[Report] Stacks wins a LoA @ Who's on First

[Zhalfirin]

Like many of my compatriots (fellow Meandeckers and friends at C&J's), I hated seeing Fish doing so well. I hated seing the Type 1 landscape being ruled by 1/1s and creatures whose type were Faerie.  I mean, who loses to Faeries?!?  So, Ken (TMD:KiL0), Brent (TMD:UnstableCornBread), and I conspired to keep Fish from running rampant at the Who's on First (Dublin, CA) Library tournament on July 24th.  We all ran Stax with Crucibles to crush Fish's soul.  Unfortunately, there was not as much Fish in the metagame as we had anticipated, but fortunately the deck was still good against the rest of the field.  Out of 24 participants, the metagame breakdown was approximately:

3 Fish
3 Crucible-Stax
2/3 Dragon
2 U/G Madness
1 Tog (is the toothy monster scared of little fishies?)
1 Control Slaver
1 7/10
1 4cControl
1 FCG
1 Welder Mud
1 Landstill
1 SlapJack
1 Reanimator
1 Sligh
3/4 Other

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Here is what I ran:

1 Sundering Titan
1 Platinum Angel
1 Triskelion
4 Goblin Welder
4 Smokestack
4 Tangle Wire
4 Trinisphere
3 Crucible of Worlds
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Tinker
1 Memory Jar
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Timetwister
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
2 Ancient Tomb
4 Mishra's Workshop
3 Shivan Reef
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland

SB:
4 Rack and Ruin
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Fire/Ice
1 Memnarch
1 Triskelion
1 Platinum Angel
1 Duplicant

I expected a lot of artifacts -- hence, the 4 RnR.  I also ran Chalice for combo, Fire/Ice for Goblins & Fish, and some utility artifact creatures.  I think my decision to have redundancy in my side really paid off.

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Round 1: Brandon with Welder MUD

Game 1: I lose the die roll and he lays Trinisphere.  Unfortunately, I kept Volcanic, Sol Ring and brokenness and fail to topdeck any more mana sources while he lays smokestack and other lock components.  I scoop before he can see what I'm running.

Out: 4 'sphere, 2 Wire, 1 Angel, 1 Titan, 2 Draw7
In: 4 RnR, 1 Trike, 1 Memnarch, 3 Fire/Ice, 1 Duplicant

Game 2: I get the first welder out while he lays wire after wire.  I get Memnarch into the grave via Thirst with wire on the stack.  I then weld in the artifact thief and we're off to game 3.

Game 3: He gets first turn metalworker.  I'm scared for the next turn.  I lay something inconsequential, and luckily for me he can only follow it up with two more workers on turn 2.  I get Crucible/Strip online, find Triskelion, and that's game.


Round 2: Don with Shop Slaver

Game 1: Great, another workshop match.  These are fun!  This game takes forever, but he finds welder before I do and then gets Mindslaver.

Out: 4 'sphere, 3 Wire, 1 Titan, 2 Draw7
In: 4 RnR, 1 Trike, 1 Memnarch, 3 Fire/Ice, 1 Duplicant

Game 2: With little time left, I am playing as fast as possible.  It keeps going back and forth with welder fights, Rack and Ruin, Triskelion, but get angel into play after I have left him with little.  I win on turn 5 of extra turns.


Round 3: David Ochoa with Fish

Game 1: This was the match I was ready to fight.  Unfortunately, I lose the die roll for the third straight match.  He lays volcanic and says go.  I draw Mana crypt which enables my first turn brokenness. Mox, Crypt, workshop, Trinisphere (he forces), Trinisphere (it sticks).  He misses his land drop and says go.  I timetwister, find crucible and strip his land.  He scoops.

Out: Mystical, Jar, Wheel, Twister, Thirst
In: 3 Fire/Ice, 1 Trike, 1 Angel

Game 2: This time, he drops fetch->volc, and shaman.  I play land, vault, sphere (it sticks).  He had mulled to six and wasn't able to find land to do much while I drop land and get angel into play.  After the match, he mumbles something about how sore his ass is.  I don't blame him as he was never in either game.


Round 4: ??? with Reanimator

Game 1: I again lose the die roll.  He casts buried alive and then gets reya into play.  Next turn he gets akroma via reya and swings for 10.  I manage to get platinum angel into play, but he swings and deeds for 7 via YawgWill.

Out: Jar, Wheel, 2 Crucible
In: 4 Chalice

Game 2: I start slowly, and he is threatening to get Molder Slug into play.  I use Jar and find a bizillion artifacts to feed welder and then eat his board with smokestack.

