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ErtaiAdept
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« on: October 06, 2014, 06:13:46 pm » |
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So I decided to write a report for my matches at the NYSE Grudge match this weekend mainly so that I could record it for my own purpose, but figure other's would like to see it as well. This tournament was a big deal for me as it marks my first top 8 at a bigger event in something like 8 years? I've made top 8s and even won some smaller local tournaments, but nothing anywhere near this size, so this was a really great feeling for me.
I apologize for not remembers some opponents names, and if I messed up any details please feel free to chime in. Without further ado....here we go.
Decklist
U/W Stoneforge Control
3 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Marsh Flats
2 Cavern of Souls
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Island
2 Plains
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Trinket Mage
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Pithing Needle
1 Batterskull
1 Swords of Fire and Ice
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Brainstorm
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Force of Will
3 Mental Misstep
1 Spell Snare
2 Mana Drain
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Council's Judgment
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Ponder
SB:
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Aegis of the Gods
2 Disenchant
1 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Meddling Mage
2 Rest in Peace
1 True-Name Nemesis
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Misdirection
2 Mindbreak Trap
Round 1 - Talrand Gush Storm (Name: Unknown)
Game 1 - I land an early stoneforge that and grab batterskull. I get the germ into play and start attacking, I get my opponent to 7 life but get greedy and lost to resolved yawgwill when my opponent storms me out with Tendrils
IN: Missdirection, 2 MTB, 2 Graffdigger’s Cage, Aegis of the God’s
Out: 1 Pithing Needle, 1 Spell Snare, I don’t remember the rest really
Game 2 - I keep on a hand packed with counter magic and an Aegis of the gods, my opponent attempts to resolve an early talrand and we fight over it. The counter war ends with me missdirecting his force to his own talrand. After this we are both spent and I land a top and eventually win with creature beats
IN: 2 Meddling Mage (I realized I needed additional ways to stop his abrupt decays
Game 3 - I land a turn 1 Cage, into turn 2 Meddling Mage on abrupt decay, and finally a turn 3 Aegis of gods, since our second match took a really long time to finish we end up going to time, but I am able to deal lethal on turn 5 with the creatures I cast on turns 2 and 3.
(win 2-1, record 1-0)
Round 2 - Treasure Cruise Delver? (JP Kohler)
Game 1 - My opponent gets off to a quick start w/ Recall to Brainstorm to Gush and at this point I am very worried and hold off casting my stoneforge since I expect him to have a ton of counter magic. However a few turns go by and he declines to do anything, so I decide to test the waters. My stoneforge resolves followed by a Jace the next turn and JP scoops. Apparently all his draws bricked into all lands.
IN: Missdirection, 2 MBT
OUT: Grafdigger’s Cage, Pithing Needle, Plains
Game 2 - He mulligans to 5 and can’t find land. I cast a turn 2 stoneforge and quickly finish the game.
(win 2-0, record 2-0)
Round 3 - Terra Nova Shops (Opponent Unknown)
Game 1 - I mulligan to to 6 and have FOW misstep 2 mox and batterskull land, and decide to keep .Will opened on turn 1 Null rod, which the 2 moxes + BS in my hand meant I needed to force. I forced pitching misstep, and he passes. My turn 1 is hardcast batterskull off a top-decked lotus and 2 moxes. Oppoenent follows up with double lodestone golem which my sad batterskull cannot out race.
IN: 2 Dissenchant, 1 True-Name, 2 Meddling Mage, 1 supreme verdict
Out: 3 Mental Misstep, 1 Jace, 1 Ponder, 1 Grafdigger’s Cage
Game 2 - I believe my turn 1 was land go. Will plays back to back batterskulls on turns 1 and two of of a bunch of moxes and an ancient tomb. I play turn 2 trinket mage, into EE, EE on 0 kills his batterskull tokens and 3 moxes cutting him off a lot of mana for the rest of the game. He’s unable to find any other threats, and my mage eventually picks up a sword of fire and ice for the win.
