[Report] Winter Wonderland UGr Thrash Top 4

01/05/08 2 Beta Tundra Winter Wonderland Top 4 Report

I have always wanted to play in a NY event because of how close it is to my school. I came back off winter break a weekend early so I could travel down south to see how I would fare against some of the big NY names from The Source. Too bad I don’t have a car or a license. I got lucky enough that the only other MTG player at my university is Lam Phan, Legacy GP top 8er and Legacy mastermind. We decided to make the trip down, an easy 2 hour drive.

Here is the list that I used for the event, Lam and I ran almost the same lists:

UGr Thrash

2 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
1 Wooded Foothills
4 Volcanic Island
4 Tropical Island
4 Wasteland

4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Stifle

4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Spell Snare

4 Tarmogoyf
4 Nimble Mongoose

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Fire//Ice
1 Rushing River
1 Wipe Away

SB:
3 Krosan Grip
3 Pyroclasm
2 Trygon Predator
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Pyroblast
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Teferi’s Response


So far I have ran this list (or within 2 cards) in 7 events (Ranging in size from 30-900). These 7 events led to Gencon Top 4, Gencon Prelims Top 8, Toronto win, GP Columbus day 2, Mississauga top 4 Split, Mississauga top 4 Split and finally this event. 7 for 7. I really enjoy playing this deck, and as such I will most likely be writing a primer to come out in the next few days.

Anyways, onto the event. Because I wasn’t originally planning on writing a report, there are probably more than a few mistakes, let me know so I can correct them.


Round 1:

Tariq: U/W Landstill

He wins the die roll.

Game 1: I lay a turn 1 or 2 goose, and spell snare his Hoofprints, a card I was very surprised to see. I drop another goose shortly after and end up beating down with the pair. He wraths my board, and I finish him off with a burn spell.

Sideboard:
+2 Trygon Predator +2 Red Elemental Blast +2 Pyroblast
-2 Lightning Bolt -2 Fire//Ice -1 Wipe Away -1 Rushing River

Game 2: This isn’t even a game. I am on the draw and he plays a non-basic. It gets wasted and he fails to see a long for a LONG time. When he eventally gets one, I have a goose and a Predator. He tries to STP my predator which I counter. I end up icing his factory for the win. He was never in this game, he didn’t have another land till around turn 4 or 5.

Tariq was an awesome opponent; I had a nice chat with him, very nice guy. He got horribly mana screwed game 2, and wasn’t too sore about it.

Match: 1 – 0
Games : 2- 0

Round 2:

Matt: R/W/G/B Survival

Now, you NYers may be surprised, but I have never played against survival before, I barely knew how it worked, but I definitely learned by the end of the day :P. Needless to say, this metagame is different than anything I have played in before.

He wins the die roll

Game 1: I don’t even find out what he is playing. I get to see a therapy, and a birds I think. I also see the colors of his deck. He drops a goyf at one point which I end up burning away after he tries to block my goyf. He stps my goyf a couple of turns later, and I drop another. He dies with about 3-4 lands and a grip of about 5 cards. I figure he is holding dead cards of some sort, so I take a wild guess in survival.

Sideboard:
+2 Trygon Predator +1 Krosan Grip
-1 Ponder -1 Nimble Mongoose -1 Wipe Away -1 Rushing River

Game 2: He plays first with a Thoughtsieze, he deals a whole bunch of damage to himself with fetches and Siezes. I get a goyf down, which he stps. He then lays a survival which I counter. A second goyf comes down. He tries to STP it, and I rushing river it back. I replay it and burn to seal the deal.

This match wasn’t too exciting because of all the dead cards he was holding like FTK with no red, Genesis, Squee ect.

Match: 2 – 0
Games : 4 – 0


Round 3:

Zuhair (Zulander): Eva Green

I am piggybacking your report a little here, but a few things are incorrect about our match.

He wins the die roll.

Game 1: He plays first and leads off with a Thoughtsieze, which he sees stifle, waste, trop, spell snare, daze, ponder and brainstorm. He takes the stifle. On his second turn he plays a seal of primordium which is absolutely dead against my deck, so I let it resolve. He plays a sinkhole which I spell snare, and a hymn which also gets snared, I had 1 in my hand that he saw with the thoughtsieze, and drew another. He plays a Tombstalker which I force. I then played a mongoose which went to town 4 times with a burn spell to seal the deal. I never saw any snuff outs in this match from him, but according to his report he was topdecking them when he needed a creature.

Sideboard:
+1 Teferi’s Response (Great against Sinkholes + Wastes)
-1 Ponder

Game 2: He plays first and goes ritual hippie, to which I have a nice 2 for 1 answer in Volc + Bolt. Eventually I drop a mongoose which he matches with a tombstalker then a Shade. I swing my goose into his tapped stalker and untapped Shade. He blocks, then pumps, which I stifle. I drop a goyf. I wipe away his Stalker on my next turn, and swing for the win.

Another fun opponent. My hands were quite good for this game and I drew all the answers I needed. His land destruction can be quite difficult for my deck to deal with normally.


Match: 3 – 0
Games : 6 – 0

Round 4:

Colin (Di): R/W/G/B Survival

I win the roll. Finally!

Game 1: I am able to see the true power of survival here. He plays a nice therapy, naming spell snare, which hits 2 of my key cards. He lands a survival and goes nutz.

+2 Trygon Predator +2 Krosan Grip
-1 Ponder -1 Nimble Mongoose -2 Lightning Bolt -1 Rushing River

Game 2: He mulligans and drops a taiga -> bird. I am figuring that the taiga is his only mana source, because he would have probably dropped a fetch if he had it to avoid stifle. I waste his land, he doesn’t have another land drop. He Thoughtsiezes me to take my Fire//Ice, and then I topdeck another to kill his birds. He gets no mana, So I win.

Game 3: According to his report he makes a play mistake which costs him the game. I bolted his forest -> birds. He lays a bayou and goes for a goose with a therapy in the yard. I waste his bayou, he plays his survival which I get the honor of dazing. My 2 goyfs go onto win the game.

Match: 4 – 0
Games : 8 – 1


Unfortunately for you guys the next two rounds are boring. 4-0s can double draw into the top8.

Round 5:

John (Mulletus)
ID
Match: 4 – 0 – 1
Games : 8 – 1

Round 6:
Can’t remember who it was
ID
Match: 4 – 0 – 2
Games : 8 – 1


Top 8 is announced, I did not get to see where I was in the standings, but Lam and I were in different brackets.

Quarterfinals:

Phil Stolze (legacyplayer0): BHWC? Landstill U/W/G/B

Game 1: I land a pair of mongeese. He eventually gets enough mana and graveyard to keep a monastery out to stop my geese and stabilized at 1 life. He accidentally showed me his hand, where I saw a counterspell, so I bolted him while he was tapped out. He managed to stabilize at 1 life, getting a crucible in play, a nantuko monsatry and a handful of countermagic .

Sideboard:
+2 Trygon Predator +2 Red Elemental Blast +2 Pyroblast +2 Korsan Grip +1 Teferi’s Response
-3 Lightning Bolt -3 Fire//Ice -1 Wipe Away -1 Rushing River -1 Ponder

Game 2: I land a couple of Nimble Mongeese which he can’t deal with. I played a goyf, which he Swordsed. My two mongeese proved to be too strong for the landstill matchup.

Game 3: I keep my mana open and play the control route instead of dropping my geese. I end up stifling some lands, wasting others, and eventually drop those geese. he tries to brainstorm out of the situation, but a pair of blasts stop the brainstorm and the force. They finish him off when I have a grip for his first deed, and a force for the second.

A pleasure to play against you. Nothing but nice things to say.

Match: 5 – 0 – 2
Games : 10 – 2


Semi-Finals

Colin (Di): R/W/G/B Survival

Game 1: He drops a teeg which I leave because it doesn’t really affect me. He then names some really good cards with a therapy, and a nice flashback with the teeg. He lays down a survival on turn 3 and wrecks me.

