Deconstructing Constructed – A Time Spiral Block Constructed Mock Tournament

In honor of March Madness (which will sadly be over by the time you see this), a few of my friends and I decided upon running a 16 deck, single-elimination Time Spiral mock tournament. The format was simple: Best of five games (two pre-board, three post). Single-elimination. Now that you know the rules, let’s get started… because this’ll be a long one.

The Contenders

Our tourney consists of 16 decks that breakdown like this:

3 Teferi control (U/B and U/B/R)
3 Scryb & Force (G/R/U, G/R, and GU)
3 White Weenie (Mono White and W/u)
2 Red Aggro (Mono Red and Boros)
1 Wild Pair
1 Almost Mono Black Control
1 G/R Aggro
1 Balance
1 Blink Riders

Obviously this isn’t a complete template of what’s out there. I wanted to create a general gauntlet that covered the popular decks and then a few lesser decks that have put up a few results. Anyway, enough about what’s here or what isn’t, you all came here to see actual deck lists.

Teferi Control
These decks need no introduction. If you’ve played Standard or Block at all in the past couple of months, you’ve seen what these decks are capable of. The U/B builds get some mana stability and a bit more redundancy, while the U/B/R builds basically run a truck load of the best cards in the format and tape them all together.

Scryb & Force
This R/G Spec deck finished 2nd in a 115-man GPT for Strasbourg and was one of the more interesting builds I had seen of it for a R/G configuration. We figured this would be a decent test build to throw into a gauntlet. Plus it finished so highly at the GPT it seemed worthwhile to pick up. The numbers look rather unrefined, but that’s something to play around with later.

I needed a G/U Scryb & Force deck and the one lacking Scryb Ranger seemed like a good call, so I used Sean McKeown version. Besides, a deck consisting almost entirely of sets is sexy compared to most of the lists floating around the net. Although I dislike Wipe Away (Hello Psionic Blast!), the rest of the deck strikes me as solid.

This version was a tri-colored version my friends and I had been kicking around based on the original U/G Shifter builds. The fact is we weren’t sure how far just playing fatties would get the deck, so we decided to see how the deck fared against a varied field. Besides, there really weren’t any good three-color versions available. Other inclusions that we considered were Stormbind, Dead / Gone, Avalanche Riders and Aether Membrane (for the board).

White Weenie
I picked my own wonderful WW deck, because I think it’s awesome and it ended up nearly the same as Chapin’s version anyway. At the moment WW is the most streamlined and best aggro deck available. That isn’t to say there isn’t a better aggro deck out there; it’s just that it hasn’t been released or fully developed yet. The key with the WW/u build is that I limited the blue to just Psionic Blast, which is the best straight burn spell in the format.

Red Aggro
I kept this deck in, because it seems to be pretty popular on MTGO (At least for now). Personally other than Jaya, I can’t see any significant gains this deck brings to the table over WW or R/G aggro. Still, sheer numbers demands I give it a fair shake at things.

Boros
So after we realized Red Aggro was probably going to result in big failure, we decided to try the two-colored version. There are two main ways to build the deck. One is to run a Sliver base abusing Cautery and Sinew along with some of the weaker ones like Sidewinder and Two-Headed Sliver. The other is to basically play WW, but add burn spells and possibly Gargadon.

For our little tournament, we went with the Sliver version since that seemed to just gain more. On one hand you lose Blood Knight and Jaya unless you want to run a manabase that wants WW and RR by turn 3, which isn’t really advisable. On the other, you get creatures that don’t actually suck. That’s a fair trade, I’d say.

Wild Pair
My older article covered how this deck functions; and Chapin and Eisel both have their own articles and takes on this archetype. In the next mock-up, we actually want to use Chapin’s build as it has a significant secondary engine that this version lacks.

Almost Mono Black Control
This type of build was based around my intense dislike of losing to WW with a supposed “control” deck. So this version was created to stomp the vast majority of creature decks into the dirt while still having options against other control decks. Aeon Chronicler, Phyrexian Totem, and Haunting Hymn are the biggies against control and after the tourney I’ve been tempted to add another Hymn or two somewhere.

