Top Deck Super Series Event #2 - Report

Top Deck Super Series Event #2 - Report

When Dr. Neil Stacey was a kid he figured he’d be a scientist when he grew up. Now he’s a scientist and has no idea what he’ll be when he grows up. He currently leads a bio-fuels research project at Wits University and resides in Johannesburg, which isn’t as bad as people say.


Final: Theuns Prinsloo vs Roland Richartz

Theuns will be on the play in the final, owing to his standing in the Swiss rounds. He keeps his hand, while Roland has to mulligan down to six.

Theuns starts with a Hissing Quagmire, while Roland plays a Toolcraft Exemplar off an Inspiring Vantage. Theuns’s mana continues to develop slowly with an Evolving Wilds, while Roland adds a Selfless Spirit to his board.

Theuns, starting to fall behind from all the tapped lands finally gets on the board with a Winding Constrictor. Roland keeps the pressure on with a Scrapheap Scrounger, giving Toolcraft Exemplar the artifact it needs to attack for full damage, taking Theuns down to 14 alongside the Selfless Spirit. Theuns adds a Rishkar, putting down a total of 4 +1+1 counters and seizing dominance of the ground. However, he has no answer to Roland’s flyer and he’s stuck on 3 lands.

Roland adds a Depala, Pilot Exemplar, going wide and threatening an eventual big attack if Theuns’s life total drops within range. Theuns finds an answer to the Selfless Spirit in the form of a Walking Ballista coming in as a 2/2. He also has a Grasp of Darkness to deal with Depala.

Roland is able to maintain a board presence with another Scrapheap Scrounger, but there’s no way past Theuns’s 4/5 snake and 4/4 Rishkar. Things take a turn for the worse for Roland when Theuns adds a Nissa, Voice of Zendikar, making a plant token and attacking with his Winding Constrictor.

Roland digs for a solution with Veteran Motorist but time is running out for Roland; this game is rapidly getting away from him as Theuns grows his team using the synergy between Winding Constrictor and Nissa. Roland is down to 10 while Theuns is still safe on 12. Theuns makes a huge attack with his fast-growing team and Roland is forced to pack it in.

Roland will be in a better spot being on the play in game two. Mardu Vehicles is very much the aggressor between these two decks and relies on getting off to a fast start. The roles are reversed in the mulligan decisions as well. He’s keeping seven while Theuns is down to six.

Roland leads off with a Thraben Inspector, following up with a Scrapheap Scrounger while Theuns just has tapped mana on the board.

Theuns gets on the board with a Sylvan Advocate, but wisely opts not to trade with Scrapheap Scrounger when it attacks again. Roland keep the pressure up with Thalia, Heretic Cathar, which will constrain Theuns’s mana and his ability to block. He plays a Walking Ballista but it comes in tapped and can’t prevent him from dropping down to 10.

Roland builds more pressure with Depala and a Thraben Inspector but Theuns has possibly the best defensive card he could draw: Aethersphere Harvester.

Roland is undeterred; he adds a Selfless Spirit and sends in his team. He sacrifices the spirit after blocks to keep his creatures alive, sneaking in enough damage to drop Theuns to a precarious 6 life. The addition of Nissa helps his board position by adding a counter to Sylvan Advocate and, more importantly, to Walking Ballista. With two counters on it, it poses a real threat to Roland’s creatures. The low toughness creatures in Mardu Vehicles are highly susceptible to Walking Ballista, making it a pivotal card in this matchup.

Roland continues to add to his board, but can’t attack into the Harvester and the Walking Ballista just yet. For the moment, at least, Theuns has stabilized. Roland still has a stack of clue to cash in, though, so he has plenty of opportunity to dig for a way through the Harvester. Meanwhile, he’s under pressure to eliminate Nissa before Theuns’s board gets too out of control.

Roland, back against the wall, has to throw a lot of his board into an unfavourable attack in order to get rid of Nissa. Roland has an Aethersphere Harvester of his own but it doesn’t break the board stall. Theuns continues to develop with a Winding Constrictor. The game and with it, the tournament, seems to be slipping away from Roland at this point. Theuns is able to play a Walking Ballista as a 3/3, seemingly putting the game out of range for Roland. With that overwhelming board, it doesn’t take long for Theuns to close out the game, taking a huge lead on the Super Series leaderboard.

