Pro Tour Return To Ravnica - Day Two

Elias Watsfeldt

About Elias Watsfeldt

Elias is a Gold level player from Sweden, who started playing Magic in 2003 alongside most people in his school class. He generally prefers to play control decks, both in Limited and Constructed. Some of his accomplishments include:

• Gold Pro Player
• 44 Lifetime Pro Points
• 4th GP Ghent 2012
• 5th GP San Diego 2011
• Top 16 GP Gothenburg 2010
• 30th Worlds 2011
• 20 PTQ Top8s (2 wins)

Pro Tour Return To Ravnica - Day Two

Day one ended in a rather good fashion for the Swedish players, with a win percentage just above 55 percent. Ludvig Londos, also on Scapeshift, was the best Swede with a record of 6-2, while most other Swedes, including myself, were just behind at 5-3. I was, as mentioned in the previous article, rather satisfied with 5-3, after starting the tournament with two losses. Denniz Rachid, on the other hand, who was eager to make his third Pro Tour top8 in a row, was a bit more disappointed after going 1-2 in draft, also ending day one at 5-3. Either way, I do not recall so much from my draft, more than opening with a good Rakdos card, and following it up with some more Rakdos cards. I do remember picking up a very late Rogue's Passage, which, according to me, is one of the better cards in the set. Out of the card, you get a very good effect, capable of winning games almost by itself. But this is not all. Due to the fact that Rogue's Passage is a land, you don't really invest an entire card in the ability. I am not sure in what guild Rogue's Passage fits best, while it works well with unleashed creatures, Rakdos tends to be in a position where you want to be attacking with several creatures. A rule of thumb would be, the larger the creatures, the better Rouge's Passage becomes. By this reasoning, it fits best in Golgari/Selesnya, followed by Rakdos, followed by Izzet/Azorious, depending on what creatures you have, the number of Knightly Valors etc.

Anyhow, the card was amazing for me, and was part of the reason I won my first two matches before losing to a strictly better Rakdos deck piloted by Richard Bland. An awkward misplay from my part (Hellhole Flailer costs 4 to sacrifice!) cost me game one and his Deviant Glees crushed me in game two. However, we did play a third game for fun (to see if my misplay was fatal for the outcome of the match) which I promptly lost. I was pleased with 4-2 in draft, and I do not expect, at least on average, to put up better results. Sadly, Ludvig Londos received swift justice and rather quickly fell down to 6-5 and Rachid's dreams of his third straight top8 were crushed after going 1-2. But because Rachid is such a master, he piloted his Deathrite Shaman Jund to five straight wins and to a 33rd place.

That, I'm sorry to say, can't be said about the Scapeshift players, me and Ludvig Londos.

For reference, here is the list I played:

Versions:
Morningtide (Foil)

In round 12 I faced Semion Bezrukov, piloting Affinity with Dark Confidant. This matchup is all about racing, and therefore being on the play is very important. The affinity deck usually wins on turn three or turn four, whereas my deck is more about turn four, maybe turn five. Though, a huge difference is that I have access to four Cryptic Commands and 2 Fogs, which all basically serve as a Time Walk effect. Despite being on the draw in the first game (if I remember correctly), I managed to win due to the fact that his turn two play was Dark Confidant, which simply does not put enough pressure on me. As expected though, he got a fast clock on me in game two and finished me off with a Spell Pierce. Game three was quite interesting, at least from my side of the table. Even though he had a decent amount of pressure on me, with both Dark Confidant and Blood Moon in play, I quickly, with the help of Harrow, got three Islands, a Swamp and a couple of Forests onto the battlefield. When he tried to finish me off by tapping out for Cranial Plating, I had the Cryptic Command ready, tapping his team and bouncing Blood Moon. I then, as usual, killed him with a couple of Valakut triggers.

That win felt very good, as it played out the way it had done in testing. It is a very tight matchup, with, according to me, a slight edge for the Scapeshift deck. Even though Affinity can sideboard in some good cards, they have to sideboard out something that decreases the amount of pressure they put on me. I, on the other hand, can sideboard out four blanks, in the form of Remand, and get in a tutorable Creeping Corrosion and some Nature's Claims and Pyroclasms.

Next up was Michael Majors with a deck I did not expect to face, namely Merfolk. Even though he hardly can interact with my combo in game one, he defeated me quite easily in two games. Cursecatcher was the key card, which he also correctly copied with Phantasmal Image in both games. Despite buying some time with Cryptic Command, I never had the time to transmute Clutch of the Undercity while paying for all his Cursecatchers. I am really not sure who is favored in the matchup, but my guess is that I'm favored until he exchanges Path to Exile for counterspells.

The following match was rather strange and I have no idea under what category I should put this match. My deck performed and did almost everything it should do against a seemingly harmless deck. I was playing against Junk, with 4 Inquisition of Kozilek, 1 Thoughtseize (4 after sideboard), 4 Liliana of the Veil and a generally slower clock than Jund (no Lightning Bolt or Bloodbraid Elf). I took game one quite handily after casting a couple Cryptic Commands followed by a Scapeshift (cards he could not take with Inquisition of Kozilek). I was confident game two would play out the same way, as I had Leyline of Sanctity in my opening hand, combined with both mana and Clutch of the Undercity. When he got off to a slow start, I, in my mind, had already signed the result slip and was mentally preparing for the next round. To my surprise though, and a rather bitter one for sure, he cast Glittering Wish for Gaddock Teeg, which stuck to the battlefield. I sneered at my hand, containing a combination of Clutches and Scapeshifts.

