ANZ Super Series - 08/04/2024 - 7point Highlander - Tournament Report

Hello!

Last Friday I won a Mox Emerald at the 7 Point Highlander side event at the ANZ Super Series Regional Championships;

For me it was the main event as I had a friend's wedding on Saturday, congratulations Caity & Kyle!

Glenn Doyle, the tournament organiser is a founding member of the points committee and has held a huge Friday Highlander each RC, adding 3 major 7PH events to the calendar, which has been fantastic.

On Friday we had 88 players, not as spectacular as this year's 198 player 7PH National Championships but considering this side event was held on a working day, it was a great showing.

DECK CHOICE - GOBLINS

No brilliant metagame decision or innovations here. I was up until 1:30am the two nights prior trying to get my Jund Survival of the Fittest brew to tournament level but I failed. I had an untested deck, half a sideboard plan and a sleep defecit.

My mates Brooksey and Brayden offered to pick me up on the way to the venue in the morning, which I was and am very grateful for because I'm currently in a moonboot from a sporting injury. As is custom we hit up one of Melbourne's many great cafe's for breakfast, True North. "Large latte and a reuben thanks". I was awkwardly fumbling around with my crutches and longbox of half sleeved cards at the table until Brayden, another Goblin afficionado, cleared his throat and bene gesserit commanded "just play Goblins dude", and so I did.

I initially built Goblins in mid 2018 with verve from the printing of Squee, the Immortal in Dominaria. I wanted to go infinite with Food Chain + Goblin Recruiter into Goblin Ringleader into Squee, etc. I took that build to the following CanCon and did poorly. 

There was new hope for the deck to come; During the pandemic in July 2020, Conspicuous Snoop and Muxus, Goblin Grandee were printed, taking the deck to a whole nother level. My first big result was winning an Underground Sea between lockdowns at Maze of Fitzroy's 'Moxing Day' weekend in Dec 2020 . A few months later I wrote a primer on this blog and Kokey helped me port it onto the 7PH website.

Since then the number of goblin players has grown to a small warren and a steady trickle of new goblins have been printed, culminating to the list I ran on Friday:

Moxfield link: LUKE MULCAHY GOBLINS ANZ SS Fri 08-03-2024

I'd like to talk strategy in this report but it's already going to be long. If you've built Goblins and wanna talk card choices, message me!

THE TOURNAMENT

I hobble out of the cafe on my crutches. Brooksey needs to move his car and offers me a lift, "nah, the venue's just over there, I'll be right thanks". He leaves. I'm very wrong. We're actually a couple blocks downhill from the venue and it's 30°C at 10am. Bit of exercise to get the blood pumping I guess!

Brooksey navigates traffic, finds a park and still beats us to the venue. When we arrive he's checking the vendors for a Nuka-Cola Vending Machine for his food deck. Adding a little hype to the tournament, the Fallout set was release that day, which made it legal for the tournament and only available in sealed precon$. $houtout to Violet Lou top8'ing with a sweet RW 8point list featuring Pre-War Formalwear.

I knew there was a chance I would freak out and not want to play the new brew. I had Goblins prepared in my bag. I didn't really need any reps as I'd recently run it at CanCon, where Gobby Gang members Brayden and Tyrone came 8th and 9th respectfully, earning our beloved Goblin Recruiter +1 point from the Murders at Karlov Manor points update, along with +1 Mana Crypt. I had already updated the list for the new points so I was ready to submit.

88 players, 7 rounds. 6 hours sleep. 1 coffee. 5 years of Goblin prep.

ROUND 1 - Sean on Umoon.

Due to my 'debilitating' broken foot I was allocated a fixed table for the tournament, which is a thoughtful feature of the tournament software. I have to say, friends and strangers all, have been so courteous these past couple months getting the fuck out my way. It's been very heartwarming.

Anyway, I get to my table and Brandon Owen is sitting there. He's not Sean. I sit down anyway and we start to catch, as it's been a long time since we've played. But then Sean comes over, "errr I think you're at the wrong table Brandon, you IDIOT!", except in very polite and respectful Sean words, not the ones I just wrote.

Sean and I had some great games and chats at the last two Sydney RC's. Super friendly guy. He's a doctor, so doesn't have the time to go deep on Highlander, but enjoys it a lot. "Ohhh stickers, you just tell me what they do when it matters". 

Game1 I'm on the play and keep a Goblin Lackey hand, but first I cast Once Upon a Time and choose Muxus (this is basically how my tournament goes all day). Lackey resolves but Sean has Horned Loch-Whale - Sean is running Liam's Umoon list from his CanCon top8 (Shoutout to Browny for killing it with the purest control list in years) - I bottom the Lackey as I figure it's more likely I reach 6 lands for Muxus than the Lackey connecting on turn 4. Sean isn't able to keep a counter for the eventual Muxus and it takes the game. 

Game2 Sean Mana Drains my turn 2 play and slams Jace, the Mind Sculptor turn 3. I untap and cast Choke, which resolves. Jace drews about 7 extra cards but never finds the bounce for Choke. 1-0

ROUND 2 - Malcolm on Esper Control

Malcolm's from Tassie. Always great to see Tassie 7PH players. Game1 he has Force of Negation for my Mana Crypt and then he Archmage's Charm's my Stalactite Stalker saccing it to kill my Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin. He then flooded out and my threats kept coming. Couldn't believe I won that game. 

