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Andrea Mengucci played Turtenwald's 75 in a legacy league:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mVDjckUHCk
I like the list, delver and dazes solves the biggest issues this deck type has IMO:
1) how to not lose to fast combos during the first turns and
2) how to deploy cheap efficient threat without risking to lose next turn if you dont have FoW.
Maybe Jaces could be in the SB and Path to Exile and Council's Judgment in the MB to get the instant/sorcery count a bit higher for the delver flips?
Yeah Mengucci seems to have had some success with the list, which is part of what got me interested in it. I'm not 100% sold on the idea of moving Path and Council's Judgment to the main deck, but I do think you're absolutely right that this deck's instant/sorcery count is on the low side for a delver deck.Quote:
Originally Posted by meite
I've been playing this at weeklies for about 2 weeks now, and I have to say I really like the feel of the deck. That said, two things have really stuck out to me:
1. Does this deck need a Sword of Fire and Ice somewhere in the 75? I haven't found a good cut for it in the main deck, but there have been times (notably against Combo decks and Miracles) that I've resolved a Stoneforge Mystic and not been too impressed with Jitte and Batterskull as my only options for a piece of equipment to fetch. I've also contemplated a Sword of War and Peace in the sideboard, but it seems silly to include the RW sword and not the UR one.
2. On the topic of sideboards, I think this 15 card sideboard could use some serious work. In the Star City Games article that first showed off this list (found here), Owen says himself that the sideboard's a bit of a mess. To break it down card by card:
Grafdigger's Cage (1): This one seems alright, though I think it might be a bit of overkill with 3 Surgicals in the sideboard.
Surgical Extraction (3): See above. Goes great with Snapcaster and can be cast on turn 0, which makes it an ideal candidate versus Reanimator.
Containment Priest (1): Has a bit of overlap with Cage and Surgical. I think this card earns a spot solely on its merits against Sneak and Show, but it further highlights the (over?) abundance of graveyard hate in the sideboard.
Flusterstorm (1): Also great against combo. Seems like it's at its best against the slower combo decks of the format, but I wouldn't hesitate to bring it in against Reanimator either.
Hydroblast (1): Good catch all against Pyroblast effects and other powerful red spells such as Kolaghan's Command and Lightning Bolt. Typically included as another way to deal with Blood Moon, but I can't imagine our deck has much of a problem with that card.
Path to Exile (1): Swords #5, this is an excellent piece of additional removal. The basic land clause runs a bit counter to our Daze/Wasteland plan, but I think this is perfectly reasonable to bring in against creature decks with greedy mana bases (Grixis Delver) or decks that are cheating out gigantic creatures (Reanimator, Turbo Depths). Also happy with bringing this in against decks like Infect, where the loss of a creature hurts them much more than the gain of a basic land helps them.
Back to Basics (2): Slam dunk, all-star card. One of the biggest reasons to play this deck, I think two is a good number but I could see going up to 3 in certain metas.
Disenchant (2): One of our Chalice answers. Owen mentions that the ability to flash back with Snapcaster Mage is important, and I think I'm inclined to agree.
Council's Judgment (2): Our other answers to Chalice, as well as everyone's favorite Merfolk. I think two's a good number for Council's Judgment, as it can be rather mana intensive and we do have the option to flash it back with Snapcaster if the matchup goes long. There's an awkward tension between this card and Back to Basics, where casting it requires you to fetch up a Tundra as we only have one basic plains in the deck.
Vendilion Clique (1): Is this the right threat for the sideboard? I'm admittedly a huge fan of this card, probably to the point of being biased, but I wonder if this slot might be better served as another Snapcaster, TNN, or even a Gideon AoZ.
I really like Owen's list, I feel like it's somewhat solves a lot of the problems that the UW deck has which in the past has been combo and "bigger" control decks. It's basically like BUG Delver, you're an awful delver deck that just plays delver cards for free wins. If I was to make changes I think i'd do a split of 2 pierces/flusterstorms instead of 4 pierces. I'm not actually sure why regular UW stoneblade lists don't play fluster main. I think you can easily cut the path in the sideboard for the sword. I'm usually on Esper or Patriot but between 4-6 swords you really don't need the 7th removal spell.
So I haven't touched the new UW Delver lists but have 4 wastelands and then the b2b felt like too much?
Admittedly I haven't played a ton of decks with Back to Basics over the course of my Magic life. With that said, I don't think the card is really at odds with Wasteland in this list. Wastelands are there to leverage the power of your soft permission spells (Daze, Spell Pierce), as well as help you pay some of your more expensive costs (Jace, equip costs, playing around soft permission ). B2B on the other hand feels more like a trump card that you slam after an opponent taps out to just win the game on the spot.Quote:
Originally Posted by CptHaddock
Put another way, think of Wastelands and B2B as two different angles of attack. Sure there's a bit of overlap there, but if you can execute either of those two angles properly you're likely in great shape already. I have no problem sitting on a B2B that's dead in hand because my opponent has no lands, and I'm also fine sitting on Wastelands that are dead in hand because my opponent has no mana sources that can untap.
I played against it with miracle and the ’hybridness’ made it hard to board against. I boarded to make sure I win the grind game and lost to delver waste wasteQuote:
Originally Posted by CptHaddock
@Jesture.. You're absolutely on point with Wastelands and BtB.
To squeeze in the additional Sword of xy, I'd actually cut one spell pierce, move the clique main, giving room for the sword. Aditionally I'd exchange the Path for Surpreme Verdict(Cause you never know) and get rid of one Surgical. I've always felt like 2 are enough, given that we run SCM. This gives room for Gideon AoZ.
If you're worried about spell density for delver, you could also drop clique completely. It's not like this deck needs it desperatly, to do well against combo. Between Wasteland activations and the setback of daze, it could actually become quite challenging to get it on board in time in the first place. Also i think, that with the more aggressive approach of the deck, you're more likely to tap out on your own turns, than with regular Blade, making Clique even "worse". Remember, that this deck wants to actively disrupt the opponents manabase via Wasteland to keep them on the short leash for daze. Unlike regular Blade, where the Wastelands are mostly used to snipe difficult utilitylands like cavern or whatever.
Same could be somewhat true for the high cost Planeswalkers, with the difference, that they have greater impact on turn 6 or 7 than a Clique.
Since the DRS ban I’ve been tinkering around a lot to mixed/poor results. First success I’ve had in a while, maybe it was good matchups/luck or maybe I’m actually onto something with this build. Either way feels good to have a list I’m finally somewhat happy with.
This list leans hard on the power of 2-1s. Gerrard’s verdict is a maindeck 2-1 that’s great against aggro decks. They either pitch actual spells or lands, if they pitch lands the lifegain can just be a straight up time walk. And I get to do this while not exposing myself to wasteland, a huge weakness of hymn. It’s still pretty good against most other things assuming you time it right. It’s power definitely increases the less cards your opponent has in hand. Against decks without wasteland I get to reach for 3 hymns out of board.
Land-19
2 Island
2 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Underground Sea
2 Tundra
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
2 Marsh Flats
Creatures-11
4 Stoneforge Mystic
3 True Name Nemesis
3 Snapcaster Mage
1 Vendilion Clique
Spells-26
4 Brainstorm
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Thoughtseize
3 Force of Will
2 Ponder
2 Flusterstorm
2 Spell Pierce
2 Spell Snare
2 Gerrard’s Verdict
1 Council’s Judgment
1 Preordain
Planeswalkers-2
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Artifact-3
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Engineered Explosives
Sideboard
3 Hymn to Tourach
3 Zealous Persecution
3 Containment Priest
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Vindicate
1 Disenchant
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Liliana the Last Hope
Match 1: Sneak and Show
Game 1:
4 Lands, TNN, SFM, and verdict. Seems reasonable. He starts on Volcanic island and lotus petal putting me at 95% dead. For lack of a better option I verdict and he tosses a land and a SnT which also screams that I’m dead. But he doesn’t kill me, a turn later thoughtseize shows me a hand of 2 SnT and 2 land. I get the other SnT out of his hand somehow and he draws poorly for the rest of the game. Batterskull/SFM end up being enough.
Game 2:
-3 TNN
-1 Umezawa’s Jitte
-2 Spell Snare
-1 Engineered Explosives
-1 Swords to Plowshares
-1 Stoneforge Mystic
+3 Hymn to Tourach
+3 Containment Priest
+2 Surgical Extraction
+1 Disenchant
Not so much a win as my opponent drawing pretty poorly again. He manages to get down a pretty quick blood moon that I’m unprepared for. I think I had a basic island and a dual when moon resolved. My cantrips get me out of a tight spot though, I find a plains to deploy a SFM and put a clock on the table. With a combination of 1 mana counters and FoW I’m able to fend him off.
Match 2: DnT
Game 1:
I know what this guy is on which makes evaluating my opener really easy. 4 Fetches, a basic, verdict, and STP. So my plan is to fetch every basic in the deck, buy some time with verdict/STP and hopefully draw some better cards down the road. More or less ends up going as I plan STP the opening mom. Verdict ends up being way better than I thought, he’s forced to pitch a land and a flickerwisp. As he only had 3 power on board I basically got to kill a threat and timewalk him. A turn later snapcaster mage hits him again for two more cards putting him down to 1 card. Jace comes down the next turn and repeated brainstorms put the game away.
Game 2:
-2 Flusterstorm
-2 Spell Pierce
-2 Spell Snare
-1 Force of Will
-1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
-1 Thoughtseize
+3 Zealous Persecution
+3 Containment Priest
+1 Disenchant
+1 Engineered Explosives
+1 Liliana the Last Hope
Opener is a 5 cards, a dual, and batterskull. Not even close. The next six is STP, Persecution, Fetch, Batterskull, FoW, and Jace. Keeping 1 landers against DnT is almost never a good idea, especially if one of the other cards is batterskull. I probably should not have kept, but I begrudgingly kept in this case, I wasn’t convinced my 5 would be any better. DnT runs roughshod over me, he executes his game plan perfectly. Despite FoW on a lead off vial and drawing some land eventually, I’m just too far behind. I think I die under a mom/Thalia lockout.
Game 3:
Opener is much better, 3 basic/fetch, ZP, Disenchant, Snapcaster, and a brainstorm. I he leads on thalia and mom. He has an untapped karakas in play so ZP isn’t as effective as I would like. I’m not actually under that much pressure so I decide to wait a turn or two and see if he makes a mistake or if I draw something insane. On T3 gives me the window I’m looking for, he taps out to cast recruiter of the guard leaving his thalia stranded on board. I endstep a ZP to sweep his board up and give me an unencumbered turn. I think resolve a TNN and a Jace the turn after that. Once Jace starts brainstorming I’m really far ahead. He resolves a Gideon, but it’s just not enough. 5-6 Turns later he dies to an unanswered jace. JTMS>All.
Match 3:
Game 1:
I’d heard my opponent was another sneak and show player. My opener is pretty conducive to it. Flusterstorm, Spell Snare, Snapcaster, and some lands. I keep. We play draw go until T3 when I topdeck thoughtseize and cast it to see what’s under the hood. He spell pierces it and I Flusterstorm his pierce. One of the observers starts laughing and eventually I see why. I had two mana open and could have paid for the pierce. Punt of the night. His hand ended up being SnT, Emrakul, sneak attack, and cunning wish. I yank the emrakul. The universe was kind and I didn’t get punished for this egregious misplay as he just draws and passes the next turn. I dump batterskull/SFM into play to pressure him and a few turns later we have a second round of fireworks. I pass the turn with lethal on board and a hand of FoW, Snapcaster, and spell snare. He goes for the SnT that I know about. My FoW meets his FoW, I snapcaster targeting Flusterstorm, then he casts split decision effectively copying my Flusterstorm. It catches me off guard, but I have the perfect answer for it. This just tells me he’s on something weird. He scoops.
Game 2:
Normally I’d cut spell snares, but his build is weird. Instead I’m relatively sure that a maindeck cunning wish means he can’t have arcane artisan in his sideboard. I mean it’s possible, but cunning wish decks generally have their SBs dedicated to this card so I’m not convinced he’d even have room for it. If I’m wrong, well there’s still Game 3.
-3 TNN
-1 Umezawa’s Jitte
-1 Engineered Explosives
-4 Swords to Plowshares
+3 Hymn to Tourach
+3 Containment Priest
+2 Surgical Extraction
+1 Disenchant
This game ends up being pretty straightforward. My opener is Flusterstorm, hymn, snapcaster, and some other stuff. I’m thinking we hold off his initial spell, then hymn snap hymn to run him out of cards. We play draw go until T3, when I cast hymn with Flusterstorm backup. He brainstorms to protect what I’m assuming are his key cards. Hymn resolves and I take a FoW and an ancient tomb. Next turn he tries to go off with show and tell. Flusterstorm stops him cold. Putting him on two cards. Next turn is Snapcaster mage/hymn emptying his hand. He never recovers and eventually dies to snapcaster/priest.
So pretty good night with likely favorable matchups. DnT has always been something of a boogey man for me, but I think this current build handles it pretty well. Gerrard’s verdict was outstanding in the aggro matchup so it’s probably staying. Even in the SnT matchups it wasn’t awful if I timed it right. Also one of my first times casting hymn, it’s pretty busted.
You're playing a deck that wants to go long and play multiple 3 drops and Jace, so you go down to 19 lands with an indefensible 2 Ponder, 1 Preordain split. I think we can all see why you've been having issues.
