Punishment: A Grand Prix New Jersey Report (24th with Nic Fit)

[HoneyT]

So I suppose you all are expecting a report.. Guess I should oblige. You'll have to forgive me, my notes are super shitty this time so some of the details are a little fuzzy but you'll get the idea. Anyway, here's the list for the impatient:

// Deck: Punishing Nic Fit (60)

// Lands
2 Badlands
2 Bayou
1 Bloodstained Mire
3 Forest
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Mountain
3 Swamp
1 Taiga
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wooded Foothills

// Creatures
1 Eternal Witness
1 Huntmaster of the Fells
1 Obstinate Baloth
1 Primeval Titan
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Thragtusk
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
4 Veteran Explorer

// Spells
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Cabal Therapy
1 Golgari Charm
4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Liliana of the Veil
1 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Pernicious Deed
3 Punishing Fire
4 Sensei's Divining Top

// Sideboard
SB: 1 Golgari Charm
SB: 1 Krosan Grip
SB: 1 Massacre
SB: 3 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 2 Slaughter Games
SB: 3 Surgical Extraction
SB: 3 Thoughtseize
SB: 1 Toxic Deluge

I had been going back and forth on what I would play between the above list or my take on Lejay/Qweerios' Choke Stompy deck. Thanks to Arianrhod for pointing out I didn't fly all the way there to not run my baby. (Choke Stompy is actually super legit though)

Anyway, so I arrived at JFK and met up with James (jbone2016) and his friends Kevin, and Dennis who I would be rooming with. We got to the event site on Friday where I lost round 2 of a grinder to Food Chain and pretty much chillaxed the rest of the day. I met/got introduced to/reacquainted with/got to hang out with some awesome fellow Sourcers. Arianrhod, MrIggins, .dk, Richard Cheese among them. It was nice seeing you all. Blah, blah, blah get food, sleep, blah blah, wake up and TIME TO PUNISH PEOPLE.

DAY 1

No byes for this guy.

Round 1 – Matt with Elves

I lose the die roll, no surprise there.

G1- I keep a reasonable 6 in the dark and he Hoofs me turn 3 or 4 vs minimal resistance.
G2- I keep a fine, but slow hand with Punishing Fire + Grove and a Top. Just need to find a bit more disruption with Top. I don't and he's able to get a dude in play and Natural Order it into Progenitus immediately. I had 3 shuffle effects with Top in 3 turns (Thragtusk gave me one more) to find a Liliana, failed to do so and died.

0-1

Not the start to the tournament I was hoping for.

Round 2 – Devin with Death and Taxes

Again, I lose the die roll.

G1- Pretty academic game. He Stoneforges, I Therapy his Batterskull, flashback on his Revoker and play a Deed. Nuke his board and Liliana + Punishing Fire locks him out of the game.
G2- Not much to say here either. He Stoneforges again, I Therapy his Batterskull again, flash it back to take 2 Mirran Crusader leaving him with pretty much nothing and Thrun cleans up house.

1-1

Round 3 – Christopher with UW Stoneblade

Again I lose the die roll (maybe I'll just start mentioning when I actually win one)

G1- He Stoneforges into Batterskull. I don't have the Therapy so he makes a dude and pokes me for a bit and gains a bunch of life. I land a Thrun to hold it off for awhile until he finds a TNN to put it on. I of course have a Deed to take care of both while regenerating the troll. He Digs Through Time and finds some things that die to Punishing Fire and Thrun + Wolf Run makes short work of him.

G2- More of the same except I get to Therapy his Skull. He plays 2 toughness creatures and I kill them and clean up with Thrun.

2-1

Round 4 – Simon with Mono Black Pox

Not going to mention losing the die roll.

G1- He leads with a swamp and Inquisitions something irrelevant. I have a Grove to keep returning Fires to my hand so The Rack doesn't kill me. I eventually set off an Explorer and invalidate his whole deck and kill him with something.
G2- He leads with T0 Leyline of the Void and Dark Rituals into a Phyrexian Totem (yes, THAT Phyrexian Totem). Unfortunately, the Leyline stops me from setting off an Explorer and I play a Top. He Dark Rituals 2 more turns in a row to attack me to 10 before it gets swept up in a Deed along with The Rack. Unfortunately I have to leave the Leyline in play. I end up Surgically Extracting his Racks and Slaughter Games-ing his Tombstalkers leaving him with exactly Mishra's Factories with which to kill me. He attacks with one and I Pfire it and extract those as well. At that point it was only a matter of time before he ran out of Sinkholes to kill my green sources, stick a Baloth and kill him.

