Hi guys,
Well, while we all wait for the finishing of the new Primer, I want to offer you hereby some piece of a different reading for the time being – a fresh tournament report to pass the time!
It was neither a big tournament nor did I have a great performance, but still, here it is…
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Last weekend I played at a small, 4-round, 16-player tournament.
.
I played Matt Nass’ list with few modifications:
Quote:
Originally Posted by MD:
-1x Fetch land / +1x Forest
-1x Gaea’s Cradle / +1x Crop Rotation (I played with 4x Cradle the last two tournaments, but felt a little hampered by having multiple Cradles in hand; Also, I missed the instant trick provided by CR)
-1x Priest of Titania / +1x Scavenging Ooze (I sided out PoT a lot, and also sided in Ooze a lot; since I expected some Dreadge, Reanimator, Burn and RUG, I felt that 1x Ooze MD would be good. Also, I think I was mulliganing too aggressively, maybe because I feared keeping hands that hand only the ‘aggro plan’, so I think Ooze should be a reasonable ‘backup’ to make me feel a little safer on the aggro route. For this last reason alone Ooze could probably be switched to Ezuri or even Archdruid, but the previous reasons still stand.)
-1x Regal Force / +1x Progenitus (I don’t even remember when it was the last time which I NO, GSZ, or even hardcast Regal Force; so I decided to try Prog. MD)
Quote:
Originally Posted by SB:
-2x Mindbreak Trap / +2x Duress (Traps were always discarded on the matchs in which they were needed; Also the extra discard could work against other combos as well – like SnT, which I was facing a lot; I don’t own nor plan acquiring Thoughseizes anytime soon, thus, Duress should do the job.)
-1x Qasali Pridemage / +1x Harmonic Sliver (I was playing Pridemage before, but now changed it to the Sliver for the latter is good vs. SnT, and is an expendable body to NO, after done it’s job)
-1x Thorn of Amethyst, -1x Sylvan Library / +2x Pithing Needle (against Lavamancer, Sharpshooter, Top, and random other things…)
-1x Dryad Arbor
-1x Progenitus
+1x Scavenging Ooze (another one to improve some MU’s already specified)
+1x Viridian Shaman (in general, against equipment)
RESULTS:
ROUND 1: vs. "Rw Burn " = 1-2
ROUND 2: vs. "SnT OmniHalls w/ Lab .Maniac" = 0-2
ROUND 3: vs. “UR Delver” (BYE*) = 2-0
ROUND 4: vs. “Mono W Knights(Rogue)” = 2-1
• W-L-D: 2-2
• Final standing: 8th
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MATCHES:
ROUND 1: vs. "Rw Burn" = 1-2
G1: I play some elves and prepare to NO > Behemoth, but he wipes my board with a maindeck Flamebreak and I can’t recover in time. LOSE
SB: IN: 1x Scavenging Ooze, 2x Pithing Needle, 2x Abrupt Decay / OUT: 1x Quirion Ranger, 2x Elvish Visionary, ?, ?
G2: I keep a hand with Ooze and a GSZ (that could get me access to Ooze #2). I play some elves while Goblin Guide keeps swinging. I eventually play Ooze #1 and pump him +2 to get out of Bolt range. But opponent plays 2x spells to get rid of him (this was a good trade on my favor, right?). Next turn I GSZ > Ooze #2, and pump him +2, again, out of bolt range. Ooze stabilizes the board and a turn or two later I am able to NO > Behemoth. WIN
G3: Terrible no-lands hands – I’m forced to mull to 4! (Forest, Cradle, Nettle Sentinel and NO). T1 I topdeck Nettle #2, play the first one and pass – and be Rift Bolts me. T2 I play Nettle #2, attack with the first and pass – and he Bolts me. I’m able to attack with both Nettle Sentinels on T3, but on this turn he plays Flamebreak and wipes my board! I keep drawing NOs and Cradles – both useless without any creature, which gives him enough time to take my life low enough with Goblin Guide and finishes me with more Bolts + Fireblast. LOSE
(Intrigued that I didn’t see any Lavamancers on any of the games, I ask my opponent about it and he tells me that, despite playing Fetch lands – which I saw G1 – he plays none of them. “The fetch lands are for my Plateaus, to play Lightning Helix MD and Disenchant on SB”, he says.)
0 - 1
ROUND 2: vs. “SnT OmniHalls w/ Lab .Maniac" = 0-2
G1: I play an elf or two. On EOT of my T2 he taps his Island and Ancient Tomb > Intuition > 3x Show and Tell. In response I do: :cry:. His T3 he casts SnT > Dream Halls > etc… = combo = win. LOSE
SB: IN: 4x Cabal Therapy, 2x Duress, 1x Gaddock Teeg, 1x Harmonic Sliver / OUT: 2x Quirion Ranger, 3x Elvish Visionary, 1x Heritage Druid, 1x Nettle Sentinel, 1x Scavenging Ooze
G2: I keep a 7-card hand with 2x Therapies, Nettle Sentinel and ????. T1 I play Therapy #1, it resolves and I name Brainstorm (it hits), and besides BS I see: 2x Island, Intuition, Omniscience, ?, T2: I cast Therapy #2 for Intuition (it hits), and I see that he now have Enter the Infinite. I also play an elf and flashback Therapy #1 for Omniscience (it hits). T3 I play two elves, flashback Therapy #2 > he, in response, Brainstorms. When my discard resolves, I don’t know what could I name, for he probably had hid Enter the Infinite, but I nonetheless name it. Of course I miss, for he had hid EtI, and I see Burning Wish, Daze and ?. I attack him with 1-2x elves for two or three turns, but he’s still at 6 life when he can combo and utilize his well-preserved EtI. LOSE
0 - 2
ROUND 3: BYE* (vs. “UR Delver”) = 2-0
*This guy was playing the tournament with proxies, allegedly without knowing that it was not legal, so he was disqualified. Still, he wanted to play just to pass time.
