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The Atog Lord
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« on: July 22, 2008, 06:09:38 pm » |
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Demonic Attorney and Rich Shay present: A Long, Reflective Weekend.
July 19 and July 20: ELD and Myriad tournaments (1st and 1st).
Synopsis:
ELD: July 19, 30 people, Chris 1st, Rich top 8
Myriad: July 20, 21 people, Chris missed Top 8 by breakers, Rich 1st
It is a tribute to the strength and fervor of the New England vintage community and its TOs that we have a weekend with not one but two large-scale Vintage events. Dan and Eric were both hosting tournaments, and Chris and I were both free on the weekend. The only question became which seventy-five cards to put on a decklist. The prior tournament, at Hippy's store, had been SlaverCon '08. One could not turn a corner without stubbing a toe on one of the many Control Slaver decks which had swarmed the place.
This, combined with the fact that New England players gravitate toward Drain-based decks anyway, lead to the conclusion that a deck which lost to Control Slaver was not an ideal choice. So, the decision was to make our Control Slaver builds win the mirror consistently, or to play something else strong against Control Slaver.
The obvious choice for playing against Control Slaver is Long. The problem with this, however, is that I was no good at playing Long. Chris has some experience with modern Long builds, but the last time I played Long it involved Death Wish. I put Becker's Grim Long lists into Magic Workstation, attempt to gold fish, and found myself fizzling like a diet coke. Given that other people had been able to win games with the deck, I realized that it must be my own play rather than any fault inherent in the cards. While Chris was firmly behind Long, I was still on the fence, and didn't decide between Long and Slaver until a few events pushed my mind towards Rituals. T00L, in some test games, crushed me 5-1 when he played Grim Long and I played Control Slaver. Second, Tommy K won the ICBM tournament with his Pitch Long deck. I sure felt safer using Force of Will in a deck, and being able to sideboard into a non-storm deck seemed like a great option in case I found myself with difficulty playing Storm in a matchup. The other motivation for our playing Long this weekend was learning how it works so that we could beat it with Control Slaver in the future. Storm Combo had always been a tough match for Control Slaver, and we thought that we could learn the matchup better by actually playing the deck.
So, Chris and Mike and I tested. I read Becker's excellent Grim Long primer. I talked to JD about some card choices and play scenarios with the deck. Feeling as ready as I ever would, I got my usual four hours of sleep and then met with Chris and The Minivan rumbled off to Worcester, hoping for as few Round Twos as possible. This was a long, tiring day spent at scorching temperatures. The Air Conditioning unit in Stoke's store spent much of the tournament unused in the window, taunting us.
So, before hearing about how I lost in Top Eight, let's shift to Chris and hear about how he took down the event. So, without further ado, here's Chris' report...
***
So, Pitch Long. Having an entirely free weekend is a rare thing for me these days, and it just so happened that there were Vintage tournaments on both days. After seeing the Slaver-dominated metagame at Myriad Games last month, Rich and I came to the conclusion that Long was a good choice based on its strong game against Slaver, and that Pitch Long was the optimal build because Force of Will gives you an advantage against other iterations of combo.
I get in about two hours of testing the night beforehand, and arrive at a list slightly different than Rich's, most significantly one that includes Tinker/Jar over Merchant Scroll and Misdirection. Saturday rolls around, and it's forecast to bring record-setting heat. With the help of Andystok's store, the weather certainly didn't disappoint. We arrive and find a field about 30 players, featuring a high percentage of talented Vintage mainstays.
Round 1 vs. Craig Dupre, Storm Combo
I've seen Craig's deck before. I remember he said he built it to beat Slaver. I figured that wouldn't help him much in this match, but as it turned out, he didn't need it.
Game 1: My hand is keepable, but somewhat slow; it has 2 tutors but little mana acceleration beyond a Mox. He opens with 2 Mox, land, and a Tinker on the draw, which I can't stop. On my turn, I tutor for Chain of Vapor and bounce his Jar to buy time. Unfortunately, the rest of the cards in his hand become Empty the Warrens for 4 storm, and I can't find the mana to resolve Bargain in time.
