Combo Keeper wins again in Vienna

Yesterday was our monthly Friday night T1 tourney. I brought again a Combo Keeper/Trinity deck with a few metagame adaptions (decklist at the bottom). I also brought again my nephew (11 years), who participated for the first time in a T1 tourney. He ended up 11th with a T1.5 Taiga variant, which is not too bad (we were 17). We played 5 rounds Swiss.

First Round against Klaus P. (mono-B Sui-variant)

His deck is good and powered, however the lack of Sinkholes is not so hot (come on, Klaus - you have a Black Lotus and Mox Jet - surely you can acquire 4 Sinkholes?!).

First game - I start

I have a reasonable hand and start with Land/Sol Ring, having 2 further lands, 2 Mana Drains and a FoF. He starts Land, Lotus (I hate it, when mono-B starts with Lotus!), Duress, Hymn - not a bad start! However, unfortunately for him he does not draw one of his 15 threads in time (4 Hyppie, 4 Negator, 4 Nantuko, 2 Masticore, 1 Juzam for style points); his Factories are wasted and eventually I do the things which Keeper does if given time and mana.

For SBing see also below - obviously I side in the combo plus Compost.

Again I keep a FoW-less but otherwise quite reasonable hand. Hopwever, I have a slight deja-vu, as he starts Land, Ritual (the cheap version, this time), Duress (taking my Oath of Druids, which of course is the best card to take), Hymn. Fortunately, I have enough mana. Unfortunately, I don't have much else. He wastes some land and eventually drops Nantuko. I topdeck a Merchant Scroll and go for Ancestral, but draw only crap (Power Artifact, YawgWill and mana). He beats me down again wasting a land (he has now 2 Swamps and Natuko). As my life is quite low I have to use YawgWill to fetch some cards - but I draw only mana and Demonic (which I cannot cast in this turn). He drops a Negator with Ritual (however, he fails to drop a 3rd swamp) and beats me down to 10 lifes (I have taken some COB damage as well, because I have 2 of them). Next turn I am going to die if he draws a swamp or a ritual, so it is time for desperate measures. I have a Demonic, but going for Balance would not help very much, as I would lose some cards and lands and I don't have a counter to stop his next thread. So I decide to take the risk and fetch Oath of Druids, which I play. Incidentally, I draw Grim Monolith, but I cannot cast it, because I would either have to tap a COB or take 1 mana burn from the Monolith. So I just cas Demonic on Oath, play it and say go. He fails to draw a Swamp or Ritual, attacks for 8 and plays a Cursed Scroll. I am at 2 lifes. In my turn I do the Oath trick, but I do not have enough mana to play Power Artifact, Monolith AND Stroke without tapping both Cities. So I Reclaim a Time Walk, play Monolith and Time Walk. Then I untap, reclaim the Stroke and combo him. Phew! A close one...

I think, without the combo I simply would have lost this game.

Matches 1-0, Games 2-0

Second Round against Vladimir (?) with corrupt mono-B

The only highlight in these two games is that he manages to Corrupt my Morphling in the first game. This, however, only delays the inevitable by two turns. In the second game I combo him on turn 4.

