It's been a while since I went to a tournament. The birth of our daughter has influenced my ability to go. I think the last tournament I played was in October and it wasn't a success. I was trying to play 2-land belcher and failed miserably. In my time off, I still tried to keep up with deck construction and the latest developments. And I was able to do some testing (a lot of it at night on Magic Workstation). Still, it was a while, so I didn't expect much from it. I saw it rather as a test case and big playtest to get my skills back up to a decent level. In the end, I took the deck I knew best, trusting on my Intuition (pun intended).
Scope Training Wheels
4 Island
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Strip Mine
2 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded strand
4 volcanic island
1 underground sea
4 Goblin Welder
1 Triskelion
1 Platinum Angel
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
3 Intuition
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
1 Tinker
7 SoLoMox
1 Mana Crypt
1 Time Walk
1 Mindslaver
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Demonic Tutor
// Side
3 Rack and Ruin
1 Duplicant
3 Lava Dart
2 Old man of the Sea
2 Arcane Laboratory
1 Pentavus
2 Aether Spellbomb
1 Coffin Purge
First things first. This deck is absolutely the best deck I ever played. It is brilliant, incredibly fast and extremely broken. I made numerous play mistakes, one bigger than the other, part of because it was a while since I last played. But the deck always pulled me through, and sometimes went flat out uber-broken. In the end, it was the deck that got me in T8. I would have probably failed if I played any other deck. That doesn't mean that the deck is easy to play though! The hardest part is figuring the correct Intuition cards. This is where I made most mistakes: I was thinking too far, and as a result got the wrong cards at the wrong time. Anyway, I feel confident that my knowledge of this deck has increased by playing in Leiden, and I hope this will reflect in the next tournaments where I play this monstrosity.
Some random notes about the deck. We have a non-proxy metagame. This means that Fish is still the budget deck of choice for most. I think that a budget oath version is a better budget deck in the current meta, but a lot of people seem to disagree with mee. That's one of the main reasons I still play Old man of the Sea.
The Coffin Purge was pure gold. Next to the lava darts, it is an incredible weapon in the mirror and a nice Intuition target. The Pentavus was in de side because I was still pondering whether to play it main instead of the platinum angel or not. In the end, it should either leave the side or be played main deck. This would free a slot. The Platinum Angel wasn't that good main, but I didn't encounter a deck where I could use it. It will probably stay for now. The Triskelion main is absurd, and the best beat stick in the current metagame. I'm also trying to fit 2 Red Elemental Blasts in the side, so I'm checking what else can leave.
All in all, I feel this deck had most of the cards right. The manabase is stable, even with only 1 underground sea. I tested with 4 polluted delta and a swamp, but it just wasn't that good. You really don't want to see that swamp when you draw your opening 7. And I get the feeling that the number of wastelands is dropping. Also, crucible helps out a lot. If you don't play crucible, you need the 2nd Underground Sea to support the black.
The black-or-no debate is simple for me. There is absolutely no reason not to play black. Yawgmoth's will has won me at least 3 games I shouldn't have won. Also, I casted the will early sometimes, just to recast that Ancestral and replay the fetch. I tested with and without. Right now, I'd never think of cutting black.
The report:
Round 1: Marco Kiewit (BigMac on TMD) playing Tinker.dec
This should be a tough game to begin with.
Game 1: I win the roll and start with a welder. He has the same opening and casts a welder and I decide to force his. He follows with a Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, Black Lotus. Casts a Gilded Lotus and a Transmute Artifact. Wow. I used my counter for the welder so I have to let it go. He gets his Triskelion and kills my welder. He beats a couple of turns and casts another welder. I hardcast my own Triskelion and shoot his welder. My Triskelion ends up weaker than his and I'm at a very low life. But he doesn't keep attacking me (later he tells me that was a mistake he made). We draw-go while he is taking damage from his Mana Crypt. I'm able to hardcast a mindslaver and activate it. He shoots me and his trisk in response. He has nothing left after I took his slave turn and my Triskelion is free to beat.
Game 2: He starts with a Workshop and a Black Lotus. He breaks the lotus for blue and plays Timetwister. I play a land and a mox. In his turn; he plays a land. My second turn, I play a Triskelion and start the beating. He tries to resolve a chalice for 2, but I Intuition in response, getting 3 Force of Will and I force the chalice. A few turns later, I get a welder and a Pentavus in play. He casts and old man of the sea. I’m able to counter, but decide not to. I have a Triskelion with 2 counters, and a lava dart in hand, so I should be able to handle the old man before he gets active. I attack with my Triskelion and he doesn’t block with his old man. I continue to beat him to death.
1-0
Marco wasn’t too happy with this result. But it is still early, so we wish each other well and a ‘see you in top 8’ is exchanged.
Round 2: Hans van Schie (hope your name is correct…) playing a workshop – slaver build
Hans is a nice guy to play with. After some chatting, we start to play.
Game 1: My notes are very scarce here. I counter everything he throws at me. This includes a memory jar and a mindslaver if I recall. I manage to get myself an active welder and I’m able to slave him. I topdeck Intuition 2 turns later and get Crucible – Darksteel Citadel – Triskelion (to start the beats, I had Strip Mine in play.). He seemed surprised I didn’t get Pentavus, but he knew it was infinite anyway.
Game 2: We go back and forth here. I get behind and he is able to cast 2 welders. Lucky for me, they don’t have anything weldable right now. I cast Time Walk. In my walk turn, I tinker for Triskelion and shoot the 2 welders. Stupid of course, because I could have gotten myself a slaver and used his welders to recur the mindslaver. My main concern was getting rid of the welders, so I didn’t pause and think which I obviously should have done. Anyway, I decide to cast Yawgmoth’s Will and recast Tinker for slaver and Time Walk. In his slave turn, he decides to do some random things with brainstorm making sure he doesn’t have any business the next two turns. So Triskelion beats him in those 2 turns.
2-0
I’m not sure what was in this deck. It might be interesting, but I forgot to ask a decklist.
Round 3: Steffen ter Veen with Control Slaver
Game 1: again, no notes here. He plays Deep Analysis and outdraws me. I think he beats me with Triskelion looking at my life total.
Game 2: seems I refused to take some notes for a while. I resolve a welder and we both stall after that. So I start the welder beating. I finish him with lava dart.
Game 3: He is able to resolve an ancestral and a welder early, and has a crucible-strip lock on me. I’m unable to do anything except draining his Viashino heretic. Turns pass as he takes very limited damage from his mana crypt, but his welder is sitting there useless while we both are anxious for a lucky topdeck. He topdecks Yawgmoth’s will and casts it. Lucky me has a Coffin Purge in hand. I cast the purge targeting Ancestral Recall, and flashback targeting the Heretic. This leaves him with a graveyard full with counters and one land, making his will near useless.This turns us back in topdecking mode. At this time he took 2 times damage from his crypt and rolled 8 times. Finally, he’s at 3 live and has to roll. No damage and he topdecks Tinker for the win.
2-1
These games where so strange. Especially games 2 and 3.
Round 4: unknown friendly weird guy playing High Tide (sorry, didn't get your name).
We chat a little upfront. He says stuff like ‘A good player with a good deck. This should be interesting. I saw you playing before.’. I’m unable to respond to this properly. I mean, what should I say?
Game 1: He plays an Island and says go. I have a more impressive start and I’m able to Intuition for Accumulated Knowledge and cast it. This results in a Tinker for Triskelion. He plays very slow, and I start to fear this match might end up in a draw. He plays more and more Islands. He Intuitions himself for 3 Accumulated Knowledges. But I counter his when he tries to cast it. I cast my last AK in my own turn, so he decides to scoop.
I have no idea what he is playing, because I only saw Islands. I guess he’s playing Mono-U, and I board in Old man against his Ophidian. When boarding he asks me the strangest questions: Him: ‘What kind of person where you at the age of 15?’
Me: ‘Eeuuuhm, what do you mean?’
Him: ‘Do you think you where a normal kid, or did you feel unlike the others?’
Me: ‘Normal I guess.’
Like I said, I have no Idea why he was asking me these things. But winning game one made me feel more comfortable when he is playing slow.
Game 2: He starts with island go again. I’m able to resolve an Old Man in my second turn, which makes him laugh, so I know I guessed wrong. He’s asking himself if I boarded out my Accumulated Knowledges, which I did. I now realise I’m playing against combo, so I get out Platinum Angel ASAP. In his turn, he plays high tide. Storms for about 15 and Mysticals for Mind’s Desire. I’m holding 2 counter possibilities here. He casts Brainstorm to get his Mind’s Desire and I counter the Brainstorm. He looks at me in disbelief. I don’t know if he thought I was brilliant or just plain stupid. I’m not sure either, cause he still needs to handle the angel. So he just cycles his Faerie. Doh. Well, all is not lost. He get’s tons of cards from desire, but no bounce. 2 opts and a Frantic Search later he is able to Brain Freezes me and bounces my angel. I counter the bounce, but he has a second bounce in hand. So countering the Brainstorm was the wrong call. I’m not sure if it was really a bad decision because if he wasn’t possible to cycle he would have lost I think.
Game 3: I adjusted my sideboard strategy. We have little time left, so I start to play as fast as I can. I’m able to resolve a welder, but not much else. He casts a Cloud of Faeries. In my turn, I made the worst mistake ever. I was constantly thinking I had to slave him as fast as I could. So I needed my slaver badly. Problem is: I only play one slaver so how can I Intuition for it and make sure it ends up in my graveyard? So I Intuition for Mindslaver – Thirst for knowledge – Thirst for knowledge. Yeah, I’m that bad. I should have taken my time to think this through because we would have gone to time anyway. His turn, he plays High Tide. Next, he taps to cast something to bounce his faerie. I have a Volcanic, a Ruby and a Sol Ring untapped. Figuring his High Tide also gives my Volcanic 2 blue (counts as an Island now doesn’t it?), I cast Force of Will the (ab)normal way. He scoops in response. I was surprised he scooped. We went to time and I think I wouldn’t be able to finish him which would mean we’d draw. But he says he was so confident that he’d lose to me… What can I say. A weird but very friendly guy.
3 – 1
Round 5: Menno Rieff (mrieff on TMD) playing Control Slaver.
Game 1: I have no notes, and this is the only game that is a total blank for me. Menno’s life total stops at 17 so he must have scooped. Maybe infinite slaver? Menno, can you help me out here? I know I Intuitioned for Accumulated knowledge and resolved a Yawgmoth's Will a few turns after that because I made a stupid mistake of playing Intuition from my graveyard. Lucky me figures this out and I get 3 lands to do some deck thining. I cast Accumulated knowledge from my graveyard after that.
Game 2: Seems he has a transformational sideboard because he plays tog now
. I try to resolve welders, but he is able to remove them using Lava Darts. I do get a Triskelion in play and start to beat him with it. He resolves a Tog much to my surprise (didn't know about the transformational sideboard before that). I constantly check the number of cards in his hand and graveyard so I wouldn’t get caught with my pants down. In my turn, I play mana source 6 and decide to hardcast Mindslaver, which resolves. Menno knows he only has one turn to look for an answer (he is at 7 so Trike beats is enough for me). He casts Yawgmoth’s Will. He is trying to get rid of my Mindslaver and draws as much cards as he can. Unfortunately for him, he doesn’t find an answer. He discards to Tog and attacks. In my turn I attack with Trike and get him to 3. I slave him so I am sure I can shoot him to death in his turn.
4-1
This is getting rather exciting for me, cause if I win the next game, I should be able to draw in T8.
Round 6: Albert Vogel playing Oath.
Game 1: I have a great hand and Tinker for Triskelion 2nd turn. He has a Mox Sapphire, a Volcanic and a Tropical in play. I’m able to resolve my Crucible of Worlds and I have a Strip Mine in hand. I destroy his land, including the library he played, and keep on beating with Triskelion. There is no way out.
