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Hello everybody, Worldwake release events are firing on Magic Online and this means that the Worldwake cards are now available for a fair price to everyone and that the Block Daily are firing with a completely new metagame. In this article, and in my next one, I will cover one the events I participated, but first here's my decklist and a few words on my choices:

  

A few words on some deck choices:

• Mire's Toll and Bloodhusk Ritualist are the new discard package. I completely undervalued the Mire's Toll, it's cheap and really really helpful in most occasions. The ritualist is not as crippling as Mind Sludge, but it's also easier on mana, and an extra creature for those times where the opponent is hellbent.
• No Kalastria Highborn: I don't want another two drop and the only two drop that could be replaced by the Highborn is the Vampire Hexmage, but the Hexmage is far better than the Highborn. In fact Worldwake made the Hexmage much better with the printing of the new Jace and the Everflowing Chalice. The Highborn is really only useful in the mirror match, when the game goes long, you have a lot of spare mana around and a lot of creatures die. A lot of things must happen and even then, it is only fine.
• The single Dread Statuary replaces a Swamp. While sometimes it can create some mana problems if it is in the opening hand, it is a fine topdeck later in the game. I tried running a Tectonic Edge in it's place: it was better against UW Control, but completely dead against most other decks. The Statuary also works fine as an extra answer to Devout Lightcaster.
• Smother over Urge to Feed. Right now the format is not only composed of only Vamps and UW Control decks like it used to be, Allies, White Weenie, Monored and Boros are much more played then before. The new Eldrazi Green deck joined the fray. This, combined with the fact that the pump ability of the Urge to Feed rarely matters, led me to prefer a spell that could deal with a wider range of creatures instead of one that gives me a bit more help in the mirror. Smother deals with Celestial Colonnade, Leatherback Baloth, Zombie tokens and Perimeter Captains, while the Urge does not.
• Feast of Blood is still there, sadly it's still the only removal that deals with everything.

As for the sideboard, here's my sideboarding plans so far:

vs Vampires	vs UW Control	vs Eldrazi Green	vs Allies	vs Valakut	vs Boros/White Weenie
- 1 Mire's Toll, -2 Bloodhusk Ritualist, +3 Blade of the Bloodchief Also, on the play: - 3 Mire's Toll, +3 Mind Sludge	-3 Smother, -3 Feast of Blood +4 Mind Sludge, +2 Hideous End Marsh Casualties instead of the Hideous End if I see Conqueror's Pledge.	+4 Hideous End, -2 Bloodhusk Ritualist, -2 Quest for the Gravelord	+4 Hideous End, -2 Bloodhusk Ritualist, -2 Quest for the Gravelord	+4 Mind Sludge, +2 Tectonic Edge, -3 Smother, -3 Feast of Blood	- 4 Mire's Toll, -2 Quest for the Gravelord, +4 Hideous End, (+2 Marsh Casualties).

No, I don't expect to win often against the Valakut deck, but the deck right now is extremely underplayed, I'd rather ignore the matchup and hope that I don't have to face it than devote more sideboard space to it (by the way, with Spreading Seas gone and Tectonic Edge nowhere to be found the deck might be an amazing metagame choice at the moment).

Enough talkin', time for battle!  

Round 1 - Trunks10

Game one

I win the die roll and elect to play first. This is the first round and so I cannot watch the replays to see what my opponent is playing. My opening hand is the following:

Which is clearly a mulligan.

Six carder:

This hand really needs the third land. Hopefully, I'll get it before my third turn but if worst comes to worst I can play the Grim Discovery to get the Verdant Catacombs back. If the opponent is playing a fast aggro deck and I miss the third land drop I'm probably dead, but taking the risk is reasonable, it's certainly better than a five card hand.

I lead with the swamp and pass the turn. Trunks10 opens with a Forest and ships the turn back to me. I'm not too happy about his opening since that forest signals that he's playing either the Eldrazi Green deck or Valakut and both are tough matchups. I get a Marsh Flats on my first draw step, lay a fetchland and pass the turn as there is clearly no need to play the Grim Discovery now. The opponent lays a second forest and then plays a Nissa's Chosen, clearly signaling that he's playing Eldrazi Green. I draw a Smother on my turn and cast the kicked Gatekeeper of Malakir. As long as that Chosen is around I won't be able to get anything better with my Gatekeeper so I might as well get rid of it now and shift the tempo in my favour.

The opponent has a replacement Chosen and an Arbor Elf while I miss the fourth land drop, drawing a Mire's Toll instead and choose to play the Vampire Nighthawk instead of the discard spell because I won't be able to attack on the ground and I want to finish this game as quickly as I can, before he lays sick stuff like Eldrazi Monument, Bestial Menace or Wolfbriar Elemental.

And Wolfbriar Elemental it is on my opponent turn, kicked once to get one Wolf. I'm extremely lucky here and get a Feast of Blood on my draw step to deal with the Elemental. Between getting my fourth land with the Grim Discovery or playing the Mire's Toll I chose the latter since now my opponent has only three cards in hand, I really need to prevent more bad stuff from my opponent and I can get much more value out of the Grim Discovery when a I also have a creature in the graveyard. My opponent reveals a hand with Forest, another Wolfbriar and Nissa Revane. I put the Wolfbriar in his graveyard since I can deal with Nissa with two swings from the Nighthawk.

