Finnish National Championships 2011 *1st*

[Nastaboi]

As someone might already know, I have an affinity to pure control decks in this format. A month ago I rebuilt my Grixis Control whose game plan was to survive early turns and accelerate with signets until you can slam down a titan and take a control. I took the deck to 20 € tournament and despite going 3-3 (losing to Esper, Goblins and Burn) I felt it had potential. I added Batterskull and Treasure Mage (for Wurmcoil) to shore worst matchups and tested against Goblins until I won over 50 % games. The deck was still a little soft to Stoneforge Mystic, but I could often just kill all sword bearers before it went active, so I liked my chances.

I talked a lot about the deck with Markus "Vlädi" Lehtinen, whose main innovation was to include Mystic Teachings along with tutorable sweeper. Phyrexian Metamorph was also his last-minute suggestion. Here's the list:

Grixis Control

// Lands 34

    9 Fetch

    1 Mountain
    1 Island
    1 Snow-Covered Island
    1 Swamp

    1 Badlands
    1 Underground Sea
    1 Volcanic Island
    1 Steam Vents
    1 Watery Grave

    1 Cascade Bluffs
    1 Graven Cairns
    1 Sunken Ruins

    1 Darkslick Shores
    1 Drowned Catacomb
    1 Reflecting Pool
    1 Crumbling Necropolis
    1 Vivid Creek
    1 Vivid Marsh
    1 Vivid Crag

    1 Tolaria West
    1 Creeping Tar Pit
    1 Volrath's Stronghold
    1 Dust Bowl
    1 Wasteland
    1 Tectonic Edge

// Stones 9

    1 Talisman of Impulse
    1 Talisman of Indulgence
    1 Talisman of Dominance
    1 Dimir Signet
    1 Izzet Signet
    1 Rakdos Signet
    1 Mind Stone
    1 Coalition Relic
    1 Crucible of Worlds

// The beef 19

    1 Vendilion Clique
    1 Trinket Mage
    1 Treasure Mage // just Wurmcoil
    1 Vampire Nighthawk // deathtouch was the most relevant ability
    1 Shadowmage Infiltrator

    1 Phyrexian Metamorph
    1 Skinrender
    1 Flametongue Kavu
    1 Glen Elendra Archmage
    1 Venser, Shaper Savant
    1 Sower of Temptation

    1 Mulldrifter
    1 Shriekmaw
    1 Arc-Slogger
    1 Precursor Golem
    1 Batterskull // technicaly not a creature

    1 Grave Titan
    1 Wurmcoil Engine
    1 Inferno Titan // MVP

// Disruption 9

    1 Thoughtseize
    1 Duress
    1 Inquisition of Kozilek
    1 Spell Pierce

    1 Mana Drain
    1 Counterspell
    1 Mana Leak

    1 Cryptic Command
    1 Force of Will

// Removal 15

    1 Lightning Bolt // ability to hit planeswalkers and players extremely relevant

    1 Terminate
    1 Into the Roil
    1 Go for the Throat // can't tell if this or Doom Blade is better

    1 Crosis's Charm // every mode was used, gives so much utility
    1 Slagstorm
    1 Firespout

    1 Control Magic
    1 Damnation

    1 Treachery

    1 Burning of Xinye // centerpieces of the deck
    1 Wildfire

    1 Cruel Ultimatum
    1 Engineered Explosives
    1 Starstorm

// Digging 14

    1 Sensei's Divining Top
    1 Ancestral Vision
    1 Preordain
    1 Brainstorm
    1 Ponder

    1 Impulse
    1 Tainted Pact
    1 Demonic Tutor

    1 Jace Beleren

    1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
    1 Fact or Fiction
    1 Gifts Ungiven
    1 Mystical Teachings

    1 Liliana Vess

The biggest criticism I got on the deck was its mana base and its vulnerability to hate. I could have included three more basics, but I wanted to be able to cast my spells with heavy color requirements any time, so I just chose to dodge hate. I guess I have to lose a game to hate first before I'd consider altering the base. Onto the tournament.

R1 Kim Valori GRw Jokulhaups

I ripped his hand apart with discard and he never got mana to cast his things. Second game, I had favourable board position when Kim cast Obliterate, but I managed to save two mana permanents with bounce and topdeck Crucible if I recall correctly.

1-0

G2 Tero Aalto Bant Aggro

The match is covered in detail HERE.

