Eight guys from STL made the 3 hour trip to Urbana to play for Eric’s Mox. Ive been sitting on this deck for months now and have been waiting for a chance to prove its worth, but without a tournament in the midwest it has sat around collecting dust. I posted the original list here:
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=31492.0The list I played is essentially the same, but there were a few changes for the predicted metagame (Gifts, ETW, Storm, and Fish). Here is the list:
4 Dark Confidant
3 Gorilla Shaman
3 Jotun Grunt
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Duress
4 Hide//Seek
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Sphere of Resistance
2 Swords to Plowshares
4 Bazaar
5 Mox
1 Lotus
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
3 Plateau
3 Scrubland
1 Badlands
1 Strip Mine
3 Wasteland
SB:
3 Viashino Heretic
2 Pyroblast
1 REB
3 Jitte
2 Engineered Explosives
1 STP
3 Withered Wretch
This is a great list and in retrospect, but I would like to find a place for one more Jotun Grunt. The withered wretch in the SB was a great suggestion by 49cents. Leyline takes up 1 more spot, wretch is good against several decks, even if he is a body to trade away. Engineered Explosives also pulled their weight and will likely be a mainstay in my SB. The deck played fluidly throughout the entire day and bazaar filtered so many dead cards/extra mana that I couldnt even guess how many times I was thrilled to see it.
The tournament was 5 rounds and 20 people strong.
Round 1: Ron (friend of unknownroot) Gifts
Game 1 I lose the die roll, which would occur
ad infinitum for the rest of the day. I mull to six and keep a relatively solid hand. In the early turns I seek out an Empty the Warrens, but he still has b-wish, Tendrils, and Tinker-DSC left. I figured that ETW would be the toughest thing for me to deal with and I was counting on him not having enough red to recoup, b-wish, etw later. I whittle his life total to 8 when he tinkers out DSC. I swords it and a few turns later he pulls off a Tendrils for 18. I have a confidant out at this point and he is now at 36 life. Over the next few turns I get out a couple of grunts to join the fight and all of a sudden, he is at 9 life with lethal on board. All I need to do is not turn over Hide//seek to confidant as I am at three life. Guess what happened…
Frowntown.
I had actually misplayed there. Ron had bounced my chalice to put 2 cards in hand with a bazaar on board. I should have bazaared, then seeked in upkeep before I flipped to confidant, but forgot that there were two cards in my hand. Things have not started off well.
I do my ETW gifts SB plan:
-4 Lavamancer
-2 STP
-1 Mox
+2 EE
+2 Wretch
+3 REB/Pyro
I may have brought in the third wretch, but if I did I dont know what I sided out.
Game 2 I lead with chalice at 0. Next turn I play a Sphere of resistance and he mysticals for ancestral. He cant cast it though as he plays an academy that taps for 0. I then cast chalice for 1, followed by another sphere of restistance, then wasteland, then confidant. Was I playing stax? He scoops when I get grunt on board.
Game 3 I never take damage and duresses/pyros/shaman/grunt/wretch own him.
Win 2-1 (1-0)
Round 2 vs Eric Becker with UW dancing grunts
Game 1 I lose the die roll, but on turn 1 I seek out his DSC. I look through his library and find 4 forces and 3 Mana drain. This is critical as it tells me how to play out the rest of my hand. Next turn I get a confidant into play. Grunts are played on both sides and there is some graveyard wackiness. After a bunch of Grunt craziness, Eric tinkers. He forgot that I had seeked out his DSC and is left with a lotus as his best target. The tinker misplay works out in my favor though, as there are not enough cards in the graves to feed his grunt, and there is exactly enough to feed mine. I swing in for the win in a close game.
SB:
-4 Chalice
-4 Sphere
-4 Lavamancer
-3 Duress
I am not sure if this is right. Eric's deck seems fairly mana hungry, but he has enough basics to be impervious to my mana denial strategy. Lavamancer does little and Duress doesnt seem worth it.
+The sideboard
Game 2 There is more wackiness as STPs put Eric to 30 life and me to 21. My wretches eat his grave of some useful cards, like grunt, recall, AK and a swords or two before they go farming. Eric then mysticals for tinker. I let it resolve and play seek as he has one card in hand and only 1 mana open. Eric then repeals my mox so that he gets his tinker in hand….and then I take his only tinker target: Titan. Things go downhill for eric from there and I take it home easily.
Win 2-0 (2-0. 4-1)
Round 3 vs Nick Boltuc playing the same deck as Eric
Game 1 I lose the roll, obv. And this game takes FOREVER. I felt that he was not playing at a pace which would allow us to finish 3 games and call a judge over so that we can finish in time. I lose a close game here and didn’t take good notes.
