[Report] Garden City, MI. First Place Tournament Report.

[MasterShake]

If you clicked on the link looking for some kind of detailed match analysis... you clicked the wrong link: Sorry.

The Night Before Following ritual, I do not sleep. I played a lot of Tetris, I did not play a lot of Street Fighter as I typically do, My friend, teammate and hetero-life partner, Kacey watch Spinal Tap and a bit of the Monkee's Head He is furious that he is trapped at my house and not able to sleep. However a sudden turn of events forced me to sleep. I got about three hours in: Big mistake. If you are staying up, and decide to wuss out of it, be sure that you do it around the time that you can still get five hours in: Anything less will kick your ass for the entire next day or two. I wake up at 11:30, and get out around Noon. We get there with time to spare, so that I can pick up my last Task Force and Wall of Blossoms.

The Deck
Life - A deck by Christopher Walton

Lands: 22

6 Plains
4 Savannah
4 Starlit Sanctum
4 Windswept Heath
2 Flooded Strand
1 Forest
1 Miren, the Moaning Well

Critters: 19

4 Task Force
3 Shaman en-Kor
3 Nomads en-Kor
3 Daru Spiritualist
3 Wall of Blossoms
1 Eternal Wittiness
1 Warrior en-Kor
1 Viridian Zealot

Cards That Stay on the Table, But Are Not Creatures Or Lands: 7

2 Sylvan Library
1 Test of Endurance
4 Æther Vial

Cards That Go Away After I Use Them (Most of the Time.): 12

4 Eladamri's Call
4 Living Wish
4 Worth Cause

Sideboard
2 Gaea's Blessing
2 Disenchant
2 Pithing Needle
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Genesis
1 Viridian Shaman
1 Eternal Witness
1 Nomads en-Kor
1 Warrior en-Kor
1 Daru Spiritualist
1 Miren, the Moaning Well
1 Karakas

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The tournament starts and parings come up. The pool is 21 players:

Round 1 - Fight! Kacey - Angel Stompy.

If you read the above stuff, Kacey is the very same guy that spent the night cuddling with me.

Game 1: We each know the other's deck inside and out. He has a better chance than anyone of beating me, with his deck configuration. The only person who had a better chance was the guy playing SSalvager's Anyway, I do not get an explosive start. Using this knowledge, he keeps a hand with no threats, only answers and equipment, hoping to draw into something with numbers in the corner. He keeps me pinned down for a few turns, this is my longest game of the day at about 14 total turns. I win off the two combo pieces I need coming to me through Sylvan Library.

Sideboarding: -1 Test of Endurance -1 Sylvan Library. +2 Disenchant.

Game 2: He applies some early pressure, I lose a couple of guys to Sword of Fire and Ice, Jitte, and Swords to Plowshares. I get Library down, Disenchant his Jitte, and thanks the Library, win the next turn after paying four life.

2-0

Round 2 Rob - R/w Burn.

He is shuffling, and a Mountainfalls out, I think Goblins and expect a hard, fast match.

Game 1: I lead off with a Vial and two thirds of my combo, the piecesthat are hard to burn are MIA. Turn 4 comes around: Library shows me a Call. I Call up Task Force, he comes over, and I go infinite.

Sideboarding: -2 Sylvan Library +2 Disenchant.

Game 2: He is on the play - Mountain Seal of Fire, go. I go Vial, go. He misses the next land drop, and says go. I kick my vial to 1, and pass the turn. He draws into his second land, thinks about the situtation and plays Pyrostatic Pillar. I kick my Vial up to two, play Daru Spiritualist, Nomads en-Kor, and Worthy Cause. He concedes shortly thereafter.

4-0

Round 3 Dan (cancerstix) - RGW Zoo

Dan is the TO, and I know what he is playing. I am fearful that he may be using Burning Tree Shaman somewhere.

Game 1: I win the roll, I get some early creatures down - Not that I use any slow creatures - They block his guys. On roughly turn 4, Combo off.

Sideboarding: -1 Test of Endurance -1 Sylvan Library +2 Disenchant

Game 2: I take some early damage from some Kird Apes, but I combo off on turn 4.

6-0

Round 4 Richard (KrzyMoose) - RGW Slide/Confinement

We ID the match, but play it out: We both accpet that I basically cannot lose this mmatch up short of an act of God.

Game 1: I combo off turn 3, he does not have Swords.

Sideboarding: -4 Æther Vial +2 Disenchant +2 Pithing Needle

Game 2: He is on the play, I name a Needle on Secludedteppe. I end up comboing off turn 4, after digging with Sylvan Library.

8-0

Top Eight

Because we IDed, I am second seed, playing against 7th seed:

Round 5

I missed his name - RUG Grow... quite odd.

Game 1: I win the roll, he ges a first turn Quirion Dryad on the table. I get a combo pipiece onhe table, but there is nothing he can do about it. I get the "Infinite Toughness" combo on the table, and when I untap, I will have infinite life. He swings in for 8, but I block and take 0 instead. It was something like my 6th turn

Sideboarding: He tells me he has nothing. If he is not boarding, I am not boarding.

