Win - a - Box Monthly Tournament

It has been a while since I have played in a standard tournament which wasn't just an FNM, in that tournament I managed to get to the finals with a U/B control draw-go style deck. However, as many of you guys know, the meta-game has shifted to a point where draw-go is simply a bad place to be right now. People said how Cavern of Souls would not affect control and that it would simply 'adapt', however this adaption of control decks has made delver (the deck CoS was meant to 'nerf') even better placed. I love U/B control however, and so I decided that I would change the draw-go deck into a tap-out U/B control deck to deal with the Delver, Ramp and R/G aggro decks I expected to be prevalent. Here is the list:

Sorcery [3]

3x Black Sun's Zenith                                                  

Enchantment [2]

2x Curse of Death's Hold

Planeswalker [6]

2x Liliana of the Veil

4x Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas

Instant [6]

2x Go for the Throat

1x Doom Blade

3x Mana Leak

Creature [4]

2x Spellskite

1x Wurmcoil Engine

1x Phyrexian Metamorph

Equipment [1]

1x Batterskull

Artifact [13]

4x Ratchet Bomb

3x Ichor Wellspring

3x Pristine Talisman

2x Tumble Magnet

1x Grafdigger's Cage

Land [25]

4x Inkmoth Nexus

4x Darkslick Shores

4x Drowned Catacomb

8x Swamp

4x Island

1x Cavern of Souls

Sideboard [15]

1x Trinket Mage

1x Nihil Spellbomb

1x Elixir of Immortality

1x Grafdigger's Cage

1x Karn Liberated

1x Sever the Bloodline

1x Wurmcoil Engine

2x Bloodline Keeper

2x Negate

1x Blue Sun's Zenith

2x Sword of Feast and Famine

1x Spellskite

That's right, it is Tezzeret U/B control! The meta-game has shifted in such a way that I felt that Tezzeret was perfectly poised to become a real deck. Theoretically the match up against Delver should improve, with the amount of lifegain and ways to deal with a flipped delver/geist of st. traft. Also the matchup against the aggro decks (humans and R/G) would improve massively, board clearers, lifegain, 5/5 blockers etc. The key cards against WRR are the Tumble Magnets, Spot Removal and Metamorph (Spellskites/Curse are pretty good too!). The theory was all good, however results are not based on theory and so let us go on to talk about how it worked in practice.

On the day of the tournament itself I was suffering badly from hayfever (which I would like to apologize to my opponents for). Therefore throughout the day I was making some mistakes due to a lack of concentration, although I do not feel this contributed too much to the overall impression of the deck.

Round 1: U/B Control

Why hello there old deck I used to play and love. My opponent was Mark Biddle and he was running the draw-go version of U/B control. I must confess that I did not expect this kind of deck in the meta-game and so it was interesting to see it play out. Game 1 was a very long game, however a resolved mimic vat with snapcaster under it, meant that all the card advantaged gained wore me out. Game 2 was won on the back of a Tezzeret 5/5 artifact beat down plan. This left us some 5 minutes to finish Game 3, as soon as time on the round was called I thought about just accepting the game as drawn, but decided I may as well attempt to win. Mark had no counters and no spot removal in hand and lost in 2 turns from the Tezzeret-Inkmoth combination. 2-1 Win.

Round 2: U/W Delver

I was playing against the in-form Zak Dodds, who recently won the avacyn restored Game Day with a similar deck. Game 1 was rather long, which is probably a bad sign for a Delver deck which relies heavily on tempo, I had the mass removal in the form of Black Sun's and Ratchet Bombs and began the beatdown using my bigger threats. Game 2 went down to the wire, I was on 3 and Zak had 2 Restoration Angels out, a Gideon (which I had to attack) and a Tamiyo, which was tapping down a Batterskull. I had a 5/5 and a 1/1 out, with Tezzeret and Liliana in hand. What I should of done was equip the Batterskull to my 5/5, play Liliana, make him sacrifice and beat down with my 9/9 vigilance lifelink. For some reason I forgot to do this (perhaps aforementioned hayfever, or a lack of ability to play the game!) and proceeded to lose the game and therefore drew the round. Disappointing, but the deck had the potential to win and that is the main thing. 1-1 Draw.

