[Report] Empty the Slogger at US Nats

[Zork]

EDIT: Awesome, as I write this, Zulander posts his report. Feel free to merge/delete/whatever this thread.

As many of you know, there was a legacy side event at nationals in Baltimore on Saturday (7/28). Since I happened to be visiting family in Baltimore that weekend who lived 15 minutes from the convention center, I did what any loving family man would do and ditched them to play hours of magical cards in an attempt to see who the mightiest wizard of the realm was. However, since I had not known about the tournament until the night before, I was left deckless and forced to rely on friends (aka Outsideangel and the Hatfields) to put me something together. Outsideangel knew that I had proxied up an old list of Empty the Slogger, and suggested that I try to come up with a build for it that I was comfortable with. Eventually, we settled on the following list, tailored to what we had (no Pit Dragons) and what we thought was good. My final results were 4-1-1 and the NoVa crew suggested I write up a report on how the deck performs.

The List:

The Mana:
6 Mountain
4 Great Furnace
4 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
4 Chrome Mox
4 Seething Song
4 Simian Spirit Guide

The Beats:
4 Arc-Slogger
4 Empty the Warrens
4 Sulfur Elemental
2 Flametoungue Kavu
2 Covetous Dragon

Equips:
3 Sword of Fire and Ice
3 Umezawa's Jitte

Disruption:
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Magus of the Moon

Sideboard:
4 Trinisphere
4 Pyrokinesis
4 Tormod's Crypt
2 Pyrostatic Pillar
1 Flametoungue Kavu

*Please note that I am terrible with names and often forget my own until someone yells it at me. If I forgot yours, its not because I hate you more than others.

So I got the deck from the guys and sat across from my first opponent, who told me that he was not a legacy player, but a T2 player. I told him I was terrible at magic. He was friends with someone I met at Ohio (ForceofWill maybe? Jesus I'm terrible).

G1: He wins the die roll, and opens with Mountain Vial Go. I had kept a hand that felt 1 turn too short for that play as I couldn't lay a dude until turn 2. I responded with Mountain, go. He proceeded to drop a fanatic and ramp vial up to 1. Then I dropped a tomb or a city, and dropped the weak as sin Magus of the Moon. Luckily I drew a slogger and songed him out the next turn or something. He tried to keep threats up but 4/5 with 5 shocks is massive against 2 assed green men.

SB: -4 Chalice -1 Magus of the Moon +4 Pyrokinesis +1 FtK

G2: I keep a questionable hand because it has a 2 mana land, Mox, Covetous, some crap, and pyrokinesis. He leads with Lackey, and drops some dudes while disrupting my lands with Wastes and such. I kinesis most of his board and eventually get a song for Covetous but he has Gempalm, 4 gobs and a fanatic. While it was a loss, the guy right next to me stopped his game to shake my hand for dropping Covetous Dragon in a legacy tournament.

G3: I get a semi-slow hand with plenty of chumpers and a slogger. He tin-streets a Mox and a SoFaI, and I eventually have to drop a magus to shut down his ports so I can song a slogger and beat face. All I can say is that Arc-Slogger is so savage against gobs that unless they have gempalm and enough dudes already out, it is basically a win.

1-0-0

My next round was a really nice guy playing B/W Deadguy.

G1: I think I win the die roll, and open with a Tomb Chalice for 1. He drops a swamp, and I then drop a jitte. He sinkholes my tomb off a fetched dual, and Hymns away my threats. We slap fight back and forth, and then he makes a play mistake of not sinkholeing my only mountain when he had a hippy out (I think it was hippy). I rip a magus of the moon off the top, drop him (he has 1 swamp and 3 mountains now) and jitte him up for the win.

G2: I keep a busted nut draw that feels unfair. He opens swamp, rit, hippy. I open City, Chalice for 0, SSG, Song, Covetous Dragon. He then drops another swamp and comments on how he thought rit hippy was good, but song dragon is better. Next turn I drop chalice for 1 and hold back the dragon, because my hand has SSG and SoFaI in it. He drops a shade, and I tap City, drop Tomb, and SSG out the Sword, equip it, and swing with an 8/7 Dragon. 3 turns and 2 shades later, I win.

2-0-0

Next I play against the GAGOMY guy (zulander) who has gone 1-0-1, the same who went all the way.

G1: I forget most of these games other than the fact that I got chalice for 1 every game and he hates it. I think I went all the way with a SoFaI'd Slogger.

SB: Damn if I remember. Maybe I brought in pyrokinesis?

G2: I mull to 5 and keep a hand of Chalice, 2 mana lands, a mountain, and some threat. He plays a land, I drop chalice for 1, and he hymns away my red source and threat. I proceed to draw nothing but Moxen and 2 mana lands.

G3: I manage to open 2 mana land, mox, song, Chalice at 1, Magus of the Moon. He proceeds to play a basic swamp like a ho, drop a jitte and jitte a confidant who kills my magus while drawing him goyfs and relevant things. I draw 2 mana lands, moxen, and SSGs. Sadface.

2-1-0

Now I get paired against a matchup I had hoped to test (and by test I mean play in a tourney, because thats how I roll): Thresh. The guy was playing 4c Thresh, no red, with Confidants and Meddling Mages main.

G1: He goes first, fetches a trop and and a tundra while I drop Chalice @ 1 off a tomb. He Meddling Mages Crucible (unknown deck ftw), and next turn I drop Magus. I proceed to drop SSG beats and he scoops with no answer to magus.

