I did not participate in the X-Point side event at LobsterCon, choosing instead to play PreModern. In fact, I've never played X-Point before, or even considered it. However, I talked with several of the participants in Boston and it kind of got the creative juices flowing. As luck would have it, there was going to be an X-Point get-together in New Jersey the following week.
Deckbuilding
I wasn't sure I'd get to participate, but I did think about what I might choose to play. Examining the point list for the first time and I keyed on Red Black. I thought an Atog list with The Rack, Hymn to Tourach, and maybe Storm World would be a cool direction. However, I couldn't decide what to spend the last two points on after Hymn and Factory. I kept that in the back of my mind during the week.
I decided on Saturday afternoon that I would go. I realized that not playing Mishra's Factory would free up some points for some better cards. I just needed a way to neutralize the threat of opposing Factories. Once again, Blood Moon has come to the rescue. I had an Atlantic BR Moon list I made a few years back and never got to play with. I updated it to reflect some experience as a deck builder and to remove the point cards I couldn't play. I ended up on this:
A few updates I would make going forward: I absolutely wanted the fourth Shatter against Black Vise and Ankh of Mishra. I would probably play a second City in a Bottle in the sideboard. I don't know if Gloom is good or not, but wanted to beat any Circle of Protection. Maybe a few more cards to bring in when Blood Moon comes out.
The Games
Twelve people showed up. Three rounds of Swiss, plus a match at the end with the two undefeateds to avoid tiebreakers.
Round One vs Matt Cutbirth on GW Armageddon
Game one I Hymn him twice, hitting two Ernham Djinn in the process. A Chaos Orb takes care of the third Erhnam while a Hypnotic Specter goes all the way. Game two I think he mulligans to five or six and I kill his mana elves and he's never really in it.
1-0
Round Two vs Rich Arevalo on URW Atog
Game one we trade cards back and forth. I resolve Blood Moon twice, but he has Plains and Disenchant twice. Eventually the board is empty and both empty handed while both at about 15 life. He draws and plays Timetwister into two Black Vise, but I'm able to Shatter one and Bolt him to avoid taking a lot of damage. I follow up with a couple of Blood Moons to lock him out then bury him with Jayemdae Tome advantage. Game two he leads on Vise into Ankh and I don't have Shatter and just die. Game three I Hymn him and he puts his hand face down on the table. Two card sleeves look slightly less worn or more shiny than the others so I grab them. They were two sideboard cards, Karma (!!!!) and Falling Star. I'm able to manage the remainder of his threats and beat him with Troll.
2-0
Round Three vs Elizabeth on MonoBlack
Her deck has all the angles of attack: Sinkhole, Hymn, The Rack, Underworld Dreams, and Juzam and Sengir. Hard to blank all the threats, especially when Blood Moon is a dead card. I'm winning game one after a Hymn and she's stuck on three land while a Specter is getting in. She plays Underworld Dreams to race and follows up with Dark Ritual into Juzam. I don't have a great answer to Juzam, so I take some extra damage from Jayemdae Tome digging for a solution. After taking one hit, I find Sedge Troll to stop the Djinn and the Hyppie goes the rest of the way before Dreams can kill me. Game two we each trade Hymns. I have a Sedge Troll but she has two Royal Assassin. I draw Demonic Tutor for Fireball to take care of the Assassins. Troll and Order present a clock while she just draws Swamps the rest of the game.
3-0
Round Four vs Jer on RG Aggro
He mulligans to five cards but has a reasonable start with Factory into Kird Ape. I had to spend turn two using Sol Ring and Swamp to Tutor for a Badlands. He has a second Factory so I'm looking at 6 a turn soon. I draw the perfect card in Blood Moon, which not only turns off his Factories, it makes his Kird Ape a 1/1 so I can tap my now-Mountain City of Brass to Fireball it for one. He doesn't have any follow up plays and I'm able to win easily after resolving a Triskelion. Game two I have Lightning Bolt for his first creature followed by a Hymn. He only has green mana. I resolve a couple of Sedge Trolls for attacks. He finally gets to four mana and plays Ifh-Biff Efreet. He can't survive the three additional Lightning Bolts I've drawn at this point though.
4-0
Somehow ended with all these prizes picking 1st, 24th and 25th
Thoughts
X-Point seems like a fun time, but it does feel like "Atlantic-Light". It's still mostly the same strategies, just slightly worse. I'm sure there are cool brews out there, including the sweet Stasis list that won Lobstercon. I didn't look at any of the metagame before the event, but apparently BlackRed is a popular strategy and I can see why. I'll likely participate again in the future, but I don't know if I want to spent a lot of time in the space.
Props:
Nick for putting on the event
Time Warp Cards for hosting
Jared for recording matches (hopefully coming to YouTube soon!)
The guy who came just to donate a card to the prize pool
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