[Massive Report] Not Quite There with Ugbw Thresh - 87th at the GP

[VsTheWorld]

Not really much of an interesting backstory here, but I'll tell it anyway because I'm facing down a 23 hour train ride home with nothing better to do. The largest Grand Prix in North American history deserves the longest tournament report ever, right?

From the moment the GP was announced, I knew I was going to be attending. What to play was obviously the biggest question in the months, weeks, day, and hours leading up to the most epic tournament of my Magic life. Faerie Stompy is my primary deck, but over 15+ rounds of play, my brother and I decided that consistency is the most important attribute of any deck I would play. The obvious choice at that point is some kind of Threshold list. My brother has had success with Ugw in the past, and a favorable CB/top curve plus all-purpose answers in the form of O-Ring and Needle in addition to a stable mana base made it an attractive choice. Mystic Enforcer + Trygon Predator are also an insane beating against so much of the format. 6/6 flying dudes for 4 totally pwn in Goyf standoffs or vs an opposing CB/top. Pro-black flying kinda laughs at Tombstalker too. The main problem I have with Ugw is its lack of good card advantage. Predict is the only real option you have, and I’ve never really been a fan of the card. CB/Top obviously creates virtual CA, but after spending early turns trading counters and threats with your opponent, it’s really nice to have a way to refill. In the absence of CB/Top, having more cards just wins the game.

Thus, I was attracted to one of the most criminally underplayed cards in the format: Dark Confidant. Drawing two cards a turn to your opponent's 1 just totally wins the blue mirror, or pretty much any other matchup for that matter. Breaking a Standstill doesn't seem so bad when you can make up the card disadvantage and beat for 2 a turn while you're at it. An additional 2 drop bomb also lets you basically choose which one you want to resolve. Lead with Bob, have it countered? Drop CB the next turn. Have 2 CB in hand? Run one out into a counter, drop Bob or Goyf and follow with CB next turn. Taking a page from Survival, turn 1 Thoughtseize -> resolving turn 2 bomb also seemed REALLY good. And so I began testing Ugb Thresh against the format.

Ugb Thresh has one glaring problem though: its removal options are so terrible that almost no other deck in the format plays them. Smother can't touch Tombstalker, Sower, or Enforcer, and 2 mana can be a bit rough for a removal spell sometimes. Ghastly Demise has that magic mana cost of 1, but it also suffers from the Tombstalker problem as well as not being able to deal with Bob or random guys like Shade or Hyppie. Demise also has real trouble killing Goyf at times and will almost never touch Dreadnought. Putrefy at 3 mana is the most flexible as it kills any creature you want and can deal with random trouble artifacts like Chalice, equipment, Vial or Needle. 3 mana blows as far as removal in Thresh goes though, especially when it's in 2 colors. I was almost never able to cast Putrefy for any worthwhile effect in testing. Edict kills anything, but sucks ass against tribal decks (which I expected in hordes at the GP) and laughs at you when your opponent sacrifices a Factory and stomps your face in with a Dreadnought. In testing none of the removal was cutting it and I found myself using Thoughtseize more as creature removal than bomb protection, which is all well and good until they resolve Goyf, Nought, or Stalker and I cry. Faced with this problem, the obvious solution seemed to be forgoing the mana stability of 3c Thresh for the raw power and good removal of 4c.

My initial list ran a creature base of 3 Goose/4 Goyf/4 Bob/2 Enforcer and a singleton Wipe Away as my only 3 cost spell for CB. Soon enough I realized that Trygon Predator was just way too good not to be running, both as a 3 for CB and an answer to all the worst non-creature permanents your opponent can play except Humility. Goyfless Dreadstill has an insanely hard time winning with Predator on the board too. When your biggest threat is a 2/2 or 3/3, you won’t be winning the game vs Goyfs very often. Testing also showed Mongoose to be mediocre against most of the decks I faced. It loses to Goyf and trades with Mishra’s Factories once it finally gets Threshed, and a 1/1 shroud is just never good. Mana problems also reared their ugly head often in testing, costing me many games just because I couldn’t find white for Swords in time. I almost mulled into Ugw the week before the GP, but my brother suggested the addition of a single Portent and upping the land count to 19 with a City of Brass. I cut the Portent the night before in favor of the 2nd Enforcer and cut one Sea for a basic Island to deal with Moon and whatnot. With all this in mind, here is the final list I decided to bring to the GP, finalized Saturday morning about an hour before the tournament began:

// Lands
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
4 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
2 Tundra
1 City of Brass
1 Island

// Creatures
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Mystic Enforcer
2 Trygon Predator

// Spells
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
4 Counterbalance
3 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Thoughtseize

// Sideboard
SB: 2 Krosan Grip
SB: 3 Blue Elemental Blast
SB: 3 Engineered Plague
SB: 2 Sower of Temptation
SB: 3 Gaddock Teeg
SB: 2 Pithing Needle

[VsTheWorld]

I guess I should get on with the actual report now. I kept great notes at the beginning, but realized that my rounds kept going to time because of constant Topping, so I stopped note-taking after a bit to focus more on the games. My report will get less detailed as I go on. I have no notes at all on SB strategies, so I’ll try to recall those from memory or what I think I should have done.

