Another day, another Domain. At least this one I can easily call a Stomping Ground, as I've been going to Video Game Galaxy for almost every Prerelease for an entire year. When the call for players came out in the Discord group chat, I answered. I own Domain Zoo in Modern and I didn't care about this tournament enough to try to buy a different deck, so I ran back the same list I 5-0'd a ReCQ with in Milwaukee.
The vibes were immaculate, there weren't too many players, and I recognized almost all of the faces from past Prereleases or RCQ's. When my friend Michael showed up, we had about 30 minutes to kill after turning in our decklists, so we played a quick match of Pauper Naya Gates versus Legacy Dimir Tempo. It was shockingly close, coming down to Michael drawing Force of Will to counter a Guardian of the Guildpact. After that match, our tournament started. We were playing the exact same 75, so we're hoping to meet in the finals.
I knew my opponent from a previous RCQ, so this match was pleasant and not at the same time. I don't view Affinity as a good matchup for Domain Zoo, and the first game proved it as I died in swift fashion to some big Urza's Saga tokens. Luckily, heading into the sideboard I had an old Thrull friend to help (plus some maybe broken Wrath of the Skies).
I mulliganed my first hand of Leyline, Territorial Kavu x2, Phlage, and lands. While that's a perfectly reasonable hand in most matchups, in this one it wouldn't cut it. Kavu gets very quickly outclassed by Kappa Cannoneer and easily chumped by a Ravenous Robot token. My six card hand was perfectly reasonable of Doorkeeper Thrull, Scion of Draco, Wear//Tear, Leyline of the Guildpact, and lands.
This game was a bit interesting, where my opponent had a lot of artifacts and was leaning on Urza's Saga to dominate the board, but I killed it after it made one token. I made up for life lost in the early turns with a Scion of Draco, and was slowly turning the board back in my favor when my opponent cast a Krang for max value. I wasn't super worried about the board, but I was worried about the cards in hand. Luckily, they drew air and made a bad attack with Krang into my board, thinking Regenerate didn't remove the creature from combat. By the way, Regenerate removes the creature from combat.
Game three was easy mode. I cast Doorkeeper Thrull on T2 and exerted Arena of Glory on T3 to give my Phlage haste. Attacking for 7 with a Lightning Helix attached was enough to slam the door before my opponent had a chance to open it, and I start 1-0.
So I queued into Michael this round, and he (apparently jokingly) said "Want to draw?" and I, not understanding this was a joke, said yes. We submitted 0-0 and got Chipotle for lunch, subsequently screwing up the tournament math for basically everyone. I am not ashamed because I was hungy and it was pretty okay Chipotle.
I'm on the draw this game, but I start with a Leyline of the Guildpact in play and feel not terrible about it. My opponent starts with an Eldrazi Temple - I'm immediately thinking it might be a bad match. Then my opponent casts It that Heralds the End and my worries melt away. I know that card is basically only played in the Eldrazi Aggro, which is a great matchup because Territorial Kavu is literally just bigger than everything they put into play. I don't have anything on T1 other than my land drop, and they play a Cavern of Souls and put Eldrazi Linebreaker into play and smack me for 6. I follow up with a land and a Scion, and the game ends.
Nothing too interesting happens in sideboarding, just Consign is good. I don't start with Leyline this game, but it's still not particularly close because I go Ragavan into Territorial Kavu hold up Leyline Binding while my opponent goes land land into Chalice of the Void on one. Suffice to say, their draw wasn't it against mine. I go 2-0-1.
Game one is not very interesting - I have Leyline Scion and my opponent misses their third land drop for two turns in a row and scoops. The following games are more interesting. Each match twists and turns into caring about Leyline of the Guildpact to wrathing the board until it all just comes down to Phlage. Who can escape the most of them? Should I eat a card from your yard with Kavu or rummage away my own Phlage? Inevitably, both games come down to my opponent escaping a Phlage and I draw a blank off the top of my deck for one too many turns in a row. I fall to 2-1-1 and head into my second win and in for round five.
My opponent was the only hero deck gamer in the room (unless one counts Prowess as a hero deck). They were playing almost the same 75 of Jund Creativity I was jamming a couple of years ago, so I at least knew how their deck worked. I wasn't feeling super good about this matchup, but when that happens, just Leyline Scion them and punch your ticket into the next game. That's what happened G1, backed up by a Lightning Bolt on their T4 Creativity.
I didn't prepare at all for this matchup, so I sideboarded poorly in G2. I believe I just brought in Doorkeeper Thrull and Celestial Purge for Tribal Flames and hoped they were only on Archon of Cruelty. Sadly, they did turn 2 Persist their Serra's Emissary into play and named Enchantments, since that's the only profitable removal spell I have against it. I did draw three Scion of Draco's, but I had no Leylines to put into play and just mopily cast them and had them be dealt with over a course of good attacks and profitable exchanges for my opponent.
G3 I wised up and brought in my Nihil Spellbombs, realizing that their Creativity plan isn't super effective against my interaction and that Persisting some threat was the easiest way they had to win the game. This game started with Leyline/Scion where the Leyline was met with a Pawpatch Formation. My opponent cast a few Faithless Lootings, but that didn't improve their draw of essentially that lone Pawpatch Formation, a Wrenn and Six that I countered, all of their big threats, and lands. I go 3-1-1 and am 4th seed into Top 8.
