Dragonslayer_90
10-15-2013, 09:41 PM
On 10/12/13, I played in a small GPT for 2 byes at the Empire Game Center in Streetsboro, OH. We had somewhere between 16-18 people so the Swiss was 4 rounds with a cut to top 4. I went 3-1 in the Swiss, beat my semi-finals opponent, and split with my opponent in the finals to get the 2 byes. Here’s the Shardless BUG list I ran at the event:
4 Shardless Agent
2 Baleful Strix
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Hymn to Tourach
3 Force of Will
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Ancestral Vision
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Brainstorm
2 Thoughtseize
4 Underground Sea
2 Bayou
2 Tropical Island
4 Polluted Delta
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Wasteland
2 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Swamp
SB: 2 Flusterstorm
SB: 1 Life from the Loam
SB: 1 Maelstrom Pulse
SB: 1 Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 2 Disfigure
SB: 1 Infest
SB: 2 Golgari Charm
SB: 2 Nihil Spellbomb
SB: 2 Liliana of the Veil
SB: 1 Force of Will
The MD is pretty close to a stock Gerry T list, with a few exceptions. Instead of 22 lands I have 23. I made this change after scrubbing out at SCG Cleveland. A lot of my losses were due to not being able to establish my mana base in time. Sometimes this wasn’t a result of opposing wastelands or stifles but simply not drawing into more lands to make my land drops. I noticed that I mulligan much less to try and get at least two lands in my opening hand than when I was on 22. As for the basic swamp, that is basically a nod to the increase of blood moon decks in the legacy meta. Maybe I’m respecting it too much but I do like having an out to a resolved blood moon. Might cut it for the GP but I’m not sure yet.
Most of my SB choices are pretty self-explanatory since most of them are common SB choices for the Shardless BUG archetype. The loam is something I considered after the issues I had with my mana base at SCG Cleveland. I got the idea after re-reading Timur Babakol’s SCG Baltimore Report. Loam is mostly brought in against tempo decks and any other mana denial decks as a way to ensure you have a stable mana base and to get ahead on lands.
Here’s a report of what I played, how the games generally went, and observations that stood out in my mind. I should mention I don’t really take detailed notes during my tournaments so my descriptions are all from memory and maybe a little vague so I apologize for that in advance.
Round 1: RDW
Game 1: I find out I’m playing RDW (with some unconventional card choices like Simian Spirit Guide) so I make my plan to survive through his onslaught of burn spells and creatures with removal, discard, and Force of Will (FoW). Eventually he runs out of gas and I stabilize with a Goyf and Jace, using the former to beat him down while I fateseal him with the latter.
SB: -3 Jace -2 Thoughtseize
+2 Flusterstorm +1 Force of Will +2 Disfigure
Game 2: In this game I look to implement a similar plan of running him out of cards and then stabilize with some beaters on board to close out the game. Here, I got a Hymn to Tourach off Turn 2 to take a price of progress and some other card. Once he runs out of gas I beat him down with 2 Goyfs while hoping he doesn’t topdeck price of progress or Fireblast to finish me off.
Round 2: Tin Fins
Game 1: At first I think my opponent’s on some sort of Esper deck due to him playing Underground Sea and Scrubland within the first few turns. Eventually I Thoughtseize him to see Children of Korlis in his hand, which is only played in Tin Fins as far as I know. I then take an aggro-control line clocking him with Goyf while disrupting him with Strix, Shaman, Force, etc.
SB: -3 Hymn -1 Jace -1 Visions -4 Abrupt Decay
+2 Lili +2 Flusterstorm +2 Nihil Spell Bomb +1 Force of Will +1 Graffdigger’s Cage +1 Pulse
Game 2: My opponent’s on the play. My opening hand of 7 cards only has Deathrite in terms of disruption, which is too slow on the draw. So I mull to 6 hoping to get a Thoughtseize or FoW. My 6 contains two Thoughtseize in terms of disruption. Still a risky keep on the draw but I’d rather not mulligan again so I keep, hoping he doesn’t have it Turn 1 kill. He doesn’t so I proceed to Thoughtseize him turn one, taking his ponder to prevent him from digging for more combo pieces or cantrips. Eventually I establish a board of Deathrite, Strix, Agent, and Goyf. I beat him down with Agent and Goyf while using Deathrite, Strix, and counters to prevent any attempt from him to go off.
