by Noah Long
Mana Deprived is excited to keep bringing you the very best in Canadian Magic. Today, we have a tournament report from Noah Long who ended up making top 8 at Canadian Nationals this past weekend. Prior to Nats, he was ranked 2nd in Canada and 33rd in the world. He provides us with an updated Titan Force list and a Mono Black Control list for any remaining pre-Scars of Mirrodin tournaments.
Hey there Magic fans, this is Noah Long here with my article about my road to top 8ing Canadian Nationals for the first time.
To start off, Nats has always been the Boogieman tournament for me so far. I’ve finished top 16 twice now and lost 2 years ago in the last round to not get there. This year I started off on the right foot by 3-0ing my first 3 rounds of Standard which I’ve never been able to do before. My weapon of choice was my own take on the new Destructive Force archetype which I tested for about a week on Magic Workstation and IRL with friends. As soon as Destructive Force was printed I knew that card was going to be a big player in standard just like Wildfire was back in the good old days. Here’s what I battled with:
Titan Force
4 Jace, the Mind Sculper
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
4 Primeval Titan
3 Destructive Force
3 Lightning Bolt
2 Into the Roil
4 Mana Leak
2 Flashfreeze
2 Jace’s Ingenuity
3 Rampant Growth
3 Explore
2 Cultivate
4 Raging Ravine
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Halimar Depths
2 Khalni Garden
4 Island
4 Forest
3 Mountain
SB:
4 Negate
2 Flashfreeze
4 Obstinate Baloth
2 Pelakka Wurm
2 Earthquake
1 Destructive Force
Round 1 vs. Naya Shaman [Birthelmer, Marty W]
Game 1: This match up is kinda awkward mainly due to Knight of the Reliquary being insane against Destructive Force. Fortunately for me he didn’t draw any game 1 so I Forced on turn 6 and won after countering and ramping.
Game 2: He plays a turn 3 Knight out and I play Jace to bounce him on my turn 3. He re-casts the Knight which I bounce with a Kicked Into the Roil and then Brainstorm off Jace. He re-casts it again, then plays a Shaman which both resolve. I cast a Titan and then bounce the Knight for a 3rd time. He casts the Knight again then casts a Basilisk Collar. I untap and bounce the Knight for the 4th and last time then Force him out of the game.
1-0
Round 2 vs. Mythic Conscription [Alarie, Sebastien]
Game 1: This match up is actually a lot harder then Naya as they play more spells that work well after a Force as well as KoTR. They also have Negates after board and my opponent had Mana Leaks main too. After we kept our starting hands, he led with a Noble Hierarch into a turn 3 Knight with only 1 land in the graveyard. I needed a Lightning Bolt the next turn or else I probably wasn’t winning this game lol. I didn’t and lost to the Knight the following couple turns.
Game 2: I had a great hand this game as I Leaked 2 consecutive spells then went on to cast a turn 5 Titan and turn 6 Force to win.
Game 3: I was in a bad position at one point where he had just cast a 5/5 Knight, then emptied his hand with an Elspeth which made a guy. I had 1 card, a land, then I ripped the best card ever on turn 6… Earthquake which wrathed his board and dealt with his Elspeth too. From then on I drew better and won. A very tight match on both sides.
2-0
Round 3 vs. Jund [Buchar, Marco L]
This type of Jund is a bye for my deck. They don’t put a lot of early pressure except for Leach and all their guys I can block at all times due to them not running Eldrazi Monument. This match wasn’t even close as game 1 I countered the first 3 spells and he pumped his turn 2 Leach into my Lightning Blot. Game 2 was more of the same, counter magic dominance along side Baloths and Pelakka Wurms. So unfair.
3-0
Draft time!
I went into the draft wanting to force U/W or U/G/x as I don’t enjoy playing Black or Red as a main colour. I found the key to M11 is card advantage and Blue gives you plenty of that in the Scry and card draw departments. So, after 3-0ing I find myself at table 2 along side a couple other very strong players from around the country.
Pack 1 I open a Jace’s Ingenuity with no other better cards so I got my wish. The rest of the pack I take all the blue cards with a couple big Green fatties to help in actually winning the games.
Pack 2 I find I don’t have enough creatures so I take a couple creatures over a pair of Ice Cages but IMO they were better for my deck at the time. Fortunately for me, I get passed either a 5th or 6th pick Whispersilk Cloak… that card is insane! Next pick I get he 7/7 Trample dude which was my biggest win condition through out the draft.
Pack 3 I get a couple road blocks as I don’t see any U or G playables in the first couple picks so I take a couple White cards I can splash and then get a couple Sylvan Rangers to support those W cards.
You can find more coverage on my draft on the Wizards website as it was covered.
As I was building my deck I thought my deck was a 2-1 at best as I was short on win conditions and quality removal. Fortunately though I had only quality playables and no fillers unless you consider a 3 card splash fillers.
Round 4 vs. Boyce, Aaron L
His deck is so bomb heavy:
Day of Judgement
Serra Angel
Angelic Arbiter
Armored Ascension
I think there was more too I just forget atm. I don’t know how I beat him but my SB was very good as I had 2 Plummet and a Combust. I boarded out the White and boarded those 3 cards in and got there. MVP goes out the Whispersilk Cloak on my 7/7 for winning me both the game I won in a close 3 game match.
4-0
Round 5 vs. LeBlanc, Nicholas M
To be frank, I forget what happened this round. I think he was B/R and couldn’t deal with Whispersilk Cloak.