Game2 was crazy, we both have about 8 lands, I was out of cards and he has a flipped Jace and a Teferi, Time Raveler going to work. He bottoms my draw step with Vendilion Clique, which draws me into Goblin Chainwhirler. Despite that value I'm still way behind but next turn I draw For the Ancestors and he doesn't have the counterspell. It draws me 3 goblins, then 4 goblins the following turn. I've had Ancient Tomb the whole game and am down to 6 life. He has a Celestial Colonnade (colon aid) along with the two planeswalkers and Thing in the Ice. Another strike of luck, I draw Choke and lay it face down (my trap card) next to my 6 known faceup goblins in hand. I chump attack into Colonnade. He activates and blocks, my goblin goes to the bin but I activate my trap card and take the win. 2-0

ROUND 3 - Pavlov's Brandon on UW Control

Ok we're playing for real this time. Brandon has a sweet list that featuring Terminus and Triumph of Saint Katherine. I know this because I extracted them from his deck with Earwig Squad, flipping the casket and dancing on the Martyred Lady.

I don't remember any other details from this match, I must've been getting control matchup blur. Something, something, Choke.

ROUND 4 - Hannah on GBx Natural Order

From Brizzy, Hannah has cool style with matching Priests of Titania mat, dress, complimentary colour sleeves, alters and cute matching dice bag. I dig it. I got the Goblin team shirt (thanks Brayden), the goblin playmat. Goblins Vs Elves. We representin'

Game1 Hannah Natural Orders Atraxa on turn 3 finding Wasteland. My lands are Taiga + City of Traitors. Logically I believe Hannah will waste the Taiga next turn, but the Atraxa is going to be difficult to beat without doing something powerful so I decide to Goblin Recruiter setting up Mind Goblin into Muxus. To Hannah's credit she wastes the Taiga rather than the City and I scoop.

I don't remember game2.

Game3 she has a fast double manadork start and an Elvish Reclaimer, which i know from game1 can find Wasteland. I decide to go for another Recruiter pile which is weak to Wasteland but not as obviously as Game1. Hannah has a tough decision an opts for more pressure with Minsc and Boo rather than searching for the tapped Wasteland, and I combo off just in time. Tight. 4-0

ROUND 5 - Angus on Saga Jund

Angus has been grinding and honing Jund at Wednesday weeklies at Plenty of Games. He's ran traditional Jund in the past. This is the first time I've seen his sweet 8point Urza's Saga version. 

Game1 is super grindy and fun, I tanked a lot over decisions. My play speed is not acceptable but Angus is too nice to call me up on it. He ends up winning game1 and we only have 20 mins left. I'm rushing from here on.

Game2 I get a quick recruiter into Muxus with 10 mins left.

Game3 gets grindy and it's his Urza's Saga + Currency Converter Vs my For the Ancestors. I only hit 2 Goblins on the flashback of For the Ancestors and there's not enough gas to take the win before the end of turn5 of turns. I knew I took more than my share of the clock so I concede. Angus has been working hard on Jund for ages so it was great to see him top8, especially with 8points. 4-1

ROUND 6 - Violet

Another win-and-in. Violet is on a mission to find tier1 8point decks so that her friends and others can afford to play, which is absolutely commendable.

She's running RW good dudes with ETB's + an equipment package, making special use of Pre-War Formalwear.

Game1 I forget the order of my Recruiter pile and I sac Goblins to Skirk Prospector to cast Mind Goblin off the top using Conspicuous Snoop, expecting to reveal and cast Muxus for the win, but instead I reveal Kiki-Jiki. I choose to leave Kiki on top rather than cast it with the Mind Goblin mana because I want to combo next turn when Snoop recovers from summoning sickness. Vi untaps and has removal for the Snoop but a turn later I draw the Muxus and am still able to cast it thanks to Skirk Prospector. Phew.

Game2 I curve Stalactite Stalker into Zoyowa, Lava-Tongue. Vi evokes Fury to wipe them but next turn I have Pyrokinesis to wipe her board of Thraben Inspector + fresh Ragavan and Mother of Runes. She has no gas and now I'm 5-1 with an ID into top8. 

ROUND 7 - Cody, a.k.a. Codi on ~~~a mystery deck~~~ ;)

ID. Cody is ecstatic that his gambit of borrowing Thom Bot's bots has more than paid off. He's undefeated in his first ever tournament with the deck, which is pretty unreal and a testament to he and Thom.

More than a decade of office monkey work has made me addicted to caffeine and I propose that he, Angus and I take a stroll to the only coffee place open at 3pm on a Friday in Coburg, Al Alamy's. I'm on the crutches and it's 32°C but I need me drugs. Al Alamy's is a classic, with old middle eastern men smoking on chairs out front on a perenial basis. Inside is a supermarket of middle eastern products and a pizza oven. "Two iced lattes please", we say. "errrr talk to..." *waves hand yonder*. We turn around to a man "I just cleaned the machine, but ok". I did that thing where you order 'takeaway' without thinking and then realise it would've been much better to eat/drink on location, but then you have to leave because it's too embrassing to then take a table (normally I'm all about eating in, less waste!).

