Dxfiler
05-18-2008, 09:37 PM
Howdy. I haven't done a tournament report in a long time. I really only do them when it's worth doing one, and it's only worth doing one to me if I do well in a good event. I think this tournament qualifies :D
Anyway, I was looking forward to playing in this tourney for a while. I had not played many magical cards lately (opting for playing other more gamblish cards :p). In fact the last tourney I played in prior to this was the first Magic 500 tourney. I had made top 8 of the first one but fell just short of the money and that depressed me. For the store's second Magic 500 I really wanted to place in teh money. I knew to do so that something had to change...
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2370/2502995231_421a6a5797.jpg?v=0
Kird Ape: Oh hey Dave. What's going on?
Dave Feinstein: Oh hi Kird. Not much. I was uh, just making a deck for the next Magic 500.
Kird Ape: Oh cool. What will we be playing with this time?
Dave Feinstein: Um... we won't be playing together this time. I need a change... so I decided to not play with you for this tournament.
Kird Ape: !
<Kird Ape starts sweating uncontrollably while turning an uncomfortable shade of red>
Kird Ape: Wha- What do you mean we won't playing together?! You always play with me! You can't just turn your back on me after all we've done together.
Dave Feinstein: I'm afraid I can. There's someone new in my life who told me to use a deck without you. I'm sorry but I trust this person's judgment. He can do no wrong.
Kird Ape: You're out of your freaking mind! Who would ever tell you to play a deck without me?! YOU'RE NOTHING WITHOUT ME! YOU HEAR ME? NOTH-
<Before Kird Ape can finish his rant a sudden force bursts through the wall>
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2168/2502995185_403aa8cd13.jpg?v=0
Kool-Aid Man: OH YEAH.
Kird Ape: What in the blue hell are you doing listening to him?
Kool-Aid Man: PLAY WITH ELVES. OH YEAH.
Dave Feinstein: You Heard the man. Sorry Kirdy. Maybe next time.
Kird ape: THERE ISN'T GOING TO BE A NEXT TIME.
<Kird Ape angrily walks out through the gaping hole in the wall created by the Kool-Aid Man>
He'll be back. Anyway, using the sagely advice of the Kool-Aid man, I decided to embark upon a journey of playing a tournament... with elves. I don't know why I listened to the Kool-Aid man since playing elves makes next to no sense, but he is the Kool-Aid man... and when you listen to the Kool-Aid man you get to partake in the drinking of his fruity blood that flows from the top of his head. It tastes so good.
When Elves Attack!
// Lands
3 [US] Gaea's Cradle
4 [ON] Windswept Heath
3 [TE] Wasteland
8 [RAV] Forest
// Creatures
4 [IA] Fyndhorn Elves
4 [AL] Elvish Spirit Guide
3 [LRW] Garruk Wildspeaker
4 [LRW] Imperious Perfect
4 [LRW] Wren's Run Vanquisher
4 [DS] Viridian Zealot
4 [VI] Quirion Ranger
4 [A] Llanowar Elves
2 [LE] Caller of the Claw
// Spells
3 [TSP] Krosan Grip
2 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
4 [U] Winter Orb
// Sideboard
SB: 1 [LE] Caller of the Claw
SB: 1 [TSP] Krosan Grip
SB: 1 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
SB: 4 [TSB] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 4 [LRW] Thorn of Amethyst
SB: 2 [IN] Elvish Champion
SB: 2 [SOK] Pithing Needle
This list was basically made to pillage and plunder the deck that had been terrorizing legacy tourneys in New England lately: Dreadstill. I put in about 40 games against the deck with my good friend Eli Hannon as well as the deck's creator Rodney. Between the two of them they won five games.
I was happy with those results, but I wanted to see how the deck fared against other things so I threw it up on MWS and took on all-comers. I found that for the most part it surprisingly was holding its own against everything that wasn't burn. Combo was a pain but at least winnable. Going into the tourney I had planned to add savannahs and 2 Gaddock teeg for what were empty spots, but no one had savannahs so I settled on 2 maindeck caller of the claw at the last minute. There were 3 in the board but since 2 were moved to the main I had room for last minute pithing needles. I was bummed about no Teeg but this change would end up paying off huge.
Round 1 (finally he writes about the damn tournament. Hooray!)
