110th at GP New Jersey (11-4)

[Ziveeman]

Decklist & Tournament Report here: http://mtgdeckblog.tumblr.com/post/1...0th-place-11-4

Pasting Tournament Report below:

Round 1 - Bye

Round 2 - Junk Depths

I lose the die roll.

Game 1 - My opponent goes turn one Mox Diamond, Thespian’s Stage into Spirit of the Labyrinth. I Swords it. At this point I am wondering what kind of Lands variant he is. I am further confused when he plays a Deathrite Shaman. It doesn’t actually hit me until I Probe him a couple turns later and see an Abrupt Decay and Living Wish that he is playing Junk Depths. Unfortunately I only have a Daze which doesn’t stop the Living Wish for Dark Depths. After digging to try and find a Swords to Plowshares - which would surprisingly bring me back into the game since he has no hand left and actually didn’t have a lot of lands out in play. Unfortunately I don’t find a second STP to get rid of the Marit Lage and I die.

Game 2 - I mull to six and keep 3 fetch, Wasteland, Probe, Treasure Cruise. Likely a bad keep but I didn’t want to go to five against a deck that loves to Wasteland you again and again. I Probe him and see 2 Mox Diamond, 2 Thoughtseize, Exploration, Urborg, and Verdant Catacombs. Now I’m hoping I draw another land off the top! Which I do. How lucky! He casts the first Thoughtseize and takes Cruise. I draw a Force of Will and another Treasure Cruise and when I Wasteland his Urborg he Crop Rotations it out, which I decline to Force (probably should have?). He gets Bojuka Bog. I get a Delver out and start attacking him and he eventually gets a Knight of the Reliquary out with a DRS. I Swords the 6/6 Knight to bring him up to 15. My life total is slightly lower than that so it’s a pretty close race. Eventually I’m at 3 life and he is at 7 life. I topdeck a Lightning Bolt to Bolt his DRS. He gets me down to 1 life. I swing to bring him to 4. He draws a blank and passes. I attack him for 3. Another draw step. He scoops. Phew.

Game 3 - I mull again, this time i don’t remember what, but he floods out when I have a Delver.

2-0

Round 3 - Tin Fins

This is a friend of mine and I reasonably suspected what he was on - Tin Fins. I lose the die roll.

Game 1 - He mulligans to six and I Probe him on turn one. Goryo’s Vengeance, Griselbrand, Scrubland, Polluted Delta, and Marsh Flats. I don’t remember how soon I have a Delver out but by the time he has enough land out and goes up to the maximum hand size rule to discard Griselbrand, I have enough counterspells to stop him when he goes for the Vengeance to block my Delver.

Game 2 - I have a T2 Rest in Peace but only one land and I believe a Brainstorm. I manage to rip a land anyway and play it on turn 2. I have a Meddling Mage to follow up, naming Dark Ritual. I can either name Dark Ritual, Chain of Vapor (to protect Rest in Peace), or Griselbrand (since one of the ways to beat a RIP is casting Griselbrand and storming out from there). I decided to name Dark Ritual since it casts a wider net in what it stops. I believe I have a Delver out soon as well. While he has a Lim Dul’s Vault, there isn’t enough time for him to get all of the cards he needed in time before I kill him. At the end of the game he shows me double Dark Ritual in hand with a Helm of Obedience on top of his deck.

3-0

Round 4 - Death and Taxes

I lose the die roll.

Game 1 - He mulls to six. He Swords my Delver. I bolt his first couple threats (I think a Mother of Runes and Thalia?). Then he rips a Serra Avenger. Literally can’t find an answer to that then he draws a Flickerwisp. I die.

Game 2 - He mulls to six. I Probe him to see Swords to Plowshares, 2 Stoneforge Mystic, Serra Avenger, 2 Plains. I have a True-Name & Delver in hand and decide to be on the True-Name plan. I Brainstorm, shuffle away the Delver, and make sure I hit the land drops for True-Name. And then a second True Name. He gets Batterskull out and a Serra Avenger to race then casts Cataclysm. I keep a True-Name and I believe I kill his Avenger? Either way I get there.

Game 3 - I don’t remember this game too much but I remember that he casts Cataclysm, leaving us with a few permanents left. I manage to have Delver with a Jitte on it and fail to remove the counters after Probing him and seeing Revoker >_>. I still manage to win with a couple of timely Bolts.

4-0

Round 5 - Elves

I lose the die roll.

Game 1 - He mulls to five. He still grinds me out and kills me.

Game 2 - I have Containment Priest, Grafdigger’s Cage, and I believe triple Delver of Secrets. He Decays one Delver then I drop Jitte and it’s over from there.

Game 3- I mull to five and keep Wasteland, Force, Mystic, Feast and Famine and Batterskull. I die.

4-1

Round 6 - Burning Reanimator

I finally win the die roll.

