[Report] Austin Mox Tournament, 5/5/07

On only about a week's notice, local store Battleforge Games held a tournament for a signed Mox Pearl, held today. I attended, playing Hulk Flash:

4 Flash
4 Protean Hulk
1 Carrion Feeder
1 Benevolent Bodyguard
1 Body Snatcher
1 Karmic Guide
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

1 Chain of Vapor

4 Brainstorm
4 Merchant Scroll
4 Mystical Tutor
3 Lim-Dul's Vault

4 Force of Will
4 Duress

4 Lotus Petal
2 Elvish Spirit Guide

3 Island
1 Swamp
4 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
3 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
1 Bayou

SB: 3 Cabal Therapy
SB: 2 Blue Elemental Blast
SB: 2 Hydroblast
SB: 2 Stifle
SB: 1 Trickbind
SB: 1 Chain of Vapor
SB: 1 Wipe Away
SB: 2 Pernicious Deed
SB: 1 Massacre

Other than Benevolent Bodyguard, which I heard about through Godzilla, all the surprise tech above was developed independently (sometimes in parallel with other teams) by Team Reflection. No one accusing me of stealing anything, now. ;D

I played this version because I knew I'd be facing the mirror and I wanted the MD Duress and all the juicy SB stuff. I don't think Leyline is actually that good in the mirror, because it's a simple matter to find your bounce spell, although I didn't test it because I don't own any. The dynamic duo of Duress and Therapy are far superior, because not only do they answer counters (like Chant except they can be cast on turns before you combo) and other hate, they are spectacular in the mirror, and also provide outs to nasty cards like Trickbind and Sudden Spoiling.

We had only 16 people turn out, which was disappointing, but the Mox was guaranteed. I tried to get the metagame breakdown. Here's what we had:

4 Hulk Flash (3 different builds)
2 Belcher
1 Solidarity
1 Goblins
1 RGSA
1 UBW Fish (lacks Hanni's signature Avengers)
1 UBW Flash-hate deck (Tog), more on this later
1 UG Madness
1 Red Death
1 The Rock
1 BW Stax
1 Enchantress

For some reason, for about a year now Austin has had a much higher combo percentage than the rest of the format, even before Hulk. I have no idea why this should be.

Round one - Analynn with R/W Goblins
Game one she has a slow start. I think she knew I was playing combo and tried to hold STP open, with nothing on the board. At some point she got impatient and tapped out for a Piledriver and I won.

Out: -4 Duress, -1 ESG
In: +2 BEB, +2 Hydroblast, +1 Massacre. I thought about bringing in Stifle but decided it wasn't worth it.

Game two I mulled a hand of 2 Hulk 1 FoW 4 Land into Petal, Body Snatcher, Massacre, Hulk, BEB, Mystical. Pretty awful and I probably should have gone to five, but I TDed a Sea. At some point I tried to go off but couldn't go for the combo because I had Snatcher in hand and she had Gempalm (known off a Ringleader) open (hence I didn't have enough Hulk mana to get Bodyguard). I landed a Hulk via Hulk->Karmic Guide+Feeder but it was STPed and I died two turns later to double Piledriver.

Out: The other ESG
In: Stifle (for Wasteland I guess)

Game three was much more textbook. I kept BEB, LDV, Bayou, Delta, Sea, Island, Swamp. LDV turn two into the nuts (Brainstorm on top, Hulk+Flash below). I went off with BEB for her REB, Bodyguard for her STP (which she didn't have), and FoW+blue card for anything else.

Round two: Woodrow with UWB fish
This was one of the scarier matchups for me in the room. I was cursing my luck. Game one my notes say I LDV'd looking for a Hulk and found one in about the worst stack: Hulk, Trop, Hulk, Karmic Guide, Bodyguard. But all I needed was the Hulk apparantly because my Duressing and Forces had cleared the way.

Out: -2 ESG, -2 Mystical, -1 Chain of Vapor, -1 LDV
In: +3 Cabal Therapy, +2 Pernicious Deed, +1 Wipe Away

This was a crazy game. He mulled to 5 but Needled Feeder on turn one. I Duressed to see Serendib Efreet, Daze, Brainstorm, STP (taking Brainstorm), then Therapied the Efreet (I had enough mana to get by Daze and Bodyguard in the deck to stop STP). I tried to find something to remove the Needle but kept drawing lands. I noticed he was at 18 (a multiple of six) and decided to Flash Hulk into Karmic Guide and Bodyguard, returning Hulk, and flashing Therapy back off the Guide. What does he draw? Motherfucking Mother of Runes! Why he didn't side it out I don't know. Hulk got one hit in before grannypants turned into a pro:green wall. He dropped another Needle, this time on Bodyguard. I knew from hand disruption that he had STP but I had 2x FoW and a ton of lands. He played another Mother, further annoying me. In my rage I hardcast a second Hulk. His Mothers and my Hulks were now in a deadly stalemate. Thankfully it did not last too much longer. He soon played a Confidant, and I thought perhaps I would get lucky and burn him to death on it. He tried STP on a Hulk but I Forced it.

