Delving and Rallying on Game Day Magic Origins
Right after Mono Red wins Pro Tour Magic Origins, I knew right away that Mono Red is gonna be the deck to beat in Game Day. Mono Red has always been a major player in Indonesia because the deck is relatively cheap and easy to pick up and play (although hard to master). Moreover, unlike the previous iteration of Mono Red, this Mono Red is very consistent in what they are doing.
The deck's narrative is to deal creature-based damage, minimum 8, on the first three turn, then they can just sit back and attack our life total with their 8 4-damage burn spell. It is really scary, because once you failed to block their creature at least three times, the chance for you to win the game, without some life gain, is very close to zero. That kind of narrative is really hard for most decks to disrupt since they have Wild Slashes, Searing Bloods, and Lightning Strikes, which makes blocking on turn 1-3 nearly impossible.
Delving
Originally I wanted to play Abzan Rally in Game Day but most articles I read concluded that Abzan Rally is very poor against Mono Red since the deck has so many 3-drop that dies to their Searing Bloods and Lightning Strikes.Then I found an interesting deck, also from the same Pro Tour, called Jund Self-Mill by Luke Mulcahy and I thought that it has potential against Mono Red. I made some change according to Gerry Thompson's Suggestion and make the deck like this:
The deck's narrative is to lock the ground by dropping Tasigur and Gurmag Angler as early as turn 3 then dominates the air with Flamewake Phoenix and Kolaghans. The 5 toughness from Tasigur and Gurmag is the key here since it means that Mono Red has to spend at least two burn spells to get rid of it. Post-sideboard, the deck can even have more edge by boarding 4 Feed the Clans. With so Many fatties in the deck that costs 1 mana, it's not hard to cast a fatty and gain 10 life in turn 3. That was the theory.
In practice though, it was a different story. I was paired against Mono Red piloted by Wildan in the round 1 of Game Day in Two Stompas. In the first game, I got the result that I wanted. I dropped Gurmag on Turn 3 which forces Wildan to use Lightning Strike and Wild Slash to kill it. Then, I dropped Reaper of the Wilds on turn 4 and Wildan can't attack with his creatures anymore, forcing him to throw his burn spell right at my face. After some few turns, Wildan lost all of his ammunitions and start topdecking. Then he scooped up when he draw Lightning Strike while I still have 4 life total and a lot of fatties on board.
Post-sideboard though, didn't work as I planned. Wildan boarded 4 Roast and just keep on roasting my fatties one by one. The feed the clan plan? Didn't work as well because the card was keep on getting milled by my mill-spell. In the end, though, the deck has a good chance against Mono Red on turn 1, but just completely rekt after sideboard.
Then what about the other matchup? Surprisingly, the deck is really good against blue-based control. I was paired with Esper Dragons and I managed to 2-0 the deck in a convincing fashion. The threat of a recurring Phoenix is just to much for them and post-sideboard it's getting even better with 3 Bloodsoaked Champion and 2 Evolutionary Leap, fizzling all of their removals. Languish is also good because it can punish them if they try to tap out on turn 5 to play their Ojutai.
The deck can also play toe to toe with Abzan control. Our edge against them is Gurmag Angler which can eat their Rhino and Reaper of the Wilds which can also do the same thing and can turn their removals into dead cards. However, against Elvin yesterday, I made a missplay by trying to race him while I should have just lock the ground and attack from the air with my Kolaghans. That missplay costs me the whole match because Elvin managed to cast his second Rhino and attack with his first, making the race completely on his favor.
Overall, I really like the deck but I think that it needed more tuning. firstly, I don't think that the deck really need 25 lands. I got flooded in 4 out of 6 games and it's just to much. I understand that the deck mills so fast that we can miss our third land drop but we also have Satyr to tutor for lands so that kind of problem is already mitigated. I'd like to cut 2-3 lands to put Tormenting Voice which can dig into land as well and discard the Phoenix if it ever make it into our opening hand.
Rallying
On the next day, I played in another Game Day in Nyx. Wildan offered me to play his Abzan Rally. I thought for a second and concluded that the Jund deck needs more tuning and it's also not that good against Mono Red. Abzan Rally might be poor against Mono Red, but it's so good against midrange decks which still being played a lot in Indonesia. I decided to take that offer.
