pocari79
02-23-2011, 10:53 AM
Went to a legacy tournament at Hairy T North. Had 16 people which was pretty good considering there were two other legacy tournaments within 30 min drive on the same day plus there was another standard tournament that was giving away 6 jace v2.0 as prizes. Decklist:
13 Mountain
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Barbarian Ring
4 Goblin Guide
2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Lava Spike
4 Rift Bolt
4 Magma Jet
4 Price of Progress
3 Volcanic Fallout
3 Flamebreak
4 Fireblast
Sideboard
4 Relic of Progenitus
3 Searing Blaze
2 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Volcanic Fallout
3 Smash to Smithereens
2 Combust
Changes from last time:
I upped the count of Price of Progress and Fireblast to 4 and added the 2 Grim Lavamancers back. I had 4 slots to play around with and really wasn't sure what to put in. I would have liked to have Sulfuric Vortex in the main but then I'd have to get rid of either the Flamebreaks or Volcanic Fallouts in the main and I'm not sure if that's worth it. I had tried having 3 Vortex, 3 Flamebreak and 3 Fallouts last tournament and found that the deck was clogged with 3cc spells and I was stuck at 2 lands a lot. I still don't like the Grim Lavamancers that much but again, not sure what to replace it with.
For the sideboard, I've put the Searing Blazes back because without them, I was getting crushed by aggro decks like zoo. I also must have played like 30 sideboarded games with 4 Relics boarded in and I still haven't drawn a Relic yet so again, not sure how well they function in helping to kill Tarmogoyfs and Knights of Relinquarys. I added the combusts in there because I wasn't sure what to do with 2 more empty slots and I'd figure there's enough white and blue targets for Combusts to be useful. Too bad it doesn't hit green creatures...
On with the report
Round 1 - Chris (3c CounterTop)
Game 1: I didn't really see much other than a lone counterbalance with no top and he missed on a couple of blind flips and apparently didn't have a counterspell in hand either so I took game one with ease.
Sideboard: -3 Flamebreak, +2 Sulfuric Vortex, +1 Volcanic Fallout.
Game 2: I was stuck on 2 lands and one of them being Barbarian Ring for around 4 turns. He ended up putting down a fast goyf and then decided to top, draw with top and then flash in a Clique at the end of my turn. I showed him a bolt, some magma jets and a fireblast and he ended up taking the bolt. He then shuffled the top away with a fetch which I felt was a mistake. After taking 7 from the clique and the goyf, I ended up jetting away the Clique, found another land with the scry. Then I had to jet and fireblast the goyf to try and kill it and I was able to somehow. Problem is that I was at 2 life after that and he was at around 7. I drew another mountain, tapped it and the Barbarian Ring to put myself at 1. he didn't counter and I was able to find another land so I'd finally stop pinging myself. I ended up drawing another bolt to put him at 2 life and then finished him off with the barbarian ring.
It turned out after he shuffled away the top, all he drew were lands. Definately got lucky there.
1-0 (2-0)
Round 2 - Hugo (NO Bant)
Game 1: Oh boy, I knew this was going to be a tough matchup. He won the die roll so he's on the play and he ended mulling to 5. But this is what happened. turn 1, he played a tundra and passed. I tried mountain, Goblin Guide and he Forced, pitching Rhox War Monk (1 down). Turn 2, he played another tundra and passed. I went mountain, Price for 4. He dazed. Turn 3, he drew and passed. I went mountain, Price for 4. He spell snared. Like WOW come on. A mull to 5 and he was able to counter my first 3 spells?? really?? *sigh*. Next turn, drew and then passed. I bolted him and he brainstormed EOT. He drew, and then played a fetch and played a Rhox War Monk. I fireblasted it and somehow it went through (2 monks down!). then I drew another land and on his turn he plays another war monk. it's like ridiculous here, it's been like 7 turns and he managed to draw all 3 of his war monks from a mull to 5 and was able to counter the majority of my spells. *sigh*. I tried to cast a sulfuric vortex and he had a force for it and that was pretty much game. I'd try to bolt him on my turn and then he'd gain the life back next turn and that's it for this game!
Sideboard: -4 Goblin Guide, -2 Grim Lavamancer, -3 Flamebreak, - 1 Price of Progress, +4 Relic of Progenitus, +3 Searing Blaze, +2 Sulfuric Vortex, +1 Volcanic Fallout.
Game 2: This game actually felt like I was getting somewhere as there were no war monks present but instead, I faced a team of 5/6 goyfs and I got him down to 4 life before I would die, tried to fireblast but he had a counterspell and that was that.
