Endure2004
03-12-2012, 08:16 PM
77th at Grand Prix Indianapolis with Next Level Threshold
Hi everybody, welcome to my GP Indy tournament report. My name’s Ning, and I’ve been playing legacy down at Jupiter Games with some of the best around, and have grown to love the format! I decided to go after I heard that my friend Eric English was heading and that I would be able to ride with him.
On Friday morning, Eric, Will Fisher, David Elrod, and I left from Rochester in my car (Eric’s car ended up being too small) to embark on the harrowing 10 hour drive to Indianapolis. We talked mostly about magic, surprise. In the car, Eric checked my status on dailymtg.com and apparently I have 2 byes! SWEET! We get to the event site, and I play some EDH games with Ethan from the other Rochester car and some other folks while we wait for grinders to fire. One of these other guys sits down and tells me he knows me! I’m utterly flabbergasted, and he tells me he is Dark Ritual on the source and that he’s read some of the stuff I put up there. Awesome! I decided that I wanted to just play for fun in the grinders since I already had two byes, so I was going to sling T.E.S. I get paired against David (from my car) so I scoop to him since he has no byes. I enter another one, and get knocked out in the second round expectedly since I am AWFUL with that deck. We get some Steak and Shake and get ready for the next day! Here’s the list I that I was going to run:
4x Tarmogoyf
3x Snapcaster Mage
2x Vendilion Clique
2x Grim Lavamancer
2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4x Force of Will
4x Brainstorm
3x Preordain
2x Counterspell
3x Spell Snare
4x Stifle
4x Lightning Bolt
1x Fire//Ice
1x Dismember
4x Scalding Tarn
1x Misty Rainforest
1x Polluted Delta
2x Flooded Strand
3x Volcanic Island
3x Tropical Island
2x Island
1x Mountain
4x Wasteland
Sideboard:
2x Pyroblast
1x Red Elemental Blast
2x Spell Pierce
1x Vendilion Clique
1x Grim Lavamancer
2x Relic of Progenitus
2x Mind Harness
2x Ancient Grudge
1x Nature’s Claim
1x Engineered Explosives
While I wait my two byes out, I grab lunch with Mark Sun, Eric English, Lewis Laskin, and Mary Jacobson. It was really cool to be able to meet some SCG grinders / pros and talk to them about legacy. Lewis is a super nice guy and Mary still owes me $4 for a Subway sandwich! I finish up waiting for my byes by playing EDH with Nick Patnode and Bryant Cook. Those games were absolutely brutal. Everyone was playing very high powered decks and games usually ended very, very quickly. Soon enough, it was time to battle!
Round 3 vs High Tide
Game 1: My opponent is a nice guy, and starts on Island, then Scalding Tarn. I Stifle his fetch, and he forces, which I let resolve. He pitches high tide. I get a goyf down to start the beats. On the last turn, he’s forced to go for it, but I have counterspell + force of will to stop him. In come the countermagic and disruption, out comes the creature removal.
Game 2: He goes turn 1 island, ponder, shuffle, draw. He misses a second land drop, and I pyroblast his cantrip. He forces, which I let resolve. He misses again, while I play a goyf and beat down. He meditates my end step to search for gas, which I let resolve. When he finally goes for it, I let him resolve a high tide, I go to stifle his candelabra, which he lets resolve. He goes for time spiral, but I’m able to counterspell and hardcast force of will with the abundance of blue mana from his high tide.
Round 4 vs UWR Stoneblade
Game 1: This game is a long, grueling affair. My opponent is pretty serious, and does not make small talk. The game starts slow, with us trading spells back and forth. I brainstorm with Jace 3-4 times, but I don’t find an answer to his factory + jitte + sword of feast and famine. I brick for 2-3 turns, and finally find a wasteland. I find a goyf, he kills it with jitte counters. I find another goyf, and that one gets it done. The game took 40 minutes. In comes the ancient grudges and the cheap counterspells, grim, and clique. Out go the forces, stifles, and the dismember.