Versions:
Lorwyn (Foil)

The same thing happened in game three without me drawing my two Pyroclasms.

Now, what kind of loss is this? Is it my fault for not preparing against Gaddock Teeg? Should I have had those Izzet Charms in my deck?

Maybe so, but I did not expect to face Gaddock Teeg. And to be honest, amongst all the 103 decks with a record of 18 points or better, the number of decks with Gaddock Teeg is one. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben was a way more played card of that type, and also the card I expected. It slightly feels like being deprived of a win, even though it is a very fair win from my opponent Paul Heynen's side of the table.

At that point I thought that I was having a bad day, but that was really nothing compared to what my next opponent had. From 7-1 to 8-6, Mr. Conley Woods. Previously that day, I had overheard a conversation in a queue to one of the food trucks, a team member in Channelfireball had played a guy who, every time he sacrificed a fetchland and took two from a dual land, said "full conley". Now I sort of played "half conley", a bit distressed from his poor performance. Either way, we played three fair and good games.

In the first game, I kept a hand containing three lands, three acceleration spells and one Cryptic Command. For the rest of the game I did not draw a single Scapeshift or Clutch of the Undercity and lost. It wouldn't really have mattered if I played against a preconstructed deck piloted by someone who had played for a week, which is a huge downside for the deck. When you don't find Scapeshift, you just can't win. Though, the upside at that point in the game, is that you actually have quite good odds of drawing Scapeshift. Let's presume you still have 4 Scapeshift and 4 Clutch of the Undercity left in your deck that contains 45 cards. At that point you have almost a 20 % chance of topdecking for the win, each draw step.

Furthermore, each Cryptic Command basically cycles for two more cards and if you have the time, Remand will cycle for another card. Either way, I brought in my Leyline of Sanctitys, one of which superbly showed up in my opening hand. Jund really can't beat a hand containing Leyline of Sanctity, Scapeshift, and a combination of lands and acceleration.

In game three I had an interesting hand:

Scapeshift, Kodama's Reach, Sakura-Tribe Elder, Kodama's Reach, Flooded Grove, Forest, Island

I am fairly certain about this, I am not 100 % sure though. I could mix this up with another game, if so, I apologize.

Now this hand looks sweet. It could kill Conley Woods on turn four and basically has protection from Liliana of the Veil. Though, if Woods opens with Thoughtseize, I am left with a hand filled with mana, without any real action. If that happens, I have still maybe 5 draw steps to find myself another Scapeshift, which would leave me in a favorable position. What if he has 2 Thoughtseizes? What if he had 1 Thoughtseize, 1 Inquisition of Kozilek and 1 Liliana of the Veil? Is it worth going down to six, and maybe find Leyline of Sanctity? Until that point I had not seen any Slaughter Games (because of the Leyline), and I would not be surprised if he did. If his hand contains a single Slaughter Games, I might as well concede.

In the end, I kept the hand and he played a Slaughter Games on turn three. Oh well. Good games Conley!

At that point I was unable to make top 75, or even top 100, but I still decided to play the last match which was against David Shiels with UW flash. This is by far the worst matchup. Most decks have 4 Vendilion Clique, 2 Aven Mindcensor and a couple of Negate after sideboard. I lost 1-2.

All in all, I did not feel so good about Scapeshift, but I had, and still have, no clue about why the deck just doesn't work. I went 4-6, whereas Ludvig Londos went 6-4, a total record of 10-10. That record is not horrible, but it was still way below expectation. To summarize what I lost to:

• Jund (0 Scapeshift, Slaughter Games)
• Jund (0 Scapeshift, drew too many Mountains)
• UW (straight up loss)
• UW (Aven Mindcensor, Aven Mindcensor)
• Junk (Gaddock Teeg, Gaddock Teeg)
• Merfolk (Cursecatcher, straight up loss)

As you can see, there are so many different ways you can lose. If you start cutting acceleration and/or Fog for smoother cards like Izzet Charm, which actually deals with many of the problems listed above, you will lose your explosiveness. This might, and probably is, the correct way to approach the problems.

Versions:
Avacyn Restored (Foil)

Still, I had a great time at the Pro Tour, I was happy with my drafting and the fact that my deck was fairly well tuned. I am indeed looking forward to Pro Tour Gatecrash in Montreal and also Grand Prix Lisbon next weekend.

Lastly, in Matt Sperling’s fashion: Elias's sick of it (or "Elias is whining"):

Miracles:

About a week ago I attended Grand Prix Bochum, and finished 2-2-1 after three byes with mono white humans (splashing for Gavony Township). I lost a total of five games in the entire tournament. Three out of those five losses were to Miracled Terminus. In the last game, I played in contention for Day 2, I curved Champion of the Parish into Loyal Cathar on the play against Bant. He casually went Temple Garden, into Miracled Terminus. :(

I had to whine about that one more time.

Thanks for reading!

Elias