By the way, carrying drinks on crutches is impossible. Angus offers to carry my shame takeaway coffee in my shame plastic cup. Speaking of waste...

*Begins rant*

I don't think that offering free water in plastic bottles is the best solution. I understand it comes from good will, ensuring no one gets dehydrated. BUT! There's taps right there! I think providing an easy spot where water bottles can be refilled, is the way to go, not encouraging plastic waste (says the guy who loves to draft in paper). Anyway, Limmy says it best:

/end rant.

On our stroll back to the venue we're heckled from a beer garden by Sam, Alec and Simon. They offer for us to join but we each got a mox to win!

I think the organisers are announcing Modern LCQ #19(?) as we walk in. All the staff are busy so there's no fanfair announcing the top8.  Here's the final standings from a discord post by...you guessed it, Graham:

respectively:

UR Prowess

Canberra Lutri Grixis

8pt Saga Jund

Bots

UR Prowess

Goblins

UR Prowess

8pt RW midrange

So Violet got there after all, which is cool. I'm always glad to see brewing payoff.

A judge corals us to a line of tables. 1 Vs 8, 2 Vs 7, etc. I'm paired against:

QUARTER FINALS - Angus on Saga Jund (rematch!)

Game1 on the play Angus opens up turn1 Saga into Sol Ring + Currency Converter and Shadowspear; I know I won't have enough time to combo, so I take Boggart Harbinger off my Once Upon a Time planning to search for Goblin Trashmaster, but I make an oversight and realise too late that I don't have the second red for Trashmaster, so I have to try set up Mind Goblin into combo. I try chump blocking to buy time but he has Sheoldred + Reanimate on my Sling-Gang Lieutenant to burn me out.

Games2 and 3 I can't remember... funny how the losses stick with you more.

SEMIS - JLS on Lutri Grixis

JLS recently moved to Melbourne from Tassie and I like to think that everyone here trying to lift their game to catch him. He has been on an amazing run qualifying for multiple pro tours (including the upcoming Seattle because he top8'd the main event the day after this tournament!). This is going to be a tough match.

Game1 I run out a few goblins to soak up disruption and then I resolve Goblin Recruiter. I'm on a high life total now but Grixis is basically all disruption and I only have 3 lands, one of which is Ancient Tomb, and JLS has Ledger Shredder. Stacking this Recruiter pile is going to be a delicate balance between forcing JLS to use his disruption Vs comboing before Ledger Shredder/Ancient Tomb kill me. 

I go into the tank. I know the top8 is untimed so I'm not thinking about speed. I should've known but it turns out 'untimed' doesn't mean you can play slow, and I get a warranted slow play warning. At this point I'm still mid Recruiter piling and am scared of getting a game loss from a second warning, so I rush the pile and I end up putting too many low ball threats before the mana + Muxus. The Ledger Shredder kills me in time easily.

Game2 is crazy. After the early game he is ahead on board but I've filled my hand thanks to Goblin Ringleader. He has an unflipped Fable, the shaman token and a Baleful Strix, and he takes the turn off to buy Lutri. At the time this seems suss to me. It feels like he has a sweeper but that doesn't make sense when he has 3 creatures plus a flipped Fable next turn. I go with my gut and drop my more expendible threats. Enough to beat his creatures but not scoop to a sweeper. Turns out he had bought Lutri to copy Pyrokinesis, which wiped my whole board and left all this creatures in play. I was further behind than expected and had to get lucky with Grenzo, Dungeon Warden. I drop Grenzo next turn and start flippin'. On the 5th activation I flip Recruiter to setup the kill, and I win the turn before he would kill me. Later he said he just needed any red spell from 4 cards, to evoke and copy Fury for the win. Unlucky!

Game 3 I have the dream hand. Turn1 Choke off Mana Crypt, locking down his Underground Sea. JLS puts up a fight using Gush to psuedo untap his islands, but he doesn't find Badlands or a fetch for it, or an answer to the Choke and the tempo loss is too much.

Note to self: as angelic as judges are, they too need sleep like the rest of us. Try to play at a regular speed in top8!

Despite my slow play, the other semi final is only in game 1, so I have some time to size up my potential opponents, Adam and Henry both on UR Prowess. 

They have super close games as you'd expect from the mirror. 

One game literally comes down to die rolls as they both have Maddening Hex.

At one point Adam makes an attack and didn't realise prowess triggers don't need to be announced until they matter.

Henry ripped a Vapor Snag on the last draw of his Treasure Cruise to bounce a lethal Ledger Shredder.

Good games and Henry is my finals opponent.

They each finished above me in swiss, so I was going second no matter what. 

It's also a bad matchup for Goblins. I have no removal or blockers for Sprite Dragon, Stormwing Entity or Murktide Regent, all of which can kill me before Muxus comes down. Goblins' also struggle against Grim Lavamancer and Dreadhorde Arcanist, due to lack of removal. 

The only thing I have going for me is experience.

