Van Phanel
08-06-2007, 09:15 AM
Here's my report of the tournament. It won't be very detailed, because I didn't think there would be a need to write a report before the tournament.
When I read the announcement of the tournament at first I wasn't sure if I should play at all because of the time-difference problems and because of MWS not being able to guarantee real randomness, but then I thought it was a free opportunity to test with some good players and maybe I'd get lucky.
I first had to choose a deck and because I expected little to no goblins I settled to this list:
U-W-b Landstill:
4 Tundra
2 Underground Sea
1 Scrubland
2 Island
2 Plains
4 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
4 Mishra's Factory
3 Wasteland
1 Eternal Dragon
2 Decree of Justice
2 Crucible of Worlds
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Engineered Explosives
3 Wrath of God
3 Stifle
4 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Standstill
2 Fact or Fiction
1 Pulse of the Fields
SB:
4 Meddling Mage
4 Engineered Plague
3 Extirpate
2 Dismantling Blow
2 Circle of Protection: Red
The deck is solid against any kind of randomness, has a way to fight Empty the Warrens in Engineered Explosives (and Stifle), has a great drawengine and an amazing lategame in Decree and Dragon.
I didn't change anything before the tournament, because I wanted actual testing results otherwise there wouldn't have been any Circles and at max 2 Plagues in the Sideboard.
Some thoughts about cardchoices:
a) the manabase (especially wasteland): I don't want to throw in another splash-color, because the manabase is pretty solid the way it is right now. I want those Wastelands to be able to randomly screw an opponent, lock combo-players out of the game (if their manabase stays intact, they can always try for a comeback even if their initial onslaught got countered) and finally I have Extirpates side and second turn Wasteland + Extirpate can prove devastating.
b) Engineered Explosives replaced the more clunky Nevinyrral's Disk and Akroma's Vengeance because it's faster, more flexible, can destroy a Chalice very early in the game and last but not least because of Empty the Warrens (I guess that one came as a big surprise)
c) Crucibles: I would never cut them. They give you the chance of Waste-lock, but that wasn't the primary reason for runnning them. They simply produce additional cardadvantage. Every Land you draw with a Crucible in play is an additional card that gets fetched away after a Brainstorm and you never miss a land-drop. In additon the possibility of Recurring a Factory is nice either.
d) Pulse of the Fields: The Pulse is in there to be able to fight random aggro better and ocassionally it wins games against Goblins by forcing them to overcommit. Against aggro-cntrol decks it also is huge if they got you below 10 with their initial rush (I'm especially speaking of NQG/r here)
e) Dismantling Blow: It is in the sideboard as a Substitute for Disenchant that is better at destroying Couterbalance.
Credits for the list go to Marius Hausmann, who spent lots of time with the deck and tested many different versions until coming up with the blacksplash. Wherever he plays the deck, he nearly always goes Top8 (like all 3 Bazaar of Wonders Mox-Tounaments so far even winning once) and you'll rarely see him go worse than X-1 anywhere.
Now for my actual tournament:
Round 1 against HdH_Cthulhu playing Demon-Stompy. 2-0
Both games were fairly easy, as he didn't play much that was really a problem. In game 1 I had to swords some creatures, like a Bane of the Living and a Graveborn Muse and I had to get rid of a Chalice/1 with Explosives, but then my cardadvantage machine started working and I countered or removed everything he played. In game 2 (boarded out Stifles, added Dismantling Blow against Chalice) he started fairly fast with a turn 2 Nether void of Ancient Tomb, Mox, Land. I couldn't do anything about it, but luckily I held 4 lands at that moment and it turns out he didn't. I just went Land, go until I had 6 lands and when I then played Crucible and dropped Wasteland he simply conceded.
Round 2 against Big Fleo playing Counterslivers.
The first game of that match was a little bit unlucky for me, but you can't help that. He got a Vial online and was beating with flying slivers for some turns where I was stalling with a Pulse hoping to draw either Wrath or Explosives. I had enough counters to easily resolve them. But at some point he draws a Hibernation sliver and I have no Solution to that one. I finally draw a Wrath (as 27th card), but that only postponed the inevitable as the Hibernation Sliver even stopped me from using Pulse. Some turns later I'm dead still without having drawn Explosives to get rid of the Vial.
For game 2 I don't board Plagues, just Dismantling Blows for Stifles (again) as I'm sure he has Harmonic Slivers and a Single Plague does pretty much nothing. I start the game sending his first sliver plowing and get to resolve a Standstill. In that Standstill I draw enough gas to securely drive the game home. I focus on keeping Hibernation Slivers and Vials off the table and eventually win at some point.
In game 3 he gets a very aggressive draw with Vial, then Hibernation and pump Sliver. I was on 12 life and he had three cards in hand so I wrathed to buy some time. He forced the Wrath and at end of turn had another pump Sliver. In his turn he topdecked a third +1/+1 Sliver put it into play with Vial and attacked for 13.
Round 3 against Bardu with R-g Vial-Goblins 2-0
I don't remember much about game 1 but I think I either forced a Vial or swordsed a Lackey on turn 1 an then got to resolve a Standstill winning from there as he was never able to put any pressure on my manabase.
In game 2 he has neither Vial nor Lackey and I get a turn 2 Cop: Red. He has 2 Piledrivers in play at that point and when he fetches I prevent damage from both in response which turns out right as he has the Krosan Grip. The next turn I play Explosives/2 and kill his piledrivers right away. At that point I already have Mage + 2 Plagues in hand and just wait for an opportunity to get them into play without running into either Incinerator or Krosan Grip. I manage to get all 3 into play at the same time and the game is over.
Round 4 against Pinder with - guess what - Counterslivers 2-0
In game 1 I have an active Factory when he plays a Winged Sliver and swings with his Plated Sliver. I swords the Winged and my Factory takes care of the Plated. He never really has a chance in this game after that as I have enough removal at any point of the game.
I don't remember much about game 2. But he again has no Vial and eventually Landstill does what it was built for: play massremoval, draw cards and win from there.
Round 5 against Cait Sith with a deck desigened to break Armageddon/ Ravages of War. It looked pretty much like Armageddon Stax without Smokestacks but with additional ways to abuse Armageddon (Windborn Muse, Darksteel Citadel) 2-1
In game 1 I let him resolve a Trinisphere as I'm holding enough lands but only a single counter. He plays some Ghostly Prisons while I just build up my manabase. At some point I play Engineered Explosives/3 and wreck his side of the board and a Decree for 3 Angels ends the game. I'm still holding 3 Forces and 2 Counterspells in the end.
In game 2 he gets to resolve an Exalted Angel which is sent plowing but I can't stop a second one before I'm dead.
In game 3 he has to mull to 5 while I have a turn 3 Meddling Mage on Armageddon and a counter + Extirpate for Ravages of War some turns later. I don't remember exactly how the game ended but I think I had to remove/counter a morph at some point and I swords a Windborn Muse, but at some point my Mage kills him.
Round 6 against Tao with G-B-w Survival ID
I ask for a draw, as he will be Top8 for sure and I was also about to Top8 unless I got extremly unlucky with my opponent score and this way we didn't have to kick a player of the same nation out of Top8. When I later was able to see his decklist I was glad we drew this as I had pretty much no way to win G1 ever and he should still be favored after boarding. The draw works out exactly as planned as we are both in due to opponent score.
Quarterfinals against Adan with U-R-Landstill. 2-1
In game 1 he gets to confidant and plays a Standstill pretty early. I punish him for that with a cycled Decree which forces him to break his own Standstill. The cardadvantage I got from there let me win this game easily.
In the second game I had to mull to 6 and he starts with turn 2 Counterbalance. The Counterbalance counters one or two spells and I don't draw enough land to do anything about it, so it just wins the game for him. I think there was a Sensei's Divining Top involved at some point.
For game 3 he has two Conclaves and swings with one each turn getting me to 13. I finally find 2 Factories and after swordsing one of his Conclaves I decide to try a Standstill with him on 18. He tries to double-Bolt me in response and I counter one to stay ahead in the damage race. We both swing at each other for some turns but on 6 life I topdeck Wasteland to get rid of his Conclave and he has to break the standstill with Thirst for Knowledge. That allows me to play crucible and Wasteland-recursion takes him out.
Semifinals against Wastedlife with TES.
