Today’s article is going to be a tournament report for the Magic Online Championship Series: Season 1. There are 354 people signed up so far, so it looks like this is going to be a 9-Round doozy. The format is Standard Pre-Alara Reborn, because Magic Online is about 20+ days behind paper Magic when new sets are released, but I have had a lot of experience with this format and am comfortable with the deck I am playing. I have attained approximately 30 qualifier points for the event (you needed 15 points to qualify), and we are about 10 minutes from starting. My heart is starting to race pretty hard, and I can hardly wait to begin. I haven’t felt this excited about a tournament in a long time, and Magic Online hasn’t had anything remotely resembling this level of a tournament since its inception. I’m very excited to be a part of it and to bring you my experiences first hand, and almost live. This event is happening Sunday, May 3rd at 8am Pacific, but I may ask for an extension so I have a bit of time to clean up the wording.
As an aside, this tournament is amazing. The winner is guaranteed $4,000 and entry into Magic Worlds in Rome, Italy. The prize is pretty sick when you think about how many PTQ’s I’ve attended and came up just short of winning, and this tournament is virtually an online PTQ, but with a much larger payout and an invite to Worlds instead of any regular PT, as well as playing for glory in the MOL Championships at Worlds in Rome! It is pretty difficult to describe just how important this tournament is to me, since I have been grinding it out in PTQs for years now, and only attained one invite thus far. It is around 10:00am Central Time, and the tournament is about to get under way. I’ll cut out the mushy stuff and just head right into the report.
For the last two weeks I’ve been playing a modified version of RW Reveillark with great results. I don’t feel as if the deck has any really bad matchups, and playskill will be a huge factor when determining the outcome of most matches (as well as the occasional mana screw). I’m not sure if this is the best deck for Regionals, since the format is still new and virtually unexplored. New additions to the deck may be in order, but here is the Pre-Alara Reborn list I am playing in the event:
3 Mogg Fanatic
3 Figure of Destiny
1 Flamekin Harbinger
4 Fulminator Mage
2 Ranger of Eos
3 Reveillark
3 Siege-Gang Commander
2 Balefire Liege
4 Mind Stone
4 Ajani Vengeant
3 Wrath of God
4 Spectral Procession
2 Jungle Shrine
3 Reflecting Pool
4 Forge[/author]“]Battlefield [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]
4 Rugged Prairie
4 Windbrisk Heights
3 Plains
4 Mountain
Sideboard:
3 Guttural Response
2 Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender
3 Path to Exile
4 Volcanic Fallout
2 Wispmare
1 Wrath of God
Since the format is mostly irrelevant because it is Pre-Alara Reborn, I won’t go into great detail on particular card choices. This list has been honed and tested rigorously by myself, as well Korhedron, a friend of mine who has been doing very well lately with the deck on Magic Online. The maindeck eyesore is probably 3 Figure of Destiny, but that is mostly due to the fact that your gameplan most of the time is to keep their mana tied up with Fulminator Mage and Ajani Vengeant, then cast Wrath of God. Figure is really good in the late game to search up via Ranger of Eos, but I rarely want to cast Figure of Destiny on turn 1 unless I am playing against a control deck. Wrath of God is amazing in this format, as it is defined by aggressive decks. After boarding, I can go up to 4 Wrath of God and 4 Volcanic Fallout to help battle Tokens, Elves, etc. Fallout has many uses, but is primarily my weapon of choice against BW Tokens and Faeries, while still playing a vital role against a lot of other random aggressive decks. It can singlehandedly win games out of nowhere, and keeps Faeries constantly on the defensive. If they ever tap out for Sower of Temptation (an awful, awful beating for me), then I am usually in a lot trouble unless I have Volcanic Fallout or other removal spell.
Other than that, all I really have to say about the deck is:
– Fulminator Mage and Ajani Vengeant are amazing together
– I am never unhappy to draw Flamekin Harbinger (ever)
– Balefire Liege is worth the slot
– Guttural Response is insane against Five-Color Control
– The deck has very few bad matchups
After making the last few card decisions for my deck, I’m ready to get this thing under way.
