GreenOne
11-29-2006, 08:20 AM
I decide to play solidarity at the tournament even if i had only little sleep and i knew the meta was Aggro-Control filled.
We arrive at 10:00 am, the tournament begins at 11, so there's some food/scouting time. I eat a 2 inches high toast and see that almost every deck is packing Force of Will and Jotun Grunt. Fortunately there are some red decks too.
Prices are good as the number of players reached 60. There will be 6 rounds swiss and Top8.
There was some discussion in the forums about the importance of MD FoW. I decide to play just 3MD, with one in side to wish for, and see if it's worth it.
The Wipe Aways are here for the Meddling Mage problem. They help a lot with Mother of Runes too. I tested 'em a lot and 2 copies are enough to side in, and help greatly in the Thresh matchup.
That's the list I played:
// Lands
3 [ON] Flooded Strand
3 [ON] Polluted Delta
12 [P2] Island (3)
// Spells
3 [AL] Force of Will
4 [FE] High Tide (1)
2 [IN] Opt
3 [JU] Cunning Wish
2 [JU] Flash of Insight
4 [LG] Reset
4 [MM] Brainstorm
4 [RAV] Remand
2 [SC] Brain Freeze
3 [TE] Meditate
3 [US] Turnabout
4 [VI] Impulse
2 [SOK] Twincast
2 [OD] Peek
// Sideboard
SB: 1 [SC] Brain Freeze
SB: 1 [TE] Meditate
SB: 1 [US] Turnabout
SB: 2 [SOK] Twincast
SB: 4 [IA] Hydroblast
SB: 1 [ON] Chain of Vapor
SB: 1 [US] Stroke of Genius
SB: 1 [UL] Rebuild
SB: 2 [TSP] Wipe Away
SB: 1 [AL] Force of Will
On the tournament:
1 Round: Monored Burn
G1: he wins the dice roll and goes mountain, fanatic. I put him in goblins and see that with my hand I can win turn 4. I go off turn 5 with a lethal fireblast on the stack.
SB +4 Hydroblast -1 Wish, -1 Opt, -1 Turnabout, -1 Flash of insight.
G2: He starts with a good amount of burn, I can't combo off with 3 lands in play while he got lethal dmg on stack.
G3: I keep a nice hand with no counters but many combo pieces. On turn 2 I peek and see that he has no burn power save a Ball Lightning, 2 Pyroblasts and lands. During his upkeep I cunning wish with him on 2 lands, so that if he counters he cannot play Ball Lightning that turn. He counters it, play land and pass the turn. Next turn he's on 4 lands, plays Ball Lightning, I turnabout and he counters. I'm down on life, but i can go off next turn with no counters on my path.
1-0-0
2 Round: Suicide Black
G1. I keep a nice hand with high tide, brainstorm, meditate, Flash of insight, islands and a fetchland. Island, go. He rituals into duress (I brainstorm in resp) and dark confidant, turn 2 Rotting Giant, turn 3 Rotting Giant. However, he's not able to put cards in his graveyard and attack with his giants (at a certain point he casts carnophage and sacs it to a edict to attack with 'em). I build a position and go off in the 4th turn with a good hand.
SB: -1 force, -1 peek, +2 twincast
G2. He puts a lot of early pressure and a duress that ends the game.
G3. I play land, go. When the turn passes back to me I got 3 cards in hand (ritual into cabal, cabal, carnophage, flashback cabal). However, he's not able to put pressure at all, and i recover easily in like 6-7 turns of draw-go.
2-0-0
3 Round: Accorsi Luca playing RW Goblins
G1: I keep a hand with High tide, Meditate, Turnabout, opt, 3 lands. He starts with Vial, I win on turn 4.
SB: +4 Blasts, -1 remand, -1 Flash of insight, -1 Wish, -1 twincast.
G2: he mulls to 6 and starts with vial. I peek and see no blasts nor pillars, but lot of gobbos. I hydroblast a warchief and combo on turn 5.
3-0-0
4 Round: UGw Gro
G1: He meddling mage on turn 2 naming tide, but he can't put much pressure. I Cunning wish, he doesn't counter and I read a strange dazed feeling in his face as I show him Wipe Away. I bounce the mage one turn before being dead and go off the next one, but i can't get through the counter wall (he counters the tide, I twincast it, he dazes twice and i'm on 2 mana with a turnabout in hand).
SB: +2 twincast, +2 wipe away, -4 Remand,
G2: He beats down fast with a Jotun Grunt, I try to combo off the turn I'm dead. I see a couple of Trickbinds in his hand, I sided out the remands, so I stroke him for 60 with the help of many twincasts (I twincast 3 times a meditate and once a reset).
