Lightless
11-22-2015, 01:52 PM
Hi, I always like to write down some sort of report of the tournaments I attend, especialy bigger ones. In general i post reports like this in the section of the deck I play, but because the last post in that thread is a tournament report of my tournament from last week I think it is better to post it somewhere else. And what better option than the tournament report section of the forum ;)
Okay so my report actualy starts one day befor the actual tournament. We had a legacy FNM the day prior and we were 8 players. So 3 Rounds for this little last testing. I went 2-1 on the FNM (won against MUD and ShardlessBUG and lost against NicFit) and I was pretty confident that the deck I played was well tuned and at most needed some minor changes in sideboard or none at all. So I went home and optd to make these minor changes. At the end I replaced one card in the Mainboard(Fire Covenant -> Painfull Truths and 3 cards in the Sideboard
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Null Rod
for
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Divert
1 Abrupt Decay
So the list I played looked like this,
//Creatures
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Young Pyromancer
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 True-Name Nemesis
//Spells
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Brainstorm
2 Ponder
3 Cabal Therapy
4 Force of Will
1 Counterspell
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Murderous Cut
1 Kolaghan's Command
1 Reanimate
1 Fire Covenant
//PW
1 Dack Fayden
2 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
//Lands
3 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Badlands
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Tropical Island
4 Polluted Delta
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
//Sideboard
2 Pyroblast
1 Flusterstorm
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Toxic Deluge
2 Duress
1 Null Rod
1 Pithing Needle
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Ancient Grudge
So I went to bed and like most of you know, the night before a tournament you realy prepared for (I wrote sideboardstrategies, played alot of games with friends and asked them about their opinions and so on...) is the worst night ever. I wasn't able to fall asleep and because I had a 2 and half hour trainride ahead and the tournament started at 11:00 I had to get up pretty early. Needlessly to say that I was pretty tired in the morning. I got a quick shower, got nervous at some point not finding my bag and left the house in a hurry. At the trainstation I grabed something to eat and drink and some other stuff I would need throughout the day. (If your local shops offer fruitsalad and stuff like that in little portions get some of them, they help you stay fresh and awake, especialy if you don't know what kind of food the venue offers, if any at all.)
Some minutes later I met with the other people from my area attending the event 2 Judges and 2 other players. We got in the train and so the trip began. In the train I wrote down my decklist and we chatted about all kind of different stuff. I'm a judge myself and we had a pretty intense argument the day before in our judgechat on whatsapp about bluffing, I don't want to go into further details about that but DQ's and Cheating were some main topics on that day.
After arriving on the venue we met with some other players that we were allready familiar with and registered for the tournament. Overall the organisation of the tournament was extraordinaire. Like I said I'm a judge myself, but the TO just went over the top with preparing everything. Overall there were 72 players at this tournament in St. Maurice in Switzerland. Because it was the final tournament of a series the top8 of each prior tournament were awarded a first round Bye. So some of us didn't have to play the first round. Sadly I had to.
1st Round VS Goblins
I won the die roll and kept a pretty okay hand. I played my land and past and he played Caven of Souls into Goblin Lackey. „Okay... Bolt“. So now I knew what I was playing against. Land Cabal Therapy naming Goblin Ringleader, I wanted to set the pace for a longer game and Ringleader just drowns me in goblins so I wanted that card to be gone. I saw Goblin Lackey,Goblin Lackey,Goblin Matron,Goblin Warchief,Plateau,Aether Vial. *sigh* . On his turn he played both Lackey and I punted. I had a Force of will, Dack Fayden and Murderous Cut in hand. I should have forced the 2nd lackey he played from the Plateau and the killed the other one with the Cut by eexiling the 3 cards from my graveyard. On the following turn I didn't draw a land he played Goblin Warchief attacked, put Goblin Matron in with the first trigger and the Krenko, mob boss he searched with the 2nd trigger. He made 5 tokens and I scooped the game.
