leiden 22 januari 2006, Top 8 decklists plus metabreakdown

[BigMac]

Top 8 Leiden tournament of januari 22

There were 45 contestants in this non proxy tournament playing for a Library of Alexandria

After Swiss

1 Peter van Overbeek      16
2 Iain de jong         15
3 Steffen van der veen   14
4 Barrie Sattink      13
5 Daniel Paardekoper      13
6 Gwen de Schampelaere   13
7 Gert Rammeloo      13
8 Marco kiewit      13

Quarterfinal
Marco beat Peter
Barrie beat Daniel
Steffen beat Gwen
Gert beat Iain

Semifinal
Marco beat Barrie
Steffen beat Gert

Final
Steffen beat Marco winning a Library of Alexandria

Final Standings
1 Steffen van der veen       Cerebral Dragon
2 Marco Kiewit         TPoath
3 Barrie Satink         Angel Oath
4 Gert Rammeloo         Vial Fish
5 Peter van Overbeek         Dragon
6 Iain de Jong         Fish
7 Daniel Paardekoper         Black Dredge Beatdown
8 Gwen de Schampelaere      Drain/Welder

Decklists
Steffen van der Veen (called 2-face)
1 mox emerald
1 mox pearl
1 mox saphire
1 mox jet
1 mox ruby
1 sol ring
1 black lotus
1 manavault
1 mana crypt
1 triskelion
1 platinum angel
1 possessed portal
2 sundering titan
1 demonic tutor
1 entomb
1 vampiric tutor
1 yawgmoth’s will
3 duress
4 animate dead
4 goblin welder
4 squee goblin nabob
1 worldgorger dragon
1 ancestral recall
1 time walk
1 tinker
4 intuition
1 life from the loam
1 eternal witness
1 stripmine
1 tolarian academy
1 undiscovered paradise
1 seat of the synod
1 tarnished citadel
4 gemstone mine
4 city of brass
4 bazaar of Baghdad
(60 cards)

Sideboard
1 sacred ground
1 rack and ruin
1 artifact mutation
1 triskelion
1 duress
1 jesters cap
2 gorilla shaman
1 darkblast
3 ray of revelation
1 coffin purge
1 balance
1 true believer

Marco Kiewit (TPoath)
1 Black Lotus                
1 Lotus Petal               
1 Mana Crypt               
1 Mana Vault               
1 Mox Emerald            
1 Mox Jet               
1 Mox Pearl               
1 Mox Ruby               
1 Mox Sapphire            
1 Sol Ring               
4 Dark Ritual               
1 Demonic Tutor            
4 Duress               
1 Necropotence
2 Tendrils of Agony
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
1 Frantic Search
4 Force of Will
1 Rebuild
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Mind's Desire
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Timetwister
3 Dark Confidant
2 Sensei’s divining top
2 Forbidden Orchard
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Wheel of Fortune
2 Tendo Ice Bridge
(60 cards)

Sideboard:
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Blazing Archon
2 Forbidden Orchard
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Woodripper
4 Oath of Druids
1 Sundering Titan
1 Rushing River
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Tinker
1 Gaea’s Blessing

Barrie Satink (Angel Oath)
1 mox emerald
1 mox pearl
1 mox saphire
1 mox ruby
1 sol ring
1 black lotus
4 forbidden orchard
2 polluted delta
2 flooded strand
3 island
1 volcanic island
1 tropical island
1 stripmine
3 wasteland
1 library of Alexandria
4 oath of druids
1 gaea’s blessing
1 akroma, angel of wrath
1 platinum angel
1 ancestral recall
4 brainstorm
3 intuition
4 accumulated knowledge
2 cunning wish
4 force of will
4 mana drain
3 mana leak
1 tinker
1 crucible of worlds
1 time walk
2 phyrexian furnace

sideboard
3 energy flux
1 pristine angel
1 triskelion
1 intuition
1 rack and ruin
2 red elemental blast
1 blue elemental blast
1 naturalize
1 oxidize
1 fact or fiction
1 misdirection
1 rushing river

Gert Rammeloo (unpowered vial fish)
4 force of will
4 standstill
4 daze
4 voidmage prodigy
4 aether vial
4 stormscape apprentice
3 umezawa’s jitte
4 wasteland
2 meddling mage
1 stripmine
1 plains
4 flooded strand
4 chalice of the void
3 ninja of the deep hours
4 mishra’s factory
1 rootwater thief
2 tundra
7 island
(60 cards)

