A quick tournament report for the June 6th RIW Pauper 1k by Jason Golembiewski piloting the custom version of Black Sac that I refer to as Mono Black Midrange because it plays more like a mid-range strategy than the aforementioned aggro/combo deck.
| Mono Black Midrange |
Jason Golembiewski |
4 Carrion Feeder
4 Village Rites
4 Mortician Beetle
4 Corrupted Conviction
4 Shambling Ghast
2 Snuff Out
4 Infestation Sage
2 Spinning Darkness
4 Rotten Reunion
3 Accursed Marauder
17 Swamp
2 Voracious Vermin
4 Bone Picker
2 Thorn of The Black Rose |
Sideboard
4 Mesmeric Fiend
2 Nihil Spellbomb
3 Scourge of the Undercity
1 Snuff Out
1 Spinning Darkness
2 Contaminated Ground
1 Plagued Rusalka
1 Accursed Marauder |
I assume he is on Ruby Storm, and he confirms this on turn 1. I had to double mulligan to get a playable hand, but the keeper came with two Snuff Outs, so I’m not too upset. A quick Bone Picker followed by a Carrion Feeder and fodder presents a decently fast clock and so he has to try to go off something like turn 4 or 5, but the Snuff Outs help him fizzle out his combo turn. I feel like if I can get game 1, I can probably win the match, and I do. Game 2 goes about the same as the first, but now I get more removal and also Mesmeric Fiend to help fizzle his combo. A quick clock ends game 2 with a round win.
I am not sure what Jon is playing, but he usually likes Gruul Monsters. After turn 2, I learned he is on Gruul Ponza. I know from experience that this is a pretty positive matchup, and he agrees. You can see how it all unfolds on Twitch. The TLDR, I play cheap threats and Snuff Out/Accursed Marauder his threat..
I assume Ethan is on Grixis Affinity, as I have never seen him on another deck. He is, and I know how this matchup generally goes. In the past, I have played against him on this deck quite a few times with MBM. I have won our previous matches, but I feel I mostly got lucky enough to have some strong Bone Picker hands. Those matches, however, were all before Utrom Monitor was printed. I know from playing this matchup against other opponents that it is unfavorable. It’s probably somewhere in the realm of 40/60. They have Krark Clan Shaman, which presents a serious problem, combined with all of the other control elements the deck plays. After a long two games, I think I need to reassess how I view the matchup. Previously, I was in the mindset of just winning faster. After this match, it seemed like there were a good handful of times we were at parity on board and in card advantage. That’s when he draws something like an Ichor Wellspring into Reckoner’s Bargain, and all of a sudden, he is just pulling ahead in the card advantage race. I think I should be on the control game plan and just sideboard in all of my removal and try to play and hold the monarch and ride that to victory because it’s the only way I am going to compete with the deck’s card advantage. Another contributing factor to this loss may have been the fact that I saw zero Bone Picker and zero Thorn of the Black Rose. He even mentions after the match that the last time we played, I was playing different cards, like Bone Picker. I wasn’t. Aside from a few sideboard slots, the deck is the same 75 as every other time we had played. First loss and it was to a deck I expected to lose to and to a good player, so I am not too upset about it.
James is relatively new to Pauper, and I think this was the first time I met him. He was playing a Mono Black Devotion style deck with a pretty heavy artifact subtheme. The nonblack removal spells in both of our decks rot in our hands in game 1, which I manage to lose thanks to some Crypt Rats, Gray Merchants, and lots of Refurbished Familiars. I feel like I am probably favored to win game 1 and unfavored post-board. Game 2, I was on the play with a very fast clock with some diverse threats, and I was able to close up the game relatively quickly, before he was able to deploy Crypt Rats with any kind of man available. Game 3, I believe he kept a 2 lander, but is pinched on mana either way for a few turns. He has a great hand otherwise and gives me a lot of problems. After a few of his playing off of just the 2 lands and me getting in for small chunks of damage, he finally starts seeing the lands flow and is just barely short of catching up on the board. I feel like I simply played the best I could and got lucky, and sometimes that is how you win an unfavored matchup.
