[Report] Necrotic Ooze Combo Splits Top 4 in Ann Arbor, MI

[jamis]

I'm pretty exhausted, so I'm going to try to keep this report relatively short. It was a six round tournament with a cut to the top 8, though, so I don't know how short I can keep this. Anyway, here's the decklist I played:

1 Necrotic Ooze
1 Triskelion
1 Phyrexian Devourer
1 Putrid Imp
1 Inkwell Leviathan

4 Buried Alive
4 Personal Tutor
2 Lim-Dul's Vault
4 Brainstorm
3 Reanimate
3 Exhume

4 Thoughtseize
3 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
1 Eye of Nowhere

3 Chrome Mox
4 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Ritual
2 Swamp
2 Island
2 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Marsh Flats

Sideboard:
1 Blazing Archon
2 Necrotic Ooze
3 Wipe Away
4 Echoing Truth
2 Deathmark
3 Pithing Needle

I was pretty nervous the night before because I realized most people are probably planning their sideboards for Vengevine Madness, and most of the cards that harm that deck also hurt this one. Especially so, since I traded away my Show and Tells, so I didn't have the transformational sideboard option. However, I left my other decks in Lansing, so unless I wanted to do some serious driving, this was the deck I was playing. Luckily, I had the rougue factor on my side, which I think definitely helped me do so well.

Round 1: Ravi (Geddon Stax)
He wins the die roll, and I draw an opening 7 that consists of a Personal Tutor, 2 lands, and 2 Brainstorms, a Dark Ritual and a Lotus Petal. He drops a Plains and says go. I topdeck a Buried Alive, and Tutor for a Reanimate. He plays a second Plains and passes. I cast the Buried Alive off a Dark Ritual and then follow it with a Reanimate.

SB:
-4 Hymn to Tourach, -2 Thoughseize, -1 Duress
+4 Echoing Truth, +3 Pithing Needle

Game 2, he casts a turn 1 Aura of Silence off two Mox Dimonds. We each miss a land drop while he casts a second Aura of Silence, which makes the Lotus Petal and Chrome Mox in my hand much worse. I draw another land and Echoing Truth his Mox Dimonds, but he draws into some more lands. Eventually, I'm able to cast LDV to find a Buried Alive and then cast it off a Dark Ritual followed by a Reanimate next turn.

Rounds: 1-0
Games: 2-0

Round 2: Peter (New Horizons/Bant Tempo)
I draw a hand of Dark Ritual, Thoughtseize, Putrid Imp, Inkwell Leviathan and Reanimate. I thoughtseize him to make sure he doesn't have protection, which he doesn't, so I take a Rhox War Monk. I beat him down to 1 life with Inkwell leviathan, but his Knight of the Reliquary is soon able to chump block Inkwell Leviathan, and then outpowers it later on.

SB:
-1 Hymn to Tourach, -1 Exhume, -1 Brainstorm
+3 Wipe Away

I draw a hand that lets me cast a turn 1 Buried Alive, and decide to cast it without protection hoping he doesn't have the FoW. He doesn't, and I pass the turn after finding the combo. Turn 2, I topdeck a Reanimate and cast it for the win.

Game 3, my hand has a land, a Lotus Petal, a Buried Alive, a Personal Tutor, a Brainstorm and a Dark Ritual. I cast the Tutor on turn 1 to find a Reanimate. I decide to Brainstorm on Turn 2, rather than go for the win so I can find a discard spell, but don't find any protection or land. I go for the combo unprotected on turn 3, and he doesn't have the counter spell to stop it.

Rounds: 2-0
Games: 4-1

Round 3: Gandhi (Zoo)
I'm able to cast a turn 1 LDV thanks to Chrome Mox, and set up my draws to let me win on turn 3. He hits me with a Wild Nacatl once, and I reanimate the Ooze for the win.

SB:
-4 Hymn to Tourach, -2 Thoughtseize, -2 Duress
+4 Echoing Truth, +3 Pithing Needle, +1 Necrotic Ooze

My opening 7 is pretty odd with a Triskelion and Phyrexian Devourer, but it also has the Buried Alive, an Exhume, and lots of fast mana (no lands, though). On my first turn, I topdeck a Necrotic Ooze, and decide to just move to my discard phase to get rid of Triskelion followed by Phyrexian Devourer on Turn 2. After taking some damage, I hardcast Necrotic Ooze and combo off.

Rounds: 3-0
Games: 6-1

Round 4: Mike (Ooze Survival)
I'm on the play and my hand is fetchland, Thoughtseize, Reanimate, Inkwell Leviathan, Lim-Dul's Vault, Buried Alive, and Necrotic Ooze. On turn 1, I thoughtseize myself and get rid of Inkwell Leviathan. On his turn 1, he casts Cabal Therapy to get rid of the Reanimate I just showed him. Luckily, I topdeck a Chrome Mox followed by an Exhume, and start swinging. However, he soon has Survival online and finds Fleshbag Marauder to get rid of the Leviathan. Soon I am on the receiving end of a Necrotic Ooze combo.

SB: -4 Hymn to Tourach, -3 Thoughtseize, -2 Duress
+3 Pithing Needle, +4 Echoing Truth, +2 Necrotic Ooze

I didn't take a lot of notes game 2, but I believe I was Cabal Therapied twice to remove the Buried Alive from my hand, which slowed me down enough for him to get SotF going again. I am able to topdeck a Buried Alive, and cast it since I don't want it to get discarded, but I soon realize any pile I make is going to be a poor choice thanks to his Survival. I decide to grab the standard 3 creatures, but this really only made it easier for him to combo off on his turn.

Rounds: 3-1
Games: 6-3

Round 5: Jeremy (Echantress)
I'm able to get a Turn 2 Inkwell Leviathan thanks to Putrid Imp and Reanimate, however he stablizes at two life thanks to Moat and Elephant Grass. Thankfully, he doesn't keep Solitary Confinement around, and I'm able to draw Buried Alive and Exhume Necrotic Ooze to get the last amounts of damage I needed.

-1 Inkwell Leviathan, - 4 Hymn to Tourach, -2 Duress, -1 Thoughtseize
+1 Blazing Archon, +4 Echoing Truth, +3 Pithing Needle

I draw a hand with a Personal Tutor, a Buried Alive, and 2 Dark Rituals, but I draw a Necrotic Ooze during my turn. I decide to move to my discard phase, and get rid of the Necrotic Ooze. I draw a reanimate, Reanimate the Necrotic Ooze, and cast Buried Alive.


Rounds: 4-1
Games: 8-3

Round 6: ID

Rounds: 4-1-1
Games 8-3-1

Top 8: Richard (Zoo)
My opening 7 cards are Island, Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, Personal Tutor, Buried Alive, and 2 Reanimates. I cast Buried Alive turn 1 and reanimate turn 2.

SB:
-4 hymn to Tourach, -3 Duress, -2 Thoughtseize
+4 Echoing Truth, +3 Pithing Needle, +2 Necrotic Ooze

I keep a questionable hand with 2 Buried Alive and a Reanimate, but the only mana source is one Island, so I'm hoping to draw into more mana. He starts with a Steppe Lynx and is soon hitting me for 4. On turn 2 he casts a Wild Nacatl. I draw a land on my third turn, but at this point he's hitting me for too much with the Steppe Lynx, the Wild Nacatl, and a Knight of the Reliquary.

Game 3, again I didn't take notes, but I think my hand was 2 lands, a Pithing Needle, a Dark ritual, and a Buried Alive. Turn 1, I cast Needle naming Knight of the Reliquary, as I'm guessing his gravehate is Bojuka Bog. Turn 2 I topdeck Exhume, so I cast Buried Alive on turn 2, and Exhume on turn 3.

Top 4 split. My pairings for top 4 would have been against Landstill, which I feel should be positive, but I think being October 30th, no one really wanted to stay there too long, and I was more than happy to split.

