The trip started, like most trips to Las Vegas, with a brief detour to a gaming establishment. (Of course, I lost, because if I were even half as good at Texas Hold ‘Em as I am at Magic, I’d probably be living in Vegas rather than making excuses to spend extended vacations there). After some time in the poker rooms and pits, Harry and I spent Friday tinkering with my Bant list from the Invitational, mainly messing with the mana base. The biggest points of contention were the second basic Forest, which we ended up cutting, and the Sea Gate Wreckage, which also lost its spot on the roster. Of course, we wanted a third basic land and a value land in those final spots, but the question of which basic and which value land remained up in the air. Harry wanted a Wastes, which on the surface seems understandable. The logic goes as follows: He’d like an extra land to fetch if he’s hit with a Path to Exile, but he’d also like to be able to Path or Ghost Quarter himself against Blood Moon decks in order to cast his big Thought-Knot Seers or Reality Smashers through a Moon. The space for the Ghost Quarter comes at the expense of the Sea Gate Wreckage, which unfortunately rarely gets activated.

Now, I didn’t fear missing on colorless mana, as even without the Wastes you still have fifteen colorless sources. To be fair, Talisman of Progress does a ton to smooth out all of your mana counts here as well, and without that innovation I might be more receptive to playing a Wastes. That meant that my maindeck ended up being almost identical to the Invitational list, with only those two changes. As for the sideboard, Harry was talking about the need to maximize your number of Ancient Stirrings-able hate pieces for Dredge, with discussion of a mix of Grafdigger's Cage, Tormod's Crypt, and Relic of Progenitus on the table. I didn’t hate the idea, as having all of your key pieces in postboard games against Dredge be Stirrings targets meant that you were far less likely to mulligan into oblivion searching for a hate card. In fact, you could keep a hand with a Stirrings or a hate piece, because the five cards from Ancient Stirrings plus your one draw step would be identical to the fresh six cards you’d see from a mulligan! (Actually, a little better, because you would be taking six shots in 53 cards to find a six-outer, rather than a fresh mulligan of six cards from 60.) As a gentleman who instinctively dislikes the idea of mulliganning for hate pieces, this appealed to me greatly. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find enough Tormod's Crypts to enact the plan, so it was nixed at the last minute, but I still think there are merits to the Crypt-Relic sideboard.

To be clear, there are also drawbacks to a Rest-less sideboard, because Rest in Peace is not only way more backbreaking against Dredge than Crypt or Relic, but it also has applications against Jund, Abzan, and Grixis. I would always board in a few Rest in Peaces against these midrange value decks, to turn off Snapcaster Mage, Tarmogoyf, Kolaghan's Command, Delve cards, half of Lingering Souls, Grim Flayer’s delirium, etc. It’s also pretty great against Pyromancer Ascension or Living End, basically shutting off those decks by itself. That being said, I think that in the future I will experiment with an artifacts-only graveyard hate package. I’ll most likely take the hit against the few remaining Chord of Calling/Collected Company decks and cut my Grafdigger's Cages, making room for three Relic of Progenitus and three Tormod's Crypt in those graveyard hate slots.

Crypts or no, Harry and I set out on Saturday afternoon on I-15 North from Las Vegas, crossing swiftly from civilization to rugged desert. During the first half of the voyage, we saw some Arid Mesas, some Brushlands, and some Winding Canyons, but halfway through Utah the scenery changed. Wooded Foothills and Snow-Covered Mountains surrounded us as we made our way down into the Salt Lake Valley, and we even got a dusting of snow as we disembarked to punish Harry for his choice to wear flip flops. Everything was going according to plan!

As it turned out, we weren’t the only people traveling in from afar to try to carpetbag the Utah RPTQ. Folks had flown in from the East Coast to make a go of it, which is cool in some ways and disheartening in others. Obviously, it’s frustrating to those players trying to cultivate a local competitive scene to watch “their” RPTQ get sniped by a bunch of rich players who flew in just to prey on a weaker tournament. On the other hand, it’s not practical to restrict RPTQ attendance, and in a purely theoretical world, the numbers of “sharks” would ebb and flow at these far-flung RPTQs. I mean, once you have ten supposedly high-level competitors flying in from New York, it stops making sense for people to fly in from New York! At that point, you’re as likely to face stiff competition in Utah as you are on the East Coast, so the sharks stop making the effort to fly out. If they stop making the effort, though, it becomes a soft tournament of local PPTQ winners again, and the appeal comes creeping back.

Anyway, in Round 3 I faced Mike Flores, who’d flown in from New York to play Burn. Burn is a slightly favorable matchup for the Eldrazi, especially with Worship and a few Blessed Alliances in the sideboard. Things went basically according to script, with early Thought-Knot Seers in both games combining with lackluster draws from Mike to give me the win. That pushed me to 2-1, needing to win the next two matches to likely draw in. A close match against Abzan Midrange followed, where I lost Game 1 with a poor draw, snuck out a win in Game 2 with a topdecked Rest in Peace, and trampled over a poor draw in Game 3. It seemed like luck was turning my way! The win-and-in was against G/B Urzatron, where my opponent failed to assemble Tron after a mulligan in Game 1, then failed to find a Karn in Game 2 over about five or six draw steps. Lucky Ben strikes again! My tiebreakers were excellent, which afforded me the opportunity to draw into Top 8, but unfortunately Harry’s were just a shade short. He had to play it out, losing to Jund in three games. He later opined that he should have mulliganned his hand in Game 3, as it didn’t have any acceleration and basically couldn’t beat a turn-two Dark Confidant. Sadly, that’s exactly what his opponent had.

Anyway, Game 3 was anticlimactic, as Lucas mulliganned on the play, failed to Searing Blaze my Hierarch, and got stuck under a turn-two Thought-Knot Seer. He did have the Revelry that game, but I didn’t have a Worship, and counting the extra card I took from Seer, it was almost as if he’d taken a triple-mulligan. Another Seer followed, and that was a wrap. Hopefully Lucas converts on the next RPTQ, as it always stings to lose in the win-and-in.

As for me, I’ll be nursing that invite to Dublin, and I’m starting my preparation for GP Louisville this coming week. I’ll be playing 4-Color Delver, as is my style nowadays, but before I go, I’ll leave you all with my up-to-date list for Bant Eldrazi. I was underwhelmed by Ghost Quarter, even against Tron, and I’m interested in trying the singleton Gavony Township, as it’s just such a powerful effect against the fair decks. My up-to-date list, then, is as follows:

Bant Eldrazi ? Modern | Ben Friedman

• Creatures (24)
• 4 Drowner of Hope
• 4 Eldrazi Displacer
• 4 Eldrazi Skyspawner
• 4 Noble Hierarch
• 4 Reality Smasher
• 4 Thought-Knot Seer

• Instants (5)
• 1 Dismember
• 4 Path to Exile

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Ancient Stirrings

• Artofacts (5)
• 2 Talisman of Progress
• 3 Engineered Explosives

• Lands (22)
• 1 Forest
• 1 Island
• 1 Plains
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Gavony Township
• 1 Temple Garden
• 2 Yavimaya Coast
• 3 Brushland
• 3 Cavern of Souls
• 4 Eldrazi Temple
• 4 Windswept Heath

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Tormod's Crypt
• 3 Relic of Progenitus
• 2 Worship
• 2 Blessed Alliance
• 3 Stubborn Denial
• 2 Natural State

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Those numbers are always flexible, so feel free to adapt to your own metagame. Good luck, and feel free to let me know where you’d like me to take my articles in the coming weeks!

—Ben