Back to Back Finals with TES
I did not take notes, and this is all from memory.
The first tournament was in Costa Mesa, I was originally not going to go to this, but Tony and I decided to make the trip out there. 19 people showed up, 1st gets Jace, 2nd Sea, 3rd Trop, 4th Volcanic.
4 Dark Ritual
4 Rite of Flame
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Burning Wish
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Duress
3 Orim’s Chant
1 Silence
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Tendrils of Agony
4 Gemstone Mine
2 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Scalding Tarn
2 City of Brass
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
1 Diminishing Returns
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Grapeshot
1 Thoughtsieze
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Wipeaway
1 Echoing Truth
1 Shattering Spree
2 Pyroblast
3 Xantid Swarm
Round 1
I played against BUG Landstill player, Alex. Nice guy.
I lost the roll, then went Silence, kill you on my first turn. Nice game.
Game 2 I went Duress t1, see nothing, Turn 2 kill. Nut draws against my best match up.
Round 2
Merfolk
I just went for Empty twice and killed him 2-0. In the second game, he Forced a Burning Wish, and then lost to the second one for Empty. Nothing very interesting.
Round 3
Survival
Two easy kills with Ad Nauseam and Iggy respectively. Nothing to see here.
Round 4 I.D.
Round 5 I.D.
Top 8
Dredge
Game 1 I have to go for Diminishing Returns into Ad Nauseam, and barely kill him.
Game 2 He reanimates an Iona and beats me across the face with it.
Game 3 I get a turn 2 kill with Iggy.
Top 4
GWu Survival
Game 1, he gets down Aven Mindcensor, then kills me.
Game 2, turn 1 Ad Nauseam. He dies.
Game 3, he mulls to 3. I barely beat him. It was a very sad game of magic.
Finals
Belcher
Game 1 I get insanely lucky with an Iggy loop where I have to find a tutor off of Brainstorm. Of course, I do, and kill him.
Game 2 He makes a bunch of Empty the Warren Tokens. I make more, and kill him.
The second tournament was at Knight Ware in Studio City. Great store, great prizes.
Round 1
Enchantress
I've beaten Enchantress game 1. I lost.
Game 2 I got an easy Ad Nauseam kill.
Game 3 was pretty insane, his board position ended up being Leyline, Double Runed Halo (Tendrils and Grapeshot), Double Sterling Grove. My hand was Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, Rite of Flame, Rite of Flame, Rite of Flame, Lotus Petal, with 4 lands and a Lotus Petal. I draw Ad Nauseam and play out my hand into an Empty the Warrens, Silence him on his upkeep, and kill him with 22 tokens. This was pure luck.
Round 2
Dragon Stompy
Game 1 I won the roll, Duress, see nothing, kill him the next turn.
Game 2 He mulled to 5, did nothing for 3 turns, and I killed him on turn 3 with Iggy.
Round 3
Merfolk
Game 1 I Duressed taking Force on the play, seeing 3 Spell Snare. I then go Dark Ritual into Ad Nauseam on the next turn and have to dig for a Silence, get there and kill him with Grapeshot.
Game 2 I got a quick Empty and killed him, nothing too interesting.
Round 4
Vial Knights
Game 1 I killed myself with a turn 2 Ad Nauseam at 18.
Game 2 I killed him with Empty the Warren tokens.
Game 3 I also killed him with Empty the Warren tokens.
Round 5 I.D.
Round 6 I.D.
Top 8
Played against Merfolk from round 3.
Game 1 I got an easy kill with Ad Nauseam.
Game 2 I punted by going for a mini Tendrils. It was dumb.
Game 3 I killed him with Empty the Warrens tokens.
Top 4
Aggro Loam
Two easy Iggys for the win.
Finals
Split with Goblins, he wanted Seas, I wanted Jaces and to go home.
Sorry for the shitty report, I didn't take notes, this was all from memory about 4 days after the fact. If I got anything wrong, please correct it.
This deck is unfair.
Re: Back to Back Finals with TES
Nice read! Sounds like you easily smashed faces all day(s) long with the deck. Reports like this really make me wanna learn to play TES. ;)
Congrats on your finishes!
Re: Back to Back Finals with TES
Quote:
Originally Posted by
venice
Nice read! Sounds like you easily smashed faces all day(s) long with the deck. Reports like this really make me wanna learn to play TES. ;)
Congrats on your finishes!
Few games I played felt like I was ever going to lose.
Re: Back to Back Finals with TES
Quote:
Round 1
Enchantress
I've beaten Enchantress game 1. I lost.
What happened?
