[Report] Top 8 With Dragon Stompy March 13th at Jupiter Games

7th Place With Dragon Stompy March 13th at Jupiter Games

In the weeks leading up to this tournament, we looked to have a solid group of 4 people going down with myself comfortably not having to drive. Then, a few days prior to the event, it is determined that the person who would be driving decided that they weren’t up to driving, and I would most likely be driving to the event. The day before the event something came up and Kyle couldn’t go anyways, so I would have been driving regardless. I had spent the past two weeks debating which deck to play (between Survival elves and Dragon stompy) and ultimately settled on Dragon Stompy so that I didn’t just scoop to dredge and combo.

So We woke up at 6 am and The rest of the car made it to my house by 6:30 so we could get down there around 10 if the rain was as bad as it was supposed to be. The rest of the car was as follows:
Quack (BirdMan): Survival
Ben: Dredge (non LED)

I spend some time talking to Ben and Quack about a few changes that I think I can make to the list I usually run and ultimately decide to make some changes to the sideboard which sees my Pithing needles and one Anarchy leaving for additional grave hate due to predicted reanimator. I spend some time saying Hi to people I met in previous tournaments and fail like 3 times at guessing hungrylikealions deck for the day. The tournament gets underway only slightly late, it is revealed that we have over 100 people in attendance – but will still only have 7 rounds of swiss followed by cut to top 8, and it is at this time that I will present my list

10 Mountain
4 City of Traitors
4 Tombs
4 Chrome Mox
4 Seething Song
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Rakdos Pit Dragon
4 Gathan Raiders
4 Magus of the Moon
3 Taurean Mauler
2 Arc Slogger
1 Akroma Angel of Fury
2 Umezawa’s Jitte
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Blood Moon
3 Trinisphere

Sideboard

1 Akroma Angel of Fury
2 Boil
4 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Anarchy
4 Pyrokinesis


Round 1 – Andrew with Ru painter stone combo

Game1: Andrew wins the die roll, and I do as dragon stompy does and mulligan down to a hand of 5. He leads with a turn 1 fetch. I make a play of ancient tomb into chalice at 1. After a brief while he responds that it resolves. On his turn he plays a painter naming blue after playing a land. On my turn I try to play either a big creature which he forces over a pyroblast (I was confused, then remembered painter and thought it was a pretty cool play). On his turn he swings with painter to put me at 15, and on my next turn I resolve a rakdos pit dragon with a hand of slogger. I top deck gathan which I play morphed, pitching the slogger to force a chump block by his servant. He has no play and scoops to lethal next turn.
Sideboard:
In: 2x boil 3x pyrokinesis; out: 3 moon 2 slogger

Andrew opens with a land – go. He forces my turn one play. On turn two I resolve a face down gathan. He plays a painters servant naming blue. I Play a rakdos which resolves. I still have 2 cards in hand and he pyroblasts my face down raiders. On my turn I Play pyrokinesis pitching magus which gets forced which leaves him open to a boil. He plays a land, go. I swing for 10 with RPD, he can’t do anything on his turn, and I swing for the win on my next turn.

1-0-0

Round 2 against Jon Barber playing Rb Goblins

I recognized the name, knew he was a goblins player (and a good one at that and just kinda sighed knowing it would be a difficult match up)

Game 1: He goes Turn one vial. I go turn 1 face down gathan. He plays a warren instigator I think after a fetch. I play another face down gathan and swing for 2 – flipping gathan in the declare blockers phase. He adds a counter to vial and plays a goblin matron getting pile driver. I play another gathan raiders and pitch to flip both of my morphed ones. He chumps with matron and I get through for 5. He goes nuts on my face vialing in pile driver at my endstep I think, the next turn playing a warchief through vial, playing a ring leader seeing two more goblins. I draw something useless and scoop to game 2.

Sideboard:
In: 4 pyrokinesis: Out: 3 blood moon 1 something – might have been a chalice.

Game 2: I lead with turn one taurean mauler off of ancient tomb and mox pitching magus. I freak out that he is about to do a broken turn one play but thankfully he plays a tapped aunties hovel. I play a pit dragon and swing for 2. He plays a warren instigator (might have been vial + lackey) on his turn I play a trinisphere and attack for 4 leaving mauler to block. On his turn he plays a goblin something and on my turn I topdeck a pyrokinesis which I hardcast to clear the board and swing for lethal.

Game 3: I see a turn one aunties hovel revealing lackey, playing lackey. I play taurean mauler on my turn. He plays a warren instigator on his turn. On my turn I play a face down creature and pass. He plays a chieftan and attacks with instigator. I pitch a land or something to raiders and flip to trade. I play a Rakdos Pit dragon on my turn and pass. He plays a matron for a siege gang and I am starting to get very worried. I play a slogger off a seething song, machine gun the chieftan with slogger and swing with RPD in the air for 12. On his turn he plays a goblin (don’t remember which). I topdeck another pyrokinesis, wipe his board and swing for more than lethal.

Record: 2-0-0

Round 3: Kevin with Geddon Stax

Once again, I lose the die roll, and he leads with ancient tomb into chalice at 1. I knew there were a few stax players there today and was not too excited to be paired against it. I play city, mox pitching SSG into a seething song and a rakdos pit dragon. On his turn he plays some white enchantment that makes activated abilities cost 2 more. I play another chrome mox and a land to play a slogger and swing with RPD. He plays something irrelevant, I swing for 8 on my turn, and he scoops at 5 life on his turn.

Sideboard:
In 2 anarchy
Out: chalices I think

Game 2 I keep a hand with some tombs acceleration and a jitte as well as a mountain. He plays a turn one mox I think along with an enchantment giving him protection from arc slogger. I play a jitte on my turn, he plays an artifact and plays a mishras. I play rakdos pit dragon and equip. He plays a sphere of law (FML). I swing for 1 to get some counters for jitte on my turn as his two mishras are tapped. On his turn he plays a magus of the tabernacle and swings for 4 with his factories. I swing for 1 again and get two more jitte counters. He plays some big white enchantment that I don’t remember what it does, I get two more counters on my jitte on my turn, and on his turn he goes to oblivion ring my jitte, I remove counters from it to give his magus -6/-6 and do a dance of joy inside my head due to removing the headache despite the horrid board position I now face. I topdeck an anarchy and blow up his board, equip jitte, and swing with the pit dragon. He double blocks with his mishras, but doesn’t pump them so I get to leave the counters on my jitte. On his turn he doesn’t draw anything and I get a threat down. I’m pretty sure it was another pit dragon, although it could have been a raiders. All I know is that I swing for 7 two turns in a row to put him at 1, he can’t do anything on his turn and says good game.
At this point, birdman and I are both 3-0 and ben is 2-1. I’m also relieved at beating one of my worst matchups and am happy that I probably won’t have to see it again for the rest of the day.

So of course,
Round 4 – George with Wu stax

I had played against George in a side event back in January I think. He had played combo that day, and I was thinking that he was again. I win the die roll for once, and go tomb, chalice at 1. He plays a tomb as well, plays a mox, and something that hurts. I play a creature, he waste locks me, I loose.

Sideboard:
2 boil 2 anarchy – out chalice

I open the nuts, with a turn 1 Pit dragon followed by more land and some more acceleration – should be able to make it quick
I lead with the pit dragon, on his turn he plays a Pendrall flux. I am thinking WTF? And loose my dragon to its new
upkeep cost. I draw nothing relevant, get smokestacked out and watch as a mishras beats me to hell.

3-1-0

Birdman and ben lost as well. Ben drops, birdman and I want to know where the hell all of the supposed merfolk players are as we haven’t seen any yet.

Round 5: Seth with Merfolk
I try to make some early plays but they get countered by dazes and forces. He gets some creatures rolling and eventually gets an active jitte to save him 4 life. I managed to get two gathan raiders onto the board, but I played conservatively, leading with lock pieces which ended up costing me game 1.

Sideboard:
In: 2 boil, 4 pyrokinesis
Out: 3 trinisphere 3 bloodmoon

I play a turn 1 taurean mauler and he goes land go. I swing for 2 and try to play a gathan raiders, but it gets dazed. On his turn he plays his island again, and says go. I swing again, try to play a chalice at 1, but it gets forced. On his turn he plays the merfolk that lets him draw a card and passes. I play a slogger which resolves and swing with mauler for 5. On his turn He plays a land and passes. I try to play something else which he has to force, shoot his creature with slogger, and win two turns later.

Game 3:
He forces my first two plays, but he had to pitch two creatures in order to do so. I finally resolve a rakdos pit dragon and it ends up facing off against 3 creatures which are capable of swinging for lethal. I topdeck a land and can swing for exactly lethal in the air.

4-1

Round 6 Chris aka Token playing some BGW rock or deadguy type build
I play a turn one gathan raiders which gets sent to the fields. He resolves a confidant, starts generating massive card advantage, and has removal of all sorts for everything I play. I could tell this was a deck designed to beat reanimator, but knew that If I could resolve early moon effects against him, I could beat him.

Sideboard: I think I bring something in, but can’t remember and it isn’t readily apparent to me at this time

Game 2 I go turn one chalice at 1. He plays a fetch for a basic swamp. I play a turn two magus of the moon. He draws, plays a “mountain” and says go. I play a taurean mauler and swing for 2. He keeps playing mountains for a few turn, and eventually gets a creature down, but I have a Rakdos pit dragon with flying to finish the game. He shows me 2 thoughtseizes that were in his hand from his opening hand before game 3.

Game 3: He is on the play, fetches a swamp, and thoughtseizes me. I have a magus and a bloodmoon, so he takes a piece of my acceleration so I can’t play it next turn. I topdeck a mountain, and am forced to play tomb, chalice at 1. On his turn he plays a bayou passes and remembers that he needed to play his fetch for his basic forest. I drop a moon effect. I play some creatures while he is able to every once in a while make a play like doomblading a creature. He comments a few times that there is one thing that he needs to draw that will win him the game. I’m assuming that it is Krosan grip, and topdeck a seething song, play two seething songs, and drop chalice at 3. I win a turn or two later. After the game he shows me a hand with 2 pernicious deed, 2 goyf and 1 Krosan Grip. He was a fun guy to play against and was from the Albany area as well. I try to make plans to get some playtesting or other legacy action with him between big tournaments but forget to get his number

Record: 5-1

At this point I’m sitting in 5th place with decent breakers. I get paired against the guy in 6th place and we agonizingly go through all the math and the situations for what can happen with all the different players and try to determine if we can draw or not. We find out that we need for the two 14 pointers to either loose or draw their matches if we want a certified draw into top 8, but because we can’t count on that, we determine that we need to play it out slowly and see how those games go. If they go the way we need them to, we agree to ID, if they don’t one of us will be going to top 8 for sure

Round 7 – Jim with Bant Top

We play it out, I get my ass handed to me by forces, swords, and dazes in game 1. Fortunately, I didn’t run into a moon effect, so in game 2 he fetches for nonbasics. I play an early bloodmoon and coupled with trinisphere, he can’t stop a rakdos pit dragon. I think he resolved a counterbalance that game, but unfortunately for him it didn’t hit anything.
in game three he plays a turn one herarch. On my turn, I play a chalice for 1. I don't remember his second turn apparantly - although it may have been land -> go, and on my second turn I resolve a jitte On my third turn, I play a seething song, play a trinishphere – which he forces, which lets me resolve blood moon. He doesn't have any plays, and on my ensuing turns I Play a Rakdos pit dragon, the next turn I play a face down Red Akroma, the turn after I morph the akroma, and get a raiders down as well on the next turn.
Fortunately for Jim, one of the 14 pointers drew (it was Walker control v landstill) and the other 14 pointer lost to Merfolk, so we ID into top 8.

Birdman ends up in 10th place at 5-2 and I end up with a 6th seed – my first ever top 8.

So I get paired against Colin (Di) playing UB reanimator. Quite possibly the one deck in top 8 that I don’t want to see at all.

Game 1: I mulligan to 6, but win the die roll hard. I lead with a mountain, and pass. Colin fortunately doesn’t know what I’m playing, so he plays a fetch and passes. On my turn I play another mountain and try to chalice at 1. He brainstorms, and hits a force of will of his brainstorm to keep my chalice off the board. He resolves an iona onto the board. I play a jitte on my turn, and end up scooping to keep him in the dark as to my deck.

I board in 6 grave hate spells. I completely forget about show and tell, and Probably should have boarded in the red akroma as well. I side out moons, because I don’t buy that he doesn’t know what I am playing, and will probably fetch out basics, and I felt that lockpieces and gravehate would be more effective than bloodmoons.

Game 2: I mull to 6 again, as I had no disruption or grave hate in my opening hand. I lead with a turn one chalice at 1 – which he forces – removing a sphinx of the steel wind. I drop a tormod’s crypt after the force, figuring he doesn’t have more blue cards if he had to remove sphinx. Tormods resolves. On his turn, he lays a fetch and brainstorms. And says I probably have this game won if I have a clock. I play a turn 3 rakdos pit dragon after I draw another land, and win shortly there after. He shows me his hand after the force and it was nothing but land and a reanimate spell.

Game 3:
I mull to 4, but hand is RPD, SSG, tormods, mountain. He plays fetch go, I draw a tomb and I go mountain, go. On his turn he goes land go. I play the pit dragon and crypt on my second turn with a gathan raiders in hand. On his turn he plays a show and tell, and I put raiders into play opposite his Iona naming red. I can race if I topdeck equipment, morphed creatures, artifacts or land – preferably morphed creatures or equipment. I topdeck a magus of the moon to blow my hellbent, and he ponders into a rushing river.

We apparently were supposed to be the feature match, but the one-sidedness of each game probably would have been boring, so its most likely a good thing that they ended up going with a different feature match

I hang around and watch the rest of the games for a bit, run out to grab dinner, and make it back in time to see Colin beat Jim in the semis, before he lost to New Horizons piloted by dave price.

When All was said and done I got to walk away with 4 plateau and 4 verdant catacombs and a top 8 for myself and Dragon stompy
Props:
Eli for an awesome tournament
Awesome opponents
Aggressive Mulliganing
Birdman for making 10th
Ben for being funny and keeping my from dieing while we drove home
The dude at Moes for giving me free extra meat
Top 8 the day before my birthday

Slops:
Weather advisories on I-88
Rain
Sleet
Snow
Freezing rain
Pendrall Flux
Iona naming red

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tivon

In game three I resolve a turn 1 chalice for 1. On his turn he fetches for a basic forest and plays a hierarch. On my turn, I play a jitte. On my third turn, I play a seething song, play a trinishphere – which he forces, which lets me resolve blood moon. I Play a Rakdos pit dragon, the next turn I play a face down Red Akroma, the turn after I morph the akroma, and get a raiders down as well.
Fortunately for Jim, one of the 14 pointers drew (it was Walker control v landstill) and the other 14 pointer lost to Merfolk, so we ID into top 8.

---

Hmm...I'm assuming you meant to say he was on the play, right?

Good job on the finish.

Yeah - he was on the play. I apparently fail at proofreading and common sense.

I'll have to fix that

Congrats again dude. I love seeing dragon stompy do well, and this was a great report. I hope to see you at future events.

Great job,you sir are one heck of a wizard.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by neon_havoc

Great job,you sir are one heck of a wizard.

---

+1

-Chris-

You should write erotica.

About magic.

/puts on his wizard robe and hat, wand angled and ready for action

Belated congrats on the finish.

We went 0-7 at High Tide but won the parties.

In that last game, why didn't you bait with Tormod's Crypt to get him to Force that and then Chalice? Chalice is pretty clearly the stronger card, since it kills so much of Reanimator, while Crypt is still strong enough to usually want to Force (unless you have S&T in hand).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Tivon

I mull to 4, but hand is Ancient tomb, chalice, tormods, mountain. He plays fetch go, I draw a RPD and I try for a turn one chalice again, and he forces, removing a brainstorm. On his turn he goes land go. I play the pit dragon and crypt on my second turn with a gathan raiders in hand. On his turn he plays a show and tell, and I put raiders into play opposite his Iona naming red. I can race if I topdeck equipment, morphed creatures, artifacts or land – preferably morphed creatures or equipment. I topdeck a magus of the moon to blow my hellbent, and he ponders into a rushing river.

---

This is actually incorrect. I didn't have a Force of Will game 3 (My hand was 5 lands, Iona, and Show and Tell) and you mentioned you ripped the Ancient Tomb, not the Rakdos Pit Dragon. I also believe you didn't have a Chalice of the Void and that your opening hand was Tormod's Crypt, Mountain, Rakdos Pit Dragon, and Simian Spirit Guide. I think you might've gotten games 2 & 3 confused, but it at least answers Hi-val's question.

Yeah, I realized that after you posted yours. I also couldn't piece together how game three worked leading up to it. thanks for pointing it out and reminding me and I'll make some changes. And that opening hand sounds correct. Top decked tomb was definitely awesome.

Also, I remember now that I baited the force with the RPD before playing the crypt on my second turn. Taking notes next time would probably help me remember things a bit more clearly as opposed to looking at life totals

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by hi-val

In that last game, why didn't you bait with Tormod's Crypt to get him to Force that and then Chalice? Chalice is pretty clearly the stronger card, since it kills so much of Reanimator, while Crypt is still strong enough to usually want to Force (unless you have S&T in hand).

---

I'm a bit retarded and Di was correct with what my opening hand was. I was extremely tired when I wrote this up and didn't proof it or compare it to the meager notes that I scribbled down after the tournament

but game two that is probably what I should have done - although it ended up working out forme that game...

Congratulations to your finish! I've always found Dragon Stompy to be an awesome deck, and though I've never really played it more than just a couple of hands, it's nice to see a good finish for it :)

How was Akroma for you? Was the mana cost ever a problem?

I found akroma to be fantastic whenever I saw it in a non mulled hand. Even if I can't outright cast it there were a few times where I was able to go hellbent by playing it face down for its morph cost which is huge. I just found that the old list I ran that had 4 sloggers (and another with 3) saw me with too much high casting cost stuck in my deck. I saw a few people playing Red Akroma in their lists and decided to give it a shot. Its definitely a personal preference call, and I can't say there weren't and won't be times where I would prefer a slogger, but there are also the times where you draw a slogger and wish it was anything else in your deck.