spirit of the wretch
12-31-2013, 09:37 AM
Team SPOD presents
A „Yes, we still play Magic“-Production
*Lights, special effects, sounds, other filmy things*
A Day in the Life of a Captain!
Hanau ’13 Edition
Starring Markus –EviL668-2 – Neumann
and Stefan – The Captain - Czolk
I comfortably wake up at 09:00. There’s a little advantage to starting the big Legacy Event at 12:00. Apart from the obvious disadvantage that this event will last till way after bedtime (remember, we’re all old men by now!). But we’ll get to that later.
I pack my stuff
double checked Decklist
Deck full of magical cards
pen and paper to mark life total
money
highlander for in between the rounds
water and food
Seems like a pretty complete list of “Things You Should Pack To Be Prepared For A Reasonably Big Event Of Magic The Gathering”, doesn’t it? Well, there is one key item missing on that. If you can spot it, … well good for you, I guess. But we’ll get to that later.
Markus picks me up and we head to Hanau. The trip from Karlsruhe to Hanau is pretty straightforward. We listen to music, talk trash (“how was Christmas?”, “how are wife and kids doing?” … yeah, old men, remember?), talk tactics (“Did you follow the SCG series?” “No, you?” …”No”, “Is pox a deck now?!?” “No idea” … “Yeah, me neither”) and drive on.
And then it hit me: You remember that fairly complete list of “Things You Should Pack To Be Prepared For A Reasonably Big Event Of Magic The Gathering” I mentioned above? If you don’t scroll up, I’ll wait. And you should probably do some training for your short term memory. Just saying.
Anyway, did you spot the key item I missed?
*drumroll*
Whiskey! I don’t have to drive this time, there’s a whole day of Legacy ahead of me AND I’M COMPLETELY SOBER! AND GOING TO STAY THAT WAY.
How could I’ve missed that?!? Clearly the worst play on my part that day!
Ok, ok I’ll stop my ramblings… Then again, you’re not really here to read about Legacy, are you?
So we arrive in Hanau, greet the usual nerds that gathered. Special shout out here to Kai, Christopher and Dennis, that I don’t get to meet as often as I’d like to!
I didn’t have the time to brew something sweet over the holidays so I decided to join the dark side. Despite my outspoken hate for the deck I netdecked and build Sneak Show. Because you know what people say: “Playing a reasonably unfair deck is the best way to success!” (people say that, right?) Big props to whoever wrote the primer on this lovely website. It really was a huge help!
So here’s what I decided to bring to battle.
[SPOD] Seriously Standard Sneaky Show
Maindeck (60)
3 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Volcanic Island
3 Island
1 Mountain
3 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
4 Lotus Petal
4 Griselbrand
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Sneak Attack
4 Show and Tell
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
3 Gitaxian Probe
4 Force of Will
3 Spell Pierce
1 Misdirection
2 Intuition
//Sideboard (15)
1 Arcane Laboratory
2 Echoing Truth
2 Blood Moon
2 Pyroblast
3 Pyroclasm
1 Defense Grid
2 Through the Breach
2 Grafdigger's Cage
The maindeck is standard fare, the sideboard is either standard or plain bad … the embarrassing result of a night full of red wine … the newest and hottest tech!
Who cares if I play a completely untested deck with a weird sideboard in a room full of guys gunning for you.
I’ll cut most matches short. Nobody needs to read how I skillfully put Griselbrand into play via Show and Tell or how I masterfully sneaked in Emrakul to win the game.
Am I the only one who finds this whole deck horribly offensive flavor-wise?
- “Oh, look what I brought to school, this bad ass, giant, soulsucking, mind shredding demon lord”
- “Yeah, I guess that world tearing, time bending, earth shattering UBER-God just sneaked up on me”
Really?!?
Nice, 680 words and still not even started to talk about Legacy. Sweet.
Anyway 130 (?) players, 8 rounds, cut to top 8:
Round 1 vs Patriot
I win game 1, but for the second game my opponent starts quite convincingly: first turn Delver => flip, second turn Meddling Mage => Show and Tell, third turn Meddling Mage => Sneak Attack. Uhm, yeah. That seems about right. On my fourth turn, I have 3 land in play and cast a Ponder. Nothing that gets me out of this. Shuffle, cut and announce “Daddy needs a new Pyrocasm” to my opponent (and Sven and Christopher that both have a bye and are watching). Windmill slam the top card on the table… Pyroclasm! And the crowd goes mad! I play my Ancient Tomb to blank his Spell Pierce and win the game shortly after.
