Hi!

My name is Kazi Baker, co-“owner” of The Logic Knot, SoCal grinder, L1 judge, and general enjoyer of Magic: the Gathering. Recently, I played in the United States Regional Championship in Dallas, and placed 24th, which is my best large tournament placing to date! This qualifies me for not only the next Regional Championship, but also Pro Tour Barcelona, where I will be garnering clout and brown-nosing Wizards employees to ban Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx in pioneer.

My deck choice was pretty straightforward. I knew after qualifying at an RCQ with Wurm Creativity that I would either be playing that or mono-green. After seeing the adjustments in play patterns Rakdos was making, in addition to the saturation of Rakdos midrange in the MTGO metagame, I felt like mono-green was absolutely the best thing I could be doing.

Mono-Green is the best deck in this format. It is also one of the least skill-expressive. I feel like a lot of good players think because they can extract an extra 5-10 percentage points from Rakdos based on their skill and edge over their opponents, that makes Rakdos really strong. Rakdos is certainly good, however, it doesn’t make up for the extremely high floor of mono-green and the amount of extremely powerful starts the deck can have compared to any other deck in pioneer. Going from 42% to 52% on Rakdos because you’re an incredible player is worse than just starting at 52% with green despite your lack of skill, like me. I used to play a lot of bad decks very well, living the dream, but come the end of the pandemic I realized I should just try to do the busted thing as often as possible, especially in pioneer.

Deck:

Most of the list is stock (read as: Bobby Fortanely’s), however, I will highlight the weirder choices below.

Maindeck Flex slots:

3x Oath of Nissa:

Drawing this card in multiples sucks. Without Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God, the card matters less, however, the filtering is still strong. Usually I don’t like casting more than one of these in a game, so, we’re on three.

1x Cityscape Leveler:

This started popping up in maindecks about a month before the event started, and it just houses a lot of matchups on its own. Rakdos, Control, and Mono-white are all not doing very well against this card, and it’s just a nice top and an extra card in your graveyard for all your cavalier mills. This is probably the most direct replacement for the aforementioned Bolas.

3x Polukranos Reborn:

Most people were on two of this card, which I think is completely justifiable, but I came into this tournament with the idea I should be hedged for my bad matchups rather than playing more of the oaths for the ones which are already solid. I think one-drop into three-drop is the best play pattern the deck has most of the time, and this card does work against spirits, rogues, and mono-white. It also has three green pips on the face, and the flipside is unbeatable for a lot of decks. I feel like if you are in a metagame where you need the hedge less this can easily be an Invasion of Ikoria/Oath of Nissa, or if your metagame is ONLY Creativity, Control, and Rakdos, this can be an Invasion of Ixalan. It is just for me, in a larger field, I feel like consistency matters less than being ready for for bad matchups.

Sideboard Flex slots:

1x Woodcaller Automaton:

I actually think this card is absolutely necessary. It serves as an extender to so many tight combo lines, and it also comes in against mono-white because a colorless 3/3 for four is the difference sometimes.

1x God-Pharaoh's Statue:

I think this card is marginally good to fetch in the Rakdos matchup, and excellent against control. However, I think its greatest purpose is for extremely close board states in the mirror, in which it can buy you exactly one more turn to figure out how to kill your opponent.

1x Heart of Kiran:

In testing about a month before the event, I realized I did not need to have this card to combo most of the time. I took it out, and that fact did not change. However, about a week before the event, I realized that its true use now is as a two mana fetchable hedge against the aggro matchups to set up for a lockout/pop-off the following turn just so you don’t die. It blocks basically anything in spirits, and most of mono-white.

1x Treasure Vault:

IDK felt cute, sometimes makes mana in weird spots. Darksteel Citadel Might be better, but the corner case of making treasure ALMOST came up. Source? Trust me, bro.

Notes on sideboarding:

Sideboard. Please. Board is friend. You play a cache of silver bullets, but in the more value oriented matchups and against aggressive decks alike you can board in a card or two to hedge, which is very important.

Here is my finalized sideboard guide, which I would occasionally deviate from based on matchup and card specificity, especially against more modular decks.

Also of note:

any deck which brought in pithing needles, I would plan to have one more answer than they have needles. Against most decks, that means boarding in Haywire Mite against two, and against Rakdos/control, that means boarding in an extra copy of Cityscape Leveler instead should the opponent have two or more.

Going in with the list solidified the day or two before, I knew that the decks I was really targeting were Rakdos and sac, but I had sufficient hedges for the aggressive decks which crush you normally (white and spirits) to potentially pull one out should I have needed to. Beyond myself, most of my day before was spent preparing teammate Devin Fong and some other local friends  on Rakdos Sac and Enigmatic Fires, as I had played my deck for a long time and felt strong on it.

Day 1:

The event started an hour late due to Dreamhack still not having figured out a good way to get tournament participants into the venue on time. I don’t usually drink caffeine, but that morning I slammed a can of monster and felt the heart palpitations coming on, so I knew it was working.

Round 1:

Rakdos Sacrifice, on the play

Matchup notes:

Extremely favored. Their deck cannot beat a turn 2 troll or hydra, and Karn is a lock piece against them. Their post board games are closer, but taking such a bad game one makes them far from good enough.

Game 1: I mull to 6

I just played a bunch of unbeatable creatures after getting Thoughtseize’d, my topdecks were much better than his. Such is green.

Game 2: Both mull to 6, I side out an elf, put in a land

This game was actually a lot closer due to a solid curve from my opponent, but I pushed through the last points of damage before he could. Again, topdeck issue, my draws are in general much hotter than his and I drew a Nykthos, establishing what was essentially a lock.

Round 2:

Yorion UW Control, on the draw

Matchup notes:

Less consistent than the 60-card version. They do get to play everything that matters, rather than picking and choosing, however, their lack of density gives a lot of windows and plenty of room to operate. Chromatic Seedshark out of the board was kind of sick. 0 Farewell in their 75. 4 Temporary Lockdown main. I also knew my opponent! We played in round 2 of RC Atlanta the year previous.

Game 1:

I think my game one is fine here unless I get Lockdown’d out. I resolved an elf, and spent three turns trying to resolve a three drop. Once I did, I played behind it until I chipped him out of the game.

Game 2: I mull to 6,  I side out an elf, put in a land

I never resolve a meaningful spell, and my opponent lands double Chromehost Seedshark and I never hit Karn to put up a meaningful contest.

Game 3:

This game is tight, but my opponent decides to tap out for a Seedshark on three, which allows me a window to resolve Kiora, giving me the leeway necessary to eventually bury them in cards. I end up comboing out after whittling down their hand.

Round 3:

Rakdos Midrange, play

Matchup notes:

Very good matchup. Rakdos can play if green stumbles, specifically on mana, but if you get to play lands every turn your high impact cards are much better than theirs. If you can play around Extinction Event at any point post-board you’re usually winning.

Game 1:

This is the most straightforward way to beat Rakdos, I started out with three lands in my opener, and with three lands you can keep virtually anything. All of your draws will be live for the most part. I pushed my opponent down to one with damage, and then resolved a Karn after they stabilized behind a Sheoldred for a couple of turns. Fetching a Leveler was enough to end the game after that.

Game 2: I side out an elf, put in a land

I ended up comboing him six or seven turns in. This actually ended the game only because I have the Woodcaller in my sideboard, which served as an extender, generating the excess mana and devotion I needed to turn what would have simply been a good turn into a full kill.

Round 4:

UW spirits, play

Matchup notes:

The second nut low (only above monoblue). Recent iterations are playing many more counterspells, and are essentially splashing only for Spell Queller and sideboard cards. Real bad.

Game 1:

I resolve a Polukranos on turn 2, and eventually land a couple more things. The current iteration of UW spirits does not play removal in the main, so after resolving Polukranos, I was safe for approximately infinity turns until they not only played Shacklgeist but also countered every other spell I could play for multiple turns in a row. This never happened. Took it pretty handily.