Game 2: I let him know that I will do my best to play quickly because I know that we are short on time and it’s a control mirror. The game again goes back and forth, eventually I have 2 goyfs beating down and he resolves an Elspeth. I fight through it and kill Elspeth, and he resolves another one. I beat that one down too, and he doesn’t find an answer to the double goyfs.
Round 5 vs Welder MUD
Game 1: We both mull to 6, my hand is goyf, stifle, wasteland, and some lands. I don’t draw another spell and die a horrendous death with a million lands in hand. In comes the artifact removal, out go the stifles.
Game 2: I kill / counter some Lodestones, and kill him with a goyf.
Game 3: He mulls to 5 or 6 and I keep on seven. He opens on hall of the bandit lord! He has an ancient tomb, so he takes some quick damage. I have a goyf, out, and I clique him draw phase and I see 2 wurmcoil engines!!! I ship one, and he hastes in the other one. Scary. He’s low on life, and he has a buried rune in play. I attack with clique and goyf, and then on his attack step I ancient grudge the wurmcoil. He then plays Sundering Titan while I’m on volc, trop, volc, fetchland. My options are: flashback ancient grudge to kill his lifelink token, then get my lands blown up and try and get there with clique in the air and the bolt in my hand, or desperately brainstorm for a force of will. I decide to take the second option. I go brainstorm, fetch, shuffle, brainstorm again, and I see bolt, force, force. LUCKSACK!
Round 6 vs. Sneak Show
Game 1: My opponent is very aloof and sort of a dick. Unfortunately, he plays sneak attack on turn 2 and hits me with Emrakul. I sack some permanents, and I scoop when he shows me the second Emrakul in hand. My Aeons had some giant holes in them after that game. In comes the countermagic, out goes the removal.
Game 2: My opponent shuffles my deck weirdly, and I have a small suspicion that he is cheating somehow, but I have no evidence or any idea how. Maybe he’s just running really hot. I keep a hand with force, but he plays turn 2 show and tell after playing and not using a lotus petal. Ouch, he’s probably got a REB. I force anyways, and he has the REB, so I put in Vendilion Clique hoping to cycle something in my hand to be able to Jace his Emrakul. He shows me his hand but I tell him I’m choosing myself. Unfortunately, he has Progenitus instead of Emrakul, and I’m just dead. The match took like 10-15 minutes.
Round 7 vs. RUG delver mongoose
Game 1: This guy was a Jupiter Games player, though I didn’t know him personally. This matchup was not great for me, so I really needed to play well to get this one. This one starts off well, as he has little action after I kill his delver. We end up with goyfs staring at each other and I’m able to bluff a bolt to get in an extra attack but I’m too chicken shit to try it again. He eventually gets down a goose and a delver, but by that point I have 2 goyfs beating him down. I find a third goyf, and bolt him out. I bring in the explosives and relics to deal with his mongooses.
Game 2: I play an early relic, and keep his early mongoose from getting too angry. I build up my mana, and get my clique REB’d. I clique again, and trade with his goose. I’m able to get a goyf down and it goes the distance.
Round 8 vs. Elves
Game 1: This guy is super nice, and he came in the same car as Mark Sun, Eric English’s original Asian protégé. He tells me he knows me from the Source as soon as we sit down. Awesome! I didn’t know that that many people read the content there! He opens on Misty, Fetch, Llanowar Elves. I put him on either Elves or Maverick. I have a turn 2 goyf, and he shows that he’s on elves. I fire//ice a couple dudes down, and I get a grim lavamancer down. I counterspell a GSZ for one, and am able to get there with goyf and grim. I bring in the EE from the board and the third grim.
Game 2: I mull to hand of land, land, dismember, bolt, bolt, bolt. I then proceed to draw the 4th bolt. It’s not even close to enough against his visionary into vengevine draw. I am able to play around the recurring vengevine by not blocking in strategic positions, but it puts me low on life and he ends up with a dude and an Ezuri. They kill me.
Game 3: I have turn 1 grim and he runs dudes right into it, which he needs to do. I am able to burn a lot of his guys down, and I decide to clique draw step instead of end step. I see a natural order, WHEW! Glad I made that decision. I end up taking the game down by killing his dudes and beating down. This puts me in to day 2 at 7-1! My first Grand Prix day 2 yaaaaaay! I still have a round left to battle though, so I try to maintain my focus and not let it go to my ego.
Round 9 vs. Dredge.
Game 1: He opens on city of brass, faithless looting. He proceeds to dredge up the majority of his library while I sit and durdle. I specifically did not bring hate for this matchup, hoping to dodge it. If you look at my board, I have a measly 2 relic of progenitus. This was not going to be pretty. I try to flash in ambush viper (snapcaster mage) to trade with a narcomoeba and remove bridges, but I forget that they have flying. It doesn’t matter, as he makes a million billion zombie tokens and dread returns Iona to kill me on turn 3.
Game 2: He mulls to 5. I force of will his imp and waste his land. He sits there doing nothing while I deploy troops. Great game, bro.
Game 3: I keep a mediocre hand with a few too many cantrips. He has the turn 1 nuts and completely demolishes me. I look to my left and right, and there are 5!!! matches in a row involving dredge on one side. Ew, looks like I did not predict this metagame that well.
I end the day at 7-2, which is reasonable. I felt like I played well, and that I did not make any bad decisions. The snapcaster narcomoeba moment was embarrassing, but irrelevant, and all my other matches I felt like I played perfectly. I was pretty proud, and the whole Rochester crowd went out to Applebees for dinner. Joe Viola, Ethan Heischler, Eric English, Jon Barber, and I decide to play the credit card game. It’s my first time and I’m sweating balls, and the waitress pulls out…..Jon Barber’s card!!!! We all laugh and have a good time, and the waitress lets Jon know that the Hostess thinks he’s sexy. Jon looks like he threw up in his mouth a little bit. We go back, I sleep while everyone else cube drafts.
The next morning, Eric drives me to the event site, but they’re not letting anyone in yet. I wait outside for 20 minutes grumbling. Eventually, we get in and start battling.
Round 10 vs. Burn.
Game 1: He suspends rift bolt. I play goyf. On his upkeep, he asks how big goyf is. I know it’s a 3/4 , but instead, I tell him it’s an instant land sorcery. I points rift bolt at goyf, realizes his mistake, and goes to finish it off with a chain lightning. I play a second goyf, and it gets there as he doesn’t have enough burn to kill me because of his misplay.
Game 2: He has an aggressive goblin guide start, and throws a bunch of burn at my face. I’m in a tough spot because my draw involves a lot of nonbasics, but I get a quick goyf down to race. He empties his hand to put me to 1, and I’m able to counterspell and then snapcaster counterspell his next two plays to kill him.
Round 11 vs. Belcher
Game 1: My opponent sits down, is talkative and friendly, and lacks pen and paper. He has a million dice, but I’m not perceptive enough to interpret this as him being on belcher. Maybe I should’ve been able to from his vague descriptions of him getting lucky on day 1, but it doesn’t occur to me. I mull a hand I would’ve kept had I known he was on belcher, and proceed to die on turn 0 to a million goblin tokens. I don’t play a single card, so he doesn’t know what I’m on.
Game 2: He probes me, sees me force of will, and does nothing while I kill him with dudes.
Game 3: He keeps after a few moments, and I think I have the read on him having a turn 1 kill. I’m on the draw, so I need a force. I mull all the way down to 4 and keep on snapcaster, vendilion clique, land, spell snare. He burning wishes on my turn 0 to make a million goblin tokens. I don’t draw land, EE. I debate with myself whether I should’ve mulled to 3 or not, and I talk to a couple of friends to see if I made the right decision or not. Most people say that I did.
Round 12 vs. Bant
My opponent no shows, and gets a game loss for being tardy. It’s a teenager.
Game 1: I play grim, kill some hierarchs, and am about to lock the game up when he plays geist of saint traft. I play a snapcaster, but he has spell snare. He equips with Jitte and I have no way to interact.
Game 2: I get off mentally from the last couple games and don’t think carefully about my greedy keep. It’s volc, brainstorm, grim, and some irrelevant stuff. Very loose. He wastes me and plays Jace and I die. This was embarrassing and a good lesson for me. Despite getting unlucky in the last match and the awkward no show game loss, I still need to keep my head in the game despite whatever happens. I can’t start getting greedy and flustered and keep hands like that, because that’s how I lose. I refrain from tilting and vow to learn from this mistake.
Round 13 vs. UB tempo
Game 1: He has a double thoughtseize hand, and takes my Jace and something else. My goyf gets snuffed out, and I’m light on action. He plays a tombstalker and beats down. On the last turn, he wastes my only red source on my upkeep. I bolt stalker in response, knowing that my out is brainstorm into red source, bolt. I whiff.
Game 2: My opponent plays very tight, so kudos to him. I am able to slightly outmaneuver him this game and kill him with goyfs.
Game 3: We are low on time, so both of us try to speed up our game. He is able to stifle me low on lands, and land a stalker that eventually kills me. I don’t think I misplayed this match, but it is possible since it was a very complex match. Kudos to my opponent for playing very well and knowing the ins and outs of stifle wars.
Round 14 vs. UR burn
Game 1: My opponent opens on goblin guides and delver. I’m able to play a goyf, kill a guide, and then snapcaster bolt to take out his team. I don’t play around price of progress because he is fetching up a million non basics. Goyf eventually gets there after I counter 2 of his lethal snapcasters.
Game 2: Same basic thing. I kill some herp derp dudes and then play goyfs, which he dies to.
Round 15 vs. Affinity
Game 1: He plays some crappy dudes, I counterspell a Tezzeret. I fire//ice his dudes. I beat down with an enormous goyf.
Game 2: I brainstorm into a force for his etched champion. Then I draw an ancient grudge to go with the dismember in my hand. I have blockers in my hand, and I decide that the only way I lose this game is to a resolved planeswalker, so despite being low on life, I decide to ancient grudge his lands away and dismember a signal pest. I play some blockers, draw a second ancient grudge, and the game ends while his board is ornithopter, springleaf drum, springleaf drum.
I end up 10-5 and being ranked 77th out of 1200ish people, which is not amazing but not terrible. I’m pretty proud of the way I played outside of the game against Bant, but hey, everyone makes mistakes, and the key is to learn from them. Moving on from this tournament, I realize that to get to the next level I have to be able to concentrate just on the game at hand and not on anything else (top 8ing, how bad / good my opponent is, how lucky he is, how unlucky I am, and other irrelevant crap). Magic players love to talk about luck, but the way I see it IT DOESN’T MATTER. Stop blaming luck and figure out how to be better and how to improve your game. For me, that means despite losing or getting unlucky, I have to not let negative thoughts get inside my head and to maintain my level of play just as if I was running hot and destroying. Either way, it doesn’t matter, and all that matters is how hard you’re concentrating on the game at hand and how you’re going to win.
As for my list, moving forward I talked with Eric and we decide that the time has come for cutting stifles. I’m going to start off with -4 stifles in the main deck +1 taiga +1 grim lavamancer +2 spell pierce. In the board, I’m going to go -1 spell pierce, -1 Vendilion Clique, -1 Grim Lavamancer, +1 Thrun, the last Troll, +2 Surgical Extraction. Congrats to Nick Patnode and Jon Quackenbush for their money finishes! Thanks for reading my report, guys!
