Nihil Credo
09-01-2008, 08:50 AM
So, I won or made the finals of every online Legacy tournament I've played in so far. Couldn't exactly let everyone down this time, either.
/brag
/ensuring a humiliating finish in the new Salvation tournament
Now, normally, I would have brought UWb Landstill to the field. It's absolutely the safest deck to play in any Legacy metagame, and as Klaus correctly said it gets even more powerful when you can take as much time as needed to make difficult decisions. However, I was already piloting the deck in the then-closing LegacyItalia tournament, so I wanted to switch gears. I then picked another deck that has a shot against everything:
Swan & Moon Thresh
// Lands
1 Forest
2 Island
2 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
3 Tropical Island
4 Volcanic Island
3 Wooded Foothills
// Creatures
4 Nimble Mongoose
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Swans of Bryn Argoll
// Spells
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
3 Daze
3 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Ponder
3 Counterbalance
1 Lightning Storm
3 Chain of Plasma
2 Spell Snare
// Sideboard
SB: 3 Pyroclasm
SB: 3 Krosan Grip
SB: 3 Blood Moon
SB: 4 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 2 Red Elemental Blast
Comments on the decklist at the end of this post. And now, enjoy nine rounds of my ridiculously detailed match reports.
Round 1: Verdana (R/W Goblins)
G1: I open three lands, Ponder, Mongoose, Goyf, and Cbalance. I opt to start with Mongoose, and do well since I meet two turns in a row of Wasteland-go. Meanwhile I've played a second Mongoose, and later a 2/3 Goyf. Forcing a Vial makes the goyf 4/5, I add the third Mongoose, and Daze a Matron to seal the game.
Side: -3 Counterbalance +3 Pyroclasm -2 Swans of Bryn Argoll +2 Krosan Grip.
G2: He opens with Lackey, which doesn't worry me 'cause I have a double-Mongoose opener. But I topdeck Bolt and the situation is even better; he tries to Waste the land in his mainphase and it becomes stellar as I Time Walk him in response. He starts playing with Rishadan Port and for three straight turns I Brainstorm in response and drop a Mongoose in my main phase, holding back Tarmogoyf because I don't need it and can't protect it from Swords. At four lands he finally drops a Warchief, but it's too little too late as next turn the Mongeese gain threshold, bash him down to 7, the Warchief is Bolted, and a Tarmogoyf is dropped with Daze backup against Siege-Gang Commander which was his only distant chance at getting back in the game.
1-0 (2-0 games)
Round 2: Whit3_Ghost (Thrash)
G1: I have a turn 1 Mongoose; he just plays a Tropical and passes. Next turn I hold back my fetch and play Ponder: sure enough, he Brainstorms into Daze, and I can safely fetch and drop another Mongoose.
In the following turns he just Wastes one of my Trops and Forces a pair of Tarmogoyfs, while stuck on two Tropicals despite several Brainstorms. Eventually he drops two Threshed Mongeese to reverse the momentum while mine are still 1/1; however, I gain Threshold next turn and bash him again.
Life totals are 9 to 7 for me, but I've got a Volcanic and a Chain of Plasma. His Tarmogoyf meets a Daze which meets a FoW bringing him down to six, and after thinking for a bit he brings me down to 3 leaving just the Goyf as blocker. Bad move, as next turn I just bash with both of my creatures, point Chain to his head, and FoW his FoW to win the race.
Side: I haven't seen a splash colour, so while he's most likely playing Canadian Thrash, he might be running UGB with Stifle and Wasteland and still have Counterbalance, maybe in the SB. Since siding out the combo leaves me with seven open slots, I decide to play it safe and bring in 2 Grips in addition to 3 Blood Moons and 2 REBs.
G2: This game is decidedly different. I mulligan once, and until turn 4 all that happens beside a few cantrips is a Wasteland and a Force on my Top.
Then I resolve a Mongoose, and from there the game is decidedly anti-climactic: he looks for a blocker cycling Fire//Ices on my upkeep, while I keep bashing and baiting his counters with Enchantments, saving up mine for later. When he's at two, in response to the _fourth_ Fire/Ice, I aim a Bolt at his head and FoW his FoW for the win.
2-0 (4-0 games)
Round 3: Poichoi (Ichorid)
G1: Double Brainstorm and Mongoose plus double Goyf is normally something I'm happy with, but not against turn 1 Putrid Imp. Shit. Fortunately she follows up with a pair of straight Street Wraiths, signaling a lack of dredgers - unless her very last draw was one. The next turn I Brainstorm, find no Bolts, shuffle, and drop a second Mongoose. Her next discards are an Ichorid and two Bridges, hitting me for 4 and granting her two zombies.
I drop a Tarmogoyf to help hold the small army at bay, and then another, while she just makes more zombies. Next turn she Therapies me for Force of Will (I just have a Spell Snare), pops a Coliseum still without seeing any dredgers, and swings with the Imps. However, to indicate her discard she points arrows from both cards to a single Putrid Imp: I make her notice that, block the other non-flying Imp with a 1/1 Mongoose, and her Bridges go poof. I cantrip into a third Goyf and go into race mode against her Ichorids and Imps, which I win closely at 3 life.
Side: -3 Counterbalance -2 Spell Snare -1 Lightning Storm -3 Chain of Plasma +4 Tormod's Crypt +3 Pyroclasm +2 REB
G2: I FoW a Careful Study, then I have to fend off the dangerous attacks of a few Narcomoebas, Putrid Imps, and eventually a hardcast Flame-Kin Zealot, a task which a pair of early Tarmogoyfs and some burn spells prove more than capable of.
