T4 split at Myriad (day 1) w/ Shop Hate

[Grand Inquisitor]

Magic has taken the back-burner even more than usual the last few months as I acclimated myself to a new job and new digs in Cambridge, MA.  My few outings have been disappointing with scattered t8's and drops, but never really finishing in the money.  As the format has been turned sideways in recent weeks, I had no idea what to bring to Myriad this weekend.  My friend was letting me borrow bazaars so that I was almost tempted to play ichorid.dec, but I didn't want to spend the day shuffling and hoping I drew more answers than I saw leylines.  While I usually play blue based combo, Gifts' restriction made this implausible, and I didn't want to get rolled by flash and ichorid.  Kobefan's Long list looked really attractive, but the Myriad meta is chocked full of fish/hate decks, and I'm not comfortable enough with ritual based combo.

A playtest session weeks ago with Elyas Macheras showed that using the Uba shell and maindecking Leyline of the Void proved very strong against the new faster archetypes.  Leyline is basically a hedge play.  Decks like Flash and Ichorid bank on being able to take G1 easily, and then use their SB strategy to neutralize hate against them games 2 & 3.  By running Leyline MD, you gain a huge advantage in the match against these decks.  Bazaar allows you to run metagame cards and convert them into better things, and Leyline is solid against YWill, Salvagers and other strategies as well.  With this thought process, and borrowing card choices from Ray Robillard's staxless list, here's what I through together in the parking lot:

Shatner!  aka staxless ubaless ubastax

Haters (17)
4x Leyline of the Void
4x Chalice of the Void
3x Crucible of Worlds
3x Sphere of Resistance
2x Powder Keg*
1x Trinisphere

Players (7)
4x Goblin
1x Triskelion
1x Sundering Titan
1x Platinum Angel

Herr Broken (10)
3x Bazaar of Baghdad
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Balance
1x Tinker
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Memory Jar

Manners (26)
5x Mox
4x Workshop
4x City of Brass
3x Gemstone Mine
2x Wasteland
1x Tolarian Academy
1x Strip Mine
1x Barbarian Ring
1x Academy Ruins*
1x Black Lotus
1x Mana Crypt
1x Sol Ring
1x Darksteel Ingot

Reinforcements (15)*
2x Pyroblast
2x Triskelion
2x Dark Confidant
2x Ray of Revelation
2x Ancient Grudge
2x Fire/Ice
2x Tormod's Crypt
1x Seal of Cleansing

*Given that Myriad always has a healthy amount of fish-esque decks, and that Gush's unrestriction will probably lure people to play GAT, I thought Powder Keg would be a strong metagame card.  It was absolute gold all day for a number of different reasons.

Academy ruins was never a factor, so I have no idea if it's good or not.  It may be too mana intensive.

My sideboard was constructed in two minutes since Dan (TO) was trying to get everyone signed up ASAP.  In spite of this lack of forethought, I just picked out cards that are general purpose, cheap, and give advantage (F/I, Ray, Grudge, DConf, Trike usually trade at least 2 for 1).  My sideboard was one of the strongest components during the day.

Rnd 1, Wr Hate (Aven, bloodmoon.guy, etc)

G1, He has a slow start (he may have mulliganed) and I set up crucible/strip early with Sphere of Resistance.
G2, My sideboard plan here is to bring in removal and slow the game down until I can do something broken.  This works like clockwork as early Dark Confidant brings me a string of answers for bloodmoon guy, (F/I) Samurai of the Pale Curtain and Aven (trike), Jitte (grudge) on the way to going nuts with Welder.

Rnd 2, Ub AK Tendrils
G1, I have early Welder and Crucible/Wasteland, but I don't draw any more gas, and play "gemstone, go" while he sets up a huge desire
G2, Mulligan takes me to a weak hand with welder, pryoblast and little else.  He has FoW for my blast during a crucial play (getting a welder active on Platz, I think), and goes on to win with desire into tendrils.  The leyline strategy is weaker against ritual combo and storm decks that don't need the grave to win.  Turning off AK's wasn't enough, and my draws, in general, weren't explosive enough.

Rnd 3, GAT
G1, An early powder keg clears out a would-be-lethal dryad, and spheres combine with Wasteland recursion to seal him up.
G2, I felt good about this opening, however, oxidize and a timely echoing truth on 2x Goblin Welder keep me off balance long enough for him to push a dryad through.
G3, He has great early pressure, but I have an active welder with bazaar when I draw Demonic Tutor.  He swings into my surprise Sundering Titan, and I'm able to take it from there, removing his win and his manabase.

