GP Lille, 15th place with Storm

[nevilshute]

Storm in Lille. Finishing 15th at GP Lille with ANT.

A Caveat
My notes are quite limited and so is my memory so if I forget things, gloss over details etc then I apologize.

The Deck
My list has been inspired in part by the Grinding Station approach to storm championed by Jonathan Alexander and in part by many hours of discussions with other Legacy Storm enthusiasts here on mtgthesource. About a year and a half ago these discussions and my testing convinced me, that Past in Flames (PiF) is the most busted card in this deck and that it is important to stop being fixated on regarding PiF solely as a tutor target. It can be a very powerful card to naturally draw so I wanted more than one. It is not a card you want to naturally draw several copies of, though, so I never really wanted more than two. Playing with several PiF also means that Ad Nauseam (AdN) becomes worse in the main deck. AdN, however, has always felt like the least consistent route to victory and so people had already started dabbling with moving it into the sideboard when I was preparing for the BoM last year and so it felt like an easy choice. Not having AdN in the main deck also frees up some design space in terms of converted mana cost and I have for a long time been running an Empty the Warrens in the main deck. For the GP this time around I also doubled up Tendrils of Agony from one copy to two as it gives us more game against blue decks in general, and Miracles in particular. If you are interested in learning more about this way of playing ANT then I suggest browsing the thread here on the source and reading some of Jonathan Alexander's writing. You are also welcome to check out my youtube channel where I have recorded MTGO matches with ANT as well as a deck tech: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC96...qjAa_dfnf46NtQ

Here's the list:

4x Dark Ritual
3x Cabal Ritual
1x Rain of Filth
4x Brainstorm
4x Ponder
4x Gitaxian Probe
1x Sensei's Divining Top
4x Infernal Tutor
1x Grim Tutor
2x Tendrils of Agony
2x Past in Flames
1x Empty the Warrens
4x Cabal Therapy
1x Duress
1x Thoughtseize
4x Lion's Eye Diamond
4x Lotus Petal
2x Underground Sea
1x Volcanic Island
1x Badlands
1x Tropical Island
1x Island
1x Swamp
4x Polluted Delta
4x Scalding Tarn

Sideboard:

4x Abrupt Decay
4x Young Pyromancer
3x Xantid Swarm
2x Massacre
1x Chain of Vapor
1x Ad Nauseam

Friday
I traveled to Lille with three Legacy decks packed in my bags: ANT, Death & Taxes and Food Chain. I had all but decided that I was going to play ANT for the main event but I wanted options for the trials I was planning to play on Friday.

I hadn't managed to buy the infinite trial bracelet before they sold out but was dead-set on grinding my way to some byes so I got to the site early on Friday and immidiately signed up for a trial having written deck lists for all three of my decks. Deciding to get some repitions in with ANT I signed up to play some storm. I faced a nice German fellow named Daniel who, it turned out, was on Miracles. After three close games I was out. At this point it was already getting really hot at the site as Lille was getting hit by something of a heat wave.

I won't go into details about the games I had on Friday, but suffice to say I was left in a heap on the floor going 1-4 over the course of four trials only getting beyond round one once and then crashing out in round two.

I was obviously disappointed by this, but while it would be a stretch to call this day a confidence booster I did leave the tables feeling warmed up somewhat with the deck and my losses hadn't been devistating but rather close games.

Saturday – Main Event Day One
Having not slept great I got to the site in time and looked ahead at the long hard grind of nine rounds feeling slightly deflated that I didn't get the two byes. My main deck and sideboard had both gotten very slight changes on the night before with my singleton Preordain getting swapped out for a singleton Sensei's Divining Top for the main deck, and my 2/2 split of Young Pyromancer/Dark Confidant instead became a full set of Pyromancers.

Round One vs Jeskai Delver 2-0
I sit down in front of Tiago from Portugal. I mulligan game one and keep six. Tiago wins the die roll. He flips an early delver but doesn't get anything else as a clock as I discard him and cantrip for the first three or four turns. Eventually I take his last piece of disruption and win through PiF.

