spirit of the wretch
11-04-2009, 06:31 PM
Saturday morning, 10 o' clock, my mobile phone brutally ends my sleep. Sore throat, tired, throbbing head, foul feeling in the stomach and my girlfriend next to me still well asleep... Why on earth am I getting up in the middle of the night again? I vaguely remember last night and the smooth transition from beer to wine and hard liquor. Suddenly doesn't seem like a good idea anymore.
Every cell in my body screams to go the hell back to sleep, but as per usue the inner nerd screams louder. Great, one of those days! I stumble into the shower and stagger blindly through Mannheim to the site. My head hurts and I'm feeling sick. Gotta love the hangover! I meet with my teammates and the usual suspects and we talk some smack. Fabian is kind enough to offer me a beer against the pain. I figure it can't hurt much and gladly accept it. To my great surprise we're 40 people. And by surprise, I obviously mean annoyance. 6 rounds of Legacy... just what I was looking for!
Here's what the team decided to play:
Manuel “DerHeiler” Heiler: Bant Aggro
Daniel “Adan” Scherer: Ichorid
Stefan "spirit of the wretch" Czolk: Tempo Faeries
I basically played the same list, that performed well for me at my last Hassloch with some minor tweaks:
[SPOD] A crisis of epic proportions
Mainboard:
4 Polluted Delta
3 Bloodstained Mire
1 Swamp
1 Island
4 Wasteland
3 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island
1 Badlands
4 Tombstalker
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Bitterblossom
4 Terminate
2 Umezawa’s Jitte
2 Firespout
4 Stifle
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Ponder
4 Brainstorm
# 60
Sideboard:
4 Hydroblast
4 Engineered Plague
2 Engineered Explosives
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Perish
# 15
Round 1: Uwg Fish
He starts with double Mutavault and a Tundra and somehow he seemingly isn't able to play a single spell. So he delivers the beats with his thallid monks while I filter through my deck. Eventually a Terminate kills a Vault, a Stifle his Fetchland and an angry demon him. Pretty easy win, but I'm not going to complain. I don't have a clue what he's playing but brilliantly put him on some type of tribal.dec
-4x Daze, -1x Ponder, -1x Tombstalker
+4x Plague, +2x EE
His mana base continues to mock him and he has to mulligan only to end up with a Mutavault heavy draw again... Might just be me, but somehow weak mana bases don't seem to be the proper way to victory against decks packing Stifle/Waste. I have a Bitterblossom and he finally reveals what he is playing, as he activates a Mutavault and tries to Spellslutter the pesky enchantment. I have an untapped Wasteland on the board but being hangover and all (read: bad at magical card games) I decide to force the Sprite. God, I'm so aweful! Nevertheless, the Blossom does its job and as I'm able to back it up with a Plague on treefolk against his Vaults, I simply win. Good times, Plague on treefolk FTW!
1/0/0, 2-0
I finished my first beer, but to no avail, my head still feels like the Usbek Military Marching Band is using it as a practice area for the apocalypse... So I cleverly decide to medicate myself some more and go for another beer.
Round 2: Sven with R/W Aggro
Sven wins the roll and leads with Mountain, Chrome Mox imprinting Spitmare, go.... Yay, Legacy! On his second turn he plays a Skynight Legionnaire while I have the faery enchantment again. We trade beats, he adds Nobilis of War, I throw in a second Blossom and we trade Jitten (Jittes? Jitti? What the hell is the correct plural for "ridiculously broken equipment"?). Then he plays and equips Sword of Fire & Ice (didn't see that one coming!) and Jitte in two consecutive turns and suddenly my mighty and numerous fae don't look that mighty at all. Or numerous for that matter. I try my best to race the legendary equipment with Stifles but he wins by a narrow margin. Frowntown!
-4x Stifle,
+4x Hydroblast.
