[Report] Dual Lotus Tournament

[Zherbus]

Mapquest sucks ass.

I drive Tyler and Oliver down to CT. We get lost on the way down since the tournament was in the middle of suburbia. Thankfully, a liquor store clerk and a guy walking his dogs were able to help us out and we finally find the venue.

We get there, and the first familiar face I see among a hundred is Bryce. It's good to see him again, and soon after comes Neo-Carl with piercings and short spikey hair. He loans me two exalted angels, which I end up stealing, and my deck is set for the day.

Soon, I start seeing the Hadley, CT, and Rhode Island fellahs. I meet MethodXL, Kerz, and Orlove and talk briefly with Grand_Inquisitor, Hulk3Rules (we never got to play hold em), LoA, Ctthespian, Eastman (and his brother), and of course Redman.

Smmenen appears out of nowhere with thecapn, and for like a whole hour he has no idea who I am. He found Carl first, so I figured my presence was conveyed to him. However, it wasn't. I kept mentioning things to him and he had this whole 'uh yeah' kinda of 'who are you' look on his face. Finally, someone calls me Zherbus (Kowal maybe?) and he's like:

"OMG! ZHERBUS??!! WOW, YOU'RE ZHERBUS??!! This tournament just got 600 times better!"

Then we celebrated being the awesomest ever team, Meandeck.

Let me also mention that by advertising the tournament on my site, *I* had something to do with 160 people showing up. AndyStok said one word to me the whole day, and he HAS met me before - we've even talked in Concord when I judged. The one word he said to me?

"Scoot"

Fucking SCOOT? Did my fucking leash fall off? Am I laying down on your sweat shirt licking my nuts? SCOOT?

Not 'thanks', not 'hi', not 'hey - but SCOOT.

Hell, CHRIS LEATHER wanted to meet me and was a very friendly, decent person from what I could tell. Andystok... I get 'scoot'. On top of all that, the Tournament starts like an hour and a half late.

Anyway, on to the fun!

A prelim comment - Isochron Scepter sucks ass. I'm pissed that I wasted 2 slots on it in the board.

Round 1 - Cool guy who seems to be of the AndyStok crew. (Dragon)

Game 1 - All I see is Intuition, blue duals, and Duress. I Mind Twist for 4, he concedes so I don't see his hand. I'm thinking that it's Tog and that I'm in need of Gush and my Rebs. I board out STP's and Wishes as I side board as if playing against Tog.

Game 2 - He goes off because it's not Tog, it's Dragon. FUCKING HELL! I laugh. Well played my nemesis! I sideboard correctly from this point.

Game 3 - I draw alot. I have STP's, Coffin Purges, and all kinds of goodies.

1-0

Round 2 - FAKE ROUND SINCE THEY FUCKED UP

I sit on no lands for a while in each game. It was just dumb.

Still 1-0 since they messed up.

The Second Round 2 - Masked Rider of MTGNews.com (Scepter Keeper)

Game 1 - I beat his AK engine and Scepters with Mind Twist and Yawgmoths Will. I don't remember this much, but he had Scepter with Mana Drain and something else and I won through it.

Game 2 - I establish control, and win via superior draw. I draw 3 off Ancestral with FoW back up, 3 off Scrying, then the rest is crazy beat down from Decree tokens.

2-0

Round 3 - Slaver

Game 1 - I'm winning, and I want to make sure he has no answer to a Yawgmoth's Will so I Mind Twist him. Normally, that would have been THE play but it just loses me the game because he is soon able to use those things for Welder, while I had no removal.

Game 2 - I keep him mana light, plow all his Welders, and win with Decree and of course Yawgmoth's Will.

Game 3 - We Tie since he can't kill me in time. He was going hot and heavy for him though.

2-0-1

Round 4 - 20 Counterspells, 4 Phids, 4 Brainstorms, Disk, and B2B.dec

Game 1 - He Ancestrals turn 1, I have no FoW. He Time Walks into an Ophidian, and Force of Wills, Counterspells, Stifles, AND Mana Drain's me to hell.

