hungryLIKEALION's tournament report collection

[hungryLIKEALION]

I decided that, given the volume of tournament reports I write, it might be better if I kept them all to one thread so as not to flood the board with them, cuz then I feel bad. This also makes it easier to justify writing reports for somewhat smaller events, or when I don't place as well as I'd like to. So thus, I'm making this thread.

Today I played in a 5-round Legacy tournament at The Portal in Bethlehem PA. There was no cut to top 8, prizes were awarded based on standings.

While preparing for the tournament, I couldn't decide on what deck I would like to play. I could go with my classic standby of Zoo, my newer toy of Supreme Blue, or I could try something different. I was in the mood to experiment, so I decided to try taking a more aggressive direction than Zoo, and went into full-out Goyf Sligh.

Here's my list:

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/7397/img0159i.jpg

4 Scalding Tarn
4 Arid Mesa
3 Wooded Foothills
1 Windswept Heath
3 Plateau
3 Taiga
3 Mountain

4 Goblin Guide
4 Steppe Lynx
4 Wild Nacatl
3 Grim Lavamancer
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Sylvan Library
2 Reckless Charge
2 Chain Lightning
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Rift Bolt
3 Fireblast
3 Price of Progress

SB:
4 Path to Exile
4 Tormod's Crypt
3 Faerie Macabre
2 Krosan Grip
2 Smash to Smithereens

People always talk about Zoo goldfishing turn 4. It doesn't. This does This deck is so ridiculously fast it's absurd. Granted, some numbers kind of suck here. I don't have a fourth Wooded Foothills, so a Heath has to suffice. I only have two Chains, but two more would be nice. I need to cut a reckless charge to go down to one, but still like it as a one of.

Anyway, report time.

Round 1:Dan playing Survival Elves

He wins the die roll.
Game 1:He plays t1 Survival with ESG. I play Goblin Guide and bash him to 18. He survivals twice on his turn. I play Steppe Lynx and reckless charge it with a fetchland, and swing for 9 to put him on 9. He plays some elves but they are not enough to stop the burn in my hand.

SB:
-2 Reckless Charge, +2 Grip
Game 2:I keep a one lander cuz I'm on the draw and have several R plays. He plays a mana elf, I play Goblin Guide and swing. He gets a land. He plays survival and uses it once. I don't hit the second land and end up having to sit and watch as he makes 60 elves and I lose.

More SBing:
-3 Goyf, +3 Macabre
Game 3:I keep a much better hand. Turn one Nacatl, bash him to 17. My notes on this game are pretty unclear, just "20, 17, 15, 13" and that's it, so, while I don't exactly remember how the game ended, I assume I had a lot of burn.

1-0, 2-1

Round 2:Joe playing Imperial Painter
I got paired down. I forget who wins the die roll, but I think it was me.
Game 1:I play nacatl which, with the help of his ancient tomb, gets him to 12 very quickly. I then unleash a salvo of burn to put him to 3 and make a goblin guide to put him to 1 before topdecking another bolt.

-4 Goyf, +2 Smash +2 Grip

Game 2:I have a Steppe Lynx but he gets the combo pretty quickly, and when I try to smash his Painter's servant in response to grindstone's activation he has the blast. I then try to bolt the servant, only to find another blast. If I had played my chain lightning in my hand the previous turn I would have won cuz he ended the game at 2. I didn't play it because he had red mana up and I didn't expect him to have two blasts. I thought I could just use chain for the last 2 points, but I was wrong. Even so, I should have cast it on my turn anyway because that would have forced him to tap too low to be able to use grindstone and I could have then smashed the servant and then bolted and he wouldn't have had another mana with which to bounce it back at me. Otherwise, if he chose not to return the chain, I could have still lavamanced him on my upkeep for lethal.

Game 3:I have turn one lynx with t2 Nacatl and grip in hand, but he makes t1 blood moon. I attack with lynx for a few turns in a row before he plays servant and kills it. I then kill the servant and play goblin guide, which he also kills. he goes painter beatdown while I draw all the green and white spells in my deck before I finally draw a few burnspells. He assembles the combo but I price and bolt him for the last seven with grindstone's activation on the stack, and he's out of counters.

2-0, 4-2

Round 3:Todd playing Goblins
I win the die roll.
Game 1:We both play t1 fetchlands, me for lynx and he for lackey. I play a fetchland and bash him to 15, and on his turn he gempalms the lynx. I play goblin guide and put him on 13. He plays warchief and swings. I play Steppe Lynx, Fetchland, Reckless charge it twice, and swing for 12, then fireblast. Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiick.

SB:-3 Price of Progress, +2 Smash +1 Grip

Game 2:I play t1 Guide, bash him to 17. He played t1 Vial, so on t2 he plays piledriver and vials out guide to block. I play Wild Nacatl and reckless charge it, and bash with both my guys. He trades guides and takes the 6, going to 11. He plays matron for stingscourger and uses it to bounce my nacatl off of vial. I suspend three rift bolts and pass the turn. He tries to figure out a way to kill me, but there is none. My three rift bolts drop him from 11 to 2 and I have a bolt in hand to finish the deed.

3-0, 6-2

Round 4:Kurt playing Spring Tide
He wins the die roll.
Game 1:T1 Nacatl, t2 double guide, t3 chain+fireblast.
SB:-3 Price, +3 Path
Game 2:T1 Nacatl (forced) t2 Guide+Mancer, t3 Another Guide(forced) and a lot of burn. He dies on turn 4.

4-0, 8-2

Round 5:Ryan playing Eva Green
He wins the die roll.
Game 1:He plays swamp, go. I play mountain, guide bash with a scalding tarn in hand, a steppe lynx, and 4 burn spells. He plays hymn and hits my tarn and a burn spell. I'm annoyed and don't draw a new land. He plays another hymn, leaving a lavamancer and steppe lynx in my hand instead of all the beautiful R 3 damage spells I had in my hand... He plays tombstalker and vampire nighthawk and I sit there with a goblin guide. I lose.
SB:-3 Price -3 mancer, +2 Smash +4 Path
Game 2:I mull to 6. I play t1 Nacatl and bash him to 17 and then he hymns me, taking the two fireblasts in my hand leaving me with two lands. I land Sylvan Library, but he kills my nacatl with gatekeeper, plays goyf and jitte. I have to draw 2 extra cards off library to have enough removal to keep him off jitte, but then I can't kill the tombstalker he plays next and I had to draw myself too low to buy any time so I lose.

4-1, 8-4

Not bad for my first time playing Sligh.

Anyway, the deck was fantastic. Very consistent, and very fast. I feel like this deck is better positioned currently than Zoo is. You actually have a legitimate chance of racing the combo decks, can shrug off a natural order because your clock is so fast, can beat lands because they can't stabilize fast enough, and can shrug off things like rhox war monk because by the time they're online you're already applying lethal damage via burn. I'd happily take this deck to a larger tournament, and probably will next time I come up to vestal.

Thanks for reading!

[jimirynk]

Nice foil nacatls.

[MMogg]

"He plays him and hits my tarn and a burn spell."

Had to re-read this typo twice before it sunk it.

Why is it whenever I play test Lynx he ends up being a dud? I've never had luck with that guy. Anyway, looks like fun to play.

[hungryLIKEALION]

"He plays him and hits my tarn and a burn spell."

Had to re-read this typo twice before it sunk it.

Why is it whenever I play test Lynx he ends up being a dud? I've never had luck with that guy. Anyway, looks like fun to play.

Woops, my bad. Fixed.

I don't like Lynx in Zoo, but in this deck (21 lands, 12 fetches) he was very good. You only really want two hits out of him, so that's fine when that's all you get.

[MMogg]

Woops, my bad. Fixed.

I don't like Lynx in Zoo, but in this deck (21 lands, 12 fetches) he was very good. You only really want two hits out of him, so that's fine when that's all you get.

Also you had a decent interaction with Reckless Charge, which I didn't ever test.

[hungryLIKEALION]

Yeah, whenever you untap on turn two and make a lynx, fetch, and charge it, it's pretty absurd. That's why I love charge, but I hate running more than 2 because multiples are really terrible, and even with 2 sometimes I draw them too often. I can't decide if I should cut one and play it as a 1 of or stick with 2, but it will always at least be a 1 of for me in this deck.

Also, Goyf totally sucks every time you have him unless you have a charge. He's so slow compared to everything else in this deck, it's the only deck I've ever played where I didn't want to draw goyf. Then again, I don't think I can really afford to cut him, because after all... he's tarmgoyf. -_-

[thefreakaccident]

Perhaps you could go:
-1 Tarmogoyf
-1 reckless charge
+2 chain lightning?

It seems like that would be the obvious decision since you happen to not like drawing him early, and you were already talking about cutting 1 of the reckless charges anyways.

I think you may have come to the same conclusion as well.

[Rizso]

Nice read. Think its possible to move the goyfs to the board or just skipping them.

[xTrainx]

So the idea behind the Charge is - Lynx, fetch, charge for 7?

[troopatroop]

Exactly. I brought it up in the SCD: Steppe Lynx thread and got no response. There is legitimate synergy between the cards, because it's the biggest 1 drop possible. I've been playing with 3 Reckless Charges, and it's been the most consistent for me after alot of testing. You really want to draw one if you draw two 1cc creatures, but 4 is too many. Multiples are bad, but they make Multiple Lynxes much better. This is a very difficult deck to get perfect, but I'm fairly confident that 3 is correct. I think it comes down to whether or not you're willing to make Reckless Charge a big part of your deck/gameplan. Personally, I am. Also, great report, I'm glad to see you giving this deck a try. I haven't missed a top 4 with it at my local store yet, not that that's saying much : )

EDIT: Just to spell out some more pros to playing Reckless Charge, cuz I'm dying to talk about it.

