Lazy me. Its come down to the last week before the B&R list changes will take effect and I still havent made Dragon to play before it loses its Entombs. So I spend a bit of Thursday afternoon digging through my card boxes to see what I can build.
My version is influenced a lot by DicemanXs primers combined with what I learned by playing AxeMurders Entomb-less version. Its influenced a little by card selection; I probably would have put in a Read the Runes if I had been able to find one.
The decklist:
Fishhead Swan-Song Dragon
2 Worldgorger Dragon
1 Arial Caravan
1 Verdant Force
3 Entomb
3 Buried Alive
4 Dark Ritual
3 Necromancy
3 Dance of the Dead
3 Animate Dead
4 Duress
R Necro
R Vampiric
R Demonic
3 Intuition
3 Cunning Wish
R Ancestral
R Time Walk
7 SoLoMox
4 Underground Sea
3 Underground River
3 Gemstone Mine
3 Undiscovered Paradise
2 City of Brass
The major decisions here are to run the Verdant Force main as I expected a certain amount of Ebony Charm etc, and to run the 4 Duress main as I wanted to start with some disruption.
Match 1: Gary Dumloa (UR Counter-Disk)
This is not exactly the matchup I wanted to play first; Gary has a ton of Counterspells and I am Combo. Oh well. At least I win the die roll.
Game 1: I get two Moxes and can try to Buried Alive on the first turn. It gets FoW'd pitching FoW which is either really good or really bad for me. Does he have 2 left in hand or zero? I Duress and take the last FoW. I lay a land and try Intuition EoT which burns a Counterspell. So we're both topdecking, he gets up to 6 land and starts swinging with Mishra while I try to build up a hand to go off. It turns out we've both topdecked pretty well and I bait one Counter EoT, then Duress to find 2 more. Hrm. Fortunately I have 2 Animate effects I and I can go off.
+3 Defense Grid +1 ReB: -1 Entomb, -2 Animate, -1 Wish
Game 2: I manage to sqeak a Worldgorger+Caravan into the graveyard, but then he counters all of my attempts at reanimation. Fortunately, he's a bit tight on land so I bait him with a Necromancy and then resolve Vampiric Tutor. Its a difficult choice between Necro (which should just win in some unspecified way) or Defense Grid which will brutalize him while he is stuck at 2 land. I'm at around 14 life due to a Bolt and some City damage, so I go conservative with the Grid and resolve it. This is probably the wrong choice, but it pays off anyway and I quickly draw an Intuition for animation effects and win.
Match 1-0: Games 2-0.
Match 2: Christie Furtado (Ankh Sligh)
Since we didnt play in Round 1, then of course we must play in Round 2. The Ankh is not good for me, but I do have maindeck Necromancys which should help a lot.
Game 1: She plays out 2 Moggs and a Pup while I build myself up. I take a chance and go off when she has two cards in hand (if they are Bolt-Bolt+Mogg that would be bad for the Dragon) and inexplicably choose to Animate instead of Dance the Dragon. It turns out not to matter since she has Bolt-Land in hand, but I notice it during SB'ing.
+4 Keg, -1 Entomb, -1 Necro, -2 Duress
Game 2: We both get a bit of a slow start, perhaps both mulligan to 6. I Duress and take an Ankh, trying to be casual in case she doesnt realize how bad the Ankh is for me. She plays a Monkey and I hold my Mox until I can use it for Buried Alive. She misses eating the Mox for a couple turns while I play Keg, though she lays a Cursed Scroll and the dreaded Ankh. Just as I draw Ancestral she says, "Ooops! Forgot to eat your Mox!" and I Ancestral off it to get 2 Necromancys. I think about taking the Keg to 2 and destroying the Ankh so I wont have to explain the Necromancy-Ankh interaction, but decide not to give her another full turn.
Matches 2-0: Games 4-0.
Match 3: Ernest Lee (T2 Black)
Somehow he has piloted an almost-Block deck to 2-0. Theres a funny moment when he sacs 3 Clerics to get Scion of Darkness (6/6, if you do combat damage you can take a creature from the opponents graveyard (!) ) and I have a Dragon in the yard, but other than that its pretty academic.
Matches 3-0: Games 6-0.