FINALS - Henry on UR Prowess

The judge lays the Emerald next to our playmats, "no, don't put it there!" Henry jokes and says it'll make him nervous. He is a little shaky game1 and his luck isn't helping. Delver doesn't flip for several turns and his Light Up the Stage hits Mental Misstep + land. I have a steady stream of goblins from turn and I get there. Felt a little lucky to take this one. This could really be happening...

Game2 I side in my Go for the Throat, Choke and Molten Disaster for Earwig Squad, Goblin Trashmaster and Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin.

He starts with a Grim Lavamancer, which I have no answer for and leaves the Goblin Lackey stranded in my hand. The floor is lava for my Goblins, but for now Henry has no pressure. I drop Boggart Harbinger into the lava to put Goblin Recruiter on top. Henry has a great answer in Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, to exile Boggart Harbinger from the top of my library. This was a key moment in the match, Henry doesn't seem shaky at all now. He neglects to cast the Harbinger for himself but instead drops Stormwing Entity. I drop a goblin into the lava to buy time and take a hit from the Stormwing and Ragavan, which flips land. I rip Molten Collapse and have a longshot plan of killing the Lavamancer so that next turn I can give Goblin Lackey haste with Goblin Chieftain and drop Muxus for the win. This was a bad plan though as the almost anything thwarts it and the Stormwing probably just races me anyway. He has the answer and we're onto game3.

During sideboarding I lose my cool. I got so trounced by that Grim Lavamancer that I decide I want more removal and I force Fury and Pyrokinesis into the deck, cutting totally fine Goblins and going against my sideboard plan. A classic case of fearing the worst. Prowess only needs one threat to win the game and often those threats can get beyond 4 toughness. I think bringing in burn spells was a mistake. I must stay vigilant!

Game3 I mulligan, uh oh. But there it is, Mana Crypt. 5 points in one card. I've done it...but I look closer at my hand and it's actually very risky. My only goblins are Broadside Bombardiers and Moria Marauders. The rest are lands. UR Prowess plays a lot of burn. But, it's Mana Crypt and I've already mulliganed, gotta keep.

I can't remember the sequencing but Bombardiers hits a couple times and throws Mana Crypt at a dude before Henry burns it and casts Stormwing Entity to block my Moria Marauders.

On turn4 I untap and at this point all I have is lands and the Moria Marauders. I rip...Squee, Dubious Monarch, drop City of Traitors, cast Squee with two untapped lands remaining and swing into the Stormwing with 3 Gobbies. He naturally blocks the Moria Marauders and I get two triggers, which nets me Warren Instigator.

Henry untaps and passes with 4 mana.

From here Henry is too far behind to race with Stormwing and he just draws lands and Squee keeps coming back.

We shake hands and it's done. Mox Emerald baby! Unbelievable.

CONCLUSION

I drew Mana Crypt, Ancient Tomb, Goblin Recruiter and Choke, a lot throughtout the day. Everything just went my way. I was super keen for a celebration but it was 10:30pm and everyone else had a Regional Championships to play the next day. My uber driving probably assumed I was on drugs I was so happy.

When you're working on a deck it's hard to know whether you're banging your head against a wall or whether you need be more persistent. There's something very Gobliny about banging your head against the wall though...

All the little percentages you gain from practice, sideboard planning, knowledge of other decks, sleeping well, eating well, staying hydrated, all add up. And then when a day comes along where the luck is there, you take all those gained percentages and convert the luck into a win. Or you play bad, prep bad and get even luckier :P

Strategically Goblins is a risky deck at the moment due to the popularity of Fury. 

Goblins has a bad combo matchup but the average player is not interested in combo. 

All that said, Goblins can beat anything with fast mana hands, brutal sideboard cards or an unblocked Goblin Lackey. I think you really gotta love Goblins to push through the days where the aforementioned cheesey wins don't come.

REST OF THE WEEKEND

Wedding next day was great. Huge thanks to Sweeney for driving me. The power cut out at the venue halfway through the reception and the backup generator they arranged caught fire! Chaos.

I came back for the smaller 3round Highlander on Sunday, this time with the Jund Survival brew featuring Mox Emerald, which got Molten Collapsed the first time I cast it haha.

The 3rounds finished at the perfect time for me to witness Sam become Conspicuous Snoop whilst we watched fellow Gobby Ganger Tyrone judge the finals of the main event and Jim Wilks take it down and become Australia's representative at the next World Championships. Huge congrats Jim! Also congrats Riley, JLS, Guides and Basser on the qualifications!

What a weekend! Huge thanks to Glenn Doyle for organising, all staff, judges and standby judges working long hours. Cody for the iced latte and Saher for the mind blowing falafel from Half Moon in Coburg. Thanks to the Gobby Gang for chat nonsense, the committee, Brooksey and Sweeney for the lifts and everyone else throughout the weekend.

I'm pumped for the next Regional Championships: Highlander and Main Event. 

If anyone's mad enough to have a Mox Jet as 1st prize in the future, I will be there!

See you on the glorious field of battle,

Mulch.

Commander Masters - 7 Point Highlander Set Review

 

Release date: August 4th 2023

Latest points change at the time of writing this - Murders at Karlov Manor

Throughout my set reviews I use '~' to denote the subject card.

Tales of Middle-earth Commander - 7 Point Highlander Set Review

 

Release date: June 23rd 2023

Latest points change at the time of writing this - Murders at Karlov Manor

Throughout my set reviews I use '~' to denote the subject card.

The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth - 7 Point Highlander Set Review

Release date: June 23rd 2023

Latest points change at the time of writing this - The Lost Caverns of Ixalan

Throughout my set reviews I use '~' to denote the subject card.

March of the machine: The Aftermath - 7 Point Highlander Set Review

Release date: May 12th 2023

Latest points change at the time of writing this - The Lost Caverns of Ixalan

Throughout my set reviews I use '~' to denote the subject card.

March of the Machine Commander - 7 Point Highlander Set Review

 

Release date: April 21st 2023

Latest points change at the time of writing this - The Lost Caverns of Ixalan

Throughout my set reviews I use '~' to denote the subject card.

March of the Machine 7PH Set Review

 

Release date: April 21st 2023

Latest points change at the time of writing this - The Lost Caverns of Ixalan

Throughout my set reviews I use '~' to denote the subject card.

~ ultimates pretty quickly.

Probably needs some token/lifelink/+1/+1 counter synergies to make the cut over other 4drops.

Could use her to turn a hexproof creature into an angel and then target it with The Book of Exalted Deeds.

Even if you get one trigger you're happy. Multiple triggers combined with a decent curve is enough to pull ahead in midrange mirrors. There are several cards like Basri Ket that repetitively trigger ~ but if the opponent has removal for ~ then you fall too far behind on tempo, therefore I only really like threats that also trigger ~, e.g.

Siege Veteran

Raffine, Scheming Seer

Inti, Seneschal of the Sun

Luminarch Aspirant

Special mention to Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord. Not a threat by himself but ~ is a vampire and Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord is excellent when you sacrifice Bloodghast to the second ability or drop bomb vampires with the third ability.

Big Vampire to drop with Sorin, Imperious Bloolord.

Hasn't got the versatility of Flickerwisp, but 3toughness is a big upgrade to the 1toughness of Flickerwisp in a Wrenn and Six + Orcish Bowmasters world.

You need a really high count of ETB artifacts/creatures to make ~ playable. Also, the payoff is obviously not worth building around, so ~ needs to be an incidental include.

I'm imagining an Aluren deck where you can still keep comboing in end step thanks to Aluren's instant-speed clause. Or perhaps an artifact-based stompy deck with Arcum's Astrolabe, Stoneforge Mystic, Ingenious Smith and maybe Mana Vault and Grim Monolith.

Nice with Yorion, Sky Nomad as you can get repetitive value.

Very slow but I can see ~ in a big mana enchantment combo deck where he acts as a win condition when your engine is running but also as a way to get back a key enchantment if it ends up in the graveyard. The Pioneer deck, Enigmatic Fires runs a 1-of ~ in this fashion, allowing you to sacrifice a 3drop enchantment to Enigmatic Incarnarnation to get ~ then next turn sacrifice ~ to upgrade to a 5drop.

Easy to overlook because classically auras are bad against cards like Ephemerate, Teferi, Time Raveler, etc, which are popular right now. They are also bad against cards with powerful static abilities.

~, Reprobation and Planar Disruption are underrated in my opinion. At the least they should be playable in a Kor Spiritdancer strategy.

~ answers The One Ring fairly well.

Reactive creature protection is risky because you will lose tempo if the opponent just deploys a threat rather than trying to answer yours, or worse, they don't even run creature removal because they're trying to combo-kill you instead. Having said that, there are some combos which rely on targetting the opponent. I think you can maindeck ~. Its versatile enough that the risk of holding up 1 mana for a couple turns and losing too much tempo is low.

Fury is rightfully popular; ~ is a nice answer to that.

The personal hexproof protects you against storm kills, against Gifts Ungiven and against Intuition. There were three copies of Intuition in the latest big Melbourne Highlander.

Unfortunately you can't force your opponent to 'Trap!' themselves with the Undercity, they can simply choose to move into 'The Arena' instead.

I only like ~ in Argothian Enchantress/Serra's Sanctum decks. Outside of those decks ~ is just a bad Council's Judgment, which is only fringe playable.

Super powerful with spells alternate cost spells and expensive spells with reduced costs:

Force of Negation

Snuff Out

Force of Will*

Murderous Cut

Misdirection

Sickening Shoal

Magmatic Sinkhole

Spinning Darkness

Leyline Binding

Pyrokinesis

Become Immense

Death Rattle

Set Adrift

Tasigur's Cruelty

Treasure Cruise**

Dig Through Time**

SIDEBOARD ONLY

Massacre

Submerge

Commandeer

You can't run all the spells above; there's only so much graveyard to delve, Leyline Binding may not be worth the triomes in your mana base and you probably won't be able to run enough black spells for Sickening Shoal, enough red spells for Pyrokinesis and enough blue spells for Force of Will.

If ~ gets Swords to Plowshares'd without a trigger you can still recover from the tempo loss. You don't absolutely need a pitch spell ready but of course it's best if you do.

