hi I'm Pete, i played you in round 4 on Saturday while we were both in the amazingly awkward 1-0-2 bracket, and then again sunday in round 1.  Although i beat you on Saturday, that was due to mistakes that you made based on what you thought i was playing that I was just able to capitalize on. However on sunday you went off on me through 2 first turn duresses and a third later after you imperial sealed.  So the question thats burning me up is if 3 duresses wont do it, and Paul mastriano swore to me that arcane lab, unless it was preceded by tinker for colossus or a similar play, is a mere inconvenience, then what is the answer to this deck?  Despite the skill taken to pilot this deck successfully through 7+ rounds, more than a few people seem to have found the formula. You said yourself later in the evening that even if grim tutor was restricted you feel like you could play the deck successfully. 

By the way, playing you twice was a blast, and i hope to get the chance again

Very Very funny...I'm, glad they finally did something different than "chimney imp banned".  How could that broken card have ever slipped past R&D

although this may be a different deck, there is the wirewood channeler+pemmin's aura+centaur glade combo.  You enchant the channeler with pemmin's aura, tap it floating blue, untap it, and repeat until you have infinite mana, then you dump it all into centaur glade to make infinite tokens.  This obviously works pretty well with staff of domination, decree of justice, and other random things like dragon's roost.

I've been testing this deck out and at first thought that mana drain was really bad, obviously because there are not many big things to use drain mana on besides demonic tutor into yag will, tinker, or if you want to hardcast plats or something.  Thirst for knowledge also didn't really live up to what i hoped it would.  So, in order to try and resolve the mana drain problem and the draw problem i tested skeletal scrying in place of one of the thirsts and i really liked it.  Although the life loss was occasionally an issue, the ability to tinker for plats and protect it with alot of counters really made it a non-issue.  You have plenty of cards to remove with 5-6 fetch lands and all the extra counters, and draining into a scrying is amazing.

timetwister, 9th serra angel, and for some reason, i think that foil force spikes look really hawt

O man the steelers are gonna walk ALL OVER the seahawks in 2 weeks. 
But on this evenings game, even though i picked the panthers to win, steve smith was triple covered at some pionts, but Dellhome just couldnt seem to find any other recievers and threw three pics.  The Seahawks may have looked amazing today, but Rothelsburger is the real deal so we'll see how they do against a QB that WONT throw three pics.

Dirty Dancing... Hellooooo

I did top 16 coverage of Travis laplante v Jared Mann, jiggly puff v Brian Riccaro, Eli Cassis v Crossman, and the finals of crossman v Travis.  I have it all written down and i do not have alot of time to put it up right now with school and what not but I will try my best to get it up this weekend.

Does this rule include Richard Garfield altered cards? And will Richard Garfield altered cards be legal for the 1994 tournament?

IE: my boss has a playset of Beta Serra Angels altered to "not be affected by summoning sickness"

has anyone tested crucible of worlds and strip mine in this deck?  although there may not be room for it, gifting for a strip mine among other lands with a crucible in play seems pretty nuts.  I would say you could cut one merchant scroll and a basic land for the two, although i have not really tested it yet.

just an idea.

congrats on your second waterbury win!  I was the one on the laptop typing the coverage of the finals, however Aaron the judge has it at this moment so its up to him when it will get posted.

meddling mage wrote:

I know jeff's friend, and he ownes some 30 full sets of power as well as pieces not in sets.  He also has more mana drains than anyone that I have ever seen, somthing like 15-20 full pages.  Thats what you get when you have been buying cases since alpha came out.

I personally own 3 unlimited moxes, a beta emerald, and a twister.  I also have a FOIL lotus, which despite being completely fake is the cooloest part of my collection.

I play TPS almost exclusively and have lost far worse to a well placed mana drain than a first turn trinisphere.  However, the unfortunate thing with "all you have to do to beat trinisphere is get three basic lands" is that in playing combo you are probably only running twelve, mabye thirteen lands.  In TPS, probably the most prevelent combo deck right now, you have 8 chances-eight cards out of 60 -that will help you.  The problem with Trinisphere was that regardless of how simply it could have been dealt with it, it was not an easy road to go down, especially for combo.

And as it has been said quite a few times before me, combo did not dominate before trinisphere, but now that everybody is talking about throwing together death-long or TPS or belcher, It may be time for the workshop players to throw orb of dreams into the sideboard because I can saftely say after testing against it, it is just as scary first turn against combo as trinisphere.

