I am the brainwasher
03-27-2012, 12:52 AM
After making top8 with Canadian Threshold at the last event I played in (end of jan. 60+ players) and felt very confident with the deck for quite some time, I decided to pick it up again to compete at the Dutch Legacy Masters (organized by Bram Snepvangers).
This is some sort of report.
After getting rid of our traveling-stuff and some sight-seeing in Nijmegen, Andy, Chris, Toby and myself decided to spend the remaining Saturday evening with play-testing and beer (thank god Chris bought german beer in foresight), which worked out great since we had the whole kitchen of the student hostel where Chris lives in the NL, to prepare for the upcoming sunday tournament.
Past a fair ammount of test, we decided that it might be a good idea to get piss-drunk and sleep for 4 hours as additional tourney preparation, awesome.
After getting Path-to-exiled right back into the kitchen by Toby's snore, me and my sleeping back traded an unsurprisingly stonelike floor against a worn out couch -> genius.
Hangover + nap in the car + cup of coffee + energy drink + slap in the face = Good to go.
After getting to see the Hall of Fame pimp ring (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXo_EBR45R0) at the registration, I ponder about getting back into the car to chill out propably the last time that day or to walk around and getting a view at the decks. I go with the 2nd thought and find myself at the seatings a few minutes later.
List:
3 Polluted Delta
3 Wooded Foothills
4 Tropical Island
4 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Nimble Mongoose
4 Lightning Bolt
3 F/I
4 Ponder
4 Brainstorm
4 Spell Snare
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Stifle
Sb:
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Spell Pierce
2 Pyroblast 1 Red Elemental Blast
3 Submerge
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Rough/Tumble
1 Mind Harness
My goal was to avoid Esper-Blade, since Forked Bolt and Sulfur Elemental we're still durdling around at the post office, plus me beeing unsure if the player's already had the time/money/will to play TomMs list, which was propably the only thing I really was not looking forward to run into.
After everyone had a good laugh before the actual start of the tournament (TO Snepvangers asked if there were still some players left that haven't announced that they received bye's for the event -> half of the room jokingly raised their hands) the games were up past some traffic around the parings-sheet.
Round 1: Robots
Before we start shuffling my opponent tells me that this is his first Legacy-event, so he's propably playing a budget deck. Since I've got a good read at most people, I trust him and don't put him on trying to gain an advantage by giving misinformation.
My gut-feeling paid out and I won game 1 easily after the classic Dazeland remix.
An early Tarmogoyf was dispatched in game 2 after throwing a force at 0-0-Tezz and the following Tempered Steel and 2 Vault Skirge, combined with a Cannonist that messed up quite some turns of mine, favoured him, winning at a single life.
Game 3 was me turn 1/2/3 Delver + Dazeland. I apologize and we chat a little about the format and his deck (which included a Kozilek and Cloudpost as I saw later on. Gsus).
I think about how I wouldn't be able to look in the mirror for the next week if I would have lost that round and fought myself through the line in front of the toilet (2 toilets for 100+ players, seriously?) before the start of round2.
2:1
Round 2: WW equipment/Ascension-ish (?)
My opponent is rather young and seems a bit nervous, which vanished since he found out I am none of those idiots who try to put the opponent under pressure with beeing condescending and just impolite as fck.
I loose game 1 with finding not a single creature till turn 315 where's an Eslpeth doing nasty things with a Batterskull.
I was debating about boarding out Stifle completely, because I haven't seen anything besides some shiny Plains, but decided against it, not having enough to be boarded in anyway.
Game 2 I keep a hand including a Rough/Tumble (yay) and 2 Stifle (boo), which was upgraded from shit to chocolate as my opponent starts off with Arid Mesa fetch on turn 1 and 2. He shake's his head a few turns later as I swing for the win. I think he got pretty tilted after that since he expected me boarding out the Stifles (I suppose).
Game 3 he mulled to 6 and never found a 2nd land. I tell him that I feel pretty bad for him and wish him good luck for the next rounds.
2:1
Round 3: U(b) Merfolk
He goes turn 1 Vial, I go turn 1 Delver. He ticks up the Vial without making another land-drop. My Delver decides to look at a few more secrets and I decline to attack right into a potential Cursecatcher and lay another Delver. I was thinking about that attack for quite some time, cause I was sure he acted like he didn't had it and I know the MU good enough to know that a single life does matter and will cost you games. The deck can turn around safe-looking games hilariously fast and I only got a single Bolt and Snare in hand with a lone Volcanic Island.
Long story short: I lost the game cause I "only" had double-Insects for his 7 life*Dink*.
Game 2 a single Delver is eager to payback the last game's dishonor and I resolve a Goyf after I made sure to not fold to double Submerge, which I opened myself now up to, clockwise. Maybe sideboard Perish isn't enough in his oppinion so I go better safe than sorry. Was unnecessary in hindsight, but meh.