Some other payoffs for this strategy include:

Up the Beanstalk

Vial Smasher, the Fierce

Livaan, Cultist of Tiamat

Zaffai, Thunder Conductor

Shark Typhoon

Jin-Gitaxias, Zaffai, Thunder Conductor and Shark Typhoon are too slow against combo decks. It's hard to reach that amount of mana whilst holding cards in hand to get respective triggers. In a non-combo meta you can run the expensive payoffs, but we have to wait for a few more cheaper payoffs to be printed to run this strat in a meta with combo decks. Up the Beanstalk was a huge addition, but it was so good in modern that it got banned; RnD will probably be reluctant to print similar effects in the future.

How have I not heard or seen ~ until 10 months after it was released?

ETB Brainstorm, so even if ~ gets exiled you're not out of the game.

The dream setup is Searing Wind or Explosive Singularity, but the realistic options are alternate-cost instant and sorceries like Dig Through Time, Treasure Cruise, Murderous Cut, Magamtic Sinkhole, Deathrattle, Pyrokinesis, etc

~ was a lot better until Orcish Bowmasters got printed. 

~ is a metagame card. It's good when most players are casting Brainstorm/Preordain/Ponder. However, you also need to run a lot of counterspells in case the opponent finds their Wrenn and Six or Orcish Bowmasters. 

There's a chance the committee put another point on Wrenn and Six, which would make ~ a lot more playable. Wrenn and Six combined with Orcish Bowmasters are really squeezing 1toughness creatures out of the format.

Having said that ~ is only a 1drop, so it's an acceptable risk.

~ joins Training Grounds, Thran Turbine and Enigma Jewel as excellent enablers for activated abilities.

Going mono blue would allow you to run a bunch of colourless lands with activated abilities, e.g. Urza's Saga. 

You could also go UG to gain access to the land tutors for Urza's Saga + Channel, Urban Burgeoning, Wilderness Reclamation and Biomancer's Familiar.

I honestly don't really know what this deck looks like in the end, but there's a seed there. Unclear whether it would end up playable. Only so much time for brewing etc.

Has featured in Pioneer as a combo with Retraction Helix and Mox Amber.

The combo works with any zero-mana artifact or Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh.

Retraction Helix and Banishing Knack are functionally equivalent. They are also bad cards outside the combo. If all the pieces were acceptable cards in their own right you could run them incidentally and every 10 or so games you could get a cheap win.

Outside combo shenanigans ~ could be good in an eggs deck or Underworld Breach deck that is regularly untapping her and filling its graveyard whilst digging for the combo.

Removal for mono-blue fliers.

Vulnerable to Lightning Bolt but worth the risk. You can evoke the MH2 elementals and throw them before they die. You can throw delve creatures.

Strong if you can gaurantee that you'll have a creature you actively want to sacrifice. Having ≈14 cheap creatures that you want to sacrifice is the hard part:

Bloodghast

Entomb

Orcish Bowmasters

Gravecrawler

Claim the First Born

Kari Zev, Skyship Raider

Custody Battle

Wrangle

Furnace Reins

Getting close. 

You'd need the right metagame for the Threaten effects, that is plenty of creatures to gain control of.

Effectively a 2mana Threaten. If you can reliably sacrifice the creature you steal, this is removal that also does a nice chunk of damage.

Strong burn-only threat. Flying is nice for taking the initiative.

Top-end of a Time Walk recursion deck. You'll need some acceleration to cast ~ by turn 4 since that's the turn The Initiative will likely kill you. I'm imagining turn3 tutor for Time Walk, turn4 ritual into ~ and cast Time Walk, GG.

Excellent reanimate target.

Worthy option for Savage Order.

7mana is relatively castable in a postboard game where the opponent has slowed themselves down to hold up mana for graveyard removal.

Prowess players have been running ~. A 2drop which becomes a huge threat late game. Trample makes it is especially good with pump like Become Immense.

Excellent against Planeswalkers. You may come across some mindgames in the RGx mirror where Minsc and Boo, Timeless Heroes is involved; If they cast M&B and you're about to hit 4 mana next turn, then they may not won't attack with the 4/4 Boo for fear of you also casting M&B or Questing Beast. However, if you're not green then ~ is probably not on their radar.

Nathan Basser's mono red storm deck comes to mind when I see ~. I don't believe he ran ~, which is telling, but it must have been close. I can imagine a build that runs some cheap red cantrips like Manamorphose, Gitaxian Probe, Light Up the Stage, Crash Through, Magmatic Insight, Renegade Tactics, Warlord's Fury, Overmaster, Inspired Tinkering. Maybe even some risky ones: Ancestral Anger, Crimson Wisps, Expedite. Then you run all the payoffs like Runaway Steam-Kin, Dreadhorde Arcasnist, Dragon's Rage Channeler, perhaps Birgi, God of Storytelling and Young Pyromancer. In reality you're really a Blood Moon deck and you're spending most of your points on Mooning the opponent as fast as possible. At the moment red is the most popular colour, so it's not a good time to be Mooning. Give it another couple years and the meta may shift though.

Fire Prophecy, which also hits Planeswalkers, which is a huge upgrade in a metagame with so many Minsc and Boo, Timeless Heroes.

~ is good in decks that rely on key pieces being in the library rather than your hand, e.g. Protean Hulk, Natural Order, Tinker, Savage Order, Madcap Experiment.

Not sure where ~ fits but that's an unusual ability. Could be Vampire or Warrior tribal, maybe a Blazing Shoal deck with Greater Gargadon. 