Game 2: I open with Hymn to Tourach, which is hilariously ineffective, hitting an excess land and an excess Duress. He Duresses my Tendrils. I play Tinker, and get in position to win the next turn. He has bounce for the jar, and more importantly, Extirpate for Tendrils. As I lack any other win conditions, that's it for me.
So it seems a lot of people had the same idea about combo as I did. The anticipated Slaver meta disappeared on me. That makes me grateful I went into law and not finance, because I'm apparently terrible at predicting the actions of large groups of people.
Round 2 vs. Goblins
Game 1: I forget what my opening hand was like, but I think it suffered from the same problems earlier in that it had lots of potential avenues of play, but no acceleration to get them quickly off the ground. He opens with mana acceleration, and Prowls in Earwig Squad in the early turns. I wait to see if he takes my win conditions or if he might get distracted by the multitude of restricted cards in my deck, but no such luck.
Game 2: I bring in Tarmogoyfs in this matchup, and they made a big difference. I got one in early after fetching and popping a Lotus Petal, and later attacked past a Goblin Welder. He tried to Prowl in an Earwig Squad, but I saw it coming and had the Force ready. I then hung back with the Goyf and bought enough time to go for the win with Tinker-> Jar, Ritual, Demonic Tutor, Lotus, sacrifice Lotus and pop fetch to generate threshold, Cabal Ritual, Yawgmoth's Will.
Game 3: On the play, his opening is Lotus, Mountain, Lackey, Lackey, Piledriver. I have turn 1 Tarmogoyf which helps minimize the damage. He Lackeys in a Recruiter on his first attack and draws another Lackey, an Earwig Squad, and some other new creature I hadn't seen before that makes Rogues and Goblins cost less. I played Ancestral and found Force, which got Ponder and Force, which kept the Squad from resolving. I got a second Tarmogoyf, but he followed suit with a Warchief. Sensing my window of opportunity was rapidly closing, at 7 life I went for it. I played Mox, Ritual, Cabal Ritual without Threshold, Timetwister, Ritual, Ritual, Ritual, Memory Jar, use Jar, Lotus, Cabal Ritual, Duress, Tendrils.
Everyone I'd expected to do well is advancing rapidly, leaving me alone in the X-1 bracket. I know with 30 people there's no chance for an X-2, or even an X-1-1 with bad breakers, so I know I'm in for a long day. I drink my first full bottle of water and marvel at how such a small space could get so incredibly hot with an air conditioner sitting in the window. I think back to the myth of Tantalus and sit down to play.
Round 3 vs. Stax
Game 1: I have a good idea of what I'm up against because I saw him with several Goblin Welders and Barbarian Rings in play last round. I keep a hand that's heavy on mana but low on business, hoping the lone Force of Will can keep him at bay long enough for me to get into the game. He leads off with Welder, and follows up with another, making my Force worth less. I have Rebuild in hand when he plays Null Rod, so I Vamp for Lotus anyway. He plays Trinisphere, and I DT for Will. He gets Smokestack down and I Rebuild and then go crazy.
Game 2: I bring Dark Confidants and Tarmogoyfs, which are again huge in this matchup. He leads off with Bazaar of Baghdad and starts to pitch artifacts. I assume he has a Welder in hand and save my Force for that, starting my turn 1 with land, Mox, Confidant. He has trouble finding mana at first, then has trouble finding threats, while my Confidant buries him in card advantage. Tarmogoyf later shows up to provide an alternate win condition after Tormod's Crypt hit the table. Once I had 2 Forces and a Hurkyl's Recall in my hand on top of more permanents than Stax, I knew this would turn out just fine.
I flee across the street to an ice cream store with functioning air conditioning and lean back with a sigh of relief as the world stops pulsing on me. I go back to the venue and chastise myself for clinging to the unlikely hope that the room temperature dropped 15 degrees in the previous 10 minutes. I approach my next match with a newfound sympathy for the residents of Dis.
