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Thread: Team America @ Dutch Legacy Championships 2013

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    Team America @ Dutch Legacy Championships 2013

    Right, time for a report on my efforts with Team America yesterday at the Dutch Nationals.
    Nice tune while I'm writing this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8ZVsX7pnIA Enjoy while reading.

    Some notes before we get going
    The Dutch Nationals are an unofficial, open tournament. But since I am not interested in planeswalker points or stuff like that, and find the title "Dutch Champ" much more appealing than whatever rank I can get on the Wizards website, I kept a slot in my agenda free for this nice tourney. Actually, even a couple of friends of my play group, who rarely play anymore, got excited as I did, and decided to compete as well. So we discussed over Whatsapp who would play what, and what everybody needed to borrow from whom (mostly from me ). Then we agreed on our mode of travel: my car, and I'm driving. Fine by me, because it still saves me time compared to taking the train.

    As usual I had trouble deciding what I would play. I own most relevant cards in Legacy, except for Nemesis, Sneak Attack and Elves, so I had plenty to choose from. Since the tourney would be seven rounds minimum, I didn't feel like playing Storm. Also, aggro just loses to unfair stuff. OmniHalls seems a tad inconsistent, needing a three card combo without proper tutors, so I decided to play Team America. That should be good against the many combo decks I expected, and still has a good game against other fair stuff.

    We arrived at the venue early, so my team mates had time to put their decks together. I had everything ready, so I could relax, have a drink, have a chat with some guys and watch the others stress out about their deck lists. Soon, the tourney got going.

    My weapon of choice
    Guys:
    4 Deathrite Shaman
    4 Delver of Secrets
    4 Tarmogoyf
    2 Tombstalker /14

    Spells:
    4 Brainstorm
    4 Ponder
    4 Force of Will
    4 Daze
    4 Abrupt Decay
    4 Hymn to Tourach
    2 Liliana of the Veil /26

    Lands:
    4 Underground Sea
    2 Bayou
    1 Tropical Island
    3 Polluted Delta
    3 Misty Rainforest
    3 Verdant Catacombs
    4 Wasteland /20

    Sideboard:
    3 Disfigure
    3 Golgari Charm
    3 Spell Pierce
    2 Thoughtseize
    2 Surgical Extraction
    1 Grafdigger's Cage
    1 Vendilion Clique /15

    I expected a LOT of combo (last tourney I played against 4x combo, 2x fair stuff), so I packed one Lily over the Sylvan.

    Round 1 against Rob (Esper Trueblade)
    Game 1 is quite a battle. I counter a Stoneforge, and my Hymn grabs Jace and a land, but misses the second Stoneforge. He gets a Batterskull online, but I draw some Decays to put his board under pressure. At some stage he also gets a Jace in, but he can only use it to bounce my Goyf. I find my third Decay, which helps me to kill his Jace with a Goyf hit after killing his blocker. Afterwards he finds a Nemesis to defend against Goyf, but Deathrite comes down and eats his last life points.

    Side: -4 Force, -4 Daze, -1 Wasteland (he fetched so many basics!) +3 Disfigure, +2 Thoughtseize, +2 Golgari Charm, +2 Spell Pierce.

    Game 2 he mulls to six. I open with Deathrite and Goyf follows soon after. He gets a Stoneforge in, but I Disfigure it. When I Thoughtseize him, I see 2x Stifle (really, does Esper board those?) Snapcaster, SoFaF, Jitte and Jace. I take the Sword and Lily kills the guys he tries to tie Jitte to. Goyf and Deathrite end his life quickly. 2-0. Nice start.

    (By now the song is probably finished, so here's the whole album: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY5iL...uvkoDQR79HmZ1h )

    Round 2 against Jeroen (Grixis Pyromancer Tempo)
    Game 1 we get a deck check. In the short break this gives us, I observe my opponent. He seems nice, but pretty quiet and focussed. I win the die roll and Jeroen starts with a mulligan. On the play I open with a Deathrite, which he Bolts. I get a Goyf online, and Decay his Dark Confidant. I attack a bit and at some point Liliana comes down as well and starts keeping his guys off the table, so he scoops them up.

