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^{Punt City 3 Tournament Report}

By Tad Gibson

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Pre-Event Thoughts:

Going into this event, I had no real expectations for myself. This was my first big event in a long time. I had been taking a break from playing in events to spend more time on the tournament organizer side. Most of my cEDH games played were just weekly FNM games at the LGS or pickup games on a few Discord servers I belong to. I would have been pretty content with 2 wins over the weekend.

A few days before the event, I started to have my normal doubts about which deck to play. At this point, I had been playing RogSi, almost exclusively, for 7-8 months, but I had this feeling that choosing to bring RogSi would leave me getting targeted in most of my games. After talking with a few friends, they all reassured me I should stick with the deck I know best.

Round 1 (Draw): Tymna/Kraum-RogSi(Me)-Malcolm/Tana-The Master, Transcendent

The details from this match are lost for me. I mulliganed fairly low, to five I believe. My game plan was to try and wheel turn 2 to try and get myself a hand with enough resources to keep myself in the game. Not much else happened on my end the whole game. Player 1 put a win attempt on the stack but there was a crazy amount of interaction from the rest of the table and they were stopped. Player 4 landed a Hullbreaker Horror but then realized they could not generate a loop because their mox opal would never be able to generate mana. 

Round 2 (Win): RogSi(Me)-Malcolm/Kediss-Tymna/Kraum-Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy

I kept a much more reactive hand this game. I played an early draw engine, but the players chose to play around it as much as they could. Player 4 played a Perplexing Chimera, but right before it got back to Player 3’s turn, Player 3 cast a Swords to Plowshares attempting to remove the chimera. Player 3 had established an early draw engine as well and drew cards off Tymna, so I knew this was a winning attempt coming up. I told the table we had to let this resolve, so we were able to interact with them. It made it back to my turn, I attempted to cast a defense grid, Player 3 tried to counter, and I honestly had an answer, so the grid resolved. I had an Underworld Breach in hand, and just needed to Tainted Pact for another piece; Grinding Station was not too far down. I won this one 

Round 3 (Loss): Sisay-Tymna/Kraum-Malcolm/Vial Smasher-RogSi(Me)

Another game I had mulliganed down pretty low. Honestly, player 3 or I did not do much during this game. Sisay got themselves a pretty large board state fairly quickly and I assumed we were dead. Sisay went into their winning turn and this is where we had a decent length judge call happen. Before this turn, the Sisay player had been tracking their mana using a visible representation of it, but they had dropped a dice and were not tracking a color because they did not want to pick up the dice at that moment. Player 2 knew the interaction they had to play around from Player 1, and the mana available was important. At some point, Player 1 paid 4 mana for a Mindbreak Trap, but Player 2 had only seen 3 available mana because the 4th was not tracked. Judge came over, everything was explained, and the stack was reversed to the point where the mana would need to be represented. Player 2 stopped Player 1, player 2 untapped and won.

Round 4 (Win): Malcolm/Bruse-Tymna/Kraum-RogSi(Me)-Sisay

Honestly, I have no idea how this game started, but this game was crazy. Player 2 had an early draw engine. On turn 2 or 3, I decided to play a bunch of spells into the draw engine and cast a Windfall, hoping to draw a win with backup. I drew a win, but no backup, and Player 2 revealed a Silence to me. I couldn’t let everyone else untap with 18 cards in hand, so I decided to cast a Timetwister instead. Player 4 played a Grand Abolisher effect and passed the turn. We all knew we were dead if it made it back to them. We discussed player 2 had a Bowmaster, and player 1 had a wheel, so we all discussed how we should play it out. The bowmaster killed Sisay’s board and I took the rest. Before getting back to my turn, I Vampiric Tutored for Defense Grid then player 4 cast Brain Freeze targeting me. I untapped, played breach, and the table conceded. 