Game 3: He throws back a hand that would have killed me if he had mana on top of his deck (which he did, whew)!  His six are okay.  I chalice for 2 early (almost all his reanimation was 2CC) and he says, "Hmm, I think that might be game."  He drops damping matrix when I have trike on the board, and then plays putrid imp.  I win the damage race when backed by trinisphere.


Round 5: Ken Johnson with Crucible Stax

Story: Ken was 3-0 after round 3, then got paired against Brent (2-0-1) and scooped to him so he and Brent could both get in the the T4 if they both won their final round match.  Unfortunately, Ken got paired against me in the final round of Swiss.  We both knew the winner would make T4 and the loser would not.  Knowing the likely field, Ken felt I had the better chance of winning, so he scooped.  His decision was definitely not wrong!


The top 4 were:

1) Brent with crucible-stax
2) Me with crucible-stax
3) Devin with FCG - report
4) Brian with Dragon - report

Semifinals: Devin with FCG

Game 1: I win the die roll for the first time today!  Actually, this would be the one match I would want to win the die roll in all of the matchups I played if I could choose only one.  Unfortunately, my 7 are Reef, Waste, Tomb, 2 Crucible, Titan, Angel.  I throw it back.  In my 6, I find Workshop and Trinisphere.  I really don't care what the rest are (though it does include a crucible).  I play Shop and Sphere.  Devin lets out a sigh and accepts not doing anything for several turns.  I then draw smokestack.  I am left with a decision to go for gold with Stack, then follow it up with crucible for the win, or play crucible to ensure I have mana.  I assume he won't draw a waste, so I go for the former plan and he doesn't draw waste.

Out: 2 Crucible, 1 Jar, 1 Wheel, 1 Twister
In: 3 Fire/Ice, 1 Trike, 1 Angel

Game 2: He thinks for a really long time about his hand while furrowing his brow.  I can tell he likes something about the hand but dislikes something else.  He keeps it and lays, Mountain, Prospector, Lotus (ack!), Food Chain, sac prospector to FC to play recruiter.  He shows me a bazillion goblins.  I know I'm dead next turn if I don't disrupt him in some way.  I ask him how many cards he has in hand, and he has 2.  I assume his furrowed brow means he has no more mana sources in hand and he is relying on the recruiter as another black lotus via FC.  So I fire him and his dude and pass the turn.  He hides his utter disappointment pretty well.  Unfortunately for him, he passes the turn without playing another mana source and knows he won't draw another mana source for like 20 turns.  Not too surprisingly, he extends the hand when smokestack hits play.  Whew!

Brent loses to Brian after drawing land after land after land after ...


Finals: Brian with Dragon

Game 1: Of course, I go back to losing the die roll.  He mulls to 6.  I keep a shaky hand, but it has ancestral so after some long deliberation, I decide, perhaps incorrectly, to keep.  Unfortunately, he has the duress first turn.  I play land go.  He doesn't have much action for turn 2.  I topdeck mana crypt and drop trinisphere, then I waste his land.  I follow that up with crucible and proceed to lock him.  He scoops.

Out: 1 Jar, 1 Wheel, 1 Trike, 1 Titan
In: 4 Chalice

Game 2:  He drops Land, Mox, Compulsion.  I drop Chalice at 2.  He Compulses and fails to drop a second land.  I lay Crucible and Welder.  He finds another land and passes.  I topdeck Chalice #2 and see I don't have enough mana currently to pay it for 3.  Then I see the lotus in my grave and my active welder!  I weld out crucible and cast Chalice for 3.  He has the Force, but no blue card.  Nothing of interest happens for some time except some welder beatdown.  Eventually, he hardcasts Dragon because he can't find his Hellkite.  I already had Smokestack so I just eat his Dragon the next turn.  He knows the Smokestack/Crucible/Strip Mine/Chalice lock is in force so he scoops up his cards.

Woo Hoo.  My first T1 big prize victory!

Props:
Anna: for being an angel and allowing me to pursue my Magic interests
Brent + Ken: for being awesome teammates.  We killed that metagame!
Jeff Ferreira: for hosting an awesome tourney.  I look forward to the next one
Magic Players: for voting to create a really broken card.
BK (Derek Flores): for testing Food Chain with me
Devin: for scooping to Brent to guarantee his place in the T4

Slops:
Dublin: for being so far away from Mountain View and being really hot on the 24th
Ricky Williams: for abandoning his team and his fans at the height of his career

Moved as requested by author.

Hyperion

[Fishhead]

Nicely done.

How did you settle on 3 Crucibles as the correct number?  Looking over your games, they are mentioned 5 times as winning / being part of the win, which is a fair amount.

Playing Italian Keep3r (which runs 2) I frowned at drawing redundant Crucibles, but in a Stax style deck nothing that is cheap and can be sacced is really wasted.    Is 4 just too many for a card that you only need one of in play?

[Zhalfirin]

Many moons ago, I was discussing deckbuilding theory with somebody.  He told me this heuristic about the number of a card in a deck:

4: You want this in your opening hand.  Multiples are even better.
3: You want this in your opening hand or soon thereafter.  Multiples might suck, but your deck needs the card.
2: You want this card sometime down the road (e.g. 2 Upheaval in old T2 Tog).  Don't expect having it anytime soon.
1: Don't expect this card unless you have a tutor, or, in the T1 case, it's restricted and is just too good not to run (e.g. ancestral).

As you can see, Crucible fell in the 3 category.  I think 4 would definitely be overkill.

[Mon, Goblin Chief]

This is the first Workshop-decklist I really totally like ever. The manacurve is low enough that you don't care about shop, but can still abuse it like hell. Possibly the first decklist I look at, which I don't want to change at least one card in directly thereafter. Congrats on a great deck and the deserved win (even though I have to say I dislike the high amount of intentional scooping a bit).
/edit: Damn assuming some cards to be present and not actually looking for them . Time Walk is a strange exclusion, though I don't see anything I'd want to loose for it :/

[Thug]

This defenitly seems like a good list to me. The only thing that bothers me is the absence of Time Walk. Without maindeck Chalice's I see very little reason not to run the card. It's just too good with Draw-sevens and even a crucible makes it a lot better. Mystical tutor seems like the weakest card in the deck, but then again I always loved it in stacks just because it is Tinker #2.

Another thing is that you don't have any answers to Blood Moon (ok, chalice for 3 is an option I guess....). You probably didn't see them but they do shut down your acceleration, crucible recursion and almost all of your blue mana.

Congrats with the result!

Koen

[Fishhead]

Thug:

Another thing is that you don't have any answers to Blood Moon (ok, chalice for 3 is an option I guess....)....

Smokestack is Stax answer to all permenants.  

[Thug]

Smokestack is Stax answer to all permenants.

Yeah I know, but when your crucible recursion is shut down, you can't play any draw spells anymore and it becomes harder to drop expensive artifacts you'll only have one option left to make sure Smokestack doesn't eat your whole board: Goblin Welder.

And if a deck that just dropped a Blood Moon can't get rid of that Welder before it has to give up Blood Moon it probably deserves to lose (I'm saying this with Urphid in mind btw)

Koen

[CHA1N5]

Smokestack is Stax answer to all permenants.

Yeah I know, but when your crucible recursion is shut down, you can't play any draw spells anymore and it becomes harder to drop expensive artifacts you'll only have one option left to make sure Smokestack doesn't eat your whole board: Goblin Welder.

It's worth noting that Smokestack + Crucible == Crucible Recursion.  You can still recur basic Mountains all day.  Your Blood Moon packing opponent will eventually lose in this scenario, all else being equal.

On a related note:  are people bringing in Blood Moon against $T4KS?  

[Covetous]

I was (and still am) under the impression that Time Walk has generally been taken out of stax because you want to set up ASAP with smokestack/tangle wire, and once that's online time walk is a dead draw.  I mean, if people used to run meditate, and abuse the loss of turn, then maybe the deck doesn't need to take extra turns.  I was wondering about the mystical--once trinisphere is on the table (part of the general gameplan), mystical begins to suck...Two tinkers IS nice, but I wonder if a lone sphere of resistance (filling in for 3sphere #5) might be more helpful.  How did the mystical work for you?

[Zhalfirin]

I agree with you on the Time Walk issue: it is generally at its best on turn one or two.  After that, its usefulness can range from:

1) Draw a card
2) Strip/Waste another land
3) Dead card
4) Extra Welder activation

I won't even include "extra swing" because Stax doesn't win with beatdown.  Frequently, #3 is where Time Walk falls due to counters on Smokestack/Tangle Wire.

As for Mystical, I have liked it a lot.  The gained access to Tinker has been quite useful, especially when I really need Trike, Angel, or (post-board) Memnarch.  I would not rather have Sphere of Resistance in this slot.  I don't think Stax wants SoR in play because it makes all of the Stax player's spells more expensive to play.  The great thing about Trinisphere is that it is basically assymetrical.  Most of the Stax player's spells won't be affected by it (Thirst, Wire, Stack, Jar, Angel, Trike, Titan, Crucible, Tinker, Wheel, Twister, 3Sphere), but it will likely wreak havoc on your opponents game plan.