GP Washington DC- 11-4, 96th place with Nic Fit

[MrIggins]

I don't have much to introduce this, so I'll just jump right in. The details on each game are probably not totally accurate, and I might very well be mixing up games particularly in the early rounds, but I'll do my best from what meager and illegible notes I took during the games.

But first, the deck list:
4 Veteran Explorer
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Wood Elves
1 Eternal Witness
3 Huntmaster of the Fells
2 Thragtusk
1 Primeval Titan
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Burning Wish
3 Pernicious Deed
2 Scapeshift
2 Slaughter Games
3 Forest
2 Swamp
2 Mountain
2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
2 Bayou
3 Badlands
4 Taiga
2 Stomping Ground
3 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wooded Foothils

Sideboard:
3 Carpet of Flowers
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Thoughtseize
2 Pyroclasm
1 Slaughter Games
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Scapeshift
1 Reverent Silence
1 Innocent Blood
1 Maelstrom Pulse

Round 1: James with Deadguy Ale
He wins the roll and goes Plains, Mother of Runes. I put him on Death and Taxes and Therapy him naming Stoneforge Mystic, missing and seeing Dark Confidant, Tidehollow Sculler, Swords to Plowshares, land. He scullers something, I hit an Explorer and take his Bob, then play Deed on turn 3. He for some reason plays Jitte, equips it, and gains 4 when I deed him. I play a Huntmaster a turn or two later and he concedes.
Sideboard: -2 Slaughter Games, +2 Pyroclasm
Game 2, he mulligans to 5 and I go to 6. We go back and forth for a while, with my Huntmaster versus his Mirran Crusader. He plows the Huntmaster and finds another Crusader, and I die quickly.
Game 3, I take some beats and hit him down to 11 with Explorer beatdowns, eventually land a Primeval Titan and Scapeshift him after he Plows the Titan.
1-0

Round 2: Matt with Shardless BUG
I keep something like Explorer, Tribe-Elder, Huntmaster, Thragtusk, lands. He hymns me on turn 2 hitting my two threats, I don't really draw anything relevant and I get Jaced. I learn that he has at least 2 basics, but don't see an Island.
Sideboard: -2 Slaughter Games, -1 Wood Elves, -1 Explorer, +2 Carpet, +2 Red Blast
I have turn 1 Explorer into turn 2 Therapy and botch the Therapy slightly- I've been trying out the line that if I know I'm going to flash back my Therapy right away and they have the ability to get an Island or cast a Brainstorm between the two spells, I name Brainstorm on the first one, so I ensure that the second one will hit. Instead I name Force for no real reason here. He doesn't actually have the basic Island, and I get to take 2 Shardless Agent from his hand of 2x Agent, 2x Brainstorm, Deathrite, Goyf. Obviously naming the Brainstorm on the first one would have been the actual nuts, but I think my blind name on the Therapy was wrong even without that information. Anyway, I take a hit from a Goyf, stick a Thragtusk, and then Scapeshift him out.
Game 3, he gets Jace and Liliana going. I am made to discard my last card- Scapeshift with 6 lands- and get Fatesealed out of the game. He's able to leave lands on top for several turns running. When he finally bottoms a spell, I draw Green Sun's and am a turn too slow with it- I could get Titan, but I was one Mountain short of making a Valakut trigger happen and buying me another turn before I got Jace ulted.
1-1, frustrating to lose to what is actually a really good matchup, but still feeling good about my chances; there are a lot of fair decks in the room, which are all good matchups.

