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« on: August 22, 2013, 06:25:51 pm » |
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Thank you Nick Coss and the TDG's staff for hosting such a great event! It was mad fun to sling some cardboard with familiar faces and friends, especially since I have been away from Vintage, for a bit.
Thank you to Chris LaIacona for the ride to the event and to J.P. Kohler and Alex Owen for sharing the car.
The list that I sleeved up is, more or less, Tom Dixon's winning list with some small changes. I evaluated each card and decided on keeping some and changing some others. Tom is a solid pilot, with an extensive list of top 8's. I felt good starting with his 75.
Mickey Mahr
Quarterfinalist
"Stax"
4 Lodestone Golem
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
3 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Black Lotus
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Crucible of Worlds
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
3 Null Rod
4 Smokestack
1 Sol Ring
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Tangle Wire
2 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Trinisphere
4 Ancient Tomb
1 Ghost Quarter
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Wasteland
SB:
2 Dismember
2 Duplicant
2 Ghost Quarter
4 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Wurmcoil Engine
J.P. Kohler and I took about two weeks to play test and prepare for the event. J.P. is a great friend and helped me fix holes in my play and grow as a pilot. J.P. was running a different 75 and during testing I did not like the way that some of the differences were playing out, so I moved away from the list that he was using to a more traditional Stax/Shops variation. I started with (Tom's list) the heart and core of what makes a Stax list work,
4 Lodestone Golem
1 Black Lotus
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Crucible of Worlds
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Smokestack
1 Sol Ring
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Tangle Wire
1 Trinisphere
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Wasteland
These cards are the bread and butter of what makes a Stax/Shop prison build powerful. If you are going to change or leave out a card in these 49 it has to be for a critical strategic reason. If you stray to far from these 49 you are simply not playing a Stax prison build. This only leaves a little wiggle room for meta gaming the main 60. I chose to go with these cards main, most of them are the same as Tom's but here is my reasoning why I kept them or changed them.
3 Null Rod - A lot of the decks that I saw top 8'n had a full set of moxen/lotus/crypt, the Trinket Mage package, extra pieces of fast mana or Kuldotha Forgemaster. I wanted to only go 2 main and one in the board, but after testing and seeing how oppressive the card is, I wanted it on the table in almost all of my games.
3 Phyrexian Revoker - This was a card that took me a long time to warm up to in general, asides just for this event. You never want to open with Revoker blind, it functions as a reactive card opposed to proactive, and does not have a "Catch all" affect that hinders all spells your opponent might cast. These problems run against the grain of the prison synergy. Revoker is fragile compared to the load it is expected to carry. I don't want to rely on a 2/1 artifact creature to stop Jace-TMS and Goblin Welder. Revoker is man handled by every answer in the format and out classed by most other 2/1 creatures that are played in Vintage. The reason why I think he gets played, and why I still use him in my prison build, is that his ability has such a wide application and can buy time till a real solution is found to whatever board state you find yourself in. He can get you the extra turn you need to ramp up Stack and so on. Occasionally Revoker does stick and outright win games. Not to mention the fact that his reactive nature can handle a Kohler Jace (Aka turn 1 Jace-TMS) turn 1 Goblin Welder and Metal Worker.
2 Phyrexian Metamorph - This card has under performed for me in the last events that I attended. Playing versus shops it is amazing but outside of that it can lead to awkward starts and huge let downs. I only kept two in the deck because I am worried about metal worker and other shop decks 6 drops, and I wanted another main board answer other than Revoker/Mainboard creature removal. The card is great when you copy a LodeStone Golem or a Tangle wire when you need to but, without Tinker/BSC being in every blue deck, I would rather just have cards that can function and advance your game on their own.
3 (instead of 2) Crucible Of Worlds - There were a lot of decks running waste lands or only 1 basic land in recent top 8's, so I figured an extra Crucible would help. This freed up a board spot.
2 Thorn of Amethyst - Thorn does some heavy lifting against Landstill, Oath, Suicide Jace/Bob and vs all the Buring Wish decks. It fights Abrupt Decay which is a huge problem. I find Abrupt Decay to be such a problem that I keep in the thorns vs BUG fish lists. My sideboard plan can deal with the non-creature sphere, as good as, or better than the BUG fish sideboard hate.
1 Ghost Quarter - It was Ghost Quarter over City Of Traitors because I hate having to kill my own land to play a land and many of decks in top 8's only had 1 or 2 basic lands, so Quarter could be used to keep a pilot off a color or as a waste in the match ups where it is, those being dredge and shops. I used to play 2 extra lands main but without having anything over 4 CMC in the main, there was no need.