Game 2: His first turn is a bit slower, mine is actually faster. He has no answers in sight and cannot stop my third turn combo.

10-0

Round 6 Steve - R/w Burn

Steve has a lot of pressure to apply, and all of the games are very close

Game 1: I have pretty bad hand: 3 Starlits and a fetchland, along with an Æther Vial and a couple pieces of search. I kept it, hoping to draw into white mana.  I do not think he knew what I was playing. He makes a couple of slip ups. He flamebreaks to kill half my combo, I lay down the full "Infinite Toughness" set up on the next turn, turn 4. He has one card in hand, and I am at an unmanageable life total. He concedes, despite the fact that I cannot go off (as far as he knows: I could, but that is not the point.)

Sideboarding: He says he is bringing in Vortex; I believe him, because everyone says that they wish they had Vortex. -1 Test of Endurance -2 Sylvan Library +2 Disenchant +1 Karakas.

Game 2: I keep a poor hand, and he wins on the turn I normally win on: Turn 4. I was way behind this game, and needed two or three more turns.

Game 3: I am really tense at this point, because it could really go either way. I look at my hand, and it allows me to either go Turn 3.  He spots my trick and bolts my Warriors en-Kor. The next turn (turn 4) I lay down Shaman and Spiritualist, next to a Wall of Blossoms. He does some math in his head after drawing his card, and confesses that he is is two short to win.

12-1

Round 7 - Dan (cancerstix) - RGW Zoo.

Earlier in the T8, Dan says to me that if he is paired with me, he will concede. I ask him if he would like to play it out, but he says he has simply no answer to the deck, and cannot go fast enough to win. I agree, and we shake on it. He drops at the end of the 6th round to avoid the point loss. And me? Well, I become the new owner of a set of Underground Seas, and 15 dollars in store credit.

Conclusion:

I am nothing more than an average player, but I went 12-1 on the day. So, that means that Life is a really good deck. No one is very well equipped to deal with the deck, and it is not exactly easy to prepare for it. I have no idea what decks are and are not favorable for the deck, many of my games were close though. The deck is a great metagame choice, it only really loses to infinite damage and milling. Pandemonium - as most 1.5 metagames are - is dominated by aggro, making it a fantastic choice for the metagame.

I expect more combo next time, so Life may not be the best choice... But it rolls aggro into a ball of bread, like kids like to do, and it is really disgusting, so it throws it away.

I do not do 'Props', but thanks to Dan for organizing the tournament, it was great.

Formatting fixed. Also, Life isn't played enough - Godder

[Anusien]

It's not easy, but it's conceivable for 3C Confinement Slide to win.  Or rather, it was pre-removing Eternal Dragons.  That gives you Solitary Confinement + a way to maintain it without drawing cards, making it feasible for you to deck out first.  In reality, GG.  (I used to board 1 Brain Freeze in Landstill to beat Life).

Anyway, congratulations.  The problem with Life.dec is in metagames with any High Tide deck, you basically hand them your wrists and a razor.  You can't conceivably race them.

Did you ever consider splashing Black?  It gives you a conceivable race scenario with Starlit Sanctum and disruption in the form of Cabal Therapy.  You could also board an Academy Rector to find Test of Endurance.  That's kind of kludgy though.  For that matter, why Test of Endurance at all?  Why not Serra Avatar?  Is it avoiding hate from StP?  If so, I'd still advocate boarding Rector over DSC (seems incredibly random) simply because you have no way to find Test, other than Library.

[MasterShake]

The beautiful thing about having 1,500,000,018 life is that I can basically sit around until I draw into Test of Endurance. After the combo, I am in no hurry to to win. On a somewhat related note: I had considered running black, but if you read Starlit Sanctum, it requires the use of Unspeakable Symbol (another card enchantment, that, short of Academy Rector, I cannot tutor for) Which is, in itself is just another win condition: However, it requires that I have 1BB to swing for a win (which could take a number of turns to actually get a creature through) or 2BBB open to win the turn I play it via Starlit Sanctum. In the end, I decided not to dilute the mana base for what just seems to be Win-More.

I decided to go with the super-basic, straight forward list because I did not want to dilute the combo. The Sylvan Libraries (which turned out to be golden,) Test of Endurance, Eternal Wittness, and the Viridian Shaman are the only slots that are really debateable without doing a compete overhaul of the deck. In a larger tournament, I may considering going 3 color for Duress and/or Therapy, but probably not Unspeakable Symbol.