    Side: -4 Force, -4 Daze, +3 Golgari Charm, +3 Disfigure, +2 Spell Pierce

    Game 2 I have to mull to a not so brilliant six. He opens with Grim Lavamancer and I cannot find removal for it. I draw lands and creatures only, so this game becomes rather tricky. I use Deathrite to keep his yard as empty as I can and stall. He kuills the first, but the second stays online a little longer. In the meantime he gets Confidant online and starts some serious card drawing. Young Pyro joins the team and makes some tokens. At some point I forget to Spell Pierce a Dismember on my Deathrite, because I am an idiot. I keep on trying, even though he just goes nuts, for the simple reason that Golgari Charm will just wipe all his dudes off the board. I never find it though and way too late I concede the game.

    Side: -2 Pierce, -2 Ponder, +4 Daze (if I recall correctly)

    Game 3 we have very little time left. Thankfully, neither of us has to mull, so I fire it off. I get Deathrite down, and he gets a Grim Lavaman again. I Charm the dude immidiately, because that guy can get out of control fast. I also Waste his land. We exchange some Wastelands, but I get Liliana out with a second Deathrite, and in the fifth turn after time was called, I have Lily, a land and two Deathrites against his empty board. I should have scooped 'em up WAY more quickly during that game two!! 1-1-1, total: 1-0-1

    Round 3 against Jamie (Tezzeret/Jace artifacts control)
    Game 1 I win the roll and open with a Delver. He opens with a Watery Grave tapped. My Delver flips, I cantrip and Waste the Grave. He plays Swamp into Spellbomb. I think a while whether I should counter this. He asks me to play faster. I won't comment on whether that was justified, because I just don't know. I decide to let it resolve, and keep the Daze for more important stuff. I get a Goyf to joing my Delver and attack. He casts something I don't remember, but I counter it. My team gets in and he scoops them up when he finds no land. It turns out his deck needs quite some mana to work, and he says he was looking for sol lands. I was a tad lucky I guess.

    Side: -4 Daze, -1 ? +3 Spell Pierce, +2 Disfigure.

    Game 2 he mulligans, and opens Swamp go. That's not the best against me. I make a Deathrite. He then plays Urborg into Revoker on Deathrite. I Disfigure the Revoker and Waste his Urborg. He is now again mana screwed, and I resolve Goyf or so and kill him quickly. Easy round, but it probably should have been a lot harder if he'd have been able to draw sol lands and Signets for accell. 2-0, total: 2-0-1

    Round 4 against Bastiaan (Esper Trueblade, again)
    Bastiaan turns out to be really cool and we joke around a bit before we start.
    Game 1 he wins the roll and mulligans. I look at a rather scetchy hand, and because he mulls, I decide to join him to six. We both keep those and he fires off with Island go. I cough up a Delver, but it gets Plowed in his turn. We joke about a funny Dutch saying for "he goes farming" and during my second turn I get a Goyf out, which is 3/4. He casts Nemesis, and starts to hit me, because he would win the race. At some point we add more stuff to the graveyard, forcing him to keep Nemesis back on defense. I get a Deathrite down, and he doesn;t find a way to get rid of it, so it just eats his life. I didn't expect the Deathrite to actually go all the way, but I'm not complaining.

    Side: -4 Force, -4 Daze, -1 ?, +3 Disfigure, +2 Golgari Charm (only 2 because it doesn't his anything else-or so I thought), +2 Thoughtseize, +2 Spell Pierce.

    Game 2 is a hughe battle. We fight over cards in hand with discard and guys on the board with removal. He plays Rest in Peace to make my Goyf look like an idiot, but I Decay it. He tries to hit my life, but I gain a lot from his Plow and Snap->Plow on my Goyfs. My team suffers from major farming drift, and his team has serious deterioration issues. After a long time of exchanging resources, I throw down a Stalker, which should go all the way, but he topdecks Jace, which makes my Stalker look silly. I scoop when he finds a clock to go along with the walker.

    Side: -2 Spell Pierce, -2 Ponder, +4 Daze.

    Game 3 I need to be REALLY fast, because we have very little time left, and we both gain nothing by drawing. We play quickly and I am very lucky with my draw. I open Delver. He sends it farming again, but I proceed to cast three Goyfs in a row, double-Dazing his play to grow my Goyfs. My team kills him on turn 5 of the extra turns. Turbo beatdown for the win! Bastiaan is a sport and smiles while shaking my hand. 2-1, total: 3-0-1 Two wins and I'm top-8!

