Gameday 8
Bonjour everyone! I’m Richard [they/any]
I really had a blast yesterday while playing on the 8th and last gameday of Season 2025/26 of the Lega Pauper Lipsia. I finished third place, which most certainly contributes to my mood, but something was different this time around. On the 7th gameday I secured fourth place, but back then it felt like I more or less stumbled into it by being quite lucky.
This time however it felt like I had the steering wheel in my hand almost the entire time. And additionally, I got quite lucky again, not gonna lie.
Everyone who knows me, also knows which deck I would be playing, the best and only deck for me: Zubera Storm!!
Just kidding, it was Caw Gates.
At the beginning of this season, I started to play this deck and I really thought I could improve the classic list. I tried Mob Lookout and various sideboard shenanigans, even played Foil or two Envelops mainboard. Some people walked by my game on the 3rd or 4th gameday and said: “Crazy draft deck you have there!” But time passed and I started to grow up and every time I played this deck, I realized the beauty of simplicity.
Now my decklist is the most normal it has ever been! Only my sideboard had a little tweak, because I was expecting everyone on Elves or White Weenies, so I swapped out 1 Hydroblast and 1 Palace Sentinel for 2 Breath Weapons. I think Arms of Hadar is the better card, but against Mono Blue Fae, I would want the Red Elemental Blasts and the Sweeper, so I needed to have both in the same color. For everyone who doesn’t know the card Glorious Gale, it’s just an Essence Scatter/Remove Soul/False Summoning that loves Spiderman.
Because of various circumstances I didn’t get more than 4 hours of sleep the night before this tournament, so I have to admit my memory is kind of foggy even after this short time. I’ll try to capture the vibe of the games, but I might get mixed up with the order of things.
Actual footage of my deck that day:
- -
Match 1 vs. Tim on Izzet Skred 2:0
To be frank, I have never played this matchup before with Caw Gates. When Tim plays the first Snow-covered Island I still think it’s a style choice, but then he fetches a Volatile Fjord and it dawns on me. Not knowing the decklist of my opponent makes this game a bit harder, but the three cups of coffee in my bloodstream make my brain go brr. I see Lightning Bolts, Skreds, Tolarian Terror and even a Breath Weapon in Game One. I sit patiently on my dwindling life total, being very calm with my Counterspells, Prismatic Strands and my Guardian of the Guildpact. My biggest weakness is my itchy trigger finger on my Counterspells and I know that.
Tim is an extremely cool person and friendly opponent, who is really easy to talk to! He also plays very cleanly and without any mistakes like a pro, which freaks me out a bit. Then Tim drops an Azure Fleet Admiral. Monarch plus an unblockable creature is actually pretty sick! Thank Oketra, I still have Prismatic Strands in hand. I manage to resolve Guardian of the Guildpact with Counterspell backup and steal the Monarchy like I’m Marchesa. Casting Prismatic Strands on Blue for two Turns gives me the card advantage that can’t be beaten and I win.
At this point I have to mention, that I spend many, many hours crafting a sideboard guide for this exact gameday, by skipping through YouTube videos and taking notes, reading through Paupergeddon reports and asking friends who are much smarter than me.
Izzet Skred is not in that guide.
When I look at my sideboard, I immediately see 13 cards I want to put in.
I decide to sideboard in 1 Palace Sentinel, 2 Dispel, 4 Red Elemental Blasts, 2 Glorious Gale and take out 4 Modern Age, 3 Thraben Charm, 2 Outlaw Medic. The reason being that I want to be the slower more controlling deck, steal the monarchy again, eventually even just with casting a Palace Sentinel and then outvalue them. I decide not to put in my Blue Elemental Blasts because I don’t worry too much about the red side of their deck controlling the early game.
I know they could have Red Elemental Blasts too, but I think I will just observe his deck first and then potentially sideboard again before Game 3.
We never get to game three because the next game works completely according to plan. My Red Elemental Blasts being the best card by countering Murmuring Mystics. I outvalue him and take over the game.
Afterwards Tim is super helpful and we have a wonderful discussion about my sideboarding, which confirms my choices. I’m really proud of myself for winning against this very good player!
Match 2 vs. Jakub on Dimir Snacky Terror 2:0
When I see Jakub being my next opponent, I’m very happy because he’s such a fun person to play magic with! He helped me with crafting my sideboard for this matchday and his insights into playing Magic are always amazing.
I also know that these games will be really hard to win for me, because he really knows what he’s doing. I have played against this deck with other pilots, but never him in the seat.
