Tournament Report - SCG IQ Enfield, 2nd with Devoted Company

Apr 19, 2019

Hi everyone, my name is Steven and I recently qualified for the SCG Invitational with one of my most favorite decks in the format, Devoted Company. I ended up settling on the deck the week prior because I was playing UR Phoenix for the entire month of March. Despite some solid results with the deck (cashing Regionals, going 6-3 with it at SCG Philadelphia) I felt like I could not master the intricacies of the deck. I played Phoenix at an IQ two weeks ago and I got absolutely destroyed in mirror matches. I think the deck is great, but you have to maneuver through the targeted hate for the deck and really master cantrip sequencing and on-the-fly role assessment. That’s just something I was not comfortable with.

So why Devoted Company? I ended up picking up the pieces for the deck after reading Laplasjan’s article on it from last year. (https://www.cardknocklife.com/deck-spotlight-abzan-counters-company/). I also really liked Ryosuke Urase’s list he had in the MOCS (https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1267301#paper) because it utilized the new card Militia Bugler and I liked how that card was both a strong Company hit and it also let you find all of your combo pieces, as well as Knight of the Reliquary. He posted a good article that I took the advice of for a couple of months, before KCI was banned. (http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Farticle.hareruyamtg.com%2Farticle%2Farticle_5302%2F)

I immediately fell in love with the deck due to its ability to be an extremely consistent and fast combo deck game 1 (you get an absurd number of opening hands that kill on turn 3) but you also get the ability to play a fantastic midrange game against the more interactive decks of the format (BGx/UWx control/Shadow). I’ve always been a fan of creature combo decks - Infect was the first modern deck I built - but I hated how I generally felt like an underdog against the more fair decks of the format. Devoted Company is a deck that has just about the same kill speed as Infect (maybe .5 turns slower, since the deck can’t kill on turn 2) but also has a very reasonable matchup against the fair decks.

I wanted to take it to an IQ because I’ve never played a Comp REL tournament with the deck and wanted to try it out with a deck I really enjoyed playing. Turns out, it exceeded expectations and gave me the qualification!

My decklist: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1811656#paper

R1: GB Rock (2-1)

Game 1: I keep a reasonable 7 that’s a little low on lands but is filled with mana creatures. Lo and behold I get destroyed when my opponent jams turn 3 Liliana the Last Hope and upticks to kill my Birds. He drops a LotV and Kalitas the turns after and it’s clear that I need to string together the infinite mana combo to have a hope of stealing this game. On the last turn of the game he swings with his board and I Company into Druid and Vizier and block in a way that leaves me at 1, leaving me a draw step to find a mana sink. Lo and behold I draw a Kitchen Finks and that’s the game.

Sideboarding: I take out Chords/Druids/some Viziers and bring in Paths, Sin Collectors, the Gideon, Plaguecrafter, Scavenging Ooze, Assassin’s Trophy, and Abrupt Decay. My plan here is to shift away from the combo because they have a lot of spot removal and try to outgrind them by utilizing our inherent card advantage present in our three drops (Eternal Witness and Kitchen Finks). Collected Company is the best card in the matchup by a mile. I keep in some one-ofs just to mise into the combo.

Game 2: This game goes a lot better for me as I accelerate out a turn 3 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and capitalize on his slow start. I Path a Dark Confidant and begin generating 2/2 Allies with Gideon. I add some Kitchen Finks to the table and he soon dies to my fair beatdown plan.

Game 3: He has a relatively slow start again and I deploy a Kitchen Finks and a Vizier, with a Viscera Seer in my hand to go for the infinite life combo. I believe has a Scavenging Ooze in play which stops this plan, but he only has a single Verdant Catacombs untapped. He fetches for his land at end of turn and I gain infinite life in response to him cracking his fetch (the fun thing about the infinite life combo is that you can go off at instant speed). He scoops in response.