Rude but true^^Quote:
Originally Posted by phg22
@first revenge
definetly up the landcount by at least 1, better 2. If you don't know what to cut, maybe start with flusters. There is kind of an overleap between Thoughtseize/Fluster main - both addressing mainly combo. Look at it like that: What do you want to counter, that you haven't picked by discard already? Also I think, gerrards verdict is cute. But as I'm running Nahiri and Academy Ruins in my board, I won't judge you on that. Haven't even tried it, so what could i know ;D
Honestly, I’ve been kind of surprised that going down to 19 lands hasn’t been that big of a problem. Maybe it’s my basic heavy build without wastelands, but in an average game I don’t usually feel mana starved. I might up it again just see what 21 lands is like.Quote:
Originally Posted by phg22
Regarding the ponder/preordain split, you caught my long running experiment. The place I stole this idea from has since disappeared and all that remains is this reddit thread.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MTGLegacy/c...ain_vs_ponder/
In a nutshell, there were some noteable Czech pile players converting from ponder to preordain. The general reasoning being that you want the smoothness of preordain over the selection of ponder in toolbox style decks. I’m not sure if it’s right or not so I’ve been running preordain experimentally to see for myself. So far, I don’t hate it, in fact I kinda like it. I do suspect that ponder is likely better, but it’s not by much. I’ll probably switch back to 3 ponder at some point.
Regarding the academy ruins comment, I’ve tried that card and didn’t really like it. Your general point about needing a utility land is probably right though. I might opt to try volrath’s stronghold. That’s mostly because it feels like the SFM package is just less and less effective lately. The future printing of assassin’s trophy and the possible Grixis/BUG control deck meta that might come out of it also don’t make the equipment plan look great. TNN is probably the only card we bring to those matchups which they struggle to answer. Unlike academy ruins, stronghold allows us to constantly buy back our TNNs, which might be best card in this deckQuote:
Originally Posted by Grizzlenasty
19 lands is EXTREMELY greedy especially in a blade deck. Miracles and Grixis players manage to get away with this because they are effectively running 8+ cantrips including stuff like predict, strix, etc. We can probably get away with it as well but you need to be running the same.
We used to play 22 to 23 lands in this deck.
Some of us still do. Nothing has changed for me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Malakai
Participated to a 84 player (7 rounds) tournament last weekend with this list:
4 Delver of Secrets
2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Stoneforge Mystic
2 True-Name Nemesis
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Island
2 Plains
4 Flooded Strand
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Polluted Delta
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Tundra
4 Wasteland
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
4 Spell Pierce
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Council's Judgment
Sideboard
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Back to Basics
2 Disenchant
1 Flusterstorm
1 Path to Exile
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Rest in Peace
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
R1: 2-1 vs UB Death's Shadow
G1: He has too many threats and permission so that I can't keep up with it.
G2: T1 delver and 2 Wastelands keeps him off the balance long enough so that he does not have time to stabilize.
G3: He taps out for LtLH which I counter and I resolve B2B next turn. Game is basically over after this.
Sideboarding: -1 SPierce, -2 Daze, -2 FoW, +2 B2B, +1 PtE, +1 SoFaI, +1 EE
R2: 1-2 vs UR Delver
G1: His delver does not flip in like 4 turns and I manage to stabilize board with TNN + Jitte.
G2: He starts with early Guide and Swiftspears and has Smash To Smithereens to blow my resolved equipment.
G3: I have to mull 6, still a mediocre hand with cantrips. He has a nut draw with early creatures and lots of burn.
Sideboarding: -2 Council's Judgment, -2 SPierce, -2 FoW, +2 B2B, +1 Flusterstorm, +1 PtE, +1 SoFaI, +1 EE
Thinking afterwards, siding B2B is probably wrong and I should have kept 2 SPierces instead.. did not affect to the end result though.
R3: 0-2 vs Grixis Delver
G1: On the draw. I have mull to five because of starting hands with only plains and/or wastelands as my lands. I decide to keep a nolander with otherwise good hand, but scry and next 4 draws does not bring any lands but one Wasteland..
G2: Hand with lots of cantrips find more cantrips, while opponent deploys fast Pyromancer. This is not really a game at all.
Felt bad to lose to your own deck, because losing two rounds this early probably means that there is no chance to reach top8 anymore.
R4: 2-0 vs Sneak and Show
G1: Opp mulligans to 5. I play Snapcaster as an Ambush Viper and he eventually beats the opponent to zero all by himself! We have a counter war at some point which I win.
G2: Opponent drops Boseiju on his 3rd turn. I have hand full of counters and no Wasteland. Brainstorm at his end step shows 2 Wastelands and Ethersworn Canonist. Wasteland gets Boseiju and Canonist resolves. I deploy Ambush Viper again at some point. Opponent dies few turns later after playing one cantrip per turn.
