So, I'm sat there, Wednesday afternoon, with no idea what to play in the Madhouse Pro Series on the Saturday.

I know I'm playing Verdant Catacombs and Overgrown Tombs, but in what deck? A few minute go by, and I still can't decide, so I do some digging and see if there's something innovative that I've missed, or if there's a cool piece of tech that leads me on to the right path.

A quick boot up of MtGGoldfish shows me all the normal stuff, all your CoCo decks, all your Jund decks, nothing exciting. I dig a little deeper and find this beauty:

Austin Riis-Due 5th Denton states

4 Noble Hierarch

3 Siege Rhino

2 Snapcaster Mage

4 Tarmogoyf

1 Courser of Kruphix

1 Sorin, Solemn Visitor

2 Abrupt Decay

1 Anguished Unmaking

4 Path to Exile

1 Sphinx's Revelation

4 Ancestral Vision

3 Inquisition of Kozilek

3 Lingering Souls

1 Maelstrom Pulse

1 Painful Truths

2 Thoughtseize

1 Forest

1 Island

1 Plains

1 Swamp

1 Breeding Pool

2 Creeping Tar Pit

4 Flooded Strand

2 Godless Shrine

1 Hallowed Fountain

2 Overgrown Tomb

1 Temple Garden

4 Verdant Catacombs

1 Watery Grave

2 Windswept Heath

sb: 1 Spellskite 1 Scavenging Ooze 2 Leyline of Sanctity 2 Rest in Peace 3 Stony Silence 2 Feed the Clan 1 Fracturing Gust 1 Painful Truths 2 Supreme Verdict

This. This is what I want to be doing. At first glance, and some numbers are a little of, and some choices are a little weird, but we have a foundation. I've always had a soft spot for BGX decks, ever since the old Jund days (Bloodbraid, I miss you bae<3), all I want to do is play "fair magic" and what better way to do that then with Goyfs and Rhinos

 

After a bit of testing, a bit of editing, and A LOT of discussion, me and my local testing team came to this:

 

4 Noble Hierarch

3 Siege Rhino

2 Snapcaster Mage

4 Tarmogoyf

2 Courser of Kruphix

1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang

 

2 Thoughtseize

4 Inquisition of Kozilek

4 Path to Exile

3 Ancestral Vision

2 Abrupt Decay

1 Anguished Unmaking

3 Lingering Souls

1 Maelstrom Pulse

 

1 Forest

1 Island

1 Plains

1 Swamp

2 Shambling vent

1 Breeding Pool

2 Godless Shrine

1 Hallowed Fountain

2 Overgrown Tomb

1 Temple Garden

1 Watery Grave

2 Flooded Strand

3 Verdant Catacombs

2 Windswept Heath

1 Polluted Delta

1 Misty Rainforest

1 Marsh flats

 

sb:

2 Disenchant

2 Stony Silence

3 Feed the Clan

2 Negate

3 Leyline of the Void

1 Night of Souls Betrayal

2 Kitchen Finks

 

Compared to the original list, the main deck hasn't really changed all so much, a few tweaks to the mana and taking out some of the cuter choices for more efficient cards. The sideboard is where most things have changed: cards like Rest In Peace hinder us as much as it does against graveyard based decks. Spellskite felt unnecssary. Scavenging Ooze was too hungry for Green mana etc.

 

So FNM comes around, and I'm ready to battle, I'm feeling pumped, I have a sweet deck, and I'm excited!

 

I went 2-2

 

Maybe I'm doing it wrong? Maybe I'm playing the wrong deck? Maybe I misplayed?

 

Its to late for this now, I've got to be up in a few hours, and don't have time to build anything else. I plan on just enjoying the day.

 

What ever happens, happens.

 

Round 1: Scapeshift

 

Typically, this is a bad match up for Goyf decks, and I still don't feel 100% comfortable playing against it. game 1 comes down to me ripping my opponent's hand apart, and

them not drawing Scapeshift. Game 2, I Thoughtseized a Scapeshift early, and when a Snapcaster attempted to flash it back I slammed the door on him with Negate.

