Pro Tour Shadows over Innistrad Round 8 (Standard): Luis Scott-Vargas vs. Valentin Mackl

Two 7-0 players enter, only one can end Day 1 undefeated. Luis Scott-Vargas is the Hall of Fame Pro with the hot new Black Green Aristocrats deck, but Valentin Mackl is playing Bant Company, the boogyman of the format.
8-0 is on the line. Catch up if you missed this moment...now.

[@Ottawa3453]

That was a Major topdeck by Michael.

[@pkmtg94]

That end game from Michael Major and Christian Calcano game is so EPIC!!

[@waluigiswaluweenie8194]

avacyn says NO

[@dingding12321]

that nantuko deck is nuts. Side note: aside from Collected Company and Westvale Abbey, that deck isn't expensive to make. Not as expensive as the Super Friends decks, at least...

[@rubenniko7863]

InstaBlaster

[@kaylee42900]

Love Majors' reaction to the draw. Too perfect.

[@cruiseh2673]

33:31 "that was just savage"

[@mikec6731]

Please everyone start watching at 52:45

[@KryXun]

+Mike C So far that is the best moment for the PT for me.

[@brutal-noodle]

+Mike C wow

[@winternitz_]

+Mike C Holy crap. Damn.

[@johnhowe8424]

+argenismartinezpally in pro tour M15 yuuki ichikawa has a phenomenal play against Jackson Cunningham in game 2 of the semi finals... That was my favorite moment in any pro tour

[@Sugarman96]

+john howe That Golgari Charm was amazing.

[@cpnfeathersword0409]

Go LSV! Christ, I hope he wins this thing

[@jesselukes5796]

I love b/g, probably my two favourite colours. My standard deck is b/g aristocrats, and once it can't work anymore, I'm gonna make it into a modern deck.

[@CougarBen02]

Great coverage, great matches, great players, LOVE IT!

[@letsplaythatgame]

Avacyn... unreal draw xD

[@thomaskaimann6800]

majors vs calcano was amazing!!! such a good match

[@Its_McKennon]

12:00 I know I'm 6 years late to the party, but LSV missed exactly lethal on this turn. He could have played the nantuko husk, sacrificed the blisterpod, then sacrifice all 3 of the scions to pay for westvale abby flip, then sac the 5 remaining creatures. Total of 9 drains with zulaport cutthroat, then exactly the remaining 9 with ormendal. It would have been really beautiful.

[@hydran0918]

A fellow old pro tour watcher

[@Its_McKennon]

@@hydran0918 I rewatch these old PTs at least once a year. LSV's deck is so complicated that it took me 6 years to see the lethal, lol

[@henryzelman4541]

@@Its_McKennon this was easily one of my favorite standard decks of all time. All the aristocrat decks since have felt nothing like it, even though the R/B sac and jund food decks have been ridiculously strong in mtg arena formats.

[@GToul13]

LSV is my favorite player!

[@Slapfight12]

Damn lsv looks handsome. Especially compared to a few years ago. Good for him.

[@ichbin_ich_ok5574]

Like that Luis is playing the old Nantuko-husk

[@Drecon84]

Wait... is Petr Sochurek playing Read the Bones over Painful Truths or did I misunderstand?

[@johnyvolta5420]

+Drecon84 That is correct, he is playing 4x Goblin Dark-Dwellers and Painful Truths don't work with it.

[@curtisrobinson7052]

7:58 why does he dromoka's command not the liliana and let the liliana flip? Now the cutthroat can come back and you lose. Gave away the game.

[@CruxOasis]

Can anyone comment the deck Luis Scott-Vargas ran in this Pro Tour

[@CruxOasis]

+Jojo Mandoriao I meant the deck tech but I found it a while back thank you though

[@AP-lf7xd]

Calcanos reaction to avacyn: ok Hahahahaha

[@oldirtysean00]

Why did dude scoop the 1st game. I'm new to magic and only play edh. It seemed to me he stabilized the board a bit. He had at least another turn. Ya he almost always loses that game but did he really have no chance at all?

[@NapoleonSoares]

+Sean McClung he was dead to the nantuko husk in lsv's hand, which he knew about because he had reflector mage'd it back to lsv's hand, so he scooped em up.

[@TheCR155]

+Sean McClung He knew Luis had a Husk in hand. Luis plays husk, -1s Liliana to get back the Blisterpod, giving him 2 scions and a blisterpod which can be safely sacrificed to the husk for 4 damage total.

[@oldirtysean00]

+TheCR155 I'm still confused. Why can't he chump block the husk and live the play another turn. Also how can the husk do damage the turn its played? Sorry I'm still a noob.

[@TheCR155]

The Zulaport Cutthroat has an ability which means whenever a creature LSV controls dies, his opponent loses 1 life and LSV gains 1 life. By playing husk he has a way to sacrifice his creatures, so he returns the blisterpod, then sacrifices the two scions, the blisterpod and the scion that appears when the pod dies to trigger the Cutthroat 4 times, killing his opponent.

[@oldirtysean00]

+TheCR155 Now i get l. Thank you. I didn't know about the Cutthroat. Thank you for explaining it to me. The magic community is really awesome. If this was Yu Gi Oh someone would have told me to kill myself or something lol.

[@RussellShoe]

Did he miss his scry trigger on the catacomb sifter?

[@RussellShoe]

Sorry it's when ANOTHER creature dies not when itself dies

[@paulrogers8725]

Why did Valentin concede first round? He could have really controlled the game by min using Jace for Dromoka's Command.

