Nightmare
05-17-2010, 09:22 AM
Since the spoiler for Rise of the Eldrazi hit, we've been trying to break the set. Specifically, we've been focusing our attention on Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. The guy screams "cheat me into play" and we could think of plenty of ways to do it. After a bunch of work on using a Reanimator shell, substituting Shallow Grave and Goryo's Vengeance for the reanimate package, and 2 Emrakul for the creatures, we decided that there were still too many drawbacks to that shell for it to work. Then we looked at Survival. This still has promise, but it plays too much like a Survival deck, with an Emrakul tacked on. It's not that its bad, it's just not the direction we wanted to take. Not combo-oriented enough.
So, we looked into the Show and Tell route. Third turn Emrakul still seems like good stuff, especially since it gives your opponent just enough time to be ravaged by the annihilator. But, stuck in the back of our minds, there was another card, and another old deck, that we found hope in. And boy, did it live up to our expectations and more. Without further ado, I give you the talk of the 5/15 Vestal event - Aeon Bridge.
Aeon Bridge - A potentially broken Legacy deck by Nightmare
4 Show and Tell
3 Worldly Tutor
3 Lim-Dul's Vault
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
4 Brainstorm
3 See Beyond
4 Stifle
4 Thoughtseize
1 Wipe Away
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
2 Chrome Mox
4 Mosswort Bridge
3 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
1 Island
1 Forest
SB
3 Krosan Grip
3 Pithing Needle
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Blazing Archon
1 Progenitus
1 Duress
That's right, bitches. MossNought is back, with a vengeance.
As this was the deck's first real go in a large tournament environment, I expected to do mediocre, but hoped for more. In the end, I went 5-3, with some pretty exceptional wins and losses both. I'm very impressed with the deck, although I would make a few small changes here and there, and I learned a few lessons on boarding and the do's and don'ts of the deck throughout the day. I'm confident that I would be able to improve on that record, should I replay the day again with the new knowledge.
Round 1 - Reanimator
Game 1 consisted of a turn 1 Trop, turn 2 Bridge (Worldly Tutor with trigger on the stack), Turn 3 Dreadnought - activate bridge, make a Time Walk and a 15/15, and swing. Pretty much the nuts right out of the gates. Exciting way to start off the event.
I make the first mistake of the day immediately after. As it turns out, you don't want to board any of your guys in against Reanimator, no matter how enticing they may seem. If you really need one of them, then Progs is the only one worth grabbing. I mistakenly boarded in Iona, and my opponent proceeded to Thoughtseize it and reanimate it. I was still in, should I have drawn a Dreadnought or Worldly Tutor, but he reanimated a Realm Razer (going to 1) to lock out my bridge, and prevent me from smashing.
Game 3 was uneventful, as I mulled into Emrakul, Nought, CMox, 2 Brainstorm, Sea. I played Sea and passed. He Seized me, I brainstormed in response, which he Dazed. He took the other BS, and I was way out.
0-1
Not the best start to the day, but I felt like I learned an important lesson this match, and I firmly believe that without that mistake I would have easily taken the match. This deck has an excellent matchup with Reanimator, despite first glances, and I'm about 65-35 so far in testing.
Round 2 - Zoo
Zoo should be a near bye. They are trying to goldfish you, and have no disruption for your deck at all. As long as you don't shit the bed, there's really nothing they can do. This round, things went according to plan, and Emrakul took the game down in both games 1 and 3. In game 2, my deck decided not to play magic, and even a turn 1 Dreadnought wasn't enough to keep me up to speed. They can win games, as I said, but it's not a favorable matchup for them. Important cards - Path to Exile (on Dreadnought), Qasali Pridemage (again, Nought), and Knight of the Reliquary (if they play Karakas).
