Results, T1 tourney at YMG Providence

For the first time, Your Move Games - Providence hosted a T1 tournament for an Unlimited Mox Pearl. 7 people showed up, so the entrance fee was $15. I was playing PT Funk as I usually do in Type I , and the rest of the field was

Sligh
2 Suicide Black decks
TnT
Power Artifact/ Grim Monolith combo
Grow

and here was my list:

4 River Boa
4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Phyrexian Negator
2 Spiritmonger

4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Pernicious Deed
2 Diabolic Edict
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Regrowth
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Will

7 Swamp
2 Forest
4 Bayou
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Windswept Heath
3 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Mox Jet
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus

SB:

2 Choke (I only had two)
3 Naturalize
2 Diabolic Edict
2 Smother
2 Powder Keg (I go into a real-life T1 tourney expecting to see lots of Sligh)
1 Tormod's Crypt
2 Compost
1 Wasteland

Matches

Round 1: Sligh

Game 1:

I keep a hand with 3 lands, Duress, Deed, Necropotence, and I think Edict. I take out a couple Lavamancers with my removal and an Incinerate with an opening Duress, but proceed to draw lots of land and no creatures and get burned out. I'm stuck with 2 Rituals and a Necro in hand for a good part of the game.

Game 2:

SB:

-3 Phyrexian Negator
-1 Necropotence
-2 Duress

+2 Smother
+2 Diabolic Edict
+2 Powder Keg

I usually like to keep in 1-2 Negators against Sligh because I've found it to be a good mid- to late-game play in this matchup. I go first, keeping a hand with several lands, Duress, Ritual, Powder Keg. I Duress a Lightning Bolt and play the Keg next turn, leaving it at 1 for a while. Again I draw no creature spells, lose a few life points to a Mogg Fanatic. At one point he drops a Lavamancer, and I'm at a low enough life that I have to Keg for 1. He follows up with a Ball Lightning and Fireblast, and I lose uneventfully.

I think my loss came to drawing very poorly these games. As I mentioned, I didn't see a single creature in either of these games, and my deck just crapped out on me. Oh well. It's also possible that I should have parised my game 1 hand, but it didn't seem bad enough to risk going down to 6 and getting an unplayable hand.

Round 2: Suicide Black, maindecking Kegs and Masticores

Game 1:

I keep a hand of Jet, 2 Forests, a Boa, Duress, and I think an Edict or some other disruption. I Duress, don't remember what I took, and play the Boa next turn. He Duresses me a couple times and makes some suboptimal choices, to say the least (i.e. taking Edict over Deed when I had the mana to use it). I ride a pair of Boas to victory this game.

Game 2:

-4 Phyrexian Negator
-1 Necropotence

+2 Smother
+2 Compost
+1 Edict

He goes first, opening with a Ritual->Duress->Hymn to Tourach, then follows it up with two Nantuko Shades. I never get anything going and get smashed in about 2 minutes...it's kinda hard to follow that.

Game 3:

I go first, getting a first-turn Ritual->Hypnotic Specter. It gets Smothered. I follow up with a Boa (I think) and a Deed. Then he makes probably the most horrendous play I've ever seen a Sui player make: Consulting for a Negator (!). He gets a terrible Consult after losing more than half of his library. He drops two Negators, apparently not realizing I could regenerate the Boa =P. I deed for 3, then I think he drops another Negator. I stall for a little while until I get Compost, draw a few cards, and eventually enough mana to cast Yawgmoth's Will. I get rid of his creatures, Demonic Tutor for a Spiritmonger and win soon thereafter.

Well, I would have kicked myself repeatedly and done several other painful acts of self-torture if I lost this match, so fortunately I pulled it out.

Round 3: Master Tap, playing Suicide Black

Game 1:

My first turn involves Swamp, Lotus, Ritual, Necro, Negator (!) I Necro for a lot, disrupt his hand, Strip his lone Swamp. He misses a land drop, I Ritual out a Hypnotic Specter, and that's all she wrote.

Game 2:

-4 Phyrexian Negator
-1 Necropotence
-1 Yawgmoth's Will

+2 Smother
+2 Compost
+2 Edict

I know his version is a little faster than the Sui player I played last round and that he can't possibly be as bad as that guy, so I drop the Will for an Edict and that's that. I don't remember much about this game except that we go back and forth for a little while. I get a Deed or two Duressed, never really apply much pressure, and eventually have to chump a Hypnotic Specter to kill a Sarcomancy to stay alive. I eventually lose to a lone Rotting Giant. I lose some sense of dignity after losing to a Rotting Giant , but we went on to

Game 3:

I have a hand of Bayou and Wasteland for mana, Duress, Compost, two Deeds and something else. I Duress to see 2 Duress, Sinkhole, and Dark Ritual . I take the Ritual so I don't get a Ritual->Duress->Sinkhole on me next turn. He Duresses away a Deed. Next turn I drop Compost, and draw 3-4 cards off it. He Duresses and takes the second Deed. I think I may have resolved a creature or two, but he removes it and I get killed by a Negator after drawing fetchlands, Duress and Hymn to Tourach for his empty hand. I expected to win off the Compost, but sadly my deck could not take advantage of it and I lose the match.

Round 4, bye

At least I get to finish the day 2-2 .

Thoughts:

I think I played as well as I could have, given the unusually poor draws I got in a good number of these games. On two seperate occasions I failed to play a land when I could have =P, but other than that I made no real mistakes other than not playing WW . My SB was well equipped for these matchups, I just couldn't follow through. Oh well.

One thing I noticed was that I was never really manascrewed...I probably overdid it a little with the 3rd maindeck Wasteland. The deck seems to function well enough off 23 lands and 4 Rituals. I feel that Mind Twist is excessive when it already runs a full complement of Duress, Hymn and Hypnotic Specter. I don't own a Mox Emerald, otherwise I might have run that...though admittedly it's not as necessary for PT Funk as I used to think it was.

Another card I'm considering trying in the deck is Living Wish. Unless I get broken acceleration, having Spiritmonger in my opening hand is usually an unwelcome sign. Among other things, these appear to be decent Wish targets for the deck:

(Spiritmonger, of course. Either 1 or 2, depending on whether I want to cut Wish post-SB)
2 Wasteland
1 Masticore
1 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Withered Wretch
1 Treetop Village/Mishra's Factory (at this point I'm leaning towards Village because it's better as a 1-of, and Factories are better in multiples. It's also another G mana source, which is nice...though admittedly if I have G to cast Living Wish it may not be that terrific)
1 Maze of Ith (a more unorthodox choice I was toying with, though it should be very good against Mask and decent against Grow/Grow-a-Tog, TnT, etc.)

Such a SB would probably look something like this:

2-3 Choke
2-3 Naturalize
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Tormod's Crypt
1-2 Spiritmonger
2 Wasteland
1 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Withered Wretch
1 manland
1 Maze of Ith
1 Masticore

with 2-3 Living Wish, or 2 Wish and a third maindeck Edict/1 maindeck Spiritmonger (to Tutor for)/Demonic Consultation (a card I haven't tried much yet, but seems as though it should work well in PT Funk).