|
jeffthefob
|
 |
« Reply #207 on: April 04, 2007, 06:31:33 pm » |
|
Seems like this thread is bit dead; lets try to spark it again ^_^. And straying away from the current discussion of Standstill a bit...
So Eudemonia had their Mox Emerald tourney. Out of the pool of 29 players (yes, not that much) Webster and I managed to top 8 and meet up in the finals where he scooped to me. I was running u/w fish because I did pretty well with it during the Mox Pearl tourney. And here is the list:
(It seems like the norm is to put tourney report in the tourney forum. But within this report I think I am more about discussing the Fish deck…, which belongs in this thread.)
4 Meddling Mage
3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
2 Kataki, War's Wage
4 Savannah Lions
3 Jotun Grunt
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
3 Null Rod
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
1 Time Walk
2 Swords to Plowshares
3 Echoing Truth
4 Daze
1 Misdirection
4 Flooded Strand
2 Island
1 Plains
2 Polluted Delta
1 Strip Mine
4 Tundra
3 Wasteland
1 Windswept Heath
Sideboard:
3 Old Man of the Sea
3 Seal of Cleansing
3 Orim's Chant
3 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Kataki’ War’s Wage
2 Swords to Plowshares
There is not that much difference between the choices from last time. With the exception of,
Main Deck:
+1 Misdirection
+1 Polluted Delta
-1 Kataki, War’s Wage.
-1 Wasteland
Sideboard:
+1 Old Man of the Sea
-1 Trickbind
I decide to give Mis-D a try because it just ridiculous sometimes. Too bad I never drew it, but there were a couple times where I *want* to draw it. The change in Wasteland is from the recent suggestion on the Fish thread.
The one Trickbind in the sideboard is just… loose. And an extra Old Man of the Sea seems pretty good because there seems to be more Fish decks this time as I overheard people talking in the mornings at the site.
So two days before the tourney I drove Eirik and met up with Web at Eudemonia. Mainly to buy some cards and they were: Yawgmoth’s Bargain, Hurkyl’s Recall, and Mana Vault ^^” Yeah, I was on the verge of not playing U/W Fish. The original plan was to play and practice the Ritual Gift deck with Web on Saturday and see how I like it. And of course, the Ritual Gift plan fell apart in couple ways.
1. I was chatting with Luis online who can’t make it to the tourney, and he basically suggested me playing Fish because I am really comfortable with it. Told me I shouldn’t just force myself to play Gifts.
2. During practice session at Web’s place I realize I think too much when I cast Gifts Ungiven… There were simply too much decisions and calculations for a simple mind like me to handle.
3. Fish recently put up a result, mainly Dave’s win where there was TWO fish deck in the finals. So I was thinking, okay if I can do well with Fish… then… ^^ Well, basically I like Fish, a lot. I know with it I can maximize my play skills and take advantage of the deck.
One of my biggest fear of playing Fish is the dreaded card Massacre. I mean, that card just isn’t fair. And from what I gathered and my experience, the best to do is not to play directly into it unless you have to. And since Web and Luis deck did so well last time, I am expecting a lot more Gift players with Massacre in the sideboard (honestly, I was expecting Massacre out of every Swamp deck’s sideboard). So I play couple board games with Web. During practice, it proved that the match up is so much harder, Gift player board up to like 9 cards against me while I only board in the Chants. It was hard, all the men except Jotun Grunts die to Massacre, difficult to put decent pressure. The key is then obvious, Jotun Grunts. It survives Massacre, minimize power of Yawgwill, and just beats like crazy… So from what I think, Grunts have to resolve, and it is the best way to ride to victory.
I guess the major difference in the deck is the card, Stifle. I have a love and hate relationship with this card, it is just so good at times but not at others. People plays around them, expects them, and what not. I honestly don’t really know what to do with this card. It stops EtW, which is critical, but at the Pearl tourney I didn’t use it and I was fine. Besides, all of mine opponents were playing around and expecting Stifle. So maybe until I feel like “wow, I need Stifle at *this* situation.” I don’t think I will put it in.
So I guess I will write about the tourney. Again, please excuse my grammar (if you haven’t done so already :-p) and my memories. I am fairly confident I know what was going on in the games, but might be off here and there. No offense to anyone.