The basic idea is just to grind the opponent down, and when he’s out of resources use a hard to kill threat like Totem or Chronicler to finish the game off. Mystical Teachings also gives you an answer to any situation that can come up in actual play. Post-board you also have the option of playing to “lock out” some mid-range decks, via mana advantage plus Spell Burst. Originally Magus of the Coffers helped with this, but it was soon clear its only use was to try and abuse Spell Burst or Mystical Teachings while being pretty useless in other phases of the game, so that left for Shapeshifter (i.e. tied for best creature in the format).

I picked this deck to give us four control decks to help balance out the preponderance of aggro and mid-range decks in the tourney.

G/R Aggro
This actually reminds me of some of the early R/G beatdown decks I was working on, but I hadn’t fully contemplated how good LD was in the format yet. The list I used is based on Philip Christopher Rama’s deck that won a GPT (102 people) earlier in February.

You can see his original deck here.

The deck differs from normal Spectral Force builds by focusing around LD to aid the early beatdown and then using an end-game of storage lands to build up a large Disintegrate. Evolution Charm is probably the most interesting addition in the deck. It serves a large number of purposes, fixing mana, recurring echo creatures, giving you Spectral Force advantage in the green mirror and allowing one of your finishers to fly over defenders.

Balance
I’ll admit this was originally only put into the gauntlet to see if the deck could beat anything relevant. It was highly unlikely it was going to do anything versus Teferi without an excellent draw, but we wanted to see if it could at least beat aggro. It was this or Dragonstorm, but we settled on this because of a high finish at a GPT for Strasbourg. You can find Ian Mark Gutierrez’s deck here, which was the initial base and inspiration for my own build.

The Porphyry Nodes were added because of the extra defense provided against aggro, and it was a card that wasn’t totally shut off by Teferi resolving. Errant Ephemeron was used to help increase the number of times I had a man after clearing the board via Nodes or Restore Balance.

We actually have no idea what we want for the board past 3-4 copies of Jaya, because she is absolute gold in the Blue matches. Other considerations were Teferi’s Moat, Sulfur Elemental, Heroes Remembered, sideboarding into the Stuffy Doll / Volcanic Hellion deck, along with some Lotus Blooms.

Blink Riders
I’ve already explained this before in my article here.

I run this configuration to specifically have a good game against control and then look to shore up versus aggro post-board.

The Results (Shorthand)

The Results (Longhand)
Note: The matches will mostly be brief, usually one expansive game to explain what basically happens when one side isn’t blowing the other out. The other thing to remember is that there were only 5-6 of us. We all took decks we were comfortable with playing, but we were playing multiple matches in a row. So that means details tend to be lost and yes, shock and awe, we made mistakes along the way in our games. So with that out of the way…

The Initial 16

WW/U versus Almost MBC
Games 1-4: They split 2-2; if WW got a Griffin Guide, he inevitably won. If he didn’t, MBC would eventually take the game over via Damnation and tutored up Tendrils of Corruption, with Twisted Abomination covering the non-evasion creatures.

Game 5: This was actually a long-drawn out mess, with Enslave and multiple Spell Burst being the deciding factor. Soltari Priest with Griffin Guide got hit by an Enslave, and Spell Burst stopped a pair of follow up Calciderms from killing MBC before the brainwashed Priest finished the game for the wrong side.

3-2 in favor of Almost MBC

U/B/R Teferi versus Blink Riders
Blink Riders destroys Teferi in three easy games. Games 1 and 3 were decided by early Boom / Bust taking the control player completely out of the game before Cancel mana went up. Another LD spell later and the game was over for all intents and purposes.

Game 2 was mildly interesting as the Teferi deck actually got past three lands thanks to Lens getting Cancel mana up on turn 3, despite having Expanse as its third land. The first three spells of Avalanche Riders, Calciderm, and Boom / Bust played by Blinky were either countered or destroyed. Then Teferi managed got a morphed Shapeshifter down, which meant things were looking bleak for Riders.

In a lucky break though, Blinky ripped a Disintegrate that killed Shapeshifter and then Jaya hit the board for Blinky. Teferi responded by flashing back Mystical Teachings and finding a Strangling Soot to take care of Jaya on the following turn. Blinky ripped the land needed for Jaya used her “destroy the world” ability to knock Teferi down to nine and strand the Soot in hand. At this point it was more or less down to a topdeck war, Teferi fired the first shot by throwing down the deck’s namesake into play. Unfortunately the four turns of draw-go had given Blinky time to find the eighth mana source to hardcast Akroma, Angel of Fury. The Teferi player had no answers to the angry angel and promptly got smashed for ten, ending the game.

