Silverdragon
07-07-2007, 12:30 PM
Yesterday I took Angelstax to a local tourney and made 2nd place out of 11 people.
Here's the report.
As always we tested the night before so I couldn't get much sleep but luckily my friend decided that he was going to play Solidarity so I could play Stax, the deck I was definitely more comfortable with than Soldarity.
I tested various builds and finally settled on this list:
4 Smokestack
4 Trinisphere
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Ghostly Prison
4 Armageddon
4 Magus of the Tabernacle
4 Crucible of Worlds
4 Mox Diamond
3 Exalted Angel
8 Plains
4 Flagstones of Trokair
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Mishra's Factory
1 Wasteland
4 Jötun Grunt
4 Suppression Field
3 Winter Orb
3 Duskrider Peregrine
1 Rule of Law
The deck was tailored for the metagame I anticipated with lots of Survival and Landstill. The actual meta was a bit different but the maindeck was rocksolid. The manabase never crapped out on me and I was happy to be playing with 8 Plains all day. The single Wasteland was good because it helped colorscrewing my opponents. I opted for the „old“ version with Angels and without Kegs or Explosives because my testing showed that I never had problems casting them when I needed them and they are a better topdeck against most decks, except Thresh and Fish, too (and even against them a gigantic lifegaining beater is sometimes exactly what you need). Generally I focused on high impact cards that could swing games by themselves hoping I could survive up to the point where I was able to cast them (That should explain some of the sideboard cards too). The only change I'd make to the mainboard would be cutting the Chalices for Tangle Wires but only because there wasn't a single Threshold or fast combo (normally there are 2 Ugw Threshold and 1 TES). Concerning the sideboard I couldn't test the Winter Orbs and they were basically a last minute addition after I realized that topdecking Defense Grid against Landstill was not as good as topdecking Winter Orb. Maybe I'll cut the Orbs and Rule of Law for 4 Defense Grid again next time.
Aside: Before the tournament could begin we had to pick up another friend of mine who was going to play a random GW aggro deck with Blastoderm and Calciderm and the like. After we arrived and payed the entry fee he told me that he didn't have the deck together and didn't have a decklist either so we had to look through all the cards he had with him plus the cards we let him borrow and throw together a list in record time. Lucky for us the organizer told us that we had about 10 more minutes to build the deck and that he could write the decklist later. Of course this was also the first sanctioned tournament my friend played in so he didn't have a DCI number but we managed to get everything together with the help of the organizer (thanks Zahni) and the tournament started with only a small delay.
On to my report now. I won all die rolls that day except in round four but had only one explosive start that I think did matter and one that didn't matter much during our game so it wasn't nearly as relevant as one could think.
Round one: Stefan with RockSurvival (Gbw)
The last time we met he was playing TES but forgot the Burning Wishes so I made him get a gameloss. I felt bad for it because he is a really cool guy and I hope the meet him more often.
Game 1 I keep a mediocre seven with second turn Trini hoping he doesn't combo during his turn one, he mulls to six. I go Plains, go. He goes Windswept Heath, go. I don't know if that is good or bad news for me. Second turn I go Ancient Tomb, Trinisphere. It resolves (yay?) His second turn he plays another Windswept Heath and I still have no idea what he is playing. Lucky for me his neighbor leans over and asks him if he's playing „Tao's build“ and he says he modified it a bit. I curse inside knowing I got paired against Survival first round and keeping a hand that is weak against it. I topdeck and play Magus but let it die the next turn to play Armageddon because he managed to resolve Pernicious Deed. After the Geddon both of us spend our turns developing our mana again and he rips some lands to activate Deed and destroy most of my board. I can rebuild a bit with more topdecked Trinisphere but I am lacking the white mana to play one of my three Ghostly Prisons in hand. He gets to four lands and plays Loxodon Hierarch and then I make a mistake that cost me that game. I topdeck Plains and cast Ghostly Prison loudly announcing „Ghostly Prison number one!“. On his turn he plays his fifth land, taps three to cast Cabal Therapy and I know I fucked up. „Ghostly Prison“, he says and I throw my hand onto the table angry at myself for sending that obvious tell before. He takes the two remaining Ghostly Prisons, I place the in the graveyard and go down to ten life after the attack. I can't topdeck a blocker or Armageddon for the next two turns and the big elephant and an Eternal Witness take me down.