    Round 5 against Sander (Sneak&Show)
    Game 1 I shuffle slowly, to allow my stress level to drop a tad. Still rather shaky from last round... I win the die roll and look at an awkward 7: 2x Brainstorm, 1x Decay, 4 lands (2x fetch). I have no clue what my opponent is on, but since I'm on the play I decide to keep, because 2x Brainstorm and 2x fetch should draw me some awesome stuff. Bad idea. I play land-go. He plays Ancient Tomb, Lotus Petal, Show and Tell? I cast Brainstorm and find some guys. Awesome. It turned out he actually also had Force + blue card backup. Emrakul makes Goyf look silly and we're off to game two before five minutes have passed.

    Side: -2 Stalker, -4 Decay, +3 Spell Pierce, +2 Thoughtseize, +1 Clique

    Game 2 I open a hand with Delver, Force, Daze, Brainstorm, two lands and a Thoughtseize. Keep that stuff! He also keeps and opens with a Leyline of Sanctity. Damn. I just cast Delver. He plays land into Ponder. I proceed to Brainstorm and fetch away the Seize. Delver flipped immidiately and gets in for three twice. At the end of my third turn I have 2x Force, 1x Daze and a Delver in hand and Bayou, Sea, and Waste untapped. He EOT Brainstorms with fetch open. I decide to fight over it. Massive mistake! I respond to Brainstorm by Wasting his fetch. he responds by fetching, to which I respond by hardcasting Daze on Brainstorm. Turned out he didn't need the Brainstorm anyway, because in his turn he just goes Tomb, Show and Tell with Pierce open, and I am one blue card short of Forcing twice. Emrakul comes down and that's it. If I hadn't fought at all over that Brainstorm, I would have had 3 mana for one Pierce, and he would have had to find answers to two active Forces still. Such a terrible mistake while I would have probably won this game! Oh well, lesson learned, and I still have a shot at top-8. 0-2, total: 3-1-1

    Round 6 against Peter (Imperial Painter)
    Game 1 I win the roll again (!!) and open with Deathrite. He goes Ancient Tomb into Grindstone and Top. Right, have to be careful here. I proceed to rape his hand with Hymn, which actually removes his only red mana source. This comes back to bite him big time, because he never finds another one, even with active Top. He plays a City, and tries a Painter. I Force it. He Tops and passes. I get a Goyf on the board, but he casts another Painter. I have no answer at the moment, and it looks like I am about to lose another, but my Brainstorm finds me Lily! Lily kills the Painter and Goyf gets in for five. He proceeds to cast Ensnaring Bridge, which stops my Goyf, so I start to eat his life with Deathrite. He doesn't find an answer and dies to the shaman.

    Side: -4 Daze, -2 Tombstalker, +3 Spell Pierce, +2 Thoughtseize, +1 Vendilion Clique (if I recall correctly)

    Game 2 he opens with Mountain into Grindstone. I have a Force and I decide to use it. If he has a Painter and a sol land, he can Pyroblast/REB my Force on the servant, and I just lose, so I feel I kind of have to. After the game Peter agrees that my play was correct. Turned out I was unlucky though, because he had another, and he PainterGrinds me before I can get anything going.

    Side: +4 Daze, -3 Spell Pierce, -1 Ponder I think. I'm pretty sure I put the Dazes back in. That's probably wrong since he can play around them with Spirit Guides, but Pierces cannot counter Painter and Grindstone can come down with a sol land open, so I felt I had to try this.

    Game 3 I have an okay hand, but my cantrip gets me nowhere and he lands a Blood Moon. My Deathrite then dies to Pyroclasm and I scoop because I can never cast anything anymore. Some deeper thoughts on this matchup reveal that I was VERY lucky game one (both denying him red mana and finding an answer to his second Painter just in time), and the other games were just him doing nasty stuff I have a hard time to stop. Blood Moon just destroys my deck, and he also has a combo finish I have to watch out for. Bad, very bad matchup. 1-2, total: 3-2-1 No more hope of going top-8 now. Still I decide to play the last round, because I could use the experience. After all, this is my first time playing Team America competitively.

    Round 7 against Martijn (Shardless BUG)
    Martijn is a nice guy. We both could only in theory still reach a spot in top-20 (which gains a small prize), so the pressure is off. We joke around a bit, and I win the die roll.
    Game 1 I open a hand with no lands. Mull to six. My six has two Wastelands, some Decays and a Lily. Great, can never cast those either. Short thought enters my mind that I might be able to just Waste him out of it, but if I draw crap, his one-drop will just kill me. Better go to five. My five are Bayou, 3x fetch and a Deathrite. I frown, give my deck the finger and say "keep". I fire off with fetch, Sea, Deathrite. He goes Bayou, Deathrite. Oh crap. He has my deck but with three more cards in hand. I draw Wasteland and blow up his Bayou, but he has lands aplenty and Decays my Deathrite. I find a Hymn to make him mull as well, and I hit Jace and Shardless. Oh shit, that's cardadvantage.dec against a mull to five with only lands in hand now. He just proceeds to cast some guys and we're off to game 2.

    Side: -4 Daze -4 Force, +3 Disfigure, +2 Thoughtseize, +3 Spell Pierce (I decide to play Pierces on the play as well, because I want to be able to have an outside chance at stopping Vision and Pierce is slightly harder to play around when I use it on Hymn or Jace, which are the only cards I really want to counter apart from Vision)

    Game 2 I open with fetch, Sea, Deathrite. He goes Bayou into Deathrite. I Disfigure his Deathrite and Hymn him. I hit his only other land so he just draws and says "go". I Waste his Bayou and cast Lily. I decide not to use Lily because I like my hand. He goes draw-go again. I draw a not so needed card and tick up Lily, discarding a Decay. I then start to eat his life with Deathrite. He draws again and scoops, because Lily will keep his board empty anyway.

    Game 3 I open a hand with Bayou and no cards I can cast. I mull into another one-lander, but this time I can cast Deathrite and Delver. He opens with Deathrite. I do the same. He Disfigures my Deathrite and Wastes my land. I writhe a bit still, but I never get more than one land and he just kills me with Goyf, Shardless and Deathrite. Not really a match. Mulligan into oblivion and two major mana screws. 1-2, total: 3-3-1

    In the end I am very pleased with the deck, regardless of the not so brilliant score of 50%. I could have won the drawn round two, and against Shardless I should have had a fair chance, if we would be able to both just draw normal hands. Only Painter was unwinnable, and of course I fucked up big time against Sneak&Show. That was just on me, not the deck.

    Another Team America went top-4 (split) with almost the same 75. He rightly had the Sylvan for the Lily main deck. I reckoned Lily is stronger against combo but still good against fair stuff, but there was very little combo out there, so perhaps next time I just use the Sylvan. I didn't get to use the grave hate, so I'll just cut one and add Lily to the side. Maybe I'll even go 2x Cage, which seems better against Elves (stops Zenith and Order).

    Props:
    - Awesome deck, great fun to play!
    - Nice opponents all around!
    - My friend "Top-8-Tom" going top-8 as usual.
    - My other team mates who rarely play for all showing up.
    - Burger King for filling our empty stomacs afterwards.
    - My car, for getting us there without trouble (apart from a Stop light going on and off for a moment )

    Slops:
    - I am a terrible player.
    - Going into time twice and feeling stressed because of it.
    - Burger King for having stupid employees who have no idea what they are doing, causing a mayor queue.

    Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it, and the music as well.
    Last edited by Asthereal; 12-19-2013 at 03:09 AM.

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    Re: Team America @ Dutch Legacy Championships 2013

    Thanks for the report. Enjoyed it. I have been playing a very similar list. I have been thinking of trying a Thoughtseize/Hymn split instead of 4 Hymns. I tend to remember the times that Hymn hits their only lands in hand and I waste them out or something similar. But I really like the targeted discard and information that Thoughtseize gives. I could be wrong about this, though.

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    Re: Team America @ Dutch Legacy Championships 2013

    Glad you enjoyed it!

    I feel Hymn is very good for us. It is the better card in a vacuum, and as you say hitting land can be devastating. The fact that I managed to do this twice during a seven round tourney must mean it's not just an occasional thing. Also, the deck lacks a serious card advantage engine, and Hymn compensates for this a bit. (Come to think of it, I may also have hit a land with a Hymn against the Jace/Tezz deck at some point...)