3-0 to the Blink Riders

WW versus U/B Teferi

Game 1: Teferi is on the play, drops a turn 5 Damnation, and WW didn’t have Griffin Guide out or a follow-up Calciderm.

Game 2: Dropping four creatures on turns 1-4 and backing it up with a Mana Tithe is game in short order.

Game 3: I hear Damnation is good. I also hear trumping it with Calciderm the next turn is just better. The Teferi player can’t draw a Shapeshifter to trade, and simply can’t stop the beatings.

Game 4: WW gets a strong start serving face with a Soltari Priest, Knight of the Holy Nimbus and Shade of Trokair early on. Unfortunately the army is slowly trumped by a boarded in Shaper Parasite, which was believed to be a Fathom Seer. Two Tendrils of Corruption later and the assault has been ground to a halt with only a Serra Avenger to carry on the assault. Teferi and Aeon Chronicler soon team up to race and finish off the WW player.

Game 5: A turn 4 Tendrils gets countered by Stonecloaker, and a turn 5 Damnation is trumped by double Mana Tithe. Teferi is ended soon after by the White swarm.

3-2 in favor of WW

Mono Red versus R/G Spectral Force
Game 1: The little red men are on the play and are doing great until Wall of Roots comes down on turn 2. This sums up the rest of the game: “What do you mean you cast Dead / Gone when I attempt to use Brute Force to get my man through? What kind of madman does this!?!” Spectral Force drops soon after and destroys the little red men.

Game 2: Another early Wall of Roots, but this time instead of auto-losing we take it out with Brute Force (right around now is where we wanted Lightning Axe maindeck). Unfortunately despite the setback we gave the Spectral Force player, Call of the Herd and Stormbind just trump anything the Red deck can do. Even when I get to trade burn spells with their creatures and get through with mine, they simply aren’t doing enough damage for it to matter.

Eventually Stormbind cleans the board, and a Sporesower Thallid and Elephant come over to finish.

Game 3: Shockingly enough the Red deck doesn’t have to deal with a Wall of Roots on turn 2. Despite this, it proceeds to lose any relevant tempo in short fashion to Call of the Herd, Dead / Gone, and Disintegrate. The Spectral Force player then reveals the tech of his own Jaya Ballard, Task Mage joined by a Scryb Ranger. Thankfully I can kill Jaya with a Lightning Axe before too much damage is done, but it then becomes a question of how to win with only a Blood Knight in play with a Fiery Temper and Brute Force in hand versus a Green opponent with four cards in hand, double-digit life and a fresh 8/8 on the table.

Unfortunately with the Red deck it’s more of a rhetorical question. I simply don’t have enough reach or have enough good burn to ignore the board and win before the Green men regroup.

3-0 in favor of R/G Spectral Force

WW versus Balance
Game 1: He lays a couple of early beaters, while I assemble turn 2 Ancestral Visions and Restore Balance, turn 3 Paradox Haze. He continues to bash away with his Soltari Priest, but I’ve got time before any major damage starts coming through. I drop Porphyry Nodes, which combined with Haze, creates a double Abyss effect which will clear the board in a turn or two.

He comes through with Shade, Priest, and Knight and bashes me for nine damage, dropping my life to nine. The next turn my Nodes go to work and murder his Shade and Priest, and then I happily draw off my Ancestral Visions. I lay down my fourth land, another Restore Balance, and have a bunch of Timecrafting and land stuck in my hand. It’s WW though, so ultimately the dead cards don’t matter. He makes his best possible play of Griffin Guide on the Knight and beats me for 4, but it’s too little too late. The following turn Restore Balance Wraths the board, takes out a land and knocks his hand down to two cards.

The next turn, he lays a man, knocks me to three life and gets Balanced for his entire hand and board again. This time however I have an Errant Ephemeron ready to come back on the next turn and begin the finishing process. The WW deck finally hits a clump of double Plains, Stonecloaker, Fortify, and proceeds to die before finding anything relevant.

