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Thread: Stifling the competition: 2nd place in Tübingen

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    Stifling the competition: 2nd place in Tübingen

    Hello guys and girls,

    it's been a while since my last report. While my lust for Magic was at a pretty low point the last year - mostly because I was bored of playing Miracles - I still played as many tournaments as I could. Some more and some less successful.. and while I'd really like to blame the tournaments that I was hungover or at least a bit drunk, those were the more successful ones.
    So, bored of Miracles, but what to do? I tried Team America, which wasn't too much fun, so I did the next best thing and tried BUG Delver with Stifles. The list wasn't tuned, played Mongoose instead of Goyfs, but had two strong points: It straight up slaughtered Miracles and was incredible fun to play. So while tinkering around with the list, I also tried out Eldrazi (NNNNNNNOPE) and ANT, the later which netted me a Top8 in the MTGO Legacy Challenge April. At this point, sorry 42AD, I promise I'll do a report if I do well enough with Storm next time.

    So, I played ANT a bit online and tuned BUG Delver offline, playing a Trial for the MKM Series Frankfurt (and losing horribly).
    Short intermission #1:
    Please raise your hand if you ever got your Decay redirected away from a Hypnotic Specter, onto your Delver of Secrets, with Imp's Mischief.

    The MKM Series in Frankfurt was rather uneventful for me, mostly because we were partying until 4 in the morning. I started with a win against a strange BUG build, lost against Eldrazi because I did not drain two life with Collective Brutality (hello tiredness), won against 4c Delver and lost against a friend piloting BUG. Appearantly, if you think people will run into your Stifle because no one is expecting it, it's a good idea to think if your opponent might also play Stifle. After that, I was kind of too tired to play anymore and called it a day. Though the field seemed pretty open, the fire for Legacy was reignited again - at this point I was cursing myself for being stupid enough to not enjoy the 10 rounds Frankfurt provided its players. Guess you always want what you can't have. Lessons were learned that day.

    Luckily, the guys from Tübingen hosted their quarterly Win-A-Dual event so my newly gained thirst for tournament Magic could at least be quenched a bit. I collected Maze, of newly acquired MKM Series Frankfurt Top4 fame, with his Grixis Delver list as well as Max (probably of future MKM Series xy TopX fame) with his 4c Punishing Loam and of we go. We met with George, playing Eldrazi, and Bernd, playing Burn, at the site and the usual trashtalk ensued. I registered this pile:

    1 Bayou
    4 Misty Rainforest
    4 Polluted Delta
    3 Underground Sea
    2 Tropical Island
    4 Wasteland
    [18 Lands]
    4 Deathrite Shaman
    4 Delver of Secrets
    4 Tarmogoyf
    [12 Creatures]
    3 Abrupt Decay
    4 Brainstorm
    4 Daze
    1 Dismember
    3 Fatal Push
    4 Force of Will
    4 Stifle
    [23 Instants]
    1 Collective Brutality
    2 Painful Truths
    4 Ponder
    [07 Sorceries]
    [60 cards maindeck]

    Sideboard:

    2 Baleful Strix
    1 Dread of Night
    2 Duress
    3 Engineered Plague
    2 Flusterstorm
    1 Grafdigger’s Cage
    2 Surgical Extraction
    1 Sylvan Library
    1 Winter Orb
    [15 cards sideboard]
    [75 cards total]

    Short intermission #2:
    I started foiling my pool a month ago and had the decision of either starting with Miracles, as my #1 deck and strongest option, or going with the BUG list and just finish the deck first that I enjoy playing currently. Three weeks and one B&R announcement later - guess who's a happy camper with a foil BUG list.

    Now, onto the tournament. There were a few GPTs in the region, so only 42 players turned up to sling some cards. Nevertheless, six rounds of Magic lay before us and the battle started with a namesake duel.