Semifinal: Roland Richartz vs Sasha Malan

 

Roland is on the play by virtue of her standing in the Swiss rounds. She’s on a Red/Green Energy Aggro deck while Roland is on the Mardu Vehicles we saw in the last round.

Sasha’s mana develops slowly, with a tapped land on turn 1 followed by an Attune with Aether on turn 2 and a Longtusk Cub on turn 3. Roland, on the other hand, showed a near-perfect curve in the early turns; Toolcraft Exemplar on turn 1, Heart of Kiran on turn 2 and Veteran Motorist on turn 3, letting him take a chunk out of Sasha’s life total, leaving her on 12 after just 3 turns.

Sasha goes for a big turn 4, using Larger than Life, Built to Smash and her 2 energy to hit for 10 damage and get another 2 energy.

Roland goes for a big turn 4 himself, aiming Unlicensed Disintegration at the Longtusk Cub. Blossoming Defense puts a stop to that, but Sasha is down to just one card in hand and Roland is able to knock her down to 8 life while leaving Veteran Motorist untapped to block or crew.

Another Larger than Life lets Sasha send in an 8/8 with trample, forcing Roland to crew his Heart of Kiran and throw it in front, to play around Sasha having drawn another pump spell for her turn. 3 damage still tramples over and Sasha gets another energy trigger so this game is rushing toward a result.

Roland shores up his defences with an Aethersphere Harvester and attacks in for 3 with his Toolcraft Exemplar, putting Sasha on 5. Veteran Motorist can crew Athersphere Harvester up to a 4/6 with Lifelink, so it would take a lot from Sasha to punch through. She’s forced to pass the turn without attacking, leaving Roland an opportunity to get aggressive with his Aethersphere Harvester, which he crews with his Veteran Motorist. He adds a Scrapheap Scrounger and a Selfless Spirit for his turn, putting him firmly in front on 11 life with an imposing board. Sasha looks at one more card and scoops up her deck.

She’ll be on the play again in Game Two, hoping Roland won’t have quite the same blistering start as Game One. The pre-game proceedings go in her favour; she keeps her seven while Roland mulligan to six.

Roland is off to another fast start with Toolcraft Exemplar and Scrapheap Scrounger, while Sasha leads off with a turn 2 Voltaic Brawler. She follows up with a Larger than Life on turn 3 which, along with using energy to pump the brawler, is good for 8 damage knocking Roland down to 12. Sasha keeps a green mana open throughout; either she has Blossoming Defence or she’s doing a good job convincing Roland that she does.

Roland takes a chunk out of her life total on his own attack; Toolcraft Exemplar and Scrapheap Scrounger knock her down to 11. Sasha replenishes her energy supply with a Servant of the Conduit, but Roland has Fatal Push to eliminate the Brawler. Sasha has Natural State for a Scrapheap Scrounger to make sure she doesn’t get overwhelmed, but it gives Roland a big lead in life totals. After one more attack, the totals stand at 12 to 2, with two threats on Roland’s side. A Bristling Hydra is not enough of a defence for Sasha and one more attack brings this semi-final to an end. Theuns Prinsloo has beaten Timothy Layton in the other semi-final, so our winner will be either Theuns Prinsloo or Roland Richartz.

Round 5: Darren Fox vs Roland Richartz

The match at the top of the standings is between Theuns Prinsloo and Tim Layton, but they’ve gone with an Intentional Draw to lock up their spots in the Top 4. So I will instead be covering the win-and-in match between Roland Richartz and Darren Fox. Darren and Roland were teammates at the World Magic Cup last year, so they know each other well. Roland is giving us our first sighting of the Pro Tour-winning Mardu Vehicles.

Roland wins the die-roll and keeps his hand, while Darren mulligans down to 5. Roland leads with a Thraben Inspector followed by a Heart of Kiran, while Darren can just muster a Thraben Inspector of his own. When Roland plays Depala, Pilot Exemplar to crew the Heart of Kiran and hit for 5, things are looking bleak for Darren. Things just keep getting worse for Darren when Roland adds a Veteran Motorist and a Scrapheap Scrounger on turn 4. Stasis Snare removes the Heart of Kiran but Roland’s board still has an imposing 11 power on it. Roland turns it all sideways, threatening Darren’s fragile life total. To make matters worse, Depala’s trigger allows Roland to draw another Veteran Motorist off the top. Darren fends off what he can by using Stasis Snare on Scrapheap Scrounger but scoops after looking at one last card.

Game two is off to a better start for Darren; he’s on the play and he has a hand he’s happy to keep. Roland keeps his seven as well.

Darren gets on the board on turn 2 with a Lambholt Pacifist but Roland replies with a Fatal Push and a Scrapheap Scrounger.

Turn 3 sees Darren produce an astonishing 7 permanents: a third land drop and three Thraben Inspectors, each bringing with them a clue. Roland sends in his Scrapheap Scrounger where it trades with an Inspector by virtue of a group-block; it’ll be back later. In the meantime, Roland adds an Aethersphere Harvester and then a Gideon, building a big lead on the board. Darren is able to deal with the Vehicle using a Natural State but he still needs a way to put pressure on that Gideon. He adds a Gideon of his own in hopes of building his own army of Knight Allies.

Those hopes are soon dashed when Unlicensed Disintegration clears the way for Gideon to kill Gideon, putting Darren further and further behind. Veteran Motorist lets Roland add more pressure while sculpting his draws. The addition of Depala gives Roland an impressive board position while he uses the +1 on his Gideon to pressure Darren’s life total. Darren adds a Rishkar, putting counters on his Inspectors, bringing up his mana-producing capacity enough to add a Nissa, Voice of Zendikar on the same turn. Roland decides to send his attacks directly at Darren rather than focusing on the new Planeswalker; he’s aiming to close the game out before Darren’s grindier deck can build an advantage.

Darren still has a bit of life to play with at this point; he’s on 8. Roland is able to add a Pia Nalaar, however, stretching his board still wider. Darren has another copy of Gideon to deploy but he’s force to think carefully about how to use his duo of planeswalkers; one wrong could move could see him lose the game in one attack. Recognizing the value of evasion in this situation, he uses a Fragmentize to eliminate the Thopter token that came in with Pia Nalaar.

The game is very much in the balance at this point. Darren’s pair of planeswalkers will start to dominate the game if Roland can’t close the door soon enough. Darren’s deck also has a higher curve than Roland’s, so he has access to more powerful top decks in the late game.

Speaking of which, he peels a Quarantine Field off the top and uses it to eliminate Roland’s two best threats: Gideon and Depala, giving him the breathing room he needs to stretch his advantage on the board. Darren continues to flood the board with threats and -4s his Gideon for an emblem, only to play a new Gideon. It looks like the window has closed for Roland. He’s still on 20 life but he won’t last long in the face of Darren’s growing board. He resigns himself to his fate and prepares for game three.

The advantage will lie with Roland in Game three; he’ll be on the play. He keeps his hand and so does Darren. Roland has the dream start for the Mardu Vehicles; Toolcraft Exemplar on turn one into Heart Of Kiran on turn 2, followed by Depala on turn 3. Darren, on the other side, has Authority of the Consuls to slow him down, along with a Thraben Inspector and a Rishkar on turn 3.

Roland stays aggressive, crewing Heart of Kiran with Depala and attacking with the Vehicle and the Toolcraft Exemplar, for 9 damage. Things just get better and better for him as he pays two mana to Depala’s ability and draws an Aethersphere Harvester off of the trigger. He also adds a Scrapheap Scrounger to the board.

Darren has now dropped to 5 and needs an immediate answer to this board state Heart of Kiran. An Archangel Avacyn followed by a Walking Ballista for zero threaten might just do the trick but Roland responds by crewing his Heart of Kiran with Depala, to look for a fresh threat off the top of his deck. Roland whiffs on Depala’s ability.

