XPDC 6.08 Review
by Skeletoy77

Alas, once again I come up with a T4 but fail to advance in XPDC 6.08 this Sunday. At least I’m consistent. That’s 3 Top 4’s in the last month, all of them a loss. Maybe I have A.D.D., or maybe this season of XPDC is so awesome that I can’t help run a new deck every week. So far it’s been UB Rats/Control, Mono B Aggro, and now RG Aggro with a total record of 11-4.

Since the clan is starting to creep back together and grow, I decided to take some notes from my matches this time around. I hope to expand on them here a bit. I must credit Polyjak/Boin’s brainstorming for building this deck. After we did some testing it seemed like a good meta call. The goal was to be as fast as possible to try and get in 20 before the control decks could take the board, and just power through everything else. Anyway here it is: 

8 Mountain 
8 Forest 
4 Firewild Borderpost 

4 Scab-Clan Mauler 
4 Rip-Clan Crasher 
4 Wild Nacatl 
4 Jund Hackblade 
4 Nettle Sentinel 
4 Intimidator Initiate 

4 Colossal Might 
4 Lightning Bolt 
4 Burst Lightning 
4 Incinerate 

Sideboard 
3 Branching Bolt 
4 Naturalize 
4 Smash to Smithereens 
4 Vines of Vastwood

Deck thread by Polyjak here: http://forums.pdcmagic.com/viewtopic.php?t=3793

-Round 1 vs. Incrediclint (Mono R Burn)-

Win Game 1 
I didn’t know if I was happy or not when I realized I faced Mono R in the first round. This particular build actually had a few creatures (Keldon Marauders), so it made things even a bit more edgy. As with most decks of this nature, he was shooting for the dome early and I was able to power through with my critters unscathed. 

Sideboard Call:
-4 Nettle Sentinel 
+4 Vines of Vastwood 

Took out the Sentinel since I thought it would be a little too slow. Vines would be a 2-for-1 negating a burn spell and getting a few more points of damage. I knew he would be shooting for my dudes early until I petered out. Then he’d just top deck burn and kill me. 

Win Game 2
I wish I had more to report on this match, but it was fairly easy - beat him to 20 Damage. Lucky for me, I don’t think he cast a burn spell for the first 2 turns, and after that suspending Rift Bolts weren’t stopping me much. The mana base felt good, even though I wasn’t too happy with it in testing.

-Round 2 vs. Platedragon (Cogs & Stripes)- 

Loss Game 1 
Thought I had this one for sure, I drew 2 Colossal Might’s opening. After smashing with them on a Rip-Clan for a total of 10 damage on turn 2 and 3 my opponent blurts “I think I can hear my bones being crushed.” At this point I’m fairly confident but just couldn’t squeak enough through before he gained control and started pulling out the cogs. Sunbeam Spellbomb = not cool for me. 

Sideboard Call: 
-1 Nettle 
-1 Wild Nacatl 
-1 Scab Clan 
-1 Hackblade 
+4 Smash to Smithereens 

Without any testing against this deck I may have made a foolish sideboard call. I knew I wanted the Smithereens but could decide what to cut. I admittedly get a little nervous after a round one loss knowing I must dominate the next two. After all I can’t let my record go to hell and not make a T4 showing this week right? 

Win Game 2 
Very close match here, I didn’t see a single Smithereens. It’s like wise with the Sunbeam’s so I was stoked about that. Major race to the finish him before the life gain and blockers come out. Not to mention how easy he can smoke almost all my guys with the red cog, save the Scab-Clan if he’s thirsty. I manage to just barely get through with the help of Intimidator Initiate. I must say he is the MVP. 

Win Game 3 
Once again the goblin comes through huge, along with the one Smash to Smithereens I drew on the opener. Very, very close match. I think Cogs is JUST slow enough setting up that with the right aggressive draw on my part it’s a good matchup. I was fairly amazed that I won this match. He successfully cast 2 Aven Riftwatchers before turn 5 and even managed to bounce one with Ninja of the Deep Hours. Absolutely fun matchup, that’s all I can say.

-Round 3 vs. Silversurfer (Goblin Storm)-

Loss Game 1 
I mulled to 4 in this game. I just wasn’t comfortable keeping 1 land no Borderpost hands. After the game went on it was just my luck though. Remember all the lands I couldn’t find in the first 3 hands? Yeah, they came through one after another at this point. I really should have won this game; my opponent kept a 1-lander himself and didn’t get an Island on board until turn 5. I just couldn’t get it done before then with the flood. By that time with all the cards he had been drawing, discarding what he didn’t need, turn 5 and an island was the breaker. 

