Title: Denver GP Trials Report
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Blog Entry: LOR/SHA block constructed In hopes that it well help another player this block constructed season, here are my experiences this past weekend. When I saw that my local store was running a Denver GP trials tournament I made plans to attend. The store also switched out its preceeded standard tournies for for block constructed, and I made one of those. I knew Kithkin and Faeries would be prevalent, and that faeries is probably the best deck in the format. I knew those two were the decks beat. The deck I took to the practive tourny went 2 and 2, losing to both a kithkin deck and faerie deck. So I went back to the drawing board. I considered "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" and built myself a kithkin deck (I don't have the key cards for faeries) around the Order of Whiteclay and using Somnomancer . Playtesting showed good results against the "standard" kithin build, but not much success against faeries. Then I tried a R/G warriors with liege, which also lost to fae, and B/U rogues that lost to fae, but then I hit upon the following that went at least 60/40 vs Fae in my testing, and better against kithkin (although Mirrorweave was still a wildcard, that could single-handedly throw a game). 4 Wort, Boggart Auntie 2 Ashenmoor Gouger 3 Murderous Redcap 3 Shriekmaw 3 Tarean mauler 4 Elite Scar blade 2 Lightning Crafter ------ 21 creatures 3 Knollspine Invocation 4 Warren Weirding 4 Nameless Inversion 4 Tarfire ---- 17 Other 4 Auntie's Hovel 4 Graven Cairns 7 Swamps 7 Mountains Card Choices: Knollspine Invocation - Maybe because you can get a playset of these cheap, but it seemed like a card you could build a lot of synergy around, ala Wort. Wort, Boggart Auntie - I've used this card effectively in the past and recycling your removal is brutally effective. It's of course an O-ring/Crib Swap/Namelss inversion lightning rod, but that's why I ran 4 maindeck. Extra's can be pitched tot he invocation. A playset of these is also pretty cheap. Nameless Inversion / Warren Weirding / Tarfire / Shriekmaw / Murderous Redcap / Profane Command - That's alot of removal, most of it cheap, and most of abusable with wort. The Warren Weirding 's are iffy vs Fae, most of the time only hitting a tapped Bitterblossom token, but back breaking vs alot of other stuff ( Oversoul of Dusk , Cloudthresher ). The redcaps and Nameless Inversion s fit nicely with... Scar blade Elite - Alof of players had to pick this guy up and read him, because he's not really a tournament staple I got a lot of use out of him, almost never had touible with the BB casting cost, and with a fair number of assassins (or look alikes) he gave me some good board control. Nothing like a mid-combat Nameless Inversion to take out one target, then use it with the Scar blade Elite to take out another. Taurean Mauler - These don't get alot of love, but were effective for me. I had a bad experience having one of these taken by a Sower of Temptation (backed up by a scion of course), but with all the removal in this deck that wasn't a problem. It happened once, but an invocation was already in play. Ashenmoor Gouger - Oddly enough I only have 2 of these, but they were effective two drops. I might consider adding two more when I take out... Lightning Crafter - In my search for anti-kithkin cards I found the Lightning Crafter . It fit well (championing a redcap is fun), but really was a dog the whole tournament, getting boarded out almost every time. I took some inspiration for this deck (especially the large removal package) from a Josh Silvestri article on another site and sort of merged that with the invocation/wort shenanigans I like. Sideboard choices: 3 Festercreep 2 Hurly-Burly - Anti-fae/Anti-kithkin. Both of these cards are pretty effective. In one game, a Festercreep took out 3 1/1 kithkin tokens and 2 1/1 Spectral Procession tokens. They were so effective against 4 of the 6 decks I faced that they might be worth considering main (why not if people are running gutteral response main?) 2 Gutteral Response - Pretty obvious answer to Cryptic Command - and there are alof of those out there. 2 Wild Ricochet - Again vs Fae, although didn't really work out. Probably better off with 2 more gutteral response. 2 Faerie Macabre - Vs Toast, Wort, Makeshift Mannequin . 