4-0 Evolution Games - A Cinderella Story

[Draener]

Background
So I have been away from tournament magic for something like 4 months due to traveling for work. Finally, the project that I’m working on ends, and what better way to celebrate my homecoming than to play some good old magic? None I say, and my friends apparently agree. We find a local legacy event that starts in a week, but there is still one glaring problem. All of my decks are four months out of date. A total fashion nightmare.

Now I could grab a netdeck, but theres two problems with this. One: I don’t own survival. Apparently if you want to netdeck these days, that’s the only option. Two: And this is KEY, its just not my style. The entry fee to the tourney is $5 so what the hell, its time to go rogue. And I get to brewing.

The List

Mana
Windswept Heathx4
Savannahx4
Marsh Flatsx1
Plainsx7
Forestx2
Horizon Canopyx2

The “Engine”
Wall of Omensx4
Wall of Blossomsx1
Kor Skyfisherx4
Flickerwispx4
Eternal Witnessx4

Goodstuff
Swords to Plowsharesx4
Aether Vialx4
Kitchen Finksx4
Mother of Runesx4
Serra Avengerx3
Sylvan Libraryx1
Stoneforge Mysticx1
Umezawa’s Jittex2

Sideboard
Krosan Gripx2
Qasali Pridemagex2
Path to exilex4
Tormod’s Cryptx2
Burrenton Forge-Tenderx3
Ethersworn Canonistx1
Pithing Needlex1

Wow. What a complete pile of jank. It however, reminds me of my first few legacy decks, and I am a chump for nostalgia. And CITP effects, they get me every time. So I sleeve them up and play test a bunch. The above list is the final version after some cuts, but since I can’t remember what it was before the changes and you don’t care I won’t go there. And if you do care, tough. That’s life.

The event

So we get to the event, and I look around. Looks like today is going to be the best turnout that this place has had in a while. Fourteen to sixteen people, a lot of familiar faces and some that I had not seen before. My first time playing at this place too, but since there’s a couple other places that host legacy tourneys literally two miles away, a lot of the metagame kind of bleeds through. Pairings are up and we’re off!

Round 1 - …Mill?

A face I have never seen before. I chat him up a bit and find out that he’s this is his first time playing here as well, and mostly sticks to his friend group who play legacy. That’s cool. That’s what I did for some time. So we roll, and I lose. Off to a good start. We both keep our seven. He leads island, tomb scour. I look at my hand. Mother, vial, land, land, Avenger, Witness , Stp. JACKPOT. I mill 5, and reveal some combination of skyfisher and flickerwisps. I play vial and pass. He puts down island and pass. Vial goes up to 1 and draw a wall of omens. Put down a fetch, crack. Archive trap! I mill thirteen and reveal witness and god only knows how many flickerwisps. The next few turns involve me playing eternal witness to get witness to get skyfisher to pickup witness to get flickerwisp… you get the idea. Relevant plays he does… Dimir Doppelganger? Cute, but stp’d. Game two is more of the same.

I felt bad for the guy, and knew he was in for a long night. I wished him luck and talked to him for a little bit of how mill can go wrong, and how it might be a little slow for competitive play. We ended quick, so I take the opportunity to scout the meta. Zoo vs Zoo (My buddy), W/G Survival vs U/G Survival (WG Wins), UB Thopter foundry/Darkdepth/Dreadnaught.dec ? vs tempo faeries, UGW tempo vs death and taxes (Mossivo playing UGW tempo wins) , Necrotic Ooze combo vs Merfolk (Necrotic Ooze wins.. I think), and UWRg punishing control vs Dragon Stompy(Punishing control wins.). Ooze combo and W/G survival… eww. Well maybe I can still dodge them.

Round 2 – Zoo

I sit down to the victor of the Zoo Mirror, a familiar face. Hes the shopkeep and a pretty cool guy. We roll, he wins. You can’t have a good report if you win the rolls anyways, right? We both mull, and I keep a six of plains, vial, mother, mother, finks, and stp.

