Parfait reporting – Eindhoven 22-03-2003
(dubbed: UP YOURS, SMMENEN)
Howdy!
First off, I might as well link you to the actual coverage post I made on TMD:
http://www.themanadrain.com/cgi-bin....;t=5630As you can see, I used the following list that day:
3 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Mountain
12 Plains
1 Mox Pearl
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Diamond
1 Sol Ring
1 Wrath of God
2 Sacred Mesa
1 Balance
1 Seal of Cleansing
2 Aura of Silence
3 Scroll Rack
2 Claws of Gix
2 Humility
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Enlightened Tutor
2 Replenish
2 Moat
2 Blood Moon
4 Land Tax
3 Argivian Find
1 Story Circle
4 Orim's Chant
1 Grindstone
SB:
2 Ivory Tower
1 Replenish
1 Wrath of God
1 Story Circle
1 Phyrexian Processor
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Aura of Silence
1 Blood moon
3 Abeyance
1 Karmic Justice
1 Pariah
Basically, I was ready for a field of TnT and Growatog, keeping in mind that last Castricum was infested with Aggro, like 85% of the decks were aggro there.
I wont’ discuss specific card-choices in this report itself, so I assume I’ll make a post about it in the near future discussing them in detail. So stay tuned for that. Regardless, you can of course make comments or ask questions already about it, and I’ll be happy to explain.
The matches aren’t as detailed as I normally feature them in a report; I guess I didn’t take enough notes.
Anyway, it’s time to commence to the actual rounds!
Round 1, Table 9, Mike van Rooijen, Growatog.
We both keep or initial seven, I won the flip to go first. I keep a (normally) rather mediocre hand of 2 plow, 1 waste, I think a scroll rack and 2 plains and 1 mountain.
So, I start of with plains, he proceeds with an underground Sea, plays lotus, sac for 3 green, plays Dryad, plays Brainstorm, burns for 1. At the end of turn my plow meets his fow. Ofcourse, during my turn, I waste his land and play sol ring and cast scroll rack. He attacks for 2 dmg with the Dryad. However, he misses the land drop, so I manage to plow the Dryad.
I draw into the blood moon, play my mountain, and blood moon resolves! Mike knows the match will be difficult now, but he didn’t even draw mountains (*grin*), so that’s pretty bad when I play an Aura, so that he cannot even play Moxen. Ofcourse he draws his mox jet after I play the Aura. He Scoops.
I take out my 4 Chants, 1 Seal and 2 Auras, in favor of 1 Replenish, 1 Wrath, 1 Moon, 1 Story Circle, 2 Thormod’s Crypt and 1 Pariah.
Game 2 sees another quick Dryad at Mike’s side, who gets 2/2. I go for a tax and a rack, and after I find my rack back, it resolves. Mike’s dryad is now 3/3, and I’m down to 15 when he attacks. I then proceed to drop my Blood Moon, for which he has no counterspell ready. He made a mistake and triggered my Tax, so I go into combo mode. He has to scramble for Hydroblast, and destroys the moon, which I of course manage to replenish back onto the playing field. In the process, I plow his Dryad.
So he has to scroll for another Hydro, and after that, I proceed to playing a 2nd blood moon from my hand. It managed to resolve again. Mike is just all out of gas, he almost drew no card drawing, and had to scramble for the hydro’s instead of the drawers, which is a bad thing ofcourse. I think I dropped a mesa here and he scooped while being in a lock again.
Matches: 1-0 – Games: 2-0
The Friday in testing against Mike, he handed my ass to me 3-1, but that day I tried leaving my Chants in. Today I sided them out, and Mike didn’t see it coming, so he kept his misdirections in. I’m pretty happy with this result, and happy with my draws in general.
Next Up!
Round 2, Table 4, Marco Kiewit, Sui-Zombie.
At first, I wasn’t 100% sure what he was playing, since Friday he was playing mono-blue, then during deck registration he said he was playing b/w disrupt again, but I thought I saw him play his home-made Sui-Zombie again. I played against it while testing Ankh Sligh, and got severely beaten by it. However, it is still an aggro deck with no disruption, so I should be able to beat it.
In my first 7, I draw all crappy cards to battle aggro, so I paris into a non-land 6 cards. When I paris to 5, I keep a less then good hand of Chant, Plow and 3 plains. Luckily, I won the flip, and play plains and pass. Marco plays Ritual, thinks, plays another Ritual, and is surprised when I want to respond. I play Chant. Marco screams about the injustice brought upon him, and I can’t stop laughing about it. We’re friends, so it’s cool, but I’m pretty sure he will never play 2 rituals like that again
Anyway, he takes 5, and passes to me. I drop a land a pass, and he drops a shade now, which he hits me with, while I draw into Moat. He keep the creatures coming, while I draw a plow to send his Shade farming with. He gets one more hit in, and after that I can drop Moat, wait for the Humility, which comes, so the flier he just dropped won’t work. He just keeps playing the creatures, and after a while I think I drop a mesa with the ability to make 1 or 2 tokens extra per turn, and he scoops.