1. Fetchland Maximization. Say you draw two Steppe Lynx, and only a couple land. Without Reckless Charge, you cannot get both Lynxes to benefit from all your fetches, which can definitely lose you games. With Charge, you allow both creatures to benefit, and get more value out of your few fetchlands.

2. Haste +3/0. Is Awesome. Especially with Steppe Lynx, who is just such a "flash in the pan" kinda creature, and expendible. You get an extra attack step in with an undercosted beatstick, and a Lightning Bolt on top of it! It's totally unfair if they're stumbling at all.

3. Flashback. This matters, and is a legitimate way to steal long games. Say you've gone deep, say 10 turns into the game. If you've built up some lands, hopefully held back some fetchlands, Steppe Lynx is GG. Every other creature off the top gets to be relevant NOW as opposed to the next turn, where your opponent can untap and answer. Flashback makes Reckless Charge a 6 dmg card potentially, and alleviates the 2 for 1 nature of it.

[hungryLIKEALION]

So another not-amazing report that I want to write anyway because it was a very fun day of magic.

4/10 Jupiter Games Legacy, 23rd out of 91, a.k.a. the Harry doesn't win a single game 1 story.

Sword In The Stone by Harry Matten Gillen

4 Mutavault
1 Island
1 Forest
1 Plains
4 Flooded Strand
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Savannah
2 Tundra
3 Tropical Island

4 Noble Hierarch
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Sower of Temptation

2 Ponder
4 Brainstorm
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 FoW
3 Daze
2 Jitte
1 SoFI

SB:
3 Tormod's Crypt
2 Path to Exile
2 Krosan Grip
3 Faerie Macabre
3 Wash Out
1 Trygon Predator
1 Thwart

So there are a few changes from my previous list here. I dropped the 4th SFM and the SoLS for 2 Vendilion Cliques in an effort to up the blue count of the deck (19->21) and then swapped out the Threads of Disloyalty for Stifle. I played with the stifles for a while before deciding I didn't like them anymore and replaced them with Sower of Temptation, which turned out to be awesome, so I'm glad I made the change.

The sideboard is a little more refined now, and I think it's a good deal better now. 4 paths really weren't neccesary, so I cut two for a Trygon Predator and a Thwart. Trygon got the nod over the third grip because it's blue, so I can side in three anti-artifact/enchantment cards without lowering my blue count too much. Thwart is just a useful card for matchups like NO Bant and Landstill, but I'd certainly consider cutting it if I found something else I'd want more. I also went -1 Crypt +1 Macabre because of Reanimator's prevalence.

So I woke up at 6 and got in the shower by 6:30, and left to meet up with my team mates by 7:15. At 7:30 I met up with Ryan and the two of us waited until 7:50 before calling our other team mate Joe about why he wasn't there yet. I called him and as he picked up the phone he said "Hello?" and I said "Are you almost here?" and he said "Oh, shit..." So yeah, he was still asleep. Awesome.

Me and Ryan go to Wawa in the meantime to get breakfast sandwhiches and drinks for the day. Then we go back to the Portal to pick up Joe and begin the journey to vestal!

It's a pretty enjoyable ride up, and we get to Jupiter Games around 10:30. I already have my deck together, and laugh at my car mates as they scramble to get theirs together.

My car is as follows:

Ryan O'Donnel-Eva Green
Joe Stempo-Bw Gate
And of course...
Harry Matten Gillen-Excalibur

We have the players meeting and then round 1 is called. My opponent, of course, ends up being one of my friends from back home...

Mark playing LED Dredge.

Game 1 seems like it's going well as he Careful Studies and discards ichorid and Bridge. I have the t1 hierarch and make two goyfs and he casts LED and Breakthrough with a Golgari Thug in the yard, but does not hit another dredger. I sower the narcomoeba he gets and beat down. I end up chumping one of his zombies with the narcomoeba, removing his bridges, but it's not enough. He gets more bridges in the yard and hits triple narcomoeba on one thug dredge, makes like 12 zombies over the next two turns, and I lose.
-2 Vendilion Clique
-2 Sower
-1 SoFI
-1 Mutavault
-2 Ponder
+3 Macabre
+3 Crypt
+2 Path
Game 2 I keep a hand with t1 Hierarch and a Faerie Macabre. I play the hierarch and he therapies me, naming Macabre. Dammit. Fortunately, I topdeck a crypt the next turn and put it in play, and from there my hierarch beats take him to 7 combined with his cities of brass until I finally get goyf in play, which quickens my clock enough to win.

Game 3 I keep a 1 lander with two macabres and two goyfs. I topdeck a crypt and put it in play, then next t urn I draw a noble hierarch. I cantrip into a second hierarch and a land and play them and then he firestorms them, discarding a dredger. I macabre the dredger. He gets another in the yard and I topdeck another crypt. Then I crypt him and play the second one. He gets another dredger in the yard, and I macabre it. So at this point, he's got no cards in hand, I'm beating down with a spellstutter that countered a putrid imp, and I still have a crypt in play. SSS gets there.

1-0 (2-1)

Round 2 is against Dan Signorini playing Team America

As we shuffle up to play, I tell him that I recognized his name from the source, and he says "Yeah, I have a bit of a reputation on that website." I grinned.

Game 1 I fetch for an island and ponder, then he plays underground sea and ponders. I put him on Storm Combo (Which I shortly realized was probably not correct given that he was one of the developers of Team America) and daze the ponder. This was a very bad play and I don't pretend it wasn't. Over the next three turns, he plays three sinkholes on the island and mutavault I have. I don't draw any more lands, and when I get to 8 cards I'm already at 12 and he has a goyf down, so I decide to concede since I still haven't shown any cards that really indicate what deck I'm playing and I don't want to give up information.
-1 Sower -1 SSS -1 SoFI +1 Thwart +2 Path

Game 2... my notes kinda suck. But I play t2 goyf which is forced. I have the option to force back, but decide to let it go because I have a second goyf in hand. The second goyf resolves. He tries to sinkhole one of my lands but I have daze. I resolve my second goyf and then swords the goyf he plays. I resolve stoneforge mystic but he stifles my trigger. He plays a vendi clique somewhere in here too. I end up attacking my sprite, goyf, vault, and mystic into his goyf and Vendi, and he goes to 2. I'm left with goyf and mystic and he's left with goyf. He wastelands my Vault and blocks my goyf again, going to 1. He doesn't draw an answer and concedes.
I take out one SFM and put my Sower back in.

Game 3 I go t2 Goyf t3 Clique, and he's on 7 almost immediately. He then plays Tombstalker, and then goyf. I topdeck sower and he plays Jitte, equips it to TS, and swings. I path it. I then drop Sower to steal his goyf and swing for the win.

2-0, (4-2)

It's at this point that I'm going to say how much I like the extra faerie package in this deck. It lets the deck play so much more aggressively, it really helps you put away games much quicker when you need to be aggressive, or when you just don't want to try for the long game.

Round 3 against Samuel Wang playing 4c Countertop

Game 1 He plays t1 Top, and I am disappointed. t2, Counterbalance. I daze. t3 Counterbalance. Come the fuck on. Considering I have no board position so far, I can't get enough spells through counterbalance to win. Although I do resolve a sick spellstutter sprite through the CB that counters a Dark Confidant via Mutavault. Woot!

-1 SFM
-2 Ponder
-1 ? (I can't for the life of me figure out what it was, and I didn't write it down. Blah.

+2 Grip
+1 Predator
+1 Thwart

Game 2 he made t1 top and on his upkeep topped for a second land drop and found it. He then made counterbalance. In response I played a Spellstutter Sprite, even though it would not counter the CB. This turned out to be the best choice I could make, as exalted spellstutter beats took it home thanks to my counters on his STPs.

Game 3 he opens on t1 top AGAIN and I want to punch something. However, I land t2 Mystic and get SoFI on it, and tanks to exalted manage to swing passed his goyf and confidant. He tries to stifle my SoFI trigger, but I SSS the stifle and kill his confidant. Sword moves to SSS, Jitte joins it, connects each of the next 3 or so turns, and I have the FoW for the vedalken shackles he plays. He plays two Goyfs, but SoFI+Jitte kills a goyf each turn and I get him to 1 with mystic, SSS, and Mutavault still in play. He never drew a white source.

3-0, (6-3)

Round 4 against Alix Hatfield playing Reanimator

Alix comes up shortly after I sit down and says "Are you hungryLIKEALION?" and I mental fist pumped. I told him I was a fan of his contributions to the Zoo archetype, and we talked a bit about our previous rounds and then started playing.

Game 1 I'm on the play and make a t2 goyf. his t2 Inkwell with force backup is a little more impressive. I make a vendilion clique, but he dazes it and then reanimates it for epic lulz. I get crushed by Big Inky.

-2 Ponder
-2 STP
-1 SoFI
-1 SFM
+3 Macabre
+3 Crypt

While sideboarding I mentioned that I had not won a game 1 yet today, but that I was okay with this because each time I've top 8d at Vestal I've lost round 4, to which he says I should just scoop now so I don't screw that up. I explain how ridiculous some of my opponent's draws have been today, we laugh it off, and go on to game 2.

