Indianapolis PTQ - Almost Got There

-Greg

We arrived in Indianapolis late on Saturday night, pulling in to Pete's aunt and uncle's house around 10 pm. Even though we stayed up late poring over matchup tech and sideboard slots, they were plowing us with snacks and soda, and were genuinely amused at how a group of young adults such as ourselves preferred to spend our free time. Pete's uncle was particularly interested in the cards, especially the foils and foreign ones. I have a feeling that if we'd stayed another day we would've had him hooked on the game, too.

We arrived at the venue with enough time for everyone to scope out the decks people were registering, help Tom grab some last-minute cards, and register. There was a unusually large number of players sleeving up Affinity, which we were all a little confused by, but luckily we built our Tezz boards to double as affinity hate. Midway through writing our lists down, one Adrian Sullivan dropped by with a big smile and a box of clementines! I got this warm and fuzzy feeling of community spirit, which I quickly buried deep inside , reminding myself that between 2 and 8 of these people would be my sworn enemy for one hour each. I just hoped I didn't have to play Adrian, because I would've wanted to scoop on the spot to return his gesture of kindness.

I don't have my whole list in front of me right now, but I basically played aggro-loam with every stupid two-card combo I could think of that would fit in Naya colors. Bloodbraid Elf into Boom//Bust, Flagstones to make sure my mana denial left me a step ahead, Seismic Assault with Life from the Loam and Countryside Crusher, and Punishing Fire with Groves all gave me that "I'm an asshole for playing this" feeling. I'll post the full list later, as a lot of people seemed interested in the deck's inner workings.

On to the report!


Round 1: Dark Bant

The guy that sat down next to me I immediately recognized from the player meeting. He was trying desperately to figure out what he had messed up on his deck reg sheet, riffing through cards desperately as his strangely supportive girlfriend tried to sort it out. I took it personally how rude he was being to his lady friend, and decided to pass on calling the judges (who were busy poring over lists, anyway), and completely humiliate him in a rousing game of MTG. Of course, if Brenna's super-sleuthing abilities hadn't already tipped me off that he was playing Doran, I might have done the right thing and went to judge-town. Actually, if he were playing mono-red burn... I definitely would've called the judge. Pro tip: Have your shit together before the tournament starts.

Game 1: I chose to keep a mediocre hand of seven with relevant lands and some burn. I torched his first BoP, but he had the second on turn two to drop the third-turn Rafiq. I chuckled a little bit at facing down Rafiq before I realized that the unchecked 0/1 bird was now officially a threat. He played another land and spun the Bird sideways. I asked what color mana he wanted to make, and he says "ATTACK! ATTACK!" I said, "Go back man, declare your attack step." After this, a Path to Exile on Rafiq was all it took to put him completely on tilt. I continued playing attrition with him for a while, waiting until I got a clear read that he didn't have anymore removal in-hand by obviously tapping five lands and counting out 1-2 white mana before playing Baneslayer. He winced noticeably at this, and when she hit the table, it looked like someone had kicked him in the stomach. Of course, he drew his card, and did this cartoon-style I'm-so-relieved act and pathed her in his first main phase. Then I died to a Qasali Pridemage carrying a Jitte when I couldn't draw anything before it got to infinite counters.

sideboard: + 2 purge, + 2 runed halo, -2 something, -2 something.
For a deck that relies solely on creatures, mine were substantially better - so I decided to board in a way that would 1 for 1 him until I could burn him out. Sorry about the spotty notes I took; I didn't really take this guy seriously.

Game 2: I started off slow, forcing him to play into an attrition war with me by playing just enough creatures to trade with the ones he could ramp into, then burn everything else, including him, to the ground. The only trouble I had for the entire game was a Jitte, but every time one of his little dorks tried to pick it up I singed them with a never-ending supply of Punishing Fires. Surprisingly, I never draw anything but burn, removal, and Baneslayers... So I killed him with a Baneslayer while he was playing with an empty hand. I chuckled a little to myself when he scooped, and somehow resisted the urge to show him my hand. STILL HAD ALL THESE LIGHTNING HELICES.