Round 1 – Adam Stankowski with UWB Fish

Game 1: I open with land, Top. He leads with fetch, Tundra, Mother of Runes. I have StP already but let it resolve because I feel like my hand with CB and Goyf will get there before his other creatures are threats. I FoW a Jitte then Thoughtseize and see total crap, so I take a Daze. I drop CB the next turn and I don’t think he even tries playing another spell before my 2 Goyfs win it. Another Thoughtseize at some point showed me maindeck Meddling Mage.
SB: -3 Daze, -1 Ponder, + 2 Sower, +2 Grip

Game 2: He plays a land and passes, I Thoughtseize and he Brainstorms in response, showing me a hand of Bob, Force, Mother, and lands. I take Bob. He plays Mother, I play Top. Next turn I go for CB, he Forces, I Force back, he Annuls it. Top finds me another one and I drop it next turn with his hand almost empty. He resolves Bob when I can’t find a 2 on top, but I Sower it, drop Goyf, and float a 1 and 2 on top for CB to seal it.

1-0

Round 2 – David M with Ichorid

Game 1: He is careless while shuffling and I catch a glimpse of Putrid Imp. He mulls to 5 on the play, so I keep a hand with Force. Sure enough, he drops LED turn 1 and I Force it. He gets nothing going, eventually Therapying himself on like turn 4, which I mistakenly let resolve even though I have Force/blue card in hand. He starts dredging, but I have a threshed Enforcer and Swords, so I can just outrace him at that point.
SB: -4 CB, -2 Daze, +3 Teeg, +3 Plague

Game 2: I keep a hand of Bob, 2 E Plague, and 4 lands. He gets a slow start with no discard outlet, while I have the 2nd turn Bob to get me good stuff. He casts Stinkweed on turn 3 to stop Bob beats, and I drop Plague #1 naming Horror. He casts Narcomoeba next turn and I drop Plague #2 on Illusion. Bob finally finds me an Enforcer, but my graveyard only has 3 fetches in it. He goes for Firestorm, I Force, then I Ponder and double fetch next turn to get Enforcer threshed. From there he has nothing and Enforcer wins it. Who needs grave hate when you have big dudes??

2-0

Round 3 – Thomas Epelbaum with Ugb CB/Top Control

Game 1: This game starts off as a true mirror, our life totals dropping in sync because of fetchlands, Forces, and Thoughtseizes. We exchange CBs and counters, getting nothing to stick, but he manages to eventually drop Tombstalker and get me to 5 life. I land Enforcer and manage to find myself a 6/7 Goyf to swing him from 16 to 10 to dead.
SB: -3 Daze, -1 Ponder, +2 Sower, +2 Grip

Game 2: As far as my life total notes show, this game is a complete blowout for him. I Swords a Goyf, then Swords another one the following turn, but can’t find CB/top or Goyf. I Brainstorm in desperation and find Sower the 3rd card down. I steal his 5/6 Goyf with my life total at 9 and swing him down to 12, but he finds Perish for his traitorous Goyf and then a Tombstalker and Trinket Mage beat me to death before I can find an answer.

Game 3: This time I manage to resolve CB/top and basically just win from there. He has Krosan Grip for Top when I go to look at my top 3 after a fetch, but a blind flip reveals a Grip of my own. He once again manages to resolve Tombstalker, but I find Sower with Top and steal the Stalker. He drops another one, but Top is once again kind to me and finds a Goyf. He is eventually forced to trade Stalkers, and my other beaters take it home from there.

3-0

Round 4 – Matt with Merfolk

Game 1: This is absolutely not a matchup I want to face. Stifle/Waste own my manabase hardcore, and Islandwalk trumps Goyf any day. This game begins with a Cursecatcher on his side and a Top on mine. Luckily he manages to not hit any mana denial, and I hit 3 mana to drop Predator. I have Swords for both Lords of Atlantis he drops and manage to force unfavorable combat phases by being able to surprise block his ex-Islandwalkers. He stalls out on guys and an Enforcer joins the party on my side. My flying guys take the game soon after.
SB: -3 Daze, -1 Ponder, -1 unknown (Thoughtseize?) +3 Plague, +2 Needle

Game 2: This game is an absolute fucking blowout, and it’s only the 3rd worst of my entire tournament. He has Force backup for his turn 1 Vial, and from there he is able to play Jitte, EOT Vial in Lord, equip Jitte, Vial in Reejery, and own my face. I never had a chance in this one. One piece of sideboard hate wouldn’t have been enough by the time I found it.
SB: -1 CB, -1 Enforcer, +2 Daze

Game 3: He gets off to a slow start, which favors my gameplan of building up cards with Bob and then just dropping big guys. My StP on his Mutavault sets him savagely behind on tempo, and I get bold by dropping a 2nd Bob alongside a Goyf. I keep his guys off the table and stop myself from dying with Top, and I end the game with my life total at 1 after dropping his to -10 in one swing. Phew. Four rounds in and I’ve already dodged two bullets, winning two matchups I certainly didn’t want to face. Great way to start the day.

4-0

Round 5 – Colin Wu with Uwb Landstill

Game 1: Ughhh, another horrendous matchup. I don’t have any notes on this one other than life totals, but it looks like it was a total blowout for him. He resolves stuff like Wrath to wipe my board of Bob and Goyf, gets Standstills, and Factories beat me down. I Swords an Eternal Dragon to try and stop the beats, but Factories are more than enough to kill me. I hate it when Landstill works how it’s supposed to. Why couldn’t it be so kind to from Cairo?
SB: -1 Ponder, -4 CB, -1 Swords, -1 Daze, + 2 Grip, + 2 Needle, +3 Teeg

Game 2: His deck is firing on all cylinders once again, while mine barely gets itself across the starting line. He has Swords for my turn 2 Bob, and my Top and cantrips are finding me total crap. I see 3 lands on top, shuffle, see 2 duals and a fetch, fetch to shuffle, see more lands on top. Way to fail me deck. I have Force but no blue card for a bunch of turns, then he resolves Humility when I have no creatures in play and he has 2 Factories. I fetch again, see 2 Teeg and Goyf on top, shuffle, see more Teegs, shuffle again, and see yet more crappy 1/1s on top. I lose in pathetic fashion.

4-1

Round 6 – Carlos Pal with Ad Nauseam Tendrils

Game 1: I’m not sure if this guy is a pro or not, but Paulo Vitor was sitting next to us and they were chatting it up like friends, so I’d assume only a pro is traveling from Brazil to play in a GP. Anyway, this game is never even close. I’m so heavily favored in this matchup it’s ridiculous. My turn 1 Thoughtseize on the play reveals 2 Lotus Petal, LED, Duress, Chrome Mox, Ponder, Mystical Tutor. I take the LED, he drops Mox imprinting Duress and Ponders. I drop turn 2 CB, followed by Bob and then Goyf to put a good clock on him. I can’t find Top, but he’s forced to go for it at 9 life or die next turn. Ad Nauseam resolves with nothing floating and finds him lands, Infernal Tutor (7 life), Cabal Rit (5 life), Tendrils (1 life), Ponder (dead).
SB: -4 Swords, +3 Teeg, +1 Grip

Game 2: I keep a hand with Force, Daze and Top, so unless he has the god draw I feel pretty safe. He goes turn 1 Mox imprinting IT, Dark Rit, Cabal Rit, Bob (resolves), Bob (I force). I drop Top on my turn, then get a Bob of my own the next turn. CB/Top and Goyf hit the table soon after and his extra cards just aren’t enough to get there before the Goyf and Bob kill him.

5-1. I’m feeling pretty good at this point. I feel like I’m playing really well today, and I only have to win 2 of my next 3 to make day 2, which I know this deck can do.

Round 7 – Anthony Collora with 4c Zoo

Game 1: I had heard somebody talking about this deck a bit earlier, so I know what to expect when he drops turn 1 Bayou into Wild Nacatl. I Thoughtseize him and see Watchwolf, Berserk, Wooly Thoctar, Tidehollow Sculler, Lightning Bolt, and a non-white land. I take the Sculler because I have CB in hand. He drops his land but can’t cast anything and so I take 2/2 Nacatl beats for a few turns. I Swords it after I get a Goyf, but he finds his white source finally and starts crapping out his hand. He has another Sculler which resolves and is forced to take Swords, but I rip another one and own him in the next combat phase. Blind CB isn’t doing much for me, but I get 2 5/6 Goyfs on the table to get pressure on him while he is in topdeck mode. I beat him from 19 down to 9 while I’m at 1, and Counterbalance does its thing to keep me from getting burned. That card is so fucking good.
SB: - 3 Daze, -1 Ponder, -1 Confidant, +3 BEB, +2 Sower

Game 2: This isn’t nearly as close as the first one. His manabase fails him in epic ways, and he only manages a 2/2 Nacatl over the first few turns. I drop Goyf, who goes farming, but follow it with CB/Top and a threshed Enforcer. He is missing one color of mana for too many turns and can’t really manage much of anything except 2 Krosan Grips, which he misplays and targets my Counterbalance with both times, allowing me to keep Topping into good stuff. Enforcer gets there for the win. He mentions afterwards that he probably should have hit Top with Grip, and I tell him that he probably wins that game if he does. Whatever. I’ll welcome any and every misplay from my opponent if it means me winning.

