Non-Trinity Keeper wins again in Vienna...

[Big Blue]

Today my younger brother joined me (I borrowed him my Nether Void deck) for the FNM Type 1 tourney in Vienna (Europe). We both arrived early to organize a fourth Wasteland for him. In the metro we discussed that it would be quite boring if we had to face each other in the first round (since we tested a lot during this week because he was playing Nether Void for the first time).

Here is my deck for reference (almost the same as last time):

                       Keeper (non-Trinity, non-Paragon), 60 cards

                       Mana: 28
                       4 fetchland
                       3 Underground
                       3 Vulcanic
                       3 Tundra
                       1 Island
                       1 COB
                       1 UP
                       1 LoA
                       1 Strip
                       1 Dust
                       2 Waste
                       6 SoLoMoxen (no Emerald)
                       1 Grim Monolith

                       Blue: 21
                       4 FoW
                       4 Mana Drain
                       2 Cunning Wish
                       1 Mis-D
                       1 Morphling
                       1 Power Artifact
                       1 Ancestral
                       1 Time Walk
                       1 Timetwister
                       1 Mystical
                       1 Merchant Scroll
                       1 FoF
                       1 Stroke
                       1 Geysir

                       Black: 5
                       1 Abyss
                       1 Demonic
                       1 Vampirirc
                       1 YawgWin
                       1 Mindtwist

                       White: 4
                       1 Balance
            1 D-Blow   
                       2 StoP

                       Red: 1
                       1 Mox Monkey

                       Split: 1
                       1 Fire&Ice

                       SB: 15
                       Wishable: 12
                       4 REB
                       1 BEB
                       2 Disenchant
                       1 Enlightened Tutor
                       1 Ebony Charm
                       1 StoP
                       1 Diabolic Edict
                       1 Skeletal Scrying
                       Rest: 3
                       2 Powder Keg
                       1 free slot (Dwarven Miner)

As compared to last time I just swapped the random Impulse for a random D-Blow. Must have been my fear of TnT. But I really liked D-Blow on that particular day!

The field is again mixed with 3 Keeper decks, 1 TnT, 1 Gro-Atog, 1 NetherVoid, 1 WW, 1 SquirrelCraft, 1 Taiga.dec and a couple of Sui and Sligh decks (about 16 players total).

First round - guess what - NetherVoid against my brother (unpowered version with Factories)

First game:

He wins the die roll and starts Swamp Duress, taking my Vampiric. Fortunately I am mana flooded, which matches nicely with his flood of Wastelands and Sinkholes.
I manage to Mystical in response to his Hymn for Timetwister, and this is already game, as usual. I mean, I still have to StoP his ensuing Negator and Fire his Hyppie, but I am in control, draw a couple of cards with Wish for Skeletal Scrying and combo him a few turns later.

I side in StoP and Enlightening for Mox Monkey and Mindtwist.

Second game:

I keep an average hand with Mana Drain, Balance, FoF, 4 lands. He starts Ritual Hymn, taking two lands. Two Wasteland and a Sinkhole follow, but I have Balance in my hand, so I don't give up yet. He Tutors for Necro, but I still don't give up since I still have Balance in my hand. He plays Hyppie and Negator, but I still don't give up because I still have Balance in my hand. Then he drops NetherVoid and I give up, although I still... ok, never mind.

Third game:

He has to mulligan twice, so he is already in bad shape. I manage to Mana Drain his first two Sinkholes and acquire some board advantage in the form of artifact mana. He randomly drops NetherVoid with 2 lands and Ritual, and I win quietly from there on (he told me afterwards he overlooked the Monolith on my side).
We wish each other good luck for the rest of the tourney (he ends up 2-3, losing to Sui and SquirrelCraft).

Matches: 1-0, Games: 2-1

Second Round: Sui

He is a very good Sui player and I am a bit worried about his deck - he has all the good stuff and Null Rods. Fortunately, I start the first game.

