[Report] Hadley Mass 4/17 NM Emerald Keeper goes undefeated

[Matrix]

Yesterday I made the trip up to Hadley Massachusetts for the Mox Emerald tournament.

     I originally hadn't planned to post a report. However, with the feeling in the air that the open forums could be coming to an end due to lack of quality, myself having 2 weeks left to post on here due to the AOL bannings, and possible insight that could come from this report I decided to give it another shot.

                       Metasmash Keeper.dec (5 quelor (quality) control)  also known as Thirsty Keeper (TKO)

   This deck is not a "fun deck", despite the large amount of seemingly fun decks that appeared in the meta yesterday. It is a metagamed version of Keeper which is subject to weekly change, and is my serious approach to winning games of Magic.  It is fun to play and was designed to be able to beat Hulksmash, while still being able to hold down its strengths in the areas of removal for the rest of the metagame. Unfortunately, I saw no Hulk yesterday.

 Up until recently I had played Keeper alot differently, but usually made week to week metagame changes.  Then I went with alot of strange cards like Humility and Standstill. The theory being it already had Decree, why not maindeck the enchantment that makes them all 1/1s and hates basically the entire meta. What the deck once was had to take a bad hit to Landstill and Fish by moving the 4 wastes to the board and replacing them with some draw.  Humility is usually not too hot against Landstill and Fish anyway. Wasteland was no longer necessary vrs dragon because a Humility drop most often times will seal a game vrs Dragon.  This also opened up a new window for me, which was the ability to run green.  And finally with that came the best board sweeper in the game, Pernicious Deed.

 I find when playing this deck often times a game will be won due to an extreme amount of cards coming in post board sometimes even as many as 10 plus. Yesterday I think it happened twice.  However, after S/B I believe the deck can become antithetical to 99% of the strong part of the meta.  It can match up card for card to pretty much every deck after that first game. That means zero dead cards after game 1.  This is big because Keeper can run all the broken cards.  

  Which brings up Hulk.  Hulk can be a tough matchup because Hulk goes broken too.  A few weeks ago before I made this deck, I was testing out Hulk and Gro to see if I wanted to give up Keeper and go to the Darkside.    Testing out other decks isn't something I usually do, but I did and noticed Hulk doesn't win as much on a percentage basis (in my experiences with it) vrs the rest of the meta.  Its lack of removal is probably the reason for this.  This deck doesn't struggle nearly as much as Hulk does vrs Eba Slaver Gro Prison ect..  So I wonder why awhile back I heard some folks saying Hulk is more well rounded.  Sorry people, you know who you are, and I think you're crazy. It's my opinion that Hulk is more topheavy and Keeper is more well rounded.  That's the way I see the decks design comparisons.  Keeper is designed to be more well rounded to the meta, and Tog is desigend to do its own thing and combo out quickly.  They are both very strong. Personally I moreso fear a Keeper Version that runs antithetical to mine more than I do a Tog matchup, not to say that there aren't matches I don't fear and that Tog isn't one of them. Or that Tog or any deck for that matter isn't everytime a potential loss no matter what deck you're running. With that all being said, here is the list I played in Hadley...


 1 Yawgmoth's Will
 1 Demonic Tutor
 2 Humility
 2 Decree of Justice
 3 Swords to Plowshares
 1 Ancestral Recall
 1 Time Walk
 1 Standstill
 1 Misdirection
 1 Fire/Ice
 2 Stifle
 2 Cunning Wish
 2 Thirst for Knowledge
 3 Brainstorm
 4 Accumulated Knowledge
 4 Mana Drain
 4 Force of Will
 1 Pernicious Deed
 1 Isochron Scepter
 1 Sol Ring
 1 Black Lotus
 1 Mox Sapphire
 1 Mox Jet
 1 Mox Ruby
 1 Mox Emerald
 1 Mox Pearl
 1 Library of Alexandria
 1 Strip Mine
 2 Polluted Delta
 2 Flooded Strand
 2 Tropical Island
 2 Underground Sea
 2 Volcanic Island
 4 Tundra
 

                                                                      S/B
                                                                   1 Skeletal Scrying
                                                                   1 Pernicious Deed
                                                                   1 Swords to Plowshares
                                                                   3 Disenchant
                                                                   1 Blue Elemental Blast
                                                                   1 Fire/Ice
                                                                   1 Pyroblast
                                                                   2 Red Elemental Blast
                                                                   4 Wasteland




*** Round 1 vrs Dan R (Pernicious Dude) with U/R Fish***
 Game 1

   I choose to play and drop Sea, Sapphire, Sol Ring, Scepter imprinting Brainstorm. I thought about putting a Plow on it, but it doesnt matter when null rod hits on turn 3 and little dudes beat me to death.