Despite the second beer this is the point the metaphorical shit hits the fan. The next two games basically are a struggle of me against my stomach. He attacks with severe nausea, I counter with „Mind over Matter“ and as he starts with sudden pain attacks, I threaten him to down another beer and win the fight. Yay for me...
On a Magic related side note, Sven draws burn instead of equipment in the next two games and I win.
2/0/0, 4-1
Round 3: Dreadstill
He's playing a VERY pimp deck and I'm really impressed by all the sparkling shininess that is going on. Unfortunately for him, his foil Delta does still gets owned by my regular Stifle and so does his BB Usea by my every day Wasteland. Long story short, we both try to screw with our mana, only that my attempts are way more successful. So I win with an undercosted flier against his empty board.
-2x Firespout,
+2xEE
Again I blow up his blue mana sources and he only has double factory and Academy Ruins when he casts... Crucible! Yeah didn't see that one comming either. His graveyard contains amongst other things a Wasteland and I lose to Crucible/Waste just like in the old days. Makes me feel a little nostalgic. A little sick too, but that might have other reasons.
In the last game neither one of us really has any action going on until I'm able to Spellslutter one of his spells and put him on a 17 turn clock. He draws, plays and activates a Relic to find an out to that horrible creature but instead continues to draw back-to-back Extirpates much to the amusement of the assembled crowd. I find a demon and that guy seals the deal a lot quicker.
3/0/0, 6-2
For some unknown reason a lot of people boarded Relics against me... little hint: This isn't exactly the best card to have against this deck. Not even a little!
At this point of the tournament I figure that my condition might improve if I just lay on the table and try to think positive. Now guess what, apparently the common hangover gives a damn about your thoughts. Instead it continues to play percussion drills in my head and stomach. This is also the point at which I obligatorily swear to never touch alcohol again. You probably are familiar with such oaths.
Round 4: Manuel with Bant Aggro
It always sucks to play a teammate and have to knock each other out, but round 4 is too early for an ID.
I lose the roll and mulligan into 5 lands (2 Wasteland) and a Force... Good times! I figure that I have a shot if I manage to fuck up his mana. He obviously starts with Fetch for forest, Hierarch. This just keeps getting better. Manuel continues to summon critters and some legendary equipment just for good measure, while I continue to get beaten by said critters and curse my head for all the wind instruments and drums he seems to have produced for a little entertainement. Good for me.
-1x Daze, -1x Ponder, -1x Stalker, -1x Wasteland,
+2x Perish, +2x EE
He starts off with a Pridemage and I soon find a Blossom. Manuel decides to race the enchantment and not kill it straight away which leads to the following series of plays:
Goyf → Sprite
Garruk → Sprite, response Sword one of my tokens → Sprite
Yeah, I really am that good! Pretty demoralised Manuel gets run over by a horde of pixies.
The third game is just like the first game with reversed personas. Manuel keeps a five lander with Hierarch and Goyf, I wipe them out with Perish and he keeps on drawing lands. Also my stomach has inventet some kick boxers with jackhammers to complement the treatment my head is giving me.
4/0/0, 8-3
Round 5: Martin with Imperial Painter
I lose the roll and he starts with City of Traitors into Painter and I get a little worried about a second turn kill. Instead he follows that impressive start up with another Painter. And a third one so they don't get lonely and do creepy scarecrow things to each other. Martin adds no additional land though mind you and I'm beginning to sense a pattern here. I draw into a Stalker and by the time he does finally manage to produce a red mana source, I'm more than prepared to deal with his threads and the demon goes all the way.
-4x Stifle, -1x Ponder, -1x Daze
+4x Hydroblast, +2x EE
He starts slowly with Recruiter into Painter and I Firespout his board away. He manages to rebuild quite effectively with Recruiter into Painter. Surprise! I get rid of the Painter with Terminate and drop a Blossom. The tokens overwhelm him, as he draws an aweful lot of land. Gotta love the mana bases!
