Playing Rograkh/Thrasios at The Mana Vault Tournament for a Timetwister
I recently competed in the highest stakes cEDH tournament I've had a chance to play, the first anniversary tournament of The Mana Vault, a store in Milwaukee where I play most of my cEDH tournaments, and I wanted to go over how my games played to show people both how my deck works and how the format plays out in a tournament setting.
Round 1
In the first round, my table was seated as follows:
Seat 1: Tymna the Weaver/Kraum, Ludevic's Opus (T&K)
Seat 2:Krark, the Thumbless/Sakashima of a Thousand Faces (Krark)
Seat 3: Me playing Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh/Thrasios, Triton Hero (Me)
Seat 4: K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth (K'rrik)
The game played out like this:
I draw my opening hand, which consisted of:
and another card I don't remember. I took a mulligan because I only had a single colored mana and not much of a proactive plan.
My second hand had:
This is a much better hand as it has both fast mana and a good synergy with Cloud+Kitten and a tutor. This hand can realistically win pretty quickly.
T&K: Scalding Tarn, find Plateau, pass, as which point I speculated that they probably had an Enlightened Tutor, as there isn't really a red instant they'd need. The fact that they sacrificed a land that can only find mountains meant it was more likely that the white mana was needed and Plateau was just a bridge for that. Enlightened Tutor is the only white instant people are usually looking to cast on the first turn.
Krark: Volcanic Island.
Me: Draw Mox Diamond, play Volcanic Island, Mox Diamond, Paradise Mantle, Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh, Equip the Mantle to Rog, pass, and before my next turn, cycle Lórien Revealed to find Tropical Island.
K'rrik: Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Mana Vault.
T&K: Land, Goblin Recruiter finding Dockside Extortionist, Conspicuous Snoop, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Mogg Fanatic, Torch Courier, and Skirk Prospector. While I was surprised that this player didn't cast Enlightened Tutor, I was far more surprised by the Goblin Recruiter, as was the rest of the table, as these are not cards typically played in decks with these commanders--later this player explained that he used to play a Jund Goblin deck, and I guess he just ported over this combo that he liked to this deck.
Krark: Land, Dockside Extortionist, Rhystic Study with one Treasure remaining.
Me: Draw Exotic Orchard, play Tropical Island, Thrasios, Triton Hero, pay for the Rhystic.
K'rrik: Swamp, Grim Monolith, K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth, Cabal Ritual, The One Ring. The Krark player forgot to announce every Rhystic Study trigger this turn.
T&K: Dockside Extortionist, Phantasmal Image copying Dockside Extortionist, Tymna the Weaver, Kraum, Ludevic's Opus, attack K'rrik with Kraum. Kraum failed to draw because The One Ring prevented the damage, cast Drannith Magistrate. This turn the Krark player drew for every spell cast, T&K never paid, as they were planning to try to win, but needed the draw the Snoop off Kraum and had forgotten that protection would prevent that.
Krark: Heat Shimmer targeting Dockside Extortionist, Lightning Bolt targeting Drannith Magistrate,Krark, the Thumbless, Sakashima of a Thousand Faces copying Dockside, Veyran, Voice of Duality, Brightstone Ritual, and then cast a bunch of other spells and win in typical Krark fashion--if you're not familiar, basically the deck gets several triggers of Krark on every spell it casts so that it can both copy it and return it to hand most of the time so that it can basically cast rituals and other spells with buyback. After making a lot of mana and drawing a lot of cards and getting a lot of things that generate more Krark triggers it can pretty easily kill the table with Grapeshot. Krark couldn't win through The One Ring, but could clear the board and pass with a full hand with a bunch of counterspells.
0-1
This is a fairly common way for a game of cEDH to go--one player establishes a draw engine, another player decides they can't win a long game against it so they try to go off into it, sometimes they succeed, usually they fail and give the game to the player with the draw engine. This is fairly low agency spot for the other players at the table.
Round 2
Seat 1: Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy (Kinnan)
Seat 2: Sisay, Weatherlight Captain (Sisay)
Seat 3: Dargo, the Shipwrecker/Thrasios, Triton Hero (Dargo)
Seat 4: Me
Opening hand:
Mulligan, not enough mana, too reactive
Second Seven:
This is a great hand--I have a fast Rhystic Study with protection, and Gaea's Cradle, which is another of the most important cards in my deck. Even though I'm in fourth seat, I like my position with this hand.
Kinnan: Tropical Island, Llanowar Elves.
Sisay: Exotic Orchard, Deathrite Shaman.
Dargo: Mulligan to four, Exotic Orchard.
Me: Draw Lightning Bolt, play Mox Amber, Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh, Gaea's Cradle, Birds of Paradise.
