SCG Classic 4th Place

BW TOKENS MODERN SCG CLASSIC TOURNAMENT REPORT

Introduction

I placed 4^th at the SCG Syracuse Modern Classic on March 3, 2019 with BW Tokens, making top 8 of the 229 player event through a grueling 9 swiss rounds.  I played the same deck I played to a 10-4-1 finish at GP Toronto last month. 

The tournament report is below, but first I wanted to highlight two themes that emerged during the tournament.

• Auriok Champion is insane.  In my opinion, BW Tokens needs to play 4 Auriok Champion maindeck if it wants to be competitive.  As I mentioned in my deck guide and 5-0 MTGO league post (both below), I’m a firm believer in 4 Champions and I would never have made top 4 of this event without them.  Tokens is already an underpowered deck and to eschew Auriok because it’s bad in half your matchups is just making BW Tokens a worse deck overall.  Your bad matchups stay bad and your good matchups get much worse.  If Auriok Champion is good in the matchup, the matchup is superb.  She is the primary reason BW Tokens is good in the current meta.  Not playing her is just giving your opponents a better chance to beat you.

Auriok Champion allows me to beat much better players than me in Modern.  Since many of the best players are currently on decks weak to Auriok Champion, I’d be foolish not to take this opportunity to close the gap.  If you’re not playing Auriok Champion and still aren’t convinced, perhaps the tournament report will change your mind.  I believe the only way BW Tokens top 8s a major tournament is through 4 Auriok Champions and getting lucky with matchups.

• Hidden Stockpile over performed.  I initially wasn’t too high on stockpile, but I must say, it plays incredibly well to the midrange strengths of the deck.  Further, I played against Detention Sphere, Deputy of Detention, and Maelstrom Pulse in four matches this tournament, and three times Hidden Stockpile turned a board wipe into a three-mana fatal push.  I also found a Disenchant in my final match through the card selection effect.  All in all, I’d never leave home without two maindeck.  Hidden Stockpile was a star for me this tournament.

Tournament Report

Here’s my decklist:  BW Tokens

Round 1 – Mono-Red Phoenix – Win 2-0

After telling my friend that I’m hoping to face Phoenix nine times today, I sit down at my first match to stare down a turn 1 soul-scar mage.  A turn two Auriok Champion from me in both games is simply game over for my opponent.  The games went long, but there was never a moment in either match where it didn’t feel as though my opponent had absolutely 0 chance of winning.

For how bad Tokens can look when losing to Tron or diddling around vs. Whir Prison, any snapshot of this match would have looked similarly embarrassing, just the other way around.  BW Tokens is a serious deck in a world of Mono-Red Phoenix and Auriok Champion is the harbinger of the apocalypse in the matchup.

Sideboarding:

In – 2 RIP, 2 Duress, 1 EE, 1 Burrenton, 1 Push, 1 Halo

Out – 2 Virtue, 1 Sorin, 3 Seize, 2 BB

Bitterblossom seems good, because it can block Phoenix, but it’s really only good against the Izzet Phoenix version.  Against Mono-Red, the ways you die are that you don’t draw Auriok Champion, they burn you out quickly, or they tick up Shrine of Burning Rage to an astronomical number.  Bitterblossom helps their game plan, while not really advancing yours in an overly meaningful way, so they come out.  At the same time, this matchup is so good it probably doesn’t matter how you sideboard, but there will certainly be times when casting Thoughtseize or BB hurts you more than helps.  I wouldn’t board in Disenchant for the Shrine, but wouldn’t fault anyone who did, as it’s easy to kill because they constantly tap out.

Round 2 – Jund – Win 2-0

My incredible draw of insane matchups and good luck continues as my Jund opponent mulls to 6 both games.  He attempts to pulse my tokens, but my Hidden Stockpile saves the day.  My lifepad is a great indication of how this matchup typically goes, as I never drop below 20 in either game and gain an incredible amount of life.