6-1. I win one more and I’m in. Seems pretty easy.

Round 8 – Jason Schousboe with Ur Dreadstill

Game 1: Ben Lukas (ForceofWill) was owning me in testing the night before playing Ugr Dreadstill, but I feel like without Goyf this matchup is so much easier for me. My notes have my life total dropping steadily by 1 a turn. I remember resolving Bob through a Standstill with Top already in play. I believe he made the very questionable play of casting another Standstill with just 1 Factory in play against my Bob. He misses land drops while I continue to hit mine and get way ahead on cards. An EOT Brainstorm makes him discard after Forcing it, and my resolved Counterbalance seals it and he scoops it up at 14 life.
SB: -3 Daze, -1 Ponder, -2 Enforcer, +2 Grip, +2 Needle, +2 Sower

Game 2: Much like game 1, this one is never even close. I Thoughtseize him turn 1 and see 2 Stifle, 2 Delta, Pyroblast, and Force. I take a Stifle, resolve a Goyf through his Force a few turns later, and he apparently draws nothing relevant as Goyf just beats him to death and I end the game at 16 life.

7-1. I’m totally making Day 2! Obviously I’m happy and relax a bit at this point, but that probably hurts me in the next round.

Round 9 – Michael Jacob playing terrible Gbrw Survival

Game 1: From my limited reading of Wizards coverage, I know this guy is a pro who played BG(w?) Aggro Loam/Rock to a top 8 finish in some premier Extended event. LSV is sitting next to us, and I’m pretty sure the only words Michael said once our match started were to him. Seriously, the guy was completely silent aside from passing the turn, never even saying “ok” to any spell I played, just gesturing with his hands for everything. I guess that’s just how he plays, but he came across as kind of an arrogant douche to me. Anyway, I guess I’m not totally focused because I know I’m already making day 2, so I totally punt this game with a savage misplay. I drop Bob turn 2 and Predator turn 3, and he’s stuck on 2 land and Birds. Survival resolves on his turn 3 with only the bird available for mana. Bob reveals Swords, and I just go on autopilot and head straight to attacking with my guys instead of casting Swords first. He of course blocks with the bird and Survivals with damage on the stack, and I know I just lost the game. Oddly enough he doesn’t go totally nuts with Survival in his following turns and I’m able to beat him down to 6 before he kills me with Survival advantage.

SB: -3 Daze, -1 Ponder, +2 Needle, +2 Grip. I’m pretty sure for some reason I don’t bring in Sower. I don’t know what was going on this match. I guess the mental strain of 9 rounds of Magic was catching up to me by this point.

Game 2: At least this one goes well for me. My life total never drops below 16, while his goes 20, 15, 10, 9, 5, dead. I guess I countered his relevant spells and owned face with a fat Goyf. Seems to be how this deck wins most of the time.

Game 3: The last game of the day is probably the most grueling. We both have active Bob and he can’t find Survival for a while. Our life totals drop almost in sync, even to the point where I flip Enforcer to Bob on my turn and he flips Shriekmaw on his. We both have Goyfs and I have counters for his removal spells, so nothing really happens for a while. He is able to finally resolve a Survival near the end of the 50 minutes, and time is called with both of us sitting at precarious life totals. At this point my plan is just to try and survive to force the draw, since has Survival and better board position than I do. I go down to 2 on my turn with a board of Goyfs, Bob, and Enforcer, but he went nuts his last turn while I was tapped out and Survivaled up blockers and Big Game Hunter with Forest and a bird untapped. If he gets another turn, he just gets more guys and kills me, so I decide my only chance is to attack and hope that he miraculously misplays it. He of course doesn’t, so I scoop it up. In retrospect, the optimal play would have been to pass the turn with all my blockers up and Swords available and hope his Bob kills him, since he’s at 2. He would then EOT Survival and play BGH for its madness cost, killing Enforcer. If he survives, I think I would have been able to survive the attack by declaring blockers and then Swordsing my own Goyf to gain some life, possibly giving him another upkeep with Bob and another chance to die. I’m not entirely sure on the specifics of the board state at this point so I’m not sure if this plan was actually possible, but I’m definitely sure that I misplayed yet again and probably cost myself the match. So it goes. Losing this was a heartbreaker though, because I’m pretty sure he was playing a sub-optimal list, boarded terribly, and maybe even played sub-optimally. Despite active Survival for multiple turns, I never felt like I was out of the game out all, which definitely seems wrong. One turn of active Survival is supposed to spell my demise. Josh and Ben tell me later that Jacob boarded out Anger and Loxodon Hierarch, which I guess explains why he didn’t just Survival up Hierarch that last turn and ensure the win for himself.

