Rock Lee
04-10-2011, 03:36 AM
I've been uncharacteristically quiet the last few weeks and that's mostly because I've supposedly become to champion of missing top 8 due to breakers involving pair downs the last 3 events I have played at, and I don't like making a report unless I have something outside of a playset of Polluted deltas to show for my efforts. This event does not disappoint, and while its attendance is small, it is a herald of times to come.
The last GPT that I got 9th at with cut to top 8 was 44 people strong. It was the only one in the area and the first of the season, so when 14 show up to this one with two additional GPT's within 100 miles I'm a little disappointed, but I'll take the greater chances of the coveted three round bye in Providence.
My latest version of Turbo-Drazi is the strongest to date and its showing throughout the day reflect that.
// Lands
4 [TSP] Vesuva
4 [Unl] Tropical Island
1 [WWK] Eye of Ugin
4 [SOM] Glimmerpost
3 [ON] Flooded Strand
1 [ON] Polluted Delta
1 [LG] The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 [WWK] Bojuka Bog
4 [FNM] Cloudpost
1 [Beta] Island (3)
// Creatures
1 [ROE] Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 [ROE] Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
4 [FD] Trinket Mage
2 [M11] Primeval Titan
// Spells
3 [ROE] All Is Dust
4 [ZEN] Expedition Map
3 [AQ] Candelabra of Tawnos
3 [GP] Repeal
4 [AL] Force of Will
3 [CHK] Sensei's Divining Top
3 [UL] Crop Rotation
1 [SOK] Pithing Needle
4 [5E] Brainstorm
// Sideboard
SB: 1 [M11] Primeval Titan
SB: 1 [IA] Glacial Chasm
SB: 1 [UL] Crop Rotation
SB: 1 [SOK] Pithing Needle
SB: 4 [ZEN] Mindbreak Trap
SB: 1 [MR] Chalice of the Void
SB: 3 [R] Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 2 [MI] Mind Harness
SB: 1 [DK] Maze of Ith
Briefly about the recent changes. Brainstorm became extremely logical with the cutting of Thirst for Knowledge and opting for more shuffle effects with Trinket Mage. Also having 2 Candelabra of Tawnos left me often fishing for them instead of being comfortable with them and 3 felt much more relaxed. The other card choices are all quite logical and are intuitive leaps against particular matchups.
Onto the event!
Round 1
Taylor playing Show And Tell - Doomsday /w Daze/Pierce/Force
Game 1 he gets a turn 2 Doomsday. I see his library via Doomsday and see dazes, spell pierces, and forces along with petals and he wins with shelldock isle into cloud of faeries with counter backup. Strong. If this event continues this way I'm thinking that O-2 -> Chili's is my best avenue of play
Mindbreak traps & Primeval Titan in
Game 2 He keeps a slower start with 2 land drop-go's. I get a trinket mage in play with a candelabra on 2 Cloudposts. He Show and Tells, him in Emrakul, me in Trinket mage getting Candelabra. I crop rotate on my turn for eye of Ugin, laying a 3rd Cloudpost from hand and tutor and cast Emrakul, legend killing his, shuffling mine back. I beat for 4, take my Emrakul turn, then do it again on my turn beating for 23 over 2 turns and 1 Time Walk.
Game 3 I keep a hand of force-trinketmage-MindbreakTrap-Cloudpost-Cloudpost-Candelabra-ExpeditionMap perrrrdy good. He doesn't have an explosive hand and when he goes for show and tell on turn 3 I have Force on it (hadn't drawn any eldrazi's/titans yet) He pierces, I pay, he pierces again, I mindbreak trap the 2nd pierce and show and tell. The next turn trinket mage#2 gets me maps, into ugin, into Emrakul.
1-0
Round 2 is the round I declare myself a pretty girl who likes to put ribbons in my hair and kiss all the boys. My teammate Jeff Carpenter and I have a rule about deck checks. When we attend an event we swap our decklists and check each other before we submit them. If there are any errors, be they in the deck list's contents or them being written down incorrectly, the person checking the list is allowed to slap the incorrect deck submitter across the face open palmed hard and then the person being slapped had to stand up, after attracting attention to themselves from being slapped, and declare in a loud voice that they "are a pretty girl, you like to put ribbons in your hair, and you want to kiss all the boys." Each of us have only had to do this once to learn our lessons and it has been years since we have had a game loss due to deck misreg. Well Jeff didn't come to this event so I misreg a change I had been testing for awhile (3 repeal, 4 brainstorms) instead of what the deck had, which was 4 repeal, 3 brainstorms. We get randomly deckchecked and I get a giant boot in the face. Since I have the 4th brainstorm on me I am allowed to change it out, and we go into Game 2 unsided.
