People conceded to me when I gained infinite life. That was neat.

Is Deed in the board really your best option? Over 80% of your non-land permanents die to Deed at 2.

Leyline seems awful with Confidant, and a slim manabase

Appendix: Blank Entry Sheet
(feel free to cut-and-paste this)

1. What do you predict the turnout to be? 325
2. How many Force of Wills do you expect to see in the Top 8? 24
3. How many Wastelands in the Top 8? 4
4. In the top 8, what will be the most popular:
a. Blue card: Brainstorm
b. White card: Swords to Plowshares
c. Green card: Elvish Spirit Guide
d. Red card: Simian Spirit Guide
e. Black card: Leyline of the Void
f. Gold card: Meddling Mage
g. artifact: Tormod's Crypt
h. non-land card (most popular of 4a-g): Brainstorm
5. What's going to be the highest placing combination deck? Iggy Pop
6. What's the most common basic land type in the Top 8? Island
7. What's the most common dual land in the Top 8? Tropical Island
8. Goblins in the T8? (yes or no) No
9. Hulk Flash in the T8? (yes or no) Yes
10. Threshold (UWG) in the T8? (yes or no) Yes
11. Threshold (URG) in the T8? (yes or no) No
12. Survival.dec in the T8? (yes or no) No
13. High Tide in the T8? (yes or no) Yes
14. Landstill in the T8? (yes or no) No
15. BW Deadguy Ale (Disruption) in the T8? (yes or no) No
16. Gamekeepers/Salvagers in the T8? (yes or no) No

BONUS
17. ______________ [deck] will take first place. UGw Threshold
18. Who will win: Pro or Not? Not
19. The winner will be: ______________. (Specific player name) [/b]John Voigt

I'm pretty sure that deck will not exist by the time that Future Sight is legal (and frankly, probably isn't working as you are all hoping at current.) The only reason I can imagine that it exists at the moment is because of a mistake in a recent Oracle/Gatherer update. There is no reason for the Oracle text on Flash to have changed, Every site and database that I can find lists Flash as:


Even Gatherer lists Flash's rules summary with the reminder that:


My guess is that, for the time being, this is only legal if you have an inept judge, and certainly won't be legal past the next oracle update. But, if it's as degenerate as is being claimed, it will be rendered useless even before that.

Is there a way for me to alternate themes in forum preferences, or am I stuck with the default?

I suppose I too should write a report of sorts.

The morning starts the night before where I've built my sexiest build of Life.dec to date, and I play to annihilate the competition. I go to bed aiming to get six hours, feeling good about the day to come.

The day begins with a ring at my door. I've slept an hour longer than I was supposed too. I look at the clock, it reads 9:23, which is ten minutes fast, so it's 9:13. We're late. The tournament begins in just over 45 minutes. I rush to get dressed, answer the door, and gather all of my stuff. There was one thing I didn't notice, however. My hetro-life partner, Kacey Keel was visibly in no shape to play Magic, let alone drive. The details may need to remain a mystery, but needless to say, I drive his car the rest of the way. We almost get hit twice, and we arrive on site with roughly 5 minutes to fill out a deck list, on an empty gas tank, and best of all, without the deck that I had intended to play. Which leaves me with:

Truffle Shuffle: The ultra sub-Par build:

4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Pernicious Deed
4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Vindicate
3 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Eternal Witness
3 Krosan Tusker
2 Gigapede
2 Grave-Shell Scarab
2 Haunting Echoes
2 Wrath of God
1 Damnation
4 Windswept Heath
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Scrubland
4 Bayou
2 Forest
2 Swamp
2 Plains

Sideboard:

4 Cabal Therapy
4 Orim's Chant
4 Loxodon Hierarch
2 Smother
1 Wrath of God

The board is probably the thing I am most upset about. I was fortunate enough to bring Smother with me, but not Infest, which I prefer to run. I'm just generally very unhappy with my board aside from the Therapy and Hierach counts, which are normal. The main deck is a whole other fiasco. No Savannahs. A friend has half of the Savannahs that I normally use, the other half are left at the house in Life.dec. The solution? 3 more Fetch lands to replace Savannah. I really don't like it, but it's better than running 3 more basics. I'm really concerned because I only have 1 Damnation in the deck, depending on WW for each copy of Wrath of God, that, and I like to play decks that use Savannah.

I fill out the decklist (incorrectly...) and am able to settle down just before I need to play.

Round 1: (Lost my Notes) with Meat Hooks.

Game 1: I had overheard this guy while I was filling out my deck list trying to figure out if his board should have 2 Stifle, 2 Krosan Grip or 2 Pithing Needle. I figured he was playing Threshold. He wins the die roll and leads Flooded Strand -> Plains. Befuddled, I just think that maybe he really wants an un-Wastelandable Swords outlet. I lead with Swamp, Duress which reveals two Sinew Slivers and Brainstorm. I take the Brainstorm and comment that this is going to be much easier than Threshold as I look at the two Deeds in my hand. I play some Sweept effects that 2-1 his creatures, He gets me down to 10ish before I lay down Gigapede and, he has no answers.

Sideboarding -3 Vindicate +1 Wrath of God +2 Smother.

Game 2: He gets the turn 2 Crystaline Sliver nuts, and is able to counter my first Deed. He plays some more creatures, I blow them up with a Wrath, he plays a couple more, I kill them with a Deed. Haunting Echoes removes all but Winged Sliver and Plated Sliver, it also hits all of his counter magic aside from Stifle. He plays a couple more guys, I try to Deed, he Stifles it, but, I just kill his Slivers 1-1 with Swords and Smother.

1-0 (2-0)

As I hinted, I incorrectly filled out my deck list (I was in such a hurry) Apparently, my registered deck was supposed to contain 4 copies of Wrath of God in the sideboard, instead of the 1 (increasing m SB to 18 cards, and 6 WoG in the deck, total.) I get a game loss for my next game... hoo-ray.

Round 2: Andrew with TES

Game 1: I think he's playing Goblins while he suffles up, (obviously I didn't see any cards) and in a way, he kind of is. I keep a hand of 2x STP, 1 Duress and 4 land. I am on the play, and Duress. I see a hand of LED, Burning Wish, Gemstone Mine, City of Brass, a Chrome Mox and Brainstorm...! Holy shit, this is bad, bad, bad. TES needs to win one game for the match? This is the worst news ever. I take the LED and hope he ends up going for the Tomb or Urami win, so I can have a chance. His hand is hurt pretty badly by the Duress, so I have a little time. I draw into a Hymn, eventually, and Eternal Witness returns it eventually. With 6 cards in hand, he figures that it's time for him to go off, rather than face another Hymn. We both sit at 17 life. He quickly raises his storm count to lethal, but seems to have a lot of mana problems. He plays Diminishing Returns, which draws me into a hand that wins if he doesn't. He plays LED and Burning Wish, breaking the LED, leaving himself only 3 black mana. I figure that at this point he has fizzled. He wishes for Pain's Reward, his own tech. and instant;y bids 16 life. I can't out bid him, so with 0 mana floating, he draws 4 cards, and then picks up all of his cards and gets ready for game 2.

