I’m Tommaso Loss, a former x-wing competitive player (a miniature game).
One year ago when I moved to Pisa I started playing pauper, looking for an alternative competitive game to play. I was warmly welcomed by Lega Pauper Pisa.
For Paupergeddon Pisa I tested two decks, jeskaj, my pet deck, and Boros, cause I wanted to play some new cards. I went 4-2 with boros at TPP, losing twice to Slivers (https://clips.twitch.tv/CuriousApatheticChickenEleGiggle-BfJKsEys50vk-cqQ). I always manage to get destroyed by Slivers at Paupergeddons.
Having tried out the new artifact from Lotr, Lembas, and having watched between rounds a couple of Altar Tron players playing it, I realized how strongly it fits in the deck strategy.
Later at night when I got home, I builded the deck and that’s what i’ve played this weekend, which is an updated version of the one I played at Paupergeddon Milan:
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Altar Tron by Tommaso Loss, Finalist
| Creatures (5) 4 Myr Retriever 1 Myr Kinsmith Spells (38) 4 Expedition Map 4 Chromatic Star 3 Energy Refractor 2 Ichor Wellspring 4 Lembas 4 Ancient Stirrings 3 Chromatic Sphere 3 Golem Foundry 2 Ashnod’s Altar 2 Weather the Storm 1 Makeshift Munitions 1 Mystical Teachings 4 Deadly Dispute 1 Reckoner’s Bargain | Lands (17) 4 Urza’s Mine 4 Urza’s Power Plant 4 Urza’s Tower 1 Forest 1 Haunted Fengraf 2 Crystal Grotto 1 Polluted Mire Sideboard (15) 2 Nihil Spellbomb 2 Krark-Clan Shaman 1 Breath Weapon 1 Weather the Storm 1 Serene Heart 3 Fangren Marauder 1 Scattershot 2 Ancient Grudge 2 Duress |
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Maindeck
Creatures:
Myr Retriever: 4
Deck’s core.
Myr Kinsmith: 1
Strong card, more combo-oriented versions want more of this. I used to play two, but was always siding out one, since it only helps when your ahead.
Artifacts:
Ashnod’s Altar: 2
I tried to build this deck to be as consistent as possible, not to combo as fast as possible. Multiple of this card are dead, and in a lot of matchups it’s not needed/useful.
Golem Foundry: 3
Can win games by itself. Could see being correct to play 4, but I’ve always played 3 and it was enough.
Expedition Map: 4
Deck’s core.
Chromatic Star: 4
Best of the two.
Chromatic Sphere: 3
Weaker than star, but still necessary to fix mana at low cost. (one was cut to fit lembas)
Energy Refractor: 3
Fix all your mana and draws. Enables infinite colored mana that lets you dig a lot for munition to kill on the spot. (one was cut to fit lembas)
Ichor Wellspring: 2
Weaker Lembas, only good in combination with a draw spell. (two was cut to fit lembas)
Lembas: 4
This card does a lot, scry 1 draw 1 in tron is quite comparable with the draw 2 of ichor, but it does it etb. The food lifegain fits really well in a less turbo version of tron, granting a bit more room to survive. Furthermore, in really grindy matchup, when the opponent has counters for the combo or gy hate, it grants a lot more total foundry triggers by reshuffling into the deck.
Sorceries:
Ancient Stirring: 4
I really don’t understand playing less than 4 stirrings, it’s such a strong cantrip, always live, lets you keep monolanders with ease, and digs for missing combo-pieces.
Istants:
Deadly Dispute: 4
Deck’s core.
Reckoner’s Bargain: 1
Significantly weaker than dispute, still strong. Another life gain spell if needed. Helps keeping cards flowing.
Weather the Storm: 2
Helps not to die.
Mystical Teachings: 1
My favorite card, g1 acts as a 5th dispute or wts. Post-side it tutors matchup-winning one-ofs. It helps to improve some hard matchup, such as monoU faeries or bogles.
Enchantments:
Makeshift Munitions: 1
I choose to play it md since it’s really important to win g1 vs monoU faeries. And improves combo matchups by enabling the kill the same turn you go off. Definitely stronger paired with blood fountain, but even w/o it the deck can dig a lot the combo turn.
Lands:
Tron lands: 12
Deck’s core.
Polluted Mire: 1
Needed to draw with maps.
Haunted Fengraf: 1
Anti graveyard hate tutorable card. Also keeps maps alive in late game as polluted mire.
Crystal Grotto: 2
Color fixing.
Forest: 1
Insurance against wildfire effects. They aren’t that popular so I thought only one basic was enough. Forest over swamp to enable stirrings.
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Sideboard
Ancient Grudge: 2
Most efficient way to fight gy hate, two are needed to face decks that sides 4 relics (e.g boros).
Fangren Marauder: 3
Strong against Affinity, Boros (but only if they aren’t playing journey), and part of the sideboard plan for matchups where the combo plan is too slow/weak, as monoR and monoU.
Nihil Spellbomb: 2
Necessity against ephemerate decks to stop/slow down the loop. Also good against UB terror to control their gy.
Duress: 2
Strong all-around card. Useful in counter matchup and also to slow down other combo strategies.
Krark-Clan Shaman: 2
Strong vs heavy creature combo decks, in general not a very good matchup, like walls combo and bogles. Also good against the kuldotha version of monoR.
