[Deck] GW Survival

yesterday I had some hours to test this deck again and I am really impressed.
against merfolk I went 5-1 preboard and 3-0 postboard. and he had a strong SB against this deck in form of hibernation and sower of temptation...finks, knights, goyfs, jitte....soooo many good cards.
against dredge I went 3-0 preboard (yes, gaddock is the nuts, then you only have to kill one of your guys with jitte or saccing to remove the bridges...) ok, he hadn´t a nuts draw to kill me in the first or second turn, but without gaddock he would be able to kill me in turn 3 in all 3 games...never would go out of my house without a maindeck gaddock again! he is soooo good!

I used this list:

// Lands
4 [U] Savannah
4 [ON] Windswept Heath
4 [LRW] Forest (1)
1 [7E] Plains (3)
3 [TE] Wasteland
3 [FUT] Horizon Canopy
1 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
1 [ON] Wooded Foothills
1 [LG] Karakas

// Creatures
4 [CON] Knight of the Reliquary
1 [MM] Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 [FD] Eternal Witness
4 [UL] Mother of Runes
1 [P3] Loyal Retainers
3 [ARB] Qasali Pridemage
4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf
4 [CON] Noble Hierarch
1 [ZEN] Iona, Shield of Emeria
3 [SHM] Kitchen Finks
1 [JU] Genesis
1 [LRW] Gaddock Teeg

// Spells
4 [EX] Survival of the Fittest
4 [A] Swords to Plowshares
2 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [SHM] Kitchen Finks
SB: 2 [LRW] Gaddock Teeg
SB: 1 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
SB: 3 [TSP] Krosan Grip
SB: 3 [TSB] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 [ALA] Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 1 [SHM] Faerie Macabre
SB: 1 [PY] Spore Frog
SB: 2 [SHM] Runed Halo


my first version runned englithened tutor, but I drew it too often with survival in play and then it is pretty useless...maybe you can find space for this, I can´t ...
karakas is pretty good, and the manabase won´t die to this...maybe you could play a 4th wasteland instead, I screw my opponents so often with this deck, but I think 3 is the right number.

instead of the 2 runed halo in the sideboard, there was gaddock number 4 and a harmonic sliver, but I lost to often against the dream halls deck. of course gaddock disrupts halls, but show and tell into progenitus turn one or two is too much for your deck, there is nothing you can make...and spore frog / genesis after boarding is good, but not enough imo...
anybody with another good idea against this?
halo is great against storm too! and it isn´t a "narrow" card, a point I really like for the sideboard...cards for several matchups are important.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Snief

-Harmonic Sliver (to make 3/1 split Pridemage/Harmonic)

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For a non-pridemage artifat/enchantment destruction I would recommend Wickerbough Elder over Sliver. He has a fat ass and is better at dodging CB. Nevertheless I still think that more pridemages is a better option.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tao

The untouchable core of the deck imo looks like this: (...)

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I think Mother of runes is a slot people will sooner or later look at to replace. Maybe it will be reasonable to cut 4th Kotr as well, but for now the 'core' looks like a good base.

As for sideboard with GY hate I always found it very useful to run two macabres against Loam. Not only it increases the chances to topdeck one, but also I usually find myself needing to tutor it two times before I can assemble genesis lock.

As far as '4 finks total' is concerned I would consider 3/1 split with Spike Feeder, especially in lists with genesis. His pump skill is rarely relevant but it occasionally allows to mess with opponent math, which I always like. Most important however is the fact that he gives you 4 life on demand where 2 is quite often just not enough and he is easily recurable (unlike black builds there is no therapy, deed, etc to kill your own finks when you need moar life). I am still waiting for white or green-white RWM though.

- Progenitus: No elegant solutions available afaik, it is either Runed Halo or Fog Frog or Circle of Protection: Red / Green. It is annoying that Fortune Thief and Ali from Cairo both need double red to be cast, it would be cool to protect them via MoR.

- Reducing MoR or KotR would be a big mistake. Mother of runes already disrupts nearly every opponent on turn 1 and KotR is bigger than Goyf and can draw cards, tutor Wastelands or bash for a lot. Finks is solid but does none of this and this deck needs an additional heavy threat besides Survival more than another solid card.

- I think most people here agree that at least ine Teeg in the MD is good. It is a real pity that he and Elspeth never will be friends.

- Snief / venice: Congratulations again. A bit more info on the GPT? How many players, what matchups?