Sideboarding: -1 Damnation -2 Wrath of God -1 Vindicate -4 Swords to Plowshares +4 Cabal Therapy +4 Orim's Chant

Game 2: I draw an absolute God hand, assuming he doesn't win on turn 1. I draw the cards in this order: Orim's Chant, Swamp, Duress, Cabal Therapy, Cabal Therapy, Bloodstained Mire, Orim's Chant. I am so relived about this. I don't have an answer for Dark Confidant, but I know that I'm in good shape. He leads City of Brass, go. I play Duress and he shows me: 3 Plunge into Darkness, 1 Chrome Mox, 1 Burning Wish, 1 Dark Confidant. I take the Bruning Wish, as I have Therapy for the Plunge, which makes me incredibly happy. He imprints a Plunge on the Mox, and plays Confidant. I Therapy the 2 remaining Plunge into Darkness, and Therapy a Dark Ritual. The game drags on for a bit, He is taking more damage off his Confidant than I am, and at one point he gets up to 4 cards in his hand. He attempts to go off, and in response to an Burning Wish + LED I chant him, he wishes for Diminishing Returns. my turn, I flash back Therapy with Eternal Witness and Vindicate his Confidant. I play Gigapede and another Eternal Witness while he draws dead. and I quickly bring him down to an uncomfortable life total (1). He starts trying to go off, with 3 cards in hand, I Chant him in response to the first ritual, and he mana burns to death. Phew.

2-0 (4-1)

Round 3: Todd with UGw Threshold.

Game 1: I've known Todd for a while, but I've never played against him. I assume he is good, and he knows what I'm playing, and understands that it's a complete nightmare for him. I draw into 12 lands, and see one removal spell the entire game.

Sideboarding: -2 Swords to Plowshares +2 Smother

Game 2: I mulligan down to 6, and keep a 1 land + top. I draw no land for several turns, the game is over, it just takes him a while to deal 20 damage.

2-1 (4-3)

Round 4: Stephen with Affinity

Game 1: I'm feeling pretty low coming into this, losing to the single deck I'm supposed to beat. But, my heart sprung a fountain of joy when my opponent played a first turn Great Furnace and Æther Vial. I peek at my hand (I'm on the play, so I all ready have a fetch down) 1 Pernicious Deed, 1 Swords, 1 Hymn and 2 more lands. I fetch for Scrubland eot, play Bayou on my turn (draw into a land) and Hymn him. I'm upset when dice rolling gets me Seat of the Snyod and Blinkmoth Nexus. This is eased when he misses his 2nd land drop. I play a turn 3 Deed (drawing into a 2nd deed that turn) and the game ends shortly there after.

Sideboarding: -3 Duress +1 Wrath of God +2 Smother

Game 2: The first card I draw is Deed, and there are lands there as well, so I'm happy. He leads with turn 1 Disciple, and then turn 2 Frogmite, then turn 3 Disciple, then turn 4 Disciple and Myr Enforcer. At this point, I have Deed on the table, and I start counting. I'll lose 12 life if I activate Deed. This is unfortunate seeing as how I'm at 11. I start cleaning house, first Vindicating a Disciple, and then Plowing the Enforcer. He brings me down to 7 with attacks. I vindicate another Disciple before I Deed @1, bringing me to 3. He plays a land and another Myr Enforcer, and passes. I play Eternal Witness, returning Swords, and remove his other 4/4. On his turn, he plays Therapy, naming Eternal Witness. I show him the lone card in my hand: Haunting Echoes. He looks at this yard for a moment, and decides not to flash back Therapy, removing his lone creature. On my turn I in fact do remove his graveyard, he loses Myr Enforcer, Cabal Therapy, Disciple of the Vault and a couple of other non-creature spells. He topdecks a Ravager. I use top on my turn to turn up a Swords and Swords the Ravager. He allows it. He plays a land, I draw Gigapede and play it. He plays another Ravager, I dig up another Eternal Witness to get my Swords back to kill it. He runs out of creatures, and Gigapede becomes too much of a hassle, so he picks up his cards.

3-1 (6-3)

Round 5: I don't know his name, but we're both on Turffle Shuffle

We ID, he realizes that he is 8th seed, and the poor guy in fact does get knocked out, by a guy with 7 points going into this round, but he says that he wouldn't take it back either way, because the Truffle Shuffle Mirror must be the most annoying thing ever.

3-1-1

Top 8. I'm 8th seed. And fate takes a hand to make it so that I play against U/w Landstill, which is in first after his 5th round opponent fell asleep. Read Josh's report above for more information on that.

Round 6: Austin with U/w Landstill

Game 1: I played this very same match last month, and I was very unhappy with the outcome. Austin runs a number of Wastelands and Dust Bowl. These cards make me unhappy, especially the latter. Last time we played, he won, but I was very sure of my chances to win. This game is very, very long, He keeps a slow hand (As if Landstill had fast hands) And I tried to keep him off blue mana with Vindicate (he kept a 2 wasteland hand) for a few turns, but he kept topdecking it. He burns up counters on Hymns and Duress gets Decree and what-not. I get a Deed on the table, which stops his Factories from coming after me, and helps me kill his Crucible when it comes down. I finally hit a creature, Grave-Shell Scarab (Chuck) and good ol' Chuck went through every piece of removal left in Austins deck, and all of his man-lands to eventually win the first game.

Sideboarding: -3 Wrath of God +3 Loxodon Hirearch

Game 2: Austin counters my turn 1 Top, and gets a Standstill down, which is only broken on my 3rd turn, when I move to play a Deed. Aptly, the Deed is countered. I take 4 points off a Factory, while Austin throws Counterspells at Hymn to Tourachs. I get a Deed on the Table, which kills the pace of the game. He plays Crucible, I eot Deed, he Stifles it. I Vindicate the Crucible on my main phase. I try to resolve another Deed on my turn, he Forces it. I play some Hirearchs, he Stifles a Life gain ability, and Plows it, I play another, it sticks around long enough to be Wrathed. I duress on my turn, getting Decree of Justice. he plays Dust bowl, and uses it. I use Top to draw into Haunting Echoes (Gigapede is the next card) and I ask him if he has a counter. He doesn't, and thusly loses every business spell in his deck, but keeps all man-lands. The game then comes down to Gigapede bashing into a sea of Factories and Faerie conclaves, when I don't have enough Swords to kill them all.

4-1-1 (8-3)

Top 4: Round 7: Craig with WGb Zoo.

Game 1: He was scouting my incredibly long match with Austin, and knows exactly what I'm playing. I have only a very faint idea of what he is playing. Game 1, I keep another 1-land-and-top hand. I don't see lands quickly enough, and he beats me quicker than I'd like

Sideboarding: -4 Duress +2 Loxodon Hierach +2 Smother

Game 2: I'm feeling very bad about this, and wonder if I can turn this around. My hand looks good, 3 lands, Swords, Hymn, and a couple of other decent effects. I manage to stay-off his quick creature plan, and Deed away a Jitte and creature, only to play another Deed. I finally get good ol' Chuck (Grave-Shell Scarab) on the table, and he is larger than anything that Craig can get on the table.

Game 3: I'm feeling much better, especially after I see my hand, 4 lands, and a deed, a Damnation and Duress. He leads with duress, taking my Duress. I play land-Go, after drawing into Swords. He plays a Watchwolf, I allow it to stay around, so I can 2-1 if he tries to Rancor it. He hits me, plays another critter, my turn, I play Deed, he attacks for 5, I play land-go. He attacks, I clear the two men, and he plays two more. I Damnation them away, he plays a creature, I kill it. This process continues over the next several turns. Finally, I land a Gigapede and then Eternal Witness, and then Chuck. He hits a Jotun Grunt, and Equips it with Jitte, but I just Deed his side off the table.

5-1-1 (10-4)

Finals: Round 8: Josh with Goblins.

Before we start, I ask him if he would like to concede to me, he gives it serious though. I keep silent. I don't have a ton of experience at events like this, so when it comes to negotiating in the final stages, I don't know exactly what I may or may not do. I assume that offering him a prize split would be collusion or bribery, or something of that nature, and would get me Disqualified. As I later find out, I am quite wrong, and once again, I learn a lesson the hard way. I'm not confidant at all in this match, as my board sucks for it, and this land split is really, really bad for me.

