Elves! Top 4 Split at MTGDeals 10/27/2013

[nudon]

Hi everyone! This was my 4th "big" legacy event and I wanted to continue the success I had at my previous event (http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?26646-3rd-Time-s-the-Charm-Top-4-at-MTGDeals-Monthly-Legacy-8-31-2013). I'm feeling tired so will try to keep the report as short as possible. Also, feel free to critique my plays as I welcome constructive criticism.

Entry Fee: $20
Number of Players: 48 (6 Swiss rounds)

My Trusted Team:
4 Elvish Visionary
4 Wirewood Symbiote
4 Nettle Sentinel
4 Heritage Druid
4 Quirion Ranger
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Birchlore Rangers
2 Craterhoof Behemoth

4 Glimpse of Nature
4 Green Sun's Zenith
3 Natural Order

1 Forest
2 Bayou
1 Savannah
1 Dryad Arbor
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Wooded Foothills
4 Gaea's Cradle

4 Cabal Therapy
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Mindbreak Trap
1 Natural Order
1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
1 Progenitus
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Harmonic Sliver
3 Abrupt Decay

For the main deck, I increased the number of fetches up to 10 from 8 (dropping a basic forest and moving NO #4 to the sb). For the sideboard, I wanted to try out the traps so please don't get too mad at me for including them! Also, I decided against the 2nd arbor in favor of Ruric Thar at the last moment.

Round 1: Junk
Game 1: NO->hoof gets the job done on turn 3 despite a sub-optimal turn 2 play. Rust is obviously a factor for me.

Sideboard: -2 heritage, -2 nettle, -1 quirion, -1 hoof, +3 decay, +1 ooze, +1 NO, +1 prog

Game 2: Golgari charm sweeps my board pretty badly and I can't stabilize in time.
Game 3: I get on the aggro plan and it works. I even cast glimpse with no creatures in hand just to untap nettle and get in two extra damage. He shows me deed in his hand but no 4th land afterwards. Phew! Dodged a bullet as I shook off the rust and play fairly mistake-free the rest of the tournament.

Match: 2-1; Overall: 1-0

Round 2: Shardless BUG
Game 1: NO->hoof gets there without too much resistance.

Sideboard: -2 heritage, -2 nettle, +3 decay, +1 ooze

Game 2: He lands a grafdigger's cage early on and adds a second one just in case. I have double abrupt decay in my hand and think about using them both to open up the door for NO. This never comes to fruition as he wastes my bayou and I don't have enough mana. I end up using the first decay on his tarmogoyf and apply the beats. I grind away and the beat-down strategy gets there for the second match in a row. I actually outdraw him with visionary and glimpse as he whiffs on two visions. The second decay was used to clear the way for those last few points of damage.

Match: 2-0; Overall: 2-0

Round 3: Jund
Game 1: He bolts my opening arbor and thoughtseizes away a NO on turn 2. However, I rip another one off visionary the next turn and hoof him for 14 non-lethal damage. I close out the game shortly after.

Sideboard: -2 heritage, -2 nettle, -1 quirion, -1 hoof, +3 decay, +1 ooze, +1 NO, +1 prog

Game 2: I rip NO again after he takes away my gsz. Games are easy when you have monster top-decks.

Match: 2-0; Overall: 3-0

Round 4: RUG
Game 1: I dangerously keep a 1-lander on the draw. He leads with delver instead of stifle fortunately. However, all of my 1 drops get killed 1 by 1 as I never find a second land to accelerate.

Sideboard: -2 heritage, -2 nettle, +3 decay, +1 ooze

Game 2: I have a solid hand with multiple visionaries. He's forces my glimpse but I eventually win on sheer card advantage. The beat-down strategy gets there for the third time in one day.
Game 3: He leads with delver again but this time I have plenty of lands in hand just in case. On my 3rd turn, I successfully bait out FoW with glimpse and represent lethal with NO->hoof. He's forced to unfavorably chump his tarmogoyf and loses the following turn.