Round 1 – Belcher.
Game 1- Round 1 is always blurry, but here is what happened roughly. As he shuffled he accidentally revealed a Bayou. That gave me plenty that he is probably playing. He Land Grant and showed Cabal Ritual (Cabal), Demonic Consultation, Belcher, Brainstorm, Chromatic Stars, and Mox Ruby. Knowing he was Belcher I actually was looking for FoW in my opener and I did, along with Meddling Mages so I thought I was good. I FoW’ed his Belcher, played Meddling Mages on Belcher and Yawgwill. Wasted his Bayou that he Land Granted, beating him down with my dorks thinking I was doing good. BAM! Tinker L I probably should had named Tinker instead of Yawgwill on the second mage. Surprisingly he didn’t have Tin Man main, so he gets out a Belcher with only 2 mana. Obviously he got the 3rd land source (ESG or SSG, uncounterable L) before I rip Null Rod (the forbidden peek!). I lost, DI damages to my dome.
Sideboard: +3 Chant, + 1 Kataki. –2 StP, -1 Mis-D, -1 Isamaru.
Game 2- This game I had a pretty broken start. I Ancestral off Sapphire then brainstorm the following turn putting 2 lands back and broke a fetchland, played a dog (Isamaru). My hand had Daze, FoW, Grunt, Kataki, and etc. But didn’t find my Null Rod. But luckily my Dog, Kataki, and Grunt just pounded him in before he can go off. I Dazed his Dark Ritual 2 or 3 turns before he died. So yeah, Daze was pretty good this game ^^
Game 3- I pretty sure I mulled, because I didn’t have FoW or rod in my hand. And my second hand had FoW and Null Rod, how lucky :-p. Well… this game turned out to be “interesting.” He tried to cast Land Grant, but the hand he revealed to me was: Belcher x2, Tinker, Demonic Tutor, Duress, Sol Ring, and an irrelevant Mox. So, pretty much the Land Grant didn’t resolve, Null rod came down soon. Dorks were beating their way in, and everything was academic ^^”
Round 2- Kevin with Belcher. I played against this guy before in top 8 of a Bazaar Tourney held by Scott (Lunar). He was playing Belcher back then, but I wasn’t so sure how. I thought he was playing some Grim Tutor decks. Boy, was I SO wrong *cries*
Game 1- He went ALL in with Mox x3, remove ESG, and resolved a Belcher. My hand had a turn 1 Cat (Savannah Lions) and Daze up, along with brainstorms and decent goodies, so if I played first I would had call and beat his all in. I topdecked Ancestral, but didn’t draw Lotus and Null Rod :-p. And he showed me 26 non-land cards… the next card on top of my library was… Null Rod. Why did I even look ^^”
Oh, same board ^^
Game 2- He didn’t get much started as I Dazed his plays and had a turn 1 critter. Kataki crippled his Sol Ring and Grunts increased the clock dramatically. <3 Grunts.
Game 3- He mulligan. Thought long and hard about keeping it, a tell ^^ that his hand probably isn’t that good. I mulligan too, because my hand had no FoW or Null Rod. My 6 showed a turn 1 Null Rod ^_^ So I hope I would get a turn… and I did. Then I played 2x Meddling Mages naming Tinker and Yawgwill. He dropped from 20, 18, 14, 8, and dead. Four two powered critters ran him over. Oh BTW, he had both Tinker and Yawgwill in his hand ^_^
Round 3- Suicide Black. He was 2-0, he beat Ichorid last round, had Masticore in his board!!!
Game 1- I lost my 3rd die roll of the day. Sad face. He Duress, I FoW because I had Daze in my hand. I landed a Cat turn 1. While his Hymn was Misdirected Dazed (Man, so WISHED I drew the random Misdirection) Then he proceeds to rip up my hand with another Hymn, a Sinkhole followed. Later played a Confident that went farming. But my Cat brought him down to 12 before he dropped a Negator. But I topdeck a Meddling Mage naming Hypnotic Specter after debating naming Confident or that. (He played one Confident already, so I guessed Hippie was a good name, saw him playing them in previous round as well) and we chill for a while. We play on top of our decks and I drew a second cat. So I swung in with the Cat I had on board and he blocked and sacrificed two lands. I dropped the Cat I drew. He then surprised me by attacking with Negator! He had Negator and 3 swamps as his permanents… so I double blocked, took 2 trample, he sacrificed all his permanent, and I hope to draw a man soon. Then I drew Meddling Mages :-p naming Hypnotic Specter again (after a short debate on Bob, probably should had been Bob regardless of the outcome). Then top of my library delivered a Grunt, it was nice :-p and he drew dead. He ended up having like 2 Hypnotic Specters on his hand.
