keys
10-02-2011, 05:10 PM
Kevin picks us (me, Liam (lorddotm) and Tony (Antonius)) up at 8am and after a few U-Turns and a coffee break, we head south on the 405 toward San Diego. For some reason Google maps sends us down a toll highway, and then we get stuck in traffic hell right before our exit in SD... good thing we left early because we get there with just enough time for me to dig through the commons box to find a playset of Delver of Secrets, write down my decklist, and get in a practice game or two before the pairings go up.
The list I used:
4 Delver
4 Goyf
3 Lavamancer
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Spell Snare
4 Stifle
4 Bolt
2 Dismember
4 Ponder
1 Preordain
4 Wasteland
4 Trop
4 Volc
3 Tarn
3 Misty
Sideboard:
3 Submerge
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Blast
2 Pierce
1 Grip
1 Grudge
1 Firespout
1 Tormod's Crypt (replaced a Mind Harness last minute after scouting 6+ dredge decks)
I had initially planned on using basics which were pretty good in testing, but decided to go with Dave Caplan's list last minute. I think this probably is correct, however I didn't play against Merfolk or Goblins, so I'm not really sure.
Round 1: Paired against my friend Kevin playing an Esperblade brew with Confidant, Snapcaster Mage, and Unearth (!). I win the roll and play a Delver, which he Plows. I double Waste and he draws out. I Stifle his Stoneforge trigger and he has the Batterskull anyway. I Dismember the germ but then he plays Snapcaster Mage targeting a Plow, removing my other creature. He eventually gets enough land to equip Batterskull and win. Game 2 is not much different with him drawing the nuts again. The deck can do some stupid tricks with Unearth, which you can just cycle when nothing is in the yard, and flashback later with a Snapcaster Mage. You can also do some sick chains like Unearth -> Snapcaster -> flashback Unearth -> Clique.
0-1
Round 2: My opponent playing Dredge mulls to 4 game 1. I Daze something and Stifle his Coliseum, and two Goyfs clean up. Game 2 he gets an Imp out and starts dredging early. I draw Surgical Extraction for his first Ichorid to slow things down. I Fow his Dread Return, and then Firespout his zombies and my own Lavamancer to remove his Bridges and seal the game.
1-1
Round 3: I win the roll against Omar playing NO RUG, and proceed to Stifle and Waste the only lands he draws all game. Unfortunately, I didn't pay enough attention to his discard pile and mistakenly put him on Stoneblade and sideboarded completely wrong for game 2. I keep a slow hand with Grip and draw into Grudge as well. Eventually I brainstorm them away, but by then he has ramped to 4 mana and casts Jace, which I FoW, followed by Natural Order, which resolves. Game 3 I take out the blasts and artifact hate for Submerges and Spell Pierces. The deck does its thing and he can't keep any permanents on the board. I get there with some flying Delvers and a hand full of disruption.
2-1
Round 4: Again, I win the roll against Wes with his red splash BUG Control list (with Counterspells, Stalkers, Goyfs, Deeds, and Firespout). Game 1 I Waste his colored lands. He resolves a Top, but I Stifle all his fetches so he can't shuffle the chaff. I think a Delver or two gets there. Game 2 I make a pretty savage misplay by casting Dismember on his 5/6 Goyf (I forgot about the Deed in his yard). I try to save face and cast my second Dismember and we get into a counter war which I lose. 8 life later and 2 swings from Goyf and I'm dead. Game 3 I start off with some land destruction and start beating with a Delver and a 3/4 Goyf. He stabalizes at 8 life with a Stalker, but I eventually draw a 2nd Delver and then just swing twice for the win. Turns out he had a Firespout that he didn't cast because he didn't have a red source, even though he had a green. By the time he casted it, I had the counter. It's possible that mistake could have changed the game.
3-1
Round 5: Brian Kibler with Junk. Game 1 he Swords both my early Delver and Goyf, putting me ahead on life. I try to cut him off green with a Stifle and a Wasteland, but he draws into more land and casts a Knight. It doesn't matter though, because a second Delver and a Lavamancer easily race him with the extra life as a buffer. Game 2 was the biggest blowout of the day. He mulls to 6 and goes Mox, Mox, Confidant. I play land, bolt. Next turn Ancient Grudge, Daze his Zenith for zero.
4-1
Round 6: ID and go grab Afghan food from next door.