NOTE: In retrospect I think I may have overboarded since Tin Fins aims to kill you in one turn like a storm deck does rather than riding a cheated fatty to victory as reanimator does. I think I should have SB’ed like this instead: +2 Flusterstorm +1 FoW +2 Spellbomb +1 Cage -4 Decay -2 Hymn.
Round 3: Dark Maverick
Game 1: My opponent develops a board of Knight of the Reliquary, Mother of Runes and some other creatures. Mom stall walls me for a while preventing me from being able to beat down or block with any of my creatures. In the meantime my opponent beats with his Knight and starts fetching up wasteland in an effort to mana screw me. However, I have a deathrite on board and drew into more lands so even after getting wastelanded four times I’m still able to cast spells. At one point I kill his Mom while it is tapped and kill his first knight, his second, but concede to the third one because I didn’t think I was going to be able to draw into my fourth Abrupt Decay in time, and the game had already gone pretty long at that point.
SB: -3 Jace -3 FoW -2 Thoughtseize -3 Hymn
+ 2 Disfigure + 2 Golgari Charm +2 Lili +1 Pulse +1 Infest +1 Nihil Spell Bomb +1 Grafdigger’s Cage +1 Life from the Loam
Game 2: I do not remember very well how this game went. All I remember is being able to answer his mana accelerants and threats. Eventually I pull ahead with Visions and proceed to beat down with a Goyf. Despite potentially being able to grind the game out, he concedes so we go to game 3.
Game 3: He T1 thoughtseizes me and takes my deathrite shaman. This game didn’t go well for him since he got stuck on lands. I was stuck on lands for a little as well but the life from the loam in my hand allowed me to rebuy a fetch and a land he wasted so I was able to get out of my mana screw, get ahead on lands, and develop my board unimpeded as he remained mana screwed for most of the game. He ultimately concedes due to getting too far behind.
Round 4: Goblins
G1: My opponent develops his board faster than my removal can keep up with so I get steamrolled.
SB: -3 Jace -3 FoW -2 Thoughtseize
+2 Lili +1 Pulse +2 Disfigure +1 Infest +2 Golgari Charm
G2: In the early game he doesn’t do much due to some mana issues so I try get him dead with an Agent and Deathrite. However, he out cards me with 2 or 3 good ringleaders, stabilizes at 5 and proceeds to develop a horde of goblins to close out the game that I’m unable to answer since I was flooding at this point.
Semi-Finals: Goblins Rematch
When we cut to Top 4 I end up 3rd place in the standings. My semi-finals opponent was the Goblins player I played in the Swiss, so we got a rematch with him going on the play since he was the higher seed.
Game 1: I FoW his turn 1 Aether Vial pitching Ancestral. In this game I used all three of my Force of Wills to out tempo my opponent. I prevented him from establishing a board that would threaten my own that had Jace and creatures to protect it. I pull head on cards with Jace and eventually beat him down for the win.
SB: -3 Hymn -2 Thoughtseize -3 Force of Will
+2 Lili +1 Pulse +2 Charm +2 Disfigure +1 Infest
NOTE: I sideboarded differently against my Goblins opponent the second time around because I saw another Shardless BUG player in Round 4 playing a postboard game with Jace against another Goblins player, which he eventually won. I decided to try out what he was doing and it worked out really well for me. This makes me think that maybe I have been siding out Jace more often than I should in certain MUs. I usually side him out against nonblue fair decks like Maverick and Goblins. However, my experience at this tournament makes it seems like it may be better to keep Jace in as opposed to Hymn to Tourach since those type of MU’s are all about board presence. This is something I will have to test going forward.
Game 2: I play a more traditional control role, answering his threats and eventually stick a Jace to get ahead on cards and grind him out.
When I proceed to the finals I found out the Maverick player I played earlier is there. Instead of playing we end up agreeing on a split where I got the byes and he got the credit. He was okay with it since he wasn’t sure if he was going to GP DC, but knew I was intending to go.
