The deck:
Main:
4x Veteran Explorer
1x Deathrite Shaman
1x Scavenging Ooze
2x Eternal Witness
2x Huntmaster of the Fells
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
1x Thragtusk
1x Primeval Titan
1x Broodmate Dragon
2x Liliana of the Veil
3x Sensei's Divining Tops
4x Green Sun's Zenith
4x Cabal Therapy
3x Punishing Fire
3x Abrupt Decay
1x Maelstrom Pulse
3x Pernicious Deed
2x Bayou
2x Badlands
1x Taiga
4x Verdant Catacombs
1x Wooded Foothills
1x Bloodstained Mire
3x Forest
2x Swamp
1x Mountain
4x Grove of the Burnwillows
1x Phyrexian Tower
1x Kessig Wolf Run
Side:
3x Carpet of Flowers
2x Pyroblast
2x Surgical Extraction
2x Slaughter Games
2x Thoughtseize
1x Innocent Blood
1x Golgari Charm
1x Blood Moon
1x Ensnaring Bridge
Round 1: vs. Devin w/ ScapeWish Nic Fit
Before the games I notice a wolf token in his box. Couldn't be the mirror, could it?
Game 1: I win the roll, and the first turns are Swamp-go, Swamp-go, fetch-go, fetch-go, fetch-go. On his third turn Devin plays a Wood Elves and the jig is up, so I Cabal Therapy him naming Burning Wish (hit). I believe I search for life-gain creatures to try to get out of Valakut range, and beat him down.
Side:
-2 Veteran Explorer, +2 Slaughter Games
-2 Abrupt Decay, + 2 Surgical Extraction
-1 Thrun, -1 Cabal Therapy, +2 Thoughtseize
Game 2: We have dueling Tops and could have had dueling Huntmasters but he played his first and so mine ended up stuck in hand. I get pretty flooded, but land a Primeval Titan getting Wolf Run which is a good mana sink. He plays a second Huntmaster and passes. I put Top on top, and then play and pop Deed for four. I think as I go to attack (declining to search with the Titan trigger) and notice his Top still on the board. I point to it and it gets a little awkward, as I had assumed he automatically put his Top on top as well. Good guy Devin tells me it's OK if I want him to put it in the graveyard instead of getting a do-over (which I was leaning towards). That loses him the game as he knew he had a Burning Wish for lethal Scapeshift two cards down in his library but would die the turn before he drew it now. We wouldn't have had time for a game three, and a draw would pretty much been as bad as a lose in any case. Had a fun time playing thought - I think we discuss each other's lines of play even during the games.
1-0, 2-0 in games
Round 2: Shelby w/ Slivers
Game 1: I think I mulligan a mediocre hand into Abrupt Decay, Witness, Deed. He goes Mutavault-Aether Vial (on the draw). I Decay it on my second turn and he doesn't put anything into play. He plays a second Mutavault and beats down with the first one. I Witness back the Decay, and then take the offered trade with his attacking Mutavault. A couple turns of draw go, and then he scoops them up after I resolve a creature with him still at 22 life.
Side:
I guess he's on Slivers as opposed to Merfolk, since that's the much less common Mutavault/Vial deck and he scooped to keep from revealing his cards, but hedge a little just in case he's on the Islands.
-2 Veteran Explorer, +2 Carpet of Flowers
-2 Cabal Therapy, +1 Innocent Blood (for hypothetical Crystalline Slivers), +1 Golgari Charm
Game 2: He curves first-strike sliver into shroud sliver (making the spot removal in my hand pretty bad) into life-link sliver. A chumping Explorer gets me land to play Thrun to stall the board, and then a Liliana slowly ate his redundant guys (-2, +1, -2, Witness ger back, -2). He only has one +1/+1 effect out leaving his guys as 3/3s, allowing a Broodmate Dragon to beat him down in the air. I grab a Huntmaster for additional life and blockers. He finds a Phantasmal Image to copy his lord, but a regenerating Thrun and my 2/2s mean a full swing won't kill me and he'd die on the swing back, so he stays home. On my turn I Abrupt Decay his Aether Vial on 2 so that he can't bounce his Image/sliver (ability from another sliver) and Vial it into play as a copy of Broodmate Dragon. He lets it go, so I swing in for the win. His next card was the Galerider, but I left back a dragon most turns so that wouldn't have killed me. Talked to him afterwards and he never considered that he could copy the Broodmate. I show him the Deeds in my deck (that I never needed to cast game one, or drew game two) and tell him it's just not a good match-up for him.
