Untouchables March 24th: Beta Recall (3rd)

[dicemanx]

Here is the deck I ran in the Beta Ancestral Recall event at Untouchables Sports Cards and Comics on March 24th:

Artifacts:
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

Instants:
4 Accumulated Knowledge
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
1 Chain Of Vapor
1 Dark Ritual
1 Fact Or Fiction
4 Force Of Will
1 Gush
2 Intuition
4 Mana D*rain
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Rebuild
2 Thirst For Knowledge
1 Vampiric Tutor

Sorceries:
1 Demonic Tutor
2 Merchant Scroll
2 Tendrils Of Agony
1 Time Walk
1 Y*awgmoth's Will

Lands:
4 Island
3 Flooded Strand
1 Library Of Alexandria
2 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
1 Tolarian Academy

Sideboard:
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Darksteel Colossus
3 Dark Confidant
2 Psychatog
1 Echoing truth
1 Hurkyl's Recall
4 Duress
1 Tinker

This is Cody Vinci’s winning Drain Tendrils deck from SCGP9:Roanoke with a few modifications – I cut the 3rd TfK, a 2nd Rebuild, and the Frantic Search for 2 Merchant Scrolls (bringing the deck down to 60 cards in the process, since Cody ran 61 cards). I figured that the Scrolls were more flexible and could fetch AKs, not to mention the bounce, AR, or FoW/Drain. It seemed to be a good decision and the deck felt very solid despite my limited experience with it. I opted for this deck instead of my traditional Gifts because I felt that traditional Gifts can struggle in the attrition war department versus other Drain decks (since it runs so few card drawing spells), and I felt that Cody’s deck is definitely underappreciated and underplayed. He had good results with Drain Tendrils and related builds in 2006 (see: http://tinyurl.com/yo8oha), and his consistent performances factored into my decision to run this deck.

I also reworked the SB to be part transformational, so that I would stay aggressive against decks packing Trickbind/Extirpate or lots of other hate like Null Rod, Tormod’s Crypt, or Duress and  REB which the Confidants adeptly avoid. I planned to bring in Confidants in just about every match post SB, and the Psychatogs and Tinker was specifically against Null Rod Fish/Prison decks so that I wouldn’t have to struggle defensively against cards like Null Rod or quick beaters. Psychatog seemed like a better answer than Massacre, which might only trade 1-for-1 and doesn’t stop Jotun Grunt. Plus, I counted on facing very little creature removal post SB, which further cemented my decision to run such a SB.

Here is my report from the event, which attracted 60 people from the GTA and surrounding regions, along with attracting a handful of US players.

Round 1 Kevin Swan with MDG

Game 1: The AK engine gives me a slight edge in this match-up, since I have an easier time generating card advantage via the AK engine along with my back-up plans of Scrolling for Ancestral or going the TfK, Gush, or Fact or Fiction route. This is what happened game 1 – I manage to get my draw engine going after some early attrition wars involving Drains and FoW. I draw into enough countermagic via AKs for 3 and 4 to stop his draw spells and bombs from resolving like Gifts Ungiven and Yawgmoth’s Will. Unfortunately the critical moment comes where I resolve my last AK and build a massive hand to his 0 cards, but I’m tapped out with no FoW in hand. He draws into a Merchant Scroll which he turns into Ancestral Recall, drawing subsequently into a Tinker. I’m not particularly worried since DSC is too slow of a clock, but unfortunately he is running Sundering Titan instead and takes out two of my lands and sets me back a bit which prevents me from winning outright next turn. I continue setting up on my turns and have to eat 7 damage twice, but the turn before I die I have enough resources in hand to go off with Ritual-Yawgmoth’s Will-Tendrils. He has 1 card in hand at this point and I have to risk playing into a possible Drain since his Titan took away my Drain mana and I exhausted too many FoWs early. He doesn’t have the Drain, so I win a close game.

I SB in the 3 Dark Confidants and 4 Duresses, removing some other draw spells like 2 TfK, and a few other random cards (I think I removed Mana Vault, Vampiric Tutor, Chain of Vapor, and a Tendrils). My memory might be failing me, but I think I might have SBed in Tinker-DSC as well. My SB strategy was geared towards having alternate kill against Trickbind or Extirpate, as I was especially anticipating the latter to some extent based on what Shock Wave told me the night before.

Game 2: The game couldn’t be better for me from a strategic standpoint. I resolve a couple of Duresses early slowing his development. He was a bit mana light but did have a Trickbind in hand, while I drew lots of mana but little on the business side. I took my time even with a Brainstorm in hand, since his development was really slow and I had a FoW and Drain at the ready early on. In the meantime he tutored up an Extirpate which surprised me, as he decided not to go for Ancestral Recall. He Extirpated my Duresses hoping to have his Trickbind stop me cold. Unfortunately for him, I resolved a couple of Dark Confidants and started swinging, building up a huge hand which included Yawgmoth’s Will and Tendrils. He ended up tapping out in a counter war and Will did him in, but the combination of Confidants and Tendrils would have overwhelmed him regardless – even if he stops the Tendrils with Trickbind the YWill would have resurrected the Tendrils again.

