MTG Salvation

played at the Toronto MCQ on Saturday to a 5-3 finish. The changes I made were -3 kolaghan's command +3 unearth in the main. In the side the changes were -2 wear//tear, -1 molten rain , -1 bontu's last reckoning, +2 blood moon, +2 celestial purge. Here's my report

Round 1 I lost to BW tokens 1-2. Game 1 I mulled to 5 because I couldn't get lands and I feel too far behind. Game 2 I outraced him. Game3 I beleive I mulled to 6 and I fell behind quickly. There wasn't much to this match.

0-1

Round 2 I quickly lose to 5 colour Niv Mizzet reborn. Game 1 I basically didn't bolt the bird and he resolved an early Niv which I couldn't deal with. Game 2 he resolved a turn 2 Wrenn and Sixx, which he top decked and I couldn't deal with. He hit the mana he needed and I couldn't keep up.

0-2, basically dead for top 8 but I wanted to see how I could recover, it actually gets really good from here.

Round 3 I quickly 2-0 storm. Game 1 was a combination of me effectively removing his mana reducers and him not drawing lands to go off without the cost reducers. Game 2 he kept a hand with multiple copies of empty the warrens and he kept having to go off for low numbers just to not die.

1-2, still not in good shape but I tell myself to take it round by round and see what happens

Round 4 I beat Cheerios 2-1. He goes off game 1 and I lose. Game 2 I applied enough pressure to kill him before he could do much. Game 3 he kept a hand with double paradoxical outcome and I run him over

2-2, getting better.

Round 5 I 2-1 Bant infect. Games 1 and 3 I basically kill any creature he has and I win. Him going to 5 cards game 1 helps. Game 2 he gets me with what I can't kill

3-2, winning 3 in a row has me in a great mood so that helped me go further

Round 6 I 2-1 some kind of Dimir prison deck running both 3 mana Lilies, chalice and the Karn, the great creator package. Game 1 I took advantage of him stumbling on lands and I ran him over. Game 2 he has double plague engineer and I can never recover. Game 3 he had several board wipes and ensnaring bridge in hand after I thoughtseized something else important, I believe some kind of walker. Later on I took the bridge. The game plan that game for most of it was just bait the board wipe and not extend into it. I think he got confused and just played stuff that was easy for me to stop

4-2, I'm at a spot where I can prize if I keep winning

Round 7 I very easily crush humans. Game 1 we both mull and he keeps a slow 6 on the play that didn't do much other than a freebooter that he uses to take an unearth instead of discard or removal. Game 2 he mulls to 6 and probably takes more damage than he should before using the deputy of detention I already knew about. He died not long after dropping the deputy

5-2, 27th after 7, with prizing down to top 32. I felt like I could probably draw last round but didn't offer it because my opponent was 35th

Round 8 I got run over by Izzet Phoenix. Game 1 I was close to stabilizing but then he drops Aria of Flame and casts a lot of spells. Game 2 came down to him needing a way to deal the last 2 damage to me and he draws into a second Phoenix

5-3 finish, not bad after an 0-2 start. I finished 36th, so just missed top 32 prizing. an interesting note is that I avoided thopter sword and Hogaak all day, I'm assuming because of my 0-2 start causing me to play people with more losses throughout the day

went into an MCQ yesterday feeling less than confident with the deck and took it to 4-3

round 1 got paired against someone at their first competitive events, he was on some big redish style deck. Deck wasn't good and neither was he really. Game 1 he played poorly and I won off a Liliana, Dreadhorde general after digging deep to draw her when he was dead a while ago, he just didn't realize when to scoop. Game 2 Lyra dawnbringer got me there.

1-0

Round 2 I lose a tight match to mono red 1-2. Game 1 he steamrolled me. Game 2 I kept a hand of 4 lands, duress, thought erasure and baby tef, everything else just fell into place and he scooped to big tef emblem. Game 3 I stripped the tibalt from his hand early due to the no life gain ability. I was getting close to stabilizing but then he got a second tibalt right before I dropped my Lyra and couldn't get there in time.

1-1

round 3 I lost to bant midrange pretty quickly, mostly due to me not knowing how to play it. Played right into his stuff 1 then just couldn't make my way through how to win in game 2.

1-2. probably needed to win out from here

Round 4 I beat UW mill 2-1. He milled me out game 1, I got my Liliana milled out early and didn't really have a way to win that game from there. post board I took on the role of the aggro deck with 3x dreadhorde invasion, 2x Lyra. I swapped the removal for those and more permission. Highlight of post board was drawing out a negate on my turn 2 of game 3 (he was on the play) with a thought erasure, then slamming dreadhorde invasion when he tapped out on his 3.