Kinnan: Gaea's Cradle, Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy, Talisman of Curiosity, and I Lightning Bolt Kinnan in response.
Sisay: Scrubland, Sisay, Weatherlight Captain.
Dargo: Land, Thrasios, Triton Hero.
Me: Draw Forest, play Forest, cast Rhystic Study.
Kinnan: Treasure Vault, Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy, pay for Rhystic Study.
Sisay: Invasion of Ikoria for Dockside Extortionist for five Treasures, don't pay for Rhystic Study, I draw Neoform.
Dargo: Lion's Eye Diamond, pay for Rhystic Study.
Me: Draw Otawara, Soaring City, play it, cast Thrasios, Triton Hero, tap Gaea's Cradle and Birds of Paradise, cast Neoform sacrificing Birds of Paradise floating GG, Dargo casts Flusterstorm and pays for Rhystic, I pay for Flusterstorm, find Dockside Extortionist, Sisay doesn't sacrifice any Treasures in response to the trigger. I cast Spellseeker with 8 Treasures remaining. At this point I have Mox Diamond, Pyroblast, and Mental Misstep in hand.
I recorded these notes from memory after the game and I'm kind of confused about where the Mox Diamond came from--technically my notes say I drew the Mox Diamond on my first turn, which is probably true, but then I have no idea where the Lightning Bolt came from, and since I cast that before my second turn and it wasn't in my opening hand I figured I must have drawn it then. It's very unlikely that I drew an extra card somewhere, but I'm not sure what part of this I have wrong.
Anyway, in this spot I could find Finale of Devastation and get Displacer Kitten and then play Mox Diamond to trigger it to flicker Dockside, then cast Pyroblast and Misstep the Pyroblast to flicker Dockside Extortionist and Spellseeker to get Transmute Artifact to get Cloudstone Curio to try to win, but I don't think of this in the moment. Instead I get Cyclonic Rift and cast it with overload, figuring that resetting the board should draw me a lot of cards off Rhystic Study and it deals with the Treasures Sisay wanted to keep.
From here, my opponents rebuilt a bit, but didn't really play anything new, and fed me a few cards. On my turn I dashed a Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, then used Gaea's Cradle to cast Eldritch Evolution sacrificing Thrasios, Triton Hero to get Displacer Kitten, then attacked Dargo with Ragavan, which I maybe should have done first.
I hit Dargo's Displacer Kitten and cast it, so I had two of them, but because of the Cyclonic Rift, my dockside count is only one, so I pass with Pyroblast, Mental Misstep, and Ragavan in my hand. Kinnan plays an artifact or two, then passes to Sisay who feeds dockside a little more and that lets me use my instants to interact with Sisay which starts a chain of triggering both Kittens to blink both Dockside and Spellseeker, such that every spell I cast finds another spell and makes mana, which lets me chain into casting Veil of Summer and then Crop Rotation for Emergence Zone and then I can fully combo and make infinite mana on Sisay's Turn.
Round 3
Seat 1: Dihada, Binder of Wills (Dihada)
Seal 2: Me
Seat 3: Najeela, the Blade-Blossom (Najeela)
Seat 4: Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools/Kraum, Ludevic's Opus (Tevesh)
Opening Hand:
Mulligan
Second Seven:
Dihada: Mull to Six, Jeweled Lotus, land, Dihada, Binder of Wills, activate, make four Treasures, Dash Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, attack Najeela, hit a land.
Me: Fetch for Volcanic Island, cast Mystic Remora, cast Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh--This Mystic Remora ended up drawing a lot of cards, so I wasn't able to keep track of when I drew various cards.
Najeela: Mull to 6, Mox Diamond, land, exile Simian Spirit Guide, Najeela.
Tevesh: Mull to 5, fetch land.
Dihada: Dash Ravagan, hit a land, cast Flicker targeting Dihada, make more Treasures.
Me: Pay for Remora, play a land.
Najeela: Land, Rhystic Study, attack someone, I forget who, probably Dihada.
Tevesh: Land, Mana Crypt, pay for Rhystic.
Dihada: Dash Ravagan, hit Underworld Breach, cast Breach. I have Force of Will and Flusterstorm at this point, but I let breach resolve even though they have Flicker in graveyard. Najeela passes. I stop the Tevesh player as they're about to pass and ask them to reset priority, they say that they will this time, but if I try to do this again, they won't give me another chance. I don't exactly believe them, but don't push the issue at the moment. They tap Mana Crypt, and I use my Force of Will. Dihada casts Dualcaster Mage to copy my Force of Will to resolve the Underworld Breach, but now only has one open mana, so I let the breach resolve. Dihada plays Chrome Mox and Imprints Rite of Flame, leaving them with 0 cards in hand, and casts Flicker. I Flusterstorm the Flicker.