Sideboard – 4 Chalice of the Void; + 4 Suppression Field
Game 2 I start again, this time with some Suppression Fields that stop his fetchlands and Survival (and Deed had he had it). I resolve an Angel and she finishes the game quickly before he can get enough non-fetchland mana.
Game 3 I resolve a Suppression Field again and bash him with Magus and Factory. However I have to keep him low on mana and I ramp one Smokestack up to three counters. After a long battle of me versus his topdecks of mana and even more mana I resolve Geddon and he scoops because I have him in the hardlock of Trinisphere, Crucible and Smokestack at one counter. The next card on top of his library? Sacred Ground! I am so lucky.
Later he shows me his sideboard with both Sacred Ground and Serenity that he boarded in against me. I was soooo lucky he didn't topdeck one of those or an Enlightened Tutor to fetch them.
Round two: Timo with Survival (Gwr)
He knows what I'm playing and curses about „stupid first turn Chalice and stuff“ so I think he's playing Iggy Pop like the last time we met.
Game 1 I have to mulligan but I start with first turn Chalice for 1 off a Mox. His first turn is Forest, go. Goddamn another Survival why didn't I play Solidarity today? Over the next few turns I topdeck some lands, Trinisphere and Magus and even Ghostly Prison but Timo has Survival active. He makes a lot of small mistakes but they don't matter as he gets Rofellos and always seems to have at least 4 lands in play. He tries to play Basking Rootwalla multiple times with my Chalice still in play until he gets maindeck Harmonic Sliver to get rid of the Chalice. Then he casts multiple cheap spells with Trinisphere still in play until he gets Viridian Zealot to destroy it. At this point I'm trying my best to stay alive waiting for a topdecked Armageddon but I concede after he finally figures out that he can return Zealot with Genesis every turn to annihilate my board starting with Ghostly Prisons so his ten thousand 4/4 guys can attack for a lot (my life total).
Sideboard: - 3 Chalice of the Void, -3 Trinisphere, +4 Suppression Field, +2 Jötun Grunt
Because this Survival deck operates a bit different than the other one I figured I needed the Grunts as additional critter to stay alive and bash face when he's down.
Game 2 Timo mulligans and I keep because I have Suppression Field (not the best decision). Once more the first few turns are not really exciting with me slowing him down with Field and Prison and him hitting me with, I think, a single Eternal Witness. He StP's my Magus during his turn so he can bash with his critter some more turns before I finally resolve a Geddon. His next 2 turns? Topdeck land, play Bird, topdeck land, play another bird. On the other side I topdecked Angel and was able to beat him down to eight before he found another Sword to get rid of the Angel. I topdecked again and played Jötun Grunt but he had a lot of chumpblockers and as time was called I conceded giving him a 2-0 win.
In the end he got first thanks to the best tiebreakers but I shouldn't complain.
Round three: Jochen with Vial Goblins (Rg)
I know he's playing Goblins but I don't know about his green splash. He tells me that today isn't his lucky day and he'll probably lose our match 1-2 . Turns out he was wrong.
Game 1 I keep a really nice hand against Goblins if he doesn't have all the answers and I draw nothing. He mulligans and keeps his six card hand mumbling how bad it is. My first turn is Plains, go. His first turn is Mountain, Lackey, go. Really bad hand indeed. My second turn, afraid of the Lackey I continue as planned playing Mishra's Factory, go, ready to block Lackey. His second turn he goes Wasteland, waste Factory, attack with Lackey. Goddamn that hand was really the worst hand Goblins can have, like a mulligan to one or something. Finally I see why he said his hand was bad as Lackey only brings in Gempalm Incinerator. Alright. I go on and play Ancient Tomb into Crucible, go and he just plays a land and hits me for three. Whew. My turn I simply play Factory from graveyard, go hoping he doesn't have Wasteland so I can stop his Lackey from further destroying me. His turn it looks like he is out of gas as all he does is draw, land, go. He asks himself if he should attack but he is afraid of my Factory so he decides not to. Next turn I play a morph and again he refuses to attack although he gets to four mana and plays Ringleader into 3 Goblins. I use my Ancient Tomb once more to play Armageddon going down to ten life and finally he attacks with Lackey, Incinerator and Ringleader. I put morph in front of Lackey because I know he has some uncastable Goblins in hand and take four down to six life. I'm worried I can't use my Ancient Tomb for much longer but my morph and the replayed Factory keep the 2 guys back until I rip a Plains from the top of my library, unmorph Angel and attack to go back up to eight life. Jochen immediately concedes as he has only a single land in play and a bunch of uncastable Goblins.
