Mythic Championship Day 1 Recap
Mythic Championship Day 1 Recap Discussion and Storylines
Day one of the tournament was filled with surprisingly entertaining feature matches, a few cinderella stories, some unfortunate technical issues, and of course, plenty of Golos.
The day two decklists are as follows:
9x Bant Golos
6x Simic Food
3x Bant Ramp
2x Golos Fires
2x Bant Food
2x Mardu Knights
1x Four - Color Golos
1x Selesnya Adventure
1x Gruul Aggro
1x Mono - Red Calvacade
Biggest Storylines
The biggest story of the day however has to be the 5-0 performance of relative newcomer Chris Kvartek. As Cedric and Alias on the broadcast poignantly highlighted, if you are playing in a tournament with some of the best players in the world, and you are the one person who didnt bring Hydroid Krasis, you better be right. Well... Chris obviously was right, because the extra tempo play of bringing in Brazen Borrower instead paid extreme dividends in his games, and played out exactly how he said he tested it in his post match interviews with Becca Scott.
Chris Kvartek 5-0 Simic Food
Main 60 cards (14 distinct)
Lands - 24
Side 15 cards (6 distinct)
Main 60 cards (14 distinct)
Lands - 24
Side 15 cards (6 distinct)
Main 60 cards (14 distinct)
| Planeswalker (11) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| $5.83€8.261.09 | |||
| $3.50€2.280.02 | |||
| $1.35€0.490.02 | |||
| Creature (25) | |||
| $1.10€1.160.13 | |||
| $4.54€4.300.55 | |||
| $4.018.86 | |||
| $0.25€0.110.03 | |||
| $0.25€0.170.03 | |||
| $0.38€0.160.02 | |||
| $4.62€2.070.02 | |||
| Land (24) | |||
|
11
Forest
|
$0.18€0.040.04 | ||
| $0.38€0.170.02 | |||
| $16.30€15.390.17 | |||
|
5
Island
|
$0.15€0.040.03 | ||
Side 15 cards (6 distinct)
| $4.62€2.070.02 | |||
| $1.10€1.330.06 | |||
| $0.24€0.120.03 | |||
| $0.19€0.090.03 | |||
| $0.30€0.270.04 | |||
| $1.69€1.230.03 |
The second biggest storyline is definetly that the Czech testing house has done it again. The Bant Ramp deck they submitted drew a lot of criticism from pros and others, (including us over on our Atherhub Power Panel), but the success of the deck proved everyone wrong. The squad of Ondrej Strasky, Stanislav Cifka and Martin Juza went a combined 15-4 and the tournament, with all 3 of them advancing. The Bant food deck, which was very similar to this one, also saw good success, with two out of the three players using it advancing. A very strong day for Bant overall!
Also... Sorry Brad Nelson but this tweet did not age well!
https://twitter.com/fffreakmtg/status/1184973359001374721?s=20
For those who didnt click on the link, he basically says Bant Ramp will be the worst deck in the field by far. Unfortunately for Brad, the American testing house of him and Brian Braun Duin finished a combined 6-7 with neither so them advancing, so looks like the Czecks edged them out this time!
Also, you have to respect Brad Nelson doubling down after the day was over:
https://twitter.com/fffreakmtg/status/1185379987500617728
Biggest Flops
One of the biggest surprises of the day is that not one single Golgari Adventure deck made it into day two. This was the third most popular Archetype heading into the tournament, and had a lot of Golos players on twitter very worried. Clearly, those worries were unfounded, as this deck just did not have the muscle to get past the Food and the Golos decks.
