- Erik Lundblad

2 Standard events in less than a month, I may be becoming a Constructed player. As much as I enjoyed playing 5CC at Gameday, I think Baneslayer Control was the best choice for the metagame (plus, I’ve always enjoyed playing Reveillark decks, which is basically what it is.)

Unfortunately, I ran into some problems getting out of the house and just as I arrived at the tournament site, they were just posting seating for the player’s first round matches.

I organized and sorted my deck and played a quick hand of online poker on my laptop to relax.

I was still able to register, but had to take a first round loss.

The Decklist:

Round 1 vs Punctuality

Missed it by that much. Went and got some cards signed, sat around and waited.

Round 2 vs Merfolk (0-1)

Game 1 I mulliganed to 5 on the play, but used Knight of the White Orchid to accelerate into a Baneslayer Angel, which won the race handily.

Game 2 He keeps a 1-lander on the play. Good game. All I played were Glen Elendra Archmages… on turns 5-8. How conveniently they play out… swing for 2, play the second, swing for 4, play the third, swing for 6, play the fourth, swing for 8… oh, that’s exactly 20. Good game.

Round 3 vs Baneslayer Control (1-1)

Game 1 We go back and forth for awhile, but eventually he pulls it out.

Game 2 I chose to draw, as I think it is better in this matchup (easier to get the Knights to activate, winning the mana war wins the game).

Game 3 He started off strong, but I was taking over when we went to turns. At turn 5, I had 3 Cryptic Commands in hand, but no way to kill him.

Round 4 vs 5-Color Control (1-1-1)

This was a very interesting match. His build of 5CC was pretty different from mine. Not only was he running Ajani Vengeant (which I probably would if I played it again) and Baneslayers as his only kill creature, but he was playing Glen Elendra Archmages and Identity Crisis maindeck.

Game 1 I think I’m in pretty good shape, then he Identity Crisis’ me and drops a Baneslayer. Ouch. Then he plays a Mulldrifter, accidentally draws a third card. As soon as he sees it, he pulls it away from the rest of his hand and calls a judge on himself. The judge comes over, says, “I’m pretty sure I know the ruling, but I’m going to go check, just to make sure.” He walks away, talks to a few judges for a few minutes, then comes back… and gets called back by one of the judges. A few minutes later, he comes back over… and again gets called back. Finally, after about 8-10 minutes of this, he comes back and awards my opponent a game loss, which apparently is now the penalty for drawing extra cards but not mixing them into your hand. We were both rather surprised.

So we sideboard and shuffle up for Game 2, and as we present, we get hit with a mid-round deck check… after already needing a time extension from a long judge call, and being in the draw bracket… not the best choice of games to deck check. Eventually, they bring our decks back, and apparently my sleeves are 2 different shades of black, not that anyone around us can tell at all. Fortunately, they were unable to find a pattern, so it was just a warning and I needed to resleeve asap.

Game 2 Finally, we are able to start playing again, with about 20 minutes left in the round, and a 20 minute extension. This time, I’m able to get out a couple Baneslayers and protect them, and get the win.

Game 3 He topdecks a Cruel Ultimatum, and wrecks me. Good game.

Round 5 vs R/G Aggro (1-2-1)

Game 1 Turn 1 Noble Hierarch, turn 2 Boggart Ram-Gang, 16, turn 3 Bloodbraid Elf, Great Sable Stag, 10, turn 4 Bloodbraid, Ram-Gang, good game.

Game 2 I gum up the ground with some Knights, Meddling Mages, and Mulldrifters, drop to 1 life, use Reveillark to get back my Knights and Mulldrifters, finally draw and drop a couple Baneslayers and win.

Game 3 He gets off to a slow start, which means he doesn’t stand a chance.

Round 6 vs R/B Discard (2-2-1)

Game 1 I wasn’t sure what I was playing against at first, as I was not seeing any of the typical early plays of R/B Aggro, so the Meddling Mage sat in my hand not knowing what to name. Finally he played a Megrim, and I knew what he was playing. A pair of Burning Inquiry’s hurt, but I took over from there.

Game 2 Now that I knew what I was playing against, he didn’t stand a chance. Counter the spells that are important, drop a Baneslayer Angel and win.

