[Report] GAT Splits with T4 at Cape Cod

[Pest]

Ok, today I made T4 with GAT, out of 12 people, and about 8 of those decks being good. I think that since I have done this, I am capable of now writing a primer on the deck, since I must be an expert on the deck now, and I'll be removing some key cards in the deck for bad cards, but it'll work because I have now become an expert on the deck. The Primer will be comeing soon...

So, that being said, here's the list and Report

Kill
2 Psychatog
4 Quirion Dryad

Counter/Disrupt
2 MisD
3 Duress
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain

Draw/Search
4 Brainstorm
4 AK
3 Cunning Wish
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Gush
1 Ancestral Recall

Broken
1 Fastbond
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Time Walk

Mana
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Strip Mine
3 Tropical Island
4 Underground Sea
4 Island
4 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta

Sideboard
1 Berserk
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Naturalize
1 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Oxidize
2 Pernicious Deed
2 Smother
2 Stifle
2 Null Rod

Before I started this thing, I saw alot of Slaver and Workshop decks going around, and I was VERY scared about it, since I lose terribly to Slaver. But fortunately, I didn't get pared vs. Slaver once. This thing was only 4 rounds of swiss and into T4, since there as only 12 people there.

Round 1- Jason Reandeau with GAT

Game 1- Nothing really happens, he draws some cards, and so do I, I drop Tog, he drops Tog next turn, I wish for Smother, kill his Tog, swing through with Tog and Berserk next turn. The sad part is "all that action" took about 15 minutes of the round.

I thought he was playing Tog at first and not GAT, and he thought the same thing, neither of us drew a Dryad or anything GAT plays that Tog doesn't.

I side in Stifles and Smothers. I probably shoulda sided in Deeds, but I didn't

Game 2- I keep a bad hand of 2 lands, 2 Moxen, a Lotus a Wish and a Force of Will. He gets first turn Duress, takes wish. All I draw the entire game is lands, his 2/2 Dryad, which is as big as it ever got somehow killed me before I could do anything.

Game 3- This game took FOREVER! I get a crazy 1st turn of Dryad, Ancestral, Walk, Gush. My dryad was like a 4/4 after the walk turn, I start beating his face in and he couldn't do anything about it. Finall, I have him down to 7, and he TD's Deed with like triple Force back-up, kills my Drayd. 6 Turns later, he finally plays a Dryad, which gets smothered. I play Tog and Dryad, both get countered, he wicked outcountered me on that. They announce that there was only 5 turns left after this, so he drops Tog thinking he's gonna win, and I TD Smother, kill his dude, and go on to my turn where I draw Vamp Tutor, pass the turn, next turn I vamp for Will. Cast it, and found out that my Walk was removed from game, and the 5th turn was his next turn and we were forced to draw the round. I would have won that game with either an Insane Tog, or a crazy Dryad or two, but I needed one more turn, and couldn't find a Wish anywhere.

OK so far, but could been better (0-0-1) This shows that AK pwns FTK/DA

Round 2- Don't remember name playing UB.dec?

Game 1- He plays a total of 3 spells this whole game, a MIsD, a Force and a Tainted pact. My Tog and INSANE Will turn go all over his face. And for the record, Fastbond and Yawg Will are my MVP's of the day, so many broken turns, its not even funny.

I don't even bother SBing, nothing was worth putting in.

Game 2- He plays a first turn Underworld dream that I can't counter. He then gets a Null Rod out. I forget about the Null Rod, and make like my only play mistake of the day, and the worst one ever. I Vamp for Lotus, figuring I can sac it, Wish for Naturalize and kill the stupid Dreams, but I was an idiot, and forgot about Null Rod so it didn't work, and I yelled out loud because I was an idiot. He somehow gets me down to 7 with the Dreams alone, I finally Kill it, Play Yawg Will, and win with my 2 Dryads and Tog. I delt 48 damage to him.

