[2nd place report] Uw Artifact Agro @ ELDs

The List ------------------------

3 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
1 Island
4 Tundra
3 Mishra's Factory
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Tolaria West
4 Etherium Sculptor
4 Master of Etherium
4 Ethersworn Cannonist
2 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Force of Will
4 Thorn of Amethyst
3 Counterbalance
3 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Forcefield

3 Magus of the Unseen
2 Relic of Progenitus
3 Waterfront Bouncer
2 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Seal of Cleansing
2 Dispeller's Capsule

The Matches--------------------------------------
R1 - Steve - Lost in 3

Game 1 - He has turn 1 library to control me. A timely bounce spell on canonist into a Large Yawg puts Tezz into play with timewalk.

Game 2 - turn 1 library again. This times it's too slow. I drop the beats and eventually get SoFI on the board and start swinging lethal. I see Krosan Grip.

Game 3 - he turn 1's library again! He gets an early drain down and intuitions for DT, Ancient Grudge x2. I give him a grudge to hand. He draws a ton of cards, while cherry picking his removal. Evenually he gets goyf on the board when I'm starved for dudes with no hand, and he has about 5-6 in hand.

-- Overall: 0-1 (1-2 in games)

Round 2 - Control Again (won in 2 I think)

I don't have a good recolection of this game. I know In game 1 I had counterbalance down, and my opponent tossed a mox into it. It wasn't hugely relevant. In game 2 I got another counterbalance down, and while I don't think it countered anything, I could tell it was messing with his plans (like he would play down a 1cc and I would reveal a 2cc - and he would visit frown-town and pass the turn). Again, holding the window open while I bring down the beats.

Round 3 - Dawn of the Dead - win in 3

Game 1 - He gets squee x2 + bazaar online very early. I can't keep up with the removal. He uses a Bazaar to save his grunt and swing lethal.

Game 2 - I drop some early beats, and get counterbalance early. I back to back blind counterbalance DT then Krosan Grip over the course of two pivital turns. Master + 2 Factories are enough to win over the two turn window I bought. *this was really the only match that

Game 3 - He has an early bazaar and zombie infestation. But I have a relic in my opening 7 and I also draw one on my first turn. I quickly spend the first to shut down a squee. I eventually find relic #3 and use 2 relics to control his graveyard. In the turn I draw relic #4 he EOT bazaars 2 cards + life from the loam into his yard, I pop the relic to take away life. leaving him with zero cards in hand. Soon after I having 2 relics in play, and I have a single Etherium Sculptor duel weilding a Jite + SoFI... so the game ended quick.

--- Overall: 2-1 (5-3 in games)

Round 4 - Mono-red (won in 3)

Game 1 He has a Mox monkey out which eats up some of my mana. More importantly, he takes away too many artifacts to have a decently sized Master. My first Master gets bolted, and I etutor for a 2nd who get's fireblasted. He also gets Pyrostatic down. I spend a good amount of life trying to out-creature him but I don't have enough.

Game 2 - I board in some enchantment hate, bouncers and Jite. He plays down an early pillar and I seal it. He has tripple Tarmogoyf, and I have double Sculptor. He resolves a Null Rod. For the longest time we only have lands in our graveyard - so Goyfs can't swing. I get waterfront bouncer down and I end up in a bit of a perdicament. I have a ton of non-lands in hand, and the lands-only gravetards are keeping Goyf manageable. IF I start to bounce goyf, things quickly get ugly as I fill the yard with artifacts, creature, and enchantments. But I can't really sit around and wait for goyf to get naturally pumped. Well I don't remember exactly how, but I am able to activate bouncer just enough to swing lethal the turn befor he can. I drew a great out in the form of ultimate anti-goyf tech: Relic of Progenitus. And had null rod not been in play the game would have been over much quicker. Also this game between the two of us we had x3 thorns in play. I re-boarded after this game, because in game 1 I had pegged him for more burn than aggro.

Game 3 -
He gets a Greater Gargadon up in the air early. This puts a bit of a chalenge on me. He follows up with a goyf. I am playing beaters and doing my very best to keep Force of Will up. I have counterbalance up but no top. I have really 3 plans for winning: Use force on Gargadon, Find Master of Etherium and win before Garg hits, Find Master of Etherium and get him big enough to ward off Garg. My opponent lands a Magus of the moon and I have a single creature in play, a sculptor and a jitte in hand. My onl basic island is also in the yard because of an early Wheel. He attempts to burn my Sculptor dead. I flip random, and don't get-there. Now I have no choice but to use my force. If I don't force, I have no chance to put a creature in play. I force and next turn I cast and Equip jitte and swing... giving me the required counters to end Magus. I quickly play Canonist. There was a small window where if my opponent had opted to eat his entire board to cast Gargadon I would have lost. I had 5 cards in hand and did my best to bluff another counterspell, that I didn't have. Finally I found a Master of Etherium and got my Jitte on. In the turn he cast Gargadon, he also cast Countryside crusher. We both forgot the canonist but by the time combat rolled around, the missed effect could not be reversed. This almost cost me the game. But with some unlucky non-land reveals, I was able to ride a Jitte to safty. I talked to a few onlookers about my actions on how I chose to play... and I admit I had many many options. I still contest that keeping 5 counters on Jitte and winning 2 turn slower (because I allowed master to die) was the right play. I had the game no matter when I used the counters. If I spent the counters to save master, then he top-decked Price of Progress I wouldn't have enough life to live. By saving 5 counters on Jitte I ensured that I could survive a Price of Progress.

