Dreamer's monthly Type-1. Minneapolis, MN.
Sept. 08, 2002
1st prize: Mox Sapphire
Finish: Top-8 (of 21 total entrants)
Deck: R/G TnT
Other TheManaDrain members who I recognize in attendance:
Milton (Blood Moon Keeper)
Browser (mono-U)
Abra_Volta (Sligh)
IntroductionI wrote up a huge post on TnT that was eaten by the message board. (I don't think that a moderator deleted it. If that's the case, then I appologize.) I wasn't smart enough to save a copy, so I'll just give a quick summary to give you an idea of where I'm coming from with this deck.
Before this tournament, I had played TnT in 2 other events, plus many casual games to test it out some more. I started with the R/G/u version, and as explosive and broken as that deck can be, its mana base was just too fragile. I also found that the R/G/u version got wrecked by Back to Basics and Humility: two cards that I have to worry about in my metagame.
In the 2nd of the two previous events, I cut down to R/G and went a little overboard with the enchantment kill. The four blue cards (Time Walk, Ancestral Recall, Tinker, and Wonder) were replaced by four Emerald Charm. Now I know, it sucks. Or does it? Since hardly anyone remembers what this card does in-total, let's review quickly.
Emerald Charm
G - Instant
Choose one -- Untap target permanent; or destroy target global enchantment; or target creature loses flying until end of turn.
I added it to the deck to handle enchantments. But, I found that the "untap target permanent" helps this to not be a dead card if you don't have an enchantment to kill. Untap a welder, untap a Tiaga, untap a Juggernaut to block, etc.
I did ok with that R/G version, but something was missing. If my opponent could get rid of Survival of the Fittest, it got really ugly. The deck would just stall out and eventually get overwhelmed. For a deck that dies a horrible deck to Morphling, this isn't a good quality to have.
After further testing, here's what I came up with for today. (Huge thanks to everyone on this board, and the people who invented the original version of this deck. It's such a riot to play.)
The deck// Big creatures (9)
4x Juggernaut
3x Su-Chi
1x Masticore
1x Triskelion
// Supporting staff (11)
4x Goblin Welder
1x Squee, Goblin Nabob
1x Gorilla Shaman
1x Anger
1x Birds of Paradise
1x Druid Lyrist
1x Quirion Ranger
1x Uktabi Orangutan
// Utility and card drawing (11)
4x Grafted Skullcap
1x Memory Jar
4x Survival of the Fittest
2x Emerald Charm
// Mana, etc. (29)
7x SoLoMox
1x Mana Vault
4x Mishra's Workshop
4x Tiaga
5x Forest
3x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
4x Land Grant
// Sideboard (15)
2x Emerald Charm
2x Tormod's Crypt
3x Bottle Gnomes
1x Triskelion
2x Mana Web
4x Red Elemental Blast
1x Genesis
Some notes about card choices.
Mana Vault over Grim Monolith. The ideal draw with the deck is Workshop + Mox + Juggernaut. If that doesn't happen, you can possibly use Land + Mox + Mana Vault + Juggernaut. It's just another way to get some first turn brokeness. Grim Monolith doesn't provide this, and I found that I have never once paid to untap either artifact with this deck. So, why not use the one that gives the better return.
Genesis in the sideboard. Horrible. My intention was to side it in against control, because it's a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation for the blue player. I never sided it in though, because I realised that control would be putting in Tormod's Crypt / Phyrexian Furnace against me, which turns him into an overpriced 4/4.
Grafted Skullcap. This card is my latest attempt to augment the card drawing power of Survival. I needed more oomph to keep the steamroller rolling, and this worked out great. The synergy that Skullcap had with Welder, Squee, Survival, and the deck's pure speed was really satisfying. I never seemed to draw them in my test matches, but at the tournament today they were rock stars.
Hull Breach. Browser suggested these as an enchantment killer, and I think it's worth exploring. I just don't own any, so I put in two more Emerald Charm in the sidebaord. Adding a RG card would require some tweaking of the mana base, though, so they can't simply be added without any thought.
