Mijorre
08-31-2009, 12:08 PM
Right, I did bad in some respects. I dislike merfolk and burn. For those who want to read a winner's report, save some time and go somewhere else.
For those who are still here, welcome to my incredible report of mediocre luck.
As most people preface their tourney reports, I shall start by mentioning I was out on friday (activities included a random draft, visiting an Irish Pub that just opened, looking for a party for a friend [and walking half over Antwerp to not find it] and winding up in Pater's Vaatje [there is a direct line to getting hammered if you add all these up], to wind up at home at...7 AM. I proceeded to not sleep on saturday AND had to begin working at 4 am on sunday. After five hours of work and some energy drinks, I headed to Outpost and arrived at 9:45, early enough to be the first on scene. There, I noted I had forgotten to bring my digi-cam. That means there will be no pictures for this tourney and a lack of things to do in between rounds for me... Curses.
Flipping through both of my decks, I decided on my UWb Landstill deck, as I had told (sourcer) Ectoplasm I would probably play it. No sense in letting a total stranger down, ay?
Soooo~ Once the tourney kicked off, the judge announced we had 51 players in attendance and I sat myself down opposite someone named Gorik, who played Sligh / Burn Zoo / RG facemunch. Whatever it is called nowadays.
I had a decent hand, plowing a Kird Ape, Killing a Grim Lavamancer with a factory, forcing a Kird Ape...And then Price of Progress happened.
So I was down to 7, ate lavamancer activation EOT, bolt, 'mancer and next game.
Ouch.
Game two involved enemy wastelands. Two of them. On turn 1 and 2. Luckily I had kept a mana-heavy hand (swords / Snare / Land) and put down an Elspeth a short while later. Some flaming of my dome happened, an activation of my elspeth and a cycling of a decree and suddenly I was down to (gosh, PoP for 10?) 1 life. With my opponent on 13. That's not good. Luckily, this is where I chained Standstills. Standstill into standstill is pretty good if you have 7+ lands untapped. So I took my opponent to -1 once I had activated my Elspeth to make my side burn-resistant, a factory and WoG-ed his two Kirds into the pit.
So game 3.
My notes on that one are: "Shusher -> PoP -> 2x Fireblast"
That says it all, no?
So I am one in the hole. I hate starting on a loss, but am determined to make it up to myself by winning the next round.
Looking at the pairings, I notice a fellow named Bye is going to be my opponent. As he doesn't show up, I eat a lasagna and watch a first-time Dragon Stompy player destroy the God-hand of Belcher with 'Crystal vein, remove simian, mox, song, trinisphere and mauler, go'. That was...brutal.
So 1-1 I am. I wonder what match I will get. Surely, whatever hands out karma is going to bite me for the bye...
Oh yes. Erwin with Merfolk.
Long story short, he plays the stifle-less version with Jitte.
G1: I topdeck like a whore after losing the roll (EE @ 1 turn 1 as he has a vial down, anyone?) and manage to draw the game out a little, but scoop to Cursecatcher (who lost his jitte to an EE a turn earlier) / Muta as my only relevant removal wouldn't kill the Muta (Damn you, WoG) while I was at 2 life. Frown.
G2: My mana decides it does not like me. Turn 1 and 2 lands are wasted, next land I see is a plains five turns later (with 3 brainstorms in hand), a swamp joins it some time after that, but no blue or third land. Sad times for the mana-screwed.
Ugh. That's 1-2. I don't like that. Next match is...
Nico with Pox. Oh Gods. He was even boasting he has a good match against me. I believed him on that count without playing it out in testing. After all, hand rape is bad for control. I say a silent prayer and make with the get-go.
Game 1: I counter everything. That's what the notes say. I think I ate a smallpox at some point, but I had a board of Jace (who actively milled once), Ruins, Elspeth and Disk. My opponent saw no way out and scooped. Yay.
That went well. Shockingly well.
