UG Survival Madness at UK Nationals - *Top 2 Split*

[Nazdakka]

UK Nationals Legacy Side Event - Top 2 Split with Survival Madness

The scene: It's 10am on the Sunday of UK Nationals. I'd been up until 1:30am the night before helping to test my friend James Cleek's top 8 matchup (our conclusion: you need to get really lucky here, mate), and now it's Legacy time, with a deck that I'm still learning. I think it says a lot about the popularity of Legacy that this tournament drew 66 people, while the M11 sealed PTQ on the other side of the room got 43. Serves them right for charging £30 a head for an individual sealed deck event...

The deck:

UG Survival Madness

3 Forest
2 Island
2 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Tropical Island
4 Wasteland

4 Noble Hierarch
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Vengevine
3 Waterfront Bouncer
2 Trygon Predator
1 Wonder
2 Aquameoba

4 Survival of the Fittest
4 Force of Will
2 Spell Pierce
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Stifle
1 Daze

SB:
2 Submerge
3 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Threads of Disloyalty
3 Faerie Macabre
3 Krosan Grip
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Gilded Drake

How it works: This deck is based on Caleb Durward's Survival Madness list from the GP: Columbus top 8. I didn't follow the GP closely, so only became aware of it from Doug Linn's article on SCG. Doug's build was my starting point, even if after testing it I was unhappy with several elements of it. More on that later. The deck's plan A is to use Survival of the Fittest to dump a number of Vengevines into the graveyard and then use Survival to chain Basking Rootwallas, casting them using madness and regrowing all the Vengevines.

While testing, I really liked the idea in Doug's deck of Waterfront Bouncer as a generic answer to creatures, but his Merfolk Looters just felt wrong. Now, after the tournament, I'm not really happy with either. The easiest way to screw up this deck is to add lots of toolboxy creatures that can't mix it in combat, because for all its Survival cleverness, this is still fundamentally a beatdown deck, and it needs respectable beatdown credentials from everywhere it can get them. The Bouncers just did not do very much outside of one Reanimator matchup.

Also, Aquameoba is easy to laugh at, and it's certainly not the strongest creature in Legacy, but it fills a collection of needs as a super-convenient madness outlet, another card to enable turn 2 Vengevine, a blue card to feed Force of Will and vaguely efficient beatstick. It spent most of its time getting Survivalled away or pitched to Force of Will, but it also supplied some valuable blocking and beatdown when Looter (Doug's choice) would not have. I could certainly understand adding another 1-2 to my build.

I kept 2 of Caleb's 'metagame slot' Trygon Predators because they seemed strong against a lot of possible opponents, and I really wasn't sure what else to use in that slot. It's a little like Aquameoba - usually Survivaled away or pitched to Force, but able to beat down and an excellent role-player when needed.

Another card that everyone seems to want to add to this deck but I'm not using is Brainstorm. I think Caleb is totally right here; it just doesn't really help you that much. You only have so many slots that can be devoted to noncreature spells and still reliably be able to use Survival, and I'd rather use those slots on disruption than Brainstorms.

The singleton Daze is there because IMO it's the most effective way to play that card. If people see you play a Daze, they will tend to play around copies 2-4 with their crucial spells. Just one spell getting Dazed can lead an opponent to worry about Daze for the rest of the match, and perhaps waste time playing around it, while on the other hand an unexpected Daze coming out of nowhere can be incredibly disruptive. Spell Pierce is also in the MD to help me fight against the combo and control decks, and because almost everyone's play involves casting noncreature spells at some point.

The tournament:

(My memory is not entirely reliable here, please let me know if I have made any errors and I will correct them)

Round 1: Zoo

Game 1: I play a bunch of dudes early, and use them to hold off his onrushing horde of 3/3s until I'm in a position to smash my Vengevines through for the win.
Game 2: See game 1. Survival was key here, and my opponent got very picky about timing with Basking Rootwalla madness triggers. He seemed to be trying to get me to do something stupid/exploitable by shouting rules-related gibberish while I was using Survival. Very irritating.

On losing, my opponent got really pissed off, and when I wished him luck for the rest of the tournament, he indicated that he had dropped. I'll admit that I didn't play at my best this match, which probably didn't help his mood. After the game, a judge in attendance told me that this guy had a reputation as a 'very grumpy player'. No kidding...


Round 2: Countertop

Game 1: I get the turn 2 Vengevine combo. This is the great sequence where play Wild Mongrel (or Aquameoba), pitch a Vengevine to it, then Madness out a Basking Rootwalla, regrowing the Vengevine, then attack for 4. Mongrel + Rootwalla + Vengevine is a pretty strong board to face on turn 2, and it's enough to win this one.

Game 2: I get countertopped. I can't remember the details, but it didn't go well.