G3: He doesn't put much pressure in the early game, but i've got no tide. He plays a SoF&I and a Jotun Grunt. During the first of the additional turns. I try to go off in response to grunt's equip, so that can bounce it and win without the help of Stroke. My hand is 2xTide, 2xReset, 2xtwincast, Brain Freeze. I go past the counterwar, freeze myself, twincast 2 times flash of insight for 14, but my meditates are bad, and he's got a Trickbind. I turnabout his lands (he floats), bounce the grunt, pass priority and wait for the combat step. He plays land (damn...I forgot that land!). I just can't combo with trickbind in his hand. I draw the match due to time.
3-1-0
5 Round: Migno playing UBW Hanni Fish
We tested the match a lot. He knows my deck and how I play it. I cannot win this one, too much hate.
G1: He keeps a 1 lander and can't find the second one with his cantrips. I combo off with double Freeze with him on 2 lands and me on 6 islands.
SB: +2 Twincast, +2 Wipe Away, -4 Remand.
G2: He sided in some Katakis (SAVAGE BEATING :)) and some blue cards in place of StP. I die to a Grunt, a Meddling, and a Kataki.
G3: Duress, Meddling mage, stifle, Grunt and counters is just too much. I cannot win this one.
3-1-1
6 Round: Mirage playing Ghostway.
His deck has the same cantrips/counters of threshold, with different creature base: Coiling oracle, Eternal Witness, Wall Of Blossoms, Fleetfoot Panther and Ghostway. The deck is nice. Here's it's thread: http://www.theabyss.biz/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21359
G1: He cannot make some pressure, at some point he casts a Witness, I remand, he forces (pitching force) and take the force from the grave. I go off through 3 counters and a daze during the late game. I'm with 5 mana left, a meditate, a brainstorm. I already used a reset and a turnabout. I decide to brainstorm first, revealing twincast, island, turnabout. During the combo I have to Brain Freeze myself. I turnabout his creatures and we're both with no library left, but I skip my turn due to meditate.
SB: +2 twincast, -2 remand
G2: I try to go off the turn he's killing me, but I meditate into nothing. I fizzle and we're 1-1. Time's up and we cannot draw. He concedes the game to me.
4-1-1
I'm 4th. On the Top8.
Top8: Zerbo with UGW Gro
G1: He plays some creatures, I fix my hand into a god one. He counters my tide and I remand it. He counters again my tide next turn but I got 3 of them and win the counterwar.
G2: He keeps a hand with a plains, a forest, a watchwolf, daze, force, counterspell, serum vision. He plays Watchwolf on turn 2, and tundra -> serum vision on turn 3. I combo off with just a couple counters on my path.
Top4: Gibertini With UWB Pikula
I mean, his deck splashes blue only for shadowmage infiltrator. other than that is some sort of Pikula deck tweaked to beat aggro with 12 MD creature removals, jitte and mother of runes.
G1: he plays mother of runes first and second turn, duress on the third turn, I go off like 4 turns later in response to a Tourach.
G2: He starts with a cabal therapy for Peek (???) and procedes to flashback it the next turn. I Brainstorm in response and he miss. I force an hymn to tourach a turn later and go off on turn 5 or 6, can't remember.
Finals: Maccagnani playing STAX ur
I win quite fast in the last match so I see some part of the other semifinals. It's UBW Fish vs STAX... not good matchups.
The winner is STAX, MD: 4xTangle Wire, Trini, Smokestack, Chalice. SB: 3 sphere of resistance, 5 red blasts.
I just cannot win.
He offers me the split as we know each other and it's like 8:30 pm (the tourney started at 11:00 am) and we all want to go home. I accept and thank him. I end up with a price of 2xFoW, 2x Wasteland, 1x Foil Vampiric Tutor.
I found the SB Force of Will not useful at all: never wished for it, never sided it in. However, the maindeck Twincast in the place of it allowed some great plays.
I never wished for Rebuild too, but i guess it could be the MVP in the final.
The Wipe Away are all around great. -1 Brain Freeze for +1 Wipe Away was ok, as everybody was beating with Jotun Grunt there.
Here is the Top8 decklists, for the ones who can read italian:
http://www.theabyss.biz/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21501
Props:
- Caffeine, for keeping me awake
- Winston Blue, for keeping me awake
- Bevi, for organizing the whole thing
- The players, for being nice and friendly
- Solidarity, for being amazing
- David Gearhart, for being fucking awesome
Slops:
- 3:30 hours of sleep
- The tournament for being like 2 hours far from Ravenna, and lost in the middle of nowhere, with lots of fog. I mean, the journey to it was something like going to Silent Hill
- Mirage for not Top8ing. His deck was a blast and a new creative idea. Go on with it!
