Stormblessed

Standard zephyrkey

SCORE: 2 | 4 COMMENTS | 490 VIEWS | IN 3 FOLDERS

GP Toronto: 0-3 Drop —May 2, 2015

This was a pretty rough event, and I learned a lot more about the meta and the deck. After doing some further testing with some friends, I made a change to the list that I brought in to its configuration above.

Round 1: RW Tokens 0-2

As with round one of any event, you get to see all the cool decks that people bring in (including mine!). Going in to the event, I felt that my matchup against Tokens was pretty good with four main-deck Angers and a Virulent Plague in the side. Unfortunately I underestimated the power of a card that has gone way up for me since this event: Secure the Wastes.

Game one on the play my opponent got off to a fairly quick start with Dragon Fodder into Hordeling Outburst. I had a Wild Slash turn one to deal with one of the tokens, and a second one into Thoughtseize to snag a Triplicate Spirits. My opponent had Impact Tremors on turn four and passed with two mana open. I countered with a Thunderbreak Regent hoping to start blocking, but my opponent cast Raise the Alarm dealing me two damage into Stoke the Flames on the regent. I managed to find an Anger on the next turn, but an end step Secure rebuilt his board, and the crack back on the next turn followed by Descent of the Dragons after combat sent us to game two.

Game two I mulled to six and kept a hand with Anger and the mana to cast it, but my opponent was off to an aggressive start again. Monastery Swiftspear into Tremors into Outburst took away a fair chunk of my health very quickly. The next three turns saw my opponent with double Secure into Elspeth and I never saw another Anger or Plague.

I took a look through the deck afterwords, and while it had some issues (maybe a few too many Purphoros), the list was pretty sweet. I also got to watch a U/R token deck go off with Dragon Tempest + Descent of Dragons + Battlefield Thaumaturge on the next table over. Tokens seem pretty sweet right now!

Round Two: Abzan Aggro 1-2

Games one and three I bricked on land after mulling to five both games, so I don't know how much more I could have done to pull this one off.

Game two I got to go off with Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury. Curving Crackling Doom into the Regent into Kolaghan put my opponent to a very low life total. It didn't help when my opponent tried to kill Kolaghan the next turn, forgetting that Regent triggered off of ANY dragon I control.

Round Three: UB Dragon Control 0-2

I didn't see a single Thoughtseize or Mardu Charm in either of our games, which meant that with a grip full of counter spells my opponent just countered everything I played. I was able to stick a Dragonlord Kolaghan at one point, but Ugin swiftly dealt with it.

Things I learned:

1. Secure the Wastes is sweet. Both the tokens and Abzan aggro player were running these, and it always felt really bad when they tapped out for them on end step. Being able to build a wide board presence at instant speed is not to be scoffed at, especially when they are playing synergistic cards like Impact Tremors or Sorin, Solemn Visitor.

2. This deck needed to be more proactive. Looking at the list that Ben S created, and that was piloted to second place, having earlier threats is much better than playing the more reactive strategy that I was trying to go for. Really, unless you are playing counterspells it is very hard to play the draw-go game in this meta.

3. Anger is awesome, but not in the main. Really, just should have played more creatures. As good as Anger can be against the Morph decks and tokens, it just isn't worth the loss that you take from not having access to early creatures. Bring them in in the matchups where it matters. In hindsight, they may not have been that great against tokens anyway.