Game 2. kinda. Adam playing Welder Red
I mull to 5. prepare the large hand of slapping... Fortunately my 5hand is decent and he has a slow hand of welder, 2 mana. I chug chug along as much as possible considering a 5hand, but end up being short in answering his uncounterable Metalworker into slaver lock and monsters.
Boo. I really need my sideboard answers against this deck with so many dead main cards, but alas. I'll get my revenge in the top 4 I say. I follow this guy's progress through the day, and he ends up making top 4, which helps my breakers substantially, and for this I can sincerely thank him.
1-1
Round 3 Jacob playing UW Merfolk. I'm not sure what the white splash was for, I assume swords and stoneforge mystic, but I was happy to see Tundras mostly so that Back to Basics wouldn't be an issue.
Game 1 has him with some early mutavault beats and a control heavy hand. 2 dazes and 2 forces later, I heave out an Emrakul due to playing Cloudpost ->thing-get-countered, over and over.
Primeval Titan, All is Dust, Crop Rotation, Maze of Ith, Pithing Needle In
Game 2 He has the repeat of 2 Daze 2 Forces, but backs it up with 3 wastelands. 1-2 wasteland I can beat, 3 is just back breaking though unless I'm prepared for it, and I certainly wasn't.
Game 3 I side out my forces since I'm feeling especially sassy and want to keep all my Card Advantage in. He has a turn where he hits me for 16 with 4 lords in play, but I have 2 all is dust to wipe the board. After that glimmerposts pep me back up from 3, then 6, then 10, and my next land tutor gets me ugin into Emrakul.
2-1
Round 4 Justin, whom I know as an acquaintance from local Worcester events. He always plays combo something from my brief encounters with him, and today is nothing different. We both know what we're playing against going into this. He is favored, but I have an absurd amount of playtesting against Doomsday.
Game 1 is ended rather quickly with a turn 2 doomsday. I see from his deck that he went for shelldock isle -> emrakul, so I go Trinket Mage -> Pithing Needle. His 3rd card is Chain of Vapor and my 4 random draws were all lands. He has to doomsday again in order to not deck himself, and a crop rotation wins me the game at this point through bojuka bog, but Nadda though.
Mindbreak Trap, Chalice of the Void
Game 2 is a beating of sorts. I have an early needle on shelldock isle forcing him into tendrils'ing me out, and I have a turn 4 Kozilek under threat of multiple force of will's. He draws tutors while I'm drawing filter and card advantage. I mess around with keeping a force ontop of my library with a top, but then repeal a tapped top into 3 cards and 2 counters and chalice. The game ends then, but it technically ends with Kozilek the next turn.
Game 3 has minimal notes, but involved a turn 4 primeval titan gaining me 10 life from an already 25 and I had mindbreak trap and force in hand. Storm 13 is easy, storm 18 not so much. The next turn I went for Emrakul tutor & cast.
3-1
I make top 4. wee!
Semifinals Rafal playing Lands. He has chosen the daunting task of picking up lands the same day and piloting it, which is one of the hardest decks in Legacy to play at the moment. I give this guy credit for his enormous amount of guts. While he does make some mistakes in our games, I give incredible credit to people playing lands. The deck requires an equal amount of gusto and skill to pilot successfully, and Rafal sported the gusto in droves.
Game 1 I recall him keeping a hand of 2 wastes and 1 ghost quarter but no recursion. While this is normally frown town-me, I have crop rotates and pithing needle to deal, and his only out becomes crucible of worlds, which ends up getting bojuka bog'd into oblivion, with the omnipresent threat of 4 more Bojuka bogs in Vesuva from the rest of the game. He has an Ensnaring Bridge, but handy dandy Repeal makes any permanent, even a colorless one a nonthreat given enough time.
IN: Pithing Needle, Primeval Titan, Crop Rotation, Hurkyl's
Game 2 he has an early Null rod, but knowing I have Hurkyl's means this is a non-threat. I brainstorm into deliciousness, and the turn after he taps out his colored mana for loam just to recur, I draw Kozilek with exactly 10 mana in play. whomp.
FINALS Mike playing Burn. Maindeck Price of Progress and Sulfuric Vortex. yuck.
Mike is a crazy friendly guy who I sat across during the player meeting and we both followed each others' matches throughout the day. Neither of us are entirely enthused about this matchup, but we're glad we made it this far and have at it.
