Batter Up Games, Tewksbury, MA - 1st Place Report

[Diakonov]

This report is for the tournament that took place on 8/29/09 for a Mox Sapphire.

I originally wasn't thinking of writing a report, but I jotted down some notes the night after the tournament ended, and they might as well go to some use.  I did not take any notes during the tournament.  I apologize for any inaccuracies, as I am going entirely on my memory; feel free to correct me as needed.

First off, I'd like to say that the tournament was very well run and deserves acclaim.  I will certainly make my best attempt to attend these in the future.

I don't want to rehash too much of what was already said about the deck in Eastman's report (http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=38693.0), but as a quick note I will say that the collaborative efforts of our Cambridge playtesting group ("team," if you will) contributed immensely to making my success possible.  In particular, props go to Eastman, The Wolf (Jeff Greene), GI, Dan Cunningham, and Arik Pogrebinsky.  The deck I was running was essentially the product of our maddening hours of Gen Con testing, further details of which can also be found in Eastman's report.  Here's the list I ran:

12 Disruption

2 Duress
1 Thoughtseize
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
1 Misdirection

4 Bouncy

2 Repeal
1 Rebuild
1 Fire/Ice

9 Draw

3 Dark Confidant
2 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Thirst for Knowledge

5 Tutors

1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Tinker
1 Gifts Ungiven

4 Win

1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Time Vault
1 Voltaic Key
1 Tezzeret the Seeker

2 Other

1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Time Walk

24 Mana Sources

4 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
3 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island
1 Island
1 Snow-covered Island
1 Tolarian Academy
8 Solocrypten

Sideboard

2 Mystic Remora
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
2 Pyroclasm
2 Ingot Chewer
1 Rack and Ruin
2 Pithing Needle
1 Yixlid Jailer
3 Leyline of the Void

A few quick notes on card selection: first of all, the bounce package felt absolutely perfect.  Each one of them cycles, so you never end up with a dead card.  I did not miss Echoing Truth at all.  Mystic Remora was very solid, and I may consider adding a third one somewhere.  Having two Tops ended up being nice, as Confidant damage really can add up quickly.  Also, this decision motivated me to cut an Island for a seventh fetch (!), a move that we had been discussing for a while and seems totally sensible to me.

I would be happy to discuss any other card choices made for this deck as I really could go further into detail, but I will refrain for the moment to save space.

The Swiss

R1: Taylor with Tezzeret

G1: I have a god-like hand, utilizing most of my restricted cards.  

G2: We both mull, then I mull again.  It looks bad, but I manage to FoW something early.  Apparently it was all he had, because sat on one land while I manage to topdeck Tinker followed by Mana Drain.  Sphinx wins me the game.

1-0

R2: Demonic Attorney with some “metaware” aggro/control list ( I just made that up)

G1: I counter an early Ophidian and follow it up with a Confidant.  He drops a Magus of the Moon, which is irritating, but fortunately I have an Island.  I draw Repeal, but still don’t have any gas to make it worth using.  He Sowers my Confidant, forcing me to have to Repeal the Confidant, but am unable to replay it.  I die in short order to beats.

G2: I sideboard a bit incorrectly here, as I was tentative to side in both Pyroclasms.  I was afraid that he only had a smattering of creatures, and that he might side some out in anticipation of creature hate.  I was quite wrong, and drew a very pointless Remora.  We spend a few turns staring each other down with Confidant vs. Phid (can you guess who is winning here), but eventually manages to land a Glen-Elendra Archmage.  Soon after he steals my Confidant again and plays another Archmage.

1-1

R3: WAR MAMMOTH.  Just kidding.  Metalworker combo with 8 spheres.  

G1: I duress immediately, taking Demonic, and seeing that he has two welders, a key, and some mana.  He plays both welders, I scroll for Fire/Ice and eliminate them.  He drops a Metalworker, which I allow.  A couple turns later I drain his Staff, and then I take lots of turns.

G2: Travis has a turn one thorn, but I have a mana heavy hand.  Soon after he drops a Metalworker.  I respond with an incredible play by dropping a Needle and happily naming Metalworker.  
He asks, “Are you sure?”  
“Yes,” I reply.  He asks me again.
I look at him suspiciously, assuming there is some sort of Jedi mind trick taking place.  I confirm my play.  As soon as I pass the turn, I see my error and swear loudly.  Fortunately I am able to force his trike, after which I mise Rack and Ruin and blow out his Metalworker and crypt, leaving him stuck on two land.  I take infinite turns shortly thereafter.

2-1

R4: Fellow playtesting partner Arik Pogrebinsky – mirror match.  We agree to play and have a weighted split on the winnings, should there be any.

G1: I keep a risky no-land-hand with two moxes and a Confidant.  He resolves.  I Demonic intending to find Tolarian, which he predicts, and hastily counters it.  I’m holding Vamp, so it doesn’t end up mattering.  I draw twice as many cards as him.

G2: I have multiple of Bobs, remoras, and Tops.  It was pretty nasty.

Meanwhile, Eastman and Jeff have far more fun playing Dominion.

3-1

R5: Draw with Jeremiah Rudolph.  My tiebreakers require that Arik beats Sam Best, who is playing Drain Tendrils.  I cheer him on.  He smashes face.  Remora rocks.

3-1-1

The Top 8

R1: Matt McCauley (sp?) with Painter

G1: He mulls hard and attempts a first turn Vault/key.  I have force.  I actually come really close to punting this game when I make a miscalculation during Yawg Will that results in me being one mana short of being able to untap my Time Vault.  Bob is on the table, and I flip over Sphinx, putting me at 3.  Fortunately I draw Tezz, whom I play and immediately bring up Top.  Top helps me to painlessly find Repeal, and I win.

G2: I play an early remora, he plays a trinket mage.  I figure, whatever, I’m at like 20, have fun.  Many turns later, after much drawing and tapping of mana, I find myself at 3 life.  I have to use a REB on trinket, which ends up causing me to lose the attrition war.

G3: I have triple force, and his hand is aggressive.  We cancel each other out, and I end up drawing better.

4-1-1

R2: Mike Bergeron with Mono-red Painter

G1: He opens with a first turn Blood Moon, which I counter, and in the next few turns attempts to do other things which I also counter.  We both end up with no cards in hand.  I have six mana, whereas he has a few lands and three Grindstones.  He has milled me a couple times, but I mise Yawg Will and use it to tinker out Sphinx.  He is at 8 when he drops a Painter for the win.

G2:  He mulls to four and opens with land, mox, mox, Magus.  I force it, leaving him with no cards in hand.  On his next turn he draws a card and Lightning Bolts me.  I destroy him.

G3:  There were mox monkeys, Pyroclasms, Tezzerets… I don’t remember exactly.  At some point I Ancestral into Drain/Vault/Key.

5-1-1

Finals: Eastman (Dave Lawrence) – mirror.  Hey now!

G1: I keep with mox, mox, academy, force, gifts, fetch, fetch.  It’s questionable.  I figure that unless he has a turn one must-counter, I can attempt a gifts on my first turn and get a nice lead.  Unfortunately he has a turn one Ancestral, so I feel forced to pitch it.  I draw nothing but mana sources for five turns.

G2: This game has an unpleasant ending.  There is an early counter war which results with me landing a Bob.  After a few turns, he Tinkers out a Sphinx and begins to beat down.  I end up comboing out, but I am at low life and need to deal with Bob.  Finally, I manage to draw Repeal, and Dave scoops.  Not long after we realized that not only had my Tezz been removed, but Will had been used, and I had no more bounce spells.  My own Sphinx would have cancelled with his, and I had no other real win conditions.  (I technically could have beat down with Bob for the win, but he was at over 30 life, so it would have been kind of a long shot.)

G3: This is a very intense game.  Warning: tedious details ahead.
I duress and he has DT, force force drain Reb.  I take drain.  He didn’t drain it because then he would not be able to cast Reb.  He has volc, island, mox jet (his only black source), which was tapped to play top.  I cast something, I think ancestral, which he rebs, I force, he forces back and it dies.  I wanted him to have to use force to pitch his other force.  His only card now is DT.  If I remember correctly, he is afraid that I am holding a counter?  I’m assuming he wants to find something before tutoring for ancestral.  (If you remember, Dave, feel free to butt in here.)  He looks at top 3.  I am holding rack and ruin, hoping he will attempt to fetch, in which case I will rack his jet and top.  Instead he tops on his upkeep into ruby, plays it, and eot I rack his moxes leaving him on island and volc.  I play a confidant.   He tinkers out sphinx.  I go to 13 from confidant.  He swings.  I’m at seven, I play a tezz tapping out and go get lotus (I have repeal in hand and now only need one more mana source).  He debates on which to attack.  He decides to attack me, and I go to 1.  Now it’s my turn: do I bounce confidant or hope to draw mana to bounce sphinx, then just bring up top?  I realize that I only need to find time vault or yawg into walk, so I sac lotus and bounce bob.  Draw a card, not what I’m looking for.  Take my turn.  Draw a mox.  Brainstorm into another mox and Will.  Drop two moxes.  Bring up top, look at the top 3.  Nope.  Ponder, shuffle.  Top 3.  Use Will, play a volc from hand replay lotus, ancestral, play another mox, top 3, replay ponder, shuffle, time walk, now I also only need to find Key, untap, top 3, draw, top 3…there is the vault.  I go infinite, and Tezz is on the board already as my win condition.

6-1-1

At this point my brain had become a bit weary, so I was a little out of it for the rest of the evening.  Our crew shook hands with the store owner, gathered up our prizes, and headed over to Piccadilly Pub.  Our waitress was endearing, or was at least trying to be, and the food was the best I’ve had at that chain.

