VsTheWorld
06-22-2009, 07:05 AM
So as usual, I have no idea what I'm playing at this thing until the morning of. Jaynel and b4r0n can't make it, so they graciously lend me Dreadstill so that my brother and I can both play blue decks. He goes with SPOD-influenced Ugw Countertop, I play the Dreadstill list without any real changes, having never really played the deck before. Here's the beast of a list:
// Lands
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
3 Wasteland
4 Island
2 Volcanic Island
3 Mishra's Factory
3 Tropical Island
// Creatures
3 Phyrexian Dreadnought
2 Trinket Mage
4 Tarmogoyf
// Spells
2 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Stifle
4 Counterbalance
3 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Standstill
1 Trickbind
2 Engineered Explosives
4 Brainstorm
3 Spell Snare
// Sideboard
SB: 3 Krosan Grip
SB: 3 Firespout
SB: 2 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 2 Blue Elemental Blast
SB: 2 Pyroblast
SB: 2 Sower of Temptation
I kept no notes during the tournament, so this is done entirely from memory. If any of my opponents notice a mistake somewhere, just point it out and I'll fix it.
Round 1 - Ben Lundquist playing Ad Nauseam Tendrils (I think)
Game 1: I win the roll and fan open a hand with 2 lands, Top, 2 CB, Force, and a guy. He keeps his 7, I play Island, Top, go. He spends a couple minutes thinking before just dropping a Swamp, so I put him on combo. Turn 2 CB hits, he has no turn 2 play, and then he scoops when I make my 3rd land drop on turn 3.
SB: -1 Nought, -2 EE, +3 Pyro/REB
Game 2: My hand this time has a solid chunk of hate cards, but no threats, Top, or CB. I keep it anyway. An early Duress takes my Force and he proceeds to Ad Naus at 19 life in my upkeep. He gets some ridiculous amount of cards off of it and should be able to Tendrils me for a ton on his turn, but apparently he boarded into Ad Nauseam Tog. At any rate, he drops Psychatog on his turn, tears my hand apart with Duress/Therapy, and Tog hits me for a lethal 18 on his next turn.
Game 3: I get another solid hand with Stifle effects, counters, Factory, and Top. Nothing much happens early until I make the crucial misplay of tapping all my blue sources to play CB. Predictably he has the EOT Wipe Away and then resolves Ad Nauseam down to 2 life into tons of mana, discard, Confidants, and Tog. He knows my entire hand, and I have a Pyroblast floating on top of the deck with Top in play. Resigned to my fate, I pass the turn. He plays nothing pre-combat, swings with Tog, and passes priority after a Tog pump. Trickbind stops things before they get nuts. Post-combat he Duresses me. Awkward :/. I swing back with Factory for the win.
1-0 rounds, 2-1 games
Round 2 - Ian Duke playing UR Dreadstill
Game 1: Yay, a mirror match already! At least I have the edge with the green splash. He Forces my turn 1 Top, wastes my Trop and then this game pretty much proceeds how it should with us trading threats and answers the entire time. His Top doesn't find him anything amazing for a long time. Wicked late game I finally get CB to stick and hit a fetchland to play the 2 Goyfs I've had in hand since turn 2.
SB: -3 Standstill, -2 Daze, -1 Nought, +3 Pyro/REB, + 3 Grip
Game 2: Game 1 took over 30 minutes to finish, so we both try to speed this one up a bit. I have a hand full of answers and eventually find a Goyf like 5 minutes before time is called. I've already exhausted my hand of 3 Krosan Grips when he has Threads for Goyf. Like a noob, I tap out to Red Blast it instead of waiting a turn to untap and walk straight into Daze. I suck at this game. Time is called with me at 14 and my 5/6 Goyf sitting on the other side of the board. The deck decides to throw me a bone and just offer up Stifle/Nought to block Goyf and swing back for lethal on turn 5. Not bad.
2-0 rounds. 4-1 games
Round 3 - Dana Renfrew playing Burn/Sligh
Game 1: I catch a glimpse of a red uncommon from Scourge, so I figure Goblins. Not the greatest matchup, but definitely winnable. He turn 1 Bolts me and I do a little happy dance in my head. Counterbalance shows up, followed shortly by a huge fucking Dreadnought to win the game.
