Proceed to get stormed. Probably only blatant misplay of tournament.
Ad Nauseum 2-0, 4-2
Game 1 Double suspended Lotus Bloom. Next turn opponent draws card for turn and forgets to tick down suspend counters. Judge confirms missed triggers. He dies turn before they come off suspend. Opponent clearly on tilt.
Game 2 Opponent has Phyrexian Unlife. Cast Collected Company at end of turn, hit 2nd Archdruid and Dwynen's Elite. Opponent taps out to cast Silence during my upkeep, Chord in response for Reclamation Sage, blow up Unlife, drop Ezuri and swing.
Jeskai Control 0-2, 4-3
Literal worst matchup. Most of my elves die within 1-2 turns, no instants resolved.
8-Rack 2-0, 5-3
Game 1 opponent groans at turn 1 elf. He keeps talking about how bad the matchup is as I keep playing elves and once he finally plays rack, I keep myself at 2-3 cards until he is dead to swings.
Game 2 He casts Smallpox, I respond by Chording for Tajuru Preserver which puts him way behind. He manages to land 3 racks, but I just keep 3 cards in hand, playing every card I draw. Ended at 20 life.
Burn 2-1, 6-3
Game 1 Opponent asks if I really am interested in playing in day 2. I am. Proceeds to nut hand me.
Game 2 He has me dead to rights with double Eidolon on board, I’m at 5 life, and he has Boros Charm in hand. I topdeck two Chords in a row to snag Vizier and Ezuri. He doesn’t Path my Devoted Druid in response to initial Chord, dies to infinitely powerful mana dork.
Game 3 land triple Devoted Druid t3 following a t2 Archdruid. He taps out to kill the archdruid and play new Goblin Guide, and swings in with double Goblin Guide. I proceed to play Ezuri and kill him. Had to explain how to combo without Vizier and only Devoted Druid with Ezuri.
Day 2
EldraziTron 2-1, 7-3
Game 1 I throw my hand to the board and cast Collected Company hitting no Ezuri. We sit for around 5-6 turns waiting for All is Dust or Ezuri to finish our board stall. I draw CoCo, hit double Visionary, still don’t draw Ezuri. Two turns draw Chord to get Ezuri for win. Nerve-wracking.
Game 2 turn 3 All is Dust, turn 4 Smasher, turn 5 All is Dust.
Game 3 topdeck Phyrexian Revoker on his Expedition map to keep him off tron for two extra turns. (Plays ballista next turn to kill revoker, next turn cracks map). Kill him turn before he can cast All is Dust.
GW Tron 2-1, 8-3
Game 1 Opening hand: 2 lands, dork, Archdruid, triple Chord. T1 Dork, T2 Archdruid, T3 Chord for Devoted at end of his turn, untap Chord for Vizier, Ezuri, swing. Only see Tron pieces, assume EldraziTron, boarded in Tajuru instead of Selfess.
Game 2 Turn 4 Ugin, CoCo in response only hitting 3 power on his 4 loyalty Ugin. Then comes Karn helping finish what’s left of my board.
Game 3 Now boarded correctly. Come out swinging, he plays T1 Brushland so I know he is going to be too slow. I drop elves and kill him before he can get Tron online.
Dredge 2-1, 9-3
Game 1 Mull to an ok 5 with one land and one dork and a bunch of two drops. He has turn 1 darkblast, I let him dredge a couple turns and I scoop.
Game 2 I chord for Scavenging Ooze end of his turn 2, proceed to eat everything in sight.
Game 3 He mulls to 5, repeat game 2. Match over in less than 10 minutes.
EldraziTron 2-0, 10-3
Game 1 Build a massive board to make her T3 Reality Smasher look tiny.
Game 2 T1 Grafdigger’s Cage, dork, T2 Chalice on 1, Archdruid, T3 Thought-Knot Seer taking my Chord (???), play 2nd Archdruid and dump hand of 2 drops, T4 Ratchet Bomb. She gets Ratchet bomb to two, but has to crack it in response to topdeck Ezuri. Still dies to original dork and two warrior tokens after floating Archdruid mana. Ask her why she took Chord and she realized her mistake after she had chosen it. We worked through game and she would have been able to survive to cast All is Dust if she had chosen Archdruid instead.