Game 2 I open a hand with macabre in it and feel confident. I play a goyf and topdeck a tormod's crypt and he doesn't do anything until the end of my turn 4 when he's at 14. He cracks a fetch going to 13 and Hyrkyl's Recalls me. The crypt goes back into my hand, and my hand is now Macabre, Force, Force, Crypt. He untaps and Mysticals for Dark Ritual. He casts the ritual and then Thoughtseizes me. I tap my 5 mana to force of will it, 3 cards still in hand. I chose to tap out to cast force because I wanted to represent a second active force of will since he knew the crypt was in my hand. He spent like 3 minutes deciding what to do. At first he said he thought I was trying to protect a goyf in my hand, and then he said "You couldn't be playing macabre... could you?" And then about half a minute later decided to force back. Thoughtseize resolved and he took my Macabre and I was very sad. An entomb and a reanimate later and I was facing down Sphinx of the Steel Wind, me at 19 and him at 3. I had three turns to topdeck an STP or a sower, with any flying creatures I could topdeck adding a turn to my theoretical life total, but 2 fetchlands and a force of will from the top later and it was clear I was not meant to get there.

As I shuffle up he comments "Is that some more of that bad luck you were talking about?" And I say no, I was just outplayed. I show him how I sideboarded and he gives me some advice, that I should probably lean heavier on answers and side out more threats instead of STPs since I should always be able to land some sort of threat between my faeries, goyfs, SFMs, and mutavaults. I keep this in mind for when I have to play the match later.

3-1 (6-5)

Round 5 against Philip Stolze playing UWR Walker Control

I'd like to take a note to mention that this is probably the worst matchup I could feasibly run into.

Game 1 he's on the play and suspends ancestral visions. He spell snares my t2 goyf and not much else happens until I spellstutter his Ancestral Visions. He STPs the faerie and then I point out that AV is still countered since its CMC is zero. I get hierarch and jitte down and then a goyf and the Hierarch beats in for 4 damage over two turns, then he STPs it and I say if he shows me the EE I'll scoop as I'm topdecking and he has academy ruins in play. He shows it to me. I scoop.

-3 STP
-1 Sower
+2 Grip
+1 Trygon Predator
+1 Thwart

Game 2 I open on hierarch, t2 two more hierarchs, t3 SoFI + Equip to Hierarch + Swing. t4 I swing again and he tries to STP, but I Spellstutter. He untaps and Day of Judgments. I cry. Mutavault picks up SoFI and swings putting him to 5.He trinket mages for Top and finds a mishras factory. I try to sower his Trinket Mage but he has FoW. I play a goyf but he sends it plowing. I swing Vault with SoFI into his Factories and trade for one. I attempt an EoT Spellstutter so it can pick up SoFI and swing for lethal but he FoWs it and I extend the hand.

This is my second mistake of the day. I had another draw step here to find an out, and the top card of my library was a brainstorm which would have seen ponder, land, blue card. I took the ponder, shuffled, and saw brainstorm, mystic, land. If I'd taken the mystic I could have chump blocked the factory once (I was at 2 at this point) and tried to draw another out with the brainstorm, but I'm still skeptical that I would have gotten there regardless.

My other theory is that in the midgame, instead of trying to resolve Sower and Goyf, I should have just had the Vault picking up Sofi and keep swinging. Maybe it would have gotten there. *shrug*

4-2, (6-7)

Round 6 against Jesse Hatfield playing Reanimator.

In this tournament, I've played more big names than in the rest of my magic career, I do believe.

Game 1 Big Inky makes another t2 appearance (I attempt to SSS his Dark Rit and get dazed, then I daze his reanimate only to have it get paid for by the remaining Rit mana... Yeah, I suck.) and I cry myself to sleep at night.

-2 Ponder
-1 Jitte
-3 SFM
-2 STP
-1 SoFI
-1 Spell Stutter Sprite
-1 Forest
+3 Tormod's Crypt
+3 Faerie Macabre
+3 Washout
+2 Path to Exile

Game 2 I have hate (I forget what kind) and I manage to get there with quick Goyf beats and counterspells. I don't have good notes on this one (This is where I started to get sick of writing for the day.) and don't remember this game too well, so I apologize for that.

Game 3 I put down Crypt on t1 and play Vendilion Clique on his draw step and he counters it. Hierarch beats take him to 15 before I drop the other Clique which beats him to 3. He EoT tutors for Echoing Truth and bounces it to my hand. On his draw step I play it again and see 2 land, Exhume, Reanimate, and Dark Rit. I let him keep them and he extends the hand.

4-2, (8-8)

Round 7 playing against Ethan Hellicher on 1 land Belcher.

I know he's playing Belcher so I feel confident since I've never lost to it in a tournament. Then again, I've certainly never played a Belcher pilot as good as Ethan.

Game 1 I keep 2 daze, 2 goyf, Sower, and 2 land since I have disruption and a hand like this could race 8 goblins and I'm on the play. Unfortunately he has the spirit guide to dodge the daze (floating a blue) on his desperate ritual, and makes 14 goblins on turn 1. He says "Show me the stifle" and I wish it was still the deck. I can't race that many, so I scoop it up to go to game 2.

-3 STP -2 Sower -1 SoFI
+2 Path +1 Thwart +3 Washout

Game 2 I keep a hand with two cantrips, Goyf, Sower and lands. He starts to go off on his turn and I brainstorm into Force which I use on his Desperate Ritual. He removes Simian Spirit Guide and Pyroblasts me, then land grants, plays LED, Burning Wish, cracks LED and tendrils me for 20. My fault for giving him 1 more storm with my brainstorm, but if he had made 18 goblins instead of tendrils for 20 I still would have lost.

After this game I'm pretty dejected because his hand was so fucking ridiculous game 2 and I say "Must be nice..." He says "Have you ever played against this deck before?" And I say "Plenty of times." He sounded kind of offended, but I hope he knows I wasn't trying to be a dick, I was just disappointed. I lament that if I had waited to cast my FoW until he used LED, I would have won, but then he might have just had the ETW in his hand and then I would have been in quite a bit of trouble. What I think I should have done (Aside from brainstorming on my own turn) is at least waited a little longer before using my FoW, since the Desperate Ritual was only going to put him on 3 mana. If he ETWd at that point I think I still could have raced it, so waiting would have been the right choice.

Anyway, I feel like I only made 3 real play mistakes all day, and every other choice I made I feel was defendable. I had a great time as I always do at Jupiter Games, and still love the deck, even though I managed to dodge all of my good matchups all day. (Seriously! I didn't hit a single favorable matchup all day! What gives?) I'm definitely going to keep refining this deck as I really enjoy playing it, and I still think it has huge potential to take me to another top 8.

Props:
Yes for keeping me awake on the way home with Yessongs.
Getting home before midnight.
Spellstutter Sprite, Vendilion Clique, and Sower of Temptation for being awesome.
Ryan for going 5-2 with Eva Green. Keep it up!
Alix Hatfield for putting up with my fanboyishness.
Eli for letting me swap out that ripped tropical island from my prize last time for a non-ripped one. Seriously, you're the best TO ever.
Jupiter Games in general. I'd play there every weekend if it wasn't so far away!

Slops:
Not playing against merfolk.
Graveyard decks making me discard my faerie macabres. :[
Hyrkyl's Recall.
Losing to Belcher despite having Force of Will. >:O
Getting tendrils'd by Belcher. That one really hurts.
Scooping too early.

Thanks for reading, and I'll happily answer any questions about the tournament or the deck!

[aTn]

@Excalibur:

Against control decks, Enigma and I have been testing Gaddock Teeg + Sword of Light & Shadow in the SB. Until now, it's been good to us.

I think playing Vial instead of Hierarch is definitely an advantage in the control MU.

Playing Vial with 12 creatures may seem weird (as you mentioned in the Excalibur thread), but I think it's key in many MUs enabling for sweet combat tricks, trumping countermagic and gaining tempo. Personally, I play 4 Goyf/S.Sprite/S.Mystic + 2 V.Clique and I'm content with setting Vial@2.

[hungryLIKEALION]

It's not that playing vial with 12 creatures seems weird. It's that vial sucks in this deck, especially compared to hierarch which is amazing in this deck. Hierarch provides about 3x the tempo that vial does, gives exalted, lets you hardcast FoWs all the time, gets you to the neccesary mana to activate mutavaults and equip them for a swing, AND is never a dead draw. Vial is ALWAYS a dead draw past turn 2-3, is worthless in multiples, and doesn't provide any of the other benefits Hierarch does, plus it's slow as shit.

Vial is not an auto-include for any deck running creatures. I ran the card in Zoo for a long time until I realized, hey, Vial sucks in Zoo for all the same reasons it sucks here. It doesn't offer the deck anything that it actually needs. Vial is good in Goblins because Goblins has a way to consistently dump high cost creatures with gamebreaking effects into it due to the synergy of matron+ringleader. Vial is good in Merfolk because they need a way to break standstill. This deck needs to do neither of those things, and wasting slots on an artifact that doesn't do anything makes the deck worse, especially in control matchups where you have to win quickly, something that vial doesn't do at all.

Honestly, vial is just so bad. So very bad. Play hierarch and start winning.

[cdr]

Two double posts in a row. Impressive.

[hungryLIKEALION]

Three, actually, the last one was like months ago. I dunno why, but it seems like everytime I post in this thread it does that D:

[Tammit67]

When is this last vestal going up?

[hungryLIKEALION]

Took Excalibur to the Vestal tournament yesterday. I did not top 8, but I did finish in the top quarter of the tournament, so I figured I'd write a report.

