Event Report 3-22-08

Event Location: Kansas City, MO
Number of Players: 24
Tourney Set-up: Single Round Elim

Top 8
1. Deadguy Ale (Braids variant)
1. Angel Stax
3. U/G/w/b Threshold
4. U/G Madness
5. GeddonStax
6. U/G Madness
7. White Wennie
8. Faerie Stompy

I piloted GeddonStax. I'll give a quick report for the first few rounds.

Round 1: I played a Scepter lock deck. Interestingly enough, the deck didn't run the Orim's Chant. It was more a U/W control deck that attempted to reuse and abuse a Scepter lock with Boomerang or Counterspell. Game one was over fairly quickly after Smokestack and Crucible of Worlds hit the board with a couple of other lock pieces on the board. I dropped Game two as a result of a some good countermagic on his part and a lack of lock pieces on my part. He drew into a Masticore and I couldn't find an answer to it soon enough. Game Three saw me lock his Scepter out with an Oblivion Ring then after I saw a Crucible and Wasteland, the game went down hill from there.
1-0

Round 2: I play a rogue green token deck generating deck. Honestly, this match went fairly quickly. Game one started off with a turn one Crucible of Worlds, turn two Smokestack and turn three Magus of the Tabernacle. He scooped two turns later. Game two was just about as bad. I was able to drop Ghostly Prison early in the game and established a quick lock with Smokestack and Chalice of the Void ending the match fairly quickly.
2-0

Round 3: So I finally get to square of against Goblins. I really thought I was going to lose this match, but the draws seemed to play out in my favor. I drew the Gold Fish for game one: Mox Diamond, Mox Diamond, Plains, Plains, City of Traitors, Smokestack and Crucible of Worlds. Turn one Smokestack and turn two Crucible of Worlds was pretty much game over from the start. Game two developed to be a pretty long drawn out game. I was able to drop Magus of the Tabernacle early and followed it up with Ghostly Prison which helped. I got very close to losing but due to a play mistake on his part, I was able to start racking up life via Angel. I dropped Crucible and then next turn play Armageddon which wiped his board clean. I found the Magus to be much more effective compared to the Wrath of God which is usually seen in the older builds.
3-0

Round 4: Well I hate to say it, but this was my last round of the day. I hit a 4 colored Threshold variant which was rather interesting to play against. It was actually my favorite game of the day. Game one I was able to get a jump on the board. I was quickly able to put down Smokestack and he wasn't able to keep pace. He ended up scoping after he ran out of lands. Game two was kind of sad, I was mana screwed rather early never had a chance to recover. Game three was a really good match, we both where able to play our game plans however he netted two Standstills which sealed the deal for me since I wasn't able to recover from that much card advantage.
3-1

Response to question by Matt

The deck was using Standstill MD and I actually watched that deck until he dropped in Semis to the deck that would go on to win the event (Deadguy Ale). At any rate, he was using Standstill and more often than not, his open plays would be something along the lines of:
T1: Land, Nimble-go
T2: Land, Standstill-go

Most everyone cracked Standstill as soon as possible, but the card adv gained was too much in most cases. He was only running 7-8 cantrips (Brainstrom + other) so that was a little low by comparision, however it didn't really seem to matter. It as an interesting take on the deck to say the least. I actually feel like Standstill is what did me in looking back on it. He was able to drop Standstill on two consecutive turns against me in the final game which ended up being the deciding factor. Drawing 8 cards in two turns (including normal draws) against a deck that tends to slip into Topdeck mode fairly easily was just too much to handle. I asked him about it later and he said that card for card, Threshold is going to be as good as most decks are, so why not try to make it a little more of a control based deck. He said that he opted out of cards like Spellsnare and wanted his control to be based more in the late game (like after turn 3-4) and he said that most people will hesitate at least a turn with a Standstill on the board and against good players, they already know that letting a Threshold player draw three cards is going to make the match a heck of a lot tougher than usual. He used more hard counters than usual, though his counter base was composed of the following (at least from what I can remember)

4 Daze
4 FoW
3 Counterspell
2 Voidslime (An interesting call, but he had the mana usually to cast it and I only saw it in his hand maybe twice over the course of the 5-6 games I watched and it was used each time so I guess if it works, it works. Though I wouldn't think that this will be used in very many lists)

I did see him board in Finkle's against a MonoU control deck which was an interesting meta call, however he resolved them in game 2 and that was the end of the match. At anyrate, if I had the deck list I would send it to you, however I figured I would at least post what I remember.