Playing Lands at SCG Cincinnati

[Malacoda]

I went to SCG Cincinnati over the weekend and played Lands, as usual. There were just under 300 people there IIRC (636 for Standard!!!) and we had 9 rounds. The list I ran is very similar to my list from last time at Star City Los Angeles. The only differences were in 2 SB cards and 1 maindeck card. The final list was:

Spells (24)
4x Exploration
4x Life from the Loam
4x Mox Diamond
3x Enlightened Tutor
2x Manabond
2x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Ensnaring Bridge
1x Smokestack
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Zuran Orb

Lands (37)
4x Rishadan Port
4x Wasteland
3x Tropical Island
3x Maze of Ith
3x Tolaria West
2x Tranquil Thicket
2x Mishra's Factory
2x Verdant Catacombs
1x Misty Rainforest
1x Windswept Heath
1x Wooded Foothills
1x Horizon Canopy
1x Academy Ruins
1x Bayou
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Creeping Tar Pit
1x Savannah
1x Forest
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Glacial Chasm
1x Karakas
1x The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale

Sideboard(15)
4x Dark Confidant
2x Extirpate
1x Pithing Needle
1x Sylvok Replica
1x Tormod's Crypt
1x Chalice of the Void
1x Tower of the Magistrate
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Ethersworn Canonist
1x Circle of Protection: Red
1x Phyrexian Revoker

Round 1: Bernie Wen with Esperblade (5th overall)

Game 1: I sit down, shake hands with Bernie, and proceed to immediately knock the top card of his deck face-up accidentally while we're shuffling. Oops. The game gets started, with me playing Top off a Trop (on the play). Bernie plays a land and passes. I untap, resolve Exploration, and get Loam in the graveyard and fetches back in my hand. He looks rattled. He counters a few of my spells, draws lots of cards, and resolves a Jace, but I've got a solid setup and good support, and I kill the Jace and eventually set up Smokestack with consistent Wasteland recursion, and he scoops at 20 minutes in.

Game 2: I keep a hand with a Bob and a decent start, but he's got Leyline out. I get Inquisitioned and he chooses Sylvok Replica out of EE, Replica, and Loam, then I start setting up as best I can. I resolve a Pithing Needle on Jace after he plays a Jace, but he Snapcasters Disenchant which he used on my Revoker before. It's really rough under Leyline once he has pressure. We play draw-go for quite a few turns - he's got a Geist and a Batterskull, but I've got a Maze and a Factory, and he doesn't want Geist to die. Eventually, he begins to stick Mystics and Snapcasters, and even though I resolve and blow and crack an explosives for 2, my next Bob gets Spell Snared and he's got enough mana to put Batterskull on Geist. I die right before the end of the round, and we draw.

0-0-1 (1-1)

Round 2: Blue Zoo

Game 1: I'm not 100% sure what he's playing, but he has 4 colors and both Delver and Wild Nacatl, so I assume blue Zoo. I go right for an Ensnaring Bridge and manage to stick it. He can't beat it.

Game 2: Turns out he's also running a Vengevine/Faithless Looting package. Cool? I stick Ensnaring Bridge again but it gets Ancient Grudges. I'm not worried. I have Explosives recurring and a couple Mazes. He has next to no burn. I just Waste-Lock his silly four color all-duals mana base and sweep.

1-0-1 (3-1)

Round 3: Cory? with RUG

Game 1: I know this is a good matchup, and I'm pretty sure once I stick E-Bridge it's over. I'm correct, and he scoops.

Game 2: I start well, developing Loam with protection, man-lands, and lots of Wastes and other lands. Then I get Loam extracted. I think I'm ok, as I'm set up well, but then both Tar Pit and Chasm get Snapped and extracted as safety measures and he drops a nimble Mongoose. Crap. He wastes my Factory and beats in. I draw nothing. Eventually I hit an E-Tutor, but it's one turn too late. I resolve Crucible and replay my Factory and a fetch, but I have one blocker, and I'm at one.

Game 3: I keep a pretty crappy hand. Probably should not have kept. It's something like Port, Factory, EE, Chalice, Top, Ensnaring Bridge, and Loam. I play and activate Top on my upkeep - no lands. Crapcrapcrap. I play my second land and reactivate Top. Tolaria West. Gah! Meanwhile, he's gone T1 Delver and flipped it on T2, and he just cast a second. I'm forced to play Tolaria tapped and play Explosives for 0 for the Delvers, then playing Chalice for 1. He looks at his hand and shrugs, then casts a Goyf on his turn and beats in with the Delvers, only one of which has flipped. I draw Bob off the top. I activate Top, digging for a land, but I don't find it, and he wasted my factory, so I can't even crack explosives for 0. Delvers flip and swing. I still have nothing off Top. I draw, activate, see a Trop, draw off Top, play it, crack EE for 0, and scoop, because his goyfs is too big and I won't see land for a few turns.

1-1-1 (4-3)

Round 4: UW Stoneblade

Game 1: He mulls and studies his hand hard before keeping. I let loose with Tropical Island, Top. He's intent on Waste wars, and blows up my Trop. I play a Waste and pass. He plays a Tundra. I waste it. I play a Factory. He Wastes it. I play a Foothills, crack, Exploration, Port, go. He plays Island, go. I draw, cast Loam, get a Factory and another Port, pass the turn, Port his Island. He draws and scoops.

Game 2: I open with a Bob and he clearly boarded out all his removal. He says he didn't know I was Lands even though I had dropped Tar Pit and Tolaria West last game. I get a huge advantage, and even though Snapcaster kills Bob and his Snaps and Factories hold me off for a few turns, There's nothing he can do to stop me from 7ing him almost every turn with Tar Pit and two Factories.

2-1-1 (6-3)

Round 5: Pox

Game 1: I've never physically played this MU out before, but I expect it to be a pretty favorable MU. He Inquisitions and takes Mox Diamond, since all I have is Loam and Diamond. Doesn't matter. I set up quickly, block half his spells, recur faster than he does, and just overall dominate the board. He can't win through Exploration, Crucible, Zuran Orb and scoops.

Game 2: I board in the usual package (on average, I board in 9 cards: 4 Dark Confidant, 2 Extirpate, 1 Engineered Explosives, 2 other MU-specific cards) and expect it to be more of the same. Cursed Scroll is more of a problem this game, and he Hymns away a Bob black source for a few turns, but I get the Orb/Exploration/Crucible lock again. He plays Deed (I think he splashed post board) for 1 and takes out my Exploration, but I recur Orb and topdeck 3 separate Explorations off the top in a row. Sorry.

3-1-1 (8-3)

Round 6: Rama with Junk

Game 1: I see a Force sitting on top of his board, and I assume he's playing Bant (which deck's manabase is so awkward it can't support Force and has to board them? Bant!). He pays a Dryad Arbor and starts Waste warring with me, but eventually I get a good start and he plays a Mox Diamond, tossing a Marsh Flats. Ok, Junk. He basically does nothing and ends up going down to just a Mox when I pass a countered up Smokestack his way.

Game 2: Played out similarly to the first, but with pressure. I had a Bob, but Bob died after a few turns, and Qasali started punching for 3 a turn. I couldn't find a Maze, and had to start Chasming. Blah. He set down a Terravore, Qasali'd my Exploration, and passed. I dredged, set down a Maze, and passed. He played a second Terravore, now an 8/8, and passed. I was forced to detonate Explosives for 3 so as to not die, and I still had to take a big hit from one. No matter, though, because Smokestack ticked up to 3 and killed him just like last game. Turns out the sideboarded Force was to make people think he was Bant. Lol.

4-1-1 (10-3)

Round 7: Andrew Morrow with Bant (2nd overall)

Game 1: He mulls twice, hard. I open with Exploration, Trop, and Port, hiding the Waste in my hand hoping he'll play into it. He plays a Tundra and passes. I Waste it and drop Ruins and Top. He plays Island, go, then realizes what he's doing and scoops.

Game 2: I board in the package for Stoneblade because that's all I saw (besides 1 Misty Rainforest), but he turns out to be Bant. The packages are similar, but not exact. And he got a good start with Hierarch, Forest, go. I play Top and pass. He plays a Tropical Island and a Knight of the Reliquary and passes. I draw into an Exploration, play Trop, play Factory, play Loam, resolve Loam, pass. He draws into and slams a Jace down, then swings. I chump with Factory. On my turn, I Dredge Loam and get back Maze of Ith, Glacial Chasm, Factory. I play Tabernacle and Chasm and pass. He fateseals, goes Knight -> Wasteland to waste my Maze, and passes. I choose to not sacrifice Chasm and go about rebuilding my position, dropping a Tar Pit and sacrificed Factory into play. I pass. He Knights into Bojuka Bog and nukes my yard. I'm ok, but I can now no longer recur Chasm for any more turns, because it's at 2 and I'm at 6. I sac Chasm, draw, Top, dig for Loam, fail, hit Jace with Tar Pit, and pass. He plays Stoneforge into Batterskull, goes Knight -> Waste -> Tar Pit, fateseals, and passes. I continue failing to find Loam, though I do find an Enlightened Tutor. He sets up Pithing Needle and Bob to get countered. He plays Clique and passes. I fail to find Loam again, and even though I can Tutor for Crucible to start Chasming, Jace is at 12, and I lose the Jace war and the defense war.

