C&J's tourney report (hopefully a quicky)

[NaClhv]

So it's been a while since I've gone to the T1 tournament at Newark.  This, unfortunately, means that I haven't been able to post too much results regarding ABM.  Hopefully I can go by more often from now on.

ABM has recently been slightly weakened, because it didn't get any really good cards in the recent expansions.  While cunning wish is becoming a standard in keeper, and enchantress was blessed with pretty much everything it could possibly want in an expansion in Onslaught, ABM didn't really get anything too spectacular.  However, because the inherent strength of ABM, it will take a lot more than the other archtypes getting a few new toys to significantly affect the viability of ABM.

I also hadn't been playing magic too much recently, and when I was playing my deck, I just felt as if I wasn't in tune with it.  This shows up in both what I feel was bad luck and some horrendous play mistakes, and you'll get to see examples of both in this report.

Despite all these things going against me, ABM still managed to finish with a 3-1 record.  I didn't stick around to see exactly what rank that worked out to be, but it must have been 4th place.  Hopefully, future expansions will have some cards that ABM can use, and I will be able to get back in the groove with my deck.

Anyway, on to the report.

Match 1:  Fishhead playing keeper.
In the first game, Fishhead mulls to 6, and keeps his hand.  he counters some stuff and I develop my board position to a fairly decent level.  Eventually, Fishhead runs out of counters, but has a morphling on the table.  I have pretty good position, but no immediate way to deal with morphling.

And then I concede the game.

Yup, you read that right.  I just randomly conceded the game.  I was at 5 life, but I had 3 lands and a zuran orb in play, with a mystic enforcer in hand (which I could have cast next turn, due to some artifact mana), along with a devout witness and a meddling mage on the board.  I'm still not sure why I did that... My brain just froze up, and I decided that it was a hopeless position.  About three seconds afterwards, I realized that the game was in a quite winnable state, and that it was a mistake to concede.

Ah, well, what's done is done.  On to game 2.

In game 2, Fishhead gets 3 mana drain in his opening hand, along with a REB (I think he also got the blue mox-blue land start, but I'm not too sure).  I get no white mana source.  Well, that sucked.

So I start off with a ignominious loss to keeper.  We play 2 more games afterwards, and we split those 1-1.

Match 2: Gim playing Black burn.
Gim is playing a strange deck, with phyrexian areas, bunch of black "drain" spells, bunch of "edict" effects, and mirari.

In game 1, he gets multiple phyrexian areas out, while I lose all my basic lands due to discard (whatever that card is, the one that causes your opponent to discard a card for every swamp in play).  I eventually play enough creatures so that the next swing would kill him, but I get burned out.

I don't remember much about games 2 and 3.  I win without much trouble, with Mind doing more or less what it's suppose to do.

Match 3: Tom playing a pox variant
I win this match 2-0.  Enforcer was a headache for a mostly black deck, and land tax poses all the standard problem against black discard.  I don't remember too much of the details though.

Match 4:  Justin playing Parfait
In game 1, I use my tax-rack more efficiently, thanks to ABM's greater amount of artifact mana and lower mana curve.  And when two decks with tax-rack face off, the one that can tax-rack better wins.  

In game 2, Justine gets mana screwed.  He eventually recoveres with a sol ring and a marble diamond, but I play 2 seal of cleansings to destroy those two cards.  Also, the fact that I had (once again) more artifact mana and lower mana curve meant that I could play more efficiently with tax-rack.  Eventually, two of my 2/2 guys beat down for the win, demonstrating another strength of ABM over Parfait:  the ability to go Aggro to take advantage of your opponent's temperary vulnerabilities, such as being mana screwed.

So, at the end of the day, I go 3-1.  I'm somewhat disappointed, because my loss came from the one matchup against keeper, which was the only tier 1 deck I played, which was therefore the one match that mattered the most, which I should have been able to win.  So the my matchups today wasn't as tough as some of the other days at C&J's.  But still, 3-1 isn't too shabby, considering that I started off the tournament by randomly conceding a game for no good reason.

