TMD Online Invitational II Reports and Lists Thread

I was taken care of handily by TD in a 3 game set.

G1: I kept a solid hand with Misstep (not that great against him), Preordain, Mana Drain, some mana, and a Gush. He opened with Lotus into a null Rod. Eventually I resolved a Fastbond, but it didn't end up being relevant. The key play was resolving a Clique and seeing a hand of Misdirection and land. I was at about 10 life from Factory beats at this point. I let him keep everything and knew my hand of FOW/Drain/Echoing Truth/stuff was enough to win as soon as I found something worthwhile. I got a Vamp and fetched up Tinker, and it was on to game two.

G2: Opening 7 of no land, mull into hand of mana and a REB. I kept it, and lost the game on turn three when he played Jace. I REBed it, which he FOWed, which I Drained, which he FOWed again. We went on for a long time from there, but the game was effectively over for quite a while. At one point my hand was something silly like Tinker, BSC, and Lotus.

G3: I have a monster hand with multiple lines of play. Ancestral, Demonic, Jet, Island, Trop, Gush, Tinker. With two Misdirection and two Misstep, I obviously didn't want to play Ancestral blind. I could have Demoniced for Lotus and tried to Tinker first turn, which would skirt most of his free counters, but walk directly into Mindbreak Trap. I could Demonic for Clique, play Clique on his draw step turn 2 which would be susceptible only to FOW and REB at that point, and try to clear the path for Ancestral. Clique is also good in response to a Standstill. I didn't go for this play, because a Strip Mine would completely blow it up and leave me stranded. Ultimately I went with Demonic for Fastbond, though I strongly considered just getting FOW. I passed the turn with Fastbond in play and figured to be in great shape. I was going to Gush on turn 2 with Fastbond active and Ancestral/Tinker ready to go. When he played Sapphire I cringed, worrying about Mana Drain being online in addition to all his free counters. It was even worse than that though, as he had the Strip Mine for my Island. As nuts as my hand was, this was pretty much the game deciding play.

I played my Trop and passed, and he played Standstill. I drew a Clique, and since he had 5 cards in hand I was hoping to draw/go for a while. Endstep Clique triggering Standstill when they already have a full hand is really good. He drew a Wasteland and killed Trop, so waiting it out wasn't looking good. He still didn't have a factory though. Eventually my hand is Lotus, some Moxes, Sol Ring, Ancestral, Clique, Gush, and Mana Drain. It was good enough that I didn't want to discard it, so I walked the Lotus into Standstill. It resolved, and so did Jet into Sol Ring. I passed. I wasn't terribly afraid of Jace at this point since ETW was my best path to victory. He dropped another Standstill with a billion cards in his hand, and I decided to go for a terribly risky play. He still didn't have a factory, so I really wanted to sneak a Clique in under his Standstill and start racing him. I popped Lotus and played Ancestral. He Misdirected it to himself, and I responded to the Misdirection with Clique. Clique was FOWed, and he drew three from my Ancestral while Standstill came into play. So brutal. Some turns passed of him having an active Library with Standstill in play while I held onto Tinker, Will, and Gush. I still didn't have any land, but in three turns I drew two Tarns. I had a hand of Will, REB, Drain, Gush, Tinker, Emerald. I Gushed to break the Standstill, he Drained the Gush. I didn't fight over the Gush, which in retrospect was probably really stupid of me. His hand was huge and he had been sculpting it for many turns, so the Tinker bait (to clear the way for Will) wasn't really going to accomplish anything. I even saw him discard a Hurk's during the end step, so he obviously had Jace or Echoing Truth or something to deal with a resolved Tinker. If I had fought over the Gush I probably would have lost, but it would have saved the Will for later when it had a better chance of resolving and automatically winning the game.

So Gush was countered, and I replayed my lands to cast Tinker. It resolved, and I had 4 mana left. If I played Emerald I would be able to Will with Mana Drain backup. I dropped the Emerald and tossed the last ditch Will, which was met by FOW. I debated between using REB or Drain, went with REB which was Misstepped (it didn't matter, he had a Drain in hand too), and passed the turn. Echoing truth bounced BSC, Crucible off Drain Mana put me in a Strip lock, and that was the game.

Landstill is my hardest matchup mentally, and I think sometimes I get into my own head too much over how to fight through a seemingly endless wall of counters. I don't think I played too conservatively in these games, but I'm not sure. Congratulations to TD, and maybe we'll get a rematch in the second portion of this tournament.