Round 1 against HodgePodge0
I would just like to say that the signups for this event started Friday evening, and that there are bound to be plenty of people who have a Bye round 1 because their opponent doesn’t show up on time. This is one of those times. My opponent isn’t there when the match starts, and I am told that in 10 minutes time, I will win the match due to my opponent disconnecting. Sweet.
After 10 minutes of nervous pressure, he doesn’t show up and I’m off to a fantastic start. My tiebreakers will more than likely be poor because he has no chance to win matches after his first round loss (you are dropped from the tournament upon a loss due to inaction), but most likely the Top 8 will need a record of 8-1 to make it. Magic Online doesn’t allow Intentional Draws, so the Top 8 will most likely be full of people who went 9-0, 8-1, and maybe a few people who are 7-2 with insane tiebreakers. This is going to be a long day…
Round 2 against Archer with BW Tokens
On the play I kept Mountain, Rugged Prairie, Figure, Spectral, Fulminator, and 2 Ajani Vengeant. I lead with Figure and my opponent plays Reflecting Pool. My first draw is Mind Stone so I play it and attack with the 1/1 Figure. He plays a 2nd Reflecting Pool and passes. I play Fulminator Mage and a drawn Windbrisk Heights. I decide to blow up his land during his upkeep, because he had no turn 2 play and probably didn’t keep a no-colored mana hand. I decided a guaranteed Time Walk was better than a possible allowing him the chance to play some good three-drop. He played Windbrisk Heights and passed. After that, I locked him out with Ajani Vengeant, and he never played another land.
I sided:
-2 Figure of Destiny
-1 Mogg Fanatic
-1 Fulminator Mage
-2 Balefire Liege
-1 Ajani Vengeant
+4 Volcanic Fallout
+2 Wispmare
+1 Wrath of God
This matchup is all about keeping their tokens in check, and Ajani Vengeant is a bit underpowered against Bitterblossom and Spectral Procession so it is ok to cut them. Cutting some of your one-drops is good too because your gameplan is to sweep the board as much as possible. Balefire Liege seems like it would be ok, but I figured he would be mostly irrelevant since I am destroying all creatures in play on a regular basis.
Game 2 I open with Jungle Shrine, Forge[/author]“]Battlefield [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author], Mind Stone, Ajani Vengeant, Fulminator Mage, and 2x Volcanic Fallout. This hand is pretty much the nuts against BW Tokens so I keep pretty quickly. He opens with Bitterblossom on turn 2, and I play turn 2 Mind Stone. He plays a Tidehollow Sculler and takes Fulminator Mage, failing to play a 3rd land. I play Ajani Vengeant and send him to 4 Loyalty to keep his Windbrisk Heights tapped, and he attacks Ajani for 3, sending him to 1 Loyalty and fails to play another land. I keep his land tapped again and cast Volcanic Fallout during his next attack phase. He still plays no land, and I lock the game up in a few turns by playing a Ranger of Eos into Flamekin Harbinger and Figure of Destiny, and Harbinger grabbed a Wispmare for his Bitterblossom. The Fulminator made sure he’d never get to 3 lands before he died, and he scooped to inevitability.
2-0!
Round 3 against AugustRush playing GW Token Aggro
I keep a hand of 3 lands, Fulminator Mage, Spectral Procession, Mind Stone, and Siege-Gang Commander. I lead with turn 2 Mind Stone, and he plays a few lands, Noble Hierarchs, and Kitchen Finks. I play Fulminator on turn 3, and attack with it on turn 4. He blocks with Kitchen Finks and I stack damage and destroy his Brushland. I play a Siege-Gang Commander. He uses Path to Exile on it, but I’ve drawn another Siege-Gang as well as a Windbrisk Heights that nabbed a Spectral Procession. I quickly overrun him with tokens, and he can’t beat a topdecked Ranger of Eos for Flamekin Harbinger for Reveillark, or an 8/8 Figure of Destiny.
I sideboard:
+1 Wrath of God
+3 Volcanic Fallout
-1 Ajani Vengeant
-1 Figure of Destiny
-2 Balefire Liege
Game 2 plays out similarly to game 1, but he plays a lot more lands, Garruk, and Spectral Procession. I play a Volcanic Fallout to destroy his tokens before he can activate Windbrisk Heights. However, he plays a Wilt-Leaf Liege and Kitchen Finks, as well as making a token with Garruk. I play Spectral Procession and Reveillark, but lose rather quickly to an Overrun.