Ok, I am looking for someone to convince me, that Spore Frog is any good. Sure it can auto-win games against random decks, but as far as I know almost all competitive decks, against which frog would matter either are very fast or run spot removal. Likely both. Against Zoo I guess as a t1 play it is semi decent, as it will draw their burn (else they risk it being worth more than 3 life) but by the time you can assemble lock they can just EOT bolt it and alpha strike you. Same with Progenitus, be it in Rock shell or Bant shell. They can just dig for their removal while you keep spending 4 mana a turn, thought admittedly it can buy you the one turn you need to race Prog. It seems to me, that in majority of cases if it helps you, you need to have a board position that is developed so much, that you could just fetch something else for the win. When your board position is bad, it can help you stall the game for a turn or two, hoping for a chain of lucky topdecks, but isn't likely to shift the game back in your favor.

Having said that, I understand that the lock has potential (say, especially if you can protect your frog with mom) and there has been a number of reports, where people claim it won them games, for instance against Ichorid. Therefore I would like to hear some answers from people who indeed play frog - what matchups do you side it in? In what board position in those matchups would they tutor for frog and what would be the expected result? Why other targers (moar Goyfs, Iona, Lifegain with Finks) would be a suboptimal choice compared to frog?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by crow_mw

Ok, I am looking for someone to convince me, that Spore Frog is any good.
Having said that, I understand that the lock has potential (say, especially if you can protect your frog with mom) and there has been a number of reports, where people claim it won them games, for instance against Ichorid. Therefore I would like to hear some answers from people who indeed play frog - what matchups do you side it in? In what board position in those matchups would they tutor for frog and what would be the expected result? Why other targers (moar Goyfs, Iona, Lifegain with Finks) would be a suboptimal choice compared to frog?

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After my browser ate my last answer, here again, short: First of all I marked the important phrase.

I side Frog in vs:
-Dredge
-Progenitus
-every aggro matchup (to buy time)

Against Zoo Frog is only good on his own if you can protect it. Otherwise it´s there to buy you 1-2 turn(s), where you can chain Finks into more Finks or just play Iona. But nonetheless Aggro should be a good matchup because every creature we play ist bigger/better/ a pain for the zoo player, except Hierarch.
I tutor Frog as first target against Dredge, because he negates Ichorids for 1 attack and removes Bridges. Against other matchups it depends on the board position. You should see him as backup/staller till you have sth bigger than the opponent.

It also seems my browser ate my last post. Maybe bugs with the new site? (stay away from quick reply? and copy post before submitting)

To summarize what I had: Spore frog allows for midgame topdecked survivals to be better than ever. Numerous times I draw it and go:play survival, discard worst creature in hand that was saved for survival-> squee -> iona -> spore frog. Play it. Pass. Sac on their turn. Upkeep squee -> (depending on draw) -> genesis -> loyal retainers ---> Iona. Pass.

It bridges the gap bewtween playing survival and getting another turn to wreck the opponent. It also has random uses as mentioned. I am going to move mine from the MD to the board for a few day, trying out -1 frog, -1 jitte, +1 sword of fire and ice, +1 stoneforge mystic.

I just have won 3 byes for GP Madrid at a local GPTrial in my city. I went 5-1-1 record, winning the quarterfinals and split top4 (there were 4 packs of 3-byes fo all top4).

I've used this list:

// Lands
4 Savannah
4 Windswept Heath
4 Forest
2 Plains
3 Wasteland
2 Horizon Canopy
3 Verdant Catacombs

// Creatures
4 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Eternal Witness
4 Mother of Runes
1 Loyal Retainers
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
3 Kitchen Finks

// Spells
4 Survival of the Fittest
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Path to Exile
2 Umezawa's Jitte

// Sideboard
SB: 3 Gaddock Teeg
SB: 3 Krosan Grip
SB: 3 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 1 Path to Exile
SB: 3 Choke
SB: 1 Tsunami


I must say I'm very impressed with the results. The deck is very solid and can play a very agro role with all exalteds and reliquarys and a more controlish survival style.

I have few notes so I don't whrite a report but my pairings have been:

1- Zoo
0-2 - 0 points (0-1)

First game I take a very bad desition about killing an ape or a sylvan library with Qasali. I chose ape and library gives him the game.
Second game I double swords 2 tarmos, and they are followed by 2 reliquarys. I have no big creature and I don's see any survival.

2- Faeries
2-0 - 3 points (1-1)
First game is quite easy and second have nothing to do when I play tsunami followed by choke.

3- White Affinity
2-0 - 6 points (2-1)

I have a bit of luck drawing 2 swords and 1 path. Then survival does the job. Second game I manage to stop the first wave of creatrures, and then iona at white (for paths) and just win.