PLatnum angel is a card that I tested with for a long time over the summer and early ino the fall and it worked sometimes and made me cry others.  What it came down to was that it is the worst opening hand card you can get and id rather grab mem jar with tinker 95% of the time.  If you play in a meta with alot of oath then it is the answer for you, otherwise DSC is far superior as it is something that your opponent absolutely must get rid of if they even want a chance to win.

As for time walk, i agree with ill_dawg in that its nothing more than cute.  If your not gonna win this turn then the last thing you want to do is cast a time walk, wasting all your storm and possibly burning for a substantial ammount.  It's much better to main a chain of vapor b/c for one mana you can increase your storm count and sax those useless tapped lands.

On library, do not use it.  unless its right off a draw 7, your never gonna be able to use it because you will almost never have 7 cards in your hand.  Part of the greatness of TPS is the basic lands and library screams WASTE ME at the top of its lungs.

Just quickly back to the deep analysis thing, you say its great late game, well your playing combo, late game is third turn.  

As for gifts, my testing shows that I would much rather rely on a series of draw 7's then rely on 1 bomb to grab stuff.  Look at deathlong.  It was piloted to second place at the last waterbury and it only runs 4 duress for disruption so refilling your opponents hand obviously wasnt a big deal there, and we have 4 duress AND 4 force for disruption.  

just for reference, here is my list:
2-island
2-swamp
3-underground sea
1-volcanic island
4-polluted delta
1-tolarian academy
5-moxen
1-chrome mox
1-lotus petal
1-mana vault
1-mana crypt
1-sol ring
1-black lotus
4-dark ritual
1-LED

1-demonic tutor
1-vampiric tutor
1-mystical tutor
1-tinker

1-wheel of fortune
1-windfall
1-timetwister
1-timespiral
1-mind's desire
1- memory jar
1-yawgmoth's will
1-necropotence
1-yawgmoth's bargain

4-duress
4-force of will

1-rebuild
1-hurkyls
1-chain of vapor

4-brainstorm
1-ancestral recall

2-tendrils of agony

Board
3-defense grid (could possibly be back to basics)
3-energy flux
3-echoung truth
2-engineered plague (a BOMB agains workshop and welder decks as well as crushes random goblin and aggro decks)
2-rebuild
1-tormod's crypt
1-DSC

As for some of my choices, I feel that wheel is broken and just as eaily cast as any other card on the dek and I have never beem stuck in a stiuation when i cant cast it.  As you probably noticed, I do not run cunning wish because cunning wish is not that good in this deck.  I realize that all the Europeans are running it, that dosent make it good.  Brainfreeze is a joke, and if you need to cunning wish or fact or gifts then you are probably losing.  I have also done some testing with cranial and even though it is a bomb against some decks, it needs to resolve first.  The only decks that you might want cranial against are oath, which has a full compliment of counters, control slaver to grab their welders, and they also have counters, and engineered plague is better against a workshop deck then cranial extraction will ever be.  the bounce spells are a meta call most of the time, but Chain of vapor is nasty against most decks and really needs to be in there.  As for rebuild vs hurkyl's, the number of each or which one to run over the other is a personal preference and meta call.

Whatever Woks wrote:

So you dont like wheel, which I think is insane in TPS and is well worth putting in 1 Volc, and you dont like windfall.  How do you plan to explode early without wither a first turn necro/bargain?  Frantic search is far far inferior to windfall and Deep Analysis is little more than a joke.  you would rather pay 4 for 2 cards and then 2 and 3 life for 2 more cards?  even if windfall is only for 3 its still infinately better then deep analysis will ever be.  If your not playing the draw 7's besides twister and spiral your playing bad control with tendrils.  

In my testing with TPS i find that cunning wish is a waste of space and there is almost nothing that I would so desprately need from my board.  If you are grabbing fact or something you can just as easily mb it.  

Part of the reason that TPS performs so poorly in the states is because people throw together a European list from a European meta and go to play in our American worksop/trinisphere/wasteland/crucible dominated tournaments.  I realize that TPS is supposed to be combo-control but it needs to be alot more on the aggressive combo side of the coin.  This is why cards like Library and Misdirection and deep analysis dont work in the deck.  They are control elements that the deck dosent need.  The deck works on draw 7's most of the time.  This does not mean play like your playing draw7 or deathlong but you can't expect to win by playing more control than combo in a combo deck.

why not just use relic barrier.  Its cheaper and a little harder to kill n the long run.  However, its much easier to just hurkyl's recall/rebuild on their endstep and then try ang go off.

hydroblasts are a meta choice.  however, they do alot more then stop welder, they also grab blood moon, rack and ruin, shamman, opposing red blasts/pyroblasts, wheel of fortune, and a plethra of other red spells.  as far as sb lands, prob not as good idea as you may think.  There's a reason for mainboarding 4-5 basic lands, so boarding 2 is a waste of space.  You can even get away with sideboarding back to basics, which closes the door on all workshop decks.  Unless they get crucible+strip mine going, the mana base is not the problem.  