Game 2 - He drops a LoA. I see no Wastelands until he's drawn like 8 off it.

I was actually pretty pissed about this match. Not because it beat me... it really should beat the current Keeper build sans Keeper with Chains, but that a deck like this was in my Bracket. Had we gotten different pairings, he would have had to played one of the 2 other Slaver builds and got crushed.

2-0-1

Round 5 - A nice guy from Mass with the 2-Stifle Version of my Keeper

Game 1 - He drops LoA, Wastelands my 2 first lands, and then gets a 3rd Waste before I ever get a 3rd land. He draws at least 10 from LoA since I'm just waiting to die with a Sol Ring and a Mox Jet. He Decree's for 4 1/1's. I get beat for a few turns. I finally draw something that makes blue - Cunning Wish for Vamp. At 5 life, I Vamp into a Balance, bringing me to 3 on my upkeep.

I Balance with him with a full hand, expecting to just move to game 2. In all his drawing and tutoring - he doesn't make sure he has at least 1 counterspell. Balance resolves - Mind Twists his hand, kills ALL but 1 of his lands, and wipes out the Tokens.

I recover from there and win with 2 Angels.

Game 2 - He does that LoA thing again, dammit. He makes 2 4/4 Angel Tokens. This time he has 3 counterspells for my Balance with 2 REB back up.

Game 3 - I play faster for time limit, I get out 7 Soldier Tokens. I hit him once, he decrees on his next turn for 3 for blockers. I Fire/Ice two and then Will. I Fire, Time Walk, Draw, and all kinds of good things and kill him.

...but I concede because I had just recently found out that its still another 2 hours before even cutting to Top 8. I'm getting called from my woman and the two guys I'm with already dropped. I decide that with those two things, my medicore record of 3-1-1, 2 DEAD slots in the sideboard (Scepters) and the long ass ride home that I should just leave.

Also, because of losing a WHOLE ROUND, I had to stick through 2 more rounds instead of 1. If it was just 1 more to cut to t8, I would have stayed.

The ride home sucked too. We got lost in the middle of Hartford and the roads were terrible. I didn't get home until near midnight and had I waited for 2 more rounds to see if my potential 5-1-1 could make it to T8. I would have been there all night.

Anyway, here's the list (Scepter is crap, consider it cut):

4 Flooded Strand
2 Volcanic Island
3 Tundra
1 City of Brass
3 Underground Sea
4 Wasteland
1 Island
1 Strip Mine
1 Library of Alexandria

1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl  

4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Brainstorm
3 Cunning Wish

1 Ancestral Recall
1 Fact or Fiction
2 Skeletal Scrying

1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Mind Twist
1 Time Walk

2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Fire/Ice
1 Balance

2 Exalted Angel
2 Decree of Justice
2 Gorilla Shaman

SB: 3 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 1 Swords to Plowshares
SB: 2 Disenchant
SB: 2 Rack and Ruin
SB: 1 Vampiric Tutor
SB: 2 Coffin Purge
SB: 1 Blue Elemental Blast
SB: 1 Gush
SB: 2 Isochron Scepter

Oh one more thing:
I met Ultima and...

[14:23] <Zherbus> during my match
[14:23] <Zherbus> he looks at my hand
[14:23] <Jam[TF]> lol, if i meet you ill say hi and hide
[14:23] <Zherbus> see's a gush
[14:23] <Zherbus> and asks
[14:23] <hi_val> Zherbus, I need to meet you so I can see if they put motorized wheels on the supercomputer
[14:23] <Zherbus> "Did you side that in?"
[14:23] <Jam[TF]> lol
[14:23] <hi_val> HA!
[14:23] <kirdape3> oh, that's enough to get up and pwn someone
[14:23] <Jam[TF]> heh
[14:23] <Zherbus> so now my opponent knows i have sb card in hand

I'm sure he just wasn't thinking or whatever. No harm done.