I felt happy that I was able to formulate a decent strategy against Extirpate, which I think can be a strong plan against unprepared opponents but strategically weak against a deck that diversifies its threats.

Result: 2-0
Match record: 1-0

Round 2: Craig Molnar with Bomberman

Before the round starts, I’m flagged for deck-registration error. Uh-oh, here we go again – at my last event, I also made an error with my list costing me the finals and forcing me to split. This time around it turns out that I submitted a 59 card list – when I printed off the SCG list it omitted one card – the Mana Crypt - from the printer-friendly version. Cody’s original decklist was 61 cards which I wanted to trim down to 60, but since Crypt was omitted I was left with 59 cards. Initially I was told that I would have to remove the Crypt for a basic Island, but it turned out that the proper ruling was to have me add Crypt as the 60th card and get a game loss in my next match. Sigh. I learned that it is a bad idea to print off a list and not check it 10 minutes from the event, and an even worse idea to be making the modifications to that list when speeding on the freeway trying to make it to the event on time. But then again, if its not last minute, its just not exciting enough .

OK, so back to the match – we start game 2 pre-SB with a game loss for me, but as consolation I get to decide whether to play or draw. Craig was a devoted Vial-Fish player when I observed him play in some 2006 events, and I even managed to eke out a win against him a year ago in three games with GiftsX. I’m predicting that he would stick with the small men, although I quickly discover that he is with probably Bomberman today and is fielding both Mana Leaks and M*ana Drains. Game 1 he doesn’t do anything exciting beside play Moxes, land, Time Walk and Brainstorm, while I draw into a Lotus and Ancestral. While I build my hand I hesitate in going for the throat as he has been accumulating cards through his natural draw phase but not resolving anything, so even though he has played a Tundra I still had no idea what exactly he was playing and figured he must either be bluffing or drawing into a lot of disruption. He finally blinks first and goes for a Trinket mage, which I counter successfully. He tries it again next turn, but this time my attempt at countering is met by Mana Leak and FoW, so the Mage gets through. This is a problem, because that mage immediately fetches a Tormod’s Crypt and my Yawgmoth’s Will isn’t going to happen once he passes the turn. Fortunately, I still have Rebuild and CoV in the deck, and haven’t used my AK engine yet. I’m also ahead in the card count, but he’s putting some pressure with his beater in play. I manage to sculpt my hand into a Rebuild backed by countermagic and some business, and fire off a Rebuild end of turn to force him to Crypt. He does, but then I immediately get to work with the Intuition-AK engine fattening up my graveyard very quickly. The YWill comes shortly afterwards unmolested as I’m on the brink of death from the Mage, and a Tendrils finishes him off.

SB: I bring in the Confidants and Tinker-DSC, this time leaving Duress in the SB. I’m not sure what specifically got taken out, but it was some combination of 1 Tendrils + Island + Vamp + Fact or Fiction + 1 TfK + Dark Ritual. I suspect that if he is with Bomberman (not 100% because I didn’t see a Salvagers, and Trinket Mages could conceivably be used outside of Bomberman effectively) he won’t be packing much post SB in terms of creature removal.

Game 2, sure enough, I get a Confidant down. I take some damage but some Brainstorms help offset much of that damage. Once again he manages to resolve a Trinket Mage and gets a Crypt into play, but just like the previous game I have ample resources to overcome the threat to my graveyard. He isn’t drawing much in terms of card drawing so I have an easier time establishing card s*uperiority, so it will be a race between my Confidant killing me versus drawing into enough business to overcome the Crypt. I put him in a very tough position since I cast an Intuition for 3 AKs with a 4th AK in hand, and when I resolve the Rebuild, I AK in response to his Crypt and draw a boatload of cards. He cannot catch up with the massive card advantage and I Will shortly thereafter into a Tendrils for the kill before the Confidant can kill me.

Result: 2-0
Match record: 2-0


 
Round 3: Some guy with a deck straight out of 2001 – they tell me he’s apparently pretty good .

Round 3 begins initially with me facing off against Andrew Oyen’s B/U Landstill with 4 Extirpates which I’m a little nervous about game 1 since game 1 might be a foregone conclusion, but fortunately we get a repairing. The bad news is that I’m repaired into a worse match-up – a t*eammate . Rich Mattiuzzo with U/R Landstill is my opponent, and we come to the conclusion with the assistance of Rich Hoaen that if we draw it would not do as any good, so we must play it out. Well, at least it should be an exciting match-up, since Landstill is a very unique deck in the meta and is a significant upgrade from Fish in my view – it basically runs Null Rods, 5 Ancestrals, and replaces all of the tiny beaters with good disruption cards, at least post SB. Game 1, however, I can probably claim a big edge since Rich’s Landstill has some useless cards and he’ll have difficulty stopping the Ak engine. That is precisely what ends up happening – I see an early LoA stripped away, but I have some AK action which he cannot stop, and his man lands cannot apply enough pressure before I accumulate a big hand and explode after bouncing a Null Rod.