Round 3: Paul with UW Blade
Game 1 I take a couple hits from irrelevant things, pretty sure there was a True-Name involved, Slaughter Games his Force of Wills with a Scapeshift kill set up for next turn, and then kill him after he plays his Batterskull.
Sideboard: I don't remember, I think I boarded out my Slaughter Games for Red Blasts though.
Game 2 I take a bunch of damage from random beats and he sticks a Jace as his last card in hand. I take the opportunity to resolve a Titan, set up Valakuts, he bounces the Titan and I replay it, and then my attack is lethal with triggers.
2-1

Round 4: Omar with Shardless BUG
Game 1 I stick a very early Huntmaster and go to town. It flips multiple times, killing a Liliana and a Deathrite, and he dies very easily.
Sideboard: -2 Slaughter Games, -1 Wood Elves, -1 Explorer, +2 Carpet, +2 Red Blast
He mulligans to 6 in game 2 and we go back and forth for a bit, I'm pretty sure I Deluge away a Goyf, Agent and Deathrite at some point in this game, and then I land a Huntmaster and I believe it flips once, killing Baleful Strix. He deals with it eventually, I land Thragtusk, he spends some resources trying to handle that, and then the angry mountains arrive and he dies.
3-1

Round 5: Mikuel with UW Miracle Blade
Game 1 he goes to 5 and leads off with a blue fetch land, i think it was a Flooded Strand. I Therapy on turn 1 naming Brainstorm and hit, leaving him with Rest in Peace, Venser, Swords and Misty Rainforest. I Slaughter his Entreats, of which there are only one, Wish->Pulse the Batterskull he taps out for, and pressure him with Thragtusk and a Huntmaster until I'm able to fire off a Scapeshift for lethal.
Sideboard: -3 Explorer, -1 Wood Elves, -1 Cabal Therapy, +3 Carpet, +2 Red Blast
I have turn 1 Top, and he gets Batterskull with his Stoneforge. I take some damage and stick a Thragtusk, which stops his attacking for a couple turns since he's a bit tight on mana, Huntmaster joins the party and trades with his Germ token after I attack with Thrag. I'm trying to get him to tap low so I can force either a Deed or my lethal Scapeshift through his Counterbalance+Top. He's low on cards and eventually taps out for Jace, having to bounce my Primeval Titan to prevent me from just setting up the Valakut by attacking. I take the opportunity to cast my Deed, he fails to find a 3-drop on top of his library and has to flip his Top to draw Force of Will. I then cast Scapeshift and deal 40-something damage.
4-1

Round 6: Jeff with U/R Painter
Game 1 he plays turn 1 Welder and then fetches a Volcanic. I have double Explorer but am tight on lands, so I Wish for Pyroclasm after getting him to 12 with the Explorer beats. He plays Painter and then Forces my Pyroclasm, which would have enabled me to Slaughter Games his Grindstones had it resolved. Instead, he casts Grindstone and I die.
Sideboard: +2 Red Blast, +2 Thoughtseize, -2 Thragtusk, -Primeval Titan, -1 Wood Elves I think
I mulligan into oblivion trying to find meaningful interaction, and die.
4-2, I need to win out for the next 3 rounds to make day 2.

Round 7: Dylan with Omni-Tell
I keep something like 3 lands, Top, 2 Wishes, Huntmaster. He wins the roll and goes turn 1 Island, Ponder. I immediately put him on combo, probably Omni but possibly High Tide which I've heard is floating around still. I play a Top to make sure I hit my lands, fire off a Burning Wish for Slaughter Games on turn 3 while he keeps cantripping trying to find something. My Slaughter Games scared him apparently, and he casts Show and Tell. I put in Huntmaster and he puts in Emrakul. On my turn, I Wish for Innocent Blood and he doesn't have a counter, and then on my next turn I Slaughter Games his Omniscience and he concedes.
Sideboard: -2 Thragtusk, -1 Explorer, -1 Titan, -3 Pernicious Deed, +3 Carpet, +2 Thoughtseize, +2 Red Blast
I mulligan to 5 in game 2, and keep Valakut, Red Blast, Thoughtseize, Slaughter Games, Huntmaster. My reasoning is that I'm up a game, and maybe the Red Blast will be able to let me get to the point of casting my other hate. He goes land, cantrip, and I draw Carpet of Flowers. I play Valakut and pass. He passes after playing a land. I draw Forest, play Carpet, go to 2nd main and Thoughtseize him. I take a Show and Tell leaving him with Enter the Infinite, Cunning Wish, Impulse, Ponder, land. He Impulses on my end step, untags, ponders and passes, and then I untap, make black mana with Carpet, and Slaughter Games him again. He concedes.
5-2, dodged a bullet there by getting extremely lucky in game 2. He tells me he should have just mulliganed to Leyline, and I agree with him. This is not a match I was expecting to win at all.

Round 8: John with Esper Stoneblade
I have turn 1 Top, and he has turn 3 Back to Basics. This doesn't affect me much since I have a basic in play already and am able to keep getting more, it only ever locks me out of 2 lands I think. I play out a Thragtusk and he Plows it then bounces the token, meanwhile I get one Scapeshift countered by a Negate but am able to get the second one to resolve eventually.
Sideboard: -2 Slaughter Games, +2 Red Blast I think
I played a Huntmaster which he dealt with pretty quickly, and he starts beating down with a Batterskull. I trade a second Huntmaster and his token for the germ, and he replays it, as well as finding a Jitte. He finds a Jace which he is forced to use to bounce my Primeval Titan to keep me off Valakut, but it's able to get me up to 8 lands and he had tapped out for the Jace, so I'm able to get him for exactsies with Scapeshift on my last possible turn.
6-2

Round 9: Allen with UR Delver with Young Pyromancer
I take some hits from a Delver that doesn't flip for a couple turns, and then Scape him. It looks like he mulliganed to 5 this game, because I have notes from a Therapy that only list 3 cards in his hand.
Sideboard: -2 Games, -1 Wood Elves, -2 Explorer, -1 Titan, +2 Carpet +2 Red Blast, +2 Pyroclasm. He had several basics and Explorer doesn't really do his one-mana Moat impression as well when they don't have Geese or Goyfs.
He plays a land and passes, I do the same to play around getting my Top Dazed. He plays a Delver and then Spell Pierces my Top, which I Red Blast- I think this was my key mistake, I should have used that to kill the Delver. Top was not really important in this game. Anyway, I take a bunch of damage and punt by not using Deed for zero to kill his flipped Delver and a couple of 1/1 Elemental tokens when I knew his hand. Naturally I get Stifled when I do go for it on his attack step, and he has a Bolt to kill me. Awkward.
Game 3, I Therapy him and hit something, take some unflipped Delver hits, and kill him with Explorer beats into Scapeshift after I play Deed, activate for 1 to trigger double Explorer and set up the Scapeshift next turn that played around any Pierces he drew; I knew he didn't have Force from seeing his hand earlier. As proof that I'm playing poorly at the end of the day, that Deed also hit my own Top, but it didn't end up mattering because I had the Shift in my hand already.
7-2, made day 2 at 233rd out of 235 people thanks to that round 2 loss.

Day 2: Round 10, Aaron with Reanimator
He keeps his 7, and I go to 6 keeping 2 Wishes, a Huntmaster, a Top and lands. He goes turn 1 Underground Sea, Lotus Petal, Thoughtseizes himself taking Elesh Norn, and Reanimates it, leaving Force and Brainstorm in his hand. "I hope you're on Elves or something," he says, and passes. I play Badlands, Top, and we agree that that is definitely not Elves. I use my Top to hit lands and find a Slaughter Games, and turn 3 cast Burning Wish to see if he's going to Force it, but he doesn't. I get Innocent Blood and pass without casting it. I go down to 8 from Norn hits and Slaughter his Forces, seeing no other permission of any kind in his deck, and a hand of Show and Tell, Reanimate, Exhume, land. Norn hits me down to 4 and I Innocent Blood it. At this point I'm at 6 lands in play with a 7th in my top cards, so I have a Scapeshift kill next turn. He rips Iona and Shows it in, naming black, and I untap and play Wish->Scapeshift and he dies.
Sideboard: -2 Thragtusk, -1 Titan, -3 Pernicious Deed, -1 Wood Elves, +3 Carpet of Flowers, +2 Red Blast, +2 Thoughtseize
He mulligans to 4 and Thoughtseizes me, taking Thoughtseize and leaving me with Carpet, Red Blast, lands. I do nothing for a few turns and then start pressuring him with Huntmaster and Sakura-Tribe Elder, get him low and have Elder for the natural last 3 damage with Valakut, he just doesn't really do anything all game except cast a Show and Tell, which I REB to make sure it doesn't do anything but I think it was just to keep my Huntmaster from flipping anyway.
8-2