During sideboarding he says he should have played more aggressive and he should have tried to trade with the morph. I agree with him.
Sideboard: -4 Chalice, +4 Suppression Field
Game 2 I get a turn two Trinisphere once again but he is able to sneak a Mogg Fanatic into play that hits me down to 15. Luckily he is a bit manascrewed and my Wasteland gets rid of a critical Taiga. Later he told me that he had Krosan Grip in hand and got greedy with his fetchland. At 15 life I resolve a morph and he doesn't wait and blows up my Angel with Incinerator followed by a sacced Fanatic during my turn. Lucky for him he draws his third Mountain plays it, then thinks long about what to play. He has at least three different Goblins in his hand he can cast now and he looks around jokingly asking everyone what he should play first. I tell him to hurry up and just decide himself what to play and he asks me (showing his four card hand face down) to pick a card. I respond if he doesn't mind me picking a random card he should roll a die instead he laughs picks up his hand and starts to think again. I don't want to wait anymore so I say something like „come on man play the right card“ and he says I am right, takes the card to his right and plays it. It's a Goblin Lackey. Now that was a really hard decision. My turn I play a Smokestack and pass back to him. He doesn't play another land but plays a Goblin Tinkerer and Lackey brings in Siege-Gang Commander. Now I'm screwed Tinkerer is really bad news as all I have at that moment is Crucible, Trinisphere, Smokestack at one, a Mox and three mana in lands. However I have a plan if he doesn't topdeck a Mountain. I play Armageddon, land and pass back. His turn he sacrifices a Goblin Token and topdecks a Mountain (damn) however he hits Mox Diamond with Tinkerer and hits me with his remaining guys. My turn again I sac Trini to Smokestack and play Ghostly Prison. During his ext turn Jochen makes another mistake with Goblin Tinkerer destroying Smokestack after saccing a token to it. My turn I play another Trinisphere and after realizing that he didn't have anymore basic Mountains in his deck Jochen conceded this game too.
Of course I got incredibly lucky both games but I stalled on three land during game one and didn't see a single Suppression Field in game two so I think Karma simply owed me one.
Round four: Joachim with Solidarity (U)
My friend who borrowed my Solidarity deck and I were both 2-1 in matches and we agreed that only a win could get one of us into prices (no cut to top 4 only 1st, 2nd and 3rd after swiss receive prices). After both of us wanted to concede to the other we decided to simply play it out.
Game 1 was ridiculous. I played first turn City of Traitors, Chalice at one which resolved. Second turn I tried Crucible of Worlds which got remanded :frown: . I then build back up to three lands with Joachim using Impulse to make a landdrop every turn up to six lands. Before he could get there however I tried Trinisphere (Remanded), tried the same Trinisphere again (Forced this time), tried a second Trinisphere (Remand number three), and tried it again (Force number two). Finally I hit four mana and slammed Armageddon on the table which prompted Joachim to cast Meditate. I asked him if he had found Force number three but he played Reset followed by another Meditate, followed by another Reset, followed by Turnabout floating some blue. He then cast Meditate number three followed by Impulse but could not find Brain Freeze for the life of him. Finally he settled on a card, said he fizzled and Armageddon resolves. Now all I have to do is kill him in time before he gets active again. However that was more difficult than I thought. During the three Meditate turns I didn't draw any lands and was forced to pass back to him with only Chalice at one in play. He played two more lands and used Flash of Insight to stack his library before I could do much however I was able to get a Chalice at two and a Crucible to stick before he could get to his remaining counterspells and had to use a Cunning Wish for Force of Will to counter my second Armageddon. After I announced my third Armageddon he tried to chain some spells and finished with a Brain Freeze whose copies took twelve more cards from my library but after that I played some Mishra's Factories and killed him.
