PTQ Sealed (4th 05/10/2014)

I made Top 8 of the Asgards sealed PTQ on 5/10/2014. It was the first time I had played Theros block sealed with all 3 sets (aka it was my pre-release). I lost round one and then had to win out for the rest of the day to make Top8. I honestly don't have much more to say since I know nothing about the format.

:)

-Cheers-

Asylum Games: SCG Invitational Qualifier (Standard - Boros Aggro 05/03/14)

Asylum Games: SCG Invitational Qualifier (Standard - Boros Aggro May 3 2014)

The plan was to grind the SCG IQ to gather up some more open points. To do this I would need to top 8. 

Choosing a deck went like this - I don’t play much standard and I didn’t buy in on sphinx’s revelation when it was released because I wasn’t playing too much magic when it was spoiled. Consequently, I have been shying away from sphinx’s revelation decks solely because I don’t have the experience in the mirror matches (or v. aggro for that matter).  Also, nobody offered to loan me a sphinxes revelation deck. I was offered Naya Hexproof (sans mana confluence) as well as white weenie. I borrowed white weenie as a backup plan incase the Naya Hexproof deck didn’t show up (previous Magic lessons learned, Magic players are extremely unreliable). I wanted to splash a colour and I figured the worst matchup for white weenie was probably control; this instantly led me to indestructible white weenies via boros charm as opposed to the WB version. I had a list that was several months out of date from the master of multiple States (Ty). It still seemed fine, so with a few tweaks I arrived with the list sans any new cards. I made a friend convince me to add an additional land into the deck since my initial build was a pretty greedy 21 lands with 8 3 drops. I added 1 mana confluence as my 22^nd land and removed a 3 drop, since I didn’t want a guild gate but wanted a 9^th red source for among other things Mizzium Mortars. My sideboard was horrible but I just didn’t have the time or cards to fix it in time, many of the choices were right but the specific cards were incorrect, i.e. wear//tear was fine since I wanted to fight v enchantments but it would have been better as deicide.

Oh yeah and the Naya Hexproof deck never showed up so Boros it was!

R1 (Mono Black) –

G1 -My opponent flips a card while shuffling (we are both mulliganing). I look away but I see that it is an underworld connections. I snap keep the following on the draw: Banisher Priest, 3 Plains, Mutavault, Scryland. My opponent goes Godless Shrine (take 2), Thoughtseize you and takes my Banisher Priest. I win this game.

R2 – UWR Control

G1 – I use brave the elements to counter a detention sphere and that gains me enough tempo to kill them with a boros charm a turn or two later.

G2 – I have a guy in play and a mutavault and they land Jace. I untap, attack jace for 1 and slam Manabarbs Burning Earth. The next time they tap mana I redirect the damage to Jace and kill him. From there I just grind out as much damage as possible without over committing to the board.

R3 (Naya Mid-range) –

G1 – I nut draw with triple boros elite into spear. GG

G2 – Soldier of pantheon does a lot of work for me and I win the race while he struggles with his atrocious mana base.

R4 (Jund) –

G1 – I know he is on jund and play around as many spells as possible. He overloads mizzium mortars and I brave then win.

G2 – He curves out and gets me with multiple removal spells.

G3 – He has loads of removal but eventually I run him out of removal and we both start racing I have just enough to kill him on a final swing when we are both close to dead and busy racing back and forth.

R5 – ID - go to Whataburger and grab some food.

R6 – ID

T8

GW Aggro

G1- I have no idea what he is playing and I get man handled by courser of Kruphix and friends.

G2 – I know what he is playing and I get man handled.  

I definitely sideboarded incorrectly, though it might not matter since it seems like a tough matchup.

Making top 8 was good for a couple more open points and a little standard practice.

-Cheers-

Under the Sea (Legacy Merfolk Deck 02/15/14)

I decided to stick with Merfolk again this week and take it for another spin.

I updated the list a little by cutting Sygg, the River Cutthroat for a second Merrow Reejery. Sygg, the River Cutthroat was pretty good in every game that I played him but I figured that the extra damage provided by a lord would be almost as good as the extra couple of cards.  I also trimmed a Cosi's trickster to add an extra land to the deck. The decision was between Wasteland and Mishra's Factory. I decided I would get more free wins off of Wasteland so I went with that.

