I had a good plan. Or at least I thought the plan was good. The plan was to win the Regional Pro Tour Qualifier (or RPTQ as its commonly referred as today) and get myself back on the tour. The Malaysian team captaincy race is wide open with the leader having only 8 points and a good showing at a PT would allow me to realize a lifetime long dream – the lead the national team at the World Magic Cup.
Prior to Pro Tour Dragons of Tarkir, I was pretty set on Abzan Aggro similar to the list Andrew Boswell piloted to a top 8 finish at Grand Prix Miami. Then it all changed.
Channelfireball happened.
Josh Utter Leyton and gang broke the format with a finely tuned Esper Dragons list that featured a stock UB list with a dash of white for Dragonlord Ojutai. It had counterspell (Silumgar’s Scorn), it had removal, it had DRAGONS!! What more can you ask from a deck? A cherry on the top with some sprinkles on the side? Well it has that too. Just ask Ugin, the Spirit Dragon.
So after a 2-week vacation in Japan, I finally returned home and picked up 3 copies of Dragonlord Ojutai on Magic Online at a whopping 14.5 tickets! How did it get so expensive??? I gave the deck a whirl soon. It was pure magic. Everything clicked. And when Ojutai connected it was game over.
A week later, it was dragons everywhere in Grand Prix Krakow – a whopping five in the top 8 decks. Best deck in the format? Seems to be the case.
In the subsequent days after the GP, article after article, video after video featuring the BEST deck in the format surfaced one after another. I had a lot of information and videos to digest. Some good, some not so. But I learnt many things that people already somewhat knew but may have not experienced first hand. The mirror match sucks and the matchup against red was horrendous. There was only 4 days left before the RPTQ on Saturday and Esper Dragons was my ONLY list.
And, as though I haven’t watched enough Esper Dragons videos, I tuned into SCG Providence videos where there were no Ojutai sightings in the top 8. What happened? If you dig into Round 8 featuring Mike Sigrist, you probably got your answer. Mike was 7-0 with Esper Dragons heading into the round and matched versus mono red. The video was only 12 minutes long. That was it for me. The breaking point as some call it. Esper Dragons was going to be my second choice if I had nothing else. Now all I got to do was find the “first” choice.
Wednesday – 3 days before the RPTQ
I rang up Chye “Jhun Hoon”, one of Malaysia’s finest and the architect to my PPTQ winning Abzan Control list. I had asked Chye for his thoughts about Esper Dragons before and he hated mirrors so much that it wasn’t even under his consideration to play the best deck in the format. He was working on a Den (Protector) – Raptor (Deathmist) deck. A week earlier, I originally dismissed that idea for being too slow as I did have several successful encounters against a Den-Raptor built in a Sultai shell, much what Willy Edel brought for the PT. But now I was desperate and Chye shared me his list - a Den-Raptor in an Abzan shell, much like the version Robert Vaughn piloted to a Top 4 in SCG Providence.
Thursday – 2 Days before the RPTQ
I paid a whopping 96 tickets for a playset of Deathmist Raptors on Magic Online and went to work.
1-5. I thought to myself: “Maybe I’m just getting to know the deck”
Another 0-3 later, I asked myself: “Are you sure about this?”
I asked Chye if this list was tested and he said yes with more than 30 match wins put in, most of them through Daily Events. It was comfortable affirming news, but I was still fighting my internal gut war of instinct (playing Esper) vs common sense (playing Den-Raptors). I put through the deck against its toughest matchup – Abzan Aggro. 0-3 pre board, 0-2 post board. Hmmmmmm……
Friday – 1 Day before the RPTQ
I made some tweaks to the deck and ran an 8 man on MTGO. Lost in finals but it felt good to finally rack some wins. However that night, we met up at our local game store to do one final round of testing. I took the deck versus Esper and went an appalling 1-7.
I just kept thinking to myself:
“What was wrong??? Am I that bad at this game? Isn’t this the worse time to be at the lowest point of your game??”
That night after returning from testing, I made several final tweaks on the sideboard and went to bed.