Sideboarding: -4 StP, -2 TNN, -1 Jitte, -1 BSkull, -1 SFM, +1 SoFaI, +2 Jace, +2 Disenchant, +1 Flusterstorm, +1 Ethersworn Canonist, +2 Surgical
R5: 2-1 vs Dredge Zombies(?)
G1: He has some Bloodghasts, Gravecrawlers etc, but my Batterskull outgrinds them.
G2: He resolves Contamination... WUT?!
G3: I have fast Delver and RiP. He destroys RiP, but I have already resolved also TNN. 6 dmg per turn is enough that he cant keep up.
Sideboarding: -2 Council's Judgment, -4 SPierce, +2 Surgical, +2 RiP, +1 EE, +1 PtE
R6: 2-0 vs BUG control
G1: Lots of resource trading and countering, all ends after I resolve TNN and have Council's Judgmented his TNN and SPierced a JTMS.
G2: He mulls to 5. I destroy his mana development with 2 Wastelands, leaving him with lonely Island. I resolve a Jace and start fatesealing him. He is not able to recover.
Sideboarding: -4 Daze, -2 StP, +2 B2B, +2 Jace, +1 Flusterstorm, +1 SoFaI
R7: 2-1 vs Grixis Delver
G1: She gets a Pyromancer out and quickly fills the board with elementals.
G2: I try to keep her off balance with Wastelands but she always finds new lands. Game goes long but eventually I can start beating her with Snapcaster equipped with SoFai which she cant block.
G3: She is worried about Wastelands and B2B and fetches for basic Island. That is only colored mana source she is able to find during the whole game. I have a good hand with enough lands to play around soft counters and I am able to quickly beat her down with Delver equipped with SoFaI.
Sideboarding: -2 FoW, -2 SPierce, +1 PtE, +1 SoFaI, +2 B2B
So, a 5-2 record in 7 rounds. I got a bit excited since I realized that one 5-2 record will get to top8. I was 14/84 in the end results.. shouldn't have lost so early in the tournament.
Good deck. You are basically a Delver deck which has very powerful answers also to the end game.
Jaces felt that they were in the right place in the sideboard instead of main.
SoFaI is nuts, dont leave home without it!
It feels that the 4 Wasteland and 5 basic land mana base will force mulliganing quite often, but I guess that is something that you have to accept.
I wanted to play 2 Plains because I have had many occasions that I want to have Council's Judgments and B2Bs in the maindeck at the same time. Maybe could tweak the manabase to 2 Island, 2 Plains, 3 Tundra.
Hi guys! I hope I prove myself as a confident Stone blade player this weekend so that I may post from this thread. I got 22nd at Eternal weekend. Pure blue white, no splash, not following anyone else's list. I intend to post a tournament report, including the two mistakes that cost me matches, and why I got 22nd instead of top 8. I love this deck, almost as much as I love mud! LOL. Hope you all enjoy my report in a few days.
Congrats homedog, glad to see a blade player top 32'd.Quote:
Originally Posted by malfie13
I ended up getting 53rd with esper stoneblade with b2b. Kind of last minute decided that I would play b2b in the tournament so I didn't really have some of the cards to accommodate my changes hence the 2 tundras. In an ideal world I would have gone -1 Tundra, +1 Basic Plains and I think that might have won me maybe 1-2 games over the course of the tournament.
2 True-Name Nemesis
1 Plains
1 Batterskull
3 Stoneforge Mystic
2 Swamp
2 Snapcaster Mage
3 Island
4 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Ponder
2 Marsh Flats
3 Thoughtseize
2 Back to Basics
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Scrubland
2 Tundra
1 Underground Sea
1 Engineered Explosives
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Baleful Strix
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
2 Containment Priest
2 Zealous Persecution
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Hymn to Tourach
1 Pithing Needle
2 Flusterstorm
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Vindicate
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Council's Judgment
Here's what I played against. My delver opponents had delver draws and killed me, I think that atleast 2 of the games were decided by me foolishly not putting a 2nd basic plains in my list and playing a tundra. I ended up having to fetch a nonbasic which got wastelanded although I think the matches were still pretty close.
2-0 Grixis Control
2-0 Maverick
2-0 Applejacks (Naya Loam)
2-0 D&T
1-2 Grixis Delver (No pyromancers but my opponent was running 2 bbs main)
0-2 Grixis Delver
0-2 UW Miracles
2-1 UB Shadow
2-1 Grixis Delver (With vial smasher and a bunch of other fun cards)
2-1 Dragon Stompy
2-1 Dragon Stompy
Eternal Weekend 2018 Tournament Trial Report
Alex Caviris - Blue-White Stoneblade, 22nd Place
Decklist:
Creatrues: 11
Snapcaster Mage x3
Stoneforge Mystic x3
True-Name Nemisis x3
Vendillion Clique x1
Venser, Shaper Savant x1
Artifacts: 2
Umezawa's Jitte x1
Batterskull x1
Sorceries: 6
Ponder x4
Council's Judgement x1
Supreme Verdict x1
Instants: 18
Brainstorm x4
Spell Pierce x1
Spell Snare x1
Swords to Plowshares x1
Accumulated Knowledge x4
Force of Will x4
Planeswalkers: 3
Jace, The Mindsculptor x2
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria x1
Lands: 20
Cavern of Souls x1
Flooded Strand x4
Island x7
Karakas x1
Misty Rainforest x1
Plains x2
Polluted Delta x1
Scalding Tarn x1
Tundra x2
Sideboard: 15
Containment Priest x1
Vendillion Clique x1
Flusterstorm x2
Path to Exile x1
Surgical Extraction x2
Disenchant x1
Rest In Peace x1
Back to Basics x2
Council's Judgement x1
Sword of Fire and Ice x1
11/1/18 Tourney Trial Report By rd
When I got to eternal weekend on Thursday afternoon, I had not yet decided to play my usual MUDpost deck, or UW Stoneblade. I was leaning towards stoneblade bu decided to play a trial just to test out where my skill level was for the sake of the sake.. I will include my first five round Trial as well as the 11 rd Eternal Weekend Legacy Champs main event.
Friday Morning, last chance trial. Overall record, 4.0.1, with a scoop last rd to go 4.1
Rd 1 vs Eldrazi Aggro win 2x0
Game 1 My opponent mulligans to 6, presumably to slam a t1 chalice. It was sight unseen for both of us, as I hadn't met her before. So, I kept a decent hand, and was on the draw. And, t1 she plays a tomb, goes to 18 to cast a chalice on one. So, my 'decent' hand instantly got worse. Mildly worse. My hand was fetch, island, stoneforge, snap, ponder, force, ak. I was in the tank for about ten seconds, but I let the chalice resolve based on the information that I had and what I had in my hand. I then went to my turn. I play my tarn and pass. My draw for the turn was a very dead swords. Her next turn she plays an eldrazi temple and a thought knot seer. That, once again, I let resolve, which felt off, but I didn't want to two for one myself and I was honestly interested to see her skill level by what she chose to take and to see if she knew exactly what I was on. She resolves the trigger and takes the force. I was actually mildly relieved. I go to my turn and choose to not upkeep crack. I am rewarded with a basic plains. I play the plains, crack the tarn for a tundra, and cast the mystic. I feel that the best route is the batterskull, so I grab it.
Next turn, sh plays mimic and swings for 4. I choose to not block, and go to 15. Most of the damage that gets done in this match, I will be honest, she inflicts on herfself via the ancient tomb. She correctly feels that she needs to close out the game relatively quickly. I draw a council's judgment on her end step with ak, and exile the tks, drawing a force off the trigger. After that she's never really back in the saddle until very late in the game. I snap back the judgment two turns later to exile the chalice, and unlock my hand. She hits a smasher off of a cavern that I exile with a swords. Ultimately, she sticks a ballista with my shields down. It was an odd play. She had several tombs in play. She played it on like 6 or so, and went to 3 life off of it. The odd part was that it was not enough to kill me, but if she had gone to 1 and put it on 7 it would have been. Magic is a tricky game, and she didn't completely math correctly. I had stuck a tnn a few turns earlier and swing lethal.
Game two wasn't really much of a game. She does eldrazi things off tempo a little. A t2 chalice meets a snare, I counter some of the more prolematic plays, like a jitte and etc. Things get dicey for a few turns towards the end where she casts two smashers through caverns. I stabilize at two life after tripple blocking a smasher with two sfm and a tnn, activating the sfm to poop in a batterskull. Long story short, it ends up equipped to my tnn, and the game is virtually over.
1-0
G2 Miracles, 2-1 Win
This was one of the four times I went to close to time all weekend. I hate hearing that UW cannot close out a match. It kinda bugs me. It has more to do with the players, their pace, and their familiarity with their lines than the colors of the deck, in my opinion. My opponent towards time in rd really seemed to decide drawing was his best line for making some tickets. I took the choice out of his hands. I am going to skip basically to g3. It became a fairly technical match of when to and not to utilize accumulated knowledge in a mirror where both people were using them. I tended to be much more proactive on playing them out of my hand as long as I had counter backup for the ramifications. I had sided into two vcliques to respond to miracle triggers, ofc sided in flusters, and kept every piece of one for one permission and two forces. I was on the draw g3. On the friday trial I also had a hydro in my sb, in place of an rip. I had chosen to not side it in, as I was unclear if he had sided in any pyros or even ran red. Anyway. As I said, the game was a serious clinic in using ak correctly in the current meta. I tended to be aggressive casting out of hand and reactive when sngwould tend to counter it if I could and garnered more than two cards, but if he were to try to snapcaster them, I would snapcaster mine in response so that I could always draw minimum one more coard than he did. I am not sure he ever caught on. About five minutes out from hitting turns, I got the distinct impression I had him shelled up against a wall and he had resigned to try to play defensively and draw. We were the last two to be playing so we had everyone else watching us, too. I pushed that out of my mind, although it did register that the element of surprise was dead for the rest of the tournament. Oh well. I had an active tnn with a batterskull on it. He used his third terminus to push it to the bottom. I had a stocked hand of 7 cards, but I allowed it to happen so that I wouldn't die to a my endstep miracled entreat. God, I played my friend Charlie too many times. I soul read him. I try to look sad and go to discard with 8 in hand. These were my 8. Snap, vclique, venser, snare, fluster, brainstorm, fetch, force. I announce discard. He plays a brainstorm and attempts to miracle an entreat for 7 angels, leaving open some amount of open mana. I allowed the brainstorm to resolve already, knowing full well that he would have the entreat with the trigger in his hand for me to vclique, but I wanted to make him use maximum resources to accomplish this. So, I cast Venser and bounce the entreat. He recasts another brainstorm, and I assume entreat is now back on top of his library. We go to his draw step, and he again hits entreat for what would be lethal. This time we go to war. I cast vclique to get the entreat out of his hand in response to the trigger. He fetches and casts a snapcaster, I assume to counter the vclique, so I snare the snapcaster. He looks at his mana and realizes that he is almost entirely tapped out at this point on turn zero. He also only has 2 cards in his hand. He casts ak with his last two open mana, it would have been for five, so I fluster it. He does not have the mana to pay for it. The stack resolves and I claim his entreat. He resdraws on his draw step with two cards in his hand, and passes to my turn. I have left in my hand, snap, bs, force and fetch. This was the end of t2, at this point I realize. I have four open mana. I consider my options and cast snapcaster. He sighs and taps his third from final open land to cast snare. I force pitching brainstorm. Lol. I get to redraw 6 cards. I refill my hand by snapping back ak for six. I go to my turn refilled. My board is now almost certainly lethal I assume with my opponent with one card in hand, which, during my upkeep he casts. It's his final ak. God. Freaking. Damnit. We are on t3 of turns. I consider my options I am untapped with an almost lethal board. I have a vclique, a snap, some other garbage...and my own last ak. Sigh. It was incredibly tricky to let an ak resolve for full value, so I snap back one of my aks in response, and draw five more cards. I look at my hand which is now overloaded with good stuff and pass priority. Bc life is strange, his first draw is a miracle blind terminus, and he puts the trigger on the stack and finishes drawing his three other cards. Once again I am presented with a difficult situation to navigate. I can clique his terminus like I did his entreat, or I can play around it. In my and after my own ak, in addition to what I had already, I now had a tnn and my sword of fire and ice. I sigh, AND I let the terminus resolve and go to my draw step with 8 cards in library. I cast tnn, and it resolves. He brainstorms on my endstep with a snapcaster/bs, and I swords his snap to test for any thoughts of countermagic. The swords brings him to exactly 7 life. Lolz. So, I go to discard, and pass turn. He miracles an entreat on his draw step for 4. It's t4 anyway, and he probably thinks he has successfully drawn the game. I allow it to resolve. He casts jace and brainstorms. He disenchants my batterskull. He goes to endstep, and I clique him to see if the path is clear. He had around 14 cards in library and four in hand. I have 7 in library, and 7 in hand. Odd life. I resolve clique and he lays down his hand. He has force, pierce, snare, bs. Oh, that's some stuff. I clique his bs. I don't want to deal with the unknown. I consider drawing all the cards left in my deck with my last ak, and then think better of it. So. T5 is my turn. Untap, upkeep, draw. Oh look. That snapcaster is back. I think I had every mana producing land in my deck on the field and a dead fetch. Here's how it went. First. Thing. First. It is possible that I clicked him into a fluster, so I cast my sofi to bait the counterwar. He pierces first. I assume that means he has fluster. It was worse. I go ahead and force with my second of two forces the pierce, he casts force pitching snare, I fluster the force. Fluster resolves. I realize later I SHOULD HAVE flustered the original spell, but it wound up not mattering. He casts snap to fluster, I assume, which was his last card in hand. I cast snap in response and snare his snap. He extends his hand as I have a bunch of open mana when the sword of fire and ice resolves. 3/1 tnn, plus two from sword plus two from shock equals exactly 7 damage on t5. I got a round of applause for navigating that clogged situation.
2-0
Match three: Death and Taxes
I don't remember too much about this match, to be honest. It is overwhelmingly likely I was going on instinct after that draining game vs miracles. I played d and t like three times over the course of the weekend, and was never impressed with how it lined up vs my deck. I feel like I do a better impression of what it tries to do, and run a zillion basics. I even found that back to bascis locks them out hard even though they're technically a mono colored deck. Looking at the life totals in my pad, it doesnt look like my opponent ever got much going.
3-0
Match 4: Grixis / 4c Control
Match 4 also went to time. In fact, of the four timed I went to time all weekend three were on Friday. The majority of the reason why this match went to time was a general lack of ways to deal with a resolved liliana g1 in the deck if the board got too stalled and he could manage the tnns. G2 and 3 were much less in his favor. I sided in my second judgement, my sofi and 2nd clique to add more evasion and a gideon to spam the board and keep edicts from being as effective, and ways to hit fast and hard. I got a scoop in turns after keeping his board eitherunder control (g2), or just putting on way too much pressure that couldn't be edicted to deal (with gideon) game 3. Overall I was still a little tired, but felt that I did generally ok.
4-0
Match 5: Lands.
I had previously played this lands pilot last year in my win and in with mud. He remembered me and I remembered him. He was a deliberate and honest player. I had basically already made up my mind that if I couldn't win cleanly I would scoop bc I had dreamcrushed last year, and I liked him, and didn't feel like doing it again. G1 was a grind. I feel like g1 vs lands I am very much an underdog if I cannot navigate with the utmost of control elements and keep tight lines. I was actually able to do that, though. I tended to be more disrutptive than anything else. I didn't counter recursive spells, unless they were able to disrupt me. I fetched for the correct lands at the correct times, and kept constant pressure on with tnns, until he had no choiec but to play lands and fetch for a glcial chasm with no exploration. It was a grind. G1 the winning sequence was on his endstep to venser his chasm back to his hand. He predictably staged his chasm. He was well within lethal range. He had to repeadly pay for chasm, and had been beaten down by tnn for several turns. I then play karakas for turn, bounce venser, bounce his thespians staged chasm and swing lethal. G1 took like 38 minutes to win tho. Ick. G2 was like 3 minutes long. He stuck his second tracker. It got big. I never saw a third land to snap a swords, and i died. We only had like 4 minutes for g3. We both push hard into the pace. When we hit turns, he had tapped out for a tracker, I swordsed it, untapped and slammed a back to basics. That said, there would have been a long stall in the board. I scooped to him so he could have the byes. I felt like it was the correct thing to do.
Technically, 4.0.1. I discovered that I hated going to time. I only did once in the main event.
I will put a full main event report in the report section in the next couple of days.
My main champs matches were:
2-1 vs 4c Counterbalance Pile
2-0 vs Grixis Control
0-2 vs Grixis Control
2-1 vs Kieth 12 Post
2-0 Win vs 4c Pile
2-0 Win vs Steel Stompy
2-0 Win vs D and T
2-0 Win vs Mono Red Prison
1-1-1 With UW Miracle
2-1 Win vs Lands
1-2 Loss to Elves for my win and in
Overall, I felt that my opponents were gentlemen in victory and defeat. All the mistakes were on me. I don't blame any judges or opponents. I definitely can suck at life sometimes, but it is nobody's fault but mine. Lol
Congrats Malfie
Your sideboard is 13 cards and i imagine that swords are 4.
Are you happy about vendilion venser karakas cavern?
The luck of counter magic was a problem for you at all?
Could you give us your sideboard plan against these decks?
Quote:
Originally Posted by ventouza6969
Whoops! Lol. Let me check my list for what the other two cards are. And yea, 4 stp.
1 Containment Prient
1 Clique
2 Flusters
1 PTE
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Disenchant
1 RIP
2 BTB
1 Council's Judgement
1 SOFI
1 Gidz, ally
1 Supreme Verdict
I definitely loved the Karakas with Venser, anyway. I more included it as a removal spell than as a combo with verser tbh. I did get to endstep venser a glasical chasm, untap, play karakas, bounce venser, bounce a staged chasm, win game. Was funny. It's in the prelims report.