Hell Gate: Vizkopa
Standard*
SCORE: 156 | 130 COMMENTS | 33018 VIEWS | IN 59 FOLDERS Top 8: 02/28
Top 8! —Oct. 5, 2013
Aurelia's Immortals once again performed with flying colors (specifically BWR) tonight at its second FNM. Went 4-0 out of 6 rounds in the first 4 rounds and then intentionally drew the last two rounds to lock myself in Top 8.
R1: Esper Midrange/Mill (W 2-0)
An interesting Esper deck that runs 5-6 drops supported by mill and control cards. Game 1 I was able to kill his AEtherling (that's right, an AEtherling died tonight!) with a Dreadbore when he made the mistake of tapping out to play him. I then was staring down a Prognostic Sphinx with Ordeal of Heliod slapped on him with no clean kill spell, but He kept swinging in with him to get the scry so he was taking Blood Baron of Vizkopa to the face every turn until he eventually ended at 1 life and was finished by a Warleader's Helix when he tapped out his blue mana. Easy game 2 thanks to Read the Bones and Thoughtseize taking out all of his kill spells while he was stuck with no white mana or enough mana to cast his big creatures. I eventually just went to town with my creatures while he couldn't cast anything.
R2: RDW (W 2-0)
This is the guy I had the one loss to last week. He made a fatal misplay that quickly led to his game 1 loss when he attacked into my Blood Baron of Vizkopa with Boros Reckoner and then, after I obviously declared block, paid to give him first strike and cast Shock on the Blood Baron of Vizkopa, forgetting that Boros Reckoner will deal zero damage to him and so he lost both Boros Reckoner and Shock in a two-for-zero exchange. Things just went downhill for him after that. Game 2 I was able to stave off his attacks with 3 back-to-back Warleader's Helix, killing every single creature he played after turn 4. I eventually got my life back from 8 to 20 before I resolved Obzedat, Ghost Council for game.
R3: RDW (W 2-1)
Damn, another matchup by the same guy I played last week. I got crushed game 1 when I was forced to cast Anger of the Gods on his 2 Boros Reckoners, which really hurt and put me at 3 life, hoping that he wouldn't have burn spells in his hand or draw into one. He answered with 2 Shocks. Game 2 was intense. We both kept playing Boros Reckoner after another until each of us ended up with 3 Boros Reckoners each. I then used Glare of Heresy to exile one of them and decided to swing in with all three. At this point, he had 2 Boros Reckoner untapped and a tapped Chandra's Phoenix. He elected not to block since he revealed to me later that he was holding a Fanatic of Mogis for next turn to deal 9 to my face. So he took 9 from combat, then I casted a game-breaking Anger of the Gods, dealing 9 more to him due to my own redirects and taking 6 from his redirects, which is fine since I took only 6 to his 18 and exiling his Phoenix. He was done for after that since I had a Warleader's Helix. Won game 3 when I hit all 4 of my Anger of the Gods, two of which I had to use on a single creature he topdecked because I was dangerously low. I eventually drew my finisher for game.
R4: Azorius Control (W 2-0)
Ah. I do miss this matchup, especially when I didn't see one Sphinx's Revelation resolve. Blood Baron of Vizkopa single-handedly won me game 1 since he had zero answer for him and he eventually his the 10/10 flyer status. Game took relatively long, but I eventually resolved a Slaughter Games to see his hand of 2 Supreme Verdict
s and a Detention Sphere and exiling all 4 copies of Sphinx's Revelation from his library. After that, my Obzedat, Ghost Council just went to town after swinging in only once when he tapped out his blue mana. I then slowly killed him with his ETB triggers while he struggled to dig for answers that never came.
So I am now 4-0 with only a single game loss and thus I was able to draw into top 8. We decided to play for fun anyway in both rounds and, guess what?, I won both of those matches!
R5: Jund Aggro (Intentional Draw) (W 2-0 in testing)
This guy's deck is a mix of Jund aggro and midrange, with more emphasis on aggro and haste. Blood Baron of Vizkopa blew him out of the water (or jungle) both games since he had no answer for him and for all the non-black creatures he played, I had a burn or kill spell for.
R6: Naya Midrange (Intentional Draw) (W 2-0 in testing)
Konsento25 and I are matched up once again, this time he had a very spicy Naya list that included the bane of my existence: Stormbreath Dragon. Why is that card such a big problem for me? Let's see. He eats Aurelia, the Warleader and Blood Baron of Vizkopa for breakfast (without any milk!), he dodges Warleader's Helix and Chained to the Rocks, and he has haste and flying! Not to mention his Montrosity ability that really, really hurts especially against my deck where I usually hold back a few spells rather than dump my hand. Anyway, Blood Baron of Vizkopa proceeded to stomp him both games since he either couldn't find the dragon or the one that he did ran into a kill spell and he had zero way of dealing with the vampire since he didn't find any Mizzium Mortars.
Tonight's MVPs:
Blood Baron of Vizkopa - Nobody could deal with him and he could gladly take a swing-for-swing trade any day.
Read the Bones - Holy crap. This card rocks! For many times tonight it helped me through land pockets, tucking them away when I don't need them and helped me dig so darn deep for answers. It was ridiculous.
Underworld Connections - This thing got me through the long fight against control, letting me keep up with the cards and constantly holding back answers and threats. Its synergy with Read the Bones was just stupid.
Thanks for reading, guys!