10th Place at TML Open 3/3/07. With BHWC Landstill

[The Chosen One]

Well, let me start off by saying I dont get out to play at tournaments too much. I was lucky enough to be able to go this afternoon to play at one of Ray's spectacular events. And I did well I must say. First here is the decklist:

4 Mishra's Factory (traded for some antiquities ones, sweet)
3 Nantuko Monestary
4 Flooded Strand
3 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
3 Tundra
3 Wasteland
1 Island

4 Pernicious Deed
2 Duress
2 Disenchant
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
3 Stifle
3 Fact or Fiction
4 Counterspell
2 Crucible of Worlds
4 Standstill
4 Swords to Plowshares

Board:
2 Arcane Laboratory
3 Engineered Plague
4 Meddling Mage
2 Duress
4 Hydroblast

First off, you will see that there is a few minor differences from the normal BHWC lists you normally see. I saw alot of people playing with empty the warrens/lions eye diamonds etc.. So I maindecked 2 duress and sided 2 arcane labs. I did not lose to combo out of the three matches I played. Peoples names I wont remember, but here is what happened:

Round 1 Against David Price with survival(with black!):
My only real loss of the day.

game 1: I am on the play, drop fetch but dont crack it. He cabal therapy's me and takes duress from my hand. He gets a werebear in play, gets  ahead and I cant find any business and he burning wishes for Tsunami(when I am all in with duals) so I scoop.

game 2: Not having seen any survivals, I thought he was playing an odd threshold build, so I board all kinds of stupid for this, i brought in hydroblasts and outted my disenchants. Early survial=GG

0-2

a little disheartened, but I move on:

round 2: some guy playing epic storm

game one: I am on the play, start with fetch go. He plays city of brass, brainstorm. Pass. Turn 3 I resolve crucible with a fetch in the grave. His turn he goes off gets 12 goblin tokens off empty the warrens(its all good, deed in hand, fetch for black in the grave). My turn, I fetch for black, deed, crack for 0. Factory beats take him down.

game 2: this is where I am glad I boarded the way I did. -4 stp, -2 crucible,-2 disenchant,-3 deed, +2 lab +2 duress +4 mage +3 engineered plague. I left one deed in in case i needed to nuke off some goblin tokens in an emergency. Alot like game one, except I turn one duress taking burning wish. Then resolve a plague on goblins, then meddling mage on tendrils. Game goes quick.

2-0  1-1

round 3: another guy (Sam Best?) playing Epic Storm:

game one: I duress turn one, getting infernal tutor.He gets nutz drops gobbos, I cant hang. loss

game 2:(board same as before except i leave 2 stps in for deed #4 out and a fof) I mull to 4 (no colored sources or all garbage, but I get 3 mana and an arcane lab=sweet). He doesnt do anything crucial and i get to drop lab. It is heavily in my favor. Get man lands=win

game 3: i get early mages in play followed by lab again and 2 duress in there. Quick death

2-1  2-1

round 4: Nice guy from New York playing w/g/r/b aggro

game one: he gets turn one silver knight off a land and a chrome mox. backed up soon by kird apes, i cant find an answer to all the beats, i die.

game 2: out 2 duress out 2 stifle in 4 hydroblast(i didnt think he was running wastes since he was so mana tight, it was a good call). He gets out some early guys, i find deed, followed by crucible/waste lock , I win

game 3: he brought in needles, gets early needle on deed, then on monestary. I get factory in play to defend the ranks from weenies. Game goes on for a bit, I fact two turns in a row, get into disenchant, nail needle naming deed, drop deed, blow upeverything.Monastery gets in for the win.

2-1  3-1

round 5: another guy with Epic Storm

game one: he gets tendrils off when i beat him down to about 4 life. followed by another two turns later. I lose

game 2: he brings in confidants and some other stuff i wasnt expecting. I get ahead, nuke the board and win this.

game 3: i think this is the bast playing i did all day. He gets mana tight, but gets off a tomb of urami and sacs it for a 5/5 flyer. I have no stp in hand. I get lab into play to keep the combo at bay.He beats me twice. I am at 10. I get engineered plague, I drop it naming demon to buy myself another turn to dig for stp. He gets in for 4. I draw my swords!. Swords that bitch! Get mages naming tendrils and empty the warrens. Factory and mage beats for the win!

2-1  4-1

I try to ID into the top8 and end up in 10th. I am new to the whole tournament scene, and I asked around for recommendations from more experienced players and they said they would have ID'd. Well, I guess luck wasnt on my side there today....I got 4 packs of timespiral and 2 planar chaos packs. Plus I had bought sold/traded stuff away so they day was good and I felt good about my playing. I played patiently and thoughtfully which is what I needed to do.

Props:
Ray for another fantastic event, and one I actually got to stay at!
Guy who traded me my antiquities factories
Gaming Etc for having a beserk(BETA!)
getting all the cards for my next legacy deck, priceless!

Slops:
fate for kicking me in the balls and not catching top 8. I had good games against combo all day, might have won if I had played.
idiots on the highway home, Im sure you all had to deal with them.

Thanks for reading.
PEACE!

[Bardo]

Guy who traded me my antiquities factories

Any Winter-scene factories? Those things are busted!

In any case, nicely done Joe.

[The Chosen One]

Guy who traded me my antiquities factories

Any Winter-scene factories? Those things are busted!

In any case, nicely done Joe.

no, all non winter's  . that would have been pimpin!
thanks Bardo. Looking forward to actually top 8'ing next time I get out!

[Peter_Rotten]

Just when I thought that TES could be getting out of hand, you beat three of em in one day.  LAWL!  Well, I guess we have our TES foil.  What would you have played against if had not drawn in the last round?

[The Chosen One]

Just when I thought that TES could be getting out of hand, you beat three of em in one day. LAWL! Well, I guess we have our TES foil. What would you have played against if had not drawn in the last round?

I would have played TES. The guy I drew with was the one that won the whole thing. It makes me wonder if he was just a better player, or his build was better. Maybe I would have lost and gotten knocked down even more, if that was the case. From playing against TES, I can say that I have the tools to win, although they can get off a quick win at times. E plague is great in this matchup, since it is alot easier to ETW turn one than to tendrils. If you can clean the tokens off the board and then stabilize with a mage/lab you should win. Stifle is hot also(of course)

[White_Ghost]

That would be Bryant (Wastedlife) the creator of TES.

[The Chosen One]

That would be Bryant (Wastedlife) the creator of TES.

well in that case I am glad he had the oppotunity to take down a tournament with his own creation. I didnt get to see him in action. I have no idea how he dealt with hate, since none of the other players was able to handle mage/lab/plague.

[White_Ghost]

As far as I know, it would have been to Burning wish for Tranquility, Mage dies to Grapeshot or an alt win, and Plague forces you to go for Tendrils, probably off Diminishing Returns.

[revenge_inc]

Cool decklist. Sorry to hear about bad breakers kicking you out of T-8.
Strange that you didn't face any goblins yet faced 3 Epic Storms!
Is the removal quick enough to deal with the little green men anyways?
Congrats on 10th place.

[BreathWeapon]

Just when I thought that TES could be getting out of hand, you beat three of em in one day. LAWL! Well, I guess we have our TES foil. What would you have played against if had not drawn in the last round?

I would have played TES. The guy I drew with was the one that won the whole thing. It makes me wonder if he was just a better player, or his build was better. Maybe I would have lost and gotten knocked down even more, if that was the case. From playing against TES, I can say that I have the tools to win, although they can get off a quick win at times. E plague is great in this matchup, since it is alot easier to ETW turn one than to tendrils. If you can clean the tokens off the board and then stabilize with a mage/lab you should win. Stifle is hot also(of course)

What was the point of SBing out Pernicious Deed for Engineered Plague? Pernicious Dead can remove Chrome Moxes and/or Lion's Eye Diamond and Lotus Petal, Xantid Swarms and Dark Confidants in addition to the Goblin tokens.

How were the Wastelands? I cut them from 4c Landstill, and I have never looked back.

[The Chosen One]

Just when I thought that TES could be getting out of hand, you beat three of em in one day. LAWL! Well, I guess we have our TES foil. What would you have played against if had not drawn in the last round?