Game 3: I play an aggro-control game and between my fast creatures and my counterspells I am able to kill him before he can stabilise.


Round 3: URg Painter

Game 1, my opponent is able to combo faster than I can stop. I don't have a good sideboard for combo, but it's not really very popular round here, and I got away with it for the rest of the tournament. I believe this deck ended up losing in the top 8. Would a single Gaea's Blessing or Kozilek in the SB be worthwhile just to avoid losing to this kind of thing? Game 2 is a little closer - I mulligan a decent hand hoping for disruption, but don't find any. I get Waterfront Bouncer into play so I could bounce the Painter in response to Grindstone, but in the end he finds two Grindstones to batter through my defence.

Round 4: Draw/Discard Reanimator

He was playing a slightly unusual Reanimator build that seemed to use a few extra draw/discard effects in addition to Careful Study and Entomb, plus more fatties than usual.

Game 1: I get a decent Survival draw, but he quickly dumps Iona using Ideas Unbound and brings her back next turn. He names blue (not as bad as it could be, as while my direct answers to Iona are blue, most of my deck is green). That did strand a Waterfront Bouncer in my hand, however. I'm a little tight on mana - I haven't got enough green to just go for the throat with a horde of Vengevines. My plan at this point is to ambush Iona when he attacks with her by Survivalling up Wonder and then giving my army flying, but then he casts Exhume to recur a Blazing Archon! I pitch Waterfront Bouncer to Survival in response, choose to bring it back with Exhume, and bounce his fatties over the next few turns to stabilize on a few life points. From there I quickly beat him up with Vengevines.

Game 2: In come the Faerie Macabres and Tormod's Crypt, out goes some irrelevant stuff (Trygon and Jitte, I believe). This time, I get a Survival turn 2 and it's easy from there. He can't reanimate anything because of my Faeries, and I have a constant stream of dbeatdown to put him away. Without Mystical, he can't just get Show and Tell to bring out a fattie, although in any case I could have Survivalled for a Bouncer in response to S&T.

Round 5: Dredge

While I've tested Legacy a fair bit, I'm still really not familiar enough with Dredge to know exactly which the pressure points to attack.

Game 1: He wins the roll and does his thing, and I get left behind. The game was a total blowout, and while I had a Stifle, I wasn't sure how to best use it, or if it would have helped.

Game 2: I board in all the graveyard hate. It looks close for a while - I don't find a Survival, but have a Faerie and a good beatdown draw. His turn 1 play was to draw to 8 and discard a Stinkweed Imp (I think), so I Faerie it away, and just keep whacking him while he struggles to get his deck going.

Game 3: I board in my Krosan Grips, because I'm expecting Pithing Needle to come in to fight my Faeries. He accurately Piths Survival on turn 1, but my draw works even without it, while he seems to stall out. I take it home with a few turns to spare. I suspect he may have diluted his deck a little much with all the anti-hate cards.

Round 6: Dredge

I've learned a little this time :)

Game 1: I have a good draw, while he appears to have a non-broken one. I keep beating down, hoping that I'll manage to get there, while he whiffs on a few dredges. Near the end he makes a small but crucial play error by forgetting to discard Stinkweed Imp to a blocking Putrid Imp, robbing himself of a chance to dredge into something broken on his last draw step.

Game 2: I get a good draw with a Survival and a Faerie, and while his draw appears to be OK, the stream of Faeries from Survival proves to be highly disruptive and give me long enough to do him in with Vengevines and Basking Rootwallas.

Round 7: ID

Me: 2 Pizza: 0

QF: Zoo

Game 1: I get the Survival -> horde o' monsters draw and I stabilise the board with my life total well out of burn range before beating him to death with Vengevines.

Game 2: We both mulligan to 5, and I take some beatdown, while my dudes get shot by a Lavamancer. I have a Survival, but don't have a creature to pitch. I eventually draw one, and confidently pass the turn, but then my opponent finds his third land, and casts... Krosan Grip. Duh. Should have remembered that card. I lose.

Game 3: Can't remember the details, my notes simply say "Enough dudes", so presumably I did my thing and it was good enough.

SF: BUGStill

I'd seen this deck in action, and it did not look like a good matchup to me. He had a Loam Engine, tutors for graveyard hate, and strong board control from Deed and lots of spot removal.

Game 1: I mulligan a decent 7 card hand, hoping for a quick Survival, but don't find one. I get an alright 6 card hand all the same. I get going, and end up with Noble Hierarch and Basking Rootwalla playing aggro and not a lot else. The little lizard ends up going all the way, as I have the FoWs to protect it from harm.

Game 2: My turn 1 Noble Hiearch suffers a Ghastly Demise, but I'm cool with that because I also have the turn 2 Mongrel -> Rootwalla -> Vengevine draw. My opponent gets digging for answers, and played a Pernicious Deed which he could set off on his last turn, but I had a Stifle to stop it wrecking me.