    R1: Florian on BR Reanimator

    I win the dice roll and play a Shaman on turn one, having Daze protection for his discard spell. His Collective Brutality gets forced and my Shaman starts to work on his life totals. He still manages to kill my Shaman and even gets Griselbrand on the table via Animate Dead, but faces a Tarmogoyf and a Delver of Secrets. Obviously, Delver doesn't flip, but he still has to attack as he's on two life. He declines to draw cards, hoping that my Delver doesn't flip again so he can take over the game the next turn. Delver shows Decay on top though, so I attack for exactly lethal.

    In: 2 Baleful Strix, 2 Duress, 2 Flusterstorm, 1 Grafdiggers Cage, 2 Surgical Extraction, 1 Sylvan Library
    Out: 3 Abrupt Decay, 1 Dismember, 3 Fatal Push, 1 Painful Truths, 2 Stifle

    Game two is a short story of two spells getting discarded, then a Griselbrand entering the battlefield and showing my Delver who's boss.

    I start with a mulligan and then a land and no pressure at all. On the other side of the table, a Lotus Petal is sacrificed for Dark Ritual. I daze. Go. A strange game starts, he doesn't find any lands while I only draw lands, starting to hardcast Force of Will, then waste his mana sources. A few turns that felt like an eternity later, I give him one window to find a land again, to play Sylvan Library and not keep my Force (without blue card obv) open. He doesn't and Library shows me Stifle, Shaman and Daze next turn. "I'll take all three." The game was pretty much over after this.

    2-1 | 1:0

    R2: Florian on Staxx

    Another namesake. Another won dice roll. I mulligan to six and keep a creature and land heavy hand. He starts with Mishra's Factory and Mutavault, leaving me pretty confused. I daze his first Ratchet Bomb to protect my Shaman and Delver, the second one resolves, along with a Chalice, both on turn three. Thanks Merkel. Bomb on one kills my stuff, a second Bomb kills my Tarmogoyf and then he plays Powder Keg - "just to be sure". I'm at 5+ lands when he plays Smokestack, just leaving it with one counter and sacrificing stuff. My thousand lands keep me in the game a bit longer, he also has no pressure at all, having to play more Smokestacks as sacrifice fodder. When he gets a Crucible going, I concede.

    In: 2 Baleful Strix, 2 Duress, 1 Sylvan Library
    Out: 1 Fatal Push, 4 Stifle

    I start with a Shaman over a Duress because this lets me play Tarmogoyf and Duress in the next turn if he doesn't have a Chalice. He does, in fact, not and just starts with a Mishra. I discard one of his two Ratchet Bombs (he also tells me he's playing seven Bombs / Kegs main.. yay) and leave him with Tangle Wire, a Ratchet Bomb and some lands. He finds Chalice from the top and my hand is pretty dead at this point. Goyf goes to town before a getting bombed to pieces while my Shaman battles it out with Inventors Fair. He's almost stabilized when I finally find Abrupt Decay to get rid of his Chalice and bring some Delver beats. I win shortly after.

    Game three is somewhat uneventful. My hand has a Goyf if he starts with Chalice, and all the cantripy, shamany, delvery goodness if he doesn't. He starts with Balista. I could push it and waste my turn, or play Shaman and hope he doesn't have a sol land. He does, but still has to waste his turn in doing killing my Shaman while I play Goyf and Delver in the following turns. He uses Tanglewire as a last ditch effort to get some turns, but they don't help him get out of this mess. I declare myself mightiest Florian in the room and people immediatly start building statues and throwing flowers (or something along those lines, memory is a bit hazy).

    2-1 | 2:0

    R3: Luis on DnT

    I kind of remember Luis, but can't put my finger on what he's playing. Still, my hand is pretty good, the dice roll is won again and there is a little elf in play turn one. He has a Karakas that I waste and a Plains that I can't waste. He uses this sign of weakness to send my freshly summoned Goyf plowing, but a Delver of Secrets immediately takes its spot and starts beating. He tries to stabilize with Sanctum Prelate on one and Stoneforge Mystic, but I obviously have the Decay for his Prelate and the Stifle for his Batterskull. Collective Brutality drains his last two points of damage.

