Top 4 split at Philly Open with Excalibur

[hungryLIKEALION]

Yeeeeaaaaah, another success for Excalibur.

Anduril by Harry Matten Gillen

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

I hate Daze. Hate it hate it hate it. I decided to cut it for Spellsnare, a card which, to me, serves a similar purpose (Countering opposing two drops), but doesn't become dead tremendously early in the game (since I don't run wasteland) and still counters a ton of cards I don't want to let them resolve. Plus, it's a hard counter. I like it.

I stuck a lightning greaves in the board for Lands, but it never came up (though it rocks in testing).

So anyway, tournament!

Me and Ken drove down and arrived right at 9, so we had an hour and a half to kill. We played some standard (me with RDW Ken with Jund) and then went and got food from Wawa, and came back to fill out our deck reg sheets. Nick sold me a foil russian KoTR for $25, and it's the most beautiful thing I think I've ever seen.

Caffrey and Allen show up and we talk for a bit, and our team looks like this:

Caffrey with 43Land
Allen with New Horizons
Ken with UB Reanimator
And yours truly, with Excalibur

Round 1 vs. Brad playing ANT (Rico Suave)
I recognized his name from when I met him last time at Vestal and assumed he was still playing ANT, which turned out to be correct. So we sit down and I shake his hand and we begin.
Game 1 I decide to leave up spellsnare mana on turn 1 instead of casting my hierarch in case he has the nut draw, and this turns out to be a pretty large mistake. Compounding this, I play my fetchland instead of the tundra I have in hand and therefore am reluctant to crack it to brainstorm EOT. I do succeed in Spellstuttering something, but I end up being unable to cast a spellstutter due to a blue mana deficiency and lose with spellstutter in hand. Woops.
-1 Jitte -1 SoFI -1 Sower +2 Grip +1 Predator
Game 2 I keep a hand with Force, Blue card, Stutter, lands and goyf. He casts t1 TSeize and takes my spellstutter, t2 duress and takes my force, then mysticals for adnaus and goes off on t3. Them's the breaks.
0-1 (0-2)

Round 2 vs. Johnathan playing UR Dreadstill
I don't remember these games particularly well other than that I was way ahead in both of them pretty much the whole game. Spellstutter's pretty sick, and I had three goyfs in game 2.
-2 Ponder -1 Jitte +2 Grip +1 Predator
1-1 (2-2)

Round 3 vs. Matt playing Pro Bant
Game 1 He makes progenitus and I don't quite race.
-3 Spell Snare -2 Ponder -1 Forest +3 Washout +2 Grip +1 Predator
Game 2 we're racing with goyfs, I'm going to win so he casts natural order sacking goyf and I hardcast force for the blowout.
-1 SFM -1 Jitte +2 Spell Snare
Game 3 I misplay by putting washout on top with a brainstorm and then search for a land when he paths my V Clique, then when he makes progenitus 3 turns later I don't draw washout again and fail to race. Ugh.
1-2 (3-4)

Round 4 vs. Ryan playing Zoo
Game 1 I get Jitte, get jitte blown up by pridemage, then sower a KoTR and he scoops when he can't find removal.
-2 Ponder +2 Path
Game 2 he plays a lot of one drops and finishes the game with a PoP for 6 + bolt.
Game 3 I stall the ground with double goyf while he has Nacatl and Ape. I spellstutter a nacatl, then he casts PoP and I spellstutter that too. He bolts one of the faries and I spellstutter the bolt. Sick life I lead. Then I topdeck SFM and get Jitte and Jitte/3 faeries take it home.
2-2 (5-5)

Round 5 vs. Allen playing New Horizons
Game 1 we play draw go for a while until I play V Clique and he stifles two fetchlands. Clique resolves and takes something (I forgot what!) And then clique beats face for a while as I protect it with counterspells.
-2 Ponder +2 Path
Game 2 he plays very large creatures and stifles a clutch sower trigger. Terravore has trample.
Game 3 I have a super aggressive start of Hierarch, goyf, jitte, path your KotR and equip Jitte/swing, Force EE for 2, Play a new goyf after he resolves EE for 2, then play V Clique to fly over the goyfs he plays to stabilize for great victory.
3-2 (7-6)
I squeak into top 8 as the 8th seed.

Quarterfinals vs. Mark playing ANT
Game 1 I open a one lander with brainstorm, force, spellsnare, vendi, sower, and something else. I keep. I brainstorm into the second land on his EoT and produce Vendiclique on his third drawstep. He brainstorms in response and I let him keep what's in his hand. He picks up his hand before I manage to write it all down and I ask what the last card was and he says "I don't have to give you that information." ... Seriously? I didn't tell him to pick his hand back up, but whatever, I let it go and write it down as a tropical island because I was fairly certain that's what it was. (I was right.) He duresses me shortly thereafter and is greeted by 2 FoWs and 2 Spell Snare. He takes a force and then concedes when I snare his Infernal Tutor with lethal on board.
-1 Jitte -1 SoFi -1 Sower +2 Grip +1 Predator (I leave swords in specifically because I saw a trop island, telling me he may have Xantid Swarm in his deck.)
Game 2 I open another 1 lander but it has force and Spellstutter, so I keep. He plays t1 Bob which I force pitching a Sower. I rip the second land like a champ and he thoughtseizes me, taking Goyf, meaning he must not be ready to go off yet since I had stutter still in hand. He plays another Bob and I rip the STP to get rid of it, then Clique him seeing Cabal Rit, Land, LED. I let him keep them. Clique picks up Jitte and spellstutter stops his mystical tutor, giving me victory.
4-2 (9-6)

I'm paired against Sam Wang playing 4c Counterbalance but he mentions splitting and I decide I'm okay with that since it's a pretty 50/50ish matchup and I'm kinda tired (drove for 8 hours yesterday, still trying to catch up on energy.) The other people in the top 4 agree and we each get $100 in credit. Nick has two Goyfs priced at 55 because they're slightly worn around the edges and a little beat up, but they meet my minimum standards so I throw in $10 cash and get them.

So all in all, a successful day! Props and slops!

Props:
The TO for hosting a fun tournament.
Ken for driving VERY fast.
Wawa for the awesome breakfast ciabatta and amazing cappucino.

Slops:
Me for writing such a crappy report.
Mark Tocco for the vendi clique thing. I mean, it didn't really matter, but c'mon, dude.
People that didn't show up.
Me again for punting... twice.

Thanks for reading, as usual I'm up for all questions/comments.

[mchainmail]

Additional slops that you forgot:
Ken for finishing in 9th.
Me for going 1-3-1 with lands. (Losing to Ad Naus, Death Cloud with 12 basics, Reanimator)
Prize support not being guaranteed.

[GrooGrux]

Yeeeeaaaaah, another success for Excalibur.

Anduril by Harry Matten Gillen

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

I hate Daze. Hate it hate it hate it. I decided to cut it for Spellsnare, a card which, to me, serves a similar purpose (Countering opposing two drops), but doesn't become dead tremendously early in the game (since I don't run wasteland) and still counters a ton of cards I don't want to let them resolve. Plus, it's a hard counter. I like it.

I stuck a lightning greaves in the board for Lands, but it never came up (though it rocks in testing).

So anyway, tournament!

Me and Ken drove down and arrived right at 9, so we had an hour and a half to kill. We played some standard (me with RDW Ken with Jund) and then went and got food from Wawa, and came back to fill out our deck reg sheets. Nick sold me a foil russian KoTR for $25, and it's the most beautiful thing I think I've ever seen.

Caffrey and Allen show up and we talk for a bit, and our team looks like this:

Caffrey with 43Land
Allen with New Horizons
Ken with UB Reanimator
And yours truly, with Excalibur

Round 1 vs. Brad playing ANT (Rico Suave)
I recognized his name from when I met him last time at Vestal and assumed he was still playing ANT, which turned out to be correct. So we sit down and I shake his hand and we begin.
Game 1 I decide to leave up spellsnare mana on turn 1 instead of casting my hierarch in case he has the nut draw, and this turns out to be a pretty large mistake. Compounding this, I play my fetchland instead of the tundra I have in hand and therefore am reluctant to crack it to brainstorm EOT. I do succeed in Spellstuttering something, but I end up being unable to cast a spellstutter due to a blue mana deficiency and lose with spellstutter in hand. Woops.
-1 Jitte -1 SoFI -1 Sower +2 Grip +1 Predator
Game 2 I keep a hand with Force, Blue card, Stutter, lands and goyf. He casts t1 TSeize and takes my spellstutter, t2 duress and takes my force, then mysticals for adnaus and goes off on t3. Them's the breaks.
0-1 (0-2)

Round 2 vs. Johnathan playing UR Dreadstill
I don't remember these games particularly well other than that I was way ahead in both of them pretty much the whole game. Spellstutter's pretty sick, and I had three goyfs in game 2.
-2 Ponder -1 Jitte +2 Grip +1 Predator
1-1 (2-2)

Round 3 vs. Matt playing Pro Bant
Game 1 He makes progenitus and I don't quite race.
-3 Spell Snare -2 Ponder -1 Forest +3 Washout +2 Grip +1 Predator
Game 2 we're racing with goyfs, I'm going to win so he casts natural order sacking goyf and I hardcast force for the blowout.
-1 SFM -1 Jitte +2 Spell Snare
Game 3 I misplay by putting washout on top with a brainstorm and then search for a land when he paths my V Clique, then when he makes progenitus 3 turns later I don't draw washout again and fail to race. Ugh.
1-2 (3-4)

Round 4 vs. Ryan playing Zoo
Game 1 I get Jitte, get jitte blown up by pridemage, then sower a KoTR and he scoops when he can't find removal.
-2 Ponder +2 Path
Game 2 he plays a lot of one drops and finishes the game with a PoP for 6 + bolt.
Game 3 I stall the ground with double goyf while he has Nacatl and Ape. I spellstutter a nacatl, then he casts PoP and I spellstutter that too. He bolts one of the faries and I spellstutter the bolt. Sick life I lead. Then I topdeck SFM and get Jitte and Jitte/3 faeries take it home.
2-2 (5-5)

Round 5 vs. Allen playing New Horizons
Game 1 we play draw go for a while until I play V Clique and he stifles two fetchlands. Clique resolves and takes something (I forgot what!) And then clique beats face for a while as I protect it with counterspells.
-2 Ponder +2 Path
Game 2 he plays very large creatures and stifles a clutch sower trigger. Terravore has trample.
Game 3 I have a super aggressive start of Hierarch, goyf, jitte, path your KotR and equip Jitte/swing, Force EE for 2, Play a new goyf after he resolves EE for 2, then play V Clique to fly over the goyfs he plays to stabilize for great victory.
3-2 (7-6)
I squeak into top 8 as the 8th seed.

Quarterfinals vs. Mark playing ANT
Game 1 I open a one lander with brainstorm, force, spellsnare, vendi, sower, and something else. I keep. I brainstorm into the second land on his EoT and produce Vendiclique on his third drawstep. He brainstorms in response and I let him keep what's in his hand. He picks up his hand before I manage to write it all down and I ask what the last card was and he says "I don't have to give you that information." ... Seriously? I didn't tell him to pick his hand back up, but whatever, I let it go and write it down as a tropical island because I was fairly certain that's what it was. (I was right.) He duresses me shortly thereafter and is greeted by 2 FoWs and 2 Spell Snare. He takes a force and then concedes when I snare his Infernal Tutor with lethal on board.
-1 Jitte -1 SoFi -1 Sower +2 Grip +1 Predator (I leave swords in specifically because I saw a trop island, telling me he may have Xantid Swarm in his deck.)
Game 2 I open another 1 lander but it has force and Spellstutter, so I keep. He plays t1 Bob which I force pitching a Sower. I rip the second land like a champ and he thoughtseizes me, taking Goyf, meaning he must not be ready to go off yet since I had stutter still in hand. He plays another Bob and I rip the STP to get rid of it, then Clique him seeing Cabal Rit, Land, LED. I let him keep them. Clique picks up Jitte and spellstutter stops his mystical tutor, giving me victory.
4-2 (9-6)

I'm paired against Sam Wang playing 4c Counterbalance but he mentions splitting and I decide I'm okay with that since it's a pretty 50/50ish matchup and I'm kinda tired (drove for 8 hours yesterday, still trying to catch up on energy.) The other people in the top 4 agree and we each get $100 in credit. Nick has two Goyfs priced at 55 because they're slightly worn around the edges and a little beat up, but they meet my minimum standards so I throw in $10 cash and get them.

So all in all, a successful day! Props and slops!

Props:
The TO for hosting a fun tournament.
Ken for driving VERY fast.
Wawa for the awesome breakfast ciabatta and amazing cappucino.

Slops:
Me for writing such a crappy report.
Mark Tocco for the vendi clique thing. I mean, it didn't really matter, but c'mon, dude.
People that didn't show up.
Me again for punting... twice.

Thanks for reading, as usual I'm up for all questions/comments.

I would like to thank you for hating daze in this deck. I thought I was crazy for hating daze, but I hate it too at least im not alone. I like the new builld. How did you hold up against the combo you came across?

[hungryLIKEALION]

Well, obviously I beat one combo player and lost to the other, which seems about right. We have a lot of very good cards against combo. 11 hard counters is about 7 more than most blue decks feature, which is a pretty nutty statistic if you think about it. That puts us in a very good position to shut down a lot of their plays. On top of this, Vendilion Clique is incredible in this matchup since it lets you see their hand so you can know what their current gameplan is looking like, and if they have a specific combo piece you don't want them to have you can send it to the bottom of their deck. In particular, Vendilion clique after their draw phase if they just used a mystical tutor is pretty retardedly good.

The matchup is still losable since, as Brad did against me in game 2, sometimes they just draw as many discard spells as you draw counterspells and you can't really stop them. But as far as being a non counterbalance deck, I think we do pretty well. If we want to make the matchup better we can choose to either open up a few sideboard slots for gaddock teegs or ethersworn canonists (I'd probably choose canonists), or even mindbreak trap (though I'm not a particularly large fan of that), or we can try to put some hate in the main. Even just upping the spell snares to 4 would improve us a little, and I think spell snare is good enough to make that a decent decision.

But yeah, without wasteland, daze just becomes dead WAY too fast.

[Plague Sliver]

I really like the Spell Snares over Daze in your build.

Aside from Progenitus, what do you anticipate using Wash Out on? Would Spell Pierce not be a more efficient answer to Natural Order?
Is it fast enough vs. Merfolk or Goblins?

[mchainmail]

I really like the Spell Snares over Daze in your build.

Aside from Progenitus, what do you anticipate using Wash Out on? Would Spell Pierce not be a more efficient answer to Natural Order?
Is it fast enough vs. Merfolk or Goblins?

Wash out is reanimator hate that answers iona too.

[hungryLIKEALION]

As chainmail said, I've been siding it in against NO and reanimator and it's been great in both matchups. One of my best friends plays Reanimator so I end up testing against it a lot, my board strategy has been to board in my 6 pieces of gravehate and the washouts so that my deck is full of answers. With 19 creatures I still have an easy enough time producing a clock, so as long as I can answer their plays I can win. Washout works on inkwell, the number one guy they get, and is also a second color out to Iona, so it pays to play it in my experience. I highly recommend trying it out. And it's wonderful against NO since the only way they pretty much ever win is via the hydra since your equipment always lets you hold the ground while your fliers provide the clock. For example, I never would have lost in round 3 if I didn't shuffle away my washout by being retarded.

You don't use it against merfs or gobs, there's nothing it would really help with there.

[Rico Suave]

Good games.

I too am not a fan of Daze in general. It is relatively easy to play around.

I like Spell Snare very much on the draw because you can spend your first turn to negate your opponent's 2nd turn. It's such a strong play to take the edge in tempo away from the opponent.

On the other hand, when on the play Spell Snare can be awkward like in our first game. If you leave it up on the first turn most people will simply not have a 2 drop on their first turn. And if you want to Spell Snare their 2nd turn play, you have to either do nothing on your 2nd turn or have a 1 drop. I do like the "mainphase Brainstorm, drop a fetch" play when leaving up Spell Snare for their 2nd turn, but unfortunately there don't seem to be too many 1 drops that really warrant this kind of play.

The other reason I like Spell Snare, especially in this build, is that if you do go to your 2nd turn (assuming you're on the play) and don't tap anything during your 2nd turn, the opponent can still be in an awkward position. Even if they *know* you have Spell Snare, and decide to play around it by going for a 1 drop, you can also just be sitting on a Spellstutter Sprite.

If I were to play this deck tomorrow, I would likely run some number of Spell Pierce in the SB. Spell Pierce seems really strong against ANT, Reanimator, CB/Top decks, Natural Order, and other randomness like Wrath effects or opposing Jitte. Personally, I would run Extirpate instead of Faerie Macabre, because while it still functions as an uncounterable hoser against Reanimator I think it is much better against Lands because they really just cannot operate without their Loams. This may even result in Greaves being unnecessary, as that seem a bit out of place anyway.

Just my 2 cents.

[hungryLIKEALION]

The other cool thing I can do with spell snare is if I played t1 hierarch, I can play a 2drop and a snare on their second turn, which is pretty sick and came up multiple times.

I can't run extirpate unless I stick some black mana in somewhere, and I don't really want to alter my manabase for one sideboard card when macabre is almost as good.

I could play spell pierce, but I worry about it falling to the same demise as daze, becoming dead once my opponent has hit their land drops. I like Spell Snare specifically because it does not become dead, and keeps on countering goyfs no matter how many lands my opponent has in play. If I wanted something else to play against ANT, wouldn't putting in canonists be better for me, since I already have 11 hard counters?