SB: -1 Trinket Mage, -1 Daze, +2 BEB
Game 2: No Counterbalance this time, but a pair of 5/6 Goyfs make an imposing team. Burn spells get me down to 9 and then he goes for the big turn with Bolt and double Fireblast. I have Force for the 2nd Fireblast and Goyfs swing back for the win.
3-0 rounds, 6-1 games
Round 4 - Justin Valley playing Zoo
Game 1: Honestly, I would love to play this matchup all day. It's definitely in my favor, it's not the CB mirror, and games will likely go quickly. Take game 1 for example. I get turn 2 Dreadnought with Force backup. I win.
SB: no idea
Game 2: I have many an answer for small creatures, land a Goyf, and Blue Blast a Thoctar that might cause some problems. Life total notes look like Tarmogoyf just gets there.
4-0 rounds, 8-1 games
Round 5 (Feature Match) - Bryan Spaulding playing Canadian Thresh
Game 1: I've never played this matchup before, but it seems like Counterbalance or fast Nought should just win. Neither show up this game, but Nimble Mongoose isn't really much of a threat. Slow Dreadnought is good enough though, since a 12/12 is a good deal larger than a 3/3.
SB: -1 Nought, +1 Red Blast?
Game 2: This one is much closer than game 1. I don't get a Counterbalance and get stuck on 2 lands while he resolves Mongoose and Goyf. I draw into Stifle/Nought and decide to just run it out into the Daze that must be waiting. It resolves?? Seems good for me. I swing him to 5, get a blocker, and swing again to win.
5-0 rounds, 10-1 games
Round 6 - Rich Shay (TheAtogLord) playing Ugr Dreadstill
Game 1: Another mirror match, this time with someone wayyyy more experienced with the deck than myself. Lovely. This game is close at least. We trade threats and answers, but I have Top in play to fix my draws. Too bad they still mostly suck. Rich resolves Top as well and I guess his is just kinder to him as it gets him a CB to finally resolve. The game is his from there.
SB: -Standstills and Dazes, +Grips and Red Blasts. He played Bolt, Fire/Ice, and Submerge so I was not at all comfortable bringing in Sower. I think I brought in 1.
Game 2: I have a hand full of red and green cards, a fetch, and a Waste. My inexperience in this matchup shines through as I lead with fetchland, pass. Sure enough it gets Stifled and Rich blows me out with double Tarmogoyf. Fastest Dreadstill mirror game ever?
5-1 rounds, 10-3 games
Round 7 - Michael Farrell playing Goyf Sligh
Game 1: I see the name on the pairings list and remember this guy plays red spells that cost 1 and 2, which conveniently will not resolve through Counterbalance. Seems good for me. I get turn 1 Stifle a fetch, turn 2 Goyf, turn 3 CB/Top. We head to game 2.
SB: -1 EE, -1 Mage, +2 Blue Blast
Game 2: My opening hand is 2x Nought, Stifle, Force, 2 land, Top. I obviously draw a 2nd Stifle for my first draw and just bring on turn 2 and turn 3 Dreadnoughts with a blue card in hand for Force. Too bad Krosan Grip has split second, otherwise there's always the SSG, SSG, Desperate Rit, Seething Song, Radiate play to kill two Noughts. Or maybe Shattering Spree. That seems better. At any rate, he had no idea I was playing Dreadstill after game 1, so the Sprees were left in the board. Two Noughts get there.
6-1 rounds, 12-3 games
Round 8 - Pierre-Marc Duguay playing Canadian Thresh.
ID into Top 8 since he's already sitting at 19 points and I'm the 2nd highest of the 18 pointers. I end up 4th after the Swiss. The top 8 agrees to a prize split for $525 each, but we play it out for pride, ratings, and the trophy.
Top 8 - Yan Lampron playing Ultimate Walker
I would get utterly annihilated in this matchup, but unfortunately Yan is too sick to play our match. He scoops me into top 4.
