Gen Con Report - Friday

[Dante]

Normally I would just add to the other thread...but this is kind of long..

Gen Con 2002 Type I – Friday

If you read my tournament report from the Thursday tournament, then you’ll know that I left early to go hit some bars with my friend.  Here’s the summary of pre-tournament Friday:

8am – wake up on the floor with my contacts in and my clothes on from last night.  Take out contacts, drink water, get on couch.
11:30 am – wake up again, try to figure out why my mouth is parched and my head is pounding.  Remember last night.  Wince in pain.  I decide that aspirin and water are just what the doctor ordered, but I’m way too drunk/hung-over to move..
Somehow I managed to get showered and dressed and make my way to Gen Con.
2pm – arrive at GenCon
2:05pm – Eat 2 Italian sausages
2:10pm – Regret eating previously mentioned sausages..drink 3 bottles of Gatorade
2:30pm – I find a dealer who will take my Unlimited Moxes/Ancestral + $80 each and upgrade them to Beta Moxes/Ancestral (in relatively the same condition).  I upgrade my Sapphire and Ancestral.
2:45pm – Notice really attractive girl with really nice legs (a rarity at GenCon).  I follow her around for a while as I sober up.  

I’m playing my Keeper deck again:

4 Mana Drain
4 FOW
1 Counterspell
1 Misdirection

2 Morphling

1 Balance
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Abyss
1 Powder Keg
2 Shaman
1 Dismantling Blow

1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Vampiric Tutor

1 Fact or Fiction
1 Stroke
1 Ancestral
1 Braingeyser

1 Time Walk
1 Mindtwist
1 Zuran Orb
1 Yag Will

4 Mox (no emerald)
1 Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Strip
4 Wasteland
4 City of Brass
4 Tundra
4 Volcanic Island
4 Underground Sea
1 Library

Sideboard:
4 Red blast
2 Blue blast
2 Dwarven Miner
1 Cop Red
2 Cop Black
1 Cop Blue
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Moat
1 Ensnaring Bridge

There was a lot of Mono-Black on Thursday, so I swapped the 2nd COP Red I had then for the Ensnaring Bridge.  We have around 46 people again for this one.

Round 1 – Khoa Le
Game 1 - While shuffling, he drops a few cards face up, both swamps.  My opening hand was like land, land, Yag will, zuran orb, diabolic edict, and 2 other cards I can’t remember (no counters).  Against suicide, that’s not good so I mulligan.  Turns out his deck wasn’t suicide, but a pile of black creatures with enchantments (unholy strength, the one that gives +3/+1, etc), for which my original hand would have been great.  I get beatdown by shitty fallen empires creatures (not really, but it just sounds better that way).

Game 2 and 3 – I side in 2 Cop: black and a Moat, I don’t know if he even has a sideboard.  I kill him, nothing really interesting here.  I really should only get ½ a win for beating that deck.

Round 2 – Matt Dawson, Nethervoid
Game 1 – He 1st turn duresses me, but his deck really stalls and I never go below 20 life.

Game 2 – side in Cop Black’s and Moat.  He has a ton of landkill – in addition to strip, 4 wastes, and 4 sinkholes, he sided in 3-4 rancid earth.  He also sided in Braids, Cabal Minion, which I wasn’t expecting.  I die with very few permanents on the board.

Game 3 – This was a really tough game.  I’m forced to play an early Morphling for a blocker.  Eventually I get out a shaman that starts eating away at him, but I don’t have much land or much of a hand left at this point.  I’ve got him at 10 life and have a monkey on the board when he plays a hypnotic specter (I’m at 16).  I have 3 land (no white mana, but 2 blue) and a Swords in hand.  Draw Counterspell.  He Demonic Tutors during his turn.  I have to counter it or an enormous Yag Will will destroy me.  He gets the swords with the specter.  Next turn I draw Tundra.  <sigh>.  He wins.  The next card I would have drawn was my diabolic edict…..

Round 3 – Aaron, SRB (stupid red burn)
Game 1- I figure its sligh.  I keep waiting for the creatures, but he’s only playing with Ball Lightnings and Mox Monkeys.  He’s got shocks and other stupid burn.  I go down to 1 before I stabilize and win.

Game 2 – side in 1 cop red and my blue blasts.  I get Cop red and zuran orb out and win.

Round 4 – George Hogan

Game 1 – He’s playing Blue/Green, I think it might be grow, but he’s not laying any creatures and he just played 2 Wild Growth…then he lays Argothian Enchantress.  I Keg away 2 Enchantresses and win.

Game 2 – I side in some Red Blasts.  He hits me a few times with some crap (Horseshoe crab or something), but I Abyss and Morphling and it’s over for him.

Now I’m 3-1 and there’s a horde of Sligh decks (good ones, not SRB decks) waiting at the top tables for me.

Round 5 – Ronald Mack (Suicide)

Game 1 – He wins the roll and goes first.  Now my hand is Abyss, Lotus, 1 city of brass, Mox Sapphire, Counterspell, Dismantling Blow, and 1 card I don’t remember.  I keep.  He doesn’t Duress, so I 1st turn Abyss.  He looks really, really disgusted.  He plays a second turn Masticore.  I plow it.  A few turns later I get Morphling out, he concedes.

Game 2 – Side in cop blacks, moat, ensnaring bridge.  My opening hand again had the Sapphire, a blue land, 2 Manadrains, Fact or Fiction, and I think Solring + something else.  He gets the 1st turn Juzam (yikes, 4 turn clock).  I draw nothing.  He hits me twice, then I Fact or Fiction during the end of that turn (of his turn).  The 5 cards are Swords (yes!), Vampiric Tutor, Mana Drain, a land, and some blue utility spell.  I’m pretty sure he’s going to put the Swords by itself, but instead he puts the Vampiric and the Swords together?!  I don’t get it, if someone does, let me know. (PS I have a city and a tundra in play).  I untap and draw….Moat.  Even better than plow, I’ll let him die to his own Juzam.  I play Moat.  He makes this face, clearly more disgusted than last game.  This is the “I played a 1st turn Juzam and didn’t win” face (kind of like the Derek Lowe face from last year when he was a closer).  His Juzam takes him down to 10 before he scoops.  

I felt bad (well, not really) and offer to play a third game for fun.  He looks at me like I’m crazy, so I tell him I’ll play a different deck.  He says, “no that’s ok” and sits there looking grim.  Sucks for him because Keeper is a good matchup for Suicide, but hey, we don’t play with all the broken toys for nothing.  You can’t have broken draws without playing broken cards..

So now I figure I’m 4-1 and I have the best tiebreakers in my point group, so even if I go 1-1 and end up 5-2, I make top 8.  I’m thinking 6-1 would be good for second.  If only….

Round 6 – Marcus Andersen, Sligh

Game 1 – He just beats me down for awhile…I stabilize (he has zero creatures and 1 card in hand which I am 99% sure is a Mountain), but I’m at 2 life.  He draws a bolt and kills me.  My next card was Zuran Orb (I had like 7 land in play).  <sigh>

Game 2 – Side in blue blasts, cop red, seal of cleansing. He sides in 14 cards.  Fuck.  One of sideboard cards was Flaring Pain.  That just raped me; I wasn’t prepared for that.  I played my Morphling too early and was one counter short when I needed it.  Flaring Pain, Price of Progress = death.  Flaring Pain should not have flashback - it’s ridiculous.  Ugh.

During this round, I was sitting next to Milton and some 12-year old kid with a Sligh (he actually was 12).  Milton’s 3-2 and the kid was 4-1 I think and got paired down.  After the kid wins the first game, he shouts “How does it feel to get beat down by a 12-year old”, Hulk Hogan style.  Milton says something like, “That’s pretty cocky” and the kid replies “Well I’m gonna win, so won’t you be embarrassed to lost to a 12-yr old?”  Milton beats him the next two.  Didn’t hear much from the kid after that.  J

Round 7 – Jameson (forgot to write down last name), Sligh

Game 1 – I get the no blue mana hand and mulligan to 6.  I get 1 city and some cheap spells (both swords). I keep since going to 5 probably will be a worse hand.  I don’t really draw any mana for awhile and get beat down like I should.

Game 2 – side in same as last round.  My opening hand has 1 sol ring.  I mulligan.  My six cards include 1 both Morphlings, Yag Will, 1 Blue land, Dismantling Blow, and Mindtwise.  Could you ask for a worse opening hand?  Mulligan down to 5.  Next 5 are Pearl, Wasteland, Mystical Tutor, Merchant Scroll, Counterspell.  I keep because with 1 blue I can get off and going with the scroll and tutor.  Besides, what am I going to get with 4 cards??  I draw a blue land my first draw phase, but the card disadvantage is too much and I get beatdown.

So I finish 4-3, but 1 win was against a casual deck that wandered into the wrong side of the playing hall, 1 win was against SRB – a tough, but definitely not top tier deck, and 1 win was against an enchantress deck that didn’t seem to do anything.  So I really got 1 quality win.  So after not seeing TOO much sligh day 1, it really exploded day 2.  Apparently Saturday’s morning tournament was the same – tons of sligh and suicide/void.

Tournament report from Sunday coming up next….

Dante

[CrazyCarl]

Nice reports thus far

As for your sideboard: Why so many COP: Blacks?  Myself, I find one to be enough most of the time.

Also, did you end up finding that Aura Fracture?

Carl

[Dante]

no i never did find the aura fracture, but Seal worked better for me as I could nail cursed scrolls, null rods, etc.  I didn't see as much mono-blue as I thought.

I added 2 on Thursday 'cuz I wasn't sure what there would be.  I kept 2 on friday because thursday had a lot more mono-black than I thought.  I didn't anticipate the huge jump in the number of mono-red decks from Thursday to Friday.

Dante

[Green Knight]

Thanks for reporting Dante. I look forward to the Sunday report  
There is nothing worse than sleeping in contacts after a night of drinking, the world is a blur!
From what I've heard from you and Milton Keeper is sucking it up, sad day

[Fishhead]

Actually, this might be an interesting time to discuss the old-school "Green Knight Keeper" where you basically (correct me if I am wrong) throw 4 Juzams and some DRs into Keeper to give you a stronger defensive game against Aggro and a stronger early game against MonoU at the cost of several "standard" broken cards.  You are giving up flexibility and some power in order to give you a better shot in certain common matchups.

I'm not advocating Green Knights build over regular Keeper or (more likely) OSE, but I am interested in the idea of moving to a more aggressive posture - the best defense is a good offense.  

[Green Knight]

I probably should have started another thread for this, but since it was mentioned...
You have the basic concepts down Fishhead.
If anyone is not familiar w/ my build here are the basics. It's something like -The Abyss, - Gorilla Shaman, -Mox Emerald, -Stroke of Genius, -Vamp Tutor, - Sylvan, -Regrowth, -Brain Geyser, -3 Wasteland, -1 Volcanic Island, -1 Zorb (sometimes), +4 Juzam, +3 Rituals, +1 Teferi's Response, + 4 Mishra's Factory, +1 Badland.
My build is much more proactive vs. being as reactive. I feel it suits my play style better and over all gives me more bang than "standard keeper".
Being able to drop a 1st turn Juzam w/ counter back up is wonderful (this is not going to happen every game mind you) I have even won a counter war against Smmenen's Brown Paper Bag after casting Juzam, so the deck has the capability. That and the opponent is put on an early four turn clock. I usually play the Factories and nickel and dime you then clean up w/ the Juzam or vise versa.
Having the Ritual opening hand is a blessing most of the time as it combo's well with Mind Twist, Juzam, and sometimes Yawgmoth's Will or FoF, but late game when you need an answer and top deck Dark Rit it sucks, then again if it was a land would I be any worse off? Usually I will almost always use the Ritual to cast a Juzam regardless of if I have the mana to hard cast it or not because this gives me more mana to counter, play EOT effect's or just bluff. Also ritual used to play a Morphling is a good play as you keep more U mana open.

I do prefer the more aggro versions of control deck's as they are better suited for my meta-game (48 to 64 players so you never know what to expect, but can count on Sligh, Sui, Stompy, Combo, Keeper/Control variants, and some form of tubbies) and play style i.e. dropping early threats and forcing you to come up with answers. Also the 5/5 is a wonderful blocker if need be as Fishhead mentioned. Being as it is a four (technically five) color deck you still have all the sideboard options of standard control.
There are some basic notes re: "Green Knight Keeper" or Juzam Control. If anyone want to discuss this further drop me a line or post here and I would be happy to discuss.

I've gotta get back to work…

Zach

[Razor]

Quote Game 2 – Side in cop blacks, moat, ensnaring bridge.  My opening hand again had the Sapphire, a blue land, 2 Manadrains, Fact or Fiction, and I think Solring + something else.  He gets the 1st turn Juzam (yikes, 4 turn clock).  I draw nothing.  He hits me twice, then I Fact or Fiction during the end of that turn (of his turn).  The 5 cards are Swords (yes!), Vampiric Tutor, Mana Drain, a land, and some blue utility spell.  I’m pretty sure he’s going to put the Swords by itself, but instead he puts the Vampiric and the Swords together?!  I don’t get it, if someone does, let me know. (PS I have a city and a tundra in play).  I untap and draw….Moat.  Even better than plow, I’ll let him die to his own Juzam.  I play Moat.  He makes this face, clearly more disgusted than last game.  This is the “I played a 1st turn Juzam and didn’t win” face (kind of like the Derek Lowe face from last year when he was a closer).  His Juzam takes him down to 10 before he scoops.

Did he forget to Sideboard in 3-4 Dystopias?  

[Rakso]

Could you throw me a couple of sets of notes?

1) Something is fishy about Match 2. How exactly did you sideboard?

2) How exactly were you raped by Flaring Pain? We tried it with the 15-card sideboard, Price maindecked, and it wasn't as bad as it sounded. Of course you're still raped if he topdecks Pain and Price in that window while you're stabilizing but already have a bunch of mana out...

[Dante]

Razor,
  I was waiting for them (Dystopia's), but never saw any.  When he conceded, I'm assuming he didn't have any in his sideboard (which begs the question of what did he have?).  

Rasko - For round 2, I sided in the cop blacks, moat, and possibly ensnaring bridge.  I'm at work so don't have my notes so I don't know exactly what I sided out, I think it was braingeyser, mind twist, and 2 other cards I don't remember (I'm at work, so I can't check my notes).

As for flaring pain, generally by the time I had stabilized, I was in the 6 life range or so and have used some of my counters countering things like early creatures and scrolls.  With my life being at 6, 1 price finishes me and typically they're holding a handful of burn and pyroblasts.  If they cast flaring pain I can either:

1. counter it and cop their burn. - downside is, is they usually have 3-4 pains, and I would have to be able to counter it twice due to the cheap flashback.

2. Let it through and counter the burn/pyros.  Unless I can mindtwist them, this is usually a losing proposition as my counters all cost UU or must pitch a blue spell (except my 2 BEBs), whereas theirs cost R (although I will have more mana, but not double).  Plus Mis-D doesn't work on Price.

I'm thinking of including an Aegis of Honor in the sideboard now to deal with this.

Dante

[herby]

great report, did you play on saturday at all?  i didn't see you on saturday and i was gonna ask you what your name was on here but i guess that's pointless now.

by the way this is nick, i went up with milton and i played you first round on thursday.