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Thread: 86th at GP Atlanta with Tin Fins (or Reanimator Storm)

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    shallow
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    86th at GP Atlanta with Tin Fins (or Reanimator Storm)



    In the world's second most advanced under sea research laboratory, a world renouned genius, one Dr. Quinn, perfected (sorta) his most diabolical creation and unleashed it upon the world the weekend of June 30th, 2012: Tin Fins! Sponsored by Grizzlebees: you'll wish you had less fun!

    I had been struggling for a few weeks trying to decide what to play in Atlanta - Richard Cheese and I had been working on trying to break Griselbrand for a while without much success, so I threw away the idea and was leaning towards the Menendian Doomsday list after practicing with it and running it at a local event. Seemed powerful and a lot of fun. Richard, however, hadn't thrown away the idea and kept working on it and subsequently shipped me a list on Tuesday. I goldfished it a bit, and it seemed incredibly powerful. After practicing with a local friend in Boulder for a bit on Thursday (hi Erik!) I was convinced and audibled to the new list after running a few games thursday night (with a few changes). So having a total of 4 games under my belt with the deck, and 0 in the final configuration, I sleeved it up in a hurry (and made some poor decisions in my haste and lack of testing) and off to Atlanta I went! The list I ran for reference (more thoughts on this after the Atlanta report):

    Main:

    3 Underground Sea
    2 Island
    2 Swamp
    4 Polluted Delta
    2 Misty Rainforest
    1 Scalding Tarn
    1 Marsh Flats

    4 Dark Ritual
    4 Lotus Petal
    3 Chrome Mox
    4 Brainstorm
    4 Ponder
    4 Careful Study
    4 Duress
    4 Griselbrand
    4 Entomb
    4 Shallow Grave
    3 Goryo's Vengeance
    3 Tendrils of Agony


    Sideboard:

    4 Lion's Eye Diamond
    4 Infernal Tutor
    3 Cabal Ritual
    1 Ad Nauseum
    3 Inquisition of Kozilek


    Friday:

    Richard Cheese and I arrive late Friday afternoon (due to my flight being delayed from Denver because of a busted co-pilots seat or something that took over an hour to replace). Grab some dinner down the street at some local brewpub thing (Max Lager's maybe?) and head back to the tournament hall to try to jam some games in a grinder to at least get some practice with the deck. We're there late enough that we can only make Grinder #5, the last one of the night. After waiting around for it to fire, pairings are posted and of course Richard and I are paired. What a perfect start, a mirror match for practice with the only other person in Atlanta with the list in all likelihood. I suppose his was slightly different, as he had Force of Will instead of Duress, but close enough that the match was just a goldfish. Needless to say, I lost 0-2, but we had at least agreed before the match that the winner would buy the first round of beer, so at least I got that out of it... (Sweetwater 420 is great, by the way). I pack it up, and Richard ends up 4th or something in the grinder. No byes for us. :(

    Saturday:

    I'm less than confident going into the main tournament, but at least I had a good breakfast of some rad grits from the killer (albeit pricey) buffet at the hotel. I thought I had a good shot due to the speed and power level of the deck, but just wasn't confident in decisions in certain matchups (specifically Maverick aka those jerks from pod 6), which would later prove to be my undoing. Anyway, onto some Onion Bursting!

    Round 1: Vilhelm Lindholm with RUG
    I win the die roll.
    G1: swamp, pass. He plays Misty Rainforest, fetches Volcanic Island. I entomb for Grizzlebees EOT, and cast Goryo's Vengeance during my turn to reanimate him. Vilhem instantly scoops. huh?
    G2: I board into Ad Naus to get around grave hate, mulligan once, and start in with the discard while trying to filter with Brainstorm and Ponder to find what I need. I never do, and he beats me to death with some creatures (presumably Mongeese, Delver, or Goyf - but I don't remember which specifically)
    G3: I board back to reanimation because i never saw grave hate G2. However I mull to a mediocre 5 card hand, and run into a counter wall and lose. Not an auspicious start. If I knew in this match what I knew by the end of the day in terms of playing into and around countermagic, I think the outcome may have been better. Oh well, that's what you get with 0 preparation.