R2: Grixis Death’s Shadow (2-1)

Game 1: He wins the die roll and leads off with a Polluted Delta and passes. Here I’m hoping he’s not UR Phoenix since I know that deck plays off color fetchlands to disguise what deck they’re initially on. I keep a fairly strong hand with an out to turn 3 kill if he does not kill my Devoted Druid on 2, but also has Eternal Witnesses to buy them back if he does disrupt my combo. He leads on a Bloodstained Mire and cracks both fetches to cantrip which confirms he’s on Shadow. The main thing I remember about this game is that I keep Eternal Witnessing and buying back my Druid and he kills the Druid the first two or three times but he doesn’t have enough removal for the last time I play the Druid, and I manage to combo off in a matchup where sticking the combo is fairly difficult. I breathe a sigh of relief because I think Shadow is difficult to beat preboard (but advantaged in the postboard games)

Sideboarding: Very similar to the GB Rock matchup. Once again, the plan is to outgrind them out, but they also have a relatively low threat density, which means that sometimes taking the control route and looping removal spells with Eternal Witness is a viable option.

Game 2: In this game I had a pretty interesting situation where he taps out to play a Gurmag Angler and then deploys a Steam Vents tapped. I untap, go to my turn, and have four mana untapped. I can either Path his Angler (and play a two/three drop) or Company on my main phase. I tell myself, “He doesn’t have a Stubborn Denial, or else he would have shocked himself with his Steam Vents so that he could protect his Angler from a removal spell.” I think about it for a bit and decide to Path his Angler and then Company because my opponent has a lot more options once he has a threat in play. I Path his Angler and deploy my two/three drop, and he plays a Grim Lavamancer and passes. I believe I pass the turn and Company on his end step and it gets hit by Stubborn Denial (I don’t have the fifth mana to pay for it). He then deploys another Angler and Shadow after I Abrupt Decay his Lavamancer and I die. Thinking about it, I definitely I should have definitely Company’d on my main phase because most of my three drops are extremely impactful hits and if I hit an Eternal Witness then I can just pick the Company back up again, and if i hit a Plaguecrafter then I can kill the Angler.

Game 3: I keep an extremely sketchy hand of one land, Noble, some combo pieces (without a Druid), and an Abrupt Decay. Thinking back, I probably should have mulliganed this hand, but decide not to mulligan because mulliganing vs Thoughtseize decks is pretty sketchy. I play my Noble and pass and he plays a Grim Lavamancer. I Abrupt Decay the Lavamancer and he cantrips on his turn. I draw a Devoted Druid and slam it - since he didn’t kill the Hierarch turn 1 I think he might not have a removal spell, and I don’t have another play. He passes, and I draw a Township and show him a Vizier. He lets it resolve. I show him a Recruiter, and he shows me his hand of all lands + Surgical Extraction and extends the handshake.

I definitely think I got very lucky this game since that hand gets destroyed by any reasonable Shadow hand. If he killed my Noble I was completely screwed, and I also got lucky by topdecking a Druid when I think it’s literally one of two left in my deck.

R3: Izzet Phoenix (2-0)

Game 1: Time to play the dreaded matchup. Turn 2 he deploys a Thing in the Ice and I play my Devoted Druid and hope and pray. He plays a second Thing and casts a cantrip, which is exactly the opening I need. He dies on turn 3.

Sideboarding: Similarly to the other two matchups, I take out Chords/some Viziers/some Druids/Duskwatch Recruiter/Viscera Seer and then bring in my entire sideboard except for one Knight of Autumn and the Gideon. I started to bring in one Knight of Autumn because I don’t know if they’re keeping in the Ascensions postboard. The plan here is to pivot away from the combo and become the control/midrange deck in this matchup by taking advantage of their low threat density.

Game 2: I believe he mulligans and keeps a weak hand without a turn 2 Thing in the Ice and I deploy a mana dork and then start picking apart his hand with Sin Collector. I take a cantrip and then start beating down with the Sin Collector, Eternal Witnesses, and Finks. He spends a little too long spinning his wheels and dies to my fair beatdown plan. The match is over in 15 minutes and I am relieved to beat my worst matchup at the no. 1 table.

R4: Izzet Phoenix (0-2) (Josh Santos)

Josh is a friend of mine and I curse when I see that we’re paired up against each other because he always wins every time. He’s playing my worst matchup AND he knows how to play against my deck, so I don’t think I’m getting out of this one alive. I joke to him about how he’s getting the free bye and we sit down and play.

