TerribleTim68
06-24-2013, 02:08 PM
Ok, so after a brief hiatus for a little over a month I returned to my LGS to throw down some cardboard hate. Since I have a habit of swapping decks every so often so as not to get labeled "The Sneak/Show Guy" or something of the sort, this time I decided to run a no-land Belcher build by Michael Augustine that I had been admiring for some time. As a wanna-be Jonny I found this build to be of particular interest due to it's lack of all things land and because any guy who stands on a chair at a large MtG event and yells "MORTALLLLL COMBAAAAAAAAT!!!!!!!!" is just freakin' cool in my book! :cool:
So after showing up a bit early and a quick stop at the card counter to grab the last 5 commons I needed for this mess, I sleeved up -
Main:
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Street Wraith
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Manamorphose
4 Rite of Flame
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Pyretic Ritual
4 Seething Song
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Goblin Charbelcher
4 Burning Wish
1 Meditate
3 Recross the Paths
Board:
1 Recross the Paths
1 Infernal Contract
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Grapeshot
1 Past in Flames
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Hull Breach
1 Flame Slash
1 Shattering Spree
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
1 Pyroclasm
3 Price of Progress
Ok, so a couple choices here because I know peeps will say "WTF?" on a few of them. Price of Progress seemed pretty good against greedy mana bases, more so when I considered the number of non-basic lands in my deck. Or the number of lands period. :tongue: Sure, I can't wish for it, but what ever. I'd just side it in when it might make a difference and that would be that. Plus, Maverick is usually a thing. other than that, it was pretty much Mikey's build.
So to the report!
Rnd 1 vs Feline (former SCG-Seattle Open Winner) playing Spiral Tide:
Game 1 - I opened with a Gitaxian Probe, Feline put me on TES, I chuckled inside. I then cycled a Street Wraith to dig for the win since the probe revealed no Force of Will. At this point Feline put me on Dredge, this time I couldn't contain my chuckle. After doing a lot of funky stuff while I tried to figure out how to work this brand new concoction I was holding in my hands I finally found the right way to count to 7, dropped Goblin Charbelcher and activated. At this point Feline did the usual and managed to inform the entire store of what I was playing. :eyebrow: Advantage=gone.
Game 2 - Again, I open with Gitaxian Probe, this time seeing the Force of Will. Somehow I managed to bait it out with a ritual of some sort since Feline thought I was going for the Empty the Warrens. After that I managed to use the rest of my hand to count to 7, drop Goblin Charbelcher and activate. Yay me!
2-0 (1-0)
Rnd 2 vs Guy I've Never Seen Before (turned out to be super cool guy) playing Esper Stone-Blade:
Game 1 - Again, I opened with a Gitaxian Probe and see no Force of Will. I run out a Recross the Paths and build my stack all wrong. This would be my first time building a stack in a competitive tourney and I whiffed pretty bad. Of course, I didn't realize it until after I passed the turn. So this one went away from me due to bad play on my part.
Game 2 - Pretty much the same thing as game 1. I really need to learn how to build the right stack. :frown:
0-2 (1-1)
Rnd 3 vs Other Guy I've Never Seen Before (who apparently came with the first guy I'd never seen before, and also equally cool) playing Miracles:
Game 1 - Wow, Miracles is a thing still? Umm, ok, let's do this. I do what I had gotten in the habit of and Recross the Paths into the wrong stack. I realized it once I drew the card on top and realized I'd placed the one I wanted on top under this one. Ok, that's got to stop!
Game 2 - New plan, let's count to the biggest number possible and vomit Goblin tokens all over the table. Apparently 12 Goblins on turn 1 when you're on the play is some good. Luckily he didn't draw an Echoing Truth or something like that. Moving on!
Game 3 - Ok, so that plan works fairly good here. Let's rinse and repeat! 18 Goblin tokens on turn 1 is even better. Some times stringing together Manamorphose and Gitaxian Probes is just stupid. But hey, look at all these Goblins! :tongue:
2-1 (2-1)
Rnd 4 vs BJ (who seems to have his newborn in tow, odd) playing B/W discard:
Game 1 - BJ is stuck on 1 land and I go off before he has a chance to cast any of the many discard cards in his hand. The baby fussing keeps him also preoccupied. Fun.
Game 2 - Baby demands more attention, store owner gets irritated, pretty much everyone in the store gets irritated, I'm trying to figure out how to get this win without making him concede due to the baby issue. I open with Gitaxian Probe and see a ton of discard. So I just run my entire hand out and now have a board of Goblin Charbelcher, Chrome Mox (on a green) and a Lotus Petal. Seems like a pretty good position to be in considering he was holding Inquisition of Kozilek, Hymn to Tourach x2 and Lilliana of the Veil along with all the land he needed to cast it all. He then topdecks Abrupt Decay and kills my Chrome Mox. But I topdeck like a champ and find the mana to make it happen. God I love those Lion’s Eye Diamonds!!!
