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Thread: Top 4 at GP NJ

  1. #1

    Top 4 at GP NJ

    Hey all,
    I decided to do a write up of my matches at GP NJ.

    The list I played:
    4 Ponder
    4 Gitaxian Probe
    3 Preordain
    3 Cabal Therapy
    4 Duress
    4 Infernal Tutor
    1 Tendrils of Agony
    1 Past in Flames
    4 Lotus Petal
    4 Lion's Eye Diamond
    4 Brainstorm
    4 Dark Ritual
    4 Cabal Ritual
    1 Ad Nauseam

    2 Scalding Tarn
    1 Misty Rainforest
    1 Flooded Strand
    4 Polluted Delta
    1 Tropical Island
    2 Underground Sea
    1 Volcanic Island
    2 Island
    1 Swamp

    Sideboard
    2 Massacre
    4 Abrupt Decay
    2 Xantid Swarm
    2 Carpet of Flowers
    2 Chain of Vapor
    3 Dark Confidant

    The Dark Confidants were a change I made the morning of the tournament due to playing against a lot of combo on modo in the weeks prior. Tendrils mirrors as they exist are a miserable experience, and Bob is one of the best ways to get a leg up without having to play something stupid (namely, Surgical Extraction). I wouldn't recommend it going forward, since my testing was heavily skewed by storm being a budget deck in the wacky world of Magic Online, but 3 Bob was a lot better for me than the 2 Pithing Needle and third Xantid Swarm I cut for them.

    As I said in the ANT thread, I am not going to make any assertions of correctness about my choices. I can't claim to be any sort of expert with the deck, having picked it up pretty recently. I mostly chose to play it because I wanted to do something objectively powerful, and I've cast enough Dark Rituals that most of the back and forth between the decks you encounter in Legacy is ingrained enough in me that I felt it was my best way to prevent my stupidity from getting in my way.

    Side note: Can we stop calling it ANT? PiFT makes much more sense to me.

    Rounds 1 & 2 - Bye
    2-0

    Round 3 - Miracles
    In game 1 he establishes an early counterbalance lock and I concede early. In game 2, he forces my turn 2 Bob, then casts Enlightened Tutor for Counterbalance. I decay it, and he's behind enough on cards that I win a few turns later through little resistance. Game 3 I have an early Bob that puts me in a pretty commanding position, so I just start to use my tutors to find more copies of Decay for his 2 Counterbalances and a Meddling Mage. He eventually elects to trade a Meddling Mage for my Bob, which I had offered because I had another Bob in hand. He forces the second copy, which is fine by me, as I intend to cast Ad Nauseam in his upkeep. I had some kind of mental lapse here and let him draw for his turn and tap mana for Meddling Mage before I respond by casting 2 Rituals and Ad Nauseam. He concedes to the dozen or so revealed cards.

    2-1
    3-0

    Round 4 - UWR Stoneblade
    He has an early Clique and an excess of Lightning Bolts while I kind of sit around doing nothing. When I'm at 4 life, I know his hand is 2 Force and a Bolt, but I only have 1 black mana source and a Polluted Delta, so if he forces my first Ritual I'm dead. I decide to Duress the Bolt from his hand and pass the turn, he attacks me to 1, and I don't draw another black source, so I'm in exactly the same position as last turn. Thankfully, he doesn't Force my first Ritual, so I can safely Therapy his forces and am free to go off from there.
    Game 2 isn't very eventful, I think I won on turn 3 using the extra storm his Clique gave me.

    2-0
    4-0

    Round 5 - BUG Delver
    I don't remember what happened game 1 except that he had triple Deathrite Shaman and I lost. In game 2 he went t1 Grafdigger's Cage, t2 Null Rod, t3 draw step Clique me, taking my Carpet of Flowers, leaving me with Trop, Sea, Island in play, and a hand of Dark Ritual, Tutor, Ad Nauseam, Ponder, Probe. I draw another Dark Ritual off the Clique, and Probe him, seeing Daze and nothing else relevant. I cast Dark Ritual, he dazes, I pay with the Island, Dark Ritual, Ad Nauseam, leaving open a Trop (still with a land drop left). I go to 1, having hit 0 lands, Ponder needing to hit a Swamp/Sea, brick, and die.