SB: I bring in Confidants only, as I’m not sure if Duresses will be any better than card drawing or other disruption; plus, I don’t want to overload on B cards because Rich is running Stifles and a full complement of Wastes/Strip and I don’t have a basic Swamp to work with.

Game 2 is going to be a nightmare by comparison, as not only will I have to deal with CotV on the draw, but a huge amount of counterspells with REB entering the picture and joining Drain, FoW, and Misd in the process. My b*est chance it to exploit Landstill’s slow powerless starts and the fact that it runs few card drawing spells and no Brainstorms, but such an edge is quickly mitigated game 2 when Rich opens up with a CotV for 0. This nullifies my Mox and Lotus in hand, but luckily for me I have the lands necessary to develop my manabase. However, my development is slow and not explosive enough and I’m behind on virtual card advantage due to my dead artifact mana and inability to exploit my Intuition-AK engine, and I quickly succumb to manland damage – Landstill can put on surprisingly fast pressure when you’re trying to claw past CotV and Null Rod. I believe this game was decided on turn 1 – the CotV stopped by Lotus start which would have produced a Confidant backed by a Drain along with another draw spell if the Confidant would go through.

Game 3 was likewise decided on turn 1-2. I have the opportunity to set up a turn 2 Ancestral with FoW back-up, but the fact that Landstill plays a Volcanic Island on its turn 1was sufficient – my Recall is REBed and my FoW is Fowed, and when Rich untaps there is the inevitable follow-up of turn 2 Null Rod. The three cards in concert killed any chances, as I was left without resource in hand and my fast mana was neutered. We play out further turns but the game is essentially over at this point. Manlands make short work of me.

Why people play Fish when to me this appears to be a much better and very underappreciated Rod-based archetype is beyond me. And hey, maybe I’ll get more hate mail for criticizing Fish again .

Result 1-2
Match record: 2-1

Round 4: ??? with Long

Sorry, forgot my opponent’s name, but he was a pleasant individual who has made a return to T1 magic after a 4-5 year hiatus. Remarkably, from what he described, he managed to construct Long entirely by himself, and the only cards he omitted were the Grim Tutors which he couldn’t add because of proxy card limits. He chose to add a Windfall, Enlightened Tutor, and Mox Diamond. Even though I am facing a slightly weaker version, I still have to remain vigilant. I also will have to contend with Duresses and Xantid Swarm.

Game 1 he explodes in the first two turns with some fast mana including Mox Diamond, but I Drain his Ancestral and begin building my mana and hand. I have to pass a subsequent turn without Drain or FoW up, so he manages to take advantage by ripping a Ritual off the top to power a small YawgWill into an Ancestral and a Duress, getting a Necropotence into hand from a previous set-up with Enlightened Tutor. Unfortunately he is stuck without 3 black mana, only having two sources in play – Jet and Gemstone Mine. He passes the turn, but I cannot draw into countermagic while I am drawing cards with Brainstorm and AK. I still like my position as I have a significant edge cardwise, but he quickly negates that by ripping a Dark Ritual and plays his Necro, but makes a possible error of only going for 7 cards. It probably doesn’t matter since at this point I’m accumulating cards and building a large mana base, and sure enough on my turn I’m able to go off with YawgWill into a lethal Tendrils for only 14.

SB: I bring in Duresses and one Tormod’s Crypt, removing some bounce, an Island, and a Vampiric along ith one other random card. I also SB in the Confidants and replace some of the more expensive draw spells like TfK.

Game 2: This game goes a lot smoother, as I have a lot of disruption and card drawing in Confidants that I can set up very quickly. I’m fuzzy on the details at this point, probably because he had to mull down to 5 or 6 and failed to produce much busness. I win.

Result: 2-0
Match record: 3-1

The good news after this match is that I'm still well in the running for top 8, and Rich is in with a perfect 4-0 record as he can draw in. Our other t*eammate, Lam Phan, is cruising with Birdshit which he has likewise piloted to a 4-0 start without losing a game in any of his matches. This just means that if we’re going to maximize our earnings at the event, I have to secure a t8 spot with a victory in the next round.

Round 5: Andrew with Glowrider Fish

I believe Andrew is playing some fully powered Fish archetype because I did see off-color Moxes, Glowrider, and Azorious Guildmage. Fortunately, however, this must mean that he is without the one card that I truly fear – Null Rod. As I’ll echo what I said in a different TMD thread, I don’t understand exactly why people would opt for non Null Rod Fish decks in the first place, and I am likewise puzzled how someone can rationalize not running all 4 if they do play them. Crazy. But whatever, I won’t complain when it makes it easier for me to win. I’ll take it.