 Game 2

   I waive my right to draw first, and drop a scepter with AK on the second turn.  I get to another AK after I use the one I was still holding, and Disenchant the Null Rod for the scoop.

 Game 3

  We played a little while wasting each others lands away and me killing the creatures he dropped.  I see the first Standstill of the day when time gets called.  On eot I Ancestral,  and he does one thats free, then he casts one that costs 1 blue and I Misdirect it.  He Forces, I Drain,  and I draw 6 cards then Brainstorm, Untap, draw another card, make 5  4/4s  set the dice to 2        1-0-0

***Round 2 vrs Loren H with Ninja Mask***

 Game 1

   Too much artifact and enchantment business going on for me to hold off  *note to self* play Rack and Ruin.

 Game 2

  I Yawg Will early with walk in the yard.  On my 2nd extra turn I cast Humility and shockingly enough he has a Force of Will up his sleeve.  I manage to recover by using the removal on his survivals and making Standstill and deed worth their weight. I find the other Humility and beat down with an outfit of 1/1 guys.

 Game 3

  I do something only I'm stupid enough to do and make 1 less angel than  I should have when time gets called.  His 16 looked like a 19.
 ** note to self**  you suck self,  sleep is a good thing,   keep track of opponents life totals,  try to forgive thy self     1-0-1


*** Round 3 Vrs Kowal with Broodstar Runner***

  Game 1

  He gets double welder slaver lockdown on turn 2.  He looks at Scepter Fire Ice Drain Land Ak, my que to scoop.

 Game 2

  I keep welders off the board and Humility does the trick.

 Game 3

 See game 2.  Stifle happened win this game.        2-0-1


***Round 4 vrs Ray (Iamfishman) with Stasis***

*Ray always kicks my ass.  I tell him that I am wearing the very shades worn by Adam Bowers when he won Hadley with Oshawa Stompy and will do everything in my power to stop a 3peat from happening*

 Game 1

  Ray kicks my ass as usual using all frustrating blue spells, half which I was not familar with.

 Game 2

  He forces the B2B issue early, but I survive with a few Moxes and scepter imprinting Pyroblast. He later tells me he could've stopped the scepter, but knowing that Ray could have and didnt kick my ass that game is slightly better than loseing I guess .

 Game 3

 We run out of time before either of us can find a win condition. I feel I was closer to it than he was so I guess it negates my feelings about hoplessness and game 2         2-0-2


***Round 5 vrs someone playing Foodchain "Combo" goblins**

 Game 1

  He gets me down to 2 before Humility shuts off his hopes.  He tries to cast 4 in a row after that, but I wish for Fire/Ice and use the plowstick I have on the table and the one in my hand to keep them at bay before cycling soldiers.

 Game 2

  He gets nothing in the first 2 turns and I get Humility turn 3. Soldiers prevail.      3-0-2  
         

   **Top 8**
*** Quarterfinals Round Vrs Dave with Mono Brown***
 
 Game 1

 I get beat down by Mono Brown quickly.

 Game 2

 Nothing exciting happens except after 2 wastes hit me I drop Loa turn 3 and no more wastes were seen.  I win from Loa and removal.

 Game 3  

 I waste early a few times and that seals the deal, as he was land light, I gain advantage through draw spells, he scoops.

***Semifinals vrs Steve H (Grand Inquisitor) with Dragon***


 Game 1

 I play a Tundra then say go
 He plays Bazzar, uses it, and puts a dragon in the yard, drops a lotus and animates. I plow, and none of his remaining cards were Force of Will.  This seals the deal.

Game 2

 He doesn't develop as quickly as he needs to and doesnt find enough squee action when Humility hits, causing me to win.   He dug so hard with Bazzar that the random non Magic player next to me asked if my deck was designed to deck the opponent. (Although I didn't see Laquatus)  I laugh and say  no..  his was though  I think.
 
***Finals With Jeff Anand (Samite Healer) playing Highlander***

  We decide to split.  Me taking the Emerald (last Mox I needed) and unltd Trop, and me giving him a workshop.  We agreed to play it out in Waterbury for those interested in the Humility Highlander Matchup.  I just wasn't comfortable with the idea of random things possibly taking away my already secure winnings.  I had no idea what he was playing but knew that it ran one of alot of cards and was like Keeper.  

  This tournament was awesome.  It's ashame more people didn't show up.
 
