spirit of the wretch
12-17-2007, 10:20 AM
When the sideevent-scedule for Stuttgart was released my friends and I decided quickly that we had to be there to represent Karlsruhe. My weapon of choice was Ichorid, as it was in every big tournament I played for the last 4/5 months.
I went to Scottland last week (mainly to see the legendary Pogues) and when I returned I needed to update myself to the latest developments of the Dredge.dec. As I flicked through the thread, I read Tacosnape's post in which he suggested to run Brainstorms in this deck. I wasn't able to test the change on saturday due to another concert (the famouse german punkrock band Die Ärzte) but it looked solid on the paper and so I decided to give it a try.
After a short night I meet with Marius, Manuel and Florin on sunday morning and together we head for Stuttgart. As usual we arrive way too early, but at least we're able to start the day with breakfast at Subway (damn that expensive Fast Food). We arrive at the tournament location and go through the standard pre-tournament procedures: greeting the usual suspects from the Karlsruhe and from the Speyer community, trash-talking, last minute deck changes and highlander playing.
So much for the prologue.
72 players have gathered to play legacy and the judges announce 6 rounds of swiss with cut to Top 8.
Here's what I ran:
4x Cephalid Coliseum
4x Gemstone Mine
4x City of Brass
4x LED
4x Putrid Imp
4x Ichorid
4x Narcomoeba
4x Golgari Grave-Troll
4x Stinkweed Imp
3x Golgari Thug
1x Flame-Kin Zealot
4x Cabal Therapy
4x Bridge from Below
4x Breakthrough
3x Brainstorm
3x Deep Analysis
2x Dread Return
Sideboard:
4x Chaon of Vapor
4x Leyline of the Void
4x Chalice of the Void
2x Ray of Revelation
1x Ancient Grudge
Round 1 - Denny with Baseruption
Game 1: I win the die roll and mulligan once into a hand with LED, Analysis, Stinkweed Imp and Thug. I decide to keep, resolve the LED and the Analysis and dredge for 9 cards... without seeing another dredger. This is bad news as my opponent proceeds to drop gigant beatsticks for 1G and smashes my face in while I draw nothing. After the game he tells me, that he could have forced the Analysis, but rather decided not to do so. Ah, that kind of opponent.
I board out the Dread Return package for 2x Ray and 1x Grudge as I haven't seen black in the first game
Game 2: I don't remember much of this game except him playing black mana, my deck doing what it's supposed to do and zombies feasting of his dead body.
I board out the 3 Analysis for 3 Chain of Vapor
Game 3: He confidently keeps his hand and the first play is his second turn Jailer after I have discarded a Stinkweed Imp. I have the Chain in hand, drop my second land and say go. He drops an Goyf, beats with the Jailer and passes. At the end of turn my hand consist of Breakthrough, Chain, Troll and some irrelevant cards. I bounce his Jailer, play Breakthrough for 0 which resolves, dredge a good part of my deck, find Narcomoebas, Therapies, Bridges, make hin discard that annoying wizard and produce a bunch of hungry zombies in the process. Don't you just love it when your deck likes you? I win soon afterwards.
1/0/0
Round 2 - Quentin with Feary Stompy
Game 1: He wins the roll and leads of with a mulligan, then one more and then a third one for good measure. I mulligan once for fairness reasons and then stomp him. It sure helped that his manabase only consistet of Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors.
I board out the DR package and 2x Analysis for 4x Chalice and the Grudge
Game 2: I start with a Chalice at 0, he plays a Chalice at 1 off his two islands. So I'm forced to start the slow-dredge plan. Quentin drops his thrid Island and plays a See Drake. That doesn't really qualify as an explosive start! He is able to drop a Jitte and finally equip it but by that time I found more dredger and am able to play the two Coliseums in my hand. I activate one, mill myself a lot and the zombie hordes are too much for his lonely Drake to handle.
2/0/0
Round 3 - Thomas with G/b Aggro Elves.
