Hey everyone, I am going to keep this short and sweet. For the Block portion of the Pro Tour, I decided to play Mono Red. It was the only deck that I had playtested. I did not have time to build any other deck.
Here is the list that I played:
Thiago Saporito, 18 points Pro Tour-San Juan, Block Constructed
Main Deck
4 Arid Mesa
9 Mountain
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Smoldering Spires
3 Teetering Peaks
——————————————————————————–
24 lands
4 Goblin Bushwhacker
4 Goblin Guide
4 Kargan Dragonlord
3 Kiln Fiend
4 Plated Geopede
——————————————————————————–
19 creatures
4 Burst Lightning
4 Devastating Summons
4 Flame Slash
3 Searing Blaze
2 Staggershock
——————————————————————————-
17 spells
Sideboard
4 Goblin Ruinblaster
2 Lodestone Golem
3 Mark of Mutiny
3 Tuktuk the Explorer
3 Unstable Footing
——————————————————————————–
15 sideboard cards
Round 1 against Ootsuka, Koutarou playing G/W Eldrazi
Game 1: I lost the die roll, but I was able to get things going with an early Goblin Guide. His turn 2 Wall of Omens met my Flame Slash. Teetering Peaks allowed me to enter the red zone for 4 damage. He played an Overgrown Battlement. I attacked with the Guide and finished off the second 0/4 Wall with a Searing Blaze. An Oracle of Mul Daya came into play on his side of the board, but that also met a Flash Slash. A Goblin Bushwhacker joined my side of the party and my opponent’s last attempt to stabilize the game was a Gideon Jura. He was at 6 life however, so I just burned him down.
1×0
Sideboard:
+4 Goblin Ruinblaster
+3 Mark of Mutiny
-2 Kiln Fiend
-3 Searing Blaze
-2 Staggershocka
Game 2: My opponent starts the game with a Wall of Omens, while I played a Geopede on my turn 2. Turn 3, I saw an Overgrown Battlement come down the board. An attack with a fetchland allowed me to take down a wall and the second wall gets destroyed by my Flame Slash. Oracle of Mul Daya came into play for him, but its life was short as I dealt with it using a Burst Lightning. Bushwhacker with kicker allowed me to swing for a decent amount of damage, but All is Dust on his turn wiped my board clean. Goblin Guide with a Teetering Peaks hit for 4, but he recovers from the onslaught with 2 Rest for the Wearies on his turn. That is a total of 16 life gained. A Kozilek soon followed and I was a goner in no time.
1×1
Game 3 : I kept a weird hand that included: 1 Arid Mesa, 3 Mountain, 1 Plated Geopede, 1 Mark of Mutiny and 1 Burst Lightning. On turn 3, I attacked with my Plated Geopede, which he chumped with a Wall of Omens. I laid down a Kiln Fiend. All he had on his turn was an Ancient Stirrings that found him an Eldrazi Temple. On my turn, I cast Burst Lightning and cracked a fetch to deal 9 points of damage. Sadly, he went ahead and cast 2 Rest for the Wearies on his turn. A kicked Bushwhacker allowed me to get quite of a bit of damage in. However, Gideon was played on the other side and I was forced to attack him for the turn. Once Gideon was dealt with, my opponent showed me All is Dust. At this point, he was at 12 life and my hand consisted of only 2 lands and a Mark of Mutiny. The top of the deck brought me an irrelevant Bushwhacker, which I kickered. He played an Eye of Ugin and searched for Kozilek. I thought I could win this game with my Mark, but when it was his turn again, he cast Kozilek with a Wall of Omens. I stole the Butcher for one turn, but that was all I could muster as he would end up getting it back and attacking me twice with it for the win.
1×2
0-1
At this point, I still cannot believe that I lost against an Eldrazi deck. I thought it was my best matchup. As a result, I was deeply regretting my choice of Mono Red.
