Although we may not have the high number of T1 players more prestigious metas have, KSesler insisted I write a tournament report, so...
I recently moved from Newark, CA, where I played at C&J's (and posted as prodomoi), to Gilbert, AZ.
This is the 2nd tournament I've played at Gamemaster's Games, which holds monthly T1 tournies. I also placed 1st last month, playing Keeper against Sui, Tog, and Control Slaver.
Today's field consisted of 12 players. I played an older version of Keeper:
1 Island
3 Tundra
3 Volcanic
3 Underground
4 fetch
5 Strips
1 LOA
1 CoB
5 SoMoxen
4 Drain
4 FoW
1 Mis-D
2 StP
1 F/I
1 Abyss
1 Balance
1 Twist
4 Brainstorm
1 Mystical
1 Demonic
1 Ancestral
1 Time Walk
1 FoF
1 Yawgmoth's Will
2 Scrying
2 Shaman
1 Morphling
1 Decree
SB:
2 StP
1 Disenchant
1 CoP: Red
1 Stifle
1 BEB
2 Rack and Ruin
4 REB
1 Vampiric
2 Tormod's Crypt
Yes, Morphling, Abyss, and Mis-D are substandard; I'd replace them with 3 x Exalted if I had 'em.
Round 1: Jay with RG Fat, 2-0
Jay's deck plays lots of fat, but by the time he's able to play them, I've long established board control. I take the first two, as his deck is simply outclassed.
Round 2: Adam (Garth-One-Eye) with Control Slaver, 2-0
Unfortunately, I don't remember much about my two games with Adam; I would have taken notes if I knew I was going to write a report.
Game 1-I get out an early Morphling that goes all the way.
Game 2-His Welders are countered and plowed, and that seems to slow him down enough for me to take control.
out: F/I, Abyss, 3 x Wish, Mis-D, Mystical
in: 2 x StP, BEB, 4 x REB
I'm wondering if it would be better to keep 2 x Wish main, and leave BEB in the side. Thoughts?
Round 3: Keith (KSesler) with Control Slaver, 2-0
Game 1-He plays Volcanic, Mox, and Underground the entire game. Not much he could do with that little mana.
I sideboard as I did the prior game.
Game 2-He plays an early Blood Moon, and my attempts to play BEB are countered! Several turns later, he plays a second one. Thankfully, I have an Island in play, and a few turns later, a Sapphire. Somehow, a Morphling resolves before he is able to take advantage of his position, and I ride Morphling to victory. Wow, I take a game against two(!) resolved Blood Moons.
Round 4: Zach (Alandovos?) with FCG, 2-1
Without Exalteds, I'm expecting to lose game 1. He beat an even older, 5C version of Keeper earlier.
Game 1-He plays draw go (!) for many turns while I beat down with Shaman. Huh? I am unable to take advantage of his inactivity as I can't find any good draw. He eventually swings with lots of Goblins.
out: 2 x Shaman, Abyss, Mis-D
in: 2 x StP, CoP: Red, BEB
Game 2-I Demonic early for CoP: Red. It holds back his hordes until I am able to cast Decree for 2 angels. Later, as we discussed the game, we come to believe that he may have won if he had not waited to Strip my 2 Tundras.
Game 3-I've got CoP: Red in my opening hand, oh yeah! Although I play it early, he's still able to hit me for 4 a turn because I'm stuck at 2-3 mana, and I still have to cast stuff. He gets me down to 2 before I've even had the chance to cast Scrying. Yikes.
I'm facing 9 Goblins, he'll cast more next turn that'll attack immediately, and I've only got 10 lands to go with CoP: Red. I Balance (!), remove his creatures, Twist for three, and Decree for 5 soldiers. Along with Zach's Crypt, the soldiers are able to do enough damage. I've taken another game from Zach decided by inches.
The tournament is double-elim, so I watch Keith (Control Slaver) and Zach (FCG) duke it out. Before the game, Zach tells me he's had a tough time trying to beat Keith in playtesting.
Game 1-Keith's Crypt does him in!
Game 2 & 3-Pentavus owns.
The store closes at 10:00 pm, so Keith and I are unable to continue the tournament. Between the two of us, we've played 14 games of Control Slaver vs Keeper, and both of us believe this is a tough matchup for Slaver. Taking four out of six from me (since I've not lost a match yet), would be difficult, so we decide to go home; I take 1st, Keith takes 2nd, and Zach 3rd.
Thoughts:
I can definitely see the advantages of playing Bus. Running Exalteds certainly would have made my match against FCG less of a nail-biter. Although I may have won, I feel that FCG has the advantage against non-Exalted Keeper.
The lack of Exalteds had prevented me from using Scrying in my third game.
As for the Keeper/Slaver matchup, it seems difficult for Slaver to get much use out of the Welders. Also, access to red becomes an issue in sideboarded games. Slaver wants to cast 4 Welders and 2 Blood Moons, while trying to have red open for 3 REB's. In my small experience against Control Slaver, it's not often that the deck has two available sources of red against Keeper, so that REB's can be used to counter Drains and FoWs targeting Welder. I've got some wacky ideas about improving the situation, but as the Keeper player, perhaps I should keep my mouth shut!
Many current Keeper decks do not have a basic Island and are not that concerned with Blood Moon. I've heard some say that because of Blood Moon, post-side games are in Slavers' favor, but I'd have to respectfully disagree. Looking over my playtesting records, this has not shown to be true. I believe this is due to the land destruction aspect of Keeper. In any case, I still plan to run an Island!
If you like T1 and live in the Phoenix area, please come to Gamemaster's Games! I'd love to play ya.
Francisco (Phalanx)
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