Round 4 and 5 of the Golgari Guild Challenge

Deck Challenges

Dallie

25 July 2013

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Round 4 and 5 results are in!

After recovering from Roskilde Festival and getting back my activity, I'm finally ready with the results for some golgari rounds!

These games are getting more and more exciting, as the sheep are separated from the wolves. We've seen many types of golgari decks, many of which I had not even though of, and I'm very excited to present you today with the last round of results before the Guild Representative match!

So grab your friends, and settle around a flatscreen and read on for the

Results!

Blakkhand (2) (Blakk's Golgari Challenge) v MTG_Player (1) (Golgari-Challenge-Submission)

Game 1:

Blakkhand started off with a Skarrgan Pit-Skulk and on the following turn, a bloodthirsted Skarrgan Pit-Skulk, but MTG_Player answered with a Dreg Mangler and an Elves of Deep Shadow putting him ahead in board position. However, Blakkhand had more tricks up his sleeve, and played a Dreg Mangler on the next turn, and another the turn after. MTG_Player was slowly falling behind, and resorted to his killspells which picked of a Dreg Mangler and a Skarrgan Pit-Skulk (not wanting it to be unblockable).

MTG_Player then played a Varolz, the Scar-Striped and scavenged a dead Dreg Mangler onto it, making it a 5/5. Unfortunately Blakkhand had his own Varolz, to kill of both, and then an Abrupt Decay for the Dreg Mangler. With a sole Elves of Deep Shadow he swung with everything and proceded to attack.

MTG_Player topdecked another Varolz, played him and scavenged the dead Varolz onto it, but when Blakkhand played the last card in his hand, a Blood Scrivener, MTG_Player soon lost out to the card advantage.

Game 2:

A very grindy game where each player had several copies of Dreg Mangler's staring each other down. However as MTG_Player was on the play, he was ahead of life, and had to go on the defense. He tried to stabilize a bit with a Varolz, the Scar-Striped and a recurring Shambling Shell, but once MTG_Player hit dual green for his two Deadbridge Goliath's it was all downhill. Blakkhand -could- have managed a single, due to a Putrefy in hand, but the dynamic duo held him on heavy defense, chumping here and there, and when MTG_Player topdecked a Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord there was nothing Blakkhand could do.

Game 3:

Both players got a bit mana screwed, Blakkhand being stuck at 4 land, and MTG_Player was stuck at 3. However Blakkhand's deck has a considerably lower average CMC, and this mana screw meant that he was able to pull out ahead. Throwing down two Blood Scriveners, a bloodthirsted Skarrgan Pit-Skulk, an Experiement One, which he evolved with a Deathrite Shaman, meant that his boardposition was much stronger than MTG_Players.

Thanks to the Blood Scriveners he drew into a land and two Abrupt Decays which meant he could, almost, clear MTG_Players board, bash in, and have the Shaman eliminate the instants, constantly dealing damage.

In the meanwhile, MTG_Player had, apart from an Ultimate Price nothing that could make him keep up with the tempo. He could play a Varolz, the Scar-Striped have it Abrupt Decayed, then another Varolz, and a Dreg Mangler, but all in all, there was too much speed in Blakkhand's deck, and he soon succumbed to lethal damage.

Supersun (2) (A typical Golgari Deck) v JHermy (0) (guild-deck-challenge-golgari-by-jhermy)

Game 1:

Supersun got off to a slow start, and had only an Utopia Sprawl as a ramp tool. JHermy threw down dual Birds of Paradise, and looked like he was ready for a T3 Deadbridge Goliath, but Supersun used a Golgari Charm to kill them off. The following turn, he played a Deadbridge Goliath which he was made sacrifice, by JHermy's Devour Flesh.

JHermy drew almost exclusively land, and had real trouble keeping up with the pair of Ursapines that Supersun stuck, and even his Deadbridge Goliath and another that he topdecked, didn't help, since Supersun had 6 green mana sources, enough to pump both and not lose either.

Without getting any answers, JHermy soon hit 0 on the lifecounter.

Game 2:

Supersun Ramped like crazy with an Utopia Sprawl into Utopia Sprawl and a Birds of Paradise. Then came down a Golgari Signet and another Utopia Sprawl.

