[ARTICLE] Something Like a Tournament Report

[jpmeyer]

I guess whenever you win a tournament you're supposed to write a tournament report. I always figured it was so people can get a grasp on what wins and how, rather than about the fact that there was a ton of traffic on 495 or how that waitress at the place where you and your friends went for dinner afterwards totally wanted you. And usually people write a short little summary of each game that they played and whatnot.

[Dr. Sylvan]

Heh. JP said "assclownery".

Ah, the sweetness of one sentence, parenthetical match descriptions.

[Andreas]

A very interesting article.

However in my metagame I can safely assume that there will be (almost) no mirror matches, instead I will have to face a lot of Iso-Keeper and some Dragon.

Would you make adjustments in your playstyle and/or decklist in this case? The problem I see is that Iso-Keeper does have a good early threat in the form of Scepter (which of course can be somewhat neutered by Back to Basics).

[verduran]

I liked seeing a nice, clean decklist at the beginning of the article, and I expected to be in for a treat. But I kinda got dissapointed. I was promised advise on what wins and how, but I'm not sure I learned about either. OK, this build won a tournament. But so did mono green LD. Why should this particular build be a good choice for my meta, what's so different about this tog build and how should the deck be played in different matchups? These are questions I'd like to see answered. How often did you use the (IMO iffy) last word 'tech'? What are this decks' weaknesses?

Next time I'd like to see something 'long and sweet'.

[jpmeyer]

This article wasn't supposed to be about the deck.  It was supposed to about playing the deck.

[Smash]

Amusing article that brought up some things to think about. It didn't have the in depth how the deck works deal like "semmycakes" articles do, but the points made were interesting.


So last word is a cunning wish target? If people catch on, they will just stop the wish. But, if you can make your opponent counter every wish you do when you have UU2 open, it could definately do a good job of depleting their counters.

[jpmeyer]

I think that's a bit of a win-win situation.  It's like how in Standard you should've tried to counter the Fact or Fiction, but if you were running one of the more counter-light Togs (like the U/B/R kind,) you almost couldn't afford to try to stop them because you would probably end up losing the war over Mana Short.

[Mon, Goblin Chief]

Sweet read, it seemed to end a little abrupt, though.

And I'd have loved one of these Q'n'D reports of yours covering the matches in addition to the cool one-sentence descriptions.

Game 1: I cast DA first.
Game 2: He cast DA first.
Game 3: First turn LoA .

Quoted from my memory, as I couldn't find the actual report in the archives. I laughed my ass of when I read that report the first time. Even though I had some laughs the way you did it this time, too, that old one will always be in my heart. Soooo funny .

Anyway, I've got a question regarding the report at hand:

While on the topic of Mishra's Workshop decks, I should mention that both Jason and I were rather surprised by a lot of Stax players by 2-0'ing them. Stax has more mana and more removal, while Tog has more damage, so that should mean that Stax is the control player and Tog is the beatdown player. That's how we assigned the roles when we tested, which allowed Tog to win. It seemed like a lot of Stax players thought that they were more of the beatdown deck here, since they kept casting what they thought were threats, but in actuality were not.

I suppose there's a typo in here? Otherwise Stax looses whichever road it tries to take, making a change in strategy useless. So Stax should actually play control to win, right?

[jpmeyer]

It's a double bind.  Stax can't play beatdown because they have no damage sources, but they can't really play control because they can't control the only card in your deck that matters--Tog.

If you want a Q'n'D:

Round 1:
Game 1: He is playing 22 mana so he scoops to one Wasteland
Game 2: He is playing 22 mana so he scoops to one Wasteland

Round 2:
Game 1: I have DA
Game 2: I forgot to Intuition in response to his Will when he has no other cards in hand
Game 3: I Duress his Mox Sapphire and he has no land

Round 3:
Game 1: I never get to Drain
Game 2: I never get to Drain

Round 4:
Game 1: I Waste his Bazaar
Game 2: I Waste his Bazaar

Round 5:
ID

T8:
Game 1: I draw DA first
Game 2: I draw DA first

T4:
Game 1: I cast Drain
Game 2: I cast Drain

T2:
Game 1: I cast Tog
Game 2: I cast Tog

Now you know the true inner workings of playing Psychatog!

