Pastimes Halloween 1K

-Greg

The Pastimes Halloween 1K - The Subtle Art of Dreamcrushing Yourself

This past Saturday, Brenna and I sleeved up some new decks to hit up a 1K Standard tournament at Pastimes, in Chicago. A couple other guys we play with a lot were there, and I feel like between us, we had more than enough talent to put at least one of us in the top 8. Unlike most Pastimes events, this one was relatively small (meaning, less than 60 people), so while it was still a competitive REL event, it was much more laid back than other events we've attended there.

Anyway, here's the list I ran. Note I was short 3 Lotus Cobras, so I had to make due with a couple Stags and a Bird. The board was built with Boros Bushwacker, Jund (and by extension, the ubiquitous vampires decks), and random anti-Jund control decks in mind.

Lands
5 [UNH] Forest
4 [ZEN] Marsh Flats
3 [UNH] Plains
1 [M10] Sunpetal Grove
4 [M10] Terramorphic Expanse
4 [ZEN] Verdant Catacombs
2 [UNH] Swamp

Creatures
3 [CFX] Thornling
4 [M10] Baneslayer Angel
4 [CFX] Knight of the Reliquary
1 [ZEN] Lotus Cobra
4 [CFX] Noble Hierarch
4 [ARB] Putrid Leech
2 [ALA] Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2 [LRW] Garruk Wildspeaker
2 [M10] Great Sable Stag
1 [M10] Birds of Paradise

Spells
3 [ARB] Behemoth Sledge
4 [ARB] Maelstrom Pulse
3 [CFX] Path to Exile

Sideboard
SB: 1 [CFX] Path to Exile
SB: 3 [M10] Duress
SB: 4 [ARB] Zealous Persecution
SB: 3 [CFX] Celestial Purge
SB: 1 [ZEN] Day of Judgment
SB: 3 [ALA] Tidehollow Sculler


Round 1 - Andrew with Vampires
I sat down across a guy who had no sleeves on his deck, and managed to notice a Blood Seeker while he was shuffling. Game 1 I dropped a Stable Stag on the second turn, followed soon after by a hammer and that was pretty much it. Game 2, he does a little better, but my dudes were just bigger and faster, and my removal was better. Funny thing is, this guy's unsleeved deck had had several expensive cards in it- including a foil Bloodwitch and a foil Nocturnus. Sleeves cost $6. If just ONE of your cards is worth more than that (Nocturnus - $30, Bloodwitch - $6, etc, etc), then why in the hell aren't you using sleeves?

1-0

Round 2 - Jesus with Mono-Green Elves (yes, this really is a good deck)
This round I sat down across from a guy who gave me a ridiculous beating the last time we played. His play is tight, and his decks are always crazy tech that I've never seen before, so I was definitely worried. In a freak bit of luck, my opponent had been given a game loss in round 1 due to a deck reg error, so we started off on game two. He took the lead pretty quickly, with various mana rampers into a Garrku and Eldrazi Monument, and I had literally no outs. Game 3, I sandbagged a Pulse for a long time, resisiting the urge to take out all his Beast tokens. I finally manage to stick a Baneslayer to hold off his attackers, stick a hammer on it, and pass the turn. He plays like thirty more dudes, drops the monument, and Eldrazi gives him an indestructible wall of flying beasts and Elves. I untap, Pulse the Monument, and swing for lethal.

2-0

Round 3- Matt Jensen with Dredge (yes, this really is a real Standard deck)
This round I play against one of the funnier dudes in the room, who happens to have good taste in hats. I watched him play a little earlier, and I knew he was playing some bizarre mill-yourself-unearth homebrew. Game one was pretty terrible. I kept a slow hand, he milled a bunch of dudes, got an active Crypt, and unearthed for like 18. Awesome, good game dude. I board in all my RFG stuff, and keep a much faster hand. I ramp into double Thornling and we go to game three. It was pretty much the same, though, as he has trouble getting Crypts online before I can lay the beats. Hierarch was a total all-star this game, dropping him to five points - low enough that I can end things in only a couple of Thornling swings. Thornling fucking rules.

3-0

Round 4 - Nick with Boros Bushwacker
These games were just embarassing. I can't get a fast hand, can't fix my mana, and he plays around the Zealous Persecution I was bagging to wipe the board.

3-1

Round 5 - Bryan with 4-Color Cascade
Lucky me, I get paired up with a friend in round five. We discuss ID'ing, but after we run some numbers, we realize that with a draw, it's possible for both of us to be out of to-8 contention. Both decks seemed evenly matched against the other top-8 chumps, so we play it out. Game 1, I mull to six, and after Blightning, I just fold up and die. Next game was a little better for me, as I stick an early Lotus Cobra and ramp into Thornling with enough mana to make him move. Game 3 was really similar to game 3. I keep a slow but powerful hand, and stick a Baneslayer on turn 4. We go back and forth, and I'm really overextending to keep up with his card advantage. My draws are good, though, and I manage to keep his board mostly clear until we get to this situation:

Bryan's at 10, I'm at 40. I have two Baneslayers, he has one Baneslayer and a Wurm. I have three cards in hand, and if he draws dead I can push through for lethal in a couple turns, even with his Baneslayer lifegain. My board position is almost completely unbeatable. I tap GGB, and Pulse his Baneslayer. Bryan looks at me, then makes a gun shape with his hand and shoots all three angels, "Pew, pew, pew." Oops.

