I figured with the heavy midrange meta at the store, my mono W Emeria deck would be able to exploit that by grinding opponents out with overwhelming value.
Some thought was given to netdecking Tim Rood's BW Smallpox deck since he posted it to reddit, since that would have been hilarious.
Round 1 vs bye (we'll call it 0-0)
Apparently I wasn't signed up :|
Round 2 vs John on mono G Tron (0-2, 0-1)
Game 1 he has turn 3 Tron and I scoop it up.
Game 2 I pressure him, take him off Tron with Field of Ruin + Surgical, but the O Stones delay long enough for him to find a 7th land to chain Karns. Fuck that deck.
Round 3 vs Tim on BW Planeswalker Smallpox (2-0, 1-1)
Basically the deck I was hoping to play. Just ground him to dust. His efficient removal lines up really freaking poorly vs my value creatures, many of which effectively replace themselves with other cards.
Game 1 he hits me with Gideon of the Trials once, I gain 4 life off the back of a Lone Missionary, then manage to gain 16 life from each of my 4 Kitchen Finks. My board is way wider than 4 Spirit tokens and he's unable to pressure me at all with Liliana.
Game 2 he puts a lot more pressure on me with a couple Gideons, Allies of Zendikar (I think that's the plural form). He Surgicals my Squadron Hawks which seems awkward but is probably actually correct- makes his Liliana of the Veil relevant and prevents that slow recursion. After chumping Gideon for several turns, I stabilize with a Sun Titan to get in front of Gideon, and trade off fliers with his anthem'd Souls tokens. Active Emeria and Sun Titan close the deal.
Both games his Gideon of the Trials was able to keep my biggest dude at bay but that's not a big deal when I've got two small dudes ready to keep those planeswalker loyalties down. Also Gideon of the Trials +1 is ... subpar versus Sun Titan lol.
Round 4 vs Alex on Grixis Death's Shadow (2-1, 2-1)
I actually feel pretty good about this matchup, as long as they don't see a Temur Battle Rage.
Game 1 he sees a Temur Battle Rage
Game 2 I Surgical a Faithless Looting (not the best of plays) and get to see what he's handling: Anger of the Gods, Snapcaster Mage, and Lightning Bolt. I chump his Gurmag Angler for a bunch of turns, Field of Ruin away his second red source, topdeck a Field of Ruin as my sixth land, drop Sun Titan to get my first Field of Ruin back, then next turn send his manabase back to the stone age. He has two Death's Shadows swinging into my chumps, but no TBR to push damage and I Dusk away both DS and my Sun Titan, leaving my dudes clear to get the last point of damage.
Game 3 he doesn't have an early DS. He manages to get past the two Blessed Alliances in my opening hand, but then Sun Titan comes down and he trumps Gurmag Angler all day every day. Lot of decks in modern just can't beat a 6/6 lol.
Thoughts:
- Made a meta call, got rewarded (in 2/3 rounds). Drew poor hands vs the Tron opponent - no early GQ, no turn 3 FoR.
- Not sure whether I still like 2x Thalia in the main
- I love playing this deck. Getting value out of Squadron Hawks and Pilgrim's Eye is amazing. Punishing greedy GDS manabase with multiple FoR also great. Recurring Squadron Hawk? fantastic. Shuffling my library twenty times per game? wonderful
- To anyone who loves value, I recommend picking up the deck. It doesn't cost too much, with $142 of its quoted $314 value on MTGGoldfish coming from Surgicals alone.
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