Game 1: He gets the dreaded turn 2 Thing in the Ice start but I have a decent start as well, deploying a Duskwatch Recruiter into a Mirror Entity. As he bolts my Mirror Entity (and starts to flip his Thing), I pay 1 to make all my creatures Horrors so they don’t get bounced by Awoken Horror, which means that my Duskwatch is still kicking around. I take 7 and hope he doesn’t have that much else going on other than the first Thing. Essentially what happens next is that I keep presenting the combo to him over the course of the game and he draws all four Lightning Bolts (plus a Snapcaster) to kill the Druid and then me. I joke to him that if he didn’t draw all four Lightning Bolts in that game then I might have been able to get there, to which he agrees with.

Sideboarding: Same as above, but the mistake I make here is that I very obviously take out 13 cards from my sideboard and put them in my deck, which Josh sees and changes his SB plan accordingly.

Game 2: I keep a mediocre hand with no removal but Finks and Sin Collector. He plays a turn 2 Thing and a turn 3 Thing and then gets to flip both of them because I have no removal for either of them. He swings for 14 and I die.

This is the matchup I’m trying to work on the most because I’m pretty confident that you just lose if you get paired up against a Phoenix player that knows what you’re up to. It’s possible that the matchup is so bad that you need to keep in some parts of the combo and hope for the best, but shifting gears in the matchup only really works if you have a good draw and they don’t have an insane one (you can’t beat the draws that they return a bunch of Phoenixes from the GY to the battlefield unless you have a million Paths). Dispel out of their SB is also great versus us. I don’t like keeping in the infinite life combo because it’s extremely weak to Surgical Extraction (which most players are incentivized to leave in) but it’s literally impossible to keep a Devoted Druid around postboard as well.

R5: Izzet Phoenix (2-0) (Dan Salvatore)

Game 1: I can’t remember much about this game, but I believe he doesn’t have removal for my t2 Devoted Druid and he dies on turn 3. Free wins are nice, especially when this is the 3rd (!) Phoenix opponent I’ve played against in a row.

Sideboarding: Same as above, though I try to be a little more discreet about it this time.

Game 2: This game was actually very interesting because I hit running outer-outer to take care of his board and win the game. He gets out an early Thing in the Ice, but not before I get out an early Sin Collector to take a cantrip over a Dispel (I think it may have been a misplay to not take the Dispel). I get out a Scavenging Ooze early as well and start to eat his graveyard even though he has no relevant spells (that’s why Phoenix is so good currently; Ooze is normally a great card versus the deck, but it does nothing against Thing). He just leaves his Thing in the Ice at one counter for a couple of turns and we’re just playing draw-go for a little bit, with me refusing to deploy any more creatures into a Thing in the Ice flip while he draws and says pass.

Sooner or later he flips his Thing on my end step and then attacks for 7, and then plays another Thing in the Ice. I finally play out some of my mana creatures and then draw an Abrupt Decay. He goes to attack with his Awoken Horror and I first chump with a mana dork, then Abrupt Decay it. I then draw into a Plaguecrafter, which I use to take care of his second Thing. At this point I’m playing board control while attacking down with a couple of random dorks (Finks/Plaguecrafter/Eternal Witness) every single turn. I think he kills my Plaguecrafter with a Beacon Bolt or something here. He bolts my face, I go down to 9, and I think he snap-bolts me again, going to 6. He then plays an Arclight Phoenix so I go down to 3. I draw a Path for the turn. I’m thinking to myself that I need to Path the Arclight Phoenix to not die this turn, but then I see that he’s at 7 life and I have a Eternal Witness and Kitchen Finks in play, with an active Township. I have enough mana so I can Path and then activate Township for lethal. After double checking the math for a little bit, I Path his Thing with two counters on it and then attack for the win.

Just win more win to top 8!

R6: Whir Prison (2-0)

Game 1: He leads off with a Spire of Industry into a Mishra’s Bauble then plays an Ancient Stirrings and I’m thinking to myself “oh my God, this matchup is a bye.” I think my matchup is fairly reasonable because I have too many ways to break out of the lock. Nobles can attack through Bridge, they need to needle Devoted Druid, and they also need to needle the other two outs in my deck: Mirror Entity and Walking Ballista. I have Company and Chord for easy access to my game-winning cards and Chalice is a fairly ineffectual card versus my deck. The flipside to this is that infinite life does nothing versus them, but I think we are fairly favored game 1 unless they start looping Engineered Explosives to kill your mana dorks.