Looking pretty good, (1-0-1)

Round 3- Chris Mendence (Googleboots) with Gay/r

I was wicked fearing this match-up solely because I had been testing yesterday with him and he beat me like every game, and I could never figure out how. And I was just pissed that I had to play a fellow team member. Neither of us could afford to draw, so we just played it out.

Game 1- He doesn't draw any cards, and his one Lavamancer gets liek killed. I own him with my Giant Dryads of doom.

I side in Stifles, Smothers and Deeds.

Game 2- He has 3 Maze of Ith SBed in here, but doesn't draw one thank god, After him not drawing anything and some more brokenness, I bring him to scoop and I somehow swept him. I am completely openly admitting that he probably would have won if I didn't draw like a Mo-Fo and if he had some better draws. He was getting absolute crap. Sorry Chris  

Lookin' good (2-0-1)

Round 4- Mike Keaton with Myr Enforcer.dec

Game 1- I get a pretty big Dryad, but his two Triskellions and Juggernaugt were too much for it. This game was over pretty quickly

I side in Null Rods, Stifles and Oxidizes.

Game 2- I get two HUGE Dryads out like right away, his Myr Enforcer just couldn't handle it, and I just stomp all over his face.

Game 3- He gets out an early Welder, with like 3 Wastelands to screw me over, and a Tangle Wire. I get out Tog, and the game was sooooo close. If he didn't get that second Juggy out, I would have killed him, but he had attacked with his dudes, and I lost.

I am thinking I won't make T4 with a record of 2-1-1. In fact, all 3 members of UCB, Me with GAT, Chris (googleboots) with Gay/r and Justin with UG Stompy, all had the same record. Thanks to Tie breakers I make it into T4. The T4 looked like this:

Me-GAT
Greg powers-Workshop Slaver
John (Crater Hellion)-Mono-B Dragon
Mike Keaton-Myr Enforcer.dec

With me in last seat, and Mike undefeated in first, I was about to have to play him AGAIN! We all talked about it though, and decided to be pussy's and split the prize. The 4 of us split 180 bucks into 45 a piece, not nearly as good as if somebody won, but second prize was 45...so we figured it was worth it. I'm just happy I didn't get paired vs. Slaver once.

Props:
Yawg Will and Fastbond for being so broken
Chris for takeing us there
CC for giveing us free pizza
Me for doing that good in a meta with all decks I do bad against

Slops:
Me for an undeserved victory vs. Chris
Underworld Dreams for owning my draw engine
Time limits for makeing me draw round 1
Pat from CC for not changing the date so there would be a better turnout.

This is the first magic tournament I've been to since November, so I was quite pleased with how I did, even though only 12 people came, I wish more people could have come.

Thanks for reading all, and for all of you who went to Waterbury, I hope you guys had a great time.

[Plainswalker]

lol I shouldn't count for the top four, I played vs Stompy, Underworld Dreams.dec, Broodstarrunner.dec and Oath/Sneak/Erratic Explosion, Broodstarrunner being the only person that beat me, possibly because I forgot how Chalice of the Void worked for zero after my last two games of it being useless vs Underworld Dreams and Sneak, Explosion...thing. Which by the way I took his turn, wordly tutored for draco and Exploded it in his face. Next game he Oathed out Kroshan Collouses and I stole him with Memnarch.   Ya and we did wimp out in the end, I'm pretty sure John would have owned me hard though. O and Stompy (actually splashed blue for some stuff) actually beat me up pretty bad until I slavered him and broke his own standstill and double rancored my Trike   Pretty close games though and good for (what I heard) was just thrown together stuff. So Underworld Dreams.dec and Sneak whatever are the only decks I'll give the wtf award to.

Last time I heard everyone from the Cape was doing well at Waterbury to (I hadn't slept in two days so that's my excuse for not going) Hopefully Rob well screw up Dr. Sylvan's stats for this month   I'm rooting for Jeff if he really played Highlander again though.

