Hello,
After a disappointing 4-1-2, I didn't plan to write a report, but since I enjoy
reading them, it's payback time.
I've decided I would attend the Duelmen monthly T1 10 days ago. I was wondering
what to play, knowing there would be good workshop decks and control.
I settled on Keeper that I hadn't played since last January in a local tourney.
I wanted to give a try to Cunning Wish, so here is what I came with:
The Great Gatsby
1 Balance
1 Dismantling Blow
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Regrowth
1 Sylvan Library
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Mind Twist
1 The Abyss
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Braingeyser
1 Cunning Wish
1 Fact or Fiction
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Misdirection
2 Morphling
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Time Walk
1 Fire/Ice
1 Black Lotus
5 Moxen
1 Sol Ring
1 Zuran Orb
4 City of Brass
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Strip Mine
3 Tundra
4 Underground Sea
1 Undiscovered Paradise
4 Volcanic Island
3 Wasteland
Sideboard:
2 CoP Red
1 Moat
2 Swords to Plowshares
4 Red Elemental Blast
1 Ebony Charm
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Teferi's Response
2 Powder Keg
1 Scrying Glass
Thanks to everybody who helped me with the sideboard.
I get up at six, goes back to my parents to steal some music and take my watch I
thought I had forgotten there, but couldn't find it. I hate when I don't know
how long there is left in a round. Anyway, I met the other players from Brussels
at 7 am and it turns out they didn't sleep at all, so Paul and Dilson sleep in
the car while I follow Jacques, Vincent and Swap. We are there at 10 am, so we
play some more Type I. The five others are entering the Type II tournament. I
meet Benjamin Rott who is with Dragon.dec and see some face that where there
last time I attended. Only Oliver Daems is missing, busy studying. There are 66
players for a 7 rounds straight swiss tournament.
Round 1: Carsten Spittman - Mono-black
Carsten is quite vocal about his hand, he actually drew 3 Mishra's Factory.
He's drops a Hyppie, I Edict, but he rather sacs a Factory. He grabs my Balance,
I drop Abyss and find 2 Wasteland to get rid of the buggers. I am in control and
drop Morphling to take the first game.
I sideboard in StoP.
In game 2, he drops a Scuta which I drain to allow a 2nd turn Morphling. He
plops another Scuta which goes promply farming. He tutors for an Edict and kills
Morphling. 3 Specters are soon staring at me. Time for a Yawgmoth's Will to send
a Hyppie farming and bring back Superman. He tutors again for an Edict, attacks
with 2 specters to grab my lone card, a Drain, then Edict. I top deck Fact or
Fiction: Drain and Plow or DT, Mox and a land. I take the former and dispatch
the 3rd Hyppie. He sings an Hymn to Tourach that I drain to fuel a Geyser (for
7) that my Mystical Tutor was kind enough to bring me. The rest is history.
Round 2: Tobias Luodvici - 5 colour Oath
Game 1 is fast and furious: Tobias goes for an aggressive Balance, I discard a
land (2 in play) and a random spell, keeping Drain and something else. I don't
draw any other land, Tobias drops a Trike which goes all the way.
Game 2, I drop an early Scrying Glass which Tobias matches with a Powder Keg,
followed by a Scrying Glass of his own. Things look grim, but my Kicked Blow
resolves, as well as Mind Twist. I love this card
Morphling does his job.
In the decider, another Mind Twist from my side, keeping a Volcanic Island open.
Tobias goes for Divert (which he plays main deck, interestingly), but I have REB
backup. His top decked Stroke is Force of Willed, his Keg drained. What to do
with 2 colourless? Top deck a Morphling of course. Another game for Superman.
Round 3: Thorsten Dachrodt - Dragon.dec
Last time we met, he was playing control and I combo. Time for revenge for him.
Game 1 goes to him thanks to Duress which disrupt me enough to allow him to
combo me (Whispers of The Muse into Cunning Wish to get Stroke of Genius). His
deck looks well rounded.
Game 2 goes to Library of Alexandria: he doesn't play and land destruction, so I
sit back and watch him trying to escape the net I am weaving around him. He
concedes before I drop Morphling to have a chance to take...
Game 3: I get another Library of Alexandria (I think it was brought to me by my
Demonic Tutor). Thorsten is severly mana screwed, he discarded a lot. Strip Mine
and Wasteland didn't help him, nor did Mind Twist.
Thorsten will have to wait some more to get his revenge
Round 4: Joachim Haupt - Dragon.dec
Joachim is sporting another version of the latest fad, with the Squee + Bazaar
of Bagdad engine.
Game 1, Joachim has to mulligan, I Mind Twist for 2 turn 1, Fact or Fiction turn
2, and he never comes back. I am not sure what he is playing, so I leave 2 Plow
in the board.
Game 2, I Ancestral in his upkeep, he Misdirects it, I Force but he drains. He
gets his engine going, but is quite slow to pull the combo.
This leaves us 15 minutes to finish game 3. I am quickly in control, but take
time to find a Morphling. Time is called, and after the 5th turn, I have him at
4 life. Remember that watch I couldn't find?
Round 5: Falk Bernhardt - Miracle Grow
I get yet another early Library of Alexandria, and he is not playing any strips.
He drops a Werebear, gets threshold, drops a Meddling Mage naming 'Balance'. I
drop a Morphling with only one blue open. He Plows, I make it untargetable, he
Plows again in response, I Misdirect it on his Werebear and kill him.
Game 2, he counters my stroke for 3, counters my Moat with Foil, emptying his
hand. I Y's Will Moat, get out Abyss, waiting for Morphling. At some point he
drops the bugger: Winter Orb. I DT for Shaman and kill it. I am hiding behind
the Library of Alexandria which provides me a Morphling to take the match.
Round 6: Benjamin Ribbeck - Tools 'n Tubbies
This is the match I was looking forward to play. Benjamin and his friends have
taken advantage of the Incarnations from Judgement. Since Wonder and Anger ask
for Island and Mountain respectively, they have decided to includ Land Grant. I
like the way they are tweaking what I consider the current best T1 aggro deck.
In the first game, I Merchant Scroll for Ancestral, but Benjamin strips my lone
blue source, and I don't draw any other for long enough to allow him to kill me.
Game 2, I draw enough counter to keep him at bay, then Mind Twist his hand away.
He doesn't look to bothered, as he now has Anger, Wonder and Genesis in his
graveyard. This is until I make him read Ebony Charm, of course. I stay in
control and after a Yawgmoth's Will to allow another Mind Twist, he concedes.
He starts game 3 with a Su-Chi which I send farming. He follows with Trike and
Tinker into a Memory Jar. Next turn, he sacs his Jar after attacking me with the
Trike. Waste my second blue opened. I take the mana
he taps GRU and plays
Welder. I've got a BEB in my hand, but think he is bluffing, so I drain it. He
drops Survival of the Fittest :/ We go back to our regular hand, and I don't
have a solution to his enchantment. So, I top deck the Blow, play it with
kicker. I play Moat, but he has Wonder in his graveyard. I waste his lone
Island, a Tropical one. His plan is to recycle his 2 Triskelion with a Welder to
kill me. I Fact or Fiction when time is called and choose Zuran Orb and a land
rather than Swords, a land and a blue card. I should be okay, but in the second
extra turn, he Time Walks, I Force, he REBs. This looks bad for me, as this
allows him to do 3 more damage with his engine. In the fifth turn, he recycle a
last time a Triskelion while I am at 2. He activates his Trike to deal one
damage. In response, I sac a land to try to go to 4 life. He activates his Trike
twice in response to bring me to 0 life. And it's here that I can shout: BEST
EBONY CHARM EVER, because I cast it to drain him for one. He has to read it
again, and the grin he had on his face suddenly vanishes, as we draw the match.
Round 7: Carsten Kötter - Powered Grim Monolith
From what I could see, Carsten is playing a deck similar to my twister.dec, but
he is killing with Power Artifact and Grim Monolith to generate 'infinite' mana
and kill with Geyser or Stroke. We are playing for a place in the top 8.
Game 1, we exchange some strips, he doesn't drop lands for 2-3 turns, then gets
Library of Alexandria out. I don't have another Wasteland, but top deck a Strip
Mine. He stole only 2 cards. He then tutors once, twice, and gets the engine
going. I look at the 17 cards I've draw since the beginning of the game: 14 mana
source, Time Walk, Dismantling Blow and Morphling. Not enough to stop his combo,
obviously.
I get turn 1 Shaman, which annoys him. I get him down to 6, then when I think he
is out of counter, I drop Morphling and it hits. But I hadn't seen he was
holding Demonic Tutor which happily grabs a Balance that I have no answer for.
We are both down to 1 card, I have Scrying Glass out, but he recovers faster
than me. Oh yes, I forgot: his lone card was a Yawgmoth's Will, allowing his to
bring back a 2nd Negator and Time Walk to make sure I can't put enough counters
on my Keg to blow up his world. Type I is broken.
I am quite disappointed with the loss in the last round, but that's Magic.
Benjamin Ribbeck beat Kai Budde (playing Trix) in the last round to take the
tournament and the Library of Alexandria as first prize. Dragon.dec didn't put
an impressive showing, as expected.
Keeper is not bad, but why does it have to poop on you one round in the tourney?
Check out the decklists at
http://www.morphling.de/ in a few days.