Game 2 I steamroll him easily.
Game 3 goes to time and I had him at 6 life and a grunt on board. Sigh. He did play noticably faster games 2 and 3, but it wasnt enough to finish in time.
Draw 1-1-1 (2-0-1, 5-2-1)
Round 4 vs Kevin Brewer (unknownroot)
Kevin is sitting pretty at 3-0 and after some discussion I tell him that he is practically assured a T8 spot even if he scoops to me and loses the next round. He agrees and scoops so that I am assured a T8 spot. Thanks Kevin. He would go on to lose his last round as he got paired down. After some worry that he might not make the T8, he finished in 7th place. I would have felt terrible if scooping to me had cost him a place in the T8
Round 5 ID vs Aaron McLean
T8 vs Kevin Brewer playing 5c stax. We are both looking forward to playing each other as we have rarely played in the past.
Game 1: I lose the die roll and Kevin starts out very strong with a dark confidant. He soon gets smokestack, crucible and chalice at 2. I bazaar away a Grunt and Dark confidant so that he thinks I dropped all my 2 cc cards, but keep a hide/seek in my hand hoping he drops the chalice to his smokestack. With smokestack set at 2, I lose my board, but Kevin keeps it around, losing a mox, mox, chalice @ 2 and a chalice @ 0 on consdecutive turns. By the time he drops smokestack he only has a dark confidant, workshop, and crucible on his board. I then explode with land, ruby, jet, lotus, hide the crucible, dark confidant, sphere of resistance. The dark confidant has not been nice to Kevin, as he flipped over Smokestack, Jar, Crucible, and some other stuff, so he is very low on life. I keep him locked down by playing a G-shaman to kill a mox Kevin played through sphere and follow it with another sphere of resistance. Kevin cant attack with his confidant because I would kill him on my follow up, so it’s just a matter of time before he flips over a trike to end that game.
SB:
-4 Chalice
-4 Sphere
-1 Duress
+3 Wretch
+3 Heretic
+2 EE
+1 STP
Game 2
Kevin starts with an uneventful turn and I misplay by playing EE at 0 then duress. Terrible. I take away a crucible, but see 2x ancient grudge. TERRIBLE. I lose my EE and he gets a smokestack out, and I play a grim lavamancer. I drop lavamancer to the smokestack and get to 3 lands to play out my viashino heretic. Kevin drops his smokestack so he doesn’t lose any life. Kevin plays out a confidant and my heretic goes to work killing 2x mox and a duplicant that targets my heretic. I rebuild with a grunt and a lavamancer and start chewing down Kevin’s life. At 3 life, Kevin flips over a Demonic tutor to the confidant and my lavamancer kills him dead.
Win 2-0 (4-0-2, 7-2-1)
Top 4 vs my good friend Blaine, playing UWB vial fish.
Game 1 I lose the roll, but it all goes my way as he mulls into a drawing hand. My hand is set though, as I drop a lavamancer, Dark confidant, wasteland, and a grunt over the next few turns. Blaine did not draw any useful cards this game, but makes up for it in game 2.
SB:
-4 Chalice
-4 SOR
-3 Duress
-4 Hide/Seek
+The SB
Game 2 was very close. Blaine gets a confidant and hits a FOW on his first flip. I resolve a lavamancer out that went farming. I play a jitte, but so does Blaine. My confidant was forced and I resolve a grunt and start chewing at blaine’s life. At one life, blaine plays his like 3rd grunt and I swords it. He plays another and I swords it again. Blaine plays ANOHTER grunt and it is my doom. Wow. That game was very swingy.
Game 3: Blaine duresses, taking a swords. I quickly play out Shaman, Dark Confidant and Heretic. Blaine responds with a Jitte and a Balance. I walked right into that one. I think I kept his lands very low and got another shaman out to kill his moxen. Grunt gets out there on my side and I take him down over the next few turns. His last ditch effort (a grunt) decides to be a farmhand instead of fighting one of his brothers. I win this one and Blaine played very well throughout the whole day.
Win 2-1 (5-0-2, 9-3-1)
I watched vroman finish up his game vs Aaron McLean, but Ill let him tell you about that. It was hilarious though. Vroman and I make an amicable split for the NM pearl. It’s one of the nicest pearls I have ever seen.
Thanks to Eric for putting on a tournament in the Midwest. Ive wanted to test this deck out for a long time now and this was my first chance to show that it is competitive. In case anyone asks: BAZAAR IS THE NUT HIGH. I didn’t write it into my report much, but it was so critical in fixing my hands throughout the day. I just take the card for granted, but it directly contributed to several of my wins.
