Sleep Pays Off: Starcity Chicago P9--6th place

[Tha Gunslinga]

So, the time has come for yet another Starcity Chicago Power 9 tournament. I’ve had a fairly even record in these, generally going 5-3 or 4-4, but never finishing higher than 33rd place or so. This time would be different, for a couple of reasons. First of all, I was playing a highly tuned metagame (or so I thought) deck. Second, we had gone over sideboarding in great detail, and spent hours and hours tuning the board. Third, the deck was pretty much guaranteed to beat my arch-nemesis, Control Slaver.

The rest of Team ICBM (AngryPheldagrif, 13Nova, theSpookyKid, TK, I@n, etc) spend the night before the tournament playtesting, tuning, and re-tuning until 1 AM, but I decided to skip playtesting in order to get some sleep. I did stay up until 9:30 building and re-building the decks and sideboards, and getting all my trade stuff ready. I woke up at 5 AM, ate breakfast, fired up the internet, and then took a shower. I made a few last bids on Ebay, then waited for the call that would let me know that 13Nova and crew were here. I continued to wait. I called, and found out that they hadn’t left yet, but would “leave any minute.� They showed up like 45 minutes later than expected, and we were on our way. The drive was fun, racing at 85 on the highway, talking over all the sideboarding, with me trying (and mostly failing) to absorb all the sideboarding strategies for different matchups. We were still talking about it when we pulled off the highway, turned onto Golf Road, then drove right past the store. I@n swore he had seen it, so we turned around into a strip mall parking lot, then drove back and eventually found the store, which had a “closed� sign up despite being open. We spent the next hour and a half swapping cards, loaning things out, and checking our decks. A little trading was done as well, and I waited increasingly impatiently for the guy who was bringing me my Oaths. He showed up right before the tournament started, and I immediately busted out my deck, pulled out the proxied Oaths, and threw in my new ones. I also had picked up two Pithing Needles in a trade, so I was able to run those unproxied. It would have been pretty funny to have my deck with Beta and Unlimited duals, foil Fetches, and full power running proxied Oaths and Needles. I did end up running a proxied Ground Seal on the board, since we had 4 people on Team ICBM running the same deck: Me, AngryPheldagrif, 13Nova, and I@n. We ended up swapping a ton of cards around in order to get all the decks built, but in the end we were all set.

My decklist:


ICBM Chalice Oath:
1 Gaea's Blessing
1 Strip Mine
2 Wasteland
2 Island (Mana Drain mana, un-Waste-able. These were nice.)
2 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
2 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Duress (4 Drains, 4 FoWs, 2 Duress, 3 Strips, 2 Needles; it’s a hell of a control setup.)
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Rushing River (The maindeck emergency exit. This card saved me so many times.)
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Forbidden Orchard
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
2 Pithing Needle (Naming Welder, Wasteland, Bazaar, etc.)
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Brainstorm
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Mana Drain (Yes, Virginia, Mana Leak still sucks.)
4 Force of Will
1 Razia, Boros Archangel (Better than Spirit in enough ways to matter, though barely.)
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
4 Oath of Druids
SB: 2 Rack and Ruin (Stax)
SB: 2 Duress (Control)
SB: 1 Volcanic Island (-1 Sea, +1 Volcanic to enable Rack and Ruin.)
SB: 1 Platinum Angel
SB: 1 Pristine Angel (control)
SB: 1 Woodripper (Stax)
SB: 2 Oxidize (Stax)
SB: 2 Wasteland
SB: 3 Ground Seal (Dragon/Control Slaver)

The deck is solid as hell, and while there are a few minor changes I’d make, they’re nothing serious.

One last tweak: I have a teammate write “ICBM� across my knuckles on both hands. Gotta represent. So, we begin the tournament. Only seven 50-minute rounds, since the turnout of 112 people wasn’t enough for 8 rounds.


Round 1:
The dreaded Oath mirror, PLUS I’m facing a teammate, Brian

Game 1: My deck has a lot more control than his, and that’s what wins this for me. Between Duress, Mana Drain, and Wasteland, I can out-control him. We have huge Forbidden Orchard wars, trying to give the other person more Spirit tokens, and eventually I tutor up Time Walk to get that extra turn of giving him tokens, and I get Oath active and pull it off.

