Lil' Pox, top 4/8 (split), 41 player report

The event:
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...Sunday-4.22.12

The "top 8" featured match:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaOwy6_OhKo

The deck: Lil' Pox
Get it? Lil' as in smallpox, and as in Liliana. I'm dense sometimes and needs things spelled out :tongue:

13x Swamp
4x Wasteland
4x Mishra's Factory
3x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

4x Dark Ritual
3x Funeral Charm
3x Innocent Blood
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Hymn to Tourach
4x Smallpox

3x Cursed Scroll
3x The Rack calling the deck "Lil's Rack" was also under consideration :laugh:

2x Nether Spirit
2x Tombstalker

4x Liliana of the Veil

Basically my pox deck from a million years ago, with Liliana in place of Pox.

The Sideboard:
2x Nihil Spellbomb
2x Pithing Needle
2x Ratchet Bomb
1x Duress
2x Perish
2x Engineered Plague
4x Leyline of the Void

I don't get out to play cards much anymore with work/life/wife/baby, so I figured I'd take the time to write up a report because who knows when the next time I'll get a chance to is.

This is from memory, so the details aren't exact. If any of my opponents post here and say something otherwise they're probably more accurate than I.

Round 1: Cliff, Affinity, a deck that I think should be a really hard matchup for me.

G1: I win the roll with a 10 (10 sided dice). Hand is Swamp, Wasteland, Mishra's, Liliana, Innocent blood, Cursed Scroll, Hymn, we both keep our 7. Swamp, cursed scroll, go. He shifts uneasily as he figures out what I'm playing, and it was something he never expected to be up against. After the match he admits that his hand was shaky, but he decided to keep, and had he any clue I was on pox he would have mulliganed. He drops 2 ornithopers, a red artifact land, uses it to cast frogmite. I draw swamp, but play the wasteland on his land and innocent blood a thopter away. He draws and plays mox opal, swings for 2, and passes turn. I topdeck ritual, because today is just going to be an awesome day, play swamp (instead of the mishra's, I don't want to risk getting stuck off double black), ritual out liliana, +1 discarding mishra's, he discards cranial platting... which must mean he has another one, eek! Thank goodness he doesn't draw a mana source, and frogmite knocks liliana to 2 counters. I draw and play swamp (ding ding ding, 3 mana to get cursed scroll online), hymn away the cranial platting he was holding and something else, +1 liliana (no cards in my hand prior to this) taking her to 3 to survive the frogmite, and pass turn. The game is over at this point with an active liliana and cursed scroll.

I board in 2 pithing needles and 2 ratchet bombs. I think I take out a swamp, a rack or two (because I expect him to thoughtcast a bunch, and the damage to be too slow) , and … something else shrug.

G2: I think I mulligan and he keeps his 7. He starts with vaultskirge, memnite, and a land. I start with a funeral charm on the skirge, and from there he plays 1-2 things a turn and I kill 1-2 things a turn (maybe with a smallpox in there somewhere). Eventually I get lil online but he has an active skirge in play. He rips cranial platting and dispatches lil, and I think I rip a cursed scroll with 1 card in hand and have the mana to get rid of the skirge, and control the game from there. He did manage to get me down to 12 life in the process though.

Phew! Glad to have gotten that win under my belt to start the tournament. Cliff was a really cool guy. His wife's pregnant so he was lamenting that this might be his last turney for a while. I said I've got an 8 month old at home and managed to make it out today. He asked what my secret is, which I shared with him, “it's a triple header of just keep asking to wearing her down, while being helpful around the house and buying her things.”

Round 2: Brandon, R/U delver snapcaster deck, something that I think I might be okay against, until I realize he's got a good amount of burn and snaps it back and might just burn me out of the match.

G1: I win the roll again, going first is a blessing. I forget exactly what I start with, but it includes 2 lands and a funeral charm and other goodies. I might have mulliganed. I play swamp and pass the turn. He plays fetch into volcanic into goblin guide and gets in for 2 damage while I reveal a land (yay, free card!). I funeral charm him before the end of his turn, and he reads the card twice, then asks me what I'm doing (he discards stifle I believe). I hymn him, or inquisition and waste or something. Goblin guide gets in again for 2, and I get another land, then draw innocent blood. He drops delver. I hymn and he brainstorms some stuff onto the top of his library. His deliver flips off a force and he got me down to 6 before cursed scroll got online to clear his board. Somewhere along the way I got some more free land from another goblin guide which ran into the Nether Spirit (I remember him looking at my grave and seeing a mishra's and halfheartedly asking “that doesn't count as a creature, does it?”). Spirit and Scroll get the job done before he can find the burn to finish me off.

I board in 2 nihil spellbombs, and I think that's it (might have brought 1 ratchet bomb in for a swamp). I pulled out 2 The Rack, because I didn't know wtf else to take out.

G2: He starts with land, goblin guide, swings, I draw my free land. The details are fuzzy, but I'm never in any real danger, his stuff dies as fast as it comes out, I get a liliana at some point that eats a bolt and absorbs some damage for me, and the one rack I left in ends up doing most of the damage to him. The spellbomb thwarted his snapcaster and drew me a mishra's which helped the rack get those last few points in. I could tell once the rack came down and he had 2 cards, no creatures, and 2 lands in play that he wasn't feeling very good about his chances.

So I'm 2-0, haven't lost a game, and beat two decks that I think should probably be tough matchups for me. I'm feeling good.

Round 3: Derek playing RUG delver. Ah, a matchup that's in my favor, finally.