Game 2: I side in one Skysovereign, pull out one copy of Storm the Festival. I mull to six.

My opponent resolves a turn one creature, followed by a turn two curious obsession coupled with Geistlight Snare. Every spell I play for the remainder of the game gets countered while he chips me out.

Game 3:

I got incredibly lucky in this game. In the only real window I can generate while racing my opponent, I topdeck the boat I sided in, killing a Shacklegeist and swinging tempo an entire turn in my favor. I will say I did have plenty of live draws, as any of Canalier, Polukranos, Storm, or even a Cityscape Leveler likely kill him, but this one is definitely the most certain, as I still get to hold up an elf to block a Skyclave Apparition. It’s just barely enough to secure the win, and my opponent scoops after untapping and not drawing an answer.

Round 5:

Mono-white Humans, draw

Matchup notes:

I think this matchup is even on the play, losing on the draw. Definitely the worst deck for us besides spirit iterations. Worth noting configs with Skrelv, Defector Mite over Brave the Elements are hard losing to green, as they get shut down by Karn, curve worse, and don’t threaten lethal easily at all. Opponent is actually on neither in the main, 3 Brave in the side, and I actually like this more all in configuration. It seems very focused on killing people, and I feel that makes sense, although with green as a consideration in the meta I would have opted for 2 Brave main. Still likely slightly unfavored for me on the draw.

Game 1:

I think this game is best summarized by my opponent’s musings during sideboarding: “Well, I set up lethal next turn, but then you went from 6 to twenty-five permanents on board, and I don’t think I can win from there.”

Game 2: Side in Woodcaller for a Storm the Festival, Opponent mulligans to six

I don’t turn a creature sideways in this game and get slammed by one drop into double one drop.

Game 3:

This game has some reasonable back and forth, as my opponent finds 3 (!) Thalia’s Lieutenants, with a ton of power on board, and turns them all sideways after counting exactly my life total in damage, behind a Brave the Elements. Unfortunately, it looks like my opponent forgot that Cityscape Leveler is colorless, and gets to block, as I go to three. I then untap, spend a lot of time looking for a combo line, but then realize I have 23 power on board (enough to oneshot him) and a cityscape trigger to kill his only blocker. Kind of lucky to win this one, however, I doubt my opponent was finding a better window to push damage, as I do think I would have found the combo line had I taken another minute or two to think about it. Just wasn’t necessary.

Round 6:

Rakdos Midrange, draw

Matchup notes:

See above.

Game 1:

My opponent just gets popped off on around turn 5 or so after ripping my hand apart with thoughtseize twice. This deck feels very unfair in this matchup.

Game 2:

This was a tough loss, as my opponent managed to find the double Extinction Event to take this one down. He actually showed me a third one while we were discussing if I could have played around the second one.

Game 3: Opp. mulls to 6

The game ended on turn one. Why? My opponent mulliganed to six, then cast a duress. I revealed Elf, Elf, Forest, Forest, Forest, Troll, Cavalier. I probably would have scooped on the spot, but opponent is a better man than me.

Round 7:

UB Rogues (feature match), draw

Matchup notes:

This one is highly play/draw dependent. Outside of punting, which during this livestreamed feature match I learned I am still very capable of doing, usually the person going first will win. I do feel slightly favored, as rogues often must express a lot more skill than green in this matchup in their mulligan decisions and removal selection. Played perfectly, I do feel the die roll determines the winner more often than most decks in the meta. I would still call this a 50/50 on paper, but likely slightly favored in live play. Also thanks to dreamhack for not posting these on youtube at all, so the only way to watch them is to comb through a 12 hour Twitch VOD.

Game 1: Opponent mulls to six

During sideboarding, my opponent told me he kept a handful of fatal pushes and on-board interaction, but I just happened to have one of those double Wolfwillow hands which blanks spot removal for the most part.

