Forty-five players arrived on Saturday to play six rounds of Onslaught Block Constructed; a fairly decent turnout. Tournament organizer Mark Brown indicated that he was likely to post the top 8 deck lists at some stage.
My deck was Goblins - but not necessarily the Goblin deck everyone would expect, such as the type of Goblin deck that was around 40-50% of the field at Grand Prix: Detroit. My list is probably around twelve cards different from those"old" lists after about six weeks of testing and tuning; you can see for yourself where the changes lie. Here is the list I used, which went undefeated to finish on top after the Swiss-pairing rounds:
Goblins:
4x Siege-Gang Commander
4x Goblin Warchief
4x Skirk Prospector
4x Goblin Sledder
4x Goblin Piledriver
3x Goblin Goon
3x Goblin Sharpshooter
3x Clickslither
2x Rorix Bladewing
3x Threaten
2x Sulfuric Vortex
3x Goblin Burrows
21x Mountain
Sideboard:
4x Gempalm Incinerator
3x Menacing Ogre
3x Stabilizer
2x Goblin Pyromancer
1x Goblin Sharpshooter
1x Rorix Bladewing
1x Insurrection
I had only three decks in mind for my sideboard, as I was already confident with my main deck list against the rest of the field. My sideboarding plans were:
Vs. Goblins:
+4 Gempalm Incinerator, +3 Menacing Ogre, +2 Goblin Pyromancer
-4 Goblin Piledriver, -3 Goblin Goon, -2 Sulfuric Vortex
Vs. Mono-White:
+1 Rorix Bladewing, +1 Goblin Sharpshooter, +1 Insurrection
-3 Goblin Goon
Vs. Red-White
+3 Stabilizer
-3 Goblin Sharpshooter
Round 1: vs. David Helsby, playing Mono-White
I had played against David's deck twice during Onslaught tournaments at my local card shop over the last couple of weeks, and David was part of the group of players that I playtested with until the early hours of the morning on the night before the tournament. I knew a lot about David's list, and also knew that it had improved over several weeks of testing. The most recent change that I was concerned about was the addition of Dragon Scales to the main deck.
Game 1 was not pretty. Dave's life total quickly reached thirty-two after he hard-cast two Renewed Faiths before I was able to deal any damage to him. He had gone first and got up early defense with Silver Knight and Dawn Elemental. I took down an Exalted Angel at the cost of sacrificing several Goblin tokens via a Siege-Gang Commander, but my life total was going down steadily due to Silver Knights. I could never muster enough force to get through his defenses, and eventually succumbed to flying white creatures while Dave's life total was still at twenty-seven. At the end of the game, I had seen six spells and twelve lands, so my luck could probably only improve from there.
Sideboarding as above, Game 2 was a completely different story because I was able to go first. Dave's life total went 20, 19, 15, 7, 2, 0 while I didn't take any damage. I got the required mix of Goblins to continually apply pressure so that even though Dave had some protection out (Silver Knight and Dawn Elemental), he was still taking too much pain around these blockers, with Siege-Gang Commander allowing me to throw various blocked Goblins at my opponent.
Game 3 was not looking good for Dave as he took a mulligan, but his six-card hand was good enough to keep. As in game one, I faced down a Silver Knight on turn 2 with what was probably Wing Shards backup on turn 3, so once again I wasn't able to get in any early damage. When Jareth, Leonine Titan joined the Silver Knight and Dave followed up with Dragon Scales on Jareth the following turn, he felt sufficiently safe to start swinging with Jareth for five a turn. I dropped to fifteen, and then to ten. Dave added a Dawn Elemental to his board also, but was holding it back on defense with the Knight. During his upkeep with no cards in hand, Dave returned Eternal Dragon to hand, leaving only WW untapped. It turned out that the card he drew was Decree of Justice, but he couldn't play it or cycle it until after his next untap.
I had managed to build up quite a decent number of creatures in play, including Prospector, Siege-Gang Commander, Rorix Bladewing, and some other goblins and goblin tokens. I decided to go for the all-out attack. I Threatened the Dawn Elemental, which meant that Rorix couldn't be blocked, and Dave would have to take nine damage through the air. I swung with the entire team, using Goblin Burrows to pump one unblocked Goblin token and dealt sixteen points of combat damage to Dave. Once combat damage was on the stack, I sacrificed four goblins for red mana and threw my remaining two goblins for four more direct damage and the win!
