Double Report: 5-1 and 5-2 with Grinding Station.
Last Sunday I managed to find the time to play an event between doing stuff for school, washing the car and doing some other work at home and since I have nothing else to do right now, I figured it'd be cool to write a report.
The evening before the event, basically all of the people from my team said they wouldn't be able to make it so I thought I wouldn't be going either. The morning of the event I skyped with a friend who found out that he couldn't make it either since their driver was sick. We played a few games on Cockatrice, he was playing Faithless Looting Dredge, I was on Nic Fit with blue. I won both of our matches 2-1 despite him having a Lion's Eye Diamond and a Faithless Looting in all of our games.
While playing we both decided we were trying to make it to the event regardless. I knew I was going to be playing Grinding Station for the event, but I was missing three Burning Wishes and one Rite of Flame. I asked him if he could get some Wishes a few days before, but he didn't manage to get them. After I had to pick up several cards that I lent out to my teammates, I drove to the event.
I arrived about ten minutes after registration should've ended, with no decklist and not having my deck complete, although I could've played several other decks. Did I mention that my deck wasn't even sleeved? I asked some friends if they had the cards I was missing, but only one of them had a single Burning Wish and nobody had a Rite of Flame. Then I realised that DerFern was there and he has pretty much everything you could ever play in storm decks. Luckily he wasn't playing storm himself so he could give me the cards I needed.
This is what I sleeved up:
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
2 Rain of Filth
1 Badlands
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Island
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Swamp
1 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
3 Burning Wish
3 Cabal Therapy
1 Duress
4 Gitaxian Probe
1 Past in Flames
3 Preordain
2 Ponder
1 Rite of Flame
3 Tendrils of Agony
2 Thoughtseize
//Sideboard
1 Ad Nauseam
2 Chain of Vapor
2 Extirpate
1 Chain Lightning
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Grapeshot
4 Infernal Tutor
1 Past in Flames
1 Telemin Performance
1 Tendrils Of Agony
After I finished sleeving up my deck, pairings for round one were posted.
Round One: Christian with GBW Nic Fit
I don't know him and have no idea what he was playing. He wins the roll and decides to play.
We both keep our seven and he leads with Forest into Veteran Explorer. I probe him to see Forest, Tragic Slip, Liliana of the Veil, Scavenging Ooze and a Swamp. Then I go off with Past in Flames on turn one (=
-3 Cabal Therapy
-1 Duress
-1 Rite of Flame
-2 Tendrils of Agony
+1 Ad Nauseam
+2 Chain of Vapor
+4 Infernal Tutor
Game two he mulls to five on the play while I keep my seven. His first turn play is Cabal Therapy, naming Lion's Eye Diamond if I remember correctly. He definitely didn't hit though. Obviously, I draw one from the top. I play Polluted Delta and say go, holding a Brainstorm. He plays a land and casts Zenith for Explorer, sacrificing it for Cabal Therapy flashback. I let the Explorer trigger resolve, grab Island and Swamp and then cast Brainstorm with Therapy still on the stack. He had seen a Dark Ritual before and I figured he would name it so I put it on top, with a land or a Lion's Eye Diamond under it. He names Dark Ritual, misses, and playes Sensei's Divining Top.
I crack my fetch, Probe him to see Diabolic Intent and then cast another non-Brainstorm cantrip. End of turn he uses top and in his turn he casts Green Sun's Zenith for Gaddock Teeg. I draw for my turn and my hand is land, Burning Wish, Burning Wish, Dark Ritual, Lotus Petal, Tendrils of Agony, Lion's Eye Diamond and Gitaxian Probe with four lands on the table. I Probe him to draw Cabal Ritual, play my land, cast Dark Ritual, Lotus Petal, Lion's Eye Diamond, Burning Wish for Rite of Flame, Rite of Flame, Burning Wish for Chain Lightning, Chain Lightning on Gaddock Teeg, the now threshed Cabal Ritual, Tendrils for 20.
2-0
1-0
Round Two: Marcel with Canadian Threshold
He's a friend of mine and we both know what the other one is playing. We never had the chance to play the matchup, but he always says that he doesn't believe that my deck has a good matchup against Thresh. I win the roll and let him play.
