SCG Regionals Debrief

I recorded an audio blog session on the way to and from SCG Regionals yesterday, and let's just say, trying to stay awake while driving through the foggy White Mountains didn't turn out to be the most cohesive place for drawing conclusions before and after a big tournament. I'd rather spare you all from listening to me ramble and just post a nice, cohesive write-up.

I posted this list in the previous post, with notable changes of late being a switch from Tireless Tracker to Courser of Kruphix, adding a second Dreadbore, and switching an Obstinate Baloth to a Kitchen Finks.

I felt reasonably confident going in. The deck had performed well in testing as of late, and I had good results at the previous two Modern Regionals tournaments I'd played in. But, it's Modern, so there's always a chance that you'll just run into wild off-the-wall decks or the all-in decks will hit their nut draw against you.

To keep y'all from dying of the suspense, I ended the day 6-3, outside of the money.

In the first round, I played against Infect. Modern is like that, decks that have fallen out of favor still have their proponents and are still dangerous. Luckily I had Bitterblossom in game one and was able to pick apart their hand in game two.

In round two I played against Eldrazi Tron. I took the first, can't exactly remember how. In the second, my opponent was able to hold on just long enough to get a Wurmcoil Engine down without Tron and take over. In the third, I had a solid advantage with Bitterblossom going, but a topdecked Reality Smasher on the right turn took me down. My opponent noted that it's a tough matchup for me and that it's his best matchup, which left me thinking that Eldrazi Tron must be pretty bad, since the matchup feels completely winnable on the Jund side.

In round three I played against Ponza. I Inquisitioned a Blood Moon, then took over with Goyfs and Huntmaster. In game two, my opponent mulliganed twice and I was able to squeak by a rough matchup.

I played Jeskai in round four. One of the big problems with the matchup is that your mulligan decisions are so poorly informed for game one. I kept perfectly keepable hand in the dark that featured a Fatal Push and a Bolt, and when my opponent played a turn one Steam Vents, I realized I had just mulliganned to five. I fought on and was actually pretty close in the first, but I won both sideboard games, mostly due to removing all the removal spells and filling the gaps with actual cards. Big test number one, passed.

I played against Normal Tron in the next round. In the first, I was handily defeated as expected. Game one is similar to the Jeskai matchup I just talked about, but the game is still pretty winnable since your discard can sometimes knock them off balance just enough to sneak through a win. I won the second due my opponent missing land drops for pretty much the whole game after a mull to five. Even if they had lands, they would have only add 1 colorless anyways due to my Damping Sphere. In game three, I used discard to get my opponent to finally get rid of both Nature's Claim in their hand so I could safely land my Damping Sphere, and just when I did, they drew their last copy they had boarded in. I was actually still in good position after fighting through a Karn and a Wurmcoil, but lost to a topdecked Ulamog on the last possible turn. A rough loss for sure, but one that I probably would have taken on the back of Damping Sphere most of the time, so +1 for the Sphere.

In round six I faced Merfolk. Weird as it sounds, I've had a history of losing to Merfolk, despite it seeming like exactly what you want to see as Jund. The problem is their Spreading Seas, one is bad but two of them can often shut you out of a game. You can fetch aggressively to play around them, but Merfolk pressure your life total so it's not always an option. Spreading Seas was not the problem in game one, my never-drawing-a-spell situation was the problem. I won game two after a dope Jund Charm to Plague Wind my opponent's board. Game three was really tight, but I eventually got into a stalemate with my opponent while making a bunch of Bitterblossom tokens staving off attackers while without red mana. Lots of draw steps went by without me drawing anything castable until I finally found a red source, and just in time, since my opponent then found a Master of the Pearl Trident and tried to attack me for lethal, which I exploded during combat with removal spells. Huntmaster was clutch again.

