Riding out the RUG Storm with my friend TES - SCG STL Legacy Open 12-04-11

SCG Open - St. Louis

As the last SCG Legacy Opens were won by RUG and I checked the Saturday NELCQ results to see RUG all over the TOP 8 and winning that as well, I decided to focus all testing on the matchup, since I was fairly confident against most other decks. It was somewhat amazing to me how many players failed to realize that they couldn't Brainstorm or Fetch after they looked at the top card for Delver.

After driving 2.5 hours from Peoria to Collinsville, we got to the tournament site, just to the right of the Gun and Knife show (seriously!). There was a weapons check and even though we had bags, we apparently looked like Magic players, not gun and knife show-goers, so they passed us right through... noted.

The tournament hall was buzzing and after securing the last few cards for Bruce's deck we sat down to resleeve and finalize decklists, check, recheck, and register.

Here is the list that I sleeved up:
4 Burning Wish
4 Duress
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Dark Ritual
4 Rite of Flame
4 Chrome Mox
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
3 Orim's Chant
2 Ad Nauseam
1 Silence
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Scalding Tarn
4 Gemstone Mine
2 City of Brass
2 Undergound Sea
1 Volcanic Island
SB:
1 Past in Flames
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Diminishing Returns
1 Ill-gotten Gains
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Grapeshot
1 Thoughtseize
1 Pyroclasm <- I just can't get away from it. Should be a Wipe Away.
1 Silent Departure
1 Shattering Spre
3 Pyroblast
2 Echoing Truth

Due to the turnout of 270+ people, there were going to be 9 rounds of Swiss, then cut to a T8. Which means that since the player meeting was after 10 AM, the cut to Top 8 wouldn't be until about 9PM due to inevitable delays... suck. Time unfortunately was a factor in my decision making at the end of the tournament.


Round 1 - Troy Lewis - Burn! - Troy is a good guy. He is jolly enough and loves throwing fire. I can respect that (read: I probably won't double-grapeshot him).

G1 - I win the roll, choose to play and keep an active hand. I play a Gemstone Mine and Ponder setting up a win on about turn 3, if all goes as planned. He suspends a Rift Bolt, so I put him at essentially no chance in the matchup. I draw and lay a fetch, pass. Rift Bolt fires off, he casts and attacks with Hellspark Elemental, putting me at 14. I draw, fetch, Rit-LED-Petal-Infernal-Ad Nauseam (losing only 6 life to insane flips), IGG Loop and Tendrils.

BOARD: Nothing. Why?

G2 - He chooses to play and hits Chain Lightning. I play a gemstone holding Rit, Rite, Ad Nauseam, and a fetch. He gets in with a Hellspark Elemental and dies on my turn 2.

GAMES: 2-0
MATCH: 1-0
RUG MATCHES - 0-0


Round 2 - Travis Towns - RUG

G1 - Opponent not at table. Game Loss.

G2 - No Sideboarding, per the rules, and of course he's on RUG. He mulls to 5, fetches and plays a Delver. I've been drawing a lot of Gemstone Mines, so I am only taking damage from an Aberration for the first two turns while I set up my hand. Since he mulled to 5, I know he can't have much since he is hitting every land drop. He lands a Tarmogoyf and attacks me down to 9. He has 3 cards in hand and mana open. I Burning Wish to get Thoughtseize to peek, he Brainstorms and Forces leaving himself with one card in hand. Since this is probably my only shot, I play Rite, Rit, Ad Nauseam (yes, so glad the second one is in there). I go to 1 life and he doesn't have the bolt, so I win with a simple Tendrils at 11 storm.


GAMES: 3-0 <-Probably don't get to count this towards my actual wins total.
MATCH: 2-0
RUG MATCHES: 1-0


Round 3 - Chris Allen - RUG

G1 - I mull to 6 on the play and he has every fetch, force, and daze until I only had 4 red left after Burning Wish, so I went for Empty the Warrens. If he doesn't hit the instant or Sorcery for his second Delver to fly over, I am in the clear. He hits a bolt... c'est la vie.

BOARD:
+3 Pyroblast <- The star of the show for the whole tournament, really.
-1 Infernal Tutor
-1 Chrome Mox
-1 Ponder

G2 - I keep at 7 and fetch to play a Duress. He has kept a hand with Delver, Tarmogoyf, and 5 lands.... Why? I don't know. He plays a Delver on his turn. I play a City of Brass and pass. He flips his Delver attacks and passes after laying a land. I draw a Pyroblast and know he has two cards I haven't seen. I go for it. It was Force pitching Brainstorm and I pyro it and he slumps in his chair. It was goldfishing Ad Nauseam from 14 after that.

G3 - This game is a bit fuzzy, because my notes don't match the storm math. He plays and drops a Delver turn 1. I Duress and see Stifle, Force of Will, Tropical Island, Misty Rainforest, Scalding Tarn. I take the force and play petal, rit, rit, Ad Nauseam. While it was a strange series of flips, I end up chanting and getting 16 or 18 goblins which get there. Thanks, Ari.

GAMES: 5-1
MATCH: 3-0
RUG MATCHES: 2-0


Round 4 - Chris Bergeson - Zoo - After playing this match, I realized that I don't put enough stock into what my opponents have the ability to do, if they aren't playing Blue for Counterspells or Black for Hand Disruption. Zoo does punish slow hands and I was duely punished both games.

G1 - I lose the roll and keep a 7 card hand that would be good against RUG (Duress, Chant, Infernal, Dark Ritual, 3 lands). Goblin Guide for Chris reveals a Lotus Petal. Shit balls, he's not playing RUG. I draw nothing of value and get bolted PoP'd and catted out of the game. At the end of this game, I do get Empty the Warrens for about 16 goblins, but he already has enough cats and Grim Lavamancer to completely decimate my board.

BOARD: Nothing. There's nothing really to board in. I need speed, not Echoing Truth.

G2 - I mull a no-lander keep at 6 with an unfortunately slow hand. I ponder and shuffle, drawing a Gemstome Mine. He plays a Nacatl. I draw a lotus petal. He attacks for 3, chain lightnings me and drops a cat. I draw a Burning Wish and hallucinate that it's now or never for the game, so I go with insufficent mana and resources into a Diminishing Returns with no land drop available and UB floating. As luck would have it, I completely whiff... no, whiff isn't strong enough, utterly botch - -Duress, Duress, Chant, Silence, Ponder, Land, Land - I ponder into nothing and have given him, Bolt, Chain, Fireblast... FML.


GAMES: 5-3
MATCH: 3-1
RUG MATCHES: 2-0

MEANWHILE - Freakin' Belcher is 4-0 -- We'll come back to this.


Round 5 - Alex Bertoncini (T32) - Bant Stoneblade - This turned out to be a surprisingly easy match. The minimalist counter suite and relatively slow clock made for short work. A bit of backstory is that I was playing a GW brew at the SCG Open in STL in 2010 and was completely outclassed by Alex in the heyday of Merfolk. I stopped playing the deck after that tournament and switched to TES.

G1 - I lose the roll, of course and keep a decent 7 card hand. I have lots of ponders and brainstorms. He drops a Stoneforge Mystic Turn 2 for Batterskull. I Duress and he has Force, Brainstorm, Batterskull, Sword of Feast and Famine and two lands. I actually take the Brainstorm, because my hand is close to good. He drops the Batterskull next turn. I ponder and shuffle getting close to a win. He plays a Qasali Pridemage and Wastelands my Underground Sea, then attacks with Batterskull. I Brainstorm into Chrome Mox and Ad Nauseam with a land back on top. I play my Chrome Mox, and he says resolves, which I thought immediately allowed me to imprint. That's NOT the case. Imprint uses the stack, so he can kill the Chrome Mox before I can imprint. Since the mox is gone, I choose not to imprint and pass the turn. He vials in a sword and equips to the germ and goes up to 29 while I am at 8 now. With his untap he now has gobs of mana open, a ton of life, and very few worries. I draw my land off the top and hope that he doesn't have a force, which he doesn't, so I Ad Nauseam, in response he Swords his Germ gaining 6 life (putting him at 35), but I have unbelievable flips: Rite, Rite, Mox, Petal, LED, Duress, LED, Infernal Tutor, LED, Ritual. I have only taken 5 damage from this crazy ADN so I go for the showboat. Play everything, Past In Flames, cast everything again, Duress to make sure... Infernal (18) for Burning Wish, Wish (19) for Grapeshot, Grapeshot (20) and Grapeshot (21). 35 to 0 within one turn...LOVE...THIS...DECK.

BOARD:
+3 Pyroblast <- I'm beginning to see a pattern.
-1 Infernal Tutor
-1 Chrome Mox
-1 Ponder

G2 - He chooses to play and I draw a second turn kill. He plays a land and passes, I play a fetch, he plays a land and passes. I play a land and duress, he forces, I go for it, assuming he's hiding nothing. I'm right. When I cast the Tendrils from the SB, he half-seriously asks me to count my SB cards. I pull them out and count 13 including the Tendrils, he says that's the only way I could win... the two Echoing Truths had gotten stuck in the box. He thinks I slow-rolled him, not going to debate it.


GAMES: 7-3
MATCH: 4-1
RUG MATCHES: 2-0
Belcher: 5-0


Round 6 - Matt Langford (T16) - RUG - Game 2 didn't really feel like it was fair, but because of the first game, I didn't particularly care.

G1 - I win the roll and we both keep on 7. I have a fairly slow hand with duress and chant effects, looking for business. He drops a Delver and can't flip an instant or sorcery to save his life. Unfortunately, I'm getting beaten down 1 at a time but drawing lands the whole time. I get a Duress forced and a fetch stifled. He has me down to 17 then flips his Delver and attacks me to 14. I draw a ponder and hope to find business. He has two cards in hand, so I think I might be safe. Ponder sees Dark Ritual, LED, Ad Nauseam. I take the Ad Naus and fetch for Volcanic Island, Rite of Flame, Rite of Flame, Ad Nauseam - I flip duress, mox, rit, rit, led, infernal tutor. I go for an easy Tendrils (had I known I would have PiF'd with Double Grapeshot) and he claims that it's only 9. We recount about 5 times and he doesn't believe that I had the mana available. We count it up and I did. I had way more than enough to embarrass him - Lesson Learned.

BOARD:
+3 Pyroblast
-1 Infernal Tutor
-1 Chrome Mox
-1 Ponder

G2 - I keep on 7 and he mulls all the way to 3. It sucks, but don't play a non-combo deck with 18 lands. He has a land and apparently Daze and Spell Pierce. I'm using Burning Wish, since I've naturally drawn 3, to try and get the Thoughtseize and confirm the win. He eventually makes Delver, but I guess correctly that he has no more countermagic. I Ad Nauseam out from 13 and hit all black mana, so I can't crush his spirit.


GAMES: 9-3
MATCH: 5-1
RUG MATCHES: 3-0
Belcher: 6-0 -- I joked about Belcher being both good and unplayable in this meta, perhaps I was wrong.


Round 7 - Joshua Verdell (T8) - RUG - This was a tough one for me. It just felt like the deck wasn't designed to work. I may not have mulliganed aggressively enough - lesson learned.

G1 - I lose the roll, and keep on 6 with a clunky hand. I am immediately punished with Delvers flipped with Bolts. He is holding nuts and I just don't draw cards while he wastes and stifles everything.

BOARD:
+3 Pyroblast
-1 Infernal Tutor
-1 Chrome Mox
-1 Ponder

G2 - I play and keep on 7 with a faster hand than game 1, but just don't have enough action. I duress and see: REB, Snapcaster, Delver, Delver, Volcanic Island, Misty Rainforest, Force of Will - I take the force and move on. He drops a Delver and passes. I keep drawing artifact mana and Rite of Flames, but no tutor effect. I finally draw a burning wish but can only manage a Warrens for 14. Unfortunately, I'm at 13, so he attacks me to 7 and drops another Delver. I get him to 5 and need him not to draw an Instant or Sorcery off the top... REB. Game.


GAMES: 9-5
MATCH: 5-2
RUG MATCHES: 3-1
Belcher: 7-0 -- You've got to be kidding me!?


Round 8 - David Bauer (T32) - RUG

G1 - I win the roll, and have a decent 7 card hand while he mulls to 5. I duress turn 1 and see Daze, Stifle, Snapcaster, Volcanic Island, Wasteland. I take the Stifle. He plays a Volcanic and Delver, lucksack. I am sculpting my hand and keeping an eye on his creatures. They are pinging me for 1 since he can't flip them. At one point, I don't have an LED, but chant, silence, Rit, Rit, Rite, Infernal Tutor, Petal. He is confused when I Chant him during his upkeep. He attacks me to 12. On my turn I silence and he has nothing, so I go off.

BOARD:
+3 Pyroblast
-1 Infernal Tutor
-1 Chrome Mox
-1 Ponder

G2 - I keep on 6 with a decent hand. He just does everything that RUG does with Loaming Wasteland, etc... ugh. However, I still have some out so keep the game going, since he really applying much pressure. I just can't get there, though.

G3 - We both keep on 7 and I duress him: Trop, Trop, Loam, Snapcaster, Goyf, Lavamancer, Surgical Extraction. I take the Surgical Extraction as I would rather him not have 2 chances at it. He fetches to play a Lavamancer and we draw/go for a while. He bolts me. He drops Goyf to get more damage in. At this point, I am dying and see few ways out of my predicament. Time is almost up in the round... yeah, I know... I play for my only out. Chant, Daze, Dark Ritual-resolves, Pays Daze, Snapcaster getting Surgical Extraction on Brainstorm (Dark Ritual may have been better in general) - Time is called - I have Infernal Tutor and 2 Rite of Flame in my hand. I double Rite, tutor, wish, Grapeshot taking out his board. He starts turn 1 with no creatures in play and me at 5 and drops a delver. (2) I draw and say go. (3) He forgets to check on Delver and brainstorms, attacks me to 4 and drops another delver. (4) Draw, Ponder - - nothing good, Go. (5) Flip REB, attack for 6 and kill me.


GAMES: 10-7
MATCH: 5-3
RUG MATCHES: 3-2
Belcher: 7-1 -- On his way to play for T8. There is no justice. In the end, he loses and doesn't make T8, but with this much Blue running around Belcher shouldn't be viable.


At this point, I thought I would miss out on T32, so I dropped. I had a 2.5 hour drive home and didn't want to play RUG again for nothing. It turns out that I could have tied into it and my breakers were pretty good, so I may have ended up with a bit of cash.


Lessons learned:
-- Empty the Warrens - Good Against RUG, Bad Against Zoo.
-- Mulliganing to more aggressive hands would likely have served me better in some of my games, so I need to be more critical of 7 cards.
-- I twice wanted Empty the Warrens in the main deck and at least twice drew Ad Nauseam when I needed it. So it's still a toss up, but Ad Nauseam usually ends it.
-- I should probably let go of Pyroclasm, because I never needed it, Grapeshot was better in the cases where it could be used.
-- I don't put enough stock into what my opponents have the ability to do, if they aren't playing Blue for Counterspells or Black for Hand Disruption, usually because I don't need to.

From what Matt Langford told me (I loaned him his deck for the tournament), you miscounted the mana to cast Ad Nauseam from rituals.

Then you proceeded to topdeck the additional mana to cast it from 5 life and revealed a very lucky flop.

EDIT: Kudos to the EPIC Rapeshot.

Thanks.

If there was any error on my part, I apologize, but I made the plays that I did specifically because I saw in game that I had what I needed. It reflects in the math after the Tendrils, and the notes that I took after the match and provided in the report. He had a lot of tough luck in our match, especially in game 2.

We determined that I had the Underground Sea for the Ponder, Fetched for the Volcanic Island, Gemstone Mine and City of Brass for the Ad Nauseam with double Rite to make the 3 (R floating). The flips off of Ad Nauseam were unbelievably lucky, admittedly, but I still had enough mana at the end to go get Past In Flames and then I could have double-grapeshotted him, but I didn't want to prolong the madness and because I didn't see a point since I was certain I was at 10.

When we recounted the mana, we agreed on how it worked. His initial reaction was that I was only on 8 storm copies, because it wasn't clear to him that I had Pondered on the final turn. Only after talking about the storm count did he bring up the mana requirement, and the math still worked.

I may have even had to pitch a Dark Ritual to a Chrome Mox in that game to get more black mana. I don't have that in my notes, but I know I did that at some point in the tournament.

As a result of that, in that match I also learned that I need to make it abundantly clear what happens in the critical turn, because one or both of us is going to lose track of something trying to hit (or not hit, as the case may be) 10 spells.

There's a stamp on Past in Flames, only cards that are in the graveyard when you cast it have Flashback. You couldn't go Grapeshot, Grapeshot.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bryant Cook

There's a stamp on Past in Flames, only cards that are in the graveyard when you cast it have Flashback. You couldn't go Grapeshot, Grapeshot.

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It's possible of course, but requires two Wishes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by thefringthing

It's possible of course, but requires two Wishes.

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That would require two Grapeshot in the sideboard. He could've flashbacked Past in flames but his storm indicates he did not.

I didn't know that about Past In Flames... now that I know that it makes sense, but neither I nor my opponent realized it at the time... doesn't change a whole lot about how the game would have gone. I'll have to do it without a cheaty face misplay...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bryant Cook

That would require two Grapeshot in the sideboard. He could've flashbacked Past in flames but his storm indicates he did not.

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Can't you go: Wish for Grapeshot (them down to 1, yourself for the rest if possible), Wish for Past in Flames, flashback Grapeshot? That gets them twice with only one Grapeshot in the sideboard.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by thefringthing

Can't you go: Wish for Grapeshot (them down to 1, yourself for the rest if possible), Wish for Past in Flames, flashback Grapeshot? That gets them twice with only one Grapeshot in the sideboard.

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There are tons of different possibilities, he could have even used the flashback on Past in Flames, which requires one less card and one less mana than your situation. But the fact is that he made a mistake, Bryan was just pointing out that he did not play it correctly, and the player admitted to not knowing how the card correctly works.

Next time he will play it out the right way.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Andy_V

It was somewhat amazing to me how many players failed to realize that they couldn't Brainstorm or Fetch after they looked at the top card for Delver.

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I'm like 99.99% sure you can Fetchland or Brainstorm to get rid of chaff you revealed from the top.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Andy_V

It was somewhat amazing to me how many players failed to realize that they couldn't Brainstorm or Fetch after they looked at the top card for Delver.

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You can use a fetch before your draw step to get rid of chaff you revealed to Delver from the top. I suppose you can Brainstorm too, but there's no reason to upkeep Brainstorm.

Sorry, guys, the point of the mention is that 3 opponents asked the question about whether or not they could peek, manipulate the top (brainstorm or fetch) then reveal... that doesn't work. Judge confirmed all three times.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Andy_V

Sorry, guys, the point of the mention is that 3 opponents asked the question about whether or not they could peek, manipulate the top (brainstorm or fetch) then reveal... that doesn't work. Judge confirmed all three times.

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Delver triggers in your upkeep. After that you get priority allowing you to Brainstorm or fetch. You could even put the trigger on the stack, then Brainstorm to find a sorcery/instant to reveal of delver.

Edit. Nvm. Sometimes carefully reading others' posts is good thing.