Winter derby 2026
It was time again for the Derby! Twice a year, organized by DFB. Three different formats, and now it was time again for Boreal (see https://ottawaoldschool.com/boreal-banlist/). That meant a 4-strip format – thus aggro. Here, we mostly play Swedish format (often with reprint policy) and Swaffel (Dutch – google it – or not..), so it’s nice to play a different format ones or twice a year.
Before you continue, just a few disclaimers. English is not my native tongue and although Word helps me out, it is most likely far from perfect. Furthermore, I will discuss some deck tech / tactics and a quite extinctive match report on how it played out.
So, what deck to play?
Last time there were a few troll list performing quite well. There were some atog-troll lists and some burn troll lists (Boston).
We had a Dutch online (ODOL – google it – or not) preparation for the derby and at first, I tried a mixed list. It Contained 63 or 64 cards, only 3 vises, 1 atog, 2 orders, 2 chains and 3 psiblast next to the bolts, draw 7s, braingeyser, a single disk and mana drain. Going back and forward on troll aggro/burn and trolldisco (using the sideboard for this part). It worked quite well. Going 4-0 at first, against liondibatog, workshop, WGub erhnams and mono B. Then losing 2 matches against liondibburn and GB mana denial. Especially against lions it was made clear that early treats and mana denial worked quite well. Having enough removal to remove early pressure is important.
The switch between aggro and control worked quite well and I could tell that I surprised some opponents with cards they had not expected to see.
I was not completely happy with the orders. They were great late game and could be treat of their own, but in the early game they were more of a liability due to the manabase. Furthermore, the chance that they would be bigger than 3/1 with this manabase was quite slim. Mana drain was sometime great (especially With FB/ braingeyser/ disks in hand), but the manaburn (countering a MT of 7) costed me a game as well. Vises were just stupid. It just could win the game out of nowhere, especially with draw7s. Due to the amount of mana sources in each deck it could be hard to go back to 4 cards after a draw 7. So, I upped the vises to 4. I Removed the orders and upped the atogs to 3. I do not like drawing too many atogs without artifacts – as without them they are just 1-2s. So, I only played 3. Dibs were a fantastic treat. But, due to the pinging and CiaB, they could be a liability. Just to have the opportunity to choose between CiaB and dibs I opted to play 2. As I only had 1 city and a LoA besides my dibs meant that a CiaB against me would not be a major concern.
Boston played with a sol’kanar and in testing I liked this 5/5 treat. I doubted between fireball and disintegrate. One would work better against weenie/ lions and pixies but the other against trolls.
I liked to have an extra out against bigger treats and key cards as the Abyss and MT, so instead of mana drain I included a power sink. To get back to 60-61 cards I removed the 2 chains and a few mana sources and upped the moxen to five.
I liked the sideboard terrors a lot and sometimes I wanted that I would have had 1 main. Especially as an answer against dib, Serra, troll and atog. As I mostly expected decks with these creatures, I reckoned that a single terror (as swords seen in many lists) could have more benefit than risks. Many workshop list used atog as well. Only against mono black or UWb workshop it would be a useless card. I reckoned to be favorable against mono B and I believed that the meta had shifted a bit from monoBrown creature workshop. Although this assumption was only based on looking at top 8-16 from online documented reports. I do not have the experience in this format to know whether it would be true. As 2 lists got in the top 16, I could be dead wrong.
For the sideboard, I opted to have the possibility to change towards a more discotroll variant. That meant that I needed more counters to protect, mazes (wanted to have 2) and braingeyser. I chose to go down on artifact hate (no fluxes and only 2 shatters and 1 hurkyl’s recall), as I thought that the meta had shifted away from the regular workshop decks. Terror, CiaB and ReB/ BeB were included as well. This meant that my deck was more flexible, but albeit with a cost, as sometimes making a certain strategy stronger against some decks could works better (like multiple glooms and energy fluxes against white/ artifacts would make the vises much stronger).
In total 146 players had registered for this event. Batch 1 had started and I was matched with Noah Shanning, Parker Bowak, Raymond Mitchell and Seth Roncoroni. All excellent players who have reached the top 16 before – so I was up for some spiky matches for sure.
I contacted all players within a few days and was able to play all games within 1 week.
So, up to the matches:
Match 1
Noah shanning
Last derby, I played him as well. He was on The deck and I was able to beat him. In a recent boreal tournament, it was documented that he played a troll burn list. So, I was not sure what he was gonna be play, but regardless, I expected him to have a spiky deck again.
He now played a FearieTog list. Hopefully the trolls would shine.
He won the coinflip (0/1) and opted to start
Game 1
We mulliganned both
Hand 1: It only contained 1 land (colorless) and a mox
Hand 2: uhm, also not great with even no land, but it had 2 moxen (R/W), bolt, wheel, psiblast and troll. I decided to keep it, as he was back to six as well, it could deal with an early treat and if I would draw a mana source in the first 2 turns, then I had an out with the wheel.
He opened with mox U, ancestral recall and a tropical island. Still not sure what he would play. Unfortunately, no land for me, as I drew another bolt and I played my 2 moxen without any land. He played a copy artifact to make a mox R, land and an atog. Ok, this looked like a fearieTog list, so this made my wheel plan not as good anymore. I decided to bolt his atog in his turn, which resulted in him saccing mox U to save it. I drew a land (volcanic) and was now able to psiblast his atog (18). He stripped my volcanic and played a chain on me (15). I drew and played an atog. In his turn, he played a MT for the remaining cards of my hand (troll, bolt, FB and wheel), ouch.
For the next 2 turns, I drew a land and mox W and attacked for 1 (18-15). He then played an atog and an ankh (which I feared as I needed more landdrops). So, we both had an atog in play and 3 artifacts, but he had 3 lands in contrast to my single land. I drew a fantastic card, after some deliberation I decided to attack with my atog to see what would happen. I did not care whether he would block or not. He blocked with his atog. I declared no sacking, to which he decided to sac his ankh (!) to make his atog a 3/4. Fantastic, just what I hoped for! I had drawn my main deck terror, so bye bye atog and more important bye bye ankh. Next turn, he had a fresh atog. I drew an ancestral into 2 vises and a land. As I had more artifacts, I attacked with my atog. He blocked, I sacced a mox W, he his copy artifact (mox R), I doubted whether to sac another mox (but still low on lands (2) or a vise, the vise got sacked making sure I would be good in mana sources. As he did not want to sac his sol ring into it, his atog died. In his turn, he drew and played a bolt on my atog, which I saved by saccing a mox (it all did not matter that much). I got a sol ring out and attacked for 1. He had a chain for my atog, which I saved again with my last remaining mox. I drew a timetwister, I doubted whether to play it or not as I had a vise out. But he was still on 16, while I on 15. It was not yet worth the risk, as he had likely more burn in his deck and I was ahead with a creature in play. So, I waited and kept attacking with my atog. He had a pixie which got bolted in my turn (freshly drawn). I Attacked again for 1 with the atog. He played a vise of his own, which made my timetwister even more risky. I attacked for 1. He had a new pixie. I attacked with my atog into it and sacced my last vise. Now, with my vises gone, he was not afraid to play out his wheel. We both drew 7 and he played another pixies. My hand was not that good, especially due to the vise. It contained 5 lands (2 factories), psiblast and DT – as I still had 3 mana over I decided to psiblast his pixie in his turn (13). Going to 11 life in my turn. He was on 12 life.
I drew another land (strip, 6 lands in hand), so I knew I would not go under his vise soon. I doubted what to get with DT. Timewalk – I could do a lot of damage but not enough (atog 1 + 5 (sol ring/ factory) and 3 with the 2 factories) – so I decided to go for a MT for 4 – he kept 2, drew a card and still played a few good cards: factory and an atog. I had 5 lands in hand – going to 10. I drew another land. I stripped his factory to keep him of any more pressure. And now we had an atog face off. He had a second vise putting me on 8. Again, I drew a land as did he. I got to 6 life and finally I am drawing gas. A troll. He got a pixie into play. So now, I have an atog, 2 factories and a troll against an atog and pixie (life 12-6). I needed to be aggressive before he was able to draw enough burn, but also not too aggressive to avoid losing in a counterattack. Only the troll could attack. He did not block (9). He did not attack me as it was not favorable. Next turn, he blocked my troll with the atog and sacced a vise. He played an orb and used it in my turn, making sure that my troll with a regeneration shield was tapped and could not attack.
He was stalling to find burn.
I played a second atog. Next turn, I attacked again with the troll which was not blocked putting him on 6. He had no plays. I knew now that I could alpha strike, as even if he was able to shoot 1 of my critters it would be enough and if he could shoot 2, then he would have killed me already. He only had 1 psiblast, which was not enough.
1-0
This was a fun game. I think I was Lucky. Possibly, if he had played more aggressively, kept his first atog alive or chained the bolt/ chains on my atog, he could have beaten me.
Sideboard
As he was more on the burn plan than I was, I decided to switch to a more disco troll variant
Out: 4 vises, 2 psiblast, 2 draw7, 2 dibs, 1 atog
In: 1 disk, terror, maze, BeB, ReB, mana drain, flash counter, 2 shatter and a hurkyl’s recall
Game 2:
He kept his 7. My hand was good for Swedish (LoA, 2 land, 2 troll, factory and MT) but to slow against a possible vise.
I mulled to 6. I kept again a sketchy hand with 1 land (volcanic), sol ring, bolt, time walk, power sink and troll (I put the game winning Fireball to the bottom)
He opened with a taiga, mox U and atog. I drew a BeB (perfect), which I immediately played with the volcanic island, destroying his atog. He stripped my volcanic in his turn (ai). Luckily, I drew another volcanic, and put the sol ring into play. He played a volcanic, BL into a twister and with his new hand he played an atog. My 7 were great! I could play a land and time walk into a next turn land, mox and MT for 5, devastating! He could keep 1 card and lost a city, orb, pixie, chain and an erhnam. He attacked with his atog for 1. I put down a troll and a factory to stop the assault. He drew and played a pixie. I had drawn a FB and doubted whether to destroy the atog, pixies, try both or none. As I was high in mana sources, I decided to wait. My troll attacked and was not blocked. he attacked with the pixies. Next turn, I got a terror, which killed his atog. My troll and factory put him on 12. He attacked with his pixie putting me on 14. He played a freshly drawn atog, which I thought I could power sink; however, I did not see that the altered mox he had put into play a turn earlier, was not a mox but a sol ring instead (Alters are great but can sometimes make the card less recognizable). He allowed me to take back the power sink as it was meant to counter and not meant to tap his lands (he was hellbent). I drew a braingeyser and decided to draw 4 extra cards (being a bit careful as he had a vise out as well). I drew an orb and flipped it on his atog. This made it possible to put him on 9 with my troll. His next turn pixies was irrelevant, as I could play a FB (see spoiler) for 10 damage next turn.
2-0
A fine start of the derby. So up to…
Match 2
Against Parker bowab
He had played a lot of liondib burn decks before, so I was not surprised that he played a LionDibAtog list (without vises?)
He won the coinflip (0/2) and opted to start.
Game 1:
I kept a hand with Loa, underground sea, mox jet, bolt, atog, power sink and terror. He opened with a strip mine + sol ring. I doubted whether to offer my LoA or my underground as strip target. I chose to keep my colored mana source and offered my LoA. I got an extra card and played mox Jet. He stripped the LoA, had a volcanic and a dib. Again, good to have a terror main deck. In my turn, I doubted whether to terror the dib in my or his turn – to avoid any counter issues, I chose to remove it in my turn. Unfortunately, he had another dib next turn. I could play another underground sea, but could not play any pressure or removal due to lacking of R and mostly red cards in hand, so I played a MT for 2. He lost a bolt and a derelor, leaving him 1 card in hand. He could freely attack me (19-17). I drew another red card. He attacked again (18-14) and disenchanted my mox B. I drew a dib which I played to get a dib stand-off for a few turns. Two turns later, I could play a troll which gave him the opportunity to play a serra, smartly dodging my power sink. I kept my mana open for a possible bolt if he attacked into my dib, and only played a vise. In his next turn, he attacked with the serra, which I blocked with my dib + bolt (Due to the dibs on 13-10), he had an atog afterwards. I drew and played an atog and a second vise, which he disenchanted. As I had no flyers, he attacked with his dib (12-7). And again, next turn as I still had no answer for it (11-4). I had to do something about it; I needed to crumble his defenses. So, I stripped his factory in his turn and attacked with a troll (blocked by the atog + mox). Afterwards, I played a second troll. So, I had 2 trolls, atog and 1 artifact (vise) and he had an atog, dib and 2 artifacts. He attacked again with his dib; he had no burn (10-1). In my turn, I attacked with all. He could block only 1 creature, getting 6 damage through of a troll and atog (+vise). I still had a bolt in hand, putting him on 1 and thus killing him in his upkeep due to his dib trigger.
