9th Place with UWR Countertop Walker @ SCG Open: San Jose

[hyc8028]

I got 9th place playing UWR Countertop Walker in SCG open SJ finishing with 6-1-1 record. I didn’t take write down any notes, so everything I wrote here are from my memories. I didn’t write down my opponents name, so I apologize for that. I also apologize in advance for any grammar, spelling, and other mistakes in this report. Feel free to correct me if you see anything wrong.

Here is my deck:

UWR Countertop Walker by Denny Chan

Spell: 37
4x Brainstorm
4x Predict
4x Sword to Plowshares
4x Force of Will
2x Vedalken Shackle
3x Counterspell
2x Path to Exile
2x Firespout
4x Sensei’s Divining Top
4x Counterbalance
2x Elspeth Knight Errant
2x Jace the Mind Sculptor

Land: 23
4x Flooded Strand
2x Scalding Tarn
2x Arid Mesa
3x Volcanic Island
3x Tundra
1x Tropical Island
4x Island
2x Plain
1x Academy Ruin
1x Kor Haven

SB: 15
2x Pyroblast
2x Red Elemental Blast
1x Firespout
3x Relic of Progenitus
1x Path to Exile
2x Pithing Needle
2x Engineered Explosive
2x Vendillion Clique


Round 1: Deadguy Ale w/Vial---2-1//1-0-0
Game 1: I won the die roll. I mulled down to 5. He had turn 1 vial trying to bait a FOW and turn 2 drop another vial. He then dropped 2 Serra Avenger and I lose quickly afterward.

SB: +2 Needle, +1 PTE, +1 Firespout, +2 Explosive, -4 FOW, -1 CB, -1 Counterspell

Game 2: I started with turn 1 land drop. He thoughtseized me turn 1 and I response with brainstorm hiding CB and top. I land turn 2 CB and turn 3 top. He land some dudes and I exiled it with STP. He tried to vindicate my Jace, but I have Counterspell ready. He died to Jace ultimate shortly after.
Game 3: He had turn 1 vial, but I also has turn 1 needle naming vial. Then I drew my 2nd needle naming mother of runes. He was hitting me with Mom and some dude while I was setting up CB lock. He tried to vindicate my CB and I spin top and saw firespout. Then CB with firespout on the top countering vindicate and I wipe out his board the following turn. I kill him with Elspeth pumping soldier token.

Round 2: 4 Color Countertop---1-1//1-1-0; Feature match with LSV

Game 1: He won the die roll. He set up turn 2 CB lock and I had no answer. I managed to get an Elspeth out, but he STP my token and kill Elspeth with Goyf. He then land a Jace and I scooped.

SB: +2 Explosive, +2 Needle, +4 Blast, +2 Clique, -4 STP, -2 PTE, -2 Firespout, -2 Counterspell

Game 2: I don’t remember much about this match because too many things happened. I believe this match is on SCG youtube page if you are interested. Anyway, the highlight was he repeal my Elspeth to stop me from ultimate. I ramped the Elspeth to 11 counters and can’t take advantage of it. He kept applying pressure with Goyf and set up CB lock on me again. He killed my token and killed my Elspeth with 2 hits from Goyf. He got me down to 3. I knew the only card that can save me was Kor Haven. I drew it and play it and stopped Goyf for about 10 turns. I then drew my explosive and paid 6 mana for it to set it @ 2. I blew up his CB and Goyf and set up my own CB lock. I believe I only have 1 Jace left in the deck at that point. He drew nothing for the rest of the game and I decked him out. Time was called after game 2.

Round 3: Mono Blue Merfolk---2-1//1-1-1

Game 1: He won the die roll. Vial, Standstill, Mutavault. He had everything. GG for me.

SB: +2 Explosive, +2 Needle, +4 Blast, +1 PTE, +1 Firespout, -4 FOW, -3 CB, -3 Counterspell

Game 2: I landed turn 1 top and turn 2 needle naming vial. He landed some dudes and I got shackle on line. I then landed Jace and Elspeth and he scopped.

Game 3: This is the game that I would like to have it back because it end up costing me a top 8 spots down the road. I kept a mana light hand: Volcanic Island, Top, Brainstorm, 2x Blast, Firespout, Needle. He started off Island turn 1. I played top and he ponder for a minute and he let it resolve. I spin top next upkeep digging for land. No land for me for the next 2 turn while my opponent landed a vial and Standstill. I end up drawing my lands and trying to bait counter by playing needle. He FOW it and my last chance to stabilize was to firespout. I cast FS and he BEB it. I was shocked. He then wasted my volcanic lsland and I have no removal while he beat me down with dudes.

Round 4: UW Countertop---2-0//2-1-1

Game 1: I won the die roll. Turn one top and turn 2 CB for me. He has no answer. I land Elspeth turn 5 and he scooped.

SB: +2 Explosive, +2 Needle, +4 Blast, +2 Clique, -4 STP, -2 PTE, -2 Firespout, -2 Counterspell

Game 2: He casted turn 1 cursed scroll. I landed top turn 1 again. He then play needle naming top. I get explosive on turn 3 and set it to one and pop it. 5th Turn I landed Elspeth with FOW backup and he scooped again.

Note: We talked after the match and he was basically playing UW version of my deck without Elspeth. He also showed me his Moat and Peacekeeper in the side against tribal. We then talked about how awesome Elspeth is against aggro and countertop mirror.

Round 5: 4 Color Countertop---2-1//3-1-1

Game 1: I won the die roll. Turn 1 top for me. I got CB lock by turn 4 with counterspell backed up. I drew my Jace shortly after and he scooped.

SB: +2 Explosive, +2 Needle, +4 Blast, +2 Clique, -4 STP, -2 PTE, -2 Firespout, -2 Counterspell

Game 2: Turn 1 top for both of us. I tried to get in early CB and he spell snare it. I had nothing for the rest of the game. He set up his CB lock and I scooped to Jace.

Game 3: Turn 1 top for me and turn 2 CB with FOW back up. He had turn 1 top as well, but he couldn’t find any land. He was stuck with tropical island, forest and plain for a while. He grip my CB. I landed Elsepth and Shackle and he had no answer. I kept getting his life down with solder tokens. I had 8 counters on Elspeth and thought about waiting one more turn. However, I don’t think he could handle my indestructible token and I used Elspeth Ultimate to protect my tokens. He landed goyf and trying to grip my shackle on the following turn, but we both almost overlooked that shackle was also indestructible. I finished him with the tokens.

Round 6: B/W/G Junk---2-1//4-1-1

Game 1: I won the die roll. He landed turn 2 Bob which I had no answer early game. I got CB lock on him by turn 3. He tried to land Knight of Reliquary and I have STP ready. I landed Jace and he scooped.

SB: +2 Explosive, +1 PTE, -1 Counterspell, -2 Firespout

Game 2: All I remember from this match is that he has a lot of hand disruption and he has a lot of threats, including a Bob. I managed stabilize with Shackle and Elspeth. I got greedy and steal bob with shackle when I was at 5 life. Next turn I flipped an Elspeth. I am down to 1. I died shortly after.

Game 3: Turn 2 CB lock seal the deal. I just killed every dudes I saw and counter everything I could. My hand has no cards at one point, but he couldn’t answer CB. He tried to vindicate and deed, but I have shackle on top ready. I land both Elspeth and Jace and he extended his hand for handshake.

Round 7: ANT w/SnT on the side---2-0//5-1-1

Game 1: He won the die roll. I had no clue what he was playing since he started off with delta. I got 2nd turn CB lock on him. He kept trying to find answer with brainstorm, preordain and ponder. I landed Jace and ultimate him.

Note: I had no clue what he was playing until I saw that infernal tutor off the Jace’s fateseal. My objective for the rest of the game is to get CB lock on him ASAP.

SB: +4 Blast, +2 Needle, +2 Explosive, +2 Clique, -4 STP, -2 PTE, -2 FS, -2 Shackle

Game 2: He played a land and pass. I started off with volcanic island and pass. He tried to show and tell turn 2 with petal. I countered it with a blast. Turn 3 he show and tell again and met by my 2nd blast. I fetched out all of my volcanic islands and slowly assemble my CB lock. I got Jace in play. He tried to accerlate into 15 mana to cast emrakul the turn before I can ultimate with Jace, but I countered his cabal ritual with CB. I won off the back of Jace.

Note: After the match, he told me he could have turn 1 show and tell and I asked him why didn’t you do it. I said I had no FOW but 2 blast. I said even if I had FOW, you still need to do it because you can’t wait for me to get CB lock. He said he didn’t expect me to have blasts in my SB and side them in against him. His whole SB is basically against CB deck and he had 2 show and tell and 2 wipe away in the bottom of his deck. I feel very fortunate to walk away this round 2-0.

Round 8: NO Elves---2-0//6-1-1

Game 1: I won the die roll. He has one cradle and one forest in play for some turns. I have CB lock assemble by turn 2 again. He tried to NO, but I had a Fow ready. I landed both shackle and Elspeth and I killed him with flying solder couple turns later.