Hi everybody, welcome to my GP Indy tournament report. My name’s Ning, and I’ve been playing legacy down at Jupiter Games with some of the best around, and have grown to love the format! I decided to go after I heard that my friend Eric English was heading and that I would be able to ride with him.
On Friday morning, Eric, Will Fisher, David Elrod, and I left from Rochester in my car (Eric’s car ended up being too small) to embark on the harrowing 10 hour drive to Indianapolis. We talked mostly about magic, surprise. In the car, Eric checked my status on dailymtg.com and apparently I have 2 byes! SWEET! We get to the event site, and I play some EDH games with Ethan from the other Rochester car and some other folks while we wait for grinders to fire. One of these other guys sits down and tells me he knows me! I’m utterly flabbergasted, and he tells me he is Dark Ritual on the source and that he’s read some of the stuff I put up there. Awesome! I decided that I wanted to just play for fun in the grinders since I already had two byes, so I was going to sling T.E.S. I get paired against David (from my car) so I scoop to him since he has no byes. I enter another one, and get knocked out in the second round expectedly since I am AWFUL with that deck. We get some Steak and Shake and get ready for the next day! Here’s the list I that I was going to run:
4x Tarmogoyf
3x Snapcaster Mage
2x Vendilion Clique
2x Grim Lavamancer
2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4x Force of Will
4x Brainstorm
3x Preordain
2x Counterspell
3x Spell Snare
4x Stifle
4x Lightning Bolt
1x Fire//Ice
1x Dismember
4x Scalding Tarn
1x Misty Rainforest
1x Polluted Delta
2x Flooded Strand
3x Volcanic Island
3x Tropical Island
2x Island
1x Mountain
4x Wasteland
Sideboard:
2x Pyroblast
1x Red Elemental Blast
2x Spell Pierce
1x Vendilion Clique
1x Grim Lavamancer
2x Relic of Progenitus
2x Mind Harness
2x Ancient Grudge
1x Nature’s Claim
1x Engineered Explosives
While I wait my two byes out, I grab lunch with Mark Sun, Eric English, Lewis Laskin, and Mary Jacobson. It was really cool to be able to meet some SCG grinders / pros and talk to them about legacy. Lewis is a super nice guy and Mary still owes me $4 for a Subway sandwich! I finish up waiting for my byes by playing EDH with Nick Patnode and Bryant Cook. Those games were absolutely brutal. Everyone was playing very high powered decks and games usually ended very, very quickly. Soon enough, it was time to battle!
Round 3 vs High Tide
Game 1: My opponent is a nice guy, and starts on Island, then Scalding Tarn. I Stifle his fetch, and he forces, which I let resolve. He pitches high tide. I get a goyf down to start the beats. On the last turn, he’s forced to go for it, but I have counterspell + force of will to stop him. In come the countermagic and disruption, out comes the creature removal.
Game 2: He goes turn 1 island, ponder, shuffle, draw. He misses a second land drop, and I pyroblast his cantrip. He forces, which I let resolve. He misses again, while I play a goyf and beat down. He meditates my end step to search for gas, which I let resolve. When he finally goes for it, I let him resolve a high tide, I go to stifle his candelabra, which he lets resolve. He goes for time spiral, but I’m able to counterspell and hardcast force of will with the abundance of blue mana from his high tide.
Round 4 vs UWR Stoneblade
Game 1: This game is a long, grueling affair. My opponent is pretty serious, and does not make small talk. The game starts slow, with us trading spells back and forth. I brainstorm with Jace 3-4 times, but I don’t find an answer to his factory + jitte + sword of feast and famine. I brick for 2-3 turns, and finally find a wasteland. I find a goyf, he kills it with jitte counters. I find another goyf, and that one gets it done. The game took 40 minutes. In comes the ancient grudges and the cheap counterspells, grim, and clique. Out go the forces, stifles, and the dismember.
Game 2: I let him know that I will do my best to play quickly because I know that we are short on time and it’s a control mirror. The game again goes back and forth, eventually I have 2 goyfs beating down and he resolves an Elspeth. I fight through it and kill Elspeth, and he resolves another one. I beat that one down too, and he doesn’t find an answer to the double goyfs.
Round 5 vs Welder MUD
Game 1: We both mull to 6, my hand is goyf, stifle, wasteland, and some lands. I don’t draw another spell and die a horrendous death with a million lands in hand. In comes the artifact removal, out go the stifles.
Game 2: I kill / counter some Lodestones, and kill him with a goyf.
Game 3: He mulls to 5 or 6 and I keep on seven. He opens on hall of the bandit lord! He has an ancient tomb, so he takes some quick damage. I have a goyf, out, and I clique him draw phase and I see 2 wurmcoil engines!!! I ship one, and he hastes in the other one. Scary. He’s low on life, and he has a buried rune in play. I attack with clique and goyf, and then on his attack step I ancient grudge the wurmcoil. He then plays Sundering Titan while I’m on volc, trop, volc, fetchland. My options are: flashback ancient grudge to kill his lifelink token, then get my lands blown up and try and get there with clique in the air and the bolt in my hand, or desperately brainstorm for a force of will. I decide to take the second option. I go brainstorm, fetch, shuffle, brainstorm again, and I see bolt, force, force. LUCKSACK!
Round 6 vs. Sneak Show
Game 1: My opponent is very aloof and sort of a dick. Unfortunately, he plays sneak attack on turn 2 and hits me with Emrakul. I sack some permanents, and I scoop when he shows me the second Emrakul in hand. My Aeons had some giant holes in them after that game. In comes the countermagic, out goes the removal.
Game 2: My opponent shuffles my deck weirdly, and I have a small suspicion that he is cheating somehow, but I have no evidence or any idea how. Maybe he’s just running really hot. I keep a hand with force, but he plays turn 2 show and tell after playing and not using a lotus petal. Ouch, he’s probably got a REB. I force anyways, and he has the REB, so I put in Vendilion Clique hoping to cycle something in my hand to be able to Jace his Emrakul. He shows me his hand but I tell him I’m choosing myself. Unfortunately, he has Progenitus instead of Emrakul, and I’m just dead. The match took like 10-15 minutes.
Round 7 vs. RUG delver mongoose
Game 1: This guy was a Jupiter Games player, though I didn’t know him personally. This matchup was not great for me, so I really needed to play well to get this one. This one starts off well, as he has little action after I kill his delver. We end up with goyfs staring at each other and I’m able to bluff a bolt to get in an extra attack but I’m too chicken shit to try it again. He eventually gets down a goose and a delver, but by that point I have 2 goyfs beating him down. I find a third goyf, and bolt him out. I bring in the explosives and relics to deal with his mongooses.
Game 2: I play an early relic, and keep his early mongoose from getting too angry. I build up my mana, and get my clique REB’d. I clique again, and trade with his goose. I’m able to get a goyf down and it goes the distance.
Round 8 vs. Elves
Game 1: This guy is super nice, and he came in the same car as Mark Sun, Eric English’s original Asian protégé. He tells me he knows me from the Source as soon as we sit down. Awesome! I didn’t know that that many people read the content there! He opens on Misty, Fetch, Llanowar Elves. I put him on either Elves or Maverick. I have a turn 2 goyf, and he shows that he’s on elves. I fire//ice a couple dudes down, and I get a grim lavamancer down. I counterspell a GSZ for one, and am able to get there with goyf and grim. I bring in the EE from the board and the third grim.
Game 2: I mull to hand of land, land, dismember, bolt, bolt, bolt. I then proceed to draw the 4th bolt. It’s not even close to enough against his visionary into vengevine draw. I am able to play around the recurring vengevine by not blocking in strategic positions, but it puts me low on life and he ends up with a dude and an Ezuri. They kill me.