This is going to be a good day!
Big props to my opponent who took it really well! A true sportsman!
1/0/0
Round 2 vs Nic Fit
His Thragtusk don’t quite match up to my Griselbrand
2/0/0
Round 3 vs Burning ANT
I win game 1. Game two I keep a questionable hand: 2 Fetch, Lotus Petal, Ancient Tomb, Sneak Attack and 2 Emrakul. I’m on the draw and my opponent chooses to take a mulligan. Do you keep this?
I fought about that keep for quite some time since yesterday and it probably is a mulligan. You’re cold to discard or a quick combo kill. I don’t know. Anyway my opponent mulls to five and has the discard spell. So I naturally draw my single Arcane Laboratory by turn three or four and that buys me enough time to win the game. Told you, that sideboard IS the hottest tech!
3/0/0
Round 4 vs UWr Miracles
Long, drawn out, highly interactive games. Don’t remember a thing of them.
4/0/0
Round 5 vs Elves!
This round I play vs Julian – Julian23 – Knab of recent BOM-fame. I know he’s on Elves and look for a hand with a fast goldfish. And look again. And again. He also mulls to five and the game turns scrappy quickly. He glimpses and draws a few cards, I sneak => Emrakul away his board and then we play the old “Can I Topdeck Another Fatty Before His Army Of Little Dudes Does Me In”-game. Turns out, I can’t.
Game two was easily the most fun I had playing magic in … well a LONG time. It included three more mulligans (two for Julian, one for me), a horrible keep by myself (4 land, 2 Pyroclasm) me going through all three of my Pyroclasms, a morphed Birchlore Ranger to beat down, Grafdigger’s Cage and Arcane Laboratory on board for me, Julian countering his own Green Sun’s Zenith with Swan Song to up the pressure, me brainstorm locking myself several times out of sheer desperation and the game lasting at least 20 turns. In a combo vs combo matchup. Then I finally found a creature to win!
Game three Julian mulliganed once more and I was able to win in a more convincing fashion.
5/0/0
Round 6 vs Mono R Painter
This matchup is fun. Blood Moon doesn’t do much against me and the combo doesn’t kill me (thanks to the Eldrazi Shuffle). A clear case where everyone is a winner. And when I say ‘everyone' I mean ‘me'. This is pretty much exactly what you want to face for your win and draw in.
6/0/0
Round 7 vs BUGstill
Turns out, I can’t draw in, because I’m the only player at 18 points. So I have to play this out. Game 1 I misplay by breaking Standstill too late (rookie mistake!) and it costs me the game.
Game two he unfolds Steinis House of Horrors:
Spell Pierce, Counterspell, Force of Will, Envelop, Vendilion Clique, Innocent Blood and Snapcaster Mage to do it all again… The rest, as they say, is history—a pretty long drawn and pathetic one, to be fair.
6/1/0
Round 8 vs ID
Finally I’m able to draw in!
6/1/1
As top 8 are announced its 21:30. As we all have to drive home for quite some time and the hall is starting to get really cold we want to split the prizes. All of us except one player who wants to continue battling. We can’t convince him otherwise, so we have to keep playing.
Markus decides that this is the time for his good deed for the day and offers to go and buy me booze. AWESOME! I order beer backup and suddenly the thought of spending a couple more hours in the freezing hall doesn’t seems so bad. Mad props again to Markus!
Quaterfinals vs EsperBlade
I win game one and game two he has a discard spell, a Meddling Mage and a Vendilion Clique. How do I win on turn two?
I mulligan and keep the worst hand possible (yeah again. And yeah I’m in the top 8. Get off my back!): 4 land, Sneak Attack, Misdirection. At this point I’m just as bad a player as I simply am … only thinking about the beer I am going to devour … pretty tired and exhausted from this mentally taxing game.
Anyway, he goes first turn Inquisition of Kozilek and because of my genius keep, he whiffs. I draw Emrakul. He then plays Meddling Mage => Sneak Attack (that he knows I have in hand) and I rip Show and tell. Sol-Land and all-in. He has nothing and I win. So yeah, I’m a giant lucksack. Sue me.
Luckily everybody in the Top4 wants to split so we can finally get home. In the end I leave with 230€ cash and the good feeling to finally have done well at a big event again.
Markus sadly finishes one point short of the prizes.
It was a very awesome event and I’m looking forward to GP Paris!