Turn one, fetch->taiga nactyl pass. Hm… draw wall of omens. Plains, vial, go! Nactyl swing! 17… wait no … 18. He doesn’t make a land drop… ouch. Second main Nactyl. Least he still has gas. Vial to one, draw a savannah. Wall of omens into a third mother of runes…I’ll take it. Pass. Attack for 4… block one with wall take 2… 16. Second main phase… lavamancer.. still no land to be found. Vial in mother #1. Vial to two… draw kor skyfisher. Drop the remaining double mothers out to make triplets! Pass. He drops a horizon canopy and swings with two tiny nactyls… awkward. Vial in Skyfisher returning a land block wall and skyfisher to nactyl. Dead nactyls. He sighs… thinks for a minute and passes. Move vial to three… draw flickerwisp. Endless gas! Plains… swing for 2 in the air pass. Grim lavamancer my face. He draws a third land… but by this point its way too late, as my triple mother of runes negates all his removal and flickerwisp and skyfisher take it home.

Board- In: 4 path Out: 3 Avenger, 1 mystic

I keep my seven. He mulls to five. Ouch. Keeps his five… proceeds to play out double plateau, mountain… he doesn’t get a green source until turn 4, and he starts unloading knights. They meet with STP and witness getting more stp. He wasn’t winning off a mull to 5 with bad land and 3 drops. Sad for him, but I’ll take the win anyways.

Round 3 – G/W Survival

Ugh… Not the matchup I wanted to see. Never playtested against this monster, and if it wins 150+ player tourneys its got to be good, right? We roll, he wins. I’m over it. We look at our hands. He thinks for a minute, and decides to keep his seven. He leads Windswept->forest. Wait, no! He grabs his forest and puts it back… Plains instead. Bad move. Lets me know he has a mana light hand. He drops mother and passes. I keep something like double vial, plains, mother, double flickerwisp, avenger. I drop vial and pass. He fails to drop another land… pass. I draw a stp, and also fail to make a land drop, but vial is a champ. Lay down a second one. Pass.

He draws a forest and drops survival! Uh oh. Eot mother of runes. Vials to two and one. Draw a wall of Omens… vial it in... Kor sky fisher… still no mana. Oh well. Pass the turn. He draws, sighs, and passes. Vial to 3 and 2. Draw a mana. Play kor skyfisher returning wall... pass. He end of turn survivals for a noble hierarch, ditching knight of the reliquary. Plays the hiearch, still no mana.. passes the turn. I vial in flickerwisp targeting mother, he responds giving nobel protection from white. Then removes it from play and then immediately brings it back. I inform him that it doesn’t come back into play until my endstep. He looks unsure but goes along with it. I untap, swords his hierarch. And during MY endstep I vial in flickerwisp targeting survival informing him that he wont have it during his next turn which prompts a call for a judge. Judge comes over and explains it to him and we continue. He dies to 8 power in the air soon after. Shows me his hand. All goyfs.

Board – In: 1 needle, 1 crypt, 2 Qasali Out: 4 kitchen finks

Not sure if I boarded correctly, but I wanted fast evasive beaters and finks seemed like he might be a little too slow.

He plays first. Savannah Hierarch. Fetch->svannah into vial. He goes mother of runes, into gaeas cradle into tarmogoyf. Uh oh. Vial to one. Hard cast mystic, get jitte. Pass. He hard casts vengevine, and swings for six… Didn’t see that coming. I take it. 13. Vial Goes up to two. Drop my third land, wall of blossoms into eternal witness He swings for six again I vial in avanger , he gives goyf pro white, so I take another six… down to 7. Second main he drops a basking rootwalla, and is out of cards. My turn Vial goes up to 3, I vial in witness, get fetch (6 life) play jitte equip to avenger, swing! Kill mother and hierarch(mana open to pump rootwalla). He draws, swings I block avenger to goyf (finally a 3/4) witness to rootwalla (he pumps) and stoneforge to vengevine. Jitte counters kill rootwalla and goyf. He drops a mother second main, last card again. I swords his vine, drop another witness, get swords and swords his mother and sudently that cradle isn’t looking so good anymore. With that he scoops.