Sideboard
4 swords to plowshares
4 energy flux
4 seal of cleansing
3 stifle

Peter van Overbeek (Dragon)
1 mox emerald
1 mox pearl
1 mox saphire
1 mox jet
1 mox ruby
1 sol ring
1 black lotus
1 mana crypt
1 animate dead
2 dance of the dead
1 demonic tutor
3 necromancy
1 vampiric tutor
1 ancestral recall
1 compulsion
1 chain of vapour
3 intuition
1 time walk
4 force of will
1 ambassador laquatus
2 lim-dul’s vault
1 eternal witness
3 xantid swarm
4 squee, goblin nabob
4 worldgorger dragon
4 bazaar of Baghdad
4 polluted delta
2 island
2 swamp
4 underground sea
1 tropical island
1 bayou
(60 cards)

sideboard
2 defense grid
3 duress
2 mana maze
3 energy flux
2 hurkyl’s recall
1 verdant force
2 null rod

Iain de Jong (unpowered fish)
4 meddling mage
4 rootwater thief
4 trickster mage
4 icatian javelineers
4 ninja of the deep hours
3 null rod
3 daze
4 swords to plowshares
4 force of will
4 standstill
4 mishra’s factory
4 wasteland
1 stripmine
4 flooded strand
4 tundra
2 plains
2 island
1 windsweapt heath
(60 cards)

Sideboard
2 blue elemental blast
2 kataki, war’s wage
4 kami of ancient law
2 seal of cleansing
1 annul
3 chalice of the void
1 crucible of worlds

Daniel Paardekoper (black dredge beatdown)
No list available but it looked very much like the legacy/extended version but then with ashen ghoul and it was powered.

Gwen de Schampelaar (drain/welder) want to say slaver but no slaver in deck
4 mana drain
4 force of will
4 thirst for knowledge
4 brainstorm
2 intuition
2 deep analysis
1 ancestral recall
1 time walk
1 tinker
1 annul
1 crucible of worlds
1 jester’s cap
1 pentavus
1 darksteel colossus
1 triskelion
4 goblin welder
1 gorilla shaman
4 island
3 flooded strand
2 polluted delta
3 volcanic island
1 tolarian academy
1 stripmine
1 library of Alexandria
1 seat of the synod
1 mox emerald
1 mox pearl
1 mox saphire
1 mox jet
1 mox ruby
1 sol ring
1 black lotus
1 manavault
1 mana crypt
(60 cards)

sideboard
1 echoing truth
1 stifle
1 rushing river
1 hurkyl’s recall
1 chain of vapour
2 rack and ruin
2 red elemental blast
1 lava dart
1 duplicant
1 sundering titan
1 tormod’s crypt
2 annul

metagame breakdown
8 oath (1 top 8) (1 with 1 mox, 1 unpowered)
4 gifts
3 fish (2 top 8) (all 3 unpowered)
3 ubastaxx
2 drainslaver (1 top 8) (1 without slaver)
2 dragon (1 top 8)  (1 unpowered)
2 food chain goblins (both unpowered)
2 staxx
1 two-face (1 top 8) (cerebral dragon mix)
1 black dredge beatdown (1 top 8)
1 TPoath (1 top 8)
1 hypermud
1 leviat
1 kobold clamp
1 mono blue
1 blue white exalted control
1 black blue tendrils/confidant
1 doomsday
1 fast worlds (unpowered infi life zuran orb, barb ring, crucible, fastbond combo)
1 unpowered black kamigawa deck
1 unpowered threshold
1 black MWS beatdown
1 unpowered RG beatdown
1 green landdestruction(with mox emerald)
1 five colour beatdown
1 blue white control
1 black blue confidant colossus control

12 unpowered decks, the rest was fully or partially powered, at least in the colours played, but mostly full powered.

[Lunar]

Very nice to see Cerebral Assasin taking the win...congrats!

[UR]

I guess it is pretty obvious, but my list should have a Mox Emerald in there instead of 2 Mox Pearl  .

But I was looking at the T8 lists and realised something... here I am playing Null Rod against graveyard hate such as Tormod's Crypt and Phyrexian Furnace and let's look at the top 8 sideboards and mainboards.