Essentially what happens in this game though is that he can’t find his Bridge so I get my Kitchen Finks beatdown going. He needles Devoted Druid but can’t find the Bridge in time. He does find EE to blow up my Noble/Birds but he Spyglasses me to see I have more copies of Hierarch in my hand, ensuring that it’s impossible to lock me out.

Sideboarding: I take out the infinite life combo and bring in Knight of Autumn, Scavenging Ooze, Sin Collector, Abrupt Decay and Trophy. I consider bringing in Path in case he brings in Sai, Master Thopterist, but I decide to make him show me it before I bring them in.

Game 2: He gets out an early Spyglass naming Devoted Druid and gets a Bridge out. I mull to 6 and scry a Mirror Entity to the top when I need a land, because I know that I’ll have time to draw into my lands in this matchup and Mirror Entity is a card I want access to. He does see the Mirror Entity with the Spyglass which does reduce the effectiveness of it. I have somewhat of a slow start due to mulliganing, but I draw into a Knight of Autumn and just play out my Druid and my Mirror Entity. He then Tolaria Wests and starts looking through his deck and I’m thinking to myself “Just don’t grab Welding Jar”. He grabs an Engineered Explosives and then casts the other card in his hand - Grafdigger’s Cage. This is a problem because my Chord in my hand can’t grab a Vizier. I think I then topdeck a Vizier soon after that and then blow up his Spyglass. I then attack with my powerful 0/2 Devoted Druid and make it a good ol 20/20 in my combat step.

R7: Draw into top 8 (Jesse Colford)

T8: Dredge (2-0) (James Chevenert)

Game 1: I know he’s on Dredge but he doesn’t know my deck. I think my matchup against Dredge is fairly reasonable because they need to hit Conflagrate in the first 15/20 cards in their library to interact with our combo, and I am higher seed so I get to be on the play. I keep a hand without the Devoted Druid combo but with the infinite life combo (multiple Viziers in hand, Kitchen Finks, mana dork, Chord). He gets off to a reasonably quick start with interaction in the form of Darkblast, which kills my Vizier which leaves me with a mana dork and Finks versus his legion of Prized Amalgams and Bloodghasts. Luckily I topdeck a land, which lets me deploy the Vizier in my hand and then tap all three of my creatures (Finks/Vizier/Noble) plus a green land to Chord for Viscera Seer and I gain infinite life. He concedes.

Sideboarding: I take out two Eternal Witness and I bring in one more Scavenging Ooze and the Anafenza. The plan here is just to combo off faster than they can kill you. They need to slow down as well so that they can bring in additional interaction, which is a point in our favor.

Game 2: I don’t have a fast combo hand but I do have one of my more potent tools in the matchup - Scavenging Ooze. Boy, I did not know how good Scavenging Ooze was against Dredge until this top 8. I play it on two and he plays a land to bring back his Bloodghasts, which then brings back his Prized Amalgam. The good thing is that once I untap with the Ooze I begin to nuke his graveyard, forcing him to take natural draws, and to grow my Ooze into a 4/4 so that he can’t attack with his Amalgams. He tries to chip in with Narcomoebas but the lifegain from the Scooze is enough to counteract that. He also Thoughtseizes me twice (?) and takes Eternal Witness and Chord of Calling. I play my Finks and begin to go on the beatdown with my Scavenging Ooze and I think I either assemble the combo when I’m super ahead or I just beat him down with my Finks and Scavenging Ooze. Either way, it’s onto the top 4!

T4: Amulet Titan (2-1) (Jonathan Rosum)

I’m feeling slightly nervous because this is my first or second time playing against a pro, but I know that my Amulet matchup is somewhat favorable and all I need to do is let the cards fall where they may. Jon was a class-act opponent and I enjoyed playing with him.

Game 1: He has the higher seed so he’s on the play. I mulligan into somewhat of a sketchy hand that I think includes t2 Druid and Vizier but no mana sink (?). I have infinite mana on the table but I pass. He gets out Hive Mind and then I think responds to his own Summoner’s Pact by Pact of Negationing it. I don’t have a second Birds so I die to the Pact. Not 100% on the details to this match; I may have not had the combo in play.