Game 2: Opponent mulls to six

I could play in the NFL the way that I punt. At four life, I forget a creature has four power (I think it has three) and declare blocks, then die immediately. Very cool punt for all my friends to watch on stream. We do it for the content.

Game 3:

My opponent made a decision to hold up a drown in the loch instead of killing an elf with it at a critical point, and I think it at least allowed me storm off in the non-deterministic/flip Polukranos way, which may not be as cool as an infinite, but is just as effective in this matchup. Worth noting I doubt killing my elf actually stops me from winning, but it would have at least bought him a turn. It’s a crazy difficult line to take with one of the most valuable counterspells in the deck, though.

Round 8:

Keruga Fires (Elliot Raff, 5th place overall), play

Matchup notes:

This matchup is favored for me, which I know from extensive testing. Incarnation decks are certainly capable of winning this matchup, much more than most decks, but I still think I should be winning most of the time. That being said, it is absolutely winnable for them, and sometimes they just make huge things you cannot ever deal with.

Game 1: Opponent mulls to five

I get super loose and keep a one lander with elf, elf, Kiora. Now, I know my opponent’s list has four bonecrushers. Yet and still I begin to fantasize about the sick forest I have on top of my library and keep. After getting my elf killed twice and missing my land drop a few times, my opponent just plays cards and I eventually scoop it up.

Game 2: Opponent mulls to five, I mull to six

I can’t help myself. I mulligan and pick up a six that looks like it just barely gets there, this time with two lands, elf, elf, storm, storm. I draw a cityscape leveler and a Karn, and some other duds before my fourth mana after I lose an elf on my opponent's turn 2. He sets up a fat Keruga and just drowns me in mana advantage over the course of the game before I can really get online. Both of these losses may have been preventable with better mulligan decisions

Round 9:

Boros Convoke (Max McVety), play

Matchup notes:

I thought this matchup was favored in testing, but after playing against McVety and seeing his plan (mulligan as far as five for Gleeful Demolition) I have realized I was probably wrong. This is another matchup which is largely predicated on die roll. That being said, I should have won this particular match, as you will see below.

Game 1: Opp. mulls to five

My opponent leads with Thraben Inspector into a follow-up demolition, and convokes dudes. After those convokes break board parity, I am basically locked into combo the following turn, which I will do if I find a Nykthos. I cast a Storm the Festival with about 28ish unknowns in my deck (this game lasted a while due to my opponent mulligans and my lack of Nykthos) staring down lethal should my opponent untap. I reveal Storm, Cav, Nykthos, Forest, Elf, Wolfwillow. The keen-eyed among you may recognize that this is six cards. My opponent and I call a judge once we realize what is going on, and one of the appeals judges comes by, and asks us what is going on. My opponent, being gracious, actually acknowledges we both know only two cards (Wolfwillow and storm) could be the sixth card as I drew the cards over one by one. Unfortunately, the appeals judge feels that giving him the choice from only those two cards would be a deviation from policy, and the fix is to allow the opponent to shuffle a card from my hand into the random portion of my library. He chooses Nykthos, after some thinking. I shuffle, select cavalier and forest to put on the battlefield, still representing all but lethal should I hit a Nykthos. Unfortunately I whiff, and die on the crackback.

A side note: I 100% agree with the judge call here. It sucked, but it aligns with policy, and even though I personally thought there may have been a bit of wiggle room for deviation, I think the judge made the best possible decision for the sake of tournament integrity. He's also just a significantly better judge than I will ever be.

Game 2:

This one is pretty straightforward, I play an elf, my opponent does not have a Forge Devil, and playing a Troll is enough to stall out the game, and eventually show enough devotion to combo.

Game 3:

I keep another strong one with two forests, elf, kiora, Troll, and some other cards which never get cast because my opponent plays turn one Forge Devil followed by turn two Inspector into demolition, convoke a large dude. I don’t draw a third land, and this one is basically over before it begins.