And then I untapped, drew Deed, and played it, clearing his board and swinging in for 12 for the win. An odd way to win? Perhaps, but only if you don't keep reading...

Round three: Brian with Tog/Flash-hate

Ugh. My OTHER worst matchup. Luckily, the re-pair fairy saves me.

Son of Round three: Nathan with net-hype-Flash
Nathan is running the version with Ug only, optimized-for-turn-zero, Gemstone Caverns, and Disciple/{X} kill. He is also kind of a dick.

I mull a hand with no protection into fetch, Mystical, Brainstorm, FoW, Hulk, something else. He starts with Gemstone Caverns, removing X/X. I play land, go. He draws, plays Petal, and wouldn't you know, his opening hand was Petal, Gemstone, FoW, blue card, Flash, Hulk, artifact creature (pitched to Gemstone). So yeah, I Forced the Flash and he Forced back and that was an ugly game one. One of the other Flash players a few tables down also won on turn one but took more seconds to do it.

Out: -2 ESG, -1 Benevolent Bodyguard, -3 LDV
In: +3 Therapy, +2 Stifle, +1 Trickbind

I thought LDV would be too slow, but in retrospect it was probably a mistake to take them out. He giggles about having devoted his entire sideboard to mirror-hate and not being able to fit it all in. Whatever.

He mulligans to six and starts with Leyline AND Gemstone. I hit his hand with discard, stalling him out. He is beating down with a Disciple. Eventually I have Flash and Hulk and FoW in hand, but only one mana open, so I have to wait a turn. He tries to Flash which I have to Force pitching Flash, slowing me down, but I eventually Chain his Leyline. At some point he recast Leyline and I Forced it, then combo'd out.

Game three was, far and away, the STUPIDEST game of Magic I have ever played in or seen or even read about.

I keep a good hand, and he mulls to six. At some point I Scroll up Trickbind, making him wary to try going off. So we settle into a very slow game. He plays a Disciple and starts attacking me with it. And attack he does.

For.
The.
Next.
Twelve.
Turns.

What the fuck? The two fastest combo decks ever have a mirror match that goes into double-digit turns?

Maybe you don't realize just how long that is. Let me illustrate it for you. Read every line, skipping none.

One Turn
Two Turns
Three Turns
Four Turns
Five Turns
Six Turns
Seven Turns
Eight Turns
Nine Turns
Ten Turns
Eleven Turns
Twelve Turns

And remember, that's 12 of HIS turns. I also had 12 turns in here. And what was I doing, you ask? I have a godlike hand of 2 Flash and 2 Force and a Stifle and a Trickbind, so he cannot combo, but I can't put together a combo of my own. I keep Brainstorming, Scrolling, Mysticaling for more Brainstorms, trying to find a fucking Hulk. If I had left a LDV in the deck, I would not be having this problem. At some point I played Feeder just to try and race, I guess. If Feeder could have blocked, I would have, just to stop this nonsense.

I FINALLY draw a Hulk, and move to Flash it. It resolves, but he tries to Stifle the ability. I Force, he Forces, I Force, he Forces. Ugh. Now we are both depleted, but his fucking Disciple is still plowing away at me. Eventually it (and a buddy) knock me to 2, and he pops a Petal. I use my Trickbind on one ability, but draw another Stifle and die the most miserable death imaginable: 14 turns of Disciple beats.

At least Keeper looked cool while killing you with a Gorilla Shaman. This was absolutely pathetic.

Round four, it turns out that all the 2-1s can ID into the T8, so we do. Nathan and the Flash-hate player are paired 1st and 2nd and assured T8 and Nathan refuses to draw with him, again being kind of a dick.

Pairings go up. I am facing Brian again. A little backstory:

Earlier this morning, I was at another store, trying to buy a fucking Carrion Feeder. Brian was in there, telling me about how much he hated Flash and if he bothered to show at the tournament, he would be hating it out, so help him god. The store did not have a Feeder, and when I got to Battleforge Games, they didn't either. None of the players had one. But since I didn't want to play anything but Flash (I'm not throwing $20 down unless I maximize my chance to win), I told the store owner that finding a Feeder or not decided whether I would enter the tournament. Sensing wisely that a 15 cent common was worth having another player in his tournament, he drove home to get me a Feeder (he lives close by). Three stores and ten or twleve players and NONE of them had a freaking Scourge common.

