Today I’m going to get ready for Grand Prix Las Vegas and try to demonstrate some of what I’ve written about in my article this week.
Draft
I think that draft went great, and I have basically the exact deck I’m generally looking to have, and I think this illustrated a lot of what my article discussed.
Build
I think that build was pretty straightforward. I could see playing Dragonsoul Knight or Everflowing Chalice over Plagued Rusalka, but I think Rusalka is a reasonable safeguard against a lot of the aggressive strategies I might be afraid of, and I like the lategame synergies with Selesnya Guildmage and Ant Queen.
Round 1
I don’t often care what people say on MTGO, but at the end of the second game my opponent claimed to have mana flooded both games. That’s just not a realistic description of what happened. My opponent was stuck on four lands, the perfect number, for multiple turns while playing Rusted Relics. At the end of the game I had spells left while my opponent didn’t despite chump blocking a few times because I’d drawn so many cards. What my opponent described as flood (drawing a couple lands rather than spells after I’d taken control of the game) is just what losing to card advantage feels like.
Round 2
I think this is basically a nightmare matchup for my opponent, with Spectral Procession being the only thing that can really threaten me unless I stumble badly.
Round 3
The dynamics of that matchup are pretty straightforward. I have better lategame, but my opponent has a lot of pressure to punish a stumble. I have enough removal to stop most of the pressure, but the Bestial Menaces and Vengeful Rebirth can punish that if I don’t also find a good blocker. Moonlit Strider, Conclave Phalanx, and Etched Oracle help a lot with that. I think the matchup is pretty good for me overall. The Sunlance play in game 3 was incredibly bad, but lucky, my deck bailed me out.
That played out the way I imagined and reinforced my position that this is a good example of what I want to be doing in this format.