19th @ SCG: Richmond Premier IQ! 3/29/15

[BillyButtons]

Recently, I played in the Legacy Premier IQ in Richmond, VA.
I came in 19th place with Lands, but not typical R/G Lands; I played Intuition Lands.
After the lists went up on StarCity Games, I noticed that they had butchered my list (and my name!) so let's fix that real quick:

Clifford Kumpf(Or Billy Buttons. However you know me.)

Lands.dec

MD: 61 cards

Lands: 34
4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
3 Maze of Ith
3 Tropical Island
2 Grove of the Burnwillows
2 Tolaria West
2 Windswept Heath
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Forest
1 Bayou
1 Karakas
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Savannah
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Academy Ruins
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Dark Depths
1 Glacial Chasm

Spells: 27
4 Life From the Loam
4 Exploration
4 Mox Diamond
3 Intuition
3 Crop Rotation
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Punishing Fire
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Smokestack
1 Sylvan Library
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Worm Harvest

Sideboard: 15
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Dark Confidant
2 Chalice of the Void
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Zuran Orb
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Dark Depths
1 Thespian's Stage

You may notice a glaring problem here:

1 Savannah
0 Cards with W in the CMC

Uh .. Whoops.

I had initially intended to find some Containment Priests and Ethersworn Canonists, but decided I’d rather have another pair of Stage/Depths and a Zuran Orb. By the time I made my decision, however, I was too far away from cards to slam the Taiga into the place of the Savannah.

The deck was very much based off of Phelix's list, but with some adjustments for the meta around here.

So, anyway!

Round 1!
I sat down against a rather nice fellow named David. We made some playful banter, jokes about Manaless dredge, and we began! He won the die roll, and opted to be on the draw. I immediately assumed he actually was on Manaless Dredge.

Boy was I wrong.

My opener was something among the lines of Mox Diamond discarding a land, playing Exploration, dropping a Bayou and a Wasteland and casting Sylvan Library. Seemed strong to me. He opened up with Mox Opal, Seat of the Synod, Memnite and Thoughtcast.

Well, he's on affinity; this was quite fine with me.

My second turn involved playing a Tabernacle, an additional land and passing the turn back.
Before my opponent went to draw, I explained to him what Tabernacle did. I had announced that I was playing it, and he simply said "Okay.” I assumed he knew exactly what was going on.
Spoiler: He didn't.
After opting to pay for his Memnite, he drew his card for the turn, and cast Personal Tutor finding a Glimpse of Nature.

Glimpse
Freaking
Affinity

More importantly, he missed a land drop. On my next turn, I proceeded to win by Wastelanding his Seat of the Synod, and making a 20/20. He scooped due to immediate dead draws.

Sideboarding went as such:
+4 Sphere of Resistance
+2 Chalice of the Void

-1 Smokestack
-1 Intuition
-1 Worm Harvest
-1 Crucible of Worlds
-1 Bojuka Bog
-1 Karakas

Game 2, he again opted to be on the draw. My turn 1 was Mox Diamond > Land > Sphere of Resistance. He asked me what it did, I explain, and he scooped immediately. We made some more friendly banter before I ran off to drop the 2-0 slip at the Judge's Station
I'm relatively sure I hold the world record for fastest 2-0 with RUG Lands.

Round 2!

I sat down across from a fellow named Lyle, and as before, we made some playful banter. I came to find out he's on RUG Delver, and I'm quite excited.
Games 1 and 2 were nothing special, as I had an explosive turn 2 20/20 in game one, and he had more dudes than I had answers in Game 2.

Sideboarding was as such:

+2 Sphere of Resistance
+2 Chalice of the Void
+1 Thespian's Stage
+1 Dark Depths
+1 Ensnaring Bridge
+1 Zuran Orb

-2 Intuition
-1 Crop Rotation
-1 Worm Harvest
-1 Karakas
-1 Creeping Tar Pit
-1 Smokestack
-1 Crucible of Worlds

After the match, Daryl Ayers asked me about my Spheres, we both(in the end) agreed that they weren't worth it, and my boarding was incorrect.

Game 3, however, was quite eventful.