Darren seems to have stabilized and continues to gain a trickle of life off the Authority of the Consuls as Roland adds threats. Once again, Roland is under pressure to close the door. In fact, he has just two turns; time was called during his last turn. Darren has declared his own aggressive intent by attacking with Avacyn rather than holding it back as a blocker. Roland plays his Aethersphere Harvester and brings back a Scrapheap Scrounger, aiming to set up enough damage in his final two attacks. Veteran Motorist adds to his power on the board and his heart of Kiran takes Darren down to just 4 life.

Darren sets up for a crucial block, leaving two mana open along with his 6/5 flyer as his defense. It’s not enough; Roland has Unlicensed Disintegration to slam the door shut on the last possible turn. He’s on to the Top 4 while Darren, unfortunately, misses out on the elimination rounds.

 

 

 

Round 4: Darren Fox vs Theuns Prinsloo

 

After 3 rounds there are just 2 undefeated players: Darren Fox, whose Green/White deck we’ve been following all day, and Theuns Prinsloo, who looks almost certain to sit atop the overall leaderboard  at the end of the day. He is also on a Black/Green deck so we’re following a matchup that has become highly familiar.

Theuns wins the die-roll and chooses to play, while both players keep their opening seven cards. The early turns of game one are spent making land drops and debating the merits of an intentional draw. Darren gets onto the board first with a turn 2 Heart of Kiran. Theuns adds a 1/1 Walking Ballista on his third turn and the board starts to take shape as Darren only has a Thraben Inspector on turn 3.

With nothing to crew it, the Heart of Kiran has to stay home. Theuns starts to chip away by attacking with his Walking Ballista and adding a second counter when it isn’t blocked.

Darren’s game-plan really gets underway on his fourth turn when he deploys a crucial Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. He opts not to make a Knight Token; instead, he activates Gideon’s +1 ability to make it into a creature which then crews the Heart of Kiran, hitting for four damage. Theuns has a haymaker of his own on the next turn, however, boosting his Walking Ballista to a 6/6 with a Verdurous Gearhulk. He uses two of its counters to eliminate a Thraben Inspector and then attacks into Gideon, forcing Darren to remove a counter from Gideon to crew Heart of Kiran and offer a trade. Theuns opts to remove counters to kill Gideon instead, leaving Darren with just a Heart of Kiran facing down Theuns’s 4/4 Verdurous Gearhulk. He adds a Lambholt Pacifist but is still looking a little shaky.

But Theuns has another Verdurous Gearhulk, boosting the first one to an 8/8 trample. Stasis Snare comes down from Darren but it’s answered by a Blossoming Defense and just like that, Darren is on 10 life, facing down 12 power with Trample on the next turn. He has another Gideon to try hold out while his Heart of Kiran flies over the field for four damage a turn. If he can survive for another couple of turns, he might be able to sneak over the line.

Those hopes are dashed when a third Gearhulk comes down, backed up by a Fatal Push, and Theuns takes the game.

Darren will be looking for a faster start in Game Two. His deck aims to go wide so he needs to use the early turns to set up. Fortunately for him he’s on the play and kept his hand while Theuns mulligans to 6.

Darren leads off with a turn 1 Toolcraft Exemplar, followed by a Walking Ballista as a 1/1. But Theuns has Fatal Push to deal with the exemplar and a turn 2 Winding Constrictor to follow up with.

Darren’s turn 3 sees the players entering into a complicated mind game. Darren plays a Rishkar, bringing his Walking Ballista up to a 2/2 and he attacks into the 2/3 Winding Constrictor. Theuns makes no blocks, fearing a Blossoming Defense which, in fact, Darren would not be able to cast if he had it; his Rishkar has summoning sickness and can’t actually tap for mana. Darren gets away with his cheeky bluff, sneaking in two damage. Only time will tell if the risk was worth it.

On the other side of the board, Theuns is stuck on two mana. He is able to add a Walking Ballista as a 2/2, courtesy of the extra counter from Winding Constrictor. Darren throws his own Walking Ballista at Theuns’s Walking Ballista. Or maybe it was the other way round. Either way, they trade. Darren stays on the offensive with his 3/3 Rishkar and adds a Gideon and a Toolcraft Exemplar, while Theuns adds another Winding Constrictor. A Walking Ballista, boosted by two snakes, is able to take care of both of those and the board resets to Darren’s 3/3 Rishkar facing down two Winding Constrictors. A Blossoming Defense allows Theuns to kill Rishkar off the next time it attacks.

