Aether Revolt Game day
This last weekend I attended the Aether Revolt Game Day at my local games store. Today I'm going to tell you all about how it went and take a look at what cards really pulled their weight.
Being a Game Day at my local, I was sure I was going to see some nice brews as well as decks represented in the current meta-game coming off the back of Pro Tour Aether Revolt. So with that in mind, I had to make a choice between a competitive deck that would have a game against the current big hitters, like Vehicles or BG Delirium, or something I had brewed myself sitting nicely in the home brew/alternative decks that always have the advantage of confusing your opponent as to what you're playing.
I ended up going with Grixis Tower because I feel that right now control decks are in a good place in the meta-game. Everyone else is trying to make all these sweet, value packed plays and im content to sit back and have the answer to almost everything that is thrown at me and playing Grixis Tower, I felt that it would give me a great game against a lot of mainstream decks and the home brews alike.
Taking a look over the list, I'm happy with the numbers of pretty much everything except for possibly the one Revolutionary Rebuff. If I'm building a deck that will have some play-ability against any mainstream decks then I cant realistically run four Rebuff's as I would get run over, literally, by any Vehicles decks I might play against and I couldn't bring myself to make it a third main deck Negate for those times you want a two mana counterspell against a creature like Winding Constrictor or Tireless Tracker. I have three Unlicensed Disintegration purely just because it's the best removal spell right now by a long way and playing it again via a Torrential Gearhulk can be brutal. Speaking of brutal, my one main deck Brutal Expulsion is a card I have wanted to play with for a while and have never really found the place for it, never the less I have had faith in the card from the moment I saw it on the spoiler all those months ago.
This last weekend I attended the Aether Revolt Game Day at my local games store. Today I'm going to tell you all about how it went and take a look at what cards really pulled their weight.
Being a Game Day at my local, I was sure I was going to see some nice brews as well as decks represented in the current meta-game coming off the back of Pro Tour Aether Revolt. So with that in mind, I had to make a choice between a competitive deck that would have a game against the current big hitters, like Vehicles or BG Delirium, or something I had brewed myself sitting nicely in the home brew/alternative decks that always have the advantage of confusing your opponent as to what you're playing.
I ended up going with Grixis Tower because I feel that right now control decks are in a good place in the meta-game. Everyone else is trying to make all these sweet, value packed plays and im content to sit back and have the answer to almost everything that is thrown at me and playing Grixis Tower, I felt that it would give me a great game against a lot of mainstream decks and the home brews alike.
Taking a look over the list, I'm happy with the numbers of pretty much everything except for possibly the one Revolutionary Rebuff. If I'm building a deck that will have some play-ability against any mainstream decks then I cant realistically run four Rebuff's as I would get run over, literally, by any Vehicles decks I might play against and I couldn't bring myself to make it a third main deck Negate for those times you want a two mana counterspell against a creature like Winding Constrictor or Tireless Tracker. I have three Unlicensed Disintegration purely just because it's the best removal spell right now by a long way and playing it again via a Torrential Gearhulk can be brutal. Speaking of brutal, my one main deck Brutal Expulsion is a card I have wanted to play with for a while and have never really found the place for it, never the less I have had faith in the card from the moment I saw it on the spoiler all those months ago.
Round 1
Going into my first game in round one, I was confident in my deck choice. A mix of Aethergeode Miner's, Longtusk Cub's, Tireless Tracker's and a Call for Unity later however, I was less confident being one game down. What I'd seen from game one was a nice GW Revolt Build, utilizing Aethergeode Miner's blink ability to trigger any Renegade Ralliers or Solemn Recruits very effectively but what really pushed it over the edge in the first game was the Call for Unity. It just looks like a bulk rare but when you're blinking two Aethergeode Miners every turn consistently, your 3/1's start getting large quick, and as I'm playing a deck that doesn't interact from a combat perspective very often, getting the necessary Energy was easy.
