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Thread: HOW many Stoneforge Mystics? - 3rd with Junk (not Abzan) at CFB

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    HOW many Stoneforge Mystics? - 3rd with Junk (not Abzan) at CFB

    Alternative Title: This Goyf is on fire *refrain* Fiiiiiyuurrrrrrreeee

    Full of delicious Filipino food and hopes/dreams/assorted aspirations, I begin the long drive down to CFB with local players in tow. We've got a RUG Delver, Foiled out Jund, First-time Infect, and myself, playing my faithful Junk list, which I registered exactly as such below.

    Decklist: Junk (61 Maindeck/15 SB)

    Creatures: (17)
    4x Deathrite Shaman
    4x Tarmogoyf
    4x Stoneforge Mystic
    3x Dark Confidant
    2x Knight of the Reliquary

    Non-Creature Spells (22)
    2x Thoughtseize
    2x Inquisition of Kozilek
    3x Stoneforge Mystic
    4x Abrupt Decay
    2x Sylvan Library
    2x Liliana of the Veil
    2x Lingering Souls
    1x Council's Judgment
    1x Toxic Deluge
    1x Batterskull
    1x Umezawa's Jitte
    1x Sword of Fire/Ice

    Lands (22)
    2x Bayou
    2x Savannah
    2x Scrubland
    1x Plains
    1x Forest
    1x Swamp
    1x Karakas
    3x Wasteland
    4x Verdant Catacombs
    3x Windswept Heath
    2x Marsh Flats

    Sideboard (15)
    3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
    2x Hymn to Tourach
    2x Duress
    2x Surgical Extraction
    2x Choke
    1x Toxic Deluge
    1x Act of Authority (Yeah, look it up, I'll give you a sec)
    1x Pithing Needle
    1x Containment Priest


    We get there half an hour before the tournament starts, and I stare at my sideboard for 20 minutes, trying to see if I want to make any last-minute changes. I decide against it, write my list down, and wait for them to post seating for player meeting/R1.

    R1: UWR Stoneblade (0-0)
    G1: I win the roll. Thoughtseize and see a long game hand that has two jaces, but no early action besides cantrips. Take a brainstorm and try and keep him off an early SFM or TNN. A T3 Liliana starts ticking up, getting the first jace, and a council’s judgment gets the second jace. He hardcasts a batterskull, but it’s not enough to stop Goyf from swinging through while he can’t find another answer.

    Board: -2 KoTR, -1 Goyf, -1 Dark Confidant. +2 Choke, + Act of Authority, +1 Needle I’m basically expecting them to bring RiP in, so I side to try and reduce my GY dependence a little bit. Needle hits Jace, although it can hit their equipment in a pinch.

    G2: I start with a choke in hand. He fetches multiple times in the first few turns, but his turn 3 Ponder, tap out Tundra, Volc, Volc for RiP meets a Choke followed up by a Sylvan Library and I bury him in efficient threats. I hear basic lands and plains are good.


    R2: Lands (1-0) (2-0 Games Played)
    G1: I mull to 5 and get Lage’d on turn 3. Not much you can do.

    Board: -2 Inq, -2 Seize, -2 Liliana. +3 Thalia, +2 Surgical Extraction, +1 Pithing Needle

    G2: He gets a good early start with diamond into grove into punishing fire on my T1 deathrite, but not a very good follow up. A 3/4 hero Goyf hits the board and starts chipping away while I try and deny him mana by wasting Grove and Decaying a Diamond. He deploys a Tabernacle to try and stall the beatdown, but can’t back it up with anything else. On the last turn, I dump a deathrite and extra goyf on the board to get by a last ditch lage, but he’s got nothing.

    G3: On the draw I get a solid starting hand of swamp, forest, fetch, ‘goyf, DRS, Inquisition, Extraction. Solid, but slightly dead to an early Lage. Willing to risk it on the possibility I can disrupt him. He mulls. His turn 1: Stage, Diamond discarding DD.