    Thoughtseize is of course better in certain situations, and it is a lot more friendly to our mana base. On the other hand, we already play quite a few cards that demand BB (Stalker, Lily) so I guess that doesn't matter too much. But by all means test it and see what you like better.

    There's a third option too: cutting all discard and playing instants only. This probably means cutting Lily, Sylvan and a land as well (need less in that case), and adding 4x Stifle and 3x Pierce to the main. I think that could work very well too. It capitalizes more on the life-sucking/life-gaining from Deathrite, but it's less impressive considering the mana ability. That one just works fantastically with the expensive stuff like Hymn and Lily. During the tourney I felt that Hymn and Lily were so strong that for now I'll just stick to the usual setup.

    (Edited the report a bit here and there. Quite some mistakes...)

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    Re: Team America @ Dutch Legacy Championships 2013

    Ded great writeup. Someone at my lgs plays it with no discard.. and runs 4 stifle with 2 phyrexian dreadnaughts.. its def more a bug delver list than ta but it had me intrigued.

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    Re: Team America @ Dutch Legacy Championships 2013

    Good report, I really enjoyed it.

    Vs. Show & Tell - was there something in his body language / demeanor that made you want to fight over the Brainstorm?

    Usually (and I don't mean 100% of the time) you don't fight over a Brainstorm. You kind of just accept it as card filtering shenanigans.
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    Re: Team America @ Dutch Legacy Championships 2013

    Quote Originally Posted by Plague Sliver View Post
    Good report, I really enjoyed it.

    Vs. Show & Tell - was there something in his body language / demeanor that made you want to fight over the Brainstorm?

    Usually (and I don't mean 100% of the time) you don't fight over a Brainstorm. You kind of just accept it as card filtering shenanigans.
    I haven't really figured out the best way to play this match-up. I lost badly most of the games to OmniShow the last time I played RUG, it seems he was able to sculpt too good hands for me to deal with.
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    Re: Team America @ Dutch Legacy Championships 2013

    Quote Originally Posted by Plague Sliver View Post
    Good report, I really enjoyed it.


    Quote Originally Posted by Plague Sliver View Post
    Vs. Show & Tell - was there something in his body language / demeanor that made you want to fight over the Brainstorm?

    Usually (and I don't mean 100% of the time) you don't fight over a Brainstorm. You kind of just accept it as card filtering shenanigans.
    No, not really. I just felt that with the fetch and the Brainstorm his hand could get too good for me to handle. In this scenario of course fighting over the Brainstorm was just rediculous. It was the only way to lose the game. Just keeping 2-3 mana open to pay for his Pierce/Fluster and keeping 2x Force and 2x blue card open for his hard counters was clearly the way to go. But I appear to be pretty prone to making stupid mistakes like this. But maybe I'll learn a thing or two and make one mistake less next time.

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    Re: Team America @ Dutch Legacy Championships 2013

    Quote Originally Posted by Asthereal View Post



    No, not really. I just felt that with the fetch and the Brainstorm his hand could get too good for me to handle. In this scenario of course fighting over the Brainstorm was just rediculous. It was the only way to lose the game. Just keeping 2-3 mana open to pay for his Pierce/Fluster and keeping 2x Force and 2x blue card open for his hard counters was clearly the way to go. But I appear to be pretty prone to making stupid mistakes like this. But maybe I'll learn a thing or two and make one mistake less next time.
    i dazed a Brainstorm last week forgetting that i only had 1 Daze, losing to SnT net turn that i could not daze into Kozilek. Then i failed to kill it with blocks :D

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    Re: Team America @ Dutch Legacy Championships 2013

    Wow that's a nice list of blunders.
    Perhaps we should practice drinking beer instead of playing complicated card games.

  10. #10

    Re: Team America @ Dutch Legacy Championships 2013

    Quote Originally Posted by Purgatory View Post
    I haven't really figured out the best way to play this match-up. I lost badly most of the games to OmniShow the last time I played RUG, it seems he was able to sculpt too good hands for me to deal with.
    I think Omni presents a better argument for fighting over their cantrips. Especially turn one or two before the second land drop. Attacking the mana or cutting them off the last combo piece is really solid. It can buy you a couple turns or force them to go off without adequate protection.

    Sneak and Show requires fewer pieces and can replace a missed land drop with a Petal.
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