Current List:

Creatures (30)

 

• 2 Cosi's Trickster


• 1 Tidal Warrior


• 4 Cursecatcher


• 4 Lord of Atlantis


• 4 Master of the Pearl Trident


• 4 Phantasmal Image


• 4 Silvergill Adept


• 4 True-Name Nemesis


• 2 Merrow Reejery

 Lands (21)

• 12 Island


• 4 Cavern of Souls


• 4 Mutavault


• 1 Wasteland

Spells (10)

• 4 Daze


• 4 Force of Will


• 2 Spell Pierce

Sideboard (15)

• 1 Grafdigger's Cage


• 1 Pithing Needle


• 1 Relic of Progenitus


• 1 Divert


• 4 Swan Song


• 2 Submerge


• 2 Umezawa's Jitte


• 1 Manriki-Gusari


• 1 Reality Ripple  

R1 Affinity (Win 2-1)–

I usually play a lot of RUG Delver and Affinity is a joke matchup because you have Lightning Bolts and a quick clock. Sure Stifle isn’t too hot (though sometimes they never get to equip their cranial plating) but your main deck is pretty well setup against them and it only gets better G2/G3 as you get to bring in at least 1 Ancient Grudge at a minimum. Merfolk on the other hand doesn’t have a really good way to interact with the little robots, so we are simply off to the races!

 

I brought Jitte and Manriki - Gusari in since they are running SFM. This gives my Phantasmal Images some additional utility.

R2 Elves (Win 2-1) –

Ugh another matchup where I have very little interaction with my opponent game 1. Game 2 and 3 isn’t much better either… Submerge and Grafdigger’s cage are pretty much all we have as well as some copies of swan song to replace the weak spell pierces.

R3 Lands (Loss 1-2) –

Game 1 – I play turn 1 Cursecatcher. He plays turn 1 Tabernacle….

Game 2 – I play turn 1 Cosi’s Trickster. He plays turn 2 Tabernacle…

Bad matchup number 3! We are rocking and rolling today. To win this matchup you really need to curve out and have a couple of counters to keep them off balance. Cursecatcher is awkward because it isn’t amazing like it is v. combo but it is almost a necessary evil.

Well those were quick games. These are the only games where I really miss having extra Wasteland in the 75.

R4 Mono Red (Win 2-1) –

 

Wait what?!?!? Are these matches fixed? While none of these decks are super rogue it is a pretty unlucky cross section of the metagame to come up against.

Game 1 – This game is quite interesting. We both start racing and he has me at 10 when he plays Sulfuric Vortex. I have 3 Merfolk on board (Cursecatcher, Lord, a TNN) and a Mutavault in play. In my hand I have x2 Cavern of Souls, a Force of Will and a Lord of Atlantis. I can put him to 2 after the Sulfuric Vortex trigger and I will be at 8. I can make an argument for either play but I thought having him almost dead on board would better. He had the flame rift + fireblast to get me for 8. While I just had a FOW left in hand.

Game 2 – I play turn 1 curse catcher, he suspends rift bolt. I play another Cursecatcher and attack for one. He unsuspends rift bolt and I divert it to him. After this I just play a couple of lords and race.

Game 3 – I Phantasmal Image a Cursecatcher in the early game and win the game by double daze + curscatcher on a lethal fireblast.

 

The deck handled itself surprisingly well today in spite of playing against solely rogue decks.

 

-Cheers-

The Little Mermaid (Legacy Merfolk Deck 02/08/14)

Friday –

Earlier in the week I had promised the wife that I would pick us up some homemade Italian pasta at some point. Luckily for me as Friday rolled around I remembered to swing past Fabio’s Trattoria to pick some up. As usual I was not disappointed – One tupperware of Fettucine with black pepper and a tub of freshly made pasta sauce with cheese, tomato and basil. I have no idea what the sauce is called but it is the most tasty and delicious thing ever. Thank you Italy!

 

 

 

Saturday-

I desperately wanted to play something new and/or different. I had been on a DNT and RUG kick for the last several months and hadn’t played much of anything else. After poring over lists on – The Source, TC Decks and Happy MTG, I couldn’t find anything to get my creative juices flowing. Ultimately, this is why I usually end up playing RUG or DNT. That and I have them pre-built, pre-sleeved and mostly miscut/misprint and foreign. I then decided that I wanted to play a deck with 4 TNN. This then quickly deteriorated into a quick brainstorming session of how I could play with as many TNN’ as possible.

I also briefly thought about sleeving up something starting with the following:

X4 Phantasmal Image

X4 Stoneforge Mystic

X4 True-Name Nemesis

As much as I (still) love the idea I think this deck idea needs a little more work. Hopefully this is something that we can revisit at some point in the future.