7-2. Not quite where I wanted to be going into Day 2, but at least I made it. Ben Lukas makes it in at 8-1, but the Leftkowitzes just miss out, and Josh Cicio, Tom MacDonald, and Ben Nash all miss out as well.

At this point I’m totally exhausted and want nothing more than to go back to the hotel and sleep, but we Magic players love us some good food, so we head to The Cheesecake Factory with some Connecticut people and the Hatfields. The food was good but wicked overpriced. $11 for a chicken sandwich and mediocre fries?? WTF? Anyway, we get back to the hotel and I crash immediately. For some reason I wake up at like 6 the next morning and can’t fall back asleep until 7, which only gives me another hour of sleep. I head to the event site with a tiny cup of crappy coffee, still exhausted, and try to get my head in the game for the hardest 6 rounds of my life.

[VsTheWorld]

Day 2 Report:

Round 10 – Matt playing Goyf Sligh

Game 1: Hooray, a bad matchup to start my day! He wins the roll, mulls to 6, and plays turn 1 Grim Lavamancer, which unfortunately resolves. Underground Sea, Thoughtseize shows me Barb Ring, Bolt, Fireblast, and something good which I take (Goyf maybe). He beats for one, and for some inexplicable reason I drop my 2/3 Goyf on my turn. He obviously untaps and Grims my Goyf to death. I’m just way behind on life and threats at this point and I have to Swords a couple of his guys. He’s able to get me down to 8, Bolt me, then Fireblast and Lavamancer me FTW.
SB: -3 Bob, -1 Ponder, -1 Daze, +3 BEB, +2 Needle

Game 2: No notes on this one, but it looks like a long, drawn-out game that was won by Counterbalance doing its thing and countering his entire deck. Life total notes make it look like I lost because I end the game at 1 while his total is 12, but I know I won. I think this comes down to a blind CB flip countering his Chain Lightning when I have lethal damage on the board.

Game 3: This one went much better for me than the previous two had. My life total drops steadily due to a combination of Lavamancer, Magma Jet, and Keldon Mauraders, but Goyf makes his drop from 20 to dead in 4 turns while Counterbalance, library manipulation, and a strong helping of Blue blasts and Forces keep me from getting burned to death. I’m pretty sure my hand at the end of the game was 2 Blast, 2 Swords, 2 Force. Must be nice.

8-2

Round 11 – Jeff Folinus with UW Dreadstill

Game 1: I recognize the name, though I’m not sure from where. I think he might be a Vintage player and I recognize it from TMD or something. At any rate, I’m happy to be facing yet another Dreadstill list without Goyf. This game goes pretty much how I feel it should in this matchup. He gets Factory and Standstill, I resolve a few creatures, he StP’s one, I StP 2 of his, and Goyf just outraces Factory. Not much else to say.
SB: -3 Daze, -1 Ponder, +2 Grip, +2 Needle. In the previous Dreadstill matchup the player had boarded out Dreadnought for game 2, so I opt to leave Sower out in case Jeff does the same.

Game 2: Another total blowout on my part. I resolve a turn 2 Bob after turn 1 Top, but he decides he’d much rather farm than give me cards. A Goyf soon joins Bob in the fields, and then yet another Bob eats a Swords. I’m able to resolve Counterbalance at this point though, followed by Trygon Predator. Bad news for Dreadstill. He has 6 mana available and goes for the EE at 3, paying 4. Top savagely finds me the Enforcer to CB it, and next turn I drop that Enforcer plus a Goyf. EE can’t touch a board of 2, 3, and 4 all killing you at the same time and he dies to angry green dudes.

9-2

Round 12 – Scott with Merfolk

Game 1: I managed to fight my way through this very difficult matchup day 1, but I’m not happy at all to be facing it this late in the tournament. He opens this game with the dreaded turn 1 Relic of Progenitus, ensuring my Goyfs will always be tiny and Enforcer will never be a threat. I drop Top turn 1, and then Thoughtseize him turn 2, seeing a hand of double Back to Basics, Reej, Stifle, Cursecatcher, and Daze. What a beating. I take the Daze so I can resolve my Trygon Predator next turn and deal with his BtB’s. This plan doesn’t really pan out for me though, as he proceeds to crap blue guys all over my face the next couple turns. I Swords a Lord, but it isn’t nearly enough as he goes Reej combo and drops his entire hand in one turn, beating me to death with 4/3 fish men.
SB: -1 Ponder, -2 Enforcer, -3 Daze, -1 Thoughtseize, +2 Needle, +2 Grip, +3 Plague

Game 2: Ugh, this is just as bad as game 1. He resolves Vial and I can’t do anything about it. Mutavault gets StP’d when he misses a land drop, but he manages to chain 3 Silvergill Adepts and follow them up with a Reej and a Wake Thrasher. Such a fucking beating, I never had a chance in either of these games.

