On Saturday, the 17th of May, I attended the Common Cause event, which I had been super excited about for weeks already. This time it was held at the Unite venue, right across from the CityComics store — spacious and well-lit.
I brought with me my most cherished Familiars deck, having settled for just two High Tides the night before, with no further testing. Since I expected Chrysalis to be my worst matchup, I packed a good bit of Thraben Charms and Destroy Evils in the sideboard.
Match 1 – Mono U Terror
One of my worst matchups. My opponent ran through me both games.
Result: 0:2
Match 2 – Jund Wildfire
- Game 1: A back-and-forth game, but I stalled with flickers and counters. Played High Tide and milled them for 2×10^16 with Stream of Thought.
- Game 2: They established a clock with Chrysalis and hit my hand with Duress, discarding Dust to Dust. Couldn’t recover.
Result: 1:1
Match 3 – Mono U Faeries
- Game 1: Opponent kept a slow hand. I landed a turn 3 Mulldrifter (Mulli) and comboed off quickly.
- Game 2: Kept a slower hand with Snap. Used tempo advantage, resolved Murmuring Mystic, and found the combo.
Result: 2:0
Match 4 – Dimir Terror
Game 1: Opponent landed Tolarian Terror and Gurmag Angler early. I was at 5 life before making a slick play:
Blocked with Familiar and Mulli, then Ephemerated Mulli, drew into Meeting of Minds, tapped down for blue, drew into Snap, and bounced Familiar — just in time to assemble the combo.
Game 2: Less top-deck luck. God-Pharaoh’s Faithful tried her best, but didn’t hold. Misplayed a tapped land during overtime.
Result: 1:1
Match 5 – Gruul Ramp (my girlfriend ❤️)
- Game 1: Had a magical Christmas wonderland hand — combo’d by turn 5.
- Game 2: Kept Archaeomancer and Counterspell for early disruption. Bounced her Avenging Hunter and Arbor Elf, gained Initiative, and found the combo.
Result: 2:0
Match 6 – Jund Wildfire (friend from Leipzig)
- Game 1: Comboed early, little interaction.
- Game 2: Mediocre 6-card hand, should’ve been a 5. Got buried under Refurbished Familiar.
- Game 3: Very grindy. Misplayed into Red Blast the first time. Eventually comboed with infinite mana but no wincon. Dug deep — win pieces were in bottom 3. Opponent scooped in overtime.
Result: 2:1
Match 7 – Walls
- Game 1: Drew the wrong cards — Faithfuls and Mystic. No meaningful interaction. Lost.
- Game 2: Disrupted early, comboed off.
- Game 3: Less than 5 minutes on the clock. Lost before overtime.
Result: 1:2
Final Standing
Went 3:2:2 and placed #51 out of 115. Pretty proud of that!
I think I played well to my outs in most games. A couple of mulligans could have been better (I get tunnel vision if I see a Familiar + mana), but it was a fun day — so who cares? 😄
Just like the Spanish Inquisition, nobody expected High Tide, and that probably helped me win a few games.
Notes for Magdeburg (May 31)
- Pack more Terror hate.
- Cut down on Chrysalis hate.
- Maybe try Nature’s Chant for better odds against Spellbomb/Relic.
Thanks for reading, and see you at the next event!