Final: Zoo.

My opponent is the Zoo player who I IDed with in round 7. The prizes are £200 store credit for the winner, and £100 for second. It's 9pm, my trip home will take upwards of 2 and a half hours, and I want to go home, so I offer a split. In retrospect, I regret choosing not playing this out. The Zoo matchup doesn't usually take too long, and I think it's a good matchup for my deck. Plus, 'WINNER' would look so much nicer than 'Top 2 split' on the top of this tournament report :).




After the tournament, this is the maindeck I'm looking at:


3 Forest
2 Island
2 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Verdant Catacombs
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Tropical Island
4 Wasteland

4 Noble Hierarch
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Vengevine
2 Trygon Predator
1 Wonder
3 Aquameoba
1 Loaming Shaman
1 Man-o'-War

4 Survival of the Fittest
4 Force of Will
2 Spell Pierce
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Stifle
1 Daze

(I'm not too sure about the sideboard, so I won't recommend anything specific)


As I said above, I wasn't happy with the Bouncers. Instead, I would substitute a few more creatures that combine utility with decent bodies. Man o' War keeps the emergency removal that was supplied by Bouncer, only faster and with a 2-power body. Loaming Shaman also presents itself as a toolbox option that can beat - a 3/2 body for 3 is acceptable for aggro purposes, it randomly hates out all sorts of graveyard strategies, and if a game goes long you can restock your own library with Basking Rootwallas to regrow Vengevines.

The 5 secondary disruption slots (Spell Pierce/Stifle/Daze) are highly customisable according to metagame - there are plenty of good options there, and I'd be very surprised if my setup was optimal. All I can say is that it worked for me. Same goes for the Trygon Predator/Aquameoba/Loaming Shaman/Man-o'-War slots - whatever works for you, as those cards will often get Survivalled away for Rootwallas and Vengevines. The sideboard can also obviously be adjusted to taste - more Spell Pierces would seem wise if you metagame is combo-heavy.



Finally, congratulations to James Cleek for his top 8 in the main event, and thanks to everyone who lent me the cards to run this awesome deck :)

[Zamussels]

Thanks for the report. I'm looking to maybe play this deck in what looks like a control heavy metagame and was thinking on what to play in the last 10 slots so it's nice to read your thoughts on it!

[TheMightyQuinn]

Congrats on the finish, it was a nicely written report.

I haven't been reading the UG Madness thread; would you mind explaining to me why Goyfs aren't used? Is the list just so tight that there is no room for them or what?

[JamSpot]

Nice report.

Just to make it clear, this wasn't UK Legacy Nationals. ;)

Unfortunately the "good" turnout was due to the TO encouraging Standard and Extended decks to compete by offering another level of prize support. This diluted the meta big time.

[Nazdakka]

Zamussels: Glad you enjoyed it. If you expect a lot of control, then you could perhaps move the Jittes to the sideboard in exchange for more cheap countermagic/Stifles. The creature mix feels pretty good as it is, and even without Survival you have an acceptable aggro-control game with the cheap threats and countermagic.


TheMightyQuinn: Actually, I'd say this is quite an adaptable deck - in the list that I played there are 5-7 creature slots MD that you can fiddle with without much risk of breaking anything (Trygons, Bouncers and maybe the Aquameobas). You could potentially run Goyfs in some of those slots.

However, two elements mitigate against Tarmogoyf. The first is that this deck is not a very good deck to support him - his likely maximum size is 3/4 (creature, land, instant), unless your opponent helps out. The second is that he's not blue. Force of Will is extremely helpful for this deck - it lets you batter your Survivals through disruption, gives you an out against combo, and can protect your clocks once they are on the board (see my first game in the semifinal, where two FoWs enable Basking Rootwalla + Noble Hierarch to go all the way). However, the deck only has a total of 17 blue cards, and you'll note that all of those 5-7 open creature slots I mentioned are pitchable to Force. Do -2 Predator, -2 Bouncer, +4 Goyf and you're looking at trying to support FoW off 13 total blue cards. I'm not sure that the Loaming Shaman I added in place of a Bouncer in the build I suggested at the end isn't a mistake for exactly this reason.

If you really want to run Goyf, you'd need to either find some other way of boosting the blue count, or more radically, swap out the blue cards and use black ones instead. Thoughtsieze and company would replace Force, and you'd have to use Putrid Imp or Zombie Infestation or something to try and fill the Aquamoeba slot. You'd also lose Wonder, which is a really excellent way of closing out games quicky against armies of blockers. Might work, might not, couldn't say without testing it.


Jamspot: I don't think there were very many Extended decks in the field - I certainly didn't face any, and didn't see any at surrounding tables either. Given I started out 2-0, maybe I was playing at the wrong end of the tournament to see them?