StarCityGames Open: Orlando – Standard Report

Average Joes made a good showing this past weekend in Orlando at the StarCityGames Open Series in both Standard and Legacy.  We had 3 people cash between both events with Bruce Strong making Top 8 in the Standard portion!  Most of our team ran a R/G Wolf Run Ramp list that we had been working on for a few weeks, adding in some new cards from Avacyn Restored and tweaking the sideboard.  The base list came from Roy Ochoa who had been cashing in some tournaments with a similar list. The other members that didn’t run the WRR list chose to run either a home brew list or an archetype stock list.  Read on for a breakdown of the people that cashed, what list they ran, and our Wolf Run list that we had been working on.

Bruce Strong ran a stock Delver list that has been running over Top 8’s of SCG Standard Open’s in the past and this one was no exception.  With only 1 loss in Round 5 of the Swiss to John Howell, Bruce was giving most of his opponents the 2-0 punch.  Once he made it to the Top 8, his Quarterfinals opponent was none other than the End Boss himself, John Cuvelier.

Cuvelier, the eventual winner, was running a tweaked R/G Wolf Run list that in the end got the best of an Average Joe.  Here is Bruce’s SCG Profile and below is his list.  Congrats Bruce!

-Artifacts- 1 Runechanter’s Pike 2 Sword of War and Peace   -Creatures- 4 Delver of Secrets 2 Invisible Stalker 2 Phantasmal Image 4 Snapcaster Mage   -Instants- 2 Gut Shot 4 Mana Leak 3 Thought Scour 4 Vapor Snag   -Legendary Creatures- 4 Geist of Saint Traft   -Sorceries- 4 Gitaxian Probe 4 Ponder   -Lands- 9 Island 4 Glacial Fortress 3 Moorland Haunt 4 Seachrome Coast   -Sideboard- 2 Ratchet Bomb 1 Runechanter’s Pike 1 Sword of Feast and Famine 1 Phantasmal Image 2 Oblivion Ring 2 Act of Aggression 2 Celestial Purge 2 Negate 2 Timely Reinforcements

Bryan Elliot was back and forth on decks before the Standard tournament, almost running the teams R/G Wolf Run list we all had been working on.  In the end, he decided to run a custom Naya Wolf Run White list that he built mostly himself with some input from the team.  It carried him to a strong 6-0 start before finishing 6-2-1 for a 34th place finish in the money.  Even though the late stages of the tournament weren’t good to him, he did manage to prove that there is still some brewing out there to do in the current Standard Metagame.  Check out his list below.

-Artifacts- 4 Sphere of the Suns   -Artifact Creatures- 4 Solemn Simulacrum 2 Wurmcoil Engine   -Creatures- 1 Acidic Slime 2 Huntmaster of the Fells 4 Primeval Titan 1 Zealous Conscripts   -Legendary Creatures- 2 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite 1 Sigarda, Host of Herons 1 Thrun, the Last Troll   -Planeswalkers- 1 Gideon Jura   -Sorceries- 1 Bonfire of the Damned 3 Day of Judgment 2 Entreat the Angels 2 Green Sun’s Zenith 4 Rampant Growth   -Lands- 4 Forest 1 Mountain 5 Plains 2 Clifftop Retreat 3 Inkmoth Nexus 2 Kessig Wolf Run 4 Razorverge Thicket 4 Sunpetal Grove   -Sideboard- 2 Grafdigger’s Cage 2 Oblivion Ring 2 Naturalize 1 Ray of Revelation 1 Thrun, the Last Troll 1 Karn Liberated 2 Terminus 2 Timely Reinforcements 2 Cavern of Souls

Here is our team list.  We had Bonfire of the Damned main deck over Devil’s Play at first but we liked the ability to recast the latter.  We also considered switching the number of Huntmasters and Solemns to make sure we always curved out but Huntmaster is a beating against certain decks so we chose to keep it this way.  In the sideboard, Dismember replaced Wrack with Madness as it dealt with Phyrexian Obilterator and Wolfir Avenger.  Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger is used for the mirror or any other rampish deck.

-Creatures- 4 Primeval Titan 4 Huntmaster of the Fells 3 Solemn Simulacrum 2 Inferno Titan 1 Birds of Paradise 1 Acidic Slime 1 Thrun, the Last Troll   -Spells- 4 Sphere of the Suns 4 Rampant Growth 4 Slagstorm 3 Galvanic Blast 2 Green Sun’s Zenith 1 Whipflare 1 Devil’s Play   -Lands- 5 Forest 3 Mountain 4 Rootbound Crag 4 Copperline Gorge 4 Glimmerpost 3 Inkmoth Nexus 2 Kessig Wolf Run   -Sideboard- 2 Naturalize 2 Dismember 2 Cavern of Souls 1 Thrun, the Last Troll 1 Whipflare 2 Ancient Grudge 1 Karn Liberated 1 Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger 1 Devil’s Play 2 Beast Within

If we played this tournament again I think the Naya list would have been a little better as the overall record showed it might have been a favorite in the current meta.  I do think that the Titan decks are still very powerful and John Cuvelier proved that.  Look for more to come from Average Joes!