[standard] UW Approach, 1st place in 34-person PPTQ

I played in a 34-person PPTQ this past weekend in my state's capital. It was my third time playing at a PPTQ, all three times with UW Approach, and I entered the following list--I had been testing it quite a bit in MTGO friendly leagues (what can I say, I like the flatter payout), consistently getting 3-2 or 4-1 with one 5-0:

Land (25) 4 Glacial Fortress 4 Irrigated Farmland 4 Ipnu Rivulet 4 Field of Ruin 1 Scavenger Grounds 3 Island 5 Plains

Planeswalker (1) 1 Gideon of the Trials

Enchantment (6) 2 Search for Azcanta 4 Cast Out

Instant (22) 2 Slash of Talons 3 Opt 3 Essence Scatter 3 Supreme Will 3 Disallow 1 Farm // Market 3 Glimmer of Genius 3 Settle the Wreckage 1 Spell Swindle

Sorcery (6) 3 Fumigate 3 Approach of the Second Sun

Sideboard (15) 3 Negate 1 Jace's Defeat 2 Forsake the Worldly 1 Hour of Revelation 2 Nezahal, Primal Tide 3 Regal Caracal 3 Torrential Gearhulk

Some thoughts on my card choices:

Slash of Talons (2): With the sheer number of Grixis or UW midrange decks in the meta, I found that the pair of SoT in the main did a ton of work. It gets Glint-Sleeve Siphoner (one of my nemesis cards), Champion of Wits, and most of the other early creatures (exceptions: Kari Zev, Gifted Aetherborn, snek) at instant speed and for only one mana. Some folks like Jeskai or Esper Approach builds for the early interaction, but SoT fills that bill pretty nicely.

Field of Ruin (4): I'd played around with 2 or 3 of these plus an Arch of Orazca, but at the last minute decided on the playset. So glad I did. Tons of good targets for this right now, and my deck wants WW or UU early, and it's great for fixing.

Gideon of the Trials (1): I have a love/hate relationship with the Gidfather, but decided to go with one in the main. He basically serves as a decoy to save me some life, but his +1 can also assist with my removal suite. Specifically, if they have 2 creatures out and I have farm in hand, I can +1 the creature I don't care about as much and then farm the other one. He also can help pressure the UB matchup that relies on Blood Fast to draw cards--harder to pay 2 each turn when Gideon is hitting you for 4.

Opt (3): I've played around with Opt, Censor, and Hieroglyphic Illumination in varying numbers. I went with Opt because I found myself mostly cycling Illumination (in which case Opt is strictly better). It's a solid T1 play, and it helps me dig for whatever I'm looking for.

Essence Scatter (3): so many creatures in this meta, I think 3 is a minimum, and I wouldn't disagree with 4.

Spell Swindle (1): This is the special sauce. Golden against non-blue matchups (and pretty good against blue too). Swindling a Chandra, Phoenix, or Glorybringer just feels great in every way. Torrential Gearhulking to flash back spell swindle feels even better.

Hour of Revelation (1, SB): Didn't board this in this once, but I wanted to have it in case I saw any stockpile, anointed procession, or drake haven shenanigans. I didn't. You could make a case that this slot could be a 4th caracal, a 3rd Forsake the Worldly, a 4th negate, or maybe a commit/memory, but it's good insurance for the enchantment-based strategies.

There were 6 rounds of swiss, and here is my (admittedly pretty poor) recap of those matchups:

Round 1: GW Tokens (2-1, 1-0).
There's something really nice about playing a matchup where you don't worry about opposing counterspells, and just have a legion of 1/1 vamps, kitty cats (Sacred Cat, Adorned Pounder, Pride Sovereign, Regal Caracal), and horses (Crested Sunmare) that you get to Settle/Fumigate at will.

Game 1 was a bit of a grind--he got up to 37+ life, but double approach got me there. The Gidfather did a ton of work here keeping his pouncers at bay and distracting his attackers from me.

I scooped G2 pretty early (turn 6 or so). I was stuck on 3 lands and he had an incredible board and landed a Sunmare after gaining life.

Game 3 he was able to build the board up again, but I had a key Glimmer that netted me a Settle and a Fumigate, and it was a hard lock after that. Win from double approach. Opponent shared with me that he had boarded in a few Gideon's Intervention but he just never saw them--that's pretty much the only way to stop the approach, but it's also manageable (counterspells, Cast Out).