Before the Game Day starts, I made some flash change to Wildan's deck that was very similar to Ray Tautic's list from SCG Richmond. I incorporated some idea from Shaun McLaren's Pro Tour list by cutting 1 Elvish Mystic and 2 Mana Confluence in favor of Elvish Visionary and Gainlands. The change is obviously made to combat the Mono Red. Previously, Abzan Rally will rush to 3 mana by playing Elvish Mystic on turn 1 even by playing Mana Confluence as their first land drop. Against Mono Red, that kind of play is really dangerous since you will keep on getting damaged by the Confluence and that Elvish Mystic is very vulnerable to Searing Blood.
Moreover, with the abundance of 3-drops, often times you will not have anything to play on turn 2 if you don't draw your Satyr, which is another good thing for Red players since they can continue attacking with their creatures. With Elvish Visionary and Gainlands, we can start the game with 21 life, making their turn-1 Monastery Swiftspear less meaningful, and we can have more chance to play a chump blocker on turn 2. Then, to get more edge against Mono Red, I decided to play my own tech, the Graveblade Marauder.
With 1/4 deathtouch body, Graveblade Marauder is really perfect to block on turn 3 against Mono Red. Previously, your turn 3 play against Mono Red will be either Deathmist Raptor or Liliana which gonna die to Lightning Strike. Against Graveblade Marauder, though, the Mono Red player will be forced to use their Stoke or Firecraft on him and use their Lightning Strike to our face. It's only one less damage, but every life that you can safe is very valuable against Mono Red. Furthermore, on normal matchup, Graveblade Marauder is very contributive to our combo play because you can attack with him and Nantuko Husk to deal more than 30 damage since we will have a lot of creatures in graveyard after Nantuko sac'd them.
In less than 15 minutes, I changed Wildan's Abzan Rally into this list:
If you look at the sideboard, I put seven cards exclusively for Mono Red and I get paid off because I was paired with Wildan (again) in the first round. To be honest, eventhough I was really prepared against Mono Red, playing with the deck is still real scary. I started with a gain land and continued with Elvish Visionary on the next turn. I was anticipating his Searing Blood, but Wildan just continue to attack with his turn-1 Monastery Swiftspear so I chump-blocked it.
The deck's narrative is to deal creature-based damage, minimum 8, on the first three turn, then they can just sit back and attack our life total with their 8 4-damage burn spell. It is really scary, because once you failed to block their creature at least three times, the chance for you to win the game, without some life gain, is very close to zero. That kind of narrative is really hard for most decks to disrupt since they have Wild Slashes, Searing Bloods, and Lightning Strikes, which makes blocking on turn 1-3 nearly impossible.
Delving
Originally I wanted to play Abzan Rally in Game Day but most articles I read concluded that Abzan Rally is very poor against Mono Red since the deck has so many 3-drop that dies to their Searing Bloods and Lightning Strikes.Then I found an interesting deck, also from the same Pro Tour, called Jund Self-Mill by Luke Mulcahy and I thought that it has potential against Mono Red. I made some change according to Gerry Thompson's Suggestion and make the deck like this:
Creature (23)
4x Satyr Wayfinder
4x Flamewake Phoenix
4x Reaper of the Wilds
3x Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury
4x Tasigur, the Golden Fang
4x Gurmag Angler
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Land (25)
3x Swamp
3x Forest
3x Mountain
4x Bloodstained Mire
4x Wooded Foothills
4x Llanowar Wastes
4x Jungle Hollow
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Spell (12)
4x Gather the Pack
4x Commune With the Gods
4x Languish
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Sideboard (15)
3x Bloodsoaked Champion
2x Evolutionary Leap
4x Feed the Clan
2x Herald of Torment
2x Unravel the AEther
2x Fleshbag Marauder
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The deck's narrative is to lock the ground by dropping Tasigur and Gurmag Angler as early as turn 3 then dominates the air with Flamewake Phoenix and Kolaghans. The 5 toughness from Tasigur and Gurmag is the key here since it means that Mono Red has to spend at least two burn spells to get rid of it. Post-sideboard, the deck can even have more edge by boarding 4 Feed the Clans. With so Many fatties in the deck that costs 1 mana, it's not hard to cast a fatty and gain 10 life in turn 3. That was the theory.
In practice though, it was a different story. I was paired against Mono Red piloted by Wildan in the round 1 of Game Day in Two Stompas. In the first game, I got the result that I wanted. I dropped Gurmag on Turn 3 which forces Wildan to use Lightning Strike and Wild Slash to kill it. Then, I dropped Reaper of the Wilds on turn 4 and Wildan can't attack with his creatures anymore, forcing him to throw his burn spell right at my face. After some few turns, Wildan lost all of his ammunitions and start topdecking. Then he scooped up when he draw Lightning Strike while I still have 4 life total and a lot of fatties on board.