Sideboarding: I take out some of the infinite life combo (Viscera Seer, Kitchen Finks) because I think he’s going to keep in the Hive Mind combo postboard to deal with me gaining infinite life. I also take out the Scooze and the Shalai. I bring in some Knight of Autumns to slow him down and the full four Paths and the Assassin’s Trophy. I don’t bring in Plaguecrafter because when he casts a Titan he often has a Sakura-Tribe Scout or a Azusa lying around on the battlefield or a random Plant token he can grab if he needs to. Was not 100% sure on sideboarding in this matchup.

Game 2: He has the double Amulet hand but fails to produce the bounceland needed to go off. I get the clean turn 3 kill after he plays a bunch of colorless lands and a Tolaria West.

Game 3: I keep a strong 7 with double Druid, Vizier, some interaction in the form of Path, and a mana sink. I play a Druid but it gets Path’d. I play another Druid and it sticks, while Rosum is developing his mana. I believe he has 6 mana and passes with an Amulet in play. He lets me untap with Druid and I execute the combo and he concedes. He flips over the top of the deck and it’s a Primeval Titan.

At this point I am so happy because I just beat one of the toughest opponents in the room and qualified for the invitational - with my most favorite deck, no less! Most of my friends already had decklists published by SCG, and I was feeling great that I finally had a decklist to show off as well. My opponent and I decide to play the last match for fun to see who got 1st and 2nd in the tournament.

T2: Devoted Company (0-2) (Jesse Colford)

Game 1 he was on the play because he had higher seed and my deck has zero interaction in the maindeck, so no matter what I mulled to he was always going to turn 3 me. I keep a mediocre five and get demolished.

I take out the infinite life combo and bring in any interaction I can get my hands on (Paths, Abrupt Decay, Trophy).

Game 2 was a super grindy game but in a huge lapse of judgement I tap out for an Eternal Witness to bring back my Druid and he Chords in response for his own Druid and I lose the game. I think he would have probably had it regardless because he had a larger board than me and he just brought back a Trophy with his own Eternal Witness, but tapping out was a super dumb mistake and I should have left up mana there for Path.

Closing Thoughts: Overall, I was super happy with how the tournament went and I definitely thought I got lucky to make top 8 as evidenced by my match 2 against Shadow and drawing running outer-outer against my match 5 against Phoenix. Before the event, I bought into all the hyperbole of “if you aren’t registering Faithless Looting, Ancient Stirrings, or Mox Opal in your deck, you’re doing something wrong”. In my opinion, I think it really depends on who you are as a player. Some people can just pick up the “best deck” and play it well enough to do well at an event with it. Other players are more comfortable with a certain archetype or playstyle.

After playing this event, I definitely think that creature combo decks - such as this deck or Infect - are more in my wheelhouse than others. I was playing Phoenix for a couple of events before this IQ, and I think I could play the deck at a reasonable level, but the problem with me playing it was that I couldn’t formulate a game plan when I was actually playing the deck. I was taking game actions and I had no idea what I was doing when I took them. I had no idea what role I was taking in certain matchups and that definitely contributed to some match losses. In addition I just kept getting destroyed in mirror matches at the previous IQ I played at and it felt awful. Meanwhile, with a deck like this, what your game plan is is generally fairly obvious. The deck can also win from very innocuous boardstates, which is something I enjoyed with Infect - the “Oops I win” draws are pretty frequent. This deck isn’t also all that popular at the moment, and I definitely faced a couple of opponents this weekend who didn’t know how the combo worked or what role they should take in the matchup/underestimated this deck’s ability to grind them out.

As for the list I played, I thought it was pretty fantastic, and I think the deck is very solidly positioned if you aren’t expecting a lot of Phoenix or control, which are this deck’s unfavorable matchups. Having a solid matchup versus Amulet Titan is also something that I enjoyed because that deck is currently getting pretty popular right now. I’d say this deck’s matchup spreads against the 12 most popular decks in Modern are like:

I think that’s a pretty great spot to be in Modern these days, and I’m excited to play more with the deck as the Modern format keeps evolving.

Want to give shoutouts to the Company discord, in particular SaintDoom for hooking me up with this list and SB guide, as well as the UMass Magic community for driving me around to these random IQs so we can scrub out of them.

If you have any questions about the tournament or the deck, let me know and thanks for reading!