1st Place at Top Deck Games

[Asphyxious]

First of all, the new store and the tournament were both awesome.  It was a lot of fun; the turnout was great, and I even saw a few people coming out of the woodwork.

I ended taking home my first win ever with, surprise surprise, Stax.  Here is the list and my matches.  Sorry if get anyone’s name wrong or something.

1   Tolarian Academy
4   Ancient Tomb
4   Mishra's Workshop
1   Strip Mine
4   Wasteland
3   Mishra's Factory
   
1   Mana Vault
1   Mana Crypt
1   Sol Ring
1   Mox Emerald
1   Mox Jet
1   Mox Pearl
1   Mox Ruby
1   Mox Sapphire
   
4   Chalice of the Void
3   Crucible Of Worlds
4   Smokestack
4   Tangle Wire
1   Trinisphere
4   Sphere of Resistance
2   Thorn of Amethyst
   
3   Phyrexian Metamorph
4   Lodestone Golem
2   Karn, Silver Golem
   
4   Serum Powder

Sideboard
4   Leyline of the Void
2   Pithing Needle
1   Phyrexian Metamorph
3   Dismember
3   Surgical Extraction
2   Duplicant

Rd 1 – Ray Robillard playing Landstill
G1: I opened with Trinisphere, but I can’t remember if got countered or just didn’t matter in the long run.  I ended up having to suicide stack to clear the board, except I had three mana on the table.  I hit a crucible, which allowed me to rebuild my manabase and play Karn which got there.

G2: Ray got 2 Energy Fluxes out and wiped my board, but he didn’t have much else.  So, I started beating in with Factories using an Ancient Tomb, which is always an interesting race.  Eventually he hit Wasteland, then Crucible.  I tried to Extraction his Wasteland, but he Forced it, and he took it down from there.

G3: I got a turn 1 or 2 Lodestone, followed by a Wire, and Phyrexian Metamorph, which was enough.

Rd 2 – William Dayton playing Painter
G1: I got out an early Smokestack and a Chalice on 1 after I saw a Painter.  I eventually hit Crucible to Stabilize, and beat down with Factories.

G2: Nothing terrible relevant happened in the first few turns, then he Forced a Crucible and Mystical-ed at the end of the turn.  I then, Extraction-ed his Force and shuffling his Recall back.  This left him with Ingot Chewer and Grindstone with only two lands in hand.  He missed the land drop, and I played Trinisphere and Waste.  Then, I got Strip lock and beat down with Factories.

Rd 3 – Mark Hornung playing Clamp Control
G1: Unfortunately for Mark, he mulliganed so much that I started to think he was playing Dredge and that he was just messing with me when he said he was on blue.  I opened with Tangle Wire, then Crucible, then Stip Mine and Sphere.

G2: I opened with another Tangle Wire.  I followed it up with Karn and another Tangle Wire.  That as enough to get there.

Rd 3 – Josh Potucek playing Landstill
G1: I opened with  Lodestone, which stuck.  Then, I stuck a Metamorph, and that was enough.  Josh told me that he re-tooled his list to beat blue, so I wasn’t surprised when something like 9 cards were being boarded in.

G2: Basically, he slowed me down until I stuck a Smokestack, and I rode that out for a while beating down with Factories.  Unfortunately, by the time Josh hit the red mana needed for Ingot Chewers, it was too late.

Rd 5 – ID with Paul

Rd 6 – ID with Gans

Rd 1 T8 – Rematch with Mark
G1: I stuck a Karn and Tangle Wire, and that got there.

G2: Mark landed a turn one Tinker Colossus, which I couldn’t answer.

G3: I landed a Sphere, then a Tangle Wire, then a Karn, and that was enough.

Rd 2 T8 – Josh Roades playing Demon Oath
This was probably the craziest most intense match all day.

G1: He managed to stick an early Oath and give me a token.  I knew I couldn’t stop the Oath, so I played a Smokestack and Wasted his Oath, and there was a Sphere on the table.  He Oathed up a Demon but couldn’t play anything.  So, I ramped my stack and played Tanglewire.  He couldn’t Oath again, but he had just enough permanents to keep swinging with Demon, so I had to ramp stack again.  I eventually got a Crucible with a Strip mine in the yard and locked him out that way.  I was on 5 life before he was forced to sacrifice the demon to the stack, and it was the last permanent that he had to sacrifice.

G2: He landed a turn 1 oath with orchard.  I played a tangle wire hoping to buy some time and hit something relevant.  I, then, wasted his Orchard so that he couldn’t Oath up a third demon.  With the second demon, he found another Orchard, and I tried to Extraction the Orchard in his yard, but he Forced it gave me another token, and hit the third demon, so my dupe wasn’t going to be enough.