Game 1. Rift Bolt, Lava Spike, Chain Lightning, Keldon Marauder, Lightning bolt all put me at a precipitous 4 life, I have a force and need to see a blue card in the top 3 after having thinned out 5 cards via fetches and tutors to avoid a lethal Price of Progress. Nay though. I look at my 4th card and its a blue card. oh die roll.. mattering... *shakes fist*
In: Primeval Titan, Crop Rotate, Chalice of the Void, Mindbreak Trap
Game 2: This game leads like a play game normally does against burn for my deck. An early cloudpost land prior to the glimmerposts means I have mana to advance off of and my glimmerposts have been catapulted ahead on life gain. I plant a Primeval Titan. He thinks, and I can tell there's a price of progress on the wings, but he waits likely to respond to the glimmerpost triggers with a lethal price of progress. Unfortunately for him Primeval Titan tutors up Glacial Chasm and a glimmerpost. I have a full grip and plenty of filter at this point so he scoops it.
Game 3: This is the long road plan of Glimmerpost victory. I get a turn 3 Chalice @ 2, which completely wins me the game, but to avoid potential death through various cmc 1 & 6's I plant glimmerpost after glimmerpost. I end up with 7 glimmerposts in play by the end, and I gained 34 life without any grievous cheating of lands in via Primeval Titan. He keeps pressure with Sulfuric Vortexes, but I have repeals for them and I eventually go infinite with Emrakul, but not until I have a castable force for each card in his hand. People who give burn even an inch of leeway get burned.
Hurray 3 round bye at Providence GP and 100$ in store credit. End up walking away with a Jace2.0, Sword of GB, Elspeth, some other various schwagg, and a 3 round bye. Can't complain! :D
Props:
-Friendly Venue and players. Withstanding a few cantankerous judge pleas, this was a great spot with friendly and knowledgeable players
-80 year old Grandmother's packed food for being 3-for-3 in elevating my blood sugar to appropriate levels in the 3 events I've won 1st with this deck
-Hello Kitty Debit card for always being a conversation Starter
-Furries being omnipresent throughout the event. (Apparently there was a large convention there and it was basically a geek and social recluse feeding frenzy) Haters gonna hate, but every furry I have met has been a happy person. <3
Slops:
-Getting lost in Newington, CT both getting to and from the location. The venue isn't difficult to get to, I'm just a mindless rat in a maze.
-> REVERSAL PROP -> While lost, Thugged out Gangster Gas Station attendant and loiterers winding up being super friendly and giving me the most hilarious directions out of New Britain involving a "Rip a left turn at that T-Section yo and Bust it to the Freeway like you got a purpose."
The last GPT that I got 9th at with cut to top 8 was 44 people strong. It was the only one in the area and the first of the season, so when 14 show up to this one with two additional GPT's within 100 miles I'm a little disappointed, but I'll take the greater chances of the coveted three round bye in Providence.
My latest version of Turbo-Drazi is the strongest to date and its showing throughout the day reflect that.
// Lands
4 [TSP] Vesuva
4 [Unl] Tropical Island
1 [WWK] Eye of Ugin
4 [SOM] Glimmerpost
3 [ON] Flooded Strand
1 [ON] Polluted Delta
1 [LG] The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 [WWK] Bojuka Bog
4 [FNM] Cloudpost
1 [Beta] Island (3)
// Creatures
1 [ROE] Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 [ROE] Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
4 [FD] Trinket Mage
2 [M11] Primeval Titan
// Spells
3 [ROE] All Is Dust
4 [ZEN] Expedition Map
3 [AQ] Candelabra of Tawnos
3 [GP] Repeal
4 [AL] Force of Will
3 [CHK] Sensei's Divining Top
3 [UL] Crop Rotation
1 [SOK] Pithing Needle
4 [5E] Brainstorm
// Sideboard
SB: 1 [M11] Primeval Titan
SB: 1 [IA] Glacial Chasm
SB: 1 [UL] Crop Rotation
SB: 1 [SOK] Pithing Needle
SB: 4 [ZEN] Mindbreak Trap
SB: 1 [MR] Chalice of the Void
SB: 3 [R] Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 2 [MI] Mind Harness
SB: 1 [DK] Maze of Ith
Briefly about the recent changes. Brainstorm became extremely logical with the cutting of Thirst for Knowledge and opting for more shuffle effects with Trinket Mage. Also having 2 Candelabra of Tawnos left me often fishing for them instead of being comfortable with them and 3 felt much more relaxed. The other card choices are all quite logical and are intuitive leaps against particular matchups.
Onto the event!