Game 1: Thomas wins the die roll and his part of the game was the follwing: land Llanowar Elf, remove ESG, Elves of the Deep Shadow, 2nd turn Vanquisher and Eladamri, thrid turn Lord. This reads quite impressive, but my hand was: Brainstorm, Breakthrough, City, Coliseum, Stinkweed Imp, Thug. I brainstorm into a Putrid Imp and go nuts on my second turn. Yay for broken shit!
I board out the DR package and 3x Analysis for 4x Chain and 2x Ray
Game 2: I take a mulligan, he starts with land ESG Vaquisher and I'm glad he kept a hand without graveyard hate. My hand is: City, Coliseum, 2x Breakthrough, Troll and sone irrelevant cards, so I play a land and pass. 2nd turn he plays the Planar Void and e Skyshroud Elite... godda love the topdecks. On my turn I savagely rip the Chain from the top, play a land and pass. Thomas plays an Lord smashes me down to 10 and has almost lethal damage on board. Eot I bounce the Void and pray to whatever god that might listen for a topdeck and for the second turn in row my deck gives me just what I need: The third land! So I play Breakthrough for 1, keeping my second one, play that one for 0, start dredging, hit a Therapy, a Narcomoeba and 3 Bridges and get rid of the Enchantment. Next turn I chump block his guys. On my turn I activate the Coliseum and dredge the rest of my deck. he doesn't draw a solution and dies. How lucky!
3/0/0
After this round the judges announce that we will play 8 rounds and no Top 8 because of time issues. This pretty much sucked for everybody who went 0/2-drop.
Round 4 - Dominik with Garruk Grow (U/G/b) ?!?
Game 1: I mulligan and Dominik starts with land go. I play Therapy for Force and hit, seeing 2x Counterbalance, a Garruk, Spell Snare,... but decide for whatever reason not to drop the LED in my hand. Of course, next turn he plays the Counterbalance which counters the LED I try to play on my turn. Yeah that was scrubby! As my only discard outled had to die to my misplay I start to slow-dredge. He doesn't play his Garruk (after the game he told me he wanted mana to counter, because he thought I would play Belcher... this was AFTER I started slow-dredging!) and doesn't draw anything to put me under pressure, so at some point I'm able to therapy the planeswalker away and slowly win with Horrors.
Game 2: I keep an average hand with lands, Therapies and PImps. Dominik makes a second turn Confidant and starts beating down after somthering and edicting my two Imps. I can't find a dredger and so Bob pings me down to 7. Than a big, nsty creature for 1G enters the field.
Game 3: I Keep a hand with land PImp and Stinkweed Imp. The PImp resolves and I start dredging. He is slightly screwed with only 3 lands while I dredge total bullshit. I beat him down agonizingly slow with a PImp, a Narcomoeba and an ichorid. Man, that was anticlimactic.
4/0/0
Round 5 - Bastian with Grow/w
Game 1: Batian wins the die roll and I mulligan twice into Troll, Thug, LED, 2x Breakthrough. He manages to daze my LED and I never get to abouse my discard step, because some evil Lhurgoyfs kill me bevore I get back to eight cards. Am I not supposed to have a good matchup here?
Game 2: This game went better and I'm able to create some zombies, while he beats down with a Goyf and a Goose. Bastian timely topdecks an Explosives to slay my zombies and put me down to two life put then I stabilize with 4 Bridges because he hasn't enough time to topdeck again.
Game 3: Bastian starts with a Tundra and again Explosives for 0. I resolve a PImp with a hand of Coliseum, Thug and Breakthrough. He plays another Tundra and passes the turn. I start to move my library into my graveyard and therapy him twice showing a hand of 2x Goyf, 2x Gaddok and Grip (that is a really impressing card against me...). The next turn I kill him.
5/0/0
The only other person at 5/0/0 is a Belcher player and I mentally prepare to get slaughtered next match.
