In Martial Arts, Only Speed Cannot Be Broken! MIT Top 8 Boros Convoke Report

Note: This article was translated from Chinese by AI and may contain errors. Read the original Chinese version.

Introduction

Hi everyone, I’m JerryYang. I’m very happy to have made Top 8 at this MIT. The deck I played was Boros Convoke. I picked it because I think its style suits me well, I’ve played it for a long time, and I’ve done plenty of practice against most of the mainstream decks in the format, so after weighing everything I chose Boros Convoke.

Deck Overview

MIT#6_Boros Convoke Decklist by JerryYang

I moved 1 copy of Get Lost into the main deck to deal with big creatures like Atraxa, Grand Unifier that Case of the Gateway Express can’t easily handle.

Aven Interrupter is for control and Domain matchups. Shutting off their sweeper basically means you get one extra turn to kill the opponent.

Kutzil’s Flanker is also for control matchups: after a sweeper, you can flash in another big creature to keep up the pressure. As for graveyard hate, I brought an extra Rest in Peace, originally planning to use it against Temur Fireball and 4C Legends. But after thinking it over, there’s no need for graveyard hate in those matchups; the right play is to flatten the opponent as fast as possible. In later updates to the list I’ll take Rest in Peace out.

MIT Round 6 Report

Preliminary result: 5-0-2, ranked 2nd

R1 Esper Control 2-0 on the draw

Game 1: When I saw the opponent’s main-deck sweeper was only the 5-mana Deadly Cover-Up, I knew I should just flood the board and hit hard, and I killed them smoothly.
Game 2: The opponent’s sideboard has 2 Temporary Lockdown, 1 Path of Peril, and no 2-mana Pest Control, so the game plan was to combine Warleader’s Call and Cavern of Souls to steadily chip away at their life total and win.

R2 Esper Midrange 1-1 on the draw

Game 1: Won with a turn-2 convoke.
Game 2: Got watched to death late by Sheoldred, the Apocalypse.
In game 2 I should have conceded quickly and moved on to game 3, where I’d be on the play to apply pressure. I misjudged it on the spot; I was thinking that if I drew a removal spell I could still win, but going straight to game 3 would have given me a somewhat higher win rate.

R3 Esper Midrange 2-1 on the draw

Game 1: After working hard to build the board, Imodane’s Recruiter, made uncounterable by Cavern of Souls, took them out in one wave.
Game 2: Facing a turn-2 Dennick, Pious Apprentice and a turn-3 Raffine, Scheming Seer, I couldn’t keep up with the tempo and died. The lesson is that I should have killed Raffine on turn 3. I don’t know what I was thinking when I chose to kill Dennick instead, which later let Raffine’s connive swap their hand into a better combination.
Game 3: Won with a turn-2 convoke.

R4 Temur Fireball 2-1 on the play

Game 1: Won with a turn-2 convoke.
Game 2: Turn 3 Nissa, Resurgent Animist, turn 4 Ill-Timed Explosion as a sweeper, turn 5 Borborygmos and Fblthp, and I still had a Bonny Pall, Clearcutter in hand, so I had to concede quickly.
Game 3: Turn 1 Voldaren Epicure, turn 2 Warden of the Inner Sky. After activating its ability I saw Invasion of Gobakhan and kept it, blew up the Blood token and then put down another bean. On turn 3 I played Gobakhan and looked at their hand, and they responded by killing Warden of the Inner Sky. I saw a Shigeki, Jukai Visionary, a Nissa, and three lands, exiled Nissa, then flipped Gobakhan and started putting beans on the whole team. The opponent played Shigeki on turn 3, and I killed it on turn 4 with Case of the Gateway Express. After drawing on their turn 4, the opponent conceded.

R5 Temur Fireball 2-0 on the draw

Game 1: Mulliganed twice, then won with a turn-2 convoke.
Game 2: On turn 2 I looked at their hand and saw 2 Vampires’ Vengeance. After confirming they had no accelerant creatures in hand, I exiled one of the Vampires’ Vengeance and chose to play slowly, steadily deploying threats. Then one turn the opponent tapped out to cast Fireball to accelerate and set up a lethal next turn, so I flashed in Resolute Reinforcements and followed up with a hasty-for-everyone Imodane’s Recruiter to kill them.

R6 Domain 2-1 on the play

Game 1: The opponent had no main-deck Temporary Lockdown; after a mulligan I won with a turn-2 convoke.
Game 2: The opponent played Depopulate on turn 4, Archangel of Wrath on turn 5, and Herd Migration on turn 7 to make a pile of 3/3s, so I conceded quickly.
Game 3: After a mulligan I flashed in Resolute Reinforcements on turn 2 and played Urabrask’s Forge on turn 3. Later, convoke found Aven Interrupter and Imodane’s Recruiter. When my Forge had three counters, the opponent played Tranquil Frillback to destroy it, and I exiled it with Aven Interrupter. The next turn I played the Recruiter and killed them together with the board.

R7 Draw

TOP8 Boros Convoke 1-2 on the play

Game 1: I built my board fast, so I won.
Game 2: Soloed by Warden of the Inner Sky.
Game 3: Soloed by Warden of the Inner Sky again.

After reviewing it over the past few days, I think my opening hand should have been winnable. If I had played a haste creature on turn 3 to hit them for a wave of damage, and then on turn 4 played convoke plus removal, the tempo would have swung back to my side. Since I’d already convoked, I’d have had more creatures in hand and could have won on card advantage. All I can say is that I misjudged it on the spot.

Deck Conclusion

Boros Convoke is a deck that demands aggressive mulliganing. We need to mulligan to find the best solution. With open decklists, the information you have lets you work out how many turns you can keep applying pressure. The main thing to watch for in the sideboard is basically how many sweepers the opponent brought, and holding back the right cards after sideboarding is the key to keeping up the pressure and winning.

Tournament Thoughts

Of the 5 MITs I’ve entered since I started playing MTG, this is my best result. It’s a pity I was so close to qualifying for the PT this time, so I’ll have to try again next event, and in the meantime wait for my annual leave to refill. I hope I can get a better result next time. Let’s all work hard and get stronger together.
Here I’d like to thank all my practice partners on 吉殺隊: zhi-mao, 阿勳, Enki, 阿蘇, 阿軍, 蹦蹦, KULA, and everyone else I met at the tournament. Everyone played different decks, which gave me a thorough understanding of almost the entire format.
If you’d like to discuss Boros Convoke, feel free to talk to me directly, and let’s become top-tier convoke (and life-shortening) players together.