Round 1
Taylor playing Show And Tell - Doomsday /w Daze/Pierce/Force
Game 1 he gets a turn 2 Doomsday. I see his library via Doomsday and see dazes, spell pierces, and forces along with petals and he wins with shelldock isle into cloud of faeries with counter backup. Strong. If this event continues this way I'm thinking that O-2 -> Chili's is my best avenue of play
Mindbreak traps & Primeval Titan in
Game 2 He keeps a slower start with 2 land drop-go's. I get a trinket mage in play with a candelabra on 2 Cloudposts. He Show and Tells, him in Emrakul, me in Trinket mage getting Candelabra. I crop rotate on my turn for eye of Ugin, laying a 3rd Cloudpost from hand and tutor and cast Emrakul, legend killing his, shuffling mine back. I beat for 4, take my Emrakul turn, then do it again on my turn beating for 23 over 2 turns and 1 Time Walk.
Game 3 I keep a hand of force-trinketmage-MindbreakTrap-Cloudpost-Cloudpost-Candelabra-ExpeditionMap perrrrdy good. He doesn't have an explosive hand and when he goes for show and tell on turn 3 I have Force on it (hadn't drawn any eldrazi's/titans yet) He pierces, I pay, he pierces again, I mindbreak trap the 2nd pierce and show and tell. The next turn trinket mage#2 gets me maps, into ugin, into Emrakul.
1-0
Round 2 is the round I declare myself a pretty girl who likes to put ribbons in my hair and kiss all the boys. My teammate Jeff Carpenter and I have a rule about deck checks. When we attend an event we swap our decklists and check each other before we submit them. If there are any errors, be they in the deck list's contents or them being written down incorrectly, the person checking the list is allowed to slap the incorrect deck submitter across the face open palmed hard and then the person being slapped had to stand up, after attracting attention to themselves from being slapped, and declare in a loud voice that they "are a pretty girl, you like to put ribbons in your hair, and you want to kiss all the boys." Each of us have only had to do this once to learn our lessons and it has been years since we have had a game loss due to deck misreg. Well Jeff didn't come to this event so I misreg a change I had been testing for awhile (3 repeal, 4 brainstorms) instead of what the deck had, which was 4 repeal, 3 brainstorms. We get randomly deckchecked and I get a giant boot in the face. Since I have the 4th brainstorm on me I am allowed to change it out, and we go into Game 2 unsided.
Game 2. kinda. Adam playing Welder Red
I mull to 5. prepare the large hand of slapping... Fortunately my 5hand is decent and he has a slow hand of welder, 2 mana. I chug chug along as much as possible considering a 5hand, but end up being short in answering his uncounterable Metalworker into slaver lock and monsters.
Boo. I really need my sideboard answers against this deck with so many dead main cards, but alas. I'll get my revenge in the top 4 I say. I follow this guy's progress through the day, and he ends up making top 4, which helps my breakers substantially, and for this I can sincerely thank him.
1-1
Round 3 Jacob playing UW Merfolk. I'm not sure what the white splash was for, I assume swords and stoneforge mystic, but I was happy to see Tundras mostly so that Back to Basics wouldn't be an issue.
Game 1 has him with some early mutavault beats and a control heavy hand. 2 dazes and 2 forces later, I heave out an Emrakul due to playing Cloudpost ->thing-get-countered, over and over.
Primeval Titan, All is Dust, Crop Rotation, Maze of Ith, Pithing Needle In
Game 2 He has the repeat of 2 Daze 2 Forces, but backs it up with 3 wastelands. 1-2 wasteland I can beat, 3 is just back breaking though unless I'm prepared for it, and I certainly wasn't.
Game 3 I side out my forces since I'm feeling especially sassy and want to keep all my Card Advantage in. He has a turn where he hits me for 16 with 4 lords in play, but I have 2 all is dust to wipe the board. After that glimmerposts pep me back up from 3, then 6, then 10, and my next land tutor gets me ugin into Emrakul.
2-1
Round 4 Justin, whom I know as an acquaintance from local Worcester events. He always plays combo something from my brief encounters with him, and today is nothing different. We both know what we're playing against going into this. He is favored, but I have an absurd amount of playtesting against Doomsday.
Game 1 is ended rather quickly with a turn 2 doomsday. I see from his deck that he went for shelldock isle -> emrakul, so I go Trinket Mage -> Pithing Needle. His 3rd card is Chain of Vapor and my 4 random draws were all lands. He has to doomsday again in order to not deck himself, and a crop rotation wins me the game at this point through bojuka bog, but Nadda though.
