Last Sunday, the second stage of the 2023 Edition of our local Centurion Commander League took place, and again we were collaborating with Pauperwave association for the prizes and the location.
The top players of the single tournament will win something, but there is also a League ranking composed by the best six results between the tournaments you participated in the league, plus one extra point for each tournament you played. Extra prizes for the top ranking of the League at the end of the eleventh and final tournament. Each single tournament is composed of four Swiss rounds.
I went again with my Wilson deck with some changes from the last time. Strength-Testing Hammer didn’t perform how I thought it would and so I made a few changes to the deck to increase even more its power level.
You can click here to see the updated list.
We were 23 players and we immediately started playing the four rounds of Swiss.
Match 1 vs Jodah, the Unifier
Game 1
I have a slower start while he is filling his board with Legendary creatures but luckily Security Bypass saves me by making my Commander unblockable and by helping sculpt my hand as I was starting to get stuck with too many lands. He tries to go off by filling his board and dishing in an huge attack of really big creatures that luckily I’m able to deflate by bouncing Jodah back to his hand with Otawara. I survive the attack and the turn right after I pump Wilson and swing for the win.
Game 2
He mulligans down to four and I start with a turn 2 Wilson followed by a turn 3 Oko. I enter in full control of the game and he decides to concede.
1 win – 0 losses
Match 2 vs Sram, Senior Edificer
Game 1
I make an error quite early in the game, getting greedy and not leaving the right mana open to protect my Commander. He immediately shuts it down with Swift Reconfiguration and I’m not able to do anything for the rest of the game.
Game 2
I’m starting and this time I’m able to hit him for some nice damage in the early turns but then he explodes creating a wide board and having Sram getting bigger, I start drawing too many lands and I chain some plays in the wrong order and this puts me behind. He unleashes a big attack but I’m still able to survive and I have a few outs thanks to the Berserk I have in hand. I’m not able to find the cards I need and I lose the game.
1 win – 1 loss
Match 3 vs Heliod, Sun-Crowned
Game 1
I don’t see any counters and so he is able to drop Heliod and some value creatures on the field. He starts growing everything bigger and bigger and he tramples over me.
Game 2
With Gitaxian Probe I’m able to see his hand and the Wasteland he has and still I mindlessly play my Command Tower that gets immediately destroyed on his turn, despite also having a Forest in hand. This leaves me without a second mana source for various turns and this gives him all the time he needs to recover and constantly hits me with a Lion Sash. After finding the second land however I get my hand full of counters and, with the Sash getting bigger and bigger, they don’t help me get back into the game this time.
1 win – 2 losses
Match 4 vs Zurgo Bellstriker
Game 1
He starts with a turn 1 Ragavan that forces me to play Wilson only to block and trade with the monkey to avoid it giving too much advantage to him. I try replaying my Commander later but it gets blasted right away and so I start a race with a Llanowar Elves equipped with Shadowspear that however isn’t fast enough and he ends up winning by casting burn spells to my face more rapidly than the life I’m able to gain.
Game 2
I start with Wilson, who quickly gets two Curiosity effects on him that quickly gives me all the cards I need, especially with Sylvan Library that lets me draw the right spell I need before the combat. This gives me too much advantage and I’m able to win the game with not much resistance.
Game 3
I have to get hit a few times in the beginning from Zurgo and Reinforced Ronin until I’m able to play a Wilson big enough to be able to safely block his creatures while pressuring him with my attacks.
He plays Eidolon of the Great Revel and this makes it dangerous for me to use my little pump spells but luckily he decides to overextend by casting also a burn spell and so I’m quickly able to get rid of the Eidolon with a Misdirection. He still decides to go all in with his burn spells and shoots everything at me. He is almost lethal but I’m luckily able to save myself with the small lifegain of Tamiyo’s Safekeeping and I close the game the following turn by going lethal with Become Immense.
2 wins – 2 losses
With this result I placed 14th in the rankings of the stage, the same points of 10th but that didn’t matter to me. I was quite frustrated after the tournament as I made too many mistakes for my liking… and quite some stupid ones.
I recognize I wasn’t in my best mindset but still… I was angry at how badly I performed.
I’m still in the top8 of the league after this tournament but we will see how things will go in the following ones.
Raven の Nest 