Media314r8
06-10-2009, 03:58 PM
The deck: Snakes on a boat 2.0
// Lands
4 [R] Tropical Island
4 [ON] Flooded Strand
3 [ON] Polluted Delta
4 [R] Tundra
1 [MM] Rishadan Port
1 [10E] Island (1)
1 [ST] Plains (4)
1 [US] Forest (3)
// Creatures
4 [CFX] Noble Hierarch
4 [ARB] Lorescale Coatl
3 [CFX] Knight of the Reliquary
4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf
// Spells
4 [B] Winter Orb
2 [MM] Thwart*
4 [R] Swords to Plowshares
4 [AL] Force of Will
4 [NE] Daze
4 [MM] Brainstorm
4 [LRW] Ponder
// Sideboard
SB: 4 [TE] Propaganda
SB: 3 [OD] Divert
SB: 4 [DIS] Trygon Predator
SB: 4 [DIS] Leyline of the Void
*- My foil Thwarts were on order, and the shopkeeper nor the other players could find any in time, so I played 2 spell snares in this slot, which still allows me to counter spells at a lower cost than my opponent poured into them with WOrb in play, but lacks the mid-game rock-sauce that thwart has with Worb. SS did, however, win a game against belcher that Thwart would have been the goggles against.
Location: Sports Nutz, 941 Broad Street, Wadsworth, OH
Attendance: 21+ (I don't recall exactly how many players, but it was five rounds and I remember the TO saying we had over 20 players)
Format: Legacy, five rounds of swiss with cut to top 8
Round 1: vs Mike with 5c aggro slivers
I remember losing the die roll and Mike saying "I saw islands in your deck, so I'm going to need all the help I can get." He resolved his mulligans, and I remember looking at my hand of: trop, strand, goyfs, daze, spell snare, swords, swords, and thinking "well, SS + daze might get there against combo." He leads with an Ancient Ziggurat and my worries about combo instantly vanished. I felt a chill run up my spine when he tapped it for a virulent sliver. (as I had recently lost a casual game against my friend playing TSP block constructed sliver when he had an opening of triple virulent followed by two-headed sliver... ouch!) I drew and a brainstorm and made my trop, passing back to him. On his turn, a crystalline ate a spell snare, as I didn't fancy both my swords becoming dead, and despite my casual game previously, judged the crystalline to be more of a threat over the course of the game. I took one and a poison counter. (flashback to flash-hulk in vintage) My turn two I drew another fetch, fetched, and made a 3/4 goyf. He untapped, played a land, and correctly did not leave ziggurat as his untapped land to play a second crystalline sliver, daze-proof. Sadcakes. I untapped, drew a force, and thanked my brainstorm for existing, exchanging my brainstorm, my two dead swords, and a single blue mana for three fresh cards, including a second goyf and a Knight of the Reliquary. I shuffled the dead swords away with my remaining fetch and made a second goyf, swinging in for three. The rest of the game consisted of me attacking with two goyfs with knight on D growing +2/+2 a turn while thinning my deck, and me countering his might slivers.
Boards: -4 swords, -4 winter orb, +4 propaganda +4 trygon predator (not sure if this was correct retrospectively, but at that point I had not seen gemhide sliver.... just wait... it gets stranger. Had I, I would have likely boarded out the dazes and kept the swords in as a response to crystalline or as solid removal should he not draw them. I did see aether vial, so it's hard to decide which is more awkward, dead dazes following a vial/gemhide, or dead swords after or crystalline or with him responding via vial-ing in crystalline)
Game two I make a first turn noble hierarch, and Mike attempts a second turn might sliver, which eats a daze. My turn two, I replay land and I cantrip into a second knight and a trygon predator, and he makes his third land and a gemhide sliver, which I do not force. I play the knight and aggro him out. (as he has only a 1/1 whose important friend will be biting it to force, leaving him with small guys to my soon to be huge knights) He untaps and attempts a sinew, which draws the force, and then makes a winged sliver. I play my second knight and pass back, endstep the non-sick Knight sacs a dual to shuffle away my extra land from the brainstorm, gets a fetch, which is then sacced to get another dual. My turn I swing into his winged with one 6/6 knight, and make it an 8/8 after no blocks. Mike Eldami's calls for a SLIVER LEGION but cannot play it, and chumps with his winged the next turn taking eight again (from a fetch precombat). Though the following turn he finally makes his giant 8/8, (along with a 2/2 gemhide) I had made my trygon and he's low enough on life that the flightless slivers watch demise fly overhead in the form of an exalted manta-ray thingy.
