Baking Shortcake in Jersey
A 4th Place Tale of Making Plateau more Expensive.
Our story starts with me just chilling on Saturday, completely oblivious to the fact that Invitationals slapped on a standard and legacy open. It was only until later I finally remembered they actually have legacy on Sunday and that Somerset was only an hour and a half away. So after coming back home I went to bed around 1 and woke up early to begin my trek. I missed a turn at some point because Jersey is weird about left turns and they also don’t let you pump your own gas. Strange.
I arrive at the hotel/convention center with about an hour to spare and go watch some of the standard top 8. I have absolutely no idea what is happening on either side of the table and shake my head at all the non-basics each player is running without being punished. I leave and find some DC/Baltimore area people to chill with. Ish, another Painter, shows me his new guru mountains and we lament the burn matchup.
Beyond that, nothing really happens, so here is what I registered:
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=72344
http://www.starcitygames.com/events/..._profiles.html
Everyone should know the fireblast tech by now. Activate grindstone, in response, sacrifice two mountains to put your opponent from 20 to 16!
This is the actual list:
Strawberry Shortcake:
4 Ancient Tomb
3 City of Traitors
2 Plateau
1 Great Furnace
2 Wooded Foothills
3 Bloodstained Mire
4 Mountain
4 Imperial Recruiter
4 Painter’s Servant
3 Goblin Welder
3 Simian Spirit Guide
2 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
1 Magus of the Moon
4 Grindstone
3 Sensei’s Divining Top
2 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Lotus Petal
4 Blood Moon
4 Pyroblast
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Enlightened Tutor
SB
2 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Rest in Peast
3 Firebolt
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Trinisphere
1 Manic Vandal
1 Koth of the Hammer
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Ratchet Bomb
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Sword of Light and Shadow
More or less the same list I’ve been on for a while now, with just a few small changes in the board to have more alternate threats. I’ve thought about changing the fetches to scalding tarns, but I just can’t bring myself to make my deck look like shit and run that new-border trash. I know I’ll cry a little when I see someone playing painter with new fetches and judge recruiters. This also explains the judge foil Solas I’m running, as old-brown border outweighs playing a foil. Too bad powder keg doesn’t have ratchet bomb’s text either. All I need is for wizards to print a judge old-border non-foil Painter.
Pairings go up so off we go. Almost 450 players so 10 rounds.
Round 1 vs Death and Taxes
I start off the day staring at an unimpressive 7 but let my gambling ways overcome the doubt. Five lands and two blasts. I rationalize by saying I have 10 ways to draw a painter which instantly fixes this hand. My opponent starts with mother of runes, into stoneforge fetching skull, as he had only seen mountain+fetch. Passed the first test of dodging jitte. I draw into recruiter and grab my painter. By this point I also have a third blast in hand. My opponents turn three is spent casting a revoker on grindstone. And pinging me with stoneforge. I lay my 4th land (sol) and play painter and name blue, with three counterspells at the ready. Over the next few turns my opponent plays a batterskull and starts dropping beaters like mirran crusader and serra avenger. I also manage to counter three more phyrexian revokers. Eventually I draw into a moon, bridge, and another recruiter to establish jaya. He hasn’t found a swords to plowshares so I just start going after his white sources until I find revoker and name mother. From there I kill the last revoker naming grindstone and just play the waiting game. Draw into stone a few turns later and that’s game 1.
Sb: out 2 top, 2 welder, 2 moon, magus. In: 3 firebolt, ratchet bomb, manic vandal, bridge, sword.
Game 2 is rather anticlimactic. My opponent starts on waste or port into vial, while I set up a revoker, naming said vial. No swords is played so a thalia comes down. I recruit up a painter and name blue holding an insurance blast if things ever get hairy. My opponent is mana screwed and can’t vial stuff in so I eventually play a grindstone and wait until the next turn so I have activation+blast. He tries to swords painter on the end step with only one more mana available. I just grindstone in response to win.
I was also sitting next to another shortcake player who was facing down Dragon stompy but the goblin version. Says he’s never heard of the source so I don’t ask anything else. He tried to mill out in a post-board game and hit an emrakul. He then proceeded to get curbstomped by a moggcatcher going crazy because he couldn’t cast the sudden demise in his hand off of mountain, tomb, and city. Score one for firebolt.
1-0
Round 2 vs 12-post
Game 1: I fan open a baller hand of something like stone, painter, welder, blast, monkey, mountain, tomb. I believe my opponent won the roll and started with cloudpost and I inwardly hope its mud-post so that I can still combo win. I lead mountain into welder. He plays a trop so I know that I won’t win via combo. I go with painter leaving the mountain up so I can also cast the monkey to beat with. He plays a trinket mage that I let resolve as I need to stop primeval or snt if it comes. He gets needle and names stone….Okay? I then shift my plan to keep the beatdown going but if it comes down to it I’ll try to remove the needle and grindstone him to see if he scoops or misses his shuffle triggers. I fight the good fight with two painters while countering a titan and a kozilek. He maps up an eye of ugin with a million mana and tries fetching emrakul, which is when I point to painter. That dude is no-longer colorless homie. I try welding out needle for map and winning but he says there are eldrazi so it won’t matter. After the match I ask about needle then and he says it was just a dumb mistake. I lose when I can’t find a moon and kozilek draws into emrakul.
SB: Out: 4 grindstone, 1 Welder?. In: 1 Reb, 1 Bridge, 1 Koth, 1 Sword, 1 Vandal
Game 2: I start mountain into Welder again and jam a turn two moon. That meets a force. Turn three I play petal and play recruiter into magus and jam that off another sol land. It sticks and the beats by Dre commence.
Game 3: I have an all-in turn one moon hand with only city and ssg for mana. The others were all expensive casting cards for the most part. My opponent mulls to five and leads with a post. I jam moon and it resolves. From there I wait for lands while hoping to dodge basics and ex. Map. I do and beat down again.
2-0
Round 3 vs Merfolk.
Game 1: I mull to 6 on the play and keep tomb, monkey, painter, two non-sol lands, moon. I lead turn 1 moon which resolves. My opponent goes island into cosi’s trickster and I know I’m semi-screwed since I invested my acceleration and soft counter protection into moon. No matter, I draw grindstone on my turn and play that to play around daze. Turn three I play painter to play around daze. All resolve and I activate on my turn 4.
SB: Out: 5 moon, 1 top, 2 revoker. In: Vandal, Ratchet, Blast, Bridge, 3 firebolt.
Game 2: Stone, two sol, petal, simian, mountain, recruiter. I lead stone off mountain ready to pay for daze. It resolves. Turn two I play recruiter and get painter. Turn three I hold off on the 2nd sol land to see if painter resolves first. Sometimes you can sneak a win that way because they don’t think you have the mana and will go to their turn and untap with a removal spell. Anyways painter comes in, I drop the land and win.
3-0
Round 4 vs Rug
Game 1: Lose the roll and look at mountain, mountain, fetch, stone, painter, moon, bridge. Volc into ponder for my opponent. I assume rug or sneak, with the possibility of TES. I play grindstone and it gets dazed. Rug it is. I then formulate my plan to draw out all countermagic and resolve bridge turn 4. Turn 2 replay volcanic into Delver. I draw a tomb on my turn, but want to get another daze and slow his clock so tarmo doesn’t come down his next turn. I play painter off the next mountain and it gets dazed. Turn 3 replay volc. I draw and play moon using tomb. Pierce. Flip Delver and add another creature I think? Turn 4 play a fetch and grab plateau as I had just drawn a tutor. I play bridge and it sticks! I stabilize at 11. My upkeep I tutor for moon to lock it out and prevent cantrips from drawing into bolts. Scoop time.
SB: Out: 2 revoker, 1 jaya, 1 magus, 1 top. In: 1 blast, 1 bridge, 1 rip, ratchet, 1 firebolt
Game 2: I kill off an early delver and I think a moon gets forced. Don’t remember that much about this one, but it came down to me at 5 life facing down a goose and delver. My opponent has 1 mana untapped (probably volc) and 1 card left in hand. I have a top and stone in play and on my turn draw a tutor. I have 7 mana available so I can play around daze on any line I choose, be it winning or bridge. I play tutor, grabbing painter to go for the win, as I didn’t really want to enter topdeck mode at 3-5 life without a top vs his cantrips which could also find bridge removal. Go for the win with painter and his last card is a snare.
Game 3: Very long drawn out game. Lots of draw go which definitely favors painter. I draw out some hard counters on moon and play my least appealing lands first for wasteland. I probably also get a fetch stifled at some point and I’m also killing delvers. Midway through the game I play two recruiters for welders, both of which get bolted. Recruiter does his best fog impression and soaks up some damage from a goose. Then things get complicated as he plays a needle on grindstone. So I don’t have a lot of time left. Facing down lethal in two turns I set up. Situation: Stone and top in play, with petal and blast in hand. Four lands producing five mana. I draw the painter I knew about and tap top to draw a simian. I lead petal into fetch, no stifle. get a land. Play painter naming blue. Pass the turn hoping he uses his last mana to kill painter. He rebs my painter, in response I blast the needle, then sac petal, tap mountain, and exile the monkey to win.
4-0
Round 5 vs Team America
I knew what this dude was on from random birding near the top tables.
Game 1: Win the roll and open mountain, mountain, petal, blast, painter, stone, and nonland. I go petal, mountain, stone, resolves. He ponders off a sea. I don’t draw a land, but take the gambler’s path. Play painter off mountain and name blue. I then use petal to blast his sea. If it resolves or he dazes, I still dodge two mana for abrupt decay on his next turn. Only force saves him from my draw step. It resolves and he plays a land on his turn. I have 21/52 chance to draw a mana source and get there.
SB: Out 2 etutor, 1 reb, 1 revoker. In 3 firebolt, 1 bridge, 1 rip.
Game 2: He starts with Deathrite shaman off a fetch, but I play a petal into tomb for a revoker. I had the chance for a turn 1 magus or blood but wanted to play around daze for a turn while still slowing him down. He ponders, wastes me and attacks with deathrite. No block. My turn 3 I play a city and have the choice between blood moon or magus plus a blast vs his one untapped land. I knew he had disfigures hiding in board so I chose moon. He had pierce and daze for my blast. My next blood moon and magus all get countered and he aggros me out.
SB: Out: 1 rip, 1 top. In: 2 tutor. I do this so I can be aggressive on the play.
Game 3: I think I mull and my hand is not that great. Two painters plus lands and maybe one other nonland. Anyways, I lead the painters and he is only really spending his turns cantripping. Not much is happening but my hand still sucks and his has tons of cards, so after his turn 3 I want to say, I have petal, with plateau, mountain and tomb tapped. I go to my upkeep and e tutor to dodge daze. Moon or stone would essentially be game over here but I go with stone, which in hindsight may be incorrect, as having more stones in my library would force him to deal with all the painters, compared to resolving a threat and riding it to victory t if I draw another moon. Anyways, I draw and play stone, he brainstorms for a force but doesn’t find one.
5-0
Round 6 vs Miracles (bbd)
I again know what he is on and specifically what version too (stoneforge + skulls)
Game 1: I keep a decent hand vs miracles, one with stone, a couple blasts, moon and lands I believe. I kill an early counterbalance and manage to get a moon down while he only has an island and a plains (Semifinals foreshadowing fuuuuuck). However, he plops down a keranos, I spin top but can’t find a blast. Zeus makes me his bitch and draws close to 15 extra cards over the course the game while also burning me out. Balance and basics eventually come down and its over.
SB: Out petals, etutors, magus, 1 moon, 2 more I’ll need to think on. In: Blast, ratchet, manic, koth, sword, bridge (skulls), 2 firebolts.