CVD /w Painter
CVD is a member of Needletron. Needletron is a group that's sole purpose is to make my life a living hell. This makes them evil. One example of said evil-ness was to have dreadstill decks laid out to try and make me believe they were playing it. So naturally when I got paired with CVD round one I assumed he was Dreadstill. I am not a secretive stein and openly tested elves with him earlier in the week.
Game 1: He leads with fetch/island/Top, making me just assume he's dreadstill. I get a fast start with turn two perfect with ESG backup. I didn't end up using the ESG but if it was not in my hand I honestly wouldn't have tried for turn two imperious because of dreadstill having access to dazes. It's when he cast turn two grindstone that it dawned on me that Needletron tried to dupe me! While being evil, Needletron isn't particularly clever because if you're going to try and make me think you're one deck, you don't want your actual deck to be an inferior version of the first deck you presented.
Painter is an AMAZING deck in type one... but appears to be pretty awful in legacy. It shares much of the same cards as Dreadstill but a far worse kill mechanism. Painter + Grindstone just doesn't put the same sense of fear in your opponent as a 12/12 trampler.
Anyway, as soon as grindstone came out I knew that I had to rush out a jitte and equip a critter ASAP. Despite running both zealots and grips main, none were in my hand so I got the jitte out with the express purpose of getting 3 counters on it. This worked according to plan as he did follow up with painter shortly after but could not use grindtone in the same turn, so by the time both got online I had plenty of counters on jitte and killed painter in response to the grindstone activation. The game was over fairly quickly after that.
I sided out all the winter orbs + 1 Garruk for 2 needles, a jitte, a caller and a grip.
Game 2: He leads off with volcanic/top. I play wasteland and ESG out a llanowar elf. I then pop wasteland on his volc. He stumbles around on mana and I'm amassing a small army. He tries for EE on 1 but I have the caller. Three bears do him in.
1-0
Round 2- Warren with Stax
Warren's a good guy who's friends with Eli.
Game 1: He runs out turn 1 welder. I try my hardest to overpower him with critters but he gets out a Trike and I can't stop him from recurring it without drawing a jitte. No jitte comes and welder makes sure that I lose to infi-trike.
I board out all 4 orbs for 2 needle, a grip and another jitte.
Game 2: I come out swgining with 2 vanquishers. He plows one of them but I get a perfect out. He casts a trinisphere in the mean time but I waste his mana and he becomes locked under his own sphere.
Game 3: He mulligans into some early mana but no immediate threats. I power out a jitte and get counters on it immediately. He gets out a trike but I krosan grip it and before he can stabalize the jitte does him in.
2-0
Round 3- Mike /w GR beats
Kird Ape: Your ass is grass Feinstein!
Mike is a super-nice local who helped me big-time by lending me elvish champions before the tourney.
Game 1- He leads out with gemstone mine/Kird ape followed by... turn two knight of meadowgrain. Interesting. Despite Kird Ape being only a 1/1 I can't really stop the knight plus the onslaught of burn Mike has. I got my head lightning helixed in.
I board out Krosan Grips since there's really no enchantments I can think of that would do me serious harm... and if he has some random one like Worship I still have viridian zealot main. After all, Viridian can handle any enchantment GRW can cast. What could go wrong?
Game 2- I start with some mana producers and a quirion. He leads with some gemstone mines but nothing else. He produces black from the mine and his first play is turn 3 Engineered plague.
Something went wrong :p
My board is insta-wiped but I have hope with two imperious perfects in my hand. I drop one with the intention of getting the other one out and still making a bunch of 2/2's. Unfortunately Mike's turn 4 play is tap gemstone for black and cast another engineered plague.
I had a nightmare the other night of my elves losing to Kird Ape with engineered plagues on the board. I took solace in knowing that this horrible dream could never actually come true.... Until now.
I'm about an inch from just scooping but decide to play it out in case some miracle happens. I draw Garruk and run him out there making a beast. Mike casts flames of the bloodhand and I'm waiting for him to say 'Redirect to Garruk,' but he then casts grim Lavamancer. I take the 4 and he passes the turn. I make another beast and try to swing at him, but he's burning them one at a time. I'm starting to amass one mana elves in my hand. I finally get to the point where with Garruk I cast 3 one mana elves and still have caller mana left over, giving me 4 bears since the caller dies as well. I end up winning with beast and bear tokens. Nice elf deck.
For game 3 I get all 4 krosan grips in.
