Hello Everybody,

Last weekend I took part in the second World Magic Cup Qualifier tournament in my country, Italy. I would like to tell you a little bit about the deck I played to a top 8 finish as well as giving you a brief report of the event.

Seeing how Samuele Estratti is first in our national Pro-Points standing and Emanuele Giusti, one of the top Italian players who has won two GPs, had qualified in the first WMCQ, I was super motivated to win and be part of what is looking to be one of the strongest national teams we could put together.

The most recent Italian tournaments, PTQs and WMCQ, all presented a pretty boring metagame. During the first PTQ the top8 was formed by 4 Junk Rites, 2 Naya Blitz and 2 Jund Midrange, the second was 5 Junk Rites and 3 Jund Midrange. The first WMCQ was also only 4 Junk Rites, 3 Naya Blitz and 1 Jund Midrange. It was quite clear what the dominant decks were, so I had to find a deck that could consistently beat those archetypes. After a bit of thought I chose to play “The Aristocrats”.

Alessandro Portaro – Top 8
The Aristocrats

Creatures

4 Doomed Traveler

4 Blood Artist

4 Cartel Aristocrat

2 Skirsdag High Priest

4 Boros Reckoner

Falkenrath Aristocrat

Spells

4 Lingering Souls

4 Tragic Slip

2 Orzhov Charm

3 Blasphemous Act

1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

Lands

4 Godless Shrine

4 Sacred Foundry

4 Blood Crypt

4 Dragonskull Summit

4 Isolated Chapel

2 Cavern of Souls

2 Plains

Sideboard

1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

3 Mark of Mutiny

1 Thundermaw Hellkite

1 Zealous Conscripts

3 Slaughter Games

3 Obzedat, Ghost Council

1 Olivia Voldaren

2 Electrickery

 

The deck has a very solid strategy, and the sideboard is very relevant as it stretches across three full colors.
Against aggro the deck has all the tools we can ask for in the format: cheap removal, Boros Reckoner, Lingering Souls and Blood Artist to gain time and life, and Blasphemous Act.
The Midrange decks and Junk Rites have a hard time dealing with the Boros Reckoner/Blood Artist and Blasphemous act Combo, and they also aren’t really good friends with Falkenrath Aristocrat.
UWR and Esper Control are probably the deck’s worse matchups, but this is only true game one, as after board it gets a lot better with Obzedat and Slaughter Games.

Here are the sideboarding strategies I recommend:

VS JUNK RITES:
+3 Mark of Mutiny, +1 Thundermaw Hellkite, +1 Zealous Conscript, +3 Slaughter Games, +2 Electrickery, +1 Olivia Voldaren
-4 Doomed Traveler, -2 Skirsdag High Priest, -1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, -4 Lingering Souls

VS JUND MIDRANGE:
+3 Mark of Mutiny, +1 Thundermaw Hellkite, +1 Zealous Conscripts, +3 Slaughter Games, +1 Olivia Voldaren, +3 Obzedat, Ghost Council +1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
-4 Blood Artist, -3 Blasphemous Act, -2 Skirsdag High Priest, -4 Doomed Traveler

VS NAYA BLITZ
+2 Electrickery, +1 Olivia Voldaren, +1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
-4 Falkenrath Aristocrat

VS UWR
+1 Thundermaw Hellkite, +1 Olivia Voldaren, +1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, +3 Obzedat, Ghost Council +3 Slaughter Games, +1 Zealous Conscripts
-4 Blood Artist, -3 Blasphemous Act, -2 Skirsdag High Priest, -1 Tragic Slip

VS ESPER
+1 Thundermaw Hellkite, +1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, +3 Obzedat, Ghost Council +3 Slaughter Games, +1 Zealous Conscripts
-4 Tragic Slip, -3 Blasphemous Act, -2 Skirsdag High Priest

VS RG/Naya Midrange
+1 Olivia Voldaren, +1 Thundermaw Hellkite, +2 Obzedat, Ghost Council +1 Zealous Conscripts, +3 Mark of Mutiny
-4 Lingering Souls, -2 Skirsdag High Priest, -1 Cavern of Souls, -1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad

VS ZEGANA BANT
+1 Thundermaw Hellkite, +1 Olivia Voldaren, +1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, +3 Obzedat, Ghost Council +3 Slaughter Games, +1 Zealous Conscripts, +3 Mark of Mutiny
-4 Tragic Slip, -4 Blood Artist, -2 Skirsdag High Priest, -3 Blasphemous Act

VS MIRROR
There are a lot of strategies you can do in the mirror games. If you want to keep in Blasphemous Act you must side-in Mark of Mutiny for the opponent’s Boros Reckoner and Blood Artist. I don’t like this strategy because you may have a lot of dead draws. I recommend this:
+1 Thundermaw Hellkite, +1 Olivia Voldaren, +2 Electrickery, +1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad, +2 Obzedat, Ghost Council
-3 Blasphemous Act, -4 Falkenrath Aristocrat

To conclude the article I’ll list the matches and results from my tournament this weekend.

238 Players, which means 9 Rounds
Round 1: Mono Red with a green splash. I lose 2-0 playing 4 spells in 2 games, but he’s a friend who won’t be able to go to the WMC so he conceded to me
1-0
Round 2: Junk Rites 2-1
2-0
Round 3: Naya Blitz 2-0
3-0
Round 4: 4 Color Planeswalker Control 2-1
4-0
Round 5: Zegana Bant 2-1
5-0
Round 6: Naya Blitz 2-0
6-0
Round 7: Mirror 2-0
7-0
Rounds 8-9: Intentional draw, I am second after the Swiss rounds

Quarterfinal:

I am paired against Bant Auras, a deck that I hadn’t expected and against whom my deck was not very well prepared. The matchup is absolutely negative for me, as my removal spells are not very effective against his hexproof creatures, Geist of Saint Traft and Invisible Stalker. His deck is faster than mine and it’s hard for me to reach Blasphemous Act mana in time as he only needs to have a couple of creatures in play to enchant, grow and beat me to death.
I ended up losing 2-1 due to the structural disadvantage the deck carries.

I hope you enjoyed the read, see you next week!

Alessandro Portaro

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