Saturday, June 4, 2011

Two Standard Tournaments This Weekend

Initial reports are starting to come in on both Grand Prix Singapore, and the Star City Invitational in Indianapolis. Initial reports are bleak, we're looking at another two tournaments that have the Top 8's dominated by Caw-Blade variants.

The SCG Open has at least one Top 8 that isn't Caw-Blade, Vampires. Being piloted by Matthew Landstrom, he's also made it into the Top 4, which is where he currently sits going into Day 2.

Of interest at Singapore is Brian Kibler playing his Black/Blue Tezzeret deck. Brian is currently sitting at 24 points after 11 rounds.

Unfortunately, there have been no deck lists posted yet. I've been able to glean the information that I have from watching featured matches and reading match reports.

Brian Kibler's deck looks very interesting, but I haven't gotten a full deck list yet. Essentially he runs a bunch of cheap artifacts, including Flight Spellbomb, and attempts to hold Metalcraft to use Vedalken Certarch as a permanent Tumble Magnet. It also makes use of Etched Champion to act as a perfect blocker, or an unblockable attacker depending on the opponent's board state.

The deck can also win purely by Poison, by slow rolling an Inkmoth Nexus. Due to the deck running so many artifact creatures, it makes good use of Steel Overseer, allowing you to slowly pump up Inkmoth Nexus turn after turn, making him eventually too big to be stopped. Inkmoth is also "Jace proof" as Jace can never bounce it. You still need to play around Divine Offerings or Condemns, but otherwise you're in the clear.

I like the concept of the deck, as it uses a lot of cards that are very powerful in their own right.

Next weekend is the StarCityGames Open here in Denver, and it is incredibly tempting to go, however, the Standard Tournament is going on at the same time as the KBPI Car Show, which I had told my wife that we were going to. However, on Sunday there will be more constructed tournaments, and I might have a chance to place in those.

Alright, GP Singapore postings are up! Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa wins with a Caw-Blade deck.

Cawblade by Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa  
Lands - 26
Celestial Colonnade
Glacial Fortress
Inkmoth Nexus
Island
Plains
Seachrome Coast
Tectonic Edge

Creatures - 9
Consecrated Sphinx
Squadron Hawk
Stoneforge Mystic

Spells - 17
Dismember
Divine Offering
Into the Roil
Mana Leak
Preordain
Spell Pierce
Planeswalkers - 5
Jace Beleren
Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Equipment - 3
Batterskull
Sword of Feast and Famine
Sword of War and Peace
Sideboard:
Batterskull
Celestial Purge
Condemn
Day of Judgment
Despise
Dismember
Divine Offering
Flashfreeze
Oust
Sun Titan


The rest of the standings:
1st: Cawblade
2nd: Boros
3rd: Cawblade
4th: Cawblade
5th: U/B Control
6th: Cawblade
7th: Cawblade
8th: Cawblade

Not as bad as most tournaments, Singapore only had 6 of the top 8 as Caw-Blade variants, and a 2nd place finish by a Boros deck.

At the StarCityGames Open, Matt Landstrom wins with B/R Vampires!

Vampires by Matt Landstrom  
Lands - 23
Swamp
Blackcleave Cliffs
Dragonskull Summit
Lavaclaw Reaches
Marsh Flats
Verdant Catacombs

Creatures - 26
Bloodghast
Gatekeeper of Malakir
Kalastria Highborn
Manic Vandal
Pulse Tracker
Vampire Lacerator
Viscera Seer
Instants - 11
Dismember
Go for the Throat
Lightning Bolt
Sideboard:
Batterskull
Skinrender
Dark Tutelage
Act of Aggression
Crush
Doom Blade
Arc Trail


1st: Vampires
2nd: Cawblade
3rd: Cawblade
4th: U/R Splintertwin
5th: RUG Twin
6th: Hawkward
7th: Cawblade
8th: Cawblade

This is an excellent turnout. Only 4 of the top 8 decks are Cawblade. We have 2 variants of the Exarch-Splinter Twin combo, a Vampires deck and the artifact aggro deck Hawkward.

Congratulations to the winners, hopefully this can be seen as a turning point, with more people moving away from Caw-Blade and towards other excellent decks.

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