Round 5 (Draw): RogSi(Me)-Atraxa-Sisay-Tymna/Kraum

Another completely wild game. So much happened, I don’t think I can really say what happened outside of the final turn cycle. Let’s set the stage for this turn cycle at least. I have the win in hand, full breach combo, borne upon a wind, counters, you name it; I also Praetor’s Grasped a silence from Player 4, and knew they had a Borne Upon the Wind in hand. There is a Ranger-Captain and a bowmaster on Player 4’s board. There is a copy of Ranger-Captain on Player 2’s board. Now that we have an idea of the board, this is what happened. Player 3 attempts to remove the Bowmaster creating a draw from player 2. This is the last chance to take out the Phantasmal Image copy of ranger-captain. The trigger is pointed at the ranger-captain, player 2 cracks ranger-captain and in response player 4 cracks theirs. I try to use my knowledge of the borne in player 4’s hand as leverage to let my silence resolve, but no one wants to hear me talk. Multiple counters are used on my silence. It’s countered. With the ranger-captain ability from player 4 on the stack, I cast borne. In response to that, surprise, player 4 cast their own borne. They play a couple of spells, and then out of nowhere player 3, stops them with a Force of Negation. We look at the clock, see a minute left and just take the draw. 

Round 6 (Win): Tymna/Tana-RogSi(Me)-Tymna/Kraum-Rogsi

Honestly, this may be the least exciting game of the whole weekend. Player 1 plays a turn 1 Archon of Emeria. This slows the entire pass of the game down for everyone. I wait until the end step of their 3rd turn to cast an end-step tainted pact. I exile down to 3 cards in my library. I go to my turn, untap, cast Thassa’s Oracle, and win.

Round 7 (Intentional Draw):

Everyone in the pod was locked for Top 16. We all were feeling fatigued so we decided to just ID and rest before Top 16 started.

Top 16: RogSi-Talion-RogSi(Me)-Malcolm/Vial Smasher:

What a wild game and a game that continued some of the controversy in the cEDH community. Player 1, Player 2, and myself all establish turn 2 draw engines. Player 1 (Zain, my roommate for the event) untaps on their third turn and praetor’s grasps me for my underworld breach. At this point, I thought the game was over, but they still needed to find the other pieces. They cast a Gamble and discarded the Lion’s Eye Diamond, leaving them 1 card short of being able to win the game. Nothing happens for a minute during the game, but then it’s my turn to put a win on the stack. My defense grid gets countered and I see too many draw engines to try and jam a win through. It gets back to Zain’s turn and they cast a Conqueror’s Flail. We are going to lose, but player 2 casts a Tishana’s Tidebinder to stop the equip. Zain sees the opportunity to kill it with his Orcish Bowmaster, so I speak up and tell player 2 that I may be able to stop it if they cast a card into my Rhystic Study and I tutor a card to the top. A whole debate occurs. Player 2 believes I’m just gonna try to win, I tell them I think they have a win in their hand (they did). Ultimately, they decided to cast the spell, I found borne upon a wind and won over the top of Zain’s turn. 

Finals: Korvold-RogSi(Me)-Sisay-Sisay

I had to mulligan down fairly low, which I immediately thought at this point I was losing to the other fast deck at the table. Korvold cast a turn 1 Carpet of Flowers and passed. I cast a gamble turn 1 looking for some kind of draw engine. I find Mystic Remora and I know if I discard this card, I am losing as my hand at this point is 3 lands and a praetor’s grasp. I discarded a land and passed. Player 3 developed a little, and Player 4 cast a turn 1 Blind Obedience. That is exactly what I wanted to see to help slow down Player 1. Player 1 plays a land and passes. I play a mystic remora and pass. Not much happens from the Sisay player, so it gets to player 1’s turn quickly. They cast a gamble and player 4 missteps the gamble. At this point, I had drawn half of the A+B combo of my remora. On my turn, I pay for remora, play a tapped Sol Ring, and passes. Player 3 plays a grand abolisher effect, player 4 tutors a Dockside in response, then it goes to player 4. They play dockside and cast a mana dork. Player 1 tutors on their end step. It might be game over. I still have drawn no interaction. They untap and cast Culling Ritual. Still no interaction, but I had drawn the other half of the combo. No one had interaction for the spell. Player 1 makes so much mana and casts Korvold and tutors for dockside. I untap, amazed it got to my turn. In my mind, I just have to jam it. I cast Oracle and can see everyone’s faces in shock. No response, I consult in response to the ETB and won. 

Post-Tournament Thoughts:

This was such a highly competitive tournament. The skill level was much higher than in any other tournament I could remember playing in or working in. The meta has leaned into establishing some kind of value engine and waiting for the window to push a win through.

I feel like RogSi is very well positioned right now because it gives you two avenues to play. It can grind almost as well as all the midrange grind decks, but can also push wins faster than most decks.

Merch

Cowtown Throwdown Playmat

Purchase the Cowtown Throwdown Playmat for onsite pickup here.

Event Feature

Punt City 3 Top 4

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