Zach Tartell
02-18-2007, 11:06 PM
This is my first Magic TR, so don’t hate on my poor structure. The story starts on Friday, when BigBear’s girlfriend (essentially) drove me to Mr. Nightmare’s house for testing. I had my most recent creation, a variation of 43-land.dec, a white thresh build together, the necessary stuff to turn it into counter-burn (UGR), a RGBSA build together if I could steal some burning wishes, an Elves! build, and my enchantress for which I’d been purchasing pieces all last year. I arrived to find Jim Lampman, Mike “inventor of the counterspell” Herbig, Adam, and (shortly) Colin “Diablos” I-don’t-know-his-last-name. Adam was testing (and ended up running) a Hanni Fish build, Jim his usual helldozer ridiculousness, Colin some ATS nastiness, Mike some Good on paper a UR Meloku Control deck, and I was pretty sure that I was going to run the white thresh I’d built. I tested against Adam’s fish with the 43 land, and that was pretty sweet, ‘scept for him ripping needle whenever he needed it. And Jim’s Helldozer couldn’t keep up with my land game 1, but a cranial extraction on LFTL turn three kind of sucked real hard. I decided that I was going to run the 43 land, on account of its inherent greatness. Jim was picking through my trade stuff later that night, and ran into the skeleton of my enchantress, and asked me why I wasn’t running it. I said I wasn’t really comfortable running it (I’ve only tested against various survival builds and meloku control some time ago). Jim said I should go for it, Matt shared with me later that he thought Jim was wasted when he proposed that, and I decided that it’d have better combo matchups than 43 land. So, without any more reading, here’s the list:
(I just found my tundras and scrublands in the middle of my deck – thought I’d mention it)
Mana Base(20):
Serra’s Sanctum x2
Plateau x1
Plains x2
Forest x3
Windswept Heath x4
Savannah x4
Taiga x4
1 Mana Cantrips/Acceleration(10):
Utopia Sprawl x4
Exploration x4
Mirri’s Guile x2
Draw(8):
Argothian Enchantress x4
Enchantress’ Presence x4
Utility(8):
Sterling Grove x4
Aura of Silence x1
Seal of Cleansing x1
Holistic Wisdom x1
City of Solitude x1
Lock(11):
Ghostly Prison x1
Elephant Grass x2
Moat x2
Solitary Confinement x4
Squee, Goblin Nabob x2
Win (3):
Words of War x1
Sacred Mesa x1
Form of the Dragon x1
Sideboard(35):
Elephant Grass x2
Sacred Ground x1
Karmic Justice x2
Choke x3
Null Chamber x1
Rule of Law x3
Seal of Cleansing x2
City of Solitude x1
Pegasus token x20
Before I forget, or before anyone points fingers, this list is derived very much from Will Stevens’ list from a duel for duals on February 5th, 2006. I was completely unable to find anything on the source that would show me what had happened in the past year for enchantress. I guess Matt Elgin (spell?) has been doing some work on it, but I haven’t found anything. I looked at the only other example of enchantress on the star city archives at the time, and saw the words of wind win deck, which was pretty tough to do, from what I heard. Words of war and 1/1 fliers were good enough in my book.
I decided to build enchantress because it looks like a nice, second tiered (and thusly un-hated) control/aggro deck with a whole bunch of answers to anything. I tweaked the deck a little, at Matt’s insistence, to include the dissention common Utopia sprawl, which was like having an exploration + another land turn one. I expected a lot of combo, and a lot of combo hate. Bryant Cook recently published this TES (The Epic Storm) deck that seems to have taken hold pretty well in the format, and I expected to run into a bunch of TES players. Then I heard that the Virginia players would be coming, so I expected competent RGBSA and solidarity players. I tweaked the board, and left some of the junk in. Everyone told me that squee at all, ‘specially as a two-of, was a mistake. A quick confinement lock in any game one is game, from what I hear, though. I switched a city of solitude into the main deck, on account of blue is kind of tough to deal with in force. Haha. Force. Most changes are pretty self-explanatory. I switched two elephant grasses to the sideboard because the utopia sprawls act as the cantrip that they used to, and I added the ghostly prison in lieu of the main-boarded Karmic Justice. I figured that I’d only really need them against helldozer-isque decks, or dead guy, neither of which I saw (thankfully). The rest of my board was really just for like, survival (the seals) and combo (everything but the karmic justices, sacred ground, and elephant grasses).
Trevor arrived at Adam’s at like seven thirty, then we went to pick up Matt and head off to Geneseo. We got there, then sat down to start setting up our decks. Jim said that he was proud of me for trying the enchantress, and said that if he didn’t time out he’d come watch me play. I laid out my thresh on the table to throw folks off (turns out enchantress is pretty easy to bullet) and got all kinds of advice on what my board should be. Chumps. I look into buying scrublands at fifteen a piece, but then Trevor says that I should wait and see if I might win ‘em. I chuckle and agree to wait, even though I’m not going to win anything playing enchantress. The event!
Round 1: v. David Gearhart
The last time I’d spoken to Dave was at Kadilak’s Duel for Duals in August, maybe. I’m pretty intimidated at this point. We banter a little while shuffling, then go to it. I was pretty sure I was gonna scoop game one. He’s on the play, Island, go. I go fetch, exploration basic forest from hand, go. He drops an island, I draw into city of solitude, drop it, remanded, play it again turn three, sticks. Then I slowly built up to like 4 enchantress effects, go crazy on turn six into a nineteen card hand, set up sterling grove x2 and confinement. He scoops.
Boarding: -2 elephant grass, -1 ghostly prison, -1 holistic wisdom, -2 moat, -seal, - silence, +3 rule of law +3 choke +1 null chamber + city of solitude.
Game 2:
Same starting until turn two, drop city, no force. Turn three Rule of law, his turn he wishes for chain, turn four rule of law. Judging by our land drops, I had a turn nine form of the dragon, turn ten confinement, he scoops.
1-0-0 rounds
2-0 games
Who plays Think Twice in solidarity?
Round 2: v. Leif Bernard’s Show and Tell
Leif is a pretty cool dude. We shuffle it up a bunch, he mulls down to five. He goes foothills, fetch basic forest, lotus petal, go. I go land, utopia sprawl. He draws, passes, I go land, enchantress’ presence. Arcane denial! Fo’ sho. This guy said the five card hand he had was 3 denials and the mana. He keeps this up a couple more times, then scoops to my turn six or seven confinement w/ squee.
I don’t even remember my boarding – I brought in the city and chokes maybe?
Game 2:
He goes Island Esg Esg show & tell colusus. I put in confinement with squee in my hand, pray that he didn’t board in enchantment hate but rather crypts. He put in krosan grips and blew up the confinement, swung in with like akroma and three colossuses.
Game three:
Forest exploration plains. He has another turn one Show & tell into colossus. The match is getting close to time so a lot of people are watching. I survey my hand, put moat into play. It was pretty sweet. I got sacred mesa going, and Pegasus-ed him to death.
2-0-0
4-1
Round 3: v. Scott Scheurer’s Dump truck? (UB landstill)
Scott’s wearing goggles. But not really wearing them. Well I guess wearing them, but not the conventional way. They’re perched on top of his head. He takes like nine minutes to pile shuffle, mulls to six, and takes us into like thirteen minutes into the round before he plays island, go. I set up a confinement lock with squee, and then he announces Haunting echoes, and I scooped. My exact notes for this round read: “Scott Scheurer. Landstill. Mulls to six, turn 2 EP countered. [larger letters now] SCRUB!! Echoes/scoop/hate myself.”
Game two starts with like fourty minutes left, I put in chokes and one more seal. I get a quick lock and Pegasus token him to death. He takes forever; time is called as we’re shuffling for game three (I was pissed).
2-0-1
5-1
Round 4: v. John Rusiecki’s Mono red (?) Goblins
Turn three Moat makes me not sweat so much about the turn 2 lackey’d Siege Gang, I stabilized at five, then words of war-ed him out.
Game two:
Turn five double grove confinement and squee lock John scoops. He did board in chalices which he set at one, though. It was a pretty good move, on account of elephant grass gets countered, but paying G for ancesteral recall is a pretty good play for me. His Chinese food was pretty good smelling.
3-0-1
7-1
Round 5: v. Nat Howland’s EPIC (GURW survival)
Nat is 4-0 right now, so I asked him to scoop to me so I’d be into top eight, but he wants to play. Game one he has turn two mage on conefinement. I have a turn four moat turn fime mesa that he can’t deal with. Pegasus tokens FTW.
Game two:
I mull to 3, keeping a Basic Forest, Utopia Sprawl, and a Seal of cleansing (I put two in). He goes vial, go. I drop the land, name white with the utopia sprawl. He mages confinement on two, passes the turn. I draw for the turn, land. Play, pass. I forgot to play the seal. Draw for turn, draw ghostly prison, lament the vial getting to four or five (the EPIC dudes run deranged hermit as a win). He mage beats me down to 5 before I get my moat hits. I get mesa going, he pulls spore frog, then sharpshooter to keep me off of mesa tokens. I Words of War for 22 in one turn.
So I get the win, and don’t have to like give him something for it.
4-0-1
9-1
Round six: Anwar, and I don’t even know what he’s playing. ID? ID. I’ll be at the dollar box. Sweet beta land, though.
So, the whole EPIC crowd is pretty stoked their barnacle made top eight. Trevor is like, “dude, you made your scrubs.” Sweet.
TOP EIGHT!!
I’m up against the UB landstill again, but he was PWNT by the judges. His decklist was 56 cards forgetting the underground seas, and his deck was 59 cards, missing a delta. Match loss!!!
Top Four: v. Phil Stolze WBU Angel Stompy
I watched phil play against the aluren, and I’m powerful glad that he beat that shit. I can beat a creature-based deck easy, but combo is pretty tough. ‘Scept if your name is Dave Gearhart. Owned. Phil get a turn two Confinement mage, swings for two turns with the sword of Fire and Ice, I get a moat, WOW him out on turn six.
I boarded out the city and holistic wisdom in favor of two more seals. Game started off, me dropping like three enchantress effects and an exploration by turn four. He drops Armageddon, has two knights of the holy nimbus in play, passes the turn. I rip a land, play a utopia sprawl (that looks weird not being “an utopia sprawl” but sounds weird as “an”), draw into another land, another sprawl. He beats me to 1 (for serious – it was ridiculous) passes, I drop moat, WOW him out again.
I don’t know how ratings get listed here.
TOP TWO (OMG!! This is my fourth ever magic tournament. And that counts a type 2 tournament that I played for a dollar at my student union, once. I’m all giddy)
Everyone decides that they want to watch the match, which makes me mad nervous. To relieve my worry, I allow everyone to remind me that like a quarter of my deck pre-board smashes goblins. They don’t know that I’ll never draw into it . . .
v. Bennett Toms Black Goblins
Bennett is a cool dude, because he’s in the same boat I am. He wasn’t sure whether or not his deck would do well. Guess we’ll all be seeing a bunch more goblins with cabal therapy and hate against EP. He wins the roll, plays. Fetch lackey go. I go fetch exploration plains go. He gets a wasteland, drops a ringleader with lackey, plays a piledriver maybe, goes. I fog with a confinement (two in hand). He swings anyway, just to have fun. I let it die, draw trash, play my second, he wastes my land, I let the second die, draw nothing, scoop.
Game two: (boarding looks something like +2 elephant grass -1 FOTD -1 city of solitude)
I feel bad getting reamed as thoroughly as I do, this game. I play, forest utopia sprawl, go. He goes Lackey, go. I draw land (white source) to go with the two moats in my hand. I’m like sure I can’t lose. Drop the land, pass the turn, go. He goes badlands therapy on confinement, wiffs, freaks out on the moats, plays fanatic flash back therapy and I pretty much lose. I sterling grove into ghostly prision which doesn’t do much. Bennett was a fun opponent, with a good deck, good plays, and insane luck. I can’t complain. (well, nobody will listen to me if I do)
He goes seas, I grab tundras, I get my scrublands. Trevor smiles, and lets me know that it was good to wait. And Jim is like as happy as I am that Enchantress got second.
Props:
-Jim for telling me to play enchantress
-Matt Elgin (spell?) for apparently making Enchantress
-Matt Abold for the ride home, and for getting tenth.
-Kadilak for being a pretty cool dude. Eli too.
-Dave Price for giving me RGBSA advice
-EPIC for getting a guy in the top 4
-Jim again for driving all the way
-Trevor for making me wait on buying the scrublands
-The NYS DPW fro letting Mike, Matt, and I get warm for fifteen minutes in their lunch lounge
-Bryant for making his own deck. And then almost top-eighting with it
Slops:
-That auction guy. For serious, I wanted to stab him
-Jim, for driving into the ditch on the way home
-MWS word, which auto-corrects teh into the
-scooping to tendrils
-that dick kid colloso (spell?) who asked me if I ever read my cards. I wanted to stab him too.
-Wegmans, for closing their subshop at like nine o’clock
-the kid who played my UB Snow control type 2 deck and went 0-2
-Mike, for playing Meloku Control
-Dave Gearhart for not asking me to edit my report
-my roommate, who just farted in his sleep.
(I just found my tundras and scrublands in the middle of my deck – thought I’d mention it)
Mana Base(20):
Serra’s Sanctum x2
Plateau x1
Plains x2
Forest x3
Windswept Heath x4
Savannah x4
Taiga x4
1 Mana Cantrips/Acceleration(10):
Utopia Sprawl x4
Exploration x4
Mirri’s Guile x2
Draw(8):
Argothian Enchantress x4
Enchantress’ Presence x4
Utility(8):
Sterling Grove x4
Aura of Silence x1
Seal of Cleansing x1
Holistic Wisdom x1
City of Solitude x1
Lock(11):
Ghostly Prison x1
Elephant Grass x2
Moat x2
Solitary Confinement x4
Squee, Goblin Nabob x2
Win (3):
Words of War x1
Sacred Mesa x1
Form of the Dragon x1
Sideboard(35):
Elephant Grass x2
Sacred Ground x1
Karmic Justice x2
Choke x3
Null Chamber x1
Rule of Law x3
Seal of Cleansing x2
City of Solitude x1
Pegasus token x20
Before I forget, or before anyone points fingers, this list is derived very much from Will Stevens’ list from a duel for duals on February 5th, 2006. I was completely unable to find anything on the source that would show me what had happened in the past year for enchantress. I guess Matt Elgin (spell?) has been doing some work on it, but I haven’t found anything. I looked at the only other example of enchantress on the star city archives at the time, and saw the words of wind win deck, which was pretty tough to do, from what I heard. Words of war and 1/1 fliers were good enough in my book.
I decided to build enchantress because it looks like a nice, second tiered (and thusly un-hated) control/aggro deck with a whole bunch of answers to anything. I tweaked the deck a little, at Matt’s insistence, to include the dissention common Utopia sprawl, which was like having an exploration + another land turn one. I expected a lot of combo, and a lot of combo hate. Bryant Cook recently published this TES (The Epic Storm) deck that seems to have taken hold pretty well in the format, and I expected to run into a bunch of TES players. Then I heard that the Virginia players would be coming, so I expected competent RGBSA and solidarity players. I tweaked the board, and left some of the junk in. Everyone told me that squee at all, ‘specially as a two-of, was a mistake. A quick confinement lock in any game one is game, from what I hear, though. I switched a city of solitude into the main deck, on account of blue is kind of tough to deal with in force. Haha. Force. Most changes are pretty self-explanatory. I switched two elephant grasses to the sideboard because the utopia sprawls act as the cantrip that they used to, and I added the ghostly prison in lieu of the main-boarded Karmic Justice. I figured that I’d only really need them against helldozer-isque decks, or dead guy, neither of which I saw (thankfully). The rest of my board was really just for like, survival (the seals) and combo (everything but the karmic justices, sacred ground, and elephant grasses).
Trevor arrived at Adam’s at like seven thirty, then we went to pick up Matt and head off to Geneseo. We got there, then sat down to start setting up our decks. Jim said that he was proud of me for trying the enchantress, and said that if he didn’t time out he’d come watch me play. I laid out my thresh on the table to throw folks off (turns out enchantress is pretty easy to bullet) and got all kinds of advice on what my board should be. Chumps. I look into buying scrublands at fifteen a piece, but then Trevor says that I should wait and see if I might win ‘em. I chuckle and agree to wait, even though I’m not going to win anything playing enchantress. The event!