5/0/0, 10-3
I'm the only person with 15 points, I'm sick and tired and I really don't want to play another round. In fact, I didn't want to play the last two... I hope for a kind soul to simply draw me into victory and then leave me alone. Yeah, like that is going to happen.
Round 6: Kai with Ichorid
Cruel person that he is, he doesn't want to ID. Selfish bastards, all of them!
He keeps a solid hand with a dredger and a Breaktrough as One with Nothing while my hand isn't all too great. No surprise preboard in this MU. Interestingly Kai manages to get the worst dredges possibly imaginable: After three turns, he's out of dredger, has no Bridges, one Narcomoeba and two Ichorids with no further black creatures... Nice one! Oh and when I said interestingly I obviously meant: OhMyGodI'MOneLuckySonOfABitch. He makes a critical mistake by not sacrificing his Moeba to the second Therapy to remove the two Stalkers from my hand, after he saw them and so one of them takes him down.
-4x Stifle, -4x Terminate, -1x Daze
+4x Plague, +3x Relic, +2x EE
I mulligan into a great hand and he decides to slow dredge. I smartly counter this plan with a first turn Relic. For some reason he decides not to put any dredger into his grave at all so I have all the time in the world to establish a board of: Relic, Blossom, Jitte and Plague on Horror. It's like Magical Christmas Wonderland with acute headache and massive sickness. Needless to say, I win that one pretty comfortable.
6/0/0, 12-3
So after 6 rounds of torture this is how the team performed:
Manuel “DerHeiler” Heiler: 4/2/0 and 6th
Daniel “Adan” Scherer: 2/2/0 drop
Stefan "spirit of the wretch" Czolk: 6/0/0 and 1st
I end up taking 1st and take home sweet 80€ of store credit. So to sum it all up:
Winning *check*
Owning people *check*
Feeling like shit *you bet!*
Not throwing up *hell yeah*
All in all, good times, I guess =)
Props
Me for not throwing up. My biggest achievement that day!
Manuel for top8ing
Everybody for showing up. Seriously 40 people in Mannheim is stone cold nuts! Spread the word.
Fabian for the beer
Spellslutter Sprite for humiliating people
Slops
Alcohol Hangover
Every cell in my body screams to go the hell back to sleep, but as per usue the inner nerd screams louder. Great, one of those days! I stumble into the shower and stagger blindly through Mannheim to the site. My head hurts and I'm feeling sick. Gotta love the hangover! I meet with my teammates and the usual suspects and we talk some smack. Fabian is kind enough to offer me a beer against the pain. I figure it can't hurt much and gladly accept it. To my great surprise we're 40 people. And by surprise, I obviously mean annoyance. 6 rounds of Legacy... just what I was looking for!
Here's what the team decided to play:
Manuel “DerHeiler” Heiler: Bant Aggro
Daniel “Adan” Scherer: Ichorid
Stefan "spirit of the wretch" Czolk: Tempo Faeries
I basically played the same list, that performed well for me at my last Hassloch with some minor tweaks:
[SPOD] A crisis of epic proportions
Mainboard:
4 Polluted Delta
3 Bloodstained Mire
1 Swamp
1 Island
4 Wasteland
3 Underground Sea
3 Volcanic Island
1 Badlands
4 Tombstalker
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Bitterblossom
4 Terminate
2 Umezawa’s Jitte
2 Firespout
4 Stifle
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Ponder
4 Brainstorm
# 60
Sideboard:
4 Hydroblast
4 Engineered Plague
2 Engineered Explosives
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Perish
# 15
Round 1: Uwg Fish
He starts with double Mutavault and a Tundra and somehow he seemingly isn't able to play a single spell. So he delivers the beats with his thallid monks while I filter through my deck. Eventually a Terminate kills a Vault, a Stifle his Fetchland and an angry demon him. Pretty easy win, but I'm not going to complain. I don't have a clue what he's playing but brilliantly put him on some type of tribal.dec
-4x Daze, -1x Ponder, -1x Tombstalker
+4x Plague, +2x EE
His mana base continues to mock him and he has to mulligan only to end up with a Mutavault heavy draw again... Might just be me, but somehow weak mana bases don't seem to be the proper way to victory against decks packing Stifle/Waste. I have a Bitterblossom and he finally reveals what he is playing, as he activates a Mutavault and tries to Spellslutter the pesky enchantment. I have an untapped Wasteland on the board but being hangover and all (read: bad at magical card games) I decide to force the Sprite. God, I'm so aweful! Nevertheless, the Blossom does its job and as I'm able to back it up with a Plague on treefolk against his Vaults, I simply win. Good times, Plague on treefolk FTW!