 For anyone who wants to netdeck my deck you have my blessing. Net it up, hate it out, tweak it out, study it, dis it, or do whatever you want to it. It's here now for the meta and is also open for discussion with me on this thread if anyone has any questions.    

                                                              Peace    --Matrix--

[Ultima]

Good job buddy.  

Its interesting that you use alot of 1-ofs.  Such as 1 standstill and 1 scepter.  As a matter of fact, that scepter must love the hell out of you judging from your report.  Many games where you saw and played that guy real early.  Interesting.

Do the 1-ofs really pull their weight?  Is humility that good to warrant its obvious difficulty in casting?

[ill_Dawg]

Glad to see you finally take one.  Too bad I wasn't there. . .

-=ADAM=-

[Grand Inquisitor]

Congrats Dan, and thanks for the ass-kicking in the T4.  I called you out with the first turn animate, and you appropriately smashed me in the face.

@Bowers, I registered my deck as 'Return of the iLL'.

[MadManiac21]

@Matrix: Great job yesterday. Watching that turn between you and dan with the ancestral > break standstill >ancestral in response >misD >force >drain was awesome. I find   your deck intriguing, and I've seen you stick by it repeatedly. Nice showing.

@Ill: Hows the weather out there in poland dude? We miss your hoes back home (

@GI: Yea you played with blue cards alright...I still liked my red version I was playing earlier (Living hive and spirit of the night!?!?!one!!!).

Did you find yourself wishing to have more than just one scepter MD, or did it show up enough to not matter? Having wastelands in the board is also major tech. Did thirst really carry its weight on saturday? Did you find youself discarding two more often than pitching a moxen? Hope to hear back from you on this.

[OPColby]

Alot of 1-ofs provide an extreme amount of versatility.

While you sacrifice consistency for versatility, if you're playing against alot of different decks (and not simply all Tog, Stompy, Sligh, or Landstill,) Versatility is often the way to go.

The first world champion used a deck that only had 1 Mana Drain in it, for example.  Many of us today would think this crazy.  However, it went the distance and nearly blew out all those 4-of decks.

A deck with a high amount of consistency will play nearly the exact same way every single time.  I.E., I'll take Landstill for an example.

The deck that is shown above, however, can meet the threat of Landstill while producing numerous different kinds of threats itself.  It can win via DoJ, countermagic, etc etc.  It can also lose to a straight-deck by not having enough creature-stoppers to shut down Aggro (which is a good thing that you have TWO humility in there,) or not being able to stop a deck like Landstill because cards like StP become absolutely useless if your landstill opponent is running Responses, and they need to be brainstormed away.

The 1 Scepter is cool.

Furthermore, in a deck like this, your opponent has no idea what you're going to do from game to game.  It provides a high amount of, "Whoa, you're running that?"  For control, it's a burden, because you don't exactly know what to counter all the time, and you don't know what to let through.  Of course cards like Yawg's Will, Humility, Ancestral Recall, etc, will always be countered or misdirected, you don't really know what else to do.

I would assume the hardest matchup for this deck would be straight aggro (or mask).  Although he's running 2 humility, they've gotta be somewhat hard to find if you don't get a tutor or massive card-drawing engine going.

[OPColby]

Also, if you wouldn't mind:  Would you mind elaborating on what was in the stasis deck that beat you?  I've been looking to perhaps start up a stasis deck.  Some 'weird' cards to look at would be helpful.

[Meddling Mike]

Jeff Anand whom Matrix split with in the finals was deemed four color control highlander keeper, Jeff managed to walk away with a workshop playing a deck with one FoW and one Mana Drain. I was personally awe struck.

[Purple Hat]

yeah, I was a little surprised by the highlander deck doing so well, but Jeff played very well.  I played him in the swiss and in the top eight.  GAT loved me like no other.  ask jeff, at one point I FoF'd into FoW, FoW, FoW, land, land.  but then I played like an idiot and lost anyway.  it was a fun tournament though.  I'd never been to hadley before.  I swear I'm not as bad a player as I made myself look like.

good job matrix, 15 and a workshop for an emerald and a trop+ a full day of entertainment is a damn good deal.

[Moxlotus]

Are the deeds (which I question in the first place) worth fucking up your mana base and removing your wastes for?  And only 23 mana sources i count?  Are Thirsts holding good?  Why only 3 Brainstorms?  Sorry for the numerous questions, it's just that this deck is very different from others posted.

[theorigamist]

Is there anything that can be done to the maindeck so you don't autolose game 1 to anything not combo?  (Or, an alternate question, was it a fluke that, in this tournament, you lost game one to everything besides combo?)