I took out the 2 moons, 1 mountain and the grindstone, in favor of Wrath, Story Circle, Karmic Justice and Pariah. I keep my disenchant effects in since I saw he packed Disks in his sideboard, and Justice to counter it. If anything, he would at least be packing Dystopias.
In game 2, I keep a hand of 2 tax, 2 plains, 2 moats and 1 Aura: Nothing short of a perfect hand to start off this game. He goes ritual, shade and carnophage. I go land, tax. He obviously mentions he isn’t going to trigger it. Mike, who had a bye this round, watches and tells Marco he should keep in mind that the carnophage has an upkeep to it. So he pays it, and casts unholy strength on it, and swings for 6. I draw into Plow, and Strip his land. I plow the shade, and pass. He forgets to mention he pays upkeep, so I tell him it should be tapped. Maybe I’m a , but whatever.
Then, he starts playing more creatures again, without triggering my Tax, and I’m about to get swarmed next turn, and then I drop, the mother of all cards. I sac her for 3 white, and proceed to resolve Moat. Then, Find Lotus, Humility. ThatsGameBoys.
Of course he doesn’t want to give up yet, but 2 auras and some pegasi knocking on his door do want him to give up. So he does.
So, again I’m finished pretty fast. Fast, as in fast for parfait-terms anyway.
I watched around what people were playing, and soon thereafter round 3 started.
Matches : 2-0 – Games : 4-0
Round 3, table 2, Stefan Gussenhoven, Reanimator.
I thought him play with big creatures, but I wasn’t sure what exactly the game plan was. Regardless, he just beat Enchantress, so I’m probably up for a nice match regardless. I pretty much make a mistake when I keep a hand with Wrath, Tax, Rack, Moat, a waste and 2 plains. Fair enough, I’ll keep it. I think he got to start with Fetch, Sea, and Duress. Ok, bye Moat. I go, with Waste. He drops a swamp, ritual, entomb Verdant Force, Reanimate and burn for 1. *yay*
So, I guess I could use a plow now. Regardless, I don’t draw one, and he entombs Akroma, and animates it before I can do anything.
I take out 1 Grindstone and 2 moons and mountain, side in Pariah, Wrath and 2 Crypts.
I think I parised down to 6 or so, but without plow and crypt, but with a very good hand if I draw either a crypt or a plow. Ofcourse, I’m not that lucky. He drops a turn 1 Verdant force on me, utilizing Lotus, Study, Ritual, Ancestral, and Exhume.
So, I draw nothing, he swings, swings, timewalk and I’m history. Pfff.
So, my deck let me down. It’s not an easy matchup, but it’s easily breakable on the other hand. I assume he was packing some counters, since it was actually u/b, but I didn’t see any. Well, whatever, I watch Ton beat Jos Schreurs 2-1 in an interesting mirror-matchup. Ton is finally learning to play
Matches : 2-1 – Games : 4-2
Anyway, in round 4, I get to beat up another Growatog!
Round 4, Table 4, Jos Schreurs, Growatog.
During the match, he mentioned he never played T1 before, but Jos is a well-known player in the Netherlands, so I’m sure he’s competent enough to play T1 with good results. He loaned the cards from Gis, who was laying down the law at the PT. The first game is extremely fast. He drops a Dryad, and makes it 2/2. Manages to get an attack in, I get to tax, draw lotus, cast chant (I think), it resolves, so I drop lotus and moon. Surprise Surprise! Jos knew the deck from seeing with with Gis, who copied the listing from my previous primer on it, but regardless, I cought him somewhat off-guard by dropping the lotus I guess. About 2 turns later, he scoops.
I take out my 4 Chants, 1 Seal and 2 Auras, in favor of 1 Replenish, 1 Wrath, 1 Moon, 1 Story Circle, 2 Thormod’s Crypt and 1 Pariah, just like before.