Game 1: He wins the die roll. I have a pretty decent hand, Swords, Deed, Wrath, and some lands. I keep, he keeps. He has a slow start, which benefits me. His turn 2 Piledriver is sent to live on the farm, but, He hits me for several damage, He plays Warchief, and gets in for a couple. I play deed. He matrons for Piledriver, plays it and brings me down to 7. I activate Deed on his turn, after his attack step has come and gone. He plays Ringleader, drawing Warchief and something else. I play Grave-Shell Scarab, he plays Warchief, Matron (Getting Ringleader) and Fanatic. but holds back the attack. I tap out to cycle Krosan Tusker, and play Deed. He plays Ringleader (hitting only Siege-Gang Commander) and cycles Gempalm at Chuck. I drop to 2 life. I deed on his turn, he plays Siege-Gang afterwords. I play Wrath of God on my turn. He has been commenting this entire game about his topdecking, and I'd like to imagine that he topdecked the 4th Goblin Warchief that finished me off, as I had no answer in hand.

Sideboarding: -4 Duresss +1 Wrath of God +3 Loxodon Hirearch, this isn't amazing, but if I can get lands on the table... it'll be all right.

Game 2: On the play, I have Top, and I also have Swords for his turn 1 lackey. The problem is, this is a 1 land hand (and the lands is Plains.) I take the chance and keep it. I swords his Lackey, and then hit a bayou. It is immedeatly destroyed, he hits port, and I don't see lands in my top 3. Finally, I get my 2nd plains, but at this point, he's amassed a small army that I can do nothing about, as he has 2 Ports active.

So, in conclusion...

Truffle Shuffle, or whatever you would like to call it, is really an amazing deck. While it doesn't have the same ultra-strong synergies that many of the other decks in the format depend on, it has an all around strong game against the environment. Combo really is seldom a problem, as you have umpteen hate cards game 2/3 and typically enough game 1 to hold them off for a decent shot at a win. It can out-control other control decks, and keep most aggro (although I know my normal build struggles a bit with Goblins) But, the deck probably has the single best game against Random in the environment, and while I did lose to threshold today, the Threshold (and Fish) match is so lopsided, it really is not funny, if you're the Thresh/Fish player.

I'm am really disappointed that I lost to Threshold, and that I am too inexperienced to know what I can and cannot do in the final round of a tournament. The day was really awful, overall. I am very surprised and happy with how the deck and I preformed, I only wish that I could have been able to make the fixes that I wanted. Actually, I wish I was able to play the deck that I forgot. I suppose I'll have one last chance to win some byes, I'd better make it count, because winning 15 rounds in a row is hard.

I suppose it's time to pseudobrag about what I played:

Truffle "The" Shuffle (old list, ignoring all the innovation that everyone puts in at The Source.)

Beats:

2 Gigapede
2 Grave-Shell Scarab
3 Eternal Witness

Disruption:

4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
2 Haunting Echoes

Removal:

4 Vindicate
4 Pernicious Deed
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Wrath of God

Draw/Tutor:

3 Korsan Tusker
3 Sensei's Divining Top

Manabase:

4 Bayou
4 Scrubland
4 Windswept Heath
3 Savannah
2 Plains
2 Forest
2 Swamp
1 Bloodstained Mire

Side of Board:
4 Gerrard's Verdict
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Loxodon Hierarch
3 Infest

I expected heavy combo and threshold/fish; there were 0 combo decks and 1 of each of the latter. The metagame was mostly Zoo/Sligh and Landstill.

Match-ups:

Round One: Paul with U/r Landstill

Game 1: He wins Rock-Paper-Scissors The fact that he is not using sweeping effects doesn't seem to bother him, as I have nothing to sweep. He draws a bunch of cards, while I try to decimate his hand. I try to resolve Echoes a couple of times, but it never seems to work. Through some manner of means, he reduces my life to zero I'm pretty sure he didn't even need Crucible to do it. I remember reading that Landstill is supposed to be highly favorable, but I wonder if it really is.

Sideboarding: 2- Grave-Shell Scarabs. -3 Wrath of God +4 Loxodon Hierarch +1 Gerrard's Verdict: He has no STP, so I hope that his burn can't handle Elephants.

Game 2: I get Duress, Verdict, Hymn a-go-going before I drop an elephant and a Witness. Until turn ten or so, those are my only creatures. I get another elephant in the fray, the next turn he drops Meloku, I STP it at the end step, and he produces a Fog token, Elephants bash through them and they reduce his life total to zero on the next turn. He Gets Wasteland-Crucible on-line this game but I have all six basics on the table.

Game 3: This game nearly goes to time, and mostly involves me trying to kill both Crucible and Academy Ruins in the same turn. I had an opportunity, but do it in the wrong order, and walk into Stifle for me Deed.

1-2

Round 2 Andrew with R/w/g Zoo.

Game 1: He wins Rock-Paper-Scissors I have no idea what he's playing and keep a hand Sans Swords. He kills me on turn 4.

Sideboarding: -4 Duress -4 Vindicate +4 Gerrard's Verdict +4 Loxodon Hierarch.

Game 2: Turn 3 Deed clears away 3 guys, turn 5 Loxodon Hierarch sets my life total up to 11 (Out of Bolt+Fireblast range) Hirearch is also nice enough to stay back and block until I resolve a Haunting Echoes. I make a grave mistake with Echoes and amidst removing 95% of his deck, 2 of the 3 Rancors in his deck hit his RFG pile. The judge is called over and issues us each a warning. I'm really disappointed with myself over this for making the mistake, and because I would have prefered him to have Rancor in his deck. But I have the game won anyway, he has 3 creatures a Rancor and no other cards left in his deck, and Top tells me I have an answer for each of them.

Game 3: I play Swords two early beaters, and Verdict on turn 3. Turn 4 sees me with an elephant, turn 5 and elephant, and they win the game from there on.

3-3

Round 3 Marcel playing 43land.dec

Game 1: I'm not happy about this at all, I'm pretty sure I can't win it. I get a hand with Echoes, a top and some removal, and decide that it's really my only chance. He doesn't know what I'm playing and leads with Tabernacle and passes. I take advantage of the Time Walk, and get my top on the table. He plays Ghost Quarter to kill my Bayou, I happily search out a basic. He gets Manabond on the table, but doesn't dump his hand. I Vindicate the Manabond. He plays Mulch, drawing 4 cards. He play LftL, getting only Ghost Quarter back. My 5th turn comes around and I have 5 mana sources. I Echoes away all the relevant spells in his deck (not that there are many (spells in his deck.)) I'm happy with myself. He he starts beating me with Factories and Villages, I Deed, Swords and Vindicate them off, until I'm able to Witness back the Echoes, and get rid of all of his ma-nlands. Gigapede works his way around the Maze of Ith, Quicksand and slowly takes out the rest of his man-lands until I'm able to win the game. Phew!

Sideboarding: -1 Duress -3 Wrath of God +4 Loxodon Hirearch.

Game 2: I'm still very unhappy about this. My hand is Witness, Top, Hymn, 2 Loxodon Hierarchs, Swamp and Bloodstained Mire: It's risky, but I figure that Top will help me get to land 3, and 2 Green sources will give me my 4th land, which lets me get Hirearchs on the table. This game, he gets the nuts "Land -> Manabond Factory, Village, Wasteland, Wasteland, Tabernacle" I'm pretty sure I've lost this game. I play my swamp and top. He cycles a land and attacks. Long story short, he gets me down to 7 and has the choice of attacking for 5, or attacking for 3, and using Port on my turn. He opts to attac, bringing me to 2. I beath a huge sigh of relief, untap, let my Witness die, and play Hierarch. Next turn, I play land and play another, next turn I play a land and play a 3rd. At that point, I keep playing lands, while playing on the defensive, and eventually I ask my elephants to go over and see how he's doing.

