Nationals Standard portion and Top 8 part 1

The preparation:
Let me start this out by saying that I did not know what deck to play. I was trying out all the decks from recently concluded Nationals from other countries and did not like any of them. Although practice was not an issue because we proxied these decks just to see how they play out, acquisition time for cards was running out. Stillmoon Cavaliers were soaring to Php 400 each, Hallowed Burials were nowhere to be found, Kithkin uncommons were selling like hotcakes, and the elves components like Regal Force and Primal Command were in very minimal quantities that it became impossible to get 4 of them.

I built a proxy Faeries and BR Iyanaga deck and played with our store tambays the whole week. The BR deck seemed really nice but I can't help but question a few card choices. This is when I talked to Ogie Jaro, our team's aggro specialist.

Ogie: "Isa lang naman tatandaan mo pag deck ng hapon e"
JT: "Ano?"
Ogie: "Wag ka na magtanong, sumunod ka nalang kasi tama na yung gawa nila"

So BR it is! Easy on the brain very little cards needed to complete. I was really gravitating towards the BR deck up until Lloyd Tan showed up Thursday and made short work of the deck with his homebrew RG deck that bore resemblance to Jund. He sent me back to the drawing board.

Edsel Alvarez sent me a text message Friday morning saying that he found Hallowed Burials and Cascade Bluffs lying around his house. Was that a sign? I called him up, picked up the cards, and built Shuuhei Nakamura's 5-color control deck. I changed a total of 6 cards in the deck. I took out the 3rd Cruel Ultimatum for a copy of Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker. For some reason, I also did not like having Broodmate Dragons in the deck and replaced all 3 with Baneslayer Angels. The last change that I made was to take out the Identity Crisis from the sideboard to make way for 2 Ethersworn Canonists.

My final list:

2 Cascade Bluffs
1 Exotic Orchard
3 Island
2 Mystic Gate
4 Reflecting Pool
3 Sunken Ruins
2 Vivid Crag
4 Vivid Creek
3 Vivid Marsh
2 Vivid Meadow

3 Baneslayer Angel
3 Mulldrifter
3 Plumeveil

2 Agony Warp
3 Broken Ambitions
2 Cruel Ultimatum
1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker
4 Cryptic Command
1 Doom Blade
4 Esper Charm
1 Essence Scatter
3 Hallowed Burial
4 Volcanic Fallout

2 Deathmark
1 Essence Scatter
4 Great Sable Stag
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Liliana Vess
1 Pithing Needle
2 Puppeteer Clique
2 Runed Halo

My 1st opponent in standard was Mark Arriola who was playing a deck which I thought was 5-color control. In the 1st game, he dropped a Great Sable Stag on his 4th turn. I was thinking; "Maindeck Sable Stags in 5cc... why didn't I think of that? That was awesome.". The stag prompted me to play Hallowed Burial, a 1-for-1 exchange which I think made Mark very happy. As the game went on, I noticed that he was not playing 5cc, he was playing Jund control. My strategy became a lot simpler; use Esper Charms to make him discard, bait a creature for him to kill, and then use Cruel Ultimatums to get the creature back and make him discard more. Strategy worked like a charm and I won the match 2-0.

My next opponent was Mark Joven; a familiar face in the store and a veteran Faeries player. He dropped vivid land after vivid land during his turns which made me think; "What happened to the fae deck that you have been practicing for weeks?". His team apparently had a cardpool problem that prompted him to switch decks. His lack of practice playing the deck was obvious. You see, in control mirrors, the 1st player to make a move will most likely end up losing. It does not matter if you resolve a Cruel Ultimatum on that 1st move, if you make that 1st move, you will probably lose. Control players would prefer to discard a card on their end step rather than make a move 1st. With this in mind, we can conclude that not missing land drops is the key to this matchup. Mark was a bit unlucky during the 1st game as he missed one too many land drops. I was at 18 lands vs his that were only a little over 10. With the mana advantage, I was able to play non-evoked Mulldrifters which were able to go the distance. In the second game, the big turning point was when I decided to tap-out as bait so that he could play Cruel Ultimatum without fear of it being countered, and he did. Since he was now tapped out, I dropped a Nicol Bolas on the board which stayed there until my opponent scooped.

I found myself playing against a bad matchup in the 3rd round. It was Adan Mate, playing his own take of BR. His build was so quick that it made very short work of me in the 1st game. I could not even remember the sequence of plays that transpired, all I could remember was me praying that I draw my Baneslayer Angels. I managed to steal a win on the 2nd game using Mulldrifters (of all things). The 3rd game was once again very quick. The game ended with me at 3 life and having 7 mana and Cruel Ultimatum as my only spell. He was at a healthy life total with a Figure of Destiny in play and a card in hand. I had no choice but to play the ultimatum. His last card turned out to be a Flame Javelin that hit me in the dome when I tapped out.

2-1, quota reached and ready to draft.

Shards of Alara block promo drafts

Shards-Conflux-Reborn drafts are now offered at a discounted rate of Php 400 entry fee. Winner takes all; the 3-0 finisher will get 2 M10 packs as prize. The drafts are DCI sanctioned.

Regular 5-4-2-2 and pack per win +1 SOA-CON-ARB and M10 drafts are still available.

