Results from the 2nd Highlander tournament in Bielefeld:
10 players – 4 rounds
1st – Jonas Grohman – GUBw Aggrocontrol (similar to Patrick Richter´s Top 8 deck feat. 28 lands) – 12 pts.
2nd –Jens Krause – GUBw Aggrocontrol (ditto) – 9 pts. – loss against Jonas
3rd –Björn Ortmann – RUGbw (RUG feat Kiki/Hermit combo)– 9 pts. - loss against Jens
Follow up in no particular order: 2x RDW, UG Tempo, UW Control, Reanimator, GUbw Oath Ramp, GWb something
Short report:
I played a RUGbw Aggrocontrol-Combo hybrid which is an evolution from a RUG list. I was not very pleased with the possibility to assemble the Kiki Jiki Combo in RUG because of the lack of tutors in these colors. I already splashed Bayou for Deathrite Shaman , so it was not a big deal to add Demonic Tutor and Tainted Pact. There were not much basics left, so the next step was the include of Hermit Druid (feat. Dread Return, Karmic Guide, Lingering Souls, Eladamri´s Call) for a faster Kiki-Jiki combo kill.
1st round – win against GU Tempo (G1 - loss against Shackles, G2 – tempo beatdown against slightly screwed opp – G3 - surprise kill with Hermit Combo)
2nd round – loss against GUBw (all three games were decided by mana base problems, unfortunately I was the one of stumbled twice)
3rd round – win against GUbw Oath (G1 - tempo beatdown against Oath plan, G2 – His T3 Show and Tell brought a Primeval Titan...on my side)
4th round – win against RDW (G1 – Natural Order ftw – G2 Thragtusk/beast beatdown with Counter backup against his PoP)
Conclusion of the deck: Even I have just killed once with Hermit/Kiki-Jiki yesterday I think that the option of a combo kill is a very important advantage in comparison to other Tempo lists. It makes math for your opponent much more difficult and sometimes is your last-ditch rescue effort when you are way behind. I won 2-3 games because the opponent had to take care of the (potential) combo. Most of the combo cards (except Karmic Guide and perhaps Dread Return) are good on their own, so except the non-basic mana base there is no big compromise to a standard Tempo list. Sure, non-basic hate is your enemy no. 1, so if you have a meta with a lot of RDW or URx you should not try this kind of deck.
Next tournament: August 4th