He leads with a kird ape. Turn 3 comes my worst nightmare once again powered off of gemstone (which I later learn is his only way to cast plague :p). This time I sneak out a perfect followed by one of the Elvish champions Mike lent me. Another perfect then comes out and I manage to forestwalk over Mike before any more plagues come out.
3-0
After the match I tell Mike about redirecting to Garruk. He's still new to the game and wasn't aware that was possible. I take a look at his deck after and make some suggestions. I feel very fortunate to win this match because it's a nightmare match in just GR form... nevermind splashes for e-plague. :p
Round 4: Hammerfist Roob /w Mono Black
Everyone is telling me how horrid this match is for me but I don't think it's that bad.
Game 1: He rituals out Negator. I make some critters and he can't swing. Eventually I make them large with perfect and an army of 2/2's runs him down.
I was happy to win game 1 because I know his sideboard is going to be insane against me. I take out all 4 orbs for caller, jitte, grip and one needle.
Game 2: He leads with ritual negator again. This time he clears the way of my critters with smother and ghastly demise. He drops a plague to seal the deal.
Game 3: He leads with two dark rituals this time. Rituals on turn 1 all 3 games ... must be nice :p He has negator again (why not?) but this time therapy as well and makes a good name of wren's run vanquisher. It hits me and he completes his turn 1 by extirpating the vanquisher.
Fantastic.
Turn two he thoughtseizes a caller in my yard but I get some critters out and try to stabalize. Turn 3 he gets out a plague with Negator still on the board. It's looking grim. I do a last-ditch play of running two elves into his plague then casting caller. I already had a caller in the yard and Rob looks upset. It turns out he had another extirpate in hand and had he responded to me suiciding either of my 1/1 elves he would've ripped that other caller right out of my hand.
Now I have a 1/1 caller and 2 bears but I'm still in trouble. Luckily I pull a jitte and start going to town with the 1/1 caller. After attack I'm always equipping jitte to a bear so that even though I'm at very low life Rob can't really swing back. I get up to 7 counters on my jitte but Rob is at 15 and I don't really go agressive with the jitte because he has 4 cards in hand. It's obvious he hasn't drawn a ghastly demise or smother yet because he would've cast it, but every time he draws a card there's a chance it could be one of those so I never try to get aggressive with my 1/1 bear.
I made a huge mistake here because I need to go agressive, just not by pumping the bear. What my good friend Dana pointed out was as soon I got 5 counters I should've blasted his negator and got in there with both bears and the caller. I didn't and therefore put Rob on a much more manageable clock giving time for him to draw pithing needle. Obviously I respond to the needle and gain some life + kill his negator, but he drops another one and now we have a stalemate. I need any artifact kill off the top but don't get it.
After casting needle Rob draws his one-of Tombstalker and I'm at 5.
GG. =(
3-1
It was a close match and there wasn't a whole lot I could've done different. We both made big errors game 3 so although I could've gotten aggressive with caller + bears and maybe pulled it out, I shouldn't have even been in that position because of the extirpate he held back.
Anyway I wish Rob goodluck and hope I can get next round to secure top 8.
Round 5: Rich Shay /w Dreadstill
This is the match I wanted. Rich is one of the better players you could face in any tourney, but I was more than happy to get him because of the deck he was piloting.
Game 1: I lead out with critters. He gets early goyf followed by standstill. I have to let him draw cards off it which lets him cast more goyfs. They get big quickly and I can't do anything about it.
I realized in testing versus Rodney/Eli they their dreadstills didn't have goyfs. This definitely altered my perception of the match. I board out all orbs + garruk for both needles, grip, jitte and caller.
Game 2 I lead out with an early wren's run vanquisher revealing virdian zealot. I could've shown ESG but I wanted him to think his daze would be useful. He casts daze and I pitch ESG to his total shock and horror.
Rich: You actually run that card?
Dave Feinstein: Bwahahaha.
Another vanquisher comes out shortly after and they run right past his 2/3 goyf.
Game 3: He leads out slow with nothing but a top so I'm aware he's probably trying to bait me with clasm. I get out vanquisher and a couple 1/1's but turn 3 he runs out stifle/nought. It's a bold play from him but I can't draw grips to save my life. On his turn 4 he then taps his volc for a red and another land... then taps another land. Wait a minute this isn't pyroclasm. What the hell costs 3 mana that I care about here... firespout?!
Bah.