In – 2 RIP, Fatal Push, Wrath, Burrenton

Out – 3 Seize, 2 IOK

Round 3 – Jeskai – Loss 1-2

My incredibly favorable matchups cease as I’m paired against Jeskai Control, a matchup that’s probably 40-60 favoring Jeskai.  Electrolyze really hurts me the entire match and we’re deep into a back and forth game 3 involving an insane amounts of Cryptic, then Snap + Cryptic.  On turn 3 of extra turns, I decide to go for an all-out attack into my opponent’s two cards with an active and flipped Search for Azcanta and tons of mana.  He could double helix me and I wouldn’t have enough to kill him so I decide to go for it.  He activates his Search and finds…Detention Sphere.  Ok.  He nonchalantly taps four mana and Settle the Wreckage arrives.  I was at 2 life and would have died next turn anyway; however, I surely could have played differently the past few turns around Settle and preserved my life.  It’s hard for me to backtrack my sequences as we were rushing near the end of the game, and we were the last match so I don’t hang around to chat with my opponent.  This one hurt because I had so many opportunities to win but literally got Cryptic Commanded to infinity and beyond that game. 

In – 2 Duress, Lost Legacy, Burrenton

Out – 4 Auriok

True to form, when Auriok Champion is not great, the matchup is not great.

Round 4 – BR Hollow One – Win 2-0

I know my opponent from my local store and he’s on his usual weapon of choice.  Fortunately, Auriok Champion is INSANE in this matchup and so after a quick game 2, I’m feeling lucky once again to have seen a great matchup.

In – Halo, 2 RIP, Burrenton, Fatal Push, Wrath

Out – 3 Seize, 2 IOK, 1 Virtue

Round 5 – Humans – Draw 1-1

Auriok is just ok in this matchup, but Tokens is generally favored.  Not so game 1 as I get run over by a steady stream of little then suddenly huge dudes.  Game 2 involves me Wrathing the board, then slowly and surely overwhelming my opponent.  Game 3 I make the biggest mistake of my tournament, at least one that I notice.  With both of us nursing anemic battlefields, including his Deputy of Detention holding my Hidden Stockpile and his Kitesail holding my Secure the Wastes, I draw Wrath of God.  Instead of Wrathing and creating an incredibly favorable position with Hidden Stockpile (with revolt trigger coming) and Secure in hand with literally TONS of land, I decide to hold it until he further develops his board.  The very next turn, he plays a Sin Collector.  WHAM.  I immediately realize my incredible mistake and watch as my tournament goes down the train.  However, the silver lining is that Sin Collector does nothing to improve his anemic board and after not drawing anything relevant on both sides, we go to time and I’m happy to still be live (possibly) for Top 8.

In – EE, Push, Wrath, Halo

Out – 3 Seize, 1 IOK

Round 6 – BG Rock – Win 2-0

Auriok to the rescue!  In yet another favorable matchup, Hidden Stockpile saves my tokens from a Maelstrom Pulse and my opponent can’t get anything going against my army of flying tokens.  Similarly to the Jund match, my lifepad matches how lopsided this match feels, though I do fall to 16 at one point in game 1.

I was playing this matchup online recently, and used my singleton IOK on turn 1 nabbed a Golgari Charm.  Most Rock decks currently don’t play this card sideboard, which improves the matchup, but alas, some do.

Gerry Thompson picked this deck today (March 7^th) as his deck choice for Modern Regionals this weekend, a good sign that BW Tokens is still well-positioned.

