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Smmenen
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« Reply #23 on: April 04, 2006, 11:57:43 pm » |
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I wrote this report for my team on 2/28. No reason to keep it secret anymore.
I played 5c Grim Long with the usual maindeck - identical to the one I ran in SCG Chicago and the following SB:
3 Hurkyl's Recall (1 maindeck)
3 Shattering Spree
2 Elvish Spirit Guide
3 Xantid Swarm (1 maindeck)
1 Echoing Truth
1 Chain of Vapor
2 Tormod's Crypt
Round One Jdizzle's fiend "Ray" playing weird but awesome five color zoo
His deck had:
City of Brass, Gemstone Mine, full power, Gorilla Shaman, Dark Confidant, Mana Leaks, Sword of Fire and Ice, Umazawa's Jitte, and Swords to Plowhsares, Negators, Oxidiezes, Naturalizes, and Red Elemental Blasts (some of those post board)
Game One:
I play Underground Sea and pass
My hand is land heavy and I believe my plan is just to play some land and some cards like Brainstorm/Duress and slow roll this guy.
He opens with:
City of Brass, Mox
I play something good on turn two - I think Necro, and he Mana Leaks me. I write "GWS Oath" on my notepad thinking that is what he is playing.
But then he plays Jitte. Now I'm thinking Fish? So weird.
I play a Mox and Tolarian (my third land). I tap the Mox and the Academy and I play Timetwister. In response, he taps a land and plays Oxidize on my Mox.
I don't do much after that and I pass the turn.
He doesn't do much either (I think he plays a Shaman). Then I Time Walk, drop another land, then I duress and see:
Welder,
Negator,
Swords to Plowshares,
Dark Confidant,
Sword of Fire and Ice,
Naturalize
Wow. WTF, I think. I take the Naturalize (I think, my memory of this isn't perfect).
I need to think about how I'm going to win. He has a monkey equipped with Jitte that has two counters on it. I'm at 11 life.
He's going to play Confidant swing for 5 then he can also play a Negator or SOFI.
I formulate a plan: I need to Vamp Tutor (-2 life) for Lotus and then Mystical Tutor for Yawgmoth's Will. If I vamp or mystical for Will immediately it won't have enough juice because my only spell is Dark Ritual in the yard (I don't remember exactly how it got there). I calculate it all out and determine that in order to survive to that point I need to HARDcast Elvish Spirit Guide.
It works perfectly as planned. He kills ESG and beats in and sends me to one life.
However, there is one hitch. He has one land untapped. But remember he has Swords to Plowshares in his hand and a Confidant with SOFI on it. He can STP his Confidant and use two Jitte Tokens to send him to 24 life. I remembered all of that and I had to Desire and then Tendrils. It worked perfectly. I win because of my tight planning.
Game Two:
I have a weak opening. He Wastes my land and then turn two he drops Crucible. On turn three he drops Negator and beats me down before I can escape Wasteland lock.
Game Three:
I have a relatively slow opening, once again. This game is nerve racking from turn one. I open with Land go. He opens with:
Lotus, Dark Confidant, TIme Walk.
He reveals a SOFI with his Confidant. He draws a card.
I take my turn and Duress.
Duress sees:
Mana Leak,
Red Elemental Blast,
Swords to Plowshares
Naturalize
SOFI
I took the Leak, but my hand had Mystical Tutor and Brainstorm and Ancestral? I needed to figure out how to bait him out. I Brainstorm hoping he'll REB it. Instead, I mystical for Ancestral and he rebs the Ancestral.
Somehow, Necro becomes a part of the picture. I remember Necroing down to a certain life and stabalizing at 7, but fearing his beats commencing. I go to 6 to take the Yawg Will I put on top of my library. I was goign to Ancestral and then bust the LED, but I knew he was going to counter the Ancestral with the REB. Otherwise, I'd bust the LED. Suffice to say though, I win in the nick of time at 1 life.
1-0, 2-1
Round Two Stax
This poor guy. He wins the flip and elects to play:
Mox Emerald, Fastbond, Land, Mox, Mana Crypt, Smokestack.
My hand had Tolarian, and the following cards:
Gemstone Mine
--> Dark Ritual
--> Duress (took something irrellevant)
--> Cabal Ritual
--> Lion's Eye Diamond
---> Demonic Tutor, response break LED, BBBB floating
---> Yawg Will
---> Replay LED, Ritual, Ritual
---> DT for Tendrils, that's game.
Turn One Win.
SB:
+ 3 Hurkyl's Recall
+ 2 Shattering Spree
+ 2 ESG
Game Two:
Once again, he elects to play.
He goes:
Mana Crypt,
Sol Ring,
Mana Vault
Gemstone Mine
Mind's Eye
Then on my draw step, he pays a mana to draw a card with Mind's Eye.
Poor sap.
My hand is:
Black Lotus
Mox Sapphire
Mox Emerald
Cabal Ritual
Tinker
Shattering Spree
Gemstone MIne
City of Brass
Now, my first thought was simple:
I can drop Lotus and Spree away his ENTIRE board except for a Gemstone Mine with 2 counters and his tapped Mana Vault. How would I lose this game?
However, I begin thinking about it. It would be even MORE savage to Jar and then Hurkyl's him within a jar. Post-board, I have FOUR Jars.
So I do thsi:
1) Play Lotus
2) Play both moxen
3) Tap Gemstone and Emerald and play Cabal Ritual
4) Tinker up Jar with one black floating.
5) Break Jar
I see Dark Ritual, ESG, ESG, Time Walk, Bargain, Time Walk, and something else irrellevant
I play Ritual off the black Floating. Then I break Lotus for Blue and remove both ESGs and play Bargain and Time Walk.
