Hi guys, I hope you had a fun weekend. I am writing this short report of my performance on last weekend’s back-to-back tournament. The first was on Saturday and the second was last Monday, both in Standard format. I joined the tournament piloting R/W Lark which I was trying to master/get familiar with since February.

There are actually a few different builds I’ve found on the net and the main argument is whether to use Mindstones or not. I’ve tried Saito’s build (4 Mindstones, 4 Knight of the White Orchid, 22 Lands) but I didn’t like the deck that much. Its main problem is the mana screw. The other builds are basically metagame-based so I used that as a reference to come up with my list. Here’s the decklist I’ve piloted:

RW “Bora” Cruise
by Mark Ian Alloso

Maindeck
Lands
4 Battlefield Forge
4 Windbrisk Heights
4 Rugged Prairie
5 Plains
4 Mountain
3 Reflecting Pool

Creatures
3 Siege-Gang Commander
3 Reveillark
3 Ranger of Eos
3 Mogg Fanatic
4 Figure of Destiny
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
4 Knight of the White Orchid
1 Flamekin Harbinger

Spells
4 Ajani Vengeant
4 Spectral Procession
3 Path to Exile
2 Wrath of God

The changes of the list on Monday from that on Saturday was the forge-tender to harbinger. The sideboard last Saturday was actually a mess up due to the last minute inclusion of cards. Monday was much better. See below.

Sideboard
3 Ajani Goldmane
2 Austere Command
1 Banefire
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
3 Lapse of Certainty
1 Oblivion Ring
3 Stillmoon Cavalier

The austere command was included against BW Tokens because I find Glorious Anthem a nuisance and a big factor in the match-up. The 3 Lapse of Certainty are basically against 5CC, countering big spells like Cruel Ultimatum and Broodmate Dragon.

My match-ups on last Saturday’s tournament:

Round 1. Naya Midrange 2-1 Win
Round 2. 5 Color Control 2-0 Win
Round 3. BW Tokens 2-0 Win
Round 4. Draw
Round 5. Draw

Top 8. BW Tokens 1-2 Loss

The loss I think can’t be counted because I mulliganned to five and was stuck at one land. I should’ve kept my starting seven. I ended up at 5th place (was 2nd during the top 8).

Monday’s tournament match-up below:

Round 1. BG Elves 2-0 Win
Round 2. Bant Aggro 2-0 Win
Round 3. Blightning Beatdown 2-0 Win
Round 4. Draw
Round 5. Draw

Top 8. 5CC 2-0 Win
Top 4. RW Cruise mirror 2-0 Win

The highlight of the tournament was the mirror match and it was one of the agonizing rounds I’ve ever played. I was against Mao, who is a master of the deck.

In game one, I got the slight advantage of fetching larks via the harbinger but it was worthless as his draws were also good. My last ditch effort was to attack him to activate my Windbrisk Heights hiding a Wrath of God, killing my last Reveillark and bringing back the Siege Gang Commander to shoot the last 6 pts. of damage. He can actually foil that with the forge-tender but realized that later after he conceded.

Game 2 was also a similar scenario. He got me low to eight life before I wrath away his spirit tokens. I played my own Ajani Goldmane but decided to gain life from it to avoid the Siege Gang range.

Things were going back and forth until the final scenario. His board: an 8/8 Figure, a Burrenton Forge-Tender, a Siege-Gang Commander. 3 Goblin Tokens and at 6 life. Mine was a Ranger of Eos, a 4/4 Figure, a Burrenton Forge-Tender, a Reveillark and at 4 life. I got an Austere Command on hand. He has three untapped lands.

My decision was to sacrifice my forge-tender to prevent his Siege-Gang from shooting my ranger before casting Austere Command. He allowed it to resolve so I was very happy to play the command, killing all his blockers except the commander and attacking with the ranger and the lark. He was forced to block since he was at six life and went down to 2. He drew his card, surveyed the board and extended his hand. Sideboard tech FTW!

To summarize, the deck is really powerful and consistent. You just need to prepare the sideboard for the meta as it is really a pain thinking of all the possibilities that can be included in the deck. Some decks worth preparing your sideboard against are BW Tokens, 5CC, Black-red and the mirror match.

I’m still waiting for Alara Reborn for the possible changes in the deck but so far, its my deck of choice.

Until next post guys. Thanks for reading…