Andy Patel, Helsinki 2003_03_30
Report from March Type 1 Tournament #2 (first place)
aka. How to play Keeper in a hangover.
IntroSaturday evening, 18:00 me, my girlfriend and 5 mates meet at Satkar nepalese restaurant for plenty of hot curry, naan, papadums and the fine amber liquid. After this we move on to a few more local pubs, finally calling it a night surprisingly early, much to the benefit of Helsinki (I was drunk enough to only remember teleporting home).
Sunday we wake up at 09:00 effective time, due to the daylight savings changes. Anna goes to work and I spend a few hours at home trying to rehydrate and speedily recover from the hangover (no such luck). I arrive at Safe Haven about 12:15 and Rarevaara mentions to me that I'm late cos I forgot about the clock change. I panic for a second and then realise he was joking. Obviously my brain isn't running at optimal capacity today. What a great condition to be in playing Keeper.
So we fill in our decklists, pay our money and mill about waiting for the start of the tournament. I play a couple of games against Mika Roinisto. He's running a R/G zoo style deck with 4 maindeck Dwarven Blastminer. I think I won only one game and that was from a land, sapphire, jet, timewalk, brainstorm, untap, lotus, land, ancestral, morphling, go. I told him I was hoping for those sort of starts all day
Anyway, I didn't take notes, so these reports will be quite brief. Oh, the official results are here:
http://mtg.bore.org/article.php?article_mode=nayta&id=250-----------------
Round 1 - Juha Niinisto (URPhid)Great. First round control matchup against one of the better players here is just what I didn't want since I'm not able to think properly currently.
I lose the die roll, he goes first.
Game 1 - this was one of the most interesting games all day. He resolves an early Morphling, if I remember and starts beating. He pumps the morphling leaving exactly 5 lands untapped and one card in hand. I strip a land and ancestral. I was lucky to draw that strip since I had merchant scrolled for the ancestral previous turn and Juha had kept a Misdirection in hand. Anyway, I drop my own morphling and Kim sitting next to me sarcastically comments on how this is "another one of those interesting matchups". So we stand off for a while, but I start to take advantage by wasting his lands while he doesn't draw any. He eot impulses a few times. Finally I try for morphling #2 since I hadn't seen a wish all this time. I win the counter war and he scoops from there, since he only had 4 land on the table.
Sideboarding:
In: 4 x REB, 1 x Aura Fracture
Out: 1 x Zuran Orb, 1 x Fire/Ice, 1 x Gorilla Shaman, 2 x Swords to Plowshares
I don't remember if this is how I sided, but it seems pretty close.
Game 2 - I completely mise by drawing all 4 REBs in the first few turns of the game and get out a Future Sight with counter protection. He wishes for capsize for it, and tries to capsize it, but I REB that also. Then brokenness happens as the top card of my library becomes Brainstorm which I cast main phase to reveal FoW, Ancestral, FoW. I put Ancestral on top of FoW on the deck and cast Ancestral which reveals that the next card was Mana Drain. Juha scoops after we get over laughing.
Match: 2-0
Matches: 1-0-0
Total Games: 2-0
Total games won by luck: 2
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Round 2 - Waltteri Wiikinkoski (B/W LD with Hymns, Negators, etc.)I lose the die roll, he goes first.
Game 1 - I wasn't sure what he was playing at first, since I saw swamp, go. I felt lucky about not getting duressed. I don't remember much about this game except that he successfully kept me with very few lands and resolved a Hypnotic Specter which beat me and kept me down to 0 cards for the whole game. It got joined by a Nantuko Shade for the final damage.