Game 1 Andrew doesn’t produce much apart from Moxes and a Glowrider, which makes me feel very uncomfortable. Since I only have a Tendrils as my kill condition game 1, that Glowrider will have to be bounced, but I have to build some mana and card advantage first. I Vamp early for a Tolarian Academy but I have to play an early Crypt to create a mana explosion. This subsequently allows me to build some card advantage, and Force through a CoV on the Glowrider after he taps out to hardcast his own FoW with 6 mana in play. I quickly proceed to mop up with Will into Tendrils, and just in the nick of time as I was a turn away from death.

SB: I bring in Confidants and the Tinker-DSC plan. The Duresses stay in the SB since I didn’t see or anticipate Null Rod, and I wasn’t worried about Stifle or Trickbind with the alternate kill cards.

Game 2 sees me off to a fine start with two early Confidants, while he resolves an Azorious Guildmage. I don’t attack because I don’t want to lose either Confidant, as I’m at a comfortable life total and feel that once I accumulate enough cards I’ll be able to completely overwhelm him. Once I was satisfied with my hand I start pressing with one Confidant inviting a trade which he declines. On a subsequent turn he uses his Guildmage to tap the untapped Confidant, and I CoV his beater to prevent further damage as I was in single digits. He recasts it but he’s way behind at this point in cards, and I easily go off with Will into Tendriuls. The only fear was him having Trickbind when I Tendrils for 12 (with his life at 11 from Confidants and fetchlands), but he doesn’t have it. I should win through Trickbind anyways, but it didn’t matter.

Result: 2-0
Match record: 4-1

So I find myself with e*xcellent tie-breaks, which means I can draw into the t8.

Round 6: Mike with Gifts

We ID, and finish predictably in 7th and 8th respectively, both making t8 with our high breakers.

Result: 0-0
Match record: 4-1-1

Both Rich and Lam draw in the final two rounds, which means that we collectively haven’t lost a match yet against non-t*eammate opponents. The bad news is that the brackets are not good for us to maximize our payout – Rich is paired with Lam in the t8, and if I win my quarterfinal match I’ll face the winner of the Rich-Lam match-up. Lam quickly forfeits against Rich as the t8 field is mainly Drain decks and Long and Landstill has a better post SB matchup versus the field than Birdshit.

Here are the brackets and the results:

Peter Olszewski - Drain Tendrils
Paul Mastriano - Long w/Duress

Peter wins 2-1

Lam Phan - Birdshit
Rich Mattiuzzo - Landstill

Rich wins via concession

Ryan Trepanier - combo Slaver ("Burning Slaver")
Mike Antanakoris - ETW Gifts

Ryan wins 2-1

Jeff Folinus - Long w/Duress (no pitch counters)
Rich Hoaen - Gifts

Jeff wins 2-1 (could have been 2-0, not sure)


My quarterfinal against Paul turned out to be a titanic struggle full of complex decisions, where the final game of the match came right down to the wire. A fitting finish for two powerful, arguably evenly matched archetypes.

Game 1: Paul mulls, and his first turn play of land-pass isn’t very impressive. I get a good start by building to M*ana Drain mana on turn 2, and quickly have double Drain mana by turn 3. Paul is very light on threats, and I have pure disruption and card drawing so this game is very one sided as Paul fails to resolve anything of consequence.

SB: I bring in 3 Confidants, 4 Duress, a Crypt, and an Echoing Truth; I take out an Island, 2 TfK, a Tendrils, a FoF, a Vampiric, the Rebuild, the CoV and some random 9th card. I wanted to have Confidants for the faster card drawing and invulnerability to Duress and REB, not to mention the option of alternate beatdown in case I have to content with Extirpate and/or Trickbind.

Game 2 Paul leads with Land - Duress, which is very unfortunate as I’m holding a g*reat hand of Lotus, Land, Confidant, Brainstorm, Mystical Tutor, and Duress. He takes my Lotus which is very critical, but I still have spells that I can play off my 1 land. He passes the turn and I draw, and his question of whether I am playing my Brainstorm indicates that I should Duress instead, which I would have done regardless. The Duress reveals a hand of Necropontence, Grim Tutor, and a Cabal Ritual, with two Moxes and a B-producing land in play. I think hard about what to take – if I go for Cabal Ritual he cannot cast his Tutor or Necro, but the problem is if he draws into a B source he will have a Necro up on his turn via the chain of Grim Tutor for Lotus for Necro. I calculate that he has roughly arbout a 1 in 3 chance of effectively killing me, so I opt for the safety play of taking the Necro with Duress and letting him resolve the Ritual + Tutor for the only reasonable target at that point – Ancestral Recall. I figure that he’s burning a Ritual in the process so the AR will only effectively net him a +1 card advantage. I pass the turn after the Duress and Paul makes the play for AR, and after casting it he ends up dropping an Academy into play. I draw into a Mox Jet and another Duress off my Brainstorm, and when I Duress Paul he unfortunately has the Mystical Tutor for YawgWill which he casts off his Academy. He also knows I don’t have FoW after keeping track of my cards after his turn 1 Duress, so this game is effectively over. His Ancestral produced the land and Mystical to seal the game and his subsequent will allowed him to get Necro in play so it could be the case that my Duress decision was incorrect, but I put more emphasis on making a safety play andlet him roll the dice with his AR. Oh well, on we go to game 3.

