Breaking News: Utter Destruction at Jupiter Games' Dual Draft!
So on the evening of July 24th, I head out to Dream Wizards. A good friend of mine drops me off and I'm ready to hit the road with some of the guys from Team Unicorn (who were awesome, by the way). We then set out to Binghamton, N.Y. for the 40 Dual Land Draft at Jupiter Games (good to see Binghamton University again, by the way; nothing like those good old college drinking days, but that's another story).
After doing some tweaks for a good portion of the night before, I eventually settle on a list that works very well. It is also important to note that this idea of playing Mono Green Chalice Aggro wasn't simply on the fly; there were months of preparation going into this event. I ended up doing some testing with Anwar and the other guys before the night was out.
The Event
Eventually, we arrive at Jupiter Games. It was a really neat thing to get to see Eli's (T-ORGANIZER) store, because I've only heard nothing but good things. I end up running into Kadilak outside. We all get inside and start hanging out and getting the cards we need before the event begins. I hang out for a little while with my guys from Team Left Field who made the short trek from Syracuse. After some settling in, Eli informs us all we have a total of 59 players for this event. The prize support is upped to a Mox Emerald with Tarmogoyfs tossed in the mix. Outstanding!
The List
Here is the list I ended up playing for reference:
Main
[4x] Llanowar Elves
[4x] River Boa
[4x] Tarmogoyf
[4x] Chalice of the Void
[4x] Trinisphere
[4x] Elvish Spirit Guide
[4x] Natural Order
[3x] Umezawa's Jitte
[3x] Garruk Wildspeaker
[3x] Cold Eyed Selkie
[2x] Wickerbough Elder
[1x] Progenitus
Land
[9x] Forest
[4x] Wasteland
[4x] Ancient Tomb
[2x] Pendelhaven
[1x] Dryad Arbor
Side
[4x] Choke
[3x] Krosan Grip
[3x] Tormod's Crypt
[3x] Snakeform
[2x] Sword of Fire and Ice
A few minutes pass and the pairings for the first round begin. I find my table and get ready to play. I don't remember all my side-boarding strategies, so bear with me.
*Round I vs. John w/ U/g/w CounterTop*
Game I: Right off the bat, it's down to business. I land some dudes on the board and get some fast beats in. He eventually gets a Jitte down which is subsequently equipped to a Qasali Pridemage. He then proceeds to eliminate my entire board with Jitte -1/-1 counters. I have four land on the table, one of which turned out to be a Dryad Arbor (that he kept alive, oddly). I take my turn and I cast Natural Order, sacrificing the Arbor. I go for Progenitus and it wasn't long thereafter when the game was over after trouncing him for twenty damage and a Tarmogoyf to supplement.
Game II: He gets off to a quick start getting the combo online within the first few turns. I proceed to Grip his C.B. at his E.O.T. step. From there I recall dropping Chalice for one and two big Goyfs just getting in there doing a whole lot of damage. He just didn't have anything left.
[1-0] [2-0-0]
*Round II vs.Tariq w/ U/w/r Landstill*
Game I: I ended up mulling and drawing no relevant land to supplement my hand. He proceeded to Waste my Pendelhaven which subsequently ended the match.
Game II: See game one. Similar story, except I wait it out under Standstill for nine turns and draw only one land. I lose.
[1-1] [2-2-0]
*Round III vs. Bryant w/ T.E.S.*
Game I: Bryant ends up tossing around a lot of smack about how he will crush me playing Forests. I end up dropping a total of two Trinispheres and a Chalice set at one. It proved to be too overwhelming for him to recover as two Goyfs go the distance.
Game II: Bryant doesn't do anything special: Volcanic, Ponder, Go. I Waste. Two turns later, I drop Trinisphere. I eventually Natural Order into Progenitus and put him on a clock. Apparently, he needed one more mana to make at least something happen. Paired with another Chalice set at one, and two Krosan Grips for any artifact mana he might try to play, it was enough to put him away.
So much for smack talk. Will he ever learn?
[2-1] [4-2-0]
*Round IV vs. Brian w/ Ichorid*
Game I: Brian is a new player, but I do not take this match for granted. However, I felt it incumbent upon myself to help him through the motions of how to at least somewhat make the right calls, as absolutely stunning as it may sound. He doesn't get any dredgers and a Trinisphere followed by Natural Order prove to be too much for him to handle in the bout.
Game II: After mulling down, Brian eventually stares down a beating from a few of my guys and a soon to follow Natural Order. The whole time he was getting Ichorid back and bringing my life down. I was at 8 following his current attack and he was at 9. He misses a Bridge trigger at end of turn because of Ichorid, but it didn't matter because I had Progenitus in play which was good enough to seal the deal the turn after. He was probably one of the nicest guys I've ever played against. But, give the man his props: He was sitting at 2-1 at one point, in his first tournament, playing ICHORID of all decks. Not bad.
[3-1] [6-2-0]
*Round V vs. D.J. w/ Merfolk*
Game I: So this is it: The round that will ultimately decide my fate, and against a deck I tailored mine around to beat none the less. At any rate, it was a war from the start; he plays a bunch of Merfolk which get pumped up quickly. I end up dropping a Chalice set at one, which might have been a difference maker on the play turn one. I end up matching him with a Goyf, Boa, and Wickerbough Elder. He did, however, throw a bunch of Force Spike effects my way, which I ended up letting pass (with an E.S.G. in hand), because I wanted to save it for Natural Order had I not drawn a fourth Forest with a Llanowar Elves on the table. I float a green mana off Llanowar Elves and with four lands I tap for Natural Order. He can't Daze it out, and I win.
Game II: Kind of like the first game; it goes back and forth for a while until I get Garruk on the board with Progenitus...and even Choke. He casts Hibernation. I scratch my head. I lose.
Game III: After feeling the Earth-shattering effects of letting a potential Top 8 berth get away from me, I am determined to destroy him (no offense). It goes back and forth. He eventually get a Lord of Atlantis out with just a single Jitte counter left on it (after killing my Boa). I have a Goyf and Choke out. I end up dropping and equipping and attacking with a Sword of Fire and Ice-equipped Goyf (which was a modest 7/8) and try to kill his Lord, inherently forcing him to keep it alive with the last Jitte counter. I proceed to ungodly overextend my hand next turn in hopes he doesn't draw Hibernation. He doesn't and it's over.
A very close match. But in the end of this battle, one equipment shined more than the other.
[4-1] [8-3-0]
*Round VI vs. Alex w/ Merfolk*
We I.D. with great tiebreakers in hopes of making Top 8. He is third in the standings and I am fourth. The entire top eight wanted to do a total split and play it out for the prize, but unfortunately one player out of the eight did not, even though he previously said he was okay with it. I could care less, but it made a lot of other guys unhappy because of the generous amount we'd all be receiving. Oh well.
I wander over to another table and see my team mate konsultant was just knocked out of contention. Blah to mana screw.
[4-1-1] [8-3-1]
**Top Eight vs. Damon w/ Ichorid**
Game I: Damon starts off decent by getting a few dredgers in the yard courtesy of Putrid Imp. He recurs Ichorid a few times, getting me moderately low. He is also moderately low on life, around ten or so. I am sitting with a Jitte with two counters on it attached to a Goyf. I play a River Boa and kill it, nixing his two Bridges in the yard. He Dread Returns a Troll. I eventually top-deck a Natural Order into the Big Man. He could have killed me, as I was at one life, but two counters on the Jitte keep me alive in a hard-fought win.
Game II: Damon mulls to four and gets nothing going. My opening hand is:
Forest
Ancient Tomb
Llanowar Elves
Natural Order
Tormod's Crypt
Chalice of the Void
Trinisphere
You can guess what happened from there. Of course, Damon may have had a shot if he had drawn a land, but it was too much, too early in the bout.
[5-1-1] [10-3-1]
**Top Four vs. Alex w/ Merfolk**
Game I: Alex ends up winning the match as I can't get any steam going early on. His opening hand was about the best Merfolk could get, and I can attest to that.
Game II: We end up going back and forth for a while. I drop turn two Chalice at one (following his Aether Vial), and follow up with a Choke. I mulliganed already to six on the play and I felt my hand could have been good enough if he didn't have the answers for my plays outright. I was wrong, and he won pretty handily.
[5-2-1] [10-4-1]
In The End
I ultimately placed third in the event, nabbing a set of Tropical Islands. Pretty cool. I really think this archetype is underrated in Legacy and that green does have a lot to offer in the current meta. I'm sure this event was a good example of what I mean.
As far as changes I would make, there are certainly a few. One of the issues I was having was with my mana base. I wasn't getting up to double green enough to cast key spells. I spent some time today changing up the land package and it seems to have fixed it nicely. I'll make sure everyone gets a closer look at the list in a primer of sorts in the near future. But for now, thanks for reading and I hope to get some good feedback.
Last edited by Michael Keller; 07-27-2009 at 02:03 AM.
I'm disappointed that your deck didn't have Polar Kraken in it. That is, however, alleviated knowing that Bryant lost to a mono green deck.
You're sooooo lucky I convinced you to keep maindeck trinisphere. Just remember that.
Team Unicorn: We're horny...get it?
Originally Posted by Ewokslayer
Props and Slops:
Props
Team Unicorn for being very cordial. What a bunch of cool guys. I knew most of them, but there were some others like beastman and snorlaxcom that were pretty cool.
Eli for holding a great event with tremendous prize support.
All of my opponents for being awesome.
Teeniebopper for agreeing with me GSP is the greatest fighter in the world.
Tullys Nachos.
Trinisphere.
Chalice of the Void.
Sword of Fire and Ice.
Binghamton University.
Slops
Tullys Nachos.
Pennsylvania Traffic.
Work on Mondays.
Mono Green eh?
Make another topic in the other discussion boards: this decks sounds interesting.
Congrats on the finish. That deck is pretty awesome, especially when you beat Bryant with all those forests, lol.
-Chris-
Hierarch is simply better than Llanowar.
Good report,
P-M
Hierarch does not block and kill Goblin Lackey and cannot sustain a single opposing attacker itself. It gives a bonus to an attacker, sure. But I'd rather have the 1/1 on-hand while being untapped than sitting at 0/1. If a predicament ever came up where Jitte was equipped to Hierarch first and you needed to attack with more than one creature, it would become more of a hassle switching it to and from as well.
A perfect example was in an Ichorid match. My opponent held off an attack with an Ichorid because he did not want to lose his Bridges early enough because the Elves would die and remove them. Llanowar Elves can deal a point of damage on the block and actually kill an attacker.
Wouldn't Noble Hierarch block, die, and remove his Bridges as well? Or am I misunderstanding what you are saying.
It would die, but it can't actually do damage off the block. What I meant was I prefer to have damage on hand than an an attack with Hierarch. If Elves can stay a 1/1 at least permanently, then why would I want to sit on a 0/1 that is just fodder for blocking anyways? At least I know they will always be able to do damage (L.E.). With the damage I would be taking from Tombs and the sort, I wouldn't want to open myself up for an attack where I can't kill their attacker (like Dark Confidant or Ichorid) and get myself so dangerously low on life that I would be left having to block rather than attack in the mid-game.
I'm not saying Hierarch is bad, I'm saying Mono Green has very few ways of killing other creatures outright. Every point of damage counts where you can get it.
Do you change your profile every time you log on?
Team Unicorn: We're horny...get it?
I was watching Hellbound: Hellraiser II and I couldn't resist.
You should change it to a picture of you surrounded by mildly attractive females while you have a beer in your hand. Cause we all know you want to be more like hanni.
Team Unicorn: We're horny...get it?
I'm good on that.
At any rate, it was great to meet a lot of new people and see the familiar faces again. Great store and turnout, Eli.
Hey Hollywood, this is the Merfolk player that had the surprising Hibernation. Just wanted to say that you seem like a pretty cool guy and I hope to play you again sometime. I guess it's legit that I lost since your deck is tailor made to beat Merfolk. Much props on the deck design and good call on running it in such a Fish-Heavy Meta game.
DeeJus
Congrats Hollywood, it was a great read and nothing made me happier than the gif after the recap of you and Bryant's round, well played sir, well played.
Team Hammafist
@ deejus: I was diggin the mohawk. Nice.
Team Unicorn: We're horny...get it?
QFT.
Thanks deejus. I didn't expect Hibernation at all. I figured if you had it game three in that situation, I was done. But I ended up pulling out the win with Sword of Fire and Ice.
As for losing to Merfolk in the Top 4, I just didn't have great draws either game and I think my mulligan strategy was a bit off there. But, I did purposely play this deck and tailored it to defeat blue-based control and decks such as Merfolk and the like, while maintaining a great matchup against aggro and combo. I did extensive testing on Workstation against good players (remember, it was all I had to test with; I am living on base and there's no one here to really test against) and got some outstanding results. I just kept evolving the deck into what I played this weekend and it paid dividends.
Thanks guys for the mohawk compliments. I love the hairstyle a lot so I appreciate that other people like it too. I know who Hollywood is in person now, but Beastman, I don't know who you are, or if I do I can't correlate you to a face, sorry! (I do see that you're of Team Unicorn, and all of the people there from that team seemed pretty cool, so yeah.)
Correlate? Connect? Same thing I guess.
The SoFI was amazing for you, but it really was a tough match for me. Just as hard if not harder than the AggroLoam I faced. My writeup is on the Merfolk thread if anyone would like to read it.
I don't really have a team yet, its just my uncle and I plus a few of our friends, but like I said, I'm only seventeen and have only played legacy since about January of this year, so it's a start. I did manage to win the side event for $150 in store credit, which made me happy.
DeeJus
I was the dude with the dark blue and yellow plaid shirt, with the DC t-shirt.
Team Unicorn: We're horny...get it?
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