Post-sideboard though, didn't work as I planned. Wildan boarded 4 Roast and just keep on roasting my fatties one by one. The feed the clan plan? Didn't work as well because the card was keep on getting milled by my mill-spell. In the end, though, the deck has a good chance against Mono Red on turn 1, but just completely rekt after sideboard.
Then what about the other matchup? Surprisingly, the deck is really good against blue-based control. I was paired with Esper Dragons and I managed to 2-0 the deck in a convincing fashion. The threat of a recurring Phoenix is just to much for them and post-sideboard it's getting even better with 3 Bloodsoaked Champion and 2 Evolutionary Leap, fizzling all of their removals. Languish is also good because it can punish them if they try to tap out on turn 5 to play their Ojutai.
The deck can also play toe to toe with Abzan control. Our edge against them is Gurmag Angler which can eat their Rhino and Reaper of the Wilds which can also do the same thing and can turn their removals into dead cards. However, against Elvin yesterday, I made a missplay by trying to race him while I should have just lock the ground and attack from the air with my Kolaghans. That missplay costs me the whole match because Elvin managed to cast his second Rhino and attack with his first, making the race completely on his favor.
Overall, I really like the deck but I think that it needed more tuning. firstly, I don't think that the deck really need 25 lands. I got flooded in 4 out of 6 games and it's just to much. I understand that the deck mills so fast that we can miss our third land drop but we also have Satyr to tutor for lands so that kind of problem is already mitigated. I'd like to cut 2-3 lands to put Tormenting Voice which can dig into land as well and discard the Phoenix if it ever make it into our opening hand.
Rallying
On the next day, I played in another Game Day in Nyx. Wildan offered me to play his Abzan Rally. I thought for a second and concluded that the Jund deck needs more tuning and it's also not that good against Mono Red. Abzan Rally might be poor against Mono Red, but it's so good against midrange decks which still being played a lot in Indonesia. I decided to take that offer.
Before the Game Day starts, I made some flash change to Wildan's deck that was very similar to Ray Tautic's list from SCG Richmond. I incorporated some idea from Shaun McLaren's Pro Tour list by cutting 1 Elvish Mystic and 2 Mana Confluence in favor of Elvish Visionary and Gainlands. The change is obviously made to combat the Mono Red. Previously, Abzan Rally will rush to 3 mana by playing Elvish Mystic on turn 1 even by playing Mana Confluence as their first land drop. Against Mono Red, that kind of play is really dangerous since you will keep on getting damaged by the Confluence and that Elvish Mystic is very vulnerable to Searing Blood.
Moreover, with the abundance of 3-drops, often times you will not have anything to play on turn 2 if you don't draw your Satyr, which is another good thing for Red players since they can continue attacking with their creatures. With Elvish Visionary and Gainlands, we can start the game with 21 life, making their turn-1 Monastery Swiftspear less meaningful, and we can have more chance to play a chump blocker on turn 2. Then, to get more edge against Mono Red, I decided to play my own tech, the Graveblade Marauder.
With 1/4 deathtouch body, Graveblade Marauder is really perfect to block on turn 3 against Mono Red. Previously, your turn 3 play against Mono Red will be either Deathmist Raptor or Liliana which gonna die to Lightning Strike. Against Graveblade Marauder, though, the Mono Red player will be forced to use their Stoke or Firecraft on him and use their Lightning Strike to our face. It's only one less damage, but every life that you can safe is very valuable against Mono Red. Furthermore, on normal matchup, Graveblade Marauder is very contributive to our combo play because you can attack with him and Nantuko Husk to deal more than 30 damage since we will have a lot of creatures in graveyard after Nantuko sac'd them.
In less than 15 minutes, I changed Wildan's Abzan Rally into this list:
Creature (32)
3x Elvish Mystic
3x Elvish Visionary
4x Satyr Wayfinder
2x Den Protector
3x Deathmist Raptor
4x Liliana, Heretical Healer
3x Merciless Executioner
2x Fleshbag Marauder
2x Graveblade Marauder
2x Mogis Marauder
2x Grim Haruspex
2x Nantuko Husk
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Land (20)
1x Forest
2x Plains
4x Sandsteppe Citadel
4x Windswept Heath
4x Llanowar Wastes
2x Blossoming Sands
1x Temple of Malady
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Mana Confluence
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Spell (8)
4x Collected Company
4x Rally the Ancestors
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Sideboard (15)
3x Arashin Cleric
2x Feed the Clan
2x Dromoka's Command
2x Anafenza, the Foremost
2x Drown in Sorrow
2x Hero's Downfall
2x Unravel the AEther
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If you look at the sideboard, I put seven cards exclusively for Mono Red and I get paid off because I was paired with Wildan (again) in the first round. To be honest, eventhough I was really prepared against Mono Red, playing with the deck is still real scary. I started with a gain land and continued with Elvish Visionary on the next turn. I was anticipating his Searing Blood, but Wildan just continue to attack with his turn-1 Monastery Swiftspear so I chump-blocked it.
