6th at the TOGIT Lotus event

[Monochrome]

Ubgw Deedstill
4x Polluted Delta
3x Flooded Strand
2x Misty Rainforest
4x Underground Sea
4x Tundra
3x Tropical Island
4x Mishra’s Factory
4x Brainstorm
4x Force of Will
4x Jace, The Mind Sculptor
4x Standstill
4x Counterspell
2x Spell Pierce
3x Spell Snare
4x Pernicious Deed
4x Swords to Plowshares
2x Path to Exile
1x Engineered Explosives

Sideboard:
4x Meddling Mage
4x Extirpate
3x Duress
3x Hydroblast
1x Path to Exile

Honestly I had wanted to run TES at this event, but I had ended up having to work the night shift the week prior and really did not get a chance to playtest or get much practice in at all. So I went with the Landstill deck that I had been using the past month at the weekly Friday night events as I had a lot more practice with it.

Apologies to my opponents as I'm really bad with names.

Round 1: G/B Infect
Game 1:
I let his first creature live, and stop everything else, land Jace, and think I'm okay. He proceeds to go all in with 3 pump spells while I'm tapped out on a Plaguestinger.
Game 2:
I counter and remove any relevant threats. Land Jace and win.
Game 3:
Same as game 2. This one was fun because he had a Volrath's Stronghold down, so I think I countered the same Plaguestinger 4-5 times.
2-1

Round 2: TES
Game 1:
I don't know he's playing combo but I keep a solid hand with some counters and removal. He tries to go off a couple times while I'm trying to kill him with a Mishra's, but he runs into permission each time.
Game 2:
I get another early Mishra's down and am able to answer all of his attempts to go off while I whittle him down.
4-1

Round 3: U/r Merfolk
Game 1:
Was dreading having to see this matchup. I manage to keep him to 0-1 guys most of the game, and he overextends into a Deed and I kill 3 of his Commanders in one go. I land Jace while he has no cards in hand.
Game 2:
Again I'm able to keep him low on guys, and manage to stabilize more than once. I'm able to get a couple Standstills in my favor as well. Land Jace and win.
6-1

Round 4: G/B/W Dark Horizons
Game 1:
I can't remember much from this game, except I'm pretty sure he's able to land more threats than I have removal for. I think I got crushed but a huge Knight.
Game 2:
This one goes a lot better. I'm able to stave off his early stuff, and land Jace. All three of his abilities were relevant in this one, as I have to bounce a creature, brainstorm a couple times for more answers, and then start fate-sealing.
Game 3:
This game goes basically the same as game 2. I had to land Jace twice as he's able to Vindicate my first one when I have removal but no permission. Lucky SOB managed to rip the Vindicate off a fetchland shuffle after fate-sealing.
8-2

At this point I'm set for top 8, as I'm 4-0 and have the best tie breakers of anyone. My round 5 opponent is unsure how IDing would work, so we decide to play it out anyway.

Round 5: U/G Vengevival
Game 1:
He's able to Force my Spell Snare for his turn 2 Survival, and I proceed to get run over by Veggies.
Game 2:
I'm able to find an answer for just about everything. I Extirpate his Veggies and NO's (I countered one). Unfortunately I run out of answers and die a shameful death to a single Rootwalla. Sigh.

I know my opponent in round 6 and we ID. Both of us were 4-1 and I was third in the standings, he was fourth. Two of my Swiss opponents (not counting round 6) also make top 8.

Quarterfinals: G/B/W Junk with Lotus Cobra over Mox Diamond
Game 1:
He has more threats than I have answers, and I end up dying to another large Knight.
Game 2:
I'm able to slowly stay afloat in this one. The turning point was when he forgot to activate his top in response to my Deed with a Jace already on the board. I'm able to fate-seal him from that point and win.
Game 3:
This one was crazy. I'm able to answer everything he throws at me, but it takes forever for me to find a win con. He manages to Swords 3 of my factories, and wastes the fourth. He also Vindicates 2 of my Jaces. Top is basically what killed me in this one. I eventually die to a Tarmo with only 8 cards left in my library, with my last 2 deeds being farther down than I could reach :frown:

Overall I think the deck did very well. I definitely got lucky in some of my matchups, but I only made a couple of play mistakes all day, and they didn't cost me any wins. I'd say the biggest issue the deck has is dealing with a large amount of successive threats. Without a Jace down to brainstorm with or a Standstill to get some pure CA, eventually you just run out of answers to decks that pack a lot of things that you don't like.

I went home with a Wasteland and a FTV: Relics for my troubles. Overall a great experience and an awesome event!

[naarou]

I was the TES player you stomped in round 2. Great games all around, you really controlled me better than most people were able to that night. I was praying I didnt play you in top 8! =P

[ivanpei]

Congrats! I'm glad to see the list working well for you! Most people claim that landstill has bad MUs vs storm combo (no-countertop) and merfolk but I beg to differ. You beat them both here 2-0 and I'm glad to see that. This list will beat folk and storm.

