2023-10-07 Dragon Snack Games RCQ with 4C Omnath Win

Introduction

During the previous weekend I traveled down to Pittsburgh to jam some RCQs instead of competing for a Store Championship Moonshaker Cavalry promo - the participation and top 8 promos were bafflingly bad. (Tail Swipe and Transcendent Message !?)

Saturday I ran extremely cold with the 70-card pile. The meta in Pittsburgh was decidedly different - major archetype presences of BR Scam, burn, UR and URx, some 4C, then random one-offs. Major archetype gaps: one player borrowing Rhinos, and no Tron across two days. Might have been one or two cascaders on Sunday.

So for Sunday I played this 64-card list with 4 Leyline of Sanctity and 3 Celestial Purge in the sideboard. Fewer Scam players showed up for day 2, but I think I ended up facing four of four - dispatching two during Swiss, and then in QF & SF where I had a beyond-stupid punt after my opponent misplayed, missing finals.
My cope angle is that I would have lost to the finals opponent on Bring to Light Beanstalk.

Decklist

• Not running 4 Beanstalks, respecting Scam
• Trimmed to 1 Elesh Norn, 2 Fury
• Don't love having a full set of Halflings since it's kind of air, but also want enough to threaten accelerated & uncounterable planeswalkers.
• 2 Lightning Bolts. It's good vs some stuff, and a W6 win-con but only okay compared to the other stuff that the deck can do. It's a bridge to better action.
  
• 2+1 Boseiju and SBing 3 Obsidian Charmaw after seeing Tron players enter the room.
• 4 Chalice of the Void because Buffalo has numerous players on Living End or Crashing Footfalls.
  

Rounds

• R1 Jon B on Amulet Titan WW (1-0)
• R2 Sam M on Mono R Midrange WW (2-0)
• R3 Joe A on G Tron LWL (2-1)
• R4 Jerry G on Scam LL (2-2)
• R5 Steven By on G Tron LWW (3-2)
• (seed 8)
• QF Joe A - scoop
• SF Alex Z on Temur Rhinos WLW
• F Sam M on Mono R Midrange WLW 

Thoughts

• I misplayed R3G3 vs Tron. I had Wrenn & Six + Boseiju but didn't realize they only play 3 Forests now, instead I ran out Omnath and permitted them to play a fifth land which allowed them to actually play the game.
  
• R5 I'm the highest 2-2 for breakers and the top 3 tables can ID in. I'm matched up against a 2-1-1 player and choose to play it out (I end up sneaking in eighth, one of two 3-2s to make top 8)
  I'd seen him on G Tron during earlier rounds, and he acknowledged that it was pretty public as he'd been on turns twice already.
  During the match he tanks several times when he has the ability to play & use KTGC, but I keep an eye on the clock. A minute, okay he can have that. Ninety seconds - I'm gonna need you to do some game actions.
  Keeping the game moving proved crucial when I beat him on turn 1 of extra turns, but he was upset that I "rushed" him, potentially causing him to misplay leading to his loss.
  To which I (now) respond tough luck - he'd already gone to turns twice, and we would have ended in a second unintentional draw had I not kept the game moving.
  I'm airing it out here because that's the precisely the mindset that breeds slow play.
  I get it, Magic turns can be complicated. But if I allow him to tank 3 minutes every time he draws a KTGC all of a sudden that's 15 minutes of the 50 min round gone.
• One of my "tricks" to not timing out with 4C / Beans is to decide on my fetch decision, announce it, cast spells or perform actions that don't care about library order (Halfling, Wrenn & Six) then shuffle as I pass priority.
  

Mono R Midrange

The archetype was really kicked off by MHayashi, the eminent MTGO grinder & deckbuilder. MHayashi decks are characterized by their mono color nature, inclusion of 4-ofs wherever possible, and inability to replicate success by anyone not named MHayashi. Builds you find in the wild might look something more like this.

I think it's a super interesting deck - it plays a lot of red staples, and modern-playables that are on the cusp of being really good - Mishra's Research Desk, Field of Ruin & Demolition Field, Cleansing Wildfire, Flame Slash, Stone of Erech. Also a Brittle Effigy in the side for things Unholy Heat & co. can't remove lol

Mono R Midrange is a super scrappy archetype. It's got removal, it's got land destruction, it's got a ton of card churn with Research Desks and Seasoned Pyromancer. It's got grindy win-cons between Urza's Saga, Seasoned Pyromancer, and Fury. It has just enough graveyard utilization to be powerful but not enough where you start bringing in Leyline of the Void out of your sideboard.
MRM attacks the meta - the red removal suite looks fantastic against Scam, and it punishes all the 3-4 basic decks running around modern right now.

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The pilot, Sam M, is actually an old acquaintance from college (we took a selfie!).
Back in the day, he played Yugioh and .. Skred Red, so his current deck selection wasn't too surprising.

During round 1, we were seated next to each other so we both knew the matchup going into round 2. Basically Wrenn & Six won the games (in round 2 and the semifinals). He had to evoke Fury to clear W6 off since it neutralizes all of his land destruction spells.

In the finals G2 he was able to take me off red and kill my W6s - I think the trick to this matchup is to sandbag some fetches while fetching shocklands aggressively to maintain access to all my colors of mana. But Stone of Erech is much less scary than Relic of Progenitus vs W6.