Jakub plays Sneaky Snackers, Tolarian Terror and Gurmag Angler in the first game, which present quite a significant clock towards ending the game. I decide to remove Gurmag so I can cast Prismatic Strands on blue reliably and start to outvalue him with my Squadron Boys doing the heavy lifting. It feels like a very tough fight and I struggle to keep my footing. After some thinking Jakub concedes the first game and I feel very relieved. This felt very close! Sideboarding is difficult on account of not knowing what to take out. I decide to go for the classic: Putting in 4 Red Elemental Blasts, 2 Dispel, 1 Palace Sentinel and taking out 1 Outlaw Medic, 2 Thraben Charm, 2 Prismatic Strands, 2 Modern Age. In hindsight I should have taken out 4 Modern Age and 2-3 Outlaw Medics instead probably.
Second game is also really tough and I don’t remember what gave me the small edge to win this. I remember someone walking by and asking Jakub how it was going and him saying something like “…it’s hard because, R. is playing this well…”, which made me very proud. It feels like a huge compliment from this cunning and very strong player.
Match 3 Jean-Michel on Golgari Gardens 2:1 (on stream)
Talking about strong players, I see Jemi sitting at table 1 and the Dark Souls Boss Fight music starts playing in my head.
Also, I never got to table 1 during this entire season and I’m infinitely excited. This is the feature match table, where the games are filmed and uploaded on YouTube with a genius commentary from Moritz and Phil. These videos mean a lot to me, because their commentary was giving me amazing insights into this crazy complicated card game. I feel like I owe them a deeper understanding for this game, that I couldn’t have dreamt of a year ago. So, I already feel like I’m on my favorite television show and my heart starts pumping like crazy.
Jean-Michel is smiling at me as I approach the table, he is the winner of last years Common Island, the biggest Pauper Tournament in Germany at that time!
He’s almost certainly on White Weenies as he’s the King of this deck. I already start thinking about my sideboard and I’m glad I put in Breath Weapon the day before. With Prismatic Strands in White Weenies Main Deck, I’ll have to be really careful not to rely too much on my lifegain to survive the backswing, as well as…
Jean-Michel plays his first land: It’s a basic swamp. A swamp by Zoran Cardula. I really like the simplicity of this art-deco artwork, though I prefer the one by Matteo Bassini from the same set. Bassini himself told me, he was unhappy with the darkness and the contrast of the final printing, because he thinks too many details are lost because of it. My jaw drops. I kept my hand because I thought it would be good against White Weenies! Now I see a swamp and don’t know how to control deck anymore. He fetches a Haunted Mire and I say “Oh god no!”. It’s Golgari Gardens, which is famously a bad matchup for my deck. Only the most skilled players can play this deck to its full potential and Jemi is one of those players.
I feel like the first game is going okay, I can prevent a crypt rat and I feel good until Jemi says. “Let’s maybe try this and let’s see if it works” and drops the Thorn of the Black Rose. Now the Game changes its objective. If I can steal the monarchy, I will win this. I start to dive deep into the think tank, because I only once played against this deck with Caw Gates. At one point Jemi says: “We have to hurry if we want to get through all games.” and I realize that I’ve been playing way too slowly. I drop a Guardian of the Guildpact and have a backup Counterspell. I strongly assume there is probably only one more tithing blade to deal with it in Jemi’s deck. Jemi plays a spell I don’t even remember and my trigger finger itches. I fire off Counterspell and get punished by the Tithing Blade that follows immediately.
For Sideboarding I put in: 2 Glorious Gale, 2 Dispel and 1 Palace Sentinel and take out 4 Prismatic Strands and 1 Thraben Charm.
I don’t really remember the second game, so check out the stream or Jemi’s own report on this blog here. We both play very quickly to race against the clock. I take the second game and we go to the third one.
Jemi keeps a healthy seven cards in his starting hand and I mulligan to four. Is this lost already? Jean-Michel starts playing draw spells and my heart never stops racing. I play a Squadron Hawk, pass turn. In my next turn, the bird gets bolted underneath my Basilisk Gate Trigger. I play a Squadron Hawk, pass turn. In my next turn, the bird gets bolted underneath my Basilisk Gate Trigger. I play a Squadron Hawk, pass turn. This squadron hawk get’s Drown in Sorrowed. Woah, Jemi must be desperate. I play Squadron Hawk, pass turn. I close the game.
Afterwards Jemi showed me his hand, it was all lands. I really got lucky! What an incredible experience!
Until now I only had really intense and fun games against incredibly strong people, who were also very cool to play with! This day is already so much fun!
I will treat myself to a Pizza during the following lunch break.