-1 (Minus) Mana Crypt. I did not play with Mana Crypt.
It felt strange to not have anything at the top of the curve but Karn and Steel HellKite have let me down. Karn is not strong right now because there seems to be a lot of spot removal for creatures so animating an important lock piece, to get blown out by something like a 3/4 flash blocking angel, is bad. (Or get blown out by any other creature removal) I did not want to play HellKite because most of the games that I resolved him, AND GOT TO SWING, I could have won with any other card. Also "Steel Hellkite and Null Rod are not friends". I ended up changing only two cards, Duplicant for Crucible Of Worlds, and City Of Traitors for Ghost Quarters.
-The Sideboard.
When I make a sideboard the first thought that goes through my mind is, NEVER LOSE TO DREDGE! This is very important because you are 95% of the time going to win a match vs Dredge by winning games 2 and 3. I wanted to have 8 dedicated Dredge hate cards. I am most comfortable with 9 and I used to play Pithing Needle in the board, but with 2 Ghost Quarters and a WurmCoil, bringing in 11 cards to help out, that match up has enough help.
4 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Ghost Quarter
1 Wurmcoil Engine
Then sure up the mirror. This needs creature removal, Ghost Quarters, Crucible Of Worlds and 6 drops. I have 3 Quarters after I board, 3 Crucible main, 2 Dismember, 2 Duplicant and the Wurmcoil. I was trying out the Wurmcoil but I think Hellkite is just better in most situations. It can eat moxen/Crucible/everything! Flies over the top, and can be pumped for that extra few points of damage. Crucible is the most important card in this match up, after that, the cards that let Crucible take the most important place, the waste affect cards. Hellkite can eat your opponents crucibles. That is prob the right card to play. Wurmcoil seemed powerful because it can out race Hellkite creating a 12 swing of life points, is only proficiently dealt with by Duplicant, and gives you another 2 perms that happen to be 3/3's. I was thinking for the mirror, if I can keep the battle about land, with so many waste cards and 3 Crucibles (+2 Metamorphs to copy a Crucible that already hit the table), I could keep the battle out of the air. Wurmcoil also really slows down Dredge and the new kid on the block Young Pyromancer. At the end of the day I thought Wurm was a better choice because I was playing Null Rod.
The sideboard plan is pretty straightforward for all the matches except for keeping in Thorn of Amethyst vs BUG. Take them out vs Merfolk!!! This I think is the right play, because Abrupt Decay is the real deal vs shops and your cards coming in are 3 creatures, 2 one mana (For you) instances and extra lands. Hence those 2 spheres don't hurt you as much as they hurt BUG fish's Nature's Claim, Steel Sabotage, Pernicous Deed, Thoughtseizs and Abrupt Decy. You board out these cards Null Rod, Revoker and Metamorph. This is a hard deck to board vs because if you see Jace-TMS you should keep in the Revokers and take out 3 Null Rod, 2 Metamorph. Revoker can hit Jace-TMS and Deathrite Shaman. If you don't see Jace-TMS I think there is not enough value in Revoker because he just gets out classed with out having enough targets to hit. If you don't see basic lands, try and get those Ghost Quarters in. Some of the BUG fish lists are only running 1 basic land.
-The Swiss
Round 1 , Joel Lim on Merfolk.
I lost the die roll. Unfortunately my round 1 with Joel was un-interactive for both games. It was just, do you have force? If not I am like 98% to win. I opened up both games with identical starts, 6 mana into LodeStone Golem and a Sphere of Resistance. I felt bad because I got such a good starting 7, I could play greedy and play the Golem first before the Sphere and not worry about protecting the Golem from Force Of Will because I had another Golem or Stax to play on my turn 2. This was wrong sequencing but I took a risk, knowing I had very strong hands. Game 1 he conceded after my open, I was not sure if he was on Merfolk or Blue/White Angels, so I could not board right. Game 2 he tried to fight past the hate with a timely Dismember but a Stack and Wire got another concession. Joel is a great person and I am happy he did not go on tilt after those round 1 games and he tore up the swiss, to a top 8 finish!
Round 2, Alex Owen on a Young Pyromancer list.
I was so bummed that I got matched up with someone from the car. During the trip we exchanged list. It was going to be a strange game of knowing exactly what is in each others decks. I lost the die roll, and game 1 we both mulligan. I don't perfectly remember what happened but I got down two Thorns and a Factory, to stall his hand from casting the important things. He did get down two Guttersnipe's. I think he got stuck on 3 lands and I was able to get down a Smoke Stack and roll it to two. With a clearing of the board across from me, and proper sacrificing of perms, I took game 1. Game 2 if I remember right, he had to mulligan to only an decent hand. On the play he lead with an underground sea and cast Preordain. Put both cards on the bottom and drew. I wasted his dual and past the turn. He drew and past back to me without playing a land. From here Alex did not see another land or mox for a few turns and by this time I had developed a board to lock up game 2.
