forests failed you
De Stijl
Adepts
Basic User
Posts: 2018
Venerable Saint
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« on: August 26, 2005, 01:34:41 pm » |
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I knew while driving to GenCon that I wanted to play Slaver. However, I wasn't sure whether I wanted to play our TurboSlaver list (similar to GothSLaver) or a more standard CS list. After previewing the field the night before the big tournament, I decided that I wanted to play with narrow cards in the maindeck. I opted to play Fire/Ice, Rack and Ruin, and Echoing Truth in the main so that I could answer problematic cards like Chalice, Mage, and Stax in game one. The key was that I was also running Shaman in the main, and he turned out to be amazing in my deck. I wound up siding in the second one every match I played for the rest of the day!
Control Slavery, by Brian DeMars
2 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
4 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
4 Island
1 Tolerian Academy
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Thirst For Knowledge
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Tinker
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Echoing Truth
1 Rack and Ruin
1 Fire/ Ice
1 Triskellion
1 Pentavus
2 Mindslaver
1 Gorilla Shaman
4 Goblin Welder
1 Fact or Fiction
Sideboard
2 Tormod's Crypt
3 Red Elemental Blast
1 Rack and Ruin
1 Lava Dart
2 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Gorilla Shaman
2 Stifle
2 Pyroclasm
Round 1:Â iamfishman, playing Sensei, Sensei
Game 1:Â I lose the die roll and am on the DRAW< .
I have a slow but steady hand this game and lead off with a Welder and a Mox with 2 Mana Drains in hand, but no Force of Wills. He casts turn one Merchant Scroll for Ancestral Recall. I untap and put two blue Mana up, and prepare to wait with Drain. He untaps plays Acadamey and a Mix and passes. I play draw go, and he cast Recall on my end step. I attempt to drain and he Drains back and draws three cards. I am pretty much boned by this point because he untaps and plays Gifts Ungiven for a bunch of broken cards. I draw play a land and pass. He Untaps and plays Future sight, I attempt to Drain and he Forces and plays Top, and Ultimately Combos me out.
Game 2:Â on the play.
I play turn one Thirst off Mana Crypt and pitch a Slaver, drop Ruby and a Welder. He gets Slavered on his next turn and it is pretty much all downhill for him from there.
Game 3:Â On the Draw.Â
Fishman casts Ruby, Jet, Demonic Tutor, Academy and passes. I tell him that tutoring up Academy is Savage when you have two Moxes and no land in your hand. I cast a Gorilla Shaman off a Volcanic Island and he taps the Academy to cast Drain and I Force of Will. I then play Mana Crypt and eat his Moxen and pass. He draws and passes. I was right he had no land. I then Dt for Tinker and get a Pentavus and beat him down with it.Â
1-0
Round Two:Â Whatever Works playing Gifts
Game 1:Â I again lose the Die roll and am on the play
I keep a hand with dubs Mana Drain, Force of Will, Brainstorm, Thirst, Mox, and a land and manage to counter all of his major draw threats, while casting my own. I end up with cards in the grip and counters while he is pretty much out of gas. I end up Slavering him a few times and beating down with Triskellion for the W.
Game 2: I board in Tormod's Crypt, Gorilla Shaman, and REBs. I play turn one Tormod's Crypt, which is answered by Pithing Needle. I than play a Gorilla Shaman and eat his entire board up. I end up with two Welders and a Monkey but nothing to do with them and two counterspells in hand. So, I go with the monkey / goblin beats route and get the win before he can put up any kind of counter to my little men. The fact that the monkey killed four permanents that game was the key to the Victory. Whatever Works had an Academy in play that tapped for zero mana.
I enjoyed this match very much, because Whateverworks was a really cool guy and I'm glad that I got a chance to meet him.Â
2-0
Round Three:Â Bob playing Enchantment Stax.
Bob is from Kzoo and plays in the metagame where I practice so I had a good idea about what he was playing ahead of time. However, from my testing I knew that Stax with main deck In the Eye of Chaos and Chains of Mephistopheles is my worst match up in the field. I knew it was going to take a little bit of luck and flawless play to get out of this game alive.
