Garruk, Apex Predator at SCG Houston

note: this was originally posted on the MTGBazaar website. I've reposted here for archival purposes - Ty (3/11/2021)


SCG Houston February 14/15 2015 - Standard Open 26th Place Report Ty Thomason

Play the deck with the best mana.


That has been rule #1 in my playgroup, ever since the first time I heard it. I think it was Zvi Mowshovitz who described it in the creation of the Mythic deck. You can usually tell a Zvi creation by the mana base. Sometimes the best mana is shared by many decks, so you need other tools. In a small format like standard, that is rarely the case. Spell lands are also a factor in evaluating the best mana. Kessig Wolf Run, Gavony Township, Celestial Colonnade are huge bonuses.

The best mana in standard is Caryatid and Courser. There are only two relevant spell lands in standard: Radiant Fountain and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. I value proactive over reactive, so I’ve been playing Nykthos. After PT KTK, Robert Berni was excited about a green devotion deck that killed with Villainous Wealth. Will Lowry was a fan of the RG Monsters deck with 4 Crater’s Claws. We combined the Constellation engine of the first with the consistency and flexibility of the second to create Dr. Claw, our GP San Antonio deck:

Dr Claw

4 Elvish Mystic
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Voyaging Satyr
4 Courser of Kruphix
4 Polukranos, Eater of Worlds
4 Eidolon of Blossoms
2 Arbor Colossus
2 Hornet Queen
2 Genesis Hydra
3 Boon Satyr

4 Crater’s Claws

4 Wooded Foothills
4 Temple of Abandon
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
10 Forest
1 Mountain

Sideboard

2 Genesis Hydra
3 Nissa Worldwaker
2 Xenagos, God of Revels
2 Reclamation Sage
4 Nylea’s Disciple
2 Setessan Tactics

This put six players into day 2, and I had the highest finish at 25th place after conceding to David Ochoa in the last round when we were playing for 9th. The deck was a machine in game 1, almost always killing with lethal Crater’s Claws with X routinely greater than 20. There were some issues in post board games against sweepers and Elspeth. The rest of standard season I played GB Whip, but most of our crew stayed with the Claw.

With Fate Reforged added to standard, I went back to green devotion. Whisperwood Elemental helped vs sweepers, and Ugin helped vs Heroic, a previously bad matchup. At the same time, the deck I liked previously, GP Whip, seemed to be negated by the new speed of the format and bigger over the top threats. Recurring Hornet Queens isn’t very effective against decks with Ugin. Will Lowry won a PTQ with a list similar to this. Dr Claw was becoming more and more known and popular, especially in the Texas area.

Trying to come up with ways to beat the mirror lead me to Garruk, Apex Predator as an answer for Ugin. Doomwake Giant plus more enchantments could keep them off devotion to avoid lethal Claws. Black spells also could help against control decks, as well as giving Merciless Executioner for Heroic matchups. I looked at the GB Ramp decks and decided to cut Hornet Queens for Genesis Hydras and a more explosive Nykthos game. The list I registered for SCG Houston incorporated these ideas:
GB Ramp


4 Elvish Mystic
2 Genesis Hydra
4 Sylvan Caryatid
3 Voyaging Satyr
4 Courser of Kruphix
3 Doomwake Giant
4 Eidolon of Blossoms
4 Polukranos, World Eater

3 Frontier Siege
2 Garruk, Apex Predator
3 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

6 Forest
1 Swamp
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Temple of Malady
4 Windswept Heath
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Sideboard

2 Arbor Colossus
2 Genesis Hydra
2 Merciless Executioner
4 Nylea's Disciple
2 Reclamation Sage
3 Nissa, Worldwaker

I wasn’t too concerned with control matchups since in my testing Genesis Hydra was usually enough by itself to get around counters and the threats were diverse enough to beat any specific removal. Thoughtsieze and Read the Bones were in the sideboard at various points, but got cut to make room for higher impact cards. If I wanted something for control going forward, I would play Whisperwood Elemental, but I’m not sure you need it. The third Nissa may have been excessive with fewer forests overall.

I started the tournament off fairly well. The small field meant every player with three losses would make day 2, and I finished day 1 at 7-2 so I was ahead of the curve. I played against RW Aggro twice and went 1-1, Abzan Aggro once 1-0, Abzan Control five times 4-1, and RG Beats 1-0. The deck did what I hoped it would do, but my losses came to mana issues. I kept four land, caryatid, courser, siege on the play against RW game one, but drew nothing but lands the entire game and died. Losing the first game on the play was frustrating, a wasted opportunity. Sure enough I won game two but lost game 3 on the back foot the whole time because of course he has Seeker of the Way. The loss to Abzan Control I kept a mana-light hand on six cards and couldn’t deploy a large enough threat to interact with his Tasigur. After this matchup, I decided to stop bringing in all the Nissas and consider Merciless Executioner for the Abzan Control matchup (I was already bringing it it versus Abzan Aggro).

Day two started out with wins against Mono Red twice, but then I lost three matches in a row. Twice I lost to Abzan Aggro, one match where I flooded in two games, the other where I mulliganed to five twice. The other loss was to Jeskai Tokens, which might be a bad matchup. The final round I defeated Abzan Control to finish at 10-5. My tiebreakers were good enough to get me $200.

I can’t say the tournament wasn’t a success, but I was hoping for a better finish, especially at the start of day 2. I was really happy with the way the deck performed and wouldn’t be upset about playing it again. I was very excited to see Robert Berni win the tournament with the other deck I had helped work on. I’m feeling better and better each new set about my deck building skills.

The tournament was a lot of fun and I really hope Star City Games comes back to Houston soon.

Thanks,
Ty