The 2nd game he had an explosive start as well. At one point he would have been able to us his Wasteland to destroy my 3rd land but opted to not and instead play his whole hand out to kill me in the following turn. I played the Toxic Deluge I brought in and cleared his whole board. Because I brainstormed the turn before I knew that I didn't have a land in the top 2, so if he had used the Wasteland I would have lost.
The 3rd game wasn't as interesting I had enough removal for his early cratures and enough pressure to finish him off in time.
2-1
Sideboarding:
//In
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Toxic Deluge
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Grim Lavamancer
//Out
1 Counterspell
1 Painfull Truth
2 Jayce Vryn's Prodigy
1 Dack Fayden
2nd Round VS Reanimator
The first game ended pretty fast. He won the dieroll and I kept a hand, that without any doubt I would have kept against any unknow opponent. Gitaxian Probe,Deathrite Shaman,Deathrite Shaman,Snapcaster Mage,Lightning Bolt, 2 Lands. Sadly he opened the game with Entomb, aand my Probe only found aa 3rd deathrite, so I scooped without even playing a land. This way he had to guess wwwhat deck I was on.
The 2nd game I was able to take his hand apart and pressure him with Young Pyromancer and he was not able to get into the game.
The 3rd game came down to me playing a Volcanic Island instead of an Underground Sea. On the first turn I led withGitaxian Probe, into volc into Ponder showing me Deathrite Shaman,Duress and a random card. He Entombed on his turn knowing from a Duress, that I had Force of Will + pitch, so he wasn't able to play his Exhume the following Turn. Know comes the part were I saw that I lost my Game on this landdrop. On my 2nd turn I play duress, he plays Brainstorm, then revealing Entomb, Golgari Charm, Abrupt Decay,Force of will. If I had played the Usea, I would have taken the Decay, and followed up with Deathrite Shaman from my fetchland. Giving me the chance, of him not beeing able redraw his Exhume AND finding a blue card for the force. The active Shaman would have wrecked his whole plan. This way I still took the decay but Shaman wasn't active for aother Turn, he redrew his Exhume and a Reanimate and killed me with Griselbrand.
1-2
Sideboarding:
//In
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Flusterstorm
2 Duress
2 Surgical Extraction
//Out
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Kolaghan's Command
1 Dack Fayden
3rd Round Vs Sneak & Show
This match was rather fast. In both games I ripped his hand to shredds by a first turn Gitaxian Probe + Cabal Therapy, flashing it back 1-2 Turns later.
2-0
Sideboarding:
//In
1 Pithin Needle
2 Duress
2 Pyroblast
1 Flustertsorm
//Out
1 Reanimate
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Murderous Cut
1 Kolaghan's Command
1 Dack Fayden
1 Gitaxian Probe
After the round I had enough time to eat my fruitsalad and catch a breather. It started snowing outside so all the smokers were clustered at the front door but I went outside anyway. I kind of like the cold weather sometimes.
4th Round Vs UR-Landstill
I had to play against one of my friends in this round. Because I play the same deck in nearly every tournament and he mixes it up alot, I was at a slight disadvantage informationwise. But after he dropped a Mishra's Factory I knew what deck he was on and that he played a small Trinket Mage-value-package in it. The first game was pretty onesided. I kept a 3 lander and found another 2 lands with a Brainstorm. My atempt to shuffle them away was Stifled (sorry for the pun). And so I was forced to redraw them both, giving him enough breathing space to establish a massive advantage, with Mishra's Factory, Snapcaster Mage and Lightning Bolts.
The 2nd and 3rd game went pretty much the same, he drew alot of lands and alot of answers to my smaller creatures, but Tasigur, the golden fang was just to much for him to handle. In the 2nd gamee he would have been able to delay Tasigur by instantly cracking his Relic of Progenitus, wich might have been the correct play, but he didn't and I drew the delve legendary from the top.