Mindbreak Trap, Chalice of the Void
Game 2 is a beating of sorts. I have an early needle on shelldock isle forcing him into tendrils'ing me out, and I have a turn 4 Kozilek under threat of multiple force of will's. He draws tutors while I'm drawing filter and card advantage. I mess around with keeping a force ontop of my library with a top, but then repeal a tapped top into 3 cards and 2 counters and chalice. The game ends then, but it technically ends with Kozilek the next turn.
Game 3 has minimal notes, but involved a turn 4 primeval titan gaining me 10 life from an already 25 and I had mindbreak trap and force in hand. Storm 13 is easy, storm 18 not so much. The next turn I went for Emrakul tutor & cast.
3-1
I make top 4. wee!
Semifinals Rafal playing Lands. He has chosen the daunting task of picking up lands the same day and piloting it, which is one of the hardest decks in Legacy to play at the moment. I give this guy credit for his enormous amount of guts. While he does make some mistakes in our games, I give incredible credit to people playing lands. The deck requires an equal amount of gusto and skill to pilot successfully, and Rafal sported the gusto in droves.
Game 1 I recall him keeping a hand of 2 wastes and 1 ghost quarter but no recursion. While this is normally frown town-me, I have crop rotates and pithing needle to deal, and his only out becomes crucible of worlds, which ends up getting bojuka bog'd into oblivion, with the omnipresent threat of 4 more Bojuka bogs in Vesuva from the rest of the game. He has an Ensnaring Bridge, but handy dandy Repeal makes any permanent, even a colorless one a nonthreat given enough time.
IN: Pithing Needle, Primeval Titan, Crop Rotation, Hurkyl's
Game 2 he has an early Null rod, but knowing I have Hurkyl's means this is a non-threat. I brainstorm into deliciousness, and the turn after he taps out his colored mana for loam just to recur, I draw Kozilek with exactly 10 mana in play. whomp.
FINALS Mike playing Burn. Maindeck Price of Progress and Sulfuric Vortex. yuck.
Mike is a crazy friendly guy who I sat across during the player meeting and we both followed each others' matches throughout the day. Neither of us are entirely enthused about this matchup, but we're glad we made it this far and have at it.
Game 1. Rift Bolt, Lava Spike, Chain Lightning, Keldon Marauder, Lightning bolt all put me at a precipitous 4 life, I have a force and need to see a blue card in the top 3 after having thinned out 5 cards via fetches and tutors to avoid a lethal Price of Progress. Nay though. I look at my 4th card and its a blue card. oh die roll.. mattering... *shakes fist*
In: Primeval Titan, Crop Rotate, Chalice of the Void, Mindbreak Trap
Game 2: This game leads like a play game normally does against burn for my deck. An early cloudpost land prior to the glimmerposts means I have mana to advance off of and my glimmerposts have been catapulted ahead on life gain. I plant a Primeval Titan. He thinks, and I can tell there's a price of progress on the wings, but he waits likely to respond to the glimmerpost triggers with a lethal price of progress. Unfortunately for him Primeval Titan tutors up Glacial Chasm and a glimmerpost. I have a full grip and plenty of filter at this point so he scoops it.
Game 3: This is the long road plan of Glimmerpost victory. I get a turn 3 Chalice @ 2, which completely wins me the game, but to avoid potential death through various cmc 1 & 6's I plant glimmerpost after glimmerpost. I end up with 7 glimmerposts in play by the end, and I gained 34 life without any grievous cheating of lands in via Primeval Titan. He keeps pressure with Sulfuric Vortexes, but I have repeals for them and I eventually go infinite with Emrakul, but not until I have a castable force for each card in his hand. People who give burn even an inch of leeway get burned.
Hurray 3 round bye at Providence GP and 100$ in store credit. End up walking away with a Jace2.0, Sword of GB, Elspeth, some other various schwagg, and a 3 round bye. Can't complain! :D
Props:
-Friendly Venue and players. Withstanding a few cantankerous judge pleas, this was a great spot with friendly and knowledgeable players
-80 year old Grandmother's packed food for being 3-for-3 in elevating my blood sugar to appropriate levels in the 3 events I've won 1st with this deck
-Hello Kitty Debit card for always being a conversation Starter
-Furries being omnipresent throughout the event. (Apparently there was a large convention there and it was basically a geek and social recluse feeding frenzy) Haters gonna hate, but every furry I have met has been a happy person. <3
Slops:
-Getting lost in Newington, CT both getting to and from the location. The venue isn't difficult to get to, I'm just a mindless rat in a maze.
-> REVERSAL PROP -> While lost, Thugged out Gangster Gas Station attendant and loiterers winding up being super friendly and giving me the most hilarious directions out of New Britain involving a "Rip a left turn at that T-Section yo and Bust it to the Freeway like you got a purpose."