Round 7 vs Goats (3-2-1)

Game 1 I thought I was playing against Kithkin until I used Vendilion Clique to look at his hand and saw Springjack Shepherd and Mirrorweave. I got rid of the Mirrorweave as I was about to drop a Baneslayer, which was unfortunate, as I proceeded to draw Meddling Mage, which named Mirrorweave anyway, as that would be really bad for me (and it was the right call, as he had one under his Windbrisk Heights). His Soul Wardens gained him a lot of life, but Baneslayer evened things up in a hurry.

Game 2 This one wasn’t even close.

Round 8 vs Faeries (4-2-1)

Game 1 I was playing against someone I’ve played many times before, and we both knew that we were really just playing for pride and rating, so we were able to relax and have some fun. The first game, his Bitterblossom did most of the work, with the tokens not doing much other than chumping.

Game 2 This was very close, but he managed to pull it out when he was at 2 life.

Game 3 Again it was very close, and we were at a stalemate, both of us drawing lands. Finally I complained to my deck that all I wanted was a Mulldrifter or a Baneslayer and I’d be happy. So I immediately drew a Mulldrifter, played it, then next turn drew a Baneslayer Angel. I guess I have to try that more often.

Round 9 vs Merfolk (5-2-1)

Game 1 Merfolk should be a pretty easy matchup for me, but I mulligan to 6, he gets a fast draw and I lose.

Game 2 Now that my Hallowed Burials and Austere Commands are in, this should be a lot easier. It takes awhile, but eventually Baneslayer allows me to race.

Game 3 I mulligan to 6 again, miss a land drop, and am constantly 1 mana short of doing what I need to do.

So I ended up 5-3-1 (5-2-1 in played games)j, not quite as good as I would have liked, but enough to get my rating quite a bit closer to 2 byes in Tampa in a month and a half, so I’ll take it. I never drew the Sower of Temptation that I put in at the last minute to steal opposing Baneslayers and Scion of Oona and such, but I think it was still a good inclusion.

- Erik

I took a trip into the seldom-visited world of Constructed Magic for M2010 Game Day. It’s not that I mind playing constructed, and usually if I can build a competitive deck, I will play in the PTQ’s and such, but I prefer not to netdeck (which is very hard to not do and be competitive these days) and I prefer to play control decks, where Wizards keeps pushing aggro.

A couple weeks ago, I played a home-brew Blue/Black Mill deck using Mind Funeral and Haunting Echoes in an 8-man Standard and went 2-1. I was pleased with the deck’s performance, but did not really enjoy playing it, so I broke down and borrowed the cards I needed to build 5-Color Control, which was not only one of/the top deck in the format, but fit very well with my play style.

The version I ran initially had 1 Baneslayer Angel, 1 Broodmate Dragon, and 1 Bogardan Hellkite, but I was testing against Blightning Aggro with Anathemancers maindeck and having trouble, and I expected a lot of those, so I added a 2nd Baneslayer in place of an Esper Charm. I ended up not playing a whole lot of Blightning Aggro, but still was glad for the 2nd Angel. I originally intended to run 4 Great Sable Stags in the sideboard, but was only able to get a hold of 2 and replaced the others with Path to Exiles, which served me just fine.

Here’s the final decklist:

Round 1 vs R/W Control

Game 1 I managed to outlast him due to the counters.

Game 2 he dropped Anathemancers turns 3 and 4… ouch!

Game 3 he got stuck on 3 lands and I Identity Crisis’ed him.

Round 2 vs Kithkin

Game 1 he drops turn 2 Honor of the Pure, turn 3 Spectral Procession, turn 4 Honor, Harm’s Way to save 2 of his guys from my Volcanic Fallout, turn 5 Honor. Fortunately, I had (and used) 2 more Fallouts to kill his 2 4/4 Spirits, and I was able to keep anything else off the board until I took control.

Game 2 I mulliganed down to 5, but he got off to a slow start, which let my 3x Cryptic Command hand catch up and take over.

Round 3 vs Tom (Black/Red Aggro)

This matchup is not too bad without Anathemancer in the maindeck.

