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View Full Version : What the ****?! You made 11th with what?



niknight
09-05-2006, 09:14 PM
Prologue: At GP Boston 05, one of the local players started off 8-1 with a ww/u deck that ran maindeck Meddling Mage and True Believer. Given that the Extended environment at the time was combo heavy (and yes no-stick is a combo), the combination of those two creatures, along with the ability to vial them out, made him beat the hell out of combo.

Fast forward: After seeing that the Mana Leak would be allowing proxies, Scrumdogg and I came to the conclusion that combo would be very popular ($2 Resets and Grim Tutors anyone??), and we set out to build an aggro deck with a very good combo matchup. Using Scrumdogg's existing WW shell (he has a fetish for True Believer and Bikini Chick), we got a deck that was great vs combo, good vs aggro and not an autoloss vs control.

Edit the Second: This deck is NOT Angel Stompy. I run 0 Angels, 0 two-mana lands and 0 Moxen... this is just WW/u.

Decklist:

Land -

5x Snow-Covered Plains
4x Windswept Heath (more on that later)
4x Tundra
2x Hallowed Fountian
3x Wasteland
1x Scrubland
1x Plateau

Guys -
4x Meddling Mage
4x Silver Knight
4x Serendib Efreet
3x Paladin en-Vec
3x True Believer
3x Weathered Wayfarer
2x Azorius Guildmage
2x Jotun Grunt
1x 8.5 Tails

Stuff -
4x Stp
4x Vial
3x Jitte
2x SoFI
2x Engineered Explosives (the 2 random duals are there just to give the ability to blow EE for up to 4, taking out Humility, Worship, et al)

SB -
3x Armageddon
3x Tormod's Crypt
3x Pithing Needle (the reason for the heath is so that I can needle strand in the Solidarity/Iggy matchups... since everything else is dead)
3x Disenchant
3x Stifle


The day of -

I pick Allan up at 7:00 and head to Brendan's house. We didn't get an answer at the door, so Al threatens to commando roll through the kitchen window. About 5 mins later his dad comes out with the "Who the hell are you?" look. We then find out that Brendan slept through his alarm... for 45 minutes!


Round 1 - Phil Stoltze 3c Angel Stompy

Game 1 - I keep a decent hand of 3 land, 3 guys and an stp. He starts Scrub, Duress, Plains, Bob so I think he's playing Pikula. I drop a Mage on Vindicate, and then proceed to draw 5 land, a vial, a land and another vial off the top. He beats the crap out of me.

Game 2 - My hand is quite good. He goes turn 2 Mage naming STP, turn 3 Bob, turn 4 Angel which picked up a SoFI on turn 5.

0-1, 0-2. I'm depressed.

Round 2 - Brandon playing Iggy

Game 1 - He combos out before I can set up.

Game 2 - I Mage him for Massacre, drop a Serendib, then wait out with StP and Stifle in hand, with the mana to pay through his Defense Grid. I seal the deal by Wasting his Cabal Pit. He does manage a 6 point Tendril, which I ignore.

Game 3 - I open with turn 1 Needle on Delta and turn 2 Mage on Massacre. He proceeds to topdeck 2 Deltas, and I drop guys and beat face.

1-1, 2-3.

Round 3 - Tristian playing B/W misc.

He got dragged there looking to draft, and decided to sign up for a lark.

Game 1 - I get double Mage on StP and Chainer's Edict, then proceed to beat down.

Game 2 - He kills everything in sight, while I'm a little mana hosed. I'm still stuck on 2 lands when he hardcasts Debtor's Knell.

Game 3 - My deck opens like it should. I get a couple of Paladins, and hold the fort with Jitte.

2-1, 4-4.

Round 4 - Deep6er

Game 1 - Pretty much happened as he said, just that he didn't realize what True Believer did at first until he tried to Peek me.

Game 2 - I sit there and watch him go off, praying for him to fizzle. It happens, and I use his Meditate turns to go nuts. For note: He did not ever Turnabout my guys.

3-1, 6-4.

Round 5 - Jeff Carpenter playing Counterbalance Control

Game 1 - I resolve an early vial, which makes his entire deck useless. Fairly quick beatdown ensues.

Game 2 - He starts off by asking what creature type Paladin was. My turn 2 Mage hits home naming E. Plague, since I have a Silver Knight and Paladin in hand. He Mages Jitte and Serendib. I manage to win this game despite Counterbalance/Top, since his deck has a huge hole at the 3 mana slot.

4-1, 8-4.

Round 6 - The Dave Feinstein playing R/G beats

I'm fairly confident in this matchup, as I beat him with the deck 4 days previous. This match went as he described, although I'll note that we should not be playing draw-go for 6 turns! Also, where was my Pro:Red??

4-2, 8-6.

Round 7 - Josh playing White Thresh

Game 1 - Let the mind games begin... I start Plateau, Vial. He forces thinking I'm Goblins. Then I drop Tundra, Mage. He proceeds to drop 2 of his own, naming Fire/Ice and StP... I now have him thinking 4 color thresh. This confusion costs him as my guys pick up equipment, the Guildmage taps his guys down, and I win the game.

Game 2 - I get slaughtered. The only damage he took was from a fetch.

Game 3 - Let the mind games recommence. I drop a Tundra and pass. He pops a fetch which I Stifle. I then drop a Heath and pass. He plays Needle, and I don't respond with my fetch in hopes he names it (I have more land in hand)... he does. He gets a Mongoose in play, and an Enforcer. I Crypt him, then Plow his Enforcer. That is followed by an Explosives for 1, which clears his board of everything other than a Mage on Jitte (which I boarded out). I get some beats in, until he gets another Mongoose followed by his long lost Werebears. I drop a Vial, and take some beats from him until I vial in Grunt. Grunt proceeds to play hideous tricks on his 'yard (I put back 18 cards), and recycles my Wastelands for the Wayfarer to find again. I believe that I blew up about 6 of his land that game. Serendib makes an appearance with him at 3, and not having a flyer to block, nor an StP left in his deck. He is so pissed that he signs the slip, then leaves in disgust.

5-2, 10-7.

Overall, I was pleased with the build. It did what I asked, except I'm going to fit black in for Bob. All of the games I lost were because I couldn't draw my way out of a wet paper sack, and I hope this rectifies it.

Note: Out of my 2 draft sets, I pull Firemane, Life from the Loam and a Stomping Ground; so that greatly pleased me.


Edit:

Props -

Ray for the great tournament.
Michelle for having good buy prices, and really affordable stuff.
Most of my opponents for being cool.
True Believer for confusing the hell out of people.
Feinstein for just being cool.
Scrumdogg for loaning me most of the deck.
The draft sets for being great.

Slops-

Me for losing to my best machup.
Brendan for sleeping in.
Ernesto for having to hit the Northeast.
and others I can't think of

MasterBlaster
09-05-2006, 09:32 PM
Using Scrumdogg's existing WW shell (he has a fetish for True Believer and Bikini Chick), we got a deck that was great vs combo, good vs aggro and not an autoloss vs control.

I'm guessing 'Bikini Chick' is Azorius Guildmage? I like to call her Smurfette, myself.

Congrats on 11th. I was starting to wonder why we don't see more traditional WW(non AS) in Legacy.

niknight
09-05-2006, 09:38 PM
To clarify, Bikini Chick is actually Auriok Champion.

Moby Dick
09-05-2006, 09:54 PM
Even though I hate your guts, congrats, and thanks for not putting me not being there in the props.

scrumdogg
09-06-2006, 12:34 AM
Actually Bikini Chick is Auriok Champion, who did stupid things when Goblins was huge & Burn still roamed the environment. She gains life off creatures being cast (I run 26 & my opponents often help as well) which is relevant in aggro matchups as well as combo that involves life totals, she picks up equipment against Sligh/Goblins/Burn/anything Black, and the art is amazing.... But with the environment shifting, Justin was completely right that the bigger body/first strike aspect of Paladin makes more sense. Congrats on nearly cracking Top 8 & showing what we designed the deck to do to combo & aggro/ aggro-control :)

M.Maddox
09-06-2006, 12:28 PM
Why splash black, when you already have blue? I seem to remember blue having some decent card draw ability... ;)

scrumdogg
09-06-2006, 04:56 PM
Why splash black, when you already have blue? I seem to remember blue having some decent card draw ability... ;)

Not that beats & picks up equipment, at least not in the 1-2cc range. It will be tested, although this may finally stretch the manabase to the breaking point....

Ebinsugewa
09-10-2006, 07:01 PM
The day of -

I pick Allan up at 7:00 and head to Brendan's house. We didn't get an answer at the door, so Al threatens to commando roll through the kitchen window. About 5 mins later his dad comes out with the "Who the hell are you?" look. We then find out that Brendan slept through his alarm... for 45 minutes!
...
Slops-

Brendan for sleeping in.

Well deserved on my part. I'd like to see Al commando-roll anything but jelly doughnuts :-p. Interesting to see that you released our tech, what changes have we made that had been proposed?

Also - "What do shims do?"
"They shim stuff."