5-3

Round 4 Idon'tremember his name with U/g/w Gro

We decide to ID, but I ask him to play a couple of games anyway.

Game 1: He beats me down until I resolve Echoes, and then deed. He concedes.

Game 2: He beats me down until I resolve Echoes and then deed. He concedes.

7-3

Top 8: Round 5 Austin with U/w Landstill

Game 1: I mulligan to 5, and keep a hand with land. I try to make a come back, but I don't have anything. He draws a bunch of cards, and I don't do anything useful while he kills me with Factories.

Sideboarding: -3 Wrath of God +3 Gerrard's Verdict (He has swords, so I'm not bringing the Elephants in.)

Game 2: Once again, I mulligan to 5, keeping the first hand with land that I see. I never get more than 2 land on the table thanks to his Wasteland and sadistic use of Dustbowl. Apparently Truffle "The" Shuffle sucks against Landstill.

Conclusion

My board sucked, the deck preformed well, considering how many odd matches I had where half my deck was sub-par. Next month I'm going back to my old stand-by. Test the waters in the on-line enviorment and around here, and see if the water's right for the Grand Prix. I hope to see you there.

I just realized I didn't let everyone know that I'd be attending this event. Not that anyone cares too much, but I'll be at this event, playing a terrible deck, trying to win. Vote democratic.

Everyone has a different name for the deck so:

Squire.dec

2 Haunting Echoes
2 Graveshell Scarab
2 Gigapede
3 Krosan Tusker
3 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Wrath of God
3 Eternal Witness
4 Pernicious Deed
4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Vindicate
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Bayou
4 Scrubland
4 Windswept Heath
3 Savannah
2 Snow-Covered Swamp
2 Snow-Covered Forest
2 Plains
1 Bloodstained Mire

Sideboard:

4 Cabal Therapy
4 Gerrard's Verdict
4 Loxodon Hirearch
2 Sudden Death
1 Infest

Synopsis of the Deck:

Basically, no one likes this deck, because Jack Elgin (I probably butchered his name's spelling, but that is fine) is responsible for it. I Don't know the guy, or pay attention to anything that he posts, I've only looked at the fact that the deck looks solid, it's top 8ed a couple of times.

They deck looks awful on paper, I'm sure, but it plays incredibly smoothly.

Matches and mini-report.

Round 1: MBA with 12 LD spells and Wasteland.

Game 1: I play two swords and lose. After which point I feel terrible about how the day is going to go.
Game 2: I'm able to rip his hand apart and Duress Hymn and Therapy, and then win with Grave-Shell over a number of turns
Game 3: He doesn't get enough LD going and I'm able to get a Haunting Echoes off. He draws land while I hit him with Gigapede

Round 2: Tooth and Nail. Strangely enough, I'm not feeling too good about this.

Game 1: I Duress and Hymn relevant cards, Vindicate lands and then kill with a creature.
Game 2: Duress -> Hymn -> Eternal Witness -> Hymn -> Haunting Echoes. I kill with Gigapede over the next few turns.

Round 3: R/w Burn - Jesus Christ, I'm never going to catch a break.

Game 1: I fiddle with things like Wrath of God, Pernicious Deed and Swords while he Lava Spikes me.
Game 2: I bring in 12 cards, and he loudly complains that I'm drawing into everything I need (2 Verdicts and a Hirearch) I play Haunting Echoes and he gets excited that his deck is being thinned so he can get to Incinerate and Helix easier. After the game he realizes that his deck was probably being thinned in a bad way.
Game 3: I have another 'stupid good' hand against his deck, as I Duress, Therapy, Duress, and then play a couple of Hirearchs that beat him to death. I play another Echoes which this time, he isn't happy about. I win with a bit more room this time. Gerrard's Verdict is the stuff.

Round 4: B/r Aggro Control, lots of Discard, the Rack and Storm World. Another Match I'm not happy about

Game 1: I go down to about 4 off all his stuff before I'm able to stabilize and seize control of the board. Haunting Echoes gets rid of all of his removal and discard, so I don't need to worry about either.
Game 2: It takes him a bit to start ripping my hand apart. This time, I have an early Top to lend me a hand. I get another Echoes off this game, I think he concedes to it.

Top 8: RGSA - The first match of the day I'm happy about

Game 1: I easily win game 1 after I echoes away all of his relevant creatures.
Game 2: I screw up an early Duress, allowing him to simply replay the card I'm worried about off a vialed Witness. I'm never able to sweep the board.
Game 3: I get stuck, after a mulligan on a one-land hand. It stays that way for the next few turns. I nearly come back to win, but I'm a turn behind where I need to be. Needle on Deed screws me up again.

And that's all there is to say about that.

*grumble* who the hell plays Rifter? That was just stupid.
The metagame breakdown was thusly:

I had the metagame breakdown wirrten out, but I lost it. 6 Goblins, 3 combo (2 Igg and one stupid one), 1 Threshold, 3 Burn, 2 B/w, 2 MBA. Anything else, I either don't recall or don't feel like typing out.

No, it is basically up to whomever organizes the event. But, I am pretty sure that the word on the street was that Sunday worked for more people.

A tad short notice but, here is the information:

Where?
Pandemonium
1858 Middlebelt
Garden City, MI 48135
Telephone: (734)-427-2451

When?
Sunday, November 19th
Sign-up begins at 12:00noon
Tournament starts at 1:00pm

Format:
Legacy (One-Point-Five.)
REL: 1
Swiss rounds with cut to top 4, or top 8 based on attendance.

Entry Fee: $10

Prize Structure:

1st Place: Choice of 4x Tropical Island (That's a playset. At least EX.) or $90 store credit

2nd Place: Choice of 4x Meddling Mage (NM) or $50 store credit.

3rd & 4th Place: $10 store credit

5th-8th Place: Prizes tentative

Top 4 prizes are guaranteed. For every additional 2 players above 14, $5 store credit will be added to each of the Top 4 prizes.

Remember this tournament is the 19th of November, the Sunday before Thanksgiving.

So, if you're in town, and would like to play some Magic: The Gathering, come on down to Pandemonium! They have an amazing selection of singles from obscure commons to Power. Drinks and snacks are available on site, and fine eateries are only seconds away.

Did they unban Necropotence, or something? Becuase the sheer drawing (and waiting four turns,) that Ancestral Visions offers, really does not seem good enough. Maybe there is some bomb in Time Spiral that I missed. Or... more likely, this is the same as every other winter, where people claim combo shall reign.

There was literally nothing I could do. I will have to accpect that my pet deck is bad against your pet deck. All I can really do is, next time I know you will be at a tournament, I will have to play something with counterspells.

I am still a bit sore that against FFY I missed a land drop, which cost me the match. I also never got to play against Affinity or Threshold (God, I wish I had.) Instead, I get paired against decks with relavent disruption, but win anyway. Playing against Goblins was the only match I was happy to play against.

There was also a guy (I am terrible with names, but I do remember Andrew and Mike) who was playing a build of Salvagers Game with Sylvan Library in the main, and SSS/DSC in the board. In a bitter sweet manner, my teammate was crushed by it. Which made me realize, "I need to stop making my tech public."

In both of these cirumstances, the opponenet was tapped out (Landstill had attacked wtih Mishra's Factory, burn had burned had burned me at sorcery speed.) So, each was just me grabing a card out of their hands.


I gave him ample time to remove the yard, with Gamekeeper on the stack. He realized afterwords what hse should have done.