Day 2:

The losses at the end of day one left a sour taste in my mouth, and day 2 didn’t feel like it would start any better (the cool kids call this foreshadowing). Everything started on time, which was great, but I had a restless night due to energy drink consumption, and I was really sweating my record at this point. I felt like I might hit a wall of good players, and thought I was due for a downswing after starting out so hot. I drank another full can of monster and hopped in the saddle.

Round 10:

Rakdos Midrange

Matchup notes:

This list actually had one serious change which I think matters a lot in this matchup. Opponent is playing one copy of Misery’s Shadow in their main. I do think this card should probably be at two main, but even one is a lot more than zero, and shutting down my death triggers matters a ton in this matchup. Props to my opponent for being prepared, as a lot of players have been cutting this creature as it doesn’t perform well in the mirror or in the value matchups.

Game 1: Opponent mulls to six

I run my opponent over with dudes after keeping 3 lands and no elf in the opener, which against Rakdos is basically optimal as they cannot deal with your things as long as you have mana to cast them.

Game 2: Opponent mulls to six

The previous idea is immediately proven wrong, as I cast a storm the festival which nets me an elf (which dies) and an oath which produces no immediate permanents facing lethal after an extinction event.

Game 3:

Another kind of judge-y/rules thing here. We have a back and forth game, wherein he hits a decent extinction event, resetting me, and putting me to 9 with a fable flipping the following turn, and looking at a temporarily empty board on my end. I untap, play a Karn I held for an extra turn to play around event, and this is where things get funky. My opponent says “okay” and I say “+, target blood token”. My opponent then says “so I don’t get to respond to Karn?”, to which I take a second to think. I realize that if we call a judge and go through this, we are just going to play a bunch of he-said she-said, and frankly, I don’t really care to win off of what I am pretty sure is an innocent mistake which I am EXTREMELY capable of making and have made before. I say that we can just put Karn on the stack if he is okay with that, and he cracks a blood, discarding his last card (land) and drawing one card. I change tac, -2 my Karn (not sure how I feel about this in hindsight, I may have wanted to plus anyways), grab Skysovereign, play an elf (also sandbagged to protect my Karn should my opponent play Event) and pass. My opponent plays Fatal Push during my end step, killing my elf and clearing a path for Karn to be killed. He untaps, draws and plays a thoughtseize for my boat (insert puking emoji), and I whiff a couple of draw steps to lose the game.

I’m not proud of this, but I will say, I was upset after the game because I felt like not fighting over the Karn resolution and calling a judge was really the difference between winning and losing. More importantly, I expressed this to my opponent. I tried to be nice about it, but undermining someone's good mood by suggesting they shouldn’t have won in a tough matchup is no way to deal with your own emotions, and the fact is, I let it happen. Props to my opponent for being a really nice guy, and I apologize if I made your day any worse. Additionally, in hindsight, I probably should have called a judge because there was new information gained from me plussing the Karn on his token, which may tell them things which I don’t want them to know, such as me having a creature in hand which is vulnerable to a Blood Tithe Harvester on board which can tap to kill it (read as: that elf I played).

Round 11:

UW Control, play

Matchup notes:

On tilt. My opponent’s configuration looked primed to beat mono-green. Outside of two copies of March of Otherworldly Light, opponent was on virtually zero spot removal, which I actually liked a lot in concept. She ran basically all the premier counterspells in the format all the way down, and had the Farewell in the main, which often earns the first karn activation (stone braining it) rather than getting something a bit more proactive. I actually felt like this particular match, which is often favored, may actually be bad for me considering how my opponent built their deck.

Game 1: I mull to six

Opponent steam rolls me, and is up two cards the entire game until they break this relative parity with a memory deluge and take control.

Game 2: I mull to six

I ride a single troll followed by another single troll to a solo win while backing it up with spells which all but require countering. Eventually opponent just got gassed out, and their extreme amount of counterspells came back to haunt them. Lacking spot removal is tough when you are facing down a single creature, and spending boardwipes is hard in a matchup like this starting down one dude.