G1: I play some elves and keeps taking down his life, for he has no board presence, saving a GSZ to search for Ooze later, but it’s not needed (He complains about not drawing into any ‘business’). WIN
SB: IN: 2x Abrupt Decay, 2x Pithing Needle, 1x Scavenging Ooze / OUT: 2x NO, 1x Progenitus, 1x Crop Rotation, 1x Elvish Visionary,
G2: He has Lavamancer, and my game progress slowly, since he keeps killing some elves. But that’s OK, since I have GSZ for Ooze. After wasting, on G1, one or two Bolts on my elves, because he wasn’t aware of what my Symbiote could do, he lands a Pithing Needle naming Symbiote. I eventually GSZ > Ooze, and quickly make it out of Bolt range. He tries to bait me to use Ooze to block his Lavamancer and later die to Bolt, but I do not fall for this. I don’t remember If I ever needed Ooze #2, but despite he playing Needle#2 for Ooze, my Ooze was big enough to secured me the win. WIN
1 - 2
ROUND 4: vs. “Mono White Knights (Rogue*)” = 2-1
*This guy was playing an ‘improvised/adapted’ T2/Modern(?) deck, which should not offers me much trouble, but turns out that some misplays on my side made the things harder.
G1: He plays Studant of Warfare, keeps leveling him up and attacking. Since I had Glimpse in hand, besides attacking him once with Nettle Sentinel, I play some elves and prepare for the combo, which happens on T4. I, then, GSZ > Behemoth, that alone does the 18 damage necessary to kill him. WIN
SB: IN: 1x NO, 1x Viridirian Shaman (I assume he plays equipment, like Maverick/DnT), 1x Harmonic Sliver / OUT: 2x NO, 1x Progenitus, 1x Crop Rotation, 1x Elvish Visionary,
G2: He starts with SoW and levels him up a bit, until he plays a Knight Exemplar. I play some elves, keep cool, and prepare for the NO > Progenitus plan, which happens on T4, but I’m already at low life. He then enchant one of his creatures with Armored Ascension (?! where are the equipments ?) and leaves me on 4 life. I attack with Progenitus, leave him on 9 and thinks. I then play an Elvish Visionary and draw – it’s NO! *hit! Had I played Visionary before attacking him, I would be able to NO > Behemoth and end the game on this turn. What can I do now? Luckly, in time I remember having the sliver, so I sac. an elf to NO > Harmonic Sliver > destroy his Armored Ascension, in order to chump block his knights next turn and survive. He then topdecks, laughs and shows me – Day of Judgement! All the board is wiped, except for his SoW, which was indestructible due to his (now dead) Knight Exemplar. He attacks with SoW and leaves me on 1 life. I need to draw chump blockers; I draw a Crop Rotation. He attacks next turn again; I use CR to fetch for Dryad Arbor and gain another turn. Next turn I draw blank and I’m dead. LOSE
G3: I keep a hand with 2x NO, and I’m able to cast NO#1 on T4, despite knowing that there’s a possibility of he wrathing on his turn. NO finds Progenitus, thinking that this way at least his Paths to Exile are dead against my bomb. Turns out he has, indeed, the DOJ, and wraths everything. – but this time I was a little less preoccupied, for I had NO#2. Next turn I Crop Rotation > Cradle > NO > Prog. WIN
2 - 2
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SOME THOUGHTS:
1. I think I have made a reasonable good guess on the metagame – at least on the part that concerned my pairings. But still, I did a poor performance, due to still making some not optimal plays on the game. There’s clearly room to improvement.
2. How often do you guys keeps hands that does not have Glimpse, NO, nor Visionary+Symbiote (i.e., just simple elves beatdown), if you do it at all?
3. When paired against Burn, would you trade 2x of your elves for his Goblin Guide? I didn’t want to do that trade, but if I had done it on the early game, I think that it could have spared me 4 life points, which would be enough for me to gain another turn and beat my opponent on R1G3 (he ended at only 4 life).
4. On R2G2, was it a mistake to flashback Therapy #2 at the time I did it? Should I have waited more to do it? Talking with my opponent after the game, he claims he thought so. What would have you done in my place?
5. On R4G3, should I deffinitely have ‘sandbagged’ NO#1 until after the wrath? Since it was a ‘rogue’ list he was playing, I risked NO’ing early assuming that the DOJ might be just a random 1-of or 2-of max, and if he does find it, I would still had NO#2. What would have you done?
That’s it. Thanks for the reading, and I hope to hear your feedback. :smile:
