Gushin' Oath - Proof that you
Can just throw Gushbond at any deck to make it amazing!
Friday Afternoon:
- I call up Jer and ask him what he thinks he's gunna play for the event, then he asks me, to which I have no clue.
> The Rings Deck, while fun and busted, doesn't offer much in the "Out playing my opponent" Department. It has 7-8 cards to win with and if it doesn't then It really loses fast.
> Jaw III was another option. I had been playing the deck on MWS and clobbering face with it, and traditionally Jaws has fairly well at Myriad... but not really 'top-8' well. Its a great deck to miss top-8 on tiebreakers with.
> I had been testing Dragon, but It really didn't have the consistancy I wanted - especially against GAT. I really like the idea of boarding into Tyrant Oath ....... So much infact that I decided to play Tyrant Oath!
Friday Afternoon yeilds a 1/4 of the cards in the deck to change!
Having decided on running Maindeck: Trike, and 2 EEs I start taking a good look at the deck...
Spured by a conversion with ELD about the value of Misdirrection over drain in GAT, I decide to test what we call "ELD Oath" with -4 Drains, +3 Misdirrections, +1 Merchant scroll. After a few games of this vrs GAT, I am down on games. I note that I am getting land flooded very often. So I start cutting mana, I cut two lands (a fetch and Library of Alexandria), adding in another Merchant Scroll and Mystical Tutor that I had not previously been running. I remark that regrowth is not that great - because it very often compeats with Merchant scroll and I'm not that happy running 3 scrolls (in that it can't get either of my combo peices). I again review the flow of the deck. What I have now is a deck that doesn't care about tapping out each turn (becaues I dont have drain) and has TONS of turn 2 plays with very little to do outside of Brainstorm on turn 1 (without a mox). I Cut regrowth for Ponder #1, and really really really want to add a 2nd ponder somewhere. I ultimately decide to go with 1 maindeck EE, Yeilding this final list:
Drainless Gushin' Oath:
4 Forbidden Orchard
5 Fetches
3 Trops
2 Underground
2 Islands
6 Mox + Lotus
4 Oath of Druids
1 Tinker
2 Tidespout Tyrant
1 Triskellion
1 Krosan Reclaimation
1 Flash of Insight
4 Brainstorm
4 Gush
2 Ponder
1 Ancestrall Recall
4 Force of Will
3 Misdirrection
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Fastbond
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Demonic Tutor
2 Merchant Scroll
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Timewalk
1 Research // Development
Sideboard ===
4 Oxidize
3 Extirpate
3 Pithing Needle
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Platinum Angel
1 Sudering Titan
1 Blazing Archon
1
ISLAND Foil Unhinged
The basic Island was not a mistake, it was good tech. I was very reluctant to run the deck on 23 mana with only two availible basics against Stax. This payed off, because I boarded the island in for 3 matches (two in Top-8).
The Tournement:
Round 1 - Jer Rudolph playing Worker-Clamp Combo.
Woot for Teammate pairings! We look around the room and see Ray and Scott playing, as well as some other friends playing in the first round. All an all it doesn't seem like many people are happy with the round one pairings ... so whatever.
Game 1: Jer gets an early clamp down, which sucks for Oath. Followed by Tolarian on turn 2, and shortly after gets Ravager and starts chomping Frogmites with clamps on them. I get a Trike into play (I think hardcast) but it's not enough to stop the Ravager Trike tide.
Game 2: I lead with Needle naming wastland - with only nonbasics in my hand. Jer has 3 wastlands in his hand and sphere. I brainstorm into a 2nd needle and play it nameing Clamp. Jer gets stuck on 3 mana with a sphere down (so he can't play metal worker). I have Oath on the board... so he can't play dudes and eventually I dig into the Forbidden and end the game.
Game 3: I have island, forbidden, Needle, Oath, and some other stuff. NOTE this island is my island out of the board!!! totally would have been unkeepable without it. I play Ilsand->Needle naming skullclamp. Then turn 2 orchard->oath. The game ends shortly after.
Record 1-0 --
Round 2 -- TPS-Style Combo (no Gush).
Disclaimer - I played 6 games against him over the course of swiss and top-8, so some of the games may be slurred together.
Game *1 -- I lose either game 1 or 2, I forget wich. I think I lost game 1...
Game *2 -- I play down some an Orchard and some other lands and a mox or two, I counter a turn 1 necro. I think this is the game where he Twisters me into a grip of counters, oath, and timewalk. I play oath and then timewalk. I hit Tyrant And hard cast Plats. I think he just scoops.
