Game Day Observations
Standard forum
Posted on May 1, 2016, 12:45 p.m. by capriom85
After I played Game Day last night for SOI, I left with a few observations.Humans are hype. They don't get get there most of the time despite being a solidly built deck.
The format is far from solved. The top 8 at my shop consisted of 2 UW humans lists because of its abundancy at the tournament and 6 home brewed jank decks that no one saw coming and won't be found on any too 8 lists yet. I left before the finals so I wasn't sure which jank took the crown, but there was some pretty ingenious things going on.
Archangel Avacyn Flip does not warrant her price tag. She dies to most of the removal in the format...in the decks that want her, Eerie Interlude is almost always better as a combat trick.
Archangel of Tithes is a beast of a card, with or without Always Watching . I was never happy to see one across the table and I was never unhappy to see one in my hand (except when I had only 3 land and wasn't drawing the 4th).
I'm sure many of you have already known a lot of this, but I haven't played any competitive SOI before last night and these are just the things that made an impression on me. Some of you will say that is my shop and that microcosm doesn't define the rest of the competitive meta, but the bottom line is that the "top" decks were there and they weren't the winners. The players piloting the decks were capable of piloting then correctly. This format is still wide open and I can't wait for Eldritch Moon to see where else it can go. I'm back to brewing hard right now.
I got 3rd place at my local game day with a R/G Ramp list that can be found on my profile (scroll all the way down). The only deck that I was an underdog against was this B/W Control deck that beat me in the 4-0's bracket and in semifinals. It just had all the answers. Otherwise, I feel that ramp is very well positioned currently. It has great matchups against Bant Company and Humans while being favored vs. Cryptocrats. I saw a bunch of people playing Mono-U Brain in a Jar around me, which surprised me for sure. Especially since this tournament was at the most competitive game store in my area. Got some store credit and the t8 promo, so I was pretty stoked.
May 1, 2016 3:13 p.m.
EludeMerlange, nice job! Do you have a list of the deck? It sounds super interesting! Doc28, nice job as well! Mono-U Jar, you say? The version running Thing in the Ice
Flip? If so its not bad, but it needs way better support to stay a thing when Eldritch Moon comes out. Some of the ramp decks look great so I'm see your list is up there as well. I unfortunately chose to play UW humans just to try and win (my son wanted the mat bad). I should have taken my UW midrange build, but there is no use dwelling there. I had to battle through BW allies, Mardu control(?), a million other humans lists, and then too 8 a BW control relying on Kalitas and Abbey took me down. Good experience mostly.May 1, 2016 3:20 p.m.
I hit the local game day in Franklin, TN with Esper Dragons. Went 4-1 in Swiss.
Game 1: 2-0 WB ControlThis was a fairly subdued deck with Erebos Titan main & game 2 I saw some Eldrazi. I dont think this deck is anything to get excited about.
Game 2: 0-2 WWI got no lands first game and too many second haha, thats the way it goes.I made a mistake second game, I was digging for a Languish with my right hand man Jace VP, on turn 4 I played a Shambling Vent before I activated Jace, who promptly found a Languish. I was unable to play it til turn 5 but it was too late, he flipped Kytheon and played Archangel of Tithes on 5, I drew a land top of 6 and scooped.
Game 3: 2-0 RB VampsWell dropping game 2 has its merits, and I played a pretty untuned deck. To make things worse he stumbled on lands game 2 and Ojutai went into the red zone 4 times unopposed.
Game 4: 2-0 Bant CocoGot paired up, and saw Lumbering Falls after losing the dice roll, damn!This deck has legs, and the amount of cards it draws between clues and coco is outrageous.Game 1 was real close, a pair of Foul Tongues kept me in the game til I found a Languish. I Scorned a Coco then an Avacyn and played Ojutai with counterspell in hand and UU untapped.Game 2 was crazy, I mulled to 5 and once again barely kept alive when he played Dromoka on 6. I had out Ojutai, and when he passed I played Silumgar stealing his Dromoka! Unable to cast spells on my turn, he cracked clues to find Clip Wings, and I had to sacrifice my bud Ojutai to keep Dromoka in play.