There was a lot of my life quickly dropping until I resolved an Ensnaring Bridge, and Wastelanded him into having Threshold (As well as relieving him of all his pesky mana sources) to buy myself time against his Mongoose. At one point, I had approximately 2 turns to deal with a Sulfuric Vortex. The only way to do so was with Engineered Explosives. However, that also relieved me of my Bridge. So, in typical Lands fashion, I cast Explosives on 3, detonate it on his end step, and Academy Ruins the Bridge back. I recast Bridge, at 2 life, and stare down a 3/3 Mongoose and an unflipped Delver of Secrets with one card in hand. On his upkeep, he stacks his triggers so Delver's trigger resolved first, and then his Tabernacle triggers. Delver proceeded not to flip, and he cracked a fetchland. Two looks through, and the Tropical Island on his side was his only land left. Mongoose bit the dust, I went to 1, and untapped.

At this point, I was fairly certain that he was sandbagging a Volcanic Island in his hand until he drew the bolt to kill me, so it was time to dredge like a madman. Get Tolaria West, find Zuran Orb, play it, Wasteland your remaining mana source and pass.

His delver died, he drew, and passed the turn.

I proceeded to go into overdrive and cast Life from the Loam, transmute both West's into Stage/Depths (with enough mana to make a 20/20 thanks to Urborg) and pass the turn.

The look on his face signaled his confidence, as I obviously couldn't attack with a 20/20 through an Ensnaring Bridge. So, on my following upkeep, having made a 20/20, I used Academy Ruins to put the Engineered Explosives back on top, cast it, activate it, and swing with Marit Lage.

He told me he never saw that line coming, and I was two seconds away from making out with my Academy Ruins for being the real MVP.

Round 3!

I sat down across from a friendly fellow named Jacob who kept talking. Non-stop.

That wasn't actually the part that bothered me. The part that got to me was me having to play against Death and Taxes.
I played poorly, I probably boarded super poorly, and I lost. I don't remember the match, because the trauma forced me to forget it.
Note to self: Put Dread of Night in my SB.

We are at 2-1 now kids; stay chipper. Here comes the upset.

Round 4!
I see the name "Jake Mondello" on the pairings board, and I expect to sit down against Shardless BUG.

Holy crap am I bad at this guessing game.

We make small jokes, and shuffle up. He shuffles a lot more than I do, and ends up mulling to 4. The words "If I win, you should feel real bad about this." come out of his mouth.

I barely win game one after he Show and Tells in an Omniscience and doesn't have anything to do with it, and is promptly smashed in the dome by a 20/20.

Sideboarding:
+4 Sphere of Resistance
+4 Dark Confidant
+2 Chalice of the Void
+1 Ensnaring Bridge

-1 Bojuka Bog
-1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
-1 Intuition
-1 Crop Rotation
-1 Worm Harvest(Notice a trend? It continues.)
-1 Glacial Chasm
-3 Maze of Ith
-1 Crucible of Worlds
-1 Creeping Tar Pit

Game Two was over almost before it began. I resolved a Sphere of Resistance, and he dealt me around 40 damage with Spiraling Embers. Ow.

Game Three saw me on the play with a turn 1 Dark Confidant and then a turn 2 Dark Confidant, the two of which commenced beating. He managed to cast a
Show and Tell through a Rishadan Port, and I cursed my luck.

I put in an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, and he put in Emrakul. I silently cheered like a madman. I was expecting Omniscience and death.

I untapped, took approximately 14 damage total from my Bobs, and cast Intuition. My gameplan was to find 3 Crop rotations, get Karakas, cast Sphere of Resistance, and continue the beats. Well, I forgot I boarded one Crop Rotation out. So, my Intuition pile is Crop Rotation, Crop Rotation, Ensnaring Bridge.
This man's face dropped harder than a sack of concrete. After about 4 minutes of running the options and possibilities, and me telling the Judge watching to let him take his time, he gives me a Crop Rotation. I slam a Green Source, Rotate some Crops into a Karakas, watch Jake curse silently, and then slam in with Bobs. After combat, I cast Sphere of Resistance, and it turns out that next turn, he ended up one mana away from casting a Show and Tell to put in an Omniscience and cast Enter the Infinite.

Yeah, that was scary.

3-1

Round 5!
I am less than excited when I see the name "Chris Calhoun" beside mine on the pairings board. Not only because he opened up his place to me and Paul for the night, but also because I know he's on Death and Taxes. This match was less emotionally trainwrecking than the last one, so I've got some deets on this one.

Game 1!

We shuffled up, made funs, and I got tempo'd out. I got Flickerwisped a lot and died to dorks.