2-0, 4-0 in games
Round 3: vs. Devon w/ Reanimator
Game 1: I have my one-of Deathrite Shaman in my opener and lead with it on the play. He Force of Wills it, pitching Daze. He plays an Underground Sea and passes (or maybe Ponders), and for some reason I think he's on BUG Delver and doesn't want me keeping his Goyfs/Mongeese small. Turn two I try to Green Sun for an Explorer, but he's afraid it's another Deathrite and Forces that pitching Show and Tell (I still somehow don't know what's up). He's eventually able to bin and reanimate a Griselbrand, but I play it out a bit to see what other creatures he has (Elesh Norn, at least).
Side:
-14 cards that don't do anything, everything but the Golgari Charm in
Game 2: Game progresses slowly. I draw a Pyroblast the turn before he casts Show and Tell. I Surgical Extraction Griselbrand after he gets it into his yard, in response to his Thoughtseize. Only creature now left in his deck is Elesh Norn, but he did bring in the full four Pithing Needles for my Deathrite Shaman. Unfortunately I then proceed to draw nothing relevant and he eventually gets the Elesh Norn out, with me at a convenient multiple of 4 life-total (16). My draws immediately following are Deathrite Shaman and Scavenging Ooze, followed by blanks. The last turn before I die I cast Deathrite into the -2/-2 effect just for fun, and he Force of Wills it (he said he was worried about what I was up to). At this point if I had drawn a removal spell I win the game, as he's down to one card and I can resolve the Ooze and eat the Praetor. Oh well.
2-1, 4-2 in games
Round 4: vs. Robert w/ Goblins
Game 1: Another turn one Vial off of a one colorless land hand (Rishidan Port). I don't have the Abrupt Decay, so he gets out a Piledriver and a Warchief. I should have Punishing Fired his Warchief before attacks, but miss it and end up taking an extra two from the Piledriver. I Cabal Therapy Ringleader out of his hand, and see a Matron and a Krenko (and less scary things). He takes Vial up to four to put Krenko in (still short on lands), but I have a second Punishing Fire to combine with the first one that I get back end of turn with Grove to kill Krenko. Second Cabal Therapy names Matron, and hits twice (his previous draw yielded a second one). He scoops to a Thragtusk attacking a couple times, realizing that the Punishing Fire engine kills all of his stuff.
Side:
-1 Liliana, +1 Golgari Charm
Game 2: I go Deathrite into Scavenging Ooze into Veteran Explorer. He has some dudes that the Ooze is keeping at bay. Cabal Therapy blind hits a Ringleader, and the flashback later takes a Chieftan he had Matroned for (revealing another Ringleader). He's finally able to cast Ringleader, and whiffs (3 lands, Thalia). Broodmate Dragon and friend swing in the air once while the Ooze holds the ground, and he's had enough. He ends up writing down a lot of my cards in his notes, and I show him my Deeds (never saw them) and tell him it's not his fault and it's just a bad match-up (I ended the games at 23 and 22 life, respectively). Match next to us was LSV beating a Goblins player using Storm. Heard him tell someone else he had just beaten Golbins, and was tempted to say "What, like it's hard? Just play a Broodmate Dragon." But didn't.
