GP Bochum sideevent, the SPOD story - back to glory

Long time, no read. The last month hasn't excately been a source of joy for me magic-wise. Truth been told, I've been hitting a slump. I just couldn't finish in the prizes. No matter what I tried, I always missed, sometimes narrowly, sometimes not so much... This is the story of how that dry spell ended.
Another issue of the last couple of months were the team-internal dissolution actions. They were definitely taking a turn for the worse. Currently I'm the only founding member that really is active and apart from MSC there's no one left to raid the world with. Grim times to be a pirate.
And in times like this a captain has to do what a captain has to do: Ally with some awesome landlubbers and carry the black flag alone. So I met with Christopher and Kai to drive to Bochum for the Legacy sideevent of the GP.
Now I could tell you about a very awesome saturday night, amazing food, late night nerdings and the mind-blowingly beautiful city of Mainz, but I suspect your here for the epic reports, the in-depth metagame analysis and the unmatched high level of playskill, that yours truly is known and admired for, so let's cut to the case.
Sunday morning 4.45 we get up, meet with Sven, drive 2 and a half hours to Bochum and gather with 180 other nerds to battle 8 rounds with cut to top8.

I decided to play my cat survival list again:

[SPOD] Angry Cat Survival (SACS)
Deck (60)
4x Wooded Foothills
4x Wasteland
2x Forest
1x Plateau
3x Taiga
3x Savannah
4x Windswept Heath
1x Karakas
2x Aven Mindcensor
4x Noble Hierarch
1x Birds of Paradise
4x Wild Nacatl
4x Tarmogoyf
3x Grim Lavamancer
4x Qasali Pridemage
3x Knight of the Reliquary
1x Squee, Goblin Nabob
4x Survival of the Fittest
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Swords to Plowshares

Sideboard (15)

3x Faerie Macabre
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
1x Loyal Retainers
1x Magus of the Moon
2x Gaddock Teeg
1x Stingscourger
2x Ethersworn Canonist
4x Pyroblast

Round 1: Zoo
Game 1: My opponent takes a mulligan and keeps what seems to be a pretty burn-heavy hand. He does use his burn somewhat conservatively so I get in more damage than I should but in the end it doesn't really matter. I slowroll two Survival, which he can both deal with. AFTER they coughed up a pair of Knight of the Reliquary that is. The knight-advantage is way too much for him to overcome.

Game 1: We play the usual sucky game of the zoo mirror that I grew to hate so much at GP Madrid: Play a dude, burn a dude, do the bus driver, repeat until the CounterTop mirror seems fun. Unfortunately for him, I don't draw any Survival which blanks the two Krosan Grips in his hand and so he's down two cards in the good old burn-game. That on the other hand means some of my creatures get to live. And that implies that shortly thereafter he doesn't.

1/0/0

Round 1: Goblins
Game 1: My opponent starts with vomiting Mogg War Marshals on the table. I mean literally (figuratively!) two or three of those guys completely flood the board. Well, for a short while at least, until they chump all the real creatures I played in the progress. Everything goes according to the plan until he plays a Goblin Ringleader and reveals four straight blanks. Dammit, I'm such a good player! It pretty much goes south for him from there on as he's left with a bunch of 1/1s that get slaughtered by my mighty and fearless cat army.

Game 2: He leads with Vial and I counter with everyones beloved shotgun mage. He draws, ponders his options and decides to play an EE for … 2. I look at my hand full of 1-drops and start laughing manically. We play on a little with my mage keeping the red brigade in check until he evens out my awesomness-advantage with a Ringleader into: 2x Incinerator, Sharpshooter and Ringleader. Um yeah, that seems to be quite decent... But because I'm just that brilliant I topdeck and play Survival. Remember that EE from the second turn? Yeah, that is still there! Now the folowing conversation occurs:

Me: Survival.
He: Ok.
Me: Go .
He: I think you only played that so I crack my EE.
Me: ??? Nooooo, I only played this because it wins me the game.
He: … Nah, I'm not gonna crack my EE for that!
Me: ?!?
Why the hell don't people listen to me? Sure, I'm only an A-level Legacy veteran, what the f**k do I know...
Anyway, as it turns out legendary 7/7 angel that prohibit red spell actually do win the game. Who would have thought.