Quite unexpected win here….
1-0
Sideboard
I expected him to play 4 dibs and a lot of burn. So, I planned to go more the control route.
Out: 4 vises, 1 atog, 2 draw7s, 2 dibs, shatter
In: 2 ciab, 2 disk, BeB, ReB, terror, flash counter, mana drain, braingeyser, maze
Game 2
Hand 1: 1 mana source, so mull
Hand 2: volcanic, mox U and W, time walk, terror, troll, power sink. Keep. The terror went down. He had not seen any counters
He opened with a mox U, ancestral into a land and another mox. My opening with volcanic, 2 moxen and time walk was a good follow up. However, I drew no lands both turns and passed. He applied pressure by playing a lion, which I bolted. Again, no land and a pass from me. He had a chaos orb which I could not power sink. He targeted my volcanic. Promptly, I drew another volcanic. Still in my hand, I had a bolt, power sink and troll (which I did not want to play without B mana open). He tried playing a Serra – but nope – power sink. Again, no land for me and I decided to play out my 2/2 troll, which got disintegrated in his turn. I got a maze, which I played. He went further ahead with the mana denial strategy and disenchanted my mox and stripped the volcanic instead of the maze. Leaving me with a maze, underground sea and mox pearl in play against his 3 land and 2 moxen. Next turn, he played a twister and a newly acquired dib. I got great answer cards, but not that many colored mana sources (2 strip, mox jet, disk, ciab, terror and again my power sink). I drew a factory which I played. The CiaB was a perfect answer for his dib. I decided to sandbag my mox B for after a possible disk and kept it in hand. Only disadvantage would be a MT but he had no B mana sources in play and cities could not be played due to ciab. Unfortunately, he got a lotus, into BBB, DT and a MT for my hand….If I had played my mox, then I still would not have been able to power sink the MT because he still had enough to pay for it. I only would have had an extra mox in play.
In the following turns, we both had an atog and a psiblast for it. Hereafter, he played 2 lions and 2 factories in consecutive turns, while I drew blanks. I was dead in a few turns as 1 maze was not enough to keep the assault away.
1-1
Sideboard:
I opted to go aggressive again and I put my disks in the sideboard again, as I had seen no cop red or spirit links.
In: 4 vises, 2 draw 7s, atog
I kept 1 CiaB and did not board in my dibs or shatters – what maybe was a mistake. Better to go all the way and he had seen the ciab. Based on that he indeed had boarded out the dibs and boarded in 3 slower jade statues (!).
Game 3
Hand 1: a 1 lander
Hand 2: 4 land, factory, sol ring en time walk…. Damned, not the start I wanted. But, as I had mana issues in the last two games, I also did not want to go back to 5 cards and have a mana screw again. So, I kept….hoping to draw into gas.
I opened with an underground sea (instead of a factory) and a sol ring. He had a tundra and lion. Next turn, I played the factory and time walk into a next turn troll. He had a disenchant for my sol ring (manaburn 19). I had a second factory and attacked for 6 (13). Still going well. But in his turn, my troll got disintegrated and 1 of my factories stripped, there went my assault. He attacked with his lion. Next turn, my factory got back to him (18-11). He had a second lion which stopped my assault and got me in defensive mode. I drew blanks (vise, land, ciab, mox and lastly a useless psiblast while on 4 life and 2 opposing lions), while he had a disenchant for my defensive factory and attacked me for 4 per turn
1-2
1-1 in matches, 3-2 in games
Parker performed quite well. Finishing as first, with a 7-1 record.
Match 3
Raymond Mitchell
I saw in a recent tournament report that he played a RBu trollburn list and now he played a similar list as well.
(Sorry no deckPic yet)
I won the coinflip (1/2)
Game 1
I got a fine but slow hand with 2 badlands, LoA, 2 trolls, terror and psiblast. Fine, if I would play against trolls. I took the gamble. I tried to live the dream and played my LoA which was answered by a strip. I played my badlands- go. He had another strip. I did not draw another land and played my last land in hand – badlands. Apparently, he had the same issue and also played his last land – a badlands + chains on me (20-17). I got a city and played my orb 20-16. He missed his landdrop and played another chain (20-13). I drew another land – volcanic – and instead of playing a troll, I orbed his only land. Too bad that he drew into a lotus, ancestral and time walk. However, although he drew 4 cards, he did not draw any mana sources and even needed to discard a card (Shivan). I drew a vise, which was quite good at the moment and he got his first damage (17-13). Finally, he drew a land – underground sea – and passed with 7. I was also still short on mana (3) as well and played my troll without B open (14-12). He drew another underground sea and played an orb. I attacked with my troll (11-12). I still had 3 mana sources in play so another troll was not the way to go with a soon to be active orb. But, I had a shatter and 2 psiblast in hand, so it already felt that I could not lose anymore. He got to 9 in his upkeep. He only played a factory. In my turn, I shattered his orb when he activated it. My troll put him on 6. In his turn he played a psiblast going to 3 – not sure on what – but it did not matter anymore.
1-0
Sideboard:
As he was on a burn troll list with more burn than I had and as he was able to start, I opted to go for the more controlling part of my deck. However, without the disks due to his trolls.
Out: 4 vises/ wheel/ timetwister/ 1 atog and mox G. I left my dibs in the deck, as he had not seen them yet.
In: mana drain, flash counter, terror, maze, braingeyser, ReB, BeB, 1 shatter
Game 2:
Hij kept his 7.
My hand: mana heavy with badlands, 2 volcanic, mox R, strip, power sink and troll. I kept.