Game 3: 3 went exactly like 2 with one exception: instead of Purging a Doran, I Pathed me a Rafiq.

1-0


Round 2: Affinity.

Game 1: I drop Seismic Assault on turn 3, burn lands at the end of his turn, and start casting and dredging Loam on turn 4. I continue to burn the few Ornithopters and Frogmites he can play, and eventually just whittle him down. I literally only cast two spells this entire game. It was awesome.

Board: +2 krosan grip, +3 Kataki, War's Wage, -2 assault, -3 path.
Path is awesome in this matchup because they don't have basic lands. It sucks, though, because they have Ravager. Grip and Kataki do what Path does and more.

Game 2: I eat a turn 1 Toughtsieze, and have to bin my Countryside Crusher. My hand looks a lot worse now, but I hang in there with Punishing Fire and Lightning Helix. Eventually, I look pretty much dead as the board is me with some lands, him with 2 Ravagers, 2 artifact lands, Frogmite, and a pretty scary Cranial Plating. Like the true pro I am, I rip Kataki off the top. He eventually succumbs to my furious 2/1 beats and some burn spells.

2-0


Round 3: Hypergenesis.

Game 1: Hypergenesis into Iona, naming white. I manage to stay a live for a while since I had cast multiple Lightning Helices, and have him to the point where I can burn him out with Loam+Assault if I can just untap. He swings with an exalted 8/8 Iona while I'm at 9 life, then casts Violent Outburst and chooses not to cast the cascade spell. This seriously confused me, until I realized that that made Iona get me for the last point of damage. Ouch.

Sideboard: +2 purge, +2 runed halo, -4 punishing fire and hope for the best...
I had taken out all my sideboard HG hate, so I just... Wished for the best, I guess. In hindsight, he would always name Iona to white, so I have no idea why I put in two more Purges over Punishing Fire. Runed Halo is good because you can still put it into play when they cast Hypergenesis.

Game 2: He mulls to six card, which makes my LD Heavy hand seem pretty decent. Turn 2, I Boom//Bust his land and my Flagstones, putting me a land ahead. Turn 3, I Ghost Quarter him, leaving him again with one land in play. Then I start slamming down Bloodbraids, desperately trying to hit a Boom//Bust to lock him out. Of course, it never happens, and he dumps his hand. Progenitus, Iona set to white, and TWO Darksteel Colossi. Thanks for playing.

2-1

Round 4: Mono-red Burn.

Game 1: We were just discussing the never-scoop policy in the car, and I'm glad I stuck to it. I cast the heavy half of Boom//Bust at 1 life, and win with nothing but two Goyfs on the field. Pro play, Greg!

Sideboard: +2 Celestial Purge, -2 Boom//Bust
For some inexplicable reason, I brought Gaddock Teeg to a gunfight. I would seriously learn my lesson of not packing Kitchen Finks...

Game 2: I am at 3 life with lethal damage on the board when he topdecks Bolt to burn me out.
game 3: I am at 4 life with lethal damage on the board when he topdecks Flames of the Blood Hand to burn me out.

2-2

Normally, people drop at x-2, but I didn't want to let two fluke matches ruin my run. I knew the deck could win in almost any situation, so I stuck it out, determined to play tighter.


Round 5: Almost AIR (splashing white for Path)

Game 1: I can't figure out what he's playing, so I just start grinding his manabase with Boom//Bust and Ghost Quarters. Eventually I tap out and he drops a very unexpected Thunderblust (!!!) to get in for seven. Next turn, he plays Demigod and swings in for the kill. I Quarter my own tapped Flagstones to grab a Plains, and he starts tapping lands and playing irrelvant instants to do irrelevant shit, which I should've realized was to throw me off my game. I start stacking triggers, too, burning his Thunderblust twice to kill it for good, and in the argument over timing I forget to resolve my Quarter trigger to Path his Demigod before I take the damage. I lose a totally winnable game soon after, because I let this guy throw me off my game - intentionally or not.