2/0/0

Round 3: UW Landstill
I know: Is that even a real deck, right? More like Landstall, amiright? It's like the worst ever, youknowwhatimean?

Yeah, no. I get completely crushed both games by Humility (god, this card is good against creatures … who knew), Jace, the Mind Sculptor (god is this card good against creatures), Elspeth, Knight-Errant (guess what this card is pretty good against) and Wraths ( . . . ) . Seriously, it wasn't pretty.

2/1/0

Round 4: U/B/W LD-Something
He played Stifle, Wasteland, Crucible, Daze, Engineered Explosives, Academy Ruins, Innocent Blood, Smallpox, Humility and Moat...
I play 27 mana-sources and cats.
Game 1: This one is all about mana-screw. His one obviously! As he stumbles a little on mana on turn 3 I bring on the ever so awesome “Knight into Wasteland into Wasteland into hilarity”-mode and brutally shoot him down. Yup, who needs a dedicated LD deck, when he's just that good.

Game 2: I manage to stick an early Gaddock who not only blocks all the cards in the deck I'm actually worried about, but also deals something like 16 damage throughout the game. That's what's up!

3/1/0

Round 5: NO CounterTop
Game 1: I get a pretty good aggro curve with Wasteland support, while he does basically nothing relevant at all. Sure there's a lot of “upkeep, top, draw, top, fetch, top”-fun going on (I mean honestly, who doesn't like to get his toenails removed by a rusty chainsaw), but I simply remove his scare blockers and send my team in. Sometimes Magic is just that easy.

Game 2: 3rd turn Progenitus... Oh, didn't see that one coming. Turns out, I kind of have a problem with removing/racing a fast hydra. Malicious voices might even say I'm just plain dead to it. Magic indeed IS that easy.

Game 3: I lead with the very spectacular play of land, go while he has fetch → forest → Noble Hierarch. I decide to go for the plan I usually implement when faced with Natural Order: Kill every frigging creature he plays. Quite the subtle and complex plan indeed. So end of turn: Sword the Hierarch. Force. Ok, then my turn: Sword the Hierarch. Force. Oh my, I would assume that Pyroblast in my hand comes in quite handy at this particular point, wouldn't you agree, good Sir? Hell, I'm such a strategic mastermind! Needless to say, this isn't much of a game afterwards.

4/1/0

Round 6: ANT
I'm paired against Jan Sudmann (who doesn't like to be name dropped?), which I'm really not that ecstatic about. He is a very skilled player!
Game 1: I lead with a first turn cat. He has land, Chrome Mox and Infernal Tutor for another Dark Ritual. Yeah, this can't be good. I attack and wait for the big boom next turn. And sure enough Jan goes for it: land, Ritual, Ritual, Duress (missing, muhahahaha), Infernal into Ad Nauseam. Yeah, no!
True sportsman that he is, Jan flips both his Tendrils of Agony and his Empty the Warrens together with a bunch of irrelevant cards and just dies. Yay, second turn kill. I'm awesome!

Game 2: He takes a mulligan into a less than ideal hand. I on the other hand have the very nice: Cat into Canonist into Goyf into Bolt draw. Good times!

5/1/0

Fun Fact: I've never lost to storm combo with any zoo variant. Like most “fun facts” this one is neither funny nor particularly interesting. Still a good point to brag, so why waste it

Round 7: Next Level Thresh
Game 1: We both take a mulligan and I have a cat, a Goyf and a shotgun mage. He doesn't have any green mana and that single Grim Lavamancer isn't really holding the fort for a long time. Consequently he dies in a pretty quick and unspectacular fashion.