Me: Pay for Mystic Remora, cast Paradise Mantle, cast Mox Opal, Cast Mana Vault, allowing Najeela with Rhystic Study and a lot of cards in hand to draw for each of those, then tap Mox Opal to equip Paradise Mantle to Rog.
Najeela: Cast Gamble, discard Dockside Extortionist (which is the card they searched for), cast Derevi, Empyrial Tactician, attack, untap some lands, play Noble Hierarch and Ignoble Hierarch, Lion's Eye Diamond, and Mana Vault.
Tevesh: Play land, cast Kraum.
Dihada: Cast Gamble with only Ragavan in hand, discard Ragavan, cast Out of Time. I expected them to go for Underworld Breach here, but they very reasonably concluded that they wouldn't be able to win through three blue decks with a lot of cards and card draw engines, but that I could help resolve this to answer Najeela's board. I was relieved, and there was no response here.
Me: Tap Mana Vault to pay for Remora, play land, cast Imperial Recruiter for Dockside Extortionist, cast Dockside, make seven Treasures, cast Phyrexian Metamorph, and Najeela casts Mindbreak Trap. I cast Cloud of Faeries and Bloom Tender.
Najeela: Demonic Tutor for Cyclonic Rift, cast it targeting Out of Time, attack with Najeela (everything else is summoning sick).
Tevesh: Cast Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools, make tokens.
Dihada: Dihada doesn't have a second white source to replay Out of Time, so they don't do anything.
Me: Cast Kinnan, make mana by passing Paradise Mantle between all of my creatures, cast Etali, Primal Conqueror, Najeela casts Pact of Negation. I cast Machine God's Effigy and copy Dockside Extortionist, the cast Mystical Tutor and find Veil of Summer, cast Thrasios, draw Veil, cast Veil, it gets Flusterstormed. CastTransmute Artifact, find Basalt Monolith, making infinite mana, win.
I had a lot of threatening spells in my hand thanks to sculpting with Mystic Remora, and started with the least guaranteed to win the game, and managed to exactly run the table out of answers.
Round 4
Seat 1: Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh/Silas Renn, Seeker Adept (Rog/Si)
Seat 2: Tymna the Weaver/Kraum, Ludevic's Opus (T&K)
Seat 3: Me
Seat 4: Dargo, the Shipwrecker/Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper (Dargo)
Opening hand:
The Rog/Si player presented Rograk directly on top of Silas in the command zone, and only seeing a single red commander, I actually thought they were playing Najeela during mulligans. Clones are better against Najeela than against Rog/Si, and if I'd actually known what I was playing against I don't think I'd have kept this hand.
Rog/Si: Land, Springleaf Drum, Rograkh.
T&K: Land, Mana Crypt, Rhystic Study, Rog/Si plays Fierce Guardianship.
Me: Draw Delighted Halfling, play Tropical Island, Delighted Halfling.
Dargo: Mox Opal, Mana Crypt, no land.
Rog/Si: Gemstone Caverns, Izzet Signet.
T&K: Land, Arcane Signet, Tymna the Weaver.
Me: Draw Snap, fetch Volcanic Island, cast Thrasios.
Dargo: Defense Grid, Rog/Si plays Orcish Bowmasters, I respond with Veil of Summer, since I'm not going to be able to use it usefully after Defense Grid resolves, Dargo plays Tinder Wall.
Rog/Si: Imperial Seal, Wheel of Fortune, this triggers Orcish Bowmasters for 21 damage, which kills every creature except my Delighted Halfling and deals damage to both Dargo and T&K. Mox Opal, land, Final Fortune. Next turn, Thassa's Oracle, Demonic Consultation, stating that they drew Thassa's Oracle in their draw step.
This was another extremely low agency game. Typically, it's understood that casting Defense Grid when you're not trying to win that turn is bad because it lets other players win, but I understand why the Dargo player did it--without any lands it was the only way to make colored mana, and it set them up to attempt to win on their next turn if they could make it around the table, and they decided that they were more likely to win by doing that than by doing nothing.
Round 5
Seat 1: Me
Seat 2: Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools/Kraum, Ludevic's Opus
Seat 3: Muxus, Goblin Grandee
Seat 4: Sauron, the Dark Lord
This game went to time and was way too involved for me to remember all of it. The important points are that Tevesh played an early Cursed Totem that made things a lot harder for Muxus and me, Sauron played a Counterbalance and throughout the game, every other player cast a spell when the fact that counterbalance would counter it had already been revealed, and I might have been able to win on my turn, but time ended just before it got to me.
Round 6
When I sat down the rest of my table told me that they wanted to draw and that I had the best tiebreakers at the table. I didn't really think we could draw, but I figured if all of them wanted to it was probably safe for me and I accepted. I think at most one of them ended up making the top 16.