And that’s my report. Sorry again for being sparse on a lot of details. I think I’m going to try and develop a habit of taking notes to write better reports from here on in. Overall I’m pretty happy how my deck performed and how I played for the most part. It felt like all my wins and losses were either well within my control, depending on whether I played tightly or not, or just due to my preboard configuration. Thanks for reading.
4 Shardless Agent
2 Baleful Strix
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Hymn to Tourach
3 Force of Will
4 Abrupt Decay
4 Ancestral Vision
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
4 Brainstorm
2 Thoughtseize
4 Underground Sea
2 Bayou
2 Tropical Island
4 Polluted Delta
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Wasteland
2 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Swamp
SB: 2 Flusterstorm
SB: 1 Life from the Loam
SB: 1 Maelstrom Pulse
SB: 1 Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 2 Disfigure
SB: 1 Infest
SB: 2 Golgari Charm
SB: 2 Nihil Spellbomb
SB: 2 Liliana of the Veil
SB: 1 Force of Will
The MD is pretty close to a stock Gerry T list, with a few exceptions. Instead of 22 lands I have 23. I made this change after scrubbing out at SCG Cleveland. A lot of my losses were due to not being able to establish my mana base in time. Sometimes this wasn’t a result of opposing wastelands or stifles but simply not drawing into more lands to make my land drops. I noticed that I mulligan much less to try and get at least two lands in my opening hand than when I was on 22. As for the basic swamp, that is basically a nod to the increase of blood moon decks in the legacy meta. Maybe I’m respecting it too much but I do like having an out to a resolved blood moon. Might cut it for the GP but I’m not sure yet.
Most of my SB choices are pretty self-explanatory since most of them are common SB choices for the Shardless BUG archetype. The loam is something I considered after the issues I had with my mana base at SCG Cleveland. I got the idea after re-reading Timur Babakol’s SCG Baltimore Report. Loam is mostly brought in against tempo decks and any other mana denial decks as a way to ensure you have a stable mana base and to get ahead on lands.
Here’s a report of what I played, how the games generally went, and observations that stood out in my mind. I should mention I don’t really take detailed notes during my tournaments so my descriptions are all from memory and maybe a little vague so I apologize for that in advance.
Round 1: RDW
Game 1: I find out I’m playing RDW (with some unconventional card choices like Simian Spirit Guide) so I make my plan to survive through his onslaught of burn spells and creatures with removal, discard, and Force of Will (FoW). Eventually he runs out of gas and I stabilize with a Goyf and Jace, using the former to beat him down while I fateseal him with the latter.
SB: -3 Jace -2 Thoughtseize
+2 Flusterstorm +1 Force of Will +2 Disfigure
Game 2: In this game I look to implement a similar plan of running him out of cards and then stabilize with some beaters on board to close out the game. Here, I got a Hymn to Tourach off Turn 2 to take a price of progress and some other card. Once he runs out of gas I beat him down with 2 Goyfs while hoping he doesn’t topdeck price of progress or Fireblast to finish me off.
Round 2: Tin Fins
Game 1: At first I think my opponent’s on some sort of Esper deck due to him playing Underground Sea and Scrubland within the first few turns. Eventually I Thoughtseize him to see Children of Korlis in his hand, which is only played in Tin Fins as far as I know. I then take an aggro-control line clocking him with Goyf while disrupting him with Strix, Shaman, Force, etc.
SB: -3 Hymn -1 Jace -1 Visions -4 Abrupt Decay
+2 Lili +2 Flusterstorm +2 Nihil Spell Bomb +1 Force of Will +1 Graffdigger’s Cage +1 Pulse
Game 2: My opponent’s on the play. My opening hand of 7 cards only has Deathrite in terms of disruption, which is too slow on the draw. So I mull to 6 hoping to get a Thoughtseize or FoW. My 6 contains two Thoughtseize in terms of disruption. Still a risky keep on the draw but I’d rather not mulligan again so I keep, hoping he doesn’t have it Turn 1 kill. He doesn’t so I proceed to Thoughtseize him turn one, taking his ponder to prevent him from digging for more combo pieces or cantrips. Eventually I establish a board of Deathrite, Strix, Agent, and Goyf. I beat him down with Agent and Goyf while using Deathrite, Strix, and counters to prevent any attempt from him to go off.