I would have played TES. The guy I drew with was the one that won the whole thing. It makes me wonder if he was just a better player, or his build was better. Maybe I would have lost and gotten knocked down even more, if that was the case. From playing against TES, I can say that I have the tools to win, although they can get off a quick win at times. E plague is great in this matchup, since it is alot easier to ETW turn one than to tendrils. If you can clean the tokens off the board and then stabilize with a mage/lab you should win. Stifle is hot also(of course)

What was the point of SBing out Pernicious Deed for Engineered Plague? Pernicious Dead can remove Chrome Moxes and/or Lion's Eye Diamond and Lotus Petal, Xantid Swarms and Dark Confidants in addition to the Goblin tokens.

How were the Wastelands? I cut them from 4c Landstill, and I have never looked back.

wastelands proved good actually, TES runs no basics as far as i can tell, deeding away their artifact mana and wasting gemstone mines is a grand old time. I never took out all my deeds. Plague saved my ass one game by naming demons, and could also kill off confidants as need be. I had left 2 swords in the storm matchups after the first game so i could send xantid packing

[sammiel]

uh, yeah, and deed for 0 kills that demon.

Never side your deeds out against TES.

[The Chosen One]

uh, yeah, and deed for 0 kills that demon.

Never side your deeds out against TES.

deeds are also more mana intensive than plague. 1GB is harder to get to than 2B. With only 4 fetchlands and 7 manlands in the deck, fighting to get colors in a hurry can be troublesome.

[LSD/Cruise]

I've noticed a pattern... every TES player loses to Landstill with 3 MDed Stifles at least once in their life... It's just a pattern I've noticed from seeing what Adam and Bryant lost to... and you winning.

[The Chosen One]

I've noticed a pattern... every TES player loses to Landstill with 3 MDed Stifles at least once in their life... It's just a pattern I've noticed from seeing what Adam and Bryant lost to... and you winning.

in my 3 matches two of which went to game 3. I cast one stifle all day.

[Smmenen]

I try to ID into the top8 and end up in 10th. I am new to the whole tournament scene, and I asked around for recommendations from more experienced players and they said they would have ID'd.

How does that happen in this day and age?   The Intentional Draw is really not that hard to figure out.   

If you can figure how and learn how to play magic - the rules of which are not simple - how is it that you can't figure out how to calculate swiss math?   It's actually fairly simple by comparison.

This should never happen.   And being new to the tournament scene is really no excuse. 

[The Chosen One]

I try to ID into the top8 and end up in 10th. I am new to the whole tournament scene, and I asked around for recommendations from more experienced players and they said they would have ID'd.

How does that happen in this day and age? The Intentional Draw is really not that hard to figure out.

If you can figure how and learn how to play magic - the rules of which are not simple - how is it that you can't figure out how to calculate swiss math? It's actually fairly simple by comparison.

This should never happen. And being new to the tournament scene is really no excuse.

my answer to that is I never cared to learn. If someone would explain how it works, I would be interested. I was told there was a chance of me not making it. But people such as Brassman told me that he would ID if he was in my position.

[Smmenen]

I try to ID into the top8 and end up in 10th. I am new to the whole tournament scene, and I asked around for recommendations from more experienced players and they said they would have ID'd.

How does that happen in this day and age? The Intentional Draw is really not that hard to figure out.

If you can figure how and learn how to play magic - the rules of which are not simple - how is it that you can't figure out how to calculate swiss math? It's actually fairly simple by comparison.

This should never happen. And being new to the tournament scene is really no excuse.

my answer to that is I never cared to learn. If someone would explain how it works, I would be interested. I was told there was a chance of me not making it. But people such as Brassman told me that he would ID if he was in my position.

First of all, it's not something you have to go out and learn.   It's something you can figure out pretty easily by looking at the standings.   Second, if you were told there was a chance of you not making it, why did you risk it? 

[Bardo]

my answer to that is I never cared to learn. If someone would explain how it works, I would be interested.

Re: Tiebreakers. This is one of the better articles on the topic.

[The Chosen One]

my answer to that is I never cared to learn. If someone would explain how it works, I would be interested.