My board is wiped and he swings for 12. He has a fist full of cards and although I have caller, I expect it to get countered. It is allowed in and I get 4 2/2's + the caller. I draw viridian zealot and he has one blue open. I figure if he doesn't have a counter he MUST have a stifle. I have to go for it anyway and cast the zealot. Rich lets it in. I immediately try to kill the nought and Rich shrugs and puts it in the yard. Interesting. I swing for 10 and he shrugs again and takes it. This is odd.
Apparently I have the upperhand and Rich is holding all blanks, but he gets an explosives off the top and blows up my board. He drops some goyfs and I try to battle but he slice and dices me as soon as I have a board. The goyfs do me in.
3-2
I'm very bummed at this point because I lost a good match for me. It took him explosives, firespout and slice and dice but he got me. Oh well.
At this point my only hope is to get paired up and win. There are alot of X-2's but my breakers are good. The problem is the 3-1-1's floating around so I need all of them to lose plus win my match, which probably will only count if I get paired up to a 3-1-1.
Round 6: Garrett /w Faeries
Garrett is 3-1-1 and I have the chance to play dreamcrusher :p
He's a good guy to boot but I know if I win I'll have a good shot to sneak into 8th... plus he beat me in the first magic 500 in top 8 so it's payback time!
Game 1- I lead with elves. He leads with Faeries. I have an imperious perfect but he has two scion of oona's. That combined with the rest of his faeries makes it air force one over on his side. I can't race the fliers since he can chumpblock and I can't.
I side out all winter orbs (this is getting repetitive :p) for caller, jitte, grip and one needle
Game 2- I run him down. He had a slow start and Garruk sealed it.
I saw V shackles that game and since I'm on the draw Garruk will probably be less effective, so for game 3 one goes out and the other needle comes in.
Game 3- This one is epic. He has no guys early but is clogging the board with propagandas and shackle. I stop them thanks to a glut of grips and zealots but have no pressure on the board. I try for a jitte which is countered. I immediately cast another one and he frowns. Woot. My only pressure is a llanowar elf but I pony him up and it works out.
Garrett was gracious in the loss. I'm hoping my win counted.
4-2
Top 8 is announced and only one 4-2 ends up making it in...
IT IS ME.
yay.
Top 8: Roddy /w Slivers
Well I'm just happy to be in top 8. I need to make top 4 for any real money and this match is definitely not the best one I could've had, but I know it's basically a race and whoever gets their tribe online first is going to win.
Game 1- He wins the roll, which is not good for me. Turn one he just leads with a fetch and passes. Meanwhile I look at my opener and have to do a double take. It's all accelerants plus Garruk. Turn 1 gets me 2 elves since I powered one out with ESG. His turn two he drops muscle sliver. My turn two is cradle + garruk. Not too shabby :p
Roddy is starting to amass a formidable army but I swing for 20 on turn 5 and it's just too much coming through.
I side out all 4 orbs and a garruk for 2 e champions, jitte and caller. Grips stayed in because of Aether Vial.
Game 2- He leads with Vial and it goes to town on me. He has all 4/4 first striking flying slivers and I scoop on turn 5.
It dawns on me that pithing needle is insane against vial, and I take out all 3 grips for both needles and the garruk I boarded out.
Game 3- He mulligans. I lead with an elf he leads with vial. I drop a needle on it before it can do any damage. He drops another vial without a second land and passes. I make a giant army and because of the needle and being mana screwed he isn't able to answer.
Roddy was a very good guy and a tough opponent. I am a fan of slivers and told him so earlier in the day.
5-2
Top 4. Weee.
I'm actually fine with playing this out because I don't think any of the matches are horror stories. I guess between goblins, dreadstill (rich again) and aggro/loam that loam has the best shot, but if he tries to clear the board with dreams and I have a caller he's prob toast. It's a moot point as I get paired into the goblins and he really wants to split. I tell him I'm fine with it if everyone else is. Technogeek is fine with it and it's up to Rich. He does his typical Shay mull over for 15 minutes but I'm totally fine with playing it out. I honestly think I had a good shot to win the whole thing but Rich agrees to the split and we all ride off into the sunset with 125 each.
I was overall very happy with the deck but would probably not play it again anytime soon. It's basically a one-trick pony. I guess if the field is heavy dreadstill + other artifact decks than I'll be tempted to whoop it out again, but the field was pretty diverse with tribal decks running all over the place.
The tourney was a blast and I was happy to get money this time around. It was good to see the usual cast of characters plus some new faces.
