Magic-League Mini Tournament Report #1: Shards of Alara Sealed Deck

October 27, 2008

Magic-League is a great place to play Magic The Gathering competitively for free. They run a couple “minis” a day. Minis are single elimination tournaments of usually 8 or 16 players.

I recently played in an eight player Shards of Alara sealed mini. Here’s the sealed card pool I opened:

Magic-League Mini Tournament #1:Shards of Alara Card Pool
Green (12)
White (11)
Blue (10)
Black (7)
Red (12)
Green/Blue (1)
White/Blue (1)
Blue/Black/Red (1)
Blue/Black (1)
Red/Green (1)
Red/Green/White (4)
Red/White (1)
Colorless Artifacts (2)
Lands (6)

With 2 Woolly Thoctar, 2 Naya Charm, and a Bull Cerodon, I definitely wanted to go Naya. Luckily, I had solid cards in the Naya colors.

Here’s what I ran.

Naya Beatdown Splashing Black and Blue
Creatures (17)
Spells (6)
Lands (17)

The Esper Panorama and Grixis Panorama should have been a Plains and a Mountain. I don’t know what I was thinking. The effect of thinning out lands is good, but it’s much more important to be able to play a creature on turns 2 and 3 instead of having to crack Panoramas.

I splashed for Fatestitcher and Executioners Capsule because I felt like I didn’t have enough removal. Fatestitcher is not strictly removal but it functions like it well enough.

Match 1

Game 1

He got in a couple of hits with Court Archers. He also had Elvish Visionary, Hissing Iguanar, and Guardians of Akrasa. I was able to stop the bleeding with Jund Battlemage and Fatestitcher. I tapped a guy and chumped with a 1/1 Saproling token.

This defensive strategy gave me time to setup my Godtoucher combo with Mosstodon. Also, I drew into Woolly Thoctar. My 5-power creatures had trample and protection from damage. He couldn’t stop them and we were off to the second game.

Game 2

I won pretty easily. He only played one creature, Hissing Iguanar, while I got the Godtoucher/Mosstodon combo going again. Also, I played a 3/3 Wild Nacatl and Sighted-Caste Sorcerer and I had Naya Charm in hand.

Match 2

Game 1

Two players dropped so this was the finals.

I made two bad plays.

In the first one, he had Mosstodon. I had Sighted-Caste Sorcerer, Ranger of Eos, Akrasan Squire, and one blue mana source. I was ahead in life 20 to 10. He played Vithian Stinger and passed the turn.

What’s my best play?

I definitely have to attack since I have two exalted guys and I’m winning the life total race by a lot. I shouldn’t attack with Ranger of Eos because he can kill it with Mosstodon and its my best creature on the board. I attacked with Sighted-Caste Sorcerer, he blocked with Mosstodon, and we traded creatures.

I definitely should’ve attacked with Akrasan Squire instead. Akrasan Squire is a better attacker because he’s going to do die anyways to Vithian Stinger. However, Sighted-Caste Sorcerer has shroud so he can dodge the damage from Vithian Stinger.

In the second bad play, he had Jhessian Infiltrator, Deft Duelist, Fleshbag Marauder, and Vithian Stinger, and one card in hand. I had Bull Cerodon in play and Naya Charm in hand. Life totals were 18 to 11 in my favor.

What’s my best play?

I attacked and he blocked with everyone except Vithian Stinger. I don’t know what I was thinking but I killed Fleshbag Marauder before damage with Naya Charm. Of course, he still killed Bull Cerodon by pinging it with Vithian Stinger. I didn’t need to use Naya Charm. Bull Cerodon had enough power to kill all of his three blockers.

Even with these two mistakes, I drew three fatties in a row, which he couldn’t deal with.

Game 2

I sideboarded in Excommunicate for Executioners Capsule to test it out. I had never played with Excommunicate before.

This game started off slow because we had a lot of white cards in hand but we didn’t get a white mana source until after the fifth land drop.

He drew the first white mana source and was able to play Rakeclaw Gargartuan to go along with his Vithian Stinger. I luckily drew my first white mana source and killed his 5/3 with Naya Charm. He played Cavern Thoctar. I played Woolly Thoctar, but he cycled Resounding Thunder to kill it.

I took 5 from Cavern Thoctar before I played Ranger of Eos and Wild Nacatl as blockers. However, Vithian Stinger was slowly taking down my life total. We had creature stall for a short while because I played more creatures. However, he was able to kill me by making Cavern Thoctar an 8/5, playing Soul’s Fire, and then casting Blightning.

Excommunicate did not really help in this game. It just slowed him down for a turn. I think I had a good chance of winning if I had Executioners Capsule instead. That would’ve dealt with Cavern Thoctar.

Game 3

I chose to draw. I mulliganed a hand with Grixis Panorama as the only land. My six card hand was Crumbling Necropolis, Mountain, Plains, Wild Nacatl, Cavern Thoctar, and Rhox Charger. I kept.

By the time I got a green mana source, it was too late especially since he went turn two Rip-Clan Crasher, turn three Woolly Thoctar, turn four Tidehollow Strix, and turn five Executioners Capsule to kill my blocker.

Posted by Dee | Filed Under Shards of Alara Sealed, Tournament Reports 

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3 Responses to “Magic-League Mini Tournament Report #1: Shards of Alara Sealed Deck”

  1. Asad on November 20th, 2008 10:48 am

    Yeah I would have gone straight up Naya aggro with more creatures. I think you’re okay with just the one Jungle Shrine, the rest basics and 16 land.

    Accept that you are short on removal and make them have the answers for your guys. Excommunicate is perfect for your deck because you can land early Wild Nacatl or Akrasan Squire and then time walk their 3 or 4 drop and keep attacking.

    With Branching Bolt and Two Naya Charms you should be okay against aggro decks and your early drops should allow you to outrace slower, more controllish type decks. I can only really see splashing blue for Fatesticher and Resounding Wave but it makes the mana harder. I would include Dragon Fodder because you have so few 2 drops and sideboard it out for Goblin Mountaineer against anyone playing Mountains.

    Sealed is pretty slow so this strategy may have one you the last match.

  2. Teodor on December 20th, 2008 3:06 pm

    What’s your username on there? I read your PTQ report it was very informative. I want to learn more about drafts and sealed decks, so maybe we could play sometime on mws? Let me know.

  3. Dee on December 20th, 2008 5:41 pm

    Thanks for the positive feedback.

    My username on Magic League usegoals.

    I sent you an email. I don’t play on Magic League as much as used to. Instead, I’ve been playing a lot on Magic Online. However, if you email me a time when you’re free, I’ll try to go on Magic League at that time and maybe we can join a sealed mini or a draft and then talk about our decks and plays afterwards.

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