Game 3 was a titanic struggle. I’m fuzzy on the specifics, but basically I got off to a nice start but a Confidant and Crypt were eating at my life total. There were a number of cirical moments that transpired, so I’ll list them although they might not have happened in the order presented. I was racing through my deck and drawing a lot of cards, but was forced to resolve a massive Will that didn’t produce the desired Tendrils even though I ended up seeing about an extra 8-9 cards. I couldn’t find the Tendrils though since after the Will my hand was choked with some disruption spells instead of card draw/search and I had run out of mana to cast the rest of my card drawing spells. Another critical moment came when Paul was getting low on life via Confidant beatdown, and after my Duress I saw that he had Island, Demonic Tutor, REB, and CoV, and Mox Sapphire and Mox Pearl along with a Mind’s Desire which I took; two lands were in play, including a R-producing land so he hasd access to REB. I was tapped out at this point but had a FoW. I passed the turn and on his turn he played his Moxes, tapped all of his mana, and used the CoV to build more storm by bouncing the Moxes and sacrificing his lands. He then cast DT with R and U mana floating, and two Moxes in play. I was thinking that his first instinct might be to tutor for Empty the Warrens, but I started thinking whether I wanted to cast the FoW to force him to waste his R mana with REB, or whether I actually wanted him to retrieve and cast his EtW because there was a stronger play for him and he might be missing it unless I stopped his EtW plan and forced him to find that s*uperior plan. I examined his alternate options and concluded that the b*est he could do was either Tinker, Ancestral Recall or Timetwister, which I evaluated as not being that dangerous. I therefore FoWed to soak his R mana which he needed to REB, and he got Timetwister to reset the game.

After the Timetwister, he got a Necropotence in play but with no pitch counters and being tapped out, I got a free pass. His Twister was kind to me, producing a hand of Intuition and 1 AK, along with another Confidant. However, at this stage I was at 8 life, and there were still 3 FoWs in my library. I resolved my Mana Crypt and it missed, so I had the option at this stage of either using Intuition and drawing cards in my upkeep off an Academy that I had in play in the hopes of finding a Brainstorm to set up the right card to draw with Confidant, or save my mana for the main phase. I elected to go with the latter plan and haphazardly reveal the top card for Confidant. It was the one card that I didn’t want to see- FoW. This brought me down to 3 life, but I wasn’t too worried, since I would be seeing 7 more cards off the Intuition and the 2 AKs I would have in hand. I resolved Intuition for 3 AKs, and then cast two back to back AKs. I could NOT draw any more business, ending up with a boatload of Duresses, M*ana Drains, and FoW in hand, along with another Confidant. Paul was at 5 life at this point, so after swinging with my Confidant and bringing him to 3, I had a critical decision to make. I either could cast the second Confidant so that I would have lethal damage next turn, or take my chances and find business in the next two cards (off my Confidant currently in play and from my natural draw phase) and kill him with Tendrils. I elected not to cast Confidant #2. Instead, I Duressed twice to strip his hand after his Necro play, taking 2 Brainstorms and leaving irrelevant cards in his hand. I passed the turn and Paul did nothing, as it was all going to come down to my likely final turn of existence. I untapped, and put Confidant and Mana Crypt on the stack with me at 3 life. We let a judge flip the coin so that there would be no funny business – as he toseed it into the air, he missed catching it, and the coin fell in my favor. So far so good . Next, I have to survive the Confidant reveal – I flip the top card…its an Ancestral. How lucky. My natural draw is a FoW (which means I might have died with a second Confidant in play as some pointed out, but this is not true as I would have immediately AR’ed in hope of finding a Brainstorm to stack my Confidant draw). I cast Ancestral, and draw into Demonic Tutor. That’s game, since Dt will get Tendrils. What a game, and match.

Result: 2-1

The rest of the event is rather anti-climactic. I meet Rich again in the semifinals, but we decide not to go for any splits with the other 2 players (Ryan and Jeff; sorry guys!). We decide that Rich’s Landstill will have the better match-up against either Ryan’s CS or Jeff’s Long, so I concede to Rich. Ryan and Jeff opt for their own split and Ryan concedes to Jeff, which means that Jeff and Rich will play it out for the Beta Recall in the finals. As you know, Rich wins the event with a 2-1 decision. Congrats to Rich Mattiuzzo for proving yet again that Landstill is a contender!