Ive recently been testing running defense grid in the board and have found it to work very well.  In my testing against 4CC and slaver, I went a combined 42 and 8 in games, 2 of which I lost on horrible misplays, and the other 6 I lost due to either losing a counter war or, to my suprise lost twice to 1st turn tinker collosus.  I also only lost 1 game where I had defense grid out against these decks.  However, it is also a meta call and does not necessarily belong in every board

What happens when arcane I lose a counter war over arcane lab?  I echoing truth/chain of vapor it.  Unless they have huge counter backup, its just not going to stay in play.  Or if the truths fail, you can always tinker for collosus or even better, platnum angel.  oath has no answer for it and then you can just sit them out.  

I have to say, and it's mostly my fault, the majority of the posts have been on strategy agains Oath, but Oath seems to be on the decline because of people trying to screw with a good thing and add black and other colors to oath.  News flash people OATH WORKS FINE U/G.  disrupting the mana base to try and make it 4CC with oath and akroma is just stupid.  But thats a discussion for another time, and I digress...  

I think now the decks to look at more closely have to be "phish" the new fish with white and more importantly main board meddling mage.  Also my prediction is the return of tog and control slaver, especially with workshop possibly getting the ax.  If workshop goes, then combo can run all over the format for all of about 5 minutes before someone realizes that its time to resleave that dusty control deck and start crushing all us combo players.  So with that, what to you people think of sideboard defense grid.  I know it stops your forces and end of turn brainstorms/cunning wish/anything else, but It stops theirs and their mana drains, mana leaks, and stifles as well, and thats more important.

Ive updated my list to include both intuition which I have found too broken not to include, and I am putting wheel back into the deck.  Its to broken not to have and as previously pointed out, it does not disrupt your mana base at all especially with 4 delta.

MANA
3-underground sea
1-volcanic island
2-island
2-swamp
4-polluted delta
1-tolarian academy
5-moxen
1-chrome mox
1-LED
1-Black lotus
4-Dark ritual
1-sol ring
1-mana vault
1-mana crypt
1-lotus petal

Broken stuff
1-mind's desire
1-windfall
1-wheel of fortune
1-time spiral
1-time twister
1-necro
1-Bargain
1-yag will
1-memory jar

tutors
1-demonic tutor
1-vampiric tutor
1-mystical tutor
1-tinker
1-intuition

disruption/bounce
2-rebuild
4-force of will
4-duress

Draw
4-brainstorm
1-ancestral recall

KILL
2-tendrils of agony

For the sideboard, I am hesitant to post a list only because aside for 4-5 cards, the rest are really meta choices, but if I had a waterbury type event tommorow (btw im going on the 15th and am really pumped already!) here is the board I would have:

3-echoing truth
3-energy flux
3-hydroblast
1-DSC
1-platnum angel
3-unmask
1-rebuild

hydroblasts are really shaky imo, just b/c they would only come in against slaver and food chain/sligh, and they dont come around too much any more.  I even tossed around making the blasts 2 engineered plague and 1 tormods crypt.  Plague comes in in both slaver and sligh and beats sligh and severly weakens slaver.  As for the crypt, most decks are based around welders nowadays and crypt is the perfent thing to stop them, as well as tog kinda being on the rise again and i wrecks them.  Unmask, I think is nasty against the new fish "phish" b/c it grabs meddling mage which, in case you havent noticed, WRECKS TPS.  It also grabs other things like welders, exalted angels, and any other thing besides land.

While it is true that every black card in TPS is to some degree broken, and I would deffinately never pitch like a necro or something, but how bout those times where you need the extra black, but need to play duress to protect your combo.  If you have unmask AND a duress, or so other black card that is uneeded at the moment (like bargain when you already have necro out, or another unmask) now you save your mana and get their counter, stifle, welder, ect...  Perhaps its a little to situational, but it seems that Tog may be making a comeback and slaver is on the rise again, so mabye some additional disruption is needed.

After some testing against slaver and workshop, ive decided that although gifts IS better in TPS then fact, Intuition is far supreme.  Intuition grabs counters, duress, rituals, rituals AND lotus before a yag will, and other stuff of the like.  the best that you can hope for with gifts is a draw 7 and a ritual or something like that.  Also, a drained gifts is a huge momentum swing in their favor and also means that you have probably just wasted a ritual or something to play it.  