If you draw your deck then yes; you can just Duress/Therapy every relavent card out of their hand. However, if you cannot target them, for whatever reason (Gilded Light, Solitary Confinement.) Or for some other unforseen reason; Orzhov Guildmage can win. Guildmage also much easier to play, when not comboing off. And most importantly, The art is swell.

I read your report, just now, I liked it quite a bit. Deed seems like a great route to go. But, I still like the DSC/SSS game plan, as it did win me a couple of games.

Garden City (Detroit, MI) 19 Player pool.

No fluff to start off with, on with the content:

Golden Grahams
A Deck Built By: Me

The list:

Spells:
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
4 Dark Ritual
4 Duress
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Innocent Blood
4 Tainted Pact
3 Gamekeeper
4 Living Wish
2 Sylvan Library
2 Auriok Salvagers

Lands:
3 Windswept Heath
2 Bayou
2 Forest
2 Polluted Delta
2 Savannah
2 Snow-Covered Forest
2 Snow-Covered Swamp
2 Swamp
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Scrubland
1 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard:

1 City of Brass
1 Game Keeper
1 Viridian Zealot
1 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Tusnami
1 Bone Shredder
4 Infest
1 Kjeldoran Dead
1 Auriok Salvagers
1 Orzhov Guildmage
1 Simic Sky Swallower
1 Darksteel Colossus

Deviations From the Thomas Lee, Gencon list:

Main deck -2 Nights Whisper +2 Sylvan Library.

I play Library in nearly every deck I build that can support it, from Parfait, to Life and now this. Sylvan Library is terrific. In testing, Library proved superior as it gave me Gamekeeper (countered,) followed by Gamekeeper (countered.) And lastly, Salvagers, the turn before UGw would come in for lethal, to win. This was a sign that Library was in, and this performance repeated in the tournament at least twice.

Lands

I literally threw this together at 2 A.M. the night before, to start testing. Not having a Plains was probably a mistake, but it never came up. There is no reason that you cannot get away with using a couple of each dual, as Tainted Pact is not going to fizzle on them. The only change I would make to my mana base is –1 Wooded Foothills, +1 Snow-Covered Plains. I may like a 4th Heath.

Sideboard –1 Maga, Traitor to Mortals –1 Tsunami –1 Darsteel Colossus +1 Simic Sky Swallower +1 Orzhov Guildmage +1 Bone Shredder.

Orzhov Guildmage is better than Maga, Traitor to Mortals.

Bone Shredder Seemed like a good idea. He never came up, but it was nice to know that he was there. Next time, he might as well be another Orangutan.

Simic Sky Swallower it looked good on paper. It looked even better on the table. He is great, even against savage hate.

Before we get started:
1. I made some grievous errors with this deck. I will not discuss them here, but my performance with this deck should not be a representation of how well the deck can perform.
2.I tested incredibly well against Ugw, the last Tsunami in the board was a last minute “Opps, I forgot to fill this SB slot.
3.No one cares about what happened before or afterwards, so here it goes:

Round 1: Austin with U/W Landstill

Game 1

I win the die roll and lead off with Therapy on Force of Will. I grab one, and in the process see Swords to Plowshares and Counterspell. I have Gamekeeper, Duress and two Tainted Pact in hand, I am very uncomfortable about how this match is going to go. Next turn, I am able to snag the Counterspell with Duress. The next couple of turns are slow. At the end of turn 4, I Tainted Pact, it is Counterspelled, I Tainted Pact again, into Dark Ritual. My turn, play Gamekeeper, flash back Therapy naming Swords to Plowshares, get my Salvager, and he concedes before seeing a win condition.
Sideboarding: Nothing. I got a vibe that he was bringing in irrelevant hate, as he was completely baffled by what just happened and commented, “I do not think I can deal with this.”

Game 2

Starts him out with an Island. I get another turn Cabal Therapy looking for Force of Will, He brainstorms in response revealing two Wrath of God and Decree of Justice. I also see he is stuck on one of each type of mana. His second turn; he plays Standstill; I grimace. On my turn, I try to bate the counter with Sylvan Library (Gamekeeper in hand.) When it resolves, I feel a relief that I can win. When he still does not get a second blue mana source, I feel confident that I can win next turn. I draw 3 cards off the Library. Ritual, Duress. Gamekeeper, Lions Eye Diamond, flash back Cabal Therapy, get stuck on Gamekeeper. and have to pass the turn. Next turn, play Living Wish (as I have no Sac outlet) grabbing Kjeldoran Dead, it resolves. Gamekeeper hails Salvagers. Break LED. Win.

1-0 (2-0)

Round 2: Marcel with Iggy Pop

I was terrified of this match. I have not tested it, but seeing that it is difficult to win is obvious as the deck main-decks Graveyard hate. Before the match, as we present decks. I offer him an ID. He thinks for a moment (knowing what I was playing, as everyone was talking about it for some reason.) and agrees. I am relived. We play it out to pass the time.

Game 1: He does not get a Leyline in play. I hit him with Duress turn 1. Turn 2, Ritual Gamekeeper into play. Turn 3, fetch the wrong land as I Innocent Blood Gamekeeper. End of my turn, he Mystical Tutors up his win, and wins indeed.

Sideboarding: -1 Salvager +1 Darksteel Colossus. This is the kind of sideboarding you are going to see me do a lot of for game two when I do not know what to expect from a deck.. Here is the reasoning: I have no idea what I am supposed to do with this deck, but the partial transformation feels right to me. It gives me a 50/50 chance of win conditions. The deck is designed to work with Salvagers. I can win this turn, if I get Salvagers, if they do not have hate ready. And if they do have hate. I have a 50/50 chance of hitting a beater. DSC comes in against decks that do not use targeted removal. SSS comes in against decks that do.

Game 2: My opening hand is all right. Game Keeper, LED, Therapy, Living Wish. I keep it. He starts with a Leyline in play. I sink in my chair. He also kept a 0 mana source hand. I have enough time to turn my Living Wish into a Simic Sky Swallower and play it (same turn) I get an attack in with it before he hits two mana sources, an LED and wins.

After the game; he showed me he sided out a Leyline.

1-0-1   (2-0)

Round 3 Ari with U/G Madness

See Aside*

Game 1

Prior to playing, he tells me he thinks he knows what I am playing, and that the statistics are very much in his favor. Looking at my (on the play) hand of Sylvan Library, Gamekeeper, Cabal Therapy, Duress and three lands, I find that hard to believe. I Therapy for Force of Will, get one. I see Two Circular Logics on top of it. My next turn, I draw into a Ritual, and attempt to go for the gold. It is met with Brainstorm into Force of Will, removing a Logic. On his turn, he plays Wild Mongrel, which is only relevant as a madness outlet. On my turn, I play Sylvan Library, which he allows to resolve. He attacks, throws a Basking Rootwalla into play. I draw into my 4th land in a timely manner. I realize that he has the beats coming fast (as he has had another Rootwalla from his first turn) and I attempt to resolve a Gamekeeper, met with the Circular Logic. I lay down my LED and pass the turn: Knowing that the top card of my library is Salvagers, and he is topdecking, at this point. He draws into a card, attacks me to 7. On my turn. I draw into my Salvagers, draw an extra card as a buffer. Play Salvagers, it resolves, and I proceed to win.

Sideboarding –1  Auriok Salvagers +1 Darksteel Colossus

Game 2.

