M
Modus Pwnens
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This story starts a couple of weeks ago. I responded to the judge-call for Nationals, since I didn't had time to play in qualifiers. Unfortunately, I was turned down by the head-judge, as he had many other applications, so I was looking to the weekend off.
The next week was GP Lyon, which I was going to participate in. After a really fun day one (I cast Emrakul on turn 7
) I was sitting on an 8-2 record. Even though day 2 didn't went as good, at the end of the tournament I was sitting on a nice 1895 rating, and indeed, sometime later I got a letter telling me that I was qualified for Nationals after all
Since I didn't had the time to test, I just called up some friends for cards for a deck that seemed sweet, and I ended up registering this 75:
Next Level Bant
A Standard deck, by Brian Kibler
1st place at a Grand Prix tournament in Sendai, Japan on 2010-06-06
As reported at http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/gpsen10/top8decks
Print this deck!
Maindeck:
Creatures
2 Birds of Paradise
1 Borderland Ranger
4 Noble Hierarch
2 Ranger of Eos
1 Scute Mob
4 Sea Gate Oracle
2 Sphinx of Lost Truths
4 Vengevine
4 Wall of Omens
Enchantments
2 Oblivion Ring
Instants
1 Bant Charm
2 Path to Exile
Planeswalkers
3 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Gideon Jura
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Basic Lands
5 Forest
2 Island
1 Plains
Lands
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Seaside Citadel
1 Stirring Wildwood
3 Sunpetal Grove
Sideboard:
1 Journey to Nowhere
1 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Bant Charm
2 Celestial Purge
2 Deprive
2 Negate
3 Day of Judgment
The sideboard was a bit modified, as Jund and Mythic were the most popular decks, according to my friends.
With this deck, I sat down round one against some guy a didn't know, who said he qualified through a Qualifier.
Round 1. RGU Landdestruction
Game one he got my on tempo by destroying a land with Tectonic Edge, then Ruinblastered another. When he cascaded into Resounding Wave with a Bloodbraid Elf and bounced another, we moved on to game 2.
Game two was more in my favour. My Hierarch made his landdestruction look funny, and Elspeth + Vengevine made short work of him.
Game three he kept a sketchy hand, and he was dead before he drew his third land.
1-0 (2-1)
Round 2. Jund
Jund in the hands of an inexperienced player is a very good matchup. He Blightninged into my hand with Vengevines, and it all went pretty good from there
If I remember it correctly he didn't even board them out and game two went fairly similar
2-0 (4-1)
Round 3. Jund
This time I played against a player I did know to be pretty strong. Fortunately for me, he Blightninged me on his third turn without a board presence. I happily discarded two Vengevines and got 'm back the next turn.
Next game he didn't had any Thrinaxes and I quickly ran him over with Vengevines.
3-0 (6-1)
Draft one.
The draft went pretty bad. I opened an empty booster with just a Joraga Treespeaker (you know, the Sol Ring). after a few more empty packs I got a few removal spells over three colors, but I hadn't seen any more green cards, so I was disappointed to find out that other people didn't had any either. I had to pass Pelakka Worms and other goodies, but I managed to pick up some more removal.
In the end I had a decent UBR deck with a bunch of removal and a few finishers.
Round 4. Bram Snepvangers (BR control)
Bram is obviously a very good player, and I wasn't convinced of my deck's strength, so this was going to be a tough game.
It turned out his deck was similar to mine. The first five turns we just went draw-go. From there we traded creatures and removal spells to the point where we were both on 7 life, and I would win the moment I'd topdeck my Pestilence Demon. Unfortunately, the game went on and on without me drawing it, all up to the point where I had two cards left in my deck. Of course, Bram killed me the turn before I would draw it, as I had ran out of Eldrazi Spawn tokens to chumpblock his 5/5 Emrakul's Hatcher.
Game two he beat me down with a Rage Nimbus equipped with a Chariot so it could attack, and I failed to draw an answer.
3-1 (6-3)
Round 5. BG control
My opponent this round wasn't a very good player, and after our match he admitted he was afraid to mulligan a bit. He did indeed kept two hands that didn't really do anything, and I quickly won this one. Guess I'll take it
4-1 (8-3)
Round 6. UW levellers
Game one he came out of the gates pretty fast with Caravan Escort into Time of Heroes. Didn't win that on
Game two he was much slower, and I could keep his relevant threats under control and beat him down.
Game three was much of the same. He was a bit faster this time, but I drew my cheap removal and took control of the game.
5-1 (10-4)
Draft two.