[Dr. Sylvan]

Hopefully Rob well screw up Dr. Sylvan's stats for this month

It appears to be the ambition of every rogue deck designer to see whether they can make me freak out due to the excessive WTFness of their card choices.

However, I am also cheering for Jeff if he played Highlander. The picture of that was so cool I even linked my mother to it.

[RoadTrippin]

I didn't want to split cause I had a good matchup vs. Greg as well as a joke of a matchup vs Broodstar.  
I played vs Gay/R, an opponent who I combo'ed off turn one and turn 2 without disruption, thus not finding out what they're playing, that U/B control deck I combo'ed off on turn 1 and 2 with disruption, and Oath. I Unmasked him and took something else (most likely a counter?) and then he dropped Oath and one of the creatures, I almost wanted to activate it just for uber-silliness. All in all it was a pretty good time even though we obviously didn't have enough people because of Waterbury.

[~m.oconnell0257~]

hey  its not michael keaton or whatever, its mike oconnell!
 and if i were to play the t4 out i would have probably gone to t2 and lost vs dragon combo(roadtrippin) i was very confident that i would have beat him (paul desault)

[RoadTrippin]

Right, Keaton is the guy with the U/B control deck.
edit: Oh please, refer to me as

The artist formerly known as Crater Hellion

[Pest]

LOL! That is funny. I wouldn't consider you an artist.

Sorry about that Mike, I got confused. You definately woulda owned me though, stupid Triskellions. btw, my last name is spelled Dussault, but that's ok.

[Googleboots]

I played vs Gay/R, an opponent who I combo'ed off turn one and turn 2 without disruption, thus not finding out what they're playing, that U/B control deck I combo'ed off on turn 1 and 2 with disruption, and Oath.

Crater Hellion is the suck. You failed to mention how I PWNED YOUR FACE WITH ONLY SLIGHTLY BETTER DRAWS THAN YOU. Even though my Curiosity hit like 2 Stifle and 2 FoW.....

They def. shoulda done T8 it would've made it hellafun...and I would've won vs artifact.deck and Myr Enforcer.dec. But nooooOOOooo I get paired vs. Dragon(2-1), U/G DEATH(Draw, I won when we played 3 w/SB for fun, though), GAY PAUL(0-2, I played like 4 spells in 2 games), and Random asplotion.dec....Yeah...I suck.

[Ultima]

I don't really understand how you say that after 1 Top 4 in a 12 person tourny, your an expert on this deck.

No one can just become an expert after one tourny finish in the top 4 within like 2-3 months.

I mean i got further than that, and i still don't think of myself as an expert or even close.

[Pest]

I don't really understand how you say that after 1 Top 4 in a 12 person tourny, your an expert on this deck.

No one can just become an expert after one tourny finish in the top 4 within like 2-3 months.

I mean i got further than that, and i still don't think of myself as an expert or even close.

You obviously didn't catch on to that...IT WAS A JOKE! About a week ago, xaos, from this site, had his GAy/r primer thread closed because everybody was ragging on him for thinking he was an expert on the deck and could write a primer on it after makeing T4 once. Now that I made T4, I cracked a joke saying that I am an expert on the deck. I was not serious and it was all in good fun.

[Ultima]

Well in that case, i stand corrected to the humor.

[xaos]

About a week ago, xaos, from this site, had his GAy/r primer thread closed because everybody was ragging on him for thinking he was an expert on the deck and could write a primer on it after makeing T4 once.

Off topic yes, but I must mention I've been playing gay/r almost exclusively for around six or seven months-  playtesting against all the top tier decks.  Maybe I didn't make that clear enough in the thread, but either way, I didn't really see the humor in it.  I also wouldn't think anyone else would have picked up on the 'joke'.

