4th at Knight Ware, Inc: The Story of a Boy and His Weenie

[Wizened Cenn]

4th at Knight Ware, Inc: The Story of a Boy and His Weenie

Link to my first report:
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...h-White-Weenie

So I came back from LA victorious (If you consider 15th victorious). I got my name on the website, a thread dedicated to my deck, and nice amount of cash. When I saw the tournament announcement in Knight Ware on the 17th, I promptly called a few friends and set up plans to go down there. On the week preceding the tournament, I felt confidant, cocky even on how good of a Magic player I was to pilot White Weenie to a place in Legacy. I knew this wasn’t a good place to be, and that I would get stomped in LA if I kept that attitude. And you know what happened? I got stomped, but luckily only at Seth’s (my local store) and not at the tournament. This allowed me to push back this confidence to a manageable level (aka none). But more on that later. Anyways, I was set to go with Paul (Burroughs, a different Paul that was with me in Starcitygames LA) and we left early in the morning after a delicious breakfast courtesy of Paul’s dad. We got there really early and sat scalding in the car until the store opened. Once inside, Paul proceeded to make some trades, and I bought some Leylines of Sanctity for my sideboard, because I didn’t have access to Enlightened Tutors for this tournament (I had borrowed Paul’s, but he needed them now as he was playing Enchantress). We ate lunch at In’N’Out and came back for the tourney.

This is what I was playing:

Main Deck
4 Mother Of Runes
4 Serra Avenger
4 Weathered Wayfarer
4 Squadron Hawk
2 Jotun Grunt
2 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Goldmeadow Harrier
2 Leonin Relic-Warder
4 AEther Vial
3 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Swords To Plowshares
2 Path to Exile
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Wasteland
1 Rishadan Port
4 Marsh Flats
2 Arid Mesa
1 Mishra's Factory
8 Plains

Sideboard
3 Pithing Needle
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Runed Halo
2 Silence
3 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Relic of Progenitus
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Oblivion Ring

Thread discussing the deck:
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...3-Kanan-Weenie

I used my winnings from SCG LA to get the rest of my fetches and the Tops and a nice Mishra’s factory. I also upped the Mother of Runes to 4 and changed the sideboard for some more combo hate.

A final note: The day was really exhausting and many of my rounds went to time or almost-time, so I didn’t have much time to write notes or even remember what happened in each round, and so the quality of my notes really went down since my last report. Sorry ‘bout that.

And now the actual report:


Round 1: Pierre with Rwu burn (Congrats on splitting 1st)

Game 1: He leads with Wooded Foothill, Plateau, Steppe Lynx, so I put him on zoo. I had kept a hand with 2 Mothers and drew a third on my turn, which I figured would be decent against zoo, but turned out to be way to slow, as he lays down a few goblin guides. I take a bunch of damage, but stabilize at 7 and get a Serra Avenger down to start hitting him with. He plays a Volcanic Island and brainstorms several times until he finds enough burn to kill me.

Sideboard: -1 Leonin Relic-Warders -3 Sensei’s Diving top +3 Leyline of Sanctity +1 Runed Halo

Game 2: He gets a pair of Lynxes and I have to chump with Squadron Hawks until I get burned out, killing me by Smash to Smithereens-ing my Jitte, which was probably my only hope of winning.

0-1 (0-2)

Not a great start to the day, and I was not looking forward to having to win out to place, but I resolved to just not think about the rounds and just focus on one game at a time, to be confident in my plays but not rash, and to know I can win, but to make myself work for each one. I got up, to watch Paul lose in game 3 to Elves! And happened to see my to-be opponent playing a close game against Painter’s Servant.

Round 2: Ryan with The Gate

Game 1: I knew what he was playing when we sat down, but getting Thoughseized, and then Cabal Therapied on the two hawks in my hand was not a great start to the round. He kills some creatures with Gatekeepers of Malakir, and then Small Poxes twice, nearly restarting the board. I topdeck one of my last two Hawks, and eventually get a Jitte to the point where he can’t block with Abyssal Persecutor, and he scoops.

Sideboard: -4 Weathered Wayfarer +3 Leyline of Sanctity +1 Oblivion Ring

Game 2: I land a quick Jitte, and Sensei’s Top finds me all of the answers for his creatures, so the game ends quickly.

1-1 (2-2)

Round 3: Alex Kwan with Painter’s Servant

Game 1: I don’t remember much about this game because the second one took such a long time. I know he was manascrewed and I drew Wastelands, and I had enough removal for his Painter’s Servant to fight through the counterspells.

Sideboard: -4 Mother of Runes +3 Leyline of Sanctity +1 Runed Halo
I actually forgot to board in the Oblivion Ring, as I thought he would have the Show and Tell package from his board.

Game 2: I get a 2nd turn Runed Halo and draw a Leyline which I proceed to play, along with a Weathered Wayfarer and a Top. This slowed him down hugely, because he had to assume I had a swords as I was Topping and fetching with Wayfarer every turn. Wayfarer kept him off red, and he was topping and fetching like mad with only a card in hand for the longest time. I never actually had the Swords, even after Top/Fetching about 10 times. He finally decided to go for it, and I topdeck the swords which prompted him to scoop.

After the game, he found out that I didn’t have a Karakas, and that he didn’t board in the Show and Tell package because he was afraid of it (and rightly so, I should be running 1)

2-1 (4-2)

Round 4: Jacob with Deadguy Ale

Game 1: Top won me the game. There is not much else to say. I just found all of the answers I needed, and then swarmed him, not caring at all about the Sword of Light and Shadow and a few creatures he had procured.

Sideboard: -1 Leonin Relic Warder +1 Oblivion Ring

Game 2: He Vindicated my Vial and Wasted/Vindicated all of my lands except a single Rishadan Port, but I get another Vial, and land some Serra Avengers and Hawks to kill him in the air.

3-1 (6-2)

I finished this round pretty quickly and got to watch Paul play an Enchantress mirror-match that he managed to win 2-0, but went as expected to almost-to-time

Round 5: Kevin with NO Bant

My notes are really foggy at this point, as we go to rounds and the next round starts really quickly, I only have time to scribble a few words.

Game 1: I get an active Wayfarer and annihilate all of his lands and swords a Noble Hierarch, but end up using it a few to many times and fall behind, and then fail to find an answer to all of the Goyfs coming at me. I think that is one of the hardest parts of playing the deck: knowing when to stop messing around with Wayfarer, and to start putting out threats. There is a good balance, but it is not always clear, and this game is an example of being in a ‘dominant’ position, and then getting screwed.

Sideboard: I don’t remember exactly how I sideboard, I probably took out a Relic-Warder for Oblivion Ring

Game 2: I get a Jitte that kills his Fauna Shaman, Noble Hierarch, and Dryad Arbors, although the game goes pretty long.

Game 3: Time is called and rounds start almost as soon as we start playing (like turn 2 or 3). I have a Weathered Wayfarer, but know It will be impossible to kill him in 5 turns, so I just Wayfarer away his Dryad Arbors so that he can’t Natural Order in time to kill me. It was turn 3 of rounds, past the point of either of us being able to win unless he had some crazy tech, and I don’t know exactly what happened but the Judge caught an accident on his part that involved him drawing a card with Top without putting Top on top, and the Judge gave him a game loss. I felt bad because that seemed pretty harsh, but I couldn’t think about it much as the next round started.

4-1 (8-3)

Round 6: Jerry with Affinity (Ravager-Disciple version)

I was ranked 7th going into this round, and my opponent offered to draw, but I decided to play it out.

Game 1: Top finds me removal for his fast start with Ravager/Disciple. I stabilize at 4 and Waste all his lands and Jitte away all his creatures, and he spends several turns with no permanents. He scoops when Jitte gets enough counters for his burn to not be able to kill me.

Sideboard: -4 Mother of Runes +3 Pithing Needle +1 Oblivion Ring
Game 2: Affinity is a good matchup, and this game I drew the nuts. Both Relic-Warders, 3 Swords, a Path, and a Jitte to finish it off. I would have been very surprised to lose that game.

5-1 (10-3)

So I ended up in 3rd after the Swiss. While the Top 8 was getting deckchecked, I had fun talking to some people about the White Weenie and its matchups.

At this point I was dead tired and worn down from playing all day, so I’m sorry about the quality of the notes.

Quarterfinals: Shai with The Rock

Game 1&2: Both of these games were really long and grueling. I Wayfarered him down to just a few lands both games. He swept the board several times with Deed, but Squadron Hawk is always an amazing topdeck.

I gulped down a taco from some Mexican Food place next door (which by the way is amazing) and found out I would be playing Pierre from my first round again.

Semifinals: Pierre with Rwu Burn

Game 1&2: More of the same really. Short games, in which I drew far too many Moms than should be possible. All my notes say is “GOBLIN GUIDE!”

Final Record 6-2 (12-5) Pierre split 1st with Weston Brown, and I ended up in 4th and took two NM Force of Wills home.



Where I would go from now: I LOVED the Sensei’s Tops all day, but I think I will go back down to 3 Moms as multiple aren’t really that helpful. I am considering a small splash for black (like 2 Scrubland and a swamp) to play Cabal Therapies mainboard, and some Duress sideboarded. It would significantly help the storm matchup, and I’m sure it won’t hurt to have access to black for the sideboard. I still don’t think I would play other equipment than Jitte, it is just that good. The burn/zoo matchup needs to be addressed (more so than 3 Leyline in the board) as that matchup has costed me 3 rounds in 2 tournaments (and a few more at Seth’s).

Thanks to my Dad, for taking us down there, and to Paul, who had to stick around for 3 hours to watch me play in the Top8.

[Koby]

hey Kanan, it was good to see you rock out with WW again. Major props for sticking to your guns and trying to improve on what you already known works, and congrats on the nice finish!

You mention that you're having some trouble against the Storm decks - here's an idea: maindeck Ethersworn Canonist. In a deck like yours with Vial and not many spells, Canonist brings the game to your tempo, not theirs. It's even sicker with Vial as you can Vial it in in response to their first non-artifact spell to effectively "Silence" them. Once equiped with a Sword, he's even big enough to not be bolt bait.

Imagine how good it would have helped against Pierre's burn deck since you can protect the Canonist with Mother of Runes.

[2Rach]

Nice job, man! I'm the guy you faced in the Quarters. Gogo Wayfarer! lol

Have you tried Enlightened Tutors in your board? Seems good with all the enchantment/artifact based hate you have.

[mossivo1986]

I feel like if your not running scroll rack, then hawk gets the axe, because it's not a good creature. There's simply no excuse to be playing bad creatures in your creature filled deck.

The fact is you got blown out by another aggressive strategy, because you simply didn't have the card availability to deal with him. I can only imagine this problem starts with running splits like 2 relic warder 2 o ring.

My suggestion to you would be to play something you want to attack with. Out of your massive creature set-up, only the hawks and the grunts really want to attack immediately. This is where your going gain the most value. Why are you not running isamaru as a 1-2 of? What about mirran crusader?

[COBBLER]

Nice Job on finish iam the guy who was playing storm who split in the finals I think canonist main would defently be quite anoying for me lol

[Wizened Cenn]

@ruckus I will definitely try out Canonist, but a lot of the time it will just be a Grizzly Bear. It wouldn't have helped much against Pierre, he would just kill me a little slower, there is no way i could have won before he burned me out.
@2rach I played enlightened tutors in SCG LA and they were good, allowing you to find whatever varied hate you need, but a little slow. I would have played them, but I didn't have access to them this time around, hence the Leylines in the board.
@mossivo I like Hawk. A lot. I really don't think it needs to have a combo piece with it to be good, especially if the piece is dead without a Hawk.
Becoming more aggressive by running cards like Isamaru would be just like running a terrible mono-white Zoo. Isamaru looks silly next to Kird Ape and Goblin Guide. It would be nice to improve some matchups, but you then become worse at others.

[everythingitouchdies]

Congrats on another nice finish man.

[cann0nfodder]

I have a suggestion for your list. I noticed that you are running a singleton Mishra's Factory in the main. It might be a good idea to replace this card with a single Mutavault. Mutavault could randomly prove useful against Merfolk, Goblins and other tribal decks. It depends on your meta, but if you play against many tribal decks then you may want to run the vault.