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By: blandestk, K.R.S.S.
Feb 02 2009 11:30am
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Pauper moved into the realm of the big-boy formats, as Wizards ran the first Pauper Premier Event on February 1st.  People wondered how many players would show up to contest the title.  Some guessed in the 60s, others seemed more optimistic, predicting a number in the 90s.  The final tally surpassed everyone's best hopes, as 132 digital card-slingers paid the six tickets for the attempt to be Pauper's first Premier Event champ.

Many pundits predicted Mono-Black Control and blue-based control decks to dominate the Top 8 and they were definitely correct.  The other major player to put multiple pilots into the quarterfinals was the explosive Sliver deck.  Check back soon for deck lists and more comprehensive analysis of the event as a whole, but for now let's take a look at how the single-elimination portion played out.  After eight rounds of Swiss competition, these eight players and decks stood above the pack:

1. Pedro_Alves - Blue-Black Madness  8-0
2. SlashRus - Mono-Black Control   7-1
3. petkos - Green-White Slivers  7-1
4. StiLLiRise - Mostly-Blue Teachings Control   7-1
5. toolundertow - Mono-Blue(black) Control  6-2
6. KoboldOverlord - Mono-Black Control   6-2
7. Shahate Green - White Slivers   6-2
8. Ivan_Kulbich_aka_Striped - Orzhov Blink   6-2

A Madness deck won The Pauper Deck Challenge 10.06 in the week before the Premier Event.  Pedro_Alves ran a similar, but distinctly different, deck to the only perfect record during the Swiss portion of the tourney.  Mono-Black, Slivers, and Blue Control all posted 7-1 records and each archetype also made the cut at 6-2.  Rounding out the Top 8 was an Orzhov Blink build.

Quarterfinals

1. Pedro_Alves vs. 8. Ivan_Kulbich_aka_Striped

Pedro_Alves met Ivan_Kulbich and his Orzhov Blink deck in the round of eight.  Pedro powered out an early Merfolk Looter, but Echoing Decay sent it packing.  He quickly replaced it with Looter il-Kor, which quickly regained its Merfolk brethren thanks to a madness-induced Grave Scrabbler.  Meanwhile, Ivan played Ravenous Rats and Chittering RatsAgony Warp and Dark Withering-via-madness took out Ivan's board.  Ivan tried to reestablish with Shrieking Grotesque, which blocked the Scrabbler, only to find the Scrabbler brought back to Pedro's hand thanks to a second Scrabbler.  Ivan tried to stay in the game with Aven Riftwatcher and some Momentary Blink tricks, but Pedro's card-drawing and cost-reducing engine was humming and powered to the win.

In Game 2, Pedro used an early Ostracize to discover Ivan kept a no-creature starter.  Duress from Ivan dumped Agony Warp to the graveyard and Pedro then deployed Merfolk Looter, which was quickly sent to the ether thanks to (Oblvion Ring) from Ivan.  A second Ostracize finally found a target in the form of Blind Hunter in Ivan's hand.  Another Merfolk Looter hit the board for Pedro, but Ivan had Echoing Decay.  A third Ostracize from Pedro found a second Hunter.  The next play came a turn later from Pedro, as he played a face-down Gathan Raiders, but Ivan was waiting with another Oblivion Ring.  Before the comes-into-play effect nailed the Raiders, Pedro morphed by discarding Grave Scrabbler, bringing a Looter back to hand.  When he played the Looter, Ivan used Recoil on it, which turned out to be a subpar play, as this move allowed Pedro to play Psychotic Episode.  With Ivan in topdeck mode, Pedro kept pumping out creatures and powered to a 2-0 match win.

2. SlashRus vs. 7. Shahate Green

Slash drove his Mono-Black Control build to a 7-1 record; his opponent in the Top 8 was Shahate, who ran Green-White Slivers.  These two decks have battled with each other in the recent weeks in the pauper metagame, each packing a lot of hate for the other.  In Game 1, Shahate had a turn-one Virulent Sliver, while Slash had no play until the third turn with Phyrexian RagerMuscle Sliver and Plated Sliver joined Shahate's team and he took Slash to 15 and three poison counters with an attack.  Slash had no play on the fourth turn and when the priority shifted to Shahate, he plopped Temporal Isolation on the Rager, attacked for six more points and three more counters.  Warren Pilferers presented a blocker for Slash, but that too was the target for an Isolation.  The next attack left Slash with three life and nine poison counters, which drew a concession.  Shahate led 1-0.