[Pest]

if I offended you xaos, then I'm sorry, it was just a joke and it was all in good fun. We just thought it funny at the time that you tried to write a primer solely because you made T4 at a tourny, I'm not calling you a bad player. I'm just saying it was kind of ridiculous to take out key cards of the deck for unnecessary things.

[DavidHernandez]

1st: Well done.

2nd: GAT needs a Red splash in the sideboard. http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16511&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

3rd: It's my experience that a minimum of 3 MisD's are needed in GAT. http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16414&highlight=

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15853&highlight=

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15176&highlight=

http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16610&highlight=

4th: we're almost done with the primer.

I've started running 2 Togs, though Ultima prefers 3 for a more "aggressive" build.  I find myself relying on Dryad's more than Togs, and prefer a sideboard that allows me to convert the GAT build to a Dryad Gro/Hate build.

3 Cunning Wish are a lot, and I still dont like the AK engine (prefering the Thirst for Knowledge tech that Ultima has used to win multiple pieces of Power).  I'll say this again: TFK is like Fact or Fiction--you will toss 1 or 2 cards away, but you will get what you need, and YOU get to pick what goes to the graveyard.  If you could run 5 FoF's, would you?  I run 4 TFK and the FoF as standard now.

As for a Red Splash in the sideboard, I think this is necessary to beat Slavery and give more advantage vs. Hulk.  See previous links for more details.

A 12-person tourney yielded $180 in prize money?!? Awesome.

Dave.

[Apollyon]

Pest, after testing both AKs and TFK/DA, I prefer TFK/DA over AKs, for 2 reasons:
1) The Hulk matchup. I've died to running out of counters vs Hulk with their big AKs. Sometimes it pays off, but I don't like gambling like that.
2) The larger TFKs are better than AKs early game, which is very important in fast decks like this.

Although it was too bad the CC didn't give away any Power. Maybe next month when I can go...

[Pest]

yeah, I was pretty pissed about them not giving away the power. Actually, I was pretty pissed at Pat for not changing the date of the tourny.

The TFK/DA engine seems to be everybody's favorite, if TFK costed 1 less mana, I'd play it over the AK's, but just 1 Mana can make a huge difference in the games. With AK, especially in the Hulk match-up, it's not something to be mindlessly casting. You wait untill that Hulk player Intuitions for their 3 AK's, then you say, YAY I've been saveing these 3 AK's in my hand and now I'm gonna draw like a fool. That's at least what I've done in the Hulk match-up and it's never stirred me wrong. In all of the other match-ups, its pretty much better than TFK in my opinion, except for keeper. I'm not too worried about Keeper anyways. That's just my feelings on it, I've tested both, and I was always a big fan of AK, and I don't like drawing 3 awsome cards, then haveing to discard 2...it bothers me.

[Apollyon]

I don't like Hulk matchups with AKs for that reason: they want to wait it out to get the 2nd set of AKs so they draw off theirs and yours. You both do so, then your hands fill up, and you end up in both draw wars and AK wars, neither of which are very nice, as the two simultaneously make it all about the topdeck.

In the proposed situation, he could have 7 cards + Intuition to your 4 cards + 3 AKs in hand. When he Intuitions into the AKs, you are down 3 cards, not including the 3 that he draws off Intuition/AK. As such, if he is holding onto extra mana and FoWs or MisDs, you are looking at a not-nice battle. You could come out on top, or you could end up getting burnt. The exact viability of coming out on top depends on what you draw with an AK, what they draw, how many cards in hand, how many counters in grave, etc.

So, rather than use something that's slower early on, sometimes contributes to the Hulk matchup, sometimes burns you in the Hulk matchup, I use TFK/DA. I don't like discarding cards either, but you get used to it after a while. Especially if you like playing with Welders.

And yes, Pat should've changed the date for the tournament. While consistency is good, Waterbury is the biggest T1 in the NE area. You can't try and beat Waterbury. But Pat was right to not give away Power. He's in it to try and make money, and he's losing LOTS of money by giving away a Sapphire for 180 bucks, not to mention the other prizes.