He started aggressive with a mox B, badlands and chains on me. I stripped his badlands – go. He had another badlands and another chain (14). I drew a LoA and played it with still 6 cards in hand. He missed his crucial landdrop and had no action. My LoA was active and I started to draw more cards (sol ring and factory), played an underground sea to have the possibility for a power sink of 1. However, he drew and played a lotus and a derelor with still 1 mana source available. I had the answer already in hand and I played a badlands, sol ring and troll with a badlands untapped. He had a maze. He Attacked with his derelor. I could only regenerate once – so doubted whether to block and be open for a bolt on the troll or to take it myself. But, the risk for taking it myself was too high. So, I blocked, he had no bolt. I drew a dib and another troll, which I played. He had a chaos orb, which I power sinked. I went back to 5 cards in hand. So, I waited 1 turn to get back to an active LoA. He was still missing his landdrops. My LoA was active again. I got a third troll in play. He still was not able to do anything. So, I was able to attack with 3 trolls into his maze and derelor (1 maze, blocked by derelor) 17-14 – (I forgot to bolt his derelor). He finally, got a land and played a troll of his own. But without B available it fell victim to my bolt. Again, I attacked with my 3 trolls and now I bolted his derelor after blocking (14-14). With a full grip, 3 trolls into play, a mana drain, fireball in hand and lots of mana I could not lose anymore. To make it even worse, I mana drained his disk and used the extra mana to play a FB of 14.
2-0
Matches 2-1 (games 5-2)
What a bad luck for Raymond
Match 4
Seth Roncoroni
I expect him to play a 4 color, (heavy on city and burn with lions and some other creatures (orders/ atog/ serra and or derelor) as that is what he played in most derbies. Indeed, he played a WURb list, but I did not know that until game 2.
Coinflip: I won (2/2)
Game 1:
I got an insane hand:
Volcanic, mox G, sol ring, time walk into a next turn factory and twister.
My new hand gave me a black vise, lotus and atog in play as well. And some more gas cards in hand, including a wheel.
I felt the need for apologizing for such a start….Seth did not get any good cards, no colored mana sources and scooped. Not giving me any information.
1-0
Sideboard;
Based on what I expected him to play I sided:
Out: 4 vises, 1 atog, 2 draw 7s, mox emerald
In: mana drain, flash counter, braingeyser, 2 disk, Reb, maze
Game 2
My first hand had only 1 mana source. My second hand was great. Volcanic, ancestral. Mox W, badlands, troll, power sink and maze. I put the maze away as I was still not sure what he played.
He started with a city and mox G. I played a volcanic, mox W and ancestral. I got another bolt, DT and land. He played tundra and an order (19), so it was clear for me what he played. In my turn, I bolted the order and played a DT for a mind twist. He anticipated it. So, He played a bolt on me (17) and a balance (CoB, 18). I needed to go back to 2 cards in hand and he needed to sac his city to go to 2 lands. What to keep? I kept the MT and troll (discarded some lands, and power sink). In my turn, I played the MT and got a psiblast and a city. He drew – go. I got a factory and played the troll. He had nothing. I attacked with both the factory and troll. Unfortunately, He had just drawn a disenchant for it (15-17). He passed; I played a strip. I was doubting whether to keep him of blue or red sources, at the end I chose to strip his tundra leaving him with a plateau and mox G. The Troll got him to 12. Unfortunately, next turn he had a strip for my badland (only B source) and the other card he had drawn earlier was a bolt (in my upkeep as I put a shield up) for the now 2/2 troll. He had drawn 3 perfect answer cards after the MT, negating my offense and my card advantage. We were both hellbent. I drew and played an underground sea. He had a javelineer, which attacked next turn, as I drew a terror. I played an atog with only a mox In play. He drew a lotus (B) and was able to play a derelor. I had an almost useless terror hand. I drew only lands hereafter. I was able to terror one of the two dibs he played as well. But, I could not stop the assault. My Atog blocked the deleror once, saving me 1 turn (as I only had 1 artifact to sac), as did a factory. But still, it was not enough. He could even have killed me a turn sooner if he had used the javelineer counter on me.
1-1
Sideboard
So now what.
I doubted whether to go back to the vise plan or not. Ultimately, I decided to get back to the aggressive plan again. I expected that his dibs would be sided out. I put earthquake in, terror (although not good against order/ derelor) and flash counter as SB cards. Out went mox G, power sink and 1 disk (from main deck)
Game 3:
First hand was to slow and risky with only 2 land, 2 trolls and 2 dibs.
Second hand was good: I started with factory, vise (17). He had kept his hand and played a tundra + lion. I bolted his lion and had a second vise (13). He played an order. I attacked with my factory, which was not blocked (11). He had a bolt in his upkeep for me (17) to go to 4 cards, strip for my factory and a javelineer. I drew land, I still had a psiblast in hand. Next turn, when he attacked and pumped the order I psiblasted it, the javelineer got through (12-11). He got a derelor out. Any atog, troll, sol’kanar, psiblast, fireball, earthquake, orb or any draw7s would have been good. But, I drew only lands and a ReB… but no creatures or outs and lost the game in a couple of turns…
1-2
Matches 2-2 (games 6-4)
There was not much what I could have done differently in this match. The only play which maybe would have made the outcome different, was stripping his tundra in the second game instead of his plateau. This felt like the turning point of the match, until then I was in control. Not stripping his plateau gave him a window to strip and bolt my troll. Otherwise, the troll would have lived on – done more damage and could have been a good defender against his derelor…
He had sideboarded in a few jade statues like Parker did. I, again, did not see any. But, apparently statues seems to be the secret tech this year…
After batch 1, I ended on 6 points at place 66. My tiebreakers were quite excellent though (64.5). Although the chance of reaching the top 16 was very slim, it was still feasible if I would win all remaining matches and if my tiebreakers remained as good.
I expected that there would be ~1 8-0 and ~8 7-1s. So still room for 7 6-2s. So, with 4 wins and if my opponents managed to win their games, it was possible. Always live the dream!
Apparently, the matches were pooled, as 3 of my opponents needed to play each other as well and for all, the remaining opponent was matched with the other remaining opponent. This made sure that (for everyone) 3 out of the remaining 12 opponents matches did not matter for the OMW tiebreakers. Maybe this could be more advantageous for players already having a higher batch 1 OMW score, but I am not a statistician…
My second batch opponents were like batch 1: quite strong players. Henrik Storm, Richard Stebbing and Robbie (they all had reached the top 16 at least ones or even multiple times) and Viktor Osterberg, who had had good results in the monthly X-point league. I quickly reached out to all and within a week I was able to play all matches.