Naya Zoo 2-1, 11-3
Game 1 opponent puts on a super fast clock and beats me down with Voice of Resurgence, two Nacatls and a massive Knight of the Reliquary.
Game 2 I sneak in a Devoted Druid, Chord for three in my mainphase and combo off with Vizier. Drop Ezuri and swing for lethal. Reveals Path in hand and didn’t consider Vizier off Chord for three.
Game 3 Build massive board to stall, Chording in Ezuri to regen block. Ezuri gets Pathed, two turns later find new Ezuri and Archdruid off of CoCo and swing for lethal after untap.
Grixis Shadow 1-2, 11-4
Game 1 He’s on play, Inquisitions one dork, then pushes my 2nd dork, Thoughtseize taking my CoCo, pushes my Dwynen that yields no token. Casts Death’s Shadow and swings with no response.
Game 2 I land double Devoted Druid, Chameleon Colossus, then drop Ezuri and explain the double Devoted Ezuri Combo.
Game 3 He misses 2nd land drop so I dump my hand. He then topdecks 2nd and 3rd land to cast Anger. Not much to do there.
Overall there isn’t a single change I would have made to the deck. Maindeck was perfect, sideboard was perfect. Losses were to bad matchups in Valakut and Jeskai, a 50-50 matchup in Gifts that I could have probably forced game 3, and Grixis Shadow that he just drew the nuts. Beat a seemingly poor matchup in EldraziTron 3 times, and beat other very tough matchups as well. Vizier combo came in clutch many times, and didn’t feel clunky. Devoted demanded removal many times, leaving other elves free. Boarding is still tricky at this point, and I don’t think I ever boarded out the combo which I guess a lot of people do in certain matchups. Boarding in is easy, boarding out is hard. Death’s Shadow I didn’t have nearly as much sideboard hate as I normally do, but in testing the matchup felt very one-sided unless they can get massive amounts of disruption and removal or an unanswered sweeper. Very few other decks I saw around that I don’t think I could reasonably beat, or had a sideboard answer to. Definitely think Vizier is the place to be in elves right now.
Round 2: Grixis Delver 0-2
G1: Two flipped Delvers on T3 with two Horizon Canopies on my side spells disaster.
G2: One flipped Delver and three Horizon Canopies doesn’t fare much better.
1-1
Round 5: Sultai 2-0
G1/2: My opponent kept playing creatures and hardly played any removal. If you want to know how to lose to elves: This. Is. How. You. Lose. To. Elves.
4-1
Round 6: Abzan Company 2-1
Game 1: Turn 3 CoCo into Viscera and Anafenza, Turn 4 Chord for Finks. My turn 4 double Archdruid Triple Shaman was kind of depressing against 10,000 life.
Game 2/3: Put full on pressure and had lethal on turn 4.
5-1
Quarterfinals:
Junk:
Had a movie to go to and the prize support did not warrant continuing to play.
Sorry, this write-up isn't as eloquent as usual, but on to the conclusion.
Conclusions on recent changes:
1. I have been testing Sylvan Messenger at my local shop, and it has been doing well for me against the two guys who play Grixis and one that plays Jund. It can't be hit by Inquisition, and it can't be countered (with Cavern in play) by Grixis. It also puts an immediate body on the board to block or put on quick pressure. I didn't draw it at States, but it has been good to me otherwise.
2. Visionary has also marginally helped against the attrition matchups and there doesn't seem to be anything else I needed in this flex spot at the moment.
3. Chameleon Colossus was the MVP of the day. Each time I saw him he did great work. I bought a second one the night before, and it was amazing. Drawing a second copy wasn't a problem and I was always happy to see it. I had considered Thrun, but Colossus has better synergy with Sylvan Messenger.
4. The only time I missed Dismember was against Abzan Company, but I still feel like I have enough answers for it. Siding in Dismember has always been a little awkward, and I still had Scavenging Ooze and Aven Mindcensor to interact with my opponent.