And that's the explanation for all those of you who were wondering how the hell Red Counterbalance Thresh got to beat Ichorid 2-0.
3-0 (6-0 games)
Round 4: Elfrago (Eva Green)
G1: The last time I faced Elfrago (in the top 8 of the Legacyitalia.it tournament) he was piloting Dreadstill - so even though he's mulliganing to five on the play, I play it safe and keep the zero-pressure hand of Bolt, Balance, Daze, FoW, Tropical, Forest, Island.
Instead, he Thoughtseizes me, taking Daze, and follows up with Nantuko Shade, which I make a questionable choice in Forcing - but I couldn't Bolt it, and he had two cards left in hand with a graveyard of one, so I thought I need not fear Tombstalker yet.
Instead, it came down the next turn off a Ritual, while all I had to show was a 1/1 Mongoose and several lands. He adds a 1/2 Tarmogoyf and a Seal to the mix, but I get my chance and drop Swans. I go down to 3, untap, and Chain for a bunch of cards. I only had one Volcanic in play so I can't kill him on the spot, but I still manage to Bolt a fresh Shade and get two FoWs should he draw into a Snuff Out after having his Tombstalker blocked. He doesn't, and next turn it's GG. Whew.
Sideboard: Bringing in Krosan Grip *just* for Choke (and maybe Seal if I really need to protect a Cbalance) absolutely sucks, but the card is such a pain. I forgot what I sided out.
G2: Turn 1 Specter eats a Bolt. Hymn follows up, and I FoW to protect my quality hand, then drop a 4/5 Goyf which gets one-upped by Dark Ritual into Tombstalker + Specter. Ouch.
I land a Top, which sees Lightning Storm! Too bad I don't have the mana to play it right now, sigh. This costs me the Top, as next turn I eat 7 and lose a land card, then after untapping I have to draw with Top before fetching for the second Volcanic.
Still, the Stalker is out and my Goyf is back in the race. I Ponder into a Top, and even manage to Daze a Choke, but unfortunately he has a Goyf of his own and later a Snuff Out for my second Goyf. That old Specter brings me down to zero.
G3: Things are all rosy and peachy until I'm caught with my pants down when a Choke resolves. Ouch. The basic Forest to manipulate my Top is little consolation, as soon he's got a Tombstalker and a Specter while I'm at a nice fourteen. I have two burn spells in hand, and he's at 8, so I can either hope to find an untapped land *and* a third burn spell via a single draw step and a Top activation; or I can tap out and kill Tombstalker, leaving me with six turns (accounting for fetches) to beat Specter in some way. I choose the former, and it doesn't pan out.
3-1 (7-2 games)
Round 5: KillemallCFH (Counterbalance Merfolk)
His list was the one used for the Two-Man Tournament. I expected him to have included some goodies from Eventide since, but it turns out he didn't have the time to.
G1: I force through a Tarmogoyf, and add a Nimble Mongoose. A Daze and three burn spells handle his most threatening Merfolks (Seasinger, Reejerey), and the game is quickly over.
Side: +3 Krosan Grip (B2B, Counterbalance, B2FuckingB), +2 REB, -3 Swans of Bryn Argoll, -1 Lightning Storm, -1 don't remember
G2: He has a turn 2 Counterbalance, while my first ten cards are devoid of countermagic. I get to resolve a pair of cantrips and drop a Mongoose, but the partner in crime Top shows up next turn and puts an end to the fun. He goes for a mainphase Brainstorm, which fails to find a third land, and I see my chance there. I untap, drop a Tarmogoyf, and in response to his Top activation play REB on the enchantment: he chooses to let the Goyf resolve. Top still in hand, he tries to dig for land with two Silvergill Adepts, which however walk right into resolved Spell Snares, and the green guys finish the job.
Later we do some testing of 5C Threshold vs. 4C Landstill. Ew. Verdict: Not nearly as good as I hoped; Thoughtseizes only help so much. REBs are still a complete house, though.
Round 6: TheInfamousBearAssassin (Quinn)
Shit. Whatever type of deck he's playing, he can't be good for me; I can just hope it's Quinn rather than AnythingWithPerniciousDeedAndBasicLandsAndLifegain.dec. I consider offering the draw, but that's like putting a Good Matchup sticker on your brow.
Before the match, I try a couple of games against the deck, figuring out that I have three main paths to victory:
1) Canadian-style: draw lots of creatures, Daze and Force early removal, and kill him while he still has a full hand.
2) Swan-style: bait removal with Geese and Goyf, then drop the Swans, protect them, and go off.
3) Counterburn-style: use the creatures as removal bait that, focusin on countering his threats, and draw into enough Bolts and Chains to do most of the damage out of the red zone.
G1: I Daze a Top and Force a Scepter while cantripping a bit. Then I drop a totally unprotected Tarmogoyf, and declare so, which he promptly Abeyances into Swords to Plowshares; I happily add a second, which - incredibile dictu - gets to deal five damage before going under an Oblivion Ring. My next threats are a Counterbalance - pairs up with my Top - and a third Tarmogoyf; I have a Swans on top of the library in case of Wrath or Humility, but he shows me Runed Halo instead :/ (I still was on two lands).
A Nimble Mongoose shows up and gets in for three. On the next turn, IBA reveals the result of many turns of Dragoncycling: Orim's Chant into four Angel tokens. Neat.
Too bad I had been doing some sandbagging of my own. Lightning Bolt, Lightning Storm, Lightning Bolt, Chain of Plasma. Good game; path 1, check.
In related news, 24 points of burn in the deck is totally awesome. Potentially more if you activate Lightning Storm.