I sideboard bringing in two Massacre, a Chain of Vapor and an Abrupt Decay and remove a PiF, a Duress, the Sensei's Top and Thoughtseize expecting Tiago to be bringing in Meddling Mages or the likes.

I once again have to mulligan and game two is much the same as game one. I think he flips a delver and then on turn two or three I go off with Empty the Warrens and make 16 goblins for the win.

1-0

Round Two vs Sneak and Show 2-0
Round two I face off against Simione from Italy. Again I lose the die roll but I keep my seven while Simione goes down to six and keeps. He goes Volcanic into Ponder on his first turn. I too play a cantrip on my first turn. My hand has Tendrils and some mana at this stage. I pass and he fetches out another Volcanic and Preordains. So, at this stage I'm quite sure it's Omni. On my next turn I Ponder into more rituals and Empty the Warrens. I decide to keep and then plan to, on my next turn, make 8-10 goblins and then a follow-up Tendrils. It's a relatively weak line against a combo opponent but my hand was weak to countermagic and as such natural storm spells were appealing. Simione plays out his third land, cantrips once and passes. I untap and draw my Empty. My hand is now: Dark Rit, Cab Rit, Rain of Filth, 2x LED, Petal, Empty and Tendrils. I have two lands in play. I play Dark Rit. He thinks for a while. It resolves. LED, LED, Petal. All resolve. Tap my remaining land and cast Empty. No mana floating, storm count is five. He casts Brainstorm and then Flusterstorms. We work out the stack. I then sack my Petal for B and cast Rain of Filth. It resolves. I sack my two lands and cast Cab Rit. I have threshold and it resolves. I pay for one Empty copy. We clear the stack and I have two goblins and BBBB floating. Storm count is nine. Tendrils is my last card. Boom!

Sideboard I bring in Ad Nauseam and 3x Xantid Swarms. I eventually win game two in my favorite fashion versus Show and Tell decks: by having a stacked hand with no protection but a Xantid Swarm which enters the battlefield via Show and Tell. He shows in Griselbrand and draws twice going to two life. Then proceeds to cantrip intensely burning several petals and cracking a fetchland in the process going down to one. He eventually just passes the turn and my Xantid Swarm attacks in, makes a noble sacrifice as Griselbrand eats it up and I proceed to win through tutor for PiF on my second main phase. Simione shows me afterwards that he had brought in two Pyroclasms that he was searching frantically for.

2-0

Round Three vs Grixis Control 2-0
This was relatively uneventful and harsh on my opponent. I'm up against Vicent (sorry if that is spelled wrong) a very nice guy from Valencia in Spain. I win the die roll and he mulligans down to five. Very dejectedly he keeps. Things aren't improved for him as I probe him and he reveals two lands, a Jace, a Baleful Strix and a therapy. Even worse for him, my probe draws me into the LED my hand was missing and I make 12 goblins and pass the turn.

I don't feel like sideboarding much here as I put him on some kind of Grixis or Shardless build. Think I might not have sideboarded at all here.

Game two is disgusting for my opponent as on the key turn he taps out to Clique me in response to my Therapy. Clique resolves and he targets me seeing my hand of: Infernal Tutor, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual and LED. This game started with him therapying two Infernal Tutors out of my opening hand so there is just one Infernal Tutor left in the deck at this time. He chooses the tutor and I bottom it and smile on the inside as my Grim Tutor comes rolling off the top of my library. He lets therapy resolve and I name, and hit Force of Will. I then go off and win, and he just can't believe it.

3-0

Round Four vs Deathblade 2-1
Here I'm up against Vict who as a very nice bloke from Spain. Game one is fairly uneventful. I don't remember that much from it but it was fairly straight forward through Past in Flames.

I sideboard similarly to when I played against Jeskai. Massacre, Chain of Vapor and one or two Decays come in. 2nd PiF come out plus I shave a few slots.

