Ultimate Guild Challenge: Boros, Quarter final results!

Deck Challenges

Dallie

17 January 2014

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Round 4 results of the Ultimate Guild Challenge: Boros!

Hello everyone and welcome back to the series which is nearing its conclusion, the UGC: Boros.

Last time I left you, were into the quarter finals, and below we will take a look at how those matches played out!

If you look at the last title, it was preposterous promise time, which turned out to be true. For those of you familiar with Garry's Mod and SeaNanners will know an expression called #NTN (Never trust Nanners). The same applies to me when it comes to deadlines for UGC articles, and how much weight I can bench at the gym. (Trick question, I don't go to the gym.)

Take a look below to see the Results of the round!

Round 4 results!

Darkness1835 (0) (Boros Guild Challenge) versus exarkun809 (2) (Challenge Accepted, Boros)

Game 1:

Both players had a Turn 1 Order of the Stars play, but were otherwise kind of land heavy in the opener (4 each).

Darkness1835 followed his Order with a Truefire Paladin which ate a Lightning Helix from exarkun809. Come turn 4 both players were using Sunforgers to throw spells at each other, but exarkun809 had an Assemble the Legion to start gaining board advantage. Darkness1835 played double Seal of Fires, but had no real threats, apart from a Spark Trooper which he hooked up with the Sunforger for a turn, gaining a big life swing.

Seeing no better targets, exarkun809 Wear / Tear'ed the opposing Sunforger and after he had started gaining tokens the game looked rather onesided.

Darkness1835 played a Boros Reckoner which instantly met a Lightning Helix, and with a constantly growing army of tokens, exarkun809s superior number of burn spells closed out game 1 in his favor.

Game 2:

Darkness1835 had an excellent start with a T1 Order of the Stars into a T2 Blind Obedience for a T3Boros Reckoner. Meanwhile exarkun809 was stuck on three lands, but he had a burnsuite capable of keeping the board clear.

exarkun809 played dual Order of the Stars both naming red, and kept playing defense. A Sunforger and a Spark Trooper for Darkness1835 combined lifegain with burn/gain (Lightning Helix) to set him into the mid thirties lifetotalwise. exarkun809 was dangerously low, and the extort from the Blind Obedience almost finished him off. With his opponent at 1 life, Darkness1835 attempted to cast a Sunforger with extort for the win, but faith had it, that exarkun809 had just topdecked a Lightning Helix the turn before.

When exarkun809 finally hit 5 mana, he cast back to back Assemble the Legions making mass totems, and as he drew into more land, he was able to stick an Angel of Serenity which exiled a recently cast Boros Reckoner.

Blind Obedience delayed each token generated for a turn, and a Master Warcraft ensured that he didn't die to lethal, but the following turn, exarkun809 gained 9 tokens and swung with 16 tokens, and the Angel for lethal damage.

EpicureanHorn (0) (Boros Control) versus TheLameSauce (2) (Concerted Boros)

Game 1:

EpicureanHorn started with a hand that contained 3 land, an Angel of Serenity and 3 removal spells, and drew into next to no removal. TheLameSauce has a wide array of creatures, to set up the Concerted Effort which is what his deck is built from, and kept piling them on, starting with a Courier Hawk into a Boros Reckoner.

The Reckoner ate EpicureanHorns Lightning Helix and when TheLameSauce dropped a Frontline Medic, EpicureanHorn overloaded a Mizzium Mortars to clear the board.

However, a duo of Boros Recruits from TheLameSauce kept on the pressure, untill EpicureanHorn hit 7 mana. EpicureanHorn played an Angel of Serenity, exiling both Recruits, and was about to start chipping away at TheLameSauces life total, however TheLameSauce dropped an Aurelia, the Warleader which didn't attack on its first turn.

Drawing into more land, TheLameSauce was able to activate a Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion with two untapped Boros Guildgates, and attacked. It was clear, that TheLameSauce had a trick, but not blocking would mean being dealt lethal (double strike on TWO attack phases is pretty good), and thus EpicureanHorn's Angel of Serenity walked right into first strike damage, followed up by a Lightning Helix. The next attack step he took 6 damage.

Nothing short of a spell capable of dealing 4 or more damage would save EpicureanHorn, who conceded as his draw was Mugging.

Game 2:

EpicureanHorn removed a lot of TheLameSauce's early aggression, and then dropped a pair of Assemble the Legions. However having at least had some damge get through, and following it up with burn spells, had dropped EpicureanHorn to 13 life. A Sunforger + activation fetching Lightning Helix brought EpicureanHorn to 10, and a swing from a Boros Reckoner put him at 10.

EpicureanHorn was 5 tokens, and attacked with some. TheLameSauce swung back after dropping a Master Warcraft and a Weapon Surge, taking EpicureanHorn to 6.

