Nearing the end of my senior year at ASU and thus graduation, I haven’t had a chance to play Magic much lately. My last sanctioned event was February 20th, a small Legacy tournament at Manawerx East. The last Standard tournament that I remember was in mid January — the case tournament at AZ Brain Games. I’ve played more Modern than any other format this year so far, but even then, events were far and few in between.
So the opening weekend of my final Spring Break turned out to be the Super IQ at Amazing Discoveries in Tucson. My brother Jason figured we should go — after all, we can always visit some friends to start the break off well. And of course, play some Magic.
Problem was, I hadn’t paid close attention to Standard since Gatecrash came out. I knew the basics — Burning-Tree Emissary jump-started Gruul and Gruul-like aggro decks, and Boros Reckoner’s price spiked quickly (of course, we sold our foil Boros Reckoner the day of the Modern PTQ at Manawerx West for less than what a nonfoil Boros Reckoner goes for at the time of this article, but I digress).
Jason was the one who ended up getting the decks together. He built the Naya Blitz deck, played several tournaments with it, overall pretty happy with the deck. He also bought into Bant and tested that. He handed me off the Naya Blitz deck, figuring it would be solid for someone who wasn’t too familiar with the format. Contrary to popular belief, we actually don’t playtest 24/7 even though we live together. But, since I did need some testing, we played quite a bit of Naya Blitz vs. Bant (more than we usually do for any format).
I demolished him. Almost every game. Well, pre-sideboard of course. Post-sideboard was more difficult, with Rhox Faithmenders coming in against me. But, at the very least I felt like I could steal some wins with the Naya Blitz deck.
… and that was the extent of my playtesting for the Super IQ. And boy, was I wrong about ‘stealing some wins’ — I did a lot more than just that. Also, Jason audibled to UWR Flash last minute, just to let you know. One reason being this particular matchup.
Some people say that they got incredibly lucky on their way to a Top 8. This was no exception. As far as I’m concerned, this deck played itself. Here’s the list I sleeved up. It’s identical to the winning GP Quebec City deck, minus a Pacifism for a Domri Rade (just because we wanted to play it).
| Creatures (33) 4 Boros Elite 4 Burning-Tree Emissary 4 Champion of the Parish 4 Experiment One 4 Flinthoof Boar 4 Frontline Medic 1 Ghor-Clan Rampager 4 Lightning Mauler 4 Mayor of Avabruck Spells (7) 3 Giant Growth 4 Searing Spear Lands (20) 4 Cavern of Souls 1 Rootbound Crag 4 Sacred Foundry 4 Stomping Ground 3 Sunpetal Grove 4 Temple Garden | Sideboard (15) 3 Boros Charm 2 Fiend Hunter 2 Gruul Charm 2 Nearheath Pilgrim 2 Pacifism 3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben 1 Domri Rade |
As I said before, this deck tested very well against the Bant deck pre-sideboard. However, I didn’t expect to run this well at the Super IQ. For those curious, here were my matchups:
Round 1 – Jund Midrange W, 2-1, Record 1-0
Round 2 – Monored W, 2-0, Record 2-0
Round 3 – U/B Control W, 2-0, Record 3-0
Round 4 – Bant W, 2-0, Record 4-0
Round 5 – Jund Midrange L, 0-2, Record 4-1
Round 6 – UWR Flash W, 2-0, Record 5-1
Round 7 – Prime Speaker Bant ID, Record 5-1-1
Top 8 – Jund Midrange W, 2-1
Top 4 – Jund Midrange W, 2-1
Finals – Prime Speaker Bant Split
Rather than bore you with one sentence loose recollections from each matchup, here are some highlights and reflections from the tournament. I know for some of you this may be obvious but these are just my thoughts on the deck.
Reflection #1 – Long time player still experiencing firsts: This is my first time playing a super hyper-aggressive aggro deck in a serious tournament. I’m usually not used to playing decks like this (I don’t like playing decks that run out of gas easily) but for a format I had no familiarity in, I didn’t particularly care this time. However, counting combat math is something I don’t do very often. It definitely made me think so if you played me and I played slowly, this is why!
