I had this crazy idea a couple months ago about a Delver deck that cut white and shaved some lands and brought back the Stalker + Pike combo. At first I didn't even share the deck with my friends for fear of ridicule. It had 20 lands, all the cantrips, Inkmoth Nexus as a great plan b, and a SB full of powerful instants that I could dig too pretty easily for any matchup but it was missing something but I didn't know what it was. The list stayed on my desktop under the title "Mono Brew Delver" and gathered dust for a while.
Cut to the painful ride back from the Nebraska PTQ where Penick and I were both dead by round 4.
I said something about how I wanted to play 4 Images in whatever Delver deck I played next. Penick wasn't as excited by the card as I was and said something like, "I don't think I'd want to play that many without having something really sweet in my own deck to copy, like a Dungeon Geist, but that card sucks with Restoration Angel around."
Later that week I notice all the Delver decks are really week to artifacts right now. Most of them only playing 1 Divine Offering in the board. Maybe my Pike deck could be real? Still though, I couldn't imagine beating an Ancient Grudge since the deck relied to heavily on Pike.
Cue cheesy shot of me thinking, looking into the sky with my hand on my chin.
Cue Penicks voice ringing out in my head, "something really sweet, like a Dungeon Geist, something really sweet, like a Dungeon Geist."
Aha!
I could be a really streamlined Pike deck in game one and then transform into a midrange deck with Images and Geists against the green decks!
The list I put together after having this idea was only 2 cards off (I started with 2 Sphinx instead of Frost Titans) what I ended up registering a week and a half later in the Invitational after playing it all that time on MTGO.
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Invisible Stalker
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Gut Shot
2 Mutagenic Growth
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Thought Scour
4 Ponder
4 Vapor Snag
4 Mana Leak
4 Runechanter's Pike
4 Inkmoth Nexus
16 Island
SB:
2 Ghost Quarter
2 Frost Titan
3 Spellskite
4 Phantasmal Image
4 Dungeon Geist
How I came to my Legacy deck was much less exciting.
I was planning on playing RUG Delver since I didn't really know the format very well and I thought there would be a lot of Griselbrand/combo hate.
Again while talking to Penick on the ride up he said, "if I were playing a deck like that I would just play Merfolk with 4 Phantasmal Image main. Holy shit, that sounds awesome. I love Image more than most and putting it into play against Show and Tell seems awesome! (I found out just 2 rounds before Legacy started that this doesn't actually work.)
After round 3 I was going to Noodles with Cedric and we were talking about Merfolk since he was running it too. He had some Spellstutter Sprites where I had some Dazes. That seemed awesome especially with 4 Image so I changed my list to 2 and 2 and was good to go.
4 Cursecatcher
4 Silvergil Adept
4 Phantasmal Image
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Coralhelm Commander
2 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Merrow Rejeerey
4 Aether Vial
3 Spell Pierce
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Wasteland
4 Mutavault
12 Island
SB:
1 Spell Pierce
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Faerie Macabre
2 Sower of Temptation
3 Tormod's Crypt
4 Submerge
So that's what I played, let's get onto the rounds.
Round 1: Chi Hoi Yim - UW Control
This guy was playing 8 Wrath effects AND Ratchet Bomb and tons of Gideons (a card I can't really ever beat). Game one he killed all my guys then played Gideon, Tamiyo, and Karn. But he was also playing pretty bad like forgetting to get stuff back after he went ultimate with Tamiyo so I still had some hope.
-2 Gut Shot +2 Spellskite
Games two and three he played a bunch of do nothings like Grafdigger's Cage and Torpor Orb and with some timely Mana Leaks I was able to Pike the shit out of him.
1-0
Round 2: Jackson Barbee - UWR Delver
Jackson was a real nice kid. Unfortunately all his removal was sorcery speed with Bonfire and Pillar so he wasn't able to deal with my Nexus and I infected him both games after Probing him to make sure the coast was clear.
-4 Leak +4 Image
2-0
Round 3: Dustin Taylor - UW Delver
Video feature match this round. Nothing really interesting happened. I got flooded in games 1 and 3 and picked up my first loss.
-4 Leak +4 Image
2-1
Round 4: Mike Nyberg - Dungrove Green
Game one I got smashed by giant Dungrove Elders but then I got to finally use my sideboard.
-4 Leak -4 Pike -4 Stalker -2 Probe -1 Scour
+15
The next two games I got to Image his Strangleroot Geists then get in some damage, then block a guy, and copy a Dungeon Geist when it persisted.
In the last game he cast Revenge of the Hunted to kill an Image and then later on payed 5 to Beast Within an Image that was a Frost Titan tapping one of his blockers that left him dead the next turn.
3-1
I was happy with a 3-1 in standard and was excited to finally play a game with my legacy deck.
Round 5: David McDarby - Grixis Delver
This was pretty obviously my first legacy match for quite a while.
He flipped a Delver and I had a Vial on two. He attacked and I Vialed in an Image to block but he stopped me. He stopped me and said he might want to respond to the Vial. He took two minutes then decided to Stifle the ability and I got hit for 3. But then I just blocked the next turn and eventually ran him over with Merfolk since he didn't have much removal.
-2 Daze -2 Force of Will +1 Jitte +2 Sower +1 Spell Pierce
My Vial got Forced and I Forced back and that was basically game.
4-1
Round 6: Robert Graves - UB Tombstalker Control
Another deck not very well equipped to deal with hoards of lords. At one point he had a Tombstalker and a flipped Delver and he swung with the Delver and I was able to Vial in an Image, copy Tombstalker and block the 3/2. Next turn I traded it for the Tombstalker then the board was clear for my smaller guys.
5-1
Round 7: John Penick - Reanimator
I really didn't want this pairing. It's always awkward getting paired against people who helped you prepare for the tournament and even loaned you practically 100% of the deck I'm going to be playing against him.
That being said it was an interesting match.
In game one he got Blazing Archon in play and once that hits the only way I can win is to Image it and force him to make a Tidespout Tyrant to bounce my copy then I have to Image his Tyrant and bounce all his Archons.
The board state get to where he has Griselbrand, Archon, an Image on Archon and I have an Image on Archon and loads of merfolk. I'm at 11 he is at 1. He Exhumes Tyrant into play and bounces my Image and some of my lords and attacks me down to 1 so he goes to 7. I am able to Image Tyrant, play Rejeerey to bounce his Tyrant then play another merfolk to bounce his last blocker and tap his Imaged Archon then have exactly 7 power to exactsies him.
Whew.
-2 Daze -1 Jitte -1 Cursecatcher -4 Coralhelm +1 Spell Pierce +2 Faerie Macabre +2 Sower +3 Crypt
This game I was able to counter his first reanimation with Faerie and he was never able to get anything else going.
6-1
Round 8: Evan Wagstaff - Maverick
Game one he naturally drew his Scryb Ranger and ambushed my Adept with it then played Jitte and equipped on turn four. I was lucky enough to draw my Jitte the next turn but I was too far behind.
-3 Spell Pierce -4 Force of Will +1 Jitte +2 Sower +4 Submerge
Game two I Sowered his first Knight and Image Sowered his second one then he scooped.
Game three he had his Scryb Ranger again to stop my attack. I was able to Daze a spell he could have payed for for a minor moral victory before he smashed me with giant Knights.
6-2
Round 9: Andrew Shrout - Naya (Pod?)
This guy used to beat me a lot on MTGO but here in real life I SHALL HAVE MY REVENGE!
I don't really remember any of the standard rounds from this day. I know for game two I boarded into my midrange deck and killed him with three or four Dungeon Geists. Later on that day he confused me and Kenny Castor so screw him!
7-2
Round 10: Kevin Jones -
Round 11: David Bauer -
Round 12: Kyle McDaniel -
I have no idea why I have no recollection of these matches. I'm pretty sure two of them were UW Delver and the other was RG Aggro. They all succumbed to the Pike's fairly easily.
10-2
Round 13: Gerry Thompson - Reanimator
I always like playing against players who are better than me, I just enjoy the challenge.
Game one he made a Griselbrand on turn two while I made a Silvergil Adept. I was able to Image it and then Image the next one. Then he just died to the Adept and some Mutavaults.
I boarded the same way I did against Penick. He Careful Studied on turn one discarding something and an Elesh Norn then Thoughtseized me on two. I responded by Macabre on Elesh Norn and he took my Sower.
He got a Griselbrand into play but I had a Lord of Atlantis to keep the pressure on so he couldn't keep drawing cards. One his last turn he Reanimated my Sower and took my Lord of Atlantis and for one second I thought, "oh fuck, now I'll have to draw something to win next turn." Then I realized I'm an idiot and the Lord still pumped my dudes and made them unblockable so I swung in and won.
After it ended Kyle Dembinski pointed out Gerry could have Dazed his own spell then Dazed his Daze to pick up his Islands and survive but luckily Gerry missed it.
11-2
Round 14: Michael Hetrick - UW Stoneblade
I was worried about this matchup because I had been told it was unwinnable.
We played two really close games with a bunch of good draws from both sides of the table. Right after he played Llawan in game two I drew a Vial and was able to replay all my guys and eventually grind out a win.
Round 15 and 16: Both draws to lock up Top 8.
Woop!
That night at dinner I made a joke on facebook about my match in the morning.
Adam Boyd: Please keep Gerry Thompson in your thoughts and prayers tonight.
I thought it was hilarious.
The next morning on site Gerry didn't even acknowledge that I existed and I thought he might have taken it the wrong way.
Oh well.
When we sat down he made a joke saying, "Remember when I used to beat you all the time?"
I thought for a while and responded, "....No? I think you've only beaten me once..."
Game one I stalled on land for a few turns and had to keep up mana so I didn't get hit with a Sword. I just wasn't able to mount enough of an offence and eventually he had too many spells for me to deal with.
-4 Leak +4 Image
Game two was awesome. I knew he had a Hero in hand, which I wasn't really expecting since he knew I was boarding in four Images, and I Pondered into Island, Image, Snag. I drew the Island and he Probed me then played the Hero then I had Image and Snag that he didn't know about to answer it and kill him when he wasn't able to come up with a way to target it.
-2 Mutagenic +2 Leak
Game three I got Stalker/Pike going pretty quickly and his Hero showed one turn too late.
-2 Leak +2 Dungeon Geist
Game four I mulliganed to six and joked about how it was the first time I hadn't kept a hand in the tournament. He had multiple Delvers and a Geist and I was way behind the whole time. Eventually after he flipped the Delvers I scooped.
Game five it was his turn to mulligan but he mulliganed into triple Geist and I stalled on mana again and was overwhelmed pretty quickly. I think I had a shot if he didn't top deck his one Dismember on that last turn.
Ended up in 6th place which was good enough for $3,000. Which is tough to complain about. I was especially proud that I was able to do it with a deck of my own design.
If you've got a standard tournament coming up I would suggest my Delver deck, it's awesome and I wouldn't change a card.
Sorry about how bad this was, and I know it was bad. I couldn't remember most of the matches and there are so few details.
I have a few more awesome stories from the weekend that I will write about a little later.
Thanks if you've managed to get this far.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Thursday, February 17, 2011
STL PTQ 2/13/11
This was the 2nd PTQ of the Ext season and I was fresh off my first 0-2 exit from a PTQ in a long, long time. For the next PTQ I knew I wanted to play Scapeshift that could win without Omen. That meant either straight RG with Titans and such or a deck that tried to cast spells needing GG and UUU in a deck with 4 Valakut and 8 Mountains. I started with a deck that Gerry posted on his blog that did well in a premier event on MODO.
4 Prismatic Omen
4 Scapeshift
1 Spell Pierce
2 Mana Leak
4 Cryptic Command
2 Khalni Heart Expedition
2 Rampant Growth
4 Explore
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Preordain
1 See Beyond
8 Mountain
4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
4 Flooded Grove
1 Cascade Bluffs
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Forest
4 Island
SB:
2 Primal Command
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Wurmcoil Engine
4 Tunnel Ignus
2 Volcanic Fallout
1 Firespout
2 Spell Pierce
First changes I made were to change the 1 Spell Pierce in the main into a Ponder, switch the Khalni Heart Expeditions for the 3rd and 4th Rampant Growth and scrap the SB.
After playing some games with it I was able to tell this deck just wasn't going the way I wanted it to. It couldn't cast Cryptic consistently enough and even when I could it was hardly more than a Fog and hope I draw Scapeshift next turn. I also realized I wanted it to be pure combo and didn't want the Bolts (at least in the main). This realization gave me room to fit in the Manamorphose's I had been wanting to play.
While at the store on Friday getting the cards ready Josh asked me if there was a tutor in the format and I couldn't think of one. Then I stumbled upon Beseech the Queen in the case. I knew it sounded crazy but I couldn't stop brewing. If I played this I'd have to cut the Leaks and Cryptic and Preordains but I'd only really miss the Preordains. But then I could play Thoughtseize and Inquisition to Kozelik! Oh man I could have Memoricide in the board of the mirrors!
As soon as I got home I made the switches and came up with this.
4 Prismatic Omen
4 Scapeshift
4 Beseech the Queen
4 Rampant Growth
4 Explore
4 Manamorphose
4 Thougtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozelik
2 Volcanic Fallout
8 Mountain
4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
4 Twilight Mire
1 Graven Cairns
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Forest
4 Swamp
The changes didn't hurt the mana at all because I just switched U costing cards for B costing cards and 1UUU costing cards for BBB (or 2BB) costing cards. It was perfect. My disruption/protection cards were now proactive discard spells instead of reactive counter spells. Losing Cryptic meant I didn't have an our to something like a maindeck Leyline of Sanctity or Runed Halo but I was willing to make that gambit.
The next day I switched out my blue cards for black ones and tested against Fae. I think I lost the first 5 games to eventually PTQ champion Landon Doty but then started to get the hang of the matchup and brought it back to maybe 30%. Then we started testing different SB cards. First was maxing out on Inquisitions and Fallouts and 2 Combust. That didn't work so then I tried Stags while still maxing out on Fallouts from the board, which worked better and got it to about 50/50. I was happy enough with that.
On Sunday I registered the above 60 with this SB.