Round 4 vs Stefan Ellsworth, Painter's Servant
Game 1: He plays a lot of permanents and Timetwister. I Force and complete a pretty uneventful turn 1. He plays Scroll -> Ancestral and passes. I Duress him and see little else in the way of business. I'm not positive about how this one ended but I think I did it through fetch, tutor for Lotus, pop Lotus, Grim Tutor for Will, Cabal Ritual now with Threshold, Will, repeat. Tinker -> Jar may have been a factor, but I might be confusing this game with the others that Jar won for me.
Game 2: My memory of this game is hazy, but I think one or both of us had early Duress. At some juncture, I play Fact or Fiction at the end of his turn, only to have T00L Intuition for 3 Mana Drains and Drain it. He burns off Drain mana. I play Gifts Ungiven at the end of his next turn and turn it into a humongous Mind's Desire, with Tendrils in hand.
I drink my third full bottle of water and silently curse Exxon Mobil for contributing to global warming and inflicting this horrible fate on me.
Round 5 vs Dan Yarrington, TMWA version 3.141592653589793238
I look at the standings hoping against hope I can draw in order to 1) avoid having to play for top 8, and 2) go back across the street to the Promised Land of air conditioning and delicious ice cream. I notice I'm at the bottom of the 9 point bracket. I die a little inside and sit down to play my next round.
Game 1: I start with acceleration into Memory Jar, only to have my hopes dashed with a Shattering Spree on the Memory Jar. I had Will and a tutor in hand, so I knew I'd have some backup game if the unthinkable were to happen, but I needed time to build some acceleration back up. As it would happen, Dan's only threat was a Vexing Shusher, which left enough time to tutor for Lotus, pass, Mystical for Will on upkeep, play pop Lotus, pop fetch, Cabal Ritual now with Threshold, and sound redundant.
Game 2: He opens with Pyrostatic Pillar. I kept a borderline hand because it contained my one answer to that threat, Chain of Vapor. I boarded in Tarmogoyfs, but never saw any. As it would turn out, I didn't need them. I opened with Confidant, expecting him to have sided out his creature removal. It drew me into Ancestral and attacked Dan into Tendrils range later on. I played Ancestral into Pillar and then some Moxes, and dropped to 8 life. I then Chained them back to my hand, sacrificing my lands to hit his Pillar as well, replayed Moxes, dumped Rituals, and got there with tutor for Tendrils.
I end up 1st seed out of the Swiss after losing my first three games, then winning out. Don't give up, kids! I drink my fourth full bottle of water and begin my match in Top 8.
Top 8 vs. Dan, Dreadnought Mask
Game 1: He mulls to 5 and I Duress to see a hand with a Dreadnought and some mana. I Gifts Ungiven at the end of his second turn and then dump my hand, Will, and put this one away quickly.
Game 2: I expect to see Stifle effects this game, so I bring in Confidants to give me some kind of an edge in the later turns. As it would turn out, this made all the difference. He opened with a Confidant, which I Forced to maintain the late game advantage I mentioned above after playing a Confidant of my own. That lone Confidant ends up dealing 16 points of damage through attacking, with his Fetchlands contributing the other two, and a Trickbinded Tendrils kicking in the difference. I used my Forces to keep blockers off the table to win through an aggro-control strategy what had to have been the most bizarre Combo vs. Control game I've ever played.
Top 4 features me paired against Corey Frasier playing Slaver/Painter, a matchup I brought Long for, because I consider it to be favorable. But I heard Eastman and GI discussing plans in the city that night, the venue was intolerably hot, I had a headache/dehydration/heat stroke/hypochondria/whining, and I didn't want to have to invest the time to eBay my winnings. So, I accepted a top 4 split, collecting a cash prize and first place by dint of my comeback Swiss performance.