2-1
Sideboarding:
//In
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Pyroblast
2 Duress
1 Divert
1 Flusterstorm
1 Grim Lavamancer
//Out
1 Murderous Cut
1 Caabal Therapy
1 Reanimate
4 Force of Will
2 Gitaxian Probe
5th Round Vs Jund
My notes start running thin so I cannot tell you alot about the following matches.
Jund is one of the worst matchups for this deck. Especially when they have an early Punishing Fire. In the first game my only option was to let him get killed by his own
Dark Confidant. But sadly he found a timely Deathrite Shaman to stem the bleeding. The 2nd game was even more onesided. Overall a train wreck would be an understaitment.
0-2
Sideboarding:
//In
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Duress
1 Divert
1 Grim Lavamancer
//Out
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Reanimate
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Cabal Therapy
4 Force of Will
6th Round Vs ShardlessBUG
I cannot say alot about this match at all, except that I did my PLAY-OF-THE-DAY in Game 1 ;)
I flipped Jayce, Vryn's Prodigy, then -3ed Kolaghan's Command back, killing his Deathrite Shaman and returning my Tasigur, the golden Fang back to my hand, which I then in the same turn casted.
Game 2 I stole two of his Shardless Agents with Dack Fayden and finaly killed him with True-Name Nemesis and Lightning Bolts.
2-0
Sideboarding:
//In
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Pyroblast
2 Duress
1 Divert
1 Flusterstorm
//Out
1 Caabal Therapy
1 Reanimate
4 Force of Will
2 Gitaxian Probe
7th Round Vs Lands
Okay, so before the round I checked the standings and I was in 24th place, no chance to make top 8 for me. Probably because of the maany byes at the first round of the tournament even some 5-1-1's were not able to make it in. But anyway so I went to the pairingboard and saw a familiar first name... oh I had a bad feeling with this one. And after I sat down and waited for my opponent to arrive I just was verified in my anticipation. Again a friend of mine, but sadly for me, the guy was playing lands.
For anyone that wants to hear it, You got like the chance of a snowball in hell, to win this matchup with the 75 in my decklist. But anyway both of us were out of competition so we sat down and took this round more like a match of kitchen table magic ;)
When a judge went by she wasn't even sure if we were still playing in the tournament but the resultslip at the table showed, yes we are.
Okay, the first Game went verry quick... I got no chance. If I don't have a Deathrite Shaman ready when his combo hits the graveyard, before it hits the battlefield, it's just game over. An thats what happened, so I put my board together.
Game 2 I got him with a pair of Young Pyromancers and a hell lot of 1 and 0 mana spells.
Game 3 he tried to be as aggressive as possible and that cost him the game. He went turn 1 Mox Diamond dicarding Dark Depths, Wooded Foothills, crack, Life from the Loam, but I had kept the hand mainly because I had Surgical Extraction, which now took out the Dark Depths. The rest of the game was dominated by 2 Deathrite Shamans on my side of the board and a lot of burnspells.
2-0
Sideboarding:
//In
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Pithing Needle
2 Abrupt Decay
//Out
1 Reanimate
2 Murderous Cut
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Counterspell
Aftermath
After the swiss portion of the tournament, we went to get something to eat and ended up at a chinese restaurant. Because we were in the french part of switzerland I had to order by pointing at little pictures of the food. I just felt like a lousy tourist. After eating I went back to the venue to see how the top 8 went and to meet up with a friend of mine that was taking thee same train home.
The finals of the tournament just started. Jund Vs OmniShow. Sadly we only had around 20 minutes left or had to wait for another hour for the next train home, it was allready half past eight and with a three hour trainride we decided to go to the trainstation. Around 10 minutes later the other two that judged the event came to the trainstation as well and told us the OmniShowplayer won by playing his combo two times on Turn 3. Okay, that was a fast one. So we all boarded the train to Bern and I arrived at home around 11 pm.
Overall the tournament was a blast. I don't feel like I did alot of mayor mistakes. (okay Round 1 game 1 maybe, and Round 2 Game 3 but I actually didn't know that it would mke that much of a difference at that point)
I will continue to play this deck at our local tournaments and even at the regional ones. And will continue to tweak the 75.