After the match I ask to look at his deck, and recommend that instead of 5c aggro slivers, (which granted, probably get there aginst zoo or goblins with a turn three/four sliver legion) he might consider playing a form of 5c zoo with utility guys such as tidehollow sculler, bob, teeg, and meddling mage to make the control/combo matchups winnable. (His manabase consisted of 4 city of brass, 4 ancient ziggurat, 4 gemstone mine, 4 reflecting pool, 4 savannah.)
Games: 2-0
Matches: 1-0
Round 2: vs Joe with mono red imperial painter
Joe was probably the one deck I was least excited to play, as my dazes and orbs did little against him what with moxen, spirit guides, and city of traitors/ancient tomb to keep him rolling in the mana. The threat of a turn 2-4 kill also alarmed me, as did the potential for turn one/two gridstone followed by chalice at one. All this combined with a total of 12 red blasts maindeck made for an awkward matchup.
I win the die roll and keep a hand of tropical island, delta, brainstorm, spell snare, daze, coatl. I make my trop and pass the turn. He kept a one-lander and makes a turn one grindstone followed by top off of an ancient tomb. I draw a swords, and brainstorm turn two into a third land, knight, and a force, putting coatl, knight on top. I make my second land and pass back. he makes a painter's servant off his lonely tomb, which I spell snare. My turn three I draw and play my snake. He makes a chrome mox, REBs my snake, and plays a servant, which gets dazed. I play my knight, with force, (no blue cards) and swords in hand. On his turn he makes a third servant, with only one mana up, so no activation this turn. On my upkeep, I knight for port, draw a ponder, (active force) and swords painter. He tops in response to me porting his double land, fails to find another double land/servant, and knight ends the game in short order.
Boards: -4 WOrb, +4 trygon predator
Game two I keep a semi-slow hand of triple fetch, knight, swords, daze, ponder. Fortunately for me, Mike has a slow hand as well, he makes a turn two grindstone, and we play the land game until I make a turn four knight (I hadn't drawn any other permission other than daze, so swords on servant in response to a stone activation was my only out here. He is drawing lots of land, (which is unfortunate for him as he only saw one tomb and a mox game 1) and decides to start grinding me for two a turn, which unfortunately for him, only feeds my knight, which first fetches port to keep him off of servant, activation mana in one turn. (and should he make a land drop, I could daze the servant making him wait until his next turn to attempt the combo, allowing for a swords on his servant, and hopefully a cantrip into swords number two should the first be blasted) I port, but all he has is more grinding, two cards at a time, which now has boosted my knight to by two in addition to my initial triple fetch and port-fetch. I finally cantrip into a force to go with the nearly-dead daze and swords in hand, and the 8/8 knight starts a-swingin', the game is over in short order.
I console Mike for his mana-troubles, and assure him the matchup isn't as bad for him as it seemed, that the 12 blasts should be pure gas against me, as I generally don't have a fast clock, and his blasts can protect not only his combo, but his artifact mana and wincons from trygon, and his life total from coatl.
Games: 4-0
Matches: 2-0
Round 3: vs Bob with UGw Counter-top with Natural Order Progenitus
Bob wins the die roll, and has a turn two 1/2 goyf he attempts to draw a spell snare with, but my swords, force, SS, knight are none two concerned with the squire at the moment. I make a turn two hierarch and pass, and on his turn three, he plays the spell I suspected goyf was supposed to take a bullet for. I snare his counterbalance, and he plays a sad top, then attacking with a happy 3/4 goyf. I make a knight on my turn, and he forces, which I force back. Rather than play my swords into the daze I invalidated with having hierarch in the first place, I swing for one with the better birds. His turn he apologizes for ripping the counterbalance, and it resolves, and goyf bids farewell to the combat step with one last swing as he passes the 3/3 sick knight. I draw a ponder, which I decide to run into balance (as he's played no cantrips nor activated top yet, so he will likely have to put top on, top, as he doesn't have mana open to spin top and find a one. He activated the top's draw ability, and I respond with swords on goyf (though knight is going to be much larger, I am at a precarious 11 life after a swing with a 1/2 goyf, two swings with a 3/4, a fetch, and a force. This will also likely be the last time I will be able to force through any spells at one. With tops activation still on the stack, he blindly reveals (drumroll) ponder! Oh - what a dreamcrush. Goyf is now a 4/5 and I'm hellbent, having both my cantrip (which I resigned to taking one for the team) and my removal countered. (by luck of the 'balance) I pass turn. He ponders, makes his third land drop, and surveys my 3/3 knight. Luck shines on me, and he decides that a 4/5 is bigger than a potentially 4/4, and attacks. I block, sac to search for a fetch, and crack fetch to make