citanul
05-07-2012, 01:50 PM
It had been six months since I’ve played a Magic Tournament.I disliked PWP, disliked the initial implementation of it. It all seemed rushedand I really had the idea that I could’ve made it better with only half a dayof work. Giving FNM a multiplier of 3, no PT invites in GP’s and then theworst, inviting people to PT based on PWP. Talk about just grinding your way toa PT. I dislike the idea of rewarding people for playing a lot over playing well. But they eventually saw their flaws, adjusted and the system has becomebetter. Nothing is perfect though. And the Magic bug kept gnawing at me. GPGent was announced to be Legacy, an event I would surely attend. Jan contactedme with a Doomsday decklist which I found to be interesting. With the GPT’s forGent on the way we met at his place 14 days before a Legacy tournament topractice. RUGDelver, EsperBlade and Maverick were to be the opponents.
Turns out, GW stupid creatures.dec has become a nuisance.Thalia made the deck a lot harder to beat as stormcombo. EsperBlade was fine asthey have a slow clock and have to focus on creature removal, some lists noteven supporting FoW maindeck. RUGDelver was about even, a lot depending on ushaving SDT or them having a Delver turn1. With these results in mind I made afew changes to my own liking. I stepped away from a full Doomsday list into amore hybrid list, still supporting Ad Nauseam but the main kill being Doomsdayoriented. I first planned on playing Meditate but after some convincing by JanI realised my flaws, Ideas Unbound is just better.
This is the deck I ended up playing:
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Tundra
1 Scrubland
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Ritual
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Chain of Vapor
4 Silence
3 Orim's Chant
1 Doomsday
1 Idea's Unbound
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Tendrils of Agony
3 Burning Wish
3 Infernal Tutor
Side:
3 Doomsday
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Thorn
1 Shelldock Isle
1 Massacre
3 Dread of Night
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Time Spiral
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Slaughter Pact
Sunday morning finally arrived. Jan warned me that somestreets in Brussels would be closed off and it might be hard to get there bycar or find a parking spot. I neglected this advice, picked up Wim around 10.15and went by car anyway. The venue would open at 11.00 with the tournamentstarting at 12.00. No issues were had during the trip and we arrived before11.00, the venue already being open.
We enter, enrol and when I want to pay I notice I have nocash on me, odd. I went to the cinema the day before and to this very moment I’msure I had at least 10 euro in my wallet. Wim paid for me, I’d pay him backlater. I could’ve paid with a credit card but this was easier. Once enrolled Istarted writing my decklist. Jan arrived and we discussed a bit. I removedVirtue’s Ruin for the 3rd Dread of Night.
Seventy players showed up to the tournament. Jan playedDoomsday Stormcombo, Wim played Imperial Painter.
Round1:
Game1:
I mulligan to 4 on the draw. He opens with Volcanic Island into a Delver. I’mpretty sure I’ll be losing this game but I don’t want to concede. I couldconcede, hide information and move to the next game. But RUG has very little tobring in and it wouldn’t matter. I try my best but he has enough counter tostop me.
Game2:
This time my opponent mulligans to 6. I open with Island into Ponder, findingmore lands. I try a Silence on turn4, it gets Pierced, I pay, another Pierce. Itry another Silence the turn after, it gets FoW’ed. I go for it, make aDoomsday pile and he has a Stifle for the switch of my SDT. He never used it onany of my fetch or paused when I fetched so I assumed he wasn’t playing them.Turns out he had just drawn it. Wouldn’t have mattered, he had a Spell Snarefor the Ideas Unbound anyway.
Round2:
I’m paired against Fred. He used to play Ichorid but wentday2 with Reanimator during GP Amsterdam. I put him on Reanimator.
Game1:
He opens with Underground Sea so my guess was correct. He has the Entombfor Iona but no reanimation yet. He eventually gets it down naming Black beforeI can go off. I want to go with the Empty the Warrens plan or find thesingleton Chain of Vapor. He gets another Thoughtseize to take away my BurningWish. I find another one but am at 3 life. I go Burning Wish into Time Spiral,find the Chain of Vapor but not a kill with enough mana to spare. I castSilence during his turn which he let resolve and follow it up with the Chain. Imanage to Chant him for a few turns but I can’t keep stalling and eventuallyIona comes down. I concede.
Game2:
I try turn1 Dark Ritual, Doomsday but he has the FoW. Not a lot of action ishad so by turn5 I can cast Silence which resolves and follow it up with aDoomsday, swap SDT for Shelldock Isle and pass back. Emrakul eats him alive twoturns later.