Game 1 - I have turn one Delver. He Thoughtseizes my Force of Will out of my hand turn one. Turn two he goes land, LED, Exhume, in response, crack the Exhume for Griselbrand. I try to fight through it but I can’t. I manage to hold the game out to see various cards like Burning Wish and Unburial Rites.

Game 2 - He mulls to five and when I Probe him I see Unmask, Scrubland, Badlands, LED, and Iona. I have a Grafdigger’s Cage out. I get out Stoneforge Mystic with Feast and Famine, put Rest in Peace into play then start beating him down and forcing him to discard. I get there.

Game 3 - He keeps a risky hand that needs just one mana source to go off. I have a Delver into Meddling Mage (naming Thoughtseize to protect my double Force of Will/double Daze hand). Eventually I land a Rest in Peace. When he goes for the Wear // Tear on the Rest in Peace, I Daze it, knowing his only mana sources are LEDs. He realizes this and eventually scoops.

5-1

Round 7 - Death and Taxes

I lose the die roll. He mulls to six and I put him on some sort of grindy deck for some reason.

Game 1 - I keep Gitaxian Probe, True-Name Nemesis, Wasteland, and lands. We get deck checked after drawing our opening hands for some reason. We are talking and he mentions that this is his first Legacy event. He mainly plays Limited. Alarm bells trigger for me now, that means he is likely on an unfair deck like Sneak Show where my hand is utterly bad. Ah well. When we get our decks back he plays Cavern of Souls naming Kor. Now I think he is on some some sort of Breakfast variant? Well I Probe him and see Mother of Runes, Port, Stoneforge Mystic, Aven Mindcensor, and Swords to Plowshares. Ok, good, Death and Taxes. I Wasteland him. He draws, plays a second Cavern and names Kor. I topdeck another Wasteland. He plays Port. I draw ANOTHER Wasteland. So I Waste him again, hoping he whiffs on his draw step. He plays another Port and passes. I start building up to True-Name mana as I STP his Stoneforge Mystic (which got a Sword of Fire and Ice). Once I hit five mana I drop Batterskull and True-Name finishes the job.

Game 2 - I have control of game 2, he has Vial but I have Containment Priest to lock it down. Eventually I get True-Name + Jitte this time around. He has to Revoker naming Jitte but I kill that Revoker and that’s the game.

6-1

Round 8 - UR Delver

I win the die roll.

The beginning of both of these games kind of blur for me since they played out pretty similarly. Game one I get overwhelmed by tokens and in game two, I have four mana out (one Wasteland) with a True-Name and a fifth land and a Jitte in hand. He only has two mana open. I kind of suspect a Smash to Smithereens but want to play around Daze (which is kind of likely). I neglect to Wasteland during my upkeep (to force him out of the mana for Smash to Smithereens) and when I attempt to equip Jitte to TNN, I get Smashed and die.

6-2

Round 9 - UR Delver

I win the die roll.

Game 1 - I have a turn one Delver and he has a turn one Delver. I Daze his and he Dazes back. Mine flips and starts attacking. His doesn’t flip. I resolve SFM grabbing Batterskull. He gets out Young Pyromancer. I decide to not Force so I can protect my Mystic. I get out Batterskull and when I Probe him I see just two Swiftspears. He scoops once I get out Batterskull and I Force his Treasure Cruise.

Game 2 - I Bolt all of his Pyromancers and get out True-Name Nemesis. However I do not attack so I can defend against a Swiftspear. When he drops Sulfuric Vortex, I realize I and slightly ahead on life totals (he is at 12 and I am at 16) so I decide to race. I manage to do so and get into Day 2!

7-2

Day 2

Round 10 - Storm

I lose the die roll. He seems like a combo-type guy.

Game 1 - He goes turn 1 Island Preordain. I put him on OmniTell. I play a turn 1 Delver. I have double Daze and Force of Will. He spends his next couple turns cantripping. My Delver flips and I attack him for 3. He untaps, plays Underground Sea then Duresses my Force. I Wasteland his Sea, then drop a TNN the turn after and he scoops.

Game 2 - He has a turn one Carpet. I decline to Force of Will. I get a SFM out getting Feast and Famine. He Pyroclasms. I then get a Delver. When I Probe him, he has another Carpet, 2 Cabal Rituals, Dark Ritual and Lotus Petal. I have double Force of Will in my hand and have enough mana to put in Sword and have enough mana to hardcast Force. This provides me enough defense that when he casts a Ponder with nearly lethal on the table I Force it.

8-2

Round 11 - Elves

I win the die roll.

Game 1 - He mulls to five and while I have a Delver, I don’t have enough pressure and he Natural Orders out a Crafterhoof and kills me.

Game 2 - I have Grim Lavamancer into Grafdigger’s Cage with Swords and Bolt and Izzet Staticaster.

Game 3 - I keep a hand with a Wasteland, Tundra, Containment Priest, Jitte, Ponder. He Cabal Therapies naming Force of Will, then he takes my Priest by saccing his Dryad Arbor. I don’t draw a red mana and when he goes for the Natural Order he kills me.

8-3

Round 12 - Death and Taxes

I lose the die roll.

