Uranium
12-13-2012, 03:28 PM
I won a GPT this weekend (for GP Denver) playing ANT. 22 players total - 5 rounds + top 8.
Here's my list:
Dig
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder
4 Brainstorm
Protection
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Duress
Mana
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
Business
4 Infernal Tutor
3 Burning Wish
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Past in Flames
1 Tendrils of Agony
Land
4 Polluted Delta
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
1 Badlands
2 Swamp
1 Island
Sideboard
1 Past in Flames
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Infest
1 Innocent Blood
3 Dread of Night
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
Since I see some people talking about the merits of PiF vs. IGG in the board, let me tell you why I run both: they are useful in different situations. PiF is preferred when there are rituals in the yard, but sometimes one has to go off with a 2x LED hand, where PiF just doesn't get there. IGG makes those LED hands work (see game 2 of Quarterfinals)
As for the rest of the sideboard, I'm aware that it's a bit of a pile. I must admit that I'm somewhat new to Legacy, and that I don't have a very good grasp on my local metagame. So I board EE and Inquisition to handle a variety of permanent threats. I'm still on the 3x DoN plan because I got smashed by Maverick twice at the last GPT (but the guy won that one so there was no Maverick this time around).
I considered switching to the 3x Abrupt Decay SB + 1x Bayou in the main, but I couldn't figure how to switch the manabase, so I just went without it for this event. The majority of the decks I faced were packing Wasteland so I was really glad to have that third basic. (There was also nobody playing Counterbalance so I guess it was just a good meta call).
Tournament report:
Round 1 vs. RUG
1 - I get Stifled, Dazed, Wasted, Forced, and Pierced. In that order. He beats me to death with a single Delver and a couple of Lightning Bolts.
2 - Sideboard: -2 Gitaxian Probe, +2 Inquisition of Kozilek. I keep a 1-Fetch hand. I decide to fetch a basic Swamp since my hand is mostly rituals. I draw multiple Brainstorms but no land or Petal to cast them with and die to 2 Tarmogoyfs.
0-1
Round 2 vs. UB Tezz
1 - Game Loss! I was on the other side of the store and didn't hear the pairing announcement. I run over when I hear "players, you may begin" and get a game loss for being 20 seconds late.
2 - He opens up with some mana rocks and a Chalice on 0. I have Petal, 2x LED in hand and I am not pleased. But he has no clock so I take my time. I duress him twice and take his counters, make land drops, and search rituals with Infernal Tutor. On the combo turn I let my artifacts get countered for free storm and then ritual, tutor, PiF kill him.
3 - Sideboard: -2 Gitaxian Probe, +2 Engineered Explosives. He opens up very fast with Ancient Tomb, Talisman of Dominance, Relic of Progenitus. I duress him on my turn and take something (can't remember). He has a Trinket Mage in his hand so I joke about how he will play it and get Chalice for 0. This time I have no artifacts so I am hoping for this. He takes the bait and does exactly that. I play Brainstorm, Therapy on t2 and then kill him on t3 with natural storm due to him being at 14 from his Ancient Tomb (I can't use PiF because he has Relic).
1-1
Round 3 vs. RUG
I don't remember these games very well but I win easily in 2, drawing plenty of protection to get rid of his counterspells, and going off with a comfortable life total. I remember one of the games he went first, then dazed my cantrips/discard 3 times in a row while I just fetch basics. So I go off on the combo turn with 3 land to his 2.
2-1
Round 4 vs. Lands
Let me just say that this guy is a huge lucksack for managing to go 2-1 with Lands (which is IMO a terrible deck) and somehow beating another ANT deck the previous round with Trinisphere in both games.