To date I have only played decks utilizing a maximum of 3 TNN so I had to open one of my sealed mindsezies. After holding my breath in the hope that the whole thing was miscut - it wasn’t - I quickly found the TNN and started to sleeve up the mer-men.

It has been a while since I have brought trident’s to battle in legacy.

The list:

 

Creatures (30)

 

• 3 Cosi's Trickster


• 1 Tidal Warrior


• 4 Cursecatcher


• 4 Lord of Atlantis


• 4 Master of the Pearl Trident


• 4 Phantasmal Image


• 4 Silvergill Adept


• 4 True-Name Nemesis


• 1 Sygg, River Cutthroat


• 1 Merrow Reejery

 

Lands (20)

• 12 Island


• 4 Cavern of Souls


• 4 Mutavault

Spells (10)

• 4 Daze


• 4 Force of Will


• 2 Spell Pierce

Sideboard (15)

• 1 Grafdigger's Cage


• 1 Pithing Needle


• 3 Relic of Progenitus


• 1 Divert


• 4 Swan Song


• 1 Flusterstorm


• 2 Umezawa's Jitte


• 1 Manriki-Gusari


• 1 Reality Ripple

The Cards (you see):

Island / Cavern of Soul’s

 

This combination is a very good reason to be playing Merfolk right now. The “combo” of not being vulnerable to wasteland and having uncountable threats is particularly powerful when the current most popular deck is UWR and a large part of their game plan is Wateland + Daze.

Tip: Slow roll-your cavern of souls to play around your opponents wastelands. This is worth doing even if you open up some of your merfolk get countered but then you land TNN.

Mutavault

Mutavault adds a lot of offensive power to your board and gives you some more play against control decks which can be rough matchups. It also provides even more offensive power in a race situation.

True-name Nemesis

You get to play all 4 TNN and if you have a cavern they are uncounterable.

Phantasmal Image

Sorry did I say 4 TNN? Image does everything and is the best creature in almost every situation – v. Combo and light on disruption, take another cursecatcher, need to draw cards? Become another silvergill adept, need to race your opponent have some more lords.

Cosi’s Trickster

This guy is quite tricky… He comes down as an innocuous one drop that nobody wants to counter or kill but almost every single deck in the format will help you out by putting at least 1 counter on him. After that he is just a lord away from being a one blue mana wild nacatal. He really shines against the combo decks (though he is no cursecatcher) as he add a lot of offensive power to your board very quickly while they are busy fetching and playing cantrips to find their combo.

Tidal Warrior

One blue mana. Check. Power and Toughness. Check. Ok so this guy looks bad on paper…he probably is bad but he lets you make some really funny/cute plays.

Imagine the following opener:

Cavern of Souls, Mutavault, Tidal Warrior, Lord of Atlantis, Daze, Merrow Reejery, Spell Pierce

Turn 1: Cavern, Tidal Warrior

Turn 2: (Draw Master of the Pearl Trident) Mutavault, turn Mutavault into an island with Tidal Warrior then cast a Lord of Atlantis.

 Sygg the River Cutthroat

The last time I played merfolk I was trying to cast turn 1 Island - Aether Vial, Turn 2 Mutavault – Standstill. This was merfolks draw engine other than silvergill adept as well as additional insurance versus combo. I am sans standstill primarily because of a lack of vial and secondarily because as legacy has developed it has gotten worse as a card (more people know how to play around standstill nowadays).

Fish

All the other fish from the sea (LoA + Master, Curse, Silvergill, etc)

Spell Pierce

I don’t like to lose to combo and sometimes you just need to protect your fish from Lightning bolt, swords to plowshares, et al.

The Cards (you don’t see):

Aether Vial

Turn 1 Island, Aether Vial. There are not many better starts than that, right? So why did I refrain from casting any vials? Vial may be the absolute worst card to draw after turn 3. Oh yeah and guess what, I am already running a quasi aether vial in the deck (cavern of souls). Cavern of Souls doesn’t take a spell slot and cannot be stifled. Sure it means I don’t get to make sweet instant speed plays like flashing in lords to protect my guys, etc. However, it lets me play more fish! FISH! FISH! FISH!

Wasteland

While building the deck I realised I was going to hit a land constraint. I used to play merfolk a lot and I know that at a minimum I need to have 12 Island’s in order to cast my spells and in order to play Daze. The next 4 lands were going to be cavern of souls. This would give us an even more robust manabase with which to cast our turn two UU spells. As for the last slot. Do we go mutavault or wasteland? Ulitmately, I decided that the offensive power of Mutavault would allow me to get some more play against control decks which I deem as bad matchups. In addition, there are a few matchups where you have to just race your opponent and nothing helps to race your opponentbetter than “free” creatures.  It also makes your lords marginally stronger and gives you some more play around edict effects which are important when you are playing TNN.