Game 3: I have turn 1 grim and he runs dudes right into it, which he needs to do. I am able to burn a lot of his guys down, and I decide to clique draw step instead of end step. I see a natural order, WHEW! Glad I made that decision. I end up taking the game down by killing his dudes and beating down. This puts me in to day 2 at 7-1! My first Grand Prix day 2 yaaaaaay! I still have a round left to battle though, so I try to maintain my focus and not let it go to my ego.
Round 9 vs. Dredge.
Game 1: He opens on city of brass, faithless looting. He proceeds to dredge up the majority of his library while I sit and durdle. I specifically did not bring hate for this matchup, hoping to dodge it. If you look at my board, I have a measly 2 relic of progenitus. This was not going to be pretty. I try to flash in ambush viper (snapcaster mage) to trade with a narcomoeba and remove bridges, but I forget that they have flying. It doesn’t matter, as he makes a million billion zombie tokens and dread returns Iona to kill me on turn 3.
Game 2: He mulls to 5. I force of will his imp and waste his land. He sits there doing nothing while I deploy troops. Great game, bro.
Game 3: I keep a mediocre hand with a few too many cantrips. He has the turn 1 nuts and completely demolishes me. I look to my left and right, and there are 5!!! matches in a row involving dredge on one side. Ew, looks like I did not predict this metagame that well.
I end the day at 7-2, which is reasonable. I felt like I played well, and that I did not make any bad decisions. The snapcaster narcomoeba moment was embarrassing, but irrelevant, and all my other matches I felt like I played perfectly. I was pretty proud, and the whole Rochester crowd went out to Applebees for dinner. Joe Viola, Ethan Heischler, Eric English, Jon Barber, and I decide to play the credit card game. It’s my first time and I’m sweating balls, and the waitress pulls out…..Jon Barber’s card!!!! We all laugh and have a good time, and the waitress lets Jon know that the Hostess thinks he’s sexy. Jon looks like he threw up in his mouth a little bit. We go back, I sleep while everyone else cube drafts.
The next morning, Eric drives me to the event site, but they’re not letting anyone in yet. I wait outside for 20 minutes grumbling. Eventually, we get in and start battling.
Round 10 vs. Burn.
Game 1: He suspends rift bolt. I play goyf. On his upkeep, he asks how big goyf is. I know it’s a 3/4 , but instead, I tell him it’s an instant land sorcery. I points rift bolt at goyf, realizes his mistake, and goes to finish it off with a chain lightning. I play a second goyf, and it gets there as he doesn’t have enough burn to kill me because of his misplay.
Game 2: He has an aggressive goblin guide start, and throws a bunch of burn at my face. I’m in a tough spot because my draw involves a lot of nonbasics, but I get a quick goyf down to race. He empties his hand to put me to 1, and I’m able to counterspell and then snapcaster counterspell his next two plays to kill him.
Round 11 vs. Belcher
Game 1: My opponent sits down, is talkative and friendly, and lacks pen and paper. He has a million dice, but I’m not perceptive enough to interpret this as him being on belcher. Maybe I should’ve been able to from his vague descriptions of him getting lucky on day 1, but it doesn’t occur to me. I mull a hand I would’ve kept had I known he was on belcher, and proceed to die on turn 0 to a million goblin tokens. I don’t play a single card, so he doesn’t know what I’m on.
Game 2: He probes me, sees me force of will, and does nothing while I kill him with dudes.
Game 3: He keeps after a few moments, and I think I have the read on him having a turn 1 kill. I’m on the draw, so I need a force. I mull all the way down to 4 and keep on snapcaster, vendilion clique, land, spell snare. He burning wishes on my turn 0 to make a million goblin tokens. I don’t draw land, EE. I debate with myself whether I should’ve mulled to 3 or not, and I talk to a couple of friends to see if I made the right decision or not. Most people say that I did.