2-0

G3 Juha Vepsäläinen UWb Tezzerets

I accidentally revealed Explosives from my hand as I was accelerating with a couple of signets. Juha played both Thopter and Sword, and after I killed them and all our signets with EE, he was able to lock me down with Winter Orb. Second game Juha went aggressive with Batterskull, and I as had to use resources battling it, he was able to slip in the orb again. I had him staring lethal Inferno Titan with no cards in hand, but he proceeded to draw Brainstorm into Demonic into Treachery.

2-1

G4 Janne Öhman (Tiggupiru) BGw Pattern

He played dumb creatures and disrupted me enough for them to take it home. Second game I got Jace to stick, and I managed to cast Treachery on his Grave Titan and follow it up with Inferno one same turn. Third game I Forced his Top only to see it come back with Witness. I took control of his titan once again, but this time he had enchantment removal and my Inferno Titan came down a turn later. After the dust settled, I had Inferno Titan under his Oblivion Ring and eight manas including Creeping Tar Pit, which brought him down to six. Janne had just Llanowar Elf and top but fetched Mystic and Sword of F/I and bashed me down to three.

I drew Teachings. With just one mana more, I could attack with Tar Pit and fetch Lightning Bolt for lethal. My plan was to fetch Charm and kill the sword, then fetch Into the Roil for Oblivion Ring his next turn. After he attacked with sworded elf it hit me: I should have got Cryptic Command to tap his guys before combat and bounce ring to deal three with titan. The plan would've still worked had he not got Acidic Slime to kill my manland. I drew Damnation and the game was left unfinished.

2-1-1

G5 Kari Hänninen Bant Control

Kari got some early pressure with creatures, but I stabilized with Batterskull and stuff and he was forced to clear the table with Akroma's Vengeance. My deck is pretty good in topdeck wars. The highlight of the endgame was him cloning my Inferno Titan twice, making it six damage total on it. I just removed both and played another fatty FTW.

His draw was rather counter-heavy next game, so I just used some spells as fodder and resolved Liliana going +1 against his Sphinx of Jwar Isle. The sphinx took Liliana down by two hits, but I was too much ahead by then and just overwhelmed him with card advantage.

3-1-1

G6 Miikka Niemi 4c Aggro

Miikka had Concordant Crossroads and then Flesh Reaver off Lotus Petal, but didn't draw another land. I managed to ramp into Wildfire manas but didn't want to cast it against just one land, so I wasted it and just kept removing other creatures. With Flesh "Even" Reaver eating both of our lives, just couple of hits from Creeping Tar Pit were enough as he never drew land to cast his bolt.

Mikka swarmed the board fast second game threatening 4th turn kill, but Lightning Bolt gave me just one more turn to slam down Wurmcoil Engine. Explosives took down his team next turn and that was all she wrote. Duressing away his Price of Progress was also critical.

4-1-1

Quarterfinals: Max Sjöblom Jund Ramp

Max started with Lotus Cobra into next turn Spiritmonger, but I just happened to have Mana Drain ready. I had just stones to play with drained mana, and a kill spell to Cobra to prevent more nutsacking. When he played Arc-Slogger couple of turns later, I had Treachery ready for it and enough red mana to make it instantly lethal.

My opening hand was very good, featuring Control Magic, Clique, lands and a signet after Thoughtseize took my Drain. Max had Top, Cobra and Deed but no fourth land, and was left with just Gaea's Revenge in hand after Deed cleaned the board. He recovered quickly with Top giving him lands, Siege-Gang Commander and other meat. I drew Wurmcoil but he had one too, so I needed to draw... Tainted Pact, which I used to dig for Treachery. Max played another creature, but things went not fair for him as I drew Cryptic Command and attacked for lethal.

5-1-1

Semifinals: Juha Vepsäläinen UWb Tezzerets

Juha mulled to four and was never really into first game. He tutored for fast Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas second game and while I could steal his animated Top with Sower his Bribery for my FTK left me few outs. The third game was epic. I suspended Visions but my mana production was painfully slow compared to his explosive one. Juha made attacking difficult with Tabernacle and Dream Tides, concluded then Thopter combo being not his victory condition of choice, and went for Jace, which I removed with Teachings to Lightning Bolt.

His next attempt was once again Tezzeret who animated Sword of the Meek. I stole animated sword and shot Tezz down with Arc-Slogger. Attacking was made even more difficult with Ghostly Prison and Silent Arbiter. At six life, Juha stole Arc-Slogger, threatening to burn me down with mana from Coalition Relic and its copy. Unfortunately for him, I had still Teachings in my grave, a bounce spell left in my library, and enough mana and cards in library to replay Slogger and burn him down next turn.