It looked like EpicureanHorn would outrace, by swinging with 11 tokens, and putting TheLameSauce to 6, but a topdecked land, meant that TheLameSauce could activate his Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion and play his other Master Warcraft to swing for exactly lethal.

killroy726 (1) (The Boros Brigade) versus CaveShinobi (2) (Righteous Rushin')

Game 1:

CaveShinobi got out of the gates with a Boros Elite, whilst killroy726 threw down a Legion Loyalist, which went unblocked, in return for a swing for 1 from the Elite.

CaveShinobi then followed it up with turn 2 and 3 Wojek Halberdiers, whilst killroy726 played a Blind Obedience, and attempted to Lightning Helix (with extort) one of the Halberdiers before CaveShinobis attack. CaveShinobi, however, had the Boros Charm and with 3 indestructible 3/3s he hit hard.

killroy726 didn't draw into any gas, and had to go on the defense with a Riot Control, which bought him a turn. Any creature he played would chump, as he couldn't afford to lose more life, whilst CaveShinobi played full offense, laying down another Boros Elite and a Frontline Medic.

In the end, killroy726 couldn't do anything and blocks were never profitable due to the Medic, which meant that even though killroy726 had a Tajic, Blade of the Legion which could potentially (if the Medic hadn't been there) take out an attacker per turn, he couldn't stop the bleeding.

An alpha strike for 15 ended the game in CaveShinobis favor.

Game 2:

killroy726 was on the play and hit hard and aggressive with a quite similar start. A turn 1 Legion Loyalist into a T2 Boros Elite, which was followed up with Skyknight Legionnaire. The batallion from Legion Loyalist made it very hard for CaveShinobi to block with his own Boros Elite and Skyknight Legionnaire.

killroy726 then played a Blind Obedience to deal with any blockers, and a Viashino Firstblade with the back-up of a Lightning Helix brought CaveShinobi to 0 life, no later than turn 5.

Game 3:

CaveShinobi kept a hand that had two land, two Boros Charms, two Lightning Helixes and a Truefire Paladin, and hoped to draw into more land and more creatures. Missing his third land drop, he did however get a Frontline Medic, and by turn 4 he got a Plains.

killroy726 on the other hand, had plenty of aggro cards, but he lost most two Skyknight Legionnaires to Helixes, and even though he got in a hit with Spark Trooper he didn't have anything to apply pressure of his own. Double draws of Riot Control kept him alive, and floated his life total, but without the means to kill CaveShinobi he could only sit back as CaveShinobi swung with a Vigilant 2/2, a freshly cast Tajic, Blade of the Legion and a Frontline Medic.

killroy726 did draw into plenty of creatures, but they could only chump block to help him stay out of redzone, however CaveShinobis dual Boros Charms were sent straight to the face, once killroy726 had dropped to 8, securing the overall victory for CaveShinobi.

To give you guys a little insight on the remaining combatants, so you know what to expect of the decks, see below.

exarkun809 and his deck Challenge Accepted, Boros

exarkun809 has put together a control deck which has decimated aggro decks throughout, using Gideon, Champion of Justice for massive countergain, and no less than 21 removal spells. Angel of Serenity plays the lategame, along with Sunforger and Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion, to swing for huge damage, and also providing board control. A playset of Order of the Stars is an excellent defense, which is near impossible to remove, save for Conde... ahem Angel of Serenity (kudos shuflw) or Devouring Light.

TheLameSauce and his deck Concerted Boros

This deck has put together a wide array of keywords which are then granted to every single one of TheLameSauces variety of creatures, thanks to Concerted Effort. The creature curve is solid despite the huge number of 1-ofs and 2-ofs, and 10 tricks/removal spells tie it all together for a near unstoppable army of Double-striking, flying, vigilant, protection from red/white/monocoloured, and trampling creatures.

CaveShinobi and his deck Righteous Rushin'

The last of the aggro decks in the competition uses fast vanilla-test-passing creatures to overwhelm the opposition before they have a time to stabilize. Boros Charm protects the pieces until a Frontline Medic finds its way to the board, and Assemble the Legion stabilizes the long game, and does an excellent job of turning on batallion.

Jimhawk and his deck the-tactics-of-war

Jimhawks deck uses artifact ramp to spew out Angel of Serenitys or even better Blazing Archons whilst removing any threat the opponent throws down. Aerial superiority is secured through double strike from Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion, and Assemble the Legion is on the board, optimally a full turn earlier, giving him the edge over other decks that rely on the token generator. Interestingly, Jimhawk is the only semi-finalist who hasn't included Wear / Tear, which has proven highly effective throughout the tournament.

They will be matched up for the semi-finals as follows:

exarkun809 (Challenge Accepted, Boros) versus TheLameSauce (Concerted Boros)

CaveShinobi (Righteous Rushin') versus Jimhawk (the-tactics-of-war)

That's it for this time folks! I apologize for the delay, but with just 3 matches to go, I'll be sure to finish the series soon!

I hope you enjoyed the read and, as always, leave your comment/suggestion/feedback below!

//Dallie