Game 2: I might mix some of this game up with game 3 as both were very interactive and confusing. Either way, I’m trading blasts for annoying cards like balance, firebolting a stoneforge, flashing back to snipe a jace who unsummoned a welder when the penultimate turn comes down to him with balance and top in play holding one card and having only a plains and an island untapped. I have a stone in play and another stone, tomb and a painter in hand. He only knows about the painter. I also have 7 mana in play, 9 with the tomb in hand so it works out nicely. I lead with stone. If he uses top, he won’t have any mana left to to find a two and play a white card. Blind flip reveals karakas. Resolves. Play tomb, floating city mana. Play painter emptying my hand. He spins looking for a two. Shuffles the three cards to hide the karakas, which im trying to follow via shell game. He places them back and announces trigger. A classic case of an old Western poker game staredown bluff. I don’t mill him with one of the stones and say okay. No two, painter comes in. I now have two activations so I can play around removal and win.
Game 3: Another crazy long-drawn out affair, where most of this sequencing of events is probably wrong. I have a welder doing some work swapping ratchet bomb out and protecting a revoker on his top, while blasting annoying things as usual. He ends up needling welder at some point and terminusing away my board. I draw sword and have a recruiter equip it and start beating. I try to get some value by filling my yard for the shadow part of the trigger but no dice. Sword eats a wear/tear. After some more attrition nonsense, keranos comes back out. Here is where I really mess up. During my upkeep, I top using my 5th land and see painter, recruiter, fetch. I stack in that order and draw painter and realize I messed up big time, as I would definitely go for it against his board of 1 white untapped and 1 card in hand. Now I can’t draw the 5th mana for the stone activation so I wait a turn but Keranos reveals a swords. My next turn I play painter and try to bait the swords. Keranos reveals a card and bolts painter, in response I mill and then eats a swords. Time passes, we tick down to extra turns. Based on life totals alone, keranos is scheduled to kill me on his turn 6. I resculpt for a kill going for it on my turn 3. Painter, activate stone. Swords again, I monkey blast tapping out and emptying my hand. He spins top and find another swords. Goes to my turn 5 I’m at two life and I don’t scoop because I hate that deck.
5-0-1
Round 7 vs RG Lands (Kurt)
Luckily I know what he is on, as he won the Baltimore open back in January and is from the Baltimore area where I’ve played a few times. I’ve never played against him specifically, but there are a ton of lands players in that area.
Game 1: I open up a hand that can combo turn three through double punishing fire and wasteland. I also know that if you can land a blood moon before they make Marit Lage then you auto-win, kind of like bridge vs sneak and show. I think I lose the roll though so all I have to do is dodge turn 2 Lage. I go Welder t1, into city, stone, painter turn 2. He has a diamond and exploration I think and wastes the city. I lay tomb and go to game 2.
SB: Out: 2 tops, 1 welder, 1 revoker. In: Bridge, rachet, vandal, rip
Game 2: Kurt opens with diamond, exploration, land, gamble I believe. I have petal, fetch, sol, recruiter, jaya, top in hand? Anyways, I mess up and only lay the fetch without also playing petal. His turn he plays a sphere of resistance, so now I can no longer tutor and play moon turn 2. It resolves and I draw an ssg and play a mountain my turn, going for the tutor next turn. He starts loaming. I get moon and play it. His turn he grips the moon and keeps doing his thing. I have to try playing jaya and draw into painter to stop thespian. I play painter but he makes lage in response so I can’t kill the land.
Game 3: My starting hand is pretty similar to game 1, where I have the combo and can dodge most strong openings. I end up winning in short order without much going on and feeling pretty lucky
6-0-1
Round 8 vs UR Delver
I also knew what he was on from being near the top. Sadly I knew it was not going to be fun as he had pyromancers, lavamancers, basic island, burn spells, soft counters, wasteland etc.
Game 1: I keep a hand that needs some work but has painter, welder, top to hopefully absorb some damage. He gets down double pyromancer that starts making tokens. Critical turn came when I had a moon out to prevent shuffling and had a sick jaya. He brainstorms making two tokens and finds a bolt for the jaya. Couldn’t recover after that and didn’t draw the stone to combo win.