For game two I decided to sideboard in my three Weaver of Lightning as a fantastic blocker in this match up and it makes light work of most opposing creatures, acting as part wall and part machine gun in this deck, and extra Brutal Expulsion mainly for the bounce side of it to get a creature in combat but could always give me a sweet two for one late in the game. Boarding out were the Negates, a Disallow and a Glimmer of Genius as I wanted more proactive spells which the Negates and the Dissolve especially aren't.
Game two went a lot better for me opening with two Weaver of Lightning, rendering almost every creature my opponent had useless and proved incredibly effective. Being able to shock a creature and Glimmer of Genius is nuts and once I had found a Torrential Gearhulk to replay an Unlicensed Disintegration clearing the path and getting the addition three damage, the game was over.
In game three my opponent was a little stuck on lands and I was able to drop a Dynavolt Tower on turn three to give myself some resilience against any oncoming creatures. Not the case however as any creatures my opponent did attempt to play ended up quashed by my choice of counterspell netting me two Energy each time from the Dynavolt Tower. Eventually I found my second Dynavolt tower and was able to use both to hit my opponent for six each turn along with a couple of Wandering Fumarole attacks.
All in all I like my match up against GW Revolt. You're a very reactive deck packed with removal and counterspells so you're always going to have the upper hand against a creature heavy deck. In the first game I was caught off guard with a sketchy opening hand as I wasn't sure what I would face but going into the last two games, it was a lot easier to know what to prioritize and how to act accordingly.
This round the all star player was Weaver of Lightning; It blocked, it pinged, it attacked, it sliced, it diced, it did it all! Being a low mana cost creature makes Weaver very efficient and like I said, in Grixis Tower it can absolutely destroy an opposing board of an aggressive deck.
Round 2
This would always be a slow game with both sides playing draw-go for the opening five or six turns before someone blinks and a massive counterspell war breaks out. It wouldn't live up to that however as my second round was a bit of a bust.
I mulligan'd to five in game one and had a turn three main phase Anticipate negated resulting in no turn three or four land drop. Couple that with seeing one counterspell in the form of Brutal Expulsion all game meant that two Torrential Gearhulks were soon going in for the kill.
Game two wasn't very different. Mulligan to five again with an opening hand of three lands, Glimmer of Genius and a Harnessed Lightning and I only then realised I had drastically miss-sideboarded. All the counter magic except for the Brutal Expulsion comes in from the sideboard and in this match up, as there isn't really a ground war going on, all the removal comes out and, while I had taken all three Unlicensed Disintegration out, I had also taken the Shocks out instead of the Harnessed Lightnings. That would come back to haunt me. The Chandra's come in as the last two cards to round of the seven sideboard cards for this match as it gives you some staying power and a control deck finds it very hard to actively deal with a planeswalker, especially Chandra's Emblem which is just game over. Back to the game and despite having lands on all three turns, I didn't have an Anticipate to progress further and therefore couldn't get to cast Glimmer of Genius on turn four. This was a slower game though and I later found some lands to counter some Gearhulks but soon ran out, leaving me to desperately Torrential Gearhulk in my main phase for some low Value which ran into an opposing Disallow. I couldn't stop an Ob Nixilis, Reignited from landing and this was were my sideboard error would bite me in the arse as by this point I had three Harnessed Lightning in hand and if they were Shocks, I could have probably dealt with the Ob Nixilis. In the end though, my opponent got an emblem and I couldn't beat it. When your deck thrives on drawing cards, being shocked every time you do will take its toll pretty quick.
This round the all star player was Weaver of Lightning; It blocked, it pinged, it attacked, it sliced, it diced, it did it all! Being a low mana cost creature makes Weaver very efficient and like I said, in Grixis Tower it can absolutely destroy an opposing board of an aggressive deck.
Round 2
This would always be a slow game with both sides playing draw-go for the opening five or six turns before someone blinks and a massive counterspell war breaks out. It wouldn't live up to that however as my second round was a bit of a bust.
I mulligan'd to five in game one and had a turn three main phase Anticipate negated resulting in no turn three or four land drop. Couple that with seeing one counterspell in the form of Brutal Expulsion all game meant that two Torrential Gearhulks were soon going in for the kill.