Match 4: Tin Ly (8 Blast Sligh)
Tin started playing recently and was a bit surprised when I played Moxen out. Theres been a lot of power floating around C&Js lately so I'm surprised that he is surprised.
Game 1: I have a near God hand with Land-Mox-Mox-Lotus-Demonic-Dance-Cunning Wish. Its not quite enough to go off first turn, but I go off second turn. This is where I discover that he's not familar with the older cards; I play City of Brass, Mox->Demonic and he pulls aside the City to read it. (I thought he was admiring it because its BB. Lol.)
+4 Keg, -1 Entomb, -1 Necro, -1 Duress, -1 Wish
Game 2: I shuffle and watch him bring in about 12 cards. Hrm. I suspect the classic 8 ReB plan, it turns out later that Ankhs also came in. I start to go off on turn 4 after a silly Intuition for Duress-Duress-Lotus. He gives me the Lotus and I Buried Alive off it and then Animate, secure in having a second Animate if he has Fireblast+Bolt. I Duress him with my remaining Duress to find Pyro and Fork in hand. Ooops. I take the Pryo, then get one Wish for Abeyance. He Forks the Abeyance, but I just keep digging with Caravan and resolve Stroke with Abeyance on the stack. Anyway, I came within inches of screwing myself with the goofy Intuition play; it definitely shows why I want some sort of disruption to defend myself.
Matches 4-0: Games 6-0.
Match 5. David Ochoa (MonoB)
Dave usually drops to go bowling so I never get to face him in the late rounds. I'm really pleased that he elected not to bowl this week. He's focussing a bit more on T1 as he's just about to break 1800. So a good player and a tough matchup; should be good times.
Game 1: I win the die roll. I get to Duress him first and see 2xDR, Duress and Hymn. I take the Hymn. He topdecks Specter and casts it. I topdeck Duress and take his Duress and the Specter misses anything important so I get to go off unimpeded. He makes dig for the combo with Caravan because he wants to see my deck before he SBs.
Game 2: I mull to 6 and have a Sapphire, Ancestral, Buried Alive, Wish, 2x Animate. If he has Duress I probably lose. If I go to 5 I probably lose. Grim choice. I decide to keep and hope. He has the Duress and takes Sapphire. I think the Ancestral was the correct choice, but its hard. I hope to topdeck blue land and jump back into the game. He plays 2nd turn Lotus-Shade-Shade. I draw TimeWalk. Blue mana would be soo good. But the Shades are a 3 turn clock. I lose.
Game 3: I Duress him and find a Wasteland and a Strip Mine. Hmmm. I am a bit light on land, so this is not good. More "not good" follows when he topdecks another Wasteland and plays a Hyppie. I have to hold my last land in hand and hope rather than play it into his Strip Mine. Dave agonizes over whether to swing with Hyppie as I have the Gorger in hand along with 2xDR, Land, Animates. If he hits the Gorger I draw out. If he hits the land I am in a lot of trouble. He swings and gets a DR. I topdeck Entomb and call for a draw with Paradise->Ritual->Entomb->Animate. Eeek.
Game 4: He mulls to 6 and keeps a substandard hand which has a Void in it. I play out a Lotus early, but I have the Caravan in hand and have to Buried Alive for Dragon, Verdant. I get stuck short of mana, I have a Necromancy which would win but I cant cast it. He is methodically putting down Swamps and will cast Void next turn. Uh-oh. I topdeck Demonic and since I've used the Lotus I have to go for Unmask and pitch my Necromancy to kill his Void. He is swinging with two Mishras and I am topdecking, but with 9 animate effects I topdeck pretty well. I get Dance of the Dead and go off, ending the loop with Verdant Force. I use my infinite mana to play Caravan and draw my deck. Whew.
Matches 5-0: Games 8-1-1.
So, its a nice sendoff for Dragon and another long report.
Some quick analysis: I'm not sure how much I will miss Entomb, I never was as excited to see it in hand as I was to see Buried Alive. I liked the Duresses all day long and was sad the one time I screwed up with them. Any disruption might work in that slot, though I think Duress is particularly good. Dark Ritual was very good to me all day. MD Verdant Force was nice, though I only used him in the final game as an alternate way to stop the loop.
