Avacyn’s Glory triumphs (again) in latest M14 tournament
This month, Top Tier Tactics readers squared off on Xbox Live to determine who could claim the throne as the greatest Duels of the Planeswalkers player of all time.* Deck variation wasn’t hugely surprising, with the perceived power of Dodge and Burn and Lords of Darkness earning representatives quickly. But equally popular was Avacyn’s Glory, the monowhite deck that took our PC tournament by storm in August.
By the semifinals, everything except Avacyn’s Glory and one other deck, Deadwalkers, had been eliminated. I’d always been an advocate of using Deadwalkers as a soft counter to Avacyn’s Glory, but hey… I also though Dodge and Burn would have done a better job at squashing armies of humans.
Oh So Deadly (AG) managed to push Sprngpilot (DW) out of contention for first or second place, making the final matchup another Avacyn’s mirror with QuitefranklyNO1. Big shocker: Avacyn’s Glory won that match, though it was a close 3-2 grand finals victory for Oh So Deadly. Slightly more surprising: Sprngpilot went on to eliminate FullZangetsu (AG) in a 3-1 victory for third place.
Looking back on the entire bracket, it appears Sprngpilot’s Deadwalkers pile didn’t face an Avacyn’s Glory matchup until the loser’s finals. While that’s interesting from a statistical point of view, I think it also speaks volumes to the sheer power of the monowhite monolith that it was the only deck capable of halting Sprngpilot’s momentum!
None of this of course takes away from the accomplishments of Oh So Deadly (first place) or QuitfranklyNO1 (2nd place), who managed to plow through the tournament with great success. Congratulations to all our podium finishers on their achievements, and thank you to everyone who played in the event!
* This is not an official title, so don’t go putting it on your resume or anything.
Congrats Deadly! I can’t wait to see what the T-shirt looks like = )
gg to you all.. I followed the tournament from here, not having got an Xbox;
might happen you publish ur decklists? (maybe first 4 places)
Congrats! Any chance we can know what their decks look like? :P
3 Avacyn’s glories and a Deadwalkers.
My deck list changed occasionally depending on my opponent.
Definitely congrats Deadly! And to you as well, QFNO1.
Deadlyy is a meanie. I bet he kisses girl; what a playa. He has NO skill. I literally beat him in ranked with nothing but Phantasm bear.
Deadlyy hurt my feelings and I am soooo sad, nuff said.
Haters gonna hate…
Pussy.
Congratulations to the winners….
Now make it for PC also :)
Congrats guys, AG rules! :) Looking forward to a PC tourney hopefully in the near future.
Congrats to QFNO1 and Sprngpilot, and thanks to all my opponents for the great matches.
I do NOT understand why AG succeeds in the current environment…
While I believed DW was the soft-counter to AG going into the Steam tourney (and ran it for that reason after huge success in testing), I came out convinced that, post-sideboard, that just isn’t the case.
HOWEVER: Dodge, Demons and Elves all put it away handily, and they’re all reasonable decks vs the rest of the field too. Three counter decks, why is AG still viable?
I think I’ve dropped about 2 games to the white menace since the expansion came out!
Forgive me for hating on the fucking Angels, but…
Wing himself stated that you can be a narcoleptic retard mashing your face on the mouse for AG and still win games through topdecking. Play Champion of the Parish, mash whatever you can cast, always attack with all, win.
Also, it is simply more consistent (4 Champions) with all of its essential cards (That is to say, literally any humans, of which they have like 40) while also being extremely good at removing threats to disrupt enemies, often using exile to do so. Out of the decks even able to stand against it, I’d say Elves will have the best chances, thanks to Nissa’s Chosen and Wellwishers. However, it’s a matter of keeping those on the field to stall until later. And then hoping that your tiebreaker doesn’t eat one out of ten Paths the other guy has.
I agree and I think Toraka covered it (albeit more enthusiastically than I would’ve):
AG is just more consistent and easier to play overall. If you topdeck an Angel and you have the mana for it, you pretty much play it 9 times out of 10. If you topdeck Earthquake, do you play it and kill what’s out, or do you wait to kill more stuff? Do you cast it for max damage and hope to get enough burn to finish the opponent, or play conservatively and put X = enough to kill their weenies?