1-1
Round 3 - Lam Phan's pile
I ask around if anyone knows what Lam is playing, and I hear "tempo something." Great! Game 1 on the draw I keep a 1-lander with multiple draw spells. It also has Nought Stifle. After Lam plays fetch, go, I try to play around the Stifle, but manage to never see another land. Eventually he draws and resolves one of the three threats in his deck and "wins." Realistically, my deck loses more than him actively winning. Game 2 is similar, except I see three lands, and he sees 1 wasteland, 1 sinkhole, 1 smallpox, 2 stifles, and a Hymn to Tourach. Nice deck. I don't think I can really handle that much manabase disruption. One or two Waste effects is usually fine - especially if I can find a Chrome Mox, or if I can fetch a basic land. That much disruption paired with counterspells and discard is a pain for this deck.
I did have one totally sweet play where I played a Show and Tell with Daze as my only card in hand. Lam Forced pitching Force. That was tight.
1-2
Now all but out of contention, I'm playing for top 16 or for knowledge and pride. I decide to stick it out and see if the deck is worth keeping.
Round 4 - Reanimator
Let's try this again, but with the right sideboarding.
Game 1 I Seize him and counter enough spells so that he's down to one card in hand. I play S&T with force backup, and his last card is Blazing Archon. Nice. I have approximately 100 turns to try and find either the Wipe Away or one of three Lim-Dul's Vaults. My opponent watches as I brainstorm 4 times, See Beyond twice, and use three Mosswort Bridges to dig about 40 cards deep in my deck, and see none of them. I'm forced to Thoughtseize myself to make Emrakul shuffle the graveyard back (as I have no more dig left, and two bad BS cards on top), and then See Beyond and BS one more time, still finding nothing. He eventually Exhumes Inkwell, and I make this awesome play -
I will return Dreadnought. I will sacrifice my Emrakul to shuffle my library again. He attacks with Inkwell and with Archon. I activate Mosswort Bridge, and put a second Emrakul into play and BLOCK THAT SHIT!!!!!!111!!!
Only he doesn't swing with the Archon, and I lose two turns later, still not having found the Wipe Away or the LDV.
Game 2 goes much more according to plan - only not really, as he Thoughtseizes me, and then Reanimates Terastodon, eating three of my lands. But wait! That gives me enough dudes to swing through his fatty and kill him. Whoops.
Game 3, my deck decides to show up, while his does not. I duress him on t1 and see three fatties, lands, and a Mystical. I choose mystical. On my turn 2 I draw Faerie Macabre, and start taking his fatties out with Seizes. He goes for another Mystical and I let it resolve, he gets Exhume. When he plays it, I Macabre his two guys and put my Faerie into play. SO Savage. The little Faerie that could goes a long way, until I find a Nought and activate two Bridges - 1 putting Emrakul in, and 1 playing the stifle for the Nought trigger! Take another turn, swing 29.
2-2
Round 5 - Counter top Thopter
Game 1 - my opponent doesn't de-sideboard from last round, and gets a game loss. Whoops. To be fair, my hand was the stone nuts. Matt Mcnally was behind me, he can attest. I wasn't losing that game.
Game 2 - I open with a Duress, and see a bunch of blue cards. I think I took a Brainstorm. He plays a land, and passes. I play a Bridge, and put an Emrakul under it. He plays a counterbalance. I play a Show and Tell. That's about all she wrote.
3-2
Round 6 - ANT
This matchup is a joke. You've gotta understand, I play with Bryant Cook. It's not like I don't have the combo matchup in mind. If you are any good at pattern recognition, you'll notice my trend of playing UBg decks that run a million counterspells, discard, and a clock. That's really bad for storm combo decks. Sometimes I even put counterbalance in just to really plow my dick up their ass.
This player is usually on Merfolk, and I was a little nervous about it. Sometimes he plays Dredge, which would also be less than stellar. Instead, he opens with Sea, go. Nice. I make the following plays (with Force backup) - Turn 1 Thoughtseize. Turn 2 Thoughtseize, Bridge (Putting Thoughtseize under it). Turn 3 Show and Tell Emrakul. Turn 4 Swing, Activate bridge.