Sideboard: +2 purge, +2 runed halo, -2 ghost quarter, -2 punishing fire

Game 2: I play the early game around Blood Moon, making sure I can get my Plains and Forest in play so I'm not totally wrecked if he combos out. Thankfully, he comes out of the gate pretty slowly, so I Runed Halo for Demigod, and Purge/Path his Thunderblusts. He's forced to save Shrapnel Blasts for my Baneslayers, and I Loam+Assault him into submission.

Game 3: He puts me to a pretty low life before I can Purge his threats, then I cast Bloodbraid and flip Boom//Bust. He's skeptical that this trick works, but the judges assure him my tech is legit, and I'm rewarded with a board that's totally empty except for a ridiculously large Knight of the Reliquary.

3-2

Round 6: Affinity

Game 1: Just to remind everyone, I didn't play during Mirrodin block, and have never faced Affinity before this tournament. Luckily, no one was around when I was proving this to my opponent, who sacced his Ravager to itself in response to my Path to make a giant Ornithopter. I make a mental note to read the cards that I'm unfamiliar with, and we go to game two.

Sideboard: Same as before.

Game 2: I mulligan to a sick six-card hand with Kataki and spot removal. In his second turn, he goes down to one robot, giving up a land, and then plays Glimmervoid. I untap, Path his one guy, and then point to his Glimmervoid (I read the card!). He says "What? Oh shit. Nah.. Fuck it, I can't deal with this," and scoops them up.

Game 3: We grind each other down for a while, with me using my newly found knowledge of the Modular ability to play chase the counters with his Ravagers. I'm successfully matching his threats 1 for 1 for a while, Gripping his Masters of Etherium, and casting Punishing Fire in response to Ravager's Modular ability. In the end it just came down to me playing a better game than him, and after I cleared the air of Thopters, I crashed Baneslayer in for massive damage. The best lesson I learned today is that it is an awesome idea to play foreign cards. He swung a 14/2 Thopter that was carrying TWO Cranial Platings right into my Baneslayer... Who has first strike.

4-2

Round 7: Rubin Zoo
Game 1: I keep a bad hand and get crushed pretty fast.

Game 2: During his mull to four, I accidentally dropped some of his cards on the ground. I acted dumb, which in conjunction with his bad draws upset him enough that he accidentally scattered his cards all over the table. I slow-roll the burn win to push him over the edge. I am the Jedi.

Game 3: I mull to a decent six-card hand that's heavy on creatures. He plays Nacatl, Path, Goyf, Path, Deathark, Path. Not much you can do about that.

Round 8: No Show.

I got paired WAY up, and was really looking forward to hopefully doing some dream-crushing while waiting to see if the Wife would win her way into the top 16, but the guy never showed. I hope he's ok, because he had enough points to potentially win into half a box and he just... Didn't show up.

5-3

This deck is strong, and amazingly fun to play. It packs a wide range of extremely relevant threats and win conditions without being too unfocused, which gives you a number of different strategies to win that can be easily modified on-the-fly. This wide range of options isn't always good thing, however. Everything matters. Every land decision, every point of life, and every single trigger from your side or the other will affect the game more than another deck would. But that's what's so rewarding about it. Every win you pull it is based totally on your skill, and in your ability to run percentages in your head while still evaluating the strength of your and your opponent's threats. It's extremely important to remember everything the deck can do, and figure out or know how your opponent's deck works. I feel like every game loss I got (with the exception of the two nutty games against Hypergenesis) were completely within the realms of winning.

At any rate, there are some changes that need to be made. The deck needs a way to survive the burn matchup. I've been kicking some ideas around, and it's pretty much CoP: Red or Kitchen Finks - but if I run Finks, I think I want to run a single copy of Oran Rief, the Vastwood to gain massive amounts of life. It's easily tutorable with Knight of the Reliquary, but in order to make sure I can always hit RRR and WW, it will have to replace a Ghost Quarter or a take up another sideboard slot. I'm not sure if it's worth it yet.

Want to guess what my absolute best sideboard card was all day?