3-1, 6-2 in games
Round 5: vs. Dylan w/ Miracles
Game 1: I see my first Flooded Strand of the day. He's a sharp player, and puts me on Nic Fit early even without an Explorer. I Decay his Counterbalance and resolve a Liliana that starts ticking up. My board gets swept once, I think, but a Thragtusk makes his Jace look silly. I think he gets rid of it but the Beast kills Jace, Liliana ultimates (from 7 counters so she sticks around), and I believe a Wolf Run adds the last bit of damage. At one point he hard cast a Misdirection on a Cabal Therapy, and I had to try really hard not to name a card that was actually in my hand.
Side:
-3 Veteran Explorer, +3 Carpet of Flowers
-2 Cabal Therapy, +2 Thoughtseize
-2 Punshing Fire, +2 Slaughter Games
-1 Deathrite Shaman, -1 Scavenging Ooze, +2 Pyroblast
Game 2: He casts a Counterbalance and I Pyroblast - he flips his top card to show a Swords to Plowshares, but I tell him I'm actually just countering the Counterbalance instead of trying the harder trick of destroying it. I read Slaughter Games before I cast it turn four to make sure it can't be Misdirectioned. It names Jace. Later a second one names Entreat the Angels, but he uses a Top to Miracle one first. The two 4/4s beat me down while I'm looking for a Deed. I have a Punishing and Grove, but I'd need to spend multiple turns killing the Angels and if he counters the second Fire of a turn (he got another Counterbalance out) it would probably be a timewalk for game. The last possible turn I find a Deed, but he flips over what I believe was the last three in his deck - a Vendilion Clique. During the first two games the guy told me his local shop had a Nic Fit player who claimed that the match-up was unwinnable for Miracles, so he now gets to take the story of beating double Slaughter Games back.
Game 3: I mulligan a 5 green card, Mountain, Badlands hand into one with Top, (drawing a second one) which is super useful. At one point he plays Counterbalance and I Abrupt Decay it end of turn but accidentally say "Abrupt Decay Top" instead of my intentioned "Abrupt Decay, then Top". He's cool though, as I point to the Counterbalance and it was obviously clear what I meant. He Forces one Deed pitching Supreme Verdict (helpful), but a second Deed resolves and just sits around as insurance. We both end up mostly empty handed, and I have a Liliana ticking up. In response to a plus-one he Vensers her back to my previously hellbent hand. I should have topped first before putting Top on top to draw, so I had to do it twice since I didn't want to pitch the Green Sun I drew (discarded the second Top instead). I believe a Broodmate Dragon trades with double Swords allowing a Prime Time to stick. Some big green thing or other, which with Deed, Top, and Liliana all around is game.
4-1, 8-3 in games
Round 6: vs. Stephen w/ Death and Taxes
Game 1: I mulligan I believe, and he goes Thalia into Mirron Crusader. I look at my hand of Abrupt Decay, Maelstrom Pulse, Veteran Explorer, and Eternal Witness and tell him that hard's pretty good against me. He's a little light on action though, so I'm able to Decay the Thalia after taking a hit from the Crusader (he kept Thalia back because he didn't want to give me any land), and then untap into a Liliana to eat the Crusader. Liliana's keeping us mostly empty handed, while I'm beating down with the Explorer. For 5 a turn that is, thanks to Wolfrun. He's Rishidan Porting the land on me upkeep, but with him having no cards I'm mostly fine just pumping the 1/1 and getting in there. For lethal eventually.
