Yeah in this deck, sometimes you just have to throw the hail mary and hope it gets there. Sometimes it doesnt get there. If you wanted more consistency you could try ANT, but you dont get the T1 kills that we get
For many players opening with Chrome Mox feels like already loosing which isn't the case. In your example you know that you don't face countermagic and the fact that you don't have to infernal for AN which saves 2 mana. For this natural advantage the Investment of Mox (imprint BS) is worth it.
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A brief tourney report of my 3-3 day full of frustration and fun!
Round 1: Jund
G1: I think I probed him and saw what he was on. He didnt have disruption so I passed. He played a DRS and then died after I untapped and played AN.
G2: He led off with TS. T2 he Hymn'd me I believe. I had a card in hand and a BWish and he Plays liliana. I Keep the wish and next turn wish for PiF. After some lucky LED's later I go for a PiF kill, but Im short one storm while he has me at 2 with a Bob, Liliana at 6, and a Goyf out. I can get him to one. So I go for a DReturns. It doesnt get there and I die. I realize after the round I could have just flashed back Silence to add to the storm, or just take him to one and hope he dies to Bob. *Punt*
G3: I lead off with a Probe. I see he doesnt have much to stop me. I could make 10 dudes and just hope, but instead I BS. It hits a couple of Rite of Flames and an LED. So I instead make 16 dudes and pass. Thats the game.
1-0
Round 2: Jund
G1: I see his hand of 2 Hymns, a DRS, a BBE, and lands. Ugh. So I hope to race and just make 8 dudes. He draws a bunch of removal and blockers :/ I die. My reasoning was that he could disrupt my hand and PiF was dead thanks to DRS.
G2: I kept a mull to 6 that was like 1 land, LED, 2x RoF, a petal and a Dark Ritual. Hope I get there! I didnt...
1-1
Round 3: Reanimator
G1: I keep an Ad Nauseam Hand with silence back up on T3. He goes T3 (he was on the play) Exhume Griselbrand.
My turn I know Im just dead because his discard was Iona and Jin Gitaxias so I just go for it. I silence, he forces. I play out Lotus petal and go RoF, Dark Ritual, AN with Lotus petal on board. He draws 7. Daze. I pay. He doesnt have the force. He dies.
G2: He mulls, I keep a 7 of 3x 5color lands, 2x Probe, Silence, Infernal Tutor. He eventually mulls all the way to 4. Luckily for me My probes draw 2 more lands! He rips like a champ and gets a T3 Jin Gitaxias and I die.
G3: I keep a good hand that can go off T1, but no protection, but I do have Probe. I probe and see: 3x Force of Will, Echoing Truth, Entomb, Griselbrand, Land. Yep. He Entombs Jin Gitaxias, I probe again and see he has nothing. I pray. He reanimates Jin Gitaxias. I die :/
1-2
Round 4: Jund
I was pretty frustrated at my match against reanimator and my phone was stolen in between rounds... I feel like a dick the way I acted towards my jund opponent this round.
G1: I probe, he sighs and says "Not this again". I see he is Jund. I make 12 dudes. On his T3 I silence him in fear of a Maelstrom Pulse, He sighs and says "That was a good silence".
G2: He has a bunch of Deathrites and beats me down with them, but not much disruption. He dies to tendrils.
2-2
Round 5: Enchantress
This guy may be a sourcer... I dont know, I just know he had Foreign Foil Enchantress with Shiny Angels. The deck was absolutely beautiful.
G1: I probe to see what he is on. T1 Ad Nauseam ftw.
G2: He Mulls to 5, but opens on Leyline and a land. My turn I go and make 16 goblins even though I was debating Burning Wishing for DReturns and hoping to draw a Chain of Vapor. He Plays Elephant Grass :/ Eventually he cant pay for it anymore but by that time he finds another one. I Infernal Tutor for a chain of Vapor and hit him to 3. But Sadly he plays a Stony Silence shutting down my chrome mox. So Late When I have a Rite of Flame and Infernal Tutor in hand I am one colored mana short of Finding the other chain of vapor to bounce the grass to kill him. Meanwhile he has about a thousand angels.
G3: He doesnt open on leyline! I Do see Elephant grass in hand though. I AN on turn 3 ftw. After the game he said his first draw was a leyline. Whew.
3-2
Round 6: MUD
This was against Ali Aintrazi. First time I have ever played someone I recognize from SCG coverage and stuff so it was kinda cool.
G1: He is on the play. My hand Can go nutters on T1, but he opens on a chalice for 1 :/ two drawsteps later he plays a Trinisphere and I scoop em up.
G2: I have a T2 hand. He has a T1 Chalice. I have an Abrupt Decay though. But I have to waste some of my gas on Chrome Moxen to cast it. He then draws 2 more chalices (which he puts to 1) a few drawsteps later. I have a bunch of chrome moxes out because I drew all three like a boss. I cast DReturns off of a BWish and it gets 2 Abrupt Decays, but restocks his hand with 2 metalWorkers on board. He makes 30 mana and dumps his hand including a trinisphere and a Blightsteel Collossus.