I had all ready admitted that Life just loses to some decks: It is not a big mystery. I will lose game 1 to both High Tide and Spring Tide and any deck that is using cards like Glimpse of the Unthinkable every time. However, game 2 gives me a sivler bullet. And if anyone is curious to know my SB against such decks it is something like:

-1 Test of Endurance
-4 Worthy Cause
-4 Living Wish
-1 Starlit Sanctum

+2 Gaea's Blessing
+2 Pithing Needle
+1 Nomads en-Kor
+1 Warrior en-Kor
+1 Eternal Wittness
+1 Viridian Shaman
+1 Genesis
+1 Karakas

It is still a terrible match up, I am forced to play aggro. Against Random.Mill and Spring Tide, Blessings are going to be huge pains in the ass. High Tide (Solidarity) Has a better chance of answering it, but will probably walk into it if I bait them with a couple of spells on my third and/or fourth main phase.

So, I may lose to Tide decks... but I also lose to False Cure Coalition Victory.

If I were to play the deck again; I would make the following changes.

Maindeck Changes

-1 Viridian Zealot
-1 Test of Endurance (Everyone concedes to the life gain.)

+1 Wall of Blossoms (It cantrips)
+1 Shuko/Worldly Tutor/Sylvan Library

Sideboard Changes

Note - Miren, the Moaning Well was supposed to be Diamond Valley, but could not be due to budget concerns. It will only really matter in one in twenty matches.

-1 Viridan Shaman
-1 Genesis

+1 Viridian Zealot
+1 Disenchant (although I never used them, all of the R/w burn people boarded in Disenchant against me., they are a pretty good idea.)

On Darksteel Colossus

He is there incase the opponenet does not concede to the life gain. You never board him in, you Living wish for him and either tap eleven lands for him, or set a Vial up to 11 to get him in. He is never really nessescary, but it good as an isurance policy.

[emidln]

Congrats on the tournament win. It looks like your meta analysis was dead on after the first tournament. Have fun with your new Underground Seas!

[Matt]

Good job! What's the Karakas for, and why did you bring it in against R/w Burn in round 6?

[MasterShake]

Karakas is Living Wish for an extra white mana source, and is randomly useful at sending Akroma back to someone's hand. In Short: I love Karakas.

In round six, I make the following SB: -1 Test of Endurance -2 Sylvan Library +2 Disenchant +1 Karakas (Ironic, huh?)

My terrible mana problem in game one (3 Starlits and a Heath) caused me to take out what were basically dead cards for what ended up being dead cards and a mana source.

Edited to show the SB.

[frogboy]

Anusien: The Life player can draw up to seven and discard Darksteel Colossus or Serra Avatar to hand size and never deck, either.

[ChemEng]

Would Diamond Valley fit somewhere in here?

[Bardo]

Would Diamond Valley fit somewhere in here?

Note - Miren, the Moaning Well was supposed to be Diamond Valley, but could not be due to budget concerns. It will only really matter in one in twenty matches.

[moxdiamd]

Can you explain the combo to me?  My brain is not working and i am just not seeing it. 

[Bardo]

Can you explain the combo to me? My brain is not working and i am just not seeing it.

Here's a good explanation.

The Life deck is essentially a three card combination deck, but unlike a lot of specific combinations (like Kismet + Stasis + Time Elemental or Icy Manipulator + Icy Manipulator + Winter Orb), the Arita deck is built on modules. It can take any card from Group A, any card from Group B, and any card from group C to assemble the combination.

The basic combination is to take a creature from Group B, say a Task Force, and target it repeatedly with the damage prevention ability of a creature from Group A, say a Shaman en-Kor. Once the Group B creature's toughness is acceptably high, say fourteen trillion, a group C card is used to generate essentially infinite life (but actually only, say, fourteen trillion, since you do need to pick a finite number) by sacrificing the Group B component.

[moxdiamd]

So you can use the En-kor ability to re-direct 1 damage even if no damage is delt to it?

[Bardo]

So you can use the En-kor ability to re-direct 1 damage even if no damage is delt to it?

Yes, it's an activated ability that costs to use. So, when you have priority, you can activate [card]Nomads En-Kor[/card], targetting [card]Daru Spiritualist[/card] (for example) 15,000 times. Then you use a "sac to gain life" ability of something like [card]Starlit Sanctum[/card] or [card]Diamond Valley[/card] to gain 15,000 (or some equally arbitrarily large) life. From there you can deck your opponent or use a win condition, like [card]Test of Endurance[/card] to win the game. It's a redundant and highly elegant little combo that just slaughters aggro decks.

Read the Flores article linked above for a more detailed explanation.

[moxdiamd]

So you can use the En-kor ability to re-direct 1 damage even if no damage is delt to it?

Yes, it's an activated ability that costs to use. So, when you have priority, you can activate [card]Nomads En-Kor[/card], targetting [card]Daru Spiritualist[/card] (for example) 15,000 times. Then you use a "sac to gain life" ability of something like [card]Starlit Sanctum[/card] or [card]Diamond Valley[/card] to gain 15,000 (or some equally arbitrarily large) life. From there you can deck your opponent or use a win condition, like [card]Test of Endurance[/card] to win the game. It's a redundant and highly elegant little combo that just slaughters aggro decks.

Read the Flores article linked above for a more detailed explanation.

Thanks for all the help.

No problem. - Bardo

[P_Bee]

Wow, Chirstopher Walton is my new hero!