URABAHN
09-05-2006, 08:54 AM
Name: The Mana Leak Open
Date: 9/3/2006
Location: Stratford, CT
Format: Legacy
Since AnwarA101 and powergamer1003 could not make The Mana Leak Open, I took up the reins of Red Death. Red Death has not been kind to me in testing this last month. In playtesting, I frequently lose to my colleagues playing Gro and Goblins. In the Source Tournament, I lost to Gro and Uber Madness and scrubbed out. Red Death is a wildly unpredictable aggro deck. Most of the games I won, I did so by the skin of my teeth. The problems lies in knowing what role you're supposed to play in your matches which is dictated by your opening hand and subsequent draws. Am I the aggressor? Do I play from a defensive position? Do I play the role of disruptor ala Deadguy Ale?
4 Nantuko Shade
4 Phyrexian Negator
3 Rotting Giant
1 Wretched Anurid
4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Duress
4 Sinkhole
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Chain Lightning
7 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
3 Bloodstained Mire
3 Badlands
4 Wasteland
4 Dark Ritual
SB:
4 Fire Covenant
4 Dystopia
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Null Rod
Most of the VA players and James Peyton stayed with Ewokslayer in Brooklyn, NY. IBA, My Name is Scott, Mr. Nipples, and Happy Gilmore wanted to stay at the Econo Lodge in CT so they could strip down to their underwear, run to Nantuko Shady's room, and show him the new Unicorn dance. I think we took what has to be the most expensive way to get to New York ever. Ewokslayer also made us pass through what is now my least favorite state ever--Delaware. Is the Delaware Turnpike ever free of big, thick 2 mph traffic? It seemed that every state had tolls on the Interstate, but Brooklyn had tolls on every bridge in NY leading to Brooklyn. We were all hungry when we got to Ewok's place, so Team Unicorn got the DP Special while everyone else ordered subs and pizza.
Round 1 v. Goblins W-L (0-1)
Game 1 - I Ritual out a Turn 1 Negator, not caring what my opponent is playing. He'll either deal with the 5/5 Trampling beastie or get the Unicorn treatment. Goblins is not a very good matchup for Red Death, even less so for Turn 1 Negator. I bash a lot of face, at one point sac'ing 3 permanents to a Lackey + Fanatic tag team, but eventually a Vial'd Goblin Matron for Gempalm Incinerator made me lose.
Game 2 - Fire Covenant was recommended to me by powergamer1003 for Goblins so I board those in and take out Duress. I fetch for Badlands on Turn 1 and Turn 2, and my opponent Wastes them both. I never see another land and lose.
Round 2 v. U/G/r Gro (1-1)
Game 1 - I Wasteland, I play Sinkhole, he's stuck at 1 Volcanic Island and win.
Game 2 - All bolts get sided out in favor of Cabal Therapy and Dystopia. I never see either one. He gets 2x Mongoose in play, builds Threshold in a couple turns, and I do nothing except roll over and die.
Game 3 - I find a lot of disruption like in Game 1 and keep him to 1 Land in play, but not before he plays Mongoose. I let the Mongoose bash my face in for a few turns while I play Sinkholes, Hymns, Duress, and Cabal Therapy. I know he has a Bolt, Werebear, and Naturalize in hand, but no counters. I play Dystopia and pass the turn. I'm at 9 life. He sacs his Mongoose, draws a card and passes the turn with 1 Volcanic Island in play. During my turn, I pay upkeep (8 life) and Hymn away an Island and Naturalize. He draws a card and passes the turn. I elect not to pay upkeep, play Nantuko Shade and Flashback Cabal Therapy targeting my opponent. He responds with Bolt (5 life) and I name Werebear. Over the next couple turns I bash with 2x Negator, get Bolted again (2 life) and he fails to find one more burn spell before he dies.
Round 3 v. Diablos playing Turboland (2-1)
Game 1 - I find way more land than he does and bash with creatures before he can go "infinite".
Game 2 - I try to race him, but eventually he gets Exploration, Cephalid Coliseum, and Crucible of Worlds in play. I scoop after a couple turns.
Game 3 - He has trouble finding lands, I don't, and I win.
Round 4 v. Getsickanddie playing Fairy Stompy (3-1)
Game 1 - I think he Psi-blasts a Negator, but I had enough permanents in play and I eventually win with creatures.
Game 2 - I think I won two in a row? I remember wishing I boarded in Null Rod.
Round 5 v. 4c Gro (3-2)
Game 1 - I'm overrun by Thresh'd creatures.
