This past Saturday, I played in the Scry Hard 2 tournament put on by Andy Baquero in Saddle Brook NJ. Scryings is a fun variant of Swedish rules old school which uses many additional cards to create new strategies or improve existing strategies. I last played Scryings as part of the Winc0n event, and I was eager to play more.
There were some additional rules put in place by Andy for this event. We would be playing Gentleman's Rules, thus no Library of Alexandria or Mind Twist. Also, your deck had to contain at least eight Scryings cards at all times.
The Deck
4 Duskrider Falcon
4 Freewind Falcon
4 Osai Vultures
3 Soraya the Falconer
2 Wild Aesthir
1 Sacred Mesa
4 Crusade
3 Disenchant
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Moat
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Timetwister
1 Chaos Orb
1 Power SInk
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Tithe
3 Mox
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
4 Scrubland
4 Tundra
7 Plains
1 Kjedoran Outpost
Sideboard
1 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Armageddon
1 Disenchant
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Moat
2 Power Sink
3 Tormod's Crypt
1 City in a Bottle
1 Circle of Protection: Red
1 Balance
1 Sacred Mesa
I had originally planned on playing Power Artifact - Basalt Monolith combo, with Magma Mine and Lat-Nam's Legacy as my Scryings cards. However, I played that combo in the Jawncon event and didn't want to repeat myself. I was digging through the spoiler for Scryings and noticed the support for Bird tribal. Many of these Birds are white creatures. When creature tribal decks get two lords, they can do a lot of damage very quickly, so I thought of adding Crusade. I did a search for other White Birds I may have missed, and I found Osai Vultures. This provided a solid base of twelve two-mana Birds to go with four Crusade and three Soraya. Wild Aesthir rounded out the creatures and was much better than expected (it might be better than Osai Vultures, which basically have no text besides Flying).
To go with the flying army, I included two Moats. Eventually one moved to the sideboard but it did mean I would not play Mishra's Factory. The deck already required a lot of white mana, and not playing Factory meant I could play a really low land count. I ended up on 15 actual lands supported by four Tithe, three Mox, Lotus, and Sol Ring. I wanted about 15 and half lands to make sure I always had one for Tithe. I think the 16th land would be better going forward with the Outpost counting as the "half" land with regards to casting Tithe.
Tithe lets the white deck basically free splash any color. I was still mindful of Blood Moon and the other non-basic hate in Scryings like Dwarven Miner, so I thought it best to limit the splash to two additional colors. With four duals and four Tithe plus a Mox, you have about nine sources of a splash color, more than enough for some of the powerful spells. Blue was an easy choice for the blue power cards. Time Walk in particular is really strong with the snowball effect of tribal lord attacks. I considered playing red as a third color for Fireball or Earthquake and maybe some REB in the board, but didn't think it was powerful enough. Black for Demonic Tutor let me move the second Moat from the main to the side, as well as giving better access to some good late game cards like Kjeldoran Outpost, Circle of Protection Red, and Sacred Mesa. Unfortunately, Mesa doesn't make Birds or it would be four of in the main.
I wasn't sure what to expect for the metagame when building my sideboard. I settled on Power Sink to cover a variety of possibilities, as well as three Tormod's Crypt to be good against Reanimation and Time Vault combo. I probably didn't play enough artifact hate, but I couldn't decide what was best between Dust to Dust and Energy Flux. In the end, I decided to play City in a Bottle over both of them. One last card I considered for both main and side was Sleight of Mind. This would be useful with the eight protection falcons, as well as with CoP: Red. Additionally, it was a non-white answer to the scary cards of the format: Gloom, Wildfire Emissary, and Ihsan's Shade. It wouldn't do anything against Flashfires, but who plays that?
The Tournament
The event was held at The Plank Pizza Co. Beer Parlor in Saddle Brook. This was about an hour drive for me, fairly easy on a Saturday morning. The food and beer selection were quite solid. The tournament was held in the upstairs area, which was quite pleasant once the music was turned down (no one wants to be blasted with "Cotton Eye Joe" at loud volume).
There were 20 people at the event and we played five rounds with no playoffs (more on that in a future post).