    0-2
    4-1

    Round 6 - Elves
    I probe my opponent and sculpt a hand to win on turn 3 on the play. My opponent plays a turn 1 GSZ for Arbor, t2 Symbiote, Elf, Cradle, floats 3 mana with Cradle, bounces the elf to untap Arbor, and casts NO sacrificing the symbiote. I saw that this was possible when I probed him, but knew he couldn't hoof me for lethal, so I prepared to win on the following turn. Ruric Thar disagreed with my assesssment, and I went to sideboarding a turn before I expected.
    I mulligan to 5 in game 2, and my hand isn't very good, while he draws 4 cards off of a turn 2 Glimpse. My opponent attacks + drains me to 7 on his third turn, and has a Deathrite he can activate twice on mine. I draw a Brainstorm, cast it, and realize I can win if he thinks turning me off of threshold is the most important thing for him to do. I cast a Dark Ritual, putting the 8th card in my graveyard, then Cabal Ritual, let him know there are 8 cards in my graveyard, and he eats a Brainstorm and a Ponder. I resolve my Cabal Ritual, Tutor for Past in Flames, and win.
    Game 3 I mulled into another mediocre 6, my opponent played a turn 2 glimpse for 2 cards, and a turn 3 glimpse for 4 cards before Zenithing for Teeg, which I decay, and then passing. I cast Ponder, and I think I have a win using Chain of Vapor to bounce my artifacts, but a judge informs me that I need to make a play while I'm thinking through it, so I get distracted and pass the turn back. Apparently he drew nothing but lands off the second glimpse, so he just attacks and passes. I take the time to make sure I can use Chain of Vapor to win, and do so.

    2-1
    5-1

    After this match 2 people that were watching came up to say they didn't think I was taking an unreasonable amount of time when the judge stopped me, so that got under my skin a little.

    Round 7 - Lands
    I sat down against an opponent that I had played against at a different event (I want to say an SCG Open) when he'd played lands, and I assumed he was still doing that. It took me a very long time to find a Tutor this game (I think I had 2 blue cards left in my deck by the time I found one), and my opponent had gotten to the point of Bojuka Bogging me every turn, sacrificing the Bog to Zuran Orb, Loaming the Bog, and repeating. When I drew a Tutor, I was immediately able to get threshold again, cast Past in Flames, and Tendrils for the necessary 46 life due to Zuran Orb being in play.
    Game 2 he mulled to 4, played a turn 2 Bob, and I think I won on my turn 3.

    2-0
    6-1

    Round 8 - UWR Stoneblade - Jake Mondello
    We both kept very slow hands, and I saw that I was in no shape to kill him in any reasonable amount of time and ended up taking 2 Stoneforges with a therapy on around turn 4. Eventually I chain cantrips into a natural tendrils.
    I don't remember game 2.
    2-0

    7-1

    Round 9 - Reanimator
    I fetch an Island, Ponder, and my hand is full of cantrips. My opponent Thoughtseizes himself, bins Griselbrand, plays 2 Lotus Petals, and Reanimates Griselbrand. Well then. I untap, Probe him, decide to Brainstorm, and concede before I reveal anything else.
    Game 2 this appears to have paid off, as my turn 1 Probe reveals an Abrupt Decay in my opponent's hand. I am more than happy to trade his Force + Brainstorm for my Xantid Swarm, since I'm left with card selection and his hand is Griselbrands and a Decay. Eventually I Ad Nauseam and he concedes, and presumably boards out those Abrupt Decays.
    Game 3 he mulls to a 4 card hand on the play that I quickly found out is: Underground Sea, Entomb, Reanimate, Griselbrand. Thankfully, he goes for an Iona to lock me out of the game instead of another Griselbrand, giving me 3 turns to cantrip into a Chain of Vapor and take the game easily from there.

