Abzan Tokens at GP San Antonio

note: this was originally published on Asgard Games website back in 2012. I found it in my email recently, posting here for archival purposes - Ty (3/10/2021)




Grand Prix San Antonio Report
It’s been a while since my last article. I’ve been meaning to write more, but I’ve been really busy with school. But just because I haven’t had time to write doesn’t mean I haven’t been playing Magic. In October, I travelled to San Jose for the Team Grand Prix. My team finished 44th place after losing the last round of day 1 (11 rounds!) to miss the cut to day 2. Then three weeks later I won the sealed PTQ in San Antonio, so I’ll be in Montreal in February for Pro Tour Gatecrash. And this past weekend I returned to San Antonio, this time to play in the Standard Grand Prix. My record was 11-3-1 with two byes, and I finished 16th place for $600.

My preparation for the GP began right after I won the PTQ and no longer had to focus on sealed and draft. I put together the UW flash deck to play at the Monday standard tournament at Asgard, but I wasn’t that impressed. I considered playing BR zombies (with Thundermaw Hellkite in the sideboard), but I’m still not sold on the mana in that deck (see this article for an explanation http://www.asgardgames.net/2012/08/developing-your-mana-in-standard/). I tried various GW aggro decks, but they all seemed too gimmicky for me. With two weeks before the GP, I was either going to play Bant Control or Grixis Control, depending on which performed better in
testing. Then I found this list:

9 Forest
4 Gavony Township
3 Plains
4 Sunpetal Grove
4 Temple Garden

4 Arbor Elf
2 Armada Wurm
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Borderland Ranger
4 Centaur Healer
4 Loxodon Smiter
4 Restoration Angel
4 Thragtusk

1 Collective Blessing
4 Selesnya Charm
1 Staff of Nin

Sideboard
2 Armada Wurm
4 Chalice of Life
4 Cloudshift
4 Intrepid Hero
1 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice

The things I liked most about this list were the maximum number of mana creatures, the four Borderland Rangers, and the four Gavony Townships. The first change I made was to add Garruk, Primal Hunter for the Staff of Nin and the Collective Blessing, and I moved Centaur Healer to the sideboard and put Strangleroot Geist in the main deck.
The sideboard got overhauled completely once I decided Chalice of Life wasn’t good enough (but it might be good enough now).

Garruk was very impressive from the beginning, so much so that I added a 3rd to the sideboard, and then added it to the main deck, eventually ending up with 4 between main and side. Strangleroot Geist was not as impressive. I couldn’t figure out what creature I wanted in that low curve spot. I tried Vhitu-Gazi Guildmage, Thalia, Mikaeus the Lunarch, and Wolfir Avenger, but wasn’t happy with any of them. In the meantime, my roommate, Will Lowry, was trying to get me to play a deck with 4x Abrupt Decay. I looked at this list, and decided maybe we could splash for the removal spell and then have access to the best replacement for Strangleroot Geist: Lingering Souls. I made the
changes and never looked back.

We both played the list at the SCG IQ in Austin. I lost in the top 4, but Will won the tournament. Now we had our deck for GP San Antonio, and we just had to put the finishing touches. After the final week of testing, this is what we registered:

4 Forest
4 Gavony Township
1 Plains
4 Sunpetal Grove
4 Temple Garden
4 Overgrown Tomb
1 Swamp
1 Isolated Chapel
1 Woodland Cemetery

4 Arbor Elf
2 Armada Wurm
4 Avacyn's Pilgrim
4 Borderland Ranger
2 Loxodon Smiter
4 Restoration Angel
4 Thragtusk

4 Lingering Souls
3 Garruk, Primal Hunter
3 Selesnya Charm
2 Abrupt Decay

Sideboard
2 Triumph of Ferocity
3 Rest In Peace
2 Ultimate Price
2 Golgari Charm
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
1 Nearheath Pilgrim
2 Loxodon Smiter

With this deck and two byes, I began my San Antonio Grand Prix journey.