Turn after turn, I keep on putting creatures on board with the help of Collected Company and Rally the Ancestors, while Wildan keep on putting lands. Suddenly, he can no longer attack with his creatures and start on throwing his burn spell at me which is far than enough to finish my life total. Wildan got flooded and drew no Searing Bloods which allows me to win game 1.
Post-sideboard, my plan works perfectly. I mulliganed into 2 Feed the Clan, 2 Lands, and 1 Satyr Wayfinder and I kept the hand confidently. Wildan didn't draw creatures, but he draw a flurry of burn spell which in total can deal more than 20 damage. He probably thrown Lightning Strike on turn 2, Firecraft on turn 3, and Stoke the Flames on turn 4. I responsed all of them by playing Feed the Clans and managed to keep myself on a healthy 13 life total. After that, Wildan stop playing burn spells and drop his creatures which he just draw.
It was Eidolon of Great Revels which would be really bad against me unless I have 2 Collected Company and Rally the Ancestors (which I actually have). With the help of 2 Companies, I succesfully put 4 creatures on board, among them was Liliana, Fleshbag, and Arashin Cleric. With Liliana, I managed to recur the Cleric and put myself on even higher life total, far out of range of Wildan's burn spell. That was how I win game number 2 against Mono Red.
Wow, that was some achievement, although luck played a lot of factor in those games, like how Wildan never draw Searing Blood to kill my turn 1 Elvish Mystic and turn 2 Elvish Visionary. But a win is a win and I continued to Round 2, paired against Abjad who played G/W Constellation. The matchup against Constellation is very grindy and dragging with the Constellation player building their board and gaining life with Courser and Herald of Pantheon.
The nature of this matchup makes it very favorable for Abzan Rally players because we can just wait until we have enough card to execute our combo and the Constellation player won't have any permission-based spell to stop us. In game 1 against Abjad, although he managed to draw 20+ cards, put 10+ enchantments on the field, and gain 30+ life, I still managed to win by playing Rally the Ancestors while having only 6 cards left in my deck, dealing more than 100 damage with the help of Nantuko Husk and Graveblade Marauders.
Post-sideboard, I boarded 2 Dromoka's Command and 2 Unravel the Aether. I decided to play a tempo-based game by putting threats and removing his blockers with my sideboard tech and my edict creatures. I ended the game while he has 3 life total and 2 blockers by Rallying 3 creatures with Nantuko Husk and Mogis Marauder among them. One thing to note against Constellation deck is that you should not play your key combo card on turn 3 since it will be exiled by Banishing Light.
Round 3, I was paired against Ditto who played Jeskai Aggro. The most dangerous thing they can do is play Jace on Turn 2, followed up by Mantis Rider or Goblin Rabblemaster, which fortunately didn't happen. Instead he played a 1 for 1 trade game which will only ended up in our favor since we can just Rally our creatures back in the end of the day. Game 2, Ditto kept a hand without blue source of mana and got punished hard as his only threat, Seeker of the Way, keep getting sac'd by Merciless Executioner. By the time he draw a blue source and drop his Mantis Rider, it was too late as I already build my board really well.
Last round, I was paired with G/R Devotion, piloted by Howdy. Undoubtedly, he is the toughest opponent I met in this tournament. His Devotion deck featured some tech card like Surrak, Hunt Caller and Woodland Bellower. The game was really slow and tedious as both side has a way to immediately play a game winning spell. For him, it was Dragonlord Atarka, and for me, it was Rally the Ancestors mass reanimating my graveyard. As such, the whole game was decided by who can build into their game winning spell faster. For Howdy, he has to make a lot of mana and for me, I have to put a lot of creatures in the graveyard along with some combo pieces on it.
Naturally, I should have an advantage on Game 1 since I can remove his mana dorks with my edict creatures while he has no way to interact with my graveyard. However, I dont't think I removed his mana dorks fast enough because he still managed to get to seven mana on turn 4 or 5. Fortunately for me, he hasn't drawn his Atarka which allows me to buy more time, building up my graveyard and unleash a lethal Rally on turn 7.