Match: 2-1; Overall: 4-0

At this point, there are only 3 undefeated players left. However, I get paired down so I have to play round 5.

Round 5: Counter-Top Blade
Game 1: I have a slight mis-play and allow his jitte to get active.

Sideboard: -2 heritage, -2 nettle, -1 quirion, -1 hoof, +3 decay, +1 sliver, +1 NO, +1 prog

Game 2: Early counterbalance locks me down. I try to get him to flip his top but he floats a cmc-1 card on top. He lands SFM with jitte and things go from bad to worse. I have no choice but to go for NO. He digs with top and reveals supreme verdict... On my next turn, my last out is to gsz for 4 (dodging supreme verdict to find sliver) but he reveals FoW for CB. GG.

Match: 0-2; Overall: 4-1

Round 6: ID (ranked 3rd at the start of 6th round)

Match: 0-0; Overall: 4-1-1

Top 8: Death and Taxes
Game 1: He wastes me 4 times in a row but that's ok since I flood lands with a bunch of visionaries. I finally find NO to deal him ~70 damage after he drops me to 6 life.

Sideboard: -2 heritage, -2 nettle, -1 quirion, -1 hoof, +3 decay, +1 sliver, +1 NO, +1 prog

Game 2: He lands a devastating cataclysm with vial and mindcensor on the board but fortunately I flood again. He adds a thalia to his team but isn't able to pressure me enough as a double-glimpse turn leads to lethal damage. I actually decay the mindcensor during the combo turn so I can NO->symbiote for a second attacker while staying in the glimpse combo if necessary.

Match: 2-0; Overall: 5-1-1

Top 4: Shardless BUG
All 4 players agreed to split and each receive $145. This was nice because the original prizes for 1-4 were foiled cards (none of which I need/want). Thanks to everyone for reading my report! Hope it gave extra insight on my decision-making or was entertaining at the very least. :)

Props:
- Elves beat-down ftw
- MTGDeals for hosting

Slops:
- Running out of fetchable lands a couple of times (though this didn't really hurt me)
- Mindbreak trap; my normal 2x thorn of amethyst would have helped during round 5

[Lemnear]

Gratz, pal. A true Birchlore Bomber!

[lordofthepit]

Congrats on the Top 4!

[danyul]

Nice job dude. You are a true ally of the forest.

[andrebonotto]

:smile: Hey man, congrats for the finish!

Against RUG Delver, after sideboarding, do you find it safe to rely on Hoof/beat down to finish him?

You seemed to get him on the beat down in G2 and with Hoof on G3, but I'm not sure it's a solid plan, because what often happens is that: a) he outraces us; and b) I've had my Hoof Stifled so many times to rely on it.
Hence, I'm currently inclined to switch one of them for a Progenitus (possible adding NO#4 along as well).

What do you think?

Sincerely,

- André

[Megadeus]

isn't Ruric Thar pretty boss against RUG? a 6/6 Vigilance Reach guy that 6's them anytime they do anything but cast a shitty man vs you? Like I guess Goyf can get big, but Ruric in theory seems solid

[Julian23]

Ruric is ok against them. No guranteed gamewinner, you see. The reason for that is Submerge as it hits us pretty hard in the sense that we lose 4 mana, a card, a creature and our next drawstep. It's a classic high-risk/high-reward situation as Ruric is pretty boss against Delver but still dies to Delver+Bolt or often enough two Tarmogoyfs. I prefer Progenitus despite their mana denial.

I tried playing around Submerge by bouncing Forests and/or sacing Dryad Arbor into NO when possible, but that's a far from reliable method.

[nudon]

Gratz, pal. A true Birchlore Bomber!


Congrats on the Top 4!


Nice job dude. You are a true ally of the forest.

Thanks for the support! I really appreciate it. I'm hoping I can clear my schedule this weekend to play SCG LA but we'll see.


:smile: Hey man, congrats for the finish!

Against RUG Delver, after sideboarding, do you find it safe to rely on Hoof/beat down to finish him?