4- Supreme blue
1-0 - 9 points (3-1)
A very long first game. When he is able to play counterbalance and top and tapped, y try to play survival and have no converted mana cost 2. then I search for 3 reliquarys which are 12/12. Second game is in his favor but have no time to win me.

5- Merfolks
2-1 - 12 points (4-1)
I lose the first game easily, but second and third iona at blue and some removal do the job.

6-Zoo
2-1 - 15 points (5-1)
Just too fast first game. Second game I win with reliquary, and third game with Iona at white.

7- ??
0-0 - 16 points (5-1-1)

Then in quarterfinals

Survival-bant whit natural order.
2-1

First game is very though, his is going to win with wonder making creatures fly, but reliquary fetches for horizon canopy and I draw just the necessary to put iona into play naming white and stopping his creatures. Here I don't know he is playing natural order so I don't put gaddocks.

Second game he puts progenitus into play faster than I can put a survival. I side in 3 Gaddocks.

Thrid game is a long one, but I put a survival, pop a qasali to destroy his survival, and then put gaddock, he swords, and put some pressure, but I put first mother of runes and then iona at green. He tries to gain control of iona with sower, but mother of runes gives pro blue, and he has no swords in hand. I win in 2 turns and then he shows his hand with natural order, tarmo, rhox and eternal witness.

A very solid deck if you don't have to face much combo

I cringed when I saw 0 md Teegs, then looked at your match-ups. It looks like you made the correct call. Did 22 lands work alright for you? I have been managing fairly well at 21.

Teeg maindeck is a metagame call, and I expected not too many natural orders, ANT and dredge. I think 3 sideboard is the correct choice in my meta.

22 lands worked very well. I used to play 21 in my old GBW survival without the combo and reliquary, but now with reliquary, wasteland and horizon canopy, I feel it's more consistent with 22. It allows you to crack horizon just after playing it, or play wasteland turn after turn with reliquary, which I don't if it is all that good with 21. It is true that in some matches I drew too many lands, but it is something I don't complain at all, and with survival and reliquary you can make a good use of these lands

Congratulations to your good finish. Seems like that everyone who plays the deck gets the byes in the GPTs. Haven't heard anything about the deck performing not great. Or do these players just not post?

I would also still like to hear more from Snief and Venice from their GPTs.

I am still a bit confused about what to do with the Teegs. The deck originally started as some kind of GW Aggro Hate with 4 Teegs but it seems that by now Finks are a better MD choice with all the Zoo, Merfolk and Canadian running around, so it is probably right to play only 0 or 1. Your MD looks really good. I am also at 22 lands, but I play 3 Canopies.
I also wouldn't mind one or two additional big threats like a 3rd Jitte or Elspeth, but it seems that your straightforward aggressive build with 4 Pridemages, 3 Finks and additional quick removal worked out well.

For the Sideboard I thought about a single Bojuka Bog. It sounds useful to tutor for Yard removal with KotR, but on the other hand it sucks a lot to draw it when instead you could have drawn a Crypt.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by soiber2000

First game I take a very bad desition about killing an ape or a sylvan library with Qasali.

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I thought about that for a while and really can't imagine how that happened.

Hello and sorry for not answering. I was learning for exams for university (right now to be honest^^) and I didn´t play that much Magic since the GPT. I don´t remember that much from the tourney itself, but playing against Dredge in the half finals and the mirror in the finals (it was a small GPT, so not much more rounds before). I think I don´t have to tell you that the mirror -like with every other deck- is absolutely no fun to play and absolutely depends on you starting hand/draw skills. Only thing -stating the obvious- I highly recommend to play 1 Teeg main/Spore Frog SB in a meta where you are expecting Dredge. I was so happy for having Teeg Game 1 where he buyed like 2 turns to get Iona going. 2nd game I won on Spore Frogs back ("Removing bridges AND fog your Ichorids? - I´ll take 2" -in fact I played him every turn with Genesis^^) to win finally with 2 8/8 KotR. Don´t board out MoR to be safe for Firestorm, but thats obv.
Next weekend there will be another GPT I am attending with venice (to get his byes :cool:) and I will take notes this time, promised.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tao

I also wouldn't mind one or two additional big threats like a 3rd Jitte or Elspeth, but it seems that your straightforward aggressive build with 4 Pridemages, 3 Finks and additional quick removal worked out well.

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What about stoneforge mystice instead of a 3. Jitte ? It tutors up the jitte, can carry it and sneak it perhaps into play.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tao

I thought about that for a while and really can't imagine how that happened.