Game 5 - 2-0 BG AristocratsThis deck is really explosive. Game 1 I got down to 3 life with Anguished Unmaking in hand. I Foul Tongued twice to get some life back, and when he flipped Abbey I was at 7 with Ojutai in play, and went to 4 to exile the Profane Prince. His top decks couldnt beat Ojutai.Game 2 was awesome, I Dark Petitioned turn 6 for Kalitas and put him right into play. His board state expanded too far and I had to Ultimate Price a Husk before I Languished to keep him from eating 2 tokens and growing out of Languish's reach. Kalitas died, but left me with 4 Zombies. He CoCos and finds Liliana and Husk, I Ultimate Price Husk, he sacs in responce to flip Liliana and draws Blisterpod. Liliana ressurects a Recruiter and he passes. Hes at 7 life to my 4 2/2 Zombies and he has Recruiter mana up for 2 digs.I use Jace to flash back Silumgar's Command and kill Recruiter, bounce Blisterpod, and swing for Lethal.
Top 8: 2-1 Esper StarfieldGame 1 I drop after playing Jace turns 2,3,and 4 only to have them Wrapped or Snared, he comes up big with Pact turn 5 and Starfield turn 6 to put it away.Game 2 he gets a Pact out after a lot of draw-go, Im not using any counters and play Sphinx of the Final Word. Unable to bounce or destroy his pact through Sphinx-Scorn, he dies.I try for the same game plan game 3 but jam Ojutai on 5 who gets the job done.
I drop out of top 4, would have played the same BG Sacrifice deck. But I had been there for ~6 1/2 hours by now and left to hang out with my Wife and Son.
Out of all the decks I played Bant CoCo is the best. I think WW runs out of gas and could have won that match up next time. BG really suffers from a lack of interaction.All stars of the day were Languish and Silumgar's Scorn, playing Standard equivalent s of Damnation and Counterspell is really good in this slower goldfishing meta.Ojutai, Dark Petition, Kalitas, Silumgar's Command, Silumgar, Sphinx, and Foul Tongue all had their moments where they turned the corner or shut my opponent out of the game.Esper Dragons is still great in my opinion. With an overall record of 5-1 and a drop Im pretty pleased my favorite cards still have a place in this diverse meta. Playing 5 rounds against 5 different decks was great, I wasnt sure this was standard for a minute haha!
May 1, 2016 4:06 p.m.
JohnnyBaggins says... #6
I went 5-0 and got the Mat with 
Tokens. Pretty much to Pro Tour winning build. The deck is insane. Regarding your observations:
1. Humans are not hype. Humans can't really beat GW Tokens or BG Rites.
2. True - GW though holds a 39% Meta at Day 2 in Toronto right now, so the deck can't be awful and probably is DTB for a while.
3. Avacyn is nuts. No, you can't just jam her in any list that runs White, but in the proper deck, the card is insane. Even if you just use her as a combat trick, which is her floor, she's decent. If you can use her to her ceiling, which, again, GW Tokens can, she's as close to format-warping as you get.
4. Meh. Sure, card's decent but... meh. I'm neither fearing nor impressed by her. He's close to unplayable if you're not Mono-White and doesn't block Gideon. Sure, she's good, but there won't be a lot of decks that are able to afford running that card.
May 1, 2016 4:09 p.m.
JohnnyBaggins, Tothes is incredibly niche, you're right. But where she fits she does serious work. She may not block Gideon, but many things do. As for Avacyn, same deal, excellent where playable, boring where not. I have to disagree on humans though. The hype train and driven them as far as they can go until better things come up I believe.
May 1, 2016 4:41 p.m.
JohnnyBaggins says... #8
capriom85 We're on the same level on the Archangels. I think humans has a tough time right now. Everyone went into the Pro Tour looking for a plan to beat Humans and Company, Kalitas is a disaster for Humans, GW Tokens is hard for humans, Rites too, all control decks that have access to Red with Radiant Flames and Kozilek's Return should also be able to beat humans somewhat consistently. I expect us to run a little meta carousel now: Everyone starts running hate for human decks (I'll just generally call these hate-decks "Languish-Decks" even though the hate can come in any version of Kalitas, Radiant Flames, Whatever), which will lead to Languish-Deck mirrors a lot. Eventually, people will have to step back from these strategies because the mirrors become to tideous, which then again is where Humans can shine again. Humans is far from gone, even though it smells a little funny right now.
May 1, 2016 5:14 p.m.
Oh yea, JohnnyBaggins, humans will rebound at some point. Maybe before ELdritch Moon because of the scenario you explained. Maybe it will be after the next set because of some new tech they get. I'm not counting them out...just for the moment. You hit the nail on the head with Kalitas and Radiant Flames though. Problem with Kalitas is that he comes down the turn after Languish in most matches. Humans has more than trouble stabilizing against that.