knight a 5/5. He has no effects, and goes on full-blown tilt for not seeing the play. (to be fair to my opponent, I've had knight before in limited with panoramas, and despite seeing panoramas game one, I've have two opponents crash in game two to be 0-for-1'd by the onboard trick) I crash back for 10 over the next two turns, as I'm only drawing a one mana cantrip, one daze, one force, and a swords, and my opponent has three lands and counter-top. He finally lands a goyf, then accompanied by a Rhox War Monk, which he has to tap out to play. I daze, and he forces rather than attempting a counterbalance. I force (pitching a likely dead cantrip) and he blind balances.... FORCE! O god, what a dreamcrush. This leaves us in a very awkward position, me with an arbitrarily large (on defense mind you) knight, and him with two guys to swing back should I foolishly attack prematurely. (one of which has lifelink - ick) This game becomes very, VERY awkward, as I keep drawing one costs, rather than the six other three costs in my deck, all the while thinning lands endstep. Bob, while gifted in the arts of the blind counterbalance, has not drawn a single swords or path to exile, (he is running a 4/2 split MD) but has inevitability provided I don't draw a second threat to allow my knight to swing. He eventually draws a very-threshed mongoose, but is still to tilted to realize that he can kill me in two swings. (knight was short of swinging back for lethal with his lifelink bringing him to 13 at this point - and I had used knight twice before the situation became so dire to search fetches and grow +2/+2 each turn while thinning lands at twice the rate.) Therafter, I use knight to the point where it had obscene stats like 14/14 and had taken all but two fetchlands out of my deck, while still managing to have drawn four lands and no threats in that time period. His life-tilt finally cools off, and he realizes that I'm at nine, and he can have swung for 6, then 3, while going up to a comfy 13, but now he cannot without being attacked back. He taps top to draw a hierarch that he had been floating in the top three, and team swings, with a noble 0/1 laughing at me and literally blocking my knight's path to victory. This match has inspired me to replace a ponder with a singleton maze of ith to keep situations like this from happening again, and allow me to swing with a huge knight while not fearing a counter-attack, thus forcing my opponent into chumping and giving me inevitability with just a knight on board, and an additional, uncounter-able removal spell.
Boards: -4 ponder, +4 trygon predator
Game two I open with trop, hierarch. His turn one is a top. Turn two I play a goyf and keep hierarch back. He baits my spell snare/daze with a turn two goyf, which I allow to resolve. My turn three I fetch and make a 4/4 knight and attack with my 2/3 goyf past his non-exalted goyf. On his turn, he fails to play a third land , and runs out the counterbalance he was hoping goyf would jump in front of a spell snare to protect. I have the snare, and we both daze, and he replays his land and plays a ponder to make his goyf a 4/5 and hesitates before charging in past knight. I replay my land on my turn, with two active forces, (able to hardcast force by tapping a land, then replacing it with knight to make five mana, thereafter still being able to picth for the second) And swing exalted goyf, keeping knight back to enable the force, as well as grow to goyf-crushing size. I counter a swords targeting knight with the hardcast force, and he keeps goyf back in lieu of dying to a counter-attack on my turn. He blocks my goyf, and fails to draw three answers/permission to resolve two.
Game three we both have swords and permission, with only 1 threat each. (both which eat swords) Early in the game, with a pair of hierarchs staring at each other and life totals around 20, time is called.
Bob tells me that he was actually running natural order/progenetis, but after seeing all my hardcounters, boarded out the two-for-one ‘combo.’
Games: 5-1
Matches: 2-0-1
Round 4: vs Gus (YawgWill on the source) with 2 land belcher
I keep a hand of 2 lands, hierarch, Worb, knight, daze, swords, because I decide to pretend not to know he’s playing belcher. (as at a larger tournament, I would keep this hand in the dark against 99% of the field, and I don’t usually have the advantage of playing against my friends when they’ve told me what they’re playing) He turn one land grants and shows me his hand- 2x rite of flame, 2x seething song, dark rit, belcher, SSG. He doesn’t whiff on belching, so thats game 1.
Boards: -4 swords, -4 Worb, +4 trygon predator, +4 propaganda
Game two I mull to six and keep spell snare, force, coatl, hierarch, and two lands. He doesn’t go off turn one, so I luck out and draw another blue spell, allowing me to play my turn two coatl with force backup. He attempts to wish into goblins, and I force the wish, causing him to burn for four. Coatl starts doing his thing, and he tops a dark rit to go with his LED and attempts to infernal maintaining priority to crack the LED, and loses his hand and more life to my spell snare and mana burn still being around. I have a brainstorm next turn to grow coatl, and he concedes.