Round 1: v. David Gearhart
The last time I’d spoken to Dave was at Kadilak’s Duel for Duals in August, maybe. I’m pretty intimidated at this point. We banter a little while shuffling, then go to it. I was pretty sure I was gonna scoop game one. He’s on the play, Island, go. I go fetch, exploration basic forest from hand, go. He drops an island, I draw into city of solitude, drop it, remanded, play it again turn three, sticks. Then I slowly built up to like 4 enchantress effects, go crazy on turn six into a nineteen card hand, set up sterling grove x2 and confinement. He scoops.
Boarding: -2 elephant grass, -1 ghostly prison, -1 holistic wisdom, -2 moat, -seal, - silence, +3 rule of law +3 choke +1 null chamber + city of solitude.
Game 2:
Same starting until turn two, drop city, no force. Turn three Rule of law, his turn he wishes for chain, turn four rule of law. Judging by our land drops, I had a turn nine form of the dragon, turn ten confinement, he scoops.
1-0-0 rounds
2-0 games
Who plays Think Twice in solidarity?
Round 2: v. Leif Bernard’s Show and Tell
Leif is a pretty cool dude. We shuffle it up a bunch, he mulls down to five. He goes foothills, fetch basic forest, lotus petal, go. I go land, utopia sprawl. He draws, passes, I go land, enchantress’ presence. Arcane denial! Fo’ sho. This guy said the five card hand he had was 3 denials and the mana. He keeps this up a couple more times, then scoops to my turn six or seven confinement w/ squee.
I don’t even remember my boarding – I brought in the city and chokes maybe?
Game 2:
He goes Island Esg Esg show & tell colusus. I put in confinement with squee in my hand, pray that he didn’t board in enchantment hate but rather crypts. He put in krosan grips and blew up the confinement, swung in with like akroma and three colossuses.
Game three:
Forest exploration plains. He has another turn one Show & tell into colossus. The match is getting close to time so a lot of people are watching. I survey my hand, put moat into play. It was pretty sweet. I got sacred mesa going, and Pegasus-ed him to death.
2-0-0
4-1
Round 3: v. Scott Scheurer’s Dump truck? (UB landstill)
Scott’s wearing goggles. But not really wearing them. Well I guess wearing them, but not the conventional way. They’re perched on top of his head. He takes like nine minutes to pile shuffle, mulls to six, and takes us into like thirteen minutes into the round before he plays island, go. I set up a confinement lock with squee, and then he announces Haunting echoes, and I scooped. My exact notes for this round read: “Scott Scheurer. Landstill. Mulls to six, turn 2 EP countered. [larger letters now] SCRUB!! Echoes/scoop/hate myself.”
Game two starts with like fourty minutes left, I put in chokes and one more seal. I get a quick lock and Pegasus token him to death. He takes forever; time is called as we’re shuffling for game three (I was pissed).
2-0-1
5-1
Round 4: v. John Rusiecki’s Mono red (?) Goblins
Turn three Moat makes me not sweat so much about the turn 2 lackey’d Siege Gang, I stabilized at five, then words of war-ed him out.
Game two:
Turn five double grove confinement and squee lock John scoops. He did board in chalices which he set at one, though. It was a pretty good move, on account of elephant grass gets countered, but paying G for ancesteral recall is a pretty good play for me. His Chinese food was pretty good smelling.
3-0-1
7-1
Round 5: v. Nat Howland’s EPIC (GURW survival)
Nat is 4-0 right now, so I asked him to scoop to me so I’d be into top eight, but he wants to play. Game one he has turn two mage on conefinement. I have a turn four moat turn fime mesa that he can’t deal with. Pegasus tokens FTW.
Game two:
I mull to 3, keeping a Basic Forest, Utopia Sprawl, and a Seal of cleansing (I put two in). He goes vial, go. I drop the land, name white with the utopia sprawl. He mages confinement on two, passes the turn. I draw for the turn, land. Play, pass. I forgot to play the seal. Draw for turn, draw ghostly prison, lament the vial getting to four or five (the EPIC dudes run deranged hermit as a win). He mage beats me down to 5 before I get my moat hits. I get mesa going, he pulls spore frog, then sharpshooter to keep me off of mesa tokens. I Words of War for 22 in one turn.