6-1-1

Finals: Valentin Soloviev (Sephiron) Dark Bant

I managed to snag Stoneforge Mystic with Inquisition of Kozilek. Valentin had some mana elves but just two lands after using Wasteland, so I wiped them off with Starstorm. He Pathed one in response and soon it was me who had mana problems. I played Tainted Pact to dig some, but had to keep Inferno Titan as I was about to remove all my victory conditions, and was forced to find a land with Demonic instead. I knew from Inquisition that he had Treachery, so I waited until he had to pitch it to Force fighting over his Recurring Nightmare before playing it. Unfortunately, he had removal for it, so I had to cast Wildfire without leaving a creature in table. I recovered faster anyway and he scooped when Fact revealed me Jace.

Second game, Valentin passed his fourth turn with four mana up, presenting Gifts. I responded his EOT Gifts with one of my own, but he had Force and fetched Jace, Mystic, Natural Order and Birthing Pod. I put green cards to the bin as I had Creeping Tar Pit for Jace and I thought I could handle Mystic. He played Jace and brainstormed, I killed it with Tar Pit. He played Mystic and Knight of the Reliquary, but this time I had Treachery for the knight before casting Burning of Xinye FTW.

7-1-1

Phew. I was a bit lucky in some games, but in this game, you can't win a tournament without having a bit of luck as it is an integral part of the game. There were 33 players, metagame was diverse with emphasis on control, and top 8 was like two midrange Bant decks, two ramps, three pure control decks and a reanimator. Aggro and combo were represented but didn't survive swiss rounds. There were 3 or 4 Stoneforge Mystics in top 8, and while I didn't lose to it once, the card makes deck constructing and game play so centered around  it that we should discuss whether or not it is good to our format. I don't now ATM, maybe metagame will evolve and can handle it.

I want to thank Vlädi, Joose, my opponents and those who loaned me cards for a great tournament!

[MarcMagic]

Gz to #1 and nice report.

I've build a Grixis Control as well ands IMO it's very fun to play. Although I play more nonbasic hate (b2b, magus; both with fetchers) and more cheaper spells your deck does probably a better job versus other control decks which are not present at my current playgroup.

Some cards I really liked while testing:

Phyrexian Crusader - I really like this guy, he is persistent as hell versus most decks and pwns most non flyer played in aggro/midrange decks.
Slaughter Pact - I often went searching this via Mystical Teachings (which btw seems chunky but I never ever wanna miss it) and I think it's decent removal as well.
Sharkhan the Mad - Because I play more cheap creatures like Bone Shredder and Fire Imp this guy did a pretty decent job as well. Even the CA part with library manipulation versus control is very worthy.
Hymn to Tourach - It can randomly fucks up some people's decks and is pure quality and card advantage.
Fire//Ice + Electrolyze - Both are great spells IMO. I cut some heavier spells for them and it worked out great. But again these are mostly versus Aggromatchups

Maybe you can just comment some of my cards choices because I'm always curious what other people think. Again gz and nice deck.

[Nastaboi]

I had Hymn in some draft version but BB felt problematic. With present manabase, it shouldn't be too difficult and warrants more testing.

The catch with Slaughter Pact is being able to fetch it with Tolaria West. That said, I have plenty of removal already. Sarkhan and Crusader are fighting for slots against better cards with same CMC. Like, I should have played Bribery in the meta.

[MMD]

Thanks for your detailed report. It is very important that this forum gets input, so that people concentrate on this forum as one of their main pages to find (and offer) information about Highlander.

Your build looks rock solid so winning a tournament with it is no surprise if you play tight and have some luck over the day. It shows that you don't have to rely on white as second control colour.

Beside the obvious cards like Bribery and Fire/Ice I would also like to give more input for a possible improvement/revision/metagaming:

More Ramp: Grim Monolith, XX Mana Stone (forgot about the name), Chrome Mox, Prismatic Lens
Tezzeret Engine: see above, Tezz, Tezz, Thopther, Sword, Artifact lands, Vedalken Shackles
BB(B) Spells: Hymn, Black Zenith, Sorin Markov
U and B Pact, Karn Liberated, Repeal, Thirst for Knowledge, Compulsive Research

Corresponding mana base adjustment is self-explanatory

These are the candidates I would question to get free slots (not that I think that they are bad):
Shadowmage Infiltrator, Spell Pierce, Precursor Golem, Treasure Mage, Wurmcoil Engine, Vampire Nighthawk, Batterskull, Mulldrifter, Glen Elendra Archmage, Venser Shaper Savant, Sower of Temptation, Mystical Teachings, Starstorm
And yes, I know that most of them are creatures/win options :-)

Stoneforge Mystic issue: I keep Worldly Tutor on my starting seven in my Big Bant deck and sometimes play it first turn to get Mystic. He is also one of the main targets for Fauna Shaman and Eldadamri´s Call and now Birthing Pod and Batterskull have entered the format which is sick. He definitely belongs on the watch list (minimum).