Saturday – Game day
That morning I woke up early. Like 6am early and jammed in an 8 man. 3-0! Played another two 2-mans. Wins! Now this was going somewhere…. So after a whirlwind few days, I picked up my pen and registered this list:
4 Den Protector
4 Deathmist Raptor
4 Courser of Kruphix
4 Siege Rhino
4 Fleecemane Lion
4 Thoughtseize
3 Abzan Charm
3 Hero’s Downfall
2 Ultimate Price
2 Bile Blight
1 Dromoka’s Command
4 Sandsteppe Citadel
4 Temple of Malady
4 Windswept Heath
2 Forest
2 Plains
3 Temple of Silence
3 Llanowar Wastes
2 Caves of Koilos
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Sideboard:
2 Duress
3 Drown in Sorrow
2 Mastery of the Unseen
2 Ultimate Price
2 Self-Inflicted Wound
2 Elspeth Sun’s Champion
1 Glare of Heresy
1 Dromoka’s Command
About the deck
Chye’s design was a thing of beauty. On the surface it looked like Abzan Aggro. On the surface it also looked like Abzan Control. The built was unique that it could switch gears from turn 1 and decide which route of attack. Traditionally Abzan Aggro fares very well against control but mono red was a tough matchup. Chye’s built wanted to address at least a fair game against both mono red and its arch-nemesis the Esper Dragons. The deck did feel soft however against mid range decks especially Red Green Dragons which could fly over easily. Which was why I decided to maximize the four copies of Ultimate Price, a rarity in today’s metagame.
The interactions between Den Protector and Deathmist Raptor is already well-known. But again the home where these two reside is very debatable as which shell compliments the Protector’s Eternal Witness ability best. With this version of Abzan, on the offensive it returns cheap disruption cards such as Thoughtseize & Duress against control, and Ultimate Price & Bile Blight against aggro, while defensively it helps recurs your fallen threats especially Siege Rhino. Den Protector and Deathmist Raptor also often played a “hide and seek” game as playing a Morph doesn’t always means it’s a Den Protector hiding under there. A Morph on turn 4 with only a mana open sometimes makes your opponent spend their entire turn to kill your Morph before you can untap and get full value from your “hidden” Den Protector. But once they found it was a Deathmist Raptor all along and the “real” Den Protector was played as a morph on turn five with 2 mana open, you just snagged a neat three for one. In one of the swiss rounds of the RPTQ I almost four for one my opponent when he end of turn Bile Blight my morph, which I revealed a Den Protector. I also had a Siege Rhino in play. With the Den Protector target trigger followed by the Deathmist Raptor trigger on the stack, he thought hard to cast a Foul Tongue Invocation (which I knew he had) to “attempt” to take out my Rhino. He tapped 3 mana only to re-check the interactions and pulled back a near costly back-breaking mistake. Den Protector is just gross…..
Sideboarding guide:
Esper Dragons:
+ 2 Duress, + 2 Mastery of the Unseen, + 2 Self-Inflicted Wound
- 2 Bile Blight, - 2 Ultimate Price, - 1 Dromoka’s Command, - 1 Hero’s Downfall
Artaka Red/Mono Red:
+ 2 Duress, + 3 Drown in Sorrow, + 2 Ultimate Price, + 1 Dromoka's Command
- 3 Abzan Charm, - 4 Thoughtseize, - 1 Hero’s Downfall
Abzan Aggro:
+ 2 Elspeth, Sun’s Champion, + 2 Self-Inflicted Wound, + 1 Dromoka’s Command, + 1 Glare of Heresy
- 2 Ultimate Price, - 4 Thoughtseize
Jeskai Tokens:
+ 1 Dromoka’s Command, + 1 Glare of Heresy, + 2 Duress, + 3 Drown in Sorrow
- 1 Hero’s Downfall, - 1 Thoughtseize, - 3 Abzan Charm, - 2 Ultimate Price
Onwards to the RPTQ my matchups were as follows:
Round 1 – Esper Dragons (Win 2-0)
Round 2 – Artaka Red (Win 2-1)
Round 3 – Red Green Dragons (Win 2-0)
Round 4 – Raymond Tan piloting Red Green Aggro (with Rabblemaster & Dragons) (Win 2-1)
Round 5 and 6 – ID into top 8
Quarterfinals – Raymond Tan again (Win 2-1)
Raymond and myself duelling side-by-side in Round 3.
I considered my matchups quite favourable that day as there were many Abzan variants in the room and I avoided them all. Even there was a Sultai Reanimator with the Den-Raptor engine which made the top 4 of the RPTQ of which I felt was the best deck in the room. The full set of Ultimate Price allowed me to fill a void at the two spot, allowing to curve into Raptor or Courser was a huge boon.
But to recap the tournament, both my teammate Raymond and Chye managed to navigate to the top 8, but I had to take down Raymond and Chye lost a heartbreaking decider in the quarterfinals. It was bittersweet victory, but my takings from this event was:
1. Den Protector and Deathmist Raptor were absolute nuts!
2. I’m a believer that Esper Dragons is not the best deck in the format
3. Chye is an insane deck-builder and deck-tuner.
4. Raymond is an awesome player and teammate and it took absolutely everything I had in the tank to bring him down.
Vancouver – here I come!!
PS: I sold the 3 Dragonlord Ojutais for 33 tickets each… Sweet!!
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