That's it for this edition of 'When Elves Attack!'
This is Dave Feinstein, signing off.
- Dave Feinstein
Anyway, I was looking forward to playing in this tourney for a while. I had not played many magical cards lately (opting for playing other more gamblish cards :p). In fact the last tourney I played in prior to this was the first Magic 500 tourney. I had made top 8 of the first one but fell just short of the money and that depressed me. For the store's second Magic 500 I really wanted to place in teh money. I knew to do so that something had to change...
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2370/2502995231_421a6a5797.jpg?v=0
Kird Ape: Oh hey Dave. What's going on?
Dave Feinstein: Oh hi Kird. Not much. I was uh, just making a deck for the next Magic 500.
Kird Ape: Oh cool. What will we be playing with this time?
Dave Feinstein: Um... we won't be playing together this time. I need a change... so I decided to not play with you for this tournament.
Kird Ape: !
<Kird Ape starts sweating uncontrollably while turning an uncomfortable shade of red>
Kird Ape: Wha- What do you mean we won't playing together?! You always play with me! You can't just turn your back on me after all we've done together.
Dave Feinstein: I'm afraid I can. There's someone new in my life who told me to use a deck without you. I'm sorry but I trust this person's judgment. He can do no wrong.
Kird Ape: You're out of your freaking mind! Who would ever tell you to play a deck without me?! YOU'RE NOTHING WITHOUT ME! YOU HEAR ME? NOTH-
<Before Kird Ape can finish his rant a sudden force bursts through the wall>
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2168/2502995185_403aa8cd13.jpg?v=0
Kool-Aid Man: OH YEAH.
Kird Ape: What in the blue hell are you doing listening to him?
Kool-Aid Man: PLAY WITH ELVES. OH YEAH.
Dave Feinstein: You Heard the man. Sorry Kirdy. Maybe next time.
Kird ape: THERE ISN'T GOING TO BE A NEXT TIME.
<Kird Ape angrily walks out through the gaping hole in the wall created by the Kool-Aid Man>
He'll be back. Anyway, using the sagely advice of the Kool-Aid man, I decided to embark upon a journey of playing a tournament... with elves. I don't know why I listened to the Kool-Aid man since playing elves makes next to no sense, but he is the Kool-Aid man... and when you listen to the Kool-Aid man you get to partake in the drinking of his fruity blood that flows from the top of his head. It tastes so good.
When Elves Attack!
// Lands
3 [US] Gaea's Cradle
4 [ON] Windswept Heath
3 [TE] Wasteland
8 [RAV] Forest
// Creatures
4 [IA] Fyndhorn Elves
4 [AL] Elvish Spirit Guide
3 [LRW] Garruk Wildspeaker
4 [LRW] Imperious Perfect
4 [LRW] Wren's Run Vanquisher
4 [DS] Viridian Zealot
4 [VI] Quirion Ranger
4 [A] Llanowar Elves
2 [LE] Caller of the Claw
// Spells
3 [TSP] Krosan Grip
2 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
4 [U] Winter Orb
// Sideboard
SB: 1 [LE] Caller of the Claw
SB: 1 [TSP] Krosan Grip
SB: 1 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
SB: 4 [TSB] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 4 [LRW] Thorn of Amethyst
SB: 2 [IN] Elvish Champion
SB: 2 [SOK] Pithing Needle
This list was basically made to pillage and plunder the deck that had been terrorizing legacy tourneys in New England lately: Dreadstill. I put in about 40 games against the deck with my good friend Eli Hannon as well as the deck's creator Rodney. Between the two of them they won five games.
I was happy with those results, but I wanted to see how the deck fared against other things so I threw it up on MWS and took on all-comers. I found that for the most part it surprisingly was holding its own against everything that wasn't burn. Combo was a pain but at least winnable. Going into the tourney I had planned to add savannahs and 2 Gaddock teeg for what were empty spots, but no one had savannahs so I settled on 2 maindeck caller of the claw at the last minute. There were 3 in the board but since 2 were moved to the main I had room for last minute pithing needles. I was bummed about no Teeg but this change would end up paying off huge.
Round 1 (finally he writes about the damn tournament. Hooray!)
CVD /w Painter
CVD is a member of Needletron. Needletron is a group that's sole purpose is to make my life a living hell. This makes them evil. One example of said evil-ness was to have dreadstill decks laid out to try and make me believe they were playing it. So naturally when I got paired with CVD round one I assumed he was Dreadstill. I am not a secretive stein and openly tested elves with him earlier in the week.
Game 1: He leads with fetch/island/Top, making me just assume he's dreadstill. I get a fast start with turn two perfect with ESG backup. I didn't end up using the ESG but if it was not in my hand I honestly wouldn't have tried for turn two imperious because of dreadstill having access to dazes. It's when he cast turn two grindstone that it dawned on me that Needletron tried to dupe me! While being evil, Needletron isn't particularly clever because if you're going to try and make me think you're one deck, you don't want your actual deck to be an inferior version of the first deck you presented.
Painter is an AMAZING deck in type one... but appears to be pretty awful in legacy. It shares much of the same cards as Dreadstill but a far worse kill mechanism. Painter + Grindstone just doesn't put the same sense of fear in your opponent as a 12/12 trampler.
Anyway, as soon as grindstone came out I knew that I had to rush out a jitte and equip a critter ASAP. Despite running both zealots and grips main, none were in my hand so I got the jitte out with the express purpose of getting 3 counters on it. This worked according to plan as he did follow up with painter shortly after but could not use grindtone in the same turn, so by the time both got online I had plenty of counters on jitte and killed painter in response to the grindstone activation. The game was over fairly quickly after that.
I sided out all the winter orbs + 1 Garruk for 2 needles, a jitte, a caller and a grip.
Game 2: He leads off with volcanic/top. I play wasteland and ESG out a llanowar elf. I then pop wasteland on his volc. He stumbles around on mana and I'm amassing a small army. He tries for EE on 1 but I have the caller. Three bears do him in.
1-0
Round 2- Warren with Stax
Warren's a good guy who's friends with Eli.
Game 1: He runs out turn 1 welder. I try my hardest to overpower him with critters but he gets out a Trike and I can't stop him from recurring it without drawing a jitte. No jitte comes and welder makes sure that I lose to infi-trike.
I board out all 4 orbs for 2 needle, a grip and another jitte.
Game 2: I come out swgining with 2 vanquishers. He plows one of them but I get a perfect out. He casts a trinisphere in the mean time but I waste his mana and he becomes locked under his own sphere.
Game 3: He mulligans into some early mana but no immediate threats. I power out a jitte and get counters on it immediately. He gets out a trike but I krosan grip it and before he can stabalize the jitte does him in.
2-0
Round 3- Mike /w GR beats
Kird Ape: Your ass is grass Feinstein!
Mike is a super-nice local who helped me big-time by lending me elvish champions before the tourney.
Game 1- He leads out with gemstone mine/Kird ape followed by... turn two knight of meadowgrain. Interesting. Despite Kird Ape being only a 1/1 I can't really stop the knight plus the onslaught of burn Mike has. I got my head lightning helixed in.
I board out Krosan Grips since there's really no enchantments I can think of that would do me serious harm... and if he has some random one like Worship I still have viridian zealot main. After all, Viridian can handle any enchantment GRW can cast. What could go wrong?
Game 2- I start with some mana producers and a quirion. He leads with some gemstone mines but nothing else. He produces black from the mine and his first play is turn 3 Engineered plague.
Something went wrong :p
My board is insta-wiped but I have hope with two imperious perfects in my hand. I drop one with the intention of getting the other one out and still making a bunch of 2/2's. Unfortunately Mike's turn 4 play is tap gemstone for black and cast another engineered plague.
I had a nightmare the other night of my elves losing to Kird Ape with engineered plagues on the board. I took solace in knowing that this horrible dream could never actually come true.... Until now.
I'm about an inch from just scooping but decide to play it out in case some miracle happens. I draw Garruk and run him out there making a beast. Mike casts flames of the bloodhand and I'm waiting for him to say 'Redirect to Garruk,' but he then casts grim Lavamancer. I take the 4 and he passes the turn. I make another beast and try to swing at him, but he's burning them one at a time. I'm starting to amass one mana elves in my hand. I finally get to the point where with Garruk I cast 3 one mana elves and still have caller mana left over, giving me 4 bears since the caller dies as well. I end up winning with beast and bear tokens. Nice elf deck.
For game 3 I get all 4 krosan grips in.
He leads with a kird ape. Turn 3 comes my worst nightmare once again powered off of gemstone (which I later learn is his only way to cast plague :p). This time I sneak out a perfect followed by one of the Elvish champions Mike lent me. Another perfect then comes out and I manage to forestwalk over Mike before any more plagues come out.
3-0
After the match I tell Mike about redirecting to Garruk. He's still new to the game and wasn't aware that was possible. I take a look at his deck after and make some suggestions. I feel very fortunate to win this match because it's a nightmare match in just GR form... nevermind splashes for e-plague. :p
Round 4: Hammerfist Roob /w Mono Black
Everyone is telling me how horrid this match is for me but I don't think it's that bad.
Game 1: He rituals out Negator. I make some critters and he can't swing. Eventually I make them large with perfect and an army of 2/2's runs him down.
I was happy to win game 1 because I know his sideboard is going to be insane against me. I take out all 4 orbs for caller, jitte, grip and one needle.
Game 2: He leads with ritual negator again. This time he clears the way of my critters with smother and ghastly demise. He drops a plague to seal the deal.
Game 3: He leads with two dark rituals this time. Rituals on turn 1 all 3 games ... must be nice :p He has negator again (why not?) but this time therapy as well and makes a good name of wren's run vanquisher. It hits me and he completes his turn 1 by extirpating the vanquisher.
Fantastic.
Turn two he thoughtseizes a caller in my yard but I get some critters out and try to stabalize. Turn 3 he gets out a plague with Negator still on the board. It's looking grim. I do a last-ditch play of running two elves into his plague then casting caller. I already had a caller in the yard and Rob looks upset. It turns out he had another extirpate in hand and had he responded to me suiciding either of my 1/1 elves he would've ripped that other caller right out of my hand.
Now I have a 1/1 caller and 2 bears but I'm still in trouble. Luckily I pull a jitte and start going to town with the 1/1 caller. After attack I'm always equipping jitte to a bear so that even though I'm at very low life Rob can't really swing back. I get up to 7 counters on my jitte but Rob is at 15 and I don't really go agressive with the jitte because he has 4 cards in hand. It's obvious he hasn't drawn a ghastly demise or smother yet because he would've cast it, but every time he draws a card there's a chance it could be one of those so I never try to get aggressive with my 1/1 bear.
I made a huge mistake here because I need to go agressive, just not by pumping the bear. What my good friend Dana pointed out was as soon I got 5 counters I should've blasted his negator and got in there with both bears and the caller. I didn't and therefore put Rob on a much more manageable clock giving time for him to draw pithing needle. Obviously I respond to the needle and gain some life + kill his negator, but he drops another one and now we have a stalemate. I need any artifact kill off the top but don't get it.
After casting needle Rob draws his one-of Tombstalker and I'm at 5.
GG. =(
3-1
It was a close match and there wasn't a whole lot I could've done different. We both made big errors game 3 so although I could've gotten aggressive with caller + bears and maybe pulled it out, I shouldn't have even been in that position because of the extirpate he held back.
Anyway I wish Rob goodluck and hope I can get next round to secure top 8.
Round 5: Rich Shay /w Dreadstill
This is the match I wanted. Rich is one of the better players you could face in any tourney, but I was more than happy to get him because of the deck he was piloting.
Game 1: I lead out with critters. He gets early goyf followed by standstill. I have to let him draw cards off it which lets him cast more goyfs. They get big quickly and I can't do anything about it.
I realized in testing versus Rodney/Eli they their dreadstills didn't have goyfs. This definitely altered my perception of the match. I board out all orbs + garruk for both needles, grip, jitte and caller.
Game 2 I lead out with an early wren's run vanquisher revealing virdian zealot. I could've shown ESG but I wanted him to think his daze would be useful. He casts daze and I pitch ESG to his total shock and horror.
Rich: You actually run that card?
Dave Feinstein: Bwahahaha.
Another vanquisher comes out shortly after and they run right past his 2/3 goyf.
Game 3: He leads out slow with nothing but a top so I'm aware he's probably trying to bait me with clasm. I get out vanquisher and a couple 1/1's but turn 3 he runs out stifle/nought. It's a bold play from him but I can't draw grips to save my life. On his turn 4 he then taps his volc for a red and another land... then taps another land. Wait a minute this isn't pyroclasm. What the hell costs 3 mana that I care about here... firespout?!
Bah.