You seemed to get him on the beat down in G2 and with Hoof on G3, but I'm not sure it's a solid plan, because what often happens is that: a) he outraces us; and b) I've had my Hoof Stifled so many times to rely on it.
Hence, I'm currently inclined to switch one of them for a Progenitus (possible adding NO#4 along as well).

What do you think?

Sincerely,

- André

Thanks Andre! Against RUG delver, I'll typically try to generate card advantage (glimpse and visionary) early while forcing them to waste all their counters/removal without over-extending. It's especially critical to ramp early (i.e. gsz for 0) to avoid falling too far behind. Abrupt decay is extremely important to kill flipped delvers and potentially grim lavamancer. I didn't rely on beat-down or NO->hoof to beat my opponent. It just turned out that way since glimpse was countered in both games 2 and 3. The reason why I don't board progenitus in is because he requires two turns. That represents two delver attacks as when as possible tarmogoyf counter-attacks. Bolt gives them a lot of reach too. If your opponent can outrace craterhoof, he'll be able to outrace progenitus too. As for stifle, some RUG players board them out while on the draw. Moreover, getting your hoof trigger stifled isn't that bad since hoof has haste and will generally be bigger than tarmogoyf in most instances. Tarmogoyf will almost always be a 4/5 in this match-up. Late game, gsz->ooze will usually seal it for you.


isn't Ruric Thar pretty boss against RUG? a 6/6 Vigilance Reach guy that 6's them anytime they do anything but cast a shitty man vs you? Like I guess Goyf can get big, but Ruric in theory seems solid

In addition to what Julian mentioned, it is quite easy for RUG to double block Ruric Thar. This sets you way behind as you sacrificed a creature and 4 mana to potentially trade with a goyf. Ruric Thar is better against combo since they have fewer ways of removing him.

[andrebonotto]

(...)


Thanks Andre! Against RUG delver, I'll typically try to generate card advantage (glimpse and visionary) early while forcing them to waste all their counters/removal without over-extending. It's especially critical to ramp early (i.e. gsz for 0) to avoid falling too far behind. Abrupt decay is extremely important to kill flipped delvers and potentially grim lavamancer. I didn't rely on beat-down or NO->hoof to beat my opponent. It just turned out that way since glimpse was countered in both games 2 and 3. The reason why I don't board progenitus in is because he requires two turns. That represents two delver attacks as when as possible tarmogoyf counter-attacks. Bolt gives them a lot of reach too. If your opponent can outrace craterhoof, he'll be able to outrace progenitus too. As for stifle, some RUG players board them out while on the draw. Moreover, getting your hoof trigger stifled isn't that bad since hoof has haste and will generally be bigger than tarmogoyf in most instances. Tarmogoyf will almost always be a 4/5 in this match-up. Late game, gsz->ooze will usually seal it for you.

(...)


Thanks. That makes sense.
And what about the UWR Patriot MU? Do you change your game/sideboard plan against them, or do you use the same as against RUG?

[nudon]

Thanks. That makes sense.
And what about the UWR Patriot MU? Do you change your game/sideboard plan against them, or do you use the same as against RUG?

The main differences between American delver and RUG are clock speed and graveyard reliance. American delver packs more spot removal (bolt, STP, and jitte) but is generally slower due to jitte requiring 4 mana. It also has 3-drops (GoST) whereas most RUG builds don't. Typically, the only card from patriot that relies on the graveyard is grim lavamancer (maybe snapcaster mage too). Meanwhile, both mongoose and goyf are heavily affected by the presence of scavenging ooze.

Fortunately for us, there is a lower chance of seeing submerge and rough//tumble from patriot post-board. As a result, I would board as follows: -2 heritage, -2 nettle, -1 quirion, -1 hoof, +3 decay, +1 sliver, +1 NO, +1 prog. Sliver is included instead of ooze to counter their jitte. Though ooze would help against lavamancer, I tend to avoid diluting the combo too much. Furthermore, the life gain from ooze isn't as relevant too. Because of how much spot removal patriot has and their slower clock, I think progenitus makes more sense in this matchup than against RUG.