Sideboard: - 4 Ghostly Prison, -1 Magus of the Tabernacle; +4 Jötun Grunt, +1 Rule of Law
Game 2 was rather boring compared to the first. I once again got Chalice at one and pulled a Force with Trinisphere but after that I just bashed with Factories and an Angel up to the point where he was at two life I announced going into my attack phase he did nothing, I announced going into my declare attackers step he again did nothing, I declared Exalted Angel as attacker and cursed myself for forgetting to activate Factory to circumvent bounce however he then cursed himself more as he tried to play Turnabout tapping my creatures and I told him that Angel had already been announced as an attacker so his Turnabout was a waste of mana. He tried to go off anyway and managed to mill my library but he couldn't find the bounce or Cunning Wish he needed to finish me off that turn so it didn't matter.
In the end I got second place and took 4 Duress as my price giving Stefan who made third the Wasteland that was intended to be the price for second place. Had my tiebreakers been better I could have been first place but I don't mind anymore.
Props
Zahni (Stefan Zahneisen) for running the event and being generally awesome.
My friends who helped me test and get better especially Joachim who made me play Stax that day
My opponents for being nice guys (no females boo)
My deck for being like a spouse. Sometimes it really annoys you because it isn't there when you need it but then you realize it just went to get you a beer. Unlike that bitch Solidarity that leaves the house to see you burning in the fire it laid after it gave you the ride of your life and exhausted you so you can't get away without help and... ok I'll stop it.
Me for getting second place
Karma for finally stopping to hate me
Slops
Me for playing like a retard. Yeah I'm that bad.
Kosuke for showing up without a deck and making me throw together a list for him in ten minutes (he went 2-2)
Solidarity for being a bitch and screwing over my friend and burning down houses and stuff
My hamster Snowball for keeping me awake the rest of the previous night after we finished testing.
I hope I didn't miss something. I didn't take a lot of notes so it is possible that I confused a lot but I hope this report is interesting and entertaining anyway.
Here's the report.
As always we tested the night before so I couldn't get much sleep but luckily my friend decided that he was going to play Solidarity so I could play Stax, the deck I was definitely more comfortable with than Soldarity.
I tested various builds and finally settled on this list:
4 Smokestack
4 Trinisphere
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Ghostly Prison
4 Armageddon
4 Magus of the Tabernacle
4 Crucible of Worlds
4 Mox Diamond
3 Exalted Angel
8 Plains
4 Flagstones of Trokair
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City of Traitors
4 Mishra's Factory
1 Wasteland
4 Jötun Grunt
4 Suppression Field
3 Winter Orb
3 Duskrider Peregrine
1 Rule of Law
The deck was tailored for the metagame I anticipated with lots of Survival and Landstill. The actual meta was a bit different but the maindeck was rocksolid. The manabase never crapped out on me and I was happy to be playing with 8 Plains all day. The single Wasteland was good because it helped colorscrewing my opponents. I opted for the „old“ version with Angels and without Kegs or Explosives because my testing showed that I never had problems casting them when I needed them and they are a better topdeck against most decks, except Thresh and Fish, too (and even against them a gigantic lifegaining beater is sometimes exactly what you need). Generally I focused on high impact cards that could swing games by themselves hoping I could survive up to the point where I was able to cast them (That should explain some of the sideboard cards too). The only change I'd make to the mainboard would be cutting the Chalices for Tangle Wires but only because there wasn't a single Threshold or fast combo (normally there are 2 Ugw Threshold and 1 TES). Concerning the sideboard I couldn't test the Winter Orbs and they were basically a last minute addition after I realized that topdecking Defense Grid against Landstill was not as good as topdecking Winter Orb. Maybe I'll cut the Orbs and Rule of Law for 4 Defense Grid again next time.
