|
The Atog Lord
|
 |
« on: January 25, 2009, 04:54:23 pm » |
|
Pandemonium Cambridge
Saturday January 25 2008
35 players
Second Place
Here is the list that I played. It is very similar to the list which I played at Myriad Games last weekend, with a few minor modifications. Here is the list:
3 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island
4 Island
3 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Darksteel Colossus
3 Old Man of the Sea
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Tinker
1 Voltaic Key
1 Time Vault
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
4 Force of Will
3 Commandeer
4 Mana Drain
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Mystic Remora
4 Meditate
1 Repeal
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Ponder
1 Echoing Truth
1 Merchant Scroll
// Sideboard:
SB: 2 Energy Flux
SB: 2 Relic of Progenitus
SB: 1 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 2 Pyroblast
SB: 1 Rack and Ruin
SB: 3 Yixlid Jailer
SB: 1 Pithing Needle
SB: 1 Engineered Explosives
SB: 2 Thoughtseize
Now, a word on the changes. I added a third Volcanic Island to increase the likelihood of drawing both black and red mana -- four Basic Islands should still be enough. I also realized that I needed a better solution to Empty the Warrens and similar cards, so I added in Merchant Scroll and Echoing Truth. I thought about the number of people advocating Fact or Fiction in the thread about this deck in the open forum, and decided that it was a good card and that the deck needed a bit more gas. However, cutting Meditate for it would not be a wise idea; Meditate is the engine that lets the rest of the deck work, and I wouldn't want to cut it. Finally, I tinkered with the sideboard a bit to adjust for a different possible metagame than what I have expected at Myriad.
Round One: Visna with Ad Nauseam
Game 1: Visna starts with a Demonic Tutor. I play Sapphire and Volcanic and pass. He casts Dark Ritual into Ad Nauseam, which I Drain. I cast Ancestral on my turn, play Remora and pass. He plays Top and Thoughtseize. I drop a second Remora, and Visna plays into them, casting Lotus and Skeletal Scrying. I Force the Scrying and resolve my own Fact or Fiction. Soon I'm able to win easily off the card advantage.
Game 2: I Commandeer Visna's huge first turn Mind Twist. There's not much left after that.
Round Two: Jeremiah with the Mirror Match
Game 1: Jeremiah elects to draw. I Scroll for Ancestral, and Jeremiah Ponders and Shuffles. I Ancestral and Force Jeremiah's attempt to Commandeer it. I then resolve Fact or Fiction. At this point I am ahead and I end up stealing two of Jeremiah's Meditates in a row and resolving one of mine. Jeremiah takes four turns in a row, after which I untap and win.
Game 2: I REB Jer's Meditate, and he Duresses my Force. He Ancestrals. I Meditate, he Commandeers, I Drain, he Misdirects. He then Forces my Fact or Fiction. Eventually, he Tinkers up a Colossus which I can't answer.
Game 3: This goes to time before while we are both in draw-go mode. There was at least another 20 minutes left in this game should we have played it out.
Round Three: Dan Cunningham with Bomberman (Maybe without Salvagers)
Game 1: He has Library. I have Remora. However, Dan starts missing land drops and I have fun bouncing and replaying Remora. Dan can't get back into this one.
Game 2: I Mulligan and Commandeer his first turn Duress, taking Vamp and leaving Dan with no gas. He Walks and Forces my next draw spell, but I'm able to set Remora and then resolve Meditate which generally ends the game.
Round Four: Jason with Drain Goyf
Game 1: Jason casts a quick Thirst for Knowledge, and then Trinket Mage. I Force a Clique, and Drain a Trinket Mage. He Needles Time Vault, and I Tinker up a Colossus. However, I'm so low on life that I can't attack. Jason resolves two Thirsts and pushes through his Yawgmoth's Will. Colossus watches as he is swarmed over.
Game 2: He has Trinket Mages again, but this time my Tinker is more timely and I'm able to race.
