Standard Eight Man (By Record)

Standard Eight Man Tournament

    Today I had the pleasure of driving out with some friends to just outside of Chicago where a local shop was doing  a standard tournament. It seemed interesting and I’ve been on a roll in standard having won my last two events in the field. Not to mention I got to see some friends and play against some people I’ve not been able to yet.

    My deck choices were either mono green elves or Caw-Blade and having more experience with Caw-Blade I decided to go with it. Not to mention I didn’t know much about the local meta but I knew that at the very least Caw-Blade would have good matchups against 90% of the field because it is the deck after all.

Round 1: Boros Aggro

    I’m on the play with a decent hand which also has my one of sword of war and peace and addition to preordain and other random value cards. He plays a somewhat aggressive start which puts be to 17 off of a porcelain legionnaire but the advantage ended with some timely reinforcements  followed by a sword of war in peace then eventually a baneslayer angel which completely sealed the deal.

    Game two was rather similar and with my sideboard now in effect it wasn’t even close I believe I won with a swing consisting of Hero of Bladehold, and three solider tokens equipped with both swords of war and peace and feast and famine (Not to mention two more soldiers from Hero’s triggered).

Record: 2-0

Round 2: Mono Black Midrange-Discard-Control

     My opponent was one of my friends who I came with and probably the next most skilled player at the event. He was someone who taught me how to play magic so it was kinda cool being able to face off with him so early in the event as I wanted to knock him out as soon as I could. That being said I’d played against his mono black list which for the most part is ok but against Caw-Blade it seems rather weak.

    The biggest strength that his deck plays to is phrexian obliterator and not discard such as inquisition which I fell is much better on the whole (that is to say inquisition is better than obliterator). Our first game is close enough and he barley wins after I play to aggressive and attack with one to many hawks which allows him to be able to get through and slay me. So with a rather pleased expression I go to my sideboard and take about seven card and slam them in without a second thought.

    The next to games are much easier as a result with me now playing much more control than aggression.  My oblivion rings, dismembers, and celestial purges manage to deal with his obliterators as well as his own sideboard tech which is a phrexian crusader.

    This matchup seems to be far better as a control vs. agro mentality with you just making them run out of cards which gaining your own through grinding removal. On another note card like surgical extraction and memrocide still aren’t very good. He would get ride of a playset of my cards and I would just shrug.

Record:4-1

Round 3: Same Kind of Deck

    Everyone seem to like their obliterators but I don’t really see why, he dies to everything in blue white and the sideboard is insane. I manage to win the first one before my opponent concedes the next round as I have won enough round to get to the finals while he has not.

Record: 6-1

Round 3: Tempered Steel

    An actual real deck and worst of all I actually didn’t have an insane sideboard against them which made me nervous when he landed a memnite followed by a contested war zone. Quickly though things became much better when he tried to get an steel overseer onto the field which I O-Ringed. Following that he got land stalled while I hawked and heroed him to death. 

    The next game is a lot closer with him even managing to get me to 16 life off of me dismembering his overseer before eventually beating with manlands and hawks. On a side note tempered steel is a deck but it really needs it’s best draws to beat caw. My opponent was taking far to average of hands when he should have shipped them. Such example include lands with tempered steel but with no white sources and the all memnite hand with only a turn two overseer to empower it.

Record:8-1

Finals: Same as Round Two

    The event was ran by record and I was the only one who managed to beat him so he managed to claw his way through losers into finals which was fine with me. He was the only deck that I think had a decent chance but even then I wasn’t worried. We sat down and he had the nuts the first game with my mana leaks being used on my turn two to counter some discard spell. After than he surgically extracted the rest and managed to make me discard the three in my hand leaving me with nothing really in my hand. Eventually I died then we sideboard.

    The first game was rather one sided with me killing off his fellows and beating down with hawks. His kill spells buy his some time but eventually he goes down leading to the last game in the set. Things get interesting as I have a hand that has two swords of feast and famine and squadron hawk with the necessary lands and a dismember. I snap keep but he plays a phrexian crusader which is somewhat rough for me but not nearly as much as when he plays the second.

    I dismember the first one and play full on racing mode as the longer the game goes on the more likely I am to die. Eventually two squadron hawks get equipped and I manage to begin beating down and getting all of his card in hand. I got to six poison before finally managing to finish him off once and for all.

Record:10-2

    All in all not that bad though the prize isn’t anything special being three booster but whatever I had fun and the players were all good people. I think I’ll come back next week maybe with a different deck as their meta seems to be lacking removal making me want to try elves all the more.