2 Back to Nature
2 Volcanic Fallout
3 Memoricide
4 Great Sable Stag
4 Obstinate Baloth
Round 1: Tim Lyons - Fae
He shuffled towards me before we started so I knew what I was getting in to. He leads off with Thoughtseize and sees a few lands a few ramp spells and Omen and Scapeshift. He takes the Scapeshift. I draw a second Omen and pass. He plays another Thoughtseize and before I lay my hand down he says, "Take the Omen". So I put it in the graveyard and show him the other. He says, "Oh". I draw Thoughtseize and play it seeing:
Scion of Oona
Mistbind Clique
Sunken Ruins
Creeping Tar Pit
I take the Mistbind. A few turns pass of me drawing some Scapeshifts and playing some ramp and him attacking with Mutavault and Scion. The turn I'm going to kill him he plays Vendilion Clique. He picks one of the Scapeshifts and the other one kills him.
-4 Prismatic Omen
-2 Beseech the Queen
+4 Great Sable Stag
+2 Volcanic Fallout
In the first two turns he Thoughtseizes me twice and I Thoughtsieze him once. He had taken a mulligan and I took a Leak leaving him with Mistbind, Scion and Cryptic with 2 lands in play.
Game state came down to where he had Scion and Spellstutter in play and 4 lands and I had 6 lands with Fallout and Scapeshift in my hand with some land. He attacks me and I play Fallout trying to get him to play Mistbind so I can kill him. He does and I do.
1-0
Round 2: Josh McClain - Fae
The night before this I got a text from an drunk ex at 2am............ I wasn't able to get back to sleep and it was starting to catch up with me since I hadn't had a Monster yet. So while shuffling I accidentally flipped up a Mountain and Manamorphose. Great. So he takes a mulligan and we swap Thoughtseizes in the early turns. I take a Vendilion Clique leaving him with Spellstutter and Cryptic. I don't remember exactly but some turn he tapped down low and I was able to Scapeshift with Omen in play for lethal. "I'm assuming you have some Valakuts in there."
I boarded the same way and again we trade Thoughtseizes. I take another Vendilion and leave him with a grip of Leak, Spellstutter and Mistbind. He has Bitterblossom this time but I Fallout once and it gives me enough time to resolve a Scapeshift while he is still stalling on mana.
It was some tough beats but he is seasoned PTQ player and took it well. After the match he told me that he thought the Manamorphse was a Ram-Gang and kept a removal heavy hand. Mise.
2-0
Round 3: Caleb - RUW Pestermite Combo
I have Swamp into Twilight Mire and he seems at least a little confused when I play Prismatic Omen instead of Putrid Leech. On turn 3 I play Explore, it resolves. I play two lands and another Explore, that one gets Mana Leaked. He plays a Wall of Omens and I play a 3rd Explore, another 2 lands and a Scapeshift. But he wants me to show him the 4 Valakuts and 2 Verdant Catacombs.
While I was looking for the lands he writes down my name from the result slip onto his life total pad and asks me if my deck is a MODO deck or my own brew. I said it was mine and he asked if he could write an article about it for ChannelFireball. I said I'd think about it.
At this point I think he is some sort of UWr Control deck. Not sure what the red was for, I was thinking Bolt maybe Ajani. I boarded -2 Fallout +2 Back to Nature for Leyline/Halo.
This game he plays Pestermite (oh yeah!) on 3 and 4. I'm not able to find what I need and turn 4 he plays Spliter Twin. In response to the ability I tap Forest and Twilight Mire for Manamorphose with a Forest left up. I already have the Back to Nature in hand but I wanted to make him think I have Fallout so he will play cautiously next game when I board them back in. I make RR and draw a card then kinda chuckle to myself and play the Back to Nature. So he just beats me down for 4 until I die.
I resideboard -2 Prismatic Omen +2 Volcanic Fallout.
Game three while I'm ramping he has Runed Halo. I Thoughtseize away a Jace (I think) then he plays a Mindlock Orb and I'm pretty much dead to his next Jace that starts fatesealing me. I wait until he goes ultimate then scoop.
2-1
Round 4: Bryan - Naya
Game one he gets a pretty fast draw with multiple Bloodbraids and I die pretty quick.
-4 Thoughtseize
-2 Inquisition
+4 Obstinate Baloth
+2 Volcanic Fallout
Game two he is much slower and I have a chance to Scapeshift for lethal if he doesn't use his Knight to get a Edge in response. I go for it since I have another Scapeshift and he lets it resolve so I kill him. While we are shuffling for game 3 he says "shit, I punted" under his breath so now I know he does have it in his deck and should play around it because he won't miss it again. In the last game I slow him down with double Fallout then Baloth and clean up with a Scapeshift for 54.
3-1
Round 5: Matt - Jund
We get deck checked and it takes for-ev-ver because he had one of those boxes from GP Nashville and had extra cards in the other side of the box and spent at least 10 minutes arguing with the judges about it. When the judge came over to explain the situation I already knew what was going on because Chris Miller clued me in on what was happening but when she said what the game loss was for I said, "ahh, right, the old 45 card sideboard trick" and wrote a big GL and circled it on my life total paper. The slip said +22 minutes but we didn't even play for 5. He shuffles towards me so I know he is on Jund and see some of the cards in his deck like Jund Charm. He played Fauna Shaman and I played ramp and Fallout. He was setting up a Demigod chain. Another Fauna Shaman resolved and I play a Beseech for Omen and play it. He uses Fauna at eot to get the last Demigod he needs. He says, "cut me to a land that comes into play untapped". I say, "alright, how about a Forest?" Then he tells me that won't due but he doesn't play any anyways. Then I told him I saw Forests while he was shuffling towards me but he persists. Whatever, who cares. He draws a Leech, plays Bloodbraid needing a Pulse but only gets a Finks and dies.
4-1
Round 6: Harlan - RG Scapeshift
I'm paired up against a 4-0-1. He thinks for a second about offering a draw but then I explained that a draw is a loss for him. He just needs to win one of the next two rounds. So both games I hit him with hand disruption to take his ramp and then ramp and kill him. I boarded in 3 Memoricide for 2 Fallout and a Omen. The only interesting thing happened in game 2 where I Inquisition him and see:
Primal Command
Harrow
Khalni Heart Expedition
Reverberate
Mountain
Mountain
He kept his 7 on the play and has a Valakut in play. My hand is 4 lands, Omen and a Thoughtseize. I took the Khalni Heart Expedition thinking that the Reverb wasn't going to be able to kill me if he didn't have any ramp and I could wait to play the Thoughtseize until I had nothing for him to take in my hand. He drew a Terramorphic and played that so I could Thoughtseize away the Harrow. He drew another Expedition but when I played the Scapeshift he had 3 Mountains up, 5 lands in play and an Expedition with 0 counters on it. So he can Reverb for 3 Mountain 2 Valakut then use Expedition for 2 more Mountains but that only does 12 and doesn't kill me.
5-1
Round 7: Fae player
We draw.
Top 8: Harlan - RG Scapeshift
Yay, the matchup I wanted to play. But this is where things get REAL awkward.
My 7 card hand has 3 land, 3 Omen and a Manamorphose. Auto-mull
My 6 card hand is this:
Mountain
Rampant Growth
Explore
Thoughtseize
Thoughtseize
Inquisition
So I can draw:
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Forest
4 Swamp
4 Manamorphose
1 Graven Cairns
I keep it and draw 2 more Mountains before I get to what I need. But at that point he has 3 lands, an Omen and a Expedition on 1. So I can't play Inquisition because Scapeshift kills me. So I Thougtseize and see:
Forest
Mountain
Bolt
Rampant
Titan
I take the Rampant planing on Thougtseizing away the Titan the next turn.
He draws, plays a land, passes.
I play the other Thoughtseize and see he draw a Scapeshift and decided that he didn't want to use it to kill me. Sure, Harlan, I'll take the Scapeshift.
Two turns and he kills me with the Titan I would have been able to take if I had been able to safely cast the Inquisition, which I guess I could since he didn't realize Scapeshift was the win. Hawkward.
I board the same way I did against him in the swiss.
I play Rampant Growth into Memoricide. I name Omen because I can kill him in two turns with Thoughtseize backup so I thought the only way he kills me faster is with an Omen. He shows me a hand of:
Evolving Wilds
Mountain
Mountain
Shift
Natures Claim
Harrow
I knew I should have written this sooner because I'm forgetting what happened over the next few turns but I get to 6 land and play and play Omen into Beseech for Shift into Thoughtseize. Then he shows me he had drawn a second Scapeshift and he is able to Harrow and Explore into 7 lands and kill me a turn before I kill him. I think he had a 2-3 turn window to draw a second one and a Harrow/Explore and he got there.
At least Landon beat him in the finals where a Primal Command got Cryptic Commanded when it was cast choosing to put Tar Pit on top and search for a creature. Nice.
Don't know what I'm going to play but my next tournament is the Nebraska PTQ next week.
4 Prismatic Omen
4 Scapeshift
1 Spell Pierce
2 Mana Leak
4 Cryptic Command
2 Khalni Heart Expedition
2 Rampant Growth
4 Explore
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Preordain
1 See Beyond
8 Mountain
4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
4 Flooded Grove
1 Cascade Bluffs
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Forest
4 Island
SB:
2 Primal Command
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Wurmcoil Engine
4 Tunnel Ignus
2 Volcanic Fallout
1 Firespout
2 Spell Pierce
First changes I made were to change the 1 Spell Pierce in the main into a Ponder, switch the Khalni Heart Expeditions for the 3rd and 4th Rampant Growth and scrap the SB.
After playing some games with it I was able to tell this deck just wasn't going the way I wanted it to. It couldn't cast Cryptic consistently enough and even when I could it was hardly more than a Fog and hope I draw Scapeshift next turn. I also realized I wanted it to be pure combo and didn't want the Bolts (at least in the main). This realization gave me room to fit in the Manamorphose's I had been wanting to play.
While at the store on Friday getting the cards ready Josh asked me if there was a tutor in the format and I couldn't think of one. Then I stumbled upon Beseech the Queen in the case. I knew it sounded crazy but I couldn't stop brewing. If I played this I'd have to cut the Leaks and Cryptic and Preordains but I'd only really miss the Preordains. But then I could play Thoughtseize and Inquisition to Kozelik! Oh man I could have Memoricide in the board of the mirrors!
As soon as I got home I made the switches and came up with this.
4 Prismatic Omen
4 Scapeshift
4 Beseech the Queen
4 Rampant Growth
4 Explore
4 Manamorphose
4 Thougtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozelik
2 Volcanic Fallout
8 Mountain
4 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
4 Twilight Mire
1 Graven Cairns
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Forest
4 Swamp
The changes didn't hurt the mana at all because I just switched U costing cards for B costing cards and 1UUU costing cards for BBB (or 2BB) costing cards. It was perfect. My disruption/protection cards were now proactive discard spells instead of reactive counter spells. Losing Cryptic meant I didn't have an our to something like a maindeck Leyline of Sanctity or Runed Halo but I was willing to make that gambit.
The next day I switched out my blue cards for black ones and tested against Fae. I think I lost the first 5 games to eventually PTQ champion Landon Doty but then started to get the hang of the matchup and brought it back to maybe 30%. Then we started testing different SB cards. First was maxing out on Inquisitions and Fallouts and 2 Combust. That didn't work so then I tried Stags while still maxing out on Fallouts from the board, which worked better and got it to about 50/50. I was happy enough with that.
On Sunday I registered the above 60 with this SB.
2 Back to Nature
2 Volcanic Fallout
3 Memoricide
4 Great Sable Stag
4 Obstinate Baloth
Round 1: Tim Lyons - Fae
He shuffled towards me before we started so I knew what I was getting in to. He leads off with Thoughtseize and sees a few lands a few ramp spells and Omen and Scapeshift. He takes the Scapeshift. I draw a second Omen and pass. He plays another Thoughtseize and before I lay my hand down he says, "Take the Omen". So I put it in the graveyard and show him the other. He says, "Oh". I draw Thoughtseize and play it seeing:
Scion of Oona
Mistbind Clique
Sunken Ruins
Creeping Tar Pit
I take the Mistbind. A few turns pass of me drawing some Scapeshifts and playing some ramp and him attacking with Mutavault and Scion. The turn I'm going to kill him he plays Vendilion Clique. He picks one of the Scapeshifts and the other one kills him.
-4 Prismatic Omen
-2 Beseech the Queen
+4 Great Sable Stag
+2 Volcanic Fallout
In the first two turns he Thoughtseizes me twice and I Thoughtsieze him once. He had taken a mulligan and I took a Leak leaving him with Mistbind, Scion and Cryptic with 2 lands in play.
Game state came down to where he had Scion and Spellstutter in play and 4 lands and I had 6 lands with Fallout and Scapeshift in my hand with some land. He attacks me and I play Fallout trying to get him to play Mistbind so I can kill him. He does and I do.
1-0
Round 2: Josh McClain - Fae
The night before this I got a text from an drunk ex at 2am............ I wasn't able to get back to sleep and it was starting to catch up with me since I hadn't had a Monster yet. So while shuffling I accidentally flipped up a Mountain and Manamorphose. Great. So he takes a mulligan and we swap Thoughtseizes in the early turns. I take a Vendilion Clique leaving him with Spellstutter and Cryptic. I don't remember exactly but some turn he tapped down low and I was able to Scapeshift with Omen in play for lethal. "I'm assuming you have some Valakuts in there."
I boarded the same way and again we trade Thoughtseizes. I take another Vendilion and leave him with a grip of Leak, Spellstutter and Mistbind. He has Bitterblossom this time but I Fallout once and it gives me enough time to resolve a Scapeshift while he is still stalling on mana.
It was some tough beats but he is seasoned PTQ player and took it well. After the match he told me that he thought the Manamorphse was a Ram-Gang and kept a removal heavy hand. Mise.
2-0
Round 3: Caleb - RUW Pestermite Combo
I have Swamp into Twilight Mire and he seems at least a little confused when I play Prismatic Omen instead of Putrid Leech. On turn 3 I play Explore, it resolves. I play two lands and another Explore, that one gets Mana Leaked. He plays a Wall of Omens and I play a 3rd Explore, another 2 lands and a Scapeshift. But he wants me to show him the 4 Valakuts and 2 Verdant Catacombs.