Games 2: After Wrathing the board twice via Restore Balance and Porphyry Nodes, I eventually lose to a Calciderm off the top that finishes me before Errant Ephemeron can win the game. An unfortunate end to a start that I was really hoping would pay off.

Game 3: Turn 1 Greater Gargadon backed by a turn 2 Greater Gargadon meant that WW was on a clock from the start. Soon after all of WW’s goon-bags were being destroyed via Nodes and the final Priest w/ Guide attached was hit with an Isolation as the first Gargadon came back to play. Despite a Temporal Isolation coming from the WW player on my first Gargadon, he has no answer to the second that eventually kills him.

Game 4: Beatings. Thanks to multiple Paradox Haze; I pull off the trifecta with Restore Balance, as it becomes an Obliterate plus Mind Twist. Even if I hadn’t been able to Armageddon as well, Heroes Remembered was going to come back in two turns anyway to give me plenty of time to outrace my opponent with Gargadon. The poor WW player dies shortly after.

3-1 in Balance’s favor

U/B/R Teferi versus Wild Pair
Game 1: Pair resolves and Teferi gets subsequently slaughtered.

Game 2: Teferi keeps Wild Pair off the table via Wipe Away and Cancel and then finishes Pair before it can recover via Phyrexian Totem. Sudden Death proved to be huge as an uncountable way to remove Wall of Roots as a mana source in this particular game. If not for using the Sudden Death, Pair would’ve dropped before Teferi had a chance to tutor for Cancel.

Game 3: Wild Pair can’t get past the 4 land mark and just dies when a last ditch Harmonize gets hit with a Dismal Failure.

Game 4: Unfortunately the two that played the match lost the notes for game four. As best the Pair player couldn’t find his namesake and the small army he put out was crushed by a Bogardan Hellkite.

3-1 in U/B/R Teferi’s favor

R/G Aggro versus Boros
Game 1: Boros is on the play and comes out swinging with an early Sidewinder and Cautery Sliver for early damage. A Disintegrate keeps things from getting out of control damage-wise. Jaya then comes down on the side of Boros and things are looking bad, but Boros only has a Flagstones of Trokair and 2 Mountain in play. This means the LD R/G has in hand is actually going to be useful.

Turn 4 for R/G sees Avalanche Riders come down and blow up a Mountain and then hang around to play D. Cautery Sliver comes through for some damage, and Jaya throws a Bolt at the R/G player’s head. Turn 5 sees another Avalanche Riders take out the other Mountain in play, leaving Boros high and dry. The Boros draw yields a Plains, which helps to cast exactly zero of the cards in has hand.

Scryb Ranger plus Thick-Skinned Goblin come down to play defense, and a Spectral Force joins them soon after. By the time Boros gets a third land in play, he has no way to stop the rampaging Force.

Game 2: An early Sinew Sliver comes down which gets buffed up with a Griffin Guide to save it from Disintegrate retaliation. A Cautery and Two-Headed Sliver join the fight a turn later while Timbermare and Acid-Moss in hand scoff at playing D, so we’re off to game 3.

Game 3: R/G mulligans to five, and his first play is Spectral Force. The R/G player dies before getting to even attack with it.

Game 4: Wall of Roots on turn 2 and 3, followed up by two Call of Herd, produce so much card and life advantage that Boros is blown out.

Game 5: Mana Tithe is the MVP for Boros here. An early Sliver start of Sidewinder, Sinew and Two-Headed blazes past the turn two Wall of Roots from R/G. R/G’s subsequent attempts to resolve consecutive Spectral Force are both met by Mana Tithe which seals the game. Although playing the Spectral Force’s into Tithe seemed terrible, the fact was no other drops had a very high chance of winning the game even if they resolved. Scryb Ranger sure wasn’t going to stop the swarm.

3-2 in favor of Boros

U/G/R Spectral Force versus U/G Spectral Force
This is such a mismatch for Sean’s deck I was tempted just to reseed him. His version would be lucky to take a game against a version that’s nearly the same speed-wise, except U/G/R Spectral Force runs nearly twice as many huge men.