Long story short; he plays several counterspells, he finally gets a creature to stick to the table; wonders why I did not concede to Chalice with zero counters. On turn 6ish; I break 2 Chromatic Spheres, (using a forest) to Duress his hand, nabbing the only relevant card. End of turn; I tap Forest, Swamp for Tainted Pact: Getting Dark Ritual. As of my draw step my hand is: Game Keeper, Living Wish, Therapy, Therapy Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, With three lands on the table (The only counter in his hand (as of Duress) is 2 Circular Logic.) Suddenly, after I draw a card; he calls the judge. Asking how I generated the Black mana (after I had played Duress) to play Tainted Pact, looking around for a few seconds I think: Wow, did I really do that? And politely apologize, and concede the game instead of winning After my concession a spectator standing behind me (and friend of my opponent) says, “Yeah, I did not want to say anything during the game, but you used Chromatic Sphere for that.”

Lesson learned.

Sidebaording –4 Lions Eye Diamond –1 Salvagers +1 Simic Sky Swallower +4 Infest. Chalice at 0 makes LED bad. He also let me Duress away a Crypt that game. Time to change up tactics

Game 3

I get a nice two-land hand. Which becomes a one-land hand after he Stifles a fetch. I see other lands three turns later, but it is too late. After playing another Chalice at zero, he monologues about how there is no possible way I can win.

1-1-1 (3-2)

Round 4: Jeremy with Sligh

Jeremy has been at every tournament since we started monthly Legacy. He has been playing Goblin Sligh, R/w Sligh and last month, Sligh sligh.

Game 1

He wins the die roll, and leads with Mogg Fanatic. I take an educated guess that he is playing Goblins, and play a Sphere turn one, No turn two play backed up this suspicion. Turn two, I go Ritual, popping sphere get BBBG and play Game Keeper. He attacks into it, after playing a third land. When I get Salvagers, he plays 2 Seal of Fire in his 2nd Main to kill them off. Shaken, I take my turn, play another Game Keeper, flashing back Therapy, naming Lightning Bolt, hit 2 copies, seeing 2 copies of Price of Progress. I play the Lions Eye Diamond that I drew for the turn after I get my other Salvagers and begin the combo.

Sideboarding: -1 Salvagers +1 Darksteel Colossus. I do not think he sideboarded at all against me. I think he looked, but found nothing. I figured this was safe either way.

Game 2

Another early Mogg Fanatic and a plethora of burn eat away at my life total. I get an Early Therapy in the yard, hitting Lightning Bolt again. I am not able to Ritual a Wished Gamekeeper in this game, and I even miss a land drop. After I Tainted Pact up Dark Ritual, and I draw into a land, I am able to Ritual Gamekeeper in, flash back Therapy (he has 1 topdecked card in hard.  I predict and say “Fireblast” accidentally early, and get Fireblasted)  I chain into another Gamekeeper, which begot Salvagers who won the game.

2-1-1 (5-2)

As we only had 19 players, we only played 4 rounds. My tiebreakers are mostly terrible, and I am not sure if I will T8. After doing some talking, everyone is 2-1-1, which makes me even less optimistic. When standings are posted I am 4th place. I suppose I do not understand the scoring as well as I like to pretend.

Top 8 Kacey: UGw Threshold.

Kacey and I are teammates and always seem to get paired together, no matter the size of the event. Kacey is main decking a couple of Stifles instead of another cantrip. This is the build I was testing against, and if everything held up, would do well against.

Game 1

I get a turn one Therapy, naming Force of Will, get one; like always. He has a good hand to play against me with; Counterspell, Swords are left. He leads off with a Serum Visions. My turn 2 consists of playing my topdecked Duress, to get he counterspell. On his turn, he draws a couple more cards. I go for the Gamekeeper; it resolves Flashing back therapy for his Swords. He has a couple of Mongoose chilling out in his hand. I hit Salvagers and I am forced to pass the turn. He untaps, plays another draw spell and hastily casts Swords to Plowshares targeting the Salvagers. I get a Dark Ritual. He starts playing 3/3s. He plays Pithing Needle on Salvagers. I hit  Living Wish, and get Orangutan to kill the needle. I draw into Gamekeeper, play it, and chain a couple of Gamekeepers. And end up passing the turn with a lone Salvagers in play and 1 mana left untapped. He draws, (just Force of Will left in hand, after Therapy Chain) and passes. I (not paying attention to my lands again) tap 2 Savannahs (my only white sources) to return Lion’s Eye Diamond. He Stifles to buy another turn… He draws, and tells me to go. I get back the LED He counters with Force of Will. I get it back again. He plays Daze. I pay the 1, and then win. 2 Cards left in library.

Sideboarding: -2 Auriok Salvagers, +1 Simic Sky Swallower, +1 Darksteel Colossus. I know the hate is coming. Lets see what I can do.

Game 2

My hand is nice: Gamekeeper, Dark Ritual, Duress, Living Wish, Innocent Blood. Lands. He leads off with Pithing Needle on Salvagers. I play Duress, grabbing a Force of Will (leaving him Swords, Counterspell, and Meddling Mage.) Turn two he casts the Mage, naming Living Wish. Although he knows me deck, he is confused as to why I am not conceding. I am able to Ritual the Gamekeeper in and pass. He plays a Mongoose passes. I play Innocent Blood (Darksteel Colossus in hand.) both the spell and ability resolve. I get SSS. He is at 18, and had Brainstormed in response to Therapy. He concedes as he looks at his top 3, seeing if somehow Mystic Enforcer had been there.

3-1-1 (7-2)

Top 4 Phil with Affinity

Game 1

I start things out with a Therapy on Pithing Needle: No luck. He gets a turn one Disciple. I am not happy about it. My Innocent Bloods are all dodged by Ornithopter. A large Ravager does me in a couple turns, as I fail to get much going.

Sideboarding: -4 Innocent Blood –1 Auriok Salvagers +4 Infest +1 Darksteel Colossus

Game 2

On the play, I start with just a sphere. Living Wish, two Infest, Ritual and land make up the rest of it. He lays on creature on turn 1, Arcbound Worker; so, I can wait a turn to play Infest. I play Living Wish for Gamekeeper and pass. He extends far enough into my grasp turn two for me to Infest on my third turn. He recovers with just about nothing. I play Gamekeeper. On turn five, I Infest (4 lands on the table) Getting Salvagers, and passing the turn. He hits me for a few more points of damage, and I win on the next turn.

Game 3   

This is another good hand. Living Wish, Infest and what not. For the second game in a row, he gets stuck on one land But it is all right, he has 3 Tormod’s Crypt. And he also lets what creatures he does have walk into Infest. I get a Gamekeeper down on turn four. He has a 3/3 Frogmite that I am happy to block. After I Gamekeeper up Gamekeeper and several Therapy, he uses one of three Crypt to remove my yard. On my turn, when I Infest, I check to see if Gamekeeper trigger resolves, it does. Repeat for another Gamekeeper trigger, it does. Darksteel Colossus comes into play. And he seems upset. I win two turns later.

4-1-1 (9-3)

Finals would have been against the same U/G Madness. I am confident in my ability to beat the deck, however. I was all ready tired, and I figured it would be a kindly gesture to split with him. He had to drop his match as no drawing is allowed, as you know; giving me first place.

Final Thoughts

This deck is way more consistent than it looks on paper. And is highly underplayed. Tainted Pact is one of my favorite cards; I never had a Pact fizzle, even when I dug deep, so warping the deck further than it is to accommodate Pact is unnecessary, as far as I can tell.
I had played a couple of few-board games against Zoo, winning each of them, on a short clock.
The deck is a loaded gun, and it definitely has the right silver bullets to get the job done. The transformational board is great at dodging most hate. But, I would like to make some further, minor changes. Foremost, the SB Tsunami slot, becoming Mesmeric Fiend.

I had a lot of fun playing this deck, and look forward to using it in the future.