Game two I make 12 goblins on like turn two. He looks really stressed as he cantrips two times on his third turn. He has a Deathrite. I get in one attack before he untaps and hard casts Batterskull. He stabilizes and eventually just crush me as he makes more creatures.

Game three is rough as I have Empty in hand but my first discard spell shows me Zealous Persecution, Batterskull and Supreme Verdict. Three or four turns later I have discarded all of those three cards. He has made a Stoneforge Mystic and fetched out Jitte which is in his hand. He also has a Deathrite in play. I Massacre both deathrite and stoneforge and make 12 goblins, he vials in the jitte. He s hellbent but I know that practically any creature he draws will represent a big issue and it's a bonafide nightmare if he draws a True-Name (if he kept that in). He doesn't, however, and I get in and drop him down to like 7. I know he is on a sweeper or bust now but doesn't get there.

4-0

Round Five vs Grixis Delver 2-0
I square off against Julien. This was my first of several Grixis Delver matches andI have to say that the matchup felt pretty good. I comfortably win both games with Empty the Warrens. Game one on turn three, game two on turn two. I don't really sideboard here neither. Brought in one Swarm for a PiF but later on the day I stopped doing this as PiF is just so good against them and they don't bring in much in the way of graveyard hate.

5-0

Round Six vs Grixis Delver 2-1
This is a bummer as I'm paired up against a buddy from my LGS in Copenhagen, Daniel. We both know what the other is on. Game one I win with Thoughtseize and a Daze being his only disruption. I have a PiF in hand and just get there turn two.

No sideboarding.

Game two I get on the back foot as he piles on pressure through Young Pyromancer and Cabal Therapy. I don't recover the onslaught on my hand.

Game three is much better for me as he fails to put on enough pressure and I win through Empty the Warrens.

Sorry buddy.

6-0

Round Seven vs Grixis Delver 2-0
I sit down and right away I recognize my opponent, Javier Dominguez, from somewhere though I'm not sure where from, at the time. Game one I win narrowly as I finally slog through his disruption and go off through PiF when at four life.

One swarm in, one PiF out.

For the longest of time I feel like I'm bound to lose game two. I have a really gassy hand that could probably get there on turn two. But before I get my second turn he plays out a Null Rod. I stare at my hand of a Ritual, two LEDs and a PiF and I frown. During the next several turns (I want to say at least 7-8) he cantrips, Digs Through Time and deploys a single delver that flips. I just draw, sometimes I cantrip, sometimes I discard. Eventually I get to a point where pay mana twice to probe to not lose a turn on the clock. At long last I'm ready. I end the turn at 5 life. I know I'm dead to a bolt so just have to accept that. I move to discard and discard a Xantid Swarm that I couldn't cast. My hand is now: Cabal Ritual, 3x Dark Ritual, Duress, LED, Infernal Tutor. Javier untaps and draws. He has like 3 or 4 cards in hand. He doesn't hit a bolt and just drop me down to 2 life. I just have to fade drawing something that stops me being hellbent. I draw the 4th Dark Ritual. I Duress him to clear the way and see that I have the win as he is on 14 life from several probes and fetchlands. I play out my entire hand and just tutor for Tendrils.

7-0 – locked for day two... how the hell did this happen!

Round Eight vs Aggro Loam 0-2
Time for the first loss of the day. I sit down infront of Christoph Alsheimer. I win the die roll and a sweet hand of a few rituals, an LED, two lands, a probe and a ponder. I turn one Ponder and I see another ritual and two more lands... ugh, shuffle, draw a land. Pass. He goes, double Mox Diamond dumping double Verdant Catacombs, taps out and... nooo not chalice plays a Life from the Loam and just drops a verdant and passes. Okay... not bad. I draw for the turn... come on sweet business another LED. I probe him and see Dark Confidant, Liliana and a few lands. Probe draws me... another land. Come on already! I'm thinking I'm still okay as my hand can easily handle a Liliana. I pass the turn thinking he's going to dredge Loam but instead he draws and his draw is a Green Sun's Zenith which he promptly slams for Gaddock Teeg. For those uninitiated in Burning Wish-less storm builds... yeah we can't ever beat Gaddock Teeg game one. Next game.