Game 2 - I keep a loose six after a mull - 3 real lands, Bridge, Emrakul, Force. He opens with Duress and takes Force. On my turn, I draw Show and Tell, and play Bridge (finding Emrakul blind). He plays a land and a top. I draw Daze, and play a trop. He Mysticals EOT, and tops upkeep, then passes. I draw a Nought. Play it, activate bridge, attack for 15. That's right bitches. Runner Runner Runner.
4-2
Round 7 - Zoo
SWEEET! Another bye! If I win next round, I may sneak into top 8! Or not.
Game 1 opens with Steppe Lynx. I don't mind, I have Seize into turn 3 Emrakul. I seize and see 3 fetchlands, 2 Pridemage, and Goyf. I take Goyf, which changes things. I could have played a t2 Nought, but I didn't have a third land for my Show and tell. Had he only had 1 Pridemage, I take that and go for the Nought. Having 2 means he still has one for my nought. It may have been the right play to take a Pridemage anyway, since he's likely to play the Goyf turn 2 and it gives me at least 1 turn to draw a Force for the second Mage. I think I screwed this up, but I'm not really sure. Remember, I was looking for turn 3 S&T, and I had to LDV for the land. Anyway, he plays a fetch and sacs it, and a Mage, and swings 5. On my turn I pass, setting up the EOT LDV. He plays another fetch and another mage, and swings 6. I play the S&T and he puts a Nacatl into play and wins on his turn 4, through my blocker. There's not a whole lot I could have done there. He basically had the nuts.
Game 2 went a little differently. I managed to Seize Daze and force his gas, until he was left with no creatures and one card in hand. I proceed to Brainstorm, See Beyond, fetch, etc, to try and find a Dreadnought, Worldly, or LDV, to hit the bridge. Again, my deck does not deliver. He plays a Pridemage when I'm at 15, and I choose not to Force, since it would make me discard my last Brainstorm. I figure that gives me 5 more turns to find a Nought. I do not find it.
A disappointing way to end my chances - losing to "nut draw, shit the bed." Still credit where it's due, as my opponent made no mistakes and played his deck to its best outs. I hate losing matchups where I really shouldn't, but that's why Magic isn't chess. It's not like I didn't hit runners in the previous round.
4-3
Round 8 - ANT
Game 1 I keep a hand with Force, Show and Tell, Worldly, Daze, and some lands. Pretty good, I hear. My opponent plays an Underground sea and says go. I draw Seize and use it. I see LED and a bunch of storm cards. Yippee! I take something stormy (let him walk into using LED, see if I care), and pass. He tries to win and I stop him. He draws a card and passes. I play a land and pass. He draws another card. I Worldly for Emrakul. I play a land and S&T. He reads Emrakul and scoops.
Game 2 I do something similar, except he plays a Bob and a Top, and my Bridge made an Iona.
5-3
So, all in all I got to do some really fun, really broken shit, and make some people have pretty awful days. Walking around the event, I heard a lot of bad beats stories, and most of them were my deck. I like that. This deck has the ability to just win the game out of nowhere, which is something Reanimator has a much harder time doing. While they need to pre-emptively set up a win in order to topdeck an Exhume or what have you, a lot of times that leaves them vulnerable to a counterattack or to yard hate. This deck completely circumvents that hate, and allows you to quite often topdeck a tutor or a Nought and win the game on the spot - even with an empty hand. Not a lot of decks can claim that kind of power.
As far as the list goes, it was totally tight, with the exception of the few times I didn't draw the card I was looking for, forever. To that end, my intention is to sub a fourth LDV for the third Worldly. LDV finds any card at instant speed, which gives it a little more flexibility over the Worldly. I found myself boarding some number of Worldly's out each game, and LDV was always solid. I think that will help to alleviate the problems I was having with the "can't find Wipe Away" problem, and still gives me plenty of ways to both set up Bridge and find the creatures.