Thanks to all my opponents in the tournament and a special thanks to the two judges and the organizer-team, which made a bloody good job on their end.
Okay so my report actualy starts one day befor the actual tournament. We had a legacy FNM the day prior and we were 8 players. So 3 Rounds for this little last testing. I went 2-1 on the FNM (won against MUD and ShardlessBUG and lost against NicFit) and I was pretty confident that the deck I played was well tuned and at most needed some minor changes in sideboard or none at all. So I went home and optd to make these minor changes. At the end I replaced one card in the Mainboard(Fire Covenant -> Painfull Truths and 3 cards in the Sideboard
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Null Rod
for
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Divert
1 Abrupt Decay
So the list I played looked like this,
//Creatures
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Young Pyromancer
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
1 True-Name Nemesis
//Spells
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Brainstorm
2 Ponder
3 Cabal Therapy
4 Force of Will
1 Counterspell
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Murderous Cut
1 Kolaghan's Command
1 Reanimate
1 Fire Covenant
//PW
1 Dack Fayden
2 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
//Lands
3 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Badlands
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Tropical Island
4 Polluted Delta
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
//Sideboard
2 Pyroblast
1 Flusterstorm
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Toxic Deluge
2 Duress
1 Null Rod
1 Pithing Needle
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Ancient Grudge
So I went to bed and like most of you know, the night before a tournament you realy prepared for (I wrote sideboardstrategies, played alot of games with friends and asked them about their opinions and so on...) is the worst night ever. I wasn't able to fall asleep and because I had a 2 and half hour trainride ahead and the tournament started at 11:00 I had to get up pretty early. Needlessly to say that I was pretty tired in the morning. I got a quick shower, got nervous at some point not finding my bag and left the house in a hurry. At the trainstation I grabed something to eat and drink and some other stuff I would need throughout the day. (If your local shops offer fruitsalad and stuff like that in little portions get some of them, they help you stay fresh and awake, especialy if you don't know what kind of food the venue offers, if any at all.)
Some minutes later I met with the other people from my area attending the event 2 Judges and 2 other players. We got in the train and so the trip began. In the train I wrote down my decklist and we chatted about all kind of different stuff. I'm a judge myself and we had a pretty intense argument the day before in our judgechat on whatsapp about bluffing, I don't want to go into further details about that but DQ's and Cheating were some main topics on that day.
After arriving on the venue we met with some other players that we were allready familiar with and registered for the tournament. Overall the organisation of the tournament was extraordinaire. Like I said I'm a judge myself, but the TO just went over the top with preparing everything. Overall there were 72 players at this tournament in St. Maurice in Switzerland. Because it was the final tournament of a series the top8 of each prior tournament were awarded a first round Bye. So some of us didn't have to play the first round. Sadly I had to.
1st Round VS Goblins
I won the die roll and kept a pretty okay hand. I played my land and past and he played Caven of Souls into Goblin Lackey. „Okay... Bolt“. So now I knew what I was playing against. Land Cabal Therapy naming Goblin Ringleader, I wanted to set the pace for a longer game and Ringleader just drowns me in goblins so I wanted that card to be gone. I saw Goblin Lackey,Goblin Lackey,Goblin Matron,Goblin Warchief,Plateau,Aether Vial. *sigh* . On his turn he played both Lackey and I punted. I had a Force of will, Dack Fayden and Murderous Cut in hand. I should have forced the 2nd lackey he played from the Plateau and the killed the other one with the Cut by eexiling the 3 cards from my graveyard. On the following turn I didn't draw a land he played Goblin Warchief attacked, put Goblin Matron in with the first trigger and the Krenko, mob boss he searched with the 2nd trigger. He made 5 tokens and I scooped the game.
The 2nd game he had an explosive start as well. At one point he would have been able to us his Wasteland to destroy my 3rd land but opted to not and instead play his whole hand out to kill me in the following turn. I played the Toxic Deluge I brought in and cleared his whole board. Because I brainstormed the turn before I knew that I didn't have a land in the top 2, so if he had used the Wasteland I would have lost.