Again this was somewhat of a disappointment, guess it pays off to play a few more drafts than I did (which wasn't a lot). I first picked an Overgrown Battlement, picked up some black levellers, but the deck didn't really came together. I ended up with 4 Battlements, but only 2 Skeleton Worm to ramp into. Only 4 removal spells wasn't awesome either, but it'd had to do.
Round 7. UW levellers
Game one was a blowout, my opponent opened on Training Grounds, Followed by Knight of Cliffhaven, which he levelled up in two turns. I couldn't deal with his Serra, and quickly died.
Game two was more in my favor, as I put him quickly under pressure with some dorks, forced some profitable trades and finally killed him with fatties when he ran out of chumps.
Game three was close, but him being on the play meant he killed me one turn before I could kill him. Bummer
End of day 1:
5-2 (11-6)
Day two would be 5 rounds, and I had to go 4-1 to make top 8.
Round 8. WB levellers
This was the first round that I played against a friend of mine, Dimitri Reinderman, chess grandmaster and professional slowplayer this time.
I ramped out some quick fatties and chumped his levellers with the tokens they brought with them. Soon I had him chumpblocking and he was defeated fairly soon after. Umbra's are pretty sweet here.
The second game I had a key naturalize for his Time of Heroes to take out one of his creatures for free. I also drew most of my removal in the early game which allowed me to stabilize and in the (very) end take him down.
6-2 (13-6)
Round 9. GRb manaramp.
Further in the tournament my opponents got tougher. This time I had to play Tom van Lamoen, who was national champion two year ago. He had a blazing start with Raid Bombardment, but I managed to hold off most damage with my walls while my 5/5 unblockable leveller went all the way.
Round two I got lucky. He was attacking with his Wildheart Invoker and Nest invader, while I tried to race him with the black Invoker and some walls. The critical turn had him topdecking a land or removal spell, which he fortunately didn't, so I fell to one. Then I had to topdeck a land or removal spell, and I turned one of my 4 removal spells for the win.
7-2 (15-6)
Back to standard. I was pretty happy to 2-1 both drafts, as I had 3-0'd constructed the day before and only had to go 2-1 this time.
Round 10. Mythic.
Had to play Bram Snepvangers again, and with a matchup which is about as bad as it gets.. I knew what he played, but that didn't help when he went Birds, Cobra + Dauntless Escort, Baneslayer, Sovereign in the first game.
Second game started pretty bad, as I had to mulligan to 5 cards. Bram dumped his hand out on the board but couldn't profitable into my Vengevine. When I finally peeled my second white source for Day of Judgment, that left him with just 4 lands and an empty hand. He peeled an Elspeth, but I had my own to force a trade. It was all elementary after that.
Game three I got lucky again. Bram had boarded his Escorts back in, but I could Bant Charm two of those away before wrathing his board. He was left with two lands, and I won with a Scute Mob while he couldn't cast anything (apparently he just drew Lost Sovereigns, three in a row).
8-2 (17-7)
Round 11. Jund
I got paired up against the guy that was 10-0, and asked him to concede. Unfortunately, he wanted to qualify for PT Amsterdam on rating, so he wanted to play.
His deck was terrible for me. No Blightning, but Masters, Sarkhan and a bunch of removal. He crushed me in two quick games, didn't stand much of a chance.
8-3 (17-7)
Round 12. Jund
Again I was paired up, and again my opponent could concede me into top 8, and although I explained it was safe for both of us, he preferred to play it out first, and think about it a bit longer.
He won the first on the back of a Siege-Gang to the face, I quickly defeated him with Elspeth powered Vengevine Beats in the second. The third was quite exciting. I discarded one of my Elspeths early in the game to his Blightning, and played the second to produce chumpblockers for his Thrinaxes. I fetchup up a Scute Mob with Ranger of Eos, threatening to kill him in two turns, but after one hit he Pulsed the Elspeth. Luckily, I peeled the last Elspeth in my deck to win the game, and move on to top 8.
Final Record
9-3 (19-8)
Quarter Finals, Jund.
My opponent played a pretty standard Jund-list, so I figured I had a pretty good chance.
Game one went my way when I could use Jace to bounce his dragon tokens and finish him off with Gideon.
Game two he had a Master I couldn't answer and which ate my team before crushing me with wolves.