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I had noble and qasali in play and beating for 4 each turn, he was at 6 life or so, he played two big creatures (tarmo and/or reliquary) and I removed both. He just had an ape in play and then he played in the same turn another ape and a library. I attacked with qasali thinking and he blocked with both apes. I was holding a reliquary (quite big) so I had to decide either killing an ape or killing library before the damage. And I take the bad desition to kill an ape, hoping that my reliquay ended the game in two turns. It was a big missplay because with library he drew 2 cards paying 4 life and exiled my reliquary and burned noble hierarch, leaving the way open to his ape and another thread he drew after that with library again. He was at 2 but I couldn't do anything else. It was the first game and I was a bit nervous.

Wow, this is one of the coolest decks i have seen in a long time.
I figures that picking it up might be worth it, so here is some input from my side:

What about Quirion Ranger? Its nuts with Hierarch, so Hierarch + Ranger + 2 Lands = 5 Mana which is actually quite nice.
Since you can cheat on the landcount a little like that what about some mor utility lands? Karakas is obv since it gets rid of iona, and Bojukag Bog (or something like that) in the board is nice as well.

I wonder how far you can push this since it inheretly has the danger of cool things.
Anyways, here is my take on it, first results are promising, but they are mostly MWS so there is a good chance it needs some tweaking:


// Lands
4 [B] Savannah
4 [ON] Windswept Heath
3 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
4 [UNH] Forest
1 [UNH] Plains
3 [TE] Wasteland
2 [FUT] Horizon Canopy
1 [LG] Karakas

// Creatures
1 [P3] Loyal Retainers
1 [VI] Quirion Ranger
1 [ZEN] Iona, Shield of Emeria
3 [ARB] Qasali Pridemage
1 [LRW] Gaddock Teeg
2 [SHM] Kitchen Finks
4 [UL] Mother of Runes
1 [MM] Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 [FD] Eternal Witness
4 [CFX] Knight of the Reliquary
4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf
4 [CFX] Noble Hierarch

// Spells
4 [R] Swords to Plowshares
4 [EX] Survival of the Fittest
2 [MI] Enlightened Tutor
1 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte

// Sideboard
SB: 2 [LRW] Gaddock Teeg
SB: 2 [SHM] Kitchen Finks
SB: 1 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte
SB: 1 [SHM] Faerie Macabre
SB: 1 [ALA] Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 1 [LE] Glowrider
SB: 3 [TSP] Krosan Grip
SB: 1 [PY] Spore Frog
SB: 1 [TSB] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 [SHM] Wheel of Sun and Moon
SB: 1 [WWK] Bojuka Bog

Quirion Ranger is also insane with Mother of Runes, forcing the opponent to spend an additional removal spell from hand. It's also not bad with Knight and Goyf giving them pseudo Vigilance. I have been playing around with it as a 1-2 of in my list. One of is probably fine, since it's fairly reliant on having other relevant guys in play.

You know what else is awesome with quirion and karakas? Mangara. Double vindicate each turn? Yes please. I'm not sure it's for this deck, though. I've been playing a WG D&T deck for some time now which looks surprisingly similar to this except it packs mangaras and vials instead of finks and tutors. It's performing rather good.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Snief

Next weekend there will be another GPT I am attending with venice (to get his byes :cool:).

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As I told you before^^, we both played the GPT and played finals again against each other...I conceded obv. Report(s) will follow.

Well, like Snief said, I still needed to get my own byes for Madrid so it´s about time for another:

"GW-Survival-Pilots crush their way to the GPT-Finals story"! ;)

16 players attended the tournament which resulted in four rounds of swiss + cut to Top 4.

This time I played the following list:

// Mana
4 [u] Savannah
4 [ON] Windswept Heath
2 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
1 [ON] Wooded Foothills
4 [7E] Forest
1 [MI] Plains
3 [TE] Wasteland
2 [FUT] Horizon Canopy

// Creatures
4 [CFX] Noble Hierarch
4 [FNM] Mother of Runes
4 [FUT] Tarmogoyf
3 [ARB] Qasali Pridemage
4 [CFX] Knight of the Reliquary
4 [SHM] Kitchen Finks
1 [FD] Eternal Witness
1 [LRW] Gaddock Teeg
1 [VI] Quirion Ranger
1 [JDM] Genesis
1 [MM] Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 [ZEN] Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 [P3] Loyal Retainers

Removal and Engine
4 [u] Swords to Plowshares
4 [EX] Survival of the Fittest
2 [BOK] Umezawa's Jitte

