Dark Ritual
06-02-2013, 12:27 AM
Here's the list of ANT that I piloted to a 3rd place finish today.
Lands 15
4 Polluted Delta
4 Misty Rainforest
2 U. Sea
1 Volcanic Island
1 Tropical Island
1 Bayou
1 Swamp
1 Island
Rituals 8
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
Artifacts 8
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
Cantrips 16
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Preordain
Protection 6
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Duress
Business 6
4 Infernal Tutor
1 Past in Flames
1 Ad Nauseam
Win 1
1 Tendrils of Agony
SB
4 Dark Confidant
3 Xantid Swarm
4 Abrupt Decay
2 Chain of Vapor
1 Echoing Truth
1 Tendrils of Agony
Round 1 vs. Affinity
I had played this guy before and last time he was on UR delver. I could have blind therapied turn 1 on the play, but chose not to instead opting to go land -> go. He plays darksteel citadel into signal pest into go. I cantrip a few times into a past in flames kill with a blind therapy naming ethersworn canonist just in case (he had a lot of air in his hand in regards to this matchup.)
-4 Therapy, -2 Duress, -1 Probe, +4 Abrupt Decay, +2 Chain of vapor, +1 E. Truth
Game 2, he goes turn 1 dudes into turn 2 canonist or something. I cantrip, abrupt decay his canonist on his end step, chain of vapor my LED and his rest in peace on my turn, brainstorm into all lands, and go for ad nauseam from 9 with 3 black floating off of LED since I naturally drew the ad nauseam. Flip over land, brainstorm, dark rit, dark rit, tendrils. Hooray for draw 5's getting there since my storm count was quite high due to LED, CoV, LED, generating 3, brainstorm for the 4th, a pair of rituals for 5 and 6, ad nauseam for the 7th, and 3 double dark rit into tendrils for exactly 10.
Round 2 vs. Sweet living wish dark depths brew + deathrite shaman.
Game 1 I cantrip a few times, he discards some of my cards, but I topdeck the win after a few turns after duressing his abrupt decay and topdecking infernal tutor with 2 LED's in hand.
+4 Dark Confidant, +1 Tendrils, -2 Duress, -3 Cabal Therapy
I mulligan to 6, and get the following: LED, Petal, Dark Rit, Confidant, 2 Cantrips not named probe. I keep, as does he. He goes turn 1 deathrite and not thoughtseize/IoK, which I like a lot. I don't draw land and go petal, dark rit, confidant ship the turn. It sticks and he goes land, wish for tabernacle, go. Must find a land. I flip over probe and draw a misty rainforest. I fetch and preordain shipping the turn afterwards. He plays tabernacle, exploration, land, crucible. I flip a cantrip or something to bob and pay his taxes, petal into preordain to find another land, get it, and cantrip again off of tropical island since I don't care if he wastes that and I cannot fetch basic swamp with my fetchland. Find the win a couple turns later, he flashes leyline of sanctity after I trade Bob for his DRS since I had the kill setup. I misboarded but it didn't end up mattering as he told me he boarded in sphere of resistance as well as leyline.
2-0 (4-0)
Round 3 vs. Merfolk
I cantrip for a couple of turns and end up stripping his FoW with a therapy. I naturally drew past in flames and tendrils of agony and when I started to go off my hand was double LED, double cabal rit, therapy, petal, infernal tutor. He debated forever over whether to FoW the LED and decided not to. I stripped his FoW after playing out the LED's, the rituals, and I went infernal cracking LED's for black and red in response. He scooped when he saw that I discarded PiF and ToA.
+3 Xantid Swarm, -2 Duress, -1 Cabal therapy
Game 2 he's on air as I find out on turn 4 when he has just merrow reejerey and cursecatcher in play. I therapy naming FoW, see just stifle for interaction, and use past in flames to flashback all the cards including therapy on stifle to tendrils him out. Didn't draw swarm, but didn't remotely need it. He spell pierced a dark ritual the turn before I killed him buying him a turn as I played around stifle by not fetching to pay for dark rit with my 2 extra lands and figured I'd just untap and win. I dark ritualed the next turn and he immediately let it resolve so a few rituals and LED's later I won the game with ease.
