For those of you that don't know The Adventurers Guild in Eau Claire, WI holds Type 1 tournaments every Friday Night. Registration begins at 6pm and the tournament starts by 7pm. Most of the time it is finished up right around midnight. This week was a 5 Proxy tournament and was not sanctioned and so I decided to play in it myself. Normally I am the Tournament Organizer and run all of the Sanctioned Type 1 events and Mox Tournaments. Last night however Nate ran it and I was able to run the new Cerebral Assassin deck with slight changes.
By the way there's a Mox Tourney coming up November 12th that is already listed in the Tournament Forums here.
The Report:For a while now I've been looking for Welders and Workshops to work up my own Bazaar/Welder Mix. But recently Eastman has posted his version of Cerebral Assassin. The deck utilizes Welders, Bazaars, Squees and Titans to establish and maintain board control and card advantage. I decided to put it together and try it out at our Weekly Type 1 Tournament.
Eastman's Original Version:Cerebral Assassin:
28 Consistently Broken
4 Goblin Welder
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
4 Squee, Goblin Nabob
4 Animate Dead
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Force of Will
3 Triple H (sundering titan)
1 Triskelion
9 Restrictedly Broken
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Intuition (this slots tough, I might want a fastbond or...? )
1 Possessed Portal
I also sometimes wish I had jar. I originally ran it as one of the restricted broken and it didn't quite cut it. I've also tried Wheel with the same results. The problem is the list is REALLY tight.
23 Mana
8 SoloCrypten
1 Mana Vault
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Shivan Reef
3 Underground River
4 Gemstone Mine
4 City of Brass
SB:
Teh Dragon
4 Dragon
2 Ambassador
3 Necromancy
Other stuff (still just guessing)
1 Beb
1 Reb
3 Rack and Ruin
1 Echoing Truth
4x Goblin Welder
4x Bazaar of Baghdad
4x Squee, Goblin Nabob
4x Animate Dead
4x Thirst for Knowledge
4x Force of Will
2x Sundering Titan
1x Duplicant1x Triskelion
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk
1x Tinker
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Memory Jar 1x Possessed Portal
Mana:1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
1x Sol Ring
3x Shivan Reef
3x Underground River
4x Gemstone Mine
4x Glimmervoid
Sideboard: 4x Worldgorger Dragon
1x Ambassador Laquatos
1x Sliver Queen
3x Necromancy
3x Chalice of the Void3x Ray of Revelation (Synergy with Bazaar and Thirst, Enchantment removal that I can flashback for 1 green mana: I hate Ground Seal)
The difference between my build and Eastman's original build are in bold above. What I like about the deck is it's ability to answer Workshop builds with an early Animated Sundering Titan and it's own Welders. The draw engine is much superior to anything the Workshop build can put together with it's lone Memory Jar, Thirsts, and possible Wheel of Fortune. Sadly (yeah right...) I was unable to test it against anything similar to Mono-U Control, GAT, or 4CC.
Round 1 (Seth - RG Beatz):Game 1 - I am able to push an Active Welder through after he Chain Lightning's my first attempt. A Sundering Titan and Duplicant make there way into the GY and I establish board control and win. The only permanents he had at the time were a Kird Ape, Gorilla Shaman and 2 Mishra's Factories.
Game 2 - Dragon Combo comes in. For some reason Seth makes a play mistake during this game. It wasn't really anything that had to do with cards in play though. I was able to get the combo with Worldgorger in the Yard and a Bazaar on the table. I proceed to start drawing cards and discarding them off the Bazaar. Seth asks how much mana I put into my mana pool to which I answer that I am only drawing and discarding at this time. He then says that he was just wondering how Ambassador works with Gaea's Blessing :/. I then continue putting cards into my GY and Animate Sliver Queen to produce 1 million Sliver Tokens and let him go. He doesn't draw an answer and I win game 2.
Record: Games 2-0, Matches 1-0Round 2 (Kinney -Goblins):Game 1 - Kinney mulligans down to 6 cards and keeps a hand with no land. I don't know why. We need to teach him how to mulligan. I mean... really. I proceed to drop lands and Tinker into a Triskelion, Sundering Titan. He scoops.
Game 2 - Dragon Combo comes in. Kinney gets a much better start and drops Mountain, Ruby, Goblin Lackey, Reckless Charge - I'm at 16 and he has no Goblin in hand, phew. I proceed to play for the combo. He eventually gets Lackey, Gorilla Shaman, and Goblin Piledriver on the board. After using painlands and Vampiric Tutor I drop myself to 3 life and combo off with Dragon/Ambassador. Apparently Kinney isn't holding instant speed damage and I win Game 2.
Record: Games 4-0, Matches 2-0Round 3 (Taylor - Deathlong):After learning that the tournament is 4 rounds top 8 I talk him into drawing this round.
Record: Games 4-0-1, Matches 2-0-1Round 4 (Jake - Deathlong):We are top seats headed into round 4 and decide to ID into the top 8. Both my 3rd and 4th round opponents were playing Deathlong and I really didn't want them to have any idea how the matchup would run. I myself didn't know if there would be any key plays to be made on either side, but I felt it was better to not prepare them for something they hadn't seen before.
Record: Games 4-0-2, Matches 2-0-2Quarter-Finals: Matt Hannafin with Aggro-Welder/MUDGame 1 - Matt Hannafin played perfectly both games. There's nothing I can think of that would have turned the game around drastically enough to be called a play mistake. I was able to Animate 2 Sundering Titans and stay above surface at 5 Life as I raced his Tanglewires. His Juggernauts were no match for the Titans. He Tinkered into Masticore to stave off my Titan offense with me at 5 Life and him at 14 I think. I top-decked a Tinker into Duplicant and he was defenseless against the Titans. I win Game 1.
Game 2 - When sideboarding for this game I made one choice that was different from the other games. I kept 2 Sundering Titans in the main when I put the Dragon Combo in. I wanted to be able to stop the 4 turn Juggernaut Clock in case that was needed for me to combo off. Matt starts strongly with a Trinisphere and Chalice set at 2. My Animates, Demonic Tutor and other such spells are dead. I drop them into my GY as I search for the lands I need to be able to cast the Necromancy in my hand.
Eventually I'm able to get Worldgorger Dragon into my GY and go off with the Necromancy after laying a Glimmervoid with no Artifacts in play (I had been waiting and waiting for a land other than the 2 Glimmervoids in hand). I go off the turn before he would have drawn the Volcanic Island on the top of his Library. He reveals the Rushing River and BEBs that are dead in his hand without the blue mana.
Record: Games 6-0-2, Matches 3-0-2Semi-Finals: Andy Hiser with 2-Land BelcherGame 1 - Even after I am able to Welder in a Titan to destroy his only 2 lands he is able to get the Charbelcher and win.
Game 2 - He gets rolling and Spoils of the Vaults away for a Charbelcher... luckily I cut well and the Belcher is just a tad too deep. We move on to Game 3. In hindsight I should have used my active Welder to put the Possessed Portal that was in my GY into play, but I took my chances and had Vamp'd a second Squee to the top of my library that same turn to lockdown on the following turn. Greediness could have put me out of the tournament at that point, but the Lead-weighted Charbelcher was there for me.
Game 3 - Somehow Andy's mana sources are held at bay and I am able to Combo off with Dragon. I move on to the Finals after some very lucky Matches.
Record: Games 8-1-2, Matches 4-0-2Finals: Jay Goodman with DeathlongGame 1 - Jay goes broken with Yawgmoth's Will and Mind's Desire. Whatever, Game 2.
Game 2 - This is the funny part of the night for me. I draw for my opening hand: Thirst for Knowledge x3, Mox Ruby, Mana Vault, Squee Goblin Nabob and Glimmervoid. I turn to our onlookers hold out my hand and state "If you ever play this deck, this is not the hand to keep." and promptly kept it.
I was willing to take it if Jay was able to go off right away and settle for 2nd place. I wasn't however willing to mulligan into a worse hand. I drop Mox, Mana Vault, Glimmervoid, and Thirst for Knowledge 1st turn. Then I proceed to topdeck into Bazaar of Baghdad as Jay isn't able to do much right away except Duress away my Animate Dead leaving me hoping for another mana source for my Necromancy. I Bazaar into Lotus and with a Dragon in the Yard and combo off.
Game 3 - Jay starts off to a slow start and is only able to get 2 lands into play from the get go. Afterwards I find out he's holding Windfall and Timetwister and is waiting for the 3rd land drop. He duresses me and finds that I had kept a hand with 2 Force of Wills and a Thirst for Knowledge. I believe he was hoping to keep me from comboing off before he can find his gas and he duressed the Thirst. I was able to get my combo the turn after he attempts Timetwister to pull my FoW. I Forced it and went off on my turn.
Record: Games 10-2-2, Matches 5-0-2This deck is a very fun deck to play. It attacks the opponent on many different levels and most times I can gain control during the first game and pull it off with Sundering Titan. After the sideboard most opponents aren't ready for the Dragon Combo. Soon however this will not be the case and most people will realize that GY hate is the way to go both Pre and Post Sideboard. I foresee that I will have to find a way to deal with that GY hate if I intend to keep playing this deck.
Props:Eastman for developing the deck I had been mulling over in my head.
Everyone else for not playing Turbo-Collosus so that I didn't have to find out if Duplicant can deal with it.
Seth for letting me know he had boarded in Gaea's Blessing.
Spoils of the Vault for returning the favor (I play Spoils Dragon and have died to Spoils a few times
).
Slops:Seth for letting me know he had boarded in Gaea's Blessing.
My Lucky Die for not being that Lucky (I never won the Die roll in any of my matchups if I remember correctly).
Kinney for keeping a 6 card mulligan hand with no land :/.
After all was said and done I had a great time playing this deck. For those wondering what happens when I sideboard, this is how it turns out:2nd Game:-4 Goblin Welder
-2 Sundering Titans
-1 Duplicant
-1 Triskelion
-1 Tinker
-1 Possessed Portal
-1 Memory Jar
-1 Thirst for Knowledge
+4 Worldgorger Dragon
+1 Ambassador Laquatos
+1 Sliver Queen
+3 Necromancy
+3 Chalice or Ray of Revelation (depending on the opponent, most of the time it was +3 Chalice of the Void).
