[Report] Small Tournament in Atlanta, GA 11-21-07

[Anusien]

Ah... The sweet smell of carnage.  Oh, how I have missed this.  I have been away too long.  I can see that all of my opponents have gone soft.  The challenge has waned.  They must learn anew the meaning of ph33r.  I have much work to do.

Thanksgiving is a time of laziness; a time of food comas and family; a time to let your guard down and relax with friends and just enjoy yourself.  I wanted to take advantage of people's weakness and CRUSH THEM.

I came home to Atlanta, GA for Thanksigiving.  At Super Games in Alpharetta, they run weekly Legacy tournaments.  At 7pm on Wednesdays they run $5 entry fee with the top prize being $5*Players in store credit, with $5 free credit with your entry fee.  Before leaving home, I packed a huge list of cards.  I've built my collection up to a large number of options, but the main decision I needed to make was which color of Threshold to bring.  I was largely debating between the burn and the Swords, and I decided on Swords to Plowshares.  Knowing the number of fully powered Goblins players was low, I figured that Swords to Plowshares would be much better in an unknown metagame.

When I arrived, I only needed to fill in these cards:
1 Nimble Mongoose
2 Ponder
1 Counterbalance
1 Engineered Explosives

I went to the counter, registered, bought a Mongoose, 2 Ponder and a Counterbalance.  I said hi to Andy Probasco and sat down to shoot the shit and play Type Four.  It took an hour and a store employee (not the TO) to fill out eight players, but we were ready.  I guess people go home for Thanksgiving.

Here is what I was ready to play
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
3 Counterbalance
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
3 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Serum Visions
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Oblivion Ring
4 Nimble Mongoose
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Trygon Predator
4 Flooded Strand
2 Windswept Heath
2 Polluted Delta
3 Tropical Island
3 Tundra
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Forest

Sideboard (kinda thrown together):
4 Blue Elemental Blast
4 Krosan Grip
2 Threads of Disloyalty
1 Jotun Grunt
3 Stifle
1 Gaddock Teeg

Round 1, versus Elves:
Game 1: He leads with a Priest of Titania and I start developing with Ponder.  He plays out two more Priests on successive turns, while I set up a fairly juicy hand.  I counter an Imperious Perfect and start beating down with a Tarmogoyf.  He starts almost exploding with the amount of mana he has, but he has only a few relevant cards.  I end up leaving Trygon Predator back to block, and he slowly has to start chump blocking at 1.
Once in this game when I fetch, I discover something weird: my final proxy.  Oops!  I have a sleeve with a basic Island and the word "EE" on a slip of paper in the sleeve.  I show it to the judge and he ruled it as a basic Island, but not an illegal deck penalty.  I expected the alternative, but this is fine for me; I'm just running -1 Engineered Explosives, +1 Island.
Anyway, I finish the game easily.
Sideboard: -1 Island, +1 Jotun Grunt
Game 2: I have a sick hand but no counterspells.  On turn 2, he lands [card]Eladamri, Lord of Leaves[/card] and since he's now unblockable and untargetable, I don't draw the 1 EE in time.
Game 3: On the play, my hand is something like Serum Visions, Daze, Sensei's Divining Top, Counterbalance and sufficient land.  Yeah, I win that one against Elves.

Andy loses to one of the Mono-white decks in the room, and the metagame is this:
2 Mono-White (one is Death & Taxes, one is just WW)
1 Vial Goblins (BrassMan)
1 UGW Thresh (Me)
1 Mono-Black Aggro
1 UR Aggro
1 Elves
1 ?

Round 2, versus WW:
I see him playing games before hand so I know he has Mana Tithe and Disenchant in the main.
Game 1: This one is back and forth.  He starts with Lions and my Mongeese gladly jump in front.  I use an Oblivion Ring on a True Believer while I'm trying to find a creature, and he takes the opportunity to land Jitte and another 2/2.  I finally get down a Mongoose to take out his creature, but he gets another one and Jitte has counters now.  Luckily Top shows me Swords to Plowshares (first of the match).  The next turn, when I get a second Mongoose, he has a 2/2 and two Raise the Alarm tokens.  He loses a token to a Mongoose in order to get Jitte counters and things are starting to get out of hand for me.  Luckily I fetch and Top shows me the out I really really wanted to see: Engineered Explosives.  Next turn I have enough mana and the board is: a Raise the Alarm token to 2 Nimble Mongeese and a Sensei's Divining Top.  I win that game, and we shuffle up for game 2 with about 25 minutes left.
I board out the stray Island for a Jotun Grunt
Game 2: I don't waste my Oblivion Ring on True Believer and I win this game.  More detail?  He gets an early Savannah Lions, but I'm happy to run it into my Mongoose.  I counter a few things and get out a Tarmogoyf.  He Crypts me, but it doesn't actually make Goyf smaller.  Thanks for artifacts!  He makes an Isamaru, Hound of Konda and swings in.  Since Goyf is still a 2/3, I think he's just making a mistake and block it.  After Hound dies, he Crypts himself and the Goyf is a 1/2 and dies.  Nice 3 for 1.  Jitte comes down and gets Oblivion Ringed, and I get out 2 3/3 Mongeese.  He Crypts me later so I have to win with 1/1s, but the outcome wasn't in doubt.

Andy beats the Elves player.

