|
Demonic Attorney
|
 |
« on: October 07, 2007, 09:51:04 pm » |
|
So I don't have much time for Vintage these days. I try to make the most of what little I do have, though. In the spirit of that ambition, I devoted some time during the week leading up to Myriad to fine-tuning my GAT list, which took me to the top 8 of the last Myriad event, only to fall short against Dan Cunningham's Bomberman list. After consulting the recent tournament results posted on TMD and talking to teammates Rich Shay and Ben Kowal, I was ready to go with the following:
4 Gush
4 Merchant Scroll
4 Force of Will
4 Duress
4 Brainstorm
3 Quirion Dryad
3 Psychatog
3 Opt
2 Night's Whisper
1 Mana Drain
1 Misdirection
1 Cunning Wish
1 Scroll Rack
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Fastbond
1 Echoing Truth
3 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
3 Underground Sea
3 Tropical Island
2 Island
1 Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
Sideboard:
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Leyline of Singularity
3 Tarmogoyf
1 Brain Freeze
1 Null Rod
1 Submerge
1 Snuff Out
1 Smother
1 Berserk
After facing some absurd traffic on the way, I arrived in time to finish my decklist, greet the tournament regulars, and catch up with my old friend Duncan Devlin, who's working on getting back into the format after a long time away. My matchups proceeded as follows:
Round 1 vs. Mike Bergeron playing GAT*
Game 1. I didn't know what to expect in this matchup, but had a strong opening that included an early Dryad. His opening consisted of Dark Confidant. He later went blind on Cabal Therapy for Scroll, missing. He removed the Dryad with StP before long, and I dropped a Psychatog. He flashed back the therapy to get rid of something in my hand, then fetched out Scrublands and Savannahs, which I guess represented his color distribution. He later dropped his own Dryad. I Gushed into more gas, and dug for Misdirection after Duressing away an StP and seeing a Diabolic Edict in his hand. Tog quickly became lethal as I Misdirected his Edict back at him.
Sideboard: +1 Submerge, +1 Smother, +1 Snuff Out, -3 Duress
Game 2. I get a decent hand with 2 fetchlands, a Gush, and a Scroll, and he's on the play. He leads with Root Maze. My hand is no longer "decent." I play a rather unexciting fetchland, and he plays a Strip Mine. On my turn, I fetch out a land and drop an island, enabling Gush. I use Gush to dodge the strip effect, only to have Extirpate happen to my Gushes. Things quickly get worse as he gets a Confidant down and begins to outdraw me. I try to keep up with Opt and later Scroll -> Ancestral, which I'm rather brazen about since I hadn't seen any blue cards in his deck. He gets down Jotun Grunt and the pressure builds. Things look hopeful when I get a Psychatog, but it gets Edicted and then Extirpated.
Sideboard: +3 Tarmogoyf, -1 Duress, -1 C. Wish, -1 Scroll Rack
Game 3. I have a single Underground Sea, Opt, Brainstorm in my hand. The Sea gets Strip Mined and I Opt into nothing. It doesn't look good until I draw Lotus and Brainstorm into Ancestral into land. By now he's got a decent sized Dryad which is only getting bigger. I have 2 Pyschatogs in my hand when he drops a Grunt and Therapies me for Dryad, which misses. I Brainstorm in response to the flashback, hiding the Psychatogs. His Dryad is very large at this point, and I Scroll for Submerge, knocking his 6/6 Dryad out of play and onto his library. This was a difference-making play, as it gave me the time to get one Psychatog to stick. I'm quick to use its ability to remove any significant 4-of card, like Force or Scroll, from my graveyard to protect against Extirpate. I Scroll Rack into a lot of gas from dead cards, which I shuffle away. I later Brainstorm into 2 Gushes which make Tog lethal. Time is called as our match ends.
Matches: 1-0, Games: 2-1
Round 2 vs Brian Rozzero playing Combo
Brian and I had played once before at Waterbury IX. I pulled it out in 3 games against him playing Gifts, when he was running combo. I wasn't sure he'd be playing combo again, but I quickly found out.
