3rd From the Vault: Twister @ L'En Jeux Jr., Montreal

[BackDr0p]

So yeah, I sleeved up TES for the Twister/ FTV: Exiled tournament @ l'Enjeux Jr. I arrived there about an hour earlier just to hang out and play test.

I was a bit disappointed at the turnout this time around. Only 20 people ended up coming as opposed to the 50-60 we got during the last tourneys held at the store. It probably had something to do with it being held during the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. Anyhow, at least I knew what everyone was playing (more or less).

The Metagame that day was very Canadian and even more so in T8 (all 3 Cdn Thresh players made the cut):


3 Canadian Threshold
2 Merfolk
1 Suicide Black
1 Monu U Aggro
2 Kavu Predator (9-Land Stompy without Berserks)
1 UGR Dreadstill
1 TES
1 Entomb Hulk*
1 Lands.dec
1 Naya Zoo
1 UBG Fearies
1 Affinity
1 Dark Hex
1 Hive Mind
1 Reanimator

*Refered to in SCG Premium article

After taking the look around I realized that I shouldn't have too many problems.

The List

1 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine

2 Simian Spirit Guide

4 Burning Wish
3 Infernal Tutor
2 Mystical Tutor
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Dark Ritual
4 Rite of Flame
1 Silence
3 Orim's Chant
3 Duress

4 Chrome Mox
4 LED
4 Lotus Petal

1 Ad Nauseam
1 IGG
1 Tendrils of Agony

SB:

3 Pyroblast
1 Shattering Spree
1 Krosan Grip
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Echoing Truth
1 Deathmark
1 IGG
1 ETW
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Diminishing Returns
1 Duress
1 Infernal Tutor
1 Grapeshot


Round 1:

Salim
UGB Faeries

Game 1:

I'm on the play and from what I can remember, this game was ridiculously short. It pretty much involved a hand full of accel, Orim's Chant and Burning wish into 14 Goblin tokens.

Game 2:
SB: IN-> 3 Pyroblasts OUT-> 1 C. Mox, 1 IGG, 1 BS

Basically, Faeries did what they were supposed to do. I Duress, he shows me a hand full of Sprites (great). He proceeds to waste my lands and Clique away any relevant spells. With much effort, I manage a desperate Diminishing Returns backed with chant at 2 life points... Into... 4 lands. SSG, Duress, Petal. Fail.

Game 3:

Like G1, I keep a hand with a bunch O' ritual, LED's, B. Wish and Ponder. Even after shuffling away the crap on the top of my deck, I proceeded to draw 2 more LED's and a petal. On T4 at the end of my draw step he Cliques away my Wish. Luckily for me it netted me a Brainstorm which found me a Pyroblast and second Burning Wish. I proceed to go off. Rite of Flame, he hydroblasts. Dark Ritual? Resolves. Rite? again another blast. My Burning Wish encounters a Spell Snare which I blast in response whilst cracking my LED's. It gets me Infernal Tutor for Lethal Tendrils.

[1-0-0]


Round 2:

Pierre-Marc (Enigma)
Canadian Thresh

Game 1:

He's on the play. Knowing what he's playing I ended keeping a land heavy hand with Duress, Chant, Ponder, Mystical Tutor, U. Sea, City of Brass. He ponders. I draw a second Duress and proceed to pick his hand clean. On T4 a EOT Mystical Tutor finds me Ad Nauseam. I chant, Dark Ritual x2, Nauseam for the win.

Game 2:
SB: IN-> 3 Pyroblast, OUT-> 1 Ponder, 1 Brainstorm, 1 C. Mox

He gets the job done by blasting all of my cantrips and slowing me down by wasting my lands. Goose (3/3) and Goyf (4/5) bring me to 5 life points. I attempt to go off with chant protection he just shows me a hand of 2x Force, Daze, Spell Pierce, Stifle, F/I

Game 3:

I keep a hand of 2x Duress, 2x Gemstone mine, Dark ritual, Petal, Brainstorm. I duress him, taking away 1 of his 2 forces. He ponders during his turn. I draw a Mystical Tutor. Duress away the other force but leaving Spell Pierce and Stifle . He passes his turn. I draw a 3rd land. He drops Goose. EOT Mystical Tutor for AdN, followed by a BS which reveals Chant, Dark Ritual I draw Dark Rit. and proceed to Nauseam the following turn with enough mana to pay for Pierce targeting Chant.

