[Mini report] Eine Kleine Togmusik

[Matt]

This really wasn't enough of a tournament for me to claim that my first place standing meant anything, but I did glean some important information. With only seven players, I wouldn't even have written this, but all of us had competitive decks. It was Tog (Matt), RGSA (Chris I think?), Goblins (Steven), Affinity (Woodrow), UGW Threshold (??? he was terrible though), Rifter (Tristan), and some kind of burn deck using Shrapnel Blast and artifact lands (???).

My list:

4 FoW
4 Cspell
2 Duress

3 Deed
1 Putrefy
1 Darkblast

2 Loam
2 Sandbar
1 Cabal Pit
1 Wasteland

4 Tog
4 Mongoose
1 Wonder

3 Intuition
4 Brainstorm
2 Serum Visions

1 Haunting Echoes
1 Vedalken Shackles

4 Sea
2 Trop
2 Bayou
4 Strand
2 Delta

2 Island
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Swamp
1 Mox Diamond

SB: 3 Engineered Plague
SB: 2 BEB
SB: 2 Naturalize
SB: 1 Duress
SB: 1 Massacre
SB: 1 Darkblast
SB: 1 Mystical Tutor
SB: 1 Misdirection
SB: 1 Putrefy
SB: 2 Secret Anti-Thresh Tech That Never Became Useful


Round one I got a bye. RGSA beat Goblins, Affinity beat Burn (on the back of Sphere of Resistance), and Rifter beat Threshold. Round two I played against Rifter.

We jockeyed back and forth for a while. I was dredging Loam and using it to get both cycle lands, trying to draw into Echoes. But I ended up milling Echoes. :< I forced him into a situation where I planned to Deed his Humility away, then drop Tog and win. But for some reason, he Vengenace'd, clearing the Humility for me. Shortly later, I attacked for 23 and killed him.

SB: +2 BEB, +1 Duress, +2 Naturalize, +1 Mystical, -1 Serum Visions, -1 Wonder, -1 Mox Diamond, -1 Darkblast, -1 Putrefy, -1 Shackles. I thought about bringing in a Plague to kill Soldiers, or anything under Humility but didn't.

He had turn one Scrabbling Claws, and my eighth card was FoW. :< I Blasted a Blood Moon and a Boil. I was chipping away with unthreshed Mongoose til he Decreed to kill it. I Intuitioned for Deed which wiped out a Decree token, Rift, and Claws. Then I played a Sandbar, EOT Mystical for Echoes, untapped, played Cabal Pit, and Echoes'd him for everything relevant but StP, 2 REB, and Eternal Dragon and whatever was in his hand. I positioned myself for the kill. Tog. Stp. FoW. Stp. FoW. REB. At some point I pitched Wonder. He did something, I forget, which stalled me for a long time. At some point, I was SO NEAR to killing him, but he had that damn Dragon which wouldn't get out of the way. If I'd had so much as a Darkblast, I could have won - Pit the Dragon, Loam it, replay, Pit again, Darkblast and swing. But I couldn't get it out of the way, and I lost. We didn't have time for a third game.

I think I had the advantage going into game three though. Echoes is a motherfucker.

Round three I got RGSA, which I'd never played against before. Affinity beat Rifter this round (Arcbound > Humility). I know Gro lost but not to what (Goblins I believe).

Game one I Counterspelled a Survival, Forced a Witness, then Deeded a Baloth+Elf+Vial, then Echoes'd him fierce for Survival, Witness, Baloth, Vial, and some other junk. I then went to town with Mongeese, which were flying due to Intuition, Brainstorm, dredge. I never played a targetable creature, and his two FtKs were stuck in hand. By the time they came down (killing his Elf and Spore Frog on successive turns) I had recurring Cabal Pit and nothing stopped me.

SB: +2 BEB, +1 Duress (Survival, and also any REB effects. I knew he'd be siding into Blood Moon too), +1 Putrefy, +1 Massacre, -1 Darkblast, -1 Mox, -1 Serum Visions, -1 Tog, -1 Wasteland.

Early on I pitched a Wonder to FoW a Survival or Witness or something. This would be key to me taking so long to win later. On turn three I dropped a Shackles (a second of which would have been dynamite here), which made him do a sweet double-take. I stole a Yavimaya Elder (which turned into some awesome card advantage for me) and chumped his Baloths with Mongeese while I used the Elder, then used the handcuffs to pop three Baloths, stabilizing at 12 life, with him at 31.

