cuthbertthecat
03-12-2012, 04:42 PM
Before the event, I was having a hard time deciding what to play. I had decided months earlier that I was going to play ubw ant, but then Thalia was printed and ruined the months of testing I had put in with the deck. I tested maverick and blade variants, but wasn't comfortable enough with the mirror matches to play them. Whenever I don't know what to play, I usually just default to some sort of life from the loam strategy, as the card itself deals with blue pretty well. I decided to play lands for this tournament because a) it has pretty good matchups against RUG, Maverick, and Blade, and b) because I was able to pick up the last foil o-stone on friday to finish fully foiling the deck.
My list:
4 Exploration
4 Life from the Loam
4 Intuition
4 Mox Diamond
3 Enlightened Tutor
2 Manabond
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Cursed Totem
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Zuran Orb
4 Maze of Ith
4 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Windswept Heath
3 Tolaria West
2 Tranquil Thicket
3 Tropical Island
1 Savannah
1 Bayou
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Forest
1 Academy Ruins
1 Karakas
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Glacial Chasm
Sideboard:
1 Tormod's Crypt
3 Chalice of the Void
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Circle of Protection:Red
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Dark Confidant
3 Oblivion Stone
On some of the card choices: The cursed totem was in the main because I expected a lot of maverick; while it was there in full force, I only played against it twice. It did, however, completely dominate both of those matches, and it made sideboarding against other decks easier. In the sideboard, the 3 o-stones are there against blade variants, where they will often have a varied converted mana cost across their board. Also, it kills leyline of the void while cleaning up the rest of the board. The ethersworn canonist should probably be the fourth chalice of the void; they have a similar impact against storm, but chalice is also good against blue.
Report:
Round 1: BYE
Round 2 v. Jayce Dunn with Merfolk
Game 1- I have an ensnaring bridge and an intuition in hand to his board of 2 lord of atlantis, silvergill adept, and merrow rejery. I cast intuition eot to bait his force, he has it, then I untap and slam the bridge. He has no outs, but the game goes on still. Eventually, my board amasses to a critical mass and he concedes.
Sideboarding: -2 Manabond, -4 Intuition, -1 Cursed Totem, +4 Dark Confidant, +1 Engineered Explosives, + 2 Oblivion Stone.
Game 2- I have a turn 2 Bob for which he has the force, I then stall with a couple of mazes and resolve an exploration. I get loam going, and eventually have ensnaring bridge, explosives on 1, explosives on 2 crucible of worlds, ghost quarter, tabernacle, and 2 oblivion stones which have put fate counters on all of my permanents to his board of islands and lords. I find a second exploration and ghost quarter all of his islands over a few turns. His creatures die, leaving him with just an aether vial in play. I o-stone it for good measure, tolaria west for tar pit, and he concedes.
2-0 Games, 2-0 Matches.
Round 3- Lewis Laskin with BUG Control
Game 1- I resolve a turn 1 exploration and have loam+waste+west against his 3 color deck with one basic. His manabase explodes, and we're off to game 2.
Sideboarding: -4 Intuition, -2 Manabond, -1 Cursed Totem, -1 Ensnaring Bridge, + 4 Dark Confidant, +3 Oblivion Stone, +1 Tormod's Crypt (I figured he was running loam somewhere in the 75)
Game 2- This isn't really a game. He mulls to 5, I have a turn 1 dark confidant. He brainstorms, sees bricks, and concedes. I apologize, he's cool with it, saying "that's magic". Definitely a cool guy.
4-0 Games, 3-0 matches
Round 4- Scott Morrow with Mono W Aggro (Not death and taxes)
Game 1- It's obvious he hasn't played against lands before; he reads all of my cards and doesn't concede when I get EE lock, ghost quarter all of his lands, have 4 maze of ith and glacial chasm. I deck him with ruins+mox diamond, and game 2 starts with 5 minutes left on the clock.
