The 2nd ranked deck, Mythic Conscription, is known for incredibly fast mana ramping, leading to the +10/+10 aura Eldrazi Conscription. Jund Monsters has some ramp too. Neither deck plays much removal, so it’s all about which deck can ramp into something good. Given the multiple 2nd place finishes for Mythic Conscription, the assumption is that it is favored here. If it can get decent draws. But, that’s a big if. Turns out, it was an unreasonable ask.
G1: Jund wins the die roll. Mythic can’t find a playable hand and mulls to 5 cards. Jund kills a Noble Hierarch with Mizzium Mortars, then plays Xenagos on turn 4 and starts making hasty Satyrs. Mythic adds some lands. By the time the Mythic deck is able to play Sovereigns of Alara it is too late, the next turn is lethal: 4 satyrs, an elf, and an ooze come crashing in. Jund 1-0.
G2: A turn four concession from Jund after Mythic uses double Lotus Cobras to power out Sovereigns of Alara on turn 4! That’s how this deck is supposed to work.
G3: Both decks mull to 6. Mythic has mana dorks and not much else. A Rabblemaster gets hit by a Celestial Purge, but Polukranos makes the situation rather desperate, kills off the little guys and then calls Stormbreath to join in on the face stomping. Jund 2-1.
G4: The mythic deck can’t find a playable hand. After a mulligan to 6, Mythic keeps 4 lands, Sovereigns, and an Eldrazi Concription, knowing it’s a terrible hand but hoping to maybe draw into some ramp. Nope. Draws more lands. Guess I should’ve mulled to 5. Big upset! Mythic had one good hand (game 2) and the rest were terrible. Luck does play a factor in this game, no doubt about it.

Jund Monsters wins the match 3-1.

So, because the Bargain deck is complicated and fairly difficult to pilot, we did a practice game. Bargain won on turn 2. TURN TWO! Ok, we thought, this will be a blowout. The Bargain deck then completely failed to get the cards it needed for the rest of the match. Every game the red deck did the same thing: turn one? Bomat Courier, hit you for 1. Turn two, Kari Zev, hit you with Bomat Courier. Turn 3, Hit you for 5 with Kari, Ragavan, and Bomat. Apparently the lost card draw from this 7 damage was enough to stall the Bargain deck. It would get Bargain into play, and even a Delusions of Mediocrity, but it could never get enough Grim Monoliths to get the mana engine going. This was an odd result, for you would think that drawing about 15 extra cards would be enough to win the game, but there was always something missing – the turnabouts were all near the bottom, or the vampiric tutor never showed up, or the Grim Monoliths were hiding… it just didn’t come together. Red decks are Bargain’s achilles heel though, they always pressure the life total so quickly and force the Bargain deck to go for the combo a little earlier than desirable. So, yeah – Bargain elimainated. Red-Black 3-0.

There’s a bit of an asterisk to this result as we didn’t count the first game we played. In the first game, the Affinity player sacrificed Ravager to try and make a giant Ornithopter, assuming I had an Incinerate but since he hadn’t played that card in years, totally forgot that it cancelled out regeneration effects. After scooping up his cards and accepting defeat, I decided not to count the game at all because he never would’ve made that play if he had remembered what Incinerate actually did. So, we called it a practice match and restarted. But… that was a game that might’ve gone to Gruul.

G1: Affinity kept a pretty risky hand, Seal of Fire prevented Blinkmoth from activating, Gruul got some 3/3 tramplers on beatdown and Affinity lost. Affinity 0-1.

G2: Two back to back Ravagers was the story of this game. Affinity 1-1.

G3: (sideboarded) Super fast Affinity hand with two Ravagers and Ornithopter. Affinity 2-1.

G4: Affinity mulled to 5. Gruul had Ancient Grudge, creatures, and even more removal. Affinity 2-2.