[TnT]

Hey if you want that game let's do it

[4eak]

I like the deck and your report. Thanks.



peace,
4eak

[easyrider]

The numbers look a little strange to me. Could you explain some of them? Nice job on the top 4.

[jamis]

I'm not quite sure which numbers are looking strange, but I'll try to explain what I'm guessing looks odd.

The combo itself is run as a 1-of each pre-board since you generally don't want to draw any of the cards, and instead just want to get them together with a Buried Alive. Post-board, you may want to cast a Necrotic Ooze to avoid certain hate cards, so I included 2 in the board.

Putrid Imp is similar in that he just replaces Triskelion or Phyrexian Devourer in a Buried Alive Pile if you draw one of them. He's cheap enough to hardcast if you draw P.Imp and one of the combo pieces, though, so that's why he's not run in multiples.

The single Eye of Nowhere is a Personal Tutor target to bounce a maindecked Pithing needle or a Humility in case one of those appears.

Lim-Dul's Vault could be bumped up to a three-of, but I think 6 tutor effects plus brainstorm is generally enough to find the combo in time. Especially since Buried Alive is run as a 4-of and the deck runs 6 reanimation spells. I went with the 3/3 split between Reanimate and Exhume, but a 4/2 split in favor of Reanimate could also be good.

Chrome Mox, I feel, is fine as a 3-of. I could cut the Marsh Flats for a fourth, but I don't think the acceleration is needed that badly, and the deck runs quite a bit of card disadvantage for the sake of speed already, so I don't know if bumping that up would be the best call. The mana base feels right to me right now.

[easyrider]

The first time I looked at the list, all the 3s and 2s seemed strange to me. Your explanations really helped out.

Why not eight reanimation spells? Also, is Careful Study worth putting in? It lets you keep more hands, and you won't have to burn a Reanimate or Exhume on an Imp if you have combo pieces in your hand. Why not just play a Reanimator shell with the combo in it? Force and Daze/Spell Pierce remove the need to have maindeck bounce spells, and provide some flexibility. More cantrips let you set up your draws, find lands, and removes some of the need for Personal Tutors. Is the fast mana necessary? I think that the deck can win (actually win by attacking) in a comparable amount of time to the pre-banning Reanimator decks. I think it's fine to be a turn or two slower if you are immediately winning the game when you assemble your combo.

[death]

Although the deck plays with 3-4 Reanimate/Exhume, there's more to it than just a Reanimator shell. BA/Ooze is a purer form of combo than say Entomb/fatty. The deck utilizes Personal Tutor similarly like reanimator when Mystical Tutor wasn't banned. Post banning, Buried Alive/P.Tutor was in fact suggested to complement reanimator lists but the concept proved to be too slow. What this deck is able to achieve now is win-now without attacking, the combo does that making it actually viable. In a meta packed with anti-creature spells and hasty 4/3s, I would pick the insta-win route. Attacking is a backup plan for GY hate.

Personal Tutor fits in well here and it provides the flexibility, finds anti-hate pieces. Having 8 reanimation spells just dilutes the deck IMO. Usually 1 reanimation/tutor + disruption wins games. I would prefer the extra disruption spell to use against any road block or to use as a road block. I also like that this can work with either a counter or discard suite (like Reanimator), it all depends on the playstyle of the pilot I guess. Is fast mana necessary? Absolutely.

[jamis]

Also note that you won't have to use a Reanimate or Exhume on a Putrid Imp since Necrotic Ooze will have it's discard ability.

[ivanpei]

Nice Finish! Grats!

Somethings I noticed, you never cast hymm, IMO I think its too slow too. You also sided it out almost every match. Would you have prefered force of will? Straight swapping would give you 16 blue, Maybe cut a duress and an Inkwell for 2 ponder? Great job!

[easyrider]

@ death, I am not saying, "Put Iona in this deck." What I meant by reanimator shell is to play almost the exact same deck minus the creatures that Reanimator plays. Personal Tutor replaces the Mystical Tutors and you have some extra space to play with as well. Sorry for the confusion.

@ jamis, thanks. That is an interaction that I missed.