Sideboarding: -4 Intuition, -2 Manabond, -1 Cursed Totem, +4 Dark Confidant, +1 Engineered Explosives, +2 Oblivion Stone
Game 2- He gets a mindcensor against my plan of loam+west, but I have enough mazes to last through turns. If he had conceded game one earlier, he had a good chance of winning that game 2. We talk afterwards, he explains that he had 3 byes, so he figured he'd build something and come play. I think he ended up day 2ing.
6-0 Games, 4-0 Matches
Round 5- William Nichols with Sneak/Show
Game 1- He kills me on turn 4 with sneak+emrakul with the help of lotus petals and double lands. Ouch.
Sideboarding: -2 Manabond, -1 Cursed Totem, -1 Zuran Orb, +3 Oblivion Stone, +1 Phyrexian Revoker.
Game 2- He has the turn 3 show and tell, he puts in emrakul and I put in ensnaring bridge. I start smashing his manabase; at one point he has an untapped scalding tarn, I port it and he fetches a mountain, I untap and ghost quarter it, he fails to find because his other basics are in play. He concedes when I transmute for the tar pit.
Game 3- I have tutor for bridge, glacial chasm, waste lock, quarter lock, and karakas. He can't win and dies to the tar pit. I intuition at one point in this game for revoker, chasm, and karakas with loam and academy ruins.
6-1 Games, 5-0 Matches
Round 6- Samuel Black with Esper Blade
Game 1- He gets fast pressure on me, taking me down to 3 life. I find glacial chasm with loam and exploration, let it stay for a turn, and get several mazes into play. He concedes when I start ghost quartering his lands.
Sideboarding: -4 Intuition, -2 Manabond, -1 Cursed Totem, -3 Enlightened Tutor, +4 Dark Confidant, +3 Oblivion Stone, +3 Chalice of the Void
Game 2- He surgically extracts both my loams and my dark confidants. I concede to save time.
Game 3- He surgicals my o-stones after countering my first one. I die to batterskull beats and jace keeping me off of live cards.
7-3 Games, 5-1 Matches
Round 7- Jacob Bagha with Deadguy Ale
Game 1- He mulls to 6 and leads with nonbasics, I get waste+loam and dredge into some mazes and a tolaria west. He concedes.
Sideboarding: -4 Intuition, -2 Manabond, -1 Cursed Totem, +4 Dark Confidant, +2 Oblivion Stone, +1 Engineered Explosives,
Game 2- This game is a grind. He starts to gain advantage in the midgame with a liliana edicting away one of my two bobs with batterskull attacking, and really gets ahead when he hymn's my hand of academy ruins and tranquil thicket and relics me. I find a tutor for an o-stone, and clear the board. The game stalls for a bit due to my ports, and my board becomes zuran orb, 4 exploration, and crucible, while his is a jitte with 4 counters and no creatures. I'm gaining 10 life a turn, and he plays a bitterblossom. I tutor for tar pit, he gains life to circumvent the damage, but eventually the beats and the life loss from the blossom get him. He was hoping to deck me, as my ruins was exiled and my library was down to 8 cards.
9-3 Games, 6-1 Matches
Round 8- Brain Kibler with G/W Maverick
Game 1- He has a slow start, I have intuition for loam, ruins, cursed totem. I get the totem and he can't deal with it. He concedes when my board starts becoming massive.
Sideboarding- -4 Intuition, -2 Manabond, +4 Dark Confidant, +1 Engineered Explosives, +1 Oblivion Stone
Game 2- I keep a sketchy hand, the only appealing factor of which is EE lock. He has 2 Scavenging ooze, and I concede rather quickly.
Game 3- I naturally draw the cursed totem and slam it on turn 2. He gets a wheel of sun and moon and 2 attackers, but I get 2 bobs and 2 mazes along with tabernacle. He plays and pays for nobles for several turns, and attempts to armageddon off of them. I point out that he can't because of cursed totem, he reads it and laughs. He thought it was essentially damping matrix, he stops paying for them, but ports+wastes keep him off mana. At one point, I forget to pay for my bobs and they die at around 6 life, but tolaria west finds tar pit to kill him.