Round 6 - Benny with surprise, surprise Belcher (with black)
Game 1: I lose the die roll and with it my only hope of winning this matchup. He starts with dubble Land Grant, Taiga, Tinder Wall, sac Wall, ESG, Belcher and has the Bayou and another Wall in hand. I start with land, LED, Breaktrough, dredging very well but am not able to find the kill immediately. I only manage to therapy away his Wall and hope for the best. He draws, plays land and ... Burning Wish!!! And the crowd goes mad (at least in my head =) as I brutally smash hin next turn.
I board out 3x Analysis and a Thug for 4x Chalice
Game 2: He gets a first Turn Crypt and 8 Token... WTF, who the hell plays Crypt in Belcher SBs?
Game 3: On the play I get a hand with land, PImp and Chalice and keep. Seconds after saying so I realise, that my hand doesn't do anything: No dredger, no Therapy, no carddraw... This mistake costs me the game, as Benny is able to drop and activate the Belcher fist turn but only hit me for 8. He needs 2 turns to find the additional mana to activate it again, while I draw nothing and lose like I deserve it for not taking that mulligan.
5/1/0
Round 7: Michael with G/B/W Rector Survival
Game 1:Michael shows up 3 minutes late but soon enough not to be punished with a game loss. He wins the die roll and we both mulligan. He has a second turn Elder which isn't enough to prevent him from my pretty strong draw. Who needs Bridges, if you simply can beat down with hasty Horros?
I board out the Dr package and 3x Analysis for 4x Chain of Vapor and 2x Rays. Can you see a pattern there =)
Game 2: We both play land go than he again makes a Sakura-Tribe Elder (which is really good against my deck) and I brainstrom eot, seeing the second and the third Narcomoeba... I therapy myself for 2x Stinkweed Imp. He plays land go. I activate the Coliseum and start dredging hitting two Bridges, the remaining two Narcomoebas and a therapy. In response to the flashback he removes my Bridges with the Elder and I see his hand: Rector and Bird. Michael plays the Rector and passes the turn. I continue to mill away my library hitting the last two Bridges and all of my Ichorids, flashback a Therapy (to steal his mighty Bird) and create two zombie Tokens. Than Michael flahbacks a Therapy of his own, killing the Rector, removing my Bridges and finding a Plague for Horror in the process. Nice play! I have 8 cards left in my library and two of them are lands. So I draw for my turn, hit the land, flashback a Ray and win the match.
6/1/0
Round 8 - Dennis with B/R/u Affinity
Game 1: I am pretty tiered now after 7 long hours of playing magical cards and surely don't want to play one of the decks worst matchups in the last round, but hey, what can you do...
I mulligan away two ok hands because they're not aggressive enough and my deck awards me with: Land, 2x PImp, Troll, Brainstorm... Third turn I have a 10/10 Grave-Troll, 3 horrors and 6 zombies against his two Frogmites. That was funny =)
Game 2: Again I take aggressive mulligans down to 5: City, Coliseum, PImp, Therapy and Bridge. Dennis starts Vial, go. I play Therapy on Ravager and hit two of them! His remaining ahnd is 2x Disciple and a land. That was one broken hand! He casts Thoughtcast and passes the turn. I draw and play a second Therapy for Atog which misses but shows me the Leyline on his hand (god is that deck full of hate, or what?). He vials his second Disciple in and goes into the beatdown mode. I play PImp and pass. He beats and passes... yes these decks are supposed to be broken! I draw and discard a Grave-Troll therapy away his Leyline and pass again. Dennis isn't able to find pressure and can only beat down with the two lonly Disciples. I start dredging and beat him with Ichorids and token.
7/1/0
I end up in second place, after the Belcher guy as the only person with 21 points. This nets me 20 booster and an artist print.