The final game was very disappointing. I ran out of gas, despite drawing 10 more cards than he did, but just didn't drew anything useful. In the end he finished me off with two sarkhans
I'm somewhat disappointed not to qualify for worlds and be a member of the national team, but considering I didn't test at all, I'm not going to complain much
Went home with a box and 4 pro points, guaranteeing at least one bye at Grand Prix this and next year =)
Modus
The next week was GP Lyon, which I was going to participate in. After a really fun day one (I cast Emrakul on turn 7
) I was sitting on an 8-2 record. Even though day 2 didn't went as good, at the end of the tournament I was sitting on a nice 1895 rating, and indeed, sometime later I got a letter telling me that I was qualified for Nationals after all Since I didn't had the time to test, I just called up some friends for cards for a deck that seemed sweet, and I ended up registering this 75:
Next Level Bant
A Standard deck, by Brian Kibler
1st place at a Grand Prix tournament in Sendai, Japan on 2010-06-06
As reported at http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/eventcoverage/gpsen10/top8decks
Print this deck!
Maindeck:
Creatures
2 Birds of Paradise
1 Borderland Ranger
4 Noble Hierarch
2 Ranger of Eos
1 Scute Mob
4 Sea Gate Oracle
2 Sphinx of Lost Truths
4 Vengevine
4 Wall of Omens
Enchantments
2 Oblivion Ring
Instants
1 Bant Charm
2 Path to Exile
Planeswalkers
3 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Gideon Jura
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Basic Lands
5 Forest
2 Island
1 Plains
Lands
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Seaside Citadel
1 Stirring Wildwood
3 Sunpetal Grove
Sideboard:
1 Journey to Nowhere
1 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
2 Qasali Pridemage
2 Bant Charm
2 Celestial Purge
2 Deprive
2 Negate
3 Day of Judgment
The sideboard was a bit modified, as Jund and Mythic were the most popular decks, according to my friends.
With this deck, I sat down round one against some guy a didn't know, who said he qualified through a Qualifier.
Round 1. RGU Landdestruction
Game one he got my on tempo by destroying a land with Tectonic Edge, then Ruinblastered another. When he cascaded into Resounding Wave with a Bloodbraid Elf and bounced another, we moved on to game 2.
Game two was more in my favour. My Hierarch made his landdestruction look funny, and Elspeth + Vengevine made short work of him.
Game three he kept a sketchy hand, and he was dead before he drew his third land.
1-0 (2-1)
Round 2. Jund
Jund in the hands of an inexperienced player is a very good matchup. He Blightninged into my hand with Vengevines, and it all went pretty good from there
If I remember it correctly he didn't even board them out and game two went fairly similar
2-0 (4-1)
Round 3. Jund
This time I played against a player I did know to be pretty strong. Fortunately for me, he Blightninged me on his third turn without a board presence. I happily discarded two Vengevines and got 'm back the next turn.
Next game he didn't had any Thrinaxes and I quickly ran him over with Vengevines.
3-0 (6-1)
Draft one.
The draft went pretty bad. I opened an empty booster with just a Joraga Treespeaker (you know, the Sol Ring
). after a few more empty packs I got a few removal spells over three colors, but I hadn't seen any more green cards, so I was disappointed to find out that other people didn't had any either. I had to pass Pelakka Worms and other goodies, but I managed to pick up some more removal.In the end I had a decent UBR deck with a bunch of removal and a few finishers.
Round 4. Bram Snepvangers (BR control)
Bram is obviously a very good player, and I wasn't convinced of my deck's strength, so this was going to be a tough game.
It turned out his deck was similar to mine. The first five turns we just went draw-go. From there we traded creatures and removal spells to the point where we were both on 7 life, and I would win the moment I'd topdeck my Pestilence Demon. Unfortunately, the game went on and on without me drawing it, all up to the point where I had two cards left in my deck. Of course, Bram killed me the turn before I would draw it, as I had ran out of Eldrazi Spawn tokens to chumpblock his 5/5 Emrakul's Hatcher.
Game two he beat me down with a Rage Nimbus equipped with a Chariot so it could attack, and I failed to draw an answer.
3-1 (6-3)
Round 5. BG control
My opponent this round wasn't a very good player, and after our match he admitted he was afraid to mulligan a bit. He did indeed kept two hands that didn't really do anything, and I quickly won this one. Guess I'll take it
4-1 (8-3)
Round 6. UW levellers
Game one he came out of the gates pretty fast with Caravan Escort into Time of Heroes. Didn't win that on
Game two he was much slower, and I could keep his relevant threats under control and beat him down.
Game three was much of the same. He was a bit faster this time, but I drew my cheap removal and took control of the game.
5-1 (10-4)
Draft two.
