[Report] UWb LS takes 10th @ Rostock/Germany

[klaus]

So I'll keep this thing compact: Just mini game analyses followed by a mini conclusion.
[I'll link to the top8 lists as soon as they hit the webs.]

Tournament setup:
38 players, 6 rounds of Swiss, no top 8.

Here's my list:

Land:
4 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
3 Tundra
1 Scrubland
1 Underground Sea
3 Island
3 Plains
4 Mishra's Factory
1 Academy Ruins
1 Tolaria West
1 Wasteland
(24)

Other:
1 Ponder (over the second FoF, thx to EDIT: Citrus-God)
4 Brainstorm
4 Counterspell
1 Crucible of Worlds
2 Cunning Wish
2 Decree of Justice
3 Engineered Explosives
1 Fact or Fiction
4 Force of Will
2 Humility
4 Standstill
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Wrath of God
1 Eternal Dragon

SB:
1 Enlightened Tutor
2 Blue Elemental Blast
3 Extirpate
1 Pulse of the Fields
1 Dismantling Blow
4 Meddling Mage
1 Runed Halo
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Engineered Plague


- Round I -
VS Fredmaster with UBG Stifle-Nought. (with Goyf, Bob, CB+Top, Spellsnare, Daze + Wastelands and the usual 3 SB Grips)

G1: I STP an early Dreadnought and lose my remaining STPs to Extirpate next turn. Soon after he manages to stick a Goyf which I cannot handle quick enough so Bob eats my remaining 2 life points.
G2: I manage to assemble an EE-Academy Ruins lock while being stuck on 5 lands and a low life total, so each time I cast EE I have to decide on playing them for 2U+1W (circumventing Spellsnares) while running the risk of getting them dazed and thus not being able to blow them right after - or playing them for 1U+1W and being daze-proof. This thing repeats itself a couple of times. Fredmaster decides to concede after Humility, Crucible and some Decree tokens hit the table.
G3: This was reedeeculous! He mulls to five keeping a God hand as it turned out: >>Turn 2 Nought plus Force backup against my STP attempt<< just breaks my heart. - meh. ggs
0-1

- Round II -
VS Erwin with some random Rude Awakening deck (Krosan Tusker, Loxodon Hierarch, Eternal Witness, Orim's Chant etc..+ 3-4 SB K.Grips)

G1: Takes forever. 2 Humilities and 2 Decrees do their job though.
G2: He Oblivion Rings my Humility. Ring gets eaten by Dismantling Blow+Kicker. I keep countering Eternal Witnesses and end up getting fisted by a lategame Rude Awakening (that was actually the first time I saw that card)
G3: Erwin Krosan Grips an early Crucible. Soon after I extirpate his Grips - it goes downwards for him for there on.
THX for playing so fast! I would have hated a timeout draw here.
1-1

- Round III -
VS Springtide.dec
I got paired down which might have cost me a top 8 spot...anyway:
G1: I double Force an early High Tide. My opponents concedes after Wish-Extirpate on Tide.
G2: He Mystical Tutors for High Tide so I let him shuffle his library before letting him draw it by Extirpating his FOWs. Another Extirpate on High Tide that got eaten by Counterspell is "gg" again.
2-1

- Round IV -
VS Michael playing UWb Dreaded Fish (Vials, Bobs, Gruntsand...Epochracites[!] ..and Vision Charms [!])
G1: I lose to Epochracite beats after a turn 2 Dreadnought had eaten 60% of my life total.
G2: I mainly lose to 1/1 Epochrasites that I refuse to Wrath earlier.
Frustrating fact: 2 STPs get "countered" by a Charm phase out ;(
2-2

- Round V -
VS Jens playing White Aggro Stax (3-4 Exalteds, 2 Calciderm, Serra Avenger, some Equipment, Cataclysm, Geddon/Cruci and 4 Suppression Fields in the main)
G1: Jens manages to stick 3 Suppression Fields that get blown up by an EE that I had to pay 8 for [haha]. Humility bought me enough time to build up my mana base (fetching for 6 still sucks though) and Decree wins the game.
G2: He mulls to 4 and successfully casts turn 1 Chalice @1, which leaves me with Crucible as my only playable card (I kept this hand for my singleton Cruci alone. it won me the game in the long run I guess).
3-2

- Round VI -
VS BW Sui.dec (Bobs, Specters, Shades, Vindiates, Sinkholes, Hymns and the usual suspects)
G1: I am lucky and keep topdecking lands that consistently get eaten by Wastelands, Sinkholes and Vindicates. Humility is the MVP and wins me a close game.
G2: He starts with T1 Ritual-Specter, T2 Hymn but cannot build up more pressure from there. At some point I'm left with 0 cards in hand and at 10 life, he's holding 3 cards and still has his Specter online. After some brainstorming I finally find my first STP he doesn't draw a creature so Standstill gets me back on track.
Being at 17 life he vindicates Factory over Island and Tundra, which might have cost him the G2.
4-2

--------------------

I end up 10th picking a playset of Tangle Wires that went ignored by the 9th place who decided to pick a single white-bordered Nev. Disk instead [YAY!]. Also, I traded that playset into a foil Wasteland on my ride back home. not bad for a 10th place @ a medium-sized 5€ buy-in-event.

--------------------

- Conclusion -

I was happy with my deck all day long actually those 2 losses against Nought.dec felt somewhat random in retrospect. I shall give Konsultant's UWg LS list a try next time and Grip those Noughts for good .

That single Ponder showed up 3 times and I never wished it was FoF or Jace or whatever - the overall metagame got sped up so adding 1-2 Ponder seemed logical to me.
I've tested a crap load of tier 1 decks over the past year and never really got to the point where I felt: "This is gonna be better than LS at my next tourney" - LS is and will remain the most consistent and alround archetype outthere .

Final note to self: Decree should be a 3-of.

Peace,
Klaus

[Citrus-God]

I was the person who suggested Ponder. DIF wanted something that isnt FoF so that the deck could be less clunky; after reading my argument defending Ponder a few pages back in the UW/x Landstill thread, he decided to give it a whirl and he seems to love it ever since. I personally think he's taking the deck into a decent direction at the moment.

As for the Dust Bowl, I suggested the card as well, simply because it seemed better in the mirror and seems to be infinitely better than Wasteland. We playtested a few games of the mirror and he absolutely thrashed me.

[Frenger]

Did you happen to take down the guy's last name who you played round 4? (dreaded fish with epochrasite)

I know a Michael who played UWb dreaded fish with epochrasite, but i have no idea where he lives now, i know he moved to a different country though.