I've really enjoyed the upsurge of reports on this board as of late; its great to see what people are playing and what they are playing against. So, heres my report on the Thursday T1 in Newark.
I have been playing at Games of Berkeley lately on Fridays, but I knew I wouldnt be able to play there this week. By chance I wandered an old haunt called C&J's Collectables; when I mentioned that I hadnt been by in a while because I was playing hardcore T1 elsewhere a couple people mentioned that "Well, we play T1 on Thursdays here." Hmmm, well, since I cant make Berkeley maybe I'll drop by...
There were just over 20 people, with some serious decks floating around, including two Keepers and Spevacks Helm-Academy. I was playing the Survival Tubbies deck that has been dominating the Dulmen tourneys, with a few minor mods. I cut Uktabi Orangutan and Karn to fit in Genesis and Wonder. (I'm not sure that these are optimum mods, Karn seemed redundant with the Monkey and Genesis seems great for staying power in Survival; Wonder was anti-Moat tech and it lets you race against decks with big defenders.)
Round 1: Phoung. Phoung is a strong player in pretty much every current format, but he doesnt play much T1. He borrowed his friends T1 Highlander deck and I rolled him in two quick games before he could do much of anything. (Yes, I got easier pairings than Spevack.)
Round 2: Super-Gro. After playing Gro for a while, I felt one of its great weaknesses was its utter inability to deal with anything that slips past its counters.
In the first game I get a Goblin Welder down turn 1, suggesting that there is no FoW in hand. He plays a Meddling Mage naming Bolt (figuring that I am playing traditional Stacker) and shows me a hand of Meddling Mages, Misdirections and a Mystical Enforcer. Coast is clear; I throw down Survival and go to town. I kill his guys with Triskellion recursion before he gets threshhold and storm across for the win.
Game two is more of the same, though it takes longer because I try to work around his hand, which he again has to show me with Land Grant. I wait too long trying to play around his threshhold gaining tricks and then have to spend greater effort killing large Enforcers and Werebears. Still, he cant deal with recursing Triskellions and Survival providing an infinite stream of Juggernauts and Su-Chis.
Round 3: Keeper. A nice deck, close to all black-bordered. Pretty standard BD build with Fire/Ice.
The first game is a vicious back and forth with Wastelands. I get a Juggy on the table first turn, but get my Workshop stripped. He plays a Library, which I in turn Strip. We exchange even more LD, he FoWs Su-Chi and then is able to Balance away the Juggy before it kills him. That leaves us in topdeck mode though; he Ancestrals for answers or threats, but isnt able to find anything before I topdeck a large artifact creature and finish him.
The second game I get another quick Juggy. He Dismantles it. That leaves me an opening; I have Blood Moon, Monkey and ReB left in hand and he's out of enchantment removal. I drop a Monkey with ReB backup. He has nothing, and I chew up a Mox. Next turn I drop Blood Moon with that same ReB ready to protect and serve. He has slim hopes after the Moon, but after several points of Monkey damage I draw Su-Chi to put him on a faster clock. Game.
We play a third for fun; he is able to FoW my first three plays, but my fourth is Survival which quickly wins. He destroys me in the fourth game, he gets land+Sapphire and I have to walk into a Mana Drain with a Memory Jar. He uses the mana to Stroke, then next turn DTs and does many bad things to me.
So 3-1 against Keeper; I notice that Keeper seems to win occassionally at Dulmen, but not as often as Survival-Tubbies. I can see why this might not be a good matchup for Keeper.
Round 4: Tom, unpowered Trix. Tom is a highly rated player, but he doesnt have the power. Of course, I prefer my chances against bad players with power than against good players without, but oh well.
And, as I mentioned in Spevacks thread, combo may be a bad matchup for Survival-Tubbies.
I get first turn Juggy, followed by second turn Juggy. Its not fast enough to finish him before he gains 20, its still not fast enough to get him a second time before I cant pay the upkeep. One interesting play is that on his do-or-die turn I have to decide whether to Memory Jar him. "How close is he to the combo?", versus "whats in the next 7 cards?" Turns out he has his 3rd Brainstorm and is able to protect the cards he needs.
In the second game, I get a Juggy and he gets Ritual-Ritual-DT for Necro. Thats really bad and I lose. Wasteland almost keeps me in; it certainly makes him think for a long time. But he finds the answer and wins.
Hard fought games, very nice. We play two more and I win them; Tom thinks the matchup is difficult for him. I'm not too fond of it from the other side of the table which probably gives a good idea of how tight it is.
Round 5: Suicide. I'm not sure what happened in the pairings here, but I get a freebie against a very suspect Suicide deck while all decks I was afraid of get paired against each other. He cant destroy my hand fast enough and my creatures are bigger and angrier than his. At one point he Hymns me and my three cards are Squee, Wonder and Genesis.
Good times.
Anyway, I had a great time and got to play a lot of different decks. I got to meet some people who I had seen on BD, I got to see some players I hadn't played T1 with in some time.
I'd also like to encourage people who are out there playing to write reports even if nothing particularly fabulous happened. Building up the community by sharing our experiences is something constructive we can do to help the format.
