Endure2004
02-15-2012, 11:20 PM
Double top 8 Weekend: 5th and 4th in Vestal
My February NELC saw me bringing RUG control again to the tournament. I wasn’t sure if the deck would be on everyone’s radar since I came in 2nd last month with it, but there wasn’t much I would change anyways. Here’s the list that I brought:
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Grim Lavamancer
2 Vendilion Clique
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 force of will
4 Brainstorm
3 Preordain
4 Stifle
2 Counterspell
3 Spell Snare
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Fire/Ice
1 Dismember
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Misty Rainforest
1 Flooded Strand
4 Wasteland
3 Tropical Island
3 Volcanic Island
2 Island
1 Mountain
Sideboard:
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Mind Harness
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Nature’s Claim
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Pyroblast
2 Spell Pierce
1 Red elemental blast
1 engineered explosives
The spots in my sideboard that were in flux were the Jace, the clique, the explosives, and the image. I made sure to keep track of how those slots did. The nature’s claim was a hedge against choke. On to the matches!
Round 1 Enchantress
Game 1
He has turn 1 mirri’s guile, but it finds him little action. I counter a couple of his enchantress effects and clique + goyf finish him off.
Sideboard: +1 Vendilion Clique +1 Jace TMS +2 spell pierce +1 Nature’s Claim +2 Relic of Progenitus +1 Engineered explosives
-4 Lightning Bolt -1 Dismember -1 Fire//Ice -2 Grim lavamancer
Game 2
I fight with a couple counterspells, trade an engineered explosives and a goyf for an enchantress, but he eventually lands an enchantress and runs away with it
Game 3
I see a couple of weird sideboard choices in his list, like orim’s chant. He casts a couple of those to protect some irrelevant spells (runed halo) while I let those resolve and counter his enchantress effects. Jace resolves, brainstorms, and I run him over with clique + more counterspells.
Round 2 UWg stoneforge control (green for sylvan library only)
Game 1
I was paired against a really nice guy Sam from NYC. My opening hand on the draw was 2 goyf, stifle, force, cantrip, land, land. He plays fetch, go. I play fetch, go. He plays wasteland, goes to fetch, but I stifle. He forces, I force back. I play two goyfs and beat him down. He dies.
Sideboarding: -4 Force of Will -4 Stifle -1 Dismember +2 Pyroblast +1 REB +1 Clique +1 Jace, TMS, +2 spell pierce, +1 nature’s claim, +1 ancient grudge
Game 2
We play draw go for awhile, and trade some irrelevant spells. Eventually I clique him, and I ship an Elspeth. He kills clique in response to the trigger. I cantrip into another clique and I see a wrath in his hand + some swords to plowshares. He draws a Jace which I REB then I play my own Jace while he’s holding wrath + swords. Jace crushes him under waves of brainstorms. He tells me afterward that sideboarding in wraths was a bad idea, which I agree with. I told him I boarded stifles out.
Round 3 Enchantress.
Game 1
Through shuffling he reveals a sterling grove accidentally. I ship a hand that loses to enchantress and keep on 6. I counter a couple enchantress effects, but he has GSZ which increases his threat density and he crushes me.
Sideboarding: -4 Bolt -1 Dismember -1 Fire//ice -2 Grim lavamancer +1 Nature’s claim +1 clique +1 Jace, TMS +2 spell pierce +1 engineered explosives +2 Relic of Progenitus
Game 2
This game is really close. It involves a clique and multiple counterspells, and eventually he lands an enchantress but I have stifle into snapcaster+ stifle on his draw triggers and he eventually dies to beats.
Game 3
Again, a really close game. I counter something like 3 enchantress effects, clique a 4th one away, and he draws a 5th off the clique trigger. I then proceeded to get curb stomped by massive amounts of card advantage.
Round 4 Aggro Loam
Game 1
This match is against the winner of last month’s NELC, David, who beat me in the finals. Great guy, always enjoyable to play against. He starts out mulliganing to 5 while I mull to 6. He has lots of loam into cycle lands action, and is able to beat me to death with some creatures + seismic assault. This matchup is tough.
Sideboarding: -4 Stifle -2 Force +2 Relic +2 mind harness +1 Clique +2 Spell pierce
Game 2
I clique him early and he’s light on action. I trade some spells with him while beating down and eventually bolt him out.