We both keep our seven in game one and he has the turn one Delver off FBB Volcanic Island while I have Preordain off Unglued Basic Island. His Delver flips and shows me Stifle. We both know that my deck is rather slow for a combo deck and he taps out for Tarmogoyf. On my turn I play Dark Ritual, Cabal Therapy on him, naming Force of Will, finding out he has nothing. Then I go off with Past in Flames. I think it's worth noting that I could've played around a single Daze here, so his four card hand would've needed two active Forces or two Dazes to stop me here. I knew he had a Stifle though, so that was unlikely, considering he had only four cards.
-3 Burning Wish
+1 Empty the Warrens
+1 Past in Flames
+1 Tendrils of Agony
Game two I mull to six on the draw and keep a one-lander. On turn two I willingly run my fetch into his Stifle which was likely a misplay in retrospect, but whatever. I fail to make another landdrop for a while and at some point he casts Tarmogoyf. When I'm at ten, I try to go off with Past in Flames. I probed him earlier so I knew he had Force of Will, Spell Snare, Stifle and Lightning Bolt. I cast two Lotus Petals, play a fetch and cast Cabal Therapy off Lotus Petal. He puts me on Tendrils and Forces the Therapy to protect his Stifle. That also leads him to not Stifle my fetch which allows me to cast my Past in Flames floating one blue and one black with Cabal Therapy, Dark Ritual, Tendrils and some cantrips in my graveyard, knowing he has Daze. I cast Ponder, which he Dazes I think, needing to hit a Lion's Eye Diamond. I shuffle, draw land, and ship the turn. He attacks me to six and I draw Lion's Eye Diamond. Can't always have it. He attacks and Bolts me.
Game three we both keep our seven. He doesn't have a clock, but he has a Wasteland and doesn't play anything, so his hand is presumbly full of countermagic. I sculpt my hand with Preordains and go off with Past in Flames at one point, playing my three Cabal Rituals through his double Spell Snare, then having Therapy for his Stifle and winning at five life with him having double Bolt in hand but only having access to one red mana.
2-1
2-0
Round Three: David on GBW Nic Fit
Again, I'm playing against a friend. In most tournaments we both attend we have to play each other at some point. Since I know what he's playing I win the roll and decide to play.
I mull to five, he goes down to six. I don't know what exactly happens in game one, but we both kept bad hands and he draws business while I don't.
-3 Cabal Therapy
-1 Duress
-1 Rite of Flame
-2 Tendrils of Agony
+1 Ad Nauseam
+2 Chain of Vapor
+4 Infernal Tutor
Game two, I mull to five on the play again and he keeps his seven. I keep Preordain, Lotus Petal, Lotus Petal, Volcanic Island, Ad Nauseam. Not bad for a five card hand. My turn one Preordain sees Dark Ritual and Cabal Ritual. I draw the Cabal Ritual because people always name Dark Ritual with Cabal Therapy. He has the Duress though and takes away Ad Nauseam. I draw nothing and he has another Duress to take Cabal Ritual. At some point he plays a Veteran Explorer, then Kitchen Finks. They beat me down to fifteen, then I go off with a blind Past in Flames that would most likely lose to Surgical Extraction. He doesn't have it and I take the game.
Game three I keep my seven and he goes to six cards. He has Duress again and takes a Lion's Eye Diamond from my hand with both Burning Wish and Infernal Tutor remaining. On my draw step he casts Extraction for Lion's Eye Diamond. We play draw-go until I get rid of all the land in my hand and go off with four or five lands in play at some point.
2-1
3-0
Round Four: Benjamin with Faithless Looting Dredge
For some reason, I seem to be running into friends the entire tournament. This is the friend I played some games with before the tournament. I know I'm gonna be in for a race so I decide to not let him win the roll and go first.
We both keep our seven and I think I lead with fetchland, go, holding a Brainstorm. He leads with Cabal Therapy to which I respond with my Brainstorm. He doesn't hit and on my turn I cast some cantrips, setting up for the turn three kill. He dredges for like 30 in his turn with Cephalid Coliseum and Faithless Looting, finding three or four Narcomoebas and some Cabal Therapies to pick apart my hand. I scoop 'em up and we go to game two.
-3 Cabal Therapy
-1 Duress
-1 Rite of Flame
-2 Tendrils of Agony
-2 Thoughtseize
+1 Ad Nauseam
+2 Chain of Vapor
+2 Extirpate
+4 Infernal Tutor
Once more, we both keep our seven and I open on a cantrip. He whiffs on Cabal Therapy and I do some math on my turn. Since I only had artifact mana, Rain of Filth and a Cabal Ritual, being able to float five mana after casting Infernal Tutor, I go for Ad Nauseam, which is way better than letting him have another turn (Past in Flames does nothing here, sadly). I have no mana floating, two Lotus Petals already in my graveyard and no landdrop open. My first few flips involve Lotus Petal, Lion's Eye Diamond and Infernal Tutor, so I only need to hit a Dark Ritual to win on the spot. Well, first I reveal Tendrils, then Past in Flames, then I'm down to three, but having flipped the second Lotus Petal. There's nothing left that costs more than two mana, so I keep flipping. Land, Infernal Tutor, stop. Lotus Petal, Lotus Petal, Infernal Tutor for Lion's Eye Diamond, Lion's Eye Diamond, Lion's Eye Diamond, crack for UUURRR, flashback Past in Flames, Ponder, Lion's Eye Diamond for BBB, flashback Infernal Tutor for Lion's Eye Diamond, crack for BBB, flashback Tendrils for a lot.
Game three he goes to six while I keep a slow seven. He has Leyline of the Void, Lion's Eye Diamond, land, Faithless Looting, two Narcomoebas, three Cabal Therapies and two Bridges. I get run over shortly thereafter, being one mana short of bouncing his Leyline with Chain of Vapor and then going off with Past in Flames.
We play another postboard game just for fun and he has the Looting into LED start once more. Out of ten games we played that day, he had Lion's Eye Diamonds in ten of them. If Dredge was always that solid, I'd be playing it as well.
1-2
3-1
Round Five: Arno with GWu Maverick
Another round, another friend I'm playing. What the hell? I saw him playing before so I knew what he was playing, plus I saw him putting Spell Pierces back into his board after some round. Sadly I lose the roll and he goes first.
He has a mediocre draw game one, leading with Tundra, go. I cast cantrips and ship the turn, he has Horizon Canopy, once again not casting anything. I cast more cantrips, he misses his land drop and casts Scavenging Ooze. I Probe him, see two Knights, two Swords to Plowshares, Stoneforge Mystic and Batterskull, then go off with Past in Flames.
-1 Duress
-1 Rite of Flame or -1 Thoughtseize
+2 Chain of Vapor
(To explain my boarding: I knew he had Spell Pierce in the board and I saw a naturally drawn Tundra in game one so I put him on a few counters maindeck so I figured the usual plan would be better than the fast combo route here.)
He's on the play once more, and we both keep our seven. He leads with Tropical Island into Green Sun's Zenith. I cast one of the four cantrips I have. On his turn he just goes land, go, then says something about forgetting to attack, so I put him on Aven Mindcensor. I cast Brainstorm, play a fetchland and say go. He plays a land and attacks for one. In my upkeep I fetch, and he casts Mindcensor. I grab the Badlands I put on top with Brainstorm. I go on casting even more cantrips, but fail to find any form of business. I end the game with something like six rituals and a Chain of Vapor in hand, with two Petals and a Lion's Eye Diamond on the table, beaten to death by Exalted Aven Mindcensor which I can't even bounce due to his Mother of Runes.
-3 Cabal Therapy
-1 Duress
-1 Rite of Flame
-2 Tendrils of Agony
+1 Ad Nauseam
+2 Chain of Vapor
+4 Infernal Tutor
Now that I know he has much more of the typical Maverick stuff and thus less room for countermagic (especially Force of Will), I feel it's better to aim for the early kills. I cast a cantrip on turn one, he fetches Tropical Island and casts Zenith for Arbor. I Probe him to see triple Spell Pierce with nothing else and figure it's time to go off now. Tendrils for 16 + Chain Lightning kills him from 19 life.
2-1
4-1
Round Six: Thomas with GWu Maverick
Yepp, pretty interesting matchups. I know what he's playing, win the roll, play first and almost die to his turn two Exalted Geist of Saint Traft. At four life I Ponder into Tendrils though and kill him from 21 life with a standard spell chain not involving Wishes nor Past in Flames.
-3 Cabal Therapy
-1 Duress
-1 Rite of Flame
-2 Tendrils of Agony
+1 Ad Nauseam
+2 Chain of Vapor
+4 Infernal Tutor
Didn't take notes for game two and can't remember what happened for the life of me, but I know that I went off with Past in Flames over Ad Nauseam for some reason.