Game 1:Â I once again lose the die roll and am on the play.
He opens up with turn one Sphere of Resistance and some Moxen and passes. I play a land and two Mox and pass. He plays Shaman and eats my board. I play a second land and pass. He plays a Smokestack and passes. It all goes downhill from here.
Game two: I am on the play and drop Lotus, Citadel, Mox. I sac the Lotus for red and cast Shaman, Welder, and Thirst for Knowledge. The Welder / Shaman trick is too much for him as he draws no answer for it and we go on to game three.
Game Three:Â Probably the roughest game I play all day long.
I keep a hand that has the capability of hard casting a turn three Pentavus. I play turn one Mana Vault and a Mox and pass. He plays Chains of Mephistopheles and Choke on the first turn; I let Chains in and Force of Will the Choke. I play another land on my turn and pass. He drops a Mishra's Workshop and plays Chalice for zero and two Spheres of Resistance. I play a fetch and pass. He plays a Chalice for two and passes, and at the end of his turn I Rack and Ruin both of his Spheres by tapping Mana Vault. I rip a Gorilla Shaman and blow up his Chalices. He Plays Smokestack on his turn and passes. I use my turn to untap Mana Vault and pass. He adds a counter to Smokestack and plays his own Gorilla Shaman. On my turn I sacrifice my Shaman and hard cast Pentavus. Bob has no answer to my Pentavites and the match is mine.
Props to Bob, this was a hard fought series.
3-0
Round 4:Â Rob Leidle playing Gifts
I lose the die roll and am on the draw.
Rob goes insane broken game one playing turn two gifts with Misdirection back up on my Force of Will. I put up Mana Drain Islands on turn two and he casts Ancestral Recall, I attempt to Drain, but he once again has the Force of Will. I untap and rip an Academy and play it. I make six Mana and hard cast a Mindslaver with no more cards left in my hand. He untaps plays Black Lotus and Yawgmoth's Will. At one point he has about eight Mana floating and a storm count of 11 with DT in his graveyard and casts Brainstorm. I am fairly annoyed at this point and point out that he has the kill right in front of him and I have no cards in hand. I shake my head and concede.
Game 2:
Once again my opponent goes pretty busted and there isn't much I can do to halt his draw. I know that I am losing and begin to chide Rob hoping he will screw up and make a mistake that I can capitalize on.  I know he has some form of the win in his hand as he passes with full Mana untapped on turn five. I rip a Tormod's Crypt and slam it onto the table, asking him if he can even win the game anymore. He backs me up and tells me he wants to respond by casting Force of Will. I respond by Mana Draining the Force. I have a Slaver in my hand and exactly enough to play and activate it if he lets me have the Mana Drain Mana. He responds by casting Gifts. I put Tinker in his hand along with Time Walk hoping that if he has Misdirection he won't counter the Mana Drain, since Tinker gets around Crypt. He allows my Mana Drain to resolve and I proceed to cast Slaver in my second main phase and activate it. He stares at his hand in disbelief and shakes his head several times before letting me take his turn, and I ask if he has Misdirection and a blue card in his hand. He reveals it and does. I rip Yawgmoth's Will off the top of his deck and he scoops.Â
Game 3:
I have a stupid Slaver start and Slaver him on turn three with a Welder and three artifacts in play. GG.
4-0
Round 5:Â Kurt Wallis playing some bad Slaver deck with maindeck Masticore's and Memory Jar.
I get a game loss for being ten seconds past the three minute deadline (even though there is no second hand on any of the clock) and am on the play.
Game 1:Â Game Loss
Game 2: I savage Kurt in game two because of several bad plays on his part. He Masticore while I have an Active Welder, a Mindslaver and a Lotus in the yard, instead of playing the Masticore from his hand. I Slaver him and in response he shoots my Welder but not his own. I take his next six turns in a row and decimate his side.
Game 3: Luck is not on my side this time. I never hit my second land drop in spite of casting Ancestral recall and Brainstorm. I get beat down by Platinum Angel.
4-1
Round Six:Â My boy Josh Raynor playing Meandeck Gifts.
Once again I lose the die roll and am on the play.