The matchesRound 1: Abra_Volta playing Sligh
I find out that he drives 1.5 hours through the bullshit known as Minneapolis traffic to play in our weekly tournaments. That's hardcore. He's always a good opponent, and it's good to chat with him again. He has five decks built and chooses Sligh about 10 seconds before we begin. He made top-8.
game 1 - Pretty typical matchup. I came out very fast. My scorecard shows him going from 20 to 11, and my memory is telling me it was first turn Juggernaut, second turn Triskelion with Anger in the graveyard. It was close enough to that anyway. He got me to 11 before the stampeding artifacts overwhelmed him.
game 2 - I sided in 3x Bottle Gnomes and 1x Triskelion. Took out 3x Su-Chi and something else that I can't possibly remember. This game was a marathon. We both had average-to-slow draws. He got me down to 3, but I had out three Grafted Skullcaps, Survival, and Squee in the graveyard. I got out 2 Gnomes and a Triskelion over the next two turns. If he had drawn burn during those two turns, I would have died. He didn't, so I won.
1-0 (2-0 games)
Round 2: Nick playing 4c control (if he was playing red, I never saw it)
game 1 - He makes one error that costs him the game. He forgot to attack me one turn with his Morphling. It came back to haunt him when I was at 4, he was tapped out, and I managed to get the remaining 10 points of damage out on the table, with an Anger in the graveyard for the win.
game 2 - Slow start. I keep Tiaga, 3x Welder, Squee, Survival, and Skullcap. He plows the first Welder, and I finish the game at 21 life. I drew a Wasteland for his Tundra, and from there my deck just did the broken things that it's supposed to do. His life totals went 20-19-13-12-4.
2-0 (4-0 games)
Round 3: Ben playing Tradewind + Wall of Roots + all kinds of tricks
This is no scrub deck. He's been tweaking this thing for months now, and is committed to making it work, it seems. Ben is a good player, and did make the finals today. I had to leave before the finals was over, so I'm not sure if he won or not.
game 1 - Here's the problem with playing a deck that revolves around using Wall of Roots as early defense: First turn Juggernaut. He's dead before he can gain any control at all.
game 2 - First turn Juggernaut with Survival, Welder, Skullcap, and the mana to power them all. It was a beating.
3-0 (6-0 games)
Round 4: draw into top-8
3-0-1 (6-0-3 games)
Round of 8: Nate playing mono-U (or so I thought)
Nate is a teenager who stomps the hell out of everyone at the kid's tournaments. He's frequently seen in the finals of the store's limited events, and is a all-around fun opponent. I think that he's qualified for at least one PT, but I could be mistaken. He plays a lot with the local PT crowd anyway. His deck is seriously unpowered, but he makes up for that with superior gameplay.
game 1 - I get him down to five, but not before Morphling does his classic 20-15-10-5 that I see written all over Nate's scoresheet.
game 2 - I get one of those insane draws that just keeps pumping out goodness. This deck shines against control when it can get out a Survival + Welder early, and then it has to cast nothing from then on. No Mana Drain bait, just watch the machine crank out creatures.
game 3 - Ok, here's where I realise that it's not mono-U. He plays a Tropical Island. WTF is this? It turns out to be my death sentence, because after having them as dead cards, I had sided out my Emerald Charms and Masticore. He forces out an early Squirrel Nest, and just goes to work. I can not, for the life of me find a Tiaga, which would have let me dump my hand on the table and overpower him. When I did get a Land Grant several turns later, I had mistakenly played a Wasteland first, and got to watch the Tiaga get eaten by my Skullcaps, which at that point were the only things keeping me in the game. He outplayed me, and won.
Wrap-upYes, the powerhouse known as TnT was knocked out by a squirrel token.
If I'm going down, that's a good way to go. With 4 Emerald Charms and a Masticore laughing at me from the sideboard.
I wish I had more information to give about the rest of the top-8, but I had to leave. Maybe someone else can fill in.
Dreamer's always runs a first-class event, and this was no exception. Smooth, fast, no problems. No dicks, but a high quality of players and decks. It was good times.
-- Jim
