Report: MeanDeath @ Karlsruhe 13-11-2004

[Blitzbold]

Blitzbold in Karlsruhe 13/11/2004

After working like a horse during my internship it was time to play some Magic again. Duelmen is to far away to be reached easily from where I live at the moment, so I decided to give the monthly tournament at Karlsruhe a try. I do not have much time for Magic in general at the moment, so I decided to go with a deck I’ve been playing for some time now and which I played successfully at a small Type 1 side-event at GP Vienna: MeanDeath. One might argue that this is not a deck one should play when being a bit off lately, but I felt comfortable with it. After looking through some recent T8 decklists from Karlsruhe I decided to make some minor changes to both the Maindeck and Sideboard. Final advise for the Sideboard came from Kim Kluck (thanks again!).

Here is the list I finally took to the tournament:

Maindeck
2 Forbidden Orchard
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
1 Tolarian Acedemy

1 Black Lotus
1 Chrome Mox
1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Diamond
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Memory Jar
1 Sol Ring

1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Mind’s Desire
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Rebuild
1 Time Walk
1 Timetwister
1 Tinker
1 Windfall

4 Dark Ritual
4 Death Wish
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Duress
1 Necropotence
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Bargain

1 Burning Wish
1 Wheel of Fortune

2 Elvish Spirit Guide

Sideboard
3 Xantid Swarm
1 Oxidize
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Regrowth
1 Hull Breach
1 Balance
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Time Spiral
2 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Tendril’s of Agony
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Darksteel Colossus

Kim argued that you want to play some solid draw when faced with a control deck and convinced me to try out a pair of Thirst for Knowledge in the board.
Red Elemental Blast was also a last minute choice.

Now on to a short report.

Round 1
Markus Quandt - Oath

Game 1
He starts with a fetchland and passes the turn. I play a turn 1 Duress and see nothing of relevance despite a Mana Drain which I take. He drops another Flooded Strand and passes again. In my turn I play Ritual, Duress, Tinker for Memory Jar and kill him with Tendrils.

Knowing what he is playing because of the Drain and a Forbidden Orchard . I board in 3 Swarms and 1 Red Elemental Blast for Death Wish, Hurkyl’s Recall, Rebuild and Mox Diamond.

Game 2
My early Demonic Tutor catches a Counter of him. I later drop a Swarm, he has no Oath, I attack him, Wish for Yawgmoth’s Win and combo him out.
1:0

Round 2
Marco Weber – Control with Crucible Kombo

Game 1
He starts with a lot of Brainstorming, but does not find much mana despite a Fetchland, Ruby and LoA when he is down to 4 cards. He finally manages to play Demonic Tutor. I try to Wish, but he plays Ancestral Recall in Response and has a Force of Will. He then drops a Fastbond and I am becoming aware of something ugly… I then start to combo, playing Mana Crypt, LED, Dark Ritual and Hurkyl’s Recall targeting me, but which he counters. With plenty of Mana I then cast Burning Wish for Tendrils and burn him for exactly 14 life he is on as a result of Fetching and Forcing.

Again 3 Swarms and 1 Red Elemental Blast come in.

Game2
He opts to start and drops some fast Mana. My hand is mediocre but I decided to keep it because of Mystical Tutor and Brainstorm. He counters the Mystical, and the Brainstorm reveals nothing of relevance. He then drops and activates Jester’s Cap – removing my lone MD Tendrils, Burning Wish and a Death Wish, leaving only 2 Death Wishes for winning! Two of his wastelands then take care of my Mana, but only after I am able to drop a Swarm. He mourns and tells me he boarded out his Swords to Plowshares… but he solves that problem with Cunning Wish. I play a  Wish for Hull Breach in my next turn, but he just smiles and plays another Cunning Wish, getting Blue Elemental Blast. I scoop when he Tinkers out Darksteel Colossus and shows me another Force of Will in his hand.

Game 3
My hand is mediocre again, but I hesitate to mulligan because I am on the start and do not want to fall back on cards too far. My Brainstorms are shitty again while my opponent proceeds to drop his tutored-for Fastbond, Zuran Orb and Crucible, going up to 100,000 life. He drops a Future Sight one turn later, but I want him to kill me actively because time is called. He finds a Cunning Wish and forces me to draw 1000 cards.
1:1

Round 3
Peter Sieb – RG Beats

Game 1
He drops some early dudes like Mox Monkey and Kird Ape and beats me down to 14 before I combo him out.