*Aside: I would like to take a short aside to say something about sportsmanship. This was a REL 1 tournament. The judge, Dave is a laid back, relaxed, fun guy. The people were for the most part, a real blast to play with. It bothers me quite a bit when a group of players; is focused on working together to unnerve and undermine another player. While many players want to bring Legacy to a highly competitive level, we try to keep it casual at this tournament (as far as I could tell.) and the level of unsportsman like attitude that I had witnessed from various players was not only upsetting, but also enraging. I feel that this a more of a problem with Magic in general, and is sadly, something that will probably not be resolved. It really disturbs me that the only way some people can play this game is to attempt to demoralize, rules lawyer, and quite frankly harass the opponent. Simply between we are in competition with each other does not give another the right, nor the reason to act in such an uncouth and antagonistic manner. No one deserves to be treated in such a hostile fashion and the number of players I see resorting to this, frankly; appalls me. I feel strongly, that unsportsman like conduct is something that any player should have to stand for, and the insignificant punishment stated by the rules is not enough to seriously address this issue. Aggressive and intimidating players are not conducive to a healthy, fun, positive gaming environment that I, and I would assume most other people would be most interested in playing in.

12 hours before Play begins: I have narrowed it down to roughly 3 decks. I am sure nothing will be as bad as my preformance with Angel Stompy last time.

1. What do you predict the turnout to be? 149 Players 1 point
2. How many Force of Wills do you expect to see in the Top 8? 16 1 point
3. How many Swords to Plowshares in the Top 8? 12 1 point
4. How many Wastelands in the Top 8? 11 2 points
5. How many Standard-legal cards in the Top 8? 30 1 point
6. In the top 8, what will be the most popular:
a. Blue card: Brainstorm 2 points
b. White card: Swords To Plowshares 2 points
c. Green card: Nimble Mongoose 2 points
d. Red card: Mogg Fanatic 2 points
e. Black card: Dark Confidant 0 points
f. Gold card: Vindicate 0 points
g. artifact: Umezawa's Jitte 0 points
h. non-land card (most popular of 6a-g): Brainstorm 3 points
7. What's the most common basic land type in the Top 8? Mountain 0 points
8. What's the most common dual land in the Top 8? Tropical Island 2 points
9. Goblins in the T8? (yes or no) Yes 1 point
10. Threshold (UWG) in the T8? (yes or no) Yes 0 points
11. Threshold (other) in the T8? (yes or no) No 0 points
12. Survival.dec in the T8? (yes or no) No 1 point
13. High Tide in the T8? (yes or no) Yes 0 points
14. BW Deadguy Ale (Disruption) in the T8? (yes or no) Yes 0 points
15. What's going to be the highest placing combination deck? High Tide 0 points

BONUS
14. Goblins will take first place. 0 points
15. The winner will be: NASCAR Hero Jeff Gordon. (Specific player name) 0 points

Total: 21 points

Uncut sheet of.... what?

You commented that you took Meloku out of the deck, I think she should go back in, because while every time you detnoated Deed, you gained card advantage, you lost all of your threats. Meloku has the ability to dodge that where as Mongoose and Tog do not.

Karakas is Living Wish for an extra white mana source, and is randomly useful at sending Akroma back to someone's hand. In Short: I love Karakas.

In round six, I make the following SB: -1 Test of Endurance -2 Sylvan Library +2 Disenchant +1 Karakas (Ironic, huh?)

My terrible mana problem in game one (3 Starlits and a Heath) caused me to take out what were basically dead cards for what ended up being dead cards and a mana source.

Edited to show the SB.

The beautiful thing about having 1,500,000,018 life is that I can basically sit around until I draw into Test of Endurance. After the combo, I am in no hurry to to win. On a somewhat related note: I had considered running black, but if you read Starlit Sanctum, it requires the use of Unspeakable Symbol (another card enchantment, that, short of Academy Rector, I cannot tutor for) Which is, in itself is just another win condition: However, it requires that I have 1BB to swing for a win (which could take a number of turns to actually get a creature through) or 2BBB open to win the turn I play it via Starlit Sanctum. In the end, I decided not to dilute the mana base for what just seems to be Win-More.

I decided to go with the super-basic, straight forward list because I did not want to dilute the combo. The Sylvan Libraries (which turned out to be golden,) Test of Endurance, Eternal Wittness, and the Viridian Shaman are the only slots that are really debateable without doing a compete overhaul of the deck. In a larger tournament, I may considering going 3 color for Duress and/or Therapy, but probably not Unspeakable Symbol.

I had all ready admitted that Life just loses to some decks: It is not a big mystery. I will lose game 1 to both High Tide and Spring Tide and any deck that is using cards like Glimpse of the Unthinkable every time. However, game 2 gives me a sivler bullet. And if anyone is curious to know my SB against such decks it is something like:

-1 Test of Endurance
-4 Worthy Cause
-4 Living Wish
-1 Starlit Sanctum

+2 Gaea's Blessing
+2 Pithing Needle
+1 Nomads en-Kor
+1 Warrior en-Kor
+1 Eternal Wittness
+1 Viridian Shaman
+1 Genesis
+1 Karakas

It is still a terrible match up, I am forced to play aggro. Against Random.Mill and Spring Tide, Blessings are going to be huge pains in the ass. High Tide (Solidarity) Has a better chance of answering it, but will probably walk into it if I bait them with a couple of spells on my third and/or fourth main phase.

So, I may lose to Tide decks... but I also lose to False Cure Coalition Victory.

If I were to play the deck again; I would make the following changes.

Maindeck Changes

-1 Viridian Zealot
-1 Test of Endurance (Everyone concedes to the life gain.)

+1 Wall of Blossoms (It cantrips)
+1 Shuko/Worldly Tutor/Sylvan Library

Sideboard Changes

Note - Miren, the Moaning Well was supposed to be Diamond Valley, but could not be due to budget concerns. It will only really matter in one in twenty matches.

-1 Viridan Shaman
-1 Genesis

+1 Viridian Zealot
+1 Disenchant (although I never used them, all of the R/w burn people boarded in Disenchant against me., they are a pretty good idea.)

On Darksteel Colossus

He is there incase the opponenet does not concede to the life gain. You never board him in, you Living wish for him and either tap eleven lands for him, or set a Vial up to 11 to get him in. He is never really nessescary, but it good as an isurance policy.

If you clicked on the link looking for some kind of detailed match analysis... you clicked the wrong link: Sorry.

The Night Before Following ritual, I do not sleep. I played a lot of Tetris, I did not play a lot of Street Fighter as I typically do, My friend, teammate and hetero-life partner, Kacey watch Spinal Tap and a bit of the Monkee's Head He is furious that he is trapped at my house and not able to sleep. However a sudden turn of events forced me to sleep. I got about three hours in: Big mistake. If you are staying up, and decide to wuss out of it, be sure that you do it around the time that you can still get five hours in: Anything less will kick your ass for the entire next day or two. I wake up at 11:30, and get out around Noon. We get there with time to spare, so that I can pick up my last Task Force and Wall of Blossoms.

The Deck
Life - A deck by Christopher Walton

Lands: 22

6 Plains
4 Savannah
4 Starlit Sanctum
4 Windswept Heath
2 Flooded Strand
1 Forest
1 Miren, the Moaning Well

Critters: 19

4 Task Force
3 Shaman en-Kor
3 Nomads en-Kor
3 Daru Spiritualist
3 Wall of Blossoms
1 Eternal Wittiness
1 Warrior en-Kor
1 Viridian Zealot

Cards That Stay on the Table, But Are Not Creatures Or Lands: 7

2 Sylvan Library
1 Test of Endurance
4 Æther Vial

Cards That Go Away After I Use Them (Most of the Time.): 12

4 Eladamri's Call
4 Living Wish
4 Worth Cause

Sideboard
2 Gaea's Blessing
2 Disenchant
2 Pithing Needle
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Genesis
1 Viridian Shaman
1 Eternal Witness
1 Nomads en-Kor
1 Warrior en-Kor
1 Daru Spiritualist
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Karakas

---------------------------------------------------

The tournament starts and parings come up. The pool is 21 players:

Round 1 - Fight! Kacey - Angel Stompy.