Side:
-1 Cabal Therapy, +1 Innocent Blood
-1 Deathrite Shaman, +1 Golgari Charm
Game 2: My seven has no lands. My six also has no lands. He mulligans a no land hand as well (and says so). I tell him that if he promises not to attack me for a few turns I'll get us both some lands, which causes several matches worth of people to all turn and stare at us in confusion. He goes turn two Stoneforge into Sword of Fire and Ice to draw out of his mulligan. I have an Abrupt Decay, which I'm leaning towards hitting the Mystic with in the hopes that he doesn't have any more dudes. When he plays a second Stoneforge pre-combat (getting Batterskull) that calculus changes. I'm able to Explorer into Liliana, but she gets Revokered after making him sac a Mystic. A Mirran Crusader gets Punishing Fired, but I don't have the Grove to recur it. Life-totals go to 10-28 in his favor, but a Broodmate Dragon plus Wolf Run actually allows me to put him on a pretty fast clock myself. At this point he taps low to move the Batterskull to the Revoker to get some extra lifegain in, but that's the opening that lets me Maelstrom Pulse the equipment to get rid of it permanently. He's Porting the Wolf Run on my upkeeps, but I sink enough mana into the dragon token to make it lethal and swing in the air. It gets Swordsed, but the actual Broodmate takes it home the following turn. I thank my opponent for trying to beat up on combo for me (during the match we looked over at the RUG Delver mirror next to us with five cards on the stack and shared a nice "not playing blue" moment), and apologize for beating him (no Deeds yet again, and he even had a pro-green/black dude).
5-1, 10-3 in games
Round 7: vs. Jon w/ EsperBlade
Game 1: Turns go Swamp-Swamp, fetch-fetch, fetch. Neither of us knows what the other is on. He finally plays a Stoneforge getting Jitte. Normally I would auto Cabal Therapy naming Batterskull, but given his confusion over what I'm playing I thought maybe he preferred Jitte here and didn't want to next level myself. I take the Jitte, and see the Batterskull, Lingering Souls, and a Back to Basics. Hilarious. He's both frustrated and amused (we complement each other on our mana bases) as I put basic after basic into play, plus a Thrun. I'm down to a low enough life total at this point that I need to block the Batterskull, and regenerating requires tapping my one non-basic. He moves the Batterskull to a flying token. I draw a Deed, and plan to Deed the Souls tokens and then hope to use the Cabal Therapy in my hand to nab his Batterskull if I have a chance on a return. Thrun can basically block forever anyway (and he had already flashed the Souls back). What I should have done is Therapy first naming Force of Will, which is the card that ended up countering my Deed. Woops (that's what I get for trying to be clever).
Side:
-3 Veteran Explorer, +3 Carpet of Flowers
-2 Cabal Therapy, +2 Thoughtseize
-2 Punishing Fire, +2 Slaughter Games
Game 2: I have a Carpet, but my only lands are Grove/Forest with double Eternal Witness, Cabal Therapy, and Deed. I decided to keep it, even realizing that all of his basics mean there are going to be fewer island duals to leech off. Turn one Carpet resolves and gets a thorough read. He fetches a Plains. I do nothing (drew a Thoughtseize). He plays a Swamp and Thoughtseizes me, taking mine. I do nothing (drew a Liliana). He plays another Swamp and Thoughtseizes me again, taking Cabal Therapy. I do nothing (drew a Thrun). He plays another Plains and passes. I draw and play a Wolf Run, cast Eternal Witness getting back Thoughtseize, and then sac it to flash back Therapy naming Back to Basics (I assumed he boarded it out, but if he didn't and played it the next turn I would have been in some trouble). I see a hand of land. He plays a fetch and passes (I keep trying to coax him into getting some islands, telling him that if he did karma would reward him by sending him some gas off the top instead of more lands). I Eternal Witness back the first Eternal Witness (pretty happy having a second one - figure I can beat down a little and just loop them if needed). He sees the writing on the wall and uses Swords to exile the Witness in play. I start drawing lands at this point, and he finally fetches for an Island. This allows me to cast a Primeval Titan that he has no answers for, and he scoops to.
Game 3: I play a turn one Carpet hoping to get it countered so that I could play a turn two Top, but it resolves (with some friendly grumbling). He gets some Islands and actually Detention Spheres the Carpet (much to my amusement - I didn't really need the mana, but thought it was funny enough to Abrupt Decay the Sphere at the end of turn anyway). I land a Thrun while he plays a Jace and Lingers some Souls to protect it. I have a Deed in hand, and decide to Cabal Therapy him first and name Force of Will just to make sure (after that game one screw up). He had a single blue open, but reveals Brainstrom plus double Force (the two he left in he said, just hoping I wouldn't name it). Deed resolves, sweeps his souls, Thrun kills Jace. I have the one Punishing Fire still in the deck plus Grove to keep his Jitte off any more Lingering Souls. Broodmate Dragon comes down, and he concedes.