Oh, and here's the decklist:

5 Islands
5 Plains
2 Undiscovered Paradise
2 City of Brass
3 Gemstone Mine
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Diamond
1 Sol Ring
1 Library of Alexandra

4 Land Tax
3 Scroll Rack
1 Trade Routes
1 Zuran Orb

2 Mystic Enforcer
2 Whirlpool Warrior
2 Devout Witness
2 Medding Mage

1 Ancestral Recall
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Mind Twist
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Regrowth
1 Balance

1 merchant scroll
4 Force of Will
2 Back to Basics
2 Powder Keg
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Fire/Ice
1 diabolic edict

60 cards total

Sideboard:
3 Swords to Plowshares
2 Meddling Mage
2 Misdirection
2 Back to Basics
2 Seal of Cleansing
1 Orim's Chant
1 Abeyance
1 Propaganda
1 Tormod's Crypt

15 cards total

So, my record in sanctioned tourneys with ABM are 3-1, 3-0-2, 2-1-1, and 3-1.  The total win record works out to be 11-3-3.  One of those losses comes from a mirror match.  If I include timw's record with ABM (which is 6-2, IIRC), the total win record of ABM in sanctioned type 1 tourmanemts is 17-5-3.  I have never failed to place in the top 4 with A Beautiful Mnid.

Hopefully the solid win record above will encourage other people to learn and try out the deck.  I would also appreciate any helpful comments you have on the deck.

[Justin]

The justin hes referring to is not me, obviously some imposter. </humor> -Justin

[Fishhead]

Quote We play 2 more games afterwards, and we split those 1-1.

The loss was a spectacular game, I was sure I could pull it out.  Or I was sure I had a chance to pull it out.  Or something.    But it was a great game.  

I get back into the game with a Balance after NaClhv has burned his last FoW and has only 7 or so cards in his library due to aggressive Taxing/Card drawing.  (If you doubt the power of the Tax/Rack, note that he drew his entire friggen library during this game).  I have the Stroke in hand, but never can quite put together the win.  Anyway, any game where both players draw a huge chunk of their decks and both still have chances to win even to the very end is epic fun.  

Quote And then I concede the game.

Yes, I was surprised.  I was not looking forward to that Enforcer hitting the table again.  

Quote I didn't stick around to see exactly what rank that worked out to be, but it must have been 4th place.  

Yes probably.  Max wins with Academy, I finished second with Keeper and Brent is third with TurboNevyn.  There was at least another Keeper at 3-1; he lost to Max in the finals. So it might have been 5th place.  I stayed late playing the TurboNevyn for fun and then forgot to check the standings when I left.

[spevack]

Yeah, ABM is strong.  You and I played a while back when I was running Keeper, and I believe you drew your entire deck against me as well.

I believe that was not very good for me.

See you around!

[Saucemaster]

Imposter!  Imposter!!  I submit that if you were born after 1978, then it is YOU, sir, who are the imposter!  

Anyway, I'll comment on the Parfait vs. ABM matchup here.  If you hadn't guessed, I'm the "Justin" of NaClhv fame.

Quick run down of the games as my limited notes and shaky memory tell me they occured:

Game 1: I mulligan, as my hand contains a Scroll Rack AND a Mox Diamond, but look, no land (or Land Tax)!!  Keeping this hand seems to be a Bad Idea ?.  See Game 2 for a perfect example of the utter Bad Idea-ness of this.  My second hand is something like Swords, Plains x4, and something I don't remember.  I keep--I'm really wondering what the hell that last card was that made me keep, but I frankly just don't remember.  I play a plains, he plays a Land Tax.  Hmm.  I draw a Plains, he plays a Meddling Mage naming Aura of Silence (we'd played a few games about a week ago, which we split, and Aura was absolutely key, as you'd guess).  No problem.  I draw a Crypt.  Okay.  He attacks with the Mage, i'm at 18.  I draw an Aura of Silence.  Figuring I need to be at 3 mana for Aura, or Scroll + Activation, etc, I drop another Plains and the Crypt, and say go.  I Swords the Mage before he attacks.  Then he drops Mystic Enforcer.  Okay, shit.  Aura looks stupid now.

He taxes, he Ancestrals, he Regrows Ancestral at some point (I am an idiot, and while worrying about the Enforcer I somehow manage to forget that Crypting not only takes out his Ancestral, but makes his Enforcer 3/3).  At any rate, it doesn't particularly matter, as I draw nothing of note, with nothing coming in the next few turns either.  I'm blaming this stupid play error on (1) the fact that it was 11:00ish, and I hadn't slept much in the last couple of days, and (2) I hadn't eaten since noon, as I only barely made the tourney in time due to traffic, and had no time to get dinner before it started.  "What?" you ask, "You're not just a bad player?"  Um, I take the Fifth, thanks.