Runed Halo.


SERIOUSLY.


At any rate, I'd like to end this post by saying the guys from Pastime's ran a nice, tightly organized event, and the judge team were all great. I know some people dont like to play at Pastime's for whatever reason (I, myself, prefer not to attend any big event they try to hold in their shop in fear that I will be trampled by the crowd trying to escape a fire), but I definitely appreciate the way they run their larger events and treat their customers. Big thanks to Alan, Ron, and all the other guys whose names I can never remember!


Cheers!

Into the Blue

A special guest post this weekend from a fellow Team Barnabus card-slinger and good friend Luciano Leon. Hope you guys enjoy it!

-Luciano

As of this writing, blue mages have been left out in the cold. In years past, blue was the go-to color of control and tempo. Blue had control, in the form of counter spells, and tempo, in the form of Memory Lapse and bounce effects. Most competitive forms of counters and tempo cards are pretty nonexistent at the moment. Anyone hoping to stand a chance at winning in the new standard piloting a blue deck must come to grips with how to deal with Jund, where WotC has decided to put most of its card advantage.

The main reason why blue-based control experiences such an uphill battle is that its control cards are roughly a turn too slow. That is to say, slow, compared to how fast an aggressive deck can deploy its beats. The only aggressively costed counter spells are Essence Scatter and Negate. The inherent problem with running these cards is, they can catch you in an awkward position of having brought the wrong weapon into the fight. Holding a Negate in your hand while facing down a Broodmate Dragon or Baneslayer Angel on the stack is just incredibly frustrating for control players. Standard desperately needs a simple two-mana counter that does not care what spell it targets. Now, I know we are not getting Counterspell back any time soon, if ever, but I think this format calls for something like Remand. Remand costs two mana, can counter anything, and even cantrips. It isn’t a hard counter, it’s more of a tempo swing, as it returns the spell back to the caster’s hand when it counters it. It is these little incremental tempo swings that blue-based control thrives on.

Another thing blue is in dire need of is card draw at instant speed. If WotC wants to make blue reactive, that’s fine, but going a turn without accomplishing anything is not ideal. Jace Beleren can only do so much in this aspect. A step in the right direction would have been to have made divination into an instant, instead of a sorcery. It wouldn’t be too much to ask, considering the power of counter spells has been throttled down.

Even when most have all but given up on blue, there are those who continue to play Islands. Not only play Islands, but also force their opponents to do the same. Zendikar’s Spreading Seas revisits one of blue’s more quirky abilities, turning lands into Islands. As the bulk of the current card pool hails from Alara block, there are a lot of color-intensive spells being cast. A single Spreading Seas on an opponent’s Savage Lands can leave them cut off from casting relevant spells. Multiple Spreading Seas can be debilitating. This tactic has never been as relevant in the past as it is now. It is mostly effective because there is a card in M10 that adds redundancy to the strategy, Convincing Mirage, giving you effectively 8 Spreading Seas. This from of mana denial strategy can buy you a lot of time if you hit the right lands, since your opponent will be left hoping to top-deck a relevant land.

I, personally, am looking forward to whatever Worldwake brings. Blue mages everywhere will rejoice if the set brings powerful tools to pair with the recently spoiled Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Hopefully that will be the case. Even if blue continues its slump, Standard will benefit from an additional set, as it will inevitably help create new archetypes and add overall variety to the format.

Bonus - Tom is PISSED

-Greg

A bonus post for tonight, dudes. EDH with the team is always hilarious, and in this covert sound clip that Brenna took one night, you can hear Tom's extreme anger over Luciano's dick move.

What happened:

Tom has some token making monsters out, and some tokens. I have three relatively harmless Slivers. Pete has some utility guys that aren't really a threat. Luciano casts Hex to destroy six creatures. He looks around the board before pointing rapidly at Tom's guys, including his 1/1 Dragon and Saproling tokens saying "this one, this one, this one..." Tom FFO's.