While I was looking for the lands he writes down my name from the result slip onto his life total pad and asks me if my deck is a MODO deck or my own brew. I said it was mine and he asked if he could write an article about it for ChannelFireball. I said I'd think about it.
At this point I think he is some sort of UWr Control deck. Not sure what the red was for, I was thinking Bolt maybe Ajani. I boarded -2 Fallout +2 Back to Nature for Leyline/Halo.
This game he plays Pestermite (oh yeah!) on 3 and 4. I'm not able to find what I need and turn 4 he plays Spliter Twin. In response to the ability I tap Forest and Twilight Mire for Manamorphose with a Forest left up. I already have the Back to Nature in hand but I wanted to make him think I have Fallout so he will play cautiously next game when I board them back in. I make RR and draw a card then kinda chuckle to myself and play the Back to Nature. So he just beats me down for 4 until I die.
I resideboard -2 Prismatic Omen +2 Volcanic Fallout.
Game three while I'm ramping he has Runed Halo. I Thoughtseize away a Jace (I think) then he plays a Mindlock Orb and I'm pretty much dead to his next Jace that starts fatesealing me. I wait until he goes ultimate then scoop.
2-1
Round 4: Bryan - Naya
Game one he gets a pretty fast draw with multiple Bloodbraids and I die pretty quick.
-4 Thoughtseize
-2 Inquisition
+4 Obstinate Baloth
+2 Volcanic Fallout
Game two he is much slower and I have a chance to Scapeshift for lethal if he doesn't use his Knight to get a Edge in response. I go for it since I have another Scapeshift and he lets it resolve so I kill him. While we are shuffling for game 3 he says "shit, I punted" under his breath so now I know he does have it in his deck and should play around it because he won't miss it again. In the last game I slow him down with double Fallout then Baloth and clean up with a Scapeshift for 54.
3-1
Round 5: Matt - Jund
We get deck checked and it takes for-ev-ver because he had one of those boxes from GP Nashville and had extra cards in the other side of the box and spent at least 10 minutes arguing with the judges about it. When the judge came over to explain the situation I already knew what was going on because Chris Miller clued me in on what was happening but when she said what the game loss was for I said, "ahh, right, the old 45 card sideboard trick" and wrote a big GL and circled it on my life total paper. The slip said +22 minutes but we didn't even play for 5. He shuffles towards me so I know he is on Jund and see some of the cards in his deck like Jund Charm. He played Fauna Shaman and I played ramp and Fallout. He was setting up a Demigod chain. Another Fauna Shaman resolved and I play a Beseech for Omen and play it. He uses Fauna at eot to get the last Demigod he needs. He says, "cut me to a land that comes into play untapped". I say, "alright, how about a Forest?" Then he tells me that won't due but he doesn't play any anyways. Then I told him I saw Forests while he was shuffling towards me but he persists. Whatever, who cares. He draws a Leech, plays Bloodbraid needing a Pulse but only gets a Finks and dies.
4-1
Round 6: Harlan - RG Scapeshift
I'm paired up against a 4-0-1. He thinks for a second about offering a draw but then I explained that a draw is a loss for him. He just needs to win one of the next two rounds. So both games I hit him with hand disruption to take his ramp and then ramp and kill him. I boarded in 3 Memoricide for 2 Fallout and a Omen. The only interesting thing happened in game 2 where I Inquisition him and see:
Primal Command
Harrow
Khalni Heart Expedition
Reverberate
Mountain
Mountain
He kept his 7 on the play and has a Valakut in play. My hand is 4 lands, Omen and a Thoughtseize. I took the Khalni Heart Expedition thinking that the Reverb wasn't going to be able to kill me if he didn't have any ramp and I could wait to play the Thoughtseize until I had nothing for him to take in my hand. He drew a Terramorphic and played that so I could Thoughtseize away the Harrow. He drew another Expedition but when I played the Scapeshift he had 3 Mountains up, 5 lands in play and an Expedition with 0 counters on it. So he can Reverb for 3 Mountain 2 Valakut then use Expedition for 2 more Mountains but that only does 12 and doesn't kill me.
5-1
Round 7: Fae player
We draw.
Top 8: Harlan - RG Scapeshift
Yay, the matchup I wanted to play. But this is where things get REAL awkward.
My 7 card hand has 3 land, 3 Omen and a Manamorphose. Auto-mull
My 6 card hand is this:
Mountain
Rampant Growth
Explore
Thoughtseize
Thoughtseize
Inquisition
So I can draw:
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Forest
4 Swamp
4 Manamorphose
1 Graven Cairns
I keep it and draw 2 more Mountains before I get to what I need. But at that point he has 3 lands, an Omen and a Expedition on 1. So I can't play Inquisition because Scapeshift kills me. So I Thougtseize and see:
Forest
Mountain
Bolt
Rampant
Titan
I take the Rampant planing on Thougtseizing away the Titan the next turn.
He draws, plays a land, passes.
I play the other Thoughtseize and see he draw a Scapeshift and decided that he didn't want to use it to kill me. Sure, Harlan, I'll take the Scapeshift.
Two turns and he kills me with the Titan I would have been able to take if I had been able to safely cast the Inquisition, which I guess I could since he didn't realize Scapeshift was the win. Hawkward.
I board the same way I did against him in the swiss.
I play Rampant Growth into Memoricide. I name Omen because I can kill him in two turns with Thoughtseize backup so I thought the only way he kills me faster is with an Omen. He shows me a hand of:
Evolving Wilds
Mountain
Mountain
Shift
Natures Claim
Harrow
I knew I should have written this sooner because I'm forgetting what happened over the next few turns but I get to 6 land and play and play Omen into Beseech for Shift into Thoughtseize. Then he shows me he had drawn a second Scapeshift and he is able to Harrow and Explore into 7 lands and kill me a turn before I kill him. I think he had a 2-3 turn window to draw a second one and a Harrow/Explore and he got there.
At least Landon beat him in the finals where a Primal Command got Cryptic Commanded when it was cast choosing to put Tar Pit on top and search for a creature. Nice.
Don't know what I'm going to play but my next tournament is the Nebraska PTQ next week.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Wichita PTQ - Winner
I'm actually embarrassed to be writing this. I don't want to sound like AJ Sacher just ranting about how everyone is an IDIOT or TOTALLY BRAIN DEAD and much less smart than myself but that is really the only way to describe my opponents from the PTQ over the weekend.
After the PTQ in KC Ben Jackson and I once again tried to brew something just a little different but just like last time in the end we just ran whatever Gerry suggested. Can you blame us?
This is what I had sleeved up before heading down to Wichita.
4 Dark Confidant
4 Vampire Hexmage
4 Thoughtseize
4 Muddle the Mixture
3 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Jace, the Mind Sculpter
1 Compulsive Research
3 Thopter Foundry
2 Sword of the Meek
2 Smother
2 Repeal
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Chrome Mox
4 Dark Depths
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 River of Tears
4 Sunken Ruins
3 Tolaria West
3 Island
1 Academy Ruins
1 Swamp
SB:
3 Deathmark
2 Damnation
2 Jace, the Mind Sculpter
2 Gatekeeper of Malakir
2 Extirpate
1 Oona, Queen of Fae
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Ghost Quarter
We had 62 people in the tournament which meant only 6 rounds before the cut to Top 8.
Let's get started.
Round 1 - Daniel Saunders - UGr Scapeshift
Before the round he had his deck sheet face up but all I could see was a Vendilion Clique in his SB. There were some Elephant tokens in his deck box so I put him on Hypergenesis.
He won the roll and started off with a Halimar Depths. Hmmm, weird. I Thoughtseize him and find out he is actually playing UGr Scapeshift.
His hand is:
Forest
Island
Wood Elves
Spell Snare
Coiling Oracle
Sudden Shock
I take the Spell Snare, play a Dark Confidant next turn and make a 20/20 two turns later with Muddle backup.
-2 Thopter Foundry
-1 Sword of the Meek
-1 Slaughter Pact
-2 Smother
+2 Extirpate
+2 Jace, the Mind Sculpter
+1 Oona, Queen of Fae
+1 Ghost Quarter
Game two is another Thoughtseize into Dark Confidant game. I take a Snare and leave him with Remand and Peer. He Remands my Dark Confidant but it comes down next turn all the while he is ramping with Wood Elves into Sakura-Tribe Elder. My first attempt at Jace gets Remanded but the second time I lay it I look at the top of his library and see a Coiling Oracle. I leave it there and on his turn he plays it, reveals a Scapeshift, and kills me.
Game three I continue the trend which followed me throughout the day of turn 1 Thoughtseize. He has a Snare, Cryptic, TRIPLE Scapeshift and two lands. I have an Extirpate in hand and can probably cripple him or I can just kill him since I also have Depths and Hexmage and Muddle in hand (is). So I take the Snare. Play Hexmage and Depths next turn. He just lays his third land. I untap, play Sunken Ruins and pass. In his upkeep I make a 20/20 and he plays a forth land and tries to Repeal the token, I Muddle it and he concedes.
1-0
Round 2 - Alan Weil - Living End
Guess what spell I played on turn 1 after he mulled to 5? Yuuuuup. I took one of the two copies of Demonic Dread in his hand and left him with the other, Street Wraith, Verdant Catacombs and Mountain. He took a bunch of damage off lands and cycling Wraiths and never drew a Fulminator Mage so I killed him with a 20/20.
-3 Thopter Foundry
-2 Sword of the Meek
-2 Smother
-1 Engineered Explosives
+2 Extirpate
+1 Tormod's Crypt
+1 Chalice of the Void
+2 Jace, the Mind Sculpter
+1 Oona, Queen of Fae
+1 Gatekeeper of Malakir
Game two he just cycled a lot looking (I'm assuming) for multiple cascade spells to play multiple around my Muddles. I got a Jace down and started fatesealing him. At some point he suspends a Living End and the turn before it goes off I Thirst discarding Dark Confidant and Oona. When his Living End goes off I put my guys back in play and he says, "Oh I didn't even notice those were in there." So he cascades into another Living End in his end step when I tap out to activate Oona. From here neither of us have any guys in play and I just keep uping Jace until I ultimate and kill him.
2-0
Round 3 - Josh Smith - All In Red
Game one I'm all set to make a 20/20 on turn two but he has a turn 2 Magus of the Moon. He follows this up with a Chalice of the Void for two. After just getting two attacks in with Magus I Repeal his Chalice, Slaughter Pact his Magus, play a Hexmage and a Chrome Mox on black (Thoughtseize). He draws, tanks and scoops.
-4 Muddle the Mixture
+1 Damnatioin
+1 Deathmark
+2 Jace, the Mind Sculpter
Thinking here was Muddle was going to be too slow on the draw, I might have boarded some or all of them back in maybe for Dark Confidants had I lost game 2.
He tanked for a long time before deciding to keep his seven. He played a Mountain and passed. I Thoughtseize'd him seeing:
Mountain
Chalice of the Void
Chalice of the Void
Seething Song
Magus of the Moon
Shattering Spree
I take the Magus of the Moon. On turn 3 he Seething Songs into Chalice for 2. I Thirst and Thoughtseize him again to take the second Chalice then play a Jace next turn. I put a Dead/Gone and a Magus of the Moon on the bottom and give him a couple Mountains and a Seething Song. Eventually I draw a Repeal, make a 20/20 and it's game over.
3-0
Round 4 - Sein Meier - UW Reveillark
I don't really remember much about this round. He had a bunch of hate cards like Meddling Mage, Path, Repeal, Pithing Needle, Cryptic Command. Also a Reveillark package with Glen Elendra Archmage (is this still a real card?) and Mulldrifter.
I won game 1 with a 20/20 then decided to board into a mostly Thopter deck with Jaces and only 1 Hexmage and 1 Depths since he had so many answers. This didn't work out and I realized I didn't wanna try and grind the game out with Thopters against his hate so I decided I was just going to get him with a 20/20 again. Thopters out, Hexmages and Chalice in.
Turn 1 I Thoughtseize him and see:
Hallowed Fountain
Island
Chalice of the Void
Glen Elendra Archmage
Mana Leak
Pithing Needle
Reveillark
I took the Pithing Needle which was probably a mistake because he had always named Foundry with it in the other games but if I take that risk and he names Hexmage I'm probably dead. He plays a Mind Stone on two and I play my Hexmage and Depths on my turn and pass. He plays a 3rd land and taps out for Glen Elendra. I make my 20/20 and swing in on the next turn. He blocks. On his turn he draws, tanks, and Chalices for two, tapping out. I draw, Slaughter Pact his Glen Elendra and beat for lethal. If he had drawn another land that turn for Reveillark I would have had a much harder time winning. But that is what you get for playing cards like Mind Stone and Glen Elendra outside of standard two years ago.
4-0
Rounds 5 and 6 I ID with a Elves player and Landon who drove down with me and was playing Living End.
Top 8 - Didn't write down these guys names - Mirror
This was by far the best match of the tournament. Maybe the best match Kansas has ever seen. This match was the closest of the weekend and the biggest grind (the one match I didn't ever cast a Thoughtseize) but by far the most enjoyable and mind blowing.
Game one my opponent starts the punting on turn 2. He lays his second land (Urborg) and a Chrome Mox and passes the turn. I draw and cannot get my Urborg into play fast enough. He looks at his hand and I say, "You can't tap it for mana" and he puts it in his graveyard. We Wasteland each other a couple times but I have a Dark Confidant in play. He gets Thopters online but I'm short a Sword. I buy some time with a Explosives but never find my other half of the combo and eventually lose.
