![]() ![]() We were at a stalemate until I drew a Read the Bones, which found a Duneblast with a Siege Rhino in play. We played a hard-fought match and game 3 was a roller coaster ride. I was then notified by Corey that he added 3 additional cards in his sideboard for this specific matchup. We played 6 preboarded games and I ended up going 4-2, but the matchup felt pretty poor. I actually tested the Sidisi Whip/Abzan Midrange matchup for 3 hours the day before the GP with Corey. Round 9 – Corey Burkhart (Sidisi Whip) Unintentional Draw – Overall 8-0-1 Going 3-0 against UW Heroic felt incredible as I was very close to playing GB Constellation at this GP (which has a horrendous UW Heroic matchup). Ben drew approximately 10 more cards than I did game 2 but did not end up drawing enough ways to protect his creatures, and I was able to ride my Elspeth to victory. so make sure you’re on top of your game if you go up against him. Don’t let that fool you as he is an incredibly talented Magic player. #Magic mirror heroic deck proHe approaches the game more calmly than any other pro I’ve played against. My first match where it didn’t go 3 games! I must say, it’s always a pleasure playing against Ben. Your nut draws can still be beaten if your opponents have some combination of multiple removal spells and/or Thoughtseizes. ![]() This was the exact reason why I was not a fan of playing UW Heroic. He was able to draw his fair share of cards but I had just enough removal spells to deal with his threats. Greg had a slightly slower build of Heroic, featuring maindeck Treasure Cruise and Fabled Hero. He also had zero Read the Bones in his 75 and I was able to bury him with the card advantage of chaining multiple Read the Bones and Abzan Charms. This is exactly why I chose to play a more controlling version of Abzan as I felt that I had an edge against these creatures. Micah played a slightly more aggressive version of the deck featuring Wingmate Rocs and Fleecemane Lions. Round 6 – Micah Manary (Abzan Midrange) W 2-1 Fortunately he only beat me with the card once in the three games. I considered playing an additional Murderous Cut or Silence the Believers specifically for this matchup as Stormbreath Dragon is sad times. Round 5 – Jesus Magana (R/G Monsters) W 2-1 I managed to topdeck a Drown in Sorrow and followed that up with a couple of Siege Rhinos to help me claw back into the game. Max completely crushed me game 1 and had me down to 1 life in game 2. Round 4 – Max Sibert (Mono-Red Aggro) W 2-1 Round 3 – Chris Goodwin (UW Heroic) W 2-1 #Magic mirror heroic deck trialRound 2 – Bye (Had to win a GP Trial to earn these byes) His results and opinions on the list helped me feel more confident about the 75 I sleeved for the tournament: I would also like to thank Brandon Nelson for helping me test with the deck. ![]() Ultimately I decided to go with Abzan Midrange, as I felt that it fit my style of play a bit better and I liked its matchup against the Abzan Aggro deck. There is just such a wide array of decks that you can run into at a Grand Prix and Siege Rhino is just much more powerful as a standalone creature when compared to Eidolon of Blossoms and Sidisi, Brood Tyrant. I felt that you were doing it wrong if you were not playing Siege Rhino in a field as open as a Grand Prix. My deck choice was then narrowed down to choosing between Abzan Aggro, Abzan Whip, and Abzan Midrange. There was no chance I was going to play something that was weak to a deck I felt would be heavily represented at the tournament. Anafenza is excellent against Sidisi Whip and Back to Nature does a great job of hosing the Constellation deck. Sidisi Whip and G/B Constellation were my two top choices for the tournament but I felt like the Abzan Aggro deck was well equipped to beat both decks. Then the Players Championship happened and Abzan Aggro started rising in popularity. If you were to ask me a few weeks ago what I would be sleeving up for Denver, I would have responded with, “anything with Whip of Erebos in it.” I just couldn’t justify playing any other deck as the Whip decks were supposed to go over the top of all the other green midrange decks in the format. ![]()
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