Hi everybody,
Last Sunday (2 december) I competed in the 12 proxy Dutch Vintage Tournament in Breda. I’d been looking forward to this event for like two months and extensively tested and tuned an UB Masknought deck with a friend of mine from Copenhagen. I felt really comfortable playing with it until SCG Chicago results came up and I saw the TK Deeznoughts list. It was like love at first sight, I’ve been a fish player for years and this with a similar game plan, but more pressure in the form of Dreadnought and Tarmogoyf, and I started to have second thoughts on my UB Masknought list.
Due to a long weekend in Copenhagen with my study association I didn’t get the time at all to test this deck, not even a single game. On Fridays I went to the east of the country to stay in a holiday park for the weekend, because a friend of mine plays bass guitar in a Bon Jovi coverband. They had to play that night and we decided to all go watch the show and have a fun weekend afterwards. Up to this point I still had not decided which deck to run: should I play the (in my opinion) better list without me having any experience or should I take the safe route and play the deck I’m comfortable with but has more dead draws and is less diverse. After two nights full of playing Singstar (I suck at singing, but it is still a lot of fun), Buzz (the playstation music quiz; I won one game from a friend of mine while I fell asleep half the time :p) and drinking lots of beer and getting little sleep my alarm went off at 7 AM on Sundays. After I quick envious look on my peaceful sleeping friends I get up, take a quick shower, skip my breakfast (we didn’t have any food left) and begin my 2 hour drive to Breda with plenty of time to think about which deck to play. I feel like I should take the risk and go for the TK DeezNoughts. I arrive a bit late at the tournament location and got to start making my proxies and sleeving up my deck in a hurry after I bought the last cards I needed. I exactly copied the list by Owen Turtenwald from the thread in the Open Forum except that I played a Flooded Strand over a Bloodstained Mire and a Duress over a Thoughtseize because I didn’t own them and already needed all my proxies.
Here’s the list I played:
Main Deck (60)1 Phyrexian Dreadnought
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Trinket Mage
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
4 Force Of Will
1 Mystical Tutor
4 Stifle
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
2 Duress
1 Life From The Loam
2 Thoughtseize
1 Time Walk
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Island
1 Bayou
2 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
1 Strip Mine
1 Tropical Island
4 Underground Sea
3 Wasteland
Sideboard (15)1 Aether Spellbomb
1 Pithing Needle
3 Trygon Predator
4 Leyline Of The Void
3 Threads Of Disloyalty
2 Duress
1 Yawgmoth's Will
While making my proxies I reflected upon this list and thought about adding an Echoing Truth since the maindeck has no answers to Platinum Angel. Because I didn’t know what to remove and the creators of the deck thought it was not necessary I decided also not to run it.
Round 1: Goswin Zeeman with Sliver FlashI know Goswin is a serious and skilled player and also a nice guy. I’m not thrilled to play him because this will be my first games with this deck and I know I’ll have to give my best shot to beat him, also when playing a deck I have experience with.
Game 1: I win the die roll and Goswin has to mulligan once. My opening hand is FoW, Mystical, Delta, Sea, Confidant, Vampiric, Thoughtseize. I lead with a turn one Thoughtseize and he reveals Summoner’s Pact, 2x Pact of Negation, Virulent Sliver, Mox Pearl and Delta. I take the green pact and pass the turn. Now he has to find both his combo pieces without having any draw/search. He plays his delta and mox and passes. Next turn I drop confidant, he does nothing special and in my upkeep I Mystical for Ancestral. Ancestral gives me Explosives, I figure it will be good when set at one so I do it. Dropping a Tarmogoyf seals the deal shortly after that.
The biggest downside of playing a deck for the first time is not knowing what to board out (and to a less extent in) exactly. I expected a Goyf sideboard plan and packed the regular extra hate: -1 Dreadnought, -1 Loam, -3 Trinket Mage, -1 Tormod’s Crypt, -1 Sensei’s Top, -1 Mox Pearl, + 4 Leyline, +2 Threads, +2 Duress.
Game 2: He opens with land mox and passes. I Duress him and see Vampiric Tutor, Sliver, Tropical, Flash, Misdirection. I take the Flash and say go. Then he plays Merchant Scroll which I let resolve, he tries to play the Ancestral he just found and I FoW. He Misdirects and the Ancestral resolves. During his end step I Vampiric for my own Recall which I play during my mainphase. I set the Explosives at 1 again and when I drop Confidant and Goyfs while he reveals Pact of Negation, 2 Slivers and Lotus Petal for my Duress the game ends quickly.
So I just won my first match 2-0. Not a bad start. While looking at some other matches I come across Jasper Wevers. He’s a nice guy I know from tournaments in Hengelo and he says he heard from Goswin that I was playing DeezNoughts. It turns out he does too
. He tells me he also won his first round and we discuss a bit about our matches and sideboard strategies.
Round 2: Michael Rolies with RG BeatzI’ve never played Michael before so I don’t know what to expect this match. He turned out to be a nice person and fun to play with.
Game 1: I lose the die roll but he has to mulligan twice. He starts with a land, Aether Vial and drop some beaters over the next two turns. I fetch out an island as I’m scared of seeing a Magus of the Moon. I kill two-thirds of his army with an Explosives set at 1 and drop a Trinket Mage to block his 2cc creature. The Dreadnought I just fetched comes into play to finish the job.
I boarded like this: -2 Duress, -1 Trinket Mage, -1 Tormod’s Crypt, -1 Loam, -1 Sensei’s Top, -1 Vampiric Tutor (I think it’s weak most of the time against aggro decks), +3 Threads, +3 Predator, +1 Needle.
Game 2: I have a good starting hand with Dreadnought, Stifle, Mox, Island, EE, Goyf and Fetch (not sure about the last 2). Since I know the decks packs a reasonable amount of artifact hate my plan is to bait with Explosives to clear the way for the 12/12 trampler. He opens Taiga -> Vial. I draw a Wasteland and play Island, Mox, Explosives for 1. His next turn makes me a sad panda: Wasteland, Ancient Grudge!! and a vialed Skyshroud Elite. I take the gamble, waste his Taiga and drop the Nought. It turns out he has no green mana in his hand, but he does vial in a Stingscourger to bounce my man and puts more pressure on me with a Tarmogoyf. I drop my own Goyf and when he can’t pay the echo cost for his goblin. We keep our green men out of the red zone for some turns while I play a Predator and take down his vial. In the meantime he wastes my Tropical and I can’t play the second Predator in my hand. He drops his second Goyf and things start to look bad when he attacks with all his men. But then I topdeck another Stifle and manage to stay alive because he has no green mana on the board to flashback his Grudge. I win quickly thereafter.
When he takes his cards he sees the Grudge in his graveyard and tells me he had an Emerald in his hand but didn’t cast it because of the Predator. Lucky for me he totally forgot about the Grudge. I feel sorry for him but I’m glad with my 2-0-0 score.
Round 3: Cedric Kool with BelcherGame 1: He wins the die roll and I keep a decent hand with Force, Stifle, Trinket Mage, Brainstorm and mana. I quickly see he plays belcher when he plays only nonland manasources and chromatic star. I let it all happen but FoW his Demonic Tutor when he has only 1 card left. I play Trinket Mage and Dreadnought on turn 2 and 3 respectively and we proceed to game 2.
I do not know how I boarded exactly this game but I think it was like this: +3 Predator, +2 Duress, -1 Sensei’s Top, -1 Dreadnought, -1 Loam, -2 Trinket Mage.
Game 2: He mulligans and opens with something like lotus petal, rite of flame, chromatic star and cracks it. I drop my Confidant and hold my Ancestral to play it next turn. On turn 2 he manages to play Wheel of Fortune with an ESG and an SSG from his hand. He drops mana crypt and LED but nothing more and passes. I play the duress he gave me with wheel and he plays pact of negation. I think for a while moment because I also got FoW, but realize he has to use his LED and discard his hand in order to pay for the upkeep. Seems like a fair trade to me. He loses his hand and plays his topdecked Birds, I drop a confidant or goyf and when he plays his second birds I tutor for my Explosives and wipe away almost his entire board and still got my FoW in case anything goes wrong. 3-0-0.
I then take a look at the table next to me to see Jasper win his third game with DeezNoughts too. We discuss what to do if we get paired against each other. Neither of us feels like playing it out, but we don’t know if drawing is a wise decision since there will be two more rounds to come.
Round 4: Jasper Wevers with TK DeeznoughtsJust as we expected we have to face each other. We both have too little experience and knowledge to predict whether it will be good or not, but we decide to draw. We both don’t want to win from the other and we’re almost certain that both of us will have to win only one of the following two rounds to make it into top 8.
Just for the fun of it we play two games to gain some knowledge about the mirror. I win the die roll and win the first game because I can stay ahead one turn for the whole game (stifle his fetch, duress/thoughtseize his threats, drop confidant and Force his). The second game he starts and it’s the other way around. He manages to double waste my bayou and tropical when I have Loam in the grave and cuts me off from green mana. Combined with Loam and Strip Mine that’s more than enough for him to take the win.
Since there is a GAT mirror going on table 2 we discuss what the best boarding plan against GAT is.
Round 5: Robrecht Lenaerts with GATHe already covered most of the match in his report.
Round 5: Duncan Keyzer with Deez ‘Naughts
Game 1: He wins the die roll but it doesn’t matter anyway, because I’ve decided to be an idiot this game. I keep a one land hand, Underground Sea being my only land, two Ponder, a Duress and something else. Of course I decide to Duress him first turn, seeing the Strip Mine in his hand, reminding me I cannot play like a novice at this stage and level! He punishes my obvious mistake and I’m out of the game. I’m feeling very bad for the rookie mistake. Either you Mulligan the hand or you play the Ponder. I’m still having fun ‘though and my previous tournament thought me always to stay relaxed and focused. I used to burst into flames easily when I made an idiot mistake but I’ve decide to always have fun, learn (if I have to) and just try my best. This attitude had helped me to enjoy me previous tournament better then ever before and I did ok then, so why not now or in the future?
As he said he sort of handed me the first game. I won the die roll and opened with Sea, Mox, Confidant which resolved. He duresses me and on my next turn I strip his only land and drop another Confidant. When he plays no land his second turn I tutor up a Life from the Loam and he scoops.
I board the way Jasper and I figured out to be best: +3 Threads, +1 Duress, -1 Trinket Mage, -1 Sensei’s Top, -1 Dreadnought, -1 Stifle. (after reflecting the tournament when I got home I think boarding in the Yawgmoth’s Will is good here as well, we forgot about it when making the plan)
Game 2: He Thoughtseizes my Ancestral Recall and I never get to a Tarmogoyf on time and I lose to his.
For those of you who are interested in more details:
He starts with a land and a Ponder I believe. I open with fetch, mox, Tarmogoyf. He plays another land and scrolls for his ancestral but doesn’t play it. My thoughtseize does his job and since I don’t see any Force/Misdirection I resolve mine. Next turn I play Trinket Mage for Tormod’s Crypt to prevent his Yawgmoth’s Will game plan, but he Forces the Crypt. On his turn he plays Yawgmoth’s Will but he can’t do anything else than replay his fetchland and Ancestral. By this time he is too far behind to win anymore.
He was a nice guy and I’d like to play him again in the near feature so he can get his revenge
.
I managed to win my fifth match andso I’m at 4-1-0 with the highest tiebreakers. Jasper also won his match, so our draw worked out well.
Round 6: Martijn van der Vaart with GATMartijn is the third person at thirteen points so we ID into top 8. Table 2 and 3 do this as well and I go to table 5 to watch my (most likely) next opponent. It’s GAT vs. Tyrant Oath. I’m rooting for the GAT player because I think oath is one of the toughest matchups for this deck. I’m preparing for the worst in top 8 when it’s 1-1 in games and the oath player forces a fastbond leaving the GAT player without gas and an oath on the table. What I didn’t know was that Yawgmoth’s Will was the second card from the top. The GAT players brainstorms into it, plays it, replays his fastbond and comboes out.
Top 8: Twan Koperberg with GATGame 1: I win the die roll and start with a fetchland. He plays a fetchland as well, but when he wants to break it I respond with my own and play I stifle. He plays Lotus and passes the turn. The fetchland turned out to be his only land and when I force the dryad he tries to play off lotus he can’t do anything relevant for the rest of the game.
I board just like I boarded against Lenaert (my round 5 opponent).
Game 2: I keep a mediocre hand and he leads with sea, mox, duress and taking my duress. I’m very happy when I topdeck confidant to make my turn 1 play land, mox, Bob. Turn 2 he tries to go broken: he plays a land, plays demonic tutor into fastbond, plays it followed by a gush or 2. He runs out of gas and has to pass the turn. I get out a Goyf and a dryad comes down in his side of the table. I force the gush he topdecks and take the dryad with Threads. Within two turns it’s over.
Top 4: Goswin Zeeman with Sliver FlashI have to play Goswin again. I’m not happy because I hate playing against flash. Games can be over with any topdeck and I never feel comfortable playing against flash.
Game 1: He wins the die roll but has to mulligan. He plays a land and something. During my turn I play duress and see Duress, Vampiric, Hulk, Pact of Negation. I take the Vampiric and later I take a brainstorm with another Duress. We play draw-go for a while and I try to find some threats/disruption with Sensei. A crucial moment in this match is where he plays ancestral, which I force and he forces back. After that I play my Vampiric Tutor and I’m not sure what to take: I’m considering Confidant, Ancestral or Stifle. I’m reluctant to go for ancestral although one of his two misdirections was already in his graveyard. If he has the other one in his hand I’ll definitely lose the game. I think about stifle for a while because he has some cards in his hand so he might combo out next turn. After some long thinking I decide to go for the Confidant, since it can’t be misdirected and if I make my next upkeep I’m probably going to make it. I reasoned that stifle might give me a safe way to make my next turn, but nothing good to do in those turns. During my turn I drop the confidant and he comboes out on his turn. I take a peek at the top 3 cards to see whether ancestral would’ve saved me. That wasn’t the fact so in retrospect stifle would’ve been the best option (I did not have 4 mana to play both explosives at 1 and have 2 mana to use it).
I board no Threads in this time, because I saw on his decklist he didn’t play any creatures in his sideboard. 2 Trinket Mages stay in.
Game 2: He has to mulligan to 4 and never gets in the game. I duress him almost every turn and manascrew him in between.
I tell him I really like the deck and I never had to mulligan all day long. I never should have said that out loud!
Game 3: Of course I have to mulligan this game. I get punished for being over encouraged. My six cards are: Time Walk, Force of Will, Stifle, Stifle, Wasteland, Leyline of the Void. I don’t want to mulligan to five and I think it is quite a strong hand. I’m on the draw and only need one blue mana to give him a really hard time winning. I start with Leyline in play and drop my wasteland. He drops a fetchland and passes. I draw another wasteland, play it and pass the turn. On his second turn he play Reverent Silence for free, I force it, but he plays Pact of Negation and comboes out.
Although I lost this game I still think it was the right decision to keep the 6 card hand. Very few hands with 5 cards would’ve been better than this one I believe. I hang around and see Jasper winning his top 4 match, so it would have been a DeezNoughts final if I’d beaten Goswin. I end up finishing third on tiebreakers and get 3 FBB chronicles city of brass.
What happened in the final is described both in Lenaerts report (
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=35030.0) and the results thread (
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=35047.0), so I’ll save my time by not telling it all over again.
I’d like to congratulate Goswin with his win and thank Arjan for holding the tournament.
I was very happy with the deck all day. It’s very consistent and almost didn’t show any weaknesses, except maybe for a lack of brokenness sometimes. There’s one thing I thought about to change during the tournament. Sometimes I felt the deck was a little light on green mana. I’m not sure how to say this but having to play a green dual from your hand without immediately playing a green card can mean it gets wasted and you only got one green dual left in the deck. After giving it some more thought you always have your Emerald, Lotus and Trinket Mages to fetch them or you can win without green at all. I think I just need to be careful when to play/fetch my green duals, but I want to throw my thought out there.
TK DeezNoughts is a solid deck and lots of fun to play. I think it proved its strength once more this tournament by giving the only two players playing it a second and third place.
That’s about all I have to say for now. I hope you enjoyed reading my report and feel free to comment on my plays/boarding strategies or anything else you’d like to say. Thanks!
Duncan
ps. Robrecht, i'd like to thank you for the good layout of your report. It was clear and easy to read so I used it here too.
ps2. a funny fact i noticed: i played against 5 of the 7 other t8 players