Game One: I receive the most savage beating in Magic ever. He casts Lotus into Ancestral Recall, I cast Force of Will and he Forces back. He then plays a Land and two Moxes and Casts Tinker for Colossus and then Time Walk. He beats for 11 and Casts Yawgmoth's Will for Time Walk and we go on to game two.
Game Two: I cast Turn one Tinker for Triskellion and pass. He casts Turn one Tinker for Colossus and passes. I cast Goblin Welder and pass. He casts Pithing Needle naming Goblin Welder and passes. I cast Gorilla Shaman and use it to destroy the Pithing Needle, weld out Draksteel, and beat him down with Trike.
Game Three:Â I don't remember much about this game except that Gorilla Shaman went to work on his Mana and he never recovered from it.
Props to Josh, Game Two was the Swingiest game that I've played in a long, long, time.
5-1
Round Six:Â Dusty Des Jardiens playing Draw 7.
I lose the Die roll for the sixth consecutive time, and am familiarly on the draw.
Game One: He casts Necropotence and I Force of Will. On my turn I play a Goblin Welder and a Mox and pass. He plays Duress and I Recall in response and he takes Thirst for Knowledge and passes. I rip play Brainstorm during my turn and find Time Walk and cast it. I then rip Brainstorm and Brainstorm into Tinker and Will. I Tinker for Lotus Sac Lotus for black, Weld my Mox for a Lotus and sac it for blue and will with lots of Mana and Tinker for Slaver. After drawing a bunch of cards and Walking a Slaver him and make him cast Yawgmoth's bargin for the W.
Game Two:Â I slaver him a few times and he dies.
Props for playing Draw 7.
6-1
I finish the Swiss in first place with 18 points and savage tie breakers from playing at the top tables all day.
TOP EIGHT
Round 1:Â Andy, the Brassman playing Gifts
Again I lose the fucking die roll!!! I am 0 for 7, the only time I got to play first was when I got a game loss!!
Game 1: Andy opens up with a savage start. Mox, Mox, Academy, Gifts. I Force and he misdirects it, he gets a bunch of broken cards and passes. I play a Welder and pass. He plays a land and Recalls, I Force and he Drains. After drawing his three cards he goes to his second main phase and casts another Gifts. I draw a Yawgmoth's Will, I look at my graveyard of two Forces and frown. I say that I've seen enough, let's go on to game two.
Game 2: I go broken. I play Ancestral Recall and it goes through. I then play some Moxes and Thirst. On his turn he plays two Moxes and a land and passes. During my turn I Demonic Tutor for Gorilla Shaman and blow up his Mana. He casts Gifts on his next Main phase and I drain it. He passes. I have two counters in hand and somehow I end up drawing six land / Moxes in a row and another Shaman. Aside from the Ancestral Recall I played on the first turn I drew 0 other business spells in the game. I end up beating him down to two with two Shamans on the table, before he kills me. I reveal the top card of my Library and it is Time Walk. Damn, so close.
Loss, but I finish fifth in the tourney and get some packs and a foil Gemstone Mine, which I trade to my buddy Mitch for the foil Asian Triskellion he let me use in my deck and some other hot stuff. Not too shabby for being on the draw in every single round that I was not given a game 1 loss in!!
Overall, the tournament was a lot of fun and I was really glad I went.Â
I have to give mad props to the following:
My teammate Josh Franklin (onelovemachine) for finally breaking down the doors and top eighting.
The whole Colorado crew, but mostly, Clown of Tresserhorn for being such a good guy. And especially for running up and down the floor trying to tell me to find my seat in round five.
The Canadians, Especially Pac and Jeremey, its good to be pals again fellas.
Chris, Razor 51, for trading me the hotness
And props to Roland, for having the stones to wear a World Champion shirt to the world championships and then win it.
And especially, Samite Healer, thanks for trading me the Asian Foil Goblin Welder. I know it was tough for you, but thanks. You fucking rock.
And last but not least, Gorillia Shaman, oh gawd, what a beating.
Slops: Dice for hating me all day long. 0-7 on die rolls is the suck. But, I guess it shows there is more to type 1 than winning the die roll!!
Cheers,
Brian
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