Finally, the Vampires deck showed its power in the current Standard metagame. This is despite facing three control matchups in the rounds of the recent Saturday afternoon Standard tournament at Pro Reis place. My latest changes were just to have one Vona in the main deck, replacing Ajani planeswalker. And upgrading the spot removal into Legion’s End. Vona’s role is to have a generic answer to situational threats and also a life gaining 4/4 body against Mono-Red.

For the Vampires decklist, you can check it here at MTG Top 8 website.

To recap my three rounds matchup, my first round was against Gus with Blue Black control and I expected to be a very hard matchup because of his build which leaned more on spot and mass removals. I got lucky in Game 3 when he ran out of gas while I whittled at his life total with a Vicious Conquistador backed up by pump from Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord.

Round Two was against Doc Thomas with Blue-White Control which encompasses planeswalkers to hold off opponents. I was able to overwhelm his board and even playing around Settle the Wreckage. I gummed up the board with more creatures and finally triggering the instant while I was able to flip the Legion’s Landing. Two hits from Sorin’s 3 damage life drain ability extended the hand in concession.

Round Three against Ralph’s unconventional Jeskai control deck. It was somewhat a hard matchup but knowing its typical card list and the age of the deck, I was able to know the possible play and what cards to avoid. I got lucky in Game 1 with a mulligan to 4 cards and he flooding his mana and drawing lands. In the decider Game 3, I was able to Duress his only counterspell and followed it up with Sorin into a Champion of Dusk. The card draws along with the early turns pressure and timely Noxious Grasp on his blocker got me the game and match win.

Here below are the rest of the Top 4 finishers:
2nd, Ericson (Simic Ramp)
3rd, Speedy (Esper Hero)
4th, Franco (Mono Red Aggro)

15 players, 4 rounds gameplay

Overall it was a nice turn out of the tournament scene for the week. It ain’t that much attendance but most of the expected Tier 1 decks were there and we were able to learn more on the gameplay and sideboarding techniques.

That is a wrap. Until the next blog post.