Game 3
This was a great game! We trade some spells and I spell pierce a seismic assault. I have clique beating down, and he plays countryside crusher. I preordain and I see mind harness, counterspell. I keep beating, wait till he grows his crusher to 7, then mind harnessed and killed him the next turn with it. Mind harness rooooooools!!!
Round 5 Aggro Loam
Game 1
I actually got paired against Bryant cook, and we both didn’t want to play each other, and then we got repaired. Whew. Unfortunately, the matchup I got was probably worse. This guy was playing countryside crusher, life from the loam, tarmogoyfs, seismic assault, knight of the reliquary, and punishing fire combo. Game 1 he plays goyf into an empty board and I’m lucky enough to be able to bolt his goyf to death. Unfortunately, he has a kotr and a crusher to follow up, and I can’t deal with both.
Sideboarding: -4 Stifle -2 Force of will, +2 relic, +2 mind harness, +1 Clique, +1 Jace, TMS
Game 2
I keep him off some big guys, and ride a clique to victory. Man, clique + some counterspells and removal really gets there for me. Flying fairy man is awesome.
Game 3
This one reminded me a lot of the last matchup. I clique him and we trade some spells, he lands a crusher while I’m holding mind harness, and at the last possible turn I mind harness his crusher with force backup. The look on his face when I played mind harness was priceless! He said something along the lines of, “well, I didn’t expect that card”. An attack step and a bolt later, he died. These are some tough matchups! I lose so many game 1’s !!
Round 6 T.E.S
Game 1
I get paired against Bryant cook, for reals this time. Game 1 he has a pretty good hand and tendrils the crap outta me.
Sideboarding: -4 Bolt -1 Dismember -2 Grim Lavamancer +2 Pyroblast +1 REB +2 Spell pierce +1 Clique +1 Jace
Game 2
He plays draw go for awhile, I play a goyf when I have enough mana to do it and hold up counterspells. I attack a couple of times, and he’s forced to go for it. He can’t generate enough storm, and tendrils me to 1 exactly!!!! I have two huge goyfs by then and they make short work of him in 2 turns.
Game 3
I have an early goyf, and disrupt him with wastelands. He’s land light and in the end, he knowingly walks a fetch into a stifle and he doesn’t have the resources to go off. Whew, what a match!
Round 7 I am 3rd or 4th in the swiss, so I ID into top 8! My second top 8 in vestal, two months in a row! Yay! I’ve gained some respect from big name players down there, who say I’m Eric English’s protégé. Not a bad way to be known!
Round 1 of Top 8
I get paired in a feature match against Doug Mckay. His deck is white weenie, with 4 maindeck relic of progenitus, blade splicer, stoneforge, squadron hawks, lots of equipment, mother of runes, and mirran crusader.
Game 1
He has some good action while I have a weak hand with force of will. I’m forced to burn it on an Elspeth, and he has good cards to follow up while I run out of gas.
Sideboarding: -3 force of will +1 Engineered explosives +1 Ancient Grudge +1 nature’s claim
Game 2
He has an early relic while my draw involves a grim and a snapcaster. Relic makes things really awkward for me and I spend several cards trading for his multiple hawks, since I didn’t have stifle or snare for it on the stack. Yuck. Eventually he draws some gas and I die. I end up 5th, and I take some cash and scramble to red lobster for delicious food.
My memory might be off on some of these matchups, it was a lot of magic that weekend! Forgive me if some of the fine details are lost…. Anyway, I get word from Greg Komar that there is a legacy GPT the next day, and that first place is a mox emerald. Woopie! I woke up in the morning the next day and made a snap decision to ride my “run good” wave for as long as possible.
GPT Indianapolis (24 people)
I brought the same list, except I cut the engineered explosives for a null rod, which could be wrong, I was just trying out different cards.
Round 1 against Sam UWg
This was the same Sam I played yesterday! Super nice guy, so I was happy to be paired against him.
Game 1
I have a goyf heavy draw, which doesn’t pare well with his triple spell snare, double snapcaster draw, and I die to snapcaster beats.
SB: +2 pyroblast, 2 spell pierce, 1 ancient grudge, 1 nature’s claim, 1 v clique, 1 JTMS -4 FOW 4 goyf 1 dismember
I switch it up this time, taking out goyfs instead of stifle, because tapping out early for goyf is a liability and you only want goyfs after trading a bunch of spells.
Game 2
The day before I told him after the match that I took stifles out, so he’s surprised by my early stifle/waste action and it takes him off of colored sources. Clique gets his beats in, and I counterspell a swords on my clique. A few attack steps later, he’s dead.
Game 3
Between these two games, I put my four goyfs in my deck, look through, and take them back out again to keep him guessing in case he’s paying attention. This game is long and grindy, while we trade a bunch of spells I concentrate on controlling the important spells, which I see to be clique and snapcaster. I am able to squeak out card advantage and eventually push through a Jace, which he can’t answer.
Round 2 against James Rynkiewicz (sorry about the name butchering) on UBW bitterblossom blade
Game 1
He has turn 1 inquisition into turn 2 bitterblossom. He removes my creatures through edicts and spell snares, and I die to faerie tokens holding a jitte.
SB: -4 FOW -2 JTMS -1 Dismember +1 ancient grudge, 1 nature’s claim, 2 spell pierce, 2 pyroblast, 1 REB
Game 2
He again has turn 1 discard turn 2 bitterblossom. The game evolves to a point where he has three lands, bitterblossom, and a couple of tokens, while I have volcanic, fetch, wasteland up. I have spell pierce, spell snare, bolt, bolt. He’s on 12 life and he casts thoughtseize. I’m at a decently healthy life total even though I have no blockers for his tokens. I would be in trouble if he has jitte, but I am in a good position if he doesn’t. I’m not sure what he would take out of my hand, probably a bolt if he doesn’t have jitte. I decide to get risky and go to bolt him twice. He unfortunately goes, land, jitte. I draw for my turn and it’s not a bolt, stifle, fire//ice, or a grudge. Yikes. My play might have been wrong, I could’ve held up countermagic in case he had jitte, so my play was probably a bit greedy. Sigh. I guess it was a punt.
Round 3 against Paul Lake on the same UWB list
Game 1
He has turn 3 bitterblossom, and I pressure him with a goyf. He eventually gets to a low life total, and a couple of bolts finish him off.
SB: -4 FOW -2 JTMS -1 Dismember +1 ancient grudge, 1 nature’s claim, 2 spell pierce,
2 pyroblast, 1 REB
Game 2
I have an early grim + goyf battling his bitterblossom, and he’s on the back foot. He has to use snapcaster defensively a couple of times, and the race is turning out favorably for me. He brainstorms once, snapcaster brainstorms again, and then plays Jace just to brainstorm, and keeps missing on white sources. I swing into his Jace to kill it and go back to working his life total. After I spell snare a couple snapcasters, he finally draws into a white source. I counterspell his swords, and he dies holding a hand of 2 swords, 2 stoneforge mystics.
Round 4 feature match against UWR blade
Game 1
He goes for turn 2 Stoneforge mystic, I snare, he forces, I force back. He proceeds to draw more snapcasters then I do, and I succumb to his mages and a geist.
SB: +2 pyroblast, 1 REB, 2 spell pierce, 1 ancient grudge, 1 phantasmal image, 1 nature’s claim, 1 clique, 1 JTMS -4 FOW -1 dismember -4 Goyf
Game 2
He has turn 2 mystic, I snare, he casts force of will. I pyroblast. YUM! He should definitely board out force of wills in this matchup. From there on in he’s low on cards and I get my mage beats on.
Game 3
We trade a bunch of cards, my hand is stacked, he lands a geist, but I rip phantasmal image for it. I eventually land a Jace and brainstorm the game away while he runs out of cards.
Round 5 ID
Second top 8 secured! Although it was just a 24 man tournament. 5-8th actually gets NOTHING for this tournament so there’s pressure to win round 1 of the top 8.
Round 1 of top 8 vs. Kevin Jones on UWR delver
Game 1
He’s on the play with turn 1 delver. I play around daze and bolt on 2 lands. He gets slightly greedy and forces. He’s stuck on island mishra’s factory while beating down with a flipped delver, and I cantrip into another bolt. From there on in I waste him to 1 land, and he never sees another land until I have a million goyfs beating him to death.
SB: +2 pyroblast 1 REB 2 spell pierce 1 phantasmal image 1 clique 1 Jace -4 FOW -4 stifle
Game 2
He again has turn 1 delver on the play and spell pierces my turn 2 bolt. He’s stuck on volcanic island and island while beating down with his delver. I hit land drops, take some damage, and then fire his delver on his upkeep. I waste him down to one land, then I REB a brainstorm, and he can’t recover while he dies to goyfs.