Again, I’m not quite sure what my opponent is playing. I saw a mox and 3 land. Due to the nature of the duals, I figured he had to be playing 4C Tog. I side in a duplicant.
Game 2: He has a first turn of petal and Orchard. I play nothing of consequence. Next turn he plays a second orchard and tries for oath which I counter. I beat him with the token he gave me. I decide to force him into the beatdown role, and make sure his oath doesn’t hit the table. He accepts this role, and gives me plenty of tokens looking desperately for another oath. In my turn, I cast Yawgmoth’s will with counter backup. He counters, but I just don’t care. I keep my counter for his Oath that might show up. I had 5 spirit tokens, and he just gave me 3 more. I end up beating him with his own tokens.
5 - 1
Round 7: A formality. I’m at third place. First with 15 points. I draw with Rudy (rvs) into T8.
I enter T8 as 4th seed. First opponent: Stefan Gussenhoven playing Cerebral Assasin.
I check his decklist, and see no dragon. The rest is pretty basic.
Game 1 : We both have pretty good starts, and soon the board is 2 welders for Stefan with nice artefacts in his graveyard, and 3 welders on my side, with no nice target in mine. Eventually, I Tinker for Triskelion, kill his 2 welders and start the beatdown. A thirst on my side shows Platinum Angel which joins the fun. He scoops when I hardcast Mindslaver the turn after.
Game 2: Not sure what happened here. I was obviously playing a different game than Magic. I have a pretty rough time due to his animated titan. I do have a welder and use it to keep him from beating. He tries his own welder but I drain it. In my turn, I could have cast Mindslaver using the drain mana but forgot about it. Stupid; because I even used a die to indicate I had the mana. He is able to resolve a welder a little later I guess. Turn after that, he casts Animate. I brainstorm in response, and he welders his possessed portal. In response, I welder something else, so that my brainstorm resolves. He ends up animating Duplicant which imprints my welder. (This isn’t quite how it was probably, cause I even weldered his Duplicant in to fizzle the Animate effect. Don’t know why). Turn after, I’m able to slave him. I have about 2000 good options but choose the 1 option that’s bad. Sometimes I suck at Magic.
Game 3: I play land – mox. He plays Energy Flux 2 turns later so I can pay for my mox. I don’t. We do the draw-go game. I play a lot of land and resolve a Crucible. I keep playing a lot of land each turn by recurring my fetchland. Then I decide that enough is enough. I cast sapphire and lotus and use them and 3 land to play Pentavus. It resolves and I’m able to start the beating. He is using his bazaar to find an answer. I had counter backup because I could Intuition for 3 drains. He dies shortly after that.
Honestly people. I see Energy Flux boarded against slaver all the time. I just can figure out why this is a bad card against me? I mean, Cerebral Assasin plays the same artifact acceleration, and artifact beats. That is the same number of artifacts. All I have to do is keep the artifact acceleration in hand and use it once with counter backup for a Bomb. There is no reason to play Energy Flux against Control Slaver, trust me.
Next target is Daniel Paardekoper with a gifts deck. His only kill is Tinker – Colossus. I feel this is not a bad matchip with my welders and all.
Game 1: I mull into a crappy hand but decide to keep anyway due to a turn 3 crucible possibility. He plays a second turn Tinker for Colossus. He strips my Volcanic, so I’m unable to play my topdecked Welder.
Game 2: This game, I still feel like Daniels goldfish. I’m able to resolve welders, but he just uses Cunning Wish for fire/ice to destroy them. Also, he duresses me 2 times removing my draw. He is able to resolve Yawgmoth’s Will and draws a lot of cards using Deep Analysis. I know he has Colossus in hand. In his Time Walk turn, he brainstorms Colossus on top of his library and tinkers. I die soon after that.
So this is where it ends. The tournament ends in a T4 position shared with Rudy.
Props:
All the people I got to meet. I knew their names from sites but finally saw their faces.
The people I already knew for welcoming me back
Slops:
The jerk that stole a guys deck
Mitchell for attacking with his welder and hoping the FCG guy would block with his lackey
Me being bad at this game and still making T8
