andrew77
01-17-2010, 02:33 AM
So I've known I would be heading to the TOGIT event since it was announced as the prize support is awesome and it is less than an hour drive. Last event I scrubbed out running dredge and it annoyed me enough to put dredge away for good. You don't really play games when you run dredge. You just play against hate and against your own deck. Anyway since dredge and TES are the only combo decks I consider viable and my TES cards are in the mail I pretty much knew I would be running control. For about a week I was sold on running zoo just based on the fact that it is very good and very easy to pilot. Most people don't know how to run their decks properly anyway so if you play zoo well it is hard to lose. Anyway, for whatever reason I seemed to be drawing poorly with zoo so I decided I would rather risk my fate to blind confidant flips over zoo's draws.
Just a quick tidbit about the deck. It is the best countertop deck out there. This is not an opinion. It is a fact. Dreadnought decks were never good. The bant progenitus counterbalance nonsense decks are also pretty terrible.
Decklist
20 lands
4 wasteland
2 island
1 forest
1 swamp
3 underground sea
2 tropical island
3 misty rainforest
3 polluted delta
1 scalding tarn (should have been a trop or misty)
10 critters
4 dark confidant aka I'm better than tarmogoyf
4 tarmogoyf
2 sower of temptation
30 other spells
4 brainstorm
4 force of will
4 stifle
4 counterbalance
3 daze
3 sensei's divining top
2 maelstrom pulse
1 putrefy
3 smother
2 thoughtseize
Sideboard
2 extirpate
2 relic of progenitus
1 tormods crypt
3 pernicious deed
2 hydroblast
1 blue elemental blast
1 threads of disloyalty
1 thoughtseize
1 glen elandra archmage
1 krosan grip
Round 1 playing Dreadstill: I stick confidant. Then another. He tries to do some stuff, but it is realy hard for him to land a dreadnought and even if he does I can kill it easily. If I remember correctly goyf joins confidant. Game 2 he starts off by drawing a card on the play. Means he has to shuffle a card back at random. Supposedly it was brainstorm and I waste his only land and that is pretty much it as he doesn't find another for some time.
1-0
Round 2 playing Zoo: I decide to make this game extremely complicated by forgetting to brainstorm in resp to his t1 nacatl because I was watching Bertoncini's game next to me. Would have hit daze with brainstorm. I know it was terrible, but it doesn't matter as I have goyf and some other goodies while he makes some poor attacks and that is that. Game 2 I do something stupid again and even though I assemble countertop by the end I am at 4 and fireblast is just enough to kill me. Game 3 he keeps a bad hand. I guess he thought vexing shusher was good. It isn't, especially when he has no t1 play. I get a quick countertop. He somehow sneaks in some PoP after I fetch out a green source for goyf and don't have a 2cc on top. This brings me down fairly low, but countertop and goyf do their job.
2-0
Round 3 playing Dreadstill. Game 1 some stuff happens and I win. Can't really remember, but it probably involved confidant. Game 2 he sneaks in a standstill. I break it for top. He goes for goyf and I decide not to force it and get forced stifled. I then proceed to not hit another land for the next 4/5 turns while goyf kills me. Game 3 was insane. I keep a mediocre hand and go fro turn 2 counterbalance with daze backup. It meets snare and fow. He then has his own counterbalance. It quickly turns into counterbalance top. He drops a goyf at some point. Sower steals his goyf. I land a counterbalance. He needs to find an answer for sower and finds bolt. He decides to let me draw before bolting (I draw top which would have countered bolt blind). I pulse the counterbalances since he has top and I don't. More crazy things happen, but I cannot really remember and I somehow win.
3-0
Round 4 playing Dredge. He mulls to 5 on the play. He doesn't have amazing dredges. I have a critter and a smother to make sure there's no bridge shenanigans. I win eventually. Game 2 I open with some hate. Game is slow as I apply no pressure. Eventually I win.
4-0
Round 5&6 draw in
4-0-2
So going into round 5 my friend running this exact list is 3-1. He would get in even at 4-2. He manages to punt to aggro loam and then almost kill himself against dredge. The game against dredge was really bad. It was as if he tried to kill himself. Because of this and the fact that it took him way too long to top it got dragged out and they drew game 3 even though my friend had double relic in play and couldn't lose.
Top 8 playing Alex Bertoncini with good Merfolk aka the green version: Game one I mulligan and never get a second land even though I dig very deep. I had like 7 turns as his clock was 2 curse catchers since most of the good cards fought each other early on. Game 2 I see an opener that looks pretty awkward with 2 stifle and 2 deed. Anyway, deed is just too good against merfolk and we are off to game 3. He mulls to 6 keeping a hand with mana issues. I have confidant and follow it up with goyf.
5-0-2
Top 4 playing Quinn the might Eskimo:
Game 1 I mull to 5 and can't really make a comeback. Game 2 I get a countertop lock out quickly and kill with confidant beats as well as 1 goyf swing at the end. Game 3 we get to the point where nether of us have much. He has stp, painter, moat in hand and I have fow, blue card, confidant, smother putrefy. He goes for moat and I decide to let it resolve and protect confidant with my counters as I still have 3 maindeck outs to moat. Looking back this was probably wrong, but either way it was irrelevant as my only threat was a goyf that was 3/4 cards down and he would have had an eternal dragon a turn or so after.