At 2-0 I end up drawing into the Top 4, and playing Type 4 with the other 2-0.  He's never played and misses a lot of things, and I think he just might not be that experienced a player.  Then again, I lose a 2-player Type Four game with Ertai, Wizard Adept and Eight and a Half Tails.  Wait, that Skeletal Scrying was on endstep?

Andy wins into the Top 4 over one of the Mono-White players.  His sideboard was Swamp, 3 Dread of Knight, 3 Sulfur Elemental.

My opponent in the Top 4 is playing Mono-Black Aggro.
Game 1: I win the die roll and start off with Ponder.  I have a turn 1 Mongoose and he only sees a few creatures here and I just roll him over.  One huge mistake of mine was where he has turn 1 Sacromancy, and I wait until his attack to Swords the token for some dumb reason.  Anyway, his second creature is far too late and I just run him over with a Mongoose.
-1 Island, +1 Jotun Grunt
Game 2: He has a Wretch which slows my Mongoose and Goyf, but it can't stop them.  I see a lot of fetchlands and he doesn't think to remove some of his cards so Goyf keeps swinging until Top finally shows me StP.

It's 11pm, and Andy and I are in the finals.  I think I'm favored, and I think I understand the Goblins v Thresh matchup better, but it's not worth it.  We draw and promise to set up some T4 and random Vintage on Friday.  He sells a shitload to buy into Legacy (one of us... one of us... one of us) and I get an Engineered Explosives (I could have sworn I had two).  I look through my Bomberman deck to buy foils.... THAT'S where my other Engineered Explosives is.

I get a third EE, a foil Aether Spellbomb, a foil Honor the Fallen (3 foil/1 nonfoil is ugly), and a Sower of Temptation for T2.  Andy buys Goyfs and retires Goblins.

[Smiley408]

ANDY BOUGHT GOYFS!

[kabal]

I think I'm favored, and I think I understand the Goblins v Thresh matchup better, but it's not worth it.

Based on your build, you are non favored. No Worship, Galina's Knight or Tivadar's Crusade. BEB isn't enough.

[Anusien]

All of those cards are horrible.  I did a fair bit of testing when Goyf came out, and Goyf definitely made the game 1 percentage slightly favored for Thresh.  Granted I have a few extra dead cards.  Galina's Knight is only meh against them anyway, and Worship and Tivadar's Crusade are both difficult to cast through Waste (and Port if he has it).

Stifle and BEB come out of the board to help anyway, and I don't think he had anything relevant for me.

[kabal]

All of those cards are horrible.

Wow, not even sure how to respond but you apparently just started playing Ugw Threshold and have never actually played the Goblins match up. Your opponent was playing Rg Goblins (that is the most popular build at the moment) and had no way to remove pro red knights. You do realize the reason Angel Stompy and other WW variants had such a good much up against Goblins was because of pro red creatures? And worship is horrible you say? Are you kidding? Assuming you had actually played 1-2 Enforcers like most Ugw players would have, combination of him, mongoose and worship just owns Goblins. The reason for not playing it was because them have Wasteland? Why do you have those basic lands in your deck, for show?

[Anusien]

There's a world of difference between Silver Knight and Galina's Knight.  I remember watching Bardo test and be incredibly disappointed with Galina's Knight even in UW Fish.  I was similarly disappointed with Galina's Knight in UWR, which is one reason why I went to Goblin Legionnaire.  The main way Goblins aims to beat Fish-like decks is either with the high-end creatures like SGC/Kiki-Jiki, or with a few smacks from Piledriver.  Galina's Knight is much worse at stopping both of those plans than things like Stifle, which is one reason why most Threshold players run Stifle instead of Galina's Knight.  I could board in Silver Knight instead, but that's basically equivalent to boarding in more creatures (which is one other option in the matchup).  I did almost put Hierarchs in the board which are arguably better than or comparable to Galina's Knight and Worship.

Worship is alright.  As it turns out Andy doesn't run Rishadan Ports, but I wouldn't play Worship in the main run.  Worship is more interesting in Threshold to force decks to board in Krosan Grip or whatever against you, diluting their deck.  Yes, Mystic Enforcer is good against Goblins (and I thought about boarding them, but I just didn't buy any and didn't really bother to change my sideboard), but I think that Stifle and BEB is better.  Plus I wanted to try Predator in the maindeck because it's another way to de-emphasize Krosan Grips in the sideboard.  In the abstract against Goblins, Worship isn't that good.  It's bad for the same reason as Tivadar's Crusade; they're expensive.  3W through Waste and Port isn't easy.  Yes I have basic lands (and I'm running the awesome manabase I think Dan built), but the mana doesn't always work perfectly, and sometimes they Port me.  Plus, what if he boards in Grips?

When I tested Threshold versus Goblins, I found you won when you got quick creature advantage.  Consequently I probably would have been best off boarding in more creatures (Grunts come to mind, but also maybe something like Gnarled Mass or even more Predators).  I also like Predator there because it flies, which is pretty awesome.  Stifle is mostly used on Ringleader/Matron there and BEB is used to counter creatures; the whole plan is to get creature advantage.

I've actually done more Threshold v Goblins testing than I joke about.  I mean it's definitely not as if I've been testing various Goblins builds against various Threshold builds for a few months now.  It's definitely not like I helped Bardo test or have played aggro-control decks.  I definitely haven't made a history of playing fishlike UWx decks against Goblins (UWR et al).