    I can't remember if it was in game 2 or game 3, but at one point, I'm thinking pretty hard over a Brainstorm, finally make a decision, finish resolving it, and start to tap mana for my next spell. My opponent immediately raises his hand and shouts for a judge, and I could not be more confused. I count the number of cards I have, look at the permanents in play, and can't figure out what I've done wrong, so I assume he just realized he drew an extra card or something. The judge arrives, and my opponent says that when I Brainstormed, I put the 2 cards on the bottom of my library. The judge looks at me like I'm an idiot, and asks if I did, to which I honestly say that I don't know. He asks me to step away from the table, asks what the 2 cards were, I reply Underground Sea and Ponder, and the judge looks at the top 2 cards of my library and the bottom 2 cards of my library, and says that yes, that is in fact what happened. Thankfully, we were able to rewind the game and I only got a warning. Magic is tiring, kids. To be fair, I was immediately going to cast Preordain and put the 2 cards on the bottom, but I'm still not really sure how that happened the way it did.

    2-1
    8-1

    Ending day 1 at 8-1 was pretty awesome, especially after being certain that I was going to lose during my matches against Elves and Reanimator.

    Round 10 - UWR Delver
    I remember very little about this match, other than that my opponent played a turn 2 RIP in game 2, and then I Duressed him on my turn to see 3 Dig Through Time and no third land. Alright.

    2-0
    9-1

    Round 11 - UR Delver - Josh Cho
    Josh leads with t1 Swiftspear, t2 Pyromancer. I Duress him and he move to put his Force into the graveyard, but I opt to take Brainstorm since I have a Therapy for the Force, and with a Ponder in hand I'm nearly certain I can win in 2 turns and just don't want him to be able to Cruise before that. This leaves him with Cruise, Force, Volcanic Island, and I can't think of anything he can draw that enables his Cruise. He untaps, floats UR, casts Fireblast saccing 2 Volcs, Cruises, Probes me, Bolts me, and attacks, and suddenly I'm at 2 life. I start by taking his Force with Therapy and seeing nothing else of consequence. This leaves me with: Cabal Ritual (I have threshold), LED, Tutor, Ponder, 2 untapped lands. I decide to Ponder to try to hit a Dark Ritual/LED, and instead see a Petal and garbage. I keep the Petal, play Petal, Cabal Ritual, LED, Tutor + crack LED for RRR, get PiF, cast floating BB, Cabal Ritual, Infernal for LED, crack for blue. So I have Preordain, Probe, and Ponder in my yard, BBBUUU to find a way to get to the requisite mana + a way to find tendrils. I start with Preordain, and the top 2 cards are Cabal Ritual + Infernal Tutor. Thank god.

    In game 2 Josh leads with a fetchland and passes, which screams Pyroblast to me from the deck that has roughly 650 spells that cost 1. Instead of Pondering I play a land and pass the turn. He plays another land and passes. I do the same. On his third turn he plays a Swiftspear, then cracks his fetchland, to which I respond by Brainstorming. He looks surprised by this, but lets it happen, then Probes me, attacks for 2, and passes. I fetch on my upkeep, draw a Probe and cast it, and he Pyroblasts the Probe. A few turns later I have Past in Flames in my hand, a yard full of cantrips, but no Tutor or Tendrils, and I make a mistake here. I have Volc, Sea, Island in play, and my hand is Cabal Ritual, 2 Duress, LED, Past in Flames. I think I should have played the LED first, but I Ritual first, he Dazes, and I'm forced to tap my Volc to pay, which means that I have to crack my LED for Red instead of being able to crack for Blue to pay for Daze and use the Volc to flash back Past in Flames. Fortunately I found the Tutor I needed within the 2 Probes I was able to flash back, but that could have been very costly.

    2-0
    10-1

    A quick aside: Pyroblast isn't very good against storm, so don't let it be. I'm not sure that him giving me a window to resolve a Brainstorm without having Pyroblast up made a difference, but he clearly noticed that I wasn't willing to make that trade, and (correctly) realized that the best he was getting for it was a Probe.