Total number of graveyard hate in mainboard;
2 Phyrexian Furnace

Total number of graveyard hate in sideboard;
1 Coffin Purge
1 Tormod’s Crypt

Okay, Daniel’s list wasn’t there. But from what I remember he wasn’t running any graveyard hate and he told me he didn’t board any in either.

Is Tormod's Crypt a bit underplayed then? It is good against so many decks...

[Daniel_112]

Yes tormod's crypt IS underplayed, you can see three different people saw that. We all played decks that have a hard time handling the crypt, but the advantage of top 8, is that you can lose a random match to the crypt, and still top 8.

Btb, steffen was at the easy site of the top 8, with a fish, and a control slaver on his way to the finals.... but he played well, and didn't lose, so congratz to him.

My match against barrie was really silly, game 1, I therapy him on oath, he got a hand of 3 wastelands, 2 fetch, island, + platinum angel! Who keeps that?? Then he goes, topdeck brainstorm,  brainstorm into goody's, fetch, win the game from there bleh...

Game 3, I go therapy on oath, he goes topdeck oath...

[BigMac]

Very nice to see Cerebral Assasin taking the win...congrats!
 

If you read correctly it is a cerebral dragon deck. So it is a hybrid between dragon and cerebral assasin. His main kill, at least against me, was the dragon kill.

[Disburden]

Very nice to see Cerebral Assasin taking the win...congrats!
 

If you read correctly it is a cerebral dragon deck. So it is a hybrid between dragon and cerebral assasin. His main kill, at least against me, was the dragon kill.

Most, if not all, of the Cerebral Assassin lists I have seen for the past year have had the single Dragon in the deck along with the Witness kill. I believe this has been a pretty common addition to the deck since Hadley listed it on the CA thread way back when.

[Lunar]

agreed...I havnt seen cerebral assasin not running the dragon win for a long long time (this includes all of my top 8 lists and since people generally run my lists when playing CA this means all of everybody elses lists generally run the dragon kill too)

Even the original list from the Hadley guys included the dragon win in the SB...you can take a look at the primer here: http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=16626 for more details...

[Jacob Orlove]

Also, the old TMD thread on CA is here: http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/index.php?topic=20135.0

[Thug]

Sorry just had to quote this:

Btw, steffen was at the easy site of the top 8, with a fish, and a control slaver on his way to the finals.... but he played well, and didn't lose, so congratz to him.

Yeah ppl, thats how we look at Fish and Slaver in Dutchieland, it's the easy matchups 

[joeythaman]

the blue/white exalted control is actually a landstill deck if you haven't noticed that by looking at the deck list, but i don't mind. It was a great tournament and i will be back next time

mvg joey slikker

[Lunar]

@ Thug - If you are playing Cerebral Assasin anywhere in the world you look at those as your easy matchups though...

[Flopmeister]

I guess it is pretty obvious, but my list should have a Mox Emerald in there instead of 2 Mox Pearl  .

But I was looking at the T8 lists and realised something... here I am playing Null Rod against graveyard hate such as Tormod's Crypt and Phyrexian Furnace and let's look at the top 8 sideboards and mainboards.

Total number of graveyard hate in mainboard;
2 Phyrexian Furnace

Total number of graveyard hate in sideboard;
1 Coffin Purge
1 Tormod’s Crypt

Okay, Daniel’s list wasn’t there. But from what I remember he wasn’t running any graveyard hate and he told me he didn’t board any in either.

Is Tormod's Crypt a bit underplayed then? It is good against so many decks...

I boarded in 3 Crypts vs. your Dragonbuild, but never saw any of them . 1-1 in matches... I'll see you next time!

Greetz,

Floris

[Duffy]

the unpowered threshold deck was played by a friend of mine, the deck is better known under the name 'Birdshit'. He played a mirrormatch in game 6 which he lost due to a crappy hand (his first all day) needing only a draw to make it to the T8.

I myself played the Monoblue deck. After the first 2 rounds (with really bad luck in the first game) went down 0-2 against Gifts and Vialfish, then I picked myself up vs Dragon, Monogreen LD, Oath and Stax finishing 4-2 and 1 point out of the T8 as well.

Play of the Day: Forcing the Oath player to give me my 4th spirit token. He casts Oath leaving Orchard open, I cast Daze. He opts to pay 1, I cast my 2nd Daze by returning an Island to my hand. He FoW, I misdirect. that was game. The best thing was his cry of utter disbelief. I just told him Ophidian rocks 

Stupidity counter: The Oath player trying to Echoing Truth my Morphling with 3 Islands open, while his friends are sitting next to him and watch.

