Hi all,
I played in this tournament (Nick) and wanted to say a few things about how it went and about the deck I played.
But first, a big thank you to the organizers, who offered a pleasant atmosphere, judged effectively and offered a huge prize without having us pay an entree fee. Wow.
Since I first heard of Rich Shay's mystic Remora deck (essentially through Gerry T's report) I had really been feeling like giving the deck a spin. I should by now mention that this was my first Type 1 tournament in more than ten years, so when one of the guys I play with, Peter Smutko, told me he would go to this tournament, I decided I'd play it in Milwaukee.
Some test drives against the decks it is designed to beat (TPS, Tezzeret) led Smutko to opt for fish, and, be that because of my poor playing skills or some more structural element, all of a sudden I really didn't feel like playing the deck.
This testing, however, led me to a number of (banal?) thoughts about mystic remora.
First, I don't think it really qualifies as an engine, since it so depends one your opponent's cooperation (and actual list). As card draw, it is simply unreliable.
Second, the remora is actualized in two opposite ways: either you gain cards or you gain turns. I wanted my deck to exploit both, but I felt Shay's list did not fully accomplish this when it came to exploiting the turns the remora gives (and I say this without actually knowing the way Rich plays the deck...).
My take on this problem was to build a deck that profits from these "free" turns, and the way I think this can be done in the current environment is by playing a cheap combo of at most two cards, with as close as possible to the maximum allowed (4 of each) in order to draw it from the top of the deck as often as possible. In this way I both disrupt the opponent's early game and give myself the turns to get my mana on the table and (hopefully) draw the combo. Ideally, I will then open the big turn with a fresh remora at which point the deck plays like most people envision it, drawing free cards and playing free counter magic.
This meant leaving mana drain out, something I really do not mind, since I like playing remora as early as possible.
When I saw Peter Flugzeug (a fellow Swiss)'s list for BOM3 on this forum, I really felt that the theory could turn to practice, and this is what I sleeved up:
4 Mystic remora
4 Force of Will
2 Misdirection
2 Commandeer
4 Painter's servant
3 Grindstone
3 Pyroblast
1 Red elemental blast
2 Repeal
1 Inkwell Leviathan
2 Thirst for knowledge
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Gush
1 Vampiric tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Gifts ungiven
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth's will
1 Sensei's divining top
5 Mox
1 Black lotus
1 Sol ring
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
3 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
2 Island
2 Snow covered island
Sideboard
3 Planar Void
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Relic of progenitus
1 Pithing Needle
3 Ancient grudge
1 Tropical Island
3 Pyroclasm
1 Darkblast
1 Hurkyl's recall
Round 1 I'm a lazy bum, so I dont really take note, so I apologize for not knowing my opponent's name
. He was playing red green aggro, with the 3/1 haste guy for
and direct damage.
My life totals indicate I won at 12 and 7. I know I misdirected direct damage both games and I stopped Burning shoals. I didn't see the remoras in this match, but both times drew the combo off the top of the deck.
Round 2, Shawn Williams from the top 8. He was playing a UR fish, with shamans and cloud of faeries. While I am afraid of fish, this is not a version that worries me, as the white creatures are far more dangerous than what the red can give (canonist, mindcensor, possibly meddling mage). I was in control essentially of the whole first game, however, the second one was really hard for me. It eventually came to a disgusting Will on my part (finally finding a source of black mana) while I was at three life. I played over seven cards from the graveyard, first of which was a remora, hit his shaman with a pyroblast (painter naming blue), then played ancestral finding grindstone. I couldn't activate hit but he was out of card with very few mana (I think I hit a land and a mox with blasts at some point) and so I was able to kill him after that.
Round 3, Roberto with bazaar Ichorid. Not much to say about this game. He mulligans to two both games. He does find the two times the bazaar he needs, however, he obviously never gets to unmask me, so I just find the combo and kill turn three both games. I have essentially no experience with vintage ichorid, however, it seems hard for it to kill before turn three because he wasn't playing zealots, so if I'm on the play, I have a decent shot at winning before I get killed (again I have no experience to back this up).
Rounds 4 and 5, ID.
Quarter finals against Smutko. He plays fish of the blue white variety. His deck, and his person, are the reasons I added the pyroclasm to the board. He's a great friend, but who likes to lose to friends right?
Problem is, he has all the cards I really hate: canonist, chalice, null rod. One or two of them on the board I can deal with. All three together (or a chalice on 1 and another on 2) and I can fold. This happens game 1 pretty quickly. I cripple myself pitching forces to couunter single cards and he just gets there.
Game two, I get to fight with my board of three grudges three clasms. After a number of turns, I have the combo on the board, but he has a chalice at one, a canonist, a pithing needle and a null rod. He plays a spell which I answer with a grudge on the rod. Next turn he plays end of turn spellstutter Sprite, I respond by cracking my now active lotus for green and destroy the needle, and kill him.
Game three, he plays turn 1 mox, land chalice for 1. My blasts in hand look really silly now. Turn two he plays canonist and wastes my land. Turn three strip and something. Turn four, chalice for two, and I concede.
I think I kept a lousy hand game three, it had ruby and a couple blasts... but none of my board cards, which I think I should have tried to find.
I ended up really liking the deck, I think it is pretty striong in that it actually has removal main deck (ok, you need the painter), the disruption package for control decks is really wonderful (to the point of getting absird results vs. Tezz in testing) and you really aren't soft at all vs TPS. I really haven't played much against Stax, so there isn't much I can say except that I personally hate playing against prison decks. Creatures are obviously a liability, but much less so than for tezz (remember, painter has a 1/3 body). Pyroclasm help, but if Wild Nacatl starts to become popular, I guess Firespout may be the way to go.
Props
-Smutko, great player, efficient playtest partner, and designated driver
-Fangs and Willie, for providing the lols, and the jaguar (kicks like a mule)
-The TO's.
Slops
-not much come to think of it
Nick