Sideboarding:
+4 Dark Confidant
+2 Chalice of the Void
+1 Dark Depths
+1 Thespian's Stage
+1 Abrupt Decay

-1 Crucible of Worlds
-1 Life From the Loam
-1 Intuition
-1 Bojuka Bog
-1 Crop Rotation
-1 Worm Harvest (Seriouslyguiz)
-1 Smokestack
-1 Creeping Tar Pit

Game 2!

I managed to get a quick advantage with Turn 1 Sylvan Library, and Turn 2 Dark confidant. However, in true Death and Taxes fashion, he quickly established control over my stellar start. The game goes for a while, and as per game 1, I get flickerwisped, and dropped into the x-2 bracket.

3-2

Round 6!
It took a while for this round to begin, and apparently it was all attributed to a single Miracles player. My round 6 opponent, Steve!

Game 1!

I don't remember much on here, I remember losing game 1 to an early Entreat the Angels, and proceeding to game 2, where I felt much better.

Sideboarding:
+4 Dark Confidant
+1 Thespian's Stage
+1 Dark Depths
+1 Abrupt Decay

-1 Karakas
-1 Bojuka Bog
-1 Worm Harvest
-1 Crucible of Worlds
-2 Maze of Ith
-1 Intuition

Game 2!

Opting to be on the play, I landed a Turn 1 Dark Confidant and just gained advantage until I disrupted his CounterTop and slammed him with a 20/20 when he couldn't find a Swords to Plowshares.

Game 3!

A fairly droll game, as I Ghost Quartered him a bit and established 5 Rishadan Port effects. Baiting out an Entreat the Angels, I dispatched the flyers with a wonderful Engineered Explosives on 0, and Port him during his Second Main phase so I could safely create a Flying Tentacled Doom Bus known as Marit Lage.

4-2!

Round 7

Whew. Not too sure how we did that, but we did. Two more rounds to go!

I sat down against a friendly fellow named John who had a super stylin' leather jacket. I was on the draw, and unsure what I was up against, as he lead off with a Gitaxian Probe, followed by a swift "God damnit." That's what we call a positive sign. He played a Delver and passed back to me. I lead with Diamond into Exploration into Sylvan Library. Delver flipped, he played a Volcanic island, and passed back to me. A few Wastelands, a Tabernacle and a 20/20 later, we're off to
Game 2.

Understanding he's on Grixis, and seeing a few Bolts, I knew what I must do!

Sideboarding!
+2 Chalice of the Void
+1 Zuran Orb
+1 Abrupt Decay
+1 Dark Depths
+1 Thespian's Stage

-1 Bojuka Bog
-1 Creeping Tar Pit
-1 Intuition
-1 Smokestack
-1 Worm Harvest
-1 Crucible of Worlds

Game 2!

I mulled a few times and kept a slow hand and this man curved into Delver, Pyromancer, Tasigur as if he was hellbent on seeing me die painfully. I managed to keep pace for a while with 4 Maze of Ith, but when his tokens got out of control, my Crop Rotations got countered, and I couldn't amass a Tolaria West, I quickly resigned from this game.

Game 3!

I kept my Sideboarding the same, and kept an opener with Diamond, Exploration, Ghost Quarter and Loam. Ghost Quarter became real relevant, real quick when I come to find out he kept a 1 lander and fetched into a Basic Island, and I got to punish him hard for it. He ended up resolving a Surgical Extraction on my Dark Depths the turn before I slammed a Chalice on 1. Approximately 200,000,000 grueling turns later, he found himself with 0 lands at all times, and me transmuting every turn to Punishing Fire him out of the game as efficiently as possible.
Fun note: At one point, he asked me why I was "doing this to him", in reference to the Punishing Fires. I simply pointed to my Exile pile of 2 Dark Depths and politely explained that he did this to himself.

Fun Note 2: I got to Karakas a Tasigur after he delved his entire Graveyard. #feelsgoodman

5-2!

Round 8!

Here we are, ladies and gentleman. We are playing for Top 32, and possibly top 16 depending on breakers!

I sat down against Ben and we have some wonderful banter, and I am already having fun in this final round. I won the die roll, and opened up on Diamond, Land, Sylvan Library. He opened up with an Underground Sea into Delver, and I felt alright about that. I library, play an Exploration and a Maze and proceed to win in a few turns using a combination of Tabernacle and Urborg to pay for his dazes, and assault him with a 20/20. I think he's on Grixis delver, and the next game catches me rather off guard.

Sideboarding!
+2 Chalice of the Void
+1 Abrupt Decay
+1 Thespian's Stage
+1 Dark Depths
+1 Zuran Orb

-1 Creeping Tar Pit
-1 Intuition
-1 Worm Harvest
-1 Karakas
-1 Crucible of Worlds
-1 Smokestack

Game 2!

