xTrainx
05-02-2010, 10:20 AM
Soo, RIT tournament today.
Showed up a little early, but messed around at the Imagine RIT convention for a little bit, and then went in about an hour prior to.
At the time, I had no idea what deck I wanted to play - ANT or my other deck.
The title says the other deck, so I might as well explain it - some card choices are budget, and others: thanks to those who let me borrow stuff. Apologies if the report has discrepancies, I had to infer from my pocketed notes.
Lands:
x3 Terramorphic Expanse
x2 Misty Rainforest
x1 Scalding Tarn
x1 Marsh Flats
x1 Arid Mesa
x3 Forest
x3 Plains
x6 Island
x1 Temple Garden
Creatures:
x3 Stoneforge Mystic
x4 Noble Hierarch
x4 Knight of the Reliquary
x2 Qasali Pridemage
x4 Spellstutter Sprite
x2 Sower of Temptation
Spells:
x4 Brainstorm
x2 Sensei's Divining Top
x4 Daze
x2 Swords to Plowshares
x2 Path to Exile
x1 Sword of Fire and Ice
x1 Umezawa's Jitte
Combo:
x3 Thopter Foundry
x1 Sword of the Meek
Sideboard:
x4 Spell Pierce
x2 Mindbreak Trap
x3 Relic of Progenitus
x2 Echoing Truth
x1 Krosan Grip
x1 Sword of Light and Shadow
x2 Back to Basics
We just barely get enough people to run a Top 8 tournament(You guys need to show up ;) ), and we get started.
---------------------
Round 1 vs Jacob Barber, playing ANT
Right off the bat, a bad matchup. And one of my friends, he lent me some stuff, and I lent him most of his sideboard.
We roll for turn, and I win, 11 to 2.
Game 1: I keep a hand with no blue mana(meaning no Daze). I play a Hierarch, and pass the turn. He stares at me, saying: "You don't have Forces. Why did you keep that hand?" I look him straight in the eye: "Will lent them to me." "What? I thought he left them at home." "Nope, he found them in his CounterTop deck." "Oh." He stares at me for a minute, and then lays an Underground Sea and passes the turn. I draw, and play Sensei's Divining Top and Qasali Pridemage. I pass the turn, and he draws. He lays another Sea, and passes it back. I play Sword of the Meek, swing with Pridemage, and pass the turn. At the end of the turn, he plays Mystical Tutor for a Duress. He draws, plays a fetch, fetches another Underground Sea, and Duress's me(irrelevant). He proceeds to lay down mana producers, and then drops LED, Infernal, crack, ADN. I lose shortly after.
I side in my Mindbreak Traps and Spell Pierces.
Game 2: I mull down to six, after seeing a hand full of no blue, and no Mindbreaks. The next hand still has no Mindbreaks, but it does have some blue, a Spellstutter Sprite and a Daze, so I keep it. I lead with an Island, and pass the turn. He Duress's me, and I Brainstorm. I see some cards, a land, fetchland, then a Mindbreak. I hide the Mindbreak and the Daze, and let him choose. He takes my Spellstutter, after grumbling about my good cards being on the top. He passes the turn, and I draw my card, and play a land, passing the turn. He draws, fetches a Sea, and passes the turn. I draw, play land, and pass the turn back; or would have. He Mystical Tutor's for a Duress at the end of the turn. He draws, Duress's, and takes my Mindbreak Trap. He then plays a land and passes the turn. I draw into Spellstutter, and pass the turn back. He draws and plays Chrome Mox, imprinting Ill-Gotten Gains, and then tries for LED. I Spellstutter it, which puts him at threshold, so he casts Cabal Ritual, with two Seas untapped. I daze his Ritual, and then it resolves. He drops his last card on the table. Infernal Tutor. He searches out Ad Nauseam, but has four mana in his pool, and is forced to pass the turn. I draw a Jitte, and play it, equipping to my spellstutter and swinging. He draws, and passes the turn. I draw into Spell Pierce, and swing in. He draws, plays a Lotus Petal, and tries to go off. I drop Spell Pierce and he scoops.
Game 3:
I have to mulligan again...He says: "Yes, you go ahead and mulligan. This is pleasing." "Watch me get two Mindbreaks and two Dazes". I draw my hand, and the cards say: 2x Mindbreak and a Spell Pierce, but no blue land. Nonetheless, I'm pleased with my deck, and I keep the hand. He leads with a Sea, and passes the turn. I draw, play a forest, and play Hierarch. He draws, fetches, and plays Infernal Tutor. I let it resolve, and he grabs another Dark Ritual. I draw, play Terramorphic, and pass the turn back. He Duress's me, and takes a Mindbreak Trap, plays a Top, and passes the turn. I fetch a blue with Terramorphic, and draw another Spell Pierce. I play a land, and play Jitte, passing the turn. He Tutors for Duress during upkeep, draws it, and lays an LED, City of Traitors, and Duress's me. I Mindbreak Trap it. He thinks for a moment, and then decides that he can play around the Spell Pierce he knows I have. Dark Ritual - I spell Pierce it to bait him. Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual(threshold). Two cards left in his hand, City of Traitors untapped, two black in pool(before Cabal resolves). I Spell Pierce the Cabal Ritual, and he pays the mana. He plays Infernal Tutor, cracks LED, gets ADN, and I lose.
0-1-0
Round 2:Chris, who's playing Goblins
Game 1: I win the roll, and start playing. I lead with an Island, and pass. He plays a Mountain, and passes the turn. I draw, Plains, Stoneforge Mystic, Sword of Fire and Ice. He draws, Wasteland, and passes. I draw, land, pass the turn. He draws, swears, and passes the turn. I Stoneforge in the Sword at EOT. I draw, and equip the Sword, swinging in. He draws, discards, and passes. I swing in with Stoneforge again, and play Knight of the Reliquary. He draws, and scoops.
After seeing the Mountain and Waste, I put him on Goblins, taking out Pridemages for Echoing Truth's.
Game 2: He leads Mountain, and I lead with Noble Hierarch. He plays another Mountain, Goblin Piledriver. I Stoneforge into SoFI again, and pass. He draws, and plays a land, and passes, saying something about bad draws again. I play a land, cast and equip Sword of Fire and Ice, and swing in, killing Piledriver. He draws, and I go to write notes, and stop. I realized that I had paid one too few mana to cast Sword of Fire and Ice. I call a judge over, and ask what I should do. He says that since a turn has already passed, we can't rewind the game. It leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth, but there was nothing I could do. He plays a land, and casts Ringleader, grabbing Goblin Incinerator and Goblin Warchief. I draw, play and equip Jitte, and swing in, killing Ringleader. He stares at the board, and scoops.
1-1-0
Round 3: Jon Barber, UB Reanimator
Game 1: I lose the roll(after 3 tied rolls), and he leads with a Sea. I lead Temple Garden(taking life), and play Hierarch. He Brainstorms at the end of the turn, draws, and then fetches another sea, and plays Sensei's Divining Top.
I draw, play a blue, and pass. He Tops, draws, and plays a land, and tries for Entomb. I Spellstutter it, and he Daze's me. He grabs Inkwell Leviathan, and uses Animate Dead on it. I draw, and lay down Stoneforge Mystic, grabbing Sword of the Meek, and playing Thopter Foundry. He draws, and swings in for five. I draw, play land, and pass. He draws, and then swings. I Stoneforge in Sword at the end of the turn.I draw, Brainstorm to find up a land, and say go. He draws, plays Hedron Crab, and then an Underground Sea, chucking three off the top, finding a Blazing Archon. He Exhumes, and I have no answer. He swings, and I make Thopters, losing one life in total. I draw into a land, and pass the turn. He Top's in Upkeep, draws, plays land to flip three more cards into his grave, showing an Iona. He tries to Exhume, and I Daze him. I draw, and find a Swords to Plowshares. I count my Thopter's, and it wouldn't be for lethal yet. I hold onto it, and pass the turn. He draws, thinks, and casts Reanimate. In response, I Swords to Plowshares his Archon, and he ends up taking a Pridemage that he had milled off of me(can't remember where, hazy notes), and he shoots my Foundry. I get up to 18 Thopters, which, coincidentally, is his life total. He swings, I draw, and swing for the game.
I board in Relics and three Spell Pierces.
Game 2:
I mull down, getting: Two Relics, a Forest, a Plains, and 2 Hierarchs. I keep. I lead with Plains, Relic. He draws, and Brainstorms, passing the turn. I remove the Brainstorm. I draw, play a Hierarch and my second Relic, and pass the turn. He untaps, and Mystical Tutor's for a Show and Tell, drawing into it. He plays a fetch, fetching Underground Sea, and passes the turn. I play another Hierarch, and a Stoneforge Mystic that I drew, getting Sword of the Meek. He draws, and has no plays, discarding a card that is promptly removed. I draw, and see no land, so I crack one Relic for the draw, and find...a land! And none other than the infamous island. I play it, and swing with a 3/4 Stoneforge. He draws, and discards again. I draw for my turn, getting a Spell Pierce, and swing with Stoneforge. He draws and discards once more. I swing in with Stoneforge. He draws, plays a land, and tries for Show and Tell. I Daze it. On the following turn, he tries again, which meets a Spell Pierce. After that point, I had already won, and just beat in for the game.
2-1-0
Round 4: Andrew, who's playing Dredge
Geez, bad matchup after bad matchup.
I lose the roll, so he's on the play. My luck is worse and worse.
Game 1: We both mulligan, but he goes one further, and has no play. I play a blue, and pass. He draws, and passes. I play a white, and Stoneforge for a Jitte. He has no turn 3 play either, and discards Stinkweed Imp. I play Jitte, and beat with Stoneforge for a little bit, while he's stuck with a bad dredge for two turns. On his next one, he brings back two Ichorid, and plays LED. He beats in, and I beat in on my turn(my counterspells ain't doing shit). He dredges, and gets two Narcomoeba. He plays Stinkweed, and passes. I take the bait and swing in, and we both die. I take a counter off Jitte to kill his Imp. Now, major play mistake. I should have -1/-1'd it before so I wouldn't die. Jitte with three counters. He dredges, cracks his LED, and then does Deep Analysis, dredging twelve. He plays Cabal Therapy, which eats Spellstutter. He Cabal Therapies again, and I Brainstorm, sticking Noble Hierarch on top, which an untapped Terramorphic(play error #2). He names Spellstutter, which I have none. He swings in, putting me to five. I crack fetch at EOT, and my hopes of winning fade away. I shuffle out, and draw into pointless shit. I pay four, casting and equipping Sword of the Meek, and then two, to equip Jitte, and swing for 8. I'm confused, and realized I had counted the Hierarch in. I lose on the next turn.
I bring in Relics and Echoing Truth.
Game 2: I lead with Relic, and he Unmasks, taking Sensei's Top. He plays around Relic, and does stuff with Putrid Imp, getting himself his dredgers, and creating a position with his LED where I'm forced to blow Relic to fuck up his grave, and then he breaks LED to get more. From that point on, its just downward.
2-2-0
Make or break in this round.
Round 5: Chris Ascheson, Zoo
I have no idea how my Zoo matchup works - I'm worried about my creatures being too small, but the hope is to Spellstutter his guys, and then build up into Thopter Combo. We're both 2-2, and we're the 9th and 10th seeds, with better tiebreakers than a lot of the Top 8 - whoever wins this one should get in. Since he's my friend, we check to see if one of us has no chance of getting in, to see if one of us should scoop or not. But, we both get in if we win, so we play it out.
Game 1: I lose the roll, and he leads with Forest, Wild Nacatl. I lead with an Island, and pass. He plays Kird Ape and Loam Lion after fetching for a Taiga. I draw, play a plains, and Stoneforge gets Sword of the Meek. He chumps Nacatl on the next pass. I draw, and play a Noble Hierarch. He draws, swings in, and I chump the Nacatl. He plays a Kird Ape, which I Spellstutter, and passes. I draw, and play Sword of the Meek. He draws, swings in, bringing me to five, and then reveals two burn spells. I have no answers.
I board in Back to Basics and Echoing Truth.
Game 2: I lead with a Hierarch, and he leads with fetch, Taiga, Nacatl. I draw, and play another Hierarch, leaving mana open to Spellstutter. On his turn, he plays a Goyf - out of Spellstutter range. He swings with Nacatl, and I take it. I play a land, draw into Echoing Truth, play Qasali Pridemage, and pass the turn. He swings in with Goyf(2/3) and Nacatl, and chump my Hierarchs to them. Postcombat, he plays another Goyf, Wild Nacatl(Spellstuttered), and Kird Ape. I draw: My hand consists of Echoing Truth, Sword of the Meek, Swords, Path, Spellstutter, and land. I play the land, putting me up to five, and pass the turn. He swings in with the team, and I path the Nacatl, and cast Echoing Truth on the two Goyf's, taking the hit from Kird Ape. He tries for Lightning Helix postcombat, which eats a Spellstutter: "Knew it," he proclaimed. He glances at my board, and doesn't play a Goyf, probably worried about Daze. He drops a Wild Nacatl instead, which resolves. I draw, and glance at his board. Mine is all basic land, and he has three duals an a Horizon Canopy tapped. I drop Back to Basics on the table. He blinks, startled, and then I pass the turn. He Grips it at EOT, and happily untaps his lands. He plays a land, and swings with Wild Nacatl and Kird Ape: I block the Ape with a Pridemage and two Spellstutters(in retrospect, I should have blocked the Nacatl this way); he kills the 'stutters. Postcombat, he plays Goyf and Jitte, and passes. I draw, ripping a Thopter Foundry. I play down Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek, with one mana open. I'm at seven life. He has a 4/5 Goyf and a Nacatl. He draws, and thinks. After a little bit, he plays Jitte, activating the legend rule in order to grow his Goyf to 5/6, and swings in. I make a Thopter, which is promptly pathed, and he hits me for lethal.
2-3-0
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So yeah, that was the tournament. As far as I was able to gather, this was the meta:
My Mishmash Deck
ANT
Greenwhite Homebrew
Belcher
3 Dredge decks(pack your GY hate)
CounterTop Thopter
UG Merfolk
Goblins
Zoo
MUC
Team America
Dreadstill
Affinity
Solidarity
Lands
PainterStone
----
Very diverse metagame, lots of fun.
Props:
Friends letting me borrow cards
Friends helping me make card choices
Checking out ImagineRIT
Slops:
Playing friends
Playing bad matchups
Having not enough Dredge hate
Having Terramorphic Expanses
---
Fun times, see you guys in two weeks.
Showed up a little early, but messed around at the Imagine RIT convention for a little bit, and then went in about an hour prior to.
At the time, I had no idea what deck I wanted to play - ANT or my other deck.
The title says the other deck, so I might as well explain it - some card choices are budget, and others: thanks to those who let me borrow stuff. Apologies if the report has discrepancies, I had to infer from my pocketed notes.
Lands:
x3 Terramorphic Expanse
x2 Misty Rainforest
x1 Scalding Tarn
x1 Marsh Flats
x1 Arid Mesa
x3 Forest
x3 Plains
x6 Island
x1 Temple Garden
Creatures:
x3 Stoneforge Mystic
x4 Noble Hierarch
x4 Knight of the Reliquary
x2 Qasali Pridemage
x4 Spellstutter Sprite
x2 Sower of Temptation
Spells:
x4 Brainstorm
x2 Sensei's Divining Top
x4 Daze
x2 Swords to Plowshares
x2 Path to Exile
x1 Sword of Fire and Ice
x1 Umezawa's Jitte
Combo:
x3 Thopter Foundry
x1 Sword of the Meek
Sideboard:
x4 Spell Pierce
x2 Mindbreak Trap
x3 Relic of Progenitus
x2 Echoing Truth
x1 Krosan Grip
x1 Sword of Light and Shadow
x2 Back to Basics
We just barely get enough people to run a Top 8 tournament(You guys need to show up ;) ), and we get started.
---------------------
Round 1 vs Jacob Barber, playing ANT
Right off the bat, a bad matchup. And one of my friends, he lent me some stuff, and I lent him most of his sideboard.
We roll for turn, and I win, 11 to 2.
Game 1: I keep a hand with no blue mana(meaning no Daze). I play a Hierarch, and pass the turn. He stares at me, saying: "You don't have Forces. Why did you keep that hand?" I look him straight in the eye: "Will lent them to me." "What? I thought he left them at home." "Nope, he found them in his CounterTop deck." "Oh." He stares at me for a minute, and then lays an Underground Sea and passes the turn. I draw, and play Sensei's Divining Top and Qasali Pridemage. I pass the turn, and he draws. He lays another Sea, and passes it back. I play Sword of the Meek, swing with Pridemage, and pass the turn. At the end of the turn, he plays Mystical Tutor for a Duress. He draws, plays a fetch, fetches another Underground Sea, and Duress's me(irrelevant). He proceeds to lay down mana producers, and then drops LED, Infernal, crack, ADN. I lose shortly after.
I side in my Mindbreak Traps and Spell Pierces.
Game 2: I mull down to six, after seeing a hand full of no blue, and no Mindbreaks. The next hand still has no Mindbreaks, but it does have some blue, a Spellstutter Sprite and a Daze, so I keep it. I lead with an Island, and pass the turn. He Duress's me, and I Brainstorm. I see some cards, a land, fetchland, then a Mindbreak. I hide the Mindbreak and the Daze, and let him choose. He takes my Spellstutter, after grumbling about my good cards being on the top. He passes the turn, and I draw my card, and play a land, passing the turn. He draws, fetches a Sea, and passes the turn. I draw, play land, and pass the turn back; or would have. He Mystical Tutor's for a Duress at the end of the turn. He draws, Duress's, and takes my Mindbreak Trap. He then plays a land and passes the turn. I draw into Spellstutter, and pass the turn back. He draws and plays Chrome Mox, imprinting Ill-Gotten Gains, and then tries for LED. I Spellstutter it, which puts him at threshold, so he casts Cabal Ritual, with two Seas untapped. I daze his Ritual, and then it resolves. He drops his last card on the table. Infernal Tutor. He searches out Ad Nauseam, but has four mana in his pool, and is forced to pass the turn. I draw a Jitte, and play it, equipping to my spellstutter and swinging. He draws, and passes the turn. I draw into Spell Pierce, and swing in. He draws, plays a Lotus Petal, and tries to go off. I drop Spell Pierce and he scoops.
Game 3:
I have to mulligan again...He says: "Yes, you go ahead and mulligan. This is pleasing." "Watch me get two Mindbreaks and two Dazes". I draw my hand, and the cards say: 2x Mindbreak and a Spell Pierce, but no blue land. Nonetheless, I'm pleased with my deck, and I keep the hand. He leads with a Sea, and passes the turn. I draw, play a forest, and play Hierarch. He draws, fetches, and plays Infernal Tutor. I let it resolve, and he grabs another Dark Ritual. I draw, play Terramorphic, and pass the turn back. He Duress's me, and takes a Mindbreak Trap, plays a Top, and passes the turn. I fetch a blue with Terramorphic, and draw another Spell Pierce. I play a land, and play Jitte, passing the turn. He Tutors for Duress during upkeep, draws it, and lays an LED, City of Traitors, and Duress's me. I Mindbreak Trap it. He thinks for a moment, and then decides that he can play around the Spell Pierce he knows I have. Dark Ritual - I spell Pierce it to bait him. Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual(threshold). Two cards left in his hand, City of Traitors untapped, two black in pool(before Cabal resolves). I Spell Pierce the Cabal Ritual, and he pays the mana. He plays Infernal Tutor, cracks LED, gets ADN, and I lose.
0-1-0
Round 2:Chris, who's playing Goblins
Game 1: I win the roll, and start playing. I lead with an Island, and pass. He plays a Mountain, and passes the turn. I draw, Plains, Stoneforge Mystic, Sword of Fire and Ice. He draws, Wasteland, and passes. I draw, land, pass the turn. He draws, swears, and passes the turn. I Stoneforge in the Sword at EOT. I draw, and equip the Sword, swinging in. He draws, discards, and passes. I swing in with Stoneforge again, and play Knight of the Reliquary. He draws, and scoops.
After seeing the Mountain and Waste, I put him on Goblins, taking out Pridemages for Echoing Truth's.
Game 2: He leads Mountain, and I lead with Noble Hierarch. He plays another Mountain, Goblin Piledriver. I Stoneforge into SoFI again, and pass. He draws, and plays a land, and passes, saying something about bad draws again. I play a land, cast and equip Sword of Fire and Ice, and swing in, killing Piledriver. He draws, and I go to write notes, and stop. I realized that I had paid one too few mana to cast Sword of Fire and Ice. I call a judge over, and ask what I should do. He says that since a turn has already passed, we can't rewind the game. It leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth, but there was nothing I could do. He plays a land, and casts Ringleader, grabbing Goblin Incinerator and Goblin Warchief. I draw, play and equip Jitte, and swing in, killing Ringleader. He stares at the board, and scoops.
1-1-0
Round 3: Jon Barber, UB Reanimator
Game 1: I lose the roll(after 3 tied rolls), and he leads with a Sea. I lead Temple Garden(taking life), and play Hierarch. He Brainstorms at the end of the turn, draws, and then fetches another sea, and plays Sensei's Divining Top.
I draw, play a blue, and pass. He Tops, draws, and plays a land, and tries for Entomb. I Spellstutter it, and he Daze's me. He grabs Inkwell Leviathan, and uses Animate Dead on it. I draw, and lay down Stoneforge Mystic, grabbing Sword of the Meek, and playing Thopter Foundry. He draws, and swings in for five. I draw, play land, and pass. He draws, and then swings. I Stoneforge in Sword at the end of the turn.I draw, Brainstorm to find up a land, and say go. He draws, plays Hedron Crab, and then an Underground Sea, chucking three off the top, finding a Blazing Archon. He Exhumes, and I have no answer. He swings, and I make Thopters, losing one life in total. I draw into a land, and pass the turn. He Top's in Upkeep, draws, plays land to flip three more cards into his grave, showing an Iona. He tries to Exhume, and I Daze him. I draw, and find a Swords to Plowshares. I count my Thopter's, and it wouldn't be for lethal yet. I hold onto it, and pass the turn. He draws, thinks, and casts Reanimate. In response, I Swords to Plowshares his Archon, and he ends up taking a Pridemage that he had milled off of me(can't remember where, hazy notes), and he shoots my Foundry. I get up to 18 Thopters, which, coincidentally, is his life total. He swings, I draw, and swing for the game.
I board in Relics and three Spell Pierces.
Game 2:
I mull down, getting: Two Relics, a Forest, a Plains, and 2 Hierarchs. I keep. I lead with Plains, Relic. He draws, and Brainstorms, passing the turn. I remove the Brainstorm. I draw, play a Hierarch and my second Relic, and pass the turn. He untaps, and Mystical Tutor's for a Show and Tell, drawing into it. He plays a fetch, fetching Underground Sea, and passes the turn. I play another Hierarch, and a Stoneforge Mystic that I drew, getting Sword of the Meek. He draws, and has no plays, discarding a card that is promptly removed. I draw, and see no land, so I crack one Relic for the draw, and find...a land! And none other than the infamous island. I play it, and swing with a 3/4 Stoneforge. He draws, and discards again. I draw for my turn, getting a Spell Pierce, and swing with Stoneforge. He draws and discards once more. I swing in with Stoneforge. He draws, plays a land, and tries for Show and Tell. I Daze it. On the following turn, he tries again, which meets a Spell Pierce. After that point, I had already won, and just beat in for the game.
2-1-0
Round 4: Andrew, who's playing Dredge
Geez, bad matchup after bad matchup.
I lose the roll, so he's on the play. My luck is worse and worse.
Game 1: We both mulligan, but he goes one further, and has no play. I play a blue, and pass. He draws, and passes. I play a white, and Stoneforge for a Jitte. He has no turn 3 play either, and discards Stinkweed Imp. I play Jitte, and beat with Stoneforge for a little bit, while he's stuck with a bad dredge for two turns. On his next one, he brings back two Ichorid, and plays LED. He beats in, and I beat in on my turn(my counterspells ain't doing shit). He dredges, and gets two Narcomoeba. He plays Stinkweed, and passes. I take the bait and swing in, and we both die. I take a counter off Jitte to kill his Imp. Now, major play mistake. I should have -1/-1'd it before so I wouldn't die. Jitte with three counters. He dredges, cracks his LED, and then does Deep Analysis, dredging twelve. He plays Cabal Therapy, which eats Spellstutter. He Cabal Therapies again, and I Brainstorm, sticking Noble Hierarch on top, which an untapped Terramorphic(play error #2). He names Spellstutter, which I have none. He swings in, putting me to five. I crack fetch at EOT, and my hopes of winning fade away. I shuffle out, and draw into pointless shit. I pay four, casting and equipping Sword of the Meek, and then two, to equip Jitte, and swing for 8. I'm confused, and realized I had counted the Hierarch in. I lose on the next turn.
I bring in Relics and Echoing Truth.
Game 2: I lead with Relic, and he Unmasks, taking Sensei's Top. He plays around Relic, and does stuff with Putrid Imp, getting himself his dredgers, and creating a position with his LED where I'm forced to blow Relic to fuck up his grave, and then he breaks LED to get more. From that point on, its just downward.
2-2-0
Make or break in this round.
Round 5: Chris Ascheson, Zoo
I have no idea how my Zoo matchup works - I'm worried about my creatures being too small, but the hope is to Spellstutter his guys, and then build up into Thopter Combo. We're both 2-2, and we're the 9th and 10th seeds, with better tiebreakers than a lot of the Top 8 - whoever wins this one should get in. Since he's my friend, we check to see if one of us has no chance of getting in, to see if one of us should scoop or not. But, we both get in if we win, so we play it out.
Game 1: I lose the roll, and he leads with Forest, Wild Nacatl. I lead with an Island, and pass. He plays Kird Ape and Loam Lion after fetching for a Taiga. I draw, play a plains, and Stoneforge gets Sword of the Meek. He chumps Nacatl on the next pass. I draw, and play a Noble Hierarch. He draws, swings in, and I chump the Nacatl. He plays a Kird Ape, which I Spellstutter, and passes. I draw, and play Sword of the Meek. He draws, swings in, bringing me to five, and then reveals two burn spells. I have no answers.
I board in Back to Basics and Echoing Truth.
Game 2: I lead with a Hierarch, and he leads with fetch, Taiga, Nacatl. I draw, and play another Hierarch, leaving mana open to Spellstutter. On his turn, he plays a Goyf - out of Spellstutter range. He swings with Nacatl, and I take it. I play a land, draw into Echoing Truth, play Qasali Pridemage, and pass the turn. He swings in with Goyf(2/3) and Nacatl, and chump my Hierarchs to them. Postcombat, he plays another Goyf, Wild Nacatl(Spellstuttered), and Kird Ape. I draw: My hand consists of Echoing Truth, Sword of the Meek, Swords, Path, Spellstutter, and land. I play the land, putting me up to five, and pass the turn. He swings in with the team, and I path the Nacatl, and cast Echoing Truth on the two Goyf's, taking the hit from Kird Ape. He tries for Lightning Helix postcombat, which eats a Spellstutter: "Knew it," he proclaimed. He glances at my board, and doesn't play a Goyf, probably worried about Daze. He drops a Wild Nacatl instead, which resolves. I draw, and glance at his board. Mine is all basic land, and he has three duals an a Horizon Canopy tapped. I drop Back to Basics on the table. He blinks, startled, and then I pass the turn. He Grips it at EOT, and happily untaps his lands. He plays a land, and swings with Wild Nacatl and Kird Ape: I block the Ape with a Pridemage and two Spellstutters(in retrospect, I should have blocked the Nacatl this way); he kills the 'stutters. Postcombat, he plays Goyf and Jitte, and passes. I draw, ripping a Thopter Foundry. I play down Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek, with one mana open. I'm at seven life. He has a 4/5 Goyf and a Nacatl. He draws, and thinks. After a little bit, he plays Jitte, activating the legend rule in order to grow his Goyf to 5/6, and swings in. I make a Thopter, which is promptly pathed, and he hits me for lethal.
2-3-0
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So yeah, that was the tournament. As far as I was able to gather, this was the meta:
My Mishmash Deck
ANT
Greenwhite Homebrew
Belcher
3 Dredge decks(pack your GY hate)
CounterTop Thopter
UG Merfolk
Goblins
Zoo
MUC
Team America
Dreadstill
Affinity
Solidarity
Lands
PainterStone
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Very diverse metagame, lots of fun.
Props:
Friends letting me borrow cards
Friends helping me make card choices
Checking out ImagineRIT
Slops:
Playing friends
Playing bad matchups
Having not enough Dredge hate
Having Terramorphic Expanses
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Fun times, see you guys in two weeks.