I played Regionals in Middletown CT. My record was 5-3 with the deck list below. This won’t be a full-blown tournament report but I will give you a quick run down of the matches.
Armillary Assault
Creatures (17)
3 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Wild Nacatl
4 Bloodbraid Elf
2 Cloudthresher
Spells (18)
4 Seismic Assault
4 Armillary Sphere
4 Volcanic Fallout
3 Path to Exile
1 Worm Harvest
1 Pyroclasm
1 Behemoth Sledge
Land (25)
4 Terramorphic Expanse
3 Fire-Lit Thicket
2 Reflecting Pool
1 Treetop Village
1 Mutavault
4 Forest
4 Plains
3 Mountain
3 Vivid Grove
Sideboard (15)
4 Qasali Pridemage
2 Wrath of God
1 Cloudthresher
2 Banefire
2 Anathemancer
1 Path to Exile
3 Gaddock Teeg
Round 1 – Domain Zoo
I played my buddy Eugene. Unfortunately for him – I know his deck very well (I even helped design it). He was running Domain Zoo. It was a quick two games.
I took Nacatl beats until he played his double striker. I wiped the double striker with a Path To Exile and then played a Kitchen Finks to shore up the board. My removal was too much for him to get a clean swing through. In game two he got mana-screwed. I beat him down with one of my monsters.
1-0
Round 2 – Faeries
I didn’t test against Fae. I used to be a Fae player so I had a rough idea of the game plan. I don’t remember much from these games – only that my opponent loved to power shuffle my deck after every game (this was entertaining to watch). I think he liked the feel of it – I don’t blame him.. it feels nice. Anyway,
I lost 2-1 due to some misplays on my part. I missed a couple land drops but I had an Armillary Sphere down. In my upkeep he flashed in the Mistbind Clique to tap my three lands. I tapped them and said “Darn” then passed priority. Oops! I had a Path to Exile in hand. The right play would have been to Path the Clique and Sacrifice the Sphere. Play a land and pass the turn. This wouldn’t have stopped the Second Mistbind in my upkeep to follow – but it would have saved me a turn and 4 life. This could have kept me in the game.
1-1
Round 3 – 5C Bloodbraid
This deck is better than I thought it was – I still called the kid a “Chapin Fan Boy”. This deck gave me my second loss for the day, another 2-1 loss (My deck gets close but can’t close the deal). In game three he was running out of gas (one card in hand) I had two lands in hand and a Worm Harvest in the graveyard. I was starting to stabilize over the last few turns by chum-blocking his threats. The only threat I didn’t want to put in the graveyard was the Anathemancer. He drew into his Thought Hemorrhage and played it naming Worm Harvest – this saucy little play earned him the match.
Side Note: He was running Blightning in his deck and I have found that Armillary Sphere is really good against Blightning.
1-2
Round 4 – GW Overrun
I played another buddy of mine. I was a little annoyed about this – you don’t want to drive 3.5 hours to play the people that you drove up with. The match went to game 3 –this seems to be a trend. A turn four Elspeth put me on my heels for the rest of the game. Four Spectral Processions and two Cloudgoat Rangers later, my friend conceded. Yeah, I know that doesn’t sound right – with drops like that I should have been the one to concede. I was disagreeable to decision to concede (I wanted to die honorably), after some discussion he decided to stick with his decision and conceded then dropped the tournament – officially putting my record at 2-2.
2-2
Round 5 – Jund Ramp
In game one Kitchen Finks and Nacatl take it home with the beats. I press his army of Spellbreakers and Broodmates with my 3-power dudes, only to stack damage and fallout to keep the way clear. Game two, I keep a shaky hand (Armillary Sphere allows me to do that) on turn 2 play my Sphere pass the turn. He blows it up with a Maelstrom Pulse! It was a nice move and kept me off land for 2 turns. He gained the tempo needed to run me over. Game three, I get the early beats in and press him with the army (Kitchen Finks / Fallout) is so good in this matchup.
3-2
Round 6 – 5CC
Another one that went to game three, this is really encouraging for me and my deck. I don’t remember the details here. Game three was a nail-bitter. He had a Broodmate and token on the board and he was staring down eight Worm Harvest tokens – He was at 14 and I need a Banefire to take it home. He counted my mana, tokens, and looked at his life, he then played a Shriekmaw and killed his Broodmate token. It was then, that I knew he had a plan to clinch victory from the jaws of defeat. I drew the Banefire and swung for eight. He blocked a token and played a Path to Exile on the other one. I got in for six and then Banefired for seven taking him to one.
3-3
Round 7 – Bloodbraids Leech Beats
His Bloodbraid flips were pretty weak and mine were very strong, giving me Kitchen Finks and a Seismic Assault. I don’t remember the details just that I won the match and that Putrid Leech is definitely as good as I suspected.
4-3
Round 8 – 5CC Swans 5-3
Chinese food had arrived via my very gracious friends. I was hungry and I really didn’t care about the match up. My game plan, push the fast forward button on the match – play without abandon and press him with a barrage of threats. I figured that he would have to empty his hands of counters and then mid-game my stuff would start resolving. If it didn’t work then I would still be enjoying Orange Chicken in no time. As it turns out this was a pretty good plan. A Banefire for 14 to my dome took this to game three (I know – Insane right!). He was playing Swans (I found that out in game two), I left my Seismic Assaults in the board for game three. The Swans hit the board, when he was on the heel and needed a block. I keep swinging and drawing cards. He took trample damage from my Sledge until I was able to Fallout into a Fallout (Thanks to Swans) and Volcanic Fallout again to evaporate that last 4 points of his life.
5-3
I am currently playtesting for the PTQ in Boston on the 6th. I have made some changes to the main deck to help with some troublesome match ups. Those being:
5CC
5C Brainds
Faeries
GW Overrun
I will keep you updated.
Tweet this!
