Duck Weekly Tourney #12

[AmbivalentDuck]

Hi all!

Every week, I'm going to start a 8-player single elimination bracket.  Rules are very similar to the TMD online invitational:
1. Games are played publicly on Cockatrice
2. Players have at most a week to complete each match.
3. Lists must be posted after all round 1 matches are complete.
3a. You cannot change lists between rounds.
3b. You must show your list at the beginning of each match after the first so your opponent can verify against your posted list.
4. Prize is the opportunity to play a featured match against a well-recognized member of the Vintage community.  (Volunteers?)
5. Drops after the bracket is drawn are final.  Nobody can fill that slot.
6. Brackets will be fully randomized.  There will be no preference or "seeds" of any kind.

Registration will be closed once we have 8 people or about a week passes and I remember to draw up a bracket.

Players signed up as of last update:
1. AmbivalentDuck
2. Stormanimagus
3. Nataz
4. Credmond
5. Grand Inquisitor
6. Shock Wave
7. Guli
8. Shax

First matches must be complete by March 26th.  If all matches complete before then, the next set will be due within a week, and so on.

[nataz]

I'm in

[Stormanimagus]

count me in as well.

-storm

[credmond]

I can play.

Let's get these numbers back up to 8 or make them every other week if its getting too frequent for people.

[Grand Inquisitor]

+1

[Shock Wave]

I'll play.

[Guli]

+1

[Shax]

Sign me up!

+1 definately

[AmbivalentDuck]

Pairings are up:

GI vs Natz
Storm vs Guli
me vs Shock Wave
Credmond vs Shax

[Shax]

Null Rod> Metalworker

That is all.

PS: Oh, and Credmond won in a very exciting finish down to the wire. Woo go all the way Col!
PPS: Also, LOVED the tourney. I will be in all deez! 

[credmond]

I beat Shax 2-1

He was playing a very explosive MUD metalworker combo list.

This was the list I was playing. I took a break from playing Bazaar + Squee to playing my old standby deck with lands that do things. I love lands that do things.

4 Standstill
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
2 Misdirection
2 Mindbreak Trap
2 Mental Misstep
1 Red Elemental Blast
4 Null Rod
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Crucible of Worlds
2 Chain of Vapor
1 Echoing Truth
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
3 Mishra's Factory
1 Mutavault
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Library of Alexandria
3 Island
4 Volcanic Island
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Fire // Ice
SB: 1 Pyroclasm
SB: 1 Mountain
SB: 2 Lightning Bolt
SB: 2 Threads of Disloyalty
SB: 1 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 4 Ingot Chewer
SB: 4 Grafdigger's Cage


Game 1 He won game one by assembling vault + key.

Game 2 I had an awkward 6 of LOA, Lotus, and Standstill, and a FOW. I play standstill with lotus. He cracks standstill with shop and metalworker. I draw to 6 (now 2 FOW in hand and 2 other blue and ingot and null rods but no land). I dont counter metalworker since if draw a land i can lay null rod or I can dig one more deep with LOA and if I hit a red source I can nail metalworker. My gambit doesnt pay off. So he uses Metalworker to dump Crucible, Smokestack, and Kudoltha. I counter Smoke and Kudoltha. His deck stalls out and he is attacking with 2 metalworkers for several turns. Eventually I am able to get back to 7 cards and null rod in play and kill off his metalworkers and otherwise take control of the match.

Game 3 He had an awesome opener of turn 1 Trinisphere and Golem. Luckily I have the FOW for Trinisphere or that would have been it. He rides on Golem as his only threat. One turn I Fire/Ice it to buy a turn and dig for an answer. Eventually I am able to bounce his Golem back to his hand when I am at 3 life and drain it when he replays it the next turn. Crucible, standstill and a null rod later and I am in control of the match.

[Guli]

Storm, my Padawan, will do the report. Here is my list that took the match 2-1 vs dredge

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Windswept Heath
2 Forest
1 Plains
3 Savannah
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine

3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Kataki, War's Wage
4 Qasali Pridemage
3 Scryb Ranger
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Aven Mindcensor
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Thornscape Apprentice
1 Cold-Eyed Selkie
1 Gaddock Teeg
1 Dryad Arbor

4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Swords to Plowshares
4 Mental Misstep
3 Stony Silence

SB: 4 Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 4 Nature's Claim
SB: 4 Relic of Progenitus
SB: 1 Kataki, War's Wage
SB: 2 Ethersworn Canonist

[nataz]

GI an I should be playing in a few mins

just kidding, we are playing sometime between 830 and 9

room is up " GI DUCK FIGHT"

waiting for GI

[Grand Inquisitor]

Weird couple of games with Nataz.