Round 2 against Lundquist, Benjamin playing Mono Red
Game 1: We both started off with a Goblin Guide that ended up trading with each other. On turn 2, he played a Kargan Dragonlord. I mirrored him once again with my own. On turn 3, he played another Kargan while leveling up the first one to level 1. I played a fetch and level upped my Kargan once, bluffing with the rest of the mana. I made it look like I had a Searing Blaze or a Burst Lightning. I had neither, but if I did not discourage him from leveling his Kargan to level 4, I was as good as dead. My bluff worked as he decided to play a Zektar Shrine Expedition followed by an Evolving Wilds. He only level upped his Kargan to level 2. I chose not to fetch my land at the end of turn in order to keep my Searing Blaze bluff alive. On my turn, I top-deck a Burst Lightning and cast a Plated Geopede. Ben wanted to level up his Kargan to level 4, but of course, Burst Lightning was my answer. He in turn used his own Burst Lightning on my Kargan. When it was back to me, I sacrificed 3 fetches, making my Geopede a 7/7. My land for the turn was a Smoldering Spires on Ben’s Kargan. With Summons and Bushwhacker in my hand, it was game.
Sideboard:
-3 Kiln Fiend
+3 TukTuk the Explorer
Game 2: He did not start off with a Goblin Guide this time, but I did, though he killed it with a Burst Lightning. On turn 2, I cast a Plated Geopede. He fetched and answered with a Searing Blaze on it. On his turn, he finally plays a creature in Tuktuk. I replied with a Tuktuk, wiping the board. He gets land-stalled on turn 4 while I get to play a Geopede. With no action on his side once again, I got to attack with my Geopede for 3. He finally played a second Tuktuk while I threw a kicked Burst Lightning at him. On my turn, a Smoldering Spires followed by the Summons + Goblin combo sealed the game and the match.
2×0
1-1
Round 3 against Riviere, Alexandre playing U/G Control
Game 1 : This game was very easy. I played Guide on 1, Geopede on 2, Fetch + Searing Blaze and Flame slash on his Nest Invader/Token, on his turn 3, he said go, I played another fetch and finish him with a Staggershock.
Sideboard: (I had no idea what he was playing)
+2 Lodestone Golem
-2 Staggershock
Game 2: He played a Khalni Garden on his first turn, a Nest Invader on his second. I responded with a Geopede, but he had a Domestication for that. I played a Searing Blaze on the Nest Invader. He had an Oracle of Mul Dayarevealing a Whiplash Trap. I played a Lodestone Golem, but sadly, he had a Jace to bounce him. I cast a Burst Lightning on Jace to kill it and replayed my Golem. He had Vapor Snare as a solution, so I conceded.
Sideboard:
+4 Goblin Ruinblaster (since he played 4 Khalni Garden, 4 Halimar Depths and some Tectonic Edges)
-2 Lodestone Golem
-2 Flame Slash
Game 3: I started with a Goblin Guide while he began with a Khalni Garden. On my turn, I attacked and he decided to take the damage. I finished my turn by playing a Kiln Fiend. My opponent replied with a Nest Invader. Back on my go, I launched an all-out attack. He blocked my Goblin with the Invader and chumped the Kiln Fiend with a token (the one from Khalni Garden). He had a Domestication for my Kiln Fiend, but I played a Searing Blaze on his Eldrazi Token in response. My Fiend now had a power 4, so his Domestication had to be sacrificed. I proceeded to top-deck a Ruinblaster and attacked him for 3 damage. He responded with a Jace and used it to +2 me. I attacked Jace to bring it down to 2 counters. My opponent chose to Brainstorm this time, finding a Vapor Snare to use on my Fiend. I had the Devastating Summons + Goblin Bushwalker combo in hand, but I was extremely afraid of Whiplash Trap. However, I felt it was worth the risk and went for the kill. He had no answers.
2×1
2-1
Round 4 against Bandou, Jun’ichirou playing U/R Control
Game 1: I started with Goblin Guide, which made my opponent reveal an Evolving Wilds. On his turn, he played the Wilds searching an Island. I attacked with Goblin Guide once again and a Scalding Tarn was revealed. I followed up my attack with a Plated Geopede. My opponent cracked the Tarn and killed my Geopede with a Burst Lightning. I attacked(revealing an Island) and played a Kiln Fiend. He had a Staggershock for my Fiend. I keep attacking with my Goblin Guide and played another Plated Geopede. On his turn, the Geopede bit the dust from his Rebounded Staggershock. He played a Calcite Snapper. On my go, I could could pass the turn. He then decided to play a land and attack with the Snapper. After the combat phase, he dropped another Snapper. My next card was a top-decked Goblin Bushwhacker. With 2 Devastating Summons in hand, it was all over for him.
