The Brushhopper has done everything I could ask of a card (except have my opponent remember my name....)
Oh well, if I have to be Also forgot his name, at least I can be a nice Also.... The Brushhopper can come down Turn 2 with a BoP, and is lamost always castable on Turn 3, which is important in a field which can see a lot of small red annoying men. He can dodge lethal damage, removal both pinpoint and global, and can also sac to Baloth for even more lifegain. I am excited about being able to run Loxodon Hierarch instead of Angel post-Ravnica, if only it were a beast. The lifegain aspect of MacGuyver allows the deck to stabilize against burn & red aggro far more often than you would believe possible since it combines the gain with effective blocking & attacking (and recursion...). Quick tourney report:
RD 1 vs Albany Lava Dart Sligh (which was literally 1/4 of the tournament)
Donnie, nice guy, starts with usual small red man. I have 2 lands in the deck which do not produce green, they are 2 of my 3 land....and I never get 2 green sources active (his Wastelands are very good this game) and I die with a grip of Baloths & Witnesses. Sigh. Minor sideboarding, Game 2 I never get beyond 2 land, both Green, but never develop anything relevant as he deep fat fries me. He took 1 point of damage the entire game...and it might have been a fetchland....
0-1
Sweet Jesus, I wasn't going to play combo because I knew of at least 2 good aggro-control decks and the overload of burn (which meant very scary sideboarding all day...) but I should beat this match. Repeatedly. About the face & shoulders until it cries.
Rd 2 Ken KK Krouner, former Pro Tour Player, Internet Magic Celebrity, and all around large nice guy playing Albany Lava Dart Sligh
Deep breath, I have never beaten the man, ever, at anything, and he is playing a deck that just beat me 40-1. No problem :lol:
Game 1: Yauss! Survival, multiple green land, STP...just what I want to see. His Lavamancer meets STP, his Ball Lightning meets STP after it runs into it's old friend Witness, and then the Baloth beatings start. He scoops after Baloth #2 hits the board (after he has to 3-1 to get rid of number 1...)
Game 2: My life total goes 20-19-18-16-15-19 (Baloth #1)-17-16-14-18 (Baloth #2)-16-20 (hasty face up Angel) at which point his life total of 20-19-15-scoop takes precedence. He was not able to get enough pressure or disrupt me enough to stop my mid game development - which should & did spell his doom.
1-1
Round 3 Chad playing U/W Landstill...another good deck for which I should be prepared
Game 1 sees him having to try and keep double Survival off the board, using his counters to do so (and Witness and Baloth) while trying to go aggro with Factory - which does half my life before I get a Survival to stick. At which point I set up Genesis in the yard and develop haste to set up Orcish Settlers. He can't STP it and I have more life than he has counters.....
Game 2, side in the extra Genesis, extra Settlers (MVP to date vs mana intensive combo & control) and a few cards which I don't remember. See Game 1, second verse, same as the first. Chad was a decent player but he had tells which were a huge advantage to me (although I'm sure he was used to much better results versus Survival decks, which can be quite discouraging).
2-1
Round 4: Jason playing the Orchard-Infinite deck that had just taken advantage of Justin's deck screwing him....
Game 1 I have no SotF but a good aggro hand and an STP. I keep and proceed to go Turn 1 Birds, Turn 2 Brushhopper (which meets FoW.. curses, foiled), Turn 3 Ranger + topdecked Rofellos (I think, based on hazy recollection & his life totals), Turn 4 Baloth, crunch him one land shy of going off. Whew, pant, gasp. SB in the Chants, extra Settlers, extra Genesis.
Game 2 he gets a strong draw/tutor start and is set up to go off Turn 4 but I have gotten T1 BoP T2 SotF + pitch Anger (lucky), set up T3 Ranger + Settlers, pop 1 delay him. T4 get Rofellos, use him & Ranger & Witness to set up 1 sided Armageddon at need. After which he draws some cards & dies to combat damage.
3-1
Round 5 ID with whats' his...oh wait Dave Feinstein
after carefully checking numbers. Gave me a chance to get food & avoid the deck screwing me in a crucial moment (although I am confident of the red matchup in which we both draw anything close to normal).
Top 8
Quarters vs some guy...oh wait, Dave Feinstein
He summed up the match very well with Angel x2 making a huge difference in Game 1. He does drop me to 6 at one point Game 1 but Game 2 never sees me below 12. Nice guy, fun match, to set up
Top 4 The Mirror....with the guy who developed the deck with me....and is my ride....we agree to see who matches up better with the other finalist (Albany Ravager vs Albany Lava Dart Sligh, their match should be over before we get to sideboarding for Game 2...and it is). I roll an 18, Justin rolls a 20. D'oh, assuming normal draws, I am dead. Yep, exact matching plays up until Turn 3. We play it out, Ravager wins, I scoop to Justin who has a better board (we ran slightly different versions of the deck). Why exhaust ourselves when the goal is to bring the byes back to Woosta?
Finals - already described well (and other than the verbal slip & not sideboarding in the Overloads well played by Joe Snyder). His quote of who runs Null Rod? validates our sideboarding strategy (and Justin had my Chants in his board, we focused them on one deck, next time it will be mine)
Well done, can't wait for the next GPT.
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