Moving on. Brian's deck is loaded ot the gills with hate. Maindeck he has FoW, Counterspell, Duress, Therapy, Daze, Meddling Mage, and STP, and in the side he has Chalices and Chants. I mean, really now! Game one he got down two Meddling Mages in short order and beat me to death with them.

Out: -2 ESG, -1 Mystical, -1 Chain of Vapor
In: +2 Pernicious Deed, +1 Cabal Therapy, +1 Wipe Away
I may have also brought in Massacre, I didn't record my SB this game.

I didn't bring in the other Therapies because I was less worried about his counters than about his discard and permanent-based hate (Magi and Chalices).

I actually won this one, on the back of his double-mulligan and manascrew that left him Daze and STP as his only answers after a Duressed a Brainstorm. I combod out quickly.

Game three I had to mulligan to six and keep a hand with Island as the only mana, though it did have Duress, FoW, Deed, and other stuff. It wasn't enough, so I lost and got 6 packs for my efforts, which coughed up an Extirpate and a Korlash, which was cool.

The T8 finished out like this:

The T8 (winners in bold) was:

Flash vs Flash
Belcher vs Belcher
Survival/Rock vs unknown
Flash vs Flash-hate

Nathan's TurnZero-Flash deck lost to Paul's 4cFlash, which used the Disciple kill along with Chants, Xantid Swarms, REBs, and Cunning Wish (1 Flash in side). No, I don't know how he fit it all in.

T4:
Flash vs Belcher
Rock vs Hate

Belcher almost won but his activation hit Bayou 15 cards down and it cost him too many resources. Hate did what hate does against non-combo decks: lose. I left after this, as Brian and I had lent each other cards - I was really only sticking around to return those.

T2: Flash vs Rock

And apparantly Rock had quadruple Therapy game one and Hulk mulled to oblivion game three, letting fucking The Rock walk away with what was left of our Legacy-related dignity after the abominable round 3 Hulk mirror.

Final thoughts:

I had never played Flash against a living opponent before, not even online. I had goldfished several versions, testing every kill and various things like Worldly Tutor and Living Wish, and I had played against Hulk with Red Death, which convinced me not to worry so much about black aggro.

At no point did I ever feel like I was at a disadvantage as compared to running the faster U/g Hulk Flash deck. I suppose against Goblins the Ug might have been better, but having fewer dead slots and more control was clutch against all my other opponents. If the pairings had gone differently, and maybe barring a few player errors on my part such as boarding out all the LDVs in round three, I felt I would have been the favorite against any of the other six T8 players. Against the Belcher decks I have 4 FoW, 4 Duress and a fast clock maindeck, and Stifles and Therapies and possibly even BEB in the sideboard (Belcher's been running more and more red lately). Same against the hyper-Hulk deck. Against the 4cHulk deck, I think I still retain the advantage, because Duress is way better than Chant or Xantid or REB. Hard to say, though, since it's such an odd build. And despite what the finals said, I think I would still have the advantage against Rock, because I cannot allow my pride to sink so low as to live in that kind of fear.

The very fastest Hulk decks might have been better in a vaccuum, but it is clear to me that slowing it down slightly, adding more protection/control, and using the compact combo is superior in a field with other Hulk Flash decks. I feel confident in claiming that U/b is the strongest Hulk deck, although I still like green for sideboard cards.

I never wanted either Living Wish or Worldly Tutor. The deck was fast enough without them. If LDV was fucking amazing all day - and it was - then Duress was orgasmic. Petal was stellar, but ESG was horrible, since it can't even sac to Therapy because you're siding it out in the matchups for which you bring in Therapy.

Speaking of which, Therapy was a last-minute addition that felt really good. Deed was also good here, though 17 land is a little light for a 3cc card. Dropping the ESGs for 1 land and 1 other card - possibly the last LDV or a maindeck Trickbind - would help that significantly.

My land mix was a little off. Since I only have green for the SB, I would have preferred either the last fetch or another Island over the second Trop. Also, I only own 4 Strand 2 Delta and was borrowing the third Delta, hence the configuration I ran. I never needed the Swamp but it never hurt me either.

I don't know if the deck really needs the BEBs. They did counter some REB action and would have been good in the Belcher matchups (for Burning Wish or to stall a Rite/Song->ETW play, causing a loss of Storm count and possibly manaburn).

The Stifle mix was good. I don't know that I would want another Trickbind, since I have 8 tutors for it, but I certainly would not want to go higher than 2.

After I came home I saw that IBA had developed a similar deck. Obviously to the degree our builds resemble each other, I like it, but I don't think you have to go as far as cutting Mysticals for Diabolic Vision, which slows you down too much and clogs your 2-mana slot too much for my liking.