Sideboard: +3 Old Man, +3 Jitte, +2 Swords. Taking out, 3 Null Rod, 1 Echoing Truth, 2 Kataki, and 2 Dazes.
Game 2- I kept a hand composed of: Mox, Brainstorm, Cat, and 4 lands. My reasoning was I need to get land on board, between his Duress and Hymn my hand will most likely to be taken apart, brainstorm helps a lot here. But he starts off with the infamous Ritual, Duress, and Hymn. Taking out my Brainstorm, Cat, and land. I ripped another Brainstorm and but wasn’t able to get much going. After a couple turns, I got a Old Man on board and started swinging. He drew bit more mana than me and ripped DT getting Masticore… but got a little bit too excited and play Masticore and the land in his hand to maximize Masticore’s ability. Then I pick up Masticore to read it. He picks up Masticore as well, to put it in his graveyard. Then he ripped Vamp. Tutor and got Dystopia, probably because he was too tilted from the Masticore mistake. Dystopia does nothing against my Old Man. Old Man just beats in.
I then took two intentional draws to get into top 8.
Quarterfinals. Jenkins Mitchell with Gifts.
Game 1- I won the die row for the first time. Got a pretty decent hand with Dog, Daze, Brainstorm, Fetchland, Meddling Mage, Ancestral, and a land. But his first play was blue land, Mox Jet, and Ancestral himself. The Daze looked bit disappointing… Then he proceed to FoW my Meddling Mage, I follow up with a Wasteland the turn after where he Merchant Scroll for FoW. The turn later I resolved my Grunt (him choosing not to FoW it) and that forced him to act soon. He cast Gifts EoT, knowing that he have FoW up, I baited with Ancestral, which he countered. Then I Dazed his Gift for the win. It turns out he had Yawgwill in his hand, but was too little on gas cards in his yard to fully utilize it. How lucky for me :-p (the top 3 cards were: land, land, and a dork)
Sideboard: +3 Chant, -2 StP, -1 Isamaru.
Game 2- I mulligan. The game was bit slow but I got a Dog online. Then I cast Lotus, break for white, cast Chant (he FoW, which I thought was bit wrong), then I resolved a Grunt. Then the duo dealt 12 damage to him. He then cast a Gift EoT, which I quickly let it resolve. I had FoW, Echoing Truth, and Chant in my hand
Semifinals. Christiaan running u/w/b Fish. I was very surprised because I always see him playing Yawgwill decks not Fish decks :-p. He have been around for a while (since when I started playing Vintage :-p) , I was bit afraid.
Game 1- I won the die row! 2/2 in the Top 8, must be nice ^^. It is even nicer when I led off with Ancestral during his upkeep ^^ I then proceed to FoW his Confident and Dazed his next play. At that time I also have a Cat and a Meddling Mage naming Confident (which he was holding a couple in his hand). He then resolved Grunt followed by a Stripmine on my Plains L (I fetch out the basic too!) So at this point, I have 2 Grunts and StP in my hand, with 2 dorks out compared to his hand of at least one Confident, another unknown card in hand, and a Grunt on board. He proceed to swing at me (we started exchanging 4 life), so if I draw my White in the next couple turns I would be in good shape because I can either play my own Grunt or StP. After beating me down to 6 I drew my white and StP his fresh Grunt. He was unable to find 8 cards to put back to library so his old Grunt dies as well. I pretty much rode my 2 creatures to victory.
Sideboard: +3 Old Man, +2 StP, +3 Jitte. –3 Null rods, -1 Echoing Truth, -4 Daze.
Game 1- He starts with a basic Island and go, while I went for another “broken” Fish play: Lotus, Sac. for white, play Mage on Confident (which is obviously have) and a dog, burning for one. His turn two was bit uneventful as he Diabolic Edicts away my dog, so my Mage beats in. I think I FoW his Echoing Decay targeting my Mage the turn after. Then he cast his sideboard Thread on my Mage. I then resolved Grunts and Jitte in short order and equip. **If you guys look at the picture Lotushead took, the one with Grunts carrying a Jitte** I am describing that situation right now. This is also when I made a big mistake. Instead of playing the land I had in my hand, I swung in with the Grunt. He cast Echoing Decay on my Grunt, so I cast the Brainstorm in my hand in response seeing: Cat, Cat, and Echoing Truth (FCUK!) If I play the land then I could had cast Echoing Truth on the Mage and that would be game! It is true that my Brainstorm was pretty good, but what if he has Darkblast? Instead of ending the game right then, I let it carry on for another turn. But luckily he didn’t have much, he played the two confidents in his hand, which Jitte ate. I was able to let the Cats to do the final damages.
I was lucky that I drew the restricted cards, those boost the chances of winning.
So the metagame here is different depends on places, one of the reason why I didn’t play Stifle. Christiaan was expecting me to Stifle his fetchlands during game 1 of our match, and after the match he was wondering about of all the fetchlands he cracked and strip effects he used, how come he didn’t see Stifle? I told him I was running zero at all, he was pretty surprised. It seems like everyone expect fish to run this card, so I didn’t run them, my opponents wouldn’t know that. All of the u/w/b Fish that top 8 played Stifle, which is not wrong, I saw Brett Stifling couple of Web’s fetchlands during round 4 and that set Web back. I felt like StP was needed more. And I felt like every time when I drew StP I was happy that I have just enough. Of course, against my Belcher opponents if I drew/had Stifle, then I get to survive a turn more, which probably will make a difference (and yes, I did have StP on one of those losing games which would had made a huge difference). So, what are you guys’ thoughts on Stifle?
Fish mirrors. I played two of them in the last two tourneys and every time I was victorious after board, because of Jitte. I think the mirror is all about having more men out, swinging and trading. Grunts is one of the best men because he is big requires two two powered dorks to take it out. While Jitte just breaks the rules of mirror… Jitte with counters kills everything except Grunts. Also, Old Man is very good too. By himself he is big enough to block all Fish men (except Grunts *shock*) and he too breaks of the rule of mirror; he steals dorks continuously. I have 19 men post board opposed to the 14 to 15 men in average Fish decks, which gives an advantage too. With 4 StP, 3 Old Man, 3 Jitte, and Echoing Truth, I was really confident going into every sideboard game of fish mirrors. I believe Jitte should stay.
It is also true that I played against some more unusual decks that we don’t see in my last two tourneys. But is that good or bad for the fish deck? I just think Fish requires tighter play because its power is relatively weaker compared to other decks (ie: less explosive). It is true that my 3rd Round opponent got a little bit too excited, but the opening hand I kept was perfect. It has lands, brainstorm, and one dork, with him on the play he can destroy my hand really easily, so the best way is to play as much lands as possible and just play off top of your deck, cards like brainstorm is going to get me to my stuffs. Against the two opponents playing Belcher in my early rounds, there were just some REQUIRED cards that I need. Both of my top 8 opponents were certainly decent players who know what they were doing. But it is also my knowledge of the Fish deck that allows me to be in a vantage point. I didn’t lose a single match in the last two tourneys with my U/W Fish, this probably means that it isn’t all random wins. This means that Fish is actually a decent deck; its strategy and approach of the game is legit and may have a lot of room for improvements.
I would like to ask you guys’ opinion of the card; Stifle. Secondly, Fish Vs. Fish sideboard (I think what I have right now is quite optimal, but I seek improvements). Third, Ichorid match up, any suggestions; I ran the plan: “I am not going to play against any Ichorid.” And lastly, post board Gift match up, is there anything I can do to improve it? I believe against a solid Gift player, U/W Fish have an extreme tough match up post board against Gifts.
Thanks for your patience for reading this ^^ Let us improve our performances of our fish decks and put results where the Fish deserves.
|