Top 4 - Alix Hatfield (Ob Freely) playing Zoo
Game 1: He opens with Savannah, Nacatl. I have Top. He plays Taiga, swings for 3, and passes. I get a Wasteland and think for a minute before deciding to hit the Taiga. My thought process was that I have Dreadnought in hand and Top will find me a Stifle, so keeping him off white mana means my Nought will be safe from Path. Red mana ends the game in a hurry though, so I Waste Taiga. He gets Sylvan Library and double Horizon Canopy, but fails to find a red source for the rest of the game and I win with Factory.
SB: -random stuff, +Spouts and BEBs
Game 2: Alix has no problem finding red mana this game. Or white mana. Or lands at all. In fact, he draws a lot of them. Shusher hits play and CB/Top cries off in a corner. Trinket Mage and Shusher kinda stare at each other for a while, and then Alix goes for a 10 point Price of Progress which completely blindsided me at 16 life. Unfortunately, he doesn't play his land before the Price (presumably to save himself the 2 damage) and can only Shusher the PoP twice. I Snare and then respond to the 2nd activation with Force. Price gets countered and I live to see another day. Trinket Mage beats, and then I Firespout away the Shusher with 2 Factory and CB/Top in play. Good enough to win the game.
Finals - Pierre-Marc Duguay playing Canadian Thresh
Game 1: I should definitely recall this match better, but I have no notes and I'm just fucking exhausted so yea. I know I get hit with a 1/1 Goose a few times and hit some savage blind CB flips (Brainstorm, Top) before resolving Dreadnought with him at 13. He can't find a bounce spell and Dreadnought goes all the way.
SB: definitely messed this up. -2 Daze, +2 Pyro I think. Not even any solid reasoning behind that. Should definitely be -1 Nought, -1 Something else for the Pyros.
Game 2: So apparently CB/Top is REALLY good in this matchup. Either he gets Mongoose or I fetch 4 times to go to 16, but at any rate I draw a LOT of counters. Snare a Goyf, resolve CB/Top. I have to draw off Top to CB a Pyroblast on the CB, and he attempts Force when I replay the Top on my next turn. I have the Red Blast, and CB/Top is on the board alongside 2 Factories and him with no hand. Factories beat for a few turns, and Ugr Dreadstill wins the SCG 5K Legacy Open!
Props/slops/analysis to come later.
// Lands
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
3 Wasteland
4 Island
2 Volcanic Island
3 Mishra's Factory
3 Tropical Island
// Creatures
3 Phyrexian Dreadnought
2 Trinket Mage
4 Tarmogoyf
// Spells
2 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Stifle
4 Counterbalance
3 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Standstill
1 Trickbind
2 Engineered Explosives
4 Brainstorm
3 Spell Snare
// Sideboard
SB: 3 Krosan Grip
SB: 3 Firespout
SB: 2 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 2 Blue Elemental Blast
SB: 2 Pyroblast
SB: 2 Sower of Temptation
I kept no notes during the tournament, so this is done entirely from memory. If any of my opponents notice a mistake somewhere, just point it out and I'll fix it.
Round 1 - Ben Lundquist playing Ad Nauseam Tendrils (I think)
Game 1: I win the roll and fan open a hand with 2 lands, Top, 2 CB, Force, and a guy. He keeps his 7, I play Island, Top, go. He spends a couple minutes thinking before just dropping a Swamp, so I put him on combo. Turn 2 CB hits, he has no turn 2 play, and then he scoops when I make my 3rd land drop on turn 3.
SB: -1 Nought, -2 EE, +3 Pyro/REB
Game 2: My hand this time has a solid chunk of hate cards, but no threats, Top, or CB. I keep it anyway. An early Duress takes my Force and he proceeds to Ad Naus at 19 life in my upkeep. He gets some ridiculous amount of cards off of it and should be able to Tendrils me for a ton on his turn, but apparently he boarded into Ad Nauseam Tog. At any rate, he drops Psychatog on his turn, tears my hand apart with Duress/Therapy, and Tog hits me for a lethal 18 on his next turn.
Game 3: I get another solid hand with Stifle effects, counters, Factory, and Top. Nothing much happens early until I make the crucial misplay of tapping all my blue sources to play CB. Predictably he has the EOT Wipe Away and then resolves Ad Nauseam down to 2 life into tons of mana, discard, Confidants, and Tog. He knows my entire hand, and I have a Pyroblast floating on top of the deck with Top in play. Resigned to my fate, I pass the turn. He plays nothing pre-combat, swings with Tog, and passes priority after a Tog pump. Trickbind stops things before they get nuts. Post-combat he Duresses me. Awkward :/. I swing back with Factory for the win.
1-0 rounds, 2-1 games
Round 2 - Ian Duke playing UR Dreadstill
Game 1: Yay, a mirror match already! At least I have the edge with the green splash. He Forces my turn 1 Top, wastes my Trop and then this game pretty much proceeds how it should with us trading threats and answers the entire time. His Top doesn't find him anything amazing for a long time. Wicked late game I finally get CB to stick and hit a fetchland to play the 2 Goyfs I've had in hand since turn 2.
SB: -3 Standstill, -2 Daze, -1 Nought, +3 Pyro/REB, + 3 Grip
Game 2: Game 1 took over 30 minutes to finish, so we both try to speed this one up a bit. I have a hand full of answers and eventually find a Goyf like 5 minutes before time is called. I've already exhausted my hand of 3 Krosan Grips when he has Threads for Goyf. Like a noob, I tap out to Red Blast it instead of waiting a turn to untap and walk straight into Daze. I suck at this game. Time is called with me at 14 and my 5/6 Goyf sitting on the other side of the board. The deck decides to throw me a bone and just offer up Stifle/Nought to block Goyf and swing back for lethal on turn 5. Not bad.
2-0 rounds. 4-1 games
Round 3 - Dana Renfrew playing Burn/Sligh
Game 1: I catch a glimpse of a red uncommon from Scourge, so I figure Goblins. Not the greatest matchup, but definitely winnable. He turn 1 Bolts me and I do a little happy dance in my head. Counterbalance shows up, followed shortly by a huge fucking Dreadnought to win the game.
SB: -1 Trinket Mage, -1 Daze, +2 BEB
Game 2: No Counterbalance this time, but a pair of 5/6 Goyfs make an imposing team. Burn spells get me down to 9 and then he goes for the big turn with Bolt and double Fireblast. I have Force for the 2nd Fireblast and Goyfs swing back for the win.
3-0 rounds, 6-1 games
Round 4 - Justin Valley playing Zoo
Game 1: Honestly, I would love to play this matchup all day. It's definitely in my favor, it's not the CB mirror, and games will likely go quickly. Take game 1 for example. I get turn 2 Dreadnought with Force backup. I win.
SB: no idea
Game 2: I have many an answer for small creatures, land a Goyf, and Blue Blast a Thoctar that might cause some problems. Life total notes look like Tarmogoyf just gets there.
4-0 rounds, 8-1 games
Round 5 (Feature Match) - Bryan Spaulding playing Canadian Thresh
Game 1: I've never played this matchup before, but it seems like Counterbalance or fast Nought should just win. Neither show up this game, but Nimble Mongoose isn't really much of a threat. Slow Dreadnought is good enough though, since a 12/12 is a good deal larger than a 3/3.
SB: -1 Nought, +1 Red Blast?
Game 2: This one is much closer than game 1. I don't get a Counterbalance and get stuck on 2 lands while he resolves Mongoose and Goyf. I draw into Stifle/Nought and decide to just run it out into the Daze that must be waiting. It resolves?? Seems good for me. I swing him to 5, get a blocker, and swing again to win.
5-0 rounds, 10-1 games
Round 6 - Rich Shay (TheAtogLord) playing Ugr Dreadstill
Game 1: Another mirror match, this time with someone wayyyy more experienced with the deck than myself. Lovely. This game is close at least. We trade threats and answers, but I have Top in play to fix my draws. Too bad they still mostly suck. Rich resolves Top as well and I guess his is just kinder to him as it gets him a CB to finally resolve. The game is his from there.
SB: -Standstills and Dazes, +Grips and Red Blasts. He played Bolt, Fire/Ice, and Submerge so I was not at all comfortable bringing in Sower. I think I brought in 1.
