Tournament Report: German Nationals 2010
Hey guys,
here is my tournament report that may be fun or interesting to read, (or maybe even stuff for new discussions). I learned a lot at this tourney and I want to share my experiences.
First of all: the list
//Lands [22]
4 Mountain
2 Badlands
2 Taiga
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Wooded Foothills
4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
//Core [26]
4 AEther Vial
4 Goblin Lackey
4 Goblin Piledriver
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Warchief
4 Goblin Ringleader
2 Siege-Gang Commander
//Flex-Slots [12]
3 Lightning Bolt
3 Gempalm Incinerator
2 Stingscourger
2 Mogg War Marshall
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Tin-Street Hooligan
//Sideboard [15]
3 Nature’s Claim
3 Perish
2 Pyrokinesis
3 Ley-Line of the Void
4 Chalice of the Void
So here are my pairings:
Round 1 – Zoo-Survival Stefan
On the play he begins with Savannah, Nacatl, Go. I’m expecting Zoo, and had Mountain, Lackey, Go with no removal on hand. He drops Wasteland and Survival(!) on turn 2. He manages to get his Squee + Survival online, which enables him to drop a creature each turn. Ports and Wastelands couldn’t stop his mana-flood. 35 minutes (and tons of removal burning down Goblins and Goyfs) later he took me down with 3 huge Knight of the Reliquary.
0-1 (3 Perish)
In game 2 I keep a weak hand with Port, Vial, 2 Perish, Lackey, 2 Matron. I play Port, Vial, Go. On turn 3 Pridemage took my Vial, leaving me with only Port and a Lackey in play. I draw Scalding Tarn. No I just had to wait for one more land to play Perish. In the following turn he plays KotR, leaving me exactly 1 turn to find a 3rd land before he has Wasteland for my Port. Of course I didn’t find the land. Tarmogoyf, and Knight (feat. Wasteland) quickly ended the lousy MU.
0-2 (0-1-0)
Round 2 – Merfolk (Mono U) Felix
He goes first with Island, Go. The following 3 turns were as follows: Lackey Daze. Mogg War Marshal Daze. Piledriver Daze. Luckily I saw 3 different with Daze, telling me that 3/7 cards on his hands were lands, and none was a 1-drop. For the rest of the game, Matron into Ringleader into many more Goblins convinced my opponent to scoop.
1-0 (2 Pyrokinesis)
I don’t have much memory left from this match. He never was much of a threat in that game, cause didn’t have creatures. 2 Spell Snare hit 2 Piledriver. He had Jitte since turn 2. Rejeerey came via Vial and attacked with Jitte next turn. I chumpblocked with Mogg War Marshall. With 2 tokens and 1 Warchief in play and nothing but Bloodstained Mire on hand. I desperately needed to topdeck my 1-off TSH. Before he had a chance draw FoW/Blue elemental Blast. Luckily I did. I sent my Warchief for an attack, which he destroyed with his Jitte-counters. In postcombat mainphase I fetched for Taiga, played TSH.
2-0 (1-1-0)
Round 3-Merfolk (Mono U) Holger
The first 4 rounds were as follows: Lackey –> Daze, Piledriver Daze, Piledriver FoW Standstill, Matron FoW (Standstill). In turn 4 I played Matron, which he forced. While thinking about what to pitch I said: “C’mon. Take Lord of Atlantis, it’s useless against Goblins”. He reacted like “How did you know what I’m playing?”...Well, thanks, I didn’t. Ringleader finished him off. I really like running into tons of Daze when they don’t have 1st turn Vial.
1-0 (2 Pyrokinesis)
He plays Island, Go. I Play Mountain, Lackey, Go (with 2 SGC, Matron, Gempalm and Lightning Bolt on hand). He plays Cursecatcher. I play Bolt for catcher, Lackey brings in SGC. He drops Lord of Atlantis. I sac a token for Lord- Lackey brings in my second SGC. In his turn he was thinking for a long time. Suddenly Gempalm Incinerator “slipped” through my fingers and landed on the table face-up – that seemed to quicken his decision.
2-0 (2-1-0)
Round 4 – 4c Landstill feat. Pernicious Deed and Life from the Loam Jasper
In game 1 mull down to 4 cursing my “brainless” decision to run Ports. I only had Vial and 3 Lands. He finished me off quickly with Pernicious Deed and double Factory.
0-1 (3 Nature’s Claim)
I start with Mountain, Lackey, Go, which he “sworded”. In turn 2 I dropped another Lackey and Vial. I missed a landdrop on turn 3 and had to pass with SGC and Nature’s Claim in hand. He played Pernicious Deed which was destroyed by my Nature’s Claim in EOT. Next turn Lackey brings in SGC. He draws, and scoops, showing me 6 Lands on his hand (none of which was a Factory).
1-1 (nothing)
In game 3 I keep a risky hand with Vial, Scalding Tarn, 2 Matron, Gempalm, Ringleader. So far I didnt see any Forces or Counterspells. So I decided for myself that he wouldn’t “force” my 1st-turn Vial. He didn’t. Now it was his turn to mull down to 4. My Vial survived long enough and Ports and Wasteland did their job to shut him off his 3rd mana.
2-1 (3-1-0)
Round 5 – Dreadstill (Ur) Simon
In game 1 both of us did pretty much of nothing. In early turns I played Matron Stingscourger. I guessed that he was playing Dreadnought, but wasn’t sure so I didn’t search TSH. A Firespout in midgame stopped me. Several turns later he finally showed me that I was right: Trinket Mage Dreadnought. I really hoped that he forgot my Stingscourger in hand. One turn later he played Dreadnought + Stifle, and got all-in with CB + Top. Now he had no cards in hand and no untapped lands to use Top. On my turn I played Stingscourger and a blind(!) CB revealed Daze, well...
