Cape Cod Tournament, sketchy results 10/30

[The Hamburgler]

Well, another month, and another Cape Cod Tournament passes by. 16 people showed, and despite the dismal showing, the field was very competitive. The prize structure was that of an average mox, and the tournament strated at 3:30ish. Anyways, the top 4 was five-colored trinistax by Chris Hufnagel, Control Slaver by Corey Frazier, Control slaver piloted by Greg Powers and a random player playing 5/3(ish?).  Orlove played Oath, as did Mike O'niel, both didn't do so hot. I played B/U/G dragon and lost in the top 8. The top four split for 85 each, we gave out for large pizza's as door prizes, and an All Hallow's Eve. This same kid got a free large pizza, a Goblin Game (he came in ninth) and got the All Hallow's Eve. Well, besides that the tournament ran all smooth, no errors of any kind. For all you misers who didn't come, you should have, good times are guarenteed on Cape.

-The Hamburgler

EDIT: EVERYONE go to the Brockton Mox Sapphire tournament on Nov. 6th! 15 dollars for unlimited proxies is the business. There is more info in the thread in the Tournament Forum.

[Nosre]

I was that fourth spot in T4.  Had to get some team NH representin' in there.

Despite the turnout, it was a lot of fun.  Samite Healer came down and hung out for a while and I was able to get revenge on Orlove for beating Diaonic in SCG2.

[StarOrc]

It was a very good tourney despite the limited number of players. I didn't really enjoy the large TV's in the middle of the room with all the noise they brought though... Oh yeah and being sick, that sucked... I would have played out the top 4 if I didn't feel so sick. If anyone is interested this is what I played:

Control Slaver

Control
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
1 Echoing Truth
2 Aether Spellbomb

Combo
4 Goblin Welder
2 Mind Slaver
1 Pentavus

Draw/Search
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Brainstorm
1 Deep Analysis
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor

Broken
1 Tinker
1 Time Walk
1 Yawmoth's Will
1 Memory Jar

Mana
5 Moxen
1 Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
4 Volcanic Island
3 Underground Sea
4 Fetch
2 Island
2 Darksteel Citadel
1 Strip Mine
1 Library of Alexandria

SB
3 FTK
3 Duress
2 BEB
2 REB
2 Rack and Ruin
2 Fire/Ice
1 Echoing Truth



Oath was expected in larger numbers, thus the spellbombs... They were exceptional despite the lack of Oath.

Everyone should definately show up to the tourney this Saturday in Brockton... only 15 for Unlimited Proxies (Play whatever you want!), good prize structure (Mox Sapphire), and a good enviorment (I'm going... and I won two in a row then split at the Cape).

Corey

[Yokomoto]

This tourney wuz fun, despite me losing to huff in top 8. Great place, i had the chance to lose horribly to a little kid in Need For Speed: Underground because of those giant TVs jus chillin there. I was a little disappointed in the turnout of only 16 players but it was a lot of fun. Oh yea, tinispheres and sundertitans = T3H $UCK.

[TrixR4Kidz]

you couldn't find better slots in the control slaver deck rather then Aether Spellbomb and echoing truth?  What is the reasoning to use these cards?  I don't really think bounce fits in well in this deck, It may delay the game 1 turn, why not just take out a truth and add a chain of vapor so if you slave them you can ruin their board completely.

Also, slavery is hurt enough by nullrod/damping matrix, you don't need to make it even worse (spellbombs)

[Yokomoto]

yes but there are less and less decks running null rod/ matrix. The spell bombs can be welded back in time and time again where as echoing truth and chain of vapor kan only be used once, spell bomb is also good against tog and other random aggro.

[StarOrc]

@TrixR4Kidz: Please read my first post about why the Spellbombs were included in the deck. BTW Null Rod is not very good against Control Slaver and Matrix is too slow.

For others, as I explained in my above post, Aether Spellbomb was to help the Oath match-up and as Yokomoto said they are re-usable via welders for either card draw or bounce.

Echoing Truth is my catch-all answer to everything. It gets rid of a problem permenant so I can win the next turn.

Also in regards to bounce not fitting the deck. Being able to bounce something so you can counter it the next time they play it is never out of the style of a good control deck.


Corey

[Aeneas]

Man, I love AEther Spellbomb.  Seriously, those things are versatile.  The sudden uptick of Oath has made their inclusion much more reasonable.

In the style of aggro-control, Oath wants to drop a threat and then protect it long enough for it to go the whole way.  As such, Oath has a large number of counters to protect Akroma/SotN once they get into play.  These ward off typical removal like Swords and its ilk, but are much less capable of dealing with an innoculous first turn Spellbomb.  In general, counterspells perform poorly against activated abilities.