1-0-0
Round 2: vs. Glenn Shanley, playing White/Green
Once again, I was paired up against someone I had playtested extensively with. I think I must have played around fifty test games against Glenn's deck over the last month. His deck was specifically geared to withstand the early onslaught of Goblins before playing large threats like Exalted Angel and Silvos with Astral Slide backup, with Akroma's Vengeance should anything else turn up.
Game 1: I won the die roll and played first, opening up with a turn 1 Goblin Sledder to which Glenn played a turn 2 Silver Knight. I stalled on three lands but did get a Clickslither into play - and when the Silver Knight started to attack, I was able to return fire as we traded hits. On turn 6, Glenn played an Exalted Angel, which I met with my fifth land and a Siege-Gang Commander. The Exalted Angel swung in once, raising Glenn's life total back to fourteen and taking me down to fourteen. On my following turn, I played my sixth land and shot down the Angel with a bunch of tokens after attacking, but Glenn again raised the stakes by casting Silvos, Rogue Elemental with regeneration mana available. I Threatened Silvos and swung with my team, taking Glenn down to three, but Glenn hard-cast a Renewed faith during my turn and dropped a Ravenous Baloth. I was all out of cards in hand and could only do three more damage to Glenn before Silvos did me in.
I sideboarded out the Goblin Piledrivers to bring in three copies of Menacing Ogre and an Insurrection.
Game 2 saw Glenn fail to find a white source until turn 3, which he used immediately to cast the first of two successive Renewed Faiths. But with nothing on the board to stop the pain, even this twelve extra life didn't prolong the match by much. Glenn's life total went 20, 19, 25, 20, 23, 14, 8, 2, 1, 0. I remember having to deal the last few points of damage around a Ravenous Baloth - but once Glenn announced he was sacrificing the Baloth to gain life, I used a Goblin Sharpshooter to deal one point of damage at instant speed before his life gain resolved to take the game.
Game 3 was a long and close game. I think that I managed to win mostly because Glenn found three or four consecutive lands on top of his deck when he probably only needed to draw one more threat to take the game. I found and drew all three copies of Threaten during this match, which I used on Glenn's Exalted Angel repeatedly to negate both the damage I was taking and the life that Glenn gained during his attacks. I was able to sneak in small amounts of damage around the side during the sequence of Threatens - and when I had run out of Threatens, I played Rorix and attacked for the win, sacrificing my Goblin Sledder to deal the extra point of damage required to seal the match.
2-0-0
Round 3 vs. Jarron Puszet, playing Mono-White
After winning the die roll and electing to play first, I played a turn 2 Piledriver and waited for Jarron to match it with a turn 2 Silver Knight. Thankfully, he didn't have it, and when a Goblin Warchief joined the Piledriver, Jarron took five. He played a morph on turn 3, which I assumed was an Exalted Angel. I untapped and played a fourth land, but had no way of killing the Angel in my hand. I did have a Threaten, though, and reasoned that if Jarron spent his fourth turn unmorphing the Angel and attacking, I would be able to negate this attack and life gain with my Threaten and actually lower his life total by another five points with my Piledriver and Warchief. I attacked and waited to see if Jarron would block the Warchief. He thought about it for a few moments and declined, taking another five and dropping to ten. I added a Goblin Sharpshooter to my board. Jarron then played his fourth land, which unfortunately for him was a Temple of the False God, so he could only add Dragon Scales to his morph. I Threatened the morph, taking a look at it once it was under my control to confirm that it was an Exalted Angel, and attacked along with my team of three Goblins to deal lethal damage and take the game.
Game 2 was not pretty for me. Jarron opened with turn 1 Foothill Guide, turn 2 Silver Knight, and added another Foothill Guide on turn 3 and played Dragon Scales on the Silver Knight. My life total started dropping in chunks of three, and I was only able to deal two damage to Jarron before all of his creatures (with protection from either Red or Goblins) swung in for the final five damage.
In game 3, Jarron took a mulligan, and then another mulligan, eventually settling on a five-card hand. I was hoping to apply pressure by being able to play first - but I wasn't able to play any Goblins until my Goblin Warchief arrived on Turn 3, at which point I was already staring down a Dragon Scaled Foothill Guide. But on turn 4 when I added two more Goblin Warchiefs to the fray, things started to deteriorate for Jarron. He was able to deal ten damage with the Foothill Guide, but I was able to cast a Siege-Gang Commander at a large discount due to the Warchiefs and had dealt twenty damage to Jarron by Turn 6, with a Rorix and another Siege-Gang Commander still in hand.