Rounds 1 and 2 – Bye
2-0

Round 3 Herdman, William (UW Human Aggro)
Billy is a nice guy from College Station where he runs Clockwork Games. I’ve known him for years now. It’s unfortunate to play against someone you know at a big event, but I probably knew 150 or so of the 800 players so it was bound to happen eventually. Game 1 he had an aggressive start, but he flooded out as I bought time by chumping his Sublime Archangel with Lingering Souls tokens while Garruk drew me into the cards I needed to win. Game 2 he was stuck on 2 land and I had an early Garruk and he couldn’t recover.
3-0

Round 4 Simpson, Kyle (Bant Control)
Game 1 he double Farseeks into a turn 4 Armada Wurm. I have my own Armada Wurm, but can’t find a time to play it before I die. Game 2 I use Garruk to keep the pressure on him, forcing him to use his Supreme Verdicts, and then using my Thragtusks and Angels to finish him off. Game 3 he mulligans to 5 and never really is in the game.
4-0

Round 5 Froehlich, Eric (Bant Control)
Game 1 he is stuck on 3 lands, so I kill him quickly with Lingering Souls and Township before he can draw out of it. Game 2 is tricky, I try to keep enough pressure on him to force him to use his Supreme Verdicts, but he keeps having enough answers to delay, eventually setting up a Sphinx’s Revelation for 7. Luckily I had Golgari Charm to counter his first Verdict, and then Garruk kept enough pressure on him to kill him.
5-0

Round 6 Boyette, Wesley (4 Color Stuff)
Game 1 I mulligan to 5 and he has Huntmaster of the Fells early to slow me down, but I stabilize with Thragtusk and Angel and some Lingering Souls before he Bonfires me out of the game. Game 2 he Slaughter Games my Thragtusks and I flood out while he casts more Huntmasters and even Entreat the Angels!
5-1

Round 7 HOFFMAN, KRIS (Reanimator)
Game 1 I have enough pressure that he’s forced to use his Angel of Serenity on my creatures, and I then Selesnya Charm the angel and he can’t recover. Game 2 he mulligans to 6 and is stuck on 2 land for several turns. We play a 3rd game for fun and he can’t beat my Rest in Peace.
6-1

Round 8 Webb, Taylor (BR Zombies)
Taylor and I go way back. I played him in the top 4 of the first PTQ he ever won a few months after I won my first PTQ. We both won PTQs for Gatecrash on the same day, so now after 10+ years we’ll finally go to a PT together. Game 1 I had mana creature into Borderland Ranger, which let me ramp into early Thragtusk and Restoration Angel. Game 2 he killed my mana elf and I couldn’t catch up, but game 3 I had Trostani and he couldn’t find an answer.
7-1

Round 9 May, Parker (Blue Reanimator)
Game 1 he had Lingering Souls and I couldn’t draw any of mine to stop him from just beating me down with spirits. Game 2 he cast Supreme Verdict twice to buy the time he needed, and killed me with more spirits and Craterhoof Behemoth.
7-2

Celebrations after day 1 were mostly tame; I just wanted to get to bed early so I could do well on day 2. We did eat Mexican food on the River Walk for my friend Jose’s 30th birthday, but I went to sleep soon after. Both Will and I made day 2 with 7-2 records with the same deck. We woke up early on Sunday ready to win out.

