Chicago SGC P9 4th Place Trinistax

[Changster]

To start off... this is my first post and tourney report, and it will not be my last.  I am a quiet player, as most of my opponents have found, but now I must break my silence.  I test with a healthy gauntlet over at Miami University of Ohio and if you'd ask my bud Doug Linn (Hi-Val), he'd agree.  This tournament was amazing!!!  â€¦and now for my deck:

Trinistax

Artifact:
1 x Black Lotus
1 x Mana Crypt
1 x Mox Emerald
1 x Mox Jet
1 x Mox Pearl
1 x Mox Ruby
1 x Mox Sapphire
1 x Sol Ring
1 x Memory Jar
1 x Duplicant
1 x Triskelion
1 x Platinum Angel
1 x Sundering Titan
2 x Crucible of Worlds
4 x Smokestack
4 x Tangle Wire
4 x Trinisphere
Black:
1 x Vampiric Tutor
1 x Demonic Tutor
Blue:
1 x Ancestral Recall
3 x Thirst for Knowledge
1 x Tinker
Red:
4 x Goblin Welder
1 x Wheel of Fortune
White:
2 x Seal of Cleansing
Land:
1 x Strip Mine
1 x Tolarian Academy
1 x Glimmervoid
4 x Gemstone Mine
4 x City of Brass
4 x Mishra’s Workshop
4 x Wasteland

Sideboard:
3 x Chalice of the Void
1 x Mindslaver
3 x Rack and Ruin
3 x Red Elemental Blast
2 x Spawning Pit
2 x Tormod’s Crypt
1 x Triskelion

After this tournament, I found that changing from U/R stax to a 5 color mana base made a huge difference.  I’ll be keeping this consistent mana base.

The Swiss Rounds

Round 1 vs Mike Solymossy with Slaver

Game 1:  After completely restarting the whole match after we started too early, the match restarted on time with friendly faces.  I went first in this match and took a relatively slow hand, but full of land destruction and a first turn welder.  The game eventually went into a welder war, in which I took over with a Trike, pinging his welder.  
   Game 2:  Going second, the next game went fast after I locked him down with my first turn Trinisphere, followed by the classic Tanglewire-Smokestack combo.  He scooped and we joked around for a lil’ bit.  Mike was great

Record:  1-0-0

Round 2 vs David Newton with Deathlong

   Game 1:  First game went to David.  He took me on a ride with his Wheel of Fortune then dumped me with a Tendrils for 20 points.  I never got a turn =/
   Game 2:  For game 2, I had to mulligan down to 5, but I was able to lock his perms down fast with Tanglewire and beat him down with my Trike for the win.
   Game 3:  In the tiebreaker, I kept David locked down for the most part after he started out with a weak first turn land, go.  I kept on destroying his mana base, but I could not topdeck anything to kill him with.  Tanglewires were all I had to keep him tapped down.  David’s deck included Forbidden Orchards so I eventually started slowly beating him down with his spirit donations.  After his second DeathWish of the game, bringing him down to 1 life, he cast Balance.  With no creatures, hand, and one land on his side of the board, he cleared the board.  From there, we went into a 3 turn topdecking war.  Thankfully, he pulled only land, while I was able to finally topdeck a gamewinning Tinker to Trike.  I dinked him for 1...GG.

Record:  2-0-0

Round 3 vs Travis Fatlan with Meandeck Oath

Game 1:  I went first in this match, opening with a Welder that got Forced, followed closely with my Trinisphere that hit.  The game went into lock mode under the 3sphere, so he scooped.
   Game 2:  Next game went quickly as I locked him down with a couple of quick Smokestacks.

Record:  3-0-0

Round 4 vs Jeremy Barbeau with Meandeck Oath
   
   Game 1:  Once again, I went first against Oath and left Jeremy locked under my trusty 3sphere =)  Soon enough, he scooped when my Smokestack started eating his board.
   Game 2:  After siding in the appropriate Spawning Pits, Chalices, and REBs, I kept a hand that let me dominate his Force-less hand after he went land, off-color Mox, go.  On my first turn, I dropped a Lotus, Workshop to Sol Ring, used the 2 floating artifact mana to bait him with Spawning Pit, but he surprised me when he had no counter for it.  I then followed up the Pit with a Chalice for 2.  Jeremy kept on playing for some odd reason.  GG?  The next turn he even tried Mana Draining my Welder.  He left the table a little bewildered after a match that lasted approximately 10 minutes.  

Record:  4-0-0

Round 5 vs Jeffrey Anand with Slaver

   Game 1:  This game was a blur to me, but I went first, first game quickly locking him up.  
   Game 2:  On to game 2, I still had no clue what he was playing until after I destroyed his mana base with 3 Wasteland and 1 Strip Mine, and he discarded a Mindslaver.  He also discarded many other powerful cards while I racked up on land/mana to set up for the kill.  I had his moxen locked down through Tanglewire and I eventually got out my Trike after he dropped a Welder with summoning sickness.  The next turn he brought out a Platinum Angel which I quickly disposed of with my Duplicant.  Soon after, I firmly shook Jeff’s hand after two great games.  I’m pretty sure in this matchup, I was not favored.

Record:  5-0-0

Round 6 vs Stasch Kuras with 4cc

   Game 1:  Stasch was quite unlucky with his hands as he mulliganned down to 5 to start of this match.  Because of that, I was able to Tinker out my Titan for the first time in the whole tourney.  The 7/10 took care of his two dual lands and then swung away for the win.
   Game 2:  This game he started off with a Library of Alexandria I think.  My hand was looking great with the Welder and Trinisphere ready to be played first turn.  He was able to Force both of them, but he was left with hardly a hand allowing me to lock him down after some mad topdecking.

Record:  6-0-0

Round 7 vs Steven Menendian with Doomsday

At this point I was the highest ranked player after 6 rounds of Swiss.  We didn’t play this match out... he convinced me that if I conceded to him, we’d both make it into the Top8 still.  I think the fatigue might have settled in by then, making Steve’s arguments very persuasive.  I still question my decision here... I highly respect Steve for his contributions to the Type 1 community, so I guess that could have been it.  

Record:  6-1-0

Round 8 vs Josh Roughley

We called a Draw to get into the Top 8.  

The Cut to Top 8

Quarterfinals vs Jim Gaffney with Tog

   Game 1:  Locked him down, then quickly went to game 2.
   Sideboarding:  +3 REB, + 1 Slaver, + 2 Tormod’s Crypt, -Plats, - Jar, -Wheel, -2 Seal of Cleansing, -Trike.
   Game 2:  I had the game pretty much done, killing off his lands with a series of wastelands.  I swear he was about to give up, but he played it out.  The game was mine when I Demonic Tutored for Tinker, but I forgot my Titan was in my hand.  With that error, I Tinkered out Smokestack.  The next best creature left in the deck was Duplicant, but I couldn’t bring that out to beat him down with.  The momentum of this game quickly swung over in Jim’s direction after he bounced the Stacks up to my hand.  This was followed by a Rack and Ruin, Yawg Win, and other stuff.  I ended up casting my Duplicant a turn too early without an imprint, then Jim cast his Tog and that was game.
   Game 3:  I’ve tested many times with the Tog vs Stax matchup and Trinisphere is a house against Tog.  Going first, my opening hand was beautiful.  I did not get to write it down, but it definitely included a Lotus, Ancestral, 2 Lands, Demonic Tutor, Vamp Tutor, AND Trinisphere.  I thought I could bait him laying down Lotus, sac for blue, Ancestral... but no Force of Will came.  With two mana floating, I put down a Gemstone Mine and tapped it to play my Trinisphere.   The sphere hit, bye bye tog.

Semifinals vs Josh Roughley with 5/3
   
   Game 1:  I feared this deck to begin with, mainly because I did not have time to test Stax against it yet.  I went second in this close game and I never got a lock on him.  I was able to get him down to 4 with my Plats out.  Then he brought out a Juggernaut, which I took out with my Duplicant.  A turn later he brought out his own Platz to save him from mine.  What won him the game was his Welder, followed closely by his Triskelion.  During my turn, I brought out two Welders of my own, but the Trike did its job and killed my goblins.  Josh welded out my Plats and swung with his for the win.
   Game 2:  I had a ridiculous had of 2 Wastelands, 2 Mishra’s Workshops, 1 Welder, 1 Plats, and good old Trike.  I thought about taking a new hand with there being no mana to cast Welder, but I took this odd hand.  I played wasteland then passed the turn.  He played a land, casting nothing, so I wasted his land.  Next turn was the same thing.  At this point, I definitely mana screwed him.  Eventually, I played the welder and hardcasted my Plats and Trike to take the win.
   Game 3:  This tiebreaker was never in my favor.  He got out an early welder and I used two seal of cleansings to kill off his Memory Jar and Karn, but they eventually were welded back into play.  I had no answer to the beats.  Great Games!!!

Quick Notes:  
•   I drafted the Mox Jet over the Time Walk based on condition. (Sorry Chris =P)
•   Thanks to all that supported me throughout the day.
•   For my first SCG Tourney, I was quite impressed at the professionalism of the judges and players.  
•   This is my first tournament report, so any constructive criticism will be greatly appreciated.
•   Lastly, thanks to all the people that I traded with... now my deck looks PIMP =)

[Rainula]

Good job and nice report.  However, there is a very minor discrepency.  I was your opponent round two and the third game started with land, ancestral, pearl into sol ring, go.  Anyway, good job and hope to see you again at the next one if there is a next one .

[M.Solymossy]

Nice job Roland!


one thing though:


it's Solymossy

[Karn, Mox Golem]

I know the walk isnt in that great of condition,( I considered the ruby honestly...) but seriously man have some pitty, I only have an emerald for moxen.  

If there is another one of these do you think you will make the trip, i'de like to get a chance to hang out more with all the guys who made top 8.(Everyone there was cool.)

[Smmenen]

Great Job Roland.

It's great to see so many people do  well who cut their teeth in the Columbus Mox tournaments.  It's hard not to after you have to play people like Kevin Cron, Joe Bushman, Michael Simister and Doug Linn from Columbus!

[kill doug]

Great job and congrats on the mox.

"Use it well my son"

1 question though
why the spawning pits ? It seems theres not enough creatures in the deck for it to do any thing. Or was it just secret tech for the oath match up.

[Zelc]

Against 5/3, why did you not Duplicant his Platinum Angel and swing for the win instead of Duplicanting his Juggernaut?

By the way, how are the Gemstone Mines?  Do you find them running out in long games?

[mrieff]

Great job!

A few questions:

-Did you miss Time Walk?
-Did you consider Forbidden Orchard instead of Spawning Pit?
-Any chance of sneaking in Thirst #4?
-How did you like Wheel of Fortune?
-Did you like the 4 Gemstone mine/0 City configuartion?

[Hi-Val]

I can anwer the Orchard one, because Roland asked me about it! Basically, giving any permanents to your opponent in Stax is the Worst Idea Ever. Stax wins through the permanent war, plain and simple. Lands that give Smokestack tokens hurt.

[magicplaya10]

nice report but i have a question:

how come you concede and then called a draw????



anyways nice job.
NOT ONLY could this have been a PM, but you also failed to use proper english AND you don't seem to understand how a cut to top 8 works. This is your second verbal warning for terrible posting. You won't get a third.
-Jacob Orlove

[Changster]

Sorry, I've been busy w/ school and playing at the Lakewood, Ohio Mox Jet Tourney (I got 3rd, $50 store credit... I might write a report for it).

@Smmenen - Thanks Steve!  I really enjoy playing with you Meandeckers at the highly competitive Columbus Proxy Tournies.  They are definitely well run and I'm still surprised that more people do not show up for that Mox.

@kill doug - Thanks, and I actually have 2 Jet's so if anyone wants to trade down a Sapphire, shoot me an IM.  Regarding the spawning pits... they were borrowed tech to go up against Oath decks.  I predicted that plenty of Oath would show, so keeping those annoying spirit tokens off the board with the S.pits proved to be effective through playtesting and in the 2 matches I had against Oath.  

@Zelc - I took out the Juggernaut earlier in the match, about a turn or two before he dropped his own Platz.  Otherwise, I probably could have won that match.  Next, the Gemstone Mines are working spectacularly.  Even in longer games, as long as I control the use of them, by the time they run out I am able to bring out a Crucible or I have other mana sources (City of Brass).

@mrieff - I definitely did not miss Time Walk.  Time Walk is horrible for my deck, especially when I'm running Tangle Wires or Smokestacks.  Plus, my  "Time Walk" as Zherbus plainly put in his recent Starcitygames article is my Trinisphere.  Doug answered the next question about Orchards.  The deck is tight enough that a 4th TFK is just too hard to fit.  The Wheel of Fortune works really well, but not if I don't already have a lock on my opponent.  Most of the time I sideboarded out the Wheel when dealing with other Workshop decks to avoid having opponent's artifacts going to the graveyard and getting welded back in.  The 4 Gemstones and 4 CoBrasses and 1 Glimmervoid work perfectly.  They give me the right amount of mana flexibility to include my Seal of Cleansings and black Tutors.

@magicplaya10 - I conceded to Steve Menendian so he could statistically make it into the Top 8 of the tournament.  If you read his report about his 3rd place finish on Starcitygames, he explained it briefly.  About the draw, my opponent and I ID'd into the Top 8... saving us both time and effort to play out a match that we eventually played out anyways.

I might pump out a report on this past weekend's 3rd Place finish with my deck (+1 Balance, -1 Seal of Cleansing Maindeck)... until then, gogo Stackeroo.

[effang]

this is just another testament to how powerful and ridiculous workshop is. it is really getting annoying when workshop decks have almost 5-6 must counter first plays,

tangle wire
goblin welder
crucible
trinisphere

most decks only have ONE must counter first plays...

btw, if i'm wrong, let me know. i have still not found out a good way to deal with first turn tangle wires. I generally would rather see a first turn stack then wire...anybody else?

[M.Solymossy]

the first turn tangle wire really doesn't bother me that much.  then again, currently my four pet-decks are Turbo-titan, control slaver, goth-slaver (enslaver...) and TPS, all of which can use mana to brainstorm, or thirst, or intuition, or this or that, making tangle just force me to spend mana on those spells or just tap out.  I HATE seeing a first turn stack.  Tangle wire is MUCH easier to fight through tapping than having to sac permanents.

[yespuhyren]

I was able to get him down to 4 with my Plats out, but he got his own out.  Then he brought out a Juggernaut, which I took out with my Duplicant.  

If you had him down to 4, wouldn't it have made more sense to duplicant his angel, so you could swing in with yours dealing the final four?  Either way, excellent report.  

Also, on a sidenote, how useful were the seals of cleansing during the average match?  I know they are great against other workshop decks as well as oath, but is it worth keeping it?  Or will those 2 spots turn into something else?

Jason

[Razvan]

Hi Jason,

The Seals are incredible in most decks that can carry them. They are generally never dead, and can be a quick way of getting down something that will save your ass later. I think that as long as Workshop and Oath are popular, they will never go away, and might stay for a while anyhow. At worst, they function like a Sinkhole.

-Razvan

Also, on a sidenote, how useful were the seals of cleansing during the average match?  I know they are great against other workshop decks as well as oath, but is it worth keeping it?  Or will those 2 spots turn into something else?

Jason

[Anders Noer]

Round 1 vs Mike Solymossy with Slaver
...
Game 2:  Going second, the next game went fast after I locked him down with my first turn Trinisphere, followed by the classic Tanglewire-Smokestack combo.  He scooped and we joked around for a lil’ bit.  Mike was great

Round 3 vs Travis Fatlan with Meandeck Oath
...
Game 1:  I went first in this match, opening with a Welder that got Forced, followed closely with my Trinisphere that hit.  The game went into lock mode under the 3sphere, so he scooped.

Round 4 vs Jeremy Barbeau with Meandeck Oath
...
Game 1:  Once again, I went first against Oath and left Jeremy locked under my trusty 3sphere =)  Soon enough, he scooped when my Smokestack started eating his board.

Quarterfinals vs Jim Gaffney with Tog
...
Game 3:  I’ve tested many times with the Tog vs Stax matchup and Trinisphere is a house against Tog.  Going first, my opening hand was beautiful.  I did not get to write it down, but it definitely included a Lotus, Ancestral, 2 Lands, Demonic Tutor, Vamp Tutor, AND Trinisphere.  I thought I could bait him laying down Lotus, sac for blue, Ancestral... but no Force of Will came.  With two mana floating, I put down a Gemstone Mine and tapped it to play my Trinisphere.   The sphere hit, bye bye tog.

I know that I have been voicing my opinion on Trinisphere whenever I've had the chance lately (and I'll quit whining after this, I promise).
This was just an example of a tournament where broken Trinisphere plays helped out immensely througout the day. I ask again: "Is it TOO broken?".

On top of the quotes I've made, it seems that 2-3 other games during the day were decided by an early Trinisphere as well (Round 5, game 1 i.e.).

EDIT: I forgot to mention that this was a great read. And well done.

[Anusien]

Couple of different questions:
1) You played a lot of combo.  You keep saying you got an early 3Sphere, and locked them.  First off, how aggressively did you have to mulligan into it?  And how much extra hate beyond the Trinisphere was enough to lock the game?  And do you feel that the game is that much in favor of Stax over combo?

2) Did you consider something like Skullclamp or Claws of Gix instead of Spawning Pit?  Skullclamp for being cheaper and letting you draw cards (but needing extra, non Workshop mana) or Claws of Gix for being free, and letting you sac some lock components if you need an untap.

3) If you'd do it again, how would you change the deck any?  I like the manabase, but would less City/Gemstone Mine in favor of Glimmervoid be better?

[Changster]

I generally would rather see a first turn stack then wire...anybody else?

@effang - Most of the time I have found the first turn tangle wire to be useless if it comes out first turn when I have the first opening play.  It is more effective to be able to tap down the opponent's 1st turn drops when going second, followed up by a smokestack.  Generally, I find that either a first turn Stacks or 3sphere is better than a first turn welder or crucible especially when I have no clue what I'm going up against sometimes in the first game of the match.

Dropping a first turn trinisphere is one of the strongest plays for this deck.  If you can FoW that, then have counters to follow up against my upcoming threats, you'd be fine.  Or if you take the approach of letting the trinisphere resolve and taking out my workshop w/ a wasteland.  You can take the risk of trapping me under my own Trinisphere, which is quite effective.  

As for the first turn Crucible... I personally don't feel that Crucible is as powerful as people say it is.  Yes, it can trap people with a series of wastelands and strip, but I rarely if ever throw down a first turn Crucible.  It is useless against combo and if you don't have a strip/waste in your hand to begin with.  This is why I only run 2 in my deck, which opened up spots for 2 Seals of Cleansing.  

@yespuhyren - I completely agree with Razvan.  At the very least, I could use the SoC to take out random Moxen.  It's been my answer to my opponent's maindecked hate.  (Bloodmoon, Energy Flux, etc. )  For the Lakewood tournament this past weekend, I took out one SoC for a Balance.  The 2 SoC's are spots that are very flexible in the build depending on Metagame.  If i'm expecting plenty of Oath again, I will definitely stick that 2nd SoC back in.  At the moment, I'm going to keep my Balance in.

[Covetous]

I feel as though this is blasphemy, but how have you found memory jar?  Recently, I have been avoiding it in decks running 3sphere because under your own 3sphere, you often do not have enough mana to cast enough threats to make the jar effective (i.e. you can't drop moxen to accelerate you).  I have found Twister to be better despite shuffling your yard into your library because you get to actually keep your cards.  Also, how useful is vampiric tutor?  It seems unnecessary in the deck (especially without balance) because the deck tends to have issues with card advantage and VT is card disadvantage.  

Congrats on your finish.  I personally feel like Stax is just lacking something despite how broken it is--I don't remember the last time it won a big tourney stateside.  In most cases, I feel like a creature is a better threat than something like a wire or a stack because the creature can actually win the game.  Thus, I feel that 5/3 is probably a better deck.  Regardless of my opinion, you seem to be doing very well with it, so I certainly can't fault that.

[terevaune]

Not to be obvious, but you can't weld a timetwister back into play

In testing I found that I was usually able to play 2-3 cards from the average jar hand, and that was enough to win anyway.

[Toad]

Skullclamp for being cheaper and letting you draw cards

Skullclamp is pretty bad against Oath since they can tap their Orchard during your End of Turn step, when you can't activate the Skullclamp, and still get to Oath up something.

Claws of Gix for being free, and letting you sac some lock components if you need an untap.

Claws of Gix is even worse. If you need to untap, you just tap the lock component themselves, they are actually in the deck for this purpose. Spawning Pit also provides permanents to tap / sac if needed, and eventually doubles as a win condition on its own while you have locked your opponent.

[verduran]

Congrats on your great finish!

Q: How about replacing one seal with Duress? Early on its better than seal for the obvious reason of getting rid of non enchantment non artifact cards, too. One seal should stay cos Duress can only deal with things proactively.

Q: why run wheel of fortune over TfK #4? Unlike Jar it isn't recurrable, and giving the opponent a new hand and possibly welder targets in the yard has proven to be very dangerous for me so far.

(Testing done online only)

[Changster]

Q: How about replacing one seal with Duress? Early on its better than seal for the obvious reason of getting rid of non enchantment non artifact cards, too. One seal should stay cos Duress can only deal with things proactively.

Q: why run wheel of fortune over TfK #4? Unlike Jar it isn't recurrable, and giving the opponent a new hand and possibly welder targets in the yard has proven to be very dangerous for me so far.

A: About the seal's, I recently added a Balance to my deck, while taking out one seal.  I believe Balance belongs in this deck more than ever, especially when dealing with early 5/3 threats or opposing welders.  Eventually, I might take out that last Seal of Cleansing because all it is, is just an open slot for me to have fun with based upon the expected metagame.  

A: I don't run a TfK #4 mainly because it is not that important that I see one in my starting hand.  It definitely pushes me through the midgame and drops game-winning artifacts in the yard, but anyone with the right mind would rather have a Draw 7 than a TfK.