He has to mulligan to five in game 1 and I kill him with Factory beatdown and enough counterbackup.
I mulligan to 4 into Stifle but nothing else for game 2. Then I decided to play a turn 3 Crucible with Wasteland in play to have a chance if he didn't act right then. Unfortunately he could Chant me and then resolve Diminishing Returns and find Tendrils for enough in his 7.
In game 3 a Burning Wish on Diminishing Returns is the first play which I counter with a Meddling Mage on Diminishing Returns. He Duresses a Force seeing Stifle, Plague, Explosives in my hand so he couldn't really go for any of his winoptions without backup. He then is on 14 when he wishes for Infernal Contract. I beat him to 10 with Mage + Factory. He played the Contract of a Ritual falling to 5 but still didn't find any Disruption so I beat him down to one and he couldn't even use his City of Brass anymore. He then showed me a hand of 3 Infernal Tutor, 2 Orim's Chant and 2 Rite of Flame with a single usable manasource in play and I win.
Finals against Illissius: U-G-B Landstill 2-1
We were in our first game for like 25 minutes when MWS crashed on both ends so we decided to restart it as there was no way to recreate the gamestate.
In the restarted game we had some draw-go with a Brainstorm here and there when he resolved Shackles. I have no idea what I was thinking at that moment, but I played a Standstill despite him having active Shackes and a Factory. I had a Factory but it wasn't of much use because of the Shackles. However my mistake turned out to be not too devastating as I found my Eternal Dragon in time and kept hitting my landdrops which is as important as cardadvantage in the Landstill-Mirror. At some point I decided I'd want to go for Crucible to win the game and therefore brainstormed in my mainphase breaking my Standstill. After all what does someone with 10 cards in his hand do? He tries to play some of his cards. And that way I was hoping I could prevent him from playing Counterspells and if he had to Force Crucible I would be the one with cardadvantage even after I broke my own Standstill. I also found a Decree and a second Factory in my Brainstorm. In his turn he brainstormed first and then played a Chalice/1 with only five mana-producing lands and two Mazes in play. In my turn I played the Crucible which he counterspelled, I counterspelled, he forced, I counterspelled again and the Crucible resolved. I proceeded to waste a Tropical Island (with one already gone earlier) In his next turn he tried to drop Deed which I forced with the last counter in hand. In my turn I could again waste Tropical intending to get rid of all his green mana. He could drop another Deed next turn but not activate it at once, so I got to waste his last Tropical and resolve the returned Dragon in the meantime. He then finally got to Deed away the Crucible together with his own Shackles and Chalice. The next turn I cycled an EOT Decree for 7 tokens and that proved to much for his 2 Mazes. We had already played for nearly 2 hours at that point and it was 4am (for both of us) but we still decided to go on.
I boarded out 3 Wrath of God, 1 Swords to Plowshares and 1 Pulse of the Fields for 2 Dismantling Blow and 3 Extirpates.
For game 2 I thought about keeping a seven-lander with 3 Factories but decided against it. Maybe I should have kept it. In my mulligan I found Scrubland, Extirpate, Wasteland, Brainstorm and two Standstill. If I could find a single blue mana-source in time I should be fine here and I didn't want to go down to five. In my second turn he had Tropical and U-Sea in play and I had to decide which want I'd want to get rid off for ever. I settled for the U-Sea and Extirpated those in his next drawstep seeing 2 Tarmogoyfs in his hand. Maybe going for those Tropicals would really have been better. The two Tarmogoyfs get to beat me down within four turns as I managed to draw a Tundra, but the Brainstorm revealed a third Standstill, a Decree and Engineered Explosives. I tried for those but they got countered and that was that.
For game 3 I took in the fourth Swords again cutting one of the Standstills.