[2-0-0]


Round 3:

Louis
Mono B Aggro

Game 1:

He gets the jump on my by Dark Ritual-ing into Hymn making me discard my only land (City of Brass) and Dark Ritual and Extirpates DR. I pass. T3 He get hippy into play. Random Discard FTL.

Game 2:
SB: IN-> E. Truth, OUT, C. Mox

I chant him during his upkeep. On my turn LED, LED, IT into AdN (I was fearing extirpate) FTW.

Game 3:

I keep a turn 1 kill (all accel and B. Wish). Obviously he opens with Dark Ritual, Seize, Hymn. I draw a land. He plays Hexmage and with the help of a lotus petal, Seizes again taking Dark Ritual. I top deck LED, which I play. He Hymns me. Leaving me with a single Rite of Flame. I top deck AdN and win from there.

[3-0-0]


Round 4:

Alexandre (elgoff)
Entomb-Hulk

As we both are 3-0, we are guarenteed a spot in T8. We ID, but still play it out for fun.

Game 1:

All I know about the deck he's piloting is that it is graveyard based and not Ichorid. I keep a hand with two ritual effects, IT, B. Wish, MT, C. Mox and a land. I get completely steam rolled. A deck packing over 14 pieces of protection in the form of Force of Will, Pact of Negation, Cabal Therapy, Thoughtseize and a ridiculously consistent goldfish (t3). He kills with an Entombed Protean Hulk revived and sacced with Necromancy, during end step. It fetches him Body Double and Carrion Feeder. Double copies hulk (which is sacced to Carrion Feeder) and fetches, Reveillark and Bile Urchin for the kill. The deck should die and roll over to Extipate, Stifle, Wasteland, Any targeted removal removal. Canadian Thresh is a particularly hard match up for the deck.

Game 2:
SB: IN-> Echoing Truth, OUT-> C. Mox

See game 1.

[3-0-1]


T8

The decks which made it to T8 were:

You can see the deck lists here.

Canadian Thresh (Yan Lampron)
Canadian Thresh (Etienne Ayot-Sauvé, aTn)
Canadian Thresh (Pierre-Marc Duguay, Enigma)
TES (Me)
Entomb-Hulk (Alexandre Le Goff, elgoff)
42land.dec (Adam Roy)
UGR Dreadstill (Sebastien Alarie)
Merfolk (Moise Brunnelle)

Adam
42land.dec

This resulted in a T1 kill game one and T2 kill game two respectively.

[4-0-1]

T4

Moise
Merfolk

Game 1:

I end up winning T2 with a Duress protected AdN.

Game 2:
SB: IN-> 3 Pyroblast, OUT-> 1 IGG, 1 Brainstorm, 1 C. Mox

He drops Chalice of the Void @ 0 (sigh). I waste time by have to go B. Wish into Shattering Spree. I Nauseam from 19 life and die. Just my luck.

Game 3:
SB: IN-> 2 Shattering Spree, 3 Pyroblast, OUT-> 1 IGG, 1 Brainstorm, 1 Ponder, 1 C. Mox

He goes T1 CoV followed by Cursecatcher. Wastes my only 2 lands, Vials in an angry Wakethrasher EOT.

I walk away with 2 Flooded Strands for my troubles.

[4-1-1]

[rockout]

What place did Elgoff finish with Entomb Hulk?

[BackDr0p]

He came in second only losing to Merfolk in the finals.

[Enigma]

Congratz for this Tobin,

Had great matches against you.

P-M

[FredMaster]

Congrats first of all. I'm surprised of how good this deck can do even if the pilot is not named Cook.

Just one question: Why do you keep in IGG against Canadian Thresh, when you board it out against both Faeries and Merfolk?