0-1 (4 Chalice, 3 Nature’s Claim)
I went first with Mountain, Vial (wich got forced), Go (having 2 Taiga, 2 Lackey and Chalice in hand). On turn 2 I played Chalice of the Void @ 1. I was afraid of an early Nought and I thought Lackey would run into Factory eitherway. Well afterall I must admit this was a bad mistake. 2 turns later he played Standstill, which I broke by playing Goblin Lackey (!!). He drew 3 cards when I realized my ugly misplay. Still I asked him if Laykey resolves (maybe he didn’t notice my mistake). “Of course not!” he said, pointing to my Chalice. He had Curcible to waste me out of the game. I had another Chalice @ 0 to stop EE. One turn later he dropped a second Wasteland and played EE for 2 colorless.
0-2 (3-2-0)
Round 6 – Bant Survival feat. Jace 2.0 Christian
Well we talked about each other’s lists on the way to the tournament. He was the one to borrow me a Playset of Rishadan Ports.
In game 1 I went first with (guess what?) Mountain, Lackey, Go. The match quickly ended after I had SGC and Piledriver enter the battlefield on turn 2.
1-0 (3 Nature’s Claim)
In game 2 he had too many Goyfs and War Monks to stall me, while Jace finished me off.
1-1 (nothing)
In game 3 I had to take down Iona and Jace and Survival before I could stop his card advantage. It took several turns where Tarmogoyfs fell prey to Piledrivers and Lackeys to War Monks. After counting his leftover creatures in deck he scooped.
Round 7 – Zoo (Sligh feat. Goblin Guide) Alex
In game 1 I had hard times because of his Goblin Guide. The match was decided when I counted wrong and went all-in to kill him, ignoring that his 9/9 KotR was able to block. One turn after he hit me with his Knight and and had double Chainlightning + Fireblast.
0-1 (3 Perish, 2 Pyrokinesis)
In game 2 I had tons of removal + Lackey. On his turn he asked me if he should play Goblin Guide or a removal for Lackey. I didn’t answer that question. Next he asked if Zoo is a good MU for Goblins. That was when I realized that he really had no idea. He told me that he borrowed this deck and that he is actually a T2 player. Well... I won that game easily because he decided to attack with Goblin Guide.
1-1 (nothing)
Game 3 was the most exciting match I had that day. He started spamming creature. My Perish was useless against triple Goblin Guide and Grim Lavamancer. With only 8 lifes left I was able to play Pyrokinesis and trade Goblin tokens for Guides. After that I had Lightning Bolt, Gempalm and finnaly my Perish was usefull when destroying Pridemage and Nacatl. Now it was my turn to do some damage. Regular time was over, we had 5 extra turns. In my last extra turn he had 5 life, I had SGC on hand and 5 lands in play. In my upkeep he wanted to shake hands and draw (cause I wasn’t able to kill him from his point of view). I showed him my SGC. “Well,” someone watching the match said “you got to topdeck a land and it better be a red one”. I just flipped the top card over...Mountain! Loud laughter broke out.
2-1 (5-2-0)
Round 8 – Zoo, Pro Naya feat. NO Progenitus Denis
In game 1 he had turn 3 Thoctar which attacked in tunr 4 and was replaced by Progenitus in 2nd mainphase.
0-1 (Perish)
In game 2 I was flooded, but nevertheless had 2 Perish. Still, Jitte ended the game (cause TSH was waiting in my sideboard). Just what I deserved...
0-2 (5-3-0)
Round 9 – MUC feat. Firespout Christof
In game 1 I was on the play. After mulligan on 4 (!) I started with (guess what?)...Taiga, Lackey, Go (Badlands and Vial in hand). I topdecked Matron, which came via Lackey. Matron Ringleader fun. I took him down with those guys and only saw 3 Relic of Progenitus and Jace 2.0.
1-0 (3 Nature’s Claim)
In game 2 had had what I boarded Nature’s Claim for: Vedalken Shakles. 3 of them were too much. I scooped to possibly rush him in game 3.
1-1 (nothing)
Game 3 took very long. Here is a short cut. He took a lot of damage. Ports shut him of his only red source to avoid Firespout. Then extra turns were announced. Vial @ 5, Opp’s life @ 9. SGC in hand. Several Goblins on my side of the battlefield. He controlled an untapped Shakles and 4 Lands. My plan was clear: Tap his Mountain in upkeep, bring in SGC in EOT, copy it with Kiki-Jiki, launch for a deadly attack in my last extra turn. Well... I forgot to tap his Mountain. So he played Firespout. I was thinking for a long time and then I decided to do my 2nd ugly misplay this day: I pitched SGC in response (!) on Firespout, tapped 6 mana and did 6 damage to his lifes. Then my board was cleared, so was his hand. Well... it was my last extra turn and the game took both of my SGCs. I decided to draw Lightning Bolt from top. And that’s what I did. Again the audience just laughed.
2-1 (6-3-0)
Conclusion (+ and -)
+ I’m in love with MD TSH (thank you Foul Q, replaced Goblin Tunnler last minute)
+ had some very funny matches
+ my ability to topdeck what I need saved my ass 3 times
+ was able to play Ports and I liked it (although my ist is 3c)
+ didn’t face combo
+ was the most successful Goblin player that day (afaik)
- Kiki-Jiki suckes, is going to be replaced my another MWM
- didn’t need Leylines
- 2 ugly misplays
