

Round 1 was the wake-up call I needed to see that I was misguided and Thalia decks could still be a serious problem. This would free up valuable space to include more answers to Marit Lage, which is a creature I wanted to be prepared for.

I trusted that 5 removal spells, Wrenn and Six, and Dreadhorde Arcanist would be enough to handle most creature match-ups. This led to overconfidence in my deckbuilding: My sideboard had next to no Red removal to bring in. This led me to the conclusion that it would not be very popular and was likely not well-positioned as a result of Wrenn and Six decks being over-represented. I played against exactly 1 Death and Taxes deck in my 3 or 4 weeks of testing and I lost that match.

This event perfectly illustrates why online testing isn’t comprehensive. It didn’t take long for me to learn that I was woefully unprepared for Aether Vial/Thalia decks. Here is the breakdown of how the Open went:
