tournament report Eindhoven 26/6

[BigMac]

My alarm clock rang early as I still had some work to do on my decklist. Two minutes after I was woken by my alarmclock as I was still enjoying my bed my phone rang. It was my friend Hero who needed  a couple of cards and if I could bring them. A few minutes after that another friend called with the same question. So I got up and went to look for those cards.

As I played my usual TPS with transformational Sideboard I took an old list of my computer and changed a couple of spells I was unsure of or were just plain bad. I solved some manaissues by putting in two extra lands (underground rivers). I also switched my krosan reclamation for Seedtime as I expected a lot of blue players. I also changed my board somewhat taking out things I hadn’t used last time and putting in three cursed totems. This was the list I was playing.

1 Tolarian Academy            Side Board
4 Gemstone Mine            2 Forbidden Orchard
4 City of brass               1 Spirit of the Night
1 Mox Jet               1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Sol Ring               1 CraterHellion
1 Mana Crypt               1 Sundering Titan
1 Mana Vault               2 Ground Seal
1 Lotus Petal               3 Cursed Totem
1 Black lotus               4 Oath of Druids
1 Mox Pearl               
1 Mox Emerald            
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
2 Forbidden Orchard
2 Underground River
4 Dark Ritual
4 Duress
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
2 Tendrils of Agony
1 Yawgmoth’s Bargain
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Necropotence
1 Mind’s Desire
4 brainstorm
1 hurkyl’s Recall
1 Timetwister
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Force of Will
1 Tinker
1 Regrowth
1 Gaea’s blessing
2 Seedtime
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Memory Jar
1 Darksteel Colossus
It pretty much is a basic TPS build with the possibility to change it into oath after boarding. I am not playing any duals or basics to make sure my sundering titan in the board does full destruction to my opponent when oathed in. The rest is pretty basic I think.

As I like playing TPS I am quite comfortable with it. I still however have difficulties mixing my deck after sideboarding in Oath. In some matchups it does nothing and I need to learn myself not to side in to much in those occasions. As when I do that I lose to much of my explosiveness and I could very well lose making that mistake.

Round 1
Against Tim (playing dragon)
Tim explains during our match that it is one of his first tournaments. Playing a difficult deck like dragon would not be my first choice but it is his.
He wins the roll and starts with a bazaar. He discards 2 animate spells and something else so I assume he is playing dragon or cerebral assassin. Soon after I find out he plays dragon which is not a very good matchup for me. In game 1 I make the mistake to break the standstill between us in trying to resolve a bargain backed up with a FoW. He Fows and after my FoW he resolves an Ancestral and a bazaar activation after which he Fows my Fow. The game kept draging on for a long time and I eventually lost that game as he had bazaar squee draw advantage next to me dying from my Mana Crypt. He still killed me before I died of the crypt though.
As we only had 20 minutes left I hoped I could get a quick win game two to be able to start game three. I resolve an early necropotence that I looked for with a city vampiric. Asi already used the city once play a groundseal I started my necroturns at 16. I sayturns as I didn’t get anything in my first 8 cards except 3 FoW and 2 Brainstorms. The 4 next cards brought me victory though and we still had about 5 minutes when we started shuffling our decks.
We started game 3 with little more than 2 minutes. As we both play combo enough time to get the game done quickly. My opening hand had a Brainstorm, Fow, Chain of Vapor, 3 Lands and my Bargain. As we started playing I made sure I always had a free blue mana for my Chain of Vapor. He tried to kill me in turn 3 of our extra turns by animating a dragon. I chained it destroying all his permanents. As he didn’t counter it I could very well assume he didn’t have any counters. By that time I was sure I could get a draw which was nice against a nood so good matchup. But in my last turn I could resolve my bargain starting to draw cards while being tapped out. So I had to rely on my topdecking skills somewhat. Pretty soon I got my pearl, ruby, emerald and a sol ring. As I used my petal to get Bargain into play I decided to play gaea´s blessing on just the petal. I already had drawn 12 cards and had the ritual and tendrils I needed but desperately needed my lotus, jet or petal to generate the black mana I needed. After the blessing I got my lotus as the third card and I had enough spellcount by that time to kill him. A narrow escape.
2-1 (1 0 0)

Round 2
Steffen van der Veen (cerebral assassin)
As i had a tough game the round before i wanted this to be over quick. Game 1 he had to mull to 6. He started by playing land mox giving the turn. I played duress turn 1 leaving myself with a good explosive hand. I took out his only interesting spell: thirst for knowledge. He never really recouvered from that and after some brainstorming and draws on my side I comboed him to death.
Game 2 took a little bit longer but I again could resolve an early duress followed by a tinker for Colossus. As he had a bazaar with squee at that time he managed to put up a fight extending our play time by several minutes. But he never found his own tinker to get out platz I suspect and Colossus went all the way.
2-0 (2 0 0)

Round 3
Hero (gifts)
We are good friends as we are in the same team and test a lot together. We also use cards from each other. As I was down paired and he already had an ID we debated what to do. In the end we decided to ID and try our chances in the next rounds. I wouldeed 1 win out of 2 matches and he would have to win both. But we gave it a try.
-   (2 0 1)

Round 4
Pieter (oath)
Normally a reasonable matchup for me but I screwed up majorly. Game 1 I put down my orchards to quickly so he never played his oath but looked for his tinker and colossed me to death.
Game two I realised I forgot to board in my 2 extra orchards, but I tried to outoath him as I boarded in several oaths myself. Bad plan as I never saw orchards but I did see several oaths. As he had early oath and orchard it was over soon. He also played an arcane lab and a chalice for 1 so it was over quick and with ease.
0-2 (2 1 1)

Round 5
Marcel (oath)
I really needed to win this one to get to top eight. He also could still enter top 8 so we had a real battle before us.
Game 1 I could get off my combo pretty quick killing him with a big tendrils in turn 3 or 4.
Game two I sided a lot better this time than the last time I played against oath in round 4. I only sided in my orchards, akroma and sundering titan. The last one because he played a lot of duals and basics. He started and he got off to a very good start duressing me and getting out an oath turn 2 with orchard. So that game was over quickly as well.
Game 3 he again played an oath quickly but this time he didn’t have an orchard for it. As I got out an early necro I could look for some orchards and got 2 out quickly after the oath was played. I got out Sundering titan first severely crippling his manabase. I got Colossus next and played time walk to finish him off
2-1 (3 1 1)

I got into top 8 as fifth and had to play Menno. We know eachother a long time and we always have pleasant matches.
Quarterfinal
Menno (U/W vial fish)
I can start and I keep a suboptimal hand. But as we have been given the opportunity to look at eachothers decklists I know he plays a lot of waste effects and wayfarers to locate those. I keep a hand with 2 lands, a brainstorm, a ritual and my demonic. I open with gemstone mine and give turn. He wastes my gemstone mine and I react with my brainstorm which is not countered. Out of my brainstorm I get another ritual. Turn 2 I play land ritual ritual demonic necro and the rest is for the bookwriters. He never got back from that.
Game two I sided in my oath plan. 2 orchards, 3 oath, akroma, sundering titan and crater hellion. He starts with a land. I start land duress. He has a good hand with a couple of critters and 2 seal of cleansing. I take out 1 but next turn he plays 1 and with the mox he also had in hand he played the vial he topdecked. After that I managed to counter a standstill, but the second I can do nothing about. I manage to tinker Sundering titan in but he only has 1 killable land and he uses his seal to get rid of it. He soon has 2 ninjas and a couple of other critters bashing me to death quickly.
Game 3 I was thinking to add some speed to my deck so I got out the crater hellion and added the fourth oath. Again I started with gemstone mine go. Again he wasted it letting me use my brainstorm to pretty much draw my win. I already had an oath in hand and could play it of a mox emerald and an orchard. He scooped after that as he didn’t have anything to get rid of the oath quickly enough and as he hadn’t sided in his swords as he explained later he wouldn’t have been able to deal with my critters. So I win 2-1
2-1 (4 1 1)

Semi final
Ilja (staxx)
He starts with ancient tombs and uses it to cast sphere of resistance. I can only playa a land. He follows his sphere a turn later with mana vault, mox and sol ring. Again I can do nothing of consequence. In turn 3 of his turns he hardcasts jester’s cap and caps me to death as he takes out my 3 winconditions.
I know he plays welders but I decide to leave cursed totem out of my deck. I do put in 4 oaths, Akroma and Spirit. Ass my duresses are not really helpful I remove those, as well as mind’s desire and 2 seedtime. Game two i get a very good start and kill him quickly comboing him to death with a couple of rituals, a demonic and my will.He did nothing to really annoy me.
Game 3 I get out an early necro while he only plays some land. After my first necro activation I discard 2 oaths and a force making him believe I am going to combo him to death. The truth of it was I had orchard oath combo still in hand and the rest of my hand was good but not right away. He had played a tormyd’s crypt so my will was out. He played a welder hinking it ok and a tanglewire completely tapping me. In my turn I just played orchard mox oath and draw 3 cards with necro. He taps his welder thinking his mana to be important to cast something. The next turn I oath in colossus, play ancestral and pretty much tendrils for 16 and having a time walk turn to come with my colossud is play and his welder tapped to his tanglewire. So I won it 2-1
2-1 (5 1 1)

We never played the final as Jochem is a good friend and we split the mana drain and candelabra first and second prize into storecredit.

My deck worked fine but I still can make a few changes. I think the 2 seedtime will get replaced with lim duls vault as they seem to narrow minded in the end. Out of my sideboard I think the 3 cursed totems will be removed as I never used them anyways.. At least 1 extra ground seal will be put in and as for the other 2 open spots in my sideboard I am not sure yet.

I had a nice day with good fights all day long. I also learned how to board well against oath now, as I finally got it right. So out of 4 tournaments with my transformational sideboard I made 3 top 8. People may think the surprise factor will be gone when opponents know what your sideboardplan is, but when you side in all 15 cards, shuffle and then remove 15 cards, opponents will not know what plan you will be following and how. As you have 2 plans and both work well to very well.

Marco

[49 Cents]

Good report, congratz on your finish. Do you have any idea how Jochem's Needles have worked out?

Greetz,

Hugo

[Starke of Rath]

Well it was gifts target against combo (mostly belcher) to get nice cards with the needle and another card like duress

[BigMac]

About the pithing needles i cannot say to many things as i hardly ever saw them at work. What i did see was that against broader decks it is a worthless asset. Sure it can block oath or bazaar. But those decks normally run thingsto get rid of that kind of cards anyhow. Perhaps a lot of study needs to be done but every time i saw him lay it he either choose the wrong card or tinkered it away to colossus. And for a tinkertarget i think it is not good enough to include.

So not my kind of card i to run, only as a sideboardoption against certain decks. Decks thathave a broad plan build on a single card or just a few, as it is's use is to singleminded for my taste.

[exit music]

Hey Marco,

Congrats on the multiple high finishes you've had with the deck. I have a few questions/comments on it though. I would have posted in the Vintage forums, but my basic status restricts me, so I'm glad I can comment to you here.

I really like the transformational sideboard -- well, I like the idea of it anyways -- but I think you are converting much more than you have to. In my testing with the deck, I found that you really don't need to bring in the Oaths against decks where you really need Forbidden Orchard. There are a ton of decks right now that just plan on winning through creatures alone, so what is the purpose of having 4 Orchards between the Main/Side?? Against decks where you need Orchard, there are probably much better sideboard plans to take. It seems to me that you are wasting a bunch of sideboard spots that you don't need to waste.

I think for the transformational sideboard, all you really need is 4 Oaths, 1 or 2 creatures at max, and 1 Tropical Island. I would also definitely say that one of your creatures needs to be Crator Hellion. The other creature should probably just be Akroma, although I'm not even sure you need another creature that badly. With a Colossus in the MD, I think it may be enough to win with, although it seems that fish is now able to deal with one Colossus easily enough.

I really do like the Sundering Titan against control decks, and this is probably your best argument why Orchards really do need to be included. However, if you include other things to help out with Control Matches in the sideboard such as Defense Grid, I think you'll find the matches become much easier, as opposed to relying on just drawing into more Orchards than other Oath players. Honestly, I think you only need to bring in Oaths against Fish and Goblins, so the only creature I would even have in my sideboard is Crator Hellion, then use a MD Colossus to finish them off, or even the turns you've saved with wrathing their board should be enough to combo them out safely.

Anyways, I'm curious to hear what you think about taking out Orchards and the other not-needed creatures.

[Gabethebabe]

About the pithing needles i cannot say to many things as i hardly ever saw them at work. What i did see was that against broader decks it is a worthless asset. Sure it can block oath or bazaar.

Needle does nothing vs Oath

[BigMac]

First about pithing needle versus oath. Pithing needle states it stops activated abilities of named card. Oathing is an activated ability so as far as i know it will stop activating an oath.