Game 2 was a little close. I was at 3 life. He had just Flame Javelined me in response to my Path to Exileing his creature. I countered the Javalin with Broken Ambitions for 2 since he had 1 open, and he revealed a Demigod of Revenge on top. Unfortunately, he then shuffled it back in due to the Path. I had 2 Cryptics and 2 Baneslayer Angels in hand, and had to decide whether or not to take the risk playing the Baneslayer, knowing that I lose if he draws burn. However, if I sit back on Cryptic, I’m never going to get out of burn range. I play the Angel, and he draws the Demigod that ended up back on top, and that’s basically the game.

Round 4 vs Jund Aggro

I get a couple of bad draws this round and get rolled pretty quickly.

Round 5 vs Kithkin

It is very hard for 5 Color Control to lose to Kithkin. I cruise into the last round at 4-1 with top tiebreakers, should be a lock to draw into Top 8.

Round 6 vs Ian (Jund Aggro)

We draw into the Top 8 and he crushes me in the two games we play for fun.

Top 8

Quarterfinals vs Ian again

This time I drew a lot better and won rather easily.

Semifinals vs Merfolk

This kid talks nonstop (I think he was trying [unsuccessfully] to get into my head) and his friend kept asking questions about what cards I was running in my version of 5CC. I just shrugged and ignored them and proceeded to beat him soundly.

Finals vs Adrian (5 Color Control)

Game 1 I played horribly but drew better than him, and this matchup is all about drawing well.

Game 2 I topdecked the Hallowed Burial to get rid of the 2 Great Sable Stags hitting me (he bounced one of my vivid lands to try and keep me off 5 mana, but I had a couple other lands, just no Burial ^_^

Not bad for a format I didn’t play at all for the whole season.

I decided to play Warp World for the M2010 game day. I really like the deck and it got me to the top 8 with a record of 4-0-2. Since there are about 16 different versions of the deck I had my work cutout for me and I had figure out which cards I was going to run. I started reading on what cards were successful in other players experience and did a little testing before coming up with a list I felt comfortable playing. For those unfamiliar with the deck, the deck uses a lot of mana accelerators (like Trace of Abundance, Fertile Ground, and Farhaven Elf) to ramp up quickly to big creatures (Like Siege-gang Commander, Bogardan Hellkite, or Broodmate Dragon). Then, if the warp world deck player has board position they will keep beating down or playing more creatures, if not, they cast Warp world. With 56 permanents mainboard, the warp world player will generally kill their opponent the next turn.

There were a couple of cards that were good in the deck, but didn’t make the cut for me.

1. Keeper of Progenitus, I liked this card, but wasn’t thrilled that he took my 4 drop spot. He also really sucks against kithkin, one of the hardest matchups for this deck already. He’s a 1/3 so he survives Volcanic Fallout and Jund Charm, but I decided that wasn’t enough reason to play him. When I play tested Bloodbraid Elf over him, I was pleasantly surprised. The elves will always find mana acceleration, while I have to wait to untap with the keeper.

2. Wort, the Raidmother, I tried this card as a one-of, but it took up the spot of one of my late game dragons. Having the ability to conspire a warp world would generally win me the game outright, but I decided if I warp world I will generally win anyways, I don’t really need to do it twice.

3. Ant Queen, I wanted to put this card in, but I rarely found a time that it was useful. Ant Queen is good when the board is stalled, but in my play testing, I rarely ran out of cards to make her ability useful. With the Keepers out of the deck, the ant queens lost even more oomf.

4. Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund, I play tested him and didn’t like him. He really didn’t do anything if you hard cast him and seemed to rather be really good off a warp world. I didn’t want cards that relied on warp world to be good.

There were also cards that I was pleasantly surprised play testing with, and even more surprised playing with them.

1. Spellbreaker Behemoth, this was my number 1 surprise playing the deck. He is really good to get out turn 3 as he stops almost all early game creatures right in their tracks, giving you time to set up your mana and late game cards. Also, the fact that he was uncounterable, AND made my hellkites uncounterable made him maindeck material.

2. Bloodbraid Elf, I was dubious playing this guy at first, but he is really, really good in this deck. He will always hit a mana accelerator and give you at least 2 permanants, 3 if you hit a Farhaven Elf.