// Sideboard
SB: 3 [TSP] Krosan Grip
SB: 3 [TSB] Tormod's Crypt
SB: 3 [LRW] Gaddock Teeg
SB: 2 [SHM] Vexing Shusher
SB: 2 [TSP] Children of Korlis
SB: 1 [ALA] Ethersworn Canonist
SB: 1 [PRO] Spore Frog


1st Round: Frank playing Dredge

Game 1: He win´s the dice roll but has to mulligan three times till he keeps his hand. Nevertheless his start is quite nice since he opens with Cephalid Colloseum => Breakthrough. Fortunately he doesn´t find a dregder so he remains with 0 cards in hand and only one bridge in his graveyard as the only relevant card. So I have enough time to establish my board and by turn 4 I have Iona on my side that finishes him shortly afterwards. He never found his way back into the game.

SB: -4 KotR, -2 Jitte, -1 Mother, -1 Witness, -1 Finks, +3 Crypt, +3 Gaddock, +1 Frog, +2 Children

Game 2: I keep a hand with 2x Children, Hierarch, Sword + lands. He opens with Tireless Tribe. I draw Crypt from the top play it+ Hierarch. He plays land=> Ancient Grudge :/. I play Children+ Goyf. He discards dredger eot and proceeds to dredge into some Ichorids and 1 or 2 bridges. He plays Therapy on me naming StoP, I reveal Children and Finks. He then flashbacks to get some tokens but I sac Children in response. We then stall the board for a while and he keeps on dredging a lot till he´s finally able to overwhelm me with tokens, Iona and a Grave Troll. At this point he has three cards left in his library... very close one...

Game 3: I lead with Spore Frog, followed by a 2nd turn Gaddock. He does not get rid of Teeg and has to sacrifice a few bridges in the process and it all comes down to me finishing him off with a huge Tarmogoyf that can´t be blocked because I have an active Mother of Runes.

1:0


2nd Round: Sven (Snief) with GW-Survival

Great.... honestly, the mirror wasn´t intended to be that early for us... Anyway, since Snief already got his Byes (see page 3), he scoops to me to increase my chances to make Top 4.
Thus:

2:0


3rd Round: Oliver with Bant-Survival

Game 1: He wins the dice roll and leads with Trop=>Hierarch. I mulligan to six and play Savannah, Mother, he forces. He drops Survival and discards Iona to get her back the following turn... I never come back into the game.

SB: -4 Finks, -1 Gaddock, -1 Witness, +3 Grip, +2 Shusher, +1 Spore Frog

Game 2: I keep a hand of Hierarch, 2x Mother, Sword and 3 lands. Though quite good, I don´t draw anything relevant afterwards and thus can´t prevent him from getting his Survival Action going, after ripping it from the top with Squee being his last card in hand.... :/

2:1


4th Round: Martin (MSC from Team SPOD) with Bant Survival

Game 1: He wins the dice roll... :(... Yeah until know I didn´t begin a single Match.... and even worse: I have to mulligan to five while he keeps his opening seven and even revealing it to his team-mate with a smile :/ ... So not exactly what I wanted this match to happen.
Anyway, I keep a quite decent hand (I mean decent for a five-card hand), which includes Mother of Runes, Goyf, Sword and two lands. As the game starts it turns out that Martin kept a quite aggressive hand with lots of dudes but no Survival. But since I´m ripping another Goyf and a 2nd Mother from the Top my board position starts to stabilize and I can apply a good amount of pressure with an attacking Goyf while the other one kept his 2 War Monks in check. When he finally finds his Survival he´s already at 11 life and though he´s able install Iona he can´t stop my two Goyfs which are protected my MoR. That was a nice one! Starting with 5 cards and winning nevertheless! Mother of Runes is such a beating!!!

SB: see Round 3

Game 2: I keep a hand of 2x Hierarch, Mother, Sword, Survival, Grip and Fetchland. He leads with Trop=>Hierarch. I play land=>sword; he moans! He draws and doesn´t play a second land. Meanwhile I rip my second land from the top and play Hierarch+Mother. He plays land Survival. I draw Wasteland! Play grip and waste one of his lands. He draws and has no land, so he passes. I draw a second Survival, play one of them which gets forced. So I play the 2nd Hierarch and pass. He draws land and drops Goyf. I draw Sword play it and try the 2nd Survival which gets Spell Snared... :/ He draws and plays Ponder or sth and passes. I draw KotR! play it - it resolves. He plays sth irrelevant doesn´t drop another land and passes. I blow up his lands the following turns and he can´t come back into the game.