A „Yes, we still play Magic“-Production
*Lights, special effects, sounds, other filmy things*
A Day in the Life of a Captain!
Hanau ’13 Edition
Starring Markus –EviL668-2 – Neumann
and Stefan – The Captain - Czolk
I comfortably wake up at 09:00. There’s a little advantage to starting the big Legacy Event at 12:00. Apart from the obvious disadvantage that this event will last till way after bedtime (remember, we’re all old men by now!). But we’ll get to that later.
I pack my stuff
double checked Decklist
Deck full of magical cards
pen and paper to mark life total
money
highlander for in between the rounds
water and food
Seems like a pretty complete list of “Things You Should Pack To Be Prepared For A Reasonably Big Event Of Magic The Gathering”, doesn’t it? Well, there is one key item missing on that. If you can spot it, … well good for you, I guess. But we’ll get to that later.
Markus picks me up and we head to Hanau. The trip from Karlsruhe to Hanau is pretty straightforward. We listen to music, talk trash (“how was Christmas?”, “how are wife and kids doing?” … yeah, old men, remember?), talk tactics (“Did you follow the SCG series?” “No, you?” …”No”, “Is pox a deck now?!?” “No idea” … “Yeah, me neither”) and drive on.
And then it hit me: You remember that fairly complete list of “Things You Should Pack To Be Prepared For A Reasonably Big Event Of Magic The Gathering” I mentioned above? If you don’t scroll up, I’ll wait. And you should probably do some training for your short term memory. Just saying.
Anyway, did you spot the key item I missed?
*drumroll*
Whiskey! I don’t have to drive this time, there’s a whole day of Legacy ahead of me AND I’M COMPLETELY SOBER! AND GOING TO STAY THAT WAY.
How could I’ve missed that?!? Clearly the worst play on my part that day!
Ok, ok I’ll stop my ramblings… Then again, you’re not really here to read about Legacy, are you?
So we arrive in Hanau, greet the usual nerds that gathered. Special shout out here to Kai, Christopher and Dennis, that I don’t get to meet as often as I’d like to!
I didn’t have the time to brew something sweet over the holidays so I decided to join the dark side. Despite my outspoken hate for the deck I netdecked and build Sneak Show. Because you know what people say: “Playing a reasonably unfair deck is the best way to success!” (people say that, right?) Big props to whoever wrote the primer on this lovely website. It really was a huge help!
So here’s what I decided to bring to battle.
[SPOD] Seriously Standard Sneaky Show
Maindeck (60)
3 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Volcanic Island
3 Island
1 Mountain
3 Ancient Tomb
2 City of Traitors
4 Lotus Petal
4 Griselbrand
4 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Sneak Attack
4 Show and Tell
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
3 Gitaxian Probe
4 Force of Will
3 Spell Pierce
1 Misdirection
2 Intuition
//Sideboard (15)
1 Arcane Laboratory
2 Echoing Truth
2 Blood Moon
2 Pyroblast
3 Pyroclasm
1 Defense Grid
2 Through the Breach
2 Grafdigger's Cage
The maindeck is standard fare, the sideboard is either standard or plain bad … the embarrassing result of a night full of red wine … the newest and hottest tech!
Who cares if I play a completely untested deck with a weird sideboard in a room full of guys gunning for you.
I’ll cut most matches short. Nobody needs to read how I skillfully put Griselbrand into play via Show and Tell or how I masterfully sneaked in Emrakul to win the game.
Am I the only one who finds this whole deck horribly offensive flavor-wise?
- “Oh, look what I brought to school, this bad ass, giant, soulsucking, mind shredding demon lord”
- “Yeah, I guess that world tearing, time bending, earth shattering UBER-God just sneaked up on me”
Really?!?
Nice, 680 words and still not even started to talk about Legacy. Sweet.
Anyway 130 (?) players, 8 rounds, cut to top 8:
Round 1 vs Patriot
I win game 1, but for the second game my opponent starts quite convincingly: first turn Delver => flip, second turn Meddling Mage => Show and Tell, third turn Meddling Mage => Sneak Attack. Uhm, yeah. That seems about right. On my fourth turn, I have 3 land in play and cast a Ponder. Nothing that gets me out of this. Shuffle, cut and announce “Daddy needs a new Pyrocasm” to my opponent (and Sven and Christopher that both have a bye and are watching). Windmill slam the top card on the table… Pyroclasm! And the crowd goes mad! I play my Ancient Tomb to blank his Spell Pierce and win the game shortly after.