    0-1

    Round 2: Jonathan Colon with B/R Reanimator
    He wins the die roll so he's on the play.
    G1: I think he played a faithless looting and dropped a phyrexian dreadnaught into the yard. I draw, discard Grizzlebees, and pass. He didn't do anything relevant on his turn, and I shallow grave my T2, and storm out from there.
    G2: Because I had never seen this deck before, I was just assuming that he would board in some kind of grave hate, as he seemed to be a slower reanimator deck than the usual fare or dredge. So I board into the Ad Naus package. I keep a decent hand with a bit of filter to find what I need. We go back and forth for a bit, him binning fatties, me looking for business. He exhumes Elesh Norn, and then reanimates Sphinx of the Steel Wind, but I don't really care as I found what I needed the previous turn, but just lacked mana. He passes, I Dark Rit, Dark Rit, Ad Naus into Tendrils for 22.

    I probably should have just left the reanimation package in in G2 - I had kinda forgotten Exhume existed: derp.

    1-1

    Round 3: Kody Moran with Affinity
    He wins the die roll
    G1:Both keep our opening 7. He crapped out his hand on T1 like Affinity does, but they were mostly some pretty weak robots. I end up reanimating Grizzlebees and storming out on T3.
    G2:Had no idea what grave hate Affinity runs, so I just boarded into Ad Naus just in case. T1 he drops Ethersworn Canonist and then I realize the awful mistake I made in deck construction: no way to deal with resolved permanents due to 0 bounce! Whoops! I let him beat me a bit to see what other cards he's playing to get an idea about grave hate - I see none and eventually die.
    G3:No grave hate G2 = more Grizzlebees G3! I swap 3 Duress for 3 Inquisition from the main to try to nab Canonist if it comes up. T1 I Inquisition, don't see anything really relevant so I grab the Cranial Plating to slow down his clock. T2, drop Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, Entomb for Griselbrand, Shallow Grave him out, swing for 7 then draw 21 cards. And fizzle. Can't find Tendrils. Bummer. I pass, discarding about 400 cards (including 2 of my 3 Griselbrands - keeping 1 for Careful Study in case he nukes my yard). He doesn't do anything relevant, so I reanimate another demon, swing, and storm out from there.

    Really nervous at this point due to my boneheaded move of no bounce...

    2-1

    Round 4: Donald Wingo with Belcher
    He wins the die roll - seems bad if you're playing against Belcher, right?
    G1: I keep my 7, he mulls to 5. He didn't play any cards this game, just drawing 2 cards while I spit out my honey-maple-ranch sauce and Tendrils him for 24. I obviously have no idea what he's on.
    G2: I don't see him board any cards in, so I leave in the reanimation package hoping that he didn't have any main deck grave hate. He sure didn't! Instead, he mulls to 6, and then Belchers me to death before I take my turn.
    G3: Very thankful I won G1 at this point after having lost the die roll - run goods! I keep my opening grip: swamp, dark rit, entomb, shallow grave, and storm him out before he takes his turn. Thankfully, as he showed me after the match that he ALSO had a turn 1 kill. Dodged a bullet there!

    Feeling decent now - decide that my plan against permanent based hate likely needs to be to win before they can drop it...

    3-1

    Round 5: Brian Mulligan with Mono-R Burn
    He wins the die roll (not having much luck in this aspect so far...)
    G1:Both keep our opening grip. He drops Goblin Guide and I get scared - fast pressure means less cards off of Griselbrand. He attacks and burns me down to 11, before I can go off. I swing with Griselbrand and draw 7 - doesn't look good enough as he has a Rift Bolt suspended so I stay at 11 and pass, discarding another Griselbrand and keeping some reanimation. He hits me with a Goblin Guide and Rift Bolt putting me at 6. I then go off again next turn and kill him.
    G2:Board into Ad Naus - although I'm not really sure why. Red Decks don't generally run a lot of grave hate, do they? He burns me down to 12, and then I Ad Naus and make a huge mistake by cracking both LED's I had in response to Ad Naus. I needed 1 of them to be able to cast an Infernal Tutor if I ran into 1, but cracking both was just bad. I don't remember exactly how I lost here, but I'm pretty sure I would have won had I not done that, as I flipped an IT pretty early in the Ad Naus chain.
    G3:Go back to reanimator on the play for speed. He burns me to 15 before I go off. I play conservatively with Griselbrand as he has 2 untapped mountains with 2 cards in hand showing double bolt, and could kill me if I went lower. So, I draw 14 and get just enough gas to Tendrils him exactly - and then he shows me the double bolt in his hand. He also laments that he left his pyrostatic pillars at home... Good day to be on storm!