Here's the File

Extended Season - Archetype Primer

-Greg

I'm afraid we aren't testing enough for extended season, especially for the decks we're home-brewing, so starting the week I get back from vacation we're going to definitely invest some more time into testing relevant matchups. "But what are the relevant matchups?" you ask. Honestly, that's pretty up in the air, as the format is this far only defined by the top Austin lists and the hypothetical bottom-line aggro speed.

Enemy number one, though, is probably going to be Tezzerator.


The Blue Deck that LSV will play - Tezzerator

What it is: Nasty. Cheap counters and removal will hold you down until they can draw or tutor up their two combo pieces (Sword of the Week + Thopter Foundry), at which point you'll die to a swarm of 1/1 Thopters. If you haven't seen the combo before, it's pretty easy to understand: Foundry allows you to sac an artifact to gain a life and get a 1/1 token. If a 1/1 creature comes into play for you and Sword of the Meek is in your graveyard, you can return it to play and attach it to the creature. If both are in play, you sac Sword to Foundry as part of the cost so it's in the yard when the ability resolves, the token comes into play, and you return the sword and stick it on the token. Then you just do it over and over again until you're out of lands to tap.

If anyone wants a good primer on how to play the deck, or a good list, you should definitely check out Luis Scott Vargas's write-up on Channel Fireball.

How you beat it: The players who will be piloting this deck are going to cover a wide range of skill levels, from inept players new to the format to competent to dangerous gun-slingers like LSV. What you've got to do is remember that this deck is built to leverage their skill against yours, so you have to play smart - even against someone who you think is a doofus. A lot of what you'll be doing are just the same things you already probably know just from playing against control in the past. Some pointers:

1. A lot of the spells you'll need you either have to get out fast, or cost 2, so you'll be either playing through or around Spell Snare and Mana Leak for the entire game. Don't walk your Tarmogoyf into an open Island.
2. Don't over-extend. Most lists run at least two Wrath/Day of Judgement main, with plenty of ways to dig for them. A good player will also be more likely to keep a hand that's good against aggro, because of the prevelance of Zoo.
   
3. Be aggressive, especially game one when you don't have targeted hate against them. If you don't win before they assemble their combo, you will not win.
4. Don't take out all your removal post-board. A lot of lists pack Baneslayer in the side, and this isn't a creature most decks can race.
   
5. Think hard about what gifts you'll be giving them. A good player will give you two options that aren't really options, either forcing you to give them the mana they need (by playing artifact lands and snow-covered lands), or giving them their missing combo pieces (by getting the cards, or things that get them anyway).
   
6. Pack hate. Keep some of it main.
   

The deck is reactionary and wins by abusing artifacts and counterspells, so you have to use cards that can fight this strategy. Try running some of these answers:

B/W Martyr of Sands

-Greg

Anyone who's ever played with my wife, or even played in the same room with her, knows this: my wife is more interested in gaining copious amounts of life than she is in winning the game. Even in decks not specifically designed to gain life, I have seen her bend her cardboard minions to her devastating will and shoot her life total into the hundreds. I remember a recent 1K she, to the chagrin of a very serious player (who was feverishly snapping the cards in his finely tuned deck), crashed an exalted Baneslayer Angel repeatedly into a wall of bird tokens, climbing quite rapidly to 246 life before he agreed to go to the third game. Even worse, before the advent of the M10 rules changes it was quite common to hear things from her like "Equip Loxodon Warhammer on my Divinity of Pride." These games were not about winning. They were about abject humiliation of an opponent; amidst a generation of boys who were raised to believe whole-heartedly in self-affirmation through the accrual of "points," - she viciously hammered (no pun intended) into their heads a startling and inescapable truth: shes has way more points than you.

Another peculiar, yet endearing, quality she has is an unabashed hatred for Extended.

"EXTENDED IS TERRIBLE." - Wife, via Twitter
"Hell no I don't want to play Extended. Let's just play Standard." - Wife, at the table
"It's boring to watch someone combo off. Why do a hobby if not to have fun?" - Wife, Via Gchat just now.
"Of course I love you; I put the knife down, didn't I?" - Wife, in the kitchen

And while that last quote isn't exactly about Extended, she does have a good point about the high level of awful a player experiences when watching their opponent play card after card with no chance of interacting with the game-state. That is boring. The magic, though, is that Extended is not legacy; there's no Ad Nauseum/Tendrils of Corruption, no Dream Halls/Conflux, and not any real combo deck that can compete with the insane level of aggro that abounds. Ok, ok, there's Hexmage/Depths - but that deck is, to be fair... Bad. The only way I can figure out that it made top 8 at Austin is that it was driven by the highly competent, and irredeemably lucky, PV. Ok, and sure, you've got your Sword of the Meek/Thopter Foundry package... Ok, that deck is good, but not unbeatable or format warping.

And don't even tell me about Dragonstorm or All-in-Red with Deus of Calamity. Unless you're just pushed to the point of drooling at a turn 1 fatty, wonky decks with unpredictable, unreliable, and unrecoverable tendencies aren't going to give you the power AND consistency you need to win, um, consistently. And powerfully.

But I digress! So now, with my wife's two most prominent MTG idiosyncrasies detailed - how was I to convince her that Extended was a fun format?

FUCKING MARTYR OF SANDS.

I have tinkered with this deck a little, and found it to be enjoyable despite how long the games tended to be. Dying with this deck on the table in front of you is harder than it should be, and the look of despair on your opponents faces when they realize how much damage they'll have to do to you is priceless. Problem was, like with Conley Woods' deck from Austin, it's equally difficult to kill with this Deck of Defense (+200 HP, +20 Defense, -1000 Attack). At first, I splashed red. Hated it. Then I splashed green. Hated it. Then I went back to Black/White. Seemed better. Then I started adding Felidar Sovereign, and we were getting somewhere. Here's the decklist:

// Deck file for Magic Workstation (http://www.magicworkstation.com)

// Lands
2 [EVE] Fetid Heath
2 [TSP] Vesuva
2 [ZEN] Arid Mesa
3 [ZEN] Emeria, the Sky Ruin
4 [GP] Godless Shrine
4 [ZEN] Marsh Flats
1 [SHM] Mistveil Plains
6 [M10] Plains
1 [M10] Swamp

// Creatures
1 [ZEN] Felidar Sovereign
2 [SHM] Kitchen Finks
4 [CS] Martyr of Sands
2 [PLC] Necrotic Sliver
2 [ALA] Ranger of Eos

// Spells
3 [CFX] Path to Exile
2 [M10] Diabolic Tutor
3 [LRW] Oblivion Ring
1 [SHM] Runed Halo
1 [ZEN] Sorin Markov
4 [ARE] Castigate
4 [9E] Phyrexian Arena
2 [DIS] Proclamation of Rebirth
2 [10E] Wrath of God
2 [ZEN] Day of Judgment

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [CFX] Path to Exile
SB: 1 [SHM] Runed Halo
SB: 2 [M10] Pithing Needle
SB: 4 [PLC] Extirpate
SB: 3 [ZEN] Ravenous Trap
SB: 1 [EVE] Figure of Destiny
SB: 2 [LRW] Wispmare
SB: 1 [SOK] Kagemaro, First to Suffer

The drill is simple. Draw a shit-load of cards with Arena, gain a shit-load of life with Martyr, recur a shit-load of dudes with Emeria, kill a shit-load of lands with the Slivers, and eventually win with a hard-to-kill Sorin or a Felidar when your life total is in the upper shit-loads.

A friend recommended we try Dread Return in the main for extra flair, and I'm definitely going to try running a copy. The two Emerias bring back plenty of Necrotic Slivers (to lock them out of mana) and Martyrs (to gain gratuitous amounts of life), but I can see a situation in which you might Emeria back two Finks, sac, and dread return them for Sovereign against an opponent with no lands. Seems good, but possibly win-moreish. Another option I'm entertaining is Grim Discovery. There are lots of Ghost Quarters floating around these days, and being able to buy-back your Emeria and a dude seems like a solid plan in a deck that needs Emeria and some dudes to recur.

