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DubDub
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« on: July 28, 2009, 08:48:30 am » |
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My string of mistakes continue (see below), my notes are here at work, but life totals as I had them and my exact decklist are at home. I will update to confirm the decklist and add notes tonight.
Episode I: The Phaentom Menace
Planeswalkers
1x Tezzeret the Seeker
Legendary Creatures
2x Vendilion Clique
Creatures
2x Dark Confidant
4x Spellstutter Sprite
1x Glen Elendra Archmage
1x Sower of Temptation
Artifact Creatures
1x Sphinx of the Steel Wind
Tribal Enchantments
2x Bitterblossom**
Legendary Artifacts
1x Umezawa's Jitte
Artifacts
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
1x Black Lotus*
1x Sol Ring
1x Mox Jet*
1x Mox Sapphire*
1x Mox Ruby*
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mana Crypt
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Time Vault
1x Voltaic Key
Legendary Lands
1x Tolarian Academy
Lands
4x Underground Sea*
2x Polluted Delta
2x Flooded Strand
3x Island
2x Tropical Island
1x Strip Mine
Sorceries
1x Merchant Scroll
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Regrowth
1x Time Walk
1x Tinker
Instants
4x Force of Will
3x Mana Drain
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Brainstorm
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Hurkyl's Recall
1x Misdirection
Sideboard
4x Leyline of the Void
3x Energy Flux
2x Krosan Grip
1x Glen Elendra Archmage
2x Sower of Temptation
1x Pithing Needle
1x Echoing Truth
1x Curfew
The above is currently off by a bit, I will correct it soon. UPDATE: Corrected sideboard.
Looking at the Chicago results, I was expecting Stax Tezz and Fish to be highly played, and Tezz in particular to be primarily leaning on Dark Confidant. I expected a non-zero number of Remora and Storm decks as well. After coming up with several new lists I decided to instead just reinterpret my list from the last Myriad Games event, with tech to beat creatures/Stax. I had then said that Bitterblossom didn't appeal to me, but it's usefulness against Stax is obvious. On the car-ride down I decided on a 2/2 split between Confidant and Bitterblossom. My thought process was that Jitte and SOFI would dominate other creature decks, especially since the majority of my creatures have flying. I had recently gotten the Foil Regrowth, which was the single reason for my running Green (which also allowed for K-Grips in the side). I knew I wanted 4x Leyline, though I wasn't expecting too much Ichorid (and didn't see any), so I wanted 4x Undergrounds to make them actually castable.
Tourney Report
Rd.1 vs Andrew Fox's 5C Non-Tarmo Zoo
I have seen Andrew's 5C Zoo previously, and guess that it is a good matchup for me if he's playing the same deck. I have fliers, Jitte and Sphinx, plus Bitterblossom to block his largest threat.
G.1 I make two critical mistakes in this game.
Andrew: 20 18 15 11
Me: 20 19 18 17 14 13 7 6 4 1
I have bitterblossom, some fae, dark confidant, three lands and a mox, plus Sensei's Divining Top in play, and Vampiric Tutor in hand with 7 life. I EOT Top, and see Lotus, Walk and something irrelevant. I stack Lotus then Walk. Upkeep I go to 6 from blossom, and lose 0 to confidant.
WHAT I INTEND TO DO: Draw Walk with SDT, then Vamp for Jitte. Play and equip Jitte, swing, kill Confidant and gain life. Walk, swing, gain life/kill his guys and re-equip Jitte to blocker. This is a line of play that I think wins the game.
WHAT I ACTUALLY DO: Instead I Vamp upkeep (shuffling away walk) to 4 for Jitte. Play and equip Jitte and swing, re-equip to untapped Fae and pass. He tribal flames me for 5, so I response gain 2. This sends me to 1.
WHAT I INTEND TO DO: Draw with Top, gain two more life with last Jitte counter. Bitterblossom and Top revealed to Confidant send me back to 1, but I swing again, requip to blocker and slowly regain 2 life per turn. This line of play only loses if he adds additional burn before I find counterspells/etc. He can't really attack profitably, as I will chump with Confidant and Jitte-equipped tokens to pull ahead.
WHAT I DO: EOT use last Jitte counter to kill confidant, upkeep fall to zero from Bitterblossom.
G.2
Andrew: 20 19 18 15 13 12 9 7 5
Me: 20 19 17 13 12
On the play I have land, mox, spellstutter land SOFI, something else. Spellstutter counters his Wild Nacatl. Then I rip lotus and go: Lotus-SOFI, equip, swing for 5 drawing a card. The game is over soon as I believe I eventually rip Jitte to double equip the sprite.
