A Joes Path to Top 8 at States 2012

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything here and I think that with this recent triumph marks an appropriate time for me to write again.  Two of the Average Joes Team made it to top 8 for the 2012 Florida States tournament, congrats to Shawn Ellis and Bryan Elliott (myself).

The states tournament had the largest turnout in its history with 251 of the best players in the state showing up to compete.

Preparing for this tournament for me started about 2 weeks before Return to Ravnica was released.  I literally had probably 20 lists by myself that I was contemplating on playing at states.  I actually had a U/W/R list made up 1 week before it won the SCG Cincinnati tournament, so when it won the tournament I felt very confident I may end up playing a similar list.  Unfortunately after playing it for a couple days I found that the deck relied too heavily on Entreat the Angels and simply lacked a solid win condition other than that; so I backed off of the idea.

Shawn Ellis in the meantime was working on restructuring a deck that he has had great success with over the past 6 months, taking down a 5k, top 8ing in a 2k, and crushing any competition in the mean time.  This deck is known as Grites, or Griselbrand Rites.  It was originally  a B/W/R list packing powerful cards like Whipflare, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite, Griselbrand, and Liliana of the Veil.  But with Return to Ravnica alot of the deck was lost.

The thing is, the deck gained so much more than we ever thought.  With shock lands being reprinted the mana was no longer an issue, so we tried new cards out which previously couldn’t be played because of mana problems such as Mulch and Wild Guess.  With the addition of Angel of Serenity, which we severely underestimated when it was spoiled, the deck became almost unbeatable in playtesting.

Then came the addition of Thragtusk, mostly to deal with Rakdos Aggro and Zombie matchups, which the deck seemed weak against.  And let me tell you guys something, there is nothing better than cycling through infinite Thragtusk with Angel of Serenity.  It is ABSURD!

In the end, as you can tell if you’ve read the article thus far, Shawn and I decided on 4-color Grites as the most powerful deck in the format with the greatest chance to do well at States.

Here is my list:

Bryan Elliott - GRITES - States 2012 - Florida

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-Creatures- 3 Angel of Serenity 1 Armada Wurm 1 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight 3 Griselbrand 3 Liliana of the Veil 4 Thragtusk -Spells- 2 Dreadbore 4 Faithless Looting 3 Grisly Salvage 3 Lingering Souls 3 Mulch 2 Rolling Temblor 4 Unburial Rites -Lands- 4 Blood Crypt 2 Clifftop Retreat 2 Dragonskull Summit 2 Isolated Chapel 3 Overgrown Tomb 1 Rootbound Crag 2 Slayers’ Stronghold 2 Sunpetal Grove 3 Temple Garden 3 Woodland Cemetery -Sideboard- 2 Abrupt Decay 4 Appetite for Brains 3 Centaur Healer 2 Mizzium Mortars 2 Sever the Bloodline 2 Slaughter Games

Below is a breakdown of my matchups leading to Top 8 of States:

Round 1 Junk Tokens (2-1)

This deck was spicey, packing Parallel Lives and the instant speed token generator Midnight Haunting.  I ended up winning, but my opponent took a game down by generating 16 Spirit Tokens end of turn with an Intangible Virtue in play.

Round 2 Bant Control (Tribute to Harry Potter) (1-0)

This deck was the real deal, the king of stall, one tough cookie.  Game 1 lasted 35 minutes and I only won it because of two cards, Slayers’ Stronghold and Gisela, Blade of Goldnight.  There were points in the game when my opponent had 60+ life but when you swing for 30+ in one swing it is devastating.

Round 3 Selesnya Aggro (0-2)

I was short on lands game 1 and got beat down with double Strangleroot Geist.  I almost stabalized with a Thragtusk but didn’t get there.  Game 2 I lost straight up due to Rest in Peace.  I simply didn’t think a deck playing Strangleroot Geist would be playing Rest in Peace so I didn’t side out any of my graveyard game and got blown out when he played it on his turn 4.

Round 4 Mono-Black Control (2-1)

This deck was the king of durdle with 4 maindeck Cremate.  My opponent took a game but I know how to play around graveyard hate so I won the match.

Round 5 U/W Miracles (1-1)

I drew this round.  My opponent was one turn away from losing game one but top decked an Entreat the Angels for 12 and I didn’t have an answer for it in hand and after Faithless Looting with flashback I still didn’t so I lost Game 1.  Game 2 I cast Slaughter Games naming Entreat the Angels leaving my opponent without a win condition in his deck.  He tried to durdle out a 1-0 on time but Feeling of Dread can only flashback so many times.

Round 6 Naya Midrange (2-0)

I don’t remember this match at all.  I’m pretty sure my opponent was stuck on mana and didn’t do anything while I drew the nuts.

Round 7 4-Color Frites (2-0)

This was a strange list of Frites with blue mana utilizing Forbidden Alchemy and Tracker’s Instincts.  Red mana is just better in this list.

Round 8 Jund Midrange (Tribute Mark Eilers)  (2-0)

Mark got flooded game 1 and only got 3 mana game 2.  He is a great player and it saddens me to not be able to play an actual game with him in the tournament.

Round 9 Jund Midrange (2-1)

I got stuck on 2 mana game 1 and got crushed.  I thought for sure I was knocked out of top 8 but I came back to win the match.  Griselbrand + Slayers’ Stronghold got me there.

Wooohoo at this point I made top 8 with a final swiss record of 7-1-1.

I got paired up against the undefeated Shawn Ellis in round 1 of top 8 and was quickly eliminated.

Great experience overall.  I remember just a year ago I had been playing for just a couple months watching none other than the Countryside Crusher Bronson Magnan playing in top 4 of the 2011 States tournament.  I never thought I would be in a position of earning the credit of doing the same thing myself.

Thanks to all of the Joes that tested and have boosted my performance and confidence in the game of Magic, your efforts do not go unrecognized.

Until next time, peace out scrubnubs!