Game 3: This one is a little hard to remember, but it was like a slightly faster version of Game 2 - double Hierarch gave him huge advantage over the mana denial and Knight wasting the two Mazes I drew cleared its path. Pithing Needle on Jace stuck, but that's about it.

4-2-1 (11-5)

Round 8: Spencer Ferreber with Loam Pox

Game 1: I keep the awkwardness of 2 Trop, 2 Tolaria, 2 Loam, 1 Exploration, and I draw into Manabond on the first play. Because he went Entomb -> Nether Spirit turn one main phase, I'm assuming Pox, which means light pressure. He wastes my Trop and Passes. I draw a Tranquil Thicket and play it. He Sinkholes my Trop. I draw Tar Pit and play it. He draws, plays Liliana, makes us discard, and passes. I dredge, set up a dominant position in about three turns, and proceed to lock him out with Stack. I don't see a single Loam on his end.

Game 2: I immediately realize how awkward this MU is when I bring in Bob. He boarded out removal, but Cursed Scroll and Liliana kill him really fast... especially under his opening Leyline of the Void. I start to lose advantage once he gets Cursed Scroll activate, especially with 3 dead Loams in my hand. He Loams and Wastes me into exile and I scoop.

Game 3: I start out even stronger, but he's got TWO Leylines on the field (not that it matters - I blow both up or neither with EE) and is crushing me with Liliana and Scroll again. I can't play Bob because Liliana and Scroll kill him, and I can't play Revoker on either because then whichever it doesn't name kills him. I play Pithing Needle, but it only answers one, and his Deeds and Pulses cripple me hard. I blow up the Leylines, but I'm pretty far behind. He topdecks another one anyway and plays it, then topdecks yet another and Cursed Scrolls me with it until the time limit, at which point I scoop him in. A tie is as bad as a loss now anyway.

Round 9: RUG

Games 1-2: My opponent comes up to me, asks me what I'm playing. I ask him, why should I tell you? He said, "if your deck would beat mine, I'll scoop." I said, I'm playing Lands." He said, "Oh. I'm playing RUG. I scoop."

So that was my tournament. A little disappointing placewise, but I did pretty much the same as last time and played a lot better people in a field with a lot more people, so I'm not unhappy. I loved that I played a different deck every time, especially after the Stoneblade marathon of last Open.

Cards I loved:
1. The fifth fetch. I made a split second last-minute decision to swap out Cabal Pit for the second Verdant Catacombs, and found again just how much a fetch smooths out this deck's play. I didn't really miss Cabal Pit in the slightest.
2. Pithing Needle. I can't believe I never had one before. I really like having two, and Phyrexian Revoker is always useful.
3. Smokestack. I always forget how good it is. It always works - either it draws out a counter or a Qasali sacrifice for being big and scary or it wins the game.

Cards I didn't love: None

Everything pretty much proved its worth this time. I think I've got a very solid list for the current meta. It covers a LOT of angles. I didn't ever actually get to fire Sylvok Replica today, but I had him eat a Cliqueing and do a little blocking, and he scared people. I like his tutorability and recursion with Ruins; I don't miss Grip. I don't miss Cabal Pit either; it was only situationally good, usually in situations where it was useful but win-more.

Interestingly enough, I saw a guy playing foiled-out Intuition Lands with no Mindslaver and the O-Stone plan maindboard. He got 22nd. I didn't have a chance to talk to him.

Anyway, I was pretty happy with how I played and was totally stoked to play a ton of different decks and some great games. I'm looking forward to GP Indy and some other Opens, where I think I can T8. If you guys have any questions just ask.

[sdematt]

I'm pretty sure a bunch of people at the tournament really hate you, but nice job!

-Matt

[MiniLuv]

Turns out the sideboarded Force was to make people think he was Bant. Lol.

Good read. The Junk player had balls to go with a 14 card SB.

[Fade]

Good read. The Junk player had balls to go with a 14 card SB.

Yea I know Ramah, the Junk player. He had me help him with his deck before the event and the first thing he said was he wanted a Force of Will in his side. I just blankly stared and decided not to question his madness, but I can only assume he wanted people to notice it and think he was playing blue.

[sdematt]

The blue splash means he's obviously on Tombstone.

-Matt