This was an a*mazing event, and many thanks go out to the organizer John and to all of the out-of-town attendees. This was one of our biggest turnouts at Untouchables, and hopefully the trend will continue for the Lotus event in May. The Toronto metagame is extremely exciting with many varied archetypes seeing play and many strong players competing, so I’d think it would be a very attractive event for people coming from the States, North Bay, Ottawa, and other nearby regions. Hopefully we’ll see you all again in May!


 

[Prometheon]

It was a great tournament and I loved your match against Paul. That Duress was intense.

Why the Rebuild MD and the Truth SB? Reading the report, the only time you used Rebuild was to force Craig to Crypt, which Truth would have done just as well. Were you more scared of Stax than Warrens? I realise that Truth doesn't help build storm, but you have Chain of Vapor already, as well as one of the most robust draw engines I've ever seen.

[Razvan]

I have absolutely no idea how you faced rich in round 4 since i faced him in round 4 as well. I think you grabbed him in round 3.
And damn that landstill deck.
Incidentally, my only loss that day came to Rich as well, and still didn't make T8.

[Cthulhu1975]

Good report and a really interesting deck. Congratz to the top4 as well.

It would be interesting to see a list of that UR landstill deck.

[dicemanx]

It was a great tournament and I loved your match against Paul. That Duress was intense.

Why the Rebuild MD and the Truth SB? Reading the report, the only time you used Rebuild was to force Craig to Crypt, which Truth would have done just as well. Were you more scared of Stax than Warrens? I realise that Truth doesn't help build storm, but you have Chain of Vapor already, as well as one of the most robust draw engines I've ever seen.

Honestly, the reason why Rebuild was there over Truth was because Cody put it there originally rather than my personal testing. He even used 2 Rebuilds, which made the card seem important for the Tendrils kills, although as I indicated I did trim one for a Merchant Scroll. Nevertheless, I always try to squeeze in at least one Rebuild, because of a number of reasons - it cycles, it is good vs Stax, it costs 3 (and therefore evades CotV at 1 or 2), and it feeds storm (which did come up in a couple of games but wasn't described in detail in the report, although I'm not sure if it was that critical in generating some of the victories). It is quite possible that your suggestion is better because of the EtWs running around and the fact that Stax might not be something to fear much.

I have absolutely no idea how you faced rich in round 4 since i faced him in round 4 as well. I think you grabbed him in round 3. Smile
And damn that landstill deck

Nuts, I reversed rounds 3 and 4 - I'll edit the report.

And yeah, Landstill seems like it has game against everything, where its only glaring weakness are sealed decks (ie it could struggle with bad aggro decks, but fortunately the format has punished the use of such decks severely). It is really a wondrous sight to see Rich win with a deck a deck that frequently goes "land-go" on turn 1 and that requires so much time to kill the opponent.

It would be interesting to see a list of that UR landstill deck.

It's probably not going to happen, since the last time the deck was posted and discussed it got a little too heated. The deck is being played by its inventor, Rich Mattiuzzo, who also was kind enough to write a primer on it and who also has frequently offered advice to a number of budding Landstill players. I suppose that people just cannot believe that a deck like this is viable and can even win events, although the fact that it does require a high degree of competency and format knowledge could indicate why few could duplicate its good results.

[The Atog Lord]

That was a very well-written report. Thanks, Peter. My one question is whether you still think Psychatog and Tinker are the optimal Plan B. Would splashing for Empty the Warrens be better?

[dicemanx]

That was a very well-written report. Thanks, Peter. My one question is whether you still think Psychatog and Tinker are the optimal Plan B. Would splashing for Empty the Warrens be better?

There is a possibility that the power of EtW trumps the intent behind the semi-transformational SB. However, these options are not on the same spectrum of options when it comes to keeping the win conditions flexible. For instance, EtW is vulnerable to the very cards that I am trying to evade with a transformational board, some of which are likely to make a post SB appearance because of the Tendrils kill main deck. Cards like Stifle are already present in a number of local decks, and I've seen people board in Trickbinds or come prepared with anti-EtW cards like Echoing Truth. But there are other, non-anti-EtW specific cards; something like CotV and Null Rod can put a big limit on the power of EtW, along with SoR in Stax - I want my aggressive SB cards to operate with minimal mana requirements, rather than needing to build to 4 mana and play multiple spells in a turn. Even REB and Duress can whittle down resources and prevent sizeable storm counts. I suppose that even with the potential power of EtW I want to have the option of a SB plan that circumvents such hate cards entirely so that I don't have to struggle as much and worry if I'm playing directly into their hate. Plus, not having to splash for a 3rd color is the obvious bonus. Maybe I might not engineer the flashier wins via the storm card, but if the current SB does its job I'll remain satisfied.

[tehmajickguy]

Great report. A question though: You boarded in the Confidants in 5 out of the 6 matches you played. Do you feel that they may be maindeck material in the future or would they still be better in the board for the element of surprise?

[ReAnimator]

Great report Peter, congrats on the nice finish for you and your whole team.  I really think you should write more, I often get more out of your forum posts than i do out of most vintage articles.

