Worldwake: Play-in & Round of 64
Series Preview
Time to take a trip to the original Zendikar, with one of the most powerful-without-being-broken sets in Magic history – Worldwake. Perhaps best known for that four-mana blue planeswalker and that equipment-fetching Kor, this beloved set also featured the continuation of Landfall and Allies as well as the new, somewhat unimaginative Multikicker mechanic.
I expect all three of these mechanics to perform well here: thanks to the consistency of land drops (regular landfall), homogeneity of creatures (strong Ally effects), and high value of flexibility (from multikicker). Are any of those good enough to take the Worldwake crown? Time to find out.
Note: Hover over the names to see card images.
Play-in Round
(55)
The consistent landfall allows the (normally grounded) Griffin to fly over the Hurda for an easy victory.
(56)
The Threader speeds through and takes down the giant lizard before it can do much.
(57)
The Drake is wise to hold off on attacking Turn 5, so that the first Banisher has nothing to banish. From there, Voyager Drake will also be able to attack with two creatures a turn (letting one get bounced), damaging the Surrakar faster than the Surrakar can damage them back.
(58)
The exponential power of allies at work. There’s a 3/3 Brigand attack on Turn 3, a 5/5 and 4/4 Brigand attack on Turn 4, and a set of 7/7, 6/6, 5/5, and 4/4 Brigands finish it off on Turn 5. Sounds a lot like the Dominaria champion Sporecrown Thallid…
(59)
This Ally is unfortunately too slow. The hasting 1-drop Lizard(s) cleans things up in five turns, before the Hunters can get much bigger.
(60)
Discarding almost the entirety of the Salvager’s hand is pretty nice, but isn’t necessary for the Nulls to rush through for the quick kill.
(61)
The fact that the more expensive Jagwasp still trades with a Spider doesn’t bode well for its ability to form a functional defense against the two-drop.
(62)
The Drake gets its 9 air damage in on Turns 4 and 5, then holds back to attack for 6 on Turn 6 – so that it has enough chump blockers to survive the next landfall-pumped Rover strike, and come back with a fatal 6 damage the next turn.
(63)
The Merfolk’s first strike gives it the distinct advantage against the Roughrider, and it cruises.
(64)
A back-and-forth battle between two very similar multikicker creatures. Here, the evasion of the Hawks makes the key difference.
The two exchange shots until the Hawks’ turn five, where a kicked 3/3 bird comes out. The birds swing for 4, and then the Gnarlid comes back with 6 – losing one creature to the big bird (8 to 14 at end of that turn).
The turn after, the Hawks swing for 7, while throwing down three blockers to ensure their survival to the next turn – where they swing for 7 again to end things.
Round of 64
(1)
Turns out that, without any equipment to search for, Stoneforge Mystic isn’t that good. The Apex Hawks dominate her from the start.
A second straight first-round exit for a top seed.
(2)
A much better showing by the high seed here. Omnath’s ability lets get explosively large very quickly.
Here, though, the first strike and lifelink of the Merfolk, combined with the defenselessness of Omnath if it goes all in on casting creatures, means that an offensive strategy is much too risky.
The correct approach here is to leave enough mana in the pool on Turn 5 and beyond to have a bunch of 3/3s (or greater) to shut down the Merfolk attack. By stopping at six lands, Omnath can limit the Merfolk creature advantage to just two…far from enough to make a dent in Omnath’s life total (beyond the 6 that was done early).
A default victory it is.
(3)
The seven-mana Avenger gets taken down quickly by the cheap, high-power Drake.
(4)
Awk-ward.
All the Spider needs to do here is build up a gigantic army of 2/1 insects (without attacking)…then go in all at once for a single alpha strike, while a handful of unplayable Death’s Shadows sit in the opponent’s hand.
(5)
The Nulls’ latest thrashing of the Angel makes it four out of five for the low seeds.
(6)
There are couple of ways for the Skitter of Lizards to handle this.
Method #1: Blind offensive with 1/1 hasters. Runs out of gas with Thada at 3 life.
Method #2: Start casting 2/2 hasters when at three mana. Play land to get to four mana then drop both a 2/2 haster and a 1/1 faster for two straight turns. Still runs out of gas with Thada at 3 life.
Method #3: Play the value game and cast the maximum possible number of Lizards as 4/4s. If they do that, they still have the cards in hand to cast two 3/3s and two 2/2s before Turn seven to hold off any Thada attack. The 4/4s are enough to stop any long-term Thada offensive, and eventually the Lizards can build up a huge army of giant Lizards – whose mass attack forces several 2-for-1 trades with Thada. Which leads to a win shortly after.