Game 3 I side in 3 Path to Exile (for Finks and his Lieges) and take out the Volcanic Fallouts. I think his only token producers are Spectral Processions, so Path is probably better for killing his durable creatures. My opening hand was 3 Land, 2 Ajani, Spectral Procession, and Mind Stone. My opening land was Windbrisk Heights, revealing a Ranger of Eos. I played turn 3 Ajani against his turn 2 Fertile Ground, and shut down his early game development. I quickly played Spectral Procession, while he played Relic of Progenitus. He played Treetop Village, and I attacked with my tokens and played a Ranger of Eos with the Windbrisk Heights, and tutored for Flamekin Harbinger and Figure, and got Fulminator Mage with the Harbinger. He played a Spectral Procession and opted not to block because my Ajani was at 7 and he needed to deal damage to him to lower the loyalty. However, his board position meant he had to only attack with 1 of the tokens to save blockers for my next attack (which was nearly lethal). Of course I had the Path to Exile, and blew him out pretty hard with Ajani Vengeant’s ultimate. He never recovered and I swarmed him with creatures, as well as the 2nd Ajani Vengeant.
3-0!
Round 4 against scarletknightslilbro playing RW Lark
I keep an opener of 2x Windbrisk Heights, Mind Stone, Spectral Procession, Reveillark, 2x Mogg Fanatic. If I draw any land, then my 2 Windbrisk Heights become insane, but if I don’t then I’m in trouble. Unfortunately, this game is pretty unexciting, as I don’t draw a land and get pummeled by Spectral Procession and Figure of Destiny from my opponent.
Game 2 is exactly the opposite. He stalls on two lands and I get the blowout of 2 Fulminator Mages and 2 Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tenders to deal with his 2 Figures. He concedes when I play Siege-Gang Commander off my Windbrisk Heights.
Game 3 I mulligan a 1 lander into another 1 lander into a 5-card hand with no lands, into a 4 card hand with 4 lands. I keep…
My opponent stops on his 2nd land drop, while I draw 4 lands in a row. Eventually he draws a 3rd land and casts Spectral Procession. I topdeck Wrath of God to stall him out since his Windbrisk Heights will be active next turn. He plays Kitchen Finks, and I draw yet another 2 lands in a row. 10 lands and 1 spell on a mulligan to 4. I drew Flamekin Harbinger to potentially go infinite with Reveillark recursion, but he plays Ajani Vengeant and Siege-Gang Commander and there’s nothing I can do really. This matchup was short, as all 3 games were decided on mana screw.
3-1
Round 5 against playing BW Tokens
Game 1 I keep an opener of 4 lands, Mind Stone, Figure of Destiny and Spectral Procession. One of the lands was a Windbrisk Heights, so I figured I was in good shape. I lead with Figure and play turn 2 Windbrisk Heights. He plays Windbrisk Heights and a Black source on turn 2 to play Tidehollow Sculler, taking my only gas of Spectral Procession. I eventually draw a Flamekin Harbinger after cycling some Mind Stones, and decide to get Reveillark to slow his beats. He plays Spectral Procession and a few Glorious Anthems, and eventually just overruns me when I draw 10 lands, 2 Stones, and 3 non-mana spells that are not under Tidehollow Sculler.
Game 2 I side as before, taking out the Fanatics, 1 Figure, 1 Ajani, and 2 Balefire Liege to bring in 4 Volcanic Fallout, 1 Wrath of God, and 2 Wispmare. My opener is Windbrisk Heights, Mountain, Ranger of Eos, Volcanic Fallout, Fulminator, Ajani, and Figure. I draw into some lands and am able to manascrew him via Fulminator and Ajani. Figure gets some damage in, and the only spells he cast the whole game are Spectral Procession (turn 4) and Wrath of God (turn 6). The rest is pretty simple, because Ranger grabbed Flamekin Harbinger, which grabbed Reveillark.
Game 3 he mulligans to 5 on the play. I keep an opener of Forge[/author]“]Battlefield [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author], Reflecting Pool, Mind Stone, Ajani, Wispmare, Harbinger, and Volcanic Fallout. He plays turn 2 Bitterblossom, but I play my Fulminator on turn 3 instead of Wispmare because I have the Fallout to wipe his board clean. He plays Ajani Goldmane on turn 5 and pumps his creatures up to a 2/2 after I blew up his Bitterblossom with Wispmare. The next turn I cast Fallout in response to the 2nd Ajani activation. Post combat he plays Murderous Redcap to kill my Wispmare. I played Mind Stone for my 5th mana, and he plays Kitchen Finks. I play Siege-Gang Commander instead of the Reveillark in hand to get some blockers, and be able to recur my Siege-Gang with Reveillark later if necessary. I block both of his creature and trade, and play Reveillark next turn. He plays Anthem and passed. I attacked and cast Wrath of God, and bring back Harbinger and Siege-Gang Commander, searching for a Reveillark. He concedes soon after when he draws no Wrath of God (which still wouldn’t have mattered). When the game ended, my hand was Wrath of God, Wispmare, and Reveillark.
4-1
Round 6 against BitZi2 playing UW Reveillark
Game 1 I keep an opener of Jungle Shrine, Forge[/author]“]Battlefield [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author], Mountain, Siege-Gang Commander, Mogg Fanatic, and 2 Balefire Liege on the play. Questionable, but I can play almost any spell I draw, and I can hope to draw a land or two in the meantime. I lead with turn 1 Mogg Fanatic, and draw a bunch of five-drops and no lands for a few turns. He plays Seaside Citadel, 3 Faerie Conclave, and a Mystic Gate. I draw a Fulminator Mage on turn 6, and destroy his Seaside Citadel to try to screw him. At this point, I think I am keeping him off Green mana potentially, but he has a lot of other lands, and is just UW instead of UWG. I play Ajani Vengeant and keep a land tapped, but he plays another land, and attacks Ajani with 2 Faerie Conclaves. The game goes pretty long, but he plays relatively few spells. A few Wrath of Gods deal with my Figure of Destiny and Siege-Gang Commander, but he can’t handle 2 Balefire Liege and Ranger of Eos.
I sideboard:
-3 Wrath of God
+3 Path to Exile (to help deal with Sower of Temptation)
I mull to 6 in game 2, and keep a 2 land hand with Mind Stone and no red mana. I sacrifice Mind Stone to try to draw Red mana because my hand is full of Mogg Fanatic, Siege-Gang, and Fulminators, as well as Ajani Vengeant. I never draw red mana and don’t draw a 3rd land until turn 6, even after sacrificing 2 Mind Stones. I lose to Stillmoon Cavalier, Mulldrifter, and Faerie Conclaves.
I sideboard in +2 Volcanic Fallout, and -2 Balefire Liege since I don’t really want to overextend into Wrath of God.
Game 3 is pretty close, but it all comes down to him playing a Runed Halo naming Reveillark when I have 2 Reveillarks in play and he is at 10 life. I draw a few threats, but he eventually plays a Reveillark of his own and a Sower of Temptation for one of my Reveillarks. I cast Volcanic Fallout and try to Mogg Fanatic my Reveillark, but he responds by bouncing his Reveillark with Cryptic Command, returning a Mulldrifter Sower of Temptation from earlier, and stealing my Reveillark that is about to die. He then returns another Sower to steal my other Reveillark, as well as a Mulldrifter to draw some cards. At this point, he’s played 3 Wrath of God and 3 Cryptic Command, but has 7 cards in hand at the end of turn, and I have none. I topdeck Ranger of Eos for Flamekin Harbinger and Figure of Destiny, but of course he has Wrath of God number 4, as well as Cryptic Command number 4 for my Reveillark. I am dead soon after to a Stillmoon Cavalier and multiple Mulldrifters.
Sigh, 4-2
Most of the games I’ve lost so far have been on the back of horrible draws due to mulligans and getting completely screwed to the point where I don’t draw lands or mulligan to 4 and don’t draw spells. I’m probably out of contention for Top 8 now, but they pay out all the way to Top 64, so I’ll keep playing to try to win some prizes.