Matches 2-0, Games 4-0

Third Round against Peter P. (AKA KpfV at BD) with Keeper

The first game is quite interesting, as I though throughout the whole game that I was going to lose - after all he had LoA, Sylvan, a resolved Ancestral, a resolved FoF and a resolved Mindtwist on his side! However, I won by tapping Morphling twice (14 damage came from mana burn and COBs!). How, you may wonder, is this possible? Well, it was interesting from the very beginning. Apart from his resolved Ancestral (I can't do anything about it) we start both for two turns with land-go (his second land being LoA), but fortunately I have one of my 3 Strip/Wastes. I drop another land and play Merchant Scroll on FoW (!) and he plays Undiscovered. He has now UP, Tundra and Mox Emerald, while I have 3 lands. My hand is FoW, Morphling, Lotus, Impulse, Timetwister. My plan is to play Morplhing (protected once) and if both is countered to play Timetwister next turn, to get rid of card advantage (in the previous turn Scroll for Ancestral would have been too risky, as I don't like to rely on Ancestral when he has UU open and possibly Mis-D). I play Lotus, Morphling - he Drains, I FoW, he FoWs. His UP bounces back and he plays FoF with his Tundra and Mana Drain Mana. I see the following cards:
1 Wasteland
1 Underground Sea
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mana Drain
1 Mindtwist
Damn! If he takes the Mindtwist and twists away my single Timetwister I have essentially lost. However, if I make the piles Mindtwist/rest he cannot make an error - if he becomes suspicious and takes the Mindtwist I have lost; if he is greedy and takes the 4 card pile he has Sapphire plus Underground Sea and will Drain my Twister. So I have to come up with something different. If I pile them bread/meat (i.e. mana/spells) it is very likely, that he takes the spells and Mindtwists me (because only a very lucky topdeck can save me now) or, if he has another Mana Drain in his hand he will take the mana and just counter my Twister. Again, not a good choice. If I pile them Mindtwist+Waste+Mox/dual+Drain he can at least make an error by taking the smaller pile, but this is very unlikely as Mindtwisting me is much safer (and additionally there is the greed-factor). So this eventually induces me to choose the piles as follows:
pile 1: Mindtwist, Mox Sapphire
pile 2: Wasteland, Mana Drain, Underground Sea
I am still not 100% happy, as he still can take Mindtwist and destroy my plan to Timetwist. However, it is more likely that he takes the other pile - because he can Wste my COB, after all, thus leaving me with 2 Tropicals and 1 card in hand and 1 unknown topdeck - it is from his point of view VERY unlikely, that something bad could happen - I would have to topdeck a Tundra with Balance in hand (or vice versa) or an arbitrary mana source (except Monolith) with Twister in hand (or vice versa). He really does take the larger pile and wastes a land. Now my plan is reduced to a 50% chance (I have to topdeck one of my 24 mana sources left in library). I am lucky and play the Timetwister - no FoW! Happily I say go.

Phew! But this was just the first stage of the game - now we have both equal chances again, but he untaps first and casts Timewalk and drops some mana. He Mindtwists some cards away. Then, game becomes calmer again. I try to play Morphling, but he Drains and burns (already down to 10 life with 2 COBs on the table). He drops Sylvan, but fortunately he is low on life. Now I make some nice topdecks in a row (Mana Drains and Morphling), and I D-Blow his Mox with Kicker - he Misdirects on my tapped Monolith, but I draw 2 cards nonetheless. I manage to cast a protected Morphling and attack once for 3 (have three blue mana open), he Vamps for Edict (down to 2 life), but I can Mana Drain with my last card, and he has the choice between hardcasting a FoW and dying to COB-damage or dying to Morphling next turn. I love T1!

I should add that Peter is a very fair player - once he took mana burn although I didn't know this rule: he Drained my FoW in response to one of his main-phase spells, and I thought he would get the mana next turn; however, he said that, sadly, he already gets the mana in his second main phase and therefore burned. He would have won this game, if he wouldn't have told me this rule.

I side in my control hate.

Second Game

He starts with Mox, Duress, Land, Lotus, Mindtwist - er, I had a reasonable hand, but now I am wrecked. He outdraws, outcounters and outwastes me completely. I try some desperate moves, but they only make my position worse. He wins by honest Morphling beatdown.

Third Game

I start not as broken, but still very good with Duress (taking a Mox). Some ensuing Wastelands and a D-Blow on his Mox leave him mana-screwed. Eventually I drop Negtor, but he Edicts in the nick of time. However, he is still mana-screwed and soon afterwards I win with a Morphling.