    Round 12 - Deathblade
    I don't remember very much of this match. At one point during it my opponent Thoughtseized me and saw Tendrils with a Deathrite in play but didn't take it, which was a relief. I think I ended up losing that game anyway though.

    2-1
    11-1

    The match next to me this round was MUD at 11-0 vs Lands at 10-0-1. What in the hell? The lands guy ended up winning, unfortunately putting the MUD guy in my bracket.

    13 - UR Delver - Dan Jordan
    Dan and I sat next to each other a few rounds before, so we knew what we were on. I can't say I remember very much of this match, except the game I lost I drew 4 lands in a row and just could not get hellbent as a result. These things happen.

    2-1
    12-1

    14 - Lands
    I got paired up against the x-0-1 Lands player for my win and in, which is the best gift I've received in a long time. Game 1 went as you'd expect it to.
    Game 2 he had no turn 1 lock piece, and I was relieved to see when I probed him that he had kept the hand solely on the back of a quick Marit Lage, which would not race my hand, nor would it match up well against my Chain of Vapor. On turn 2 he untapped and played a Chalice of the Void for 1. Whomp whomp. I die to a 20/20 moments later.
    Game 3 he mulligans to 4 (fun fact: I have a 100% win rate over the course of the tournament when my opponents mull to 4). His 4 cards were: Some land, Mox Diamond, Exploration, Sphere of Restistance. A few turns in I Chain of Vapor his Sphere of Resistance and Tendrils him out.

    2-1
    13-1

    15 - ID

    13-1-1

    Quarterfinals - UR Delver - Dan Jordan
    Apparently, 3 of the 4 matches in the top8 were rematches from the swiss, which is pretty incredible given the size of the tournament. Not as incredible as it would be if breakers weren't a result of your opponent doing well, but still pretty unusual.

    At any rate, I get to go first, and I keep a hand with everything I need except for a source of black mana. I use a Ponder and a Brainstorm to find it, but when I Brainstorm lock myself, I feel my best shot is to go for it, which is pretty miserable as he's been cantripping a lot as well. I play 2 LEDs, discard my hand full of Tutors, Duresses, Rituals, and a Past in Flames, and try to flash back PiF. He has the Force, and I go to sideboard.

    My opening 7 cards are: Polluted Delta, Volcanic Island, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Infernal Tutor, Past in Flames, Lion's Eye Diamond. I think for a while about this, since this is a pretty good matchup and I'm not sure how much I want to gamble on my opponent having a Force. I end up keeping it and Dan mulls to a more acceptable 6. I crack Delta for Sea, cast Dark Ritual. He nods. I cast Cabal Ritual. He nods. Lion's Eye Diamond. Sure. Infernal Tutor, cracking LED for Red. It resolves. I grab a Cabal Ritual, cast it, flash back PiF, flash back the Rituals, Tutor for Tendrils, and we go to game 3.

    Game 3 isn't very interesting, he just doesn't have enough disruption and dies on my turn 2 I think. His probes ended up making the job easy for me.