1-1 (2-2)
Round 3 - Daniel (Mono U Merfolk)
Game 1: Nothing much happened in this game other than that I got 2 goblin guides out early and they dealt more than 6 damage which was great. turning point of the was when he had a corelhelm commander (lvl 0) and an adept out plus a sword of fire and ice he tapped out to equip the sword and I was able to volcanic fallout to take his team out and then I just burned him out the next turn.
Sideboard: -4 Price of Progress, -3 Flamebreak, +2 Combust, +1 Volcanic Fallout, +3 Smash to Smithereens, +1 Sulfuric Vortex
Game 2: He had a turn 1 cursecatcher which actually attacked me for 5 straigh turns. Meanwhile, I didn't miss a land drop and kept on casting burn spells with either daze mana open or spell pierce mana open.
It wasn't really a close game as he never got a standstill in either of the games.
2-1 (4-2)
Round 4 - Adam (TES)
Game 1: Before the round started we joked that we were going to be paired up and lo and behold, we did get paired up. I wasn't feeling confidant with this matchup as combo usually steamrolls me and I have nothing in the board against it. I started off with turn 1 guide, and on his turn 2, he decided to tendrils for 8 so he was at 34 life while I was at 4. I had a handful of Volcanic Fallouts and Flamebreaks so those are goign to be totally useless! I was able to attack and kept on burning him and he kept on duressing away my useless board sweepers. He kept drawing non mana sources and I kept on drawing goblin guides and he eventually died from 34 life. wohoo!!
Sideboard: -2 Grim Lavamancer, -2 Price of Progress, +4 Relic of Progenitus
Game 2: I started off with turn 1 guide and on his turn 2, he fetched twice and then was able to ad nauseum until 4 and then was able to tendrils me for 20. Yeah, that's more like it!!
Game 3: Unfortunately he mulled to 5 but at least he had a land drop. I was able to do turn 1 guide, then he silenced me during my turn 2 upkeep so I could only attack. Then next turn I was able to cast a second guide, attack and then double bolt him to get him down to 6. On his turn, he started to cast spells and went, ritual, ritual, petal, petal, LED and that was it. Phew scared me. haha.
Turns out all he had was mana but it was still kinda scary cause one search spell and I was pretty much dead.
Ended up making 2nd in Swiss. Top 8 consisted of Goblins, Rock, 3C Countertop, Counterthopter, TES, Burn, White Weenie splash black and Pro Bant.
Top 8 - Rudy (WW/b)
Game 1: I didn't realize it before this game but it turns out that his entire deck was full of annoying 2 mana dorks. He actually slowed me down by casting maindeck True Believers and Rebuff the Wicked. So I had to waste a lot of resources killing his dorks because I couldn't target him. I actually ended up losing this game when I only had 1 card left in hand and he was able to equip a Knight of Meadowgrain with a Sword of Fire and Ice while he was at 8 life. Hmm. a 4/4 first strike, lifelink, pro red + blue is pretty damn amazing against mono-red burn. I drew my next card and conceded as there's no way I could deal 8 damage that turn before he started gaining 4 life per turn and drawing an extra card to boot.
Sideboard: -4 Price of Progress, -4 Goblin Guide, -2 Grim Lavamancer, -1 Flamebreak, +2 Sulfuric Vortex, +1 Volcanic Fallout, +3 Smash to Smithereens, +3 Searing Blaze, +2 Combust
Game 2: This game was actually fairly close as he played this white 1/4 creature that has this ability, 1WW, Untap itself: Return target creature from your graveyard back into play. like WTF!! they reprinted resurrection on a dude!! And there's no way I'm going to be able to kill a 1/4 guy either. So I kept on trying to boardsweep as much as I can but he just kept on bringing his dudes back. I was also a bit land screwed and was at 16 life and he was at 12 life. I only had 3 lands in play and had 2 Sulfuric vortex, 1 Fireblast, 1 Smash to Smithereen in hand. He had a serra avenger, knight of meadowgrain, the 1/4 resurrection guy and some other 2/2 dork. I figured my best play was to play the sulfuric vortex so it turns off life gain and passed the turn. He then goes down to 10 from the vortex, attacks for 8 to put me down to 8, plays a mishra's factory and another serra avenger and passes the turn. I drop to 6 during upkeep and draw a Chain Lightning. That certainly changes things as I finally have chain, smash and fireblast to deal 10 damage to him but the problem is that I had to get him to activate the factory somehow. I took a while to think about my plays and then ended up just chaining him to drop him down to 7. During his upkeep, he drops down to 5. I'm staring at the board like crazy trying to jedi mind trick him into activating the factory and he ends up dropping a True Believer! I tapped a mountain to float a red in response and sacced 2 mountains to fireblast him to put him down at 1 with another mountain up. True believer resolves and then for some reason, he decides to activate factory and then declaring combat! I smash the factory thinking I won and then in response he plows his SERRA AVENGER thinking he can gain life. I allow him to plow and then showed him again what Sulfuric Vortex does (he read it like 3 times this game) and he died.
Wow, I couldn't believe I pulled that one out. I guess he was wondering why i didn't concede when i'm facing lethal damage on the board and all he needed to do was attack with what he had and there was nothing I could have done.
Game 3: This was pretty anti-climatic as he was pretty land flooded and I killed everything that came into play. Needless to say, he was pissed at how he punted game 2.
I also saw scrublands in all 3 games but saw no black spells played at all. Probably nothing relevant against this matchup.
Top 4 was 3C Countertop, Goblins, Burn and Rock. Everybody wanted to go so we split top 4 with each of us getting $80 store credit.
Afterthoughts:
I think that this deck is pretty competitive against the majority of the decks in this format. As long as you sideboard properly against your metagame, you shouldn't be getting blown out of any matchup.
There is one matchup where I can't see the burn deck winning no matter what and it's the Pro Bant matchup. The burn deck can deal with goyfs on their own or war monks on their own but when you combine both in the same deck plus counterspells, it's just too much of an uphill battle. Basically the Pro Bant player just needs to get out a war monk and then counter the spells that prevent lifegain and then there's no way the burn deck can win since you're going to run out of gas sooner or later and then he'll just start to gain 3 life (maybe more with exhalted) a turn. Then if you board against the war monk, next game it'll be like two 4/5 or 5/6 goyfs attacking you and your hand will be stuck with hate against the war monk or vice versa. The only thing I can think of is changing your deck to have 4 Sulfuric Vortex and 4 Flame of the Blood Hand and pray that each of those spells resolve. Another option I was thinking about is to splash black for Perish in this matchup as you have 1 card that deals with all of their threats. However playing with duallands allows other decks to make their wastelands active and plus that extra damage to yourself when you play Price of Progress as well so it makes your favorable matchups less favorable. I don't think i'm willing to do that yet unless my environment goes Pro Bant heavy all of a sudden. I think i'm like 1-6 in Pro Bant matchups.
Anyways, any questions and comments are appreciated!
13 Mountain
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Barbarian Ring
4 Goblin Guide
2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Lava Spike
4 Rift Bolt
4 Magma Jet
4 Price of Progress
3 Volcanic Fallout
3 Flamebreak
4 Fireblast
Sideboard
4 Relic of Progenitus
3 Searing Blaze
2 Sulfuric Vortex
1 Volcanic Fallout
3 Smash to Smithereens
2 Combust
Changes from last time:
I upped the count of Price of Progress and Fireblast to 4 and added the 2 Grim Lavamancers back. I had 4 slots to play around with and really wasn't sure what to put in. I would have liked to have Sulfuric Vortex in the main but then I'd have to get rid of either the Flamebreaks or Volcanic Fallouts in the main and I'm not sure if that's worth it. I had tried having 3 Vortex, 3 Flamebreak and 3 Fallouts last tournament and found that the deck was clogged with 3cc spells and I was stuck at 2 lands a lot. I still don't like the Grim Lavamancers that much but again, not sure what to replace it with.
For the sideboard, I've put the Searing Blazes back because without them, I was getting crushed by aggro decks like zoo. I also must have played like 30 sideboarded games with 4 Relics boarded in and I still haven't drawn a Relic yet so again, not sure how well they function in helping to kill Tarmogoyfs and Knights of Relinquarys. I added the combusts in there because I wasn't sure what to do with 2 more empty slots and I'd figure there's enough white and blue targets for Combusts to be useful. Too bad it doesn't hit green creatures...
On with the report
Round 1 - Chris (3c CounterTop)
Game 1: I didn't really see much other than a lone counterbalance with no top and he missed on a couple of blind flips and apparently didn't have a counterspell in hand either so I took game one with ease.
Sideboard: -3 Flamebreak, +2 Sulfuric Vortex, +1 Volcanic Fallout.
