Eindhoven 22/5 tournament report place 1/4

As this is a busy time for me i very late decided to play this tournament in Eindhoven. There was no time for testing so i decided to play the deck i didn't play for Paris. As i am a dedicated combo player i played deathlong in Paris (doing well but not well enough dropping after going 5-2). For this tournament i decided to play a TPS version i played earlier making top 8 in the same tournament. I made some slight changes to compensate for earlier losses in an other tournament hoping this version would deal with the changes better. This is the decklist i played.

1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Saphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Gemstone Mine
4 City of Brass
1 Glimmervoid
2 Forbidden Orchard
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Duress
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth's Will
4 Dark Ritual
2 Tendrils of Agony
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Necropotence
1 Mind's Desire
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Timetwister
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Regrowth
1 Crop Rotation
1 Gaea's Blessing
2 Krosan Reclamation
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Memory jar
1 Tolarian Academy

Sideboard
2 Forbidden Orchard
1 Spirit of the Night
4 Oath of Druids
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Crater Hellion
1 Sundering titan
2 Ground Seal
1 Spike Weaver
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Karakas

About the deck.

Pro:
As my sideboard provides me with a good way out in difficult matches i was confident that it could surprise a lot of people after sideboarding. As it is a combo deck at heart i can go very broken early on winning quickly, but i can play it controlled as well.

Con:
I was not sure about the mana base as i play very few lands and was lucky not to come across a lot of landdisruption. It proved to be shaky at best leaving me with a lot of mulligans at the end of the day. (most times the new hands proved great btw)

Cardchoices:
Most of the base of this deck is basic TPS. The differences i made are in the colour green and the less drawspells i play. However i play more than enough drawspells as it turned out.

Wheel of Fortune saved me more than once. The most important thing about this card off course is timing.

Darksteel Colossus is another wincondition that also works well with the oath sideboard. And everybody just loves to see tinker Colossus turn 1.

Gaea’s blessing is another card that works well with the sideboardplan. The choice to play it maindeck is twofold. First when playing against oath you actually can oath up your colossus safely enough leaving you with a new deck or with will in hand a very nice graveyard. I am not overly fond of the card maindeck. On the other hand when drawing it it will replace itself and you can shuffle some cards you may want to draw back into your deck. The good thing is that most people will not counter it.

Regrowth is a nice asset as you can virtually replay any card. Next to that it can be counterbait. The few times i had it on hand it was very usefull. (Ancestral regrowth ancestral is always nice)

Crop rotation is the first card i would cut for another manasource. It is nice to use and find another land when your land is being wasted, or to find tolarian academy when needing more mana, but in the end it was almost every game the first card i sided out. Even when going for the oath plan i didn't need it to find an orchard. (which was the plan originally)

Hurkyl’s recall and chain of vapor were for the odd maindeck combohate. Most of the time i would leave them in as they can help during the combo as well to up the stormcount and create more mana.

The 2 krosan reclamation were meta choices. I expected to see at least a couple of gift decks. This card pretty much can throw that gameplan into shatters. Those are specially nice as they have flashback. They are also nice to keep a slaverlock from happening.

I played 2 orchards as Paris showed me that 3 just is to much as i was bashed to death with my own tokens the 2 matches i lost. Playing no duals or fetches at all was a metachoice as well as a plan with my sideboard. The Sundering Titan would be a nice surprise when my oathplan would be sided in against players playing duals and basics.

About my sideboard.
It is build to anticipate heavy counterdecks that probably will side in a lot of combohate not expecting the oathplan. I would leave in a part of the combo to be able to still combo fast when the opportunity arose but especially when a game takes a lot of time the oath plan is a good one.

About the critterchoices.
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath, i would say Duh.
1 Crater Hellion, this is the best surprise i had to offer. Specially in there for FCG and madness. Worked like a charm for me.
1 Sundering titan, with my manabase this would be a good surprise critter against most counterheavy decks.
1 Spike Weaver, may not be the best of choices, i never got it in game but i think against the gift colossus decks it could be a nice surprise, as well as against the critterdecks giving you time to either combo out or get a fatty for the kill.
1 Spirit of the Night, i only sided it in once and i think it is not half as effective as Akroma. This spot could easily be taken by something else.

I played 4 oaths in my sideboard often only using 2 or 3. This makes me believe that 3 could be enough.

The 2 orchards will make your manabase more stable and give you an easier shot at the oath plan. (almost a duh)

The Karakas was an oath surprise. As i never played oath i cannot comment to much as it was a dead card for me. If you suspect a lot of Oath decks it can be a nice surprise i reckon.
Boseiju, Who shelters all probably is good when against controldecks but i never got a use for it so it probably could be replaced.

The ground seals are a good sideboardcard against many decks. As a lot of decks nowadays use the graveyard this card actually helps you stall your opponent giving you the time to actually combo out.

Now for the tournament. I don't have a lot of the names as i am doing it by heart. I didn't have anything with me but my deck and dice.