[so_not]

Beside the obvious cards like Bribery and Fire/Ice I would also like to give more input for a possible improvement/revision/metagaming:

More Ramp: Grim Monolith, XX Mana Stone (forgot about the name), Chrome Mox, Prismatic Lens
Tezzeret Engine: see above, Tezz, Tezz, Thopther, Sword, Artifact lands, Vedalken Shackles
BB(B) Spells: Hymn, Black Zenith, Sorin Markov
U and B Pact, Karn Liberated, Repeal, Thirst for Knowledge, Compulsive Research

That would be a totally different deck (pretty cool though). It would have very different game plan/strategy and would need a whole lot of other adjustments too to support artifact synergies.

[MMD]

The out of my mind list is already +9 artifacts, so it is not that far from working. But I agree that this is a different approach and perhaps does not belong in to Grixis as R has nothing to offer here. Staying UB would most probably be the best way to go.

[MarcMagic]

The out of my mind list is already +9 artifacts, so it is not that far from working. But I agree that this is a different approach and perhaps does not belong in to Grixis as R has nothing to offer here. Staying UB would most probably be the best way to go.

I mentioned it in another topic afair but I played a UB version with your listened choices (naming Tezz+thopter + heavier control elements like sorin etc.) and as you already mentioned: staying UB is enough. The pros are of obvious nature with inclusion of Shackles, B2B etc. But playing Grixis with more focus on good creatures is a matter of the current Metagame and it does not need those chunky cards. My first draft had all of those cards you mentioned like Tezz + Sorin + more Mana acc. and CA spells but it turned out that less expensive spells and more aggroish cards do a better job atm.

Regarding your mentioned cards: I think we all know how hard it is to cut good cards for other similar cards and if I could I'd end up playing with 150 card-decks all the time (although I am of the opinion that playing some more cards than 100 must not necessary be worse with the inclusion of big tutors/toolboxes etc). At least for me it is extremely difficult to find out which cards are better than other cards because it so much about metagame, luck, opponents deck/deckbuilding skills etc. that it is hard to reduce it to single cardchoices. The point is there are so many "no-brainer" in Highlander that throwing them all together would lead to already 100 card decks without strategy (although I guess these decks would still work :>).

[Lightstorm]

I understand issues with Stoneforge Mystic but somehow this makes me feel bad since Gifts Ungiven is still legal.

I`ve been playing Stonforge in every creature based deck after it came out and it´s never been too big problem to opponent or opponents Mystic to me. Decks have creature and artifact removals.

Nice looking deck Nastaboi, looks like lots of fun to play it

[Kavu24]

Hello,

it is a nice deck and very strong.

I thinking about to add Veldalken Shackles and Bribery, but i do not know which card i can cut. Cause all cards are so nice!

Have you any idea?

Best ragards,
Kavu

[Nastaboi]

I cut Spell Pierce for Bribery.

Playing Shackles with above mana base is no-go. I went -Shores -Catacombs -Necropolis -Volrath's +Island +S-C Island +S-C Swamp +S-C Mountain, but wouldn't still play Shackles. With a mana base reliably supporting Shackles you'd have to cut all black and red double casters with CMC < 5. As much as I love Shackles, I'll take more stable mana base this time.

[Kavu24]

Hello Nastaboi,

thanks a lot for your answer!

Yes, the manabase is very tricky. And there a lot of "comes into play tapped" land.  So you are right to cut some of them.

In my testgames i have had 3 or more "island" i think this is enough for Shackles or not?

[MarcMagic]

Hello Nastaboi,

thanks a lot for your answer!

Yes, the manabase is very tricky. And there a lot of "comes into play tapped" land.  So you are right to cut some of them.

In my testgames i have had 3 or more "island" i think this is enough for Shackles or not?

If you constantly got 3 or more Islands at the point you want/can play shackles it is enough. I doubt it though because 6 Islands won't be close to be enough for shackles. I play 12 Islands and it's barely enough versus goodstuff decks (the fourth Island is the problem most of the time).

Just for your information/interest.

[pyyhttu]

This tournament has been reported at http://mtgpulse.com/event/3146#40879