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Thread: [Report]How to get Duals

  1. #1

    [Report]How to get Duals

    ‘Practice for Madrid’ is what I had in mind as a title for this report. I would’ve guessed I would play something like 5-2 or get top8 and lose in the Quarterfinals or Semifinals. The day turned out completely different though. It was Sunday and me, Jelle and Wim where going to Mol for a Legacy tournament. The first price would be all duals once, second price was all fetch once. Three and four got a Goyf + Deed, five to eight got a Volcanic Island and prices where given to top16. This got upgraded with 2 Bye’s for Bazaar of Moxen for the winner and one Bye for second place. We already planned on going there so having Bye’s would be nice. On our way there we started feeling that the car was wobbling. I stuck my head out of the window but there was no flat tire on my side. We drove slower and called the organisation that we would make it just in time. We parked, checked the tires but didn’t see anything. We decided to check it out later.

    Jelle was playing TopRock. He switched from TopRock to Merfolk, then to Ichorid, tried out Supreme Blue and it didn’t fit him and now he’s switching back. Wim is playing his usual creation of horror, Random Pile of Junk which is Uwgr CB control. As I wanted to practice for Madrid I played my usual deck, stormcombo.

    3 Misty Rainforest
    2 Polluted Delta
    2 Flooded Strand
    2 Scalding Tarn
    2 Underground Sea
    2 Tundra
    1 Volcanic Island
    1 Island
    4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
    4 Lotus Petal
    2 Chrome Mox
    4 Dark Ritual
    2 Cabal Ritual
    4 Brainstorm
    4 Mystical Tutor
    2 Ponder
    3 Sensei’s Divining Top
    4 Orim’s Chant
    2 Silence
    3 Infernal Tutor
    2 Burning Wish
    1 Ill-Gotten Gains
    1 Doomsday
    1 Meditate
    1 Ad Nauseam
    1 Tendrils of Agony

    1 Deathmark
    1 Infernal Tutor
    1 Doomsday
    1 Ill-Gotten Gains
    1 Tendrils of Agony
    1 Empty the Warrens
    2 Echoing Truth
    1 Chain of Vapor
    1 Tropical Island
    3 Xantid Swarm
    2 Krosan Grip

    Not much of a difference. I switched out Carpet of Flowers for Xantid Swarm once more.

    We are seated. My teammate hands me his decklist just to have a look at it and I approve. The same happens with the person sitting in front of me but he also gets to see my list. I know he also plays stormcombo. In my opinion, he is the best stormcombo player in the Netherlands. Lots of people probably would agree. He also won Belgian Legacy Champions where I stranded 9th on resistance. 65 people showed up so we would play 7 rounds of Swiss with a cut to top8.

    Round1:
    I’m paired against a name I don’t recognise. As we shuffle he mentions that we played before about a year ago. I made some small talk asking if he was going to Madrid. He said he was and looked very serious about it so I put him on something Blue.

    Game1:
    He wins the die roll and opens with Island. I open with fetchland but don’t use it yet out of fear of Stifle. He plays a turn2 Silvergill Adept revealing a Sovereign. Merfolk, at least I don’t have to fear Counterbalance. I untap, drop land and play Chant as a bluff. It catches a Daze, I fetch, pay and then Chant resolves. He taps out for the Sovereign, attacks for 3 and passes the turn. I play Silence which resolves. I play Ritual, Ritual, LED, Infernal, Ill-Gotten Gains into the win.

    Game2:
    He opens with Island Cursecatcher. I drop land, Petal and use Petal to cast Xantid Swarm. I get attacked and he drops a second Cursecatcher. Xantid Swarm allows me to do whatever I want and I Brainstorm followed up by Mystical Tutor for Infernal Tutor. He thinks for a second about using his Cursecatchers but he doesn’t. He plays Lord of Atlantis during his own turn and attacks me for 4. I attack with Xantid Swarm and play Petal, Petal, Ritual, LED, Infernal Tutor for Ill-Gotten Gains.

    1-0-0 (2-0-0)

    Wim has won his game. Camstra, Jens, Tim and Johan, 4 teammates, all won their match. Jelle managed to draw his game. Ilja lost his against Vampires I think on the back of Jitte. Jens had a Bye so he wrote down every deck present. There where 6 combo decks. Me, 3 ANT, 1 Belcher, 1 Dream Halls (Camstra) not counting the bad combo such as Ichorid.

    Round2:
    I’m paired against an unknown yet again. I ask what he played against round1 and he sais Ichorid. I know one player lost against Elves with Ichorid and the other lost against Wizards. I hope it’s Elves but keep in mind that it could be a blue deck.

    Game1:
    He mulligans to 5 and opens with Island. He drops Mutavault turn2 followed by a Standstill. Thanks for the time! He drops a second Mutavault and hits me for 2. I develop my manabase and my hand a bit. Never having to discard. Once I’m down to 4, lethal next turn I decide to go off. Some action during the end of his turn where I Brainstorm, fetch, Brainstorm, Mystical into a triple protected Ill-Gotten Gains kill. He only showed a Daze from his end.

    Game2:
    Xantid Swarm comes down from my end but gets eaten by a Spellstutter Sprite during Combat. He drops some asian card during his turn. Patron Wizard. I ask what it does and get the bad news. He plays correctly by not attacking with his creatures and eventually has 5 wizards and 2 Mutavaults. I make the mistake of dropping a LED here which just gets countered. I have no clue why I even did that.

    Game3:
    Xantid Swarm go back to the sideboard. He drops Island, I drop my second land and pass. He drops Island. I try SDT but it gets Spellstuttered. I then play the Mystical Tutor for Dark Ritual to go off next turn. He drops Chalice at 1 after dropping a Mutavault. This guy sure hates combo! I play Infernal Tutor for a second Lotus Petal so I’ll have 5 mana to hardcast Ad Nauseam. Petals get dropped and turn gets passed. He draws and attacks me for 1. I untap and pass back. He draws, plays the drawn Island and Patron Wizard. I cast Ad Nauseam first which resolves. I reveal about half my deck until I fall to 3. I stop there being able to take a hit from Spellstutter and fetch. Echoing Truth on Chalice resolves after paying 2 extra mana. I play Chrome Mox, Brainstorm but don’t find a lot of good things, I’m lacking storm. Ritual, Ritual, Cabal Ritual give me enough black mana and I find a way. I can bounce something from me but I’ll need an extra blue mana. So I finally see it. Bounce my Chrome Mox, Imprint it again which will give me that one mana. Mystical Tutor into Tendrils, LED, SDT, switch SDT and play Tendrils.

    2-0-0 (4-1-0)

    Jelle, Wim, Jens, Johan and Camstra won their match. I have lost track of Ilja. I buy me some sandwiches and drinks for the team.

    Round3:
    I have to play Johan Kennes. I know that he plays Uwbg Landstill with probably Extirpate and graveyard hate from the sideboard. I’m seated next to Wim who has a deckcheck. He gets called aside after the check. Wim doesn’t have every card so he borrows a Tundra, a Volcanic, a Taiga and a Firespout from me. I always ask them back after a tournament so he has proxy cards for them. Some random cards with the other card name written over it. He had those still sitting in his deckbox with his sideboard and got a game loss for it.

    Game1:
    He Stifles my turn1 fetch. Then wastes my other 2 lands. I still have more and he drops a Standstill. I get the next 4 land drops because my deck loves me. I fetch, think fetch again and using another fetch, think and fetch for the 4th time and I break Standstill at the end of his turn. Double protection wins me the game after an Ill-Gotten Gains loop.

    Game2:
    He opens with fetch into Underground Sea. I know he has Extirpates but he might just be bluffing. Xantid Swarm resolves. My first attack happens but I just play a Brainstorm followed by a fetch. Next turn it dies to a Swords to Plowshares which he follows up with a Standstill. He has a Nantuko Monastery but no green yet. He has the fetch for the Tropical Island along with Threshold but declines to attack. I assume he has a Counterspell and wants double blue open. I get the turn and pass it back. He drops a land and starts hitting, guess I was correct about the Counterspell. I don’t have a Chant in hand but do have a SDT in play. I can’t spend the mana to use SDT + Chant if it’s there so I fetch and just switch to see what’s there. It’s a Chant. Chant gets cast and resolves, Ill-Gotten gains finishes the game one more time.

    3-0-0 (6-1-0)

    Jens and Camstra won their game. 3 people of our team at 3-0-0

    Round4:
    I’m paired against the opponent Wim played last round so I know it’s Eva Green. I also know that he’s a regular Vintage player but not a regular Legacy player.

    Game1:
    I open and he drops his land. I Brainstorm, fetch and then Chant walk him twice. I build my hand a bit more and go off through Ill-Gotten Gains. I see a Pernicious Deed that he discarded and keep a mental note of this, do not plan on going Empty the Warrens.

    Game2:
    He opens with Ritual Hypnotic Specter. I have a hand of Ritual, Ritual, land, Meditate, Petal, Chrome Mox, Chant. I think for a while and decide that I should try and go for it. Looking back on it, that wasn’t my most brilliant idea. I play land, Ritual, Ritual, Petal, Meditate and draw LED, LED, Ad Nauseam, Island. Chrome Mox will only get me up to 4 mana. Almost so broken. So he has two turn in which he plays Ritual, Basilisk Collar and hits me with hypnotic Specter over and over. I just keep on playing to see what else he plays. He shows me a Choke. I let him kill me.

    Game3:
    I go land pass turn. He goes Ritual into Dark Confidant. I brainstorm and see that I can either Chain of Vapor the Confidant, Chant him and go slow or try and win now with Ad Nauseam. I place back two cards and make the mistake of keeping Tendrils in hand while I have to use LED. Ad Nauseam only costs me 8 life but I’m scared of Ravenous Trap so I don’t want to go through Ill-Gotten Gains but I’ll have to as I sideboarded out my Burning Wishes. Instead I go for Doomsday as it is less obvious that I need the graveyard that way. Meditate, LED, LED, Petal, Tendrils pile wins the game. He had an Extirpate but no mana.

    4-0-0 (8-2-0)

    At this point there are only 3 players with a 4-0-0 score. Me, a Zoo player and Abel, the guy I was seated with. I just hope I get Zoo! Jens and Camstra lost their match.

    Round5:
    Against the Zoo player! Abel is paired against Goblins who is 3-0-1.

    Game1:
    He mulligans to 6 and then opens with Grim Lavamancer. I can go for turn1 Ad Nauseam with Petal and a black floating but decline to. Instead I Ponder and see a turn2 Ill-Gotten Gains kill. I go for that with Petal, Ritual, Ritual, Infernal for Cabal Ritual, sacrifice Petal, play both cabal for 6 mana, Ill-Gotten Gains into Cabal, Cabal, Infernal Tutor for Tendrils.

    Game2:
    He has turn1 Forest go, Zoo is so broken. I draw and play SDT. He drops Teeg so I know that Doomsday is probably the best plan. Top during upkeep, draw Ritual, fetch and pass turn. He drops Nacatl and attacks. I see a LED, take it, play land and pass turn, setting up for next turn Doomsday. He attacks me down to 12. I Mystical at the end of his turn and get Doomsday. He asks if he can read it, of course he can. I play Dark Ritual, Doomsday and get Meditate, Ritual, Ritual, Deathmark, Tendrils. Play Petal, LED, use LED for blue, switch and play Meditate, hoping he doesn’t have a blast. He doesn’t but mentions that I should go to 6 which I said I did, I just didn’t write it down. He sais it’s fine and I play Ritual, Ritual, SDT, switch SDT, Deathmark, Tendrils.

    5-0-0 (10-2-0)

    Round6:
    Only Abel and I are at 5-0-0 so we draw.

    5-0-1 (10-2-0)

    Jens lost him putting him at 4-2, Camstra won his so he should be able to draw into the top8. Johan is now at 4-2. The rest is out of contention for top8.

    Round7:
    Paired against Camstra. We draw.

    5-0-2 (10-2-0)

    Johan lost his in a very fashionable way. Johan played Ponder, decided to shuffle but only riffled once or twice and presented. His opponent called a judge which is his right and he gets a game loss. His own fault as the judges announced it at the very start of the tournament.
    Jens won his and there is one spot for the top8 open for a 5-2. He just makes it as 8th seed and will have to play Abel as I end second on resistance.

    Quarterfinals:
    I’m paired against Ichorid. I know that he plays Mindbreak Trap in the sideboard.

    Game1:
    We both mulligan to 5. As I take my 5 I accidently see my 6th. I raise my hand for a judge but my opponent lets it slide and just lets me reshuffle everything and take 5 new which was very kind. He plays turn1 Breakthrough to discard his hand and sees some dredgers. I cast land but have to pass. He dredges an Ichorid into his yard but has to pass. I Brainstorm and go for 12 Goblin tokens. He gets back Ichorid but can’t attack as he would lose his bridges. So he gets 2 zombie tokens at the end of his turn. I draw the Doomsday I put there and attack for 12, he doesn’t block. He gets back Ichorid, dredges a third Bridge but can only get a total of 5 blockers. As he did 1 damage to himself with City of Brass my next attack will be lethal. He loses this one.

    Game2:
    We both keep 7 this time. He opens with Colloseum and passes the turn. I draw and see that I can go off turn3 with Chant protection. I also have a second Chant to walk him for one turn. He draws and passes again. I draw, play land and pass. He draws and wants to go to the discard step. I play Mystical for Dark Ritual first and then he discards Stinkweed Imp. I play Chant which resolves, Ritual, Ritual, LED, Infernal Tutor for Ill-Gotten Gains and shake hands. Off to the semi’s!

    We discuss it a bit that he should’ve just kept the fast kill in and not sideboard in the Mindbreak Traps. I know he plays them so I’ll probably play around them. Jelle borrows my phone to call touring to check out the car.

    6-0-2 (12-2-0)

    Semifinals:
    I have to play Zoo or UBR Fearies. Fearies wins with 2-0 from Zoo.

    Game1:
    I open with Underground Sea, Ponder and see a Volcanic Island but also a Chrome Mox and a Burning Wish. I shuffle and pass the turn. He uses Wasteland. I don’t draw any land but he isn’t applying pressure. I drop some Petals and LED’s not to discard but have to discard 2 Mystical Tutor and a Brainstorm already. End of turn he uses a Vendillion Clique to remove a Mystical Tutor. He untaps, plays Jitte and equips. I try to go off the turn after as I draw another Mystical Tutor. He has double Force of Will and I lose.

    Game2:
    The game goes long again. He drops another Clique taking a Mystical Tutor. I fetch to a Tropical Island just to show the fact that I sided in green and play Chant which gets countered. Another Chant gets an Extirpate on Brainstorm in response but I’m holding Infernal, Infernal, LED, Dark Ritual. Chant resolves and he loses due to Ill-Gotten Gains.

    Game3:
    I sided out the Xantid Swarms again on the draw.
    I keep a hand of 5 land, Cabal Ritual and Infernal Tutor knowing that he doesn’t apply pressure fast. I am right and the game goes slow yet again. He plays a Clique eventually and sees Silence, Mystical, Infernal, LED, LED, SDT. He takes the Silence. I draw some more until I am at 10. He has 4 lands now and wants to play Tombstalker but notices he only has 4 cards in the graveyard. So he goes for Jitte, no equip and attack, leaving 2 open, bluffing or having the Spellstutter. I draw and have LED, LED, Mystical, Infernal Tutor, Chant, Ritual, Petal, Petal in hand. I cast Chant and get a FoW. I cast Mystical which resolves to a Infernal Tutor. I cast my mana sources and use one to SDT. I see a second Infernal Tutor and switch the card that he knows is an Infernal Tutor for it. I check life total, ask if it’s correct that he’s at 16 and think a bit out loud that if he plays Spellstutter he doesn’t have the mana for Stifle. I cast Infernal Tutor and use one LED so I have 4 mana. This put him on a train of thought that Tendrils was on top. He uses Spellstutter. I crack LED, switch, cast Infernal for Tendrils and win. He had double Stifle but no mana to cast it.

    7-0-2 (14-3-0)

    The car got repaired by now. Spare tire got put on. One of the tires had a bump in it, I’ve never seen that before except on a basketball.

    Finals:
    Goblins! I’m oke with a split as long as I get the two bye’s. We sit down, I lay open the cards and ask if he has any offer. He just thinks and sais ‘let’s just play.’. Yeah, fine by me.

    Game1:
    I throw the magnificent 20. My dice rolling playtesting sure worked out!
    I open with Island SDT. He opens with Mountain Lackey and I tell him how broken that play is. I cast Brainstorm but have a hand of Volcanic Island, Underground Sea, Burning Wish, Burning Wish, Infernal Tutor, Chrome Mox, Cabal Ritual, Mystical Tutor. After some thinking I put back Infernal Tutor and Burning Wish, leaving Burning Wish on top. He drops Piledriver with Lackey and casts another. I just have to go now so I cast Mystical to Ad Nauseam. Draw it, play land, Chrome Mox, Cabal Ritual, Ad Nauseam at 19 life. I reveal something like Petal, Brainstorm, Chrome Mox, Meditate, Tendrils, LED, SDT, Ponder, Infernal Tutor, Burning Wish but barely any ritual effects. I can cast Brainstorm, put back Infernal in top, LED, Petal, use both and switch SDT for Tendrils but it is one storm short. I keep revealing at 4 life with only IGG that will kill me, I reveal Orim’s Chant. I reveal again with Meditate, Doomsday and IGG that can kill me, another Chant. I just have to stop, Chrome Mox imprinting Ponder, cast Brainstorm. I draw Brainstorm, land, LED. The LED gives me the extra storm and I go LED, LED, Petal, play another SDT, crack both LED’s switch SDT for Tendrils and kill.

    Game2:
    I keep a hand of 3 land, Ritual, SDT, LED, Infernal Tutor. I keep this hand because it’s a turn2 kill with a potential turn1 if I draw LED, Ritual, Petal, Chrome Mox, Cabal Ritual. LED and Ritual can go IGG loop, others should be Ad Nauseam due to the lack of one storm. He mulligans to 6 and opens with Mountain, Relic. I draw for the turn, a Dark Ritual. I cast the first, he removes it. I cast the second, follow it up with the SDT for extra storm and then LED, Infernal, IGG getting back Ritual, Infernal, LED, cast those and play Tendrils for 20.

    8-0-2 (16-3-0)

    I take my 2 Bye’s and all duals. I notice that the Tundra has a mark on it but they don’t have another to replace it. Ah well, no complaining.
    Jens won against Abel in the quarters but lost in the semi’s against Goblins.
    Camstra lost against Goblins in the Quarters
    Jelle ended at a score of 4-2-1. I think Wim went 4-3 as did Johan.
    Out of the Stormcombo 2 made top8, both as the only undefeated players during Swiss, one ended 5-2, the other was somewhere below. Dream Halls made it to the top8 as well with 5-1-1. Belcher ended god knows where.
    We drive home at a maximum speed of 80km maximum because of the spare tire.

    Props:
    - 3 of our team in top8.
    - Rudy for being there.
    - Good and cheap sandwiches.
    - Jelle for driving.

    Slops:
    - Jelle’s tire.
    - Camstra for losing against Goblins with combo.
    - Tundra with a mark.
    - Home late.
    - Johan and Wim for getting stupid game losses.

  2. #2

    Re: [Report]How to get Duals

    Slops:
    - Camstra for losing against Goblins with combo.
    To my defense, I could not have done more than search 5 times for the only card I needed to win there. It just wasn't meant to be :-)

  3. #3
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    kicks_422's Avatar
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    Re: [Report]How to get Duals

    You know what? Each time I've decided to drop the thought of slowly and painfully working to get back all the pieces of Storm combo that I sold off for college, you go ahead and post a report which fans the flames.

    I don't know if I should thank you or hate you.

    EDIT: Nice job, btw.

    EDIT2: Why are you running only 3 SDT's?
    The Source: Your Source for "The Source: Your Source for..." cliche.

  4. #4

    Re: [Report]How to get Duals

    I'm not really a tournament veteran, just wondering about some of the pieces that happened.

    The proxies sitting in his deckbox - why did he get a gameloss for that?
    And the twice shuffle on the Ponder - again, why a gameloss?

    Apart from that, great report. Giving me insight on how to play a good storm deck. Seems to be the cheapest competetive alternative for me. And fun.

  5. #5
    Plays green decks
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    Re: [Report]How to get Duals

    Quote Originally Posted by xTrainx View Post
    The proxies sitting in his deckbox - why did he get a gameloss for that?
    And the twice shuffle on the Ponder - again, why a gameloss?
    You can't have other cards in your deck box because then it is much easier to cheat (ie switch cards in and ot of your deck).

    Inadequate randomization.

  6. #6
    Amen, brotha.
    Nidd's Avatar
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    Re: [Report]How to get Duals

    Nice report, really makes me think about buying the stuff to upgrade my DDANT to NLS.

  7. #7

    Re: [Report]How to get Duals

    Thanks for the congrats.
    And I'm sorry to make you guys play stormcombo :p. But I'd just say, do it! I still remember when I hated playing against it, sleeved it up myself and hated playing it but once you get used to it you'll never want to attack with creatures again. I won't stop playing

    EDIT2: Why are you running only 3 SDT's?
    I originally ran AnT with 4 SDT. I then tried out an old NLS list of Emidln but it didn't feel right to me so I made another decklist that ran 4 SDT with 1 Chant and 4 Duress as most NLS players ran. I wasn't satisfied with the low amount of protection and felt very uncomfortable against decks like Merfolk that where running rampant back then. I tried giving the deck some more protection but couldn't find a spot for it. 15 land 2 Chrome Mox is a given. 4-offs are mostly a given. Only thing I could do was remove an SDT, a Ponder, the second Cabal Ritual or an Infernal Tutor. I decided to remove the SDT as it was the slowest card to have in your openingshand.
    Also, the decks where they really shine are slower decks such as Landstill. These decks give you plenty of time to find one of your 3 SDT. I do agree that this card is insanely good but I never felt the need for a 4th. If I did have one more spot I would include it though.

  8. #8
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    Re: [Report]How to get Duals

    Quote Originally Posted by Jak. View Post
    You can't have other cards in your deck box because then it is much easier to cheat (ie switch cards in and out of your deck).
    Sounds like a load of nonsense, I could easily change cards anytime I want without actually putting them in my deckbox if I really wanted to. Besides that, isn't this the reason why we have to write up decklists?
    This message has been deleted by Nightmare. Reason: Boo fucking hoo

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