In the sideboard, I'm not convinced of the worth of Relic of Prog. It seems good since you aren't running Goyf (more on that in a second), but it's too slow for the decks you need it against. I'd rather have Macabre against Reanimator, and I'd rather have Crypt against Ichorid. To that end, I will be splitting those slots into one and one of each, putting it to 2 Macabre, 3 Crypt. The third Crypt may eventually turn into a second Duress. The card just rocks.
The three creatures in the board are there for specific reasons, when they are better than Emrakul - Iona for Combo and Mono-colored matchups (burn, MBC, etc). The Archon is for Merfolk and Ichorid. The Progenitus is for decks like Lands (Karakas) and for Counterbalance Control decks that run shitty cards like Sower of Temptation and Gilded Drake.
On Goyf - We originally had him in the deck. In testing, I found that he took the deck in a direction you didn't want to go, and you relied on him early to stop attacks - basically he was wall of goyf. He made the deck more aggro-control, and like Survival, that's not what we wanted to be. Removing him made us able to make the combo more effective, and about a turn faster. He really just got in the way, and often felt like a blank when we drew him on turns 3-5. If you forget the fact that we're running Forests, and pretend the deck is Reanimator without a grave dependancy, it makes much more sense to eschew him.
Anyway, that's the deck. It was awesome. I loved playing it, and had more fun than I have in a long time at an event - as well as more than anyone else at the tournament. Give it a shot, tell me what you think.
Edit - Forgot the obligatory props and slops.
Props:
Rise of the Eldrazi. You gave me two fun cards to play with, and a ton for EDH. Yay for See Beyond.
Whoever that dude in the top 8 was that Retainers'd in an Emrakul. Winner winner.
Di and Herbig for being the major contributors to this decks' development.
Matt McNally for preemptively being excited to play another one of my piles.
All of my most gracious opponents. You were all great and took me winning (and losing) in stride.
The Annihilator mechanic
Slops:
My single opponent who I do not like. You know who you are.
Drawing fourty cards and not seeing a 4-of. Twice.
Qasali Pridemage
Dreadstill. Which this is not.
Naysayers.
Dave Gearhart, for not showing up to bear witness to the second coming.
So, we looked into the Show and Tell route. Third turn Emrakul still seems like good stuff, especially since it gives your opponent just enough time to be ravaged by the annihilator. But, stuck in the back of our minds, there was another card, and another old deck, that we found hope in. And boy, did it live up to our expectations and more. Without further ado, I give you the talk of the 5/15 Vestal event - Aeon Bridge.
Aeon Bridge - A potentially broken Legacy deck by Nightmare
4 Show and Tell
3 Worldly Tutor
3 Lim-Dul's Vault
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
4 Brainstorm
3 See Beyond
4 Stifle
4 Thoughtseize
1 Wipe Away
4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
2 Chrome Mox
4 Mosswort Bridge
3 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
1 Island
1 Forest
SB
3 Krosan Grip
3 Pithing Needle
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Blazing Archon
1 Progenitus
1 Duress
That's right, bitches. MossNought is back, with a vengeance.
As this was the deck's first real go in a large tournament environment, I expected to do mediocre, but hoped for more. In the end, I went 5-3, with some pretty exceptional wins and losses both. I'm very impressed with the deck, although I would make a few small changes here and there, and I learned a few lessons on boarding and the do's and don'ts of the deck throughout the day. I'm confident that I would be able to improve on that record, should I replay the day again with the new knowledge.
Round 1 - Reanimator
Game 1 consisted of a turn 1 Trop, turn 2 Bridge (Worldly Tutor with trigger on the stack), Turn 3 Dreadnought - activate bridge, make a Time Walk and a 15/15, and swing. Pretty much the nuts right out of the gates. Exciting way to start off the event.
I make the first mistake of the day immediately after. As it turns out, you don't want to board any of your guys in against Reanimator, no matter how enticing they may seem. If you really need one of them, then Progs is the only one worth grabbing. I mistakenly boarded in Iona, and my opponent proceeded to Thoughtseize it and reanimate it. I was still in, should I have drawn a Dreadnought or Worldly Tutor, but he reanimated a Realm Razer (going to 1) to lock out my bridge, and prevent me from smashing.
Game 3 was uneventful, as I mulled into Emrakul, Nought, CMox, 2 Brainstorm, Sea. I played Sea and passed. He Seized me, I brainstormed in response, which he Dazed. He took the other BS, and I was way out.
0-1
Not the best start to the day, but I felt like I learned an important lesson this match, and I firmly believe that without that mistake I would have easily taken the match. This deck has an excellent matchup with Reanimator, despite first glances, and I'm about 65-35 so far in testing.
Round 2 - Zoo
Zoo should be a near bye. They are trying to goldfish you, and have no disruption for your deck at all. As long as you don't shit the bed, there's really nothing they can do. This round, things went according to plan, and Emrakul took the game down in both games 1 and 3. In game 2, my deck decided not to play magic, and even a turn 1 Dreadnought wasn't enough to keep me up to speed. They can win games, as I said, but it's not a favorable matchup for them. Important cards - Path to Exile (on Dreadnought), Qasali Pridemage (again, Nought), and Knight of the Reliquary (if they play Karakas).
1-1
Round 3 - Lam Phan's pile
I ask around if anyone knows what Lam is playing, and I hear "tempo something." Great! Game 1 on the draw I keep a 1-lander with multiple draw spells. It also has Nought Stifle. After Lam plays fetch, go, I try to play around the Stifle, but manage to never see another land. Eventually he draws and resolves one of the three threats in his deck and "wins." Realistically, my deck loses more than him actively winning. Game 2 is similar, except I see three lands, and he sees 1 wasteland, 1 sinkhole, 1 smallpox, 2 stifles, and a Hymn to Tourach. Nice deck. I don't think I can really handle that much manabase disruption. One or two Waste effects is usually fine - especially if I can find a Chrome Mox, or if I can fetch a basic land. That much disruption paired with counterspells and discard is a pain for this deck.
I did have one totally sweet play where I played a Show and Tell with Daze as my only card in hand. Lam Forced pitching Force. That was tight.
1-2
Now all but out of contention, I'm playing for top 16 or for knowledge and pride. I decide to stick it out and see if the deck is worth keeping.
Round 4 - Reanimator
Let's try this again, but with the right sideboarding.
Game 1 I Seize him and counter enough spells so that he's down to one card in hand. I play S&T with force backup, and his last card is Blazing Archon. Nice. I have approximately 100 turns to try and find either the Wipe Away or one of three Lim-Dul's Vaults. My opponent watches as I brainstorm 4 times, See Beyond twice, and use three Mosswort Bridges to dig about 40 cards deep in my deck, and see none of them. I'm forced to Thoughtseize myself to make Emrakul shuffle the graveyard back (as I have no more dig left, and two bad BS cards on top), and then See Beyond and BS one more time, still finding nothing. He eventually Exhumes Inkwell, and I make this awesome play -
I will return Dreadnought. I will sacrifice my Emrakul to shuffle my library again. He attacks with Inkwell and with Archon. I activate Mosswort Bridge, and put a second Emrakul into play and BLOCK THAT SHIT!!!!!!111!!!
Only he doesn't swing with the Archon, and I lose two turns later, still not having found the Wipe Away or the LDV.
Game 2 goes much more according to plan - only not really, as he Thoughtseizes me, and then Reanimates Terastodon, eating three of my lands. But wait! That gives me enough dudes to swing through his fatty and kill him. Whoops.