29th out of 130 aka the I'M STARTING TO THINK THE GOOD MATCHUPS FOR MY DECK DON'T EXIST ANYMORE story.

Sword of Omens by Harry Matten Gillen
Vestal Power Tournament, 5/15/10, 29th place of 130

4 Misty Rainforest
4 Flooded Strand
1 Plains
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Savannah
2 Tundra
3 Tropical Island
4 Mutavault
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Vendilion Clique
2 Sower of Temptation
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Force of Will
3 Spell Snare
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
4 Brainstorm
2 Ponder

SB:
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Faerie Macabre
2 Krosan Grip
1 Trygon Predator
2 Path to Exile
1 Lightning Greaves
3 Washout

So, I haven't made any changes since the previous tournament, as I was pretty happy with how the deck ran last sunday.

In the days leading up to the tournament, I was pretty depressed to find out that non of the people I usually drive up with were intending to go to the tournament. Luckily, my friend Matt Bevenour needed a ride, and we had the following conversation via text messages:
Me:You need a ride for Saturday?
Matt:Two problems with that are, I can't get to the Portal and you'll be stuck for two hours when I top 8
Me:You write the last half of that from my point of view?
I set my alarm for 6 am and slept through it, waking up at 6:45. I sent a text message to Matt and hopped in the shower, then got on the road by 7:30. I picked up Matt and we hit up the Wawa, getting breakfast. I got another awesome Caramel Cappucino, but I got a black lid instead of a white one (Play Mistake count:1). The heat does not flow out of the black lid very quickly, and I can hardly even enjoy the awesome caramel aroma because of how small the opening is. :[

The drive goes smoothly, as this is like the 4th time I've done it. So, despite it being long, it's gotten kind of mundane at this point. The high point is, as always, Dunmore Throop. Best city name ever.

We get there, I talk to some friends, me and Matt come up with decknames (He suggests I use Lion-o's sword for my deck name since I need a different sword for each tournament, and I tell him to name his deck Imitation Crab Legs. It seemed appropriate.) Blah blah blah, dick around a little while longer, tournament starts!

After the player's meeting I talk to Jeremy Smelski about the deck for a while as he is playing it too. We continue to talk about it throughout the day, and he ends up going 4-4.

Round 1 vs. Dan playing Bant Countertop with SFM and Elspeth
I win the die roll. Game one he opens with Top and I have an early goyf. He plays his own goyf which I STP. I FoW a counterbalance, spellstutter an hierarch because I'm afraid of him casting natural order (I didn't know he wasn't probant yet) and then SSS a stone forge mystic. This whole time my goyf is beating his face in, and then he topdecks Elspeth. Happily for me, I have the 5 mana to hardcast FoW as the last card in my hand, and he scoops.
-2 Ponder, -1 Forest, +2 Grip +1 Predator
Game two I mulligan two no land hands into a 5 card hand with a fetch and an hierarch, FoW, SFM, and Grip. He dazes my t1 hierarch but I topdeck a second land and SFM for SoFI. I FoW his SFM and then SSS an hierarch before Vendi Cliqueing him. Vendi picks up SoFI and gets there.
1-0, 2-0
Dan was a nice opponent and I enjoyed our match very much.

Round 2 vs. Robert playing Dredge (no LEDs)
I win the die roll. He has t1 Imp discarding Golgari Grave Troll but I get Jitte on a SSS and use my jitte tokens to kill his narcomoebas and ichorids. Eventually he hits some bridges and I kill one of my SSS to exile them. He gets three creatures to Dread Return a grave troll, but I send it plowing thanks to the top of my deck and he concedes next turn.
-4 FoW, -2 Sower, -1 Jitte, -1 SoFI, -3 Spell Snare, +3 Crypt +3 Macabre +3 Washout +2 Path
Game two I keep a hand with two cantrips and some other action. He mulls to 6. He plays t1 Imp but has nothing to discard. I ponder and find STP. He breakthroughs on his turn, hitting a few dredgers. On my turn I ponder again, hitting crypt, so I exile all the cards he's seen this game except for his lands in one turn. Feels good. He concedes a few turns later when my goyf is beating down.
2-0, 4-0
After signing the slip and walking over to the judge's table, I realize he put that he won 2 and I won 0... He was a nice guy so I'm sure it was an honest mistake, so I just fix it and hand it in.

Round 3 vs. Dave Price playing New Horizons
I groan when I see the pairings. I lost to Dave in the top 8 of the first tournament I played this deck, and despite beating my friend Allen playing the deck at the Philly Open, I still don't like the matchup. Me and Dave have some friendly banter as we shuffle up and I congratulate him on his recent top 8 in Atlanta.
I win the die roll. I open this game aggressively but he has three straight wastelands. Fuuuuuuuuuuu. I get a Goyf down and an SSS counters STP then begins wearing Jitte against his empty board when he topdecks EE and wipes me out, then drops Terravore. I curse my inability to draw Spell Snare. Also, at some point in this game, I cast a SFM with two lands and a fetch out and he dazes. I crack my fetch and he stifles. I FoW the stifle and he has the second daze... I >.< really hard.
-2 Ponder, -1 SFM, +2 Path, +1 Trygon
Game two I don't remember that well, but I'm pretty sure I resolve Sower on KoTR and it sticks, which results in my victory.
Game three I open on Hierarch which he swords, then play another Hierarch. I get SFM and tutor up Jitte and begin trying to tempo him out, swordsing his Goyf and then his Terravore, then cast my own goyf... and then get blown out by EE at 2. (Play mistake count:2) He plays huge creatures (Terravore still has trample) and I lose.
But hey, I took a game off him this time! Yay! :D
2-1, 5-2

Round 4 vs. Dan playing ANT
I win the die roll and open with Hierarch and have two FoWs and Brainstorm. He Duresses me and takes my Brainstorm. I topdeck another brainstorm and pass the turn, then he thoughtseizes me and takes a FoW. Then he Duresses me AGAIN and I brainstorm in response, but don't see what I need and I let him take the other FoW since I won't have another blue card anyway. Then he goes off a turn or two later with threshed cabal ritual into Ad Nauseam.. I have flashbacks to my loss to Brad Granberry on Sunday and frown at how good discard spells are for ANT D: He was only at 8 life, too! Dammit.
-1 Jitte -1 SoFI -2 Sower +1 Trygon +3 Tormod's Crypt
I know Crypt isn't hugely relevant, but I get sick of losing to threshed cabal rits and Sower seems far too slow to be relevant. Maybe I should leave Sower in in the future though because lowering the blue count is never great.
Game two I open another awesome hand with FoW and Snare and I vendi clique him seeing 2 Dark Rit, Chrome Mox, Slaughter Pact, and Lotus Petal. I let him keep it and he pacts my Clique. I get SFM down and get my Jitte and begin beating down and my countermagic holds down the fort until I win.
Game three I have yet another ridiculous hand where I lead on Hierarch and t2 clique him with force in hand. I see Infernal Tutor, Land, Cabal Rit, and Ponder, but he has top in play and I worry about taking the Tutor with clique allowing him to go off this turn. I have snare in hand so I know I can beat the tutor for the moment, so I let him keep those cards. Clique begins smashing in and I draw into more countermagic, so I get there.
3-1, 7-3

Round 5 vs. Bryant Cook playing TES
Seriously? ANOTHER combo player? This day is becoming pretty taxing...
Unfortunately my hands against Bryant aren't even close to how good my hands against Jordan were, as I fail to draw FoW in my opening 7 or in the top 12 cards of my 6 card hand via cantrips. He duresses me and takes spellsnare, then duresses me again and takes Jitte and makes 20 goblins. Fuuuuuuuuuuuu
-1 SoFI -1 Jitte -2 SFM +3 Washout +1 Trygon
Game two I keep 7 with Snare and Spellstutter but he plays t1 Xantid Swarm. Ugggggggh. I don't have STP in hand so I ponder trying to find it on my turn, but don't. I shuffle, and still don't.. He swings with swarm then makes 18 goblins. I play some blockers, topdeck FoW (Dammit!) and then get grapeshotted in his post combat main phase. Le Sigh.
3-2, 7-5
So at this point I can still top 8, but I have to win out. Not the best feeling, but doable, I say!