So up to my first match of batch 2.
Match 5
Against Henrik Storm
He had played the Deck quite often in the past (derby), making high finishes a lot. Thus, perhaps a spiky and mostly control player. Although, Last derby he played a 4 blood moon deck to the top 16.
Now he played a BWur hymn(!)OrderHypSerra list
Coin flip: I won the flip (3/2)
Game 1:
My hand: 3 land, factory, atog, dib and ancestral – keep
I played volcanic and ancestral in his turn. He played an underground, mox jet, mox ruby and a hypnotic. Luckily, I had an answer with a city, mox G and dib in hand. He had a tundra and an order. I responded with an atog and strip for his tundra. I did not attack because of his hypnotic, I did not want to lose any card, yet. He had a badlands and another order in his turn. I got a LoA with still 5 cards on hand (3 land, factory and power sink). I opted to go to 7… but in his turn he played a serra, which I needed to power sink. I drew a troll and decided that I wanted to keep the pressure on as the dib was slowly killing me (15-19) and going to 7 could be risky. So, I played the troll. Furthermore, As I had only 3 lands in hand, the hypnotic did not scare me anymore, so I decided to attack with the dib (15-16). He counterattacked with his hypnotic (13-16), losing a badlands. I drew and played another troll. I attacked with the dib, atog and troll, he blocked 1 troll with a pomped (city) first strike order (regenerate), atog (3/4 sac mox) with the other order and the dib came through (12-12). He attacked with his hypnotic (losing my last card in hand – volcanic) and a pomped order which I blocked with my troll (10-12 missed a city trigger here). This was great because I could do him exactly 12 damage in a counterattack… but, he had a time walk, attacked again with his hypnotic, leaving his order to block-(8-12 —> 7-12 in my upkeep). I again attacked with all but a troll (otherwise I would be dead if he attacked with all) – troll, atog, factory and dib. He blocked a troll (regenerate) with his pomped order (8-5). He drew nothing to stop the assault, was not able to deal 8 to me and gave up in his turn.
1-0
That was a nice and interesting game!
What to change…
I had not seen any hymns, so I decided to go more to the control plan.
Out my vises, 1 atog, my 2 draw7s and my main deck terror
In: 2 disks, flash counter, ReB, mana drain, braingeyser, maze and earthquake
Game 2:
Hand: badlands, underground sea, strip, LoA, mox W, bolt and ReB. Not a good hand. But mana and a LoA. I am not sure why…but I kept. I had not seen any hymns…
He opened with a strip and mox W….
I thought it was best to slow play the LoA. But, instead I played it, drew a card and played my mox W. He disenchanted my mox still in my turn and in his turn he stripped my LoA, leaving me without any permanents. He played an underground sea – which I stripped in my turn. He missed his land drop! I played a badlands, he stripped my badlands. At the moment, there was only a mox W in play on his site. I played a factory. He missed his land drop again. I played a mox G, underground sea and a DT for an ancestral. He played a tundra. I drew a factory, played my ancestral drawing into 2 disks and a strip. I stripped his tundra and he disenchanted the mox. He had a mox B. I drew disk #3. Played a factory and attacked for 3. He played a DT of his moxen. I mistakenly did not really consider what he could have taken. I played a land and a disk (he had only 2 moxen in play. He disenchanted it in his turn. Apparently he disliked disks, so I played another one in my turn. Which got DO’t. I played my third disk and kept a mox R in hand ( already played mox B). I had 1 mana untapped, power sink in hand. But, neglected to play the mox because I would think he would be out of his disenchant etc. and I wanted to save it after using the disk. Indeed, he was out of disenchant – but of course he had played a DT earlier for a balance – which now worked as a 1-sided Armageddon (2 lands and 2 factories). Stupid I got him back in the game. He now played a tundra. I played my mox R and a freshly drawn atog. At the moment, I had 2 bolt, ReB and power sink in hand. He had a swords for my atog. In my turn, I drew another strip and stripped his only land. He drew a city and played an order. Which I bolted. I drew badlands, he a city. Both had reactive spells in hand. Another underground for me. And next turn a troll which got sworded. He stripped underground sea. I drew a MT – and played it immediately for 2 – getting his fireball and spirit link. Great cards to get. He had 2 cards remaining. He had land go. I played a troll, he played BeB, I finally could use my ReB which was in my openingshand.
But unfortunately, he still had a swords. Next turn, he drew and played a serra which I could not counter. But, I had a FB, 2 bolts, power sink and a sol’kanar in hand, 4 mana sources in play and high in life (20-27). He attacked with his serra 20-23. Luckily, I drew my 5th mana source. I opted between playing sol’kanar or FB the serra. I chose to put pressure on him and played the 5/5 monstrosity which could outrun the serra. He attacked 20-19. I drew a flash counter – great now I could save my king. I Attacked him (15-19) and played a FB on his serra. He had nothing (10-19). Now, he had a hypnotic, which got bolted. Hereafter, I attacked twice with sol’kanar due to a time walk. Killing him in the process.
2-0
Matches 3-2 (games 8-4)
It would have been a lot easier if I would have played around the balance… furthermore, I was lucky because he had not drawn into his hymns and moat (I still had an active disk though). If I would have seen one or more hymns, than I would have played the draw7s.
Match 6
Viktor Osterberg
He has had good finishes last year playing mostly liondibbolt at X-points online. So, I expected an aggro list.
But now he played an Dibatog list
Coinflip I win (4/2)
Game 1:
Hand: factory, sol ring, vise, timetwister, troll, terror and time walk. Great cards, but risky. Too risky as it had no colored mana sources. Mull. Just looked at the next few cards, follow up was not good.
Hand 2: factory, sol ring, vise, strip, city, dib and badlands. Put the strip away – but maybe badlands would have been better..
