Zurich 29.11.09 - 6th place - "The Deck" - 2009 french version

[kalisia]

Zurich – 29.11.09 - around 40 players

Tournament with a “The Deck 2009”  french version


As a real fan of the old 1995 deck of Brian Weissman (“The Deck”), I had several times tried to rebuild something equivalent for now, but it was never the good moment to play this deck style on tourneys. After the Grim Long era, the Control Slaver era, the Gifts era, the Flash era, we are now in an accessible metagame with the “Null Rod versus Time Vault” era.

After having read the interesting article of Pat Chapin, I saw that other people were trying to “exhume” this archetype, which seemed just need some adaptations to be a potentially competitive and funny deck.

The Pat’s list follows exactly in the same line than the old deck : Cities of Brass, card advantage spells (Ancient Grudge, Mind Twist, Gifts Ungiven…) and the detail who seemed an issue IMO was the weakness of the mana base. Then I did a sum-up of the essential cards in each color and found that perhaps Red could have been cut. The really good cards lost are REB/Pyroblast, Shaman Gorilla, Ancient Grudge. But It seemed possible to do well without them.

So I wrote a list with a stronger mana base in three colors: UBG.
I kept the same concept as “The Deck”.
Instead of “Moat” which needs WW (impossible to play correctly in the current metagame), I decided to pack two “The Abyss” maindeck.
For the silver bullets, I had to find something who is synergic with the Abyss. In the same ideas as the “Serra Angels” of Weissman, the better choice seemed Tinker with Sphinx of the Steel Wind. My second choice has been Meloku, who fits correctly with The Abyss, as you can have one land drop per turn.

Here is the list I played to a 6th place last Sunday:

"The Deck 2009",  french version


1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
2 Sensei’s Divining Top
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Deep Analysis
1 Fact or Fiction
4 Force Of Will
1 Gifts Ungiven
4 Mana Drain
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Rebuild
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Regrowth
1 Life from the Loam
1 Pernicious Deed
2 The Abyss
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mind Twist
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Yawgmoth's Will
3 Island
3 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
2 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
2 Mishra’s Factory


Sideboard:

2 Duress
2 Spell Snare
1 The Abyss
1 Relic of Progenitus
4 Planar Void
2 Trygon Predator
1 Krosan Grip
1 Trinisphere
1 Sundering Titan



Round 1 : SUI monoblack

G1 : After a drain on turn2, I play The Abyss. I then win with Tinker-Sphinx.
G2 : Game loss for me, for proxy problems.
G3 : I play The Abyss on turn2. The opponent scoops, as he has nothing to deal with this enchantment.

1-0-0


Round 2 : Noble Fish UWG

G1 : he plays Meddling Mage turn2, he says "Tinker" he waste a Sea, but I have to many lands for his denial plan. So I am able to play The Abyss, which cleans the board. I use Life from the Loam with Strip Mine to destroy all his lands. I then cast a Mind Twist, and play a Pernicious Deed, to leave him without absolutely nothing on his hand and on his board.
I then kill him with Tinker and sphinx.

G2 : After a Drain on turn2, I play Meloku on turn3. He then plays Null Rod, but it’s too late! I kill him with the Illusion tokens.
2-0-0

 
Round 3 : Noble Fish UWG again !

G1: He plays Trygon predator on turn 2, and Meddling Mage and Hierarch on the turn 3 with FoW, Stifle and Spell snare back-up. It’s too much for my deck.
G2 : The missplay of the day for me. I fetch Usea (instead of a Tropical Island) to Spell Sbare his Meddling Mage whereas I am holding Life from the Loam in hand! So I can’t take back the two fetches on my graveyard. He wastes me the Usea and I will not get any blue mana source until the end.

2-1-0


Round 4: "Oath of Auriok"

G1 : I control the first turns of the game. I can’t counter his YawgWill but he doesn’t play Tendrils, so he can just replay an Oath and a Brainstorm. I destroy Oath with Pernicious Deed, and I win with Tinker.

G2: He kills me with the Auriok + LED + Pyrite Spellbomb combo.

G3 : I play a turn1 Sol Ring and a turn2 Trygon Predator. I then kill him with Trygon and some tokens.

3-1-0


Round 5: Tezzeret

G1 : we have both very good hands. I drop a land and Lotus on turn1. He plays a Dark Confidant, I drain, he Spell Snares, I drain again , he FoWs.
One turn later, I’m able to play Demonic on Tinker and play it for Sphinx. He can’t come back in the game.

G2 : he plays a turn 3 Tezzeret and searches Key. I can’t deal with Tezz and he wins at his turn.

G3 : very beautiful game. We played both 2/3 of our decks, I then cast a YawgWill where I can play Time Walk, and in my extra-turn , play Tinker with a double Drain back-up. He is at 6 life, he casts a Mystical tutor, I drain, he Spell Snares, I drain, he then searches a solution activating his Sensei and sacrificing his fetches, but finds nothing.