Round 11: Eric with Jund
He plays turn 1 Deathrite Shaman and I cheer a little bit inside. I take a hit from it and he plays a Bob or something, I stick a Huntmaster and go to town. It flips 3 times this game killing a Bob, a Deathrite and a Liliana, deals a bunch of damage to him and buys me time to find the Scapeshift to finish the job.
Sideboard: -2 Slaughter Games, +2 Pyroclasm
He plays turn 1 Deathrite off of a fetch again and I turn 1 Therapy him for Liliana, hit one. He has: Goyf Goyf Decay Bayou. He decides to cast Goyf instead of exiling my Therapy, so I flash it back with an Explorer and hit the Goyf I knew about plus the one he had drawn. I take a hit and then Deed away his Goyf and Deathrite, play Thragtusk, attack him and he takes it, which puts him in range of Tribe Elder into Scapeshift, which is my next turn play.
9-2

Round 12: Michael with Shardless BUG
He has turn 1 Deathrite, I play an Explorer. He suspends Visions and plays a Tar Pit. I Therapy for Brainstorm, hit and see Force Decay x2 Goyf Underground Sea, flash back taking his Goyf; he has no basics. I take several hits from Tar Pit trying to find business, he forces my Huntmaster, and I eventually land Thragtusk to help stabilize, and go back to 13. He takes one hit from Thragtusk and then trades an Agent and a Deathrite for my Tusk on the second attack, I Therapy him and blind hit Jace, seeing nothing else but a land, and then untap and Scapeshift his face.
Sideboard: -2 Slaughter Games, -1 Therapy, -1 Wood Elves, +2 Carpet of Flowers, +2 Red Elemental Blast
We trade hits, but I have turn 1 top. I play a Huntmaster that flips and then flips back before he's able to deal with it, he stabilizes but I'm able to find the Wish to kill him on the last possible turn. He makes an interesting play which is to Decay my Top in response to an Explorer trigger when I have 6 lands in play and a 7th in my hand. I choose not to search and the Top finds my Burning Wish 3 cards down.
10-2

Round 13- Riley Curran with Elves
I keep a very fair-deck hand that is actually quite bad and should not have been kept: Veteran Huntmaster Thragtusk 4 lands doesn't actually do anything. Anyway, he casts Craterhoof on turn 3 and I become very dead.
Sideboard: -2 Thragtusk, -1 Titan, -1 Wood Elves, +2 Thoughtseize +2 Pyroclasm
I mulligan into oblivion trying to find interaction and he Hoofs me on turn 3 again.
10-3, still alive for money if I win my next two rounds.

Round 14- Morgan Chang with Elves
He mulligans to 6 and I keep a 7 with turn 1 Therapy, turn 2 Flashback off Explorer and a Deed. He plays Forest, Llanowar Elves. I Therapy him naming Wirewood Symbiote and hit TWO, leaving him with Cradle and Glimpse. The reason for that name was some combination of just having the soul read and also I wanted to make sure that my Deed was going to cripple him sufficiently when I played it, and Symbiote is his best card to mitigate Deed with. Anyway my flashback shows that he drew a land, and I Scape him after attacking with a Tribe Elder and a Wood Elves to get him below 18.
Sideboard: -2 Thragtusk, -1 Titan, -1 Wood Elves, +2 Thoughtseize +2 Pyroclasm
We both mulligan to 5, I take some beats from little green men but I'm able to Deed for 1 leaving him with a Priest of Titania and lands, while I get to untag and play Huntmaster, which takes over the game completely and is eventually joined by a second one to seal the deal.
11-3

Checking standings, I'm 62nd place because my tiebreakers are awful, so I know I probably have to play this round for a shot at top 64.

