Thirteen Rounds with Mutavault at the Regional Championship in Atlanta

Back in September, I won an RCQ in my only attempt. I figured I may as well attend the Regional Championship, mostly to see if I was at all interested in the higher levels of competitive play available in these times. This report is a bit late. The tournament was the weekend before Thanksgiving so I spent the week after travelling for the holiday.

Regional Championship Recap

The testing process did not go as well as I would have liked. I had access to a solid group for collaboration, but I just could not get myself to play that many games. Much of this was due to how much I disliked the Pioneer format. The games did not make me want to keep playing, whether I won or I lost.

After a few weeks of testing and observing results from teammates, I knew a few things. Green was the deck to beat, but that was where I started. Phoenix was very good against all aggressive decks I wanted to play and was the deck I was most afraid of. Spirits was not quite good enough to compete with Rakdos, Phoenix and Humans. This left me deciding between Humans and Gruul Vehicles, since I knew I wanted to play Mutavault. I decided to play Vehicles since it also had eight mana Elves. This is what I played:

4 Llanowar Elves

4 Elvish Mystic

4 Bonecrusher Giant // Stomp

4 Reckless Stormseeker // Storm-Charged Slasher

4 Lovestruck Beast // Heart's Desire

2 Scavenging Ooze

4 Esika's Chariot

3 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship

3 The Akroan War

4 Obliterating Bolt

4 Mutavault

4 Stomping Ground

4 Karplusan Forest

4 Cragcrown Pathway // Timbercrown Pathway

2 Boseiju, Who Endures

2 Lair of the Hydra

2 Mountain

1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance

1 Den of the Bugbear

Sideboard

1 Jegantha, the Wellspring

3 Rending Volley

3 Embercleave

2 Outland Liberator // Frenzied Trapbreaker

1 The Akroan War

1 Fry

1 Scavenging Ooze

1 Klothys, God of Destiny

1 Unlicensed Hearse

1 Hazoret the Fervent

I don't have a lot to say about this deck. It's fairly stock. I wanted to beat Green and Rakdos while having decent shot against Humans and Phoenix. It did not work out that way for me.

R1 vs UW Control

I stole a game by using Outland Liberator on my Skysovereign when he blocked with Baneslayer Angel, but the other two games were not close.

0-1

R2 vs Angels

I was surprised to win game one with triple Esika's Chariot and Reckless Stormseeker for exact damage on the turn before he started gaining tons of life. Game two I mulligan to five and lose to Collected Company after killing the first three threats. Game three I kept a hand with two Elves and all red spells with no red mana and never found the red mana. It was probably a mulligan, but I think I need to get lucky to win so I kept. It didn't work out regardless.

0-2

R3 vs Yorion Enigmatic Incarnation Fires

I win game one with Akroan War. Game two I'm too far behind on tempo against Chain to the Rocks and Leyline Binding followed by Siege Rhino and Yorion. Game three I have Outland Liberator in play but tap out for Akroan War on Siege Rhino to push damage through with Lovestruck Beast. I immediately lose to Leyline Binding on the Rhino plus Incarnation the Binding into Titan of Industry. Maybe I should leave up mana but I had no other play that turn. I'm still not sure about this one.

0-3

R4 vs Phoenix

I win game one with multiple Chariot. Game two I lose to second Young Pyromancer after using Stomp on the first one. Game three I get the opponent down to one life and then draw nothing but lands while he returns three Phoenix with a Pyromancer in play to kill me.

0-4

I decide to drop.

Pioneer 10K Recap

I registered Humans for the 10K the next day:

4 Hopeful Initiate

4 Dauntless Bodyguard

4 Recruitment Officer

4 Thalia's Lieutenant

4 Luminarch Aspirant

4 Adeline, Resplendent Cathar

4 Brutal Cathar // Moonrage Brute

1 Tomik, Distinguished Advokist

1 Kytheon, Hero of Akros // Gideon, Battle-Forged

4 Rally the Ranks

4 Brave the Elements

15 Plains

4 Mutavault

1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire

1 Castle Ardenvale

1 Shefet Dunes

Sideboard

4 Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivity

3 Portable Hole

2 Rest in Peace

2 Declaration in Stone

2 Destroy Evil

1 Loran of the Third Path

1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar

I did not play Thalia, Guardian of Thraben in my Humans list. In the matchups where it is good, it's only good in game one as after board they are more prepared to deal with it or use sweepers to neutralize it and other threats. It has good value against combo decks, but I didn't expect them much. I wanted to play Rally the Ranks to maximize the clock to make up for loss of disruption without Thalia. Rally also helped support the Wedding Announcement sideboard plan.

R1 vs UW Control

He wins game one easily, but game two is a slog. He draws all of his removal and sweepers, but I'm able to rebuild with Recruitment Officer and Wedding Announcement each time. He never finds a Teferi or other source of repeatable card advantage and I manage to win the game with three minutes left in the round. We only get the five turns in of game three before settling for a draw.

0-0-1

R2 vs Mono Green Devotion

I keep an iffy one-land hand on the play game one with three one-drops and three Thalia's Lieutenant but never draw a second land. Game two and three, the deck does what it does in the matchup and kills him before he gets much of a chance to do anything. He's a bit salty after the match, but he probably wasn't expected to face WW in the draw bracket.

1-0-1

R3 vs RB Sacrifice

This matchup Rally the Ranks really proved its worth. Game one I have two Rally which lets me do a bunch of damage to get him to 4 life before he stabilizes with two Mayhem Devil and kills my board. I then topdeck Tomik and he doesn't have an answer and I steal the game. Game two I use Portable Hole on Oven instead of turn one Cat. He draws two more Ovens and I lose. Game three I'm able to grind out with Rally the Ranks, Wedding Announcement, and Castle Ardenvale to keep him on the back foot. I then find Rest in Peace right when he's about to stabilize and win the match.