-- Overall 3-1 (7-4 in games)

* Now I have a look at breakers. After some considering drawing in a 3-1-1 I had the worst breakers. And if things panned out, I was almost certainly going to get bumped (unless two spesific people lose). So I opt to play, even though my opponent is...

Round 5 - Red-Green anti-shops.

Game 1

The game starts with an early counterbalance-top vrs early Vexing Shusher. Unfortunaly for my opponent I am very experianced in -both- Counterbalance and Shusher. He throws down a Null Rod on his next turn with no mana open. I ask to respond with top, he acknowledges. I sort, and ask "Ok?" and point to Counterbalance. He says ok, and I flip a 2cc. He then quickly removes a Simian from hand and makes Rod Uncounterable. I explain to him, that the counterbalance ability resolves all at once, and he doesn't have priority. We call Eric over, and he does his judge duties to explain the way the ability works. Next turn my opponent casts Magus of the moon, again I ask to respond with top. We talk a little about if he can respond after top, but before CB - which he choses to do. I resolve top and ask if I can reveal for Counterbalance, he removes his simian to make his magus uncounterable and then I pitch Force and counter in response. This somewhat flusters my opponent, but Eric as been watching, and gives his good-grace on everything that has occured. At any rate, my opponent is a bit flusted and eventually I'm able to top up the beats.

Game 2 my opponent bosts that he is putting 8 hate cards in.

I have another early Counterbalance. Followed by an early Master. I think I later tutor up another master. One master dies, and the second is saved by my second blind-CB-krosan-grip counter of the day! SoFI provides the required evasion to blast through the defenses and score a win.

-- Overall 4-1 (9-4 in games) finishing 1st in swiss before top-8

Top 8 - RG Beats again

Game 1

I recall during his upkeep, and start playing the control roll. I think I get some early dudes down, and he does some mana denial. He drops Null rod after its way too late, and I win right through it.

Game 2
I have a blow-out hand. With timewalk, I'm able to throwdown all 8 cards before he gets a turn. By about turn 3 I have a SoFI protecting my Master and winning is only a short stride away.

Top 4 - Oath

I get a chance to watch Chris and his opponent's games, because they started late and I finished really early.

Having played probably too much oath, I know that this match is favorable to me - even though at face value I'm an aggro deck. I know that I just need to hit a certain breakpoint where he can't dig for oath and win. My deck can astablish this break easily because I by Masters are huge and make all my little guys big.

Game 1 I have a really early, thorn with 1 mana open. He tosses down an oath (tapping out) and I am able to counter it. This puts him back on his heels and I can swing in with dudes.

Game 2 I have an even better opener with an early thorn + Canonist. He oxidizes something good (I think Master because if he didn't he was lethal) I also have an early seal of cleansing. At one point he throws down an Oath and I kill it with seal. He basically has to win now or die next turn. He makes a valiant attempt to EOT Bounce the cannoist, and use Yawg to recast oxidize on thorn, but comes up short on mana for either Timewalk->Oath or timevault->key.

Finals - Steve Again! My only loss today... surely I can beat him if he doesn't get another turn 1 library!

Game 1 - He has a great opener with Recall on my upkeep I get factory Go. He then has tons of mana into Trinket mage -> lotus cast Tezz -> Vault. My factory can't get past the blocker and I lose to turn 2 Tezz.

Game 2 - I probably miss board, I bring in too much Tezz hate, when he boards out tezz and in dudes. Game 2 I am able to edge out a win with Master + factor x2.

Game 3 - I sit around with tons of artifact hate. I have both dispeller's caps and seal in play. I am really just waiting to draw dudes. He gets Intuition for Grudge, Gruge, land. I give him a grudge (because hes missed a drop and I have thorn in play). He again gets to cherry pick-off things I need to win. Eventually he tutors for Viashino Heratic, and then in the next turn or two gets a 2nd. I slowly watch my board sink into the grave along with my chances to win...

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Final thoughts:

The deck was amazing. I plan on doing a full discussion in the main boards about the deck - so I won't dwell too much now on choices. I didn't take first but overall I blame that on my inexperiance with a completely new match-up: Tezz vrs Arti-Agro. Next time my boarding will be better for this match.