Valtrix
08-30-2010, 01:24 PM
Huh, first detailed report. I wasn't really planning on writing all that much, but felt it might be a good exercise for me once I actually got to it. Apparently I remembered a lot more than I thought and created a much longer report than I probably should have. I finished 24th with a 5-2-1 record. I was happy with that since I just started playing blue and developing this control deck in June (Yes, I realize it's similar to the GP lists though). I still made many mistakes, but think I did pretty well overall and it's good to take a break from zoo after playing it for almost a year.
// Lands
2 [IN] Island (2)
2 [R] Tundra
1 [TSP] Academy Ruins
3 [R] Volcanic Island
3 [R] Tropical Island
1 [ZEN] Scalding Tarn
1 [RAV] Forest (2)
4 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
1 [DK] Maze of Ith
1 [OD] Plains (3)
4 [ON] Flooded Strand
// Creatures
4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf
// Spells
1 [FD] Engineered Explosives
3 [WWK] Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 [R] Swords to Plowshares
4 [AL] Force of Will
4 [5E] Brainstorm
4 [V09] Sensei's Divining Top
3 [SHM] Firespout
1 [RAV] Life from the Loam
2 [TE] Intuition
1 [FD] Vedalken Shackles
4 [CS] Counterbalance
2 [DLM] Counterspell
// Sideboard
SB: 2 [FD] Engineered Explosives
SB: 1 [SHM] Firespout
SB: 1 [TSP] Krosan Grip
SB: 2 [4E] Red Elemental Blast
SB: 3 [CFX] Path to Exile
SB: 1 [OD] Ray of Distortion
SB: 4 [ZEN] Spell Pierce
SB: 1 [CH] Tormod's Crypt
UG Vengevine Survival (0-2)
G1: I mull to five, one of my only two lands I see this game gets stifled, I don't get to play this game as a wild mongrel beats me for 2 each turn.
G2: I open a hand with 2 duals, 2 fetches. I (mistakenly) play my dual first and say go (dumbly thinking that if he has stifle he'll probably only have one and get a fetch anyway). We play draw go then until we're each sitting at five lands, I have two duals and 3 fetches. I didn't have a great hand, but I know two of them were Jaces. He plays a wild mongrel. Meanwhile, I brainstorm EOT because I need to get rid of these Jaces out of my hand to actually interact with his board first. He allows that, but I draw my third Jace (!), a firespout and something else. I put 2 Jaces back, then try and fetch. It's stifled. I fetch again. Stifled again. I fetch a third time. Yes, the third stifle. So, I'm stuck at two lands with a firespout in hand, and 2 Jaces as my next draw. I die to survival and vengevine aggro shortly after this.
ANT/TES (2-1)
G1: He mulls and then keeps, bemoaning that he's short on land. I win the roll and lead with a top. He leads with a delta and thoughtseizes me, seeing 2x brainstorm, goyf, counterbalance, land. He takes the counterbalance. Seeing thoughtseize from an underground see, I put him on reanimator or team america, or some other deck. I play my goyf next turn. He brainstorms his next turns, then drops a volcanic island. I swing with a 4/5 goyf, bringing him from 17 to 13. Next turn he dark ritual, duresses me, then 2x more dark ritual and plays ad nauseam. He goes down to 4 before stopping, has the right cards and tendrils me.
G2: I'm not too worried about this MU, as I have 4 pierces, 2 pyroblast, and extra EEs I can bring in. I don't remember this game well, but I think I pierced a duress, then played a turn 2 counterbalance, then a next turn goyf. He has some lands and plays a lotus petal, and I blind reveal a 1cmc. He thinks for a little bit, then plays some acceleration around it, one of which is a cabal ritual (!), then burning wish. He counts his mana for a little bit, and gets maelstrom pulse to kill my balance. He said he was disappointed in that, but he was a mana short of what he wanted to do. I play a second goyf to reduce his clock to 2 turns, and he can't recover.
