Expand, Grow, Win. A Great Day 1.
An awesome day to report for my first grind journal entry. Today marks the 9th month in a row I’ve reached Mythic on Arena, and I did it with an exclamation point of sorts: a 7 pt. Explosion to the head in game 3 against Temur Elementals/Ultimatum (Yorion).
I’ve been on Temur Rec since this January (more on that story in a future post - because it’s worth sharing for a lot of reasons), but seeing Genesis Ultimatum reminded me of how I tried my best to make it work in Standard once it was released.
It’s a juicy spell, but the reality is that having my 7-mana sorcery countered for 1 blue isn’t a line of play I’m trying to have any part of - ever. That, and the fact that there’s no guarantee you’ll have quality hits off of Genesis Ultimatum if it does resolve, make the card a huge gamble.
I’d rather have a bit more certainty in my 6+ mana plays, though my opponent did land a Uro, Risen Reef, Omnath and an Ugin (speaking of more certainty at 6+ mana) off of his ultimatum in G1.
With the opponent’s cat out of the bag after resolving said ultimatum, I decided to save my brain power for G2. As fun as they are to play, Elementals lists don’t show up much on the ladder any more, but sideboarding against them is fairly intuitive.
By the way, here is the list I ran today.
Usual suspects like Aether Gust and Mystical Dispute are gas - we need to play the tempo game and keep Reef off of the board. Countermagic is going to be strong on the play or the draw against them, and Nightpack Ambusher isn’t ideal against decks with 4x Cavalier of Thorns. As such, I sideboarded as follows for G2:
Out: -2 Ambusher, -1 Brazen Borrower, -1 Uro, -1 Shark Typhoon
In: +1 Negate, +2 Aether Gust, +2 Elder Gargaroth
In G2 we both stumbled on lands a bit. The game came down to me cycling in an early 2/2 shark to try to draw more lands, resolving a Wilderness Reclamation (I ended up drawing 3), countering all of his key spells, escaping an Uro and casting a seemingly superfluous Elder Gargaroth.
Important tidbit here: Knowing how far ahead I was after resolving Uro, I thought about not casting the Gargaroth for the sake of not disclosing my sideboard plan. It’s a fair and logical consideration. However, I wasn’t certain that I could definitely win with what I had on board (I also didn’t have any Explosion in hand at that point), and I knew that something like a Gust or Brazen Borrower from my opponent had the potential to derail my win.
Instead, I decided to cast the Gargaroth while the opp was tapped out. At the end of the day, if you have an opportunity to decidedly put away your opponent, just do it, and don’t hold back.
For G3 I decided to take out the Gargaroth in lieu of a 3rd Uro and a 3rd Scorching Dragonfire. I was concerned that Gargaroth would be too slow on the draw, and consequently, extra vulnerable to countermagic or an Aether Gust. I also thought that taking it out would be a solid hedge after showing it in G2.
Dragonfire is somewhat clunky against Elementals, but again, our plan here is to keep Reef off of the board, and Dragonfire does just that - and more (in case they try to put one on top of their library on a Cavalier death trigger, or if they’re playing Thunderkin Awakener). It’s also a good card for picking off Leafkin Druids or cleaning up beefy bodies post-combat.
My thought between Games 2 and 3 was that for G3 I’d simply take the hard control route and try to win the old-fashioned Temur way: Reclamation + Explosion. Always a good feeling when you envision exactly how you want to win and being able to make it happen. That’s some Mythic Mindset stuff there.
Notably, I did end up needing two Scorching Dragonfire to exile a Cavalier of Thorns that I had gusted twice. Was able to pressure with a 5/5 shark to set up for the Explosion finale.
Before The Elementals Match
Started the day at D2.0, with a heavy focus on playing really, really good Magic.
Over the weekend I very much had a losing record, going from D1.1 to as far back as D3.1 (which in the grand scheme of things, is still a good place to be). I simply didn’t play my best Magic on Saturday and Sunday, focusing far too much on trying to reach Mythic, rather than trying to make the very best play, every time. As such, today I did my best to make up for substandard play over the weekend, and ended up doing so successfully. While I won’t go through each match in complete detail, I’ll post results and any notable points I can recall.
D2.0 Mono Green - Win 2-0. Won with Reclamation into Wolf G1, played ultra control in G2, though was able to win at 3 life. This win comes after a weekend in which I defeated Mono Green two matches in a row - and in each of the two matches I won a game at 1 life. Play the tempo game, push every angle and PLAY. TO. YOUR. OUTS.
Borrower, Gust and Wolf are all-stars here.