Round 3: U/W Delver

Another Delver deck and this time piloted by Tom Buettner, who I always travel with to these tournaments. Like me, he hasn't had much practice in the new metagame as a result of university. Game 1 was early pressure from Tom, putting me down to 6-7 life while countering all my threats. However, my plan against Delver is to force them to counter my threats to allow for the resolution of a board sweeper. With a clear boardstate and my pristine talismans going to work I found myself going back up towards 20 life and resolving threats which were more powerful than the tempo dependent Delver threats. Game 2 simply involved me playing threats which the blue based Delver decks could not interact with - Planeswalkers and Artifacts. 2-0 Win.

Round 4: U/W Delver

You guessed it! Another Delver deck! My opponent being Aaron Biddle, who is currently 3-0 and the only person to do so. I must admit I cannot remember much of the games, I won game 1 by clearing the board and producing threats with Tezzeret. Game 2 was a defeat with uncounterable restoration angels/geists as a result of CoS. Game 3 I managed to win with inkmoth nexus beatdowns. That meant I had got into the top 8 with an ID in Round 5 and the deck had the best record 3-0-2, alongside Tu and Jonno.

Top 8: Rush Infect

Losing the dice roll against Rush Infect is effectively game over for U/B, we need to draw our curse to deal with inkmoths and other answers to deal with the other threats. A Tezzeret deck packing lots of lifegain and a sideboard dedicated against the major decks didn't really stand much of a chance against this unexpected deck. I lost 2-1.

Although I only finished in the 5th-8th bracket I was happy with the performance of the deck against Delver, which takes up a huge part of the meta. In testing the deck performs well against R/G variants and Humans, however more testing against Zombies and Pod is needed. In testing the best cards in the deck are Ratchet Bomb and the centre piece card Tezzeret. U/B originally had a huge problem dealing with swords, which both of these cards can answer, also it is important to note that Ratchet Bomb can effectively be a 2 mana board sweeper against delver. 

I would highly recommend this deck to any control player who feels that draw-go just isn't performing and to anyone who just wants to play with their unused playset of Tezzerets!  

Thanks for reading,

Chris Delo

    

GPT Manchester

Manchester GPT Tournament Review

2 hours sleep, no playtesting, and a bad experience from GPT Cardiff was not the best preparation for the tournament at hand. The GPT at Cardiff did however, teach me a valuable lesson. Never pick up a deck the day before a tournament! That day I had decided that Esper Control was the deck I should be playing and with little to no experience with the deck, I slumped to a 2-3 finish. 

Needless to say I wasn't going to make that mistake again, so I sleeved up the deck I feel most comfortable playing, U/B control. The list is as follows:

Creatures (4):

2 Consecrated Sphinx

2 Snapcaster Mage

Planeswalkers (2):

1 Karn Liberated

1 Liliana of the Veil

Other Spells (28):

2 Black Sun's Zenith

1 Blue Sun's Zenith

2 Curse of Death's Hold

2 Dissipate

1 Doom Blade

3 Forbidden Alchemy

2 Go for the Throat

4 Mana Leak

1 Ponder

2 Pristine Talisman

2 Ratchet Bomb

4 Think Twice

1 Tragic Slip

1 Tribute to Hunger

Lands (26):

4 Darkslick Shores

4 Drowned Catacomb

8 Island

4 Nephalia Drownyard

6 Swamp

Sideboard (15):