Anyway, I'm tired of writing for now. I'll update in the next few days or so after some playtesting with both options.

As always, comments, critique, and hate-mail are more than welcome. Hit me up!

Top 2009 States Lists from OK and KS

-Greg

Hey, guys! It's been a while, but I just wanted to drop in and hit you guys with some decklists.

While checking out the States decklists, I noticed that there was literally no place on the web where you could see the top 8 decks from Oklahoma. I know it seems weird that someone might want to see these lists, since the big OK isn't really a hopping place for MTG, but being born and raised there, I have a strange attraction to keeping up on the ole' home state. Eventually, my online research led me to the tournament organizer's email address, and he was kind enough to provide me with the finalists' decks from OK and KS States tourneys. So, without further ado, here, for the first time on the internet ever, four deep-fried, southern decks for your viewing pleasure :


drumroll

Oklahoma Champion - Gerald Sixkiller - U/W Control

4 Fieldmist Borderpost
4 Glacial Fortress
2 Island
4 Marsh Flats
10 Plains
4 Knight of the White Orchid
4 Baneslayer Angel
4 Vedalken Outlander
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 Emeria Angel
4 Path to Exile
4 Devout Lightcaster
4 White Knight
4 Honor the Pure

Sideboard:
2 Celestial Purge
3 Mind Control
2 Brave the Elements
4 Negate
2 Day of Judgment
2 Journey to Nowhere


Oklahoma Second Place- Tony Menzer - Jund

4 Savage Lands
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Rootbound Crag
4 Dragonskull Summit
3 Mountain
3 Swamp
3 Forest
4 Sprouting Thrinax
4 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Siege-Gang Commander
4 Broodmate Dragon
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Rampant Growth
2 Terminate
4 Blightning
3 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Bituminous Blast
1 Chandra Nalaar

Sideboard:
4 Relic Crush
4 Jund Charm
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
2 Mind Rot
1 Maelstrom Pulse


Kansas Champion - Michael Mead - RDW
4 Jackal Familiar
4 Goblin Bushwhacker
4 Ball Lightning
4 Hell's Thunder
4 Goblin Guide
4 Burst Lightning
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Hellspark Elemental
4 Banefire
2 Earthquake
4 Teetering Peaks
18 Mountain

Sideboard:
2 Earthquake
3 Act of Treason
3 Manabarbs
2 Elemental Appeal
2 Chandra Nalaar
3 Unstable Footing



Kansas Second Place - Sean Patchen - Naya Lightsaber
4 Bloodbraid Elf
3 Baneslayer Angel
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Qasali Pridemage
3 Wild Nacatl
4 Wooly Thoctar
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Ajani Vengeant
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Journey to Nowhere
1 Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
3 Sunpetal Grove
4 Arid Mesa
3 Plains
3 Mountain
3 Rootbound Crag
6 Forest

Sideboard
3 Acidic Slime
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
2 Dauntless Escort
3 Luminarch Ascension
3 Unstable Footing

Testing for States - Update

-Greg

After running the GWb Junk list through a gauntlet of games, I've got to say I'm pretty happy with where it ended up. I found Putrid Leech to be pretty underwhelming, and since I was being smashed by Eldrazi decks to no end, I made the switch to Qasali Pridemage in the main. Emeria Angel was also completely ridiculous in conjunction with Knight of Reliquary and Lotus Cobra. I really think this deck is where I want it now.

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

Creatures
2 [CFX] Thornling
4 [M10] Baneslayer Angel
4 [CFX] Knight of the Reliquary
3 [ZEN] Lotus Cobra
3 [ZEN] Emeria Angel
4 [CFX] Noble Hierarch
4 [ARB] Qasali Pridemage
2 [ALA] Elspeth, Knight-Errant

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

Sideboard
1 Path to Exile
4 Zealous Persecution
3 Day of Judgement
2 Oblivion Ring
3 Dauntless Escort
2 Duress


Taking it to FNM tonight to hopefully get some more games under my belt before I head off to States on Saturday. Good luck to everyone!