Weather the storm: 1
I was playing two, but consulting with Elia Morgese 1 hour before the geddon start, I decided to cut one to fit the second duress, counting of the additional lifegain from lembas to survive against monoR (I ended up facing 0 monoR, must be nice).
Breath Weapon: 1
Third wrath effect, really good vs faeries and monoW, and most version of boros, tutorable.
Serene Heart: 1
Bogles.
Scattershot: 1
Faeries.
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The Tournament
R1: Bye
Record: 1-0
Round 2: BG Gardens, Landi Juri
G1: He puts up a lot of pressure with a t4 Avenging Hunter but ended up missing the ultimate, leaving me with one more turn to live and combo off.
G2: He had a slower start, I accumulated enough redundancy to combo through his disruptions.
Record: 2-0
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Round 3: Boros Kuldotha, Scognamiglio Pasquale
Boros Kuldotha aka Boross from my almost homonymous player Tommaso Oss who won literally everything with this deck.
G1: I kept a fast end and lived long enough to combo thanks to a wts.
G2: He killed me t4 with rally + bolts.
G3: I cleared his board early with breath weapon and couldn’t recover fast enough.
Record: 3-0
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Round 4: Mono U, Paini Francesco
Worst matchup between top decks. Strategy here post side is to keep only foundry, and win with that or a resolved Fangren Marauder, for which they only have counterspell to stop.
G1: he ninjaed t2 but with weak ninja, so I survived long enough, trading cards, until I forced through munitions.
G2: he started with strong ninja, still managed to reach a point where I’ve almost stabilized.
duress his hand and discard his only counter, then duress again the following turn, he counters, then counters the fangren that would’ve won the game.
G3: the only round overall that went close to turns, started the game with 7 minutes on the clock, with the perfect hand: natural tron + color + marauder. Won by beating down with a t3 marauder.
Record: 4-0
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Round 5: Jund Wildfire, Ferri Paolo
G1: He wildfires me twice, but had plenty of lands, wts to stabilize and after some turns combo off.
G2: He didn’t have wildfire, so early tron + lembas stabilized, then combo.
Record: 5-0
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Round 6: Mono U, Delinavelli Davide
G1: force through an early foundry and he couldn’t handle the golems.
G2: resolved a fangren that helped to stay alive enough to out-card him.
Record: 6-0
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Round 7: Boros, Tittarelli Matteo
G1: slow start from him, comboed off without much trouble.
G2: double relics answered by grudge, then combo.
Record: 7-0
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Round 8: Mono U, Beatrice Andrea
G1: strong ninja t2, tried to forced through munitions but third counterspell stopped it.
G2: slow start from him, sneaked an early foundry that couldn’t be handled.
G3: really close game won by him with mutagenic on my myr to keep him alive.
Probably the best match of the we, really interactive and tense.
Record: 7-1
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Round 9: Caw-Gates, Fantini Alessandro
G1: he tapped out aggressively to try to close the game asap, but I had a fast start and comboed turn 5
G2: This time he tried to always stay open, so I just accumulated redundancy until was sure to be able to combo through counterspell + relic.
Record: 8-1
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Round 10: Affo Monsters, Priami Leonardo
Friend from Lega Pauper Pisa, he decided to not have any sideboard for this matchup given its difficulty.
G1: I survived his serpents with wts and lembas, then combo.
G2: I resolved two fangrens and slowly assembled the combo.
Record: 9-1
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Round 11: Affinity, Francini Roberto
Eventual winner of the event.
G1: tron t3 into combo t4
G2: tron t3 + grudge and fangren to survive, then combo.
Record: 10-1
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Round 12: Affinity, Spiaggiari Filippo
Intentional Draw to secure first place after swiss, with a 10-1-1 record.
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Quarters: Boros, Casotto Marco
g1: opened the best hand of the weekend, with tron + most of the infinite life combo assembled, he didn’t put up lot of pressure.
g2: early duress to discard his only rock destroyed his card advantage. Quickly ended the game with the combo with him not having relics/cast into fire.
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Semifinal: Boros, Navarra Emanuele
G1: he tried the most aggressive line possible, thanks to batterfist. I survived up to turn 6 with lembas, then comboed.
G2: he kept a rather weak hand, which i duressed. Seeing no hate I dropped 2 foundry, and golem + breath weapon sealed the deal.
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Final: Affinity, Francini Roberto
G1: mulled to a slow 5 hand, died to exact lethal with double galvanic the turn before stabilizing.
G2: mulled to 5 again, stronger hand this time but a well timed nihil stopped me from being able to combo. He correctly identified that I was flooding and countered a dispute, died from his beaters.
The dreaded “Revenge of the swiss” rule strikes back.
All in all, it was a blast, see you at Paupergeddon Rome!
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Mini Sideboard-Guide
Boros
I prefer to only bring fangrens if I haven’t seen journey g1, since it’s not that needed.
In:
Out:
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Affinity
In:
Out:
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Mono U
Since the combo plan is almost impossible to complete, the goal is to resolve a power spell (foundry/fangren/munition) and win with that.
In:
Out:
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Mono Red
Since the combo plan is too slow, the wincon is fangren + board clear.
In:
Out:
VS Pingers Burn (no Kuldotha) keep 1 Golem Foundry and leave Breath Weapon in the sideboard.
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UB Terror
Since the combo plan is almost impossible to complete, the goal is to resolve a power spell.
In:
Out:
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Slivers
Raise white flag.
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