Post-sideboard, I boarded in 2 Drown in Sorrow to extinguish his mana dorks and 2 Hero's Downfall to obliterate his Atarka. That plan didn't work really well because I never draw them and Howdy build his mana too fast which allows him to play his Atarka so early that it devastates me. With only a single turn remain, I'm looking for a land on top of my deck to unleash my lethal Rally but instead I got a Satyr Wayfinder. So friggin' teasing. Time out was called at the end of our game 2. The game really dragged out that long. Howdy then suggested that we should decide the winner with roll dice. I agreed and he got a snake eyes, allowing me to win Round 4.
For a deck that was just prepared for 15 minutes, getting undefeated record on the swiss is pretty much unbelievable. Nevertheless there is a Top 4 waiting for me and I was paired against Wildan (yet again and again). Again, the matchup felt really scary since I can't expect Wildan to draw really poorly like he did in Round 1, but he actually did. Again, he never draw his Searing Blood on turn 2 and my Graveblade Marauder did a lot of work by making Wildan debating to use or not to use his Exquisite Firecraft since he was flooded and he won't have enough burn to finish me. That makes the game goes long enough for me to cast my Collected Company and Rally the Ancestors, winning me Game 1.
On Game 2, I used the same plan again and it works really well. However, I had a hard time to keep my 6 card hand which has a gain land, plains, Elvish Mystic, and a bunch of 3-drop. If my turn-2 Elvish Mystic can survive then I can have a better position against Wildan but if it doesn't I'll probably in trouble unless I drew a third land. I decided to keep and getting paid off since Wildan doesn't have Searing Blood (yet again). This must felt like a joke for him but that's really what happen. With my Elvish Mystic survived, I managed to cast my 3-drops, some Collected Companies, and ended the game by casting Feed the Clans while Nantuko Husk was at 4/4.
Made it to the final for a first time in Standard Tournament, beating Mono Red twice (albeit with a lot of luck factor), it was a meaningful experience and I felt so pumped up for it. Naturally, I played against Howdy again in the Final. He really is a tough player. I played first with a 6-card hand but I dropped Elvish Mystic on turn 1 which makes me really comfortable. After that, we keep on putting creatures on board and I sac'd his creature sometimes.
At this phase, I made a lot of mistakes by making a defensive play while I should have been offensive and otherwise. Because of this, I missed 6 damage to his life total and I took 5-7 damage to my life because Howdy dropped Surrak, Hunt Caller right after I attacked with my Deathmist Raptor. However, the board was very even and I already made a setup into a value Rally which will remove 2 of his creatures and drawing 2 cards. Even if he dropped Atarka, I believe I was very prepared. Unfortunately, he dropped Hornet Queen instead and the game became one-sided to Howdy's favor.
All of the creatures I have were locked on the ground and can't block the flying insects nor attacking cause Howdy has so many ground fatties that must be blocked. Even by making the Value Rally and continously recurring the Edict Creatures with 2 Liliana, it was not enough as he has so many expendable creatures. However, the Insects was not the one to seal the deal since it was too slow. Crater's Claw with X=10+ did.
Because of the mistakes I made on Game 1, I realized that I can't win a late game fight with Howdy without my combo, which is not reliably consistent. So I decided to take a different approach and play it aggro, boarding in Anafenza, the Foremost, and removing some slow creatures, such as Elvish Visionary, Liliana, and some Rally.
Again, I started with Elvish Mystic and continued it with Deathmist Raptor and follow it up with Mogis Marauder. I keep on attacking and I got punished by Howdy dropping Surrak, the Hunt Caller and burst me down to 9 life. I was backed against the wall and forced to be defensive. Then a single spell makes me offer my handshake and it didn't cost seven, only three.
Good Game. It was a very tough matchup and I realized that I took a wrong approach against Devotion deck. No matter how much value you can gain from your spell, their best spell will always beat you so playing a grindy game will not work. Playing aggressive against them is also not an option since Abzan Rally creatures' stats are very poor to play aggro and Howdy did have Surrak to beat me in race. The best thing I can do to have a chance against devotion deck is to combo-kill them. It's not that I can't win against devotion without my combo, It's actually more in the category of I have to win with my combo. Going forward, I will not change my main board but I'll probably put one additional Mogis' Marauder to fight a matchup in which my best plan to win is to combo-kill them.
That was one hell of experience and I'm really glad that I can share it. The Game Day probably only have 10 participants, but all of the people I played against was a very good player that can make me thrilled and excited. It has been a long time for me to feel this kind of excitement and I wished that I can experience more of it in the future. But for now, I will thank Wildan for lending his deck. Lol
HAHAHA
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