SCG Modern Classic Report – Naya Scapeshift

By Richard Meshell

Ever since the great finish at TCG Modern States and missing GP Charlotte, I was really excited to get back and play in a large tournament. The RG Scapeshift deck I’ve been playing for the past few months has performed well for me, and I’ve gotten a great feel for how the deck performs in sideboarded games and in certain matchups. I was still however having issues with very aggressive decks like Zoo , Burn, Bant Eldrazi, and sometimes Infect. Combo matchups were worse than that (Ad Nauseam, RUG/Bring to Light Scapeshift).

I spent the days prior to the tournament thinking about how I could easily add some percentage points to these matchups. The games in which the deck had performed well felt independent of what “flex” cards I chose (Lightning Bolt, Relic of Progenitus). Given this, I wanted to explore the idea of adding a splash color where the extra green fetches in the deck offered an avenue for it. Black, using Verdant Catacombs, would give access to Slaughter Games, Terminate, and Ob Nixilis, the Fallen. White, using the existing Windswept Heaths, would give access to better removal and some of the best sideboard cards in the format (Path to Exile, Timely Reinforcements, Leyline of Sanctity, etc). Blue, using Misty Rainforest, would give access to Izzet Charm. Ultimately I decided to add a light white splash, swapping out the mainboard Lightning Bolts for Path to Exile. Phyrexian Unlife was added to the sideboard at the cost of two Anger of the Gods and an alternate win condition, Koth and Inferno Titan.

Below is the deck I sleeved up and registered:

Deck: SCG Classic June 2016 – Naya Titanshift
Lands		Spells		Creatures		Sideboard
2	Cinder Glade	3	Explore	4	Primeval Titan	3	Phyrexian Unlife
2	Forest	4	Khalni Heart Expedition	4	Sakura-Tribe Elder	3	Obstinate Baloth
7	Mountain	4	Path to Exile			3	Nature’s Claim
1	Plains	2	Prismatic Omen			2	Sudden Shock
1	Sacred Foundry	2	Relic of Progenitus			1	Anger of the Gods
2	Stomping Ground	4	Scapeshift			2	Grafdigger’s Cage
1	Temple Garden	4	Search for Tomorrow			1	Melira, Sylvok Outcast
4	Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle	2	Summoner’s Pact
3	Windswept Heath
4	Wooded Foothills
27	cards	25	cards	8	cards	15	cards
Display deck statistics

I sleeved this version the night before the tournament and had yet to test it at all. However I was confident in my ability to win games with the 68 cards that had not changed.

I get to the tournament hall at 8 a.m for a 9 a.m start, after an hour drive. Around 8:45 a.m, the power in the convention hall goes out. Lights and computers were restored quickly (likely a breaker trip), but nobody notices that the HVAC system did not turn back on. With temperatures in the 90’s for the past week and a hall with a few hundred people, it did not take long for the room temperature to quickly reach an uncomfortable level.

ROUNDS

Round 1: Andi with Affinity

My opponent, on the play, leads out with Ghost Quarter, Ornithopter, and Mox Opal followed by a Citadel and Plating the following turn. The newly added Paths were able to take care of the Ornithopter, but the follow up was a Vault Skirge that ultimately did me in. Game two, she had a fairly slow start, getting a hit in with Inkmoth Nexus then switching plans to attack with normal damage. I had a Prismatic Omen and Scapeshift on Turn 4 to close out Game 2. Game 3 felt much of the same, but I hit hard acceleration with 2 Explores. She then cast Surgical Extraction (paying 2 life to put her to 18) to target my Explores. With one remaining in the deck, this was fine. I’m unsure why my opponent chose this card, but it was the only real target for the spell. I was able to Scapeshift her from 18 the following turn. Lukily I had not exposed a Valakut, not thinking to play around an Extraction.