The 3rd game wasn't as interesting I had enough removal for his early cratures and enough pressure to finish him off in time.
2-1
Sideboarding:
//In
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Toxic Deluge
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Grim Lavamancer
//Out
1 Counterspell
1 Painfull Truth
2 Jayce Vryn's Prodigy
1 Dack Fayden
2nd Round VS Reanimator
The first game ended pretty fast. He won the dieroll and I kept a hand, that without any doubt I would have kept against any unknow opponent. Gitaxian Probe,Deathrite Shaman,Deathrite Shaman,Snapcaster Mage,Lightning Bolt, 2 Lands. Sadly he opened the game with Entomb, aand my Probe only found aa 3rd deathrite, so I scooped without even playing a land. This way he had to guess wwwhat deck I was on.
The 2nd game I was able to take his hand apart and pressure him with Young Pyromancer and he was not able to get into the game.
The 3rd game came down to me playing a Volcanic Island instead of an Underground Sea. On the first turn I led withGitaxian Probe, into volc into Ponder showing me Deathrite Shaman,Duress and a random card. He Entombed on his turn knowing from a Duress, that I had Force of Will + pitch, so he wasn't able to play his Exhume the following Turn. Know comes the part were I saw that I lost my Game on this landdrop. On my 2nd turn I play duress, he plays Brainstorm, then revealing Entomb, Golgari Charm, Abrupt Decay,Force of will. If I had played the Usea, I would have taken the Decay, and followed up with Deathrite Shaman from my fetchland. Giving me the chance, of him not beeing able redraw his Exhume AND finding a blue card for the force. The active Shaman would have wrecked his whole plan. This way I still took the decay but Shaman wasn't active for aother Turn, he redrew his Exhume and a Reanimate and killed me with Griselbrand.
1-2
Sideboarding:
//In
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Flusterstorm
2 Duress
2 Surgical Extraction
//Out
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Kolaghan's Command
1 Dack Fayden
3rd Round Vs Sneak & Show
This match was rather fast. In both games I ripped his hand to shredds by a first turn Gitaxian Probe + Cabal Therapy, flashing it back 1-2 Turns later.
2-0
Sideboarding:
//In
1 Pithin Needle
2 Duress
2 Pyroblast
1 Flustertsorm
//Out
1 Reanimate
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Murderous Cut
1 Kolaghan's Command
1 Dack Fayden
1 Gitaxian Probe
After the round I had enough time to eat my fruitsalad and catch a breather. It started snowing outside so all the smokers were clustered at the front door but I went outside anyway. I kind of like the cold weather sometimes.
4th Round Vs UR-Landstill
I had to play against one of my friends in this round. Because I play the same deck in nearly every tournament and he mixes it up alot, I was at a slight disadvantage informationwise. But after he dropped a Mishra's Factory I knew what deck he was on and that he played a small Trinket Mage-value-package in it. The first game was pretty onesided. I kept a 3 lander and found another 2 lands with a Brainstorm. My atempt to shuffle them away was Stifled (sorry for the pun). And so I was forced to redraw them both, giving him enough breathing space to establish a massive advantage, with Mishra's Factory, Snapcaster Mage and Lightning Bolts.
The 2nd and 3rd game went pretty much the same, he drew alot of lands and alot of answers to my smaller creatures, but Tasigur, the golden fang was just to much for him to handle. In the 2nd gamee he would have been able to delay Tasigur by instantly cracking his Relic of Progenitus, wich might have been the correct play, but he didn't and I drew the delve legendary from the top.
2-1
Sideboarding:
//In
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Pyroblast
2 Duress
1 Divert
1 Flusterstorm
1 Grim Lavamancer
//Out
1 Murderous Cut
1 Caabal Therapy
1 Reanimate
4 Force of Will
2 Gitaxian Probe
5th Round Vs Jund
My notes start running thin so I cannot tell you alot about the following matches.