[Matrix]

Thanks to all for the congrats.
 
  To shed some light on a few questions. The one ofs were great for me.  My least favorite is deed, and that should have some explanation in itself. I've had first turn deed happen in recent testing, but I consider it a 4th turn card at best for feeling that I should be able to cast it by then, and that's if it comes up. With two in, I expect to see at least one per game. It's perhaps even necessary to keep the decks weaker matchups still within its grasp.  Misd was a metagame choice I made the night before in place of the 4th main plow. Im very happy I played the Misd that day.  Humility has been really solid for me and seems to win me the game half of the time.  With the major amount of draw, I think many would be surprised how often it turns up before its too late. With 8 artifacts, the thirsts have also been great.  Since Saturday I've even considered bumping it back up to 3 for the next Tournament. Still unsure. The Scepter has won me games. As embarrassing as this is for me to admit, the scepter was originally a Mana Crypt when I played this thing in CT for the Northeast Championships tourney. I was playing an extra plow, 3rd Stifle, 3rd thirst, 2nd Fire/Ice,  no Ak's, and no deeds. The wastes were in the sideboard.  I did very well there.  Myself and HulkR3les sat at table number 1 after 3 actual rounds.  I was undefeated in games and matches including that round that slipped out the window. I had him down to 3 before our one gamer came to a broken berserking end.  Neither of us got to the Top 8.

Metagameing is important with Keeper. However, I would not say every game with the exact deck I played in Hadley is an autoloss to anything not combo. I think I misjudged the meta slightly that day but it was ok because the board made up for it. Its more complicated than that but also not. Had I known I would not see any Hulk that day the Aks might have been something else. Hulk not being there was a fluke to me. Frankly I'm sick of loseing to Hulk, so I think its a good idea for me to leave Ak and Standstill in. If it means my likely death game one to Landstill to not lose to Hulk all the time, than I'll just get them next game. The theory, I should be able to hold them off until I get my broken stuff going. And finally about the comment of plow being not so hot vrs Landstill.  I personally would board in the 4th. Also the Disenchants, Rebs, and Wastes would come in. Standstill and Stifle (if there is no white ,I'm not sensing Decree, and I can replace it with removal) would probably come out. Stifle is nice to have when Wastelands tap, but I like removal better than something I could hold onto for awhile that may not be useful for 5 or 6 turns. Landstill Drops alot of creatures so removal is very nice and always useful vrs them. I see Waste as a removal tool now, not something to wreck the opponents manabase with. I wouldn't be afraid to pull the AKs for some removal either. I think removal is gold vrs Landstill.  Plow is a sinkhole for 1 white that keeps you alive. The Landstill focus is to kill you with creatures.  I think the more removal you have for these decks(at least when playing this one) the better off you will be and I think draw isn't as good as removal against them. I see it as they are trying to kill me and I'm trying to survive. If the deck is packed with enough removal, the one or two cards I draw per turn can stop them from doing exactly what they're trying to do, unless they cut me off hard. Think of it like this I have twice as much removal to throw at manlands than they have manlands after Game 1. The Ratio turns out to be for every manland they draw I draw 2 answers. Do they want to Stifle my Wasteland or Force my Plow? Probably not.  Game 1 is tough. Game 2 is alot easier to stay alive in. The Major threat to Keeper like decks I run has always seemed to be either brokenness (Keeper or Hulk), artifacts (ones like Mask and Null Rod), or enchantments(Blood Moon, B2B, plenty more) and not so much creatures(however oftentimes their engines). Thanks again to everyone.  Adam man,  I hope you are coming back to NE soon. Just isn't the same without you stomping face in the meta.

[FireFall26]

Yea, the meta was pretty ridiculous..Stasis, highlander, and some other broken decks

[Eaglecaste]

The meta game for that tourny was excellent. I'm sick and tired of net deck tourny's.

Hey top marks for an innovative version of Keeper

[Klep]

The meta game for that tourny was excellent. I'm sick and tired of net deck tourny's.

Hey top marks for an innovative version of Keeper

If you're tired of netdecks, then why do you play competetivelyl?  People who want to win play netdecks because they're better than other decks.  If you don't want to face them, then a tournament is the wrong place to play.

[Eaglecaste]

Hey, if you read the report you''ll see that not all tournaments are dominated by net decks. That's my point. Taking a deck, card for card off the net is a cop out. Personally I find it usefull to be aware of my opponents deck by knowing he's playing a rip off, but it's refreshing when some different cards are thrown into the mix.