Piotr Glogowski - Golgari Adventure
Main 60 cards (18 distinct)
Lands - 24
Side 15 cards (10 distinct)
Main 60 cards (18 distinct)
Lands - 24
Side 15 cards (10 distinct)
Main 60 cards (18 distinct)
| Planeswalker (5) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| $1.39€1.370.12 | |||
| $3.50€2.280.02 | |||
| Creature (26) | |||
| $0.730.02 | |||
| $0.200.03 | |||
| $4.54€4.300.55 | |||
| $0.75€1.060.02 | |||
| $0.240.03 | |||
| $0.25€0.090.05 | |||
| $0.250.02 | |||
| $0.25€0.170.03 | |||
| Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (5) | |||
| $0.27€0.100.02 | |||
| $0.50€0.350.15 | |||
| $55.00€40.311.51 | |||
| Land (24) | |||
| $11.91€10.260.15 | |||
| $0.40€0.220.02 | |||
|
8
Forest
|
$0.18€0.040.04 | ||
|
6
Swamp
|
$0.20€0.010.05 | ||
| $5.91€4.100.15 | |||
Side 15 cards (10 distinct)
| $0.50€0.260.02 | |||
| $0.20€0.080.03 | |||
| $4.25€3.690.02 | |||
| $0.24€0.060.03 | |||
| $0.50€0.350.15 | |||
| $0.25€0.120.03 | |||
| $6.89€6.565.34 | |||
| $0.35€0.230.03 | |||
| $1.69€1.230.03 | |||
| $13.54€9.340.07 |
It was also a rough day for Gruul, with Javier Dominguez being the only player to scrape by with at a 4-3 record. It seemed like the strategy of powering through zombies with Questing best and Embercleave was not the best way to take them down after all! Also, from what I have read the Simic Food/ Bant Ramp decks had a very strong showing against this archetype. Maybe Javier will surprise us all in day two and rattle off some big wins, but based off of yesterday that seems unlikely!
Lastly, two of my favorite decks heading into the tournament did not make it to day two, so internally I'm bummed about that one. Caleb Durward's Jund midrange finished 4-3, but did not have the tie-breakers, and my beloved Rakdos Sacrifice came in at 0-4. A rough day for that deck, but going forward in the meta and with a few teaks, like cutting down to 22 lands and adding Karn, I still think it can be a legit contender.
Day 2 Question Marks
The jury is still out on Ken Yukiro's awesome Dino Knights deck. He got out to a blistering 3-0 start, and in some games the deck looked absolutely unstoppable. However, he dropped 3 out of the next 4, getting through to day 2 just on tiebreakers alone. While most people agree Yukihiro came up with the best sheer force Embercleave
battering ram strategy, that strategy overall has not appeared to be incredibly succesful for most competitors. While I am rooting extremely hard for Ken right now, we will have to see if he can get hot and stream some wins together today!
RWB Dino-Knights
Main 60 cards (15 distinct)
Lands - 24
Side 15 cards (4 distinct)
Main 60 cards (15 distinct)
Lands - 24
Side 15 cards (4 distinct)
Main 60 cards (15 distinct)
| Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (8) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| $8.81€5.380.17 | |||
| $0.20€0.060.03 | |||
| Creature (28) | |||
| $2.05€2.160.15 | |||
| $1.74€1.560.03 | |||
| $0.22€0.090.03 | |||
| $0.35€0.190.02 | |||
| $0.200.03 | |||
| $0.35€0.170.02 | |||
| $0.39€0.190.02 | |||
| Land (24) | |||
| $10.44€9.910.07 | |||
| $0.25€0.100.03 | |||
| $17.99€15.020.76 | |||
| $15.28€14.820.92 | |||
|
3
Swamp
|
$0.20€0.090.03 | ||
|
5
Mountain
|
$0.15€0.020.03 | ||
Side 15 cards (4 distinct)
| $1.31€1.170.02 | |||
| $0.50€0.350.15 | |||
| $0.25€0.260.03 | |||
| $0.25€0.120.03 |
Also, you have to love the 3 copies of Chance for Glory
in his sideboard and I really hope we can see that card win some games today!
Lastly we have the MPL division winners entering the fray today, bringing in the only copy of Mono-red Calvacade in the tournmant, as well as a more traditional version of Mardu Knights. The Mono Red deck is very interesting to me, since it is very matchup dependent, and I think that Lee Shi Tian will have his hands full with all the Simic Food and Bant Ramp strategies. Lets see if one those players, or the Selesnya Adventure player left can have a huge day today, and make the top eight much more exciting tomorrow!
Best of luck to all the competitors today, and we will be back tomorrow with a day 2 recap!