Sideboarding:
In: 1 x Swords to Plowshares, 1 x The Abyss, 1 x Misdirection
Out: 1 x Zuran Orb, 1 x Gorilla Shaman, 1 x Mind Twist
Game 2 - I drop an Abyss quite early and he looks worried. Then he tutors for a hymn which he casts and I misdirect. The following turn he vindicates the abyss. D'oh! He again keeps me at very low land and plays out a Flesh Reaver. It hits me twice and is joined by a Shade. I'm down to 12 and looking at 8 the next turn. I have had a Future Sight in hand for a turn and then draw demonic tutor. Joy! I have an Island, Underground Sea and Sol Ring in play. I tutor up the lotus and cast Future Sight. The next card is a Flooded Strand. Nice, I play it. The card after that is Balance. Mise again. I pass the turn. He thinks long and hard. Reads the Future Sight, reads the Flooded Strand, reads the Balance. Thinks. I'm shitting myself that he doesn't have LD for the strand. He attacks for 8 and passes. I draw the balance, fetch a tundra and cast balance.
Sideboarding:
No changes
Game 3 - I remember he had to mulligan and then got mana screwed. My wastelands made sure of that. He scooped with no permanents in play after I resolved a Morphling. That game was a little one sided for me.
Match: 2-1
Matches: 2-0-0
Total Games: 4-1
Total games won by luck: 4
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Round 3 - Juha "Superman" Ihonen (W/R Weenie)I lose the die roll, he goes first.
We played a few days ago and I beat his deck every game so he's not looking forward to this one. I mentioned to him that I made changes to my deck and we also joked that it's still 61 cards.
Game 1 - No early beats and I think I FoW'd a turn 2 Soltari Priest since my hand wasn't looking too great. He casts another the next turn which I don't have an answer for and it is joined by more dudes while I wonder where my balance is. He gets me down to 3 before I do Balance and I pray that he doesn't topdeck burn. He does, so I cunning wish for BEB and counter it. I think he topdecked land for a few turns which game me time to find Zuran Orb and then take control. Phew! That was close!
Sideboarding:
In: 1 x Circle of Protection:Red, 1 Swords to Plowshares
Out: 1 Gorilla Shaman, 1 Mind Twist
Stupid me. He sided out all his burn for blasts, so I would have been better off with the twist instead of the CoP
Game 2 - Not really much to say except that Juha got totally mana screwed which was insanely good luck for me. Nothing happened at all. I hate winning like this.
Match: 2-0
Matches: 3-0-0
Total Games: 6-1
Total games won by luck: 6
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Round 4 - Janne Raevaara (TurboLich)I lose the die roll, he goes first.
Janne had sortof come here for fun. He knew that Turbolich wasn't that strong and that he's just not had much practice with it at all. Plus there's a weekly event at the casino which he'd rather be at in the evening, so he wasn't really planning on sticking around. We joked at the end of each of the previous rounds that we could still meet each other.
Game 1 - He asks me if I have a counter. I hmm (I have a FoW but no other blue cards). He drops land, fastbond. It resolves. He drops a mox and 3 more land including a LoA and then twisters. I don't remember exactly what else happens after this, but my turn isn't spectacular. I think it was just a land. The game is a little hazy to me except that I remember casting cunning wish for ebony charm and removing his lich, city of solitude and LoA from his graveyard in response to Yawgmoth's Will. He scooped since there wasn't a way to get the Lich back.
Sideboarding:
In: 1 x Aura Fracture, 1 x Allay, 1 x Ebony Charm, 1 x Stroke of Genius
Out: 2 x Swords to Plowshares, 1 x Fire/Ice, 1 x Zuran Orb
We talked about the sideboarding and I should have probably kept the charm in the side, since I left the wishes in, so I have more chance to see it.
Game 2 - This was quite quick because I wasted one of his lands early to which he brainstormed and saw no more lands coming and so scooped. Again a win due to opponent's mana screw. Not good.
Match: 2-0
Matches: 4-0-0
Total Games: 8-1
Total games won by luck: 8
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Round 5 - Mika Roinisto (R/G Zoo)Not wanting to lose anymore to this deck, we ID into the top 8. I spend the time playing Keeper mirror with Mikko Hyvarinen (Nuorokain) since this is his reason for coming down to Helsinki.
