Visions: Elite Eight, Final Four, and Championship
Series Preview
Ground rules for this tournament.
Round of 32 and Sweet Sixteen results here.
Quite an interesting mix of creatures in this Elite Eight. I’d hazard a guess that none of the cards below would be able take down any of those explosive quarter-finalists from Dominaria.
But seeing mediocre cards competing for a championship in a set that’s over two decades old…that’s all part of the fun.
- The least surprising participants in this Elite Eight are three old classics: Nekrataal, Longbow Archer, and River Boa. All creatures that were above the curve for their time, and saw their share of competitive play back in the day.
- Outside of those guys, it’s a bit of mishmash. We’ve got an effectively vanilla 2/2 (Pygmy Hippo), a decent flier that won some incredibly close games to get to this point (Tempest Drake), a throwaway common flanker (Fallen Askari), and a big dragon that was able to hold off the slow field in this set (Viashivan Set).
- The biggest underdog here, though, has got to be Freewind Falcon. You wouldn’t expect a 1/1 that costs two to make any kind of noise here – but that’s Visions for you… The lack of red opponents here doesn’t seem to bode well for any more major upsets, though.
Elite Eight
(27) Nekrataal defeats (48) Freewind Falcon
It was a nice run while it lasted. Nekrataal’s built-in Terror gives it insane value, as the 2/1 Assassins take over the board and outrace with the Falcon with about 10 life to spare.
(26) River Boa defeats (50) Fallen Askari
Thanks to the flanking, River Boa dies to any block (even with regeneration); and Fallen Askari can’t block. So this one comes down to a pure race. River Boa, being on the play, naturally takes it.
(11) Viashivan Dragon defeated by (30) Longbow Archer
Well, we all knew this would happen. The significantly cheaper Archer rips Viashivan Dragon to shreds, getting the final shot in the turn after the first dragon hits.
(5) Pygmy Hippo defeats (45) Tempest Drake
The surprising run for the Drake also ends here; in this battle of multicolored creatures. The Hippo is cheaper and on the play, so it just starts bashing as soon as possible. The Drake is on its heels from the start, and eventually falls as its numbers just cannot keep up.
And thus, the Hippo advances to the Final Four as only non-classic creature of the bunch. Can they pull it off?
Final Four
(5) Pygmy Hippo defeated by (27) Nekrataal
Nekrataal makes full use of its built-in Terror and First Strike here. Each dude that comes down Turn 4 and beyond kills a Hippo immediately and would kill a Hippo upon blocking (while surviving itself). Basically stemming any kind of offense from the 2/2.
Once the full Nekrataal arsenal comes down, it’s only a matter time. They take things over with still a comfortable amount of life left.
(26) River Boa defeated by (30) Longbow Archer
The first strike-regeneration interaction matters a lot here. Regenerate removes the creature from combat, so a regenerating Boa means a stalemate between the two. Thus, Boa can never attack profitably into the Archer (it’s either stalemate or death) – and this continues all the way until the cost of activation inevitably means running short on either Boas or regeneration mana. Longbow Archer takes it.
Championship Match
(27) Nekrataal defeats (30) Longbow Archer
A total blowout. Longbow only gets one hit in before the Nekrataal comes in and starts its trademark 2-for-1ing with the Archers (they trade in combat since they both have first strike). The solid value engine takes it.
And that is how Nekrataal, despite being a measly 2/1 for four, took home the Visions championship.
Note: It’s always interesting to look back to see whether the champion had been close to elimination at any point in the earlier rounds. In this case, it was the one-drop Infantry Veteran in the Sweet Sixteen that gave Nekrataal the scare of a lifetime.
The best creature in 
is Nekrataal!