Game 2: I was stuck on 2 lands and one of them being Barbarian Ring for around 4 turns. He ended up putting down a fast goyf and then decided to top, draw with top and then flash in a Clique at the end of my turn. I showed him a bolt, some magma jets and a fireblast and he ended up taking the bolt. He then shuffled the top away with a fetch which I felt was a mistake. After taking 7 from the clique and the goyf, I ended up jetting away the Clique, found another land with the scry. Then I had to jet and fireblast the goyf to try and kill it and I was able to somehow. Problem is that I was at 2 life after that and he was at around 7. I drew another mountain, tapped it and the Barbarian Ring to put myself at 1. he didn't counter and I was able to find another land so I'd finally stop pinging myself. I ended up drawing another bolt to put him at 2 life and then finished him off with the barbarian ring.
It turned out after he shuffled away the top, all he drew were lands. Definately got lucky there.
1-0 (2-0)
Round 2 - Hugo (NO Bant)
Game 1: Oh boy, I knew this was going to be a tough matchup. He won the die roll so he's on the play and he ended mulling to 5. But this is what happened. turn 1, he played a tundra and passed. I tried mountain, Goblin Guide and he Forced, pitching Rhox War Monk (1 down). Turn 2, he played another tundra and passed. I went mountain, Price for 4. He dazed. Turn 3, he drew and passed. I went mountain, Price for 4. He spell snared. Like WOW come on. A mull to 5 and he was able to counter my first 3 spells?? really?? *sigh*. Next turn, drew and then passed. I bolted him and he brainstormed EOT. He drew, and then played a fetch and played a Rhox War Monk. I fireblasted it and somehow it went through (2 monks down!). then I drew another land and on his turn he plays another war monk. it's like ridiculous here, it's been like 7 turns and he managed to draw all 3 of his war monks from a mull to 5 and was able to counter the majority of my spells. *sigh*. I tried to cast a sulfuric vortex and he had a force for it and that was pretty much game. I'd try to bolt him on my turn and then he'd gain the life back next turn and that's it for this game!
Sideboard: -4 Goblin Guide, -2 Grim Lavamancer, -3 Flamebreak, - 1 Price of Progress, +4 Relic of Progenitus, +3 Searing Blaze, +2 Sulfuric Vortex, +1 Volcanic Fallout.
Game 2: This game actually felt like I was getting somewhere as there were no war monks present but instead, I faced a team of 5/6 goyfs and I got him down to 4 life before I would die, tried to fireblast but he had a counterspell and that was that.
1-1 (2-2)
Round 3 - Daniel (Mono U Merfolk)
Game 1: Nothing much happened in this game other than that I got 2 goblin guides out early and they dealt more than 6 damage which was great. turning point of the was when he had a corelhelm commander (lvl 0) and an adept out plus a sword of fire and ice he tapped out to equip the sword and I was able to volcanic fallout to take his team out and then I just burned him out the next turn.
Sideboard: -4 Price of Progress, -3 Flamebreak, +2 Combust, +1 Volcanic Fallout, +3 Smash to Smithereens, +1 Sulfuric Vortex
Game 2: He had a turn 1 cursecatcher which actually attacked me for 5 straigh turns. Meanwhile, I didn't miss a land drop and kept on casting burn spells with either daze mana open or spell pierce mana open.
It wasn't really a close game as he never got a standstill in either of the games.
2-1 (4-2)
Round 4 - Adam (TES)
Game 1: Before the round started we joked that we were going to be paired up and lo and behold, we did get paired up. I wasn't feeling confidant with this matchup as combo usually steamrolls me and I have nothing in the board against it. I started off with turn 1 guide, and on his turn 2, he decided to tendrils for 8 so he was at 34 life while I was at 4. I had a handful of Volcanic Fallouts and Flamebreaks so those are goign to be totally useless! I was able to attack and kept on burning him and he kept on duressing away my useless board sweepers. He kept drawing non mana sources and I kept on drawing goblin guides and he eventually died from 34 life. wohoo!!
Sideboard: -2 Grim Lavamancer, -2 Price of Progress, +4 Relic of Progenitus
Game 2: I started off with turn 1 guide and on his turn 2, he fetched twice and then was able to ad nauseum until 4 and then was able to tendrils me for 20. Yeah, that's more like it!!
Game 3: Unfortunately he mulled to 5 but at least he had a land drop. I was able to do turn 1 guide, then he silenced me during my turn 2 upkeep so I could only attack. Then next turn I was able to cast a second guide, attack and then double bolt him to get him down to 6. On his turn, he started to cast spells and went, ritual, ritual, petal, petal, LED and that was it. Phew scared me. haha.
Turns out all he had was mana but it was still kinda scary cause one search spell and I was pretty much dead.
Ended up making 2nd in Swiss. Top 8 consisted of Goblins, Rock, 3C Countertop, Counterthopter, TES, Burn, White Weenie splash black and Pro Bant.