Round 6 vs. William playing Enchantress
He wins the roll and mulls to 6. He opens on Forest and I open on Hierarch. I don't know what he's playing until turn 3 when he plays Enchantress' Presence, which I FoW. I play Goyf and Vendilion Clique to see that all he has in hand is a ton of land and Replenish. I let him keep the Replenish since all he has in his yard is EP. He casts it next turn, then topdecks Solitary which he casts. He lets it die then casts another Solitary, but can't feed it for long since he has no enchantments to play and once the enchantment crumbles, my army crashes in for lethal.
-4 STP -2 Sower +3 Washout +2 Grip +1 Predator
I have a super aggressive hand with t2 Goyf that begins beating down, SFM with Jitte which gets counters, and SSS which countered something ( I forgot what). I put him to 10 before he drops Confinement and Sterling Grove... Then I washout naming white and swing for lethal. Yay washout! Constantly finding new matchups to play it in. :D
4-2, 9-5

Round 7 vs. Eric playing UGR Tempo Thresh, but with Jace, Crucible, Mishra's Factory, and no Geese. Not really sure how to classify it.
I don't remember exactly what happens in these games because they were REALLY FREAKING LONG. But game 1 he draws a million counters and I don't draw much action, then he plays Vendilion Clique and I don't draw anything with which to kill it. Lame.
-4 FoW +2 Path +1 Lightning Greaves +1 Predator
Game two I play Goyfs and SFM and Jitte and SSS and kill him. He has mana troubles making it pretty easy for me to capitilize and win.
Game three I fuck up when I attack with mutavault, then cast SFM getting it Spell Snared. I have SSS in my hand... if I had cast SFM before combat I could have SSS'd it. (Play mistake count: 3) Then I do it again next turn. (Play mistake count: 4) Yeah, I suck sometimes. The game goes on a while longer but he gets Vendilion clique again and I once again can't draw an answer to it, resulting in a pretty frustrating defeat.
4-3, 10-7

Round 8 vs. Nick playing Zoo
HEY LOOK AT THAT I FINALLY PLAY A GOOD MATCHUP HOLY FUCK I DIDN'T THINK IT WAS POSSIBLE!!!!
Game 1 I blow him out with two Spellstutters and SFM for Jitte, spellsnare his pridemage, and win.
-2 FoW, +2 Path
Game 2 Grim Lavamancer presents a bit of a problem for me, but I flash in a SSS to block it when he swings. He removes it, but I get a goyf down and SSS a Path and get SFM which gets Jitte which gets counters which gets me the win.
5-3, 12-7

SO THAT WAS MY DAY. I finished in the top quarter of the tournament, so I can't be too annoyed, but it sucks to be so close to top 8ing and losing because of poor play. >_< Damnationnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!

Awesomely, Matt top 8d with his mono blue merfolk! I am very happy for my friend and watch as he plays his top 8 match against Zoo. Of course, it's mono blue folk against zoo... Matt loses pretty hard. D: We chill while the rest of the top 8 matches are played out. I goldfish Matt's ANT deck for a while (which is totally fun) as he busts my balls about going too far with Ad Nauseam, so I end up going into the mini game of trying to win with as few cards as possible. I do this for a while before it finally gets a little boring, then go hand out in the main room and begin drawing. Matt tells me I draw eyes too far up on the head and after looking at my art, I realize he's right. Interesting. Finally top 8 wraps up and Matt gets to walk away with a mox emerald! Woot!

The drive home is fun, though I'm pretty sleepy. I get a mountain dew and some starbursts from Eli before leaving to power me through it. The GPS keeps falling off my windshield and one of the times it does it results in me missing my exit and the GPS claims this will add an hour to the journey. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!! I pull a U turn through one of those little emergency path things and fix the mistake, and we get home around 2:45. I drop Matt off, slog into bed, and don't wake up for 10 hours.

So the changes I'd like to make to the deck: I want a third Vendilion Clique somewhere in the deck, and I want EE in my sideboard. Not sure how I'll fit in either, but we'll find out in a month! :D

Props and slops!

Props:
Eli, as always. Another awesome tournament.
Matt Bevenour for top 8ing a larger tournament than I ever have! AWESOME JOB DUDE! :D
Cool opponents.
Matt again for actually eating the donut he lost after round two and found in the garbage can after round 8. You've got balls, sir.

Slops:
Engineered Explosives, both for blowing me out in round 3, and for not being in my sideboard. I gotta get that thing in there somewhere...
Uhmmm... Nothing else really, this was a pretty great tournament on the whole.

As always, I'll happily answer any questions.

[Tammit67]

What rounds of testing with this prompt for you if any? Do you feel you have a grip of most matchups soundly enough? Ever going to play zoo?
And the donut was delicious.

[hungryLIKEALION]

What rounds of testing with this prompt for you if any? Do you feel you have a grip of most matchups soundly enough? Ever going to play zoo?
And the donut was delicious.

I'd like to test against ANT and other storm combo more, since it's a matchup that relies on tight play and good mulliganing decisions. Most other matchups I do feel I have a good grip on. And yeah, I'm sure I'll play Zoo again eventually. I'm strongly considering it for the 5/29 tournament at redcap's corner.

[mchainmail]

I'd like to test against ANT and other storm combo more, since it's a matchup that relies on tight play and good mulliganing decisions. Most other matchups I do feel I have a good grip on. And yeah, I'm sure I'll play Zoo again eventually. I'm strongly considering it for the 5/29 tournament at redcap's corner.

Not that it matters, but Rion Marmulstein said he was going to that as well with Pro-Bant (what he top-4ed the previous vestal tournament with)

I'm not going to be able to make it to that tournament though.

[hungryLIKEALION]

Cross posting from the Zoo thread:

4-0'd a small tournament at Cyborg 1 in Doylestown PA today with Zoo, ending in 1st place. It's been like, 4 or 5 months since the last time I played Zoo, so this felt pretty good. It was a lot of fun to play the deck again, and this basically restored my confidence in the archetype so I may take it to more tournaments soon. We'll have to see how I feel, I guess. Anyway, the list. Pretty typical for how they're looking lately.

4 Wild Nacatl (4 Foil!)
3 Grim Lavamancer (1 Foil!)
2 Kird Ape (2 Foil!)
1 Steppe Lynx (Foil!)
1 Figure of Destiny
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Qasali Pridemage (2 Foil!)
2 Knight Of The Reliquary (1 Russian Foil! :D)

4 Lightning Bolt (4 Textless Foil!)
3 Chain Lightning (3 English!)
2 Lightning Helix (2 Textless!)
3 Price of Progress
2 Fireblast
4 Path to Exile (4 Judge Foil!)

3 Taiga
3 Plateau
1 Savannah
3 Arid Mesa
3 Wooded Foothills
3 Windswept Heath
1 Mountain
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Horizon Canopy

SB:
2 Krosan Grip
3 Choke
2 Swords to Plowshares
3 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
3 Tormod's Crypt

The maindeck felt really good. As much as I hate to admit it, Zoo's position in the metagame has changed significantly. Since we no longer have inevitability on most of the blue decks and it's getting pretty likely they're going to be packing more creature hate than before. Anyway, I know I have some really stupid numbers (1 Lynx? I only had 1 foil and didn't wanna run non-foil 1 drops that weren't rares ;p It was actually pretty okay though, surprisingly enough.) Playing no Libraries is a first for me in a long time, but they're pretty impossible to take advantage of in the current metagame, and maindeck jittes are just too slow for what we need them to do. In addition, the maindeck Pops and Fireblasts give us the reach and speed we need right now. In the past I hated fireblast in the deck, but they feel good now. I like them.

Sideboard was pretty good to me, and I think this is the direction Zoo sideboards are going to have to go in this new metagame even though I still feel like it looks like crap on paper. Whatever, it worked.

The tournament started at 6, and I had work until 5:30 at Wegmans, so my friend Matt (Tammit67) came and picked me up with his friend Rob and the three of us headed to the site. I'd decided a few days ago I wanted to play Zoo and not Excalibur, and I threw together a sideboard at like 8 am. We got to the site, bummed around for a few minutes, then the tournament began.

Round 1 Vs. Joe playing UWr Landstill

I didn't know what he was playing, but I won the roll and kept a strong hand with a nacatl, an ape, and a lavamancer + some burn. He FoWd my t1 Nacatl, making me think Reanimator, then fow'd my t2 Lavamancer (Ape resolved) after playing a tundra and brainstorming on my turn. It quickly became apparent he was on Landstill. Ape beat down for several turns while he snared my pridemage before he managed to halt the ape by dropping humility with a Factory in play. I considered trying to force Ape through with burn on the factory, but then he cycled decree of justice making that seem like a bad plan. At this point I had Helix and Fireblast as my last two cards in hand, and 5 lands on the board. He played a standstill, so in response I cast helix and fireblast to put him on 2. I topdecked a chain lightning, then topdecked a second chain, so I played the first to break standstill. He drew three cards, activated his factory and swordsed it to stay at 2. I revealed the second chain and he conceded.

-2 Knight of the Reliquary, -4 Path, -1 Grim Lavamancer +2 Krosan Grip +2 Blasts +3 Choke

I know it kinda sucks to be taking out a 1 drop in a matchup where having one is so important, but lavamancer is by far the least impressive of them all and I feel like it's the best card to cut here since burn is very effective.

Game two I open on Nacatl which resolves, then he swordses it when I attack the next turn. I play another nacatl and a lavamancer. The second nacatl also eats a plow, but the lavamancer sticks around to beat down and throw some fallen cats and fetchlands at him. Unfortunately for him, he gets stuck on two lands... for a long time. Lavamancer beats him down to 10 before he draws a third land (Factory). I EOT Lava him, untap, chain, Price for 4, and then mance him again for victory.

He shows me his hand after the game ends, and I have to admit it was ridiculously stacked. He had Humility, Moat, EE, and Pulse of the Fields all ready to play, if only he could acheive the mana for them. Lucky me, I guess.

1-0

Round two I played against a guy playing a foiled out standard Jund deck from standard. Game one he mulled to 5 and I had turn 1 nacatl. He had... nothing until turn 3 when he played a sprouting thrinax. I pathed it and then pathed the follow up thrinax, at which point I burned him out.

-2 Grim Lavamancer -2 Lightning Helix -1 Chain +3 Jitte +2 Swords. I'm not sure this is correct, though it's honestly not relevant since it waas against a standard deck...

Game two was pretty quick as he again mulled to 5 and I kept a hand with tarmogoyf, pridemage, jitte, path, and three land. I topdecked a second pridemage which allowed the first to trade with his Putrid Leech, then smashed in with a 5/6 goyf until he was at 5. Both our hands were empty, as were the boards. Nicely though, I was playing this awesome card called Price of Progress... 10 damage for 1R? Yeah, pretty nice.