At this point, Theuns is still on two lands, while Darren has six. Despite this mana deficit, the boards are in parity but Theuns has a grip full of cards while Darren has run out of gas. The game starts turning in Theuns’s favour quite rapidly as starts to draw out of his mana screw and floods his board, with Darren falling further and further behind. The game ends in a landslide as Theuns pulls further and further ahead.

Theuns marches on to a 4-0 record, locked for Top 4, while Darren gets another shot at it.

 

Join us on Saturday the 11th of February for the second event in Top Deck’s R100 000 Super Series as Johannesburg’s finest players get to grips with a Standard metagame firmly defined by the recent Pro Tour. Will Mardu Vehicles cruise to victory, or will Joburg’s brewers find an answer to the format’s top deck?


Round 3: Timothy Layton vs Darren Fox

Both players have gotten off to a good start with two wins. The winner of this match will be in great shape to make it past the cut to Top 4. We’ve had one look at Darren’s grindy Green/White deck, Tim is on Black/Green.

Tim wins the die roll and chooses to play first, mulliganing to six while Darren keeps his seven.

Both players lead off with tapped lands and Tim is first on the board with a Winding Constrictor. A Darren replies with a Toolcraft Exemplar and it looks like we might be in for a repeat of our Round 1 coverage. Darren’s deck seems well-placed in this kind of grindy matchup, going over the top with his planeswalkers.

Toolcraft Exemplar and Winding Constrictor are the only early plays for both players, however, as both players just make land drops for a few turns. Darren eventually gets rid of the Winding Constrictor with a Stasis Snare and adds a pair of Thraben Inspectors going wide with both creatures and clues. Tim takes the opposite approach with a Verdurous Gearhulk landing as an 8/8 with Trample. Darren goes wider still with a Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and it’s clear we’re in for a grindy game.

The advantage surely lies with Darren here; he was on the draw and Tim mulliganed so Darren started the game two cards up. A Rishkar, Peema Renegade lands for Tim, growing his Gearhulk to a 9/9, which promptly eats Gideon. But Darren has another Gideon, along with a Lambholt Pacifist. Tim’s two creatures are now staring across at six on Darren’s side, along with a planeswalker ready to make more. The Gearhulk comes in for another attack on Gideon. Darren piles up a stack of blockers but, wary of a blowout, opts to let his second Gideon follow the first into the graveyard.

With the planeswalker off the board, Tim makes use of all the land-drops he’s been making; a 4/4 Walking Ballista lands, casting a shadow over the battlefield. Darren’s board of small creatures is looking increasingly fragile but he has a third Gideon. Rather than feeding this one to Tim’s Gearhulk he cashes it in for an emblem, bolstering his team before Tim can whittle it away with his Ballista and abundant mana.

Before Tim can press his advantage with the Walking Ballista, Darren sends in his entire team in a brutal (and suspicious) attack. “I smell Avacyn,” Tim says, selecting his blocks carefully to avoid being blown out by the flash Angel. Archangel Avacyn arrives moments later, proving there’s nothing wrong with Tim’s sense of smell. His arithmetic, on the other hand, is suspect; he removes all four counters from his Walking Ballista in an attempt to kill Avacyn, forgetting that the Gideon emblem made it a 5/5.  After that, it doesn’t take Darren long to mop up the game.

The pizza  deliveryman arrives while the two players are still shuffling up. Tim’s arithmetic comes into question yet again when the bill comes his way; he tips much more than the customary 10%.

Tim is once again on the play in game two. Both players keep their opening seven and the early turns follow a familiar pattern: Toolcraft Exemplar, Winding Constrictor, Thraben Inspector. Tim has no play on turn 3, however, while Darren is able to bolster his board with a Rishkar. Tim holds off the assault with a Grasp of Darkness but he’s still behind on the board. That changes with the arrival of a Mindwrack Demon. The mana ramp from Rishkar gives Darren the mana for a Nissa, Vital Force.

The game swings right back Tim’s way, however. With Deliriun active he plays a To The Slaughter, dealing with Nissa and getting a Thraben Inspector in the deal. The Kalitas he plays the next turn feels like the final nail in Darren’s coffin.

But Darren has a Fumigate, gaining him six life and emptying the board. Tim has no threat to follow up with the next turn. The two exchange threats and removal for a few turns, waiting for something to stick. Darren is eventually able to finish Tim off with Archangel Avacyn, and Tim slides to a 2-1 record while a Top 4 draws closer and closer for Darren.

 

Round 2: Joshua Newcombe vs Enrico Guarneri

One of South Africa’s most consistently successful players, Enrico is up against relative newcomer, Joshua Newcombe.

Josh is playing an unusual Red/White Control deck, while Enrico is on a Jeskai Dynavolt Tower build.

Josh is on the play, but has nothing but lands for the first three turns. Enrico finally gets things started on his own third turn with a Dynavolt Tower. Josh makes his first play on turn 4 with a Nahiri, which meets a Quarantine Field.

Josh activates a Needle Spires and attacks for four as the game continues at its sedate pace. Josh plays another Nahiri and starts to tick up, while Enrico builds a reservoir of energy with a series of Glimmer of Genius. He uses that reservoir to shoot down Nahiri with Dynavolt Tower activations. It looks for a moment as though the game is gaining velocity as Enrico plays a Nahiri of his own but Josh eliminates it with a flurry of burn spells.

A second Dynavolt Tower follows from Enrico. He’s now getting four energy from each instant and sorcery he casts, so he just needs to assemble a string of spells and a win is in sight for him. He’s able to use their activations to mow down planeswalkers, which seem to be a central part of Josh’s deck. Josh switches to his deck’s plan B, pointing burn spells at Enrico’s life total. Enrico switches to his deck’s plan Z, casting Fumigate on an empty board just to trigger his towers. And then doing the exact same thing the next turn. So a strange sort of race develops; Enrico trying to accumulate enough Energy to kill Josh, while Josh tries to draw enough Burn spells to finish off Enrico, whose land count has reached double digits by this point.

It’s Josh who gets there first, ending the game with a Collective Defiance and a pair of Shocks.

Both players will have a lot of side-boarding to do.

Game two gets off to a similar start; both players making land-drops in the early turn. Enrico gets some early advantage when he Negates a Tormenting Voice. He then adds a Dragonmaster Outcast to the board, hoping to take advantage of Josh having sideboarded out his removal. The outcast chips away at Josh’s life total while Enrico makes land-drops and counters threat after threat from Josh. When Enrico adds a Thing in the Ice, the pressure builds for Josh; he needs to get some traction on this gameor he’ll be facing a stream of dragons from the outcast. At the very last moment he finds a Goblin Dark-dwellers to flash back a burn spell that was countered earlier, taking care of the outcast. Josh follows up with a Combustible Gearhulk but Enrico has all the answes; a Quarantine Field for six mana takes care of both threats before Enrico flips the Thing in the Ice and it starts getting in for damage along with a Wandering Fumarole.

But now it’s Josh with the answers up his sleeve; Nahiri exiles the Thing in the Ice and surprise tech Structural Distortion blows up the Wandering Fumarole. Enrico has one more threat still to play, however. A Torrential Gearhulk flashes back Glimmer of Genius, cementing his card advantage. Josh can’t push an answer to the Gearhulk through Enrico’s defences and the scores are levelled with just 9 minutes left on the clock.

Josh is on the play in game three and both players are under pressure to push for a quick result as the clock ticks down. Enrico is forced to mulligan, however, costing him one card and one minute spent shuffling back up.

The early turns are once again spent playing lands and sculpting hands until Josh signals his intentions with an Incendiary Flow targeted directly at Enrico.

