Tourney Report, Hulen Open 2021

It won't be much of a tourney report. It has been over two weeks, it went badly and I'm a bit down on vintage still. Anyway: I went 2-3 (again). This was the meta:

UW Sharkstill, Bug, White Eldrazi, Golos Stax, HollowVine, UB Witch, 2xDoomsday, Breach, Blue Aggro, Song of creation combo.

Maindeck:

3 windswept heath
3 verdant catacombs
1 Maze of ith
2 savannah
1 taiga
1 bayou
1 scrubland
4 wasteland
1 strip mine
1 the tabernacle at Pendrell Vale

1 black lotus
1 mox emerald
1 mox pearl
1 mox jet
1 mox ruby
2 mox diamond

1 chalice of the void
4 wrenn and six

2 swords to plowshares
1 mental misstep
3 abrupt decay
3 once upon a time
2 force of vigor

4 deathrite shaman
4 thalia, guardian of thraben
1 collector ouphe
4 endurance
4 archon of emeria
2 knight of the reliquary

Sideboard:

2 void mirror
1 swords to plowshares
3 surgical extraction
3 pyroblast
1 abrupt decay
2 force of vigor
2 collector ouphe
1 knight of the reliquary

Match 1: 2-0 against Sharkstill.

These games went fairly quickly. In the first game, he accidentally played into his own standstill and couldn't regain control afterwords. In the second game, we played draw-go until my hand was strong enough and broke the standstill. I can't remember how I won.

Match 2: 2-1 against Doomsday.

It's a bit silly, but I remember next to nothing from this match. I was a bit drunk and very nervous, but I believe I played well and drew well too. This deck has game against Doomsday now, which is my only real takeaway from this tournament.

Match 3: 1-2 against Doomsday.

I won the first game with several pieces of disruption. He went on to win the following two, and in both games maneuvered out from very difficult positions. I believe I was a favourite to win all three games. This player went on to win the tourney.

Match 4: 0-2 against Bug.

This match went extremely poorly. In the first game, I had plenty of fast mana and opened on a W6 off a fetch and mox, with an uncracked lotus in the board. I preceded to flood out completely. When he finally killed me with true-name nemesis, I had all my colour-producing lands in play and three fetch-lands in hand. I sided in a surgical extraction against him (and otherwise followed the sideboard plan). In the second game, I pyroblasted a true-name nemesis (according to plan) but didn't use surgical on it. He played his second the following turn and I was unable to answer it.

Match 5: 0-2 against White Eldrazi.

I got my ass handed to me. White Eldrazi outpowers me on most fronts. Big Thalia played trump in both games. When comparing the decklists, I think I need Knight of the Reliquary to win. I had this player on ravager shops before the tourney, and believe I'm fairly well equipped against that, but not against eldrazi.

In the semis, HolloWine took down Breach, while Doomsday bested White Eldrazi. Doomsday beat HolloWine in an extremely tight finals match. Congrats to all four players!

All in all, I'm happy to have this group of friends and play this yearly tournament. I played fairly well, was only appropriately drunk and was more unlucky than lucky. I think I lost all five die-rolls. I'm as unhappy with the deck as last year. I have stretched the deck tremendously to beat Doomsday and HolloWine and in the process become too weak to beat-down strategies. The match against Doomsday feels about right. The HolloWine player and I played a match for fun after the tourney and he beat me handily in two games, through 2-3 pieces of graveyard disruption as well as turn 1 wasteland both games. That deck feels close to unbeatable, despite being graveyard based. Anyway. Next year I will finally try something else.

@naixin

Null rod could be in the board if you expect a ton of ravager, but that's just not a large enough meta share for me to board more cards in what is already a reasonably favorable matchup. PO has mostly died off, and the deck has a million counterspells to fight against it anyway. Other than those two matchups, I can't think of any where I'd want rod.

@guli

You make some excellent points, and I agree with everything you say. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Deafening Silence, and I've played it myself both maindeck and sideboard (and I'm also trying it out in the sideboard at the moment). Heck, I've even played Eidolon of Rhetoric maindeck at some point.

I think there's actually of lot of theory that could be discussed in this regard, like "speed vs. disruption" and "bombs vs. general utility (do you play cards that are very impactful in a few matchup like but dead in other, like Deafening Silence, Grafdigger's Cage, Chalice of the Void etc., or cards that are decent to good in a most matchups but aren't almost game winning in any specific matchup, like Thalia 2.0, Phyrexian Revoker, Scavenging Ooze etc.).

Hatebears can be designed in so many different ways - which is the wonderful part of the deck - and it all depends on the approach you're taking. You and I play very different decks with very different approaches, so comparing them directly and stating that one card that is good in one deck is also good in the other would be wrong (not saying that that is what you're stating, but you know).

@guli said in Let's discuss White based hatebears!:

Hi Grisel

Could you provide us with the links of those VSL matches?

Thanks
Guli

Ah, sorry, it's been so long now that I don't even remember which season it was. Perhaps it's still on YouTube somewhere?

@ChubbyRain You are running 5C Humans man (which was never about running exclusively humans). Very small differences and nuances from the lists I am trying out. I love the path you have taken and the card choices are overall strong. You can always go sensei top and a planeswalker or two in these kind of approaches. But I must warn you, once you play Top in 5C Humans (which is also not about running 5 colors per see) you will include it in all the lists where you can shuffle your deck.

I personally am not a huge fan of Tireless Tracker. Maybe this can be Dovin.

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1226275#paper

inspiration

@gkraigher This is very similar to things like "damage no longer uses the stack" some cards got better, many many cards got worse (Mogg Fanatic your reign was too brief).

guys, I've already put this deck on the back-burner for now in favor of a knight humans list with better cards that match-up better vs. the field. I'll come back to you all when I think it is relevant again.

-Storm

@ydl and as far as sin prodder and bridge, it's only a nonbo if they need to swing in with their creatures and the give you the land on top and then you draw a land, order than that, it's fine not to seeing with him. At some point they will have to choose between taking 4 from fiery confluence or letting you cast it and taking 6. Or dealing with Chandra, or hazoret

@Islandswamp Who knows what I'm Oathing into... I usually run a creature package that include 1 Gris and 1 or 2 other things, often Emrakul, and more recently Salvagers because, seriously, that stuff is just really good.

Oh, man, You gotta check Recruiter of the Guard:

alt text

It doesn't cost 1 more than thorn except in the case where you have no sphere effect in play. Thalia, Thorn/Wingmare, glowrider all make thorn cost more but now Vryn Wingmare. If you are are playing 10+ of the effect you are likely to have 1 in play.

Seems reasonable, but i am really not liking kataki. I was testing against Doomsday and I was surprised by how much game the deck had. I think cutting kataki for hammer mage and then playing chalice seems real interesting.

@taef said:

Chalice of the Void getting restricted is good for the Hatebears player, as facing X = 2 is a silver bullet.

You clearly know very little about Hatebears. There's this 4-of called Cavern of souls. There's also a card called Abrupt Decay. They both, umm. . . exist.

-Storm