Game three I keep a hand with force, propaganda, ponder, daze, and three lands. I draw another blue spell for force and ponder into brainstorm and hierarch. I allow him to empty turn two for ten goblins, I brainstorm into garbage, and shuffle away two of the five lands I have in my hand with a fetch, then take ten before laying my propaganda. I draw two more proagandas, and no threats, and wait while he restocks his hand. I finally land a goyf, and his turn he attempts to belch with his stockpile of cards. My force gets REB’d, and my daze is paid for by SSG, forcing keeping him from activating belcher. I don’t find a trygon before he finds mana to belch. This was the longest game I’ve ever played or seen played against belcher.
Games: 6-3
Matches: 2-1-1
Round 5: vs Nathan with Ugw Coatl Countertop
He wins the die roll and game one we force-fight over his turn two counterbalance. My turn three, I play a coatl with him all but hellbent, and he shrugs and says “Okay”. On his turn, he draws and his face pales - (Fist pump!) I allow the coatl he just drew to resolve, and untap and send out a ponder-probe into CB before I swords his coatl, and Nathan draws the land he revealed against my ponder, and loses shortly thereafter to the coatl that should not have been.
Boards: -4 ponder, +4 trygon predator
Nathan is on the play, and lands a turn two goyf which we both have dazes ready for, and then a turn three goyf which I attempt to swords. He has the force, and I’m really never in this game, and the winter orb sitting in my hand doesn’t look so good on my turn three against his board of double goyf.
Game three I keep a hand of top, hierarch, goyf, spell snare, brainstorm, coatl, ponder. My turn one hierarch eats a ‘gut feeling’ swords on his turn one, and I fail to draw a land. I ponder into... no lands, and blind draw into.... not a land. Sadcakes. His turn two is a 1/2 goyf, and I finally find a second land with my brainstorm, but it’s not a fetch, and is accompanied by two non-land cards. I snare his counterbalance before attacks, and take 2 from his goyf before laying my own. We both draw permission, and I land a Worb to slow things down, especially since he is stuck on three tapped lands and using a top to attempt to get himself into gas. He finds and resolves a bob despite a counter-war, and I finally draw a third land 19 cards deep into my deck. I resolve the second three-drop I attempt, which is a predator. He starts taking top damage a turn from bob, while tying up his single untap by replaying top, occasionally spinning it or pondering with lands drawn. We both manage swords on each others’ goyf, (which are quite large at this point) and predator keeps hitting him, while for two turns bob sat back despite my board of Worb, lands, tapped predator. He eventually finds his sideboarded serenity to kill my Worb on his upkeep, but unfortunately for him, this only denies his untap, while I net two untapped lands after factoring in paying for the second orb in my hand. (which I had long ago considered dead) This allows me to play a knight and seal the game.
Games: 8-4
Matches: 3-1-1
We cut to top eight, which if memory serves me, consisted of:
1 GBw rock
2 UGw countertop decks
1 UGw Worb (me)
1 Belcher (Gus, who had only lost one game-to me, during the whole tournament)
1 Merfolk
1 Enchantress
1 UGr tempo thresh
Top Eight: : vs Nathan with Ugw Coatl Countertop
Game Nathan is on the play, one he has a turn five shackles with two mana up against my turn four coatl. Shackles. (See if you can find any answers in my maindeck)
Game two I have turn one hierarch, turn two knight, which I daze through. My turn three is winter orb. He swords’s the first knight, but I make another and port-lock him and bash with my 6/6.
Game three we both have our early threats swords’d, and I land a winter orb to slow the game. He gets stuck on three, and I make a hierarch and then a predator. He eventually untaps all his lands, and plays a shackles with no untapped lands against my board of predator. He extends his hand and shows me the top and counterbalance in his hand, and curses my winter orb.
Games: 10-5
Matches: 4-1-1
Quarterfinals: vs Gus with 2 land belcher
At this point, it’s nearly midnight and we all want to play EDH, so the top four decide to roll for the win, and the finals to draw thereafter. As Gus and my match is very much a die roll, We do so, and I win. With my store credit, I pick up a foil knight of the reliquary, a foil rav dual for one of my EDH decks, and some thwarts, which the store owner found just in time for the tournament to be over.
