Vampires, huh? Oh, they’ve been around, but never ruling the top tables, especially in their pure, mono black form. Some of you may remember an article I did off of a double PTQ weekend where a lone Bant deck tromped through the field to a Qualification. Sometimes the question isn’t “what is special about the deck?” it’s “what is special about the player?” The next highest finish by a vampire deck was 50th place, so the field wasn’t particularly kind to Vampires. Eric only loss on the day was to Jund, (2-1) but he feasted on All American Control (3-0) and Red Deck Wins Variants (3-0) as well as the local favorite, Valakut Ramp. (2-0) On the day, Mono Black Vampires had only a 35% win percentage against Jund, so Eric was able to pull out some tough match ups on his way to the championship.
For this week’s spotlight, let’s take a look at the highest finishing deck from the second most popular archetype in the field: Knightfall. Knightfall decks are characterized by decks that use Knight of the Reliquary and sac lands to abuse Lotus Cobra and the landfall mechanic. Since the Knight can search out any land, by searching out a fetch, and sacrificing it, you get two landfall triggers and a +2/+2 boost for your Knight. This can quickly get out of hand, as well as opening up some interesting splash and sideboard options as the Cobra, along with Birds of Paradise, make it easy to find whatever color mana that you need.
Creatures (26)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 2 Thornling
- 4 Knight of the Reliquary
- 4 Baneslayer Angel
- 4 Borderland Ranger
- 4 Emeria Angel
- 4 Lotus Cobra
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (14)
Spells (18)
|
1 |
Won |
2 |
0 |
|
Scalzo, Tim |
Knightfall |
|
2 |
Won |
2 |
0 |
|
Smith, Jason |
Grixis Control |
|
3 |
Lost |
0 |
2 |
|
Smith, Dylan L |
Jund |
|
4 |
Won |
2 |
1 |
|
Beety, John D |
Vampires |
|
5 |
Won |
2 |
0 |
|
Riley, Jordan a |
Nissa Monument |
|
6 |
Lost |
0 |
2 |
|
Beardsley, Mark A |
Jund |
|
7 |
Won |
2 |
1 |
|
Garza, Robert |
Grixis Control |
|
8 |
Won |
2 |
0 |
|
Causey, William M |
White Weenie |
|
9 |
Won |
2 |
1 |
|
Suarez, Andres T |
Valakut Ramp |
The first thing that jumps out is that Sang went 0-2 against Jund. You simply can’t give away the Jund match up in this format and Knightfall decks were 16-21 against the Jundernaught on the day. Knightfall has game against Jund, but it’s not a good match up. On the other hand, a 62.5% win percentage against All American Control and 60% against Grixis Control make you feel pretty good about your control match ups.
I’m still making improvements to the Too Much Information spreadsheet. This week’s suggestion came from day 2 Head Judge, Kevin Binswanger: How about win percentages? What if you could auto calculate them based on the filtered results that you were showing? How about yes! Check out the top right of the “All Results” tab for Game and Match win percentages of the decks that you are viewing.
TMI Spreadsheet — Dallas — Standard
See you all tomorrow!
-Jared