SB: Out 5 moons, 2 revoker. In: 3 firebolt, 1 blast, 1 ratchet, 1 sword, 1 bridge. Considered Koth for surgical extraction but decided that I’d only bring him in if I a) saw extraction and b) actually won game 2
Game 2: I keep a land light hand with a welder, stone, pyro, reb, firebolt, mountain, furnace. I lead welder. Turn 2 I draw my second stone and try to get it dazed without playing my second land first. It doesn’t and I drop furnace. His turn is spend dropping wasteland and explosives on 1. He ends up blowing up my welder and stone and wasting the furnace. I draw my third grindstone and the 2nd gets countered. I try blasting his delvers and firebolting his pyromancers but he has so much soft permission I can’t get out from. I die pretty quick and he shows me a hand full of red spells if I ever mounted a comeback.
I played him while he was on Miracles at Tales of Adventure during my run so this was some sweet payback for him. He would also go on to top 8.
6-1-1
So now I’m starting to have doubts wondering how I am going to win two more rounds. I’m also wondering if 8-1-1 is even good enough, given how many players there were. In the end, 8-1-1 was good enough, and one 8-2 snuck in as the 8th seed.
Round 9 vs Sneak and Show
Game 1: I again win the roll and look at: mountain, petal, city, blast, welder, recruiter, moon. Keep. I open with my trademark mountain into welder and also drop petal. He thinks for a little bit but welder is good. I’m assuming blue based on the pause. He starts with probe, so maybe storm also. He sees my other four cards. He then gets a volcanic and ponders. Okay. At this point I am going along the same lines as my rug match. It could still be either of those two decks. I’m ruling out storm based on his pause during my turn and I put him on force of will. I draw for my turn an ensnaring bridge. Prettyyyy good. I play city and drop the bridge. He forces pitching force. So Rug or sneak for sure. I let it get countered and weld it back in for petal right away to dodge stifle+bolt from Rug. From there he starts cantripping and plays a basic island so I know he is on sneak. I put a revoker on jace just in case and eventually he show and tells in an emrakul. I put in my recruiter and grab jaya and ping him out.
SB: Out: 5 moons, 1 stone. In: 2 crypt, 1 blast, 1 bridge, 1 canonist, 1 koth
Game 2: My hand has all the tools I need to win the game, but this deck is so dumb sometimes they just ape themselves to victory. Something like land, petal, tomb, tutor, bridge, blast, blast. He starts out cantripping again while I play it safe and drop land and petal in case I need to double blast. I also drew a top. His 2nd turn is more cantripping. I play and spin top while keeping my two mana available. His third turn he starts petal and I just think oh fuck im dead but he doesn’t have a sol land. He taps out using the petal too to cast sneak, with three or four cards leftover. I use petal to tutor and grab revoker. I considered painter as well to kill the sneak outright but chose the fastest clock while also ensuring any potential rebs of his own weren’t turned on. I play revoker and start beating. I think he also needles my top at some point. I finally play the bridge in my hand as insurance. I only have one red source in play, but have a backup monkey just in case as well. When I draw into another red land I deploy the monkey for battle. My crew keeps attacking for four a turn now. At 10 life he tries to echoing truth my revoker. I counter, as I expect he is sneaking in griselbrand to draw cards. 6 life now. An important threshold. He ponders and says go. I attack to 2. He fetches and then brainstorms on his turn going to one. Show and tell. I counter, assuming griselbrand is trying to ruin my fun. It gets there. He says go and I swing out.
7-1-1
After my round I was sitting watching Dan Musser lock out Jonathan Suarez on mono-red painter. He ended up in 10th at 8-2 missing 8th seed on breakers. I chatted for a little bit and told him he should start playing shortcake over mono red, although I know he has multiple top 8s over the years with painter as well.
Round 10 vs UW Blade.
Win-and-in Time as a backup feature.
I had also seen him play earlier and saw no black cards. But he was also using mishra’s factories as equipment holders and beaters.
Game 1: I open up a decent hand but nothing crazy like I had earlier in the day in some of my matches. I play a stone and have been topping a little. I lead a painter on green without mana to activate just to at least put some pressure on him to do something. It dies and he starts pressuring me hard with creatures. I believe he fetched up a batterskull from his stoneforge and was also running maindeck meddling mages. I get a bridge down which is stalling his true name and other creatures. He is also using clique+karakas during each of my draw steps. At some point I realized I need to just start casually milling him for victory as his hand is starting to build and resolving a painter might be difficult. He gets a mage down on painter but can’t stop my two grindstones from naturally milling him out.