On the Tormod's Crypt subject:
I never, ever leave home without at least 3 copies in my SB. When I think of something new to play and I don't know what it'll be yet, 3 Tormod's Crypt are already noted at the SB spots. 

[UR]

I boarded in 3 Crypts vs. your Dragonbuild, but never saw any of them . 1-1 in matches... I'll see you next time!

Yeah, but you played CS. So the Null Rods came in anyway... but I'm looking forward to our next match...

My question for the people with the Crypts is; How good were they? I mean, I usually run a few as well and they are nearly always solid choices, but how many times did you board them in and did they work out for you?

[Flopmeister]

Play of the Day: Forcing the Oath player to give me my 4th spirit token. He casts Oath leaving Orchard open, I cast Daze. He opts to pay 1, I cast my 2nd Daze by returning an Island to my hand. He FoW, I misdirect. that was game. The best thing was his cry of utter disbelief. I just told him Ophidian rocks 

Stupidity counter: The Oath player trying to Echoing Truth my Morphling with 3 Islands open, while his friends are sitting next to him and watch.

The play of the day, and the stupidity counter both concerned my teammate and friend Lée Towers. I Just wanted to say that it's people like you with remarks like these that make the game "not fun" for people who are new to the format. The fact that his friends were sitting next to him during the match is of no importance, for they can't mingle. I find the post kind of offensive, and insulting. Please keep in mind that other people read these forums too.

Thanks in advance,

Floris

@ UR: The Crypts were not played against alot of decks, for i had more useful stuff against non-GY strategies. The 3 games I did board them in (dragon, Bobbed Tendrils and Kobolds), i never saw them, which is a shame. They really could have been useful, and would have bought me enough time to set up my own plays, eventually taking yours

[wake_of_destruction]

Btb, steffen was at the easy site of the top 8, with a fish, and a control slaver on his way to the finals.... but he played well, and didn't lose, so congratz to him.


Vial Fish, actually. Btw, I had good chances against steffen and a lot of hate. Jitte (Welder), Seal of Cleansing, Plow. The first game he came down to 3 lives and had some luck with his Crypt. Second game my hand was pretty shaky and I made some awful draws.

Also, if I had them (and I should some time soon) I would've boarded in 4 Pithing Needles for those Welders, leaving steffen with a pretty hard match-up IMO. Let's not forget to mention my MD was pretty scrubby in the first place: I was missing 2 Mages and 2 Tundras.

Yeah ppl, thats how we look at Fish and Slaver in Dutchieland, it's the easy matchups 

That's funny, because 66.66% of all Fish decks made it in the top 8. That's pretty sick right there, wouldn't you say? I think you underestimate Fish or just haven't played against a capable build from a capable opponent.

My question for the people with the Crypts is; How good were they? I mean, I usually run a few as well and they are nearly always solid choices, but how many times did you board them in and did they work out for you?

I used to play with Crypts, but now I don't anymore. Ground Seal (anything), Swords to Plowshares (Dragon/Welder) and Pithing Needle (Welder) are more versatile IMO, you can side them in against more decks. Plus, I'm Mding 4 Chalice now, but that's just me of course.

[Dr Evil]

That's funny, because 66.66% of all Fish decks made it in the top 8. That's pretty sick right there, wouldn't you say? I think you underestimate Fish or just haven't played against a capable build from a capable opponent.

And One-Hundred % of the 2-face decks also made T8.  

Best play of the day:

Turn 1: land, welder, mox.
Turn 1: land, mox.
Turn 2: land, go.
Opp:Eot brainstorm
Me: Entomb for Possessed Portal, weld it in and having a squee in hand for maintaining cardadvantage.

"Foil Entomb: €5,- Foil Possessed Portal €2,- The look on the face of an opponent when he knows he is screwed, Priceless!

Thats all folks.

Steffen

[wake_of_destruction]

And One-Hundred % of the 2-face decks also made T8. 


Yes, and? Besides, there were still twice as many Fish decks in the top 8 

[Lunar]

Opp:Eot brainstorm
Me: Entomb for Possessed Portal, weld it in and having a squee in hand for maintaining cardadvantage.