    In: 2 Baleful Strix, 1 Dread of Night, 2 Engineered Plague, 1 Sylvan Library
    Out: 1 Painful Truths, 4 Stifle, 1 Daze

    We both mulligan to six and he starts with a Vial. His Thalia hits me for a bit until a Goyf threatens to be the bigger predator on the field. As my goyf has manners though, he doesn't resist when a Palace Jailer crowns a new king and exiles the poor Llurgoyf. So I read the Jailer, let Luis explain how the trigger works. Then read the card again, think a bit, read the card again, ask Luis how the trigger works. He's very patient with my stupidity, I guess such is royality. So after confirming three times that I can kill it and get my Goyf back later, I use Fatal Push to start my revolt. Enter Baleful Strix. Luis might have a Thalia. And a Stoneforge Mystic. But he does not have a flyer. I ping for one. The king is dead, long live the king. My goyf is back and immediately throwns himself in front of the Batterskull to protect his royal highness Florian, the mightiest of Florians in the room. I miss the monarch card draw at least four times (see above: stupid), even though Luis gives me a fancy token. I still find a Dread of Night, so his Thalia is down and his two Stoneforge Mystics don't do anything. He doesn't see it at first and attacks with two Forgers (one equipped with a Jitte without counters) into my lonely Delver, losing a Forger in the process. I win the game shortly thereafter.

    2-0 | 3:0

    R4: Marcel on Aggro Loam

    It's his first Legacy tournament and we have a pleasant chat, he's the first person to beat my dice roll on this day, which obviously makes him my arch nemesis. Karma strikes directly and he has to mulligan to six, starting with fetchland, Mox (discard: Dark Depths), Loam. I just have a Shaman that exiles his Loam one turn later. He's just drawing lands while I play a Delver that delivers the beats on his empty field. He tries to take counters from Dark Depths manually and I waste it as soon as he's tapped out as I don't want him to have a Crop Rotation or such shenanigans. He is able to find a Knight and a Green Sun's Zenith for another one, but due to his flood I didn't have to play much and have a hand loaded with removal. Delver and Shaman finish the job.

    In: 2 Baleful Strix, 2 Surgical Extraction, 1 Sylvan Library
    Out: 4 Force of Will, 1 Stifle

    This time I have to mulligan. His turn one has a Mox (discard something), Bayou and a Dark Confidant. Fatal Push is ready, but his brother wants to join the fight. Wants to. I have the Daze and Marcel is missing his land drop. With my delversense tingling I waste his Bayou and play a Delver. He just found a Wasteland, which is at least enough to get him a Sylvan Library online. I play a second Delver and manage to flip both the next turn while he just takes one card and motions for my turn. Delvers take him down to six when he finally finds a land.. Dryad Arbor. He shows me his hand of double Decay and other goodness. Dodged a bullet there.

    R5: Jens on Grixis Delver

    I win the dice roll, and we do tempo things. Wastelands, Bolts, Stifles, Pushes, if you've played the Delver mirror you know that there's not much to tell. Creatures die and usually the guy on the play wins the game. Except if your opponent plays a Gurmag Angler. Long story short, I don't find my Dismember and my Goyfs are not big enough to take down the zombie fish.

    In: 2 Baleful Strix, 1 Engineered Plague, 1 Sylvan Library
    Out: 4 Force of Will

    Again on the play, I stifle his first land, waste his second and his third.. but he is still breathing. My side of the table has a Baleful Strix and a Shaman, slowly draining his life. Shaman hits the bin, but gets replaced by a Tarmogoyf. As the guy is 4/5, he's no match for his fish, so we're just looking at each other, not doing anything. He finally kills my Strix, with a triumphant battle cry I turn my might green 5/6 to attack. He has only one card left, what could possibly go wrong? If you guessed Dismember, you are right. His fish blocks my 0/1 idiot and starts to attack. With me at six and him at one, I draw Deathrite Shaman. So.. he attacks, putting us both to one life, then plays his newly drawn card: Delver of Secrets. With ten minutes left, we go for game three.