SB: +4 Trinisphere +2 Tormod's Crypt -6 Threats (I have no idea what, but it was a bad idea)

G2: I get some weaksauce bad luck sticking a trinisphere or a threat. I end up trying to answer a board of confidant and goyf with 4 Goblins and a sulfur elemental. It doesn't work, especially once he gets top down.

SB: I don't fix it, because I am not the mightiest wizard in the realm.

G3: I manage to hold off massive beats by getting down turn 1 Crypt + Trinisphere. He eventually gets Top, Goyf, Counterbalance (thank god my cards all cost 3+), and Confidant and I feel a solid and forceful anal boneage coming on but I stick Magus of the Moon and Chalice for 2, stalling the game until one of us can do something relevant. He piles up "Mountains" and I get my threats "Force of Willed" (who plays that card? What?) until we go to time. I had a Sword down at some point, but I just gave it to a monkey.

2-1-1

Next round was against Anwar playing Mind over Matter Candelabra High Tide.

G1: He wins the roll and leads with Island, Serum Visions. I try to stick Chalice for 1 off a tomb, and it works. He plays another Island, and I drop magus of the moon. He wishes for Echoing Truth, but I then stick a Chalice for 2. Eventually I jitte my Magus, and Anwar Wipes the Chalice for 2 away 1 turn too late to go off.

SB: -4 ETW -2 FtK +4 Trinisphere +2 Pyro Pillar

G2: He crakcs a fetch for an Islans and serum visions. I open with a Mox (SSG), 2 mana land Trinisphere, go. He drops another Island, and I drop a Sulfur Elemental. He drops a third Island and Brainstorms for 3. I drop another Sulfur and a Magus, and start beating in. 1 turn away from winning, I tap 3 of my 5 mana sources and try to drop Trinisphere #2, and in response he does Wipe Away on the one thats down, Force of Will. On his turn he tries to go off with a small hand and 3 lands, eventually finding the fourth (had to turnabout without it because he had a fetch that would have been a mountain under Magus), but fizzles.

3-1-1

Last round against Dominic (Happy Gilmore) playing a very pimped out Red Thresh deck.

G1: I don't remember exactly how it went (It was easily 2:30 AM at this point) but I think I went Mox, Tomb, Song ETW for 6, and then dropped a sulfur elemental the next turn. He dropped a goyf after I crunched once, and bolted the ele in response to me equipping something, but I had too many dudes.

SB: -4 ETW, +4 Trinisphere

G2: I get off a Chalice or something, and basically just play with myself dropping 2 mana lands while he dropped relevant cards like Tarmogoyf and Fledgling Dragon. I show him in the end, though, bu pinging myself to 1 to drop Chalice for 4 so he couldn't, you know, drop that second dragon or something.

G3: I open with turn 1 Trinisphere, and proceed to put down Magus of the Moon (clasmed) followed by a second Magus of the moon and 2 Sulfur elementals. The Magus keeps him off green while trini keeps him from cantriping into clasm.

I said GGs to all and grabbed my prize packs to head off and have dinnerfast with the some of the NoVa crew where we all enjoy Monte Cristos except Mr. Nipples, who is a deviant non-conformist and must be watched for further suspicious activity.

As for the deck, I really had a blast playing it, but I felt it was pretty inconsistent and topdecked like fetid ass. So having played against Goblins, Aggro-Control, and Combo all in one day, I have the following comments:

- Maybe the slogger should stay full. ETW won me 1 game where I got a perfect hand for it and otherwise generally sat around, got imprinted, and wallowed in its own impotence. Against a field prepared to kill 16 Goblins on turn one, topdecking an ETW for 4 made me generally wish I was topdecking a real threat.

- Magus of the Moon is straight up fucking amazing. He wins games, especially against a field where so many people mutilate their mana-bases to fit in extra, unnecessary splashes or wastelands in decks that have no use for wasteland. Considering this huge push by the mighty lords of Legacy to "fuck Wasteland" and run savagely susceptible manabases, dropping a potential wasteland-wrath on a stick is HUGE, especially on turn 1/2.

- Rakdos Pit Dragon should probably be in the deck, since he can finish the game real fucking fast and turns topdecked seething songs into pump spells.

- Tahngarth might be worth playing instead of Covetous Dragon. He beats, is vigilant, pops goblins, and trades with goyf no problem. Plus then I don't have to run Great Furnace, which is terrible.

- Sulfur Elemental is ok. He is pretty good against decks that like to counter threats like Thresh (and probably landstill, but I haven't tested it), but his ass of 2 means he only trades with goblins and dies to pyroclasm or quake @ 2. Since I think quake would be a good addition to the deck, this slot might be better as Gathan Raiders, Phyrexian Warbeast, or some other beater.

- Earthquake > EtW. Quake doesn't require other cards to be good, beats opposing EtWs (like the ones that actually matter), and can nuke an opponent for the win. Its also a house against Goblins, which tends to swing either way. Anti-synergistic with Magus of the Moon, but will probably be sided out in the matches where he is good anyways.

So basically, I prefer Empty the Slogger's acceleration and disruption base with some of Dragon Stompy's board control and beaters. I think Big Reds is a viable deck type, but no one has the "right" list yet.

[zulander]

Nice report and grats on the finish! It was fun playing you and if I have the Krosan Grip I would have been in for a long ass game.

[ForceofWill]

Good report and yes that was my friend after having a really bad day one we managed to go 6-0-1 in the two headed giant sealed and each got a box so sunday was way better than saturday. Also @ Deep6er Powergamer and Overlord did you guys see my wallet it was missing when I got back to my room that night.