So I get the win, and don’t have to like give him something for it.
4-0-1
9-1
Round six: Anwar, and I don’t even know what he’s playing. ID? ID. I’ll be at the dollar box. Sweet beta land, though.
So, the whole EPIC crowd is pretty stoked their barnacle made top eight. Trevor is like, “dude, you made your scrubs.” Sweet.
TOP EIGHT!!
I’m up against the UB landstill again, but he was PWNT by the judges. His decklist was 56 cards forgetting the underground seas, and his deck was 59 cards, missing a delta. Match loss!!!
Top Four: v. Phil Stolze WBU Angel Stompy
I watched phil play against the aluren, and I’m powerful glad that he beat that shit. I can beat a creature-based deck easy, but combo is pretty tough. ‘Scept if your name is Dave Gearhart. Owned. Phil get a turn two Confinement mage, swings for two turns with the sword of Fire and Ice, I get a moat, WOW him out on turn six.
I boarded out the city and holistic wisdom in favor of two more seals. Game started off, me dropping like three enchantress effects and an exploration by turn four. He drops Armageddon, has two knights of the holy nimbus in play, passes the turn. I rip a land, play a utopia sprawl (that looks weird not being “an utopia sprawl” but sounds weird as “an”), draw into another land, another sprawl. He beats me to 1 (for serious – it was ridiculous) passes, I drop moat, WOW him out again.
I don’t know how ratings get listed here.
TOP TWO (OMG!! This is my fourth ever magic tournament. And that counts a type 2 tournament that I played for a dollar at my student union, once. I’m all giddy)
Everyone decides that they want to watch the match, which makes me mad nervous. To relieve my worry, I allow everyone to remind me that like a quarter of my deck pre-board smashes goblins. They don’t know that I’ll never draw into it . . .
v. Bennett Toms Black Goblins
Bennett is a cool dude, because he’s in the same boat I am. He wasn’t sure whether or not his deck would do well. Guess we’ll all be seeing a bunch more goblins with cabal therapy and hate against EP. He wins the roll, plays. Fetch lackey go. I go fetch exploration plains go. He gets a wasteland, drops a ringleader with lackey, plays a piledriver maybe, goes. I fog with a confinement (two in hand). He swings anyway, just to have fun. I let it die, draw trash, play my second, he wastes my land, I let the second die, draw nothing, scoop.
Game two: (boarding looks something like +2 elephant grass -1 FOTD -1 city of solitude)
I feel bad getting reamed as thoroughly as I do, this game. I play, forest utopia sprawl, go. He goes Lackey, go. I draw land (white source) to go with the two moats in my hand. I’m like sure I can’t lose. Drop the land, pass the turn, go. He goes badlands therapy on confinement, wiffs, freaks out on the moats, plays fanatic flash back therapy and I pretty much lose. I sterling grove into ghostly prision which doesn’t do much. Bennett was a fun opponent, with a good deck, good plays, and insane luck. I can’t complain. (well, nobody will listen to me if I do)
He goes seas, I grab tundras, I get my scrublands. Trevor smiles, and lets me know that it was good to wait. And Jim is like as happy as I am that Enchantress got second.
Props:
-Jim for telling me to play enchantress
-Matt Elgin (spell?) for apparently making Enchantress
-Matt Abold for the ride home, and for getting tenth.
-Kadilak for being a pretty cool dude. Eli too.
-Dave Price for giving me RGBSA advice
-EPIC for getting a guy in the top 4
-Jim again for driving all the way
-Trevor for making me wait on buying the scrublands
-The NYS DPW fro letting Mike, Matt, and I get warm for fifteen minutes in their lunch lounge
-Bryant for making his own deck. And then almost top-eighting with it
Slops:
-That auction guy. For serious, I wanted to stab him
-Jim, for driving into the ditch on the way home
-MWS word, which auto-corrects teh into the
-scooping to tendrils
-that dick kid colloso (spell?) who asked me if I ever read my cards. I wanted to stab him too.
-Wegmans, for closing their subshop at like nine o’clock
-the kid who played my UB Snow control type 2 deck and went 0-2
-Mike, for playing Meloku Control
-Dave Gearhart for not asking me to edit my report
-my roommate, who just farted in his sleep.