Today I will present the report of Martin Pieler which got 2nd on the 8th Highlander Grand Prix with his Boros Deck. He was kind enough to write a quick text and provide me his deck list. So I hope you enjoy his writings and got some impression of the event.
First the list:
I played this deck a while ago (when Survival was still legal) because mana denial (Geddon, Moon, Winter Orb) + a fast clock was to my mind the best method to defeat all this UGx Goodstuffdecks. After the banning of SotF I played Naya Zoo with a higher man curve, because I thought this Goodstuff decks won´t be dominating any longer. I failed. I tested myself a while different Goodstuff builds get 2 conclusions: 1. there is no optimal list and 2. this decks don´t follow a straight game plan, which I hated most.
I updated my Boros-list with new cards and played in Iserlohn in January and won the tournament. I expected many UGx decks on the GP so I choose to play Boros here as well. You have a very good matchup against these, except they manage to play kitchen finks, Loxodon Hierarch, Baneslayer Angel in a row… Your Aggro matchup against 3-5c Zoo is obviously not so good, because they have better creatures, but if you get enough evasion on the table make creature combat not happen and draw enough burn you can defeat them.
But let´s see how the GP was like:
Round 1
I got a bye from the HL Trail in Essen
Round 2 vs. Matthias Wigge (Bant)
First game:Hhe shows me how to defeat my deck with Noble Hierach into Rhox War Monk. I found no solution for this guy, so it was a fast match. (Sorry for conceding so you can`t get the 30 life booster bingo)
Second game: Luck was on my side: He mulliganed to unspoiled 6 and was screwed on 1 land. I killed his mana elf leaving him with an Aether Vial but he can´t stop my army.
Third game: I haven’t made any notes, but he mulliganed to 6 with spoil. He hasn’t any life gain so I think a combination of flyers and burn finished him.
Round 3 vs. Phillipp Erle (Domain Zoo)
First game: I played Black Vise on turn one which dealt 10 damage since he was screwed thanks to my Wasteland.
Second Game: We both played some guys and he had the bigger ones but I killed him with my Hero of Bladehold on turn 5.
Round 4 vs. Jacob Krause (Bant)
First Game: I was flooded and his Thrun with an equipped Sword of Fire / Ice beat the shit out of me really fast.
Second Game: I played Sulfuric Vortex on turn 3 which finished him off after some beats.
Third Game: I had flyers with Bonesplitter so he couldn’t do much against my evasion force and btw. At first everybody laughed at Order of the Golden Cricket but this man made alone 10 damage, so don’t laugh again.
Round 5 vs. Jonny Al-Saidi (UG)
First Game: I had a Suntail Hawk with grafted war gear and a glint hawk idol; he had Wall of blossoms and call of the heard tokens, so no blocking just beating. And I won the race…
Second Game: I go down to 6 cards and use the spoil-mulligan. This time I played 2 2/2 Flyer but he had Trygon Predator+ counter backup for my burn so he could drive this home easy.
Third Game: I got some pressure on the table. He have not much except lands and some little guys after my Koth gets on the board I was able to force him to chump and my Emblem finished him off.
Round 6 and 7
After my 5-0-0 run I could ID two times in Top 8
Quarter Finals vs. Thomas Stier (4c Blood)
First Game: I started with Black Vise (which normally isn’t that good in this MU but I thought 5 damage should be very good) and he had a very slow start so the expected 5 damage went to 11. His fatties get stalled out by my Mother of Runes and no removal on his side where enough for my victory.
Second Game: Soltari Monk with Bonesplitter did most of the work, Ajani Goldmane helped me in the damage race against his green guys and my two flyers did the rest.
Semi Finals vs. Patrick Richter (4c Goodstuff)
First Game: Patrick starts with Noble Hierach, Kitchen Finks and Zur who was quite good. I played Blood Moon to slow him down but it denied me the second white mana which I needed to win this game.
Second Game: I played Ankh of Mishra on turn 2 he tutored Baneslayer Angel but before he gets on the field my guys killed him off.
Third Game: I kept a hand with lands, some guys and Price of Progress, while I was dreaming how this card will finish him off, he played Duress on turn 1 which discarded my PoP but with no lifegain on his side my airforce fled me to the final!
Finals vs. Jochen Korbel (5c Zoo)
First Game: I had no chance in this game because he burned my creatures and had also enough beat down. After a some 2:1 trades I had to concede, even PoP wouldn`t won because his Ajani kept his life high enough.
Second Game: He mulliganed to 5 and I could kill 2 of his guys with Arc Trail so he had not much left except for a Dark Confidant which did 7 damage to him so I had only to attack a few times.
Third Game: I mulliganed to 6 and spoiled then and kept a 1 land Hand.His Goblin Guide gives me some lands after some trading and a few attacks later our life totals were 4 (Me) vs 13 (Jochen). At the end the situation is as followed (which I totally messed up):
He had a Tarmogoyf with Rancor (6/5) and one card in hand. I have Accorder Paladin with Bonesplitter and Elspeth. In my Hand I got Chain Lightning, Savannah Lions and Hells Thunder. I thought a while playing the risky move going down to 3 because of my barbarian ring to cast the Hells Thunder. I was calculating the damage but then I made a mistake and started to calculate again: Accorder Paladin (3)+ Bonesplitter (2)+ Elspeth pump (3) = 8 damage+ 4 from the Hells Thunder =12… 12? Shit he is at 13,”WTF!” I thought…
So I only attacked with the thunder played lion and made a token, obviously this wouldn’t save me since his Tarmogoyf had trample. If I just attacked with the Paladin and the Hells Thunder I would have won because of the battlecry trigger which I missed after my calculation.
But so I have to say “Congratulations Jochen!”
So have fun flaming me who is such a dumbass and could made the second place on this GP!
Some remarks:
Tops:
- Nice games
- Deck worked well
- Seeing some people played only against multiple times
- Good organizations: End of Top 8: 10 p.m.
Flops:
- Only 89 players
- The guy from the restaurant was not very friendly and polite
- I´m note able to count till 13
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