Parcher
08-19-2008, 12:55 PM
I wasn't going to bother with a report for this, but I want to clear up some misconceptions and reveal my new list. I mean how many Ichorid players have burned their opponent out from five? Or dealt lethal with an Eternal Witness? Read on to find out.
Zohar and I drove from Pittsburgh to Indy along with two others Wednesday night. I had decided to play Ichorid beforehand, and he stuck with his standard U/W/b Landstill build. Since I assumed there would be a great deal of randoms in these events, I wrongly assumed that graveyard hate would be everywhere. Thus, the list I ran in the two prelims.
4 Golgari Grave Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
3 Golgari Thug
4 Putrid Imp
4 Narcomoeba
4 Ichorid
1 Eternal Witness
1 Flame Kin Zealot
4 Breakthrough
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Bridge from Below
3 Unmask
3 Dread Return
2 Deep Analysis
4 Lions Eye Diamond
4 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
3 Cephalid Coliseum
4 Chain of Vapor
4 Pithing Needle
4 Reverent Silence
2 Darkblast
1 Bayou
I didn't see a Leyline at all in either prelim, but there was a good deal of Enchantress. The field was so random though, it was incorrect to have such a focused sideboard. To give you an idea, the top two decks in the second prelim were Tombstone and Mossnought.:confused:
I ended 1-2 in the first, and 4-2 in the second. Luckily Zohar won the first, and Smelski won the second prelim, even after switching decks with Raider Bob.
I decided to switch to a more generic build for the Champs, though with some new twists. I'll get into those later. For ease of writing, I am going to supplant a first or second turn win uninterrupted with a :smile: .
4 Golgari Grave Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
3 Golgari Thug
4 Putrid Imp
4 Narcomoeba
4 Ichorid
1 Eternal Witness
1 Flame Kin Zealot
4 Breakthrough
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Bridge from Below
3 Unmask
3 Dread Return
2 Deep Analysis
4 Lions Eye Diamond
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
3 Cephalid Coliseum
4 Chain of Vapor
4 Pithing Needle
3 Firestorm
3 Wax/Wane
1 Unmask
Match One: Jason Keenan (Sui Black)
Game One: :smile:
Game Two: I suspected Leyline since he was running old-school Sui with Sarco and Carno, and was correct. Unfortunately he followed it with a first-turn Duress to nab my Chain. A Firestorm nailed two Sarcomancy tokens to knock him down to three before I died with Leyline still in play.
Game Three: He mulls to six, and opens with double Leyline. I was never in it.
0-1; 1-2
Match Two: Tim Hanoy (Vial Horror)
Game One: He plays Swamp go. I play land, Putrid Imp. He plays Hunted Horror (after seeing Imp?!) giving me two dudes. Yeah, I win next turn.
Game Two: :smile:
1-1; 3-2
Match Three: Mitchell Gardner (Aggro Loam)
Game One: :smile:
Game Two: :smile:
To put some more content into this, Mitch was with a contingent of Canadian Eternal plaers who drove twenty-eight hours to GenCon. They were all amazingly cool, and dominated the Vintage side events. Aggro Loam simply can't win game one. They also shouldn't run Leyline, as they cannot afford to mull to it. To make things annoying, I did face leyline in my first three matches after pulling Reverent Silence. I guess it was never needed.
2-1; 5-2
Match Four: Cole Lane (Goblins)
Game One: :smile:
Game Two: He has turn one Lackey into Siege-Gang. I mulled to four. He wins on turn four. I did have a Firestorm, but I saved it as a surprise since I wasn't likely to win this one.
Game Three: He has Lackey into Matron getting Fanatic. I Firestorm his board. Then things bog down for a while, me swinging with Ichorids when I can, and he preserving life and removing bridges. We finally come to the climax. He joins an on board Matron with double Warchief, but doesn't swing since I am at eight and have a Zombie. I remove two of my last three black creatures to animate Ichorids, and dredge my last, a Thug. My hand is full of dredgers since I burned all my Therapies a while ago I nail my last Bridge and a Narco while he is tapped out. Unfortunatley, he is at five, and has three blockers. Even though he can block everything and lose his squad while I still have two Zombies and a Narco, I can longer produce anything, and if he topdecks I'm dead with two cards left.
So I look for a while for a solution. I end up saccing the Narco and Ichorids to Dread Return Witness, Witness back Firestorm, and burn him out. Tee-hee.
3-1; 7-3
Match Five: Joe Alamo (Aggro Loam)
Game One: :smile: (tun one one the play)
Game Two: :smile:
4-1: 9-3
Match Six: Jeff Smelski (Landstill)
Game One: It had to happen eventually. Even though I fear Jeff, at least it's a good match up. As it turns, this was the consensus best match of the entire tournament, and I'm sure to miss a few details. I open with PImp turn one, which allows a Breakthrough on turn two. I don't get much action, and have to sac my PImp along with a Narco to empty his hand. The game continues for some time with me swinging when able. Jeff lands a Humility to slow me down, and multiple EE to kill tokens. Eventually I both empty his hand, and get enough creatures to DR a Troll. Jeff Plows it, but that gives me enough life to use my newly drawn Coliseum along with three Citys to hardcast DR on another. He runs out of answers, and I get in with a hardcast Stinkweed and two Ichorids while Troll is chumped.
Game Two: He gets turn one, but I open with Unmask+Therapy. My only gas though is LED+DA though, so he has time to FoF twice. To cut to the chase, I have Narcos, Ichorids, and occasionly some tokens. Jeff has Humility, EE, Runed Halo on Ichorid, and Runed Halo on Narco all on board. And is at nine. What do I do? Wait until he uses EE, then sac to DR Eternal Witness. I get Needle in case he gets a Crypt. He has two turns to draw the Wrath, and does EE my tokens. He then has another two turns to draw Wrath, Plow, DoJ, or Mishra's. Nope, Witness gets there.
5-1; 9-3
Game Seven: Mike Ames (Boros)
Game One: I'm worried about this since he runs enough burn to slow me and remove my Bridges, and runs Priest and Silver Knight for my SB tech. I win turn one on the draw.
Game Two: :smile:
6-1: 11-3
Here is where I get hosed. I expect tiebrakes to suck after losing round one. We check the standings though, and I have a good shot at eighth. Unfortunately, ninth place get paired down against a 5-1-1 with sick breakers. If I draw and he wins, I lose on tiebreaks. If the other guy wins, he leapfrogs me. Gotta play it out.
Match Eight; John Julifs (Dragon Stompy)
Game One: Fuck. I, of all people know how awful this match is. Luckily, my opponent was......not great. He opens with turn one Magus without giving an opportunity to mulligan. I then choose to keep hand with four dredgers on the draw. I combo out at four life on turn five.
Game Two: He again opens with turn one Magus on the play. I brought in Firestorm for this, but don't get one and get rolled.
Game Three: Or, as I like to call it, the worst luck I have ever had in a Magic game. I open with Land, Land, Therapy, LED, Bridge, Unmask, Needle. I keep figuring one dredger and I win. I take his only Red source (SSG), and Song in case he draws one. Two turns pass without hiim doing so, but no dredger for me. Then I topdeck Breakthrough and cast it hoping for one. Nope. Seven turns later, I die never having drawn one. Double fuck.
6-2; 12-5
Alas, I suppose it was not to be.
The field was heavy with Thresh, Goblins, and Aggro Loam, so the deck choice I feel was correct. A different matchup round one, or any kind of luck round eight, and I should have made it. The amount of random decks, and player from outside Legacy was completely expected at a GenCon tournament. Especially when most of the Vintage players passed on this one since their Champs was seperate and recent.
The list was perfect as far as I'm concerned. Ten games I won by turn two. Eternal Witness was the champion all day. In addition to to ability to get back castable SB cards against non-grave hate, it allowed two turn one wins where I double Breakthroughed. Also it allows LED recursion to pay for DA, or to bust through 3Sphere and Prison effects. Firestorm is in for random Aggro and creature rush decks. It is also an answer to Magus, Jailer, and an uncounterable discard outlet. Wax/Wane was simply for it's cost. Charm might be just as good, though I did save Brdges with the pump once. I have found that you have to have at least seven answers to Leyline, and Ray is too slow. Not only do you need two lands, which is difficult, but decks running Leyline also have a good chance to discard it before you do so.
Congrats to Jeff and Zo for winning the prelims, and to Blake for winning the whole shebang. I'll try and do better next time.
Zohar and I drove from Pittsburgh to Indy along with two others Wednesday night. I had decided to play Ichorid beforehand, and he stuck with his standard U/W/b Landstill build. Since I assumed there would be a great deal of randoms in these events, I wrongly assumed that graveyard hate would be everywhere. Thus, the list I ran in the two prelims.
4 Golgari Grave Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
3 Golgari Thug
4 Putrid Imp
4 Narcomoeba
4 Ichorid
1 Eternal Witness
1 Flame Kin Zealot
4 Breakthrough
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Bridge from Below
3 Unmask
3 Dread Return
2 Deep Analysis
4 Lions Eye Diamond
4 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
3 Cephalid Coliseum
4 Chain of Vapor
4 Pithing Needle
4 Reverent Silence
2 Darkblast
1 Bayou
I didn't see a Leyline at all in either prelim, but there was a good deal of Enchantress. The field was so random though, it was incorrect to have such a focused sideboard. To give you an idea, the top two decks in the second prelim were Tombstone and Mossnought.:confused:
I ended 1-2 in the first, and 4-2 in the second. Luckily Zohar won the first, and Smelski won the second prelim, even after switching decks with Raider Bob.
I decided to switch to a more generic build for the Champs, though with some new twists. I'll get into those later. For ease of writing, I am going to supplant a first or second turn win uninterrupted with a :smile: .
4 Golgari Grave Troll
4 Stinkweed Imp
3 Golgari Thug
4 Putrid Imp
4 Narcomoeba
4 Ichorid
1 Eternal Witness
1 Flame Kin Zealot
4 Breakthrough
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Bridge from Below
3 Unmask
3 Dread Return
2 Deep Analysis
4 Lions Eye Diamond
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
3 Cephalid Coliseum
4 Chain of Vapor
4 Pithing Needle
3 Firestorm
3 Wax/Wane
1 Unmask
Match One: Jason Keenan (Sui Black)
Game One: :smile:
Game Two: I suspected Leyline since he was running old-school Sui with Sarco and Carno, and was correct. Unfortunately he followed it with a first-turn Duress to nab my Chain. A Firestorm nailed two Sarcomancy tokens to knock him down to three before I died with Leyline still in play.
Game Three: He mulls to six, and opens with double Leyline. I was never in it.
0-1; 1-2
Match Two: Tim Hanoy (Vial Horror)
Game One: He plays Swamp go. I play land, Putrid Imp. He plays Hunted Horror (after seeing Imp?!) giving me two dudes. Yeah, I win next turn.
Game Two: :smile:
1-1; 3-2
Match Three: Mitchell Gardner (Aggro Loam)
Game One: :smile:
Game Two: :smile:
To put some more content into this, Mitch was with a contingent of Canadian Eternal plaers who drove twenty-eight hours to GenCon. They were all amazingly cool, and dominated the Vintage side events. Aggro Loam simply can't win game one. They also shouldn't run Leyline, as they cannot afford to mull to it. To make things annoying, I did face leyline in my first three matches after pulling Reverent Silence. I guess it was never needed.
2-1; 5-2
Match Four: Cole Lane (Goblins)
Game One: :smile:
Game Two: He has turn one Lackey into Siege-Gang. I mulled to four. He wins on turn four. I did have a Firestorm, but I saved it as a surprise since I wasn't likely to win this one.
Game Three: He has Lackey into Matron getting Fanatic. I Firestorm his board. Then things bog down for a while, me swinging with Ichorids when I can, and he preserving life and removing bridges. We finally come to the climax. He joins an on board Matron with double Warchief, but doesn't swing since I am at eight and have a Zombie. I remove two of my last three black creatures to animate Ichorids, and dredge my last, a Thug. My hand is full of dredgers since I burned all my Therapies a while ago I nail my last Bridge and a Narco while he is tapped out. Unfortunatley, he is at five, and has three blockers. Even though he can block everything and lose his squad while I still have two Zombies and a Narco, I can longer produce anything, and if he topdecks I'm dead with two cards left.
So I look for a while for a solution. I end up saccing the Narco and Ichorids to Dread Return Witness, Witness back Firestorm, and burn him out. Tee-hee.
