PDA

View Full Version : Intro to Animation @ RIT



JonBarber
04-17-2010, 08:06 PM
Hey hey,

So I’m writing my first ever “official tournament report.” Let me start off by including how I was feeling today: I hung out play testing with my friend Will Fisher until 4:30 am and didn’t actually end up going to bed until 6:45 AM. Not a great idea when you have to wake up at 9 AM for a tournament. Regardless, I did it. I’ve been toying around with reanimator, and decided that it would be my deck of choice. I really liked 4eak’s list (from mtgthesource) so I ran something pretty similar to it. As a starter, here’s the list:

// Lands -- 18
3 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
3 [ZEN] Verdant Catacombs
4 [B] Underground Sea
4 [ON] Polluted Delta
1 [P3] Swamp (2)
1 [BD] Island (3)
1 [R] Bayou
1 [B] Tropical Island

// Creatures -- 6
2 [ZEN] Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 [ALA] Empyrial Archangel
1 [ARB] Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 [RAV] Blazing Archon
1 [CFX] Inkwell Leviathan

// Control -- 12
4 [DD2] Daze
4 [AL] Force of Will
3 [LRW] Thoughtseize
1 [DS] Echoing Truth

//Reanimation Effects -- 8
3 [FNM] Reanimate
1 Animate Dead
4 [US] Exhume

//Card Selection -- 16
4 [OD] Entomb
4 [V09] Mystical Tutor
1 [OD] Careful Study
4 [BD] Brainstorm
3 [MPR] Ponder

// Sideboard
SB: 2 [ZEN] Spell Pierce
SB: 1 [US] Show and Tell
SB: 1 [OD] Extract
SB: 1 [TE] Perish
SB: 2 [TSP] Krosan Grip
SB: 1 [NE] Reverent Silence
SB: 1 [4E] Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 1 [WWK] Nature's Claim
SB: 2 [PLC] Extirpate
SB: 1 [TO] Sickening Dreams
SB: 1 [ZEN] Ravenous Trap
SB: 1 [SC] Stifle

The only differences between his list and mine are that I run 1 animate dead instead of the 4th reanimate. I might change this, but I figured it would protect me from something random like an extirpate on reanimate, and the life loss can be a little rough sometimes. The other difference is that I ran 2 extirpates instead of the trickbind. My friend Will was playing thopter foundry combo, and I wanted to increase my chances of nailing his sword of the meek. If you have any questions about the list, I recommend you check out 4eak’s explanation of his list on the source. Anyways, on to tournament time!

I was playing at the Rochester Institute of Technology biweekly legacy tournament. Despite there being a very large pre release going on in Rochester, there was still a nice crowd of 18. Pairings go up, and OF COURSE I’m paired against no one else than Will Freaking Fisher. Having played a good 50 matches against him the night before, I was not looking forward to playing him again.

Round 1: Will Fisher playing UWB Thopter Foundry Control

Game One:

I win the die roll and keep a hand of 2 Fetch, Underground Sea, Reanimate, Animate Dead, Brainstorm, and Ponder. No way of depositing a creature, but having a way to look at 6 cards seemed like good odds. Turn 1 I ponder, seeing three lands. I shuffle it away and draw a daze. Will plays an island and passes. I play land and brainstorm, seeing land, archangel, and thoughtsieze. I throw away archangel and a land. I thoughtsieze him, and he brainstorms in response. I decide to daze it, and see Bob, Counterbalance, and Enlightened Tutor. I steal away his counterbalance and say go. He drops Bob and passes the turn. At this point, I’m just waiting for a way to drop a critter in the yard. I proceed to rip exhume, exhume, land, land, daze. In those 5 turns he beats me to death with Bob who’s got a fancy sword of the meek attached to it. Pretty lame. 0-1

I board like so:

-1 Archangel
-1 Echoing Truth
-1 Sphinx of the Steel wind
-1 Iona
-1 Blazing Archon
-1 Thoughtsieze
-2 Ponder

+2 Extirpate
+2 K-Grip
+1 Stifle
+1 Show and Tell
+1 Extract (He plays 1 sword of the meek)
+1 Reverent Silence

Game Two:

I open a hand of 5 fetches, force, and exhume. I mulligan. My 6 hand has no lands, nor does my hand of 5. My mulligan to four is fetch, Reanimate, K-Grip, Extirpate. It’s got a land so I keep. I play my fetch and pass. He drops an island and a t-crypt. I don’t see another land for many a turn, and he’s able to get some good board position and I don’t stand a chance. I lose that one too. 0-2

0-1 (0-2)

Round 2: Chris Miller playing Affinity

Game 1:

He wins the die roll and drops Seat of the Synod, Engineered Explosives, and… Tormod’s Crypt. My jaw drops. “You play that main??” he replies “No, it’s on my sideboard. I put it in against you.” I inform Chris (who’s still fairly new to playing competitive magic) that you can only use your sideboards games 2 and 3. After a quick chat with the judge, he unsideboards, reshuffles, and draws a new hand. He plays artifact land and passes. I draw and EOT discard Sphinx. He plays a ravager and I force it. He passes. I draw, play Sea, and play reanimate targeting Sphinx. It goes the distance. 1-0

Board:
-2 Iona
-2 Ponder
+2 K-Grip
+1 Stifle
+1 Nature’s Claim

Game 2:

He plays orinthopter and artifact land. Passes. I play Fetch and pass. He plays ravager and frogmite. I knew his grave hate was T-crypt from game 1, so when he ends his second turn without a crypt in play I smile. At his EOT, I entomb Sphinx. My turn I exhume and he makes a comment about how he should have mulled to gravehate. It resolves and Sphinx once again goes the distance. 2-0

1-1 (2-2)

Round 3: Jacob Barber playing Merfolk

Jake is another good friend of mine who I’ve tested against a bunch. His build is different from most in the fact that he maindecks echoing truth, which makes blazing archon not quite as amazing.

Game 1:

He wins the die roll and drops and island and passes. I cast a turn 1 entomb. He has no response so I drop Iona in the grave. Turn 2 he drops standstill. I break standstill with an exhume. He forces it. Next turn I play a reanimate, it resolves, and Blue Iona goes the distance. 1-0

Sideboard:
-3 Ponder
-1 Sphinx
-1 Inkwell
-1 Archangel
+1 Stifle
+2 Extirpate
+1 Sickening Dreams
+2 Spell Pierce
(I knew his grave hate was only faerie macabre hence no grips)

Game 2:

I didn’t write too many details of this game, but it was basically just a lot of counter spells at each other’s faces until we ran out of gas. Unfortunately his deck has a bunch of creatures that beat for a lot of damage, and they got me. 1-1

Game 3:

I lead things off with a thoughtsieze. I see a faerie macabre and a bunch of irrelevant merfolk. I take the faerie and pass. He plays island and passes. I go and cast entomb, it resolves. I drop Iona in the yard. He goes and plays a silvergil adapet and passes. I attempt to cast exhume and he reveals the faerie macabre he top decked. Pretty shitty. I learn that after the thoughtsieze he drew: force, spell pierce, faerie macabre. Needless to say, he won that one. 1-2

1-2 (3-4)

Round 4: Joey playing Elves

My luck finally starts picking up, and I play a happy matchup.

Game 1:
T1 Entomb T2 Reanimate. Nuff said. 1-0

Sideboard:
He doesn’t board anything so I just swap out a ponder with a perish

Game 2;
T1 Entomb T2 Reanimate. Nuff said. 2-0

2-2 (5-4)

Round 5: Ben Chadwick playing Elves

Seeing as Will and Jacob are first and second seed, it’s only fair that I get this lucky. Poor Ben never seems to have much luck against me, and today is another one of those days.

Game 1:
I mull to six. I thoughtsieze myself pitching Iona. Turn 2 I exhume. 1-0

Sideboard:
-1 Sphinx
-1 Archangel
-1 Inkwell
+1 Stifle
+1 K Grip
+1 Perish

Game 2:
I draw and discard Iona. T2 I reanimate. Nuff said. 2-0

3-2 (7-4)

Thanks to having awesome tie-breakers (Thanks to Will and Jacob for beating me, don’t know what I would have done without you!) I made 6th place which was good enough for $15. Not exactly how I wanted the day to pan out, but sometimes it happens. I honestly think I could have beaten Will (in our testing the previous night it was about 60/40 in my favor) and my merfolk matchup usually isn’t too bad. Also, having more than an hour and a half of sleep would have helped a little, especially in my match against Will, but that was my own fault. Overall good tournament, and lots of nice peeps. Hope you enjoyed the report. Feel free to ask me any questions you’ve got.

Jon

stacker
04-18-2010, 05:23 PM
r1g1 did seizing your angel ever cross your mind, instead of your opponent? i just picked up reanimator, and hindsight is 20/20, but i probably would have seized myself given that i had a daze in hand.

JonBarber
04-18-2010, 11:09 PM
r1g1 did seizing your angel ever cross your mind, instead of your opponent? i just picked up reanimator, and hindsight is 20/20, but i probably would have seized myself given that i had a daze in hand.

After my experience with Will, my only way to beat him is have an early Inkwell against him. The archangel would have just gotten shut down by thopter tokens. But your right, it was definitely a viable option.