4-1-0, I’m in top8



Round 6 : ID with Florian Hess : Painter UB


Top8 :

1/4 finals :   Florian Hess
G1: he has the nuts , and plays Sol Ring, 2 Moxes, then Painter and Grindstone!
I’m on my turn 3, he’s just waiting his turn to be able to activate Grinstone to win.
And here comes one of the nicest top decks I’ve seen! I have no solution in my hand, no tutor, I’m just holding YawgWill in hand and I have Deed on the graveyard. I drop a land, to play Sol Ring. I have then 7 cards in hands, so I can activate LoA to draw, and I draw Lotus! The only card that could save me! I tap Ring, sac Lotus for BBB, play YawgWill, replay Lotus, re-sac for GGG and play Deed and sac it for 2! I destroy 6 or 7 opponent’s permanents. But he just draws Vampiric tutor, and he can play it with back-up. So he finds YawgWill and replays everything for the win.
G2: Another good hand for him. Turn 3, I play Duress and see : 2 Drains, FoW, Scroll. No other choice, I choose FoW and play immediately Tinker on Titan before his Drains are active again. I destroy his two Useas, he stays with just Tolarian and a Confidant in play. He then reveals a Mox Pearl with Confidant, he’s able to play Scroll on Hurkyl, and then bounce Titan before he dies. Later I try to cast Titan, he activates Sensei and finds a Drain. He then plays a Trinket Mage and wins.

+:    very nice tourney (40 people), it was the last of this year for the    Swiss Vintage championship
   very nice players, always a good atmosphere here in Zurich
   a lot of prizes, for the top8, and a Black Lotus for the best Swiss    player of the year
   wonderful sandwiches
   the top8 of this “The Deck 2009” french version!

-:    just nothing this time!

Manuel.

[Mr. Fantastic]

Great read; very well written.  I am also a huge fan of Weissman and The Deck, especially circa 1995, with Disrupting Scepters and Moat.

Just a few questions:

1) I know you didn't play any Ichorid but have you tested Planar Void vs. Leyline of the Void?  Leyline doesn't affect you at all, thus allowing your Yawgmoth's Will to still be the broken monster it's always been.  Also, it can't be Unmasked.  I guess Planar can be a better top deck on turns 2-3 though.
2) How many Qasali Pridemages did you see over the course of the day?  I consider myself a huge fan of The Deck and especially of Moat/The Abyss but this card seems to be extremely good against The Deck, as is Trygon Predator of course.
3) How did Deed work out for you?  The 1BG mana cost has always been somewhat unattractive in a deck that's already extremely vulnerable to Wasteland, imo.  Wouldn't Powder Keg be better? (Edit: Never mind, I just remembered Keg gets shut down by Null Rod)
4) Have you tested Crucible of Worlds vs. Life from the Loam?

[kalisia]

Thanks for your comments

1) I actually didn't play against any Ichorid, and in fact I didn't test against it. I just know by experience that a 5-to-8 slots space in sideboard is necessary to be a little more confident with this hard matchup. I decided to pack Planar Void, as you said, for his very low casting cost. As "The Deck" really doesn't need YawgWill at all to win a match once it controls completely the board, I prefered this card , easily tutorable and playable, to Leyline, which is very strong in a beginning hand, but which requires an agressive mulligan and which is difficult to cast. But Leyline can be a good choice as well. I completed this side with Relic of Progenitus, in order to avoid the problem of Chalice at Zero versus Tormod's Crypt against Ichorid.

2) I've seen only one Quasali in this tourney : on the round 3.
I agree completely that the card is huge against The Abyss or Moat, as it acts as a real Disenchant/Naturalize. So my strategy was not to try to win quickly with Tinker before my mana has been denied, to to take the time to ensure the resolution of The Abyss with a minimum back up tu protect it. And for this reason, I lost the round 3, because the deck can't play a lot of answers against a Predator resolved on turn 2. Because of the problem of Predator and Quasali, I had Spell Snare on sideboard. It is in my opinion, one good way to fight Qasali and Null Rod. May be Sword to Plowshares or Balance, but we would have to add a fourth color.
I loved Moat many years ago, but now, WW in the cost is too difficult for a safe mana building.

3) Deed has been incredible! In fact the cost is not a real issue. Look at the "The Deck" version of Robert Graves! He plays 4 colors and 4 City of Brass! The mana KEY of the deck is Life from the Loam. This card allows to play safely your lands, and the second game showed how it is strong even in a control deck. The matchup was reversed and I was stripping the lands of a Fish deck. Loam gives acces to Bilands strength, and LoA/Strip Mine are a real nightmare with Loam. Remenber that BG1 is easy to play when Loam garbs back your fetches. Really, I think it would be a mistake to consider that this version of "The Deck" is extremely vulnerable to Wasteland. All the day, I never had any problems of mana. The biggest issue I see with this list, is that you don't have a fast combo finish like Time Vault-Key. But I guess it would not fit very well in a deck playing Deed...
You pointed the problem with Powder. Pernicious Deed erases everything, it's the Reset button of the deck and now I think that 2 Deed/ 1 The Abyss would have been better than the reverse. Deed erases Null Rod, Oath, aggro like Goblin or Fish, and destroys the entire board of Combo. It's a a really strong preventive card also.

4) Yes, I tried Crucible of Worlds . It's a powerful card, but can be countered. Life from the Loam can be recursed each turn, and is easy to find, even with Intuition or Gifts Ungiven. One idea of the concept was to be able to win, even after enduring a Jester's Cap or a Sadistic Sacrament. For this reason, two Mishra were played. Because with The Abyss and Deed as cleaners, a simple couple Loam + Mishra could win against almost everything, it would just take more turns ...