- STAX. Brown deck sucks.
We arrive at 10:00 am, the tournament begins at 11, so there's some food/scouting time. I eat a 2 inches high toast and see that almost every deck is packing Force of Will and Jotun Grunt. Fortunately there are some red decks too.
Prices are good as the number of players reached 60. There will be 6 rounds swiss and Top8.
There was some discussion in the forums about the importance of MD FoW. I decide to play just 3MD, with one in side to wish for, and see if it's worth it.
The Wipe Aways are here for the Meddling Mage problem. They help a lot with Mother of Runes too. I tested 'em a lot and 2 copies are enough to side in, and help greatly in the Thresh matchup.
That's the list I played:
// Lands
3 [ON] Flooded Strand
3 [ON] Polluted Delta
12 [P2] Island (3)
// Spells
3 [AL] Force of Will
4 [FE] High Tide (1)
2 [IN] Opt
3 [JU] Cunning Wish
2 [JU] Flash of Insight
4 [LG] Reset
4 [MM] Brainstorm
4 [RAV] Remand
2 [SC] Brain Freeze
3 [TE] Meditate
3 [US] Turnabout
4 [VI] Impulse
2 [SOK] Twincast
2 [OD] Peek
// Sideboard
SB: 1 [SC] Brain Freeze
SB: 1 [TE] Meditate
SB: 1 [US] Turnabout
SB: 2 [SOK] Twincast
SB: 4 [IA] Hydroblast
SB: 1 [ON] Chain of Vapor
SB: 1 [US] Stroke of Genius
SB: 1 [UL] Rebuild
SB: 2 [TSP] Wipe Away
SB: 1 [AL] Force of Will
On the tournament:
1 Round: Monored Burn
G1: he wins the dice roll and goes mountain, fanatic. I put him in goblins and see that with my hand I can win turn 4. I go off turn 5 with a lethal fireblast on the stack.
SB +4 Hydroblast -1 Wish, -1 Opt, -1 Turnabout, -1 Flash of insight.
G2: He starts with a good amount of burn, I can't combo off with 3 lands in play while he got lethal dmg on stack.
G3: I keep a nice hand with no counters but many combo pieces. On turn 2 I peek and see that he has no burn power save a Ball Lightning, 2 Pyroblasts and lands. During his upkeep I cunning wish with him on 2 lands, so that if he counters he cannot play Ball Lightning that turn. He counters it, play land and pass the turn. Next turn he's on 4 lands, plays Ball Lightning, I turnabout and he counters. I'm down on life, but i can go off next turn with no counters on my path.
1-0-0
2 Round: Suicide Black
G1. I keep a nice hand with high tide, brainstorm, meditate, Flash of insight, islands and a fetchland. Island, go. He rituals into duress (I brainstorm in resp) and dark confidant, turn 2 Rotting Giant, turn 3 Rotting Giant. However, he's not able to put cards in his graveyard and attack with his giants (at a certain point he casts carnophage and sacs it to a edict to attack with 'em). I build a position and go off in the 4th turn with a good hand.
SB: -1 force, -1 peek, +2 twincast
G2. He puts a lot of early pressure and a duress that ends the game.
G3. I play land, go. When the turn passes back to me I got 3 cards in hand (ritual into cabal, cabal, carnophage, flashback cabal). However, he's not able to put pressure at all, and i recover easily in like 6-7 turns of draw-go.
2-0-0
3 Round: Accorsi Luca playing RW Goblins
G1: I keep a hand with High tide, Meditate, Turnabout, opt, 3 lands. He starts with Vial, I win on turn 4.
SB: +4 Blasts, -1 remand, -1 Flash of insight, -1 Wish, -1 twincast.
G2: he mulls to 6 and starts with vial. I peek and see no blasts nor pillars, but lot of gobbos. I hydroblast a warchief and combo on turn 5.
3-0-0
4 Round: UGw Gro
G1: He meddling mage on turn 2 naming tide, but he can't put much pressure. I Cunning wish, he doesn't counter and I read a strange dazed feeling in his face as I show him Wipe Away. I bounce the mage one turn before being dead and go off the next one, but i can't get through the counter wall (he counters the tide, I twincast it, he dazes twice and i'm on 2 mana with a turnabout in hand).
SB: +2 twincast, +2 wipe away, -4 Remand,
G2: He beats down fast with a Jotun Grunt, I try to combo off the turn I'm dead. I see a couple of Trickbinds in his hand, I sided out the remands, so I stroke him for 60 with the help of many twincasts (I twincast 3 times a meditate and once a reset).
