Cross Town Classic

Wow, what a weekend. If you haven’t already heard, IL defeated MN in the Cross Town Classic (that’s what I like to call it, I took that name from Xay). They had a pretty convincing win with a 30’ish point margin. It’s always tough to win away from home because of the lack of sleep and driving but they did it convincingly and respectfully. Congratulations IL! Great job MN!

We’ve got to quickly set up another tournament soon for Josh & Mai Kao’s return. The guys will play Magic, while the girls go to a spa, or something like that.

Here’s my deck list:
3 Broodmate Dragons
3 Mulldrifters
3 Plumeveils
3 Wall of Reverence
1 Worldheart Pheonix

1 Broken Ambitions
2 Cruel Ultimatum
4 Cryptic Commands
4 Esper Charm
2 Terror
4 Volcanic Fallout
2 Wrath of God

1 Pithing Needle
1 Runed Halo

4 Reflecting Pool
1 Exotic Orchard
3 Islands
12 Vivid Lands
6 Filter Lands

Sideboard:
3 Vithian Stinger
3 Celestial Purge
3 Scepter of Fugue
2 Austere Command
2 Swerve
2 Wrath of God

3 Broodmate Dragons: a 4/4 flier for 3 mana is crazy! Think about it! In any game where you can get a 4/4 flier for 3 mana pretty much means that you’re going to get an awesome head start! Now imagine getting 2 4/4 fliers for 6 mana! Now that is absolutely ridiculous! If you want to get 2 4/4 fliers out, that will normally cost you at least 10 mana! But with Broodmate Dragon, you only have to spend 6 mana! You’re pretty much getting 2 4/4 fliers for 3 mana each. That is awesome card advantage!

3 Mulldrifters: you need to draw cards in order for this deck to work, most of the time; I will just evoke this card and bring it back with Cruel Ultimatum. Before without the walls, I would try to hard cast it and use it as a blocker, but now that I play with 6 walls, 4 Volcanic Fallouts, & 2 Wraths, I don’t need a 2/2 flier as much anymore, that’s why I only play with 3.

3 Plumeveils: a surprise blocker that takes out man-lands and can give you a little time against agro decks.

3 Wall of Reverence: another stall card, playing with 6 walls is the perfect way to stall. Having Wall of Reverence & Plumeveil in play is tough for a lot of decks to overcome, plus you’re gaining 4 life every turn.

1 Worldheart Pheonix: a really pesky card for my opponents. Plus, with all of the card advantage, after evoking a Mulldrifter on turn 3, you have to discard a card, making this card even better.

1 Broken Ambitions: I like getting this card in my opening hand and countering their first spell. They usually will think that you have extra Broken Ambitions when you actually only have one in your entire deck. I was thinking about taking this card out and adding another Mulldrifter or another land but I think I made the right decision with keeping it in.

2 Cruel Ultimatum: you have to maximize this card! Either you wait for your opponent to have only 3 cards in their hand or only one creature left on the board. If they only have 2 cards in their hand, then you could always bounce one of their permanents back to their hand. This is especially dirty when they have 2 cards in their hand and 2 creatures in play. You bounce one of those creatures and now they have only 1 creature in play and 3 cards in their hand. Making Cruel Ultimatum, extra Cruel!!! Bwa hahahaha! I also would normally would let my opponents play their Planeswalkers, which is normally a problem for 5CC to deal with, because I would eventually bounce it back to their hands when they only had 2 cards left in it to Cruel Ultimatum it away. There’s nothing worse than playing Cruel Ultimatum making your opponent discard down to 1 card and then they playing a Cloudgoat Ranger, forcing you to play Wrath of God to sweep the board.

4 Cryptic Command: I don’t use its “counter” mode as much as I used to now, I use it’s “bounce” ability more now. I sometimes will bounce my Pithing Needle or Runned Halo if there’s a new threat. I will also bounce back a Broodmate Dragon, if someone tries to Terror or PtE it. I also will bounce back planeswalkers or other pesky permanents my opponents control.

4 Esper Charm: like I said earlier, you need to draw cards in order for this deck to work. I was expecting a lot enchantments to played as well, making this card even better. Also, if my opponent was looking too comfortable with 5 cards in their hand, I would Esper Charm 2 of them away at the end of their turn, and then play Cruel Ultimatum to get rid of the other three.

2 Terror: spot removal. I still like Terror more then PtE because I feel like giving them an extra land gives them way too much of an advantage. Especially when playing 5CC, you need to hit your land drops every turn, giving them any type of advantage only hurts you. If they are playing with black or artifact creatures, then you still have your walls to stop them.

4 Volcanic Fallout: the main reason why 5CC doesn’t play with Cloudthresher anymore. The only cards in my deck that needed a green mana source where my 3 Broodmates and my Worldheart Pheonix. Great creature removal because it seems like everyone is playing with creatures toughness equal to or less than 2.

2 Wrath of God: I knew that the meta-game was going to be creature heavy so I decided to play with 2 Wraths, even though it would take out my 6 walls. But sometimes, 6 walls aren’t enough against the field, sometimes you need a little divine intervention.

1 Pithing Needle: mainly to stop Planewalkers, Figure, and Windbrisk Heights

1 Runed Halo: mainly for Hellspark Elemental, Banefire, Figures, or anything that could do a lot of damage to me really quick.

1 Exotic Orchard: I like to play with only 1, I think 2 is too risky

3 Islands: for Path to Exile, if PtE wasn’t so common, I would probably play with 2 Islands & 2 Exotic Orchard

Sideboard:

- If my opponent was playing White, I would assume that they’re bringing in Burrenton Forge-Tenders for the Fallouts. In response, I would take out my 4 Volcanic Fallouts and add my 2 Wrath of God & 2 Austere Commands. Because of the Wraths and Austere Commands being able to take out my walls, I would often sideboard out my 3 Wall of Revence as well, allowing me to put in my 3 Scepeter of Fugue. This drastically changed the nature of my deck to be even more controlling!

Okay, so that was my deck list. On Wednesday, I’ll give you guys a full battle report and my draft deck! Peace!