5-1-2
All in all this was a great event and a great deck. Dark confidant is nuts and makes all of your matchups against other counterbalance decks amazing. He is also a huge problem for merfolk. Deed is as well. I can't really think of a reason to run and other colors over black in countertop. The sb options are so much better and confidant is the best creature ever.
Just a quick tidbit about the deck. It is the best countertop deck out there. This is not an opinion. It is a fact. Dreadnought decks were never good. The bant progenitus counterbalance nonsense decks are also pretty terrible.
Decklist
20 lands
4 wasteland
2 island
1 forest
1 swamp
3 underground sea
2 tropical island
3 misty rainforest
3 polluted delta
1 scalding tarn (should have been a trop or misty)
10 critters
4 dark confidant aka I'm better than tarmogoyf
4 tarmogoyf
2 sower of temptation
30 other spells
4 brainstorm
4 force of will
4 stifle
4 counterbalance
3 daze
3 sensei's divining top
2 maelstrom pulse
1 putrefy
3 smother
2 thoughtseize
Sideboard
2 extirpate
2 relic of progenitus
1 tormods crypt
3 pernicious deed
2 hydroblast
1 blue elemental blast
1 threads of disloyalty
1 thoughtseize
1 glen elandra archmage
1 krosan grip
Round 1 playing Dreadstill: I stick confidant. Then another. He tries to do some stuff, but it is realy hard for him to land a dreadnought and even if he does I can kill it easily. If I remember correctly goyf joins confidant. Game 2 he starts off by drawing a card on the play. Means he has to shuffle a card back at random. Supposedly it was brainstorm and I waste his only land and that is pretty much it as he doesn't find another for some time.
1-0
Round 2 playing Zoo: I decide to make this game extremely complicated by forgetting to brainstorm in resp to his t1 nacatl because I was watching Bertoncini's game next to me. Would have hit daze with brainstorm. I know it was terrible, but it doesn't matter as I have goyf and some other goodies while he makes some poor attacks and that is that. Game 2 I do something stupid again and even though I assemble countertop by the end I am at 4 and fireblast is just enough to kill me. Game 3 he keeps a bad hand. I guess he thought vexing shusher was good. It isn't, especially when he has no t1 play. I get a quick countertop. He somehow sneaks in some PoP after I fetch out a green source for goyf and don't have a 2cc on top. This brings me down fairly low, but countertop and goyf do their job.
2-0
Round 3 playing Dreadstill. Game 1 some stuff happens and I win. Can't really remember, but it probably involved confidant. Game 2 he sneaks in a standstill. I break it for top. He goes for goyf and I decide not to force it and get forced stifled. I then proceed to not hit another land for the next 4/5 turns while goyf kills me. Game 3 was insane. I keep a mediocre hand and go fro turn 2 counterbalance with daze backup. It meets snare and fow. He then has his own counterbalance. It quickly turns into counterbalance top. He drops a goyf at some point. Sower steals his goyf. I land a counterbalance. He needs to find an answer for sower and finds bolt. He decides to let me draw before bolting (I draw top which would have countered bolt blind). I pulse the counterbalances since he has top and I don't. More crazy things happen, but I cannot really remember and I somehow win.
3-0
Round 4 playing Dredge. He mulls to 5 on the play. He doesn't have amazing dredges. I have a critter and a smother to make sure there's no bridge shenanigans. I win eventually. Game 2 I open with some hate. Game is slow as I apply no pressure. Eventually I win.
4-0
Round 5&6 draw in
4-0-2
So going into round 5 my friend running this exact list is 3-1. He would get in even at 4-2. He manages to punt to aggro loam and then almost kill himself against dredge. The game against dredge was really bad. It was as if he tried to kill himself. Because of this and the fact that it took him way too long to top it got dragged out and they drew game 3 even though my friend had double relic in play and couldn't lose.
Top 8 playing Alex Bertoncini with good Merfolk aka the green version: Game one I mulligan and never get a second land even though I dig very deep. I had like 7 turns as his clock was 2 curse catchers since most of the good cards fought each other early on. Game 2 I see an opener that looks pretty awkward with 2 stifle and 2 deed. Anyway, deed is just too good against merfolk and we are off to game 3. He mulls to 6 keeping a hand with mana issues. I have confidant and follow it up with goyf.
5-0-2
Top 4 playing Quinn the might Eskimo:
Game 1 I mull to 5 and can't really make a comeback. Game 2 I get a countertop lock out quickly and kill with confidant beats as well as 1 goyf swing at the end. Game 3 we get to the point where nether of us have much. He has stp, painter, moat in hand and I have fow, blue card, confidant, smother putrefy. He goes for moat and I decide to let it resolve and protect confidant with my counters as I still have 3 maindeck outs to moat. Looking back this was probably wrong, but either way it was irrelevant as my only threat was a goyf that was 3/4 cards down and he would have had an eternal dragon a turn or so after.
5-1-2
All in all this was a great event and a great deck. Dark confidant is nuts and makes all of your matchups against other counterbalance decks amazing. He is also a huge problem for merfolk. Deed is as well. I can't really think of a reason to run and other colors over black in countertop. The sb options are so much better and confidant is the best creature ever.