1 Batterskull

1 Black Sun's Zenith

1 Curse of Death's Hold

1 Dissipate

2 Jace, Memory Adept

1 Liliana of the Veil

2 Negate

2 Nihil Spellbomb

1 Sever the Bloodline

1 Surgical Extraction

1 Tragic Slip

1 Tribute to Hunger

If anyone was keeping track of GP Salt Lake City, they would notice that this list is similar to that of Patrick Chaplin's U/B control deck. However, I felt that Karn Liberated was too powerful to leave out of the mainboard, I figured a resolved Karn would just win in the control mirror and although it is sub-par against aggro, at least I have a reasonable chance of getting games 2 and 3 completed against them. The most deceptively powerful cards in the deck are that of Pristine Talisman and Nephalia Drownyard. The life gain from the talisman often causes aggro and delver players to over commit to the board, allowing for a Ratchet Bomb or Black Sun's Zenith sweeper, also the ramp is relevant in reaching 7 mana for Karn and Forbidden Alchemy flashback mana turn 6. Nephalia Drownyard is definitely a 4-of in any U/B list, it allows us to sit back and mill and much like the talisman it forces our opponent to run into our counter-magic and sweepers. 

Round 1: Bye. Not much else to say apart from I get lucky with my byes.

Round 2: I was paired up against Thanh running a G/W human deck, who I recommended to put Thalia's and Grand Abolishers in the side which wreck U/B if not dealt with. 

Game 1: I chose to play and was met with a Champion turn 1 with an attempted Gather the Townsfolk turn 2, which was hastily manaleaked. I ended up tapping out turn 5 for a Curse of Death's Hold, which I knew shut down half of the G/W list and with a BSZ in hand I did not fear a resolved Mirran Crusader or Hero of Bladehold. Two Sword of War and Peace were resolved instead, however I ended up resolving a Consecrated Sphinx and riding it home. 

Game2: In came the Batterskull, Liliana of the Veil, Tribute to Hunger and the extra Curse. This game went the same way as the first, I managed to double Curse my opponent and deal with anything that manages to survive. I began beating down with a Batterskull and the game ended with me at over 40 life thanks to the Batterskull and Pristine Talisman package.

Round 3: I was 2-0 and knew a win here would allow me to double ID into the top 8. My opponent was Ryan Talbot piloting a U/B zombie deck, I hadn't had much practice against this matchup (not any) and really didn't know how the games would play out.

Game 1: I was met with a fast start by my opponent with Grave Crawler into Messenger, at this point I really wish I took a mulligan with a Doom Blade in hand and a double Phantasmal Image on the Messenger next turn led to me scooping up and moving on to Game 2.

Game 2: Consecrated Sphinx seemed bad against a deck running so much removal and were removed for Game 2, in came the Batterskull, Curse, 2 Jaces, 2 Spellbombs, Sever the Bloodline and the Surgical Extraction. This game went a little better, manaleaking the Messenger and extracting them all from the deck allowed me to have some breathing space, especially as I saw a hand that was focusing on copying it. I resolved a Curse followed by a Jace and proceeded to mill my opponent out without worrying about the reanimating Gravecrawlers. 

Game 3: I felt that Game 2 went well and so kept it as it was, after taking a mulligan to 6 I felt my hand was reasonable enough to keep, it had counter magic and removal. However, my opponent played Distress turn 2! Removing my countermagic and then went to town with the Messengers and Images, I did not last long.


Round 4: I wished my opponent well in the top 8 and he said he would see me there. It was a pleasure playing against Ryan and the game needs more players who are gracious in both winning and defeat. Top guy. I knew I had to win this next round to make it to the top 8.


Game 1: I must confess I cannot remember much about the first game, only me seeing the darkslick shores turn 1 by my opponent and knowing he was either U/B control or Zombies. It turned out he was playing Zombies, I managed to counter all his threats and proceeded to mill him out. We then both confessed who we lost to last round, me stating it was Zombies and him losing out to U/B control, kind of ironic huh?

Game 2: I felt that my sideboarding plan was good enough in the previous round and so stuck with that. My opponent resolved Liliana of the Veil, which was fine as I had a curse on him and a resolved Jace, Memory Adept. I began the milling processes and my opponent ultimated Liliana, I kept the Jace, sacking the Batterskull I had in play. Two more turns and my opponent scooped, knowing I had the mill out next turn.

Round 5: ID. Top 8 finish was achieved and I decided to take some time out to relax and prepare. I knew who got into the top 8 and I did not fear any matchup, but I preferred to be paired up against another control deck.