Against a Control Slaver deck, the Oath player very well might side in Iridescent/Pristine Angels, as they would count on you to bring in hits like Control Magic.  This, of course, depends on whether or not they saw the Spellbombs initially.  AEther Spellbomb can handle Iridescent Angel whereas a number of other removal options would be incapable.  However, it has no strategic advantage over other removal in regards to Pristine Angel, except maybe for costing half as much as Control Magic.

In conclusion, vote AEther Spellbomb for Homecoming Queen.  She's so pretty.

[Yokomoto]

she also cycles

[Zelc]

However, it has no strategic advantage over other removal in regards to Pristine Angel, except maybe for costing half as much as Control Magic.

However, Aether Spellbomb can force the Oath player to spend many instants to be able to attack with Pristine Angel if you have a Welder in play. When the angel attacks, you sacrifice the spellbomb to bounce it.  They'll respond by casting an instant, to which you can respond by welding in the spellbomb.  They'll need to cast another instant to stop the Angel from being bounced.  You can do this every other turn, or just weld once every turn and force them to use an instant every turn.

[Revvik]

I have to say, despite the off-topic-ness of the posting, I like this Control Slaver build, especially the Spellbomb approach - and Echoing Truth is a lifesaver against more than half the field.  Maybe next tournament season I'll be applying ideas such as this.

More on-topic, was that the actual order of the top 4?  Five color Trinistax took it?

[Diaonic]

The top 4 people split for like $85 each or something.

[Revvik]

I was actually looking for archetype & player  

[StarOrc]

Top 8 was something like this:

1 Control Slaver -Corey(Me) vs 8 5/3 -Corey Caufield(not sure of the last name)

2 Control Slaver -Greg Powers vs 7 Not sure

3 TriniStax -Ben (Nosre) vs 6 Not Sure

4 4c Stax -Chris Hufnagel vs  5 "The Douche" -Nick M (Yokomoto)

Top 4:

1 Corey(me) vs 4 Chris Hufnagel

2 Greg Powers vs Ben (Norse)

We split. I felt like crap all day and didn't want to play anymore and Chris had to be somewhere at 8:30 and it was 8:15 when the Top 8 finished. I wish I could remember who else was in the top 8... sorry...


Corey

[TrixR4Kidz]

BTW Null Rod is not very good against Control Slaver and Matrix is too slow.

Ok nullrod doesn't hurt your deck that much, it only makes 16 of the cards in your deck do nothing, I mean no big deal, no acceleration, and no slaving....

Damping matrix is too slow? how is something that practically wins you the game against slavery too slow at the cost of 3 colorless.... Workshop/Damping matrix I agree is far too slow, in type 1 you CANNOT get 3 mana within the first two turns... it's nearly impossible.  Also maybe you should cut those thirsts for serum visions, Thirsts are way too slow.  

[Revvik]

The sarcasm is just as obvious as the Damping Matrix is a 3-mana drain target.

I USED to play fish, and running into various Control Slaver builds I can tell you Null Rod did nothing.  Decks packing rod can't back it up as reliably as they can drain it into something far more threatening (i.e.: any card in their deck is more threatening than an entire fish deck )

I find it especially hard to believe that null rod would hurt the posted list - a single Echoing Truth means a turn of fun for CS, which spells "GG" for the fish player.

[StarOrc]

Thank you Revvik, those are my thoughts exactly.

Playing Matrix with a Workshop also shuts down half of your deck as well.

Also something many people fail to mention is that Control Slaver is a very, very good control deck. There are many games you win by just controlling the game until and after you drop Pentavus, and just win with him.

Proactive hate such as Damping Matrix and Null Rod ussually are easy to play around and then remove when you need to. Reactive hate such as BEB, Fire/Ice, Lava Dart, Coffin Purge, etc. are much better against Control Slaver than Null Rod or Matrix. Also notice that the hate I mentioned are all instants that are relatively cheap, topping out at 2 with Fire/Ice.

Something to note about the Control Slaver vs Fish match-up, the only card I'm ever scared of when playing Control Slaver is Grim Lavamancer. Its effectively a must counter because its difficult for Slaver to play around without overextending with double Welder and even then you need Time Walk to not lose both Welders.

Corey

[Meddling Mike]

yeah, it's too bad about the turnout for this thing, the store is really top notch. I hope to see more people make it out for the next tourney.

[Sytupal]

Mat Chamberlain ( The Hamburgler) played against Greg Powers in Top 8 with BUg Dragon.    


I hope for a larger turnout in our store next month.  Hopefully with someone prepared to break the hour+ poking of Jacob Orlove's Right arm.