Hey everyone!

I'm back from a successful weekend at Galactic Toys in Kentwood, Michigan. The store put on a great 2K event that turned into a 2.3k because there were 73 players. Cash events in Michigan are always challenging as there are many tournament grinders in attendance. My teammates and I managed to all make the top 8 and split a good chunk of change.

The Deck

I played my trusty Grixis Dress Shadow deck as I had the most experience with the Lurrus strategies. The format is wide enough that being comfortable with the deck is more important than following a bandwagon.

Grixis Dress Shadow | Modern| Kyle Boggemes

• Companion (1)
• 1 Lurrus of the Dream-Den

• Creatures (14)
• 2 Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger
• 4 Death's Shadow
• 4 Dragon's Rage Channeler
• 4 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer

• Instants (11)
• 1 Terminate
• 3 Drown in the Loch
• 3 Unholy Heat
• 4 Lightning Bolt

• Sorceries (11)
• 3 Inquisition of Kozilek
• 4 Expressive Iteration
• 4 Thoughtseize

• Enchantments (2)
• 2 Dress Down

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Mishra's Bauble

• Lands (18)
• 1 Mountain
• 1 Swamp
• 2 Blood Crypt
• 2 Scalding Tarn
• 2 Steam Vents
• 2 Watery Grave
• 4 Bloodstained Mire
• 4 Polluted Delta

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Lurrus of the Dream-Den
• 2 Nihil Spellbomb
• 3 Alpine Moon
• 1 Dress Down
• 2 Engineered Explosives
• 2 Flusterstorm
• 1 Chalice of the Void
• 1 Mystical Dispute
• 1 Terminate
• 1 Kolaghan's Command

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The base of the deck was created by Aspiringspike. I made some slight tweaks as this deck has picked up in popularity and watched multiple streamers pilot the deck over the week leading up to the event.

A theme with the deck is that many of the 2-drops are good in the same matchups. Kroxa, Expressive Iteration, and Drown in the Loch are often solid against other midrange/control decks. I also need to find room for Terminate against specifically Murktide Regent in this eighteen-land deck. For this reason, I'm sticking with a maindeck Terminate to make room for an additional sideboard slot against linear decks.

Dress Down is yet another 2-drop. While Dress Down enables turn three wins with two Death's Shadow it doesn't come up often enough to justify three maindeck copies. Elementals and Urza's Saga Constructs are the two most common opposing creatures to warrant maindeck Dress Down, but the real prize is being able to kill Sanctifier en-Vec after sideboard. Since I already have an abundance of 2-drops in the maindeck, I've moved the third Dress Down to the sideboard.

I play a third Unholy Heat over the third maindeck Dress Down because it's important to interact with Ragavan and DRC on the first turn on the draw. You will be in for a bad time if your answer to a turn one Ragavan is putting a blocker in the way as it will be killed and the opponent gains a treasure. It's also strong against Amulet Titan and Azorius Control to answer planeswalkers.

In the sideboard I continue to prefer Nihil Spellbomb over Soul-Guide Lantern. I have been checking on Living End decks to see if they sideboard Leyline of Sanctity and it's not a common choice, making targeting an opponent not relevant. I prefer Spellbomb in the mirror because I can exile my own graveyard to counter a Drown in the Loch targeting my Expressive Iteration. The ETB trigger on Lantern can exile Kroxa, but there are only two copies lately. I often will exile the entire graveyard in the mirror so a delirious DRC has to attack to ultimately become a 1/1.

I'm favoring three Alpine Moon with the resurgence of Tron. It's a competitive matchup, but you need to mulligan aggressively to a hand that can kill quickly and/or disrupt often. Again, watch out for Tron tutoring Blast Zone to kill Moon and your threats.

Kolaghan's Command replaces the standard Unearth. I mainly prefer Unearth in Lurrus mirrors, but I like all of the maindeck cards except the two Dress Downs so there isn't a need to add a card specifically for the matchup. At the minimum I cut two Dress Down for two Nihil Spellbomb and everything else is gravy.

Kolaghan's Command should be viewed as the third way to interact with Chalice of the Void against Azorius Control alongside Engineered Explosives. I would also like one way to destroy Ensnaring Bridge as that card can be a problem out of Karn wishboards. In my last Dress Shadow article, I mentioned 3-drops play out awkwardly, but a single copy has been good.