Game 1: Both decks lay an early Wall of Roots and Morph on their respective turns. The difference being one is a Hermit and the other is a Willbender, which is about as useful as a sneeze in a space-suit. U/G drops a Spectral Force down, while Vesuvan Shapeshifter comes down for U/G/R. This means one of us gets an army and the other gets to lose.

Game 2: U/G/R plays a fatty consecutively on turns 4, 5, and 6, the last one being Jedit and goes on to win the prize. Mystic Snake helped by taking out one of them and soaking up some Spectral Force damage, but this was the only game where it was truly helpful.

Game 3: U/G gets stuck on three lands, and by the time it has it’s fourth, a Harmonize, Spectral Force, and Intet have already seen play across the table. An unfortunate end to the match, but it happens with these decks.

3-0 U/G/R Spectral Force

Top 8

Boros versus U/R/G Spectral Force
Game 1: Boros is on the play. Boros starts by laying a Soltari Priest and Sinew Sliver, while Spectral Force lays a Wall of Roots and Search for Tomorrow down. On turn 4 and 5 a Spectral Force comes down, meaning Boros gets stuck in a racing situation against huge 8/8s and a partial Wall. Despite this setback, Boros lays down Jaya and Calciderm on its own turns and can actually win the race with a little topdeck help.

Unfortunately, the board gets hit by Rough / Tumble, and Calciderm has to be charged with blocking duty just so Boros can get another turn. A Harmonize gives the Spectral Force player his fifth and sixth lands, and the Red player scoops it up.

Game 2: Boros mulligans to five and gets crushed in short order by Vesuvan Shapeshifter, Spectral Force, Jedit, and a Hellkite to finish things off.

Game 3: Spectral Force can’t get past three lands and a Wall of Roots. Two-Headed Sliver and Soltari Priest laugh at this, get Guided up and beat until Spectral Force is dead. Mana Tithe on the turn 3 Harmonize sent this game spiraling into the ground.

Game 4: Boros mulligans to six and Spectral Force gets turn 2 Wall of Roots. Despite this setback, a Sinew Sliver plus Griffin Guide and a slow start by Spectral Force means he’s down to six life by the time he can Tumble the flying Sliver from the sky. Despite this last second save and a Spectral Force now taking over ground duty, Boros uses a Priest and Disintegrate to finish the game.

This notes one of a number of games lost in this tourney due to Terramorphic Expanse off the top basically throwing off development by a turn. At the moment it’s close to a necessary evil in this type of deck, but every time I lose because of one of these, I get the sudden urge to run Gemstone Mine and Evolution Charm.

Game 5: Boros gets another great start featuring Sidewinder, Sinew Sliver, and Griffin Guide start. This amazing start comes at a price though, as two of the lands are Gemstone Mine. The crucial turn comes when U/R/G stabilizes at nine life via Utopia Vow on the flying Sliver menace. Unfortunately this still leaves a Sinew and Cautery on the ground to deal with; oh, and did I mention Boros expended the rest of his hand on suspending two Rift Bolt?

So the Spectral Force player tumbles down to three life, but thankfully there is a plan. Spectral Force rips a non-Expanse land off the top and proceeds to play Hellkite, torching Cautery, Sinew, and the GG token (since our flying Sidewinder was sacked for a ping). This leaves the Spectral Force player at a precarious two life with a Wall of Roots, flipped Thelonite Hermit, and Hellkite in play. Thankfully Boros can’t rip anything useful, and dies on the subsequent turns.

3-2 in favor of U/R/G Spectral Force

U/B/R Teferi versus Balance
Game 1: Teferi resolves. Teferi wins.

Game 2: Teferi doesn’t resolve. Our beloved Teferi player gets hit by a Mind Twist plus double Stone Rain and gets killed by an Ephemeron before he can recover.

Game 3: Teferi resolves. Teferi wins.

Game 4: Teferi gets off to a slow start, but eventually resolves his namesake. Unfortunately for him, Jaya decides to make an appearance and Teferi doesn’t exactly fare well in that confrontation. Jaya blows Teferi and an Aeon Chronicler away while Restore Balance and Gargadon team up to cast Armageddon on our hapless Teferi player. The giant gnashing beast makes short work of him.

