[Report] Newington 5/28/4 - Burning Dryad takes ~15th

What random monstrosity am I playing today? Burning Dryad. What's that? I saw this deck doing pretty well at Somers when I was playing (bad) 4CC. So I quit playing control again and threw together a Burning Dryad. My own concoction was a bit different from the other one. The main differences were (i'm assuming) was the one in Somers had, spark elementals, fireblasts, jackal pups, and chain lightnings while in their place I am playing Magma Jet, River Boas, Blood Moons, Wastelands, and more Mana Accel.

You haven't even seen the decklist and you're already looking up Magma Jet. Yes, it's real janky but hey... I need to see if it's any good right?

Why am I playing this instead of FCG? FCG sucks. Wait.... didn't I pilot won to win a Waterbury a few months back? Well yes, but back then it was good. Actually. It wasn't. FCG isn't really that strong of a deck, the only reason it performed well was because of it's surprise element. No one expected it or knew how to play against it (or play with it once I get slavered). Waterbury also lacked Keeper and 4CC. The fish players I played at Waterbury weren't exactly the greatest ever.

I also wanted to play a fast deck. Draw Go is being played because the environment is to slow, as claimed by Smenarch. Why not abuse the slowness by dropping my hand on the table in the first 2 turns? FCG doesn't have this "fastness" unless a lackey gets through. FCG explodes all at once around turn 3 or 4. R/G Beatz "mini explodes" in the first few turns. There are some advanatges of this. R/G Beatz will not die to something like "Mana Drain your important card (aka Warchief, Driver, any combo piece, etc)". One counterspell and a few key removal spells and FCG is in topdeck mode.

I put together my version of Burning Dryad to be able to drop as much as possible. There are numerous one drops and several 2 drops that can be played on the first turn. Originally I threw in Crucible just for synergy with wastes. 2 AM the night before the tournamanet I got a huuuuge idea. What if I cut the crucibles and just play Blood Moon! Yeah.... I'm stupid. So I do that and am very thankful that I did. The morning of the tournamanet (8 am) I wanted to cut browbeats for more burn. That was a huge mistake. Good thing I put the browbeats back in though.

I also chose to play this deck as a metagame choice. Draw-Go is coming back as a viable candidate, why can't R/G Beatz. The metagame that this deck was meant to beat is Fish. Of course I never play fish once today.

Predictions on Match-ups (because I haven't the time to playtest like a good player):
Fish: Supposedly straight up aggro owns fish. I'll never know.
4CC: Bloood Moon is good. Their main answer is to play balance but they'll have no hand since I've most likely dropped mine. We'll both go to topdeck mode and I play much more threats than 4cc does.
Tog: You're not suppose to be here. Fish keeps Tog away and Control Slaver replaced you.
Anything with Workshop or Welder: I have 12 ways to deal with welder but I'll probably lose game 1. After siding, I become the control deck.

Finally,

The Deck:

Mana: (28)
1 Strip Mine
4 Wastelands
5 Mountain Fetches
4 Mountains
4 Taiga
2 Forests
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus (proxy, story later)
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Sol Ring
3 Elvish Spirit Guide

Green Beatz: (8)
4 Dryad
4 River Boa

Grow Dryad Grow!: (24)
4 Grim Lavamancers
3 Kird Apes
3 Gorilla Shaman
4 Lightning Bolts
4 Magma Jet
3 Blood Moon
3 Browbeats

Sideboard:
2 Tormod's Crypt
3 Ground Seal
3 Artifact Mutation
3 Rack and Ruin
4 REB

Ok... and now more stuff to read before my great report on the actual rounds I played. I apologize if half of you are already asleep.

Card Choices:

Magma Jet: Scrying in type 1. Cmon. It helped me out so much. Not running blue, any card manipulation is good. 2 Damage is just enough to take out any fish or welder. However, it doesn't help kill Grimmy kill an exalted or Old Man of the Sea. I can live with that.

Blood Moon: It was either this or Crucible. I'm glad I made the right choice. (only cause I'm stupid)

Browbeat: Alot of people may criticise this card but think of it this way. I play browbeat, you can take 5 and draw one less card, or you can give me 3 cards. i say the thing about drawing onel ess card, because that's what browbeat does. If you take 5, you have just sped up my clock by approximately one turn. Ghetto Time Walking for 3 mana isn't that bad when you don't have blue in your deck.

