Elric
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« Reply #8 on: August 02, 2004, 11:08:29 pm » |
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So, I realized that the Las Vegas Alpha Sapphire tournament is this weekend, also on Saturday. It seems like everyone will be away at that, so unless someone expresses interest in coming to the tournament I am probably just going to cancel it for this weekend. No point in having a tournament at All Star Cards that just consists of me + my friends. Let me know. Thanks.
Here is my tournament report for the last tournament:
I was playing Trini-7/10 with Intuitions. Intuition for 3 Titans with Welder out is great and with a Crucible out Intuition for Strip Mine, Academy and a creature to Weld in later is another really nice play. Crucible is great some of the time, but I should have sided it out more than I did, because it hardly matters at all against a lot of decks. One thing that I hadn’t thought about is how much a Trinisphere deck changes when it can’t go first. Chalice of the Void, Trinisphere and Crucible are all more valuable going first and I am going to have to figure out how to sideboard better taking this into account.
Round 1 against RobtheSwordsman, with his signature B/W control deck
Game 1: He wins the die roll (I didn’t win one all day) and takes my Ancestral with Duress. Trinisphere decks love going first but going second can spell trouble. I have a Duplicant, among other things, in my hand. I have no early plays without the Ancestral except a Thirst, which doesn’t find much. He drops a Juggernaut on his third turn and after I take a hit from it I have to Duplicant it. He responds as I expected with Disk. I have to hold back and attack and pass the turn. He Mind Twists me for 5 (!) and Disks away my Duplicant and a few moxes. Exalted Angel comes down the next turn and goes all the way. Well played! We played this matchup the previous day and I had won most of the time but he found a very good strategy to attack my lack of Force of Will.
Game 2: I take forever to sideboard and end up siding in Chalice of the Void, since I am playing first and it deals with Swords, Duress and Planar Void (which I know he sides in against me). It doesn’t matter as I get my best hand of the tournament with turn 1 Trinisphere, turn 2 Chalice for 1 and Academy, turn 3 Tinker out Memnarch with enough mana to start stealing his lands on my next turn. Robert, having missed his second land drop, concedes.
Game 3: I board out the Chalices and in come more Rack and Ruins. He Duresses me turn one, I think making me discard a Trinisphere. I get out a Welder, which meets Swords. He plays Juggernaut on turn 2. I respond with Gilded Lotus, and he plays Disk. I have to play the Karn in my hand, only to see everything Disked away. I play Mana Crypt and Thirst, not finding anything except a useless Crucible (probably a mistake to leave in, since he plays so many basic land). We draw go for a little while and he plays another Juggernaut. I Intuition for Rack and Ruins and Rack his Juggernaut and my Mana Crypt (I had lost a few flips and was at 9-10 life by now). Big mistake. Part of the reason why Intuition has worked well for me is the ability to get three threats in the mid-game. I should have Intuitioned for something like Duplicant, Duplicant, Memnarch (I don’t think I had 8 mana for Titan). Having a 5/3 of my own and a Mana Crypt would have been much better than going into topdeck mode with no Mana Crypt. He plays a Juggernaut a few turns later. I draw Sundering Titan and think that this might turn the game around, but he has another Swords for it. Sword of Fire and Ice comes down and the Juggernaut kills me in two hits.
Lesson: When you’re down, don’t make a conservative play. If he Disenchanted my Duplicant and I died to Mana Crypt, so be it. You need to take risks when you are already losing.
Round 2: bye. I watch Robert equip an Exalted Angel with Sword of Fire and Ice and beat Slivers 2-1. This was a relatively casual deck but Crystalline/Muscle/Winged sliver is a nice combo, especially when fueled by moxes. Robert has Diabolic Edict in his sideboard (used to have it for Morphling, never got around to changing it) and makes the awesome play of edicting away a lone Crystalline Sliver.