I’m not sure what Anthony is playing, as he does play some different decks. After turn 1, I know he is on Tron, assuming of the Monster variety, and I know I just need to race. I present an aggressive clock, but he assembles Tron quickly and starts laying down the fatties with life gain. I don’t have a lot of answers for his big guys pre-board, and “Pineapple” Kill-Ship delivers the death blow. I haven’t played this matchup a ton, so I’m not sure what the best route to go is. I decide I’ll just load up on removal and hope I can win the long game, as his deck doesn’t have a ton of card advantage, and I can probably match his actual threats with removal and, at the same time, get my threats to outgrow his. In Game 2, he double mulligans and doesn’t have a turn 3 tron. I am able to present a fast clock before he is able to assemble it. He finds the third piece, and I play Contaminated Ground on it, and that buys me the couple of turns I need to close out the game. Game 3, he keeps a 7 card hand but appears to have only 1 Tron piece and no clear path to assemble the full team. I am staring down a hand chock full of removal and a couple of threats, wondering how this is going to work out. I play my mediocre beats, and he digs to try to find the rest of the Tron lands to deploy his big threats. He casts a prototype Boulderbranch Golem to try to put a speedbump in front of my 1/1’s, but Accursed Marauder makes easy work of it. After several turns, he doesn’t find the last tron piece, and I win the race.
In another 1k event earlier this year, James and I had met in this same position, the win and in bracket. I won last time in a very close matchup; now he is given the opportunity for revenge. All three of our games go pretty long (long for two aggressive decks), and so some of the details I am likely mixing up between games. In Game 1, he wisely chooses when to pop off a pivotal creature and when to go to the dome with his burn spells. My Rotten Reunions do exactly what they were intended for and punch out a couple Sneaky Snackers, keeping them off my back. He sees quite a bit of his deck, including all four Grab the Prize. I don’t remember the ending board state, but the ending life totals were 2 and 3. He mentions the play/draw favorability, and he is probably right.
In Game 2, I am able to get in some quick beats while he digs a lot. I make a pretty risky play of tossing out 2 Mortician Beetles on turn 2 with no sacrifice available to me. I have three 1/1’s on board and think if he has an End the Festivities, it’s going to be hard to recover. He doesn’t have it, and on turn 3, I play a third Beetle, then an Accursed Marauder for no value other than to grow my guys out of range. He picks off a few guys but keeps digging into lands. I don’t see any sideboard cards and manage to take the win, thinking great, he might not consider Scourge of the Undercity for game 3.
Game 3 is another grind with lots of trades back and forth. I keep his board clear of guys while getting in a few hits. He drops a Guttersnipe on like turn 5, but is tapped out and has a few cards in hand. I figure if I let him untap with the Guttersnipe, I probably lose even though I am at 18. On my turn, I draw, I believe 8 cards (maybe it was 6) + 1 during the draw step, looking for an answer to the Gutterer. I find the Spinning Darkness in the very last draw 2 and get that guy off the board; it only costs me my entire board state. With all of the draw spells, I now have a full grip, 5 of which are lands, so not a whole lot going on. I play the Veracious Vermin and start growing him a little, and present a decent threat. He keeps throwing down chump blockers and gets a Snacker to be on chump duty for my only real threat, buying him some time. I play a draw two spell and find Carrion Feeder and Infestation Sage. This is exactly the secondary threat I needed to close this game out that I have been looking for. I quickly cast the Carrion Feeder, then the Infestation Sage, and he wisely responds with a Lava Dart on the Feeder, and I realize that I just made a noob mistake. Black Sac 101: fodder before feeder. He chumps my only real threat and draws into the Fireblast to end my misery with the help of a Kessig Flamebreather that I wasn’t able to answer. The game was still very close, with him ending at 5 life. If that Carrion Feeder had made it, I probably would have been able to force him to block with the Kessig or waste more burn spells on it. It was probably one of the most enjoyable matches I played in a while, despite my big play error. Looking back at that match, I also never saw a Scourge of the Undercity, which I feel would have made a huge impact, particularly in game 3.
Fun tournament altogether, ended up in the top 16. I will get you next time, James.