This is going to be a good day!
Big props to my opponent who took it really well! A true sportsman!
1/0/0
Round 2 vs Nic Fit
His Thragtusk don’t quite match up to my Griselbrand
2/0/0
Round 3 vs Burning ANT
I win game 1. Game two I keep a questionable hand: 2 Fetch, Lotus Petal, Ancient Tomb, Sneak Attack and 2 Emrakul. I’m on the draw and my opponent chooses to take a mulligan. Do you keep this?
I fought about that keep for quite some time since yesterday and it probably is a mulligan. You’re cold to discard or a quick combo kill. I don’t know. Anyway my opponent mulls to five and has the discard spell. So I naturally draw my single Arcane Laboratory by turn three or four and that buys me enough time to win the game. Told you, that sideboard IS the hottest tech!
3/0/0
Round 4 vs UWr Miracles
Long, drawn out, highly interactive games. Don’t remember a thing of them.
4/0/0
Round 5 vs Elves!
This round I play vs Julian – Julian23 – Knab of recent BOM-fame. I know he’s on Elves and look for a hand with a fast goldfish. And look again. And again. He also mulls to five and the game turns scrappy quickly. He glimpses and draws a few cards, I sneak => Emrakul away his board and then we play the old “Can I Topdeck Another Fatty Before His Army Of Little Dudes Does Me In”-game. Turns out, I can’t.
Game two was easily the most fun I had playing magic in … well a LONG time. It included three more mulligans (two for Julian, one for me), a horrible keep by myself (4 land, 2 Pyroclasm) me going through all three of my Pyroclasms, a morphed Birchlore Ranger to beat down, Grafdigger’s Cage and Arcane Laboratory on board for me, Julian countering his own Green Sun’s Zenith with Swan Song to up the pressure, me brainstorm locking myself several times out of sheer desperation and the game lasting at least 20 turns. In a combo vs combo matchup. Then I finally found a creature to win!
Game three Julian mulliganed once more and I was able to win in a more convincing fashion.
5/0/0
Round 6 vs Mono R Painter
This matchup is fun. Blood Moon doesn’t do much against me and the combo doesn’t kill me (thanks to the Eldrazi Shuffle). A clear case where everyone is a winner. And when I say ‘everyone' I mean ‘me'. This is pretty much exactly what you want to face for your win and draw in.
6/0/0
Round 7 vs BUGstill
Turns out, I can’t draw in, because I’m the only player at 18 points. So I have to play this out. Game 1 I misplay by breaking Standstill too late (rookie mistake!) and it costs me the game.
Game two he unfolds Steinis House of Horrors:
Spell Pierce, Counterspell, Force of Will, Envelop, Vendilion Clique, Innocent Blood and Snapcaster Mage to do it all again… The rest, as they say, is history—a pretty long drawn and pathetic one, to be fair.
6/1/0
Round 8 vs ID
Finally I’m able to draw in!
6/1/1
As top 8 are announced its 21:30. As we all have to drive home for quite some time and the hall is starting to get really cold we want to split the prizes. All of us except one player who wants to continue battling. We can’t convince him otherwise, so we have to keep playing.
Markus decides that this is the time for his good deed for the day and offers to go and buy me booze. AWESOME! I order beer backup and suddenly the thought of spending a couple more hours in the freezing hall doesn’t seems so bad. Mad props again to Markus!
Quaterfinals vs EsperBlade
I win game one and game two he has a discard spell, a Meddling Mage and a Vendilion Clique. How do I win on turn two?
I mulligan and keep the worst hand possible (yeah again. And yeah I’m in the top 8. Get off my back!): 4 land, Sneak Attack, Misdirection. At this point I’m just as bad a player as I simply am … only thinking about the beer I am going to devour … pretty tired and exhausted from this mentally taxing game.
Anyway, he goes first turn Inquisition of Kozilek and because of my genius keep, he whiffs. I draw Emrakul. He then plays Meddling Mage => Sneak Attack (that he knows I have in hand) and I rip Show and tell. Sol-Land and all-in. He has nothing and I win. So yeah, I’m a giant lucksack. Sue me.
Luckily everybody in the Top4 wants to split so we can finally get home. In the end I leave with 230€ cash and the good feeling to finally have done well at a big event again.
Markus sadly finishes one point short of the prizes.
It was a very awesome event and I’m looking forward to GP Paris!