3-3
Overall the deck was fine. I definitely mis judged my hand vs Reanimator on his Mull to 4 but similarly my deck decided that This deck needs to draw 7 lands :/ The Jund Match I lost I think I may have mis played in settling for 8 goblins. I didnt show patience. MUD? I mean What do You do vs Chalice for 1 on the play? Lol.
Nice report! It sounds like you hit some tough matchups.
Does the deck you played against look a little like this? http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...Decks&p=700153
--
I Top 8'd with TES! This was my first Top8 in a big event. I'm pretty disappointed I didn't win the whole thing (or at least get to semis ), but I did play my worst matchup in the top8. I feel like the deck is very capable of winning, I just need to tighten up. It's still absurdly overpowered despite my misplays.
Thanks for the advice and support throughout the event, Byrant! It was interesting discussing lines of play.
Report going up when I have time to write it (hopefully tonight or tomorrow).
Languages and dates for every set. For all you true pimps.
I think that may have been him. He said he was a Judge, and he had the angels and most of that. A few different cards, but overall seems like the same dude. Nice guy definitely. You had to play Hoogland right?
Bryant Cook, what was your Legacy record in Atlanta?
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I almost always play out my LED's if I suspect discard, although if I plan to Silence-walk, I may consider holding onto it for an extra turn (to get more storm or to grab a second copy with Infernal Tutor, for instance).
I don't always play out my Lotus Petals though (at least not all of them). I almost never play out my Chrome Moxes unless I actually need to use the mana, since the imprinting is a very real cost.
Played a tourney this sunday. I failed again, but this time I cannot blame myself for the bad score. This was all on the deck.
Report is up: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...321#post716321
Help with my tuning is very much appreciated, but perhaps we can for now keep the discussion in that thread instead of here.
This because the list I am looking at right now is fundamentally different from the TES discussed here (mana base especially).
Hard to judge your mulligans from that report aside from being sure those were far too much. I'm especially interested in the game you mull to 4; why would you mull below 5 with that deck and throw away all chances to kill your opponent in time anyways? I rather add a turn of cantripping than mulling. If you can dig out notes for the mulled hands would be helpful.
Have you considered ANT if TES doesn't serve your purpose?
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I didn't play in the Legacy open. Flight left in the middle of the event. Actually, I was home to watch most of the top 8.
You just assume he was playing against Jund? He wasn't. Even so, it's more likely that they're discarded than destroyed.
If I'd play ANT I would like to play the Grim Tutor list. That seems the strongest. But I don't own those.
I am usually quite mulligan shy. I rather keep a scetchy hand than mulligan aggressively. About the mulligan to four: I believe my five was: Ponder, Burning Wish, Ad Nauseam, Thoughtseize, Duress. Something like that. No mana, two business spells, two irrelevant cards and a Ponder. Would you keep that? My six was sort of the same +1 Chrome Mox I believe. My four were two lands, Brainstorm and a Duress. Not that bad, but it doesn't win against three hate bears.
I still believe TES is the best deck out there, but I am often so unlucky that it frustrates the hell out of me. There is just so little you can do if you draw the wrong stuff. Maybe I should switch to Tempo Thresh instead. That deck at least is always able to do something, whether it is disruption, or beating with some guys, or burning Deathrites, at least you don't just sit there and lose. But combo is just very strong, so I feel I shouldn't discard it after one bad day. So if you have advice on the new list I posted, I'd be very happy to read it! :)
You ran Thoughtseize? :/
Still hard to imagine that both the grip of 6 and 7 were that bad too. Blue Source + Ponder is a keeper After a mull to 6
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I also find that it's usually correct to hold Petals, although obviously it depends on your hand and the game state. My opponents (both paper and MODO) almost never take the Petal with discard, they tend to take other acceleration, tutors, and cantrips first--and I don't blame them, there's usually little reason to worry about a Lotus Petal. Pretty much the only time they'll take Petal is when it's really obvious that I need it to color fix, like if I have an Underground Sea a Petal and some Rites of Flame.
Yes I run thoughtseize in the board because I prefer them over Cabal Therapy. It's an old habit from Mystical ANT, when I would side -4 Chant, -4 Duress, +4 Thoughtseize, +4 Bounce against unknown hate from non-blue decks. I've explained this pages back. Therapy needs either brillinat poker skills (which I don't have) or a Probe/Duress to work well. If you don't have those, the Therapy just fails most of the time. Thoughtseize always hits. And I never died because of its additional life loss, not even since I run it next to Probe. (One can always hardcast Probe.)
My initial hands all had no lands at all in that game. I believe my seven were: 2x Wish, 2x Ponder, 2x Brainstorm, LED or something. In any case really awkward. As I said, I don't like to mulligan much. If I have land + cantrip I usually keep. Only if the rest really sucks I will ship such a hand.
Therapy doesn't really require poker skills, most of the time if you don't have information then you name what you're afraid of or what beats you. Missing isn't the end of the world.
Lands aren't required. Initial manasources are. But I completely agree that those hands are unkeepable.
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