If you read the above stuff, Kacey is the very same guy that spent the night cuddling with me.

Game 1: We each know the other's deck inside and out. He has a better chance than anyone of beating me, with his deck configuration. The only person who had a better chance was the guy playing SSalvager's Anyway, I do not get an explosive start. Using this knowledge, he keeps a hand with no threats, only answers and equipment, hoping to draw into something with numbers in the corner. He keeps me pinned down for a few turns, this is my longest game of the day at about 14 total turns. I win off the two combo pieces I need coming to me through Sylvan Library.

Sideboarding: -1 Test of Endurance -1 Sylvan Library. +2 Disenchant.

Game 2: He applies some early pressure, I lose a couple of guys to Sword of Fire and Ice, Jitte, and Swords to Plowshares. I get Library down, Disenchant his Jitte, and thanks the Library, win the next turn after paying four life.

2-0

Round 2 Rob - R/w Burn.

He is shuffling, and a Mountainfalls out, I think Goblins and expect a hard, fast match.

Game 1: I lead off with a Vial and two thirds of my combo, the piecesthat are hard to burn are MIA. Turn 4 comes around: Library shows me a Call. I Call up Task Force, he comes over, and I go infinite.

Sideboarding: -2 Sylvan Library +2 Disenchant.

Game 2: He is on the play - Mountain Seal of Fire, go. I go Vial, go. He misses the next land drop, and says go. I kick my vial to 1, and pass the turn. He draws into his second land, thinks about the situtation and plays Pyrostatic Pillar. I kick my Vial up to two, play Daru Spiritualist, Nomads en-Kor, and Worthy Cause. He concedes shortly thereafter.

4-0

Round 3 Dan (cancerstix) - RGW Zoo

Dan is the TO, and I know what he is playing. I am fearful that he may be using Burning Tree Shaman somewhere.

Game 1: I win the roll, I get some early creatures down - Not that I use any slow creatures - They block his guys. On roughly turn 4, Combo off.

Sideboarding: -1 Test of Endurance -1 Sylvan Library +2 Disenchant

Game 2: I take some early damage from some Kird Apes, but I combo off on turn 4.

6-0

Round 4 Richard (KrzyMoose) - RGW Slide/Confinement

We ID the match, but play it out: We both accpet that I basically cannot lose this mmatch up short of an act of God.

Game 1: I combo off turn 3, he does not have Swords.

Sideboarding: -4 Æther Vial +2 Disenchant +2 Pithing Needle

Game 2: He is on the play, I name a Needle on Secludedteppe. I end up comboing off turn 4, after digging with Sylvan Library.

8-0

Top Eight

Because we IDed, I am second seed, playing against 7th seed:

Round 5

I missed his name - RUG Grow... quite odd.

Game 1: I win the roll, he ges a first turn Quirion Dryad on the table. I get a combo pipiece onhe table, but there is nothing he can do about it. I get the "Infinite Toughness" combo on the table, and when I untap, I will have infinite life. He swings in for 8, but I block and take 0 instead. It was something like my 6th turn

Sideboarding: He tells me he has nothing. If he is not boarding, I am not boarding.

Game 2: His first turn is a bit slower, mine is actually faster. He has no answers in sight and cannot stop my third turn combo.

10-0

Round 6 Steve - R/w Burn

Steve has a lot of pressure to apply, and all of the games are very close

Game 1: I have pretty bad hand: 3 Starlits and a fetchland, along with an Æther Vial and a couple pieces of search. I kept it, hoping to draw into white mana.  I do not think he knew what I was playing. He makes a couple of slip ups. He flamebreaks to kill half my combo, I lay down the full "Infinite Toughness" set up on the next turn, turn 4. He has one card in hand, and I am at an unmanageable life total. He concedes, despite the fact that I cannot go off (as far as he knows: I could, but that is not the point.)

Sideboarding: He says he is bringing in Vortex; I believe him, because everyone says that they wish they had Vortex. -1 Test of Endurance -2 Sylvan Library +2 Disenchant +1 Karakas.

Game 2: I keep a poor hand, and he wins on the turn I normally win on: Turn 4. I was way behind this game, and needed two or three more turns.

Game 3: I am really tense at this point, because it could really go either way. I look at my hand, and it allows me to either go Turn 3.  He spots my trick and bolts my Warriors en-Kor. The next turn (turn 4) I lay down Shaman and Spiritualist, next to a Wall of Blossoms. He does some math in his head after drawing his card, and confesses that he is is two short to win.

12-1

Round 7 - Dan (cancerstix) - RGW Zoo.

Earlier in the T8, Dan says to me that if he is paired with me, he will concede. I ask him if he would like to play it out, but he says he has simply no answer to the deck, and cannot go fast enough to win. I agree, and we shake on it. He drops at the end of the 6th round to avoid the point loss. And me? Well, I become the new owner of a set of Underground Seas, and 15 dollars in store credit.

Conclusion:

I am nothing more than an average player, but I went 12-1 on the day. So, that means that Life is a really good deck. No one is very well equipped to deal with the deck, and it is not exactly easy to prepare for it. I have no idea what decks are and are not favorable for the deck, many of my games were close though. The deck is a great metagame choice, it only really loses to infinite damage and milling. Pandemonium - as most 1.5 metagames are - is dominated by aggro, making it a fantastic choice for the metagame.

I expect more combo next time, so Life may not be the best choice... But it rolls aggro into a ball of bread, like kids like to do, and it is really disgusting, so it throws it away.

I do not do 'Props', but thanks to Dan for organizing the tournament, it was great.

Formatting fixed. Also, Life isn't played enough - Godder

The R/w control deck was another R/w Burn deck. It was a running joke from round two that he was playing Mono Red control. You probably overheard me blathering about how he was playing Mono-red control, and he corrected me, saying that he was playing R/w.

The Grow deck was about the strangest thing ever. Rug Based around playing a couplef cantrips for Grow, other cheap creatures that swing for more than you pay for them: Scab Clan Mauler, and Kird Ape. Also, a bit of burn and a set of Force of Will.

That Goblin Burn deck was terrible: No Vial, no Ringleader.

I have a bit of good news: Affinity Kid is not  coming (Yes, I am responsible for unleashing him on you.) We have replaced him with a somewhat better player. Affinity Kid was going to come, playing Berserk Affinity, but had to cancel because of some stupid thing or another.

All I can really say is that I hope the guy playing Ankh Tide, with Arcane Denial is there again.

My friend wanted to make sure that I posted that Heroquest, in Howell is going to start a weekly Legacy tournament on Mondays at 5 P.M. The start time is kind of bad, and prize structure unknown... but I am desperate enough to go.

Just a little For. Your. Information. (F.Y.I. For you abbvrs.)

In fact, I will be there.

It is kind of creepy, because we read everything you [guys] post, but never reply ourselves.

I will be coming along with probably four other guys, and for those of you who are a bit lacking in the math department, that is 5. So we will make up about a 1/4 - 1/3 of the metagame, go us.

I was talking to some guys during the Two-Headed Giant tournement today (that I happened to do incredibly poorly in,) There are a lot of 1.5 players in the area, there always have been, and they are willing to travel to play. I wonder if there is a better way to network the message.

And as far as the prizes go, a set of Underground Sea is really good, but, in the future, I would like to see a less top-heavy prize structure, but that is just me.