Elfvalley Cup #2

Here we go again! The second version of the Elfvalley Cup is finished, and this time the tournament had grown to 16 players. With the help of Slanfan(Mattias Berggren), I ran this tournament in the Tolaria.app, which worked out great. I you haven't tried it out yet, I highly recommend it! 

Players were split into 4 groups, with the winners in each group advancing to a top4 playoff. This were the results:

I chose to play with some new fun toys, and built this deck I call ¨Night of the Living Dead¨

It is super fun to play and wasn't that bad either. It's probably the coolest deck I've played in AB4k so far, and I've already set my eye on some upgrades. Here's a small recap of my matches:

Match 1 vs Daniel

In the first match of the tournament I play against a fellow NOSMTG member that seems to have the same addiction to black spells as myself. It's the first time we've played against each other, so it's great to finally meet. 

I get to start first and keep a pretty good hand with lands, creatures and a removal spell. Daniel plays a swamp and Dark Ritual, and we all know what's coming next, the Hypnotic Specter. I have the Swords to Plowshares ready for it though, and feel good about the 2 for 1. I play a Drudge Skeleton on my second turn, and he just passes after making a landdrop. I miss a landdrop and his turn he lands another Hyppie, this time it gets to live. After playing a land and a Scathe Zombie I just have to pass, and the Hyppie starts eating at my lifetotal and hand. He also Drain Lifes the zombie and is suddenly way ahead. Removal for the Specter didn't come until it was too late, and he quickly closes out the game with a couple of other creatures.

In game 2 I get a really explosive start with a Bog Wraith(which I sided in) turn 2, followed by a Zombie Master and a few more zombies the next turns. He can't deal with them all and we quickly shuffle up for game 3.

Game 3 was a real nailbiter where we traded creatures and removal in the start until I get rid of his hand with a brutal Mind Twist. He has a live Hyppie on board though, but I topdeck my second Jayemdae Tome after the first got discarded. This allows me to dig through the deck twice as fast as him, and find an answer for the Specter after a few turns. He plays alot of land and casts a giant Drain Life which puts me to 3 though, and I need to kill him quick before he draws into a Sengir Vampire or his last Drain Life. Thankfully, reading the book every turn gets me a lot of creatures, and I can finish him off with my swarm of zombies.

2-1 WIN

Match 2 vs Dyan

In the next match I play against Dyan, a very nice new acquaintance who happens to be a two-time winner of the Dwarven Warriors Cup.

Game 1 starts off with him playing a Savannah Lion, and I get a bit flooded, but manage to play a Balance which kills his Lion and two cards from his hand. He plays more Lions but I play a Drudge Skeleton which creates a bit of a stalemate. Later we both land Jayemdae Tomes, and start to fill up our hands. I get a Bad Moon, some Zombies and their Lord into play and can start attacking through his team of Lions and Sedge Trolls. I manage to get him down to 4 life when the key moment of the game happens. I attack for the win but he Disenchants my Bad Moon and Pisonic Blast my Master, which makes him block three zombies and take only 1 from a Skeleton. My mistake here was that I forgot to put regeneration shields on my zombies, that could have lived and attacked for the win the next turn. Instead he stabilizes and outdraws me with a giant Braingeyser that eventually gets him a Serra that ends the game in a few turns.

Game 2 is almost identical to game 1, but the difference here is that he draws all 3 Tomes which pulls him out of a horrible manaflood after many turns of drawing one or two extra cards. I actually get him down to 2 life this game before he overloads the board with Serra Angels and Sedge Trolls which wins him the match. Great, exciting match where my Zombies put up a really good fight against a fully powered deck, GGs

0-2 LOSS

Match 3 vs Ole

The final group match is against Ole, also from NOSMTG, and his blue/red deck filled with fast creatures and burn. I luckily get to start first again and keep a decent hand with Drudge Skeleton, Animate Dead, Swords to Plowshares, Disenchant and 3 Swamps. Only problem here is the lack of white mana, but the Skeleton might give me the time to draw into it. 

He starts of fast with a couple of Goblin Balloon Brigades, but my Skeleton atleast makes him use his mana to attack. My draws are horrible though, as I draw 3 white cards in a row and then some swamps before I get a white mana. When I finally get to play my white cards it's too late and he finishes me off with two Lightning Bolts.

For game 2 I get to bring in some really good cards in this matchup, 3 Drain Life, Terror and CoP: Red. He takes a mulligan, and I keep. He once again starts off with a goblin, but I have drawn a Drain Life already, so I'm not that worried about early damage. He play the Glasses of Urza though, so he gets to play around my hand a bit. My draw is however pretty good this game, and I draw a lot of zombies and their master, which runs over his small creatures after some time.

In game 3 we both keep our hands, but he stumbles a bit on mana. I can't get any pressure going though, because he Unsummons my first creature a couple of times. What's good for me is that he uses up one card every time, while I just replay the creature. Finally it sticks to the board and I play a couple more after that. I also play a Jayemdae Tome, which should seal the game if it stays. He has Steal Artifact for it though, but I thankfully left a couple a Disenchants in my deck, that get's me my book back before he can use it. I slowly gather a small zombie army, and have removal for his creatures, so the match ends in a few turns.

2-1 WIN

2-1 in matches and 4-4 in games was my final score, and I'm pretty happy with that. The deck did what I wanted it to, was fun to play, and I was actually pretty close to winning all matches. If I would change something, I'd swap the two Terrors main with the Drain Lifes in the board. Also, Will-o-the-Wisp instead of Drudge Skeletons would be a nice upgrade in the future, and of course, the two last Scrublands would help the manabase, not to mention a Mox Pearl for speed. But this is way way in the future, if it ever happens, haha.

The result of the tournament was as follows:

Group A:

Steinar: 9 pts

Øyvind: 6 pts

Ben: 3 pts

Anne: 0 pts

Group B:

Nils Håkon: 9 pts

Bjørnar: 6 pts

Marius: 3 pts

Thomas: dropped

Group C:

Tomas: 9 pts

Slanfan(Mattias): 6 pts

Erwin: 3 pts

Audun: 0 pts

Group D:

Dyan: 6 pts 

Erik: 6 pts 

Daniel: 3 pts 

Ole: 3 pts 

Semifinal 1: 

Steinar(0) vs Dyan(2)

Semifinal 2:

Tomas(1) vs Nils Håkon(2)

Finals:

Dyan (2) vs Nils Håkon (0)

Congratulations to Dyan who went on to win his first Elfvalley Cup with this beast:

And here are the final standings