Sideboard Call: 
No Deck Change – couldn’t find anything that I thought was useful in there anyway. I’m angry at this point not only because of the flood, but because I hate Goblin Storm with everything that I am. 

Win Game 2 
It all came down to a stellar opening hand in this one. 3x Jund Hackblade (And a Borderpost) opening and I go first. Needless to say when turn 4 rolled around for me it wasn’t looking good for the lack of little red dudes across the table. I think the only other thing I drew besides those 3 creatures was a ton of burn. Sweet. 

Loss Game 3 
I lacked an extra mountain to really fire off the first few turns. Unbeknownst since I didn’t see it in game 2, he boarded in Martyr of Ashes. I made a mistake here after he had already played it. I cast a Nettle Sentinel before he cracked the Martyr on turn 3. What an idiot. I CAN say it wasn’t a huge mistake, since it would have done me no good kept anyway. Just one of those things you have to live with when half the active members of your clan are watching your match. Between the Martyr and him going off on turn 4 there wasn’t much I could do besides wish I had a Seismic Strike and enough mana to cast it. 


-Round 4 vs. Beastinstinct (Cogs & Stripes)- 

I must say at this point looking at the scoreboard I wasn’t too concerned with winning the match. Clan on Clan crime is never cool, but the way I saw it ONE of us was going to make the Top 4. My mind was at ease. 

Loss Game 1 
I just can’t get through with anything in this game. My burn only went so far when my creatures got owned by the Pyrite Spellbomb - Especially when it is brought back by Leonin Squire. 

Sideboard Call: 
-1 Nettle 
-1 Wild Nacatl 
-1 Scab Clan 
-1 Hackblade 
+4 Smash to Smithereens 

I go with the same swap I did earlier versus Cogs since it seemed to work. 

Win Game 2 
I drew a very fast hand here. I think Beasty had everything needed to dismantle me, but like mentioned earlier with the right opener Cogs is just a little slow. 

Win Game 3 
Very, very close match in game 3. The only way I was able to get through was with the help of Intimidator Initiate. Lack of red mana on the other side of the table helped me tremendously. Pyrite Spellbomb was out, but there was no way to make use of it. I have to give it to Beastinstinct for keeping the pressure on me even though there was a mana situation. I don’t think you could have played it any better! I had a slight edge from the start, and with the help of my burn components and negating blockers with my Goblin I pushed through for the win.

-Top 4 vs. j1234jesse (Rats Teachings)- 

Loss Game 1 
I was really wishing for a climatic finish here since I thought I was built for this matchup. Apparently not. He comes down with 2 Ravenous Rats, one on turn 2 and 3. Depressing since this deck of mine is all or nothing with no way to draw cards. Agony Warp is also my worst nightmare, making sure one of my guys get murdered and the other one can’t swing for anything. I think I would have done a little better if it weren’t for Nettle Sentinel and a lack of green cards to play. I literally drew all red until it was too late to matter anyway. I was very angry with that elf. 

Sideboard Call: 
-4 Nettle Sentinel 
-3 Burst Lightning 
+3 Branching Bolt 
+4 Vines of Vastwood 

Loss Game 2 
I got out to a quick start getting him down to 8 or 10, but I couldn’t pull off the beats before he gained control. Straight up Aggro vs. Control here and Aggro lost. I couldn’t do anything meaningful after turn 3. Those damn Ravenous and Chittering things. I HATE RATS!!!

Afterthoughts: 

All in all I had a great time at another XPDC. I think me bringing these different decks to each event and actually doing reasonably well attests to something about XPDC. It is a great meta for this season. Hopefully something Aggro will come out of the woodworks and do better than I did. 4 Rounds of Swiss and a Top 4 is tough on a guy, but at least I’ve been making it. Looking back at what I ran, I think there should be a suitable replacement for Nettle Sentinel. I doubt anything is as fast as it (when you can untap), but when you’re stuck tapped out it really sucks. Also Burst Lightning’s kicker never came in to play. I don’t think I had 5 lands on deck the entire time. Will I continue with this list? Probably not. I know Polyjak will send 10 more deck ideas my way before next Sunday and I’ll undoubtedly pick one of them up. I’m pretty noob to writing anything significant, especially converting my chicken scratch notes into something with a form. Constructive criticism is welcome.