 

1-0 (2-0)

 

round 2: Burn

 

Oh jeez, this is not how I wanted to start my day.

 

Game 1 was close, with shambling vent being a true mvp, but came down to a burn spell of the top. Game 2 courser, finks and vents all did a number on my burns game plan.

Game 3, the burn player nut drew.

 

1-1 (3-2)

 

round 3: Abzan CoCo

 

Game One lasted a whole 30 minutes, Tasigur eventually pulled me a head, whilst lingering souls flew over the top. Game 2 I got comboed quickly, game 3 I clocked my op whilst he had some lack luster draws.

 

2-1 (5-3)

 

round 4: Tron

 

Oh yay, more bad match ups! 

 

You can watch this game on Twitch, it's around the 2hrs 9 mins mark into the main stream on the MagicMadhouse page

 

Watching it back, there were a few times I fetched incorrectly, but nothing major. There was also one attack I missed with some Lingering Souls tokens. All in all I am quite happy with how I played that match.

 

3-1 (7-4)

 

round 5: Abzan coco

 

I am going to be honest here, I don't really remember this match. I know I lost game 1 and won games 2 and 3, but I have no idea what actually happened.

 

4-1 (9-5)

 

round 6: Abzan CoCo

 

3rd times the charm I guess

 

The winner of this match gets to id into top 8, with the loser crossing fingers and hopefully making it on breakers.

 

Game 1 I misplayed heavily, but upon reflection I would have lost the game anyway, It's by no means an excuse to play sloppily, but ultimatly that game wasn't going my way.

 

Game 2 I had all the answers, with none of the threats and eventually got beaten down.

 

4-2 (9-7)

 

After a quick look at standings, top 6 is locked, with 7th being paired down, and 9th and 10th all battling for the last 2 slots.

 

I was 10th.

 

round 6: Temur Kiki

 

Game 1 was a grind, which is what my deck is built to do, so I eventually win

 

Game 2 there was an unanswered turn 5 Keranos, which promptly demolished me

 

Game 3, for all the marbles, and of course I had to mulligan to 6. My scry shows me a Serum Visions, I took a quick look at my hand shows me another vision and a Breeding Pool! I have the tools, now i just need the time. My opponent manages to drop another Keranos on turn 5, but luckily, I had a Anguished Unmaking ready to exile the God this time, and a few turns later I won!

 

5-2 (11-8)

 

So the sweat begins. We worked out the math and it shows that I should make it, barring some weird tiebreaker anomaly. They start announcing; As they go through the list,all I can think is: "Man this top 8 is stacked", then they announce 8th, the one person who gets in on breakers...........

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quarterfinals: Burn

 

Here we are again, playing against my Burn opponent from the swiss, these games played out in a nearly identical fashion so I am not going to go too far into them. (Editor's note: How anticlimatic...)

 

Overall I was happy with the deck, felt super sweet and was really fun to pilot, and I can't wait to play it in the 5 is The New 7 open series happening this Sunday in Taunton.

 

I highly recommend trying this deck if you are as much of a Goyf fan as me. If you are interested in testing the deck, this is what im starting with for this week:

 

4 Noble Hierarch

3 Siege Rhino

2 Snapcaster Mage

4 Tarmogoyf

2 Courser of Kruphix

2 Tasigur, the Golden Fang

 

2 Thoughtseize

3 Inquisition of Kozilek

4 Path to Exile

3 Ancestral Vision

2 Abrupt Decay

1 Anguished Unmaking

3 Lingering Souls

1 Maelstrom Pulse

 

1 Forest

1 Island

1 Plains

1 Swamp

2 Shambling vent

1 Breeding Pool

2 Godless Shrine

1 Hallowed Fountain

2 Overgrown Tomb

1 Temple Garden

1 Watery Grave

2 Flooded Strand

3 Verdant Catacombs

2 Windswept Heath

1 Polluted Delta

1 Misty Rainforest

1 Marsh flats

 

sb:

2 Disenchant

2 Stony Silence

3 Feed the Clan

2 Negate

3 Leyline of the void

3 Rhox War Monk

 

Have fun peeps, and keep slinging those spells. 

 

Lewis Marshall