Game 3 I attempt to get rid of the lone Kira on the board with Bolt, Daze my Bolt, don't pay, play the returned Volc and Bolt/REB the Kira, but he has a Spell Pierce. Kira proceeds to spin away my life-total and a Insectile Aberration was dismembered after a small fight which Cursecatcher decided in his favor.
I fail to draw a green source the whole game to race his erstaunding clock of that Bear Grylls-like Kira and I end up loosing with 3 Goyfs in hand and a silly looking downgraded Pyroclasm *frown*.
1:2
Round 4: 59 card-maindeck Mirror
I loose an awkward game 1 where we trade Mongeese and he has the triple Daze-draw + FoW to protect his own Goyf from Spell Snare and keeping me away from both of mine. 2 lands 3 guys and no counter besides Snare don't beat that. I hate that the mirror is so draw-dependant, but what can you do.
Game 2 I am able to stabilize with me @ 0 cards in hand, a Goyf and a Trop on the table and an empty opposing board. He says go, I draw Stifle for his topdecked Fetchland and he was unable to cast anything till Goyf does the job.
Game 3 I am able to reduce his clock significantly by submerging his Insectile Aberration that makes a Delver of his part look very dumb in front of a threshed Mongoose. I can resolve a Goyf just right in time to beeing able to race against the now 2 Insects and he can not attack the following turn since he's at 6 and I'm at 7. We shake hands and both agree that those were indeed GG's. We talk about some maindeck/sb-choices and go through some plays. Good times.
2:1
Round 5: Robots
My opponent opens with artifact-land, Thopter, Mox Opal, Frogmite on the draw and I know that I play against a real deck this time.
I start to play control and take my medicine a few turns while dazing away 2 Etched Champion, before I am able to pew-pew 2 Signal Pest with a right in time Fire/Ice. I draw more and more Goyfs(sss) outta my hat after leaving him with that lone frog and construct plus a single card in hand. Another Thopter joined the party and the chumpsies started soon after I snared away a Cranial Plating.
Game 2 was decided by a ridiculous ammount of luck with Ponder shuffling into Brainstorm into awesomeness to let my Mongeese open the door for Lightning Bolt (which prevented me from beeing dead to a equipped pest) but it met... Spell Pierce. Holy tits. I luckily had the Daze for it as the 2nd left card in hand and my opponent shook my hand without even the slightest approach of anger or disappointment. Wow, just wow. I point out that I am amazed that he took it that good and he naturally responded that luck is a factor of the game and that he is completely fine with this, especially cause he bet Show & Tell 2:0 a few rounds before. More of this please (including myself). Complaining won't get you anywhere in this game.
2:0
Round 6: Esper-Blade (with Souls and Discard)
We were lucky enough to sit beneath eachother in the last round, so we know what's up here. My conclusion after playtesting was that I don't like the MU at all (especially with my available sideboard) and I desperatly need to screw him off of mana and present a clock at the same time, which sounds more easy than it actually is here.
He kept a loose hand in game 1 and paid the price by getting screwed out of the game by tag-team Goyf and Delver as he stuck on mana. I mentally fistbump and think that I would be able to at least steal another single game, so I could potentially draw into top8 afterwards and try to clear my head and get 100% into the game.
Game 2 and 3 both start with him taking my only threads via Inquisition/Thoughtseize and getting rewarded for playing a somewhat stable mana-base. Humpf. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJxCdh1Ps48)
1:2
Round 7: Elf-Ball
I have no realistic shot at top8, so I play the last round for the hope of beeing "rewarded" with a few more foreign booster-packs, deep down not really caring at all but trying to ignore my feelings and focus. Fail.
I am pretty done here and the whole let's-drink-and-give-a-fck comes back to bite me pretty hard. I scrub out to an extend that my opponent is asking me during game 2 if I am still paying attention or caring about the board state and I have to ask him the 3rd time what he actually did there with the Nettle Sentinel and Heritage Druid, because I am having a hard time in figuring out what is happening in front of me at all.
My opponent behaves like an arrogant prick, bathing his shattered ego in my temporary weakness, but I don't really care and let him compensate a bit and decided to not loose my countenance. I kicked myself in the nuts before with some horrible plays on my part and I deserved loosing both game 2&3 and was happy to sign the slip, after giving my opponent the hand.
1:2
I ended up at 30th place out of about 100+ players and received a chinese Scourge and a italian Saviors booster.
I am not into making other things responsible for my own actions, so no whining, no excuses for beeing in coma all day long, no coulda, shoulda, woulda. This is the place that represented my performance. It is that simple.
The whole trip was just awesome and having the luxury of attending at a large legacy-tournament in a foreign country for paying 50 euro for the whole weekend, including food, sleep and beer is something I am really thankful for.
Thanks Chris!
I am very bad at recognizing names, no hatin.
This is some sort of report.
After getting rid of our traveling-stuff and some sight-seeing in Nijmegen, Andy, Chris, Toby and myself decided to spend the remaining Saturday evening with play-testing and beer (thank god Chris bought german beer in foresight), which worked out great since we had the whole kitchen of the student hostel where Chris lives in the NL, to prepare for the upcoming sunday tournament.
Past a fair ammount of test, we decided that it might be a good idea to get piss-drunk and sleep for 4 hours as additional tourney preparation, awesome.
After getting Path-to-exiled right back into the kitchen by Toby's snore, me and my sleeping back traded an unsurprisingly stonelike floor against a worn out couch -> genius.
Hangover + nap in the car + cup of coffee + energy drink + slap in the face = Good to go.
After getting to see the Hall of Fame pimp ring (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXo_EBR45R0) at the registration, I ponder about getting back into the car to chill out propably the last time that day or to walk around and getting a view at the decks. I go with the 2nd thought and find myself at the seatings a few minutes later.
List:
3 Polluted Delta
3 Wooded Foothills
4 Tropical Island
4 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Nimble Mongoose
4 Lightning Bolt
3 F/I
4 Ponder
4 Brainstorm
4 Spell Snare
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Stifle
Sb:
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Spell Pierce
2 Pyroblast 1 Red Elemental Blast
3 Submerge
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Rough/Tumble
1 Mind Harness
My goal was to avoid Esper-Blade, since Forked Bolt and Sulfur Elemental we're still durdling around at the post office, plus me beeing unsure if the player's already had the time/money/will to play TomMs list, which was propably the only thing I really was not looking forward to run into.
After everyone had a good laugh before the actual start of the tournament (TO Snepvangers asked if there were still some players left that haven't announced that they received bye's for the event -> half of the room jokingly raised their hands) the games were up past some traffic around the parings-sheet.
Round 1: Robots
Before we start shuffling my opponent tells me that this is his first Legacy-event, so he's propably playing a budget deck. Since I've got a good read at most people, I trust him and don't put him on trying to gain an advantage by giving misinformation.
My gut-feeling paid out and I won game 1 easily after the classic Dazeland remix.
An early Tarmogoyf was dispatched in game 2 after throwing a force at 0-0-Tezz and the following Tempered Steel and 2 Vault Skirge, combined with a Cannonist that messed up quite some turns of mine, favoured him, winning at a single life.
Game 3 was me turn 1/2/3 Delver + Dazeland. I apologize and we chat a little about the format and his deck (which included a Kozilek and Cloudpost as I saw later on. Gsus).
I think about how I wouldn't be able to look in the mirror for the next week if I would have lost that round and fought myself through the line in front of the toilet (2 toilets for 100+ players, seriously?) before the start of round2.
2:1
Round 2: WW equipment/Ascension-ish (?)
My opponent is rather young and seems a bit nervous, which vanished since he found out I am none of those idiots who try to put the opponent under pressure with beeing condescending and just impolite as fck.
I loose game 1 with finding not a single creature till turn 315 where's an Eslpeth doing nasty things with a Batterskull.
I was debating about boarding out Stifle completely, because I haven't seen anything besides some shiny Plains, but decided against it, not having enough to be boarded in anyway.
Game 2 I keep a hand including a Rough/Tumble (yay) and 2 Stifle (boo), which was upgraded from shit to chocolate as my opponent starts off with Arid Mesa fetch on turn 1 and 2. He shake's his head a few turns later as I swing for the win. I think he got pretty tilted after that since he expected me boarding out the Stifles (I suppose).
Game 3 he mulled to 6 and never found a 2nd land. I tell him that I feel pretty bad for him and wish him good luck for the next rounds.
2:1
Round 3: U(b) Merfolk
He goes turn 1 Vial, I go turn 1 Delver. He ticks up the Vial without making another land-drop. My Delver decides to look at a few more secrets and I decline to attack right into a potential Cursecatcher and lay another Delver. I was thinking about that attack for quite some time, cause I was sure he acted like he didn't had it and I know the MU good enough to know that a single life does matter and will cost you games. The deck can turn around safe-looking games hilariously fast and I only got a single Bolt and Snare in hand with a lone Volcanic Island.
Long story short: I lost the game cause I "only" had double-Insects for his 7 life*Dink*.
Game 2 a single Delver is eager to payback the last game's dishonor and I resolve a Goyf after I made sure to not fold to double Submerge, which I opened myself now up to, clockwise. Maybe sideboard Perish isn't enough in his oppinion so I go better safe than sorry. Was unnecessary in hindsight, but meh.
Game 3 I attempt to get rid of the lone Kira on the board with Bolt, Daze my Bolt, don't pay, play the returned Volc and Bolt/REB the Kira, but he has a Spell Pierce. Kira proceeds to spin away my life-total and a Insectile Aberration was dismembered after a small fight which Cursecatcher decided in his favor.
I fail to draw a green source the whole game to race his erstaunding clock of that Bear Grylls-like Kira and I end up loosing with 3 Goyfs in hand and a silly looking downgraded Pyroclasm *frown*.
1:2
Round 4: 59 card-maindeck Mirror
I loose an awkward game 1 where we trade Mongeese and he has the triple Daze-draw + FoW to protect his own Goyf from Spell Snare and keeping me away from both of mine. 2 lands 3 guys and no counter besides Snare don't beat that. I hate that the mirror is so draw-dependant, but what can you do.
Game 2 I am able to stabilize with me @ 0 cards in hand, a Goyf and a Trop on the table and an empty opposing board. He says go, I draw Stifle for his topdecked Fetchland and he was unable to cast anything till Goyf does the job.
Game 3 I am able to reduce his clock significantly by submerging his Insectile Aberration that makes a Delver of his part look very dumb in front of a threshed Mongoose. I can resolve a Goyf just right in time to beeing able to race against the now 2 Insects and he can not attack the following turn since he's at 6 and I'm at 7. We shake hands and both agree that those were indeed GG's. We talk about some maindeck/sb-choices and go through some plays. Good times.
2:1
Round 5: Robots
My opponent opens with artifact-land, Thopter, Mox Opal, Frogmite on the draw and I know that I play against a real deck this time.
I start to play control and take my medicine a few turns while dazing away 2 Etched Champion, before I am able to pew-pew 2 Signal Pest with a right in time Fire/Ice. I draw more and more Goyfs(sss) outta my hat after leaving him with that lone frog and construct plus a single card in hand. Another Thopter joined the party and the chumpsies started soon after I snared away a Cranial Plating.
Game 2 was decided by a ridiculous ammount of luck with Ponder shuffling into Brainstorm into awesomeness to let my Mongeese open the door for Lightning Bolt (which prevented me from beeing dead to a equipped pest) but it met... Spell Pierce. Holy tits. I luckily had the Daze for it as the 2nd left card in hand and my opponent shook my hand without even the slightest approach of anger or disappointment. Wow, just wow. I point out that I am amazed that he took it that good and he naturally responded that luck is a factor of the game and that he is completely fine with this, especially cause he bet Show & Tell 2:0 a few rounds before. More of this please (including myself). Complaining won't get you anywhere in this game.
2:0
Round 6: Esper-Blade (with Souls and Discard)
We were lucky enough to sit beneath eachother in the last round, so we know what's up here. My conclusion after playtesting was that I don't like the MU at all (especially with my available sideboard) and I desperatly need to screw him off of mana and present a clock at the same time, which sounds more easy than it actually is here.
He kept a loose hand in game 1 and paid the price by getting screwed out of the game by tag-team Goyf and Delver as he stuck on mana. I mentally fistbump and think that I would be able to at least steal another single game, so I could potentially draw into top8 afterwards and try to clear my head and get 100% into the game.
Game 2 and 3 both start with him taking my only threads via Inquisition/Thoughtseize and getting rewarded for playing a somewhat stable mana-base. Humpf. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJxCdh1Ps48)
1:2
Round 7: Elf-Ball
I have no realistic shot at top8, so I play the last round for the hope of beeing "rewarded" with a few more foreign booster-packs, deep down not really caring at all but trying to ignore my feelings and focus. Fail.
I am pretty done here and the whole let's-drink-and-give-a-fck comes back to bite me pretty hard. I scrub out to an extend that my opponent is asking me during game 2 if I am still paying attention or caring about the board state and I have to ask him the 3rd time what he actually did there with the Nettle Sentinel and Heritage Druid, because I am having a hard time in figuring out what is happening in front of me at all.
My opponent behaves like an arrogant prick, bathing his shattered ego in my temporary weakness, but I don't really care and let him compensate a bit and decided to not loose my countenance. I kicked myself in the nuts before with some horrible plays on my part and I deserved loosing both game 2&3 and was happy to sign the slip, after giving my opponent the hand.
1:2
I ended up at 30th place out of about 100+ players and received a chinese Scourge and a italian Saviors booster.
I am not into making other things responsible for my own actions, so no whining, no excuses for beeing in coma all day long, no coulda, shoulda, woulda. This is the place that represented my performance. It is that simple.
The whole trip was just awesome and having the luxury of attending at a large legacy-tournament in a foreign country for paying 50 euro for the whole weekend, including food, sleep and beer is something I am really thankful for.
Thanks Chris!
I am very bad at recognizing names, no hatin.