Round 7 against Korhedron playing RW Reveillark
My opener is Windbrisk Heights, Mountain, Mind Stone, Mogg Fanatic, Wrath of God, Reveillark, and Balefire Liege. I decided to sandbag the Wrath of God and hold the Mogg Fanatic. I play turn 1 Windbrisk Heights, hitting Spectral Procession, and played turn 2 Mind Stone. He also plays turn 2 Mind Stone. On my turn 3 I decide that my Reveillark could return my Mogg Fanatic if it died, so I just ran him out there. Turns out he has turn 3 Ajani Vengeant, and locks down my only Red source. I don’t draw a land for 4 turns, and get overran by Siege-Gang Commander, Reveillark, and the Ajani Vengeant.
Game 2 I side in Fallouts and side out Mogg Fanatic. I play turn 1 Figure of Destiny and turn 3 Fulminator Mage, blowing up his land. He fails to play another land and concedes to my 4/4 Figure next turn.
Game 3 I keep 4 lands, Wrath of God, Volcanic Fallout, and Reveillark. He plays turn 1 Harbinger for Fulminator Mage, and plays turn 4 Ajani Vengeant. He plays Spectral Procession, to which I cast Volcanic Fallout, knocking his Ajani down to low loyalty. Later he plays Reveillark, threatening Flamekin recursion and locking me out of the game. I draw nothing but Figures of Destiny and Wrath effects, which are fairly useless against Harbinger + Reveillark + Ajani Vengeant. In hindsight, I probably should have sided out Wrath of God, but he cast Wrath so maybe leaving in two is the right answer. I get blown out once against because of bad draws. After performing so well for the last few weeks, I feel really cheated at the moment due to my three losses in the last four rounds, especially after starting off 3-0. The matchups I lost weren’t that bad, but my opponent’s draws were superior to my own, and most of the games I ended up losing were due to not drawing lands.
At this point, there is no way I can make Top 8, but I have a shot at Top 32 or maaaaybe Top 16 if my tiebreakers stay decent and my previous opponents keep winning. But I’m really just playing for packs and experience.
Round 8 against Zang_ playing Five-Color Control (but I thought he was Faeries)
Game 1 I keep an opener of Ranger of Eos, Mogg Fanatic, Balefire Liege, and 4 lands. He mulligans to 5. Long story short, he only plays 2 Sunken Ruins and I kill him quickly with a topdecked Figure of Destiny.
I sideboard incorrectly because I put him on Faeries, and he end up being Five-Color Control.
Game 2 my opener is 5 lands, Ajani Vengeant, and Spectral Procession (I had sided out 2 Ajanis). I play a turn 3 Spectral Procession which resolves. He plays 2 Vivid Creeks, and then plays Plumeveil at the end of the 3rd turn. He then plays a land and Pithing Needle for my Windbrisk Heights, and passes. I attack with my tokens into his Plumeveil, and resolve Ajani Vengeant post combat to Helix his wall. He then plays Wall of Reverence and gains some life. I play Reveillark and pass, making one of his lands not untap with Ajani. Later I attack with all my creatures, and he blocks the Reveillark. Post combat I use Ajani to Helix the Wall of Reverence that blocked Reveillark, and play a post combat Figure of Destiny. He plays Volcanic Fallout during my end of turn, but I pump my Figure of Destiny into a 4/4 in response, which kills my tokens and Reveillark. He then plays Broodmate Dragon. On my turn I play my 7th land and attack with an 8/8 Figure after pumping. He takes 8 damage, going down to 8. Next turn he plays Wall of Reverence and attacks for 8 damage. During the end of turn I path one of the Dragons to keep him from gaining 4 life, and forcing him to chump block the 8/8 Figure with the Wall of Reverence. At 8 life, he chump blocks, and has 7 mana in play. For fear of Cruel Ultimatum, I cast my whole hand of 2x Spectral Procession. He untaps, attacks, and I block with 1 token. He then casts Wrath of God. After that I draw Volcanic Fallout (he has no cards in hand at this point either), Wispmare (awkward), Siege-Gang Commander (which gets countered by Broken Ambitions), and Mogg Fanatic. He casts Wrath of God and I send him to 5 life with the Fanatic after he was attacked a few times with the Wispmare. I draw a second Fallout with him at 5 life. He untaps and plays Broodmate Dragon, and I cast double Fallout during his end of turn, and topdeck Ranger of Eos to get Mogg Fanatic for the win. He complains about my draws, and I point out that I sided in like 4 cards that are mediocre against him, but my deck is naturally good against his so I was able to pull it out anyway. Mogg Fanatic, Wispmare, Path to Exile, and Volcanic Fallout are all very mediocre against Five-Color Control, and I drew multiples of almost all of them.
