Tournament Report: EGG Gauteng Modern League Dragontown 29 April 2023 by Jonathan Ogden
Heya all! This is going out a little later than I would have liked, but it is going out just the same. This is the first in a series I am doing about the Praetor of Modern events. I’ve always enjoyed reading tournament reports and getting someone else’s first-hand account of an event. I’m also trying to build up my portfolio of writing, so hopefully this is a good piece!
Firstly, shoutout to EGG and Dragontown for the event and big prize support. It was my first time at Dragontown’s new venue (I don’t even know how new it is) and it accommodated the number of players well with leftover room, was well ventilated, and the sale of food on the premises made it easier to grab a bite between rounds. Follow-up shoutouts to the judges and the players for pulling through and making it a big event. Was good to play some local competitive Magic again.
Secondly, a disclaimer. I’ll be talking about my games and the plays both my opponent and I made. I might, in this article or a future one, mention luck, on either side, good or bad. Considering the size of our local Magic scene, many of us know, or at least recognise, each other, and my opponents may remember playing me and in which round. Magic inheriently has variance, an aspect which makes close games so exciting. Luck naturally plays a part in every game of Magic played, and if I mention winning or losing to luck, this is in no way meant to detract from my opponent’s skill and all the plays that had to be made to lead to the point where luck could take over. Luck will always exist in Magic, but a skilled player will use it to their advantage and play to their outs.
Pre-Tournament:
I had recently gotten back from some travelling and wanted to play a new deck. I think I am a terrible deck builder and I’d much rather leave that to the professionals, and then just copy whatever they do and hope for the same success. Wanting to bring the best deck I possibly could, and against a meta I wasn’t familiar with, I went with Rakdos Scam. I had read that it could hold its own against the other top decks, mulligan well, and have some outrageous turn ones. My usual requirement for choosing my next deck to build is if you can watch what it does and go “that’s disgusting.” That, that near-broken-ness is what I love in a deck. Who needs consistency, interaction, and thinking, when I have a 4/4 double-strike creature on turn one? I managed to attend three smaller events and read a guide before the Praetor event, and that was the best I was going to do in terms of preparing. I also considered playing Dredge on the day, having not seen many graveyard decks lately and hoping that people would trim the hate in their sideboards. Ultimately I went with what I thought would be the better deck and prepped a short sideboard guide the night before. Driving to the old venue in the morning, and also not having a printer for my decklist so having to write it out by hand, cut it a little close, but we made it, with maybe three minutes to spare.Round 1:
My first match of the day was against Rhinos, a matchup that was not favourable for me, but my sideboard had been tuned for it. I was on the play, and kept a solid seven. My opponent mulliganed and then opened up play with a Gemstone Caverns. I scammed a Grief in, taking Fire // Ice and Violent Outburst from their hand, leaving them with two lands. Things were looking good as Grief started to beat down, until my opponent resolved a turn two Shardless Agent, cascading into Crashing Footfalls. I Terminated one Rhino and cast a Seasoned Pyromancer on my turn to try to refill my hand, getting a Grief and Fury I couldn’t play. Another Crashing Footfalls later, I was stampeded over.
Game two started with a mull to six, keeping a Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, Unlicenced Hearse, and an Engineered Explosives. Turn one Ragavan and two hate cards seemed good enough. The Hearse and Explosives hit the battlefield as soon as they could in an effort to stay ahead. I stalled on two lands and the Rhinos began to charge. Explosives got rid of one set, but another wasn’t far behind, and my lack of experience with the deck and matchup began to show. Rhinos has started to run some number of Murktide Regents, which is what Hearse is there to stop. I had been activating Hearse at the end of my opponent’s turns, keeping it until the last moment so I could respond to something or crew it and use it to block a Rhino, when I should have been doing so during my turn as long as blocking wasn’t a big consideration. This mistake allowed a 7/7 Murktide to come down, something which may not have been avoidable, but I could have at least made it a 5/5 or too expensive to cast that turn.
The third Crashing Footfalls put enough pressure that it was game over for Scam. Another mistake that I made, which I only realised afterwards, was that Dauthi Voidwalker is better at keeping me in the game than I thought. It can’t block Rhinos, but you can sacrifice it and hopefully cast your opponent’s Crashing Footfalls, trading Rhino for Rhino.
Record: 0-1
Round 2:
I still managed to move up in table numbers even though I took a loss, which is always a good sign. Sitting down to play and winning the die roll, I unfortunately had to mulligan down to four, keeping a Grief, Undying Malice, random black card, and a land. A hand of four as well as some luck seemed to be enough, as my opponent revealed a Living End in hand (which I let him keep), choosing to rip the Fire // Ice and Imperial Recruiter instead. A beatdown with Grief and some Bolts was enough to win game one.
Game two looked good at the start. I had some elementals to throw into the graveyard so that a Living End wouldn’t be completely one-sided, but still wanted to space the Furys out so I could wipe the board if I drew an Undying card. My opponent had other plans. Faerie Macabre got rid of what was in my graveyard, and a second Faerie Macabre got rid of what refilled it. That, coupled with drawing nine lands meant Scam was just dead in the water.
Game three and a mulligan to six went a lot better. Turn one Fury and a turn two Dauthi Voidwalker beatdown and locked out Living End for a turn three kill.