God I LOVE doing that! Rich Shay even walked right into one when the deck originally was released, heh...People really dont pay too much attention to what Portal does, even after it being used in CA for a long time and it even showing up in Stax now...

@wake...

That means there were twice as many fish decks that didnt do as good as the Cerebral Assasin deck  Fish should be a pretty easy matchup for CA anyways...too many threats too fast for Fish (and the creatures are big to boot!)

I think ill quote your thing though steffen...very nice!

[BigMac]

What really surprised me was two things. First of all that unpowered decks made it to top 8, even two of them while round 70 percent of the decks was fully powered. And that the decks that made it unpowered were fish decks. To me those were considered obsolete and goners. Prooved me wrong though. Kudos to them unpowered fish decks.

This tournament and the Eindhoven one (another top 8 without power) once again show that unpowered decks can sneak into top eight and do well in a fully powered environment.

Another thing that surprised me was the great number of oath players. I played half of them on my way to the finals. I was lucky sometimes and they were unlucky sometimes. Out of those 8 only 1 made top 8. This to me prooves that the deck is not as good as people believe it to be. It still is viable though.

Another thing this tournament prooved to me was that there are a lot of decks out there that are viable enough to make top 8. So all the discussion about vintage being dull because there are to few decks that could do well to me is a lot of bogus. Look around and just go out and play something, innovate, look at cards, think of new stuff.

One last thing. As there were staxx decks in this tournament and none made top 8, perhaps staxx is not that good. Still a viable deck, but perhaps not as overbearing as some people want us to believe. It is an open metagame and doing well is an accomplishment in any tournament. Doing well with original decks is hard but can be done if you trust your deck and have fun.

[UR]

I think your statements come down to experience with a deck.

I know a couple of the people who played Oath and they picked it up because A) Oath does well, and B) they wanted to give it a try. But they had little or no experience with the deck and I think that the deck does require some thought.

The Fish players on the other hand looked like they knew what they were doing. I was watching one of them in round five and he beat Foodchain Goblins. To me, FCG looks like a nightmare for Fish. Sure, the FCG guy didn't draw the nuts, but Fish was screwed pretty bad sitting on two lands and still winning the game.

This guy also met Oath. So I think we can safely say that he knew what he was doing in making the T8 and didn't really 'luck through' the rounds.

[wake_of_destruction]

That means there were twice as many fish decks that didnt do as good as the Cerebral Assasin deck   Fish should be a pretty easy matchup for CA anyways...too many threats too fast for Fish (and the creatures are big to boot!)

I don't know CA at all, so I guess Fish could be an easy matchup. It just seemed like a doable deck to me after having played steffen (and getting my ass kicked, sure). I was a little surprised by the deck, but Fish can take care of many things, really. Disruption through Chalice and Mage, removal through StP (post-SB) and Jitte, permission through Prodigy, ..

This guy also met Oath. So I think we can safely say that he knew what he was doing in making the T8 and didn't really 'luck through' the rounds.

Such statements really prove how little you actually know about Fish (not meant to be offensive in any way). My brother has a solid budget/Null Rod Oath build and I play him all the time with my Fish. I can safely say that Oath is a very doable, if not wantable match-up. If I can get my Mage in on time I can usually stall long enough (he has to dig for answers) to set up the Prodigy/beat him to death. Otherwise it's a permission battle that can go either way. Sometimes, I even get away with the Jitte/Factory anti-Orchard 'combo'. Post-SB I add Stifle but especially SoC, and I really feel like having the upper hand.

In fact, I played 2 Oath decks on my way to the top 8 (1 unpowered, the other powered) and beat them both 2-1. I lost to Barrie 2-1 on the ID match though (we decided to play anyway).

[Moxlotus]

And if people are going to draw comparisons between crime rates in Canada and the States, I suggest someone look up the murder rate for all of Canada, and the rate for one major city in the States

You forgot about 2 things.  The player behind the deck and the build of the deck.

[Lunar]

I don't know CA at all, so I guess Fish could be an easy matchup. It just seemed like a doable deck to me after having played steffen (and getting my ass kicked, sure). I was a little surprised by the deck, but Fish can take care of many things, really. Disruption through Chalice and Mage, removal through StP (post-SB) and Jitte, permission through Prodigy, ..

While the CA talk is getting a bit off topic, heh...

