Here's my report from my team's website. Just for clarification the ability only dictates that you play it during your turn and not that it be played as a sorcery. This is a big difference. I'll let everyone read the report and then take any questions/suggestions that the world has to offer.
The unrestriction of Gush actually slowed the format down immensely, since now GAT could pack Duress and pitch counters making storm combo essentially unplayable. Based on this slow-down Keeper style decks could now be dusted off, but that revives the question that has been raised since the beginning of this deck…How do I kill people? In the beginning, Serra Angel ruled the roost as the best offensive/defensive creature in print. Mirror Universe, Morphling, Decree of Justice, Exalted Angel, and Goblin Trenches have all had their day as finisher of choice, but all have positives and negatives. With the release of Lorwyn I think another contender has entered the arena….
Hoofprints of the Stag.
Card type: Tribal Enchantment
Casting cost: 1
Card text: Whenever you draw a card, you may put a hoofprint counter on Hoofprints of the Stag.
2W, Remove four hoofprint counters from Hoofprints of the Stag: Put a 4/4 white Elemental creature token with flying into play. Play this ability only during your turn.
Seems like a crappy rare, but upon further inspection the card does everything that a great control finisher would do. Low mana cost, check. Low investment of resources, check. Inevitable, check.
You draw cards to find answers and this card wins the game. Not to mention that it is an enchantment and hate for enchantments is really low unless you are named Leyline of the Void.
When this resolves it makes Brainstorm say this….
Card type: Instant
Casting cost: 2
Card text: Draw three cards. Then, put any two cards from your hand on top of your library in any order. Then, during your next turn put a 4/4 white Elemental creature token with flying into play.
I would probably play that card. So I did. Here’s my list.
Keeper ‘08
Lands
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
3 Island
3 Underground Sea
3 Tundra
Creatures
1 Platinum Angel
1 Darksteel Colossus
Enchantments
2 Hoofprints of the Stag
1 Moat
Spells
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Tinker
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
3 Duress
3 Swords to Plowshares
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
3 Mana Drain
2 Misdirection
2 Skeletal Scrying
2 Merchant Scroll
2 Ponder
1 Echoing Truth
Artifacts
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Sol Ring
Sideboard
4 Leyline of the Void
3 Pithing Needle
1 Swords to Plowshares
3 Chain of Vapor
2 Seal of Cleansing
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Rebuild
The main deck is fairly solid, with very few if any auto losses, Ichorid will probably be one but such is life. The suite of countermagic is adequate although some of it comes out in most matchups. Tinker --> Darksteel is a quick and dirty path to victory, while Platz is there for decks that cannot remove it. Overall I am pleased with the main, since this is the first try at this deck. The sideboard I cannot speak for. It was patchy at best since I expected more people to play shop aggro since it is good. They didn’t and I had a lot of dead cards for the day.
Here is a quick report of the tournament on Saturday.
Rd. 1 Ben w/ Flash
Game 1 was a simple victory when I have Force/MisD with double blue card. Ben opens slowly and then goes for Summoner’s Pact. I let it resolve and double counter the Flash. Later he reveals that he had Pact of Negation as his lone card left but felt like I had a third counter that did not exist.
Out: - 2 Drain -1 Hoofprints -1 Darksteel Colossus –1 Yawgwill -1 Skeletal Scrying -1 Ponder
In: + 4 Leyline, +1 Swords, +2 Chain of Vapor
Game 2 I punt to Ben. Plain and simple. I lost my damn mind and helped him win the game. I don’t like to play like a dick and Ben makes a total noob mistake. I open with Leyline and a hand of complete juicyness. I slow play the Tinker thinking that he will eventually go for it and I will kill/bounce his Heart Sliver and win. First he plays Flash into Leyline. I let it resolve but then he says wait no I’ll Chain of Vapor the Leyline. For some reason I let this happen and he proceeds to have triple counter (!) backup. I lose.
Don’t know why I did that, but I did. It’s probably because I’m never up this early on Saturday unless college football is involved….
Out: -1 Echoing Truth
In: +1 Darksteel Colossus
Game 3 I get a great deal of hate, with Swords and Chain but few mana sources. This game takes off slowly, with me fixing my hand and him playing draw go. I find Tinker and go for the big guy, who unceremoniously gets bounced. The final turn comes with me having a hand of Ancestral, Force, MisD, Ponder, Swords, Chain, Brainstorm but only one Tundra untapped. He goes for Flash and has the three counters he needs to finish the game.
Games 1-2
Matches 0-1
Rd 2 Geoff w/ SS I think (including Crucible/Fastbond/Zuran Orb)
Game 1 We get off to a slow start with him trying to make Confidants and me sending them out to farm. He plays a Zuran Orb, which I think is strange, but I resolve Hoofprints draw some cards and fly over for the win.
Out: -1 Drain, -1 Duress
In: +1 Swords, +1 Chain
Game 2 was simple I get an aggressive Tinker hand so I do that. Tinker resolves and Darksteel joins the party. Two swings later were off to RD 3.
Games 3-2
Matches 1-1
Rd 3 Kevin w/Storm combo
Game 1 was really strange. I had heard him talking about how he was combo so I was prepared for dark rituals and things. My opening seven is comboriffic including Duress and Force. I open with Duress and see the following:
Fetch, Fetch, Mox, Brainstorm, Psychatog, Land, Land……uh what.
So I take Brainstorm and pass. He makes two mana and we proceed to play this long (~30 minute) game. Eventually I go for Tinker and it resolves. He then plays the freshly drawn bounce to send the big guy back to my hand. Colossus is 2/5 so far today. We go back and forth with him attacking for 1 and me doing nothing. He then figures out that his Tog is lethal if he can Hurkyl’s himself with 1 card in hand. He goes for hurkyl’s I do some quick math and hardcast Misdirection to me preventing Tog from killing me. I draw Lotus and hardcast the Platz in my hand. Soon Hoofprints came to help me finish him off from there. At one point at the end he had a lethal Tog and a Chain of vapor but I had Force of Will so it didn’t matter.
