Hey guys! Here are Nelson Salahub and Alistair Norman’s decks lists! While neither of them were fortunate enough to go incredibly deep in the tournament they both played some very interesting and interactive games and were only barely edged out!
Before I delve too deeply into the deck lists I first want to mention how the championships works. Throughout the year players who won the Monday night Highlander tournament were awarded a victory point. At the end of the year the top 8 players are all invited to compete in the year end championships. This year Josh topped the leaderboard with 10 victories and several players tied at the bottom of the leaderboard with just 2 victories. A play off was held to determine which of the 5 or so players who had 2 points would qualify for the championships. In the end Shane Harwood and Stefan Bard claimed the final two spots in the championships. In order to reward those players who did particularly well during the year a system was developed. The top 4 players would be given a choice with regards to who they played in the top 8. Here is how the system works. The top 8 is divided into two groups of 4 from both these groups 2 players advance to top 4. The group stage works similarly to some Starcraft leagues such as the GSL. In essence all the players have to do is win 2 matches before they lose 2 matches. So say in round 1 player A battles player B and player C fights Player D. Let’s assume the player A and D win; they now play each other and the winner of that game makes it out of the group. Players B and C also player after round 1, the loser is out of the tournament and the winner goes on to play the loser of the game between player A and D, the winner of that game then also makes it out of the group. After the group stage ends the first player to get out of group A (i.e. the one who won two games in a row) plays the second player to get out of group B. The winners of those semi finals then go on to play in the finals to determine the winner! All matches in the group stages are best of 3 but after the group stages they are a best of 5. In order to makes the groups for the top 8 we turned to the final rankings from the end of the year. Since Josh had the most victories at the end of the year he received a fairly powerful reward. Josh got to choose his first round opponent from one of the players in the bottom 4. This theoretically means that he could play a deck designed to do well against a particular person in the bottom 4 and win round 1 easily. But what if the person he choses plays something different? What if his deck isn’t good against the rest of the field?! This is what makes the format so interesting since although Josh gets an advantage it is by no means an advantage that is easily usable! The rest of the players in the top 4 also get a similar advantage. Spencer as the second ranked player also gets the ability to choose his round one opponent he simply just cannot pick the same person Josh does. Josh and his opponent and Spencer and his opponent make up the first two players for each of the groups. Now Nelson as the third ranked player has an interesting choice. He can either choose his opponent from one of the 2 remaining bottom 4 players OR he can choose which group he wants to be in! So if he thinks he has a good match up against Josh and his opponent he might be willing play to against either of the remaining bottom 4 players in order to be in Josh’s group. Whichever option Nelson does not chose is the choice that Nick, the fourth ranked player, gets to make. So if Nelson picked a group Nick gets to pick who he is playing if Nelson picked a player then Nick gets to decide which group he and his opponent go in! The entire system is very interesting and allows for a lot of thought a theorizing around what decks your potentially opponents might play or even still who your opponents might even be!
Without further delay now that I have introduced the format lets have a look at two of the decks played at this championship!
Nelson decided to bring his Blue Red Tempo burn deck to battle. This deck aims to keep the opponent off balance long enough to kill them with cheap and efficient threats and a variety of burn spells! This deck does reasonably well against other blue decks though it can sometimes be outclassed by some of the control decks. Similarly this deck has a very favourable match up against the more midrange decks as it can get time to set up and then keep those decks off balance. Nelson’s selection of this deck indicates one further thing. He was not planning on playing against many aggro decks since this deck can struggle against them.
Wooded foothills
Misty rainforest
Scalding tarn
Flooded strand
Polluted delta
Bloodstained mire
Arid Mesa
Tectonic edge
Rishadan Port
Shivan reef
Wasteland
Mishra’s factory
Grove of the burnwillows
Cascade bluffs
Temple of epiphany
Steam vents
Volcanic island
Sulfur falls
8 Island
9 Mountain
Mystical tutor
Ancestral recall
Stromkirk noble
Grim lavamancer
Monastery swiftspear
Forked bolt
Lightning bolt
Goblin guide
Mogg fanatic
Chain lightning
Delver of secrets
Mental misstep
Stifle
Gitaxian probe
Preordain
Ponder
Brainstorm
Chrome mox
Time walk
Price of progress
Remand
Memory lapse
Torch fiend
Kargan dragon lord
Lightning strike
Reckless reveler
Incinerate
Ember hauler
Flame rift
Counter spell
Fire/ice
Arc trail
Punishing fire
Smash to smithereens
Eidolon of the great revel
Searing spear
Magma jet
Snapcaster mage
Mana drain
Cyclonic rift
Young pyromancer
Sulfuric vortex
Rift bolt
Staggershock
Deceiver exarch
Thada Adel, acquisitor
Chasm skulker
Chandra’s Phoenix
Goblin rabblemaster
Gelectrode
Guttersnipe
Pestermite
True-name nemesis
Magus of the moon
Imperial recruiter
Treasure cruise
Zealous conscripts
Kiki-jiki mirror breaker
Force of will
Splinter twin
Koth of the hammer
Hidegetsu’s second rite
Real zarek
Chandra, the firebrand
Muddle the mixture
Alistair on the other hand decided to bring one the decks that he is very well known for playing however he made a slight alteration. Esper control is one of the most well established decks in the format and Alistair has certainly played a lot of it. Given the somewhat unusual nature of the championship format it payed to be somewhat surprising in your deck choice and Alistair achieved this by including a fairly potent but small reanimator package in his control deck. This combo plan allowed him to be more proactive in his games. This deck remains powerful in control mirrors and still possesses all of the tools to go extremely long and eventually win through inevitability. The reanimator package really helps some of the mid range match ups where control can sometimes struggle to deal with all of the mid range decks relevant threats. By having significant threats of its own the control deck can often look to simply end the game before the mid range deck can grind it down.
1x Mind Twist
1x Animate Dead
1x Arid Mesa
1x Batterskull
1x Brainstorm
1x Bribery
1x Condescend
1x Counterspell
1x Damnation
1x Dimir Signet
1x Dismiss
1x Elspeth, Knight Errant
1x Esper Charm
1x Future Sight
1x Gideon Jura
1x Griselbrand
6x Island
1x Karakas
1x Mana Drain
1x Marsh Flats
1x Maze of Ith
1x Mind Stone
1x Moat
1x Mystic Gate
2x Plains
1x Scrubland
1x Sol Ring
1x Sorin Markov
1x Sunken Ruins
1x Swamp
1x Terminus
1x Thoughtseize
1x Trinket Mage
1x Tundra
1x Vindicate
1x Wasteland
1x Watery Grave
1x Wrath of God
Thanks for all the support! Also as a last note I’m posting the deck lists in the format which their owners submitted them to me so I don’t know why Alistairs has links to the cards but I cannot guarantee this for all future lists. Tune in tomorrow for decks from the 6th and 5th position!
-Liam Coughlan