Match: Draw
Matches: 4-0-1
Total Games: 8-1
Total games won by luck: 8
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Quarterfinals - Timo Helenius (GroAtog)I lose the die roll, he goes first.
Ouch, the matchup I've been dreading all day. There are 3 Groatogs in the top 8, so I suppose I'm going to have to face one sooner or later.
Game 1 - I'm pretty sure I should lose this one from my testing, but here goes. I'm really hazy about what happened during this match except for a couple of plays. One was that he gushed during a counter war, leaving one land in play and didn't draw a counter. I untapped, twisted his hand away and stripped the lone land. From there, I managed to resolve a Future Sight and things got quite boring and one-sided as the monkey beat down slowly. We finally decided to go onto game 2.
Sideboarding:
In: 1 x Swords to Plowshares, 4 x REB
Out: 1 x Mind Twist, 1 x Zuran Orb, 1 x Fire/Ice, 1 x Cunning Wish, 1 x Misdirection
Misdirection came out because I really don't want card-disadvantage against this deck and the REBs more than make up for it.
Game 2 - I went with a _really_ dodgy opening hand: 3 x Swords to Plowshares, 1 x Gorilla Shaman, 1 x Fact or Fiction, 1 x Mox Pearl, 1 x Balance. I should have mulliganed. He starts and opens with fetch for underground sea, duress, taking the pearl. Now I need luck. I draw an underground sea. For the first few turns, he knows what I'm holding, since he sees me drop land. This let's him resolve spells without worry. I got stuck at 2 land for a while, but fortunately for me, nothing threatening happened. I seem to remember losing life to a dryad or two and at one point, I resolved a balance, since he'd not drawn counter magic. Things really went back and forth, with me trying to keep his land at a minimum with wastes and him only drawing land. I think I resolved Future Sight in this game too and again, the monkey put the beat down, joined eventually by Morphling.
Match: 2-0
Matches: 5-0-1
Total Games: 10-1
Total games won by luck: 10
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Semifinals - Martti Nurmikari (preacher) (Legion TnT)I lose the die roll, he goes first.
Martti is a good friend of mine and we playtest a lot together. He's _the_ old school player here with a really nice collection of cards and about 12 decks. He's currently trying to regain his collection of power and is here with RGB TnT similar to Legion. He's the only person here who owns Workshops. We trash talk a little before the game and I'm worried that my luck will run out. At least if it does, I'm happy that Martti will carry it to the finals.
Game 1 - Martti opens with a Mox Monkey. I'm holding an island, a pearl and a jet. Luckily I also have a stop, so off goes that monkey. I think my deck went into LD mode for this one and I managed to win simply by my deck doing broken things.
Sideboarding:
In: 1 x Swords to Plowshares, 1 x Blue Elemental Blast
Out: 1 x Misdirection, 1 x Mind Twist
Yeah, yeah, I know he'll side in at least 4 blasts, but I still don't feel like running a semi-dead card, so the twist comes out. I think I actually mentioned it. I was considering Aura Fracture, but decided that Blood Moon wasn't that much of a worry.
Game 2 - Did my luck finally run out? I get an early library which I gain a couple of cards off, but nothing useful. I have a hand full of blue spells, but nothing to deal with the su-chi beating down. The library get's stripped and I lose pretty quickly.
Sideboarding:
No change
Game 3 - This was a bit more interesting, since there was some back and forth if I remember right. I recall getting Future Sight out and keeping his graveyard empty of creatures via stops and ebony charm. He had survival, oath of ghouls and 2 x chains of mephistopheles in play, but my wastelands were keeping his green mana at a minimum and without the squee tutoring engine, I was easily able to hold off the occasionaly fatty. At the end of the game, he scooped when I wished up an Allay. I felt bad for him becoming another victim of my insane luck.
Match: 2-1
Matches: 6-0-1
Total Games: 12-2
Total games won by luck: 12
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Finals - Ilkka Ruokosemaki (Own design trade routes deck)I lose the die roll, he goes first.