Round 12 vs. Bant
My opponent no shows, and gets a game loss for being tardy. It’s a teenager.
Game 1: I play grim, kill some hierarchs, and am about to lock the game up when he plays geist of saint traft. I play a snapcaster, but he has spell snare. He equips with Jitte and I have no way to interact.
Game 2: I get off mentally from the last couple games and don’t think carefully about my greedy keep. It’s volc, brainstorm, grim, and some irrelevant stuff. Very loose. He wastes me and plays Jace and I die. This was embarrassing and a good lesson for me. Despite getting unlucky in the last match and the awkward no show game loss, I still need to keep my head in the game despite whatever happens. I can’t start getting greedy and flustered and keep hands like that, because that’s how I lose. I refrain from tilting and vow to learn from this mistake.
Round 13 vs. UB tempo
Game 1: He has a double thoughtseize hand, and takes my Jace and something else. My goyf gets snuffed out, and I’m light on action. He plays a tombstalker and beats down. On the last turn, he wastes my only red source on my upkeep. I bolt stalker in response, knowing that my out is brainstorm into red source, bolt. I whiff.
Game 2: My opponent plays very tight, so kudos to him. I am able to slightly outmaneuver him this game and kill him with goyfs.
Game 3: We are low on time, so both of us try to speed up our game. He is able to stifle me low on lands, and land a stalker that eventually kills me. I don’t think I misplayed this match, but it is possible since it was a very complex match. Kudos to my opponent for playing very well and knowing the ins and outs of stifle wars.
Round 14 vs. UR burn
Game 1: My opponent opens on goblin guides and delver. I’m able to play a goyf, kill a guide, and then snapcaster bolt to take out his team. I don’t play around price of progress because he is fetching up a million non basics. Goyf eventually gets there after I counter 2 of his lethal snapcasters.
Game 2: Same basic thing. I kill some herp derp dudes and then play goyfs, which he dies to.
Round 15 vs. Affinity
Game 1: He plays some crappy dudes, I counterspell a Tezzeret. I fire//ice his dudes. I beat down with an enormous goyf.
Game 2: I brainstorm into a force for his etched champion. Then I draw an ancient grudge to go with the dismember in my hand. I have blockers in my hand, and I decide that the only way I lose this game is to a resolved planeswalker, so despite being low on life, I decide to ancient grudge his lands away and dismember a signal pest. I play some blockers, draw a second ancient grudge, and the game ends while his board is ornithopter, springleaf drum, springleaf drum.
I end up 10-5 and being ranked 77th out of 1200ish people, which is not amazing but not terrible. I’m pretty proud of the way I played outside of the game against Bant, but hey, everyone makes mistakes, and the key is to learn from them. Moving on from this tournament, I realize that to get to the next level I have to be able to concentrate just on the game at hand and not on anything else (top 8ing, how bad / good my opponent is, how lucky he is, how unlucky I am, and other irrelevant crap). Magic players love to talk about luck, but the way I see it IT DOESN’T MATTER. Stop blaming luck and figure out how to be better and how to improve your game. For me, that means despite losing or getting unlucky, I have to not let negative thoughts get inside my head and to maintain my level of play just as if I was running hot and destroying. Either way, it doesn’t matter, and all that matters is how hard you’re concentrating on the game at hand and how you’re going to win.
As for my list, moving forward I talked with Eric and we decide that the time has come for cutting stifles. I’m going to start off with -4 stifles in the main deck +1 taiga +1 grim lavamancer +2 spell pierce. In the board, I’m going to go -1 spell pierce, -1 Vendilion Clique, -1 Grim Lavamancer, +1 Thrun, the last Troll, +2 Surgical Extraction. Congrats to Nick Patnode and Jon Quackenbush for their money finishes! Thanks for reading my report, guys!