Duck Weekly Tourney #19

[AmbivalentDuck]

Hi all!

The 21 new cards from Planechase 2 are legal for this tournament.  The official spoiler is here.

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. Grand Inquisitor
3. boggyb
4. mrjumbo
5. BC
6. brianpk
7. credmond

First matches must be complete by June 4th.  If all matches complete before then, the next set will be due within a week, and so on.

[Grand Inquisitor]

+1

[Grand Inquisitor]

+1

Everyone's scared of my Baleful Strix deck, eh?

[boggyb]

in wit it

[mrjumbo03]

I was wondering what time do people play against each other? I'm interested in joining in and trying but I live in the Philippines, so our time is +12 hours to ET.

[AmbivalentDuck]

I was wondering what time do people play against each other? I'm interested in joining in and trying but I live in the Philippines, so our time is +12 hours to ET.

I regularly play against Europeans without any difficulty.  Usually, I play against them in the late morning, so it's early evening for them.

With a 12-hour difference, 8am and 8pm would probably work out on a week day, and 10am/10pm would probably be comfortable for both on a weekend.

[mrjumbo03]

In that case I'd like to give this a try 

[BC]

I'll play

[brianpk80]

Will join. 

[credmond]

Count me in

[AmbivalentDuck]

Bracket is up:
GI vs bye
credmond vs boggyb
briankpk vs BC
me vs mrjumbo

[BC]

I win 2-0 vs. brianpk80.  It's late, so I'll post my decklist tomorrow.

[brianpk80]

Played Blaine.  He won.  He played a T1 Golem and I had a strong hand against his list g1, but to my surprise, after I Wasted his Workshop, he landed triple Phyrexian Revoker on AEther Vial, Goblin Welder, and Hex Parasite... and then cast Triskelion and used it to kill my Metamorph which was copy of his Golem.  Hands w. Mox, Vial, Welder, Hex, Strip, Metamorph and sufficient mana usually win against MUD, but this went perfectly awry.  Well played by opponent.  Game 2, I boarded in Porcelain Legionnaires & the Gilded Drake.  In the past 10 years, when playing against Workshop, I tended to put in Tormod's Crypts since they were cheap, Tangle-Wire able and turned off Welders (that they used to use) and Crucible (that they use less).  This time I figured Crucible is out of style; no grave hate.  I have a Waste, Volcanic, Gorilla Shaman, Thalia, Mishra's Factory, and Mox Ruby in opening hand.  Horrifically, he opens with Crucible Wasteland.  He put Revoker on Shaman and Ruby.  He was at 8 due to Thalia, Ethersworn, Gorilla beats and I was pretending I didn't have any lands in hand though I did have two and a Legionnaire.  Unforuntately for me, he wasn't committing suicide with Ancient Tombs as MUD players tend to do.  He killed Thalia w. a Metamorph and when the board position forced him to lose one of his Revokers (the one on Ruby) that would have enabled Porcelain the next turn, he got out the Tangle Wire.  I was hoping to draw Cavern of Souls to push Welder through the Chalice @ 1 in play.  But instead, I drew Welder #2, Welder #3, and a Gorilla Shaman.  Death.  

Good games.  

[BC]

I played MUD again:

4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Wasteland
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Strip Mine
4 Buried Ruin
4 Ancient Tomb
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Opal
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Phyrexian Metamorph
4 Phyrexian Revoker
2 Karn, Silver Golem
3 Triskelion
4 Tangle Wire
1 Trinisphere
3 Crucible of Worlds
3 Ratchet Bomb
4 Chalice of the Void
SB: 1 Crucible of Worlds
SB: 4 Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 2 Razormane Masticore
SB: 2 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 3 Wurmcoil Engine
SB: 3 Sphere of Resistance

It went down pretty much as Brian described.

[xouman]

I'm surprised to see 4 Buried Ruin in your list. don't you have problems against mana hosers as white trash? high mana costs and no city of traitors could find some problems in many metagames...

[Grand Inquisitor]

4 Buried Ruin
3 Triskelion
3 Ratchet Bomb

These are kind of the outliers, how did they do?  Ratchet Bomb seems like a great call for this metagame.

[BC]

The absence of City of Traitors does make the mana base ever so slightly less reliable, but I upped the mana source count to 28, and have had fairly reliable mana most of the time.  Crucibles also help against Wasteland effects.