2-0

Round three I played against Dave with Elves. For a non-combo elf deck it was pretty well tuned. Anyway, game one he hits triple Sylvan Messenger and I draw 5 lands in a row. Triple Kicked Joraga lord guy beats me. :[

-2 Knight of the Reliquary, -3 PoP +2 Swords +3 Jitte

Game two I keep a hand with 3 burn spells, swords, Jitte and two lands. I eventually draw a pridemage to put Jitte on, which tilts the game heavily in my favor. Then he plays Chalice at 1, which seems like an odd choice to me... but I guess it was good since I then drew 4 one drops in a row. I have to make a really awkward fireblast on a lord, but I still have three more lands left over afterwards so it's okay. Eventually Pridemage got him down within burn range, at which point I used it to blow up the chalice and finish him off with some lightning. Hooray!

Game three I keep a one lander on 6 cards with Grim, Ape, and copious removal. I draw two more lands, but he draws two wastelands, making things... really rough. I get a lot of mileage out of lavamancer, but since I'm stuck lavamancing one critter per turn while racing him (Pridemage vs. Wren's Run Vanquisher) it's hard to keep up with his elves. Eventually I get the second land (though I'm forced to double block his vanquisher to avoid death) and put a tarmogoyf in play followed by a new lavamancer. I draw both my lightning helixes which prove to be extremely clutch since they give me the life I need to stabilize, and lavamancer keeps his board clear while goyf finishes him off.

3-0

Round four I play against my friend Matt who brought CountertopThop to the table today. Game one I play t1 Nacatl, t2 Chain+ Swing
(14) t3 Bolt + Goyf (Countered) + Swing (8) t4 Swing + Pridemage (Snared) + Bolt (2) t5 Win. Yaaaaaay.

-2 Knight of the Reliquary, -4 Path to Exile, -1 Grim Lavamancer, +3 Choke +2 Blasts +2 Krosan Grip.

Game two we both keep 1 landers. Mine is full of ridiculous gas including multiple one drops, price, and choke, but I don't draw the second land for far too long while he assembles countertop and thoptersword. I scoop when he starts thopthopthopthopthopping.

Game three my hand is a lot better, though it's like 4 one drops so I run the serious risk of getting blown out. Luckily enough, the 5th card is choke and the other two are lands. Cool! I go hardcore aggro with one drops, and he has to plow my nacatl and figure before trinket maging for EE. I take the opportunity with him tapped out to cast Choke, which resolves. He has a factory and a seat of the synod which untap, but he can't make EE at 1 and crack it in the same turn, giving me enough time to put him down to 9. From there, Chain and PoP for 6 finish the game.

4-0

The deck was great. I'd play this maindeck again in a heartbeat, and it was a lot of fun to return to my old stomping grounds on the taigas and plateaus. I'm not sure what I'll play at the next vestal event, but I'll definitely be considering Zoo pretty heavily.

Thanks for reading.

[Vacrix]

Nice report sir.

Out of curiosity why did you play x3 Choke? Doesn't Zoo already have a great matchup against U.dec?

[hungryLIKEALION]

Zoo has mostly positive matchups against U decks, but it is my prediction that in the post-mystical tutor metagame U decks will be playing more maindeck/sideboard hate for Zoo, making the matchups closer to even. Choke gives the zoo player a compact hoser that makes it almost impossible for the U player to recover in time to win, particularly given the speed of the currently good Zoo lists.

It may not be necessary, but since you know going into any legacy tournament that you'll be playing against 50-75% blue decks, it seems worth it to include something that will really tilt those matchups in your favor.

[Tammit67]

Nice report sir.

Out of curiosity why did you play x3 Choke? Doesn't Zoo already have a great matchup against U.dec?

While it does have great blue matchups, it can really hurt the few that aren't so hot, like new horizons, and completely shore up the others. Not sure if it is completely warranted though.
Congrats, and thanks for the credit. I'm willing to spot you whenever you want.

Edit: And by warranted, I mean I hope people dont run it. It's such a pain to play through. I'm convinced that was the difference maker in game 3. Would have been at least closer

[Vacrix]

That was what I suspected. Choke really does lock the opponent out of the game. Even so, I think that moar REB would work too. Not having to pack hate for ANT now is nice eh?

[Tammit67]

It'll be back with a different name. And the REB's dont hurt nearly as much. Choke cuts the problem off at the source, which is hopefully before the lands played anything gamebreaking. I'd run both personally.

[Vacrix]

Then again, Choke costs significantly more mana, which makes it more susceptible to Spell Pierce and Daze, especially when Zoo plays on so few land. I agree though, running both is certainly a better option.

[hungryLIKEALION]

I've never bothered with ANT hate in Zoo. The amount of matches you win compared to how many sideboard slots you waste on it is not a ratio that is worth supporting.

Resolving Choke is typically not that difficult. People don't leave in/side in spell pierce against Zoo because doing so would be profoundly retarded, and it's pretty easy to get to 4 mana. 21 lands is actually pretty many.

[AbelAffinity]

Was a fun game, despite being mana screwed pretty hard in game 2. Would love to play your excalibur, too. I was interested by the siding in of choke, as typically I only see that in Rock/ GB hybrids as an answer for blue.

Hopefully you and Matt and Co. come down from Bethlehem more often, even though the tourneys are small it's always fun to play good players. We'll probably try to come up to The Portal if there's a big tourney as well.

[jrsthethird]

t's pretty easy to get to 4 mana. 21 lands is actually pretty many.

Unless you're playing New Horizons.

We should try to convince Jared to run a $5 or $10 Legacy event with a decent payout in store credit instead of packs, maybe it would be worth it to get more people, since we already get like 25 people every month for free Legacy for packs.

[Fry]

I'm the guy who talked to you out at Jupiter Games with their 2nd year anniversary tourney. I tested with the Kiln fiend you suggested, but sometimes you just get them and they sort of die out or get chumped and kiiled simultaneously. The extra Chain Lightnings help considerably too.


My list is:

Main Deck

2x Bloodstained Mire (1 Onslaught Foil, and 1 Judge Foil)
2x Wooded Foothills (1 Onslaught Foil, and 1 Judge Foil)
4x Scalding Tarn (All Foil)
4x Arid Mesa (All Foil)
3x Plateau
3x Taiga
3x Mountain (All Unhinged Foil)

4x Goblin Guide (All Foil)
4x Grim Lavamancer (2 Torment Foil, 2 GP Foil)
4x Wild Nacatl (All Foil)
4x Steppe Lynx (All Foil)

3x Sylvan Library (1 Alt Art)
4x Rift Bolt (All Foil)
4x Chain Lightning
4x Lightning Bolt (2 textless Foil, 1 M10 Foil, 1 M11 Foil [the Judge Foil is in my Cube])
3x Price of Progress
3x Fireblast (All FNM Foil)
2x Reckless Charge (1 Foil)

Sideboard

2x Faerie Macabre (1 Foil)
1x Price of Progress
3x Krosan Grip (All Foil)
3x Gaddock Teeg (2 Foil)
3x Ensaring Bridge (1 Seveth Ed Foil, 2 Eighth Ed Foil)
1x Relic of Progenitus (Foil)
2x Tormod's Crypt (1 Timeshifted Foil, 1 FNM Foil)

Tarmogyof is just too slow for the average size in this deck and it counter productive with the Grim Lavamancers which act as reusable burn almost every turn.

The Sylvan Library is my favorite card in this deck because it is incredible reach and card manipulation.

Price of Progress is good against almost any deck and it makes the Land match up very winable and great in combo post fireblast.

Rift Bolt gets around Counter-Top.

Reckless Charge is an incredible inclusion for it enables a posible turn two 11 damage with Steppe Lynx's.

The Sylvan Library is my favorite card in this deck because it is incredible reach and card manipulation.

Price of Progress is good against almost any deck and it makes the Land match up very winable and great in combo post fireblast.

Rift Bolt gets around Counter-Top.

Reckless Charge is an incredible inclusion for it enables a posible turn two 11 damage with Steppe Lynx's.

Gaddock Teeg is a 2/2 for 2 is slow for the deck, but the ability is worth it, even with legendary status, to stop combo deck from going off

Ensnaring Bridge stops cards like Sphinx of the Steel wind and Progenitus, bot of which are incredibly bad for this deck. It also stops goyfs, terravores, ard kotr, pretty much anything with a 4 or greater and often times 3 or greater power. Also it tends to shut down S&T

[hungryLIKEALION]

8/22/10
The Portal hosts a $5 for a FTV:Relics. ~30 people show. I know I'm playing Zoo before the event, so there's no real struggle with deck selection here. The only decisions I make are that I cut PoP because it seems really bad right now against everything but lands, especially knowing the meta that I'm going into, and at the last moment dropping the 3rd horizon canopy and 3rd KoTR for 2 Fireblast (Something that I really liked.) I arrive at this build:

4 Wild Nacatl
3 Grim Lavamancer
3 Steppe Lynx
1 Figure of Destiny
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Qasali Pridemage
2 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Chain Lightning
3 Lightning Helix
2 Fireblast
4 Path to Exile
2 Sylvan Library
4 Arid Mesa
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Windswept Heath
3 Taiga
3 Plateau
1 Savannah
1 Mountain
1 Forest
1 Plains
2 Horizon Canopy

2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Choke
3 Krosan Grip
3 Tormod's Crypt
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Pyroblast

Mom makes a nice breakfast of Bacon and Eggs, and my brother and I make it to the site around 12:45. Tournament starts at 1, so we're in good shape. JT's (yadda) playing Bant Survival today, he may or may not post a report, I dunno. Anyway, Tournament begins.

R1:Steve playing Hypergenesis
I win the roll and open on Nacatl. He goes land, pass. I swing and chain him. He goes land, pass. I play KoTR. He plays land, demonic dread, hypergenesis, Wound Reflection, Wound Reflection, Magister Sphinx. Interesting kill.
-2 KoTR, -1 Sylvan Library, +3 Grip. I side out the slowest parts of my deck for something that can kill a Wound Reflection.
Game two he mulls to 5 and I open on Nacatl again, then on turn two make Steppe Lynx. I got to 19 from a fetchland. I have him on 9 with 2 fireblasts in hand and 3 mountains and a fetch when he combos out, dumping Sphinx, Reflection. I say okay and go to 10, then realize that I should have used my fetch before saying okay so I could double fireblast. I chalk it up to never playing against Hypergenesis, because let's be serious here, it's terribad. I attack, he blocks, I kill the sphinx by capping it with a bolt, and next turn win with fireblast.
Game three I open on Nacatl, and fire an early helix to go to 22 before realizing it was a terrible play because now Sphinx+Reflection kills me, whereas if I held Helix until after Sphinx came down, I couldn't possibly die to just those two cards. Woopsee. It turns out to be irrelevant as on the turn before he dies he finally just goes for it, putting in reflection, FKZ, and Ingot Chewer. Unfortunately for him I put in Goyf and pridemage. Goyf blocks the FKZ, Pridemage chumps the chewer and then shoots the reflection. I beat down for two turns and burn him out.

1-0, 2-1

I feel lucky to have escaped the round one pairing with a combo deck, but I'm done long before everyone else (The whole match took hardly 15 minutes) so I get to scout the field. Rock, some merfolk, one other Zoo player, Excalibur, Bant Sur, Aggro Loam, Lands, Thopters are a few of the decks I see. Pairings go up for round 2, and I find myself facing down...


R2:Allen Abendroth (talon7331) playing Excalibur
Unfortunate. Allen's both a team mate, and he's been working on Excalibur since the GP. He took my design and has moved it in an interesting new direction, playing KoTRs, Wastelands, Horizon Canopies, and some other stuff. I don't know his whole 75, but having designed the deck it's based off of, I know to play around Spellstutter Sprite, which is probably the most important card in the matchup.
I win the roll and we both mull to 6. I open on Lynx which gets in once before becoming a farmer. I then land Lavamancer. For the next 5 or so turns I just use burn+Lavamancer to keep his creatures off the table, also using up some paths along the way. Luckily he's only playing 1 basic (Forest) and he fetched for it (Probably in anticipation of PoP-Joke's on him!) so Path is just W:Exile target creature. I resolve some spells through Spellstutter Sprite by taking out his faeries with the trigger on the stack, and eventually topdeck into a Wild Nacatl to put a real clock on him (Lavamancer doesn't count.) Cat and Pridemage get there, eventually.
-3 Steppe Lynx, -1 Chain Lightning, -2 Fireblast +2 Jitte +2 EE +2 Pyroblast
Steppe Lynx is kind of crappy here since he has Jitte, and I don't need to be super fast here so I can drop the Fireblasts and the sub-par removal spell (Sorcery speed? Ew.) EEs give me a great tool/element of inevitability, Jitte answers his jittes obv, and Pyroblasts come in to answer annoying things like Spellstutter and RWM which I expect him to bring in since I know he added them to Excalibur in the past despite my urging not to since I don't think it's necessary for the deck.
He goes fetch Trop, Hierarch, go. I go Nacatl, go. He goes Hierarch, go. I play Lavamancer, bash for 3, and pass. He plays Vendilion Clique and takes my Jitte. I helix Clique and Lavamance an Hierarch. He makes a land drop but I still use Mancer to hit his other Hierarch. He plays out some bigger dudes but I rip paths to exile them. He clears out my board but I land Nacatl again. Nacatl races with a Spellstutter Sprite for a bit until I play Goyf and he untaps and plays KoTR. Lacking a path, I pull the trigger on EE@3, though I can't crack it with just 3 land in play. Unfortunately, he was sandbagging SFM so he's able to SFM for Jitte and play it. I frown. I topdeck Grim Lavamancer, a little late there. I pop EE and he swings in with Spellstutter, garnering two counters. Thankfully, the top of my deck yields Jitte(!!!) and I legend rule the shit out of his, then lay Lavamancer. From here it's elementary as my Nacatl and Goyf smash his silly little 1/1 and 1/2 into dust under their lionly paws.

2-0, 4-1

The dust having settled from round 2, I shake hands with Allen (It was really weird playing against my own deck, especially when I designed that deck to be good in this matchup. This was the first time I'd done it. Me knowing how to play against it was definitely important, because otherwise I would have gotten blown out by Spellstutter about, say, 8 times throughout the match?)


R3:Ryan Parsley playing Countertopthop
Ryan is playing my friend Matt's (tammit67) Thopters list, so I know his 75. I know that Game one is good for me, while before game 2 he brings in 3 Finks and 4 Paths. Yikes. I wish myself luck and we begin!
I win the roll and he mulligans. I open on Nacatl, Pridemage, Goyf, burn spells. He hits his plows and a counterspell for the Goyf, but I land lavamancer and then burn him out.
-2 KoTR -2 Library -1 Path to Exile -1 Horizon Canopy -1 Tarmogoyf +3 Grip +2 Choke +2 REB
I board out the slower elements of my deck, a canopy because I don't need the extra land here, and leave in 3 paths because I know Matt's list brings in Kitchen Finks. If I was playing against anyone else with Thoptertop where I did not expect Finks g2, believe me, I'd happily side it out.
I open on Steppe Lynx but he has the plow. I land Nacatl, but he lands Jace and bounces it. I chain Jace and replay nacatl but it walks the lonely path. I chain him and get in once with Lynx before he answers it and lands CB. I attempt a lavamancer, but he has Enlightened Tutor for Top. I let a few turns go by while I sculpt my hand(AKA try to draw a spell to bait with so I can land Grip without fear), and he's not really doing anything. On the fourth turn of Draw-Go I pull the trigger with a Lightning Helix aimed at his head. He responds by using a Fetchland and I grip the CB. CB dies but he still shuffles and reveals Sword of the Meek to counter the Helix. I resolve Tarmogoyf, and he goes for EE at 2 and passes priority. Grip! Goyf gets in for 6, putting him to 8. I attempt Choke, but he has force of will. He lands Moat. I draw Grip. He lands Humility. I grip it and play Pridemage and blow up the Moat, but he has the plow for Goyf. I play Lavamancer. Also, Fireblast.

3-0, 6-1

It's 5 rounds top 8, so I can safely ID in at this point. I do so. JT also went 3-0 and IDs in. Caffrey (mchainmail) also IDs into top 8 with lands, boo. The three of us and Matt go to Taco Bell where me and Matt split a Grande Meal, then we Cube draft. I go UG and hit Survival+Fauna Shaman. SoLS also finds its way into my stack as a means of abusing Survival, which I happily accept. Unfortunately we only get to play one match of Cube before top 8 goes up, in which I smash Matt's BW deck... mostly due to having Great Sable Stag + SoLS. Of course, Body Double on turn 5 copying Kalonian Behemoth is pretty good.

Top 8:Ken Koepplinger(naarou) playing Team America
Ken used to play Reanimator up until the Mystical Tutor banning. He still has Reanimator, but recently built Team America as well, and it's been working pretty well for him apparently, as he was 3-0 in the swiss today. Ken's a good friend though, so we wish eachother luck and square off.
He wins the roll and opens on USea. I open on Nacatl, which gets Snuffed, but Ken misses his second land drop and discards a V. Clique. I land Goyf, which also gets Snuffed. He EEs a few of my guys, garnering a 2-for-1 on some one drops and then nailing a goyf. I land Cat, Chain him, and he lands Goyf. I run cat into it and then chain goyf before landing Pridemage who takes him to 1 and I have the burn spell.
-2 Steppe Lynx (He plays Stifle and I'm scared D: ) +2 Pyroblast
Choke doesn't seem worth it here as he has bayous and basics and junk and I really just don't wanna use a card on something as intangible as him not untapping since this matchup is kind of a war of attrition most of the time.
Game two I keep a hand with Taiga and Canopy but no plains. I go t1 Cat t2 Pridemage swing for 3, then rip the fetchland to get a plains. He uses some fetchlands and lands a 3/4 goyf which nacatl beats passed. He goes to 10 on a force of will on my Goyf, but I have a second. I swing all three of my critters into his Goyf+4 mana with a hand of Bolt, Path, Chain, Fireblast, Pyroblast, and a taiga, plateau, and canopy for mana. He blocks the Nacatl and smothers the goyf, making my attack kind of suck... A lot. I pass the turn, intending to EoT Bolt him(5), untap, Chain (2) Fireblast(-2). Unfortunately, once I pass the turn, he ponders, then casts Hymn to Tourach (!!!). I weigh my options. It's either pull the trigger now and try to put him on 1, or see what the fates have in store for me and hope to keep my fireblast and path. I decide to pull the trigger. Tap Taiga, Bolt him. (5) Float a Red from Plateau, sac both mountains, Fireblast. He Dispels. I Pyroblast Dispel. (1) Tap Canopy for Path on Goyf. Resolves. He has One untapped land, and cannot Snuff out without dying, meaning Pridemage gets there.

