Storming into EE4 Satellite (03/19/2016): 2nd Place

[Bryant Cook]

Tournament report from this past weekend: http://www.theepicstorm.com/storming-into-ee4-satellite-03192016-2nd/

[btm10]

Thanks for the report - it was good to finally meet some more people from The Source even though I failed to introduce myself as a Sourcer in person.

I thoroughly enjoyed our match and thought it had good back-and-forth in all three games despite me running basically perfectly in game 3. I hope I didn't actually say that I think Shardless is favored against TES - I just think it's more robust in the face of a turn 2-3 Empty than it is in the face of a turn 3-4 Tendrils. I'd rather play against TES than ANT or TNT, but that doesn't mean I feel favored in an absolute sense.

Anyway, thanks for having better memory and note-taking skills than me, and it was good to meet you.

[Bryant Cook]

Thanks for the report - it was good to finally meet some more people from The Source even though I failed to introduce myself as a Sourcer in person.

I thoroughly enjoyed our match and thought it had good back-and-forth in all three games despite me running basically perfectly in game 3. I hope I didn't actually say that I think Shardless is favored against TES - I just think it's more robust in the face of a turn 2-3 Empty than it is in the face of a turn 3-4 Tendrils. I'd rather play against TES than ANT or TNT, but that doesn't mean I feel favored in an absolute sense.

Anyway, thanks for having better memory and note-taking skills than me, and it was good to meet you.

It was nice playing you as well Brendan. It happened while I was watching your match against Lands, someone asked me if I was going to play out the last round. To which you responded, "Both of these decks are pretty good at beating the deck that makes goblins." or something alone those lines. You could've been making mindless banter, but it's something that stuck in my head.

Either way, congratulations on first place. I'm sure I'll see you at EE4 in June.

[phazonmutant]

Very detailed report as always. Nice finish! I always get the itch to play TES again after reading about it... Maybe after I'm done with Griselbrand and Monks.

[Bryant Cook]

Very detailed report as always. Nice finish! I always get the itch to play TES again after reading about it... Maybe after I'm done with Griselbrand and Monks.

Thanks, I take plenty of notes while playing. In-game and during sideboarding.

Do it!

[MGB]

RE: "(Interesting note: there were not any Eldrazi decks in the top 8 of this event and only one person playing the deck hanging around the top of the tables. On a similar note, there wasn't a copy in the top 8 of the Star City Games: PIQ either.)"

I was at this tournament as well and while it seemed as if there were ALOT of Eldrazi players as a percentage of the field, very few of them were doing well. I think 1-2 were playing win-and-ins for top-8 at some point, but none obviously made the top-8. Alot of them seemed to be struggling as well.

Based on recent results since the Philly Open, is there a consensus that Eldrazi isn't as good as those Philly results made it out to be? Have people adapted to playing against the deck, or is this just too small of a sample size to make any kind of determination on the deck?

[Bryant Cook]

I think with Eldrazi being 11% of the day 2 field in Philadelphia (the most played deck), with a field that saturated, Eldrazi was bound to put up top 8 numbers.

I did hear a few Eldrazi players at the 5k say that they weren't happy with the deck and going to switch off. I think we'll continue to see the numbers reduce until it's a normal Legacy deck's percentage of the field.

[Goin Aggro]

Question: Do you always draw the nuts? It seems like you do.

[Bryant Cook]

Question: Do you always draw the nuts? It seems like you do.

Uh... sometimes? I guess. Good question?

[Goin Aggro]

Uh... sometimes? I guess. Good question?

Sorry. Haha. It's a shitty question. Reading the report makes it seem like you just roll over and through most matches. But I guess you don't want to/don't need to get into the nitty gritty of it given that you've played these lines a thousand times.

[Bryant Cook]

Well TES thrives in the early turns of the game. Meaning the games are shorter and there's less to explain. As for the lines, I think I do a good job of explaining them. My reports tend to have a lot of detail, I take a lot of notes! I'll admit, I do take less notes when I get my ass kicked.

I did take second; there wasn't a whole lot of losing!

[Shaman]

Congratulations on your finish and this very detailed report. I enjoyed this very much. As always, I sleeve up your deck after reading your reports, planning to run it at my next tournament: unfortunately, the day before, I play a little with your hand generator and I realize how miserable my starting hands are!! :P Jokes aside, thanks again for detailed notes, I appreciate this because it makes me a (little) better player.