11-4 Games, 7-1 Matches
Round 9- Douglas Babcock with RUG Delver
Game 1- I waste+quarter his manabase and chill with a few mazes to stop his goyfs. He concedes when I play loam for west and search zuran orb.
Sideboarding: -4 Intuition, -2 Manabond, -1 Cursed Totem, -1 Enlightened Tutor, +4 Dark Confidant, +1 Engineered Explosives, +3 Chalice of the Void
Game 2- I stick an early chalice for 1 and start porting him. By the time he can deal with chalice, I can ruins it back and transmute for another. I play them on 1 and 2 and he concedes because that's his entire curve.
13-4 Games, 8-1 Matches
Day 2
Round 10- Adam Yurchick with U/W Blade
Game 1- I keep a sketchy hand that's the nuts if I find a fetch. I don't over about ten turns and die to equipped fellows.
Sideboarding: -4 Intuition, -2 Manabond, -1 Cursed Totem, -3 Enlightened Tutor, + 4 Dark Confidant, +3 Oblivion Stone, +3 Chalice of the Void
Game 2- I resolve a chalice on 1, and loam advantage eventually buries him. He concedes with about 20 minutes left on the clock.
Game 3- I stall out the early game, but he's gaining an advantage as the game progresses. I get a zuran orb and am able to gain too much life for him to be able to kill me in turns.
14-5 Games, 8-1-1 Matches
Round 11- Joshua Ravitz with Maverick
Game 1- I have enlightened tutor and ensnaring bridge in my opener, I put my opponent on maverick so I keep. His turn 1 windswept heath for savannah for gsz for arbor is met with my turn 1 cursed totem. Tutor for bridge comes shortly after, and that's a hardlock against maverick. He concedes when his only land in play is maze of ith.
Sideboarding: -4 Intuition, -2 Manabond, +4 Dark Confidant, +1 Engineered Explosives, +1 Oblivion Stone
Game 2- I have a turn 1 bob. He is able to waste my green source and pridemage my mox diamond, but bob keeps me ahead on cards and eventually finds a green source for loam. I eventually get 2 mazes and tolaria west with cursed totem and he concedes.
16-5 Games, 9-1-1 Matches
Round 12- Bernie Wen with Esper Blade
Game 1- I start with the loam advantage, playing around clique with tranquil thicket to main phase dredge and cast loam without passing priority. I resolve an intuition for explorations with a manabond in hand to bait the force, he doesn't have one though and both manabond and exploration resolve. He gets a jace, but is still very far behind on board and concedes when I tar pit his jace out and ghost quarter him.
Sideboarding: -4 Intuition, -2 Manabond, -1 Cursed Totem, -3 Enlightened Tutor, -1 Ensnaring Bridge +4 Dark Confidant, +3 Oblivion Stone, +3 Chalice of the Void, +1 Phyrexian Revoker
Game 2- This one goes long, he gets clique lock with karakas and I don't have an answer. He gets a jace, and I get an o-stone after finding a port for his karakas. I put fate counters on all of my nonlands and blow uo his board. He plays a leyline and another jace and continues where he left off, vindicating and exiling my creeping tar pit. I eventually have 4 rishadan ports and am able to waste karakas, in response to which he bounces his clique. On his upkeep, I port 4 blue lands. He fateseals and passes. On my upkeep, I port 3 more blue lands to keep him off clique in my draw step, activate ruins for EE, draw it, and play it on 4 with only 1 mana up. He untaps, jacestorms, and doesn't find a disenchant, vindicate, or snapcaster. On my turn, his leyline and jace die. He draws, casts a brainstorm, and finds vindicate for my zuran orb. In response, I port the wasteland he has in play, he wastes my ruins, and I gain 2 life in response. Port is such a tricky card. Eventually, I start getting loam advantage, but my tar pit was exiled when the leyine was in play. We go to time and he concedes, realizing that I will deck him with ruins+mox diamond.
