Hey there! Unfortunately, I have been quite busy with schoolwork lately, so this Grand Prix Antwerp report is not coming out quite as soon as I would have liked, but I do hope you gain some valuable insights about the Modern format.

I started testing Melira Pod online, and I put up some quite solid results. I was surprised by how often I just beat my opponents down instead of assembling any type of combo, and often, the deck felt like an underpowered Junk deck. Now, this is not necessarily a bad thing, as the beatdowns are often a result of the opponent playing a lot of disruption to stop your combo attempts. I also found myself stuck on two or three lands very often, and using Chord of Calling and Birthing Pod efficiently does require a fair bit of resources. Around this time, I also started testing Scapeshift as another option. We had been talking with Kenny about how playing a deck without any actual creatures was very nice, as so many of the decks in Modern were just packed with removal.

Why Scapeshift?

I realized I didn’t really want to play this version, and I decided to try out a version with the Prismatic Omen and Primeval Titan package, as it was very similar to a deck I had played in the old Extended format. On paper, this version looked a bit janky, but when I played some games, I quickly found myself liking this version a lot more than the traditional version. I liked the fact that you had more action spells and several different ways to win the game, not just resolving Scapeshift. Having a Prismatic Omen in play also means that six lands is enough to kill the opponent, so you can actually win a turn faster than the other version. The biggest thing you are giving up is Cryptic Command, but I think having a more versatile game plan overall is worth it. Another good thing with this version is that you are playing more Mountains, and I have actually never lost to drawing too many of them, something that can happen with the other version.

Going Rogue

Decisions, Decisions

When I left for Antwerp, I brought with my all the cards for both Melira Pod and Scapeshift, as I was still not settled on what I should do. Melira Pod is much harder to play, and I was worried that, with a very long tournament like a Grand Prix, I would become quite exhausted playing the deck for seven rounds after the two byes. Even though I had played with the deck a fair amount, I knew I wasn’t playing with the same type of intuition that you can see if you look at some of Sam Pardee’s Pod videos. If I would have been very confident in my skills, and thought I would make next to no misplays, I would definitely have played Melira Pod, but this was not the case. I think both Melira Pod and Scapeshift are of equal power level, with the main difference being that Melira Pod has a slightly better Jund matchup. On the other hand, Scapeshift has a much better matchup against Tron, something that is relevant at least on Magic Online. Both I and Sami Tuomi, whom I was traveling with, registered the same seventy-five.

"Omen Scapeshift"

• Creatures (8)
• 4 Primeval Titan
• 4 Sakura-Tribe Elder

• Spells (26)
• 4 Izzet Charm
• 4 Remand
• 3 Farseek
• 4 Pyroclasm
• 4 Scapeshift
• 4 Search for Tomorrow
• 3 Prismatic Omen

• Lands (26)
• 1 Island
• 3 Forest
• 6 Mountain
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Halimar Depths
• 1 Scalding Tarn
• 1 Steam Vents
• 4 Misty Rainforest
• 4 Stomping Ground
• 4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Obstinate Baloth
• 2 Swan Song
• 2 Engineered Explosives
• 2 Combust
• 2 Ancient Grudge
• 2 Sowing Salt
• 1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
• 1 Nature's Claim

Buy This Deck

I liked the sideboard a lot, but perhaps you should find room for the fourth Obstinate Baloth, as the Jund matchup is not the best ever. The Engineered Explosives’ were a late addition to the deck and I sideboarded them in most of my matchups during the two days. The original reasoning was that I wanted something against Affinity that deals with both Blood Moon and the actual threats. Overloading on Shatterstorms and the like are sometimes not enough if you can’t get out from under a Blood Moon. You play enough basics that between them and Prismatic Omen it should be fairly easy to get three colors of mana for the Engineered Explosives.

