TL;DR: Mark Bradley from Oakland won their first RCQ! Got an incredible 3-0 start, leading to 2x intentional draws and eventually took down the RCQ with a 6-0-2 record. Every match was a battle, my opponents were all top notch players and classy people. I mulled to 5 three times, went to game three in 5-of-6 matches, went to turns twice, but managed to keep my nerves in check and find the lines.
My Rakdos Vampires Decklist: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/6213068#paper
Pioneer Tournament Overview: 30-players registered for 5 best-of-three, swiss-paired rounds, 50 minutes each. Cut to top 8 single elimination for the 1-slot RCQ.
Tournament Meta:
6 Izzet Phoenix
4 Rakdos Vampires
3 UW Control
2 Gruul Aggro
2 Abzan Amalia
2 Niv to Light
2 UW Spirits
1 Mono-Green Devotion
1 Waste Not
1 Abzan Greasefang
1 Jeskai Creativity
1 Orzhov Vampires
1 Selesnya Hatebears
1 Rakdos Sacrifice
1 UB Spirits
1 Maurauding Life Insurance
Tournament Report: 5 rounds of Swiss – 3-0-2 (2x IDs)
- #1 LWW – Marshall on Ozhov Vampires
- Game 1: Mulled to a good 5 and put up a fight, but ultimately lost.
- Game 2: Really close as we both resolved Rippers, but I found a line to get in the last 4 of damage using the Archfiend & Ripper triggers.
- Game 3: Slow match, he kept a rough hand, but then drew Sorin/Ripper. We were going to time, but by then I’d resolved 2x Fables and got a Ripper down to close out the game in the final turns.
- Round #2 WW – Alek on Abzan Amalia Combo
- Game 1: Alek is a homie and I didn’t know if he was on Phoenix or Amalia, as soon as saw he was on Amalia, I held onto the Fatal Push I had in my opening hand for dear life, in Alek’s words “you expertly held up removal and played Sorin T4 instead of T3 and then out raced me.”
- Game 2: I happened to draw all of my sideboard tools, getting a Grafdigger’s Cage down nullified the Chord he had in hand. I played aggressive and ended it before he could draw into the combo.
- Round #3 LWW – Drake on Selesnya Hatebears
- Game 1: I had no idea what I was playing against, at first I thought it was Amalia. Drake tore apart my hand and used his flyers to eventually get the game over.
- Game 2: I don’t remember the specifics, I mulliganed to 5, looking at my notes it was a long game that I managed to win.
- Game 3: This went to turns after I had resolved 3 Fables, I copied the Fables and swung in for lethal on the last turn of the match.
- Round #4 ID – Chris on UW Spirits
- Chris is a dear homie and mentor, we didn’t know if we should ID, but several folks there helped us out and explained that it was the best move. See the memories section at the end for some color.
- Round #5 ID – Jacob on Rakdos Vampires
- Jacob from Santa Cruz was a super chill dude, we immediately ID’d and I grabbed some lunch, then jammed a couple games with Chris for fun.
Top 8 – 3-0
- Round #1 LWW – Marshall on Orzhov Vampires
- Game 1: Big mistake was holding back Archfiend on turn 5 to dodge a Wandering Emperor exile, so that I could clone it with Fable. Got him down to 2 life, but he resolved a Wandering Emperor to gain 2 life that gave him the 4 he needed to survive a resolved Sheoldred, causing me to kill myself with Archfiend running out of oil counters!!!
- Game 2: Came all the way back from 1 life to win this one!!! Biggest play was holding onto removal, so I could kill his vamp in response to the Sorin trigger of “sac do 3 damage.” Had a HUGE board with 2x Bankbusters, 1x Harvester, 2 Fables and a Ripper.
- Game 3: Two thoughtseizes won me this match, as I got rid of his removal and hit is Sorin. Got Shelly and a Ripper out, pushing through lethal.
- Round #2 WLW – Jacob on Rakdos Vampires
- Game 1: I got the combo, edict’d his ripper and ended it pretty quickly.
- Game 2: Had my combo and tore his hand apart, but hot damn he top decked Invoke to nuke my Sorin/Ripper, he then top decked Sorin into Ripper. After I resolved another Ripper he top decked Blot Out. It was unreal, we laughed pretty hard about how insane it was that he drew the exact answers he needed three turns in a row.
- Game 3: Thoughtseized his combo, got mine down and thoughtseized his Invoke to close out the game.
- Round #3 WLW – TJ on Jeskai Creativity
- Game 1: TJ got stuck on 2 lands and I ran him over.
- Game 2: I got stuck on 2 lands and he ran me over! 🙂
- Game 3: Got Harvester, Fable, Shelly down and won the game.
Learnings: Most seasoned veterans know this stuff already, but here’s some things I learned:
- Strong Start Advantage: Getting off to a good start and winning early gives you a HUGE advantage, no DUH:
- Intentional Draw (ID): being able to ID has so many benefits, but the one that hit home with me at this RCQ was the gift of time. You have time for: (1) a mental break, (2) a physical break, (3) a healthy lunch, (4) observing some matches, (5) reflecting on your matches, (6) rethinking any sideboard plans, etc.
- Top 8 Play/Draw by Seed: going into top 8 as the #1 seed, I was able to be on the play in every match, which cannot be understated, as there were two mirror matches and a control match, where being on the draw in either of those is a significant disadvantage
- Mulling to 5 Isn’t GGs: this happened 3 times, once was backbreaking, but the other times I won and almost won the game. I wasn’t incessantly mulling to the Vamps combo, that wasn’t my strategy. Rather, knowing the difference between a playable or winning hand was the strategy. I’ve mostly mained Rakdos since I started playing Magic ~3yrs ago, so I have come to understand the deck’s weaknesses, but until now I have been SUPER hesitant to mulligan. I’m still learning, and it’s all contextual, but this will be something I will keep coming back to, trying to figure out precisely when to mull/keep and knowing sometimes it’s okay to go down to 5.
Other observations/memories that stood out:
- Back to School: Getting to Games of Berkeley at what we all thought was an appropriate hour, proved to be very early. However, it organically recreated this “before the school bell” vibe of my formative years. Standing outside of locked doors with my friends as strangers/students walked by, heavy backpacks in tow, all having studied for the big test, excitedly waiting for the doors to open.
- Meeting a Mentor/Friend at Table #1: after three rounds of grueling matches, I was refreshing the companion app nonstop, trying to figure out who my round #4 pairing was and where I’d be sitting. The biggest smile shot across my face when I saw I was at table #1 paired against my friend Chris. After we figured out it made the most sense to ID, we played for fun. With our mats rolled out, I took a pic of us having fun and feeling accomplished that we’d locked in our top 8 spots. Sharing that moment with an incredibly talented pilot, who’s helped mentor me, who I look up to immensely… that was something special.
- The Gathering: I met so many stellar people, some that put in serious mileage to get to Berkeley. I learned a lot about their local scenes and tried to recruit more and more folks to our Punks & Pioneer discords, so we could coordinate playing again. This game is so effective at bringing people together over and over again.