G3: He doesn't put much pressure in the early game, but i've got no tide. He plays a SoF&I and a Jotun Grunt. During the first of the additional turns. I try to go off in response to grunt's equip, so that can bounce it and win without the help of Stroke. My hand is 2xTide, 2xReset, 2xtwincast, Brain Freeze. I go past the counterwar, freeze myself, twincast 2 times flash of insight for 14, but my meditates are bad, and he's got a Trickbind. I turnabout his lands (he floats), bounce the grunt, pass priority and wait for the combat step. He plays land (damn...I forgot that land!). I just can't combo with trickbind in his hand. I draw the match due to time.
3-1-0
5 Round: Migno playing UBW Hanni Fish
We tested the match a lot. He knows my deck and how I play it. I cannot win this one, too much hate.
G1: He keeps a 1 lander and can't find the second one with his cantrips. I combo off with double Freeze with him on 2 lands and me on 6 islands.
SB: +2 Twincast, +2 Wipe Away, -4 Remand.
G2: He sided in some Katakis (SAVAGE BEATING :)) and some blue cards in place of StP. I die to a Grunt, a Meddling, and a Kataki.
G3: Duress, Meddling mage, stifle, Grunt and counters is just too much. I cannot win this one.
3-1-1
6 Round: Mirage playing Ghostway.
His deck has the same cantrips/counters of threshold, with different creature base: Coiling oracle, Eternal Witness, Wall Of Blossoms, Fleetfoot Panther and Ghostway. The deck is nice. Here's it's thread: http://www.theabyss.biz/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21359
G1: He cannot make some pressure, at some point he casts a Witness, I remand, he forces (pitching force) and take the force from the grave. I go off through 3 counters and a daze during the late game. I'm with 5 mana left, a meditate, a brainstorm. I already used a reset and a turnabout. I decide to brainstorm first, revealing twincast, island, turnabout. During the combo I have to Brain Freeze myself. I turnabout his creatures and we're both with no library left, but I skip my turn due to meditate.
SB: +2 twincast, -2 remand
G2: I try to go off the turn he's killing me, but I meditate into nothing. I fizzle and we're 1-1. Time's up and we cannot draw. He concedes the game to me.
4-1-1
I'm 4th. On the Top8.
Top8: Zerbo with UGW Gro
G1: He plays some creatures, I fix my hand into a god one. He counters my tide and I remand it. He counters again my tide next turn but I got 3 of them and win the counterwar.
G2: He keeps a hand with a plains, a forest, a watchwolf, daze, force, counterspell, serum vision. He plays Watchwolf on turn 2, and tundra -> serum vision on turn 3. I combo off with just a couple counters on my path.
Top4: Gibertini With UWB Pikula
I mean, his deck splashes blue only for shadowmage infiltrator. other than that is some sort of Pikula deck tweaked to beat aggro with 12 MD creature removals, jitte and mother of runes.
G1: he plays mother of runes first and second turn, duress on the third turn, I go off like 4 turns later in response to a Tourach.
G2: He starts with a cabal therapy for Peek (???) and procedes to flashback it the next turn. I Brainstorm in response and he miss. I force an hymn to tourach a turn later and go off on turn 5 or 6, can't remember.
Finals: Maccagnani playing STAX ur
I win quite fast in the last match so I see some part of the other semifinals. It's UBW Fish vs STAX... not good matchups.
The winner is STAX, MD: 4xTangle Wire, Trini, Smokestack, Chalice. SB: 3 sphere of resistance, 5 red blasts.
I just cannot win.
He offers me the split as we know each other and it's like 8:30 pm (the tourney started at 11:00 am) and we all want to go home. I accept and thank him. I end up with a price of 2xFoW, 2x Wasteland, 1x Foil Vampiric Tutor.
I found the SB Force of Will not useful at all: never wished for it, never sided it in. However, the maindeck Twincast in the place of it allowed some great plays.
I never wished for Rebuild too, but i guess it could be the MVP in the final.
The Wipe Away are all around great. -1 Brain Freeze for +1 Wipe Away was ok, as everybody was beating with Jotun Grunt there.
Here is the Top8 decklists, for the ones who can read italian:
http://www.theabyss.biz/forum/viewtopic.php?t=21501
Props:
- Caffeine, for keeping me awake
- Winston Blue, for keeping me awake
- Bevi, for organizing the whole thing
- The players, for being nice and friendly
- Solidarity, for being amazing
- David Gearhart, for being fucking awesome
Slops:
- 3:30 hours of sleep
- The tournament for being like 2 hours far from Ravenna, and lost in the middle of nowhere, with lots of fog. I mean, the journey to it was something like going to Silent Hill
- Mirage for not Top8ing. His deck was a blast and a new creative idea. Go on with it!
- STAX. Brown deck sucks.