Kird Ape Almost gets there! 12th at RIW

Kird Ape Almost Got There- 12th at RIW

This story really starts out around the 20th of April. I was about to finish up my internship is Des Moines, and it had just occurred to me that I could transform my trek back to New Hampshire into a serious Magic playing road trip. Becker's on the 28th? RIW on the 29th? Putting faces to the mid-western names that post regularly on TMD? Sounds like an awesome time to me. I strapped on my Myriad Games shirt and showed up to both events with pride and high hopes.

I'd have posted a report about Becker's tournaments, but I played Doomsday. Going 0-2 drop with games reports that include “I play against gifts, got savaged, lose 0-2” or “I play against some weird combo deck with Fathom Seer and Words of Wilding, draw bad hands and lose to counter magic, 0-2” seems kinda lame. That performance inspired me to drop my pet deck in favor of my back up.

Before I continue with my tales of magic playing, I have to interject to commend the people that made this possible. Anthony Miles (Twann007) gave me a stranger like me a place to sleep for 2 nights, and Nat “The Innovator” Moes (Lochnivar) for telling me that Twann007 was the guy to talk to, and for loaning me a couple Tormod's Crypts.

Roughly 30 of the Canada's and the Midwest's finest players showed up for the Ancestral Recall that was on the line. After determining that Doomsday sucks and the attack phase was way more fun, I brought out my other deck.

“R/G SMASH!”

4 Kird Ape
4 Jungle Lions
4 Jackal Pup
4 Tin Street Hooligan
4 Wild Mongrel
2 Simian Spirit Guide
2 Elvish Spirit Guide

3 Red Elemental Blast
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Lava Dart

4 Root Maze
4 Null Rod

3 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
4 Land Grant
1 Forest
2 Mountain
4 Taiga
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Lotus Petal
1 Black Lotus

SB:

3 Pyroblast
4 Pyrostatic Pillar
4 Tormod's Crypt
2 Artifact Mutation
2 Naturalize

This list struck fear and astonishment into the hearts of all those who played against me. That may or may not be true, but I am positive the deck was severely underestimated. I put such a fast clock on my opponents while ripping their mana base apart with Rods, Strips, and Root Maze.

And on to the actual report:

Round 1- Ryan

I shook hands, wished him good luck and sat down. Since I didn't know anyone here other than Anthony and Nat, I had no idea what to expect from any local player other than the big names. I won the die roll and kept my grip. I dropped a Taiga and Root Maze and passed the turn. I could see the fear welling in my opponent's eyes. What could he be playing? He played a Volcanic Island and passed. Slaver? HOORAY! Slaver hates being put on a clock. He needs a Triskelion plus an active Welder to stand a shot against me. My hand had a Mountain, Kird Ape, Wasteland, and Lava Dart, so I had a good hunch that game one was all mine. Kird Ape swings for 10 this game and is eventually joined by his buddies Tin Street Hooligan and Jungle Lion while my dart clears the Welder he dropped. He eventually built his mana up and dropped a Duplicant on my ape rearing to block my robot muncher, he was at 6 life at this point, and I had a bolt in hand plus 2 REBs. I Bolted his “Kird Ape,” swung for four and he conceeded after drawing his next card.

Game 2 was a even more one sided, really. I sided out 3 bolts for what I feel was the more versatile Pyroblast and kept my opening hand. His turn one involved Volcanic and Black Lotus- Pass. My turn, I played a Ruby, Taiga, and Root Maze. Root Maze came in, and I have a hunch that his hand was a dud. I pass and he does nothing at EOT. He just plays another land and passes. I take a relatively risky play and drop Tin Street Hooligan using an ESG. It was a bit of a gamble, as all he needed to do was sac his lotus, and my Ruby would explode. He had no play, but even still, taking three mana burn from his lotus would set me back a little ways, and I'd still only have a dork to contend with him. Judging by his manner of play, he would probably be too disappointed in his Lotus loss to think of it, and I was right. You can't pick up tells like that on modo. I play another land and pass. He starts slowly building up his mana base, and I'm wondering why he kept the hand against me. Uh oh. He was looking for a quick Trike. Gotta get there fast before that guy ruins my day. I start smashing face. FIRE THAT TIN STREET, and I take one. I drop Jackal Pup and pass. He casts Burning Wish for Pyroclasm and passes to me. Pyroclasm is not much of a threat. My prime attack forces are 2/3s and 2/2s with the ability to make themselves bigger on a whim. I have tons of green cards, but they are all Root maze along with a surplus of blasts. He's looking at his can and calculating, but instead wants to try for a 2 for 1 with the clasm. Jackal Pup gets in there 4 times, and when he was at 12, he decided that maybe waiting was a bad play. He kills my pup dropping me to 18, My next turn I drop another Tin street(killing a Mox) and a Jungle Lion that I was holding back. He's two mana away from dropping trike, so I need to beat down before it is too late. I swing and he's at 8. Next turn he has land, Mox,... (uh oh) and plays the last card in his hand. SLAVER! The game is mine. I swing putting him at 4. I drew and played a Lion. He untaps and activates slaver, I respond by Lava dart to his face, and flash it back. That was an expensive time walk, eh? My draw for him does nothing to my board. He untaps, draws his card, and extends the hand.