I bring in all my decays as well as my Ad Nauseam as I remove Empty (overly fearing Tabernacle, I think) and both the second Tendrils and PiF. Think I shave the Grim Tutor as well but can't remember for sure.

I keep a speculative hand for game two which has PiF, LED and a tutor as well as a cantrip and three lands. I ponder and shuffle and pass the turn. He goes turn one Chalice@1. My hand is still alive if I can get one or more cabal rituals. The next few turns neither of us do much but make land drops. I play a couple of one-drops into his chalice to see if he misses the trigger but also to build toward threshold. Eventually he Slaughter Games me naming Tendrils and that's game.
7-1

Round Nine vs Miracles 2-0
So I'm paired up against Olivier Ruel. It soon becomes apparent that he's on Miracles and while I don't remember much about game I think I win through PiF.

Bring in 4 decay, 4 young pyromancer. Bring out a PiF, 2 tutors, an LED, 2 petals a ponder and cab rit.

I decay a CB early on but let him keep an Ethersworn Canonist and a Containment Priest which beat me down while I sculpt my hand a discard him over the course of a few turns. He has nothing relevant in hand but taps out to resolve a Jace which then brainstorms. I decide that I probably shouldn't let him untap with Jace and I EoT decay his canonist. I then go off through a gigantic Past in Flames. I don't have the kill when I start but as I crack an LED for RRR I discard both PiF and Empty so my backup plan if I can't find Tendrils is to just make infi goblins and hope he doesn't find and answer on his one turn. Turns out I don't need it and I eventually cast a Tendrils with the storm count being 13 or 14.

8-1... unbelievable!

Sunday – Main Event Day Two
I slept very little. In part due to sleeping on a quite uncomfortable bed, the warm weather but obviously also because I was very nervous. I don't have much experience with big events and I hadn't expeced to make Day Two.

Round 10 vs Elves 2-1
This is the one match of the entire weekend that I feel I completely stole. I was so much dead and buried and couldn't believe I made it.

I lose the die roll and my opponent, Erwan from France, goes Forest into Quirion Ranger. On the one hand I'm happy to see him being on elves, but at the same time I seem to remember turn one ranger being required for one of their more busted openings. I have a semi-slow hand and cantrip and pass the turn. He untaps and then has a semi-combo turn which includes a a Cradle, multiple Wirewood Symbiotes and Visionaries. He eventually passes the turn with 5 or 6 creatures in play and a cradle and 4-5 cards in hand. I don't have anything resembling a kill and he kills me on the next turn.

I bring in Ad Nauseam, Chain of Vapor and one or two Decays. Bring out Empty, 2nd Tendrils, 2nd PiF and a Duress.

We both mulligan to six and keep. I'm feeling decidedly poorly. Tired, hungry and queasy. My six-card hand isn't particularily explosive. I don't remember the details leading up to this but eventually the following situation occurs: Erwan attacks with 2x Heritage Druid, a Dryad Arbor and 2x Nettle Sentinel taking me from 15 down to 8. He also has a Deathrite Shaman that is active and an untapped Bayou. He passes the turn and I don't remember what I draw but after my draw step my hand is: Chain of Vapor, Therapy, 2x rituals and an LED. I Chain of Vapor his Deathrite and he drains me down to six removing a probe from my yard. I therapy the deathrite. His other card in hand was a land which I may or may not have already known about, I can't remember. I basically need BOTH for him to not draw a green spell on his next draw step to untap his 2x Nettle Sentinels AND for me to hit a tutor on my draw step. I pass the turn. He draws his card, very subtly looks at my graveyard and then looks at me... ”move to combat”. We both smile as I exhale and he gets in with his 3x 1/1s and take me down to 3. He passes the turn and I draw my card taking it from the top of my library face down on the table not looking at it. He asks me to stop in the draw step. He then thinks for a moment an urges me to go on. I draw the card to my hand... Infernal Tutor.

