Visions: Round of 32 & Sweet Sixteen
Series Preview
Ground rules for this tournament.
Round of 64 results here.
To be honest, given how long ago this set was made, the power level of the creatures in Visions is actually not bad. The flankers definitely have some offensive play, while the others seems to be not that much off the curve we saw back in Dominaria.
You gotta love the non-optionality of creature abilities back then, though. Namely with Man-o’-War, a creature that I otherwise would have pegged for an easy spot in the Elite Eight. However, we do still see some classics like Nekrataal, River Boa, and Longbow Archer moving on; and it definitely feels like they’ve got a slight upper hand on the rest of the field.
Note: Hover over the names to see card images.
Round of 32
(32)
Some swift vigilante justice for the Cyclops that won the last round only by doing absolutely nothing. By foregoing the ability and just going straight for the face of the non-blocking Cyclops, the dwarves score an easy victory.
(2)
Another do-nothing creature finally facing a (relatively) real opponent and getting knocked out.
(3)
The cheap Archer outclasses the Ranger takes this one easily.
(4)
The Atog gets a few early shots in, then accumulates several turns of two-creature casts, before going all-in on Turn 7. Five unblocked Atogs get pumped to 4/5 for the kill (while five irrelevant turns get skipped in the process).
(5)
The Hippo wins this before the first Zombie Giant even comes down.
(6)
Even with half its army active at any time, Efreet is able to hold off the Spirit attack with its larger size.
The fact that the Spirit needs to double-block in order to trade one-for-one with the Efreet means that every second turn there will be a hole for Efreet to sneak some damage through. Which they patiently do until all 20 damage is done.
(26)
Boa, with its cheaper cost and regeneration, has the upper hand here. Mindsucker’s ability, as a one-to-one proposition, doesn’t do anything useful.
(25)
Killing a creature every turn is more enough for the first striking Skeleton to take over board and thrash the Gorilla.
(41)
A battle between two 1/1s. Normally, this would default to a win for the creature on the play, but the Veteran’s ability changes things a lot.
With the threat of the Veteran pumps, Keeper doesn’t want to be on the defensive, as the Veteran would have the flexibility to save an attacker and take the creature numbers advantage for good. Thus, Keeper will always be attacking with max.
The most conservative strategy for Veteran is to trade with all these Keeper attacks until they’re down to one attacker a turn. At that point, Veteran can let that one through and swing back with 2 the next turn. Keeper swings back with 2, and it becomes an arms race.
Veteran at 19, Keeper at 18, Veteran at 17, Keeper at 15, Veteran at 14, Keeper at 11, Veteran at 10, Keeper at 6, Veteran at 5, Keeper at 0.
If Keeper tries to slow down this arms race at any point by blocking, Veteran will just activate a pump and put them down a creature.
And thus, the lowest-seed Infantry Veteran pulls out a tight one.
(10)
Another tight one. The Efreet starts off on the offensive, crushing the Cockroaches for 3 and 6 damage on Turns 5 an 6, respectively. Then, for Turn 7, it only attacks for 6, leaving behind two blockers which is just enough to survive the Cockroach counter-attack with 1 life remaining.
Another 6 damage in the air on Turn 8, and Rainbow Efreet pulls this one out by the skin of its teeth.
(11)
A nice stealthy comeback for the 6 CMC Dragon.
Turn 6 (3 Forest, 3 Mountain): Cast first Dragon. Lichenthrope attacks them for 5.
Turn 7 (3 Forest, 4 Mountain): Cast second Dragon. Attack with the first one and keep it back to block. With a red pump, it trades with one Lichenthrope attacker; the other gets through. Down to 10 life.
Turn 8 (4 Forest, 4 Mountain): Cast second Dragon. Attack with first one for 4 (Lichenthrope down to 12). Block one of the attacking Lichenthrope and double-pump with green to survive.
Turn 9 (4 Forest, 5 Mountain): Attack with both Dragons. Pump with 5 red to do 13 damage for lethal.
(12)
The 0/3 Walkers all get demolished by the Enforcer, who cruises to an easy victory.
(13)
After pulling through the last round in a shootout, Tempest Drake does not have it any easier in this round. Again, their evasion and vigilance allows them to dictate the pace of the battle, and it this case all they need to do is wait out – as the Druid is eventually limited by its land drops.
Turn 4: The Druid uses this turn to create a (tapped) living land and cast another Druid. No attacks. One Drake attacks. (18 to 20)
Turn 5: The Druids create two living lands. Three lands attack. Two Drakes trade with them. (18 to 18)
Turn 6: The Druids create two living lands (one tapped). Two lands attack. One Drake trades. (18 to 16). Cast two Drakes.
Turn 7: The Druids create a living land. Three lands attack. Two trades. (18 to 14). Cast two Drakes.
Turn 8: The Druid creates a living land. Two lands attack. Two trades. Cast two drakes.
Turn 9: The Druid creates a land. One land attacks. No block (18 to 12). Cast a drake. Attack with two drakes. (14 to 12).
Turn 10: The Druid creates a land. Two lands attack. No blocks (14 to 8). Cast a drake. Attack with three drakes. (8 to 8).