G5: Affinity keeps a risky hand and is stuck on two mana for several turns. I was playing Gruul and I had a Mire Boa and Ancient Grudge and Incinerate and a Moldervine Cloak. I didn’t want to tap out to cast the Cloak because I was worried he might topdeck a red mana source and I wouldn’t be able to regenerate my Boa, but really, that’s what I should’ve done because his odds are low of getting the red mana that turn, I also don’t know if he even has a Shrapnel Blast, and going aggressive against Affinity is a great situation to be in. But instead, I played it safe, hoping to draw a fourth land before I tried that line. It was the wrong call. I should’ve used my removal during an endstep where he missed a land drop, played the Cloak, and crossed my fingers that my odds were good. But instead I was too cautious. When he drew out of his situation with 2 thoughtcasts and then played Ravager and Disciple, it was too late to save the game. Meanwhile I was still on 3 lands with just a Mire Boa. I think I punted this game, and thus this match. Affinity had some bad draws, that was my chance to pull out an upset. But, no. Affinity 3-2.

Black Devotion was one of our special invites for the qualification bracket because it’s potentially one of the all time great decks but it wasn’t in my top 12 based on past results. We wanted to give it another chance. Temur Delirium was a deck played after Aetherworks Marvel got added to a ban list in 2017 that included 5 cards – so it probably isn’t as strong a deck as those other decks that provoked the banhammer before it. We figured Devotion was favored.

G1: Slow start for both decks. I got a Desecration Demon out turn 4 but he had 2 Harnessed Lightning to kill it. Later he wiped my board with the Elder Deep Fiend/Kozilek’s Return combo but I had my singleton Devour Flesh ready for his Fiend. After that it was a card draw race – Underworld Connections against Tireless Tracker clues. Hilariously, the difference maker was Nightveil Specter stealing Traverse the Ulvenwald, which I was able to cast thanks to a Temple of Malady. I got another Desecration Demon and after that played back to back Grey Merchants (aka Gary). Black Devotion 1-0.

G2: An early pack rat got killed, I got stuck at 2 lands for a while, I was never really in the game. Devotion 1-1.

G3: (post sideboard) Very close game. Long and grindy. Mistakes were made. Went to top decking. I start by ripping apart his hand with Duress and Thoughtseize, then play Demon. But he topdecks Confiscation Coup and steals my Demon. I had removal for the Demon but I played Gary first and let his Demon hit me once which was definitely a mistake. My second Gary gained me 10 life at which point it was 13 to 4. I also played a Pack Rat. But then Elder Deep Fiend + Kozilek’s Return wiped my whole board. Playing the Pack Rat was probably a mistake, although I was trying to put him on “you lose if you don’t have it.” I killed the fiend, but then he gets Tracker. He lets a mutavault through so now he’s at 2 but a land drop gets Tracker going with clues and +1 counters. I get a Demon, which is lethal if it attacks, but he topdecks a Harnessed Lightning and has exactly 6 energy after playing it. Demon dies. I can’t remember the exact sequence next, but I remember being salty that after the Harnessed Lightning topdeck, he topdecks a Kozilek’s Return, which kills a mutavault, and then topdecks another harnessed Lightning which kills another recently added mutavault. I end the game wondering if saving the pack rat in hand would’ve won me the game. Grrrr. Devotion 1-2.

G4: The story of this game is three Garys in a row without interference. That’s all you need to know. Devotion 2-2.

G5: I play a Lifebane Zombie but whiff on the green creatures. He kills the zombie. I play an Underworld Connections with 3 lands. He plays Glorybringer. I kill it. He gets it back from his graveyard. I finally find a 4th land thanks to Underworld Connections but I’m at 14 and the newly played Glorybringer makes it 10. I play Erebos. Then I get hit down to 6. I play a Demon and attack with Erebos, but he has Confiscation Coup to steal the Demon and put me at 2. I kill the Glorybringer and sacrifice the Erebos to tap his Demon for a turn. If I can just get to my 5th land I can start playing the 2 Garys in my hand. Or a Hero’s Downfall would be nice. I draw a temple that comes into play tapped. Womp womp. Devotion loses. Temur Delirium 3-2.

Conclusion: Black Devotion is still probably favored here, but his Confiscation Coup from the sideboard exactly when he needed them was crushing. Also, my monocolor deck had some mana trouble and his three color deck never had any problems. And G3 suboptimal plays may have sealed my doom. Still, I was shocked that this 2017 deck from an era with 5 banned cards could hang with Black Devotion. Part of it was that Kozilek’s Return completely nullified Pack Rat. Sorry Black Devotion, better luck net time.