Round 10 Hammon, Conrad (Naya Midrange)
Game 1 he had 2 enter the battlefield tapped lands and didn’t get to Farseek until turn 3. He still missed land drops and I killed him with spirits. Game 2 I had Garruk early and he was flooded. We traded Restoration Angels and he Bonfired my team for 7, but I still had enough gas to follow it up and kill him.
8-2

Round 11 Schelling, Christopher (Grixis Control)
Game 1 he had an early Olivia Volderan, but only had 5 mana to use. I kept alpha striking with my team of lingering souls and borderland rangers to get him down to 6. He cast Forbidden Alchemy, keeping an unknown card but discarding Thundermaw Hellkite and 2 lands. At this point I put him on Mizzium Mortars, so I play Armada Wurm, and he doesn’t have an answer and has to trade his Olivia. A turn later, he dies. Game 2 he’s in control the whole time, including a turn 4 Olivia and a turn 6 Mortars on my whole team. Game 3 he mulligans to 4 cards, and I have double Triumph of Ferocity to draw 3 times as many cards as him, so he’s never really in it.
9-2

Round 12 Craddock, William (BR Zombies)
Game 1 he kills my mana elf, and I die on turn 4 with 2 Thragtusks in hand. Game 2 I have Nearheath Pilgrim paired with an Angel, plus Trostani and he can’t keep up. Game 3 looks ok for me as I have turn 3 Trostani and follow it up with Thragtusk, but his Bonfire on 2 and Falkenrath Aristocrat puts me to 3 life with only land in hand. He goes out of his way to keep me from getting a beast token to populate, so I’m stuck without a way to gain life…. But then I draw Armada Wurm! I gain 10, and attack him with Thragtusk down to 15. He draws the land he needs for Thundermaw Hellkite at attacks me for 9 in the air, so now I’m down to 4 life with no cards in hand. This time, I draw Ultimate Price! I populate a wurm to gain 5 more life, kill his dragon, and untap and kill him on the next turn, doing exactly 15 points of damage. I got very lucky to win this game.
10-2

Round 13 Gomez, David (GW Midrange)
David’s deck is very similar to the original deck I started from. I win game one with Garruk and Armada Wurm, slowing down his Township assault. However, games 2 and 3 I lose when I flood and never draw Gavony Township to match his. I was pretty unhappy losing this matchup.
10-3

Round 14 Carvalho, Pedro (RB Aggro)
With the last loss, top 8 was probably not an option, but winning out still meant at least top 16. Game 1 he has a very aggressive start with Stromkirk Noble and two Knight of Infamy, but I have a turn 3(!) Armada Wurm. He rips Bonfire and alphas, so I trade everything away and play Thragtusk. He dies shortly after. Game 2 I play turn 4 Trostani, he plays Hellrider and alpha strikes, but I have blocks to kill his whole team and stay at one life. I untap and play Thragtusk, this time gaining 8 life, and he concedes.
11-3

Round 15 Carson, Erik (Bant Control)
I’d seen him play an earlier round, so I knew he was killing people with Door to Nothingness. Game 1 I had Garruk in play basically the entire game, so he was always on the back foot. I kept an Abrupt Decay in hand to kill Chromatic Lantern in case he tried to kill me, but he never drew it. The game took about 25 minutes to play, but I was victorious. Game 2 was more of the same. I got him to Dissipate my Triumph of Ferocity so that my Garruk would resolve. He cast Sphinx’s Revelation at least 4 times this game, maybe more with Elixir. I had to spend one Abrupt Decay to kill his Pithing Needle on Gavony Township, otherwise I wouldn’t have enough pressure. I saved the other one for Chromatic Lantern, but he has a second one and showed me the Door on turn 4 of extra time.
11-3-1

An unintentional draw isn’t ideal, but still had a shot at top 16. I snuck in at 16th, with my round 15 opponent at 17th. Maybe he’ll play faster in the future.

The deck was a success. Will and I were playing next to each other Round 15, both at 11-3 with shots to top 16. He lost a close match to Gerry Thompson, but still finished in the top 32. My friend Jose played the same list in the TCG Player 5k on Sunday and split in the top 8 for $450, so everyone that played the deck made money this
weekend, except Andrew Sullano.

The deck is very good, I think I would play at least 70 of the same cards going forward. I want to add in a couple of Sever the Bloodline, and maybe an Akroma’s Memorial. If you have any questions about the deck, I’ll answer them. Just follow me on twitter!