Game 2: I have a hand full of red and green cards, a fetch, and a Waste. My inexperience in this matchup shines through as I lead with fetchland, pass. Sure enough it gets Stifled and Rich blows me out with double Tarmogoyf. Fastest Dreadstill mirror game ever?
5-1 rounds, 10-3 games
Round 7 - Michael Farrell playing Goyf Sligh
Game 1: I see the name on the pairings list and remember this guy plays red spells that cost 1 and 2, which conveniently will not resolve through Counterbalance. Seems good for me. I get turn 1 Stifle a fetch, turn 2 Goyf, turn 3 CB/Top. We head to game 2.
SB: -1 EE, -1 Mage, +2 Blue Blast
Game 2: My opening hand is 2x Nought, Stifle, Force, 2 land, Top. I obviously draw a 2nd Stifle for my first draw and just bring on turn 2 and turn 3 Dreadnoughts with a blue card in hand for Force. Too bad Krosan Grip has split second, otherwise there's always the SSG, SSG, Desperate Rit, Seething Song, Radiate play to kill two Noughts. Or maybe Shattering Spree. That seems better. At any rate, he had no idea I was playing Dreadstill after game 1, so the Sprees were left in the board. Two Noughts get there.
6-1 rounds, 12-3 games
Round 8 - Pierre-Marc Duguay playing Canadian Thresh.
ID into Top 8 since he's already sitting at 19 points and I'm the 2nd highest of the 18 pointers. I end up 4th after the Swiss. The top 8 agrees to a prize split for $525 each, but we play it out for pride, ratings, and the trophy.
Top 8 - Yan Lampron playing Ultimate Walker
I would get utterly annihilated in this matchup, but unfortunately Yan is too sick to play our match. He scoops me into top 4.
Top 4 - Alix Hatfield (Ob Freely) playing Zoo
Game 1: He opens with Savannah, Nacatl. I have Top. He plays Taiga, swings for 3, and passes. I get a Wasteland and think for a minute before deciding to hit the Taiga. My thought process was that I have Dreadnought in hand and Top will find me a Stifle, so keeping him off white mana means my Nought will be safe from Path. Red mana ends the game in a hurry though, so I Waste Taiga. He gets Sylvan Library and double Horizon Canopy, but fails to find a red source for the rest of the game and I win with Factory.
SB: -random stuff, +Spouts and BEBs
Game 2: Alix has no problem finding red mana this game. Or white mana. Or lands at all. In fact, he draws a lot of them. Shusher hits play and CB/Top cries off in a corner. Trinket Mage and Shusher kinda stare at each other for a while, and then Alix goes for a 10 point Price of Progress which completely blindsided me at 16 life. Unfortunately, he doesn't play his land before the Price (presumably to save himself the 2 damage) and can only Shusher the PoP twice. I Snare and then respond to the 2nd activation with Force. Price gets countered and I live to see another day. Trinket Mage beats, and then I Firespout away the Shusher with 2 Factory and CB/Top in play. Good enough to win the game.
Finals - Pierre-Marc Duguay playing Canadian Thresh
Game 1: I should definitely recall this match better, but I have no notes and I'm just fucking exhausted so yea. I know I get hit with a 1/1 Goose a few times and hit some savage blind CB flips (Brainstorm, Top) before resolving Dreadnought with him at 13. He can't find a bounce spell and Dreadnought goes all the way.
SB: definitely messed this up. -2 Daze, +2 Pyro I think. Not even any solid reasoning behind that. Should definitely be -1 Nought, -1 Something else for the Pyros.
Game 2: So apparently CB/Top is REALLY good in this matchup. Either he gets Mongoose or I fetch 4 times to go to 16, but at any rate I draw a LOT of counters. Snare a Goyf, resolve CB/Top. I have to draw off Top to CB a Pyroblast on the CB, and he attempts Force when I replay the Top on my next turn. I have the Red Blast, and CB/Top is on the board alongside 2 Factories and him with no hand. Factories beat for a few turns, and Ugr Dreadstill wins the SCG 5K Legacy Open!
Props/slops/analysis to come later.