Jund is one of the worst matchups for this deck. Especially when they have an early Punishing Fire. In the first game my only option was to let him get killed by his own
Dark Confidant. But sadly he found a timely Deathrite Shaman to stem the bleeding. The 2nd game was even more onesided. Overall a train wreck would be an understaitment.
0-2
Sideboarding:
//In
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Duress
1 Divert
1 Grim Lavamancer
//Out
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Reanimate
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Cabal Therapy
4 Force of Will
6th Round Vs ShardlessBUG
I cannot say alot about this match at all, except that I did my PLAY-OF-THE-DAY in Game 1 ;)
I flipped Jayce, Vryn's Prodigy, then -3ed Kolaghan's Command back, killing his Deathrite Shaman and returning my Tasigur, the golden Fang back to my hand, which I then in the same turn casted.
Game 2 I stole two of his Shardless Agents with Dack Fayden and finaly killed him with True-Name Nemesis and Lightning Bolts.
2-0
Sideboarding:
//In
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Pyroblast
2 Duress
1 Divert
1 Flusterstorm
//Out
1 Caabal Therapy
1 Reanimate
4 Force of Will
2 Gitaxian Probe
7th Round Vs Lands
Okay, so before the round I checked the standings and I was in 24th place, no chance to make top 8 for me. Probably because of the maany byes at the first round of the tournament even some 5-1-1's were not able to make it in. But anyway so I went to the pairingboard and saw a familiar first name... oh I had a bad feeling with this one. And after I sat down and waited for my opponent to arrive I just was verified in my anticipation. Again a friend of mine, but sadly for me, the guy was playing lands.
For anyone that wants to hear it, You got like the chance of a snowball in hell, to win this matchup with the 75 in my decklist. But anyway both of us were out of competition so we sat down and took this round more like a match of kitchen table magic ;)
When a judge went by she wasn't even sure if we were still playing in the tournament but the resultslip at the table showed, yes we are.
Okay, the first Game went verry quick... I got no chance. If I don't have a Deathrite Shaman ready when his combo hits the graveyard, before it hits the battlefield, it's just game over. An thats what happened, so I put my board together.
Game 2 I got him with a pair of Young Pyromancers and a hell lot of 1 and 0 mana spells.
Game 3 he tried to be as aggressive as possible and that cost him the game. He went turn 1 Mox Diamond dicarding Dark Depths, Wooded Foothills, crack, Life from the Loam, but I had kept the hand mainly because I had Surgical Extraction, which now took out the Dark Depths. The rest of the game was dominated by 2 Deathrite Shamans on my side of the board and a lot of burnspells.
2-0
Sideboarding:
//In
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Pithing Needle
2 Abrupt Decay
//Out
1 Reanimate
2 Murderous Cut
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Counterspell
Aftermath
After the swiss portion of the tournament, we went to get something to eat and ended up at a chinese restaurant. Because we were in the french part of switzerland I had to order by pointing at little pictures of the food. I just felt like a lousy tourist. After eating I went back to the venue to see how the top 8 went and to meet up with a friend of mine that was taking thee same train home.
The finals of the tournament just started. Jund Vs OmniShow. Sadly we only had around 20 minutes left or had to wait for another hour for the next train home, it was allready half past eight and with a three hour trainride we decided to go to the trainstation. Around 10 minutes later the other two that judged the event came to the trainstation as well and told us the OmniShowplayer won by playing his combo two times on Turn 3. Okay, that was a fast one. So we all boarded the train to Bern and I arrived at home around 11 pm.
Overall the tournament was a blast. I don't feel like I did alot of mayor mistakes. (okay Round 1 game 1 maybe, and Round 2 Game 3 but I actually didn't know that it would mke that much of a difference at that point)
I will continue to play this deck at our local tournaments and even at the regional ones. And will continue to tweak the 75.
Thanks to all my opponents in the tournament and a special thanks to the two judges and the organizer-team, which made a bloody good job on their end.