G3: I open with Chalice on 0 and Chalice on 2.  Then, I land a Smokestack, followed by Tangle Wire.  Then, he turns the tables playing land, Sabotage on Chalice on 0, lotus, sapphire, will, sabotage, on Chalice on 2, hurkyl’s, oath, but he doesn’t have an orchard.  I play chalice on 1 and 2, then smokestack.  He then, gets an orchard and oaths up demon.  I’m forced to ramp smokestack to try and kill the demon and the oath before he kills me.  I ramped smokestack to three in case he has a Force of will for the dupe that I play, which would allowed him to keep the demon and swing for the kill, but he doesn’t.  The Stack clears his board, and I have Chalice on 0, 1, and 2 and a 6/6 dupe, and that was it.

Final - Jake Gans playing BUG
G1: I landed a Chalice on 0 and Sphere, into Lodestone or something like that.  All I remember is that he never really got going as he didn’t have a great hand for my deck and didn’t draw anything either.

G2: We both kept hands that were pretty all in on one strategy.  He kept a hand with 3 Remoras, and my hand was Factory x3, Sapphire, Thorn, Dismember, Dupe.  When played the first remora, I just played my factories and started beating.  He eventually played a goyf, but couldn’t get it big enough to survive my 4/4 Factory.  Eventually, I got though.

Props: The tourney and venue were awesome.
Every single one of my matches were fun, and all of my opponents were very nice and fun to play against.

Slops: Getting lost on the way to the tourney.  Then, listening to John Jones and walking the opposite way from the parking lot.

[voltron00x]

Congrats on a well-deserved win.  That list looks really tight.

[XxtSundaybxX]

Congrats Josh, very well deserved. I was pulling for ya.

I see your still rocking the serum powders, most have dropped these for more threats. Interesting.

[Kameli0n]

Congratutions Mr. Butker.

[Commandant]

Oath match in the top 8 sounds like it was a great game to watch. Congrats!

[Shax]

No Black Lotus in your 75? And congrats on the win.

[Asphyxious]

Thanks everyone.

Congrats Josh, very well deserved. I was pulling for ya.

I see your still rocking the serum powders, most have dropped these for more threats. Interesting.

I have what might be an irrational love for serum powder.  I tried to cut it a few times, but my mulligans always seem to much worse than than the value gained from the additional threats.

No Black Lotus in your 75? And congrats on the win.

From Nick D, the master himself, Lotus isn't a stable permanent, and smokestack really wants to have stable as many stable permanents as possible.  Especially with powders to find workshops, I've never missed lotus.

[Shax]

From Nick D, the master himself, Lotus isn't a stable permanent, and smokestack really wants to have stable as many stable permanents as possible.  Especially with powders to find workshops, I've never missed lotus. (My half assed way of quoting.)

Nick Detwiler is indeed a Stax-MUD-Workshop player, and one I respect at that..

I can make a argument for the addition of Black Lotus in MUD decks in general, but you are playing Stax( Smokestacks). This completely changes the argument. Black Lotus is and will be the best card in Magic:The Gathering. It is the least unrestrictable card based on the poll from people on the TMD. It is found in most competitive Vintage decks. (Correct me if I' am wrong...just a guess.) In Stax, Black Lotus is another bomb for the hyper agressive hands. In Serum Powder-Stax, this remains true and it gives you more keepable hands..(Guessing on this.. but seems right?) Just from looking at your list Lotus's brokeness are very wide , ranging from paying for Kataki, Wars Wage upkeep cost to playing first turn Trinisphere. My take on Stax is to play my cards out as fast as possible, and if Black Lotus increases those odds, albiet ever so slightly without completly dismantling the synergy between the rest of the deck.. I think it becomes the right card to play. I can go ON AND ON about the plays I can make with a Black Lotus, but the real value of the Black Lotus can even range from not playing Black Lotus. People in the MUD/Stax matchup might play Chalice for 0 more often expecting a dreaded Lotus first turn start, or someone could even see a Blacker Lotus in your hand and mistake it for a Black Lotus as they Cabal Therapy... It sounds like a joke I know. Hahaha. The point is not running Lotus even has applications in on itself, even a good one that popped into my head like the opponent Praetor's Grasping you to try and win off your Lotus!