Day 1

He was on the play and had an Aether Vial on the first turn. On the second turn, he played a Warren Instigator and ticked up the Vial. I thought I was in okay shape since I had a Sakura-Tribe Elder to block the Warren Instigator. He then proceeded to put Spike Jester into play from the Vial and play Goblin King to give the two guys mountainwalk, making them unblockable due to my Stomping Ground. The first Warren Instigator trigger put a Goblin Chieftain into play, and the second trigger put a Krenko, Mob Boss. This dealt me a total of 10 damage, and next turn, he could deal me a totally absurd amount of damage thanks to Krenko. After the game, he agreed that this was probably the best possible draw he could have with his deck, and I was nowhere near beating it.

The U/B Tezzeret matchup was partially covered on the stream, and it seemed to be a super-good matchup for me. He did show me Ghost Quarter with Extirpate after the match—as well as some other disruption such as Witchbane Orb—but I still think the matchup was favorable overall. I was surprised that I faced no Jund or R/W/U decks during the whole day, as I would have assumed they would be popular decks. My 7–2 was not the best record, but as I had picked up the second loss quite early on, I was still very happy to make the second day.

Day 2

My opponent had been stuck on land but had brought me to 6 poison with a Glistener Elf that I eventually dealt with using Engineered Explosives. He then played a Noble Hierarch, still with only one land. On the following turn, he still didn’t play a land, but he played a Plague Stinger with five other cards still left in hand. At this point, my hand was two Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and one Sakura-Tribe Elder, and in play, I had one Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle along with four Mountains (basics and duals). This meant that if I drew a ramp spell or a Mountain, I could probably kill his Plague Stinger with the help of my Sakura-Tribe Elder. I drew an Izzet Charm, and without thinking the whole thing through, I just aimed it at the Plague Stinger, and he, of course, had the Mutagenic Growth and then killed me on the next turn.

What I should have definitely done was just loot with the Izzet Charm. For some reason, I thought that when I looted I would only be left with two cards in hand and would need to use them both to kill the Plague Stinger and then would be playing off the top. I thought he had at least one infect creature in hand since he had been missing land drops, so my logic at that point was that I didn’t want to spend all my resources just to be in the same situation again next turn. This whole logic was, of course, wrong, as after looting, I would still have had three cards in hand. My odds of hitting an out were super-good, as the only dead cards were basically Primeval Titan and six lands—Pyroclasm and additional Izzet Charms just put me in the same situation again. Considering I would be able to see two cards, I would most likely have survived had I looted. Additionally, if I drew Scapeshift, I could just win that turn. After the match, he even said he didn’t have another infect creature, so killing that one would have given me a lot of time to look for something to kill him with.

As I mentioned, this started a four-round losing streak. After losing to Infect, I then lost to Junk, Jund, and Affinity. All these games were quite close and ones in which it felt that if I ever drew a business card, I would have just won. Against Affinity, I even was able to wreck him with Nature's Claim on his first-turn Springleaf Drum off a Glimmervoid. Unfortunately, he drew two straight mana sources off the top and got into the game. I might have been quite tilted if the match had mattered, but as we were just playing for fun at that point, I just laughed at how things played out. Turns out Darksteel Citadel is my number-one enemy in Modern, having lost to it in the Top 8 of Pro Tour Philadelphia in a similar situation.

Going Forward

Just a week after the Grand Prix, I won a Pro Tour Qualifier for Pro Tour Born of the Gods in Valencia, so it seems I am back on the Pro Tour for the time being. Staying on the train is very difficult these days, but I will try my very best to make this happen. I had originally planned to go to Grand Prix Vienna, as I really wanted the invite, but as I have it now, I will probably skip the Grand Prix since I have quite a lot of deadlines coming up.

As always, if you have any questions, comments, ideas, or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to contact me either via the comments section below or directly via Twitter. I would love to hear from you what kind of topics you would like me to write about.

Thanks for reading,

Max

@thebloom_ on Twitter

Maxx on Magic Online

You can find my music on: http://soundcloud.com/bloomlive