Aside: Before the tournament could begin we had to pick up another friend of mine who was going to play a random GW aggro deck with Blastoderm and Calciderm and the like. After we arrived and payed the entry fee he told me that he didn't have the deck together and didn't have a decklist either so we had to look through all the cards he had with him plus the cards we let him borrow and throw together a list in record time. Lucky for us the organizer told us that we had about 10 more minutes to build the deck and that he could write the decklist later. Of course this was also the first sanctioned tournament my friend played in so he didn't have a DCI number but we managed to get everything together with the help of the organizer (thanks Zahni) and the tournament started with only a small delay.
On to my report now. I won all die rolls that day except in round four but had only one explosive start that I think did matter and one that didn't matter much during our game so it wasn't nearly as relevant as one could think.
Round one: Stefan with RockSurvival (Gbw)
The last time we met he was playing TES but forgot the Burning Wishes so I made him get a gameloss. I felt bad for it because he is a really cool guy and I hope the meet him more often.
Game 1 I keep a mediocre seven with second turn Trini hoping he doesn't combo during his turn one, he mulls to six. I go Plains, go. He goes Windswept Heath, go. I don't know if that is good or bad news for me. Second turn I go Ancient Tomb, Trinisphere. It resolves (yay?) His second turn he plays another Windswept Heath and I still have no idea what he is playing. Lucky for me his neighbor leans over and asks him if he's playing „Tao's build“ and he says he modified it a bit. I curse inside knowing I got paired against Survival first round and keeping a hand that is weak against it. I topdeck and play Magus but let it die the next turn to play Armageddon because he managed to resolve Pernicious Deed. After the Geddon both of us spend our turns developing our mana again and he rips some lands to activate Deed and destroy most of my board. I can rebuild a bit with more topdecked Trinisphere but I am lacking the white mana to play one of my three Ghostly Prisons in hand. He gets to four lands and plays Loxodon Hierarch and then I make a mistake that cost me that game. I topdeck Plains and cast Ghostly Prison loudly announcing „Ghostly Prison number one!“. On his turn he plays his fifth land, taps three to cast Cabal Therapy and I know I fucked up. „Ghostly Prison“, he says and I throw my hand onto the table angry at myself for sending that obvious tell before. He takes the two remaining Ghostly Prisons, I place the in the graveyard and go down to ten life after the attack. I can't topdeck a blocker or Armageddon for the next two turns and the big elephant and an Eternal Witness take me down.
Sideboard – 4 Chalice of the Void; + 4 Suppression Field
Game 2 I start again, this time with some Suppression Fields that stop his fetchlands and Survival (and Deed had he had it). I resolve an Angel and she finishes the game quickly before he can get enough non-fetchland mana.
Game 3 I resolve a Suppression Field again and bash him with Magus and Factory. However I have to keep him low on mana and I ramp one Smokestack up to three counters. After a long battle of me versus his topdecks of mana and even more mana I resolve Geddon and he scoops because I have him in the hardlock of Trinisphere, Crucible and Smokestack at one counter. The next card on top of his library? Sacred Ground! I am so lucky.
Later he shows me his sideboard with both Sacred Ground and Serenity that he boarded in against me. I was soooo lucky he didn't topdeck one of those or an Enlightened Tutor to fetch them.
Round two: Timo with Survival (Gwr)
He knows what I'm playing and curses about „stupid first turn Chalice and stuff“ so I think he's playing Iggy Pop like the last time we met.
Game 1 I have to mulligan but I start with first turn Chalice for 1 off a Mox. His first turn is Forest, go. Goddamn another Survival why didn't I play Solidarity today? Over the next few turns I topdeck some lands, Trinisphere and Magus and even Ghostly Prison but Timo has Survival active. He makes a lot of small mistakes but they don't matter as he gets Rofellos and always seems to have at least 4 lands in play. He tries to play Basking Rootwalla multiple times with my Chalice still in play until he gets maindeck Harmonic Sliver to get rid of the Chalice. Then he casts multiple cheap spells with Trinisphere still in play until he gets Viridian Zealot to destroy it. At this point I'm trying my best to stay alive waiting for a topdecked Armageddon but I concede after he finally figures out that he can return Zealot with Genesis every turn to annihilate my board starting with Ghostly Prisons so his ten thousand 4/4 guys can attack for a lot (my life total).