9-3. At this point I’m just hoping to win out and make top 32, since top 16 is out of the question. No more bad matchups please? I’m drained by this point and have absolutely no desire to play any more Magic, so I’m not totally there these last couple rounds.

Round 13 – Brett Blackman with Ugbw CounterTop

I have no notes on this match at all and it’s hard to recall any specific plays in the CB/Top mirror after a couple days, but he totally owns me game 1 by resolving the lock and has answers for almost every creature I play in game 2, beating me from 12 to dead in two turns, one turn before I am able to kill him. I’m mentally out of it by this point and definitely not playing my best so I’m sure I just got outplayed and totally deserved to lose the mirror match.

9-4. Ugh. Now I have to win out to make top 64. Not a favorable position to be in.

Round 14 – Owen Turtenwald with Rg Goblins

Game 1: I guess the bad matchups are just hunting me down this second day. Game 1 is my second worst blowout of the tournament. I keep a hand with no Swords and no Force on the draw, not knowing what he’s playing. His turn 1 Lackey resolves, and I only have Top. Lackey connects and brings in Warchief, and he plays another Lackey. I manage nothing, and on his next turn, his first Lackey drops Matron to find Siege-Gang and 2nd Lackey drops Siege-Gang. I scoop it up at that point.
SB: -1 Ponder, -4 CB, -1 Bob, -1 Predator, -1 Top, +3 Plague, +3 BEB, +2 Needle

Game 2: He doesn’t get nearly as explosive of a start this time, and I’m able to play top and starting drawing good stuff the rest of the game. Plague hits on turn 3, followed by Predator and Enforcer. 2 Ringleaders only manage to find him a Lackey, and my flying guys win in short order

Game 3: I have turn 1 Top again, and he gets a draw of one red source and 3 Port. He ties down my mana, but has no Vial to develop his own board. I continue to hit land drops with Top and once again land a threshed Enforcer. My hand is chock full o’ Blasts and Swords, so I’m feeling pretty safe. He drops a Vial at 12 life. Next turn Enforcer beats him down to 6 and I play Pithing Needle. I know he plays Relic, but for some reason I don’t recognize that Relic is the only card that saves him at that point. I name Vial with Needle, and sure enough he rips Relic the next turn and shrinks my Enforcer. He is unable to find an answer though, and the 3/3 gets there.

10-4. So it comes down to one final match. I win, I’m in the money. I lose, I have nothing to show for 15 rounds of grueling play.

Round 15 – Lawrence Griswold with Ugb Tombstalker Thresh (no CB/Top)

Game 1: This one is a war of attrition as these games tend to be. He runs Smother and Edict, so I have a hard time getting any guys to stick. I’m unable to find Counterbalance, and a Tombstalker (I hate this guy) beats me down to 8 before I get a Swords. From there I’m steadily losing 1 life a turn to Bob while drawing into 3 Force with mana to hardcast them. He is taking 2 a turn to Bob beats and can’t resolve anything through my wall of counters, so he scoops it up at 9 life after I get another beater.
SB: -1 Daze, -1 Ponder, +2 Sower

Game 2: I have a Swords for his first Goyf, but I am unable to find CB or top and he gets another one to stick. I have Bob and Predator so we trade beats for a few turns, but he is able to find answers for my guys before I get another Swords or an Enforcer and the Goyf eats my life total.

Game 3: One final game to decide everything. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the details of this one for as long as I play Magic. I keep a hand of Force, Force, Bob, Sower, Brainstorm, Tundra, Sea. I saw Wasteland in a previous game, so I lead with Sea to keep Swords mana in case he Wastes. He of course Wastes the Sea on his turn, and I Brainstorm in respone. Brainstorm finds me Swords, Daze, Thoughtseize. Ugh, no land for my next few turns. I figure it’s ok since I now have double Force and Swords for whatever he plays. I play my Tundra and pass. He plays another Waste. Fuck my life. I draw no land my next 4 turns, while he goes fetch, Ponder, fetch, Brainstorm, fetch, Ponder, fetch, Tombstalker. Whatever, I have double Force, so that should buy me some time to find a land for the Top I have in hand. I Force pitching Daze, he Forces back, I Force pitching Sower, and he Forces back again. Fuck. My. Life. I still don’t find land, and he drops a 2nd Tombstalker the following turn. Must be pretty fucking nice. I’m usually gracious in defeat, but I just throw my cards on the table on disgust after that and bitch about losing the deciding game of my weekend in such utterly horrible fashion.

