Pro Tour Gatecrash

Hello Everyone!

This past weekend we had the very exciting Pro Tour Gatecrash, won by none other than Tom Martel! I have been a huge fan of Martel for a very long time, and I'm really glad to see him make it all the way and take home the cup.

I was unfortunately not able to watch much of the Pro Tour because I was spending the weekend with my girlfriend, but I did carve out Sunday to watch the top 8 and catch up on the drama from the days prior. The biggest card of the weekend was easily Boros Reckoner, which I'm kicking myself for not thinking about during Gatecrash previews. When I first saw the card, I was tired and dreaming small, and overall felt like it would be decent but not great. Also, I was following Jesse Smith on twitter and he started going nuts for the card, so I really didn't want it to be good.

Regardless of my misplaced feelings for the card, it was the face of the tournament, including 4 in Martel's winning list. It's all the way up to $26! People were doing all kinds of crazy things with Reckoner ranging from Blasphemous Act to Harvest Pyre for 20 to simply playing it as a dominate board presence. No matter when it was played, it was generally very good! However, I don't think it will stay that way for long. The reason the card is so good in this current format is because there is no non-burn spot removal. It's been many years since we haven't had a playable Doom Blade type card in the format, so I completely missed on it.

However, while I'm a huge fan of Tom Martel and I'm really glad he won, I am not a huge fan of the deck. What I'm more excited about is Melissa DeTora. While I have never met her, she plays near where I do and we have interacted on local Facebook groups from time to time. She brought a much needed innovation to Bant Control to the table, and it worked fantastically for her, sending her into the Top 8. She is the first female to ever top 8 a Pro Tour!

Reid Duke previously was the master of Bant Control, and he splashed black for Nephalia Drownyard, however since then Esper Control has established itself as a better Nephalia Drownyard deck (which Ben Stark made the top 8 with). As a response to all the Drownyard action, players have been sideboarding in one or two Psychic Spiral to their decks for those glorious "Oops! I win!" moments, as happened to Ben Stark. As we go deep, we realize that since there is a perfect counter to the previous mill strategy, the best way to counter that counter is to completely sidestep the fight and attack from a different angle (and actually attack!). Bant is distinctly different from Esper because it plays more creatures like Thragtusk and Centaur Healer, so we have many more creatures to pump with our Wolf Run.

I think going down the road, this is going to be the best control deck in the format. One important thing for a control deck to do is to be able to close out games quickly. With Nephalia Drownyard, you're milling your opponent, so they don't have their game plan disrupted and you may even draw them some cards in the form of flashback spells. With Kessig Wolf Run though, we can end the game in the blink of an eye in just one or two turns. One of the reasons Caw-Blade was so dominant in its time (even before New Phyrexia came out) was because it too had the ability to close out games very quickly. Gideon Jura + Celestial Colonnade was a 2 turn clock, so as soon as you established enough control to punch through a little damage, your opponent was insta-dead.

One card that I have heard some people talk about, and I feel is also very exciting for Wolf Run Bant is Assemble the Legion. This card is fantastic at dominating the board! I would suggest just playing 1 or 2 because you never want multiples, but this card is simply amazing when it comes to making a board presence. Imagine this curve: Farseek, Supreme Verdict, Assemble the Legion. Now our opponent has to constantly add more and more creatures to the board in order to get any attackers through, and within a couple turns they cannot profitably attack for the rest of the game. Keep in mind the tokens also have haste so when granted the opportunity for profitable attacks, we can drop in 5 tokens and immediately get in there. Wolf Run only makes this better as we can just attack with 2 or 3 guys, leaving up tons of blockers, and we don't have to fear the swing-back.

Looking at DeTora's list, I would suggest cutting a Restoration Angel and a Syncopate for 2 Assemble the Legion. The one issue that Assemble does have is that it doesn't have an immediate impact on the board, so if we're too far behind, it may not do enough. Even if that's enough to prevent Assemble from seeing much play, I think it will at the very least see a bump in value as other players try it out in their deck, so it's worth picking up regardless - it's a bulk rare, so you can't go wrong!

Overall I thought the Pro Tour was once again very exciting, and I had a lot of fun watching when I could, and cheering for my favorite players as I followed on twitter. If you played the Fantasy Pro Tour on Facebook, here was my roster:

Planeswalker: Jace Architect of Thought (15)
Big Creature: Angel of Glory's Rise (93)
Medium Creature: Hellrider (192)
Small Creature: Ash Zealot (72)
Instant: Searing Spear (240)
Sorcery: Bonfire of the Damned (98)
Enchantment: Detention Sphere (72)
Artifact: Chromatic Lantern (0)
Non-Basic Land: Sacred Foundry (248)
New Set Card: Boros Reckoner (381)
Player: Yuuya Wantanabe
Total: 1284

The highest possible was (from what I have researched):

Planeswalker: Garruk, Primal Hunter (275)
Large Creature: Thragtusk (369)
Medium Creature; Huntmaster of the Fells (390)
Small Creature: Augur of Bolas (249)
Instant: Searing Spear (240)
Sorcery: Pillar of Flame (232)
Enchantment: Rest in Peace (178)
Artifact: Grafdigger's Cage (76)
Non-Basic Land: Stomping Ground (354)
New Set Card: Boros Reckoner (381)
Player: Tom Martel
Total: 2744

I enjoy the Fantasy Pro Tour, although I'll admit I'm terrible at it. Regardless, I like how Magic is getting into things like Fantasy league to help create a more real community and environment.

That's all I have for today! Until next time, stay classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack