New York GPT - Metagame/Mini-Report/etc.

[Luiggi]

Just got back from a GPT held at King's Games in NYC. There were 20 people playing, 5 rounds cut to top-8. No decklists yet, but the top-8 was: 3 Goblins, 1 Dryad-Sligh (almost card-for-card the one that won Big Arse II), 3 U/W LandStill and 1 Black Discard (Hyppies, Juzams, etc.). In the quarters I know the Dryad Sligh deck beat Goblins, Goblins beat Black Discard, and the other two quarters were LandStill mirror (Chris Pikula was up 1-0 when I left) and Goblins vs. LandStill. If and when I see decklists I'll post them.

The meta at the tournament was a ton of U/W LandStill and Goblins, a few Sligh-type decks (with and without Dryads, but most/all splashed for Taigas and Kird Ape, and some had Naturalize in the SB). There were one or two U/R LandStills, and one almost made top-8. There were a few token black decks, including the one that made top-8 (Mike Pustilnik) and a B/W Aggro-Control with a ton of discard, Angels, Withered Wretch, etc.

Combo wasn't really present, with only Ashok running Spring Tide (I think he went 2-3 or 2-2-drop) and me running Solidarity (1-3-drop). I was running Deep6er's build. Round 1 I got paired against the B/W discard deck, and despite winning Game 1 I just couldn't hold on to enough cards to combo out in the next two games (especially since he sided out his useless Plagues, Swords and Mutilates for more disruption), between his Duresses, Hymms, Therapies, Gerrard's Verdict and Ravenous Rats. Exalted Angels made short work of me. Round 2 I get paired against Burn.dec: in both games he gets me down really low, and I stall in mid-combo. The Meditate turns he got were more than enough. I drew too many Blasts in Game 2 and not enough business. He was running REBs and Pillars against me, apparently, though no Siroccos. Round 3 I beat a U/W/r Control deck pretty easily, and then lost in three games to U/R LandStill, who boarded in REBs, Pillars and Arcane Labs. I dropped at 1-3, pretty frustrated.

Overall I'm not as happy with Solidarity as I'd hoped. It was pretty good in practice, but in real life there are just so many annoying cards, since every deck has something it can bring in, from Meddling Mage to Arcane Lab to Blasts to Pillars to Sirocco, etc. I think I'm going to try out some other combo decks, probably something like Iggy Pop or maybe even Sensei Sensei (it can win really fast with Show and Tell; don't know how viable it is, though), since Solidarity just has a huge bullseye on its forehead: even at a tournament like today's where everyone had Goblins or LandStill, people still had at least 4 dedicated combo hate cards in their boards.

At any rate, that's what went down today, so feel free to comment. If I see top-8 lists I'll post them, but I really didn't see anything special, and all the decks were essentially run-of-the-mill, with minor tweaks.

Luiggi

[Dxfiler]

The meta at the tournament was a ton of U/W LandStill and Goblins, a few Sligh-type decks (with and without Dryads, but most/all splashed for Taigas and Kird Ape, and some had Naturalize in the SB).

That brings a tear to my eye.

This GPt sounded ridiculously tough.  I originally rolled my eyes when I heard about a black discard deck in top 8 but when you said it was piloted by Mike Putstilnik, I now want to find the list and study it. 

Thank you for the results.   

[SonataOfTheCathedral]

It was a good GPT, Mikey P loves his random decks.

I took 9th with my random U/R landstill. It was basically pretty normal except I was running Pyro Pillar's in the sideboard and a Triskelion (It sounds horrible but it was pretty solid all day).

Mikey P's sui had some interesting stuff.

Round 1 I saw him win a match with Visara The Dreadful vs. Landstill and he had stuff like Consume Spirit and Scrying, I saw Phyrexian Scuta and Juzam Djinn as well.

A lot of good players showed up like Chris Manning, Flores(well sorta good) Magical Hack aka Sean Mckewon(sp?) showed up later so he didn't jump in.

It was pretty fun overall.

Trike to victory.

[Luiggi]

A lot of good players showed up like Chris Manning, Flores(well sorta good) Magical Hack aka Sean Mckewon(sp?) showed up later so he didn't jump in.

Yeah, it was pretty fun watching Flores being critical of himself and getting shit from Pikula and company about not making top-8 in a 20-person GPT, . It was pretty depressing for me to fail to go 3-2 with Solidarity, but hey, at least I know that it's not a good idea in this kind of metagame.

Luiggi

[Pluck]

The results of this tourney ended up being U/W still vs Gobbos in the finals and U/W still laid down a reverance in game 3 and went gg to straight red goblins.  The guy said that he sided out anarchy after game two when he didn't see a single cop red or reverance.  We all chuckled and left.  I piloted the g/r sligh with dryad and lost to goblins in a game three disappointment (apprently lava dart flashback on lackey is a great move for the win).  Oh well all and all it was a tiny GPT.  There were a few difference from my build and the Big Arse II build that were all in the sideboard.  On an end note Trike in u/r still is a horrid idea and everyone that thinks so raise your hand.

[Luiggi]

::raises hand::,  .

Luiggi