G1 he opts not to search out mountains with Solemn, leaving Welders high in hand.  I stall to death with Tendrils on 6 to survive til I can Control Magic so we can trade solemns and then Chain of Vapor my Crypt so he dies to his.  Very strange.

G2 he mulls and I slow roll him under his own 3sphere.

1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
2 Underground Sea
3 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
3 Mana Drain
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Accumulated Knowledge
3 Intuition
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Preordain
1 Trygon Predator
2 Tropical Island
2 Mental Misstep
1 Control Magic
1 Flusterstorm
1 Fire // Ice
1 Volcanic Island
1 Ancient Grudge

SB: 4 Yixlid Jailer
SB: 1 Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 1 Engineered Explosives
SB: 1 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 1 Forest
SB: 2 Nature's Claim
SB: 2 Trygon Predator
SB: 2 Flusterstorm
SB: 1 Nature's Ruin

[nataz]

5 mins before the match I decided to load up and play the R/Shop list from Brian's article and quickly proceed to get smashed. I was distracted, and didn't read solemn. Forgot that it searched on CITP, stranding a welder in hand forever, and eventually lost to my own crypt rolls. It was still surprisingly close with GI ending at 1 life. G2, I had mana issues in my opening hands, mulled to 5, and wasn't really in the game.

GG's to GI.

[credmond]

When are Shockwave and Duck going to have their match?

[Shock Wave]

When are Shockwave and Duck going to have their match?

Hopefully tonight. Sorry for the delay. This fell off my radar.

[AmbivalentDuck]

3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Green Sun's Zenith

Can you comment on how often that anti-synergy is a problem?

[Shock Wave]

I won 2-0 against Duck with my usual Landstill list from the other Duck Tourneys.

G1: This was an extremely intense game where he led with a Tinkerer which shut off my Factory and Null Rod, but I had a first turn LoA. I draw cards while he resolves a Matron and then a Welder. I can't activate my Factory to block as he plucks away at my life, so I have to find a way to slow the game down. I draw another Factory and now he cannot swing for 2 a turn with the Welder and Matron, since he has to keep his Welder and Tinkerer back to defend my against my two factories. Since his clock has slowed down by half, I play a Standstill. He is content hitting me down to 3 life, while I draw cards with LoA. I lay a Conclave somewhere within these turns and trade with the Matron, then set up for one big turn on his end step. He draws to 8 cards, and on his EOT I crack my own Standstill and shoot his Welder with a Lava Dart. He casts Mental Misstep (!!). I Spell Pierce. In response, he welds out a tapped Mox for one in his bin and taps out to pay for Spell Pierce. I allow the stack to resolve and he discards to 7. On my next turn, I untap, play Null Rod to shut off his moxes, then play Crucible, and Strip/Waste him down to 0 land. I then flashback Lava Dart and hit his Welder. Now he has 7 cards and a Tinkerer staring down 3 Factories, a LoA, and my 7 cards while I am at 3 life. Unfortunately, he has a fetch so he searches up a Mountain and trades his Tinkerer for the Crucible. I untap and play a Standstill. He goes for Vexing Shusher on his turn, but Standstill gives me Jace, so I bounce on my next turn, and by the time he tries to bolt me out I have about 10,000 counters.

G2: I side out Spell Pierces and bring in Bolts. This one is less exciting. He leads with Lackey, while I have Sapphire -> Ancestral -> Fetch -> Lava Dart. He plays a Tinkerer on his next turn but that really isn't strong enough against me. I play a Standstill, since a 19-turn clock isn't very threatening. Tinkerer gets in there for some damage but I just keep developing and by the time he breaks my Standstill the game is out of reach.

GGs Duck!

[Grand Inquisitor]

G1, I draw hands consecutively with 1, 0, 0, 1 lands.  I keep at 4 and he gets there with bear fury (re: seven turns later).

G2, I draw 7 cards before his 2nd untap.