As for the 2 extra orchards in my sideboard. They have multiple functions.
the first one is getting a more stable manabase against decks with manadenial like waste and strip effects.
The second is to have a bigger chance of going turn 1 orchard mox oath. Or at least have it as soon as possible to be able to do it soon.
Without an orchard people will just fix their strategy at removing the oath before they play critters.
When playing against oath you can board them in (as i forgot in my loss) to disrupt his gameplan and possibly get a critter in from his oath.
So i will definately keep them in my sideboard.

As for only boarding my oathplan against fish and FCG. This is not correct. I will board it in against control decks as well. It is an extra threat they will have to deal with. I would keep in as much of my combo as i can but would also board in my angel and sundering titan.

As for crater hellion. I am unsure, it saved me once really good, but when i had it in against fish game two i got it out game 3 as the clock just was to fast so i needed to outrun him and then crater hellion is not the right critter. Then the spirit of the night is the right choice.

With all my acceleration and multiple colour mana it is even possible to actually hardcast a critter although i think that not to be advisable.

Defence grid is over rated, it costs you a card and all of a sudden your own FoW gets worthless as well as playing brainstorm or ancestral as bait in your opponents turn. And for it to be of use you need in your first hand, and would rather have a duress and/or a Fow in my first hand. Duress shows me how to roll out my gameplan, FoW protects me from a random chalice. Defence grid does neither so is a dead draw to me as it doesnt help me combo out. It can off course protect you versus control, but 1 is enough to have on the board, while comboing out i dont want to see another as it does absolutely nothing during the combo. And when oath is on the table i want to protect my oath with FoW and that is not gonna work with defence grid on the table. So to me it seems counterproductive in all kinds of ways.
It would be good when not running an oath sideboard by the way. But it does the same as oath, win versus control, and then i think my oath puts control on a faster clock.

[exit music]

Sorry, I think I should have been more clear in my question/explanation of my proposed changes. I wasn't saying that it would be wise to just remove the Orchards from the Sideboard and leave the MD the same; I was more saying that it would be better if you fixed the mana base of the main deck and go back to a 5 Fetch/3-4 USea, 4-5 Basic, 1 Academy mana base. This would help your fish match even more, I think, and it would make Brainstorm 100x better because you will have the ability to shuffle back the unwanted cards, as I'm sure you know.

When playing game 2/3 against Fish or Other aggro, assuming I have Oaths boarded in, I really don't think I need Orchards at all. I think to give you of an example of a deck that took on a similar strategy, here is Shock_Wave's deck from SCG P9 Rochester http://sales.starcitygames.com/deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=11696.

As you can see, his sideboard contains just 4 Oaths, but no Forbidden Orchards to support them. You see, since you don't really have to bring in too many cards, you can still easily play the storm combo role in the match, but also take the roll of Oath as an alternate kill. If you play an early Oath and they even take 2 turns to find some way to remove the Oath before they start their game plan, you should easily be able to set up a kill of your own.

I am quite sure that in aggro matches, you do not need Forbidden Orchard to make Oath effective.

I think where we really differ is TPS's role against control decks. I don't think it is at all necessary to turn into an Oath deck at the cost of messing up your mana base or sideboard. I am pretty sure that making room for 4 Non-basic, non-fetchable lands is not what TPS should do in this format, even if you might be able to catch someone by surprise now and again.

Now, I'm not saying I know what TPS should do in the control match. Personally, I tend to go the route of bringing in Instant speed card draw in the form of Skeletal Scrying because it provides an essentially un-drainable draw spell. Other TPS players have thought about running Defense Grid; I personally have never tried it.

Maybe going the Oath role against Control is a good plan, but I think Oath tends to do well against Gifts or Landstill is because it runs good disruption (Chalice/Furnace) and a really solid Counter base. By putting Oath in TPS, I don't see how it actually improves the match -- it just turns an okay match into an equally as okay match. Is that really worth sacrificing your mana base and sideboard?

[Daniel_112]

Q: I have Spawning Pit in play and the person I am playing has Oath of Druids. He uses Forbidden Orchard during his upkeep giving me a spirit token. Can I sacrifice the token to the Spawning Pit before he has the opportunity to activate Oath.