Game 2: We both side out two of our Oaths. I also side out the Pithing Needles and Razia for Platinum Angel, and I bring in the Duresses and Wastelands. He brings in Tinker-Darksteel Colossus, which is an amazingly nice setup that I never thought of, but definitely belongs on the board. He Tinkers real fast, I Force, and he Forces back. I grin and Rushing River the Colossus back to his hand. I then Oath up Akroma, who promptly gets Rushing Rivered back to MY hand. I Oath up Platinum Angel and start beating down, but I screw up royally and forget to keep giving him guys. He gets Akroma out, and starts beating down. I end up at -35 life, but eventually get an Orchard out again (he kept Wasting mine) and Thirst for Knowledge to discard Akroma from my hand. I then Oath to shuffle it back, Oath again to use the legend rule to kill both Akromas, Oath a third time to shuffle her back again, then Oath a fourth time and it’s irrelevant because Plats has taken it all the way.

This was a much easier matchup than I thought, and fairly fun, but I’m realizing how inexperienced I am with the deck. I made tons of little play mistakes in game 1, and while I made only two in game 2 (The Oath thing, and discarding an artifact when I had 8 cards in hand, which meant I had to pitch TWO cards to my Thirst for Knowledge the next turn), I still need to clean up my playing, a LOT.
1-0, 2-0

Round 2:
Vroman, with Uba Stax

So, I see that I’m paired up against the legendary Robert Vroman, and I immediately assume he’s playing his pet deck, Uba Stax. So I run to my brother Dan (aka AngryPheldagrif) super-fast before the round starts, and blurt out, “I’m playing Vroman and he’s got to have Uba Stax and what do I board tell me quick.� He tells me to board something like -4 Chalice of the Void, -1 Underground Sea, -1 Razia, +2 Rack and Ruin, +2 Oxidize, +1 Volcanic Island, +1 Woodripper. This proves to be good advice.

Game 1: He drops some minor stuff, but no major lock pieces AT ALL. Hightlight was his first-turn Chalice at 0, which stops me from playing maybe one Mox. He then plays a Null Rod, which I was surprised to see, as it does nothing when I can’t play Moxen and have none on the board. His mana is two Barbarian Rings, and he gets a Goblin Welder down, which gets Pithing Needled with a quickness. He really doesn’t do anything at all, and my strips hurt him. He beats me down with the Welder a bit, then Oath comes out and it’s all over. He’s at 18 from the Rings (it’s so wonderful how often this will happen, when an opponent is at 18 life and two turns later they’re dead), and I hit him with Razia, then with both Angels. I then SB according to plan.

Game 2: He goes Mishra’s Workshop, Chalice at 0, Chalice for 1, burn for 1. I play a land and look at the useless cards in my hand. He then plays a Wasteland (which is irrelevant at this point, because I have just an Island out) and Chalice at 2. I have Oxidize in my hand, which is useless, along with most of the rest of my hand. I play a land and say go, then he just draws and passes the turn. I realize that Vroman is probably as locked as I am, and I Wasteland his Workshop. We then play draw-go for like 10-15 turns. I keep dropping land, however, since I’m waiting to draw a Rack and Ruin to finish him off, and he just keeps discarding. I then rip and hardcast Woodripper. Next turn Woodripper eats his Chalice for 2, then I drop Oath and Time Walk. He plays a Maze of Ith, which I forget to Waste. I Oath up Akroma and swing, and he Mazes it. Wonderful; I’m a bad player. Fortunately, that was my only play mistake that I can remember from this match, and it’s irrelevant, as Akroma takes it all the way, putting him from 19 to 13 to 7 to 1, then it’s game over. Woodripper can’t attack because he could chump-block it with Spirit tokens, then Oath.

