2022’s City Finals

Last Sunday took place the 2022’s City Finals of Pauperwave where the eight best players of the year (grouping the result from the Pauper, Centurion and Multiformat Leagues) were invited to compete in a Modern Horizon 2 Draft to decide the best player of 2022 for our city.
Thanks to my last year’s results I was one of the players invited to join the draft.

On my first pack, my very first pick was a Subtlety and so during my first pack I started to focus on the color blue, picking some black, thinking I could go for the Dimir archetype. On pack two however I started seeing some good cards for the Affinity archetype and so I started going for that kind of deck and, in the end, I finalized my list to be an Azorius Affinity deck.
You can click here to see the list I drafted.

The deck was composed of three Swiss Rounds and then the final top 2.

Match 1 vs BGw Squirrel Storm
Game 1
I had a nice start but then I kept drawing lands while he was filling the board thanks to a nice and big Hunting Pack. I’m not able to recover from this play and he wins the first game.
Game 2
I start the game in the early turns with a double Phantasmal Dreadmaw that puts him on a fast clock and forces him to use Captured by Lagacs on his own creature to remove my two big creatures with the Bolster counters.
I set a race with a small flying creature and Fodder Tosser and win by stalling the board on the ground with my other creatures.
Game 3
I have a quick start with two Steelfin Whale and Subtlety. I’m quite fast and I use the Forecast of two Piercing Rays to constantly tap his creature and be able to swing freely. He doesn’t find removals and I’m able to take the match home.

1 win – 0 losses

Match 2 vs UGw Junk
Game 1
We quickly feel our boards but I’m still able to put him on a clock thanks to Vedalken Infiltrator. He is able to remove it and we stall each other as I have a bigger board but he always has enough mana open to cast a Blessed Respite, which I saw going around while drafting. After a bit I still decide to go all in to at least make him waste the card… and turns out he didn’t have it and so with a few attacks, backed up by Fodder Tosser, I’m able to take the game home.
Game 2
He gets stuck without green but he is still able to survive thanks to the Junk plan taking off and creating Treasures, Clues and Food thanks to Floodhound with Academy Manufactor. He resists a bit longer thanks to the Food tokens but I’m still able to knock him with some attacks by my big creatures and the unblockable Vedalken Infiltrator.

2 win – 0 losses

Match 3
At this point we were both the top 2 players with six points, while the third one had only three. We decided to draw and play the top two between us.

2 wins – 0 losses – 1 draw

Finals vs WGr Counters
Game 1
He starts strongly with Arcbound Mouser into Duskshell Crawler, hitting me nicely in the first turns and increasing the gap thanks to the lifelink. We both start filling our board but his creatures get bigger more quickly due to the various synergy between +1/+1 counters. I also cannot properly chumpblock due to the crawler ability giving trample to his creature and I get knocked out pretty quickly.
Game 2
He doesn’t have a start as fast as the one in game 1 but he has a nice amount of removals that he uses to get rid of my threats. He has again the Crawler on the field that keeps getting bigger thanks to his spells putting +1/+1 counters on it. I cannot find removals and he is able to close the game when he casts another big creature and puts a +1/+1 counter on it. Making me again unable to properly chumpblock and winning the match.

With this result I ended up losing in the finals and getting second in the overall tournament. I was proud to have been able to reach the level to be invited to this tournament but the final match was so one-sided that left me with a bitter aftertaste.
Still I had quite some fun with the deck and I hope I will be able to be invited to the 2023 finals too.