I played a factory, sol ring and vise (using the last mana with the factory). He (17) played mox U, mox W, badlands and DT with mox U open and passed. I assumed he had gotten an ancestral. I drew a disk, played city and dib (19). He did not cast any ancestral. In his upkeep he played a psiblast on my dib (15), going to 4 cards in hand, thus receiving no vise damage. I drew an atog which I played + badlands. Only a disk remained in my hand. I attacked with my factory (13). He had a psiblast for my atog (11). What to do – sac my vise and sol ring – or not. I decided to not save my atog. I drew a factory and played the disk. He had a sol ring, chaos orb into a second orb (copy artifact). Hitting my disk with his first orb. I drew and played another atog, I attacked with my 2 factories (7-18). He used his last orb on my atog, and then played his ancestral which he DT for the first turn and 2 bolts (7-12). He had a second factory as well. I drew a strip and stripped his earlier played factory. He made his newly played factory a 3/3. I attacked into his factory. My factory got bolted after I made it 3/3 as well. He drew and played a dib, who would win the race?
Next turn, I drew a power sink a turn too late. He attacked (6-9). I drew a mox (5-6), I drew another mox (4-3). He played a lotus – I doubted whether to power sink, tapping him out, so that I could attack with my factory (in the hope of drawing 1 and making it a 3/3 as an out)- but he would still be able to have a factory untapped and a lotus to activate it or to cast something else with his moxen/ sol ring. So, I kept my power sink in hand. I drew a strip. Stripped his factory and attacked with mine (2-3)… which was just 1 damage short…(1-0 in life and 0-1 in games)
What if – I kept the strip and put the badlands away. It would have set him back, getting more damage due to my vise. And what if I rescued my atog (saccing vise and sol ring), it would most likely have died to an orb next turn and my next one to a chain, but it would have given me a crucial extra turn against his dib. Further in the game the vise and sol ring were not of that much use. Possibly, those choices could have given me the game…
Sideboard:
I had not seen all. The Copy artifact suggested that he would maybe have atogs and vises as well. As I assumed that he had more burn, I opted to go for a more controlling build
Out: 4 vises, 1 atog, 2 draw7s, mox G
In: manadrain, terror, maze, 1 disks, ReB, flash counter, braingeyser
I doubted whether to keep the dibs in or the CiaB…. How many would he play 2 or 4…. I decided to keep the dibs in.
Game 2
Slow hand: 3 land, 2 troll, terror and fireball. Not great, but hopefully good enough. It had 3 mana sources.
I played city go. He had mox U, sol ring, relic barrier and a strip for my city. I played my volcanic as I had drawn my third troll and kept badlands on hand. He had another strip. I drew an ancestral and played my badlands (no U sources anymore). He had drawn a lotus and played atog + chains (17). I drew mana drain, next turn a time walk and thereafter a chaos orb. All not playable with a single badlands. While he played a dib and went all the way in a few turns, saccing his mox/ sol ring, relic barrier and copy artifact into his atog (9+3). Too bad. I had the answers in hand…if I just had drawn a land to play out a terror… next card was a maze…
0-2
3-3 in matches (8-6 in games)
This was a bad draw and a typical boreal strip game.
He had kept 4 dibs in – so sideboarding CiaB for 2 dibs and keeping 1 atog in would have been a smarter choice. Furthermore, as I do not play boreal a lot, the question is if I played my lands correctly. It seemed logical to safe my badlands as it is good for the troll, but if I had saved my city, then I would have been more flexible and would have been able to play the ancestral
So unfortunately, this meant that a top 16 would definitely be out of the question. I hoped now to get 2 nice matches
Match 7
Richard Stebbing
He has had great finishes as well. He played a UWb workshop deck. My sideboard was not perfect against robots as I hoped not to encounter them.
He won the coinflip (4/3)
Game 1:
Hand: 2 lands, 2 factories, ancestral, mox R and a bolt. I would say a great hand…
But not for his opening, He played a LoA…
I drew a land, played ancestral, getting 2 more moxen and a land…. no strip, but I was still ahead on cards. I only played 1 of the moxen. He got an extra card of LoA and played a Tundra and sol ring. I drew a timetwister. I doubted what to do – I had still 2 lands, 2 factory, 2 moxen and a bolt in hand. Not the best cards to have and no answer to an active LoA. Factories could give some pressure, but I assumed that I just would be outdrawn. I doubted whether to play no land (and hopefully drawing a strip with my next 7) or a factory and whether I should play the bolt or leave my mana open for any vises. I decided to not play the factory and to not play the bolt. So, I played my 2 moxen, timetwister, leaving 1 land open. Unfortunately, I drew no vises and no strips. Atog, terror, bolt, psiblast, sol’kanar, disk and an underground. I played the land and Atog. He drew an extra card. Played a workshop and an icy – so now I knew what he was playing. I drew a DT and searched for a strip for his LoA. He let the atog attack for 1, tapping a land of mine instead + manaburn for 1 (18). He played a factory and a Su-chi. I psiblasted it in my turn and bolted his factory in response. (18-18). I attacked with my atog (17-18). He played his single the abyss… which killed my atog. Luckily, I had my disk in hand (as I only had a disk and orb as outs against his abyss). He had no answer for it… yet. However, He played a time walk, DT (for disenchant) and played it in his second turn…. To make matters worse, he also had a MT for my hand (sol’kanar, terror (useless) and a bolt, which I could not cast as I had stupidly tapped my only red source). We played draw – go for a couple of turns. I was drawing land and he was drawing relic barrier and icy. Tapping my lands / mox. I stripped his strip and played a LoA hoping to get to 7. But, he got gas with 1 and later a second Su-chi without me drawing any answers for it
0-1
I could have dealt 6 more damage with the bolts which I did not play, and the atog more aggressively by saccing moxen (7) – which could have made it a closer game especially as I had drawn a psi blast in one of the last turn.
Sideboard:
Keep it so aggro possible. So, I kept all creatures in. The bolts are useless against his robots.
In: mana drain, 2 shatter, 1 hurkyl’s recall, 2 disks and 1 ReB
Out: 4 bolts, mox G, terror and sol’kanar
Game 2:
Hand 1: 2 strip, badlands, underground, troll, mana drain, factory. Not bad… but it did not feel good enough
Hand 2: 2 underground sea, sol ring, factory, troll, atog and MT. Kept and put atog to the bottom.