Record 1-1
Round 3:
I had played against this opponent many times, and so I had an idea of what he was playing. My assumption was correct, as my spells started to get countered and my creatures removed by UWx Control. I unfortunately don’t remember a lot from game one, but it was a constant, uphill battle. Eventually Teferi’s emblem came down and there was nothing to do but scoop.
Game two and three went down differently. Quite a few Scam lists run Blood Moon in the mainboard, and sometimes, even if you aren’t running it mainboard, opponents will fetch around it and have a slightly less consistent mana base. And sometimes that’s enough, just the threat of an impending Blood Moon. The fear of it doing the job even if you never actually cast it. My opponent did not fetch around Blood Moon. I don’t think I saw a single basic on their battlefield in game one. So in came the Blood Moons. And in both game two and three, they were played in a similar manner. Play another threat, something they really want to counter, like a Seasoned Pyromancer, so that you can refill your hand (make sure you have enough cards to discard and still keep Blood Moon though!). If that gets countered, they hopefully don’t have one for Blood Moon. If it doesn’t, either they’re keeping one back for Blood Moon or something else (unlikely, you drawing more cards is really bad for a resource war), or they don’t have one at all, even better! Your Blood Moon locks them out of most of the game and your resolved threat continues to smack their face.
Game two and three were won in that manner, both with a Seasoned Pyromancer into a Blood Moon. It bought me enough time to draw cards and keep up removal in case my opponent got enough basics to slip something in, and enough time for my creatures to continue to pressure his life total unanswered.
Record 2-1
Round 4:
This was probably my closest round of the day, but unfortunately also when I started to make less notes post-round for this article. Fatigue from a day of competitive Magic was beginning to show, especially after this round, and I prioritised getting up and walking around outside for fresh air, staying hydrated, and just generally relaxing between rounds. I do still remember parts however.
This round was another Living End pairing. This matchup feels like Creativity. They have this almost inevitable win-con coming, and you just have to race it. Yes, you have discard spells, and post-board you have some graveyard interaction, but they can win out of nowhere. At least in this matchup you can try to mitigate it by filling your own graveyard a bit in preparation. Unlicensed Hearse was also solid, but as a friend pointed out to me, be very wary of making it a creature, even to swing in for lethal. Violent Outburst while I’m attacking will clear my board and get rid of one of the best hate cards against Living End.
My Hearse lived through it and won me a game three and the match.
Record 3-1
Round 5:
This round was against the mirror, or so I thought. I had heard there was a fair bit of Scam at the event, and hadn’t run into it yet, so it was about time. Game one was a runaway win, with the bonkers hand this deck is known for. Game two revealed that this wasn’t Scam, but rather Rakdos Midrange. The plan stays pretty much the same though. Be aggro on the play, and midrange on the draw.
Game two was the more grindy of the games, and at one point we were at a stalemate, both top decking and hoping for something. I had gotten out a Sheoldred earlier and forgotten two of her triggers, which was really unfortunate considering my opponent was at three life. My Bolts were also all hiding from me. Sheoldred was otherwise really good, great for grindy, midrange games. Thinking of it now, maybe I shouldn’t have attacked with her. She did take two other creatures with her though, and allowed my Fury to get in for eight damage. Hearse was also really good, a constantly growing and looming threat.
I drew better in the end and had enough to push through for lethal damage, winning the round and close game.
Record 4-1
Round 6:
Round six and the final round of the day. Finally made it to the Top 8. Since we weren’t doing a cutoff and ending it after the Swiss, this was probably the only event I’ve been to so far where the top table wasn’t just full of IDs. Looking around, I hadn’t played anyone from the top table and it looked like a respectable Top 8. I knew most of them, and they’d all be good games. All I had to do was win one more. Unfortunately, it was against Creativity.
Turn one Ragavan seemed really good to start with, especially since I had an Undying Malice to protect it when Wrenn came down to kill it. Ragavan even got me a Fable of the Mirror-Breaker to cast, which is one of the better flip cards to get with a Ragavan, as it says “your control” not “its owner’s control.” The pressure just wasn’t enough though. The inevitability of Creativity won through, and Emrakul came crashing down to stare at my innocent little monkey.
Game 2 was better. I scammed a Grief in and got my opponent to discard two Creativitys. An Engineered Explosives soon followed and was ready to blow. All my opponent had was Treasure tokens. I had this in the bag. But I was scared of that Creativity, I wanted this game to be over soon, and I got greedy.
Instead of leaving mana up to pop Explosives when I needed to, I played another threat, tapping myself out. My thinking was to just get another thing down, and kill him quicker before he could draw into something good. Explosive Iteration and the like are just better than my draws and could steal the victory from me. I passed the turn. My opponent drew a Creativity off the top.
The Archon came down. I didn’t draw a Terminate. I had lost.
Record 4-2
Post-tournament:
I came 8th overall, with a record of 4-2. I’m pretty pleased with that. It would have normally gotten me into the Top 8, where I’d get to have another go around trying to win. I also have quite a few places to improve. Learning more lines of the deck, but more importantly, my matchups. This will come with experience, hopefully. Or I could pick up a deck I know a bit better for the next tournament. We shall see.
One thing is for certain though. I had missed competitive Magic. I don’t think I have been able to attend one as a player in years, either because of Covid, taking a break from Magic, travelling, or just being busy. It was good to be back. And South Africa needs more of these events, for the stores, the players, the judges, the community as a whole. We’re all better for it.