[@karfsma778]

LSV had it anyway. Play Husk, get Blisterpod back with Liliana, sac it to the husk, draining 1 down to 3 , sac the token it makes, drain to 2, sac the other two tokens, drain to 0, GG.

[@raisins7777]

+Paul Rogers The Port Town he discarded enters tapped, he only has one mana left after Reflector Mage takes out Ormendahl. He only has two attackers and Luis can chump with Scions, so Liliana survives at 1 loyalty to reanimate Blisterpod. Valentin knows Luis has Nantuko Husk in hand from the first Reflector Mage a few turns back. Scion+Scion+Blisterpod+Scion+Husk is drain for 5, he's at 4. He's dead on board.

[@LazaLion]

If Valentin had a marsh casualties that first round that would've destroyed scott

[@allthingsmtg9824]

I know this is late but I have to ask, do they really think lsv and friends came up with the deck because they were the first to play it at a pt? like I have been playing a list that functions almost exactly the same since before shadows over innastrad came out. not trying to start a war, just saying it is frustrating hearing sutcliffe saying "the deck that they came up with"(not exactly what was said but close summary)

[@hitthegoat]

allthingsMTG they didn’t say they came up with the archetype, just that they built that particular deck in standard

[@dylanezell1423]

at 31:00 they both play 3 land on their first turn? why? tournament rules or something that Idk about? I've only been playing about a month

[@dylanezell1423]

2 not 3 my bad

[@dayton228]

They just go through turn one really fast since they had no plays.

[@chardrive]

I lost 3 games to top deck avacyn yesterday. 2 stronk

[@DragaoFilipe09]

+Caleb Thompson Topdicked kek

[@c1113dproductions]

at the turn around 13:01, luis missed lethal, natouku husk via sacking the two sions in any combination would have left him with 7 mana and 5 sacs, leaving up the cutthroat and stil having the abby flip, then he can swing with the abbey and sac to natouku in this order: sac abby, and natouku, he still has Liliana and cutthroat up but wins anyways as damge resolves

[@slapp5357]

He had 4 Forests, 1 B/G manland, the Abby and 2 Scions. 8 mana total. Had he spent 3 mana to cast Nantuko Husk, he'd have 5 mana left (2 points of damage so far, supposing he'd sacrifice the scions). Had he then sac'd the Blisterpod (3 points of damage) to the Husk to get another Scion (4 points of damage), he'd have enough mana to activate Abby(1 from scion, 4 from lands), and 3 Mystics, Husk and Cutthroat to sacrifice (9 damage so far from Cutthroat). Ormendahl attacks for 9. Yes, exactly lethal.

[@vinni522]

responded sequence is correct @exact lethal but original comment is incorrect. not possible to have husk and prince both in play at the same time.

[@gregrocks1223]

How do you draft shadows over innistrad?

[@jeromeofmarmite8914]

Pick the vampires

[@PacManTheSoulEater]

pick the humans

[@gregrocks1223]

What about the 2 sided cards... how do you draft with that.

[@PacManTheSoulEater]

+gregrocks1223 oh, the same as always, you just get to have a bit more information about what other people get on their packs

[@judgejudyandexecutioner.5223]

Calcano punted hard when he kept Nissa over Jace.

[@EastWindCommunity1973]

wouldn't matter, he could have plussed on Nissa before attacks, but nothing... nothing in graveyard to cast that was relevant

[@CocogoatGaming]

LSV goes to 30 life, opponent goes to 4, commentators acting like LSV is going to lose the game to a Reflector Mage. Reflector Mage comes down, is blatantly nowhere near close to enough (as expected). Those commentators were impressively bad at evaluating the board.

[@slapp5357]

Mtg seldom is about life totals. When you sacrifice 5 permanents, even if it results in a 18 points life-swing, you want to be sure the game ends soon, because if your opponents finds an answer for it you're likely to be in a very bad spot.

[@CocogoatGaming]

I agree, but LSV was already in a spot where losing the demon was no big deal. That's how ahead he was. It would have taken way more than bouncing it to even maybe come back from that. =P

[@slapp5357]

+Adam “HeartYou” Savard Actually his opponent was only 1 mana away from casting Dromoka's Command from his graveyard, killing the Cutthroat after having bounced the demon and leaving Vargas with 2 Scions and a Liliana with 1 Loyalty counter against an active Jace, a 4/4 and a 3/4. Yes, he was at 30 life, so he had a couple of draws, but it's the kind of deck that isn't really able to generate the critical mass needed to deal even just those last points once it loses its board. I'm not saying that lsv's move wasn't correct, but it wasn't as safe as it might look.

[@theloshings8322]

The kraken horde howler shouldn't of transformed LSV only cast one spell

[@naolislight4442]

He cast Zulaport Cutthroat and Lilliana, Heretical Healer.

[@bonelazy91]

Luck skill victory

[@jewski6852]

Imagine if Gaby Sparts was feeding Luis information about his opponents hand? If she can persuade him to cheat on his wife, she can do anything huh?

[@blormp9791]

What's up with the shitty video quality? btw... first

[@matthewmccafferty8745]

+One True Scotty Second

[@blormp9791]

+Matthew McCafferty no

[@strudlesgaming]

+One True Scotty The quality is bad for the same reason you're "first." The video was just uploaded, and is very long, so higher resolutions are still being processed.

[@matthewmccafferty8745]

Second