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« on: June 10, 2007, 09:04:14 am » |
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20 players compete in 5 rounds of swiss and a top-8 play off under the pre-Gush restricted list for a Mana Drain. I predict the following metagame:
9 Combo (Flash/Long/Belcher)
8 Fish (UW, SS)
4 Ichorid
4 Stax
4 Control (Gifts, Slaver)
x aggro, Oath, Goblins, random
I am largely correct but for the low numbers of Fish - people opt instead for the brokenness of the new Flash and Ichorid decks. Others opt to give Gifts one last hurrah.
On the back of Zherbus's recent 5cc and much testing I metagame a list, consciously leaning on my maindeck and experience to win any control mirrors that might pop up - in the main I prepare for combo, fish, ichorid, and stax.
3cc pre-Gush
4 Brainstorm
4 Drain
4 Force
3 Duress
3 Chalice
3 Skeletal Scrying
2 Cunning Wish
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Yawg Will
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Ancestral
1 Time Walk
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Mind Twist
1 Balance
1 Tinker
1 Collosus
1 Platz
8 SoLoMoxenPetal
4 Delta
2 Strand
3 Underground Sea
3 Tundra
2 Island
1 Swamp
1 Library of Alexandria
SB
1 Razormane Masticore
1 Echoing Truth
1 Gush
1 VT
2 Swords to Plowshares
2 Serum Powder
3 Serenity
4 Leyline of the Void
I was very happy with the deck's performance. It was excellent all day but I wasn't quite up to it: I made a few crucial mistakes which narrowly cost me top 8 by second tie breakers.
Round 1 - Ichorid
G1
He opens and chalice for 0 buys him the little time he needs to race my gunning for Tinker-Platz. He has lethal turn 3 but I concede in response to Therapy so as to deny him any knowledge of my deck.
G2
-3 Chalice, -2 Swords, -2 Cunning Wish, -1 Mind Twist, -1 Balance, +4 Leyline, +2 Serum Powder, + 1 VT, +1 Echoing Truth, +1 Gush
I successfully bluff a naive, brutalised unfamiliarity with Ichorid: he doesn't board in a thing. I mull for Leyline down to 6, 5... At 4 I see Lotus, Tinker, Tundra, Brainstorm. My God I should have kept. After Brainstorm I would have had turn 3 Platz. It's likely I would have survived till then - by this time he'd also mulled down to 4 and I was on the play. But I mull to 3 because in Workstation only once in 50 trials did I fail to find Leyline via mulligan or Powders. Either that environment is wildly distorting or I got really unlucky: I see no Leyline, only the lone Drain I feebly concede with. I gotta work on my turn 0 shit.
Round 2 - Mono-red Uba Stax
G1
Turbo Tinker-Collosus is probably my best bet. On the play I open with moxen and smash him down turn 2 after Wishing for VT. I Force his Tangle Wire then his Welder but he drops 2 more Tangle Wire over the coming turns to tie up my dude long enough to beat down with the Karn and Wires he'd resolved.
G2
-3 Chalice, -1 Cunning Wish, -1 Mind Twist?, +3 Serenity, +2 Serum Powder
The use of Powders against Stax was extremely experimental for me. The match-up generally played out like combo: if I could disarm his few key early threats I could draw ahead and win. Serum Powder could help me find Serenity or if pressed serve as a mana source and Tinker fodder (not irrelevant given I board out Chalice). The theory worked out in practice too. I draw ahead early with Ancestral, Scry for 2, Wish for Ancestral, I get Library active, keep countering his junk, lay out lots of mana (including Powder), hardcast Collosus and smash in. My draws are too good even to need Serenity.
G3
I fan open 5 mana, Collosus and Powder. I Powder because I can. My next 7 is gas and soon enough I Serenity his board and, after Wish, Swords his Welder. I soon Will and finish with Platz and a full grip of counters. The game is mine but I fuck up big-time by failing to notice his 2 Barbarian Rings and am completely sucker-punched by his 'despondent' offering of Black Lotus. He melts my Angel and I'm left with no way to win. We go to time and I feebly draw.
Round 3 - Gifts
G1
He opens with Library so I play for tempo and bait his Forces. I have all the good cards. By turn 2 or 3 I resolve in short order Lotus, Ancestral, Time Walk, Will, Mind Twist him to oblivion and get my own Library active. I Scry up a storm and bash down with hard-cast Angel.