3-0 (6-0)
Round 4 I.D.
Round 5 I.D.
Top 8 against big affinity.
I talked with the guy earlier, a regular at these events and an acquaintance of mine. He was running 1 canonist and 4 chalice of the void maindeck. I only knew about the chalices, but I knew I wanted to win the die roll quite badly to duress/therapy any possible chalices or else I might be hosed by a chalice at 1 on turn 1. I duressed his chalice of the void turn 1 off of sea. He played some dudes. I brainstormed then preordained after fetching away the chaff. I won on turn 4 with ease and not a lot of pressure, playing out LED and petal earlier to play around a topdecked chalice of the void. I win with past in flames recursion.
-4 Therapy, -2 Duress, -1 Probe +4 Abrupt decay, +2 Chain of vapor, +1 Echoing truth.
He goes turn 1 chalice for 1 and some dudes. I play land go. He attacks and plays some more irrelevant cards. I play land into EoT abrupt decay. On my turn I cantrip a bunch. He doesn't kill me. I use past in flames to kill him yet again with ease.
4-0 (8-0)
Top 4 against Shardless BUG
Game 1 too much discard + deathrite finish me. Never drew any rituals but I drew tendrils and double infernal plus some disruption and cantrips that didn't turn up anything really. Could have lost on turn 2 via thoughtseize taking tendrils and eating it with DRS, but she took ponder, which crippled me quite a bit since I lacked cantrips afterwards to find mana.
+4 Confidant, +3 Xantid Swarm, +1 Tendrils of Agony, -1 Ad Nauseam, -1 Cabal Ritual, -1 Lotus Petal, -1 Preordain, -2 Gitaxian Probe, -1 Cabal Therapy
We both discard each others hands, at one point I probe her and she has jace, FoW, and 3 lands in play with nothing else. I have PiF in hand so I go infernal tutor cracking LED for black. She FoW's, pitching the card I was quite scared of since I had no hand disruption or swarms in play to beat FoW and I was planning on getting therapy with infernal anyways so getting two cards is nice when I have a PiF in the yard to rebuild with and 4 lands. We're both in topdeck mode, I topdeck swarm and play it. She topdecks liliana and kills the swarm with nothing else in play but lands. I topdeck preordain, preordain into two lands that go straight to the bottom. Draw preordain. I cast it seeing Bob and LED. Top both, and use my land and petal to cast bob to keep LED on top with a fetchland in play. She ticks up liliana and does nothing of consequence. I flip LED and draw a ritual. Kill liliana with bob and pass. We both play draw go a few turns until I have triple LED in hand and decide to win with PiF to flashback all the stuff.
Game 3, I go swarm, untap, attack, cantrip, swarm to play around liliana edict. She liliana's and +1's, I pitch a land. We both play draw go a few turns with her playing a jace and me topdecking blanks. I eventually have 2 lands untapped with LED, dark rit, and infernal tutor in hand with both swarms in play. I regret boarding out ad nauseam quite a bit at this point, pass back, she thoughtseize's my infernal and I proceed to draw blanks forever.
Battle for third place, since the prize distribution was skewed in that top 3 got dual lands and 4th place got 8 packs sadly.
Last match against UWR delver steppe lynx lavamancer stuff.
I open up the hand of LED, petal, infernal, infernal, lands. I keep knowing he's on a blue deck. I play land go after immediately topdecking a LED on turn 1 that I don't dare try to combo off with since my opponent very likely has a FoW in hand to answer turn 1 ad nauseam. Play land go for a while, try to bait him to use FoW on an extra infernal I draw, it goes through and I get LED #3. Topdeck another infernal, use it to grab infernal. The turn before I die I topdeck therapy and windmill slam it naming FoW. He has just 1 and snapcaster as well as some other blanks. Immediately win with ease with 3 lotuses and demonic tutor fetching PiF and flashbacking all the tutors to grab cabal rit's before grabbing tendrils to deal quite a bit more than necessary.
