Went to a tournament at World's Collide in Oshawa last Saturday. Thought there was going to be amazing turnout since the prize was a beta time walk but for some reason only 20 people showed so the top prize became unlimited time walk. Bummer! I ran the burn deck again and here's the latest list.
13 Mountain
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Scalding Tarns
1 Barbarian Ring
4 Goblin Guide
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Rift Bolt
4 Lava Spike
4 Magma Jet
2 Incinerate
3 Price of Progress
3 Volcanic Fallout
2 Flamebreak
3 Breath of Darigaaz
3 Fireblast
Sideboard
4 Relic of Progenitus
3 Anarchy
2 Sulfuric vortex
3 Boseiju, Who shelters All
3 Smash to Smithereens
One of my friends suggested the Breath after he tried it on mtgo a lot and had good success with it so I decided to try it out. I don't think I was ever unhappy with the breath in the early game and in the late game it's a nice finisher too. The anarchy in the sideboard was mainly against enchantress and creatures like war monk but I found that it was too unwieldy. I'm sure i would love having anarchy against something like D&T but in my meta, I don't think i'll use anarchy again.
Round 1 - CJ (Charbelcher)
Game 1: He was on the play and mulled to 6. Said go and didn't play anything and I was scratching my head at what was going on. Meanwhile I started off with a bolt, guide, bolt after 2 turns and then he played an empty the warrens for 12 on turn 3. Unfortunately for him, he was at low enough life on my turn 3 and I reduced his life totals to low enough that he couldn't last 2 turns to attack me to death.
Sideboard: -3 Price of Progress, +3 Smash to Smithereens
Game 2: Once again, he's on the play and he killed me on his turn 2 with a belcher.
Game 3: Again, he mulled to 6 and kept. I had an OK hand but it will filled with magma jets so I couldn't deal that much damage fast. Luckily, he couldn't draw any of his 0cc mana producers or spirit guides in 3 turns and then just died.
yeah, got lucky there. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good!
1-0 (2-1)
Round 2 - Mathieu (Elf aggro/combo)
Game 1: I kept a rather questionable opening hand with a guide, bolt, fireblast and 4 lands but I figured that with 4 land in hand I could draw in to many burn spells. I ended this game with him at 9 and me having 2 fireblasts and 2 land in hand and 5 land in play after 6 turns.
Sideboard: -3 Price of Progress, +3 Smash to Smithereens for the Staff of Domination.
Game 2: he didn't sideboard anything against me and killed me on his turn 3.
Bummer!! usually I can take out elves pretty well but these games, i didn't get any of my boardsweepers. Frown!
1-1 (2-3)
Round 3 - Zane (Aggro Bant)
Game 1: We went through a deck check and I knew that this was going to be extremely bad for me as I always have really bad hands no matter how I shuffle after my deck gets sorted. There was no exception this time and I ended up mulling to 5 as both of my earlier hands had no land. He mulls too but keeps his 6 hander. I kept a relatively mediocre hand with 2 lands but he ends up doing turn 1 hierarch, turn 2, goyf with counter backup, turn 3, war monk. Wow that's a scoop.
Sideboard: -4 Goblin Guide, -2 Incinerate, -1 Flamebreak, +4 Relic of Progenitus, +3 Anarchy.
I'm not sure if i sideboarded properly but this is pretty much my nightmare matchup and i'm just hoping that there's no jittes and war monks.
Game 2: I kept an OK hand but his was just the nuts. Turn 1 hierarch, turn 2, war monk, turn 3, elspeth, turn 4 war monk and he had spell pierces and FoW as backup. Just brutal. I had an anarchy in hand but couldn't get up to 4 mana and even if i did, he could have just countered it. ugh.
1-2 (2-5)
Round 4 - Jonathon (Mono U Merfolk)
Game 1: This game he really didn't do anything. I just kept burning him out and the only damage dealt to me was my own breath. It got kind of close though at the end where he managed to get a jitte out with a creature and I didn't have many cards left and I had to kept on killing his creatures instead of him but at the end, managed to burn him out.
Sideboard: -3 Price of Progress, +3 Smash to Smithereens
Game 2: he mulled down to 5 cards but then he managed to cast standstill 3 times this game each time when I was tapped out trying to deal with the latest threat. There was a situation later in the game where he was at 6 life, I had a barbarian ring with threshold, 3 mountains, 1 fireblast, 1 magma jet and was trying to figure out how to kill him on my turn. I knew he has at least a spell pierce in hand but didn't know what else as I had just cracked standstill. There was also a jitte, vial and wasteland out so I knew I was going to be on a clock soon. I ended up trying to cast magma jet and he countered with the pierce and then I tapped 2 mana to pay and he BEBed. ugh. then I just sacced the fireblast to put him at 2 and hopefully I could topdeck a bolt and I didn't and died horribly few turns afterwards. Definately a bad misplay.
Game 3: this game, he didn't do much again. Played a turn 1 vial which I loved since that's like a time walk for me. I had a goblin guide out and kept on attacking him until he got a jitte and shackles out and I just cast flamebreak to kill my own goblin and then just kept casting bolts to win.
After the match, I found out that he sided out Force of Wills and i was like wow, that's like me siding out my lightning bolts. He was a nice guy and didn't play a lot of legacy and I explained to him that in this matchup, he just needed to resolve one guy on the jitte and hit once and then his entire hand could be counterspells and I'd lose.
2-2 (4-6)
Round 5 - Jordan (Show/Sneak)
Game 1: He's playing the slow version of this deck with just ancient tombs as accelerator and a bunch of search spells and i think only daze for counters? Never saw any FoWs. Anyways, I thought I had a good change this game until he did turn 3 show and tell into emrakul and I didn't have enough burn in my hand to kill him. Emrakul swung twice and that was that.
Sideboard: -3 Breath of Darigaaz, -1 Flamebreak, +4 Relic of Progenitus.
I don't have much to side in against this matchup but I figure that those 2 burn spells are the slowest in the deck and that I can at least cycle relics if i did draw them.
Game 2: I played a turn 1 rift bolt and he played turn 1 top and then decided to daze the bolt during my upkeep. I paid the cost cause he just gave me a time walk and didn't really slow me down that much either since I didn't have that many 1cc bolts in my hand. That turned out to be the key play this game as he was 1 land drop short of the win before I killed him. Apparently he had everything in his hand but he couldn't cast it in time because of the daze. oh well!
Game 3: this game was kind of boring as he kept on playing draw spells and shuffling his library until I burned him out. My friend came over after the game was over and told me that he had all the show and tells and sneak attacks in his hand but he just couldn't find a creature. yeah that's why i don't like this deck.
3-2 (6-7)
My tiebreakers were pretty good so I managed to sneak into the top 8 at 8th place!! Really didn't expect that as the start of my day was pretty brutal and my friends ended up 0-3 and 1-3. Top 8 was Burn, B/G Survival, B/G/W Survival/ooze, U/G/W Survival, Bant, Elf, Rock and 4c Control. There were only 3 survival decks in the tournament and all 3 made top 8. ugh.
Quarterfinals - Mathieu (Elf Combo)
Time for some revenge!!!
Game 1: Looks from my notes that I got out a turn 1 guide and kept hitting him with magma jets. Did a board sweep with an unkicked breath and when he was at 8, I double fireblasted him.
Sideboard: -3 Price of Progress, +3 Smash to Smithereens
Game 2: I kept a slowish hand, didn't have much boardsweepers so I had to use some of my burn on his elves. Nothing much to say about this game until near the end, he has around 6 lands, 3 elves and a staff of domination in play and I had a guide and a fireblast and he was at 5 life and for some reason, i couldn't topdeck another bolt and he actually started gaining life from the staff and tapping my guide down. Wow, that was like the low point of the day. then he managed to combo off before i drew a bolt..... REALLY!?!?!
Game 3: I kept a hand with 3 lands, couple of bolts and 2 flamebreaks. I ended up casting flamebreak on turn 3 and turn 4 wiping his board twice and on turn 5, i cast breath with kicker to put him at 1 with no creatures in play and I had a bolt in hand to kill him the next turn. he was pretty much out of gas at that point as he had used up 2 glimpses earlier and conceded.
This is really how the elf matchup should be. It's all about drawing those boardsweepers.
4-2 (8-8)
Semifinals - Eugene (U/G/W Survival)
Top 4 was Burn, U/G/W Survival, B/G Survival and Rock. 3 of the top 4 wanted to split but Eugene was splitting with someone else so he wanted to play. Bummer, I've never beat him before with the burn deck but we'll see what happens this time.
Game 1: Game proceeded as usual and I was able to burn away the vengevine that he returned and swept the board clean except for a wild mongrel. On the critical turn, he had 2 mongrels, 1 non basic and 1 card in hand and was at 7 life. I was at 4 life and had 3 land in play and had a fireblast in hand and was hoping to topdeck a bolt. I drew and topdecked... a price of progress. Wow, fail!!! Passed the turn and hoped that he would play a non-basic or a fetchland before he declared his attack and he didn't do that so on to the next game.
Sideboard: -4 Goblin Guide, -2 Incinerate, +4 Relic of Progenitus, +2 Sulfuric Vortex
I didn't bother sideboarding in the smashes because i've never seen him play with jitte at all and he does play plows so i'd figure having a vortex might help.
Game 2: I played a turn 1 relic and probably misplayed soon after as he returned one vengevine at the end of my 2nd turn and for some reason I decided to crack the relic and just remove the one vengevine. he ended up getting another vengevine during his upkeep and hit me for 6 with 2 more rootwallas. I drew a bolt and bolted the vengevine and then cast fallout to get rid of all 4 of his rootwallas and an hierarch. The only thing left on the board was a wild mongrel. A turn later, he played another mongrel and I couldn't draw more bolts fast enough and died to wild mongrels. *sigh*.
I'm sure there were a ton of play mistakes on my part in both games but ugh, i really hate not being able to deal with a mongrel properly. the mongrel is so much harder to kill than the vengevine.
4-3 (9-10)
Finals was between the 2 survival decks and they decided to split. I got around $125 in store credit and got 3 scrublands and 1 marsh flats for my trouble. hooray.
Afterthoughts:
Never really use the anarchy so I'm not sure if it's devestating enough. I was thinking of running this against enchantress but I figure that i'm going to see survival way more often than enchantress so I'll have to ditch the anarchy for something else. I might have to try everlasting torment *shudder* against bant and survival as it makes all my boardsweepers have wither and that's pretty much the only way i can think of to take care of stuff like mongrel and war monks with fallouts and flamebreaks. That would make it worth including searing blazes back in the sideboard too.
I finally have another deck to play so i'm going to put the burn deck on the shelf for a while. Hopefully survival gets banned so i don't have to deal with mongrels anymore!!!! If not, then it might be back to the drawing board as I've probably played survival 6-7 times and i've only won 1 match which is kind of pathetic.
Close. I was actually 2-3 :D. My 2 wins went 2-0. My 3 losses I won the first game in each one and then......crumble.
Eva Green
4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Dark Confidant
3 Gatekeeper of Malakir
3 Shriekmaw
4 Thoughtseize
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Dark Ritual
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Pernicious Deed
2 Smother
1 Snuff Out
4 Bayou
9 Swamp
1 Forest
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland
1 Volrath's Stronghold
SIDEBOARD
4 E. Plague
2 Krosan Grip
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Pithing Needle
2 Extirpate
2 Perish
Match 1 Vs Rock. Hairy. Well he goes by Hairy since his Greek Name is too long to pronounce. Lost 1-2
Game 1, first turn Hypie is too much for him. I side in 2 Perish and take out a Jitte and a Shriekmaw. Thinking I maybe should have boarded in some GY hate...Game 2 and 3 were close but couldn't finish him off.
Match 2 vs. Black/green Vengevine (splash white) Sammy T. Lost 1-2
Again win game 1 with lots of disruption. Sided in Extirpate, Perish and a Needle. Should have went A lot more. He comboes with Ooze/Devourer in game 2 and aggro game 3.
Match 3 vs. Elves. Wilson. Won 2-0
I have lots of creature kill so game 1 went to me. I side in 2 Perish and 4 plague. Taking out a jitte, shriekmaw, hypie and a gatekeeper. Game 2 was funny....Wilson plays land, mana elf, go. I play swamp, pay 4 life to Snuff out and then Thoughtseize. Yes, I know a mistake. Should have Thoughtseized first. I land an early perish to control some of the board but I have a Dark confidant out with low life. I do a Jitte on board though but luckily Wilson didn't draw a Krosan grip or Bob would have killed me.
Match 4 vs Landstill. Richard. Lost 1-2
Game 1. First turn Hypie. Resolves. Richard soon after plays a Faerie Conclave and a Standstill. I topdeck a Wasteland and proceed to hit with hypie and make him discard. he eventually cracks the standstill at 8 life but at that point Hypie caused so much card disadvantage. Well, that and I played 2 Goyfs after standstill. LOL, that's the third time someone has played Standstill and I benefited from it. Game 2 and 3....I had so much to side out and not much in. Out go Shriekmaws and a gatekeeper. In goes 2 grips and 2 pithing needles.
But he had a ton of Spell pierces and standstills that I couldn't recover in games 2 and 3.
Match 5 vs Merfolk. ?? Won 2-0
He didn't draw many counterspells or standstills. And whenever he played a creature, I killed it pretty quickly. Side in 4 plagues and out 1 gatekeeper, 1 hypie, 1 jitte, 1 shriekmaw. Game 2 he has to mull to 5....I thoughtseize him and I see he's got 3 lands, 1 vial and 1 cursecatcher. Bad luck. Not a good hand but mulling to 4 ain't so hot.
Most people still don't like Hypie but he did very well for me, winning for me several games. In a format where there aren't a ton of flyers I find he either gets there and gets rid of some cards or at the very least is a removal magnet. Ever since I switched to Dark Confidant I wonder why the heck I never played him before. I hate drawing dead and he usually puts a stop to that. Unfortunately, I had to take out Tombstalker. Maybe I should run Top as well if I want to put Tombstalker back in.
My sideboard might need some work. Not sure what. May put in a couple of creatures in there like Troll Asetic or something. Shriekmaw is great vs non-black creature decks (Goblins, merfolk, Zoo, sneak attack/show for Emrakul) but against Landstill he's a dud. I found a card in homelands that's kind of cool. Primal Order. GG2. At each player's upkeep they take 1 damage for each non-basic land they control. I play a bunch of basics so I'm considering running that....Any suggestions??
Holy heck, 125 bucks for 3-4th place at a 20 people tournament? Whoa, I usually have to settle for about half as much in prizes.
Nice work, although I have an anti-affinity for Burn decks, it's nice to see something else but Survival perform on your shores.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Reply With Quote