moxpearl
05-02-2008, 08:22 PM
I'm posting this report for my friend Yong Kim...
This is my first tournament report and only the second time playing in a legacy tournament. I usually play Vintage because it is cheaper due to proxies being allowed. This is another reason I picked up Dragon Stompy because it is cheaper than most legacy decks and also very competitive. In my first tournament the month before, I scrubbed out 3-3, mostly due to my lack of experience with the deck and also the meta (I would like to think). The 3 decks I beat were 2 Thresh and 1 Gobs, the ones I lost to were Aggro Loam, Landstill, and Golden Grahams. I had no idea that Aggro Loam played Seismic Assault (this is where reading the MTG forums is tech), the landstill deck I played had humility main which I didn’t think was played main anymore, and then I forgot to de-sideboard 1st game against Golden Grahams so got an auto loss first game. Had no idea what he was playing so didn’t sideboard. Result? combo death. So, I’m back at the Monster Den with my friend Tom Lee (who, by the way, took 2nd place with Golden Grahams in the 2006 Legacy Championship losing to Roland Chang playing U/G madness) who I knew I wouldn’t see for a long time since him and his wife are having a baby in a few weeks. Plus, he lets me play with the expensive cards I don’t have for Dragon Stompy. In the last tournament, lots of decks were packing multiple basics in the main so this time around I thought maybe adding good old fashion Stone Rain into the sideboard would be a good idea. I was imagining something like this: They play fetch land, I play moon, they fetch a basic, next turn I blow it up with Stone Rain. I was discussing this with another Dragon Stompy player and he convinced me that it was a really bad idea. So here is the decklist that I played:
Decklist
Main Deck:
4 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
10 Mountain
4 Chrome Mox
4 Seething Song
4 Simian Spirit Guide
3 Arc-Slogger
4 Rakdos Pit Dragon
4 Gathan raiders
4 Magus of the Moon
4 Sulfur Elemental
4 Blood Moon
3 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Chalice of the Void
Sideboard:
4 Tormod's crypt
4 Pyrokinesis
3 Triinisphere
2 Pithing Needle
2 Shattering Spree (I only had 2 needles so included these to deal with shackles, vials, and opposing Jittes)
I believe we had a turnout of about 36 people. 6 rounds with top 8. You know the rules. I think I saw 2 gobs, 2 high tide, bunch of thresh, 3 dragon stompy, 43-land, 2 landstill, angel stax, slivers, golden grahams, aggro loam, ichorid, battle of wits! (some dude had a huge tower of pick sleeved cards), faerie stompy, fetchland tendrils, the rock and armageddon Stax. I know these are not all the decks but they show you the meta here is diverse enough. So, on to the matches. (I’m going mostly by memory and my bad notes so if I get it wrong, please correct.)
Round 1 against The Rock piloted by Mike
First time ever playing against The Rock. I had no idea what I was playing against until end of the game when I asked him what he was playing. Mike was a very nice guy and showed me how the deck works after the games were over. I might have the order of the games reversed…
Game1: I get turn 1 chalice for 1. Good start. Mike makes some Ascetics and stall the ground where I have Raiders and Sulfurs. I eventually get a pit dragon and Magus of the Moon which means it is game over. Mike shows me all the goodies in his hand, but can’t play because of the moons.
Sideboard: Nothing, because I have no idea what he is playing even after seeing Troll Ascetics.
Game2: I play Magus of the Moon first turn and he floats white sending the magus farming. I play a Jitte and a morphed Raiders and he drops an Ascetic I think. Next turn, I get a Blood Moon to stick, but by then he has his basics and vindicates my blood moon. However, active Jitte on hellbent Raiders and Dragons is too much to handle.
1-0
Round 2 against Ichorid piloted by Matt
Matt is an experienced Ichorid player. If my memory serves me, he plays both vintage and legacy Ichorid. I like how he lays out his graveyard so that I can see every move he is making. Good etiquette on his part.
Game 1: He has a good hand, but my first turn magus of the moon slows him down since his only land was a Coliseum. I play Jitte next and start beating, but make a huge play mistake. On the very first attack with jitted magus, I forget to put counters on the jitte and pass the turn. This cost me the game because I take him down to 2 before he combos me out.
Sideboard: Out goes 4 sulfur elementals, in comes 4 crypts.
Game 2: I get the perfect hand. Tomb, Mox imprint Slogger, playing Blood Moon, and crypt. I have SSG and Mountain in hand. Top deck pit dragon. Play mountain, pitch SSG to play pit dragon. At this point he has bunch of cards in the graveyard with Narc trigger so I pop my crypt to slow him down. Off the top, draw Seething Song! Attack with dragon pumping with Seething Song, empty hand making it double striking 7/3!! Oh, yeah. Next turn he is able to play Narc which apparently flies and I’m too much of a noob to figure out so I give the Pit Dragon flying, trying to jump over for the win. Yeah, not very pretty. Matt dredges troll and imp but doesn’t hit anything that can block the dragon. On to the game 3.
Sideboard: At this point, I think that maybe having some needles for the coliseum might be good so I side out 2 chalices for 2 needles. (only have 2 needles because Tom only has 2 and I’m too cheap to buy them myself. I’m a grad student, enough said.)
Game 3: Unfortunately, Matt has to mull down to 3 and never really gets going. I had a turn one crypt which made it even worse. After a few turns of drawing nothing helpful, Matt concedes.
2-0
Round 3 against Thresh piloted by Justin
Game 1: I lose the die role (by the way, I lost almost all my die role today) and Justin plays a fetch land and passes the turn. I play a first turn Magus (or was it Blood Moon?) to which he responds by fetching a dual land. ??? He says something under his breath, but I couldn’t catch what he was saying. Kind of fuzzy on my memory here but I think he brainstormed in response with the dual digging for daze or FOW I think, but didn’t hit it apparently because he scoops.
Sideboard: Not sure what he is playing so make no changes.
Game 2: Justin counters bunch of my threats while slowly losing life to fetching and FOW. I finally get at Blood Moon to stick which is followed by Raiders and it is game over. Sorry, but I can’t remember much more detail then that.
3-0
Round 4 against High Tide piloted by Josh
Josh is a nice guy and seems to be a good high tide player. I know I have a terrible match up against High Tide so I’m hoping to be lucky.
Game 1: I get a crazy hand: Tomb, 2x SSG, 2x Songs, Dragon, and chalice. I keep. Josh makes an island and passes the turn. I draw Mox, so I play Tomb, Mox imprinting SSG, keep one SSG in case of daze and play Song followed by Song, then chalice for 1 with 5 floating. Josh Opts in response to chalice, but lets Chalice resolve. I use the leftover mana to make Dragon. I keep my hand empty and beat with hellbent Dragon. It is over quickly since he doesn’t find a way to remove chalice for 1 in time.
Sideboard: Wow, that was the best opening hand I have ever had. But can I be lucky twice? I board out 3x sloggers for 3x trinispheres.
Game 2: I keep a hand similar to game one but mox and mountain for the 2 songs and Raiders instead of the Dragon. I cross my fingers and hope he doesn’t have counter for my first turn chalice. I play tomb and Mox imprinting SSG, then play chalice for one hoping he doesn’t have FOW. Josh plays Opt in response. I think he had a daze but no FOW since chalice resolves. Next turn I draw Jitte and I play the mountain and make the Raiders. Meanwhile Josh sets up his play with impulses, flash of insight, etc. I draw Dragon but decide to play Jitte, equip, and attack with Raiders. Next turn I make the dragon and empty my hand somehow (maybe I had lands that I dropped, can’t remember) and now will have lethal on my next turn. I believe Josh cunning wished for echoing truth and bounced my chalice. Then after my draw phase, Josh has no choice but the go off. He gets storm count to 10 and burns through most of his hand before finally finding high tide. He is able to ramp up to 15 storm which is enough to empty my library but don’t have enough mana to Stroke me for the win. I got lucky again. Josh had drawn so many cards before he hit that high tide. Even one spell before would had given him enough mana to win.
4-0
Round 5 against Aggro Loam Piloted by Pat
Pat is the guy I lost to last tournament due to my magus of the moon allowing him to play Seismic Assault. I contemplated what I would do if I matched up again but couldn’t think of a good plan except for an early chalice for 2 and needles. We’ll see.
Game 1: I get a turn one seething song into blood moon and chalice for 1. In retrospect maybe I should have played chalice for 2 and burned for 1… maybe. Pat tells me he had a great starting hand until I played blood moon and chalice for 1. I’m hopeful that I might pull this one out. I play Raiders and flip for hellbent. Next turn, Pat plays Burning Wish into Devastating Dreams with 6 cards in hand. Devastating Dreams for 5 takes out all my lands and the Raiders. Now, we are both on top deck mode, but I still have Blood Moon in play. Unfortunately for me, Pat draws into a basic forest and goes crazy with Loam. I continue to not draw mana sources and lose to Seismic Assault and Terravore.
Sideboard: I take out 2 sulfurs for 2 needles
Game 2: I can’t remember what happened this game except that I had an early slogger and a chalice for 2. But the chalice, along with a mox, got blown away by EE and Pat gets Seismic Assault on line. Before my slogger dies, from assault, I take Pat down to 3 life. All my creatures die to assault so I have no chance unless I draw a needle. I keep playing creatures for him to waste his lands on to buy time so that I can draw into the needles. I keep sulfur in hand just incase I get a needle. If I get a needle, I can flash in sulfur after he taps his Terravore and steal a win… but I don’t draw the needle and die.
4-1
Round 6
Both of us draw into top 8
4-1-1
Top 8 decks were: 2x High Tide, Aggro Loam, Thresh, Dragon Stompy, Landstill, Slivers (Meat Hooks), Faerie Stompy.
Quarter Finals against Thresh piloted by Andrew
Andrew is a quiet guy, but very polite and wishes me luck every game. We have played before in the previous tournament so I know he plays thresh.
Game 1: I get an opening hand of 3x blood moon, 2x tomb, SSG, mountain. I decide to keep because I know an early moon would slow him down dramatically. He wins the die role of course and plays a tundra. I draw Magus and play tomb, pitch SSG and go for first turn Blood Moon…responds, brainstorms then dazes. No problem, I got plenty of moons. I say go. He replays the land and says go. I play a mountain and try to play the magus this time thinking there is no way he has two dazes. Andrew brainstorms, then dazes again! Hm… That’s OK, I still have 2 more Moons. I say go, and he replays the land. I play a land (now at 4 mana so don’t have to worry about daze) and play Blood Moon, which promptly gets FOWed. Wow, didn’t see that coming. I pass the turn and Andrew play wasteland and wastes my tomb sending back to 2 mana. At this point I’m trying to play around daze so play the tomb to make sure I have enough mana and play the Moon… which gets counterspelled. Yes, really. Next turn, he plays a land and a mongoose and says go. By this time, I have drawn a song and a slogger. I play seething song into the slogger which gets FOWed. That’s right. After 5 turns, I have yet to resolve a non-land permanent. I finally resolve a pit dragon at some point with only 4 life left from my shock lands and a 1/1 mongoose which just got threshold. I attack with the dragon emptying my hand and pumping it to make 5/3 double striker and take him down to 4. Andrew attacks with mongoose which is now a 3/3 and takes me down to 1. I swing one more time with the dragon and win. Very close game.
Sideboard: I decide not to sideboard since the match up is already good. Is that a mistake?
Game 2: I try to get an early moon going, but it gets hydroblasted. Here is where not having an early chalice for one really hurts. I guess I should have sided in the trinispheres since the dragon and the slogger also bite the dust to hydroblasts. I also see shackles before I die to early Mongoose beat down with my blockers getting blasted.
Sideboard: In 2 pithing needles and 2 trinispheres. Out 4 sulfurs.
Game 3: Unfortunately Andrew mulligans, then mulligans, then mulligans again… didn’t really want to win like this, but he really can’t recover from that.
So, for the results of quarter finals:
Dragon Beats Thresh
Slivers Beats High Tide
Faeries Beats Aggro Loam
Landstill Beats High Tide
Semifinals against Landstill piloted by ??? (Sorry dude, forgot to write down your name)
So my game ended early so I decide to check out who I will be playing. Turns out Josh (the High Tide player) is playing against Landstill and they are starting up their 3rd game. Obviously High Tide is favored here. However, the mood at the game is bad since it looks like there were some heated arguments in the previous two games. Things are very tense and the guy who’s name I forgot to write down is talking about the mistakes he has made during the game. He seems like a very excitable extraverted guy. Josh is the complete opposite. Very quiet and serious type. Anyways, the Landstill player wins in the end due to Josh fizzling. MM naming High Tide and another MM naming Echoing Truth may not be impossible to get around but still hard. Josh came really close though.
Game 1: I get a turn 1 moon followed by a slogger. Unfortunately slogger decides to take a different job and goes farming. Have to make a dragon to finish the job. Landstill player doesn’t do much this game likely due to moon.
Sideboard: I decide to not sideboard since I don’t know if he is playing hoofprints or how many copies of crucibles he is playing, or if Humility is around.
Game 2: I get a magus on turn two, but he has Eternal Dragon cycling for plains and hits his two plans. Wrath of God takes out my guys, but I play some more. However, this Landstill version also packs Humility and all my hellbent pumped creatures become dorks. I guess the Landstill players here like their Humilities. I can’t recover since I don’t see any of my jittes.
Sideboard: I thought about boarding in pyrokinesis to get rid of Decree tokens when I am under Humility, but I figure that if I am already under Humility without Jitte, it is already game over so decide not to board.
Game 3: This game was similar to game 2 except that he didn’t get Humility until I got him down to 10, I had blood moon instead of magus, and I still had 3 creatures. He plays his meddling mages, just to block, but I keep on the pressure and trade creatures. I slowly take him down with 1/1 dorks and he can’t find his Wrath to clear the board and his manlands are mountains. A rare instance where Blood Moon is better than Magus of the Moon.
Dragons Beats Landstill
Slivers Beats Faeries
Finals against Slivers piloted by Ben
Everyone can’t believe Ben has made it this far with Slivers of all things. Apparently, he borrowed this deck from a friend who was also there that night and played it for the first time at the tournament. He just wanted something fun to play. He sits down and declares “This deck is awful for this meta” which he has been saying every time before the game and bashing face with slivers. I have never played against slivers before and don’t even know what is in the deck except of course slivers.
Game 1: My first 7 cards have one mountain and no other mana source. Auto mulligan. Next 6 cards are all mana sources and no threats. Mulligan. I keep a hand of tomb, mountain, magus of the moon, jitte, and song. I try to play Magus second turn, but it gets dazed. Hmm… mental note. Ben plays in order, T1- Plated Sliver, T2 - Sinew Sliver, T3 - Muscle Sliver. I haven’t even played anything yet and I’m already down to 12. I don’t have a chance so I scoop. Ben shows me the FOW in hand.
Sideboard: Well, I know he uses at least 3 different colors so I keep my moon effects in. I need to kill his slivers and since they are mostly white with at least 2 toughness, I take out all the sulfurs. (unless I have at least 2 of the, I can’t play them) In 4 Pyrokinesis. Out 4 Sulfurs.
Game 2: I have a hand of City, 2x mountain, Jitte, Chalice, Raiders, Moon. I really need chalice at 1 or 2 since most of his slivers are in that range. I contemplate going for chalice at 1 with the city, but play it safe to insure I can play Moon second turn. So, I say Mountain, go. Ben plays first turn Aether vial! Had no idea this deck played that. I would have definitely played city chalice if I knew. Now my Moons are dead. I play 2nd turn chalice for 1 anyways I don’t want to be STPed and try to kill quick with Jitted Raiders. However, active vial with the same sequence of slivers from Game 1 plus a mutavault is too much. By the time I equip Jitte, I’m already down to 3 life and it is game over. Ben again shows me the FOW in hand, so I had no chance even if I drew my next card which was Pyrokinesis.
So, a new Legend is born. Ben picks up a Slivers deck which he has never played and takes the tournament. I wonder if this means that next month, the meta will have many more sliver… Ben takes his Beta Dual Land prize and I pick 2x Tarmogoyf since I already have a play set of FOWs.
Some thoughts on the deck
- I definitely could have used more needles. I’ll trade the goyfs for them.
- Last time I had 7 moons main and this time 8. I definitely feel that a more consistent turn one moon is the way to go.
- I have this Love Hate relationship with Jitte. It is either crap (meaning it feels like win more) or it is absolutely amazing in games. I might try lowering the Jitte count to 2 and adding Akroma, AoF
Props:
- To Tom for hanging out with me at these Magic Tournaments and letting me use the expensive cards without a second thought. Good wishes for your expecting child.
- Jason for hosting great MTG events here in Minnesota
- All the designers of Dragon Stompy who described the deck and match ups clearly enough for me to take this deck to the finals.
Slops:
- All the sideboard cards except crypts which did not show up during the entire tournament.
- Dice for making me lose to a 2 on a 6 sided and a 20 sided die. I think I only own 2 die roles all day.
- The weather. When will it stop snowing?
This is my first tournament report and only the second time playing in a legacy tournament. I usually play Vintage because it is cheaper due to proxies being allowed. This is another reason I picked up Dragon Stompy because it is cheaper than most legacy decks and also very competitive. In my first tournament the month before, I scrubbed out 3-3, mostly due to my lack of experience with the deck and also the meta (I would like to think). The 3 decks I beat were 2 Thresh and 1 Gobs, the ones I lost to were Aggro Loam, Landstill, and Golden Grahams. I had no idea that Aggro Loam played Seismic Assault (this is where reading the MTG forums is tech), the landstill deck I played had humility main which I didn’t think was played main anymore, and then I forgot to de-sideboard 1st game against Golden Grahams so got an auto loss first game. Had no idea what he was playing so didn’t sideboard. Result? combo death. So, I’m back at the Monster Den with my friend Tom Lee (who, by the way, took 2nd place with Golden Grahams in the 2006 Legacy Championship losing to Roland Chang playing U/G madness) who I knew I wouldn’t see for a long time since him and his wife are having a baby in a few weeks. Plus, he lets me play with the expensive cards I don’t have for Dragon Stompy. In the last tournament, lots of decks were packing multiple basics in the main so this time around I thought maybe adding good old fashion Stone Rain into the sideboard would be a good idea. I was imagining something like this: They play fetch land, I play moon, they fetch a basic, next turn I blow it up with Stone Rain. I was discussing this with another Dragon Stompy player and he convinced me that it was a really bad idea. So here is the decklist that I played:
Decklist
Main Deck:
4 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
10 Mountain
4 Chrome Mox
4 Seething Song
4 Simian Spirit Guide
3 Arc-Slogger
4 Rakdos Pit Dragon
4 Gathan raiders
4 Magus of the Moon
4 Sulfur Elemental
4 Blood Moon
3 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Chalice of the Void
Sideboard:
4 Tormod's crypt
4 Pyrokinesis
3 Triinisphere
2 Pithing Needle
2 Shattering Spree (I only had 2 needles so included these to deal with shackles, vials, and opposing Jittes)
I believe we had a turnout of about 36 people. 6 rounds with top 8. You know the rules. I think I saw 2 gobs, 2 high tide, bunch of thresh, 3 dragon stompy, 43-land, 2 landstill, angel stax, slivers, golden grahams, aggro loam, ichorid, battle of wits! (some dude had a huge tower of pick sleeved cards), faerie stompy, fetchland tendrils, the rock and armageddon Stax. I know these are not all the decks but they show you the meta here is diverse enough. So, on to the matches. (I’m going mostly by memory and my bad notes so if I get it wrong, please correct.)
Round 1 against The Rock piloted by Mike
First time ever playing against The Rock. I had no idea what I was playing against until end of the game when I asked him what he was playing. Mike was a very nice guy and showed me how the deck works after the games were over. I might have the order of the games reversed…
Game1: I get turn 1 chalice for 1. Good start. Mike makes some Ascetics and stall the ground where I have Raiders and Sulfurs. I eventually get a pit dragon and Magus of the Moon which means it is game over. Mike shows me all the goodies in his hand, but can’t play because of the moons.
Sideboard: Nothing, because I have no idea what he is playing even after seeing Troll Ascetics.
Game2: I play Magus of the Moon first turn and he floats white sending the magus farming. I play a Jitte and a morphed Raiders and he drops an Ascetic I think. Next turn, I get a Blood Moon to stick, but by then he has his basics and vindicates my blood moon. However, active Jitte on hellbent Raiders and Dragons is too much to handle.
1-0
Round 2 against Ichorid piloted by Matt
Matt is an experienced Ichorid player. If my memory serves me, he plays both vintage and legacy Ichorid. I like how he lays out his graveyard so that I can see every move he is making. Good etiquette on his part.
Game 1: He has a good hand, but my first turn magus of the moon slows him down since his only land was a Coliseum. I play Jitte next and start beating, but make a huge play mistake. On the very first attack with jitted magus, I forget to put counters on the jitte and pass the turn. This cost me the game because I take him down to 2 before he combos me out.
Sideboard: Out goes 4 sulfur elementals, in comes 4 crypts.
Game 2: I get the perfect hand. Tomb, Mox imprint Slogger, playing Blood Moon, and crypt. I have SSG and Mountain in hand. Top deck pit dragon. Play mountain, pitch SSG to play pit dragon. At this point he has bunch of cards in the graveyard with Narc trigger so I pop my crypt to slow him down. Off the top, draw Seething Song! Attack with dragon pumping with Seething Song, empty hand making it double striking 7/3!! Oh, yeah. Next turn he is able to play Narc which apparently flies and I’m too much of a noob to figure out so I give the Pit Dragon flying, trying to jump over for the win. Yeah, not very pretty. Matt dredges troll and imp but doesn’t hit anything that can block the dragon. On to the game 3.
Sideboard: At this point, I think that maybe having some needles for the coliseum might be good so I side out 2 chalices for 2 needles. (only have 2 needles because Tom only has 2 and I’m too cheap to buy them myself. I’m a grad student, enough said.)
Game 3: Unfortunately, Matt has to mull down to 3 and never really gets going. I had a turn one crypt which made it even worse. After a few turns of drawing nothing helpful, Matt concedes.
2-0
Round 3 against Thresh piloted by Justin
Game 1: I lose the die role (by the way, I lost almost all my die role today) and Justin plays a fetch land and passes the turn. I play a first turn Magus (or was it Blood Moon?) to which he responds by fetching a dual land. ??? He says something under his breath, but I couldn’t catch what he was saying. Kind of fuzzy on my memory here but I think he brainstormed in response with the dual digging for daze or FOW I think, but didn’t hit it apparently because he scoops.
Sideboard: Not sure what he is playing so make no changes.
Game 2: Justin counters bunch of my threats while slowly losing life to fetching and FOW. I finally get at Blood Moon to stick which is followed by Raiders and it is game over. Sorry, but I can’t remember much more detail then that.
3-0
Round 4 against High Tide piloted by Josh
Josh is a nice guy and seems to be a good high tide player. I know I have a terrible match up against High Tide so I’m hoping to be lucky.
Game 1: I get a crazy hand: Tomb, 2x SSG, 2x Songs, Dragon, and chalice. I keep. Josh makes an island and passes the turn. I draw Mox, so I play Tomb, Mox imprinting SSG, keep one SSG in case of daze and play Song followed by Song, then chalice for 1 with 5 floating. Josh Opts in response to chalice, but lets Chalice resolve. I use the leftover mana to make Dragon. I keep my hand empty and beat with hellbent Dragon. It is over quickly since he doesn’t find a way to remove chalice for 1 in time.
Sideboard: Wow, that was the best opening hand I have ever had. But can I be lucky twice? I board out 3x sloggers for 3x trinispheres.
Game 2: I keep a hand similar to game one but mox and mountain for the 2 songs and Raiders instead of the Dragon. I cross my fingers and hope he doesn’t have counter for my first turn chalice. I play tomb and Mox imprinting SSG, then play chalice for one hoping he doesn’t have FOW. Josh plays Opt in response. I think he had a daze but no FOW since chalice resolves. Next turn I draw Jitte and I play the mountain and make the Raiders. Meanwhile Josh sets up his play with impulses, flash of insight, etc. I draw Dragon but decide to play Jitte, equip, and attack with Raiders. Next turn I make the dragon and empty my hand somehow (maybe I had lands that I dropped, can’t remember) and now will have lethal on my next turn. I believe Josh cunning wished for echoing truth and bounced my chalice. Then after my draw phase, Josh has no choice but the go off. He gets storm count to 10 and burns through most of his hand before finally finding high tide. He is able to ramp up to 15 storm which is enough to empty my library but don’t have enough mana to Stroke me for the win. I got lucky again. Josh had drawn so many cards before he hit that high tide. Even one spell before would had given him enough mana to win.
4-0
Round 5 against Aggro Loam Piloted by Pat
Pat is the guy I lost to last tournament due to my magus of the moon allowing him to play Seismic Assault. I contemplated what I would do if I matched up again but couldn’t think of a good plan except for an early chalice for 2 and needles. We’ll see.
Game 1: I get a turn one seething song into blood moon and chalice for 1. In retrospect maybe I should have played chalice for 2 and burned for 1… maybe. Pat tells me he had a great starting hand until I played blood moon and chalice for 1. I’m hopeful that I might pull this one out. I play Raiders and flip for hellbent. Next turn, Pat plays Burning Wish into Devastating Dreams with 6 cards in hand. Devastating Dreams for 5 takes out all my lands and the Raiders. Now, we are both on top deck mode, but I still have Blood Moon in play. Unfortunately for me, Pat draws into a basic forest and goes crazy with Loam. I continue to not draw mana sources and lose to Seismic Assault and Terravore.
Sideboard: I take out 2 sulfurs for 2 needles
Game 2: I can’t remember what happened this game except that I had an early slogger and a chalice for 2. But the chalice, along with a mox, got blown away by EE and Pat gets Seismic Assault on line. Before my slogger dies, from assault, I take Pat down to 3 life. All my creatures die to assault so I have no chance unless I draw a needle. I keep playing creatures for him to waste his lands on to buy time so that I can draw into the needles. I keep sulfur in hand just incase I get a needle. If I get a needle, I can flash in sulfur after he taps his Terravore and steal a win… but I don’t draw the needle and die.
4-1
Round 6
Both of us draw into top 8
4-1-1
Top 8 decks were: 2x High Tide, Aggro Loam, Thresh, Dragon Stompy, Landstill, Slivers (Meat Hooks), Faerie Stompy.
Quarter Finals against Thresh piloted by Andrew
Andrew is a quiet guy, but very polite and wishes me luck every game. We have played before in the previous tournament so I know he plays thresh.
Game 1: I get an opening hand of 3x blood moon, 2x tomb, SSG, mountain. I decide to keep because I know an early moon would slow him down dramatically. He wins the die role of course and plays a tundra. I draw Magus and play tomb, pitch SSG and go for first turn Blood Moon…responds, brainstorms then dazes. No problem, I got plenty of moons. I say go. He replays the land and says go. I play a mountain and try to play the magus this time thinking there is no way he has two dazes. Andrew brainstorms, then dazes again! Hm… That’s OK, I still have 2 more Moons. I say go, and he replays the land. I play a land (now at 4 mana so don’t have to worry about daze) and play Blood Moon, which promptly gets FOWed. Wow, didn’t see that coming. I pass the turn and Andrew play wasteland and wastes my tomb sending back to 2 mana. At this point I’m trying to play around daze so play the tomb to make sure I have enough mana and play the Moon… which gets counterspelled. Yes, really. Next turn, he plays a land and a mongoose and says go. By this time, I have drawn a song and a slogger. I play seething song into the slogger which gets FOWed. That’s right. After 5 turns, I have yet to resolve a non-land permanent. I finally resolve a pit dragon at some point with only 4 life left from my shock lands and a 1/1 mongoose which just got threshold. I attack with the dragon emptying my hand and pumping it to make 5/3 double striker and take him down to 4. Andrew attacks with mongoose which is now a 3/3 and takes me down to 1. I swing one more time with the dragon and win. Very close game.
Sideboard: I decide not to sideboard since the match up is already good. Is that a mistake?
Game 2: I try to get an early moon going, but it gets hydroblasted. Here is where not having an early chalice for one really hurts. I guess I should have sided in the trinispheres since the dragon and the slogger also bite the dust to hydroblasts. I also see shackles before I die to early Mongoose beat down with my blockers getting blasted.
Sideboard: In 2 pithing needles and 2 trinispheres. Out 4 sulfurs.
Game 3: Unfortunately Andrew mulligans, then mulligans, then mulligans again… didn’t really want to win like this, but he really can’t recover from that.
So, for the results of quarter finals:
Dragon Beats Thresh
Slivers Beats High Tide
Faeries Beats Aggro Loam
Landstill Beats High Tide
Semifinals against Landstill piloted by ??? (Sorry dude, forgot to write down your name)
So my game ended early so I decide to check out who I will be playing. Turns out Josh (the High Tide player) is playing against Landstill and they are starting up their 3rd game. Obviously High Tide is favored here. However, the mood at the game is bad since it looks like there were some heated arguments in the previous two games. Things are very tense and the guy who’s name I forgot to write down is talking about the mistakes he has made during the game. He seems like a very excitable extraverted guy. Josh is the complete opposite. Very quiet and serious type. Anyways, the Landstill player wins in the end due to Josh fizzling. MM naming High Tide and another MM naming Echoing Truth may not be impossible to get around but still hard. Josh came really close though.
Game 1: I get a turn 1 moon followed by a slogger. Unfortunately slogger decides to take a different job and goes farming. Have to make a dragon to finish the job. Landstill player doesn’t do much this game likely due to moon.