Since you did not play with a Black Lotus, congradulations again on finding applications to win without it in your 75. I myself play with Black Lotus..and think it is a grossly overpowered.. Black Lotus? Nothing comes close to it's effect in a vacuum. You can make the argument for Mishra's Workshops, and I think they compliment Lotus just fine. It makes all three keys to success in Magic much easier for me. (Deck Selection, Luck, Skill)

To be fair, with the Prison Stax Archtype lacking in tourney success I will gladly love to see hundreds of 1st place finishes with the deck strategy posted here on the TMD and other sites, Lotus or not. It just gives me a upper hand for when I play my Lotus in Prison Stax as unexpected tech for when it becomes the norm to drop Lotus. Similar to the Gush-Grow list pre-Brainstorm restriction where they shafted off-color moxen. So many insane cuts!©

[Asphyxious]

I don't think it's so much that Lotus is bad.  But I also don't think the deck needs it.  The vast majority of turn 1 plays are tend to be Sphere/Thorn on the Play (hopefully with a Chalice on 0) or Tangle Wire on the draw.  The latter play is an excellent example of Lotus's weakness.  Wasteland, Lotus, Tangle Wire isn't a good play unless I have another Workshop in hand.  In either case, you can only get one use out of Lotus, so you can't ever rely on it for a sustained board development.  Mana Vault is exactly the same thing, the biggest difference being that after the one use, it just sits there until you can use it as smokestack fodder.

Lotus is much better in other woskhop builds because they go more on speed than stax does, imo.  Stax is all about slowly eliminating what your opponent can play until they can't play anything at all.

[Womba]

Congrats on the finish Josh, hopefully next time we can get some more interactive games on both ends.... I still can't walk straight.....

[Prospero]

Congrats, Josh.  Glad to see that Espresso took another tournament down.

[XxtSundaybxX]

I played the exact 60 for quite a while, and I originally thought Lotus should have been included as well so I played 3 serum powder and lotus. It didnt seem to be any better or worse with lotus in the deck so I played with 4 serum powders and no lotus and the consistency of the deck is just so much smoother with serum powders and no lotus. Much like Josh already stated, lotus is an unstable, non-reusable mana source, therefore its much weaker with smokestack. In all other shop decks, lotus is a great way to power out fast threats.

[Prospero]

I played the exact 60 for quite a while, and I originally thought Lotus should have been included as well so I played 3 serum powder and lotus. It didnt seem to be any better or worse with lotus in the deck so I played with 4 serum powders and no lotus and the consistency of the deck is just so much smoother with serum powders and no lotus. Much like Josh already stated, lotus is an unstable, non-reusable mana source, therefore its much weaker with smokestack. In all other shop decks, lotus is a great way to power out fast threats.

This is true, and I agreed with this for quite a while.  Mental Misstep does change this though, as the potential to get blown out while having a Mana Vault countered isn't something that anybody wants to be a part of.  I'd cut the Mana Vault for the Lotus.

[Asphyxious]

I wasn't even thinking about it in terms of misstep.  Though, I've had that happen in testing a few times; there's not much worse than losing a game because you got set back a turn by a single misstep.

[TheShop]

Interesting notes on this report/list for me:

1 3sphere
4 2sphere!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2 thorn

And

4 leyline
3 surgical extraction
2 needle

As dredge hate.

Was the dredge hate good enough?  How are you liking the sphere configuration?

[XxtSundaybxX]

Justin Kohler mentioned to me on saturday that he got his mana vault countered on turn 1 by a misstep and lost because of it. Now I dont know if that's exactly why he lost but he mentioned that was the reason he lost.

[Asphyxious]

I haven't had too much problem with dredge using that anti-dredge package, and it splashes well onto other decks., but I do have to mulligan pretty aggressively to find a good assortment of hate and protection.  The extractions, for example, are also good in the blue match-ups for hitting fetches, forces, messing up top-deck tutors, etc.

I like the Sphere package in a Blue heavy meta.  When there's more shops running around, i generally drop down to just the 4 spheres.

[Pokey]

Justin Kohler mentioned to me on saturday that he got his mana vault countered on turn 1 by a misstep and lost because of it. Now I dont know if that's exactly why he lost but he mentioned that was the reason he lost.

Yeah, I definitely lost to Misstep. I was on the draw and Mana Vault getting countered made me unable to have turn 1 Metalworker.  When my opponent followed up with turn 2 Magus of the Moon, that was pretty much game.  It's quite a blowout when it happens.

[Prospero]

From Nick D, the master himself, Lotus isn't a stable permanent, and smokestack really wants to have stable as many stable permanents as possible.  Especially with powders to find workshops, I've never missed lotus. (My half assed way of quoting.)

Nick Detwiler is indeed a Stax-MUD-Workshop player, and one I respect at that..