Again this was somewhat of a disappointment, guess it pays off to play a few more drafts than I did (which wasn't a lot). I first picked an Overgrown Battlement, picked up some black levellers, but the deck didn't really came together. I ended up with 4 Battlements, but only 2 Skeleton Worm to ramp into. Only 4 removal spells wasn't awesome either, but it'd had to do.
Round 7. UW levellers
Game one was a blowout, my opponent opened on Training Grounds, Followed by Knight of Cliffhaven, which he levelled up in two turns. I couldn't deal with his Serra, and quickly died.
Game two was more in my favor, as I put him quickly under pressure with some dorks, forced some profitable trades and finally killed him with fatties when he ran out of chumps.
Game three was close, but him being on the play meant he killed me one turn before I could kill him. Bummer
End of day 1:
5-2 (11-6)
Day two would be 5 rounds, and I had to go 4-1 to make top 8.
Round 8. WB levellers
This was the first round that I played against a friend of mine, Dimitri Reinderman, chess grandmaster and professional slowplayer this time.
I ramped out some quick fatties and chumped his levellers with the tokens they brought with them. Soon I had him chumpblocking and he was defeated fairly soon after. Umbra's are pretty sweet here.
The second game I had a key naturalize for his Time of Heroes to take out one of his creatures for free. I also drew most of my removal in the early game which allowed me to stabilize and in the (very) end take him down.
6-2 (13-6)
Round 9. GRb manaramp.
Further in the tournament my opponents got tougher. This time I had to play Tom van Lamoen, who was national champion two year ago. He had a blazing start with Raid Bombardment, but I managed to hold off most damage with my walls while my 5/5 unblockable leveller went all the way.
Round two I got lucky. He was attacking with his Wildheart Invoker and Nest invader, while I tried to race him with the black Invoker and some walls. The critical turn had him topdecking a land or removal spell, which he fortunately didn't, so I fell to one. Then I had to topdeck a land or removal spell, and I turned one of my 4 removal spells for the win.
7-2 (15-6)
Back to standard. I was pretty happy to 2-1 both drafts, as I had 3-0'd constructed the day before and only had to go 2-1 this time.
Round 10. Mythic.
Had to play Bram Snepvangers again, and with a matchup which is about as bad as it gets.. I knew what he played, but that didn't help when he went Birds, Cobra + Dauntless Escort, Baneslayer, Sovereign in the first game.
Second game started pretty bad, as I had to mulligan to 5 cards. Bram dumped his hand out on the board but couldn't profitable into my Vengevine. When I finally peeled my second white source for Day of Judgment, that left him with just 4 lands and an empty hand. He peeled an Elspeth, but I had my own to force a trade. It was all elementary after that.
Game three I got lucky again. Bram had boarded his Escorts back in, but I could Bant Charm two of those away before wrathing his board. He was left with two lands, and I won with a Scute Mob while he couldn't cast anything (apparently he just drew Lost Sovereigns, three in a row).
8-2 (17-7)
Round 11. Jund
I got paired up against the guy that was 10-0, and asked him to concede. Unfortunately, he wanted to qualify for PT Amsterdam on rating, so he wanted to play.
His deck was terrible for me. No Blightning, but Masters, Sarkhan and a bunch of removal. He crushed me in two quick games, didn't stand much of a chance.
8-3 (17-7)
Round 12. Jund
Again I was paired up, and again my opponent could concede me into top 8, and although I explained it was safe for both of us, he preferred to play it out first, and think about it a bit longer.
He won the first on the back of a Siege-Gang to the face, I quickly defeated him with Elspeth powered Vengevine Beats in the second. The third was quite exciting. I discarded one of my Elspeths early in the game to his Blightning, and played the second to produce chumpblockers for his Thrinaxes. I fetchup up a Scute Mob with Ranger of Eos, threatening to kill him in two turns, but after one hit he Pulsed the Elspeth. Luckily, I peeled the last Elspeth in my deck to win the game, and move on to top 8.
Final Record
9-3 (19-8)
Quarter Finals, Jund.
My opponent played a pretty standard Jund-list, so I figured I had a pretty good chance.
Game one went my way when I could use Jace to bounce his dragon tokens and finish him off with Gideon.
Game two he had a Master I couldn't answer and which ate my team before crushing me with wolves.
The final game was very disappointing. I ran out of gas, despite drawing 10 more cards than he did, but just didn't drew anything useful. In the end he finished me off with two sarkhans
I'm somewhat disappointed not to qualify for worlds and be a member of the national team, but considering I didn't test at all, I'm not going to complain much
Went home with a box and 4 pro points, guaranteeing at least one bye at Grand Prix this and next year =)
Modus