I countered a Troll Ascetic, then on a Brainstorm, I put back Tog, Tog, keeping FoW, Deed, Deed in hand. This turned out to be a huge HUGE misplay, as he dropped another Troll while my back was turned. So now my Shackled Sharpshooter and Tog were facing off against his Troll. An Intuition I had played earlier was another huge fuck up - I got Sandbar, Sandbar, Pit, but didn't have a Loam! If I'd gone Loam, Sandbar, Pit, Tog would have grown irresponsibly huge, very fast. In the end I dropped a Mongoose, but that darn Troll was pissing me off. Then I drew Mystical, and used it to get Massacre. I untapped, swung for 4, then Massacred and pumped the Tog (another play mistake - I should have pumped and swung for 5 instead). With the Troll gone, he got frantic, casting Squee and Genesis, tapping him out. I BEB the Squee, Shackled the Genesis, untapped, and swung for 18, killing him and netting me six packs of Guildpact. I can't wait for Dissension to fuel these tournaments.

MVP: the one-of power twins, Echoes and Shackles.

Most useless: Where to even start! Besides the techy sideboard card, there were a lot of cards that were good against the field, but terrible in my matchups: Darkblast, Wasteland, Engineered Plague. But overall, Misdirection gets the golden raspberry, because it's only good in maybe one matchup (Burn) in the entire format (I really don't have enough blue cards to bring it in vs. Threshold or Tide). It would have been awesome to MisD a Fling from Affinity though. Anyway, MisD is definitely coming out of the deck. Maybe for another Echoes or Shackles (neither of which do I own more than one of, sadly), or Persecute.

Biggest regret: I always hated pitching Wonder to FoW. It made winning a lot harder.

Afterwards I showed a guy there named Steven (Goblin player) how the goblins/tog matchup played out, and we brainstormed some ideas I've had for breaking a new deck.

[Anusien]

I'm quickly becoming an unsupporter of Darkblast.  Seems like Ghastly Demise, Vendetta and so many other cards would be better.
You miss the extra Shackles?  I'd run 2 at the minimum, and probably pull Dblast and maybe one other cards for a third.

[Matt]

I continue to be a fan of Darkblast over other options for two reasons: one, I can Intuition for it, and two, if I dredge it away while Loaming, it's like I "drew" it.

I don't want another Shackles maindeck. The 3-mana slot is already clogged. I have Deed which often blows for 3 or 4. And it's not very good vs. goblins (Putrefy for example is way better because it helps stabilize. Tog has no problems winning after dealing with the initial rush). It's awesome against other, lesser aggro (and RGSA), but it's a real liability against Goblins, with all their mana denial.

I do want a second for the SB but definitely not maindeck, which must remain lean and mean. This is not a slow, grinding control deck. As a footnote, my budgetary constraints mean I have fewer islands than I'd like to work with (hello Bayou).

[Anusien]

I notice the singleton Mox Diamond, I assume it's because you don't own four.  Do you find that Mox Diamond is getting in the way of Deed?  I have a real hesitancy towards running both in the same deck.

[Bardo]

I'm quickly becoming an unsupporter of Darkblast.  Seems like Ghastly Demise, Vendetta and so many other cards would be better.
You miss the extra Shackles?  I'd run 2 at the minimum, and probably pull Dblast and maybe one other cards for a third.

I agree with everything Anusien says here. There are some matches where Darkblast is simply golden (A Stompy, WW, and it's decent against Goblins, but it generally seems weaker than, say, an additional set of Vedalken Shackles--which is the swap I made. In terms of board control, I'm currently at:

3 Shackles
3 Deed

Anyway, nice job Matt. How did you like those 2 maindeck Duress?

[Matt]

The Duress are nice. Lets me take out a Decree of Justice, lets me kno how many StPs I have to fight through, and also compliment Echoes very well. I would take them out if I expected to play against goblins, but everywhere else they're great (obviously great vs. combo and control, but even against stuff like WW, taking out equipment or Geddon is great).

Darkblast is WAY better against goblins than Shackles, which is just too slow.

Yeah I only own one Mox, and it's good. I wouldn't run more unless I dropped Deed, but the one is good. It's awesome versus goblins (where Deed is also too slow to be important, so there's little anti-synergy there), and it does lend me a degree of manafixing to make up for my dual situation. I would replace it with a Tropical Island but nothing else. It has also gotten me through some tough Armageddon times. It's not hard to avoid drawing it when you don't want it (which is true of every card in the deck).

[Anusien]

The reason why I ask is because I want to run Tog - Deed.  I love your maindeck Mongoose because it's a really awesome answer to Lackey and a decent clock.  I feel like adding Moxen might bring Shackles up to being fast enough.

[Matt]

That's true, Moxen do help Shackles a lot, especially on the play.

Against goblins, all you ask Mongoose to do is either:

1. take Lackey down
2. stall their Warchief/Fanatic offensive line for a few turns, then trade with Piledriver.