1 - He goes first and opens Mox Diamond, fetch, 2x Exploration. I fetch Swamp and Probe-Therapy him on my turn and he has Tolaria West in hand (danger!) but no Crucible of Worlds so I feel somewhat comfortable. On his turn he proceeds to topdeck Crucible (lucksack!), and play the land from his yard. I fetch Island and Ponder or something. On his T3 he transmutes Tolaria West for GHOST QUARTER (RUH ROH) and proceeds to ghost quarter me 3 times. I now have no land in play and no basics left in my deck so Ghost Quarter = Strip Mine. I have a pretty good hand with a single fetch, a Lotus Petal, some rituals, and a tutor (?). So I play Draw-Discard-Go for a few turns while he beats me down with a Creeping Tar Pit. I can't remember why I didn't just go off but I think I was missing some combo piece. Either I hadn't drawn it or I was being stupid and waiting unnecessarily, I don't remember. Then he plays Zuran Orb and I die a little inside. He's at 18 life and has 8 land in play = potential 34 life. He makes a play mistake here though. He only plays 2 land that turn, not using his 3rd land drop to sac and replay one for 2 extra life. I realize I have to just kill him right then or he's going to start gaining 6 life a turn. However, I have a nearly perfect 8-card hand on my turn, and I am able to generate exactly 17 storm with PiF (including flashing back a Git. Probe to go to 2 life). If he had gained that 2 extra life, I probably would have lost. ****ing Lands.
2 - Sideboard: None. It's Lands. He doesn't open a god hand. He doesn't topdeck Crucible or Trinisphere or Chalice and I just kill him. Lands is bad.
3-1
Round 5 I.D.
I safely I.D. into top 8, ending up as the 5th seed.
Quarterfinals vs. Merfolk
1 - He chooses to play. He opens with a t1 Misty, no crack, so I put him on RUG. I have no discard so I open with t1 fetch Island, Ponder. He plays Mutavault, Silvergill Adept revealing Merrow Reejery, so now I know what I'm up against. I managed to draw into Probe + Therapy off the Ponder, so I look at his hand and see another Silvergill Adept, the Reej, Wasteland + fetches. I take the Reej so he can't cast the Adept without drawing another Merfolk. He happily beats me down with his 1 Adept + Mutavault while I frantically dig for combo pieces and then I manage to find a tutor for PiF kill at 6 life.
2 - Sideboard: -4 Gitaxian Probe, +2 Engineered Explosives, +2 Inquisition of Kozilek. I open up a hand with 2 land, EE, 2 Tutor, Ponder, LED. He opens Island, go. I open fetch Island, Ponder, he Dazes. He goes Island, go. I go fetch Swamp, Tutor, he Dazes. He plays Island again. I fetch Swamp, play Inquisition and see Master of the Pearl Trident, Lord of Atlantis, Merrow Reejery, Force of Will, Mutavault, Fetch. I take the Master and then play my 2nd Infernal Tutor to get another EE. He lets it resolve this time (probably hoping to save Force for the combo). In retrospect this was a bad call as I probably could have just killed him quicker if I saved the Tutor for combo and my one EE was probably enough to slow him down. Nonetheless, I fetch Volcanic Island and play EE, Ponder, Therapy taking his Force then pass. However, I forgot that Reej costs 3 not 2, so he still gets me for 3 with the Mutavault and then 5 the next turn. On the combo turn my hand is something like Cabal Ritual, Burning Wish, 2x LED. Since I drew almost no rituals that game, PiF doesn't get me there. But IGG does. So I go Rit, LED, LED, Wish (crack LEDs), IGG - FULL STOP. He has 2x Daze, Force of Will in his yard. Oops. I tank for a bit and then get back Therapy, LED, Tutor. He gets 2x Daze, Force. I play Therapy and there's no way out for him. If he Dazes twice, I pay once and then let it get countered (I'm still floating 5 black from the CRit) and he can't play Force with nothing to pitch. If he Dazes once, then I name Daze leaving his Force stranded again. If he Forces then he just has a single Daze which doesn't stop my combo. I continue the combo with LED, Tutor, Tendrils.
Semifinals vs. Stoneblade
1 - Don't remember this one very well. It was a much easier matchup than Merfolk since he has practically no clock. He didn't get SFM/Batterskull in either game so I had plenty of time. I just discarded all his counterspells and then killed him.