Other tournaments:
Thursdays: Standard
Fridays: Legacy

Drafting with JT: Nationals Edition, Draft 2

I was sitting at 4-2 prior to the 2nd draft and badly needed to score a 3-0 on this pod. Of course, the common tendency is to wish to open a bomb like Broodmate Dragon on pack 1. Lo and behold; Crucible of Fire... again. It was the same rare that I opened in my Shards of Alara pack from draft 1. This pack was a bit different though because it had Rhox War Monk, Seaside Citadel, Resounding Thunder, and the card that Sebastian Thaler picked over those in PT Honolulu; Kathari Screecher. I took Resounding Thunder. It was either RG, Naya, or Jund. I got passed a Knight of the Skyward Eye and so I took it. Welkin Guide, Naya Panorama, Magma Spray, Rockslide Elemental, Elvish Visionary, Yoked Plowbeast, and a very late Bone Splinters. Voices at the back of my head started whispering, telling me to shift to Jund, Bone Splinters is a sign.

The sudden turn of events while drafting the 1st pack made me decide to play conservatively. I took 3 copies of Matca Rioters, an Exploding Borders, and a Canyon Minotaur on pack 2. The only other playable card was an Absorb Vis. Not good at all. I had to maximize the rioters in order to get full power on my deck.

Then it was time for the best thing that happened in Shards block draft, the final pack; Alara Reborn. Pick 1 was very tough because I opened Finest Hour and will be passing to the guy whom I passed all those Bant goodies to in pack 1; Richard Badlon. The other cards that were in there was a Vithian Renegades and a Bant Sureblade. It seemed very simple but is actually very difficult. I had 3 copies of Matca Rioters, which means that I will probably be splashing an island that would make Finest Hour playable. Vithian Renegades on the other hand is great in this format; a Stone Rain with legs. Bant Sureblade is one of the best 2-drops in the format; the perfect card that I needed to smoothen my mana curve. Confused, thinking, 10 seconds left for the pick, and so I made the mistake of taking the Bant Sureblade. Luckily, my friend named "Bro" helped me out in the next 13 picks, yes the next 13. My 2nd pick was a Bloodbraid Elf followed by a flurry of great cards in the form of Sangrite Backlash, Stun Sniper, Vengeful Rebirth, Rhox Brute, a couple of fat creatures that cycle, and a 14th pick Igneous Pouncer; thanks "Bro".

Oh and I also caught a rare card; Time Sieve. It was better than nothing.

My final decklist:

Resounding Thunder
Magma Spray
Rockslide Elemental
Bone Splinters
Elvish Visionary
Welkin Guide

3 Matca Rioters
Ember Weaver
Canyon Minotaur
Exploding Borders
Absorb Vis

Bloodbraid Elf
Sangrite Backlash
Vengeful Rebirth
Stun Sniper
Naya Sojourners
Rhox Brute
Valley Rannet
Monstrous Carabid
2 Igneous Pouncer

1 Naya Panorama
1 Plains
3 Swamp
6 Forest
6 Mountain

SB cards that may be playable:
Knight of the Skyward Eye
Bant Sureblade

I won the 1st match by the skin of my teeth. My opponent was playing an Esper deck which had creatures that were as big as mine. The only difference was that they had flying. It was really close and I won mostly because of a misplay that he made early in the game where he decided to play Slave of Bolas on my 3/3 Rockslide Elemental, letting my Stun Sniper live. The Sniper made life hell for him the whole game.

Day 1 ended after that and so it was time to go home and have a little rest. I was testing my deck trying to see if I could have built it better. Fortunately, the answer was a big yes; -1 Swamp, +1 Island. Matca Rioters now grows up to 5/5 and Exploding Borders chips away 1/4 of your life total.

My 2nd opponent for this draft was Richard Badlon who was playing the Bant deck that I feared. To make things more interesting, he apparently opened Rafiq of the Many and Dauntless Escort. Lets have a recap shall we... Rafiq, Escort, Rhox War Monk, Finest Hour, and all the landcyclers that can make them happen. He was on the play for the 1st game and dropped Dauntless Escort on turn 3, followed by Rafiq. Fortunately, my turn 2 Stun Sniper backed up by Magma Spray was there to try and take Rafiq out. His Escort took the fall for him but I had Bloodbraid Elf backup which managed to fetch me a Bone Splinters. My sniper for Rafiq seemed like a very good trade. Now that the bombs are safely kept in his graveyard, I started playing my own beats in the form of 4/4 (and bigger) monsters which marched towards a game 1 steal. I executed the game 2 plan of taking out a Swamp for an Island. The game started quietly. I had a 3/3 Matca Rioters on turn 3 facing a Brackwater Elemental. I also had a Rhox Brute in my hand that had to wait because I sensed countermagic. Rocklide Elemental was used for bait, and it was indeed countered by Offering to Asha. My next creature was countered by Traumatic Visions, this one was a a bit painful because it was a Stun Sniper. His elemental surprisingly attacked me for 4, a rather bold move which had me puzzled. I went down to 16, and on his next turn, he played Rafiq and unearthed the elemental taking me down to 6 life. I topdecked Resounding Thunder 2 turns after but noticed that my opponent has yet to play another creature; combat tricks? Rafiq will probably continue to eat creatures at this point. I tried to fish out his tricks by double blocking Rafiq with a Matca Rioters and Rhox Brute. He bounced the brute and the lone remaining blocker died. At this point, I had to shoot the legend down; luckily, he had nothing to save it. The game was all me after that.

The last match of this draft was against Lloyd Tan who drafted a Grixis deck full of removals and a Cruel Ultimatum to send you further down. To sum it up, he did not draw enough removals to clear my board of fat creatures.

3-0 for the draft, 7-2 for the tourney. 2 more wins to go.