I board like this:
-2 Thopter Foundry
-1 Sword of the Meek
-1 Slaughter Pact
-2 Vampire Hexmage
-2 Dark Depths
+2 Jace, the Mind Sculpter
+2 Gatekeeper of Malakir
+2 Extirpate
+1 Oona, Queen of Fae
+1 Ghost Quarter
Game 2 seemed like a heartbreaker. My 7 was 5 land, Chrome Mox, and either Muddle or Thirst. My 6 card hand was 4 land, Chrome Mox, and whichever spell it wasn't in the first hand. Down to 5 and I keep 3 land, Chrome Mox, and Dark Confidant. Bob was going to have to really do work and get me out of this hole but I knew he was up for it. It gets to turn 4 and I'm asking him lots of questions and talking a lot trying to break his concentration and get inside his head. I say, "So your Mox is on blue?" He looks up to confirm and says, "Yes." I turn to Kenny who is sitting next to me and say, "I bet he has the Hexmage for that Depths." True to form the guy plays his Hexmage tapping a Chrome Mox and a Urborg. I look him strait in the face and say, "That is the only way you CANNOT cast that spell." He apologizes and untaps the Mox for a land. He knew I had a Gatekeeper in hand from a Dark Confidant trigger but I assumed he thought if he sac'd his Hexmage in resp he wouldn't have to sac his 20/20. I play the Gatekeeper and he Echoing Truths his Hexmage in response. That's fine, I attack him down to 10 with Dark Confidant equiped with a Sword of the Meek. His next turn he plays the Hexmage, makes a 20/20, and lays another Dark Depths. In my upkeep I reveal an Oona to Bob and am down to 9 from only my own damage. I have another Gatekeeper I drew last turn waiting for him so I play that and get rid of his fancy Marit Lage. Attack and he is at 5 and facing lethal next turn. He draws and plays Engineered Explosives on two and blows it to wipe my entire board. But I have Oona next turn and after his draw step he scoops.
While shuffling for game three my opponent surprises me with his generosity and tells me I have the option to play first in our last game. Stunned I blurt out I'll play first. After we shuffle each others decks he plays a land and I have to remind him he game me the option to play first and I took it. The table judge nods and Kenny about dies of uncontrollable giggles and face slapping.
This game was pretty awesome. He kept a triple Thoughtseize hand but I drew a Dark Confidant to sneak past them. He missed his second land drop but had a Chrome Mox (for a turn before I Engineered Explosive'd it). Once again he was just dying to 2/1 beat down. The turn before he dies he has a Dark Confidant in play at 2 life to my Dark Confidant and Hexmage. He has Island and Chrome Mox on black and revealed a Hexmage to Bob this turn. He just passes so I assume his plan is to block Hexmage and Echoing Truth both the Confidants. Instead, he just blocks my Confidant and dies not realizing I had Urborg in play and he could cast the Hexmage.
Like I said, not proud of any of these wins. All I had to do was not punt.
Top 4 - Target Acquired - Scapeshift Zoo
I don't know this guy's name but he can NEVER beat a KC player. Just bad luck. He has been paired down against KC players and knocked out multiple times and I've personally eliminated him from at least 2 PTQs, well 3 now.
Game one I Repealed his first Geopede, then Smothered his Knight of the Reliquary, then made a 20/20 Rashad token and Muddled his Path.
Boarded like this:
-4 Dark Confidant (Normally I board out Muddle against Zoo but with Scapeshifts in his deck I decided I'd rather have them than Bobs)
-3 Thopter Foundry
-2 Sword of the Meek
-1 Sunken Ruins
+3 Deathmark
+2 Damnation
+2 Gatekeeper of Malakir
+2 Jace, the Mind Sculpter
+1 Ghost Quarter
I think he mulliganed and lead off with just a land. I Thoughtseized him and saw:
Ghost Quarter
Path to Exile
Scapeshift
Tarmogoyf
Vinelasher Kudzu
I took the Goyf and he played the Kudzu on his following turn. I let him beat for 2 twice before I Smothered it and played a Jace on my turn. I fatesealed him and gave him another Scapeshift. He had a Lynx in play but no land so I wasn't worried. Next turn I Thoughtseize'd him for his Path and left mana up for Smother because I let him keep an Arid Mesa on top of his library. He plays it and attacks for 2. I ask him what he is attacking and it's me so I let the 2 come through and go to 14. Same thing happens except I give him some non-fetch land. I take 2 from Lynx and am getting closer to -12ing Jace. At some point I bounce a Geopede and Thoughtseize it. When Jace is going to go ultimate the next turn I let him keep a Pridemage on top. He draws, tanks forever, plays the Pridemage then one of Scapeshifts in his hand with 6 lands in play, one being a Flagstones. I Muddle is and he extends his hand, I'm onto finals.
Finals - JoJo - Elves
Before this I hear from lots of people that if he meets me in finals he will scoop because he knows me and is already Q'd on rating. Turns out he was mistaken and isn't anywhere near Qing on rating and wants the plane ticket anyway. So we battle.
He leads with Forest, Llanowar and I lead with the ever present Thoughtseize.
His hand is:
Llanowar Elves
Nettle Sentinel
Glimpse of Nature
Temple Garden
Verdant Catacombs
I take the Glimpse and take some beats from tiny elves and my Dark Confidant but eventually make a 20/20 and he plays a Glimpse, I Muddle it and he scoops showing me the hand that surely would have killed me had I not Muddled it.
I board like this:
-3 Thopter Foundry
-2 Sword of the Meek
-2 Vampire Hexmage
-2 Dark Depths
+3 Deathmark
+2 Damnation
+1 Jace, the Mind Sculpter
+1 Chalice of the Void
+1 Ghost Quarter
+1 Gatekeeper of Malakir
I Thoughtseized him again and he complained about my luck but I took his 1cc sorcery that he had in his opener both games. How lucky! I get a Dark Confidant in play, offer a trade with his Visionary with it but he declines. I play a second Dark Confidant, greedy, I know. After that I transmute Tolaria West for Chalice and play it for 1. He plays Primal Command to put it on top and shuffle my graveyard into my library. Then I reveal Damnation and Smother to my Confidants and I'm down to 6. I play Deathmark and Smother on his two guys and beat him down to 8. He takes one from a fetch land, and I take 2 from my two Confidant triggers when I reveal a Hexmage and a land. A judge watching realizes I forgot to draw my card for the turn in the excitement of seeing if I would kill myself with Bobs. At this point I'm at 4 and need to either play the Jace in my hand and set up my draws so I don't die or play the Damnation. I attack him down to 3 and play Damnation because Jace gives him an out of Primal Command and killing his one mana elf in play makes it less likely he will be able to kill me. I then play Hexmage and Depths and make a 20/20 while he is at three. He draws, wishing for a Glimpse. Doesn't draw it and I win.
{e}
The deck is for ringers, randoms need not apply. There are tons of decisions and you need to be able to think 4-5 turns into the future. If you make even a tiny mistake you can lose a game you could have won. But it's also powerful and even brain dead idiots will be able to attack with 20/20s randomly (like my top 8 opponent). Still, those players are going to have a hard time closing.
I'm glad I don't have to PTQ anymore but I wish all of you that do the best of luck. If you want more info on the deck just send me a message on facebook or something.
Thanks for reading this mammoth report, please leave feedback.
After the PTQ in KC Ben Jackson and I once again tried to brew something just a little different but just like last time in the end we just ran whatever Gerry suggested. Can you blame us?
This is what I had sleeved up before heading down to Wichita.
4 Dark Confidant
4 Vampire Hexmage
4 Thoughtseize
4 Muddle the Mixture
3 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Jace, the Mind Sculpter
1 Compulsive Research
3 Thopter Foundry
2 Sword of the Meek
2 Smother
2 Repeal
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Chrome Mox
4 Dark Depths
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 River of Tears
4 Sunken Ruins
3 Tolaria West
3 Island
1 Academy Ruins
1 Swamp
SB:
3 Deathmark
2 Damnation
2 Jace, the Mind Sculpter
2 Gatekeeper of Malakir
2 Extirpate
1 Oona, Queen of Fae
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Ghost Quarter
We had 62 people in the tournament which meant only 6 rounds before the cut to Top 8.
Let's get started.
Round 1 - Daniel Saunders - UGr Scapeshift
Before the round he had his deck sheet face up but all I could see was a Vendilion Clique in his SB. There were some Elephant tokens in his deck box so I put him on Hypergenesis.
He won the roll and started off with a Halimar Depths. Hmmm, weird. I Thoughtseize him and find out he is actually playing UGr Scapeshift.
His hand is:
Forest
Island
Wood Elves
Spell Snare
Coiling Oracle
Sudden Shock
I take the Spell Snare, play a Dark Confidant next turn and make a 20/20 two turns later with Muddle backup.
-2 Thopter Foundry
-1 Sword of the Meek
-1 Slaughter Pact
-2 Smother
+2 Extirpate
+2 Jace, the Mind Sculpter
+1 Oona, Queen of Fae
+1 Ghost Quarter
Game two is another Thoughtseize into Dark Confidant game. I take a Snare and leave him with Remand and Peer. He Remands my Dark Confidant but it comes down next turn all the while he is ramping with Wood Elves into Sakura-Tribe Elder. My first attempt at Jace gets Remanded but the second time I lay it I look at the top of his library and see a Coiling Oracle. I leave it there and on his turn he plays it, reveals a Scapeshift, and kills me.
Game three I continue the trend which followed me throughout the day of turn 1 Thoughtseize. He has a Snare, Cryptic, TRIPLE Scapeshift and two lands. I have an Extirpate in hand and can probably cripple him or I can just kill him since I also have Depths and Hexmage and Muddle in hand (is). So I take the Snare. Play Hexmage and Depths next turn. He just lays his third land. I untap, play Sunken Ruins and pass. In his upkeep I make a 20/20 and he plays a forth land and tries to Repeal the token, I Muddle it and he concedes.
1-0
Round 2 - Alan Weil - Living End
Guess what spell I played on turn 1 after he mulled to 5? Yuuuuup. I took one of the two copies of Demonic Dread in his hand and left him with the other, Street Wraith, Verdant Catacombs and Mountain. He took a bunch of damage off lands and cycling Wraiths and never drew a Fulminator Mage so I killed him with a 20/20.
-3 Thopter Foundry
-2 Sword of the Meek
-2 Smother
-1 Engineered Explosives
+2 Extirpate
+1 Tormod's Crypt
+1 Chalice of the Void
+2 Jace, the Mind Sculpter
+1 Oona, Queen of Fae
+1 Gatekeeper of Malakir
Game two he just cycled a lot looking (I'm assuming) for multiple cascade spells to play multiple around my Muddles. I got a Jace down and started fatesealing him. At some point he suspends a Living End and the turn before it goes off I Thirst discarding Dark Confidant and Oona. When his Living End goes off I put my guys back in play and he says, "Oh I didn't even notice those were in there." So he cascades into another Living End in his end step when I tap out to activate Oona. From here neither of us have any guys in play and I just keep uping Jace until I ultimate and kill him.
2-0
Round 3 - Josh Smith - All In Red
Game one I'm all set to make a 20/20 on turn two but he has a turn 2 Magus of the Moon. He follows this up with a Chalice of the Void for two. After just getting two attacks in with Magus I Repeal his Chalice, Slaughter Pact his Magus, play a Hexmage and a Chrome Mox on black (Thoughtseize). He draws, tanks and scoops.
-4 Muddle the Mixture
+1 Damnatioin
+1 Deathmark
+2 Jace, the Mind Sculpter
Thinking here was Muddle was going to be too slow on the draw, I might have boarded some or all of them back in maybe for Dark Confidants had I lost game 2.
He tanked for a long time before deciding to keep his seven. He played a Mountain and passed. I Thoughtseize'd him seeing:
Mountain
Chalice of the Void
Chalice of the Void
Seething Song
Magus of the Moon
Shattering Spree
I take the Magus of the Moon. On turn 3 he Seething Songs into Chalice for 2. I Thirst and Thoughtseize him again to take the second Chalice then play a Jace next turn. I put a Dead/Gone and a Magus of the Moon on the bottom and give him a couple Mountains and a Seething Song. Eventually I draw a Repeal, make a 20/20 and it's game over.
3-0
Round 4 - Sein Meier - UW Reveillark
I don't really remember much about this round. He had a bunch of hate cards like Meddling Mage, Path, Repeal, Pithing Needle, Cryptic Command. Also a Reveillark package with Glen Elendra Archmage (is this still a real card?) and Mulldrifter.
I won game 1 with a 20/20 then decided to board into a mostly Thopter deck with Jaces and only 1 Hexmage and 1 Depths since he had so many answers. This didn't work out and I realized I didn't wanna try and grind the game out with Thopters against his hate so I decided I was just going to get him with a 20/20 again. Thopters out, Hexmages and Chalice in.
Turn 1 I Thoughtseize him and see:
Hallowed Fountain
Island
Chalice of the Void
Glen Elendra Archmage
Mana Leak
Pithing Needle
Reveillark
I took the Pithing Needle which was probably a mistake because he had always named Foundry with it in the other games but if I take that risk and he names Hexmage I'm probably dead. He plays a Mind Stone on two and I play my Hexmage and Depths on my turn and pass. He plays a 3rd land and taps out for Glen Elendra. I make my 20/20 and swing in on the next turn. He blocks. On his turn he draws, tanks, and Chalices for two, tapping out. I draw, Slaughter Pact his Glen Elendra and beat for lethal. If he had drawn another land that turn for Reveillark I would have had a much harder time winning. But that is what you get for playing cards like Mind Stone and Glen Elendra outside of standard two years ago.
4-0
Rounds 5 and 6 I ID with a Elves player and Landon who drove down with me and was playing Living End.
Top 8 - Didn't write down these guys names - Mirror
This was by far the best match of the tournament. Maybe the best match Kansas has ever seen. This match was the closest of the weekend and the biggest grind (the one match I didn't ever cast a Thoughtseize) but by far the most enjoyable and mind blowing.
Game one my opponent starts the punting on turn 2. He lays his second land (Urborg) and a Chrome Mox and passes the turn. I draw and cannot get my Urborg into play fast enough. He looks at his hand and I say, "You can't tap it for mana" and he puts it in his graveyard. We Wasteland each other a couple times but I have a Dark Confidant in play. He gets Thopters online but I'm short a Sword. I buy some time with a Explosives but never find my other half of the combo and eventually lose.
