Congratulations Lantto!
Do you by any chance plan to write a report?
Printable View
Congratulations Lantto!
Do you by any chance plan to write a report?
I don't suppose there is a convenient way to watch these games after the fact? I watched Julian's foray live on twitch (better luck next time, buddy), but didn't watch any of the other elves match ups.
http://www.mtgcoverage.com has all the Twitch VODs up for Starcitygames Open Series: St. Louis with a whopping 5 Elves matches - wow.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord_of_Rivendell
Thanks for the link. Lord was asking for the VODs of the MOCS finals though, I assume.Quote:
Originally Posted by haganbmj
To give some perspective on the MOCS Season Finals as not everyone might be familiar with it:
There's a reason there are 46 GPs but only 12 MOCS Finals a year.
Winning it is a guaranteed $4.000 + ~$500 in cards + Qualifies you for the Magic Online World Championship. They fly you to the World Championships in Barcelona and broadcast the event live. That's a 16-people event with a >$100.000 prize pool. Oh, and it also qualifies you for the next Pro Tour.
Winning a MOCS is easily equivalent to winning a GP with regards to money and benefits.
Ah whoops, got a little confused there then - misread a few words. I'm afraid I don't know about the MOCS recordings then.Quote:
Originally Posted by Julian23
I was not aware of http://www.mtgcoverage.com, so thx again for the link.
I picked a random Elves! video : SCG Syracuse, 10th August 2014 : Round 5 : Andrew Tenjum (Shardless BUG) vs Ross Merriam (Elves)
13.10 min game 1, Ross is facing lethal next turn (he is at 3 life, Andrew has en eot DrS activation & FoW + blue card in hand).
He declined to play heritage druid last turn in case he draws glimpse of nature, which he does. His hand now consists in a bunch of lands including cradle, heritage druid and glimpse.
Glimpse resolves (i guess Andrew suspects N.O. in Ross hand), then Ross cast heritage druid w-o landing cradle first, to make it seems like his mana developpment depends on it. Andrew FoW the heritage. Ross take his glimpse draw (a quirion ranger), then concede.
I have to ask : WHY ? This quirion ranger can draw into the win (be it N.O., or something more tricky like GsZ / Visionary / Symbiote to take the glimpse chain to the next level). His next draw appears to be GsZ, so to me he would have clearly been able to keep going by landing cradle + GsZ. Did i miss something ?
You didn't miss anything. I'm just an idiot. Managed to forget about active Glimpse since I had tunnel-visioned myself into thinking I needed a Natural Order.
If I play correctly, I draw Q-Ranger off of the first Glimpse trigger, use the QR I have in play to untap Arbor, cast the 2nd QR, draw into Zenith, cast it for X=1 off of Cradle with 3 floating, find Symbiote, bounce Visionary untapping Arbor and recast Visionary, drawing 2 cards with a G floating and an untapped Arbor. I would've had a low, but real chance to win a game that looked hopeless.
I hope my post didn't sound rude, because it was not.Quote:
Originally Posted by theross
I really enjoy when you play Elves on camera and already learned some tricks while watching your plays. Thanx for your explanation btw.
It wasn't rude at all. No worries.
Julian:
Im interested in how you're sideboarding with your 15 card miracle SB. That is assuming you take everything in. I can see not bringing in all the decays and maybe not all the discard (though I guess you would'nt run thoughtseize over therapy if it was just for combo...)
Ive been sideboarding about 12 cards myself and have been taking out the whole glimpse package as well as trimming down on an order and a hoof.
Are you taking out all the orders and hoofs?
The problem I have with that is that order is really the only way to go over the top of an entreat the angels. I guess most games revolve around stopping top and winning with small beats playing through terminus and Ive been pretty successful like that, but I still don't really wanna cut my backup against a late entreat. Often at that time I they're playing from the top of their library not holding a counter anyways since fows often stop chokes, nullrods or are used to break up symbiote/visionary.
If you're taking out more guys Im just wondering how that works out. Whats the low number or creatures you feel comfortable with?
I wanted to include an update. I'm up to 34 matches with the deck (24-10) and have been running hot, winning 11 of my last 12. I've cut blue entirely and have had no concerns. I really like having the 3rd basic to avoid wasteland problems. I have been using a Llanowar elf, but it's only useful on t1 and there are already 8 t1 accelerators it seems unnecessary. I think I'll either replace it with a 2nd birchlore or just go to 60 cards.
I can't get over how resilient this deck is. Last night, against burn, I was on 2 against an Eidolan and 3 goblin guides and his 2 cards in hand, so very likely dead next turn. I GSZ for 4, getting rec sage for his eidolan leaving me with 2 mana (and an open land drop) so I could glimpse and then heritage druid and tap untap draw return draw tap untap tap tap return draw draw tap return draw ... win. I know you all know this, but I'm continually impressed with it.
I've moved away from the 1-of SB I used initially just to understand how each SB card worked. I have
1 needle
1 null rod
3 abrupt decay
2 thoughtseize
1 natural order
1 progenitus
1 15/15 whose name i'm forgetting
1 scavenging ooze (none md)
1 reclamation sage (1 md)
1 meekstone
2 ??? - I honestly can't remember. I don't ever need them.
How differently do you guys treat the various delver decks with regard to SB? I'm pretty erratic with how I sb and I don't like it. I'd like to have a more solid plan. I feel like I'm basically winging it most of the time.
Also - I'm up for MTGO testing most evenings around 830 Eastern if anyone's interested. I wouldn't mind testing as a different deck to get a better understanding of how those decks work.
Streaming the Legacy Daily Event with #Elves - Join us over at http://twitch.tv/itsJulian :cool:
This is probably a dumb question that has been adressed here, but why run null rod instead of another pithing needle? It seems like the odds of them having two different artifacts out is less than the odds that they have a planeswalker or something else casuing you trouble.
If the answer is "you should read all 177 pages of this thread and not repeat questions, Jamie. We already finished talking about that." then I understand and will do that. :)
I think the reason is that it has some other applications where needle doesn't cut it. If it was just miracles needle is better since it can also name Jace, but null rod also does wonders against storm and belcher for example which are both pretty tough matchups. Null Rod is better there both cause they actually might have different artifacts, but also cause you can proactivly play it without guessing which one they might have.Quote:
Originally Posted by jamie7keller
Sorry I've been neglecting the thread for awhile. IRL stuff has been taking over. I'll try to put some time aside for addressing some of the earlier posts when I get home from work. But I might just be playing Destiny all night. No promises.
IRT Null Rod/Needle:
For me, I like the flexibility of having Null Rod vs Storm decks in the vain hopes of shutting off their LEDs/Petals. This isn't Plan A, since we obviously have Discard/Ruric Thar, but it's a nice supplemental plan. And I've had Storm pilots Duress away my Null Rod only to get snared by some other hate in my hand. We have plenty of dead cards in those matchups so anything that isn't dead is nice to have.
Also, against some Blade decks (mostly straight Esper) I know people bring in Engineered Explosives and stuff like that. So having Null Rod takes care of that + equipment in a single card. This lets you save P.Needle for other things, or simply gives you effective copies of P.Needle #3 or 4.
In the Miracles matchup, it's basically an additional Needle. And that's totally fine and dandy too! Landing Null Rod first allows you to save your Needles for Jace or Karakas (which can be problematic in builds that use V.Clique/Venser) or whatever. Some Miracles pilots also have a copy or two of Engineered Explosives. And lately I've seen weird SB Stoneforge packages as well.
It's also not terrible against Death and Taxes. I know those guys sometimes have Ratchet Bomb in the SB and in the MD they have of course equipment + Aether Vial.
These are all slightly corner cases, though. And for that reason, you typically will see people running 2 Needle before they ever touch a Null Rod. And if they run Null Rods, it's usually as a 1-of. However, Null Rod only costs 2. And in the control matchups where it really shines, that extra mana isn't too big of a deal.
I like running a 2/2 split of Needle and Null Rod. But I have tons of Tunda-based control decks where I play. Your mileage may vary.
Thanks!
I am plannign to play in a legacy star city IQ this weekend. Any advice that I can apply, given that I don't know their local meta, and I'm not sure how far other people are willing to drive (is a NY meta relevant for a western VA IQ? I assume not, but have no frame of reference. This will be the first constructed REAL tournament (ie more than game day/fnm) i've ever been in.
If that's the case, the most relevant advice is probably just "Don't Panic". Play deliberately and don't let your opponent pressure you into making mistakes or rushing through interactions. That's the easiest way to miss a beneficial trigger or the critical bounce/untap that can turn a loss into a win. Your opponent is simply another huge nerd, just like you. Except he deserves to lose because he isn't playing mono :g: tribal-aggro-combo-control-midrange, so he will never reap the rewards of Gaea's Bounty.
Be sure to come back and tell us how you do in the event! Good luck!
Will do!Quote:
Originally Posted by danyul
one thing. here is my current sideboard. I am reasonably happy with it, but I see the winner from earlier, with choke and sylvan library. Should I include those?
3x Abrupt Decay
4x Cabal Therapy
2x Mindbreak Trap
3x Pithing Needle
1x Progenitus
2x Thoughtseize
Well I cannot predict your meta for you. I have no idea what kind of decks show up in your area. But if you are "reasonably happy" with your SB and it's working fine for you, then I see no reason to go changing it just because another dude does well with his build in a completely different meta (BTW Congrats Mister Lantto!). Going into an unknown meta, your SB looks fine to me. It seems fairly heavy on the combo hate with 6 discard and 2 MBT. I might shave the MBT for something else, but I don't know what kind of decks you will see. I personally always do poorly when I leave my Meekstones at home, so for me, I'd replace those with 2 Meekstones. But that's for me and my meta. I can't speak for yours.Quote:
Originally Posted by jamie7keller
Ask Lemnear about Mindbreak Trap though. He will give you a frightful earful after which you might just tear up your MBTs into little pieces and swear to never play them again.
lol, if he has done so before and you have a link, i will read the old rants to save space here.
I like them as an out to storm turn one wins...depending which storm you face, mindbreak trap is either abig setback or game over. Without that, it seems like the storm matchup is just "can they gte there" and I hate feeling that way. I may be overly worried about it though.