Game 3:

I actually have a fairly explosive start, with elf into Kiora and a troll, but I get counterspelled into oblivion leading to an eventual farewell, losing a lot of mana and troll. Eventually I have a total of about 8 mana on board, and just start cracking in with a couple Lairs over the course of three draw steps, fading what would have been an incredibly hard to deal with The Wandering Emperor, boseiju-ing a Hall of Storm Giants in response to an activation, and in general just pushing the ugliest damage you have ever seen. After the game we discussed boards, and agreed cutting a few Emperor was right, but it ended up biting opponent pretty badly. This is also the game where Treasure Vault’s upside was almost realized, as there was a point where I had seriously considered cracking it for treasures on an upcoming turn until I drew a second Lair of the Hydra upon untapping. I also want to take a second to say my opponent played some of the tightest and precise Magic I had seen in this format yet. It was brutal to play against, and forced me to take some nasty lines which I may not have wanted to, should I have found any weaknesses in the gameplan. Tapping out once, skipping one extra turn on a boardwipe, sequencing lands out of order at all would have probably cost my opponent a lot of points in all of these games. Very cool to watch.

Round 12:

Yorion UW Control, draw

Matchup notes: I was not a fan of this configuration, as it was heavier on the one-for-one removal spells, which after dealing with the last opponent, I do not think is how you win in the format. Additionally, for an 80 card deck, there were definitely some funky numbers which meant I would never play around anything ever. That being said, there is a reason my opponent is here, and I had to respect that. He was, however, on two Farewell, which would have been a problem had he perhaps been on a denser list.

Game 1:

Of course, I get steamrolled in what I felt should be a very favorable game one, and just kind of get counterspelled to death. I elect to concede to a Teferi with a Wandering Emperor backing it up and like 5 cards in hand after whiffing a couple draw steps.

Game 2: I mull to six

We win in the way we usually win against control decks, chipping them out over way too many turns with an Old-Growth Troll over the course of about 7 turns between the Absorbs gaining life and extending the game. There was one play, in particular which basically won me the game, as I found a window with Karn to grab a Pithing Needle, threatening to shut down the Wandering Emperor while my opponent was representing it precombat. This earned an entire Absorb, and essentially timewalked them, which gave me the window to cast more spells each turn for the rest of the game, keeping them off of the Emperor to kill the Troll, which was pressuring their life total, and the Karn up, which was representing attritional value.

Game 3:

This is a weird one. My board sucks throughout, as after resolving an early Kiora I get counterspelled out of basically every creature I cast until, suddenly, I am allowed to establish about 7 devotion, a Kiora, Karn, Nykthos, and 8 lands with only a single Cavalier in play, not enough to earn the boardwipe I suspect my opponent is holding, especially with a Karn in my graveyard. The only issue? My opponent has a Teferi on 8, and they choose to make an emblem with 3 cards in hand. I find myself forced to over extend. I play a Troll. No counter. I play a Polukranos. No response. I go for a Chain veil. Nothing. I activate Nykthos. I play a second Nykthos, and activate the Nykthos, and I fetch Restorative Burst, and tell my opponent that if this does not get countered, I will get a second Karn and a second Kiora, allowing me to fully combo them out at this point, as I untap with Kiora (with 2 extra activations), play Karn, find Haywire Mite, popping a lockdown and putting more than enough devotion on board in order to take win. They scoop it up. My opponent shows me a Wandering Emperor, Supreme Verdict, and a Land sitting in their hand as bricks. What a sweat. I will be adding “combo through a Teferi emblem” to the bingo card for sure.

Round 13:

Rakdos Sacrifice (Corey Burkhart), play

Matchup notes:

Instead of notes, you get to hear about Burkhart and our discussion before and after the match. First of all, Corey Burkhart is my favorite magic player, and inspired me to play Grixis Control in modern for WAY too long. He’s a super nice guy, and to this day, I still regularly play my islands which he signed when I can. He actually remembered me even though I haven’t seen him in about four years, and I just want to say he’s really really cool and you should follow his career. In discussing this matchup, he had come to similar conclusions to me. There are certain points at which you can steal wins with the Sac deck, but they are few and far between. Often these involve double Claim the Firstborn and a Furnace Reigns, and even then these wins feel pretty cheesy and hard to set up. I have NO clue how this matchup has ended up 50-50 in recent data, and I think he would agree unless something new was unlocked.