Yes fish can deal with a lot of things...this is true, however modern CA builds that ive designed are intended specifically to deal with decks such as keeper-ish control and fish which early on COULD cause problems for CA due to a large amount of removal...I now am 100% confindant that I can go into matches against these decks and know that my builds are faster than either fish or keeper and can drop down enough threats that they cannot get to enough removal quick enough...fish especially is easier due to a lower number of disruption than Keeper like decks...honostly though, read my primer and the original thread jacob posted (that link is in the primer as well) it ill explain things out a bit more to you...

Honostly,....I had dropped CA for a bit when I was getting frustrated by these matchups...when I got tired of Stax again I picked CA back up and set about destroying the one managable bad matchup for me (fast combo like belcher and long is still a pain) and ive been very successful at creating something that rolls over fish and others like it..the quality of threats the deck drops as well is a factor when any one of them laughs at fish, even if fish can handle them initially (titan actually likes to be destroyed or swordsed, trike kills all your dudes, welder only needs one activation, duplicant eats a creature etc etc etc...portal lock after a duress even makes sure you will never get into an answer anyways)

Cerebral Assasin has long been overlooked due to the quality of the average CA player being low and people not understanding how it should run vs various matchups...I know better, heh...

[Duffy]

Play of the Day: Forcing the Oath player to give me my 4th spirit token. He casts Oath leaving Orchard open, I cast Daze. He opts to pay 1, I cast my 2nd Daze by returning an Island to my hand. He FoW, I misdirect. that was game. The best thing was his cry of utter disbelief. I just told him Ophidian rocks 

Stupidity counter: The Oath player trying to Echoing Truth my Morphling with 3 Islands open, while his friends are sitting next to him and watch.

The play of the day, and the stupidity counter both concerned my teammate and friend Lée Towers. I Just wanted to say that it's people like you with remarks like these that make the game "not fun" for people who are new to the format. The fact that his friends were sitting next to him during the match is of no importance, for they can't mingle. I find the post kind of offensive, and insulting. Please keep in mind that other people read these forums too.

Thanks in advance,

Floris

Sorry, I didn't mean to offend anyone. I was just amused by his reaction to my Misdirection (and by amused I mean, not in a negative way). It was a very recognizable reaction from him that I myself made many times, especially at the T1 nationals last year when someone just kept on out-countering me. It was a reaction of recognition as I knew what he was thinking/feeling.

Morphling keeps getting underestimated most of the times. Players forget you can untap it for instance, or in his case, make it untargetable. The fact that he's a new player has something to do with it ofcourse, but reading the card first would be a good idea for someone who's a new player at tourneys. If my memory serves me correctly he didn't read it before he casted the Truth.
Again, I too have made bad plays at tourneys when my friends were watching and sometimes they remember me of that. He told me he'd be in for that as well. It was all just for laughs.

No matter, the bottomline comes down to this: I'm sorry if I offended anyone, I offer my apologies if I did. It wasn't meant the way you put it. He was a good guy and a nice opponent (the nicest all day) and we had a couple of laughs. I hope to meet him again sometime at a tourney.
btw, you and the other guy (I remember there were 3 of you in total) were allrighty as well .

[Flopmeister]

Play of the Day: Forcing the Oath player to give me my 4th spirit token. He casts Oath leaving Orchard open, I cast Daze. He opts to pay 1, I cast my 2nd Daze by returning an Island to my hand. He FoW, I misdirect. that was game. The best thing was his cry of utter disbelief. I just told him Ophidian rocks 

Stupidity counter: The Oath player trying to Echoing Truth my Morphling with 3 Islands open, while his friends are sitting next to him and watch.

The play of the day, and the stupidity counter both concerned my teammate and friend Lée Towers. I Just wanted to say that it's people like you with remarks like these that make the game "not fun" for people who are new to the format. The fact that his friends were sitting next to him during the match is of no importance, for they can't mingle. I find the post kind of offensive, and insulting. Please keep in mind that other people read these forums too.

Thanks in advance,

Floris

Sorry, I didn't mean to offend anyone. I was just amused by his reaction to my Misdirection (and by amused I mean, not in a negative way). It was a very recognizable reaction from him that I myself made many times, especially at the T1 nationals last year when someone just kept on out-countering me. It was a reaction of recognition as I knew what he was thinking/feeling.