Round 3 against Chris with Madness
Game 1: He starts with Lotus, Bazaar, Arrogant Wurm. I play Trinisphere, then Duplicant his Wurm the next turn. He drops a Basking Rootwalla but is a little land-light after I Waste 2 of his lands and can’t get to 4 mana to flash back a Roar of the Wurm in his graveyard. I Intuition for Crucibles and he concedes to the Crucible-Trinisphere lock with no lands in play.
Game 2: I don’t remember much about this game except that I Intuition for 3 Titans really early and destroy all of his land, deactivating Wonder in the process (I hold a Wasteland just in case). I play Triskelion and Duplicant and end the game.
Round 4 against Matt with “7/10� Variant (not really 7/10 because it has only one Titan, but adds black for Tutor and Will). I’ve played against Matt’s deck before and the concentration of broken cards leads to a lot of ridiculous plays.
Game 1: Matt starts out with a Welder, then Forces my Welder. He kept a mana light hand and has to pass the turn. I try to capitalize on it by playing Crucible with Wasteland in my hand. Unfortunately he top decks Ancestral, Ancestrals, plays Black Lotus, and Tinkers for Darksteel Colossus. I have a lot of mana out at this point and Sundering Titan, Triskelion, and Memnarch in my hand. I play Memnarch, hoping he has no way to kill any of my moxes. I can tell after I play Memnarch that he doesn’t have an answer for it. I’m at 12 due to Ancient Tomb/Shivan Reef use, though. He attacks, dropping me to 1 life and Welds in his Lotus to play the Duplicant that he just drew, duplicating my Memnarch. I hope for a miracle and draw my own Duplicant! I play it and now have an 11/11 facing down his 4/5 and Goblin Welder. In my excitement I forget that I am still at one life. Matt swings for the win.
Game 2: I keep a hand that has Volcanic Island, Mox, Welder, Vault and Trinisphere so I can play all of them on turn 1. My hand has no other mana and nothing else to cast so it wasn’t much of a hand. Matt lays a Workshop and taps it for a Mox. I pass the turn and he plays a second Workshop and a Platinum Angel. I draw a Workshop now have the “Workshops and colored spells� problem where I can’t cast the expensive artifacts or the cheap colored spells. He played Gilded Lotus and Rack and Ruins my Trinisphere and Mox. I can play a second Goblin Welder but Memnarch joins his side of the board and I lose.
Lesson: Just because you can play Trinisphere and Welder on turn 1 doesn’t mean you have a good hand.
So I’m out at this point and just play a casual round against Slivers (losing the die roll yet again, but winning 2-0). RobtheSwordsman, who beat Matt 2-0 in round 3, plays him again in the finals and loses 2-1.
My decklist for the tournament:
Creatures: 12
4 Goblin Welder
3 Sundering Titan
2 Triskelion
1 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Memnarch
1 Duplicant
Artifact Lock: 7
4 Trinisphere
3 Crucible of Worlds
Card-Drawing/Search: 9
4 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Intuition
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
Mana: 31
7 SoLoMoxen
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
4 Mishra’s Workshop
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Volcanic Island
3 Shivan Reef
2 Ancient Tomb
3 Gilded Lotus
Sideboard (not sure if I remember this exactly, I didn’t have much time to play sideboarded games beforehand):
4 Rack and Ruin
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Duplicant
1 Platinum Angel
I never managed to play a tournament game with Red Elemental Blast or Crypt in the deck and those were the sideboard cards I didn’t really get to test beforehand either. 7/10 sideboard beyond Rack and Ruin, Chalice of the Void (if not maindeck) and a few more artifact creatures seem relatively open.
I haven’t tested Fact or Fiction or Mystical Tutor in the deck. Mystical is Tinker number 2 or Ancestral if you need it. Fact or Fiction’s effect is also really strong here, although the casting cost is quite high. Memnarch’s spot in the maindeck definitely depends on how many artifact decks I think people are going to play. Duplicant was also really strong for me during the tournament and I might add a second. I am going to take out a Crucible (move to SB) and add one of the other cards to the deck for a while and see how it does.
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