Side: -3 Daze (pretty goddamn awful against big mana, not to mention Chants and Abeyance), +3 Krosan Grip. After the match IBA argues that I should have cut Spell Snare instead, saying that he doesn't have much threatening stuff and that I underrate Daze. I'm confident I made the right choice here, but I figured I'd throw this one out.
G2: Two Tarmogoyfs are sent farming after dealing a mighty 2 damage between them, and a 1/1 Mongoose is stopped in its tracks by a Painter's Servant. Along the way I've Gripped first a Pithing Needle on my Top and then a Top of its own (which was just too ridiculous with active Scrying Sheets while I had no pressure). My hand has FoW, Spell Snare, and Chain of Plasma which can at least rid me of that Servant, but then I get to Swans of Bryn Argoll, observe that he has just two cards in hand, and figure I have a better shot with Path 2 than by trying to reconquer the red zone.
Unfortunately, his two-card hand consisted of Orim's Chant and Enlightened Tutor, which fetches Grindstone :(
G3: Mongoose, swing, Ponder. Painter. Bolt Painter, swing, 4/5 Goyf. Draw, go. Counterbalance, swing, go. Painter, don't reveal with Counterbalance, go. Bolt Painter, swing, go. Orim's Chant falls to Counterbalance, Oblivion Ring meets Force of Will. Chain of Plasma to the head, swing GG. Path 3, check.
(To Quinn's credit, if he had had a Plains instead of a Scrying Sheets on that turn 4, he could have Chanted into Wing Shards and possibly stabilized after that. But it would still have been close, especially with me still having five Bolts in the deck.
Round 7: Eldariel (Faerie Stompy)
I can draw in safely, but Eldariel (due to some really shitty tiebreakers) might not. Some fairly boring math tells us what matches should go which way for us to have to battle. Thankfully, things go the right way and we can ID.
Quarterfinals: Whit3 Ghost (Thrash)
Rematch, sweet.
G1: I have a good Island + fetchlands hand, but being on the draw I can't retry the trick I did in the Swiss, and he gets to Stifle my fetch. It's only a minor setback, however, and we start fighting over board position and life totals, eventually ending up with two Mongesse staring each other with him at 8 and me at 2.
I resolve a blind Counterbalance, and next turn he Bolts me, which would go through the known top card. He has only one card in hand (either Stifle, Daze, or a land) and my options are Forcing (loses to Daze, since my only open land is a fetch) or fetching, which rids me of the dead top card but loses to Stifle. I Force, and get to survive a few more turns until he draws another Mongoose which I can't do anything about.
Side: +3 Blood Moon (his list has zero basics), +2 REB, -2 Swans -1 Lightning Storm -2 Chain of Plasma. I wasn't sure which was worse in this matchupbetween Swans (clunky, but can pitch to FoW) and Chains (awkward on defence), so I went for the split.
G2: I open with basics and a Mongoose which, while he's busy countering my 2cc threats, swings unhindered until he's at two life and finally sticks a Tarmogoyf. Some other creatures join the stare-match on the board, but I get a Bolt to put an end to that.
G3: Whit3_Ghost tries to fight over my early mana development. That doesn't pan out, so I play two Mongeese (one sticks) and beat with them. He plays one Tarmogoyf (zero stick) and get eaten by a shrouded mammal.
G4: One of my lands gets Wasted, and I don't have a third so I'm forced to Force a Daze on my Brainstorm. Fortunately he doesn't have another Daze, and I find a Volcanic to conveniently REB his own Brainstorm at end of turn, then Daze his Tarmogoyf. I resolve a Counterbalance which never counters anything as I have to burn away two Predators. A REB hits the enchantment, I choose to let it die and drop a second; wrong choice, as he's got not just the Snare but the Force + useless Stifle to protect it (actually, I punted twice: first by not Forcing REB pitching the extra Balance, and second, by Forcing back on Snare pitching another Force). He resolves a Tarmogoyf and beats me down with it, my Nimble Mongoose notwithstanding.
G5: I open with two Mongeese and Top while Dazing his Goyf, then we both add a Goyf to our board. Meanwhile I've been setting up for Blood Moon, and after fetching the second land I go for it with FoW+Daze backup. In response, he taps out to Ice my one untapped land... and I gleefully Daze his Fire/Ice! Naturally he has double Daze for Moon (or, well, not so naturally since it was just as big a blunder for him to expose itself to Daze so unnecessarily).
No excuse there. In my mind I threated the Ice as a Brainstorm, i.e. something that could actually find him multiple counters. That punt cost me a free win (with two threshed Mongeese on my side he literally had no outs).
Anyway, the game goes on and he adds a Predator and a Mongoose to his side. I draw a Bolt, and swing with the team with Force backup; at end of turn, it's my Tarmogoyf versus his Predator. During his turn, he tries to double Bolt the Goyf, but the Force backup is still there, and he finds himself in a pretty bad position. Three attack phases, an Ice, and a chumpblock later, it's over.
Semifinals: Van Phanel (Solidarity)
Since I'm lazy, I'll just refer you to Van Phanel's own detailed report (http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10861) on these games. Especially because the interesting decisions were mostly on his side: quite literally all I had to do was play dorks as soon as I had the mana to do it without dropping my pants, and cantrip into as much disruption as I could.
Good thing for me that I drew a *lot* of it; in particular in game 3 I was thankful the game happened online, since I could never have avoided smiling like an idiot at an opener of Volcanic, Fetch, Top, Cbalance, REB, Spell Snare, FoW, and much less when I topdecked FoW and Daze in sequence. His Peek came at the right moment to keep me from blurting out a LOL in the chatbox.
