46 players registered for QT# 2 of the ClassicQuarter League feat. the Classic Invitational. These 46 competitors are battling it out for a coveted slot (or a 1st-Round bye if they’ve already qualified) in the Classic Invitational. If you missed out this time around, fret not, there are two more QTs with which to qualify. Thus far, 59 different players have participated between the 1st and 2nd QTs, which is a healthy number.
The donation pool exceeds 250 tickets along with some great foil cards that have been donated by the community. Some of the highlights include foil Promo Brainstorm, foil Promo Ponder, foil Misty Rainforests, and a bunch of other Classic staples. As with the 1st QT, the prize pool will be split between the current QT and the Invitational next year. If anyone is still interested, donations are still being accepted; just PM me in client under the name “unlockingthevault”.
Leading up to this event, there were a lot of Oath, Workshop, and Affinity decks placing in the Daily Events. These 3 decks were the clear pillars of the format and probably played a significant role in how people decided on their weapon of choice. Here is a breakdown of the metagame for the tournament:
Metagame by Deck:
7 Oath
6 Workshop
6 Jace/Tezzerator/Blue Control
5 Fish
5 GWx Bears
4 Dredge
4 Merfolk
3 Delver
2 Affinity
1 Oath/Storm
1 Pod Shop
1 Helmline Combo
1 Hermit Druid Combo
1 UW Stoneforge
Metagame by Archetype:
17 Aggro-Control
7 Combo-Control
6 Control
6 Workshop
4 Combo
4 Dredge
2 Aggro
As you can see, Oath and Workshop are well-represented, but Affinity is hardly a factor. Also notable is the dramatic decrease in the number of aggro-control decks, especially Delver-style decks. 1/3 of the number of Delver decks in QT #1 were registered in QT #2. Considering a Delver deck won the last QT, this is certainly unexpected.
What’s somewhat surprising is the number of Jace/Tezzeret/Blue Control decks that were registered. These decks have not had any success in recent Daily Events, aside from ChrisKool’s Tezzeret list a couple weeks back and PlanetWalls’ Blue Control list on October 28th. It will be interesting to see how these decks perform in this field with the absence of fast Affinity and the decrease in Delver-style aggro-control lists.
The metagame is not without some rogue decks, however. Cronin brought his recent concoction of Combo utilizing the standby Helm of Obedience-Leyline of the Void combo. His new deck adds Rest in Peace as “Leylines” 5-8 to further increase his odds of finding the combo (and making Dredge a sad matchup). Another rogue combo deck was registered by TheWilddog, who adapted a recent Vintage Combo deck focusing on Oath of Druids and Griselbrand to storm out with Burning Wish.
I brought a Bant-Fish deck to the tournament, as I wanted to play a deck which could utilize Rest in Peace and a few other Return to Ravnica cards, Judges Familiar and Dryad Militant. Further, to take advantage of the metagame that had been evolving over the last few weeks, I definitely wanted to play Trygon Predator, which should be an all-star against Shop and Oath (assuming I can get it into play first), as well as Noble Hierarch, to fight off the insane number of Wastelands being played.
I also wanted to finally try out Meddling Mage in a player-run event that publicizes decklists prior to its start. Knowing someone’s decklist is an advantage, and I was curious to see how much of an advantage it could offer. Strangely, I wasn’t the only person to try the Meddling Mage tech, as FistAlpha and Uvatha are also playing the Mage in their maindecks, while abstrakt66 and Baldeagle247 have them in their sideboards. I’ll be watching the success of these decks to see if the advantage is too great and if it warrants consideration for a ban, though I don’t expect to have to go that far.
Having access to white mana also offers some interesting sideboard options against some of the more prominent decks leading up to the tournament, unfortunately, I was banking on more than 2 Affinity decks getting registered. Nonetheless, Serenity and Stony Silence have value against a large number of decks while the aforementioned Rest in Peace is there to deal with Dredge and any other deck trying to abuse the graveyard.
Without further ado, here is my Bant-Fish deck:
Bant-Fish by enderfall
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The strength of Fish decks is their versatility. Here is a breakdown of the cards that match up well against the top decks in the format:
Against Oath:
Nature’s Claim
Trygon Predator
Qasali Pridemage
Judges Familiar
Serenity
Karakas
Against Workshop/Affinty:
Nature’s Claim
Trygon Predator
Qasali Pridemage
Serenity
Stony Silence
Against Dredge:
Dryad Militant
Judges Familiar
Rest in Peace
Scavenging Ooze
Against other Creature decks:
Tarmogoyf
Swords to Plowshares
Umezawas Jitte
Scavenging Ooze
I toyed with the idea of playing a 4-Color Fish deck (adding red), but the manabase was really strained, and in the end, Jitte does the job of Grim Lavamancer, which was basically the only red card that interested me, along with a single Ancient Grudge in the sideboard. Lightning Bolt was not in consideration because Swords to Plowshares is strictly better against the creatures you want to kill.
Round 1
My opponent for Round 1 was endless_nameless, a fellow clan-mate. Endless played a Slash Panther Workshop deck. His lack of Metalworkers and other artifacts that have activations make my sideboard Stony Silences that much weaker, which makes things difficult post-board since I have so many dead cards in the maindeck for the match-up (Militant, Familiar, Mental Misstep, etc.
So, how did I do in Round 1? Watch below to find out!
enderfall
Clan Magic Eternal
Follow me on Twitter @enderfall
Lol at all these expensive cards and no idea how to use them in the slightest..
Less time writing articles more time learning to actually play the game. May I suggest Thragtusk in standard..its much easier.
The only plays I really disagreed with, though there were several of them, involved the timing of certain instants cast or abilities activated. Making Magic is hard. rofl, you should be polite (and for the record, Thragtusk is good in Classic, too).
Scavenging Ooze is really good, and while Meddling Mage is good, too, especially in a PRE of this sort, I certainly don’t think it’s ban-worthy. I mean, Cabal Therapy is good, too, but I don’t think that can be banned, and Meddling Mage is still comparable to Tidehollow Sculler.
Kind of bummed and lack of Affinity lists in this tournament, as I tried to metagame against them with my list.
Best cards wtih Meddling mage is Gitaxian Probe. I run them in my Bant list and it is such a house!