Game two wasn't very different. Mulligan to five again with an opening hand of three lands, Glimmer of Genius and a Harnessed Lightning and I only then realised I had drastically miss-sideboarded. All the counter magic except for the Brutal Expulsion comes in from the sideboard and in this match up, as there isn't really a ground war going on, all the removal comes out and, while I had taken all three Unlicensed Disintegration out, I had also taken the Shocks out instead of the Harnessed Lightnings. That would come back to haunt me. The Chandra's come in as the last two cards to round of the seven sideboard cards for this match as it gives you some staying power and a control deck finds it very hard to actively deal with a planeswalker, especially Chandra's Emblem which is just game over. Back to the game and despite having lands on all three turns, I didn't have an Anticipate to progress further and therefore couldn't get to cast Glimmer of Genius on turn four. This was a slower game though and I later found some lands to counter some Gearhulks but soon ran out, leaving me to desperately Torrential Gearhulk in my main phase for some low Value which ran into an opposing Disallow. I couldn't stop an Ob Nixilis, Reignited from landing and this was were my sideboard error would bite me in the arse as by this point I had three Harnessed Lightning in hand and if they were Shocks, I could have probably dealt with the Ob Nixilis. In the end though, my opponent got an emblem and I couldn't beat it. When your deck thrives on drawing cards, being shocked every time you do will take its toll pretty quick.
This round I would say the stand out card would be Shock for obvious reasons.
Round 3
Round 3
Seeing a turn one Spirebluff Canal into turn two Inspiring Vantage puts me pretty solidly on Saheeli combo. This is a great match up for me because playing Grixis Tower you don't play anything in your own turn bar Dynavolt Tower. Jeskai Saheeli wants to sit back and play the control game until it can combo off, but against Grixis Tower its almost forced to play a straight up honest game of "Do you have it?". The answer was always yes: Saheeli? Negate. Felidar Guardian? Harnessed Lightning. And if you find yourself in that position of actually losing to the combo on board, you always have the Shock to get you out.
Game one was pretty standard. I had all the Anticipates and Glimmers resulting in me sculpting my perfect hand and being able to land a Torrential Gearhulk with a lot of counter back up, as an answer to anything else my opponent could find. The first game is always going to be fairly in Tower's favor as Jeskai Saheeli has a chunk of removal that is just useless against you and, as my opponent did, it all gets discarded or scryed to the bottom of your library leaving the door wide open for any Gearhulks to crash in. You're also a lot more likely to win a counter war as they may run Negate's in the main deck but not always a whole lotta Disallow.
Sideboarding in this match-up seemed pretty straight forward, I took out three Unlicensed Disintegration and two Negate for two Chandra, two Dispel and the card that is super powerful against Saheeli Combo, Brutal Expulsion. It can single handedly deal with the combo efficiently disposing of both parts.
In game two my opponent got stuck on two lands and whiffed on an Anticipate on turn three. I was able to counter a second Anticipate on turn four and drop a Chandra, Torch of Defiance to start racking up some card advantage. A couple of turns later I was able to cast a Dynavolt Tower and clock in for three damage a turn while still keeping my opponent at bay with Disallows and Scatter to the Winds I had drawn off my Glimmers Chandra had so neatly provided me. A Torrential Gearhulk to hit a Scatter to the Winds countering my opponents Gideon, Ally to Zendikar was a little overkill as I had the Revolutionary Rebuff in hand and plenty of mana, but it lead to a quick scoop and back on a positive record.
The card of the round is Brutal Expulsion. Even though I was able to use it to it's fullest, I feel there is a lot of power in this card and when I did use it, it still felt good having that versatility.
Round 4
This deck looked like a lot of fun. Being able to use Tireless Tracker and Nahiri, Harbinger to gain card advantage, then Thalia's Lancers to tutor up, say, a Bruna, the Fading Light to later meld with your turn four Gisela, the Broken Blade can be devastating, finding a Linvala, the Preserver can pull you back into a game and be very hard to answer. The problem with this kind of strategy is that its playing right into the hands of Grixis Tower that sits back and can counter everything with ease in the knowledge that there wont be a fight.