Enrico goes down to 17. On his own turn, he plays a third land and passes. Josh attempts a Chandra, Torch of Defiance which meets a Void Shatter, keeping the board empty. Josh tries another one next turn. This one meets a Negate. Turns pass with neither playing getting any traction on the board. Torrential Gearhulk re-casts Negate on another Chandra but is itself a victim of Stasis Snare. Two minutes left on the clock and still, neither player has a threat. Eventually, Enrico resolves a Nahiri and is able to keep it on the board long enough to activate her ultimate, fetching out another  Torrential Gearhulk. Josh tries another Stasis Snare but Enrico has Disallow.

Torrential Gearhulk gets in for an attack before bouncing back to Enrico’s hand. Josh follows up with Collective Defiance, forcing Enrico to discard his entire hand, including the precious Gearhulk. And just like that, Enrico’s out of time. Time is called. Enrico has three turns left to attack Josh’s life total, now sitting on 11 after an attack by a Wandering Fumarole. Enrico does have a Dynavolt Tower on board but it won’t be enough. The match ends in a draw with Enrico agonizingly close to dealing the last points.

Round 1: Keraan Chetty versus Darren Fox

Darren is fresh off of an appearance for the national team at last year’s World Magic Cup so his game should be razor sharp. GP Moscow Top 8 competitor Keraan Chetty is fresh off of a big Friday night out, so it remains to be seen whether he’ll be on top form. Keraan is on a fairly stock Black/Green Constrictor deck while Darren is playing what one might call a Green/White tokens deck, except that with the presence of Heart of Kiran might be better termed Green/White Vehicles. It looks like a deck well-suited to today’s metagame; it builds a bigger board presence than the ubiquitous Mardu Vehicles, at the expense of losing the Pro Tour winning deck’s robust removal suite. With Jeskai Saheeli decks in short supply, it should fare well.

 

Keraan is on the play in game one and gets going with a Hissing Quagmire on turn one. It’s Darren who’s first on the board with a creature; he gets off to a flying start with a Toolcraft Exemplar followed by a Thraben Inspector and yet another Toolcraft Exemplar on turn 2.

Keraan is a bit slower off the mark with a Winding Constrictor on Turn 2. He chooses not to trade it with Darren’s Toolcraft Exemplar, building up his board rather than protecting his life total. He follows up with a second Winding Constrictor but Darren keeps the pressure on with a Rishkar, Peema Renegade, putting the counters on Rishkar and his Thraben Inspector and sending his Toolcraft Exemplars into Keraan’s pair of snakes. Keraan declines to block and his life drops to 11.

A Walking Ballista on turn 4 gets Keraan back into the game. A tapped land keeps it from coming in with a full four counters but 3 counters gives him the fuel to take care of the Toolcraft Exemplars that have been pressuring his life total, while keeping the Ballista in play. He has the four mana to activate it each turn and with two Winding Constrictors in play, each activation will add 3 counters. Darren fights back with a Nissa, Voice of Zendikar, which he -2s to boost his team. Despite this boost, it still looks like his small creatures will be no match for Keraan’s fast-growing Ballista, which gets to work gunning down Darren’s team.

Darren has one more trick up his sleeve, however. Archangel Avacyn saves a Toolcraft Exemplar from a Walking Ballista activation. Keraan’s life-total is now at a precarious 7 so he’s forced to cash in his Walking Ballista to get Avacyn off the board; he has no other defence against the flyer.

Without the Ballista to hold off Darren’s team, Keraan is quickly overrun. When Darren drops a Heart of Kiran into play, Keraan scoops up his cards and reaches for his sideboard.

 

In game two Keraan is once again on the play but he falls behind on board as Darren once again leads with a Toolcraft Exemplar. Keraan has no play on turn 2 and it looks like this game might be going the same way as the first, when Darren follows up with a Thraben Inspector. He starts to fall behind, however, as he misses his second land drop.

Winding Constrictor and Fatal Push put Keraan firmly in front. Darren starts to catch up on land drops but Keraan stretches his lead on board with another Constrictor, a Grim Flayer and a Kalitas.

Darren sets up his defences with a Walking Ballista followed by a Lambholt Pacifist and a Rishkar, which brings Lambholt Pacifist up to 4/4 and Walking Ballista up to 3/3.