G3: I open a hand with pierce, force, counterspell, goyf, land, so I keep. He leads with a chrome mox, removing duress, then plays a volcanic island. I can't remember, but I use my pierce on one of his spells. We draw go for a couple turns, with him casting some blue cantrips, and I get to four lands and play a goyf. He eventually decides to do something by playing a LED and lotus petal, then burning wish. He has a card in hand, but before responding I ask him if he has any responses to his burning wish, and he says no. I considered letting it just resolve, but if he went for empty the warrens I didn't have an answer. As such I used counterspell on it. He responds with pyroblast, then cracks the LED in response, but I'm ready with the force. Goyf is quickly narrowing his turns down, but he topdecks an infernal tutor (!). Luckily I had drawn an intuition awhile ago, so when he goes for the AD Nauseam next turn from a ritual, I intuition for my remaining three spell pierces and counter it. I was lucky that I had 3 left, since I only had 4 lands and no other blue cards I couldn't have gotten anything else. Goyf then ends the game.
4c Countertop (2-0)
G1: He assembles a quick counter-top, while I have no answers, but three land an intuition. I mainphase intuition for loam/ruins/EE as probably my only chance to get through this game. He gives me (unfortunately) loam. Next turn I cast it, and he fortunately is unable to counter it. I get my academy ruins into play, then next turn get EE on top. I'm at six mana, and consider my options. I've seen him have the same colors as me, so I put him on the 4c countertop lists seen at the GP. Knowing that those lists turn 5+ 3cmc and 3 4cmc I decide to EE with two colors for X = 4. He tops and reveals Jace. I realize here that I shouldn't have been greedy, and should have just went for X = 6 to ensure it resolved. He played Jace next turn, and I slow roll with my EE and then put it at 6, but two colors still. I kill the balance. He plays another balance, but I'm more worried about Jace this time around, so I EE at 4, which he forces. He's brainstorming with Jace, but I keep recurring EE, and I hit his Jace. Then I hit his balance. I get a goyf of his too. I then get some win-con and finish the game.
G2: I bring out my forces, firespouts, maze of ith and 2 swords for my 4 pierces, 2 EE, 2 REB, 1 grip, 1 ray. He was greedy and kept a one lander and brainstormed turns two and three but was stuck on two land. I get a smooth mana draw from loam + fetches. After my first dredge though I put a ray of distortion in my yard, which is the only thing he hits with his relic, presumably trying to dig. Eventually he gets his lands, but I have a well developed board, and had drawn into EE + ruins naturally. I use this to deal with a couple of his permanents, and eventually he Vendilion Cliques. I brainstorm in response, then begin to show my hand, and he said, "No no, me" I then use top to draw my EE and kill his Clique, since I didn't want him to draw into Karakas randomly, even though I hadn't seen it yet. I just have more control than him, and eventually get a win-con and win.
UG Vengevine Survival (0-2)
G1: I had known this person to play New Horizons last time I faced him. I had a swords and a tundra in hand. Fearing wasteland, I lead with my non W sources. He then plays a turn 2 aquameba, pitch 2 vengevines and a rootwalla, put me to 12. I swords one vengevine, and he swings for 8 putting me to 4. I draw a red source for firespout finally, which resolves. He plays a trygon predator. I get a goyf into play, then take 2. I swords his flyer, and think I'm okay for now. He plays a second one, and I die to flying.
G2: I drew my crypt, and had a little interaction with his board. I saw some library manipulation, but it just wasn't enough to beat survival which became active in the first few turns.
(Side note: I need to test this MU some more to figure out how I can improve it. This deck is being played so much, at least here. There were 5 copies in the top 16 of this tournament I think)
Enchantress (1-1-1)
G1: He mulligans. We play draw go for a little while. He leads with a windswept heath, fetches a forest. I'm not sure what he's on, but I pass my second turn with counterspell ready. He plays a plains then passes, so I figure he's probably enchantress. I play a land and pass as well. He tries to play presence, which I counter. With no countermagic left I play Jace next turn and begin to fateseal. I know it could be o-ringed, but I need to try and win with Jace as fast as possible--He's a great weapon against them. He plays 2x moat eventually, but nothing else that relevant. Jace eventually fatesealed me to victory, without him seeing much.
