With our original plan of leaving Thursday night and staying in Pittsburgh quashed due to scheduling conflicts, I kinda glossed over the fact that we had an extra ~2.5 hours of driving to do on Friday morning. Something I don't think I realized until Wednesday. Suddenly, "leave by 6-6:30" became "on the road by 5".
Ha. Five nightowls packed, ready to go, and on the road by 5am? That didn't happen, as we had misunderstandings on when we were leaving, errands to run, and things forgotten that had to be picked up. On the road by 6 was the new plan.
Thankfully, the trip went relatively smoothly (minus a little bit of road work / oh-no-we-better-drive-20-under-to-look-at-the-big-yellow-trucks-50-feet-away-from-us fuckery in Ohio and briefly visiting Kentucky due to a closed street near the Convention Center) and we arrived shortly after noon.
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(When in doubt, #showthemyourteeth)
After getting to the hotel / convention center lot, we were ready to jam some Magic. With most everyone else needing to build, fine tune, prep decks, and test it later in the afternoon before we started any competitive play. The other four dipped into Standard (either grinders or WaB), while I opted to bust out the fish for a couple rounds of Legacy, since I probably wouldn't have a chance later in the weekend.
After starting 1-2, I was out of any serious prizes and the others were ready to check-in and rest up. None of the matchups had anything of note, minus some misplays on my part that were silly, since Legacy is brutally unforgiving most of the time. Since the Hyatt was booked for the tournament, we ran into a sweet situation while trying to figure out a way to sleep five of us in a room. Story aside, we ended up trading our basic 2-bed room for a conference suite(?) that had a massive table, kitchenette, large sectional sofa and two roll-away beds. Toss in free wi-fi and breakfast and we were some happy Magic players for the weekend.
(Cincinnati #teamswag HQ)
(Hello from 2108)
Friday night saw us wrapping up with a walk to KungFood Chu's Amerasia in Covington, which I highly recommend if you're a fan of kung-fu kitsch, hole-in-the-wall restaurants, and/or delicious Asian food. I wish I had snapped some photos in there, but, trust me, it was A+.
Cut to Saturday morning, where Pieter, Abel, and I were ready to grab some breakfast and head in for Round 3 of the main event (Kane and Sean were already battling away). We ended up fielding 4 decks that weekend, with Kane and Sean on U/w Devotion, Pieter on B/W Midrange, Abel on Monoblue Aggro, and me on B/r Devotion)
My final list ended up being as follows:
Creatures:
4 Pack Rat
4 Lifebane Zombie
4 Desecration Demon
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
Spells:
4 Thoughtseize
3 Bile Blight
3 Devour Flesh
1 Ultimate Price
4 Hero's Downfall
4 Underworld Connections
Lands:
4 Blood Crypt
4 Temple of Malice
4 Mutavault
13 Swamp
Sideboard:
2 Dark Betrayal
2 Doom Blade
3 Mizzium Mortars
2 Rakdos's Return
2 Drown in Sorrow
2 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Whip of Erebos
1 Sire of Insanity
As I had struggled over the past few weeks to find a Standard deck that really "clicked" with me, I realized I wanted to go back to Monoblack Devotion, as that deck had served me well in GP Louisville and was still well positioned in the current meta.
I thought that it was a bit lacking though, and had to answer the question of "what do I splash?". Red seemed like the perfect choice, as you gain answers to a LOT of decks with the inclusion of Mizzium Mortars, Rakdos's Return, and Sire of Insanity. This was a deck made to give Esper and B/W a run for their money and I think it was a fine choice for the Cincy meta.
Round 1 - Bye
Round 2 - Bye
Round 3 - Win, 2-1 (Esper Control)
Game 1 - It was 2 Pack Rats in hand for me vs. missed land for the control player which resulted in a steamroll victory for me.
Game 2 - I kept a slower start, which my opponent had answers for when I tried to get anything online. I ended up scooping once he ripped his second Sphinx's for 6.
Game 3 - This was the game that showcased why we splash red. After Thoughtseizing and seeing that I needed to play VERY cautiously, I waited for my opponent to tap out to Elspeth, which I immediately nabbed with Hero's Downfall. The next turn, I dropped Rakdos's Return for 6, forcing him to pitch his hand and play topdeck mode. The turn after saw me landing Erebos and drawing into a Lifebane which I could cast that turn to seal the game.
Round 4 - Loss, 1-2 (Reanimator / Dredge)
I was on the Pack Rat plan in all three games, but he was able to drop an Angel of Serenity to finish me off in Game 1 and land an early whip in Game 3 to bring back value creatures like Armada Wurm. All three games were very close and very good, but I didn't see my hate cards when I needed to.
Round 5 - Win, 2-0 (Jund Monsters)
The Jund version of Monsters gives me a bit more of a headache, but it's still a relatively easy matchup, as he is able to get some swings in, but Gary keeps things out of reach as I pound in with my fatties. I also brought in Rakdos's Return in Game 2, as he was feeding me tons of information off of Courser and Domri, so, even if for 2-3, forcing a problematic card out of hand seemed good.
Round 6 - Win, 2-1 (B/W Midrange)
Game 1 - If your opponent is not blinking an Obzedat because he HAS to block your Pack Rat to avoid lethal damage, you're probably sitting pretty.
Game 2 - Alms beast came out of the sideboard this game, which seemed like an odd inclusion, but after taking two mulligans to 5, the derpy 6/6 was able to beat in for the game.
Game 3 - I missed a couple of early land drops, but my opponent drew some ineffective threats that I was able to answer and then stabilize with Gary to get in there.