Curves beautifully with Wall of Blood FTW.

Effectively draws two cards if your whole deck is proactive, which is a good rate for 7PH. You want to keep your curve super low so that you can maximise the chance of casting any 2 spells that you may hit off ~.

Reckless Impulse and Light Up the Stage are extra copies.

Cost-reducers like Runaway Steam-Kin and maybe even Ruby Medallion work well with ~.

Fuck...maybe? ~ is HUGE. I think you need cast it turn4 at the latest, which means having at least 3 dudes to convoke with. Most decks run several removal spells, so you're going to need a lot of incidental creature tokens:

Khalni Garden

Orcish Bowmasters

Verdant Command

Ob Nixilis, the Adversary

Nissa, Voice of Zendikar

Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast

Grist, the Hunger Tide

Slimefoot and Squee

Could lean into the token strategy with Idol of Oblivion. 

White could have some worthwhile token payoffs like Bennie Bracks, Zoologist.

If they print another 4 good 1drop Merfolk then Merfolk tribal could suddenly become good.

~ doesn't fit the aggro nature of the tribe but these days there's always a mana sink.

One day Hardened Scales, one day. Unfortunately there's only one Arcbound Ravager in 7PH. Need a few more of those before ~ is truely playable.

~ requires a bunch of mana dorks and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx/Gaea's Cradle + a topend that disrupt combo. I wouldn't build the deck unless Wrenn and Six gets another point.

Easy to dismiss but ~ is a reasonable option for permanent-heavy decks that run lots of delve/escape. If you whiff you nearly lose the game, but surely a 1 in 40 chance is acceptable? That's roughly the chance you get if you have 10 other non-permament spells in your deck.
(I use Aether Hub's calculator for my probabilities)

Combos with a sacrifice outlet + a persist creature as long as the perist creature's base power isn't ≥4.

Very powerful if you can cast it turn 2 and dump a bunch of creatures.

There's a lot more payoff for having all flash rather than flying in 7PH because counterspells are important against combo and overpowered pointed cards.

~ is nice with on-top tutors. A cool line would be EOT Congregation at Dawn stacking ~ into Subtlety and Solitude to recover the tempo loss from casting Congregation.

Of course creatures aren't the only cards with flash:

The Wandering Emperor

Swift Reconfiguration

Dress Down

Force of Virtue

Leyline Binding

Knights will probably never catchup to the other tribes, but this is a step.

Metagame dependant. 3/4 vigilance flying is a good size against aggro; Lets you take The Initiative whilst still defending.

Shuts down Flash Hulk combo (Viscera Seer). 

Invalidates Griselbrand from Reanimator decks.

Good retro-answer to Mother of Runes.

 +

Craggsy!!!

Also nice with The Mimeoplasm and some creature with haste and evasion.

That trigger is game winning. The dream is Emrakul, the Aeon's Torn, in which case you'll get the Time Walk trigger because ~ says "cast". However, you don't need to go that big, even a Caves of Chaos Adventurer would be enough to win.

There are two approaches: you can run enough 3 and 4 cost legendary creatures to consistently hit one  (≈17 legends), or you can run cards like Worldly Tutor and Brainstorm, which can put gigantic legends on top of your library, 

~ would supplement a reanimator strategy well, especially postboard when the opponent has slowed down to hold up mana for graveyard hate.

Big Human for Winota, Joiner of Forces.

Another big Human for Winota, Joiner of Forces.

Must-kill creature. Vulnerable to Karakas, Fatal Push and Fury but White and Black give you the option of Mother of Runes, Giver of Runes and hand disruption to protect ~.

Best if you can get ~ out fast to maximise the number of lands that enter tapped for the opponent.

Very strong but awkward because it's an aggressive card that costs 5mana.

Late game you can keep bouncing it every turn to maintain hexproof by design.

BATTLES

Always worth doing a rules dive when something weird gets released. I'm getting all my info from the official release notes.

The reminder text explains most of the rules for battles.

Sorcery speed.

Enter with 'defense' counters equal to number in bottom right.

Battles can be attacked like planeswalkers but can also be dealt damage by targeted damage effects.

Battles are defeated when the final counter is removed. This can be by damage or effects like Vampire Hexmage. 

Battles aren't defeated if they're destroyed by Naturalize or whatever.

When defeated, battles trigger (which can be countered by Stifle) and then the backside gets cast for free, which means they can be counterspelled or screwed by Teferi, Time Raveler in combat or by Lavinia, Azorius Renegade. 

INHERENT STRATEGY

The dilemma with battles is that the damage you defeat them with, doesn't go to your opponent's face, which means you can lose damage races. However, by design most battles quickly regain this lost damage.

Battles are worse against decks that introduce The Initiative.

Most battles have some kind of ETB trigger, so you can get extra value by returning them to your hand or flickering them with Yorion, etc.

Battles are an extra card type for Tarmogoyf, Emrakul, the Promised End and delirium.

Can help trigger your Ledger Shredder, Monk of the Open Hand or Erayo, Soratami Savant.

I only like ~ if you can flip it easily, e.g. if you have a critical mass of 3power 1drops and 2drops to flip ~ with one hit. 3drops and 4drops are acceptable if they have haste. 

