Well it's been awhile since my last tournament, but here we are. Sunday 1.5, we got 11 players. Here's the breakdown, with names where known:
B/W BraidsStax (Derek)
R/w Goblins
DredgAtog (Matt)
Angel Stompy (Woodrow)
Fecundity combo (Tristan)
Rec-Sur (John)
R/G Survival
Tradewind Geddon (Eric)
U/w/b Landstill
U/B Confidant Fish (John)
G/W/U Survival
My decklist:
//Card drawing
4 Brainstorm
4 Accumulated Knowledge
3 Intuition
1 Mystical Tutor
//Primary Engine
1 Wonder
1 Stinkweed Imp
1 Life from the Loam
1 Regrowth
//Removal
4 Force of Will
4 Counterspell
3 Pernicious Deed
2 Darkblast
1 Putrefy
1 Persecute
//Winners
4 Psychatog
4 Nimble Mongoose
//Lands
2 Lonely Sandbar
1 Wasteland
1 Cabal Pit
4 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
1 Land Grant
4 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
2 Bayou
3 Island
//Sideboard
SB: 4 Engineered Plague
SB: 1 Vedalken Shackles
SB: 1 Pernicious Deed
SB: 1 Naturalize
SB: 1 Putrefy
SB: 1 Life from the Loam
SB: 1 Mystical Tutor
SB: 1 Gifts Ungiven
SB: 1 Massacre
SB: 1 Haunting Echoes
SB: 1 Nature's Ruin
SB: 1 Constant Mists
I arrived just as they were entering names into the pairing software. I had little time to build a deck, so I had to quickly choose from the decks I had built: Tide, G/B Survival, and the Tog list I'd been working on. Seeing as my fetchlands were in the Tog list, it required the least card movement, so I went with that. Way to metagame, eh? I threw together a SB and off I went.
ROUND ONE - Tristan (Fecundity combo)
This wasn't pretty for him, despite him winning the die roll. I let Ashnod's Altar and Saproling Cluster go, then Deeded the board (killing a Bird, the loss of which took two Thran Quarries out). I got off Intuition for Loam and Wasteland and later on Togged out.
In: Haunting Echoes, Deed, Naturalize
Out: Stinkweed Imp, Cabal Pit, Darkblast.
Game two I let him actually cast the whole combo and go off, drawing his whole deck, then Intuitioned for triple Force and countered his Whetstone. He got infinite life with Staff of Domination, and got infinte tokens...but he had to pass the turn, which I used to drop and blow a Deed. He drew his one Darksteel Colossus which had been shuffled back in, and got himself decked. So I beat him with his own combo.
ROUND TWO - David (Confidant Fish)
Again I lose the die roll, and it makes game one is very, very close. He wins the counterwar over my first Deed, but the second makes it through. However, the tempo he's gotten from a Jitted Cloud of Faeries has left me at a precarious four life. However, when the dust clears I drop a Mongoose and ride that to victory.
In: Massacre, Shackles, Deed, Putrefy, 3 Engineered Plague (lots of X/1s, and I'll never need to Deed for more than two against him)
Out: Stinkweed Imp, Wonder, Loam (I was expecting graveyard hate), Mystical Tutor, Regrowth, Land Grant
Game two can be summarized easily: Darkblast destroys Fish. He tried to rules lawyer me about some EOT Darkblasting, which was an especially low move considering I had to remind him that Flooded Strand can't get a basic swamp
multiple times. In the end it didn't matter, two Mongeese is a fast clock.
ROUND THREE - John (Rec-Sur)
This round was a lot less fun. This guy was one of the annoying types of Magic player. When he was winning, he was god's gift to card games; when he was losing, he was manascrewed and that
never happens to his deck. Remember folks, "winners" and "whiners" aren't spelled the same.
I win the die roll. Game one I counter his turn two Survival, and then I make a HUGE mistake. I need green mana to use the Loam I have in hand, so I Mystical...for Land Grant. It would have been infinitely better to get Intuition, and use THAT to get triple fetch for Tropical Island. Then he resolves a second Survival, and while I stalled out, he abused it a bunch then launced a Living Death at me. He had an Avalanche Rider which whacked my Trop, leaving me with no green mana. A couple turns later, I just conceded.