Game3:
Iona comes down again but he is at 8 life because of Reanimate, fetch, FoW andThoughtseize. I get down 14 Goblin tokens with Empty the Warrens and he extendsthe hand.
Round3:
Game1:
My opponent opens with a Tundra and passes. I assume he’s playing EsperBlade,fetch an Underground Sea and play SDT. He just plays another land and passes.Brainstorm, fetch into SDT to find more action. A lot of turns and not much beingdone. He gets a Batterskull with Stoneforge Mystic but never drops it because Icast Silence which he counters by hardcasting FoW. He drops Jace and uses it toBrainstorm. He then taps mana to cast Lingering souls, leaving open 4 mana. Icast Silence and he plays Counterspell. He has Plains and Underground Sea open.I go off with Doomsday and he loses. He had Snapcaster Mage but the casting ofLingering Souls made sure he didn’t have enough mana.
Game2:
I get a Silence off with 1 mana open. He lets it resolve, expecting me not togo off. I cast Ritual, Doomsday and pass the turn. Not much happens from hisend and an Emrakul eats him alive.
Round4:
Game1:
Opponent opens with City of Brass, Faithless Looting. I play Volcanic Islandand pass. He then casts Cabal Therapy to which I respond with Brainstorm. Ihave Ad Nauseam, LED, LED in hand. I cast the Brainstorm here to place AdNauseam 2nd down and then go off next turn. I hit a Gitaxian Probewhich I place above it. He puts me on RUGDelver, names a wrong card and I gooff the next turn on 20 life. I cast Gitaxian Probe with 2 life as I consider 1mana to be worth more for Ad Nauseam. I win the game 7 life later.
Game2:
He kept a weird hand as he went LED, Petal, Petal into double Cabal Therapy. Hedidn’t have a dredger. I just build my hand. He does find a dredger but I chantwalk him two times, then go off with Doomsday. Not common for this matchup tolast so many turns.
Turns out this guy only had one LED. His car got broken intoin front of his house and the cards inside were stolen.
Round5:
Paired against Tom. I saw what he’s playing earlier, it’s RWQuinn and I just have to be careful of Chants and be able to win this.
Game1:
He starts with Karakas and leaves it open. I just play SDT. He plays his ownthe turn after. Lots of looking for cards on both ends. My first 3Silence/Chants get reacted to with a Chant. He has a Batterskull in play and isat 23 while I’m at 11. I have Chain of Vapor and do not feel threatened. Heactivates SDT end of turn, reveals the new miracle card that creates angels andhe makes two. He then sais ‘hit you for lethal’ but I do not concede. He thenrealizes I might do something. He attacks, I cast Chain of Vapor on my own SDTto draw a card and then copy it to bounce his Germ. He switched SDT and playsBolt for exactly lethal.
Game2:
He mulligans to six and opens with the white Leyline, no targeting for me! Iopen with SDT. A lot of inaction goes on again. I cast Silence which resolves,triple LED into Burning Wish for Doomsday and create a pile of IU, LED, Chain ofVapor, LED, Burning Wish. For those not knowing, the order is switching SDT forIU and play it, replay SDT, tap it to draw a card and in reaction bounce yourSDT, sacrifice a land to bounce Leyline. Replay SDT, play both LED, crack forred and black and switch for Burning Wish into Tendrils.
Game3:
Again he starts with Karakas. I think I have SDT again but I’m not sure. Hecasts Enlightened Tutor to get one for him. He’s digging for land though and I’mjust setting up for the kill. Infernal Tutor gets me an extra Silence. At 4lands he casts Isochron Scepter which I let resolve, he imprints LightningHelix. I cast Silence to which he cast a Helix putting him at 20 and me at 16.I have enough cards and mana in my hand that I just go natural storm with Infernalinto Infernal into Burning Wish into Tendrils.
Round6:
Game1:
Opponent opens with Underground Sea. I put him on a deck not playing Wasteland,most likely to be Reanimator. Things go very slow. I cast Silence at a certainpoint which he Dazes, I pay and he Dazes again. The turn after heThoughtseizes, realizes what I play and goes for Entomb on Iona. I try to castAd Nauseam in reaction which he Dazes once again. The replaying of the landallows him to cast Reanimate on Iona naming Black. I try to set up Empty theWarrens but another Thoughtseize gets the Burning Wish. I lose to Iona beats.