So yeah, literally gave Bryan the game because I am completely incapable of playing Magic. Anyway, I guess if you're going to totally fuck up, you might as well do it at a time in which you give your buddy a shot at some prize money.

3-2

Anyway, at this point there was about a 2% chance that I can manage to finish in the top 8, but it involves a complicated and improbable series of up-and-down-pairings, crushed dreams, and Halloween magic. Luci and Bryan are both win-and-in, so I decide to play the round. Even if I'm not able to eek my way in, I can at least dream-crush some other slob.

Round 6 - Chris with RUW Control
I hadn't eaten much by this point, and was a little on tilt about the last game, so I obviously wasn't in the best mood. I felt a little bad about my mood, though, because Chris seemed like a pretty nice guy. I'm obviously in complete moron mood still when I try to pulse a Capsule when he had mana open. He just sac'd it in response, and I just had to laugh at my own stupidity. I take a second and get my head together, because I was definitely not losing this round. Stag hits the board, and work around his control long enough to stick a Baneslayer to hold off his unkillable Sphinx of Jwar Isle. He scoops it up, and I board in my Sculler/Duress package. Game two, I took four damage from fetch lands and ramped into the win. Thanks, Thornling.

4-2


Ninth place. Awesome. Bryan ended up in the top 8, but Luci's vampire opponent forced the draw to put herself in, and Luci out.


Overall, I have to say this deck is one of the strongest Standard decks I've played in a long, long time. It's fast, it's packed with threats, and the board is flexible enough to give you an answer to almost any deck you might face. Vampires is practically a bye for it, and Jund is nearly as easy. Dedicated control is a bit of an issue, but speed of the mana-ramping, the disruption board, and the flexibility of the threats can really put you in the clear if you're on top of your game. Luckily, most control decks now are hybridized anti-jund builds, and this deck totally eats them alive. The biggest problem is Boros Bushwacker - it's just so fast! The Zealous Persecutions are great in this matchup, but if your opponents are leaving fetchlands open then you are seriously screwed. Your two biggest threats, Baneslayer and Thornling, are going to practically give you this game if you can live that long. Good luck with that one.

As for changes I would make, I did have some small issues with the land. 23 feels like just the right amount, leaving me mana/color screwed in only one game all day. But I did have several instances where I had literally no basic land left to grab from fetches or paths, and was often wishing I had a second Sunpetal Grove to grab with Knight of Reliquary. Figuring out what to cut is hard, though, because everything is balanced out really well. Terramorphic is the easy pick, but the damn thing is surprisingly good, working with the fetches to give you access to almost any combination of early turn plays. Here's how I would run the lands now (but I'm still not sure if the second Sunpetal is better than a full set of Terramorphics):

5 [UNH] Forest
3 [ZEN] Marsh Flats
4 [UNH] Plains
2 [M10] Sunpetal Grove
3 [M10] Terramorphic Expanse
4 [ZEN] Verdant Catacombs
2 [UNH] Swamp


As for the main - I loved it. Sable Stag was an incredible main deck card all day, so even though I threw them in last-minute, I can't imagine cutting them to put Cobras back in. Cobra is really good, though, much better than I expected, so that Bird needs to be replaced with a snake ASAP. But what do you cut to make room? Wel... Nothing. As it is, I feel like running four Cobras forces the deck to run like a deck based around Cobras. That probably doesn't make sense, but I only wanted to go all-in on a Cobra about half the time - so running two Cobras makes sense to me. If you wanted to run this list, and needed all four snakes, then the obvious cut is the Stags - but it might be prudent to drop a Pulse and possibly a Knight. Right now Stag is just that good. Vampires can't kill it, Jund pretty much has to bolt it, and control decks built to hose Jund will have to waste valuable Paths to keep him at bay. Then again, if the meta starts to fill up with Boros or this new green elves thing, then they'll need to go back to the board.

The fourth Pulse could easily be a Path, but I'm still undecided. I love the hammers. They are completely broken, and easily give you games you don't deserve by basically turning your tokens or early drops into mini-Baneslayers.

Anyway, enough rambling. This is what I'd run if I were doing another tourney tomorrow:


Creatures
3 [CFX] Thornling
4 [M10] Baneslayer Angel
4 [CFX] Knight of the Reliquary
2 [ZEN] Lotus Cobra
4 [CFX] Noble Hierarch
4 [ARB] Putrid Leech
2 [ALA] Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2 [LRW] Garruk Wildspeaker
2 [M10] Great Sable Stag

Spells
3 [ARB] Behemoth Sledge
4 [ARB] Maelstrom Pulse
3 [CFX] Path to Exile