4 Bazaar....If I'm playing a more 'casual' t1 deck for a more random tournament, somehow, it's always a deck with Bazaar of Baghdad

Heh, but our CTF team owned yours 

Anyway,

-The Incredible Machine
-Dungeon Keeper
-Postal
-Death Rally
-RA1
-RA2 (only online though)
-Tiberian Sun (same)
-Diablo2
-Beast and Bumpkins
-Theme Hospital
-Prince of Persia
-Mario/Mario Kart (SNES 4tw :p)
-Lemmings
-Pushover
-Carmageddon
-UT
-Final Fantasy 7/8/9

Nowadays, mostly LAN games like UT2k4, Quake3, Battlefield, COD1/2, random older games (mostly RTS) and sometimes something new

*Nico van der Hoeven, nice typo


Yup, he started playing it after I copied the list Koen (Thug) played in Eindhoven (3rd place finish), and won Castricum with it.

3 Card Blind, check the other 3CB threads for more info (like this one http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/index.php?topic=23795.0 )

And, I guess, if you hadn't scooped, your Greater Realm of Preservation still would've won the race vs my Underworld Dreams/Honden of Night’s Reach/random creatures board position

The draft was nice though, even though I had by far the worst deck (due to a lot of wrong picks (including picking the wrong colors)). I guess black was drafted too much (Jacob, Rudy, Hero and me), and it went wrong when I didn't change color in time (and a lack of bombs (no Fireball/Disintegrate/Hurricane/Meloku etc)). But, drafting weird sets is always fun, even if you fail miserably

That's because (if I remember correctly), a tournament needs 50+ participants to be included.

I guess so, Arjan's list has 56 cards..

After reading Hero's reply, I have a question too;

When playing versus a 5-strip-effect-packed deck, with like...20 lockelements, keeping a 1 mana source hand with no gameplan (well, FoW'ing 2 things and then?) (and not being on the draw) isn't really a good call imo, even though taking a mulligan with Leviat is horrible too. So my question, why did you keep it ?

Sure, Pand/Burst (can..) kills immediately, but can also immediately kill yourself if he Slavers you, sounds about as risky as Replenishing a Form into play and having enough space maindeck because you only need 2 Forms for other utility-enchantments. And, like Mixing Mike says, Humility/Confinement are great vs Slaver, and casting/replenishing a random Confinement can actually win games vs a lot of decks.


Basically, because your second argument isn't true, ("I was 0-1 behind when the time was up")
(It's a bit weird eh, if game 1 ends after 10-15 mins (he uses P. Deed to destroy your Humility, dealing 6 dmg with Akroma while you're @ 5 because of Form), and yet, you're 0-1 behind when time's up if game 2 only had about 10 turns (5 each)...weird.. ) your first can't be true either..., because if there would've been a Humility in your grave, you would've replenished turn 5 of extra time, would've won 2-1...but yet, it was a draw...

(oh, and your opponent confirmed in a pm on IRC that it was a 3-game-round, and not a 2-game-round..)

22 "sources" (+4 bazaar = 26), and you also played an Academy? (not on the list?). That's indeed a lot of acceleration. I agree though, that the deck has a terrible first turn. Careful Study isn't really good enough anyway imo, but Thirst can be a bit slow.

 I'll test this later (I guess ), to see if accel is worth it for me, idea is good though, still don't know if it's worth it yet but I'll give it a shot

I don’t think Lotus Petal is good enough, because you don’t have a lot of extra space in your Mana Base, and other sources are better IMO. Same with Academy, you don’t run enough artifacts for it, and it’s wastable anyway (so cutting an Island or something doesn’t seem to be a good solution)



Well, according to your decklist (i’ve got it right here, because I had to put them online ), your mana base yesterday was;


4 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
5 Island
1 Plains
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
4 Bazaar of Baghdad


Well, you’ve cut the Boseiju, so I guess it’s replaced by the 5th Mox? Anyway, I’ve tested 26 “sources” myself (as said in a reply above), and I think it’s a bit too much. What’s your opinion on that?

I agree with what Thug said, I’d rather play a Mana Crypt over an off-colour Mox if I had to. Because adding 25th/26th sources to the deck is too much IMO (25th is possible, but 26 is a lot, even though Bazaar is obviously  not a mana source, but your engine also counts )



Translating a dutch proverb into English is a bit weird




[Note: don’t think this is a flamebased/arrogant reply, it’s just random comment (and like Rvs said, we’ve tested the deck since GenCon last year, so we have quite a good grasp of the matchups/plays]

Imo, 4-1-1 is not something to be proud of, considering the circumstances. Because basically;
-It’s Castricum
-You only played against 2 “tier1” full-powered decks (4cc/Oath)
-Your results in these matches, 0-1-1, (1-2/1-1), but you could’ve easily won game 3 against Oath (and IMO, both are good matches)
-Some of your plays were questionable...if not "horrible"

[ I saw some random plays in your match up against Oath (game 3). You keep a mediocre hand, only because it has Boseiju, Island, Mana Crypt, Tinker.... You start with the Boseiju. He starts playing about 4-5 mana sources, and an Oath of Druids. You Tinker (using the Boseiju) for a Colossus. He screws up, not Oathing, but hardcasts a Platinum Angel (you know he plays it, and if he didn’t hard cast it,  he would’ve Oathed it in play, and you would’ve been “screwed” anyway). You start beating with the Colossus, putting him at 0 life. He starts beating with Angel. And time’s up. Turn 3 of extra time, you’re at 8 life, drained something for 2, fb’s a Deep Analysis, going to 5, almost burning for 2 (and die next turn @ platinum), but you topdeck an Intuition + land, you randomly think about the Mana Drain mana. You intuition for 3 Replenishes, but you have no Enchantments in your graveyard (well...a bargain, but bargain in play if you’re at 1 life next turn isn’t really good, is it?), instead of Intuitioning for 3 Seal of Cleansings and winning the game in turn 5 of extra time. He screws up again turn 4, casting Will for Demonic in grave, not searching for a Time Walk to win the game and match, but something else. You both agree with the draw, but, in the 5th turn, you still could’ve won. ]

Beating 3-4 "scrubs" playing non-powered decks isn't really an argument you can use to "prove" a deck is good...

I'd also rather "topdeck"...like...whatever.., instead of an Island lategame, but that's no reason to play it, is it?



(seriously...wtf )

Anyway, as said before, you really think 1 random Boseiju will be the solution to every random game situation in which you can't resolve a replenish right away?

I agree with what TheAlpha said..., if you have so many problems resolving 1 random Replenish, you might be doing some things "wrong".



This is basically the same as your last post, finding arguments in random games why a card could be viable, but is still only a "win easier"-card in a situation you're already winning.

And because playing a third color is probably not the best option, with no tutor effects (well yeah, intuition, but you're not going to play 3 Boseiju's ), I think it's too random. (and also the CIPT part you mentioned is bad obv )

It's still a lot easier to draw some counters, than to randomly draw a  1-maindeck-CIPT-land you can't tutor for....

Sure, it can be good in random late game situations..., but unnecessarily making your mana base worse for something that's not going to be usefull many times...imo not worth it.



Playing Intuition for 3 Ray..., 1 in hand, 2 in grave...and he can play them 5 times..., 2+1+1 = 5  right?

But anyway, that's like saying (random example); Oh, if I would've played a Rebuild maindeck, I could've won that one game vs. Random-Artifact.dec easier, let's put it maindeck!

Adapting your decklist because some random situation happened, that's not likely to happen again...

(and btw, you could've waited until you would've drawn a 2nd Replenish...big deal )

And yet..., 61-Cards-Mono Green Landdestruction not playing a Lotus even though it was 10-pr, won the tournament...how lucky



I played Mana Crypt myself in Castricum, but only because I didn't have access to a Lotus. But, it was imo really good. In a control mirror, it might not be your best mana source because of the random damage you can get, but good acceleration boosting out early Intuitions and Thirst is vital too. That's 1 reason I don't like Boseiju, it slows you down instead of acceleration, it costs you life every time you use it, and it screws up your blue mana base even more. Sure, the ability is OK, but imo not good enough (it's like a "win more" card, improving matchups that are already good ).



This was my mana base in Castricum, the 3 Tundra's and 1 Mana Crypt mainly because I didn't have access to them. This is what I'm playing atm;

I agree with Pyro, Bargain is insane... and Bazaar is still the main engine (why would you add Squee to the "must-haves", and not Bazaar?)

I'd add Humility and Fact to "the core" myself. Humility is just like Bargain, it wins you random games and you can cast it without a Lotus. Fact or Fiction is good enough, if you compare it with Thirst.

Hi,

If you look at "my" list, and Koen's list, you will notice that they're exactly the same, with the exception of Crypt for Lotus, and 5th Island for Tundra (because I decided to play the deck the day before the tournament, and Pyroman didn't have a 4th Tundra or a Lotus for me), and the SB. So, I basicly just netdecked Koen.

IMO, Study is bad because it's a sorcery and it's card disadvantage..., sure, Thirst is 3 mana, but hey, you have got drains and artifact mana for that .

Drains with Bazaar/Loa might LOOK bad, but it's good enough. Not being able to counter with a drain, is probably the same problem you will have when playing Logic (for it's alternative cost, because 3cc counters with no pro's are horrible)

And yes, the sideboard I played is still horrible imo, but, as I mentioned before, that's because I decided to play the day before the tournament, and didn't have anything better to put in it (and well..no playtesting at all..)

Nico.