That is so easy to discover that it suggests conspicuousness or little need for perspicacity in the observer. I win.
Two turn one Wins in a row.
Poor guy.
2-0,4-1
Round Three This guy is playing Oath with Razia, Akroma, and a guy that says that you can't be attacked by creatures
I win the roll.
We laugh it up for a bit, he says its a pleasure to play me and he says that he just hopes I don't win on turn one. I tell him that that is a little unusual and I probably won win on turn one.
I eat my words.
Game One:
My opening hand was a classic Tinker/Will hand:
Lotus, Dark Ritual, Mox Sapphire, Land, Tinker, Will, and Mystical Tutor
I play Sapphire, Land, RItual, and Tinker.
If the Tinker is countered, then I'll know Will will resolve. If Tinker resolves, then I know they don't have a counter.
Tinker is not countered, so I go find LED instead of Jar and I play Will and break LED in response. I generate a million mana and pwn him hard.
Game Two:
He opens with the oh so strong play of:
Orhcard, Mox, GO
My hand is almost IDENTICAL to the hand that I was debating with JD over yesterday WHICH IS HILARIOUS.
It's Ancestral
Duress
Underground Sea
Time Walk
3 other cards
I play the Ancestral, as I concluded the proper play was, and he responded with Brainstorm, but Ancestral resolved. I discarded Jar and passed the turn.
He untapped and played OATH AND Wastelanded my only land.
I play a land and Duress and see:
Demonic Tutor
Strip Mine
Null Rod
!!!!
I take the Rod.
He then untaps, Oaths up Akroma and beats me down to 13. He Demonic Tutors then he strips my second land and I'm ouchy.
Here is the gist of my hand:
City of Brass,
Time Walk,
Grim Tutor
Imperial Seal
Dark Ritual,
Brainstorm,
another Duress
I think about my chances and conclude that unless I draw a Sapphire/Jet/Lotus or Lotus Petal, I lose.
I TOPDECK JET. I play the Jet and play City of BrassWalk. I then untap and think. I realize that once I pass the turn I'll have to scoop up for game three. I want to win this match now and get it over with.
I begin it.
I tap the Jet and play Ritual. I Seal for Black Lotus.
I realize that if I reveal a single mana source underneath Lotus, I'll win.
I Brainstorm into:
Black Lotus
Lotus Petal
Duress
I put back both Duresses and I use the two black floating and the Petal, and the Black Lotus to Grim Tutor for Yawgmoth's Will.
That's game boys!
3-0,6-1
Round Four Some Guy with Uba Stax
This guy has a PTQ Winner pin on his playmat. He mulligans to 6 and then to five and keeps his hand.
He goes:
Bazaar of Baghdad, use it and discard, Academy, Bazaar, and a Trike?
My hand is something like this:
Gemstone Mine,
Elvish Spirit Guide,
Lion's Eye Diamond
Demonic Tutor,
Duress,
other stuff
The choice is: do I duress him and make his bazaar worse or do I just DT for Necro and put Necro directly into play using LED Mana?
He has 3 cards in hand. If he draws another card, he'll then use bazaar to draw cards 5 and 6 and then discard 3 keeping three in his hand. If he to discard 3 of five cards, then that will make Bazaar alot worse.
I decide to risk gettting Wastealnded because if he Wastes me he'll be even more screwed than I will be and probably for an equal length of time.
So I duress and see:
TriniSphere
Sol Ring
Mountain
How laucky! I take the 3Sphere.
He draws and plays Mountain, Sol Ring, go.
I untap and draw a land! Then I play DT for Necro and play it using the LED.
I easily win next turn.
Game Two:
I bring in 3 Hurks, 3 Spree, 2 ESG
This game was crazy. He goes turn one:
Barbarian Ring, Tormod's Crypt, Goblin Welder. Weak.
I play a turn one Brainstorm and pass.
He uses his Crypt on my Brainstorm, I thought oddly, but then he plays a land and Null Rod, so that made sense.
I'm holding Desire and so I know that it is pretty clear that all I need to do is just Desire to win this game. I don't even need to rely on Yawg Will.
I Imperial Seal for Necro, I think.
He beats for one with Welder.
I then topdeck Necro and Cabal Ritual into it. I eat down to 9 life I think. I'm holding Desire and Tendrils. All I need is a Hurkyl's.
He draws and passes.
I grim tutor for Hurkyl's. I play two Moxen and necro down to 2.
He welds out Rod eot for Crypt and plays another Rod. My GY Is 6 cards.
I use an ESG and tap a land to Hurkyl's him. He tries to Crypt me. I remind him his Rod is in play. He puts all his shit into his hand.
I Desire for 5 with 3 black floating (god I love Cabal Ritual) and then I reveal Crypt, Hurkyl's and that is all it takes to win with the Tendrils.
Round Five and Six
Draw and Draw
4-0,8-1
Total record:
4-0-2
I am second in the swiss at the end of round six. I drop from the tournanment before top 8 begins for several reasons. First, I already dominated this tournament, Second, if I dropoped then Paul M would swing from 9th to 8th place. Third, I figured we had plenty of meandeckers in the top 8 anyway and I would just be helping them out if I played. Fourth and most importantly, I have a two hour drive home and work early in the morning. I didn't want to get home at like 2am.
In sum, I am very pleased with Grim Long.
In two tournaments, this tournament and SCG Chicago - the last two tournaments I've played in, I've lost a grand total of ONE match. I would probably be stupid not to play Grim Long at Richmond.
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