18-5 Games, 10-1-1 Matches
Round 13- Colin Chilbert with Spiral Tide
Games 1 and 2- I can't beat spiral tide. I stare longingly at the match happening next to us, dredge v. maverick, and wondering why I wasn't paired against one of those. Them's the beats, I guess.
18-7 Games, 10-2-1 Matches
Round 14- Jason Ford with RUG Delver
Game 1- I stabilize at 1 with an ensnaring bridge and a crucible versus his board of no lands, a goyf, and 2 threshed mongeese. I have an intuition which I cast for loam, west, tabernacle instead of loam, west, and chasm, or chasm and any 2 cards for that matter, and I die next turn to his topdecked burn.
Sideboarding: -4 Intuition, -2 Manabond, -1 Cursed Totem, -1 Enlightened Tutor, +4 Dark Confidant, +1 Engineered Explosives, +3 Chalice of the Void
Game 2- I get a turn 1 chalice for 1 and loam going, he grudges the chalice and my zorb, I play an exploration and wreck his mana. I get a tabernacle on his board of dudes and no lands while at 18 life with 2 mazes, he concedes.
Game 3- He leads with a delver who doesn't flip and a mongoose. I waste his only land, his delver flips. I have an EE, I have a choice whether to blow up his mongoose, or his delver along with my 2 moxen. I choose to kill the goose at 15 life, figuring 1 have 5 draw steps to find an answer to delver with him having 5 cards in graveyard, meaning that a fetch + a spell will result in a much more difficult 3/3 to deal with. I draw 3 rishadan ports and 2 fetches and die while he has no lands in play.
19-9 Games, 10-3-1 Matches
Round 15: Ben Stark with Maverick
We I.D into top 64, as we aren't sure if the winner would even make top 32. I'm pretty sure I would've beaten him though.
Final Result: 19-9 Games, 10-3-2 Matches
I'm pretty irritated with myself about the bad intuition against RUG, there's no reason I shouldn'tve played around his out. Other than that though, I felt all of my matches went how they should have, and I played slowly and carefully to prevent misplays. I will definitely be on this build for the near future, it's just such a monster against the largely creature dominated format.
My list:
4 Exploration
4 Life from the Loam
4 Intuition
4 Mox Diamond
3 Enlightened Tutor
2 Manabond
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Cursed Totem
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Zuran Orb
4 Maze of Ith
4 Rishadan Port
4 Wasteland
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Windswept Heath
3 Tolaria West
2 Tranquil Thicket
3 Tropical Island
1 Savannah
1 Bayou
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Forest
1 Academy Ruins
1 Karakas
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Glacial Chasm
Sideboard:
1 Tormod's Crypt
3 Chalice of the Void
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Circle of Protection:Red
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Dark Confidant
3 Oblivion Stone
On some of the card choices: The cursed totem was in the main because I expected a lot of maverick; while it was there in full force, I only played against it twice. It did, however, completely dominate both of those matches, and it made sideboarding against other decks easier. In the sideboard, the 3 o-stones are there against blade variants, where they will often have a varied converted mana cost across their board. Also, it kills leyline of the void while cleaning up the rest of the board. The ethersworn canonist should probably be the fourth chalice of the void; they have a similar impact against storm, but chalice is also good against blue.
Report:
Round 1: BYE
Round 2 v. Jayce Dunn with Merfolk
Game 1- I have an ensnaring bridge and an intuition in hand to his board of 2 lord of atlantis, silvergill adept, and merrow rejery. I cast intuition eot to bait his force, he has it, then I untap and slam the bridge. He has no outs, but the game goes on still. Eventually, my board amasses to a critical mass and he concedes.
Sideboarding: -2 Manabond, -4 Intuition, -1 Cursed Totem, +4 Dark Confidant, +1 Engineered Explosives, + 2 Oblivion Stone.