I started with a first turn Fetchland and so did he. I held Extirpate + Wasteland at that moment so I decided that I would fetch at the end of his turn hoping for him to break his own fetchland in fear of Stifle. It worked out exactly as planned and his U-Seas were gone for ever (I would have preferred going for tropicals, because at that time I knew more about his deck, but unfortunately I didn't have that option. He then proceeded to resolve a Chalice/1 which was a serious problem for me. We had some turns of draw go with a Factory on his side getting in for 2 beats. At some point I also had cycled a Decree for 2 soldiers and they returned the favor. I then tried for Explosives/0 holding a second one and he counterspelled, I hardcast Force, he Forced pitching another Force. At that point he held 4 cards one of them being the Life from the Loam I still knew from Extirpating. He then intuitioned for his three remaining Factories and played the one he got in hand which meant he was nearly tapped out and had 2 unknown card in hand. I knew for sure that I had won that game - if he couldn't counter. I could kill his Chalice then and proceed to play Crucible and Extirpating his Loam and then wasting all his green manasources and Factories that remained one by one. However he could Force my Explosives and the game suddenly seemed to be floating away from me. I still got to resolve my Crucible, play a Wasteland and swing for another 2. He then Loamed back his Factories and played one and attacked with the two that had been there before. I wasted one and he pumped the other one getting in for 3. I topdecked a useless Stifle, proceeded to attack for 2 again and replayed my Wasteland. At that point if we both drew nothing I would win the damage race on one life only because when he would have to loam his destroyed Factories back, he would have to tap his Cephalid Coliseum for mana. So when he was on 3 and I was on 7 he went to activate the Coliseum, Loam it back and reactivate in in desperate search for Tarmogoyfs. That left him without attackers or blockers for the turn however. I could then swing him down to 1 and played a third attacker in form of the Factory I had just drawn. When he could then only play 2 Tarmogoyfs on his turn and I could swing with 2 soldiers and the Factory the game was over. It had taken us over two hours to play the games and it was 5:30 am at that point. In spite of being tired we still talked about the games for more than half an hour, but at some point sleep even wins over addiction.
To sum it up, there are some "thank you"s I have to speak out.
a) to Parcher for running the tournament
b) to all my opponents for being good players and friendly guys.
c) to WotC for reprinting Ancestral Recall for 1U
d) to Marius Hausmann for creating the above decklist.
e) to Stifle for being what happens if Time Walk, Stone Rain have sex and Lava Dart watches
f) last but not least: To Cephalid Coliseum for killing Illissius.
Finally some big words:
"Take your time" (flavortext of Standstill (http://magiccards.info/od/en/102.html))
Van Phanel
When I read the announcement of the tournament at first I wasn't sure if I should play at all because of the time-difference problems and because of MWS not being able to guarantee real randomness, but then I thought it was a free opportunity to test with some good players and maybe I'd get lucky.
I first had to choose a deck and because I expected little to no goblins I settled to this list:
U-W-b Landstill:
4 Tundra
2 Underground Sea
1 Scrubland
2 Island
2 Plains
4 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
4 Mishra's Factory
3 Wasteland
1 Eternal Dragon
2 Decree of Justice
2 Crucible of Worlds
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Engineered Explosives
3 Wrath of God
3 Stifle
4 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Standstill
2 Fact or Fiction
1 Pulse of the Fields
SB:
4 Meddling Mage
4 Engineered Plague
3 Extirpate
2 Dismantling Blow
2 Circle of Protection: Red
The deck is solid against any kind of randomness, has a way to fight Empty the Warrens in Engineered Explosives (and Stifle), has a great drawengine and an amazing lategame in Decree and Dragon.
I didn't change anything before the tournament, because I wanted actual testing results otherwise there wouldn't have been any Circles and at max 2 Plagues in the Sideboard.
Some thoughts about cardchoices:
a) the manabase (especially wasteland): I don't want to throw in another splash-color, because the manabase is pretty solid the way it is right now. I want those Wastelands to be able to randomly screw an opponent, lock combo-players out of the game (if their manabase stays intact, they can always try for a comeback even if their initial onslaught got countered) and finally I have Extirpates side and second turn Wasteland + Extirpate can prove devastating.
b) Engineered Explosives replaced the more clunky Nevinyrral's Disk and Akroma's Vengeance because it's faster, more flexible, can destroy a Chalice very early in the game and last but not least because of Empty the Warrens (I guess that one came as a big surprise)
c) Crucibles: I would never cut them. They give you the chance of Waste-lock, but that wasn't the primary reason for runnning them. They simply produce additional cardadvantage. Every Land you draw with a Crucible in play is an additional card that gets fetched away after a Brainstorm and you never miss a land-drop. In additon the possibility of Recurring a Factory is nice either.
d) Pulse of the Fields: The Pulse is in there to be able to fight random aggro better and ocassionally it wins games against Goblins by forcing them to overcommit. Against aggro-cntrol decks it also is huge if they got you below 10 with their initial rush (I'm especially speaking of NQG/r here)
e) Dismantling Blow: It is in the sideboard as a Substitute for Disenchant that is better at destroying Couterbalance.