2 - This one was interesting. He had approximately infinite counterspells and I had all the business. I never got to see his hand so I was playing blind the whole time. I had 2 land so every turn was DRit, Spell Pierce, pass. Infernal Tutor, Daze, Pass. Etc. I had so much business I figured I would just run him out of counterspells eventually. Finally he taps out for Jace and uses brainstorm ability. On my turn my hand is 2x CRit, 2X LED, Tutor, PiF. And I have at least DRit + Tutor in the yard. My land is Island, Swamp, Fetch -> Badlands. I figure he still has Force of Will since he hasn't played one yet and he's been playing a lot of cantrips. So my plan is to go off with CRit CRit LED LED PiF DRit CRit CRit Tutor Tendrils. If he Forces me early in the combo then I just play LED LED, crack them discard hand, flashback PiF with 1 black floating, then go off from the DRit in the yard. If he Forces the PiF I have enough mana to flash it back with the LEDs. If he forces the Tutor I have another one. As it turns out Jace was his only other blue spell and he didn't draw one off the brainstorm so he couldn't use the Force. He raged really hard about how he got unlucky and would have won if he'd just held on to the Jace. I tried to explain that I could work around Force but he was too mad to listen. Oh well haters gonna hate.
Finals vs. Burn
1 - Finally I am the higher seed (5th vs. 6th) so I get to go first which ends up being crucial. He opens Goblin Guide which draws me a Swamp. I ponder and next turn he plays Lavamancer, Bolt and his GG draws me another Swamp (my turn to lucksack!). When I hardcast Gitaxian Probe he shows me land, land, Flame Rift, Fireblast. He plays the Flame Rift and then threatens to kill me the next turn but I am able to go off with PiF because he did 4 to himself.
2 - He opens Lavamancer. I open Ponder. Then he plays Pyrostatic Pillar. Followed by Goblin Guide. I try to storm to a mini-Tendrils to stay alive, but Pillar triggers + Lavamancer + the Fireblast that he always had killed me.
3 - I can't find a sure combo fast enough and decide I have to go for Ad Nauseam at 16 life. He has Lavamancer on board and Fireblast in hand so I effectively have 10 life. I manage to lucksack into just enough mana to cast Burning wish for Tendrils and seal the deal.
Here's my list:
Dig
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder
4 Brainstorm
Protection
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Duress
Mana
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
Business
4 Infernal Tutor
3 Burning Wish
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Past in Flames
1 Tendrils of Agony
Land
4 Polluted Delta
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
1 Badlands
2 Swamp
1 Island
Sideboard
1 Past in Flames
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Infest
1 Innocent Blood
3 Dread of Night
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
Since I see some people talking about the merits of PiF vs. IGG in the board, let me tell you why I run both: they are useful in different situations. PiF is preferred when there are rituals in the yard, but sometimes one has to go off with a 2x LED hand, where PiF just doesn't get there. IGG makes those LED hands work (see game 2 of Quarterfinals)
As for the rest of the sideboard, I'm aware that it's a bit of a pile. I must admit that I'm somewhat new to Legacy, and that I don't have a very good grasp on my local metagame. So I board EE and Inquisition to handle a variety of permanent threats. I'm still on the 3x DoN plan because I got smashed by Maverick twice at the last GPT (but the guy won that one so there was no Maverick this time around).
I considered switching to the 3x Abrupt Decay SB + 1x Bayou in the main, but I couldn't figure how to switch the manabase, so I just went without it for this event. The majority of the decks I faced were packing Wasteland so I was really glad to have that third basic. (There was also nobody playing Counterbalance so I guess it was just a good meta call).
Tournament report:
Round 1 vs. RUG
1 - I get Stifled, Dazed, Wasted, Forced, and Pierced. In that order. He beats me to death with a single Delver and a couple of Lightning Bolts.
2 - Sideboard: -2 Gitaxian Probe, +2 Inquisition of Kozilek. I keep a 1-Fetch hand. I decide to fetch a basic Swamp since my hand is mostly rituals. I draw multiple Brainstorms but no land or Petal to cast them with and die to 2 Tarmogoyfs.