    As an aside, during sideboarding, I thought to myself, “What’s the best play he could make T1 for me? And that was pretty much it.)

    I stare at the DD for probably 30 seconds and extract it end of his turn 1. Get extra value as he had one in hand (Nice) leaving him with Taiga, Tranquil Thicket. I draw my second extraction for my first turn, and play a deathrite. He draws, punishing fires the deathrite, I extract it, and out of win-cons and guaranteed to lose the decking war being short 8 cards, my opponent scoops. Kids: Stay in school, don’t do drugs, and don’t play decks that are stone cold dead to surgical extraction.

    R3 Shardless (2-0) (4-1 Games Played)
    G1: This matchup is such a grindfest. Like, you thought Grinding station was Grindy? This is a nightmare of both sides trying to get as many cards or effective cards as possible and bury the other guy. I think by the end, he ended up +10 cards over a typical count through two visions, three Shardless, and Liliana, while I got probably seven extra and effective cards through Sylvan Library, Lingering Souls, and Equipment. Most critically, his lategame Visions bricks him into lands and forces while I keep ripping Stoneforges off Library.

    Sideboard: -2 Thoughtseize, -2 Inq: +2 Choke, +2 Hymn. They usually play around Choke so it’s not a complete blowout, but they still need to point a precious Decay or Charm at it that would otherwise get a Sword, Goyf, or Library, so it’s worth the slot. Hymns get you more cards than the targeted, and given their deck redundancy, you’d rather have quantity over quality.

    G2: He T1 Thoughtseizes a deathrite into T2 Suspend Double visions. Who likes card advantage? Trying to get as much distance as possible before I get buried under him getting a new starting 7 midgame, I put the pressure on his life total and other resources. When the visions resolve on T6 and he starts main with NINE cards in hand, he only has three lands and one blue source, thanks my wastelands. His turn is thankfully taken up by him decaying a goyf and playing another land. I deploy a choke, slowing him down further. It eventually meets a decay, but him not having that decay later clears the path for batterskull to hold down the board until I can draw back into the game with a Library. We time out, and on Turn 2 of turns, he cascades into a third visions, which doesn’t give him a way to deal with the Batterskull, and scoops.

    R4 Merfolk (3-0) (6-1 Games Played)

    G1: He’s cheerful. Far too cheerful. He has to be playing something ridiculous. I mull down to four after not seeing any colored mana sources, keeping Bayou, Scrub, Inquisition, Souls. T1 inquisition sees a hand of Chalice, Cursecatcher, Lord, Vial, Island, Phantasmal, Mutavault. As I said, far too cheerful. I strip the vial and pass. Somehow, I manage to claw back into the game even through a Chalice on 1. Goyf and souls stonewall his team while I chip away at his fish and chips with Liliana and an eventually hardcast Batterskull. At one point, he has 3 Lords/Copies of lords, and swings two 5/5 Mutavaults into my 5/6 goyf, Batterskull, and Deathrite. I’m only too happy to make the trade, and the initiative falls back to me as I draw the land to suit up a remaining souls token with the Batterskull and clock back up to 20 life.

    Board: -1 Library, -1 Confidant, -2 TS/ +2 Choke, +1 Vial, +1 Toxic Deluge

    G2: I mull, keep a land light, removal heavy 6 with a deathrite, and get punished with a back to basics on T3. Eventually I decay it and get goyf and stoneforge on the board, but I'm too slow and get run down by Gorton’s rejects.

    G3: This was another grindfest (I guess all fair MU’s with this deck are grindfests) But his threats are as good as mine this game, as his T5 and 6 are: TNN, Image copy TNN, TNN, Lord. I thankfully sandbagged the removal for his T6 plays (Plow Lord, Council’s Judgment his untapped TNN) which clears the way for a batterskull/goyf lifeswing he wasn’t expecting. Holding back a TNN means he’s only dealing me three while I’m gaining 4 and/or killing a creature of his every turn. That’s the type of math I like, not the calculus that I bombed freshman year.