G.3
Andrew: 20 19 18 17 11
Me: 20 19 16 13 19
I believe I keep on the back of Vamp, Brainstorm, one Polluted Delta and Force with blue. However I decide to not Vamp EOT, intending to Brainstorm on T2 into a land which will then let me Vamp. Instead I rip ACall from the top, play it and draw Tinker, Mana Crypt, Tropical. I'm running Sphinx so he has (I assume) 0 outs.
Rd.2 vs Craig Dupre; Tezzeret.
G.1
Craig: 20 19 16 13 10 7 6 1
Me: 20 19
I didn't have much in the way of notes here, but I believe I have his hand written down from one point in the match at home. I believe my record of life totals will confirm my memory that an early Vendilion Clique gets there, as he ends the game with much countermagic and no trump-threat/answer for Clique.
G.2
Craig: 20 17 16 13 8 7 6
Me: 20 19 16
He sits on Library for a while while I'm not doing much. I have top and Jitte but no creatures. Eventually when he's at 8 cards he goes to discard darkblast, we back up and I top, see Vendilion Clique, draw with top and cast it. It resolves and he shows me Darkblast, Sower, Sower, Force, Engineered Plague, Intuition and other stuff, drain I think. He has no black source. I let him keep them, and he again advances to discard. I untap equip and swing. He Intuitions on my endstep, which I drain, but I think he Forces or Drains back. He gets black sources, untaps and plays plague #1. I top in response and see 2x Krosan Grips. Since he can't also Sower my Clique I burn one Jitte counter to keep Clique alive, then EOT draw K-Grip and kill Plague (naming wizard). I untap and attack again without pumping. He untaps and goes for Plague #2, but again I let it resolve after pump, then K-Grip during his endstep (naming wizard). I get more beats until he goes for Yawg, which I drain but he drains back. He drops double Plague (again both Wizards) so I let clique die. I EOT top and see Bitterblossom, which I don't realize until after the tourney makes Rogues, so I fetch then untap and draw blind (intending to Top after my draw) into Tinker, which finds infi turns and gets rid of my mana crypt. I have Pearl and Sphinx left, plus Regrowth and Yawg as outs to plague (Tezz had been pitched, perhaps?), not to mention the Bitterblossoms which weren't as dead as I initially thought.
Rd.3 vs Jeff Carpenter; 5C Stax (-less? didn't see them)
Jeff: 20 19 18 17 15 12 7
Me: 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
Last time we played Jeff was on Selkie-Strike, which I feel is a great matchup for this deck as the equipment rolls everything not named Tarmogoyf, and BB is a really great wall for Tarmo's.
He wins the die roll but I have T1 BB with SOFI in hand and mana.
G.1His first play is shop-Sphere, which elicits an 'oh-no' from me. I think this makes him put me on Elves, which is the talk of the tournament. I pay one off Island for Jet and pass, he now knows I'm not on Elves. He plays welder and passes. I get T2 BB, which gets an oh-no from him. My next turn I play SOFI but cannot equip. He draws, and again I think with Bazaar, then makes the great play of Shaman, eat mox, weld out SOFI. Unfortunately my BB pulls me far ahead and I win the race against Bazaar, digging for TV/Key (he gets one I believe). At one point I play Sower while he has Welder, Shaman, and Barbarian Ring in play. I target Gorilla Shaman and he hands Shaman over, then Ring's the Sower so I response eat his mox. I think he just welds the mox in response. This does accomplish my end goal of getting rid of Ring in case I find a second Sower as I boarded one in, and as he has stalled on mana.
G.2
Jeff: 20 16 12 8
Me: 20 19 17 16 15 12 11 6 4
HUGE MISTAKE ALERT: I board out Tezz, Regrowth, and two TROPICAL ISLANDS (as they weaken my manabase) and two other things. I board in two KROSAN GRIPS and three energy flux. Yes, the K-GRIPS are only now castable off Emerald and Lotus. Yes I'm an idiot. No it doesn't end up mattering. I open up Delta, Academy, Vamp, double Confidant and brainstorm. He plays something irrelevant T1, but off academy. I play Delta. He plays something else t2, so I EOT vamp for lotus. Untap, legend away the academies, then lotus->bob+bob. He takes 4 per turn while I draw nuts cards. I brainstorm back pearl and voltaic key instead of playing them to keep from taking four from my bobs (go-go healing salve), as everything else in my hand cost 2 or more. I end the game with Force, two SSS's (and I discarded one), Mis-D (why didn't I board that out?) and hurkyl's, Sower and Sphinx. I think I added Jitte so my last swing is for 8.
Rd. 4 vs Rich Shay with Elves, I mean, Tezz.
HUGE MISTAKE ALERT: I for some reason think he's playing Elves. This despite the fact that he's bemoaning losing to first turn tinker-force-force back twice (in three games) from the prior round. He's not playing elves.