First Game:

I play some artifact mana and some lands. His first move is to play Nantuko Shade with 2 Swamps (I have already Mox, Sol Ring, Monolith and 2 lands). EOT I Wish for StoP and Mystical for Timetwister, which I play on my turn after dropping a third land. I have quite some board advantage now, but I draw 5 lands, Mox Monkey and Mana Drain. He has drawn better cards and Duresses my Mana Drain. I topdeck another land and play Mox Monkey. Now he makes a mistake, although I am not sure if it was a crucial one - but it definitely was a bad move: EOT he consults for Null Rod, but I tap 5 mana when it is on the stack and before his attack phase I just eat it with Mox Monkey. I StoP his Zombie token and kill him with Mox Monkey and Sarco-damage (I draw some good stuff, but having drawn and fetched almost all my land my deck simply had no choice).

same SBing as against NetherVoid

Second Game:

I draw a decent hand and he has no first turn Duress. Fourth turn Abyss (with Enlightened Tutor for Abyss and Demonic for Black Lotus, since I had not much land after his initial Sinkhole assault) means game. Turn eight Morphling (now with some mana) does the dirty job of killing an actually dead player.

Matches: 2-0, Games: 4-1

Third round: Gro-Atog

Finally I have a chance to meet this hot deck - last time we escaped each other.

First Game:

We both have a LoA hand without Wasteland, but I believe in the long run this deal is better for Keeper. I have 2 Mana Drain and 1 Mis-D. After a couple of turns (both of us dropping Moxen and Sol Ring; he has an Atog which I tried to StoP but he FoWed) he tries to Gush, I Mana Drain, he Ancestrals in response, I Mis-D, he FoWs, I Mana Drain, draw three extra cards, Wish for StoP and proceed to win from there on. Mis-D on Ancestral usually means game anyway. He was complaining about my third counter, but such is life... Mind you, in the second game he really had reasons to complain, for I won solely by my incredible topdecking skills.

In: 2 Keg, 4 REB, 1 StoP
Out: 1 Mindtwist, 1 Vampiric, 1 Mystical, 1 Mox Monkey, 1 Stroke, 1 Cunning Wish,  1 Fire and Ice

He has a decent hand with second turn Dryad AND Atog (Black Lotus helped). I go for Abyss, but he FoWs and proceeds to beat me down. Fortunately, I topdeck a StoP for his Dryad (already 7/7) the turn before I would die. He is 1 card short of killing me with Atog, and I proceed to topdeck a second StoP. With Merchant Scroll I fetch Ancestral and try to StoP, but he counters. I Ancestral in response and the THIRD card is a REB! 2 turns later he draws another Atog (I am at 5 lifes now having fetched a few lands) which I cannot counter, but as a good T1 player I topdeck another REB  He curses and proceeds to lose the game from there on (my Dustbowl and the fact that I could D-Blow his Fastbond were crucial ingredients to victory). I combo him with Braingeysir (twice protected, just in case - I counted our libraries, but he had 34 cards in his library and I only 33; otherwise I would not have cared if he Misdirects...).

Matches: 3-0, Games: 6-1

I had some time and watched another Keeper fellow. I witnessed a scene which Rakso would have loved: the Keeper player had only 1 blue mana source, but Jet and Pearl on the table. So he managed to counter with Dromar's-incredible-Charm a crucial spell of his SquirrelCraft opponent. He told me that he really liked Dromar's charm that day...

Fourth Round: Mirror match (well, not 100% - he plays only 2 fetchlands, Future Sight, 2 Brainstorms and 27 mana sources)

Last time KPfV managed to avoid my deck, but this time there is no escape  I consider to draw and to play for fun, but he wants to play it out - probably he is right, it is better this way. After all, this is FNM and not a pro-tour...

First Game:

This is an amazing game - I cannot remember all the details, but let me draw you an approximate picture: in the beginning, he is slightly mana screwed (my Dustbowl and the fact that he has only 27 mana sources surely helped), and I am slightly mana flooded. There is a crucial intermediate turn after which he loses 2 FoWs (with 2 Mana Drain) and I lose 1 Mana Drain and 1 FoW, but I cannot remember the spell we were fighting about - must have been something relevant... I proceed to FoF and to Ancestral successfully (I had also an early Skeletal Scrying, removing Dustbowl and TimeWalk) and now I think I am going to win. I play Morphling, he Mana Drains, I Mana Drain. He plays Balance, 1 FoW, but he Edicts with his last card. Damn! Now we are both in topdecking mode (I have 1 card, but it is a useless Abyss). I still have board advantage in terms of mana, but this is changed after he plays YawgWin for land and Ancestral. I topdeck nothing, he FoFs successfully  (I split into Morphling and Mana Drain+3 mana sources. Of course, he takes the pile with 4 cards.). I draw a Stroke. He Mindtwists me for 2, but knowing his complete hand I Stroke for 8 cards. He is at 15 life and has to Mana Drain my Stroke (and after Mindtwist resolves I have to discard my useless Abyss), but he topdecks Mox Monkey next turn and eats all my SoLoMoxen instead of burning for 11! I topdeck a StoP and finally I begin to draw my non-mana cards. I YawgWin successfully a few turns later, ending up with a bunch of cards and Morphling on the table. However, he casts Tutor (which I counter, since he had Wasteland and I had only 2 blue mana untapped) and then he flashes back the Edict (I totally forgot that it was a Chainer's and not a Diabolic!). Now I am left without victory condition in my deck, although I have established complete board control. I proceed to draw my library and the last card is the Grim Monolith. I cast Grim Monolith+Power Artifact, Wish for Ebony Charm to remove him 3 annoying cards (although I was stupid enough to take his victory conditions - I should have taken 2 FoWs and 1 Mana Drain instead!)  and then I Timetwister into FoF, Stroke, Mystical and FoW. I FoF, but he FoWs and then I trance for a while (whether to wait for Mystical for FoW or Stroke him right now), but finally I Stroke him for his library+epsilon, protected with FoW and he does not have Mis-D+counter. So I win this incredible game.

Time is almost over after this great game with ups and downs on both sides.

Out: 1 Timetwister, 1 Mystical, 1 Vampiric, 2 StoP, 1 Abyss
In: 4 REB, 1 Skeletal Scrying, 1 Dwarven Miner

Second game:

It is not very interesting. He has to mulligan down to 5 (keeping a two land hand). I get rid of his lands and play Mox Monkey and have complete control over the game. When time is called I have Mox Monkey and Dwarven Miner on the table and he has 6 lifes. On my last turn I kill him. What a boring game...

Matches: 4-0, Games: 8-1

Last Round: WW (WTF? WW in the last round?!)

It was very funny for me, since this match was in fact the easiest of the whole tourney - no offence, the WW player managed to kill 1 Keeper fellow. But I was still very confident.

I win the die roll.

First Game:

He starts with Land Tax and Second turn Null Rod (I have Land, Mox, Sol Ring), but I Wish for Disenchant and get rid of the Null Rod. I play my topdecked Mox Monkey, but he plays (with 4 mana) 2 White Knights. I have Balance in my hand and Mystical and Time Walk and a Mox, so my plan is to get rid of Mox Monkey and Balance away his guys after playing TimeWalk and Mystical for Ancestral (pretty easy plan). He attacks, I block and he plays three more creatures. He has 3 cards left which obviously have to be basic lands (he taxed for 6). So I proceed as planned and with Ancestral I draw into Morphling, which wins me the game in 4 rounds.

In: 1 Stop, 1 Enlightened, 1 Disenchant
Out: 1 Mindtwist, 1 Stroke, 1 Dustbowl

Second Game:

My starting hand features the three combo pieces (Braingeysir as kill card), 2 lands, a Mox and 1 Mana Drain. However, his second turn White Knight with his third turn Empyrial Armor put me on a fast clock. Fortunately, I have enough land to play a protected Monolith (that is, to protect the Monolith of Seal) and on 5 lifes I have UUUU for the kill.

Matches: 5-0, Games: 10-1

So my brother was the only one who took a game from me - not as good as KPfV last week, who went undefeated 10-0, but still quite decent. I get 30 Euro in store credit.\n\n

[Fishhead]

Congrats on the win, and on the fantastic game against the other Keeper player.  That sort of game is why I love T1.

Quote He has 3 cards left which obviously have to be basic lands (he taxed for 6).

I really dont understand the Tax in this version of WW (other than it should kick MonoB around).  As a friend sarcastically said to me, "Its so when the Keeper player Balances they wont get Mind Twisted."  Which is exactly what happened here.  I suppose a very sharp WW player will be very careful about his Tax'ing, making sure not to get caught in this trap.  Of course, then, his is not thinning his deck of useless land.  He's caught between two unpleasant choices.  At least it has synergy with the Emperial Armor he showed in the second game.

[Matt The Great]

You can't use Monkey's ability while the Null Rod is on the stack, it has to be in play. I assume you meant that you tapped five mana while Null Rod was on the stack, and ate the Rod once it resolved.

[Big Blue]

Matt: yes, you are right - are you a laywer or a mathematician?  
I meant, I tapped my Sol Ring and Monolith for five while Null Rod was on the stack and once it entered play I ate it with Mox Monkey

Fishhead: Yes, this first game was really exciting and true T1; I guess no other format allows for such swings

Regarding the Tax: I suppose the main idea is just thinning and Armor synergy - in the second game he hit me just twice with White Knight and I was on 7 (even WITHOUT Tax on the table, btw); but clearly he overextended his resources in the first game: he should have been suspicious when I blocked with Mox Monkey his White Knight (at 16 lifes!), and even more suspicious when I said ok to his third creature. This way he would have kept 2 creatures in his hand and I still would have to play Balance. But he was a young player and it is already some achievement to end up in the "finals" with WW (and he DID manage to beat one other Keeper deck during the tourney).

I just wanted to add some remarks regarding D-Blow (I forgot to mention these incidents in my report): I really liked it - in the first game of my mirror match I D-Blowed (with kicker) a Mox, in the second game against Gro-Atog I would have been dead without it, because he was saving lands in his hand (due to my active Dustbowl!) and played a Fastbond - but I D-Blowed on the stack and he kept being mana screwed. Against Sui and NetherVoid I played it unkickered, but it was always necessary (Keg and Null Rod)

So in summary: I think it is worthwhile to keep 1 Disenchant effect, even with 2 Cunning Wishes. It kind of sucks to Mystical for Wish for Disenchant if you have to get rid of something urgently...

[Freddie]

Fantastic report!

I love those sort of keeper mirrors as well!

I have some questions:

1. Do you miss a MD or SB slot to gain life? Zorb or Renewed faith?

2. Why SB out Time Twist vs control... what if they get lucky and are able to stop your combo pieces and get rid of morphling, or perhaps mindtwist your hand... would't it be good to have a reset?

3. No COP Red? What up wit that?

4. In the SB you are running 2 disenchants, would have rather this have been the more traditional Shattering Pulse and Allay?

Thanks for the well written report.

-Freddie

[Big Blue]

@Freddie: Thanx - I think I can return the compliment because I believe it was you who wrote that fantastic 1.5 report with Sapphire Oath, which finally convinced me to try this deck in 1.5 (and I even don't have to bother about SquirrelCraft-Enchantress!)

Regarding your questions:

ad 1. and 3. As you can see from this report (and my last one), I have successfully avoided the three Sligh decks that were present - so no, I did not miss the lifegain slot. After the tourney I played two games against Tagia.dec (or RG Zoo or whatever - Kird Ape, Mongoose, Cursed Scroll, Bolts, Mox Monkeys and so on) and even there I did not miss my life gain. But obviously two games are way below the threshold of a reliable statistics.

This may sound stupid, but in a sense I play more focused against Sligh, Stompy or hybrids thereof if I don't have life gain (previously I did not care so much about my life since I knew that I could always tutor for a ZOrb).

Moreover, with 3 Cities less and an increased StoP-count (and the 2 SB Kegs+third StoP) on top of F&I, Abyss and Balance I feel well prepared to face Sligh.

Finally, there is no Legend or Dave Kaplan in our metagame. That is, Sligh is rarely piloted by the top players. You can call this metagaming or arrogance

No COP: Red is really insane, I admit it. But last time I did not include it due to my ingenious scouting before the tourney (turned out that a few minutes before begin suddenly 3 Sligh players appeared) and since I had not been punished for this omission I wanted to prolong this "experiment" - maybe it will turn out that I am not missing it at all, who knows?

ad 2. You see, I usually side in Dwarven Miner and this time I also kept the combo - so I had 4 victory conditions (Mox Monkey, Dwarven Miner, Morphling and Stroke/Geysir); it just seems unneccessary to me to keep Timetwister in that case; in the first game, yes, Timetwister was the final reason why I did not lose this game - but in games 2-3 I feel confident enough to win without it; the only control decks against which I keep it are Parfait and semi- or unpowered control decks (because there it is more likely that I can acquire quick board advantage, so an early Timetwister is potentially better than in the mirror match).

From a theoretical point of view, Timetwister really shines against black decks, unpowered decks, decks relying on the graveyard and very defensive decks. Of course you know all this and your question is, since Keeper belongs to the latter, why don't you play it then?

While Keeper belongs to the last class it has also an explosive potential. So most of the time Timetwister is dead either because you are winning anyway or because you are losing anyway (if your opponent has board advantage Timetwister is not so hot; if he has card advantage he usually has a counter; if he has neither you are either winning anyway or it is 50/50 (who draws better after Timetwister)). The only time when I really WANT Timetwister against Keeper is in games which are similar to game 1 of my report - all victory conditions and YawgWin are either removed or in the graveyard. With 4 REBs+Dwarven Miner such a scenario seems too unlikely to me to be of relevance in games 2/3.

From a practical point of view we had only 10 minutes left and I felt there was no need to twist the little time we still had...

ad 4. I am slightly amused that you already call the Paragon SB "traditional"  
But I get your point. I admit that I have not tested Shattering Pulse/Allay in a tourney. But IMO Disenchant is superior because it is more flexible. There are matchups where you just want  early Disenchants and where it can be inconvenient to have a Shattering Pulse when confronted with, say, Survival, Land Tax, Oath or NetherVoid. And vice versa for Allay - it does not get rid of Null Rods, Powder Kegs, Scroll Racks or Juggernauts.

Even against TnT (which seems to be one of the main motivations for this particular SB choice of the Paragons) I prefer to have Disenchants, because my plan is just to survive the initial rush (during that period I cannot afford buyback anyway) and then quietly kill with the combo.

I believe Azhrei said in one of the Paragon discussion threads that he often plays Shattering Pulse without buyback against TnT in the early game and later recurs it with YawgWin and proceeds to win in a controlish way from there on. I just prefer to YawgWin straightforwardly with the combo, provided I survive long enough.

Well... Sorry for my somewhat long answers, but since you asked...

[Freddie]

Thanks for the answers...

I can see your points about Timetwist, I use it against Sui, Graveyard recursion, and another keeper, just because against keeper, I SB out the combo, and need to be able to recur my resources, especially is I lose my morphling, to fill in the blank.

I have never been that big of a fan of Time Twister, and wouldn't you know it, I have won 2 of them in power tournies!!!

What crap!

It is the only power card that I ever won multiples of.

Well, I guess I have won 2 timewalks too... but they were really far apart, the Timetwists were with in a month of each other!

I think that you should really consider playing just 1 cop red in your SB... there is nothing like losing to the ultimate cheese, were the burn player just never draws land after the first 3, and is able to draw bolt after bolt, and POP after POP... lame ass, let me tell you.

I am unsure what I would lose in your SB, but just 1 cop puts you at 4 after SB, with DT, VT, ET, and the COP itself, not to mention, the obscure, Merchant for MT, MT for DT, then DT for COP...

-Freddie

[Fishhead]

Quote ...he was saving lands in his hand (due to my active Dustbowl!) and played a Fastbond - but I D-Blowed on the stack and he kept being mana screwed.

