SWEDISH TOURNAMENTS WITH STRANGEST META GAME EVERDuring the weekend, there were three, non-proxy, type one tournaments in southern Sweden which meant a lokation very close to Denmark and about half the players were from Denmark. Recently, the Danish type one championship was won by a Swede, Kenny Öberg, playing Stax in the top 8. Two other Swedish Stax deck were also there making very good results. The Danish were taken by surprise and one opinion is expressed
here on The Manadrain. Since Stax is a widely played deck in Sweden, many Stax were expected.
The expectations were fulfilled already on the first day. 44 players joined the first tournament and I counted at least 8 Stax but probably there where more. Apart from Stax, the Danish players were really found of GermBus with Crucible of Worlds (CoW) and most of those who didn't play Stax had choosen GermBus instead. Apart from these two decks the meta game was very diverse showing two Rector decks, some Fish, some FCG and a few Hulk Smash. It was a non-proxy tournament, but it was the highest power level I have ever seen. Even the Fish and the FCG decks had at least Lotus and two moxen and there were virtually no random decks.
I was playing on quite ordinary Stax very much like that in the above link but with CoW and two Chalice instead of Spellbombs and Sphere of Resistance in main. I went 4-1-1, I have no good notes from this day. Here is what I met in order:
Stax (1-2)
FCG (2-0)
GermBus (2-1)
Fish (2-0)
Stax (ID)
Landstill (2-1)
In top 8, there were four Stax and in the quarter final I immediately faced the mirror match-up which I lost to the Stax deck which later won the whole tournament. The other top 8 decks were one GroAtog, two GermBus and one Draw 7.
The Staruday tournament gathered 49 cometitors. To the second day, people had learned there lessons, and adding more sideboard against Stax. The most extreme Sideboard I saw was probably:
4 Energy Flux
4 Sacred Ground
3 Ground Seal
It actually helped as I saw at least one Stax running into it and lose. I wasn't playing this day, but what I saw, Stax was still not totally crushed, but neither did a single one reach top 8. Instead it was the day for TPS. Main decking 4 FoW, 4 Duress, 2 Rebuild, 1 Hurkyl's Recall and 1 Chain of Vapor they had very good match-ups against Stax and control which brought both TPS-deck to a mirror match final. Other decks featuring in top eight were two Hulk Smash, three GermBus and one Suicide GAT.
The tournament with the largest price sum was on the last day but yet it attracted the least number of players, only 34 persons. The meta game seemed to have stabilized quite a bit and the meta game breakdown was something like:
7 Stax
6 GermBus
4 TPS
3 Control Slaver
2 Fish
2 Affinity/Modular
1 Hulk Smash
1 7/10 Split
1 Dragon
1 Show and Tell
1 Turbo Land
1 FEB
1 ....
There were a lot of one offs which I cannot all remember. I had changed my deck to contain Gilded Lotus, Memnarch and Transmute Artifact. An old thread on this deck (before it contained CoW) can be found
here. The deck is better in the Stax mirror than ordinary Stax since Memnarch and double Tinkers breaks that match-up totally. Another reason I picked this deck type was all Sacred Grounds which renders Sundering Titan useless and Memnarch can steal CoW. Here is what happened.
Round 1 Magnus Christiansen playing
GermBusA young kid who had borrowed power to play. He won the dice-roll and opted to play. He opened with an Island for which I had Strip Mine. He played a Volcanic and said go. I dropped Workshop and Trinisphere and he scooped after missing two land drops.
1-0
I had no idea what he was playing but I sided out Triskelion and Chalice and sided in two Winter Orb. He begins with land and mox. I drop turn one Gilded Lotus and Crucible which resolves. My CoW gets disenchanted. I play Waste, Trinisphere and Welder and three turn later Magnus was sitting without lands and scooped once more.
2-0
Since this game took perhaps 15 minutes we palyed four more games (without sidebaord) and I won 3-1. In two of the games Memnarch stole his Crucible which, even if Menarch quickly met his destiny, was enough to win the matches.
Total: 2-0 in duels 1-0 in matches.
Round 2 Kenny Öberg playing
Control SlaverThis is the same Kenny as won the Danish nationals (since he is Swedish he didn't get the title, only the first price) and came on ninth place last GenCon. In Denmark he had borrowed the Workshops so today he was playing Control Slaver instead. I was totally prepared to lose this game. He had tweaked his deck against Stax playing Strip, Waste and Triskelion in main. In play testing he had like 70-30 against me. I won the dice-roll which would show crucial. I hold a one land hand of Workshop, Trinisphere, Smokestack, CoW, Chalice, Wire, Thirst. Only one land facing Waste forced me to play first turn Cow and Chalice for zero. Both resolved and he played land-go. I top-decked a land and played Trinisphere which was Forced. The situation was that he had a hand of land, Strip, Waste, Mana Drain, Lotus and two moxen. He never recovered as I effectively mind twisted him for three cards turn one.
1-0
I mulliganed twice, got mana fizzle and Triskelion backed up by Welder finished me in a few turns.