2-0
5-1
With my record, I finish in third place, my round four opponent finishes second. For 4€, I got a Flooded Strand, which is reasonable I guess.
A week later, we drove to Iserlohn, Germany for the monthly tournament there. The day before the event, we played a lot of games, testing the UB Tempo deck and my Nic Fit list against some of the more important decks. For some reason, the Nic Fit list just lost to Canadian Threshold, which shouldn't really happen I think. Originally I wanted to play that deck, but I couldn't bring myself to playing a deck that lost to what is basically the most important deck in our metagame.
Grinding Station it was.
I knew I was going to play my 75 from the week before as it was really good. Faithless Looting Dredge is a rather bad matchup where I basically have to get lucky or lose, but then again, most people are prepared for it and should knock it out for me.
This was the first event in ages where I had my decklist written before the event. I even had all of the cards the evening before. I borrowed some Burning Wishes from a friend and threw them into my deck. I even gave a friend spare copies of a lot of the stuff so he could play the deck as well.
We were going with two cars, and Kevin, the guy with my cards was supposed to pick me up at 9:30 so we could drive to the event. At 9 AM, while having breakfast, one of my teammates called me to tell that Kevin wouldn't be going to the event and I had to go with them. Five people in the smallest car ever, awesome.
We arrived at the site and registered for the event which started almost an hour late. That was quite shitty for me 'cause I didn't bring too much food. Whatever.
Round One: Gerhard with Esper Control
He wins the roll and chooses to play, which I figure is good for me, as I saw him playing Stoneblade in earlier events.
We both keep our seven and he leads with Fieldmist Borderpost. Colour me confused. I lead with basic Island, Preordain. He has some Preordain himself and we play land, go for three turns. In my fifth turn I don't have land in hand and play Cabal Therapy. It resolves, I blind call Force of Will, hit two, leave him with nothing, go off with Past in Flames.
-1 Lion's Eye Diamond
-1 Burning Wish
+2 Chain of Vapor
I figure he's going to bring in some hatebears, hence this odd boarding. I also don't expect too many counters from his side, as there was a lot of white cards in his hand game one. Lion's Eye Diamond is certainly the worst card in the deck, basically it's only good with Past in Flames (in this matchup).
We both keep our seven. I open on a cantrip, he has Meddling Mage on turn two, naming Tendrils. Then he has another Mage for Burning Wish. I lose the game with two Wishes and Tendrils in hand.
I let him play first for game three and he has turn one Relic. I have Preordain, he has Preordain. Turn four, he has Knight of the White Orchid. I have Thoughtseize, he Brainstorms, I see Jace, Jace, Baneslayer Angel, Polluted Delta and another Relic. I play some rituals, Preordain, double Tendrils to play around Flusterstorm.
2-1
1-0
Round Two: Pascal with UBG-ANT
I lose the roll and he goes first. He has turn one Ponder, I lead on Gitaxian Probe to see double Dark Ritual, Infernal Tutor and three fetches. I fetch an Underground Sea and cast Cabal Therapy for Dark Ritual. On my next turn I draw Thoughtseize and take his freshly drawn Ad Nauseam. A few turns later I have three lands in play with Lotus Petal, a discard spell, Dark Ritual, Burning Wish and Lion's Eye Diamond. I cast my discard spell, see he has nothing, Ritual, Lion's Eye Diamond, Lotus Petal, Burning Wish, Telemin Performance. Oh yeah.
-1 Rain of Filth
-1 Cabal Therapy
-1 Gitaxian Probe
-1 Rite of Flame
-2 Tendrils of Agony
+1 Ad Nauseam
+1 Extirpate
+4 Infernal Tutor
Game two he leads on discard, double discard, go off with Ad Nauseam on turn three. I have Extirpate for Dark Ritual in response to his Ad Nauseam, see he brought in Xantid Swarm, then die.
Game three he opens a hand with plenty of cantrips and we throw some discard at each other. At some point I go off with Past in Flames, cast a bunch of cantrips, then go off with Ad Nauseam and win.
2-1
2-0
Round Three: Pierre with BUG Control
I win the roll, let him play, he mulls to six and leads with Creeping Tar Pit while I have a cantrip on turn one. We both do some stuff and he uses his turn three Wasteland on my fetchland, so I put him on having Loam and fetch Underground Sea. Then, on my turn, I go off and kill him with a natural storm ten chain.