Shahate started Game 2 with a turn-two Circle of Protection: Black, while Slash had Chittering Rats.  Shahate finally played some creatures, as he dropped Spinneret Sliver and Muscle Sliver.  Slash took them both out, however, as Shahate attacked with the Spinneret, only to see Muscle Sliver die to Echoing Decay.  The Rats then traded with the remaining Sliver.  Another Muscle Sliver and Spinneret Sliver joined the game, while Slash passed turn after turn.  A Tendrils of Corruption digested the Muscle Sliver and took Slash back up to 17 life.  Warren Pilferers then hit the battlefield and brought a cycled Twisted Abomination to Slash's hand.  Temporal Isolation isolated the Pilferers and Spinneret attacked once and then, thanks to a Sidewinder Sliver, attacked through Chittering Rats, taking Slash down to 13.  Dross Golem helped Slash, as did another Tendrils on a Sinew Sliver that Shahate had just played.  Shahate could not keep Slash from hitting with the life-gain spells and, despite the multiple attacks, the game stood at 20-17.  Slash then went on the offensive, attacking with the Golem and hitting a Corrupt for seven.  Suddenly he led 24-10.  With one card in hand, there was little Shahate could do.  Crypt Rats hit the board and soon brought a Game 3.

Game 3 began with a flash from Shahate, as he had turn-one Plated Sliver and turn-two Virulent Sliver.  Sinew Sliver then arrived on the third turn, and just like that Slash was at 15 life with three poison counters.  Dross Golem started the play for Slash, but Shahate had Oblivion Ring waiting.  Slash was on the ropes, with nine life and six poison counters.  Tendrils of Corruption stemmed the tide, though, as Slash chose to bin the Virulent Sliver and recovered to 13 life.  Shahate shrugged and played another Sinew Sliver, attacked for six and passed the turn.  Slash had a bign turn, though, dropping another Golem and playing a second Tendrils on a Sinew Sliver.  A second Oblivion Ring took out the Golem and Shahate bashed Slash to eight.  Twisted Abomination threatened to stall the sliver beats, but Temporal Isolation allowed another four damage to squeak through.  Slash was at four life.  Life gain showed up on cue, as Corrupt nailed Sinew Sliver and put the total back to 11.  Another Abomination from Slash and Warren Pilfererss shut down Shahate, as he could only manage Sidewinder Sliver and land over the next couple turns.  Both players managed some removal over the next few turns, but Slash's Pilferers did major damage, alongside Chittering Rats.  At one life, Shahate topdecked COP: Black, which slowed the pace of the game to a halt.  Creatures and lands hit until Slash drew Crypt Rats and was able to activate enough times to outdo the Circle.  Slash came back from the brinkk to move on 2-1.

3. petkos vs. 6. KoboldOverlord

The second MBC-vs.-Sliver match-up took place between petkos and Kobold.  In Game 1, petkos managed triple Virluent Sliver, but no power-toughness pumpers and Kobold was able to use Crypt Rats to destroy the entire sliver squad.  After that, petkos never really had a shot, as each sliver he played met demise via removal.  Kobold took a pretty easy win to go up 1-0.

Game 2 saw another turn-one Virulent Sliver, who was later joined by two Spinnert Slivers, despite a mulligan to five for petkos.  Kobold had Ravenous Rats and Echoing Decay to snag both Spinnerets.  The Decay, coupled with the mulligan, ravaged petkos and effectively took him out of the match. Obsidian Acolyte gave some hope to petkos, but Diabolic Edict took care of that problem.  Kobold had three creatures, plus Corrupt, to take him the distance.