I board like this:
-2 Thopter Foundry
-1 Sword of the Meek
-1 Slaughter Pact
-2 Vampire Hexmage
-2 Dark Depths
+2 Jace, the Mind Sculpter
+2 Gatekeeper of Malakir
+2 Extirpate
+1 Oona, Queen of Fae
+1 Ghost Quarter
Game 2 seemed like a heartbreaker. My 7 was 5 land, Chrome Mox, and either Muddle or Thirst. My 6 card hand was 4 land, Chrome Mox, and whichever spell it wasn't in the first hand. Down to 5 and I keep 3 land, Chrome Mox, and Dark Confidant. Bob was going to have to really do work and get me out of this hole but I knew he was up for it. It gets to turn 4 and I'm asking him lots of questions and talking a lot trying to break his concentration and get inside his head. I say, "So your Mox is on blue?" He looks up to confirm and says, "Yes." I turn to Kenny who is sitting next to me and say, "I bet he has the Hexmage for that Depths." True to form the guy plays his Hexmage tapping a Chrome Mox and a Urborg. I look him strait in the face and say, "That is the only way you CANNOT cast that spell." He apologizes and untaps the Mox for a land. He knew I had a Gatekeeper in hand from a Dark Confidant trigger but I assumed he thought if he sac'd his Hexmage in resp he wouldn't have to sac his 20/20. I play the Gatekeeper and he Echoing Truths his Hexmage in response. That's fine, I attack him down to 10 with Dark Confidant equiped with a Sword of the Meek. His next turn he plays the Hexmage, makes a 20/20, and lays another Dark Depths. In my upkeep I reveal an Oona to Bob and am down to 9 from only my own damage. I have another Gatekeeper I drew last turn waiting for him so I play that and get rid of his fancy Marit Lage. Attack and he is at 5 and facing lethal next turn. He draws and plays Engineered Explosives on two and blows it to wipe my entire board. But I have Oona next turn and after his draw step he scoops.
While shuffling for game three my opponent surprises me with his generosity and tells me I have the option to play first in our last game. Stunned I blurt out I'll play first. After we shuffle each others decks he plays a land and I have to remind him he game me the option to play first and I took it. The table judge nods and Kenny about dies of uncontrollable giggles and face slapping.
This game was pretty awesome. He kept a triple Thoughtseize hand but I drew a Dark Confidant to sneak past them. He missed his second land drop but had a Chrome Mox (for a turn before I Engineered Explosive'd it). Once again he was just dying to 2/1 beat down. The turn before he dies he has a Dark Confidant in play at 2 life to my Dark Confidant and Hexmage. He has Island and Chrome Mox on black and revealed a Hexmage to Bob this turn. He just passes so I assume his plan is to block Hexmage and Echoing Truth both the Confidants. Instead, he just blocks my Confidant and dies not realizing I had Urborg in play and he could cast the Hexmage.
Like I said, not proud of any of these wins. All I had to do was not punt.
Top 4 - Target Acquired - Scapeshift Zoo
I don't know this guy's name but he can NEVER beat a KC player. Just bad luck. He has been paired down against KC players and knocked out multiple times and I've personally eliminated him from at least 2 PTQs, well 3 now.
Game one I Repealed his first Geopede, then Smothered his Knight of the Reliquary, then made a 20/20 Rashad token and Muddled his Path.
Boarded like this:
-4 Dark Confidant (Normally I board out Muddle against Zoo but with Scapeshifts in his deck I decided I'd rather have them than Bobs)
-3 Thopter Foundry
-2 Sword of the Meek
-1 Sunken Ruins
+3 Deathmark
+2 Damnation
+2 Gatekeeper of Malakir
+2 Jace, the Mind Sculpter
+1 Ghost Quarter
I think he mulliganed and lead off with just a land. I Thoughtseized him and saw:
Ghost Quarter
Path to Exile
Scapeshift
Tarmogoyf
Vinelasher Kudzu
I took the Goyf and he played the Kudzu on his following turn. I let him beat for 2 twice before I Smothered it and played a Jace on my turn. I fatesealed him and gave him another Scapeshift. He had a Lynx in play but no land so I wasn't worried. Next turn I Thoughtseize'd him for his Path and left mana up for Smother because I let him keep an Arid Mesa on top of his library. He plays it and attacks for 2. I ask him what he is attacking and it's me so I let the 2 come through and go to 14. Same thing happens except I give him some non-fetch land. I take 2 from Lynx and am getting closer to -12ing Jace. At some point I bounce a Geopede and Thoughtseize it. When Jace is going to go ultimate the next turn I let him keep a Pridemage on top. He draws, tanks forever, plays the Pridemage then one of Scapeshifts in his hand with 6 lands in play, one being a Flagstones. I Muddle is and he extends his hand, I'm onto finals.
Finals - JoJo - Elves
Before this I hear from lots of people that if he meets me in finals he will scoop because he knows me and is already Q'd on rating. Turns out he was mistaken and isn't anywhere near Qing on rating and wants the plane ticket anyway. So we battle.
He leads with Forest, Llanowar and I lead with the ever present Thoughtseize.
His hand is:
Llanowar Elves
Nettle Sentinel
Glimpse of Nature
Temple Garden
Verdant Catacombs
I take the Glimpse and take some beats from tiny elves and my Dark Confidant but eventually make a 20/20 and he plays a Glimpse, I Muddle it and he scoops showing me the hand that surely would have killed me had I not Muddled it.
I board like this:
-3 Thopter Foundry
-2 Sword of the Meek
-2 Vampire Hexmage
-2 Dark Depths
+3 Deathmark
+2 Damnation
+1 Jace, the Mind Sculpter
+1 Chalice of the Void
+1 Ghost Quarter
+1 Gatekeeper of Malakir
I Thoughtseized him again and he complained about my luck but I took his 1cc sorcery that he had in his opener both games. How lucky! I get a Dark Confidant in play, offer a trade with his Visionary with it but he declines. I play a second Dark Confidant, greedy, I know. After that I transmute Tolaria West for Chalice and play it for 1. He plays Primal Command to put it on top and shuffle my graveyard into my library. Then I reveal Damnation and Smother to my Confidants and I'm down to 6. I play Deathmark and Smother on his two guys and beat him down to 8. He takes one from a fetch land, and I take 2 from my two Confidant triggers when I reveal a Hexmage and a land. A judge watching realizes I forgot to draw my card for the turn in the excitement of seeing if I would kill myself with Bobs. At this point I'm at 4 and need to either play the Jace in my hand and set up my draws so I don't die or play the Damnation. I attack him down to 3 and play Damnation because Jace gives him an out of Primal Command and killing his one mana elf in play makes it less likely he will be able to kill me. I then play Hexmage and Depths and make a 20/20 while he is at three. He draws, wishing for a Glimpse. Doesn't draw it and I win.
{e}
The deck is for ringers, randoms need not apply. There are tons of decisions and you need to be able to think 4-5 turns into the future. If you make even a tiny mistake you can lose a game you could have won. But it's also powerful and even brain dead idiots will be able to attack with 20/20s randomly (like my top 8 opponent). Still, those players are going to have a hard time closing.
I'm glad I don't have to PTQ anymore but I wish all of you that do the best of luck. If you want more info on the deck just send me a message on facebook or something.
Thanks for reading this mammoth report, please leave feedback.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
KC PTQ in 20 minutes or less!
I know I'm late getting this up (SORRY LANDON) but I have 20 mintues before my next class and I'm going to try and get everything in here in that time.
AND WE'RE OFF!
The week between last PTQ and this one I spent brewing with Ben Jackson. We tried lots of different things from BG Depths to BG Depths with Abyssal Persecutor to UB Depths with Trinket Mages and Persecutors. Basically we just wanted a decent man plan to go along with making 20/20s. Eventually we came to our sences and just played the best deck.
What I registered:
4 Dark Confidant
4 Vampire Hexmage
4 Thoughtseize
3 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Compulsive Research
4 Muddle the Mixture
3 Smother
1 Slaughter Pact
3 Thopter Foundry
2 Sword of the Meek
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Chalice of the Void
4 Chrome Mox
4 Dark Depths
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Sunken ruins
4 River of Tears
3 Island
1 Swamp
1 Dimir Aquaduct
1 Academy Ruins
2 Tolaria West
SB:
3 Leyline of the Void
3 Deathmark
2 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
2 Damnation
2 Duress
1 Exile into Darkness
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Darkblast
Round 1: Mark E. Donovan -- Zoo
I Thoughtseize him turn 1 and he kept a hand full of animals. I make a 20/20 on turn 3 and he scoops them up after his draw step. Game two I kill his first few dudes, Thirst at the end of his turn, Thoughtseize him, make a 20/20. This time he doesn't scoop after he draws his card so I figure he drew an answer. Oh well, I'm still in complete control of the game. Turns out he was just slow rolling me when he lays two more guys and empties his hand.
1-0
Round 2: Logan A. Petersen -- Boros
This matchup is pretty tough. I don't remember exactly what happened but I got double Bolted out of game one and in game two I was two turns away from killing him with Sphinx when but he draws the burn to finish me off again when I'm sitting on a hand full of removal.
1-1
Round 3: Randi L. Durrin -- AIR
Game 1 I'm going to 20/20 on turn 2 but she's got a Blood Moon before I can do anything. I never cast any spells and get ran over by Demigods. Game 2 I'm all set up to make a 20/20 on turn 2 again but she has the turn 1 Blood Moon. I'm still able to get a Island in play and a Chrome Mox on black and I play Thopter Foundry and Sword before she can get any animal into play. Game 3, once again, I draw Hexmage and Dark Depths and a Urborg (how lucky right?), and ones again she has a turn 2 Magus of the Moon. This time I'm ready with a Slaughter Pact and a Chrome Mox on black to make sure another Moon effect won't keep me from paying for it. She doesn't have an answer (Dead/Gone was her only out, if she plays it) and we're done.
Round 4: Kyah Hicks -- MBC
Not much to say here, he got mana flooded and didn't have answers for either one of my combos. Game two the opposite happened and he didn't get any lands and got ran over by a 20/20.
Round 5: Aaron J. Stockman -- Zoo
I Explosive'd away his first two guys, chained some draw spells and got Factory online and game 1 was over. I boarded in more removal, blew up all his guys, and then killed him with something large.
Round 6: Kyle D. Dembinski -- Zoo
As the round is starting Kyle gets a text from Boss asking if he has won the PTQ yet. He tells Boss he is playing against me so basically, he has. Boss then texts me and berates me on my deck choice because I can't beat Zoo. Kyle says something about how we can draw this round and smash in the next and both make Top 8. I ask him if he wants to, he says not really and we play. I'm sure he can remember the details clearer than I can but everything goes to play. I Smother some guys and make a 20/20 backed up with disruption. Going into game 2 he asks if I want to draw and I tell him to ask me after this game and he refuses. He gets stuck on his 3rd land for a while and can't cast the Thought Hemmorhage in his hand for my Foundries. But he doesn't have any guys in play and I'm attacking with a 5/5 shroud guy so I'm not sure it mattered. Comes down to he needs to draw a Tribal Flames to win and he doesn't. Sorry Kyle.
Round 7: Jon Klimek -- Gifts/Punishing Fire/Thopter Sword abortion of a deck
Here's the deal with this guy. I see him on the midwest PTQ circuit all the time. Never been impressed. Him and his friends were giant assholes/retards to my friend Rader at GP KC but Rader smashed them anyways. So I beat his wife earlier in the tournament (AIR player) and was looking forward to ending the tournament for both of them. I watched his round when he was 4-0 against Living End. He punted turn after turn and ended up getting a draw instead of the win he should have had. He then had to play against Penick who was playing the same deck I was and lost. So from a position where he should have been able to draw in at 5-0 he is now in some pretty serious danger of not Top 8ing. And it's not looking good because it is me in his way. Game one I get Thopter/Sword online early and I find out he must have the Bajoka Bog I saw him playing with earlier in his sb because he doesn't use Knight to fetch it up and I get a quick win. Game two I start with a Leyline of the Void in play and Thoughtseize him. I think I messed up here because I took his Path instead of one of his creatures. So he gets his guys into play and I'm not drawing any gas. I'm getting beat down by Vendilion Clique and 2 Knights of the Reliquary. A turn comes where he can put me to one but instead he thinks he is going for the kill and attacks with one Knight and a Clique and taps the other Knight to search up a fetch land and sac it. I remind him Leyline is in play, "those are rfg right?" and he says, "yeah" like that was on purpose. I go to 3, draw a Thopter Foundry and am able to sac a Mox to survive a turn, draw a Smother to kill a Knight, Hexmage to make a 20/20, but he drew a Gifts and was able to get that one last point through. Game three was pretty cool cause I got a Dark Confidant in play early and just answered everything he played. He had a Needle on Thopter Foundry and I drew an Engineered Explosives. I decided to lay it for 1 without being able to blow it in case he gets a Clique and takes it away from me. So with Explosives for 1 in play he lays a Birds of Paradise. GOOD PLAY. On my turn I blow it up and hear his friends behind me whisper, "HE JUST LAYED A BIRDS INTO A EXPLOSIVES." He never lands anything important and eventually I get there.
Top 8: Some random jk Scott Ruggs -- Zoo
Pretty anticlimatic. I mulliganed and didn't draw any lands both games. Poop.
Oh well, I played well. I'll get there next week.
AND WE'RE OFF!
The week between last PTQ and this one I spent brewing with Ben Jackson. We tried lots of different things from BG Depths to BG Depths with Abyssal Persecutor to UB Depths with Trinket Mages and Persecutors. Basically we just wanted a decent man plan to go along with making 20/20s. Eventually we came to our sences and just played the best deck.
What I registered:
4 Dark Confidant
4 Vampire Hexmage
4 Thoughtseize
3 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Compulsive Research
4 Muddle the Mixture
3 Smother
1 Slaughter Pact
3 Thopter Foundry
2 Sword of the Meek
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Chalice of the Void
4 Chrome Mox
4 Dark Depths
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Sunken ruins
4 River of Tears
3 Island
1 Swamp
1 Dimir Aquaduct
1 Academy Ruins
2 Tolaria West
SB:
3 Leyline of the Void
3 Deathmark
2 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
2 Damnation
2 Duress
1 Exile into Darkness
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Darkblast
Round 1: Mark E. Donovan -- Zoo
I Thoughtseize him turn 1 and he kept a hand full of animals. I make a 20/20 on turn 3 and he scoops them up after his draw step. Game two I kill his first few dudes, Thirst at the end of his turn, Thoughtseize him, make a 20/20. This time he doesn't scoop after he draws his card so I figure he drew an answer. Oh well, I'm still in complete control of the game. Turns out he was just slow rolling me when he lays two more guys and empties his hand.