2-0, 4-0


Round 3: Jesus Roxas with Gifts w/Tendrils kill

Game 1: I mull to 6, which is one of the only mulligans I take today; overall the deck liked me a LOT. We play our little control games, but ultimately I just out-control him. Akroma takes it all the way. I figure out that he’s playing Gifts, but I haven’t seen enough to know what his kill is, and I figure it’s either Flame Vault or Severance Belcher.

Game 2: I sideboard something like -2 Wasteland, +2 Duress, -1 Drain, -1 Thirst, +2 Oxidize, for what I expect are his Time Vaults or Goblin Charbelchers. I also leave the Pithing Needles in against these imagined artifacts. He turns out to be playing a Tendrils of Agony kill. He makes what I think is an extremely questionable first-turn play, Merchant Scrolling for Mana Drain, which lets me play around it. I play controllishly, and Mana Drain an end-of-turn Gifts Ungiven. I walk a Thirst for Knowledge into his Drain, then resolve an Oath. I smash face a little, then run out of counters and he resolves the dreaded Yawgmoth’s Will, which was the ONLY one I saw the entire day. I figure I’m dead, and just sit there. He proceeds to Brainstorm like 5 times, but can’t seem to do anything. Hurkyl’s Recall with his mana-artifact-laden board and Academy put his mana at close to infinite and his storm far beyond lethal, but he soon remembers while Merchant Scrolling that he has boarded out Mystical Tutor. No tutor chain for you! He is forced to get Gifts, and to Gifts for 4 useless cards (3 Moxen and a land) to thin his deck for his Brainstorms. He also Fact or Fictions out of the yard, and I split it between Brainstorm and 2 Drains/2 lands. He takes the Brainstorm, as I knew he had to, since I have an Oath on the board, and Drain is now irrelevant. He ends up getting Chain of Vapor to bounce my Akroma and buy him a turn, but basically his deck is now empty, and he has no chance of ever getting to storm. He passes the turn with like 30 mana on the board (all tapped) and his storm absurdly high. I was quite relieved. Razia shows up and smashes face, and that’s all she wrote.

3-0, 6-0

Round 4: Mat “I’m too Sexy� Endress, with GWS Oath
Endress is awesome; what can I say? The ICBM/GWS rivalry seems to have faded out, since we’re both so awesome.

Game 1: We both play slow, controlling games, but I eventually pull it off. Waste/Orchard wars occur, but I think I just drew more tutors in this one.

Game 2: +2 Duress, -4 Chalice, +2 Waste, and I think that was it. I left the Pithing Needles in, fearing (incorrectly) some mirror tech like Spawning Pit or Claws of Gix (neither of which showed up at all in any of my matches). He mulligans to 5, on the play, and I’m feeling super-confident, so of course I screw up and die. I drop a Forbidden Orchard and an Oath, and he Wastelands the Orchard, plays his own, and eventually uses my own damn Oath against me, a situation which seems obvious in hindsight but I thought I could avoid at the time. I get beat down by a pair of Triskelions (which I thought were pretty iffy, but whatever) and a Darksteel Colossus.

Game 3: We do the heavy controlling thing. I think the Pithing Needles might have come out for something, but I don’t remember for certain. I play a LOT better, and Razia takes it. He got pretty mana-screwed this game, I believe, and I was playing a lot better. He also never once played one of his sideboarded-in Chokes in either game, which could have been super-ugly.

4-0, 8-1

Round 5: Nicolo, playing UW Hate Fish

Game 1: He plays a land, drops an Aether Vial. I play Underground Sea, Mox Pearl, go. He plays another land and announces a Meddling Mage. I don’t Force of Will it, because there’s no way he’ll name Oath, right? He names Oath of Druids, and I kick myself mentally. He then totally messes up and ninjutsus it out for a Ninja of the Deep Hours. I drop Oath, and it’s all over from there. Lesson learned here: no matter how bad a game looks, NEVER GIVE UP. I was very close to conceding when he named Oath with the Mage, but I still managed to pull out a win due to his massive misplay.