Game 2- I have a turn 2 Bob for which he has the force, I then stall with a couple of mazes and resolve an exploration. I get loam going, and eventually have ensnaring bridge, explosives on 1, explosives on 2 crucible of worlds, ghost quarter, tabernacle, and 2 oblivion stones which have put fate counters on all of my permanents to his board of islands and lords. I find a second exploration and ghost quarter all of his islands over a few turns. His creatures die, leaving him with just an aether vial in play. I o-stone it for good measure, tolaria west for tar pit, and he concedes.
2-0 Games, 2-0 Matches.
Round 3- Lewis Laskin with BUG Control
Game 1- I resolve a turn 1 exploration and have loam+waste+west against his 3 color deck with one basic. His manabase explodes, and we're off to game 2.
Sideboarding: -4 Intuition, -2 Manabond, -1 Cursed Totem, -1 Ensnaring Bridge, + 4 Dark Confidant, +3 Oblivion Stone, +1 Tormod's Crypt (I figured he was running loam somewhere in the 75)
Game 2- This isn't really a game. He mulls to 5, I have a turn 1 dark confidant. He brainstorms, sees bricks, and concedes. I apologize, he's cool with it, saying "that's magic". Definitely a cool guy.
4-0 Games, 3-0 matches
Round 4- Scott Morrow with Mono W Aggro (Not death and taxes)
Game 1- It's obvious he hasn't played against lands before; he reads all of my cards and doesn't concede when I get EE lock, ghost quarter all of his lands, have 4 maze of ith and glacial chasm. I deck him with ruins+mox diamond, and game 2 starts with 5 minutes left on the clock.
Sideboarding: -4 Intuition, -2 Manabond, -1 Cursed Totem, +4 Dark Confidant, +1 Engineered Explosives, +2 Oblivion Stone
Game 2- He gets a mindcensor against my plan of loam+west, but I have enough mazes to last through turns. If he had conceded game one earlier, he had a good chance of winning that game 2. We talk afterwards, he explains that he had 3 byes, so he figured he'd build something and come play. I think he ended up day 2ing.
6-0 Games, 4-0 Matches
Round 5- William Nichols with Sneak/Show
Game 1- He kills me on turn 4 with sneak+emrakul with the help of lotus petals and double lands. Ouch.
Sideboarding: -2 Manabond, -1 Cursed Totem, -1 Zuran Orb, +3 Oblivion Stone, +1 Phyrexian Revoker.
Game 2- He has the turn 3 show and tell, he puts in emrakul and I put in ensnaring bridge. I start smashing his manabase; at one point he has an untapped scalding tarn, I port it and he fetches a mountain, I untap and ghost quarter it, he fails to find because his other basics are in play. He concedes when I transmute for the tar pit.
Game 3- I have tutor for bridge, glacial chasm, waste lock, quarter lock, and karakas. He can't win and dies to the tar pit. I intuition at one point in this game for revoker, chasm, and karakas with loam and academy ruins.
6-1 Games, 5-0 Matches
Round 6- Samuel Black with Esper Blade
Game 1- He gets fast pressure on me, taking me down to 3 life. I find glacial chasm with loam and exploration, let it stay for a turn, and get several mazes into play. He concedes when I start ghost quartering his lands.
Sideboarding: -4 Intuition, -2 Manabond, -1 Cursed Totem, -3 Enlightened Tutor, +4 Dark Confidant, +3 Oblivion Stone, +3 Chalice of the Void
Game 2- He surgically extracts both my loams and my dark confidants. I concede to save time.
Game 3- He surgicals my o-stones after countering my first one. I die to batterskull beats and jace keeping me off of live cards.
7-3 Games, 5-1 Matches
Round 7- Jacob Bagha with Deadguy Ale
Game 1- He mulls to 6 and leads with nonbasics, I get waste+loam and dredge into some mazes and a tolaria west. He concedes.
