Report: C&Js 1st with Vengeur Masque

[Fishhead]

I missed last weeks C&Js, partly because I had a lot of work to do, partly because I had Magic-ed myself out a bit with the big NG tournament on the Saturday before.  I almost went at the last minute because I was chatting with Carl Devos about how much fun he was having with Vengeur Masque (is Carl cool enough for that to count as Rasko-esque name-dropping? and I have three Volrath's Shapeshifters that I've never used.  

The biggest drawback to FEB builds for me is that you need to really be on top of your rules knowledge in order to play them well.  I knew that I'd be going into the tournament with very little practice, but I felt OK in that the win here isn't a single turn Morphling-Dreadnaught-Hellion stackfest but a simple pounding with Dreadnaughts.  I know how to smash for 12, so I thought I would be able to get by.  

I took Carl's decklist except I couldnt bear the maindeck Vigilante; I rather randomly replaced him with Gigapede which has a nice synergy with a lot of deck parts and can be hardcast in an emergency.  He also provides a big body thats untargetable, which allows for some tricks.  There are also some minor SB changes.

Fishhead Masque (99.5% inspired by Carl Devos)
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Quirion Ranger
1 Gigapede
4 Survival of the Fittest
3 Wall of Roots

1 Squee, Goblin Nabob

1 Ancestral Recall
3 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
1 Gilded Drake
2 Misdirection
1 Time Walk
1 Tradewind Rider
1 Voidmage Apprentice
3 Volrath's Shapeshifter

1 Black Lotus
4 Illusionary Mask
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought

1 Flooded Strand
4 Forest
3 Island
1 Polluted Delta
1 Strip Mine
4 Tropical Island
1 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard:
1 Elvish Lyrist
1 Genesis
1 Nantuko Vigilante
1 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Withered Wretch
3 Back to Basics
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Morphling
1 Waterfront Bouncer
2 Bottle Gnomes
1 Masticore

Match 1: ? (MonoB with Mutilate)
Game 1: I have a pretty good hand with Ancestral in it and all the goodies, just not much accelleration.  I could play a Bird on the first turn, but since he played a Swamp I have to keep Ancestral mana open.  Indeed he Hymns me, I Ancestral in response.  He gets good cards, but it doesn't matter because my hand is all good cards.  Maybe two turns later he is facing two Shapeshifter-Naughts.
Game 2: He starts with a Skittering Skirge vs. my BoP.  I establish Survival and fetch a Shapeshifter since I am already holding Squee.  I play Shifter on turn 2 and start plotting how I am getting Dread and winning in two when he says "So what happens now?" Me:"Huh?" Him: "The Guilded Drake in your graveyard." Me:"Doh".  I check on the rule to be sure and then trade him the Shapeshifter for his Skirge.  (There's all sorts of horrible play and confusion going on right through this point which I will mercifully skip over.)  Anyway, I set myself up again after the Skirge trades off and have a Shapeshifter, Survival, Q-Ranger and BoP on the table when he Vampirics and plays Mutilate for about 6.  I think I have prepared for this, so I dump Dread into the graveyard with Survival in response.  Him:"OK".  Me: "Now I put my Quirion and my BoP in the graveyard.  Oh."  So another grotesque misplay, and I've now lost my last 'Shifter.  At EoT I look for a new plan which is simply Survival up Gigapede.  He manages to get one more Mutilate, but Gigapede crawls up out of the graveyard to finish him anyway.  Whew, lucky to escape from that fiasco.

Matches 1-0: Games 2-0.