Game 2: -something, +something. I remember the Oxidizes went in, but I’m sure I boarded incorrectly. The game goes super-long, and I get beat down by a Mishra’s Factory. He plays a Stormscape Apprentice, which can tap creatures, and while I know it’s gonna hurt me a LOT, I don’t Drain it because I’m a total moron. Seriously, I have no clue why I didn’t counter it; I had plenty of counters, but I just made a terrible decision here. He then locks down my Razia with it, and I can’t Oath anything else out, because of a severe lack of Orchards, and I die to the Factory like a fool.

Game 3: Meddling Mage beats me down as he Annuls my Oath. This guy had everything: Stormscapes, Meddling Mages, maindeck Katakis, Annuls, Swords to Plowshares; it was just ridiculous. I still should have won this match, but because I misplayed left and right, I lost. This will haunt me later.

4-1, 9-3

Round 6: Someone whose name I forgot (Matt?), with Dragon.

Pregame: Deck check! I nearly get busted when the judge brings up my BROTHER’s list, and we do have slightly different decks, with his 4-Delta configuration versus my 2-and-2 Polluted Delta/Flooded Strand setup, plus his load of proxies. I notice that the handwriting on the decklist isn’t mine, and say so. Everything works out fine, because every game I shuffle into 6 piles, guaranteeing me a 60-card deck, and I always count and double-check my sideboard, to make sure everything’s perfect.

Game 1: 13 minutes later, we start. We play draw-go for a little, and I Duress him super-early and figure out that he’s playing Dragon. I grab the Demonic Tutor in his hand, and the rest is Sea, Strand, Entomb, Worldgorger Dragon, and Necromancy. He Entombs a Worldgorger and then hardcasts Ambassador Lacquatus. I drop Oath and an Orchard, and Razia hits play. He then tries to go off on his turn with Necromancy. I have 5 mana open, and can either Mana Drain the Necromancy or use my wonderful Rushing River on the Dragon. As my teammate I@n DeGraff looks on, I make the perfect play and Rushing River the Gorger with the come-into-play ability on the stack. I kicker the Rushing River to bounce my own Oath, so he can’t Oath out another Worldgorger and cause me trouble. I’ve done this a zillion times before against Dragon with Swords to Plowshares, and once again, his board evaporates and I smash with Razia and win.

Game 2: -4 Chalice (since I’m on the draw), -2 Mana Drain (Xantids), -1 Thirst, +3 Ground Seal, +2 Wasteland, +2 Duress. He plays a Bazaar and activates it, and I Pithing Needle it next turn. He plays a Compulsion, and I drop Ground Seal, which cantrips into a Mox Jet, letting me Duress him. He shows me Squee, Demonic Tutor, Ray of Revelation, and I hit the Ray, since he had white mana in play but no green or black. I then play draw-go for a while, Wasteland his land, then Mana Drain a Mox Emerald (look at me, ma! I made a correct play for once) and Force his Lotus. Another Duress shows me Duress, Duress, Squee, Xantid Swarm, Ray of Revelation (another one), Ambassador Lacquatus, and I think Demonic Tutor. I grab the Tutor (or whatever it was), then get Oath active and smash him to 13, then to 1. He topdecks a Polluted Delta while at 1 life, and it’s over. Once again, mana-denial for the win. He had tons of awesome sideboard hate, but couldn’t play anything. Ray of Revelation scares the hell out of me, but the mana just wasn’t there.

5-1, 11-3


Round 7: Jdizzle with 2-land Belcher
We draw into the top 8.

5-1-1, 11-3-1

I slide into 6th place, right below Endress at 5th. My tiebreakers are awesome, since I’m Endress and Vroman’s only losses, and I lost to Nicolo, who is my top 8 opponent. I get a quick sideboarding lesson from my teammates, they do a deck-check, then we’re off. I am up for revenge, but alas, it is not to be.

Game 1: We play control for a looong time, and he starts smashing me with a Mishra’s Factory. The perfect play would be to end-of-turn Rushing River my own Chalice at 1, then Vampiric Tutor for Forbidden Orchard and play Oath. I knew I could do this, but put it off for too long, and I die.