1-0
Round 2: Logan A. Petersen -- Boros
This matchup is pretty tough. I don't remember exactly what happened but I got double Bolted out of game one and in game two I was two turns away from killing him with Sphinx when but he draws the burn to finish me off again when I'm sitting on a hand full of removal.
1-1
Round 3: Randi L. Durrin -- AIR
Game 1 I'm going to 20/20 on turn 2 but she's got a Blood Moon before I can do anything. I never cast any spells and get ran over by Demigods. Game 2 I'm all set up to make a 20/20 on turn 2 again but she has the turn 1 Blood Moon. I'm still able to get a Island in play and a Chrome Mox on black and I play Thopter Foundry and Sword before she can get any animal into play. Game 3, once again, I draw Hexmage and Dark Depths and a Urborg (how lucky right?), and ones again she has a turn 2 Magus of the Moon. This time I'm ready with a Slaughter Pact and a Chrome Mox on black to make sure another Moon effect won't keep me from paying for it. She doesn't have an answer (Dead/Gone was her only out, if she plays it) and we're done.
Round 4: Kyah Hicks -- MBC
Not much to say here, he got mana flooded and didn't have answers for either one of my combos. Game two the opposite happened and he didn't get any lands and got ran over by a 20/20.
Round 5: Aaron J. Stockman -- Zoo
I Explosive'd away his first two guys, chained some draw spells and got Factory online and game 1 was over. I boarded in more removal, blew up all his guys, and then killed him with something large.
Round 6: Kyle D. Dembinski -- Zoo
As the round is starting Kyle gets a text from Boss asking if he has won the PTQ yet. He tells Boss he is playing against me so basically, he has. Boss then texts me and berates me on my deck choice because I can't beat Zoo. Kyle says something about how we can draw this round and smash in the next and both make Top 8. I ask him if he wants to, he says not really and we play. I'm sure he can remember the details clearer than I can but everything goes to play. I Smother some guys and make a 20/20 backed up with disruption. Going into game 2 he asks if I want to draw and I tell him to ask me after this game and he refuses. He gets stuck on his 3rd land for a while and can't cast the Thought Hemmorhage in his hand for my Foundries. But he doesn't have any guys in play and I'm attacking with a 5/5 shroud guy so I'm not sure it mattered. Comes down to he needs to draw a Tribal Flames to win and he doesn't. Sorry Kyle.
Round 7: Jon Klimek -- Gifts/Punishing Fire/Thopter Sword abortion of a deck
Here's the deal with this guy. I see him on the midwest PTQ circuit all the time. Never been impressed. Him and his friends were giant assholes/retards to my friend Rader at GP KC but Rader smashed them anyways. So I beat his wife earlier in the tournament (AIR player) and was looking forward to ending the tournament for both of them. I watched his round when he was 4-0 against Living End. He punted turn after turn and ended up getting a draw instead of the win he should have had. He then had to play against Penick who was playing the same deck I was and lost. So from a position where he should have been able to draw in at 5-0 he is now in some pretty serious danger of not Top 8ing. And it's not looking good because it is me in his way. Game one I get Thopter/Sword online early and I find out he must have the Bajoka Bog I saw him playing with earlier in his sb because he doesn't use Knight to fetch it up and I get a quick win. Game two I start with a Leyline of the Void in play and Thoughtseize him. I think I messed up here because I took his Path instead of one of his creatures. So he gets his guys into play and I'm not drawing any gas. I'm getting beat down by Vendilion Clique and 2 Knights of the Reliquary. A turn comes where he can put me to one but instead he thinks he is going for the kill and attacks with one Knight and a Clique and taps the other Knight to search up a fetch land and sac it. I remind him Leyline is in play, "those are rfg right?" and he says, "yeah" like that was on purpose. I go to 3, draw a Thopter Foundry and am able to sac a Mox to survive a turn, draw a Smother to kill a Knight, Hexmage to make a 20/20, but he drew a Gifts and was able to get that one last point through. Game three was pretty cool cause I got a Dark Confidant in play early and just answered everything he played. He had a Needle on Thopter Foundry and I drew an Engineered Explosives. I decided to lay it for 1 without being able to blow it in case he gets a Clique and takes it away from me. So with Explosives for 1 in play he lays a Birds of Paradise. GOOD PLAY. On my turn I blow it up and hear his friends behind me whisper, "HE JUST LAYED A BIRDS INTO A EXPLOSIVES." He never lands anything important and eventually I get there.
Top 8: Some random jk Scott Ruggs -- Zoo
Pretty anticlimatic. I mulliganed and didn't draw any lands both games. Poop.
Oh well, I played well. I'll get there next week.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
A Couple of PTQ Reports
Over the weekend I was reminded that I have a blog that I never update. The post before this was 7 months ago and that one was 5 months after the one before it. I wasn't planning on this being a biannual blog so I'll try to start updating it more often.
Last weekend was a PTQ in Lincoln, NE. A couple weeks before the tournament I asked a couple people if they could think of a reason I shouldn't just run the most powerful deck. No one came up with anything convincing so I started working on getting the cards I needed for the UB Thopter Depths deck developed by GerryT. This is no easy task as no one opened any Cold Snap and the $3 rare the deck was named after had catapulted to $40 or more if you could even find any. I lucked out by finding a spare one in my trunk one day while looking for my phone charger and a local store that no one really goes to just happened to have 3 more that they sold me for $25 a piece before they knew they were worth more. Ding! Pretty much everything else I already owned or could borrow. This is the list I registered.
4 Dark Confidant
4 Vampire Hexmage
4 Thoughtseize
4 Muddle the Mixture
3 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Compulsive Research
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Duress
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Repeal
1 Echoing Truth
3 Thopter Foundry
2 Sword of the Meek
4 Chrome Mox
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Dark Depths
4 River of Tears
4 Sunken Ruins
2 Tolaria West
1 Academy Ruins
3 Island
1 Swamp
1 Dimir Aquaduct
SB:
3 Extirpate
3 Deathmark
1 Exile into Darkness
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Oona, Queen of the Fae
1 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
2 Threads of Disloyalty
1 Darkblast
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Duress
On the way to Lincoln we miss our exit and show up 15 minutes after it is supposed to start. Luckily they have never, fucking ever started a tournament on time in Nebraska. I'm signed up and ready to go. Again, I don't have notes so this is all from memory.
Round 1: UWB Teachings
I Thoughtseize him, play Bob, Thoughtseize him again and make a 20/20 on turn 3. He didn't draw and answer and it was off to the sideboards.
-1 Engineered Explosives
-2 Repeal
-1 Echoing Truth
-1 Thopter Foundry
-1 Sword of the Meek
+1 Oona, Queen of Fae
+1 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
+1 Duress
+1 Phyrexian Arena
+2 Extirpate
Game two I opened up on Thoughtseize again and he had kept 5 lands, Teferi, and Mystical Teachings. I played Bob again and another on turn 3. Turn 4 I Duressed him and after his draw I Extirpated Teachings. Turns out he had just drawn one so I got tons of value. Next turn I played Hexmage and a Depths that I had to transmute for and he scooped.
Round 2: Mono Red Burn
Game one I play Foundry on turn 1 and Sword on turn 2. He had to read every card I played including Chrome Mox. Good times.
Game two I had Foundry but no Sword. At one point I sacced a Mox to chump block a Hellspark Elemental and he didn't assign any trample damage so I decided it was worth it to use the Chalice in my hand to do the same thing next turn. I was able to buy enough time with that and Darkblast to find the Sword but he has a Everlasting Torment so I Echoing Truth it, gain 9 or 10 life to put me out of range and kill him with Thopters.
Round 3: Boros
This round I got deck checked and it turns out in my haste I forgot to register the Engineered Explosives. This is the first time I've ever punted deck registration and it was pretty embarrassing and hurt a lot since this is such a bad matchup already. I was able to win game 2 but got stuck on mana and ran over in game 3.
Round 4: Zoo
I don't remember much from this match but in game 1 I wasn't able to do much. I got attacked down to one, bluffed the Muddle for the Helix I know is in his hand from a Thoughtseize, then drew the Muddle I was bluffing on the next turn. But the only blue lands I had were Island and River and I had to lay a land to be able to make enough Thopters to survive an attack next turn. So I had to make him play the Helix before I lay a land. So I announce Chrome Mox like it's a question. "Chrome Mox?" He thinks for a second and Helixs me in responce. I Muddle it and it turns out he was slow rolling me with a Lightning Bolt. Game 2 he flashes me his hand half way though the game so I know he has Bolt and Path. I make the only play that gives me any shot and he draws a second Bolt and I'm dead.
I decided not to drop out of the tournament because Ryan was still in contention and I wanted some more practice with the deck and boy was I awarded in the next round. I had to use the bathroom and wait in line so I was showing up to the table just as the round clock started.
Round 5: Blue Zoo
I sit down and start shuffling after I pile shuffle twice and do a couple riffles he turns to his friends behind him and says, "How long does he have? Three minutes?" Then he turns to me and says, "You're going to need to hurry up because I will call you on time." I laughed at him and assured him it would not be an issue. I pile shuffle again just to get under his skin and he starts counting, "13, 12, 11.." as I present. I realized then he was counting down the last few seconds of the three minutes on the time clock, had I realized that sooner I would have shuffled again. Game one I Thoughtseize him on turn 1 and make a 20/20 on turn two. Just 5 minutes off the time clock at this point. Game 2 I Thoughtseize him again on turn 1 and he had kept a hand with all 3 drops and a Mana Leak and only 2 lands. I took a Leak. I played a Bob on turn 2 and he missed his 3rd land drop. I Thoughtseize him again and take a Matrix he just drew. He misses his land drop again and I make a 20/20 with Muddle backup the next turn and it is over BEFORE WE EVEN HAVE RESULT SLIPS. I have to rub this in his face so I say, "Good thing we started on time, we don't even have the result slips yet." And he had to sit there pissed off while we waited for the judge to come around. I then dropped and we left soon trying to beat the snow back to KC.
KC PTQ Report coming tomorrow.
Last weekend was a PTQ in Lincoln, NE. A couple weeks before the tournament I asked a couple people if they could think of a reason I shouldn't just run the most powerful deck. No one came up with anything convincing so I started working on getting the cards I needed for the UB Thopter Depths deck developed by GerryT. This is no easy task as no one opened any Cold Snap and the $3 rare the deck was named after had catapulted to $40 or more if you could even find any. I lucked out by finding a spare one in my trunk one day while looking for my phone charger and a local store that no one really goes to just happened to have 3 more that they sold me for $25 a piece before they knew they were worth more. Ding! Pretty much everything else I already owned or could borrow. This is the list I registered.
4 Dark Confidant
4 Vampire Hexmage
4 Thoughtseize
4 Muddle the Mixture
3 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Compulsive Research
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Duress
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Repeal
1 Echoing Truth
3 Thopter Foundry
2 Sword of the Meek
4 Chrome Mox
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Dark Depths
4 River of Tears
4 Sunken Ruins
2 Tolaria West
1 Academy Ruins
3 Island
1 Swamp
1 Dimir Aquaduct
SB:
3 Extirpate
3 Deathmark
1 Exile into Darkness
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Oona, Queen of the Fae
1 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
2 Threads of Disloyalty
1 Darkblast
1 Chalice of the Void
1 Duress
On the way to Lincoln we miss our exit and show up 15 minutes after it is supposed to start. Luckily they have never, fucking ever started a tournament on time in Nebraska. I'm signed up and ready to go. Again, I don't have notes so this is all from memory.
Round 1: UWB Teachings
I Thoughtseize him, play Bob, Thoughtseize him again and make a 20/20 on turn 3. He didn't draw and answer and it was off to the sideboards.
-1 Engineered Explosives
-2 Repeal
-1 Echoing Truth
-1 Thopter Foundry
-1 Sword of the Meek
+1 Oona, Queen of Fae
+1 Sphinx of Jwar Isle
+1 Duress
+1 Phyrexian Arena
+2 Extirpate
Game two I opened up on Thoughtseize again and he had kept 5 lands, Teferi, and Mystical Teachings. I played Bob again and another on turn 3. Turn 4 I Duressed him and after his draw I Extirpated Teachings. Turns out he had just drawn one so I got tons of value. Next turn I played Hexmage and a Depths that I had to transmute for and he scooped.
Round 2: Mono Red Burn
Game one I play Foundry on turn 1 and Sword on turn 2. He had to read every card I played including Chrome Mox. Good times.
Game two I had Foundry but no Sword. At one point I sacced a Mox to chump block a Hellspark Elemental and he didn't assign any trample damage so I decided it was worth it to use the Chalice in my hand to do the same thing next turn. I was able to buy enough time with that and Darkblast to find the Sword but he has a Everlasting Torment so I Echoing Truth it, gain 9 or 10 life to put me out of range and kill him with Thopters.
Round 3: Boros
This round I got deck checked and it turns out in my haste I forgot to register the Engineered Explosives. This is the first time I've ever punted deck registration and it was pretty embarrassing and hurt a lot since this is such a bad matchup already. I was able to win game 2 but got stuck on mana and ran over in game 3.
Round 4: Zoo
I don't remember much from this match but in game 1 I wasn't able to do much. I got attacked down to one, bluffed the Muddle for the Helix I know is in his hand from a Thoughtseize, then drew the Muddle I was bluffing on the next turn. But the only blue lands I had were Island and River and I had to lay a land to be able to make enough Thopters to survive an attack next turn. So I had to make him play the Helix before I lay a land. So I announce Chrome Mox like it's a question. "Chrome Mox?" He thinks for a second and Helixs me in responce. I Muddle it and it turns out he was slow rolling me with a Lightning Bolt. Game 2 he flashes me his hand half way though the game so I know he has Bolt and Path. I make the only play that gives me any shot and he draws a second Bolt and I'm dead.
