Well done Pherion and thanks for your great report.
Also gratz to jarvisyu on great result.
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Well done Pherion and thanks for your great report.
Also gratz to jarvisyu on great result.
minireport:
r1: lost to zoo battle of wits (1-2)
r2: lost to b/w with kjeldoran outpost/lingering souls/stoneforge mystic (0-2)
r3: won vs u/w/b fae-mystic (bitterblossom/sprite/stoneforge) (2-1)
r4: won vs b/g nic fit with natural order (he NOed into Terastodon g1 which i easily beat) (2-0)
r5: won vs a friend playing ANT with lim-dul's vault (he killed himself with ad nauseum in g2, and i sacked out g1 by drawing 3 wastelands) (2-0)
r6: won vs b/g discard deck (deathrite/goyf/heavy on the discard. Ancestral Vision obviously a MVP here) (2-0)
r7: won vs another friend playing ANT in 3 games (2-1)
r8: won vs a friend in the shardless mirror. Similarly to the old Caw-Blade mirrors in standard, board position matters a lot, since both of you have so much action vis Jaces / Ancestrals. Tar Pit is an all-star here if you can set up situations where you can attack with it safely. (2-1)
r9: won vs u/w/r miracles in 3 games. lost g1 probably due to a punt, g2 he mulled to 4, g3 my hand was absurdly good with not much time left on the clock, but i managed to ult lili, play a 2nd one, play venser and notion thief to earn the win. (2-1)
I think you logic here is pretty solid. I have been siding with Golgari Charm as it kill fewer of our guys. However I can see the situations where the free cast and/or the extra -1/-1 would be awesome. I will have to think about it a little more paired with more testing. I think extra Lilianas can help versus the Mirran Crusader decks as well. I played a Zoo/Naya deck that played him post board at SCG Baltimore. I was able to just kill of his dudes and make him sac the Crusader with Lili. This is of course a lot more situational as it has to be their only dude. But at any rate that was the out I had to play to and it worked.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kyle
I was playing is SCG Baltimore and it served me very well. I got to 3-for-1 a NO Bant player (Joseph Herrera, the guy who won the Standard Open). Taking out 2 Noble Hierarchs and a Dryad Arbor leaving him stranded on two mana sources. That got me back into the game which I was about to turn around for the match win. It also let me clean up some Empty the Warrens tokens on an occasion or two.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kyle
I am a little curious about this. I am not totally sold on this. Affinity can essentially just redrop their hand aside from their bigger guys on the following turn. I do like the idea of EoTing it to make them discard things and leave the board clear for an attack. Wouldn't Pernicious Deed just be better? Sure we may lose a some guys and it might take an extra turn, but we can plan for it and X-for-1 them. This would essentially leave them in dopdeck mode. It also gets Etched Champion which is a big deal.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kyle
So I will write up a tournament report for the 9 rounds I played this past Sunday in Baltimore tonight or tomorrow. I ended up 6-3 (52nd overall out of a starting 298) losing in the last round to Nick Patnode, who ended up 16th overall (a little heartbreaking... not gonna lie). I lost to UR Delver, Hypergenesis, and TES. I was able to beat ANT, Mono Blue Tempo, NO Bant, Jund, Goblins, and Zoo/Naya Aggro. What I will say after playing a larger field with some higher level players, is that this deck is insane. I think it is favored against just about every fair match up, especially post board. I think the deck is lacking a little in the combo match up end of the spectrum. I think we need a more impactful plan for fighting the Storm and Show and Tell decks. I am interested to hear what you guys think on these topics. I have a few ideas which I will discuss in the report I will write.
I feel like the storm match is OK after sideboard, but I think I need to find a slot or two for graveyard hate. Reanimator is just bad! My build has to start w/ a T1 Deathrite and have Force back-up for their potential T1 reanimate. Then they can still have a counter of their own - and I'm still dead :(Quote:
Originally Posted by Sturtzilla
I look forward to the discussion.
I was watching the end of your game three here and asked to see your board afterwards. You played very tight and the Venser bounce land, plus Lili, play after the Lili ultimate was sick! So brutal! Well played, sir.Quote:
Originally Posted by jarvisyu
Okay how do you sideboard for Storm games 2-3? I just feel like my plan isn't working. I was 1-1 versus Storm decks in the Open and 1-0 versus them in the Challenge the day prior. I would like to get more input to potentially tighten this up though.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pherion
I feel like reanimator should be fine. We have Deathrite, FoW, and Removal (assuming they don't get Inkwell or Sphinx). Post board Spellbomb does a lot to sure up the match. I have only played versus it once or twice but easily took the matches.
Yes I'm Timur Babakol. I wrote a report for BUG Delver/TA/River Rock when I topped at SCG Philly. I'm planning on writing a tournament report at some point but I'll give some info about my deck real quick.Quote:
Originally Posted by Cire_dk
First off, I loved my list. Every card perform exquisitely. I started from Lejay's list, which is very planeswalker heavy and tweaked some numbers here and there.
First, the heavy number of walkers was great. This is not a blue deck, it is a rock deck. It plays blue cards but it is heavily a Rock style strategy. In addition, the spot removal you have access to is either overpriced (Pulse) or too narrow (Dismember). This makes Liliana a very good choice because of how flexible she is in usage and the many facets in which she can operate. 3 Jace may have been too much but I'm not sure. Jace was very good all day, either buying me time or getting me miles ahead.
The Top was awesome. The decision came about in this way: during the drive down, we were discussing Sylvan Library and what decks use it well. I personally dislike Library because it is a winmore card in many decks. There are a few decks where it is good but those are primarily Loam decks. In almost any other deck, it is a horrible top deck. Jund is an example of this for me: most games with Jund get kind of grindy and you have a lot of unused mana. This is where Sensei's Divining Top becomes very important. My driver posited that Library is really good against combo decks where your life total doesn't matter but honestly if you spend turn 2 casting a Library, you probably aren't going to be doing much. If you cast it after that it loses its impact. He saw my reasoning for this. He made a realization: I should be playing 1 Top instead of the 4th Ancestral Visions. Visions can be insane but there are many games where you spend turns suspending it and then do nothing for quite a while (I won a mirror because this is what my opponent did). Even against the combo deck, Ancestral tend to not be a card you want in your hand. So we decided that slot should be Top to help with manipulation but also smooth out early game plays.
I was not disappointed by it. The one match where my top shined was against Storm where I used it to fix my draws on a 1 lander so I could lead with Hymn into Liliana of the Veil to shut him down. Otherwise, I don't particularly remember Top doing much or even really drawing it. It was never an issue and I am very happy I ran it.
The last piece is the discard spells. A lot of people commented about me playing no Thoughtseize main. I'm not sure if that was right or wrong, but Hymn was perfectly fine for me all day. With the extra walkers, I feel that I didn't as badly need the targeted discard.
For my list posted earlyier:Quote:
Originally Posted by Sturtzilla
Out
4 Shardless Agent
2 Baleful Strix
2 Abrupt Decay
In
3 Flusterstorm
2 Thoughtseize
1 Hymn to Tourach
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Golgari Charm
I could argue to take out the Jace, the Mind Scuptors as well, but I feel the plansewalkers are just a fantastic way to lock down TES or ANT after you've ripped their hand apart. The biggest thing that ensured my victory to TES was Deathrite Shaman though. In game 1, my deathrite ate all of the tutors he cast or got discarded/countered. I've played TES enough to know that during that game he had a clear shot at Past in Flames, but without access to another Tutor in the graveyard, the plan was shot.
With regards to reanimator. The only removal we really have is Liliana of the Veil and Maelstrom Pulse. Abrupt Decay only hits Animate Dead, so we're better off trying to stop the combo in the first place. They just have a better counter suite than we do.
I'd really like to try out the Sensei's Divining Top, and probably will add it to my list in upcoming testing. On discard spell. I feel that having access to 4 Thoughtseize postboard was a key factor in some of my match-ups. Though I did miss sideboard a bit in my Patriot Delver match. I took them out because I thought it would be a problem with the 2 life, but then got beat down by Stoneforge Mystics and could have discarded their equipment.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zirath
Great performance Timur, I'm really looking forward to seeing your tourney report!Quote:
Originally Posted by Zirath
I'm not personally a fan of Top in this deck as it taps out a lot each turn, but I can see where it can be valuable. I think that lists that choose to play Top should play 2 of them to capitalize on its ability to smooth out draws and improve card quality. Of course you run into the possibility of cascading into one when you really don't want it, but it's marginally better than blind cascading into Brainstorm because it sticks around and can be the "gift that keeps on giving."
In regards to over-suspending Ancestral Vision, I agree it can really bite you in the ass.
I'm going to be playing in SCG Los Angeles in November, so I have much more testing to do if imma play Shardless BUG, but it's competing heavily with Miracles as my deck choice. I'll try your approach with Top; see how it works out.
Top worked well for me. Because there was only 1, it was pretty easy for me to get rid of it with Brainstorm and Jace. It always was the same as Ancestral Vision for me except there were a few games where I won because I got to manipulate my deck for 2 turns. It also increases the amount of things to do in the first few turns of the game.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kyle
SCG Baltimore Tournament Report 8/24-25/2013
As usual I played only the Legacy Challenge which SCG has renamed the “Legacy Open Trial.” They had also restructured the prize payout as follows:
4-0-0: SCG Open Trial Play Mat and choice of 10 Boosters or Free Entry to an Open
3-0-1: SCG Open Trial Play Mat and 8 Boosters
3-1-0: 6 Boosters
2-2-0: 1 Booster
I guess this incentivizes more playing and less splitting. So I signed up for the Open Trial which cost me $10. I was feeling pretty good after testing my Shardless BUG build at locals for a few weeks. After watching the other guys in my group play Standard for hours and hours the pairings for the Trial went up. And wouldn’t you know it, I was the lucky guy who got the round 1 Bye… definition of irony.
The Deck
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Baleful Strix
4 Shardless Agent
4 Ancestral Vision
4 Brainstorm
2 Thoughtseize
2 Hymn to Tourach
4 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Liliana of the Veil
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Force of Will
3 Polluted Delta
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Marsh Flats
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
2 Bayou
2 Creeping Tar Pit
2 Wasteland
Sideboard
3 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Flusterstorm
2 Disfigure
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Baleful Strix
1 Hymn to Tourach
2 Golgari Charm
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Force of Will
Round 1: Bye
Round 2: Omniscience Combo: (2-1-0)
Round 3: ANT (2-1-0); in game one dude killed me before I even played a land. Had I known he was on storm, I would have shipped the opener. But with no info on the opposing deck my hand was solid. I managed to beat him in game three on the following mulligan to 4 cards: Fetchland, Deathrite, Flusterstorm, and FoW. My draw steps were Brainstorm, Land, Shardless Agent. He was pretty salty... like Lot's wife from the Bible salty.
Round 4 Dredge: (2-1-0); This guy mulliganed to 4 in game one and conceded to a turn two Hymn to Tourach. He got me in game two as I wasn’t sure how to sideboard going into game two (he scooped without showing me what the Hymn had hit). But in game three I had double Deathrite and Spellbomb to keep his graveyard in check... he actually just started casting his creatures.
So I 4-0ed the Open Trial and chose to take the Play Mat and the Free Entry to the Open. What am I going to do with 10 packs of Gatecrash or M14 anyway? Open them? Seems like bad value when you could just save actual $40.
After seeing so much combo in the side event, I decided to add a 3rd Flusterstorm to my sideboard over an Inqusition of Kozilek. It probably turns out that both of those cards should be in the sideboard to fight combo but we can discuss that later. And yes, the IoK should probably be a Thoughtseize… I have remedied that problem along with the two Marsh Flats and they are now Catacombs.
So with only that one tweak, I was ready for the 284 player, 9 round Legacy Open.
Round 1: Lucas Adams with UR Delver; (0-2-0)
Game 1: I succumb to a draw of Goblin Guide, into naturally flipping delver and Grim Lavamancer. I feel that this is an easy draw to beat if you can draw removal. My Abrupt Decays had forsaken me for this game and as I would soon find out the next game as well.
Sideboarding: -1 Ancestral Vision, -2 Thoughtseize, -2 Hymn to Tourach, -2 Shardless Agent, -3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor; +3 Flusterstorm, +2 Disfigure; +2 Baleful Strix; +2 Golgari Charm +1 Liliana. Here I am overloading on removal for all of his guys and counter magic to stop the potential Price of Progress.
Game 2: My turn 1 Deathrite get countered by a FoW. I am okay with this as I have a few more lands. My opponent casts a Delver which I let resolve. I Brainstorm on my turn, shuffle away some lands with a fetch, and suspend an Ancestral Vision. I feel decent about my position although my only removal in had at this point is a Pulse. His next turn is cantrip and Grim. I manage to survive a few turn Brainstorming and Resolving an Ancestral… I was not able to find removal to take out either guy. I ended up dying to Grim activations. I think this one should have been winnable but the cards didn’t come together well.
Round 2: Matt Szabo with ANT; (2-0-0)
Game 1: I wasn’t sure what my opponent was on… I have the decision to turn one Thoughtseize or suspend Ancestral. I chose the former and was able to take his tutor… leaving him with rituals and cantrips but no business. He spends the next few turns cantripping, while I make a Deathrite and Baleful Strix. He on turn 3, goes off Empty the Warrens route for 10 goblins. I have two blockers and a Shardless Agent in my hand, as well as a Brainstorm and fetchland, while still at 17 life. I Brainstorm and my second card off of the Brainstorm was the 1-of Maelstrom Pulse. I play a fetch, crack it, pulse his dudes, and attack for 2. The following turn I Shardless into a Goyf and that was about all she wrote.
Sideboarding: -1 Ancestral Vision, -4 Shardless Agent, -2 Abrupt Decay, -3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor; +2 Nihil Spellbomb, +3 Flusterstorm, +1 Hymn to Tourach, +2 Golgari Charm, +1 Lilana, +1 FoW. My logic here was to load up on discard and counter magic. Also I changed some of the removal package to take out Goblin tokens and/or Xantid Swarm if he decided to bring those it. Finally, there are some Spellbombs as a way to turn off the Past in Flames combo route. Deathrite already makes this pretty hard for them, but having a little more insurance can help.
Game 2: My opener has Flusterstorm, Deathrite, and Double Hymn with 3 lands. He either goes off on turn one-two with Silence or is just going to get torn apart. He probes me and then tanks for about 5 minutes. He then passes to me. I play a fetch and pass back to him. He cantrips and must not have hit business so he plays out a few mana artifact but cannot combo right into the Flusterstorm. I fetch and play a second land. Hymning away a cantrip and a tutor. He draws for turn, cantrips and plays land. I cast Hymn leaving him with not hand and cast Deathrite. It felt safe to tappout with him having no cards in hand. He finds no gas and I am able to add a Goyf to the board and begin the beats and Deathrite exiling. He succumbs to this a few turns later.
Round 3: Jim Scharr with Hypergenesis; (1-2-0)
Game 1: I knew what Jim was playing as he is a friend of a friend and we had compared decks and sideboards earlier that day. He won the die roll and was able to completely combo out on the second turn with Misdirection back up for my FoW. It is worth mentioning that his list is a hybrid of a traditional Hypergenesis list with the Omni Show combo built in as well.
Sideboarding: +3 Flusterstorm, +1 Hymn, +2 Golgari Charm, +1 Lilana of the Veil, +1 FoW; --4 Abrupt Decay, -4 Shardless Agent. By removing the slow threat of Shardless Agent and Decay (which hit nothing in his deck) we are able to add more discard and counters to favorably interact with his combo.
Game 2: I am on the play this game and have a decent hand with Flusterstorm, Deathrite, and FoW. That all turns out to be awesome, but it was the Wasteland taking out his turn one dual land that really won the game. I played fetch go. He played a dual and passed. I wasted him off of the dual and cast the Deathrite, assuming that since he couldn’t go off the previous turn that would still be the case (plus we still have FoW and blue card). He played an island and passed back. He didn’t hit a land for a number turns… during which I was able to cast a Goyf with Flusterstorm and FoW back up. Deathrite removed some spells and attacked alongside the Lhurgoyf. These guys killed him before he could find enough land to assemble the combo.
Game 3: My hand at 7-5 cards have no discard and not counter magic. My 4 card hand is Fetch Deathrite, Flusterstorm, and FoW, which at 4 against combo is about as good as it is going to get. He doesn’t go for it on turn one and I draw a Brainstorm. I lead Fetch and pass. He attempts to go off on turn two, playing a second land, removing a spirit guide, and casting Violent Outburst. As expected he cascades into [/cards]Hypergenesis[/cards]. This cards earns a FoW and Brainstorm from my already taxed hand. He Misdirected the FoW to his Misdirection, removing a Shardless Agent. I let the stack clear down to the Hypergenesis, then Flusterstormed the Hypergenesis. This resolves, temporarily giving me a reprieve. I draw a Brainstorm for turn and pass back. He must have hit something because his next turn was Show and Tell into Omniscience followed by Shardless Agent. We were fairly close on 4 cards but couldn’t quite seal the deal. I guess it could have been correct to cast the Brainstorm, but then I would have needed to hit land plus Flusterstorm or FoW plus blue card. Neither of which turn out to be on top of my deck.
Round 4: Manny Naputi with Zoo/Naya Aggro; (2-0-0)
Game 1: Manny was on the Naya/Zoo Blitz deck that uses Burning-Tree Emissary to generate an overwhelming board very quickly. I won the die roll, chose to play first, fetched and cast a Deathrite. He led with fetch, into Taiga, into Goblin Guide, which for those of you that have forgotten about this card, enters the battlefield attacking. I took the two dropping to 17. I fetched again (16) and cast a Hymn, knowing that I could Braintorm during his turn to get some value off of the Goblin Guide. I hit Burning-Tree Emisary and a Lightning Bolt. I passed back. He played a fetch, attacked with the Guide, I Brainstormed putting back land, and drawing it due to the trigger. I took the 2, now down to 14. I had found an Decay on the Brainstorm which would easily dispatch the Goyf. I played my bonus land, cast a Goyf, and passed back with fetch + Deathrite for the upcoming combat blowout. My opponent played a land and attacked. I blocked the Goblin with my Goyf, unfortunately not drawing another land, and Decayed the Goyf before it could get at my quickly dwindling life total. The Decay cost me another point of life with the fetch, now at 13. He had no following play and passed. I attacked with the Goyf leaving the Deathrite up for life gain/loss purposes. I then Shardless Agented into another Deathrite. My opponent drew his card, thought for a minute or two, and then scooped up his cards.
Sideboarding: -2 Thoughtseize, -2 Jace, -3 FoW; +2 Disfigure, +2 Baleful Strix, +2 Golgari Charm, +1 Lilana. We are just loading up on removal here… also the regenerate mode of charm could be useful
Game 2: I don’t remember specifically what this hand consisted of… but it was 3 lands, a Liliana, three additional pieces of removal. So I kept. I guess my opponent kept a weak hand as well… because he had no play until turn 3, which set essentially the tone for the rest of the game, as he cast a Mirran Crusader. This, as you can guess, is comically bad. My turn three is Lili, forcing him to sacrifice the very nearly Pro-Sharless BUG dude. He then has a Tarmogoyf which he must have either drawn that turn or the turn before. I have the Decay for it on my turn and a forced discard from Lili begins the hand attrition game. A few turns later he only has lands to a Lili at 6+, a Goyf, and Deathrite. I manage to win the game with the only damage dealt to me being from two of my own fetch land activations, almost a flawless victory.
Round 5: Robert Buceteri (this last name may be misspelled; my apologies my notes for this round were a little messy) with Mono Blue Tempo; (2-0-0)
Game 1: I mulligan to 6 as my 7 was 5 lands… keep a reasonable hand with Deathrite and some removal. When my opponent goes, Island, go, I am a little confused. I am not sure what I am playing against, so we without a better option fetch into Underground Sea to cast Deathrite. On his next turn, he plays another land and a lotus petal… and I am pretty sure that I am just going to be dead to some sort of Storm. He then casts Could of Faeries and untaps his lands and passes back to me. At this point I am super confused as to what is happening. So I play a land and pass back with the ability to Decay or Deathrite if necessary. He attacks with the Faeries, unable to block I concede that I am likely taking 1 damage (oh no!), he then Ninjitsus in a Mistblade Shinobi. Are you fucking kidding me? A Mistblade Shinobi? Ninjitsu? Is this even really happening? I consider my options for a minute, I have access to more land so the tempo advantage doesn’t seem too terrible, so I take the 1 damage and allow the bounce to occur. He replays the Cloud, untapping his lands, presumably to be able to counter things. I play a land, and recast Deathrite. It resolved and would now be able to block the pesky Shinobi (still… Mistblade Fucking Shinobi, really?). I still have mana up to Decay if necessary. He attacks again with the Cloud… now knowing where this might be going, I Decay those silly Faeries, cutting off his ability to cheat another guy into play on the cheap. My next turn involved Shardless Agent into Goyf… this pretty much ended the game.
Sideboarding: -1 Maelstrom Pulse, -3 FoW, -3 Jace; +2 Disfigure, +2 Golgari Charm, +2 Baleful Strix, +1 Lili. More removal… at lower converted mana costs to be able to stop the ninjitsu shenanigans.
Game 2: My opener is double Deathrite, 3 lands, Disfigure, and Decay. He leads off with Island into Ornithopter. I draw a Deathrite for turn… triple Deathrite is a pretty fast clock, presuming that there are enough spells to fuel all three. I lead with fetch, Underground Sea, Deathrite Shaman. The Deathrite earns a FoW and an exiled Snapcaster Mage. Well knowing the rest of my hand that is pretty awesome. My opponent draws and must have kept a one lander as he doesn’t play a land or attack. I untap, play a fetch, cast Deathrite #2, which my opponent looks less than thrilled about and pass leaving the fetch up for a potential Disfigure. My opponent plays a second land but still does not attack, I decide here that is it time to get more aggressive and Disfigure his Thopter at EOT. I then play the third land cast a Deathrite, leaving Deathrite up for life loss purposes. I drain my opponent by removing his FoW at the EOT. Shardless Agent joins the party bringing along his good old buddy Tarmogoyf. My opponent now on the back foot begins casting Ninjitsu guys just block and stay alive. This lasts a turn or two before the inevitable occurs.
Round 6: Joseph Herrera with NO Bant; (2-1-0)
Game 1: This was easily the best match of the day. Games 1 and 2 were absolutely awesome as were each came back from an almost unwinnable position to win the game. I win the die roll and choose to play. I Thoughseize him on turn one seeing the following six cards: Forest, Noble Hierarch, Green Sun’s Zenith, Tarmogoyf, Scavenging Ooze, and Natural Order. There are two ways to play this and with the removal in my hand and lack of counter magic I think the right play is to try to keep him off of mana. I take the Noble banking on being able to kill all of his creatures. He plays Forest and cast the GSZ for a Dryad Arbor. Little did I know he just drew a land and would draw another. This game ends very quickly as he is still able to cast Natural Order on turn 3 or 4 for Progenitus.
Sideboarding: -3 Jace, -2 Thoughtseize, -2 Hymn -2 Shardless Agent; +2 Disfigure, +2 Golgari Charm, +1 Lili, +3 Flusterstorm, +1 FoW. Here we want ways to kill his dudes to make Natural Order dead in addition to counters to keep it from resolving.
Game 2: My opener has one fetchland, but has Brainstorm, Ancestral, Golgari Charm. I keep, hoping to dodge a Wasteland for a turn or two. I play the fetch and pass. He plays a fetch and passes. I crack my fetch, find USea and Brainstorm. I find no land… now I am just dead. I untap, draw my first of two Brainstorm-locked cards, and suspend Ancestral. My opponent draws, fetches a Trop, casts Brainstorm (which I could have FoWed) but chose not to, as I want to keep this for Natural Order if possible. He finds the Wasteland on the Brainstorm and wastes me off lands with at least one dead draw to come. I tick down my Visions, draw my dead card, and pass back. He plays a Fetch and casts a Noble, and passes. I remove another counter from Visions, draw a fetch, play it and pass. My opponent fetches EOT for a Dryad Arbor. He untaps, draws, plays a fetch, plays a second Noble and attacks me for 3. I take the hit am hoping that I hit a land to be able to cast the Charm to level the playing field. I tick down the Visions, now at one counter. Can we survive for another turn? I draw a second fetch land. I double fetch, finding USea and Bayou on as to ensure being able to cast Lili if I draw her off of the Visions. I cast the Charm for the -1/-1 mode. Joe is without counters and I get to three of his guys… essentially resetting the game. He plays land go. I am able to draw my 3 cards and my normal draw which finds me a third land and a Lili. I play the Lili and begin ticking her up to his empty board and nearly empty hand. I manage to tick Lili up and down for the rest of the game to keep him off the board.
Game 3: I opener is solid with 3 land, Deathrite, Flusterstorm, Lili, and a Decay. I play a Deathrite to match his Noble. I think he Brainstormed and fetched on his next turn. I make a turn two Lili and force him to sacrifice his Noble. He then casts a Goyf. I untap, tick Lili up, discard , land, Decay the Goyf and attack with the Noble for one. I am not sure the exact order of the next few turns but I cast a Goyf which got StPed, continued to tick Lili up and down just wrecking his hand and board, until finally an Agent shows up convincing a Goyf to join the fray (or lack thereof). The game ended a combat or two later. Overall awesome match! Thanks for the great games Joe.
Round 7: Danny Goldstein with Goblins; (2-0-0)
Game 1: My opponent showed up to the match 3 minutes late without a judge’s approval. So he was given a game loss. We went into game 2 with no board and him on the play. He played a mountain and a turn 1 Aether Vial. I guess that I am playing against Goblins. I fetch and play a Deathrite to have a blocker for the inevitable Goblin Lackey. My opponent ticks up his Vial, plays Mountain number two and cast Goblin Piledriver. I consider casting a FoW but I have a Goyf in hand, so I let it resolve. I now realize that to play around a cycled Gempalm Incinerator on my opponent’s next turn, I need more card types in the yards. So I make the concession of taking some damage and cast a Hymn which hit Ringleader and a Siege-Gang. He vials in a Goblin Lackey at EOT, ticks up his vial to 2, draws, misses a land drop, plays a second Piledriver, I counter this as I want my next turn of Goyf and Strix to essentially seal the deal. I cast both guys. Now with 2 blockers and some interaction in hand I feel pretty safe. He vials in a Piledriver which makes me a bit nervous. He misses on land again and casts Stingscourger, bouncing my Goyf. This presents an attack for 10 with the drawback of losing the Lackey, which isn’t too bad as he is Hellbent. He attacks; I block the Lackey and trade with the Strix and take 10 going down to a single digit life total. I am a little nervous but am confident that I can still recover as he is not going to be able to keep the Stingscourger around when only on 2 land. I find and abrupt Decay and am able to play my fourth land, Tarmogoyf with enough to kill a Piledriver pre-attackers. He loses his Scourger, draws and plays a land and passes. I Decay a Piledriver at EOT. I am not in a pretty solid place as I can attack with the Goyf, gain life with the Shaman, and still cast the Shardless Agent in my hand. This hits a Strix, which draws me a Goyf. The next dead draw followed by the second Goyf earns a match concession.
Round 8: Justin Parnell with Jund; (2-0-0)
Game 1: Coming from a background in RUG Delver I was a little nervous once I figured out what my opponent was playing this round. However, I was able to kill his Deathrites and slow him down with a Hymn to the point where I was casting Agent into Goyf facing no pressure. He was just trying to keep up. Eventually in game one I just loaded up the board and ground him out.
Sideboarding: -3 Jace, -3 FoW, -2 Thoughtseize; +2 Disfigure, +3 Nihil Spellbomb, +2 Strix, +1 Lili. There is probably some legitimacy to taking out the Hymns for the Charms as they kill Confidants but all of our guys trade with him… so I stuck with the for sure 2-for-1.[/I]
Game 2: I kept a mediocre hand with double Hymn in it, lands and Goyf, and Agent. Justin opened with fetch into Thoughtseize. He chooses a Hymn. I am not sure I feel that is the correct choice but it may be right. I play fetch and pass. He follows suit. I play my second land and Hymn him. I think I hit land and Bloodbraid. His next turn was land and Chains of Mephistopheles. This is pretty rough, but he is not pressuring me and I can choose to not cast draw spells, or Decay it. I play my third land and cast Agent with my fingers crossed that we will hit a creature. I hit a Goyf. His next turn is Bloodbraid into Confidant. I counter with land number four Decay targeting Bob and attacking into the Elf. He chooses not to block. I cast the Goyf from hand in the second main phase. At this point he needs some big plays or it is going to be a short one. He top decks a land and concedes shakes my hand on the match.
Round 9: Nicholas Patnode with TES; (0-2-0)
Game 1: I knew Nick was on TES as I had been talking to Him and Royce the previous day. I mulligan a 7 card hand of dudes and lands in hopes of finding a 6-card hand with FoW and/or discard (ways to interact with TES). My 6 card hand was 2 land, Deathrite, Thoughtseize, and Brainstorm. I guess it could be better but this is reasonable. I fetch a USea and take an Infernal Tutor with Thoughtseize, leaving him with a lot of mana spells but no tutor. He casts a cantrip trying to sculpt the lost ground. I untap and draw the other Thoughtseize. I cast Deathrite and Fetch for the second Thoughtseize. I believe I took a Silence on the second Seize to force him to either go off blind or dig more for another one. He Probes me seeing the rest of my hand is interaction free. He combos off for 8 Goblins. I take my third turn Brainstorming finding Agent Goyf and third land. I Stack so that the following turn I can essentially stabilize the board a bit. He attack with the guys I block one, and passes. I cast the Agent cascading into a Goyf. I have stabilized but at the very low life total of 7. I have now effectively stabilized but at exceeding low life. He chooses not to attack. I hit another Agent which flips Nick the Bird (Strix that is) and give me a card. Now I have a stable board I may be able to get him… well he was able to find the right combination of cards to cantrip, ritual, burning wish, Tendrils me for 8.
Sideboarding: -3 Jace, -4 Shardless Agent, -2 Abrupt Decay, -2 Strix; +3 Nihil Spellbomb, +3 Flusterstorm, +1 Hymn, +2 Golgari Charm, +1 Lili, +1 FoW
Game 2: I had a FoW Duressed out of my hand on turn 1. I draw and played a land. He went off after I Flusterstormed a Silence in an attempt to scare him off of comboing. Well he knew all but one of my cards… pretty low odds. He got there.
Overall the deck played pretty well. I think that another piece of disruption in the board would be helpful. I had some matchups where I drew a bit weak and lost and some where I lucked out and managed to scrap together a win. I ended 52nd out of the starting 284. If I had won the last round I would have likely been 16th, I was seated just under Nick by hundredths of a % point going into the last round. I will get 'em next time. I think the deck needs a little help with combo... so a third Thoughtseize and Hymn may be Necessary in addition to the Flusterstorms and fourth FoW. What do you guys think? As usual thanks for the read!
Overall Record for the Weekend Matches: 10-3-0
Overall Record for the Weekend Games: 21-10-0
Here's my report:
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...802#post746802
Sorry for nested threads.
Great report! Would you mind explaining your reasoning for not taking out Agents in combo match-ups? This thread seems to have come to the consensus that they are generally bad in combo matches. I'm very curious as to your take.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zirath
I also like the Garruk in the board. It seems a very fair play, as it kills almost all of the relevant creatures in the meta. Then it produces a horde of 1/1 deathtouchers! Very nice.
My reason is this: combo match ups are all about speed. As a result, you need to generate as much board presence as possible with each turn. For me, this makes Ancestral Visions and Baleful Strix way too slow. In the case of Abrupt Decay, it depends on the specific deck. Sometimes you still need the Decay but not always. This is a Rock deck and reducing the number of creatures is dangerous. I think with Phyrexian Revoker boarding out Agent is better, but if you cut Agent why is Vision still in your deck? It doesn't do anything until turn 5 while Agent could have found you a Goyf, Hymn or Thoughtseize. There is a corner case with Flusterstorm but generally I play Agent last when I have nothing else to do.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pherion
Garruk was spectacular the one time I did cast him.
I love Garruk, but wouldn't you say he's rather "win-more?" I'm trying to think of where he's really valuable.Quote:
Originally Posted by Zirath
Against wich MUs do you board Garruk?
Garruk Relentless is strong against Jace, tMS. He's also good at punching the variety of Squire's in the face
Garruk could easily be win more. I pretty much boarded him in for grindy match ups; Goblins, Stoneblade, the mirror.
Goblins and Maverick are match ups where I see him shining.
I understand Maverick but isn't he a bit slow against Goblins?
You are boarding out Jace in that match up (or at least I do) so your curve goes down.Quote:
Originally Posted by Korvo
Another nice finish for shardless at latest SCG open. Congratz to Matt Hoey.