Turn 11: The Druid creates a land. Three lands attack. No blocks (8 to 2). Attack with four Drakes for the win.
(14)
The Crusaders gets in ahead of the Army Ant lockdown this time, rushing in with a flurry of 2/2 flankers that the small 1/1 insect has no way to handle.
(47)
The flanking Askari is both cheaper and overpowers the Chimera on the attack. This one ends pretty quickly.
(16)
Even as a 1/1, getting four free attack turns at the opponent is usually enough to secure a victory. The Falcon finishes things off with exact lethal the turn after the first Angel comes down.
Sweet Sixteen
(48)
For some odd reason, the lower-bracket Falcon is on the play in a Sweet Sixteen match. And it makes full use of that (as well as its protection from red) here – killing the Vigilantes the turn before the those dwarves are able to strike back with their own lethal damage.
By some miracle, the innocuous 1/1 Falcon for two is on its way to the Elite Eight.
(2)
As it turns out, being a 1/2 for two without any useful abilities is not very good when you come up against a actual real opponent. Fallen Askari demolishes the high-seeded Goblin.
(14)
Longbow Archer starts off on the offensive, greatly dampening the joint Flanking/re-direction power of the Crusader. The two-mana activaton cost prevents the Crusader from being able to have it ready for them defensively until Turn 6 – at which point they’ve already taken 12 Longbow damage.
The Longbow holds off on an attack that turn and casts two more creatures. From there, the numbers advantage is so great that, even with the 2.5-creature swing of the redirection (save the Crusader from the first strike death, ping an unblocked attacker), the Crusader just doesn’t have enough mana available to hang in there.
(4)
The bigger Tempest Drake holds off the un-pumped Chronatog attacks as it gets in with its air damage. The Atog can never quite get enough attackers such that the unblocked creatures can be pumped for lethal, and the Drake finishes it off on Turn 7.
(Note: Any attempt to pump the Chronatog to kill a Drake is a bad idea. Since it’s at least a 1-for-1 proposition – given the extra card the Drake will draw a turn, as well any extra damage coming from the free Drake attacks.)
(5)
The Hippo has literally no distinguishing characteristic besides being a very high seed (and thus consistently being on the play). That’s more than enough here, where it strikes with 14 damage before the first Enforcer comes down; and cleans things up for a spot in the Elite Eight.
(11)
It’ll be a expensive six-drop or a enigmatic phaser in the Elite Eight. Either way, an unexpected appearance for sure. Let’s see which one wins out.
Turn 3: Cast Efreet.
Turn 4: Efreet phases out. Cast Efreet.
Turn 5: Efreet phases in and makes itself phase out. Cast Efreet.
Turn 6: Cast Viashivan. Two Efreet phase in (making the Dragon phase out), one phase out. Attack with two Efreet (16 to 20). Cast two Efreet.
Turn 7: Cast Viashivan. Attack with Viashivan for 5 (pumped once). 16 to 15. Four Efreet phase out, one phase in (making a Dragon phase out). Cast two Efreet. Attack with an Efreet (14 to 15).
Turn 8: Attack with two Dragons, pump them twice. 14 to 5. Cast a Dragon. Four Efreet phase in and they attack for 6 (can’t attack for 8, because won’t have enough blockers). Cast two Efreet – three blockers for the three Dragons. (8 to 5)
Turn 8: Attack with three Dragons; the three Efreet chump. Cast another Dragon. Three Efreet phase in but that’s not enough to win it. So they stay to block and another Efreet is cast.
Turn 9: Attack with four Dragons. All four Efreet chump. Cast another Dragon. Three Efreet phase in. Again, an attack would put them still 2 damage away from winning. And there aren’t enough Efreet to survive the next Dragon attack. So that’s game.
(10)
The islandwalk makes this one a pure race – one that River Boa wins fairly comfortably. It hits with lethal with still 11 life and one wave of Efreet attacks to spare.
(25)
Although it costs three more mana, Nekrataal starts swinging the game hard as soon as it becomes active. The Terror effect plus the first strike blocking pretty much ends any plan the Veteran has for a blind offensive assault. (That would gets Nekrataal down to 9 life before stalling)
So the Veteran has to play it strategically, keeping two untapped Veterans to kill a blocking Nekrataal, and see if they can accumulate a sufficient combination of damage and loss prevention to pull it off:
Do the double-Veteran trick on Turn 4 and blindly attack from there: can get Nekrataal down to 6 life before stalling.
Do the double-Veteran trick on Turn 5 and blindly attack from there: can get Nekrataal down to 3 life before stalling.
Do the double-Veteran trick on Turn 6 and blindly attack from there: can get Nekrataal down to 2 life before stalling (double Nekrataal on Turn 8 saves it).
As it turns out, the best they can do is down to 2.
So it seems like riding the value train for as long as possible is ideal for the Veteran. Based on that thinking, what about if they skipped that 3rd land drop to get one more Veteran (at the cost of less damage in the intermediate turns)?
Turns out, that smaller army early on does make a big difference, and the best they can do is 4 life.
Nekrataal clings on by a razor-thin margin.
Onto the Elite Eight…