I decided not to drop out of the tournament because Ryan was still in contention and I wanted some more practice with the deck and boy was I awarded in the next round. I had to use the bathroom and wait in line so I was showing up to the table just as the round clock started.
Round 5: Blue Zoo
I sit down and start shuffling after I pile shuffle twice and do a couple riffles he turns to his friends behind him and says, "How long does he have? Three minutes?" Then he turns to me and says, "You're going to need to hurry up because I will call you on time." I laughed at him and assured him it would not be an issue. I pile shuffle again just to get under his skin and he starts counting, "13, 12, 11.." as I present. I realized then he was counting down the last few seconds of the three minutes on the time clock, had I realized that sooner I would have shuffled again. Game one I Thoughtseize him on turn 1 and make a 20/20 on turn two. Just 5 minutes off the time clock at this point. Game 2 I Thoughtseize him again on turn 1 and he had kept a hand with all 3 drops and a Mana Leak and only 2 lands. I took a Leak. I played a Bob on turn 2 and he missed his 3rd land drop. I Thoughtseize him again and take a Matrix he just drew. He misses his land drop again and I make a 20/20 with Muddle backup the next turn and it is over BEFORE WE EVEN HAVE RESULT SLIPS. I have to rub this in his face so I say, "Good thing we started on time, we don't even have the result slips yet." And he had to sit there pissed off while we waited for the judge to come around. I then dropped and we left soon trying to beat the snow back to KC.
KC PTQ Report coming tomorrow.
Monday, July 20, 2009
PTQ Austin - Winner
I realize I haven't updated my blog in over 5 months but there reall hasn't been anything for me to write about except for those 2 PTQ wins and the money in PT Honolulu. Today I'm here to write about my latest PTQ win last weekend in the scenic Wichita, KS.
The week leading up to the PTQ I had no idea what I wanted to play. I had had minor sucess with 5cb and Elementals but only on a local level and I didn't really like the decks enough to PTQ with. There weren't any decks that I liked but Boss and Kenny kept talking about this Elf deck. It had been a while since I modo'd for anything other than draft so I didn't know it had been putting up some decent results. When I saw other people who's opinions I actually respect saying the deck is good I decided I would give B.J. and Kenny a chance. I put the deck together in MWS and goldfished the deck a few times then beat up on some randoms. The Thursday before the PTQ I decided I would be gaming with 4x Regal Force and maybe even some Mosswort Bridges.
After borrowing what Boss had put together, changing some cards around and finding the Sunpetal Groves and Archdruids I had my deck. The plan was to meet up at Win More and drive down in the morning with Coonan and Scott. I got back to Danielles place around 1:30, she got home at 2:00 and I got to sleep around 3:30. Next thing I know my alarm is going off and I'm having thoughts of calling up Scott and telling him they can leave without me because there is no possible way I'm getting out of this bed right now. Then I remember I have cards that I have to loan out to Brett McCleaf and Loren Canady. Couldn't bring myself to end the PTQ for these guys because I was too lazy so I get up and head out.
The drive down was uneventful. I head my headphones on and tried to sleep in the back but that didn't work out. When we got there we saw that the place it was being held at was also having a farmers markey outside. SCORE! There was enough vegetables, wooden crafts and old people to go around.
I register this:
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Heritage Druid
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Devoted Druid
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Ranger of Eos
4 Regal Force
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Vampire Aristocrat
1 Elvish Promenade
2 Manamorphose
4 Primal Command
1 Mosswort Bridge
4 Sunpetal Grove
4 Wooded Bastion
10 Forest
SB:
1 Quasili Pridemage
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Silence
3 Path to Exile
3 Cloudthresher
4 Great Sable Stag
The event finally started almost an hour late but I guess I'm only complaining because I'm a KC player and have been spoiled rotten by Feral Events, Lloyd Dodson and Josh Olson.
DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NO NOTES FROM THIS TOURNAMENT SO THIS IS ALL WHAT I CAN REMEMBER.
Round 1: Justin Boyle - Doran
Before the match starts he has his SB laying face up on the table and I see some Canonists and Fallouts. Couldn't really tell what he was playing from this but I knew what I was going to want to bring in. He plays a turn 2 Rhox War Monk and a Doran on 3. I have Devoted Druid and an Archdruid before I play Ranger of Eos for Nettle and Heritage. I chump block the next turn and easily go off the next turn by putting 2 of his lands on top and making a huge army before he scoops.
-2 Manamophose -1 Vampire -1 Promenade
+3 Path to Exile +1 Pridemage
Game 2 is a turn 2 Doran who beats down for a little while before I can lay down a Regal Force to draw 4-5 cards and go off next turn.
1-0
Round 2: Random - Kithkin
Game 1 I get ran the fuck over. I didn't come out nearly fast enough and there came a turn where I set it up to win next turn if he didn't have another Honor of the Pure or an Ajani. He had the Honor and took me down with Spirit tokens.
-1 Manamorphose -1 Vampire -1 Promenade -1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
+3 Path +1 Pridemage
Game 2 my opponent plays a Snow-Covered Plains on turn 2 and I put my hand in the air and call for a judge. Some guy sitting next to me starts saying, "You're calling him on a Snow-Covered Plains? Wow, wow." I told him if I don't call a judge and just allow it I'm cheating too but he is having none of it. I'm just a huge douchebag, obviously. He then asks me what my name is and says to the rest of the table we're at, "Quick, somebody twitter this, this guy is calling a judge on a Snow-Covered Plains." Zandi GL's him and has him replace it with a normal Plains.
Game 3 my opponent has this sick curve:
Turn 1: Plains
Turn 2: Windbrisk Heights
Turn 3: Plains, Honor of the Pure
Turn 4: Plains, Honor of the Pure
Turn 5: Plains, Figure of Destiny.
This game was CLOSE.
2-0
Round 3: 5cCascade - Ben Jackson
Ben is a friend of mine and before the tournament he had shipped me the list that he was playing since I gave him the Reveillark list he had used to Top 8 a PTQ in Texas at the begining of the season. I just told him I was playing Elves since I hadn't decided on a list yet. Game 1 I get a fast draw and he has one turn in which to Jund Charm me, but my hand was stocked as I just Regal Forced so I was probably going to win anyways, his Bloodbraid Elf misses and we are on to game 2.
-1 Vampire -1 Promenade
+2 Forge-Tenders
I know after board he has Fallouts and Infests.
It ends up not mattering as he never hits a 3rd land to play either.
3-0
Round 4: Tyler Kozal - 4cCascade
His deck is like Bens but has stuff like Primal Command and Baneslayer where Ben has Esper Charms and Grixis Charms. I really can't remember much about this match. I think he may have gotten mana screwed in game 2 and wasn't able to play his Hallowed Burials but this match is really foggy in my head for some reason.
4-0
Round 5: John - Elf Combo
There isn't anything to say about the mirror, a lot is the die roll and whoever gets faster hands. I mulled to 6 all three games. I won game 2 on the back of Silence and kept a 1 lander in game 3 and didn't even come close to getting there.
4-1
Round 6: Jason Goliher - 5cc
Game one goes like it probably should. I sand bag combo pieces, play other guys, they all die to sweepers (or Plumeveils and Cloudthreshers in combat) in pairs until he runs out of sweepers and I play Primal Command to shuffle my graveyard in and search up a Ranger of Eos (Best card in the deck by far). The turn after I do that he draws a MD Haunting Echoes and exiles all my Primal Commands. After that I play Nettle, Heritage, Devoted Druid and tap those 3 for Archdriud. Put a counter on Devoted and tap Nettle, Devoted and Archdriud for a Promenade for 4. He draws a Mulldrifter, plays it and passes. I am able to draw most of the cards in my deck without tapping any of the tokens or the Heritage Druid, play 2 more Archdruids and attack for lethal past his 2 blockers.
-1 Promenade -1 Vampire -1 Manamorphose
+1 Burrenton Forge-Tender +2 Silence
I know he has mostly sorcery removal in Firespout, Hallowed Burial, and Maelstrom Pulse not to mention Cruel Ultimatum so I figure the Silences will be practically Time Walks and better than more Forge-Tenders or the cards I had in the main.
Game 2 was all about the little green man beat down. Since I knew he would take out Plumeveil I was free to swing in as much as I wanted. I forget a lot of the specifics but it mostly came down to playing a second Regal Force off the Bridge before he killed my guys and played Cruel Ultimatum. The game ended like this. I attack him down to 3 after Cruel resolves and then attack with Regal Force, he flashes in Cloudthresher and blocks putting him down to 1. I play Visionary, Visionary, Llanowar Elf and pass the turn. In his upkeep I play Silence and he looks like he just died a little inside. He tanks, looking at the cards in his hand like the actually matter, and passes. I untap a put a card into my hand from my library without looking at it and turn my 3 guys sideways and he shrugs and scoops. His hand after I played Silence was Firespout, Cruel, and Maelstrom Pulse.
5-1
Round 7: Some guy - doesn't matter
We draw into Top 8.
5-1-1
Top 8: Kenny Punter - Elf Combo
I actually don't remember much about these matches except I lost the die roll, he won game 1, I won game 2 and then Silence got him game 3. He took it like a man though.
6-1-1
Top 4: Some guy - Boat Brew(ish?)
Kenny lost to this guy earlier in the tournament so I knew he had Canonist and Firespouts in his board. Agains, I'm sorry I don't remember too much about this match. I was way to fast for him game 1. I brought in Paths, Pridemage, and a Forge-Tender. Game two I didn't have much gas and he killed my guys then me. Game 3 I Primal'd for a Pridemage twice to kill his Canonist then I just sat back and held a hand of Llanowar Elves, Llanowar Elves, Nettle, Nettle, Nettle, Heritage, Regal Force until he did something about my 2 Ranger of Eos that were beating him down. Finally he tapped down to play Austere Command leaving 2 mana up and 1 card in hand. On my turn I draw Ranger of Eos (!!FUCK YEAH!!) and play Nettle, Nettle, Heritage. I tap for 3 and he Paths my Heritage Druid in resp to the other Nettle. I play Ranger for 2 Heritage Druids, play all my guys but don't draw a Primal to put the game away. He has one turn to draw another Austere Command. He doesn't and I'm on to finals.
7-1-1
Finals: Another some guy - Elementals
Normally this matchup should be a bye as they have almost no ways to interact with you and not a fast enough clock to race me. Their Soul Wardens don't matter since you can go infi with Vampire Aristocrat and Primal Command. Game 1 he gets a redic draw with turn 4 Horde of Notions with an active Bloom Tender in play so he can regrow Mulldrifter. Doesnt' matter cause I kill him the turn before he attacks me for ~40 in the air. He seems really shocked and off put and says, "I really don't know how I can lose with that hand especially when you mulligan."
The only way for me to lose this matchup is if he starts recuring creature kill with Horde of Notions so I board in 3 Path for 1 Elvish Promenade 1 Forge-Tender and 1 Manamorphose.
Sooooo he started recuring Nameless and Shriekmaw with Horde of Notions and I scooped.
Game 3 I played turn 1 Llanowar turn 2 Archdruid turn 3 Primal to Plow Under you and get a Regal Force and Mosswort Bridge finding another Regal. He just has lots of guys that make tons of mana but nothing to do with it. When I played the second Regal next turn I am able to find the combo pieces, I show him but he wants me to go a few steps farther to see if I actually have the mana. So I play a Devoted Druid and he scoops 'em up.
8-1-1
Ended up I was lucky my tie breakers were shit in Honolulu so I could miss being q'd and be able to PTQ for the ticket. It seems like these PTQ's just keep getting easier and easier to win. Hopefully with Honolulu, Nats, and Austin I'll be able to level up this year.
Look out next week for my Nats report, thanks for reading.
The week leading up to the PTQ I had no idea what I wanted to play. I had had minor sucess with 5cb and Elementals but only on a local level and I didn't really like the decks enough to PTQ with. There weren't any decks that I liked but Boss and Kenny kept talking about this Elf deck. It had been a while since I modo'd for anything other than draft so I didn't know it had been putting up some decent results. When I saw other people who's opinions I actually respect saying the deck is good I decided I would give B.J. and Kenny a chance. I put the deck together in MWS and goldfished the deck a few times then beat up on some randoms. The Thursday before the PTQ I decided I would be gaming with 4x Regal Force and maybe even some Mosswort Bridges.
After borrowing what Boss had put together, changing some cards around and finding the Sunpetal Groves and Archdruids I had my deck. The plan was to meet up at Win More and drive down in the morning with Coonan and Scott. I got back to Danielles place around 1:30, she got home at 2:00 and I got to sleep around 3:30. Next thing I know my alarm is going off and I'm having thoughts of calling up Scott and telling him they can leave without me because there is no possible way I'm getting out of this bed right now. Then I remember I have cards that I have to loan out to Brett McCleaf and Loren Canady. Couldn't bring myself to end the PTQ for these guys because I was too lazy so I get up and head out.
The drive down was uneventful. I head my headphones on and tried to sleep in the back but that didn't work out. When we got there we saw that the place it was being held at was also having a farmers markey outside. SCORE! There was enough vegetables, wooden crafts and old people to go around.
I register this:
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Heritage Druid
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Devoted Druid
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Elvish Archdruid
4 Ranger of Eos
4 Regal Force
1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Vampire Aristocrat
1 Elvish Promenade
2 Manamorphose
4 Primal Command
1 Mosswort Bridge
4 Sunpetal Grove
4 Wooded Bastion
10 Forest
SB:
1 Quasili Pridemage
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
2 Silence
3 Path to Exile
3 Cloudthresher
4 Great Sable Stag
The event finally started almost an hour late but I guess I'm only complaining because I'm a KC player and have been spoiled rotten by Feral Events, Lloyd Dodson and Josh Olson.
DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NO NOTES FROM THIS TOURNAMENT SO THIS IS ALL WHAT I CAN REMEMBER.
Round 1: Justin Boyle - Doran
Before the match starts he has his SB laying face up on the table and I see some Canonists and Fallouts. Couldn't really tell what he was playing from this but I knew what I was going to want to bring in. He plays a turn 2 Rhox War Monk and a Doran on 3. I have Devoted Druid and an Archdruid before I play Ranger of Eos for Nettle and Heritage. I chump block the next turn and easily go off the next turn by putting 2 of his lands on top and making a huge army before he scoops.
