[Report] Top 8 report with TPS at YMG Providence

First off I would like to say that this was a great tournament and it was a lot of fun to play in. It also got a nice turnout of 40 people and I would love to see the YMG Providence to keep running them. I am technically a member of Team Underground but I have been absent from magic for a while as I applied for college and took my midterms. I’ve been looking to get back into it now that I am less busy and Mixing Mike lent me enough power to pretty much play any deck. I decided to play TPS. I didn’t feel comfortable in the control slaver mirror, which I knew there would be a ton of and I just don’t like playing Stax. TPS seemed fun and I am a bit rusty. Just concentrating on what I’m doing most of the time was easier. I only tested for a week or so before the tourney having never played the deck before so I was not expecting huge results. Here is the list I ran. I’ll get into choices after the report.

TPS

61 Cards:
4 Polluted Delta
3 Underground Sea
2 Swamp
3 Island
1 Flooded Strand
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerad
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
4 Dark Ritual

4 Force of Will
4 Duress
2 Rebuild
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Timetwister
1 Windfall
1 Memory Jar
1 Gifts Ungiven
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Frantic Search
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Necropotence
1 Mind's Desire
2 Tendrils of Agony
1 Time Spiral
1 Time Walk

SB:
3 Mystic Remora
2 Chain of Vapor
2 Coffin Purge
1 Platinum Angel
2 Skeletal Scrying
2 Energy Flux
3 Hydroblast

I arrived with my friend Mike Lovett, got the cards I needed from Mixing Mike and waited for the tourney to start. I found out my first round opponent was a member of my team Rob. Hurray! I was not too worried because for some reason he was playing some crap scepter chant deck.

Round 1 vs Rob

Game 1: I lose the die roll and Rob chooses to play. Rob keeps a hand with only 1 land. I keep an okay had with duress, rebuild, necro, and a couple of lands. I duress rob and see he has drain, force, tinker, leak and disenchant but still only 1 land. I take the force. He never draws another land; I hard cast necro and easily ride it to the win.

SB: I bring in an extra chain of vapor to combat his arcane lab and meddling mages I know are coming in. I leave in rebuild for the scepter and platinum angel.

Game 2: I keep a nice hand with 2 lands brainstorm, ritual, force, and demonic tutor. Rob plays a land and 2 moxes and says go. I drop a land and say go. On his turn he drops a land and another mox and plays Isochron scepter with 1 card in his hand. I brainstorm in response seeing force, ritual, mox sapphire. I allow him to play the scepter knowing I am going to win next turn. He plays chant on the scepter I force it on my upkeep then ride 2 rituals and demonic tutor for yawg will for the win.

Matches: 1-0 Games: 2-0

Round 2 vs Greg

I knew from scouting Greg was playing control slaver. He was a very nice guy and also from what I saw a skilled player. I would especially like to thank him for pointing out I should protect my deck more when shuffling as I was flashing cards.

Game 1: I don’t remember many of the details of this game but I kept a slow hand with duress. I basically sat there and did nothing until he hard cast slaver with a welder on the table. I was forced to ritual into gifts ungiven but nothing at that point could save me. He slaved me and did many broken things on my turn. He had 4 artifacts out on his side as well and I scooped.

SB: I board out the stuff that kills me necro and bargain was well as tinker and memory jar. In comes coffin purge and chain of vapor. Also a skeletal came in for something.

Game 2: I have to mulligan and my 6 cards are 2 lands, mox pearl, brainstorm, duress, and tendrils. Its not that great but it had disruption and draw. I felt that I could not get a better 5-card hand against control slaver so I kept. My brainstorm is god-awful as I get desire, land, gifts ungiven. I do not have a fetch and the 2 dead draws kill me. Even when I was not drawing dead I picked up another tendrils. He got out like platinum angel and 3 welders and that was that.

Matches: 1-1 Games: 2-2

Round 3 vs Dan

I knew Dan was playing oath. He was very cool and our decks both did what they were supposed to do making this match a lot of fun.

Game1: He wins the die roll and starts off with the wonderful mox, orchard oath. I have a hand with ritual, ritual duress, 2 lands, brainstorm and a mox jet. On my turn I duress him taking a force of will seeing no other counters. He oaths up Arkoma beats me for 6 and passes. I’m going to be either dead or at 1 if I don’t win on my second turn. I get an amazing brainstorm of ritual, tutor, and something else. I ritual 3 times on my turn cast tutor get yawg will and win in the face of my ensuing death.

SB: Out goes the rebuilds for chain of vapor as I expect to see some arcane labs and platinum angel.

Game 2: I have a very nice hand with lotus demonic tutor, duress and ritual among other things. However his game is amazing. First turn he drops orchard, mox, mox arcane lab! Its okay I can deal as long as he doesn’t start oathing up stuff soon. On my turn I play and a land and duress his drain leaving him with a land and an akroma. He then proceeds to topdeck oath!. Okay wonderful. My turn I am forced to demonic for chain of vapor to get rid of the lab. He then oaths up on his turn platinum angel after like 2 cards. So on turn 3 I’m staring down arcane lab and platinum angel. I play a land on my turn and pass. At EOT I bounce his laboratory back to his hand. On my turn I make my dumbest mistake of the day. I play like I still have demonic tutor in my hand and can go get yawgwill. I am forced to windfall for 4 for BB floating and storm at around 6. I get nothing off the windfall and am one short of casting tendrils to prolong my death. I did make him discard arcane lab however. I cant’ get up enough steam after that and lose to oathed up Akroma with platz.

Game 3: His hand is pretty slow this game and so is mine. I am able to punch through a necro after duress. After this I am a position to cast a desire for 5 with no mana floating but I wait one more turn to up the storm a bit. I am rewarded with the cards of the necro and he does not cast the lab, which was all I feared. I cast desire for 7 revealing tendrils and take the match.

Matches 2-1 Games 4-3

Round 4 vs Jacob Orlove

I knew by reputation that Jacob was a very skilled player but I also knew he was playing workshop aggro which was a matchup I was confident in.

Game1: I keep a good hand if he does not play turn 1 trinisphere which he does. I have two lands one of which is a underground sea and 1 wasteland will bury me. Luckily he does not have one but he does cast platinum angel off a shop, lotus and a city. I draw a land after taking a beat from the angel and at the end of his turn rebuild his stuff. On my turn I play two rituals and Timetwister, then Time Spiral after the twister. I stupidly shuffle the spiral into my deck but Jacob was gracious enough to allow me to remove it from the game and draw another 7. I was only a few spells away and I played brainstorm, demonic, tendrils for the win. I got lucky to take this game.

SB: I bring in chain of vapor for tinker and jar.

Game 2: I get one of those bunch of mana and two duress hands. I am debating whether or not to keep as he mulligans. I can tell from his body language after the mulligan that he does not have the turn one trini and decide to keep. He plays a land an a mox on his first turn and says go. On my turn I duress away his trinisphere where I see a crucible and not much business. I duress him again next turn after picking up a brainstorm. I see he has a stifle but I take something else for some reason. On the brainstorm I get a Time Spiral with academy out and 3 artifacts and also a ritual. I spiral into a desire for about 7 reveal tendrils and win the match.

Matches 3-1 Games 6-3

Round 5 vs Jason

Jason is also playing workshop aggro. If I win this match I can draw into the top 8.

Game 1: I rely too heavily on rebuild to win me this game. I demonic tutored for Time Spiral fully expecting to rebuild on his turn and play it with 4 lands and some artifact mana on the next turn. He however casts sundering titan and I cannot recover as he has a welder and he blows up 4 of my lands.

SB: In come the vapors for tinker jar again.

Game 2: I have a nice hand but it only has island and mana crypt. A turn 1 trini shuts me down completely. He has to mulligan though and I can tell from his body language that he does not have it so I keep. I am able to rebuild around 7 artifacts back to his hand including crucible, platinum angel and tangle wire this game and win on the next turn with a large desire.

Game 3: This game was pretty uneventful, as he has to go down to 5. My hand after duressing is just two powerful and I win on either turn 3 or 4 with a large yawg will and tendrils.

Matches 4-1 Games 8-4

After finding I was not paired down I draw into the top 8 with Purple Hat.

First match of top 8 vs Purple Hat

We drew in and now we play. I was not exactly thrilled since I saw that he was playing Dragon and he also was a very good player. I had not tested much against dragon and TPS and dragon are trying to do similar things. He however had bazaar.

Game 1: His first turn he plays bazaar dropping 2 dragons and squee in the yard and passes. I duress him seeing animate, force, ancestral as relevant targets. I should have taken the animate here but I made a mistake and took the ancestral. On his next turn he drops xantid swarm and I have to force. I duress on my turn but he forces. My only option is to hardcast memory jar and pop it, which does not help me. He is able to animate the dragon for the win.

SB: I bring in the chains, purges, and a platz.

Game 2: I keep an okay hand with windfall, tinker, lands, lotus petal, and chain of vapor.
He has a turn one bazaar and after throwing dragon in the yard passes. On my second turn I cast tinker, which he forces. On his turn he attempts to animate the dragon but I have chain of vapor off a lotus petal removing all of his permanents. I play yawgwill with just enough mana to tinker out platz. I attack 3 times and play small tendrils for the win.

Game 3: I mulligan down to 6 and keep a bad hand with a jet and 2 vapors. I need to top deck a land for it to be okay. I do not get the land and he wins on turn 2 with force of will back up. It was a poor decision to keep the hand but I would have needed to have 2 methods of disruption up by turn 2 to survive anyway. With a 5-card hand that was not likely.

Overall I was please with my performance, as I did not test that much and I am just getting back into the game. I would have liked to at least win one more match to get something but eh what can you do. It was a fun tourney and I will definitely be returning if there is another. Congratulations to Rich Shay and ELD who split the win.

Card Choices as well as questions:

I thought my maindeck was okay it performed fairly well all day. I was never a big fan of cunning wish and I love frantic search. I should have cut it down to 60 cards removing the chain of vapor. I left it in because I did not like the idea of without wish having no answer to non artifact based hate. I could have run 1 chain and 1 rebuild but rebuild is so amazing I was loath to cut one. After seeing the field it should have just been 2 rebuild.

The sideboard was utter crap. I was the only TPS there as far as I saw so the mystic remoras were useless. Coffin purge should have been Tormod’s crypt all day, which would have helped in my slaver and dragon matches. I also miss sided in my one control slaver match up I should have brought in hydroblasts and not chains. I would have included at least 1 more rebuild on the SB but I do not have a third right now. Energy flux is just bad, as usually have some artifacts out as well. I would put the third rebuild and a possibly third Tormod’s crypt in their spot. I know from testing skeletal scrying is good I just did not face much control that day. Platinum angel worked out fine and I prefer her to DSC.

I also had one question about necro for the experience TPS player. When you get it out do you go for broke trying to assemble the perfect hand for next turn or do you slowly accumulate card advantage? I usually slowly get advantage drawing around 2 more than what puts me up to 7. I have never lost with it out but I would still like to know what is the generally accepted way to go about it.

Thanks for taking the time to read the report and feel free to make any helpful comments.