Buried Ruin has been extremely strong in my testing, although it didn't come up at all in my match with Brian.  I've been playing MUD for a while now, and one of the problems I found with the deck is that it has no draw engine to speak of, and can stall out sometimes if the first few threats are countered or removed.  Buried Ruin essentially acts as a draw engine, particularly with a Crucible.  You can recur countered Golems, spent Tangle Wires, Trikes, Ratchet Bombs, etc.  It's just a very good way to refill your hand with business.  I drastically underestimated the quality of this card when it was spoiled.

As for Ratchet Bomb and Triskelion, they have also been very solid in the more permanent-based metagame.  Ratchet Bomb is good because most permanents cost 0-3 mana.  Triskelion is good because a LOT of currently played creatures have 1 toughness (Kataki, Thalia, Snapcaster, Bob, Noble Hierarch, Welder, Vendilion Clique, Aven Mindcensor, Delver of Secrets, Grim Lavamancer, Tandem Lookout, Porcelain Legionnaire, etc.).  It can also kill enemy Golems and perhaps most importantly, Trygon Predator. 

[mrjumbo03]

Won 2-0 against Duck in my first ever Duck Tourney!:)

Used my 61-card Martello Shops against his Espresso

4 Mishra's Workhop
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 City of Traitors
1 Tolarian Academy

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
4 Tangle Wire
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Trinisphere

4 Lodestone Golem
4 Kuldotha Forgemaster
3 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Duplicant
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Sundering Titan

SB
4 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Tormod's Crypt
2 Crucible of Worlds
2 Ratchet Bomb
2 Duplicant
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Wurmcoil Engine
2 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale

[boggyb]

Haven't heard from credmond -- lemme know what I should do! Thanks.

[boggyb]

Got in touch with credmond and won 2-0. He was on welder shops, I was on BR Dark Times:

4 Dark Confidant
4 Vampire Hexmage

1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Necropotence

3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Tendrils of Agony
3 Gitaxian Probe
4 Dark Ritual
1 Yawgmoth's Will

1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Null Rod
4 Duress
4 Thoughtseize

1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal

4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
3 Dark Depths
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Swamp
1 Marsh Flats
4 Bloodstained Mire
3 Badlands

SB: 2 Null Rod
SB: 4 Leyline of the Void
SB: 2 Yixlid Jailer
SB: 2 Viashino Heretic
SB: 2 Pyroclasm
SB: 3 Lightning Bolt

Something I've been tinkering with a lot lately -- red is the best splash I've found so far. Bolt is an excellent card in the deck, too, for many reasons -- shores up a lot of the weaknesses the mono version suffers from. Wish I could have 17 sideboard slots for a Mountain and Pithing Needle too, but oh well.


Game 1 I keep Liliana, fetch, fetch, imperial seal, null rod, ritual, thoughtseize, a good all-around hand. Lead with seize, see wire wire welder crucible crypt -- took a wire which I'm not sure was right. He didn't play a resistor so I played liliana next turn off a ritual and pitched null rod to it.

. . . and then we essentially played draw-go for about 30 turns, neither of us able to draw any action. He has a trinisphere so I can't cast anything, and just march Liliana up and up. She kept him off welder, and I didn't see any golems from him or anything for the entire game. At one point I ultimated to get rid of his crucible/strip mine, and then kept ratcheting up, to 17 counters at one point, just looking for yawg, a tutor, a hexmage, anything. Eventually I ultimate her once to get rid of trinisphere, two chalices @ 2, and a smokestack (the other pile had about 18 permanents in it), and then a few turns later found hexmage, and ultimated again to kill his two ensnaring bridges and win.

Game 2 I side in 3 bolt, 2 heretic for 1 rod and 4 duress. No idea if this is correct or not -- heretic in particular seems pretty slow and bad versus him but wanted to try it out.

I keep strip wasteland swamp bob ritual thoughtseize bolt -- turn 1 seize -> bob rarely loses against a shops player but if he plays any relevant disruption turn 1 I'm kinda toast (though I can contain his mana pretty well). He didn't show me a single sphere, thorn, or golem in 40 cards last game so maybe he's not even running them, or only running golems or somethin. He leads off wasteland mox mox, I ritual seize his welder (over wire, maybe a mistake but I hope to just sit on bob for a while and go for a storm kill; meanwhile if he sticks welder and I can't find red for my bolt I'm toast) and stick bob, and then keep drawing cards under wire, draw a bunch of gitaxian probes and eventually yawgmoth's will for the tendrils I drew on turn 1, and storm him for 20.

Good games!

[mrjumbo03]

BC and I will be playing our match in a bit.

