- Tournament: Quest for the Cradle xmas special
- Organizer: cEDH Portuguese League
- Attendance: 40 players
- Prizes: Gaea's Cradle; Revised Mana Vault; Ice Age Necropotence; Barrin, Master Wizard - JAP
- Structure: 4 Swiss rounds using squirebot for pairings and tiebreakers followed by a cut to top 16 semi final single elimination to final table.
- Time Limit: 75 mins per swiss round, 75 mins on semi final, and until venue closes for final table.
- REL: competitive 1
Hello everyone!
I'm not a regular Krark // Sakashima cEDH player, as the only cEDH deck I had assembled from a few years back until now was Gitrog Dredge. However having spent so much time during pandemic without practicing the deck, I felt that I would have a hard time in a competitive environment, explaining loops and proving them to be deterministic with Gitrog.
I'm a level 2 judge, so I think I would be able to manage, but given the low time limits, I wanted something more straightforward and simple and easy to play. Thus, because I also play a lot of casual high power commander and I did have built a Krark // Sakashima for that power level target (I even built a calculator for it), I decided to check the latest list and see if I could take it instead. I noticed that there was very few overlap between both decks, and that I had most of the mana rocks in duplicates (still missing the second Lotus Petal, Jeweled Lotus and Chrome Mox)
With this in mind, I printed some proxies for the deck, because finding cards from the collection / other decks to build a deck takes more time than cutting paper... I took it out for a session of testing with some friends and through all that I played maybe 4 games. Feeling confident about the choice, I ordered some of the missing cards (you know the feeling of when you know for sure you own a card but then can't find it anywhere? yep) and finally the night before the tournament I submitted this list: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/a07waH6XpkKvZKQa1O9SCg (spoiler alert, its the exact 100 from Ken at the time)
This was a great game overall, everyone playing very tight. Zur dropped an early Arcane Laboratory and I had a Temporal Fissure in hand so I Just took my time. Ishai became huge and I had to play an illusionary image copying it just to have a blocker. Eventually I reached a turn where I managed to play the Temporal Fissure and still have mana to go off. I hit the clock during my turn so I couldn't just win by attacking against empty boards, so I continued and created a ton of mana with a lot of Krarks and killed the table with End the Festivities. Very appropriate.
This game Heliod opened with a Deafening Silence, and a Sword of Fire and Ice. I was very disheartened to see that sword as it killed my Krark... I eventually started recovering and building up a board and Tasigur blew everything up with Culling Ritual. Kenrith had Vampiric Tutor before and in response to Culling Ritual I attempted to Submerge 2 of his creatures to delay the tutored card, but he had Veil of Summer for the second one and would eventually still draw it on their next turn. At this point I lost all my mana rocks and was left in a deep hole. Game went on, Tasigur played a Teferi Master of Time and I was able to control it's loyalty by using some well placed politics, convincing him to lower it on Kenrith's Noble Hierarch during upkeep to deny him that mana. Because of this play, Kenrith got slowed down one turn and the game proceeded into a draw.
This game went very slow as Kraum started attacking me over the air relentlessly. With garth on the field I decided to play safe and copy Nymris with Phantasmal Image, as it couldn't be hit by garth's terror. Sadly they killed my Krark and Sakashima many times and I didn't have enough time to pull off a win, although I felt it was close.
me, Stickfingers, Tasigur, Tymna // Kraum
This game I started fast, but Stickfingers had a turn 3 Culling Ritual that destroyed my plan. However they were stopped by Kraum's interaction where they demonic consulted for a Force of Will. This resulted in them exiling all of their win-cons though... Tasigur had a hand stacked with tutors and started gathering pieces to win. I had seen their hand with Gitaxian Probe so I was able to come up with a plan with the other opponents to stop him. However the game ended in the following situation: Tasigur on the table protecting Jace, Wielder of Mysteries at 3 loyalty. Fierce Guardianship on top of their library, Vampiric Tutor in hand, Demonic Consultation in hand and Thassa's Oracle in hand. I only had a Swan Song and a Finale of Promise, and at the end of Kraum's turn I cast intuition. This is where I made a mistake: I should have made the following pile: cephalid colliseum, Brain Freeze, grapeshot, because I need to have finale hit 2 relevant spells (instant and sorcery). This way I would be able to deal with Fierce Guardianship, deal with Jace and still have cephalid in play ready to activate to stop Thassa's Oracle, even if they found something with Vampiric Tutor to protect it. By not having cephalid in play I wasn't able to stop Thassa's Oracle as they picked up Veil of Summer and my Swan Song didn't stop Demonic Consultation. Probably Tasigur could have still won the game, but not without me being able to have more turns to attempt to win myself!