A flurry of removal from Keraan wrecks Darren’s board, leaving him with just a 2/2 Rishkar facing down Kalitas, Grim Flayer and a fresh army of zombie tokens. At this point, Keraan is up to 23 life while Darren has dropped to 14 and under pressure. He keeps his defences up with a Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and Nissa, Vital Force, animating a land.

Keraan is clearly feeling the effects of the night before as he contemplates how to deal with this impressive duo of planeswalkers as the board starts to clog up.

Mindwrack Demon offers Keraan a way to go over the top, but Darren has Heart of Kiran and Walking Ballista on two counters and dispatches the Demon when it attacks Nissa. Keraan has another Mindwrack Demon, to which Darren has no immediate answer. When Keraan follows up with a Winding Constrictor and a Rishkar, Peema Renegade, Darren’s team of planeswalkers are suddenly under a lot of pressure. Another sort of pressure is building, however, with just four minutes left on the clock.

When Stasis Snare on Mindwrack Demon highlights an incredibly complicated combat step which fails to remove either of Darren’s planeswalkers, it starts to look like Darren is headed toward a 1-0 win.

Preview, latest news, and players to watch

The second event in the Super Series will take place in the shadow of some big news. The return of Nationals! Except, you know, not really. The old Nationals system was a two-day, multi-format event with free entry to all qualified players, yielding four slots at the World Championship.

The new version? None of the above, and it’s down to two slots at the World Magic Cup. WMC teams are down to three players, two of them qualifying through the new Nationals, with the team captaincy still going to the highest Pro Points earner of the preceding season. What that boils down to for us is three seats at the top level of Magic per year instead of the four we’ve had for the last few years. We used to have eight, before the scrapping of the old PTQ system.

So we are once again getting a good close look at WoTC’s neglect of the competitive scene in South Africa. But hey, they’re calling it Nationals and some people are excited about that. But let’s put aside bad news masquerading as good and instead take a look at the Super Series standings to get a sense of which players to keep an eye on as we head into Standard tomorrow.

Top 16 Standings after event #1

  1. Wynand Van Zyl 21
  2. Neil Stacey 18
  3. Theuns Prinsloo 18
  4. Keraan Chetty 16
  5. Sarvesh Balkaran 15
  6. Scott Field 15
  7. Robert Wild 15
  8. Timothy Layton 15
  9. Joshua Newcombe 15
  10. Hall, Clayton 15
  11. David Reinecke 14
  12. Guventhiran Govender 13
  13. Alon Chalmers 13
  14. Russell Tanchell 13
  15. Clintin Riddell 12
  16. Benjy Ancer 12

Wynand Van Zyl has a clear lead after a perfect 7-0 in the pre-release that kicked things off. However, to my knowledge he isn’t a regular Standard player so there’s a very real chance that he will relinquish his lead by default. Next on the board is the familiar name of Dr Neil Stacey. But don’t watch him because he’s me and I’m writing coverage instead of playing.

Also on 18 points, however, is Theuns Prinsloo. Theuns puts up consistently impressive results across all formats and has to be an early favourite to top the leader-board once all is said and done.

Keraan Chetty is one of just a handful of South Africans with a Grand Prix Top 8 on his resume and he’s well-placed on 16 points. If Keraan manages to make it to most of the Super Series Events then he’s sure to finish at or near the top of the standings.

Of the six players trailing slightly on 15 points, the name of Scott Field is probably the stand-out in terms of past success at a high level. Scott can lay claim to a Top 4 placing in the last of the old National Championships. He also happens to be a co-founder of Top Deck so he’s not likely to miss too many events, although he does miss event #2 due to being out of town riding a cycle race.

Also worth watching on 15 points are Joburg veterans Robert Wild and Timothy Layton, each of whom are capable of winning in any of the three formats featured in the Super Series. Then there’s Sarvesh Balkaran, the young whippersnapper with a medical degree. In the past, he has struggled to make an impact in the Modern format so he’ll be looking to leverage the other formats to solidify his points total.

Those are just a few of the players I’ll be looking out for tomorrow. This series has just gotten started and the points race is still wide open.