2-0-1

R4 vs UW Control

Game one I'm on the play and he foretells on turn two so I hold back incase of Doomskar. He doesn't have it and I'm presenting lethal with Brave the Elements on turn four when he doesn't have Supreme Verdict either. I swing with everything since Brave beats The Wandering Emperor, but he has Settle the Wreckage. I can't redeploy fast enough to get back in the game and lose to subsequent Emperors and Teferi. Game two I win with multiple Wedding Announcement. Game three I'm stuck on two land with multiple three-drops in hand. He has Starnheim Unleashed and Lyra, Dawnbreaker to beat me before I can recover.

2-1-1

R5 vs UW Control

Game one he has two Settle the Wreckage but that just enables my Recruitment Officers to keep the pressure on and I win. Game two he's stuck on four land but has multiple Settle and Verdict as well. I'm finally attacking for lethal when he has fifth land for Baneslayer Angel, but I use Eiganjo on my own creature to make sure I kill him.

3-1-1

R6 vs WW

Game one is very close but neither player has Brave so I'm able to get there with two Thalia's Lieutenant. Game two I'm on the draw and never really in it. Game three I keep one land and it takes a few turns before drawing second. I still have a chance if I draw Brave the Elements, but he has Declaration in Stone for my two Lieutenant and I die.

3-2-1

R7 vs Phoenix

Game one he makes a tough choice to play Spikefield Hazard as a land instead of killing my Luminarch Aspirant so he can play Pieces of the Puzzle the following turn. This lets me build up a smallish attack force and his Pieces only finds more Pieces. That means I can do exactly lethal with Shefet Dunes the turn before he brings back multiple Phoenix. Game two he has Brotherhood's End and wins easily. Game three I use Eiganjo on his Ledger Shredder so even if he brings back three Phoenix it doesn't kill me and he can't block enough of my creatures to live.

4-2-1

R8 vs UW Control

Game one I'm very far ahead and kind of slow roll him playing around Settle the Wreckage, but to be fair I'd played against it quite a bit previously. He didn't have it nor Verdict and I won easily. Game two he has Lockdown into Baneslayer into Lyra and I lose. Game three he floods out while I hold up Destroy Evil for Lockdown and Brave the Elements for Wandering Emperor. He has neither and dies.

5-2-1

R9 vs Keruga Fires

I don't remember this too much. One game I use Bodyguard to save Adeline from Supreme Verdict. One game I draw two Rally to change the clock and kill him with Mutavault when he wasn't expecting it.

6-2-1

35th place (prize to top 32)

Lessons Learned

I wish I had played WW in the main event. I didn't because the games I had played and watched did not look favorable vs Rakdos or Phoenix, but they were probably closer than I realized. Recruitment Officer was even better than I thought it would be. Gruul Vehicles was the deck for a Pro Tour metagame that consolidates around 4-5 different decks, but the Regional Championship was more like a Grand Prix. With that knowledge, WW is better against the various other decks you run into in a GP like event. 

I still don't like Pioneer. As much as I like WW being a top deck, it seems kind of embarrassing when its in a format as deep as Pioneer. It really seems like all the good cards are banned, and the ones that are left like Karn, Collected Company, and Fable of the Mirror Breaker don't really lead to exciting games in my opinion. I wonder what Modern would have looked like after two years if they had the same approach to banning the top cards as they do in Pioneer.

On Organized Play

The Regional Championship overall felt like a success. It is a bit weird its so different between Europe and USA and Canada and all the other places. The US event needed more rounds or more prizes or both. The draw to events like these for me is being able to play for something once you've been eliminated from top 8 contention. Old Pro Tours would have substantial prizes for 11-5 records and those late rounds playing for Pro Points, invitations, or cash were in a way more appealing to me than playing for top 8. Its those rounds where the idea of a Professional Player exist, someone doing this consistently needs those solid finishes to sustain the career. 

I was not a fan of having the event be the week of the set release. One more week to pickup cards would have relieved a lot of stress. 

One of the stated reasons for not having the extra three rounds like Europe was that the Dreamhack event space closed at 7pm on Sunday. If this continues to be an issue, Magic needs to divorce itself from Dreamhack as soon as possible. 

The Dreamhack experience was not a pleasant one for me. The event was sequestered in a separate room away from the main hall without enough space for the players to play. The tables were so narrow you could not fit two playmats on them without overlap. The room was crowded and smelly in a way I hadn't experienced at a GP or PT or SCG Open / Invitation in over a decade. The few tables in the main hall were mostly side events and a spectator trying to find the feature match area for Magic would easily get lost. I don't think the finals was broadcast on any of the major viewing stages. I was in the 0-4 bracket and relegated to playing in the main hall. This provided plenty of space, but the lighting was off and I could not hear announcements at all. Having to get badge access to the hall may be the new standard, but I still don't like it.

But there were a few good things about Dreamhack: there was way better than normal food (if you walked across the entire hall to go get it), and you could buy alcohol. I think those were the only pluses I could come up with after the weekend. 

Conclusion

My testing process - bad

My deck choice - bad

Pioneer - probably bad

Gruul vehicles - not good

WW/Humans - very good

Organized Play - remains to be seen, but not a disaster

Dreamhack - bad

Props

Collin Rountree and Allen Wu for winning LCQs

Atlanta for having great food and being great every time

My wife for letting me leave her for a week

Slops

Trying to find the Uber pickup in a state that doesn't have front license plates

Dreamhack - stop being embarrassed about the Magic event