ToC Round 1&2 Report

I second Razor's opinion that ToC reports are a blast to read. I thought I'd put down my thoughts on my deck and how it plays. First off, here's the list:

braids:
   3 Tainted Field
   4 Scrubland
   1 Black Lotus
   1 Mox Pearl
   1 Mox Jet
   10 Swamp
   4 Wasteland
   4 Dark Ritual
   1 Balance
   3 Powder Keg
   1 Demonic Tutor
   3 Vindicate
   4 Hymn to Tourach
   4 Duress
   4 Sinkhole
   4 Hypnotic Specter
   4 Nantuko Shade
   4 Braids, Cabal Minion
SB: 3 Phyrexian Negator
SB: 1 Circle of Protection: Red
SB: 1 Perish
SB: 2 Contagion
SB: 1 Necropotence
SB: 3 Dystopia
SB: 4 Masticore

The theory behind this deck was to take a Nether Void deck and replace the Voids with Braids. I admit this probably isn't the best idea (and I built this deck hastily), but there are a few advantages. 1) Against aggro, Braids may eat up their low land count, and also traids with a creature. and 2) If you have less creatures, but more permanents, Braids allows you to have a chance to get back in the game by eating their creatures. The lack of Negators is because I didn't know what to expect.

Round 1: I am up against Clinton.dec by jshields
This is a Black / Green deck featuring Pernicious Deed, Hymn, Duress as disruption and Blastoderm, Spiritmonger, Hyppie, and River Boa as creatures. This deck was built without the power 9 purposely (I think because it is a deck IRL).

If I remember correctly, game 1 I take advantage of his mana-intensive creatures. I sinkhole and strip a few lands, and I think vindicate a Hyppie that slips by. My Shade finishes the game.

Game 2: I board in 3x Dystopia, Perish, and maybe the contagions. I think I walk into an unfortunate Deed in this one. Deed is bad for my cheap threats. However, Dystopia comes through and eats his creatures while Nantuko Shade attacks for the win.

Thoughts: In general, I think the Blastoderms are what I'm most worried about in this matchup. I don't think 4x Spiritmonger is necessary when the fat is already present with 4x Blastoderm, but I haven't playtested the deck so I can't say for sure.

Round 2: ReSoN with Stacker with Metalworkers. (He also posted a brief report)
Game 1: He keeps a mana-light hand. I play swamp and duress, seeing 2 lightning bolts, no land, and a bunch of high CC spells. I take the bolt and lay a hyppie off a Black Lotus. That gets bolted by the remaining bolt. Next turn, I lay another hyppie off a mox jet (instead of going for shade). I put down a keg, and run it's counters up (a bad move. keg at 1 is probably the right play to combat welder). He eventually gets down a Karn off a Mana Crypt. We trade hyppie and Karn hits for a while (but he's also hurt by the Crypt every once in a while) until I put down a shade. I get to Keg away the Karn eventually. He gets to Welder out a Teeka's Dragon, and I lay Braids since I have a large permanent advantage (thinking I can just such up Teeka damage for a while). However, I get lucky and topdeck a scrubland for my vindicate and win from there.

Game 2: I board in the Masticores and Contagions I believe. I think he gets unlucky with another slow hand. I don't really remember what happens that clearly, but I think I'm attacking with a Hyppie again while getting my guys bolted. I contagion a Metalworker in response to a Wheel of Fortune. I draw into a lot of land, but that feeds the Shade that I had down... Anyway, I remember attacking with a huge shade for the win. Yeah, bad memory.

At some point, I noticed that ReSoN had discarded 3x pyroclasm, so I played recklessly with the shade.

My thoughts: I don't think Stacker is an easy matchup at all for my janky deck. Vindicate helps a lot against really big creatures, but if I don't draw that or have a shade with lots of mana, I pretty much die. Powder Keg can't run up to 9 to deal with Teeka =). I feel the Metalworker version may be slightly weeker, but I'm really not sure.