1/0/0, 2-0
I finished my first beer, but to no avail, my head still feels like the Usbek Military Marching Band is using it as a practice area for the apocalypse... So I cleverly decide to medicate myself some more and go for another beer.
Round 2: Sven with R/W Aggro
Sven wins the roll and leads with Mountain, Chrome Mox imprinting Spitmare, go.... Yay, Legacy! On his second turn he plays a Skynight Legionnaire while I have the faery enchantment again. We trade beats, he adds Nobilis of War, I throw in a second Blossom and we trade Jitten (Jittes? Jitti? What the hell is the correct plural for "ridiculously broken equipment"?). Then he plays and equips Sword of Fire & Ice (didn't see that one coming!) and Jitte in two consecutive turns and suddenly my mighty and numerous fae don't look that mighty at all. Or numerous for that matter. I try my best to race the legendary equipment with Stifles but he wins by a narrow margin. Frowntown!
-4x Stifle,
+4x Hydroblast.
Despite the second beer this is the point the metaphorical shit hits the fan. The next two games basically are a struggle of me against my stomach. He attacks with severe nausea, I counter with „Mind over Matter“ and as he starts with sudden pain attacks, I threaten him to down another beer and win the fight. Yay for me...
On a Magic related side note, Sven draws burn instead of equipment in the next two games and I win.
2/0/0, 4-1
Round 3: Dreadstill
He's playing a VERY pimp deck and I'm really impressed by all the sparkling shininess that is going on. Unfortunately for him, his foil Delta does still gets owned by my regular Stifle and so does his BB Usea by my every day Wasteland. Long story short, we both try to screw with our mana, only that my attempts are way more successful. So I win with an undercosted flier against his empty board.
-2x Firespout,
+2xEE
Again I blow up his blue mana sources and he only has double factory and Academy Ruins when he casts... Crucible! Yeah didn't see that one comming either. His graveyard contains amongst other things a Wasteland and I lose to Crucible/Waste just like in the old days. Makes me feel a little nostalgic. A little sick too, but that might have other reasons.
In the last game neither one of us really has any action going on until I'm able to Spellslutter one of his spells and put him on a 17 turn clock. He draws, plays and activates a Relic to find an out to that horrible creature but instead continues to draw back-to-back Extirpates much to the amusement of the assembled crowd. I find a demon and that guy seals the deal a lot quicker.
3/0/0, 6-2
For some unknown reason a lot of people boarded Relics against me... little hint: This isn't exactly the best card to have against this deck. Not even a little!
At this point of the tournament I figure that my condition might improve if I just lay on the table and try to think positive. Now guess what, apparently the common hangover gives a damn about your thoughts. Instead it continues to play percussion drills in my head and stomach. This is also the point at which I obligatorily swear to never touch alcohol again. You probably are familiar with such oaths.
Round 4: Manuel with Bant Aggro
It always sucks to play a teammate and have to knock each other out, but round 4 is too early for an ID.
I lose the roll and mulligan into 5 lands (2 Wasteland) and a Force... Good times! I figure that I have a shot if I manage to fuck up his mana. He obviously starts with Fetch for forest, Hierarch. This just keeps getting better. Manuel continues to summon critters and some legendary equipment just for good measure, while I continue to get beaten by said critters and curse my head for all the wind instruments and drums he seems to have produced for a little entertainement. Good for me.
