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Went 5-3 at GP Denver after 3 byes. I posted a report under the Tournament Reports thread. Not a fantastic performance, but I feel that if I had played the deck for a few more tournaments beforehand, I would know better what hands to mulligan. As far as I can tell, mulligan decisions are the only major mistakes I made, which makes some sense considering how I test. The deck seemed well positioned, but maybe for me personally not a good choice in long tournaments.
I rarely mulligan. Keeping hands with double Burning Wish were invaluable.Quote:
Originally Posted by phazonmuant
Double post, boo.
Would anyone find a write-up for my day two finish at GP Denver helpful? Played against a lot of blue decks. Jedi-mind-fucked some people.
Could be a story about Koby buying me a steak and martini and something about Power Nine cube drafting with sdematt and the Canadian/SoCal crews.
Having dinner with Vidi the night before he won the GP was pretty cool.
I can write about your Match 8 Game 3 as witnessed by an outsider.Quote:
Originally Posted by RaNDoMxGeSTuReS
Well, more describe it with pictures:
http://thestrategyguysite.com/wp-con...ball-punt1.png
<-- Fixed.Quote:
Originally Posted by Koby
I'd read itQuote:
Originally Posted by RaNDoMxGeSTuReS
The technique on that punt is all wrong >.>
I'd read it as well.
My performance was bad. Once I got tired in the 4th round, I made a mistake I've never made before. Possible report from me.
It was nice to meet some storm players and talk tech.
I played the deck in an actual tournament tonight for the first time. Ive been following and playtesting for a couple weeks now until I played tonight. I played Bryant's list -1 Underground Sea +1 Badlands because the guy I borrowed from only had 1 Sea.
Round 1 4 color ThopterBalanceWelder
A sourcer was playing this. G1 I go to go off and realize I only had 1 Red mana for the burning wish but none for my empty the warrens *facepalm*. I messed up real bad and died
G2 I take a look at the hand with Probe. Duress a force away. Go off with Empty the Warrens for 14 Gobs on T1.
G3 I saw Counterbalance G2 and didnt board in Abrupt Decay like an idiot. I end up just losing because I can never get rid of his permission.
Round 2 UR Tron (modern)
I knew what he was on because I saw him playing it in round 1.
G1 I keep double Dark Ritual with an Ad Naseum on the play. Go off. Win.
G2 He does some stuff on T1. I sculp woth a brainstorm. T2 I go with Burning Wish with an LED and a IT in hand, get Ill-Gotten Gains, use it to get back ritual, IT, LED, and go for exactsies with Tendrils.
Round 3 Naya Astral Slide
All these real decks!
G1 I goo off with a tendrils. Easy one.
G2 I t1 Therapy him naming Thalia because he is on white. I see like KOTR, Mox Diamond, and Wrath of God. Alright. T2 He casually rips a 3-Ball. Then next turn Canonist. Then another Canonist. I die with 1 land on the field.
G3 I just go off on T1 for 16 goblins so I dont have to worry about any Mox Diamond into T1 Canonist Hand. It gets there.
Round 4 Miracle Blade
I have never beaten this MU in testing and Im nervous.
G1 I have empty so I keep. He plays 2 fetches and pass. I probe on T3 and see a brainstorm and thats all at instant speed. I go for empty. Make a bunch of dudes. He takes 14 and next turn brainstorms and miracles terminus. He is at 3 and plays Counterbalance and Top. I shit my pants. I play Chrome Mox. he flips Arid Mesa. I play another chrome Mox. get it countered. I have an LED on board from my empty turn. I play Burning Wish. He fetches. Doesnt find a 2 drop. I grapeshot for 4 to kill him.
G2 I keep a double Abrupt Decay hand. I probe and see nothing to stop me, but I cant go off that turn. Next turn on draw step he Cliques me, in response I Decay clique, and instead of my burning wish (my only tutor) he takes the other decay. Im confused. He then plays the Blue Rule of Law (Iforget the name). I then burning wish next turn for Hull Breach. Next turn I hull breach the rule of law, then probe and see he has nothing but draw a burning wish! I start storming and when I play burning wish he cracks top, dammit he had a force on top god im stupid, Then reveals a land. I breathe again
3-1 after 4 rounds with my first tournament with the deck!!
