Thursday the 15th Champion was Chris Sutherland on a pretty slick Grixis tempo list. This is a list that I was hoping to see slide its way to victory at some point, stoked Chris piloted it. He shook up Monday too, ending up in the final bracket against Alasdair Howie.
Here’s Chris:
What are you playing?
Grixis Tempo/Control
What are your points?
Ancestral Recall, Jitte, True-name, treasure cruise, and mystical tutor
What match up favors you?
That’s a bit of a tough question. There is no one deck that I will beat outright, but I’ve got game against most decks. Against Goblins or cheap creature decks, burn spells usually two for one them (arc trail, electrolize, fire covenant). Against control decks, it’s more about dropping a cheap powerful creature and protecting them with counter spells.
What match up does not favor you?
I guess more of a white/green midrange deck should beat me, but no one plays that deck as it usually loses every non-creature based deck.
Why did you select this archetype?
It’s got game against most decks, and I really wanted to play Tasigar and Gurmagangler.
What is the spiciest card in your deck?
Gurmag. I don’t know how spicy he is, but he turned a few games around for me for sure. Stiffle and Wasteland are always spicy as well. I feel I win a ton of games just by killing one of my opponents’ lands. POINT WASTELAND FOR GOD’S SAKE!!!!!!
Did you have any unusual interactions, or interesting plays?
Against two different opponents, they were the aggressor, and both resolved sulphuric vortexes. But little did they know I was packing Gurmag in my hand. After a burn spell to take out their threat(s), Gurmag hits the board and now the vortex is on my side.
Any cards seeing the Axe next week?
Extract is probably getting the cut. I play it to beat Strom, which I think is the most unfun deck to play against in our format right now. I think it may be a last minute cut depending if I see Storm players at the event at 5:45.
What kind of deck would you like to see do well in highlander?
I’d like to see more mid-range creature based decks battle it out. I love looking at boards with titans and hydras and having both opponents adding up the combat math.
Are there any colours, or pointed cards that you would like to include?
Moxes are amazing, but I feel for two points, they aren’t worth it. Obviously, if I’m not playing blue, they are in any aggressive deck I build, but it’s not to often I don’t play blue.
Is your deck an adaptation of another players deck?
I’ve been thinking about this deck for years, but it wasn’t until I started following legacy and saw grixis delver crushing it, before I finally put it together. So you could give some credit to whoever invented that deck.