I found out after the match Jos did side out his Misdirections, so he picked up on it. Oh well, too bad for me I guess…
He drops a 2nd turn Dryad, after my first turn Tax (that plain being my only land). My hand consisted of moon, sol ring, rack, another tax, plow. So it was nice J
He was actually thinking a long time about that Dryad, so I figured he had some counterpower. He did, but only a counterspell. So I drop plains, Mox Ruby, Sol Ring, Blood Moon. I didn’t know if he had Daze, but I would’ve even have mana for that. Well, he mentions he didn’t expect that, which is why he went for the dryad anyway. He beat me around with the Dryad a little, while I plow it and drop the Rack, which he counters, I find it, play it again, and I’m underway. I drop a humility, and start locking him with multiple auras, and keep drawing cards. I constantly have a replenish when he hydro’s away my moon, and when he hacks it, to change his lands into swamps. He tutors, for a Mox Jet, since he wanted black mana to go with his 1 island. However, as I realize when I’m about to drop my 2nd moon, because of timestamps, his non-basics remain swamps. He didn’t realize this, but I drop my 2nd moon anyway, so any non-basic he was going to play, would be a mountain. At this point, he calls the judge to ask him about it, and he explains this to it, to also confirm my thoughts about it. I wasn’t 100% certain either about it. Well, he knows he’s done for know, so I drop a mesa and start beating him to death.
Matches : 3-1 – Games : 6-2
Jos was a nice opponent to play against (as are all T1 players, or actually, just about 98% of them), and I hope he will play more T1 events in the future.
Round 5, Table 3, Hero ‘t Mannetje, Combo Keeper.
I think I parised to 6 crappy cards, he draws good, I keep drawing lands and lands and lands. I end up with over twice as many lands as spells. Surprisingly, I get stroked for 1 million or so at some point.
Out go; 2x Moat, 4x Plow, 1x Story Circle, 1x Wrath, and in come 3x Abeyance, 1x Karmic Justice, 2x Tormod’s Crypt, 1 Blood Moon and 1 Processor. I know I put in a replenish too, but I dunno what I took out for it, I guess I took out 2 humility as well, and also put my 3rd Aura in, since I know he would go for Mirari.
Game 2, I’m parising to 5, and drawing a shitload of land again. and Pyro starts keeping control, mind twisting, mirari, copying tutors, so I’m force to aura his grim monolith, I keep dropping some bombs, forcing some through multiple counters, and plenishing, and eventually combo-ing and drawing more cards. I have no clue how exactly I won, other than 2 minutes from time I started beating him with pegasi and milling him. He eventually conceded, but time was called, so we drew. In the process, my board position had grown to 2 Aura, 2 Tax, 1 Rack, 2 Claws, 1 Mesa, 1 Moon, etc. It was an interesting game to play, but not to read about, so I’ll shut up about it.
Regardless, I feel pretty confident against Keeper any day. In my opinion, the 2nd game my deck was doing somewhat what it was supposed to, the first game, I was never in it.
Matches : 3-1-1 – Games: 7-3
If I win the next one, I’m either 3rd or 4th, so I’m motivated.
Round 6, Table 3, Steven Bukkems, Tainted Mask.
Steven is the 4th friend I have to play today, after Mike, Marco and Hero. I arrange a Price Split, since if he comes out fast, I can easily still lose (remember re-animator?), but if he doesn’t, I have a very good chance.
Game 1 he starts with ritual Negator. Yay, I’m on a clock. I play Tax, and pass. He swings, plays Mask I think. I play Rack, and I think I also had a mox to go with it, not sure. I think I also wasted a land of his. However, with the rack, I knew I hided keycards from his duress, and when he tutored, he got a dreadnought. He didn’t have blue mana yet, but after tutoring, he played city and casted naught, while I was at 5 already from Negator. Tutor for Time Walk would’ve killed me!.
Ofcourse, I drop the Humility next turn, and then Moat. I start milling him, and when I eventually mill his lonely Seal in the graveyard, he scoops.
So, I squeeze out a lucky win, or maybe I intimidated my opponent good enough
Anyway, I side out 2 Blood Moon, 1 Mountain and Grindstone. In come the Pariah, Wrath and 2 Crypts. I could’ve sided in Circle, but I don’t think I did. Maybe I should write these things down…
Anyway, game 2 is all about my going Tax, Mox, Sol Ring, Rack, and topdecking Claws. I go into combo mode and lock him pretty soon. He keeps hoping for Seal, but at some point, I get rid of all his lands, and play 2 Auras and a mesa. After a few pony hits, he is no more.
Matches : 4-1-1 – Games : 9-3
I’m very happy with my result, and like I said after Dulmen, I’m very glad with the configuration of Parfait.
I took out 1 plains and the golden wish after a 2nd test, and replaced it with grindstone, which I haven’t really needed, but nevertheless is just what I needed.
Digger and Cap are certainly not needed. I can always win before I deck myself, and Cap is only actually good against Keeper. And even then, it’s only so-so. I’m planning on writing a more detailed analysis about this deck in the short future, I just have to find some time to really make it good this time.
Anyway, I hoped you liked reading this, and if you don’t, then I don’t care either.
Rudy van Soest
Props every button involved in the c/p action process.
Slops to er.... Props and Slops sections... bah!
