Duck Weekly Tourney #5

[AmbivalentDuck]

Hi all!

Dark Ascension is LEGAL for this tourney. Proxies should be made via manual edits to your decklist.  You can type illegal cardnames directly into your COD file.  Edit for clarification: With an official complete spoil, whatever's on the OFFICIAL spoiler only is correct and legal.

Every week, I'm going to start a 8-player single elimination bracket.  Rules are very similar to the TMD online invitational:
1. Games are played publicly on Cockatrice
2. Players have at most a week to complete each match.
3. Lists must be posted after all round 1 matches are complete.
4. Prize is the opportunity to play a featured match against a well-recognized member of the Vintage community.  (Volunteers?)
5. Drops after the bracket is drawn are final.  Nobody can fill that slot.
6. Brackets will be fully randomized.  There will be no preference or "seeds" of any kind.

Registration will be closed once we have 8 people or about a week passes and I remember to draw up a bracket.


Players signed up as of last update:
1. AmbivalentDuck
2. Nataz
3. Ruboonia
4. Credmond
5. Guli
6. evouga
7. zieby
8. boggyb

First matches must be complete by Feb 7th.  If all matches complete before then, the next set will be due within a week, and so on.

[A.-1.]

Any prognosticators want to guess how many copies of Grafdigger's Cage will be played? Or the over/under on Dredge and Oath players combined?

[credmond]

Go, go bomberman!

[nataz]

oh man, I'm in.

I have no idea how to edit cards. Help?

[Ruboonia]

I'll play!

[credmond]

I'm in.

[AmbivalentDuck]

oh man, I'm in.

I have no idea how to edit cards. Help?

Your decks are stored in .cod files in some directory somewhere on your computer.

It'll look something like this if you open it up in notepad (or gedit/jedit/notepad++/xcode/whatever):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<cockatrice_deck version="1">
    <deckname></deckname>
    <comments></comments>
    <zone name="main">
        <card number="1" price="0" name="Mox Emerald"/>
        <card number="1" price="0" name="Mox Jet"/>
        <card number="1" price="0" name="Mox Ruby"/>
        <card number="1" price="0" name="Mox Pearl"/>
        <card number="1" price="0" name="Mox Sapphire"/>
        <card number="1" price="0" name="Black Lotus"/>
    </zone>
    <zone name="side">
        <card number="1" price="0" name="Leyline of the Void"/>
    </zone>
</cockatrice_deck>

What you want to do is:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<cockatrice_deck version="1">
    <deckname></deckname>
    <comments></comments>
    <zone name="main">
        <card number="1" price="0" name="Mox Emerald"/>
        <card number="1" price="0" name="Mox Jet"/>
        <card number="1" price="0" name="Mox Ruby"/>
        <card number="1" price="0" name="Mox Pearl"/>
        <card number="1" price="0" name="Mox Sapphire"/>
        <card number="1" price="0" name="Black Lotus"/>
        <card number="4" price="0" name="Grafdigger's Cage"/>
    </zone>
    <zone name="side">
        <card number="1" price="0" name="Leyline of the Void"/>
    </zone>
</cockatrice_deck>

In fact, you can paste that line directly from what I just posted.

[nataz]

I'm having trouble accessing/editing the decks on my computer. Looks like its a permission issue with the decks folder acting as a read only which for some reason I can't change.

If i can't get the proxy thing worked out, any chance I can just play with a known substitute?

*edit
looks like this is an issue because I installed it in the program files folder...bah

*second edit

for anyone else that has this problem

this helped

http://forum.cockatrice.de/index.php?topic=425.0

apparently the decks are stored in the virtualstore in windows 7 (not the "decks" folder even though thats what is listed when you go to load the deck). You need to do a manual file search in your c:/ drive (or wherever you installed cockatrice) for the your exact deck name, then you can open with notepad, save, and it should work as normal.

good luck.

[Guli]

Ok, sign me up.

[AmbivalentDuck]

for anyone else that has this problem

apparently the decks are stored in the virtualstore in windows 7

Weird.  I didn't have the foggiest idea why you were having problems.  Thanks for letting everyone know what the solution was.

[evouga]

I'm in.

[Zieby]

In

[Grand Inquisitor]

I can be #8.

I'm also willing to give up my spot if someone else wants it more.

[boggyb]

Sign me up, baby. I'll be really interested to watch how these matches turn out

[AmbivalentDuck]

Sign me up, baby. I'll be really interested to watch how these matches turn out

I can be #8.