G3, Finally some good stuff.  He has 3x misstep for my ancestral>snap and 3x strip/waste to slow me down.  Scavenging Ooze comes in with GSZ and I'm looking in rough shape with little mana and only a Trygon.  Trygon and a claim nail all four of his stony silence, otherwise I die a horrible death this game.  Soon I cantrip into 4 mana and drop Control Magic...exactly one turn before his Teeg hits.  We trade blows with me having an upper hand with tutors and more flyers.  Eventually, low on life and facing down Trygon beats (he tries to stall with a ranger, but I drain) he has to run Teeg into my hunching Ooze and then he goes for GSZ hoping to pop pridemage on my CM.  I have other plans with a Tendrils to barely finish off the game.  This is the stuff T1 is made of.

[Guli]

Ranger would not have stalled, it would win the game Draining it was not a choice.

[AmbivalentDuck]

Shock Wave and Cory, any progress?

[credmond]

Shockwave went on vacation for a week. I don't mind waiting if no one else minds waiting.

[credmond]

I got there 2-1 vs Shockwave. I think I got lucky. The landstill mirror can hinge on weird things and often just the luck of the topdeck since the decks tend to stall each other out.

Game 1 came down to a counterspell fight that I lost over an ancestral that he launches on my upkeep turn 6 or so. He has one more counter for my Mindbreak trap that would otherwise seal the game for me. He stays ahead a card or two from there on out and a Jace from him seals the deal.

Game 2 I keep a one lander with a misdirection and other goodies but no force and he plays a standstill off a lotus and lays a factory down. I start drawing lands off the top like a champ (well there are a good number of lands in landstill so not a huge bit of luck there). I let the cards in his hand go back up to seven before I fire/ice end of turn to keep our hand totals after his discard even. I then tap out to play Crucible! On his turn he taps out to play time walk which I force because if I untap I can pretty much win and then he lays a volcanic to chewer my crucible. Nicely done there! Later he launches an ancestral which I have the misd for. He counters. I counter. Then he missteps his own ancestral to keep me from getting 3 off it. Another tight play there! I then just eventually draw into a position where I have manland dominance and I can start to deliver blows to the red zone and force him to do something. Eventually he lays down a Jace but at 2 life it is too late.

Game 3 I have an early lotus + Jace opener, but he is able to reb it on his turn. I am thinking I am behind in this one, but I simply draw manland/waste dominance and he is stuck with a hand full of counters.

His deck has 2 more manlands than mine so its interesting that I got manland dominance in two games. Lucky me.

[Grand Inquisitor]

Lucky me.

No, I get to play landstill...again.  Lucky me 

Send me a PM when you want to play, Corey.  I should be around most PM EST this week.

[Shock Wave]

I got there 2-1 vs Shockwave. I think I got lucky. The landstill mirror can hinge on weird things and often just the luck of the topdeck since the decks tend to stall each other out.

Game 1 came down to a counterspell fight that I lost over an ancestral that he launches on my upkeep turn 6 or so. He has one more counter for my Mindbreak trap that would otherwise seal the game for me. He stays ahead a card or two from there on out and a Jace from him seals the deal.

Game 2 I keep a one lander with a misdirection and other goodies but no force and he plays a standstill off a lotus and lays a factory down. I start drawing lands off the top like a champ (well there are a good number of lands in landstill so not a huge bit of luck there). I let the cards in his hand go back up to seven before I fire/ice end of turn to keep our hand totals after his discard even. I then tap out to play Crucible! On his turn he taps out to play time walk which I force because if I untap I can pretty much win and then he lays a volcanic to chewer my crucible. Nicely done there! Later he launches an ancestral which I have the misd for. He counters. I counter. Then he missteps his own ancestral to keep me from getting 3 off it. Another tight play there! I then just eventually draw into a position where I have manland dominance and I can start to deliver blows to the red zone and force him to do something. Eventually he lays down a Jace but at 2 life it is too late.

Game 3 I have an early lotus + Jace opener, but he is able to reb it on his turn. I am thinking I am behind in this one, but I simply draw manland/waste dominance and he is stuck with a hand full of counters.

His deck has 2 more manlands than mine so its interesting that I got manland dominance in two games. Lucky me.

Game 3 was particularly tragic for me, since I resolved Ancestral and Brainstorm, but failed to draw one of my 8 outs. In any case, you were rewarded for being aggressive when the opportunity presented itself. Well done!