3-1

Round 5 – Sam with Modern RG Aggro

I actually win the die roll! (not that it would have mattered this round)

G1- I lead with Veteran Explorer and he leads with Copperline Gorge into Vexing Devil. I let him keep it. He plays a couple more dudes and I chump block with a few Explorers and cast a Pernicious Deed. “I've heard of that card” - him.
“Yeah, it's not very good for you” - me as I wipe all of his permanents.

I cast a Titan and win shortly thereafter.

He explains that he and his friend accidentally registered for this GP but figured they'd attend and play their modern decks anyway. I was impressed he made it to the 3-1 bracket.

G2- Pernicious Deed > Jund Hackblade (go on, look it up)

4-1

Round 6 – Steven with Miracles

Lose the die roll.

G1- A 30 min grind fest where I have Deed for his Entreat, Punishing Fires for his Jaces and clean up with Thrun and Fires.
G2- He goes for a quick Entreat and I Deed him. I manage to Slaughter Games his Jaces at some point. He eventually finds another Entreat and we have a counter war over Maelstrom Pulse on the angels. He Counterspells and I REB, he Forces the REB which I let resolve and cast another REB on the Counterspell. He spins his Top and finds a Swords for the angel token I targeted and I can't find another Deed before they kill me.
G3- We only have about 10 minutes for game three so we both play very quickly and I manage to Slaughter Games his Entreats and Baneslayer Angels leaving him with just Jaces in his deck to win vs active Punishing Fires with 3 Groves and 10 lands in play and refuses to concede in turns.

Very frustrating draw.

4-1-1

Round 7 - Aaron with Gold Digger

G1- Baneslayer Angel makes quick work of me while he counters Liliana and Deed
G2- I resolve a Liliana and Thrun happens and he's left Digging Through Time and drawing a bunch of cards that don't do anything as I can Punish any Jaces.
G3- See game 2. He manages to stick a Moat which annoys me momentarily until I find a Pulse.

5-1-1

Round 8 – Ryan with Miracles

G1- He leads with a blue land and Top. Fuck the draw bracket, this shit's annoying. Again, my notes are kind of fuzzy at this point. He Entreats me at some point and I die.
G2- Slaughter Entreats and Jace, have Punishing Fires for Cliques, Snaps, and Venser. Thrun kills him quickly.
G3- Slaughter Entreats again and have active Fires again for the only other win-cons in his deck. He concedes in turns.

6-1-1

Round 9 - Daniel with Death and Taxes

G1- He manages to land a Batterskull and aggressively uses Flickerwisp to keep blockers off the table while Wasting my Groves and kills me quickly.
G2- I Deed him and lock him out with Fires and Liliana and clean up with Thrun + Baloth.
G3- We're very short on time and have about 2.5 minutes for game 3. He's stuck on 2 lands and I Deed his 2 Vials and couple dorks and cast another Deed. We finish turns and I show him my hand of Fires, Decay, Huntmaster, Thragtusk with a Deed in play and he concedes.

WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO DAY 2 at 7-1-1!! We get out of the hall near midnight grab some fast food and I go straight to bed. I wake up, brush my teeth, nobody cares blah blah blah...

DAY 2

Round 10 – Andrew with UWR Stoneblade

G1- People Stoneforge into Batterskull, I'll keep Therapying it away. My deck invalidates the rest of his deck's strategy.
G2- See G1
8-1-1

Round 11 – Donald with Jund

G1- He leads with Bayou into Thoughtseize and I almost cry of happiness. I Punish a Deathrite and a Bob, Deed a couple of Goyfs and play a Titan and Wolf Run him to death.
G2- He actually steals one with a pretty good draw on his part. A bit of discard and a timely Wasteland to keep me off Grove was enough to allow his Goyfs and Bloodbraids to do some work on me and had the bolt to finish me off before I could answer them.
G3- Played out almost exactly like game one. It's the classic Big Zoo vs Little Zoo thing. He plays Deathrites and Bobs in his deck and I play Thragtusk and Primeval Titan in mine.

9-1-1

Round 12 – Wesley with UR Delver

G1- I mulligan and keep a fine but slow hand. He leads with Delver into Delver that both blind flip. He counters a Deed and has a bolt to finish me.
G2- He plays some dudes and I play bigger dudes that gain life and proceed to Punish him.
G3- I have to mulligan again and he nuts all over me. Delver into blind flip into counter removal spell, counter removal spell, triple bolt, you're dead. Guess that's why you play the deck huh.

Frustrating loss to a very strong matchup but still 9-2-1

Round 13 – Brenda with Punishing Maverick

G1- I shred her hand and Deed her board and clean up with Titan + Thragtusk.
G2- I shred her hand and Deed her board and she finds Knight into GSZ for another Knight and I can't find removal spells in time.
G3- I shred her hand and Deed her board and land a Huntmaster and Liliana. We go to turns and she concedes to my superior board.

10-2-1

Round 14 – Jeff with Death and Taxes

G1- Another victim who's Batterskull I Therapy away. I lock him out with Liliana and Punishing Fire and kill him with something.
G2- He leads with Mother of Runes. I lead with Veteran Explorer. He attacks on turn 2. . . . . I block. We get lands and he's stuck on three the rest of the game while I kill every single creature he played and killed him with Thrun while he had 2 Swords to Plowshares in hand.

11-2-1

Round 15 – Paulo with UWR Delver

G1- I love these Stoneforge decks. He gets a Skull and I Therapy it away. He eventually lands a TNN and a Delver that I Deed away. I land a Liliana and a Thrun and he dies.
G2- We have a counter war over a Liliana that I win and he can't beat Pfires and Lily. I Thrun him again and that's that.

12-2-1 good for 24th place, some dough and some amount of Pro Points.

Time for the obligatory props and slops section I guess?

Props:
-All the awesome people I got to hang out with this weekend. Josh, Kevin, Sam and anybody I'm missing. (sorry)
-2 toughness creatures
-Mr. The Last Troll
-Mostly very pleasant opponents all weekend

Slops:
-A day 1 that lasted 14+ hours
-New Jersey

And a very special thank you and shout out to James (jbone2016), Kevin, and Dennis; the roommates for the weekend. I had an awesome time and look forward to seeing you guys again!

As always, thanks for reading!!

Love,

Tim

[nedleeds]

Didn't read ... but immediately thought



HERE IS JUSTICE. HERE IS PUNISHMENT. HERE .... IN ME.

[RaNDoMxGeSTuReS]

Jund Hackblade.

[Actinide]

Hey dude! It was awesome to meet you. Glad you were able to win your last round to get Top 32 (and that my breaker math was correct in drawing wouldn't have helped you Top 64 in the end). :)

[.dk]

I counted 6 Therapied Batterskulls. That's insane! Awesome finish Tim - congrats!

[ESG]

It's cool that you finished in 24th place, but you narrowly averted a much-lower finish due to round time expiring. I like the deck, but any slow, grindy deck has real costs in a longer tournament, especially if you are paired against a slow player or another slow deck. I personally would not want to put so much of my fate in my opponents' hands, because if you run into a few who don't want to concede to a soft lock or a superior board, there isn't much you can do about it. If more of your opponents took the stance that your Round 6 opponent did and refused to concede in turns, you wouldn't have made it into the money, which would have been tragic. Anyway, I like the deck and sideboard, and congrats on your finish.

[venice]

Man, how I love that Obstinate Baloth in your list! Congrats on the great finish!

[Ralf]

It's cool that you finished in 24th place, but you narrowly averted a much-lower finish due to round time expiring. I like the deck, but any slow, grindy deck has real costs in a longer tournament, especially if you are paired against a slow player or another slow deck. I personally would not want to put so much of my fate in my opponents' hands, because if you run into a few who don't want to concede to a soft lock or a superior board, there isn't much you can do about it. If more of your opponents took the stance that your Round 6 opponent did and refused to concede in turns, you wouldn't have made it into the money, which would have been tragic. Anyway, I like the deck and sideboard, and congrats on your finish.

+1.
It can also be applied to players playing Miracle even if Entreat can close the deal in one swing.
When you play control decks:
- you have to play fast
- force your opponent to play faster
- know when to concede G1

[Arianrhod]

Great job, and it was nice to meet you (finally) too! Too bad one of those draws wasn't a win -- you'd have been top 16 and gotten a pro tour invite for sure =(

Always next year, I guess!

[Bobmans]

Congratulations on your performance. Awesome to see the PFire NicFit getting this kind of result. Especially considering that the list looks more like it was before changing to a DRS/VetEx split and like it was before TC and DTT existed, hence Liliana being awesome.

[L10]

Fantastic finish! It's a shame you have two ties. Why no Reclamation Sage as part of the GSZ package?

[ANRoebuck]

Awesome result! Well done :D Really glad to see someone doing well with nicfit. It's the deck that got me into the format and it will always be a pet favourite. Have a few questions about your build / how the event went:

What's your combo match like with this build? Nicfit is always better against fair decks than against combo, but your build seems particularly skewed. I notice you only played against one combo deck in 15 rounds, and that was one of the two losses. You're low on disruption for game 1 (I know you have Liliana, but it's 3 mana and they choose what to discard). Did you test much against combo? Was there much combo in the room generally or was there a big bias towards creature decks?

No love for Phyrexian Tower? The ability to sac an Explorer to Tower on turn two is, in my view, one of the best reasons to play the deck. Turn two Thragtusk/Zenith for 4/Slaughter Games+Thoughtseize is no laughing matter, especially on the play. Only 1 of your 23 lands doesn't make coloured mana, so I'm sure you could get away with playing a Tower in this list. Plus tapping for colourless isn't terrible in a deck with 25 spells you can use colourless mana on, plus Top to sink it into later.