Credits for the list go to Marius Hausmann, who spent lots of time with the deck and tested many different versions until coming up with the blacksplash. Wherever he plays the deck, he nearly always goes Top8 (like all 3 Bazaar of Wonders Mox-Tounaments so far even winning once) and you'll rarely see him go worse than X-1 anywhere.
Now for my actual tournament:
Round 1 against HdH_Cthulhu playing Demon-Stompy. 2-0
Both games were fairly easy, as he didn't play much that was really a problem. In game 1 I had to swords some creatures, like a Bane of the Living and a Graveborn Muse and I had to get rid of a Chalice/1 with Explosives, but then my cardadvantage machine started working and I countered or removed everything he played. In game 2 (boarded out Stifles, added Dismantling Blow against Chalice) he started fairly fast with a turn 2 Nether void of Ancient Tomb, Mox, Land. I couldn't do anything about it, but luckily I held 4 lands at that moment and it turns out he didn't. I just went Land, go until I had 6 lands and when I then played Crucible and dropped Wasteland he simply conceded.
Round 2 against Big Fleo playing Counterslivers.
The first game of that match was a little bit unlucky for me, but you can't help that. He got a Vial online and was beating with flying slivers for some turns where I was stalling with a Pulse hoping to draw either Wrath or Explosives. I had enough counters to easily resolve them. But at some point he draws a Hibernation sliver and I have no Solution to that one. I finally draw a Wrath (as 27th card), but that only postponed the inevitable as the Hibernation Sliver even stopped me from using Pulse. Some turns later I'm dead still without having drawn Explosives to get rid of the Vial.
For game 2 I don't board Plagues, just Dismantling Blows for Stifles (again) as I'm sure he has Harmonic Slivers and a Single Plague does pretty much nothing. I start the game sending his first sliver plowing and get to resolve a Standstill. In that Standstill I draw enough gas to securely drive the game home. I focus on keeping Hibernation Slivers and Vials off the table and eventually win at some point.
In game 3 he gets a very aggressive draw with Vial, then Hibernation and pump Sliver. I was on 12 life and he had three cards in hand so I wrathed to buy some time. He forced the Wrath and at end of turn had another pump Sliver. In his turn he topdecked a third +1/+1 Sliver put it into play with Vial and attacked for 13.
Round 3 against Bardu with R-g Vial-Goblins 2-0
I don't remember much about game 1 but I think I either forced a Vial or swordsed a Lackey on turn 1 an then got to resolve a Standstill winning from there as he was never able to put any pressure on my manabase.
In game 2 he has neither Vial nor Lackey and I get a turn 2 Cop: Red. He has 2 Piledrivers in play at that point and when he fetches I prevent damage from both in response which turns out right as he has the Krosan Grip. The next turn I play Explosives/2 and kill his piledrivers right away. At that point I already have Mage + 2 Plagues in hand and just wait for an opportunity to get them into play without running into either Incinerator or Krosan Grip. I manage to get all 3 into play at the same time and the game is over.
Round 4 against Pinder with - guess what - Counterslivers 2-0
In game 1 I have an active Factory when he plays a Winged Sliver and swings with his Plated Sliver. I swords the Winged and my Factory takes care of the Plated. He never really has a chance in this game after that as I have enough removal at any point of the game.
I don't remember much about game 2. But he again has no Vial and eventually Landstill does what it was built for: play massremoval, draw cards and win from there.
Round 5 against Cait Sith with a deck desigened to break Armageddon/ Ravages of War. It looked pretty much like Armageddon Stax without Smokestacks but with additional ways to abuse Armageddon (Windborn Muse, Darksteel Citadel) 2-1
In game 1 I let him resolve a Trinisphere as I'm holding enough lands but only a single counter. He plays some Ghostly Prisons while I just build up my manabase. At some point I play Engineered Explosives/3 and wreck his side of the board and a Decree for 3 Angels ends the game. I'm still holding 3 Forces and 2 Counterspells in the end.
