Originally Posted by
drude1
So I’m sitting in the airport waiting for my flight back home and thought I would write a tourney report. It was an up and down event for me at GP Louisville, but overall quite a bit of fun. Made day 2 by the skin of my teeth at 6-3, so I basically knew I wasn't playing for top 8 at that point but could be playing for cash. Unfortunately I basically lost my first round of play on day 2 and dropped after that. Didn't feel like grinding a 4-0 just to hope to make top 64. It was an okay tourney and always like to make day 2, but obviously not as good as I would have hoped.
First, here is the list I played:
// Lands
4 [ZEN] Arid Mesa
1 [MR] Great Furnace
3 [EX] City of Traitors
2 [B] Plateau
4 [TE] Ancient Tomb
3 [ZEN] Mountain (3a)
1 [BFZ] Plains (4F)
1 [ON] Bloodstained Mire
// Creatures
4 [SHM] Painter's Servant
3 [P3] Imperial Recruiter
3 [UL] Goblin Welder
2 [PLC] Simian Spirit Guide
1 [TSP] Jaya Ballard, Task Mage
1 [MBS] Phyrexian Revoker
// Spells
4 [TE] Grindstone
4 [IA] Pyroblast
4 [CH] Blood Moon
2 [SH] Ensnaring Bridge
3 [ARE] Enlightened Tutor
3 [B] Red Elemental Blast
3 [TE] Lotus Petal
3 [CHK] Sensei's Divining Top
1 [MI] Lion's Eye Diamond
// Sideboard
SB: 1 [ALA] Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 2 [KLD] Chandra, Torch of Defiance
SB: 1 [OD] Sphere of Law
SB: 1 [FUT] Magus of the Moon
SB: 1 [MMA] Engineered Explosives
SB: 1 [M15] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 2 [C15] Fiery Confluence
SB: 3 [MMA] Sudden Shock
SB: 2 [NPH] Surgical Extraction
SB: 1 [PLC] Sulfur Elemental
I think most choices are self-explanatory. I had a Nahiri in place of revoker initially, but in testing the Sneak and Show MU, I felt I really wanted revoker in the main, as I thought that deck would be more represented. It was in general, but I didn't see it once.
This is how my tournament went:
Rnd 1: Esper Stoneblade 2-0
I could tell pretty quickly that this guy didn't play a ton of legacy. He was reading a lot of cards and such, and when he fetched for batterskull instead of Jitte with is Stoneforge, I knew he was not going to play optimally against me. He also kept fetching non-basics. And although I never actually saw a blood moon against him, welder shenanigans took him by surprise and I won pretty handily.
Rnd 2: BUG with Bitterblossom, goyf, spellstutters 2-1
G1 I see biitterblossom early. I combo out early keeping blasts available for spellstutters and get there pretty quickly.
G2 I see goyfs and other fatties which I wasn't expecting and get beat down.
G3 my hand is fetch land, sol land, petal, tutor, grindstone, recruiter and another card. He turn 1 plays blue land and ponders I think. I turn 1 play grindstone which he forces and the surgicals. I think he believes he just won the game. I don't think he does much on his turn 2 and on my upkeep I tutor for a moon, drop SOL land plus petal and cast it. He is locked out of the rest of the game and I beat him down with dorks. It's amazing to me how often people go for this plan and we still win. That is one nice thing about this deck. Like Aluren, your opponent can disrupt your combo but then you just kill them with dorks.
Rnd 3: MIRROR!!! 2-0
Nice guy and he said he did really well in the Friday events with the deck. However, I don't think he has played the mirror much.
G1: I'm on the play and play grindstone. He plays SOL land, petal, painter ON GREEN, go.....what??? my turn 2 I play SOL land and activate grindstone and he just looks at me like....ummmmmmmm.......game.
G2: We both play early grindstones and a couple dorks. Eventually, I have like 7 mana and painter in hand. I decide to just go for it, realizing that if he is playing lightning bolt then I am just dead because he will activate and kill my painter when I activate. I play painter and put it on non-blue and activate grindstone, he activates his in response. I flip my deck. He then realizes that he has to draw first, looks for answers, with a top, and scoops. YOLO!
Rnd 4: Traditional BUG list 1-2
G1: hit T1 moon and rolled
G2: he seemed to have every answer. Countered and blew up 2 moons and got Liliana and Jace out early and it was over.
G3: I mulled to 5 and didn’t have a shot. This was the moment I realized I wanted more lands in the deck
Rnd 5: Maverick 2-0
G1: Turn 1 moon, game.
G2: He has some early answers for my stuff and then gets down a Pridemage. He beats me with it for a little while while I build up my board with a grindstone, welder, recruiter into Painter. When I fetch the painter he Green sun’s for ooze on his turn. I play painter on my turn and pass. EOT he has one green open and decides to gain a life with his ooze by eating a creature. Of course I respond with welder into grindstone and combo out. Major punt for him but I’ll take it.
Rnd 6: 12 Post 1-2
Let me just say now that this was the down-point of the tournament for me.