May 1, 2016 5:27 p.m.
JohnnyBaggins says... #10
Here's a short report from my Game Day:
I played Selesnya Token. I'll have to add that my game store in general is a rather control-heavy meta. People like their control and as I see Tireless Tracker as a card that's great in these Matchups, I ran it in the board. As it turns out, Tireless Tracker is not a card this deck wants to play, I never boarded it in.
Round 1: Against 
Seasons Control 1-0-1
Game 1 I mulligan to 5. My hand comes out strong, I curve Oath-Advocate-Nissa-Gideon-Avacyn which is close to too much for him to handle. He gets it stabilized to be blown out by a massive Secure the Wastes into a flipped Westvale Abbey which kills him. I board in my 3rd Secure, Sigarda and Dromoka. Game 2 is great, it's back and forth and I can save my ass a couple of times with lucky Topdecks. He plays extremely slow and most of my turns take 20 seconds, most of his take multiple minutes. Which then ruins his day because he lacks 2 damage to kill me in the 4th extra turn with the 5th being my turn. I win the match.
Round 2: Against 
Madness 2-1
I keep a hand that I shouldn't keep. He gets a blistering fast start in Messenger into Heir into Olivia into me conceding. I get stuck on two lands and drawing Avacyn into Avacyn into Avacyn doesn't help my case. I board in my two Pacifists, the 2nd and 3rd Declaration and the thrid Secure. I get a great hand with Pacifist, Advocate, Command and Declaration, draw into Nissa and make lots of tokens. At the point where it seems like he might be able to take over I flash in an Avacyn which leads to a 0-5-blowout trade which prompts the concession. Third game goes similar, but he build out a large board as do I. I end of turn make 6 tokens with secure and flip an Ormendahl, which he has no way of removing or racing. He concedes when I declare Ormendahl as attacker.
Round 3: Against 
Pact Control 2-0
Pact Control must have been the second most played deck here today, next to Cryptolith Rites. The deck tries to win with Demonic Pact and then trying to bounce it with Crush of Tentacles and Silumgar's Command and Disperse. Game one I go ahead and curve out. He plays a pact but it's just too little. He doesn't find a languish and Gideon crunches for 11 before he gets handled by Ruinous Path. I board exactly as I did against BG Control. I curve out and a single advocate with two counters from Nissa tries to close out the game but gets handled right after I make a massive missplay - I play a Gideon and Emblem him, creating a single lethal thread instead of what could have been three. Obviously, my advocate gets handled when he's at 1. The game goes long but with him being at 1, I eventually win the game because a Thraben Inspector is too much.
Round 4: Against Eldrazi Aggro Control 2-0
The dec is weird as shit. It plays heaps of 0/4 and 0/6, and wins with Assault Formation and/or Goldnight Castigator. Sine it was at 3-0, it can't have been bad but it didn't stand a real chance against my deck. First game was interesting, but he lost to a Flash in Avacyn, block your Castigator, remove your other blocker and attack for a million because your damage is doubled. I am unsure what to board and decide to bring two Declaration Second, a Clip Wings, a Secure and Sigarda. The second game then is very stall-orientated but I keep packing punches and put him lower and lower with a Hangarback having 7 counters in the end. Eventually, I win the attrition game because I keep having a creature more than he can block.
Game 5 (Finals) against Midrange 2-0
He's one of my best friends and I expected the matchup to be very hard. In Game one he completely overlooks the possibility that I could have an Avacyn and removes a token with Grasp to pressure Nissa which leads to him losing his entire board because Avacyn ruins the combat and swings back at Gideon. The game ends quickly after Avacyn flips and I add a Gideon to the board. I board in Secure, Declaration and Dromoka. He keeps a risky hand and gets punished. I win the game in quick fashion, he gets stuck on two land.
We don't play out the Top 8 here so the mat is mine.
I realized that I board in Secure the Wastes in every match-up which makes me think I should probably run three in the Main Board. I also didn't board in Tireless Tracker, which simply is because she doesn't work in this deck. I also didn't board in Tragic Arrogance which makes sense. I didn't face Company, Humans, GB Aristocrats or GW Tokens where I'd board all three copies every time.
May 1, 2016 6:05 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #12
Took 3/4th place with G/B aristocrats.