I'm also willing to give up my spot if someone else wants it more.

Registration is definitely closed.  GI, will you be giving up your spot to Boggy?

[Grand Inquisitor]

Yeah, it's all Boggyb.  I"ll get the next one.

[AmbivalentDuck]

Pairings are up!

evouga vs zieby
credmond vs me
ruboonia vs nataz
boggyb vs guli

[boggyb]

Playing Guli right now. Room name is A_Duck's Invitational -- Guli vs. boggyb

[boggyb]

Just beat Guli 2-1. I played a very similar deck to the one I posted in the Dark Times Primer thread the other day:

4 Dark Confidant
4 Vampire Hexmage
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Demonic Consultation

4 Duress
4 Thoughtseize
1 Null Rod
2 Liliana of the Veil
3 Mental Misstep
1 Darkblast
3 Surgical Extraction

4 Dark Ritual
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
3 Dark Depths
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
11 Swamp

SB: 2 Null Rod
SB: 2 Hex Parasite
SB: 3 Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 1 Pithing Needle
SB: 1 Perish
SB: 2 Snuff Out
SB: 1 Diabolic Edict
SB: 1 Mana Crypt
SB: 1 Engineered Explosives
SB: 1 Ghost Quarter

Game 1:
My opener was swamp, misstep, seal, ritual, duress, duress, something else, which I probably shouldn't have kept, in retrospect. Won the roll and led with ritual duress, he showed two land, hierarch, lotus, and a bunch of dudes. Plan had been to go ritual double duress seal for bob, but since I had no other targets I just sealed for strip mine in hopes of nailing his hierarch with misstep, his first land with strip, and then drawing into gas as he hopefully didn't draw any more mana. His first draw was a forest, though, and he led with Grafdigger's Cage. Sweet, he thinks I'm a Storm deck. I drew thoughtseize, misstepped his dude, but then drew nothing useful. I scooped when I still had an outside chance of winning since I didn't want to tip my hand.

Game 2: Boarded in Needle, Edict, Perish for Rod, Tendrils, Yawg. (Would normally keep Tendrils in vs him for a midgame lifeboost, but since he thought I was on Storm I figured he would over-board against that.)
A pretty quick game. Opener was swamp, depths, misstep, misstep, edict, liliana, something else. Led with swamp, duress, misstep his misstep. He revealed just Trygon and a bunch of land (including a wasteland), heh. We both drew and passed, and I drew hexmage but didn't lay depths. He then played Qasali, and I drew a swamp to edict him. Then he tapped out to play Trygon, and I just played Hexmage and made ML on my turn for the win.

Game 3:
I mulliganed to a 5 of Jet, Ritual, Consultation, Duress, Misstep. Pretty good for a 5 -- plan was to just Ritual Consult for Bob and play him, hope to catch up. Luckily he led Island, ESG -> Time Walk, a pretty subpar opener. He then Recalled on his time walk turn, which I had the misstep for. Sweet -- we were about even at this point. He passed, missing his land drop. I drew Petal, and Ritual-Consulted for Bob and found him pretty quick (only exiled 12 cards). He drew and played emerald, I flipped swamp and drew another Misstep (excellent). He drew and played a heath (lucky bastard), and played a Thalia, and then an Edric next turn, and we were about even again. I had drawn two dark depthses and an extraction at this point, and I extracted his Heath, hoping he had 4x in his deck. Only had 1 more in his library, but I got a peak at his hand -- a bunch of dudes and a leyline of sanctity. Great, nothing to keep me off Hexmage, not even a Trygon. He cast Hierarch and got me to 10 with an exalted, edric'd Thalia. I ripped Seal and cast it for Hexmage, and he attacked with both Thalia and Edric. Excellent -- I blocked Edric with Bob, dropping me to 6 and saving me the life loss from the hexmage flip (I would've blocked any attacker though no matter what). I had a wasteland in play, and he laid his own and tapped out to cast a leyline of sanctity (not sure why). I drew and cast hexmage, made ML, and killed his wasteland to keep him off some mana. I had two missteps in hand to combat potential Swordses, and indeed used one next turn for the win. Brought me to 4 life -- a very close game.

[evouga]

I (Oath) just lost to Zieby (Gush) 1-2.

My list:

4 Oath of Druids
4 Forbidden Orchard
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Blightsteel Colossus
2 Dragon Breath

1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Brainstorm
3 Preordain
1 Ponder
1 Tinker
1 Voltaic Key
1 Time Vault
2 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Repeal

4 Force of Will
4 Mental Misstep
2 Spell Pierce

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Island
1 Forest
2 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
1 Volcanic Island
2 Polluted Delta
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Misty Rainforest

SB: 2 Pyroblast
SB: 4 Leyline of the Void
SB: 2 Ancient Grudge
SB: 1 Massacre
SB: 2 Ravenous Trap
SB: 2 Nature's Claim
SB: 2 Mindbreak Trap

[Zieby]

Won from Evouga with 2-1.

List:
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Polluted Delta
3 Island
2 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Ponder
4 Gush
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Timetwister
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Fastbond
4 Force of Will
3 Mental Misstep
2 Flusterstorm
1 Mindbreak Trap
2 Tormod's Crypt
3 Repeal
2 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Brain Freeze
1 Brainstorm
2 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Imperial Seal

SB: 3 Steel Sabotage
SB: 4 Xantid Swarm
SB: 2 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 2 Ravenous Trap
SB: 1 Island
SB: 1 Tendrils of Agony
SB: 2 Dismember

Game 1: We play some draw go untill I play Gush, He Forces, I Ancestral Recall which resolves and Gush got countered. I could follow up with Fastbond quickly afterthat with Gush and Scrol in hand. Scroll gave me Mystical, Mystical gave me Will and when I casted will Evouga scooped to me.

I board 4 swarm and Tendrils because I did not yet see what he was playing.

Game 2: For some reason I sandback a Swarm but cannot stop him from oathing the turn before I could combo with will.

Game 3: We fight over each other threats and at one point we have both Top in play with me a Force and MM in hand, because of thjis I can control the game untill I find Mystical for will so I can combo with Tendrils.

[nataz]

Rub and I are scheduled to play tonight at 8 (10 mins)

room is up, called Duck Week 5.

[nataz]

0-2, Rub wins

I was crushed, of course. Played a fairly standard cat stax list with 4x cage stuffed in (no bazaars). I'm not sure that cat stax as we know it is the right place for cage. It doesn't stop bounce, or any of the events that lead to finding bounce. It already runs MD answer to tinker -> BSC in the form of metamorph, and with 13 sphere effects its already good against silly will turns. It's maindeck hate to Oath and Dredge (both bad match ups), but I'm not sure that's worth the MD slots over a sphere, null rod, or chalice. I will say playing MD dredge + oath hate really frees up the board. So much so I started running out of ideas for what to put in.

G1: I had a nice start with sphere effects and wires, but couldn't find a threat for the longest time. A distinct lack of waste effects let him go wild with LOA for like 7 turns, and that was that. 

G2: I kept a lock heavy hand with multiple spheres, cage, chalice, and 2 wasteland, 1 stripmine. t1 -> waste, cage, chalice @0. T2, waste #2, sphere. T3, lay a strip mine (his board is two fetches and a his own strip mine), and pass because all I've been drawing is moxen and a lotus of course.

Rub eventually lands a e-flux, I lose cage, SOR, and chalice. I play out lotus, mox, mox -> a desperate precursor golem, but it meets FOW. I hang on for a while, but I can't play (and keep), more than 1 threat/turn. He's got the counters, and eventually Tinkers -> BSC. I don't draw the metamorph, and thats game.

4 Grafdigger's Cage
4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
4 Lodestone Golem
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
3 Phyrexian Revoker
4 Sphere of Resistance
3 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Trinisphere
4 Tangle Wire
2 City of Traitors
1 Mana Vault
2 Mishra's Factory
3 Slash Panther
4 Chalice of the Void
1 Karn, Silver Golem

SB: 2 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 2 Crucible of Worlds
SB: 2 Precursor Golem
SB: 2 Dismember
SB: 1 Surgical Extraction
SB: 1 Ravenous Trap
SB: 1 Wurmcoil Engine
SB: 1 Razormane Masticore
SB: 2 Umezawa's Jitte
SB: 1 Thorn of Amethyst
 

[credmond]

I beat Duck 2-0. He was on BR Earwig Goblins and I was on UW Bomberman, a drain deck with dudes and a combo that ignores Cage. In fact, I main deck a cage.

1 Plains
3 Island
4 Flooded Strand
4 Tundra
2 Polluted Delta
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Force of Will
3 Mana Drain
3 Flusterstorm
2 Mental Misstep
1 Mindbreak Trap
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
2 Fact or Fiction
1 Brainstorm
1 Thirst for Knowledge
3 Auriok Salvagers
4 Trinket Mage
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 AEther Spellbomb
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Tinker
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 2 Echoing Truth
SB: 3 Serenity
SB: 1 Nihil Spellbomb
SB: 3 Swords to Plowshares
SB: 2 Steel Sabotage
SB: 1 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 Pithing Needle
SB: 2 Grafdigger's Cage

[Zieby]

Credmond, see pm

I am ready to roll

[AmbivalentDuck]

I beat Duck 2-0. He was on BR Earwig Goblins and I was on UW Bomberman, a drain deck with dudes and a combo that ignores Cage.

That very neatly sums up why Goblins was not competitive in this matchup.

[Ruboonia]

Here's my deck. boggyb and I will hopefully be playing tonight if things work out.

4 Force of Will
3 Mana Drain
3 Mental Misstep
1 Flusterstorm
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Dark Confidant
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Voltaic Key
1 Time Vault
4 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
3 Island
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Fire // Ice
1 Yawgmoth's Will
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Merchant Scroll

SB: 2 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 4 Energy Flux
SB: 2 Yixlid Jailer
SB: 1 Strip Mine
SB: 2 Doom Blade
SB: 4 Leyline of the Void

[boggyb]

Just beat Rub 2-1. Kind of cool games -- the ones I won were just luck, really, and the won I lost was due to a really dumb mistake, so I don't feel like I deserved it. Oh well.

My notes:

g1: mull to duress jet swamp vamp hex. Sweet. He mulls to six, I t1 duress, he shows sea library jace recall drain vamp, I take recall, then eot vamp for dd, lay hex next turn and dd. He vamps, for.. what? He has no answer to ML except to tap it for a turn with ice, hope to draw some mana for jace. Instead I guess he gets lotus, since he casts lotus and jace next turn. Ok, I just win, then.

g2: side out duress, rod, tendrils for needle, edict, cage. Playing aggressively. Three lines are: Make ML, land Lilliana, or broadly disrupt and stick a bob.
I draw misstep duress hex seize urborg extract lilliana. Sweet, this enables multiple lines depending on duresses.
He leads rainforest, pass. I go urborg, seize, he recalls, I misstep, he missteps. His resolves, I extract his missteps. He shows drain, tarn, scroll, tinker. Strong, but missing an artifact. He boarded in a flux. Now I'm not worried about life totals, since my hexmage and lilliana can keep him down on critters. Recall resolves and he shows emerald drain tarn sea dt scroll tinker. I have to take the tinker. I duress, he drains, I extract the drain. He drew strip, though, and may use it, then dt for jace and just win. I would. I haven't drawn any other mana and have seal, lilly, hex in hand now. Oh wait, nope, he goes tarn, snapcaster, tinker. Whoooops that errant extraction was a mistake. Oh well.

g3: same siding.
Draw hex seize duress misstep urborg swamp swamp. Decent, I guess. He mulls to five, I go swamp seize, misstep his misstep, he shows force ruby sea bsc. Wow. I take force. Play hex next turn, he mainphase brainstorms. I duress, he shows drain jace, I take jace. He rips bob. Fuck. I will lose if he draws anything relevant in the next 4 turns. Flips a hurkyl's. Lays tarn, I rip dd. His only out is now strip mine, or maybe ice -> jace. He flips drain, I win.

[Ruboonia]

I got smoked 2-1. There was a reason I didn't DT for Ice, maybe I didn't have enough mana or something. I do remember a reason. Or maybe I'm that dumb.

Frustrating games made worse since my sideboard blows against that deck. I actually had a pretty tempting hand in game 3. Ancestral, Snapcaster, Drain, 2 lands, Time Vault, and BSC. I mulled for 3 reasons: 1) opening hand BSC sucks, 2) Time Vault is underwhelming in the opener, 3) He was playing 8 Duress effects, so my Ancestral wouldn't have landed anyway. Hate chucking an opening-7 Ancestral Recall. No lands in my next six and garbage in the five I kept. I actually stayed in it for a few turns until he found the Depths.

[Grand Inquisitor]

I actually had a pretty tempting hand in game 3. Ancestral, Snapcaster, Drain, 2 lands, Time Vault, and BSC.

Even on the draw, I can't believe you would mull this.  Anyone else with me, or am I way off here?