G2: I don't remember this game that well. I brought in pierces and artifact/enchantment hate. I know that on turn three he had 4 mana ready after playing some setup spells turn 2 and 3, which he used half of to play argothian enchantress. I was in an awkward situation, because I had a counterspell and firespout in hand. If I firespouted next turn, then counterspell wouldn't be ready to stop a presence. Since he had two mana open, I decided to counterspell this for fear of him drawing any cards. With his other two mana he plays a second argothian, which makes me sad, because I have to firespout that away next turn. I should have just not cared if he drew a card or two, since it was more important to use my spout on him and have the counterspell for later. He then plays presence next turn, and I grumble at the odds of him having 3 enchantress effects. Because of this he eventually gets too much card advantage for me to win fast enough to recover from.
G3: This matchup was so long, I don't remember this one the best either. I play top turn one and am able to deal with his early draw effects with a counters. I had a crypt in hand, but decide to hold onto it, and when he plays aura of silence I thought maybe it would have been worth playing earlier. He doesn't have much gas, so I get a Jace into play and begin fatesealing. I keep giving him lands on top. I then get a goyf and try for beatdown too, in case he can answer Jace. He does however get an enchantress presence in play, much to my dismay, but I think I can win this with my two win-cons in play. With Jace at 11 counters and goyf putting him to 1, I topdecks an oblivion ring, almost removes Jace thinking that it doesn't matter much anyway, but plays it to remove goyf instead, draws into leyline of sanctity, plays it to stop Jace. I was a very sad at this, considering the board state. From there the game quickly gets out of control for him as he gets another draw effect and a million mana from serra's sanctum. However, we eventually go to time, me having turn 1. He got sigil in play on his turn 2 and made a few angels. Turn 4 he swings, but he lacks the extra turn to get the win. There was an issue here though, when he played sterling grove to find his words of war. I knew he had already tapped his taiga, and looked at his utopia sprawls and didn't remember any of them naming red, and he had all four of them out already, so I thought that was okay. He tried to use the sprawls to play his words, but we had to call a judge to figure the issue out. She couldn't do much, but asked if anybody had watched the game, and someone said that they had been most of the time and didn't remember a red sprawl either. I later found out he had an Emrakul in hand, but he didn't realize he could have played it for the extra turn to get the win. This was disappointing considering what the game looked like, but also lucky that I ended this with a draw.
Enchantress (1-0-1)
G1: He plays a first turn acceleration effect, and I immediately grumble at playing this deck again. I'm able to deal with his enchantress effect he plays on turn three, however, and he oddly had played a horizon canopy that turn. He gets some other things in play, but I intuition for loam/ruins/EE, and after a few turns am able to clear most of his spells. He tries to replenish, but I'm ready with a force. He does however, get a sterling grove, to go for sigil. I think to myself what I can do against that, since I had no counters and I can't EE @ 5. Fortunately he didn't have a hand or board, and when he played the sigil he was talking about how he just didn't know how to deal with ruins/EE. I told him that we could just go to game 2 if he wanted, not really expecting him to agree. He told me he was really thinking about it, so I looked at the clock and told him that we had 28 minutes in the round left, which prompted him to scoop up his cards. Okay by me.
G2: Enchantress games are hard to remember, because they do so many things. I get a balance out, but that gets oringed when I have three-drops on top. I didn't have threats, but I did have a top and some answers. At some point he plays solitary confinement with two argothian enchantresses and a vexing shusher in play (!). He also had a karmic justice as some point. I had to double check justice to make sure I could spout his creatures away, which lost him his solitary as well. I had ruins/EE online, but was having trouble with the justice. I was able to catch his sterling grove with the EE first though, since he tapped out to play it. Eventually we went to time, and seeing I could do nothing, I was able to EE to kill a couple cards, then he tried to destroy my ruins, but I brought back EE one last time. Even though he had a sigil in play, I hit his three drops, nuking his only presences for draw, and allowing sigil to not be able to generate enough angels to get the win in time, so I narrowly get a victory here.
(Side note: I feel like I always seem to have to deal with 2-3 draw effects from enchantress in the first few turns every game, and that sucks, even though this is probably just my own bias toward the deck.)
NO-Rock (2-0)
G1: I had accidentally seen a cabal therapy on the bottom of his deck when he was shuffling, which made me worry about dredge. However, in his first turn when he played a green land, I was very relieved. He played a hierach to my top. Then a therapy next turn naming something I didn't have. He saw my hand of lands, force, swords. He played a kitchen finks next turn and hastily tried to therapy it. This was fortunate for me, as I probably wouldn't have been thinking, but it gave me a chance to respond to the life gain trigger of finks after calling a judge over, so I was able to swords it away before he could. Hierarch gets in there. Next turn he plays a dryad arbor, which scares me immediately as I know he's playing natural order. He just sacrifices it to therapy to get rid of my force though, then plays a dark confidant. I knew about a firespout in my top 3 though, which clears his board. I get a Jace or goyf and eventually get there.