Match 2: Jon Flores (lurking_evil) (Ankh Sligh)
I'm a little worried about Sligh since they can disrupt my fragile manabase.  Jon usually either plays Sligh or Void but I heard his happy voice say "Bolt-Bolt-Fireblast!" near the end of last round, so I know which one he has today.  
Game 1: I'm a little fuzzy on how the first one went.  I fetched and drew a lot of basic lands and was very cautious with my Birds in both games.  Wall of Roots is very good.  I think I started with Ancestral in the opening hand, but other than that, this game is a blank.  Basically, Sligh has a terrible time with Mask, and having multiple ways of making 12/12s plus Walls and Mis-D is not going to be good for him.  
Game 2: He got a fast start in game two with Mountain-Mox-Mogg-Cadet.  He follows up with another Mogg and maybe Wastelands me to set me back a turn.  So I'm under some serious pressure when I finally get Survival on the board. I follow up with a topdecked Mask and Survival for a Gnomes.  He Chains on his turn and I Mis-D to Cadet as I am already at 6.  I play Gnomes (under the Mask and fetch Genesis and another Gnomes.  I'm very close to recursion mana, and I expect him to concede to this threat.  He Pyrokenesis' Gnomes pitching PoP here - I had 5 lands on the table and only one was non-basic.  When I play the 2nd Gnomes and fetch a 'Naught Jon says "Starting with this card, I begin scooping."  

Matches 2-0: Games 4-0.

Round 3: Gim Chu (Void)
Game 1: I play land-Bird and he Sinkholes me.  I play another land and a Mask, he Sinks my land.  I topdeck Dreadnaught and my board is Mask-Bird-1CC creature.  He draws DT, but has nothing that will solve his problem in time.  I win in two more turns.
Game 2: He goes first again and starts with Ritual-Null Rod.  Hrm, ouch.  My marginal hand suddenly goes poopy.  I kept for Strip Mine, Sapphire, Time Walk, Mask.  I start playing out stuff slowly while he starts hammering at my hand.  I topdeck Island and Timewalk, then draw Shapeshifter and get rolling.  A lot of my stuff falls to Edicts, but eventually I pitch the dead Mox Sapphire to retrieve Gigapede and win with him.

Matches 3-0: Games 6-0

Match 4: Justin (Saucemaster) (GroTog)
There was a lot of 'Tog today.  Brent (UnstableCornBread) brought Hulk and got roughed up by Justin in Round 2 in a tough match.  I saw another 'Tog beat Void despite Chains of Mephistopheles resolving.  He pecked Void to death with Togs - one point at a time.  
Game 1: He gets one land.  He Opts, he Opts again.  I tell him that I wished I played Strip Mine and he just frowns.  My Mask resolves on turn 2.  He Brainstorms and finds nothing.  Thats a lethal Brainstorm as I slip a Dreadnaught under the Mask.  
Game 2: I resolve Mask put a Dread under it.  He has TimeWalked and played two Dryads.  I swing and he goes to 8.  I think I am in great shape since I have a second Dread, but he Smothers the first one and the Dryads continue to grow.  I slip another Dread under the Mask and resolve a Survival that he has to think about for a long time.  It turns out that he has Guilded Drake as his only blue card to pitch.  Rough choice.  When Survival resolves, I put a second 'Naught under the Mask and feel great.  But then he Drakes away my Dreadnaught and suddenly I am facing two 5/5 Dryads and my own Dreadnaught. I use Survival to get my own Drake, but he has UU showing and his position is great if he counters my Drake, so I decide to slow-play and try and overwhelm him with Survival.  I trade the Dreads and pitch the Drake to get my fourth one.  (I am figuring that I can use the Shifter-Drake trick next turn to take a Dryad.)  His last card is Y-Will and he recurs all sorts of good stuff, including a Smother for my last Dreadnaught.  I take a huge hit from two unblocked Dryads and swing back with the Drake to take him to 3.  I play the Shifter and a bunch of chumps and hope he can't find the Berserk.  He draws and Gushes and then extends the hand.  Whew again.  

Matches 4-0: Games 8-0.

Random thoughts:

Anyway, on the day I felt pretty good with the deck.  It's incredibly flexible, which is nice.  Gim's first turn Null Rod would have been a huge hassle for regular Mask, but I was able to switch to the Shifter plan.  Justin got screwed in the first game, but he actually had a pretty good draw in the second and Masque just put too many threats down, which is interesting.  We played a third game for fun and I started with Lotus-Survival-Mask-Mask-Forest in hand and so was able to quickly resolve Survival and then Mask which led to a win.  We discussed afterwards if Masque has a good matchup against GroTog, but really 3 games is not enough to tell.  

Theres absolutely no SB right now against Void and I'm not sure thats the plan - the matchup is not that good.  The SB is also all creatures (except a random Hurkyl's I threw in), so we were wondering how Living Wish would fare in the deck.  I considered it, but I wasn't sure what to cut.  But, as Christiaan said, "How about cutting your weakest creature?"  Perhaps so.  

I'm curious about BeBe's build that runs all 5 Moxes.  The BoPs almost seem too slow for T1.  Maybe I am spoiled by Anger in TnT, but I can't bear waiting that turn to see if my BoP lives.  Also, a lot of times you have a hand with critical 2CC cards that you'd like to sneak in before you opponent gets to UU.  Depending on winning the dice roll (which I do not think I did all night!) is not the plan here; I'd really like to be able to consistently drop Survival or Mask on turn 1.

As always, general comments and feedback are welcome.  Feel free to post other C&Js reports or observations in here too if you don't feel like starting your own thread.  I know a lot of TMDers were there.

[spevack]

Brian,

As always, a great report and a great job at the tournament.  You just win!

The CA ManaDrain crew needs to represent bigtime at the T1 tournament at Nationals in San Diego June 27 weekend.

[dicemanX]

I enjoyed your report, as I have enjoyed all of Carl's reports with VM. This is an exciting deck and its consistent with todays changing meta where flexibility beats out single-minded strategies. Just a few notes on the deck itself:

1. You mentioned that the Hellion combo is a headache-inducing rules nightmare; true, but the combo is outdated. Phage is the replacement if you want to have a pure combo route. The nice thing about Phage is that you don't need to give her evasion if there are no blockers, which means you can outcombo combo decks or catch unwary decks that don't hold back blockers. If you NEED to give her evasion, you always have Gilded Drake, Morphling, or, of course, Dreadnaught. You only need to find one slot to introduce this potent combo.

2. I have posted my revised decklist in Carl's thread, which is a rework of my initial deck that bebe modified and presented in his excellent article on combo decks. The major change is the upping of the number of Tradewind Riders to four. I have been testing this exclusively vs GAT and TnT (unsideboarded for now) for the past couple of days, and have been very pleased with the results. The Riders are total house vs GAT, and add to the list of absolute must-counters. TnT is a much more difficult match-up, but the Riders are a definite improvement over Brainstorms (which I ended up cutting) in that match-up. The Riders make perfect sense to me right now since many of the top tiered decks lack sufficient point removal, and Guilded Drakes, Edicts or Smothers are no answer.

3. To support Riders and make first turn Mask/Wall/Survival possible, I'm running full power, just as you saw in bebe's list.

[Fishhead]

Quote The nice thing about Phage is that you don't need to give her evasion if there are no blockers, which means you can outcombo combo decks or catch unwary decks that don't hold back blockers.

Phage was mentioned by a couple of people at C&J's and then discussed again during the post-tournament snack.  

My analysis went like this: 1) Phage is best with Survival, but in games where I have Survival going I am already smashing with trampling 12/12s. Phage is redundant there.  2) Phage is also probably good with Shapeshifter solo, but without the Survival you wont be able to consistently get to it.  3) Phage is bad with Mask.    

I'm tempted to playtest it just because it sounds like fun to win with Phage.  But my guess is that it doesn't add enough to the deck to be worth the card slot.  If Phage had Flying that would push it into the "yes" column for me.

[Disgustipated Reflections]

Great report!  This deck looks like a blast to play.

Quote A lot of my stuff falls to Edicts, but eventually I pitch the dead Mox Sapphire to retrieve Gigapede and win with him.

Am I missing something here?

[Fishhead]

Quote Am I missing something here?

My opponent's first play was Ritual-Null Rod which kills the Sapphire for the rest of the game (or until I get Tradewind actually).  The Gigapede can be retrieved from the 'yard by pitching a card at the beginning of upkeep.  (I included him for this reason, because this ability has a lot of synergies with Survival and 'Shifter.)

By the end of that game I was just hard-casting Gigapede as he costs only GG3.

[Disgustipated Reflections]

Sorry I was thinking of Survival not Gigapede itself.

*punches self in groin*

[PsychoCid]

spevack:  What 'TMD crew' are you talking about?  I'm the only one of us out here, thanks.

[Fishhead]

Quote spevack:  What 'TMD crew' are you talking about?  I'm the only one of us out here, thanks.

Uh oh, someone else in this thread is winding up for a self-inflicted groin punch.  

[NaClhv]

As usual, a good report.  And congratulations on yet another 1st place finish.  I wish I was there.  I'll try to make it next week.

Did you ever miss anger from playing TnT?  Angry dreadnoughts would be pretty good, I think.  I remember one game, when Psyduck had his ADM built (same concept:  survival + masknought), he genesis'ed up an angry dreadnought to kill me in one game.  My overall impression was that once both survival + mask was in play, you had the game in the bag.

Oh, and speaking of upcoming large tournaments:  We should probably get several of us together (maybe the next matchplay tournament) and talk about what's going on with origins, gencon, and that SD tournament.

[Mattdog]

Quote Did you ever miss anger from playing TnT?  Angry dreadnoughts would be pretty good, I think.  I remember one game, when Psyduck had his ADM built (same concept:  survival + masknought), he genesis'ed up an angry dreadnought to kill me in one game.  My overall impression was that once both survival + mask was in play, you had the game in the bag.

Flowstone Hellion, would be a much better, It give the haste and the abilty to 'combo them out'

Also add some type of Red mana would really hurt the mana base and make the B2B very BAD.

[Fishhead]

Quote Did you ever miss anger from playing TnT?  

Yes.  Really thinking it over though, I'm not sure how much it would improve the performance of the deck overall.  I didnt miss attacking with big Hasted creatures as much as I missed manipulating the deck with Hasted utility creatures.  And the only utility creatures in this deck that applies to are the BoPs.  (Rangers are functionally Hasted, any utility under a Mask can be used right away).

The basic manabase must be Blue (Shapeshifter) and Green (Survival) without question.  Red could be added by giving up most basic lands, but I am not sure that price is worth paying due to the fact that the manabase is a bit fragile already.  

Quote My overall impression was that once both survival + mask was in play, you had the game in the bag.

I think this is the key point.  I think I don't need Anger to win once I have my "combo" going.  Counterpoint: I was pretty surprised the Saucemaster took care of 4 'Naughts.  Would Hasting them have changed anything?  Probably, as he was defending each turn just in the nick of time.  But I won that game anyway, so I'll stick with the "dont need Anger" theory for now.  

Quote Flowstone Hellion, would be a much better, It give the haste and the abilty to 'combo them out'

I think Carl played with the Hellion and decided he didnt like it?  (Either that or he meant to buy one, but none of the dealers had it? Lol.)  Anyway, the downside of the Hellion v. Anger is that Hellion only works as part of the Combo turn.  Anger makes all of your creatures fast.  

Phage gives you an unstoppable Combo, since you dont have to go to 23/1 before damage goes on the stack - you just pitch Phage after Trample damage is on the stack.  Of course he's not Hasted by himself.  But I think the three creatures (Phage, Hellion, Anger) potentially go in the same slot and should be thought of together.

[carl]

Quote (Fishhead @ April 21 2003,20:55)

Quote Flowstone Hellion, would be a much better, It give the haste and the abilty to 'combo them out'

I think Carl played with the Hellion and decided he didnt like it?  (Either that or he meant to buy one, but none of the dealers had it? Lol.)

That's what happened in Venice

But I tried it in Mol and never pulled the combo, so I dropped it.

Quote Anyway, the downside of the Hellion v. Anger is that Hellion only works as part of the Combo turn.  Anger makes all of your creatures fast.

Yes, but it means reworking your mana and makes you more dependant on Survival, which I don't like.