Top 8 I played Burn.
G1 I Ad Naseum on T2 after he gets a confused look wondering why I allowed his Vexing Devil Resolve. Kill him with Tendrils.
G2 He gets me down a bit thanks to my own City of Brass. I think its safe to go off, but I probe and see a mindbreak trap. Luckily, like a boss I rip Durress and Ad Naseum and get some good flips to get the exactsies kill.
We split top 4 after that.
Overall I really like the deck. The badlands never hurt me at all thank god. Im not sure I would change anything at the moment. I also played reforge the soul over the Diminishing Returns. Just a preference. The one time I wished for it, I ended up just drawing Ad Nauseum anyway and it didnt matter. I think I got every single wish target tonight though which is pretty cool!
Edit: I apologize about run on sentences and horrid grammar. My roommate was talking to me as I wrote and I just was winging it.
Hi,
to those who may interest,
the other day I played a local small tournament and I faced as other days a well known boy playing BUG (Death Rites, dazes FoWs, tempo), he plays some variants Tempo, Control, and the boy plays well the deck he top eighted some tournaments with the deck.
I won the match up, and I 'd like to focus in some key things.
- The 2 games I won was bacause of Diminishng Returns.
- The only Card I sided was -1 C.Mox = +1 Karakas
- The list is for reference Old List with 5 Orims Chant (3 Silence - 2 Orims) 13 Lands , 1 Tendrils, 1 Preordain (Slot I Hate).
- He extirpated 3 silence having 1 Orims in hand.
First of All, D.R. is great, I love that card, but it is not only love,
with presence of Death Rite shamen, PiF is weaker, also the tempo deck's clock is fast so the chance of winning comes through Empty (to those who play), Quick A.N. or D.R., for me D.R. is beeing crucial in Tempo Disruption Decks based on D.R.S. that are making top8 in the meta lately.
Also for 2nd and 3rd games, winning in first turns is beeing exmely difficult because of Discard - Flustertorm effects, apart from the base - therefore my inevitable defense strategy (absurd -1 C.M = +1 Karakas). I love that match up almost as much as Canadian.
Went to a local 4 round tournament and doubled my money with Bryant's list. Used the same sideboard guides and generally stuck to the OP.
Round one I played against BG Smallpox. Tops into Bobs into Liliana of the Veil, with some Wasteland, Hymn to Tourach and Smallpox thrown in. Game one I mulliganed, and went into topdeck mode with two LED's and two duals in play and ripped a Burning Wish. From there Diminishing Returns got lethal Storm. I had just switched back from playing Reforge the Souls, and the one mana difference mattered. Game two I get beat down with three Bobs. No shit. Game three I put 14 goblins into play turn one.
I played a friend on RiP/Helm and it was brutal. Maybe it's my skill but the match, as he had his deck set up, was pot shot winnable. Game one he cantrip'd into his only EE to deal with my 16 goblin tokens, and locked me down thereafter. Game two it was another mulligan and he had counters for days. He did "all these" me, chivalry lives on.
Round three I played against Goblins splashing Swords to Plowshares. Game one I had more goblins than him. Game two I burn an opening ritual, lotus petal and wish to pyroclasm his team. He recovers and I don't. Game three I have 12 goblins on turn one.
UWr Landstill was my next opponent, trading games until we had a sweet combo turn in game three. I have a hand full of action and mana, a silence, five lands out and I've been waiting to draw the duress so I can proceed to killing him. There's no pressure coming from this deck, so I lead out the duress. He Clique's in response, my only response could be the Silence. At this point he's tapped out, meaning he could have a Force of Will or dead. He flusterstorms tapping out, no Force in hand, and I don't pay for the Silence. Storm 5. Infernal tutor is sent to the bottom and is replaced by Infernal Tutor from the top. Hilarity ensues, and we pack 'em in.