Round 3, J.P Kohler! On His shops list.......
So not only am I matched up with 2 of 3 players from the car, it is my testing/brewing partner! J.P. and I talk about an ID, but we decided to play it out. I won the die roll. Game 1 I started with what looked like would become a waste locked game with Crucible Of Worlds. I had J.P. in a bad situation. He was on 4 mana and casted a LodeStone Golem. I let it swing in a few turns as I wasted his lands. I got worried about the lose of life and I panicked. To stop the bleeding I played my own Lodestone Golem one turn before it was 100% necessary. This let J.P. finally get to 6 mana for a Steel Hellkite, which took to the air for his game 1 Win. It was a misplay on my part. He told me after the match that if I had stuck to my guns, and wasted him again, I prob would have won game 1. Game 2 I don't have any notes, just that I got 2 Lodestones down and won from those beats. Game 3 There was a very important play that J.P. made which involved 3 for 1'ing himself. He blew up a ratchet bomb on 0, eating 2 of his own fast mana. Getting rid of these 3 perms on his side, to only kill 1 on my side. This mox kill that I suffered kept me off 6 mana, so I could not cast Duplicant and he rode on the wings of a Hellkite again to victory. I was able during game 3 to get out 2 tangle wires at the same time to buy time, but it did not buy enough time for me to find another piece of mana. J.P. won the match on game 3.
Round 4, William Sees on Suicide Jace.
I lost the die roll. He lands a Bob turn 1 or 2. The game develops and he is able to cast Hurkyl's Recall. It moved to my turn and I drew a waste. My next turn I wasted and hit his Sol Ring with a Revoker. That was enough to put him behind and I took game 1. Game 2 he played land, Sensei's Divining Top and pass. My first turn was Trinisphere, which resolved. Turn 2 he goes land pass, I go Revoker on top. Things are looking really good for me. His 3rd turn - land & Key-, mine with 7 mana -Golem & Sphere-, his 4th - land and the slamming of VAULT!!!!..... I start to feel sick again, as I make him go to work. He shows me a tinker from hand and BSC from library for a concession. I go into game 3 with a terrible mind set. We both end up having to mull to 5. I get a very poor hand. If I remember right I only had a Factory in my starting 5. I start things off with the factory. He goes Undergound Sea into Recall. Now I start thinking, it is over, he has a full hand, get ready for losers bracket. He passes with those 7 cards in hand. I draw a mox, play mox and drop a Sphere Of Resistance. William does not force, I pass the turn. He draws, looks at his hand and declares move to discard. I end up drawing a waste, and hit the only land he sees game 3. (Or he might have just not drawn a land for like 4-5 turns. Which is the same in Vintage as not getting any lands) I am given the time I need to build out of a bad mull to 5, and seal up round 4.
Round 5, Brad Granberry on Burning Oath.
If I remember right I am on the play this game 1. I have to mulligan down to 5, but I get a solid starting 5. I open chalice 0 and waste. I don't clearly remember what happened but it was a short game. I wasted and striped him turn 1 & 2, and he never saw another land. Game 2 was a really long grind. I am able to get a chalice on 2 and metamorph the chalice to have another one on 0. Brad resolves a Necropotence but because the chalices keep him off the fast mana, he is not able to get where he needs. He does resolve 2 Claims during the game, but they were too late, and I get down 2 Sphere's to lock up the game.
Round 6, Will Magrann on Forgemaster MUD.
We decide to ID because we are both definitely in the top 8 if we do. It was in my favor to play him, because I have 3 Crucible and 3 Null Rod main but I guess why risk the top 8!
Top 8, Greg Fenton on Greg Fenton Oath.
I get to pick, play or draw. I don't remember what happened game 1 very well but I do remember Greg's yell of "DEATH TO SHOPS, BLUE DECKS UNITE!!!" He gets down an early Oath and Orchard. I am able to play a Revoker naming (Necropotence 2.0) Griselbrand, but this only slows him down a bit, and he is able to take game 1. Game 2 I open with just like the cold stone nuts for this match up, at least I think I do. The game goes something close to chalice 0, Cage, Sphere Of Resistance. Into another Cage, Crucible of worlds, and a Chalice on 2. All this hate Greg just simply plays around with a Show and Tell to bring the Demon onto the battlefield from his hand. GG WP!
The Vintage community is always great and all the people that I played are scholars and gentlemen. Thank you for the GG's.
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