G2
-2 Swords, +1 Echoing Truth, +1 Gush
Control mirrors have become strange. He opens with 2 Leyline of the Void and no mana. The Will and the Scryings must have really traumatised him. This cuts off my draw but I consider myself 2 cards up and start planning for Tinker, which is already in hand. My only mana is Lotus and I find not a whit more with Brainstorm. With the remaining blue mana I attempt an Echoing Truth on his Leylines but he's quick to Force. I could Force back but meh, fine by me, I'm another card up. Neither of us draw mana for several turns. I play a Chalice for 0 rather than discard (I can simply Tinker THAT away). I move my hand over the only permanants in play and intone 'This is the void'. Soon enough we both topdeck active Libraries and move into the second phase of the game. I build up a critical mass and start baiting EOT. I Wish for Echoing Truth again and dispatch his Leylines. I start building for a moderate Will. I achieve it and at its end Tinker away Chalice for Collosus, double Force in hand. He goes for the win on his turn, dumping moxen and managing a Tendrils for 12 and 2 Time Walks. I counter the Will though and beat down for the match.
Round 4 - Gifts
G1
He mulls to 6. I open with Duress and knab Force, leaving Pearl and Scroll, because the Chalice for 0 I follow up with buys me enough time to untap and Drain it into Fact. The script goes just so and I pull further ahead with the Ancestral I Brainstorm into. Soon enough all I have is hope and a Will and it resolves though is meagre because of Chalice. It still includes Ancestral and Duress, which knabs the Will he was holding. He got greedy when I was ready to Will for any small gain. Soon enough I Tinker and Collosus smashes in.
G2
- 2 Swords, +1 Echoing Truth, +1 Gush
He opens with land, Mox, Sol Ring, Scroll for Force. I assume he has Recall in hand. I open with Chalice for 0 trying to bleed out his Force. He lets it resolve but it ends up doing a LOT of work for me over the course of this game, stunting his development to a pace sane enough for me to keep up and delaying his Will. I get the feeling Gifts players aren't quite used to negotiating Chalice when wrapped in a control package. He resovles Recall but fails to find a second land. He's powering out Gifts after Gifts, forcing them through my Drains and Duresses with pitch counters, so I manage not to fall too far behind. He drops Empty for 6 dudes but I untap, DT then Echoing Truth them. He untaps with Scroll and DT in hand - I'd given him them instead of Will or Recoup. He scrolls for Chain then passes. His hope is to Chain my Chalice then Recoup Will. I untap and play Chalice for 1 - ding! He chains his tapped Vault and my Chalice for 0 but I return fire on his Sol Ring, leaving him now on only two lands. I might have Wished for VT and cast that before Chalice for 1 resolved, virtually sealing the match, but I hold onto the Wish for some unknown reason and only see the play when its too late. He gets out another 2 goblins and my life's getting low when I Will and finish with Platz in play (Collosus in hand), Tinkering away Chalice for 1 to get a better Will. Time is called, and under pressure from the judge to speed up I end up VTing for Drain when I should have gotten Time Walk, which would have allowed for a tasty Scrying then an untap to present mana for counters. Instead I Drain the Will he Recoups and he Drains back. Stupidly I Scry down to -5 in response. Um, Force isn't gonna help when you haven't any life to pay. He simply chains Platz for the win. If I'd just done NOTHING in the face of Will he might simply have ended the turn with a lot of goblins in play. He'd sided out Tendrils, he later tells me. So I could have just untapped and replayed Platz. Though he might have gotten a counter out of the Will. Not VTing for Walk was my big mistake. I was counting on Draining into Collosus because I wanted to win, but I'd already won game 1 so by this stage should have just played for the draw in this game.
Round 5 - Slaver
G1
He opens with Underground Sea. I Duress, he Brainstorms, then reveals land, Pearl, Welder, Slaver, Force. I take Force. He fails to play Welder for lack of red mana and passes. I Mystical for Recall in my upkeep and throw it out there. Yep, he'd put Drain on top. He can't use the mana though. So I untap and drop Chalice for 1, which resolves and seriously bones him. Now I can safely Tinker, and grab Platz (Collosus again in hand). Soon I Wish for Gush and all I have in play is Platz, Chalice for 1, and active Library. It's an elegant image and GG.
G2
-1 Cunning Wish, +1 Gush
At some point he Mysticals for Ancestral and I let it resolve. I have the Force but don't want to pitch Fact because at this point it's a better card - it costs more for a reason. And he'd already Mystical'd for the Recall - I wouldn't Force Night's Whisper. If I can just untap I can Duress then Fact. He starts looking through his graveyard and I feign a worried expression and a mumble. He takes his Recall to mark the all clear, goes all in with Lotus, DT, then Will. To his amazement I Force. I untap and we're pretty much both out of gas, except I rip Brainstorm and dig into Tinker. He's got 2 turns to mise a solution. He gets the Chain but I get the Drain. GG.
I finish 2-1-2. The deck was great but I stuffed up. The deck goes long so it does give ample opportunity to make those mistakes. And also improve your game. I have to revamp it completely now for Gush.
(For the record the play off went as follows:
Oath > Stax
Flash > Ichorid
Tog > Pitch Long
Uba Stax > SS
Tog > Flash
Oath > Uba Stax
Tog and Oath split.)
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