Man, the Legacy boards here are slow right now. Well, I'm not going to make it to Columbus, so I'll just throw up a mini-report with my observations of the current meta.
If you will remember in my last installment found here:
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=30688.0 I made up this deck on the eve of the last Duel for Duels out of a lone idea, and boredom. This time I played it intentionally.
"Dan Spero's Gramdmother's Panties". Decklist from Columbus GPT in Rockville, MD. on 5/12/20074 Vinelasher Kudzu
4 Meddling Mage
3 Waterspout Djiin
4 Brainstorm
4 Serum Visions
3 Predict
2 Portent
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
3 Stifle
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Flooded Strand
2 Windswept Heath
2 Polluted Delta
3 Tundra
3 Tropical Island
2 Island
1 Forest
1 Plains
4 Wasteland
4 Hydroblast
3 Jotun Grunt
2 Naturalize
2 Pithing Needle
Most of the choices and interactions are either obvious, or previously detailed so I won't bore you with them. The reasons I chose this deck is that it inherently has some advantages in the current meta. Leyline of the Void is currently one of the most commonly played Hate cards aimed at Hulk Flash, so Threshold was out. I tested Aluren for two months prior to this, expecting to run it at the Grand Prix. Unfortunately it has a 40-45% match win percentage against Hulk Flash that cannot be improved more without diluting it's own combo with sideboard cards to the point of ineffectiveness. While Thresh can deal with Leyline, it didn't make sense to fight through such a problematic card every round. Since I still felt that the archetype would be viable, I started to look for alternatives.
I honestly tried Quirion in a old Super-Gro shell, but I kept running into one problem. Once Flash got to the three-to four mana point, I coudn't effectively grow her as needed. The issue was that casting one spell a turn was not fast enough, and casting more left too many opportunities for them to go off against your limited resources. I went back to the Kudzu for exactly this reason. Easy to add two counters a turn, with much less vulnerability.
Stifle came in for Counterspell, which might be a mistake now(I'll get back to that). Brad, the other Gro player there, and I decided that Wasteland was much better than Armageddon currently. Flash is way too fast for 'Geddon, but runs very short on lands. Stifle is dead early, so you can easily burn one on a Fetchland. They will have play at least one dual land for you to Waste, so it makes it very easy to keep them down to 2-3 lands. I know, they can go off with two, but it is very difficult. The other good part of this is that they can be forced to use their search cards to look for lands. That
really screws up their math, and slows them down greatly.
Grunt seems an odd choice with Leyline being so prevelant, but I used reverse psychology running him in the side, and it worked every time. Opponents realize that you are intentionally not running any creatures that Leyline can effect, so they don't bring it in. You then side Grunt for Djiin, and have a huge advantage. No one brought them in game three either, as with the restrictions on playing Leyline, it's not worth it to slow a three-of.
Anyway, only 16 players showed up. the field was something like:
9 Hulk Flash: 8 were the Kiki-Jiki version, but some ran the U/B/g version with ESG and Petal, and some were the more controlling build.
2 Gro (1 Super U/G/w, 1 Me)
1 U/W Landstill
1 Burn
1 White Stax
1 Faeirie Stormy
1 Deadguy (Unfortunately for him, the anti-Aggro version with Decendant)
Round one: Dan (Hulk Flash U/B)
Game One: Dan is well known for playing Red Death, so I mulliganed my opener of Tropical, Serum, Force, Force, Stifle, Daze, Predict on the play (Drats!). The details are fuzzy, but I know he went off by turn three with counter backup.
+2 Pithing Needle, +4 Wasteland, +3 Grunt/ -3 Djiin, -2 Polluted Delta, -2 Jitte, -1 EE, -1 Plow
Game Two: I Stifle his first Fetch, and get attacking with a Kudzu. He eventually is forced to play an Underground as his third land, with a Wasteland on the table. According to spectators, when I killed the Sea, he Brainstormed in response. He could have gone off with Force backup, with me having a Daze, and a Force. He would have have the mana to pay, and I would have lost. Instead we let the Brainstorm resolve, and he passed the turn. He never got back into it.
Game three: I Stlfled another early Fetch, and he had immediate mana problems. I used Wasteland and Portent to continue these, and he never drew land even when a search spell resolved. He died with only one Island in play for the entire game.
Round two: Burn
Game one: I'm not particularly happy with this match, as with no real counters, and a much slower clock, he has a very good chance. However, his mistake lets me in the game. He has me down to seven when I cast a Meddling Mage. After thinking for a second, he Lightning Bolts me in response. He had yet to play one, so I guess it was the correct call. The problem was that the only other spells in his hand were "player only" and a Rift Bolt. I untapped, played and equipped Jitte, and basically the game was over from there. Jitte+Creature+one attack=Burn loses.
+4 Hydroblast, +2 Naturalize/ -4 Swords, -1 Force, -1 EE
(sidenote: The Naturalizes were a mistake. He correctly ran 4 Blasts main and 4 more SB, as Pyrostatic Pillar is a joke against Flash.)
Game two: Basically a repeat. He gets me to around seven when I play a Kudzu and equip and swing. Unfortunately, he had yet to grow up and a double Bolt kills him even through Jitte counters. Waterspout gets Fireblasted in response to an equip. But, the next Kudzu gets +2/+2 immediately, grabs the pointy stick, and swings for the win.
The Top 4 drew in round three, and the Top 8 drew in round four.
5 Flash
2 Gro
1 Landstill
Quarterfinal: Simon (U/B/w Flash)
Game one: Nothing to say. He went off turn two on the play with Force backup for my Daze. It's Flash.
Game two: This one goes long enough for the remaining matches to finish. I keep stalling him out on lands, so he is forced to use search to find them. The problem for me is that the only creature I can find is a Grunt that dies before he does. Eventually, I get two Mages, one on Flash, and one on Massacre, and get him down to four life. He has a Bob that can save him for a turn, but my EOT he Brainstorms. I let it resolve, then cast Predict. He scoops.
Game Three: I resolve a turn two Mage on Massacre, as I have double Force, and figure to race. This is all well and good until he EOT Flashes in a Negator to race back. Poop. I have to Force it, which lets him resolve two Confidants. So... Massacre was probably not the right call. I by this point still have double Force and a Stifle, so I'm not worried as he is at four after a Grunt joins the fray. He EOT Brainstorms, and I Force, looking for the Bob-kill. Unfortunately, he cracks a Fetch for a Tundra in response. Upkeep: Flooded Strand, Polluted Delta. Double Poop. He then shows me the reason for the Tundra with a Chant. If I Force, I am left with a lone Stifle, so I Brainstorm, and whiff. GG.
He ends up beating the other Gro player, then a Fast Flash version in the Final. So I guess his addition of Bob, Negator and Chant worked.
The Brainstorm was thoretically a mistake, as he could have had no counters, but I had to gamble for a Daze. Other than that, the deck did as expected, and is very good against the current field. I wish I had one more shot at it though. If Chant starts coming in, I would switch the Stifle back to Counterspell. Stifle is sick if you can resolve it, as it burns a Flash and a Hulk, but Chant beats it. This deck can easily support Counterspell though, since it can can grow with untapped lands. The Plains was also a mistake, as I only need single White, and that rarely. It screwed me up a couple of times when I needed the extra Blue. Explosives also can probably go. I did not expect, nor see TES or Belcher, and the third Needle would have helped against Flash.
Afterthought: I did see a first-turn win by Simon's Flash deck with no accellerants. He had a single Extract in the side as a tutor target. He drew it, and a Force in his opening hand, on the play, in the mirror.
(better run 2 Carrion Feeders!) I also saw a Hulk mirror go to time, with both players having a Carrion Feeder in play for twenty+ turns. {Sigh} No one reads their cards anymore....
