Fenrus
03-24-2012, 04:59 AM
A few months back someone mentioned that there was an SCG open coming to Sacramento, California. Initially, I only had the money for one trip--GP Salt Lake--but closer to the tournament I was able to re-asses my finances. It was on. Kevin, Vale, Josh, and I were planning on going down to Sac from Tahoe (~2 hours away) and then coming back up both days. That was before the weather tried to kill us.
The trip down was mostly uneventful. There was chain control on the mountain pass. We applied chains to Vale's car and were on our way. Rain, rain, a little bit of snow, some more rain, and the chains came off. As we were pulling the chains off someone came on a load speaker outside of chain control and closed it down. Bullshit.
After two more hours we made it to the Super 8. Got comfortable. Went to A-1 comics for FNM and promptly scrubbed out.
Day 1:
4-3 with humans. Tons of trading. Was able to get all four of the sneak attacks I needed to play a real deck.
Day 2:
Decklist:
Enchantments
4 Sneak Attack
Instants
4 Brainstorm
2 Daze
4 Force of Will
2 Misdirection
2 Spell Snare
Legendary Creatures
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Progenitus
Planeswalkers
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Sorceries
4 Ponder
2 Preordain
4 Show and Tell
Basic Lands
2 Island
1 Mountain
Lands
4 Ancient Tomb
1 Bloodstained Mire
3 City of Traitors
2 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Volcanic Island
1 Wooded Foothills
Sideboard:
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Pithing Needle
3 Blood Moon
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Spell Pierce
1 Spell Snare
2 Stifle
1 Shattering Spree
I'll preface the report with two facts. I had played the deck once before. One game twenty minutes before the open started versus Vale's U/W Stoneblade. The second being that I've never written a tournament report before.
Round one: Myles K with RUG Delver.
Game 1:
I keep a very quick hand. He gets a delver down. I brainstorm or ponder. I don't remember. His delver doesn't flip. -1 me. That happens once more before Show and Tell --> Emrakul is scrawled crudely on my paper followed by new life totals.
-3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
+3 Blood Moon
Game 2:
He turn ones a delver. It doesn't flip. I turn two a blood moon. Force. Force. Daze. Sneak attack and then he drops to four and scoops.
Round two:
Tony DeVeyra with Aggro Loam(Congrats on the top 4 finish!)
Game 1: Mulligan once and then I get the shit kicked out of me by various Loam Agro creatures before resolving a sneak attack into Emrakul and Progenitus. I'm at four and he's at negative six.
Game 2: I fall to 18, then 17, then T3 Show and Tell into Emrakul. He scoops.
Round three: Mike F. With mono U Show and Tell
He came down from Oregon with the eventual victor of the tournament. They had built this deck, and the one that won, on the car ride down. Good job guys.
Game 1: I'm not sure what he's playing. If my memory serves me I see lots of islands and a few counterspells. I end up resolving sneak attack into Emrakul and Progenitus. Tough beats.
Not really sure how to side. I bring in two spell pierces and three red elemental blasts. I take out 2 Spell Snares, 2 Msdirections, and a preordain.
Game 2: After a few turns, where nothing really occurs, we have a counter war over show and tell. I lose, but still have sneak attack and Emrakul in my hand. It's his turn and he casts Show and Tell. I have no idea what to expect; hive mind, sower of temptation, no idea at all, so I put Sneak attack into play. He puts a progenitus into play. I take my turn, untap, and make a hasty Emrakul. GG
Round four: Michael Hetrick playing Esper Stoneblade. Congratulations on the top 8 finish.
Game 1: I didn't write anything down. I'm at 18 life and he dies.
Game 2: I end up resolving a sneak and take him to four off of Emrakul. He sacrifices his entire board and I go to scoop up my cards and he says, "i'm not scooping, let's keep playing." Five turns later I don't find a creature. He manages to counter every draw spell I play and then I die to four or five lands, a stoneforge mystic, and a batterskull. I did not expect that to happen.
Game 3: I mulligan twice. He goes on the land destruction plan, literally. He thoughtseizes me. I brainstorm in response hiding an emrakul and another draw spell (double show and tell in hand and a misdirection.) He takes the misdirection and then vindicates my land. Shit! I lose after not being able to resolve a single spell.
Round five: Brian N playing forgemaster combo.