Thanks to ELD for another well-run tournament, temperature conditions of the venue aside. I'm sure his TO report will cover it, but my list for this event was as follows:
4 Dark Ritual
4 Force of Will
4 Duress
3 Cabal Ritual
2 Grim Tutor
2 Tendrils of Agony
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Rebuild
Demonic Tutor
Mystical Tutor
Vampiric Tutor
Imperial Seal
Ancestral Recall
Time Walk
Timetwister
Windfall
Tinker
Memory Jar
Yawgmoth's Will
Yawgmoth's Bargain
Necropotence
Fact or Fiction
Gifts Ungiven
Mind's Desire
Brainstorm
Ponder
4x Polluted Delta
1x Bloodstained Mire
4x Underground Sea
1x Bayou
1x Swamp
1x Tolarian Academy
5x Mox
Lotus
Mana Crypt
Sol Ring
Lotus Petal
Sideboard:
4x Tarmogoyf
3x Dark Confidant
3x Hymn to Tourach
2x Extirpate
1x Yixlid Jailer
1x Hurkyl's Recall
1x Tropical Island
Later that night, Rich and I take stock of what worked for us and what didn't. I emphashize how amazing Tinker/Jar was for me, the one regrettable Shattering Spree fiasco notwithstanding. I also liked Academy, which powered me into a couple of my wins which would have been a bit slower and/or much dicier if it had been an Island. I also complained about Hymn doing nothing to even slow down opposing combo decks.
Rich said Confidant was bad for him. I told him it was quite solid for me, winning my Top 8 Game 2 by itself, and often attacking opponents into Tendrils range while beefing my hand with the 1 or 2 extra drops I needed to make things happen. We had talked about Xantid Swarm before the event, opting against it just out of allegiance to TK's original list. Rich and I both noted, however, that Duress doesn't stop opponents who keep a key defensive spell, like Trickbind, on top of their library and accessible with Sensei's Divining Top. We decided Xantid Swarm would be the thing to solve that problem.
We discussed other potential changes, some good, some comically ineffective, and made further tweaks. Since most of those were his ideas, I'll leave it to him to discuss them in the next segment-- Pitch Long Strikes Back: Big Fat Trouble in Little Myriad.
***
Day I, from Rich's (less successful) perspective:
Round I -- Nick M with Control Slaver
Game 1: I have a first turn Grim Tutor, and I Force his first turn Ancestral. I duress him and take his Drain, leaving him Mystical Tutor, some mana, and some robots. He plays a Thirst next, and I play a Bargain, Forcing the Drain that he tries to play.
Game 2: Nick has a Goblin Welder, and I have a Confidant. Bob builds up a solid hand for me as pitch magic slows him down.
Round II -- GI with Sensei Sensei
Game 1: GI mulls to five cards, and I mull to six. He has Top and I have Imperial Seal. I desire for four, and hit Misdirection and Bargain. I pass the turn, and despite his scrambling for an answer, he can't stop me from winning on the next turn.
Game 2: I have an early Goyf who ends up not mattering at all. GI resolves a pile of draw spells, and eventually puts a Future Sight into play. I realize that I have only one turn, because GI has Sight and Academy and Top on the table, with plenty of mana. However, Extirpate ensures that he lacks any counters, and my Bargain again comes down and ends things.
Round III -- Joe B with Stax
Game 1: Joe plays a Chalice early. I Duress him, then resolve Bargain and win.
Game 2: Chalice locks me out this game, and Sphere helps it out. I'm in bad shape for the whole but manage to get the win.
Round IV, V -- ID
Top Eight: Nick Rodriguez
Nick is a player who has really stepped up his game lately. He beat me the last time we played in top eight, so I know I have a challenge ahead.
Game 1: Nick plays and I mulligan. Nick Forces my Ancestral, but I manage to slip in a Time Twister, Nick has double Force after my Twister, but on my next turn Bargain resolves and ends things.
Game 2: Nick Duresses me a few times and this really hurts. We get into draw/go mode, but despite my attempt to Force it, his Tinker resolves and that's the game.