Game one he has early Choking Sands and a Pox but I have two Tithe to mainly stay in it. He also had Dwarven Miner which is annoying but I'm able to get enough basics to get around it. Eventually I end up with two Birds and a Crusade and make an attack that puts him on one-turn clock unless he draws Lightning Bolt to kill me, which he does. Game two he has a turn three Gloom and I had boarded out all my Disenchant. I do have the Chaos Orb which takes care of it and I have Sacred Mesa to win the game after as he doesn't draw much action. Game three he has turn two Gloom before I can Power Sink, followed by Buried Alive and Animate Dead on Ihsan's Shade. I'm forced to play Outpost and make a guy for a few turns but I do continue to draw mana including Mox Sapphire and Black Lotus. Lotus lets me Demonic Tutor for Ancestral which finds me the land I need to Disenchant the Animate Dead. I start attacking with two Soldiers but I'm forced to Power Sink a Pox and use Disenchant on first Gloom in response to the second Gloom to stay relevant. As a result, my clock isn't great and he soon finds another Animate Dead for the Shade. Right on time I draw a third Disenchant for the Animate Dead, and then make another Soldier to continue the beats. He finds Pox, but it's not enough as it puts me to 2 and him to 3 and I'm able to make another Soldier an attack for the win.
1-0
Round 2 - Jelani Johnson on RGW Empyrial Armor
His deck is cool with Empyrial Armor and Undiscovered Paradise along with Birds of Paradise. He also has stuff like Kird Ape and River Boa. Game one we each play Timetwister twice so four total Twisters. I'm able to get ahead by having two Time Walk in there somewhere as well as Moat to stop his attacks. Game two he has Birds into Armor but I have Disenchant. He has second Armor but I have Swords. I also have two Birds plus Soraya and Crusade and he's under too much pressure to recover.
2-0
Moat doing some work
Round 3 - Mano on Power Artifact
Game one I have a Duskrider Falcon and ready to hold up Disenchant when he plays Timetwister. My new seven has two Mox, Lotus, and Demonic Tutor but without Mind Twist in my deck I can't punish him. Instead I set up fastest clock by playing Soraya. On his turn he just manages to play Sylvan Library and Monolith in a spot where I was tapped out and he wins if he has Power Artifact. I decide to put him on two turn clock and play Crusade plus another Bird and leaving Demonic Tutor in my hand to get Time Walk for lethal on the next turn if he fails to find Power Artifact in top three cards from Sylvan. He does find it though and I die. Game two I have Sol Ring so I'm able to deploy some Birds plus Soraya while holding up Disenchant. He's forced to go for it as he's dead to a second Crusade if I have it, and I Disenchant the Monolith in response. I do have the second Crusade and win. I don't remember much about game three other than attacking with some Vultures for several turns but flooding out and he eventually combos me.
2-1
Soraya plus Crusade plus Time Walk can kill out of nowhere
Round 4 - Eric Pallone on MonoBlue Power Artifact
Game one he mostly goes off unimpeded by me. I think I kept Plains Sol Ring and never found another white source. Game two I have aggressive start and Disenchant his Monolith when he plays Amnesia. I think I draw into Crusade plus Time Walk to win before he can assemble the combo. Game three I Power Sink his first Amnesia, but am forced to double Disenchant two Monolith when he has second Amnesia. He has Reconstruction for a Monolith and I draw Chaos Orb. He goes for Power Artifact and I activate Orb, and he Boomerangs the Monolith. All the while I have two Vulture attacking every turn. At this point he just needs to find second Power Artifact or a Recall to win. I draw Disenchant and Power Sink though so I continue to do two at a time. Eventually he tries to Time Walk and I tap him out with Power Sink and win.
3-1
Round 5 - Sammy Haghour on RG Stuff
Game one I'm stuck on three mana with Moat in my hand and taking some beats from Ape and Boa. I have to use Swords to Plowshares on his Cockatrice that is so good against me. Eventually I stick Moat but he has Emerald Charm and Lightning Bolt to kill me right away. Game two I play two Freewind Falcon and two Crusade and he can't even try to race. Game three I'm flooded but have Outpost to kind of stay in the game. He draws Cockatrice for the third game in a row so once again I'm forced to Swords it. He uses Emerald Charm on my CoP and I just need to draw Moat or some other way to stop his Boa plus Ape. He draws Flashfires first and I'm devastated and he wins easily from there.
3-2
I was not prepared for Flashfires.
I finish in 5th place, highest of the 3-2s.
Props
Double props to Andy for putting on such a great event.
All the players that showed up with sweet Scryings decks.
Scryings for having sweet cards.
Sammy for winning
The venue for solid food and beer and atmosphere
Slops
"Cotton Eye Joe"
Mano for punting away the perfect record in round five, and finishing deservedly in second place
Flashfires
Bonus fun story I didn't know where to include elsewhere:
Dom was playing against Darin Weisner who was on WB Protection from black Pestilence deck with 18 pro-black creatures. Many of these have just one toughness, but he had Angelic Voices in play to buff the creatures. This meant Dom's Simoon was no good... until he drew Living Plane, which also turns off the Voices and let him Simoon Darin's creatures and lands!