2 Puppeteer Clique - vs toast, vs Cloudthresher 2 Lightning Crafter - 'Cause the 2 main deck were so great, I decided to waste 2 sideboard slots with them as well. The Tournament: 61 players, 6 rounds then break to top 8. Round 1: Vs Randy playing a WG deck chock full of Oversoul of Dusk , Wilt-Leaf Liege , Kitchen Finks , Crib Swap , O-Ring and threshers. He seemed unprepared for a black/red deck, being geared mainly to defeat fae (gutteral response maindeck). The Shriekmaw s, Nameless Inversion s, keep the initial guys under control. Warren Weirding was a real back breaker in this round. At once point he had a Wilt-Leaf Liege and a Oversoul of Dusk in play. but I had two Warren Weirding s in hand. Win 2-0. Round 2: Vs Raine playing Faeries. My first faerie match up. He started game one with a mulligan, and then short on land. He Recover s a little, and gets a blossom into play. At that point I just keep the pressure up, knocking out tokens and attacking. I'm pretty cautious though, always keeping a Scar blade uncommited - I've learned that faerie decks can really turn around a match quickly. I win 2-1. A very good opponent, turns out I was his only loss of the day (he was in top 8). Round 3: Vs William, also playing Faeries. Another fairie matchup and another good player with close games. It seems absurb how many times faerie players got a turn 2 BB going against me - William did both the first and third games. In game one I just kept up the pressure, eventually he played a second BB and I started throwing Recycle d (thru Wort) Tarfire s and profanes directly at him. He got me the second game with a glen-elendra liege - the turn before I was about to use a Hurly-Burly to clean out his faeries. In the third game quick mauler pressure and enough removal sealed the deal. I win 2-1. At this point I'm 3 and 0 and based on tie-breakers I'm #1. Round 4: vs Daniel playing Kithkin. I got glimpses of his deck in the previous round so I knew what he was playing. I felt pretty confident with all my removal that I could handle kithkin. But mirror weave can really throw the game, and it did, twice. I lose 0-2. Now I'm 3 and 1 overall. Standings show I'm now in 7th place overall. Round 5: Vs Tucker playing Toast. I didn't playtest against quick 'n toast, and didn't even recognize that's what it was until he told me after the match. I figured it was the 5 color elementals. He ran 1 oona (which he saw and Reanimate d a crazy amount of times), Kitchen Finks , Cloudthresher s, Mulldrifter s and Makeshift Mannequin . He thumped me the first game with a Cloudthresher . Each of the two games I lost he got three Cryptic Command s. Maybe I should have maindecked a s Hush er or two. I Lost 1-2. Now I'm 3 and 2 overall and 17th place. The generous prize pool extends all the way to 16th place, so with a win in round 6 I can probably still get some packs. Round 6: vs Frank playing Faeries. He must have seen or heard that I already beat two faerie decks, and he seems disheartened at the matchup. He's 3-1-1 and got paired down. Both my two wins versus fairies were close tough games however. I get game one with some quick offense, if I can get damage in early before the BB then I can pull out the win. The second game is close, but a second turn BB turns it against me. I had him down to three. The third game I draw alot of land, and not alot of threats, an early BB backed by a couple Cryptic Command s gives it to him. He wins 2-1. I end up 3-3 after starting 3-0, and end up in 20th place, missing the packs. Studs & Duds: Studs: Warren Weirding , Wort, Festercreep , Hurly-Burly , Scar blade Elite Duds: Lightning Crafter , gutteral response Props: The tournament was well run by a local Level 4 judge Scott Marshall (fresh back from the GP Buenos Aires), and hosted by Carl at Black Gold Sports. The prizes were generous, going all the way to 16th place. And if you missed the top eight due to tie breakers, they even threw in 4 more packs. If you're ever in the southwest Denver Metro area, check out Black Gold Sports, they runs tournies frequently, and the owner is an avid vintage player. I don't really expect to play in another Block constructed tournament this season, but maybe this article and decklist will help another player - drop a comment if feel like it. Thanks for reading. Brian
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