The total top 8 was Kethis combo, 2xDomain Zoo, GW Leo Lifegain Combo, Mono U Belcher, Affinity, Esper Goryo's, and Boros Energy (not in that order). I liked my chances against everything except Belcher, Affinity, and Esper Goryo's. Can you guess what I played in Top 8?
This matchup was a lot like the first one, but ended up a lot more favorable for me. My opponent depended on Kappa Cannoneer on T2, but I had one Stubborn Denial to counter their Pithing Needle, which really messed up their draw. I once again had Doorkeeper Thrull into Arena of Glory and Phlage on T3, which quickly slammed the door on the game.
G2 was another Leyline Scion fest, this time backed up by Wrath of the Skies that my opponent hadn't seen from me yet in either match we played. Again, a swift victory decided by some lopsided draws on my favor.
I find the Goryo's matchup particularly tricky just because of the various angles of attack the deck has available. The only start they have trouble dealing with G1 is a Leyline Scion start, which I luckily had backed up by a well timed Leyline Binding to take care of Psychic Frog.
As an aside to this match, Frog is so freaking good that it's almost the only way they can win after a Leyline/Scion. If you have Lightning Bolt, try to bait your opponent into making Frog profitable for you by attacking your Scion of Draco (with Leyline in play) into their Frog. If they take the bait of discarding 3 cards to give their Frog 3 +1/+1/ counters, then fly and block your Scion, you can let First Strike damage happen then Bolt their Frog so your Scion doesn't die. You should be worried about Force of Negation or them discarding their entire hand to keep Frog alive. If you have another Bolt or Leyline Binding, then you can go for this play with almost near certainty that your Scion will connect or you'll be able to deal with the Frog if they block.
I felt better heading into G2 thanks to Nihil Spellbomb and Celestial Purge. For this particular game I brought them in for 2 Shadow Prophecy and Tribal Flames, which was a mistake. I was thinking turning off Atraxa's ETB with Doorkeeper Thrull was worth it, but just having a 7/7 with Flying and Lifelink is good enought for them. This game was kind of sweet because it was long and drawn out with multiple Leyline of the Guildpacts and Atraxa's resolved. In doing so, they revealed their entire deck to me and I got to see how they boarded.
This particular player boarded out Force of Negation and was leaning heavily on Consign to Memory and Fatal Push. I don't absolutely hate their plan, but I like Force of Negation against me, and their deck is likely the best Force deck in the format. After I corrected my sideboarding, I got to use that information to use Leyline Binding to answer a Frog when they had no blue mana up and before they could attack with it. I also wised up and brought back in my Shadow Prophecy for my Doorkeeper Thrulls, and soon enough I had a ticket to the finals.
The astute among you might remember that Michael submitted the exact same 75 as me, and this isn't a 75 card mirror. Alas, he fell to this player in the quarterfinals, so I must try to avenge him in this match. Sadly, the first game didn't quite go my way. I was leaning on a powerful start of Doorkeeper Thrull into hasty Phlage, to which my opponent responded "That's really good, I'm gonna Flare of Denial that." The game didn't amount to much from there, and we moved to sideboarding. I did once again technically misplay, since I should have let him reveal his deck to Belcher so I could see what he was playing with.
I felt alright about my sideboard plan, but nothing I have is so good against them. I'm a firm believer in taking out Leyline of the Guildpact when the board doesn't matter in the matchup, so I got to side those out for Consign to Memory and a single Wear // Tear. Nihil Spellbomb only matters if they have Tameshi in play, and there are several other ways to deal with Tameshi in your deck like Lightning Bolt and Leyline Binding.
G2 started out better with a Kavu and a Ragavan, but my opponent got to slam a Harbinger of the Seas on their turn three and make my board much smaller. Luckily, I had deployed a lot of my threats by this point and was just holding up Consign to Memory and Stubborn Denial, so I wasn't completely out of it. They weren't interested in blocking my Ragavan with Harbinger of the Seas, so I got to steal Tameshi from their deck and keep the clock going. They played their fourth land and passed, so I could only really hope as I tried clocking in with the entire board, putting them to one. I flipped Waterlogged Teachings off the top of their deck, and with 4 lands and a treasure I cast it to go and get a Lightning Bolt from my deck to win the game.
G3 again started out with a Ragavan, but since they were on the play they could deploy a Fallaji Archaeologist to block. Luckily, they didn't hit a land on the Archaeologist ETB trigger, and they kept missing land drops and suspending Lotus Blooms as I deployed Kavus to keep the pressure on. Perhaps the game winning decision was countering their first Lotus Bloom with a Stubborn Denial. They didn't have a counterspell, and because of that they lacked the mana and Tameshi to go off the following turn, my opponent conceded!
I've now punched my ticket to two RC's in three months. While there's been a fair bit of luck involved, I'd also like to think this means I'm finally seeing the gains I've wanted to see in myself as a player for the past 4 years. Now we have to get cracking on Secrets of Strixhaven Standard decks, and I should probably put Leyline of the Guildpact to bed and play something better for Baltimore.