As for Cranial extraction, Ive finally brought myself to accept that its just not good in T1, or at least in TPS.

What do You guys think about possibly main boarding/sideboard Unmask.  With the apparent return of control to the format, could additional hand disruption be a good thing (well, its always a good thing, but how about in TPS.).

I still dont like gifts ungiven but i guess if you go for something like ritual, necro, Yag will and twister it may work.  I dont think Its necessarily better then fact, but I suppose it can be just as good.

As I mentioned earlier, I also think that doomesday can be a challenging matchup.  The only answer I can see for it is either Cranial extraction(which i just got 3 foil of for a DCI balance and 10 bucks!! ), extract, or an unanswered platnum angel or as MIZEnhauer just said, brainfreeze, which is not as good as the other choices but still an answer IF you run cunning wish.

snoop: i finished 5-2 losing to workshop with seals and joe bushman with oath.  However I played workshop 4 times, and won 3 of them.  The main reason I won those matches  was ANNUL in the board.  Not only does it counter chalice, smokestack, tangle whire, ect... but it also counters things like necro, oath and bargain.  I think that the second part is commonly overlooked, and sometimes countering an opposing necro or bargain can win you the game

As for platnum, it works quite well, but most decks have little problem dealing with it.  Fish, although now its more efficient, has lavamancer, and goblins has that little cycling thing.  

also I hate gifts ungiven fact and intuition are so much better.

I did the whole Wheel of fortune splash red thing and the virginia SCG thing.  Although it did win me games, there were more than a few times where my volc was unsafe or i couldnt find it to cast the wheel.  Also, I tried toi have some red in the board, but on the same note, I was ofthen unable to dig up the red to play anything, and relying on drawing a petal or ruby is not smart.  

Also, Ive done quite a bit of TPS testing since the deck first came out, and have had some good fortune with it.  In that time, Cunning wish went from bad to worse, and especially in a deck that may only see 3-4 land drops, its not worth running it and wasting an end step.  Ive been testing a main fact and its BROKEN.  If you have enough bounce main board (rebuilds and hurkyl's, not chain of vapor) You will have no problem getting around workshop.  

I think that the only answer to doomesday will be extract.  Cranial extraction costs too much and its not worth the splash for meddling mage or something.

DSC is, imho, necessary in the board.  It makes random decks and fish scoop on resolution.  It also gives decks like oath, doomesday, and foodchain a headache.  I just cant see taking it out.

Now with another annoying deck in doomsday rewaring its ugly head, is it time to make color changes in TPS??  I have never had the pleasure of playing against the deck personally, but my board as well as snoops board have nothing against it.  But they have 2 null rods against us.  Fish has splashed white to run meddling mage, Workshop is running white for swords and seal.  I earlier threw out the idea of Main board orchids and seals and balance in the board, but mages can easily go in there too.  That idea was shot down by later testing when I got color screwed.  So i went back to a straight UB deck with fact main board and loved it.  But now with domesday threating to become the big budget deck, TPS has NOTHING against it.  I tried cranial extraction, but if they counter it I would have usually wasted a dark ritual or lotus to play it, and against decks with drains like oath, having it drained not only loses you a rit or lotus, but it gives them 4 mana and a momentum swing.  Then I tried a nice little oddesy rare called extract-which for those of you who dont know, it removes only 1 card from their library.  against doomseday it gets rid of beacon and then tendrils, and It dosent hurt when it gets countered.  against oath it grabs the creatures and against workshop it grabs welders.  

Ive also done some testing with intuition and think its great.  It grabs rituals, draw 7's if ur balsy enough and bounce spells.  it works really well and, early on, it can throw your opponent off if they dont know what your playing.

I goldfished about 300 times over the past 2 nights and found that gush ended up inprinted in chrome mox, ditched to force of will, or used to no avail.  later I tested with it against workshop and 4cc, both decks with waste+crucible and found that although it did help when I had it, its only a one time thing, and especially early on it can completley screw up your momentum, possibly putting you about a full turn behind.  

Intuition sounds like an interesting idea except is it worth only running 1.  I would hate to hang my game on it resolving and then lose when it dosent.  It will require alot of testing though.

The list seems more or less like the TPS lists that ive seen here or there EXCEPT for fact-which I have tested as of late and love, Scrying-which I have my doubts about, and gush-where are the dryads?  I just dont think that gush  is a solid choice unless You've been completely shut down, are on like turn 6, and are desperate for a draw.  Frankly i would rather have time walk or lion's eye diamond.  I am also like the name, but thats neither here nor there.