I can make a argument for the addition of Black Lotus in MUD decks in general, but you are playing Stax( Smokestacks). This completely changes the argument. Black Lotus is and will be the best card in Magic:The Gathering. It is the least unrestrictable card based on the poll from people on the TMD. It is found in most competitive Vintage decks. (Correct me if I' am wrong...just a guess.) In Stax, Black Lotus is another bomb for the hyper agressive hands. In Serum Powder-Stax, this remains true and it gives you more keepable hands..(Guessing on this.. but seems right?) Just from looking at your list Lotus's brokeness are very wide , ranging from paying for Kataki, Wars Wage upkeep cost to playing first turn Trinisphere. My take on Stax is to play my cards out as fast as possible, and if Black Lotus increases those odds, albiet ever so slightly without completly dismantling the synergy between the rest of the deck.. I think it becomes the right card to play. I can go ON AND ON about the plays I can make with a Black Lotus, but the real value of the Black Lotus can even range from not playing Black Lotus. People in the MUD/Stax matchup might play Chalice for 0 more often expecting a dreaded Lotus first turn start, or someone could even see a Blacker Lotus in your hand and mistake it for a Black Lotus as they Cabal Therapy... It sounds like a joke I know. Hahaha. The point is not running Lotus even has applications in on itself, even a good one that popped into my head like the opponent Praetor's Grasping you to try and win off your Lotus!

Since you did not play with a Black Lotus, congradulations again on finding applications to win without it in your 75. I myself play with Black Lotus..and think it is a grossly overpowered.. Black Lotus? Nothing comes close to it's effect in a vacuum. You can make the argument for Mishra's Workshops, and I think they compliment Lotus just fine. It makes all three keys to success in Magic much easier for me. (Deck Selection, Luck, Skill)

To be fair, with the Prison Stax Archtype lacking in tourney success I will gladly love to see hundreds of 1st place finishes with the deck strategy posted here on the TMD and other sites, Lotus or not. It just gives me a upper hand for when I play my Lotus in Prison Stax as unexpected tech for when it becomes the norm to drop Lotus. Similar to the Gush-Grow list pre-Brainstorm restriction where they shafted off-color moxen. So many insane cuts!©

There is a significant difference between Black Lotus in a Storm deck and Black Lotus in a Shop deck, especially one like Espresso.  For starters:

1.  Espresso does not win because it drops one Sphere; it wins because it drops Spheres, Wires, Chalices and Stacks/Lodestones/Karn.  One spell is not enough to win you the game.  Black Lotus is not the same card in every deck.  It's stronger in some than it is in others.

2.  Because Espresso wins off the back of many lockpieces it's important to realize that you're going to need multiple uses out of your mana sources.  This means that the kind of mana sources that you need are consistent ones.  Black Lotus is a one time deal.  There are no Welders in Espresso, so you aren't going to get more value out of it in the mid-late game.  Once it's gone, it's gone.

3.  Lotus wasn't played for those reasons; in addition, Lotus wasn't played because of the sheer number of Chalices that were around when Espresso was first built. 

4.  Mental Misstep changes things.  Every blue deck, and many non-blue decks, run this card.  It is everywhere.  Espresso, at its best, is an elegant hate deck.  It should look to 'dead' as many cards as humanly possible, in order to give your opponent fewer chances to interact with you as you work to narrow his options down to zero.

I think that cutting Lotus, at the beginning, was the right call.  It doesn't matter if it was unpopular and it doesn't matter if people didn't like it.  The deck won.  Results matter more than what people who didn't play the deck, didn't work on the deck and didn't understand the deck think about the deck and that cut in particular. 

[Mr. Type 4]

Congratulations, Josh.  You've played enough tournaments -  it was only a matter of time before you scored a first place.

[disrupting specter]

Good show! Thanks for posting your report.

On Surgical Extraction-it seems sick in the matches that you boarded it in against. Would you ever run it main deck? You said you think it is strong against blue and has application to dredge. Is it that bad in the mirror? I don't know what you would least want to see. I guess most of the problem is that the card would need to be destroyed first, since it is most likely an artifact, then s. extracted. Unless, you don't want to see a second Wasteland.

[Samoht]

From Nick D, the master himself, Lotus isn't a stable permanent, and smokestack really wants to have stable as many stable permanents as possible.  Especially with powders to find workshops, I've never missed lotus. (My half assed way of quoting.)

Nick Detwiler is indeed a Stax-MUD-Workshop player, and one I respect at that..

