[Deck] The Rock

Here's the breakdown of a large Italian tournament. Results should show what we'll be up against.

Liste top8 e deckbreackdown
Ringrazio Anda semplicemente un angelo per la collaborazione nello svolgere questo meticoloso lavoro:

36 maverick
29 Merfolk
25 zoo
24 Candian
23 Ant/Tes
21 Spiral Tide
19 NO RUG
13 reanimator
13 dredge
12 NLU
12 burn
11 Thopter Combo
11 Team America
9 Belcher
8 rock
8 MUD
8 Bant
7 URG Control
7 goblin
6 landeed
6 hive mind
6 affinity
4 White Weenie
4 Team Italia
4 sneack attack
4 junk
4 Caw Blade
3 Stiflenought
3 pikula
3 Pattern Combo
3 Faery Stoneforge
3 Eva Green
3 enchantress
3 Elf Combo
2 UW Control
2 show and tell
2 Painter
2 Landstill
2 Infect
2 Dragon Stompy
2 Dark *****
2 Aggroloam
1 White Stax
1 UR Ninja
1 Ur control
1 stoneforge TA
1 Splinter Twin
1 show and tell NO
1 most
1 Mono U
1 Mono Black
1 Mesmeric Orb Combo
1 eureka.deck
1 dream halls
1 Defense NO
1 Dark Depths
1 cephalid breakfast
1 Birting Pod
1 Aluren

Liste: http://magictutor.org/library/tournament/259

1° Classificato - Marcotti Davide con Team America
3 Delver of Secrets
2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Tombstalker
4 Brainstorm
3 Daze
2 Dismember
4 Force of Will
1 Ghastly Demise
1 Go for the Throat
4 Hymn to Tourach
2 Ponder
3 Thoughtseize
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Bayou
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Polluted Delta
2 Tropical Island
4 Underground Sea
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Wasteland
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
SIDE
1 Llawan, Cephalid Empress
3 Extirpate
1 Ghastly Demise
1 Go for the Throat
1 Krosan Grip
1 Spell Pierce
1 Life from the Loam
2 Perish
1 Thoughtseize
2 Pernicious Deed
1 Nihil Spellbomb

2° Classificato - Sartini Roberto con Other - Aggro
2 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Noble Hierarch
3 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Vendilion Clique
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Lightning Bolt
4 Punishing Fire
3 Ancestral Vision
3 Ponder
1 Forest
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Mountain
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Taiga
3 Tropical Island
3 Volcanic Island
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
SIDE
2 Krosan Grip
2 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Spell Pierce
3 Submerge
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Pithing Needle
2 Relic of Progenitus

3° Classificato - Milillo Andrea con Thopter Combo
1 Trinket Mage
4 Brainstorm
1 Counterspell
2 Enlightened Tutor
4 Force of Will
1 Path to Exile
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Firespout
2 Wrath of God
4 Counterbalance
1 Engineered Plague
1 Moat
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sword of the Meek
3 Thopter Foundry
1 Academy Ruins
1 Arid Mesa
4 Flooded Strand
3 Island
1 Mountain
2 Plains
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Tropical Island
3 Tundra
1 Volcanic Island
3 Jace, the Mind Sculpto
SIDE
3 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Blood Moon
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Batterskull
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Tormod's Crypt

4° Classificato - Fedeli Lorenzo con Spiral Tide
4 Brainstorm
3 Cunning Wish
2 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
4 High Tide
1 Intuition
1 Meditate
1 Pact of Negation
4 Turnabout
4 Merchant Scroll
2 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Time Spiral
2 Candelabra of Tawnos
2 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Flooded Strand
12 Island
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
2 Scalding Tarn
SIDE
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Brain Freeze
1 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Meditate
1 Mindbreak Trap
1 Pact of Negation
1 Ravenous Trap
1 Rebuild
1 Snap
3 Spell Pierce
2 Wipe Away

5° Classificato - Giarola Andrea con G/W Aggro
3 Aven Mindcensor
1 Birds of Paradise
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Mother of Runes
3 Noble Hierarch
2 Qasali Pridemage
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Scryb Ranger
3 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Green Sun's Zenith
2 Sylvan Library
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Dryad Arbor
2 Forest
1 Gaea's Cradle
2 Horizon Canopy
1 Karakas
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Plains
4 Savannah
4 Wasteland
4 Windswept Heath
2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
SIDE
3 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Faerie Macabre
1 Gaddock Teeg
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Qasali Pridemage
2 Krosan Grip
3 Choke

6° Classificato - Blasi Matteo con Threshold Ugr (Canadian)
4 Delver of Secrets
3 Nimble Mongoose
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
2 Dismember
4 Force of Will
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Spell Snare
4 Stifle
4 Ponder
2 Flooded Strand
4 Tropical Island
4 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Fire/Ice
SIDE
2 Krosan Grip
2 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
3 Spell Pierce
3 Submerge
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Mind Harness

7° Classificato - Scalchi Massimo con RUG Order
2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Progenitus
1 Scavenging Ooze
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Vendilion Clique
4 Brainstorm
3 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Spell Pierce
3 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Natural Order
1 Sylvan Library
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Forest
1 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Mountain
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Taiga
4 Tropical Island
2 Volcanic Island
3 Wooded Foothills
2 Fire/Ice
SIDE
2 Magus of the Moon
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Divert
1 Krosan Grip
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Submerge
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

8° Classificato - Moyschewitz Fabian con Threshold Ugr (Canadian)
4 Nimble Mongoose
4 Tarmogoyf
1 Vendilion Clique
4 Brainstorm
4 Daze
2 Dismember
4 Force of Will
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Spell Snare
4 Stifle
4 Ponder
2 Flooded Strand
4 Tropical Island
4 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Fire/Ice
SIDE
1 Krosan Grip
2 Red Elemental Blast
3 Spell Pierce
3 Submerge
1 Pyroclasm
2 Mind Harness
3 Tormod's Crypt

-Matt

Top 4'd in a 26 man tournament yesterday with this.
Dudes
4 Goyf
4 Bob
4 KOTR
1 Scavenging ooze
Non-dudes
4 Hymn
4 Thoughtseize
1 Inquisition of kozilek
4 vindicate
4 Swords to plowshares
3 pernicious deed
3 Top
Lands
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Marsh Flats
3 Scrubland
3 Bayou
4 Wasteland
1 Karakas
1 Maze of ith
1 Tower of the magistrate
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 swamp
S.B.
3 extirpate
3 worldly tutor
1 kataki
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 teeg
1 Thrun
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
3 Timely reinforcements

My matchups were
R1 Goblins Lost 2-1
R2 Elves won 2-1
R3 elves won 2-1
R4 reanimator won 2-0
R5 Mirror(GSZ build) won 2-0
top 8 Reanimator(from round 4) won 2-1
top 4 Merfolk lost 2-0

Seems like the non GSZ builds do blow-out the GSZ builds, from what I've seen/seen reported. Interesting.

Right now, I want to try this:

3 SFM
3 Goyf
3 Knight
4 Dark Confidant
1 Ooze
1 Birds of Paradise

4 Thoughtseize
4 Swords
3 Hymn
3 Vindicate
3 Top
3 GSZ
1 Batterskull
1 SoFI

4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Windswept Heath
2 Marsh Flats
1 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Plains
3 Bayou
3 Scrubland
1 Savannah
3 Wasteland
1 Karakas
1 Maze
1 Dryad Arbor

-Matt

How were the Worldly Tutors? I saw you playing them and wasn't sure if it was traditional Junk or some weird toolbox build. Do you prefer it over Enlightened Tutor?

And other than the obvious Burn matchup, what were the Timely Reinforcements for?

Congrats on the finish. I played against combo all day (Elves, Elves, Dredge, Sneak Show, Elves???) and did much worse than I would have liked. Getting a game loss for having my deck in the same container as my EDH deck and then mulling to 4 on the play against Dredge wasn't very fun D:

Worldly tutor was fantastic because even though it is card disadvantage it allows me to get my silver bullets a turn before green sun and I can get non-green as well. In game three of the quarters I opened on Extirpate and tutor with my opponent being the reanimator player and he played turn one thoughtseize and I responded with the tutor for scavenging ooze and played it turn two knowing that if he didn't reanimate a dude next turn ooze wins the game and it won the game on it's own.

The timely reinforcements also come in against zoo and goblins because the three chumps can really go along way so I can deed then drop a fatty that takes over the game.

Here is what I am playing next weekend in KC.

//Artifact
3 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Mox Diamond

//Creatures
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Knight of the Reliquary

//Enchantment
1 Pernicious Deed

//Instant
4 Swords to Plowshares

//Sorcery
4 Vindicate
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Thoughtseize

//Planeswalker
2 Liliana of the Veil

//Land
4 Wasteland
4 Scrubland
2 Bayou
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Marsh Flats
1 Maze of Ith
1 Swamp
1 Karakas
1 Riftstone Portal
1 Forest
1 Plains

SB: 1 Bojuka Bog
SB: 4 Engineered Plague
SB: 4 Leyline of Sanctity
SB: 1 Pernicious Deed
SB: 3 Extirpate
SB: 1 Scavenging Ooze
SB: 1 Nihil Spellbomb

The only thing I am going back and forth on is adding in between 1 or 2 Dark Depths and 2 or 3 Vampire Hexmages. Just not sure. I want to see what happens this weekend.

I see the interaction with Liliana but is Riftstone Portal that usefull? I'd rather have a Volrath's Stronghold if you want one more colorless land (or Depts & co).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mdc1010

Here is what I am playing next weekend in KC.
The only thing I am going back and forth on is adding in between 1 or 2 Dark Depths and 2 or 3 Vampire Hexmages. Just not sure. I want to see what happens this weekend.

---

I would advise playing either some type of graveyard hate in the main (bog seems best as there is no other form of tutoring in your list) or including more Deeds or Pulses over some number of Vindicates. Reanimator and Dredge are both real decks and you're cold to them game 1 (Dredge - Tokens - more-so than Reanimator - Iona who has started seeing her way back into some of list's maindeck and white is still devastating... even with 2 Lili and a Karakas in your list). post board you should be able to take a game or 2 but why risk it?

I'd also be worried about Zoo with the 75 but that's just me. Anywho, I'll be down there as well. So "Good Luck." I hope if we play, it's a great game on both sides.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sdematt

Seems like the non GSZ builds do blow-out the GSZ builds, from what I've seen/seen reported. Interesting.

Right now, I want to try this:

3 SFM
3 Goyf
3 Knight
4 Dark Confidant
1 Ooze
1 Birds of Paradise

4 Thoughtseize
4 Swords
3 Hymn
3 Vindicate
3 Top
3 GSZ
1 Batterskull
1 SoFI

4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Windswept Heath
2 Marsh Flats
1 Swamp
1 Forest
1 Plains
3 Bayou
3 Scrubland
1 Savannah
3 Wasteland
1 Karakas
1 Maze
1 Dryad Arbor

-Matt

---

Ran almost that exact list this weekend. Felt pretty solid, despite a pretty terrible day. Drawing against Enchantress and ZeRo back-to-back makes me sad. Also makes me play like a microwaved turd in the last round.

What did you play against. Ending record? Where you at the GP? I've got tons of questions regarding what happened but I'll start there.

I've had bad luck as well against enchantress. I typically take game 1 but games 2 & 3 end up poorly. I don't know if it's my boarding practices or the fact that they seem to get double Grove or Karmic+Justice Grove. How'd they take it against you? Are you running Deed out of the board? Did they stop the discard with Confinement?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by damionblackgear

What did you play against. Ending record? Where you at the GP? I've got tons of questions regarding what happened but I'll start there.

I've had bad luck as well against enchantress. I typically take game 1 but games 2 & 3 end up poorly. I don't know if it's my boarding practices or the fact that they seem to get double Grove or Karmic+Justice Grove. How'd they take it against you? Are you running Deed out of the board? Did they stop the discard with Confinement?

---

Oh not at the GP, just a small local tourney. Saw CounterTop Thopters (won), Enchantress (Draw), ZeRo (Draw), Burn (loss, stupid mistake on my part).

I thought I had enchantress Game 1 after Vindicating a forest with like 3 wild growths on it and grabbing a Pridemage, but he dropped double Grove and Solitary then Moat to win from 4 life. Game 2 Canonist and 3 Thoughtseizes in a row got there. Game 3 Canonist was keeping slowing him down again, I had Deed in hand ready to clear his board, but couldn't find a threat to follow it up with until too late, one or two more turns and I could have gotten there. Similar situation in game 3 against ZeRo (or whatever flashless hulk is going by). Deed/Ooze/StP basically nerfed the Hulk combo and left him with nothing to sac for NO, but he had a Slaughter Pact and I was one attack short of winning. So it goes.

I did nothing but playtest this weekend with a good friend going to KC with me. I played a crap ton of games against Fish, RUG, TA, a lil Reani, and also UW (Snapcaster version). Ok so I've finally ditched the Dark Depths package. While stronger and has literally stolen a win from my opponent several times it's just not consistent enough. Especially with the shift toward more midrange decks or more tempo orientated. So I am down to two different versions of Rock that have been posting better results in testing. I dare to say I am considering a SFM version, and a GSZ version :x (Holy crap right?).

Seriously I have been really against both SFM and GSZ, and to say the week of that I am playing 1 of the other completely baffles me, lol. One piece of deck during this adventure was that Worm Harvest out of the side just wrecks a lot of decks out of there. Any tempo or control deck just rolls over and dies a painful death to this card.

So now that I come around to the dark side of things so to speak I am looking for feedback on deck tuning and advice. The only card I am short of in these lists is 1 Savannah which I can get that the event.

SFM Version (No GSZ) - I am still running 2 Mox as I am still partial to them and like having the turn 1 DC or SFM or being able to play around a daze.

//Lands
4 Wasteland
3 Scrubland
2 Bayou
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Marsh Flats
1 Maze of Ith
1 Swamp
1 Karakas
1 Forest
1 Plains
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Dryad Arbor

//Creatures
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Stoneforge Mystic

//Removal and disrupt
4 Vindicate
3 Swords to Plowshares
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Thoughtseize

//Artifacts
3 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Mox Diamond

SB: 3 Engineered Plague
SB: 3 Leyline of Sanctity
SB: 2 Pernicious Deed
SB: 2 Extirpate
SB: 1 Umezawa's Jitte
SB: 1 Worm Harvest (MVP against UW!)
SB: 3 Leyline of the Void

SFM w/ GSZ package

//Lands
4 Wasteland
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Marsh Flats
2 Bayou
3 Scrubland
1 Savannah
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Karakas
1 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Dryad Arbor

//Creatures
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Scavenging Ooze
3 Knight of the Reliquary
2 Tarmogoyf
4 Dark Confidant
4 Stoneforge Mystic

//Removal and disruption
4 Thoughtseize
3 Hymn to Tourach
3 Vindicate
3 Swords to Plowshares

//Artifacts
1 Batterskull
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Sensei's Divining Top

//Fetch
3 Green Sun's Zenith

SB: 1 Gaddock Teeg
SB: 1 Thrun, the Last Troll
SB: 1 Bojuka Bog
SB: 3 Pernicious Deed
SB: 3 Kataki, War's Wage
SB: 3 Leyline of Sanctity
SB: 1 Life from the Loam
SB: 1 Worm Harvest
SB: 1 Umezawa's Jitte

mdc1010 I think the SFM+GSZ list looks good, however I think you should cut one Stoneforge for another threat or the last Hymn. The deck is really slow, but very powerful.

Welcome to the dark side.

As far as advice goes...

I've lost hope for Thrun. He's great in theory, but hasn't lived up to the hype in practice. If you're deadset on the idea of playing a HexP guy that can regen, try Troll Ascetic. It costs 3 and can be GSZ'd @3 instead of 4. They may think they can solve a knight so they'll let it resolve. Also, Trolls are good for what's in their Hand, not their size.

Kitaki is nice, but very limited. Affinity is a deck but you should be able to turn them around with removal. It's also not very good outside of that matchup. I'd recommend some time of removal over kitaki so you can use it against things like Merfolk, Goblin's, and Zoo. Two of which should be guaranteed to have a bigger showing than Affinity.

Played my list yesterday and went 2-1 in an 8 man tournament. I only lost to Mono Red Burn, but won against Thopter Combo and Tempo Faeries.

-Matt

So, the list I played was:

1 Dryad Arbor
1 Maze of Ith
1 Karakas
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Marsh Flats
2 Windswept Heath
3 Basics
3 Bayou
2/3 Scrubland
1 Savannah
3 Wasteland

3 SFM
3 Goyf
3 Knight
4 Dark Confidant
1 Birds
1 Qasali Pridemage

4 Thoughtseize
4 Hymn to Tourach

4 Swords
3 Top
3 GSZ
3 Vindicate

1 BS
1 Sword of Fire and Ice

---

Ideally, I'd love to play 24 lands, due to the amount of Stifle in the format again, but I just don't have room for everything (if I go to 24, I go to 62, ouch). So, I figure 23 lands in 61 should be fine, especially with GSZ for Birds and Arbor.

The list seemed really solid, but I'd love to pack some more discard (probably IoK) against those Stifle decks, since Nimble Mongoose can be a bit hard to hit, and to take the sometimes backbreaking Stifle/Daze play.

-Matt

Matt, I think I figure the 24th land slot. I've also been wanting the extra land. Also, If the Goose is giving you an issue, look into Liliana of the Veil. She's been great in play. I've found that I'm always using her in some way, even when I have 1 card in hand.

Also, Don't beat yourself up too much about the Loss to Burn. It's also a bad matchup. Their clock is really fast and discard can't beat the top of the library. My only advice on that match is use swords on your guys. Their guys will die anyway.

It's been a couple days so I'm making this a new post.

Just woke up after driving 7 hours home after SCG Kansas City. Final record of X-2-1. Lost to burn round 3 (top 8'd) and the win and in against Red Thresh (on SCG). Drew against Esper Blade... we decided not to play game 3 since 2 finished with 4 minutes left.

Why would you not crush your opponent? Jeez :P

Nice job! Now, tournament report!

-Matt

HAHA. Yeah. If it wasn't a buddy, I obviously would have just crushed but, he wanted to go to NC and the T8 would get him there. If anyone wants to know, he didn't ask. He was just as surprised when I did it. Report should be up tomorrow on Quiet Spec tomorrow...ish.