[Standard] G/B Constellation 16th at SCG Houston (Report/Discussion)

Here is the writeup for my 16th place finish at SCG Houston. I piloted G/B Constellation and went 11-4 overall (6-3 Day 1, 5-1 Day 2). [Deck List](http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=80027). The discussion comes before the tournament report.

**General** - Overall, I recommend this deck if your meta is filled midrange and aggro. I do NOT recommend this deck if you anticipate playing a lot of U/W Heroic and Control variants. If your meta is significantly slanted towards control then try the Sultai version piloted by Reid Duke and Gerard Fabiano in the player's championship.

**Deck Choice** - While I think Frontier Siege Constellation ("Ugin.deck") does some ridiculous things (it got 26th), I'm reluctant to give up all of my mainboard removal, Thoughtseize, and Whip. I don't want to rely on "drawing the right half of my deck" to dominate. “Cheap” removal like Cut is fantastic, the unfairness of whip and the lifegain cannot be understated, and Thoughtseize is...well...Thoughtseize!

**Sideboarding** - Exact numbers may vary, but here are cards that are good/bad for given matchups:

- **Abzan Midrange**: GOOD: Thoughtseize (TS), Read the Bones (RtB), Silence the Believers (StB), Reclamation Sage (RS - use on Courser or Banishing Light), Extinguish All Hope (EAH), Hero's Downfall (HD). BAD: Courser, Caryatid, Tasigur, 4 Cuts (I remove 2 for 2 Downfall). - **Whip Decks**: GOOD: HD, RtB, StB, EAH, TS. BAD: Courser, Caryatid, Tasigur, 4 Cuts (remove 2) - **Miscellaneous Midrange**: Same as the whip mirror, though you may need all 4 cuts (EAH isn't always what you're looking for, like against Mardu where killing Butcher is top priority). - **Mono Red**: GOOD: HD, Drown in Sorrow (DiS), StB, RS. BAD: TS, Tasigur, Pharika, Eidolon of Blossoms (maximize removal, mulligan slow hands) - **Aggro (R/W, G/R, U/W)**: GOOD: Same as Mono Red, but you can board in EAH. I'm on the fence about TS against G/R as the curve is higher. BAD: same as Mono Red, only keep in 1-2 Pharika. - **G/x Devotion**: GOOD: TS, HD, RS (if courser still in), StB, DiS (hits mana dorks). BAD: Tasigur, 4 cuts (replace one with StB). BAD: Courser, Caryatid, Tasigur - **Control (U/B, Sultai, U/W)** - GOOD: TS!!!, HD, Nissa, EAH (hits Silumgar), RtB. BAD: Courser, Caryatid, 4 Cuts (I keep in 1 if they have Pearl-Lake).

Keep in mind that I don't like cutting all four caryatids. 22 mana is still 22 mana, so I will always leave at least one.

**Changes After Tournament** MD: -2 Tasigur, +2 Polukranos (Polukranos better if R/W aggro and devotion stays popular. Tasigur isn't great in this deck; I boarded him out 14/15 matches.

Sideboard: -1 Liliana, +1 Drown in Sorrow. Control was fine without Liliana. I wished all day I had a third drown.

**TOURNAMENT** **Day 1**

**Round 1 (Abzan Midrange)** - I lost in turns during game 3 when opponent cast three walkers in a row. Happens. (0-1)

**Round 2 (Abzan Midrange)** - Game 1 lasted 47 minutes. I had a hard time closing the game (opponent's six draw spells were in top 20 cards of deck!). The game ended when I had 6 cards in library, he had 7, and I had 107 life from whip. (1-1)

**Round 3 (Sultai Control)** - I was dominated G1 and ground out G2. Sideboard Nissa is fantastic, especially since Ugin and Vault do not hit lands. I had the crucial downfall for the resolved Ugin and went to town with hornet tokens while my opponent ran out of answers. (2-1)

**Round 4 (4 Color Soulflayer Brew)** - This was an awesome brew of Jund skies splashing white for Siege Rhino, and relied on Soulflayer doing ridiculous things. Hornet Queen was the best card in the matchup, especially when a flying, haste, hexproof, indestructible flayer hit the field! Fortunately, my deck was more consistent in our three game set. (3-1).

**Round 5 (G/R Devotion)** - Whisperwood Elemental is stupid-good in this deck. Opponent mana screwed game 1, I got destroyed game 2, and I ground out game 3 via Hornet Queen and Doomwake. In general, devotion matchups are a bit of a gamble. Opponent could draw explosively into game states that are nearly impossible to win, or they can play out a couple threats and durdle. Whisperwood made wiping his board with Doomwake extremely annoying! (4-1)

**Round 6 (G/R Devotion)** - I drew poorly and my opponent drew extremely well. Claws for 14 killed me the turn before stabilizing G1. G2 I kept what looked to be an awesome 7 and then T2 Wayfinder bricked on lands, which I drew two turns later (EBT - sadness), turning my hand of promise into an easy win for my opponent. Oh well. (4-2)