I can make a argument for the addition of Black Lotus in MUD decks in general, but you are playing Stax( Smokestacks). This completely changes the argument. Black Lotus is and will be the best card in Magic:The Gathering. It is the least unrestrictable card based on the poll from people on the TMD. It is found in most competitive Vintage decks. (Correct me if I' am wrong...just a guess.) In Stax, Black Lotus is another bomb for the hyper agressive hands. In Serum Powder-Stax, this remains true and it gives you more keepable hands..(Guessing on this.. but seems right?) Just from looking at your list Lotus's brokeness are very wide , ranging from paying for Kataki, Wars Wage upkeep cost to playing first turn Trinisphere. My take on Stax is to play my cards out as fast as possible, and if Black Lotus increases those odds, albiet ever so slightly without completly dismantling the synergy between the rest of the deck.. I think it becomes the right card to play. I can go ON AND ON about the plays I can make with a Black Lotus, but the real value of the Black Lotus can even range from not playing Black Lotus. People in the MUD/Stax matchup might play Chalice for 0 more often expecting a dreaded Lotus first turn start, or someone could even see a Blacker Lotus in your hand and mistake it for a Black Lotus as they Cabal Therapy... It sounds like a joke I know. Hahaha. The point is not running Lotus even has applications in on itself, even a good one that popped into my head like the opponent Praetor's Grasping you to try and win off your Lotus!

Since you did not play with a Black Lotus, congradulations again on finding applications to win without it in your 75. I myself play with Black Lotus..and think it is a grossly overpowered.. Black Lotus? Nothing comes close to it's effect in a vacuum. You can make the argument for Mishra's Workshops, and I think they compliment Lotus just fine. It makes all three keys to success in Magic much easier for me. (Deck Selection, Luck, Skill)

To be fair, with the Prison Stax Archtype lacking in tourney success I will gladly love to see hundreds of 1st place finishes with the deck strategy posted here on the TMD and other sites, Lotus or not. It just gives me a upper hand for when I play my Lotus in Prison Stax as unexpected tech for when it becomes the norm to drop Lotus. Similar to the Gush-Grow list pre-Brainstorm restriction where they shafted off-color moxen. So many insane cuts!©

There is a significant difference between Black Lotus in a Storm deck and Black Lotus in a Shop deck, especially one like Espresso.  For starters:

1.  Espresso does not win because it drops one Sphere; it wins because it drops Spheres, Wires, Chalices and Stacks/Lodestones/Karn.  One spell is not enough to win you the game.  Black Lotus is not the same card in every deck.  It's stronger in some than it is in others.

2.  Because Espresso wins off the back of many lockpieces it's important to realize that you're going to need multiple uses out of your mana sources.  This means that the kind of mana sources that you need are consistent ones.  Black Lotus is a one time deal.  There are no Welders in Espresso, so you aren't going to get more value out of it in the mid-late game.  Once it's gone, it's gone.

3.  Lotus wasn't played for those reasons; in addition, Lotus wasn't played because of the sheer number of Chalices that were around when Espresso was first built. 

4.  Mental Misstep changes things.  Every blue deck, and many non-blue decks, run this card.  It is everywhere.  Espresso, at its best, is an elegant hate deck.  It should look to 'dead' as many cards as humanly possible, in order to give your opponent fewer chances to interact with you as you work to narrow his options down to zero.

I think that cutting Lotus, at the beginning, was the right call.  It doesn't matter if it was unpopular and it doesn't matter if people didn't like it.  The deck won.  Results matter more than what people who didn't play the deck, didn't work on the deck and didn't understand the deck think about the deck and that cut in particular. 

I heard some scrub beat a woman on Noble Fish because she couldn't Thada Adel for his Black Lotus because he didn't play it......

[Teps]

Congrats in the win. Although I am not a shops player I think Duplicant is a great card thanks to Blighsteel Colossus being everywhere. Great to see you win!

[Asphyxious]

Good show! Thanks for posting your report.

On Surgical Extraction-it seems sick in the matches that you boarded it in against. Would you ever run it main deck? You said you think it is strong against blue and has application to dredge. Is it that bad in the mirror? I don't know what you would least want to see. I guess most of the problem is that the card would need to be destroyed first, since it is most likely an artifact, then s. extracted. Unless, you don't want to see a second Wasteland.

It's not so much a question of whether or not Extraction is good enough for the main deck, as opposed to being a question of what would be cut from the main deck.  It's easy to board in Extraction in because you can just take out the cards that are weak in that particular matchup, but that doesn't really work for altering the main deck.  Plus, it's harder to use Extraction as effectively in game 1 because you haven't seen as much of their deck.