Just in time for the State Championships! This is the second of three videos featuring the qualifying decks from the Pro Tour Berlin Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ). This Top 4 Blightning Beatdown deck was played by Oscar Almgren.
Like the previous Demigod Deck Wins video, this one was also built for this week’s Top Decks at magicthegathering.com.
Another preview for you!
Enjoy!
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Oscar’s Blightning Deck:
4 Bitterblossom
4 Ashenmoor Gouger
4 Blightning
4 Demigod of Revenge
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Goblin Deathraiders
4 Flame Javelin
4 Incinerate
4 Tarfire
4 Auntie’s Hovel
4 Ghitu Encampment
4 Graven Cairns
4 Sulfurous Springs
5 Mountain
2 Reflecting Pool
1 Swamp
Sideboard
4 Infest
4 Thoughtseize
3 Everlasting Torment
4 Magma Spray
I didn’t use Oscar’s sideboard hardly at all… When I tried this out I was mainly getting a feel for the starting sixty; Thoughtseize, though, is very good as everyone on MTGO plays Cruel Control. I think I would like more copies of Everlasting Torment, that is, the fourth. I like Infest the least but perhaps Oscar had a transformational mindset that I have not yet grasped with my limited play of his deck.
Not surprisingly, Bitterblossom is excellent in this deck, as it is in many decks. Having a steady stream of attackers freed up my mana for pumping Figure of Destiny, distributing burn spells, &c.
Goblin Deathraiders is yet another two, which I suppose is available only in this specific color combination (that is, it is actually Gold rather than hybrid like Vexing Shusher). This card was okay for me. It hits much harder than the other options, especially if you have the fire in your hand. I can only assume Magma Spray in hand is a beating for Kithen Finks (because this never came up for me… probably because I never sided in Magma Spray).
I didn’t play any “mirror” with this at all but I can only assume the B/R version is weaker in the mirror due to Springs and Bitterblossom (ouch, collateral damage, what have you). However the deck seemed much kinder to me than straight Red Demigod elsewhere. The added pressure of Bitterblossom really affects how opponents play (which you probably already know having been on the wrong end of one at some point in the last year… I can only assume). In a Red Deck it is much more gratifying than in a Blue deck.
🙂
Just a reminder I will be updating HERE for certain before Saturday and I’m not sure if I will have time to post a pre-States video about my deck choice. So check back Friday or so if you want to know what I am bringing. My favorite cards in Standard that no one plays with are Rampant Growth and Gift of the Gargantuan, so I have been playing them in a variety of decks (mostly Reveillark versions) but I think I have one, finally, that I am going to go with.
Like I said, check back later in the week.
One more video up tonight after this.
LOVE
MIKE
4 comments ↓
I knew you would want to play Gift of the Gargantuan! You just can’t fight the urge to play Forests, can you?
I think Gift of the Gargantuan might be the strongest card in Shards of Alara; it is like a Green Compulsive Research… usually get two (and a land and a spell, which is usually exactly what you want on turn three), sometimes you “whiff” and only get one. It’s very good!
[…] Were I not playing Jund Mana Ramp for States, I would likely be on Blightning Beatdown. After tonight’s Mock Tournament — where Brian David-Marshall went 3-0 — BDM said […]
[…] Most of what I have to say about Nissa pre-dates her spectacular finishes at the recent Star City $5,000 tournament by the Andersons et al, so you can actually make the argument that Nissa is breakable. My original position, though, was that even if she is good, she has some undeniable problems. Consider Blightning. […]
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