Game 2:  My deck, seeing my lapse in judgment in the previous game, decides that the time is ripe for a little Justin-temptation, and gives me a hand that looks like: Tax, Rack, Marble Diamond (I'm unpowered), Aura of Silence, Replenish, Wasteland, Humility.   Okay, if I draw a SINGLE PLAINS in the next two or three turns, I should just absolutely own this game.  I succumb to the temptation and keep.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.  

I'm drawing first (tech in ABM vs. Parfait!  No, I want to Tax first!).  He mulls to six.  He plays NOTHING and says go.

Okay, I'm not that bad a player.  This can mean only one thing.

I draw something-that-is-not-a-plains.  I know what's coming, and I'd rather him waste another turn getting to seven cards, so I discard whatever it was that I drew (Ivory Mask, I think--basically pointless right now, and I can always Find/Replenish it later if he looks to be going for Mind Twist) and say go.

He draws, says go.  No land drop.  Yup.

I draw another not-plains card and decide that since I've already bought a turn, and didn't want to discard, I'll just drop that Wasteland now.

He plays LoA.  Big surprise.  He uses it once, I Waste.

Sucks for me.  I draw Sol Ring.

It continues this way until I draw a Plains, Drop Sol Ring, Drop Marble Diamond, and get ready to Drop Tax AND Rack AND activate the Rack next turn.  Well, his two Seal of Cleansings disagree.  In the meantime, a Meddling Mage naming Swords and a Whirpool Warrior are beating me down, he FoFs, pulling up a Time Walk in there that he takes, and his Time Walk turn puts me at 2 life, with two plains on the board.  I lose.

On the Parfait/ABM matchup in general, I will say that we were evenly split when playtesting this matchup last week.  It's a very skill-intensive match.  We both know our decks well (him more so than I, since, well, I'm not K-Run).  Obviously, if one person gets Tax/Rack going and the other doesn't, they should win.  Hence, ZOrb and Aura of Silence were absolutely key.  The problem I've had is that, while focusing my energy on keeping him off Tax/Rack and struggling for it myself, HE has Meddling Mages and Enforcers beating me down, while I have.. uhm.. well, usually nothing, especially if the Mage calls Swords, for example.  His Devout Witnesses will take care of Story Circle unless I have Humility down, so Story Circle on white doesn't usually help.  Etc.  I don't believe it's too heavily skewed against Parfait, but I do think it would take a better player than I am to win consistently vs. ABM with Parfait.  Playing a Powered Parfait (particularly with Lotus) would also help immensely, as his artifact mana is obviously significantly cheaper and more plentiful than mine (I've got Sol Ring, Mox Diamond, Marble Diamond, Lotus Petal).

EDIT:  Btw, NaClhv, that round 2 deck you played looked to me basically like a pseudo-Type 1 version of Mono-Black Control.  As in the deck from OD Block with Drain Lifes  instead of Corrupt, and a few Phyrexian Arenas thrown in.  I saw you lose game 1 and was starting to get worried for you, as no one wants to lose to what is basically a Type 2 deck in a T1 tourney.   Glad to hear you pulled it out!

[spevack]

Ah, so the Parfait deck was Saucemaster.  Things are starting to come together.....  

[Saucemaster]

Oh.  I must've forgotten to introduce myself.  Ack!  Hi, I'm Justin, a.k.a. Saucemaster on TheManaDrain.    Anyway, hopefully I'll be with something else next time I play (possibly next week, probably not?!?! work's busy right now), as while I respect Parfait in general, it's just not been very good to me, and doesn't much fit my playstyle.

I gotta tell you all, if you don't like playing Aggro, Type 1 really IS all about the Power.  Or at least it feels that way when you're trying to scrounge up money for an Ancestral.

[Fishhead]

Quote Or at least it feels that way when you're trying to scrounge up money for an Ancestral.

That Ancestral has been in the case for a while.  I wonder if Jeff would be willing to make a deal on it.  Probably not much of a deal as he just sold a sort of messy one for $140.