The first played Deadbridge Goliath from Supersun was quickly killed with a Devour Flesh, and he threw down his own, alongside a Desecration Demon. However, he was on a clock thanks to an Ursapines and Supersuns own copy of Desecration Demon.

The Ursapine meant that any combat would yield well for Supersun and a topdecked Putrefy skewed what would have been a 2 for 2 trade. After that, the only thing JHermy could do was stall through two copies of Crypt Incursion and a pair of Saprolings from an earlier played Fists of Ironwood.

However the abundance of mana from Supersun meant that he a few turns later could swing for lethal, by pumping all the green mana he had into the Ursapines.

psychoza (2) (Grave Danger Ahead) v BYE!

Randomly assigned a BYE to Supersun who is now in the finals, congratulations to him! Now we're going to see who will join him, in the final match to become Guild representative!

psychoza (2) (Grave Danger Ahead) v Blakkhand (1) (Blakk's Golgari Challenge)

Game 1:

Blakkhand saw a severe flood with more than half of the cards he saw from his library being lands. When he dredged a used Darkblast to kill of a Slitherhead it dumped 3 creatures in the drain. He held on using a Deathrite Shaman and a Dreg Mangler, but those were Abrupt Decay'ed and Putrefyed by PsyhoZA, who then proceded to beat him down with a Desecration Demon and a Dreg Mangler.

Game 2:

psychoza was put on the defense by a lot of Darkblasts and a pair of Deathrite Shamans, but he managed to stabilize with a recurring Golgari Brownscale and a Lotleth Troll went to work on him. But Blakkhand had a pair of Blood Scriveners in play, and with no cards in hand, he was able to dredge back all three of his Darkblasts to kill of the Troll, leaving just the Brownscale.

psychoza valliantly tried to fend of the everygrowing card and board advantage generated by the Scriveners, but in the end, Blakkhand got down a Varolz, the Scar-Striped to go around the sole blocker, with lethal damage.

Game 3:

psychoza had an excellent hand, dropping a T2 Lotleth Troll, and getting down a Varolz, the Scar-Striped the turn after. He followed it up with a Grisly Salvage getting a Hunted Horror discarding it to the Troll, and scavenging it onto the Troll, making it a 10/9. After this the game became rather one sided.

Blakkhand had to Mulligan twice to see a land in his hand, and that really hindered him, although he hit a lot of his small creatures, in a Vinelasher Kudzu, an Experiment One, a Deathrite Shaman and a Dreg Mangler. Unfortunately, none of those, could kill the regenerating beast, who got stronger when psychoza drew a Golgari Brownscale for repeated lifegain, +1/+1 counters, and creatures in the graveyard to scavenge.

Without hitting any other removal than Ultimate Price, he soon folded to the troll, that would not be traded with, because of regeneration. Blakkhand DID keep alive for a bit by removing creatures in the graveyard, but being on the defense, and some lucky dredges (2 creatures) of the Golgari Brownscale meant that the game was over relatively swiftly.

Congratulations to psychoza who will be joining Supersun in the finals for this match-up:

psychoza (2) (Grave Danger Ahead) v Supersun (2) (A typical Golgari Deck)

The final round of the Golgari Challenge should be done soon, and after that I will be looking to the Boros challenge.

However playing all these matches has made me realize that this is quite a task, and therefore I'd like to recruit some help to play the matches! This is done because I would really like to play all matches as BO3, but time will not allow me to do that singledhandedly.

So if you're up for playing a couple of matches, obviously not with your own deck, then please leave a message on my wall including a little bit about your magic experience, primary play format and anything else you think is relevant.

Limited players are needed so sign up as quickly as possible!

That's it for this time folks! I hope you're enjoying this as much as I am! Pack away your popcorn and wait for the final article, which will be much more thorough, in the match description; I'm going for something like the DDoS that we all know and love from KrazyCaley.

Also, thank KrazyCaley for not streaming today, meaning that I could focus on this instead! (Then again, it's also his fault I got kind of hooked on Faster Than Light, so I guess it evens out).

//Dallie