Duck Weekly Tourney #18

[AmbivalentDuck]

Hi all!

Every week, I'm going to start an 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.
3a. You cannot change lists between rounds.
3b. If requested by your opponent, you must reveal your deck at the beginning of each match after the first week.
4. Brackets are fully randomized.

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. Shax
3. Grand Inquisitor
4. Honestabe
5. Credmond
6. Brianpk80
7. Guli
8. Serracollector

First matches must be complete by May 28th.  If all matches complete before then, the next set will be due within a week, and so on.

[Shax]

Lol if your allowed to keep putting these tourneys up I will keep signing up.

+1

[Grand Inquisitor]

+1

[honestabe]

Just downloaded cockatice.  I suppose I'll give it a whirl.

+1

[credmond]

Count me in

[brianpk80]

I'll join. 

[Guli]

+1

Cockatrice have been experiencing connection issues lately. There is some lag. Hope they fix it.

We can always use MWS until it clears up?

[AmbivalentDuck]

Cockatrice have been experiencing connection issues lately. There is some lag. Hope they fix it.

They seem to be aware of the problem: http://cockatrice.de/.  My suspicion is that it will be fixed over the weekend.

We can always use MWS until it clears up?

You can do whatever you and your opponent agree to, including using actual cardboard in person or via webcam.


If by Monday night this isn't resolved, I'll just host a servatrice instance myself for the week.  This is a problem with their server, not the software itself.

[Guli]

As the issues with our game server apparently cannot be resolved this weekend, Jeff Hoogland has kindly provided a temporary substitute server.
Host: 69.163.157.124
Port: 4747
This server does not use the Cockatrice player database, so everyone's going to show up as unregistered.

[serracollector]

In +1 etc if not too late.

[AmbivalentDuck]

Bracket is up:
Honestabe vs Guli
Serra vs Brianpk80
Credmond vs GI
Shax vs Me

[honestabe]

Guli and I are doing the glorious wizard battles in about 1 minute on the alternate server he listed.

Edit:  I got it in 2.

Game 1, I lost the roll.  He has a turn 1 Dark Confidant, but I make a turn 1 Jace and send Bob back.  Guli resolves a Revoker on Jace his next turn.  I draw a Force of Will, play a Dark Confidant of my own and pass.  He attacks Jace with his Revoker, so I gladly trade.  He attempts another Revoker, but I Force of Will it, which is where things to south for him.  I'm pretty sure if you want to make that attack, you need to have already resolved the second revoker, to prevent that type of blowout from happening.  =/  A brainstorm or two later with Jace, and I assemble Vault/Key

Game 2, I side in 2 'Clasms, Mountain, Pithing Needle, and Heretic for a Drain, Rebuild, Misstep, Gifts, and a basic Island.  Apparently, taking out Rebuild was awful, but I've been a bit out of the loop lately, and didn't know Fish was playing Chalice AND Cage, on top of Revoker.

He has a turn 1 chalice at 0, and wasteland into a Grafidigger's Cage.  I only have Fetchland, go.  He plays a Cavern of Souls, and taps out for Chalice @ 1. I respond by breaking my fetch for a basic Island and Ancestraling.  After he passes, I play Underground Sea and tap out for a Dark Confidant.  Guli wastes my sea, plays a strip mine hitting my Island, and my board is now a lone Dark Confidant.  2 Turns of nothing happen, where I hit a couple land drops thanks to Bob, and discard the multiple moxen I was drawing at the end of my turn to keep my hand at 7.  Eventually, he has a Fiend hunter to deal with my bob.  I take a few hits from it, and tap out to Demonic for my 3rd land.  On his turn, he plays a glowrider.  I untap and pass.  He hits me for 3 with his guys, and ships back.  I Fire his glowrider and him at his EOT, hoping I can rip a land and slam the Jace in my hand.  Instead, I draw Viashino Heretic, which I cast.  Guli attacks me with Fiend Hunter, which bounces with my Heretic, plays a Revoker naming Heretic, and passes back.  I untap and pass; he does the same.  At his end of turn, I fire his Revoker and him. Still during his EOT, he Ghost Quarters my only red source, but I'm able to fetch up the basic mountain to keep my dream alive.  I untap, Heretic his Chalice @ 0, play Lotus, Mana Crypt, Jace, which I use to Brainstorm, play a land, and pass back.  He attacks Jace to 2, and plays an Elvish spirit Guide.  On my turn, I Heretic his Grafdigger's cage, and Tinker away my Mana Crypt into a Blightsteel.  I +2 him with Jace, leaving him with a Ghost Quarter on top.  He only has 1 card in hand, which HAS to be a Fiend Hunter he can cast with Cavern of Souls, because I have the Force and blue card if it's any other removal Spell.  It turns out to be niether of those things, and he scoops.