Game 1: Opp mulls to six

My opponent Thoughtseizes turn one, and I still just get there playing the infinite amount of value generators in my deck. This matchup has felt unwinnable for Sac in testing and in my other match this weekend.

Game 2:

We have some decent back and forth, but I end up resolving a Karn with enough mana to do a few things, and I elect to Stone Brain his Mayhem Devils. He shows me a hand with DOUBLE Furnace Reigns. I keep a blocker back which keeps him from finding lethal the next turn, and then I recast the Stone Brain and actually choose the reigns, as I feel like at this point there is no card in his deck which is better than that one with the board I have established, which includes 2 three mana creatures and 2 copies of Cavalier of Thorns. Burkhart untaps, thinks for about three minutes, scaring the ever loving bejesus out of me, and extends a hand in concession. I think I have locked the Pro Tour invite.

Round 14:

Omnath to Light

No games were played this round. After winning the previous match, I was almost certain I could draw into the Pro/Players Tour, which was my goal. I was hanging out with a person I struck up a conversation with after we both won our last matches, and were seated close to one another. As standings were posted, we saw we were ranked 21st and 22nd. My new buddy made the offhand remark that if we were paired against each other, we should probably draw. About two minutes later, matchups are posted as my friend and I refresh, and he sees his pairing pop up and extends his hand. I automatically shake it without even checking the pairings, and he proceeds to give me a big hug while saying “we made the pro tour!” loudly enough to draw some eyes from the nearby staff. I was ecstatic. We submitted our results, and at the end of the round he finished in 23rd, and I finished 24th, good enough for qualification to Barcelona and the end of my weekend.

Final record: 10-3-1

24th Place

Qualified for PT Barcelona

Qualified for RC Atlanta

Post-tournament thoughts:

I was on the play a lot.

My matchup spread was really weird. A lot of Rakdos is good, as is a lot of control, but  the three aggro decks were certainly a problem. Dodging the mirror is cool. It’s not super interactive, and although I have technology for it, I would still rather just not play it. The other major dodges were Greasefang and Lotus Field, both of which I consider very favorable, and I would have loved to see these replace any other deck I played against in this tournament. Other more minor matchups which I did not see were Gruul seekers/boats (even), creativity (wurm version is favored against green, the gearhulk and Atraxa versions are not), and Phoenix (green favored).

Although I mostly stole his deck and sideboard plans, I disagree with Bobby Fortanely’s ideas about the sideboard slots in this deck not mattering towards the bottom; I used every single card in my sideboard to either win a game or flip a board state over the course of this tournament except Tormod’s Crypt and Damping Sphere, which I think most would consider core pieces of the board because of decks like Greasefang and the mirror/Lotus Field. God-Pharaoh's Statue is underwhelming, but at no point would I have rather had Esika’s Chariot except perhaps in a spot against convoke I forgot about. I will say there were a few opportunities for Shadowspear to be relevant, but nothing nearly as impactful as the best things I used my other cards for. Playing against this many Rakdos decks does make me wish I had found a spot for The Mightstone and Weakstone, as siding it in would be very nice, against sac even moreso than normal Rakdos, although it would have come in against either. Even so, I think I would have been trimming a critical piece which gave me at least one win, as I would rather have the statue against this many control decks, and I do not think it is at all reasonable to not play crypt or sphere. Therefore the only slot I question is the Statue, for a copy of Might/Weakstone. At least for this tournament.

I’m ecstatic about PT Barcelona. I am impatiently waiting for my passport, and I think that this will be the highest level MTG I will ever play in my life.

Peace.

-Kazi Baker

#TLKontheProTour