2-2, looking better.

Lost to gruul warriors 0-2. He curved out really well g1, then I mulled low g2 and got run over

2-3, dead to top 8 and need to get lucky to prize.

round 6 got the no show to go 3-3. Probably not gonna prize after that kind of win

round 7 I win a nail biter against grixis control/midrange 2-1. g1 he basically drew only his copies of nicol bolas, dragon god and nicol bolas, the ravager. I couldn't answer them all. game 2 I duress away his discard spell in hand and jammed dreadhorde invasion on 2, then I ran away with the game. g3 I was stuck on 2 or 3 lands for the longest time after a mull to 5. He got a nicol bolas dragon god and a liliana which he ticked up twice. I drew an elderspell to kill both. I then essentially sacrifice my first baby tef to bounce a token, then bounce the second token with my second baby tef. I was then able to get enough lands to cast my liliana, get it up to 9 and also have a dreadhorde invasion. He was the able to kill my lily and big tef with bedevils. He then casts a Nicol bolas, the ravager and flips it right away. he minuses it to get his other bolas and kill my last walker, which i believe was the baby tef. I finish his walkers off with zombies, holding a vraska's contempt for whatever creature or walker he had. It was over from there.

4-3, finished 44th out of 120ish, prizing was to top 32. there were a lot of 12 pointers in prizing but I was the second from the bottom of 12 pointers.

I know I didn't play perfectly but I think the mistakes I made were mostly minor

I went to an MCQ yesterday. Pretty much every round there was some 4 colour command the dreadhorde mirror that went to time because the state was such a mess and they gained so much life. My buddy went 3-1-3 with the deck and all 3 his draws were mirrors (one of those mirrors went an extra 40 minutes after time, with no extensions)

This card could be one that I underestimate but it seems pretty bad to me. Seems like you'll be casting it more than pitching to it

This is the most I've enjoyed standard since Theros-Khans standard, which doesn't seem like a while ago to me because that's when I started playing somewhat competitively but it's almost 5 years ago.

For the past few years (mostly since Kaladesh came out), I've kind of just had standard together just in case I couldn't play something else but didn't really care. Now i actually want to play it over other formats, especially since I kind of got burnt out on modern

hopefully this doesn't mean that they made some absurd choices for this set, whether it be what they're printing or reprinting

normally don't really write reports on fnm since it's so small and you don't always face against the best competition but went 4-0 without dropping any games today, so thought I'd report today

r1 I quickly run over that Tooth and Nail deck. G1 I thoughtseize away his overgrowth, leaving him with a tooth and nail, xenagod and emrakul. Later on he draws into a tireless tracker, which I can enable revolt to fatal push. He scoops after that in a salty rage. G2 he keeps a hand of double primal command, double land, utopia sprawl and something else. He doesn't draw into more lands. I boarded out 2 bolts and a dismember for 2 disdainful strokes and an EE (EE migh have been wrong but wanted to have protection against random nonsense)

R2 I quickly 2-0 some white weenie deck. I stabilized game 1 after an early rush. Boarded in double grim lavamancer, k command, liliana, the last hope, EE and double abrade. G2 I stick a t1 lavamancer. he kept a 1 land hand, so I picked off his threats and won when he ran out of threats.

R3 I 2-0 fish. g1 he kept a slow hand which I ripped apart but he started to recover as I didn't draw many threats. I TBR'd for lethal. Game 2 he was stuck on one land and a vial. after a few turns with barely any threats. I decided to put EE on 1 and crack it same turn since he dropped another vial. he conceded to that. I believe I boarded out some combination of dismember, wraiths and thoughtseizes for abrades, k command, anger and EE

Round 4 I crushed UW control. G1 he kept a do nothing hand, which I ripped the Teferi from. Only other spell he resolved which mattered was Timely reinforcements which I made quick work of the tokens. I believe I was able to ride a threat, made him fight e over a lot of creatures then cast a TBR on a snapcaster for lethal. Game 2 he mulled to 6 and I don't even remember what I made hims discard early on. I drew counters for his removal and timely. was able to revolt push his clique to get it off the battlefield.then he was done.

I had a good experience other than the one tooth and nail player who was pretty upset for no real reason

I feel that he provides a pretty good comical relief in a set that could involve a major change in a beloved world

Quote from idSurge »

Its not looting that is the root of Moderns state. It isnt looting, it isnt stirrings, and it isnt terminus.

Its the void missing at the top of the metagame that says 'no actually slow down'.

I'd love to see the format slow down so that a wider range of control/midrange can do well, but I don't know what needs to happen for that to be possible.

I'd probably still be fine with a looting or stirrings ban but I'd rather not see any bannings