4-1-1
Top 8: I get paired round 1 with Chris playing Zoo, my only semi-difficult matchup in the T8. Whoever starts is usually at a huge advantage, so I'm pretty happy to win the roll. I play Volcanic, go. He drops a Taiga and a Nacatl, which I bolt EoT. On my next turn I Waste his Taiga and hold up Stifle mana. He keeps drawing land, but no gas except for a Sylvan Library. My Goyf gets in for some damage and a Bolt seals it.
Game 2 is close. He starts out strong with all three basics, a Nacatl, Kird Ape, and Goblin Guide, and draws two extra cards with Sylvan Library, putting me on defense quite fast. I get a Goyf and and Lavamancer which kills his cat and ape, but his burn puts me down 1 life after I Force a Helix. The Goyf attacks him down to 6 before getting Pathed so it's his Guide against my Lavamancer. I risk it a bit and tap out to mance his Guide on the next attack, but he Helixes me afterward while I am tapped out with Spell Snare in hand. Had I chump blocked, Snared the Helix, and then casted the Firespout I knew was on the top of my deck the following turn, the game might have kept going. But being at 1 life with no blockers against a Zoo deck with Sylvan Library in play is not a very good position.
Game 3 was a crushing loss. I knew that I was favored on the play, so the match should have been mine. My opening 7 had no lands. I mull into Wasteland and 5 nonlands. I mull again into Wasteland and 4 nonlands. I mull a third and final time into Wasteland and 3 nonlands. Submerge, Daze, Stifle. I figure if I rip a land I could maybe pull it out. I draw cantrips but no lands. Very annoying way to end a tournament. The other decks in the Top 8 were Reanimator, Storm, Stoneblade, Merfolk, Dredge, and something else I didn't see. It also sucks that the prize payout was so top heavy: 1st got 4 foil Goyfs, 8th got $40 store credit...
All in all, I had a blast with the deck and plan to keep playing it. Delver was consistently great all day. Lavamancer and Dismember were each pretty good, too.
Right after T8, we all blaze, and Tony and I play a 10 game series of Eureka/Show & Tell combo (Danny Batterman's monstrosity) versus Canandian Thresh, which was super entertaining. Then we each find $10 in store credit (we decided to split 4 ways on the way to the tourney) and head to In-N-Out for more nutrients before making the trip back to LA.
Props:
Canadian Thresh for being awesome again
The guy at the Afghan restaurant who gave me and Tony a free coke
Liam's Mary Jane
Kevin for driving and showing us how to unhinge his jaw to eat a 4x4 like a man (no homo)
Slops:
Traffic
Transparent sleeves and having to use checklists
Mulling to oblivion
The list I used:
4 Delver
4 Goyf
3 Lavamancer
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Spell Snare
4 Stifle
4 Bolt
2 Dismember
4 Ponder
1 Preordain
4 Wasteland
4 Trop
4 Volc
3 Tarn
3 Misty
Sideboard:
3 Submerge
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Blast
2 Pierce
1 Grip
1 Grudge
1 Firespout
1 Tormod's Crypt (replaced a Mind Harness last minute after scouting 6+ dredge decks)
I had initially planned on using basics which were pretty good in testing, but decided to go with Dave Caplan's list last minute. I think this probably is correct, however I didn't play against Merfolk or Goblins, so I'm not really sure.
Round 1: Paired against my friend Kevin playing an Esperblade brew with Confidant, Snapcaster Mage, and Unearth (!). I win the roll and play a Delver, which he Plows. I double Waste and he draws out. I Stifle his Stoneforge trigger and he has the Batterskull anyway. I Dismember the germ but then he plays Snapcaster Mage targeting a Plow, removing my other creature. He eventually gets enough land to equip Batterskull and win. Game 2 is not much different with him drawing the nuts again. The deck can do some stupid tricks with Unearth, which you can just cycle when nothing is in the yard, and flashback later with a Snapcaster Mage. You can also do some sick chains like Unearth -> Snapcaster -> flashback Unearth -> Clique.
0-1
Round 2: My opponent playing Dredge mulls to 4 game 1. I Daze something and Stifle his Coliseum, and two Goyfs clean up. Game 2 he gets an Imp out and starts dredging early. I draw Surgical Extraction for his first Ichorid to slow things down. I Fow his Dread Return, and then Firespout his zombies and my own Lavamancer to remove his Bridges and seal the game.