Reflection #2 – Resiliency and redundancy: This deck is crazy resilient. Although it functions much like a typical Red Deck Wins in terms of aggression, there is so much redundancy in the deck it’s nuts. All of the one drops function almost identically to one another — they are almost always hitting for three. Of course, they all have their advantages — Champion of the Parish is typically the best, but the Boros Elite is better with a Lightning Mauler, and Experiment One survives Supreme Verdict. In addition, you have a loose redundancy with Lightning Mauler and Flinthoof “Turbo Bacon” Boar (thanks Vince), in the sense that it provides a hasty beater, and Giant Growth/Searing Spear/Ghor Clan Rampager provide combat tricks.
Reflection #3 – Stumbling = dead: I was able to punish mistakes very, very easily. Against this deck, you cannot afford to keep slow or risky hands. One of the games in the top 8 was decided because my Jund opponent kept a hand of tons of removal, but only comes-into-play tapped lands, allowing me to capitalize on the slow start with hasty creatures.
Reflection #4 – Mayor of Avabruck is King: I found that in playtesting against my brother, Mayor of Avabruck was a card I hated to draw against Bant because the pump wasn’t exactly game breaking. However, it was MVP all day. Multiple Mayors were just killer; not having tested against other decks, I had underestimated its pump and the Wolfpack Alpha. The thing about Mayor of Avabruck was learning how to leverage his transform sides. In my experience with Huntmaster of the Fells, having him flip every turn isn’t exactly a problem. Of course, there are some turns where you don’t want him to flip, but generally it isn’t game breaking. But with Mayor of Avabruck, there are times where you NEED him on a certain side; having him flip can cost you or win you the game, because of his pumping ability.
Reflection #5 – On Keeping Risky One Landers: Another thing about myself is that I’m usually a very mulligan-happy person. I’m not afraid to mulligan to five, although I try to avoid it. Now I don’t know how many times that’s bitten me back (maybe I should start recording my mulligans’ win percentages), but it makes it more difficult with this deck because I had to learn to keep one land hands, within reason, because it’s entirely possible to win games by just topdecking the land (since it means the rest of your hand is gas). In the top 4 I kept a one lander with two Champions, a Boros Elite, double Emissary, and Searing Spear. My opponent was able to deal with the 3 one drops (I actually drew a third Champion, and landed a turn 4 Olivia. That turn I draw the second land (super lucky, I know), then go Emissary, Emissary, Searing Spear Olivia. Then I proceeded to win that game.
Reflection #6 – Make sure you know your cards! Obviously. I got Bonfired one game. Then I realized I had a Frontline Medic in play. It’s simple, but sometimes after playing all day you get tired. In addition, make sure you read your opponent’s cards; an Experiment One survives a Supreme Verdict if it has two or more +1/+1 counters. Also, I almost screwed up combat math because I thought a Rhox Faithmender was a 1/4 and not a 1/5 against my 4/4 Champion of the Parish.
Reflection #7 – Tapping 2RB means I lose: I lost multiple games to — wait. All of my game losses at the Super IQ were to Jund Midrange. I’d bet good money that at least 4 of those 5 losses of the day were to Olivia Voldaren. I managed to deal with Olivia a fair amount of times (only when they tap out on turn 4 or 5) with a timely Searing Spear. Seriously. There is almost no other way to deal with Olivia; the best way is killing them before Olivia lands.
Reflection #8 – Bad News Boros Reckoners: My main concern going into the tournament was Boros Reckoner. I just didn’t feel like I could deal with it. And well, I probably couldn’t. The best strategy I utilized was — not facing them all day. I got really, really lucky in that regard. I’m not sure if I’ll be that lucky at the next Standard tournament I play, though. I’m still not sure how to deal with them.
Reflection #9 – Ghor-Clan Rampager? More like No-Clan Rampager: I didn’t see Ghor-Clan Rampager all day. Sure, it’s because it’s a one of, but I never got to see him in action, ever.
Highlight #1 – The Mayors vs. the Huntmaster: In a game against Jund Midrange, I had two Mayors out. My opponent cast a turn 4 Huntmaster, and passed his ENTIRE turn 5 in order to kill one of my Mayors and be able to block the other. I had a Searing Spear in hand and although I could have cast it at the end of his turn, the Wolfpack Alphas are much more frightening since they’re pumping out two 4/4 wolves a turn. So rather, I waited until my turn, then in response to the transform triggers, killed the Huntmaster. Then proceeded to enjoy my two 4/4 wolves.