Merrow Reejery (2, 3 & 4)

Oh yeah so TNN is a card and it is 100% wrong to play less than 4 TNN. This means that the 3 slot is quite packed so some Reejery’s have to get the axe.

Sideboard:

Swan Song

I played the full 4 of these because it is super powerful and I wanted to see just how good this card is (so I wanted to draw it). You probably never bring this in against anyone that isn’t running Islands so you don’t really care about the “drawback.”

Divert

This is a way to - deal with opposing TNN’s, protect your lords, “countering” abrupt decay, making players hymn or thoughtseize themselves, and being an additional spell pierce in a counter war.

R1 – Reanimator (Budget build base black)

Game 1 – I play a turn one trickster and I have a daze in hand to deal with anyone trying to do any shenanigans on turn 1. I then play Silvergill adept into Curse Catcher, into a lord to put him on a very quick clock with just enough disruption.

Side In: +2 Relic of Progenitus, +1 Grafdiggers Cage.

Side Out: -2 True-Name Nemesis, -1 Tidal Warrior

Game 2 – Daze’s just stop him dead in his tracks. From there the little fish beat down.

R2 - RUG

Game 1 – He plays turn 1 delver, I play turn 1 Cosi’s Trickster. He doesn’t flip delver. He plays a Ponder and he shuffles J (trigger Trickster). Then I just play a cavern of souls and jam merfolk every turn until he is dead. He tried to race with Delver but Island walk is really good and mutavault gave me an extra attacker.

Game 2 – He leads off with a ponder and I just start jamming mer-men until he is dead. He has goyf but I play a TNN and just keep attacking.

R3 – BUG

Game 1 – I curve out and just overpower him with Island walkers.

Game 2 – Mis-sequence my plays to protect Cavern from Wasteland but it puts me really behind on board when he plays a golgari charm. I should have just started laying lords down but I was playing around daze as well. Sometimes you need to just play your game and not worry too much about what your opponent has. He had the abrupt decay and the golgari charm so it probably doesn’t change the outcome of the game but I should have used my mana more efficiently each turn.

Game 3 – We both slow down a bit for this game but I leverage being on the play and get TNN into play ASAP and try to play around golgari charm as much as possible.

R4 – Miracles

Game 1 – He leads with top. I lead with Cosi’s Trickster. I play a silvergill adept and start beating down. I try not to overcommit to the board and have a mutavault for after his first terminus. I eventually kill him with a mutavault + TNN (he has swords in hand).

Game 2 – I refrain to counter a counterbalance because I don’t think it is relevant (I have cavern of souls in play but I have a swan song, fow and a blue card in hand). I end up losing when he counters my FOW with his counterbalance (me trying to FOW his Terminus).

Game 3 – I lay a couple of threats and use my counter magic to protect them.

In conclusion - here is why fish is quite powerful:

Island’s + Cavern of Souls + True Name Nemesis + Counter Magic

-Cheers-

 

A Tale of Two Cities (Standard San Antonio PTQ - Mono Blue 01/11/14)

 

Friday

No food in the house and no ideas on what to eat. Yelp to the rescue! A few moments later and we have a new place to try. Here is how I evaluate Yelp stars – 3 Stars or less then you stay away (unless you like food poisoning, poor quality Mexican Food or you are under the mistaken impression the food at Chilli’s is good), 4 stars the place is probably somewhere between good and great and lastly 5 stars which means the place is excellent if there are a ton of reviews or if there are only 20 reviews it means the business posted their own reviews and you should stay away.

 
For the evening we are willing victims at a restaurant called Ambrosia. Yelp had it listed as Asian food but it really was an Asian (of East and South varieties) tapas restaurant. The place was crammed into a house at the edge of a neighbourhood (par for course in Houston), twas pretty busy and we ate next to the bar (but not at the bar) on a table that was a weird height. The food was pretty varied and good. We had chicken samosas, curried chips (fries to most of you reading) and stir fried Bok Choy. I would eat there again and give it a respectful 4/5 stars.
 