G.1
Rich: 20 19 18 13 11 9 19
Me: 20 18 17 16 13 3
With that mindset I keep Jitte, SOFI, three lands, Sapphire, and Sphinx. If he is playing elves then just about any creature in my deck wins. He duresses me Turn 1 and I realize what I've done. It actually becomes surprisingly close, though his Old Man of the Sea (maindeck) stalls me until I can find EOT SSS (which gets stolen), and then untap into a second equipped with SOFI. He tendrils at the end to put it away.
G.2
Rich: 20 19 18 17 16 14 12 11 10 9 21 16 10 8 5
Me: 20 19 18 16 15 13 1 7 13
This one goes for a while but I win. I play out my hand without resolving much, while he Tendrils me to 1. But my deck ships me Archmage who gets in there. Then I topdeck Tinker into Sphinx. Archmage counters his Will and that's game.
G.3
Rich: 20 19 16 14 9
Me: 20 15
With <6 minutes left in the round we shuffle up again. On the draw I have Ruby, Sapph, Sol Ring, SOFI, Academy and SSS. He doesn't duress me so I drop the moxes, ruby->ring and academy makes SOFI with Sapph and ring untapped. He drops T2 confidant, I EOT SSS. Untap, equip, swing, kill confidant and draw a card. I win with very quick beats while drawing extra cards. I think I must have added confidants to make the next swing lethal.
We played because I had been convinced that I could not draw twice in to top 8 at 3-0 because I had been paired down to play Rich. Rich uses the restroom after the match while Ashlee asks for our score and I report it. Rich comes back out and asks if we can draw. I agree to draw him in if a) we can, considering I had reported, and b) I am still guaranteed top 8. We can, I am, and we do.
Rd.5 vs Ollie; we agree to draw before the round begins.
Top 8
G1
Eric: 20 19 13 5
Me: 20 19 18 24 22 28 (I lose)
I play ELD, who storms me out from 28 facing down a Sphinx that would have needed 1 more turns (added a confidant). I had no inkling that he was that close to winning with Tendrils, not having seen him play earlier that day. In fact the previous turn I Scrolled for Drain to protect Sphinx, and then Drained his Duress not realizing he was going for storm. In fact as he begins storming I point out that I had played Drain, not just revealed it to Duress (he was tallying storm count an was off by one). I actually fall way behind despite resolving Ancestral because his Library houses me (including such plays as: draw off library, sapphire, land, ancestral, duress, I'm at 7 cards go). He got many cards off library before I found Strip Mine.
G2
ELD: 20 19 15
Me: 20 18 17
I fan out a hand with not really enough action. I should have mulled. My T1 confidant gets forced and I lose. Well, there's more to it than that, but essentially I fall way behind and my Glen Elendra Archmage also gets forced so I lose. I see 0 forces in these two games while Eric sees 4 (one of which targets his Repeal on a mox for storm, while another targets that one). That's really a statement that I should have mulled.
Props:
Jitte and SOFI for being ridiculous against the field. I didn't even get to play elves! but would have I assume enjoyed a huge advantage.
Bitterblossom for making SSS amazing. SSS that are hard counters against anything in a stax list are sick.
Creatures with flying for allowing me to basically ignore the current combat rules.
My deck for shipping me must counter threats when I needed them turn after turn (Archmage, Tezz, Tinker in one string).
Myriad Games and my opponents for a really enjoyable tourney.
Slops:
Me for making horrible plays.
Opponents who cast Engineered Plague four times and maindeck darkblast.
Me for not mulliganing.
Dark Confidant for not impressing me much. He's a fickle friend.
Time Walk for never showing up when I had creatures on the board.
Regrowth for never showing up when I had Time Walk or Ancestral in the yard.
Me for having equipment out but no creatures too often.
Card Choices and Comments
Spellstutter Sprite continues to be amazing, even more so than in my last tourney since this list had Bitterblossoms. I felt that this list was prepared for Confidant Tezz while being strong against Stax (which I expected more of). It should be strong against Remora when it has Clique/early Bitterblossom, and fish when it has equipment/bitterblossom/Sower. I assume it would have matched well against Elves between the SSS's and equipment.
If I were to revise the list for the same meta I faced I would likely drop Green and add White for Aven Mindcensor as another instant speed threat that can carry equipment, and I would probably go to 3x Bitterblossom and 2x Archmage while cutting the Sower in the main. White would also give me Ethersworn Canonist for the sideboard against combo. I might experiment with Keep Watch, which is insane with Bitterblossom in the mid-game, though it doesn't play nice with Mana Drain at all. I don't think Confidant is right in this build, as he can generate a lot of lost life and discourages playing Bitterblossoms.
I went with Sphinx because it hoses Goyf-fish, which the rest of the deck fears, and it is equippable unlike Inkwell.
I haven't liked them before, but with Bitterblossoms in the deck Scion of Oona could be a great sideboard card against null-rod decks, pulling out equipment.
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