[Eastman]

I also noticed the sided in Gush (perhaps in a different game), though I'm pretty sure I waited to ask about it later.

Yah Wasteland is the annoying.

I was in the drop/get my money back bracket.

[Kowal]

I'm pretty sure it was in fact me...

But I believe I yelled "Big Z!"

[Ivantheterrible]

Round 4 - 20 Counterspells, 4 Phids, 4 Brainstorms, Disk, and B2B.dec

Game 1 - He Ancestrals turn 1, I have no FoW. He Time Walks into an Ophidian, and Force of Wills, Counterspells, Stifles, AND Mana Drain's me to hell.

Game 2 - He drops a LoA. I see no Wastelands until he's drawn like 8 off it.

I was actually pretty pissed about this match. Not because it beat me... it really should beat the current Keeper build sans Keeper with Chains, but that a deck like this was in my Bracket. Had we gotten different pairings, he would have had to played one of the 2 other Slaver builds and got crushed.

As a slight nitpick I was running 12 straight up counters 2 mis-d and 3 stifle.

Also game two was so much cooler then his descritption and much different. I actually went second and played lotus, sapphire, island sac lotus phid with drain and force back up on my first turn it was broken.

I am a little insulted here. First of all A DECK LIKE THIS IN MY BRACCKET.
What is that this sight always is looking for innovation and I played a fairly new and differnet build of mono blue that i believe has the tools for the current meta. I may not have the perfect deck yet but this is because I have somewhat limited means of testing. I think it can be tuned to beat tog and slaver and all and all against slaver on saturaday I went 5 and  4 against slaver  sweeping slaver round 5.

I also played you because the two other slaver players in the braccket were Bryce Renoalds and Steven Menndiean, I had played Bryce the previous round and  it was really between one of you two steves. I am aware that the other Steve probably would have beat me since I was onyl a little better then 50% 50% agaisnt slaver and Semmenen was probably the best workshop slaver player in attendence.

I feel that Mono Blue can be made into a much better deck it dosent have a lost of  verstiility or flexability in how it playes or its sideboard optiones but it makes up for that in consestincy I think. It has main deck I win bombs in the form of B2b, Disk and of course morphling there is also of course the I have double phid opponet scoops game one situation which occured 2-4 times that day.

I just think that this deck should not be dismissed as bad. the key to innovation and new viable decks is accepting ideas so I ask you Zherbus not to write.  

, but that a deck like this was in my Bracket.

[Zherbus]

The 'how did this get in my bracket' was more of 'how did this get past all the aggro and landstill?' I'm very curious to see how you did before and after my matchup because I have testing varations of BBS and by all theory and testing, it doesn't do too well. Feel free to show how it did, write up what's so different about it (besides a slight nit pick of 17 counters versus my assumed 20), and maybe even some sort of feeling about certain matchups.

What is that this sight always is looking for innovation and I played a fairly new and differnet build of mono blue that i believe has the tools for the current meta

Dude - it's 17 counterspells, Morphling, Ophidians, Back to Basics and Brainstorms. What am I missing about it that's new?

[Jakedasnake]

Aha! Finally, people are using Exalted Angel! I've been toying with that card and have been nothing but impressed with it's skillz. Nice call on the lack of Stifle in the maindeck. I've been dissapointed with it in Keeper for a while.

But seriously, why no Chains in this metagame? Like mentioned, there was tons of Landstill, and Chains makes Standstill a weak threat. Of course, I wasn't there, so I assume there must have been quite a bit of budget aggro?

Nice build.

[Zherbus]

1) Exalted Angel has been used in New England for the better part of a year. It's a logical inclusion for this tournament as most of us playing Keeper used them.

2) Because Chains is bad? It shuts off all my card draw and brainstorms too. Landstill loses Standstills and Ancestral - You lose Ancestral, Scryings, Brainstorms, etc. Landstill isn't even all that hard to beat. The only time I would have needed it was in that BBS matchup... I'll worry about other decks thank you and accept my loss to BBS until it makes more of a presense... which we will not see until Bazaar and Workshop go away.