Sideboarding: -4 Intuition, -2 Manabond, -1 Cursed Totem, +4 Dark Confidant, +2 Oblivion Stone, +1 Engineered Explosives,
Game 2- This game is a grind. He starts to gain advantage in the midgame with a liliana edicting away one of my two bobs with batterskull attacking, and really gets ahead when he hymn's my hand of academy ruins and tranquil thicket and relics me. I find a tutor for an o-stone, and clear the board. The game stalls for a bit due to my ports, and my board becomes zuran orb, 4 exploration, and crucible, while his is a jitte with 4 counters and no creatures. I'm gaining 10 life a turn, and he plays a bitterblossom. I tutor for tar pit, he gains life to circumvent the damage, but eventually the beats and the life loss from the blossom get him. He was hoping to deck me, as my ruins was exiled and my library was down to 8 cards.
9-3 Games, 6-1 Matches
Round 8- Brain Kibler with G/W Maverick
Game 1- He has a slow start, I have intuition for loam, ruins, cursed totem. I get the totem and he can't deal with it. He concedes when my board starts becoming massive.
Sideboarding- -4 Intuition, -2 Manabond, +4 Dark Confidant, +1 Engineered Explosives, +1 Oblivion Stone
Game 2- I keep a sketchy hand, the only appealing factor of which is EE lock. He has 2 Scavenging ooze, and I concede rather quickly.
Game 3- I naturally draw the cursed totem and slam it on turn 2. He gets a wheel of sun and moon and 2 attackers, but I get 2 bobs and 2 mazes along with tabernacle. He plays and pays for nobles for several turns, and attempts to armageddon off of them. I point out that he can't because of cursed totem, he reads it and laughs. He thought it was essentially damping matrix, he stops paying for them, but ports+wastes keep him off mana. At one point, I forget to pay for my bobs and they die at around 6 life, but tolaria west finds tar pit to kill him.
11-4 Games, 7-1 Matches
Round 9- Douglas Babcock with RUG Delver
Game 1- I waste+quarter his manabase and chill with a few mazes to stop his goyfs. He concedes when I play loam for west and search zuran orb.
Sideboarding: -4 Intuition, -2 Manabond, -1 Cursed Totem, -1 Enlightened Tutor, +4 Dark Confidant, +1 Engineered Explosives, +3 Chalice of the Void
Game 2- I stick an early chalice for 1 and start porting him. By the time he can deal with chalice, I can ruins it back and transmute for another. I play them on 1 and 2 and he concedes because that's his entire curve.
13-4 Games, 8-1 Matches
Day 2
Round 10- Adam Yurchick with U/W Blade
Game 1- I keep a sketchy hand that's the nuts if I find a fetch. I don't over about ten turns and die to equipped fellows.
Sideboarding: -4 Intuition, -2 Manabond, -1 Cursed Totem, -3 Enlightened Tutor, + 4 Dark Confidant, +3 Oblivion Stone, +3 Chalice of the Void
Game 2- I resolve a chalice on 1, and loam advantage eventually buries him. He concedes with about 20 minutes left on the clock.
Game 3- I stall out the early game, but he's gaining an advantage as the game progresses. I get a zuran orb and am able to gain too much life for him to be able to kill me in turns.
14-5 Games, 8-1-1 Matches
Round 11- Joshua Ravitz with Maverick
Game 1- I have enlightened tutor and ensnaring bridge in my opener, I put my opponent on maverick so I keep. His turn 1 windswept heath for savannah for gsz for arbor is met with my turn 1 cursed totem. Tutor for bridge comes shortly after, and that's a hardlock against maverick. He concedes when his only land in play is maze of ith.
Sideboarding: -4 Intuition, -2 Manabond, +4 Dark Confidant, +1 Engineered Explosives, +1 Oblivion Stone
Game 2- I have a turn 1 bob. He is able to waste my green source and pridemage my mox diamond, but bob keeps me ahead on cards and eventually finds a green source for loam. I eventually get 2 mazes and tolaria west with cursed totem and he concedes.