G2: This was the sloppiest game I had all day, and I felt really bad about it afterwards. Regardless, this was a very close match. I intuition for ruins/loam/EE. He gives me ruins and then extirpates my loam for some reason, my only one. I bring my EE back, ready for his creatures. He witnesses to get extirpate back and extirpates my 3 EEs. I was really fine with this though, as the extirpates didn't matter to me much. I firespout his witness away. Eventually we're both low on cards and we both have tops. A goyf ate a swords, then one to a pernicious deed.. He gets another extirpate eventually, and goes for my firespouts. I was thankful then, because I had just brainstormed and left a firespout on top, and once again extirpate on firespout just didn't matter. I got a Jace and goyf in play. Goyf beats and Jace Fateseals, but he decides to witness his vindicate back for it. I swords to witness to stop stronghold that he had drawn several turns earlier. He gets lots of creatures, but I'm ready with paths and swords. Eventually he's at 5, has a finks in play, no cards, to my 6/7 goyf. I draw intuition, and look at my GY and exiled cards. I had no firespouts, a Jace was gone, had used 2 out of 3 paths, and couldn't use swords to win that turn. I though about combinations quickly and had seven land, so I was able to get Jace/Jace/path to win that turn.
BUGW Landstill (2-0)
G1: He plays mishra then crucible. He keeps bringing his fetches back. When he tries to go for Jace though, I'm ready with a counterspell. He plays a second mishra's factory, but I get my vedalken shackles to keep both at bay after being hit a turn or two with both. The next turn I play my Jace, we may have had an exchange of counters, but it sticks. He begins fatesealing and despite him having a full hand, he just had no answers for him.
G2: I'm happy about going to game two, since I get a bunch more control and counterspells here. Game two I get an early loam and begin gaining land advantage this way, fetches eating away a good part of my life. I get a top too, which is very helpful. We play draw go for a long time, but I get 2x goyf play to put him on a fast clock, but I also tap 4 to play Jace, leaving me with 2 volcs and 2 fetches still. Next turn he plays EE @ 2, but I'm ready with a counterspell, using my volcs. He spell pierces that. I have two fetches, and I debate about just paying, but figure he has another spell. He has 2 cards in hand and I have a red elemental blast and spell pierce. He has three land open. I decide to blast the pierce, hoping his other counter is not a spell pierce. He plays regular counterspell to my blast, which I pierce, leaving him with a single mana open. Although it worked, I think this was the wrong choice, because if he pierces me when I have mana to pay it's likely that he has another one in hand. I still had a force in hand though, so Jace would have likely gotten there anyway.
Afterthoughts:
--I need to test against UG Vengevine survival decks now, because they are everywhere, and it doesn't look like I can afford such a poor matchup against them.
--Intuition is also a beating against so many decks, especially game one. I've one so many games against decks on the back of this card getting loam/ruins/EE or a desperate combination of 3x cards. I love that I want to run all of the cards anyway to set up the combination, so it doesn't hurt me at all to have them in here.
--Loam is also very, very good. In some ways I want to run a second one, but I'm not sure it's necessary, and I wouldn't want to draw multiples (even if that's unlikely). Setting up infinite land drops + fetches with top allows me to see an absurd amount of cards.
--Shackles steals so many games. Dealing with creatures forever or making their win condition yours is so good. Also, while I didn't mention it in my report, since I can't remember everything, there were several games that I won by recurring shackles with ruins, either from krosan grips or from intuitioning for it.
--I didn't see maze all day, odd. It wouldn't have been good in any of my matchups though, so that's fine.
--Counterspell feels so good to play.
--Spell pierces in the board have been amazing.
--Goyfs are huge in this deck (well, compared to when I played zoo). They weren't less than 4/5 all day, and usually 5/6 or 6/7.
--I like that the deck has so many options, and it puts decks in an awkward position to attack Jace, goyfs, ruins recursion, and countertop at the same time.