Round 2 of top 8 Feature match against Dan Rae on W/G maverick
Although he’s not playing stoneforge mystics, this matchup is horrible.
Game 1
We trade some early spells, and he lands an unanswered fauna shaman while I play a grim in response. He passes one turn without an activation. I go to fetch, and he pitches KOTR to flash in mindscensor at the end of his turn. I brainstorm in response, and I have to force of will to hit my fetchland activation. He kills grim, I kill his shaman, and we race my clique vs. his thalia. He plays mother of runes, and I dismember thalia. On his last possible turn, he plays scavenging ooze. The board his: him: ooze, mom, hierarch, heath, savannah, tundra, some tapped lands at 4 life. Me: lands, clique. My hand is stifle. I draw for the turn, it’s a fire//ice. I survey the board, and attack him to 1, and point fire at his face. He goes, activate ooze to gain one life, then activate again to gain one life. I stifle the second one!!!!!! Ok, fine, I’m a lucksack.
SB: +2 mind harness +2 relic of progenitus +1 nature’s claim +1 clique +1 JTMS +2 spell pierce -4 Stifle -1 FOW -4 Goyf
Game 2
He plays choke when I tap out to answer his KOTR. Then he plays garruk relentless. I die.
Game 3
He has a geist, I go to clique his combat step to block, and he mazes his geist so that his angel still hits me. I waste his maze, then while at 4 life I’m forced to trade clique with geist, then nature’s claim my own relic to stay alive. Then he plays KOTR and I concede.
A good tournament, I end up with 75$ in credit. I trade in a bunch of cards, and buy all the cards needed to build T.E.S, a deck I wanted to learn for fun. The maindeck is very tight, and I wouldn’t change anything there right now. My sideboard is still evolving, and after the tournament I trimmed some things. Right now it’s:
2 Pyroblast 2 REB 2 spell pierce 1 Clique 2 Mind harness 2 relic of progenitus 1 Ancient Grudge 1 Nature’s claim 2 Engineered explosives
This deck is very difficult to play, as there are lots of decisions and a lot of your cards vary greatly in how good they are in each matchup. That said, it’s powerful and flexible, and a great choice for any brainstorm lover!
That’s my tournament report! Thanks for reading everyone and keep playing tight!
My February NELC saw me bringing RUG control again to the tournament. I wasn’t sure if the deck would be on everyone’s radar since I came in 2nd last month with it, but there wasn’t much I would change anyways. Here’s the list that I brought:
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Grim Lavamancer
2 Vendilion Clique
3 Snapcaster Mage
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 force of will
4 Brainstorm
3 Preordain
4 Stifle
2 Counterspell
3 Spell Snare
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Fire/Ice
1 Dismember
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Misty Rainforest
1 Flooded Strand
4 Wasteland
3 Tropical Island
3 Volcanic Island
2 Island
1 Mountain
Sideboard:
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Mind Harness
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Nature’s Claim
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Pyroblast
2 Spell Pierce
1 Red elemental blast
1 engineered explosives
The spots in my sideboard that were in flux were the Jace, the clique, the explosives, and the image. I made sure to keep track of how those slots did. The nature’s claim was a hedge against choke. On to the matches!
Round 1 Enchantress
Game 1
He has turn 1 mirri’s guile, but it finds him little action. I counter a couple of his enchantress effects and clique + goyf finish him off.
Sideboard: +1 Vendilion Clique +1 Jace TMS +2 spell pierce +1 Nature’s Claim +2 Relic of Progenitus +1 Engineered explosives
-4 Lightning Bolt -1 Dismember -1 Fire//Ice -2 Grim lavamancer
Game 2
I fight with a couple counterspells, trade an engineered explosives and a goyf for an enchantress, but he eventually lands an enchantress and runs away with it
Game 3
I see a couple of weird sideboard choices in his list, like orim’s chant. He casts a couple of those to protect some irrelevant spells (runed halo) while I let those resolve and counter his enchantress effects. Jace resolves, brainstorms, and I run him over with clique + more counterspells.
Round 2 UWg stoneforge control (green for sylvan library only)
Game 1
I was paired against a really nice guy Sam from NYC. My opening hand on the draw was 2 goyf, stifle, force, cantrip, land, land. He plays fetch, go. I play fetch, go. He plays wasteland, goes to fetch, but I stifle. He forces, I force back. I play two goyfs and beat him down. He dies.