6-1, 12-4 in games
Round 8: vs. Ryan w/ TrueDeathBlade
Game 1: He Forces the first of my Veteran Explorer, and goes Bant lands into True-Name Nemesis. I have a second Explorer, while he goes Stoneforge grabbing Batterskull (I kill the Mystic end of turn). A Cabal Therapy takes the equipment and sees a second TNN. The flashback nabs that, with the Explorer land giving me mana to cast a Liliana and make him sac the TNN on the field. He gets a Swamp amongst his basics, which is a little confusing since I still thought he was on Bant. A green six-drop prompts a concession with him at 18 life.
Side:
-3 Veteran Explorer, +3 Carpet of Flowers
-2 Cabal Therapy, +2 Thoughtseize
-1 Deathrite Shama, +1 Golgari Charm
-2 Punishing Fire, +2 Slaughter Games
-1 Eternal Witness, +1 Innocent Blood
Game 2: I'm still not super sure what he's on, and don't have a great recollection of this game. He did bring in Rest in Peace, but also show me a Deathrite Shaman so it was all kind of weird. I get a Thrun down vs. his Jace, but he has a TNN to block. I have an Innocent Blood, but don't want to sac the Thrun so I Green Sun for a Veteran Explorer. Should have played around his one open white mana and gotten a Huntmaster instead, as he uses Swords on the Explorer to make me sac the Thrun anyway. At one point he has a Jitte out and is swinging with a Creeping Tar Pit and I pop Deed for two. He bins the Jitte and I point at the Tar Pit and he says no, and aks if I want to call a judge. I say sure, but point out that Deed specifies creatures and does not say non-land, so he accepts it. I think I'm stabilizing a little, but he finds a Batterskull and another TNN. I get a Huntmaster to go to 6 and provide a blocker for the germ, needing only a turn to get my Liliana up to make him sac the TNN, but he does see the play of equipping the TNN with the Batterskull to kill me.
Side: Rest in Peace, ey?
-1 Veteran Explorer, -1 Eternal Witness, +2 Pyroblast
Game 3: When he opens on double Deathrite Shaman I think maybe he got me and boarded the Rest in Peace back out, but he plays it anyway. I Slaughter Games his TNN, and think I'm in pretty good shape even against a Batterskull, as I get a Broodmate Dragon and maybe a Thragtusk out. And then he drops Humility. Plus he has a Sword of Feast and Famin that's hit me a couple times. I try to bait a Force of Will with a Top, but he lets it go and then Forces my Deed. I Top into nothing, shuffle with a Green Sun, and Top into nothing again. Humility is quite a beating (one of the draws to playing MiracleBlade for me). This guy made some pained facial expressions in this match, and was honestly the only opponent I had on the day that wasn't fun. Everyone else was having a good time, win (I was joking around with my Reanimator opponent) or loss (even if getting beaten down by a Broodmate Dragon sucks, most people seem to at least get a kick out of the novelty of it). Maybe he was salty after I tore through what he probably thought was a fantastic "fair match" hand in game one. But he was on a "serious" deck, and I was on Legacy EDH, so hey.