Anyway, that's all for now. Not an "impressive finish," but nonetheless I hope this report was somewhat interesting to read. If anybody has suggestions on how I could write a better report next time or questions about anything, let me know. I'd love to take notes, but I just don't have round time with this deck most often.
// Lands
2 [IN] Island (2)
2 [R] Tundra
1 [TSP] Academy Ruins
3 [R] Volcanic Island
3 [R] Tropical Island
1 [ZEN] Scalding Tarn
1 [RAV] Forest (2)
4 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
1 [DK] Maze of Ith
1 [OD] Plains (3)
4 [ON] Flooded Strand
// Creatures
4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf
// Spells
1 [FD] Engineered Explosives
3 [WWK] Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 [R] Swords to Plowshares
4 [AL] Force of Will
4 [5E] Brainstorm
4 [V09] Sensei's Divining Top
3 [SHM] Firespout
1 [RAV] Life from the Loam
2 [TE] Intuition
1 [FD] Vedalken Shackles
4 [CS] Counterbalance
2 [DLM] Counterspell
// Sideboard
SB: 2 [FD] Engineered Explosives
SB: 1 [SHM] Firespout
SB: 1 [TSP] Krosan Grip
SB: 2 [4E] Red Elemental Blast
SB: 3 [CFX] Path to Exile
SB: 1 [OD] Ray of Distortion
SB: 4 [ZEN] Spell Pierce
SB: 1 [CH] Tormod's Crypt
UG Vengevine Survival (0-2)
G1: I mull to five, one of my only two lands I see this game gets stifled, I don't get to play this game as a wild mongrel beats me for 2 each turn.
G2: I open a hand with 2 duals, 2 fetches. I (mistakenly) play my dual first and say go (dumbly thinking that if he has stifle he'll probably only have one and get a fetch anyway). We play draw go then until we're each sitting at five lands, I have two duals and 3 fetches. I didn't have a great hand, but I know two of them were Jaces. He plays a wild mongrel. Meanwhile, I brainstorm EOT because I need to get rid of these Jaces out of my hand to actually interact with his board first. He allows that, but I draw my third Jace (!), a firespout and something else. I put 2 Jaces back, then try and fetch. It's stifled. I fetch again. Stifled again. I fetch a third time. Yes, the third stifle. So, I'm stuck at two lands with a firespout in hand, and 2 Jaces as my next draw. I die to survival and vengevine aggro shortly after this.
ANT/TES (2-1)
G1: He mulls and then keeps, bemoaning that he's short on land. I win the roll and lead with a top. He leads with a delta and thoughtseizes me, seeing 2x brainstorm, goyf, counterbalance, land. He takes the counterbalance. Seeing thoughtseize from an underground see, I put him on reanimator or team america, or some other deck. I play my goyf next turn. He brainstorms his next turns, then drops a volcanic island. I swing with a 4/5 goyf, bringing him from 17 to 13. Next turn he dark ritual, duresses me, then 2x more dark ritual and plays ad nauseam. He goes down to 4 before stopping, has the right cards and tendrils me.
G2: I'm not too worried about this MU, as I have 4 pierces, 2 pyroblast, and extra EEs I can bring in. I don't remember this game well, but I think I pierced a duress, then played a turn 2 counterbalance, then a next turn goyf. He has some lands and plays a lotus petal, and I blind reveal a 1cmc. He thinks for a little bit, then plays some acceleration around it, one of which is a cabal ritual (!), then burning wish. He counts his mana for a little bit, and gets maelstrom pulse to kill my balance. He said he was disappointed in that, but he was a mana short of what he wanted to do. I play a second goyf to reduce his clock to 2 turns, and he can't recover.
G3: I open a hand with pierce, force, counterspell, goyf, land, so I keep. He leads with a chrome mox, removing duress, then plays a volcanic island. I can't remember, but I use my pierce on one of his spells. We draw go for a couple turns, with him casting some blue cantrips, and I get to four lands and play a goyf. He eventually decides to do something by playing a LED and lotus petal, then burning wish. He has a card in hand, but before responding I ask him if he has any responses to his burning wish, and he says no. I considered letting it just resolve, but if he went for empty the warrens I didn't have an answer. As such I used counterspell on it. He responds with pyroblast, then cracks the LED in response, but I'm ready with the force. Goyf is quickly narrowing his turns down, but he topdecks an infernal tutor (!). Luckily I had drawn an intuition awhile ago, so when he goes for the AD Nauseam next turn from a ritual, I intuition for my remaining three spell pierces and counter it. I was lucky that I had 3 left, since I only had 4 lands and no other blue cards I couldn't have gotten anything else. Goyf then ends the game.