1-0-0

Round 2: George with Mardu

My opponent wins the dice roll and leads out with double Inquisition into Lingering Souls into Nahiri. He stripped a lot of my gas, but I managed to hit some in my draw steps. I had a huge misplay in this game. I reach 7 lands and draw into a Scapeshift. He is at 19 life with Nahiri ready to ultimate next turn. I do the full Scapeshift and shoot all the triggers at him, redirecting none to Nahiri and abruptly lose the next turn. I could chalk it up to the temperature rise in the room, but it was an obvious oversight. In Game 2, he leads out with a Leyline of Sanctity (I had not boarded at all for). My best shot was to win with Primeval Titan and Obstinate Baloths. He then plays Crumble to Dust on my Valakut, so now it certain that I try and win via beatdown. Ultimately, that is what happened as he boarded out a lot of spot removal and could not answer a resolved Titan. In game 3, he leads out with Leyline of Sanctity again. I’m weary of Crumble this game as my hand is more prepared for a Scapeshift kill. He plays Slaughter Games naming Scapeshift and leaves me with the only option of winning via beats. I played a Phyrexian Unlife to buy a few extra turns but he ultimately finds Nahri, exiles the Unlife, and Bolts me (after a few shots from Shambling Vent). Up to this point, we were closing in on time in the round so I thought I could play for a draw (since outright winning seemed unlikely), and developed the board to make his only out a Nahiri (which I couldn’t deal with anyway because of Leyline). The entire match didn’t feature my best playing ability and the convention hall was pretty toasty at this point.

To note, George went on to make Top 16. Here is is deck. 

1-1-0

Round 3: Alex with Jund

My opponent wins the dice roll and Inquisitions some ramp out of my hand. He misses his turn two play but follows it up with a Liliana. I can’t find pieces fast enough and Lili is able to ultimate, so he splits the piles into green sources (2) and non-green sources (4). I take the pile of non-green sources and devote the plan into just drawing the combo. It’s good to note that he had no pressure what-so-ever (No Dark Confidant, no Goyf, no Ravine) so I had a lot of time to rebuilt and combo off. In game 2, his pressure came from a Fulminator Mage, but not a lot of discard. I was able to Pact for a Titan and build an unbeatable board state. I dew into another Pact the turn after I played the first one but realized I had not paid for the Pact I just cast. My opponent had also not realized this, but I pointed the error out and we went to the next game. Oddly, game 3 went almost exactly like game 2 where I found enough ramp and cast Scapeshift. He seemed like he wasn’t having great draws, but his Dark Confidant was active for at least two turns (flipping lands).

2-1-0

Round 4: Dorian with Junk

I finally won a dice roll for the day and opted to play. My hand was lands, Search for Tomorrow, Sakura-Tribe Elder, and Scapeshift. My opponent Thoughtseizes on Turn 1 and takes the Sakura-Tribe Elder. He doesn’t find any pressure and I win with the Scapeshift. Game 2 went his way when he found a good mixture of discard, Fulminator Mage, and Kitchen Finks. Game 3 was a little more interesting as my opponent played out two Scavenging Oozes. I was ready to Scapeshift for 18, but an Ooze activation would put him to 19. I opted to play out some creatures (Tribe Elder and Baloth) to buy an extra turn or two. The plan worked and I won. I spoke to my opponent after the match and he admitted that he normally plays RG Tron, but borrowed his friend’s Junk deck for the event (i.e. had no reps with the deck). It showed in some of his lines, but he did pretty decent the rest of the day.