4-0-2, 8-1

My brother loses his quarterfinals match to Caffrey, meaning I have to face Lands instead of Bant Sur, which I'd be much more confident going up against. Of course I have to play the only lands player in the building, and I didn't bring PoP. Earlier in the tournament Caff asked if I was playing PoP because Parsley told him I wasn't (Damn you Parsley >:O ) and I implied I was ("Only a fool would play legacy without PoP.")

Top 4:Michael Caffrey playing Lands
I lose the roll. I keep a sketchy hand with basic mountain, Canopy, double Lavamancer, Triple R burn spell because I know I'm unlike to win game 1 anyway and this hand can at least mostly ignore Maze of Ith. Unfortunately his draw is nuts and involves Tabernacle turn 3, me not drawing any more land, and turn 4 Zuran Orb. I scoop.
-2 KoTR, -2 Library, -4 Path to Exile, -1 Tarmogoyf +3 Crypt, +1 Bojuka Bog, +3 Krosan Grip, +2 EE
Similar to my boarding strategy against Thopters, except here I just take out Path since I know he's not bringing in creatures.
Game two I keep 3 burn spells, Crypt, 3 land because I'm just frustrated and tired and know there's hardly any way I win this matchup without PoP. I spend a few turns burning him before he puts out Chasm. He takes 2 from it to go to 5, surprisingly, but then dredges Zuran Orb. The next turn he forgets to pay for Chasm. Unfortunately he has double maze of ith, so creatures are not getting there. At this point, I just need to draw two of 8 burn spells left in the deck or one of 3 lavamancers to kill him. He uses a fetchland, making the fireblasts into single-card outs. I draw a Helix, meaning the remaining ten burn/lavamancer spells are outs. 15 turns go by. I draw land after land after land after steppe lynx after land. He gets his factory beats on which kill me despite him being on 1. An incredibly frustrating way to end the day, but it happens.

4-1-2, 9-3.

All in all, a good day for Zoo. Caff went on to crush a merfolk player in the finals (Thank God too because the dude was a total douchenozzle. Two weeks ago at Cyborg One he was ranting about how Belcher was the perfect deck for Legacy because nobody was playing Blue anymore, and the GP had no Blue in it so Belcher should just rape everything. Today he was ranting about how everyone plays Blue, so he played Merfolk because it's good against blue and lord knows EVERYONE plays blue... I made fun of him saying this in a very loud voice, and he either didn't hear me (Which would mean he MUST be deaf) or pretended not to. Either way, guy's a douche.)

I get $20 Store Credit, test some more Zoo vs. Allen's Bant deck (which he changed up significantly after the tournament) and then go home.

Tomorrow... Tournament report for DREDGE!!! at Cyborg One on 8/21/10.

[Damnosus]

Congratulations on the finish. I am playing almost the same thing (different manabase/I am not sure whether to go with Steppe Lynx or Loam Lion), and it is pretty darn solid.

How often do you go to cyborg one (I do realize this wasn't where you were but yea)? Before I moved away I used to go there quite a bit. I am not sure if I ever saw you there, but I do remember enjoying myself (for the most part-there were a couple of guys...). Is the metagame still full of Belcher, and is there still that one guy who always played Landstill? Just curious as to how things have changed.

Cheers.

[naarou]

yeah, that merfolk player was a complete tool.

good games harry hopefully next time i'll make you work a little harder :)

ninja edit: two P's in my name btw

[hungryLIKEALION]

yeah, that merfolk player was a complete tool.

good games harry hopefully next time i'll make you work a little harder :)

ninja edit: two P's in my name btw

I thought there were, but your facebook said otherwise D:

Anyway, yeah, they were good games, and I look forward to our next match. :]

[hungryLIKEALION]

Congratulations on the finish. I am playing almost the same thing (different manabase/I am not sure whether to go with Steppe Lynx or Loam Lion), and it is pretty darn solid.

How often do you go to cyborg one (I do realize this wasn't where you were but yea)? Before I moved away I used to go there quite a bit. I am not sure if I ever saw you there, but I do remember enjoying myself (for the most part-there were a couple of guys...). Is the metagame still full of Belcher, and is there still that one guy who always played Landstill? Just curious as to how things have changed.

Cheers.

I've only been to Cyborg three times, and the first time was only like 2 months ago, so I probably never saw you. I'm probably going to be going there about once or twice a month for the forseeable future. There was one belcher player this most recent time, and no landstill that I saw.

[Damnosus]

OK thank goodness, I was so worried that the Landstill player might have been you, cause I really really disliked him. I have no idea if he still goes there, but if he does, please crush him for me (if you play him). He is a medium height short blonde haired skinny guy with a decent size nose if I recall. :laugh:

[OldOD]

OK thank goodness, I was so worried that the Landstill player might have been you, cause I really really disliked him. I have no idea if he still goes there, but if he does, please crush him for me (if you play him). He is a medium height short blonde haired skinny guy with a decent size nose if I recall. :laugh:

i believe thats josh putusuck. he is the shittiest person on the planet and an even worse magic player.

[Damnosus]

Awesome, someone else who feels the same way I do!!! He would totally ruin all the fun whenever I went. Thankfully I only played him twice (or at least that I can remember) and I am 1-1 against him. Crushed him the first time with sui black of all things (felt good), then lost with U/G/w countertop after his friend (also a jerk, though quieter so less obtrusive), looked at my hand and told Josh that there was no way that I could beat him (I believe that is cheating, but I was too tired at the time to say anything).

More on topic: hungryLIKEALION, as I asked before, if you ever play him, please make me proud by trouncing him!

[jrsthethird]

I've played against Landstill there a couple times, but not him. Sounds like a dick, I would love to trounce him while stuffing my face with a glorious sandwich from the adjacent deli.

[naarou]

I thought there were, but your facebook said otherwise D:

Anyway, yeah, they were good games, and I look forward to our next match. :]
It's the german spelling :) Koepplinger is the american-ized "official" version.

[jrsthethird]

I definitely prefer the version with the umlaut.

[supachai]

Congrats on the finish! I run a pretty similar build, with -1 Figure +1 Lynx, -2 Fireblast +1 Chain, +1 Knight and some changes in the manabase. Out of curiosity, how has 9 fetches been holding up for the Lynxes? I've been running 11 to get pretty consistent 4/5 Lynxes. Also, is the only reason for 3 Chains because you don't have a fourth? I love having the 8 burn spells at 1 mana personally.

[hungryLIKEALION]

Congrats on the finish! I run a pretty similar build, with -1 Figure +1 Lynx, -2 Fireblast +1 Chain, +1 Knight and some changes in the manabase. Out of curiosity, how has 9 fetches been holding up for the Lynxes? I've been running 11 to get pretty consistent 4/5 Lynxes. Also, is the only reason for 3 Chains because you don't have a fourth? I love having the 8 burn spells at 1 mana personally.

Thanks. I wouldn't cut Fireblast right now, and I don't think the third knight is worth it. Honestly I've begun considering cutting Knights or moving them to the board in favor of additional one drops, more than likely FoDs. (Not certain on that, but considering it.)

9 Fetches has been okay for me, but maybe not optimal. If I were indeed to cut KoTRs, I would probably just move up to 11 fetches and axe the canopies, or maybe axe the third taiga for a 10th fetchland, I don't know. But at the moment, I have not felt like 9 was too few for the 3 Lynxes I'm playing.

As for the 4th chain, it's both an availability issue and just an uncertainty about whether I'd rather have the 4th chain or the 3rd helix. I don't have the 4th chain so I'm just playing the 3rd helix, but even if I did I'm not sure I'd make the swap. Helix has several distinct advantages over chain (Instant speed, 2cc can dodge some obstacles chain can't, gaining three life is not irrelevant, especially given the generally aggro-saturated meta we seem to be in lately + 2 libraries in the deck), so I kind of like it better. Both are good spells, and I think that currently there is room for them to share.

[supachai]

Thanks. I wouldn't cut Fireblast right now, and I don't think the third knight is worth it. Honestly I've begun considering cutting Knights or moving them to the board in favor of additional one drops, more than likely FoDs. (Not certain on that, but considering it.)

9 Fetches has been okay for me, but maybe not optimal. If I were indeed to cut KoTRs, I would probably just move up to 11 fetches and axe the canopies, or maybe axe the third taiga for a 10th fetchland, I don't know. But at the moment, I have not felt like 9 was too few for the 3 Lynxes I'm playing.

As for the 4th chain, it's both an availability issue and just an uncertainty about whether I'd rather have the 4th chain or the 3rd helix. I don't have the 4th chain so I'm just playing the 3rd helix, but even if I did I'm not sure I'd make the swap. Helix has several distinct advantages over chain (Instant speed, 2cc can dodge some obstacles chain can't, gaining three life is not irrelevant, especially given the generally aggro-saturated meta we seem to be in lately + 2 libraries in the deck), so I kind of like it better. Both are good spells, and I think that currently there is room for them to share.

Thanks for the response. I played a couple games against/with Zoo the other day, testing out fireblast and it literally won me all my games that I would have otherwise lost. I'm cutting one Helix and one Knight for them. I agree that it's a very powerful card, especially since I decided to add a 3rd Taiga, cutting a fetch. Helix does synergize with Library pretty well as I'll almost always pay 4 for a Helix. Chain was also randomly bad against Zoo mirror or Goblins, but Helix hogging up most or all of your mana in the early turns was a bit annoying. Maybe 3 Helix would be right for an aggro heavy meta. Anyways, thanks again and congrats!