Game 1. He opens on the play with Swamp, Ritual, Necro. I Force. He Forces and draws 7. I drop a land and watch in dismay on his turn when he Tinkers for Memory Jar. I have a VT in hand, but it doesn't help when he plays Duress and pops the Jar in response. My Jar has 1 Force until Duress resolves. My hopes rise for a moment when it seems like he's going to fizzle, but he finds Will. I lose.
Sideboard: +4 Leyline of the Void, +1 Null Rod, -2 Dryad, -2 Psychatog, -1 Cunning Wish.
Game 2. My hand has Force and Duress, and he mulligans to 6. My Duress finds: Ruby, Emerald, Sea, Swamp, Academy, Force. I take Force. I use the window of opportunity to Scroll into extra control cards, and then draw into Dryad. He can't put anything significant together.
Game 3. He mulls to 6 and the game starts with LLotV in play on my side. What's more, I draw into Null Rod early and sacrifice my two Moxes in play in order to get it down fast. He groans when he sees Null Rod and from there does nothing for the rest of the game. I use Scrolls and Duresses to keep his Repeals from getting online and win with Psychatog. The Null Rod apparently took out 5 cards in his hand.
Matches: 2-0 Games: 4-2
Round 3 vs Arik Pogrebinsky with Bomberman
Arik and I played once before at a previous Myriad Games event, when I ran Control Slaver against his build of Fish. I managed to pull out that matchup but was nervous about potentially facing another mana denial aggro deck with a much more fragile land base.
We get deck-checked at the start of the round and discuss our respective views on the Vintage Suspended Players issue. Then we watch FCG blow out Ichorid on turn 1 with Mountain, Lotus, Ruby, Warchief, Lackey, Piledriver. Our match starts and I have an early Psychatog. He gets down a Confidant eventually, and then a Meddling Mage on Dryad. I reserve my counters for Mindcensor or Salvagers, relying on Psychatog to build pressure through card drawing which eventually leads him to throw his Mage under the bus. I Duress him to see a hand full of creatures, including 2 Mindcensors. I play around the Mindcensor, which slows me down, but Psychatog keeps the board favorable. Fastbond shows up and I win with 2 Scrolls and a Gush in hand, while he's tapped out.
Sideboard: +3 Tarmogoyf, +1 Null Rod, +1 Brain Freeze, +1 Smother, +1 Snuff Out -1 Cunning Wish, -1 Dryad, -4 Duress, -1 Scroll Rack.
Game 2. I open with Tarmogoyf. Arik laughs and points out that in his testing, they use 1 Tarmogoyf as a Dryad proxy, yet often find it would be better as a Tarmogoyf. I figure this makes sense, since the bulk of Bomberman's stall cards are bounce, which removes Dryad's counters but only make a big Tarmogoyf go away for a turn. I drop Dryad next, and play cards to grow both creatures. He passes, and I Brainstorm into Fastbond, Force, Gush. I play around 20 cards and stop short of growing my creatures to lethal once I accumulate 2 counters in my hand and Duress Arik to find no threats.
Matches: 3-0 Games: 6-2
Round 4 vs Dan Gagooch playing Gushless Gush Tendrils
Game 1. I open with Lotus, land, double Dryad. I have a Brainstorm, a Force, and something else. He takes his turn and I grow the Dryads. He passes and I attack again. On his next turn, he dumps a ton of mana and Ancestrals with 3 cards left. I think for a long time, suspecting he's baiting with Ancestral. After much thought, I decide to go for Force because even if he drops a threat, my Dryads might be big enough to outrace it with no followup from Gooch. Predictably, Gooch plays Will. He then Ancestrals, Tutors, and Echoing Truths my Dryads. I'm now down to 1 card in hand to his 4. I try to catch up with Night's Whisper, and he maintains his lead with TFK. He Drains a Gush and burns. We each play draw-go, with him discarding ETW to TFK. This makes me very nervous. By now I have a hand of 6 cards, but 5 are lands. I drop a Dryad and peck away at him, bringing his life to 1. He Tinkers for DSC, but can't attack. The standoff continues until I draw Scroll Rack, and put back 6 lands for 6 cards which include Duress, Mox, Echoing Truth.