Game2:
I cast Gitaxian Probe turn1 and notice he has no counters but a turn2 Entomb +Animate Dead. I go turn2 Doomsday after finding a Ritual with Ponder turn1 andset up Emrakul. He tries Dazing but I have the mana for it. He doesn’t use hismana floating for Entomb and just replays his land the turn after. I then playShelldock Isle. He then goes and Entombs Angel of Despair. I scoop. I explainwhat happened and he admits he misplayed, didn’t know my deck and sideboardedin the Angel randomly.
Round7:
Game1:
Opponent leads with Delver. I play Ponder. He then casts Goblin Guide andattacks me for 5. I do some more cantrips to set up a next turn kill. Heattacks for another 5 and passes once more. I cast Silence which he letsresolve. Doomsday kills him! He had a Spell Pierce in hand, no clue why henever cast it.
Game2:
He once again has a turn1 Delver but doesn’t flip it for 2 turns. I set upeverything slowly, mainly trying to find a kill. He eventually flips it and Ifall down to 13 when I do find an Ad Nauseam. I cast Silence which resolves. Iverify that I have not made a land drop, storm count and so on and cast AdNauseam. I had the option to crack LED, switch SDT and cast Ad Nauseam and lose1 life from top or keep SDT in play, cast Probe with two life and crack LED. Orcast Probe with mana. I went with SDT switch as I think it was the best plan.He had a Lightning Bolt in hand which he didn’t cast in response to Silence.When asked why he didn’t he said he didn’t want to give me the storm count.
So an eventual 5-2 finish. I might still make top8.Standings get called and I end up in 8th place. Two people were5-0-2. They played UR Painter and UR Sneaky Show. Four people went 5-1-1. Theyplayed UR Sneaky Show, two EsperBlade and Reanimator. Two people, myself includedgot in with 5-2, the other person played Stormcombo. Wim went 3-4 and Jan alsowent 3-4 after messing up his last two round by misplays. He casts Doomsday,has the win but plays Probe with Mana instead of 2 life and has 1 mana tooshort. Then casts Doomsday when he can’t win. And the last round it was 1-1,casts a spell he shouldn’t have and loses because of it.
Top8 gets called together. The total prizepool for top8 is1000€. We can agree to a split which is 125 each. Quarterfinalists get 50,Semifinalists get 100. Splitting seems the obvious thing to do and everyoneagrees. I wait a bit until other people who ended higher have selected cards. Ijust go for a Boosterbox, tight fit sleeves, normal sleeves and four Dread ofNights which I borrowed. I sell the box and tight fit sleeves to Wim.
Once again, I’ve been bitten by the Magic bug!
Turns out, GW stupid creatures.dec has become a nuisance.Thalia made the deck a lot harder to beat as stormcombo. EsperBlade was fine asthey have a slow clock and have to focus on creature removal, some lists noteven supporting FoW maindeck. RUGDelver was about even, a lot depending on ushaving SDT or them having a Delver turn1. With these results in mind I made afew changes to my own liking. I stepped away from a full Doomsday list into amore hybrid list, still supporting Ad Nauseam but the main kill being Doomsdayoriented. I first planned on playing Meditate but after some convincing by JanI realised my flaws, Ideas Unbound is just better.
This is the deck I ended up playing:
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Tundra
1 Scrubland
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Ritual
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Chain of Vapor
4 Silence
3 Orim's Chant
1 Doomsday
1 Idea's Unbound
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Tendrils of Agony
3 Burning Wish
3 Infernal Tutor
Side:
3 Doomsday
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Thorn
1 Shelldock Isle
1 Massacre
3 Dread of Night
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Time Spiral
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Slaughter Pact
Sunday morning finally arrived. Jan warned me that somestreets in Brussels would be closed off and it might be hard to get there bycar or find a parking spot. I neglected this advice, picked up Wim around 10.15and went by car anyway. The venue would open at 11.00 with the tournamentstarting at 12.00. No issues were had during the trip and we arrived before11.00, the venue already being open.
We enter, enrol and when I want to pay I notice I have nocash on me, odd. I went to the cinema the day before and to this very moment I’msure I had at least 10 euro in my wallet. Wim paid for me, I’d pay him backlater. I could’ve paid with a credit card but this was easier. Once enrolled Istarted writing my decklist. Jan arrived and we discussed a bit. I removedVirtue’s Ruin for the 3rd Dread of Night.
Seventy players showed up to the tournament. Jan playedDoomsday Stormcombo, Wim played Imperial Painter.
Round1:
Game1:
I mulligan to 4 on the draw. He opens with Volcanic Island into a Delver. I’mpretty sure I’ll be losing this game but I don’t want to concede. I couldconcede, hide information and move to the next game. But RUG has very little tobring in and it wouldn’t matter. I try my best but he has enough counter tostop me.
Game2:
This time my opponent mulligans to 6. I open with Island into Ponder, findingmore lands. I try a Silence on turn4, it gets Pierced, I pay, another Pierce. Itry another Silence the turn after, it gets FoW’ed. I go for it, make aDoomsday pile and he has a Stifle for the switch of my SDT. He never used it onany of my fetch or paused when I fetched so I assumed he wasn’t playing them.Turns out he had just drawn it. Wouldn’t have mattered, he had a Spell Snarefor the Ideas Unbound anyway.
Round2:
I’m paired against Fred. He used to play Ichorid but wentday2 with Reanimator during GP Amsterdam. I put him on Reanimator.
Game1:
He opens with Underground Sea so my guess was correct. He has the Entombfor Iona but no reanimation yet. He eventually gets it down naming Black beforeI can go off. I want to go with the Empty the Warrens plan or find thesingleton Chain of Vapor. He gets another Thoughtseize to take away my BurningWish. I find another one but am at 3 life. I go Burning Wish into Time Spiral,find the Chain of Vapor but not a kill with enough mana to spare. I castSilence during his turn which he let resolve and follow it up with the Chain. Imanage to Chant him for a few turns but I can’t keep stalling and eventuallyIona comes down. I concede.
Game2:
I try turn1 Dark Ritual, Doomsday but he has the FoW. Not a lot of action ishad so by turn5 I can cast Silence which resolves and follow it up with aDoomsday, swap SDT for Shelldock Isle and pass back. Emrakul eats him alive twoturns later.
Game3:
Iona comes down again but he is at 8 life because of Reanimate, fetch, FoW andThoughtseize. I get down 14 Goblin tokens with Empty the Warrens and he extendsthe hand.
Round3:
Game1:
My opponent opens with a Tundra and passes. I assume he’s playing EsperBlade,fetch an Underground Sea and play SDT. He just plays another land and passes.Brainstorm, fetch into SDT to find more action. A lot of turns and not much beingdone. He gets a Batterskull with Stoneforge Mystic but never drops it because Icast Silence which he counters by hardcasting FoW. He drops Jace and uses it toBrainstorm. He then taps mana to cast Lingering souls, leaving open 4 mana. Icast Silence and he plays Counterspell. He has Plains and Underground Sea open.I go off with Doomsday and he loses. He had Snapcaster Mage but the casting ofLingering Souls made sure he didn’t have enough mana.
Game2:
I get a Silence off with 1 mana open. He lets it resolve, expecting me not togo off. I cast Ritual, Doomsday and pass the turn. Not much happens from hisend and an Emrakul eats him alive.
Round4:
Game1:
Opponent opens with City of Brass, Faithless Looting. I play Volcanic Islandand pass. He then casts Cabal Therapy to which I respond with Brainstorm. Ihave Ad Nauseam, LED, LED in hand. I cast the Brainstorm here to place AdNauseam 2nd down and then go off next turn. I hit a Gitaxian Probewhich I place above it. He puts me on RUGDelver, names a wrong card and I gooff the next turn on 20 life. I cast Gitaxian Probe with 2 life as I consider 1mana to be worth more for Ad Nauseam. I win the game 7 life later.
Game2:
He kept a weird hand as he went LED, Petal, Petal into double Cabal Therapy. Hedidn’t have a dredger. I just build my hand. He does find a dredger but I chantwalk him two times, then go off with Doomsday. Not common for this matchup tolast so many turns.
Turns out this guy only had one LED. His car got broken intoin front of his house and the cards inside were stolen.
Round5:
Paired against Tom. I saw what he’s playing earlier, it’s RWQuinn and I just have to be careful of Chants and be able to win this.
Game1:
He starts with Karakas and leaves it open. I just play SDT. He plays his ownthe turn after. Lots of looking for cards on both ends. My first 3Silence/Chants get reacted to with a Chant. He has a Batterskull in play and isat 23 while I’m at 11. I have Chain of Vapor and do not feel threatened. Heactivates SDT end of turn, reveals the new miracle card that creates angels andhe makes two. He then sais ‘hit you for lethal’ but I do not concede. He thenrealizes I might do something. He attacks, I cast Chain of Vapor on my own SDTto draw a card and then copy it to bounce his Germ. He switched SDT and playsBolt for exactly lethal.
Game2:
He mulligans to six and opens with the white Leyline, no targeting for me! Iopen with SDT. A lot of inaction goes on again. I cast Silence which resolves,triple LED into Burning Wish for Doomsday and create a pile of IU, LED, Chain ofVapor, LED, Burning Wish. For those not knowing, the order is switching SDT forIU and play it, replay SDT, tap it to draw a card and in reaction bounce yourSDT, sacrifice a land to bounce Leyline. Replay SDT, play both LED, crack forred and black and switch for Burning Wish into Tendrils.
Game3:
Again he starts with Karakas. I think I have SDT again but I’m not sure. Hecasts Enlightened Tutor to get one for him. He’s digging for land though and I’mjust setting up for the kill. Infernal Tutor gets me an extra Silence. At 4lands he casts Isochron Scepter which I let resolve, he imprints LightningHelix. I cast Silence to which he cast a Helix putting him at 20 and me at 16.I have enough cards and mana in my hand that I just go natural storm with Infernalinto Infernal into Burning Wish into Tendrils.
Round6:
Game1:
Opponent opens with Underground Sea. I put him on a deck not playing Wasteland,most likely to be Reanimator. Things go very slow. I cast Silence at a certainpoint which he Dazes, I pay and he Dazes again. The turn after heThoughtseizes, realizes what I play and goes for Entomb on Iona. I try to castAd Nauseam in reaction which he Dazes once again. The replaying of the landallows him to cast Reanimate on Iona naming Black. I try to set up Empty theWarrens but another Thoughtseize gets the Burning Wish. I lose to Iona beats.
Game2:
I cast Gitaxian Probe turn1 and notice he has no counters but a turn2 Entomb +Animate Dead. I go turn2 Doomsday after finding a Ritual with Ponder turn1 andset up Emrakul. He tries Dazing but I have the mana for it. He doesn’t use hismana floating for Entomb and just replays his land the turn after. I then playShelldock Isle. He then goes and Entombs Angel of Despair. I scoop. I explainwhat happened and he admits he misplayed, didn’t know my deck and sideboardedin the Angel randomly.
Round7:
Game1:
Opponent leads with Delver. I play Ponder. He then casts Goblin Guide andattacks me for 5. I do some more cantrips to set up a next turn kill. Heattacks for another 5 and passes once more. I cast Silence which he letsresolve. Doomsday kills him! He had a Spell Pierce in hand, no clue why henever cast it.
Game2:
He once again has a turn1 Delver but doesn’t flip it for 2 turns. I set upeverything slowly, mainly trying to find a kill. He eventually flips it and Ifall down to 13 when I do find an Ad Nauseam. I cast Silence which resolves. Iverify that I have not made a land drop, storm count and so on and cast AdNauseam. I had the option to crack LED, switch SDT and cast Ad Nauseam and lose1 life from top or keep SDT in play, cast Probe with two life and crack LED. Orcast Probe with mana. I went with SDT switch as I think it was the best plan.He had a Lightning Bolt in hand which he didn’t cast in response to Silence.When asked why he didn’t he said he didn’t want to give me the storm count.
So an eventual 5-2 finish. I might still make top8.Standings get called and I end up in 8th place. Two people were5-0-2. They played UR Painter and UR Sneaky Show. Four people went 5-1-1. Theyplayed UR Sneaky Show, two EsperBlade and Reanimator. Two people, myself includedgot in with 5-2, the other person played Stormcombo. Wim went 3-4 and Jan alsowent 3-4 after messing up his last two round by misplays. He casts Doomsday,has the win but plays Probe with Mana instead of 2 life and has 1 mana tooshort. Then casts Doomsday when he can’t win. And the last round it was 1-1,casts a spell he shouldn’t have and loses because of it.
Top8 gets called together. The total prizepool for top8 is1000€. We can agree to a split which is 125 each. Quarterfinalists get 50,Semifinalists get 100. Splitting seems the obvious thing to do and everyoneagrees. I wait a bit until other people who ended higher have selected cards. Ijust go for a Boosterbox, tight fit sleeves, normal sleeves and four Dread ofNights which I borrowed. I sell the box and tight fit sleeves to Wim.
Once again, I’ve been bitten by the Magic bug!