    I'm figuring at this point, I'm going to have to run out of luck here soon - have gotten a few pretty good matchups now...

    4-1

    Round 6:John Bates with Goblins
    I win the die roll (finally)
    G1: He keeps his, I go to 6 with an ok hand. I duress him early and see a grip full of goblins - guess my luck hasn't run out yet! Or has it...? I keep filtering with ponder and brainstorm trying to find any business (2 each in total) while he continues to attack me with lackey, war marshal tokens, among other goblins. The turn before I die, I'm at 11, and finally find what I need. Griselbrand swings for 7 and I barely Tendrils him for 12 which is enough after his 2 fetches. Close call! Aside - I love Goblins! That deck is such a blast to play!
    G2: I board into Ad Naus (see a trend?). He mulls down to 6, and then drops Leyline T0. I have a tough time containing my excitement as I boarded out all graveyard based cards! I inquisition him, see 2x War Marshal, Ringleader, and Warchief: ouch strong hand for going to 6 and dropping leyline. I take a war marshal, as I have another Inquisition in my hand to take a warchief the following turn. I do that, and durdle for a couple turns afterwards. He drops a Ringleader, and flips 3 non-goblins (whew), and I Ad Naus from 15 for the win.

    Ok, the good matchups have to end soon, right?

    5-1

    Round 7: Charles Kaufmann with UR Delver
    I win the die roll (yay!)
    G1: We both keep. I drop a land, 2x Lotus Petal, Cast Entomb, Shallow Grave, swing for 7 with Griselbrand, draw 21 and.... fail. Pass! I don't remember what he did, but I reanimated another T2 and won from there.
    G2: He beats me down pretty fast before I can do anything.
    G3: I'm at 17 somehow (maybe he bolted me?) - reanimate Griselbrand, swing, Draw 14 keeping my life total at 10 to play around any burn in his hand. Drop 3x Lotus Petal, 1x Chrome Mox and then Tendrils for 16.

    This one wasn't easy, but Griselbrand manages to get there! Fast damage backed by countermagic was rough.

    6-1

    Round 8: Dan Lanthier with RUG
    He wins the die roll (back to this...)
    G1: He mulls to 6, I keep my 7. He doesn't put on pressure early, and I duress away a Force seeing Daze. Then manage to filter into what I need and Grizzlebees/Tendrils for the kill.
    G2: Board into Ad Naus, and I'm pretty sure I did nothing this game. I watched him beat me to a very low life total and I die.
    G3: One of the most epic games I've played in a long long time. He keeps, and just plays some lands. I get Griselbrand into the yard via entomb or careful study or something (I don't remember). It turns into me playing around Daze and Spell Pierce, and jamming my reanimation spells into his Force of Wills. I get 3 of them forced, and am down to 3 cards in my hand. I drop a chrome mox and imprint a careful study to play around spell pierce based on my mana. Jam the last reanimation spell... flusterstorm! I don't have 3 mana to pay, so my spell is countered, and I'm left with 0 cards. He finds a mongoose finally, and starts beating me for 3. I topdeck a ponder hoping for a miracle, and lo and behold, it finds ANOTHER goryo's vengeance. I pass one more turn to make sure I can play around soft counters including flusterstorm. I draw brainstorm, and cast that first hoping to bait a counter - and it works! REB eats my brainstorm, and he's left with 1 card. I jam my *5th* reanimation effect of the game and it finally resolves, much to Dan's chagrin (sorry Dan!). I'm able to draw 14, and it turns out I needed his REB to be able to kill him, as I tendrils for exact life (if I'm remembering correctly).

    Epic games, but I felt kinda bad for lucksacking Dan out. He still made Day 2 at least!