Sideboarding: -4 Force of Will -4 Stifle -1 Dismember +2 Pyroblast +1 REB +1 Clique +1 Jace, TMS, +2 spell pierce, +1 nature’s claim, +1 ancient grudge
Game 2
We play draw go for awhile, and trade some irrelevant spells. Eventually I clique him, and I ship an Elspeth. He kills clique in response to the trigger. I cantrip into another clique and I see a wrath in his hand + some swords to plowshares. He draws a Jace which I REB then I play my own Jace while he’s holding wrath + swords. Jace crushes him under waves of brainstorms. He tells me afterward that sideboarding in wraths was a bad idea, which I agree with. I told him I boarded stifles out.
Round 3 Enchantress.
Game 1
Through shuffling he reveals a sterling grove accidentally. I ship a hand that loses to enchantress and keep on 6. I counter a couple enchantress effects, but he has GSZ which increases his threat density and he crushes me.
Sideboarding: -4 Bolt -1 Dismember -1 Fire//ice -2 Grim lavamancer +1 Nature’s claim +1 clique +1 Jace, TMS +2 spell pierce +1 engineered explosives +2 Relic of Progenitus
Game 2
This game is really close. It involves a clique and multiple counterspells, and eventually he lands an enchantress but I have stifle into snapcaster+ stifle on his draw triggers and he eventually dies to beats.
Game 3
Again, a really close game. I counter something like 3 enchantress effects, clique a 4th one away, and he draws a 5th off the clique trigger. I then proceeded to get curb stomped by massive amounts of card advantage.
Round 4 Aggro Loam
Game 1
This match is against the winner of last month’s NELC, David, who beat me in the finals. Great guy, always enjoyable to play against. He starts out mulliganing to 5 while I mull to 6. He has lots of loam into cycle lands action, and is able to beat me to death with some creatures + seismic assault. This matchup is tough.
Sideboarding: -4 Stifle -2 Force +2 Relic +2 mind harness +1 Clique +2 Spell pierce
Game 2
I clique him early and he’s light on action. I trade some spells with him while beating down and eventually bolt him out.
Game 3
This was a great game! We trade some spells and I spell pierce a seismic assault. I have clique beating down, and he plays countryside crusher. I preordain and I see mind harness, counterspell. I keep beating, wait till he grows his crusher to 7, then mind harnessed and killed him the next turn with it. Mind harness rooooooools!!!
Round 5 Aggro Loam
Game 1
I actually got paired against Bryant cook, and we both didn’t want to play each other, and then we got repaired. Whew. Unfortunately, the matchup I got was probably worse. This guy was playing countryside crusher, life from the loam, tarmogoyfs, seismic assault, knight of the reliquary, and punishing fire combo. Game 1 he plays goyf into an empty board and I’m lucky enough to be able to bolt his goyf to death. Unfortunately, he has a kotr and a crusher to follow up, and I can’t deal with both.
Sideboarding: -4 Stifle -2 Force of will, +2 relic, +2 mind harness, +1 Clique, +1 Jace, TMS
Game 2
I keep him off some big guys, and ride a clique to victory. Man, clique + some counterspells and removal really gets there for me. Flying fairy man is awesome.
Game 3
This one reminded me a lot of the last matchup. I clique him and we trade some spells, he lands a crusher while I’m holding mind harness, and at the last possible turn I mind harness his crusher with force backup. The look on his face when I played mind harness was priceless! He said something along the lines of, “well, I didn’t expect that card”. An attack step and a bolt later, he died. These are some tough matchups! I lose so many game 1’s !!
Round 6 T.E.S
Game 1
I get paired against Bryant cook, for reals this time. Game 1 he has a pretty good hand and tendrils the crap outta me.
Sideboarding: -4 Bolt -1 Dismember -2 Grim Lavamancer +2 Pyroblast +1 REB +2 Spell pierce +1 Clique +1 Jace
Game 2
He plays draw go for awhile, I play a goyf when I have enough mana to do it and hold up counterspells. I attack a couple of times, and he’s forced to go for it. He can’t generate enough storm, and tendrils me to 1 exactly!!!! I have two huge goyfs by then and they make short work of him in 2 turns.
Game 3
I have an early goyf, and disrupt him with wastelands. He’s land light and in the end, he knowingly walks a fetch into a stifle and he doesn’t have the resources to go off. Whew, what a match!