Ahh…the beauty of multikicker flexibility. And another high seed knocked out.
(7)
With the Brigand unable to block, Kalastria Highborn can strike first with sets of 2, 4, and 6 damage on Turns three to five. Then, with three blockers, the Highborn can hold off the large army of 7/7, 6/6, 5/5, and 4/4 Brigand attackers on Turn six – while using that one free black mana to do the final 2 damage to finish that Ally off (with the help of next turn’s unblockable attack for 6).
And that does it for the Sporecrown Thallid wannabe.
(8)
Joraga Warcaller, on the other hand, might actually be the real deal. By the time the first Drake blocker comes down, the self-pumping Elves can already overpower it as 4/4s. They end things shortly afterwards.
(9)
Kazuul’s ability saves it here. Once the first legendary Ogre comes down, the Threader needs to pay three mana for each attacker just to prevent it from getting blown up by a new 3/3 Ogre blocker. And if it does pay the tax…well, it’ll just get blown up by the existing 5/4 Ogre blocker.
(10)
The cheap always-flying Griffins take this one before the first Wrexial even gets to attack.
(11)
Six 5/5 flying dragons drop down at the start of Turn 7, ending the game right then and there.
(12)
Thanks to the 2/2 attackers and the multiplying landfall damage, the Butcher gets taken down before its creatures can do much of anything.
(13)
Another day, another overcosted high-seed fatty getting knocked out – this time before the first Wurm even comes down.
(14)
Thankfully for the Cullblade, it’s a Vampire. So it’s able to skip over Anowon’s non-Vampire destruction effect and get its full share of shots in. 2 damage on Turn three, 4 on Turn four, 6 on Turn five, and 8 on Turn six with the ability turned on; and it’s all over.
(15)
These two can keep trading (no pun intended) all day; and eventually the Thopter’s land searching gives it the numbers it needs to take this one over.
(16)
While the Druid is sitting there doing exactly zero damage, the Excavator just keeps casting creatures and milling until the full sixty is gone.
(17)
Once again, match over before the high seed can even cast anything. What is it with these supposedly powerful cards being so insanely expensive?
(18)
The non-attacking Captain gets blasted by the 5/2 Apes, adding on to the disturbingly-long list of high-seed embarrassments.
(19)
Seriously, this is getting ridiculous. Yet another rare card that does absolutely nothing.
(20)
It says so right on the card: “You can’t win the game”. Can’t get any simpler than that.
(21)
The haste means that the Battlestinger will always have one more attacker than Atlas blockers. Enough to get the full 20 through eventually.
(22)
FINALLY a win for the higher-seeded creature! By the time Animist can actually use its ability to trade a land for a Golem, they’re already at 5 life and chump blocking with two of their three tiny Shamans.
(23)
The bigger Paladin takes control of this one.
(24)
The Occultist’s ability would be excellent here…if only it had a way to actually, you know, kill the Pulse Trackers. Instead, all it can do is block a few of those Vampire Rogues here and there while dying through both combat damage and the Tracker’s life loss ability.
(25)
Those one-drop allies make themselves big very quickly. It’s a total 18 damage by Turn three, plus 21 damage on Turn three (assuming a chump block). Total domination.
(26)
Without their equipment boost, the Apprentices get overwhelmed by the 4/4 Wolfbriar along with its 2/2 Wolf buddies.
(27)
The one-drop trades with the three-drop. And as a result, the one-drop wins. (Tideforce’s ability is a one-for-one that costs mana, so it’s of minimal use here.)
(28)
To do one better, here the one-drop actually beats the three-drop. Leading to the inevitable result.
(29)
Total beatdown.
(30)
Those two abilities on the Nibblers take up a lot of text for something that does a lot of nothing here. Firewalker outclasses the rats easily.
(31)
An “epic” battle between two heavy hitters (“epic” heavily in air quotes).
The Sphinx is on its heels throughout this game, essentially being forced to block all Dragon attackers (and not being able to swing on its own) due to the Mordant Dragon’s pumping and creature-damage ability.
All the Dragon needs to do is hold off on attacking until swinging with three creatures on Turn nine. This will force two trades and clear the board of Sphinxes. From that point on, the same pattern will follow: (1) a Sphinx is cast, (2) the Dragon swings and the Sphinx is forced to trade (4 mana used to pump), (3) another Dragon is cast with the remaining 6 mana.
This goes on until Goliath Sphinx is decked. An appropriate outcome for a 5/5 vs. 8/7 confrontation, for sure.
(32)
Destroyed.
Onto the Round of 32…