Worldwake: Round of 32 & Sweet Sixteen
Series Preview
Ground rules for this tournament.
Round of 64 results here.
Probably the most notable thing about the first round of the Worldwake tournament is that, out of the top twenty-one seeds, only five of them won their first-round match-up. I’d hesitate to call most of them upsets, though, as most of them seemed to feature an unassuming efficient creature beating up on an opponent that was cool and exciting but was prohibitively expensive or did nothing of value.
We’ve still got a significant number of Allies and multi-kicker creatures still in contention (10 out of 32), and I’d expect several of them to round out the eventual Elite Eight. Some of the Allies have got an explosiveness reminiscent of the Dominaria powerhouses, while the exceptional flexibility of multi-kicker means that those creatures are always in every game.
Note: Hover over the names to see card images.
Round of 32
(32)
With each Archon that gets cast, they gain an exponentially greater amount of life. And by the time a 4/4 Hawk has hit the board, the Archon has already established a colossal self-perpetuating engine of lifegain. For the rest of the game, Archon can just keep double-blocking Hawks to their heart’s content – in full comfort that all the Hawks that do get through will have all their damage reversed (and then some) by the next turn.
(2)
Omnath gets its big mana engine going unopposed, and brings down the big Dragon before the first one even hits the board.
(30)
The Firewalker attacks aggressively from the start, and the Drake is sadly just a step behind.
(29)
The big beast asserts its dominance.
(28)
The big cat does the same thing.
(27)
The kicked Lizards overpower the 1/1 Elf to another impressive victory.
(7)
The Highborn rushes in early, and then, with its death trigger ability, puts the Wolfbriar in a Catch-22 with its blocking. The Vampires get their final shots of damage in one way or another.
(8)
A matchup of two high-powered creatures, perhaps a bit sooner than we all expected.
The Freeblade is the faster one here, by far. It strikes for 18 before the second Warcaller is even cast.
(9)
Ten attacks and ten life loss triggers are enough to end things before the horde of minotaur blockers can become relevant.
(23)
The lifelink and those extra +1/+1 counters swing this race heavily in the favor of the Paladin.
(11)
The Outcast can beat the four-mana Golem simply by rushing with its 1/1s – without having to call any Dragons.
(44)
Another Ally that can win explosively fast (when there isn’t a horde of cheap blockers in their way). Battlesinger strikes for 2 damage on Turn two, 6 damage on Turn 3, and 32 damage on Turn four. Boom.
(45)
The cheaper Snapper trades with the Crawler (thanks to the landfall ability), and so it pushes through in time for the win.
(46)
The swampwalking Vampires only need five attacks to win. The Cullblade can only get 14 damage through before then (its ability only gets turned on after that).
(47)
The Apes are too much for the Thopter to handle, even with all those extra cards.
(48)
It seems that large number of non-games that were played in the first round has made us really overlook the sheer dominance of Allies (if that was possible). Here, Excavator completes the full milling by Turn five.
Sweet Sixteen
(32)
All the lifegain in the world doesn’t matter when your opponent wins by decking. Excavator nails down another quick Turn 5 win.
(2)
Blown out.
(30)
This is almost an exact replica of the Thada Adel vs. Skitter of Lizards fight from the first round. Only difference is that Firewalker is one mana cheaper and the Vampires don’t have haste.
That doesn’t turn out to matter, though. The cheaper Vampires are still able to hold off the Firewalker early on before the 3/3s and 4/4s come down. Until they accumulate enough 4/4s to force those 2-for-1 double-blocks and win the game from there.
An impressive Elite Eight appearance for the innocuous multi-kicking Vampire!
(29)
Whether the Snapper is a 1/4 or a 4/1, it still gets destroyed by the Baloth.
(28)
The cheaper Lion will always have enough blockers to stop any of those (massively high-powered) Battlesingers from getting through. With that, it holds on for a default victory.
(11)
To determine how many of the six Outcasts need to be given up in order to survive before the critical Turn seven, let’s look at how much damage each of those Lizards would be expected to do:
Turn 1 Lizard: 6 damage (6 attacks)
Both Turn 2 Lizards: 6 damage each
Turn 3 2/2 Lizard: 8 damage (4 attacks)
Turn 4 2/2 Lizard: 6 damage
Turn 4 1/1 Lizard: 3 damage
Turn 5 3/3 Lizard: 6 damage
Turn 6 3/3 Lizard: 3 damage
It makes sense for the Outcast to trade with the first three Lizards. But from there, there is no way to survive with more than one Outcast left.
What about surviving with exactly one Outcast left? The best they can do is double-block to kill the Turn 3 Lizard, leaving them at 2 life entering Turn 7; where they’ll generate a Dragon and cast another Outcast. Unfortunately, the casting of another 3/3 hasting Lizard next turn means there are still two more attackers than blockers – which is enough for lethal.
The Lizards, which entered this tournament as the fourth-lowest seed, pull off the upset and are headed to the Elite Eight!
(7)
Turn 3: Highborn attacks for 2.
Turn 4: Two Highborns attack for 4.
Turn 5: Four Highborn attack. If Paladin blocks, Highborn can activate the death trigger four times to drain an additional 8 and end it. So, instead, the Vampires gets through for 8 damage. Paladin counterattacks for 4 lifelinking damage – putting them at 10 life.
Turn 6: Five Highborn attack. They can activate the death abilities for the blocked Highborn, and 10 damage goes through. For lethal, and not a moment too soon.
Kalastria Highborn gets in under the Paladin literally just before they can stabilize with lifegain.
(25)
The hyper-efficient, fast-growing Ally blows out the lame 1/1 Vampire.
Onto the Elite Eight…