5-0
Round 6 vs. Samms, Phil
It was a feature match and can also be found on the Wizards Website.
6-0
Draft #2
I find myself at table 1 this time and I’ve got to say, this deck was so much better then the first one! Unfortunately though, I only 1-2, which I’ll explain.
Round 7 vs. Thibeault, Vincent
Game 1 I go up a game due to a lot of Flyers and drawing 3 out of my 4 Pacifisms.
Game 2 I go down a game due to getting a little flooded and not drawing any Flyers to fight his.
Game 3 I never find my 2nd Island or 5th land until I die. I was holding both my Conundrum Sphinxes which were in my opener of 2 Plains,1 Island, 2 Sphinx, Pacifism, Negate. It’s unfortunate, but remember, it’s just a game and Vincent was a great guy to play against. Congrats again Vincent on your eventual 2nd place and National team membership!
6-1
Round 8 vs. Elarar, Jasar S
I find myself playing against the eventual Champ, Jasar. He’s also playing U/W but gets very badly mana screwed both games 1 and 2. It was unfortunately not the best match but he’s also a great guy and I can’t wait to play in Amsterdam with him.
7-1
Round 9 vs. Moore, Grayson R
This was probably the best Match of Magic I played all weekend. I was paired a buddy of mine, Grayson Moore, who was B/G/r and had Grave Titan and I think a Fireball splash with decent removal.
Game 1 we go back and forth but his early curve eventually gets there. Game 2 I get the early beats with turns 2-5 Flyers and Pacify things in the way. Game 3 was the interesting one. We get each other to 9 and 7 respectively then stay for a turn or 2. Eventually I have an opportunity to crash in with a Mighty Leaped Juggernaught and a 2/2 Flyer but he has Combust, which I didn’t see game 2 and he goes to 2. The next turn he draws his Whispersilk Cloak… I have no blockers and he has a 3/5 Deathtough and an Ice Caged 5/5 Protean Hydra. Guess what happened, Ice Cage went bye-bye and I lose the closest game of the weekend. Great games Grayson and congrats again on your top 8!
7-2
Back to Constructed we go!
Round 10 vs. Mono Red [Baxter, Jeff]
Game 1 and 2 were blow outs for me as in my opinion, this match up is very good. Game 1 I get down to about 5 then I Destructive Force with an unharmed Jace in play. I just Fateseal him out into his Ultimate and he concedes. Game 2 saw me counter his turn 3 and 4 plays then I cast a turn 4 Baloth, turn 5 Garruk then a turn 6 Pelakka Wurm. I’ll let you use your imaginations.
8-2
Round 11 vs. the Titan Force Mirror [Maynard, Pascal]
This was another feature match, though it definitely did not live up to one. I was stuck on 2 lands game 1 and then I get flooded in game 2.
8-3
Round 12 vs. Monument Jund [Duncan, Kyle A]
I play against Kyle Duncan whose another buddy of mine and he’s 9-2 so he scoops me in to top 8. Little do we know, we play each other in the top 8… So weak.
9-3 finishing 4th after the Swiss
Top 8 vs. Monument Jund [Duncan, Kyle A]
Kyle’s Jund deck was designed by himself and Sammy T.
Game 1 I stall on a 2 land hand with an Explore and just don’t get the 3rd land until I die.
Game 2 My deck does what it does best. I Force him out on turn 6 and then resolve a Baloth to seal the deal.
Games 3-4 I also get mana screwed so I can’t really say much but Explore wasn’t very good on the weekend for me.
Congrats to Kyle Duncan for Qing for Worlds with his 4th place finish! Gonna be a lot of fun testing for that together. Congrats again!
Overall I loved my deck but I think it needs a couple changes. I talked with Pascal Maynard, who finished 3rd, and we discussed possible changes and an eventual composite list which should be better than both lists we ran during the weekend. We didn’t discuss the SB but I loved mine. Here’s the updated Force list:
Titan Force
4 Jace, the Mind Sculpter
3 Garruk, the Wildspeaker
4 Primeval Titan
4 Destructive Force
4 Mana Leak
1 Flashfreeze
3 Into the Roil
2 Lightning Bolt
2 Jace’s Ingenuity
3 Everflowing Chalice
3 Rampant Growth
2 Cultivate
4 Raging Ravine
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Halimar Depths
2 Khalni Garden
4 Forest
4 Island
3 Mountain
SB:
4 Negate
2 Flashfreeze
4 Obstinate Baloth
2 Pelakka Wurm
3 Earthquake
I know there are no more PTQs or anything, but if you wanted to play some Mono Black Control before Alara rotates, here’s the list I made over the past couple days which has been a lot of fun playing with:
Mono Black Control
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
2 Reassembling Skeleton
3 Vampire Nighthawk
3 Malakir Bloodwitch
2 Grave Titan
1 Sorin Markov
3 Everflowing Chalice
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Duress
4 Sign in Blood
1 Crystal Ball
3 Tendrils of Corruption
2 Mind Sludge
4 Corrupt
25 Swamp
SB:
3 Pithing Needle
3 Duress
1 Crystal Ball
1 Liliana Vess
3 Doom Blade
2 Consume the Meek
2 All is Dust
I’d just like to finish by saying thanks to everyone who helped me build my deck from scratch on Friday. I really appreciate it!
Till next time,
Noah Long
Kar Yung Tom (KYT) is the Digital Content Manager for Face to Face Games. He oversees the F2FTour.com and Magic F2F websites. He is also the lead host of the First Strike podcast.