3-0-0
Round 4 vs. Tyson Gleeson, playing Red-White
Tyson was another player who I had been playtesting with until the early hours the morning just before the tournament. We got deck-checked before starting, and I was asked to replace two of my sleeves while Tyson was asked to either replace all of his sleeves or play without them. He bought some new sleeves, and once we re-sleeved his deck in new light blue sleeves (apparently the cheapest available), we shuffled up and prepared to start with twenty minutes added to the round.
Game 1 was harsh for Tyson, as he proceeded to play five sources of red mana before finding his first white source. A timely Starstorm at one point took down a few Goblins, but not my Goblin Goons. Tyson's life total dropped 20, 19, 13, 0 and it was time to sideboard for Game 2. Out went the three copies of Goblin Goon and in came three copies of Stabilizer.
Tyson controlled the shots in Game 2. He had an early Lightning Rift, which was certainly busy keeping the Goblin population down. When Exalted Angel arrived on turn 6, I had no real answer and succumbed two turns later to a combination of the Exalted Angel and cycling triggered damage from Lightning Rift.
Going first in Game 3 was important for me. I played a turn 1 Prospector and a turn 2 Stabilizer that really hurt Tyson. I then added a Sulfuric Vortex and did most of my damage during this match with the Prospector and this enchantment. Tyson was able to get a pair of Silver Knights into play eventually, but was not able to race me before the Vortex finished the game and the match.
4-0-0
Round 5 vs. Andrew Gordon, playing Mono-White
As we are both 4-0 at this stage, we agree to intentionally draw the round. I take a much-needed mental break for about an hour and stretch my legs.
4-0-1
Round 6 vs. Dino Panagos, playing Goblins
Dino had the worst tiebreakers of all the players who were equal with him on twelve points at something like 44%. If we intentionally drew and all of the other players on twelve or more points also intentionally drew, Dino would be either 8th or 9th depending on his tiebreakers. So he had to play, and we shuffled up and presented.
Dino won the die roll, and was happy with his seven-card hand. I wasn't overly confident with mine, as it had a bunch of small goblins, a Goblin Goon and 2 lands but decide to keep it. Dino opened with a Skirk Prospector, which I match on my first turn. He played a Mountain and a Goblin Sledder and swung with the Skirk Prospector, which I elected not to block. I played a mountain and sacrificed the Prospector to play Goblin Sharpshooter, which Dino looks very unhappy about. He attacked with both of his Goblins, but couldn't find an answer to the Sharpshooter, who made short work of his team. Dino then took a gamble and played a Sulfuric Vortex - which didn't pay off, as I played a Goblin Warchief and Goblin Goon over the next two turns. Despite playing Rorix Bladewing on turn 6 (which was annoying because I had one in my hand also) he couldn't do enough damage to kill me before my team and his Sulfuric Vortex ended the game.
We both performed a large sideboard operation before Game 2. I took out all four Goblin Piledrivers, three Goblin Goons, and both Sulfuric Vortexes for four Gempalm Incinerators, three Menacing Ogres, and two Goblin Pyromancers. Dino made about the same number of changes to his deck. We both opened as in game one, with a Skirk Prospector and I followed up with a Goblin Sledder. Several Gempalm Incinerators later, I still had a Prospector on the board, but everything else has been killed. On turn 5, I sacrificed the Prospector for red mana to cast Rorix Bladewing and attack for six. Dino played a Goblin Warchief on his next turn and returned the attack. I once again served with Rorix and played a Goblin Sledder. Dino added a Goblin Goon to his board, but it can't attack with the Warchief, who went into combat on his own. I Threatened the Goblin Goon on my next turn and finished the match.
5-0-1
At the end of the Swiss rounds, the top 8 was (not in any order):
- Goblins
- Goblins
- Goblins (splash black for Smother and sideboarded Patriarch's Bidding)
- Goblins (splash black for Smother)
- Mono-White
- Mono-White
- Mono-White
- Zombie Bidding
Quarterfinals vs. Dino Panagos (again)
Having just played in Round 6, Dino and I were paired up again! Dino's tiebreakers improved 6% over the last round, and he squeaked into 8th place by about 1.5%. Apparently not all of the players at twelve points had intentionally drawn after all, and had we taken a draw in the last round we wouldn't have been paired in the quarters. Given that I'd just managed to win against Dino, I was fairly confident - but that was before I learnt that we were about to share our decklists and cross-check each other to ensure each player was presenting a non-sideboarded deck.