Game 2: I like my crucible. By proxy, my opponents must dislike not having their own crucible. So I do not let his resolve, waste his urborg, vindicate his second urborg, get my waste extirpated, negate something, get negate extirpated, get my Jace, get a factory, get some soldiers, get my own crucible out (Wish -> Enlightened), start CAing... Eventually I hardcast a decree for 2 angels with 5 soldiers on the board. Yeah. That's game.
2-2. I apparently have a positive Pox match. Good to know.
Round 5: Jelmer with Imperial Painter (thinking him on RW aggro game 1)
We joke about both playing merfolk and do not instantly give our decks away to one another. He says to be playing the 'counter deck' as he outcountered a landstill earlier on.
Game 1: I have to mill (eww) and keep a solid hand. He opens with Magus of the Moon and my hand is suddenly bad. I cannot draw a Plow to go with my lone plains to save my life and die to an 8/8 flying kithkin. Sad times.
Game 2: In a lapse of judgement (so with a REB in hand), my opponent allows me to resolve a Cunning Wish for Enlightened Tutor, I grab my humility and cruise to a CA win by having Jace on the board. My opponent professes to not have a real way out of humility. I make a mental note of this. Somewhere in this game, I plowed a painter as my opponent tapped out (probably turn 2). I had also seen an Imperial Recruiter (for the first time in my life) fetch a little red/white kithkin. I worry.
Game 3: I keep his grindstone under control with an EE, beat with factory, win with humility as, for once, I am not mana-screwed. My opponent shows me he had painter and 3 stones on hand still. 3 Mana gets one nowhere, it seems.
3-2, so probably out of contention. Too bad. I talk with a friend as to who should scoop to who if we were to get paired but in the end, it stays undecided.
Round 6, I get paired with Jo, a friendly guy who plays a not so friendly deck. Eva Green.
Short story even shorter: No lands. Mull to 6 in both games, never see extra lands out of my library. And Jo being an actually capable player kills me dead.
Lesson learned: Landstill needs lands in order to do things.
Too bad, thanks for playing. 3-3 and somewhere mid-field in the end.
As for my list:
Lands ~ 23
4 Tundra
1 Underground Sea
1 Scrubland
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
2 Wasteland
3 Mishra's Factory
1 Academy Ruins
2 Island
2 Plains
1 Swamp
Spells ~ 37
4 Force of Will
3 Standstill
3 Counterspell
3 Spell Snare
3 Brainstorm
2 Cunning Wish
1 Jace
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Wrath of God
2 Decree of Justice
2 Elspeth
1 Humility
1 Vindicate
1 Crucible
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
Sideboard ~ 15
3 Engineered Plague
2 Chainer's Edict
1 Vindicate
2 Negate
2 Path to Exile
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Hydroblast
1 Pulse of the Fields
1 Extirpate
1 Fact or Fiction
Shourido: 4/7
+Determination! (Go me for actually being there)
+Perfection! (Go me for having a Steve Argyle playmat)
+Control! (When the deck worked, I was in full control of the games)
+Will! (Gotta hand it to those two guys who played Pox. Half their opponents probably hadn't even seen the card...ever. Then again, same goes for my round 5 opponent's recruiter)
-Knowledge (I should playtest more. I never wished for Hydroblast and the Edicts were useless in board.)
-Insight (Yeah, sideboarding was heck. Boo me for not being capable of doing that)
-Strength (Why oh why oh why did I play landstill in Merfolk/Burn meta?)
Bushido: 4/7
+Gi! (Talking about what deck you are playing without actually giving it away is fun)
+Rei! (Sportsmanship was brilliant throughout the day, though I think that given the situation, if I had matched with Jelle for round 6, he should have scooped to give me a fair chance at a prize, as I had better breakers than him. I would have scooped if he had better ones.)
+Yu! (Winning a game on 1 life and not even feeling nervous about it.)
+Meyo! (It's my own mistake to take landstill into the tourney, nobody told me to actually play it)
-Jin (like heck if I would do that during a tourney. No quarter!)
-Makoto (Hehehe. Hehe. I like bluffing too much.)
-Chugo (I failed to play Ectoplasm... or any sourcer for that matter. And I didn't bring my camera. Woe upon woes.)