-2 Manamophose -1 Vampire -1 Promenade
+3 Path to Exile +1 Pridemage
Game 2 is a turn 2 Doran who beats down for a little while before I can lay down a Regal Force to draw 4-5 cards and go off next turn.
1-0
Round 2: Random - Kithkin
Game 1 I get ran the fuck over. I didn't come out nearly fast enough and there came a turn where I set it up to win next turn if he didn't have another Honor of the Pure or an Ajani. He had the Honor and took me down with Spirit tokens.
-1 Manamorphose -1 Vampire -1 Promenade -1 Burrenton Forge-Tender
+3 Path +1 Pridemage
Game 2 my opponent plays a Snow-Covered Plains on turn 2 and I put my hand in the air and call for a judge. Some guy sitting next to me starts saying, "You're calling him on a Snow-Covered Plains? Wow, wow." I told him if I don't call a judge and just allow it I'm cheating too but he is having none of it. I'm just a huge douchebag, obviously. He then asks me what my name is and says to the rest of the table we're at, "Quick, somebody twitter this, this guy is calling a judge on a Snow-Covered Plains." Zandi GL's him and has him replace it with a normal Plains.
Game 3 my opponent has this sick curve:
Turn 1: Plains
Turn 2: Windbrisk Heights
Turn 3: Plains, Honor of the Pure
Turn 4: Plains, Honor of the Pure
Turn 5: Plains, Figure of Destiny.
This game was CLOSE.
2-0
Round 3: 5cCascade - Ben Jackson
Ben is a friend of mine and before the tournament he had shipped me the list that he was playing since I gave him the Reveillark list he had used to Top 8 a PTQ in Texas at the begining of the season. I just told him I was playing Elves since I hadn't decided on a list yet. Game 1 I get a fast draw and he has one turn in which to Jund Charm me, but my hand was stocked as I just Regal Forced so I was probably going to win anyways, his Bloodbraid Elf misses and we are on to game 2.
-1 Vampire -1 Promenade
+2 Forge-Tenders
I know after board he has Fallouts and Infests.
It ends up not mattering as he never hits a 3rd land to play either.
3-0
Round 4: Tyler Kozal - 4cCascade
His deck is like Bens but has stuff like Primal Command and Baneslayer where Ben has Esper Charms and Grixis Charms. I really can't remember much about this match. I think he may have gotten mana screwed in game 2 and wasn't able to play his Hallowed Burials but this match is really foggy in my head for some reason.
4-0
Round 5: John - Elf Combo
There isn't anything to say about the mirror, a lot is the die roll and whoever gets faster hands. I mulled to 6 all three games. I won game 2 on the back of Silence and kept a 1 lander in game 3 and didn't even come close to getting there.
4-1
Round 6: Jason Goliher - 5cc
Game one goes like it probably should. I sand bag combo pieces, play other guys, they all die to sweepers (or Plumeveils and Cloudthreshers in combat) in pairs until he runs out of sweepers and I play Primal Command to shuffle my graveyard in and search up a Ranger of Eos (Best card in the deck by far). The turn after I do that he draws a MD Haunting Echoes and exiles all my Primal Commands. After that I play Nettle, Heritage, Devoted Druid and tap those 3 for Archdriud. Put a counter on Devoted and tap Nettle, Devoted and Archdriud for a Promenade for 4. He draws a Mulldrifter, plays it and passes. I am able to draw most of the cards in my deck without tapping any of the tokens or the Heritage Druid, play 2 more Archdruids and attack for lethal past his 2 blockers.
-1 Promenade -1 Vampire -1 Manamorphose
+1 Burrenton Forge-Tender +2 Silence
I know he has mostly sorcery removal in Firespout, Hallowed Burial, and Maelstrom Pulse not to mention Cruel Ultimatum so I figure the Silences will be practically Time Walks and better than more Forge-Tenders or the cards I had in the main.
Game 2 was all about the little green man beat down. Since I knew he would take out Plumeveil I was free to swing in as much as I wanted. I forget a lot of the specifics but it mostly came down to playing a second Regal Force off the Bridge before he killed my guys and played Cruel Ultimatum. The game ended like this. I attack him down to 3 after Cruel resolves and then attack with Regal Force, he flashes in Cloudthresher and blocks putting him down to 1. I play Visionary, Visionary, Llanowar Elf and pass the turn. In his upkeep I play Silence and he looks like he just died a little inside. He tanks, looking at the cards in his hand like the actually matter, and passes. I untap a put a card into my hand from my library without looking at it and turn my 3 guys sideways and he shrugs and scoops. His hand after I played Silence was Firespout, Cruel, and Maelstrom Pulse.
5-1
Round 7: Some guy - doesn't matter
We draw into Top 8.
5-1-1
Top 8: Kenny Punter - Elf Combo
I actually don't remember much about these matches except I lost the die roll, he won game 1, I won game 2 and then Silence got him game 3. He took it like a man though.
6-1-1
Top 4: Some guy - Boat Brew(ish?)
Kenny lost to this guy earlier in the tournament so I knew he had Canonist and Firespouts in his board. Agains, I'm sorry I don't remember too much about this match. I was way to fast for him game 1. I brought in Paths, Pridemage, and a Forge-Tender. Game two I didn't have much gas and he killed my guys then me. Game 3 I Primal'd for a Pridemage twice to kill his Canonist then I just sat back and held a hand of Llanowar Elves, Llanowar Elves, Nettle, Nettle, Nettle, Heritage, Regal Force until he did something about my 2 Ranger of Eos that were beating him down. Finally he tapped down to play Austere Command leaving 2 mana up and 1 card in hand. On my turn I draw Ranger of Eos (!!FUCK YEAH!!) and play Nettle, Nettle, Heritage. I tap for 3 and he Paths my Heritage Druid in resp to the other Nettle. I play Ranger for 2 Heritage Druids, play all my guys but don't draw a Primal to put the game away. He has one turn to draw another Austere Command. He doesn't and I'm on to finals.
7-1-1
Finals: Another some guy - Elementals
Normally this matchup should be a bye as they have almost no ways to interact with you and not a fast enough clock to race me. Their Soul Wardens don't matter since you can go infi with Vampire Aristocrat and Primal Command. Game 1 he gets a redic draw with turn 4 Horde of Notions with an active Bloom Tender in play so he can regrow Mulldrifter. Doesnt' matter cause I kill him the turn before he attacks me for ~40 in the air. He seems really shocked and off put and says, "I really don't know how I can lose with that hand especially when you mulligan."
The only way for me to lose this matchup is if he starts recuring creature kill with Horde of Notions so I board in 3 Path for 1 Elvish Promenade 1 Forge-Tender and 1 Manamorphose.
Sooooo he started recuring Nameless and Shriekmaw with Horde of Notions and I scooped.
Game 3 I played turn 1 Llanowar turn 2 Archdruid turn 3 Primal to Plow Under you and get a Regal Force and Mosswort Bridge finding another Regal. He just has lots of guys that make tons of mana but nothing to do with it. When I played the second Regal next turn I am able to find the combo pieces, I show him but he wants me to go a few steps farther to see if I actually have the mana. So I play a Devoted Druid and he scoops 'em up.
8-1-1
Ended up I was lucky my tie breakers were shit in Honolulu so I could miss being q'd and be able to PTQ for the ticket. It seems like these PTQ's just keep getting easier and easier to win. Hopefully with Honolulu, Nats, and Austin I'll be able to level up this year.
Look out next week for my Nats report, thanks for reading.
Friday, February 13, 2009
My First SSC Draft
I wasn't really sure what to expect from this draft since I didn't know how the Conflux pack would change the draft.
I did the normal stay in a few colors for as long as possible and read signals.
I was basically in mono black until pack three which put me in Buw since I already had a Arcane Sanctum.
3 Dregscape Zombie
2 Tidehollow Strix
1 Zombie Outlander
1 Rotting Rats
2 Brackwater Elemental
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Nyxathid
1 Cunning Lethemancer
2 Viscera Dragger
1 Ethersworn Adjusticator
1 Corpse Connoisseur
1 Tar Fiend
1 Grixis Slavedriver
1 Undead Leotau
1 Executioner's Capsule
1 Bone Splinters
1 Scepter of Fugue
1 Absorb Vis
1 Arcane Sanctum
1 Plains
6 Island
9 Swamp
As you can see it is basically a UB deck with Unearth and discard themes that worked really well together. I even have 5(!!) rares in the deck.
Round 1: Matt something
Matt had a pretty good start with 2 Akrasan Squires and a Quisali Ambusher for my first Dregscape Zombie attack. I got down a Strix and a Zombie Outlander to hold back his guys and eventually finished him off with a few big Unearth turns and a Adjusticator. Game two I found out he wasn't playing a WG Exalted deck but some 5c abortion that just got lucky and drew that part of the deck last game. I held back his guys and emptied his hand with Scepter then finished him with another 2 big swings.
Round 2: Yosie
He seemed like he new how to play but had been out of the game for a while and was a little rusty on the rules. He had a decent Naya deck but it was pretty slow and just one removal spell on a big guy was enough for me to race the rest of them. Game two I got Adjusticator online and mowed down some guys, traded with some Unearth guys, then brought them back a few at a time to take him out.
Round 3: Rader
I had watched a few of Raders matches before this one and he had all the good rares for the Esper deck (Master of Etherium, Master Transmuter, Sphinx Summoner, and Sharuum) but not a lot of the early stuff so I was pretty sure I could handle it if I kept an aggresive hand. Game one he mulliganed to 5 on the play and wasn't able to keep up. Game two my discard and his not being able to hit his 6th land for 3-4 turns made it possible for me to just build up an army and swarm him out in two attacks.
Round 4: Boss
Once again my opponent had to mulligan to 5 on the play and I kept a 2 lander with lots of cheap gas. He hit Sphere to go get the lands he needed and I ended up drawing 10 lands and 4 spells that game. He was able to stabilize at one life and finish me off with an artificial Craw Wurm after having the random land cycling Counterspell for my random land cycling Drain Life. Game two was a much better game. I just got in for as much damage as I could when I could. Brackwater got in for lots of damage and he couldn't handle the second wave of creatures out of the graveyard. Game three he mulliganed to 5 on the play again. I killed his first guy which was a Sludge Strider but then he played a Tower Gargoyle and my Nyxathid was only a 3/3. I drew the Lethemancer and devised I plan of just sitting back until he did something because he was just drawing and passing with 4 mana up then discarding a land every turn. I wasn't about to walk into a Resounding Silence, I had him on this because at first I thought it was Agony Warp but he would have used that on the Lethemancer. Eventually he tapped lands for a Skill Borrower (SHITS WEEAAAAKKK!) and I emptied his hand with a Rotting Rats and got in there with Nyxathid and my Unearth guys. He drew a land for turn and it was all over.
The deck was amazing. Would draft again. I really like the format and am looking forward to drafting SSC again and again.
I did the normal stay in a few colors for as long as possible and read signals.
I was basically in mono black until pack three which put me in Buw since I already had a Arcane Sanctum.
3 Dregscape Zombie
2 Tidehollow Strix
1 Zombie Outlander
1 Rotting Rats
2 Brackwater Elemental
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Nyxathid
1 Cunning Lethemancer
2 Viscera Dragger
1 Ethersworn Adjusticator
1 Corpse Connoisseur
1 Tar Fiend
1 Grixis Slavedriver
1 Undead Leotau
1 Executioner's Capsule
1 Bone Splinters
1 Scepter of Fugue
1 Absorb Vis
1 Arcane Sanctum
1 Plains
6 Island
9 Swamp
As you can see it is basically a UB deck with Unearth and discard themes that worked really well together. I even have 5(!!) rares in the deck.
Round 1: Matt something
Matt had a pretty good start with 2 Akrasan Squires and a Quisali Ambusher for my first Dregscape Zombie attack. I got down a Strix and a Zombie Outlander to hold back his guys and eventually finished him off with a few big Unearth turns and a Adjusticator. Game two I found out he wasn't playing a WG Exalted deck but some 5c abortion that just got lucky and drew that part of the deck last game. I held back his guys and emptied his hand with Scepter then finished him with another 2 big swings.
Round 2: Yosie
He seemed like he new how to play but had been out of the game for a while and was a little rusty on the rules. He had a decent Naya deck but it was pretty slow and just one removal spell on a big guy was enough for me to race the rest of them. Game two I got Adjusticator online and mowed down some guys, traded with some Unearth guys, then brought them back a few at a time to take him out.
Round 3: Rader
I had watched a few of Raders matches before this one and he had all the good rares for the Esper deck (Master of Etherium, Master Transmuter, Sphinx Summoner, and Sharuum) but not a lot of the early stuff so I was pretty sure I could handle it if I kept an aggresive hand. Game one he mulliganed to 5 on the play and wasn't able to keep up. Game two my discard and his not being able to hit his 6th land for 3-4 turns made it possible for me to just build up an army and swarm him out in two attacks.
Round 4: Boss
Once again my opponent had to mulligan to 5 on the play and I kept a 2 lander with lots of cheap gas. He hit Sphere to go get the lands he needed and I ended up drawing 10 lands and 4 spells that game. He was able to stabilize at one life and finish me off with an artificial Craw Wurm after having the random land cycling Counterspell for my random land cycling Drain Life. Game two was a much better game. I just got in for as much damage as I could when I could. Brackwater got in for lots of damage and he couldn't handle the second wave of creatures out of the graveyard. Game three he mulliganed to 5 on the play again. I killed his first guy which was a Sludge Strider but then he played a Tower Gargoyle and my Nyxathid was only a 3/3. I drew the Lethemancer and devised I plan of just sitting back until he did something because he was just drawing and passing with 4 mana up then discarding a land every turn. I wasn't about to walk into a Resounding Silence, I had him on this because at first I thought it was Agony Warp but he would have used that on the Lethemancer. Eventually he tapped lands for a Skill Borrower (SHITS WEEAAAAKKK!) and I emptied his hand with a Rotting Rats and got in there with Nyxathid and my Unearth guys. He drew a land for turn and it was all over.
The deck was amazing. Would draft again. I really like the format and am looking forward to drafting SSC again and again.
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