4. StiLLiRise vs. 5. toolundertow

The four-five match featured Teachings Control and Mono-Black Control.  Still countered Phyrexian Rager with Rune Snag and then suspended Errant Ephemeron.  Tool stalled, so Still used Mystical Teachings to fetch Condescend and then a second one searched out Exclude.  Tool had nothing to play until the Ephemeron came onto the board, when he tried to use Diabolic Edict to send it packing.  (Couterspell) ended that hope, but Tendrils of Corruption resolved and killed the Illusion.  Still countered Chittering Rats and suspended another Ephemeron.  Tool used Death Denied to bring back Chittering Rats and Phyrexian Rager, but both were countered by Still.  When the Illusion came online, Tool went for two Innocent Blood, but both were denied by counters.  Tool held the trump card, however, as he had Tendrils a second time for the second EE.  Tool tried a couple creatures, including Mulldrifter, but flashed-back Teachings kept Still full of answers.  The players went land-go for quite a while, until Tool stuck Phyrexian Rager and then hit Corrupt.  It looked like Still was out of gas.  He finally landed another EE, but Diabolic Edict took it out and Chittering Rats went the distance.

Game 2 started very slowly.  Duress from Tool nabbed Condescend and COP: Black.  Still countered Chittering Rats.  Crypt Rats eventually stuck, but died to Echoing Decay, though not before hitting both players for seven.  Neither player did much for another period, until Ephemeron finally went to suspend-land.  Still had to counter several creatures in the meantime.  By the time the flier was ready to enter the battlefield, Still had so much land he could hard-cast a second Ephemeron and have 11 mana left open.  A Tendrils was countered and then a second, then a third, which drew a concession from Tool.

Exclude and COP Black were the victims of Duress and Distress, but Still still suspended EE.  Tool had Chittering Rats, but Still revamped his hand with Deep Analysis twice.  Tool had Diabolic Edict for Ephemeron, but Still used Muddle the Mixture to stop it.  Tool had a second Edict, forcing Still to Repulse the Illusion to his hand.  That spot did not last long, though, as Distress sent it to the graveyard.  Tool bashed Still down to nine with Rats (thanks in part to Deep Analysis' flashback), before Still bounced it with Echoing Truth.  Still then countered the Rats and, several turns later, Ephemeron showed up.  Still countered Crypt Rats and started attacking with his flier.  Still then had three counters for two Innocent Blood and Mulldrifter.  Bloods three and four also found counters, forcing Tool to go into desperation topdeck mode.  His draw was a blank and Still moved on 2-1.

Semifinals

1. Pedro vs. 4. Still

How would the Madness juggernaut fare against Teachings?  Still won the die roll, but Pedro made the first play, using Ostracize to dump Errant Ephemeron.  Looter il-Kor made a brief appearance, before Ghastly Demise killed it.  Still had counters for another Looter and a face-down Gathan Raiders.  Mulldrifter later met the same fate.  Still suspended Errant Ephemeron, while Pedro drew a bunch of blanks, causing him to concede.

Pedro's first play in Game 2 was a turn-four Looter il-Kor, at which Still aimed Terror, but Pedro had Negate to save it.  A second Terror on Still's turn kept the madness engine off the board.  Neither player did much for several turns, other than Still using Think Twice and Mystical Teachings for another Think Twice.  Merfolk Looter died thanks to Ghastly Demise; Still suspended EE.  Pedro drew land after land, lamenting his bad draws.  When the flier arrived, he had to hard-cast two Dark Witherings, both of which were easily countered.  The 4/4 tore chunks from Pedro's life total.  He attempted to cast Mulldrifter, but lost a counter war.  He drew nothing to deal with the flier and lost with a whimper after a great run.  Still was on to the finals.

2. Slash vs. 6. Kobold

It was Mono-a-Mono (excuse the terrible pun), as Slash and Kobold did battle in the semifinals.  Kobold landed Chittering Rats, while Slash had Phyrexian Rager.  They killed each other in combat, so Kobold played another copy of the Rats.  Kobold played Distress, which prompted Slash to use Diabolic Edict on the Rats.  He then revealed four Swamps, eliciting "wow" from Kobold.  Another round of the loud Rats stalled Slash further.  Okiba-Gang Shinobi returned the Rats and dumped two Swamps.  Slash drew Diabolic Edict for the ninja, but then Kobolod cast Warren Pilferers, which returned Twisted Abomination to his hand.  Despite Crypt Rats from both players and Tendrils for Slash, a big Corrupt from Kobold set the table for a game-ending, second copy of Corrupt.

Two Duress from Kobold binned two copies of Distress from Slash, then both players cycled Twisted Abomination in Game 2.  Slash played the first creature, Chittering Rats, on turn four.  Diabolic Edict from Kobold took care of it, but Warren Pilferers brought it back.  Kobold had his own Pilferers and the players traded.  Distress from Slash nabbed a potentially dangerous Corrupt and Chittering Rats sent Kobold to zero cards in hand.  A cycled Abomination into Corrupt gave Kobold the temporary life lead, but Slash nibbled away with Rats.  Kobold had Rager and both players landed an Abomination, but Slash went for double Edict and bashed with two Chitterings and Abombination.  A Warren Pilferers for Slash sealed the deal and the players went to Game 3.

Distress in Game 3 from Kobold nabbed Crypt Rats. Slash's own Distress sent a Rager to the graveyard.  Kobold then landed Duress, which put a second Distress into the sorcery-abyss.  Unfortunately for Kobolod, Slash had a third Duress, which pocketed Warren Pilferers.  Chittering Rats decided to join Kobold, but Slash had Tendrils to take care of that threat.  Slash played his own Rats, for which Kobold had an Edict.  Rager came into alliance with Slash, then Kobold aimed Corrupt to the face.  Kobold was out of cards, but up on life 26-15.  Pilferers appeared on Slash's side, who attacked with the Rager.  Next came a recursed Crypt Rats.  Kobold drew Tendrils, which waved goodbye to the goblins of Warren.  Slash then added Chittering Rats, but saw his Crypt Rats perish to Echoing Decay.  Twisted Abomination for Kobold bit Edict, clearing the way for more beats.  Slash put another Crypt Rats on the board, while Rager joined Kobold.  Both players lost a creature, as each had Edict.  Kobold drew no further gas and succumbed to three power per turn.  Slash moved on to the finals!

Finals

2. Slash vs. 4. Still

Teaching versus Black Control for all the marbles.  Slash tried an early Crypt Rat, but Still had Rune Snag.  The players put lands onto the board until Mystical Teachings fetched another Teachings for Still.  A second Crypt Rats died to a tutored Echoing Decay.  Then Rager fizzled thanks to Remove Soul.  Distress and Crypt Rats were both countered by Still, who finally found Errant Ephemeron to suspend.  Slash tried to hard-cast Okiba-Gang Shinobi, but of course it was countered.  When the flier was ready for play, Slash had two copies of Diabolic Edict, but both were countered.  A Corrupt for 10 resolved and put the life totals at 26-6.  Chittering Rats and another Corrupt were countered, whle a second EE hit the table.  Slash was on empty and a top-decked Edict was also countered, which effectively ended the game.  That's a lot of counters!  Still was suddenly one game from the title.

Chittering Rats in Game 2 was met by Rune Snag.  Rager hit the board for Slash after Still suspended Ephemeron.  Rager started attacking, while Warren Pilferes tried to join play, but it was countered.  Duress from Slash hit a key Rune Snag, which allowed him to resolve another Pilferers and swing for a hasty five.  At 19-11, Ephemeron unsuspended and Edict aimed to Still was countered.  But that allowed another Rager to stare down Still.  Tendrils found no counter and sent Ephemeron to heaven (or hell, I guess) and cleared the way for seven damage.  At four life, Still found no defense and conceded.