The all-star award for this match went to Field of Ruin, which took out Adanto's First Fort, Second Fort, and Third Fort (and got one of his duals to help my fixing as well). 1-0.

Round 2: UB Control (0-2, 1-1) This was a super frustrating matchup, which is too bad because I usually feel pretty favored G1 against UB Control with all their dead cards. I was missing my land drops, he was countering my efforts to hit said land drops through Supreme Will and Glimmer, and he ran away with card advantage via Glint-Sleeve Siphoner and Arguel's Blood Fast. 1-1.

Round 3: UB Control (again) (2-0, 2-1).
Redemption time. This time, the matchup fell my way.

G1, I got there with a pretty straightforward double approach.

G2, I got there with a not-at-all-straightfoward double approach with an incredible clutch topdeck. I had 2 approach in hand, and he negated my first with The Scarab God on the battlefield. He's on 2 or 3 cards and I put him on no counterspells, so I go for it. He calmly activates The Scarab God to bring back a Torrential Gearhulk that I had forgotten was in his graveyard, and he negated my approach. This was my only substantial punt of the day (not to say that I didn't have other punts and missed triggers, including several Azcanta scries, but this one almost cost me big).

Well lo and behold, what did I topdeck the very next turn? My third Approach. Sometimes the cards just fall your way. 2-1.

Round 4: UB Midrange (1-1, 2-1-1). This was a matchup against a friend from my LGS who I consider to be a really really (really) good player. He won a grindy game 1 that I can't really remember much about. In game 2, he landed a T2 Blood Fast, and I managed to stick a T3 Gideon, which makes Blood Fast way less good. I got a gearhulk down later on and he scooped, moving to G3.

By this point, we had about 9 minutes on the clock, and we played quickly, but he didn't have a ton of creatures and I stuck a Nezahal, which meant that neither of us could get the W. A good battle. 2-1-1.

Round 5: BG Azor's Mastermind (2-1, 3-1-1) My countermagic doesn't line up well against this deck G1. Essence Scatter is dead, and while my first choice for Supreme Will is impulse mode, I rely on it to counter some number of spells. The BG deck gets so many lands out (Hour of Promise) that it makes SW much less effective.

G1 he had an Azor's Gateway out and we each had a field of ruin. He attempted to FoR my FoR, and I responded by destroying his only desert--this turned out to be correct because he played Hour of Promise the next turn and wasn't able to get any Zombies from it. But it also meant that I didn't have a FoR to kill his flipped gateway. He resolved a Vraska, Relic Seeker, and then a couple turns later, tapped his gate for 27 black mana to Mastermind's Acquisition a Torment of Hailfire. I had 2 cards in hand, 1 nonland card in play, and (shockingly) I did not have the 57 life required to survive.

Boarded in negates, forsake the worldly, and some kittehs, and G2 and G3 went much better. G2 was pretty straightforward double approach. G3 he had some mana troubles and didn't have the second green to resolve his Carnage Tyrant. He had a Blood Fast going, and I had my legion of kittehs on the board. I had had a Forsake the Worldly in hand for a number of turns and kept thinking maybe I'd cycle it, but then I remembered Azor's Gateway and just hung onto it. In any event, I was happy to let him continue to Blood Fast himself. When he got down to 8 life, he activated the Blood Fast, and I forsaked it in response. Now he's at 6 and I have 7 damage on board from the cats. 3-1-1.

Round 6: Grixis (2-0, 4-1-1) I'm sitting at 10 points, which isn't enough for an ID, so my opponent and I are both win-and-in.

For the life of me, I can't remember this matchup very well. I feel favored against Grixis with my counter and removal suite. He played his siphoners and Whirler Virtuosos and Rekindling Phoenixes, but I was able to manage them all with my countermagic and removal. Highlight was when he landed a T2 siphoner and I slash-of-talonsed it the next turn. He said something like, "Huh...didn't know this was even seeing play." And he's right: it's not. But I think it really should be (which is why I played 2 in the main).

Anyway, managed threats, stayed patient until I had 2 approaches in hand, cast one, make him try to take advantage of what he sees as his "opening" to cast The Scarab God and other miscellaneous dudes who will never have a chance to attack, and then approach the next turn. 4-1-1, which is good enough for 7th seed.

