Welcome back, folks! I’ve been preoccupied with round one of the tournament (without my computer, to boot!), so this week’ll have a shorter post than usual. Next week, I expect to be all about Theros in the wake of the PAX Prime panel. For now, we’ve got a tournament metagame to examine!
As expected, blue decks were out in force. BUG Flickermancer, Monoblue skies, Electrodelver, and Orzhov were popular and successful choices, with monored and Boros getting their fair share of wins. There were several winning brews, as well, but I won’t spoil the surprises just yet (I may or may not be piloting one of these rogue archetypes).
If you’re looking to make top eight, you’re going to need a plan. Saruli Gatekeepers means that aggro has to be blisteringly fast and/or have big creatures and burn to go over the top. You’ll want removal or One-Eyed Scarecrow to deal with all the blue creatures flying around. As for the Ghostly Flicker/Archaeomancer lock, if you want to play the long game, you’ll want some sort of answer; Mind Rot, Cremate, and Beckon Apparition can all interrupt the combo. Of course, you could be employing one of these strategies, but you’ll still need to worry about the mirror match and the other popular decks (not to mention the rogue decks!).
I’d say more, but gwyned already posted a fantastic metagame analysis that I recommend everyone read.
It’s been a long week and it’s time for a bit of housekeeping. Here’re the round one participation prize winners!
- Pauper Mage wins a booster of Shadowmoor!
- Ben H wins a booster of Innistrad! (from gwyned, who is awesome. Did I mention that he’s covering the event?)
- Kevin Roman wins a foil Shadowmoor Torture for beating Hipster’s own Tim Akpinar!
- MattP81 wins a foil Vivisection for beating Hipster’s own Hunter Slaton!
- James Bathurst wins a foil Gruul Ragebeast for beating me! (Sensing a pattern?)
Finally, here are the round two pairings/standings. Check back through the week as I update them with results.
Round 2 Pairings/Standings
[table width=”580″ align=”center”]
Player One, Points, vs, Player Two, Points, Results
James Bathurst, (3 pts), vs, Colin, (3 pts), (1-2)
Monique Garraud (HotC), (3 pts), vs, Zach W [drop], (3 pts), (2-0)
David Wills, (3 pts), vs, Zombii, (3 pts), (0-2)
Andrzej “Onion” K, (3 pts), vs, puzzles, (3 pts), (2-1)
Ben H, (3 pts), vs, bacon_music_love, (3 pts), (2-1)
Paul Salerno, (3 pts), vs, Steven, (3 pts), (0-2)
Neil Anderson, (3 pts), vs, Marcin, (3 pts), (2-1)
Conor Moran, (3 pts), vs, Jesse Lee, (3 pts), (2-1)
Kyle S, (3 pts), vs, Vanhelsen, (3 pts), (2-0)
Jason Gray, (3 pts), vs, GreenSig [drop], (3 pts), (2-0)
Hugh Kramer, (3 pts), vs, J.S. Bangs, (3 pts), (2-0)
Daniel Gardner, (3 pts), vs, Ahniwa Ferrari, (3 pts), (1-2)
ratsby, (3 pts), vs, Wurst12, (3 pts), (2-1)
Gibble, (3 pts), vs, Austin, (3 pts), (0-2)
Will, (3 pts), vs, Kaziks, (3 pts), (2-1)
Kebab [drop], (3 pts), vs, Danny DiPietro, (3 pts), (0-2)
HurricaneWaves, (3 pts), vs, Kenny, (3 pts), (2-1)
JL, (3 pts), vs, Tom, (3 pts), (2-0)
Edgar Magalhaes, (3 pts), vs, Carrie O’Hara, (3 pts), (1-2)
Hans, (3 pts), vs, Edmilson, (3 pts), (1-2)