In game 2 he gets to resolve an Exalted Angel which is sent plowing but I can't stop a second one before I'm dead.
In game 3 he has to mull to 5 while I have a turn 3 Meddling Mage on Armageddon and a counter + Extirpate for Ravages of War some turns later. I don't remember exactly how the game ended but I think I had to remove/counter a morph at some point and I swords a Windborn Muse, but at some point my Mage kills him.
Round 6 against Tao with G-B-w Survival ID
I ask for a draw, as he will be Top8 for sure and I was also about to Top8 unless I got extremly unlucky with my opponent score and this way we didn't have to kick a player of the same nation out of Top8. When I later was able to see his decklist I was glad we drew this as I had pretty much no way to win G1 ever and he should still be favored after boarding. The draw works out exactly as planned as we are both in due to opponent score.
Quarterfinals against Adan with U-R-Landstill. 2-1
In game 1 he gets to confidant and plays a Standstill pretty early. I punish him for that with a cycled Decree which forces him to break his own Standstill. The cardadvantage I got from there let me win this game easily.
In the second game I had to mull to 6 and he starts with turn 2 Counterbalance. The Counterbalance counters one or two spells and I don't draw enough land to do anything about it, so it just wins the game for him. I think there was a Sensei's Divining Top involved at some point.
For game 3 he has two Conclaves and swings with one each turn getting me to 13. I finally find 2 Factories and after swordsing one of his Conclaves I decide to try a Standstill with him on 18. He tries to double-Bolt me in response and I counter one to stay ahead in the damage race. We both swing at each other for some turns but on 6 life I topdeck Wasteland to get rid of his Conclave and he has to break the standstill with Thirst for Knowledge. That allows me to play crucible and Wasteland-recursion takes him out.
Semifinals against Wastedlife with TES.
He has to mulligan to five in game 1 and I kill him with Factory beatdown and enough counterbackup.
I mulligan to 4 into Stifle but nothing else for game 2. Then I decided to play a turn 3 Crucible with Wasteland in play to have a chance if he didn't act right then. Unfortunately he could Chant me and then resolve Diminishing Returns and find Tendrils for enough in his 7.
In game 3 a Burning Wish on Diminishing Returns is the first play which I counter with a Meddling Mage on Diminishing Returns. He Duresses a Force seeing Stifle, Plague, Explosives in my hand so he couldn't really go for any of his winoptions without backup. He then is on 14 when he wishes for Infernal Contract. I beat him to 10 with Mage + Factory. He played the Contract of a Ritual falling to 5 but still didn't find any Disruption so I beat him down to one and he couldn't even use his City of Brass anymore. He then showed me a hand of 3 Infernal Tutor, 2 Orim's Chant and 2 Rite of Flame with a single usable manasource in play and I win.
Finals against Illissius: U-G-B Landstill 2-1
We were in our first game for like 25 minutes when MWS crashed on both ends so we decided to restart it as there was no way to recreate the gamestate.
In the restarted game we had some draw-go with a Brainstorm here and there when he resolved Shackles. I have no idea what I was thinking at that moment, but I played a Standstill despite him having active Shackes and a Factory. I had a Factory but it wasn't of much use because of the Shackles. However my mistake turned out to be not too devastating as I found my Eternal Dragon in time and kept hitting my landdrops which is as important as cardadvantage in the Landstill-Mirror. At some point I decided I'd want to go for Crucible to win the game and therefore brainstormed in my mainphase breaking my Standstill. After all what does someone with 10 cards in his hand do? He tries to play some of his cards. And that way I was hoping I could prevent him from playing Counterspells and if he had to Force Crucible I would be the one with cardadvantage even after I broke my own Standstill. I also found a Decree and a second Factory in my Brainstorm. In his turn he brainstormed first and then played a Chalice/1 with only five mana-producing lands and two Mazes in play. In my turn I played the Crucible which he counterspelled, I counterspelled, he forced, I counterspelled again and the Crucible resolved. I proceeded to waste a Tropical Island (with one already gone earlier) In his next turn he tried to drop Deed which I forced with the last counter in hand. In my turn I could again waste Tropical intending to get rid of all his green mana. He could drop another Deed next turn but not activate it at once, so I got to waste his last Tropical and resolve the returned Dragon in the meantime. He then finally got to Deed away the Crucible together with his own Shackles and Chalice. The next turn I cycled an EOT Decree for 7 tokens and that proved to much for his 2 Mazes. We had already played for nearly 2 hours at that point and it was 4am (for both of us) but we still decided to go on.