I've been hearing about this deck a few times today and really don't have much idea except that it's "Keeperish" and has made many broken plays during the day.
Game 1 - This game starts off pretty boring with him laying islands and me laying various lands for a while. I'm so tired at this point that I don't remember much about the game except that I don't believe he drew much useful stuff, since I was able to resolve Future Sight. Interestingly, I made a play mistake which we had to call the judge for. I had cast time walk and then played yawgmoth's will and the time walk again on the same turn. I took the first extra turn and then passed to Ilkka. A friend who was watching and taking notes realised only after Ilkka had passed back to me, that I should have taken 2 extra turns. The judge decided that we should play on, since the loss of a turn for me was enough of a punishment and he didn't want to give me a game loss since I already seemed to have board position before the mistake.
Sideboarding:
In: 4 x REB
Out: 1 x Zuran Orb, 2 x Swords to Plowshares, 1 x Cunning Wish
Game 2 - I'm even more hazy about this one. It came down to the Future Sight again, and Morphling took the win. Again, notes were taken by another guy, so if I find the report, I'll post a link here. I won with Fire to the head.
Match: 2-0
Matches: 7-0-1
Total Games: 14-2
Total games won by luck: 14
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I got 40 euros of store credit. I went straight home to die from my hangover after some 8 hours of playing. As you can see, the whole tournament was won by luck and not skill, but hey, Keeper far from dead
Edit: I forgot the obligatory...
Prop and SlopsProps- Safe Haven for holding two Type 1 events this month
- Everyone who showed up to make it another successful event
- My opponents for being sporting about my stupid good luck
- Future Sight and Wasteland for being amazing
- Pasi and my final round opponent, Ilkka for being so good about my error in the finals
Slops- The beers and curry for making me feel bad all day
- Fire/Ice and red mana for not showing up at the same time when needed
- Mana screw for all involved
- Stroke of Genius in sideboard for not being a second Skeletal Scrying
Here's the deck:
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
1 Misdirection
2 Cunning Wish
2 Morphling
2 Future Sight *4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Fire/Ice
1 Gorilla Shaman **2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Balance
1 Mind Twist
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Skeletal Scrying ***1 Zuran Orb
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland ****2 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
3 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island
2 Island
Sideboard:
4 Red Elemental Blast
1 The Abyss *****1 Aura Fracture
1 Circle of Protection: Red
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Allay
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Misdirection
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Ebony Charm
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Shattering Pulse
Notes for the paragon folks:
* I ran two Future Sight to improve the chances of drawing one and to give myself the ability to pitch one without worrying. If I have one in play and draw the other one, I'm probably winning anyway.
** I opted for the monkey instead of a powder keg. I'm superstitious about cutting the monkey. I know I sided him out a lot, but I also won a couple of games from Monkey beats, and he ate several thousand dollars worth of jewellery all the same.
*** Swapped Stroke and Scrying, and I'd have to say that I'll probably replace the sideboard stroke with another scrying.
**** MVP had to be the 4 wastelands. Only in the finals did I find them not so useful, since my opponent was running almost no non-basics.
***** I only sided in The Abyss in one matchup, and I'm happy that it wasn't in the maindeck most of the time. A lot of decks just play around it or are unaffected. It's just something I'd rather not see most of the time.
61 cards - yeah, I know it's stupid, but I really didn't want to cut anything.
The mana base. I really only had color screw a couple of times (mostly against my round 2 opponent with the LD). The basic islands were great and allowed me to almost shrug off the prospect of Blood Moon or BtB.
Only one stop in board. - Oftentimes I wished there had been two. I think I'll replace The Abyss with a second one.
As a final note, I'm going to be testing 2 x Tainted Pact in the Fire/Ice and Skeletal Scrying spots, moving the Scrying to sideboard to replace Stroke of Genius which was basically arse.