SB: Out 2 petal, 2 tutor, 1 moon, 1 magus, 1 welder, 1 something: In: 3 firebolts, 1 blast, vandal, bridge, koth, sword
Game 2: He starts with Leyline of Sanctity in play and a pithing needle on top. That blows as I have a topin hand and I also have a grindstone. I assume this game will be going long, which it did. I get a welder in play and start filling my own yard with my grindstone for stuff to weld top out for. During this time, he stoneforges up a sword of fire and ice and plays it. I have a painter in hand so I play it naming blue. The board at this point is something like 2 welders, revoker that was originally going to name jitte if he got it but named jace instead after the sword came, 2 grindstones and some lands. No bridge though and haven’t gotten any blasts. I end up killing a stoneforge with a firebolt and flashbacking another on a meddling mage I think. I don’t have to blast to punish him and kill the leyline when he taps out trying to equip his factory with sword and painter on blue. Game starts going long as I’m controlling sword with painter while also welding it back out so I can keep filing my yard. He eventually gets a true name and I need to weld revoker back and forth to name sword as he dealt with a painter. I finally get a bridge while he has a jace out and starts fatesealing. Time is ticking and its late and I’m under pressure to put this away for top 8 that I completely focus on killing the leyline as the path to victory. Mages are on firebolt and pyroblast and the board is so jammed with stuff. By the time I stop being dumb, jace is about to ultimate and I realize I could have stopped that a long time ago had I just reset my revoker again. I scoop with about 8 minutes left knowing I might have pissed away top 8.
SB: out 2 moon, 3 top or something like that. In: 2 tutor, 2 petal, 1 welder. Mainly for combo speed. Not entirely sure on boarding this round.
Game 3: My 7 is petal, ssg, stone, painter and three blasts. So close. I mull into painter, mountain, petal, ssg, the lonely moon, and maybe a recruiter. Time is ticking so I invoke yolo and play turn 1 moon. It resolves. He goes basic island into needle and I groan, but he names top. My lucky day. I then please the crowd with some draw go action on one land while he plays nonbasics. I draw another land and play painter on blue, as I drew a blast at some point. Play my next painter the next turn and keep beating. Time is getting pretty low now, maybe three minutes. Next draw is grindstone! Play it and blast his spell pierce praying no force. It resolves. I beat down. He plays another non basic. I hope for a land to end it and seal the deal but no dice. Swing for two. After dodging a white source for one more turn I draw a land and get there. Afterwards, my opponent’s friends who had been watching asked what he named with needle and he said top. They laid into him pretty good I felt a little sorry for him afterwards.
8-1-1
I still wasn’t sure whether I would make top 8 with that record. I knew my breakers were the lowest of people at 8-1-1. When they finally announced top 8 I heard myself at 7th. I thought I knew that most of the top 8 was something like 2 death and taxes, miracles, ur delver, stoneblade etc. It turned out to be elves, only one dnt, uwr delver, ur delver, stoneblade, miracles, painter, and lands! Somehow fortune gifted me lands as the two seed. Feel bad for him too as he would probably crush every other matchup.
I started filling out the profile summary sheet they hand out, writing Strawberry Shortcake as my archetype. Sadly it was only marked as imperial painter. I also had to ask everyone what some khans of tarkir cards were as I only knew about the fetches and everyone else was writing that. Guess I’m pretty bad about keeping up with non-legacy trends. Andrew Shrout then mentions the new Sarkhan red-planeswalker which doesn’t sound half bad. So some mono-red painter player can test it out in an aggro style deck without bridges or something. That ain’t my cup of tea and I’ll probably stick with koth.
Top 8
Round 11 vs RG Lands
Here is the writeup: http://www.starcitygames.com/events/...ong_vs_ja.html
This is also the case where he has absolutely no pressure to win since everyone expects blood moons to come through. If I lost, though, I would have never lived it down.
