Worldwake: Elite Eight, Final Four, and Championship
Series Preview
Ground rules for this tournament.
Sweet Sixteen results here.
This Elite Eight features a nice diversity of creature styles:
- Two allies that can build up (Hada Freeblade, Halimar Excavator) at an exponential rate and take over the game in the blink of an eye.
- Two multikicker creatures (Quag Vampires, Skitter of Lizards) that have the valuable versatility to match both fast and big opponents toe-to-toe and control the pace of battle.
- Two above-the-curve vanilla creatures (Leatherback Baloth, Loam Lion).
- The Zendikar-block-epitomizing mana sink that can feeds on all those extra lands to get out of control (Omnath, Locus of Mana), and a sleek Vampire with the constant threat of draining away half the opponent’s life if they dare to block it (Kalastria Highborn).
Let’s get started.
Elite Eight
(25) Hada Freeblade defeats (49) Halimar Excavator
The battle of two insanely-fast Allies that attack from different angles: one with damage, and one with milling.
So it’s a race, and one that the damage-dealing Ally wins by a mile.
Hada strikes for its usual 3 damage on Turn two, 12 damage on Turn three, and 25 damage on Turn four. The two measly blockers that Excavator has accumulated to that point is not enough to stop that runaway train from crashing into them head-on.
(2) Omnath, Locus of Mana defeats (7) Kalastria Highborn
The strategy for Omnath here is to go all-out on offense. Build up its mana, cast more Omnaths, and attack with huge creatures. The strategy for Kalastria here is to cast enough creatures to hold off this Omnath assault, while also leaving mana open for those death drains…hopefully enough for them to sneak through the 20 before Omnath completely overwhelms them.
T2 (Highborn): Cast Highborn.
T3 (Omnath): Cast Omnath
T3 (Highborn): Cast Highborn. Attack with Highborn. (18 to 20)
T4 (Omnath): Add 4 to mana pool. Attack with Omnath, chump with Highborn and use ability. (16 to 21). Cast Omnath. [1 mana still in pool]
T4 (Highborn): Cast two Highborns. Attack with a Highborn. (14 to 21)
T5 (Omnath): Add 5 to mana pool. Attack with two 7/7s, no blocks. Cast two Omnath. [0 still in pool] (14 to 7)
T5 (Highborn): Cast a Highborn.
T6 (Omnath): Add 6 to mana pool. Attack with four 7/7s, three Highborns chump block and they drain 6. (8 to 6). Cast another Omnath. [3 mana still in pool]
T6 (Highborn): Cast two Highborn.
T7 (Omnath): Add 6 to mana pool. Attack with five 10/10s, three get through and that’s game.
Note: The Highborn death trigger happens after the damage is all done, so it can’t do anything there to save itself/kill a creature once the alpha strike comes in.
(46) Quag Vampires defeated by (70) Skitter of Lizards
Note: Not fully solved.
Two plucky underdogs that are near mirror-images of each other. Riding the multikicker all the way here, and now facing off for a spot in the Final Four.
And in this mirror match-up, the creature that doesn’t have to deal the 20 damage holds all the cards.
Quag Vampires needs to maintain the delicate balance between: (1) having enough (sufficiently large) creatures in play to handle a Lizard offensive if they start dropping; and (2) not dropping too many creatures early, so that they can match the Lizards in size as the game goes on.
The strategy is therefore this: cast a 2/2 Vampire early; then, for every two turns after, cast a creature as soon as they have sufficient odd-numbered mana to tap out. This way, they will always have a blocker ready to trade with whatever Lizard comes down the next turn. (And if they do trade, Quag Vampires can go ahead and cast another creature.)
So how can Skitter of Lizards take the numbers advantage here? Only by casting two Lizards a turn at some point. Problem is – if both sides are just casting creatures on curve, the Lizard will never be able to cast multiples that won’t just die to a larger Vampire blocker. Any time the Lizards cast two creatures a turn, a larger Vampire will be waiting on the other side – essentially shutting down a possible attack. (This two-lizard play would be followed by another on-curve Vampire, to handle a potential large haster the next turn.)
There’s just no way for the Lizards to get any kind of meaningful damage through without going down on numbers at the same time.
A stalemate for the ages. And a default Final Four berth for the multi-kicking Vampires.
(28) Loam Lion defeated by (29) Leatherback Baloth
The battle here is much easier to decide. The 2/3 Lion can only get a pair of attacks in, before the much bigger Baloth takes control of the board. This one goes to the giant vanilla stomper.
Final Four
(25) Hada Freeblade defeats (29) Leatherback Baloth
As we all know, Freeblade can do 12 damage with its Turn three attack, then attack for 25 on Turn four. The one Baloth on the battlefield isn’t nearly enough to stop that as Freeblade rolls.
(2) Omnath, Locus of Mana defeats (46) Quag Vampires
The amazingly-versatile but ultimately fair Quag Vampires never stood a chance against the epitome of pure power that is Omnath.
The giant mana-eating elementals start swinging on Turn 4, fast enough to stem the Vampire assault just by forcing chump blocks*. The most the Vampires can get Omnath down to is 6 life, before those 7/7s, 8/8s, and 9/9s tear them apart completely.
*It also leaves mana in the pool on Turn 4 and 5, to maintain one blocker to slow down the Vampires.
Championship
(2) Omnath, Locus of Mana defeated by (25) Hada Freeblade
In this tournament of a lot of high-seed embarrassments, it is nice to see the 2-seed Omnath rise above the others and make it all the way to the finals.
But this is Hada’s tournament all the way. It hits for its trademark 15 damage by the end of Turn 4 (Omnath only has that 1/1 by that point). Then, with two 2/2 Omnath blockers on Turn four, the Freeblade strikes again with its full arsenal – a 7/8, a 6/7, a 5/6, a 4/5, and a 3/4.
12 damage and game. And the one-drop Ally concludes a dominant tournament run by taking the title.
The best creature in 
is Hada Freeblade!