I played one Mystical Dispute to counter Teferi and Murktide Regent. Cascade decks also play Force of Negation, Mystical Dispute, and Brazen Borrower, making Dispute good in the matchup despite countering the namesake spells for a whopping three mana.

The Mystical Dispute is rounded out with two Flusterstorm which shine against Cascade, but are weak against Izzet Murktide and less powerful against Azorius Control. I did underestimate the power of Flusterstorm against Azorius Control because the hand disruption can hit planeswalkers leaving them with instants and sorceries.

Rather than play four counters that get weaker as time goes on, I added a single Chalice of the Void to keep Cascade decks on their toes. I didn't face any Cascade decks so this never was boarded in and Flusterstorm would have been better to have as it's a key card against Burn. At an LGS I would cut the Chalice for a third Flusterstorm.

Round by Round Report

I'll preface this section with a caution about Dress Shadow. If you play this deck be prepared for every match to come down to the wire as your life total will be low and discard does not interact with the top of the deck.

The average game lasts about six turns, but there are numerous pieces of information to track causing the rounds to last longer.

Since there are 73 players we played seven rounds and then a cut to Top 8. We were far away from eight rounds making my goal to get to 5-1 and look to ID into the quarterfinals.

Round 1: Boomer Burn: Win (1-0)

This wasn't an ideal way to begin the tournament as Burn is the scariest matchup. The games last about four turns regardless of the winner. The onus is on Dress Shadow to find at least one Death's Shadow in order to close the game in time.

My opponent played Lurrus, which I think is the correct decision as it will be more impactful in specific matchups than the fifteenth sideboard card. You may only add it to your hand a few times in a tournament, but will come up in matchups based around card advantage.

Azorius Control holds up countermagic making adding a companion to your hand a good way to Time Walk them. Creature decks also demand Burn interact with threats instead of going for their life total making the extra threat more valuable.

Round 2: Gruul Charbelcher: Win (2-0)

My opponent's primary plan this tournament was to destroy Elementals and big mana decks. It's weak to Blue and Black interaction despite playing a couple copies of Veil of Summer in the sideboard. They ended up losing to my teammate, Raja Sulaiman, playing for top 8. An overall good performance for an under-the-radar deck.

Round 3: Zoomer Burn: Loss (2-1)

My carmate, Michael a.k.a. Hawaii, is known in Michigan for playing wild decks, but settled on a solid Zoomer Burn deck with Ragavan, Dragon's Rage Channeler, and Mishra's Bauble. He ended the swiss with a 6-0-1 record; the only undefeated player in the event.

I strongly prefer Ragan and DRC to the traditional build with Goblin Guide and Rift Bolt as the overall power level has increased. Aspiringspike has been streaming with this version and it's the way of the future for Burn.

Hawaii boarded in Kor Firewalker which can block Shadow for a turn, gain life, and stop Ragavan from connecting. All of these things sound medium in isolation, but proved to be difficult to beat in practice.

Here's how I would sideboard in this matchup:

• +2 Flusterstorm
• +1 Dress Down
• +1 Terminate
• -2 Thoughtseize
• -2 Expressive Iteration

Expressive Iteration wasn't impressive as I was spending two mana without affecting the board. I would often fetch for Mountain and Swamp to preserve my life total making Blue mana more scarce.

The magic life total for Shadow is nine as it avoids dying to bolt effects.

Round 4: Jeskai Miracles (no Lurrus): Win (3-1)

I mulled to five and cast one spell in the first game so most of the match was played post sideboard.

Here's how I sideboard:

• +2 Flusterstorm
• +1 Kolaghan's Command
• +2 Engineered Explosives
• +1 Mystical Dispute
• -1 Terminate
• -4 Lightning Bolt
• -1 Dress Down

Engineered Explosives answers Rest in Peace and surprise Shark Typhoon tokens against Control. I wasn't concerned with Chalice of the Void because my opponent showed me Opt and Brainstone. Either way I'm covered with EE and Kolaghan's Command.

Once I saw Lightning Bolt I made a point to go to nine life before playing a Shadow.