Game 5: Balance takes a mulligan to six and gets blown out. You mean Teferi decks actually play counters? Damn. Cancel and Dismal Failure both make appearances and keep Ancestral Visions and Restore Balance in check. Jaya meets a sudden end and eventually a Hellkite takes care of the floundering Balance player.

3-2 in favor of *sniffle* Teferi

WW versus G/R Spectral Force
I’d like to tell you about these games, except none of us took notes and this was right about where we stopped the tourney on day 1.

From what the two recollect, Priest and Griffin Guide were the two main deciding cards in every game. If WW found a couple or either or multiples of one, then WW typically won. If R/G could stall the ground game via Call of the Herd and Sporesower Thallid, then eventually Stormbind or Jaya would take control of the game. With Wall of Roots though, I’d expect a match closer to even here.

3-1 in favor of WW

Almost MBC versus Blink Riders
Game 1: Riders wins the die roll and has an LD spell in hand, which basically means GG for our control friend. Turn 4 Avalanche Riders, turn 5 Momentary Blink, turn 6 morph + flashback Momentary Blink. That’s all she wrote.

Game 2: A turn 2 Boom / Bust on a land followed up with an early flipped Akroma ends the game before it really begins.

Game 3: Blink Riders mulligans to six and gets off to a slow start. An early Calciderm is the only offensive presence that doesn’t get wiped out by Sudden Death / Tendrils. Once MBC suspends an Aeon Chronicler, he pretty much hits every land drop for the next five turns. Eventually Riders goes for an last-ditch Stingscourger on Chronicler followed up by an Armageddon, but that gets hit by a Spell Burst. Riders falls to the replayed Chronicler a few turns later.

Game 4: MBC mulls to six and eats a Boom / Bust on turn 2, and a Rider seals the game up on turn 4. MBC can’t recover in time before Calciderm plus Jaya finish the game. Being on the draw was unfortunate here, because MBC could’ve at least laid a Totem before losing another land, had it been on the play.

3-1 in favor of Blink Riders

Top 4

U/B/R Teferi versus U/R/G Spectral Force
Game 1: Spectral Force keeps an odd hand of Forest, two Search for Tomorrow, Hermit, Harmonize, Deadwood Treefolk, and Fungal Reaches on the draw. Teferi has to take a mulligan, but keeps a fine looking three-land, Damnation, Think Twice, Cancel hand. Spectral Force’s hand plays out very slowly with Harmonize on turn 4 getting Cancelled, and then tripping on turn 6 thanks to a fresh Expanse. However, the Teferi deck can’t get anything worthwhile going to take advantage of it, including hitting a land glut for a few turns.

Long story short, the Hermits eventually get through for nine a turn thanks to Treefolk recursion and persistence. The Teferi player seems to stabilize on two life, and Hellkite comes down to finally put pressure on the Spectral Force player. Unfortunately this gives him an opportunity to play a Vesuvan Shapeshifter to end the game.

Game 2: Spectral Force gets a turn 4 Harmonize countered, then proceeds to stumble on getting the third Green for Jedit, and finally Spectral Force gets hit with a Haunting Hymn with no Deadwood Treefolk in sight. A Spectral Force gets taken down by a Damnation, and when Jedit finally hits play, it’s no match for a 6/6 Aeon Chronicler backed by Tendrils of Corruption.

Game 3: Both decks play “threat into answer” for a while, trading Spectral Force, Vesuvan Shapeshifter on both sides, and a Chronicler or two. Finally, Teferi control fetches up a Haunting Hymn, knocking U/R/G down to two cards.

The two remaining cards? Deadwood Treefolk and the second Mountain needed to cast Hellkite.

Treefolk comes down, returns Hellkite, Hellkite comes down the following turn and takes out Aeon Chronicler. The game ends soon after when Treefolk dies and brings back a Vesuvan Shapeshifter to copy Hellkite.

Game 4: Teferi misses its fourth land drop, which means an early Harmonize comes down that gives Spectral Force has all the cards it needs to play an attrition war. Teferi starts strong after drawing the fourth land using double Damnation, Pongify, and a Cancel to keep the board clean against multiple Spectral Force, Hermit, and a Vevusan Shapeshifter. However, a ripped Jedit then sees play and knocks Teferi down to two life. Jedit meets its end thanks to a Hellkite, but it leaves the door wipe open for the Spectral Force player to drop his own Hellkite and end the game. Teferi never had a chance after it missed the land drop.