[Pest]

yeah, that's definately true...but just the fact that he tried to beat out Ray was ridiculous.

As for the example you gave in the Hulk match-up. This is all to assume that you have a Dryad in play (which you probably will) and you'll of course want to counter his stupid little Togs. in which case, these little counter wars between him and you just feed the Dryad further. He will be pressured to use the Intuition earlier in the game when you have a Dryad out, and he has yet to get a Tog in play. Granted he has wish and other answers for the Dryad, but its just a matter of time before both of you end up in a counter war (which you should win anyways). The choice of which engine to play is definately something that people will argue about for a while. Most GAT players are sideing with the TFK/DA, but I still am not convinced that's the way to go. Perhaps someday I will be, but for now I think AK is the way to go this time around.

[Ultima]

The fact of the matter is that Hulk is a great matchup for you.  If the match is practiced and you have experience, 95% of the time you'll win very easily for several reasons (if your NOT playing ak).

1.  Hulk needs to counter most of your early threats to survive.
2. You have more pitch counters and Mis-d is a bomb in the control match.

When you play ak, you give Hulk 2 things that allows it to win.

1.  You hesitate to play your spells which is HUGE since your the aggro player.

2.  They have other ways of drawing versus you don't.  Duress will them how play you if your holding AK's back and it will reach the point where you have to play them, thereby giving Hulk more drawing to find answers and just win.

There's no reason to give a Hulk a way to win if you don't need to, so why do it.

[Pest]

The problem is, the only time TFK is better than AK is in the Hulk Match-up pretty much. It's not exactly card advantage, and 1 mana can make a huge difference in the game. Sure, a stupid AK for 1 doesn't help much, but it all adds up when playing AK after AK. In any match-up other than Hulk and maybe Keeper AK>TFK. I don't mean to put your decisions down, don't get me wrong. After testing I just found TFK to not be nearly as useful as AK. It's cheaper, and you get more cards in the long run. It may make the Hulk match-up a little worse, but it makes any other Aggro or control match-up better. idk, maybe I'm talking out of my ass, but I'm just going by my own personal experience.

[rologa]

Well TFK is better than AK in the early turns. The first AK is really bad and the second one is average. I find that AK are very slow agains a lot of decks, mainly fast aggro and combo. Agains control is a good card but not agains Hulk. So there isn't too many decks where AK is brilliant.
In general I find that AK is good in the long run play where you can abuse it drawing a lot of cards, but normally with GAT you want to be aggresive and resolve the game in the early turns.

Roberto

[Pest]

ok, I stand corrected. You guys WERE right, TFK/DA is an overall better choice over the AK's. I discovered this after me and Googleboots did some heavy discussing about the deck, and I tried playing with the TFK's again, and it turned out I did like it better than AK. The fact that is 1 mana more is still a little ugly, but other than that is't just a better draw card. So, here is my new list that I will be testing with, and hopefully be playing in tournament next weekend:

Kill
2 Psychatog
4 Quirion Dryad

Counter/Disrupt
2 MisD
2 Duress
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain

Draw/Search
4 Brainstorm
4 Thirst for Knowledge
2 Deep Analysis
3 Cunning Wish
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Gush
1 Ancestral Recall

Broken
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Time Walk

Mana
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Strip Mine
3 Tropical Island
4 Underground Sea
4 Island
4 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta

Sideboard
1 Berserk
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Naturalize
1 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Oxidize
2 Pernicious Deed
2 Smother
2 Stifle
2 Null Rod

I took out the AK's, the Fastbond and a Duress from my original list and added the 4 TFK and 2 DA's. Let me know what you guys think of this new build, and I really love the SB...Null Rod kicks ass.

[DavidHernandez]

FYI, since I run 4 TFK, I have begun running Regrowth as well.  You might want to test it out.

Dave.