SB: No changes. Creatures are terrible against red, bounce and decays are not remotely necessary as I'm not the control deck, and tendrils is only brought in for decks with deathrite shaman or decks you have to grind through with raw tendrils.
Game 2: I durdle too much and die to boros charm dealing 4 on turn 5 or something. Couldn't find an answer to his FoW in hand.
Game 3: I open up with the following: tendrils, dark rit, dark rit, cabal rit, probe, 2 lands. I keep, aiming to raw tendrils him out. Play land, go for multiple turns while he doesn't have any turn 1 play for the first time in the match and goes turn 2 delver. I topdeck 2 lands into brainstorm. On turn 4 I start out with probe after drawing brainstorm, intending to win this turn and paying life. He REB's it with his one open mana. Didn't expect that, but that's fine with me. I brainstorm into a cabal rit. I count the storm and it's exactly 10 with him at 19 life, so even if he has FoW he loses. I play my first dark rit, and it resolves. I immediately play the rest of my hand into tendrils for exactsies. He shows his hand of lands, FoW, and some red card/no blue cards.
I take home a moderately played bayou for my efforts. The other top 2 finishers got NM taiga and badlands at the same value of my MP badlands at least according to retail pricing. I'm pretty happy since bayou is a lot more desirable after RTR while badlands and taiga aren't nearly as good in legacy.
Props:
Cantrips
Dark confidant for being a champ and for my copies not being the hideous new art.
Naturally drawing past in flames and tendrils/winning in dramatic grinding station fashion.
Sniping with therapy
Watching my friend win the tournament after having a jace and liliana active against him for a lot of turns in game 3 of the finals. Well played, sir.
Slops:
No turn 1 kills
Boarding out AdN FML
Lands 15
4 Polluted Delta
4 Misty Rainforest
2 U. Sea
1 Volcanic Island
1 Tropical Island
1 Bayou
1 Swamp
1 Island
Rituals 8
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
Artifacts 8
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
Cantrips 16
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Preordain
Protection 6
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Duress
Business 6
4 Infernal Tutor
1 Past in Flames
1 Ad Nauseam
Win 1
1 Tendrils of Agony
SB
4 Dark Confidant
3 Xantid Swarm
4 Abrupt Decay
2 Chain of Vapor
1 Echoing Truth
1 Tendrils of Agony
Round 1 vs. Affinity
I had played this guy before and last time he was on UR delver. I could have blind therapied turn 1 on the play, but chose not to instead opting to go land -> go. He plays darksteel citadel into signal pest into go. I cantrip a few times into a past in flames kill with a blind therapy naming ethersworn canonist just in case (he had a lot of air in his hand in regards to this matchup.)
-4 Therapy, -2 Duress, -1 Probe, +4 Abrupt Decay, +2 Chain of vapor, +1 E. Truth
Game 2, he goes turn 1 dudes into turn 2 canonist or something. I cantrip, abrupt decay his canonist on his end step, chain of vapor my LED and his rest in peace on my turn, brainstorm into all lands, and go for ad nauseam from 9 with 3 black floating off of LED since I naturally drew the ad nauseam. Flip over land, brainstorm, dark rit, dark rit, tendrils. Hooray for draw 5's getting there since my storm count was quite high due to LED, CoV, LED, generating 3, brainstorm for the 4th, a pair of rituals for 5 and 6, ad nauseam for the 7th, and 3 double dark rit into tendrils for exactly 10.
Round 2 vs. Sweet living wish dark depths brew + deathrite shaman.
Game 1 I cantrip a few times, he discards some of my cards, but I topdeck the win after a few turns after duressing his abrupt decay and topdecking infernal tutor with 2 LED's in hand.