I know some timing things are off in there, but that's the gist of how the match went down. He may have played already had the land in play, and was at a higher life total.
2-0

Round Two

Nicolae Antes (NicolaeAlmighty)

I saw that he was playing gifts, and I feel pretty good about my matchup. He had red, so that means no big man. I can beat Warrens despite all the theorists out there that may disagree.

Game 1 I pummeled his mana base with Rod and Root Maze while eroding his life total with the combination of Kird Ape and Jackal Pup. Mongrel comes out to play and I have an excellent clock against him. He drops a an Empty for 10 tokens and passes. He's at 7 life, so he needs to finish me before I can burn him out. He swings holding 3 guy's back to block Mongrel and Kird ape says I only take 5 damage, and a lava dart, bolt, and flashed back lava dart says I take 2. I go all in on my next turn, and he blocks all of my guys. His next turn he casts gifts while I had tapped out for a second Rod and concedes after he noticed that he accidentally shuffled his hand into his library after choosing 4 cards. He was one turn away from being dead on board and he was low on gas. Considering Maze and Rod were both in play, I'm not sure what he could have pulled out to stay in the game.

I decided that adding extra REBs wasn't all that hot since it looked like he wasn't playing big man. My only good Blast target that nets me good tempo is Recall and Gifts. Crypt, however, I have a feeling will be something that slows him down exponentially

Game 2 was a little bit of the same thing. I kept a hand of Jungle Lion, Taiga, Tin Street, Forest, Wasteland, Crypt, and Crypt. Looks pretty good against Gifts to me. Lion came out with 2 Crypts backing him up. Wasteland would be joining the party, but he was dropping basics like they were out of style. Still, the sight of two tormod's crypt when he kept a mana light hand against a deck with a fast clock was very discouraging for him. He already had a Mana Vault in play, and he did not play a second land during his next turn. I attempted a Tin Street, and he responded with a Gifts for Academy, Lotus, Empty, and Recoup. He tells me that he knows the Empty and Recoup are heading to the grave. WARNING! WARNING! HE WANTS THE MANA! He is already mana light as it is. He wants the recoup and Empty to get crypted so he can have Drain mana up and start casting some draw spells. Later in the game he tells me that he should not have underestimated me and my decision making capabilities. I start laying the beats and while he doesn't have drain mana, I get a root make to resolve. On his next turn he plays 2 Moxen (I knew it!) and since he is at a critically low life, is forced to make a small Empty the Warrens for 8 goblins on his next turn just so he can stay in the game. Mongrel and Kird Ape are both in play and hitting hard and start whittling away at the number of goblins he controls. I am still at 20 life. Eventually his supply of dorks falls to my much bigger dorks and that's the match.

Nicolae is an excellent player and a really nice guy. This was an extremely fun match for me. Don't let the 2-0 fool you.

Round 3

Ben Perry

I'm playing for the Top 8 this round. I really wanted to get paired against the Stax guy or Fish guy, but instead my opponent is playing something unknown to me. I win the die roll and keep a hand that would beat almost any drain deck. It involves 2 Lions turn 1 plus wasteland, and a third lion turn 2. I puke some kittens on the table, drop waste and pass. On his turn he removes ESG and plays Tinder Wall, and SSG and plays Welder. Shit. Belcher. Probably. I accidentally dropped Null Rod face up when we were shuffling. It ended up working out in my favor, since he put me on Fish. He kept a hand that would destroy fish's slow clock, but would probably die to my fast one. He blocked my Lions for four turns. I have 2 bolts in hand and I am praying I draw a red source to clear his Wall out of the way and set him back on mana. In four turns I fail to do it, and he eventually belches me out for the win.

Game 2 was one I could not win. I drop and root maze turn one, and on his turn 2 he makes 16 goblin tokens. All well, next round.

Round 4

Jeremy

Another unknown matchups. Turns out it was a terrible one for me. Worse Than Fish. He blows me out game one. He leads with Trop. I play Wasteland but he Stifles. He drops a Nimble Mongoose, plays a land and passes. I play a forest, remove ESG, and attempt Mongrel, only to walk into a daze. He strips my forest. I play a wasteland and pass. He drops a factory and passes. Eventually he plays a second factory and I am forced to kill his wasteland, thus putting him at threshold giving myself the only out of Wild Mongrel to stay in the game. I draw and whiff. That was WTF doing what it does.

