Monday 13 December 2021

MODERN: BARAL GIFT STORM

Arcane South's Year-End Modern event
Pacita, San Pedro, Laguna
11 December 2021

Main deck 
2 Islands
1 Mountain
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Fiery Islet
1 Riverglide Pathway
4 Shivan Reef
4 Spirebluff Canal
4 Steam Vents
4 Baral, Chief of Compliance
3 Goblin Electromancer
4 Opt
4 Serum Visions
2 Sleight of Hand
4 Manamorphose
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Pyretic Ritual
4 Gifts Ungiven
2 Past in Flames
2 Grapeshot
1 Empty the Warrens 
3 Remand
1 Repeal

Sideboard
3 Pieces of the Puzzle
3 Lightning Bolt
3 Mystical Dispute
3 Abrade
2 Aria of Flames
1 Empty the Warrens

RD 1 BG Deck (win)
RD 2 GW Heliod CoCo (win)
RD 3 Revolt Zoo (win)
RD 4 and RD 5 (id)

F: Belcher (win)

BG Deck 
The opponent had two Dauthi Voidwalkers out on the table. So taking the Gifts Ungiven-Past in Flames route is not an option. Good thing storm cantrips have scry in them. Scrying to the bottom hastened me to find Remand and Grapeshot. Grapeshot-Remand-Grapeshot, win. I summoned eight goblins tokens by turn three (or four) in our game two. And since a Voidwalker cannot block, and cannot outrace them, plus the opponent was not able to find any answers - I win in three turns.

out: 1 Repeal, 2 Sleight of Hand, 3 Remand and 4 Gifts Ungiven
in: 3 Abrade, 1 Empty the Warrens, 3 Pieces of the Puzzle, and 3 Lightning Bolt 

GW Heliod CoCo 
I faced the same issue in this round, main deck graveyard hate on-stick, Sanctifier En-Vec. Taking an Empty the Warrens route is also not a good option here because Heliod-Weaver can outrun them. So I won this round by doing Grapeshot-Remand-Grapeshot route in both games. 

out: 2 Sleight of Hand, 1 Repeal, 1 Opt, 1 Empty the Warrens, and 4 Gifts Ungiven
in: 3 Lighting Bolt, 3 Abrade, and 3 Pieces of the Puzzle 

Revolt Zoo 
The opposing player had a miserable game one because he kept a one-lander mulled to five hand. Storm played defensively in game two. I aimed all removals, Lightning Bolts, Abrades, and Grapeshot, to his creatures before aiming for the win two turns after.

out: 1 Repeal, 2 Sleight of Hand, and 3 Remand 
in: 3 Lightning Bolt and 3 Abrade 

Since the event only had five rounds, ID-ing the next two rounds was safe enough to guarantee myself a slot in the playoffs. 

No Quarters and SemiFinals happened. .

Finals: Belcher
Remand foiled his plan at one point. And when he was a turn away from winning, I topdecked a Gifts Ungiven. Win. 

As I was sideboarding, I remembered that some belchers do transformational into some type of Dredge deck. I carefully watched the opposing player for any telltale sign if he's on something like that. He took out probably three/four pieces from his box and swapped them with the same number of cards from the main deck. It seems like he's not doing what I was thinking. 

So I checked my sideboard, Abrades automatically stood tall amongst my fifteen. But, in my opinion, Abrades are useless in this match-up. Why? Because by the time belcher hits the table, you do not have priority yet to destroy it. The opposing player will get to activate it first then that's the only time you will have the chance to demolish it. So I brought in three Mystical Disputes instead. I took out two Sleight of Hands and one Empty the Warrens. 

I won game two because of two key decisions. (i) I used my counter spells to deny the resolution of his engine, Goblin Charbelcher.  And (ii) aimed for the win when he only had one card in hand, Goblin Charbelcher. Also in game two, the chain of spells was epic. Baral's ability plus Remand and Mystical Disputes actually served as my cantrips. 

It started when I used Repeal to bounce his Leyline of Sanctity. Then Past in Flames. Flashbacked everything in the graveyard. Recast Repeal this time for Goblin Charbelcher. Summoned my last ritual, stack without passing the priority. Counter it with my own Remand. Ritual returned to hand. Draw off Remand. Draw (Grapeshot) discard (another Baral copy) off Baral's trigger. Cast the same ritual. Stack it again without passing priority. I countered it with Mystical Dispute. Dispute resolves. Ritual got denied. Draw-discard off Baral's trigger. I double-checked the storm count, twenty-two. Cast Grapeshot. Target opponent. Announced storm trigger. Storm trigger resolves. Aimed every copy at him. No Stifle or Mindbreak Trap or anything to stop those copies from resolving, win!  


Thank you reading! 




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