Anyway, here's the list:

1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
5 Moxen
1 Sensei's Top
1 Time Vault
1 Voltaic Key

1 Blightsteel Colossus
4 Dark Confidant
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Viashino Heretic

1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
2 Fire//Ice
4 Force of Will
1 Gifts Ungiven
3 Mana Drain
3 Mental Misstep
1 Rebuild
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Vampiric Tutor

3 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island

2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

1 Demonic Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Sideboard:
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Pithing Needle
2 Ingot Chewer
1 Viashino Heretic
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Flusterstorm
1 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Pyroclasm
1 Mountain

[serracollector]

I lost to brian.  We both played creature decks, and he drew gilded drakes, lifelinking soulbounders, and tracker.  Gaining life with 2 bobs in play while at 1 life wins games.

grats brian.

4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Cavern of Souls
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
4 Glowrider
3 City of Brass
4 Dark Confidant
3 Fiend Hunter
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
4 Ancient Ziggurat
1 Karakas
3 Stun Sniper
4 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Mox Emerald
4 Mayor of Avabruck
4 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Phantasmal Image
SB: 3 Samurai of the Pale Curtain
SB: 3 Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 3 Mother of Runes
SB: 3 Null Rod
SB: 3 Ulvenwald Tracker

for list.

[brianpk80]

I played serracollector.  It was a goodspirited match overall, especially since I was new to Cockatrice, having just migrated from the other program.  The games were very long and very complicated.  There were a lot of legends coming into play and killing other legends.  There were a lot of Howlpack Alpha tokens.  I stole his Mayors with Gilded Drakes both games.  I advanced in one of the creature stalemates by Welding otherwise superfluous Moxen into 3/3 Etherworn Canonists.  I played a Tracker Game 2 and he responded with a Phyrexian Revoker naming Tracker. 

I tried porting the deck from MWS but it was unwieldly so I had to enter it manually.  I made a few impulsive changes and think there may be more lands somehow than intended.  It's Cave Salad, an assortment of aggro critters post-Avacyn.  If I'm not mistaken, there were supposed to be 3 Chalice of the Voids, but in transfer it seems there are now two.  Since that's how the deck was entered for the first match, that's how it'll be reported:

7 Artifact Mana:
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire

5 Non-Mana Artifacts:
3 AEther Vial
2 Chalice of the Void

19 Land
4 Cavern of Souls
3 City of Brass
2 Ancient Ziggurat
2 Windswept Heath
1 Savannah
1 Tropical Island
1 Forest
1 Karakas
1 Pendelhaven
2 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
 
1 Instant - Ancestral Recall

28 Creatures
4 Dark Confidant
3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
3 Mayor of Avabruck
2 Gorilla Shaman
2 Goblin Welder
2 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Gaddock Teeg
2 Gilded Drake
2 Ulvenwald Tracker
2 Nearheath Pilgrim
1 Tandem Lookout
1 Rayne, Academy Chancellor

Sideboard:
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Mindbreak Trap
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Porcelain Legionnaire
1 Gilded Drake
1 Ray of Revelation
1 Maze of Ith
1 Wasteland
1 Homeward Path

I boarded out the superfluous land, a Thalia, an Ethersworn, Lotus Petal, and put in Gilded Drake, Maze of Ith, Revoker, and Porcelain Legionnaire. 

[credmond]

I got there 2-1 vs GI.

Game 1, I disrupt all of his mana with a waste and a strip and just play it from there.

Game 2 I mull to a slow hand and he has a lotus, scroll, ancestral opener with snaps to bury me later.

Game 3 my hand is slowish but it has a Caverns and luckily he doesn't have an insane opener - except for a Jace off a Lotus! Luckily he has to Jacestorm a few times before he makes his deck start to do things while I start to play uncounterable goblins and he plays snap and chain of vapor to protect his Jace. He lands Stone Forge Mystic, grabbing Sword of Fire and Ice and I am able to Tin Street the thing after it connects once. I play 1 goblin a turn with Caverns and get a chalice at zero and a chalice at one in play - basically, blanking a lot of his cards. He lands a Batterskull off a second SFM and he is able to start getting back into it and turns the tides from there. I Matron for a Tin Street which was a mistake since he has enough mana to bounce and replay Batterskull until my head bleeds from all the bouncy bouncy confusion. Geeze, so much combat in Vintage these days. Luckily I topdeck into 2 Seige Gang Commanders, the correct answer to the game state, and start putting a lot of dudes on the table and importantly I can kill his SFMs by flinging goblins after I block Batterskull so I can stop the SFM bounce Batterskull shenanigans and start to turn the life gain back to life drain. This last game was like a Magic the Puzzling. And luckily I topdecked into the cards that could remove the double Stoneforge Mystic trap.