I couldn't believe it. I think for a moment if there is a way I can beat him having the Surgical Extraction he was signaling but can't really see a line and so I just go for it. Turns out he was bluffing as I see his hand with a therapy once my PiF has resolved. Was just another land. Pheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew.

Game three is nervy as well. He goes for turn 3 NO into Ruric Thar. I have my Chain of Vapor in hand on my turn I quickly take six to the face and bounce him. Rain of Filth lets me get to threshold for my cabal ritual and I win through tutor for PiF.

I obviously got incredibly lucky here. It's a matchup I'm usually happy to play as I feel favoured but it's definitely by a fine margin. Game two was insanely lucky for me, but even game three was very lucky as well as I was only running the one copy of Chain of Vapor and Ruric Thar doesn't really let you cantrip to dig for answers so I basically had to have drawn my one-of naturally.

9-1

Round 11 vs Ur Omni 2-1
Here I face Gary from France. You might know him as Tolki. I had an inkling that he was on Omni and he told me after game 1 that he had the same inkling that I was on Storm. Game 1 I win the die roll and try for a quick fire Empty on turn 2. I have a therapy in hand and my reasoning is, he is very, very unlikely to combo off on turn 2 which means I get to untap with 12 golbins, attack and fire off double therapy. It's also a question of winning through his counterspells. I have the Empty in hand, you see, and once that first Dark Ritual resolved it wasn't a problem. He cantrip twice on his second turn and passes. I get in for 12 and then therapy. I blind name Dig Through Time and I hit one. He has 2x Omni, Force, Ponder and a land. I flash it back and he snap forces. On his next turn he finds: show and tell and double emrakul (one wouldn't have been enough) and I lose.

Bring in 3x Xantid Swarms and Ad Nauseam, take out Empty, 2nd Tendrils, Top and 2nd PiF.

I don't remember game two in details but I brainstorm Ad Nauseam to the top. Discard his force, play out double LED and probe into the Ad Nauseam. This was the only game of the event where I cast Ad Nauseam.

Don't remember game three except I can see from my notes that I won through Xantid Swarm

10-1

Round 12 vs Aggro Loam 0-2
I don't remember this in details but I lose by some distance to mr. Jaroslav Boucek. It was really annoying because only afterwards did I remember that I had good experiences boarding into Young Pyromancers against this deck like a year ago. I didn't and I can't say if that would have made a big difference, but I've since tested it and it seems good.

10-2 – okay, back against the wall.

Round 13 vs ANT 2-0
I'm paired up against a really nice guy named Kai from Germany (not Sawatari). I have a faster hand in game one and he mulligans to 4 in game two. Feel bads. That being said I nearly lose to an Ad Nauseam that thankfully fizzles for him.
11-2

Round 14 vs Grixis Delver 2-1
For the second time today I get called to the feature area. It's all new to me and I'm paired up against Tomoharu Saito. He's on a more aggressive Grixis list than what I've faced before. He's running Swiftspears and Therapy in the main. I feel put under the gun in all three games. I win game one with natural tendrils after he's taken himself dowin to 11 from several probes and fetches and forces. I'm one turn away from dying.

No sideboarding.

Game two we have a long judge call the breaks the rhythm of the game but I eventually lose to flashbacked therapies and young pyromancers.