[GrooGrux]

The other cool thing I can do with spell snare is if I played t1 hierarch, I can play a 2drop and a snare on their second turn, which is pretty sick and came up multiple times.

I can't run extirpate unless I stick some black mana in somewhere, and I don't really want to alter my manabase for one sideboard card when macabre is almost as good.

I could play spell pierce, but I worry about it falling to the same demise as daze, becoming dead once my opponent has hit their land drops. I like Spell Snare specifically because it does not become dead, and keeps on countering goyfs no matter how many lands my opponent has in play. If I wanted something else to play against ANT, wouldn't putting in canonists be better for me, since I already have 11 hard counters?

I agree with Harry on this and I know the cannonist can be a house. Against any deck that plays more than one spell a turn, it either slows it down, or shuts it off. The one card I did see in the deck thread was the meddling mage. That was interesting.

Also, aether vial was in my build for a while. I ran -1 Noble, -1 Jitte, and 61 cards to run three aether vials. Sometimes it was the entire game. If I dropped turn 1 vial or turn 1 heiarch, I almost always won....and then I hit landes without the greaves :-( sad day. Haha. But the Vials were pretty good. What i like most about it, there was almost always a turn one, 1 drop. 6/61 versus 4/60. It comes out to like 9.8 percent of the cards are turn 1 versus 6.7 percent. Almost a gaurantee of a turn 1 play with the three vials.

[Rico Suave]

Oh, well I suppose black mana would help before running Extirpate...

Anyway I wasn't suggesting Spell Pierce as a replacement for Spell Snare. I was just saying it would make for a flexible SB card. It is great against both ANT and Reanimator for one, and I value flexible cards in the SB. Also, against NO, how often are they casting it with 2 mana untapped? And more importantly, if they wait until 6+ mana to play around Spell Pierce, is the Progenitus actually going to be fast enough to kill you before you race them?

[jrsthethird]

The deck runs Ponder and Brainstorm, so even without a Hierarch or Vial, you still have something beneficial to do turn 1. Also, when you're on the draw, you can count Spell Snare as your 1 drop.

[hungryLIKEALION]

I know you meant it for the sideboard, I guess I just prefer to have more focused hosers in my board compared to broader, flexible answers.

And yeah, they can ramp into NO with Noble Hierarch, and since they have 6-7 swords effects after siding t6 Progenitus can still be enough to race if I don't have a very aggressive hand. Sometimes it's not (I've raced t4 progenitus before with SoFI, after all) but I don't like to take my chances. Washout answers Progenitus at all times, so I like it better.

[Nightmare]

On the Clique thing:

Once your opponent makes a choice with Duress, Thoughtseize, Clique, etc., you are no longer required to reveal your hand. You don't need to allow your opponent to write down every card, unless they have not made their choice yet.

If you're playing one of these type of cards, you may as well learn to write the hand first. Perfect practice, etc.

[hungryLIKEALION]

On the Clique thing:

Once your opponent makes a choice with Duress, Thoughtseize, Clique, etc., you are no longer required to reveal your hand. You don't need to allow your opponent to write down every card, unless they have not made their choice yet.

If you're playing one of these type of cards, you may as well learn to write the hand first. Perfect practice, etc.

Alright, I'll make sure I do that in the future. I still feel like it's non-sporting to be like that though.

[Nightmare]

Alright, I'll make sure I do that in the future. I still feel like it's non-sporting to be like that though.

Sporting is a relative term, and often leads to losing. Play like you want to win, or don't play.

[hungryLIKEALION]

I disagree, and will leave it at that.

[Nightmare]

Rule #1 - No excuses, play like a champion.

[cdr]

On the Clique thing:

Once your opponent makes a choice with Duress, Thoughtseize, Clique, etc., you are no longer required to reveal your hand. You don't need to allow your opponent to write down every card, unless they have not made their choice yet.

If you're playing one of these type of cards, you may as well learn to write the hand first. Perfect practice, etc.

You are incorrect. You must give your opponent a reasonable amount of time to write down your hand, no matter which order he does things in.

[Nightmare]

Define "reasonable."

[cdr]

"Not Slow Play". If he takes too long to write, you can call a judge.

[Nightmare]

That's fair. Apparently I have been misinformed.

Rule #1 still stands.

[cdr]

I don't disagree, but Kenji Tsumura might.

[hungryLIKEALION]

To me, playing like a 'champion' includes good sportsmanship. And given my track record of winning a lot AND being a good sportsman, I'm comfortable with giving up the tiniest of advantages in the name of not being a scumbag.