Game 3 -- I don't have a fantastically fast hand, but it has land, Jet, and Extirpate. No force. He leads with Ancestral. Turn 2 he drops some mox and LED after it resoves and he goes for 12 cards and builds his hand. At this point I have Oath and Orchard in play. My Jet is untapped and I am Gripping Extirpate. Here is a play mistake I made: I know I'm going to Extirpate the Rit, however the best time to Extirpate is durring my opponent's draw step. The reason is that I want to Extirpate after he draws his card for turn because If he rips a Rit - I kill his draw. If not then I just get to see more of his hand. So I wait for him to draw for turn. He untaps and declairs "upkeep." and I say "ok" ... did you catch it?
Land-Rit-Necro ...
He then says "skip the draw" and we are in the Mainphase. Now I know that theres no way for me to take back my priority pass in the upkeep - so I don't even try. I just pray he doesn't lead with Rit (and he leads with a mox or duress). He of course leads with Rit >_<. Now I gamble that he has his 3rd rit in hand and Extirpate the Rit in response to the 2nd. Not a great play, but I do it anyhow. He shows me his hand and tells me "he's got it." He has Yawg, but his only tutor is Mystical in hand. He has Ancestral in the yard (which means he must have cast it as well). He has LED as his only source of colored mana. So I really don't think he has it. I start to realize that he doesn't remember that LED + Necro RFGs his hand. So I let him play it out. He cracks LED and goes to put mystical in the yard. I remind him that it is RFGed and he starts to flounder for the win. He ancestrals, and ponders, and I think brianstorms... then runs out of blue. Durring this turn I Brainstormed at one point. I had trike in hand, and I put him on top of my library. Knowing that if I get another turn - my opponent will probably Necro himself to less than 3. He is at 8 and I'm just thinking...
my head: "Necro for 5, Necro for 5, come on 5!!"
He says: "I necro for.. 6? - wait"
my head: "Crap!" .....
Him: pause .... "5"
my Head: "woot! trike for the win!"
Record 2-0
Round 3. Traditional Stax
Game 1: I lead with Trop, Mox, Orchard. He has an early Wire and so I'm sitting around in topdeck mode hopeing to rip an Orchard. Eventually he gets a smokestack down. I start saccing out lands and stuff. I get an orchard online and just as Smokestacks start to ramp high enough to wipe me out I get Tyrant + infinite mana -> Merchant Scroll getting Flash of insight. I insight for 10,000 find trike and infinite ping him. whew.
Game 2: goes much like game 1 I lead with Needle on Wasteland, and thats about all I get. Eventually Wires and Smokies go all the way.
Game 3: I have the amazing Orchard, Mox, Oath... his Stax plan never gets off the ground.
Record 3-0.
Round 4 Draw with Craig.
We draw, and I ask him if he wants to play for Fun. And he responds, no... I'm thinking Craig is "ANTI-FUN???" But no, he has a cold and is looking forward to a round of relaxation. Totally understandable. Record 3-0-1.
Round 5 - Slice of Pizza, Playing "Buffalo Chicken"
I end up playing this match over at the mall. My opponent leads with Thick Crust, A layer of Blue cheeze, a layer of Buffalo sauce, and on top of THAT - Cheeze and perfectly crisp buffalo chicken tender bits!! Talk about a God Hand! My opponent has the godhand opener and is delicous - however I devowered it ... so this round ended in a draw.
(aka. Ray and I drew and we went to the mall for food).
Record 3-0-2 = 11 points to end Swiss in First Seed.
/////////////////////
Top 8. The top 8 split bearly covers the cost of Jer, Erics and my own entry fee.... Not that I think the split was unfair but, I didn't come all the way here to break even - so I tell everyone that I want to play the first round. Also, No offence to Scott, but I'm playing against staxless stacks in top 8 - which is a traditionally good matchup for me.
Top-8 Game 1:
Scott spends his first turns by playing THREE spheres of resistance. I sligh my way up to 5 mana and play an Oath with an orchard. He wastes my Orchard, plays a Keg and pops it at zero. So Now I am just waiting to draw a second Orchard. A few turns pass and we are both fairly locked out under the THREE 1spheres. Scott spends some time casting moxen with Shop. I fairly quickly rip into orchard #2 and get oath online. I get Titan and cast Merchant scroll for Gush bouncing his Workshop. I think I take the risk and cast Gush bouncing another land of his. He is stuck under the spheres and I Oath in Trike and swing with Tyrant. He can't dig out from me bouncing his lands and I swing in lethal.