Game 2
He drops a first turn Shaman again, while I ritual out a first turn Necropotence and draw 6 additional cards. I decide to Tendril him for 14 to buy some time because his men where of better quality this time and he also drew some burn. I take another 7 new cards and kill him via Burning Wish for Will.
2:1

Round 4
Oliver Salten – powered Goblins with Ankh of Mishra and Pyrostatic Pillar

Our decks got checked and we get 12 minutes additional time. No comment on this…

Game 1
My first turn Duress gets a Pillar from him. He lays a Gorilla Shaman and passes the turn. On my turn I play Land + Sapphire, double Dark Ritual, Sol Ring and Timetwister with BBB floating. I am only able to play Mana Vault and pass the turn. He then lays Black Lotus, saccs for RRR, casts Lackey + Reckless Charge and attacks. Good for me forgot to play his Pyrostatic Pillar before the attack so he takes mana burn and only drops a Siege Gang Commander for the lackey’s ability. In my turn I proceed to play Mind’s Desire for 6, netting me all cards I need to finish him off.

I board out Hurkyl’s Recall for Darksteel Colossus.

Game 2
He starts with Ancient Tomb, Mox Diamond and Mana Crpyt and plays Ankh of Mishra and Pyrostatic Pillar! To be honest, Pillar is a card I personally fear more than Trinisphere when playing this deck… Those two cards weren’t too bad, but my opponent topdecks Black Vice, Forcing me to drop some land and playing some spells to empty my hand a bit. I hope him to die by his own crypt, but he has a Gorilla Shaman, eating the dangerous Sol Ring and I scoop the game on 6 life.

Game 3
I Duress him and see a relatively slow hand of him with only a Pyrostatic Pillar which could get dangerous, so he does not need it. My opponent draws, smiles and proceeds to play Lotus + Ancient Tomb and drops Siege Gang Commander. Ups. My hand is not good enough for that and I hope to get something useful from a Mind’s Desire for 3 I manage to play. Mind’s Desire reveals ESG, Duress and Dark Ritual. I play the ESG for blocking purposes and Duress a Reckless Charge off him. After I exchange the ESG with the Commander he drops a Mogg Fanatic, Gorilla Shaman and Blood Moon. Enough is enough...
2:2

Round 4
Sebastian Georges – Goblins with Ankh
Look at my starting hand: Black Lotus, LED, Lotus Petal, Dark Ritual, Mind’s Desire, Death Wish, Gemstone Mine.
Do I need to say more? Mind’s Desire for 13 after Death Wish for Yawgmoth’s Will does everything…


Again Darksteel Colossus comes in for Hurkyl’s Recall.

He starts with a first turn Mogg Fanatic while I play a first turn Sol Ring. My Brainstorm the next turn nets me Mox Jet and Mana Vault, which I Tinker away for Darksteel Colossus my next turn and which kills a Piledriver of him during his attack. The Colossus then proceeds to trample him do death.
3:2

Round 6
Maik Hoffmann – TPS
I watched Maik playing before and he made some pretty bad mistakes, which we discusses about. Nevertheless I hoped him to be unconcentrated.

Game 1
I start and Duress away his Yawgmoth’s Will. He draws, drops a Polluted Delta and passes the turn.
I decide to put some pressure on him since his hand did not contain to any other spells of relevance but 2 Brainstorms, Mox Pearl and Black Lotus and hardcast Elvish Spirit Guide. To be honest, my hand did not leave me much better options. My opponent plays eot Vapmiric Tutor, draws and plays…Yawgmoth’s Bargain. But depite being tapped out he tries to go off instead off refilling his hand and wait a turn. He proceeds to draw 19 cards, mourns, drops and Island and 2 Moxes and plays Timetwister. Then he scoops…

In come 2 Swarms and REB for Death Wish, Hurkyl’s Recall and Mox Diamond.