Re: Back to Back Finals with TES
Quote:
Originally Posted by
dsck
What happened?
I kept an eh hand, and got a shitty Brainstorm, so I had to Diminishing Returns and got nothing. While he got Leyline and Sterling Grove.
Re: Back to Back Finals with TES
Nice job there!
I'm in the process of collecting the cards for the deck (the only expensive cards left that my student-sized wallet can't afford right now are LEDs) and it's reassuring to see someone completely tear shit up with the deck.
How long have you played it?
Re: Back to Back Finals with TES
Liam - you need to stop losing to your own goddamn bad draws.
I literally gave you the game the final game of our match in Top 4, and you still took 8 turns to kill me. Don't fuck up ever!!
Re: Back to Back Finals with TES
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Purgatory
Nice job there!
I'm in the process of collecting the cards for the deck (the only expensive cards left that my student-sized wallet can't afford right now are LEDs) and it's reassuring to see someone completely tear shit up with the deck.
How long have you played it?
I've been playing TES on and off for about 2 years.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
rukcus
Liam - you need to stop losing to your own goddamn bad draws.
I literally gave you the game the final game of our match in Top 4, and you still took 8 turns to kill me. Don't fuck up ever!!
I know man, I wish I could just stack my deck, solve that problem.
Granted I could've gone off a turn or two earlier with Tendrils, but I wanted to do a Grapeshot kill. I probably could've gone off even faster with Empty, but once again, Grapeshot.
Re: Back to Back Finals with TES
Congrats man, nice finishes. How was Merfolk such a walk in the park? Did they have slower draws and less permission? Just crazy to go 4-0 against them.
When u went for EtW, did u open with it in ur hand, Infernal for it, or BW for it? Did Swarm play any part in winning any of the games?
Re: Back to Back Finals with TES
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Pulp_Fiction
Congrats man, nice finishes. How was Merfolk such a walk in the park? Did they have slower draws and less permission? Just crazy to go 4-0 against them.
When u went for EtW, did u open with it in ur hand, Infernal for it, or BW for it? Did Swarm play any part in winning any of the games?
I resolved Xantid once. It was great.
Merfolk was so easy because all I had to do was make a lot of mana and have 1 piece of protection or two tutors, only one hand had Empty in it and that wasn't against the 'Folk, I usually just Burning or Infernaled for it. Merfolk doesn't seem like a challenging match up, I didn't drop a game to it in the 6 games I played against it. They honestly cannot beat Empty the Warrens. Also, using Dark Ritual tricks to pay for Dazes is a blow out, I played every hand like I had barely enough mana, and then I just dropped a Dark Ritual on their Daze/Catcher, and blew them out. The only relevant spell they have is Force, and their clock is not insanely fast.
Re: Back to Back Finals with TES
Quote:
Originally Posted by
lorddotm
This deck is unfair.
Only in the hands of a competent pilot. I've seen more people forget to crack a L.E.D. in response to an Infernal Tutor without passing priority than you'd imagine.
Re: Back to Back Finals with TES
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Hollywood
Only in the hands of a competent pilot. I've seen more people forget to crack a L.E.D. in response to an Infernal Tutor without passing priority than you'd imagine.
That is depressing.
The one thing I am worried about it Counterbalance. I really don't like playing against that card. I actually have to think. Not fun.
Also, if anyone wants to learn how to play this correctly, go spend some time and read every single report in the TES thread. Honestly, you will learn shitloads. Along with testing, seeing how masters like Bryant Cook and Iñaki Puigdollers play this deck will help you see more lines of play.
Re: Back to Back Finals with TES
No problems versus wasteland at all?
Re: Back to Back Finals with TES
Quote:
Originally Posted by
mercc
No problems versus wasteland at all?
No, Moxen and Petals have been good enough, plus holding fetches.
Re: Back to Back Finals with TES
Storm is the one thing I don't want to see with my deck right now. I used to have Mindcensors out of the board as well as 11 counters but I've had to cut combo hate for more cards against CB. Tendrils is underplayed so I can't afford to have dead board cards against a matchup I probably won't see.
Re: Back to Back Finals with TES
Quote:
Originally Posted by
SpikeyMikey
Storm is the one thing I don't want to see with my deck right now. I used to have Mindcensors out of the board as well as 11 counters but I've had to cut combo hate for more cards against CB. Tendrils is underplayed so I can't afford to have dead board cards against a matchup I probably won't see.
I actually beat a board state with Aven Mindcensor and Runed Halo in game 1 in the tournament right after this (this was in the semis, I did end up winning that one.)
Burning Wish just completely ignores Aven, making Empty the Warrens HUGE.