Sideboard: I decide to not sideboard since I don’t know if he is playing hoofprints or how many copies of crucibles he is playing, or if Humility is around.
Game 2: I get a magus on turn two, but he has Eternal Dragon cycling for plains and hits his two plans. Wrath of God takes out my guys, but I play some more. However, this Landstill version also packs Humility and all my hellbent pumped creatures become dorks. I guess the Landstill players here like their Humilities. I can’t recover since I don’t see any of my jittes.
Sideboard: I thought about boarding in pyrokinesis to get rid of Decree tokens when I am under Humility, but I figure that if I am already under Humility without Jitte, it is already game over so decide not to board.
Game 3: This game was similar to game 2 except that he didn’t get Humility until I got him down to 10, I had blood moon instead of magus, and I still had 3 creatures. He plays his meddling mages, just to block, but I keep on the pressure and trade creatures. I slowly take him down with 1/1 dorks and he can’t find his Wrath to clear the board and his manlands are mountains. A rare instance where Blood Moon is better than Magus of the Moon.
Dragons Beats Landstill
Slivers Beats Faeries
Finals against Slivers piloted by Ben
Everyone can’t believe Ben has made it this far with Slivers of all things. Apparently, he borrowed this deck from a friend who was also there that night and played it for the first time at the tournament. He just wanted something fun to play. He sits down and declares “This deck is awful for this meta” which he has been saying every time before the game and bashing face with slivers. I have never played against slivers before and don’t even know what is in the deck except of course slivers.
Game 1: My first 7 cards have one mountain and no other mana source. Auto mulligan. Next 6 cards are all mana sources and no threats. Mulligan. I keep a hand of tomb, mountain, magus of the moon, jitte, and song. I try to play Magus second turn, but it gets dazed. Hmm… mental note. Ben plays in order, T1- Plated Sliver, T2 - Sinew Sliver, T3 - Muscle Sliver. I haven’t even played anything yet and I’m already down to 12. I don’t have a chance so I scoop. Ben shows me the FOW in hand.
Sideboard: Well, I know he uses at least 3 different colors so I keep my moon effects in. I need to kill his slivers and since they are mostly white with at least 2 toughness, I take out all the sulfurs. (unless I have at least 2 of the, I can’t play them) In 4 Pyrokinesis. Out 4 Sulfurs.
Game 2: I have a hand of City, 2x mountain, Jitte, Chalice, Raiders, Moon. I really need chalice at 1 or 2 since most of his slivers are in that range. I contemplate going for chalice at 1 with the city, but play it safe to insure I can play Moon second turn. So, I say Mountain, go. Ben plays first turn Aether vial! Had no idea this deck played that. I would have definitely played city chalice if I knew. Now my Moons are dead. I play 2nd turn chalice for 1 anyways I don’t want to be STPed and try to kill quick with Jitted Raiders. However, active vial with the same sequence of slivers from Game 1 plus a mutavault is too much. By the time I equip Jitte, I’m already down to 3 life and it is game over. Ben again shows me the FOW in hand, so I had no chance even if I drew my next card which was Pyrokinesis.
So, a new Legend is born. Ben picks up a Slivers deck which he has never played and takes the tournament. I wonder if this means that next month, the meta will have many more sliver… Ben takes his Beta Dual Land prize and I pick 2x Tarmogoyf since I already have a play set of FOWs.
Some thoughts on the deck
- I definitely could have used more needles. I’ll trade the goyfs for them.
- Last time I had 7 moons main and this time 8. I definitely feel that a more consistent turn one moon is the way to go.
- I have this Love Hate relationship with Jitte. It is either crap (meaning it feels like win more) or it is absolutely amazing in games. I might try lowering the Jitte count to 2 and adding Akroma, AoF
Props:
- To Tom for hanging out with me at these Magic Tournaments and letting me use the expensive cards without a second thought. Good wishes for your expecting child.
- Jason for hosting great MTG events here in Minnesota
- All the designers of Dragon Stompy who described the deck and match ups clearly enough for me to take this deck to the finals.
Slops:
- All the sideboard cards except crypts which did not show up during the entire tournament.
- Dice for making me lose to a 2 on a 6 sided and a 20 sided die. I think I only own 2 die roles all day.
- The weather. When will it stop snowing?