    Which is pretty short, really. He starts with a Shaman and two Delvers. I have.. uh... cantrips? Mercifully, his Delvers don't flip so I do have time to cantrip a bit and kill his Pyromancer. I draw a Goyf, he gets a fish that is, again, bigger than my Goyf. And also his Delvers flip. My lifepoints get destroyed in a pretty timely manner.

    1-2 | 4:1

    R6: Steffen on Infect

    What can I say, the matchup is pretty terrible for him imho. I win the dice roll and get a Shaman going. He doesn't fetch in his turn and then has to cast Force on my Stifle. He tells me that he was just out of it for a moment, knowing that I play Stifle, but just not reacting accordingly. Getting through this, he turns his play around and gets all the correct calls on when to bait and when to go for it. It's still not enough as I draw two copies of every removal spell in my deck throughout the game and obviously also the Wasteland to shut of his Nexus (read: the nuts). Delver finishes the job.

    In: 2 Baleful Strix, 3 Engineered Plague, 1 Sylvan Library
    Out: 2 Painful Truths, 4 Stifle

    We both mulligan down to six and he gets a Needle on Deathrite Shaman. I just cantrip for my turn while he has Glistener Elf and Noble Hierarch to start the poison train. I take two hits, then he plays Blighted Agent. Still only on two lands, Wasteland his Tropical, then land Plague on Human, killing almost all of his mana. He tries to go for it with Invigorate and Berserk, but I can daze the lethal double dose. A new Goyf protects his king until a Deathrite Shaman starts to play Blocker. He has to go for it a few turns later, but runs straight into my Decay. An Inkmoth Nexus might be an obstacle, but I find removal again. After the game he shows me the Flusterstorm he had in his hand, luckily he failed to find a blue source.

    2-0 | 5-1

    I get second place and 38 WaDo points, with another 13 points that I had from two tournaments before, I'm able to buy a Bayou. The rest of the crew, except for George who went 3-3, finishes with a 4-2 record. Bernd is hit hardest when it turns out that he's the unrewarded ninth place. We'll place more people into top 8 next time :)

    Props:
    - No Miracles all day
    - Cold drinks and nice food for a cheap price
    - Smooth tournament, friendly atmosphere
    - very cool opponents, playing clean and very good magic while trashtalking

    Slops:
    - No Slops, WaDo is just awesome

    Next up: Legacy Challenge on Saturday. Maybe I'll upload the videos again. Hope the read was worth your while :)

  2. #2
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    Re: Stifling the competition: 2nd place in Tübingen

    Great report! Glad to see Stifle back in action.


    Quote Originally Posted by mort- View Post
    Short intermission #1:
    Please raise your hand if you ever got your Decay redirected away from a Hypnotic Specter, onto your Delver of Secrets, with Imp's Mischief.
    I would love to see what the hell else was in this decklist... sounds amazing.
    Monday Night Magic: http://rfimd2000.tripod.com/images/mnm/mondaynight.htm

    Team
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  3. #3
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    Re: Stifling the competition: 2nd place in Tübingen

    He played Hypnotic Specter, Dark Ritual, Bitterblossom, Hymn to Tourach, Inquisition of Kozilek, Thoughtseize, Dark Confidant, Liliana of the Veil, Phyrexian Obliterator, Vampire Nighthawk, Wasteland and Rishadan Port.
    I think most of them as 4-off.
    Game 1 his start was (on the play and with me on Mulligan 5): Swamp, Rit, Inquisition, Thoughtseize, Rit, Vampire Nighthawk and then Land, Hymn in his second turn.

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    Re: Stifling the competition: 2nd place in Tübingen

    "Thanks Merkel"

    😂

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