Saturday

Travelling to PTQs is the worst. You choose to wake up way, way earlier than you would for anything else in the world or you can pay to stay a night in a hotel which is about the worst EV you can imagine (unless you win). So here I am staring at my phone as it buzzes at 4:10 am. I have 20 minutes to get showered and ready before driving to my friend’s house to carpool. Problem number one, I left my travel mug at work…L Hot tea is impossible to find anywhere but independent coffee shops and Starbucks. I resign myself to my fate of having to consume ice tea and pack up my cards and hit the road.  

Loran and I get on the road earlier than expected because I made great time getting to his house. Our first stop along the way is at Bucees for petrol (gas), snacks and breakfast (but no hot tea). I buy some Garlic Beef Jerky amongst other things. Quite delicious, though very overpriced. They will give you samples though before you “choose” the one you want. So make sure to get some sampling in!

My list for battling at the PTQ is a totally stock Mono Blue main deck and a pretty stock sideboard though mine is a little heavier on the counters than some versions.

Mono Blue –

 4-0

 Round 1 – UW Control

I play dudes and smash face. Then after sideboard I bring in counters and do the same thing.

Round 2 – Mono Black (Mike Vandyke)

I win a game where I mulligan to 5 then get double thoughtseized.

Round 3 – Mono Black (Chris Jabr)

We split two close games and then I win the race in game 3.

Round 4 – B/W Aggro

G1 – I play a 1/4 that stops his whole team.

G2 – I play a Nightveil Specter which stops his whole team.

Maybe his draws were a little lacklustre but really how BW aggro is a deck is beyond me (Disclamier I don’t play much standard).

Then this happened.

0-4

Round 5 – GR Monsters

G1 – My opponent mulls to 5 but keeps his cool and plays to the best of his ability. On either side of us we have players fussing at their opponents because of their “bad luck” and how lucky their opponent is. #Reallifemodochat. My opponent and I just look at one another and feel happy that we are both being civil to one another.

G2 – My start is a little slow and he manages to kill my Tidebinder mage before playing a 5/5 Mistcutter Hydra while he is still at a high enough life total that I cannot race. I also have drawn no Mutavaults.

G3 – My start is pretty good but my double Tidebinder mage draw is slaughtered by his double mortars. Then mid game he overloads another mortars that I cannot play around.

My opponent kept his cool after some bad luck in Game 1 and I feel like the matchup can be a little rough for me unless my Tidebinder Mage’s survive so I didn’t mind losing too much. Plus the loss came pretty late in the day so I was still in contention for Top 8 as long as I went back to winning.

Round 6 – UW Control

I saw this guy playing the round before so I knew he was on UW control which has been a pretty good matchup for me in the past. 

G1 – He gets to Sphinxes Revelation and my clock is a little slow.

G2 - He gets to Sphinxes Revelation and my clock is a little slow.

Round 7 –Mono Black (Bernie)

He curves out perfectly game 1 and I have a slow draw but try my best to stay in it.

Game 2 he leads with Thoughtseize again and is slightly surprised to see dispel. He has another Thoughtsieze though and manages to run away with the game from there.

Round 8 – Black White

G1 – I get crushed by ye ole pack rat.

G2 – I crush him with 1 drop, 2 drop, Thassa.

G3 – I keep my seven and he Double Thoughtseizes the following hand. 3 Island, Frostburn Weird, Nightveil, Thassa, Master of Waves. He takes Nightveil and Thassa. Then he proceeds to kill every creature I play before eventually playing a pack rat.

Well that is the end of that.

For dinner I gather a group of friends and again go to Yelp to rescue us from a potential bad food situation. The results are us going to eat at Fattboy Burgers and Dogs. The place was greasy and delicious. I had a Burger & Fries and it was pretty damn good. Bonus surprise was that I had Italian Cream Cake ice cream for dessert.

With our bellies full we headed back on the road to make our trip back home.

We are half way home when the below happens….

 

 

BLOWN UP TIRE!

And that pretty sums up the day - #BLOWOUT.

 

-Cheers-

SCG: Invitational Las Vegas (Standard - Mono Black & Legacy - RUG Delver 12/13/13)

Children are singing...and elves wander past...well they look like elves but they are too tall and too fat. I am 100% regretting my decision to save a few dollars on my flight. Oh no, the singing turned into Spanish...Feliz Navidad indeed. So oddly enough, my invitational adventure starts in 2012...but wait isnt it December 2013? While it was far from a breakout year 2012 definately checked off a lot of boxes on my to-do list:

- Win a PTQ (Thanks Delver!)
- Play on the Pro Tour
- Play in an SCG event (Thanks Delver!)
- Top 8 an SCG Open (Thanks Delver!)
- Crush some local tournies (Thanks Delver!)
- Play more legacy (More Delver!)
- Travel some and make more Magic friends
- Trade for more Miscuts (No Delvers :( )

Unfortunately 2013 was not quite so fruitful (from a Magic point of view). Though from a personnel standpoint - I did get engaged, buy a house with that very same special lady and buy a business. Turns out this also made 2013 a very expensive year. So travelling for Magic was tough/impossible. A good example of how little Magic I played in 2013 is that I drafted exactly twice the whole year...Fortunately for me both of those drafts were on day 2 of GP: Houston. I was pretty happy with going 2-1 in both but thats a different story.

As the year drew to an end I finally decided I would regret not making use of my invitation. That was it, I am now off to Vegas while listening to Spanish Xmas songs.

The invitational went poorly because of standard.  Long story short, I had played exactly 10 rounds of Standard in 2013 prior to the invitational. For this I had played RG Nykthos monsters at SCG: Dallas (7-3). For the invitational I choose to see how well I could do with mono black pack rat! (Answer: Terrible) The legacy portion went much better:

I played against the following:

Round 5 - UWR Delver (2-0)

I made my deck and sideboard to beat this deck.  When I reality ripple him he actually knows what it does. :)

Round 6 - Dredge (2-1)

Three close games. I dont believe in graveyard hate which makes this matchup pretty bad for me. Sometimes counterspells and a quick clock are enough to get there though. 

Round 7 - Storm (2-0)

I have played this matchup a lot and feel very comfortable with it. Highlight in game 2 when he goes to attack with xantid swarm and I tell him to hold on. I then bolt and he put swarm in the yard. Then I tell him no - "I bolt you." He takes 3 going from 11-8. Attacks with swarm...then does nothing...I untap and attack him to 5 with goose. Win that game but the soul read on him not being able to combo was awesome.

Round 8 - Dredge (1-2)

G1 - He Cabal Therapies me and sees reality ripple. A judge is called. phasing is explained. He then Cabal Therapies for reality ripple because he is not quite sure why I want that card. :)
G2 - I cast rough/tumble when he has lethal on board.
G3 - He does a bunch of Ashen Rider shenanigans to blow up 2 lands on turn 2. I never draw a red source. :(

So what did I learn? Play more legacy that's what!

Saturday I play in the standard open just for fun and I decide to stick with mono black. I drop late in the day when I could still make my money back but I want to go eat.

Sunday is legacy and this is what I am here for.

The list:

Creatures (12)

4 Delver of Secrets
4 Nimble Mongoose
3 Tarmogoyf
1 True-Name Nemesis

Lands (18)

2 Misty Rainforest
2 Scalding Tarn
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Tropical Island
3 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland

Spells (30)

4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
1 Forked Bolt
4 Force of Will
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Spell Pierce
4 Stifle
1 Spell Snare
1 Reality Ripple
4 Ponder

Sideboard
1 Spell Pierce
1 Spell Snare
1 Gilded Drake
2 Divert
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Destructive Revelry
2 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Flusterstorm
2 Rough //Tumble

The list is pretty much basic RUG -3 Gitaxian Probe that have beecome card de jour lately and with +1 Spell snare + 1 Spell Pierce and + 1 Reality Ripple. I also trimmed a goyf for a True-Name Nemesis. This was totally untested but it didnt seem bad.

R1 UW Blade (Batterman, Daniel) 2-0

Pre-Game - I learn that he is a judge and he knows Craig Wescoe who is sitting next to us.

G1 - He starts fetching lands and I see that he is UW but I dont know til later if he is control or not. I stifle a land and play a goose who pecks for 1. He jams a SFM which I let resolve since I have the bolt and need to get threshold anyway. Kill SFM then start attacking for 3. He tries to resolve Counter Balance which I Spell Snare. He raises his eyebrows and comments on the card.

G2-  Similar to g1 except he gets an early top. I almost never fight over top in these matchups unless I have the mana free or its a good tempo play. The only card you care about them topping into is Terminus and you have stifles for those. Since I know he is on control this game I let him get all his lands and keep my stifles for his RIP and his Terminus. At some point in the game he resolves a RIP. The next turn I draw a Spell Snare but then right after that he plays SFM which gets countered and he pretty much slumps in his chair knowing he needed that to resolve.

Post Match - We speak for a little bit and he comments again on how good spell snare is. Also Craig Wescoe gets crushed by Oops all spells. 