I don’t think my opponent reads the Source, but in case you do: I wholeheartedly apologize for my behavior after that game. There is no excuse for showing such poor sportsmanship. I know I apologized and congratulated you afterwards, but allow me to sincerely do it again on a public stage. Congratulations on making top 64 of the GP. You deserve it probably more than I did, because my own misplays are what brought me to a deciding game in the first place. Luck is also always a factor in this game, and you certainly got the better end of it in that last game. Congratulations again.

That being said, that last game is easily the worst and most depressing loss of my entire life. As you can probably tell, I’m still bitter about it and likely will be for a long time. The deck was amazing all weekend and certainly capable of better than a 10-5 record for an 87th place finish, so I blame nobody but myself for my disappointing finish. Having never played in an event of this magnitude, I underestimated how mentally tough performing at your best for 15 rounds of Magic would be. I felt like I played really well day 1 until that last match, but I know I didn’t play nearly as well on day 2. Not making the best play every time will lose you those tough matchups and will certainly lose you the mirror match.

So there it is. That was my Grand Prix: Chicago experience. I can only hope that the record-breaking turnout convinces WoTC to continue holding Legacy Grand Prixs in coming years. I would certainly like a chance to redeem myself after this one.

Props:
-Every single person who showed up from around the country and the world to make this a record-breaking event.
-Smelski and Ben Lukas for making top 64 and Caplan for making top 8. Great job representing the website. Congrats to anyone else I may be forgetting as well.
-Mystic Enforcer/Sower of Temptation. These guys won me so many games over the course of the weekend. Enforcer is seriously such a house against the format. 6/6 flying guys just win games.
-Alan Hochman from Pastimes for coordinating the event and all the judges for keeping everything running smoothly all weekend.
-Brassman for coming up with an absolutely sick list and almost winning it all.

Slops:
-Card thieves. You deserved to get face-planted in front of the entire convention hall for being such jackasses and idiots. I hope you enjoy your time in prison assholes.
-Wasteland. I didn’t lose a single game to this card until it really mattered. Running a 4c manabase catches up to you eventually I guess.
-Myself for dropping the ball with money on the line. Never have I misplayed so much over the course of 7 rounds in my entire life. I completely deserved to lose.
-Nassif for winning it all with that stupid highlander sideboard despite absolutely terrible boarding against DS in top 4.

Tl;dr version:

My deck is amazing, I play like crap day 2 and get dream crushed in the deciding game to miss top 64. GP was awesome anyway.

[dahcmai]

You know, it makes me wonder why they like to make these events so greuling. Most people complained about getting no sleep and being tired as hell by the end of the day even on day one. You'd think they'd give us a break somewhere in there for lunch or something. I was rushing just to get a cig break in.

I'm 38 years old and I can't stay up like most of these guys can anymore. Stupid old age and all that. I wonder why they insist on making it such a bitch to play.

Anyway, nice memory of things and definitely well done on the day 2 of course. It's a lot harder than it sounds. I almost always get top 2 in my local meta (30+ people or so) and am ranked 5th in the state. I didn't do half as well so it goes to show that it's not easy to pull off. Though I'll have a better deck choice next time. : )

Glad to hear a sourcer got up there of course. It's still a great finish all in all since you did outdo several hundred people. 1200+ or so was a lot of people.

Congrats on your more than decent finish again.

[rockout]

Congrats on the finish.

@dahcmai: if they gave people breaks day 1, the event would take even longer and people would go to bed even later than they already do.

[dahcmai]

Seems like a good reason for a day 3. I wouldn't have minded getting there on Friday instead if I had some breaks.

[cdr]

The grueling schedule is part of the skill-testing of the event. Unfortunately, it's just the only feasible way to run things.

[rockout]

Well put cdr.

[Zach Tartell]

Question: I'm only llike a third of the way through, but your opponent playing ANT dropped a Chrome Mox with a Duress on it and then Pondered? Nit-pickery ftw?

[Enigma]

Very nice report, and a really great performance you did on first day. It's seriously really good to make Day2 without any BYEs. So I guess you should take this as an achievement, before taking it as a defeat.


play BGH for its madness cost, killing Enforcer.
Isn't Enforcer pro black?

Anyway, thanks for the report,

PM

[VsTheWorld]

Question: I'm only llike a third of the way through, but your opponent playing ANT dropped a Chrome Mox with a Duress on it and then Pondered? Nit-pickery ftw?