    7-1

    Round 9: Harold White with Maverick
    I win the die roll. I had been sorta hoping for more of these matches, as I had watched Richard Cheese totally roll over Maverick in the grinders on Friday even though I didn't have bounce. My speed felt like it put the matchup in my favor still.
    G1: He keeps, I go to 6. T2 reanimate Grizzlebrand, draw 21, and fizzle. Do it again T3 for the kill.
    G2: Board into Ad Naus, as Maverick runs Maze of Ith, Karakas, potentially Bojuka Bog, Scavenging Ooze, etc. I keep a weak hand (probably should have thrown it back), of a couple inquisitions, some land, and a duress. Deck totally turns into mono-discard, and all I do is cast 3 inquisitions and 2 Duress this game, and play some land. Neato!
    G3: Decide that I could use the speed rather than graveyard resilience on the play, and go back to reanimation with 3x inquisition. He drops an early Relic of Progenitus, and a Tropical Island after having shown me in G2 that he boarded into countermagic. I keep searching for what I need, but couldn't find it before 2x Hierarch, Knight of the Reliquary, and Aven Mindcensor beatdown kill me.

    Matchup wasn't as easy as I thought... pod 6 is jerks anyway!

    7-2 making Day 2. Super stoked at this point, as it is my 2nd GP ever, and especially with this insane home brew of a deck!

    Colorado crew (Richard Cheese, Travis, and Dan) head out for an amazing dinner at Holeman & Finch. If anyone is every there again, you MUST TRY THIS PLACE. Get to sleep later than I'd like (1:30) having to get up for Day 2, but oh well, thems the breaks.

    Sunday:

    Up early for the players' meeting, and to get my sick T-Shirt! Tin Fins!

    Round 10: Anthony Morris with RUG
    I win the die roll
    G1: We both keep our hands. He applies some early pressure. I reanimate Griselbrand after a few turns, and with my life total at 4, don't have enough artifact mana or rituals to kill him. So I mini-tendrils him to 3 and get my life total back to a health place. As I didn't have another Tendrils in hand, I didn't feel safe drawing more off of Griselbrand and trying to storm more, so I pass. Next turn another reanimated Griselbrand swings in for the kill.
    G2: He keeps, I mull to 5. He gets me to 16, and I Ad Naus for the kill.

    8-2

    My memory is blank here - I think we finished early and I must have done something. But I can't for the life of me remember anything. Not enough caffeine yet maybe.

    Round 11: Bryan Harrington with Maverick
    I win the die roll
    G1: We both keep. It goes as all Game 1's have gone thus far in Atlanta: I win pretty easily on T2 after his GSZ for 0 on his T1.
    G2: Board into Ad Naus. He drops a pithing needle on Griselbrand (woot!), and I inquisition seeing Swords to Plowshares (woot!), Ooze, Knight, and Wasteland. I grab Knight as I don't care about grave hate - and he ends up beating me down with Ooze to 6. I finally am able to Ad Naus from 6 (ballsy!) and just BARELY lose to Ad Naus.
    G3: Back to reanimator for speed. I reanimate Grizzlebees on T3, draw 21 and fizzle due to not finding Tendrils. So I dark ritual and Inquisition him 3 times - seems good, right? It seemed SO good to me that I apparently got cocky and stopped paying attention enough. My only black source in play is an Underground Sea and I've seen a wasteland in his hand from the inquisitions that I promptly forget about. I pass the turn, and leave 1 land in my hand to play, and it happens to be an Island when it could have easily been an Underground sea. He wastes my Sea on his turn and passes, and then I realize my awful mistake. I start filtering with Ponder and Brainstorm trying to find another black source, and eventually do. However I don't have enough mana to reanimate with it and he kills me on his turn. Definitely my biggest punt of the tournament - hopefully I'll learn from that one in the future, as it still stings a bit.

    8-3

    After this round, I catch up with Riley whom I met in Indy to try to get my mind off of the match I threw away. Thanks Riley!

    Round 12: Brian Kibler with Maverick
    He wins the die roll
    G1: We both keep our 7's, but mine is a little soft without a lot of business but a few ponders and brainstorms. I duress and see a bunch of creatures including scavening ooze and thalia. Uh oh. He gets those in play right quick, and proceeds to beat my face. I made a big mistake in thinking that my Goryo's Vengeance in hand was a Shallow Grave, so with 1 Griselbrand in the yard, I entomb for another when he has Ooze and 1 mana open. Then I think I'm all smart by casting Goryo's Vengeance to reanimate, but he obviously removes that one from the game. Shallow grave would have gotten there... whoops! First G1 loss of the tournament. :(
    G2: Since I didn't actually do anything G1, I leave reanimation in, and swap Duress for Inquisitions. On T2, I reanimate Grizzle, and Tendrils for the win. Brian obviously thinks this is hilarious!
    G3: Keep with the reanimation plan for speed, but that was probably a mistake. He ends up dropping double tormod's crypt, that I'm almost able to play around due to 2 reanimation effects. He knows I have to act first, so he's not going to pop crypts on a whim... so I reanimate, he crypts, I reanimate in response, he crypts again. I let them resolve, and then I entomb - and I failed to notice he had a billion mana up, and proceeds to drop Aven Mindcensor in response. I don't find Griselbrand in my top 4. What a blowout! He beats me down from there.

    8-4

    Very fun games, even though I lost. Brian's a fun guy to play against! However, I sure could use some more wins to have a chance to T64 or T32...

    Round 13: Daniel Hall with 12 Post
    I think I may have won the die roll, I didn't write it down. :(
    G1: I keep a good 7, with a T1 swamp, ritual, entomb, goryo's vengeance. Draw 21 and... fizzle. Seems to be happening more than it should at this point. I can never seem to find Tendrils! I pass, and he drops Karakas. Great. We go back and forth for a bit, and I build up my hand for to just ritual and lotus petal a few times into Tendrils for the kill.
    G2: I don't remember what he played, but it wasn't relevant for the Ad Naus board. T1, I drop swamp, Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, Dark Rit, Ad Nauseum from 20... and win.

    9-4

    Daniel was a nice guy that I had talked to for a bit during Richard Cheese's grinders on Friday. He was pretty frustrated, but we wished each other luck regardless. Back on track!

    Round 14: Christian Griffin with UR Delver
    I won the die roll.
    G1: He mulls to 5, I keep my 7. I think I cantrip a for a couple turns while he beats me with Goblin Guide. I do my thing, but fizzle on 14, and pass (stopped to keep my life total high in case of burn). Next turn, I draw shallow grave, jam it into spell pierce, then case goryo's vengeance for the win.
    G2: Board into Ad Naus. He applies some good pressure, but I'm sculpting a good hand. I Ad Naus from 11, down to 2. Have what I need to win (rituals, LED, IT, etc.). I drop LED and he bolts me in response to kill me.
    G3: He mulls to 4(!!) and I keep my 7. He drops Guide, and I brainstorm into 2 reanimation effects with Grizzlebees in the yard. I dark ritual, Duress taking spell snare, and jam a Goryo's Vengeance into his other spell snare. Next turn I ponder into another duress. Dark Rit, Duress, and he double bolts me in response to get me down to 5. I reanimate, swing, draw 7, and get enough cards to Tendrils for 16 for the win.

    10-4

    Hoping at this point I can eke out one more win to get some cash and a pro point!

    Round 15: Orrin Beasley with Maverick
    I win the die roll. Looking promising!
    G1: I mull to 6. T2 Goryo's Vengeance, swing, draw, tendrils for the kill. Orrin found the sequence fairly amusing. :)
    G2: Board into Ad Naus, but couldn't find business. I see he has things like Karakas and Path to Exile that I don't care about, but just can never find what I need, and Qasali Pridemage beatdown gets there.
    G3: Decide to hope for a fast kill before hate is dropped and board back into reanimation. My hands suck, and I mull to 5 with a keepable hand with disruption and filter. Don't end up getting enough, and his Knight + pridemage + hierarch beat me down pretty fast.

    10-5

    Games with Orrin were fun, and he's a super nice guy as well. Dissapointed that I didn't make T64, but at the same time ecstatic that I managed to take a home brew with 0 testing to Day 2 and 86th place overall at my second ever grand prix! Seems like pretty decent results to me!