Game 2: To even things out I have to take a double mulligan. I mean, right this is only the final round after which one can draw in. So why not make things a little thrilling. For the audience. My five card hand however contains two Goyfs and I'm able to make a game out of it, due to a misblock on his part. We race very tight, but in the end he's able to burn me out on his last turn.

Game 3: For the deciding game I look at my hand and see:

2x Noble Hierarch
1x Birds of Paradise
1x Savannah
2x Wasteland
1x Gaddock Teeg

… Why for heaven's sake can't there be a Survival to make life easy for once.
I stare at this hand for what feels like two and a half aeons and finally decide to keep. That mana screw plan better work.
I lead with Savannah and Hierarch, while he has just Tropical, go. I play Waste, Gaddock and try to waste his land, but he has the Stifle. Frigging brilliant. So much for the LD. He has land, go. I play the second Waste, Hierarch and swing and he calmly plays Fire/Ice on my mana guys. This just keeps getting better. We continue to stomp each others manabase (he with Stifle and Waste, I with Waste and Lightning Bolt on Mishra's Factories that try to block Gaddock), yet somehow both manage to continue to draw lands. In the end, Gaddock again end up doing a ridicolous amout of damage while blanking his Force of Will and I win by Kithkin-Adviser-beatdown. Boy, that was a close one.

6/1/0

Now at 6/1/0 I can simply draw in and everything is fine. Or so I thought until standings were up and I saw who horrible my opp-score was. No way I could afford to draw in! Filled with nerd-rage, I decided to bring wrath and annihilation over my next opponent.

Round 7: Dredge
Game 1: He starts with a very pleasant double mulligan and then therapies himself for double Golgari Thug. I myself simply have every trick in the book this game:
Waste his only land before he can play Careful Study
Sword his only Ichorid
Ambush his attack Narcomoeba wit Aven Mindcensor to remove his Bridges
And all the time I beat down with a pair of Lhurgoyfs.

Game 2: He takes three healthy mulligans (yeah, I'm just that good) and I have an Iona in play before the first card hits his graveyard. Again, good times!

7/1/0

So I finish the swiss portion as the only player with 21 points in 1st place. This means I'm paired against eighth place in the quarters

Quaterfinals: Enchantress
I played Dirk with the exact same deck two weeks before in Hassloch in the final round for the second place. He crushed me. Badly. Now was the time for revenge … is what I would write if I had actually won. Instead it obviously was time for a one-sided massacre. And I found myself on the receiving end of it. Long story short: he demolished me in two games again. End of awesomness.

So in the end I'm fifth, get a ridiculous amount of boosters for my troubles and the nagging feeling that I should have done better. Oh well, there's always next time I guess.

Props

• Kai and Christopher for the extremely fun weekend
• Sven for driving
• Christopher for his comeback from the 0/1/1 start
• Me for still being awesome, obviously
• Gaddock for being the beatdown machine
• Cats for being just that good
• Muffins for being delicious
• Clock change for the additional hour of sleep

Slops

• Me for not winning the whole thing
• Sven's car for probably making a chiropractor rich one day
• Enchantress. Dirk is a nice guy, but god do I hate this deck now
• Clock change for confusing everybody

So long

Best move against that thresh player was pyroblasting his stifle, with red mana off the 1-off bird.

To make an harsh analysis:

You weren't drunk. That's why you didn't end up winning this tournament.

Has Christopher won all the games after his awesome start?

I was starting to wonder whether I really need to around to kick your butt in order for you to do well... good job me hearty!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by flrn

You weren't drunk. That's why you didn't end up winning this tournament.

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That my dear Sir might very well be the case!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by flrn

Has Christopher won all the games after his awesome start?

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He went 5/1/1 and then proceeded to lose the last round due to some inevitable curse that never let's him top8. Impressive performance nevertheless!

Nice read and props to you again for just going 7-1! Awesome dude! ;) ....and time to break the curse next time, for sure!!