Game 3, my deck decides to show up, while his does not. I duress him on t1 and see three fatties, lands, and a Mystical. I choose mystical. On my turn 2 I draw Faerie Macabre, and start taking his fatties out with Seizes. He goes for another Mystical and I let it resolve, he gets Exhume. When he plays it, I Macabre his two guys and put my Faerie into play. SO Savage. The little Faerie that could goes a long way, until I find a Nought and activate two Bridges - 1 putting Emrakul in, and 1 playing the stifle for the Nought trigger! Take another turn, swing 29.
2-2
Round 5 - Counter top Thopter
Game 1 - my opponent doesn't de-sideboard from last round, and gets a game loss. Whoops. To be fair, my hand was the stone nuts. Matt Mcnally was behind me, he can attest. I wasn't losing that game.
Game 2 - I open with a Duress, and see a bunch of blue cards. I think I took a Brainstorm. He plays a land, and passes. I play a Bridge, and put an Emrakul under it. He plays a counterbalance. I play a Show and Tell. That's about all she wrote.
3-2
Round 6 - ANT
This matchup is a joke. You've gotta understand, I play with Bryant Cook. It's not like I don't have the combo matchup in mind. If you are any good at pattern recognition, you'll notice my trend of playing UBg decks that run a million counterspells, discard, and a clock. That's really bad for storm combo decks. Sometimes I even put counterbalance in just to really plow my dick up their ass.
This player is usually on Merfolk, and I was a little nervous about it. Sometimes he plays Dredge, which would also be less than stellar. Instead, he opens with Sea, go. Nice. I make the following plays (with Force backup) - Turn 1 Thoughtseize. Turn 2 Thoughtseize, Bridge (Putting Thoughtseize under it). Turn 3 Show and Tell Emrakul. Turn 4 Swing, Activate bridge.
Game 2 - I keep a loose six after a mull - 3 real lands, Bridge, Emrakul, Force. He opens with Duress and takes Force. On my turn, I draw Show and Tell, and play Bridge (finding Emrakul blind). He plays a land and a top. I draw Daze, and play a trop. He Mysticals EOT, and tops upkeep, then passes. I draw a Nought. Play it, activate bridge, attack for 15. That's right bitches. Runner Runner Runner.
4-2
Round 7 - Zoo
SWEEET! Another bye! If I win next round, I may sneak into top 8! Or not.
Game 1 opens with Steppe Lynx. I don't mind, I have Seize into turn 3 Emrakul. I seize and see 3 fetchlands, 2 Pridemage, and Goyf. I take Goyf, which changes things. I could have played a t2 Nought, but I didn't have a third land for my Show and tell. Had he only had 1 Pridemage, I take that and go for the Nought. Having 2 means he still has one for my nought. It may have been the right play to take a Pridemage anyway, since he's likely to play the Goyf turn 2 and it gives me at least 1 turn to draw a Force for the second Mage. I think I screwed this up, but I'm not really sure. Remember, I was looking for turn 3 S&T, and I had to LDV for the land. Anyway, he plays a fetch and sacs it, and a Mage, and swings 5. On my turn I pass, setting up the EOT LDV. He plays another fetch and another mage, and swings 6. I play the S&T and he puts a Nacatl into play and wins on his turn 4, through my blocker. There's not a whole lot I could have done there. He basically had the nuts.
Game 2 went a little differently. I managed to Seize Daze and force his gas, until he was left with no creatures and one card in hand. I proceed to Brainstorm, See Beyond, fetch, etc, to try and find a Dreadnought, Worldly, or LDV, to hit the bridge. Again, my deck does not deliver. He plays a Pridemage when I'm at 15, and I choose not to Force, since it would make me discard my last Brainstorm. I figure that gives me 5 more turns to find a Nought. I do not find it.
A disappointing way to end my chances - losing to "nut draw, shit the bed." Still credit where it's due, as my opponent made no mistakes and played his deck to its best outs. I hate losing matchups where I really shouldn't, but that's why Magic isn't chess. It's not like I didn't hit runners in the previous round.