NOTE: In retrospect I think I may have overboarded since Tin Fins aims to kill you in one turn like a storm deck does rather than riding a cheated fatty to victory as reanimator does. I think I should have SB’ed like this instead: +2 Flusterstorm +1 FoW +2 Spellbomb +1 Cage -4 Decay -2 Hymn.
Round 3: Dark Maverick
Game 1: My opponent develops a board of Knight of the Reliquary, Mother of Runes and some other creatures. Mom stall walls me for a while preventing me from being able to beat down or block with any of my creatures. In the meantime my opponent beats with his Knight and starts fetching up wasteland in an effort to mana screw me. However, I have a deathrite on board and drew into more lands so even after getting wastelanded four times I’m still able to cast spells. At one point I kill his Mom while it is tapped and kill his first knight, his second, but concede to the third one because I didn’t think I was going to be able to draw into my fourth Abrupt Decay in time, and the game had already gone pretty long at that point.
SB: -3 Jace -3 FoW -2 Thoughtseize -3 Hymn
+ 2 Disfigure + 2 Golgari Charm +2 Lili +1 Pulse +1 Infest +1 Nihil Spell Bomb +1 Grafdigger’s Cage +1 Life from the Loam
Game 2: I do not remember very well how this game went. All I remember is being able to answer his mana accelerants and threats. Eventually I pull ahead with Visions and proceed to beat down with a Goyf. Despite potentially being able to grind the game out, he concedes so we go to game 3.
Game 3: He T1 thoughtseizes me and takes my deathrite shaman. This game didn’t go well for him since he got stuck on lands. I was stuck on lands for a little as well but the life from the loam in my hand allowed me to rebuy a fetch and a land he wasted so I was able to get out of my mana screw, get ahead on lands, and develop my board unimpeded as he remained mana screwed for most of the game. He ultimately concedes due to getting too far behind.
Round 4: Goblins
G1: My opponent develops his board faster than my removal can keep up with so I get steamrolled.
SB: -3 Jace -3 FoW -2 Thoughtseize
+2 Lili +1 Pulse +2 Disfigure +1 Infest +2 Golgari Charm
G2: In the early game he doesn’t do much due to some mana issues so I try get him dead with an Agent and Deathrite. However, he out cards me with 2 or 3 good ringleaders, stabilizes at 5 and proceeds to develop a horde of goblins to close out the game that I’m unable to answer since I was flooding at this point.
Semi-Finals: Goblins Rematch
When we cut to Top 4 I end up 3rd place in the standings. My semi-finals opponent was the Goblins player I played in the Swiss, so we got a rematch with him going on the play since he was the higher seed.
Game 1: I FoW his turn 1 Aether Vial pitching Ancestral. In this game I used all three of my Force of Wills to out tempo my opponent. I prevented him from establishing a board that would threaten my own that had Jace and creatures to protect it. I pull head on cards with Jace and eventually beat him down for the win.
SB: -3 Hymn -2 Thoughtseize -3 Force of Will
+2 Lili +1 Pulse +2 Charm +2 Disfigure +1 Infest
NOTE: I sideboarded differently against my Goblins opponent the second time around because I saw another Shardless BUG player in Round 4 playing a postboard game with Jace against another Goblins player, which he eventually won. I decided to try out what he was doing and it worked out really well for me. This makes me think that maybe I have been siding out Jace more often than I should in certain MUs. I usually side him out against nonblue fair decks like Maverick and Goblins. However, my experience at this tournament makes it seems like it may be better to keep Jace in as opposed to Hymn to Tourach since those type of MU’s are all about board presence. This is something I will have to test going forward.
Game 2: I play a more traditional control role, answering his threats and eventually stick a Jace to get ahead on cards and grind him out.
When I proceed to the finals I found out the Maverick player I played earlier is there. Instead of playing we end up agreeing on a split where I got the byes and he got the credit. He was okay with it since he wasn’t sure if he was going to GP DC, but knew I was intending to go.
And that’s my report. Sorry again for being sparse on a lot of details. I think I’m going to try and develop a habit of taking notes to write better reports from here on in. Overall I’m pretty happy how my deck performed and how I played for the most part. It felt like all my wins and losses were either well within my control, depending on whether I played tightly or not, or just due to my preboard configuration. Thanks for reading.