Good Games GI!

Here is my list . . .

4 Cavern of Souls
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus
2 Simian Spirit Guide
2 Taiga
2 Badlands
3 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
4 Mental Misstep
3 Earwig Squad
2 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Chieftain
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Tin Street Hooligan
4 Goblin Matron
3 Siege-Gang Commander
3 Stingscourger
1 Skirk Prospector
1 Goblin Ringleader
1 Goblin Sharpshooter
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Mountain
2 Goblin Vandal


SB: 4 Leyline of the Void
SB: 1 Goblin Sharpshooter
SB: 1 Stingscourger
SB: 4 Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 1 Warren Weirding
SB: 4 Chalice of the Void

[Grand Inquisitor]

GG's Corey.

I bottlenecked badly on white in both the losses, but G3 was still a lot of fun.  I don't know if Corey had chalices G2, but G3 chalice@1 was decisive.

I really like this list in a creature heavy metagame though...


1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Island
2 Mental Misstep
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
3 Mana Drain
3 Tundra
3 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Flooded Strand
3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Flusterstorm
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Preordain
4 Accumulated Knowledge
3 Intuition
1 Plains
1 Chain of Vapor

SB: 3 Surgical Extraction
SB: 1 Swords to Plowshares
SB: 1 Batterskull
SB: 4 Wheel of Sun and Moon
SB: 3 Disenchant
SB: 1 Flusterstorm
SB: 2 Aven Mindcensor

[credmond]

Duck and Shax,

You guys got your match scheduled yet?

[AmbivalentDuck]

I forgot to schedule a match, holiday weekend and all.  I've emailed Shax to see if tomorrow night works for him.

[AmbivalentDuck]

Silence from Shax for a week, so unless someone who's not Shax thinks it's unfair...I'm going to DQ him and we can continue moving forward.

[brianpk80]

Silence from Shax for a week, so unless someone who's not Shax thinks it's unfair...I'm going to DQ him and we can continue moving forward.

I had a similar experience w. my opponent.  Feel free to set me up against someone else. 

[AmbivalentDuck]

Silence from Shax for a week, so unless someone who's not Shax thinks it's unfair...I'm going to DQ him and we can continue moving forward.

I had a similar experience w. my opponent.  Feel free to set me up against someone else.

Well, we're just starting the second round.  Technically, your opponent still has a week.

[AmbivalentDuck]

I beat Credmond 2-1 with Doomsday

The maindeck is identical to previous weeks.
4 Polluted Delta
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
2 Island
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Dark Ritual
1 Tendrils of Agony
4 Doomsday
1 Fastbond
1 Yawgmoth's Will
4 Force of Will
4 Flusterstorm
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
4 Gush
4 Preordain
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Necropotence
1 Lotus Petal
1 Laboratory Maniac
4 Gitaxian Probe
SB: 1 Steel Sabotage
SB: 2 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 1 Sol Ring
SB: 4 Leyline of the Void
SB: 1 Chain of Vapor
SB: 1 Mox Emerald
SB: 1 Engineered Plague
SB: 1 Dread of Night
SB: 2 Xantid Swarm
SB: 1 Doom Blade

Goblins has a poor game against balls-to-the-wall combo.  I lost game 2 to keeping a hand with Jet, Ritual as my only mana sources since I had Yawg Will and Engineered Plague in hand.  I had Gitaxian Probe in hand to need only one of the top two cards to *somehow* produce mana if he dropped the turn 1 Chalice...and he did..and I didn't get land.

[brianpk80]

Opponent still MIA. 

[Grand Inquisitor]

The maindeck (which I'll edit in later) is identical to previous weeks.

Sideboard:

This doesn't seem to conform with previous sentiments on posting full lists 

[AmbivalentDuck]

The maindeck (which I'll edit in later) is identical to previous weeks.

Sideboard:

This doesn't seem to conform with previous sentiments on posting full lists 

I wasn't at the computer with the list this morning, but I wanted to keep the tourney moving along.  The list is posted before the match deadline and before my next match.

[brianpk80]

Opponent still MIA. 

[AmbivalentDuck]

I'll award the win to Brian at midnight tonight unless Abe schedules something with him.

[AmbivalentDuck]

I'll award the win to Brian at midnight tonight unless Abe schedules something with him.

Awarded.  A bit late...oops.

Brian, what times work for you this week?

[brianpk80]

I have to go out of town again today but should be back tomorrow evening and will be around on Saturday and Sunday. 

[AmbivalentDuck]

I have to go out of town again today but should be back tomorrow evening and will be around on Saturday and Sunday.

I'm around pretty much all day today.  What times work best for you?