Context – Griefblade
Before I get to the good part, I need to set the stage. Saturday, July 23rd, the day before this store’s championship, I played Griefblade at my regular LGS for their Modern championship. I had an oopsie with my mainboard that I thankfully caught before submitting my paper list (I’d forgotten to replace Callous Bloodmage with the third Tourach, Dread Cantor).
Round 1, I got paired into Yawgmoth—a deck I’d never beaten with Griefblade—but that day, it was different. Endless Griefs game one into endless Solitudes game two, plus a Necromentia on Yawgmoth, Thran Physician meant that I absolutely obliterated a matchup I’d struggled with (despite Nazart’s data showing that it should be a good one for Griefblade).
And then, the rest of the rounds happened. Loss into loss into loss, for a 1-5 record on the day. I’d never felt so defeated—I can’t remember the last time I’d done that poorly in any event. Maybe not since I started playing Modern five years ago, hitting the 0-2 bracket consistently while playing Monument Sisters at my old LGS.
Griefblade is my blinged-out deck, my comfort competitive deck that I’ve fallen back on as my pocket pick when I don’t know what to play or don’t feel like putting another deck together. To get so utterly destroyed was really discouraging, especially with others in the Griefblade Discord reporting their recent 5-0s and 4-1s with the deck.
Now, I’d told myself I would put Elementals together for my Modern RCQ deck, but I never got around to it. Considering I was also doing things like playing Calibrated Blast at RCQs (and losing the win-and-in to Top 8, lest you think I meme too hard), bringing off-meta jank to serious competitive events fit my MO. But sometimes you just need a break from trying to break Modern, so I finally sleeved up the deck that carried me to the Top 4 of Untap’s last Modern league.
Deck list:
Swiss:
R1 0-1-1 to 4c Control
The first round, I got paired into a Yorion mirror against the store owner. However, he was on Counterspell, Expressive Iteration, and March of Otherworldly Light instead of the Elemental package. Sadly, I lost the die roll and the first game, which meant we didn’t have enough time to finish out the match during the round.
Although I didn’t win the first game, I did get to blink two Abundant Harvests and Risen Reefs with Yorion. Lots of back-and-forth in both games, but just not enough time to play out the match. Insert vague sounds of foreshadowing here.
R2 2-0 against UW Hammertime
This was my opponent’s first time playing Hammer, and it certainly showed during the match. Slow hands, low pressure, having Colossus Hammer + Sigarda’s Aid and not realizing they needed to cast the hammer before T3feri resolved: their inexperience really hamstrung them. They were a good sport about it, and I look forward to seeing them improve in the future.
R3 2-0 against RW Burn
This match was the definition of “one is not zero.” Both games came down to me needing to fade a single burn spell to survive and pull back with Omnath, Locus of Creation. Game one, I had double Solitude to survive the creature beatdown and the fetchland to gain eight life. My opponent failed to draw the burn spell, so it was on to game two.
This time, instead of double Solitude, I had double Boseiju, Who Endures, which was fantastic into their Roiling Vortex and Eidolon of the Great Revel. The first Boseiju was able to answer the Vortex on their end step before I took any damage from it, and the second was sandbagged until they took a decent chunk of damage from casting spells into their Eidolon. They took me all the way down to one but drew a land on their final turn, so they tapped out to Omnath plus fetchland.
R4 2-1 against BR Scam (Inferior Griefblade)
First off, how dare they. Trying to take me down with my favorite deck, and the bad version at that. To be fair, I kept a very risky one-land hand with Solitude, Ephemerate, Prismatic Ending, Fury, and Unholy Heat. Thankfully, I was on the play, so when they tried to double Grief me, I was able to Solitude + Ephemerate in response. They also made the mistake of taking the Unholy Heat with the first Grief trigger, not realizing until it was too late that I could keep my Solitude while denying the second discard. I managed to resolve Fury and had solid beatdown until they evoked their own Fury and Undying Maliceed it to wipe my board.
Game two was much closer. I had an Abundant Harvest out, they didn’t have the turn one Grief shenanigans, but then turn three happened and a Blood Moon came down. If I hadn’t had that Abundant Harvest[/c, I would’ve lost the match. But then a wonderful thing happened. I got third land, second [c]Abundant Harvest, and a Risen Reef. They got stuck on one black with only a basic Swamp and three Blackcleave Cliffs.
While I missed this fact when they cast their Grief, I did catch it in time to undo the Grief and take over the game. The final game, I’m not sure what they were going for, but they got stuck on two lands and didn’t do very much. I got Risen Reef going and eventually Omnath, Locus of Creation hit the field to outvalue them and clinch the Top 8.
R5 ID against Unknown
Easy intentional draw into getting dinner before the bracket played out.
Quarterfinals 2-1 against RG Midrange
Not quite Ponza, my opponent had things like Klothys, God of Destiny, Bloodbraid Elf, and Blood Moon. Thankfully, my Wrenn and Six lined up very well into their Arbor Elf. My memory of the first two games is rather fuzzy, although I remember a Blood Moon getting involved in game two and losing my Wrenn and Six to send us to game three. They also had a Wrenn emblem and Lightning Bolt] in the yard, and I went for [c]Endurance with my Eladamri’s Call, which was a major mistake.
The final game, I was a Bonecrusher Giant or Lightning Bolt away from death, staring down a Klothys with enough devotion to smack me in the face, and I got the Eladamri’s Call for Solitude to survive. Omnath, Locus of Creation eventually showed up, gaining me enough life to turn the corner and move on to the semis.
Semifinals 2-1 against 4c Control
The rumbling thunder of my previous foreshadowing from round 1 rears its ugly head. This match took approximately two hours and fifteen minutes to conclude. Did I mention we started the semifinals around 10 p.m.? It took an eternity for us to get through these three games. Cards, sequences, board states started blurring together, and my vision literally crossed a couple times. I remember winning a close game one, losing a close game two, and absolutely demolishing him game three to win the match.
Highlights I remember include Ephemerate on my Solitude on his end step to exile Emrakul, the Promised End and leave him with nothing useful to do while he controlled my turn. I then proceeded to draw Ice-Fang Coatl on my real turn, drew an Omnath off of that, and drew into my second Coatl. I don’t remember if I won that game or not, that might’ve been game one. Game two was close, but by the time I ran out of cards he had a Wrenn, T3feri, and a board far too wide for me to handle. Game three I had Risen Reef, Cavern of Souls, and, after he killed my first T3feri, resolved the second through Dovin’s Veto with Veil of Summer.
Finals Split with UW Thopter Sword
At this point, it was 12:30 a.m. and everyone was tired. I was absolutely beat after winning the two-hour 4c grindfest. Because this was a smaller store, the only prizes were the promo cards. Thopter Sword offered to split, but because we only had the promos, they conceded the title, Archmage’s Charm, and Flame Slashes in exchange for the Dark Confidant.
Conclusion
Considering I expected to maybe make the Top 8 and then wash out, I was very happy with the finish. When I was looking at lists to put together, I had considered a Traverse the Ulvenwald build until I read the card again and realized that it only searched for a basic land if delirium wasn’t online. I still greatly preferred the instant speed of Eladamri’s Call, and while Expressive Iteration is ridiculously powerful, I felt that the value Risen Reef provided offset the lack of that cantrip.
Reef also gave immense value to pitched elementals when I didn’t have Ephemerate was a further draw to the tribal variant, as was the near-universal conclusion by pro Magic players that Elementals closed out games faster than control builds in paper.
Moving forward, I might switch Titania, Protector of Argoth for the Obsidian Charmaw I cut in favor of her. As much as I like her, she’s very win-more and doesn’t serve much purpose in the post-Lurrus meta. The rest of the deck felt solid, and I don’t see myself moving away from the Elemental package unless an objectively more powerful 4c build comes along. As long as it’s a matter of preference, though, I’ll stick with the tribe.