2-0 (3-1)
My finish nets me 2nd place and I use some of my newfound store credit to grab a Modern Masters booster, which pulled an Angel's Grace proving that I suck at boosters. What ever. All in all, a fun night with a brand new to me deck. I love this thing, but it isn't something I'll be throwing down all the time. My meta seems to have a ton of blue in it and this was probably a bad choice for decks. I think I got pretty lucky all in all. But hey, any day where I can beat Feline on that Spiral Tide thing is a good day! :cool:
So after showing up a bit early and a quick stop at the card counter to grab the last 5 commons I needed for this mess, I sleeved up -
Main:
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Street Wraith
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Manamorphose
4 Rite of Flame
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Pyretic Ritual
4 Seething Song
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Goblin Charbelcher
4 Burning Wish
1 Meditate
3 Recross the Paths
Board:
1 Recross the Paths
1 Infernal Contract
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Grapeshot
1 Past in Flames
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Hull Breach
1 Flame Slash
1 Shattering Spree
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast
1 Pyroclasm
3 Price of Progress
Ok, so a couple choices here because I know peeps will say "WTF?" on a few of them. Price of Progress seemed pretty good against greedy mana bases, more so when I considered the number of non-basic lands in my deck. Or the number of lands period. :tongue: Sure, I can't wish for it, but what ever. I'd just side it in when it might make a difference and that would be that. Plus, Maverick is usually a thing. other than that, it was pretty much Mikey's build.
So to the report!
Rnd 1 vs Feline (former SCG-Seattle Open Winner) playing Spiral Tide:
Game 1 - I opened with a Gitaxian Probe, Feline put me on TES, I chuckled inside. I then cycled a Street Wraith to dig for the win since the probe revealed no Force of Will. At this point Feline put me on Dredge, this time I couldn't contain my chuckle. After doing a lot of funky stuff while I tried to figure out how to work this brand new concoction I was holding in my hands I finally found the right way to count to 7, dropped Goblin Charbelcher and activated. At this point Feline did the usual and managed to inform the entire store of what I was playing. :eyebrow: Advantage=gone.
Game 2 - Again, I open with Gitaxian Probe, this time seeing the Force of Will. Somehow I managed to bait it out with a ritual of some sort since Feline thought I was going for the Empty the Warrens. After that I managed to use the rest of my hand to count to 7, drop Goblin Charbelcher and activate. Yay me!
2-0 (1-0)
Rnd 2 vs Guy I've Never Seen Before (turned out to be super cool guy) playing Esper Stone-Blade:
Game 1 - Again, I opened with a Gitaxian Probe and see no Force of Will. I run out a Recross the Paths and build my stack all wrong. This would be my first time building a stack in a competitive tourney and I whiffed pretty bad. Of course, I didn't realize it until after I passed the turn. So this one went away from me due to bad play on my part.
Game 2 - Pretty much the same thing as game 1. I really need to learn how to build the right stack. :frown:
0-2 (1-1)
Rnd 3 vs Other Guy I've Never Seen Before (who apparently came with the first guy I'd never seen before, and also equally cool) playing Miracles:
Game 1 - Wow, Miracles is a thing still? Umm, ok, let's do this. I do what I had gotten in the habit of and Recross the Paths into the wrong stack. I realized it once I drew the card on top and realized I'd placed the one I wanted on top under this one. Ok, that's got to stop!
Game 2 - New plan, let's count to the biggest number possible and vomit Goblin tokens all over the table. Apparently 12 Goblins on turn 1 when you're on the play is some good. Luckily he didn't draw an Echoing Truth or something like that. Moving on!
Game 3 - Ok, so that plan works fairly good here. Let's rinse and repeat! 18 Goblin tokens on turn 1 is even better. Some times stringing together Manamorphose and Gitaxian Probes is just stupid. But hey, look at all these Goblins! :tongue:
2-1 (2-1)
Rnd 4 vs BJ (who seems to have his newborn in tow, odd) playing B/W discard:
Game 1 - BJ is stuck on 1 land and I go off before he has a chance to cast any of the many discard cards in his hand. The baby fussing keeps him also preoccupied. Fun.
Game 2 - Baby demands more attention, store owner gets irritated, pretty much everyone in the store gets irritated, I'm trying to figure out how to get this win without making him concede due to the baby issue. I open with Gitaxian Probe and see a ton of discard. So I just run my entire hand out and now have a board of Goblin Charbelcher, Chrome Mox (on a green) and a Lotus Petal. Seems like a pretty good position to be in considering he was holding Inquisition of Kozilek, Hymn to Tourach x2 and Lilliana of the Veil along with all the land he needed to cast it all. He then topdecks Abrupt Decay and kills my Chrome Mox. But I topdeck like a champ and find the mana to make it happen. God I love those Lion’s Eye Diamonds!!!
2-0 (3-1)
My finish nets me 2nd place and I use some of my newfound store credit to grab a Modern Masters booster, which pulled an Angel's Grace proving that I suck at boosters. What ever. All in all, a fun night with a brand new to me deck. I love this thing, but it isn't something I'll be throwing down all the time. My meta seems to have a ton of blue in it and this was probably a bad choice for decks. I think I got pretty lucky all in all. But hey, any day where I can beat Feline on that Spiral Tide thing is a good day! :cool: