[SCG Philly] Top 16 - WTF?

[That nice guy]

Louis admitted he was dead tired during that feature match. I can give the guy a little leeway, though not counting his own mountains before Scapeshift was painful. What a way to lose.

His schedule was this;
Friday - break up with girlfriend moving out of country, then study till his 9am law school class. :(
Saturday - go to class without sleep then get a call from a friend in Mass to pick him up for a tourney. Magic takes your mind of the actual important things like females and grad school, so why not? After that he drives a total of 14 hours picking people up and getting lost going to Philly.
Sunday - with only 2 hours of sleep in a car since Friday mourning he starts a tourney where every round goes to time allowing him 0 cigarettes or food to run on.

Also he asked the judge over nine times to play in a place with lighting and without everyone distracting him, and only played mazes in response to creatures he couldn't see due to bad lighting. Then when game three was on turns he decided that it wasn't even worth the effort to count his lands, because if scapeshift didn't work he loses anyway, and he was correct that his vesuvas can copy his opponents Taigas. At this point without scapeshift and being sleep deprived he knew he couldn't win in the one turn he had so he just scapeshifted and hoped for the best. He even mentioned on the ride home that not only did he just not care at this point, but he could have sacked and replayed lands for life but didn't cause of time constraints and mental effort. He was rushing a lot. It truly didn’t matter since he couldn’t win after time was called.

In conclusion he got his mind off other stuff, won $100, and designed a cool deck. Unless you top 16ed shut the hell up unless you've NEVER punted with a deck you've never played before and are still developing. I hate when scrubs that don't innovate anything talk smack.

Peace

[Phoenix Ignition]

In conclusion he got his mind off other stuff, won $100, and designed a cool deck. Unless you top 16ed shut the hell up unless you've NEVER punted with a deck you've never played before and are still developing. I hate when scrubs that don't innovate anything talk smack.

Just because you didn't know about it doesn't mean it's a new deck. http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...ead.php?15875-[Deck]-New-Age-Lands

Maybe 1 or 2 unorthodox choices (and honestly burgeoning is much worse than Summer Bloom, but whatever). The deck was actually featured at one of the SCG 5ks a few months ago, I'm not sure if RexFTW was piloting it, but I'm pretty sure he's the innovator.

[That nice guy]

Just because you didn't know about it doesn't mean it's a new deck. http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...ead.php?15875-[Deck]-New-Age-Lands

Maybe 1 or 2 unorthodox choices (and honestly burgeoning is much worse than Summer Bloom, but whatever). The deck was actually featured at one of the SCG 5ks a few months ago, I'm not sure if RexFTW was piloting it, but I'm pretty sure he's the innovator.

16-17 cards and a different SB seems big to me. They actually play different and the Louis list is much more consistent. While I agree summer bloom is AMAZING, 2cc gives blue players a chance to dig for permission/answers/win, it's vulnerable to spellsnare, and more vulnerable to daze/duress effects. The numbers themselves show the consistency

[NjPunk1]

It truly didn’t matter since he couldn’t win after time was called.

Couldn't he just sack 5 lands instead of 6 leaving a taiga and Valakut in play? I'm pretty sure he wins right there then.

Also he asked the judge over nine times to play in a place with lighting and without everyone distracting him

They wouldn't do anything about this, and to top it off it seemed the judges that were sitting there only cared about making anouncements for the live feed, and not about anything going on in the game.

[Arsenal]

and only played mazes in response to creatures he couldn't see due to bad lighting.

I don't understand this statement at all. When is it ever acceptable, outside of random stuff like Burgeoning (which was not triggering when the offenses took place) to place a land card from your hand onto the battefield during your opponent's turn?

[coraz86]

it seemed the judges that were sitting there only cared about making anouncements for the live feed, and not about anything going on in the game.

I hope this is hyperbole, because it will be terrible for both SCG in particular and Legacy in general if this is true.

I do remember, though, my regional TO had to make do with a place in Monroeville called Al Manzo's Palace Inn. (Sounds like a whorehouse and kind of looked like a whorehouse, though none of us saw any pink while we were in there.) For both the Mirrodin prerelease and States, the only room avalaible was the pool room. They put a makeshift floor down over the pool. For those of you who don't swim, pools have like ten-watt bulbs in the ceiling, so we had to quit playing around seven when the natural light gave out.

I can't see SCG having neither the pull nor the wherewithal to get a better place than that, but I will support the statement that the TO may not be able to control everything that's going on in the room.

[Zaresiy]

13th place - Merfolk - Kemper Pogue

I'm surprised no one has talked about this list on this thread. (this is a modified version of my post on doug linn's most recent article) His list looks like a variant on the list that won the bazaar of moxen IV http://www.deckcheck.net/deck.php?id=35638 running 66 cards and 25 lands (vs 60 and 22 respectively in the bazaar list). Instead of the mishra's factory and one of the merfolk sovereigns, he added two echoing truths, four islands, and two umezawa's jittes main. I like the coralhelm commanders, but I can't understand going up to 66 cards, with only silvergill to cantrip and no other card draw. It would seem to me that he would likely get a lot of "dead" land draws when he needs gas, and wouldn't reliably get kira, echoing truth, or jitte in his 66 card deck.

[NjPunk1]

I hope this is hyperbole, because it will be terrible for both SCG in particular and Legacy in general if this is true.

I do remember, though, my regional TO had to make do with a place in Monroeville called Al Manzo's Palace Inn. (Sounds like a whorehouse and kind of looked like a whorehouse, though none of us saw any pink while we were in there.) For both the Mirrodin prerelease and States, the only room avalaible was the pool room. They put a makeshift floor down over the pool. For those of you who don't swim, pools have like ten-watt bulbs in the ceiling, so we had to quit playing around seven when the natural light gave out.

I can't see SCG having neither the pull nor the wherewithal to get a better place than that, but I will support the statement that the TO may not be able to control everything that's going on in the room.

No hyperbole here I'm afraid. Several things happened in the game without the judge batting an eye, just simply anouncing life totals and continuing on. The game was an absolute mess, worst game of magic i've ever played really. Both me and my opponent tried to refuse being the feature match but in the end were forced to play in the darkened corner of the room. Someone said the specifically turned the lights down to stop the glare for the cameras, so this was under SCGs control if true.

I hope next time I can think of a better reason not to be forced into the feature match, maybe things would have went differently.

[jrsthethird]

I'm surprised no one has talked about this list on this thread. (this is a modified version of my post on doug linn's most recent article) His list looks like a variant on the list that won the bazaar of moxen IV http://www.deckcheck.net/deck.php?id=35638 running 66 cards and 25 lands (vs 60 and 22 respectively in the bazaar list). Instead of the mishra's factory and one of the merfolk sovereigns, he added two echoing truths, four islands, and two umezawa's jittes main. I like the coralhelm commanders, but I can't understand going up to 66 cards, with only silvergill to cantrip and no other card draw. It would seem to me that he would likely get a lot of "dead" land draws when he needs gas, and wouldn't reliably get kira, echoing truth, or jitte in his 66 card deck.

Ugh...people like this make me angry. 66 cards? Learn how to cut it down.

[Morim_Brightsmoke]

I don't understand this statement at all. When is it ever acceptable, outside of random stuff like Burgeoning (which was not triggering when the offenses took place) to place a land card from your hand onto the battefield during your opponent's turn?

I believe the idea is he literally couldn't tell at first what the cards were his opponent was playing (they were creatures), but since he had already missed a burgeoning trigger because (on his story) he looked away and his opponent fetched, whenever his opponent put anything onto the table he immediately went to trigger burgeoning. I don't know how bad the lighting was, but if it was bad enough then that would explain this odd behavior.

As for the Scapeshift misplay, if he was really that tired I could see it, after all he is certainly not the only person to ever fuck up a scapeshift, i guarantee.

Out of context, especially with the chat running a mile a minute at how bad he was it is hard to not think he is bad, but he still top 16'd and he was playing for the top 8 with a non-tier 1 deck (at least at the moment) and that, I think is impressive.

So to Louis, sorry for the shitty weekend, cool deck, and hope top 16-ing made stuff better. To everybody else, who cares about the misplays, what do you think of the deck?

[That nice guy]

with a non-tier 1 deck (at least at the moment) and that, I think is impressive.

So to Louis, sorry for the shitty weekend, cool deck, and hope top 16-ing made stuff better. To everybody else, who cares about the misplays, what do you think of the deck?

The team is giving up on it and going to play bluelands with meloku. Blue is just to powerful.

[dahcmai]

Jeez, hostile. I only said he should have already known before he even casted scapeshift what all was left just by counting what was out there. I also said the guy was tired and it was excusable. It's obvious he did well and isn't a crap player or something.

As for this little childish line.

I hate when scrubs that don't innovate anything talk smack.

This I just have to snicker at. ; )

[tyleredw]

Ugh...people like this make me angry. 66 cards? Learn how to cut it down.

That player is my friend and came down with us. His list wasn't 66 cards, Starcity just sucks at posting decklists and typo'd the hell out of it. There were actually only 12 islands, and 2 Merfolk Sovereigns.

[jrsthethird]

Ok, fair enough. Did you contact them about it?

[tyleredw]

Ok, fair enough. Did you contact them about it?

I believe he emailed them mentioning that they made a mistake, but I have a feeling that with the high frequency that Starcity posts stupid decknames and makes typos in lists, they probably get a lot of emails about it, and wouldn't be surprised if they just ignore them.

[NjPunk1]

They typed up my decklist wrong too, but we sent them an email and it was fixed the next day.

[TeenieBopper]

Okay, between this thread and GerryT's article today, I have to vent and I'm not about to clutter an actual deck thread.