Still, that was definitely a matchup I was happy about. Probably not a 3-0 matchup (that would be for 5C with Thoughtseizes and REBs), but definitely a 3-1 one.
Finals: Klaus (UWb Landstill)
Appropriately enough for the Final Boss, and contrary to the semifinals, it's the best deck in the format and an unfavourable matchup for me; I estimated a 2-3 record to be most likely.
On the other side, I had agreed to a proposed prize split before the match, and that virtually guaranteed me the victory :laugh:.
G1: Triple mulligan on the play for him! What was I saying? But he recovers well, by resolving a turn 2 Standstill in the face of my Mongoose. Since he didn't play a Factory with it, I suspect he might be bluffing and that I can milk that for quite a bit of damage while he stumbles on land drops; alas, that's not the case and when the Mishra shows up, I grant him his Ancestral Recall in addition to the Time Walk. Only fair after his mulligans, after all.
A Tarmogoyf is sent farming, then his Humility gets eaten by a double Daze - close shave there! But he still manages to stabilize at four life; fortunately my threat of Counterbalance forces him to Wish for Return to Dust instead of Pulse of the Fields. He drops a Standstill, but in those turns I fruitfully Top into a nice hand of Chain, Chain, Swans, Swans, Force of Will, Force of Will, which takes the game from his seven mana's worth of countermagic.
Side: Humility and Halo are enough to mandate Krosan Grips, with various artifacts as secondary targets, and REBs are just plain nuts. I know from experience that if you're not completely reckless Wish-Still basically doesn't give a fuck about Blood Moon; the card is vaguely tempting for the sole reason of stopping the Ruins / EE lock which is an absolute wrecking ball I have zero answers for, outside of going for the throat, but unfortunately EE itself answers Blood Moon quite effectively and his list has six ways to get it. The enchantment will stay in the board.
What to side out? I settle early on on the Lightning Bolts - burn isn't a terribly reliable plan against Pulse of the Fields, and unlike Chain of Plasma they can't fuel a combo win nor pad the 2cc slot for Counterbalance. Killing Factories is about all they've got going for them. For the fifth slot, I will alternate between a Chain of Plasma on the play and a Daze on the draw.
G2: He lays down a turn 1 EE, which switches the focus of my hand on the Counterbalance lock. My enchantment resolves, while his one (Humility) doesn't. Tarmogoyf shows up and starts the beats.
Blowing up EE, he forces me to take a guess on his next spell; whatever I guess, it was wrong, 'cause his Standstill resolves. I milk that Standstill for a couple of turns of Goyf damage, then when his Decree shows up I break it with the Top and Brainstorm-Dismiss his Counterspell on it.
We annihilate each other's respective board position, and when he drops down a Standstill with no Decrees left I figure I'm better off getting at least to hand parity before breaking it; besides, he already has the dreaded Ruins lock going on, and I'll need some solid luck to punch through that. On turn 28 I go for it, with two waves of Mongoose + Tarmogoyf backed up by countermagic; he handles them, and that's game.
G3: I open the game with the combo in hand, so I figure I'll lead with Tarmogoyf and Counterbalance; they get dutifully handled by non-EE spells, and Swans punch through. He then happens to have an answer for them too, and then for the Swans that come after that; sadly for him, I topdeck the third copy straight. He FoFs into faff, and the game's over. Bad beats.
G4: After some struggle I get a CounterTop to resolve, but my offence is stopped by a Wrath and I start to take Factory beats. Through Top and fetching however I get into the following position:
Board - Six lands
Hand - Daze, Daze, REB
Top of library - Swans, Top, Counterbalance
I draw the Swans leaving Top on top -> mistake #1, I need to answer Counterspell before Swords. He Counterspells it, and I rearrange to Counterbalance it (seeing FoW as the new card) -> possibly mistake #2, as there are arguments for REBbing it and leaving a 1cc on top. Then I pass the turn -> definitely mistake #2, I should have Dazed his Counterspell before actually countering it in order to untap an extra land. In his turn, he Swords the Swans while I have only one mana open; I take a guess that he is trying to make way for a Wrath or Humility, and rearrange, put a FoW on top, and draw it with Top. Instead, his removal suite was 3x StP, and I lose the Swans and, some turns and a small Decree later, the game.
G5: Goyf, swing, swing, Mongoose, Swing, Wrath of God? Force of Will. Force of Will? Do I Force back pitching Swans or save the FoW, let it resolve, and rebuild with Swans plus a Mongoose? I choose the latter, he hastily cycles a Decree for 3 and Brainstorms into a Swords. I keep up the stream of threats, he even assembles the horrible Ruins / EE, but my very last threat is another copy of Swans which he doesn't have the answer for - and it's over.
Thanks to everyone who put up the prizes, to T_G for taking the pain of hosting the tournament, and to my opponents who made it a pleasant romp through Legacy.
(Literal props and slops aren't worth it when they don't involve mind-altering substances)
On the decklist
Overall I was happy with the deck, and think it's definitely one of the strongest ways to play Counterbalance Threshold. I wouldn't touch anything in the maindeck; the only consideration would be moving a Swans to the sideboard (since I really want to see them against anything that can't goldfish by turn 4), but the sideboard is even more cramped than the MD so it would be tough.
Speaking of the sideboard, I believe now that 2 Blood Moon are a better number than 3: the setup they require is considerable and tips off experienced players to your plan. In its place I'd put the fourth Counterbalance, omitting which was just lazy design. I would *love* to find room for a third REB, but the best candidate for that is the fourth Tormod's Crypt and that's just too dangerous.