-3 Burning Wish
+1 Empty the Warrens
+1 Past in Flames
+1 Tendrils of Agony
I mull to six on the draw and lead with basic Island, Preordain, which gets hit by Disrupt. Nice one. We play draw go for some turns and at one point, I resolve a Dark Ritual and then Duress him to see double Force of Will, Jace, Surgical Extraction, Liliana of the Veil, Flusterstorm and Spell Pierce. I take Flusterstorm, then cast Thoughtseize. Take Spell Pierce. Then cast Cabal Therapy for Force of Will. I cast some cantrips and realise I can't go off so I ship the turn with three cards left in hand. He casts Jace and Brainstorms with him. On my next turn I cast Probe for mana and see double Flusterstorm and Extraction. Wow. I ship the turn. He Brainstorms again. I play a land a cast Cabal Therapy on him. He responds with Flusterstorm. I pay for it and name Flusterstorm. Ship the turn. He thinks for a while after Jace Brainstorm, then casts Liliana and Extraction for Cabal Therapy. Then I go off with Past in Flames. He has Extraction for Dark Ritual, I respond with Dark Ritual, cast some cantrips, win the game.
2-0
3-0
Round Four: Alexander with Faithless Looting Dredge
I have no idea what he is playing, so when I win the roll, I let him play first. We both keep our seven, and mine is reasonable against decks where I want to draw. Turns out he is one Dredge, which is pretty shitty, especially with my hand. My turn one is Scalding Tarn. He goes off with Breakthrough on turn two and dredges into several Narcomoebas and a total of three Cabal Therapies. He heard some people talking about me casting Telemin Performance so his first Therapy names Lion's Eye Diamond, which hits. Then he has Therapy for Dark Ritual and my hand is bullshit. I draw land and scoop.
-3 Cabal Therapy
-1 Duress
-1 Rite of Flame
-2 Tendrils of Agony
+1 Ad Nauseam
+2 Extirpate
+4 Infernal Tutor
Game two we both mull to seven. Between Probe, fetch and Thoughtseize, I go down to fifteen on my first turn, leaving him with Golgari Thug, Bridge from Below, City of Brass, Gemstone Mine, Cephalid Coliseum and taking his Faithless Looting. He doesn't draw a discard outlet and I kill him.
Game three we both keep our seven again. I keep double Extirpate, Burning Wish, Past in Flames, two lands and Lotus Petal. He opens with Cabal Therapy on himself, discarding Stinkweed Imp and leaving him with triple Ichorid and Cephalid Coliseum. On my turn, I Extirpate the Imp, which was definitely the wrong play but didn't matter in retrospect. He topdecks Faithless Looting which draws him Careful Study which finds another Dredger. On his next draw step, I Extirpate his Cabal Therapies. In over 20 cards I draw in this match, I don't find a single cantrip nor a single Ritual so I lose the game.
What I should've done here was saving the Extirpates for his Narcomoebas and Ichorids, which leaves him with almost no business and gives me more time to draw relevant stuff.
Round Five: Martin with Affinity
We sat next to each other in the round before so we both know each other's decks. He wins the roll and obviously chooses to play first. While I'm shuffling his deck, a judge comes over and tells us we're being deck checked. After about ten minutes, we make a joke about the deck check taking more time than the actual deck will. A few minutes later, I get called to the Head Judge. He asks me if I know why I got called and I say no. He said that while checking my deck, he noticed there were some cards which were not double-sleeved. I'm like, oh shit, I forgot to double sleeve the Burning Wishes I borrowed and tell him how I got them only a few minutes before going to bad and simply forgot to do so. He says I should immediately sleeve them and then it's okay but I should be more careful in the future.
After eighteen minutes of deck check and interviews, we get to shuffle our decks again. Game one we both keep our seven and he opens on land, Ornithopter, Springleaf Drum. I cantrip on turn one and he goes land, Cranial Plating. Then I have triple Gitaxian Probe, some rituals, discard, Tendrils for exactly 20.
-3 Cabal Therapy
-1 Duress
-1 Rite of Flame
-2 Tendrils of Agony
+1 Ad Nauseam
+2 Chain of Vapor
+4 Infernal Tutor
Again, we both keep our seven. He has some stuff on turn one, I probe him, see Thorn of Amethyst, do some quick math and figure I'm one mana short of killing him on turn one. Then I cantrip into Chain of Vapor and say go. He has Thorn and says go. I play land, go. He taps out for Master of Etherium, attacks me for two with a Memnite, end of turn fetch, bounce Thorn, in my turn go off with Past in Flames. The match took less than ten minutes and the people next to us are still in game one. Awesome, time to get some food!
2-0
4-1
Round Six: Fabian with Punishing Fire Maverick
He wins the roll, opts to play, keeps his seven, I mull to five. He has turn one Noble Hierarch, I open on Thoughtseize and see Green Sun's Zenith, Sword of Feast and Famine, Wasteland, Wooded Foothills and another Hierarch. Obviously I take Zenith. Phew. I fail to draw business though and lose to Noble Hierarch beatdown in short order.
-3 Cabal Therapy
-1 Duress
-1 Rite of Flame
-2 Tendrils of Agony
+1 Ad Nauseam
+2 Chain of Vapor
+4 Infernal Tutor
Game two we both keep our seven. I Probe him, see Ethersworn Canonist and play Thoughtseize off Underground Sea. He goes Mother of Runes, go. I play some more cantrips, he has Sylvan Safekeeper. More cantrips, still no second land. He ships the turn with three mana open. Aven Mindcensor it is. I play Brainstorm, fetchland and say go. In my next upkeep I fetch with Brainstorm and Volcanic Island in hand. He goes Aven Mindcensor and I announce storm one. I think for some time and decide against using another Brainstorm. I don't find another land and just shuffle. Draw, cast Brainstorm, do some math, end up one mana short, ship the turn. Repeat. At this point, he has three cards in hand; a fetchland, Choke and another card I don't know. He arranges his lands and states that it's a tough decision what to play. I ask him if he doesn't think playing Choke is good and he says that made it easier. He plays Scavenging Ooze. Land, Rain of Filth, Cabal Ritual, Lotus Petal, Tendrils for eight, RBB in Pool, he goes to eleven. Lion's Eye Diamond, Burning Wish, crack LED for BBB, Tendrils for 14.
Game three he mulls to six on the play and I keep my seven. I fail to kill him on turn one and he has Ethersworn Canonist. Then he has Gaddock Teeg. Then he has Stony Silence. I fail to find Chain of Vapor, which would've easily won the game and when I'm at eight, he plays Enlightened Tutor for Choke on his upkeep and I scoop.
1-2
4-2
Round Seven: Carsten with Canadian Threshold.
I don't really want to play anymore at this point, but when I find out I'm allowed to play against Thresh, I'm super excited. Games against good Thresh players are always fun. If you play tight, you almost always win, but nonetheless, the games tend to be very interesting.
I win the roll and let him play first. No mulligans. He opens on fetch, Tropical, Nimble Mongoose. Awesome, no Delver! We play draw, go for two turns, then he taps two of his three lands to play Tarmogoyf. Nice one. I probe him to see Brainstorm, Stifle, Stifle, Wooded Foothills. Not exactly the best draw from his side. Easy. I play Brainstorm, crack a fetch, Duress for Brainstorm, some rituals, Burning Wish for Past in Flames with UUUB floating and some rituals, two Probes and two cantrips in the graveyard. Probe, draw land. Ponder, shuffle, Cabal Ritual. Brainstorm into Cabal Therapy and Tendrils, play some rituals, Therapy for Stifle, Tendrils for a bunch.
-3 Burning Wish
+1 Empty The Warrens
+1 Past in Flames
+1 Tendrils of Agony
No mulligans again. He leads with Delver. I Probe him to see Stifle, Red Blast, Red Blast, Lightning Bolt, Daze (or so). Underground Sea, Dark Ritual. Resolves. Sweet. Dark Ritual, Lotus Petal, Empty the Warrens for ten Goblins. Delver doesn't flip, Wasteland my Underground Sea, go. Swing for ten, go. Land, Tarmogoyf, go. Attack for ten, two get blocked. Draw card, concede.
We play another game for shits and giggles in which I Tendrils him down to two in my second turn. and I manage to draw another Tendrils before his two 3/4 Goyfs can kill me from 33 life.
2-0
5-2
Finished in tenth place, my teammate finished ninth on breakers. 10-3 over two events is nothing to scoff at I guess although I actually should have won game three against the second Dredge player. Happens.
I don't think I would change anything about the list as of now, and I think it's a particularly good choice for the upcoming American Legacy Grand Prix. The deck is relatively simple to play, at least for storm combo. Feel free to ask questions if you're interested.
Take care!
Re: Double Report: 5-1 and 5-2 with Grinding Station.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jona
At 9 PM, while having breakfast,
Must have been partying extremely hard the night before.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jona
We both keep our seven and he leads with Fieldmist Borderpost. Colour me confused.
He was playing a modified-for-Legacy version of a UW control deck from the wretched Alara/M10/Zendikar Standard. Pretty funny.
I like the Chain Lightning a lot.
I recall someone (probably you) mentioning Sensei's Divining Top as a possible inclusion. Did you test it out at all? If so, why didn't you like it enough to play it?
Re: Double Report: 5-1 and 5-2 with Grinding Station.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
KevinTrudeau
Must have been partying extremely hard the night before.
Whoops. Corrected that : D
Although I must say, going to bed in the morning an getting up between eight and twelve in the evening is pretty much amazing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
KevinTrudeau
He was playing a modified-for-Legacy version of a UW control deck from the wretched Alara/M10/Zendikar Standard. Pretty funny.
Interesting for sure, but it did seem a bit sketchy. I'm interested how the tournament went for him. He had some interesting cards in there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
KevinTrudeau
I like the Chain Lightning a lot.
Me too, it's really good. Likely better than Silent Departure, which I had the last time around. Burning Wish into Chain Lightning virtually increases the storm count by four when the opponent is at odd life totals.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
KevinTrudeau
I recall someone (probably you) mentioning Sensei's Divining Top as a possible inclusion. Did you test it out at all? If so, why didn't you like it enough to play it?
I had a single one in my original list, a friend of mine had two or three if I remember correctly. It can be brutal, but most of the time it's either too slow or gets countered, both of which is bad. It also often forces you to crack fetches early, which is something you don't really want to do with this deck.
I think the biggest issue is that it's bad when your blue opponents have a clock going, aka the only time things can actually go wrong against blue decks. It's also really bad against aggressive decks, I'd rather have real cantrips there.
Re: Double Report: 5-1 and 5-2 with Grinding Station.
Great work, as always Jona. Did you encounter any situations where that wishable duress would've come in handy?
Re: Double Report: 5-1 and 5-2 with Grinding Station.
No, not as far as I remember. Something like Diminishing Returns would've been nice though. And, considering I never used Grapeshot, maybe that should be Infest, although I only faced multiple hatebears once so far. But it's wishable solution for Gaddock Teeg or Canonist that goes through Mother Runes, I think that's pretty solid. I don't have a Chinese one and I'm not even sure if I have one at all, so I can't test it right now.
Re: Double Report: 5-1 and 5-2 with Grinding Station.
Well it's either infest or virtue's ruin, the destroy all white creatures for 2B, which I like over infest since the only creatures you care about are white (mindcensor, teeg, canonist, meddling mage, etc. etc.) but the good thing about infest is that it's significantly cheaper than virtue's ruin and typically fine. And it can sometimes get scavenging ooze, the only non white creature storm cares about. Overall nice list, I might play this at GP Indy although I'm not sure. Overall nice double report though.
Re: Double Report: 5-1 and 5-2 with Grinding Station.
Massacre or pyroclasm could also merit investigation. Also other storm list have used death mark.
i would do test matches with an expanded sb, and see what is more relevant, but perhaps track what -2/-2 effect you use, and why. The mana savings on massacre could be important, but people could potentially play around it if they knew it was coming. And there isn't much that i see a deathmark killing that chain lightning wouldn't handle, pyro could get snared, etc.
Re: Double Report: 5-1 and 5-2 with Grinding Station.
Sry, i'm the god in drawing perfect cards like LED,Looting,Land,Dredger :D
Re: Double Report: 5-1 and 5-2 with Grinding Station.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jona
Quote:
Originally Posted by
KevinTrudeau
He was playing a modified-for-Legacy version of a UW control deck from the wretched Alara/M10/Zendikar Standard. Pretty funny.
Interesting for sure, but it did seem a bit sketchy. I'm interested how the tournament went for him. He had some interesting cards in there.
Gerhard's deck is called Baneslayer Control and he went 1-2 Drop this tournament.
Re: Double Report: 5-1 and 5-2 with Grinding Station.
I have a stupid question. Not considering Spell Snare, why is 3 Temdrils better than some amount of Infernal Tutors in the main?