Sideboard: - 3 Chalice of the Void, -3 Trinisphere, +4 Suppression Field, +2 Jötun Grunt
Because this Survival deck operates a bit different than the other one I figured I needed the Grunts as additional critter to stay alive and bash face when he's down.
Game 2 Timo mulligans and I keep because I have Suppression Field (not the best decision). Once more the first few turns are not really exciting with me slowing him down with Field and Prison and him hitting me with, I think, a single Eternal Witness. He StP's my Magus during his turn so he can bash with his critter some more turns before I finally resolve a Geddon. His next 2 turns? Topdeck land, play Bird, topdeck land, play another bird. On the other side I topdecked Angel and was able to beat him down to eight before he found another Sword to get rid of the Angel. I topdecked again and played Jötun Grunt but he had a lot of chumpblockers and as time was called I conceded giving him a 2-0 win.
In the end he got first thanks to the best tiebreakers but I shouldn't complain.
Round three: Jochen with Vial Goblins (Rg)
I know he's playing Goblins but I don't know about his green splash. He tells me that today isn't his lucky day and he'll probably lose our match 1-2 . Turns out he was wrong.
Game 1 I keep a really nice hand against Goblins if he doesn't have all the answers and I draw nothing. He mulligans and keeps his six card hand mumbling how bad it is. My first turn is Plains, go. His first turn is Mountain, Lackey, go. Really bad hand indeed. My second turn, afraid of the Lackey I continue as planned playing Mishra's Factory, go, ready to block Lackey. His second turn he goes Wasteland, waste Factory, attack with Lackey. Goddamn that hand was really the worst hand Goblins can have, like a mulligan to one or something. Finally I see why he said his hand was bad as Lackey only brings in Gempalm Incinerator. Alright. I go on and play Ancient Tomb into Crucible, go and he just plays a land and hits me for three. Whew. My turn I simply play Factory from graveyard, go hoping he doesn't have Wasteland so I can stop his Lackey from further destroying me. His turn it looks like he is out of gas as all he does is draw, land, go. He asks himself if he should attack but he is afraid of my Factory so he decides not to. Next turn I play a morph and again he refuses to attack although he gets to four mana and plays Ringleader into 3 Goblins. I use my Ancient Tomb once more to play Armageddon going down to ten life and finally he attacks with Lackey, Incinerator and Ringleader. I put morph in front of Lackey because I know he has some uncastable Goblins in hand and take four down to six life. I'm worried I can't use my Ancient Tomb for much longer but my morph and the replayed Factory keep the 2 guys back until I rip a Plains from the top of my library, unmorph Angel and attack to go back up to eight life. Jochen immediately concedes as he has only a single land in play and a bunch of uncastable Goblins.
During sideboarding he says he should have played more aggressive and he should have tried to trade with the morph. I agree with him.
Sideboard: -4 Chalice, +4 Suppression Field
Game 2 I get a turn two Trinisphere once again but he is able to sneak a Mogg Fanatic into play that hits me down to 15. Luckily he is a bit manascrewed and my Wasteland gets rid of a critical Taiga. Later he told me that he had Krosan Grip in hand and got greedy with his fetchland. At 15 life I resolve a morph and he doesn't wait and blows up my Angel with Incinerator followed by a sacced Fanatic during my turn. Lucky for him he draws his third Mountain plays it, then thinks long about what to play. He has at least three different Goblins in his hand he can cast now and he looks around jokingly asking everyone what he should play first. I tell him to hurry up and just decide himself what to play and he asks me (showing his four card hand face down) to pick a card. I respond if he doesn't mind me picking a random card he should roll a die instead he laughs picks up his hand and starts to think again. I don't want to wait anymore so I say something like „come on man play the right card“ and he says I am right, takes the card to his right and plays it. It's a Goblin Lackey. Now that was a really hard decision. My turn I play a Smokestack and pass back to him. He doesn't play another land but plays a Goblin Tinkerer and Lackey brings in Siege-Gang Commander. Now I'm screwed Tinkerer is really bad news as all I have at that moment is Crucible, Trinisphere, Smokestack at one, a Mox and three mana in lands. However I have a plan if he doesn't topdeck a Mountain. I play Armageddon, land and pass back. His turn he sacrifices a Goblin Token and topdecks a Mountain (damn) however he hits Mox Diamond with Tinkerer and hits me with his remaining guys. My turn again I sac Trini to Smokestack and play Ghostly Prison. During his ext turn Jochen makes another mistake with Goblin Tinkerer destroying Smokestack after saccing a token to it. My turn I play another Trinisphere and after realizing that he didn't have anymore basic Mountains in his deck Jochen conceded this game too.