Round 5: Dress Shadow Mirror: Win (4-1)

I had another Game 1 where I only cast a few spells and died without Blue mana.

Here's how I sideboard in the mirror:

• +2 Nihil Spellbomb
• +1 Kolaghan's Command
• +1 Terminate
• -2 Thoughtseize
• -2 Dress Down

Dress Down doesn't impress me in the mirror because I would prefer Kroxa to have the opponent discard a card before it remains on the battlefield. A 6/6 without abilities dies to Unholy Heat and Drown in the Loch. Death's Shadow would likely be large enough to win the game without making it a 13/13.

I decided against bringing in Flusterstorm because if it's revealed to Thoughtseize it's easy to play around. Thoughtseize is better interaction because it can take Lurrus from the hand in the mid game.

Terminate is another way to destroy a big Death's Shadow. Many of the mirrors end quickly and are less about attrition compared to other Lurrus mirrors. I don't love Engineered Explosives in the mirror as most games involve it killing a 1-drop for three mana. There are opportunities to get a 2-for-1, but hand disruption can reveal your plans and the opponent can play around it.

The magic life total is six as a 7/7 Shadow will survive a delirious Unholy Heat. Beware of the opponent firing off two Bolts at your face with this line.

Overall, this was a very skill-intensive mirror. As I reflected on the match I saw improvements to both my play as well as my opponent's.

Round 6: Azorius Control: Win (5-1)

I haven't played this matchup despite teammate, Raja Sulaiman, championing the archetype for at least a month at my LGS. It was a matchup I made sure to at least have a plan ahead of time as it was gaining traction on Magic Online thanks to Guillaume Wafo-Tapa's recent top finishes.

The matchup felt reasonable. My opponent had an early Chalice of the Void which was as detrimental as I would have expected. Lurrus shines in the matchup as I can add it to my hand on a turn I know they are holding up Counterspell.

Teferi, Time Raveler can be pressured by Ragavan and DRC, but the bounce is scary with a Chalice x=1 on the battlefield.

Here's how I sideboard in the matchup:

• +2 Flusterstorm
• +1 Kolaghan's Command
• +2 Engineered Explosives
• +1 Mystical Dispute
• -1 Terminate
• -4 Lightning Bolt
• -1 Dress Down

Again, EE is holding the fort against Rest in Peace, Chalice of the Void, Sanctifier en-Vec, and Shark tokens.

Unholy Heat can kill a Celestial Colonnade, a big Shark token, and Teferi. Lightning Bolt can go to the face, but I value the extra damage to creatures and planeswalkers.

A key piece of the matchup is Dress Shadow ripping apart the opponent's hand, but Castle Vantress can scry to find Supreme Verdict to buy a lot of time. Be careful not to overextend into Verdict.

Dress Down is fine in the matchup, but I would cut one. One of the more valuable interactions is casting it with Lurrus against Chalice x=0 and x=1. It's good to have 2-drops to recur to create an advantage.

Round 7: Zach Allen Temur Rhinos: ID (5-1-1)

An interesting change to the final round of swiss is it's no longer paired by standings. It is now randomly paired within record just like every other round. This can create some drama where the 5-1 with the best tiebreaks can draw, but the opponent has the worst breaks and needs to play it out. Luckily Zach and I were in third and fourth place with the highest tiebreaks of the 5-1s so we could draw.

The Top 8

The Top 8:

• Temur Rhinos
• Zoomer Burn
• Two Elementals
• Two Azorius Control
• Two Dress Shadow

Modern is in great shape as there were five unique archetypes that occupy different pieces of the format represented in the Top 8.

The 2.3k of prizes would be distributed to the Top 8 and we got a unanimous vote to split the prizes. Each top 8 participant received $288.

Half of the Top 8 had a two hour drive home which helped get the votes for a split. Over half of the Top 8 were planning on going out for some delicious barbeque and we were hungry.

There were three members of Team RIW in the event and we all finished in the top 8!

This event was my first big tournament since SCG Modern Regionals in March 2020. It was great to get back in the saddle with another Top 8 with my friends. The three of us will be teaming up in November at the NRG 10K so hopefully this bodes well for the future.

For a tournament to be successful in my book I need both Magic and the Gathering.

Thanks for reading!

-Kyle