In – 2 RIP, Fatal Push, Wrath

Out – 3 Seize, 1 IOK

Round 7 – Mono-White Eldrazi – Win 2-0

My first bad matchup arrives and so I know I need to get lucky when I Seize turn 1 and see the 2 mana Thalia and a Reality Smasher.  His holding 4 lands is the start of that luck.  Game 1 he draws into and plays about twelve more lands (probably pretty accurate) and I play out 3 Auriok Champions and we sit there with Thalia staring at the 3 Champs for about 10 turns of draw, go until I finally draw some Lingering Souls.  He doesn’t draw anything and that’s that.  Game 2 goes about the same way.  I play a turn 2 Stony Silence so he can’t play EE (he later tells me he has no EE, but rather Declaration in stone – hello, Hidden Stockpile!) and Worship.  Fortunately, he doesn’t draw any of the cards that can actually affect the game and I path two reality smashers on the way to a too-quick victory.

My friend David Napolitano, who also had a charmed run to the top 8, sitting next to me, looks up between one of his many games vs. Dredge, sees that my opponent is gone, and offers me kind words on a good tournament run, assuming there’s no way I could have dispatched an opponent this quickly with my deck.  Sometimes things just break your way.

I haven’t played this matchup often, so my sideboarding isn’t well developed.

In – Push, Halo, Wrath, 2 Disenchant (if your opponent has multiple EE, I can’t fault Stony since Disenchant can’t nab a fresh EE before it’s activated, but if you also see Chalice, Disenchant seems best)

Out – 4 Auriok, 1 IOK (Zealous also seems ok to take out – both can deal with a Thalia)

Matches where Auriok comes out are tough, so I’m very fortunate to have gotten lucky here.

Round 8 – Hardened Scales – Win 2-1

It’s a win and in for my opponent as I’m paired up.  Fortunately, this matchup is one that’s still great even if Auriok is bad.  Game 1, however, proceeds in the typical way I lose this matchup – my opponent resolves a Walking Ballista.  Typically this can be ok, but my draws of infinite tokens include no Virtues or even a Zealous that would likely have won me the game.  Game 2 and 3 go better, and Game 3 is a real sweat, probably the most intense and fun game of the day.  I nab my opponent’s Ballista before it gets out of hand.  He goes all in with another Ballista to stop my swarm of creatures and eventually plays to the plan of attacking me with a gigantic Inkmoth.  This is exactly how I drew it up, as the Runed Halo that’s been sitting in my hand comes down and my creatures are just too much for him.

In – 3 Stony, 2 Disenchant, Halo, EE, Push

Out – 4 Auriok, 3 Seize, 1 IOK

Round 9 – Concession

I look at the standings and find myself 9^th going into round 9, the only 19 pointer with eight 21 pointers ahead of me and the 18 pointers starting in 10^th place.  The great news is that my breakers are 7.9% higher than the 8^th place 21 pointer, so despite my 6-1-1 record, I’m probably something like 99% to make top 8 with a win here.

I look at the pairings to find myself playing against 10^th place, the top 18 point opponent.  As I sit down, the four top tables instantly draw.  My opponent, knowing he can’t make top 8 and that a win will probably get me in, graciously concedes so I can wait 50+ minutes to see if my 7.9% tie-breakers hold!  Thank you!!! Spoiler alert:  They do and I squeak into 8^th place! 

Quarter-finals – Grixis Deaths’ Shadow – Win 2-0

During the Round 9 slip-signing, Edgar Magalhaes asks if I’m the Tokens player.  He notes the top 8 probably isn’t looking great for Tokens.  Of course, I know what Edgar is playing (Amulet Titan) and that matchup is bad anyway you look at it, even without one of Canada’s very best Magic players in the pilot seat.  The other seven top 8 decks include:  Whir, Amulet, Ad Nauseam, Jeskai (my round 3 opponent), Humans (my friend Dave), Tron, and Grixis Death’s Shadow.

Wouldn’t you know that I got paired against Grixis Death’s Shadow.

My opponent, the first seed, a great player, has no idea what I’m playing.  Neither do a row of his teammates cheering him on behind him.  They lean forward when he leads with a turn 1 seize.  A bunch of whispers commence when I turn over a bunch of white cards.  No Auriok Champion yet, but she doesn’t fail me.  She arrives both games, and while my opponent is clearly an excellent player, the power of BW Tokens and Auriok Champion in particular is just too much for his deck to overcome.  Even at the end of game 2, when my opponent has a 12/12 Death’s Shadow and is drawing for a Temur Battle Rage, I’m on 30 life (thanks to Auriok and Sorin).  The reason BW Token is a fine deck to play is showcased in this match.  Death’s Shadow and Mono-Red Phoenix are all-you-can-eat buffets for Auriok Champion and I was fortunate to face both decks once this tournament.

In – Halo, Push, EE, Burrenton, 1 Wrath (draw)

Out – 2 Zealous, 2 Sorin, 1 Seize

Semi-finals – Whir Prison – Loss 0-2

Similarly to last round, this match looks and plays out incredibly lopsided.  The problem is, this time I’m on the embarrassing end.  Game 1 I’m feeling OK when I turn 1 and turn 2 discard his two Whir of Inventions to leave him with NOTHING in hand.  However, he has 7 more ways to win the game (4 Bridges, 2 more Whirs, 1 Inventor’s Fair), not to mention 2 Tolaria Wests to tutor the Inventor’s Fair.  Playing an Ensnaring Bridge is literally game over for BW Tokens.  Soon after he natural draws the card leaving me with no way to win.  Game 2 I lead with a turn 2 Stony Silence, which is OK because it shuts off the Welding Jar on the battlefield so I can Disenchant his first Bridge.  My meager army attacks a few turns, but it’s not enough.  One more bridge arrives, and while I’m Wrathing my entire board to feed Stockpile in search of my second Disenchant, he drops a third Bridge and I concede.

The worst part about this matchup is that, unlike Tron or Living End, I literally have no gameplan to beat Whir.  It’s not feasible to try to race because it just takes too long and he has plenty of time to find a way to get a Bridge into play.  Dispossess or a Lost Legacy effect that can hit artifacts is really needed here.  Stony Silence, Lost Legacy (on Whir), Disenchant, and Duress are just laughable vs. the deck.  I’m really stuck with what to do here.  Nevermore is a never play due to Whir so going back to Memoricide might be where I need to be.  Or adding a green source and including Assassin’s Trophies?  Perhaps Vindicate will return in Modern Horizons….  I could really use some help with what on earth to do about this matchup.

I did have a sideboard guide during the event and as I was looking at it during this match, I just shook my head with how poorly it seemed to line up.

In – 3 Stony, 2 Disenchant, 2 RIP, Halo (on Ipnu Rivulet – ew), 2 Duress, Lost Legacy (on Whir)

Out – 3 Sorin, 4 Auriok, 4 Path

This matchup also highlights why I’m so low on discard spells.  Even with the best possible disruptive start I could anticipate game 1 (two discard spells), my opponent easily drew into Bridge while I couldn’t do anything about it.

Final Thoughts

While I admit I was incredibly lucky with such favorable matchups, these are the matchups I expected and the matchups which are highly represented in the meta currently.  There is no better time to play BW Tokens than right now.  However, there is just no way to consistently beat Tron and Whir Prison with Tokens, but the fact that the deck (so long as you include Auriok Champion) is just bonkers versus the majority of the metagame, in my opinion, makes up for that weakness.  Tron is still beatable as are many of your bad matchups (maybe not Whir!), but you have to beat a few bad matchups to win a tournament and I managed to plow through one bad matchup before losing to another.

The top 8 of GP Los Angeles, occurring at the same time as this Classic, had more favorable matchups for Tokens, but regardless, the metagame will likely hold for now around Phoenix, Dredge, Burn, Grixis Shadow, Jund/Rock, Affinity/Scales, Tron, and Whir.  BW Tokens is a great deck choice currently because it’s so good in most of those matchups.  The reason it’s so good is because of Auriok Champion.  I’m hopeful the Champion and I will get to share more good times together before the meta drastically changes.

Shout out to Dave, Scott, Greg, and everyone else who supported me and wanted to chat about Tokens during the day.