+2 Trygon Predator +2 Krosan Grip
-1 Ponder -1 Nimble Mongoose -2 Lightning Bolt -1 Rushing River

Game 2: I get infinite wastes and stifles to try to disrupt his mana, which is eventually successful. I use a mongoose and slowly beat down. He drops a goyf or a mongoose so that we trade with the help of a burn spell. I drop a trygon predator which I believe he shriekmawed. I brainstorm and hit a goose and goyf to take the game by stifling a shriekmaw.

Game 3: I am still hurting from this. He mulls to 5 on the play. I keep a decent hand with a daze, 2 geese, waste, grip ect. He gets really luck and names the daze on the cabal therapy, and flashes it back for grip. He lays a survival and pulls the game. I try to ice his lands to hold him off of dropping blockers, but it doesn’t help.

Match: 5 – 1 – 2
Games : 11 – 4


We played twice in the day, and I had a good time in all our matches, it was good to play an experienced survival player.



This was an awesome event. I enjoyed meeting new people from NY, and would love to come back. The prize structure was really good, and the room was not too cramped, although the washrooms were pretty far. The event was a 2 hour drive from school, but it was very straightforward and easy to find.


Props:
- Lam Phan for the ride and for winning
- All my opponents for being fun and good spirited
- This deck, for being so consistently amazing
- Teferi’s response, for being hilarious
- Awesome prize structure

Slops:
- Pretty much just the washrooms being so far away


Hope this report is alright, I am not used to writing them. If anyone wants to ask questions about the deck or ask about card decisions PM me for my MSN or AIM.

-David

Di's name is not Alan, it's Colin.

For some reason it won't edit. I will fix it when I can. Sorry Colin.

Edit: Fixed!

Congrats on the finish, hope to see you guys at the Running GAGG event. It's only about another hour from Syracuse.

Off topic: Out of curiousity, where do you go to school, Potsdam area?

We are in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. 3 hours is a little long for a drive, but there is a possibility.

Grats on the finish. I hope to never play against multiple spell snares in a row again.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by goobafish

We are in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. 3 hours is a little long for a drive, but there is a possibility.

---

Huh. I thought Kingston was further away than that. Guess I drive slow.

I believe you switched our game 1 and game 2. I also remember your sideboarded REB's being very bad for me.

You're right. I had the life totals for game 2 above those of game 1. Thanks. The blasts were amazing against your brainstorms. I think i blasted 2 brainstorms and blasted a force as well.

Can you explain the philosophy behind playing Wasteland, Stifle, and Spell Snare? Is it to just cut your opponent off of mana or is there something more subtle that I am missing? I'm interested in this build, but I don't know how you decide whether to keep mana open for Stifle or Snare, but still play cantrips like Ponder? Do you find the limited number of cantrips enough to build Threshold for Mongoose?

All that will be covered in my primer that is coming out, if you would like faster answers then you can PM me for my MSN or AIM.

Great report Dave and nice work on the top4. I had a really great time playing against you, both in the swiss and in the top4. We had some really fun games. Also, I have to give you credit, as you have a much stronger list against Survival than any other Threshold deck I've ever seen. Generally I just blow right by them with ease, but in game 3 of round 4 and in the top4 I was quite worried going up against you because your deck was so appropriately tuned to do well against me, and it's quite a solid build. But not Lam, no way. Instead, he will draw 4 Force of Wills and 100 Tarmogoyfs will I play draw,go and fap myself lol. Good times, and I hope to see you guys soon.

Also, would you be able to post the changes from your list and Lam's? We need them for the Top8 thread, and all we need now are his and one else's (Mulletus, I believe? John post the fucking deck).

Good job !

Thanks for the list(s)... can't wait for the primer. In the meantime, I'll give your list a try.

EDIT: By the way, nice report, short and to the point.

Grats to the many successes with the deck.

I hope some people will now take notice of the list and see how good tempo/denial Threshold can be without the Counterbalance engine everybody is now focused on.

I would love that primer... any link on it?

Jourdelune necroing for reason!

Haha. What a coincidence. I have just started working on the primer today, it is 4 pages long already. I will link it when it is up.

Edit: It will be up on MagicEternal when it is ready, should be within the next 5 days.