Round 7 I am 3rd or 4th in the swiss, so I ID into top 8! My second top 8 in vestal, two months in a row! Yay! I’ve gained some respect from big name players down there, who say I’m Eric English’s protégé. Not a bad way to be known!
Round 1 of Top 8
I get paired in a feature match against Doug Mckay. His deck is white weenie, with 4 maindeck relic of progenitus, blade splicer, stoneforge, squadron hawks, lots of equipment, mother of runes, and mirran crusader.
Game 1
He has some good action while I have a weak hand with force of will. I’m forced to burn it on an Elspeth, and he has good cards to follow up while I run out of gas.
Sideboarding: -3 force of will +1 Engineered explosives +1 Ancient Grudge +1 nature’s claim
Game 2
He has an early relic while my draw involves a grim and a snapcaster. Relic makes things really awkward for me and I spend several cards trading for his multiple hawks, since I didn’t have stifle or snare for it on the stack. Yuck. Eventually he draws some gas and I die. I end up 5th, and I take some cash and scramble to red lobster for delicious food.
My memory might be off on some of these matchups, it was a lot of magic that weekend! Forgive me if some of the fine details are lost…. Anyway, I get word from Greg Komar that there is a legacy GPT the next day, and that first place is a mox emerald. Woopie! I woke up in the morning the next day and made a snap decision to ride my “run good” wave for as long as possible.
GPT Indianapolis (24 people)
I brought the same list, except I cut the engineered explosives for a null rod, which could be wrong, I was just trying out different cards.
Round 1 against Sam UWg
This was the same Sam I played yesterday! Super nice guy, so I was happy to be paired against him.
Game 1
I have a goyf heavy draw, which doesn’t pare well with his triple spell snare, double snapcaster draw, and I die to snapcaster beats.
SB: +2 pyroblast, 2 spell pierce, 1 ancient grudge, 1 nature’s claim, 1 v clique, 1 JTMS -4 FOW 4 goyf 1 dismember
I switch it up this time, taking out goyfs instead of stifle, because tapping out early for goyf is a liability and you only want goyfs after trading a bunch of spells.
Game 2
The day before I told him after the match that I took stifles out, so he’s surprised by my early stifle/waste action and it takes him off of colored sources. Clique gets his beats in, and I counterspell a swords on my clique. A few attack steps later, he’s dead.
Game 3
Between these two games, I put my four goyfs in my deck, look through, and take them back out again to keep him guessing in case he’s paying attention. This game is long and grindy, while we trade a bunch of spells I concentrate on controlling the important spells, which I see to be clique and snapcaster. I am able to squeak out card advantage and eventually push through a Jace, which he can’t answer.
Round 2 against James Rynkiewicz (sorry about the name butchering) on UBW bitterblossom blade
Game 1
He has turn 1 inquisition into turn 2 bitterblossom. He removes my creatures through edicts and spell snares, and I die to faerie tokens holding a jitte.
SB: -4 FOW -2 JTMS -1 Dismember +1 ancient grudge, 1 nature’s claim, 2 spell pierce, 2 pyroblast, 1 REB
Game 2
He again has turn 1 discard turn 2 bitterblossom. The game evolves to a point where he has three lands, bitterblossom, and a couple of tokens, while I have volcanic, fetch, wasteland up. I have spell pierce, spell snare, bolt, bolt. He’s on 12 life and he casts thoughtseize. I’m at a decently healthy life total even though I have no blockers for his tokens. I would be in trouble if he has jitte, but I am in a good position if he doesn’t. I’m not sure what he would take out of my hand, probably a bolt if he doesn’t have jitte. I decide to get risky and go to bolt him twice. He unfortunately goes, land, jitte. I draw for my turn and it’s not a bolt, stifle, fire//ice, or a grudge. Yikes. My play might have been wrong, I could’ve held up countermagic in case he had jitte, so my play was probably a bit greedy. Sigh. I guess it was a punt.
Round 3 against Paul Lake on the same UWB list
Game 1
He has turn 3 bitterblossom, and I pressure him with a goyf. He eventually gets to a low life total, and a couple of bolts finish him off.
