A new League is starting in my city! This time it will be a multiformat league: tournaments from different formats where you can get points to rise up in the rankings.
The first tournament of this league was a draft with Streets of New Capenna as the set.
I was quite happy with the deck I ended up drafting. There weren’t bombs in my pool but I was able to put together a deck in the archetype I was most interested in: Selesnya. My first pick was Rigo and from there I started picking more cards to try to build up the deck.
I was quite confused by the messages I was receiving from both the drafters at my sides as I wasn’t understanding which colors they might be on… turns out they were both building a 5 color pool!
You can click here to see the deck I drafted.
We were 14 players and after announcing that there will be 4 Swiss rounds, we started playing.
Match 1 vs Cabaretti Aggro
Game 1
I swarm the board with my creatures, dropping a Celebrity Fencer that quickly starts to become bigger and bigger, removing his creatures in combat. He finds the white mana too late and uses it to cast Buy Your Silence on the Fencer, but this leaves it with a clean board and I swing freely for the win with my other creatures.
Game 2
I have another really strong start with a double Civil Servant that, together with the counters from Backup Agent, I’m able to set up a strong race, especially if backed up by the lifelink from the servant,
This time he doesn’t find Green Mana and so I’m able to win again because he isn’t able to put enough presence on the board.
1 win – 0 losses
Match 2 vs Riveteers Midrange
Game 1
He has a strong start with a dangerous Body Dropper but he hasn’t enough creatures to back it up as I’m constantly putting up pressure with my creatures. Again the Celebrity Fencer grows bigger and bigger and when I support it with Cleanup Crew. The Crew removes one of its artifact blockers and so I’m able to freely swing it for the win.
Game 2
He plays both a Tenacious Underdog and a Shakedown Heavy that start hitting me really hard. I’m still able to put up some nice resistance and, after a huge combat, we trade our whole boards and we left one another with really little life. It becomes a race for the one that is able to put an unblocked creature on the field first… and I draw three lands in a row. In the meantime he drops a creature and wins the game by hitting me.
Game 3
He plays the Shakedown Heavy again but I’m able to drop down an Elegant Entourage that starts to give me the upper hand, letting me to go aggressive with my Civil Servant thanks to the boost. The lifelink from the Servant gives me the upper hand in the beginning and, even if I end up trading it for the Shakedown, he gives me enough advantage to win the game with my other creatures boosted by the Alliance and the synergies between the creatures.
2 wins – 0 losses
Match 3 vs 5-Color Treasure
Game 1
This was the guy at my right during the drafting… but still I had no clue about what combinations of colors he could have possibly played. He turns out he was playing a 5-colored deck based on value and Treasure tokens. This first game we end up building a really big board where no one is able to freely attack the other without committing too much. He ends up playing a Bootleggers’ Stash, creating tons of tokens; but I’m not worrying too much as he still had tons of mana and so having him to have more wasn’t bothering me… until he played Stimulus Package. He turns all his Treasure into Citizens, swarming me for the win.
Game 2
I start first and I have a much faster start than the one from the last game and so I immediately put pressure on him with Civil Servants and other creatures. I deal some serious damage and so I force him to wrath the board with Incandescent Aria; my Citizen token is still able to survive putting him on a clock and consolidating the game by playing the Cleanup Crew.
Game 3
I keep a good hand but I have to find a white land to have a strong start and so when I pass four turns without finding one I start thinking that I’m going to lose like this. Luckily I finally found one and I’m able to start playing my white cards. His board however is ahead of a few turns and he has a Toluz down with two powerful cards exiled by it and so it becomes quite hard to deal with. Luckily I top deck a Bouncer’s Beatdown that let me remove it without giving him the two cards. This puts me immediately back ahead, especially because he wasn’t expecting the Beatdown and I made him lose two cards it would have really needed to reverse the game. He plays the Bootleggers’ Stash, but this time I’m ready and I drop the Cleanup Crew, destroying it while having this really big beater on the field. We reach the time limit but I’m so well set now that I only need the few extra turns to seal the game.
3 wins – 0 losses
Match 4
We were the only ones at 3 wins and so we decided to draw and split the top two prizes.
3 wins – 0 losses – 1 draw
With this result and thanks to my rating I ended up being 1st in the rankings! I was really happy of this result as I was able to do it by building the deck I wanted and especially a deck that didn’t rely only on a few bombs, but on good synergies.
I still don’t know which format will be the next of this league and so… stay tuned to discover it with me!
Raven の Nest 