That repair was pretty good for you, and awful for me, instead of playing you I got paired up against Lam and got trashed partially due to an unfortunate mana flood in game 2, I much rather have played you with your Ak engine vs my maindeck extirpates

[zeus-online]

So how did Dr. Teeth do?

Did you ever sideboard them in? And if you did, how often did they win you the game?

Oh and grats

/Zeus

[dicemanx]

Great report. A question though: You boarded in the Confidants in 5 out of the 6 matches you played. Do you feel that they may be maindeck material in the future or would they still be better in the board for the element of surprise?

The Confidants are there as a response to some of the post SB hate cards that impede other draw engines (Duress, REB, and even CotV which slow down mana development and the resolution of higher cost draw spells) and also as a counter to Extirpate/Trickbind out of the SB by offering an alternate kill. Because most of the issues come up post boarding I'll likely continue using Confidants in the SB instead of the main deck, but that might change. We'll see once I get more testing/experience with this deck.

Great report Peter, congrats on the nice finish for you and your whole team.  I really think you should write more, I often get more out of your forum posts than i do out of most vintage articles.

That repair was pretty good for you, and awful for me, instead of playing you I got paired up against Lam and got trashed partially due to an unfortunate mana flood in game 2, I much rather have played you with your Ak engine vs my maindeck extirpates

Thanks for the kind words Andrew. I think that the main deck Extirpates would have given me trouble, because they would cut off Will as I was without Duress game 1. The fact that they hit AKs is also annoying, although the deck has some great alternate draw spells which would give me a number of ways to build card advantage. I think it would have been a very interesting match nontheless.

So how did Dr. Teeth do?

Did you ever sideboard them in? And if you did, how often did they win you the game?

I never did SB them in, so as things stand I have no idea yet how effective Psychatog would be. I added them to the SB almost exclusively for Null Rod Fish, but I didn't see any at the top tables and the lone Fish deck that I faced didn't show me enough game 1 for me to SB them in. I might trim them for other options in the future.

[A.-1.]

Congrats to Rich w/ Landstill and to Lam Phan and Peter for making top 8.

Great report Peter. I especially enjoyed the quarterfinals.
In round 3 you discuss not wanting to bring too many black cards from the board without a basic swamp. Do you feel that 4 basic Islands and 0 Swamps is the correct number or that because of the chance of running into a deck with mana denial that you should adjust this ratio?

[dicemanx]

Congrats to Rich w/ Landstill and to Lam Phan and Peter for making top 8.

Great report Peter. I especially enjoyed the quarterfinals.
In round 3 you discuss not wanting to bring too many black cards from the board without a basic swamp. Do you feel that 4 basic Islands and 0 Swamps is the correct number or that because of the chance of running into a deck with mana denial that you should adjust this ratio?

I'm hesitant to add a Swamp in a Drain deck, but I'm no stranger to using one - I played a main deck Swamp in Gifts when I piloted it to a good finish at SCGP9 Rochester. It might be a consideration if I find that I have a heavier B component post SB against decks that use Wasteland. So far though, I have too little experience with this deck to make that call, but it is an option.

By the way, were you in attendance at the event? It would certainly be nice if we had more people posting here from the GTA - the local players have very unique and interesting perspectives on deckbuilding and their input is always welcome.

Nice haiku by the way .

[desolutionist]

Good job man. 

Nothing else to say      

[Dxfiler]

That's alot of concessions in the top 8 :p

Concessions lead to muddy conclusions sometimes and I would've liked to seen the results of the rematch of you/shockwave, but I understand why you conceded to him in the semis and certainly don't hold it against you.  That didn't really bother me...

It would be interesting to see a list of that UR landstill deck.

It's probably not going to happen, since the last time the deck was posted and discussed it got a little too heated. The deck is being played by its inventor, Rich Mattiuzzo, who also was kind enough to write a primer on it and who also has frequently offered advice to a number of budding Landstill players. I suppose that people just cannot believe that a deck like this is viable and can even win events, although the fact that it does require a high degree of competency and format knowledge could indicate why few could duplicate its good results.

I'm a little perplexed as to why the UR landstill list probably won't be posted.  I understand it's shockwave's deck and his decision, but it sounds like from your response that it won't be posted because people could just look at any of his old posts for info if they wanted it.  I think that's a fairly pretentious answer because it assumes that people generally ignored what he had to say previously and because of that they shouldn't be privy to his new list.  I personally think people generally were aware of Rich's contributions to that archtype and appreciated what he posted (I certainly was).  Now  people certainly aren't entitled to this information but it would certainly help your constant statements about landstill being a better fish-deck.  If people can't see the latest version of this archtype it's awfully hard to just take your position at face value.

For the record, you've received no hate mail about your fish stance from me... at present time

Nice report.

