Hi everyone,

Due to work (and previously, the army), I don’t have as much time as I’d like for constructed play, and thus I’m usually a Limited player (as can be seen by my all limited articlesvideos up till now).

But a WMCQ is not something that you just won’t play, especially not in Israel.

A couple of days before the WMCQ I remembered that I needed a deck (better late than never, right?).
So I rang up my teammates and friends to see if someone has a spare deck.

Luckily, Yaniv Perry was kind enough to lend me his UWR deck, and with the help of WMCQ#2 winner Niv Shmuely I was able to complete the last few missing cards.

Arrived on the tournament ground on Saturday, without any testing to back me up, and we’re ready to sign up.
Fortunately, there were a few factors in my favor:
1. This is exactly the type of deck that I like to play with in constructed.
2. I did play a UWR deck before DGM came, and the new version is a strict upgrade from it.
3. There were only 31 players in the WMCQ (kinda sad, isn’t it?).

Before I go to the matches, here is the list I’ve played:

Lands

4 Steam Vents

4 Glacial Fortress

1 Moorland Haunt

1 Desolate Lighthouse

4 Hallowed Fountain

4 Sulfur Falls

4 Clifftop Retreat

2 Sacred Foundry

2 Island

Creatures

3 Restoration Angel

2 Aetherling

3 Augor Of Bolas

3 Snapcaster Mage

Spells

2 Warleader’s Helix

1 Syncopate

2 Turn-Burn

1 Rewind

2 Dissipate

4 Azorius Charm

1 Unsummon

1 Renounce the Guilds

2 Think Twice

2 Searing Spear

2 Supreme Verdict

3 Sphinx’s Revelation

Sideboard

2 Jace, Memory Adept

2 Izzet Staticaster

3 Rest in Piece

1 Supreme Verdict

3 Pillar of Flame

2 Dispel

2 Negate

 

 

And we’re off to the matches –

Round 1 – Stav Brener playing Aristocrats.

Game one was a lot of back and forth, with Stav playing a bunch of creatures and a Sorin, Lord of Innistrad and me blowing them up with burn spellswrathsangels.
Eventually I stuck an Aetherling into play with mana up to protect it and that was game.

SB –
Out – 1 Rewind ,2 Dissipate, 1 Syncopate, 1 Supreme Verdict
In – 2 Izzet Staticaster, 3 Pillar of Flame

I started game two with a bunch of lands, a Pillar of Flame and an Izzet Staticaster
I let him flood the board for a while with Lingering Soulsand Sorin tokens, then played the Staticaster.
Eventually he was able to get rid of it, but a backup Staticaster a turn later (that I kept in my hand) and an Aetherling later was enough to seal the deal.

2-0
1-0

Round 2 – Tomer Corey playing Esper Delver.

Tomer’s deck was fun to play against, with multiple threats such as Snapcaster Mage, Sin Collector and Delver of Secrets I had the game cut out for me.
In the first round he had a slow start (even though he did land a Delver turn 1), but Azorius Charming his creatures provided me with enough tempo to win the game (I think with Aetherling, but I’m not 100% sure)

SB –
Out – 1 Renounce the Guilds,2 Supreme Verdict
In – 3 Pillar of Flame
I didn’t write the SB down, but I think it was like this.

Game two was a lot of back and forth, with us trading resources left and right.
Two Sphinx’s Revelations and an Aetherling later and the game was done.

2-0
2-0

Round 3 – Eyal Orel playing RG Aggro.

With only 31 players, and 5 rounds, the winner of this game could ID twice and be in the Top 8 (and have a couple of hours of rest, which is a nice bonus).

He had a slow start on game one, and I had multiple Azorius Charms and Warleader’s Helix to stall the game enough for me to draw a Verdict,

There was one turn where he had a Burning-Tree Emissary and a Hellriderin hand (the 22 freshly drawn being put on the top.
He decided to play the Hellrider without the Burning-Tree Emissary first, I killed the Hellrider with a Searing Spear, but nevertheless it was an interesting play which we talked about afterwards (if he suspected I had another Supreme Verdict, which I did, then it was the right play).
Eventually I won on the back of two Restoration Angels.