[BC]

I lose 0-2 to jumbo.  Game 1 he lives the dream with turn 1 Trinisphere on the play, and I don't have a Workshop.  Game 2 he has more Lodestone Golems and better lands.  All in all, not a very competitive match.

[mrjumbo03]

Won 2-0 against BC

Game 1 (on the play): He mulls. I go turn 1 Trinisphere of Tomb and Sol Ring. He drops wasteland, pass. 2nd turn I get Lodestone and drop wasteland. On his turn he drops Tomb and Crucible, I metamorph it, and waste both his lands, and off to g2.

Game 2 (on the draw): He goes mox mox land chalice on 0, and on 1. I play tomb chalice on 1 (I had a Workshop and Tolarian in hand), he wastes tomb. I play wasteland and pass, he draws and passes as well. I play workshop, then Golem, he metamorphs it on his turn. I play another golem, drop tolarian and play tangle wire, and attack with the golem, he blocks, both die. He drops a workshop and plays his own golem. I tap wire,golem and chalice so i can go duplicant plus waste on his workshop. Next turn attack for 10, drop Revoker on a moxen. He drops a Revoker to block for one more turn then I win.

Pretty bad draws on his part.

[Grand Inquisitor]

Boggy got there 2-1.

I didn't even bother to look at what he was playing and it turned out to be  nightmare matchup.  That deck is tough and attacks from a bunch of angles.  GGs.

[boggyb]

Beat GI on Back to Basics 2-1

I actually think his matchup against me was really favorable -- he has tons of answers to Marit in waste, strip, repeal, gilded drake (yuck) and had 2 Traps and 4 cages in the side if he was afraid of the storm kill, neither of which I have good answers to other than duress. Lilliana and bob are very good versus him but otherwise I think he had the edge.

Game 1 I keep a shaky six (that features null rod, almost totally dead), he counters all my stuff and locks down a few of my lands under B2B, sticks a jace, and that's that. At one point I ultimated a Lilliana, with one pile Jace/B2B, the other pile 4 islands, sol ring, chalice @ 0, and he correctly went with the jace pile. Shoulda just put Jace by himself.

Game 2 I opened with Jet, Duress (got misstepped), badlands, ritual, duress his Jace, Dark Confidant, and it was all over.

Game 3 I had some quick hexmage beats, he stuck a Jace and bounced her, then I untapped, cast hexmage and killed his jace, got Lilliana online, DT'd for Dark Confidant and rolled Bob + Lilliana to victory. He ended up Gilded Draking my bob but Lilliana had enough loyalty to solve that.

Good games!

[Grand Inquisitor]

I actually think his matchup against me was really favorable

Nope.  Bob and Lilliana are single game winners.  Your discard trumped my counters, your draw engines are cheaper and lightning bolt solves most things you care about.

 

[mrjumbo03]

Lost 1-2 to Boggy

Pretty bad keeps on my part. But I already had to mulligan so just went for it. G1 2 Ancient Tombs really hampered me. G2 T1 Trinisphere. G3 Massacre, his board position was like CoW Viashino Heretic and Liliana with me having an empty board.

[boggyb]

Just beat mrjumbo03 2-1

Game 1 I open with a bunch of land, demonic consultation, and gitaxian probe, probe him to see tomb, tomb, strip, factory, metamorph, thorn, chalice, pretty good versus me (chalice @ 2 = gg, and two answers to marit). Anticipating turn 1 thorn, I lay mire and pass. He lays thorn, I consult in response for dark confidant, find him after flipping about 30 cards, and cast him next turn, drawing DT. He plays tangle wire, chews his own life a bunch with tomb, I draw a bunch of cards, and he strips my land (I thought he would save it for Dark Depths). He plays chalice for 1, then revoker naming lotus petal, which I have in play. So I cast hexmage and lay depths next turn.

Game 2 he has turn 1 trinisphere, turn 2 disruptive effect, turn 3 lodestone, and I can't find enough mana for my lightning bolt

Game 3 I keep crucible, strip, seal, lilliana, fetch, duress, jet, which is just dynamite. He keeps 6, I duress him, and he's got waste waste strip tomb sphere wire, pretty bad. I take the sphere, seal for lotus, and have strip lock next turn. I draw yawg will, then recast lotus and duress, taking wire, and seal for heretic and that's that.

Good games!

Thoughts from these matches: welder is probably better than heretic, maindeck probe is probably worse than bolts or something, and I need a better dredge plan (though I didn't face any here).

[mrjumbo03]

As to G1, I guess it's just my inexperience with this matchup. That's why I need more Vintage games haha