3) Not really actually, lots of FCG and Oshawa Stompy - hence the Angels. Not that it mattered since my 5 rounds were - combo, control, control (well control slaver), control, and control.

[Jakedasnake]

Well, you obviously wouldn't play Brainstorms or Skeletal Scrying with Chains. I just figured that Eastman's build seemed more tuned to the metagame that I've seen from the reports.

However, I don't live around that area, so this is coming from the outside looking in.

[Phele]

1) Exalted Angel has been used in New England for the better part of a year. It's a logical inclusion for this tournament as most of us playing Keeper used theml.

As I remember, Exalted Angel has been first used on tournament level by Team CAB in sideboard and then main during the Dülmen tournament which was to most parts ignored on TMD.

For me the angel turned out to be also not that bad against control and is so a great tool in Keeper main. I like to use Scryings, CoB and Fetchies without hesitation even against aggro. I won't cut him soon.

What happened to Damping Matrix? I included two main lately and was never unsatisfied with them. They slow the game down long enough, what is exactly what Keeper wants. Yesterday I played a lot against Workshop Slaver, Dragon and Belcher Combo and the little Matrix was nothing else than gamebreaking. The Matrixes are just dead slots in games you should win anyway - exception: FCG.

What changed your mind on scepters, Zherbus? As I remember since Mirrodin came out you were the strongest opponent of Scepters in Keeper. So I was a little surprised to see them in your sideboard anyway.

What about some extra mana speed up with Mox Emerald and/or Mana Crypt to get the Angels out as early as possible? This would of course lead to the problem what to cut: Library of Alexandria and the fourth Wasteland would be the first picks I guess: Not that easy ones - or even inacceptable?

I also remember you saying once that you would never play Humility without a basic plain. Now you have much more white main - even two with double white totaly neccessary - and just exchanged one Volcanic with the City of Brass. Didn't you have problems to unmorph the angle sometimes?

Sorry for your bad experiences with the tournament organisation, but nevertheless: Great Report!

[MaxxMatt]

hi Zherbus. good result as usual!

Reading your report, I didn't noticed any comment about your manabase. So I can argue that it worked well enpough
Have you had some color problems?

I tested the Dulmen build for referencee a weeks ago and it is really effectve for a control-aggro control metagame but,  expecting a lot of Wastes I swapped the 4th Wasteland for the City of Brass, leaving 9 duaks in the maindeck.
Would you like to change some thing about your manabase after having played sucha  huge toruney? maybe adding the last Mox ( going up to 27 mana fonts.. ) to Morph fast and accelerate a bit more or another land ( Academy? ) to have less screw problems?? What do you think about it?


I think that Scepters can be swapped with the Deeps for a control heavy metagame or with MAtrix for a Workshop heavy one...

Seeing Scepters in your side I felt a strange sense of Deejavu'.. Knowing from your report that they didn't convince you at all changed this feeling  a bit..

--------------
---Damping matrix note:
From my test I found that maindeck matrix do nothing that ANY other card can do in the same slot. It is gamebreaking ONLY against Slavery or Mask. After having realized that, I feel adding them in the side is a really poor choice for the actual metagame. They do nothing that a well placed sequence of specific removals will do better... They are usually ignored for the great part of the game and they go in the grave in the turn the opponent decide to get rid of them. useless agaisnt Hulk and useless against Dragon. Sometimes I wish they  will be removals, other coutners, other drawers, other ands and so on...

---Exalted Angel Note
I noticed that a 2 turn Angel can race and win with second turn Verdant force.

---Side note.
I played this side last tourney.

3 ReB ( Control )
2 Purges (Dragon, Madness )
2 R&R ( Workshop )
2 D.A. ( Control )
1 StP ( Aggro )
1 Vamp ( Having in mind that it is in your side is a Great Card )
1 Disenchant ( Workshop )
1 Fire/Ice   ( maybe can became the #2 Disenchant  or the 3th card of one of the 2ofs in this side or a card Drawer )
2 Aura Fracture ( Pillars, Dragon, Blood Moon, BtB, save you from a PoP and so on... )

what do you think?

[LoA]

If I can veer this thread back to Steve's experience...

In re-tooling my Keeper deck in the wake of last weekend, I came up with a roughly similar (6 card difference) build; I think the guiding principle, not new, is "There are no wrong threats, just wrong answers."

Against a Sligh deck I found myself drawing Stifles and wishing they were something--anything--else.

Against Madness I cycled Decree for two--yipee.

Steve, would you say it's fair to say your deck isn't all that dissimilar from some older Keeper decks at least in principle?  Your threats are more robust than x2 Morphling, but the tutor chain seems to be making its way back in the deck.

I'm still running 2 Damping Matrix in the sideboard.  I'm on the edge of cutting them since, while they are really nice sometimes, they are not actually answers, simply stall devices.  Moreover, every Slavery deck will have some access to artifact hate to remove them and there are other spells you want to be countering.  Did you cut them for similar reasons?

[Zherbus]

As I remember, Exalted Angel has been first used on tournament level by Team CAB in sideboard and then main during the Dülmen tournament which was to most parts ignored on TMD.

For me the angel turned out to be also not that bad against control and is so a great tool in Keeper main. I like to use Scryings, CoB and Fetchies without hesitation even against aggro. I won't cut him soon.

Keep in mind that when working on this build for the CT tournament, I worked very closely with Womprax. I had seen Angel used here for a long time, but only now with Big O did I add them.

What happened to Damping Matrix? I included two main lately and was never unsatisfied with them. They slow the game down long enough, what is exactly what Keeper wants. Yesterday I played a lot against Workshop Slaver, Dragon and Belcher Combo and the little Matrix was nothing else than gamebreaking. The Matrixes are just dead slots in games you should win anyway - exception: FCG.

It really isn't that great against Slaver, since it only hits Jar, Welder, and Slaver itself. You absolutely do not need it to beat Dragon, and there is 0 Belcher around here.

What changed your mind on scepters, Zherbus? As I remember since Mirrodin came out you were the strongest opponent of Scepters in Keeper. So I was a little surprised to see them in your sideboard anyway.

My plan was to use them against Aggro and Slaver. It just sucks, just like I've always said. It did me no good, and I won against Scepter Keeper when they had TWO active Scepters out on me.

What about some extra mana speed up with Mox Emerald and/or Mana Crypt to get the Angels out as early as possible? This would of course lead to the problem what to cut: Library of Alexandria and the fourth Wasteland would be the first picks I guess: Not that easy ones - or even inacceptable?

I've kicked that around. I shot down some teammates who brough up Crypt - getting double white for Angel is bigger than getting to 4 mana.

I also remember you saying once that you would never play Humility without a basic plain. Now you have much more white main - even two with double white totaly neccessary - and just exchanged one Volcanic with the City of Brass. Didn't you have problems to unmorph the angle sometimes?

Humility doesn't beat for two when I haven't gotten all my white mana. There has been a few times that I had to wait to flip her over. I just rode her doggy style for a few turns.

hi Zherbus. good result as usual!

Reading your report, I didn't noticed any comment about your manabase. So I can argue that it worked well enpough
Have you had some color problems?

Thanks

Actually, I am very happy with the Manabase.

I think that Scepters can be swapped with the Deeps for a control heavy metagame or with MAtrix for a Workshop heavy one...

Actually - I just dropped em for a 4th REB and another Shaman.

played this side last tourney.

3 ReB ( Control )
2 Purges (Dragon, Madness )
2 R&R ( Workshop )
2 D.A. ( Control )
1 StP ( Aggro )
1 Vamp ( Having in mind that it is in your side is a Great Card )
1 Disenchant ( Workshop )
1 Fire/Ice ( maybe can became the #2 Disenchant or the 3th card of one of the 2ofs in this side or a card Drawer )
2 Aura Fracture ( Pillars, Dragon, Blood Moon, BtB, save you from a PoP and so on... )

Well, I can't say I loved the Deep Anals when I ran them...

The Aura Fractures look cool, but especially this weekend I could have used it once... and a REB would have done the same thing for me.

Steve, would you say it's fair to say your deck isn't all that dissimilar from some older Keeper decks at least in principle? Your threats are more robust than x2 Morphling, but the tutor chain seems to be making its way back in the deck.

Interesting you brought that up. The Keeper play of the day was likely Cunning Wish > Vamp. Tutor > Something Evil...

I'm still running 2 Damping Matrix in the sideboard. I'm on the edge of cutting them since, while they are really nice sometimes, they are not actually answers, simply stall devices. Moreover, every Slavery deck will have some access to artifact hate to remove them and there are other spells you want to be countering. Did you cut them for similar reasons?

Exactly!

Well, what I did was add a 3rd Shaman. I think Shaman is easily the best card against Slaver. Rack and Ruin as a pair is, of course, manditory too for those pesky guilded lotus.

[DEA]

---Exalted Angel Note
I noticed that a 2 turn Angel can race and win with second turn Verdant force.

wow, if you go first you can race for the turn 6 kill
very cool

[Eastman]

Although against aggro that isn't bad. In the damage race Angel puts up 8 points, if that wasn't already obvious. That's why she beats the verdant force if she swings first.

[DEA]

yeah, but that's only if the verdant force player doesn't manage to poop out another 2 points of dmg on turn 5
that's why i was doing the math

[Ultima]

Goodness, I apologize.  I really didn't think it'd matter because it looked like you had a full grip anyway and you weren't gonna see anymore trouble in that game. I mean you won in the next turn.

I was in real shock that I saw that because the last time I talked you about your Keeper here was about gush in the SB and I remembered you saying it wasn't all that good and you cut it.  I was just very suprised to see that.

And I had no idea who the rest of those people were except Steve and Ben that was around you at the time.

Anyway, it was nice to finally meet you over there.

[jpmeyer]

Wait...

Angel comes out
Verdant Force comes out
Verdant Force gets a token, Angel attacks (them 16, you 24)
Verdant Force gets a token, Verdant Force and a man attacks (them 16, you 16)
Verdant Force gets a token, Angel attacks (them 12, you 20)
Verdant Force gets a token, Verdant Force and 3 men attack (them 12, you 10)
Verdant Force gets a token, Angel attacks (them 8, you 14)
Verdant Force gets a token, Verdant Force and 5 men attack (them 8, you 2)
Verdant Force gets a token, Angel attacks (them 4, you 6)
Verdant Force gets a token, Verdant Force and 7 men attack (them 4, you splat)

[DEA]

oops

[MaxxMatt]

good work JP, Eastman forgot about the tokens ( me too... ) and I would have assumed that me and the other player would have had the possibility "to do something" enlse than tapping our creatures.       . so a control deck with a finisher in play usually  can control  his life points better than a Reanimator/Dragon deck .


---Note: Card Drawer in the side.
Having added another Wish to his maindeck, I think that Zherbus ( correct me if I'm wrong ) want the capability to escape with it from a "Topdecking Situation".

With 2 Skeletal maindeck, I usually can be able to do this thing:
-Resolve Skeletal for  X,
-Remove Ancestral,
-use the 3rd Wish for it at some point ( if needed )
( you can substitue the word "Skeletal" with the word "Y.Will" to have the same situation in a later game scenario.. but usually there isn't any need for other cards after it .. )

Gush function in a similar way, but you can improve some matchups by adding another REAL drawer after siding. I think that the 2/3 D.A. plan, after side, can get an edge over the "Wish-->Gush's" one

On the other hand its land protection ability can be considered really huge in the right field. Gush let you active LoA faster than any other spell for the mana used to resolve it