Matches 3-0, Games 6-1

Forth Round against Stefan B. with Sligh (maindeck PoP, of course)

First Game

He starts with Land/Cadet (second turn Fanatic). I could FoW it (and normally would), but I have LoA AND ZOrb. So I take the greedy route and draw a bunch of cards and play a bunch of lands. I counter his PoP attempts but otherwise he is free to burn me. On 2 lifes I drop Morphling and soon afterwards I win (I have to eat only 1 land).

I side in the combo.

Second Game

He starts with first turn Pup, second turn Fanatic, but I drop a second turn Oath. He Fanatics his Pup to prevent my combo, but this gives me enough time to acquire mana and counters. He tries to PoP, protected by Pyroblast and Fork, but I have 2 Mana Drains and a FoW. I Stroke myself for 6 and he knows he has lost. So he is curious how the combo works and drops two guys. I combo.

Matches 4-0, Games 8-1

Fifth Match against Alexander M. with Combo-Keeper(?) (without Morphlings)

First Game

In the first game he has a slight advantage, as I have to mulligan down to 6 and he has maindeck REB and maindeck Mox Monkey. The game is decided on the thrid turn, when he casts Ancestral which I counter twice, but he protects twice. LoA joins the party and he wins soon afterwards by Mox Monkey beatdown.

I side in control hate.

Second Game

I start and Duress him - he has only late game cards and little mana, so I take a Mox and Waste his lands. Then I drop Negator and attack, but he draws a COB plays Blance, I Drain, he REBs. However, I drop a second Negtor and a Call of the Herd and win.

Third Game

He starts and the game is more or less Balanced. I manage to Mindtwist him for three, but I grab the late game cards. We both play land-go for a while and drop both Monolith. I have 1 Mana Drain in my hand and more mana, but he has four cards on his turn. He plays Power artifact and I Mana Drain, because I fear that he has FoW+kill carsd (he can hard-cast FoW after playing Power Artifact, so I drain it) - but unfortunately, he has REB instead and Torches me for a million. If I would have waited and drained the Torch, I could have put all the superfluous mana in my Monolith - but then again, I did not know whether he had REB or FoW, so it was a 50-50 decision.

Matches 4-1, Games 9-3

He ends up second, I end up first.

Here is the deck:

Trinity (Combo-Keeper):

mana(28):
4 COB
4 Underground Sea
4 Tropical
2 Tundra
1 UP
1 Academy
1 LoA
1 Strip
2 Waste
7 SoLoMoxen
1 Monolith
blue(22):
4 Mana Drain
4 FoW
1 Mis-D
2 Morphling
2 Impulse
1 Merchant
1 Mystical
1 Walk
1 Twister
1 Ancestral
1 FoF
1 Stroke
1 Geysir
1 Power Artifact
black(6):
1 YawgWin
1 Demonic
1 Vampiric
1 Mindtwist
1 Chainer's
1 The Abyss
green(2):
1 Regrowth
1 Sylvan
white(2):
1 Balance
1 D-Blow

SB(15):
4 Duress
2 Negator
1 CotH
4 Oath of Druids
2 Krosan Reclamation
1 Compost
1 Aura Fracture

I sided as follows:

Against mono-B:
Out: Abyss, Edict, ZOrb, Mindtwist, Morphlings, Sylvan
In: 6 KrOath, 1 Compost

Against control/combo:
Out: Abyss, ZOrb, Vampiric, Mystical, Power Artifact, Geysir, Twister
In: 4 Duress, 2 Negator, 1 CotH

Against Sligh:
Out: Abyss, Edict, Morphlings, Sylvan, Twister
In: 6 KrOath

A few explanation of card choices:
The Compost was a metagame choice - once I really read the exact card text (...you MAY draw a card...) I decided it was ok, even with the combo. Abyss maindeck is here for the same reason (mono-B). The lack of Dustbowl correlates with the lack of TnT. In November I will probably replace 1 Tundra for a fetchland.