I played a factory and a mox. He had a great opening with mox U, workshop and Su Chi. I played a MT for 3 getting his copy (!), factory and strip. In his turn he hit me for 4 (20-16) and played a factory. I had a psiblast and troll in hand. After debating, I played a badlands and a troll defender with B open instead of killing his Su-chi. He had an answer with mox B and an icy, tapping my troll (12). I drew a disk. Disk was more devastating than psi blast – but it would cost me another 4 life at least. But if the disk worked I could keep the psiblast for later. So, I played the disk and attacked with the troll (otherwise it would have been tapped in his turn) keeping a factory and badlands back (signaling a bolt/ defense as he had a factory in play as well) He attacked with his Su chi (17-8) and luckily he had no answer for my disk.
He played the abyss though – wanting to get my troll (his only black sources was a mox B). I lost my troll in the upkeep. I drew another disk. I used the disk. He did take 4 damage of his su-chi , not activating his factory 13-8 and not blocking my factory (11-8). In his turn he played an underground sea and attacked with his factory, which I psi blasted (11-6). He only had an underground sea and a workshop in play now. I drew another factory and attacked for 3 (8-6). He had nothing. I drew a troll. Which I did not play as I wanted to attack with both factories again (4-6) hoping that he would not draw any outs. Which he didn’t. Playing the troll would have been a safer choice, though.
1-1
Game 3
No sideboard changes. I kept my vises in although he would start
Hand: 2 badlands, mox W, vise, DT, disk and psiblast. I kept. Not sure whether it would be good enough, but it had some different options to play,
He apparently had a slow start and played only a factory, which made my vise better. I drew a LoA – perfect! I drew an extra card and played mox W and vise. He got to 18, played a strip for my LoA and stayed on 6 cards. I drew a strip for his factory, perfect with a vise out (16). He had another strip which he did not use, apparently needing his lands. I played a badlands and a DT- but for what – I had no blue sources – so ancestral was out of the question. Sol ring or black lotus? (I had a troll in hand – so I could play it sooner. At the end, I chose the wheel (hoping not to get BeB later on). He had a workshop and an icy (14). I drew a shatter for his icy – what a luck. He played nothing (13). I played my troll and another vise which I had just drawn. He got to 9 life. Played an icy but still no mana available to tap my troll. The troll put him to 6 life. I played a disk. He got to 2 life. Got a tundra, copy artifact (mox W) out and tapped my troll. I had a psi blast and wheel in hand. He was on 5 cards. So, I passed, hoping to get some U mana sources. He had a disenchant for my disk. I did not use my disk and kept my vises in play. He played a Su Chi. I drew an atog. Vises were not active anymore, troll could be blocked by Su-chi, atog tapped by the icy and he was tapped out…. Now, it was time for the wheel as I did not believe that he would draw into 3 usable instants- he discarded 3 trikes and a blue card – next turn he would have been able to play them. I played a factory and a sol ring, but it was not necessary anymore. He had no answer to the 2 vises.
2-1
4-3 in matches (10-7)
Last match 8
Against Robbie van Bakel. A local Dutch guy. We have played alot online (ODOL) and he is an organizer of sweet only basic set ABUrevised here in The Netherlands.
We already played against each other before the derby started. So, we knew what we were up against. Although we both had made some adjustments to our decks. He played a GWu Erhnam on ice deck.
(Sorry no deckpic yet)
Coinflip was won by Robbie (4/4)
Game 1
Hand: strip, mox U, Lotus, dib, timewalk and 2 other lands. Fantastic!
He started with a factory, mox U and sol ring, also not bad. My opening became even better as I drew an ancestral. So, strip, mox U, lotus, dib and time walk. Into next turn ancestral, land, strip his factory, vise and attack with the dib (17-19). He had 4 cards on hand so no vise damage. He played a LoA, not the land he needed and passed. I played a factory and an atog and attacked with the dib (14-18). He had a tundra, still not the land he needed, as he had (as he told me later) elves, ice storms and erhnam in hand. I attacked for 4 (no saccing 10-17). As he had played no balance last turn, I went all the way and played my last creature in hand (troll) to increase the pressure. I still had a land and psiblast in hand. But this was too greedy as he drew into his balance. Killing my 3 creatures, 1 land and him loosing 2 ice storms. (Better would have been to attack with my factory + saccing 2 artifacts into the atog instead of playing a troll, which would have put him on 4 life while still holding a troll and psiblast). In my turn, I attacked with the factory (8-17). He had nothing. The Factory put him on 6. Next turn, my factory got sworded, but that did not matter anymore as I had drawn the second psiblast. Dealing 8 damage in 2 consecutive turns
1-0
So, he had elves, erhnam , ice storms and would start again. I thought that being more in control would work better against him. As long as I would get enough mana sources. CiaB and terror would work great against his erhnams and Serra’s
Out: 4 vises, 2 dibs, 2 draw7 and a shatter
In: mana drain, Beb, 1 disk, earthquake, terror, maze, braingeyser, and 2 CiaB
Game 2
Hand: potentially fantastic again, volcanic, strip, sol ring, ancestral, troll, terror and atog. But, I need to draw some colored mana sources.
He started with a LoA. Which I stripped after I drew a FB. He played also a strip. I did not draw any land (ReB), so I played my last land in hand: volcanic. I hoped that he would not strip it in my turn, as otherwise I needed to discard a card if I played the ancestral in my turn. Luckily, he did not. So, I got 3 cards in his upkeep – getting badlands, strip and another terror. He played no land – so he had kept a risky hand with only a strip and LoA as only mana sources, that was the reason why he did not strip my land. I played a land, sol ring and as he had no colored sources a troll without B open, instead of an atog. A bit greedy, but unfortunately it did not pay off as he drew a city and played a BeB, killing my troll, which I otherwise could have regenerated or could have saved with a ReB. I stripped his city and played an atog. Now he drew a tundra and played an orb. I drew more reactive spells (CiaB) and attacked for 1. He had a factory. Next turn, I debated whether to attack into his factory or not (risk for me was that if he blocked I needed to sac my sol ring to make him use his orb on my atog or just lose my atog, as it was a bluff attack – but risk for him was that if I would have a bolt of shatter it would be bad for him. Robbie first wanted to block – but chose otherwise and orbed my atog. I played a time walk into a new troll, which got plowed immediately (18-23). He attacked with the factory (18-21). I drew and played a disk. He attacked again 18-19. I had a DT. I had a full grip with reactive cards – what to get – only logical was a MT. Robbie played a pendelhaven and finally an erhnam (I still had 2 terrors and CiaB in hand and a disk in play). I played a MT for his hand and that was game. Robbie has had 2 games with bad draws, seeing me playing lots of power and just now when he was able to play anything, his hand got MT…. I was sorry for him….. but unfortunately, that’s OS, and especially at boreal format the games are hard. But on the other hand – I still had no pressure at all – only reactive spells – the game was not completely over yet.