Even better if your creatures have evasion because you may not have the mana to remove any blockers that are protecting ~ after you spent 2mana casting it. The best creature for ~ that comes to mind is Mantis Rider.

If you don't flip ~ then it's likely a tempo loss and loss of a card, i.e. disaster.

I like ~ in decks with the Heliod, Sun-Crowned + Walking Ballista combo.

I think you need a minimum of 3 aura/god/demigod cards in your deck to find. Otherwise there's a chance you'll have none in library.

Fill your deck with acceleration and ≥4 power haste creatures and some 4damage burn spells.

Curve example: Turn1 land dork, turn2 land dork + spell, turn3 cast ~. If you were on the play that's 3 cards you exile. Play your land from the exiled cards for the turn. Turn4 play another land from the exiled cards, cast a ≥4power haste creature or burn spell from exile to defeat the battle. Then burn all their shit.

Note you can still play exiled cards if ~ gets removed.

Only for Dragon tribal.

You can blink ~ or return it to your hand over the course of the game to kill more things. Hard to imagine a playable Dragon tribal deck though, let alone a Yorion Dragon tribal deck.

You can search for Vampire Hexmage and get yourself an 8/8 trampler for 4 mana, which is game winning if they don't have the removal.

~ is of course also a good tutor for creature combos that involve cheap creatures like:

Cauldron Familiar + Samwise Gamgee + Viscera Seer

Amalia Benavides Aguirre + Wildgrowth Walker

Nomads en-Kor + Cephalid Illusionist

Sorry Brooksey, ~ is "non-Human", so you can't get Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdicar.

I can imagine this in a deck where all the pointed cards are permanents, and they're permanents that are about as good on turn 3 as they are on turn 1, e.g. Urza's Saga, Minsc and Boo, Timeless Heroes, Time Vault, True-Name Nemesis, Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath, Comet, Stellar Pup, The One Ring.

You want permanents that will recover the tempo loss of casting ~.

Fury and Solitude are good to find if you have a way to flicker them with the sacrifice trigger on the stack.

Not exactly Forth Eorlingas! but the rate is similar. I like ~ in Lurrus decks, which use Force of Will, Force of Negation and other counterspells to protect her. Lurrus decks have an abundance of cheap spells, so having some bigger manasinks is good.

The back side being a Knight-tribal Teferi is totally bizzare. Battles are complicated enough, give us a break.

Saccing an artifact or creature is a big additional cost when you consider that you could just run Leyline Binding, Abrupt Decay or Molten Collapse instead. Therefore, the sacrifice needs to be desirable or at least negligible. Earlier I listed the following cards that would allow you to run Corrupted Conviction. They of course work well with ~ too:

Bloodghast

Entomb

Orcish Bowmasters

Gravecrawler

Claim the First Born

Kari Zev, Skyship Raider

Custody Battle

Wrangle

Furnace Reins

Holy Frazzle-Cannon Batman! The backside equipment is quite powerful if you have 3 or so matching creatures. The Zombie tribe provide sacrifice fodder to enable the frontside. Running a Mutavault could be worth it depending on your colour requirements.

If True-Name Nemsis goes to 1point then edict effects will be quite strong whilst players are trying TNN again.

If you only have a minimal number of 2drops then Sheoldred's Edict, Liliana's Triumph and Diabolic Edict are better than ~ because being instant-speed is important for your curve. However, if your deck is overflowing with 2drops - like it would be in a Lurrus deck - then ~ actually jumps the aforementioned instant-speed edicts because you'll have something else to do if your opponent doesn't have a creature for you to kill, then when you do eventually cast ~, you'll have the battle to attack.

Ashen Reaper isn't amazing but you having it is better than the opponent having 4 life. Note that Ashen Reaper grows from fetchlands.

SIDEBOARD

I've run Baneslayer Angel sideboard against mono red before. ~ can put the counter on herself, so you don't have to worry about Fury, or Chandra, Torch of Defiance, or Flame Slash. There is a chance they respond to the trigger with Fire Blast or Pyrokinesis though. I suppose if you're running several big 2, 3 and 4 drops then ~ is better than Baneslayer Angel because you get a big chunk of lifegain that turn, which gives them one less turn to burn you out.

Good storm-hate for stompy decks utilising Ancient Tomb, Mana Crypt and/or mana dorks. You really want to speed ~ out because storm can kill you turn 3 with a decent hand.

We already had Archon of Emeria, Rule of Law and Eidolon of Rhetoric. The advantage ~ has over those is the 3 power, which gives the opponent much less time to find the removal.

You don't want to run ~ if you have haste creatures because it will tap them.

Good against grindy midrange decks. Exile is really nice and the Incubator token can help take down any planeswalkers they might have.

If your meta has sideboard Baneslayers.

CONCLUSION

Here is my pick of the best cards from March of the Machine. They're all roughly the same power level but I tried to put them in descending power level:

Invasion of Ikoria

Wrenn's Resolve

Etali, Primal Conqueror (Reanimate)

Hidetsugu and Kairi

Chrome Host Seedshark

Nothing worth points.

Thanks for reading. Hopefully see you at CanCon in a couple weeks,

Mulch