1×0
Sideboard:
+2 Unstable Footing
+2 Lodestone Golem
-4 Flame Slash
Game 2: I once again started with a Goblin Guide, but he fetched a Scalding Tarn and killed it with a Burst Lightning. I played a Plated Geopede and he played Calcite Snapper. On turn 3, I had a fetch land and he took 5. He played a Jace, the Mind Scultpor and Brainstormed. I played a land and a Goblin Bushwalker with kicker and attacked both at Jace. He blocked the Goblin, but Jace was now in graveyard. Unfortunately, he played another one on his turn and all the tempo was on his side when used the new copy to bounce my Plated Geopede back to my hand. On my turn, I just replayed Geopede. He played a Lighthouse Chronologist and upped it to level 3. On my turn, I top-decked Devastating Summons. I put a Smoldering Spires on the table targeting the Chronologist. I cast two Devastating Summons along with a kicked Goblin Bushwhacker. My Summons produced 4 3/3 tokens. My opponent blocked correctly, putting him at 1 life. On his turn, he played a Domestication targeting a token and used Jace to bounce another, but that was all he could do.
2×0
3-1
Round 5 against Hink, Stephan playing Mono Green Eldrazi
Game 1: The first and only spell he played was a Overgrown Battlement, which I killed with Flame Slash. He missed a land drop, so one Goblin Guide and one Plated Geopede was all I needed to lead my to victory.
Sideboard:
+4 Goblin Ruinblaster
+3 Mark of Mutiny
-2 Kiln Fiend
-3 Searing Blaze
-2 Staggershock
Game 2: I started with a Goblin Guide and a Geopede. His first spell was Growth Spawn. I Flame Slashed the token, played a Fetch, and attacked. On his turn, he played no lands and passed. I played a Goblin Ruinblaster with kicker and he conceded. Sometimes, the games can be so simple.
2×0
4-1, what a good record for a guy which opened 0-1 :). But now, we enter the draft portion of the Pro Tour and I rarely got a chance to draft Rise of the Eldrazi (max 5 times?), so there was a chance I could go 0-3 and miss Day 2. On top of that, my pod was not easy.
Here was my pod:
Thomas Shackett
Anthony Tran
Klaus Joens
Lukas Jaklovsk
Per Nystrom
Thiago Saporito (me!)
Gaudenis Vidugiris
Brad Nelson
My first pick was a Venerated Teacher, so I was trying to make a Level Up deck, but in the second pick, I saw 0 level uppers and settled with a Heat Ray. In the third pick, I saw a Nirkana Cutthroat and snap that. I 4th pick a Champion’s Drake. 5th pick, I only see a Skywatcher Adept so I took that. Pick 6 was Merfolk Skycout, while pick 7 was a Halimar Havewatch. 8th: Forked Bolt and 9th: Spawing Breath. Picks 10-14 were irrelevant.
After the first pack, my deck was looking like it was going to be a really bad URb deck. To my surprise, I opened a Gideon Jura in my second pack. I drafted it with the intention of making white one of my main colors. 2nd: Hellion Eruption, 3rd: Staggershock, 4th: Wall of Omens, 5th: Wall of Omens, 6th: Caravan Escort, 7th: Makindi Griffin, 8th: Rapacious One, 9th: Lone Missionary and 14th: Soul’s Attendant.
It was now settled. I was going to make a Boros deck. Would the third pack save me? 1st: Mammoth Umbra, 2nd: COoquering Manticore, 3rd: Battle-Rattle Shaman, 4th Lagac Lizard, 5th: Tuktuk the Explore, 6th: Lavafume Invoker, 7th: Grotag Siege-Runner, 8th: Guard Duty, 9th: Soul’s Attendant and 10th: Ogre Sentry.
I did not like my card pool at all, but this is what I came up with:9 Plains
9 Mountain
2 Soul’s Attendant
1 Caravan Escort
1 Forked Bolt
1 Guard Duty
1 Grotag Siege-Runner
1 Lone Missionary
2 Wall of Omens
1 Ogre Sentry
1 Spawing Breath
1 Lavafume Invoker
1 Staggershock
1 Lagac Lizzard
1 Battle-Rattle Shaman
1 Makindi Griffin
1 Mammoth Umbra
1 Gideon Jura
1 Conquering Manticore
1 Hellion Eruption
1 Heat Ray
1 Rapacious One
Before the matches I want say one thing, I played 7 games with this deck and in 7 games I did not see a Gideon Jura or a Conquering Manticore.