There were 3 of us playing the deck and I ended up playing 3 mirror matches. (Let that sink in for a second.... My LGS owner is conspiring against me.... /s)
Swiss Match 1 Mirror. 2-0.
Swiss Match 2 Mirror. 2-0.
Swiss Match 3 W/U Humans. 1-2.
Swiss Match 3 Seasons Past. ID.
Top 8 Match 1 Mirror. 2-1.
Top 8 Match 2 B/W Token Control. 1-2.
Overall I feel like the mirror is the literal worst matchup for the deck. I just played it better, unfortunately for my opponents.
The humans loss was regrettable seeing as it is a good matchup but not seeing enough land in game 1, winning game 2 and then getting only a single black mana with a hand of 2x Zulaport Cutthroat, 1x Nantuko Husk, and 1x Liliana, Heretical Healer Flip to end the game did me no favors.
The B/W control matchup was also regrettable. I had him Topdecking and all I needed was a husk or another creature to close out game three ignoring ground blockers entirely. Needless to say I couldn't find it.
The deck is stupid explosive, if played correctly it can blow out any deck in be format without a doubt. You give 0 shits about your life total and it's VERY easy to just 20 your opponent out of nowhere. Westvale Abbey Flip breaks the deck. Sac board with 2x Zulaport Cutthroat in play and that's 19 damage that gains you life. I found myself popping Abbey just to get my opponent to 6 and to go up to 30 or so. Even if they kill the Demon I can just act as if I got boardwiped and coco to set back up.
In the mirror I found myself siding out the Cryptolith Rite a lot, much to my opponents' surprise. In the mirror sure, rite can speed you up but unless you are playing dudes with that mana it does you no good. (One of the players said "I sided out my Blisterpods and Loam Dryads.")
So a frustrating end to a very good day overall. Hell, I profited on the day so who can really complain?
May 1, 2016 7:39 p.m. Edited.
Ohthenoises, stellar explanation of that deck and your experience. Congrats on the 3/4 place! You think you're LGS owner is conspiring against you? I got lured against my son twice last night. Haha!
May 1, 2016 7:43 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #14
Ouchie. Glad to hear you both made it to top 8 though!
The aristocrats deck is one of those that requires a lot of math and calculation. It was hard to stick to LSV's mantra of not just popping the combo but if you can resist, the deck just gets impossible to deal with.
Also, in the mirror, it's imperative that you don't flip their Liliana for them. Let your life take the hit if you can.
Lastly, I learned that Nantuko Husk wars are HILARIOUS and that Catacomb Sifter scrys are good but you can ignore the hell out of them.
May 1, 2016 7:53 p.m.
I brought jank to both events unfortunately. I found myself against opponents with.. * gasp * ..real decks! Bastards! Ah, my overall record was, er, a single game win over both events. So, basically last place.
Still made top 8. Both times. XD
May 1, 2016 8:59 p.m.
Haha...nice! Listen...most of the top 8 at my LGS for Game Day is always a bunch of janky brews aimed at beating everything else. Keep brewing man
May 1, 2016 9:49 p.m.
pumpkinwavy says... #17
Interesting thoughts, although I disagree with number 1 and 4. I wasn't at game day, instead playing in GP Toronto, where I went 11-4 with my own brew. Having played humans twice in the event and losing to it once, I can say it is definitely NOT hype. Its explosiveness combined with the ability to play (and win) the long game makes it very much a real deck.
After playing 15 rounds of magic with a single copy of Archangel Avacyn Flip in my deck, I would now pay whatever money it takes to get 2 more copies. She's good, and not comparable to Eerie Interlude in the slightest. Her main use is NOT protecting you from wraths, it's having your opponent not attack into 5 open mana because they will be completely blown out.
May 2, 2016 5:37 p.m.
JaceArveduin says... #18
I took Devil's Dance Floor to mine and went 2-2 then 3-1, though sleep deprivation played a part, and the second one I lost the first two rounds to the person that won the first one of the day and the person that went on to win that one.
It wasn't exactly that list, but it was close, and I just wish I had the third pair of Goggles instead of the journal, the biggest problem with the deck is the complete and utter blowout of destiny that is Declaration in Stone...
Dylan says... #2
I went 4-0-1, (Intentional Draw Last round) At my gameday securing my spot in the top 8 with Mono-Red Eldrazi, In the top 8 I played 3 white humans decks in a row, And ultimately got second place, Won about 20 packs tho so it was totally worth it
May 1, 2016 2:26 p.m.