About the OP sideboard, I felt that given a room of 30 some people, there was an even meta where the top tables were populated by good decks. To Bryant, would you fault someone for wanting to replace the Therapies with Xantid Swarm? They're quite good in matches that I percieve as bad, no doubt they side out Swords to Plowshares so it's likely to stick around. I think the maindeck is well equipped to handle a stable metagame. Or maybe more Abrupt Decay, I had three. Aside from card choices, are there any strategies, tips, windows of opportunity that one could take advantage of?
Goblins is such a weird MU. In my testing My Turn 1 awesome stuff hands were good, but most of my cantrip heavy ones durdled too much. Not sure if it was my testing partners deck, but I generally was wanting to win with Tendrils because Empty kept getting raced. Never played against a Pox deck yet. Countertop is always going to be a tough MU I think. It's just so much to fight against. This sort of MU is where I think an opening turn Empty is sick if you happen to have it. I may try out D Returns this week over Reforge. I have been testing with Reforge and I dont think the mana has made too much of a difference.
Probably safe to say TES is the worst shell for therapy. I'm not always happy with it.Quote:
Originally Posted by jandax
@megadeus: I had reforge, and then switched back to DR and at least two games that tournament I went off because of the one mana difference. Plus, for what it's worth, it doesn't facilitate getting drained out by Deathrite Shamans when you're at low life and are trying to do your thing. That was also a situation that popped up. Reforge is still good. But for what it's worth, sticking to the info and card lists on the OP will get you results.
@RaNDoMxGeSTuReS: I literally never wanted to bring them in. The therapies that is. Maybe in some sort of Meta it's necessary but I'm going to happily swap them out. Hopefully others have had similar experiences. I was just hoping that someone would chime in and talk me out of making a bad decision. That's always nice.
Speaking of Therapies and the discard package in general here's what I've been happy with lately (>50 matches played versus various decks in paid matches in MODO and real-life Tournaments)
Maindeck:
2x Duress
1x Thoughtseize
(- 1x Duress compared to the OP)
SB:
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Thoughtseize
(- 3x Therapy compared to the OP)
Reasoning:
1) Being able to play four discard spells capable of hitting hatebears in G2, G3
2) I can wish for Thoughtseize, which is the ultimate pointed discard spell
3) Playing 6 discard spells G2/G3 that will always hit against combo was huge for me
Yes I hate the 2 life I have to pay for Thoughtseize G1 but being armed against hatebears and combo G2/G3 outweighs this for me. Overall I have won more games Thoughtseizing the critical piece of hate rather than I've lost due to paying the 2 life.
To those of you who are good at Therapying your combo and hate-bear opponents: I appreciate your success. Save your praises for Therapies and links to Keller's article. I've read it. I am fine with you cosidering me a bad player as long as I don't have to name Thalia and whiff seeing those GSZ's or Teegs in their hand instead.
So... this is what happens when I'm gone for a week? Good luck winning games against interactive non-blue decks without them.
Without cabal therapy? Thoughtseize I just dont like because it adds to theor clock a bit and therapy isnt too tough blind since against a lot of decks you arent trying to get value, you just need to get gaddock teeg or thalia out of their handQuote:
Originally Posted by Bryant Cook
Post BUG discard is a lot better than Chant effects and Xantid Swarm because you need to pre-emptively use your discard in order to stop their discard, I'd honestly run 4 Duress, 3 Silence as opposed to 4 Silence, 3 Duress right now if its a question of whether or not I'm going to get Hymned (and Counterbalance and Chalice of the Void are still a thing fwiw.)Quote:
Originally Posted by Megadeus
That seems fair. I just am not sure thoughtseize is the way to go. Inquisition just seems better seeing as you dont take the lifeloss and if they are banking on a 4 or more mana card then they probably will die before that. Im just not a fan of weakening Ad Nauseum.
I've been playing Modern Eggs for a week.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bryant Cook
Queso?
I don't care if they are SBing it right now, Force of Will makes all the difference in the world between Seize and Inquisition.Quote:
Originally Posted by Megadeus