    R5 BUG Delver (4-0) (8-2 in Games Played)

    I’m playing a good friend of mine, and we know winner is locked/can double draw into T8. We end up agreeing to split and play. He knew this MU was pretty favorable for me. They’ve got less removal, less and worse creatures, and a nonexistent long game compared to Stoneforge and Co. That’s exactly how the games played out.

    G1: I thoughtseize a goyf from his hand, leaving him with no threats, make sure each of his delvers receives a plowshares of their own, and bash through with a lone hero goyf.

    Board: -2 Dark Confidant, -2 TS/ +2 Choke, +2 Hymn

    G2: He gets a scarier start with a T1 delver backed up with Hymns and Bob. I have a library in hand so I commit to the long game, hoping to reload removal with it before delver can get there. I use the CJ that I started with to kill bob, and find a decay two turns later with the Library to kill the delver. Captain Goyf and Batterskull clean up.

    R6 Jund - ID (5-0) (10-2 in Games Played)

    I’m super hungry and spend this round scarfing down a Vietnamese sandwich and hoping that at least one of the other locals who is at 4-1 wins and makes it in. They got my order wrong, but I’m too hungry to care after not eating for seven hours. It’s delicious anyways. I see a merfolk player lose a game to consecutive Reality Smashers rolling over True-Names. This is a great format.

    R7 Patriot Delver - ID (5-0-1)

    I debate playing it out. If I draw, I’m guaranteed to be on the play for the quarters, whereas if I play it out and lose, I could potentially go down as far as 7th on breakers. I don’t want to risk it, and instead get to watch my friend from R5 win a very close match against Gobs.

    Also talk with some of the locals, who are slightly unhappy about the payout/turnout ratio. The event was guaranteed at 2500 payout, but CFB ended up taking in over 4000 in entry fees, so there was some chat about asking them to raise the payout. No dice, unfortunately, and the payout remained at 2500 to top 16 in a 98 person event.

    While it would’ve been nice for them to raise it, I understand where they are coming from. They would’ve guaranteed the 2500 had 20 people showed up, so asking to raise it given more entries is having it both ways for the players. Plus expenses for space/judges, so eh, I’m willing to give them a pass on it. I’m just hoping they host more of these in the future, instead of the quarterly tournaments they announced, given how profitable/popular this one was.

    Quarterfinals: Jund. (5-0-2, 4th Place)

    I want to split and go home, but someone isn’t having it. (It’s a 270$ T8 split. C’mon guys) So I have to play. Unfortunately, as I sit down, the judge walks over to our table and asks to talk to me. Ah crap. It’s about my decklist. The list at the top is the exact one I registered, which if you look carefully, is playing 7 Stoneforges and no StPs. Yikes. That’s broken. I get a game loss and start T8 feeling very gloomy.

    G1: I keep my seven and Thoughtseize him T1, seeing a hand of Mire, DRS, Decay, Hymn, Deluge, Bolt, Thoughtseize. This one is going to be ugly. I strip the DRS, hoping to stall him on mana and threats. Long story short, he ends up not finding land #2 until turn 6, which gave me just enough time to kill him with combined damage from his two thoughtseizes and my deathrite. Super unfortunate way to win, but hey, each of us got a free one, now to play some actual Magic?

    Board: -2 TS, -2 Inq. +2 Hymn, +2 Surgical. Targeted is useless. Same theory as shardless, get quantity over quality and hope to extract the PFires at some point so my dorks can survive. One sad thing, literally everyone but goyf and knight die to punishing fire. =(

    G2: He gets a fast double deathrite start, but doesn’t have black-producing lands for the first 4 or 5 turns, so he drains very slowly. I stall with a deathrite and souls, but his Bloodbraid into Liliana (naiiiice) combined with him finally drawing black sources to power his Deathrite drain squadron, threatens to have me packing it up. On the absolute last possible turn it would matter/save me, I rip Sword of Fire and Ice off the top with him hellbent, slap it on a token and go to town on his team, gunning down his x/2s and drawing enough cards to get me back into the game. Eventually, I stabilize at 3 life with 2 deathrites of my own, having killed all of his deathrites with Sword triggers, and start gaining life back out of lightning bolt range. The little souls that could.