R2 UWB Esperblade (Sardinas, Oscar) 2-0

G1 - I play a delver which flips and hits him once but then gets STP'd. Then the same thing happends with a goyf. We play draw go for a turn or two then he plays SFM getting Jitte. I land goose and tempo him out with Bolt and soft counters.

G2 - He leads with turn 1 Thoughtseize. My hand is pretty good but I have a lot of redundancy. He takes a dude and I just follow - up with another. Goose beats him from 18 life to 5life 1 point at a time. All the while I just tempo to control the game.

R3 4 C Cascade (Rembert, Isaac) 2-1

G1 - He wins the die roll and I get totally crushed. He plays the game very smartly as I put him on Shardless BUG since he never showed me red lands. I misplayed on turn 1 when I used Spell Snare to counter his Hymn rather than a spell pierce. I was thinking that I needed the spell pierce to counter his lilliana but I think the better play is to keep the Spell Snare for his Goyfs. He then proceded to play Goyf into Goyf.

G2 - I control his mana by killing lands and deathrite which really constrains what he can do. Then I land a goose and attack for 3 a turn. Now I see red and so know his mana base is even worse than BUG - Score!

G3 - I stifle his first land and land a goyf. Then I try and keep him off double any colour for the rest of the game.

Post- Game- I speak to him and some of his friends after our match. I tell him that he played very well G1 and he tells me this is his first big legacy tournament. Colour me impressed.

R4 UWB Esperblade (Wijaya, Vidianto) 2-0

G1 - I control the game by keeping him off his mana then I play a thresholded goose and attack for 3 a turn.

G2 - When he thoughtseizes me early in the game I write down the cards so I know what he is playing around - they were good ones (Goyf, Mongoose, Bolt, Ancient Grudge and Ponder). Not the most interesting game but I do get RIP'd. Major misplay - I was talking to SDMatt from The Source and not paying full attention to the game. He is mana light and plays a snapcaster mage with 1 mana open, I stifle the CIP trigger...yeah RIP is still in play. It ends up not mattering but it would have it the game went longer. I get a raised eyebrow one turn when I attack with my 0/1 goyf and before damage blow up RIP with destructive revely and crack a fetch.

Post-Game - "I hate 1 mana stone rains."

R5 Elves (Harduvel, John) 2-1

G1 -  I get killed by Craterhoof on his turn 3. Notes - Cradle is good. 

G2/G3 - These games are nail biters. I think he turn 1 GSZ all 3 games we played. G2/G3 I try to sculpt around drawing Rough/ Tumble so that I can get the most amount of value. This includes wastlanding his Bayou instead of his Dryad Arbor since I planned to Rough/Tumble the next turn. 

Post-Game - I compliment him on his miscut forest and he says how sweet my deck looks.

R6 RUG (Sidher, Ricky) 1-2

G1 -I lose the die roll and know what he is playing. Not the best matchup to lose the die roll on. He goes Volcanic Island, Delver Pass...oh great. I play land, ponder looking for removal. He natural flips off stifle and attacks. He fetches for another land. I untap play a wasteland, I have the red source and bolt in hand so now I just need mana to play around his counters. I waste on his upkeep and he uses his stifle. He attacks again and plays a ponder/brainstorm. I untap and waste and we counter war over delver. I win and the next turn I land a goose. which attacks him down to 5. My board is two goose and I am at 8. He has goyf and 5 life. He scoops up his cards one turn saying I know you have the bolt. Oh yeah...I'll take the win...

G2 -  He turn 2 LFTL's back a scalding tarn. My hand is solid but a little land light. I ponder and see Goyf, Goyf and Goose. If my green source gets wastelanded then I lose this game. I shuffle, play 2 more cantrips that game but never see another guy. He also never wastelands me. I think my play was the correct one but maybe I should just be willing to go to g3 if he has the waste and if he doesnt then I get a free win? These is definately some debate here. It is a little unluck for me not to draw any threats after 3 cantrips but oh well.

G3 - My hand is fine but just doesnt progress well and he has all of the good spells for the mirror.

Post-Game - I try to talk about g2 a little bit but he isnt too interested.

R7 UWR (Paglia, Vincent) 2-0

G1 - I tempo him out of the game. This matchup is great because you have stifle and they dont.

G2 - Same again. 

R8 DNT (Logan, Colin) 1-2

G1 - I lose game 1 but he sees TNN.

G2 - I tempo him out G2.

G3 - Ulimtely he has too many fliers and takes the game. He gives me a window to get back into the game which I take. Then the very next turn I make a wrong decision which probably loses me the game. I am a little bit frustrated but dont super tilt like my opponent does when he almost lets me back in the game. Note: Rough//Tumble is nowhere near as good as it used to be against DNT since they switched to more fliers.