Game 3: Nick Duresses me again, and has a Force. I Scroll for Brainstorm since my Ancestral is already countered. Top helps Nick's hand. I get out Bargain but can't win, and am starring down 6 Goblin tokens. On his turn, Nick is thinking deeply, and is looking like he might not remember to attack with his tokens. At this point, Jimmy comes up to us and says, "What are those tokens for?". He then reiterates, "Are those Empty the Warrens tokens?". At this point, Nick sits upright from his slump, and turns his tokens sideways. I draw a few more on my turn off Bargain but am two life short. I have a word with Jimmy about this after the match.
Nick takes me out in Top Eight again. Well played, Nick. You're becoming a real force to contend with. I received a Chinese Academy for Top Eight, taking it over an Underground Sea. ELD did a great job running the event, as he always does. The prizes for 5-8th were various foreign cards, foils, and dual lands, making them quite good prizes.
Day 2 at Myriad Games, Rich's Perspective:
We hadn't been planning to go to Myriad, but Dan's restructured prizes were a good idea, and we wanted to show our support for this. I was mostly happy with my prior deck, but decide to listen to Chris and add in Tinker and Jar. I also wanted Top, so I cut Imperial Seal for it. I replaced Windfall with Time Spiral, which I never did manage to cast. Merchant Scroll got cut for being useful only when Ancestral was still in the deck, and only moderate even then. Fact or Fiction, which had replaced Cruel Bargain in Tommy's list for me, also got cut for more space. These changes made, I was ready to play Day 2 of the weekend. For the sideboard, I ran a Xantid Swarm as Chris and JD both advocated. And, seeing Jeremiah before the event, Chris and I decide to run Mystic Remora in the board. The fact that Dan had them in stock for our purchase confirmed the decision.
Round I: Oli with Drain Painter
Game 1: I get out a turn 2 Jar and win on turn 3.
Game 2: Oli double Duresses me. I Duress him. However, I resolve a Swarm, and they allow my Bargaining with Yawgmoth to go unmolested.
Round II: Jeff with Ichorid
Game 1: Jeff mulls to 4. He then plays Bazaar and Chalice. I'm dead before I can get online.
Game 2: Jeff mulligans to 1 and I don't have any trouble.
Game 3: Jeff mulligans to 1 again.
Round III: Jimmy with Drain Painter
Game 1: I win off an early Necropotence.
Game 2: I mulligan and die on the third turn to the Grindstone combo.
Game 3: This game is going well at first. We are both building up our hand and playing control elements. I resolve Time Twister but can't win that turn. So, I played Duress, play Jar, and pass with double Remorae. I know that Jimmy has a Mox and a Crypt. At the end of the turn, Jimmy fetches. When I have cut his deck, I see that the top card of his deck is backwards in the transparent sleeve. I call over Dan and show him the clearly marked card, an Aura of Silence facing upward. Jimmy assures me that I shouldn't be upset because the marked card isn't a good one -- it's Sol Ring. I'm fairly upset at this point because my opponent actually knows what his backward card is, meaning that it isn't just an honest mistake. Dan returns and announces that Jimmy just gets a warning. I'll admit, I'm a bit on tilt here since Jimmy only got a warning for a clearly marked card which he could identify. Dan has us reshuffle and Jimmy draws Ancestral instead of the Sol Ring to which I had cut, and manages to Grind me out. I could have played better on his turn, but honestly, I was too on tilt to play properly. Getting only a warning for the backward marked card was something I didn't agree with. In hindsight, I should have expressed my reasoning on the matter better to Dan instead of staying silent.
Round IV: John with Stax
Game 1: I get locked out by a Chalice and Sphere.
Game 2: Hurkyl and Time Twister team up to give me this one.
Game 3: John mulligans and doesn't have any lock pieces. In a few turns I resolve Bargain and go off without any opposition.
Top Eight: Pat with PTW.dec
Game 1: Pat resolves Birds of Paradise and I duress away his Intuition. Me Mysticals for ThoughtSeize , but my Necropotence resolves before Pat hits his fourth mana source for the Gifts in his hand. Desire for six ends it.