3-1-0

Round 5: Robert with Grixis Control

I lose the dice roll again, but my opponent leads out with a Darkslick Shores into Thought Scour. Grixis Control is a good deck, but it just doesn’t line up against what this blend of Scapeshift is trying to do for whatever reason. He gets early pressure in the form of Tasigur but I draw into some Tribe Elders to fog. He follows up with Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet  and I make the misplay of not sacrificing my Tribe Elders while it was on the stack, netting him two zombies. Luckily, my follow up play was the lethal Scapeshift. In Game 2, he’s able to get an early Crumble to Dust on my Valakuts with good pressure from Snapcasters and Vendillion Clique. Game 3 was very interesting. I’m again weary of Crumble to Dust but I’m ultimately forced to run it out in order to make a Scapeshift kill on time (I saw Mana Leak in his graveyard, so I’d want access to three open mana when I try to Scapeshift). He crumbles it, so my plan has to divert to Primeval Titan. I do not find a Titan, but do draw into all 3 of my Baloths. In the face of a Jace, Telepath Unbound that is getting ready to ultimate (and protected by a Tasigur), I cast all 3 of them. I also attempted to cast a dud Scapeshift in my hand to try and fix my mana a little better, to which it was met with an Invasive Surgery w/ Delium. He’s at a pretty low life total at this point from aggressively shocking, Thoughtseizes, and a hit or two from Baloth. He opts to ultimate Jace, so the plan becomes to beat down as fast as possible. Two Baloths, a Sakura Tribe Elder, and a topdecked Path to Exile (he had a Baloth and Creeping Tar pit available to block) to kill him from 5.

4-1-0

At this point, the HVAC caught up with the heat output from the few hundred people in it and the temperature fell to a warm, but reasonable level.

Round 6: Lucas with Naya Burn

I added Phyrexian Unlife to the board for this type of matchup, but this was probably one of the more feel bad games of the tournament. I win the dice roll and blind keep a lot of ramp with no action. I had all the lands in the world, but never found a kill in time. I also had a small misplay where I played Sakura-Tribe Elder and left it back to block instead of immediately sacrificing it. This left it open to Searing Blaze, which happened on my end step. This is a misplay because the 3 damage from Searing Blaze is 1 more than anything Tribe Elder is able to reliably block (Swiftspear, Goblin Guide). I was also exactly at 3 when he killed me, so the error quite possibly cost me a turn in a match where I really needed an extra draw step. Game 2, I mulliganed to 5 against his keep of 7. I was stuck on 5 lands, but my only ray of hope was to Pact for a Baloth and hope the lifegain resolved. It didn’t, and I was killed from 7 with a Boros Charm and Lava Spike.

In this game, Phyrexian Unlife might have done something but there was no clear cut out.

Lucas also went on to make Top 16. Here is his deck. 

4-2-0

Round 7: Christopher with Merfolk.

I was sitting at the table of lost souls, people who had just had their Top 8 dreams crushed by smearing their X-1 records. I win the dice roll and lead off with a Search for Tomorrow. My opponent plays an Island and Aether Vial. To gain insight into my mindstate at the time, I took a moment to convince myself I was not playing against BW Eldrazi Hatebears after seeing the Aether Vial. As Search for Tomorrow comes off suspend, he Spell Pierces it with the Vial at 1. I pay for the Pierce and he tumps in a Cursecatcher to fully negate the spell. Nabbing the ramp spells when you can is the correct play, however burning two cards to do it I believe wasn’t optimal as he maintained no pressure against a combo deck. I ramped up to 8 lands and Scapeshifted him from 20 life. After sideboarding, we presented our decks and were stopped by the event judge for a deck check. I have never received a deck check in the middle of a round and found the notion ridiculous. However I was up a game and felt 100% positive that my deck was registered correctly. I expressed my disinterest in having a mid-round deck check, but did not fight it as I could only gain from the check. To note, the check was sort of a tempo loss mentally because I had to sit on the sidelines after scoring a first round touchdown. We received our decks with no problems and started Game 2. I kept a hand with a few Path to Exiles and a Phyrexian Unlife, but no real action otherwise. I was able to PTE two of his lords to keep getting pinged by Silvergill Adept and Cursecatcher. I played out Phyrexian Unlife to buy a few turns. The card performed like I intended it to, buying me two extra turns (one to drop me below 0 life, and a second where his attack put me at 9 poison). However I could not find the pieces to cobble together a win. Game 3 was an exercise in the turn 4 win, as he tapped out on his turn 3 to cast a Kira, the Great Glass Spinner and I untapped with 6 lands to play Prismatic Omen and Scapeshift.