The first game went long. My opponent had a lot of threats ranging from the three aforementioned angels, to Gideon and Nahiri and, as many answers as I provided, I couldn't keep it up. It didn't help that I saw one Gearhulk, which succeeded in hitting a Harnessed Lightning to deal with a Tireless Tracker but soon was taken down with a Declaration in Stone, and no Dynavolt Towers, which can be very good in this match up, taking down Gisela and Tracker In one shot. Wandering Fumarole was the only card that prolonged my death by keeping Nahiri in check but even in doing that called for me to pend essentially five mana in my own turn which, like I've said before, isn't what this deck does.
From what I saw in game one, this Naya Good stuffs deck taps out almost every turn. This meant I could side board out some counterspells, two Negates, one Revolutionary Rebuff and Brutal Expulsion and get some gas in the form of Chandra while replacing the other two cards with two different counter spells, Summary Dismissal. The reason for Summary Dismissal is that it exiles the spells it counters which is very relevant when your opponent wants to end up casting Bruna to get their Linvala back from the graveyard. If you Summary Dismissal the Linvala, they wont have that as a target for the Bruna's ability.
Game two went well for me. My opponent stumbled on mana allowing me to safely cast Dynavolt Tower turn three and Chandra turn four then sit back and draw cards at the end of their turn with Glimmer of Genius. This time my opponent wasn't able to produce as many threats and I was able to comfortably deal with any that did find there was onto the battlefield with Unlicensed Disintegration's and Harnessed Lightning's. Soon enough I was able to get an emblem from Chandra and the game quickly came to an end when I played a Shock that dealt seven damage.
Game three had to be quick as we were getting close to time being called. The fist couple of turns were pretty run of the mill, trading off my removal spells for there newly played creature at the end of the turn and using Anticipates and Glimmers to sculpt my hand. Getting into the late game however, we both started running out of threats and, after trading two of my Wandering Fumaroles for two Tireless Trackers, the only card that remained that could do any sort of damage was a Dynavolt Tower on my side of the table but alas only four Energy. Time was called and my opponent passed the turn to me, I drew and Anticipate and passed the turn back. My opponent found a late Linvala to bring them up to twenty four life and put a clock on me. At the end of the turn I cast Anticipate to find a Gearhulk but couldn't play it until my main phase to Unlicensed Disintegration the Linvala, shoot my opponent for three and pass the turn back with a Dynavolt Tower hit at the end of the turn. In the end I couldn't deal the rest of the damage drawing runner runner land and with my opponent threat-less, the match ended in a 1-1-1 draw.
The card of the round this round is Torrential Gearhulk. Without Gearhulks ability I think I would have probably lost immediately in the late game portion because I wouldn't have been able to answer all of these massive creatures. Being able to get an Unlicensed Disintegration or Harnessed Lightning back to answer a big angel was invaluable and even if its just to gain card advantage from a Glimmer its still a big creature they have to deal with as well as getting you deeper into your deck.
Going forward I would tweak it a little. As I said earlier, I not entirely happy with Revolutionary Rebuff and, if the meta was pretty heavy control, I could see making the third main deck Negate. I can also see it the other way; if the meta is pretty aggro heavy, you could choose to run more Rebuffs instead.
The one one split between Kozilek's Return and Radiant Flames was an experiment that unfortunately wasn't tested. Either of these can easily become the other as both have their merits. Kozilek's Return is an instant and can be played almost as a combat trick Pyroclasm, then later be a target for Torrential Gearhulk. Radiant Flames isn't an instant but does hit for one more than Kozilek's Return. I would probably go for Kozilek's Return as it fuels Gearhulk targets and it can get some players out of nowhere sometimes.
I enjoyed my time at the Aether Revolt Game Day and can't wait to head to more MTG events, which I'm sure I will share with you guys. Until then though, keep checking back to Game Changers for more gaming news and updates.
No comments:
Post a Comment