5. I didn't need Fracturing Gust, but I probably would have if I had beaten Junk in top 8 as there were two Affinity players in the top 4.
Other things of note:
1. This seemed like a fairly comfortable trip into top 8, and I'm happy to have two decent performances this month (Top 8 SCG Regionals).
2. I didn't report about it, but I ended 5-4 at GP Vancouver, losing my win-and-in to Dredge.
3. I tried out Nettle Sentinels recently again, and they are impressive at times. However, I still prefer my Essence Wardens. If playing Lead the Stampede or a number of Visionary, play Nettle. Otherwise, you might try Essence Warden.
I feel like I say this about every list I make, but I really like this one. My last couple of lists were weaker against the attrition matches with GBx and Grixis, but this one has felt very comfortable in those matches. I will be traveling to GP San Antonio in a few weeks(with teammates on Affinity and Death Shadow Jund). If anyone is going to be there, let me know and we can try to meet up and talk about elves or anything MtG.
Also, I have started a Facebook page called Slaywithfury Gaming for updates on events I'm attending. I will keep it updated as rounds go through the tournament, current and past decklists, and it's an easy and quick way to contact me. I will continue to try and be active on here, but Facebook is easier and faster to access.
It's so hard to get hold of RIP. Is it worth it to use 2 Scavenging Ooze in my SB instead? I feel like it's too slow for Dredge. :/
I'm testing Loaming Shaman and it does some work against Dredge. In response to Narcomoeba triggers I can Chord for Loaming and return their graveyard back to their library.
I am very interested in your list. It will be nice if you also put a short summary of the tournament.
I'm home now and got some rest, and now back to the drawing board! I decided it will be easiest to separate this into two posts. One for the tournament, and a second for things going forward. I've got some changes already in mind for the deck, but I was really happy with the list I ran this weekend. I ended 11-4 overall for the 2nd GP in a row which felt a little disappointing after starting 8-1.
As you all know I went on stream Day 2 against Phil Napoli, and I will openly say that was not my best moment. I don't usually let things get to me, but I got very nervous being on stream and did not play my best. Game 1, as soon as I scooped I remembered the CoCo in my hand and if I had hit Spellskite I could have likely swung the game in my favor. Game 2 I still feel confident in my opening hand because I did not expect a Dismember and there were plenty of draws that would have been good, but I drew a lot of high drop cards. I also should not have bluffed with an attack that cost me my Dwynen's Elite, but the Grafdigger's Cage he played the turn before I found mana for CoCo sealed my fate.
Day 2 pairings
RD 10 Grixis Delver 2-0
RD 11 Naya Burn 2-1
RD 12 Affinity 0-2 (Turn 3'd by lethal Inkmoth G1 and G2)
RD 13 Infect 0-2 (Phil Napoli on stream)
RD 14 Infect 2-1
RD 15 Jund 0-2 (Steve Rubin; applied a lot of pressure, but mainboard Anger G1 and heavy removal with Bob G2 got it.)
I won about half of my games with Shaman of the Pack and the other half With Ezuri, Renegade Leader.
I grinded a lot of testing in the previous month and it certainly paid off. I tested against Infect and Dredge a lot, and I think it showed with my 5-1 record against infect. I even lost 5/6 game 1s against infect and went on to win games 2 and 3 in 4/5 of those matches. When I playtest I usually play my list versus every list I can imagine and get my hands on, but also try and play every list versus someone playing my elves deck. This allows me to understand how each deck tries to win and what they will try to do to stop me from winning. The deck I struggled against the most was Affinity, but both losses had nut hands that I'm not sure any sideboard or mainboard changes could have changed those results.
1
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Heritage Druid
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Dwynen's Elite
4 Devoted Druid
2 Elvish Visionary
1 Vizier of Remedies
4 Elvish Archdruid
3 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
4 Collected company
4 Chord of Calling
Lands (18)
4 Horizon Canopy
4 Cavern of Souls
3 Windswept Heath
3 Razorverge Thicket
3 Forest
1 Temple Garden
2 Chameleon Colossus
2 Essence Warden
1 Elvish Champion
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Tajuru Preserver
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Mirror Entity
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Spellskite
Round 1 Bye
Round 2 EldraziTron 2-1, 2-0
Game 1 Played turn 4 Chord to snatch Vizier, dropped Ezuri and his life total.