/brag
/ensuring a humiliating finish in the new Salvation tournament
Now, normally, I would have brought UWb Landstill to the field. It's absolutely the safest deck to play in any Legacy metagame, and as Klaus correctly said it gets even more powerful when you can take as much time as needed to make difficult decisions. However, I was already piloting the deck in the then-closing LegacyItalia tournament, so I wanted to switch gears. I then picked another deck that has a shot against everything:
Swan & Moon Thresh
// Lands
1 Forest
2 Island
2 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
3 Tropical Island
4 Volcanic Island
3 Wooded Foothills
// Creatures
4 Nimble Mongoose
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Swans of Bryn Argoll
// Spells
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
3 Daze
3 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Ponder
3 Counterbalance
1 Lightning Storm
3 Chain of Plasma
2 Spell Snare
// Sideboard
SB: 3 Pyroclasm
SB: 3 Krosan Grip
SB: 3 Blood Moon
SB: 4 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 2 Red Elemental Blast
Comments on the decklist at the end of this post. And now, enjoy nine rounds of my ridiculously detailed match reports.
Round 1: Verdana (R/W Goblins)
G1: I open three lands, Ponder, Mongoose, Goyf, and Cbalance. I opt to start with Mongoose, and do well since I meet two turns in a row of Wasteland-go. Meanwhile I've played a second Mongoose, and later a 2/3 Goyf. Forcing a Vial makes the goyf 4/5, I add the third Mongoose, and Daze a Matron to seal the game.
Side: -3 Counterbalance +3 Pyroclasm -2 Swans of Bryn Argoll +2 Krosan Grip.
G2: He opens with Lackey, which doesn't worry me 'cause I have a double-Mongoose opener. But I topdeck Bolt and the situation is even better; he tries to Waste the land in his mainphase and it becomes stellar as I Time Walk him in response. He starts playing with Rishadan Port and for three straight turns I Brainstorm in response and drop a Mongoose in my main phase, holding back Tarmogoyf because I don't need it and can't protect it from Swords. At four lands he finally drops a Warchief, but it's too little too late as next turn the Mongeese gain threshold, bash him down to 7, the Warchief is Bolted, and a Tarmogoyf is dropped with Daze backup against Siege-Gang Commander which was his only distant chance at getting back in the game.
1-0 (2-0 games)
Round 2: Whit3_Ghost (Thrash)
G1: I have a turn 1 Mongoose; he just plays a Tropical and passes. Next turn I hold back my fetch and play Ponder: sure enough, he Brainstorms into Daze, and I can safely fetch and drop another Mongoose.
In the following turns he just Wastes one of my Trops and Forces a pair of Tarmogoyfs, while stuck on two Tropicals despite several Brainstorms. Eventually he drops two Threshed Mongeese to reverse the momentum while mine are still 1/1; however, I gain Threshold next turn and bash him again.
Life totals are 9 to 7 for me, but I've got a Volcanic and a Chain of Plasma. His Tarmogoyf meets a Daze which meets a FoW bringing him down to six, and after thinking for a bit he brings me down to 3 leaving just the Goyf as blocker. Bad move, as next turn I just bash with both of my creatures, point Chain to his head, and FoW his FoW to win the race.
Side: I haven't seen a splash colour, so while he's most likely playing Canadian Thrash, he might be running UGB with Stifle and Wasteland and still have Counterbalance, maybe in the SB. Since siding out the combo leaves me with seven open slots, I decide to play it safe and bring in 2 Grips in addition to 3 Blood Moons and 2 REBs.
G2: This game is decidedly different. I mulligan once, and until turn 4 all that happens beside a few cantrips is a Wasteland and a Force on my Top.
Then I resolve a Mongoose, and from there the game is decidedly anti-climactic: he looks for a blocker cycling Fire//Ices on my upkeep, while I keep bashing and baiting his counters with Enchantments, saving up mine for later. When he's at two, in response to the _fourth_ Fire/Ice, I aim a Bolt at his head and FoW his FoW for the win.
2-0 (4-0 games)
Round 3: Poichoi (Ichorid)
G1: Double Brainstorm and Mongoose plus double Goyf is normally something I'm happy with, but not against turn 1 Putrid Imp. Shit. Fortunately she follows up with a pair of straight Street Wraiths, signaling a lack of dredgers - unless her very last draw was one. The next turn I Brainstorm, find no Bolts, shuffle, and drop a second Mongoose. Her next discards are an Ichorid and two Bridges, hitting me for 4 and granting her two zombies.
I drop a Tarmogoyf to help hold the small army at bay, and then another, while she just makes more zombies. Next turn she Therapies me for Force of Will (I just have a Spell Snare), pops a Coliseum still without seeing any dredgers, and swings with the Imps. However, to indicate her discard she points arrows from both cards to a single Putrid Imp: I make her notice that, block the other non-flying Imp with a 1/1 Mongoose, and her Bridges go poof. I cantrip into a third Goyf and go into race mode against her Ichorids and Imps, which I win closely at 3 life.
Side: -3 Counterbalance -2 Spell Snare -1 Lightning Storm -3 Chain of Plasma +4 Tormod's Crypt +3 Pyroclasm +2 REB
G2: I FoW a Careful Study, then I have to fend off the dangerous attacks of a few Narcomoebas, Putrid Imps, and eventually a hardcast Flame-Kin Zealot, a task which a pair of early Tarmogoyfs and some burn spells prove more than capable of.
And that's the explanation for all those of you who were wondering how the hell Red Counterbalance Thresh got to beat Ichorid 2-0.