Top 16
Seat 1: Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools/Kraum, Ludevic's Opus (Kraum)
Seat 2: Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy (Kinnan)
Seat 3: Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh/Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools (Rog)
Seat 4: Me
Opening Hand:
Mulligan
Second Seven:
Mulligan
Six:
(I put an Island on the bottom)
Kraum: Mull to five, Ancient Tomb, Lion's Eye Diamond, Sacrifice, Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools, make tokens (0 cards in hand)
Kinnan: Mull to four, fetch Tropical Island, Lotus Petal, Kinnan.
Rog: Fetch Badlands, Mox Diamond, Rite of Flame, Desperate Ritual, The One Ring.
Me: Draw Force of Will, fetch Tropical Island, cast Mana Crypt, Cast Sol Ring, Cast Trophy Mage, find Cloudstone Curio--My hand has a lot of mana and nothing to do with it, so my plan is to use Cloudstone Curio to pick up Trophy Mage to find my other three mana artifacts to try to put myself in a position to go off with something.
Kraum: Fetch Volcanic Island, Sacrifice a Thrull to draw cards.
Kinnan: Chrome Mox, The One Ring.
Rog: Vampiric Tutor, Rograkh, Graven Cairns, Jeweled Lotus, exile Simian Spirit Guide, cast Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools, sacrifice Rograkh.
Me: Win my Mana Crypt flip, draw a fetch land, attack one of the Tevesh Szats with Trophy Mage, fetch for Volcanic Island, cast Cloudstone Curio, Rog, Trophy Mage, find Relic of Legends.
Kraum: Misty Rainforest for Steam Vents, draw cards
Kinnan: draw with The One Ring, fetch a Breeding Pool.
Rog: Pyretic Ritual, Jeska's Will, hit Infernal Plunge and two lands, play Command Tower, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, Yawgmoth's Will,Rite of Flame, Pyretic Ritual. At this point Kinnan pauses Rog to consider, and shows me a Dispel to ask if this is the best time to interact, while the Rog player is light on mana. I suggest waiting. Infernal Plunge sacrifices Ragavan, Vampiric Tutor, Kinnan casts Dispel. Rog casts Deflecting Swat. Jeweled Lotus, Rograkh, Desperate Ritual, Jeska's Will, which hits Brass's Tunnel-Grinder (Vampiric Tutor target), Orcish Bowmasters, and a land. Sac Rog to Tevesh, Strike It Rich, Wishclaw Talisman, Tunnel-Grinder, discard five to draw six with RR floating. Mox Amber, Orcish Bowmasters kills my Rograkh, Skullclamp. I'm suprised the turn ends with nothing that resembles an attempted win.
Me: Lose the flip, draw Command Tower, play it, Relic of Legends, Thrasios, Pick up Trophy Mage, Cast Trophy Mage, find Basalt Monolith.
Kraum: Badlands, Plus Tevesh for tokens, Mana Crypt, Kraum, Ludevic's Opus.
Kinnan: Activate The One Ring to draw three, Orcish Bowmasters kills Kinnan, Mana Vault, Sea Gate Restoration to draw five triggering Kraum, Orcish Bowmasters kills Trophy Mage and Tevesh Szat.
Rog: Activate The One Ring to draw four, cast Seething Song, activate Wishclaw Talisman, cast Dockside Extortionist, I Force of Will pitching Timetwister, Imperial Seal, Wheel of Fortune, Memnite. I'm once again surprised when the turn ends.
Me: The hand I've drawn off Wheel of Fortune is fantastic and I cast Transmute Artifact to get Phyrexian Metamorph, copy Wishclaw Talisman, then cast Dockside Extortionist without using my Wishclaw and with a Swan Song, no one does anything, I make 11 Treasures and win by looping with Cloudstone Curio.
That was a weird game where I basically won because I was the next player after a Wheel of Fortune didn't give its caster a good hand.
In the finals we decided to accept a cash and store credit split offer instead of playing for the Timetwister, but we played for points for the Topdeck Series. A player playing Tameshi, Reality Architect had a first turn Rhystic Study and Dargo/Ikra decided to cast six spells into it to try to win, and Tameshi Force of Willed the last one and then won very easily.
I've heard that there's been some discussion recently about the format becoming "midrange hell," but in this tournament, most of my games ended very quickly, and in every game that I lost, I never got a third turn. I followed most of the modifications that I discussed in my previous article, except I decided not to include a breach package, and making my deck faster has worked really well. I've also been prioritizing speed over reactive spells in my opening hand and taking pretty aggressive mulligans. I think I would have kept several of the hands I chose not to keep in this event in the past, and I was consistently rewarded for being more aggressive here. Overall, I've been very happy with the current version of my deck.