Game 2 Turn 3 Tron into All is Dust, T4 Ballista on 4, didn't go well from there.
Game 3 Hit Tajuru Preserver and 2nd Archdruid off of T3 Collected Company. Drop Ezuri and swing for lethal. Opponent reveals double All is Dust in hand.
Round 3 Burn 2-1, 3-0
Game 1 Nut handed by burn.
Game 2 Nut handed by elves with Mystic, double Nettle, Heritage, double Archdruid t2.
Game 3 Chord for Vizier t4 to combo off, chord in Ezuri for lethal.
Round 4 Scapeshift 1-2, 3-1
Game 1 Combo off and explain that I can respond to bolt on Vizier by untapping again.
Game 2 Turn 3 Anger of the Gods followed by turn 4 Primeval Titan.
Game 3 Attempted to combo with double Devoted Druid and Ezuri, but Ezuri was bolted in response to overrun. Scapeshift for lethal the following turn.
Round 4 Gifts Storm 1-2, 3-2
Game 1 Turn 3 storm.
Game 2 Turn 4 elfball.
Game 3 Fetched for a forest, Collected Company hitting Archdruid Nettle end of turn. Draw Eidolon of Rhetoric, realize I can't cast without any white mana sources. Proceed to get stormed. Probably only blatant misplay of tournament.
Ad Nauseum 2-0, 4-2
Game 1 Double suspended Lotus Bloom. Next turn opponent draws card for turn and forgets to tick down suspend counters. Judge confirms missed triggers. He dies turn before they come off suspend. Opponent clearly on tilt.
Game 2 Opponent has Phyrexian Unlife. Cast Collected Company at end of turn, hit 2nd Archdruid and Dwynen's Elite. Opponent taps out to cast Silence during my upkeep, Chord in response for Reclamation Sage, blow up Unlife, drop Ezuri and swing.
Jeskai Control 0-2, 4-3
Literal worst matchup. Most of my elves die within 1-2 turns, no instants resolved.
8-Rack 2-0, 5-3
Game 1 opponent groans at turn 1 elf. He keeps talking about how bad the matchup is as I keep playing elves and once he finally plays rack, I keep myself at 2-3 cards until he is dead to swings.
Game 2 He casts Smallpox, I respond by Chording for Tajuru Preserver which puts him way behind. He manages to land 3 racks, but I just keep 3 cards in hand, playing every card I draw. Ended at 20 life.
Burn 2-1, 6-3
Game 1 Opponent asks if I really am interested in playing in day 2. I am. Proceeds to nut hand me.
Game 2 He has me dead to rights with double Eidolon on board, I’m at 5 life, and he has Boros Charm in hand. I topdeck two Chords in a row to snag Vizier and Ezuri. He doesn’t Path my Devoted Druid in response to initial Chord, dies to infinitely powerful mana dork.
Game 3 land triple Devoted Druid t3 following a t2 Archdruid. He taps out to kill the archdruid and play new Goblin Guide, and swings in with double Goblin Guide. I proceed to play Ezuri and kill him. Had to explain how to combo without Vizier and only Devoted Druid with Ezuri.
Day 2
EldraziTron 2-1, 7-3
Game 1 I throw my hand to the board and cast Collected Company hitting no Ezuri. We sit for around 5-6 turns waiting for All is Dust or Ezuri to finish our board stall. I draw CoCo, hit double Visionary, still don’t draw Ezuri. Two turns draw Chord to get Ezuri for win. Nerve-wracking.
Game 2 turn 3 All is Dust, turn 4 Smasher, turn 5 All is Dust.
Game 3 topdeck Phyrexian Revoker on his Expedition map to keep him off tron for two extra turns. (Plays ballista next turn to kill revoker, next turn cracks map). Kill him turn before he can cast All is Dust.
