Hello there, reader. It’s me, Jean-Michel (Jemi). After not being able to make it to the previous 6 Game days, I was very happy to be able to make it for the final one, and work on getting at least 1 trophy to participate in the Playoffs.
Deck Choice
I had been following the previous Lega Days and the local meta development, so I assumed that for the final day, we would potentially see a lot of Elves & White Weenies. Since I didn’t have the chance to play that much Pauper in the previous months, I wanted to go for a deck that I could play without too much effort. That meant either had to take my pet deck, White Weenies, or take Gardens, a deck I had been toying with more recently. But based on my assumption, WW didn’t sound like the right choice, since Elves were a very difficult match up, and Mirror wasn’t fun to play against. So Gardens it was, especially since it was a very strong deck against those 2 decks.
Card Choices
List was quite stock, using 10 creature-package, 14 removal spells, and the rest was mainly card draw related. Some small tweaks, with 1 campfire and 1 blood fountain.
Sideboard was also quite straightforward. See list here: https://moxfield.com/decks/60b23QQ-70uX4fm3WQSsyw
Match 1 vs White Weenies
My assumptions paid off already match 1. I was paired against White Weenies.
Game 1, I got to mulligan to 6 on the draw. It was quite the grindy game, where they presented constant pressure on the board, but grindy was exactly where Gardens wanted to be. I was able to constantly clear the board while keeping a healthy hand size, and finish it off with Troll.
Game 2, my opponent was able to very quickly present a large board, too quickly for me to remove, and I didn’t draw any of my Crypt Rats or Drown in Sorrow. Guardians Pledge then came out quickly, killing me.
Game 3, they mulled to 6. This game went similarly to game one, but this time, I also got to cast 2 Weather the Storm, once for 15 and once for 12, giving me more than enough time to stabilize the board and slap some trolls to finish it off.
Score: 1.0.0
Match 2 vs Paul on Elves
This was very much going as I wanted, as I sat in front of Paul, playing Elves. Game plan was very similar to the match earlier.
Game 1, I mulliganed to 6 on the draw. They started it very aggressively, and were able to slam a 15/16 hydra on turn 4, but didn’t bestow it (which he should have done and had a nice conversation about it after the match). I simply cast down it at the end step. On the next turn, I cast Crypt Rats and wiped the board. They never recovered from it and I won the first game.
Game 2 went very similarly. I was able to control the board easily, never allowing them to keep more than 1 elf on the board, while playing around their negate that they sided it, which I also saw due to Duress.
Score: 2.0.0
Match 3 vs Richard on Caw Gates (on stream)
Shoutout to Richard for being a fantastic opponent. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have much experience against this deck, and especially not with Gardens. You can watch the stream soon if you’re interested.
Game 1 was a grindy slug fest. Gardens did Gardens things, removing threats, drawing cards and winning with Emblems.
Game 2 this one was a quick one. I also sided in faerie macabre, which was a mistake looking at it again. Best way to learn though! In this game, I also apparently made another mistake, which I am looking forward to confirming from the video. I cast Duress during the game, and took away Thraben Charm. However, after talking about the match with Richard afterwards, they asked me why I didn’t discard the brainstorm instead, since Brainstorm/Hawk was such a strong play. It’s at that point that I realized that I actually thought they had 2 in hands. The second one was a German Dispel (Bannzauber), which I confused for a second Brainstorm. I will definitely remember to look more closely at my opponent‘s cards. Anyway, Richard was able to overwhelm the board with pumped flyers and take the game.
Game 3, I kept a risky 6 lander. Already another mistake. But to my defense, I had the Garden + Reckoner‘s Bargain, so I thought it would be okay.
Oh was I wrong.
Richard had to mulligan to 4, which made my 6 Lander starting hand also feel better.
Wrong again.
Unfortunately for me, I never got to play the game much, as I drew land after land (8 total be exact). Congrats to Richard for winning a crazy Mull to 4 game!!
Score: 2.1.0
Match 4 vs Dimir Terror
This match up was luckily one that I was prepared for, having played against it relatively often. (Shoutout to Jakub!).
Game 1, I got to resolve a very early Nihil Spellbomb. With my opponent not being able to commit enough to the board as easily, I simply removed creatures after creatures, while slowly getting at their life total with a buffed 1/2 plant, until I got the initiative online and grinded the game from there.
Game 2 was a quick game, due to me drawing every answer possible for their plan. I drew 3 duress, getting rid of 2 counterspell and 1 spell pierce, and was able to stop them from playing more Terrors by exiling early 2 cards with Faerie Macabre. They got stuck on lands, and decided to scoop from there.
Score: 3.1.0
Match 5 vs Max on Mono-Red-Synth
Shoutout to max, first of all, for being a very friendly opponent, for even allowing me 2 small take-backsies, which luckily didn’t affect the games and final result. My tired-self is however very grateful for it <3.
This match was also important, since it meant that I could potentially get a Trophy, and for Max, it meant for him to potentially get a Bye for Paupergeddon.
Game 1 went exactly as expected. I got absolutely and quickly obliterated. This was fine though, since now, I could side-in 10 cards.
Game 2 was a very tight match, bringing me down to 1 life, always waiting for either of us to tappout so that either I cast Weather or for them to bolt me for the win. Fortunately for me, I drew a second Weather the Storm, allowing me to stabilize and take over the game.
Game 3 was very unfortunate for my opponent. They ran out of gas very quickly due to just flipping lands after lands. Mac even had more lands then me from turn 4 on. I could stabilize the board from then on and took the win.
I finished in the end 4.1.0, 7th position, allowing me to participate in the Playoffs on the 24th of January! See you then!