Game 1: I start on the draw by virtue of being the lower seed and fan open mountain, tomb, blood moon and four other cards I didn’t even care about. Just like before, if I get to a second turn I win the first game as he has no answers.
SB: Same as above
Game 2: Moon, Moon, tutor, painter, blast, blast, mountain. Ultimate risk vs reward hand. I end up rationalizing it to myself as “If I draw a sol in the next two turns I can play turn 2 moon. If I draw fetch/white, I can tutor up Painter and have painter on blue with 2 blasts ready on turn 3 or 4.” He starts off with the fast hand of mox and exploration and I get a little worried. I draw a city! So now it’s the same scenario as game 1. I just need to dodge a turn 2 Marit Lage. He doesn’t and I drop moon. I eventually get a second in play and nullify his krosan grip. Winning from there is elementary.
9-1-1
Round 12 vs Miracles
Video link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx7NXdtKJNw
I’ll just provide my thought process as everyone can watch what actually happened in the video.
Game 1: Start off solid with two blasts, lands, monkey and other stuff so I can stop turn two balance and counter a force. He gets a natural terminus after shuffling and me locking down his top but luckily I draw into another welder, painter, and stone. I take it down when he doesn’t know the welder interaction and does not make the correct play of jace-bouncing my welder.
SB: Out 2 etutor, 2 petal, magus, Welder. In: Blast, ratchet, koth, sword, bridge, vandal.
I took out one welder because it did some serious work game 1 and expected him to board in some Rips. I brought in the bridge because I didn’t want to die to a quick entreat.
Game 2: Made a mistake by not deploying the ratchet bomb and choosing revoker instead. I incorrectly assumed I would be able to deal with the clique in time and he had counterspells for both my blast and my bridge.
I also chose to let clique resolve instead of blasting again because I wanted to have two blasts ready for his next turn when I assumed he would be dropping a nasty blue card, be it either balance or jace. I was hiding two on top of my library and correctly guessed he would take the one pyro left in my hand. So next turn I used both of those to counter his balance and then died to clique.
Game 3: Open up another good hand capable of slowing him down with revoker and dealing with early blue. Also could moon punish him, which I did turn two. The obvious question mark is deploying painter, which I’ve admitted was too hasty and a mistake. I had three blasts in hand with a fourth one coming in the top three so I was hoping to play painter with one counter ready and untap with three available and go after his basic lands. It was another aggressive move where if it panned out I for sure win the game but he had the combination of cards to deal with moon, painter and drop a balance the following turn. I also should have expected a blast after wear/tear for two reasons. A) I saw him siding back in some cards which I thought might be blasts after I named blue with painter game 2. B) he tapped his basic island rather than is tundra as part of playing wear/tear. Those two signs should have led me to let wear/tear resolve so that I would still have one mana available for a blue card the following turn. Oh well, I took my shot when I could have waited and got punished.
Somehow Dan let me get out of the counterbalance lock using all my blasts which shouldn’t ever happen. I had a small window but he was able to shut it pretty quick. Everyone saw what happened afterwards so I’ll spare making this any longer.
9-2-1 good for 4th place.
I won’t be changing anything in the list. The only slot I would dabble with at all would be the sword slot, but I’ve been happy with it so far. Other things people might like are viashino heretic, another removal spell, siege-gang commander, or vexing shusher. Some other painters really like a stoneforge sideboard, which white allows you to branch out with and shore up other problematic matchups and give you a fighting shot vs Painter’s nemesis: Burn. Luckily I dodged it.
As always, props to Seth for getting me to finally switch to the white splash about a year ago, as all my best finishes with Painter (started May 2012) have been in the past 8 months. Also props to Todd Anderson for going 2-2 in washing his hands in the bathroom after going 0-1 in Baltimore in January.
As for next events, I’m targeting the next Tales of Adventure monthly at the end of September as well as Eternal Weekend in Philly at the end of October. Stop by to talk shop if anyone ever sees me as it makes events a lot more fun.
Until next time.
-Jack
Re: Baking Shortcake in Jersey
Thanks for this really detailed writeup! Amazing you got so many details. Thats the advantage of playing a relatively quick deck in tournaments!
