MTG Strategist

Tyler Schroeder with his Red/Green Monsters deck beat Aaron Barich's Sultai Constrictor deck in a fast and furious 2-0 in the final game of the Memphis Grand Prix (Standard) February 25th.  Let's break it down turn by turn to see what happened.  Schroeder won the toss and started on the play. Turn 1: Schroeder plays Sheltered Thicket tapped. Turn 1: Barich plays Foul Orchard tapped. Turn 2: Schroeder plays Forest and casts Merfolk Branchwalker.  It resolves and Explores.  Earthshaker Khenra is revealed, Schroeder keeps it on top. Merfolk Branchwalker gets a +1/+1 counter. Turn 2: Barich plays a second Foul Orchard tapped and passes the turn. Turn 3: Schroeder plays Sheltered Thicket tapped and attacks with Merfolk Branchwalker. In response, Barich plays Fatal Push and destroys it. Turn 3: Barich plays Blooming Marsh (untapped) and casts Jadelight Ranger (Explore twice).  In response, Schroeder plays Abrade and kills it with 2 Explore triggers on the stack.  Trigger

The previous article looking at the final match of the Grand Prix Lyon received some useful feedback that I incorporated into this article. I hope this article will help everyone better understand modern gameplay at the professional level.  Having already looked at how Kowalski played his R/G Eldrazi deck against Abzan, it only makes sense to see how it performed against one of the most pervasive decks in the format....TRON.  The facts of this match: 1. The match went to 3 games with no individual game making it past turn 6. 2. Kowalski played Thought-Knot Seer 5 times in the 3 matches.  Twice he chose to exile Ancient Stirrings, Sylvan Scrying once, Oblivion Stone once and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger once.  3. Cappiello made Tron by turn 5, 4 and 5 respectively.  He lost the first game, won the second and lost the last game. 4. Kowalski's deck won on turn 6 and turn 4.  Cappiello won on turn 6. Game 1 Turn 1: Cappiello plays Urza's Tower and Chromatic Sphere .

Grzegorz Kowalski snuck into the top 8 with an unexpected R/G Eldrazi deck that ended up winning the Grand Prix Lyon 2018 in an epic upset over Marcio Carvalho's Abzan deck.  Both players were exceptional, making few if any mistakes or bad calls, but hindsight being 20/20, we can now dissect their gameplay to find causal factors for each loss. Marcio Carvalho (Abzan) vs Grzegorz Kowalski (R/G Eldrazi) Game 1 Turn 1: Carvalho plays Nihil Spellbomb Turn 1: Kowalski plays Noble Hierarch Turn 2: Carvalho plays Fatal Push on Noble Hierarch Turn 2: Kowalski plays 2nd land (Forest) passes turn with 2 untapped lands. End of turn, Carvalho sacrifices Nihil Spellbomb and exiles all cards from Kowalski’s graveyard, pays 1 and draws a card. Turn 3: Carvalho plays Marsh Flats and searches up a land.  Plays Liliana of the Veil. Plusses up. Kowalski discards. Turn 3: Kowalski plays Eldrazi Obligator and swings at Liliana (reduced to 1 loyalty counter). Turn 4: Carvalho (l