1-1
Last duel was ridiculous. First I mulliganed and then Kenny mulliganed
four times, his last hand of three cards contained three lands which was more than all the other hands together! All his other hands contained at least two dead cards showing Control Slavers weak side. It cannot play many of its artifacts early on, but can be sitting with many dead cards in hand. Any how, I teched with Welder, Gilded Lotus and Memnarch for the match.
2-1
Total: 4-1 in duels. 2-0 in matches.
Round 3 Kaare Ettrup playing
The Perfect StormI was facing the winner from yesterday, main decking 3 Rebuild and 1 Hurkyl's Recall. After sideboard he would have three Hurkyl's more. The deck was only blue and black and thus it contained many basic non-Wasteble lands. On top of this he won the dice-roll. He mulligan once, starts of with a basic land and a mox and says go. My hand was mediocre containing mana, Waste and a Trinisphere. I top-decked yet another land, played Trinisphere which got Forced. I couldn't find any more lock components but a Smokestack and he won of a Yawgmoth's Will on turn three.
0-1
I sided in two more Chalice going up to a total of three. Kaare mulliganed once. I started with land and Chalice for zero which resolves. A turn later I resolves a Tangle Wire. He continued to drop lands and playing some search spells. On my fourth turn I had Tangle Wire, Sol Ring and Karn in play. He had a fetch and two basic lands. I almost knew he had Rebuild in hand. I attacked putting him on 8. Then I Striped his Island, he floated one blue. When I ended my turn he played Rebuild. Here I made a terrible mistake not realizing that I was still in my main phase. Instead of replaying my lock components, I just said go :shock: . Lucky for me he was too low on life to be able to win with his Bargain and Karn finished him.
1-1
We took a mulligan each and he started with land. I started with three moxen, Black Lotus and two Trinsphere which both got Forced leaving him with one card in hand. We played draw-go for a few turns both locked under my Tangle Wire. Then I resolved a Memory Jar which I didn't use right away since I had only one mana left and Lotus and three moxen already played. He played Vampiric end of turn (EOT) and on his turn he played Necropotence. Once again I failed to do the right thing in his end step. If I EOT use Memory Jar before he gets his cards from Necro, he would first draw the Jar hand, then the Necro hand, have to remove a lot of cards and I would still have my Jar hand in my turn. Then, EOT in my turn we would both discard the Jar hand. Instead I breaked my Jar in my upkeep. Shame on me
. My homework will be to study EOT rules. Anyhow, my Jar hand found me two Welders, a Chalice for one which got countered and another Chalice for one which resolved. He takes his Necro hand and scoops as all cards in his hand but Yawgmoth's Will costed one and his graveyard contained nothing of interest.
2-1
Total: 6-2 in duels. 3-0 in matches.
Round 4 Marcus Tapaninen playing
U/B DragonYet another unwinnable match-up for me. Only black and blue means more or less only basic lands (and of course Bazaars). Marcus was more than skeptical since he lost to my deck during the Swedish nationals despite my game-loss for illegal deck list (two Tinkers might be too good). I won the dice-roll and played Trinisphere on turn one and it resolved! He scooped on second turn Smokestack. Turned out he held a second turn kill, hoping I would not have a turn one Trinisphere.
1-0
He started of with Swamp and two moxen. My hand was not particularly good containing Waste, CoW, Welder, red mox, Workshop and two other lands. From the top of the deck I pulled a Chalice and played it for two. It resolved. Marcus played fetch land go. I tried to resolve a CoW. Marcus played Intuition for FoW and countered it. I consoled myself by adding a Welder to my side. Marcus untaped and played Intuition for Bazaar, then he played a Bazaar, discarded Dragon, Compulsion and Animate Dead. After playing two moxen he said go. He probably tried to find a Necromancy to go with his Dragon to win that turn. I Wasted his Bazaar and played Trinisphere. He didn't scoop since he still could find Necromancy to draw the game. Instead I first played Tangle Wire, then my Strip Mine turned up and some turns later I played Transmute Artifact on my Chalice (otherwise Transmute would has been countered) and got Karn which eat his four moxen. Marcus finally scooped.
2-0
Total: 8-2 in duels 4-0 in matches.
Round 5 and 6In round five I was paired against Kenny Andersson who played Control Slaver. Since we were the only with a 4-0 record we agreed on intentional draw (ID). Last round I was paired down against the Swedish champion in type one, Konrad Oskarsson who played Stax. Another ID put him on 4-1-1 and me on 4-0-2.
Top 8The total amount of prize money was about $520. The reason for no more than 38 participants was mostly because it was Sunday evening and very sparse with transportations home. Since everyone was tired and wanted to get home, we agreed on equal split. Not much money and certainly not much fun, but more sleep to everyone. The standing after the swiss was:
Gilded Stax (me
)
Control Slaver
Stax
Fish
GermBus
GermBus
Hulk Smash
Stax
I asked for the top 8 decks list, but I was told they had already been given to a person that would post them on a Swedish Magic cite. I'll come back to you with a link as soon as possible.
Thank you for reading. I'll be happy to take any questions.
EDIT: My grammar and spelling sucks. Tried to correct some of it.
EDIT 2: Corrected the number of players and top 8 on the first day.