3:1

So I end up being 2nd after the swiss. Meanwhile Snief also managed to make it to the 3:1 record so we are both in Top4!

As pairings for Top4 are announced it turns out that Snief and I are not paired against each other which means if we both win our match => GG for me! But till then it´s still one Match to play.

Top4: Michael playing RGB Aggro Loam (feat. Wishes and Dreams)

I ask him if he actually goes to Madrid which he negates. Nevertheless he doesn´t want to scoop because his friend is playing against Snief so they somehow follow the same plan as we do, with one exception of course - we play the good deck! ;P
So I have to play it out against him.

Game 1: He wins the dice roll (notice a certain pattern here?!? Something must be wrong with that...). Anyway his first two draws seem to be bad, thus he leads with only five cards and starts with land, pass. I play fetch, pass. He drops land, confidant, I sword eot. During my turn I drop a Pridemage. He drops another land and 2nd Bob. I play land, KotR! He plays Wish into Dreams and has 3 other cards in hand. I have another land + Hierach in my hand and keep them, in case he really plays DD next turn. So I "only" play Finks and attack with Pridemage. On his turn he really plays Dreams for 3, to which I respond by activating my KotR which leaves him with nothing on the board and me with a persisted Finks and really(!) huge Knight. Obv. a really bad play of his, but it turns out that he thought the Knight would die to his Dreams which leave only my Finks on the board.....

SB: -1 Teeg, -2 Jitte, +2 Shusher, +1 Spore Frog

Game 2: This time I have to mulligan to six but keep a pretty decent hand of 3x land, Genesis, Survival, Frog. He leads with Mox, land, Goyf which is totally fine for me. I play Frog and pass. He plays Crusher and attacks. I drop Survival, pass. He plays nothing and attacks. I drop my 3rd land and attack with Frog ;). Meanwhile his Crusher is 8/8 so I have to sac the Frog to buy me the needed time, he also plays Wish into Maelstrom Pulse during his turn. I survival Genesis+ Squee+ Iona into my Yard eot and get Iona on Green into play during my turn. Luckily he doesn´t reveal anymore lands with his Crusher so I am able to take the Crusher beats and block his Goyf. Since he´s not able to play his Pulse he goes for Chalice@1 to prevent me from recurring "The Mighty Frog". Thus I survival for Vexing Shusher eot, having Finks in hand to play both the next turn. The following turn I replay the Frog through Shusher and he scoops it up!

4:1

Meanwhile Sven aka Snief also defeated his opponent so our plan paid off and we´re both through to the finals again! Yeah! Snief concedes to me, so I take home the 3 Byes while he takes all of the price Boosters for scooping to me twice! Thanks again for that man! Our plan worked out really well I´d say! ;)

So finally I am really satisfied with the deck once more. The inclusion of Quirion Ranger is really worth its slot. His synergy with Mother, Hierarch AND Knight is REALLY strong and at least he´s enabling some nice combat tricks. Thus, he´ll probably stay in the list.
One thing I will probably cut next time are the Children of Korlis though. While being nice against ANT and Dredge I feel there must be sth more powerful.
I definitely will reinclude Faerie Macabre in one of these slots. That card is just to good not to play it and with all the Survival, Loam and Reanimator builds around, it´s even more valuable I guess.
Another card I want to include is Karakas. Todays tournament was like 80% of the decks including Iona (Suvival, Dredge and Reanimator) and if that trend continues in Madrid I definitely want another Out in my deck.

With that said: see you in Madrid!

Had only 18 people at our local legacy tournament, but I played this and at least got some good matches in.

Here's the list I used. I'll explain some of my weird choices afterwards.


4 Savannah
4 Windswept Heath
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Wooded Foothills
4 Forest
1 Plains
3 Wasteland
2 Horizon Canopy
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Mother of Runes
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Gaddock Teeg
3 Qasali Pridemage
4 Knight of the Reliquary
3 Kitchen Finks
1 Eternal Witness
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Loyal Retainers
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Survival of the Fittest
2 Enlightened Tutor


SB

3 Krosan Grip
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Sprore Frog
1 Genesis
1 Saffi Eriksdotter
1 Essence Warden
2 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Choke
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon



Maindeck was pretty standard fare since I had not played the deck before and only changed a couple of things since I knew what people play around here. It's very Merfolk, Dredge, CB Top, and Zoo heavy. Hence the Finks and Teeg both making the main. I wanted some defense against the mass amount of EE's and Burn to fly out of these decks.


