August 24th 2016
Another wasted opportunity to close out a RPTQ slot. I took the Eldrazi-Tron list I had last week that went one land away from the finals into the weekend’s event at Spartan Games Arena. The EV for this event was great as Sparta was generously offering the Jace TMS Silver Coin (worth about 100USD) as the top prize along with several boosters in addition to the slot. I made small changes to the main deck and sideboard for the event and breezed through the Swiss rounds going into the Top 8. After winning Game 1 versus Kenneth’s Tang “Grim Flayer” Jund, I felt comfortable for the post-board games. But mulligans to four for Game 2 and mulligan to five for Game 3 was extremely disappointing. I had already set the event to the final hurrah for the Eldrazi’s before I moved into the next phase of my WMC preparation, hence it was unfortunate that the Eldrazi’s had to stand down in defeat this way. Still, I had a lot of fun testing and playing with the deck and it’s a valid contender for the WMC line up. Also congrats to Shawn Khoo for winning it all, much thanks to a last minute inclusion of a brave Grim Lavamancer…..
WMC versus WMCQ
There are many out there today preparing and testing hard for the upcoming WMCQ. Its obvious that everyone is trying to determine what is the best Modern deck to play for such an important event, but unfortunately there is no answer for that difficult question. The field of decks is so diverse and punishing that every Tier 1 deck is capable of winning AND losing on any given day. I played Merfolk for two WMCQ’s now but am still not convinced it’s even up within the league of top decks in Modern. But understanding the metagame, preparing well for it and making crucial decisions during game play were the key to my success. Merfolk allowed me to achieve just that, despite it not being the best deck in the room.
So what do I see changing for WMCQ 3 Malaysia? A few more Merfolk obviously. But that aside, I’m expecting many people to play decks with good safety nets to prevent getting run over by decks like Merfolk, Burn, Affinity and even Dredge. Cards like Kitchen Finks, which I hardly saw in WMCQ 2 will be recalled in full numbers and the increase in graveyard hate in sideboards won’t surprise me at all.
Dredge has seen increased in appearances of late in the Malaysian metagame, thanks to Eugene Tong's near run to the top 8 of WMCQ 2 and also the deck is performing well in the SCG circuit. That could mean Midrange strategies (i.e. Jund and Jeskai) which loads up on versatile disruption tools, may come back in full force for WMCQ 3, which could also mean decks that prey midrange strategies like Scapeshift and Emrakul-Breach could see action for a few brave pilots.
That being said, will all of that be the right strategy heading in? Well, I still have a few tricks left for Team Decards so lets see if it pans out well once again.
Grand Prix Guangzhou
So I heard there were a group of Malaysians heading to Guangzhou for the Grand Prix this weekend. Why not? Guangzhou was inexpensive, food is great (if you love Cantonese cuisine) and it’s only 30 minutes from Foshan – the home of the legendary Ip Man. Best of all – its China (cough cough). In all honesty, the Chinese MTG field has known to be “slightly” softer comparing to its Hong Kong or Japan counterparts. Also, the format is Modern so its a good live build-up for WMCQ 3 and also the WMC later on.
So why am I not attending? Firstly, its China. Could never get used to the extreme culture and people and plus….. the weather is extremely hot. Like 38 degrees scorching summer heat. Also, its going to be roughly eight weeks of intense Magic starting from Kaladesh pre-release, so I just wanted to take some time off from serious competitive Magic.. But had I made the trip to Guangzhou, I would probably play Merfolk (for its familiarity) or Dredge (for its explosiveness).
What’s next on my schedule for WMC?
In my last post, I shared a table looking all the possible decks in Modern and what key resources clashed with each other. Summarizing all that, I start to realize that for the WMC, we would need to answer several questions in determining the combination of decks we would play.
1. What is the best Lightning Bolt deck?
2. What is the best Black deck?
3. What is the best non-Fetch non-Shock deck?
4. What is the default deck in everyone’s lineup?
Q1: What is the best Lightning Bolt deck
While is there no one direct answer (that’s how Modern usually goes), but they are many front-runners. Decards and WMC teammate Shawn Khoo just took down the PPTQ with Naya Burn. Burn is perhaps the only all-in proactive deck that uses Lightning Bolt as an offensive tool in the format. Other runners include Jund, Jeskai and in some rare cases Grixis and Blue Moon, use Lightning Bolt defensively. We’re not locked into anything yet, but it’ll be interesting to see where Lightning Bolt can truly shine in the coming weeks ahead.
Q2: What is the best Black deck
Black in Modern comprise three of the most oppressive cards in the format – Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek and Liliana of the Veil. Individually they can blunt any strategy. Collectively, they wreck and dismantle any game plan for any deck in Modern. It’s hard to envision of running a deck in the WMC lineup without a combination of these three cards. While at present it seems like Jund would be the natural home for these powerhouse disruptions, however it will be probably be another interesting quest to see if there’s some place else we should be looking at.
Q3: What is the best non-Fetch non-Shock deck
Q4: What is the default deck in everyone’s lineup
This was already determined in my earlier testing of Merfolk and Eldrazi Tron. Both decks are capable of holding their own against most decks in the metagame. However the answer to this question ties in with the answer to my fourth question.
Affinity.
I don’t think it will come as a surprise if 70% of the WMC squads would have at least an Affinity in their lineup. Much like Atarka Red in last year’s WMCQ, it was fast, it was consistent and best of all, it doesn’t take any resources from the Black and Lightning Bolt decks. This makes Affinity the possible main choice for many teams. But of course, this is no secret to anyone so comes the bonus question.
Bonus Question: Should all decks in the lineup be more than ready to beat Affinity?
I personally think so. One of the lessons from last years WMC was the running of GR Ramp in the lineup as our non-Fetch deck. GR Ramp was the easy and clean answer. But everyone knew this hence every deck in most lineups had a plan versus GR Ramp and they were effective. Basically having GR Ramp in a lineup became an Achilles Heal and it created tremendous pressure on the remaining two players to win their matches. No disrespect to the pilot who played the GR Ramp, but it was a poor deck decision as a team on hindsight. This is partially led by the limited amount of thought and testing, something which I plan on not repeating this year.
No comments:
Post a Comment