4c Countertop (2-0)
G1: He assembles a quick counter-top, while I have no answers, but three land an intuition. I mainphase intuition for loam/ruins/EE as probably my only chance to get through this game. He gives me (unfortunately) loam. Next turn I cast it, and he fortunately is unable to counter it. I get my academy ruins into play, then next turn get EE on top. I'm at six mana, and consider my options. I've seen him have the same colors as me, so I put him on the 4c countertop lists seen at the GP. Knowing that those lists turn 5+ 3cmc and 3 4cmc I decide to EE with two colors for X = 4. He tops and reveals Jace. I realize here that I shouldn't have been greedy, and should have just went for X = 6 to ensure it resolved. He played Jace next turn, and I slow roll with my EE and then put it at 6, but two colors still. I kill the balance. He plays another balance, but I'm more worried about Jace this time around, so I EE at 4, which he forces. He's brainstorming with Jace, but I keep recurring EE, and I hit his Jace. Then I hit his balance. I get a goyf of his too. I then get some win-con and finish the game.
G2: I bring out my forces, firespouts, maze of ith and 2 swords for my 4 pierces, 2 EE, 2 REB, 1 grip, 1 ray. He was greedy and kept a one lander and brainstormed turns two and three but was stuck on two land. I get a smooth mana draw from loam + fetches. After my first dredge though I put a ray of distortion in my yard, which is the only thing he hits with his relic, presumably trying to dig. Eventually he gets his lands, but I have a well developed board, and had drawn into EE + ruins naturally. I use this to deal with a couple of his permanents, and eventually he Vendilion Cliques. I brainstorm in response, then begin to show my hand, and he said, "No no, me" I then use top to draw my EE and kill his Clique, since I didn't want him to draw into Karakas randomly, even though I hadn't seen it yet. I just have more control than him, and eventually get a win-con and win.
UG Vengevine Survival (0-2)
G1: I had known this person to play New Horizons last time I faced him. I had a swords and a tundra in hand. Fearing wasteland, I lead with my non W sources. He then plays a turn 2 aquameba, pitch 2 vengevines and a rootwalla, put me to 12. I swords one vengevine, and he swings for 8 putting me to 4. I draw a red source for firespout finally, which resolves. He plays a trygon predator. I get a goyf into play, then take 2. I swords his flyer, and think I'm okay for now. He plays a second one, and I die to flying.
G2: I drew my crypt, and had a little interaction with his board. I saw some library manipulation, but it just wasn't enough to beat survival which became active in the first few turns.
(Side note: I need to test this MU some more to figure out how I can improve it. This deck is being played so much, at least here. There were 5 copies in the top 16 of this tournament I think)
Enchantress (1-1-1)
G1: He mulligans. We play draw go for a little while. He leads with a windswept heath, fetches a forest. I'm not sure what he's on, but I pass my second turn with counterspell ready. He plays a plains then passes, so I figure he's probably enchantress. I play a land and pass as well. He tries to play presence, which I counter. With no countermagic left I play Jace next turn and begin to fateseal. I know it could be o-ringed, but I need to try and win with Jace as fast as possible--He's a great weapon against them. He plays 2x moat eventually, but nothing else that relevant. Jace eventually fatesealed me to victory, without him seeing much.
G2: I don't remember this game that well. I brought in pierces and artifact/enchantment hate. I know that on turn three he had 4 mana ready after playing some setup spells turn 2 and 3, which he used half of to play argothian enchantress. I was in an awkward situation, because I had a counterspell and firespout in hand. If I firespouted next turn, then counterspell wouldn't be ready to stop a presence. Since he had two mana open, I decided to counterspell this for fear of him drawing any cards. With his other two mana he plays a second argothian, which makes me sad, because I have to firespout that away next turn. I should have just not cared if he drew a card or two, since it was more important to use my spout on him and have the counterspell for later. He then plays presence next turn, and I grumble at the odds of him having 3 enchantress effects. Because of this he eventually gets too much card advantage for me to win fast enough to recover from.