The inclusion of your sideboarding certainly is helpful. Congrats again on making top 4.
Re: Baking Shortcake in Jersey
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Kap'n Cook
He maps up an eye of ugin with a million mana and tries fetching emrakul, which is when I point to painter. That dude is no-longer colorless homie.
It sticks and the beats by Dre commence.
Also props to Todd Anderson for going 2-2 in washing his hands in the bathroom after going
0-1 in Baltimore in January.
Great report. Love the humor too.
Congrats on the finish! A few buddies and I may be going to Eternal Weekend. I have to convince them to make the trip across the state twice in just a few weeks as we will be going to GP NJ as well.
Re: Baking Shortcake in Jersey
Thanks Jack, this post was really helpful. Tormod's Crypt isnt better than RIP when we play against lands? I ask this because they use to use the helm in g2.
Re: Baking Shortcake in Jersey
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Kap'n Cook
Ugh, the field was something like 10-40 in hand-washing, stall visits included. I'm wearing gloves the next time I touch my group-shuffled and petri-dished deck.
Re: Baking Shortcake in Jersey
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Kap'n Cook
Paint for days.
Aww yiss...
Great report. Can you explain your your aims when playing against Sneak and Show and definitely elaborate on the sideboarding choices? It's the only part that I don't really understand. :(
Re: Baking Shortcake in Jersey
Congratulation to your finish ;).
I really liked your report especially the SB strategies. Actually I also played a small tournament on saturday and made 4th with 5-1, but when I saw your finish I didn't want to post a tournament report :wink:.
Best regards
Re: Baking Shortcake in Jersey
And wrf** means "baking shortcake"??
Re: Baking Shortcake in Jersey
Tormod's crypt stops one loam and maybe zero if they cycle in response. Rip stops everything. If they get me with a helm then congrats, I'll moon lock them game 3.
Sneakshow grindstones provide utility in finding pieces with welder. Bridge, revoker and eventually the other two combo pieces. My game plan is to stall them from getting a fatty into play as long as possible. Revoke sneak and counter show and tell obviously. I don't want them drawing seven with grisel. In the meantime beating down so they get below 15 and 8 life. Then if something does come I to at, hope you have a bridge to stall until winning via jaya, koth, or 3 card combo.
Strawberry Shortcake is the name of the deck
Re: Baking Shortcake in Jersey
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Kap'n Cook
Sneakshow grindstones provide utility in finding pieces with welder. Bridge, revoker and eventually the other two combo pieces. My game plan is to stall them from getting a fatty into play as long as possible. Revoke sneak and counter show and tell obviously. I don't want them drawing seven with grisel. In the meantime beating down so they get below 15 and 8 life. Then if something does come I to at, hope you have a bridge to stall until winning via jaya, koth, or 3 card combo.
Why don't you bring in Rest in Peace?
Re: Baking Shortcake in Jersey
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Kap'n Cook
Tormod's crypt stops one loam and maybe zero if they cycle in response. Rip stops everything. If they get me with a helm then congrats, I'll moon lock them game 3.
Sneakshow grindstones provide utility in finding pieces with welder. Bridge, revoker and eventually the other two combo pieces. My game plan is to stall them from getting a fatty into play as long as possible. Revoke sneak and counter show and tell obviously. I don't want them drawing seven with grisel. In the meantime beating down so they get below 15 and 8 life. Then if something does come I to at, hope you have a bridge to stall until winning via jaya, koth, or 3 card combo.
Strawberry Shortcake is the name of the deck
I saw the video of your match against Miracles yesterday. It was really hard, but I didn't see any mistake coming from you.
Congratulations, you have no idea how helpful your report and the video were to me, because I have little experience with the deck.
I realized that you always hold mountains in t2 against Miracles, with the objective of counter the counterbalance. I guess in G3 you had the possibility of cast Servant's Painter in T2, but you didn't. Then I realized how important is counter de freaking counterbalance.
Re: Baking Shortcake in Jersey
Quote:
Originally Posted by
iamajellydonut
Why don't you bring in Rest in Peace?
Welder