Morphling keeps getting underestimated most of the times. Players forget you can untap it for instance, or in his case, make it untargetable. The fact that he's a new player has something to do with it ofcourse, but reading the card first would be a good idea for someone who's a new player at tourneys. If my memory serves me correctly he didn't read it before he casted the Truth.
Again, I too have made bad plays at tourneys when my friends were watching and sometimes they remember me of that. He told me he'd be in for that as well. It was all just for laughs.

No matter, the bottomline comes down to this: I'm sorry if I offended anyone, I offer my apologies if I did. It wasn't meant the way you put it. He was a good guy and a nice opponent (the nicest all day) and we had a couple of laughs. I hope to meet him again sometime at a tourney.
btw, you and the other guy (I remember there were 3 of you in total) were allrighty as well .

Ah gosh, maybe I overreacted. I wasn't at the scene at the time, and just today, friends of mine took the time to clarify what happened. I'm sorry for that. So the situation was that after playing Echoing Truth on your morphling (with 3 blue open) and you making it untargetable,Léon said something like: i'm going to hear this for a long time. I didn't catch that from the post, and he was also so smart not to mention it to me in detail . We were with four in total: Floris (me playing slaver), Hans (playing workshop aggro/fish thingy), Léon (playing oath) and Guido (playing u/w fish). Too bad I don't have a visual on you by knowing your alias, your reaction clearly states that you're a really nice guy. Again sorry for taking things in the wrong way, hope to see you the next T1 tourney we go to,

Greetz,

Floris

[Eastman]

agreed...I havnt seen cerebral assasin not running the dragon win for a long long time (this includes all of my top 8 lists and since people generally run my lists when playing CA this means all of everybody elses lists generally run the dragon kill too)

Even the original list from the Hadley guys included the dragon win in the SB...you can take a look at the primer here: http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=16626 for more details...

I also moved the single dragon into the maindeck immediately after the deck went public. Prior to posting on TMD, no one knew the deck and thus the conversional sideboard was useful (opponents would mistakenly side in welder hate). Following the deck's publication the conversion lost its usefulness, and I moved to the single maindeck dragon.

I'm glad to see the deck is still played, and winning (I haven't played in awhile). Why didn't this guy call it CA?

Cerebral Assasin has long been overlooked due to the quality of the average CA player being low and people not understanding how it should run vs various matchups...I know better, heh...

I dunno about that. CA is about as easy to play as you can get in type 1.

[Lunar]

I dont know about that Eastman...certainly the deck does just win, but I see lots of mistakes in choosing a proper path to victory against decks.

Any deck just going bazaar, oops I drop Portal, weld it win is going to be easy at times...but thats just like going, oops, land mox oath or land mox mox tinker...actually those two examples are a bit easier...I also think the deck has advanced at least a little since that thread died a year ago or whenever...at least the builds ive worked on to improove.

I watch and hear of players (I always search out CA results and reports, and I actually get lots of PMs about the deck since I am probably the only super active person dealing with CA anymore) doing stupid things with the deck, I also know that players in my area have tried the deck with little success and I do really well with the build to this day...to me this means that experience with the deck and some decent play skill IS required for the deck to succeed...I think that how the deck wins makes it feel easy at times or look easy at times, but thats not always the case...

at the very least I wouldnt call it one of the easiest...maybe middle of the pack..

[Eastman]

that how the deck wins makes it feel easy at times or look easy at times, but thats not always the case...

at the very least I wouldnt call it one of the easiest...maybe middle of the pack..

It's definitely the easiest competitive deck of any I've played.


And those who were there at the tournaments I won having just invented it will remember that I made that commentary throughout.

I'm not saying that the awful players in vintage can't screw up CA as bad as they screw up every other deck. What I'm saying is that playing CA well isn't as difficult as playing many other top decks equally well.

[UR]

This guy also met Oath. So I think we can safely say that he knew what he was doing in making the T8 and didn't really 'luck through' the rounds.

Such statements really prove how little you actually know about Fish (not meant to be offensive in any way).

You're right, I don't know an awful lot about fish. All I've ever done with the deck is test a little. Before I owned power it was always on my list of playable decks but I never did so I have no serious match-experience with it. But I wasn't trying to say anything about the Oath matchup that Fish has. I was trying to point out that you did a good job at playing and you didn't just beat scrubs all day. I personally think Oath is 'the deck to beat' in Vintage since it has a pretty good all-round strategy and loads of answers and beating it is hard enough... especially unpowered.