    T4 Patriot Delver:

    We sit down, banter for a little, and agree to a top 4 split. Once we're packing up, guy across the table asks what I’m playing and I tell him. He responds with “Oh, so you’re basically playing a modern deck, right?” Bruuuuuutal. That remark cheeses me pretty badly. Junk has been a deck/legacy deck since even before Delver was printed, so don’t associate my deck with that crappy format. Also: He was playing a steam vents over a volcanic, so who is REALLY playing the modern deck here?

    I walk away with 400 credit, which gets combined and split between me and my R5 opponent, who finished 12th and got 50, so we each get 225 and grab some super greasy but tasty burritos to celebrate victory.

    That’ll do Goyf. That’ll do.
    "The last top 8 slot went to the winner of that Death and Taxes mirror, or as I like to call it, the White Supremacy Mirror.
    "Swiggety Swagtusk, Here comes the Thragtusk!"

    In response to "What's the best replacement for Force of Will?"
    Quote Originally Posted by Finn
    Modern

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    Re: HOW many Stoneforge Mystics? - 3rd with Junk (not Abzan) at CFB

    Seven.

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    Re: HOW many Stoneforge Mystics? - 3rd with Junk (not Abzan) at CFB

    Good to see the good guys took it down. Nice report and finish.
    A book about the dark side of Legacy: "Magic: The Addiction" // Conversations with Magic players: "Humans of Magic"

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    Re: HOW many Stoneforge Mystics? - 3rd with Junk (not Abzan) at CFB

    "but I'm too slow and get run down by Gorton’s rejects."

    Hahaha love it!
    Nice report.
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    Re: HOW many Stoneforge Mystics? - 3rd with Junk (not Abzan) at CFB

    This report made me giggle multiple times. I award you 1 Gold star! Thanks for the report and keep on being you and playing what you like in the greatest format!

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    Re: HOW many Stoneforge Mystics? - 3rd with Junk (not Abzan) at CFB

    Quote Originally Posted by Goin Aggro View Post
    Report
    Awesome to see Junk do well. I notice you didn't really mention Confidant the whole time. I've taken to avoiding him (as much as I enjoy the card) as he's been too slow and stuff. Did he do much for you? It's nice that he's must remove, but sometimes he's hot garbage; so I'm curious.
    Quote Originally Posted by Nestalim View Post
    Wrong. Gideon Emblem protect you from losing and you can even open your binder and slam some cards on the board, not even the HJ can DQ you now.

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    Re: HOW many Stoneforge Mystics? - 3rd with Junk (not Abzan) at CFB

    Quote Originally Posted by tescrin View Post
    Awesome to see Junk do well. I notice you didn't really mention Confidant the whole time. I've taken to avoiding him (as much as I enjoy the card) as he's been too slow and stuff. Did he do much for you? It's nice that he's must remove, but sometimes he's hot garbage; so I'm curious.
    Bob gets no glory, but he does some heavy lifting.

    Admittedly, in some matchups, he's god-awful. Any matchup where I have to race creatures/can potentially be in single digit life on turn 4, he's pretty bad, and usually gets sided out.

    In other MU's, he's amazing. Against any blue fair deck (Stoneblade, Miracles, Shardless) as you said, he's a must-kill, otherwise I can just swamp them in cards. One reason I didn't talk about Bob that much was the times I played him against the decks he's good against (Shardless, Jund) he got killed immediately. Players rightly fear him, especially in a deck like this.

    While he's not as big of a body as the rest of my creatures, he fits really well into the deck's philosophy of "It either deals with something of theirs, or prompts an answer from them." Sometimes, Library isn't enough CA, and this deck can defray the life-loss in a long game with Jitte/Batterskull. One

    Yeah, they can kill the T1 deathrite and the T2 SFM, but can they kill my T3 Goyf and or Bob follow up while still presenting a clock? What about the equipment I got from the SFM? If a game goes to a topdeck war with an equal or close board state, this deck is generally favored to win because the individual cards are so high-impact.
    "The last top 8 slot went to the winner of that Death and Taxes mirror, or as I like to call it, the White Supremacy Mirror.
    "Swiggety Swagtusk, Here comes the Thragtusk!"