Game 2: -4 Mana Drain, -1 something else, -1 Razia, +2 Wasteland, +2 Oxidize, +1 Rack and Ruin, +1 Pristine Angel. I start out with a god-drop, playing land, Mox, Time Walk. Time Walk turn lets me go Black Lotus, Mystical Tutor, Ancestral Recall (which gets Forced), Chalice for 1. I’m left with a neato board position, but only one card in hand. He totally messes up at this point. He taps his Black Lotus, puts it in the graveyard, then announces “white.� He then tries to take it back for blue mana, but I call the judge, since it’s WAY too late for this, and this is the top freaking 8. The judge eventually rules in my favor, and Nicolo drops a Meddling Mage, naming Oath, then manaburns for 2. I take a lot of Meddling Mage hits. I can end-of-turn Rushing River the Mage, then drop Oath, but I won’t be able to activate it because he has no creatures, and because Forbidden Orchard never showed up in either of the top 8 games. I wait too long, then he plays another Meddling Mage. I screw up 100% and underestimate him, figuring there’s no way he’ll think to name Rushing River. He does, and it’s over. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Whatever. Stax makes sushi out of him next round, and I’m happy to have made 6th place, the highest Starcity finish of my life, winding up with a beat UL Mox Jet. It would have been a ruby, but the second-place finisher picked the Mox Pearl over the Ancestral because he didn’t own a Pearl.

Mad props:
Everyone on Team ICBM who showed up, all 13 of us. We placed 5 people in the top 20 (me at 6th, Jamison with TPS, Tony with Metalworker/Staff, Dan with Oath, and Jeremy with Stax), and this proves that playtesting really pays off.

Props also to me, for skipping playtesting the night before in order to sleep, then boning up on the new sideboarding strategies in the car on the way there, and still being the only one of us to place.

The sushi place next door. Damn good food, good prices, and just peace and quiet for once.

Pastimes and Starcity, for running a great tournament. The new store is definitely nice, no matter what some people said.

Finally, mad props to Mike Solymossy (aka 13Nova), for being the official Team ICBM sex symbol, hitman, PR man, foil addict, and a driver without parallel. As we say, better pimped than powered. Good luck getting unbanned from the starcity forums.


Slops:

I didn't want to see any more of this on Vroman's topic, and I don't want to see it here.
-Jacob

The Illinois tolls, once again. Boo.

Control-Slaver. Where were you?

Me, for being a terrible player and a huge lucksack. As always.

[Moxlotus]

The ICBM/GWS rivalry seems to have faded out, since we’re both so awesome.

ZOMG U GUYZ TEH SUCK!!!1!

Seriously though, nice job.  I must ask why are you siding out lands against control?  Why are you siding out a land against Stax?  You couldn't find anything better to put in the board besides 2 wastes?  Woodripper-wouldn't you rather just oath up LARGE GUY and win rather than dick around blowing up crap that doesn't stop your dude anyways?  Also-when is Platz ever good?  Did you not like Imperial Seal?  Would you change anything if you ran this again?

[M.Solymossy]

I have changed in my list
-1 thirst for Knowledge
+1 Sensai's top

It seems pretty good.  Ben doesn't want to cut the TfK because you know... it's good.   The list otherwise is REALLY solid.

You want to oath up woodripper because it gives you less headaches blowing up their stuff.  It also blows up workshop aggro guys.   Platinum Angel stalls in the mirror and it also causes aggro decks a fit as well as combo (in addition to our chalices duresses and counterwall).

that's my 2 cents.

Edit:  Oh... and Imperial seal is REALLY bad.  After oath resolves, It doesn't allow you to nab that Time Walk, and it doesn't allow you to end of turn your spells to get an advantage.  Waiting a turn can be REALLY bad if the gamestate changes drastically in that one turn.

[And11]

Oh... and Imperial seal is REALLY bad.  After oath resolves, It doesn't allow you to nab that Time Walk, and it doesn't allow you to end of turn your spells to get an advantage.  Waiting a turn can be REALLY bad if the gamestate changes drastically in that one turn.

Your main object is to make Oath+Orchard hit the table and swing for the win. Seal solves that perfectly, as it gets FoW, Duress, Orchard, Oath, Walk or Recall in a pinch. One should not focus on "after Oath has resolved", because then you're in good shape anyways. I totally disagree, that cards that are bad once Oath hits the table shouldn't be played.