Quote Phage gives you an unstoppable Combo, since you dont have to go to 23/1 before damage goes on the stack - you just pitch Phage after Trample damage is on the stack.  Of course he's not Hasted by himself.  But I think the three creatures (Phage, Hellion, Anger) potentially go in the same slot and should be thought of together.

The combo is mana hungry, you often don't have enough G to fuel it, or it would take you an extra turn to set it up, in which case it is useless most of the time.

Also be careful with the Hellion ability if you are going to use Phage: the +1/-1 are still around when your VS becomes Phage

[Gabethebabe]

Excellent Report, especially match 1 was pretty funny, it shows how complicated the deck is. Playing FEB a lot, I pretty know the rules with Shapeshifters etc. but regularly fall into errors, probably related to my playing skills

I like the idea of adding more Tradewinds. I think I´m going to add more to my FEB as well. I´m not quite pleased with the Gigapede idea. I´d play Morphling over it.

Phage: last time I played a tournament with FEB I won a lot with her. But I imagine with Masks and 4 Noughts she gets cutted from the deck.

[UnstableCornBread]

His last card is Y-Will and he recurs all sorts of good stuff, including a Smother for my last Dreadnaught.  I take a huge hit from two unblocked Dryads and swing back with the Drake to take him to 3.  I play the Shifter and a bunch of chumps and hope he can't find the Berserk.  He draws and Gushes and then extends the hand.  Whew again.  

Just wondering, was the Dread the top card of the graveyard when you cast the Shapeshifter

[spevack]

Quote (Fishhead @ April 19 2003,21:50)

Quote spevack:  What 'TMD crew' are you talking about?  I'm the only one of us out here, thanks.

Uh oh, someone else in this thread is winding up for a self-inflicted groin punch.  

I mean The Mana Drain (TMD) -- all the people on this site who live in California -- that as many of us as possible should go to Nationals in San Diego to play in their type 1.

[Saucemaster]

Quote Just wondering, was the Dread the top card of the graveyard when you cast the Shapeshifter

At that point, it actually didn't matter--if I had a Berserk, one of my two giant Dryads was going lethal; if I didn't, Drake alone was enough to kill me.  But IIRC, yes, I was going to be facing down YET ANOTHER 12/12 trampler.    Of course, he had to chump the Dryads, so it wasn't going to be 12/12 for long.

[UnstableCornBread]

So his come into play abilities should have resolved? Sac 12 power of critters or die no?

[Fishhead]

Quote So his come into play abilities should have resolved? Sac 12 power of critters or die no?

I can't remember what was on top, but it wasn't the Dreadnaught.  I was already thinking of how to get a big or evasive creature going.  I think the top card was something neutral because I remember that the 'Shifter was 0/1 for a while.  Did Justin Duress me off the Y-Will or Naturalize something?  I possibly used a Fetchland or cycled Squee to get the 'Shifter?  

Anyway, all of the 12/12s were gone and unrecoverable -- I was cursing my misjudgement with not casting my own Drake to retrieve my 3rd Dread.

But, on the mistake front, I think I might have Survival'd Squee in the first match while I had two Shifters out.  Ooops.  Another mistake was that I let my opponent cast a Hyppie with a Skittering Skirge out; I noticed that when I wrote the report and was thinking, "Hey, where did that Hyppie come from?"  Lol.  The second game of the first match was really horrible, but I think I got most of my mistakes for the day out of my system during it.  

Quote Also be careful with the Hellion ability if you are going to use Phage: the +1/-1 are still around when your VS becomes Phage

I don't think I'll be pumping the Hellion unless my opponent "double-loses" if I hit them with a 20/20 Phage.    But wouldnt that be cool if you could?  

Quote I´m not quite pleased with the Gigapede idea. I´d play Morphling over it.

Morphling costs U to make stuff untargetable, Gigapede just is untargetable.  Besides I can fetch Gigapede back which gives me a second Squee effect if I need it.  OTOH, I'm not totally amazed my Gigapede.  He was pretty fun, but making stuff untargetable was supposed to be his primary purpose, when in fact he mostly ended up as a Beating Machine.  Still considering what that means.