5-3
Round 9 against GB Elves
Game 1 I mulled to 6 and kept Heights, Jungle Shrine, Mind Stone, Harbinger, and Fulminator Mage. He played Wren’s Run Vanquisher on turn 2 while I played 2 lands that came into play tapped. He played Thoughtseize and Llanowar Elves on turn 3. I played 2 Mind Stones on turn 3, in hopes to cast Reveillark the next turn. He attacked and played Chameleon Colossus. I played Reveillark, and block his Vanquisher when he attacked with Vanquisher and Colossus. He pumped Colossus and sent me to 8 life. I returned Fulminator Mage, and they were pretty juicy seeing as he has 2 Treetop Village in play. I topdecked Ranger of Eos for 2 Mogg Fanatic and played a Fanatic, he kept attacking with his 4/4 but I eventually used my Flamekin Harbinger for another Reveillark, and he eventually conceded since I had about 10 guys in play on turn 8, thanks to a topdecked Siege-Gang Commander.
I sided in 1 Wrath of God and 3 Path to Exile, and sided out 2 Balefire Liege, 1 Figure of Destiny, and 1 Spectral Procession. I figured he would be siding in Cloudthresher, so Spectral is fairly bad sometimes. However, it is one of my backbone cards and can make Windbrisk Heights amazing, and he might not even have Cloudthresher.
Game 2 I keep a hand of Jungle Shrine, Reflecting Pool, Harbinger, Siege-Gang, 2 Ajani, and Wrath of God on the draw. This hand is pretty stellar against Elves as long as I draw some lands. Of course I do, and eventually play out my Ajanis to kill some elves, and he plays very few. I use Fulminator to destroy Treetop Village, and Ajani to keep his lands tapped down. He plays Loxodon Warhammer but has no guys to put it on. I eventually draw Ranger of Eos, getting a Mogg Fanatic and Figure of Destiny, while drawing enough lands to eventually play Reveillark. He used Thoughtseize on me to hit the Wrath of God and the Siege-Gang Commander, but the Reveillark I drew threatens lethal with the Siege-Gang Commander and Fulminator Mage in the graveyard. He attacks with his 1/1 Llanowar Elves and I decide to block, since a Cloudthresher wouldn’t be that bad in the face of Siege-Gang and Big Fulms. He instead has Snakeform, which completely blows me out. Luckily, he still has no gas. I draw a Spectral Procession, and he uses Cloudthresher to shrink Ajani and kill the tokens. Afterwards I use Helix from Ajani (killing Ajani) and play the 2nd, and use it again. An attack from Flamekin Harbinger and a ping from Mogg Fanatic later and the match is over.
After a long day, I finally end up at 6-3, which is definitely good enough for Top 64, and maybe good enough for Top 32, giving me a few packs to draft with, as well as a Textless Promo Cryptic Command (these are probably going to be worth about $50 or more since they gave out less than 400 of them). I learned a lot about the deck, including that Balefire Liege is possibly the worst card in the deck, and doesn’t deserve the slot. Wrath of God makes me never want to over-extend, and I rarely have enough threats to play that his pumps make it worthwhile. On top of that, if I ever draw him and another five-drop, I rarely want to play him. In another style of deck playing Knight of the White Orchid, he might have a shot. But my Fulminator Mages are going to stay, as they were MVP on the day.
After this tournament, I’m unsure where the deck should go from here to include Alara Reborn. The deck doesn’t gain much, and I’m hoping people start playing GB Elves and Blighting a lot more, since those are pretty good matchups for RW Lark. I’m thinking about playing this deck at Regionals, and possibly a few PTQs since I have a lot of experience with it.
Let me know what you guys think in the forums, and whether or not you liked the report. I feel like it is a little dry, but that is mostly because I got angry after I lost for the second time in round 6. Thanks for reading.
Todd Anderson
strong sad on MOL
[email protected]