Game 2: I try to go off early this game but can't win. So, I tinker for Colossus. By the time Pat can remove my Construct, Remora has drawn me some new cards and I can drop Necropotence for the win.
Top Four: ELD with Control Slaver
Game 1: ELD opens with a Welder and some mana. I Ancestral, and then on my next turn Duress him. His hand is Welder, Volcanic, and Mindslaver. So, Mindslaver hits his graveyard. Eric goes to his turn with two land in play and a Top on the table, topping before the turn. Any artifact mana in the top 3 would have won it for him, but there wasn't any. He tops after he draws on his turn, hoping for lotus. Nothing, so I get another turn. I get out Bargain but can't win. I got to 2 life, with Welder on board. Eric Welders in his Mindslaver before he can activate it, and I Chain it to his hand. On his turn, Eric thinks and plays a second Welder, meaning that I have only one turn. However, I win on the turn before I'd have been beaten to death. That was a very close game.
Game 2: Eric Duresses me. Xantid Swarm resolves on my side. I Force Eric's Thirst, since a prior Duress had told me that his hand wasn't very good. Necro soon resolves and that ends things.
Finals: Jeff Carpenter with Workshop Combo
Game 1: I open with fetchland and two off-color Mox, plus a Top. Jeff opens with Lotus, Time Vault, Seat of the Synod, Mox Sapphire. I Top on the endstep, Fetch, and Top again. I play Swamp and Grim Tutor. Jeff plays Rings, which I Force. He then plays Jar and passes. I Tinker for Jar, Vamp, and pop Jar. Jeff cleverly pops his own Jar in response, thinking that if I had gotten Yawgmoth's Will (which would have been lethal) that I would lose it. However, I had gotten Rebuild, knowing that he could use his Jar. I end up getting Yawgmoth's Will on the second hand he gave me, and win off that.
Game 2: And infinite/infinite+1 Thorn of Amethyst kills me on the second or third turn.
Game 3: I play Academy and some artifacts on my first turn. I rebuild on Jeff's third endstep, untap, play Bargain, and win.
The changes that I made to the deck were all improvements. Tinker and Jar were very solid all day. Although Colossus didn't end up winning me a single game, I felt better knowing that he was in the deck. Time Spiral gathered dust in a sleeve, but Yawgmoth's Bargain was a real champion. I think that it won me more games than the other Yawgmoth-themed card in my deck over the weekend.
Here's my Day II decklist:
// Lands
4 Polluted Delta
2 Bloodstained Mire
3 Underground Sea
1 Swamp
1 Academy
1 Bayou
// Creatures
1 Darksteel Colossus
// Spells
1 Lotus Petal
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
4 Force of Will
3 Duress
2 Cabal Ritual
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Misdirection
1 Ponder
1 Brainstorm
2 Tendrils of Agony
1 Gifts Ungiven
2 Grim Tutor
1 Mind's Desire
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Necropotence
1 Rebuild
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Timetwister
4 Dark Ritual
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Tinker
1 Memory Jar
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Time Spiral
1 Mana Vault
// Sideboard
SB: 1 Bayou
SB: 1 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 2 Dark Confidant
SB: 1 Yixlid Jailer
SB: 4 Tarmogoyf
SB: 2 Extirpate
SB: 3 Mystic Remora
SB: 1 Xantid Swarm
Final Thoughts
This was a weekend both fun and educational, like a field trip. Chris and I aren't exactly Becker and JD, but we learned quite a bit. ELD and Dan both ran excellent events. I'm glad that both of these Tournament Organizers could work together to make sure that New Englanders were able to enjoy a great weekend of solid gaming. The players were, as always, a blast to hang out with, from hanging out in an ice cream shop Day 1 to escape the heat to going with Mike D to grab some lunch Day 2. It also goes to show you that learning to play a new deck is possible if you take the time to learn it and are motivated to do well. Thanks to everyone there, to everyone who gave us advice on the decks (as described above), to our teammates, and to everyone reading.
-- Rich and Chris
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