[Mon, Goblin Chief]

Yeeeeeeeeeees. Thanks a lot! These are so cool.

It's a double bind. Stax can't play beatdown because they have no damage sources, but they can't really play control because they can't control the only card in your deck that matters--Tog.

Ah, ok, thanks for clarifying.

[Grand Inquisitor]

It's a double bind. Stax can't play beatdown because they have no damage sources, but they can't really play control because they can't control the only card in your deck that matters--Tog

You make it look like Stax is a very promising matchup for Hulk.  Maybe this isn't relevant, but how different are the Stax and WMUD matchups?  I only ask because a number of people from Meandeck were saying that their testing showed Hulk taking maybe 2-3 out of 30 games agaisnt WMUD.

[DEA]

this is why the hybrid solution works best
the problem is finding a deck that combines both into one tight package, like tog
sundering titan could be a good addition to stax's control arsenal, by blowing up lands to force tog to tap things it really doesn't want to tap
also, a 7/10 body doesn't hurt things any
i've pulled wins off fully powered keeper that i had no business winning by welding in a sundering titan

[jazzykat]

After my finish in Hadley I really have no business posting here but... against WMud if you can just drop a tog (watch out for chalice for 3 ), then they are in big trouble because if they can't lock down tog, or get you to sac him, or get a karn out,  then you can win by beating the hell out of them with a tog. As soon as you can drop one, they are going to have to work fast because is is them who are a much faster clock than a smokestack (you can still use lands to cast instants if you are under wire, and cunning wish and berserk are both instants).

If they side in REB then I will defer to my betters as to what to do then.[/code]

[jpmeyer]

It's a double bind. Stax can't play beatdown because they have no damage sources, but they can't really play control because they can't control the only card in your deck that matters--Tog

You make it look like Stax is a very promising matchup for Hulk.  Maybe this isn't relevant, but how different are the Stax and WMUD matchups?  I only ask because a number of people from Meandeck were saying that their testing showed Hulk taking maybe 2-3 out of 30 games agaisnt WMUD.

That's what the belief was until I showed that if Tog casts either Mana Drain or Psychatog, they will almost always beat any non-Mindslaver Workshop deck.  People were really surprised at the tourney when me and Jason (the 5th place finisher) said that we were 2-0'ing Stax.

sundering titan could be a good addition to stax's control arsenal, by blowing up lands to force tog to tap things it really doesn't want to tap
also, a 7/10 body doesn't hurt things any

There's no way that Stax is casting that, but in TnT where they can dump it into their graveyard this is an enormous threat.

[jazzykat]

Regarding: Welder MUD

quick list:
5 strips
solomoxen
monolith
crypt
vault
shops
2tombs
mountains

4 Welders
4 Workers
4 spheres
4 wires
4 stacks
2 Karn
1 Jar
3 Mind's Eye
X mox monkeys (huge pain in the ass, taking away my permanents/land source)
1 Wheel

I playtested it against it last night and played steve's version (I am behind but I like insane broken plays more than b2b) with:

4 Duress
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will

4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Intuition
4 Brainstorm

3 Tog
3 Cunning Wish

1 GUSH
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Deep Analysis
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mind Twist

1 Pernicious Deed

4 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
2 Volcanic Island
3 Tropical Island
1 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
5 Moxen
1 MANA CRYPT
1 Black Lotus



+1 island
+1 stripmine

-1 Merchant Scroll
-1 Deep Analysis

I am still using his sideboard for the most part.

I am really frustrated in general. I stop welders, and smokestack most of Whenever I can. I have been letting early game metal workers resolve which is probably a dumb ass play on my part because I sometimes lose.  Maybe I suck at shuffling or the game in general.

It seems to me there are 10 things I must stop:
4 welders
4 Stacks
2 Karns

Mind's eye gives them long term draw, but I do have my own as well(which they will mise off).


Everything else should just be gravy and I can drop tog to kill them.
Getting mana drain online= they lose most of the time

Also: should I side in my second deed from the board? It sounds like a dumb question, because deed = ownage of permanent heavy decks (except land), but once under a wire three mana including 1B 1G, is not so easy to come by.

I also know that my mind twist and a duress can easily come out to make room for the sideboard cards.


I will playtest the matchup more, but right now I think I am playing it wrong because I feel like I am getting roshamboed.