G1: He plays a cloudpost and I play T! blood moon. He then keeps playing lands obviously trying to get to 8 to play Ugin while I am beating down with Painters and welders. I eventually hit recruiter into Jaya and start blowing up his lands and then he realizes the writing is on the wall. Scoop.
G2: He gets an early forest and has a fist-full of grips, blue blasts and other answers and eventually drops fatties. I have a bridge on board but he gets to crazy mana, Emrakul and karakas and I know it’s just a matter of time.
G3 was a killer.
He blue blasts my turn 2 moon and then Show and Tells in a Primeval Titan. He swings a couple time and I really need a bridge to stabilize. On his turn he somehow is destroying something irrelevant of mine and as he is pointing at my side of the board his hand accidentally hits my library and flips over the top card. What is it??? A BRIDGE!!! The exact card I need to stabilize. We call a judge, he gets a warning, but I have to shuffle my deck. What? He just won the game by illegally flipping over the top of my deck?!? Tilt…..scoop.
Rnd 7: Infect 0-2
I am still on tilt from the last round and then have to face this hyper kid with infect who spends the entire match bragging about how great his deck is. This was horrible. Anyway….
G1 I play bridge and get to zero cards and he proceeds to kill me with Noble Hierarch.
G2 I kill all of his infect creatures and he again ends up killing my with a noble hierarch. I did make a critical error in this game though where I snap killed his inkmoth nexus with a sudden shock before allowing him a chance to pump it. That left him with enough pump spells on the next turn to kill me with the hierarch.
So now I’m 4-3 and I really want to just drop. However, the side events are finishing up for the day and I have nothing better to do so decide to keep going.
Rnd 8: 4 color delver 2-0
G1: T1 moon, win
G2: was very grindy and I eventually stabilized with two bridges on the board and kept killing his deathrites. Eventually I was able to combo off.
Rnd 9: BR Reanimator 2-1
This match served as the ultimate vindication for me and I’m so glad I stayed in. Game 3 illustrates why you always play to your outs, even in the most desperate of circumstances.
G1: He turn 1 sire of insanity and I scoop. He has no idea what I am playing.
G2: opening hand with tormod’s crypt + surgical + early combo….win.
G3: He mulls to 5. I keep a hand of ancient tomb, city, revoker, tormod's crypt, LED, welder, LED. That should be good enough against a mull to 5 right? Nope. He turn 1 reanimates a griselbrand. He then draws 7 and discards an Chancellor of the Annex. I play tomb into Revoker naming griselbrand as well as the crypt and the LED. His turn he swings and attempts to reanimate Chancellor. I pop the crypt in response. He passes. My turn 2 I get a fetch land and crack it for plateau and play welder. I also decide to drop the grindstone as I didn't want it to get stripped from my hand. His next turn he swings again and passes. I am now at 1 life. My turn I draw enlightened tutor...hmmm. So what's the play here? I think about it a while and go for a bridge. So, I play my city, e.tutor for bridge. Then I crack LED to grindstone myself, put the bridge in the yard and weld it for the grindstone. STABILIZE at 1 life!!! We play draw go for a couple turns where I draw a couple more lands and a blast. My opponent draws a looting and puts TIDESPOUT into the yard and attempts to reanimate it. That would definitely be game over so I have to weld back in the tormod's crypt for revoker and pop the crypt again. That resolves but then he immediately draws 7 and reanimates my revoker, naming welder. Again a couple turns go by when he is able to also discard an Iona and reanimate it, naming WHITE! I still have a chance. I draw a recruiter and go get a painter. He draws and passes. I play painter. He discards and reanimates a chancellor. EOT, I blast the revoker and weld in grindstone for bridge and on my turn I activate grindstone and he scoops. WIN! I will never take LED out of this deck again.
Pretty excited about making day 2. Next morning I show up for day 2 but my first opponent decides not to. Free win! 7-3. However, the 11th and last round of my tournament was burn, with two other burn players on either side of me. Felt like Daniel in the Lion’s Den. He is on the play game one and burns me out the turn before I combo. Game 2 I mulligan to 5 looking for land plus tutor for sphere or early combo and never really see it. I lose handily and drop. Man I hate burn.
Overall the tournament was a lot of fun and the deck performed as expected. I had one major punt against the infect buy but otherwise felt good about my play. I did play in a side event with the deck as well and went 3-1, losing to reanimator and beating D&T, eldrazi and an interesting R/W artifact prison deck. One major flaw in my deck construction became evident game one against eldrazi. He actually mulls to 4 but is able to get an early chalice on 1 on my. I lock him up with bridge and moon but he has enough guys on the board eventually that I know I’m not going to be able to swing in for the win. His guys are much bigger. My only chance is Jaya and when I finally get her he dismembers her right away. He has more cards in library than me at this point and I have to scoop. Where is that Nahiri now huh? I also did lose a game to the R/W prison deck where he killed me with Aether Grid. Makes me want to put that card back in as an alt win con. I also was getting mana screwed a ton during the main event and think I want to go up to 20 lands + 5 fast mana. Something I am going to have to explore a little more. Anyway, sorry this got so long. Peace.