-1x Daze, -1x Ponder, -1x Stalker, -1x Wasteland,
+2x Perish, +2x EE
He starts off with a Pridemage and I soon find a Blossom. Manuel decides to race the enchantment and not kill it straight away which leads to the following series of plays:
Goyf → Sprite
Garruk → Sprite, response Sword one of my tokens → Sprite
Yeah, I really am that good! Pretty demoralised Manuel gets run over by a horde of pixies.
The third game is just like the first game with reversed personas. Manuel keeps a five lander with Hierarch and Goyf, I wipe them out with Perish and he keeps on drawing lands. Also my stomach has inventet some kick boxers with jackhammers to complement the treatment my head is giving me.
4/0/0, 8-3
Round 5: Martin with Imperial Painter
I lose the roll and he starts with City of Traitors into Painter and I get a little worried about a second turn kill. Instead he follows that impressive start up with another Painter. And a third one so they don't get lonely and do creepy scarecrow things to each other. Martin adds no additional land though mind you and I'm beginning to sense a pattern here. I draw into a Stalker and by the time he does finally manage to produce a red mana source, I'm more than prepared to deal with his threads and the demon goes all the way.
-4x Stifle, -1x Ponder, -1x Daze
+4x Hydroblast, +2x EE
He starts slowly with Recruiter into Painter and I Firespout his board away. He manages to rebuild quite effectively with Recruiter into Painter. Surprise! I get rid of the Painter with Terminate and drop a Blossom. The tokens overwhelm him, as he draws an aweful lot of land. Gotta love the mana bases!
5/0/0, 10-3
I'm the only person with 15 points, I'm sick and tired and I really don't want to play another round. In fact, I didn't want to play the last two... I hope for a kind soul to simply draw me into victory and then leave me alone. Yeah, like that is going to happen.
Round 6: Kai with Ichorid
Cruel person that he is, he doesn't want to ID. Selfish bastards, all of them!
He keeps a solid hand with a dredger and a Breaktrough as One with Nothing while my hand isn't all too great. No surprise preboard in this MU. Interestingly Kai manages to get the worst dredges possibly imaginable: After three turns, he's out of dredger, has no Bridges, one Narcomoeba and two Ichorids with no further black creatures... Nice one! Oh and when I said interestingly I obviously meant: OhMyGodI'MOneLuckySonOfABitch. He makes a critical mistake by not sacrificing his Moeba to the second Therapy to remove the two Stalkers from my hand, after he saw them and so one of them takes him down.
-4x Stifle, -4x Terminate, -1x Daze
+4x Plague, +3x Relic, +2x EE
I mulligan into a great hand and he decides to slow dredge. I smartly counter this plan with a first turn Relic. For some reason he decides not to put any dredger into his grave at all so I have all the time in the world to establish a board of: Relic, Blossom, Jitte and Plague on Horror. It's like Magical Christmas Wonderland with acute headache and massive sickness. Needless to say, I win that one pretty comfortable.
6/0/0, 12-3
So after 6 rounds of torture this is how the team performed:
Manuel “DerHeiler” Heiler: 4/2/0 and 6th
Daniel “Adan” Scherer: 2/2/0 drop
Stefan "spirit of the wretch" Czolk: 6/0/0 and 1st
I end up taking 1st and take home sweet 80€ of store credit. So to sum it all up:
Winning *check*
Owning people *check*
Feeling like shit *you bet!*
Not throwing up *hell yeah*
All in all, good times, I guess =)
Props
Me for not throwing up. My biggest achievement that day!
Manuel for top8ing
Everybody for showing up. Seriously 40 people in Mannheim is stone cold nuts! Spread the word.
Fabian for the beer
Spellslutter Sprite for humiliating people
Slops
Alcohol Hangover