Game 3: He starts with Ancestral, and follows that with Tarmogoyf. I pop Explosives to kill the Goyf but Jason still has double Trinket Mages attacking at that point. He resolves Yawgmoth's Will in Extra turns, and proves that he can kill me. However, he kindly allows me the draw, since he is guaranteed to make Top Eight with a draw here -- I was paired up. Thank you, Jason.
Round Five: Grand Inquisitor with AKTezzeret
Game 1: I have Remora and GI as Accumulated Knowledge. However, GI has an Ophidian. I let Remora go to play and Old Man of the Sea. GI then Forces through his Gifts which ends the game.
Game 2: GI Mulligans. He Spell Snares my Merchant Scroll. I Meditate on his
upkeep, which he Drains and then burns. He Forces my next Meditate. Then I finally resolve a spell, this being Old Man of the Sea. I Walk, and keep swinging until GI is at ten life. He grabs AKs with Intuition, and resonds to my Meditate with Gifts. He then Forces Remora. I have another Remora, and that means that GI can't break through before the Old Man finishes him off.
Game 3: I get out an early Remora, and GI Vamps and Duresses. There is some dispute as GI casts Intuition off two lands but that is resolved quickly. No doubt, an honest mistake. I eventually win this one by resolving Yawgmoth's Will in extra turns, casting Timewalk, Tinker for Colossus and playing two Old Men while GI is at fifteen. Very close match.
Top Eight: Arik wiuth Fish
Game 1: He Thoughtseizes me and sees a hand of five land, Key, and Commandeer. This isn't a bad hand against Fish, however, and my manabase remains intact during the game. Eventually Old Man gets down to stop Trygon Predator, and Force of Will handles Tarmogoyf.
Game 2: Arik has Lotus but only Meddling Mage as a threat. Mage is on Mana Drain and I have three in hand. My Old Man becomes a Farmer, but I find Echoing Truth and bounce the Mage, Draining him on the way back down. I'm able to dig into Tinker soon, and Colossus ends this one.
Top Four: Paul with Tezzeret
Game 1: Paul opens with Duress and I open with Remora. Paul has Gorilla Shaman, who is terrible against this deck. I resolve Meditate, and then Old Man comes down to steal the Ape. This lets me destroy Paul's board, and from there I'm too far ahead in cards for it to matter.
Game 2: I lead with Remora again, and we go back and forth drawing and passing. Eventually, I bounce Remora and replay him, drawing cards until I have too many cards for Paul to get into the game.
Finals: John Longo
Game 1: I open with Remora, and resolve Meditate. I find time Vault and take a lot of turns.
Game 2: I Commandeer his first turn Night's Whisper, and he Misdirects. John soon hardcasts Force on my Meditate, and I'm unable to get back into this one.
Game 3: I Drain John's Brainstorm on my end step, which might not have been worthwhile. He Demonics, resolves Ancestral, and passes tapped out. On my turn I tap two of my three lands to play Brainstorm then Ponder. I now have one land open, a Black Lotus in play, and a hand of 2xRed Blast, Yawgmoth's Will, and Black Lotus. John has a full hand. My thinking here is that if I pass the turn, Duress would be very bad for me, and John already has cast Duress against me in a prior game but none this game. So, passing seems risky. Instead, I tap my final land to play Ancestral. John Forces. I let that resolve. Tapped out, I sacrifice Lotus to play Yawgmoth's Will, and John plays a second Force. I thought it more likely that he have one Duress than two Forces. Turns out, had I passed, I'd likely have won the game. Still, I think that I made the right play, given the odds of either.
Afterward, Chris, ELD, Arik, and I went to the amazing Border Cafe in Cambridge, one of my favorite restaurants. A fine way to close an intense day.
Pandemonium offered a fun place to play, and a good environment. As usual, opponents were gracious and sporting.
Thanks for reading,
Rich
|