Round one: survival deck
This actually is the match i remember not to much about. I remember him starting taking a mulligan to 6 after which i was thinking to myself that it would be a long day as i had to mulligan to 5. I actually got of to a good start getting a tinker colossus early on beating him easily. 1-0
I don't remember what i sided in. Game two we both had a very slow start. I had boarded in some oath plan as i really didn't know what to expect. I remember him playing a BoP after which i got a turn 3 oath. In the mean time he had discarded some critters through survival and had an Akroma in his graveyard on top. He had played a shifty doppelganger and that being an akroma he flied over. Not being able to block he discarded a phage the untouchable killing me nicely. It was a bit of a surprise to me but i would be prepared next time. I expected the akroma damage and could have prevented it by playing my wheel of fortune i had in hand but chose to take some damage and end it next turn. 1-1
Game three i got a turn 1 tinker colossus hand. He never recovered from that. 2-1
1 0 0 (2-1)

Match 2: Mathi playing gothic slaver
I again didn't get to a good start. It was slow and he got time to build up his board position getting a slaver lock eventually. 0-1
Game 2 was a lot more of game 1. I sided in my oath plan but it never got to see play as my deck didn't love me at that time. I again had to mul to 5 keeping a less than optimal hand. Having sided in my oath plan it was reasonable but not great. Again he got more than enough time to get a slaverlock. My deck crapped out on me letting me get mana just to little to late. 0-2
1 0 1 (2-3)

Match 3: Little guy playing madness.
I won the toss. Not knowing what he played i opted to go turn 1 wheel with FoW backup leaving me with 1 black mana in pool. He tried to FoW but i Fowed back getting 7 new cards. I had a great hand but not something i could work with that turn except for the duress. I took out his counter and saw he only had a red land (??? In madness) leaving him at my mercy as he didn't do anything until i combokilled him.
Game 2 i sided in my oath plan with akroma, crater hellion and sundering titan as he played duals and basics. I left in my colossus. i got to a slow start giving him tokens as i boarded in my oath plan. I got out an oath while he was beating me. I played vampiric to find my craterhellion which cleaned the board and left me at 4. As i needed to keep giving him critters as i only had orchards and couldn't pay the echo cost for the hellion. I got Sundering titan next cleaning up his lands and keeping the play stalled. Next to get out was my colossus and as the third critter i got akroma which sealed the deal. 2-0
2 0 1 (4-3)

Match 4: nice guy playing some salvager combo.
Game 1 i had an early tinker colossus. He never got to combo so was game for me.
Game 2 i got an early colossus but he got his salvager out as well comboing me to death.
Game 3 I had to mull to 6 cards but got a god hand in return. My opening hand was: Black Lotus, tinker, Mox Emerald, Mox Saphire, time walk and duress. . i got a turn 1 duress taking out his StP and a turn 1 tinker colossus and a turn 1 time walk. He never recovered.
2-1
3 0 1 (6-4)

Match 5: Christian Heuer playing cerebral assassin
I offer a draw as we can both draw into top 8. As he has 4 wins and is allready sure of top 8 he wants to play.
He wins the toss starting of with a turn 1 welder and a bazaar. Here is where my deck really starts to love me. I get a turn 1 necropotence which gives me a perfect hand to win turn 2.
I only side in 6 cards. The 2 ground seal, 2 oath the crater hellion and an akroma. He starts game 2 again with a turn 1 welder. Again i get a turn 1 necro after duressing him. This time my necro doesn't give me a lot of good cards and i only can tendrils him for 5 the next turn. As he has a token from my orchard he was beating me from the start leaving me with only 7 cards i can draw from my necro and this gives me 3 FoW and 4 lands. I still had a krosan reclamation and a chain of vapor in hand. Not perfect at all and i only had the next turn to kill him as he allready had 3 tokens and 2 welders beating me up. I decided to pop my necro with my chain of vapor and saccing land to pop my mox pearl as well. The card a i could draw now was my will, pretty much ending the game as i had my lotus and at least 1 ritual and tendrils in yard.
2-0
4 0 1(8-4)

With this i made top 8 as second place.

Quarter final: Stefan playing MUD
I fear this deck as it has trini as well as maindeck chalice and sphere of resistance. Karn being his main kill condition it is hard to predict an outcome. But as said, my deck loved me all the way here.
He won the toss and started with a turn 1 Uba Mask. My responce was a turn 1 necro with a lot of artifactmana on the board as well as a land. I took 12 cards giving me a perfect hand for the win.
I sided in only a few cards as i didn't want to disturb my combo to much. I got 2 oath and Akroma. Game 2 he started strong as he had a turn chalice 0 after playing 2 moxes and a tormod’s crypt.. As my starting hand was black lotus, mox, mox, necro, land, demonic, sol ring i was off to a slow start. I played the sol ring. Turn 2 he played a crystal vein and a crucible. I played my demonic to look for hurkyl’s recall. He sacked vein, played it again, sacked it again and played a mindslaver. He couldn't activate which was my saving. During my turn i played the recall on him as he activated his crypt removing only my demonic tutor. I now could play my necro and moxes going for the kill next turn. He only could play the mox mox chalice 1 which i could FoW with the cards i had drawn leaving me with an easy kill.
2-0

As all 4 semi finalists were friends of eachother we decided to split the prizes. A mana drain, an old man of the sea and two duals. We all got some store credit for them except for Rudi as he wanted the old man. He still got some store credit though. We all went home a little happier.

For those that want to know what i sided out. When i choose to play the oath variant these are the first choices i take out.
When opponent isn't playing landdisruption i take out crop rotation.
Other first picks are 1 tendrils, minds desire, 2 rituals.
Depending on the match i take out jar, colossus and tinker as well.
Mana vault and Mana Crypt are the next 2 choices.

As i never boarded in more than 9 cards those picks should do. Very important is to know what to board out in what game. Sometimes tinker colossus just is an to easy win, even tinker sundering titan can be devastating. So some things are not as rigid as i would want to believe.

It has proved again that it is a solid deck that can win against many decks. But i still want to work on the manabase. As to often i had to mulligan.

Marco