Kird Ape: I wanted another better one drop. A 2/3 body isn't bad but he's nnothing special. Maybe Goblin Welders to mess with people.

Mana Accel: As I said earlier, I wanted to drop my hand ASAP. Also, Elvish SPirit Guide beats are vicious. Ask The Atog Lord.

Why didn't I just run Zoo so I could have blue? My main dissapointment with 4cc in Somers was Titan. He owned me. I wanted to play a deck resilient to Crucible + Waste and Titan.

Sideboard is basically just Artifact hate. Crypt is in there for Tog if it shows up and my only shot against combo. Ground Seal was definately a mistake, because I already have 12 ways to own welder.

And now finally.... THE MATCHES!!!!

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It's Stok's Newington tourney. Despite his poor reputation, he gets a decent showing, 50-60 people. He puts up a mox for second. I don't stick around for top 8 cuz I'm hungry. Oh well.

Round 1: Ashok (aka Meth) with "His own creation of 7/10 and slaver"

Ashok is a very cool guy. I basically hand him game 1 and he in return, hands me game 2. So it all depends on game 3.

Game 1: My blood Moon resolves while he has 4 volcanics and one island. I forget to strip his Island in response to Blood Moon resolving whic hhe uses to Tinker up a titan and crush me.

SB: -3 Moon -3 Browbeat -1 ring -1 crypt -1 grim -1 kird ape, +4 REB, +3 R&R or Ground Seal, +3 AM

(I took notes on what I sided out but not what I put in :-\)

Game 2: His active library draws him about a dozen cards and he Aks for 1, 2, 3, and 4. He is at 2 life and he slavers me. I have a Lavamancer and a River Boa. He lavamancers my lavamancers and then does the craziest thing I've ever seen. He taps out all my mana and declares an attack phase. He makes my River Boa attack. He tries to block with welder, but I tell him Boa has islandwalk. I look at him in disbelief and he has just killed himself.

We both need to wake up. As you can tell from my earlier paragraphs, I only got around 4 hours of sleep the night before.

Game 3: He plays an island and 2 moxes. I play a Dryad first turn, he thirst in response and let's it resolve. A few turns later plays a Sundering Titan which I Artifact Mutate with REB backup. In any case he has no force. I'm still not awake and forget to waste his Tolarian Academy so he gets to Slaver me for 3 turns. He finds no answers in dies to 8 tokens.

Round 2 Mix up. This is where I probably should've gotten my loss and Ashok should've kept his 3 points. But in the end, it doesn't matter because I miss top 8 and Ashok makes it. We fill out the match result slips wrong. Ashok has given himself 2 wins and me 1. I go to find the guy doing match results and I am surprised to find Ashok close behind me. Thank god I'm playing type 1 with honorable people. The guy subtracts Ashoks points and gives them to me but we are to continue to play whoever we're paired with. Wouldn't it suck if Andy's tournament had 2 round two's (again).

Round 2 Continued: Joseph playing "Suicide Red"

Game 1: He resolves a Varchild's Crusade and I contemplate whether I should chump it and burn it or not. I mean... it gives me tokens to retaliate, I can race can't I? No Jason, you cannot. Joseph plays ALOT more burn than I do and when I'm around 12 life, I beleive he triple bolt and fireblasts me to oblivion.

SB: Unfortunately, there's no siding to be down.

Game 2: I'm hovering around 5 hp while he has 3 cards in hand but is tapped out. I topdeck a bolt and double bolt for the win. I was shitting my pants.

Game 3: I play Mana Crypt because I need to throw down some blockers against his army of Gorilla Shamans and I don't have much for lands. Mana Crypt bolts me twice and then Joseph goes bolt, double blast. Yes. I think toast is an appropriate description.

Round 3: Rich Shay (aka The Atog Lord) with Control SLaver

Rich is convinced I'm playing FCG because I drop a taiga by accident. But he's in for a surprise.

Game 1: He plays library. I play mountain Shaman. Lotus Blood Moon met with force. Next turn I play a land, ESG, Blood Moon. Withing burn range, Rich tops the sapphire he needs and tinkers for an Angel. I beat him into negative life and have a Lavamancer on the table. I try to bolt his angel, counter. I try to Magama Jet his angel, Counter. topdeck a Magma Jet and no counter. Yay.

SB: -3 Beats, 3 apes, 1 crypt, 1 sol ring, +4 REB, +3 Ground Seal, +1 AM

Game 2: Rich plays island and brainstorms eot after I play some monkeys. He never gets far on one island. I hardcast a ESG and start beating for like 4 a turn. One turn away from ESG beats to death, he attempts to brainstorm which I REB. We look at the next three cardsanyway , they wouldn't have helped. He needs red mana, badly. I look at his hand and yup, he was right. I wish he had devloped his board more though, I won't know if this is a good match up or not for future reference.

Round 4: Kowal playing Kowal-Cron Stax

Before our game starts, Ben keeps touching other people. He wanted me to include that he was touchin their boobies. Also, Kowal has huge genitalia that prevents him from walking. At least that's what he told me.

Game 1: Stacks makes me lose all my permements. i try to hang in there, topdecking land and playing it turn after turn but it's inevitable and I forget how I die. I think I scooped.

SB: No Notes, but AM, R&R, and Seal definately go in

Game 2: I get one of those crazy first turn hands involving lotus. I mutate Kowal's smokestack a few turns later and he dies to tokens.

Game 3: Kowal attempts to take one of those broken type 1 first turns. He succeeds because I play a bad deck which doesn't run Force of Will and because he's not playing Fish. He goes Workshop, Lotus, Crypt, Crucible, Tinker for Stacks. He drops a trinisphere soon and beat with 2 welders while I have no permaments. He asks if I wanna concede but I hang in there. A few turns shy from death, I play mountain, remove 2 ESG's, and attempt to mutate his Smokestack. He BEBs and I frown. He swings for 2 and then fires me for the win.

Round 5: Luis with my 4cc Deck (d'oh!)

Luis and I have been friends for such a long time and he's recently just started playing Magic again. I feel bad my hate deck is going to hate him out, plus he's playing against a deck I made so I already know it inside and out. We're both 2-2 and it doesn't matter. We're not gonna make it.

Game 1: My first Blood Moon is countered but my 2nd resolves.

SB: Bleh...

Game 2: My first Blood Moon is countered. My second Blood Moon is countered. My thirs blood Moon resolves. I play with 8 in my deck.

Round 6: Brian with Zoo

Finally! I get to play against a Fish-eque deck. I should do good in this matchup.

Game 1: I get lotus in opening hand again and play Dryad which is forced but Boa resolves. He plays Gorilla Shamans and Serendibs while I play Blood Moon. I get to lazy to continue taking notes but my men and burn outrace his men.

Game 2: I get a fast Shaman and Dryad which get fired. Our creatures and spells trade and we are in topdeck mode. He regrowths for his Serendib while I'm at 9 life with a Lavamancer and a few other guys on the table. He also had a fire/ice in his yard which probably would've been the better choice. I REB his Serendib. He tries to mystical tutor but I REB for fear that he is grabbing a bolt. Next he gains card advantage by playing Eternal Witness and again bringing back Serendib. I do some quick math and hope he doesn't play any lifegain. I bolt him, and use lavamancer for 2 points of damage. During his upkeep, Serendib deals the final point of damage.

Concluding Thoughts

I don't have the time to playtest against other decks, I just goldfish when I test decks. I didn't really get a chance to test against most of the common archetypes today.

Burning Dryad, meant to own fish, never got to play against it. However, it did surprisingly well (4-2-0 isn't bad) though there are probably some games I should've lost. I never got to play that fish matchup. *sigh* Maybe at Waterbury....

I think old school decks may have a chance of coming back just like Draw-Go did. Watch out.... Sui's back.

Props & Slops:
+Everyone I played for being so cool. Especially Meth.
+Team Dubya for taking two of the top 8 spots.
-Team Dubya for not taking home the lotus.
+Team Dubya for taking me to the next Waterbury. Please please please!

PS: Mods, Would a report like this meet the criteria of the new tournament report policy.

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EDIT: So after 24 hours... no comments? Not any criticism on the deck I played or anything? I'd like any feedback at all so I can change the build up and whatnot. I felt it is already really good but maybe there's something I overlooked or a card I may have forgetten that would do well in today's current meta.