The Gaming Archivist: SWAGamers MTG Championship #4 2018

31st August 2018 (Friday)

Game(s) Played:

2018 SWAGamers Cube Championship #4

Player(s):

Another year has passed and it is time for the regular boardgamers to dig out their inner Planeswalker to dethrone the defending champion, Sean Lee, and challenge for the 4th annual SWAGamers Cube Championship!

Our cube of choice this year is the Peasant Cube which has been tweaked for sets up to Dominaria and also to include more options for Artifact and Enchantment removal (which was an issue in last year's Cube Championship). We have always had trouble finding a 6th Player but we were fortunate this year and we welcome Jason to our annual competition.

For prizes, I repurposed an old trophy that had a lot of surface area the winner could sign with permanent marker. Perhaps prophetically, I told Sean to just make one signature on the trophy and he can just add "2018" to the "2016 – 2017" if he defends his title later today. Additionally, we voted and the extra prize is one of the most unplayable commons from my collection signed by all the other losing Players.

The Draft:

We did 20 card booster packs in order to cover a more significant portion of the 450 card cube. So we draft the first 10 cards of each pack as per normal then draft 1 burn 1 for the remaining 5 cards. As always this was the most significant portion of the Cube Championship day, so much so that the camera ran out of battery in the first round of the tournament as you can see from the video above.

Pack #1:
Our first pack saw quite a lot of good cards in most colours with the exception of Green. After the first round when my original pack came round back to me still filled with good White cards, I decided to stay in mono White, taking a few Green and Red cards as the supply eventually ran out towards the end of Pack #1.

Some of my cards from Pack #1

Pack #2:
Most of us were quite settled into our colours at Pack #2 but it became a bit of a chicken race with the colour Green which exploded in Pack #2. I guess no one wanted to switch colours thinking someone else might do the same thing and not being sure if Pack #3 would be open for green. I was going to dive back into Red but White was really open again so I settled for a split between both colours. Everyone smiled nervously at each other as Pack #2 ended with mostly Green cards in everyone's hands and the burn pile.

More stuff from Pack #2

Pack #3:
Pack #3 saw many regret their choice of not going Green as a second colour. Whilst all of us had some Green cards in our draft because of draft chaff, only Gideon would end up splashing 1 Green card into his deck. I rounded out my picks with more Red and some Equipment to go with Champion Of The Flame. Heck, Equipment can go on anyone for that matter.

More stuff from Pack #3

Deck Building:

Time to have some fun

So this is what I ended up with, mostly creatures that pumped themselves or other creatures plus some cards that brought things back from the graveyard (milling was definitely being played by someone(s) out there) and just a touch of removal. Some combos that I was trying to pull off:
Bellowing Aegisaur + Prodigal Pyromancer (Never happened)
Champion of the Flame + Equipment (Worked)
Cinder Elemental + Chandra's Spitfire (Worked but got Chandra's Spitfire got Murdered)
Outmaneuver (Worked)

The Tournament Begins

I'm only going to go through my own match-ups as I wasn't really there to observe and provide commentary on the other matches. As it is, I played everyone's deck with the exception of Edward's so I should be able to give you an idea about everyone's decks.

Round 1: Sean vs Justin

Sean's Player Profile

My Player Profile

In our first game, Sean had the ramp with Hedron Archive but couldn't dig up his second Island to bring Slinn Voda into the game. I had Rigging Runner, Ninth Bridge Patrol then Goldnight Commander to wreak havoc and take the first win.

In our second game, Sean and I had creature for creature lined up against each other. I had my Cinder Elemental and the Chandra's Spitfire which if I sacrificed for 5 mana would pump Chandra's Spitfire for a total of 9 damage to Sean which would kill him. Unfortunately Sean casted Murder on the Chandra's Spitfire before declaring blockers. So I cast Outmaneuver a few turns later and rolled over Sean's blockers to take the win.

The cards mentioned

Round 2: Jason vs Justin

Jason's Player Profile

Jason's deck is very interesting. He uses his Player life total as a defense until he can bring enough creatures like Viashino Fangtail, Frostwielder & Brimstone Mage with ping onto his battlefield. Then he takes out the opponent's creatures with direct damage and finishes with Terra Ravager. At least that's what happened to me in Game 1. All this he did with 1 single life left.

Our second game was not any easier with his Frostwielder exiling all of my creatures and I didn't get the removal I needed to take out his ping creatures. This was even less of a contest than the first game.

The cards mentioned

Round 3: Moses vs Justin

Moses' Player Profile

In our first game, I had Consul's Lieutenant, Goldnight Commander and Elite Scaleguard and for some reason this was enough to make Moses concede.

In our second game, I cast Pacifism on Moses' Rotcrown Ghoul then pulled off the Champion of the Flame + Bonesplitter combo. This faced off against Moses' Undertaker, Golgari Thug & Corrosive Mentor backing them up. I think it drove Moses insane that he couldn't keep his creatures alive on the battlefield for their graveyard effects and I pulled off the win more because he was so tilted.

The cards mentioned

So by right, we were supposed to end the tournament after Round 3 but Gideon, Sean, Jason and myself were all at 2 – 1 and our losses were all to each other. Therefore, a best of one semi-finals and finals was necessary to determine the champion.

Before going into that, let me cover Edward's profile who I did not have the chance to play against.

Edward's Player Profile

Edward's deck's focus was sending his opponents library into the graveyard. A somewhat similar deck profile to that of Moses which is why their game in round 2 took so long. After losing to Sean in 2 games in quick fashion, Edward managed to beat Sean in an unrecorded play.

Round 4 (Semi-Final): Gideon vs Justin

Gideon's Player Profile

We have a running joke that Gideon can never resist drafting "5 Colour Good Stuff" and there was incremental improvement this year with him dropping to "4 Colour Good Stuff".

My luck totally ran out in this match with me mulliganing down to 5 and not being able to curve out unlike my previous matches. Although I had my Reveille Squad on the battlefield, it was not enough against Gideon's Court Street Denizen who used Faith Unbroken to exile my creature, then with Cloudgoat Ranger, tapping the Reveille Squad to steamroll into victory.

The cards mentioned

Round 4 (Final): Gideon vs Sean

Gideon had already faced Sean in round 2, will Gideon be able to exact revenge and dethrone the champion?

Unfortunately for Gideon, Sean appeared to have everything he needed. Using Reckless Scholar to dump fatties like Slinn Voda, the Rising Deep and Kraken of the Straits into his graveyard by discarding them. Then using Reanimate to bring them back to the battlefield for a single mana then crushing the opposition.