Game 3 - Another mull to 6. My opponent again opens with null rod which gets forced (pitching time walk), I play land go, and have no more protection. He follows the next three turns with Batterskull, lodestone golem, into metamorph copying lodstone golem. I am able to get some lands down and a couple moxes but draw no gas. He attacks and passes, with my lifetotal at 13 and facing lethal next turn. This is where my favorite moment of the day happened. I top-decked the one and only out I had in my deck. Supreme verdict. A quick check of my mana against his lodestone count shows I have exactly enough. I drop it and wipe his board. With both hands depleted the top-decks begin. He draws metamorph to copy his batterskull (netting a germ) and equips the second batterskull to it. I draw dissenchant, and kill one batterskull, he play golem, I play STP, he draw revolker, and I draw a mox. And that was the end of the game.
(Loss 1-2, Record 2-1)
Round 4 - (Name: Unknown Opponent) Terra Nova Shops
Game 1 - Opponent opens on chalice 0 chalice 1,shutting down 4 or 7 cards in my hand. Despite this I am able to get stoneforge for batterskull online, and we trade blows for a few turns, but the chalices end up destroying all of my top decks and I’m eventually overwhelmed byt the sheer number of creatures he has. I probably should have scooped earlier in this game as we almost ran out of time in game 3, but I was hoping I’d somehow be able to turn it around.
IN: 2 Dissenchant, 1 True-Name, 2 Meddling Mage, 1 supreme verdict
Out: 3 Mental Misstep, 1 Jace, 1 Ponder, 1 Grafdigger’s Cage
Game 2 - I assemble an early stoneforge for batterskull, and use removal spells and counters to keep my opponent off threats, batterskull gets there, and we go to game 3.
Game 3 - There is a lot of back and forth here as we go through batterskulls trading with each other. At one point I consider blowing an EE on 0 to kill his chalice, but decide it’s too risky since it kills my batterskull token. This was a mistake as not only could I have immediately just picked it up and played it again, but I missed that my opponent was relying heavily on moxen to cast spells. Waiting the extra turn to blow the EE allowed him to get a lodestone into play that forced a trade with my batterskull anyway, and cost me a lot of turns of attacking. The game ends when I land a True-Name and he picks up my batterskull. I attacked with lethal on Turn 3 of turns.
(Win 2-1, Record 3-1)
Round 5 - (Joel Lim) Merfolk
This is my win and in round, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to sit down across from the reigning vintage champion. That being said Joel’s attitude and friendliness eased a lot of my tensions and we got to have some great games.
Game 1 - Joel gets off to a quick start, curse catcher into lord into lord. I try and stabilize but casting trinket mage for EE. The following turn, facing lethal, I cast the EE for 2 with exactly 2 mana up at 7 life. Joel steel sabotages, and I cast mental misstep paying the life going to 5, he sacrifices his cure-catcher, forcing me to pay 1. I then have to pass the turn without being able to activate the EE and die to the two remaining lords.
IN: True-Name, Missdirection, 1 MBT, Supreme Verdict
OUT: Graffdigger’s Cage, Pithing Needle, Jace, Force of Will
Game 2 - I don’t remember the exact sequence of plays this game, but I remember opening on recall, and eventually getting MBT a lord and missdirected Joels own recall. Eventually I dropped my own True-Name and am able to control the board enough for him to get there.
IN: 2 Disenchant
OUT: MBT
Game 3 - This game was really neck and neck for most of the match, Turn 2 lord meets turn 2 stoneforge for sword of fire and ice, which leads to a True Name from Joel. I draw, play sol ring and pass. Joel casts Null Rod on his next turn, and strip mines my only planes, which draws an activation of my stonefore to put sword in play. Joel attacks putting me to 13 (after a fetch early on). On my next turn, I play the tundra from my hand and cast disenchant on Null Rod, which resolves. I equip the sword to stoneforge and swing sword is able to draw me a card and kill off the lord, but Joel responds by casting phantasmal image on True-Name and attacks again to 7 and passes. Here facing a loaded gun I am able to chain a ridiculous turn together as follows: Brainstorm-> A. Call -> Council’s Judement his True Name -> Lotus-> Time Walk, cast a second stoneforge, and get batterskull, proceed to time walk turn. Flash in batterskull and immediately move it to my Stoneforge carrying the sword, and attack for 6 life-link damage + 2 from the sword, taking me out of lethat range and taking a huge chunk out of Joel. He draws for turn and casts a cantrip and extends his hand.
(Win 2-1, Record 4-1)
Round 6 - ID (Record 4-1-1)
Quarter Finals - (Will Dayton) Terra Nova
Game 1 - He opens with Thorn, I play land go, he casts a second thorn. Since his lock peices are only thorns, I am able to still get down a stoneforge which get batterskull. He EOT dissmembers my stoneforge, and on his turn casts another sphere. I play another land and cast a mox for 3 mana, he plays another sphere I play land into trinket mage for lotus. I think this is where he attacked with a man land, and I spent my turn casting lotus. This allows me to cast batterskull on my next turn through his spheres. He then metamorphs, and I spend my mana moving the batterskull onto my mage. Here we go a bunch of turns with him using his batterskull to block mine, and continually bouncing and recasting. But because of the spheres this is all he can do on his. This continues till my life total is something like 67, and I finally a clique to start attacking in the air. To my luck the clique also his the second metamorph in his hand.
IN: 2 Dissenchant, 1 True-Name, 2 Meddling Mage, 1 supreme verdict
Out: 3 Mental Misstep, 1 Jace, 1 Ponder, 1 Grafdigger’s Cage
Game 2 - He leads with null rod, which I force. I play land go, and he plays a second null rod, which this time resolves. I cast a turn two meddling mage on lodestone golem. While I’m tapped out he resolves Darksteel Juggernaut. On his next turn he casts metamorph 1 copying my meddling mage (naming STP) to protect the juggernaut. He then attempts a second metamorph and I hurkyll’s metamorph resolves and renames STP. I’m able to Drain the juggernaut on it’s way back down allowing me to cast stoneforge and batterskull in the same turn. On his turn be casts 2 sculpting steel both copying my batterskull and passes. At this point I know can’t let him untap and put both batterskulls onto one germ as then I have no defence, so I cast trinket mage for pithing needle. Needle names batterskull. On his turn he attacks and And I take the opportunity to clear all the germs away by double blocking one with Meddling Mage and Trinket Mage, and trading my germ for the other. This leaves me with just a stoneforge and a inactive batterskull and my opponent with no creatures. I top deck True-Name Nemesis and finish the game.
(Win 2-0, Record 5-1-1)
Semi Finals - 4 Color Delve-r (Loss 0-2, Record 5-2-1)
Game 1 - My early stoneforge gets countered, and he follows with 2 Death Rites. I fight for a few turns while being drained by the death rites and eventually stabilize with pithing needle and Jace to continually shut off the deathrite, when I’m at 5 life. Here I wasn’t paying attention to the colors he was fetching and was operating under the assumption that he was just BUG, and a couple of fetchlands later, at 3 life, he kills me with Lightning Bolt.
SB: I honestly don’t remember how I sideboarded this match, as my brain was fried at this point.
Game 2 - I mulligan to 6 and keep on a very greedy turn 1 Jace which to my surprise resolves. I have learned my lesson about the bolts and immediately fate seal to take jace out of bolt range. The next few turns is where I made a key mistake that likely cost me the game and after letting a delver resolve, decided to start brainstorming. Delver fails to flip but chips down jace for 2 turns and he gets finished by a bolt. From there I don’t have enough gas and eventually lose to delver + deathrite.
The End. Thanks for reading. Feedback and advice welcome.
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