The obligatory
Props:
Harald (Locutus) for top8ing with U/B/G/r Landstill
Marius for the 9th place with our new Rifter list
Me for being one lucky guy
Highlander for being the best magic format
Clemens (Der Imaginäre Freund) for playing Ichorid
Slops:
Fast Food for beeing too damn expensive
Clemens for not drawing as good as necessary
Daniel (Adan) for the same reason
Booster prizes
I went to Scottland last week (mainly to see the legendary Pogues) and when I returned I needed to update myself to the latest developments of the Dredge.dec. As I flicked through the thread, I read Tacosnape's post in which he suggested to run Brainstorms in this deck. I wasn't able to test the change on saturday due to another concert (the famouse german punkrock band Die Ärzte) but it looked solid on the paper and so I decided to give it a try.
After a short night I meet with Marius, Manuel and Florin on sunday morning and together we head for Stuttgart. As usual we arrive way too early, but at least we're able to start the day with breakfast at Subway (damn that expensive Fast Food). We arrive at the tournament location and go through the standard pre-tournament procedures: greeting the usual suspects from the Karlsruhe and from the Speyer community, trash-talking, last minute deck changes and highlander playing.
So much for the prologue.
72 players have gathered to play legacy and the judges announce 6 rounds of swiss with cut to Top 8.
Here's what I ran:
4x Cephalid Coliseum
4x Gemstone Mine
4x City of Brass
4x LED
4x Putrid Imp
4x Ichorid
4x Narcomoeba
4x Golgari Grave-Troll
4x Stinkweed Imp
3x Golgari Thug
1x Flame-Kin Zealot
4x Cabal Therapy
4x Bridge from Below
4x Breakthrough
3x Brainstorm
3x Deep Analysis
2x Dread Return
Sideboard:
4x Chaon of Vapor
4x Leyline of the Void
4x Chalice of the Void
2x Ray of Revelation
1x Ancient Grudge
Round 1 - Denny with Baseruption
Game 1: I win the die roll and mulligan once into a hand with LED, Analysis, Stinkweed Imp and Thug. I decide to keep, resolve the LED and the Analysis and dredge for 9 cards... without seeing another dredger. This is bad news as my opponent proceeds to drop gigant beatsticks for 1G and smashes my face in while I draw nothing. After the game he tells me, that he could have forced the Analysis, but rather decided not to do so. Ah, that kind of opponent.
I board out the Dread Return package for 2x Ray and 1x Grudge as I haven't seen black in the first game
Game 2: I don't remember much of this game except him playing black mana, my deck doing what it's supposed to do and zombies feasting of his dead body.
I board out the 3 Analysis for 3 Chain of Vapor
Game 3: He confidently keeps his hand and the first play is his second turn Jailer after I have discarded a Stinkweed Imp. I have the Chain in hand, drop my second land and say go. He drops an Goyf, beats with the Jailer and passes. At the end of turn my hand consist of Breakthrough, Chain, Troll and some irrelevant cards. I bounce his Jailer, play Breakthrough for 0 which resolves, dredge a good part of my deck, find Narcomoebas, Therapies, Bridges, make hin discard that annoying wizard and produce a bunch of hungry zombies in the process. Don't you just love it when your deck likes you? I win soon afterwards.
1/0/0
Round 2 - Quentin with Feary Stompy
Game 1: He wins the roll and leads of with a mulligan, then one more and then a third one for good measure. I mulligan once for fairness reasons and then stomp him. It sure helped that his manabase only consistet of Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors.
I board out the DR package and 2x Analysis for 4x Chalice and the Grudge
Game 2: I start with a Chalice at 0, he plays a Chalice at 1 off his two islands. So I'm forced to start the slow-dredge plan. Quentin drops his thrid Island and plays a See Drake. That doesn't really qualify as an explosive start! He is able to drop a Jitte and finally equip it but by that time I found more dredger and am able to play the two Coliseums in my hand. I activate one, mill myself a lot and the zombie hordes are too much for his lonely Drake to handle.
2/0/0
Round 3 - Thomas with G/b Aggro Elves.
