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Arsenal
02-26-2018, 01:28 PM
Top 8 – Mox Mania (Madison, WI) Modern Open – 68 players, 7 rounds.

Me and a couple buddies decide to go to Mox Mania’s monthly Modern event (part of their year long Championship Series). I sleeve up UW Control, my comfort blanket, as I think it’ll be a good meta choice since I’m anticipating Jund, Death Shadow, UWx Control, and Gx Tron to be major players there.

This is the 75 I registered:

Main

2 Gideon of the Trials
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

2 Detention Sphere
2 Search for Azcanta
4 Spreading Seas

2 Snapcaster Mage

2 Supreme Verdict
4 Serum Visions

2 Settle the Wreckage
2 Spell Snare
3 Mana Leak
3 Cryptic Command
4 Path to Exile

1 Polluted Delta
2 Glacial Fortress
2 Hallowed Fountain
3 Plains
4 Field of Ruin
4 Flooded Strand
4 Celestial Colonnade
5 Island

Side

2 Negate
3 Disdainful Stroke
2 Runed Halo
2 Stony Silence
2 Rest in Peace
4 Leyline of Sanctity




Round 1 – RW Taxes

Game 1: My opponent opens with Inspiring Vantage (oh hey, Burn!)… and Aether Vial. Obviously on a Taxes deck, I feel favored here as I’m much better in the grind. I Snare a Thalia Guardian and I’m able to curve out with Gideon, Jace, and Verdict. Not really a game, tbh.

Game 2: I have 2 Plains and a bunch of non-Island blue sources. My opponent plays Eidolon, which causes me to play Gideon and +1 his Eidolon. He then drops a Magus of the Moon, cutting off my blue mana. We go back and forth for a couple turns of me +1 Gideon on his Eidolon and Magus attacking Gideon. My opponent sees that he’s not really making any headway and decides to commit another threat to the board, Flickerwisp on his Eidolon. He eventually attacks my Gideon with his Flickerwisp and Magus which meets my Settle that I’ve been priming for like 3 turns. Once that happens, my hand of Jace and Cryptics are unlocked. Game over. 2-0 in games, 1-0 in matches.


Round 2 – Bant Knightfall

Game 1: I’m on the play and keeping a Seas heavy hand, hoping the cantrips will (a.) stunt my opponent while (b.) drawing me into action. I go, land, pass. My opponent goes fetch shock Hierarch. I Seas his shock, drawing me into Jace. He plays Voice and passes. I Seas another of his lands, leaving him with 2 Islands and a Hierarch. He attacks for 3 with Voice and passes. I am then able to resolve Jace and unsummon his Voice. The game pretty much ends there.

Game 2: My opponent mulls to an unhappy 6 cards and has no turn 1 dork. I lay land and pass. He casts a freshly drawn Hierarch and passes. I now have Leak online and counter something before I stick a Jace. The game goes on for a bit with Collected Company being cast, fateseals revealing stuff, but ultimately, Jace proves to be too much and he never sticks enough threats on board. 4-0 in games. 2-0 in matches.


Round 3 – TitanShift

Game 1: My opponent curves out and I die while holding D Sphere and Verdict in hand. Drew wrong half of deck and I died, wahwah.

Game 2: I resolve many early sb cards, but get very greedy mid-game and tap low to activate Colonnade. This leaves my shields down and I cannot counter his Rec Sage on my Leyline, allowing him to deal a metric ton of damage to me. Very bad sequence of misplays cost me this game and the match. 4-2 in games. 2-1 in matches.


Round 4 – Burn

Game 1: My opponent mercifully kills me very quickly when I keep a questionably slow hand.

Game 2: I open with t0 Leyline and we play Magic for the next 12 turns until I’m able to establish Gideon emblem + Jace fateseal lock. I have infinite countermagic for his Reverlies.

Game 3: Literal carbon copy of Game 2. We discuss after the match about how dumb t0 Leyline is and how Jace helps greatly mitigate drawing into dead copies later. 6-3 in games. 3-1 in matches.


Round 5 – Counters Company

Game 1: He doesn’t apply any pressure or threaten combo at all, allowing me to work my way up to Jace + counter backup. Fateseal is a messed up mechanic as he never draws a relevant card the rest of the game.

Game 2: This is an insanely grindy game that boils down to a convoluted boardstate of his army of dudes, while I’m hiding behind a Gideon, Rest in Peace, and Leyline. Gideon is doing his best, allowing me to not die, but my opponent is slowly whittling away at my life total (not attacking Gideon) putting me at 5. I have 1 draw step left before I just die and I topdeck… Settle the Wreckage. SWEET BABY JESUS. I emblem Gideon, which now means my opponent must attack with all his guys in order to kill Gideon + deal 5 to me. I Settle his alpha strike, exiling his entire board except for a Bird and Druid. The game ends with me getting in with Colonnade and Gideon attacks. 8-3 in games. 4-1 in matches.


Round 6 – Burn

Game 1: I’m very fortunate that my opponent keeps a 1 lander on the draw, allowing me to cast my 3 Seas and cutting him off colored mana. I D Sphere his two Swiftspears he was able to cast in his 1 turn window, then we stop playing Magic.

Game 2: I open with, surprise surprise, t0 Leyline and have Runed Halo in my opener. Obviously name Eidolon with Halo, but I draw pretty dead over the course of the next few turns and he is able to get me down to 2, but blows his entire hand in doing so (Swiftspear, he bolted himself a bunch, Skullcrack got Eidolon through, Boros Charm, etc). I draw a Serum Visions, which finds me Gideon, which allows me to stabilize the board and emblem with Jace taking over later to lock him out of Revelry draws. Very lucky both my Burn matches to draw into t0 Leyline. 10-3 in games. 5-1 in matches.


Round 7 – ID into Top 8 (UW Control, Grixis Control, TitanShift (rd 2), Burn (rd 6), RG Eldrazi, Eldrazi Tron, and 2 Bogles comprises our Top 8)


Top 8 – Grixis Control

Game 1: I open with Seas, Settle, Verdict, and 4 lands on the play. I hope and pray my opponent is either on Bogles or Eldrazi something. He is not. He resolves t4 Jace while I’m looking at my Verdict and he proceeds to win the game on the spot.

Game 2: I resolve a Gideon through his Leak courtesy of my Snare. Unfortunately, he then resolves Blood Moon on his turn, leaving me with 1 Plains and 3 Mountains. I draw no colored mana the rest of the game while he assembles Angler + Jace. Very fast 2 games, not even close. I finish somewhere in 5th-8th. 10-5 in games. 5-2-1 in matches.

I walk away with $60 store credit for my efforts. I really wish I had gotten paired vs anyone else to start the Top 8, but I think it was karma since I faced nothing but good matchups in the Swiss AND drew a ton of sb cards. Really wouldn’t change too much about the 75, maybe swap the D Stroke and Negate counts, but that’s about it. Jace was super duper gross all day, with a couple of my opponents being unfamiliar with his ultimate and had to read him multiple times when I said “-12, target you”. Fateseal ain’t real, baby.