The players were down to one game for the championship.  Still mulliganed to six and then kept a one-land hand.  Slash had Distress for Remove Soul on turn two.  Still drew a second island and suspended Ephemeron.  Chittering Rats further retarded Still's development.  Muddle the Mixture protected Still's hand, but he was still up against it.  Duress nabbed Repulse and the Rats hit Still to 16.  A second Chittering Rats joined the fray before EE resolved.   Slash attacked with both 2/2s into Still's 4/4.  Why?  Because he then put Okiba-Gang Shinobi into play, tapped and attacking.  This crushing hit emptied Still's hand and things looked dreary, despite the 4/4 on the board.  Still topdecked Counterspell for the Rats and held off the ninja.  He topdecked another answer, in the form of Exclude for Slash's Rager.  Rune Snag next turn merely made Slash's next Rager cost six.  On the next turn Tendril destroyed the Ephemeron and the beats were on.  Echoing Decay took out the rat ninja, but Slash had a second one to employ through the Rager.  Still was down to eight.  When Still had no answer for Warren Pilferers, he knew there was no victory and conceded the title to Slash.

Conclusions

Congratulations to Slash and the rest of the Top 8.  The results of this tourney show that the format is very deep and actually full of a lot of skill.  A metagame is definitely starting to solidify, which is great news for the "young" format.

For more information on the metagame and the tourney, point your browser to this thread at pdcmagic.com and check back to puremtgo.com for more reports on this historic event!

7 Comments

Wow, that is a quick by Anonymous (not verified) at Mon, 02/02/2009 - 13:17
Anonymous's picture
5

Wow, that is a quick turnaround on the article. Good detail, can't wait to read more about the event. It was a blast to play in.

Good article on short timeframe by Twoduckcubed at Mon, 02/02/2009 - 14:41
Twoduckcubed's picture
4

However, I would like to know what this means:

"Pedro_Alves ran a similar, but distinctly different, deck to the only perfect record during the Swiss portion of the tourney."

What was "distinctly different" about it?

Wow, lightning fast recap! by Blade at Mon, 02/02/2009 - 19:53
Blade's picture
4

I used my secondary account (KO) to achieve a T4 finish with MBC, quite some support by Ivo (thanks again;) and not much practice.

The irony was that I chose MBC the day before the PE to easily beat Burn and Storm decks and have a positive matchup against Slivers, knowing that it is quite an underdog to Blink and Ux-Control decks. So guess what I played: Slivers, Zoo, Blink, Blink, UBr Control, Blink, UB Control, MBC | Slivers, MBC..

p.s.
What is up with Wizards purging the PEs that fast in V3 ?!

decklist? by Amonchakai (not verified) at Mon, 02/02/2009 - 16:18
Amonchakai's picture
5

Hi everybody!
where are the decklist?

Great job. Great.

Thanks for the great recap! by MConstant (not verified) at Mon, 02/02/2009 - 17:42
MConstant's picture
5

I was a prerelease and didn't get to attend this, so thanks for the great recap of the last rounds!

@KO, nice work dude, when you say blink do you mean Ohrsov mainly or also like Grand Entrance type stuff?

Great work! by Giraffe at Mon, 02/02/2009 - 18:01
Giraffe's picture
5

Excellent work on the quick turnaround - both to you and the editor. Great to see this fly up!

I piloted White Weenie. I was 3-0 going into round 4 and faced Ivan_Kulbich_aka_Striped's Orzhov Blink. Midrange Control is a very rough matchup for WW as the deck pushes damage slower than other aggressive archetypes. I expected a very rough matchup, and was most pleased to win game 1 and see him at only 7 minutes left on his clock for the next 2 games. He wins game 2 in 4 minutes or so, and with 3 minutes on his clock for game 3 he squeezes out the win with ONE SECOND left on his clock when he quickly F6's through his turn while activating his Blind Hunter for the attack and the win. I really didn't expect to win the matchup, but I thought it was sealed. It was a rough blow. :-) I ended up finishing 5-3.

thanks for the kind words; by blandestk at Mon, 02/02/2009 - 18:17
blandestk's picture

thanks for the kind words; i'll leave the next article on the tourney to you (and i look forward to it).

i happened to watch the replay of your third game in that round when i noticed you mention it. as a spectator i was shocked he somehow didn't timeout on that last turn, so i can't imagine how it would feel as the player. i know for a fact my connection would not have allowed me to play that quickly. i liked your deck, by the way.