So what was the other deck I considered playing?
Armageddon Stax. Probably the better pick for the meta-game.
For those who are still here, welcome to my incredible report of mediocre luck.
As most people preface their tourney reports, I shall start by mentioning I was out on friday (activities included a random draft, visiting an Irish Pub that just opened, looking for a party for a friend [and walking half over Antwerp to not find it] and winding up in Pater's Vaatje [there is a direct line to getting hammered if you add all these up], to wind up at home at...7 AM. I proceeded to not sleep on saturday AND had to begin working at 4 am on sunday. After five hours of work and some energy drinks, I headed to Outpost and arrived at 9:45, early enough to be the first on scene. There, I noted I had forgotten to bring my digi-cam. That means there will be no pictures for this tourney and a lack of things to do in between rounds for me... Curses.
Flipping through both of my decks, I decided on my UWb Landstill deck, as I had told (sourcer) Ectoplasm I would probably play it. No sense in letting a total stranger down, ay?
Soooo~ Once the tourney kicked off, the judge announced we had 51 players in attendance and I sat myself down opposite someone named Gorik, who played Sligh / Burn Zoo / RG facemunch. Whatever it is called nowadays.
I had a decent hand, plowing a Kird Ape, Killing a Grim Lavamancer with a factory, forcing a Kird Ape...And then Price of Progress happened.
So I was down to 7, ate lavamancer activation EOT, bolt, 'mancer and next game.
Ouch.
Game two involved enemy wastelands. Two of them. On turn 1 and 2. Luckily I had kept a mana-heavy hand (swords / Snare / Land) and put down an Elspeth a short while later. Some flaming of my dome happened, an activation of my elspeth and a cycling of a decree and suddenly I was down to (gosh, PoP for 10?) 1 life. With my opponent on 13. That's not good. Luckily, this is where I chained Standstills. Standstill into standstill is pretty good if you have 7+ lands untapped. So I took my opponent to -1 once I had activated my Elspeth to make my side burn-resistant, a factory and WoG-ed his two Kirds into the pit.
So game 3.
My notes on that one are: "Shusher -> PoP -> 2x Fireblast"
That says it all, no?
So I am one in the hole. I hate starting on a loss, but am determined to make it up to myself by winning the next round.
Looking at the pairings, I notice a fellow named Bye is going to be my opponent. As he doesn't show up, I eat a lasagna and watch a first-time Dragon Stompy player destroy the God-hand of Belcher with 'Crystal vein, remove simian, mox, song, trinisphere and mauler, go'. That was...brutal.
So 1-1 I am. I wonder what match I will get. Surely, whatever hands out karma is going to bite me for the bye...
Oh yes. Erwin with Merfolk.
Long story short, he plays the stifle-less version with Jitte.
G1: I topdeck like a whore after losing the roll (EE @ 1 turn 1 as he has a vial down, anyone?) and manage to draw the game out a little, but scoop to Cursecatcher (who lost his jitte to an EE a turn earlier) / Muta as my only relevant removal wouldn't kill the Muta (Damn you, WoG) while I was at 2 life. Frown.
G2: My mana decides it does not like me. Turn 1 and 2 lands are wasted, next land I see is a plains five turns later (with 3 brainstorms in hand), a swamp joins it some time after that, but no blue or third land. Sad times for the mana-screwed.
Ugh. That's 1-2. I don't like that. Next match is...
Nico with Pox. Oh Gods. He was even boasting he has a good match against me. I believed him on that count without playing it out in testing. After all, hand rape is bad for control. I say a silent prayer and make with the get-go.
Game 1: I counter everything. That's what the notes say. I think I ate a smallpox at some point, but I had a board of Jace (who actively milled once), Ruins, Elspeth and Disk. My opponent saw no way out and scooped. Yay.
That went well. Shockingly well.
Game 2: I like my crucible. By proxy, my opponents must dislike not having their own crucible. So I do not let his resolve, waste his urborg, vindicate his second urborg, get my waste extirpated, negate something, get negate extirpated, get my Jace, get a factory, get some soldiers, get my own crucible out (Wish -> Enlightened), start CAing... Eventually I hardcast a decree for 2 angels with 5 soldiers on the board. Yeah. That's game.