I hope I made sense - it took me about 5 min. to write a couple of lines.  

[Liek]

I played so poorly against you. Both times.

In the Swiss I convinced myself that Ninja-ing would be ok since I had Standstill out. I figure I'd draw into a Force. Didn't happen, and you probably had counter backup anyways.

In the top 8 your gassy opening had me a bit flustered for some reason. My play was Strand for Basic Plains, Lotus for Blue, Meddling Mage your Oaths and Standstill. I screw up, get the wrong land (the Island,) hit the Lotus for White. I then confuse the hell out of myself (terribly...) and ask to switch the Lotus to Blue (which would have not allowed me to cast the Mage that killed you.) I don't know what the hell I was thinking. I'm glad the judge didn't let me do what I wanted, I was being a complete bafoon.

Sometimes I play well. I knew you had the Rushing River in hand that whole game. I was hoping to draw an answer to it, and I was fairly sure the Drains came out and that the Mage I drew would stick. Also, despite my disasterously poor play against you I managed to at least earn my wins in every other round. At least I hope.

[M.Solymossy]

Oh... and Imperial seal is REALLY bad.  After oath resolves, It doesn't allow you to nab that Time Walk, and it doesn't allow you to end of turn your spells to get an advantage.  Waiting a turn can be REALLY bad if the gamestate changes drastically in that one turn.

Your main object is to make Oath+Orchard hit the table and swing for the win. Seal solves that perfectly, as it gets FoW, Duress, Orchard, Oath, Walk or Recall in a pinch. One should not focus on "after Oath has resolved", because then you're in good shape anyways. I totally disagree, that cards that are bad once Oath hits the table shouldn't be played.

I hope I made sense - it took me about 5 min. to write a couple of lines.  

Honestly It DOES make sense, but I still think everyone is jerking off and busting nut on this card because it is a 150 dollar vampiric.  IT IS A SORCERY.  it's not that great.  Plus, IDK about ben, but as far as I go, the deck NEEDS to play the aggro-control game.  Imperial seal doesn't seem to do that.  Seal seams great in decks that can abuse it, like dragon or even cerebral assassin or multi-color uba stax (since bazaar abuses it).  It seems that you NEED a brainstorm in hand to make this effective.

I really don't like having to cast a sorcery that doesn't put this card in my hand directly, because in one turn the gamestate could change tremenously and then the best card that you tutored for could be the worst.

for example, I tutor for say... an oath, and then my opponent wastes my orchard, leaving me with land and an oath on top.  At that point, honestly i'd rather have a random shot at drawing a land, a needle, a top, a brainstorm, or numerous other answers, than my oath.

[nataz]

Honestly It DOES make sense, but I still think everyone is jerking off and busting nut on this card because it is a 150 dollar vampiric.  IT IS A SORCERY.  it's not that great.  Plus, IDK about ben, but as far as I go, the deck NEEDS to play the aggro-control game.  Imperial seal doesn't seem to do that.  Seal seams great in decks that can abuse it, like dragon or even cerebral assassin or multi-color uba stax (since bazaar abuses it).  It seems that you NEED a brainstorm in hand to make this effective.

or a Top. Top makes all your tutors really, really good. Between the tutors, fetches, and oath I'm finding Top to be extreamly effective in this type of oath build (needle and only 2 duress). It's one of the reasons why Imp is so hott in GWS oath, because with the a Top, it Does put the card directly in hand. It also lets you see three cards down for desperation FOW fodder, find that rushing river, etc.

[M.Solymossy]

Yes but GWS oath has cut their Chalice Of the Voids.  You set that bugger at 1 and almost every deck in the format cries.  Top is weaker with chalice = 1 on the board.

[Dante]

The sushi place next door. Damn good food, good prices, and just peace and quiet for once.

Can't agree more, so good to have a healthy and filling meal...I can stuff myself with 2 rolls and a couple maki and not hit a food coma.

Nice job on the power.