This post by Stu Ziarnik

Yesterday, Pat’s Games hosted a Modern PPTQ/1K. I haven’t been playing much Modern lately, but 1Ks are my favorite events, so I decided to go. Beforehand I met up with fellow Lone Star Lhurgoyf teammates Patrick and Jay at Monkey Nest Coffee for breakfast. After a latte and some breakfast tacos, we headed over to Pat’s.

As per usual, I was playing Skred. My maindeck was the same 60 I’ve played for a while now, with a slightly tweaked board built with Shadow and Eldrazi Tron in mind:

All told we had 83 players; good for 7 rounds of Modern.

Round 1: Michael on RUG Eternal Command

Game 1: Michael’s a nice local who, oddly, I first met at a GP Vegas side event earlier this summer. At the time he was playing BUG Eternal Command, so I kinda knew what I was getting into. Game 1 was pretty grindy, with Michael constantly Remanding my meaningful plays, but I had a grip full of removal to deal with his Snapcasters and Eternal Witnesses. Eventually I landed some threat (maybe a Koth?) and closed it out.

-1 Blood Moon
-3 Magma Jet
+4 Molten Rain

Game 2: This one was much faster. I made a turn 3 Moon, then Molten Rained him twice. He didn’t have an Aether Vial, so that was that.

1-0 (2-0)

Round 2: Trent on Naya Burn

Game 1: Trent’s a grinder from San Antonio who I’ve played in Legacy a couple times. He’s known for playing Burn, so I wasn’t surprised when he made a turn 1 Goblin Guide. Burn’s a matchup I’m very comfortable with, but when they draw spell-heavy hands, Skred can’t really interact. Unfortunately, after I killed his Guide he had mono spells (including a Shrine of Burning Rage) and I couldn’t keep up. At this point, I was regretting not running Dragon’s Claw in the board.

-4 Relic of Progenitus
-3 Anger of the Gods
-1 Blood Moon
+4 Boros Reckoner
+4 Molten Rain

Game 2: Trent was smart enough to side out most of his creatures. The same thing happened here – he was on mono spells + Shrine, and I couldn’t interact.

1-1 (2-2)

Round 3: Mason on Grixis Shadow

Game 1: Mason’s another San Antonio grinder up in Austin for the day. Double Thoughtseize shredded my hand, and Shadow polished me off. No surprises there.

-3 Magma Jet
-3 Anger of the Gods
-1 Blood Moon
+4 Boros Reckoner
+3 Goblin Rabblemaster

Game 2: He wasn’t on a quick Shadow hand, and instead we ground for a bit with Tasigur vs Stormbreath. Eventually he tapped out for double Shadows, so I monstrous’d Stormbreath for lethal on my turn.

Game 3: He was on the Shadow plan, but I was able to resolve two Pia & Kiran and a Rabble. The tokens simultaneously gummed up his board and let me slip in enough damage to get there.

2-1 (4-3)

Round 4: Sean on Eldrazi Tron

Game 1: Sean’s a friendly local, but I don’t believe we’d ever played before. He went turn 2 Chalice, turn 3 Smasher, and turn 4 Smasher. I was very dead.

-4 Relic of Progenitus
-3 Anger of the Gods
-3 Magma Jet
+4 Boros Reckoner
+4 Molten Rain
+2 Shattering Spree

Game 2: He was on a much slower start, and I was able to lock him out with Blood Moon.

Game 3: Another slow start + Moon lets me get there. He eventually resolved a few threats, but Reckoner made them pretty limp.

3-1 (6-4)

Round 5: Kristofer on Esper Shadow

Game 1: Kristofer was down from Houston. He punted pretty hard by fetching triple Shocks, walking right into the Blood Moon lockout. He took it in stride, though.

-3 Magma Jet
-3 Anger of the Gods
-1 Blood Moon
+4 Boros Reckoner
+3 Goblin Rabblemaster

Game 2: He was on a Gurmag hand, but Reckoner totally gummed up the board. As he got more threats so did I, but he was never really able to play effectively through Reckoner.

4-1 (8-4)

Round 6: John on Infect:

Game 1: John was up from San Antonio, having made the finals of a PPTQ there the day before. My round 1 opponent had told me about an Infect deck that made the finals yesterday, so I said YOLO and put him on that. My opening grip of double Jet and double Anger felt good, but I could never really deal with an Inkmoth that eventually got there.

-3 Anger of the Gods
-3 Relic of Progenitus
+4 Molten Rain
+2 Kozilek’s Return

Game 2: He was on Inkmoth again, but I resolved a Blood Moon that totally locked him out.

Game 3: Same deal – Moon beats Inkmoth. I followed it up with Chandra and Koth, which is unbeatable for a lot of decks. John was nice about it, though, and wished me luck in the top 8.

5-1 (10-5)

Round 7: Joey on Bant Eldrazi

Game 1: Joey’s a local who I’ve played several times in weeklies and, as he pointed out as we sat down, I’ve always won those matches. As such, I was pretty confident going in – Skred is very strong against Bant Eldrazi. I don’t really remember much of game 1, but suffice it to say that I stomped him.

-4 Relic of Progenitus
-3 Anger of the Gods
-1 Blood Moon
+4 Boros Reckoner
+4 Molten Rain

Game 2: We had a long grind, with Double Reckoners holding off his board. We got to a point where he had 1 Smasher, 1 Drowner, and 1 Scion token against 1 Koth, 2 Reckoners, and a Stormbreath. He was at 9, so I swing in with the Stormbreath, banking on him not being able to handle both Reckoners. Unfortunately, on his turn he drew a Skyspawner, sacked his (now 2) Scions and swung in for lethal. Ouch.

Game 3: I was tired and tilted, and kept a garbage hand (1 Bolt, 1 Reckoner, 5 Lands). It didn’t really matter, though, as he went turn 2 Thought-Knot, Turn 3 Smasher, Turn 4 Smasher. I was very dead, and there isn’t a hand in my 75 that can beat that.

5-2 (11-7)

So, that left me at 5-2, which was good for 12th out of 83 and $48 in credit. The round 7 loss was a bit of a hearbreaker, but as I’m not trying to get on the pro-tour, I’ll be OK.

Some takeaways:

• The deck felt as strong as ever. I highly recommend this 60.
• The night before I’d considering cutting my Rabbles for Dragon’s Claws. Still not sure which is right: I missed the Claws in round 2, but Rabble was nice in Round 3. That said, I’m still confident in Skred’s Burn matchup, especially with 4 Reckoners in the board.
• Speaking of, Reckoner was great. I don’t think he’s maindeck material, but in the matchups where he’s good, he’s good.
• It goes without saying, but I lucked out and didn’t run into combo or non-Eldrazi variants of Tron.
• At this point I’m something like 5-2 vs Shadow, but I’m still never happy to be paired against the deck. Skred can’t really beat their nut draws, but if they’re either slow or play too risky with their life totals, we have a lot of reach and hasty beaters to sneak out wins.
• Oddly, the card Skred was kind of a non-factor today. I only drew it a few times, and can only remember casting it once. Whatever.
• Of my teammates, Jay was on UW Control and finished out 4-2-1. Awesome record for such a tough deck to pilot. Patrick went 3-4 on Eldrazi Tron, but this was his first time playing Modern so he’s excused.