Top-8 Game 2:
I have an Island (THE F*ing SIDEBOARD ONE AGAIN!! WOOT!), a Fetchland, and a Mox + Vamp Tutor, and two needles. I play the first needle naming Wasteland with the Island. He does something (I think plays crucible). I play the 2nd Needle naming Welder. He plays sphere and I vamp in response for Tinker. I didn't have either Oath or Orchard yet, so I figgure I'll get the tinker out there, I also couldn't cast it yet. I draw tinker and pass the turn. He then plays: Engineered Plague nameing Spirits! I'm so so so glad I got tinker. But now I really have to win with tinker... or find my one EE. I draw a land and tinker out the needle naming Welder. He casts jar. I untap and swing with Trike. He cracks jar on the upkeep and I draw into Oxidize as my only playable option. He hardcasts a Trike and a Welder. In the EOT with Jar trigger on the stack I Oxidize his trike. He makes a sadface and shoots me for 3. We discard our hands. I draw a brainstorm and swing with Trike ... just to see if he blocks. He doesn't and I brainstorm for a land drop in 2nd main. I get land + Timewalk. He is at 5 (from various City and barbring taps also I think Crypt was killing him too, plus the Trike hit he took). I cast timewalk, draw, ping his welder and swing lethal.
Top-4. I find out I'm playing against the TPS guy from round 2. My game is not as favorable as I would like against him ... so I consider the split. The split is appealing to me, because If I loose we (three peoples entry fee) will just bearly not break even, but If we split then we are in the green. So I'm fine with that. However, my opponent decides he would like to play it out so we play. I'm not thrilled but I know I can beat him.
Game 1:
I get oath online early, and counter his Bombs. I oath and get Tyrant. And again I get to Merchant Scroll for Flash with infinte mana - get trike and win out.
Game 2: I keep an insanely risky hand. I'ts Force, Force, MisD, MisD, Merhcant Scroll, Gush, Mox Sapphire. No land. I decide to keep the hand because: I won game 1, I'm on the Draw against combo, and his particular gushless build is going to be 'bomb-light' so I think if I counter enough of his opening hand threats I should be able to bide my time and win. I know that I'll be a bit screwed if he opens with duress - but luckely he doesn't. I play sapphire and brainstorm.... No Lands! I play draw-go for two turns. He has tolarian, and plays mox Jet. He hasn't yet played a land, and in retrospect I really should have countered Jet, because he didn't have another land drop. He duresses and I let him take it. He has enough to fight his way through my meger counterwall... while I flap like a fish. He wins with Will (with his only black source being Jet->Rits)
Game 3: I get have counters and plenty of filtering with no real win in sight. I get an early extirpate on Brainstorm just to get a look at his hand. He has Empty the warrens, but his hand is 'lack-luster' so I feel good. AT one point he tinkers for Jar and Jars into crap. I brainstorm back a timewalk, and opt to discard Trike. I know his hand is crap now, he has EtW in hand and one mystery card. I timewalk play a land drop I opt not to cast Gush. I pass to timewalk and then draw Ponder. My Ponder shows me two lands and an off color mox. I promptly shuffle away that Jank and rip a force off the top. I pass it to him. He plays Crypt, Necro, and Empty for 2 storm copies. I really consider forcing one copy of Empty... I think about it and decide to Gush after the storm trigger resolves, but before any copies resolve. Gush shows me Oath, and a Flash of insight. I opt to give him his 6 dudes. He Necro's Modestly ending at 10~ish life. I Oath Tyrant in, and have infinite coloress. Unfortunatly, Yawg is in the Yard, and I don't run Regrowth. I can Flash infinite once... I want to win right now so I flash for infinite and start stacking the deck. fastbond is gone and I only have Recall, and two gushes as draw. I put ancestral to my hand, and I stack Timewalk, Sapphire, Gush, Krosan, Gush, Brainstorm, Vamp, everything else. It takes me a good 4-5 mins to do this. I do the "Goblin Recruiter" and cast ancestral, draw infinite blue and a gush, harcast gush and timewalk, draw gush, harcast gush. Cast Krosan Rec, putting back Trike and Yawg, Cast Vamp for trike, cast brainstorm and win with Trike (with timewalk having already resolved).