G1: Although Glory had Ravenous Baloth and another 4/4 beast, the Baloth’s lifegain ability was irrelevant since the brawler and hydra both had trample. So many pump spells! Pummeler 1-0.

G2: Glory’s first morphed Exalted Angel got hit by a harnessed lightning, but a second one stuck around, which looked good for Glory until Electrostatic Pummeler entered the battlefield with 9 energy. The next attack saw a pump spell give the Pummeler get +4/+0, then double his power three times: 10 to 20 to 40. 40 power with trample! Pummeler 2-0.

G3: Glory only had two lands and a BOP, but the BOP got hit by harnessed lighting. Stuck on 2 lands, it all came down to a big blocking step with Wild Mongrel. Mongrel was willing to throw 6 cards away to block a Longtusk Cub, but the 4/4 cub got improved by 2 Blossoming Defense. The 8/8 killed the 7/7 mongrel. Game and Match. Pummeler 3-0. Another blowout.

Given that the only card with the word “devotion” was actually in the sideboard, G Devotion is a bit of a misnomer, it is really more of a ramp deck. Red Slogger is a weird, slow, ramping direct damage deck. What it wants to do is prolong the game until Pulse of the Forge can start doing ridiculous amount of damage. We weren’t sure how this would play out.

G1: I was playing Slogger and this was a game I may have mis-piloted. It was a slow game. Devotion had Courser of Kruphix and was getting lots of lands from it. Slogger just kept ramping and ramping. I burned away a Whisperwood Elemental, and this may have been incorrect. Or possibly I should’ve killed the Courser because of the lifegain and extra lands. Anyway, on the 2nd to last turn I was at 4 life and Devotion was at 24. I was facing certain death but during end step I could play Pulse of the Forge 3 times to do 12 damage, untap, and then if only I was at 3 life I could’ve won with 3 more Pulse of the Forge hits. But I was at 4 life, big difference. So just to prove the point I did 22 damage to my opponent and put him at 2 (5 pulses and a Magma Jet), then lost. After losing, in retrospect I wondered if there might have been a way to take 1 additional damage. There probably was, so… regrets. G Devotion 1-0.

G2: G Devotion stumbled on mana this game, and after dealing some damage I had him at 14 life and I was able to win by using Pulse of the Forge twice and Slogger’s ability 3 times (leaving me with only 2 cards in my library). 1-1.

G3: I decided to allow Devotion to untap with Polukranos and go Monstrous, even though I had 2 playable Shrapnel Blasts in hand, and it was probably a mistake, as I drew blanks and got overrun by threats. My plan was to surprise him with tons of direct damage and keep block Polukranos a couple times once I was low on life but it didn’t work out. Devotion 2-1.

G4: I couldn’t quite get my mana ramp working this game, and Nylea’s Disciple from the sideboard gained him 13 life. He had 9 creatures in play when I lost. Devotion 3-1.

We played a G5 for funsies and Slogger lost again. I guess it’s just too mana hungry and slow, but I think I could improve at playing this deck, so I might invite it again next year and see if I can do a little better. It’s always tricky to pilot a deck that WANTS to lose life. But really, it’s not the kind of deck I would expect could compete with the all-time greats. Interesting deck, though!

This looked like a pretty unbalanced matchup. Forbidian had lots of counterspells and controlling elements but was otherwise pretty slow, a control deck meant for a different era when threats were less pushed. Next Level Bant, aside from having cards like Jace, the Mind Sculptor, was just a deck with a constant stream of must-counter threats. Legacy’s allure was one card that might have an impact in Forbidian’s favor, and if the game went long, there were buyback spells. But if Next Level bant resolved any planeswalker, it was probably game over.

G1: NLB managed to resolve a Jace, a Ranger of Eos, Elspeth, and Scute Mob. Total blowout. NLB 1-0.

G2: more interesting game. NLB’s first noble hierarch was countered, which slowed things down, and Forbidian got Sapphire Medallion into play. But since there was no rush, eventually NLB was at eight lands and playing two must-counter threats per turn. Eventually NLB got a Jace and a Vengevine into play, plus there were two man-lands. Jace started fatesealing and attacking, and even though Forbidian had capsize with buyback mana, Forbidian was forced to keep capsizing a Vengevine to stay alive, and the fatesealing “sealed” the deal, haha. NLB 2-0.