    2-1

    Semifinals - UWR Youngblade (is that what this is called?) - BBD
    In game 1 my hand isn't very good, and his hand is very good. He plays a turn 2 Stoneforge while I sit around with a bunch of lands in my hand. At one point my hand is Dark Ritual, Tutor, and Tendrils that he knows about from a Probe, and 1 or 2 fetch lands that he doesn't know about. I know that he has Spell Pierce, Brainstorm, and Force in his hand, when I draw Brainstorm. I fire it off, and he thinks for a while before Forcing, pitching Brainstorm. This is pretty gutsy, since he's likely in a position where if one of my unknown cards is a Cabal Ritual/LED or if I draw on reasonable soon and he doesn't draw anything great, he's dead. If he lets the Brainstorm resolve, I still have to find additional mana + hand disruption to beat what he has. So I found this play to be weird. At any rate, the final turn of the game, I find an LED, Tutor for Tutor for Past in Flames since I think I'm going to have to spend one of the tutors finding an LED to crack for Blue to have a high enough storm count to win after he's gained 12 life. He Brainstorms in response, finds a force, and we go to game 2.
    Game 2 was my only game on camera all tournament. So, the Brainstorm in response to Meddling Mage looks like an indefensibly stupid play. Why wouldn't I just wait? So, here's what I was thinking at the time:
    He knows what's in my hand, and he doesn't have a Force. The "default" card to name with MMage is Tutor. From 18 life, if he resolves Meddling Mage, my hand is not very far from being able to untap, Brainstorm, chain rituals + cantrips into a lethal Tendrils, which I already have. From that perspective, naming Tendrils is probably the safest thing he can do to protect himself from dying on the following turn, since I must answer the Mage if I'm going to win the game. During the last game, however, he was willing to go to pretty great lengths to fight over my Brainstorm. What kind of mad man forces a Brainstorm pitching Brainstorm? Not to say that it was incorrect, but it was certainly bizarre. There is an almost zero percent chance he would name Brainstorm with MMage, but I think that, knowing it's in my hand, it wouldn't be the worst decision in the world, since all he really wants to be able to do is untap with a threat in play, and naming Brainstorm is the thing that accomplishes the untapping part most effectively. Basically, I felt confident that he was going to name Tendrils, and wanted to hedge against the (admittedly insane and stupid) part of my brain that thought he might name Brainstorm, and I wanted to cast the Brainstorm on his turn anyway because I want to make sure I can untap and cash one of the tutors into another Dark Ritual if I miss on a fetch while Brainstorming. This becomes a moot point as he just names Infernal Tutor anyway.

    So, while I do think this is a stupid play, it's not quite indefensibly stupid.

    Feel free to ask me any questions. My apologies if I got any of the rounds mixed up or incorrectly remembered any game states, please correct me if you notice any errors.

  2. #2
    Foreign Black Border
    Lord_Mcdonalds's Avatar
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    Re: Top 4 at GP NJ

    I agree with calling it PiFt, you can also make some incredibly lame puns with it

    Like "my deck really PiFT him off"

    That aside , gratz on top 4
    Quote Originally Posted by iatee View Post
    I still have a strong suspicion that if 'Thalia, Heretic Cathar' had been named 'Frank, Heretic Cathar', people would be a lot more skeptical of it.
    Quote Originally Posted by Goin Aggro View Post
    Ugh, there he goes again, talking about the girlfriend. We get it dude.

  3. #3

    Re: Top 4 at GP NJ

    hi man. congratz on your top4. I was playing a very similar list but +1 grim tutor -1 preordain. what you think about grim tutor in the MD?

  4. #4

    Re: Top 4 at GP NJ

    Quote Originally Posted by ghost_tmd View Post
    hi man. congratz on your top4. I was playing a very similar list but +1 grim tutor -1 preordain. what you think about grim tutor in the MD?
    My first instinct is to cut Ad Nauseam for a Grim Tutor, since Ad Nauseam is very bad right now. It's probably still an effect you want in the sideboard, but there are a lot of decks that I just never want to see the card against. If you're not willing to make that cut, then trimming a Preordain seems reasonable to me.

  5. #5

    Re: Top 4 at GP NJ

    Very nicely done, Royce. I really, really wanted you to win that semifinals match against one of SCG's robots.

    Either way, you did really well!

  6. #6

    Re: Top 4 at GP NJ

    Great report, thanks for taking the time to write it. Particularly liked the semi-finals section which for some reason I read in Benedict Cumberbatch voice and at his normal Sherlock Holmes cadence. :)

  7. #7

    Re: Top 4 at GP NJ

    Royce, congrats again! Did you find the carpets useful in any of your MUs?

  8. #8

    Re: Top 4 at GP NJ

    Quote Originally Posted by FoolofaTook View Post
    Great report, thanks for taking the time to write it. Particularly liked the semi-finals section which for some reason I read in Benedict Cumberbatch voice and at his normal Sherlock Holmes cadence. :)
    Sherlock Holmes would probably have come to the right conclusion and not made that play, but I appreciate it nonetheless.