    In response to "What's the best replacement for Force of Will?"
    Quote Originally Posted by Finn
    Modern

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    Re: HOW many Stoneforge Mystics? - 3rd with Junk (not Abzan) at CFB

    Have this deck built (minus that Act of Authority, of course), can't wait to back to roots and smash some people the honest way.

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    Re: HOW many Stoneforge Mystics? - 3rd with Junk (not Abzan) at CFB

    Cheers on your result and thanks for writing the report. Junk is fun to play and i enjoy reading this.
    Good find on Act of Authority.
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    Re: HOW many Stoneforge Mystics? - 3rd with Junk (not Abzan) at CFB

    Quote Originally Posted by Goin Aggro View Post
    stuff on bob
    I agree on the philosophy, I just started finding the philosophy wanting when it came to bob since he was always answered. I started going to Revoker/SFM/Snapcaster/Tidehollow or other threats that get me a card *now* (even if it's temporary) just because I got so tired of him eating it. Maybe the order is wrong, but SFM is more of a lategame card and while Bob is better late (when they probably have to draw into removal now) if you have DRS, SFM, Bob, I'm not sure who you play first. Maybe SFM and you fetch BSK so it's must kill rather than Jitte where you'll get it anyway.

    Maybe its' the BSK version of the Philosophy missing from my decks?
    Quote Originally Posted by Nestalim View Post
    Wrong. Gideon Emblem protect you from losing and you can even open your binder and slam some cards on the board, not even the HJ can DQ you now.

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    Re: HOW many Stoneforge Mystics? - 3rd with Junk (not Abzan) at CFB

    Quote Originally Posted by tescrin View Post
    I agree on the philosophy, I just started finding the philosophy wanting when it came to bob since he was always answered. I started going to Revoker/SFM/Snapcaster/Tidehollow or other threats that get me a card *now* (even if it's temporary) just because I got so tired of him eating it. Maybe the order is wrong, but SFM is more of a lategame card and while Bob is better late (when they probably have to draw into removal now) if you have DRS, SFM, Bob, I'm not sure who you play first. Maybe SFM and you fetch BSK so it's must kill rather than Jitte where you'll get it anyway.

    Maybe its' the BSK version of the Philosophy missing from my decks?
    My creature casting order against grindy decks (Barring situations where I have more information, such as from a TS. If I know they don't have removal, or will have to force with something good, I'll run Bob out)

    First: DRS - 1st SFM (Usually Batterskull) - Goyf - Bob - Remaining SFMs: Last

    This sets things up so that you'll either have ridiculous board presence and get the most out of your creatures, even if they get removed.
    "The last top 8 slot went to the winner of that Death and Taxes mirror, or as I like to call it, the White Supremacy Mirror.
    "Swiggety Swagtusk, Here comes the Thragtusk!"

    In response to "What's the best replacement for Force of Will?"
    Quote Originally Posted by Finn
    Modern

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    Re: HOW many Stoneforge Mystics? - 3rd with Junk (not Abzan) at CFB

    Were you expecting a combo light metagame? I've been playing Junk for a while and if I'm not on heavy discard maindeck (which you're not) and strong hate in the SB (which you have some), I always lose.

    Also, 0x Swords to Plowshares?
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    Re: HOW many Stoneforge Mystics? - 3rd with Junk (not Abzan) at CFB

    Quote Originally Posted by Mirrislegend View Post
    Were you expecting a combo light metagame? I've been playing Junk for a while and if I'm not on heavy discard maindeck (which you're not) and strong hate in the SB (which you have some), I always lose.

    Also, 0x Swords to Plowshares?
    He explains in the bit about the quarter finals. SFM #5-7 are supposed to be StP.

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