3-1 in favor of U/R/G Spectral Force

WW versus Blink Riders
Game 1: WW lays a few dorks down early while Blinky plays a Prismatic Lens and an Akroma morph. Soon after the early swarm gets trumped by Stingscourger plus Momentary Blink, which flashes back the next turn to bring back our Angel of Fury. GG WW.

Game 2: Blinky mulligans to five and is unable to find either of the cards that win the match (Magus of the Tabernacle or Akroma, Angel of Fury). WW wins.

Game 3: Despite Blinky playing out Magus on turn 4, the inability to block Opal Guardian or Serra Avenger puts Blinky in a huge bind. A Desolation Giant buys some time at the last moment, but ultimately Blinky only has four life left and WW still has plenty of gas in the tank due to the two flyers doing all the work.

Game 4: Blinky mulligans to six and goes for a turn 4 Akroma flip. WW ignores this entirely by playing two Soltari Priest and a Griffin Guide. A last ditch Temporal Isolation is dealt with via Disenchant, and that’s the ballgame.

Side-note: Soltari Priest easily wins nearly any race for WW, as there’s nothing Blinky can do to stop Soltari Priest, assuming the WW player brings in Disenchant to deal with Temporal Isolation.

3-1 in favor of WW

The Final Two

WW versus U/R/G Spectral Force
Game 1: WW gets off to a quick start and runs over the Spectral Force player with no fuss.

Game 2: WW gets Soltari Priest and Griffin Guide. Look at the list… U/R/G Spectral Force can’t actually beat that pre-board.

Game 3: Wall of Roots, Call of the Herd, and Utopia Vow on a Guided-up Knight actually buys enough time for the Spectral Force player to play a real game. Harmonize resolves, and soon Spectral Force #1 and #2 come down to play. Temporal Isolation takes out one, but the other Force starts dishing out damage.

WW can’t get any of its ground guys in, which around turn 8 consist of a Shade of Trokair, Knight of the Holy Nimbus, the Guided Knight with Utopia Vow on it, and a Calciderm with two Vanishing counters left. After playing draw-go for a few turns, WW still can’t get the Spectral Force player under double-digit life, and finally a Shapeshifter means there’s enough Spectral Forces to just bash through all of the WW defenses and win.

Game 4: Spectral Force mulls to six and gets run over when its turn 2 Wall of Roots gets countered via Mana Tithe.

3-1 in favor of WW

Winner of tournament – WW

What Happened?
So our Top 4 consisted of Blink Riders, WW, U/B/R Teferi and U/R/G Good Stuff. In the end the WW deck trumped Blink Riders, meaning the finals wasn’t just going to be a blow-out. The tri-colored Spectral Force deck ended up trumping U/B/R Teferi in four games, largely on the back of having nineteen gigantic guys and Deadwood Treefolk. The plan was brutally simple: smash our cards into his and run him out of resources. With all of the Damnation, mana denial and other annoying “good decks” dispatched; this left us with a final of WW versus the tri-colored Spectral Force deck in the tourney.

WW had done what it was supposed to do: smash up control decks when they didn’t draw Damnation, and just dominate other aggro decks via evasion and having the most efficient beats at three mana or less. Meanwhile U/R/G Spectral Force had put up an impressive run that honestly surprised us for being a rough draft. Originally we thought the deck would have an unfair advantage due to the tourney structure by giving it more games in case of mana issues. Instead it only had two games with significant mana problems, and another with some minor color issues, which was really no more than any other two- or three-colored deck in the format.

Obviously the deck needs to be reworked against quick aggro like WW or Red Aggro. Those decks are simply overwhelming it even faster than we anticipated, even with Wall of Roots.

Also, take note. The more refined the control decks get, the worse aggro will do. You’ll also notice that the control decks did manage decently overall considering there was only four of them. Also note how the one “combo” deck of Restore Balance did, which actually surprised the heck out of everyone involved.

Anyway, that’s the end of this monster, so join me next week where I present you with an article roughly a third of the size of this one!

Josh Silvestri
Team Reflection
Email me at: JoshDOTsilvestriATgmailDOTcom