Game three is intense. We're moved over to the camera table as we are now the only people left but I learned later they unfortunately didn't show it on the stream. Again we go about it, and we end up with the following situation: he has two flipped delvers and attack me down to 11 and then cantrip a few times and therapies me. I have: Island, Tropical and fetchland, and a Top in play. I top in response tapping Island. I see brainstorm, land, land. My hand is some combination of tendrils, tutor, cab rit, petal, dark rit. He's at 13 or 14 life I think. I let his therapy resolve and he names Dark Ritual and hits. He then taps his last mana and plays a 3rd delver immidiately sacking it to flashback therapy. I draw with top in response drawing brainstorm, tap tropical and cast it. He casts Daze returning a dual. I crack the fetch grabbing Badlands and pays for Daze. Brainstorm resolves. It's like the god-brainstorm giving me Past in Flames, Infernal Tutor and Cabal Ritual. I put back tutor and cab ritual leaving me with: Past in Flames, Infernal Tutor, Cabal Ritual and Petal. He names Cabal Ritual and hits. He passes the turn, I untap and draw Cabal Ritual and go off. He has 2 cards left in hand and I put him on nothing or he would likely have stopped the brainstorm. I'm right. Saito down!

12-2 I so absolutely cannot believe this!

Round 15 vs Lands 1-2
I get paired against Alex Mortimer from the UK. Alex is a super friendly guy that I happen to know is on Lands. I was in 9th place before the round so I couldn't draw in and regardless Alex is on a 11-2-1 record and had to play. I obviously am feeling quite good about this matchup and I easily win game one with a show-boaty double naturally-draw tendrils hand. I'm flying high. Top-8 in sight, I can't believe it! 1-0.

Sideboarding I bring in 4 Abrupt Decay and Ad Nauseam and bring out the 2nd Tendrils, the Empty, the 2nd PiF and 2 discard spells.

Game two starts with me mullinganning to five and I get a sinking feeling. Alex doesn't have a turn one play and I get to live a few turns cantripping. He never gets a hate piece going but the two cards I'm down mean I can't race his turn 3 Marit Lage. 1-1

Game three I mulligan to six and keep an acceptable hand. I pass the turn knowing his hand (this is like turn 2 or 3) and feeling decent as he has nothing really and I'm one decent top deck (a tutur, a cantrip, PiF or the likes) from winning. He draws a Gamble, however, and gambles for a hate piece. I have a ¼ chance of hitting but I don't and he has a Sphere of Resistance in play. I untap and brainstorm and find a Decay but my mana spent I have to just ship the turn. He draws an plays out another Sphere... I'm in the ropes. I untap, play out my 4th land and pass the turn. He goes to waste my trop and I decay a sphere, paying 4. I have Island, Swamp, Badlands in play now and he has loam running and a waste in the yard. He also still has a sphere and is threatening Marit Lage in like 2 or 3 turns. I untap and draw a petal. My hand is one cab rit, 3 dark rituals, an infernal tutor and the petal I have threshold. I think I can do it but do not run it out in my head (a judge had already told me to play faster once during this match) and I start to go off only to learn that I'm one mana short with my tutor on the stack. Not exactly where I thought I'd end up in round 15 playing for the win-and-in against Lands. I have to just get Past in Flames and pass the turn knowing it's over now. He dredges and wastes me and then casts loam bringing back Dark Depths already having Stage in play. He also has double Exploration and I'm basically dead next turn. I play it out and he gets the hand shake

12-3, 15th place.

Well. I guess that's it. Thanks for reading!

[Jonathan Alexander]

Round 11 vs Ur Omni 2-1
Here I face Gary from France. You might know him as Tolki. I had an inkling that he was on Omni and had the same inkling that I was on Storm. Game one I win the die roll and try for a quick fire Empty on turn 2. I have a therapy in hand and my reasoning is, he is very, very unlikely to combo off on turn 2 which means I get to untap with 12 golbins, attack and fire off double therapy. It's also a question of winning through his counterspells. I have the Empty in hand, you see, and once that first Dark Ritual resolved it wasn't a problem. He cantrip twice on his second turn and passes. I get in for 12 and then therapy. I blind name Dig Through Time and I hit one. He has 2x Omni, Force, Ponder and a land. I flash it back and he snap forces. On his next turn he finds: show and tell and double emrakul (one wouldn't have been enough) and I lose.