1-1
Round 3: I win the roll against Omar playing NO RUG, and proceed to Stifle and Waste the only lands he draws all game. Unfortunately, I didn't pay enough attention to his discard pile and mistakenly put him on Stoneblade and sideboarded completely wrong for game 2. I keep a slow hand with Grip and draw into Grudge as well. Eventually I brainstorm them away, but by then he has ramped to 4 mana and casts Jace, which I FoW, followed by Natural Order, which resolves. Game 3 I take out the blasts and artifact hate for Submerges and Spell Pierces. The deck does its thing and he can't keep any permanents on the board. I get there with some flying Delvers and a hand full of disruption.
2-1
Round 4: Again, I win the roll against Wes with his red splash BUG Control list (with Counterspells, Stalkers, Goyfs, Deeds, and Firespout). Game 1 I Waste his colored lands. He resolves a Top, but I Stifle all his fetches so he can't shuffle the chaff. I think a Delver or two gets there. Game 2 I make a pretty savage misplay by casting Dismember on his 5/6 Goyf (I forgot about the Deed in his yard). I try to save face and cast my second Dismember and we get into a counter war which I lose. 8 life later and 2 swings from Goyf and I'm dead. Game 3 I start off with some land destruction and start beating with a Delver and a 3/4 Goyf. He stabalizes at 8 life with a Stalker, but I eventually draw a 2nd Delver and then just swing twice for the win. Turns out he had a Firespout that he didn't cast because he didn't have a red source, even though he had a green. By the time he casted it, I had the counter. It's possible that mistake could have changed the game.
3-1
Round 5: Brian Kibler with Junk. Game 1 he Swords both my early Delver and Goyf, putting me ahead on life. I try to cut him off green with a Stifle and a Wasteland, but he draws into more land and casts a Knight. It doesn't matter though, because a second Delver and a Lavamancer easily race him with the extra life as a buffer. Game 2 was the biggest blowout of the day. He mulls to 6 and goes Mox, Mox, Confidant. I play land, bolt. Next turn Ancient Grudge, Daze his Zenith for zero.
4-1
Round 6: ID and go grab Afghan food from next door.
4-1-1
Top 8: I get paired round 1 with Chris playing Zoo, my only semi-difficult matchup in the T8. Whoever starts is usually at a huge advantage, so I'm pretty happy to win the roll. I play Volcanic, go. He drops a Taiga and a Nacatl, which I bolt EoT. On my next turn I Waste his Taiga and hold up Stifle mana. He keeps drawing land, but no gas except for a Sylvan Library. My Goyf gets in for some damage and a Bolt seals it.
Game 2 is close. He starts out strong with all three basics, a Nacatl, Kird Ape, and Goblin Guide, and draws two extra cards with Sylvan Library, putting me on defense quite fast. I get a Goyf and and Lavamancer which kills his cat and ape, but his burn puts me down 1 life after I Force a Helix. The Goyf attacks him down to 6 before getting Pathed so it's his Guide against my Lavamancer. I risk it a bit and tap out to mance his Guide on the next attack, but he Helixes me afterward while I am tapped out with Spell Snare in hand. Had I chump blocked, Snared the Helix, and then casted the Firespout I knew was on the top of my deck the following turn, the game might have kept going. But being at 1 life with no blockers against a Zoo deck with Sylvan Library in play is not a very good position.
Game 3 was a crushing loss. I knew that I was favored on the play, so the match should have been mine. My opening 7 had no lands. I mull into Wasteland and 5 nonlands. I mull again into Wasteland and 4 nonlands. I mull a third and final time into Wasteland and 3 nonlands. Submerge, Daze, Stifle. I figure if I rip a land I could maybe pull it out. I draw cantrips but no lands. Very annoying way to end a tournament. The other decks in the Top 8 were Reanimator, Storm, Stoneblade, Merfolk, Dredge, and something else I didn't see. It also sucks that the prize payout was so top heavy: 1st got 4 foil Goyfs, 8th got $40 store credit...
All in all, I had a blast with the deck and plan to keep playing it. Delver was consistently great all day. Lavamancer and Dismember were each pretty good, too.
Right after T8, we all blaze, and Tony and I play a 10 game series of Eureka/Show & Tell combo (Danny Batterman's monstrosity) versus Canandian Thresh, which was super entertaining. Then we each find $10 in store credit (we decided to split 4 ways on the way to the tourney) and head to In-N-Out for more nutrients before making the trip back to LA.
Props:
Canadian Thresh for being awesome again
The guy at the Afghan restaurant who gave me and Tony a free coke
Liam's Mary Jane
Kevin for driving and showing us how to unhinge his jaw to eat a 4x4 like a man (no homo)
Slops:
Traffic
Transparent sleeves and having to use checklists
Mulling to oblivion