Adam Bloom, (3 pts), vs, aceracerff, (3 pts), (1-2)
Grociu, (3 pts), vs, Lollipop_Man, (3 pts), (0-2)
Justin Beckert, (3 pts), vs, MattP81, (3 pts), (2-0)
Nico, (3 pts), vs, DoogieH, (3 pts), (1-2)
David Nunez, (3 pts), vs, joekewwl, (3 pts), (1-2)
P. Dalton, (3 pts), vs, Nivius, (3 pts), (2-0)
PurplePotato, (3 pts), vs, Sean Knowelden [drop], (3 pts), (2-0)
Charlie S, (3 pts), vs, Alithinar, (3 pts), (2-0)
d00n, (3 pts), vs, Mrdarby, (3 pts), (1-2)
rbernardinello, (3 pts), vs, Chase, (3 pts), (0-2)
Andrew, (3 pts), vs, ElPolloLoco, (3 pts), (1-0)
Lacio, (3 pts), vs, Scumbag Judge James, (3 pts), (0-2)
Peter C [drop], (3 pts), vs, Benito, (3 pts), (1-2)
Kevin Roman, (3 pts), vs, DL Martin, (3 pts), (1-2)
The_Sir, (3 pts), vs, Sudo_Nym [drop], (3 pts), (2-1)
snapponder, (3 pts), vs, Dave Barman, (3 pts), (2-0)
gwyned, (0 pts), vs, Nils Hjalmarsson, (3 pts), (2-0)
Sam Werbalowsky, (0 pts), vs, Torreth [drop], (0 pts), (2-0)
Conexion, (0 pts), vs, Chris Reid, (0 pts), (2-1)
Matt B [drop], (0 pts), vs, Simon [drop], (0 pts), (0-0)
Luke Burnett, (0 pts), vs, togepi258, (0 pts), (0-2)
Brad, (0 pts), vs, Fábio Silveira [drop], (0 pts), (2-1)
James J, (0 pts), vs, CloudofEther [drop], (0 pts), (2-0)
Carl, (0 pts), vs, Ideocl4st1, (0 pts), (0-2)
Marc DeLay, (0 pts), vs, ShiratoKai, (0 pts), (2-0)
MarkBGH, (0 pts), vs, Rich Stein (HotC), (0 pts), (0-2)
Landon, (0 pts), vs, Zachary Barash (HotC), (0 pts), (0-2)
AoRK14 [drop], (0 pts), vs, Keith Richard Smerbeck, (0 pts), (0-2)
sixfirhy, (0 pts), vs, Nick G, (0 pts), (2-0)
mangol, (0 pts), vs, The_Nin [drop], (0 pts), (2-0)
Kevin Downs, (0 pts), vs, Zach G, (0 pts), (2-1)
Hugo Ezquivel [drop], (0 pts), vs, Jonathan Peña [drop], (0 pts), (0-0)
Adam [drop], (0 pts), vs, rjljr [drop], (0 pts), (2-0)
Grao, (0 pts), vs, Iris W [drop], (0 pts), (2-0)
Elliot [drop], (0 pts), vs, Hunter Slaton (HotC), (0 pts), (0-2)
DV8tor83, (0 pts), vs, Jesse S, (0 pts), (0-2)
King Xia, (0 pts), vs, Eternal_Blue, (0 pts), (2-0)
Jamie B, (0 pts), vs, Collecter, (0 pts), (0-2)
Chris de Lacy, (0 pts), vs, John Mason, (0 pts), (0-2)
Vincent Sippola, (0 pts), vs, Tim Akpinar (HotC), (0 pts), (0-2)
Skyboss, (0 pts), vs, Wolfmedic, (0 pts), (1-2)
Kithias [drop], (0 pts), vs, Maciej Chrzanowski, (0 pts), (0-2)
Matt Bobola, (0 pts), vs, MattLaZer, (0 pts), (1-2)
CJMoran, (0 pts), vs, Paul Green, (0 pts), (0-2)
iAmQuantum, (0 pts), vs, Shea Strausman, (0 pts), (0-2)
Pauper Mage, (0 pts), vs, Dana, (0 pts), (0-2)
Bartosz Chrzanowski [drop], (0 pts), vs, flapjack, (0 pts), (0-2)
[/table]
That’s all for this week. Thanks for stopping back and a huge thanks to all of my wonderful players! Without you, these articles would be pretty silly.
—Zachary Barash
Join the livestream! twitch.tv/ZennithGP
Magic Online username: Zennith
Zachary Barash has been playing Magic on and off since 1994. He loves Limited and drafts every available format (including several that aren’t entirely meant to be drafted). He’s a proud Cube owner and performer, improvising entire musicals every week with his team, Petting Zoo. Zach has an obsession with Indian food that borders on being unhealthy.