In round seven I played against Burn. I thought that I had game one wrapped up by curving Courser into Huntmaster, but I ended up being unable to race my opponent's three topdecked Boros Charms in a row. In both games two and three, I was able to pick apart my opponent's hand a little bit, but the game slowed down due to Ensnaring Bridge, and in both games, after some lifegain effects helping me stave off their library, I peeled a Kolaghan's Command to attack for lethal. I understand the Ensnaring Bridge plan, but I'm not exactly sure it's what I'd want to be doing in the matchup. When I play Burn, I don't play Bridge. I don't like stuff that isn't either an unanswerable knockout blow or is able to deal damage, and Bridge is plenty answerable.

I faced off against Eldrazi Tron again in round eight. This time, I picked up a quick game one after snagging a Map with discard and stranding my opponent on lands. Game two was a long, drawn out affair, but I was able to slow my opponent down long enough to take over with Huntmaster and removal spells for their big dudes. I was wondering if Damping Sphere was worth bringing in for this matchup, but it proved to be pretty solid. Slowing down a Smasher or Thought-Knot Seer by a single turn doesn't sound that great, but it slows down their explosive hands and gives you enough time to gain an advantage from your value-generators.

At 6-2 and fighting for a spot in the Top 32, I was paired against Jeskai. I was actually on pace to win game one with an early Bitterblossom, until my opponent drew a Bolt and then a Secure the Wastes to kill me. Game two was all about Search for Azcanta. I Inquisitioned one on the first turn, but my opponent found another one quickly and it took over. Thus, I finished outside of the money at 6-3.

The deck was good, but there were a few things that I think really could have changed things.

One was that Huntmaster was amazing all day and I could have used a third. I'm thinking in the future about taking out a Terminate for a Huntmaster, which sounds good in theory but might raise the curve more than I like. Huntmaster is great in all the matchups where Terminate is, and in some where it's not good too. Huntamster is awesome.

Scavenging Ooze was only okay. Life gain is solid, and given time it can grow to a pretty good size, but opponents either aren't letting you do that because they can remove it whenever they want, or they are out-tempo'ing you, in which case Ooze is actual Grizzly Bears. The insurance it gives you over Dredge and Hollow One and Griselbrand is really good, but I didn't face any of those, so I just had an unspectacular dork. It's not necessarily that Ooze is bad, it's that it's not as good as I wish it was, and your threats in a Jeskai-dominant world need to be high-impact. Note: Scavenging Ooze has never in a million years stopped a Snapcaster Mage or Search for Azcanta from doing whatever it wanted, so no, it has no utility in that matchup other than attacking for maybe 3.

Seven is a good number for discard spells. I don't think I would want fewer. They are always good in your opener, ideally you'll have at least one in every hand for game one.

Jeskai adds a new wrinkle to the format. The matchup isn't about hitting the cards that are good against them, it's about how few dead cards and excess lands you can draw, quantity over quality. The mirror match is similar to this, but your everyday removal spells are not only live but are some of the best cards in the matchup. Ooze also sucks, rather than being a valuable threat. It's going to be a tough ask to structure the deck in a way that we aren't inherently disadvantaged against Jeskai but can still have game against the format. If my tournament is any indication, two Jeskai opponents out of nine isn't really enough to go tearing the list apart over, but it could help out a lot there to re-examine things.

Also, and this is crazy but I want to try it: maybe we're supposed to choose to draw against Jeskai? I know that sounds criminal, but the number of times you actually tempo them out are so few and far between. It doesn't matter when your Bitterblossom hits play, so long as it actually does at some point (preferably early). You still have time to strip their Search for Azcanta before they land it on turn two. The game is such a card advantage slog, and their removal is so cheap that you can't out-tempo them ever even if you have a great start. Bitterblossom coming down before their Logic Knots are live is probably the determining factor, but I think it's a theory worth trying.

If I know me, I'll spend several hours searching Gatherer and then finally cut one Scavenging Ooze for a Grim Flayer and then add a Huntmaster to my sideboard, but you never know until you try. I'll let you know what the next step is the next time I post here. Thanks for reading!