Rnd 4, SS (my memory on this is a little fuzzy, but...)
G1, I think I take this pretty quickly with denial backed up by tinker for a robot.
G2, I probably should have seen this coming, but I overextend into an energy flux and am not able to recover.
G3, This was a marathon.  I F/I an early Cutpurse, and DT for ray of revelation to remove a energy flux before it does too much damage.  He applies minimal beats, but I'm able to build up mana and hardcast Titan.  He responds by floating and casting hurkyl's recall.  What was sort of subtle here is that I had a mana crypt that was slowly killing me that gets bounced back.  The recall also bounces a Trike that had used all of its counters.  Since I'm at 1 life, I'm trying to think of any ways he can eek out a point of damage.  I play conservatively and am able to stabilize with the help of barbarian ring.  I slowly rebuild my board, but without mana crypt.  Trike is struggly to keep him at bay when I topdeck a mox pearl which (with Academy) allows me to recast Titan and win. 

Rnd 5, Tidespout Oath
G1, I lock him out early with chalice, SoR, and crucible.  I only see tropical, so I assume he's playing GAT.
G2, An early Oath surprises the crap out of me, but fortunately he doesn't have orchard yet.  We go back and forth with threats & counters.  I'm able to tutor of Ray of Rev and take out the oath.  I get a welder or two to stick and am starting to recur memory jar when he plays black lotus and hard casts Tidespout Tyrant.  I was surprised when I saw the oath, but now I see this monster and I figure I'm screwed.  We're well into the late game, our libraries are low, and I start to consider memory jar as a win condition.  Time is called.  He's used trickbind on my welders previously, so I weld in Jar, use it, and then weld it in again with the idea that we'll jar twice and we'll both draw to death.  We'll draw the game, and I'll take the match.  I explain this to him, we confirm with the judge, and I take the match.

This is where things get strange.  His friends who were watching the game have him look at his remaining cards which reveal a trickbind.  I think "great", I correctly anticipate his out, and make an adjustment.  His friends explain my gaff, that it doesn't matter at all how I stack the Jar hands, the 2nd trigger doesn't resolve until he has his new seven cards, and he has priority to use the trickbind to cancel the effect.  Further, one of his remaining cards is Kroasan Reclamation.  This would have allowed him to, using infinite mana from mox + tyrant, bring back research and development and go infinite with his library & grave.  My opponent and I follow along, finally starting to realize how he could have won.  Although the match is already over, his friends go on to imply that I intentionally mislead him and misrepresented the gamestate, preying on an "inexperienced" player.  This is where I take some umbrage.  Fair enough, I screwed up how Jar would work with trickbind.  However, not only does he have a responsibility to know how these things work, but I was asking other players nearby if this would work, and got the judge involved.  More than this, he didn't even seem to know the tricks of his own deck, nevermind me, who's never seen this list before.  The idea that I could expect him to have outs to go infinite, and intentionally try to sabotage them is ridiculous.  It's too bad, because he was a great guy to play against, and that game in particular was a real slugfest.  To have the match and his tournament end that way is certainly something I would never intend knowlingly.

...anyway, I do take the match, move to 4-1, and draw into the T8.

T8, UW Salvagers
G1, this was another marathon.  It seems the deck is prone to this, since it runs so many disruptive components and small combos; it allows the deck to come from behind with powerful plays, and to use small advantages from welder, crucible, bazaar, etc to win through attrition.  I don't remember specifics, but I think that barbarian ring recursion was critical at clearing creatures and, after setting up a hard lock, dealing damage to the dome.
G2, he has an early LoA, but I resolve ancestral recall, and welder with a bazaar on the table by turn 2.  This is where he goes nuts.  He draws with LoA, and then procedes to drop" tormod's crypt, aether spellbomb, and pithing needle!  My threats go to shit, and we're stuck at draw go.  Later he adds energy flux to my woes which cleans up most of my board.  There's details I forget, but eventually I'm able to get a powder keg to stick.  When I'm about to blow it at 1 he makes a critical mistake and e.truth's my welder.  He wasn't familiar with powder keg (he had to read it when I played it G1), and he thought that it would take out his pithing needle, but not my welder.  He ended up saving my welder for me!  Even though he counters my welder he mistaps for FoW and I blast his flux.  Another key misplay of his was turns earlier when he fetched island instead of plains/tundra.  While I'm able to set up crucible/strip, he sits with a hand full of salvagers that would have won the game.  I take out his manabase and win from there.

My friend Scott, also playing workshops, finishes off Kyle Leith and the T4 is decided.  We lure ELD into a split with Zombie Babe tokens, and we all get $180 for our troubles.  Ray, Scott, and I head south to Cambridge, meeting up with my girlfriend, and then out to grab good eats, boos, and live music. [curtain closes]

Props:
TFunk, for loaning me bazaars
Me, for realizing Ichorid is bunk and resisting the lure of mindless games
Ray and Jeff, for help with the deck
my opponents, I met some good people today
Myriadgames, Dan drives me crazy sometimes with his TypeA-ness, but his events are solid

Slops:
Leyline of the Void, in spite of my tech, I don't get paired with Flash or Ichorid all day
me, not knowing how Jar works
girlfriend, for being on the rag, and preventing me from powning day 2 with vintage GAT/future sightness

[ELD]

Congrats on the Top 4, it's always good to see experienced players making time to play the game. 

Although the match is already over, his friends go on to imply that I intentionally mislead him and misrepresented the gamestate, preying on an "inexperienced" player.  This is where I take some umbrage.  Fair enough, I screwed up how Jar would work with trickbind.  However, not only does he have a responsibility to know how these things work, but I was asking other players nearby if this would work, and got the judge involved.  More than this, he didn't even seem to know the tricks of his own deck, nevermind me, who's never seen this list before.  The idea that I could expect him to have outs to go infinite, and intentionally try to sabotage them is ridiculous.  It's too bad, because he was a great guy to play against, and that game in particular was a real slugfest.  To have the match and his tournament end that way is certainly something I would never intend knowlingly.

While I didn't hear the whole discussion, I don't feel anyone was accusing you of any intentional wrong-doing.  I wasn't there when it happened, so I certainly wouldn't be able to make any kind of statement about intent.  For what it's worth, logic would say that calling the judge over would to indicate you were not up to anything and simply made a mistake.  Your opponent looked less phased by the whole event than his friends did, which is seems like a good thing. 

I was the one who threw the term "misrepresentation of gamestate" out there.  I was saying if you announce "I'm going to use Jar in this way in order to prevent Trickbind from working" it is a misrepresentation of the game state.  It would be similar to telling someone I'm going to play this Tendrils of Agony and respond with Extirpate so you will die even if you have Trickbind.  Another example would be saying, "I'm going to put out Chalice for Zero to shut off Gush and Force of Will." 

There's tons of room for grey areas.  How about dropping a Pithing Needle on Ichorid.  How does it impact things if you know it doesn't stop Ichorid, but your opponent doesn't?  How about if you tell them it does?    Now, whether or not those statements are made knowing they are false is a whole different story.  I would tend to think dropping it on Ichorid and not specifically telling them it doesn't work is a great bluff, where telling them specifically that it does is completely unacceptable. 

It certainly was unfortunate how things played out, no question, but part of being a competent player is being able to defend yourself against that kind of situation.  I'm sure your opponent learned from this loss and will be a stronger player because of it.  His friends seemed to be very encouraging to him, so hopefully it won't diminish his enthusiasm for playing in tournaments.  Good report, and hope to see your name in more Top 8s in the near future.

[arik124]

Congrats on Top 8 and good job kicking my butt with powder keg, I was getting confused.  A lack of play testing really caught up with me at that point and I got way too conservative.  Good job forcing errors. 

As far as the "memory jar incident" I clearly remember that your statement was NOT malicious or deliberately said to mislead your opponent.  It was simply unfortunate that it turned out that you were wrong and as ELD said "misrepresented the game state."  I simply want to point out that no one thought you were the "villain" here.  You just got stuck in an awful situation that many people happened to witness.  Its just a good example of when the situation gets confusing / complicated / unknown one should simply call over a judge to make sure everything is kosher. 

aside: (4 People were watching and we all heard what you said "im cracking jar twice to make sure trick bind isn't an out for you here" and none of us said anything until after the game.  It should have occurred to us and we should have called over Dan.)

[Harlequin]

Hey Its Jeff, Eric (your opponent in the jar game) Is my Brother.  Eric was fine with what happened.  We talked about it on the ride home and he wasn't even sure that he would have cast Trick Bind had he drawn his Jar hand.  He fully admits that it was his mistake to #1 not play out the hand until the end, and #2 not call a judge (to ask about the rules).  Eric actualy felt a little-bit flustered by the round going to time, and all the people crowding around (including Jer and myself) to watch the end of the match.

Right now, Eric is not playing to win cash - hes playing to learn and to have fun.  Ultimatly, in his mind, he lost the match due to not understanding the cards he was playing (he's still a bit new to the uses of stifle/trickbind).  He chalked the loss up to the experiance, and most importantly LEARNED from his misplay.

Its always tough when both players agree to something that is not correct and no judge is called.  Heres an example from the same day.  I was up against the WR shop deck and he has Sphere of resistance in play and a chalice at 1.  I have 3 red availible to me, and I have a welder and shattering spree in hand.  I am under the impression that as long as I replicate Spree then Sphere of resistance is like absorbed in the cost (I must have been thinking of Trinisphere).  So I say to my opponent:  "I spend 3 red to avoid sphere of resistance, and replicate twice.  The card will be countered by Cahlice but my two copies wont, so I'll hit Chalice and sphere with the copies... I'm pretty sure that's how it works..."  And as I'm about to say maybe we should call a judge my opponent say "Yeah that's right."  Game continues without a judge called.  Next turn I untap and play welder.

That night at the hotel, I'm discussing changing the Chalices in my board into Spheres of Resistance.  At one point I say to Jer "Its not even like Shattering Spree is effected by SoR."  We argue a bit and I explaine my match, and he explains the correct rules to me (it should have cost me RRR and 1 to replicate twice, or RR1 to replicate once).

Was I trying to fool my oppoent? - No, Both he and I thought that was how Sphere interacted with spree. I don't even think the game would have changed because the Sphere of resistacne wasn't hurting either of use because we both had plenty of mana.

The Trickbind on Jar was similar to this.  Both players incorrectly agreed that trickbind could not be used to interupt the draw.  So the game ended in a draw.

[Grand Inquisitor]

feedback

Thanks for the comments.  I was probably over zealous in my report, but as someone who's been playing T1 in this area for a while, I'm extremely sensitive to questions of character (or more accurately, the possibility of such).  One of the things I like most about this format is that most people who play are less interested in the money, and more interested in having a reputation as a strong player/developer of good tech/etc.  Since these things are contingent on honest play, I want people to know where I stand.

Eric actualy felt a little-bit flustered by the round going to time, and all the people crowding around (including Jer and myself) to watch the end of the match.

Right now, Eric is not playing to win cash - hes playing to learn and to have fun.

I can empathize with your brother.  T1 is complicated enough, and I've been in tightly watched games and made mistakes (anyone remember Lim Dul for 6?).  It sounds like Eric shares my focus for T1.  It was an intense match and he was a good opponent; hopefully he'll have an opportunity for revenge!

[sorcutt]

I've been tinkering (small pun intended) with this deck now for several weeks and I've been trying various main deck hate. I really like the inclusion of the extra bazaars. The deck always seemed to undervalue the monstrosity that is the 1/1 joblin. With the inclusion of more bazaars you're able to effectively cycle through your unneeded hate and utilize welder to his full potential. Just a couple of comments on the card selections:
1. I think that you could cut Ruins in order to support another Barbarian Ring. With the bazaars threshold is no longer a problem for staxless stax. Creature removal and an alternate win is hot.
2. Coalition Relic is superior to Darksteel Ingot. Did you ever actually need the indestructibility?
3. I think it may be possible to cut the third Gemstone Mine in favor of another Wasteland. The reasoning is that the deck already has seven 5 color mana sources (city, mine, + relic/ingot) with only 11 spells that require colored mana, and that's not even counting the moxen/lotus. With the inclusion of another ring, Welder would be easier to cast. Mana denial is a key element to this deck and I think it wants to see as many strip effects as possible.

What's your opinion Ray's Chalice configuration of 2 maindeck and 2 in the board?

Finally, congrats on the win and the innovative tech.

[Grand Inquisitor]

bazaars

They were always good.  I don't know if I'd go to four, or include crop rotate, but I do an exercise where I try to imagine the hand I want before I draw up each game in tournaments, and bazaar was always on my mind.  It's synergy can't be underestimated.

cut Ruins in order to support another Barbarian Ring

I never got Ruins online, and Ring was great all day; I'd certainly consider this, although, with the tutors, ring (or trike) is rarely hard to find.  More diversity of effects may be better.

Coalition Relic is superior to Darksteel Ingot

Yeah, I know.  Ray was bugging me as I put the list together, but I didn't feel like proxying it.  I'm sure it would have opened up more lines of play, but I can't remember a scenario where it really cost me.  Certainly something I'll run once I acquire one.

cut the third Gemstone Mine in favor of another Wasteland

I don't think this is a good switch.  With Gush back, strip effects diminish further.  Remember that postboard the deck will bring in many colored cards.

Chalice configuration of 2 maindeck and 2 in the board

I think he's crazy!  Actually, we just have very different playstyles (he actually knows how to play workshops).  I lobbied hard when he first built staxless to include chalice, and I've always felt a full set is needed in T1.  He thinks they're quite weak on the draw, but I've found that it's still strong at 0, and can be played at 2 to great effect.  Setting at 1 tends to interrupt welder, tutors, sensei, etc, but is certainly an option, as are 3, 4, etc if you have the mana and it makes sense.

[Implacable]

May I say that, although Gush is back, strip effects have not gone down in value?  A strip effect on Turn 1 vs. any deck running Gush (read: land-light) is amazing.  Wastes are great against GAT (from what I've tested so far with Stax and U/W control), Ichorid, & Flash, to name only a few decks.  Granted, Wasting on Turn 2 is a huge risk that shouldn't be run, and that's why you don't do it.

[Myriad Games]

Thanks for the report, Steve.

With regard to the Round 5 match with Eric, the judge was called over to confirm that the game would end in a draw if both players deck themselves due to Memory Jar. Since the phrasing of the actions was not explained at that time, I was not aware of the misrepresentation while the game was still in progress.

This was brought to my attention after the match had ended by a bystander. After listening to the full situation as presented to me, I did not believe that Steve was intentionally attempting to misrepresent anything (which would be cheating) but instead simply made a mistake (Incorrect Representation). Those who explained the situation to me indicated that they did not believe that Steve had intentionally misrepresented the rules, but recognized that a mistake had been made and that someone of lesser character could have used such a tactic to confuse a less experienced player.

When in doubt, even the smallest bit, call a judge to confirm. Calling a judge should not be construed as insulting your opponent or questioning their integrity, but simply clarifying rules for the benefit of both players. This must be done during a match. Further, as was done in this instance, people watching any match should call a judge if they see an error, but should not directly interfere in the match. I'm glad everyone was calm and cool about this and there were no real issues aside from players flustered by a mistake.

[Grand Inquisitor]

Wastes are great against GAT

They're not bad, don't get me wrong.  However, good GAT players won't allow you this opportunity, I'll beat bad players anyway.  It's arguable whether waste against ichorid buys you as much time as the tempo you lose from a land drop, especially g1, where you need something fast.  I have yet to play against this flash deck, but I hear it runs lots of islands.  If this were fish, where you can pigeon hole them between wasteland and stifle, it would be one thing, but in here they just don't do enough.  Three strips felt fine in my games - Strip Mine is the real workhorse.

@Dan, thanks for the clarification.

[sorcutt]

They're not bad, don't get me wrong.  However, good GAT players won't allow you this opportunity, I'll beat bad players anyway.  It's arguable whether waste against ichorid buys you as much time as the tempo you lose from a land drop, especially g1, where you need something fast.  I have yet to play against this flash deck, but I hear it runs lots of islands.  If this were fish, where you can pigeon hole them between wasteland and stifle, it would be one thing, but in here they just don't do enough.  Three strips felt fine in my games - Strip Mine is the real workhorse.

Those are definitely valid points.  Wasteland's usefulness has certainly declined slightly post future sight and with the new b/r list. I've done some testing with Keith Johnson with the Ichorid match. The results were that only 1 bazaar activation was usually enough to ensure a victory through bridges and other silly ichorid tricks. Staxless Stax's only real defense was to Tinker into Platinum Angel. In lieu of the changes to the mana base I think I would cut a crucible in favor of crop rotation.