Game 1: Thomas wins the die roll and his part of the game was the follwing: land Llanowar Elf, remove ESG, Elves of the Deep Shadow, 2nd turn Vanquisher and Eladamri, thrid turn Lord. This reads quite impressive, but my hand was: Brainstorm, Breakthrough, City, Coliseum, Stinkweed Imp, Thug. I brainstorm into a Putrid Imp and go nuts on my second turn. Yay for broken shit!
I board out the DR package and 3x Analysis for 4x Chain and 2x Ray
Game 2: I take a mulligan, he starts with land ESG Vaquisher and I'm glad he kept a hand without graveyard hate. My hand is: City, Coliseum, 2x Breakthrough, Troll and sone irrelevant cards, so I play a land and pass. 2nd turn he plays the Planar Void and e Skyshroud Elite... godda love the topdecks. On my turn I savagely rip the Chain from the top, play a land and pass. Thomas plays an Lord smashes me down to 10 and has almost lethal damage on board. Eot I bounce the Void and pray to whatever god that might listen for a topdeck and for the second turn in row my deck gives me just what I need: The third land! So I play Breakthrough for 1, keeping my second one, play that one for 0, start dredging, hit a Therapy, a Narcomoeba and 3 Bridges and get rid of the Enchantment. Next turn I chump block his guys. On my turn I activate the Coliseum and dredge the rest of my deck. he doesn't draw a solution and dies. How lucky!
3/0/0
After this round the judges announce that we will play 8 rounds and no Top 8 because of time issues. This pretty much sucked for everybody who went 0/2-drop.
Round 4 - Dominik with Garruk Grow (U/G/b) ?!?
Game 1: I mulligan and Dominik starts with land go. I play Therapy for Force and hit, seeing 2x Counterbalance, a Garruk, Spell Snare,... but decide for whatever reason not to drop the LED in my hand. Of course, next turn he plays the Counterbalance which counters the LED I try to play on my turn. Yeah that was scrubby! As my only discard outled had to die to my misplay I start to slow-dredge. He doesn't play his Garruk (after the game he told me he wanted mana to counter, because he thought I would play Belcher... this was AFTER I started slow-dredging!) and doesn't draw anything to put me under pressure, so at some point I'm able to therapy the planeswalker away and slowly win with Horrors.
Game 2: I keep an average hand with lands, Therapies and PImps. Dominik makes a second turn Confidant and starts beating down after somthering and edicting my two Imps. I can't find a dredger and so Bob pings me down to 7. Than a big, nsty creature for 1G enters the field.
Game 3: I Keep a hand with land PImp and Stinkweed Imp. The PImp resolves and I start dredging. He is slightly screwed with only 3 lands while I dredge total bullshit. I beat him down agonizingly slow with a PImp, a Narcomoeba and an ichorid. Man, that was anticlimactic.
4/0/0
Round 5 - Bastian with Grow/w
Game 1: Batian wins the die roll and I mulligan twice into Troll, Thug, LED, 2x Breakthrough. He manages to daze my LED and I never get to abouse my discard step, because some evil Lhurgoyfs kill me bevore I get back to eight cards. Am I not supposed to have a good matchup here?
Game 2: This game went better and I'm able to create some zombies, while he beats down with a Goyf and a Goose. Bastian timely topdecks an Explosives to slay my zombies and put me down to two life put then I stabilize with 4 Bridges because he hasn't enough time to topdeck again.
Game 3: Bastian starts with a Tundra and again Explosives for 0. I resolve a PImp with a hand of Coliseum, Thug and Breakthrough. He plays another Tundra and passes the turn. I start to move my library into my graveyard and therapy him twice showing a hand of 2x Goyf, 2x Gaddok and Grip (that is a really impressing card against me...). The next turn I kill him.
5/0/0
The only other person at 5/0/0 is a Belcher player and I mentally prepare to get slaughtered next match.