G3: This matchup was so long, I don't remember this one the best either. I play top turn one and am able to deal with his early draw effects with a counters. I had a crypt in hand, but decide to hold onto it, and when he plays aura of silence I thought maybe it would have been worth playing earlier. He doesn't have much gas, so I get a Jace into play and begin fatesealing. I keep giving him lands on top. I then get a goyf and try for beatdown too, in case he can answer Jace. He does however get an enchantress presence in play, much to my dismay, but I think I can win this with my two win-cons in play. With Jace at 11 counters and goyf putting him to 1, I topdecks an oblivion ring, almost removes Jace thinking that it doesn't matter much anyway, but plays it to remove goyf instead, draws into leyline of sanctity, plays it to stop Jace. I was a very sad at this, considering the board state. From there the game quickly gets out of control for him as he gets another draw effect and a million mana from serra's sanctum. However, we eventually go to time, me having turn 1. He got sigil in play on his turn 2 and made a few angels. Turn 4 he swings, but he lacks the extra turn to get the win. There was an issue here though, when he played sterling grove to find his words of war. I knew he had already tapped his taiga, and looked at his utopia sprawls and didn't remember any of them naming red, and he had all four of them out already, so I thought that was okay. He tried to use the sprawls to play his words, but we had to call a judge to figure the issue out. She couldn't do much, but asked if anybody had watched the game, and someone said that they had been most of the time and didn't remember a red sprawl either. I later found out he had an Emrakul in hand, but he didn't realize he could have played it for the extra turn to get the win. This was disappointing considering what the game looked like, but also lucky that I ended this with a draw.
Enchantress (1-0-1)
G1: He plays a first turn acceleration effect, and I immediately grumble at playing this deck again. I'm able to deal with his enchantress effect he plays on turn three, however, and he oddly had played a horizon canopy that turn. He gets some other things in play, but I intuition for loam/ruins/EE, and after a few turns am able to clear most of his spells. He tries to replenish, but I'm ready with a force. He does however, get a sterling grove, to go for sigil. I think to myself what I can do against that, since I had no counters and I can't EE @ 5. Fortunately he didn't have a hand or board, and when he played the sigil he was talking about how he just didn't know how to deal with ruins/EE. I told him that we could just go to game 2 if he wanted, not really expecting him to agree. He told me he was really thinking about it, so I looked at the clock and told him that we had 28 minutes in the round left, which prompted him to scoop up his cards. Okay by me.
G2: Enchantress games are hard to remember, because they do so many things. I get a balance out, but that gets oringed when I have three-drops on top. I didn't have threats, but I did have a top and some answers. At some point he plays solitary confinement with two argothian enchantresses and a vexing shusher in play (!). He also had a karmic justice as some point. I had to double check justice to make sure I could spout his creatures away, which lost him his solitary as well. I had ruins/EE online, but was having trouble with the justice. I was able to catch his sterling grove with the EE first though, since he tapped out to play it. Eventually we went to time, and seeing I could do nothing, I was able to EE to kill a couple cards, then he tried to destroy my ruins, but I brought back EE one last time. Even though he had a sigil in play, I hit his three drops, nuking his only presences for draw, and allowing sigil to not be able to generate enough angels to get the win in time, so I narrowly get a victory here.
(Side note: I feel like I always seem to have to deal with 2-3 draw effects from enchantress in the first few turns every game, and that sucks, even though this is probably just my own bias toward the deck.)
NO-Rock (2-0)
G1: I had accidentally seen a cabal therapy on the bottom of his deck when he was shuffling, which made me worry about dredge. However, in his first turn when he played a green land, I was very relieved. He played a hierach to my top. Then a therapy next turn naming something I didn't have. He saw my hand of lands, force, swords. He played a kitchen finks next turn and hastily tried to therapy it. This was fortunate for me, as I probably wouldn't have been thinking, but it gave me a chance to respond to the life gain trigger of finks after calling a judge over, so I was able to swords it away before he could. Hierarch gets in there. Next turn he plays a dryad arbor, which scares me immediately as I know he's playing natural order. He just sacrifices it to therapy to get rid of my force though, then plays a dark confidant. I knew about a firespout in my top 3 though, which clears his board. I get a Jace or goyf and eventually get there.