2-2. I apparently have a positive Pox match. Good to know.
Round 5: Jelmer with Imperial Painter (thinking him on RW aggro game 1)
We joke about both playing merfolk and do not instantly give our decks away to one another. He says to be playing the 'counter deck' as he outcountered a landstill earlier on.
Game 1: I have to mill (eww) and keep a solid hand. He opens with Magus of the Moon and my hand is suddenly bad. I cannot draw a Plow to go with my lone plains to save my life and die to an 8/8 flying kithkin. Sad times.
Game 2: In a lapse of judgement (so with a REB in hand), my opponent allows me to resolve a Cunning Wish for Enlightened Tutor, I grab my humility and cruise to a CA win by having Jace on the board. My opponent professes to not have a real way out of humility. I make a mental note of this. Somewhere in this game, I plowed a painter as my opponent tapped out (probably turn 2). I had also seen an Imperial Recruiter (for the first time in my life) fetch a little red/white kithkin. I worry.
Game 3: I keep his grindstone under control with an EE, beat with factory, win with humility as, for once, I am not mana-screwed. My opponent shows me he had painter and 3 stones on hand still. 3 Mana gets one nowhere, it seems.
3-2, so probably out of contention. Too bad. I talk with a friend as to who should scoop to who if we were to get paired but in the end, it stays undecided.
Round 6, I get paired with Jo, a friendly guy who plays a not so friendly deck. Eva Green.
Short story even shorter: No lands. Mull to 6 in both games, never see extra lands out of my library. And Jo being an actually capable player kills me dead.
Lesson learned: Landstill needs lands in order to do things.
Too bad, thanks for playing. 3-3 and somewhere mid-field in the end.
As for my list:
Lands ~ 23
4 Tundra
1 Underground Sea
1 Scrubland
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
2 Wasteland
3 Mishra's Factory
1 Academy Ruins
2 Island
2 Plains
1 Swamp
Spells ~ 37
4 Force of Will
3 Standstill
3 Counterspell
3 Spell Snare
3 Brainstorm
2 Cunning Wish
1 Jace
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Wrath of God
2 Decree of Justice
2 Elspeth
1 Humility
1 Vindicate
1 Crucible
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
Sideboard ~ 15
3 Engineered Plague
2 Chainer's Edict
1 Vindicate
2 Negate
2 Path to Exile
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Hydroblast
1 Pulse of the Fields
1 Extirpate
1 Fact or Fiction
Shourido: 4/7
+Determination! (Go me for actually being there)
+Perfection! (Go me for having a Steve Argyle playmat)
+Control! (When the deck worked, I was in full control of the games)
+Will! (Gotta hand it to those two guys who played Pox. Half their opponents probably hadn't even seen the card...ever. Then again, same goes for my round 5 opponent's recruiter)
-Knowledge (I should playtest more. I never wished for Hydroblast and the Edicts were useless in board.)
-Insight (Yeah, sideboarding was heck. Boo me for not being capable of doing that)
-Strength (Why oh why oh why did I play landstill in Merfolk/Burn meta?)
Bushido: 4/7
+Gi! (Talking about what deck you are playing without actually giving it away is fun)
+Rei! (Sportsmanship was brilliant throughout the day, though I think that given the situation, if I had matched with Jelle for round 6, he should have scooped to give me a fair chance at a prize, as I had better breakers than him. I would have scooped if he had better ones.)
+Yu! (Winning a game on 1 life and not even feeling nervous about it.)
+Meyo! (It's my own mistake to take landstill into the tourney, nobody told me to actually play it)
-Jin (like heck if I would do that during a tourney. No quarter!)
-Makoto (Hehehe. Hehe. I like bluffing too much.)
-Chugo (I failed to play Ectoplasm... or any sourcer for that matter. And I didn't bring my camera. Woe upon woes.)
So what was the other deck I considered playing?
Armageddon Stax. Probably the better pick for the meta-game.