Tacosnape
02-25-2007, 02:37 PM
As promised in the Solidarity forums, I took the green-splash Solidarity to our local tournament. My friends all pile in my car, and much to my astonishment they actually have gas money to give me for a change (Ever noticed how most magic players don't have cars?:P). We stop for some awesome $4 Chinese Food and pass the thirty minute drive to Oneonta in no time flat. Good company makes for short trips.
We get there and see it's going to be a pretty decent turnout. The standard crowd is there along with three or four people we've never seen before. One of the regulars doesn't play, as he refuses to jeopardize the rating he bribed his way into, but we still have enough for 11 people.
I sit down at a table with my friends and we figure out our deck choices for the day. I lend Chase the Mox Diamonds and Scrublands he needs for his amazing B/W Stax deck, and Crystal the Tundras for High Flying Adored, her U/W Flying Fish. Mike's set with his Mono Black Control, and Jason decides to pick up Vial Goblins. Well, I think, at least I'll get to test out Determined against Crystal and/or Jason.
I scrounge around for a Volcanic Island to test the three color build and can't find one, so I decide to use Pongify and Bounce spells instead and rely on Determined to make them uncounterable. I still feel very confident going in, as long as I don't have to play Chase's B/W Stax deck, which is like, 80/20 against me due to the fact that it's Stax paired with ungodly amounts of Land Destruction.
Anyway, here's the U/G Solidarity list I played:
MAINDECK
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
2 Tropical Island
10 Island
4 High Tide
4 Brainstorm
4 Opt
4 Impulse
4 Remand
4 Reset
4 Force of Will
3 Meditate
3 Turnabout
3 Cunning Wish
2 Brain Freeze
2 Flash of Insight
1 Twincast
SIDEBOARD
4 Bound//Determined
3 Hydroblast
1 Twincast
1 Rebuild
1 Meditate
1 Turnabout
1 Pongify
1 Brain Freeze
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Echoing Truth
ROUND 1: Fred playing Six-One
G1: We chat for a bit while shuffling, and I catch a glimpse of a Stomping Ground as he's shuffling. I've heard tales of Fred having a deck with 4 Ball Lightnings and 4 Groundbreakers, and I assume this is it. My opening hand is Island, double impulse, double turnabout, Remand, Freeze. I mull to 6 and hit no land, mull to 5 and hit no land without even a 1CC spell. Sighing, I mull to 3 and get Delta/Strand/Tide. He drops a quick Kird Ape, followed by a couple burn spells, then he seems to slow down a bit. I topdeck a Brainstorm and hit the god-trio of Tide/Reset/Meditate. He drops Feldon's Cane (Ackpth!) and knocks me low. I start to go off on turn five with a lethal Lightning Bolt on the stack and hit amazing draws all the way through. I nail him with a giant freeze, nail him with another giant freeze in response to his cane, and Stroke him for the win.
G2: I board in three Hydroblasts for two Remands and an Opt. I get a much better hand this time, and manage to Remand a Ball Lightning (Whee!), giving me plenty of time to combo out on his face.
1-0 Matches, 2-0 Games
ROUND 2: Ben playing Guilty Doll
I had no idea what the hell Ben was playing, but Jason who played him round one said it involved Pariah's Shield. I didn't know what the hell Pariah's Shield did off the top of my head. Whatever.
G1: I keep a fair hand with two land, but after two impulses both fail to yield me land or a tide (What the hell?) I find myself short on mana and unable to find a Tide to save my life. Ben drops Plains and Lotus Blooms followed by a Stuffy Doll. I get stuck at 8 cards, having already casted Flash twice to find a land and failed, I Cunning Wish for it on my turn and discard it rather than discard the Cunning Wish. Big mistake. On his next turn he goes Guilty Conscience. I Force. He goes Guilty Conscience again. I scoop. Most embarassing loss of my Solidarity career.
G2: I board in the Rebuild just in case. I get to seven lands and crush him. He's never seen the deck before and is in awe of the combo.
G3: See above, only with six lands.
2-0 Matches, 4-1 Games
ROUND 3: Jeremy playing 4C Loam Control
Jeremy is an amazing player with high ratings in every format, but this matchup is beautiful for me. I overhear Daniel mentioning he has Gaea's Blessing, but Daniel lies a lot, so I'm unsure. I'm slightly apprehensive about this, since while I know the theory about beating Blessing, I've never actually played against it.
G1: I keep a hand with double Tide, Opt, Brainstorm, Force, Reset, and a Tropical Island, which I probably shouldn't have. I win the die roll for the only time all night and play Tropical, Go. He Wastelands it. (Stupid splashes. Grr.) I opt in response and miss on land, but topdeck the other Tropical on my next turn. He doesn't play much for a few turns, and I topdeck islands like mad. I don't have much trouble going off as Witness is his only clock.
G2: He boards in three cards. I assume these are either Red Elemental Blasts or Gaea's Blessings, and I board in 3 Determineds for 3 Opts. This was regrettably the only time I got to use Determined the whole night. He bluffs a Blast when I Impulse early, and refuses to tap all of his red lands. He mutters something about "Gotta keep those open," which makes me fairly certain he's got the Blessings and not the Blasts. He gambles for a Witness, gets down a Witness, then a Hierarch. I cast Determined with 5 Lands in play and 2 turns to live, he reads it, thinks for a minute, then says okay. Now I -know- he isn't holding a blast. Information for the win. I decide to wait a turn to combo off, which pays off, as I topdeck a Reset. I start going crazy and when I have a storm count of 11, I sail a Freeze at him just to see if he has the Blessing or not. He doesn't! I decide to be smart and check his graveyard for information on what he boarded in and see Vindicate, Therapy, and Gerrard's Verdict all in single copies. I Wish for Stroke and end it.
3-0 Matches, 6-1 Games.
ROUND 4: Mike playing Mono-Black Control
Mike's 3-0, and we decide to draw into top 4 even though the match is heavily in my favor. Mike's my teammate and a damn good friend, and I don't relish beating him. Plus he has a tendency to draw Hymn to Tourachs like they're going out of style, and plus my head hurts from playing Solidarity and I need a break.
I check out the field and the standings. Jeremy's playing Chase and the winner will get in, which I'm pretty sure will be Jeremy, as Loam >> Land Destruction.
I go over and watch Crystal playing Fred. She Hydroblasts a Ball Lightning and proceeds to stomp face with 2 Pride of the Clouds and an Exalted, and wins her match to go 2-2.
I stare in sheer horror at decks I didn't have to play, including Smokestack Pox (Aack!) and a bizarre R/W deck maindecking True Believer and Price of Glory (Which, Ironically, doesn't actually hurt Solidarity at all. You'll just win with about 80 triggers on the stack.)
Jason beats the R/W deck to also go 2/2, so it'll be down to tiebreakers for the fourth slot between Him, Crystal, and Chase if he loses. Chase swings game 2 to his side with a Smokestack/Crucible lock, but then loses game three. So everyone in my car finished .500 or better. Sweet times. On to the top 4.
SEMIFINALS: Chase playing B/W Stax.
Chase has never won a Legacy tournament to my knowledge, and if Mike can beat Jeremy, it looks good for him. I sigh and hope for the best in this match. I know his deck and know his Chalices and Gerrard's Verdicts are in board, meaning I have to win game one if I'm to have a prayer. Chase wins the roll. Not good for me.
G1: I keep an -amazing- opening hand of two land, Force, Flash, Remand, Brainstorm, Tide. He goes Ritual, Phyrexian Arena, I Force. I draw a Reset, play a land, and pass. He plays another land, goes Ritual, Rain of Tears. I Brainstorm into two more land. He plays Raise the Alarm (Tech with Smokestack), then starts throwing Vindicates at my land. I remand one, then helplessly let it resolve next turn. By this time I've got Tide, Reset, and Meditate in hand, but only two land. He drops a Smokestack, which means I've got one more turn before I have to kill him. I Impulse into a third land EOT, Untap, and topdeck a Tide. Hells yeah. I combo off in response to a Sinkhole easily after my first Meditate hits Tide/Reset/Meditate/Impulse. Once I hit 13 cards in hand with four Tides resolved, Chase just scoops.
G2: I board in Determineds to deal with Chalice as Chase doesn't run Wasteland for some unknown reason. I get a similarly awesome hand of Land, Land, Force, Freeze, Remand, Opt, Tide. He doesn't get Ritual this game, but has a shitload of Land Destruction and would have gotten me had I not Brainstormed into three land. I Force a Vindicate to buy time, and manage to combo off with 4 land this time.
I feel pretty bad, since I totally savaged Chase with amazing draws, but that's Magic.
FINALS: Jeremy playing 4C Loam Control, again.
Jeremy offers a prize split and to give me the win. Even though this is a great matchup for me, I'm tired at this point and I know Jeremy has to go to work, and the prize differential between first and second is like, $4 in Store Credit. I take my win and $21 and we all pack up and head for Taco Bell, pretty satisfied with our day. Then we munched on Tacos at Crystal's apartment and played Wii Sports until 3am. Good times.
Final Standings:
1st - Me, U/G Solidarity
2nd - Jeremy, 4C Loam Control
3rd - Mike, MBC
4th - Chase, B/W Stax
5th - Jason, Vial Goblins
6th - Crystal, U/W Flying Fish
7th-11th. People I didn't know playing other decks.
So there you go. All in all, it was a good day, though I was very disappointed that I never got to play against Blue once the entire night. The only use for Determined I got was to, humorously enough, Determine, whether or not Jeremy had a Pyroblast in hand (It also would have drawn it out had he been holding the blast, but he wasn't. Ah well.) I never played against Goblins to try it against Chalice, and Chase's B/W Stax never dropped a Chalice against me. Ah well, I'll do some testing.
Props:
Force of Will, for being the best blue card in magic.
Brainstorm, for being the second best blue card in magic and giving me ungodly 3-card draws all night.
All my friends for actually giving me gas money.
Crystal, for lending me a Pongify.
Jeremy, for actually playing a deck I have a good matchup against for a change.
Taco Bell, for getting five separate orders in a drive through almost entirely correct.
Taco Bell, for having Beef and Potato Burritos. Moan.
Slops:
Me, for losing a game to Guilty Doll.
Me, for losing a game to Guilty Doll.
Daniel, for not playing to protect his precious bribed-into Eternal Rating when he knows I reliably stomp his ass in tournaments.
Jason, who's an excellent player (as good as me), for somehow losing to both LFTL Control and B/W Stax with R/G Goblins.
Everybody who didn't play blue, for preventing me from testing Determined as much as I liked. Ah well.
Hopefully more people will play Blue next go around. Until then, I'll keep testing.
We get there and see it's going to be a pretty decent turnout. The standard crowd is there along with three or four people we've never seen before. One of the regulars doesn't play, as he refuses to jeopardize the rating he bribed his way into, but we still have enough for 11 people.
I sit down at a table with my friends and we figure out our deck choices for the day. I lend Chase the Mox Diamonds and Scrublands he needs for his amazing B/W Stax deck, and Crystal the Tundras for High Flying Adored, her U/W Flying Fish. Mike's set with his Mono Black Control, and Jason decides to pick up Vial Goblins. Well, I think, at least I'll get to test out Determined against Crystal and/or Jason.
I scrounge around for a Volcanic Island to test the three color build and can't find one, so I decide to use Pongify and Bounce spells instead and rely on Determined to make them uncounterable. I still feel very confident going in, as long as I don't have to play Chase's B/W Stax deck, which is like, 80/20 against me due to the fact that it's Stax paired with ungodly amounts of Land Destruction.
Anyway, here's the U/G Solidarity list I played:
MAINDECK
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
2 Tropical Island
10 Island
4 High Tide
4 Brainstorm
4 Opt
4 Impulse
4 Remand
4 Reset
4 Force of Will
3 Meditate
3 Turnabout
3 Cunning Wish
2 Brain Freeze
2 Flash of Insight
1 Twincast
SIDEBOARD
4 Bound//Determined
3 Hydroblast
1 Twincast
1 Rebuild
1 Meditate
1 Turnabout
1 Pongify
1 Brain Freeze
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Echoing Truth
ROUND 1: Fred playing Six-One
G1: We chat for a bit while shuffling, and I catch a glimpse of a Stomping Ground as he's shuffling. I've heard tales of Fred having a deck with 4 Ball Lightnings and 4 Groundbreakers, and I assume this is it. My opening hand is Island, double impulse, double turnabout, Remand, Freeze. I mull to 6 and hit no land, mull to 5 and hit no land without even a 1CC spell. Sighing, I mull to 3 and get Delta/Strand/Tide. He drops a quick Kird Ape, followed by a couple burn spells, then he seems to slow down a bit. I topdeck a Brainstorm and hit the god-trio of Tide/Reset/Meditate. He drops Feldon's Cane (Ackpth!) and knocks me low. I start to go off on turn five with a lethal Lightning Bolt on the stack and hit amazing draws all the way through. I nail him with a giant freeze, nail him with another giant freeze in response to his cane, and Stroke him for the win.
G2: I board in three Hydroblasts for two Remands and an Opt. I get a much better hand this time, and manage to Remand a Ball Lightning (Whee!), giving me plenty of time to combo out on his face.
1-0 Matches, 2-0 Games
ROUND 2: Ben playing Guilty Doll
I had no idea what the hell Ben was playing, but Jason who played him round one said it involved Pariah's Shield. I didn't know what the hell Pariah's Shield did off the top of my head. Whatever.
G1: I keep a fair hand with two land, but after two impulses both fail to yield me land or a tide (What the hell?) I find myself short on mana and unable to find a Tide to save my life. Ben drops Plains and Lotus Blooms followed by a Stuffy Doll. I get stuck at 8 cards, having already casted Flash twice to find a land and failed, I Cunning Wish for it on my turn and discard it rather than discard the Cunning Wish. Big mistake. On his next turn he goes Guilty Conscience. I Force. He goes Guilty Conscience again. I scoop. Most embarassing loss of my Solidarity career.
G2: I board in the Rebuild just in case. I get to seven lands and crush him. He's never seen the deck before and is in awe of the combo.
G3: See above, only with six lands.
2-0 Matches, 4-1 Games
ROUND 3: Jeremy playing 4C Loam Control
Jeremy is an amazing player with high ratings in every format, but this matchup is beautiful for me. I overhear Daniel mentioning he has Gaea's Blessing, but Daniel lies a lot, so I'm unsure. I'm slightly apprehensive about this, since while I know the theory about beating Blessing, I've never actually played against it.
G1: I keep a hand with double Tide, Opt, Brainstorm, Force, Reset, and a Tropical Island, which I probably shouldn't have. I win the die roll for the only time all night and play Tropical, Go. He Wastelands it. (Stupid splashes. Grr.) I opt in response and miss on land, but topdeck the other Tropical on my next turn. He doesn't play much for a few turns, and I topdeck islands like mad. I don't have much trouble going off as Witness is his only clock.
G2: He boards in three cards. I assume these are either Red Elemental Blasts or Gaea's Blessings, and I board in 3 Determineds for 3 Opts. This was regrettably the only time I got to use Determined the whole night. He bluffs a Blast when I Impulse early, and refuses to tap all of his red lands. He mutters something about "Gotta keep those open," which makes me fairly certain he's got the Blessings and not the Blasts. He gambles for a Witness, gets down a Witness, then a Hierarch. I cast Determined with 5 Lands in play and 2 turns to live, he reads it, thinks for a minute, then says okay. Now I -know- he isn't holding a blast. Information for the win. I decide to wait a turn to combo off, which pays off, as I topdeck a Reset. I start going crazy and when I have a storm count of 11, I sail a Freeze at him just to see if he has the Blessing or not. He doesn't! I decide to be smart and check his graveyard for information on what he boarded in and see Vindicate, Therapy, and Gerrard's Verdict all in single copies. I Wish for Stroke and end it.
3-0 Matches, 6-1 Games.
ROUND 4: Mike playing Mono-Black Control
Mike's 3-0, and we decide to draw into top 4 even though the match is heavily in my favor. Mike's my teammate and a damn good friend, and I don't relish beating him. Plus he has a tendency to draw Hymn to Tourachs like they're going out of style, and plus my head hurts from playing Solidarity and I need a break.
I check out the field and the standings. Jeremy's playing Chase and the winner will get in, which I'm pretty sure will be Jeremy, as Loam >> Land Destruction.
I go over and watch Crystal playing Fred. She Hydroblasts a Ball Lightning and proceeds to stomp face with 2 Pride of the Clouds and an Exalted, and wins her match to go 2-2.
I stare in sheer horror at decks I didn't have to play, including Smokestack Pox (Aack!) and a bizarre R/W deck maindecking True Believer and Price of Glory (Which, Ironically, doesn't actually hurt Solidarity at all. You'll just win with about 80 triggers on the stack.)
Jason beats the R/W deck to also go 2/2, so it'll be down to tiebreakers for the fourth slot between Him, Crystal, and Chase if he loses. Chase swings game 2 to his side with a Smokestack/Crucible lock, but then loses game three. So everyone in my car finished .500 or better. Sweet times. On to the top 4.
SEMIFINALS: Chase playing B/W Stax.
Chase has never won a Legacy tournament to my knowledge, and if Mike can beat Jeremy, it looks good for him. I sigh and hope for the best in this match. I know his deck and know his Chalices and Gerrard's Verdicts are in board, meaning I have to win game one if I'm to have a prayer. Chase wins the roll. Not good for me.
G1: I keep an -amazing- opening hand of two land, Force, Flash, Remand, Brainstorm, Tide. He goes Ritual, Phyrexian Arena, I Force. I draw a Reset, play a land, and pass. He plays another land, goes Ritual, Rain of Tears. I Brainstorm into two more land. He plays Raise the Alarm (Tech with Smokestack), then starts throwing Vindicates at my land. I remand one, then helplessly let it resolve next turn. By this time I've got Tide, Reset, and Meditate in hand, but only two land. He drops a Smokestack, which means I've got one more turn before I have to kill him. I Impulse into a third land EOT, Untap, and topdeck a Tide. Hells yeah. I combo off in response to a Sinkhole easily after my first Meditate hits Tide/Reset/Meditate/Impulse. Once I hit 13 cards in hand with four Tides resolved, Chase just scoops.
G2: I board in Determineds to deal with Chalice as Chase doesn't run Wasteland for some unknown reason. I get a similarly awesome hand of Land, Land, Force, Freeze, Remand, Opt, Tide. He doesn't get Ritual this game, but has a shitload of Land Destruction and would have gotten me had I not Brainstormed into three land. I Force a Vindicate to buy time, and manage to combo off with 4 land this time.
I feel pretty bad, since I totally savaged Chase with amazing draws, but that's Magic.
FINALS: Jeremy playing 4C Loam Control, again.
Jeremy offers a prize split and to give me the win. Even though this is a great matchup for me, I'm tired at this point and I know Jeremy has to go to work, and the prize differential between first and second is like, $4 in Store Credit. I take my win and $21 and we all pack up and head for Taco Bell, pretty satisfied with our day. Then we munched on Tacos at Crystal's apartment and played Wii Sports until 3am. Good times.
Final Standings:
1st - Me, U/G Solidarity
2nd - Jeremy, 4C Loam Control
3rd - Mike, MBC
4th - Chase, B/W Stax
5th - Jason, Vial Goblins
6th - Crystal, U/W Flying Fish
7th-11th. People I didn't know playing other decks.
So there you go. All in all, it was a good day, though I was very disappointed that I never got to play against Blue once the entire night. The only use for Determined I got was to, humorously enough, Determine, whether or not Jeremy had a Pyroblast in hand (It also would have drawn it out had he been holding the blast, but he wasn't. Ah well.) I never played against Goblins to try it against Chalice, and Chase's B/W Stax never dropped a Chalice against me. Ah well, I'll do some testing.
Props:
Force of Will, for being the best blue card in magic.
Brainstorm, for being the second best blue card in magic and giving me ungodly 3-card draws all night.
All my friends for actually giving me gas money.
Crystal, for lending me a Pongify.
Jeremy, for actually playing a deck I have a good matchup against for a change.
Taco Bell, for getting five separate orders in a drive through almost entirely correct.
Taco Bell, for having Beef and Potato Burritos. Moan.
Slops:
Me, for losing a game to Guilty Doll.
Me, for losing a game to Guilty Doll.
Daniel, for not playing to protect his precious bribed-into Eternal Rating when he knows I reliably stomp his ass in tournaments.
Jason, who's an excellent player (as good as me), for somehow losing to both LFTL Control and B/W Stax with R/G Goblins.
Everybody who didn't play blue, for preventing me from testing Determined as much as I liked. Ah well.
Hopefully more people will play Blue next go around. Until then, I'll keep testing.