+4 Dark Confidant, +1 Tendrils, -2 Duress, -3 Cabal Therapy
I mulligan to 6, and get the following: LED, Petal, Dark Rit, Confidant, 2 Cantrips not named probe. I keep, as does he. He goes turn 1 deathrite and not thoughtseize/IoK, which I like a lot. I don't draw land and go petal, dark rit, confidant ship the turn. It sticks and he goes land, wish for tabernacle, go. Must find a land. I flip over probe and draw a misty rainforest. I fetch and preordain shipping the turn afterwards. He plays tabernacle, exploration, land, crucible. I flip a cantrip or something to bob and pay his taxes, petal into preordain to find another land, get it, and cantrip again off of tropical island since I don't care if he wastes that and I cannot fetch basic swamp with my fetchland. Find the win a couple turns later, he flashes leyline of sanctity after I trade Bob for his DRS since I had the kill setup. I misboarded but it didn't end up mattering as he told me he boarded in sphere of resistance as well as leyline.
2-0 (4-0)
Round 3 vs. Merfolk
I cantrip for a couple of turns and end up stripping his FoW with a therapy. I naturally drew past in flames and tendrils of agony and when I started to go off my hand was double LED, double cabal rit, therapy, petal, infernal tutor. He debated forever over whether to FoW the LED and decided not to. I stripped his FoW after playing out the LED's, the rituals, and I went infernal cracking LED's for black and red in response. He scooped when he saw that I discarded PiF and ToA.
+3 Xantid Swarm, -2 Duress, -1 Cabal therapy
Game 2 he's on air as I find out on turn 4 when he has just merrow reejerey and cursecatcher in play. I therapy naming FoW, see just stifle for interaction, and use past in flames to flashback all the cards including therapy on stifle to tendrils him out. Didn't draw swarm, but didn't remotely need it. He spell pierced a dark ritual the turn before I killed him buying him a turn as I played around stifle by not fetching to pay for dark rit with my 2 extra lands and figured I'd just untap and win. I dark ritualed the next turn and he immediately let it resolve so a few rituals and LED's later I won the game with ease.
3-0 (6-0)
Round 4 I.D.
Round 5 I.D.
Top 8 against big affinity.
I talked with the guy earlier, a regular at these events and an acquaintance of mine. He was running 1 canonist and 4 chalice of the void maindeck. I only knew about the chalices, but I knew I wanted to win the die roll quite badly to duress/therapy any possible chalices or else I might be hosed by a chalice at 1 on turn 1. I duressed his chalice of the void turn 1 off of sea. He played some dudes. I brainstormed then preordained after fetching away the chaff. I won on turn 4 with ease and not a lot of pressure, playing out LED and petal earlier to play around a topdecked chalice of the void. I win with past in flames recursion.
-4 Therapy, -2 Duress, -1 Probe +4 Abrupt decay, +2 Chain of vapor, +1 Echoing truth.
He goes turn 1 chalice for 1 and some dudes. I play land go. He attacks and plays some more irrelevant cards. I play land into EoT abrupt decay. On my turn I cantrip a bunch. He doesn't kill me. I use past in flames to kill him yet again with ease.
4-0 (8-0)
Top 4 against Shardless BUG
Game 1 too much discard + deathrite finish me. Never drew any rituals but I drew tendrils and double infernal plus some disruption and cantrips that didn't turn up anything really. Could have lost on turn 2 via thoughtseize taking tendrils and eating it with DRS, but she took ponder, which crippled me quite a bit since I lacked cantrips afterwards to find mana.