> People note that I supossidly could have done it easier. The other "easy way" was to do the same thing but put back just yawg and vamp for yawg. The cast Trike out of the yard. This is doable, but Tyrant is not a may ablility - and there wern't that many permenants left after I did all the sinanigans above. I even did some creative double targeting (by playing mox targeting sapphire, and in response Gush targeting the same sapphire).
> Also note that I had Plats in the deck still. So any plan that involved Timewalking and activating oath had risk. He just Necro'ed so I need to be 100% sure he wasn't getting another turn. I didn't want to math out all the logic trees of what could happen if I oathed again.
> Lastly, my plan worked just fine so :p
Top 2 -- Ray with Staxless Stax.
I entertain the idea of a split, but the looser got a pretty decent prize that would well cover the $75 we spent for 3 of us to enter - so I decide that even If I loose it was worth it, and opt to play.
Game 1: I have Oath, Timewalk, double Orchard, No mox. I am on the draw. I'm not thrilled but I keep anyway. He opens with some stuff that isn't sphere, I think he plays crucible. I really hope I draw a fetchland because I don't want to get Wastelocked with my weak opener. As I draw a card, I hear that little choir of angels..... Black Lotus. I play turn 1 Orchard, Lotus, Oath Timewalk. The game is over quickly.
Game 2: I have Basic land, Fetch, Oxidize, Mystical Tutor, Mox Pearl, and Brainstorm. He opens with Sphere. I play Basic and tap it for the mox. He plays a second sphere. I plan another land and pass, intending to Mystical for probably Ancestral EOT. He untaps and draws, and thinks. After a moment he plays Chalice at 1. I have 4 spells in hand: Oath, Mystical, Brainstorm, and Oxidize - Great! I ultimately decide to mystical in response. I can't get ancestral... he has 2 spheres out so Tinker is dangerous and Gush is terrible too, I do have another land drop, so I opt for Timewalk. On my turn I drop a land, and timewalk. Draw a Force and Play Oath. Ray is upset. He had the option to play a Chalice on 2, but was afraid of me having Force. I explain to him afterwords that the Chalice on 1 was much better because I had the Oxidize in hand. Ray plays Chalice at 2 (after the oath). we play draw-go for a bit I draw 1 of two Tyrants. I eventually rip Oarchard and Ray's hopes sink. I Oath in Tyrant with only 4 cards left in my library. Now I have to really think. I pass the turn, and nothing much happens. On his end step I play the brainstorm into the chalice for 1, bouncing it. Then I oxidize chalice on two boucing one of the spheres.
I start counting up cards in my yard, and check the board to see if I accidentally sided out trike. I don't have another mox in the deck, but I do have EE and Trike. Durring my Upkeep I flashback Flash of Insight for 4 cards Put EE in hand, and Put Trike on top of the deck. Oath resolves putting Trike in, I draw, play EE to bounce the Pearl, go infinite and Ping for the win.
Ray congradulates me, and we both compliment the other on an exciting Match and an Intense Game 2.
Post Tourney --
I pay the $90 differance to make my prize be a very good condition Mox Ruby. Dan and the Myriad Crew Invites us all to Futruckers (spelling?) a delicious Hamburger Bar. I almost order the Buffalo sandwich, but decide that with a two hour drive ahead, one Buffalo meal is my limit. I go with a Chicken Chepoltle Burger instead, and it is delicious. We spend almost 2 hours eating and chatting up some vintage chat. And the Futruckers's staff starts giving us the evil eye as the time ticks down to closing, and we are the only people left, and have clearly finished eating.
Props:
Merchant Scroll for Flash of Insight - for being insane.
The Buffalo Pizza - for being a worthy adversary.
Jer - For not clobbering me round one ^_^ even though Clamp > Orchard.
Oath of Druids - for proving to be a better investment of
than Quirion Dryad.
Tidespout Tyrant - for being my hero
Floor Rules - for allowing me to look in my sideboard, so I don't have to sweat when I oath.
Chapoltle in general
The Sideboard Island - for being boarded in for 3 matches and making playable hands in two games!
Slops:
The Sideboard EE - I don't think I used it once.
Jer - For going 0-2 and then winning.
Yawgmoth's Will - for getting Oathed into the GY ... like every time I oathed!
New Hampshire - for being far away.
Indifferance:
Necropotence - for almost losing me the game, but ultimately winning me the game. We both got fooled by you "shakes fist"