**Round 7 (R/W Aggro)** - Between Giant and sideboard removal (drown in sorrow!) this matchup is good. I won game 1 easily, died to a good curve and lots of burn in G2, and took G3 in a topdeck war, surviving four (!) lightning strikes in the first 6 turns (active seeker the whole time). The curve of the R/W deck can be brutal, so the goal is to control their board and force a topdeck war. The addition of Outpost Siege and Chandra are great, but it also means their deck is more combo-oriented instead of immediately burning me in the face. (5-2)

**Round 8 (G/R Aggro)** - Either you have enough removal to neutralize key threats or you die. Opponent wins G1, I win G2, and then in G3 he T2 rabbled on the play and my T3 courser was unraveled back into my deck. I should have lead with rec-sage instead of courser, but I suppose he had more ways to remove that than his 2-of sideboard enchantment hate! (5-3)

**Round 9 (Abzan Midrange)** - Opponent gets a game loss for arriving 2 minutes late. He's lucky it wasn't closer to ten minutes with all the extra head-judge announcement before the match. He won G2 with a hand that was just a little too fast for me. For G3 I double-thoughtseized his relevant cards, played T4 Eidolon, T5 Eidolon, T6 Nykthos/Hornet Queen. I proceeded to draw four-six cards a turn in a total route. (6-3)

**Day 2 Announcement** - If memory serves, SCG Houston had over 450-ish participants. The lower attendance is understandable with V-Day and Mardi Gras. The W/L cutoff for Day 2 was the record for 64th place. I placed 55th, so me and the other X-3’s were headed to Day 2!

**Round 10 (Abzan Aggro)** - My opponent was Nathaniel Smith, who you may have seen almost make the Pro Tour T8 last week. He crushed me G1 with double Roc. I won G2 with Queen into whip. G3 I had to mull to 5 on the draw. It was a great 5, don't get me wrong, but at the end of the day I was down 2 cards that might have been removal. (6-4).

**Round 11 (U/W Heroic)** - The plan was throw removal at his "queen" until it died. I won G1 with Whip and Queen taking me out of lethal-range while he ran out of protection spells. Lifegain lands, again, were game-winning! G2 I kept a bunch of removal that absorbed protection spells. In G3 I played T2 Wayfinder, cut his Battlewise Hoplite the next turn, then fought a Seeker loaded with enchantments. I was taking 8 damage a turn and gaining five back with only a couple minutes in the round (he was at 35ish life). He destroyed my whip, but I was able to remove the giant seeker by chaining kill spells. He made a giant Hero, and, as we went to turns, I played a T0 Queen and T2 Queen for 3 (!) Queens on the field. I attacked for lethal on T4, taking him from 16 to 0. It all came back to 4 damage dealt by a courser earlier in the game! (7-4)

**Round 12 (G/R Aggro)** - Opponent received a game loss for arriving 30 seconds late. He was cool about it and destroyed me G2. G3 I played Caryatid/Courser while he went T1 Mystic, T2 Heir, T3 Mystic/Mystic/Heir. I was already planning to use my Drown on Sorrow on the first two creatures, so I was quite happy to see him overextend! (8-4)

**Round 13 (R/W Aggro)** - I thoughtseized G1 to see Seeker/Strike/Rabble/Stormbreath with three lands. Nice hand! I took Rabble and a second thoughtseize claimed SBD. I drew nothing of value and was whittled down. G2 and G3 were better. He played a curve of creatures with some burn. I removed said creatures and took burn damage. My topdeck was (expectedly) better than his. (9-4)

**Round 14 (Sultai Whip)** - Opponent was playing "value whip". I won G1 and he won G2. Both were unremarkable - one of our deck's went online before the other and powered through. Unfortunately, my opponent was badly mana screwed G3 where he saw two lands in his top 12ish cards. I was disappointed that we couldn't have our slug-fest, but it's hard to be TOO disappointed when the win secured Top 32. (10-4)

**Round 15 (Dramatic Effect)** - After R14 I was in 21st and my opponent was 19th. The game started with him playing mountains and then a T3 Rabblemaster. He only saw my Temple, wastes, and forest, so he may have thought I was Abzan and played Foundry Street Denizen and Firedrinker Satyr. My army of Caryatids ramped a T4 Doomwake Giant to clean the field. Game ends soon after. G2 He doesn't have a T1 play again, casting Eidolon of the Great Revel on T2. And here I thought the Rec-Sage in my opening hand was going to be a tempo-gaining trade! I built up a board while he spent burn spells to take out a Doomwake Giant. I had kill spells for all his creatures, but I was at 8. Courser and lifegain lands (Radiant Fountain FTW) were the only things that kept me from getting burnt into a G3 (I gained 8 life from courser/lifegain lands). This was my first 2-0 win of the tournament, and it was definitely the sweetest! (11-4)

Standings were posted and my breakers put me into 16th place! Overall, the two days were exhausting and VERY rewarding. I'm happy with the deck and don't see myself switching unless something breaks standard.

Thanks for reading!

tl;dr - G/B Constellation is well-positioned and you should play it!