This game I mulled to 5, started with a turn 1 Krark with some mana rocks. Game was going great for me, as Kraum was attacking the Vial Smasher player. Tymna / Tana player green sun zenithed for a Collector Ouphe and I followed up with an end the festivities to unlock my mana rocks. After this I play Veyran and the next turn with Krark on the table I attack Kraum for 12 with Veyran due to some Krark triggers. Kraum starts to get worried about Krark and I trash talk him into nearly tilting, saying that he has a huge hand and that he played a tutor already while I only have 2 and that the Vial Smasher player was behind him. I passed turn with 2 cards in hand - one was Underworld Breach which I was planning to use later to finish the game with end the festivities. On the Vial Smasher player's turn they cast a Dauthi Voidwalker followed by a Wheel of Fortune and in response, Kraum bounces my Krark to my hand, surely result of the earlier exchanges, leaving Veyran on the battlefield. I continue complaining that the Vial Smasher player will have a stacked Dauthi Voidwalker, continuing my theatrical performance to divert attention from Veyran. On my turn, with a fresh hand of 7, I recast both Krark and Sakashima and with Veyran on the field, did it all: tutor for Tavern Scoundrel, generating treasures with Pyroblast eventually killing a Rhystic Study Vial Smasher player had all the while with Pact of Negation that kept bouncing back to my hand to counter everything they played. Eventually I started bouncing treasures with Geistwave and drew up a win with Twinflame to attack with ridiculously huge Veyrans.
I mulled to 5, keeping a hand with Rhystic Study, Force of Will and Veyran. My plan was to recoup my lost cards with Rhystic Study and ride Veyran again to victory.
On Tymna's first turn, they accelerate a dranith magistrate with a Chrome Mox pitching Enlightened Tutor, and I force it pitching Veyran. Turn 2 I play Krark, Tymna attempts to play Rhystic Study and Koll Pyroblasts it.On my turn I cast my Rhystic Study and resolves. On Tymna following turn I missed my Rhystic Study trigger. I was very tired and became very upset because of it, and decided to be more aware from then on.
Tymna and Kraum together start to accumulate a lot of advantage and he attempts to warn the table against my board. However I see through his schemes and am perfectly aware that he must have a stacked hand in order to win. Game continues and I counter Tymna's Toxic Deluge with Fierce Guardianship and Anje resolves a Vampiric Tutor after this with 3 mana for their turn. I predict that Anje is going for a Toxic Deluge and even mentioned it casually telling Tymna not to worry that Anje is going to find the answer to my Krarks with that Vampiric Tutor. After the Vampiric Tutor resolves everyone thinks they are ready to go to Anje's turn, but it stop them and ask if Anje has missed land drops which he clearly did. Then I Mogg Salvage their Mox Diamond and the only equiment that Koll had on the table and they go on to their turn. Anje didn't do anything and passed turn.
Koll did some missplays with their Blasting Station and I go to my turn and pass with a nice board with Krark and Harmonic Prodigy.
Tymna starts their theatrical act and resolves Intuition for an "answer" against me. They get: Silence, LED, Breach. He attempts to convince us that the Silence is the answer he got for me and that the rest is just to advance his game. This smells fishy and I have to intervene and point out that he has a stacked hand, lots of mana and that if he plays Silence now he can win the game, and thus if we give him the Silence he has to make a deal to use it on my upkeep. He says that this is the finals of the tournament and that he won't make the deal. This only confirms my suspicions and Anje realises that they might have Sevinne's Reclamation in hand. With this in mind I propose that we should give him the card had forces them to cast the most spells in order to win, as to take advantage of my Rhystic Study so that I can find an answer in that case. Anje gives him the LED and obviously Tymna starts by casting LED followed by Sevinne's Reclamation. Anje responds to Sevinne's Reclamation with Deflecting Swat and Tymna responds with a Miscast. At this point i've drawn nothing but duds from my Rhystic Study but on this last trigger I decided to retain priority and crack my fetch to "thin the deck" as I had drawn a mountain on a previous trigger. So after I got a mountain, they cut the deck and I draw... A Dualcaster Mage. I play it, targetting Deflecting Swat and changing Sevinne's Reclamation target to a fetchland.
Tymna disheartedly passes, Anje passes and Koll attempts to kill my Harmonic Prodigy with abrade. I respond by casting Brightstone Ritual which generates mana and gets bounced to my hand, triggering prowess and saving the Harmonic Prodigy. I go to my turn and find the win with a lot of dice rolling (coin flipping!) with backup from Pact of Negation against Tymna's Pact of Negation.
The line I won with was resolving 5 copies of Solve the Equation after I had generated a ton of mana already and then found the Twinflame to copy Dualcaster Mage and have the token's trigger copy the original Twinflame (you have to hit heads on the very first flip for this to happen)
Mulligan wins games.
Footnotes
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True competitive REL for multiplayer magic doesn't exist YET. As a community we need to take the initiative to start building a framework to support high level multiplayer tournaments. My vision is that it will require both a multiplayer-enhanced MTR and an multiplayer-enhanced IPG. Hopefully I can kickstart this process by creating a project within the Portuguese MTG Judge community to tackle this. ↩
Anje player read the report and told me that the card they searched for was Jeweled Lotus instead of Toxic Deluge, but that even still, me destroying their mana rock thwarted their plans. So I guess it was a good play either way.