R9 Elves (Yu, Jarvis K) 1-2

G1 - We get off to a bad start in this matchup to be honest. He fusses at me because of how my exiled/RFG cards are displayed while I am in the middle of resolving a Ponder. I am not very happy but comply with his request. Then we I ask him to flip his wirewoods when he uses them he flat out refuses since "there is only one in play." There is some confusion between the two of us next turn and a judge comes over to cool things off. We start playing a little more clearly and its fine. We get to a really interesting part of the game where I have a flipped Delver and Tarmogoyf x2. He has a symbiote, quirion ranger, deathrite shaman and a couple other elves. I am at 10 and he can kill me in two turns with deathrite activations but he is also dead if I have a bolt. I make the attacks each turn like I have the bolt and eventually win a game where I have just 3 lands in hand.

We get called over for a feature match which you can view below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5_viiuMen8

G2 - Yup you saw that daze correctly.

G3 - Not sure if I can sequence anything too differently to be honest. :(

All in all it was a long few days playing Magic in Vegas and I wish I could have had a few more rounds of legacy to go. I wouldn't change the main deck or the sideboard. I certainly wouldn't play mono black in Standard either.

Merry Christmas!

-Cheers-

Asylum Games: SCG Invitational Qualifier (Standard - Mono Blue 12/21/13)

After running out of steam at SCG: Las Vegas and finding out that I will not be able to make SCG: Dallas in April 2014, I decided going to an invitational qualifier would be the best way to get my next invite and/or some points to go toward an invite.

The only downside was that I would have to play standard and I had access to exactly 2 decks - Mono Black and Mono Blue. After the Invitational went so poorly with Mono Black the decision to switch was an easy one. Plus I love Islands.

My list was pretty stock though I cut the Aetherlings from the sideboard for 2 Dispels.

R1 - Mono Black (1-2)

G1 -T/S into x2 removal spells, into desecration demon, into gray merchant gets there.

G2 - I curve out and get Thassa into play.

G3 -  I get Thoughtseized and he takes a UU guy over one of my 2 Thassa's. Then I draw 2 Thassa's and he is able to kill all my guys so I can never get devotion.


R2 - UW Control (2-0)

G1 - I curve out but dont overextend.

G2 - He sphinxes and plays supreme verdicts but I just commit 2 guys at a time and keep attacking.


R3  - UW Control (2-0)

G1 - Jace + Sphinx takes over the game.

G2 - I sideboard in all the counters and they really pay off while I just tempo him out.

G3 - Dispel counters his sphinx and he dies.


R4- GRW (Chris Jabr) (2-0)

G1 - I tempo him out and kill him with Thassa.

G2 - I just jam dudes every turn and his hate isnt enough. He shows me 4 Misctutter Hydraw and 4 Skylasher after the game.


R5 - Maze's End (2-1)

G1 - He completes his set.

G2 - Dispel wins me the game when he upkeep fogs me.

G3 - Dispel wins me the game when he upkeep fogs me.

I sneak into top 8 as the 8th seed!


Quarters - UW Control

G1 - He mulls to 6 and I have an aggressive start. Eventually I get there but I am patient with my spells.

G2 - I really stumble on mana and never get to trip UUU to cast the 3 nightveils in my hand.

G3 - He keeps a loose one and I attack him to death. Despite him sphinxing for 5.


Semis - Red Sligh (Festus)

G1 - I play blue cards he cannot interact with.

G2 - I play more blue cards he cannot interact with. I end both games at 16 life.


Finals - Esper  

We chop prize and I get the invite. Thanks!

The Decklist:

Creatures (28)

• 4 Cloudfin Raptor
• 4 Frostburn Weird
• 4 Judge's Familiar
• 4 Master of Waves
• 4 Nightveil Specter
• 4 Tidebinder Mage
• 4 Thassa, God of the Sea

Planeswalkers (2)

• 2 Jace, Architect of Thought

Lands (25)

• 20 Island
• 4 Mutavault
• 1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

Spells (5)

• 2 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Rapid Hybridization
• 2 Bident of Thassa

Sideboard

• 2 Domestication
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 2 Dispel
• 2 Dissolve
• 4 Gainsay
• 1 Rapid Hybridization
• 1 Bident of Thassa
• 2 Jace, Architect of Thought

Also the link to SCG:

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=62164

Not a bad day for my first time out with the deck. Islands are pretty much the best.

-Cheers-