To be fair, I think that it wasn’t exactly a misplay for him to pass the turn; if he had, say, cast a Thragtusk instead, I just have to pass the turn and have my Mayors transform and start pumping out tokens. That turn 5 was just the only opportunity to kill a Mayor and be able to block the other, without sacrificing too much.
Highlight #2 – On Keeping Risky One Landers, Part Two: And of course, the one match I lose, was a feature match. You can read it here: Click! I do want to say the reason why I kept one landers both games were:
That game one I had a double Burning-Tree Emissary and Flinthoof Boar draw, with one or two 1 drops. So drawing a second land meant I would have been in a very advantageous position.
Game two’s seven card hand was 4 land, Flinthoof, Searing Spear, and Boros Elite. Not nearly aggressive as I’d like, but you might disagree. I mulliganed it. The six card hand was a one lander with a Boros Elite, and a bunch of white cards. The one lander was a Sunpetal Grove. If it was a Temple Garden, I might consider it. But I shipped it. My five card hand was a Temple Garden, Champion of the Parish/Experiment One (I don’t remember), double Mayor of Avabruck, and Lightning Mauler. Of course, I keep this one. Drawing a land meant I’d likely win the game. But of course it didn’t happen. Ouch.
Highlight #3 – Faster than a Legacy Belcher mirror match? Maybe: My round 2 opponent playing Mono red ended on turn 4 both games. We pretty much finished our match before some people had started their first game. Okay, that’s an exaggeration, but that’s pretty close to what really happened. Both decks are fast (game 2 was decided by one turn; I killed him when he had lethal on board if he untapped), but Burning-Tree Emissary makes my deck faster. I also play better defense; his unleash creatures cannot do anything against mine if I am more aggressive than him.
Highlight #4 – Restoration Angel + Thragtusk? No problem! The Naya Blitz deck showed it resiliency when I faced against a Bant deck. In game two my opponent started off with Centaur Healer, which traded with one of my creatures. Then a Rhox Faithmender, which I killed with a 4/4 Champion of the Parish + Boros Charm (double strike mode). Then he plays Thragtusk and attacks with it on the next turn. I block with my 3/3 Wolf token (pumped from the Wolfpack Alpha); he forgot the pump, and flashes in Restoration Angel to save it. At this point, he’s at 29 life. Over the course of the game, he’s probably gained somewhere close to 20 life. But a combination of Frontline Medic and some combat math, I was able to take him down to zero while I was at 7 facing two Restoration Angels.
That just about does the reflections and highlights. It’s a weird feeling playing a deck like this; usually I get ‘nut draws’ with the decks that I play, but that just means I put myself in a very advantageous position rather than reducing their life total to zero.
I mean, overall, I enjoyed the deck. It was fun, especially because it was different from what I usually play. Do I recommend it? As long as you can find a way to deal with Olivia Voldaren and Boros Reckoner, then my answer is a resounding YES. Without an efficient Pyroclasm-like effect in the format (as far as I’m aware), the nut draws with this deck are nigh-impossible — or at the very least, difficult — to beat. The thing is, the redundancy in the deck makes nut draws very common, so long as you hit the exact number of land. You have 12 one drops, 8 hasty two drops, 4 two drops that let you cheat, as far as I’m concerned, a three drop that allows you to race, and a bunch of burn and pump to blow your opponent out of the water. The redundancy of the one drops and the hasty creatures, coupled with the speed of the Burning-Tree Emissary makes this an extremely fast deck.
Props:
- Jason, for putting the deck together and letting me play it instead of him
- Eli and Amazing Discoveries for putting together a very well run event
- Fellow top 8’ers for being an overall cool bunch of people
- ASU for Spring Break!
Slops:
- Getting mana screwed both games in my first and only feature match of the day
- Jund Midrange for giving me my only game losses of the day
- Miscounting some combat math
Sorry if I missed anyone :(
Anyway, that’s all. Hope you guys enjoyed it.
Jeff Abong
Follow me on Twitter so I have a reason to tweet! @mtgtwin2