On his turn Trunks10 chooses to swing with both the Chosen and the Wolf and I happily trade my Gatekeeper for his Wolf since I can get it back with the Discovery. After combat, a Leatherback Baloth joins the fray on his side. I draw a Swamp and play both the Discovery and Smother on the Baloth (see why I'm playing Smother over Urge to Feed? ) then swing with the Nighthawk and pass the turn. Nissa Revane comes down on the next turn and fetches one of his Chosens. I pull a second Nighthawk on my draw step and play the Malakir Bloodwitch to fully utilize my mana. The Nighthawk bites Nissa for two. A second Chosen is fetched and a third one cast during my opponents turn. I finish Nissa with the Nighthawk, swing to my opponent with the Bloodwitch and cast the second Nighthawk while holding double Gatekeeper of Malakir in hand.

Everflowing Chalice and a second Nissa are my opponent plays during his turn. No Chosen this time since all four of them are on the board, instead he gains 10 life. I draw a Feast of Blood, swing with my flying force to get rid of Nissa and deal four damage to Trunks10. I cast one of the Gatekeepers and Arbor Elf is sacrificed. Do I also play the Feast of Blood?

No, I don't. I can deal with one Chosen with the second Gatekeeper I'm holding, another one by double blocking it with the Gatekeepers and the Nighthawks gain me enough life to ignore the other two Chosens. I'd rather save the Feast do deal with something bigger.

Something that immediately arrives in the form of Wolfbriar Elemental, together with two of his wolf friends. Still, after dealing with the Elemental thanks to the Feast and attacking, he's at 8 while I'm sitting at a more comfortable 18. He cannot find an answer for my flying force on his draw step and scoops.

I board in the Hideous Ends and we head to game two.

Game two

Opening hand:

Again, time to mull.

Not great, I risk getting flooded but I don't feel comfortable in shipping this back. Keep.

The first play of the game is a Lotus Cobra from my opponent which quickly meets my Smother. In the meantime I acquired a second Hideous End and a Swamp.  A second Lotus Cobra follows and I dispatch it with one Hideous End. Nothing happens during my opponent turn and I get a second Hexmage and lay them both on my fourth turn. On the next two turns two Wolfbriar Elementals join the fray, both kicked once while I'm drawing only lands. I decide not to kill one of the Elementals since I can block them with the Hexmages, even if it will cost me quite some life. Eldrazi Monument enters the battlefield on the next turn and I, in response, pull the trigger on the Hideous End. Still, if I can't find help in my draw step I'm toast anyway.

The only thing I can find is more lands and the game is over. While my draws were terrible, I probably punted this game when I killed the second Lotus Cobra as I should have saved my removal for the real threats and not for his mana creature. My two ends could have bought me enough time to find something, while my Hexmages blocked any Wolf, Snake, Elephant and whatever small beast he could spit out with the extra mana.

Game Three

Seven carder:

 

That Bloodghast won't stay in the graveyard for long. And not even in my starting hand. Six:

First too many lands and now too little. Sigh, five:

A good hand for a mull to five. Keep.

The first play of the game is my Vampire Hexmage, soon followed by a Lotus Cobra. I decide to Smother the Cobra: even if what I said at the end of game two about holding removal for the real threats still remains true, the Smother only answers Leatherback Baloth. He again has a second Cobra plus Nissa's Chosen for his third turn while I keep drawing lands. Wolfbriar and a couple of his minions join the battlefield and I deal with it during end of turn.

My draw step gives me a fighting chance though, as I rip a Malakir Bloodwitch. Between the Bloodwitch, my attack with the Hexmage, the Hideous End and fetchland he is only at 12. If he doesn't have an answer for the Bloodwitch he's dead in three turns. Sure, Eldrazi Monument and Slingbow Trap both answer my threats but sometime you just have to hope that everything works fine, especially when you mull to five. 

I draw a land, and swing with the Bloodwitch, while my opponent drops a Nissa's Chosen. The chosen is followed by a Wolfbriar kicked twice. I acquire a Gatekeeper, cast it and swing again with the Malakir again, take some damage in the counterattack and killing the wolfs in the process.

I draw a sweet Feast of Blood for the turn, what should I kill?

First of all is a moot point if my Malakir swings successfully, so let's think about what happens if it gets taken down by Slingbow Trap. My first instinct is to kill the Wolfbriar obviously but then I'm still left with only Gatekeeper and Hexmage against two creatures that I can't block and a full grip. Instead, if I remove one of the blockers I can swing for two extra damages and hope to topdeck one of my outs in the next turn. Hideous End, a second Malakir Bloodwitch, Vampire Nighthawk and Grim Discovery should all do the trick. I opt to take out the Nissa's Chosen, cross my fingers and swing with the team). 

The Lotus Cobra trades with the Gatekeeper, Leatherback Baloth joins my opponent side and my draw step yields me a Swamp. No matter how I block, he's got lethal on the board. Can't win them all.

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I'll finish my report in my next article, I hope you enjoyed the it so far. As always I'm available in the comments for critics and discussion.

Thanks for reading.

Fragoel2