3-0 (6-0 games)
Round 4: Elfrago (Eva Green)
G1: The last time I faced Elfrago (in the top 8 of the Legacyitalia.it tournament) he was piloting Dreadstill - so even though he's mulliganing to five on the play, I play it safe and keep the zero-pressure hand of Bolt, Balance, Daze, FoW, Tropical, Forest, Island.
Instead, he Thoughtseizes me, taking Daze, and follows up with Nantuko Shade, which I make a questionable choice in Forcing - but I couldn't Bolt it, and he had two cards left in hand with a graveyard of one, so I thought I need not fear Tombstalker yet.
Instead, it came down the next turn off a Ritual, while all I had to show was a 1/1 Mongoose and several lands. He adds a 1/2 Tarmogoyf and a Seal to the mix, but I get my chance and drop Swans. I go down to 3, untap, and Chain for a bunch of cards. I only had one Volcanic in play so I can't kill him on the spot, but I still manage to Bolt a fresh Shade and get two FoWs should he draw into a Snuff Out after having his Tombstalker blocked. He doesn't, and next turn it's GG. Whew.
Sideboard: Bringing in Krosan Grip *just* for Choke (and maybe Seal if I really need to protect a Cbalance) absolutely sucks, but the card is such a pain. I forgot what I sided out.
G2: Turn 1 Specter eats a Bolt. Hymn follows up, and I FoW to protect my quality hand, then drop a 4/5 Goyf which gets one-upped by Dark Ritual into Tombstalker + Specter. Ouch.
I land a Top, which sees Lightning Storm! Too bad I don't have the mana to play it right now, sigh. This costs me the Top, as next turn I eat 7 and lose a land card, then after untapping I have to draw with Top before fetching for the second Volcanic.
Still, the Stalker is out and my Goyf is back in the race. I Ponder into a Top, and even manage to Daze a Choke, but unfortunately he has a Goyf of his own and later a Snuff Out for my second Goyf. That old Specter brings me down to zero.
G3: Things are all rosy and peachy until I'm caught with my pants down when a Choke resolves. Ouch. The basic Forest to manipulate my Top is little consolation, as soon he's got a Tombstalker and a Specter while I'm at a nice fourteen. I have two burn spells in hand, and he's at 8, so I can either hope to find an untapped land *and* a third burn spell via a single draw step and a Top activation; or I can tap out and kill Tombstalker, leaving me with six turns (accounting for fetches) to beat Specter in some way. I choose the former, and it doesn't pan out.
3-1 (7-2 games)
Round 5: KillemallCFH (Counterbalance Merfolk)
His list was the one used for the Two-Man Tournament. I expected him to have included some goodies from Eventide since, but it turns out he didn't have the time to.
G1: I force through a Tarmogoyf, and add a Nimble Mongoose. A Daze and three burn spells handle his most threatening Merfolks (Seasinger, Reejerey), and the game is quickly over.
Side: +3 Krosan Grip (B2B, Counterbalance, B2FuckingB), +2 REB, -3 Swans of Bryn Argoll, -1 Lightning Storm, -1 don't remember
G2: He has a turn 2 Counterbalance, while my first ten cards are devoid of countermagic. I get to resolve a pair of cantrips and drop a Mongoose, but the partner in crime Top shows up next turn and puts an end to the fun. He goes for a mainphase Brainstorm, which fails to find a third land, and I see my chance there. I untap, drop a Tarmogoyf, and in response to his Top activation play REB on the enchantment: he chooses to let the Goyf resolve. Top still in hand, he tries to dig for land with two Silvergill Adepts, which however walk right into resolved Spell Snares, and the green guys finish the job.
Later we do some testing of 5C Threshold vs. 4C Landstill. Ew. Verdict: Not nearly as good as I hoped; Thoughtseizes only help so much. REBs are still a complete house, though.
Round 6: TheInfamousBearAssassin (Quinn)
Shit. Whatever type of deck he's playing, he can't be good for me; I can just hope it's Quinn rather than AnythingWithPerniciousDeedAndBasicLandsAndLifegain.dec. I consider offering the draw, but that's like putting a Good Matchup sticker on your brow.
Before the match, I try a couple of games against the deck, figuring out that I have three main paths to victory:
1) Canadian-style: draw lots of creatures, Daze and Force early removal, and kill him while he still has a full hand.
2) Swan-style: bait removal with Geese and Goyf, then drop the Swans, protect them, and go off.
3) Counterburn-style: use the creatures as removal bait that, focusin on countering his threats, and draw into enough Bolts and Chains to do most of the damage out of the red zone.
G1: I Daze a Top and Force a Scepter while cantripping a bit. Then I drop a totally unprotected Tarmogoyf, and declare so, which he promptly Abeyances into Swords to Plowshares; I happily add a second, which - incredibile dictu - gets to deal five damage before going under an Oblivion Ring. My next threats are a Counterbalance - pairs up with my Top - and a third Tarmogoyf; I have a Swans on top of the library in case of Wrath or Humility, but he shows me Runed Halo instead :/ (I still was on two lands).
A Nimble Mongoose shows up and gets in for three. On the next turn, IBA reveals the result of many turns of Dragoncycling: Orim's Chant into four Angel tokens. Neat.
Too bad I had been doing some sandbagging of my own. Lightning Bolt, Lightning Storm, Lightning Bolt, Chain of Plasma. Good game; path 1, check.
In related news, 24 points of burn in the deck is totally awesome. Potentially more if you activate Lightning Storm.