Re: Tiebreakers. This is one of the better articles on the topic.

thanks Dan. Very helpful, based on this, I should not have ID'd. I got a small sense of urgency from my opponent in asking me to do so. He just got 8th and there were 7 people tied or something like that. But I am glad he went on to win. Who knows if I would have won anyways, I could have done worse. But in the future I will know what to look for.

[quote

First of all, it's not something you have to go out and learn. It's something you can figure out pretty easily by looking at the standings. Second, if you were told there was a chance of you not making it, why did you risk it?

I was told there was a chance, but also told (by Brassman) that he would ID if in my position.

[Bardo]

I was told there was a chance, but also told (by Brassman) that he would ID if in my position.

The same thing happened to me the first time I went to a large tourney. I knew about tie-breakers and IDing from reading tourney reports, but had no personal experience with it. I asked around just before the last swiss round and then just decided to play it out against an opponent that was just as clueless. We reasoned, "wtf? we came to play Magic. Who draws?"

[The Chosen One]

I was told there was a chance, but also told (by Brassman) that he would ID if in my position.

The same thing happened to me the first time I went to a large tourney. I knew about tie-breakers and IDing from reading tourney reports, but had no personal experience with it. I asked around just before the last swiss round and then just decided to play it out against an opponent that was just as clueless. We reasoned, "wtf? we came to play Magic. Who draws?"

I intend to play it out next time unless I am going into the round undefeated. I should have trusted my gut instead of trying to draw in. Oh well, live and learn. I had a good time nonetheless

[Smmenen]

Here's what you do:

Take a look at the standings.   You can cross-reference the standings with pairings and you'll be able to tell pretty quickly who can draw in.  Usually, the top 4 players can all draw in and in many cases the top 6 can as well.   Generally, the last round is fought over the last several slots in the top 8.   If you are on the cusp and you want to draw but you aren't sure, you need to check the first tiebreaker and see where you stand in the pack.   This tiebreaker is opp-match win percentage.   If your opp-match win percentage is poor compared to other people with the same number of points, you will need to play out that round.   If it is very high, then you can draw in.   You'll need to make sure that some people below won't leapfrog over you by getting three points while you only get one from a draw.   Just examine the standings and the pairings and you'll be able to extrapolate the possible positions after the last round.   

[Mr. Anderson]

Had you not ID'ed you would probably won that match, and we wouldn't be talking about TES.

Now my question is, "How many people entered the tourney with TES?"  You faced 4 of them.

I will say one thing, I think the right person won with TES though.  I'm glad that Wastedlife was the one who won with it.  The creator of the deck should be the one to carry a deck to best success.

[The Chosen One]

Had you not ID'ed you would probably won that match, and we wouldn't be talking about TES.

Now my question is, "How many people entered the tourney with TES?" You faced 4 of them.

I will say one thing, I think the right person won with TES though. I'm glad that Wastedlife was the one who won with it. The creator of the deck should be the one to carry a deck to best success.

4 four TES players. I would have faced all of them if I had not drawn. Wow.

[wastedlife]

I'm currently 2-0 in matches against BHWC landstill, so I don't know if I would have lost. I'm not saying "I can't lose" but I feel you are instantly crediting a match-up you haven't played. The other 3 TES players from what I saw we're how you say, "Awful".

[Matt]

I'm currently 2-0 in matches against BHWC landstill, so I don't know if I would have lost. I'm not saying "I can't lose" but I feel you are instantly crediting a match-up you haven't played. The other 3 TES players from what I saw we're how you say, "Awful".

That's a pretty cocky claim, considering that a) he's 3-0 versus TES, and b) as JACO noted on the Source, it's not like you fought through a sea of tough opponents either. Let the man have his pride.

[The Chosen One]

I'm currently 2-0 in matches against BHWC landstill, so I don't know if I would have lost. I'm not saying "I can't lose" but I feel you are instantly crediting a match-up you haven't played. The other 3 TES players from what I saw we're how you say, "Awful".

by no means am I saying that my matchup against TES is a wash. I have stated many times that my matches could have gone on their side as well. The only thing I saw in my matches was that when my answers hit, they stuck. None of the other players dealt with lab/plague/mages. A plague after going off with ETW wipes the board and most likely puts them in topdeck, that is a game losing situation, and why I won my matches.