Top 8 - Rudy (WW/b)
Game 1: I didn't realize it before this game but it turns out that his entire deck was full of annoying 2 mana dorks. He actually slowed me down by casting maindeck True Believers and Rebuff the Wicked. So I had to waste a lot of resources killing his dorks because I couldn't target him. I actually ended up losing this game when I only had 1 card left in hand and he was able to equip a Knight of Meadowgrain with a Sword of Fire and Ice while he was at 8 life. Hmm. a 4/4 first strike, lifelink, pro red + blue is pretty damn amazing against mono-red burn. I drew my next card and conceded as there's no way I could deal 8 damage that turn before he started gaining 4 life per turn and drawing an extra card to boot.
Sideboard: -4 Price of Progress, -4 Goblin Guide, -2 Grim Lavamancer, -1 Flamebreak, +2 Sulfuric Vortex, +1 Volcanic Fallout, +3 Smash to Smithereens, +3 Searing Blaze, +2 Combust
Game 2: This game was actually fairly close as he played this white 1/4 creature that has this ability, 1WW, Untap itself: Return target creature from your graveyard back into play. like WTF!! they reprinted resurrection on a dude!! And there's no way I'm going to be able to kill a 1/4 guy either. So I kept on trying to boardsweep as much as I can but he just kept on bringing his dudes back. I was also a bit land screwed and was at 16 life and he was at 12 life. I only had 3 lands in play and had 2 Sulfuric vortex, 1 Fireblast, 1 Smash to Smithereen in hand. He had a serra avenger, knight of meadowgrain, the 1/4 resurrection guy and some other 2/2 dork. I figured my best play was to play the sulfuric vortex so it turns off life gain and passed the turn. He then goes down to 10 from the vortex, attacks for 8 to put me down to 8, plays a mishra's factory and another serra avenger and passes the turn. I drop to 6 during upkeep and draw a Chain Lightning. That certainly changes things as I finally have chain, smash and fireblast to deal 10 damage to him but the problem is that I had to get him to activate the factory somehow. I took a while to think about my plays and then ended up just chaining him to drop him down to 7. During his upkeep, he drops down to 5. I'm staring at the board like crazy trying to jedi mind trick him into activating the factory and he ends up dropping a True Believer! I tapped a mountain to float a red in response and sacced 2 mountains to fireblast him to put him down at 1 with another mountain up. True believer resolves and then for some reason, he decides to activate factory and then declaring combat! I smash the factory thinking I won and then in response he plows his SERRA AVENGER thinking he can gain life. I allow him to plow and then showed him again what Sulfuric Vortex does (he read it like 3 times this game) and he died.
Wow, I couldn't believe I pulled that one out. I guess he was wondering why i didn't concede when i'm facing lethal damage on the board and all he needed to do was attack with what he had and there was nothing I could have done.
Game 3: This was pretty anti-climatic as he was pretty land flooded and I killed everything that came into play. Needless to say, he was pissed at how he punted game 2.
I also saw scrublands in all 3 games but saw no black spells played at all. Probably nothing relevant against this matchup.
Top 4 was 3C Countertop, Goblins, Burn and Rock. Everybody wanted to go so we split top 4 with each of us getting $80 store credit.
Afterthoughts:
I think that this deck is pretty competitive against the majority of the decks in this format. As long as you sideboard properly against your metagame, you shouldn't be getting blown out of any matchup.
There is one matchup where I can't see the burn deck winning no matter what and it's the Pro Bant matchup. The burn deck can deal with goyfs on their own or war monks on their own but when you combine both in the same deck plus counterspells, it's just too much of an uphill battle. Basically the Pro Bant player just needs to get out a war monk and then counter the spells that prevent lifegain and then there's no way the burn deck can win since you're going to run out of gas sooner or later and then he'll just start to gain 3 life (maybe more with exhalted) a turn. Then if you board against the war monk, next game it'll be like two 4/5 or 5/6 goyfs attacking you and your hand will be stuck with hate against the war monk or vice versa. The only thing I can think of is changing your deck to have 4 Sulfuric Vortex and 4 Flame of the Blood Hand and pray that each of those spells resolve. Another option I was thinking about is to splash black for Perish in this matchup as you have 1 card that deals with all of their threats. However playing with duallands allows other decks to make their wastelands active and plus that extra damage to yourself when you play Price of Progress as well so it makes your favorable matchups less favorable. I don't think i'm willing to do that yet unless my environment goes Pro Bant heavy all of a sudden. I think i'm like 1-6 in Pro Bant matchups.
Anyways, any questions and comments are appreciated!