I had some tough choices to make on my sideboarding. Crypts came in because I figured it was my only way to trump Werebears and Mongeese. It turns out that crypts were extremely vital to my game 2.

I lead with a Kird Ape. Turn two I had another Kird Ape plus a Crypt. He complemented my sideboarding choice as he dropped a mongoose and Trygon predator. Predator got bolted, and Kird Apes became big problems for his board of little guys. I stripped a factory and crypted when he reached threshold. All right! This time it's my deck doing what MY deck does. HOORAY!

It came down to one last attack phase. He had out one mongoose and 2 werebears to my board of Wild Mongrel and 2 Kird Apes. He has 3 cards in hid graveyard, meaning threshold isn't possible for him. He is at 5 and forced to react to my team. I am at 11. I go all in with two cards in hand. Black Lotus and Lotus Petal. Mongrel is blocked by a bear and the Kird Apes find combat company very soon as well. Hmm. That's an odd play. He has a trick. He casts chain of vapor sacrificing 3 lands with all copies targeting his mox. Suddenly my guys look really small and worthless. I count my outs in my deck, but I'm done. He wiped my board and that was it. Certainly the Play of the Day (TM). Kird Ape almost made it.

Round 5

Don

I knew he was playing u/w fish and was using Feinstein's version. Seeing as I am a New Hampshire native and thus very familiar with his version, I know I should have this match pretty easily.

Game 1 I come out swinging. I open up with a Root Maze and soon 2 Kird Apes and Mongrel are ruining his day. Mongrel decides he's rather eat dirt like a farmer, but I still have a team of 2/3s marching in. The combination of Echoing Truth and Meddling Mage seems to disagree with that strategy. Kataki and Savannah lions join in the opposing strike force, but I'm not scared. I Lava Dart his 2/1s and REB his mage while he is caught with his pants down with no counters. Kird Apes come down next turn and go the distance with his friend in the animal kingdom, Jungle Lions.

Game 2 I lost due to a couple playing errors on my part. I knew he was bringing in Jittes, so I was hesitant to cut Rods, but after mulling it over, I decided that there was a chance he would be bringing in Threads of Disloyalty, so I cut the rods in favor of Naturalize and Artifact Mutation. But the main reason I dropped Rod was the presence of Kataki. I did not want to have a mana tied down every turn just to not lose to Jitte.

He opens up with a savanna lions. I open up with 2 Jackal pups. He swings with the cat, but my dogs want to go for the throat. He makes no play and passes. My pups swing, and he takes it I drop a Cat of my own and pass. At end of turn, he E Truth's them back and drops Mage calling pup, plus a Wasteland putting my lands at one forest with tons of red cards in my hand. I could be in trouble! I rip a Mountain and drop a Kird Ape. Kird Ape wants to go farming instead, But that was bait for my next play! Remove SSG and cast REB on the mage! Next turn he dropped a grunt and swung. I played a mongrel to hold the team back. He played draw go for a few turns, and the Grunt is starting to get tired while I kept drawing creatures. Grunt was going to starve next turn, but he ripped jitte and equipped it. It was at this point where I remembered that mage was no longer in play while I stared at 2 Pups still in my hand. Jitte eventually came through for the win and killed my board.

We were getting low on time, and my opponent was playing rather slowly. I should have ushered him to speed up a little bit, but it never occurred to me that i would have a match that even comes close to running to time.

Game 3 was swingy, but I eventually had board superiority when time was called. He played two early grunts and I made no plays to starve them both. I had a Mongrel, Jackal pup, and Jungle Lion in play. Time was called and I passed the turn. while he had a jitte with no counters equipped to a grunt with 3 counters. Even if I discarded my hand to Mongrel it would have staved, as both graves were empty. He swung with the grunt, and I made my mongrel a 5/5 to force him to use up the counters. He sent one to finish off my Mongrel, when I discarded a lava dart as the last card. Mongrel dies to both counters, and I sent my mountain to trade with his Lion. His board was empty, one card in hand, and a jitte on board. I swing with my team of dogs and cats and my pup got went farming. He drew and passed. My last turn to win. He's at 5, and I need to rip bolt otherwise we draw. I flip it over and find a mountain.

It's frustrating since if he had played a bit faster, the game would have been mine. I was at 14 life when the game ended, leaving myself with all kinds of breathing room for whatever creatures he might have.

After the tournament Myself, Twaun, Nat, and 4 other Ohioans head out to the Outback Steakhouse. Ohioans are awesome people. I was sure to let them know that if they ever wanted to attend a Myriad in the future, they would have a place to stay. The only catch is that Dan needs to host a back to back weekend of some sort. Eh?

Props:

Ohioans for being awesome
Twaun for making this whole weekend possible
Nat For being the driver to this event.

Slops:

None. I had such a good time. To all of my fellow New Englanders out there, I'll see you at the next Myriad!

-Kyle Guillemette