Top 8 from Chicago, 7/10 is at it again

[Into The Silence]

A buddy of mine rode up with me to Chicago for a little type 1 action.  Its only a two hour drive, which isn't too bad, but it poured the entire way there.

We arrive at the Gaming Depot 30 minutes early.  We take a look around and see some Tog decks as well as Shop Slaver.  I brought 7/10 Split after doing well with it last week in Milwaukee.  Made a few changes, the most notable one being the removal of black.  This made for a smoother mana base.  Here's the list:

3 Sundering Titan
2 Triskelion
2 Memnarch
1 Platinum Angel
4 Goblin Welder

4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Timetwister
1 Memory Jar
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Tinker

4 Chalice of the Void
4 Force of Will

4 Mishra’s Workshop
2 Glimmervoid
2 City of Brass
2 Ancient Tomb
4 Shivan Reef
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus
5 Moxen
3 Gilded Lotus

Sideboard

2 Duplicant
1 Viashino heretic
2 Rack and Ruin
3 Blue Elemental Blast
4 Trinisphere
3 Tormod’s Crypt

I belive there was a turnout of 21 people with the prizes being: Workshop, Mask, and a Foil Vamp. for 3rd.

I lost my notes and will just mention what I played against in the 5 rounds of swiss.

round 1-Fish:               2-0
round 2-U/G Madness:  2-0
round 3-Spoils Mask:    2-0
round 4-Tog (4 color):  Draw
round 5-Keeper:          Draw

the top 8 was:
Tog (4 color)
Tog (4 color)
Tog (3 color)
Keeper (Decree/Matrix)
Combo Keeper
Keeper (2 Decree, 2 Exalted)
7/10 Split
Fish

So somehow after seeing all those other artifact decks 7/10 is the only one to make top 8.

top 8 I play against my friend who rode up with me who is playing Matrix Keeper

game 1: I die to my freaking mana crypt

game 2: I run out of gas, play draw go a few turns, at 3 life from my crypt (again!) rip Twister off the top.  Cast it, he Rebs and I have the Beb.  Off the Twister I have enough mana to play down 2 Titans.  So this game all comes down to the coin flip, I win the flip and win.

game 3: I get going quickly and shortly have out a Titan and Welder.  He is going to die next turn, but of course rips Balance off the top.  I lose all my land and have 1 card in hand.  My opponent is at 2 life, I draw a Brainstorm and play a Welder with artifact mana I have.  At this point I think I have the game when he is able to decree for 1 to block my welder.  He uses a fetch to put him at 1.  A few turns go by and I play a Trikelion, he drains.  On his turn he Cunning Wishes for Fact or Fiction, I split the piles so he has to take a lone brainstorm in an attempt to use the last mana... and finds nothing. He shows me the Yag. Will in his hand that he cannot play. Whew.

top 4: Keeper (2 Exalted 2 Decree)

game 1: He opens with Library, I play Ancestral, then a Thirst, he plays Yag. Will with Force backup.  I have 2 Forces.  Next turn I play Titan.  Titan gets swords and I have a Memnarch which steals his library next turn.

game 2: I keep a hand with 2 shops, and Memory Jar.  He plays a few wastes.  My Jar is countered and an Exalted cleans up.

game 3: I open with Mana Vault and Chalice for 0.  I have plenty of land in my hand and a Memnarch.  He plays land go for a few turns and countered my Memnarch.  At this point I think its over.  I topdeck a Triskelion which resolves.  He Cunning Wishes for a Rack and Ruin.  I topdeck a Titan, attack with Trisk, which gets killed by R & R.  He has two mana open.  I play my Titan expecting to walk it right into Mana Drain... and it resolves killing 4 of his land leaving him with a Strip Mine.

the other top 4 matchup is Combo Keeper vs. 4 color Tog.  They are about to start game 3 when one of the players says he has to be to work at 9pm.  We figure out a split that includes me giving away a Morphling and Troll Acestic so I get the Workshop and he gets the Illisionary Mask.

The 3rd place player was going to get the Foil Vamp tutor.  This was done by seeing who was higher ranked at the end of the swiss out of the top 4 that didn't advance.

I must say that I am quite happy with how the decks plays.  In the past month and a half I have played in 3 tournaments and top 4'ed in all of them.  Two of the tournaments I walked away with Workshops.  All of the tournaments were played in highly powered metagames that both allowed proxies.

I'm just curious as to why no one else is posting results with this deck.  The Force of Wills seems to make a HUGE difference for me.  Adding them in has not caused any consistancy problems and the mana base has been great.

[Prism]

good stuff, good to see 7/10 doing well. i just had some questions:

The Force of Wills seems to make a HUGE difference for me.  Adding them in has not caused any consistancy problems and the mana base has been great.

so, were the forces worth sacrificing the brokenness of will? i remember that the creators of the deck said the forces seemed to slow the deck down, as well.

also, how was the creature base? was the angel worth it? pentavus seems too good not to include in this deck also.

[Roxas]

I was the U/g he beat in the second round, and Force of Will was a major reason he won.  It seems to fit quite well i think

[Dante]

Out of the 21 or 25 people the breakdown was approximately:

2 7/10
~ 3-4 slaver (drain and workshop)
~2 U/g Madness
1 Germbus
1 Matrix keeper
1 Combo Keeper
1 mono-black mask
2 TnT
1 2-land belcher
2-3 Fish
~4-5 Hulk (mostly 4c but 1 3c with strips)

I had the other 7/10, went 1-2 and dropped to go play $10-20 hold em (which I won $510 at).  

my QnD report:

round 1 - drain slaver - I just do more broken things game 1.  Game 2, I have an active welder, good stuff in yard, but no artifacts.  I topdeck and play chalice for 0, which he allows.  I welder and win.  He wants to go back and counter the Chalice but I won't let him.  1-0

Round 2 - Germbus (mattdog).  Both games he is literally one turn ahead of me.  Game 1 I misplayed my opening hand though.  That's what happens when you have a hangover kids, you don't think clearly.   1-1

Round 3 - 2-land Belcher.  He wins the die roll and mulls to 6.  I mull to try and find a chalice and do.  He goes turn 1 belcher, I go turn 1 chalice for 1 and chalice for 0 (I didn't have enough for chalice for 2).  next turn he casts land grant and wins turn 3.  My turn 3 I would have resolved a titan and wiped his lands.  Game 2 I mull into ancient tomb, mox, trinisphere, ancestral, trinisphere, and something.  I play turn 1 sphere, he scoops.  Game 3, he mulls to 6.  I try to find a hand that includes a chalice, trinisphere, or anything castable in turns 1-2.  My 7-card hand doesn't have it, nor do my 6, 5, or 4 card hand.  I go to 3.  Get a brainstorm, land, and something so I keep.  He gets turn 1 belcher, turn 2 belcher for 40.

Bill

[EviL_EGG]

nice decklist, but are the FoW really that effective in the deck?

[Into The Silence]

Prism to answer your questions:

I didnt think that it was worth janking up the mana base any more just for Will.  I think the added consistancy without black makes the deck run much smoother.

When I first tested 7/10 Split it felt like I would just lose to cards that I couldn't do anything about.  Force of Wills stop the threats that I think that I cannot deal with at the time.

Pentavus!?!?!? Are you kidding?  This deck is not Slaver.  The moxen and chalice provide plenty enough Weldable targets.

Angel helps the combo matchup as well as any random situation were you are in a defensive situation.  Not being able to lose certainly helps.

The only thing that I can really say is to test out the deck, run Force and then try it without.

Brian

[Razvan]

Pentavus!?!?!? Are you kidding? This deck is not Slaver. The moxen and chalice provide plenty enough Weldable targets.

Pentavus is there for more than just weldering targets. It's a fine creature that can work offense and defense. Like a Morphling.

And you can "cast" it one turn earlier.

I think that every deck should use at least 1 Pentavus.

[Lord of Water]

Hard Lock Cafe wants its pentavus back, especially when I find myself with Tinkers and Demonic Tutors in hand. Karn and Angel are such empty answers to Fish and Madness!

[Lost In Admiration]

I was the buddy of his that rode up with him to Chicago for a little type 1 action.  I played Matrix Keeper.  On the ride up I was thinking "Hay guyz this metagame is going be just like Milwaukee!1!."  I found out, upon looking around the room, that I wasn't the only control deck but rather in a sea of Mana Drains.  At that point, I didn't have time to shove in angels and good cards so I was stuck with this:

Matrix Keeper
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
3 Cunning Wish
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Future Sight (I won't give up on this card!!!!!!)
1 Fire/Ice

2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Balance
3 Decree of Justice
1 Humility

1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Mind Twist
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Skeletal Scrying

2 Damping Matrix

4 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island
3 Wasteland
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Strip Mine
1 Island
6 Moxen, Lotus, Sol Ring

Sideboard
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Accumulated Knowledge (the only change I made in time after seeing 4 Tog decks)
1 Fire/Ice
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Stifle
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Rack and/or Ruin

Brief Report

Round 1 vs Tom with Standstill Inflitrator.dec
I start getting utterly owned.  It starts with me Mind Twisting his hand, him Mis-Ding, me Forcing, him Forcing, me getting it stuck in me. The next turn or so he lays an Inflitrator and proceeds to hit me TEN times with it under a Standstill.  How did I win?  He chose to not draw cards a few times (?????????) despite his relatively decent deck size.  I amass a hand.  At the end of his turn I cycle a Decree.  He breaks his own Standstill to Stifle.  I let him, untap, play Future Sight.  He reads the card and says "Okay *loud sigh*" At that point I had FS and Yawgamoth's Will among other cards.  I shouldn't have won this game.

The next game he proceeds to lay down a Standstill after giving me Mana Drain mana. I declare "SUUUUUUUURRRRRRAAAHHH" and proceed to kick his face in with soldier tokens.

After the game I say "It looks like the Standstill helps me more than you in this matchup."  He says something to the effect of "I didn't draw something blah blah." I smile knowing he had ten cards left in his deck when I beat him game one.

Overall he was a good guy and this match was quite interesting.

Round 2 vs Aaron with Tog
Game one I draw a truckload and a half of mana.
Game two he mulls down to five.
Game three was really close.  There's not a lot to say other than AK was a house for me.

This was a pretty intense match against a competent player.

Round 3 vs Jason with Fish
We ID to get paired down seeing as there are a small number of 2-0s. I DIDN'T LOSE TO FISH!!!!!11!!1

Round 4 vs Matt (Mattdog) with 4c Angel.
All I remember about this match is me playing like shit and losing hardcore style.  I was hungry as hell (i'm fat) and upset about my poor deck setup.  These were not my best games by any means.

Matt was a pretty cool guy despite saying "pwned" out loud... in real life.

Round 5 vs Jason with Basic Land but no Blood Moon.dec
Both games involved me seeing basic lands (mountains and islands), being scared as hell of Blood Moon, and killing him with an uncounterable win condition.

Top 8 vs Brian Fisher (Into the Silence) with 7-10
Read his report.  Both of us get owned by coin flips. I mana burn. I love magic.

So Fisher wins his second tourney in two weeks.  What's that I hear about me winning Milwaukee before that?  TEAM GWS OWNZST THIS REGION and we're coming to a Gencon near you.

Thanks for the all the fun games and good tourneys.  We just need more of a turnout.  Have fun gentlemen!

Mat Endress

[Klep]

I just love it when my opponent's Standstill ends up screwing him.   We need more reports like this so people can get it drummed into their heads just how bad that card is.

[Lost In Admiration]

It was okay to see the Standstill own him the first game, seeing as he didn't know I was playing Decree.  But game two as well...?

[nether__void]

What's that I hear about me winning Milwaukee before that?

You mean splitting 1st?

In all seriousness, it has been a pleasure to play against both you and Brian.  The T1 scene here in Milwaukee is still maturing, so I'm always happy to see some other long-time T1 players make the drive.

[mask]

Round 1 vs Tom with Standstill Inflitrator.dec
I start getting utterly owned.  It starts with me Mind Twisting his hand, him Mis-Ding, me Forcing, him Forcing, me getting it stuck in me. The next turn or so he lays an Inflitrator and proceeds to hit me TEN times with it under a Standstill.  How did I win?  He chose to not draw cards a few times (?????????) despite his relatively decent deck size.  I amass a hand.  At the end of his turn I cycle a Decree.  He breaks his own Standstill to Stifle.  I let him, untap, play Future Sight.  He reads the card and says "Okay *loud sigh*" At that point I had FS and Yawgamoth's Will among other cards.  I shouldn't have won this game.

The next game he proceeds to lay down a Standstill after giving me Mana Drain mana. I declare "SUUUUUUUURRRRRRAAAHHH" and proceed to kick his face in with soldier tokens.

After the game I say "It looks like the Standstill helps me more than you in this matchup."  He says something to the effect of "I didn't draw something blah blah." I smile knowing he had ten cards left in his deck when I beat him game one.

Overall he was a good guy and this match was quite interesting.

Round 3 vs Jason with Fish
We ID to get paired down seeing as there are a small number of 2-0s. I DIDN'T LOSE TO FISH!!!!!11!!1

Thomas misplayed on his part through that stack, but he learned =P Afterwards on our drive home he was commenting even though he lost he said the match was incredible =)

Next time i won;t ID in third round =)

[Lost In Admiration]

@ nether__void
Split...win...who cares?    We're enjoying Milwaukee a great deal.  I hope it gains popularity and becomes HUGE.  I could go for that.

@ Mask
I'm glad he enjoyed the match as well.  It was an incredibly close match and I'm sure I made plenty of errors as well.

@ Everyone
Thanks for good matches and times.  We'll see you guys at the next tourney.

[nether__void]

@ Lost In Admiration

You probably had a bit of an advantage in the matchup anyways.  You had some savage draws against me during our pre-T8 match.  Humility just haunted me...  


There really is some potential for T1 in Milwaukee.  I'd like to see some type of event for the folks who are interested, but are not familiar with T1 - something along the lines of an "everything you wanted to know about T1 but were afraid to ask."

It could be a deck clinic, common rules overview, and general Q&A to generate interest and swing some of the T2 and Extended folks over to T1.  With all of the proxies you're allotted, T1 is affordable for these folks to get involved and compete.

I don't know if that's something that interests any of the Chicago folks, but I think that the quality of the event would definitely be improved by your attendance.  Something to chew on at the very least...

 

[DavidHernandez]

I'm curious: why aren't your running Tolarian Academy?

dave.

[Razvan]

I'm curious: why aren't your running Tolarian Academy?

Can't talk for the other poster, but in my case...

A lot of times, Tolarian Academy is simply a bomb that tears the game wide open. A lot of other times, I just wished it was either an Island (for invulnerability to Wasteland and stuff), or a Shivan Reef, to make Red.

Occasionally, I put in Ancient Tomb, to guarantee 2 mana from the land.

I think that either configuration has their pros and cons, it just depends on the environment, I guess. Academy can be bad in a true control setting.

[Lost In Admiration]

In the newest verision he cut one of the Cities of Brass for the Academy.  So he is playing it.  Most of the time the risk of waste is worth the huge mana boost.  Just in the recent top four game three Academy spit out a turn one Titan.

[DavidHernandez]

Yeah, that makes more sense to me since EVERY land in the deck is a Wasteland target.  You might as well get the huge mana boost while saving one of your Workshops from land destruction...

Dave.

[Laertes]

4 Mishra’s Workshop
2 Glimmervoid
2 City of Brass
2 Ancient Tomb
4 Shivan Reef
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus
5 Moxen
3 Gilded Lotus

Why no volcanic islands?  You seem to have acces to any card you need (p9).  Is there a tactical / SB element of 7/10  I'm missing?

[Jebus]

Why no volcanic islands?  You seem to have acces to any card you need (p9).  Is there a tactical / SB element of 7/10  I'm missing?

So you don't blow up your own lands with the Titan.

[darkchild]

The reason why there are no volcanic islands is because you do not want to nuke them with your own titans , therefore all your lands are non basic and cannot be nuked.