Round 6 against Shackett, Thomas playing UW
Game 1: I won the die roll and started with Caravan Escort, which attacked for 2. He had a Wall of Omens on turn 2. I played a Lavafume Invoker and he played a Hada Spy Patrol. He followed it up with playing a Hyena Umbra on it. I played a Makindi Griffin, he level upped his Patrol and attacked 3, I played a Mammoth Umbra in my Makifin Griffin, but he had a Guard Duty to stop that, and level upped the Patrol again. I played a Hellion Eruption for 3 tokens, he level upped the Patrol again, Regressed one of my tokens and attacked me with the Patrol. On my turn, I attacked with both tokens. He took 4 and blocked one of the tokens his Wall of Omens. On his go, he drops a Mnenomic Wall targeting his Regress. That would be enough as his Patrol would continue to beat me down until I died.
0x1
Game 2: I mulligan down to 5 cards. I end up being stuck at 2 lands even after playing 2 Wall of Omens. By the time the 3rd land came, I was dead.
4-2
Round 7 against Tran, Anthony playing UW
Game 1 : I lost the die roll and on his second turn, he played a Coralhelm Commander. I played a Wall of Omens trying to find the 3rd land to cast Heat Ray on the Commander, but I failed, so my opponent was able to level it up to 3. I cast another wall of omens and found a land. By now, it was too late as the Commander was now at level 4. Not only that, it was enchanted with a Hyena Umbra. I died in 4 turns.
0x1
Game 2 : I started with Caravan Escort that attacked my opponent for 2 on turn 2. On my 3rd turn, I played a Lavafume Invoker and on the turn 4, a Makindi Griffin. Turn 5 saw me enchant my Griffin with a Mammoth Umbra. At this point, he had only lands in play. At the end of my turn, he would respond by playing Regress on my Griffin and attempt a comeback with a Griffin of his own on his turn. I replay my Griffin as the game stalls long enough for me to level up Caravan Escort into a 5/5 First Strike creature. I attack him with both of my creatures. He blocks my Griffin with his own. I finish off his Griffin with a Forked Bolt. On his turn, he pondered a little before conceding.
1×1
Game 3 : He kept a one-lander, but he had a Enclave Cryptologist on his 1st turn. He missed the second land drop and I killed the Cryptologis with Spawing Breath. He found a land and played his Corallhelm Commander, but this time, I had the Staggershock. He plays a Plains and passed the turn. I played my Makindi Griffin and a Caravan Escort. He cast another Enclave Cryptologist, but chose not to level it up. On my turn, I attacked with my dynamic duo only to see one of them get Smited. I dropped a Lavefume Invoker. On his turn, he level upped his creature, drew a card with it, found land #4 and played a Lone Missionary. Quite a turn for him, but on my turn, I attached Mammoth Umbra on my Griffin. He had no answer to that and subsequently lost the game and the match.
2×1
5-2
Round 8 against Vidugiris, Gaudenis playing BG
Game 1 : He played a Pawn of Ulamog on the turn 3 and another copy on turn 4. I played my Makafin Griffin, Rapacious One and Lavafume Invoker, but he had 3 Corpsehatch and killed everything I played. He also had a Bloodthrone Vampire too. My only chance was to top-deck a Gideon. That obviously did not happen and I end up dying to a Zulaport Enforce with a Snake Umbra.
0x1
Game 2 : This game was very fast, he played a Zulaport Enforcer on turn 1, a Snake Umbra on turn 3, level upped the Enforcer 3 times and won. My hand was Wall of Omens x2 and 5 lands. I hit mpore lands this game, but when I had any threat (my Griffin or my Battle-Rattle Shaman), he had a Corpsehatch to respond.
0x2
5-3
Finished Day 1 with the worst record needed to make Day 2, but hey, at least I was still alive.
In the Part Two, I will talk about my Day 2.
Thanks for reading,
bolov0