Being On Fire: 7-0 with Grinding Station

[Jonathan Alexander]

Last weekend I finished first in a 76-player Legacy event in Iserlohn, Germany.
Check out my report: Report. (http://theweeklywars.wordpress.com/2011/12/09/being-on-fire-7-0-with-grinding-station/)

Enjoy!

[blacklotus3636]

Congrats on the wins. The name made me think it was some kind of weird new deck that used grinding station but from what I saw it seems to be ANT. Its a good deck and everything but it doesn't look like you have alot of other combo decks in your area or alot of blue control decks. I don't know much about the european metagames but I hear they are far different than they are in the states. In my meta there was wall to wall combo. 5 of my 8 matches were combo but I never ran into an ANT. Weird.

[Namida]

So, how did your opponent in the last round react once they learned that you were playing with four Tendrils in the maindeck?

[HokusSchmokus]

Nice to see you are still rocking the good deck Jona! Good Job and congrats on the finish!

@ Blacklotus

Don't make SCG mistakes. This is not an ANT deck really. It can turn into one but primarily it is not.

Also the Top8 in this Event was combotastic. 4-5 Combodecks I thnk and there were a lot of aggrocontroll decks around the top tables, too.

Edit: I am almost done building the deck myself,btw. Very fun deck.

[Goin Aggro]

Are you actually allowed to extract something and then fail to find all the available copies?

[Wirrsturm]

You're searching their library which is a hidden zone, you can always fail to find.

Cool deck :) do you ever get tendrils flooded?

[Jakgotbak]

You're searching their library which is a hidden zone, you can always fail to find.

Cool deck :) do you ever get tendrils flooded?

More specifically, you can always fail to find when asked to look for something specific.

Gifts Ungiven will allow you to find fewer than four cards because it's asking you to find cards with different names. Meanwhile, Intuition has no restriction, so you have to find three cards.

Surgical Extraction tells you to find cards with a specific name, so you can fail to find. Meanwhile, Jester's Cap just says three cards, so you have to find three.

[Jonathan Alexander]

So, how did your opponent in the last round react once they learned that you were playing with four Tendrils in the maindeck?

When he cast the first Surgical Extraction in game two, he first looked at my hand and said how odd it was that I had the Tendrils again. He then looked through my library and saw two copies in the first few cards, which he commented with something like "ah, that explains it".

Also, on the Surgical Extraction thing, it's both that you're searching a hidden zone with and that you're looking for something specific. If Extraction said "that player reveals his or her library" you would have to find all copies. As it is, you only have to find all the copies in their hand and graveyard.

I also already took advantage of that in an earlier tournament, where I needed a shuffle effect for my Brainstorm and cast Extirpate on one of my fetches. Sweet world of Magic interactions.

As for Tendrils flood, that's rarely an issue. Winning via casting two Tendrils is actually quite comfortable, that's what I did in round four game one. What's way worse is having multiple Past In Flames. I'm trying to cut one for a second Sensei's Divining Top.

Also, HokusSchmokus is right. Our metagame is full of combo decks. 2nd & 3rd place were Reanimator, 7th & 8th were Spiral Tide. Against opposing combo decks, I'm currently undefeated. Past In Flames with discard and Extirpates from the board is huge, as most combo decks only have anti hate in the sideboard, whereas I actually have disruption to bring in.

And thanks for the kind words! Getting some recognition for my deck feels really good I must say.

[Lejay]

You can choose not to find in hand and in graveyard, even the card you targeted. At least that's how it works on MTGO.

[klaus]

What are you're worst MU's beside CB-Top.dec?

[Whippoorwill]

You can choose not to find in hand and in graveyard, even the card you targeted. At least that's how it works on MTGO.

This is correct. From the rulings section for Surgical Extraction on Gatherer:


"Any number of cards" means just that. If you wish, you can choose to leave some or all of the cards with the same name as the targeted card, including that card, in the zone they're in.

Actually good info to know for the shuffle effect that Jona mentioned since you can SE targeting something key so your opponent won't counter it then choose to remove nothing just gaining the shuffle.

[Dark Ritual]

Wow this deck looks fun. I'm really tempted to play it now; this seems like the perfect deck for past in flames to abuse as a primary engine well done I'm a fan of this deck. The tundra looks so minty well done.

[OurSerratedDust]

Awesome work as always, Jona!

EDIT: Oh shoot, I didn't realize this was kind of old. Well, good job anyways!

[Jonathan Alexander]

Haha yeah, the tournament was almost two months ago, but thanks anyway! I wrote another report though, but this time it was rather uneventful and I only played against bad decks (plus I only finished sixth but oh well, I can't win everything).