Top 8: The top 8 had some interesting matches, Esper vs Wolf Run, Tezzeret vs 5-Colour Control, Grixis vs Delver and U/B control vs Zombies. As you might have guessed from this I was paired up against Ryan who said he would see me in the top 8.


Game 1: It was effectively the same story as when we met in the swiss, although this time I mulliganed a sub-par hand to find another sub-par six, I hoped I could draw out of it with Forbidden Alchemy, but it wasn't to be and I ended up scooping relatively quickly. At this moment I felt like it wasn't going to be my day and that winning the next two games would prove difficult.

Game 2: The same sideboard plans were introduced as before and I had counter-magic in hand and a Curse, which was an auto keep for me in this matchup. Although I was met with a Gravecrawler turn 1, I had the answers for everything being played and with a reolved Curse and Jace, it was a short matter of time before my opponent was milled out.

Game 3: The previous games had gone exactly the same way as they had done in the swiss, so I knew I could not keep a sub-par hand again, I mulliganed down to 6 on the draw and had 2 Mana Leaks, 2 land, 1 Curse and a Snapcaster Mage. For me this was the perfect hand, seeing as Geralf's Messenger is the card we most fear and we can afford to take some early beats. As it happened my opponent kept a rather dodgy hand, being stuck on 2 lands with no early plays (one can only suspect Images and Messengers were in hand). It allowed me to set up a board position, playing Curse into Jace and at this point I could feel the top 4 approaching. Ryan scooped up and I took a sigh of relief as I overcame a deck that caused my only defeat during the swiss.

Top 4: The decks remaining were Wolf Run, Delver, Tezzeret and U/B control. At this point I really wanted the Wolf Run matchup as I felt this was heavily in U/B's favour. The deck I really didn't want to play was the Delver deck piloted by Tom Rickarby, who is one of the better players at Worcester. 


Game 1: I won the dice roll and was on the play, turn one Delver by my opponent was met by a Doom Blade (it is fine to do this as Delver decks have little in terms of a turn 2 play). Lingering Souls by my opponent resolved, however a Curse of Death's Hold crippled the Delver deck, a second Curse meant the only live card in the deck was a Dungeon Geist and when this was dealt with my opponent scooped after a mill out.


Game 2: In came the extra Curse, Black Sun's and 2 Jace's. It is important to remove the Sphinxs in this matchup as well as the Liliana and Tribute. Although, if you are playing the U/W version of Delver running Geist of Saint Traft, I would keep the Liliana and Tribute in. I kept an OK hand and dealt with the turn 2 Delver from the turn 1 Ponder. My opponent fell to 9 from a lot of probes and me down 6, but a Black Sun's Zenith managed to reset the board. Snapcaster Mage flashing back Dissipate countered the next play and I began the beats putting my opponent down to 5. However, Lingering Souls ruined the plan of Snapcaster beats and I was overwhelmed by Spirit tokens.


Game 3: The penultimate game was met with a good opening 7 and being on the play meant a lot in this match I felt. I didn't see a Delver this game so I presume they must of gotten taken out (I might be wrong). I must admit I cannot remember much from this game, I remember landing a Jace with a Curse out and then proceeded to win on the mill out. I was in the final.


Final: Me and Manaleak regular Zak Dodds were in the final, I wasn't going to the GP in Manchester and so scooped it up to allow Zak the 3 byes for tournament. However we thought we would play out the final game for the unofficial winner of the tournament and the famous 'tick on the board'. I won both games pretty comfortably but that was mostly due to Zak keeping sub-par hands, which he wouldn't have if he was playing for the 3 byes. 


The U/B decklist is extremely strong against most matchups and including the Sunday Win-a-Box tournament I managed a 10-3-1 record for the weekend (2 of those defeats being to U/B Zombies). Although I still feel that Delver is the most powerful deck currently in the format, U/B control is still very competitive and I would recommend the decklist to anyone. From the weekend I would be inclined to include the Batterskull in the main and perhaps even go as far as to include the 2 Jace, Memory Adept over the Consecrated Sphinx (which was underwhelming all tournament).

Hope you guys enjoyed the read!

Chris Delo