Of course I got incredibly lucky both games but I stalled on three land during game one and didn't see a single Suppression Field in game two so I think Karma simply owed me one.
Round four: Joachim with Solidarity (U)
My friend who borrowed my Solidarity deck and I were both 2-1 in matches and we agreed that only a win could get one of us into prices (no cut to top 4 only 1st, 2nd and 3rd after swiss receive prices). After both of us wanted to concede to the other we decided to simply play it out.
Game 1 was ridiculous. I played first turn City of Traitors, Chalice at one which resolved. Second turn I tried Crucible of Worlds which got remanded :frown: . I then build back up to three lands with Joachim using Impulse to make a landdrop every turn up to six lands. Before he could get there however I tried Trinisphere (Remanded), tried the same Trinisphere again (Forced this time), tried a second Trinisphere (Remand number three), and tried it again (Force number two). Finally I hit four mana and slammed Armageddon on the table which prompted Joachim to cast Meditate. I asked him if he had found Force number three but he played Reset followed by another Meditate, followed by another Reset, followed by Turnabout floating some blue. He then cast Meditate number three followed by Impulse but could not find Brain Freeze for the life of him. Finally he settled on a card, said he fizzled and Armageddon resolves. Now all I have to do is kill him in time before he gets active again. However that was more difficult than I thought. During the three Meditate turns I didn't draw any lands and was forced to pass back to him with only Chalice at one in play. He played two more lands and used Flash of Insight to stack his library before I could do much however I was able to get a Chalice at two and a Crucible to stick before he could get to his remaining counterspells and had to use a Cunning Wish for Force of Will to counter my second Armageddon. After I announced my third Armageddon he tried to chain some spells and finished with a Brain Freeze whose copies took twelve more cards from my library but after that I played some Mishra's Factories and killed him.
Sideboard: - 4 Ghostly Prison, -1 Magus of the Tabernacle; +4 Jötun Grunt, +1 Rule of Law
Game 2 was rather boring compared to the first. I once again got Chalice at one and pulled a Force with Trinisphere but after that I just bashed with Factories and an Angel up to the point where he was at two life I announced going into my attack phase he did nothing, I announced going into my declare attackers step he again did nothing, I declared Exalted Angel as attacker and cursed myself for forgetting to activate Factory to circumvent bounce however he then cursed himself more as he tried to play Turnabout tapping my creatures and I told him that Angel had already been announced as an attacker so his Turnabout was a waste of mana. He tried to go off anyway and managed to mill my library but he couldn't find the bounce or Cunning Wish he needed to finish me off that turn so it didn't matter.
In the end I got second place and took 4 Duress as my price giving Stefan who made third the Wasteland that was intended to be the price for second place. Had my tiebreakers been better I could have been first place but I don't mind anymore.
Props
Zahni (Stefan Zahneisen) for running the event and being generally awesome.
My friends who helped me test and get better especially Joachim who made me play Stax that day
My opponents for being nice guys (no females boo)
My deck for being like a spouse. Sometimes it really annoys you because it isn't there when you need it but then you realize it just went to get you a beer. Unlike that bitch Solidarity that leaves the house to see you burning in the fire it laid after it gave you the ride of your life and exhausted you so you can't get away without help and... ok I'll stop it.
Me for getting second place
Karma for finally stopping to hate me
Slops
Me for playing like a retard. Yeah I'm that bad.
Kosuke for showing up without a deck and making me throw together a list for him in ten minutes (he went 2-2)
Solidarity for being a bitch and screwing over my friend and burning down houses and stuff
My hamster Snowball for keeping me awake the rest of the previous night after we finished testing.
I hope I didn't miss something. I didn't take a lot of notes so it is possible that I confused a lot but I hope this report is interesting and entertaining anyway.