GW Tron 2-1, 8-3
Game 1 Opening hand: 2 lands, dork, Archdruid, triple Chord. T1 Dork, T2 Archdruid, T3 Chord for Devoted at end of his turn, untap Chord for Vizier, Ezuri, swing. Only see Tron pieces, assume EldraziTron, boarded in Tajuru instead of Selfess.
Game 2 Turn 4 Ugin, CoCo in response only hitting 3 power on his 4 loyalty Ugin. Then comes Karn helping finish what’s left of my board.
Game 3 Now boarded correctly. Come out swinging, he plays T1 Brushland so I know he is going to be too slow. I drop elves and kill him before he can get Tron online.
Dredge 2-1, 9-3
Game 1 Mull to an ok 5 with one land and one dork and a bunch of two drops. He has turn 1 darkblast, I let him dredge a couple turns and I scoop.
Game 2 I chord for Scavenging Ooze end of his turn 2, proceed to eat everything in sight.
Game 3 He mulls to 5, repeat game 2. Match over in less than 10 minutes.
EldraziTron 2-0, 10-3
Game 1 Build a massive board to make her T3 Reality Smasher look tiny.
Game 2 T1 Grafdigger’s Cage, dork, T2 Chalice on 1, Archdruid, T3 Thought-Knot Seer taking my Chord (???), play 2nd Archdruid and dump hand of 2 drops, T4 Ratchet Bomb. She gets Ratchet bomb to two, but has to crack it in response to topdeck Ezuri. Still dies to original dork and two warrior tokens after floating Archdruid mana. Ask her why she took Chord and she realized her mistake after she had chosen it. We worked through game and she would have been able to survive to cast All is Dust if she had chosen Archdruid instead.
Naya Zoo 2-1, 11-3
Game 1 opponent puts on a super fast clock and beats me down with Voice of Resurgence, two Nacatls and a massive Knight of the Reliquary.
Game 2 I sneak in a Devoted Druid, Chord for three in my mainphase and combo off with Vizier. Drop Ezuri and swing for lethal. Reveals Path in hand and didn’t consider Vizier off Chord for three.
Game 3 Build massive board to stall, Chording in Ezuri to regen block. Ezuri gets Pathed, two turns later find new Ezuri and Archdruid off of CoCo and swing for lethal after untap.
Grixis Shadow 1-2, 11-4
Game 1 He’s on play, Inquisitions one dork, then pushes my 2nd dork, Thoughtseize taking my CoCo, pushes my Dwynen that yields no token. Casts Death’s Shadow and swings with no response.
Game 2 I land double Devoted Druid, Chameleon Colossus, then drop Ezuri and explain the double Devoted Ezuri Combo.
Game 3 He misses 2nd land drop so I dump my hand. He then topdecks 2nd and 3rd land to cast Anger. Not much to do there.
Overall there isn’t a single change I would have made to the deck. Maindeck was perfect, sideboard was perfect. Losses were to bad matchups in Valakut and Jeskai, a 50-50 matchup in Gifts that I could have probably forced game 3, and Grixis Shadow that he just drew the nuts. Beat a seemingly poor matchup in EldraziTron 3 times, and beat other very tough matchups as well. Vizier combo came in clutch many times, and didn’t feel clunky. Devoted demanded removal many times, leaving other elves free. Boarding is still tricky at this point, and I don’t think I ever boarded out the combo which I guess a lot of people do in certain matchups. Boarding in is easy, boarding out is hard. Death’s Shadow I didn’t have nearly as much sideboard hate as I normally do, but in testing the matchup felt very one-sided unless they can get massive amounts of disruption and removal or an unanswered sweeper. Very few other decks I saw around that I don’t think I could reasonably beat, or had a sideboard answer to. Definitely think Vizier is the place to be in elves right now.
1
The notable changes are dropping Dismember and Lead the Stampede from the board. Then adding two Visionarys into the main, and adding a second Chameleon Colossus, two Sylvan Messenger, and two Fracturing Gust to the sideboard. I’ll come back to these changes later.
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Heritage Druid
4 Essence Warden
1 Elves of Deep Shadow
4 Dwynen's Elite
2 Elvish Visionary
1 Selfless Spirit
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Shaman of the Pack
2 Ezuri, Renegade Leader
4 Collected Company
4 Chord of Calling
Lands (18)
4 Cavern of Souls
4 Gilt-Leaf Palace
4 Horizon Canopy
4 Forest
2 Razorverge Thicket
2 Chameleon Colossus
2 Sylvan Messenger
1 Elvish Champion
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Spellskite
1 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Reclamation Sage
2 Fracturing Gust
G1: Turn one bird, turn two Utopia Sprawl and a second bird. Turn three he killed off a dork to keep me off CoCo. Turn four he cast Inferno Titan trying to ping three creature, which I responded to with a Chord for an Archdruid. Play Ezuri from hand and it’s over.
G2: He play a T1 bird so I play a T2 Archdruid, T3 Collected Company hitting Shaman and Dwynen’s Elite to beat him down quickly.
1-0
Round 2: Grixis Delver 0-2
G1: Two flipped Delvers on T3 with two Horizon Canopies on my side spells disaster.
G2: One flipped Delver and three Horizon Canopies doesn’t fare much better.
1-1
Round 3: Eldrazitron 2-0
G1: Turn one Tron land and Chrome Star, dork. Turn 2 2nd Tron land and Star #2, no 2nd land play Essence Warden. Turn 3 Eldrazi Temple (sigh of relief from me) and Thought Knot hitting CoCo, I play Heritage Druid into Archdruid. Turn 4 he plays Ballista for two, then tries to ping the Heritage Druid down (I have to break the bad news to him about what Archdruid does). He then sacrifices the ballista to finish off Heritage Druid, but Archdruid lets me dump my hand, Chord at the end of his next turn for Ezuri to finish the game.
G2: Turn 1 Tron Land and Expedition Map, dork. Turn 2 Tron land 2 and Star, Archdruid. Turn 3 Ballista for one, 3 more dorks. Turn 4 Collective Brutality to kill Archdruid and strip an instant, CoCo in response, hit Archdruid, then Chord for Ezuri. Archdruid lives and reveal a lonely Shaman in my hand.
2-1
Round 4: Red/Black Control 2-0
G1: Turn 2 Archdruid into turn 3 playing my hand with Chord available spells disaster.
G2: Turn 3 Anger of the Gods hurts, but playing a Chameleon Colossus quickly puts pressure on him. He plays a Goblin Rabblemaster to block, then a Goblin Dark Dwellers, but Colossus then turns his sights on my opponent’s life. (Opponent revealed two Fatal Push and Maelstrom Pulsefrom his hand after the game)
3-1
Round 5: Sultai 2-0
G1/2: My opponent kept playing creatures and hardly played any removal. If you want to know how to lose to elves: This. Is. How. You. Lose. To. Elves.
4-1
Round 6: Abzan Company 2-1
Game 1: Turn 3 CoCo into Viscera and Anafenza, Turn 4 Chord for Finks. My turn 4 double Archdruid Triple Shaman was kind of depressing against 10,000 life.
Game 2/3: Put full on pressure and had lethal on turn 4.
5-1
Quarterfinals:
Junk:
Had a movie to go to and the prize support did not warrant continuing to play.
Sorry, this write-up isn't as eloquent as usual, but on to the conclusion.
Conclusions on recent changes:
1. I have been testing Sylvan Messenger at my local shop, and it has been doing well for me against the two guys who play Grixis and one that plays Jund. It can't be hit by Inquisition, and it can't be countered (with Cavern in play) by Grixis. It also puts an immediate body on the board to block or put on quick pressure. I didn't draw it at States, but it has been good to me otherwise.
2. Visionary has also marginally helped against the attrition matchups and there doesn't seem to be anything else I needed in this flex spot at the moment.
3. Chameleon Colossus was the MVP of the day. Each time I saw him he did great work. I bought a second one the night before, and it was amazing. Drawing a second copy wasn't a problem and I was always happy to see it. I had considered Thrun, but Colossus has better synergy with Sylvan Messenger.