My board is wiped and he swings for 12. He has a fist full of cards and although I have caller, I expect it to get countered. It is allowed in and I get 4 2/2's + the caller. I draw viridian zealot and he has one blue open. I figure if he doesn't have a counter he MUST have a stifle. I have to go for it anyway and cast the zealot. Rich lets it in. I immediately try to kill the nought and Rich shrugs and puts it in the yard. Interesting. I swing for 10 and he shrugs again and takes it. This is odd.
Apparently I have the upperhand and Rich is holding all blanks, but he gets an explosives off the top and blows up my board. He drops some goyfs and I try to battle but he slice and dices me as soon as I have a board. The goyfs do me in.
3-2
I'm very bummed at this point because I lost a good match for me. It took him explosives, firespout and slice and dice but he got me. Oh well.
At this point my only hope is to get paired up and win. There are alot of X-2's but my breakers are good. The problem is the 3-1-1's floating around so I need all of them to lose plus win my match, which probably will only count if I get paired up to a 3-1-1.
Round 6: Garrett /w Faeries
Garrett is 3-1-1 and I have the chance to play dreamcrusher :p
He's a good guy to boot but I know if I win I'll have a good shot to sneak into 8th... plus he beat me in the first magic 500 in top 8 so it's payback time!
Game 1- I lead with elves. He leads with Faeries. I have an imperious perfect but he has two scion of oona's. That combined with the rest of his faeries makes it air force one over on his side. I can't race the fliers since he can chumpblock and I can't.
I side out all winter orbs (this is getting repetitive :p) for caller, jitte, grip and one needle
Game 2- I run him down. He had a slow start and Garruk sealed it.
I saw V shackles that game and since I'm on the draw Garruk will probably be less effective, so for game 3 one goes out and the other needle comes in.
Game 3- This one is epic. He has no guys early but is clogging the board with propagandas and shackle. I stop them thanks to a glut of grips and zealots but have no pressure on the board. I try for a jitte which is countered. I immediately cast another one and he frowns. Woot. My only pressure is a llanowar elf but I pony him up and it works out.
Garrett was gracious in the loss. I'm hoping my win counted.
4-2
Top 8 is announced and only one 4-2 ends up making it in...
IT IS ME.
yay.
Top 8: Roddy /w Slivers
Well I'm just happy to be in top 8. I need to make top 4 for any real money and this match is definitely not the best one I could've had, but I know it's basically a race and whoever gets their tribe online first is going to win.
Game 1- He wins the roll, which is not good for me. Turn one he just leads with a fetch and passes. Meanwhile I look at my opener and have to do a double take. It's all accelerants plus Garruk. Turn 1 gets me 2 elves since I powered one out with ESG. His turn two he drops muscle sliver. My turn two is cradle + garruk. Not too shabby :p
Roddy is starting to amass a formidable army but I swing for 20 on turn 5 and it's just too much coming through.
I side out all 4 orbs and a garruk for 2 e champions, jitte and caller. Grips stayed in because of Aether Vial.
Game 2- He leads with Vial and it goes to town on me. He has all 4/4 first striking flying slivers and I scoop on turn 5.
It dawns on me that pithing needle is insane against vial, and I take out all 3 grips for both needles and the garruk I boarded out.
Game 3- He mulligans. I lead with an elf he leads with vial. I drop a needle on it before it can do any damage. He drops another vial without a second land and passes. I make a giant army and because of the needle and being mana screwed he isn't able to answer.
Roddy was a very good guy and a tough opponent. I am a fan of slivers and told him so earlier in the day.
5-2
Top 4. Weee.
I'm actually fine with playing this out because I don't think any of the matches are horror stories. I guess between goblins, dreadstill (rich again) and aggro/loam that loam has the best shot, but if he tries to clear the board with dreams and I have a caller he's prob toast. It's a moot point as I get paired into the goblins and he really wants to split. I tell him I'm fine with it if everyone else is. Technogeek is fine with it and it's up to Rich. He does his typical Shay mull over for 15 minutes but I'm totally fine with playing it out. I honestly think I had a good shot to win the whole thing but Rich agrees to the split and we all ride off into the sunset with 125 each.
I was overall very happy with the deck but would probably not play it again anytime soon. It's basically a one-trick pony. I guess if the field is heavy dreadstill + other artifact decks than I'll be tempted to whoop it out again, but the field was pretty diverse with tribal decks running all over the place.
The tourney was a blast and I was happy to get money this time around. It was good to see the usual cast of characters plus some new faces.
That's it for this edition of 'When Elves Attack!'
This is Dave Feinstein, signing off.
- Dave Feinstein