President Skroob
Basic User
Posts: 284
Yarr.
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« Reply #6 on: January 15, 2008, 07:53:51 pm » |
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Steve was just barely out of the top eight after being defeated in the last round of the swiss by Nat Moes. Their match is chronicled in his Belcher tourney report that he linked above.
I was behind the BG Manaful Ichorid, and though I didn't take enough notes to write a full report, I'll post my highlights reel here.
I had a couple of really close matches and high points that I held onto in memory, but the rest is just a haze. Specifically I remember:
Realizing in game one against Platinum Oath that it really sucks to be a self-destructive deck, as even if I can nullify Platinum Angel's power with Contagion, without Ancient Grudge I really can't kill them unless they're foolish enough to attack into Stinkweed Imp. That game one ended up being the first game that I have ever scooped in my playing career. I tune my deck to avoid unwinnable situations, and up until that point it had worked.
Bonking in game two against Platinum Oath and almost throwing away the game because of it. It was late game, and we were out of time and in turns. I had a Bayou, a Bazaar, a Lotus Petal, a Black Lotus, a full graveyard, and a ton of zombies. He had Oath of Druids, two Platinum Angels, Tidesprout Tyrant, Krosan Reclamation in his yard, and 1 life. He played Engineered Explosives for zero and something else, using Tidesprout Tyrant to bounce my Black Lotus and Lotus Petal. On my turn, I could not swing my zombies in for lethal because of Engineered Explosives, and for some reason I could not get enough dudes to run by his dudes to both get him for lethal and also Ancient Grudge his two Angels to make him lose before he Krosan Reclamationed them and Oathed during his next upkeep. I stupidly played my Lotus Petal and Black Lotus during my main phase. If he had seen the bonk and detonated the Engineered Explosives at the end of my turn, he would have incinerated not only my attack force but also the mana I would need to play both the Grudges in my graveyard. Fortunately for me, he did not see the play, and at the end of his upkeep I broke the Lotus for Green and Grudged both his Platinums. He was forced to crack a fetchland in response in order to shuffle his deck from a previous Brainstorm, bringing him to zero life, and when he played his next Brainstorm to find a counter and failed, I won the game. Even if he had, though, I had a Lotus Petal to break for red in order to hardcast the Ancient Grudge I had been holding in my hand all game, and even a backup Bayou to flash it back if that was needed. All would have been lost, though, if he had seen the right time to detonate the Engineered Explosives to knock out my mana.
(Upon reflecting on this last match, it doesn't look quite right. The situation might have occurred a bit differently, but the bonk I made, playing my two artifact mana sources into EE, I definitely did, and it indeed should have cost me the match)
Throwing away game two of my match with Menendian by not seeing the Emerald Charm application. He had a Yixlid Jailer on the table, which I Darkblasted, but he FoWed that. Yixlid Jailer shut off the Dredge, so I hardcast the Stinkweed Imp I had in my hand to get something on the table and maybe get a defense against Psychatogs (which he ROCKS for, by the way). I got in some beats with Imp and Menendian got some beats in with Jailer. If I had used Emerald Charm to untap Stinkweed Imp when Steve attacked with Jailer, I could have killed the Jailer, unlocked my graveyard, and basically beaten Steve's otherwise slow development down into submission.
Winning turn zero against Dave Baum. In game one he was on the play and the only card I got to lay down was Leyline. He played Seat of the Synod, Black Lotus, and a mox, then broke the Lotus for blue and scooped. Game two was a walk for me as well, as I got an enormous Brains Brigade quite quickly and ran him over. Even if he had gotten to attack with his ace in the hole Cranial Plating'd Ornithopter, I had a Contagion ready to bring it down to the ground in flames.
Mulliganing only once through the entire swiss, including getting godhand after godhand against Mark Trogdon as we continued to play even after I 2-0'd him. My opening hands were almost all excellent until the top 4. There, I mulled to five in game one, six in game two, and kept my opening seven in game three. The first and last (the game two six card hand was pretty good) were probably the worst hands I had all day.
Most of all, I remember being up against the wall going into game two in the top 4 against Control Slaver, having lost game one to a slow opener which he used to his advantage to put me into a three turn Slaver lock (he ran out of artifacts), Tinker into Platinum Angel, and then Yawgmoth's Will to replay his Moxen and get all the Welder fuel he needed to Mindslaver me into a loss. Obviously, losing game one is a crushing defeat for Ichorid, and it's a situation that I do not like to be in. In game two, my six hand included Bazaar and Leyline, so it was looking alright until his first turn went Land, Mana Crypt, Tinkerlossus. Never before in my Ichorid career have I beaten Colossus, but this was a new kind of Ichorid, so, as I told Chappel, "... I have a chance to beat this. It's not impossible, just highly unlikely." I Contagioned The Big Man to bring him down to a 7/9, which is still a big beater, but much more manageable, and I went into full aggro overdrive. My deck performed spectacularly. I had a Bayou with which to bring back Ashen Ghouls, and Dakmor Salvage came in soon after to allow two per turn. My Ichorids gave me beats, and my Ashen Ghoul stayed back to cut some of the power off the Darksteel's trample, then giving me zombies from the two Bridges in my yard to give me even more blockers against him. I thought I was taking control of the match with about half my library in the graveyard when he threw down the Tormod's Crypt and took away all of it. I was soundly beaten, but it was not over. My life total was getting closer and closer to dreadfully unsafe levels, but I started dredging with even greater fervor. Fortunately, my deck has reserved all four Nether Shadows to be in the bottom half, along with the last two Bridges from Below. Though I had lost more than half my Ichorid and Ashen Ghouls, I had enough to stabilize the game with myself at three life and with only a scant few cards remaining in my library, I think six. When he swung with Colossus next turn, all the Shadows and the Ghoul jumped into the fray, giving me enough Zombies to both attack for lethal and also hold back to block in case of shenanigans.
I would count it among my greatest victories with this deck to beat that.
All in all, it was an exciting day, and the company at these tournaments cannot be beat. Good times were had by all (I hope), and I hope to make it out for the next one in February.
The only thing I regret is having to beat the tar out of my buddies Jerry Yang and Mark Trogdon because they play decks that have no game against me. Sorry guys.
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