4. The only time I missed Dismember was against Abzan Company, but I still feel like I have enough answers for it. Siding in Dismember has always been a little awkward, and I still had Scavenging Ooze and Aven Mindcensor to interact with my opponent.
5. I didn't need Fracturing Gust, but I probably would have if I had beaten Junk in top 8 as there were two Affinity players in the top 4.
Other things of note:
1. This seemed like a fairly comfortable trip into top 8, and I'm happy to have two decent performances this month (Top 8 SCG Regionals).
2. I didn't report about it, but I ended 5-4 at GP Vancouver, losing my win-and-in to Dredge.
3. I tried out Nettle Sentinels recently again, and they are impressive at times. However, I still prefer my Essence Wardens. If playing Lead the Stampede or a number of Visionary, play Nettle. Otherwise, you might try Essence Warden.
I feel like I say this about every list I make, but I really like this one. My last couple of lists were weaker against the attrition matches with GBx and Grixis, but this one has felt very comfortable in those matches. I will be traveling to GP San Antonio in a few weeks(with teammates on Affinity and Death Shadow Jund). If anyone is going to be there, let me know and we can try to meet up and talk about elves or anything MtG.
Also, I have started a Facebook page called Slaywithfury Gaming for updates on events I'm attending. I will keep it updated as rounds go through the tournament, current and past decklists, and it's an easy and quick way to contact me. I will continue to try and be active on here, but Facebook is easier and faster to access.
1
I'm testing Loaming Shaman and it does some work against Dredge. In response to Narcomoeba triggers I can Chord for Loaming and return their graveyard back to their library.
1
Brushland can be used instead of Horizon Canopy. The downside is it can't draw you a card, but it can tap for painless mana.
1
I'm home now and got some rest, and now back to the drawing board! I decided it will be easiest to separate this into two posts. One for the tournament, and a second for things going forward. I've got some changes already in mind for the deck, but I was really happy with the list I ran this weekend. I ended 11-4 overall for the 2nd GP in a row which felt a little disappointing after starting 8-1.
As you all know I went on stream Day 2 against Phil Napoli, and I will openly say that was not my best moment. I don't usually let things get to me, but I got very nervous being on stream and did not play my best. Game 1, as soon as I scooped I remembered the CoCo in my hand and if I had hit Spellskite I could have likely swung the game in my favor. Game 2 I still feel confident in my opening hand because I did not expect a Dismember and there were plenty of draws that would have been good, but I drew a lot of high drop cards. I also should not have bluffed with an attack that cost me my Dwynen's Elite, but the Grafdigger's Cage he played the turn before I found mana for CoCo sealed my fate.
Day 2 pairings
RD 10 Grixis Delver 2-0
RD 11 Naya Burn 2-1
RD 12 Affinity 0-2 (Turn 3'd by lethal Inkmoth G1 and G2)
RD 13 Infect 0-2 (Phil Napoli on stream)
RD 14 Infect 2-1
RD 15 Jund 0-2 (Steve Rubin; applied a lot of pressure, but mainboard Anger G1 and heavy removal with Bob G2 got it.)
I won about half of my games with Shaman of the Pack and the other half With Ezuri, Renegade Leader.
I grinded a lot of testing in the previous month and it certainly paid off. I tested against Infect and Dredge a lot, and I think it showed with my 5-1 record against infect. I even lost 5/6 game 1s against infect and went on to win games 2 and 3 in 4/5 of those matches. When I playtest I usually play my list versus every list I can imagine and get my hands on, but also try and play every list versus someone playing my elves deck. This allows me to understand how each deck tries to win and what they will try to do to stop me from winning. The deck I struggled against the most was Affinity, but both losses had nut hands that I'm not sure any sideboard or mainboard changes could have changed those results.
3
RD 1 Affinity (Loss)
RD 2 Abzan Midrange
RD 3 Infect
RD 4 RW Prison
RD 5 Affinity
RD 6 Infect
RD 7 Infect
RD 8 Infect
RD 9 UB Mill
I'll post a deck list for sure and a full write-up if anyone wants after day 2.