Match 4 vs. Eric on Rakdos Madness 1:1
In between games I talked a bit to Eric and I saw that he only had really unfavorable matchups today. I was going to be the next one in that line! I was at the previous Paupergeddon in Italy with a group of people including Eric and so many other cool folks. I really value Eric as a kind and patient person who puts a lot of effort into this playgroup in Leipzig by organizing and helping with tournaments, including the Common Island last year. I knew his deck and he knew mine. I knew it wouldn’t be easy for me because he could easily outrace me with my tapped lands and control my board, as well as generating a lot of card advantage via his discard engines. The first game seemed solid enough. I had a really stupid misplay, where my brain stumbled over its own brain-feet (come at me, all you neurosurgeons reading this). I put back my hawks with my brainstorm and then I wanted to play Squadron Hawk into Modern Age, but completely mixed up the correct order of that, had to discard a cat after drawing a hawk from the top. I froze up because I realized this was still being filmed. This really stressed me out, but I could recover somehow and finish the game with double Basilisk Gates on Medic.
Sideboarding in: 4 Blue Elemental Blasts, 2 Dispel and sideboarding out 1 Guardian of the Guildpact, 4 Modern Age, 1 Thraben Charm.
The second game was miserable, my misplays were getting more and more, I struggled to keep my footing. I didn’t see a basilisk gate at all in that game. For what feels like 20 turns we both just topdecked and passed. Eric hitting me for 2 damage each turn and me hitting him for 1 with lifelink every turn. There was no getting out of this, it was a prison of my own making. Against other decks I stopped countering the draw spells because I want to keep my counters for the threats. But in hindsight I should have countered way more draw spells. We are in the 4th turn in overtime and Eric starts playing all his spells in one turn.
I counter as much as I can and, in the end, I have 1 point of life left and 1 Heap Gate in hand. Eric plays his last card in hand. I see in slow motion the Voldaren Epicure hitting the battlefield. I go to exactly zero.
I’m devastated. I’m very, very sad. If Eric would have just won the entire match, I would have been happy for him, but this means, we both draw and no one of us will stay at this table. I check for legality and then I concede the third game. It feels great and Eric is really happy and I’m happy again too!
Match 5 vs. Günni on Jund Wildfire 2:0
I’m actually a bit relieved, that I’m not being filmed anymore. It was a rush, but I feel my shoulders relax and my teeth unclench.
My next opponent is Günni, who is also one hell of a strong player. For me the pressure is off, because this day today was already the performance of my lifetime. I assume Günni will be on Red Rally, which is a quick but painful matchup for me. Sometimes I lose before I cast my first spell, sometimes I can stabilize. At least it’s not another grindy matchup, my brain probably can’t take any more.
My hand is great against Red Rally with one Sea Gate, two Basilisk Gates and an Outlaw Medic, I’ll be able to block on turn 2, maybe swing back on turn 3, worst case, draw a card into my Squadron Hawk plus Brainstorm Synergy, may I’ll…
Günni plays the first land: a Slagwoods Bridge. Jaw drops again. Memo to myself: Stop assuming everyone’s deck, R.!
At least I know how to play this:
- Get my Basilisk Gates hit with Cleansing Wildfire: Check
- Counter/Remove all the threats: Check
- Let a Gixian Infiltrator slip through and attack into it with an unpumped Outlaw Medic, while seeing and realizing that they have a fetchland they can crack, but miscalculating, that that means 3 power and my creature has only 3 toughness, so this was completely stupid, but hey at least I draw a card: Check
- Finish the Job with a huge Squadron Hawk in the air: Check
I’m really proud of my sideboard, because I don’t play 2 Dust 2 Furious Dust anymore, but instead focus on the real threats. Side in: 4 Blue Elemental Blasts, 2 Glorious Gale, 2 Dispel, 1 Palace Sentinel. Side out: 4 Modern Age, 4 Prismatic Strands, 1 Guardian.
Game two Günni has to mulligan to 4 cards in hand, but manages to recover with #justjundthings. I know this matchup like the back of my hand (black sleeves, so not hard to remember actually). We trade Blue Elemental Blasts vs. Cleansing Wildfires and Red Elemental Blasts. I draw a lot of Basilisk Gates, so I can spare a few getting burned down. Günni slams a Makeshift Munitions on a turn I’m unprepared for it, because I countered a Writhing Chrysalis. I topdeck a Lorien Revealed into my final Blue Elemental Blast and destroy the enchantment, but not before he removes all my creatures in response. I somehow recover and finish the game. Günni playing really well, but a mulligan to 4 takes its toll.
All in all, I felt really euphoric after this day. We had a beautiful closing ceremony for this season afterwards. As always, the gamedays was the highlight of the month. I can’t stress enough how much this means to me and how incredible all the people who organized it are. Thank you to Phil and Moritz for your video commentary!
Also, a huge shoutout to my opponents, who were all an absolute delight to play with. See you all next season!