+4 Confidant, +3 Xantid Swarm, +1 Tendrils of Agony, -1 Ad Nauseam, -1 Cabal Ritual, -1 Lotus Petal, -1 Preordain, -2 Gitaxian Probe, -1 Cabal Therapy
We both discard each others hands, at one point I probe her and she has jace, FoW, and 3 lands in play with nothing else. I have PiF in hand so I go infernal tutor cracking LED for black. She FoW's, pitching the card I was quite scared of since I had no hand disruption or swarms in play to beat FoW and I was planning on getting therapy with infernal anyways so getting two cards is nice when I have a PiF in the yard to rebuild with and 4 lands. We're both in topdeck mode, I topdeck swarm and play it. She topdecks liliana and kills the swarm with nothing else in play but lands. I topdeck preordain, preordain into two lands that go straight to the bottom. Draw preordain. I cast it seeing Bob and LED. Top both, and use my land and petal to cast bob to keep LED on top with a fetchland in play. She ticks up liliana and does nothing of consequence. I flip LED and draw a ritual. Kill liliana with bob and pass. We both play draw go a few turns until I have triple LED in hand and decide to win with PiF to flashback all the stuff.
Game 3, I go swarm, untap, attack, cantrip, swarm to play around liliana edict. She liliana's and +1's, I pitch a land. We both play draw go a few turns with her playing a jace and me topdecking blanks. I eventually have 2 lands untapped with LED, dark rit, and infernal tutor in hand with both swarms in play. I regret boarding out ad nauseam quite a bit at this point, pass back, she thoughtseize's my infernal and I proceed to draw blanks forever.
Battle for third place, since the prize distribution was skewed in that top 3 got dual lands and 4th place got 8 packs sadly.
Last match against UWR delver steppe lynx lavamancer stuff.
I open up the hand of LED, petal, infernal, infernal, lands. I keep knowing he's on a blue deck. I play land go after immediately topdecking a LED on turn 1 that I don't dare try to combo off with since my opponent very likely has a FoW in hand to answer turn 1 ad nauseam. Play land go for a while, try to bait him to use FoW on an extra infernal I draw, it goes through and I get LED #3. Topdeck another infernal, use it to grab infernal. The turn before I die I topdeck therapy and windmill slam it naming FoW. He has just 1 and snapcaster as well as some other blanks. Immediately win with ease with 3 lotuses and demonic tutor fetching PiF and flashbacking all the tutors to grab cabal rit's before grabbing tendrils to deal quite a bit more than necessary.
SB: No changes. Creatures are terrible against red, bounce and decays are not remotely necessary as I'm not the control deck, and tendrils is only brought in for decks with deathrite shaman or decks you have to grind through with raw tendrils.
Game 2: I durdle too much and die to boros charm dealing 4 on turn 5 or something. Couldn't find an answer to his FoW in hand.
Game 3: I open up with the following: tendrils, dark rit, dark rit, cabal rit, probe, 2 lands. I keep, aiming to raw tendrils him out. Play land, go for multiple turns while he doesn't have any turn 1 play for the first time in the match and goes turn 2 delver. I topdeck 2 lands into brainstorm. On turn 4 I start out with probe after drawing brainstorm, intending to win this turn and paying life. He REB's it with his one open mana. Didn't expect that, but that's fine with me. I brainstorm into a cabal rit. I count the storm and it's exactly 10 with him at 19 life, so even if he has FoW he loses. I play my first dark rit, and it resolves. I immediately play the rest of my hand into tendrils for exactsies. He shows his hand of lands, FoW, and some red card/no blue cards.
I take home a moderately played bayou for my efforts. The other top 2 finishers got NM taiga and badlands at the same value of my MP badlands at least according to retail pricing. I'm pretty happy since bayou is a lot more desirable after RTR while badlands and taiga aren't nearly as good in legacy.
Props:
Cantrips
Dark confidant for being a champ and for my copies not being the hideous new art.
Naturally drawing past in flames and tendrils/winning in dramatic grinding station fashion.
Sniping with therapy
Watching my friend win the tournament after having a jace and liliana active against him for a lot of turns in game 3 of the finals. Well played, sir.
Slops:
No turn 1 kills
Boarding out AdN FML