5-2-0

Round 8: Jacob with Infect – ID

My opponent offered to intentionally draw to basically guarantee both of us would make prizes at top 32. I was not clear on my breakers, but chose to just play it out with an outside shot at Top 16. We sit down and he leads off with a Glisterner Elf, on the play. I immediately regret my decision. I pathed his elf, but his follow up was an Inkmoth Nexus that began clocking and killed me on his turn 4 (I also had a turn 4 win in hand). Game 2 went a little better after I found a Sudden Shock and Summoner’s Pact/Melira to clear out an infect creature and render his Inkmoth Nexus useless. He played out a Spellskite, which forced me to Scapeshift with 8 lands. After this game, my opponent said “I’ll again offer the draw”. I think about it and agree since he is on the play for Game 3. We sign the slip and play it out anyway for fun.  My hand was stone cold nuts. Lands, Sudden Shock x 2, a ramp spell, and Scapeshift. I draw into more gas to fuel a lethal Scapeshift while burning the two shocks on infectors.

5-2-1

After the round finished and final standings were posted, we realized neither of us were locked for Top 16 had we won that match. His breakers were slightly better than mine, so it was possible he could have made it. I drew in at at 31st and collected some prize support (300 tix, about $75 in store credit). I was happy with the result, as it was an improvement on the my last SCG Classic result of 5-3 and 52nd place.

 

Thoughts on Card Choices and Lessons Learned

With Lightning Bolt in the 60, the deck sometimes bricked against creatures with big butts (Tasigur, Goyfs, Though-Knot Seer). The scenarios where I would need to bolt an opponent down to less than 18 and then Scapeshift just never happened, as the Bolt was better used on an early creature (a mana dork or lord for instance). I had considered Roast or even Fall of the Titans to fill this need. Path to Exile came as a the natural answer since the deck was now splashing White. There were instances where Path was strictly better than Bolt, and one or two instances where I wanted to pressure a Planeswalker (Nahiri in Round 2, Jace in Round 5) but couldn’t.

I reworked the manabase to accommodate for White. Some practice hands the night before led me to conclude that a 1-1-1 split of Plains, Sacred Foundry, and Temple Garden was correct (the Temple Garden was chosen over the second Foundry due to some issues with mana post-SB). The new manabase was pretty fluid over the course of the tournament. It was once a little awkward with the 2 basic Forest, Plains, and a Titan but it didn’t come up often.

The sideboard Phyrexian Unlife was the main reason to play White. I wanted some type of reuseable Fog effect to come in for the more aggressive matchups. It had some synergy with Melira and could be reused with Baloth if the situation ever came up (gaining some life to go back above 0). It did exactly what I wanted it to in the matchups where I brought it in, but was only really useful against Merfolk (didn’t see it during the Burn match). The effect was nice to have but I’m not 100% sold on it. It’s possible Ensnaring Bridge could produce the same effect, but would not contribute to the Burn/Zoo matchup. Pulse of Marusa is also an effect worth exploring, as it doesn’t require the splash and could be a pseudo ramp in rebuying Tribe Elders and Fetchlands.

I had also learned a few things about my pre-tournament preparation. I made the changes the night before and had not settled on a sideboard until I arrived at the venue. Now that there were new changes to the deck, my memorized sideboard plans went out the window and I had to make calls on when a card was not relevant enough to take out. This was a bit taxing over the course of the event, and the mental fatigue was noticeable. Another thing I learned was how important it is to have misplay-free Rounds 1 and 2 and start the day sharp. I felt a difference in my confidence level (in my playing ability and the decklist) between this event and the TCG State Championship event, where I started that day extremely sharp. I do not like playing practice rounds before the event, but I have also noticed that playing a few rounds the night or day before really gets me in the tournament mindset. I did not have an opportunity to do that for this tournament, and therefore felt like I was winging it the entire time.

Given the meta, I still believe the deck is a good choice for the upcoming PPTQ season and is what I’ll likely be sticking to. The splash color wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but aim to continue tuning it, possibly with different sideboard cards.