Sideboard: +1 Null Rod, -1 Psychatog
Game 2. I forget the first few turns of this game, but I quickly managed to tutor into Fastbond after Duressing him. I went crazy, Willed, and then won.
Matches: 4-0 Games: 8-2
Round 5 vs Oliver Beaumont playing Bomberman
ID
Round 6 vs Jeremiah Rudolph playing Control Slaver
ID
Top 8 vs Don Belcastro with Bomberman
Don and I played against each other a long time ago at Your Move Games where I won against his build of Scepter-Control using CS. Prior to that, we played against each other when the venue in Centerville, MA ran events. In one of their last tournaments, I lost in 3 games to Don when he played SSB against my CS.
I approach Don with a renewed sense of confidence following my victory over Arik. I now know the dynamics of the matchup better. I've studied the Bomberman list and know which threats to watch for, and which ones won't be coming. I feel prepared. I tell him I'm ready. He tells me he's interested in splitting among the t8. We all agree. He goes home, leaving the rest of us to play it out for pride and for the Waterbury bye.
Top 4 vs Tidespout Oath
I'm a little worried going into this matchup as I've never seen this deck up close before, and never played against it. I watched intently as he beat Oliver Beaumont's Bomberman build, and give it my best shot.
Game 1. I have an early Duress, he has an early Brainstorm. I bait his Nix with a Gush and then Force his Oath. I go in on Ancestral after not seeing MisD in his library after watching him Oath and search against Oliver. Ancestral hits, and I'm able to use that to stay ahead. I drop a Dryad, which grows steadily. I subsequently Duress after he Gushes, and take a Force. I Scroll for Drain to keep him pinned down, and Dryad goes the distance.
Sideboard: +1 Snuff Out, -1 Cunning Wish
Game 2. My hand has multiple Duresses, and he mulls to 6. Duress takes an Oath, leaving his next threat as Gush. I later see a third Duress and a Force, but he has Brainstorm this time. I make sure to keep Force online and take counter backup, then Force an Oath he put back on his library. We play draw-go for a long time, and I accumulate another hand full of lands and an Echoing Truth. He hard casts Tyrant, tapping out, and I bounce it to his hand. I drop a Scroll Rack when he's tapped out and draw a massive amount of cards. This sets up Gushbond, which sets up a win.
Matches: 5-0 Games: 10-2
Finals vs. Jeremiah Rudolph with Control Slaver
Game 1. He gets ahead on cards, and I Duress him to see Pyroblast main. He's able to use that Pyroblast to counter a baited Gush, but later falls victim to Misdirection on his Ancestral. Once the blast is gone, I safely play my own Ancestral. I leverage that advantage into a control role until Will takes it home.
Sideboard: +1 Null Rod, -1 Cunning Wish.
Game 2. He mulls to 6 and opens with LoA on the play. I have another land, Opt, Brainstorm hand, but this one pans out just fine. I frantically try to race ahead of LoA, but can only do so much. I drop a creature and he goes off LoA to play something, we fight over it, he wins, and then he plays YawgWill, which leads to DT for Ancestral. A Dryad whittles away at his life total until he shows me both Tinker and DSC in his hand. That's all she wrote.
Matches: 6-0 Games: 12-2
I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to attend; they created a very challenging, diverse field. On the subject of challenge, I'd especially like to thank each of my opponents, because I can honestly look back and say that I did not have any easy victories in this event. I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to test my abilities against so many talented players. Lastly, I want to thank Myriad Games for providing a clean, orderly tournament venue; Dan's work in maintaining such a pleasant environment really makes the tournament experience that much more enjoyable. I also appreciate Dan's efforts to preserve the integrity of the Vintage tournament scene, and doing all that's necessary to make sure his players have a positive tournament experience. I hope his work continues to be rewarded by the Vintage community.
Looking forward to seeing everyone next time
Demonic Attorney
Team Reflection
|
