1/2 Split with Bant survival

[Waikiki]

29-08-10 antwerp

Saturday night I had a nice party and got home at 3:30.
8:00 my phone wakes me up and I meet up with Bas Kaufmann(electrolyze) and 2 others and drive towards the tournament. Still feeling the hangover.

We arrive at the tournament site and I go chat with the dealers as they are the same guys that are at the events I organize.

Anyways after the standard chatting it's time to play the game with Bant survival

// Lands
1 [P3] Plains (3)
1 [P3] Forest (2)
4 [ON] Windswept Heath
4 [ON] Wooded Foothills
4 [A] Tropical Island
1 [A] Tundra
3 [A] Savannah

// Creatures
1 [MM] Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 [JU] Wonder
4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf
1 [ALA] Rafiq of the Many
2 [ARB] Qasali Pridemage
2 [ALA] Rhox War Monk
1 [DIS] Trygon Predator
4 [CFX] Noble Hierarch
1 [BOK] Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
3 [LRW] Spellstutter Sprite

// Spells
4 [EX] Survival of the Fittest
4 [CST] Brainstorm
4 [AL] Force of Will
4 [CST] Swords to Plowshares
3 [LRW] Ponder
3 [DIS] Spell Snare

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [ALA] Rhox War Monk
SB: 2 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
SB: 2 [TSP] Krosan Grip
SB: 2 [IA] Hydroblast
SB: 3 [LRW] Gaddock Teeg
SB: 2 [SOK] Pithing Needle
SB: 1 [LRW] Sower of Temptation
SB: 2 [MOR] Vendilion Clique

Round 1 vs Zjeff playing GBw rock.
G1: I keep a solid hand with lands/creatures and cantrips.
My opponent plays some discard and lands some creatures which I kill with my swords. I land survival and start winning from here.
G2 SB :none, I don’t saw any things I was worried about. I just felt like I had to resolve survival and win from there on. I put my opponent on having grip on hand. So at the time he casted a spell and had 2 mana left I landed survival that found me some beatsticks. He then gripped the survival giving me another turn with him not having a great board position. He beat in and he tries a shriekmaw on his turn which I saved a force for since the beginning of the game. I then have a greater board advantage and he cant overcome the beatsticks I tutorred. Good games.

Round 2 vs Bart playing dredge
G1:I played Bart before and he plays all kind of cool decks like aluren/wildfire or Imperial painter. Anyways I keep a hand with a lot of beatsticks and drop trop hierarch go. He then opened with a city and cast therapy on me naming fow, which misses. He does see my sprite and makes him sigh. He them proceeds to drop led and use it as an one for nothing. Showwing a thug as only dredger. I drop goyfs and win from there.
G2 SB: +2 needle +3 teeg -2 war monk -1 pridemage -1 predator -1 ponder.
He has a better dredge and I land survival and make the mistake not to get teeg. I wanted to put him on a T1 clock with rafiq. He dredges bridges zealot and the 3rd moeba to finish me off with hasty zombies.
G3: He dredges poorly and I manage to survival 4 flying goyfs into play. Lucky me I did not expect dredge to show up and still manage to squeek in a win.

Round 3 vs Bagus Bender playing tempo thresh.
G1: was pretty intens he having the spellsnare for all my 2 drops and I having the removal for all of his threads (luckily nog gooses seen) Then he takes control with another goyf which I can’t answer in time and I lose to the burn.
G2 SB: -4survival -1 wonder-1squee +1 rhox + 2 jitte +1 sower + 2 clique.
Imo this matchup is all about who gets the most creatures to stick. As I started out nice with a T1 hierarch. He killed it his turn with lightning bolt. Then I played goyf which fell to daze. Then he drew 3 wastelands in a row, which my duals where no good against(no fetch or basics drawn). I’m lucky he takes some time to find a threat but I was too late to recover after 6 draws without a land.

Round 4 vs ? with BW deadguy with demigod.
G1: Survival wins the game
G2: I saw my opponent sideboarding heavily so I sided out just like vs Bagus. This match was pretty thrilling but his tombstalkers + demigods where too much to handle.
G3: I manage to get the overhand but due to time I can’t kill him and am 1 turn too slow.

Round 5 vs Roel (recent lvl 2 judge congrats) playing landstill with wish.
G1: I get the beats on very fast and he recovers with humility. I then show him my wonder and make sure my creatures fly over his factories.
G2: I side out the war monks and add the cliques. I do not remember what I sided out for the teegs probably a stp and 2 other things. My opponent has a strong start and draws too many cards with standstill.
G3: Was about to be mine thnx to teeg slowing him down. Yet again time was called. Roel asks if I want to scoop to him since if we draw neither of us can make T8. I reply that I do not want to scoop. This game was going in my favor imo. Roel replies that he will scoop to me then and demands me to win the next match and go T8. Major respect for that.

Round 6 vs kris bosman.
G1: I start with a T1 hierarch and he just plays forest go. I land a Survival and he sighs. Then casting a sakura. His fetch gets a dryad arbor next turn and im fearing natural order which makes me fow nothing but the order until I can outrace it. The order never comes and survival goes all the way.
G2: I consider putting in the teegs because Order is pretty scary. But I decide to go for the cliques in favor of 2 war monks.
Yet another slow start for him and I go T1 hierarch. T2 he seizes me and sees 2 cliques and takes one of them. My 2nd clique gets the natural order in his hand. From there I drop more goyfs and eventually the board is stalled with 2 goyfs on his side and 2 on mine and a hierach. I topdeck survival and win with flying goyfs. After the game he flashes squee to me. Survival ??? did not expect that.

I finished 8th and am off the fight my quarter finalist playing merfolk

G1 He overwhelmes me with lords and I block 1 with my goyf when He says you can’t Islandwalk. I reply: do I have any islands? (thnx hierarch!) anyways I loose reejerey taps too much next turn. Note: He survived a T3 rafiq!
G2 I side out survival got 2 needle 2 jitte 1 sower and 1 rhox. I get the beats on and it does get very close but I manage to get the upperhand in the jitte battle which leads me to victory.
G3: He starts out aggressively with a vial. I respond with needle on vial. T2 he plays muta and cantrip merfolk. I play needle hitting muta. He resolves catch + loa and starts beating me down. I sword the lord and play survival. I have 1 mana left
He untaps and plays a jitte which I spell snare. He attacks
I untap draw goyf, survival up another goyf after squee and win from there.
After the match the judge spectating tells him cursecatcher was good to go to counter the spell snare.

Half final vs Stijn De Clercq playing grw zoo.
G1:I played Stijn before and he’s a very skilled and nice player this match was real tense. He starts fast with kird apes and the kithkin. I slow him down with swords and I think I eventually resolve a survival which gets me war monk. That gives me time to stabilize and take over the board.
G2: out goes the survival package in go 1 war monk 1 sower 2 jitte and 2 hydroblast.
T1 hierarch meets magma jet and I get kicked by nactal. I resolve monk after some time but it meets with fireblast. I was bluffing a counter for the blast and it gave me some additional turns but It was too late. I understand he was nothing going to aim the blast at me at the time cause If I have the counter He would have been losing the game.
G3: I have a godhand with hierarchs war monks lands and eventually also rafiq and a 2nd war monk. Also I drew enough stps the entire 3 games making him commenting about it.

Finals vs merfolk split.

+ meeting some nice players
+intensive skillfull games
+Getting more foils for my highlander deck
+Good organization, price support and card shop
+Great parking
- Hangover
- FUCKING hot in that room no windows just a ventilator blowing hot air through the room

[jazzykat]

Congrtatulations on the strong finish.

[HBspulse]

Congrats at beating me in the semi's.

Like I said to you, there's no greater pride in competitive magic than winning/splitting a tournament with a self-invented deck that nobody else plays. Respect.

[Waikiki]

Nice to be playing you again where real intense matches!

[Jaynel]

How was Spellstutter Sprite?

[Waikiki]

Spellstutter has been great acting as removal protection or preventing the opponent searching for answers (counter top/bs/ponder)

Im glad they where in the maindeck. Haven't boarded them out during the tournament.

[pointofinfo]

Thanks for the report, especially since you were using a less common deck! While I don't think English is your first language, it was somewhat difficult reading your report fluidly. Perhaps you could edit your report and use the Rules Section's guidelines to help you reformat. Spelling, capitalization, and all that junk.

Spellstutter Sprite seems pretty awesome. I haven't played with or against Survival with blue since...Tradewind Rider in Extended? I'd never see it coming.

Regarding your Highlander deck, is that Elder Dragon Highlander? What are the generals over in Belgium like? Are people competitive or more casual?

[AngryTroll]

Great report, thanks! I like this deck, so the report was great.

I was surprised how often the Survival package left the maindeck. Can you elaborate a little bit more about this decision? It obviously worked for you, though; congratulations on this finish!

[Jak]

I understand taking them out against something like The Rock where the can SB in so much hate to go along with their discard, Vindicate, Pridemage, etc. Adding Grip makes Survival a logical choice to take out.

I probably would have left them in against Merfolk, Tempo Thresh, and Zoo. I don't find Sowers to be great against Tempo Thresh at all with the amount of burn that they run. I would have taken out Predator, 2 Pridemage for 2 Clique and another War Monk. They aren't that aggressive with their burn to warrant Jittes.

Zoo runs so much burn and their creatures are generally small that Sower don't seem great. I would have also taken out Predator, some Ponders, and something else (Kira), for War Monk, Jittes, and Blasts.

I don't know what you could have done against Merfolk, but at least you boarding did work. I just hate taking out the heart and soul of the deck.

Have you tried Path in the SB, Waikiki?

[beastman]

Good job with the deck. I still think you need vials, but what the fuck do I know?

[Waikiki]

Ok some pointers:

English isn't my 1st language correct. I made the report as a request from Jak. Ill look it over and try to improve.

@ boarding out survival. I feel vs aggro decks like merfolk ( he played 8+lord version) Zoo/sligh and goblins go way too fast to get your survival engine going. You want to gain control at the start of the game since your creature are more powerfull (goyf/monk/pridemage + exalted) If you try to get survival going vs zoo I most of the time find myself being to slow and get burned out of the room. Same for merfolk they get too many folks online instead of letting them worry about my own army. Cantrips are what makes this plan work. So I choose to simply board in more beatsticks and out go the slower survival.

Vs rock with alot of discard (seize hymn) I would keep survival in cause it can really help regaining those cards. If I notice my opponent is boarding in alot of cards I expect him to bring in grips and some sub-par chokes (which dont really hurt that much).

@Highlander, Its for my pure highlander deck not EDH.

I can tell you the NL EDH generals are pretty obvious: Zur, hedgemon, rafiq, doran etc.

[Mantis]

Nice job Dennis!
Greets, Guus.

[Meekrab]

I finished 8th and am off the fight my quarter finalist playing merfolk

G1 He overwhelmes me with lords and I block 1 with my goyf when He says you can’t Islandwalk. I reply: do I have any islands? (thnx hierarch!) anyways I loose reejerey taps too much next turn. Note: He survived a T3 rafiq!
G2 I side out survival got 2 needle 2 jitte 1 sower and 1 rhox. I get the beats on and it does get very close but I manage to get the upperhand in the jitte battle which leads me to victory.
G3: He starts out aggressively with a vial. I respond with needle on vial. T2 he plays muta and cantrip merfolk. I play needle hitting muta. He resolves catch + loa and starts beating me down. I sword the lord and play survival. I have 1 mana left
He untaps and plays a jitte which I spell snare. He attacks
I untap draw goyf, survival up another goyf after squee and win from there.

Did you side Survival back in after game 2? Or mise a topdeck off your sideboard? ;)