So, I ended the derby at 5-3 – 15 points on place 36/146. Which is still quite good, taken into account that I played against excellent opponents and quite a lot of tier 1 deck. My OMW would not have been good enough to reach top 16 if I would have been able to win all my batch 2 matches.
I had played 19 games with a 12-7 record, meaning I won 63% of the games which is a reasonable finish especially taken into account that I lost 3 matches. My first batch opponent Parker finished first with a 7-1 record and also a 63%-win percentage. I won 6 out of the 8 first games I played.
This deck played quite well. I have lost a few games just by sheer bad luck and a few in which other choices could have given me a better outcome. On the other hand, I had won a few games also just by sheer luck as my opponents were drawing blanks or were mana screwed.
Boreal format is quite a different format to play as SL / Atlantic. I like it as an alternative format, to play it some but not too many times. It is really an aggro format and games can be just won by being mana screwed or flooded which makes it less fun. As a few strips and some early pressure can be devastating, but also further in the game when both are hellbent drawing 5 consecutive turns mana sources (what can happen with 27-29 mana sources) can be devastating. There are just less spells and thus less magic involved in the decks as compared to the other formats. I have had some quite interesting games, but also quite a lot of lackluster games.
Another thing to realize is that it is better to safe your creatures if possible. Less creatures are played, so a single creature can make the difference. A few times I did not safe a creature or did not have the possibility to safe it and I still regret it. Also, I was quite content a few times that my opponents did not safe their atog from burn.
I am not sure what I would change. I think this deck is really competitive and has a lot going. I liked to have different strategical options available against certain decks. To change between aggro – control depending on the deck I played against, was really nice. This deck can compete with the other tier 1 decks.
The question is if vises or more burn (chains) would be better. Vises can be really really good in this format and it makes atog work. Atog is a nice, dangerous and easy to play 2 drop, which a troll burn deck would lack. The orders are played, but getting early BB can be a problem in boreal and orcs are not that good. So, I would rather opt for the vise/atog version as main start of a troll list than a burn troll list. But sometimes the vises do nothing on their own, especially without atog to buff. Especially against fast start against lions/ pixies the chains would be better as they can also serve as removal against opponents early treats and are later always a possible 3 damage on the face while a vise can whiff.
Both options would work fine (4 vises + 4 atogs or 4 chains + 2 orders + 2 extra psiblast (4 in total) and depends a bit what you would like (high risk – high reward…). I think that vises are better against the general field, however at the high-end tables it could be a hit or miss really depending on power draws and the ability to deploy early treats from both sides.
There are a few 1-offs on my list: power sink, disk, shatter, fireball, terror, sol’kanar.
Maybe terror is the most debatable card in my list as it’s a useless card against workshop (without atog) and mono B. But against other decks it is great. It kills, early lions, pixies, serra, dibs, erhnam, pomped atogs and trolls. Only one or two times it was (almost) completely useless, but other times it really helped me win the game. I think with this meta a 1-off terror main could be a good choice and I was almost always happy to see a terror. The question is, if a single paralyze would function the same. It is even easier to cast. Can be played on artifact creatures and derelors. But it’s effect can be neglected if 4 is paid. Which could happen later in the game.
Power sink has helped me a few games as well, countering key pieces. But in other games, it was a dead card or I was not able to counter the card. Especially, when going to the control plan a few counters are needed. Maybe more in the side, and maybe just real counterspells instead of power sink.
Sol’kanar was really a good creature. The times I played him; he made a differences. And there were times that I hoped to draw him, but did not. 5cc is steep in the format. But Serra’s and sengirs are played as well and those are easier to cast. Question is whether sol’kanar would be better than a sengir or derelor… I am not sure yet… I was happy to be able to play him when my opponent had a serra in play as the king would outrun the serra.
The single fireball has won me games. I never had the opportunity to split the fireball and that would be the reason to play it over a disintegrate. As more troll lists are appearing I would maybe change it to a disintegrate.
For me, I think the most debatable for main deck were disk and the shatter. Both have not impressed me that much in the first games. Many decks were aggro, relying on early creatures and burn in which shatter could be a dead card. Shatter could help for the vise / mana denial/ atog plan, but relic barrier would be better. The reason why I chose shatter over barrier was that I wanted to sideboard towards disks and barriers get racked by the disks. But, maybe a single barrier would have been better than a single shatter in this list. The disk is a nice reset button and a possible DT target. It could help against many enchantments (the abyss, dreams etc.). A few times it could have helped me the first game – but it was disenchanted. So, as a 1-off it still is a good card to have.
So most likely I would remove the power sink, change the shatter to a relic barrier, change the fireball for a disintegrate and maybe remove the disk to the side as well. Hereby, getting back to 60 cards or putting the fourth atog and a derelor in as card 61. It is good to have a bit more pressure. Braingeyser is a card which could also be considered in the main as it helps to get out of mana flood and helps get more treats. But it is a bad card to have when mana screwed.
For my sideboard mostly the flash counter (sideboarded it in many times, but never used it, although one time I was happy to be able to protect my game winning creature without it being targeted) and hurkyl’s recall (sided it in twice, but not seen it) are debatable. Maybe changing them to hard counterspells or an extra maze would be the way to go.
This report will be published before the winner of the derby will be known. The top 16 is still happening. Of the 16 decks, 10 had atogs (5 with lions, 6 with dibs, 2 with pixies, 1 with robots and 1 with trolls), 2 robot decks (1 with atogs), 1 the deck, 1 monoB the rack, 1 BWur deck and 1 GUb arabian.
Altogether it was again a great derby experience. I was good meeting new people of this wonderful community. Thanks DFB for organizing this twice a year event.