I boarded out 3 Wrath of God, 1 Swords to Plowshares and 1 Pulse of the Fields for 2 Dismantling Blow and 3 Extirpates.
For game 2 I thought about keeping a seven-lander with 3 Factories but decided against it. Maybe I should have kept it. In my mulligan I found Scrubland, Extirpate, Wasteland, Brainstorm and two Standstill. If I could find a single blue mana-source in time I should be fine here and I didn't want to go down to five. In my second turn he had Tropical and U-Sea in play and I had to decide which want I'd want to get rid off for ever. I settled for the U-Sea and Extirpated those in his next drawstep seeing 2 Tarmogoyfs in his hand. Maybe going for those Tropicals would really have been better. The two Tarmogoyfs get to beat me down within four turns as I managed to draw a Tundra, but the Brainstorm revealed a third Standstill, a Decree and Engineered Explosives. I tried for those but they got countered and that was that.
For game 3 I took in the fourth Swords again cutting one of the Standstills.
I started with a first turn Fetchland and so did he. I held Extirpate + Wasteland at that moment so I decided that I would fetch at the end of his turn hoping for him to break his own fetchland in fear of Stifle. It worked out exactly as planned and his U-Seas were gone for ever (I would have preferred going for tropicals, because at that time I knew more about his deck, but unfortunately I didn't have that option. He then proceeded to resolve a Chalice/1 which was a serious problem for me. We had some turns of draw go with a Factory on his side getting in for 2 beats. At some point I also had cycled a Decree for 2 soldiers and they returned the favor. I then tried for Explosives/0 holding a second one and he counterspelled, I hardcast Force, he Forced pitching another Force. At that point he held 4 cards one of them being the Life from the Loam I still knew from Extirpating. He then intuitioned for his three remaining Factories and played the one he got in hand which meant he was nearly tapped out and had 2 unknown card in hand. I knew for sure that I had won that game - if he couldn't counter. I could kill his Chalice then and proceed to play Crucible and Extirpating his Loam and then wasting all his green manasources and Factories that remained one by one. However he could Force my Explosives and the game suddenly seemed to be floating away from me. I still got to resolve my Crucible, play a Wasteland and swing for another 2. He then Loamed back his Factories and played one and attacked with the two that had been there before. I wasted one and he pumped the other one getting in for 3. I topdecked a useless Stifle, proceeded to attack for 2 again and replayed my Wasteland. At that point if we both drew nothing I would win the damage race on one life only because when he would have to loam his destroyed Factories back, he would have to tap his Cephalid Coliseum for mana. So when he was on 3 and I was on 7 he went to activate the Coliseum, Loam it back and reactivate in in desperate search for Tarmogoyfs. That left him without attackers or blockers for the turn however. I could then swing him down to 1 and played a third attacker in form of the Factory I had just drawn. When he could then only play 2 Tarmogoyfs on his turn and I could swing with 2 soldiers and the Factory the game was over. It had taken us over two hours to play the games and it was 5:30 am at that point. In spite of being tired we still talked about the games for more than half an hour, but at some point sleep even wins over addiction.
To sum it up, there are some "thank you"s I have to speak out.
a) to Parcher for running the tournament
b) to all my opponents for being good players and friendly guys.
c) to WotC for reprinting Ancestral Recall for 1U
d) to Marius Hausmann for creating the above decklist.
e) to Stifle for being what happens if Time Walk, Stone Rain have sex and Lava Dart watches
f) last but not least: To Cephalid Coliseum for killing Illissius.
Finally some big words:
"Take your time" (flavortext of Standstill (http://magiccards.info/od/en/102.html))
Van Phanel