Anybody else keeping an eye on the SCG Open today? Tom Ross is 5-1 (probably 6-1 shortly) with no white splash and a main deck Piracy Charm, plus a Spellskite in the board.
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Anybody else keeping an eye on the SCG Open today? Tom Ross is 5-1 (probably 6-1 shortly) with no white splash and a main deck Piracy Charm, plus a Spellskite in the board.
Tom "the Boss" Ross just won the tournament !Quote:
Originally Posted by qomori
(Another infect ranked 9th) beating Shardless (2-1), RUG Delver then Storm (2-0 each) during the top8.
With Amazing topdecks along the way.
The Boss embodies Infect! with some odd choices, (cards i would not play in my built...dryad,piracy charm main...) he just plays the deck so well, even vs unfavorable matches like rug and shardless. Ross is definitely the Poison God.
meanwhile, me and my team placed 6th yesterday and took home some packs (3-headed, my wings are affinity and belcher) (4-2)
my matches went 4-2 as well losing to miracles and shardless
beat miracles/sneakshow/uwr delver and MUD, with a very timely krosan grip on a platinum angel facing lethal next turn. opp is on 12 infect already.
played the white splash. with 3 stps on sb that i never was able to use : ), i would be inserting back a lone forest on my next tourney and cut maybe an stp for another utility card.
over-all it was a good week for the deck.
I don't know if piracy charm and dryad were really usefull during the weekend but he won the tournament soQuote:
Originally Posted by poxy14
we can presume they were.
His sideboard is interesting too, with 3 creatures to "overload" his opponents' hate.
It's passionnating to watch Tom Ross playing the deck. He is very patient, very focused and knows exactly what to do when he has to do it.
All his top8 games have to be seen for all infect lovers.
I know Piracy Charm eventually made it into the 75 because he was shut out by a Peacekeeper a while ago, so having a way to eliminate it was important to him. I'm sure there were some random X/1's he was worried about getting out of the way to have it in the main.
This Sunday I've played a legacy open with 5k of prizes.
My list I've posted few days before, I have changed only the Sideboard adding 1 Divert.
I did 4-2 what leave me outside of the Top8. The Championship had 6 rounds and 2 person 4-2 passed to the Top8.
R1 = Shardless BUG
G1, I started with Fetch for Tropical and Hierarch. Second turn I put an inkmoth nexus on the play and then turn three I'm able to finish with invgorate and Become Immense
G2, Nexus Come to win again, turn 3 I have the same Hierarch, the same nexus and double invigorate. I atack with the Nexus and he tried to difigure my nexus that I pump with the first invigorate. He tried a Brainstorm but I have spell pierce. Ok, the stack resolves and I sho the other invigorate... Oops I forget the -2/-2 from the disfigure. Now He are at 8 poison counters. On my next draw step he plays a Clique to see my hand, I pump my nexus with an vines and only one fetch land are left on my hand. I atack for 6 with my nexus that are blocked by the clique. The next turn is all win... He plays on shardless agent and reveals a crazy Pithing needle naming inkmoth nexus =/ After this one meddling mage come to the field naming Blighted agent and go to G3.
G3, I don't remember so much this game, but He controls me all the time.
0-1
R2 = Reanimator
G1, I draw my 7 cards... see the first four - One fetch land, one glistener elf, one berserk, one invigorate... nice !!! the other three are dazer, another berserk and another land. I won on turn 2 with elf + invigorate + berserk with daze for backup.
G2, I side in all my permissions and keep a hand with only one dazer that I though that's enough. He starts with island for Careful study putting griselbrand on the grave, lotus petal for reanimate and go to G3.
G3, He combo me off on turn 2 with Force of will as backup. Nothing to say.
0-2
R3 = Pox
G1, I start with land and hierarch. He did only urborg and pass. I put a inkmoth on the play and say go. He plays an Wasteland and try to kill my inkmoth but I have stifle =] Next turn I have the lethal and finish with 12 poison counters.
G2, I don't remember so much this game, but I know that he have an annoying Darkblast and two Mishra's factory eat all my life points in some few turns with the blast kills all my creatures.
G3, I daze everything that he tries and finish him very fast.
1-2
R4 = RW Painters
G1, I don't remember But I won fast.
G2, He starts with Magus of the moon on turn 1, blood moon on turn 2, another blood moon on turn 4, simian spirit guide to kill me on turn 3. He reveal him hand and have another Blood moon and the forth moon are sleeping on the top of him deck.
G3, I start with fetch for forest and Hierarch - Now I'm able to play against this fuckling moons. and then the moon comes on him first turn too hahahahaa.... Second turn I put 2 more hierarch on the play and atack for 3 ! =) Next turn I atack again for 3 but I pump my hierarch with Become immense and Invigorate paying 3 manas. I won with normal damage.
2-2
R5 = Burn
G1, I tried but I was unable to draw pumps enough and then died to some burns and finished by a Fireblast as usual.
G2, A very early combo gave me the game.
G3, I make a tropical island and elf. He did goblin guide and atack for 2. My second turn I deploy an Hierarch, atack for 2 poisons, pump my elf with invigorate and after the combat I use my Swords to plowshares on my elf to gain time with 6 more life points. Two turns later I kill him with inkmoth nexus and pump.
3-2
R6 = Grixis Delver
G1, One more time I have turn 2 kill with mana elf on Turn1, turn 2 hierarch and 2 invigorate.
G2, He start with Volcanic Island and Ponder. I did Tropical and go. Turn 2 he crack tropical with wasteland. My second Turn I play fetch and say go. He put a Scalding tarn into play and think for a few moment and then crack the fetch I get the priority and crack my fetch first for a tropical and stifled him fetch. On my turn I play a inkmoth and pass the turn. He plays the volcanic island again but do nothing and pass. I have lethal on my hand and thats the end of line for my opponent.
4-2
Congrats on the tournament vermelho, unfortunate that you missed top 8 on breakers. Fwiw, I don't think Divert is strong enough to make the cut. It seems a little too situational and often gets stranded in hand as a dead card.
So do we have any thoughts on the 75 that Tom Ross won SCGSTL with? It goes against a lot of what's been discussed in here, in particular the white splash vs. the U/G list. There's also some questionable main deck choices, like Sylvan, 2 Vines, and Piracy Charm.
IIRC, none of those cards were a factor in the top 8 (though he did fetch for a Dryad Arbor at some point and pitch the Charm to FoW) and he was also runnin' real hot through those three matches, including top decking Pendelhaven as his only out in game 3 of the quarters, so it's really hard to say. It's possible that the choices, especially the straight U/G vs white splash choices were just great meta calls for an Open event, which sort of has be questioning my decklist going into the GP next weekend.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jesture
By cutting the white splash he went with a more proactive deck. Rest in Peace tends to draw games out longer and dilute your game plan. It's not a bad thing but many players were prepared for and expect the white splash, the crop rotation bojuka bog combo is good enough in most situations to get the job done.
If you look at the Boss's list he built it he was wanting wider answers to more decks. it is a testament to how smart of a player he is knowing what outs he is playing to and where he needs to be in every match up. It changes the decision tree especially with mulligans knowing you only have two vines to protect your threats. He played really aggressively on camera forcing early brainstorms.
In Seattle I intend to move piracy charm and library to the sideboard, though I'm not set on library yet. I'm undecided on the sideboard but I am leaning towards removing the white sideboard and relying on crop rotation bojuka bog. I'm not a fan of teferi's response as much as I find I rarely have the two mana available when the card would be good, but I love the versatility of multiple crop rotates being able to find inkmoth's, wasteland, pedlehaven, bojuka bog or karakas. It makes the board feel like you're playing more than 15 cards. I'm leaning towards 3 in the 75 with so many answers in the deck being lands.
Tom Ross released an article about his list and sideboarding on SCG Premium today. I won't quote the article for obvious reasons, but he said that he anticipated a lot of Shardless, so the Library makes sense. Arbor is in there for the same reason. In case of the Charm, he just says that it's his pet card. He likes it and it kills Baleful Strix, random Elves and other stuff while having some general utility.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jesture
Just read that as well. The vibe he gave off kinda made it seem as though he wasn't too confident in the list, just a combination of tight play and good draws we're enough to snag the trophy. I think white splash is still the best way to go for us, its just such a large payoff for so few card slots. Going down to 2 Vines maindeck seems like a mistake with the return of Abrupt Decay decks, but I like the idea of maindeck Sylvan in the face of a Shardless/Miracles meta.Quote:
Originally Posted by Baum
I agree with literally everything you just said lol. The maindeck Sylvan is a very interesting choice against Shardless decks, though they're not here in my meta yet so I don't think I'll bother with that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jesture
What are you guys using as your 60th slot these days? IE: The Dig through time/Stifle/Sylvan Library/etc slot? I'm currently play testing a bunch of things here but really not sure what I want to settle on.
It's been said that great minds think alike.Quote:
Originally Posted by RhoxWarMonk
I'm doing something a little different for the 60th slot. There's not a lot of Blood Moon, but my meta really likes their Wasteland decks to the point where I feel I need to bring back in a basic forest. I've also opted to go back to the 3 trop 1 savannah maindeck, so I'm currently testing a singleton StP in the maindeck for random problem creatures. Its been okay so far, but I'm not certain I prefer it over an extra probe or ponder.
The singleton StP is something I've thought about myself. I'm running 20 lands, I've played a TON of 19 land games too and it works fine but with all the wastelands coming back into the format, I moved up to 20 so that I could justify the forest and savannah maindeck, while still keeping 4x Tropical.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jesture
Currently running the following:
1 Forest
1 Savannah
4 Tropical
4 Inkmoth
1 Wasteland
1 Pendelhaven
8 Green fetch
I'm also stealing a page out of Zach's deck and playing with 1 Flusterstorm/1 Spell Pierce combination, which I'm liking more than 2x Pierce but I think either way is pretty easily justified depending on what you're looking to do. My hardest part right now is deciding what to put as the 60th card, I've tried most everything but the StP is something I haven't done yet, so perhaps I'll try that as well. If not, I'll likely go back to the 3rd Gix Probe, since it replaces itself and seeing your opponents hand is never a bad thing. I'm already playing with 2x Ponders, don't think I want to move up to 3.
You are not on the stifle plan? I went back to it and have been quite happy with it recently. I, however, would love to run sylvan MD again, but cant find the room for it with stifle in the main. (1 stifle, 2 pierce, 2 probes, 19 lands). Flusterstorm main IS interesting. I just would hate myself if i kicked a pierce and then could not counter a jitte, top or counterbaalance with my flusterstorm in hand..Quote:
Originally Posted by RhoxWarMonk
I've been trying Stifle on and off for the last few months and I just haven't been able to settle on it. It's great a lot of the time, so I debate if I want to keep going back to it but there's a lot of times I find it's a dead card as well. Not usually the greatest top deck either but you are right, it probably makes more sense to play the single Stifle over the 3rd Git Probe, so I'll probably go back to that setup.Quote:
Originally Posted by Neffy
Flusterstorm has enough targets to usually work out well but you're 100% right -- sometimes it just sucks when your opponent casts counterbalance and you can't counter it with the flusterstorm. Overall though, I do really like the 1 and 1 split with that and spell pierce, as Flusterstorm has a lot of perks too, so I've been sticking with that for the time being. I don't really know if either of them is right or wrong, more just personal preference.
Are you finding the 19 lands enough? How many Ponders do you run? I'm on 20 lands and 2 ponders and I find it pretty good, I played 19 lands for a good 5-6 months prior to moving up to 20 and I THINK I like 20 more but it's certainly debatable. I guess my reasoning has a lot to do with seeing so many more Wastelands recently, that keeps me at 20 for the most part.
2nd last night on a mini tourney that got me a playmat and some goodies.. 3-1 lost the final round on a winnable situation, just wasnt lucky enuff..
2-0 vs oops,all spells..
probed me, i got an opening of 2 fows.. then on the draw i managed to get more permissions, game 2 my opp.. miscalculated on paying for pierce, leaving no mana to activate undercity...he lost on his upkeep via unpaid summoner's pact... free win is still a win!
2-1 shardless bug
tough matchup, just have to play tight. i countered his cantrips, and fowed a vision via shardless so he cant search for wastelands.. inkmoth got there.. game 2 i was high on cards, but have no permission to his double hymn, the poison was short this time. game 3 wherein we both ran out cards, he had drs vs my pendeled glistener... he topdecked a decay..and my tech worked here... REALITY RIPPLE baby! soon the drs forced to block and i got a berserk to finish him off.
pox 2-0
2 crop rots were huge here! battling sinkholes and wastes gave me tempo as i wasnt losing turns and lands...game 2 he tried a turn 1 obnix pw only to be fowed..his removals were countered too, and pierce saved me from the sick 4cc enchantment they have...whew!
1-2 reanimator
glistener got in turn2, game 2 was winnable too.. but i played on a 1 lander with 2 probes.. he had elesh norn but i had stp and croprot to fetch a sav... but upon probing, i saw 2 live fows on his 4 card hand..i scooped... so he wont see my stps. game 3 wherein he show'ed for elesh norn and stp got in there.. he fowed my glistener and made it slow for my inkmoth...eventually he was down to 1life and 1infect, but chained reanimator spells for ashen and wiped my board away.
it was a good feeling winning vs shardless and pox, and i had fun with stp vs elesh! a bit unlucky down the stretch i wasnt able to draw any invi in the last round that couldve made the difference..
i played 19 lands (1sav/3trops/1forest) lotsa bloodmoon and wastelands here..
my sb was:
2 needles
1 reality ripple
1 sylvan
2 krosan grips
1 pierce
1 fow
1 fluster
1 rip / 1 graf/ 1 surgical
1 seal primordium
2stps
ripple was a nice toolbox card, i also want to include a sylvan main..but probes are way too good in this deck.
Reality ripple is cute but you are bound to get more value out of 4th vines or even my pet card, Autumn's veil. Veil is actually the card that I always consider when BUG is huge - in which case the correct choice is to actually play imperial painter.
@HOPO; autumn's veil is a good addition too, same as to syvlunite's teferi's response, new toys and discoveries will just help this deck progress. i find RR (reality ripple) to be the best removal evading card, as every deck will pack hate vs our infectors. spot removals and mass removals, might be planeswalker activations too... all these can be answered by RR, except of course sudden shock.
phasing out opposing creatures too is huge! i remember i won 1 game vs MUD, me facing lethal with opp in 14infect but has a platinum angel on the board : )
u can phase out needles too and go ftw with inkmoths, same with the hated peacekeeper and melira.
At the moment yes, but sometimes I do have to keep muliganning to 5 or 4 to see the right lands. Might go up to 20 (savannah main), but then there is no room for maindeck sylvan.Quote:
Originally Posted by RhoxWarMonk