Round 7 - Win, 2-1 (R/W Burn)
Game 1 - My opponent was sitting on plenty of life, but I had plenty of devotion and two Garys in hand, just never saw that fifth mana.
Game 2 - Desecration Demon and Gary took this one home, as I was able to keep my life total just out of reach.
Game 3 - I kept a removal-heavy hand with the intent of turning them into rats, but my opponent had a very creature-heavy hand, which was surprising for that deck. I think he had the right idea in that I would probably take a good chunk of my removal out / not want it in hand, but this time it didn't work as I ripped his creatures and hand apart and then started the Pack Rat engine.
Round 8 - Loss, 0-2 (B/W Midrange)
Both games saw me getting my opponent close and then seeing an Elspeth or Brimaz + removal some in and seal the game. Even with a Whip on board, he had enough hate on board to stop me dead in my tracks as the aggressor.
Round 9 - Win, 2-1 (Monoblue Devotion)
I FINALLY BROKE THE ROUND 9 GRAND PRIX STREAK! WOOOOOOO! And man, it was a close one. I didn't actually take any notes on this, but looking at my lifepad, G1 was incredibly long and grindy with Underworld Connections doing it's thing before I was able to start slamming in big chunks of damage.
Game 2 was the aggro-nuts from my opponent, as I never got a chance to touch him.
Game 3 was incredibly stressful, as we went to time shortly after the game started. Thankfully, I was on the Pack Rat plan and was able to get him in Turn 5 due to a super-lucky Mutavault topdeck to punch in for exact damage with a hoard of 7/7 rats when he was at 7.
Round 10 - Win, 2-0 (Orzhov Midrange)
Pack Rats + removal for Blood Baron got me through the early and mid game as Desecration Demon sealed the deal as my beater.
Game 2 was nuts as I had triple UWC online, a Whip of Erebos, and two Garys to be able to stay alive and dig for whatever I needed.
Round 11 - Win, 2-1 (Orzhov Midrange)
I had the perfect mix of speed and removal to take the first game fairly easily.
Game 2 saw Gary trying to save the day, but a lack of answers to my opponent's threats gave him the game fairly easily.
Game 3 saw the ol' T1 Thoughtseize, T2 Pack Rat plan, which he never had an answer for.
Round 12 - Loss, 0-2 (Monoblue Devotion)
In both games, my opponent had fairly quick, heavy devotion hands that either got a ton of advantage off of Bident + Nightveil Spectre (G1) or a Master of Waves that I couldn't answer (G2)
Round 13 - Loss, 0-2 (B/r Devotion)
My first mirror of the day was not a good one, as my opponent was able to get UWC and Gary online before me in the first game and had a ton of hand disruption in game 2 to pick apart my mulligan.
Round 14 - Loss, 1-2 (Monoblue Devotion)
Man this one was a bummer. Game 1 was Pack Rat carrying the game with no problems. I almost got there in game two, but ht was able to keep Thassa Devotion up and swing in for pretty big chunks of unblockable damage.
Game three was probably the worst of it, as I was off to a strong start, but he had the perfect mix of interactive cards to shut down both of my in-hand Pack Rats. Close, well-played games, and he just got ahead of me.
Game three was probably the worst of it, as I was off to a strong start, but he had the perfect mix of interactive cards to shut down both of my in-hand Pack Rats. Close, well-played games, and he just got ahead of me.
Round 15 - Loss, 0-2 (Esper Control)
Out of all of the games I played this weekend, these were the two where I felt the most helpless. In game one, he had a Last Breath and Supreme Verdict to hold off the Pack Rats and was able to pluck away my other good cards with his Thoughtseize and counter-magic. I scooped on a resolved AEtherling.
Game two saw me dropping a Lifebane Zombie and looking at his hand, which had a double Jace, Syncopate, Mutavault, and a Supreme Verdict. Based on what I had in hand, there was no line of play I could take that he couldn't answer. Damn.
All in all, it was a pretty decent showing, but I was a bit bummed out to miss the top 100 and getting some cash. Still, a top 150 finish was better than my usual trick of missing out on the win-and-in round. Minus the final round against the Esper player, none of the games felt out of reach and came down to some luck, bad lines of play/decisions biting me in the ass, or letting my opponent dictate when I play my hand.
I definitely loved the deck and the direction that red took it in, as I was able to handle most of the Blood Baron decks I saw and had a pretty good time against Esper, which were the two decks I was on the lookout for.
After finishing Day 2, I had a couple of hours to burn as the others were doing various Sunday side events. With one spot left in the final Standard Win-a-Box of the weekend, I decided to give the ol' gal one last spin before calling it a night.
After beating B/W Midrange and Esper Control (in which I got to do the ol' Rakdos for 5. Countered? Okay. Rakdos for 6? Resolves? Good. Sire of Insanity. Let's play topdeck, bitch.) Pro tip: Control players get real salty whenever you steal their thunder in dictating the pace and state of the game. My opponent in the finals was amicable to giving me the win if I would split the box with him and give him 2 of the 3 packs I got for coming in second (since there were no more events for the 'free entry' to be worth anything).
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Moving forward, I still think Monoblack is one of the best decks in the format. Esper was in force this weekend, as the top lists were well tuned and had their thumb down on what to expect. If you are expecting a wide range of creature decks, control, and B/W, I think the B/r list above it perfectly fine to run an event.
If you're expecting the meta to copy a lot of the top 8 decks and with a shift to a lot of control, I think their might be some merits to looking at a blue splash for Far // Away and Notion Thief. (In an ideal world, Grixis Devotion could be a thing, but even with a very light red splash the mana base is spread a bit too tight for my liking).
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