4-3
Round 8 - ANT
Game 1 I keep a hand with Force, Show and Tell, Worldly, Daze, and some lands. Pretty good, I hear. My opponent plays an Underground sea and says go. I draw Seize and use it. I see LED and a bunch of storm cards. Yippee! I take something stormy (let him walk into using LED, see if I care), and pass. He tries to win and I stop him. He draws a card and passes. I play a land and pass. He draws another card. I Worldly for Emrakul. I play a land and S&T. He reads Emrakul and scoops.
Game 2 I do something similar, except he plays a Bob and a Top, and my Bridge made an Iona.
5-3
So, all in all I got to do some really fun, really broken shit, and make some people have pretty awful days. Walking around the event, I heard a lot of bad beats stories, and most of them were my deck. I like that. This deck has the ability to just win the game out of nowhere, which is something Reanimator has a much harder time doing. While they need to pre-emptively set up a win in order to topdeck an Exhume or what have you, a lot of times that leaves them vulnerable to a counterattack or to yard hate. This deck completely circumvents that hate, and allows you to quite often topdeck a tutor or a Nought and win the game on the spot - even with an empty hand. Not a lot of decks can claim that kind of power.
As far as the list goes, it was totally tight, with the exception of the few times I didn't draw the card I was looking for, forever. To that end, my intention is to sub a fourth LDV for the third Worldly. LDV finds any card at instant speed, which gives it a little more flexibility over the Worldly. I found myself boarding some number of Worldly's out each game, and LDV was always solid. I think that will help to alleviate the problems I was having with the "can't find Wipe Away" problem, and still gives me plenty of ways to both set up Bridge and find the creatures.
In the sideboard, I'm not convinced of the worth of Relic of Prog. It seems good since you aren't running Goyf (more on that in a second), but it's too slow for the decks you need it against. I'd rather have Macabre against Reanimator, and I'd rather have Crypt against Ichorid. To that end, I will be splitting those slots into one and one of each, putting it to 2 Macabre, 3 Crypt. The third Crypt may eventually turn into a second Duress. The card just rocks.
The three creatures in the board are there for specific reasons, when they are better than Emrakul - Iona for Combo and Mono-colored matchups (burn, MBC, etc). The Archon is for Merfolk and Ichorid. The Progenitus is for decks like Lands (Karakas) and for Counterbalance Control decks that run shitty cards like Sower of Temptation and Gilded Drake.
On Goyf - We originally had him in the deck. In testing, I found that he took the deck in a direction you didn't want to go, and you relied on him early to stop attacks - basically he was wall of goyf. He made the deck more aggro-control, and like Survival, that's not what we wanted to be. Removing him made us able to make the combo more effective, and about a turn faster. He really just got in the way, and often felt like a blank when we drew him on turns 3-5. If you forget the fact that we're running Forests, and pretend the deck is Reanimator without a grave dependancy, it makes much more sense to eschew him.
Anyway, that's the deck. It was awesome. I loved playing it, and had more fun than I have in a long time at an event - as well as more than anyone else at the tournament. Give it a shot, tell me what you think.
Edit - Forgot the obligatory props and slops.
Props:
Rise of the Eldrazi. You gave me two fun cards to play with, and a ton for EDH. Yay for See Beyond.
Whoever that dude in the top 8 was that Retainers'd in an Emrakul. Winner winner.
Di and Herbig for being the major contributors to this decks' development.
Matt McNally for preemptively being excited to play another one of my piles.
All of my most gracious opponents. You were all great and took me winning (and losing) in stride.
The Annihilator mechanic
Slops:
My single opponent who I do not like. You know who you are.
Drawing fourty cards and not seeing a 4-of. Twice.
Qasali Pridemage
Dreadstill. Which this is not.
Naysayers.
Dave Gearhart, for not showing up to bear witness to the second coming.