G3: Turn 1 meekstone made things interesting. But NLB got Elspeth into play and started sttacking with a pumped up Sea Gate Oracle. Multiple Legacy’s Allure from Forbidian also made things interesting – in fact, NLB really wanted to play the 3/5 flyer in hand, but it seemed correct to NOT play it so it couldn’t get stolen by Forbidian and turned into a blocker. Forbidian was forced to steal Sea Gate Oracles to stay alive and so NLB could just keep sending in pumped up flyers, eventually adding man-lands to the attack. NLB 3-0.

Another blowout. All 3 games, DarkBlade got Sword of Feast and Famine onto the board. G3 Seasons Past could at least hope to draw Naturalize, but duress grabbed an early Naturalize and the others never showed. This deck is clearly quite strong, with Jace the Mind Sculptor, Stoneforge Mystic, both banned cards. Will it do better than the other UW version called CawBlade, also in this tournament? We shall see. DarkBlade 3-0.

Next DarkBlade faces Necro, the 5th seed.

Esper Control went 3-0, getting 2 torrential gearhulks both games. There was one close game, with the Esper player at 2 life, but the other games weren’t even close. Counterspells, creature removal. Also, 5-color black had lots of dead cards before sideboarding. Blowout.

Next, the Esper Control deck will have to face Infect, the 15th seed.

What is Spiral Blue? It is a version of Tolarian Academy that was played after Tolarian Academy and Windfall got banned. Instead of untapping the Academy, it untaps Mana Vault instead. It still has Time Spiral (its namesake) and it packs lots of counterspells to buy time and try to get enough lands on the board to play Mind Of Matter and hopefully combo-off with Stroke of Genius plays (eventually milling the opponent.) We joked before the match that Spiral Blue had no way (maindeck) to deal with creatures, it only had counterspells, and it needed lots of mana to even play Mind Over Matter. So we had low expectation for its tournament chances. Decks with good cheap creatures would be favored against it. The kind of creatures played in Magic back in 1999 were not much of a concern. But nowadays, a single creature getting through the counterspell gauntlet would probably just wreck the deck.

Luckily for Spiral Blue, however, Temur Marvel did not have any cheap creatures. In fact, Marvel was going to have a tough time resolving any threats against all those counterspells. So… would Spiral Blue, a much weaker version of the great & powerful Academy deck, also be able to make its mark?

G1: Not even close. Marvel can’t get any threats to resolve. Spiral Blue waits until Marvel is close to hard casting Ulamog (which would be bad) then combos off with Mind Over Matter + Mana Vault + Stroke of Genius (drawing into more Strokes). Didn’t even need to Time Spiral. Spiral 1-0.

G2: Another blowout. This time a Time Spiral was played. Marvel still didn’t have any threats resolve. Spiral 2-0.

G3: Post-sideboard Marvel was able to weed out dead cards and add more threats. Now the games got interesting. Spiral Blue kept a risky 1 land + Brainstorm hand and found no lands. A turn 2 Mana Vault got censored and then later, at 8 mana, a Chandra resolved thanks to Negate backing her up. Several turns later after many attacking 3/1s, and it was over. Spiral 2-1.

G4: A weird game where two Tireless Trackers resolved and over ran the monoblue deck. Spiral 2-2.

G5: An early Rogue Refiner was not countered, with Spiral opting instead to play Intuition and get a needed Mana Vault. Rogue Refiner gets in two attacks. Then Spiral managed to get Mind Over Matter onto the board, but in response, Temur Marvel destroyed the Mana Vault with two Druid’s Deliverances (the first one got countered.) A Chandra came down to put on pressure, knock him to 5 life, and put Spiral at dead next turn. Could Spiral go off? With his back to the wall, the Spiral player plays Time Spiral. We all get new hands. Marvel draws into a Dispell! Will it stop the combo? Nope. Dispell gets countered, and an Intuition for Mana Vault followed by Stroke of Genius gets the ball rolling. He draws into Stroke number two and draws his entire deck. Game over, Spiral Blue advances! Spiral Blue 3-2.