Round 1 - Justin w Dredge

Squeaked this one out of my ass. Teeg shut off the Dread Return so he starts attacking with his 1/1 flyers and Ichorids. I have no choice but to get Iona out and start doing some blocking instead of attacking. Finks saves me in the end giving me just enough life to swing in with enough of an army to get through for the last amount he had.

Game 2 - board in Wheel of Sun and Moon, Genesis, Spore Frog, Saffi, Essence Warden, and then realize I forgot to add in the Faerie Macabre I wanted to put in instead of that 3rd Choke. oops.

Luckily, I don't need that faerie and get the Wheel right off the bat and drop it before he even gets threshold for the imp. That card is a beating in the match up and proves it yet again.

1-0

Round 2 Greg w Zoo

Somehow he manages to not draw removal and my 1st turn MoR and then 2nd turn MoR go unanswered. It's GG quite quickly from there as I build a force up of unkillable guys that are bigger than goyfs and Kird apes.

Game 2 - Kitchen Finks and the 2 Jittes come in. Might have boarded more, but forgot.

I play this odd game of "I'm the aggro deck!" and go ballistic on him with Goyfs, Knights, and Finks. I overrun him strangely enough and lock him out eventually with Iona as if it was needed.

2-0

Round 3 Mike w White Stax

I spend the first game getting pummeled by 1st turn Trinisphere, Chalice @1, Ghostly prison, and a bunch of other things after I mulligan to 5. It wasn't fun. I practically never played a thing.

Game 2 - Another smashing he proceeds to mana screw me and my deck helps.

Round 4 - Christian with Black Discard

Not sure how this one got up here. He opens with Quest of the Nihil. Really?

I see things like Blood Vassal and such. Knight and Goyf decide this is an ok time to attack.

Game 2 is much the same.


Top 4

White stax again? Crap...

Well, not much changed since then. Mulligan to 4, I mana screw and he helps put me under.

Game 2 - I get some actual answers this time and some basics. I quickly end it with Iona on white. He scoops.

Game 3 - Finally a decent start, but Supression field puts an end to my fun. I end up having to destroy everything but that supression field and it's costing me. He drops two more and I practically have to pack it in. I can only pridemage them away if I can pay 6 mana due to already burning the Grips and O ring on other nasties. lol Yeah I'm done.


Overall, I am quite impressed and played a few games on the side. This deck doesn't seem to mind other Survival decks, Canadian Thresh seems half and half. Maybe that's my inexperience with it though. White Stax is obviously a problem, but I guess it should have a problem with that thing since it's designed to mutilate creature based strategies. I also didn't draw much removal for all those artifacts either so it's hard to say. I spent more time trying to find land.

Saffi and Essence warden are auto wins if you set it up vs Goblins or some such deck that can't stop you from chaining a combo together. That's the only reason it was there, though I think it's unnessary considering how strong the Iona combo is.

Wheel was amazing. I always forget how much of a bashing it is against a lot of decks. Teeg surprised me on how many uses he had. He stopped Dread Return and Breakthrough in Dredge. He stopped Force, EE, Chalice, Smokestack, Aramageddon, Natural Order, and a bunch of other things and that was only what I had played against today. He's worth maindecking.

I'll be playing it again next week. So far I like this deck a lot.

So...this is my report "The wingman takes it all" :-)

Like venice aka Christopher already told 16 players were attending the GPT. We arrived at the store just to see a majority of familiar faces from Team SPOD and other players from monthly tournaments in our region. So what? It will be fun nonetheless to smash faces!

I played a list very similar to Christophers in the post above, with a few minor changes. So...let the beating begin!

Round 1: Martin Schröder(?) with Reanimator

Game 1 he wins the dice roll and starts with Swamp->Ritual->...Avatar of Discord. WTF? Then he discards Blazing Archon and sth unimportant and I know what he´s playing. I look at my hand with 2 land, Hierarch, KotR, Goyf and double StoP (harhar). So easy one, am I right? I am right because he plays nothing else in this game and I win very easy with my two beatsticks.
Game2 he starts again with Land->Ritual->Buried Alive -> Iona, Sphinx of the Steel wind and another beater. I lead with MoR, next turn Survival when he plays Reanimate on Iona and drops to 11 life. After boarding Spore Frog in, my plan is installing the Spore Frog loop with Genesis and slowly beat him down with a tutored Goyf (protected by MoR). In his turn he draws and asks me, if Pithing Needle on Spore Frof works. "Hm, don´t know for sure" (read:"F***") So after pondering, he plays Needle naming Frog. I concede.
Game3 I take a mulligan to keep a hand with 2 Land, Hierarch, Faerie Macabre, Survival and StoP. I start with Land Hierarch, he with Entomb->Iona and smiles. End of turn I discard the Faerie to remove Iona. This time I smile. In my turn I play Survival. The game continues. He tries to reanimate the big, bad Sphinx but I still have the StoP. He is at 7, playing another buried alive with one mana open (for Reanimate, I assume). He looks through his library and concedes. Nice!