Round 4 – URWg Punishing Control (Punishing Fire and Humility)

My buddy, playing my deck. Getting tired, so notes a little sketchy. He wants to play it out, so we play it out. Game one I get mana screwed and he lands humility. Sad face.

Board – In: 2 grip, 1 needle, 1 cannonist Out: 4 swords

I lead vial. He plays lots of planeswalkers. I kill them with 2/3 fliers. Finally end up killing him with a jitte on a witness and a flickerwisp, with a vial on 3 and a witness in hand. The recursion gets there killing my own witness with jitte in reponse to .swords, then vialing in witness to get back witness, and repeat.

Game 3! I go second, he opens top. Probably not good. I find a vial. He plays EE. I needle it. We trade some swords for recursive guys, I play a lot of walls. He plays relic. I grip it, then slide in witness to get it back, grip the top. He sighs topdecks humility, which he knew was coming from top. Plays it and turns my 4 walls into beaters. He dies to 1/1 retired defeders and my now 1/1 witnesses. He shows me the other two with top were land land anyways. I live the dream.

Prizes get sorted out and I’m the only 4-0.

Props:
-Come into Play Effects! Really awesome.
-My zoo buddy for driving an hour to come hang out!
-Joel and Kenta for helping me test for 14 hours over 2 days

Slops:
-Failing to properly mull against my own deck in round 4.
-Not using the forge-tenders from the board at all! Meta was suppose to have gobos and dredge!

After thougts:
I would definitely play this again, and it was a ton of fun. Scoops to combo, but if you can dodge it like a pro (or like me, a lucky nub) it will treat you pretty well. Stomps on agro like merfolk and gobos pretty well, as well as zoo. Didn’t have a bad control matchup with all the recursion. Overall, I would give it two thumbs up and recommend it to anyone where combo is not a huge part of your meta!

P.S. First Tourney Report, so be gentle!

[mossivo1986]

sXe time. Well done as usual. Team Bad Guys in spots 1 and 2. Sick life? Did you know Roodmistah top 4'd the sc5k boston with you guessed it Dreadstill?

[4eak]

This deck is awesome. I enjoyed your report.



peace,
4eak

[rockout]

I'm glad to see someone besides myself doing well with eternal witness. That card is insanely good.

[Draener]

Thanks for your words of encouragement. I'm glad that at least a couple of people enjoyed my report as much as I enjoyed writing it. I also enjoyed watching peoples faces as I pulled 10 points worth of power out of the graveyard with a single witness :D.

[Tacosnape]

The Witness shenanigans are one of my favorite things ever and nothing new to me, as I ran 4 in Survival for years, and won so many games off of them.

That said? This is officially the weirdest deck I've ever seen. I absolutely love it. Neat report.

[magicplaya10]

I love witness and flickerwisp in this deck. It looks like a TON of fun to play. Chants out of the board to chant+witness lock combo seems nice. Heh, grats on the report. Deck looks fun.

[Draener]

I love witness and flickerwisp in this deck. It looks like a TON of fun to play. Chants out of the board to chant+witness lock combo seems nice. Heh, grats on the report. Deck looks fun.

If there's one thing this deck is, it's that its fun to play. Another card that compliments witness and flickerwisp extremely well is kor skyfisher, which also combos with finks/walls or with an aether vial at 2 to save any permenant from distruction.

I played the same list again last week, going a depressing 1-2 drop, confirming that I do in fact, have an abysmal combo matchup. First round, non-survival ooze combo... second round scapeshift lands.dec. 0-2 and 0-1-1, respectively. Third round I played a u/b faeries deck with jittes and bitterblossoms as the main win conditions. Grip from the board with witness did a pretty good job of handling that, but at that point I was out of contention and decided to drop and watch some friends play.