[BackDr0p]

Congrats first of all. I'm surprised of how good this deck can do even if the pilot is not named Cook.

Just one question: Why do you keep in IGG against Canadian Thresh, when you board it out against both Faeries and Merfolk?

Thanks.

The only reason why I kept IGG, was to simply have another storm enabler MD. Their primary strategy post-board, is to disrupt your mana base and prevent you from sculpting that perfect hand by countering cantrips with blasts. Every once in a while, I will have one rout to victory completely barred. Just to be on the safe side I ended up leaving in IGG.

I'm still learning how to play the deck optimally. So I took the liberty of trying out different SB strategies.

Note that a few of my siding choices are a little off:

Boarding out moxen against Merfolk and Canadian Threshold are big "no no's", since those are the two matchups where wastelands/ Stifle effects become game-breaking. I also found that keeping a slightly slower (but surer) hand with 2 lands or 2x protection spells greatly increases your chances of survival.

[elgoff]

I finnished 2nd with ENTOM-HULK only because I forgot to put Protean Hulk #2 in my sideboard.

The deck is just AMAZING!!!

Like Tobin just said: "The deck should die and roll over to Extipate, Stifle, Wasteland, Any targeted removal removal. Canadian Thresh is a particularly hard match up for the deck."

Extirpate ruins any chance of winning. (It's the ONLY card that you can't deal with)

Any other hate can be AND will be disrupted, there's enough cards in the deck to take care of any situation you're gonna be facing (Force of Will, Pact of Negation, Cabal Therapy, Thoughtseize).

The deck is VERY consistant. I always got Turn 3 (end step) KILL.

If you have to deal with "on board hate"...just wait to get the answer and all the pieces together and go! If you got countered...just wait to get Necromancy/Mystical/Goryo back and go again!!!

elgoff,./*

[deadlock]

I finnished 2nd with ENTOM-HULK only because I forgot to put Protean Hulk #2 in my sideboard.

The deck is just AMAZING!!!

I am quite interested in the deck, would you mind posting your sideboard? (I asume you played Chapins maindeck).
Why do you wanted the second Hulk, against STP?
Also what about some kind of protection creature (Sylvan Safekeeper / Benevolent Bodyguard)?

[Bryant Cook]

Grats on the finish. I think you made some sideboarding mistakes leaving Ill-Gotten Gains in versus blue a lot. I also don't know why you boarded in E. Truth so much.

[BackDr0p]

Thank You.

I also don't know why you boarded in E. Truth so much?

The only reason I boarded in E. Truth against the Mono B Aggro player is that Game 1 he showed me his hand before mulliganing: 6 Swamps, 1 Hexmage. I then assumed that he must be playing Hexmage + Dark Depths. I then priceeded to side in an out. Other wise, I wouldn't have sided anything in.

Against elgoff however, The single truth was there to bounce, either the Protean Hulk (before end step) or Carrion Feeder (mid-combo).

Edit:

What was I thinking? I should have just boarded in blasts and hoped to go off, before he made the kill. Furthermore, boarding in a single hate card that has to be tutored for is really stupid on my part. Since he has access to a ridiculous protection suite as I mentioned before.

I think you made some sideboarding mistakes leaving Ill-Gotten Gains in versus blue a lot.

Yes, you're right concerning Ill-Gotten Gains. But every single time I feel like in needs to be in there. I guess it'll take a few games for me to realize why leaving it in is a bad idea apart from raising the average CMC of the deck for Ad Nauseam.

I have a question on how would you side against a blue deck packing discard (e.i Entomb-Hulk)? I felt as though I couldn't do anything at all.

Edit: I also updated the meta game breakdown in the opening post (TY, elgoff).


Ok, for all you guys that were interested in elgoff's SB, Here it is:


1 Life from the Loam
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Firespout
1 Pact of Negation
3 Ancient Grudge
4 Pithing Needle
4 Chain of Vapors


To me it looks alot like a standard Ichorid side board plan (minus LFTL, Pact, Firespout and Iona).

Anyone think about a transformational SB turning it into a completely different archtype?