- Dave Feinstein

[dicemanx]

I'm a little perplexed as to why the UR landstill list probably won't be posted.  I understand it's shockwave's deck and his decision, but it sounds like from your response that it won't be posted because people could just look at any of his old posts for info if they wanted it.  I think that's a fairly pretentious answer because it assumes that people generally ignored what he had to say previously and because of that they shouldn't be privy to his new list.

I'm sure that Rich can give you a better answer, but this is more based on a general view of the productivity of these forums, poster attitudes and adherence to certain tenets or rigid ways of thinking that would especially make it difficult to discuss such an archetype with a significant level of seriousness. Plus, I'm not sure if Rich can learn very much from this forum with respect to the archetype that he created and perfected over the years. Given that he has done a LOT of individual work as far as deck development is concerned, playtesting, and raising the level of his game, and given his contributions in the past on these forums, I feel he is entirely entitled to withhold any decklist that he desires or at least refrain in engaging in discussion if he feels its not going to be fruitful.

I personally think people generally were aware of Rich's contributions to that archtype and appreciated what he posted (I certainly was).  Now  people certainly aren't entitled to this information but it would certainly help your constant statements about landstill being a better fish-deck.  If people can't see the latest version of this archtype it's awfully hard to just take your position at face value.

Well, I presented quite purposefully an unsupported opinion. Whenever I do that, it is usually a flag that I don't care to support my position and people can believe whatever they like about the validity of such statements. I don't come to these forums to argue with the intentions of proving that I am right; instead, I participate in certain arguments because I want to improve this format, increase diversity, or increase participation. I have no particular adherence or disdain for Fish; contrary to what a lot of people likely believe, I WANT Fish to be a competitive force in the meta, because if the prison archetypes don't produce good numbers we will slowly start getting swallowed up by the powerful Drain and Tendrils machines in their many manifestations. I simply see a negative trend in the large scale tourney data, and while I might be wrong in my interpretations, I do feel we are heading towards a big problem if things are left unchanged.

In any case, I don't care to get into such debates in this thread. My motivation for posting this report was more to honor Smmenen's request, because he has worked tirelessly to produce very detailed reports that I have enjoyed, so I figure I'd give something back. This also extends to all of the other individuals (yourself included) that take the time to write detailed reports on this site.

[Moxlotus]

  I planned to bring in Confidants in just about every match post SB

Oh man, I love when decks can fit Bobs into the board.  I've loved it ever since IT.  If I were you, I'd avoid putting them into the main.  They are much better at doing what you explained--giving you alternative draw/damage in response to hate game 2.

[nataz]

Excellent report. I honestly feel that well written reports are the best way to communicate magic theory online.

[Razvan]

i think rich doesn't post his decklists more as a personal preference, rather than any specific secrecy setting, minus the tweaking and reworking he has done over the years. the deck itself can generally be deduced by playing against it. obviously the exact card count is a bit more difficult to see (other than doing something like extirpate and writing it all down).

but it could be that the devil's in the details.

as for the concessions, it doesn't matter. rich just wins. he always wins. damn that landstill, damn that fish.

[ReAnimator]

RE: Landstill

If you really wanted to build this, you could probably get to within 5 cards of his list just from what the archetype is and a little bit of common sense and playtesting.  You may not get the precise list but it may not matter esp. for a disscusion of the archetype.

The sideboard however you will never guess, that thing is a work of art and you would never suspect some of the things that are in there, and you would be shocked by the things that are not. It will obviously change with the ebb and flow of the metagame but as it is now its pretty sick.

the local players have very unique and interesting perspectives on deckbuilding and their input is always welcome.

This is just a polite way of saying we're awful and wrong isn't it. 


Side note: are you guys driving up to the Skyfox event this weekend? and if so do you have room in your car? I really don't wan't to play T2 if i don't have to.  PM me.
Thanks.

[Sean Ryan]

Any chance of getting the T8 lists?

Thanks
Sean

[God_Campbell]

very well written report Peter, I throughly enjoyed the game between you and Paul, it was soem of the best Magic I have witnessed and was a learning expierience all its own.

But you can count on our attandece in May barring ride troubles so perhaps we can face off lol

[Prometheon]

This is sort of late, but what was your train of thought for playing straight U/B as opposed to the red splash that Cody utilized? Here's the list he ran: http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=32239.0

[dicemanx]

To be honest, I didn't fully analyze the ramifications of splashing for red; what I did anticaipate however was that people would be prepared for main deck EtW, so I elected not to run it at all. I also figured that Recoup wouldn't be critical in a deck that runs so many tutors and card drawing, and I liked the idea of minimizing the number of potentially dead maindeck cards (like Tinker-DSC, and Recoup). Finally, I think that against other control decks, there is a good alternate option to running REBs: run Duresses and more non-U card drawing (Confidants this time around; I've also used Scrying out of the SB previously). This is all in addition to UB mana base being more solid than UBR.


Nevertheless, I'm not entirely sure if not running red is the best idea. Maybe I wasn't running the best build, but I felt pretty happy with UB at the event.