Quarterfinals: Grixis (2-0 I think) This guy had dropped only one game all day, which was pretty impressive, but I had just come from Grixis so I was in that mindset. He admitted to me beforehand that I was the matchup that he didn't want to face. Shout out to this dude (Kory I think?) for being a solid opponent--he made great plays, he wasn't a ball of stress, he didn't get salty. One of the downsides of playing at events like the PPTQ is overly salty opponents (I had one this day but won't mention it), and it's really refreshing to be able to have a conversation with an opponent, play a good game of magic, and sincerely shake hands at the end.

Anyway, this was a matchup that was all about managing my life total and timing out my wraths. He was a very careful player who did not overextend his attacks, which made my settles functionally 1-for-1s. But just the threat of settle is real: it made him not attack with his squad (in fact, he had a phoenix out that never turned sideways once), which means that I'm essentially gaining life each turn from him not attacking even if I don't have the settle in hand.

Minor punt of the day (runner-up punt?) in G2: I had scavenger grounds in play and should have activated it on my end step before he could eternalize a Champion of Wits. I eventually did activate it to prevent him from flashing back a spell with Torrential Gearhulk, but doing it earlier would have been better and saved me dealing with a 4/4 and giving him 2 cards, which if they're the right 2 cards could've wrecked me.

Double approach G1 and G2, on to the semis.

Semifinals: BR Aggro (2-1).
And this is the matchup that I didn't want to face. Amazingly, I had avoided aggro decks just about all day, with the exception of GW tokens which is somewhat aggressive, but not a true aggro deck in my mind.

G1 was a doozy. Bomat, Khenra, Scrapheap Scrounger, the 2/1 that comes in tapped and can recur (can't remember its name)...the works. Farm was good, Slash of Talons was good, wraths were good, Approach was good. He had me down to 1, and after the match, his buddy indicated that he could have won the game (I didn't overhear how--if either of you guys read this, please explain it). I had approached at 3 to go to 10 life, and my Azcanta peek was to my second approach, so I snuck in the win.

G2 was textbook aggro death by T5. Life total went 20, 19, 18, 12, 6, dead. No matter how good a UW Approach player you are, no matter how well you know your deck, no matter how good your opening hand is, if red-based aggro curves out, you have a 80%+ chance of losing (especially if you're on the draw).

G3 he had a really slow start. Like, REALLY slow. Land, pass. Land, pass. Land, Crook of Condemnation (!). These are the aggro matchups I dream about. If I get to T4 with 20 life against aggro, I'm usually golden. He resolved a siphoner, I had a slash of talons. He had 2 Phoenixes and a Chandra: I had 2 Cast Out and a Spell Swindle. He had great threats, but my answers just lined up perfectly with them, exactly how a control deck should work. This was like Rocky 4 where Drago seems totally invincible until Rocky draws blood, and then it's all Rocky. I stuck a gearhulk (think I might've swindled for more treasure) and swung in for 5. This was the first time his life total had changed all game. Got him with TG beats. On to the finals.

Finals: BG Counters? This is just my guess what this deck was from sitting next to the guy during the semis. I think he was on the snek, rishkar, ballista deck (which I think I have a good matchup against, but can definitely lead to a blowout on his side). Turns out, he isn't really interested in going to the RPTQ, and that's the reason I signed up. He let me have 9 packs and the invite, and he took home a couple booster boxes.

Final thoughts: First, I think UW Approach is in a great spot in the current meta. It appears to be very underrepresented in top finishes, but I attribute that to (1) not many people playing it and (2) the nature of the control deck in a creature-based meta (i.e., if they don't have a good start, they can chuck some creatures out and do stuff...if I don't have a good start, I just watch their creatures kill me). My quarterfinals opponent didn't want to play me, and I seem to recall my semis opponent saying that he didn't really have anything in the SB against me. To be fair, his maindeck is almost pre-boarded against me with all the quick-kill creatures, but with the black splash he could've had a couple duress, doomfall, or lost legacy just in case, but given how rare UW Approach seems to be, I don't know that it's really on people's radars.

Second: I had played UW Approach in 2 PPTQs and a GP last fall and went 2-4, 3-3-1, and 3-x respectively. This was before I decided to see what this MTGO thing was all about, and before I did a bunch of deliberate practice with the deck. I've concluded that there's really no substitute for getting a ton of reps with a deck (and against other decks so you know the meta) and making small tweaks to see how it makes the deck better/worse.