Round 15- Konstantin with Burn
He has turn 1 Goblin Guide, turn 2 Goblin Guide and I have 2 Explorers. He sees a Scapeshift off of a trigger, and I draw it and trigger both my Explorers when he attacks. He passes with 2 cards in hand and 2 mana up after playing a few burn spells; I'm at 8 life. I have the choice between trying to Scape him out but dying to Price of Progress, or casting Thragtusk and trying to stabilize, but I was out of gas besides those two cards. Rather than letting him draw burn spells and kill me, I decided to force him to have the Price of Progress- which of course, he did, so I die.
Sideboard: I have no idea what to do here, I bring in 2 Pyroclasms and cut a Therapy and a Slaughter Games, I believe.
Game 2 I Therapy him for Goblin Guide, hit, seeing Flame Rift and Sulfuric Vortex and lands- not a great keep by him- and my flash back hits the second Vortex he had drawn. He's got no business and I'm setting up a Scapeshift, so I Slaughter Games his Price of Progress and he concedes.
Game 3 I again have the Therapy Explorer combo but my Therapy misses, and I see Bolt, Fireblast. He has a Lavamancer in play, so I don't actually want to set off the Explorer because doing so with the Therapy lets him Bolt me, Fireblast me and gives him 2 free Lavamancer activations. So I play a Top or something instead of the Therapy, and he draws and plays Pyrostatic Pillar, so now I REALLY don't want to Therapy him. I eventually play a Huntmaster but it's too late, I needed to find Thragtusk much sooner than I did and he burns me out from 11 with double Lavamancer activations and Bolt+Fireblast. It's possible I took a bad line that game, and it was really frustrating to lose to Burn of all things in round 15 of a GP playing for $200, but I congratulated my opponent and waited for final standings to go up.
11-4

All told, I finished 96th out of the 1698 that started day 1, was live to cash during every round of the tournament, and had a blast. The deck felt solid all day, and main deck Slaughter Games won me a couple of matches against fair opponents by taking away their ability to interact with me in any meaningful way. Going forward, I'm not sure if I want to keep the Games in my main deck, I may give that slot over to 2x Abrupt Decay or something, but it would require a lot of changes to the sideboard. Carpet of Flowers was totally insane. Primeval Titan reaffirmed that he belongs in the deck by winning at least 2 games that no other card could have, and Huntmaster was a complete all-star in at least four of my matches. This was my first GP and the 9 rounds in Day 1 was the most consecutive Magic I've ever played in a tournament setting, so I am really pleased with my finish, I'm only encouraged to do better in future and take the deck even further next time.

Shout out to Team Muppet, for helping to make this event such an amazing experience and for being the only people who could ever have made me play magic for 10 hours wearing a Kermit shirt.

I know some people on the Nic Fit thread were following my progress through Day 2 and cheering me on, so thanks to them for the support, and a huge thanks to Kevin McKee aka Arianrhod for developing this deck and helping me on some of the finer points of playing it. And of course, to everyone else in the Nic Fit thread who has had a hand in making the deck what it is, let's keep crushing people with "unplayable" cards!

[bfeingersh]

Pretty insane that we live in a world where x-4 misses cash at a GP. I faced a similar list on day 1 (punishing fire instead of BW/scapeshift package) and it seemed pretty sweet.

[MrIggins]

Pretty insane that we live in a world where x-4 misses cash at a GP. I faced a similar list on day 1 (punishing fire instead of BW/scapeshift package) and it seemed pretty sweet.

I agree, the tournament was huge, a little too big for the prize structure in place. Maybe an additional round day 1 would have reduced this, because day 2 started with 235 people, but what do I know. I was near the bottom of the x-4s because of my round 2 loss, but it looks like there were 14 X-4s that made top 64 after all. So I guess it turns out that I would have been able to draw into it, how unfortunate for me...

As for the deck, it's fantastic and a lot of fun to play, I have to say Huntmastering people in legacy is one of my favorite things to do, especially with how effective it was during the event.

[rxavage]

Congrats. I've been wanting to try BGR Scapwish for a while now.