G1: Derek wins the roll and beats the snot out of me. I think I see 3 delvers that I eventually deal with (one with a funeral charm before it can flip), he stifled a wasteland, he drew 2 mongoose which were getting across for 4 a turn (he pondered a few times, fetched, etc) before I could finally stabalize with liliana and a clear board, no cards in his hand … and me at one life. It was only a matter of time before he drew some burn, and that amount of time was exactly 0 seconds as bolt was his next card.

WTF am I going to beat all the decks I should lose to, only to lose to all the decks I should beat?! The high I've been feeling is wearing off a little and I'm worried my day of kicking butt and taking names is about to draw to an end.

I side in 2 perish, 2 nihil spellbomb, and think about the duress but decide against it when I can't figure out what I want to remove for it. All 3 racks come out (I probably sided them out too much, and bring 2 back in for game 3), and I can't remember what the 4th was.

G2: I open with ritual into inquisition, seeing 2 delver, a mongoose, stifle, ponder, spell pierce, and a tropical, pluck the spell pierce, and hymn away the tropical like a boss. He doesn't draw a land for 3-4 turns and this game is over before it's started. Tombstalker helped close the game out quickly. I remember when I cast stalker he read it wondered for a moment if he could stifle the delve, but he was pretty sure he couldn't (I was super sure he couldn't) and the game was really already over anyways.

G3: I kill everything he puts out, get a rack in play, destroy his hand, and win the game at 20 life.

Okay, that's more like it. This show is back on the road!

Round 4: John, combo elves.

G1: I win the roll and keep a risky one land hand with ritual and liliana. The land is urborg, tomb of yawgmoth, and I'm just praying that my opponent doesn't wasteland it and deal with liliana leaving me up the creek without a paddle. He doesn't, he plays a creature which I have an answer for, and liliana goes to work. Everything is going great, liliana gets up to like 7-8 counters, neither of us have a hand, we both have a few lands in play, and then I draw about 8 lands out of the next 10 cards (with one of those other cards being a ritual) and basically -2 lil into oblivion while he just draws more and more gas. Emrakul joins the party and does mean things to me.

I side in 2 perish, 2 engineered plague, and 2 ratchet bombs. I think I take out 2 rack, a swamp, 2 inquisition, and …. something else. In retrospect I probably should have taken out the hymns and left the inquisitions in to snipe the key cards out of his hand, but when you read game 3 those hymns did just fine.

G2: I got first, and start with ritual into liliana again. I stall at swamp and wasteland (the 2 lands in my starting hand), and at one point I wasteland his cradle because I'm worried about him going off. Flash forward 20 turns and liliana has 20+ counters on her and this game is over. I +1'd away all of my awesome hate when I was at 1-2 lands, and was just hoping it didn't come back to bite me like in game 1, but 20 counters on liliana was plenty, and when I did finally get land it wasn't 8 at once.

G3: Probably the longest game I played of the tournament. I started with funeral charm on his first dude into double hymn, and then I ripped and cast a 3rd hymn. I kept him with no hand, and pretty much killed whatever hit the table. At one point I drew a 2nd lil, the one on the table was at 2 loyalty and he had a creature and 1 card, so I -2 to get the creature, dropped the new lil, and +1'd to get the card. We trade back and forth where he gets an attack or two in (eventually dealing with lil), I get a mishra across, and eventually the rack comes down. But he keeps getting a wirewood symbiote to return his draw a card elf. I'm at 9, he's at 3, and I'm starting to worry that he's going to pull this off, despite the game going on for 100 turns and me dealing with 70% of his deck already. I've used both perish, both ratchet bombs, and I'm wishing with all my might to get a cursed scroll or the last hymn or an engineered plague or a tombstalker!! I eventually get him to 2, and then get a funeral charm, but I've foolishly sac'd my urborgs to smallpoxs and lil's +1 ability, so I can't sneak across with swampwalk. But making him discard basically gets the job done (although I should have killed the wirewood that was in play instead, I spaced and was thinking it could return itself). Thank you The Rack, and deck why did you have to make this one such a nail biter?!? Soo many cards I could have drawn to end the game 20 turns earlier.

4-0, aaaaaaaaah yeeeeah. When John's friends asked him what he played against his answer was “I'm not sure … anti-elf.deck?”

I step out to get some air and hear a group of people talking about pox. When one guy sees me he yells out “Yeah representing with pox! You've beaten all my friends, you're the talk of the tournament!”

That guy's name was Chuck, and as fate would have it the other two 4-0 people get paired against each other (and draw), and I get paired down against Chuck who's 3-1.

Chuck, laughing, “oh man, looks like I spoke too soon!”

I know he's playing maverick, and he definitely knows I'm playing pox. Chuck decides he'd rather take a draw with me if I'm up for it (which would pretty much secure my spot in the top 8) and have to win his next match against anyone else in the tournament so that he could make top 8. Sounds good to me so we draw.

4-0-1

Next round I draw against Weston (one of the other 4-0-1 players) who's playing Storm. Chuck pulls off a small miracle to win against infect/berserk deck. Game 1 the guy scoured his hand turn 1, then Chuck ripped maze off the top, which bought him enough time to get a win. He lost the second game, and then game 3 he managed to cast 2 swords to plowshares and 1 path to exile in the first few turns when the guy tried to go off.

4-0-2

We all decide to split the top 8, take our prize money, and go home. But it takes them a while to get the money ready, and they tell me that I was about to be the featured match on camera against Matt (playing MUD) so he and I decide to play it out for fun on camera, since they had spent all day setting up the featured match area and I couldn't just let it go by unused. The mood is light since we've already agreed to split, and Matt seems like a nice guy. Unfortunately for him he has to mull down to 5 cards both games, which isn't a great starting point against pox. You can check out the match in the link up at the top of this post.

All in all a fun day of magic.