Natural Tendrils might be nice after a counter war, but Infernal Tutor looks so good tutoring the Past in Flames and then being cast from the grave getting the Tendrils.
Re: Double Report: 5-1 and 5-2 with Grinding Station.
There are two reasons:
1) Combo engines are mostly unnecessary in preboard games. You win by casting nine spells, then Tendrils.
2) Infernal Tutor gets hit by countermagic and requires you to go all in on it most of the time. That's not cool.
Re: Double Report: 5-1 and 5-2 with Grinding Station.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
dr.philgood
Massacre or pyroclasm could also merit investigation. Also other storm list have used death mark.
i would do test matches with an expanded sb, and see what is more relevant, but perhaps track what -2/-2 effect you use, and why. The mana savings on massacre could be important, but people could potentially play around it if they knew it was coming. And there isn't much that i see a deathmark killing that chain lightning wouldn't handle, pyro could get snared, etc.
What about a Damnation or does it just cost too much?
Re: Double Report: 5-1 and 5-2 with Grinding Station.
Haha, Damnation from a storm deck? Would have been awesome, but both it and massacre suffer from being uncastable when Teeg is in play, something you really don't want your anti-hatebear cards to be. Aside from Damnation almost certainly being too costly.
Re: Double Report: 5-1 and 5-2 with Grinding Station.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jona
There are two reasons:
1) Combo engines are mostly unnecessary in preboard games. You win by casting nine spells, then Tendrils.
2) Infernal Tutor gets hit by countermagic and requires you to go all in on it most of the time. That's not cool.
I aggree on the Spell Snare argument, but I don't aggree on the all-in one. Playing all your mana and then casting Past in Flame just to have it countered seems pretty bad to me. Sure you can possibly try against next turn, but I still think that the versatility of Infernal Tutor is better. It also allows faster kills against aggro. It also seems very good just doubling up on mana or protection and lying on the grave until you cast it again for your finisher.
Re: Double Report: 5-1 and 5-2 with Grinding Station.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
alyo
What about a Damnation or does it just cost too much?
What RainbowPenguin said. I think it comes down to either Infest or Virtue's Ruin with Pyroclasm being an honourable mention. Right now, I'd rather have Virtue's Ruin, if only because of equipment. Infest can set back Maverick opponents considerably though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
alderon666
I aggree on the Spell Snare argument, but I don't aggree on the all-in one. Playing all your mana and then casting Past in Flame just to have it countered seems pretty bad to me. Sure you can possibly try against next turn, but I still think that the versatility of Infernal Tutor is better. It also allows faster kills against aggro. It also seems very good just doubling up on mana or protection and lying on the grave until you cast it again for your finisher.
Sorry, I don't really see what Past in Flames has to do with this.
When we're talking about cutting Tendrils for tutors, we should consider what Tendrils does vs. what Infernal Tutor does. And the fact of the matter is that Infernal Tutor gets hit by countermagic whereas Tendrils doesn't. It's super easy to just reach storm ten naturally with this deck, and most of the time cantrips are almost as good at doing what Infernal Tutor does, if not better. So if you were to change anything, I'd rather add some cantrips, but I don't think that's a good idea.
Also, Infernal Tutor is pretty similar to Burning Wish in regards to what it gets most of the time, unless for some reason you need to double up on rituals. So before adding a single Infernal Tutor, I'd add the fourth Burning first.
Tendrils is by far the best card in the deck, I don't see why you would want to cut them. Storming someone out naturally is really hard to stop, stopping someone who casts Infernal Tutor is easy.
Regarding faster kills against aggro: This is only necessary postboard, when they get to bring in a significant amount of hate. This is why Infernal Tutor and Ad Nauseam are in the sideboard.
Re: Double Report: 5-1 and 5-2 with Grinding Station.
After some pondering I see your point. The deck has enough cantrips and mana for the natural Tendrils plan to be realistic. I like it how it attacks the metagame in a a way different from: protection, mana, mana, mana, bomb, "Don't counter it please".
Double Tendrils is actually a reasonable plan, given double cantrip and LED.
I like it how this version is not solely dependant on the grave like the "Brainfreeze versions". And how it seems to hold its own against countermagia.
I would probably play more bounce in the sideboard. It feels so miserable when Hivemind starts with a Leyline in play and a FoW in hand.