I believe the top four decks were:
BG Rock
2 Land Belcher
UGw Worb
Merfolk
Final Game Record: 10-5
Matches: Matches: 5-1-2 (split finals with BG rock)
// Lands
4 [R] Tropical Island
4 [ON] Flooded Strand
3 [ON] Polluted Delta
4 [R] Tundra
1 [MM] Rishadan Port
1 [10E] Island (1)
1 [ST] Plains (4)
1 [US] Forest (3)
// Creatures
4 [CFX] Noble Hierarch
4 [ARB] Lorescale Coatl
3 [CFX] Knight of the Reliquary
4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf
// Spells
4 [B] Winter Orb
2 [MM] Thwart*
4 [R] Swords to Plowshares
4 [AL] Force of Will
4 [NE] Daze
4 [MM] Brainstorm
4 [LRW] Ponder
// Sideboard
SB: 4 [TE] Propaganda
SB: 3 [OD] Divert
SB: 4 [DIS] Trygon Predator
SB: 4 [DIS] Leyline of the Void
*- My foil Thwarts were on order, and the shopkeeper nor the other players could find any in time, so I played 2 spell snares in this slot, which still allows me to counter spells at a lower cost than my opponent poured into them with WOrb in play, but lacks the mid-game rock-sauce that thwart has with Worb. SS did, however, win a game against belcher that Thwart would have been the goggles against.
Location: Sports Nutz, 941 Broad Street, Wadsworth, OH
Attendance: 21+ (I don't recall exactly how many players, but it was five rounds and I remember the TO saying we had over 20 players)
Format: Legacy, five rounds of swiss with cut to top 8
Round 1: vs Mike with 5c aggro slivers
I remember losing the die roll and Mike saying "I saw islands in your deck, so I'm going to need all the help I can get." He resolved his mulligans, and I remember looking at my hand of: trop, strand, goyfs, daze, spell snare, swords, swords, and thinking "well, SS + daze might get there against combo." He leads with an Ancient Ziggurat and my worries about combo instantly vanished. I felt a chill run up my spine when he tapped it for a virulent sliver. (as I had recently lost a casual game against my friend playing TSP block constructed sliver when he had an opening of triple virulent followed by two-headed sliver... ouch!) I drew and a brainstorm and made my trop, passing back to him. On his turn, a crystalline ate a spell snare, as I didn't fancy both my swords becoming dead, and despite my casual game previously, judged the crystalline to be more of a threat over the course of the game. I took one and a poison counter. (flashback to flash-hulk in vintage) My turn two I drew another fetch, fetched, and made a 3/4 goyf. He untapped, played a land, and correctly did not leave ziggurat as his untapped land to play a second crystalline sliver, daze-proof. Sadcakes. I untapped, drew a force, and thanked my brainstorm for existing, exchanging my brainstorm, my two dead swords, and a single blue mana for three fresh cards, including a second goyf and a Knight of the Reliquary. I shuffled the dead swords away with my remaining fetch and made a second goyf, swinging in for three. The rest of the game consisted of me attacking with two goyfs with knight on D growing +2/+2 a turn while thinning my deck, and me countering his might slivers.
Boards: -4 swords, -4 winter orb, +4 propaganda +4 trygon predator (not sure if this was correct retrospectively, but at that point I had not seen gemhide sliver.... just wait... it gets stranger. Had I, I would have likely boarded out the dazes and kept the swords in as a response to crystalline or as solid removal should he not draw them. I did see aether vial, so it's hard to decide which is more awkward, dead dazes following a vial/gemhide, or dead swords after or crystalline or with him responding via vial-ing in crystalline)
Game two I make a first turn noble hierarch, and Mike attempts a second turn might sliver, which eats a daze. My turn two, I replay land and I cantrip into a second knight and a trygon predator, and he makes his third land and a gemhide sliver, which I do not force. I play the knight and aggro him out. (as he has only a 1/1 whose important friend will be biting it to force, leaving him with small guys to my soon to be huge knights) He untaps and attempts a sinew, which draws the force, and then makes a winged sliver. I play my second knight and pass back, endstep the non-sick Knight sacs a dual to shuffle away my extra land from the brainstorm, gets a fetch, which is then sacced to get another dual. My turn I swing into his winged with one 6/6 knight, and make it an 8/8 after no blocks. Mike Eldami's calls for a SLIVER LEGION but cannot play it, and chumps with his winged the next turn taking eight again (from a fetch precombat). Though the following turn he finally makes his giant 8/8, (along with a 2/2 gemhide) I had made my trygon and he's low enough on life that the flightless slivers watch demise fly overhead in the form of an exalted manta-ray thingy.
