Last weekend Magic History was made. As you know Channel Fireball hosted a Modern Masters sealed Grand Prix in Sunny Las Vegas. Like many of you, Wizard Den was there and Rogue T3ch was registered for the main event!
The format was new and honestly, we didn’t have much time to prepare. I personally had only done one practiced sealed at the Wizard Den and I feel like my sealed deck in the main event showed that and I’m almost certain I miss built. I was passed a pool that had Ant Queen and Wolfbriar Elemental that was supported by a Noble Hierarch. I also had 6 Ravnica Bounce lands and 2 Evolving Wilds. 3 or 4 or the bounce lands were on color but I was going to play them all and lower my land count to 15. With the card advantage gained from the bounce lands, it made sense to cut from my overall land count. I Also had a few domain creatures in red I wanted to take advantage of and ended with a 5-color ‘good stuff’ deck. The archetype is common and with my mana base it was supported. I was base green to take advantage of my bombs. I was 3-2 when I dropped from the event. I was technically still live for day two but that required I go 4-0 the rest of the day and I was not feeling it as I started with a first round bye and then back to back wins to 3-0(Even recovering from a mull to 4 to win game 3 in the 3rd round!). I then lost back to back to back matches against a really solid R/G beat down deck and then the best U/W Affinity deck I’ve even seen in sealed. He opened with Court Homunculus into Everflowing chalice for 1 followed by rusted relic and a turn 4 Indomitable Archangel to give his board shroud and I’m pretty sure I scooped to that and dropped from the event.
Will Pickett getting deck advice from his round 3 opponent Josh Utter-Leyton
None of us made day two or had an “Insane Pool” or pulled “Crazy Value” A few of us were better tested than others but we did our best and all in all the trip was great! I heard some complaints about the events running poorly or taking to long but with upwards of 9,000 people trying to play in drafts/constructed/etc all at once I have to say I was impressed with the judge staff’s performance as a whole and with the exception of one incident in a Modern grinder I was participating in, I was fortunate to experience no such issues.
Picture I took from the Roof of the parking garage of the El Cortez on Fremont ST
Now, anyone that knows me will tell you I don't like sealed. The value gained from playing in the main event was too high for me to skip it and grind constructed side events for prize tickets(That was my original plan). I do have to say though, even with my dislike of sealed, Modern Masters 2015 sealed is fun format with numerous available archetypes and deck choices. If you haven't had a chance to do a sealed event, I highly recommend drafting the set while you still can. Only one rival for "Best draft format" in my eyes and that was vintage masters draft online (You got to draft Blue/Black storm in that format. What more do I have to say?).
As none of us found fame, glory or riches in the Nevada desert, There's not much more for me to say about the GP. Modern Master 2015 on the other hand? I have a few things to say about the set itself. Modern is my "on-again, off-again" favorite format. My feelings for the format Wax and Wane with the meta game and whether I'm enjoying the deck I'm playing and Winning with it (I guess I'm a spike). The decks I'm playing is seriously hindered by my access to the cards in the format. I, like many of you, Have had to make my deck choices based on whether the deck plays Tarmogoyf/Noble Hierarch/etc. I can't say the set is perfect but since it's release I have built two decks I have wanted to build for a while but simply couldn't afford to. First being Abzan. I'm gonna save the second for another article as it's a bit of a brew and still needs testing. Back to Abzan, I don't have Goyf, but I do have Noble Hierarch and that opened the door to the version I really wanted to play.
Wilted Abzan
Creatures:
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Noble Hierarch
4x Voice of Resurgence
2x Qasali Pridemate
3x Loxodon Smiter
3x Kitchen Finks
3x Wilt-Leaf Liege
4x Siege Rhino
Spells:
2x Thoughtseize
4x Path to Exile
4x Lingering Souls
Lands:
4x Windswept Heath
3x Marsh Flats
2x Verdant Catacombs
2x Overgrown Tomb
1x Temple Garden
1x Godless Shrine
2x Razorverge Thicket
1x Wooded Bastion
2x Forest
1x Plains
1x Swamp
Sideboard:
2x Thoughtseize
2x Stony Silence
2x Kataki, War's Wage
2x Back to Nature
2x Zealous Persecution
2x Spellskite
1x Leyline of Sanctity
2x Fracturing Gust
Now, i'm not gonna say the deck is perfect. The fetch lands could be better and the sideboard could be more streamlined against our meta, but, I did get a lot of testing in Vegas and this the 75 I piloted at our Modern tournament last Monday to an Undefeated finish.
Round One
Paired against Blue/Green Tron. For those of you unfamiliar with the Modern Format; "Tron" or "Urza Tron" is a deck that takes advantage of the Cycle of Urza Lands that Wizards of the costs printed in numerous sets through out the years. Urza's Tower, Urza's Power Plant, and Urza's Mine.
The deck runs cards like Expedition map and Ancient stirrings to tutor the lands as fast as possible and play cards like Wurmcoil Engine, Karn Liberated, and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon as early as turns 3 or 4. The Blue version backs that up with counter spells and early tempo plays. You can imagine this is a rough match-up. I was locked out of the game, game one. Mulligans from my Opponent and early thoughtseizes + timely path to exile on his wurmcoil engine ended game two in my favor. I don;t recall the details of game three but I know I took the match.
Whew.
Dodged a bullet.Round Two
Paired against Red/Blue Splinter Twin combo.
The deck is a R/U tempo/control deck that has the ability to instantly kill you with the combo of Deceiver Exarch/Pestermite + Splinter Twin to make infinite copies of the chosen creature and swing for lethal.
This is actually considered a favorable match-up for me. The mainboard Qasali Pridemage and Path to exile gives me main-board ways to disrupt the combo and early threats, some of which are uncounterable(Love you loxodon smiter), allows me apply threats to the board early and hold up(or fake) an answer for the combo. This plan worked perfectly game one as a turn two loxodon smiter off of a Noble Hierarch attacked with exalted trigger until his life total was 0. Sideboard yielded the additional thoughtseizes and a pair of spellskite. Some players tend to sideboard the combo out entirely. I don't know what my opponent did as I went Hierarch into Smiter into "Attack until one of us dies". SPOILER: I went undefeated, so, he died. Not me.
Round Three
The match my deck was designed for. My opponent was running traditional Abzan Midrange with Liliana of the Veil, Tarmogoyf, Inquisition of Kozilek, etc.
Well, this opponent doesn't have Liliana. I learned this after the match. He did run 1-2 Dark Confidant in his 75, Either way, I was happy with the pairing. He stumbled game one and I curved out quickly to take the game. Postboard I take out my Thoughtseizes and board in Zealous persecution to win the Lingering Souls war. This game was a slug-fest and ended in a top-deck war that he ultimately won. I didn't sideboard for game 3. He opened on a pre-game Leyline of Sanctity. I found this odd as it seemed likely I would board out my hand disruption but you never know I guess. With him on the draw but down a card as the leyline did literal nothing against me I just followed my curve. Traded removal early and ended in another top-deck war. I had spirit tokens and a gavony township that I drove to the finish line.
Yay! Victory was mine! It was awesome, I did a lot of trading to finish this deck in Vegas and winning with it right of the gate was awesome and solidified the time and effort that it took to get it together.
I don't think this is the "Best deck" or anything. I mean, this was just a Modern 8man tournament. I do however think the deck is sweet and highly recommend it to anyone wanting to cast Siege Rhino in modern but can't afford 'Goyf and Lilly for the Traditional Midrange version as I consider this version to be on-par in power-level.
A different Animal, but, still the same Beast
(Thanks Kobe!)
Thanks again,
Until next time.
-Christian
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