Was fun to read :)

Weird, I was listening to Keelhauled yesterday and it reminded me that there had not been a SPOD report in a while. Lo and behold, this one shows up. You pirates are sneaky bastards. Nice job on the finish too!

This was as funny to read as it was to play against you. Not so much fun that I lost to Zoo AGAIN next round...:(

Did one of your mates played the same deck? As I played against the same list in round 5 (yeah Humility is really that good against creatures ;) ).

Seems you are the last pirate standing. The Zoo Survival deck is actually really good and does actually really suck against Enchantress.

Congrats on your finish. Nice that someone from your team is keeping up the good tournament reports, even if they are less frequently written now.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Muradin

Seems you are the last pirate standing. The Zoo Survival deck is actually really good and does actually really suck against Enchantress.

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Boy, this is SO right!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Felidae

Did one of your mates played the same deck? As I played against the same list in round 5 (yeah Humility is really that good against creatures ;) ).

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Another one of the Hasloch regulars has played this list.

Nice job on the finish, but I really feel you should tone the cockiness down - quite a bit, to be frank. From reading your report, it sounds an awful lot like you had an unabashed sense of superiority over your opponents when it fact it looks an awful lot like you ended up running into some [very] favorable situations as a result of opponents' ineptitude or inexperience, or just plain luck (not to take away from your level of play).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by spirit of the wretch

"That on the other hand means some of my creatures get to live. And that implies that shortly thereafter he doesn't."
"I'm only an A-level Legacy veteran, what the f**k do I know?"
"This one is all about mana-screw. His one obviously! As he stumbles a little on mana on turn 3 I bring on the ever so awesome “Knight into Wasteland into Wasteland into hilarity”-mode and brutally shoot him down."
"He takes three healthy mulligans (yeah, I'm just that good)..."
"I've never lost to storm combo with any zoo variant. Like most “fun facts” this one is neither funny nor particularly interesting. Still a good point to brag, so why waste it?"
"Yay, second turn kill. I'm awesome!"
"Hell, I'm such a strategic mastermind! Needless to say, this isn't much of a game afterwards."
"Me for still being awesome, obviously."
"Long story short: he demolished me in two games again. End of awesomness."
etc. etc. etc.

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Reading reports like these creates a divide from the focus of factual information within the report itself. Doing well in a tournament is fine, but just keep it in the back of your head that - as you put it, "No matter what I tried, I always missed, sometimes narrowly, sometimes not so much" - things can always take a turn for the worse. Apparently, you haven't been so "awesome" in recent events according to your report. You're advertising yourself over and over again instead of focusing more on in-game intricacies, what mistakes you made and how you would subsequently correct them, some changes you [might] make, and your decision-making process.

That's what makes a good report.

You don't have to remember every detail from every match, but information in general can be quite useful. Being humble and respectful in the reports you write earns you big points amongst your peers. Just something to keep in mind.

Mike, he does that on purpose to add flair to the report and make it an interesting read.

Same thing Matt used to do when he was writing reports in 1.5 on SCG for Amrod and Altered States events.

I know, but still: You know how you can pick up on stuff that seems genuinely "funny" or stuff that seems a little like overkill? I just felt that from this report.

Plus, Matt was using hieroglyphics at the time he was still writing reports. :cool:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hollywood

I know, but still: You know how you can pick up on stuff that seems genuinely "funny" or stuff that seems a little like overkill? I just felt that from this report.

Plus, Matt was using hieroglyphics at the time he was still writing reports. :cool:

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Well, in reality Stefan really is not even close to being an arrogant fuck. And as the last phrase implies, he can also admit when he gets assraped. :D
I don't see a problem here. I also never met anyone who reacted offended to Stefan's trashtalk which is basically the same level like the stuff you copy-pasted.
You're right on the "lucky mofo" part, tho. ;D

Btw. huge props for that performance Stefan!

I personally enjoy the humor, and absolutely love the deck. I might give it a spin. No Vengevines you say?