SB –
Out – 1 Rewind, 2 Dissipate, 1 Syncopate
In – 1 Supreme Verdict, 3 Pillar of Flame

Game two was not very eventful, with Warleader’s Helixs putting me on enough life to kill him with a big Aetherling (this card is insane!).

2-0
3-0
Round 4 – Amir Ben Ner playing Jund Aggro
ID

1-1
3-0-1

Round 5 – Ido Faran playing UWR
ID

1-1
3-0-2

After the 5 swiss rounds I finished second in the standings (with Ido being first).

The top 8 consisted of 3 UWR decks, an Esper Control deck, Junk tokens, GR Aggro, Jund Aggro and Bant Hexproof.

Quarterfinals – Ori Horev playing UWR
Ori is a very good friend, which I practically see every week, and we flew together to a couple of GP’s in Europe, so we were pretty bummed that we had to play each other at the quarterfinals.

Game 1 was pretty much what you can expect from the mirror – lots of card drawing, lots of spell baiting, and a timely Sphinx’s Revelation into Aetherling to win the game.

SB –
Out – 1 Azorius Charm, 1 Renounce the Guilds,2 Supreme Verdict, 1 Unsummon, 1 Think Twice
In – 2 Dispel, 2 Negate, 2 Jace, Memory Adept

The second game was pretty funny, with three Jace, Memory Adepts millings (two for me, one for him), and a bunch of Restoration Angel battles.
After the board was cleared, there was an Aetherling on each side, I was on 26 life points and he was on 16 – two hits later and I’m off to the Semifinals.

2-0
4-0-2

Semifinals –Eyal Orel playing RG Aggro.

Game one was very close, with him putting me at 2 and me playing a Sphinx’s Revelation for 5 with no burn spells for him and a Warleader’s Helix and Snapcaster Mage for me.
Afterwards I was able to stabilize the board enough to win.

SB –

Out – 1 Syncopate, 1 Rewind, 2 Dissipate
In – 1 Supreme Verdict,3 Pillar of Flame

Game two he had a quick start and I had a removal light hand, which ended up with me very very dead.

SB –

Out – 2 Think Twice
In – 2 Dispel

Game three was quite amusing, with a Hellrider that was Turned 3 times and with me attacking him with two Restoration Angels to put him down to 6 and a Warleader’s Helix + Pillar of Flame to seal the deal.

Whew, off to the finals!

2-1
5-0-2

Finals – Ido Faran playing UWR

From my QF match against Ori, I’ve figured out that I’d much rather point the burn spells to his forehead and be the aggro player.

Game one we both missed our third land drop, with me being able to find it one turn sooner, which put me in a very good position (as he started on the play).
I waited for my chance, and played a Sphinx’s Revelation as bait, it worked and I played an Aetherling to win the game.

SB –
Out – 1 Azorius Charm, 1 Renounce the Guilds, 2 Supreme Verdict, 1 Unsummon, 1 Think Twice
In – 2 Dispel, 2 Negate, 2 Jace, Memory Adept

The second game was more interesting, with us trading Aetherling blows for a couple of turns,
In his last turn he attacked with an Aetherling, I had a tapped Snapcaster Mage in play, and an Azorius Charm in my hand and graveyard, I played a Restoration Angel, which we had a counter fight over, it ended up with me having 2 Snapcaster Mages in play + the Restoration Angel (tapped out) and his Aetherling still attacking with one UR mana up. I blocked the Aetherling with a mage.
In my turn I attacked with the Restoration Angel and the Snapcaster Mage and brought him down to 7.
Then I showed him my hand of Warleader’s Helix + 2 Burns.
He looked at the spells, at his hand, then at the scorecard, and reached out his hand.

2-0
6-0-2

That was it for the 3rd and final WMCQ, with the Israeli team looking quite strong.
The deck itself was awesome, and I look forward to playing with it again.

Until then, I hope you guys enjoyed reading this article, and I’ll see you in Amsterdam!

Niv Danieli