    At this point, I'm pretty burned out, and Richard Cheese and I head to the airport to get some beer while waiting for our flights home.


    On the deck:

    The deck overall exceeded my expectations. I can't see how a transformational board is correct, but I've not yet gotten enough testing to figure out what is better. Maybe a Show and Tell plan like Reanimator? Not sure yet, but will discuss in the Tin Fins thread. If I were to run the transformational board again, I'd probably end up running 3 Duress Main, 1 Inquisition Main, 2 Inquisition in the board, and 2 Chain of Vapor in the board. Or something to that extent - some kind of bounce and 2-3 of them.


    Overall, I had a blast in Atlanta. The venue and transportation were great, and I really enjoyed meeting and talking with a lot of folks there. Shoutouts for good conversation and/or taking an interest in the deck to Riley Curran, Drew Levin, Caleb Durward, Brian Kibler, Orrin Beasley, and lthe Colorado Crew: Richard Cheese, Travis Locklear, and Dan Murrow! And thanks Richard for creating a working brew!

    Can't wait until the next Legacy GP - and if any of you head out to the SCG Open in Denver later this year, maybe I'll see you there. :)

  2. #2

    Re: 86th at GP Atlanta with Tin Fins (or Reanimator Storm)

    Hi there! Normally I don't comment that much on tourney reports, but that is a lovely write-up!

    Thoroughly enjoyed reading through it. I myself am unsure whether to pick Magic up actually, but this gets me itching to play. Thanks for that mate :D

  3. #3
    Just call me Dick.
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    Re: 86th at GP Atlanta with Tin Fins (or Reanimator Storm)

    Round 8 was so epic. If I'm not mistaken you actually shuffled off that last ponder and nailed one of your three remaining reanimation spells off the top.

    I think Dan's mistake was using his Flusterstorm when he had 2x Daze, 2x Force in hand, but that was just an immense amount of hate to fight through. His graveyard was a fucking encyclopedia of countermagic.
    I think the biggest thing is the deep seeded emotional understanding that the right play is the right play regardless of outcomes. The ability to make a decision 5 straight times, lose 5 times because of it, and still make it the 6th time if it's the right play. - Jon Finkel

    "Notions of chance and fate are the preoccupation of men engaged in rash undertakings."

  4. #4
    shallow
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    Re: 86th at GP Atlanta with Tin Fins (or Reanimator Storm)

    Quote Originally Posted by Richard Cheese View Post
    Round 8 was so epic. If I'm not mistaken you actually shuffled off that last ponder and nailed one of your three remaining reanimation spells off the top.

    I think Dan's mistake was using his Flusterstorm when he had 2x Daze, 2x Force in hand, but that was just an immense amount of hate to fight through. His graveyard was a fucking encyclopedia of countermagic.
    Yes, that's right. I did shuffle off of ponder and rip a Goryo's Vengeance off the top. Lucksack indeed!

  5. #5
    itsJulian.com - Legacy Videos
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    Re: 86th at GP Atlanta with Tin Fins (or Reanimator Storm)

    Quote Originally Posted by Richard Cheese View Post
    His graveyard was a fucking encyclopedia of countermagic.
    Someone please add this to his signature so I can keep stumbling across it. Made me smile

    Also, gratz to your great finish! :-)
    The seven cardinal sins of Legacy:
    1. Discuss the unbanning of Land Tax Earthcraft.
    2. Argue that banning Force of Will would make the format healthier.
    3. Play Brainstorm without Fetchlands.
    4. Stifle Standstill.
    5. Think that Gaea's Blessing will make you Solidarity-proof.
    6. Pass priority after playing Infernal Tutor.
    7. Fail to playtest against Nourishing Lich (coZ iT wIlL gEt U!).

  6. #6
    shallow
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    Re: 86th at GP Atlanta with Tin Fins (or Reanimator Storm)

    @julian - suggestion taken. and thanks!
    Find me on Twitter: @beanaman

    Quote Originally Posted by Richard Cheese View Post
    His graveyard was a fucking encyclopedia of countermagic.

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