Golgari Charm straight in the main instead of in the side is a nice move. How did it work out for you?

Do you think all 4 Tops are necessary? The card is crazy good but I've never played more than 3.

[Richard Cheese]

Best line right here:

I eventually set off an Explorer and invalidate his whole deck

[razvan]

Excellent report, but I gotta say... why can't I play against Jund Hackblade and Phyrexian Totem... instead of playing pro's with the best decks... :P

[HoneyT]

Thanks everyone!

@L10 and ANRoebuck: Come on over to the Nic Fit thread and I'll be happy to answer the more decklist specific and matchup questions there!

[Dat_Gentleman]

Round 8 – Ryan with Miracles

G1- He leads with a blue land and Top. Fuck the draw bracket, this shit's annoying. Again, my notes are kind of fuzzy at this point. He Entreats me at some point and I die.
G2- Slaughter Entreats and Jace, have Punishing Fires for Cliques, Snaps, and Venser. Thrun kills him quickly.
G3- Slaughter Entreats again and have active Fires again for the only other win-cons in his deck. He concedes in turns.

6-1-1

Hey Tim, it's your round 8 opponent.

Double Slaughter Games was absolutely brutal game two, I should have conceded on the spot when the second hit, I just still wasn't very familiar with your deck and wanted some more info.

Game three you hadn't cast a Slaughter Games at that point, I was still live to drawing two Entreats, I just thought you had some board position and I was still on tilt from my round seven opponent not conceding to lethal on board, so I didn't want to be that guy.

What is your plan for Entreat beyond Slaughter Games? It felt like double PF or a one-of Maelstrom Pulse was not nearly enough. Also, I'm pretty sure you SG'd Jace before Entreat in game two, what was your reasoning behind that? It seemed backwards to me.

Congrats on your finish, it makes me feel great about the concession. Good luck to you in the future, you really know your stuff with the deck.

[HoneyT]

Hey Tim, it's your round 8 opponent.

Double Slaughter Games was absolutely brutal game two, I should have conceded on the spot when the second hit, I just still wasn't very familiar with your deck and wanted some more info.

Game three you hadn't cast a Slaughter Games at that point, I was still live to drawing two Entreats, I just thought you had some board position and I was still on tilt from my round seven opponent not conceding to lethal on board, so I didn't want to be that guy.

What is your plan for Entreat beyond Slaughter Games? It felt like double PF or a one-of Maelstrom Pulse was not nearly enough. Also, I'm pretty sure you SG'd Jace before Entreat in game two, what was your reasoning behind that? It seemed backwards to me.

Congrats on your finish, it makes me feel great about the concession. Good luck to you in the future, you really know your stuff with the deck.

Sorry, some of those details were a bit fuzzy in those last few rounds that day. I also have Pernicious Deeds as outs to Entreat, which I believe I had in game 2 which would have been my reasoning for getting Jaces first. I didn't have a REB or PFire at that point. It was a pleasure meeting and playing you though!

[iamajellydonut]

G3- We only have about 10 minutes for game three so we both play very quickly and I manage to Slaughter Games his Entreats and Baneslayer Angels leaving him with just Jaces in his deck to win vs active Punishing Fires with 3 Groves and 10 lands in play and refuses to concede in turns.

You have all of my sympathies. I had the nuts against a Thopter player as we went to time, and my opponent stone-faced me.

Before we even flip hands, my opponent asks if I concede. I do an "uuuuuuuuuuuh, no", flip my hand, ask him if he concedes, and am met with a lifeless gaze. I went to the draw bracket and, needless to say, did not make day 2.

[cdr]

You have all of my sympathies. I had the nuts against a Thopter player as we went to time, and my opponent stone-faced me.

Before we even flip hands, my opponent asks if I concede. I do an "uuuuuuuuuuuh, no", flip my hand, ask him if he concedes, and am met with a lifeless gaze. I went to the draw bracket and, needless to say, did not make day 2.

Just as a general note, know where the line is on Improperly Determining a Winner, which will get you a quick DQ. Flipping your hand is legal, since that's something you can legally do during a Magic game, but flipping over the top card(s) of your library is not, since that's not something you can legally do in a game.

Any method of determining a winner that isn't from within the game is a DQ. If your opponent ever offers, hey, easy match win.

[seamonkeyman]

Congrats Tim on a fantastic finish!
It's your hotel-mate Kevin :)

Nice job on your report. It was good to read about how your matches played out and how many favorable ones you had. You're starting to convince me to pick up Nic Fit, but I doubt that would ever happen.... I can never leave home without my Brainstorms :)

Anyway, it was great to meet you and I hope we can meet up for another event sometime soon!