1:0

Round 2: Christopher aka venice

Like I promised before I concede to maximize his chances to be Top4. We discuss boarding strategies and look what everyone else is playing. I lose 2:1^^.

1:1

Round 3: Frank Baier with Dredge

He isn´t pleased at all to play again against our Deck (but what he doesn´t know is that I play a Gaddock main).
Game1 he starts with a Mulligan. Then Land->PImp. I play Land, MoR. In his turn I am considering what to play next, just to rip the Teeg from the top and play it. He looks pissed. Nonetheless he is able to develop his board further while I am mana screwed. So he wins with 4-5 Zombies and 2 Ichorids.
Game2 I keep a nice hand with Hierarch, Survival and Crypt. I lead with Land, Hierarch, he with land Tireless Tribe. I install Survival. He consideres to discard his whole hand but just do so with Iona and Dread Return, dredges, hit a Moeba and a bridge, smiles, passes. I crypt him. He never finds back in this game since I develop my board with Teeg, Spore Frog and Kitchen Finks and sword his Tribe. So I win SHort after.
Game3 he hits nothing relevant with his dredges while I have Teeg, Survival and finally Iona. With enough power to kill him on the board he asks me if I would concede to let him chances for Top4. I decline ( I wouldn´t have to play the tourney if I would concede to everyone just because I have my byes). Besides, this is the payback for all the lost games before against you, Frank (just joking)!

2:1

Round 4: Alexander Vey with BGUW Loam

He plays a very interesting but slow deck resulting in a record of 1-0-2.
Game1 I don´t remember everything. I win because of Survivals card advantage and a big KotR due to the fact I wasted him 3 lands before.
Game2 is a race between my and his Goyf until he finds his Shriekmaw which he plays every round via Volrath´s Stronghold. I manage to draw 4 lands in a row and lose to his single Goyf.
Game3 is much like the second game until I find multiple sword. By this time we are already in the extra turns, he is at 4 life, me at 11. He has no chance to win and concedes to me, because he would have lost anyway^^ or because he is just a nice guy with no chances for Top4.

3:1

So, after swiss I manage to sneak at the 4th place. The other players are Christopher aka venice with GW Survival, 1 RGB Loam and a 4color-Zoo build.

Top4: "Sorry, didn´t write down his name" with 4c Zoo
Nice! The best matchup I could have been paired against :D

Game1: He has a slow start and I have Iona turn4, naming white, making half his deck useless (Pridemage, Ajani Vengeant, Vindicate, Swords). He scoops.
Game2 he leads with Bayou, Nacatl. I play MoR. He bolts my mother, Plateau, attack for 3. I play land, Hierarch. He land, Chain Lightning at my Hierarch, attack for 3, Goyf. I play land, Kitchen Finks (I had Survival in my starting hand, but his very fast start makes me play other cards). He vindicates my Finks, attack, I block the Goyf and take 3 from Nacatl. Topdecker that I am I rip the next Finks from the top, play them and another Hierarch. He is slightly pissed. Attack from his side, Finks trade with Nacatl, take Goyfs 3. In my turn I play Survival and chain me through Squee and Genesis into Spore Frog. I have to sac and replay the Frog for like 2 additional turns until he manages to play a Leyline of the void. I have to remove my Squee to get rid of the Leyline with Pridemage. He just plays another Leyline, but this time I can tutor another Pridemage in response. In my turn I destroy the evil enchantment and have time to chain Iona into Retainers into Iona on white. I win the game with a big Angel riding a shiny equipment (read: Jitte) to victory. He told me before that he is going to Madrid nonetheless and if the Loam player would win against venice that he would get the byes because they are friends. I tell him, that if the Loam player wins I will concede because I have my byes already. Unlucky for him Christopher wins just 2-0 and I am in the finals...again.

Finals: I concede to Christopher again (that wasn´t planned!!^^), so he has the byes. What should I say? I am undefeated second :-)

So, maybe there will be minor changes, but this is the Deck I am playing at GP Madrid. See you all there!