In: Haunting Echoes, Shackles, Putrefy, Deed
Out: Darkblast, Regrowth, Persecute, Stinkweed Imp
I didn't bring the Naturalize in because if Survival gets an activation, I've already lost. I countered a Survival, Deeded a Bop, Masticore, and Spike Weaver, then won somehow. Oh yeah, and he mulliganed to five.
Game three he once again got the "incredibly unlucky" mana screw. I took a risk and kept a hand featuring Cabal Pit and Land Grant as my only mana (but with lots of gas otherwise), but I topdecked a Trop and fetch the next two turns and it all fell into place. He conceded when I got Loam/Wasteland going. His buddy playing next to us was also being a dick; talking later, it turns out no one really likes him.
ROUND FOUR - Derek (B/W BraidStax)
He wins the die roll, and it makes all the difference. This game goes LONG. I have to wait out a Smokestack at one counter, while countering the occasional Crucible. I accumulate a hand of Island, Island, Underground Sea, Tog. If I can just get one turns' reprieve, I can get that second Island down, counter his play, then play a Tog and Tog out. But I never get that one turn reprieve, as he topdecks the Smokestacks like it's his job, which I suppose it is.
In: Deed, Loam, Putrefy, Naturalize
Out: Darkblast, Stinkweed Imp, Wonder, Persecute
I manage to get a Deed down under his two Spheres of Resistance but I never need it, as I draw like nine lands (including playing out my two Sandbars), get Loam/Waste going soon enough and the Spheres end up hurting him a lot worse than they did me.
Game three was another close one. It went to time and though he had the complete lock (Crucible, Braids, Sphere of Resistance) he couldn't kill me fast enough once the five addtional turns was called and we ended up with the unintentional draw. I was DEFINITELY not stalling - in fact I was starting to get worried HE was stalling in game two for awhile! Derek's a standup guy, I was just getting paranoid after the unsporting shit the last two rounds sent me. Anyway, I Deeded a Crucible and tried to ride out a Smokestack, assembling an awesome hand of Naturalize, Putrefy, Deed, Tog, and three lands. But again, I never could get to two mana to start breaking out of the lock. If I'd been running Mox Diamond or something, or if the Naturalize had been an Oxidize, I could have had this game won.
As it was, I'll take the draw, and with that I finish in first place with a 3-0-1 match record, and a 7-2-1 game record.
Thoughts on the deck:
Wasteland/Loam was excellent all day long; I may try to get a second Wasteland in here somewhere.
Stinkweed Imp was my most sided-out card, and I never felt like I needed it. I guess it serves some purpose as a way to deal with large fat things like the sort Reanimator might dish out, but overall I don't like it. It may become another Putrefy or something, I don't know.
The Land Grant was awful, and only played because of my lack of a third Trop. Grant is the worst card in the deck by far.
Darkblast is a fucking house. This card is awesome.
The anti-synergy between Mongoose and Tog only came up once, and it didn't matter that game. Mongoose is the better complement to Tog than Werebear or similar because it evades the stuff Tog doesn't, such as REB and StP and Maze of Ith. Also, it takes down Lackeys like a champ, and Darkblast turbocharges my threshold in much the way 3cThreshold uses Mental Note.
Persecute never got a chance to shine, but it is a great weapon nonetheless. Tutor it up, wipe their hand, drop Tog, and win. It's a trump against MWC's clogged hand full of removal. It's possible this should be the Haunting Echoes, which is a lot more universally useful.
Cabal Pit was another powerful silver bullet whose werewolf never showed - it's tits at removing white weenies, who often have some very annoying pro:black abilities (either naturally or granted by Mother of Runs).
I never felt the need for another Loam maindeck. Intuition and Mystical are my Loams #2-4.
The sideboard was basically me saying, "Here are some control cards I never use. Let's use them." The Mystical was crap when my gameplan is better than "find silver bullet, the Gifts only useful for the blue control "mirror", Nature's Ruin (which I thought was tech against Meddling Mage) lets them regenerate so it needs to become Perish, I'm not sure where Constant Mists is useful, and the Plagues were possibly overkill because Goblins hasn't been a terrible matchup. Fitting in some cheaper graveyard hate would be pretty good -- probably Coffin Purge, which has synergy with Intuition and dredge.