D2.1 - Mirror - Loss 1-2. Mirror matches have been exceptionally difficult lately, though this match in particular was a blow out from the start. Game 1 I was on the draw. Kept a medium hand with three lands, a Negate and a Typhoon, while my opp had the Growth Spiral/Reclamation nuts. Can’t remember how G2 went, but that game felt equally lopsided after mulling to 5.
D2.0 - Temur Midrange - Win 2-1.
Started off feeling like a pure mirror. A Nissa, Who Shakes the World in G1 didn’t change my opinion on that, but was able to take that game hitting land drops, countering their Reclamation, Nissa and any interaction they tried to resolve. Explosion for the win in G1.
G2 a very different story, essentially seeing a Gruul creature suite from the opp post-board: Questing Beast, Shifting Ceratops, Gruul Spellbreaker and others - all backed by countermagic. Classic midrange. I ran out of interaction and died to an onslaught.
G3 came down to the wire. Opp went for a Robber of the Rich on turns 2 and 3. T2 I bounced it with Petty Theft, T3 Gusted it. Gargaroth and Explosion got me there. Super interesting build, and one that I’d be interested in building myself. The popularity of Mono Green has certainly inspired a lot of GX aggro/midrange lately.
D2.1 - Sultai - Win 2-0. This was a fun match, and a blowout in my favor.
Postboard this matchup is all about Thought Distortion. As a result, I currently like to play more creatures in Games 2 and 3, including Gargaroth and excluding Brazen Borrower. Leaving some quantity of Borrower in is probably right though, especially if you know they’re running Shark Typhoon. Additionally, while you should be judicious in what spells you counter, saving a counter in hopes of countering something more impactful is not always the most ideal strategy against Sultai. Unless you’re running Narset’s Reversal for this matchup (which can be effective, in my experience), countermagic is subject to the “use it or lose it” principle here, especially before they have 6 lands out.
Play of The Day: Casting Expansion on a T2 Growth Spiral is very much a cute and often ill-advised play. But when you have lands and multiple counterspells in hand, it can actually be a decent way to keep up and potentially get ahead. It’s an even better line of play when one of those counters is a Mystical Dispute that you can use to counter the original spell.
D2.2 - Bant Yorion - Win 2-0. Opponent played hastily in G1 and I drew really well. G2 the opp played a vanilla Yorion and turned it sideways often. I was able to hold it off with sharks, resolve Uro and Reclamation and eventually bounce it again with a Petty Theft. Normally, bouncing a Yorion is a no-go, but when their board is virtually empty and they’re tapped out and you can swing back for fatal, you absolutely do it. This was another game of playing to my outs.
D1.0 - Sultai - Loss 1-2. Rough match. Won handily in G1. Mulled to 5 in G2 and opp resolved a Thought Distortion. G3 I made an awful play that I simply didn’t think about - cast a turn 3 Uro (which I almost NEVER cast on Turn 3 in any match) into an Aether Gust. Credit to the opponent for keeping their guard up and executing on an elementary, though heads-up play on their part. Opponent eventually finished the job with a T6 Thought Distortion. This loss is solely on me.
D1.0(-1) - Sultai. Win 2-1. Found another ideal opportunity to Expansion a T2 Growth Spiral, which got me pretty far ahead in G1. Don’t remember G2, but in G3 I beat down with sharks, wolves and a Gargaroth to boot. Opponent Distortioned away a single Negate. Pressure and tempo are the keys to victory here.
D1.1 - Sultai - Loss 1-2. No notes. Lots of iffy draws in this match, and lots of Sultai today in general, haha.
D1.0 - Mirror - Win 2-0. Commence The Endgame and cycle sharks for the win here.
D1.1 - Mono G - Win 2-1.
Early concession from opp in G1 after I resolved an early wolf.
G2 did my best to recover, but opp got off to an extremely fast start. I was able to kill a Ceratops with an Ambusher, but Stonecoil Serpent is a helluva card. It’s a bomb when you mutate a Gemrazer on top.
Game 3 I was pretty far behind, but had a Reclamation on the battlefield. Key turn was when opp had a 2/2 Pelt Collector, they resolved a Questing Beast and swung in with both. I flashed in Nightpack Ambusher and blocked the Collector, took 4 from QB.
I untapped, drew ANOTHER Ambusher, let the first Ambusher trigger on end step and passed the turn. Opp swung in again with QB, I flashed in Ambusher #2 and blocked with the token. From there I untapped, swung with my 5/5’s, let more wolves trigger and got the concession.
D1.2 - Temur Yorion Ultimatum - Win 2-1. Talked about that above, in likely too much detail.
Ultimately, I’m very pleased to have played my best today and rack up a good handful of wins as a result. Feels great to reach Mythic for the 9th month in a row, and I’m glad I decided to stay after it this month after finishing in Top 1200 in June.
Thanks for reading, and feel free to reach out if you have any questions about my approaches in the matches.