0-1
Round 2 vs. UB Tezz
1 - Game Loss! I was on the other side of the store and didn't hear the pairing announcement. I run over when I hear "players, you may begin" and get a game loss for being 20 seconds late.
2 - He opens up with some mana rocks and a Chalice on 0. I have Petal, 2x LED in hand and I am not pleased. But he has no clock so I take my time. I duress him twice and take his counters, make land drops, and search rituals with Infernal Tutor. On the combo turn I let my artifacts get countered for free storm and then ritual, tutor, PiF kill him.
3 - Sideboard: -2 Gitaxian Probe, +2 Engineered Explosives. He opens up very fast with Ancient Tomb, Talisman of Dominance, Relic of Progenitus. I duress him on my turn and take something (can't remember). He has a Trinket Mage in his hand so I joke about how he will play it and get Chalice for 0. This time I have no artifacts so I am hoping for this. He takes the bait and does exactly that. I play Brainstorm, Therapy on t2 and then kill him on t3 with natural storm due to him being at 14 from his Ancient Tomb (I can't use PiF because he has Relic).
1-1
Round 3 vs. RUG
I don't remember these games very well but I win easily in 2, drawing plenty of protection to get rid of his counterspells, and going off with a comfortable life total. I remember one of the games he went first, then dazed my cantrips/discard 3 times in a row while I just fetch basics. So I go off on the combo turn with 3 land to his 2.
2-1
Round 4 vs. Lands
Let me just say that this guy is a huge lucksack for managing to go 2-1 with Lands (which is IMO a terrible deck) and somehow beating another ANT deck the previous round with Trinisphere in both games.
1 - He goes first and opens Mox Diamond, fetch, 2x Exploration. I fetch Swamp and Probe-Therapy him on my turn and he has Tolaria West in hand (danger!) but no Crucible of Worlds so I feel somewhat comfortable. On his turn he proceeds to topdeck Crucible (lucksack!), and play the land from his yard. I fetch Island and Ponder or something. On his T3 he transmutes Tolaria West for GHOST QUARTER (RUH ROH) and proceeds to ghost quarter me 3 times. I now have no land in play and no basics left in my deck so Ghost Quarter = Strip Mine. I have a pretty good hand with a single fetch, a Lotus Petal, some rituals, and a tutor (?). So I play Draw-Discard-Go for a few turns while he beats me down with a Creeping Tar Pit. I can't remember why I didn't just go off but I think I was missing some combo piece. Either I hadn't drawn it or I was being stupid and waiting unnecessarily, I don't remember. Then he plays Zuran Orb and I die a little inside. He's at 18 life and has 8 land in play = potential 34 life. He makes a play mistake here though. He only plays 2 land that turn, not using his 3rd land drop to sac and replay one for 2 extra life. I realize I have to just kill him right then or he's going to start gaining 6 life a turn. However, I have a nearly perfect 8-card hand on my turn, and I am able to generate exactly 17 storm with PiF (including flashing back a Git. Probe to go to 2 life). If he had gained that 2 extra life, I probably would have lost. ****ing Lands.
2 - Sideboard: None. It's Lands. He doesn't open a god hand. He doesn't topdeck Crucible or Trinisphere or Chalice and I just kill him. Lands is bad.
3-1
Round 5 I.D.
I safely I.D. into top 8, ending up as the 5th seed.
Quarterfinals vs. Merfolk
1 - He chooses to play. He opens with a t1 Misty, no crack, so I put him on RUG. I have no discard so I open with t1 fetch Island, Ponder. He plays Mutavault, Silvergill Adept revealing Merrow Reejery, so now I know what I'm up against. I managed to draw into Probe + Therapy off the Ponder, so I look at his hand and see another Silvergill Adept, the Reej, Wasteland + fetches. I take the Reej so he can't cast the Adept without drawing another Merfolk. He happily beats me down with his 1 Adept + Mutavault while I frantically dig for combo pieces and then I manage to find a tutor for PiF kill at 6 life.
2 - Sideboard: -4 Gitaxian Probe, +2 Engineered Explosives, +2 Inquisition of Kozilek. I open up a hand with 2 land, EE, 2 Tutor, Ponder, LED. He opens Island, go. I open fetch Island, Ponder, he Dazes. He goes Island, go. I go fetch Swamp, Tutor, he Dazes. He plays Island again. I fetch Swamp, play Inquisition and see Master of the Pearl Trident, Lord of Atlantis, Merrow Reejery, Force of Will, Mutavault, Fetch. I take the Master and then play my 2nd Infernal Tutor to get another EE. He lets it resolve this time (probably hoping to save Force for the combo). In retrospect this was a bad call as I probably could have just killed him quicker if I saved the Tutor for combo and my one EE was probably enough to slow him down. Nonetheless, I fetch Volcanic Island and play EE, Ponder, Therapy taking his Force then pass. However, I forgot that Reej costs 3 not 2, so he still gets me for 3 with the Mutavault and then 5 the next turn. On the combo turn my hand is something like Cabal Ritual, Burning Wish, 2x LED. Since I drew almost no rituals that game, PiF doesn't get me there. But IGG does. So I go Rit, LED, LED, Wish (crack LEDs), IGG - FULL STOP. He has 2x Daze, Force of Will in his yard. Oops. I tank for a bit and then get back Therapy, LED, Tutor. He gets 2x Daze, Force. I play Therapy and there's no way out for him. If he Dazes twice, I pay once and then let it get countered (I'm still floating 5 black from the CRit) and he can't play Force with nothing to pitch. If he Dazes once, then I name Daze leaving his Force stranded again. If he Forces then he just has a single Daze which doesn't stop my combo. I continue the combo with LED, Tutor, Tendrils.
Semifinals vs. Stoneblade
1 - Don't remember this one very well. It was a much easier matchup than Merfolk since he has practically no clock. He didn't get SFM/Batterskull in either game so I had plenty of time. I just discarded all his counterspells and then killed him.
2 - This one was interesting. He had approximately infinite counterspells and I had all the business. I never got to see his hand so I was playing blind the whole time. I had 2 land so every turn was DRit, Spell Pierce, pass. Infernal Tutor, Daze, Pass. Etc. I had so much business I figured I would just run him out of counterspells eventually. Finally he taps out for Jace and uses brainstorm ability. On my turn my hand is 2x CRit, 2X LED, Tutor, PiF. And I have at least DRit + Tutor in the yard. My land is Island, Swamp, Fetch -> Badlands. I figure he still has Force of Will since he hasn't played one yet and he's been playing a lot of cantrips. So my plan is to go off with CRit CRit LED LED PiF DRit CRit CRit Tutor Tendrils. If he Forces me early in the combo then I just play LED LED, crack them discard hand, flashback PiF with 1 black floating, then go off from the DRit in the yard. If he Forces the PiF I have enough mana to flash it back with the LEDs. If he forces the Tutor I have another one. As it turns out Jace was his only other blue spell and he didn't draw one off the brainstorm so he couldn't use the Force. He raged really hard about how he got unlucky and would have won if he'd just held on to the Jace. I tried to explain that I could work around Force but he was too mad to listen. Oh well haters gonna hate.
Finals vs. Burn
1 - Finally I am the higher seed (5th vs. 6th) so I get to go first which ends up being crucial. He opens Goblin Guide which draws me a Swamp. I ponder and next turn he plays Lavamancer, Bolt and his GG draws me another Swamp (my turn to lucksack!). When I hardcast Gitaxian Probe he shows me land, land, Flame Rift, Fireblast. He plays the Flame Rift and then threatens to kill me the next turn but I am able to go off with PiF because he did 4 to himself.
2 - He opens Lavamancer. I open Ponder. Then he plays Pyrostatic Pillar. Followed by Goblin Guide. I try to storm to a mini-Tendrils to stay alive, but Pillar triggers + Lavamancer + the Fireblast that he always had killed me.
3 - I can't find a sure combo fast enough and decide I have to go for Ad Nauseam at 16 life. He has Lavamancer on board and Fireblast in hand so I effectively have 10 life. I manage to lucksack into just enough mana to cast Burning wish for Tendrils and seal the deal.