6-2, 13-6 in games
Round 9, a win-and-in: vs. Garrett w/ Merfolk
Game 1: He leads on basic island, blue spell. I initially think it's a Ponder and get ready to just scoop to his Show and Tell deck and get an early start home. But no, it's a Cursecatcher. I play out an Explorer, and he plays a second Cursecatcher. At this point I read the card to make sure it says "instant or sorcery" and not "non-creature", and then look at the Deed in my hand. Welp, I guess I'm going to have to try to lose this one. We trade swings, as he's short on lands (so I don't want to block with the Explorer) but he's winning the damage race. He find a couple lands and plays a lord that gets Abrupt Decayed. I resolve a Deed with one open, into which he casts an Aether Vial and then attacks with his Mutavault. Deed for one I guess. He uses his two lands to play a Standstill. Few turns of draw-go. I'm keeping a Wolf Run in hand as he has a Wasteland out. I'm happy to amass some mana and then starting dropping giant things. Eventually I decide to break the Standstill with a small Green Sun (for Ooze), which he counters with a hard-cast Force of Will. He drops some Merfolk, which I Punshing Fire (should have just cast this at his face at the end of a turn so he'd have to discard down to seven and I could start my turn with all of my mana untapped), and then Grove back (didn't Wasteland it, for some reason). At one point I try to Punishing Fire a guy at the end of his turn, tapping out, and he Dazes it. And lets me untap with a Grove. He Wastelands a Bayou at one point (I was almost compelled to recommend he hit something else). I drop a Primeval Titan, and get some more land. It gets Vapor Snagged, but resolves again and with Wolf Run was more than lethal (and he was at 15) so we went to game two.
Side:
-3 Veteran Explorer, +3 Carpet of Flowers
-1 Cabal Therapy, +1 Ensnaring Bridge (just for fun)
Game 2: I have a Carpet for mana, and play a Deed to wipe his board of like double True-Name Nemesis, other guy. He plays a lord and then tries to Image it - but I kill the lord in response so the Image also goes to the graveyard. Play a Thrun, to hold back some smaller Merfolk. At one point I have mana open and he plays a second lord and swings in with what are now two other 4/4s. OK. Abrupt Decay a lord, eat the Mutavault with Thrun? Huntmaster? Eternal Witness back the Deed? Deed again? Primetime to get the rest of the Groves? Broodmate Dragon? The people standing behind my opponent watching just kept reading the cards and shaking their heads. I once again consoled my Aether Vial playing opponent after thanking him for beating up on Sneak/Show for me, and then scooped him into day two since my friends couldn't go and I didn't want to make the long drive down again myself.
7-2, 15-6 in games
Deck's absurd if you just play against fair decks. Was happy to see Merfolk in the last round to complete the Aether Vial grand slam. Could have easily had to play combo 4-5 times and my record would have certainly been worse.
Best cards for me on the day were Broodmate Dragon, Liliana, and the Wolf Run, but it was all pretty awesome. Don't think I'd change a thing with either the main or the sideboard, at least until I get to actually try the Ensnaring Bridge out. The Slaughter Games did work. Just need to figure out the best ins and outs for different situations (was doing it on the fly).
Congrats on your finish!
I never understood why someone would travel so far without the intention of playing out day 2, but the "travel so far" part is a reason I don't go to GPs, I guess. Great report, and I'm sure your R9 opponent feels very fortunate!
I carpooled down to the site with him and another guy. Our friend scrubbed out, but both of us won our win and ins in Rd 9. I would have almost forced him to play if he was 8-1, but I was 7-2 with the worst breakers in the room (took my second loss in Rd 4) and would rather sleep and knock out a huge project for a class than try to 6-0 for a top 16 or 5-1 for a top 64 on day 2. I guess him scooping was partly my fault, but we got to play 9 rounds of legacy and be in competition the entire time so I have no regrets.Originally Posted by lordofthepit
Your round 8 opponent was playing for guaranteed day 2 at a 30k competitive tournament and was down a game. You were playing for day 1 drop. I wouldn't have been joking with you either.
Thanks. I never really considered that I could day two beforehand - was just going down with friends to play some legacy. Had I gone 8-1 day one I might have been compelled to come back, and I wasn't 100% to drop until after round 9 having made sure that no one was returning.
He was dour before the match too, which I can sort of understand given the stakes you mentioned. But that still made the games less pleasant than they could have been, and the stakes didn't stop my other opponents from seeming to have a good time playing even while taking the games themselves seriously (round 8 stood out more as it was anomalous - props to everyone else on elevating the environment).
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