@ Vege survival, turn 2 survival with force backup is a god hand, nothing can be done about that. For the 2nd game, just bad luck, if you had ripped jace anytime before dying, you would have won that one.

Discard + wastelands+ vindicate + knight + bobs are bad for you. I think this is a hard mu, good job at the tourney!

[Mana Drain]

Legitness. Good to see people are realizing the power of 4 Superman.

And I concur with ivanpei, Rock variants (Dark Horizons, whatever) are just terrible matchups for us. They run just about every answer in the book for our deck.

Did you ever side in the 4th Extirpate?

[ivanpei]

I know it's off topic, but lotus cobra? I know there was an article on SCG and all about it, but what in the world is there to power out? Curve tops at 3, I see no problems with emptying the hand without lotus cobra. Maybe it's a bop that swings for 2? I don't see the appeal, I'd rather have BOP/noble in it's slot.

[Monochrome]

I think in the Survival game I went crazy and sided in 4 Extirpates and 3 Duress. I know I took out my Standstills, forgot what else though. Unfortunately I'm not a very good playtester and really didn't put in the time that I should have, so a lot of my sideboarding I did based on what I thought was a good idea at the time.

As far as Lotus Cobra goes, its mana generating ability really wasn't a factor in the 3 games we played, but the fact that it could swing for 2 was very relevant. My guess is its value can be seen when you can say, Hymn + drop a threat + swing for 2 all on the third turn.

[TOGITwill]

Well done on Saturday, merfolk guy!

[PatrickM]

I know it's off topic, but lotus cobra? I know there was an article on SCG and all about it, but what in the world is there to power out? Curve tops at 3, I see no problems with emptying the hand without lotus cobra. Maybe it's a bop that swings for 2? I don't see the appeal, I'd rather have BOP/noble in it's slot.

I was the person piloting this deck, I tried out the version in the article last week. Although I wasn't a big fan of a lot of the changes he made, especially the Scullers, I found that Lotus Cobra is total pro all day long and chose it even after considering noble hierarch and birds.

Turn one with this deck should always be a targeted discard spell. If I am going first i'll take their turn one play, if i'm going second i'll take their turn two play. I also get the added bonus of seeing exactly what their game plan is going to be. This seems like a much better plan of action than sitting around with a mana creature I can't use while the opponent plays turn two survival, tarmogoyf, counterbalance, phyrexian dreadnought, or any number of other threats I'd rather not deal with.

Follow that up with turn two lotus cobra, and then on turn three any combination of two tarmogoyf, bob, or knight of the reliquary, and maybe even another discard spell leads to ridiculous advantage that usually wins the game outright. Even on turn three you can play Lotus Cobra, Bob or Goyf, and a discard spell, or Lotus Cobra and Knight of the Reliquary.

Lotus Cobra was a total beating all day long, and doesn't have the card disadvantage that Mox Diamond has. Honestly if you don't have mox diamond and hymn to tourach or two discard spells turn one, the diamond usually ends up doing nothing more than powering up tarmogoyf.

[ivanpei]

Interesting, I understand the appeal. You're argument is solid. How many discard spells do you run? 4 Thoughtseize is a given. When playing GBW junk-esque decks, I've often realised the biggest mana curve hole is @ the 1. I usually play 4 Thoughtseize, 4 birds/ heirarch and maybe a couple of tops to fill up this hole. Ideally in legacy we'd like 10 or more 1 drop spells to do stuff on turn 1. Blue has no problem with cantrips and other decks have vial/cursecatcher etc. On the other hand, the 2cc is choked: Tarmo, bob, sculler, hymm and now, lotus cobra. There's a slight log jam there. Also would you play cobra over hymm on turn 2? @ the 3 you have vindicate, kotr. I prefer evening out my curve. Passing turn 1 and then following up with a cobra only to get it plowed/bolted/dazed is a MASSIVE tempo lost. In this situation, birds is much better. If you play eight 1cc discard spells, then playing cobra is ace but that many spells is a bad idea as you play hymm as well. Too many discard spells is bad when opponents are in topdeck mode. But that's my opinion. Thanks for your insight!

[PatrickM]

In this tournament I ran 4 Thoughtseize, 4 Inquisition, and 2 Hymn. I found that turn 1 targeted discard was so important that i'm going to remove the other two hymns and move up to some combination of 4/3/3 between seizes, inquisition, and duress. This setup would give me 13 turn one plays. Without having four hymns in the deck the card wasn't effective at all.

If you do turn one discard you can play around the tempo loss you described. If you have perfect knowledge of whats in their hand after turn one, then you generally bait their spells however you wish. Often i'd see a removal or a spell snare and push out a Lotus Cobra knowing that my Bob or Tarmogoyf would come out the next turn unchallenged so it was rarely an issue.

Two many discard spells can be bad in topdeck mode, but top and fetch lands do a pretty good job of preventing this from happening mid to late game.

The deck isn't perfect, as you pointed out the curve tops out at three, I often found myself wish I had something big to ramp into after the 4 turn or so. Regardless the 2 damage cobra can do still ended up being more effective than Mox Diamond, and cobra did a significant amount of damage for me in that tournament!