After the match I ask to look at his deck, and recommend that instead of 5c aggro slivers, (which granted, probably get there aginst zoo or goblins with a turn three/four sliver legion) he might consider playing a form of 5c zoo with utility guys such as tidehollow sculler, bob, teeg, and meddling mage to make the control/combo matchups winnable. (His manabase consisted of 4 city of brass, 4 ancient ziggurat, 4 gemstone mine, 4 reflecting pool, 4 savannah.)
Games: 2-0
Matches: 1-0
Round 2: vs Joe with mono red imperial painter
Joe was probably the one deck I was least excited to play, as my dazes and orbs did little against him what with moxen, spirit guides, and city of traitors/ancient tomb to keep him rolling in the mana. The threat of a turn 2-4 kill also alarmed me, as did the potential for turn one/two gridstone followed by chalice at one. All this combined with a total of 12 red blasts maindeck made for an awkward matchup.
I win the die roll and keep a hand of tropical island, delta, brainstorm, spell snare, daze, coatl. I make my trop and pass the turn. He kept a one-lander and makes a turn one grindstone followed by top off of an ancient tomb. I draw a swords, and brainstorm turn two into a third land, knight, and a force, putting coatl, knight on top. I make my second land and pass back. he makes a painter's servant off his lonely tomb, which I spell snare. My turn three I draw and play my snake. He makes a chrome mox, REBs my snake, and plays a servant, which gets dazed. I play my knight, with force, (no blue cards) and swords in hand. On his turn he makes a third servant, with only one mana up, so no activation this turn. On my upkeep, I knight for port, draw a ponder, (active force) and swords painter. He tops in response to me porting his double land, fails to find another double land/servant, and knight ends the game in short order.
Boards: -4 WOrb, +4 trygon predator
Game two I keep a semi-slow hand of triple fetch, knight, swords, daze, ponder. Fortunately for me, Mike has a slow hand as well, he makes a turn two grindstone, and we play the land game until I make a turn four knight (I hadn't drawn any other permission other than daze, so swords on servant in response to a stone activation was my only out here. He is drawing lots of land, (which is unfortunate for him as he only saw one tomb and a mox game 1) and decides to start grinding me for two a turn, which unfortunately for him, only feeds my knight, which first fetches port to keep him off of servant, activation mana in one turn. (and should he make a land drop, I could daze the servant making him wait until his next turn to attempt the combo, allowing for a swords on his servant, and hopefully a cantrip into swords number two should the first be blasted) I port, but all he has is more grinding, two cards at a time, which now has boosted my knight to by two in addition to my initial triple fetch and port-fetch. I finally cantrip into a force to go with the nearly-dead daze and swords in hand, and the 8/8 knight starts a-swingin', the game is over in short order.
I console Mike for his mana-troubles, and assure him the matchup isn't as bad for him as it seemed, that the 12 blasts should be pure gas against me, as I generally don't have a fast clock, and his blasts can protect not only his combo, but his artifact mana and wincons from trygon, and his life total from coatl.
Games: 4-0
Matches: 2-0
Round 3: vs Bob with UGw Counter-top with Natural Order Progenitus
Bob wins the die roll, and has a turn two 1/2 goyf he attempts to draw a spell snare with, but my swords, force, SS, knight are none two concerned with the squire at the moment. I make a turn two hierarch and pass, and on his turn three, he plays the spell I suspected goyf was supposed to take a bullet for. I snare his counterbalance, and he plays a sad top, then attacking with a happy 3/4 goyf. I make a knight on my turn, and he forces, which I force back. Rather than play my swords into the daze I invalidated with having hierarch in the first place, I swing for one with the better birds. His turn he apologizes for ripping the counterbalance, and it resolves, and goyf bids farewell to the combat step with one last swing as he passes the 3/3 sick knight. I draw a ponder, which I decide to run into balance (as he's played no cantrips nor activated top yet, so he will likely have to put top on, top, as he doesn't have mana open to spin top and find a one. He activated the top's draw ability, and I respond with swords on goyf (though knight is going to be much larger, I am at a precarious 11 life after a swing with a 1/2 goyf, two swings with a 3/4, a fetch, and a force. This will also likely be the last time I will be able to force through any spells at one. With tops activation still on the stack, he blindly reveals (drumroll) ponder! Oh - what a dreamcrush. Goyf is now a 4/5 and I'm hellbent, having both my cantrip (which I resigned to taking one for the team) and my removal countered. (by luck of the 'balance) I pass turn. He ponders, makes his third land drop, and surveys my 3/3 knight. Luck shines on me, and he decides that a 4/5 is bigger than a potentially 4/4, and attacks. I block, sac to search for a fetch, and crack fetch to make