Bring in 3x Xantid Swarms and Ad Nauseam, take out Empty, 2nd Tendrils, Top and 2nd PiF.

I don't remember game two in details but I brainstorm Ad Nauseam to the top. Discards his force, double LED and probe into the Ad Nauseam. This was the only game of the event where I cast Ad Nauseam.

Don't remember game three except I can see from my notes that I won through Xantid Swarm

10-1

The turn before you won, you cast Brainstorm, putting Infernal on top and leaving pretty much all the mana in the world in your hand, with Past in Flames already being in your graveyard (don't ask me why, I wasn't watching before that). Your opponent untaps, casts Dig Through Time, copies it with some 2CC spell I don't know, passes the turn and then dies to Past in Flames.

It was really great meeting you by the way. #fullhousestorm

[alphastryk]

The turn before you won, you cast Brainstorm, putting Infernal on top and leaving pretty much all the mana in the world in your hand, with Past in Flames already being in your graveyard (don't ask me why, I wasn't watching before that). Your opponent untaps, casts Dig Through Time, copies it with some 2CC spell I don't know, passes the turn and then dies to Past in Flames.

It was really great meeting you by the way. #fullhousestorm

Split Decision would be the card that let him copy it.

Congrats on the finish, great report!

[Julian23]

Erwan attacks with 2x Heritage Druid, a Dryad Arbor and 2x Nettle Sentinel taking me from 15 down to 8. He also has a Deathrite Shaman that is active and an untapped Bayou. He passes the turn and I don't remember what I draw but after my draw step my hand is: Chain of Vapor, Therapy, 2x rituals and an LED. I Chain of Vapor his Deathrite and he drains me down to six removing a probe from my yard. I therapy the deathrite. His other card in hand was a land which I may or may not have already known about, I can't remember. I basically need BOTH for him to not draw a green spell on his next draw step to untap his 2x Nettle Sentinels AND for me to hit a tutor on my draw step.

Assuming this is the exact way the turn played out, your opponent had the win on board but apparently didn't see it.

He should have copied Chain of Vapor to bounce one of his own Heritage Druids to untap the two Nettle Sentinels even if you have Therapy and he doesn't draw a castable green spell.

[nevilshute]

Assuming this is the exact way the turn played out, your opponent had the win on board but apparently didn't see it.

He should have copied Chain of Vapor to bounce one of his own Heritage Druids to untap the two Nettle Sentinels even if you have Therapy and he doesn't draw a castable green spell.

Wow, I hadn't thought of that. It happened exactly as described. But, of course, he didn't know I would be discarding his Deathrite with my Therapy, as he had no knowledge of my hand, when I vapored it. Should he have foreseen that copying CoV would be the correct line?

[Burnplayer]

Very good performance. Lose vs 2 Agroo Loam and vs Lands playing ANT

Congratulations.

[iamajellydonut]

But, if you're at 6, wouldn't that line of play have only brought you down to 1 life?

Edit: Forgot about Arbor. Bouncing a Heritage Druid, obscure though the play may be, with Chain of Vapor was definitely the correct play.

[nevilshute]

But, if you're at 6, wouldn't that line of play have only brought you down to 1 life?

Edit: Forgot about Arbor. Bouncing a Heritage Druid with Chain of Vapor was definitely the correct play.

I was at 8, he drains me with Deathrite in response to the Chain taking me down to 6. He untaps and swings in with 3x 1/1s taking me to 3.

Edit: just saw your edit

[iamajellydonut]

Yeah, I edited in about the Arbor as you responded. :V

That was definitely a tight game.

[nevilshute]

Very good performance. Lose vs 2 Agroo Loam and vs Lands playing ANT

Congratulations.

I know right! Topsy turvey world.

[iamajellydonut]

Aggro Loam master race.