I haven't experienced this before at a tournament, but I can see why: It is a good way to level the playing field. There are often teams of players who are moving around and scouting decks during a tournament, and revealing all decks before the finals gives everyone the same amount of information and negates this sort of"team" advantage. But while I was pleased to know exactly what was in Dino's deck, I still didn't want him to know my secrets too! The surprises in his list were two maindecked Chain of Plasmas as well as two maindecked Sulfuric Vortexes (like I was running).
Dino came out first in game one with a turn 1 Skirk Prospector, which I matched on my first turn. On turn 2, he attacked for one and played a Sparksmith. I had no immediate answer for the Sparksmith, so I attacked back with my Skirk Prospector, figuring that it was about to be nailed anyway - only to find that Dino chose to block with his Sparksmith. I immediately felt much better about the board situation. Dino followed up with a turn 3 Goblin Sledder and played his third land, declining to attack (I couldn't see why). I played a Goblin Warchief and passed my turn. On turn 4, Dino sacrificed both of his Goblins and played Rorix - ouch! Over the next two turns, I added a Clickslither to the board and managed to take Dino to eleven as Rorix lowered my life total to a precarious one life. Dino cast Starstorm for two (he still only had four lands) to leave my Clickslither and his Rorix as the only remaining creatures. I untapped and cast the Siege-Gang Commander in my hand, sacrificing everyone to the Clickslither to deal exactly eleven damage and take the game.
Game two wasn't looking good for Dino, as I saw a bunch of Gempalm Incinerators while Dino just drew Goblin Goon and two Goblin Sledders. A well-timed Threaten from Dino got his Goon active on his last turn, but I was still at sixteen life before the attack and took the thirteen damage before playing Rorix Bladewing on my next turn for the win.
Semi-finals vs. John Brugman, playing Mono-White
Again, we got to look over each other's deck lists and John appeared to have most of what I would expect to see in a Mono-White deck. He browsed my decklist and didn't seem too surprised by the most of the card selections, but then commented that the last selections (Goblin Sharpshooter, Rorix Bladewing, Sulfuric Vortex and Threaten) are all a little unexpected in the main deck and not good for him. I suggested that we just roll the die to decide who wins the match, to which John chuckled but suggested we play it out regardless of the die result. I actually managed a sixteen (my highest roll for the day), but John is clearly the better player and replied with a nineteen and elected to play first.
My first hand only had one land, a Goblin Burrows, so it all went straight back on top of my library. Just as well, because there was only one more land in the top four cards. The six-card hand I then drew wasn't much better, but it did have three one-drop goblins, a Goblin Warchief, a Goblin Sharpshooter, and a Mountain, so I elected to take my chances and run with it.
John opened with a plains, and I replied with a Skirk Prospector, quite pleased with the Mountain that I also drew. I was a lot less pleased with the Silver Knight that arrived on Turn 2, but played out my Mountain and added another Prospector and a Goblin Sledder. John was also quite pleased with his hand, and played Dragon Scales on the Silver Knight and then commenced beating me down for three damage a turn. I ripped a land off the top of my library again and played a Goblin Warchief but held my forces back, not wanting to lose something for nothing to the Silver Knight when I still had a Sharpshooter in hand.
John added another Silver Knight and continued to play lands up to his sixth, one of which was a Temple of the False God. For my part, I managed to stall on three lands but continued to draw and play goblins. I feared the vengeance of Akroma, but it never came. At one point, John cycled a Decree of Justice to create two Soldier tokens, and I was able to show him how the Goblin Sharpshooter goes to town on soldier tokens. When my life total reached eight, John played a Dawn Elemental and passed the turn, which meant that I had only one more turn before his creatures walked or flew right by my entire team, who would be powerless to stop them.
I drew a Siege-Gang Commander and paused. I still only had three lands, but had lots of goblins, including an active Goblin Sharpshooter and a Goblin Warchief. I also had Rorix Bladewing and a Threaten in hand. I had to go for it this turn or bust trying, so I started sacrificing Goblins for red mana (using Sharpshooter at every sacrifice step along the way) and first cast the Siege-Gang Commander and then the Threaten, targeting the Dawn Elemental. With great regret I realized that I was one Goblin short of being able to also cast Rorix, and despite gaining the Dawn Elemental I was only - only! - able to deal nineteen points of damage on that turn, with my Sharpshooter tapped as my last creature in play. Perhaps if I had gone first and been able to sneak in just a single point of damage with a Skirk Prospector, or if I had held an extra card without having to mulligan I could have taken the game. It wasn't to be, though, and it was time to shuffle up and play game 2.
Game 2 was much closer to the script as I would have written it: While I didn't have any creatures in play before my turn 3 Goblin Warchief, John failed to play a Silver Knight on turn 2, which allowed my Goblin Warchief two points of damage in. John's defense slowly built up over the next two turns with a Foothill Guide and Dawn Elemental, while I added a pair of Goblin Sledders and a Goblin Piledriver. John found a Dragon Scales for his Dawn Elemental, which lowered my life total by four to sixteen. I played a Siege-Gang Commander and a Goblin Sharpshooter and attacked, taking John to nine. I drew another Goblin Sharpshooter on my next turn and my double Goblin Sharpshooters had more than enough untap triggers to deal the nine damage required to seal the game.
Game 3 was one of the closest matches I've ever played. John went first and played a Foothill Guide to match my Skirk Prospector, and then played a turn 3 morph (which was later unmorphed to be an Exalted Angel, not to anyone's surprise). I had a Goblin Warchief and a Sulfuric Vortex in hand, and chose to play the Sulfuric Vortex on turn 3 to negate the expected life gain ability if John was to unmorph the Exalted Angel on turn 4. I was fairly certain that I couldn't outrace John with the Sulfuric Vortex if I waited to play it on turn 4, and so I allowed him to get an eight-point jump in life totals on me. On his next turn John cursed the Sulfuric Vortex, played Dragon Scales on his morph, and cycled away a Renewed Faith (for no effect now due to the Sulfuric Vortex) before attacking with the morph. My life total was still dropping faster than John's and we soon reached the following board position:
John: Fourteen life. Exalted Angel with Dragon Scales, Foothill Guide (both untapped). One untapped Plains.
Me: Eight life. Sulfuric Vortex, Clickslither, Goblin Piledriver, Goblin Warchief, Goblin Sharpshooter. All but one land tapped to play the Clickslither.
Now the sad part of this tale is that I made an error on this turn that cost me the match - and thus, a split of the prizes in the final. I needed to either do twelve damage to John in my turn so that the Vortex would kill him during his upkeep, or force him to block with the Exalted Angel and kill it so that John couldn't deal 6 damage back to me during his next attack phase.
What I did was declare all four of my creatures as attackers and pass priority, announcing that my Goblin Piledriver was now 5/2. John correctly responded by announcing that before that trigger resolved he was casting Rain of Blades, killing the Goblin Sharpshooter so that on resolution of the Goblin Piledriver's triggered ability it was only going to be 3/2. John blocked the Goblin Warchief with the Foothill Guide and blocked the Goblin Piledriver with the Exalted Angel. I sacrificed all three goblins to the Clickslither to make it a 9/9 trampler and did nine points of damage to John. He untapped, took two damage from the Sulfuric Vortex, and killed me with his team and moved into the final.
What I should have done was attack with the Clickslither, Goblin Piledriver, and Goblin Warchief only and waited to see how John blocked. As it was, I lost the ability to do three extra damage with my Goblin Sharpshooter (after I sacrificed each of my remaining goblins to the Clickslither), which would have been enough to take the game.
John didn't end up playing the final against Andrew Gordon, which is probably a good thing as this mirror match would have been about as exciting as watching grass grow. Mono-White on Mono-White is just stupid to watch play out, as both sides build up a horde of creatures and then cast Akroma's Vengeance after Akroma's Vengeance. Whoever draws into Eternal Dragon sooner will probably win by thinning their deck of all the plains, but it takes forever to play out - and frankly I'd rather pull my own teeth out.
My congratulations to John who took the qualifier slot, as Andrew dropped from the tournament and they split the prizes. Thanks to Mark Brown, who ran a very enjoyable tournament without a glitch, professional as always.
If I were to change anything about the deck and sideboard I used, I'd suggest adding an extra mountain to the sideboard to be brought in alongside with the Rorix rather than the Insurrection. I never saw the Insurrection in the matches that it was brought in, so I don't really know if I would have been better off with something else.
I've been hanging around the StarCityGames forums for ages, and am happy to discuss anything there.
Until the next and final Onslaught Block PTQ (this Saturday in Geelong),
Jason Whitby
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