A: Oath of Druids does not have an activated ability, it has a triggered ability. If at the beginning of your opponent's upkeep he does not control fewer creatures than you the Oath will not trigger at all. In order for the Oath to trigger he would have to use the Orchard's ability at the end of your turn. Even if he did do this you could sacrifice this spirit to put a counter on the Pit before his upkeep begins. When Oath's triggered ability goes to resolve, it will see that the trigger condition isn't still true, and nothing will happen.

http://www.starcitygames.com/pages/judgefinder.php?keywords=oath+of+druids

So its a triggered ability, not activated, so the needle can't stop oath!

[Goochem]

Good report, congratz on your finish. Do you have any idea how Jochem's Needles have worked out?

Jochem here. The needles were a tryout; I hadn't actually tested them before the tournament. They didn't show up very often, but they were pretty useful against U/W Fish (MennoRieff) and a Gifts deck packing wastes and shamans (Pyromaniac), where I set them to wasteland and/or shaman. I once used a gifts including one needle against belcher, which was OK too. I still cannot draw a final conclusion about their inclusion in Gifts.dec, because more testing is needed.

[BigMac]

Exit music,

As to why i play the deck as i play it i send you to the article i wrote about transformational sideboards. There it explains why it is transformational and how to use it.

The loss of brainstorm usefullness i am fully aware of when not playing fetchlands. And believe me when i do not have a transformational sideboard i do play those. But when you play full TPS you will need to include answers to hate. You will have to have a whole different sideboard.

I am unsure about the spawning pit. I am sure about the oath ability. Although it is a triggered ability it may be used, a player may choose to ignore it and thus you activate a triggered ability still meaning it to be a activation. So pithing needle should stop it. Correct me if i am wrong anybody.

[Sgt. Pepper]

You can recognise an activated ability by looking for ":". If you can't find that, then the ability isn't activated. Oath doesn't have : in its rules text, therefore it ain't an activated ability. Goblin Welder, for example, does have : in its rules text, and is therefore stopped by a Needle. Same with Bazaar of Baghdad, Umezawa's Jitte and Polluted Delta. The fact that you can choose to use the ability of Oath of Druids does not matter.

[PieterW]

Exit music,

As to why i play the deck as i play it i send you to the article i wrote about transformational sideboards. There it explains why it is transformational and how to use it.

The loss of brainstorm usefullness i am fully aware of when not playing fetchlands. And believe me when i do not have a transformational sideboard i do play those. But when you play full TPS you will need to include answers to hate. You will have to have a whole different sideboard.

I am unsure about the spawning pit. I am sure about the oath ability. Although it is a triggered ability it may be used, a player may choose to ignore it and thus you activate a triggered ability still meaning it to be a activation. So pithing needle should stop it. Correct me if i am wrong anybody.

Sgt. Pepper is right.

You can choose to ignore the oath ability but that doesn't make it an activated ability. The "may" clausule is just part of the ability of oath.



Congratulations with your top2

[BigMac]

one more reason pithing needle is bad. Its just to circomstantial. Even for a sideboardcard.

[49 Cents]

Good report, congratz on your finish. Do you have any idea how Jochem's Needles have worked out?

Jochem here. The needles were a tryout; I hadn't actually tested them before the tournament. They didn't show up very often, but they were pretty useful against U/W Fish (MennoRieff) and a Gifts deck packing wastes and shamans (Pyromaniac), where I set them to wasteland and/or shaman. I once used a gifts including one needle against belcher, which was OK too. I still cannot draw a final conclusion about their inclusion in Gifts.dec, because more testing is needed.

Do you think it's better then Explosives? And why?

Greetz,

Hugo

[Goochem]

Do you think it's better then Explosives? And why?

I don't think Pithing Needle's better than Explosives, I guess the needles were just a metagame call. I expected quite a few wastelands and shamans (Stax, Tog, etc), preventing the deck from ramping up the crucial mana. Because the needle stops both, I decided to give them a try. Again, I hadn't played a single testgame with the needles, so I can't give my final verdict on them.

About the pithing needles i cannot say to many things as i hardly ever saw them at work. What i did see was that against broader decks it is a worthless asset. Sure it can block oath or bazaar. But those decks normally run thingsto get rid of that kind of cards anyhow.

You'd be surpised how many decks are affected by needle (Oath and combo excluded, of course, but furnace and explosives don't really shine there either). They were meant to buy me some time, and during the tournament it did that pretty well.