Game 2 - I never saw the 4th color, so I take out all my bolts, I regret that when he plays Dark Confidant and has his own personal Howling Mine for the rest of the game. I lose quickly.
Round 6 v. Lego Army Man playing Truffle Shuffle (3-3)
Game 1 - I play creatures and play 3x Sinkhole on his Plains, he never gets to play Wrath of God and I win.
Game 2 - For some lame reason I don't side in Dystopia. He stabilizes at 1 Life and we don't have time for Game 3. He's higher up in the standings because his tiebreakers were 20% better than mine, so I give him the win. He will run out of time next Round, but Happy Gilmore gives him the win and he swears to never play an IBA deck again.
Round 7 v. U/G Madness (4-3)
Game 1 - I win. Don't remember much else.
Game 2 - I lose. Don't remember much else.
Game 3 - I rethink my SB and forgo Dystopia, but up the # of therapies to 4, hoping to take Wild Mongrel or Aquamoeba out of his hand. It doesn't work and he eventually plays 2x Wild Mongrel and an Aquamoeba. It doesn't matter because I'm able to race him by 1 point of life because Hypnotic Specter makes his discard the only card in his hand on my turn.
I could have easily been 5-2, maybe 6-1 if I kept the number of mistakes down. Most of the VA players were kept out of Top 8 because of mistakes, but I think they did awesome. We'll play better in our home state next month.
Props
-Gaming Etc! What a nice place to play cards. Lots of tables and space.
-Ewokslayer for letting us stay at his place.
-Lego Army Man for swearing to never play an IBA deck.
-Mr. Nightmare for making Top 2.
-Katie from Syracuse, who travels to card tournaments with her friends and plays Game Boy Color. She liked my Inuyasha shirt, that made my day. =)
Slops
-Delaware. What the fuck good are you, anyway? Your turnpike sucks.
-Mr. Nightmare for not bashing face with 2x Werebear and 1x Mongoose, all threshed.
-Every state we drove in except VA. That's Maryland, Delaware, NY, and New Jersey. WTF is up with all the tolls?
-IBA for Duressing the wrong card v. Reanimator.
-Team Unicorn (and Honorary Unicorns Dave Price and James Peyton) for making mistakes! I want to see you all at my place on Friday for playtesting, DP, and Unicorn Punishment.
Date: 9/3/2006
Location: Stratford, CT
Format: Legacy
Since AnwarA101 and powergamer1003 could not make The Mana Leak Open, I took up the reins of Red Death. Red Death has not been kind to me in testing this last month. In playtesting, I frequently lose to my colleagues playing Gro and Goblins. In the Source Tournament, I lost to Gro and Uber Madness and scrubbed out. Red Death is a wildly unpredictable aggro deck. Most of the games I won, I did so by the skin of my teeth. The problems lies in knowing what role you're supposed to play in your matches which is dictated by your opening hand and subsequent draws. Am I the aggressor? Do I play from a defensive position? Do I play the role of disruptor ala Deadguy Ale?
4 Nantuko Shade
4 Phyrexian Negator
3 Rotting Giant
1 Wretched Anurid
4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Duress
4 Sinkhole
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Chain Lightning
7 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
3 Bloodstained Mire
3 Badlands
4 Wasteland
4 Dark Ritual
SB:
4 Fire Covenant
4 Dystopia
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Null Rod
Most of the VA players and James Peyton stayed with Ewokslayer in Brooklyn, NY. IBA, My Name is Scott, Mr. Nipples, and Happy Gilmore wanted to stay at the Econo Lodge in CT so they could strip down to their underwear, run to Nantuko Shady's room, and show him the new Unicorn dance. I think we took what has to be the most expensive way to get to New York ever. Ewokslayer also made us pass through what is now my least favorite state ever--Delaware. Is the Delaware Turnpike ever free of big, thick 2 mph traffic? It seemed that every state had tolls on the Interstate, but Brooklyn had tolls on every bridge in NY leading to Brooklyn. We were all hungry when we got to Ewok's place, so Team Unicorn got the DP Special while everyone else ordered subs and pizza.
Round 1 v. Goblins W-L (0-1)
Game 1 - I Ritual out a Turn 1 Negator, not caring what my opponent is playing. He'll either deal with the 5/5 Trampling beastie or get the Unicorn treatment. Goblins is not a very good matchup for Red Death, even less so for Turn 1 Negator. I bash a lot of face, at one point sac'ing 3 permanents to a Lackey + Fanatic tag team, but eventually a Vial'd Goblin Matron for Gempalm Incinerator made me lose.
Game 2 - Fire Covenant was recommended to me by powergamer1003 for Goblins so I board those in and take out Duress. I fetch for Badlands on Turn 1 and Turn 2, and my opponent Wastes them both. I never see another land and lose.
Round 2 v. U/G/r Gro (1-1)
Game 1 - I Wasteland, I play Sinkhole, he's stuck at 1 Volcanic Island and win.
Game 2 - All bolts get sided out in favor of Cabal Therapy and Dystopia. I never see either one. He gets 2x Mongoose in play, builds Threshold in a couple turns, and I do nothing except roll over and die.
Game 3 - I find a lot of disruption like in Game 1 and keep him to 1 Land in play, but not before he plays Mongoose. I let the Mongoose bash my face in for a few turns while I play Sinkholes, Hymns, Duress, and Cabal Therapy. I know he has a Bolt, Werebear, and Naturalize in hand, but no counters. I play Dystopia and pass the turn. I'm at 9 life. He sacs his Mongoose, draws a card and passes the turn with 1 Volcanic Island in play. During my turn, I pay upkeep (8 life) and Hymn away an Island and Naturalize. He draws a card and passes the turn. I elect not to pay upkeep, play Nantuko Shade and Flashback Cabal Therapy targeting my opponent. He responds with Bolt (5 life) and I name Werebear. Over the next couple turns I bash with 2x Negator, get Bolted again (2 life) and he fails to find one more burn spell before he dies.
Round 3 v. Diablos playing Turboland (2-1)
Game 1 - I find way more land than he does and bash with creatures before he can go "infinite".
Game 2 - I try to race him, but eventually he gets Exploration, Cephalid Coliseum, and Crucible of Worlds in play. I scoop after a couple turns.
Game 3 - He has trouble finding lands, I don't, and I win.
Round 4 v. Getsickanddie playing Fairy Stompy (3-1)
Game 1 - I think he Psi-blasts a Negator, but I had enough permanents in play and I eventually win with creatures.
Game 2 - I think I won two in a row? I remember wishing I boarded in Null Rod.
Round 5 v. 4c Gro (3-2)
Game 1 - I'm overrun by Thresh'd creatures.
Game 2 - I never saw the 4th color, so I take out all my bolts, I regret that when he plays Dark Confidant and has his own personal Howling Mine for the rest of the game. I lose quickly.
Round 6 v. Lego Army Man playing Truffle Shuffle (3-3)
Game 1 - I play creatures and play 3x Sinkhole on his Plains, he never gets to play Wrath of God and I win.
Game 2 - For some lame reason I don't side in Dystopia. He stabilizes at 1 Life and we don't have time for Game 3. He's higher up in the standings because his tiebreakers were 20% better than mine, so I give him the win. He will run out of time next Round, but Happy Gilmore gives him the win and he swears to never play an IBA deck again.
Round 7 v. U/G Madness (4-3)
Game 1 - I win. Don't remember much else.
Game 2 - I lose. Don't remember much else.
Game 3 - I rethink my SB and forgo Dystopia, but up the # of therapies to 4, hoping to take Wild Mongrel or Aquamoeba out of his hand. It doesn't work and he eventually plays 2x Wild Mongrel and an Aquamoeba. It doesn't matter because I'm able to race him by 1 point of life because Hypnotic Specter makes his discard the only card in his hand on my turn.
I could have easily been 5-2, maybe 6-1 if I kept the number of mistakes down. Most of the VA players were kept out of Top 8 because of mistakes, but I think they did awesome. We'll play better in our home state next month.
Props
-Gaming Etc! What a nice place to play cards. Lots of tables and space.
-Ewokslayer for letting us stay at his place.
-Lego Army Man for swearing to never play an IBA deck.
-Mr. Nightmare for making Top 2.
-Katie from Syracuse, who travels to card tournaments with her friends and plays Game Boy Color. She liked my Inuyasha shirt, that made my day. =)
Slops
-Delaware. What the fuck good are you, anyway? Your turnpike sucks.
-Mr. Nightmare for not bashing face with 2x Werebear and 1x Mongoose, all threshed.
-Every state we drove in except VA. That's Maryland, Delaware, NY, and New Jersey. WTF is up with all the tolls?
-IBA for Duressing the wrong card v. Reanimator.
-Team Unicorn (and Honorary Unicorns Dave Price and James Peyton) for making mistakes! I want to see you all at my place on Friday for playtesting, DP, and Unicorn Punishment.