Side: -3 Daze (pretty goddamn awful against big mana, not to mention Chants and Abeyance), +3 Krosan Grip. After the match IBA argues that I should have cut Spell Snare instead, saying that he doesn't have much threatening stuff and that I underrate Daze. I'm confident I made the right choice here, but I figured I'd throw this one out.
G2: Two Tarmogoyfs are sent farming after dealing a mighty 2 damage between them, and a 1/1 Mongoose is stopped in its tracks by a Painter's Servant. Along the way I've Gripped first a Pithing Needle on my Top and then a Top of its own (which was just too ridiculous with active Scrying Sheets while I had no pressure). My hand has FoW, Spell Snare, and Chain of Plasma which can at least rid me of that Servant, but then I get to Swans of Bryn Argoll, observe that he has just two cards in hand, and figure I have a better shot with Path 2 than by trying to reconquer the red zone.
Unfortunately, his two-card hand consisted of Orim's Chant and Enlightened Tutor, which fetches Grindstone :(
G3: Mongoose, swing, Ponder. Painter. Bolt Painter, swing, 4/5 Goyf. Draw, go. Counterbalance, swing, go. Painter, don't reveal with Counterbalance, go. Bolt Painter, swing, go. Orim's Chant falls to Counterbalance, Oblivion Ring meets Force of Will. Chain of Plasma to the head, swing GG. Path 3, check.
(To Quinn's credit, if he had had a Plains instead of a Scrying Sheets on that turn 4, he could have Chanted into Wing Shards and possibly stabilized after that. But it would still have been close, especially with me still having five Bolts in the deck.
Round 7: Eldariel (Faerie Stompy)
I can draw in safely, but Eldariel (due to some really shitty tiebreakers) might not. Some fairly boring math tells us what matches should go which way for us to have to battle. Thankfully, things go the right way and we can ID.
Quarterfinals: Whit3 Ghost (Thrash)
Rematch, sweet.
G1: I have a good Island + fetchlands hand, but being on the draw I can't retry the trick I did in the Swiss, and he gets to Stifle my fetch. It's only a minor setback, however, and we start fighting over board position and life totals, eventually ending up with two Mongesse staring each other with him at 8 and me at 2.
I resolve a blind Counterbalance, and next turn he Bolts me, which would go through the known top card. He has only one card in hand (either Stifle, Daze, or a land) and my options are Forcing (loses to Daze, since my only open land is a fetch) or fetching, which rids me of the dead top card but loses to Stifle. I Force, and get to survive a few more turns until he draws another Mongoose which I can't do anything about.
Side: +3 Blood Moon (his list has zero basics), +2 REB, -2 Swans -1 Lightning Storm -2 Chain of Plasma. I wasn't sure which was worse in this matchupbetween Swans (clunky, but can pitch to FoW) and Chains (awkward on defence), so I went for the split.
G2: I open with basics and a Mongoose which, while he's busy countering my 2cc threats, swings unhindered until he's at two life and finally sticks a Tarmogoyf. Some other creatures join the stare-match on the board, but I get a Bolt to put an end to that.
G3: Whit3_Ghost tries to fight over my early mana development. That doesn't pan out, so I play two Mongeese (one sticks) and beat with them. He plays one Tarmogoyf (zero stick) and get eaten by a shrouded mammal.
G4: One of my lands gets Wasted, and I don't have a third so I'm forced to Force a Daze on my Brainstorm. Fortunately he doesn't have another Daze, and I find a Volcanic to conveniently REB his own Brainstorm at end of turn, then Daze his Tarmogoyf. I resolve a Counterbalance which never counters anything as I have to burn away two Predators. A REB hits the enchantment, I choose to let it die and drop a second; wrong choice, as he's got not just the Snare but the Force + useless Stifle to protect it (actually, I punted twice: first by not Forcing REB pitching the extra Balance, and second, by Forcing back on Snare pitching another Force). He resolves a Tarmogoyf and beats me down with it, my Nimble Mongoose notwithstanding.
G5: I open with two Mongeese and Top while Dazing his Goyf, then we both add a Goyf to our board. Meanwhile I've been setting up for Blood Moon, and after fetching the second land I go for it with FoW+Daze backup. In response, he taps out to Ice my one untapped land... and I gleefully Daze his Fire/Ice! Naturally he has double Daze for Moon (or, well, not so naturally since it was just as big a blunder for him to expose itself to Daze so unnecessarily).
No excuse there. In my mind I threated the Ice as a Brainstorm, i.e. something that could actually find him multiple counters. That punt cost me a free win (with two threshed Mongeese on my side he literally had no outs).
Anyway, the game goes on and he adds a Predator and a Mongoose to his side. I draw a Bolt, and swing with the team with Force backup; at end of turn, it's my Tarmogoyf versus his Predator. During his turn, he tries to double Bolt the Goyf, but the Force backup is still there, and he finds himself in a pretty bad position. Three attack phases, an Ice, and a chumpblock later, it's over.
Semifinals: Van Phanel (Solidarity)
Since I'm lazy, I'll just refer you to Van Phanel's own detailed report (http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10861) on these games. Especially because the interesting decisions were mostly on his side: quite literally all I had to do was play dorks as soon as I had the mana to do it without dropping my pants, and cantrip into as much disruption as I could.
Good thing for me that I drew a *lot* of it; in particular in game 3 I was thankful the game happened online, since I could never have avoided smiling like an idiot at an opener of Volcanic, Fetch, Top, Cbalance, REB, Spell Snare, FoW, and much less when I topdecked FoW and Daze in sequence. His Peek came at the right moment to keep me from blurting out a LOL in the chatbox.
Still, that was definitely a matchup I was happy about. Probably not a 3-0 matchup (that would be for 5C with Thoughtseizes and REBs), but definitely a 3-1 one.
Finals: Klaus (UWb Landstill)
Appropriately enough for the Final Boss, and contrary to the semifinals, it's the best deck in the format and an unfavourable matchup for me; I estimated a 2-3 record to be most likely.
On the other side, I had agreed to a proposed prize split before the match, and that virtually guaranteed me the victory :laugh:.
G1: Triple mulligan on the play for him! What was I saying? But he recovers well, by resolving a turn 2 Standstill in the face of my Mongoose. Since he didn't play a Factory with it, I suspect he might be bluffing and that I can milk that for quite a bit of damage while he stumbles on land drops; alas, that's not the case and when the Mishra shows up, I grant him his Ancestral Recall in addition to the Time Walk. Only fair after his mulligans, after all.
A Tarmogoyf is sent farming, then his Humility gets eaten by a double Daze - close shave there! But he still manages to stabilize at four life; fortunately my threat of Counterbalance forces him to Wish for Return to Dust instead of Pulse of the Fields. He drops a Standstill, but in those turns I fruitfully Top into a nice hand of Chain, Chain, Swans, Swans, Force of Will, Force of Will, which takes the game from his seven mana's worth of countermagic.
Side: Humility and Halo are enough to mandate Krosan Grips, with various artifacts as secondary targets, and REBs are just plain nuts. I know from experience that if you're not completely reckless Wish-Still basically doesn't give a fuck about Blood Moon; the card is vaguely tempting for the sole reason of stopping the Ruins / EE lock which is an absolute wrecking ball I have zero answers for, outside of going for the throat, but unfortunately EE itself answers Blood Moon quite effectively and his list has six ways to get it. The enchantment will stay in the board.
What to side out? I settle early on on the Lightning Bolts - burn isn't a terribly reliable plan against Pulse of the Fields, and unlike Chain of Plasma they can't fuel a combo win nor pad the 2cc slot for Counterbalance. Killing Factories is about all they've got going for them. For the fifth slot, I will alternate between a Chain of Plasma on the play and a Daze on the draw.
G2: He lays down a turn 1 EE, which switches the focus of my hand on the Counterbalance lock. My enchantment resolves, while his one (Humility) doesn't. Tarmogoyf shows up and starts the beats.
Blowing up EE, he forces me to take a guess on his next spell; whatever I guess, it was wrong, 'cause his Standstill resolves. I milk that Standstill for a couple of turns of Goyf damage, then when his Decree shows up I break it with the Top and Brainstorm-Dismiss his Counterspell on it.
We annihilate each other's respective board position, and when he drops down a Standstill with no Decrees left I figure I'm better off getting at least to hand parity before breaking it; besides, he already has the dreaded Ruins lock going on, and I'll need some solid luck to punch through that. On turn 28 I go for it, with two waves of Mongoose + Tarmogoyf backed up by countermagic; he handles them, and that's game.
G3: I open the game with the combo in hand, so I figure I'll lead with Tarmogoyf and Counterbalance; they get dutifully handled by non-EE spells, and Swans punch through. He then happens to have an answer for them too, and then for the Swans that come after that; sadly for him, I topdeck the third copy straight. He FoFs into faff, and the game's over. Bad beats.
G4: After some struggle I get a CounterTop to resolve, but my offence is stopped by a Wrath and I start to take Factory beats. Through Top and fetching however I get into the following position:
Board - Six lands
Hand - Daze, Daze, REB
Top of library - Swans, Top, Counterbalance
I draw the Swans leaving Top on top -> mistake #1, I need to answer Counterspell before Swords. He Counterspells it, and I rearrange to Counterbalance it (seeing FoW as the new card) -> possibly mistake #2, as there are arguments for REBbing it and leaving a 1cc on top. Then I pass the turn -> definitely mistake #2, I should have Dazed his Counterspell before actually countering it in order to untap an extra land. In his turn, he Swords the Swans while I have only one mana open; I take a guess that he is trying to make way for a Wrath or Humility, and rearrange, put a FoW on top, and draw it with Top. Instead, his removal suite was 3x StP, and I lose the Swans and, some turns and a small Decree later, the game.
G5: Goyf, swing, swing, Mongoose, Swing, Wrath of God? Force of Will. Force of Will? Do I Force back pitching Swans or save the FoW, let it resolve, and rebuild with Swans plus a Mongoose? I choose the latter, he hastily cycles a Decree for 3 and Brainstorms into a Swords. I keep up the stream of threats, he even assembles the horrible Ruins / EE, but my very last threat is another copy of Swans which he doesn't have the answer for - and it's over.
Thanks to everyone who put up the prizes, to T_G for taking the pain of hosting the tournament, and to my opponents who made it a pleasant romp through Legacy.
(Literal props and slops aren't worth it when they don't involve mind-altering substances)
On the decklist
Overall I was happy with the deck, and think it's definitely one of the strongest ways to play Counterbalance Threshold. I wouldn't touch anything in the maindeck; the only consideration would be moving a Swans to the sideboard (since I really want to see them against anything that can't goldfish by turn 4), but the sideboard is even more cramped than the MD so it would be tough.
Speaking of the sideboard, I believe now that 2 Blood Moon are a better number than 3: the setup they require is considerable and tips off experienced players to your plan. In its place I'd put the fourth Counterbalance, omitting which was just lazy design. I would *love* to find room for a third REB, but the best candidate for that is the fourth Tormod's Crypt and that's just too dangerous.