3-1; 7-3
Match Five: Joe Alamo (Aggro Loam)
Game One: :smile: (tun one one the play)
Game Two: :smile:
4-1: 9-3
Match Six: Jeff Smelski (Landstill)
Game One: It had to happen eventually. Even though I fear Jeff, at least it's a good match up. As it turns, this was the consensus best match of the entire tournament, and I'm sure to miss a few details. I open with PImp turn one, which allows a Breakthrough on turn two. I don't get much action, and have to sac my PImp along with a Narco to empty his hand. The game continues for some time with me swinging when able. Jeff lands a Humility to slow me down, and multiple EE to kill tokens. Eventually I both empty his hand, and get enough creatures to DR a Troll. Jeff Plows it, but that gives me enough life to use my newly drawn Coliseum along with three Citys to hardcast DR on another. He runs out of answers, and I get in with a hardcast Stinkweed and two Ichorids while Troll is chumped.
Game Two: He gets turn one, but I open with Unmask+Therapy. My only gas though is LED+DA though, so he has time to FoF twice. To cut to the chase, I have Narcos, Ichorids, and occasionly some tokens. Jeff has Humility, EE, Runed Halo on Ichorid, and Runed Halo on Narco all on board. And is at nine. What do I do? Wait until he uses EE, then sac to DR Eternal Witness. I get Needle in case he gets a Crypt. He has two turns to draw the Wrath, and does EE my tokens. He then has another two turns to draw Wrath, Plow, DoJ, or Mishra's. Nope, Witness gets there.
5-1; 9-3
Game Seven: Mike Ames (Boros)
Game One: I'm worried about this since he runs enough burn to slow me and remove my Bridges, and runs Priest and Silver Knight for my SB tech. I win turn one on the draw.
Game Two: :smile:
6-1: 11-3
Here is where I get hosed. I expect tiebrakes to suck after losing round one. We check the standings though, and I have a good shot at eighth. Unfortunately, ninth place get paired down against a 5-1-1 with sick breakers. If I draw and he wins, I lose on tiebreaks. If the other guy wins, he leapfrogs me. Gotta play it out.
Match Eight; John Julifs (Dragon Stompy)
Game One: Fuck. I, of all people know how awful this match is. Luckily, my opponent was......not great. He opens with turn one Magus without giving an opportunity to mulligan. I then choose to keep hand with four dredgers on the draw. I combo out at four life on turn five.
Game Two: He again opens with turn one Magus on the play. I brought in Firestorm for this, but don't get one and get rolled.
Game Three: Or, as I like to call it, the worst luck I have ever had in a Magic game. I open with Land, Land, Therapy, LED, Bridge, Unmask, Needle. I keep figuring one dredger and I win. I take his only Red source (SSG), and Song in case he draws one. Two turns pass without hiim doing so, but no dredger for me. Then I topdeck Breakthrough and cast it hoping for one. Nope. Seven turns later, I die never having drawn one. Double fuck.
6-2; 12-5
Alas, I suppose it was not to be.
The field was heavy with Thresh, Goblins, and Aggro Loam, so the deck choice I feel was correct. A different matchup round one, or any kind of luck round eight, and I should have made it. The amount of random decks, and player from outside Legacy was completely expected at a GenCon tournament. Especially when most of the Vintage players passed on this one since their Champs was seperate and recent.
The list was perfect as far as I'm concerned. Ten games I won by turn two. Eternal Witness was the champion all day. In addition to to ability to get back castable SB cards against non-grave hate, it allowed two turn one wins where I double Breakthroughed. Also it allows LED recursion to pay for DA, or to bust through 3Sphere and Prison effects. Firestorm is in for random Aggro and creature rush decks. It is also an answer to Magus, Jailer, and an uncounterable discard outlet. Wax/Wane was simply for it's cost. Charm might be just as good, though I did save Brdges with the pump once. I have found that you have to have at least seven answers to Leyline, and Ray is too slow. Not only do you need two lands, which is difficult, but decks running Leyline also have a good chance to discard it before you do so.
Congrats to Jeff and Zo for winning the prelims, and to Blake for winning the whole shebang. I'll try and do better next time.