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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.

Bahamuth
06-22-2009, 07:39 AM
Nice report!

What the hell is Ultimate Walker?

kabal
06-22-2009, 07:43 AM
Nice report!

What the hell is Ultimate Walker?



Ultimate Walker = 4c Landstill -4 Standstill +4 Ancestral Visions, Fire-Ice, Cunning Wish, Forbid Crucible, Elspeth, Jace, Ajani (RW), etc.

Waikiki
06-22-2009, 07:53 AM
where can I find a list of those cause it seems awesome!

How many people attended?

conboy31
06-22-2009, 10:48 AM
I think the concensus was 187?

J.V.
06-22-2009, 10:48 AM
Scott, Somehow I told you so, just doesn't quite say it. Anyways, congrats on a great performance.
===============================
Btw Ultimate Walker is like Plainswalker Landstill minus the stills + Ancestral Visions and stuff of the sort.

Oh and Scott huge props on playing my list card for card.

AngryTroll
06-22-2009, 11:51 AM
I like the list, but the two Daze seems really random. It clearly worked for you, though! The board looks especially solid.

After playing the list all day, what, if anything, would you change?

Blitzbold
06-22-2009, 01:12 PM
Mad congratulations on your finish.

I like your list, but would also be very interested in the twists the Atoglord himself did with the deck, as Fire / Ice and Bolt sound lovely. Anyone who knows that list?

rockout
06-22-2009, 01:15 PM
Congrats on the finish. I was really looking forward to You vs Planeswalker.dec, but he conceded to you, so I decided to watch edh instead.

J.V.
06-22-2009, 01:19 PM
I like the list, but the two Daze seems really random. It clearly worked for you, though! The board looks especially solid.

After playing the list all day, what, if anything, would you change?

The two Dazes aren't random at all. Daze itself is a terrible card that tends to clog up your hand beyond turn 3/4 so by running two you don't draw into too many of them but you draw it enough for your opponent to know you run it so they still play around it which makes it worth while.

KillemallCFH
06-22-2009, 01:51 PM
Scott, Somehow I told you so, just doesn't quite say it. Anyways, congrats on a great performance.
===============================
Btw Ultimate Walker is like Plainswalker Landstill minus the stills + Ancestral Visions and stuff of the sort.

Oh and Scott huge props on playing my list card for card.It wasn't quite card for card (unless you changed your list since the DHG tournament); we cut a Factory for another Island. A good percentage of Dreadstill's losses comes from its manabase (see: Rich Shay in Top4), and since this is a less Standstill-centric list, going down to 3 Factories for a bit more stability was easy.

goobafish
06-22-2009, 02:03 PM
Congrats on the finish!

J.V.
06-22-2009, 02:07 PM
It wasn't quite card for card (unless you changed your list since the DHG tournament); we cut a Factory for another Island. A good percentage of Dreadstill's losses comes from its manabase (see: Rich Shay in Top4), and since this is a less Standstill-centric list, going down to 3 Factories for a bit more stability was easy.

Yeah I just realized that, There is actually a small change in the board too, I run 1 Relic and 1 Crypt instead of 2 Crypts. But still very close to my list.

Blitzbold
06-22-2009, 02:39 PM
Yeah I just realized that, There is actually a small change in the board too, I run 1 Relic and 1 Crypt instead of 2 Crypts. But still very close to my list.

A split obviously makes sense with Needle in mind. However, Relics are worse when playing Tarmogoyf on your own. Or don't you encounter any problems with that split?

OffTheWall
06-22-2009, 02:40 PM
Congratulations on a great finish Scott.

J.V.
06-22-2009, 02:44 PM
A split obviously makes sense with Needle in mind. However, Relics are worse when playing Tarmogoyf on your own. Or don't you encounter any problems with that split?

The only matchups were graveyard hate are really even relevent are Ichorid and Aggro Loam, In the Ichorid matchup crippling your goyfs is worth not losing to needle and against Aggro Loam Relic is just so much better.

elgoff
06-22-2009, 06:23 PM
Congrats...

(I saw all the finals on the webcam, I was watching my friend Enigma!!!)

Luckally for Yan Lampron, you did all price split in Top 8...


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.

well said!!

elgoff,./*Team CRET

Seregrauko
06-22-2009, 06:31 PM
Gratz on the finish! And cool deck! Haven't seen this build before.. Then again I'm not too engaged in the Legacy-scene ATM.

I'm sure I wouldn't be lucky(/good?) enough to play 3/2 split of Dreadnought/Trinkmage. I'd always miss a critter when looking at a Stifle, and vice versa.
Good job though!

I'm very curious about "Ultimate Walker".. Sounds like alotta fun with all the Planeswalker action. Anybody got a list? (I guess the top8 deck will be on deckcheck.net in a couple of days?)

I realize you play a rather counterheavy deck. But don't you miss the spotremoval? 2 Explosives seems inadequate!
This might be where Firespout shines? Apart from Goyf/Stalker/Nought it seems to hit almost everything. Looks like a natural choice over Pyroclasm since Zoo is a hot deck..

Enigma
06-22-2009, 07:06 PM
Hi guys,

The ride back to Montreal has been long and though (coming back at 6:00 AM). I've been sleeping the whole day, but I'll do my report probably tomorrow. This tournament was awesome. Check out the Magic show for interviews of both Scott and me.

I was really thankful to the judge crew for all their professionalship, and I want to thanks them again for their great job. Everybody was sooooo nice. Our montreal's crew really appreciated their week-end in Boxborough and we'll attend more of these in the future for sure.

PS: I'll work with Yan to write a primer of this deck, as it is really promising. We worked all together creating this deck, mostly Yan who decided himself to switch black for red, adding fire/ice and Ajani Vengeant.

***Anybody who watched Yan's games must admit that Ancestral Vision is completly broken in this deck (way better than Standstill). Anyway, there's many decisions we need to justify, so check it out for a primer to be released in the next few weeks.***

List:

// Deck file for Magic Workstation

// Lands
2 Island
2 Plains
2 Tolaria West
3 Mishra's Factory
4 Flooded Strand
3 Volcanic Island
1 Underground Sea
3 Tundra
2 Wasteland
1 Academy Ruins
1 Polluted Delta

// Spells
3 Engineered Explosives
4 Ancestral Vision
2 Cunning Wish
1 Decree of Justice
2 Crucible of Worlds
4 Force of Will
2 Forbid
3 Spell Snare
4 Fire/Ice
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Daze

// Walker crew

2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
2 Jace Beleren
1 Ajani Vengeant


PS2: As for me, I was playing a regular Canadian Thresh list. (A lot of dudes there were telling me that only canadians seems to really putting good results with this deck. Was funny to hear ^^)

P-M

pippo84
06-22-2009, 07:26 PM
Congratz on the finish! Just 1 question: what do you think of 3 mishra's instead of 4? Did you ever miss them?

TrialByFire
06-22-2009, 08:05 PM
PS2: As for me, I was playing a regular Canadian Thresh list. (A lot of dudes there were telling me that only canadians seems to really putting good results with this deck. Was funny to hear ^^)

P-M

Haha that was me while I was watching your 4th round match against my friend playing Aggro Loam. It really is only you guys playing it and you just keep top 8-ing but nobody seems to notice lol. Like you said, the Canadians know how to play it best :)

Shimi
06-22-2009, 08:36 PM
Everybody says that it is difficult to cut anything form the MD in dreadstill lists especialy Ugr , so my question is: You realy need the 21 land? or do you think things would be fine playing only 20 ( as I'm doing)?

Rood
06-22-2009, 08:38 PM
Grats on the finish Scott! You should buy 550$ worth of beef jerky with your winnings. Lawl

AngryTroll
06-22-2009, 08:40 PM
I ran 20 lands for ages, but finally bumped it up to 21. As that game in the semi-finals demonstrated, the deck really lives and dies on its manabase. The deck has a ton of bombs, but if you can't cast them, it's pretty terrible. The UU for Counterbalance is tough when you're running 7 colorless lands, 6 or 7 fetches, and 2 or 3 duals, leaving only 3 or so Islands.

I'm running 4 Factory, 3 Waste, 7 Fetches, 2 Volcanic, 1 Tropical Island (for EE@3), and 5 Islands for 21 land total. It feels a lot more stable than 20 land, and a ton more stable than only running 2 basic islands in a 20 land UGr List.

Albplayer
06-22-2009, 10:24 PM
Congratulations on the finish again, and I still want a rematch.... goyf sligh round seven :}

Enigma
06-23-2009, 04:21 PM
Hey Scott, I just checked the list and it has 4 CB. Hell yeah, I thought you were playing a regular 3 CB build as Rodney. Now I understand why you had 2 CB each games. Great list.

P-M

VsTheWorld
06-23-2009, 07:05 PM
From our experience with the card, my brother and I would NEVER go below 4 Counterbalance. Ever. You absolutely want to see one, and a 2nd is almost never unwelcome because the first attracts counters like hell. The 2nd is even more important postboard with the presence of K Grip. Rodney can get away with 3 because he just wills them to the top of his deck whenever he decides it is time.

J.V.
06-23-2009, 08:41 PM
From our experience with the card, my brother and I would NEVER go below 4 Counterbalance. Ever. You absolutely want to see one, and a 2nd is almost never unwelcome because the first attracts counters like hell. The 2nd is even more important postboard with the presence of K Grip. Rodney can get away with 3 because he just wills them to the top of his deck whenever he decides it is time.

You also forgot to mention how Rodney will then immediately will Trinket Mage to the top to protect it.

Jaynel
06-23-2009, 09:35 PM
Props on the finish! Even though I couldn't go, I'm glad our crads got you there.

deadlock
06-24-2009, 11:43 AM
Gratz on the finish and showing that Dreadstill is still a force!
You may want to take a look at the Dreadstill thread, i posted a question about countersuite and manabase there.

Michael Keller
06-24-2009, 11:22 PM
Frikkin' Dreadstill.

Anyways, 'gratz on the finish. Nicely done.

zuzy
07-01-2009, 03:03 AM
Hallo VsTheWorld,

I really like the Dreadstill Deck, but I want to ask you a few things.

My list looks like this:

http://www.deckcheck.net/deck.php?id=27548

I am playing 2x Echoing Truth, which are really perfect for me. The biggest problem I have is Tombstalker. I have no other way to get rid of it.

Your deck doesn´t have any cards to deal with him. How do you play against the Eva Green or this kind of the deck?

How do you deal with the Dark Confidant? You rely just on Spell Snares?

What do you think about the Rich Shay build with 2x Lightning Bolt, 1x Fire/Ice and 1x Ponder? Do you think, that the Burn spells are better than Spell Snare?

About the Basic land count - I am perfectly fine with 3x Island. I think, that it is enought. Or is it really necessary to have 4 of them?

Thank you for your comments.

ZUZY