SB: +2 Explosive, +1 Firespout, -2 PTE, -1 Predict

Game 2: I have CB lock early. He tried to play sylvan messanger to dig for more threat. He played like 2 more dudes, but the following turn I FS his whole board. He tried to NO couple turns later. I have no counter in hand, but I have 3 fetches in play. I cracked all 3 of them and finally found a Jace on top on the last try. I stabilize with Jace, use BS ability couple turns and predict away my dead cards. I then drew shackle and Elspeth. I kill him with Jace ultimate.

The top 8 was announced. I missed the top 8 due to tie breaker and finished with 9th place. Very heartbreaking, but I got on the feature match and I proved that UWR Countertop walker can also go toe to toe with other tier 1 decks.

Props:
Elspeth was MVP all day long.
Being on feature match against LSV.
Got some cool foils for EDH from SCG.
Me finishing 9th place out of 151 people.
One of my friends, Ricky, made top 4.
You, for reading all of this.

Slops:
Only slept for 2 ½ hours before open.
Starting out 1-1-1.
Losing to Merfolk.
Missed out on top 8.

[Hanni]

Nice job! It seems like both the red splash and the black splash would have been good, since you had a mix of matchups. Losing to Merfolk with the red splash is bad times, though. Maybe the black splash with Peacekeeper in the sideboard would have been better against them? It seems to me that both the Elves and Merfolk matchups would have been just as easily won with Peacekeeper postboard, but you would have had an easier time against the matchup vs LSV.

Either way, and I know I said it already, nice job. Even with Control being poorly positioned with all the Vial decks in the format right now, you just proved that this deck can and will do well at big events. The deck literally has all the tools it needs between MD and SB to answer just about anything. Congrats.

Btw, totally agree with Elspeth. She's a frickin house, and I'm tired of people hating on her because of Jace TMS. Run them both, Top 9 SCG San Jose, sounds good to me.

[hyc8028]

Nice fucking job. It seems like both the red splash and the black splash would have been good, since you had a mix of matchups. Losing to Merfolk with the red splash is bad times, though. Maybe the black splash with Peacekeeper in the sideboard would have been better against them? It seems to me that both the Elves and Merfolk matchups would have been just as easily won with Peacekeeper postboard, but you would have had an easier time against the matchup vs LSV.

Either way, and I know I said it already, nice fucking job. Even with Control being poorly positioned with all the Vial decks in the format right now, you just proved that this deck can and will do well at big events. The deck literally has all the tools it needs between MD and SB to answer just about anything. Congrats.

Btw, totally agree with Elspeth. She's a fucking house, and I'm tired of people hating on her because of Jace TMS. Run them both, Top 9 SCG San Jose, sounds good to me.

Thanks! I know that this deck is already a beast. With more practice on my part, I am sure this deck will be a force to be recon with.

Peacekeeper would help against Merfolk, but he is bad against Goblin.

[samurai_socks]

How was running 4 Predicts. I see you need them for the 2 drop with counterbalance. But how were they throughout the day. I have only ever played 2 Predicts in CounterTop before and just wondered if you ever wished they were something else.

-Cheers-

[dorsch]

Congrats to the finish. Too bad you missed Top 8.

I have some questions regarding your decklist:

1) Have you thought about playing black? Why did you chose UWr over UWb?
2) Why do you play Needle in the board? I can't imagine setting it on Top, Jace or EE. Versus Merfolk you board Needle versus Vial. But you side out all your counters anyway, nullifying vials danger in this matchup.
3) How did you like Ruins maindeck, since you need it almost only for EE out of the board?
4) Versus LSV his Tarmogoyf did cause you some troubles. Why didn't you left some swords maindeck? Didn`t you fear he might ride one early Force protected Goyf to victory?
5) Why did you board needle vs LSV, and the Countertops?
6) Is there any matchup where you would consider cutting 1-3 Predicts for game 2?
7) Would you replace Needle with Phyrexian Revoker?

[hyc8028]

Let me answer some question:

@samurai_socks: Predict is really good all day long even though I didn't mention much. I got 14 cards that will make predict work. (BS, CB, Top, JTMS). If I am going against CBtop mirror and they put their top on their top deck, we can get rid of their top using predict. However, the main function is to get rid of one dead card of my own and reload my hand at the same time. My opponents were surprise that I reloaded my hand with Predict so fast. It is also blue and CMC 2, which is very helpful in this deck as well. At worse when I have nothing to do, I can just go blind predict on my opponent and draw a card and basically turn it into 2 mana cycling. Try to run 3 or 4. I assure you it won't disappoint.

@dorsch:
1. I thought about playing black, but my meta is heavy Goblin, Merfolk and CB top and Vindicate/Plague might not be enough to stop them. Red splash is really good against them. FS, blast all serves their purpose in this deck. Plus, I don't own any seas yet.

2. 2 Needle in the board are mainly answers for Vial and Mutavault. Those two cards gave me the most problem in testing, especially mutavault, so the fastest way to deal with them is needle. Against Merfolk, I ll just let vial resolve because I ll have ton of removal in main deck, but mutavault is a bit harder to handle. I ll play a little more aggressively too and try to land one of the walker/shackle ASAP to prevent them playing standstill. Last time I checked, removal > dude and shackle really shine here also.

3. Ruins in MD is fine. I run 23 lands and only 2 make colorless sources (Ruins and Kor Haven). You are right, ruins are there to recur EE, but it can also recur shackle if it need to. If shackle in my yard and I have a CB in play, I can ruins a shackle anytime and get a 3 CC on top. MD ruins with EE are really good against mirror also.

4. It did a little bit against LSV. I side out the STP because I figure it is going to be a race of who get CB first. 1cc is too easy to counter. I still have answers against goyf (Elspeth, EE, Shackle and Haven). You are right, FOW, counterspell plus CB would get him a win quickly. I wanted to set up my EE lock on him knowing he probably didn't side in needle against me.

5. Back to needle again. Needle in are for Misty Rainforest against CB top. I don't run rainforest and they run 4. It has the potential to mana screw them while I set up for CBtop.

6. Actually I would. Against Elf, I cut 1 predict. Against ooze survival 2 months ago, I actually took out all my predicts for relic. Against dredge, I might do the same thing too. If my MD already pack with cards that good for game 2 already and I want addition hate, that is the time when I start thinking taking out some predict.

7. Not in this deck. I can't name Mutavault and Rainforest. 2/1 doesn't do much for me anyway. However, I love this guy in other decks and I ll pick up a set when it come out.

I urge everyone to try out predict for CBtop. For example, Standstill complement mutavault, wasteland and vial for merfolk. Predict complement CB, top and Brainstorm for CBtop. It is a really good draw engine.

[Antonius]

I've been a big proponent of Predict in CB for a while too and am glad to see you doing well with 4x MD. I think I talked to you after the eighth round, when you played my friend Todd with NO Elves. I had a build of UWr with Predict that I tested a lot back in like October or November or so. I think it was exactly like your build except I played 3 Predict, 4 Counterspell (instead of the other way around). I ran Oblivion Ring instead of Shackles and I had 2x md EE instead of PathsI want to play this but I don't have Jaces yet.
Have you ever considered: Humility, Factory, Crucible, Memory Lapse or Repeal?

also, have you considered running Lightning Bolt in the board? Usually, you only need extra spot removal like that against Goblins and Merfolk, and bolt kills everything they play without the drawback that Path has.

[hyc8028]

I've been a big proponent of Predict in CB for a while too and am glad to see you doing well with 4x MD. I think I talked to you after the eighth round, when you played my friend Todd with NO Elves. I had a build of UWr with Predict that I tested a lot back in like October or November or so. I think it was exactly like your build except I played 3 Predict, 4 Counterspell (instead of the other way around). I ran Oblivion Ring instead of Shackles and I had 2x md EE instead of PathsI want to play this but I don't have Jaces yet.
Have you ever considered: Humility, Factory, Crucible, Memory Lapse or Repeal?

also, have you considered running Lightning Bolt in the board? Usually, you only need extra spot removal like that against Goblins and Merfolk, and bolt kills everything they play without the drawback that Path has.

Jace is nessessary to make this deck work, but all you need is 2. 2 Jace and 2 Elspeth feel right.

I considered a lot of stuff.

Humility: Maybe, never tested it. I would actually play Moat tho if I have 1.
Factory: We want our mana to be colored and we need mana to activate top. We don't need factory to win or block.
Crucible: Dead card most of the time unless you want wasteland lock or run factory.
Memory Lapse: This just buy tempo IMO and cute with predict.
Repeal: I saw some people ran this in Open too. It is actually really good in mirror. I might considered.

Between Bolt and PtE, I rather take PtE becuase of its versaility. There are a lot of Bant deck in my meta too and bolt wouldn't be enough. Bolt is also red, thus put more strain in the mana base. The drwback for path isn't that much when I only run 2. Plus, I usually use StP first before path.