Out: -1 Ponder, -1 Moat, -1 Skeletal Scrying, -1 Hoofprints
In: +4 Leyline of the Void
Game 2 was more shenanigans as he goes first, but has no real business. I open with Leyline and I play Tinker on turn 1 and get DC. He sticks and this one is a walk over. Afterwards he tells me that he sided into Platinum control, but I only saw one angel….whatever you say.
Games 5-2
Matches 2-1
If I win the next match I’m in the T8…how exciting.
RD 4 Eddie w/ DeezNaughts
Game 1 is essentially the kind of game I want. He plays small dudes and I enrich my farming workforce. He killed every land that I put into play for 3 or 4 turns while he has no colored mana sources. I eventually get some land to stick and Duress him into topdeck mode. I resolve a Hoofprints and then resolve Will. He scoops when I resolve Moat out of the yard, since he has no outs.
Out: -1 Echoing Truth, -1 Mana Drain, -1 Duress, -1 Ponder, -1 Skeletal Scrying
In: 2 Pithing Needle, +1 Swords, +2 Chain of Vapor
Game 2 was silly. He opens with Lotus, Mox, Land, Time Walk, Dreadnought, Stifle. He swings for 12. I play land go. I bounce the Nought during Combat. So he replays it with a fresh Stifle…off the top.
Game 3 I play a fetch and pass the turn. He plays Mox, Land, Dreadnought, Stifle. Wow again. I had MisD in my hand and it occurred to me that I could have cracked my fetch and Misdirected the Stifle to my fetchland activation. The fetch would’ve resolved and then his dude sacrificed, but we are all All-Stars after the fact. Anyway I let the robot resolve and bounce it during combat. This time the plays Illusionary Mask (!) and puts something (???) in play face down. I find a quick Tinker for DC and he is sent back to my hand and I go down to horrible Dreadnought beatz.
Games 6-4
Matches 2-2
RD 5 David Earley w/ GAT
Well finally one of the matches that I had prepared for. This will be an interesting battle since David is a good player.
Game 1 started with me quipping that he should mull to 1 so we could go to game 2. He mulled to 5 and reluctantly kept. My turn one Duress takes Brainstorm, leaving him with only Vampiric tutor. I scroll for Ancestral and play it during his upkeep. He draws the card that he had vamped up and passes. He draws a land, plays Ancestral and I misdirect it. DC finished up and we move on to game 2.
Out: -1 Duress, -1 Scrying, -1 Ponder
In: +1 Swords, +2 Chain of Vapor
Game 2 he gets a much better start but we are starting to run low on time. This game is long and drawn out and comes down to him having a Tog and a +6 Dryad with me at 8 life. He has 2 cards one of which is Berserk and I find DT. I can’t DT for Tinker because I removed it to resolve an Ancestral that netted me 3 lands. If I have Balance here I probably win….But I don’t so I lose. I chose to get Chain here but if played properly by him, that doesn’t even give me an out.
We start Game 3 with very little time on the clock. About 8 minutes I think. A draw does neither of us any good, so we go into hurry up mode. My opening 7 give me an aggro start if I can find a third land in the top 5 cards…..
I play Hoofprints with double brainstorm in hand. I can make 4/4s faster than he can make and grow a Dryad at this point. So I begin to draw cards….and more cards…and more cards…after 4 turns 3 brainstorms and 4 draws…no land. Crap. Meanwhile, he is over there making a decent sized Dryad. On turn 3 of turns he has swung me down to 7 but has no hand. So I Brainstorm up the Swords I had put back on top and send the larger than normal dryad down to the end of the field where the strong monsters work…..and then I concede to him on turn 5 since his tiebreakers are better than mine. I ended the game with Hoofprints in play, with 15 counters on it, 1 Mox, and 1 land. Never found the third mana source.
I didn’t think I was going to make it so I just let him try. He finished 10th.
Final Stats
Games 7-5-1
Matches 2-2-1 (officially 2-3)
Overall I was very pleased with the way that the deck performed. It was really solid, although I did lose 2 games in part to mana screw. Mainly this deck is about decisions and for the most part I played well and won. Mistakes were definitely made mainly Game 2 of round 1.
Hoofprints performed well in limited action. I only needed it in a couple games since I played against combo decks most of the day, but when it was in play it caused problems. Brainstorm was Duressed/Thoughseized away twice as opposed to other business..good stuff.
Moat is terrible beats right now. Most decks have few answers to it.
Darksteel colossus was probably the least successful that he will ever be since he stayed on the board and attacked 4/8 times today. If that is upped to 75% then I probably make T8. Either way I was happy with this last second addition over the 4th Duress (I’ll get to this later). But…
The deck needs more Duress effects. I think that adding 2 Thoughtseize in the Ponder slots may be correct. The deck runs plenty of land sources so Ponder isn’t as important as in Gro. The play of fetch Island --> Ponder on turn 1 is very good against Shop aggro/Stax, but this matchup is already bad in game 1 and may get further sacrificed to help out other matchups.
Balance should at least be in the Sideboard. I still don’t think that it merits a maindeck slot, but it should definitely be in the side. In matchups where it’s needed it will be a bomb and something that will need to be played around. This omission was a mistake on my part.
The sideboard was really a mess overall. The Chain of Vapors were marginal all day, and maybe there is something better that can be a catch all for different situations. Any ideas about the board…let me know, I need the help.