Game 1 - He has a T1 Aether Vial. He Ports me for awhile but I help a land heavy hand I believe. I have double Delver. One flips but the other doesn’t at all. I resolve a True-Name Nemesis. I have double Bolt in my hand the whole game (he knows of one from the first Delver). I try to resolve a Treasure Cruise but he Spirits me :(. True-Name Nemesis + Bolts get there though.

Game 2 - He mulls to six and is clearly not happy. He opens with a Wasteland. I have a fetchland. At some point he Wastes me and I don’t have any mana either so we are just draw go-ing. I Wasteland his lands as well. I manage to have enough cards in my graveyard so I can resolve Treasure Cruise and draw out of the mana situation and I take it from there.

9-3

Round 13 - Elves

I lose the die roll.

Game 1 - As is with all game ones with Elves, I lose this one. I don’t have Force of Will for his Natural Order.

Game 2 - I keep a hand with double Wasteland, Tundra. He has a t1 Wirewood Symbiote or Quirion Ranger into t2 Cradle pass, so I Wasteland him. I believe I had a Jitte active in this game and he scooped it up. I think I Stoneforged for Batterskull with Jitte in my hand then next turn put Jitte into play.

Game 3 - I keep Volcanic Island, Pithing Needle, Brainstorm, Lightning Bolt, Batterskull, True-Name Nemesis and Umezawa’s Jitte. He Thoughtseizes me and takes Brainstorm. I draw a Grim Lavamancer. He Abrupt Decays it. I draw into a Wasteland, Probe him, seeing Glimpse of Nature, Craterhoof Behemoth, Natural Order, and Abrupt Decay. I Waste his Bayou.He plays Wirewood Symbiote. I Needle it. He plays Deathrite Shaman and Cradle. I Wasteland him then I Bolt the Deathrite Shaman (when it’s not summoning sick). He Abrupt Decays the Needle then bounces the Deathrite Shaman with the Symbiote. Luckily that burned his Abrupt Decay so I manage to get Jitte active and take the game.

10-3

Round 14 - Monored Sneak Attack

I lose the die roll.

Game 1 - I know what he is on so I mulligan two hands into 2 fetch, Delver, Ponder, Force of Will. He goes for the turn one Sneak Attack (City of Traitors, Petal, Seething Song -> Sneak Attack) and I Force it. I play Delver and he plays Chalice for one. Mine flips (revealing Probe). I start to burn cards to fuel a potential Treasure Cruise. He plays a second City into Crystal Ball. I draw a Wasteland. This gets me there.

Game 2 - He has Sandstone Needle pass. I Wasteland him. He plays a Mountain. I then play a Probe and see Sneak Attack, Emrakul, Lotus Petal and two City of Traitors. He goes for Sneak Attack and I Daze him. I then play a Needle naming Sneak Attack. He draws and plays another Sneak Attack. I eventually get True-Name Nemesis with Sword of Feast and Famine out.

11-3

Round 15 - Death and Taxes

I win the die roll.

Game 1 - I mull to five and keep three fetch, Force of Will, Bolt. I basically draw every land out of my deck and die.

Game 2 - He doesn’t know what I’m on - I only showed the Bolt and fetchlands. So I get double True-Name Nemesis out and he dies.

Game 3 - I have double Delver but he locks both of them down with Meekstone :( He has Thalia and Spirit of the Labyrinth to tax me to death and I can’t draw enough lands in time to unlock my Delvers and swing for the win.

11-4

If you have any questions or if any of my explanations were confusing, go ahead and ask. I’ll explain it deeper but at times these games just meld together and I might get some details mixed up.

[shopshopshop]

I think I was the Elves player from Toronto who played you in round 11. Nice to meet you sir!

[.dk]

Great finish! Sorry we didn't manage to run into each other there. Maybe next time - or if I'm down in Arizona sometime.

Your Tin Fins opponent - you mention Helm on top in game 2. Was that Chris?

[Ziveeman]

It's still in a year but I'll make plans for Seattle! We can definitely meet then.

Yeah it was Chris. Kind of unfortunate we were paired up in Round 3, of all rounds.

[ESG]

Round 10 - Storm

I lose the die roll. He seems like a combo-type guy.

Game 1 - He goes turn 1 Island Preordain.

I'm curious: How did you infer this?

[.dk]

I'm curious: How did you infer this?

Sometimes you just know. I had the same thing with my round 3 opponent. You just get this look/feel.

@Ziveeman - that's a major bummer getting paired against a friend in a tournament that large. boo. :(

[deadlock]

Thanks for the report. Your list is pretty close to the winning uwr list with the (major?) difference that you did run Delver, while he run Young Pyromancer. Can you tell ussomething about this difference? I think Delver is potentially faster, but Pyro can get out of hand very quickly and leaves Elementals behind even if answered, so it is stronger in the face of spot removal. (It is also more fun x)

[Que]

Great run Jason! Nice seeing you at an event again. Keep reppin AZ.