I forgot to mention that he played one Lotus Petal as well.


Isn't Enforcer pro black?

True, so at that point he just hits Goyf with BGH. Same end result, since he doesn't have any flying guys besides Birds.

[Zach Tartell]

Excellent report, dude. And good showing (even if you didn't get $200 for your trouble).

[KillemallCFH]

Good job! Despite not making the money, you have still brought honor to the Blumenthal family, and probably did a lot better than I would've done.

Some words about the SB (because who doesn't love more backstory?): The original board something like 2 Grip, 3 Teeg, 3 Blue blasts, 2 Threads, 2 Jace, 3 Extirpate. We soon realized Extirpate sucks, and replaced it with Yixlid Jailer. Soon after that, we realized Jailer sucks and just put in Crypts. At some point we cut Teeg as being too weak, due to Landstill's curves dropping recently (with the addition of things like Vindicate). I think we ended up putting in anther Grip, another Blue blast, and something else. Some Edicts were also here at some point. When Trygons were added to the MD, the Grips were dropped back down to 2 (which I'm still not convinced is correct) and E-Plagues were added. When VsTheWorld got to Chicago he and the rest of the Mass crew decided to just scoop the Ichorid matchup and focus on everything else and thus Teegs found there way back in (and Crypt was kicked out). Threads was easily changed into Sower when it was realized that 19 lands could easily support it. Jaces were turned into the much more versatile Needles when it was speculated that control wouldn't be much of a presence at the GP.

[Misplayer]

Scott: Great report and nice finish. Strangely enough I independently came up with the same list with maybe 3 cards different in the maindeck and 5 or 6 different in the sideboard. The power of Confidant, Goyf and CB/Top makes this one of the best decks in the game, in my opinion. Hopefully you guys will come back to Worcester some Wednesday soon and we can compare lists and discuss.

[Gekoratel]

Hey this is Jeff your round Round 11 opponent just some small discrepancies. The time that your countered my explosives with Enforcer was G1 and it was an attempt at EE, X=4 sunburst=2, I was trying to destroy your Goyf and Counterbalance but got bricked by Enforcer reveal. I know some lists aren't running Enforcer and are playing Trygon so I figured that X=4 was the way to go.

Game 2 wasn't really a blowout I'd say, you played 3 early threats which I had swords for them for about 8 turns or so we were going draw go but with me having a CB in play. I failed to hit Top, BS, Standstill and couldn't beat down since you had a Needle on factory I had 2. I had an EE in hand so if I hit Standstill my plan was EE@1 blow then drop Still and commence the beats. I was really flooded that game. After that Predator finally stuck I stifled ability once, played second CB but then you were able to destroy and take control of the match.

[dakkon]

Hey Scott. I was your Landstill opponent in R5. It was very nice meeting you and congrats on the finish.

Colin

[VsTheWorld]

I apologize for any discrepancies in my report. As I said, I stopped taking notes so I tried to recall as much as I could just from life totals, which is especially hard in the control/aggro control matchup. Nice meeting both of you guys though and congrats to both of you for your finishes.

[Solknar]

Hi Scott, I was your opponent of Round 3.

Very pleasant game with a nice player, even if I totally screwed up g3 (I fetched away a putrefy, prefering keep a perish, fearing more enforcer than sower, even if I already had stalker in hand and have probably been able to race you:frown: ).

I like your list, even if i'm not a big fan of seize, and would probably run one more land.

I'm from france and that was also my biggest legacy event ever. Hope next time it will be on Europe!:wink: and Hope to see you there!

[Forbiddian]

Sorry, not to rub it in or something because you already mentioned sloppy Day 2 play, but you never mentioned this mistake, and it was pretty big: You definitely should have not cast the Brainstorm in response to the Wasteland.

At that point, you only had 1 land left in hand and you need two to cast the Bob (as well as specifically a black source). Your hand lacks a one-drop. It's pretty very unlikely that you'd need to Swords (what creature one-drops does he have?)

As it was, you could have drawn an extra card (or two if you didn't want to mainphase the BS and didn't get Wasted turn 2) at no cost before using your Brainstorm and locking in your draws.

Apparently you were unable to draw into land anyway, so it didn't cost you that time, but it seems like it didn't even occur to you well after that you should have held the brainstorm until at least after your draw step to see an extra card.

[jazzykat]

It is a good finish and I congratulate you sir! I love your list but if you were to play in a more BR burn/aggro environment how would shore up your MD or SB?

I don't want to cut the predators because I have a lot of Slide decks to worry about as well as an enchantress deck. Also, after consideration Sower's would suck because they would be hit by one of the bajillion pieces of removal my opponent is playing.

Would you maybe swap out the enforcers for Rox War Monks or something?