[JamieW89]

Sweet report, and nice job! Shame about that last round, especially against lands. Cool meeting you as well.

[Togores]

Its the 4th cabal ritual bad?
Worser than a petal?
I get the reasons why not playing 4 but being a pif deck it just seems weird hahahaha.

Great result and was a pleasure meeting you!

[sawatarix]

Thanks for beating Saito, I couldn't do the round before.

Absolutely amazing Martin, see you in Seattle?

[Tvox]

Congrats Martin! I couldn't be there to celebrate in person as family matters came up the day I was going to take the flight, but how nice for you to reach top-16!

Its the 4th cabal ritual bad?
Worser than a petal?
I get the reasons why not playing 4 but being a pif deck it just seems weird hahahaha.

Great result and was a pleasure meeting you!

I have also played without the fourth cabal for some time now, playing sixteen fast mana cards in total. It feels marvellous to replace it with rain of filth as the C. Rits oftentimes aren't reaching their full potential in-game (speaking from my own experience, not science), oftentimes you have to force threshold in order to have it for your C. Rits.

Cutting one and replacing it with rain of filth has so far felt like a good choice in my opinion. You don't get quite as much synergy, as C. Rit + rain = all the manas, but I think it makes storming off earlier in the game more appealing and easier to accomplish.

Currently my mainboard configuration is Martins, - 2 scalding, - top, - grim, + bloodstained, + misty (should be a scalding), + 2 preordain. The sideboard differs a bit more but shares 11 cards.

[phazonmutant]

Great result, nice report! I want to give your list a spin, looks like the Empty main did a ton of work for you. I haven't been successful finding a plan that actually beats Miracles consistently, but I'll give Pyromancer a shot. I thought most of the German guys had abandoned that tech?

[Lemnear]

Great result, nice report! I want to give your list a spin, looks like the Empty main did a ton of work for you. I haven't been successful finding a plan that actually beats Miracles consistently, but I'll give Pyromancer a shot. I thought most of the German guys had abandoned that tech?

I should have played Pyromancer instead of the Xantids in Lille

[nevilshute]

Great result, nice report! I want to give your list a spin, looks like the Empty main did a ton of work for you. I haven't been successful finding a plan that actually beats Miracles consistently, but I'll give Pyromancer a shot. I thought most of the German guys had abandoned that tech?

Thanks Greg . Empty was boss, at least on day one. To be honest the Pyromancer tech is a bit dated and I only faced one Miracle deck in the main event and didn't see my Pyromancers for the one sideboarded game. During the trials I played twice against Miracles, losing twice, and the Pyromancers didn't really do that much in either direction. I honestly feel like I'm still searching for the key against Miracles. I'm very seriously considernig running a 3rd Tendrils in my sideboard.

[Togores]

Havent been testing against rug delver with your list.

May it be you side 0 cards vs them? Not bad thing but just to know.

The pyromancer plan is ok. I play be like a more green plan instead. Just the mana base sucks. Playing 3 red cards plus badlands. And the having a sb of 4 decay 2 grip 3 xantid and may be carpet (impossible with just 1 green land). And playing the bayou sb sucks so much. There should be a way to play green and red without hurting a ton.

Also been testing the sensei. Feels good. But may be is too clunky. But as a 1 of has nevr been bad.

Also I do thing playing 1 duress 1 seize is not good. Just because You will never been able to copy one of the with infernal (wich I do a lot).

[Skuttlespike]

I really enjoyed our 15th round game Martin. A lot of people start to lose their sportsmanship when there is so much on the line but I appreciate the chatter we had

When you Decayed one of my Spheres and then attempted to go off with one Sphere left in play I was on the edge of my seat. Fourteen rounds and I had done everything I could, who made it to top 8 was all in your hands and I couldn't look away. I did get a bit lucky in the match, even with 11 cards out of the sideboard it's still a terrible matchup for Lands.

Thanks for the game and congratz on the top 16 finish. I hope we meet again when I'm not so much of the under dog!