    Quote Originally Posted by davelin View Post
    Royce, congrats again! Did you find the carpets useful in any of your MUs?
    Carpet was an all star. Against UR I was sideboarding +2 Carpet, -1 Lotus Petal, -1 Ad Nauseam, and against UWR decks with Bolt I was sideboarding -2 Petal, -1 Ad Nauseam, -3 Therapy, +2 Carpet, +2 Decay, +2 Massacre. I'm not super confident about that part, but it worked out pretty well for me throughout the tournament.

  9. #9

    Re: Top 4 at GP NJ

    Thanks for posting this! Congrats on 3rd place. Did you ever bring in all 4 Abrupt Decays?

  10. #10

    Re: Top 4 at GP NJ

    Quote Originally Posted by mox toaster View Post
    Thanks for posting this! Congrats on 3rd place. Did you ever bring in all 4 Abrupt Decays?
    Yeah, against Miracles and Lands. Discard gets pretty bad quickly against both, and the game is over if you can't deal with their lock pieces.

  11. #11
    shallow
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    Re: Top 4 at GP NJ

    Congrats on the finish! Always like to see adept engine combo players deep in a large event like that. :)
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    His graveyard was a fucking encyclopedia of countermagic.

  12. #12
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    Re: Top 4 at GP NJ

    Well done Royce - wish there would have been some more camera time :-/


    Quote Originally Posted by Lord_Mcdonalds View Post
    I agree with calling it PiFt, you can also make some incredibly lame puns with it

    Like "my deck really PiFT him off"
    Also - this is fantastic...let's make it happen

  13. #13

    Re: Top 4 at GP NJ

    Nice report, tough luck in the end the MU looks great on paper... Congrats to an awesome result!

  14. #14
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    Re: Top 4 at GP NJ

    That's a good read and a very nice finish. Thanks and congratulations!
    What was your sideboard strategy?
    Nothing is true, everything is permitted...

  15. #15

    Re: Top 4 at GP NJ

    High 5 Royce, finally you switched from Tes to Ant. ;)

  16. #16

    Re: Top 4 at GP NJ

    Quote Originally Posted by sawatarix View Post
    High 5 Royce, finally you switched from Tes to Ant. ;)
    I wouldn't read too much into it, at this point I don't play very much Legacy, and when I do, I'm usually playing Miracles.

    Quote Originally Posted by door View Post
    That's a good read and a very nice finish. Thanks and congratulations!
    What was your sideboard strategy?
    UR Delver:
    -1 Lotus Petal
    -1 Ad Nauseam
    +2 Carpet of Flowers

    UWR Decks with Lightning Bolt:
    -2 Lotus Petal
    -1 Ad Nauseam
    -3 Cabal Therapy
    +2 Carpet of Flowers
    +2 Abrupt Decay
    +2 Massacre

    Miracles:
    -2 Lotus Petal
    -3 Cabal Therapy
    -2 Probe
    -2 Cabal Ritual

    +4 Decay
    +3 Bob
    +2 Xantid

    If I had some reason to think they didn't have RIP (if I saw Dig Through Time) I'd board out Dark Rituals over Cabal Rituals. I have no idea how most people board here, and I don't know if this is correct, but drawing too much mana over the course of a long game is an easy way to lose.

    Lands:
    -7 Discard spells
    +4 Decay
    +2 Chain of Vapor
    +1.... I don't remember. Discard is terrible against them and you just need to make sure you can deal with Chalice/Sphere effects.

    Elves:
    This is one that I struggled with quite a bit, and I would probably replace the second Massacre with either a Pyroclasm or a Drown in Sorrow if you expect a lot of this.

    +2 Chain of Vapor
    +2 Abrupt Decay

    -4 Duress

    I don't think you want too many more bounce/removal spells since you really just need to beat Teeg or (God forbid) Ruric Thar.

    Reanimator/Show and Tell decks:
    +2 Chain of Vapor
    +2 Xantid Swarm
    -3 Cabal Therapy
    -1 Preordain

    Chain of Vapor sucks against Show and Tell but it's a necessary evil to be prepared for Leyline of Sanctity.

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