[Report] GP DC Analysis

[Rick James]

First, the top 8 decks:
1 GAT
2 Hulk
2 Gay/r
1 Landstill/Oath
1 Dragon
1 7/10 Split

PTW won the whole thing with gay/r.

Myself along with the shortbus guys played 7/10 split, a deck we've been working on for the past month. TripleS piloted it to a strong 4th place finish. PTW was going to play it, but had to loan the deck out to a friend at the last minute and took gay/r instead, which turned to be a good decision.

82 players total. That's a large tourney. The metagame was extremely varied: just about every archetype you can think of was present. I think *consistency* was the optimal deck attribute here. In such a large tourney the consistent decks piloted by good players are going to win. The variance inherent in some archetypes, especially workshop decks, proved to be their undoing as they would invariably stall out some of the time, even if highly tuned and played by skilled players. In such a large tourney you are only allowed one loss before you are pretty much out of the top 8, so even if a powerful deck like 7/10 can roll over most opponents, it will not make top 8 if it stalls out more than once (TripleS had ZERO game losses coming into top8, but stalled out in the semis). That leaves zero room for play error since inevitably you will get the ass hand mulligan down to 5 and still have an ancient tomb as your only land. PTW *never* had to mulligan the entire tourney. I was mulliganing on average once every match.

Examining the top 8:
hulk: extremely consistent
gat: extremely consistent
gay/r: extremely consistent
dragon: extremely consistent
landstill: fairly consistent
7/10: inconsistent, but has raw power and explosiveness

As I said earlier, the field was varied and balanced so no single deck was there in extreme numbers. The top 8 is not indicative of the percent of the field comprised by each of the top 8 decks (i.e. the field was not 30% tog).

I really think that the consistency of 6 of the top 8 decks allowed them to perform so well in such a varied environment. Explosiveness and power only allowed one such deck to make it into the top 8.

I really hope this will make people understand that gay/r is a top deck. It always has been. It is not a metagame deck, and never has been. It is consistent, rewards good play, and punishes overextension.

7/10 is a really good deck and I hope the feedback we get will make the deck more consistent and broken.

[Triple_S]

After looking for my notes I believe I only mulliganed 4 times the entire day...unfortunately 3 of those took place in the elimination rounds.  One change I will probably make going forward is making the Shattering Pulse a windfall to allow for more card drawing and brokenness.

[Grand Inquisitor]

I agree that Gay-r is a highly competitive deck, but I wouldn't put it in the same class as Hulk for consistency.  Even PTW will tell you how bad the mana base is.  Also...

and punishes overextension

How can Gay-r punish overextension?  The mana-denial aspect limits your opponents ability to put up threats, but its not like you have nev. disk to real them back in if they get by your defenses.  Care to explain?

[Zherbus]

Thanks for the post, Rick James.



Cocaine is a hell of a drug.

[Triple_S]

Fuck yo couch bitch!

[Rick James]

By overextension I mean the deck's focus rather than a particular play. For instance workshop slaver decks overextend via tons of artifact mana, few lands, and no way to deal with artifacts. So gay/r punishes this with null rod and wasteland.

I suppose overextension is the wrong term, since it implies a "playing tons of perms then getting disked" type of situation. Maybe I should say fish punishes decks that attempt to go "overbroken".

I would put fish below hulk and 7/10, but only just below. I'd certainly consider it a "tier one" deck, top deck, deck that wins lots of tournies, whatever you want to call it. But I don't think it's getting the respect it deserves.

[Thissa]

I'll be posting my 9th place UG Fish report on Starcity

gj PTW!

[Ultima]

I saw a GAT there.  Do happen to know which style or have the lists?

[factorx]

anybody see FCG or play against it there?

[SliverKing]

At least 1 FCG was there, it was being played next to me during round 1,  went off on turn 2 twice.

[gashole]

I was with U/G Madness in the match next to you, SilverKing (I remember the Titans and Loti). I'm positive he went off on turn 3 in game 3, because he had three lands in play, and there was really nothing I could do about it.

I think he went off on turn 3 in game 2 as well...

Me: Green source, Rootwalla
Him: Taiga, Crypt, Food Chain
Me: Land, Mongrel
Him: Nothing of consequence
Me: Swing with Mongrel, pitch 2 Deep Analysis. I flashback a Deep Anal and draw Force of Will with no other blue sources. If I had held back on throwing away the second Deep Anal I could have forced his Recruiter next turn and started dropping Wurms. I feel like I could have won that had I not made that play mistake.

But still, the fact that I, with very little real Vintage experience, took Madness to a 4-2 finish probably speaks something of that deck's awesomeness. That or turn 2 Null Rod just poos all over my opponents all day.

[Triple_S]

And that would be why everyone on the bus all had maindeck Overload or Shattering Pulse  

[Raven Fire]

My 3-4 record shows exactly what happens when a consistent deck like Gay/R is played poorly.
With all those Fish running amuck, I should have played Fro...

[darkmindtone]

anybody see FCG or play against it there?

I played FCG there.  I was doing really good early on beating Hulk, Landstill, and Belcher, but during 4th round I had a deck check and I had an unlisted proxy .  This caused me to lose my first game.  Second game of that round I played and went off second turn, and still had no clue what my opponent was playing.  Didn't sideboard right, and found out third round that it was GAT, and lost.  After that everything went downhill, losing to Gay Fish's Lavamancers, Null Rods, Counters, and Strip Effects, Slavery going Infinite, and a crazy Oath of Druids Triskelion deck that was quite possibly the hardest matchup I've ever played against w/FCG.  I was disappointed, especially w/the deck mixup thingy, as things were looking good up till that point.

[Nimh]

i was the dragon player, i think there was only 2 dragon decks there that day, good job to PTW for beating me down with my own mana vault and his factory while i had him locked out with chalice for 1 and chalice for 2 heh