Game 1: I see an ancient tomb. That's the only mana he plays other than grim monoliths and voltaic keys. I force a metalworker and daze a forge master. He takes himself to 12 with Ancient Tomb and a show and tell + progenitus ends the game shortly after.
Out Jace, in blood moon and shattering spree.
Game 2: He plays a few artifacts. Taps out to cast a metalworker and I counter. Meanwhile, I have volcanic, volcanic, and mountain in play. Brainstorm shows me a shattering spree and I destroy grim monolith, lightning greaves, and a great furnace. On my next turn I show and tell Emrakul and he pts a wurmcoil into play. I have written down, in shorthand, EM > WC.
Round Six: Josh playing BUG
Thanks to Dane Young for making this match (http://www.starcitygames.com/events/coverage/round_6_richard_centanni_vs_jo.html) simple.
Round Seven: Brett Parise. Warchief-less Goblins.
Intentional draw after several friends assure me if I do I make top 8.
Top 8: Phillip, the guy who won the tournament with unstable mutation. This match is on camera. I can't find a video snippet of just it, unfortunately, but here is the link (http://www.twitch.tv/scglive/b/312092324). Match starts at about 9:34.
Game 1: He plays a noble hierarch. Then I play a fetchland and make the worst mistake I've ever made; fetched for a volcanic with no red cards in hand and got trounced by a wasteland. After a stream of spells I just die without finding another colored mana.
Game 2: I eek out a win with a show and tell into Emrakul.
Game 3: I keep an action light hand without a creature and just lose before I find Emrakul or Progenitus.
Thoughts about the deck:
After playing seven rounds with Sneak and Show I found out quite a few things about it.
1. I almost never cared to have spell snare in my hand. I only got to cast it once against a stoneforge mystic and it got countered. Every other time the card was just dead as tarmogoyf/pridemage/bob/etc don't really matter to you when you plop down emrakul or progenitus.
2. Not the biggest fan of preordain. I want to try faithless looting.
3. Firespout in the board. Maybe a tropical island or taiga as well.
Props:
Paying for the trip with legacy.
Vale for making top 4 in Draft open #2.
Matt and Kevin for telling me to draw into top 8.
Korean BBQ. That shit is amazing.
All of the trades.
Slops:
Fetching for a volcanic island with no red cards in hand against wastelands. FML
The trip down was mostly uneventful. There was chain control on the mountain pass. We applied chains to Vale's car and were on our way. Rain, rain, a little bit of snow, some more rain, and the chains came off. As we were pulling the chains off someone came on a load speaker outside of chain control and closed it down. Bullshit.
After two more hours we made it to the Super 8. Got comfortable. Went to A-1 comics for FNM and promptly scrubbed out.
Day 1:
4-3 with humans. Tons of trading. Was able to get all four of the sneak attacks I needed to play a real deck.
Day 2:
Decklist:
Enchantments
4 Sneak Attack
Instants
4 Brainstorm
2 Daze
4 Force of Will
2 Misdirection
2 Spell Snare
Legendary Creatures
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Progenitus
Planeswalkers
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Sorceries
4 Ponder
2 Preordain
4 Show and Tell
Basic Lands
2 Island
1 Mountain
Lands
4 Ancient Tomb
1 Bloodstained Mire
3 City of Traitors
2 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Volcanic Island
1 Wooded Foothills
Sideboard:
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Pithing Needle
3 Blood Moon
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Spell Pierce
1 Spell Snare
2 Stifle
1 Shattering Spree
I'll preface the report with two facts. I had played the deck once before. One game twenty minutes before the open started versus Vale's U/W Stoneblade. The second being that I've never written a tournament report before.
Round one: Myles K with RUG Delver.
Game 1:
I keep a very quick hand. He gets a delver down. I brainstorm or ponder. I don't remember. His delver doesn't flip. -1 me. That happens once more before Show and Tell --> Emrakul is scrawled crudely on my paper followed by new life totals.
-3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
+3 Blood Moon
Game 2:
He turn ones a delver. It doesn't flip. I turn two a blood moon. Force. Force. Daze. Sneak attack and then he drops to four and scoops.
Round two:
Tony DeVeyra with Aggro Loam(Congrats on the top 4 finish!)
Game 1: Mulligan once and then I get the shit kicked out of me by various Loam Agro creatures before resolving a sneak attack into Emrakul and Progenitus. I'm at four and he's at negative six.
Game 2: I fall to 18, then 17, then T3 Show and Tell into Emrakul. He scoops.
Round three: Mike F. With mono U Show and Tell
He came down from Oregon with the eventual victor of the tournament. They had built this deck, and the one that won, on the car ride down. Good job guys.
Game 1: I'm not sure what he's playing. If my memory serves me I see lots of islands and a few counterspells. I end up resolving sneak attack into Emrakul and Progenitus. Tough beats.
Not really sure how to side. I bring in two spell pierces and three red elemental blasts. I take out 2 Spell Snares, 2 Msdirections, and a preordain.
Game 2: After a few turns, where nothing really occurs, we have a counter war over show and tell. I lose, but still have sneak attack and Emrakul in my hand. It's his turn and he casts Show and Tell. I have no idea what to expect; hive mind, sower of temptation, no idea at all, so I put Sneak attack into play. He puts a progenitus into play. I take my turn, untap, and make a hasty Emrakul. GG
Round four: Michael Hetrick playing Esper Stoneblade. Congratulations on the top 8 finish.
Game 1: I didn't write anything down. I'm at 18 life and he dies.
Game 2: I end up resolving a sneak and take him to four off of Emrakul. He sacrifices his entire board and I go to scoop up my cards and he says, "i'm not scooping, let's keep playing." Five turns later I don't find a creature. He manages to counter every draw spell I play and then I die to four or five lands, a stoneforge mystic, and a batterskull. I did not expect that to happen.
Game 3: I mulligan twice. He goes on the land destruction plan, literally. He thoughtseizes me. I brainstorm in response hiding an emrakul and another draw spell (double show and tell in hand and a misdirection.) He takes the misdirection and then vindicates my land. Shit! I lose after not being able to resolve a single spell.
Round five: Brian N playing forgemaster combo.
Game 1: I see an ancient tomb. That's the only mana he plays other than grim monoliths and voltaic keys. I force a metalworker and daze a forge master. He takes himself to 12 with Ancient Tomb and a show and tell + progenitus ends the game shortly after.
Out Jace, in blood moon and shattering spree.
Game 2: He plays a few artifacts. Taps out to cast a metalworker and I counter. Meanwhile, I have volcanic, volcanic, and mountain in play. Brainstorm shows me a shattering spree and I destroy grim monolith, lightning greaves, and a great furnace. On my next turn I show and tell Emrakul and he pts a wurmcoil into play. I have written down, in shorthand, EM > WC.
Round Six: Josh playing BUG
Thanks to Dane Young for making this match (http://www.starcitygames.com/events/coverage/round_6_richard_centanni_vs_jo.html) simple.
Round Seven: Brett Parise. Warchief-less Goblins.
Intentional draw after several friends assure me if I do I make top 8.
Top 8: Phillip, the guy who won the tournament with unstable mutation. This match is on camera. I can't find a video snippet of just it, unfortunately, but here is the link (http://www.twitch.tv/scglive/b/312092324). Match starts at about 9:34.
Game 1: He plays a noble hierarch. Then I play a fetchland and make the worst mistake I've ever made; fetched for a volcanic with no red cards in hand and got trounced by a wasteland. After a stream of spells I just die without finding another colored mana.
Game 2: I eek out a win with a show and tell into Emrakul.
Game 3: I keep an action light hand without a creature and just lose before I find Emrakul or Progenitus.
Thoughts about the deck:
After playing seven rounds with Sneak and Show I found out quite a few things about it.
1. I almost never cared to have spell snare in my hand. I only got to cast it once against a stoneforge mystic and it got countered. Every other time the card was just dead as tarmogoyf/pridemage/bob/etc don't really matter to you when you plop down emrakul or progenitus.
2. Not the biggest fan of preordain. I want to try faithless looting.
3. Firespout in the board. Maybe a tropical island or taiga as well.
Props:
Paying for the trip with legacy.
Vale for making top 4 in Draft open #2.
Matt and Kevin for telling me to draw into top 8.
Korean BBQ. That shit is amazing.
All of the trades.
Slops:
Fetching for a volcanic island with no red cards in hand against wastelands. FML