My 5K Deck

This past weekend I made the short 4 hour drive up to Fort Worth, TX for the Star City Games Dallas/Fort Worth 10K Weekend (specifically the 5K Standard Open on Saturday). After a week of jumping from decklist to decklist, I decided on a fun GBW "Junk" deck that I had been testing. The list was pretty different to most GWB Lists, as it included no Lotus Cobra, no Emeria Angel, and (as it turns out) is alot less consistant than I had thought. Here is the list I played:

// Lands
    4 Forest
    4 Plains
    3 Swamp
    4 Marsh Flats
    4 Verdant Catacombs
    2 Terramorphic Expanse
    4 Sunpetal Grove

// Creatures
    4 Knight of the Reliquary
    4 Birds of Paradise
    4 Baneslayer Angel
    4 Putrid Leech
    3 Vampire Nighthawk
    1 Ob Nixilis, the Fallen

// Spells
    4 Path to Exile
    2 Grim Discovery
    3 Maelstrom Pulse
    2 Garruk Wildspeaker
    1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
    3 Gift of the Gargantuan

// Sideboard
1 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Great Sable Stag
4 Wall of Reverence
4 Celestial Purge
2 Malakir Bloodwitch

So I dont really think I need to explain how the deck works, but some of the card choices probably do need some explination. Vampire Nighthawk is actually a star in the deck. Being able to stop Sphinx of Jwar Isle and Wall of Denial is pretty sweet for a mere 3 mana. Nighthawk has been a pet card of mine since the release of Zendikar and I have fit the 2/3 into many different decks (Vampires, UB Control, Junk, Jund, etc). He usually eats a bolt or some other form of removal, but he is still a force to be reconned with. Putrid Leech is another card that I have always liked, but unlike Nighthawk didnt perform so well. In a format full of Bolts, Burst Lightnings, and Disfigures, Leeches ability will usually end up being a waste of 2 life. Leech was only good in hands where I could get off to a quick start, and those were few and far between. Another interesting choice was Gifts of the Gargantuan and Grim Discovery. Gifts was suggested to me by none other than Kyle Sanchez on the day of the 5K, so I decided to fit in the Gifts where I had originally played Harrow. Gifts was good, but never really felt like the kind of spell I wanted to play on Turn 3 (when I could instead be playing Nighthawk, Knight of Reliquary, or with the help of Birds a Garruk or Elspeth). Grim Discovery, on the other hand, is a card that continues to amaze me.The ability to return a Baneslayer or Knight from the graveyard late game was absolutely insane. Plus, Grim can help with your mana if you return a fetchland or Terramorphic Expanse as well. But enough about the deck itself, let's get on with the actual tournament.

Round 1 vs Jund
Game 1 was terrible on my part. I mulliganed a 1 Forest 2 Birds of Paradise hand that would have acutally given me an insane start (I peeked at my top few cards, which were 2 lands and a Baneslayer). I instead kept a slow 4 land, Baneslayer, Leech hand. My opponent led off with Savage Lands and won the cascade lottery in a few turns thanks to Sprouting Thrinax and Bloodbraid Elf.
Game 2 went much better for me.My hand was fast and resilient and I quickly took care of the Jund menace before any major card advantage could be gained on the back of cascade.
Game 3 was by far the closest match. My opponent and I both had a board full of creatures, but we both couldnt attack profitably thanks to blocking. All my opponent needed was a Maelstrom Pulse to destroy my 2 Baneslayer Angels and that would have been game, but luckily he just couldnt draw 1. I ended up winning the game after killing his Broodmate and Token, activating Garruks final ability, and swinging overhead with a 3/4 Birds while my Baneslayers got chump blocked by Bloodwitchs. My opponent looked at his top card and showed it to me... Pulse. I had barely pulled off a win.

Round 2 vs Mono White (Emeria's Pledge)
I dont remember too much about this match, other than the fact that I won it quickly in 2 games. Bloodwitch came in from the board and easily ended the match. Later in the day I learned that this deck actually made it all the way to the Top 16 and I was one of the guy's only losses.

Round 3 vs Grixis Control
Nothing interesting happened in this matchup. I got blown out by a total of 6 Cruel Ultimatums (3 in game 1, 3 in game 2). And of course, all of my threats got killed before they had a chance to attack.

Round 4 vs 5 Color Creatures
Game 1 I got blown out after getting stuck on 3 mana. Game 2 I managed to pull out a win with Vampire Nighthawk. Game 3 he played 2 Meddling Mage, naming both of my removal spells, and then quickly took care of my remaining life total with a Baneslayer Angel.

Round 5 vs A Strange Mono White Token Deck
Not too sure what I played against in this match. It was definitely the kid's homebrew deck which featured Baneslayer Angel, Conquerers Pledge, World Queller, Iona, and other big white creatures. Not really sure how or why I loss this match, other than the fact that I didnt draw a single Baneslayer or Knight the whole round. Bad luck I guess.

Needless to say, I went 2-3 Drop. A pretty unimpressive score if you ask me. But I had alot of fun and the tournament was a great experience. I was quite happy when Vampires took the title, as I have been itching to play a Vampire list for a while, but was worried that with a Jund filled metagame I would get blown out all too often. However, I think I'm going to take the winning Vampire list for a spin at my local FNM this week so hopefully it does good. Another deck that I was excited to see do so well was the Valakut Ramp deck with Harrow and Khalani Heart Expedition. The deck is not only inexpensive, but is explosively good and has been winning for me when I play it on MTGO. The combo is still too fragile and inconsistent, and there are probably better lists than the one that Top 8'd the 5K, but for now I am enjoying playing a combo deck in a format filled with cascade and blightnings.

Thanks for reading!

-David