Crap, this just occurred to me --

Does playing a land use the Stack?  I thought not?  So the play goes:

Him: Fastbond. Pass.
You: Pass.
--Fastbond resolves--
Him: I lay all my land on the table.  
Him: I have priority and go nuts.
You: Darn.

Is this right?

[Big Blue]

Er...

It was actually:

Him: Fastbond on stack
I: D-Blow Fastbond on stack
Him: *sigh*

Once Fastbond enters play there is no way to prevent the ensuing flood of lands, I think (as you also noted)

[Fishhead]

Quote Him: Fastbond on stack
I: D-Blow Fastbond on stack
Him: *sigh*

I dont think I follow this.  You cant D-Blow the Fastbond 'til it resolves.  Maybe I'll go ask this in the Rules forum.

-edit-
OK, the answer is up in the rules forum.  The quick summary is that the D-Blow player cant do anything useful until the Fastbond player plays his second land and the damage goes on the stack.  At that point, the D-Blow player can get priority and smash Fastbond.

[Big Blue]

ok, thanx for checking this - so he could have played a second land, but it would not have mattered due to my Dustbowl (EOT eat first land, in my turn eat second one).

sorry for my confusion - I was misled by the Trix analogy (Disenchant Illusions on stack, but in fact disenchant it, when life gain goes on stack seems to be the accurate version)

[Freddie]

This is how the d.blowing the fastbond thing works:

Active player (Big Blue's opponent): Fastbond on stack, any responces?

Big Blue: No, It resolves

Active player (Big Blue's opponent): Plays a land (playing lands do not create and cannot be added to the stack!)

Active player (Big Blue's opponent): The (2nd) land triggers Fastbond's damage effect... Fastbond damage onto the stack, any effects?

Big Blue: Yes, on the stack of the damage, I will d.blow the Fastbond, any effects?

Active player (Big Blue's opponent): No, It resolves.

Active player (Big Blue's opponent): Process damage from Fastbond.

This conversation has been brought to you by Freddie. "Just trying to help folks become cleaner players."

-Freddie

[Fishhead]

Quote This conversation has been brought to you by Freddie. "Just trying to help folks become cleaner players."

Correct-o.  

Did you spot the error right away?  I didnt.  I was thinking about something entirely different a few days after I read BigBlues report and the idea just leapt into my head that "ooops, what he said wasnt quite right".  It's weird how the brain works, I guess that there had been some little subprocess in my head nibbling at that problem for two days.

[Gabethebabe]

Quote (Freddie @ Feb. 05 2003,20:43)This is how the d.blowing the fastbond thing works:

Active player (Big Blue's opponent): Fastbond on stack, any responces?

Big Blue: No, It resolves

Active player (Big Blue's opponent): Plays a land (playing lands do not create and cannot be added to the stack!)

Active player (Big Blue's opponent): The (2nd) land triggers Fastbond's damage effect... Fastbond damage onto the stack, any effects?

Big Blue: Yes, on the stack of the damage, I will d.blow the Fastbond, any effects?

Active player (Big Blue's opponent): No, It resolves.

Active player (Big Blue's opponent): Process damage from Fastbond.

This conversation has been brought to you by Freddie. "Just trying to help folks become cleaner players."

-Freddie

To add to this conversation: playing lands doesn´t use the stack, so it can not be responded to, but also: you can only play a land if you have priority and the stack is empty. If you play your second land, the Fastbond ability will trigger and go on the stack, the active player can not play any more lands, is forced to hand over priority, which allows the second player to destroy the Fastbond and prevent the playing of more lands.

[Freddie]

@Fishhead: I caught it, but didn't post because I saw likt 3 posts under it, and I didn't have time to correct, I assumed that someone else has layied it all out, but then came back to it, and saw that although it had been addressed, it was still kind of up in the air.

-Freddie

[Big Blue]

I appreciate the rule clarifications.

Without being apologetic let me point out that during a game in which I already had "lost" three times my focus was on Jedi-tricks for good topdecking and to convince my opponent to commit some errors, and not so much on the rules