knight a 5/5. He has no effects, and goes on full-blown tilt for not seeing the play. (to be fair to my opponent, I've had knight before in limited with panoramas, and despite seeing panoramas game one, I've have two opponents crash in game two to be 0-for-1'd by the onboard trick) I crash back for 10 over the next two turns, as I'm only drawing a one mana cantrip, one daze, one force, and a swords, and my opponent has three lands and counter-top. He finally lands a goyf, then accompanied by a Rhox War Monk, which he has to tap out to play. I daze, and he forces rather than attempting a counterbalance. I force (pitching a likely dead cantrip) and he blind balances.... FORCE! O god, what a dreamcrush. This leaves us in a very awkward position, me with an arbitrarily large (on defense mind you) knight, and him with two guys to swing back should I foolishly attack prematurely. (one of which has lifelink - ick) This game becomes very, VERY awkward, as I keep drawing one costs, rather than the six other three costs in my deck, all the while thinning lands endstep. Bob, while gifted in the arts of the blind counterbalance, has not drawn a single swords or path to exile, (he is running a 4/2 split MD) but has inevitability provided I don't draw a second threat to allow my knight to swing. He eventually draws a very-threshed mongoose, but is still to tilted to realize that he can kill me in two swings. (knight was short of swinging back for lethal with his lifelink bringing him to 13 at this point - and I had used knight twice before the situation became so dire to search fetches and grow +2/+2 each turn while thinning lands at twice the rate.) Therafter, I use knight to the point where it had obscene stats like 14/14 and had taken all but two fetchlands out of my deck, while still managing to have drawn four lands and no threats in that time period. His life-tilt finally cools off, and he realizes that I'm at nine, and he can have swung for 6, then 3, while going up to a comfy 13, but now he cannot without being attacked back. He taps top to draw a hierarch that he had been floating in the top three, and team swings, with a noble 0/1 laughing at me and literally blocking my knight's path to victory. This match has inspired me to replace a ponder with a singleton maze of ith to keep situations like this from happening again, and allow me to swing with a huge knight while not fearing a counter-attack, thus forcing my opponent into chumping and giving me inevitability with just a knight on board, and an additional, uncounter-able removal spell.
Boards: -4 ponder, +4 trygon predator
Game two I open with trop, hierarch. His turn one is a top. Turn two I play a goyf and keep hierarch back. He baits my spell snare/daze with a turn two goyf, which I allow to resolve. My turn three I fetch and make a 4/4 knight and attack with my 2/3 goyf past his non-exalted goyf. On his turn, he fails to play a third land , and runs out the counterbalance he was hoping goyf would jump in front of a spell snare to protect. I have the snare, and we both daze, and he replays his land and plays a ponder to make his goyf a 4/5 and hesitates before charging in past knight. I replay my land on my turn, with two active forces, (able to hardcast force by tapping a land, then replacing it with knight to make five mana, thereafter still being able to picth for the second) And swing exalted goyf, keeping knight back to enable the force, as well as grow to goyf-crushing size. I counter a swords targeting knight with the hardcast force, and he keeps goyf back in lieu of dying to a counter-attack on my turn. He blocks my goyf, and fails to draw three answers/permission to resolve two.
Game three we both have swords and permission, with only 1 threat each. (both which eat swords) Early in the game, with a pair of hierarchs staring at each other and life totals around 20, time is called.
Bob tells me that he was actually running natural order/progenetis, but after seeing all my hardcounters, boarded out the two-for-one ‘combo.’
Games: 5-1
Matches: 2-0-1
Round 4: vs Gus (YawgWill on the source) with 2 land belcher
I keep a hand of 2 lands, hierarch, Worb, knight, daze, swords, because I decide to pretend not to know he’s playing belcher. (as at a larger tournament, I would keep this hand in the dark against 99% of the field, and I don’t usually have the advantage of playing against my friends when they’ve told me what they’re playing) He turn one land grants and shows me his hand- 2x rite of flame, 2x seething song, dark rit, belcher, SSG. He doesn’t whiff on belching, so thats game 1.
Boards: -4 swords, -4 Worb, +4 trygon predator, +4 propaganda
Game two I mull to six and keep spell snare, force, coatl, hierarch, and two lands. He doesn’t go off turn one, so I luck out and draw another blue spell, allowing me to play my turn two coatl with force backup. He attempts to wish into goblins, and I force the wish, causing him to burn for four. Coatl starts doing his thing, and he tops a dark rit to go with his LED and attempts to infernal maintaining priority to crack the LED, and loses his hand and more life to my spell snare and mana burn still being around. I have a brainstorm next turn to grow coatl, and he concedes.
Game three I keep a hand with force, propaganda, ponder, daze, and three lands. I draw another blue spell for force and ponder into brainstorm and hierarch. I allow him to empty turn two for ten goblins, I brainstorm into garbage, and shuffle away two of the five lands I have in my hand with a fetch, then take ten before laying my propaganda. I draw two more proagandas, and no threats, and wait while he restocks his hand. I finally land a goyf, and his turn he attempts to belch with his stockpile of cards. My force gets REB’d, and my daze is paid for by SSG, forcing keeping him from activating belcher. I don’t find a trygon before he finds mana to belch. This was the longest game I’ve ever played or seen played against belcher.
Games: 6-3
Matches: 2-1-1
Round 5: vs Nathan with Ugw Coatl Countertop
He wins the die roll and game one we force-fight over his turn two counterbalance. My turn three, I play a coatl with him all but hellbent, and he shrugs and says “Okay”. On his turn, he draws and his face pales - (Fist pump!) I allow the coatl he just drew to resolve, and untap and send out a ponder-probe into CB before I swords his coatl, and Nathan draws the land he revealed against my ponder, and loses shortly thereafter to the coatl that should not have been.
Boards: -4 ponder, +4 trygon predator
Nathan is on the play, and lands a turn two goyf which we both have dazes ready for, and then a turn three goyf which I attempt to swords. He has the force, and I’m really never in this game, and the winter orb sitting in my hand doesn’t look so good on my turn three against his board of double goyf.
Game three I keep a hand of top, hierarch, goyf, spell snare, brainstorm, coatl, ponder. My turn one hierarch eats a ‘gut feeling’ swords on his turn one, and I fail to draw a land. I ponder into... no lands, and blind draw into.... not a land. Sadcakes. His turn two is a 1/2 goyf, and I finally find a second land with my brainstorm, but it’s not a fetch, and is accompanied by two non-land cards. I snare his counterbalance before attacks, and take 2 from his goyf before laying my own. We both draw permission, and I land a Worb to slow things down, especially since he is stuck on three tapped lands and using a top to attempt to get himself into gas. He finds and resolves a bob despite a counter-war, and I finally draw a third land 19 cards deep into my deck. I resolve the second three-drop I attempt, which is a predator. He starts taking top damage a turn from bob, while tying up his single untap by replaying top, occasionally spinning it or pondering with lands drawn. We both manage swords on each others’ goyf, (which are quite large at this point) and predator keeps hitting him, while for two turns bob sat back despite my board of Worb, lands, tapped predator. He eventually finds his sideboarded serenity to kill my Worb on his upkeep, but unfortunately for him, this only denies his untap, while I net two untapped lands after factoring in paying for the second orb in my hand. (which I had long ago considered dead) This allows me to play a knight and seal the game.
Games: 8-4
Matches: 3-1-1
We cut to top eight, which if memory serves me, consisted of:
1 GBw rock
2 UGw countertop decks
1 UGw Worb (me)
1 Belcher (Gus, who had only lost one game-to me, during the whole tournament)
1 Merfolk
1 Enchantress
1 UGr tempo thresh
Top Eight: : vs Nathan with Ugw Coatl Countertop
Game Nathan is on the play, one he has a turn five shackles with two mana up against my turn four coatl. Shackles. (See if you can find any answers in my maindeck)
Game two I have turn one hierarch, turn two knight, which I daze through. My turn three is winter orb. He swords’s the first knight, but I make another and port-lock him and bash with my 6/6.
Game three we both have our early threats swords’d, and I land a winter orb to slow the game. He gets stuck on three, and I make a hierarch and then a predator. He eventually untaps all his lands, and plays a shackles with no untapped lands against my board of predator. He extends his hand and shows me the top and counterbalance in his hand, and curses my winter orb.
Games: 10-5
Matches: 4-1-1
Quarterfinals: vs Gus with 2 land belcher
At this point, it’s nearly midnight and we all want to play EDH, so the top four decide to roll for the win, and the finals to draw thereafter. As Gus and my match is very much a die roll, We do so, and I win. With my store credit, I pick up a foil knight of the reliquary, a foil rav dual for one of my EDH decks, and some thwarts, which the store owner found just in time for the tournament to be over.
I believe the top four decks were:
BG Rock
2 Land Belcher
UGw Worb
Merfolk
Final Game Record: 10-5
Matches: Matches: 5-1-2 (split finals with BG rock)