3. Thought Hemorrhage, I didn’t think this card was that good vs control until I started playing it. Hot damn this card wrecks control decks. At one time I double Thought Hemorrhaged a control player on turn 6. He didn’t recover.

Here’s the final decklist:

The day went as follows:

Match 1:  Jund something.
In the first 6 turns of game one I had a Spellbreaker Behemoth, Murderous Redcap, and a Broodmate Dragon while he had a Sprouting Thrinax. Eventually he played his own Bogardan Hellkite, which I killed with a later turn Siege-gang Commander. He used Makeshift Mannequin to get it back but he was too low. He eventually ended up using Lightning Bolt on his own thrinax to have enough blockers.

Game 2 he got mana screwed and I rolled over him.

Match 2: Blue White Kithkin

This player was playing with cards like Sleep, Meddling Mage, Negate, Essence Scatter, and the typical Kithkin rundown. Game 1 his turns went like this: Turn 1 Goldmeadow Stalwart, turn 2 Honor of the Pure, Turn 3 Honor of the Pure and a Silence at the start of my turn, turn 4 Wizened Cenn, a Silence at the start of my turn, turn 5 Spectral Procession.

Game 2 I sided in 3 Caldera Hellions and 3 Kitchen Finks and took out 2 Spellbreaker Behemoth 4 Bloodbraid Elf. I mulliganed to 6 and kept a questionable hand. I accelerated out fairly early and had a Kitchen Finks on the board but he had a turn 1 Burrenton Forge-Tender, 2 Knight of Meadowgrain turn 3 Honor of the Pure. Turn 5 he played a Cloudgoat Ranger. I Finally hit my 8th mana with no creatures on the board and 3 Bogardan Hellkites in hand. I proceeded to play them back to back and eventually swung for 15 in the air twice while he was at 30.

Game 3 He had a turn 2 Knight of Meadowgrain and a turn 3 Wizened Cenn. I accelerated out nicely and by the time he played 2 Meddling Mages naming Siege-gang Commander and Bogardan Hellkite (both in my hand actually) I cleared his board with a Caldera Hellion. He played a Honor of the Pure and Spectral Procession, and I used the Siege-gang to pick them off.

Match 3: Jund
This was actually vs a buddy of mine. He was playing Bloodbraid Elf, Putrid Leechs, and Anathemancers and such. He won game one, I won game two and we decided to draw since both our decks were good.

Match 4: Revelark Control

Because of the draw I got paired with a 2-1 player. He was not a very good control player and was misplaying cards like Hallowed Burial when he had two Tidehollow Scullers on the board. In the final game he tapped all but 1 mana and on my turn I cast Warp World. He conceded before it resolved and showed me his hand which had 2 Countersquall.

Match 5: 5cc Control
This was a tough matchup for me. He kept my creatures down but in the first game he tapped out to counter a Bogardan Hellkite and on my turn I played a Warp World, the first to resolve the entire day. I won after he put hardly anything in play and I dealt 11 damage to him with come into the battlefield effects.

In the second game he countered some early game mana acceleration and got Ajani Vengeant out keeping my land tapped. I got stuck on 2 lands and wasn’t able to go off.

Game 3 was pretty straight forward. I played my guys, he countered some, but I eventually over whelmed him.

Match 6: Draw
After some nifty calculation my opponent and I decided to draw into the top 8.

Top 8: 5cc Control
This was the same player I had played in match 5. I had an opportunity to tap out and play a Warp World when he had 2 mana open, but I was fearful of a Negate or Broken Ambitions so I instead went to 3 cards and played a Bloodbraid Elf. He then proceeded to play a Cruel Ultimatum the next turn and wreck me the rest of the game.

Game 2 I got stuck on 5 mana. I Frantically used my Mulldrifters to try to draw into some more acceleration but nothing came up. He eventually used a Baneslayer Angel to kill me.

Overall I like the deck and plan to play it again. The key parts of the deck will stick around after ZEN comes out, but will need to get some love to stay alive. Fertile Ground and Mulldrifter are both very important in the deck but will be rotating out. We will have to wait and see what happens then.