Many thanks to Skye Kutner for doing all of the feature match reports.
This is “Master of Fools” Skye Kutner reporting in from FITSSFF Open Game Day. Here we are in the first round of Top 8 matches for today’s philanthropic Magic event, Commanders Against Cancer. Our first feature match is quarterfinal showdown between Liz “Dragonmaster” DiGangi and Scott Record, who, while having no real nickname, shall henceforth be referred to as Scotty-O’s. Liz’s deck is commanded by the fearsome Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund, while for Scott’s deck we see the Naya superhero Uril, the Miststalker fighting solo, being one of the only creatures in the deck. The match started off with a bit of friendly banter as the combatants prepared their decks with a few quick shuffles.
“Don’t go stealing my dragons,” says Scott.
“Eh, well… no guarantees.” Noncommittal to the extreme, Liz is clearly ready to rock out.
Scott wins the die roll and elects to play first. They cut each other’s decks and draw their starting seven. Liz doesn’t seem thrilled with her hand but offers, “It’s interesting. Considering the deck I’m facing, I need to keep this.” Similarly, Scott mentions that his hand was risky but he decides to keep as well. With a flash and a bang, the game was opened with a steaming bowl of Scotty-O’s and an Ancient Tomb powering out a turn one Gruul Signet (38-40). Liz draws her card, calmly plays a Blood Crypt tapped, unphased by the large amount of mana Scott will inevitably produce, and passes the turn.
Scott plays Skarrg, the Rage Pits, and uses it with the signet to cast a Sylvan Scrying. As he was looks through his library, he flicks past a bunch of color-producing lands until he finds Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion. While his only source of colored mana was his signet, I could tell by the way his brows were furrowed that only one thought was passing through his mind right then: Uril with double strike is freakin’ awesome. He takes the Sunhome, not realizing that would mean he has no white source to activate it or even to cast Uril next turn. “Oh wait…” he starts, as soon as he realizes. “Too late, I guess.”
Liz quietly untapps her Ravnica dual land, plays a Tainted Wood - chirping happily when it is verified that her Blood Crypt counts as the swamp she needs for the Wood to produce green mana - and casts a Gruul Signet of her own before passing the turn. Scott draws his card, shaking his head in disdain upon failing to see a white source. He plays an unintimidating mountain to his otherwise intimidating set of lands and passes the turn back.
Liz readies her best poker face. “I see your Skarrg, the Rage Pits and raise you a Skarrg, the Rage Pits.” Having played her land for the turn, she then tapps out for a Wickerbough Elder and ends her turn. Scott shows her one up by playing the Sunhome he searched for on turn two, but that is his only play.
On Liz’s turn, she plays a Sakura-Tribe Elder, instantly sacrificing it for a mountain. She passes the turn without swinging with the Wickerbough Elder or removing its -1/-1 counter to destroy Scott’s only source of green. This is wonderful news for Scott, as it allows him to cast a Birds of Paradise. While it is his only move this turn, it should allow him – assuming it lives – to start casting more threatening spells, such as his commander. That said, a turn three Uril would have been far more terrifying (and lethal).
On her turn, Liz casts a Rampant Growth to fetch another mountain, then swings for 3 with her Wickerbough Elder (35-40) and passes her turn. Scott plays a Fire-Lit Thicket, happy to be able to make some colored mana, and casts Uril off the tomb, using his birds to produce the white (33-40), then enchants it with a Shield of the Oversoul, which Liz promptly destroys with a Krosan Grip when Scott tries to end his turn. Had the shield stuck, Uril would have been a 9/9 flying monstrosity. Poor Scotty-O would have to settle for a 5/5… for now.
Liz immediately goes on the counteroffensive by playing an Ancient Ziggurat and tapping all but a forest to summon Karrthus and swinging for a very hasty 7 points of damage. (26-40) [7 Karrthus]
Scott untaps, sets down a Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep, and casts a Sterling Grove to protect his next batch of auras. He then tries to enchant Uril with a Snake Umbra. Liz uses her final point of mana and her Wickbough Elder’s -1/-1 counter to destroy the grove, but Scott just sacrifices it in response to fetch out another aura. He looks through his deck for a little while, eventually deciding on a Gaea’s Embrace. Satisfied with his first truly productive turn, he swings for 8. Liz tosses her treefolk in the way of the attack and, being the dutiful, wizened creature that it is, explodes into a thousand splinters, all for the greater good.
“Well, that’s nifty,” said Liz after drawing her card for the turn. Liz taps several of her lands, then untaps them, then taps them again until she has a certain six mana floating in her pool. In an instant that mana shapes itself and takes the form of a menacing Primeval Titan, which fetched a Raging Ravine and a Shizo, Death’s Storehouse. Karrthus then tears unopposed through a large swath of Scott’s life total. (19-40) [14 Karrthus]
With only one turn left on the clock, team Scotty-O’s untaps and bravely slams the Gaea’s Embrace down onto the table, making Uril a 13/13 trampling ophidian with super-shroud. The great beast charges forth, but Primeval Titan’s selfless act of sacrifice to preserve its master’s life shows us all one thing: 6/6's make for great meat shields. (19-33) [14 Karrthus, 7 Uril]
While Liz has several ways to get around Scott’s Birds of Paradise to deliver the killing blow, including activating either Skarrg for +1/+1 and trample or Shizo for fear, she instead chooses to end the game with a dramatic Diabolic Tutor, searching her library for a Terror, which scares the poor birds to death. Soon after, Karrthus swoops in for the kill, sending Liz to the semifinals. (12-33) [21 Karrthus, 7 Uril]
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