SB: -4 FOW -2 JTMS -1 Dismember +1 ancient grudge, 1 nature’s claim, 2 spell pierce,
2 pyroblast, 1 REB
Game 2
I have an early grim + goyf battling his bitterblossom, and he’s on the back foot. He has to use snapcaster defensively a couple of times, and the race is turning out favorably for me. He brainstorms once, snapcaster brainstorms again, and then plays Jace just to brainstorm, and keeps missing on white sources. I swing into his Jace to kill it and go back to working his life total. After I spell snare a couple snapcasters, he finally draws into a white source. I counterspell his swords, and he dies holding a hand of 2 swords, 2 stoneforge mystics.
Round 4 feature match against UWR blade
Game 1
He goes for turn 2 Stoneforge mystic, I snare, he forces, I force back. He proceeds to draw more snapcasters then I do, and I succumb to his mages and a geist.
SB: +2 pyroblast, 1 REB, 2 spell pierce, 1 ancient grudge, 1 phantasmal image, 1 nature’s claim, 1 clique, 1 JTMS -4 FOW -1 dismember -4 Goyf
Game 2
He has turn 2 mystic, I snare, he casts force of will. I pyroblast. YUM! He should definitely board out force of wills in this matchup. From there on in he’s low on cards and I get my mage beats on.
Game 3
We trade a bunch of cards, my hand is stacked, he lands a geist, but I rip phantasmal image for it. I eventually land a Jace and brainstorm the game away while he runs out of cards.
Round 5 ID
Second top 8 secured! Although it was just a 24 man tournament. 5-8th actually gets NOTHING for this tournament so there’s pressure to win round 1 of the top 8.
Round 1 of top 8 vs. Kevin Jones on UWR delver
Game 1
He’s on the play with turn 1 delver. I play around daze and bolt on 2 lands. He gets slightly greedy and forces. He’s stuck on island mishra’s factory while beating down with a flipped delver, and I cantrip into another bolt. From there on in I waste him to 1 land, and he never sees another land until I have a million goyfs beating him to death.
SB: +2 pyroblast 1 REB 2 spell pierce 1 phantasmal image 1 clique 1 Jace -4 FOW -4 stifle
Game 2
He again has turn 1 delver on the play and spell pierces my turn 2 bolt. He’s stuck on volcanic island and island while beating down with his delver. I hit land drops, take some damage, and then fire his delver on his upkeep. I waste him down to one land, then I REB a brainstorm, and he can’t recover while he dies to goyfs.
Round 2 of top 8 Feature match against Dan Rae on W/G maverick
Although he’s not playing stoneforge mystics, this matchup is horrible.
Game 1
We trade some early spells, and he lands an unanswered fauna shaman while I play a grim in response. He passes one turn without an activation. I go to fetch, and he pitches KOTR to flash in mindscensor at the end of his turn. I brainstorm in response, and I have to force of will to hit my fetchland activation. He kills grim, I kill his shaman, and we race my clique vs. his thalia. He plays mother of runes, and I dismember thalia. On his last possible turn, he plays scavenging ooze. The board his: him: ooze, mom, hierarch, heath, savannah, tundra, some tapped lands at 4 life. Me: lands, clique. My hand is stifle. I draw for the turn, it’s a fire//ice. I survey the board, and attack him to 1, and point fire at his face. He goes, activate ooze to gain one life, then activate again to gain one life. I stifle the second one!!!!!! Ok, fine, I’m a lucksack.
SB: +2 mind harness +2 relic of progenitus +1 nature’s claim +1 clique +1 JTMS +2 spell pierce -4 Stifle -1 FOW -4 Goyf
Game 2
He plays choke when I tap out to answer his KOTR. Then he plays garruk relentless. I die.
Game 3
He has a geist, I go to clique his combat step to block, and he mazes his geist so that his angel still hits me. I waste his maze, then while at 4 life I’m forced to trade clique with geist, then nature’s claim my own relic to stay alive. Then he plays KOTR and I concede.
A good tournament, I end up with 75$ in credit. I trade in a bunch of cards, and buy all the cards needed to build T.E.S, a deck I wanted to learn for fun. The maindeck is very tight, and I wouldn’t change anything there right now. My sideboard is still evolving, and after the tournament I trimmed some things. Right now it’s:
2 Pyroblast 2 REB 2 spell pierce 1 Clique 2 Mind harness 2 relic of progenitus 1 Ancient Grudge 1 Nature’s claim 2 Engineered explosives
This deck is very difficult to play, as there are lots of decisions and a lot of your cards vary greatly in how good they are in each matchup. That said, it’s powerful and flexible, and a great choice for any brainstorm lover!
That’s my tournament report! Thanks for reading everyone and keep playing tight!