Round 6 - Benny with surprise, surprise Belcher (with black)
Game 1: I lose the die roll and with it my only hope of winning this matchup. He starts with dubble Land Grant, Taiga, Tinder Wall, sac Wall, ESG, Belcher and has the Bayou and another Wall in hand. I start with land, LED, Breaktrough, dredging very well but am not able to find the kill immediately. I only manage to therapy away his Wall and hope for the best. He draws, plays land and ... Burning Wish!!! And the crowd goes mad (at least in my head =) as I brutally smash hin next turn.
I board out 3x Analysis and a Thug for 4x Chalice
Game 2: He gets a first Turn Crypt and 8 Token... WTF, who the hell plays Crypt in Belcher SBs?
Game 3: On the play I get a hand with land, PImp and Chalice and keep. Seconds after saying so I realise, that my hand doesn't do anything: No dredger, no Therapy, no carddraw... This mistake costs me the game, as Benny is able to drop and activate the Belcher fist turn but only hit me for 8. He needs 2 turns to find the additional mana to activate it again, while I draw nothing and lose like I deserve it for not taking that mulligan.
5/1/0
Round 7: Michael with G/B/W Rector Survival
Game 1:Michael shows up 3 minutes late but soon enough not to be punished with a game loss. He wins the die roll and we both mulligan. He has a second turn Elder which isn't enough to prevent him from my pretty strong draw. Who needs Bridges, if you simply can beat down with hasty Horros?
I board out the Dr package and 3x Analysis for 4x Chain of Vapor and 2x Rays. Can you see a pattern there =)
Game 2: We both play land go than he again makes a Sakura-Tribe Elder (which is really good against my deck) and I brainstrom eot, seeing the second and the third Narcomoeba... I therapy myself for 2x Stinkweed Imp. He plays land go. I activate the Coliseum and start dredging hitting two Bridges, the remaining two Narcomoebas and a therapy. In response to the flashback he removes my Bridges with the Elder and I see his hand: Rector and Bird. Michael plays the Rector and passes the turn. I continue to mill away my library hitting the last two Bridges and all of my Ichorids, flashback a Therapy (to steal his mighty Bird) and create two zombie Tokens. Than Michael flahbacks a Therapy of his own, killing the Rector, removing my Bridges and finding a Plague for Horror in the process. Nice play! I have 8 cards left in my library and two of them are lands. So I draw for my turn, hit the land, flashback a Ray and win the match.
6/1/0
Round 8 - Dennis with B/R/u Affinity
Game 1: I am pretty tiered now after 7 long hours of playing magical cards and surely don't want to play one of the decks worst matchups in the last round, but hey, what can you do...
I mulligan away two ok hands because they're not aggressive enough and my deck awards me with: Land, 2x PImp, Troll, Brainstorm... Third turn I have a 10/10 Grave-Troll, 3 horrors and 6 zombies against his two Frogmites. That was funny =)
Game 2: Again I take aggressive mulligans down to 5: City, Coliseum, PImp, Therapy and Bridge. Dennis starts Vial, go. I play Therapy on Ravager and hit two of them! His remaining ahnd is 2x Disciple and a land. That was one broken hand! He casts Thoughtcast and passes the turn. I draw and play a second Therapy for Atog which misses but shows me the Leyline on his hand (god is that deck full of hate, or what?). He vials his second Disciple in and goes into the beatdown mode. I play PImp and pass. He beats and passes... yes these decks are supposed to be broken! I draw and discard a Grave-Troll therapy away his Leyline and pass again. Dennis isn't able to find pressure and can only beat down with the two lonly Disciples. I start dredging and beat him with Ichorids and token.
7/1/0
I end up in second place, after the Belcher guy as the only person with 21 points. This nets me 20 booster and an artist print.
The obligatory
Props:
Harald (Locutus) for top8ing with U/B/G/r Landstill
Marius for the 9th place with our new Rifter list
Me for being one lucky guy
Highlander for being the best magic format
Clemens (Der Imaginäre Freund) for playing Ichorid
Slops:
Fast Food for beeing too damn expensive
Clemens for not drawing as good as necessary
Daniel (Adan) for the same reason
Booster prizes