What the fuck is this bullshit about Reanimator being hard to play? Seriously. Game one, Entomb appropriate fatty, Reanimate said fatty, bash, repeat until win. Game two, play Null Rod/Needle on Crypt/Relic, then see game one. Possibly Mystical Tutor for Show and Tell. I'm not bagging on the deck for being easy to play; I used to play Goblins for Christ's sake. But come one, it's not like the deck has some Rube Goldberg like decision tree or anything.

[Aggro_zombies]

Okay, between this thread and GerryT's article today, I have to vent and I'm not about to clutter an actual deck thread.

What the fuck is this bullshit about Reanimator being hard to play? Seriously. Game one, Entomb appropriate fatty, Reanimate said fatty, bash, repeat until win. Game two, play Null Rod/Needle on Crypt/Relic, then see game one. Possibly Mystical Tutor for Show and Tell. I'm not bagging on the deck for being easy to play; I used to play Goblins for Christ's sake. But come one, it's not like the deck has some Rube Goldberg like decision tree or anything.

The issue lies in "Entomb appropriate fatty."

Most people playing Reanimator now are picking it up because they hear it's the best deck and because they hear turn two Iona wins games. So Joe Shmoe, who knows very little about Legacy in general and Reanimator specifically, sits down to game one against Goblins, lols when his opponent drops a turn one Lackey, and Entombs Iona. Iona comes back naming red. The Goblins player, who has tested this matchup and/or has half a brain, does not attack into an untapped Iona. Iona swings. Goblins counter-swings, Lackey triggers, Stingscourger enters play, and now the Reanimator player has no idea what's going on AND has to face a rapidly accelerating clock. Nice Iona, idiot.

Then he sits down across from NO Counterbalance in round two. He knows his opponent has Swords or something, and the blue cards are all counters, so whatever. Iona on white. In game two, he does it again, and is floored when his opponent Wipes Iona Away, then bashes in with Tarmogoyf. Wtf? So he Carefully Studies Iona back into the graveyard, Exhumes, and names blue. Swords. Oops!

Then he sits down across from a Lands player in round three. What the fuck does this deck even do? Whatever, Life from the Loam seems to be big, so Iona on green. Lands plays Maze of Ith and passes. Hmm, that sucks. Joe starts digging for something else to reanimate, but it's hard because he keeps getting tapped by Port and stuff. Eventually, Lands transmute Tolaria West into Karakas. Not this shit again! Iona goes away, but now Joe has Terastodon. He Reanimates Terastodon, destroying Maze of Ith and Rishadan Port, and one of his own lands on the side. Lands goes draw go. He attacks, Lands doesn't block either creature, and then uses Life from the Loam to get back Maze and swing. Reanimator is now at 6 life, staring down lethal and without a way to profitably attack. Joe needs to set up Exhume, but now Joe is short mana and that Port is getting really annoying. Lands locks Joe's mana down and eventually kills him with a combination of Factories and the elephants he graciously gave the Lands player. Damn, wasn't this deck supposed to be good or something?

Then he sits down across from WW in round four. Iona on white. Nice deck noob.

Then he sits down across from Merfolk in round five. This guy doesn't have anything tricksy like that damn Goblins player (seriously, who uses Stingscourger anyway? What a noob), and he's mono-blue. Iona on blue hits play against a manland, a Vial, and a Reejerey. Vial taps EoT and makes...Lord of Atlantis! And suddenly we're off to the races. Maybe the islandwalking dude would have been better? So game two, Joe does exactly that, but then he still dies to the racing. Damn, if only he could have gotten Iona on blue AND the islandwalk dude. Oh well.

So Joe goes 1-4 with what he was told was the best deck in the format, and despite the fact that he did everything right - he totally played around graveyard hate and everything. It was because there's all these scrubs playing all these random crappy cards that just so happen to be really good at answering Iona...

[TeenieBopper]

Man, Iona sucks. Cut that bitch. You know what I hear is an awesome fatty? Verdant Force.

[mchainmail]

For those who are interested, this was my tournament in brief. Next week will be in detail on SCG.

Rd 1 - Win 2-0 vs Merfolk
Rd 2 - Win 2-0 vs NO Bant
Rd 3 - Win 2-1 vs New Horizons
Rd 4 - Lose 1-2 vs Zoo (Asher)
Rd 5 - Win 2-0 vs Zoo
Rd 6 - Win 2-1 vs Landstill (Feature Match)
Rd 7 - Win 2-1 vs NO Bant
Rd 8 - Win 2-1 vs U/W Tempo
Rd 9 - ID
Quarters - Win 2-1 vs Zoo
Semis - Win 2-0 vs CB/Top (with EIGHT PLOW!)
Finals - Win 2-0 vs NO Bant

I literally didn't touch 10 / 15 SB cards outside of the times I pretended to SB in the Zoo mirror (although I did bring in Grips in the Quarters)

I still wish you played the sideboard you showed me the day before, just to see it in coverage (and how many other people played it afterwards.)