[blackdiamonds]

Congrats sam! Can't wait to play this and crush

[lordofthepit]

Congrats on a solid finish! Nic Fit is a deck that seems like a lot of fun, but I'm always hesitant to try because it seems very different than a lot of decks, which is a bad combination with a deck that already has really tough decision trees!

I noticed you sideboarded out Veteran Explorer a lot against decks that had some basics, but you didn't board out all copies. Is this usually just a one-for-one switch with Carpet of Flowers if you're playing against a blue deck? I feel like against a deck like U/R Delver, which will have some basics but not a ton, I'd either rather keep no Explorers or all the Explorers with the intention of triggering it more times than they can benefit from. I'm a total noob at Nic Fit though, so I was wondering what your reasoning was.

Also, are maindeck Slaughter Games standard? If not, how did they terat you.

Also, looking at the standings, it looks like drawing in with an 11-3-1 finish would have comfortably allowed you to finish in the top 64. Tough breaks, man.

[MrIggins]

Congrats on a solid finish! Nic Fit is a deck that seems like a lot of fun, but I'm always hesitant to try because it seems very different than a lot of decks, which is a bad combination with a deck that already has really tough decision trees!

I noticed you sideboarded out Veteran Explorer a lot against decks that had some basics, but you didn't board out all copies. Is this usually just a one-for-one switch with Carpet of Flowers if you're playing against a blue deck? I feel like against a deck like U/R Delver, which will have some basics but not a ton, I'd either rather keep no Explorers or all the Explorers with the intention of triggering it more times than they can benefit from. I'm a total noob at Nic Fit though, so I was wondering what your reasoning was.

Also, are maindeck Slaughter Games standard? If not, how did they terat you.

Also, looking at the standings, it looks like drawing in with an 11-3-1 finish would have comfortably allowed you to finish in the top 64. Tough breaks, man.

They come out when Carpets come in- sometimes. I never cut all of them because sometimes I need to Zenith for one to get land count up for Scapeshift. Against decks like UWR or RUG Delver, RUG especially, I don't cut any of them and instead trim expensive ramp guys like Wood Elves because Explorers are completely one-sided in those matchups, but having that much mana in the deck is not really where you want to be. Against decks like Omni that have a lot of basics, I still leave in Explorers because I'm trying to ramp into Slaughter Games as fast as I can in that matchup, so I want as many ways to do that as possible. Against Miracles they come out because Miracles uses the basics better than I do. Against UR Delver I brought a couple out because they have Snapcasters and burn, and so ramping them is a little awkward, but sometimes I have to and I want to hit my big spells early. So I trim a couple because I only ever want to see one in the matchup, and I can always Zenith it up.

Maindeck Slaughter Games is something Arianrhod and I have been trying in order to have a better shot against combo game 1. While I never saw them against combo except for Painter- where it would probably have allowed me to win the game had he not Forced my Pyroclasm- they were still quite good for me on the day even against fair decks. I took away people's Forces in a couple of games to let me resolve my game-ending spell. Still not sure if I want to keep them there but they have proven to be fine.

And yeah, i realized later that I could have drawn in, but going into the round I was 62nd place, almost the bottom of the X-3 bracket, and I wasn't able to get a good enough look at the rest of the standings to determine whether a draw was good. I was worried about drawing myself OUT of top 64, since my breakers were so bad, but as it turns out that wouldn't have happened. Bad beats, breaker math is hard, I'm over it.

[lordofthepit]

And yeah, i realized later that I could have drawn in, but going into the round I was 62nd place, almost the bottom of the X-3 bracket, and I wasn't able to get a good enough look at the rest of the standings to determine whether a draw was good. I was worried about drawing myself OUT of top 64, since my breakers were so bad, but as it turns out that wouldn't have happened. Bad beats, breaker math is hard, I'm over it.

I've been on the same side of a draw-and-prize twice. The first time, I thought we were fine drawing, but my opponent didn't, and I beat him. The second time, my opponent (an experienced PTQ grinder) thought we were fine, I went over some bad math and managed to convince him we needed to play, and he beat me. In both cases, drawing would have been fine.

Apparently, the moral of the lesson is to always draw, and even if you can't, offering the draw gives you better karma.