G2: This was the sloppiest game I had all day, and I felt really bad about it afterwards. Regardless, this was a very close match. I intuition for ruins/loam/EE. He gives me ruins and then extirpates my loam for some reason, my only one. I bring my EE back, ready for his creatures. He witnesses to get extirpate back and extirpates my 3 EEs. I was really fine with this though, as the extirpates didn't matter to me much. I firespout his witness away. Eventually we're both low on cards and we both have tops. A goyf ate a swords, then one to a pernicious deed.. He gets another extirpate eventually, and goes for my firespouts. I was thankful then, because I had just brainstormed and left a firespout on top, and once again extirpate on firespout just didn't matter. I got a Jace and goyf in play. Goyf beats and Jace Fateseals, but he decides to witness his vindicate back for it. I swords to witness to stop stronghold that he had drawn several turns earlier. He gets lots of creatures, but I'm ready with paths and swords. Eventually he's at 5, has a finks in play, no cards, to my 6/7 goyf. I draw intuition, and look at my GY and exiled cards. I had no firespouts, a Jace was gone, had used 2 out of 3 paths, and couldn't use swords to win that turn. I though about combinations quickly and had seven land, so I was able to get Jace/Jace/path to win that turn.
BUGW Landstill (2-0)
G1: He plays mishra then crucible. He keeps bringing his fetches back. When he tries to go for Jace though, I'm ready with a counterspell. He plays a second mishra's factory, but I get my vedalken shackles to keep both at bay after being hit a turn or two with both. The next turn I play my Jace, we may have had an exchange of counters, but it sticks. He begins fatesealing and despite him having a full hand, he just had no answers for him.
G2: I'm happy about going to game two, since I get a bunch more control and counterspells here. Game two I get an early loam and begin gaining land advantage this way, fetches eating away a good part of my life. I get a top too, which is very helpful. We play draw go for a long time, but I get 2x goyf play to put him on a fast clock, but I also tap 4 to play Jace, leaving me with 2 volcs and 2 fetches still. Next turn he plays EE @ 2, but I'm ready with a counterspell, using my volcs. He spell pierces that. I have two fetches, and I debate about just paying, but figure he has another spell. He has 2 cards in hand and I have a red elemental blast and spell pierce. He has three land open. I decide to blast the pierce, hoping his other counter is not a spell pierce. He plays regular counterspell to my blast, which I pierce, leaving him with a single mana open. Although it worked, I think this was the wrong choice, because if he pierces me when I have mana to pay it's likely that he has another one in hand. I still had a force in hand though, so Jace would have likely gotten there anyway.
Afterthoughts:
--I need to test against UG Vengevine survival decks now, because they are everywhere, and it doesn't look like I can afford such a poor matchup against them.
--Intuition is also a beating against so many decks, especially game one. I've one so many games against decks on the back of this card getting loam/ruins/EE or a desperate combination of 3x cards. I love that I want to run all of the cards anyway to set up the combination, so it doesn't hurt me at all to have them in here.
--Loam is also very, very good. In some ways I want to run a second one, but I'm not sure it's necessary, and I wouldn't want to draw multiples (even if that's unlikely). Setting up infinite land drops + fetches with top allows me to see an absurd amount of cards.
--Shackles steals so many games. Dealing with creatures forever or making their win condition yours is so good. Also, while I didn't mention it in my report, since I can't remember everything, there were several games that I won by recurring shackles with ruins, either from krosan grips or from intuitioning for it.
--I didn't see maze all day, odd. It wouldn't have been good in any of my matchups though, so that's fine.
--Counterspell feels so good to play.
--Spell pierces in the board have been amazing.
--Goyfs are huge in this deck (well, compared to when I played zoo). They weren't less than 4/5 all day, and usually 5/6 or 6/7.
--I like that the deck has so many options, and it puts decks in an awkward position to attack Jace, goyfs, ruins recursion, and countertop at the same time.
Anyway, that's all for now. Not an "impressive finish," but nonetheless I hope this report was somewhat interesting to read. If anybody has suggestions on how I could write a better report next time or questions about anything, let me know. I'd love to take notes, but I just don't have round time with this deck most often.