Final words: I cannot imagine playing any other deck right now.  I would love to talk more strategy, but it will have to wait for the moment.  I have to get up at 5:45 to go teach math to high school kids.  Thank you for reading!

[vassago]

Congrats sir!

[Phele]

Very good list, congratulations!

Didn't you ever have problems with flipping over to many costy cards with Confidant. I mean, with cards like Misdirection, Fire/Ice, Tezzeret, Ingot Chewer .. you have chosen quite a few spells with hight mana cost for the optional slots of your deck. Were the two Tops enough to stop you from getting to much life loss.

I totally agree with your solution configuration: It is a big advantage that you can cantrip all your bounce and Fire/Ice. And together Repeal and Top dig very deep. Nice!

[honestabe]

Game one really was the mirror! Our lists were literally 3 cards different.  I just opted for 1 repeal and i truth, 4 bobs and 1 top, and i had 1 less land i think...

[Gurra]

Congratulations on the win. I'm curious about a few card choices you have made. I see you have cut Mystical Tutor. Were you happy with that cut? It obviously didn't ruin your day, but is it a card you will continue to leave out of the deck?

Another thing I wonder about is that both you and Eastman play with only three Confidants. What is your reasoning behind this? Personally I play four and I feel I don't draw them enough.

[mike_bergeron]

had a blast playing against you.  congrats on the win, it was a fun tourney.  


Edit: next time you are in Tewksbury, try "Skewers" up the road from piccadilly.  I found the cost/quality to be pretty darn good.  thanks to craig for that gem.

[Diakonov]

Hey everyone,

Sorry it has taken me so long to respond.  I just moved into my new apartment this weekend and I haven't had Laptop & Internet for a few days.

@ vassago:

Thanks!

P.S. - Good times at Gen Con.  Dave tried that "Gardens" strategy you pointed out for Dominion and got us pretty hard.  I don't think any of us realized he was actually winning until it was too late.

@ Phele:

I have considered cutting Misdirection.  It hasn't really been that awesome for me lately.  I might replace it with a Remora, which ought to nudge the mean CMC of the deck down a bit.  The high costs can be a little bit painful at times, but usually within a few turns you can either land a top or bounce him.  It certainly can come close to the wire sometimes, though.

@ honestabe:

I'm guessing you must be Taylor?

@ Gurra:

I honestly did not miss Mystical at all, really.  I was surprised as well, because I really thought I would.  However, the deck seems to have such nice consistency that it wasn't too often where I thought it might be worth the loss in tempo/card advantage to Mystical for a specific spell.  Getting Ancestral with it is not bad, but not incredible, and I find myself hardly even bothering to go get Tinker or Yawg Will these days.  It generally seems to be safer and easier to sit back and control the game until you have Vault/Key or Tezz, especially if you run a decent amount of bounce like this deck does.

I may change my mind eventually, since it's something I go back and forth on.  You could also argue that it's really not so bad if you're running 2 tops.

I also initially ran 4 Confidants, but took a word of advice from Eastman to try 3.  This is my first time running 3, and I liked it.  I think the key is that you really don't need more than 1 on the table to have the upper hand (and wouldn't want more than that unless you're at 20 or have a top out), and drawing into multiple Bob's can be really irritating.  When you say "I feel I don't draw them enough," do you mean because you want multiples on the table or because they are getting killed/countered?

@ mike:

That was a fun match.  I will definitely try Skewers next time, we should all go.

[Gurra]

I also initially ran 4 Confidants, but took a word of advice from Eastman to try 3.  This is my first time running 3, and I liked it.  I think the key is that you really don't need more than 1 on the table to have the upper hand (and wouldn't want more than that unless you're at 20 or have a top out), and drawing into multiple Bob's can be really irritating.  When you say "I feel I don't draw them enough," do you mean because you want multiples on the table or because they are getting killed/countered?

Thanks for the answer. What I mean is that there are have been plenty of matches where I dont draw Bob at all. My testing have not been very extensive though and I might just have drawn him less than can be expected. My reasoning has been that I don't mind drawing a second one very much if I have the first online, since I draw two cards per turn I can likely afford a dead card.

Now I'm starting to consider including Duress and Bob no 4 is the only non blue card wich I feel I might be able to do without. I want maindeck Rack and Ruin to deal with the workshop decks that dominate my meta and darkblast for fish, Bobs and welders. Otherwise my list is very similar to yours. I will try with only three Bob and see how it feels.

[vassago]

@ vassago:

Thanks!

P.S. - Good times at Gen Con.  Dave tried that "Gardens" strategy you pointed out for Dominion and got us pretty hard.  I don't think any of us realized he was actually winning until it was too late.

Yeah we actually dont allow gardens workshop combo. The game ends way too soon and the player on board the strategy always win.  There are a few cards in the expansion that would allow the combo to not be so out of hand, but even then its annoying.