Game 2
In my second turn I play Crypt, Emerald, Lotus Petal, a second land and cast Mind’S Desire. When he play’s Force of Will I only ask him which copy he wants to counter and slaps his own forehead… Mind’s Desire nets me Xantid Swarm, Gemstone Mine and Necropotence…
I refill my hand with a lot of good stuff and finish him off after the insect’s attack.
4:2

In the end I placed 7th out of a comparably small field of 35 competitors. Nevertheless the field was of relative high competitiveness and I met some guys I have not seen since they stopped going to Duelmen because the price structure is getting worse and worse there.

The deck worked great most of the time. I am probably missing some practice with it especially when it comes to mulliganing. The deck is far from being a no-brainer, and playing it effectively starts long before turn 1.
Cutting the Crop Rotation for Rebuild was a mistake for the metagame, but the last tournaments had quite a lot of Mishra’s Workshop, so I nevertheless think it was the right call.
Thirst for Knowledge is a nice idea for the Sideboard, but I always rather wanted the Elemental blast to allow for a more aggressive playing style and eventually upping the storm count. Thirst for Knowledge will get the boot again, making room for Symplify and possibly Naturalize. Orim’s Thunder would also be nice, but can not be fetched with Burning Wish and is a bit expansive also.
I was not able to follow the discussions on TMD about this deck, so maybe I missed some evolutional steps. I will try to do my reading homework, but am nevertheless happy about any comments and recommendations.

You can reach me under NOSPAMm-heiduk@gmx.de

Have fun playing the game,
Michael


EDIT: Removed typos.

[Moxlotus]

Cap – removing my lone MD Tendrils, Burning Wish and a Deatch Wish, leaving only 2 Death Wish for winning! Two of his wastelands then take care of my Mana, but only after I am able to drop a Swarm. He mourns and tells me he boarded out his Swords to Plowshares… but he solves that problem with Cunning Wish. I play Burning wish for Hull Breach

Did you mean to say you Death Wished for Hull Breach?

[Blitzbold]

Obviously, yes. Could not read my notes sometimes... I only wrote "Wish for HB". But yes, it must have been Death Wish.

[Beastmouth]

All my Hull Breaches are still Sorceries.
Did you miss the first part of that quote, where Burning Wish was removed from the game by Jester's Cap?

Verbal warning for spam.
-Jacob

[Smmenen]

Blitzbold,

Congratulations on doing well with probably the most difficult deck to play in the format.  It sounds like Cotter gave you some good sb tips and your decklist gave you some good draws.  I encourage you to keep playing with it as ou will only get more powerful over time.

[Dante]

if you want the blasts to up your storm count, play Pyroblast/Hydroblast over the elemental blasts.

[HaroldPeters]

Did I miss something? Pyro/Hydroblasts are the same as Blue/Red Elemental Blasts, are they not?

[Dante]

Did I miss something? Pyro/Hydroblasts are the same as Blue/Red Elemental Blasts, are they not?

The elemental blasts target a specific color.  for example, you cannot cast Blue Elemental Blast unless there is a blue permanent to destroy or blue spell to counter.  e.g. - "Choose one - Counter target red spell; or destroy target red permanent."

Hydroblast reads "Choose one - Counter target spell if it's red; or destroy target permanent if it's red." - meaning you can target a land, it just doesn't get destroyed because it's not red.

so Hydro/Pyroblast can be cast targetting any permanent (i.e. a land) to up the storm count, while blue/red elemental blast must have a target of the proper color to even cast it.

Bill

[Whatever Works]

pyro/hydro blasts dont have to target a specific color... red elemental blast for example cant target a non blue spell, but pyroblast can target a non blue spell, but it will just fizzle... thus you can raise storm count without a legal/damaging target.

[Blitzbold]

if you want the blasts to up your storm count, play Pyroblast/Hydroblast over the elemental blasts.

I thought about the Ice Age Blasts for the sideboard, but the problem with them is that they can be misdirected, which makes them a bit weaker than the classic Blasts for defense purposes. But Misdirection are not played that much, so maybe I'll try them next time.

[HaroldPeters]

Thanks, I was not aware of the difference between the two. I will keep that in mind if I'm ever building a storm deck of any sorts.