I mulliganed down to 5, and have an "alright" hand where I use the term "alright" as loosely as possible.
He started with a turn 1 Deathrite Shaman, turn 2 Delver and another Deathrite Shaman, and I force him to kill me so I can see more of his deck for game 3.

Game 3!

My boarding didn't change, but my opener had Exploration and Engineered Explosives, so I felt fine on this. My opponent didn't feel so fine when I blew the Explosives taking out 3 Deathrites after he overextended and I kept my GY to a minimum.
I established the Punishing Fire lock on all of his dudes, the Wasteland lock on all of his lands, and devour him with Marit Lage.
6-2!

We did it guys!

We got 19th!

That's good for $50, my list on SCG, and a long needed confidence boost.
I apologize as this report is probably missing a bunch of details, but I had a rough week and lost a few things from memory.

Props!
- JD Nir for not having the cards to lend me for Shardless BUG. Man that guy is attractive and smart and good at editing tournament reports.
- Skylar Ross for lending me a sick-ass playmat, and then acquiring me a plain playmat that I will soon have altered to be fucking sweet.
- Paul Lynch for lending me cards since the start of time
- Don Brooks for being the best fucking hype man ever
- Chad Hilton, Chris Calhoun, and Jeff Kieper for letting Paul and I stay at their place on last minute notice
- Everyone there who helped make the weekend killer as fuck.

Slops!
- Chris Calhoun and my Round 3 opponent for playing Death and Taxes.
- StarCityGames for getting both my last name and my decklist wrong.
- Richmond for having a string of Sub-par restaurants
- Richmond again for having a string of super strong restaurants that I just didn't go to.
- Me for taking so damn long to get this thing out.

Thanks for reading guys! If you enjoyed this, lemme know, and I'll keep super detailed notes for the next time I battle with Lands!

P.S.
Here's the updated list:
Lands.dec
MD: 61 cards
Lands: 34
4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
3 Maze of Ith
3 Tropical Island
2 Grove of the Burnwillows
2 Tolaria West
1 Windswept Heath
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Forest
1 Bayou
1 Karakas
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Taiga
1 Thespian's Stage
1 Academy Ruins
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Dark Depths
1 Glacial Chasm

Spells: 27
4 Life From the Loam
4 Exploration
4 Mox Diamond
3 Intuition
3 Crop Rotation
3 Punishing Fire
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Smokestack
1 Sylvan Library
1 Abrupt Decay

Sideboard: 15
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Dark Confidant
2 Chalice of the Void
2 Dread of Night
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Dark Depths
1 Thespian's Stage
So:
Main:
-1 Worm Harvest
-1 Savannah
+1 Taiga
+1 Punishing Fire
SB:
-1 Zuran Orb
-1 Ensnaring Bridge
+2 Dread of Night

Admittedly, the SB changes are based on the expected meta right now, and are liable to chanage at a moment's notice.

I want to keep the Zuran Orb in the SB, but I really worry about the D&T match up, and Dread of Night is such a blowout vs them.

Again, thanks for reading!

[sippingcider]

Cool report!!

And Interesting deck!

And he's a poet!

A few Wastelands, a Tabernacle and a 20/20 later, we're off to
Game 2.

Understanding he's on Grixis, and seeing a few Bolts, I knew what I must do!

[Kathal]

Just say the truth about Savannah, you wanted to EE for 5 without a Mox

But nice report!

Greetings,
Kathal

[Jizz]

Great report ! Very entertaining !

Congratz.

[iamajellydonut]

Is this the same bastard who ran that infuriating Stoneblade tech at EE2?

[BillyButtons]

Is this the same bastard who ran that infuriating Stoneblade tech at EE2?

Was said tech Restoration Angel? If so; yes. Yes, it is.

[iamajellydonut]

Was said tech Restoration Angel?

Kill Count:

• Spirit of the Labyrinth
• Dark Confidant
• My pride.
• My chances of top 16.

[BillyButtons]

Kill Count:

• Spirit of the Labyrinth
• Dark Confidant
• My pride.
• My chances of top 16.

4-color loam! I remember you! Well, you got avenged by every opponent after you.

[EyeOfTheStorm]

Props!
- JD Nir for not having the cards to lend me for Shardless BUG. Man that guy is attractive and smart and good at editing tournament reports.

Aww, you shouldn't have .