16-5 Games, 9-1-1 Matches
Round 12- Bernie Wen with Esper Blade
Game 1- I start with the loam advantage, playing around clique with tranquil thicket to main phase dredge and cast loam without passing priority. I resolve an intuition for explorations with a manabond in hand to bait the force, he doesn't have one though and both manabond and exploration resolve. He gets a jace, but is still very far behind on board and concedes when I tar pit his jace out and ghost quarter him.
Sideboarding: -4 Intuition, -2 Manabond, -1 Cursed Totem, -3 Enlightened Tutor, -1 Ensnaring Bridge +4 Dark Confidant, +3 Oblivion Stone, +3 Chalice of the Void, +1 Phyrexian Revoker
Game 2- This one goes long, he gets clique lock with karakas and I don't have an answer. He gets a jace, and I get an o-stone after finding a port for his karakas. I put fate counters on all of my nonlands and blow uo his board. He plays a leyline and another jace and continues where he left off, vindicating and exiling my creeping tar pit. I eventually have 4 rishadan ports and am able to waste karakas, in response to which he bounces his clique. On his upkeep, I port 4 blue lands. He fateseals and passes. On my upkeep, I port 3 more blue lands to keep him off clique in my draw step, activate ruins for EE, draw it, and play it on 4 with only 1 mana up. He untaps, jacestorms, and doesn't find a disenchant, vindicate, or snapcaster. On my turn, his leyline and jace die. He draws, casts a brainstorm, and finds vindicate for my zuran orb. In response, I port the wasteland he has in play, he wastes my ruins, and I gain 2 life in response. Port is such a tricky card. Eventually, I start getting loam advantage, but my tar pit was exiled when the leyine was in play. We go to time and he concedes, realizing that I will deck him with ruins+mox diamond.
18-5 Games, 10-1-1 Matches
Round 13- Colin Chilbert with Spiral Tide
Games 1 and 2- I can't beat spiral tide. I stare longingly at the match happening next to us, dredge v. maverick, and wondering why I wasn't paired against one of those. Them's the beats, I guess.
18-7 Games, 10-2-1 Matches
Round 14- Jason Ford with RUG Delver
Game 1- I stabilize at 1 with an ensnaring bridge and a crucible versus his board of no lands, a goyf, and 2 threshed mongeese. I have an intuition which I cast for loam, west, tabernacle instead of loam, west, and chasm, or chasm and any 2 cards for that matter, and I die next turn to his topdecked burn.
Sideboarding: -4 Intuition, -2 Manabond, -1 Cursed Totem, -1 Enlightened Tutor, +4 Dark Confidant, +1 Engineered Explosives, +3 Chalice of the Void
Game 2- I get a turn 1 chalice for 1 and loam going, he grudges the chalice and my zorb, I play an exploration and wreck his mana. I get a tabernacle on his board of dudes and no lands while at 18 life with 2 mazes, he concedes.
Game 3- He leads with a delver who doesn't flip and a mongoose. I waste his only land, his delver flips. I have an EE, I have a choice whether to blow up his mongoose, or his delver along with my 2 moxen. I choose to kill the goose at 15 life, figuring 1 have 5 draw steps to find an answer to delver with him having 5 cards in graveyard, meaning that a fetch + a spell will result in a much more difficult 3/3 to deal with. I draw 3 rishadan ports and 2 fetches and die while he has no lands in play.
19-9 Games, 10-3-1 Matches
Round 15: Ben Stark with Maverick
We I.D into top 64, as we aren't sure if the winner would even make top 32. I'm pretty sure I would've beaten him though.
Final Result: 19-9 Games, 10-3-2 Matches
I'm pretty irritated with myself about the bad intuition against RUG, there's no reason I shouldn'tve played around his out. Other than that though, I felt all of my matches went how they should have, and I played slowly and carefully to prevent misplays. I will definitely be on this build for the near future, it's just such a monster against the largely creature dominated format.