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!