Team 0-2 drop strikes again! A Legacy PSA

[DeathwingZERO]

Ok, so here's my tournament "report". It's a whopping 2 of the 4 rounds, as I decided a 0-1-1 was just as good in a 12 person Top 4 prize payout as my esteemed "Team 0-2 Drop" namesake would be.

Counter-Top Thresh
by Bardo (modded slightly by me)

4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
3 Mental Note
3 Sensei's Divining Top

4 Force of Will
4 Daze
3 Spell Snare
3 Counterspell

4 Swords to Plowshares

4 Nimble Mongoose
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Mystic Enforcer

4 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
4 Tropical Island
4 Tundra
2 Island
1 Forest

Sideboard
3 Hydroblast
3 Chill
3 Pithing Needle
2 Krosan Grip
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Engineered Explosives

First off, a couple lessons.

1- Never agree to go to a tournament and then on FRIDAY turn your sleep schedule so upside down that you end up waking up at 9pm on Saturday, and decide to stay up rather than attempt a nap, risking not waking to the alarm. I might as well have just taken a couple bong rips, a few energy drinks mixed with some liquor, and maybe a drop of acid or two, just to make it a complete and total circus on my part.

2- If your going to play a deck that you've never tested, and only slightly remember what sideboarding means, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD REMEMBER WHY CARDS ARE IN YOUR SIDEBOARD. Me, I forgot this. Chalk it up to playing far too many casual games on MTGO and the local card shop, I neglect the fact there's a second and third game at times.

3- Remember things. This will be explained later, as I lost my second match JUST to this problem. I made the mistake of taking an article to heart about sticking the game out when you still have options, and then forgetting my options weren't as good as theirs.

Match 1: vs Pinder (4c Cheatyslivers)

Crystalline is an auto-counter. Wait, no it's not. Why? AEther Vial = best form of creature protection, EVAR. Putting in uncounterable, untargetable 2/2's that just get huge after their +1/+1 brethren hit the table, and suddenly that lone Goyf and Nimble Mongoose looks pretty terrible.

The funny thing about this, I never bothered siding in cards. Now, let me remind you what the deck does. It drops a turn 1 Vial, and then sets it to 2. After that, good luck EVER doing any sort of useful removal (re: targeted), and random things like board sweepers aren't a Thresh staple. So what does one do against this?

I should refer to my sideboard, a near direct rip from Bardo's, with one exception: I packed both EE's in the SB, because of a lack of Counterbalance on my behalf, thus using Counterspells in their place.

Sideboard:
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Crypt
2 Krosan Grip
3 Chill
3 Hydroblast
3 Pithing Needle

Ok, this is the real reason why it's a terrible, terrible thing to do what I did when I actually showed up to this tournament in a near mind-altering state. I NEVER sideboarded in more than the 2 EE's. I KNEW those would be set for 2 counters every time, as the crucial Slivers are in that range. Seemed like a good plan.

But something just never ticked. I PLAY THINGS THAT STOP VIAL. Whoops. Suddenly those Crystalline and steroid-induced beaters are a little less threatening when they have to fight through a counter war to hit the table, rather than just drop on in like uninvited relatives.

So yes, my complete neglect of the 5 EXTRA sideboard options that I should have taken in addition to EE's cost me that match, and I completely deserved it. But hey, at least I fought tooth and nail for that third game, and I gotta give Pinder credit for making the match in whole completely enjoyable, even when those little worms with hooks were gutting me while my goyfs were running around like migrant workers.

0-1 (with luck, I could still hit 4th with tiebreakers, so I continue)

Match 2: Zach? (forgot the name, forgive me for my psuedo-inebriated state) RGB "Burning Rock" (don't know the name, but this seems to fit)-

Game 1 goes according to plan. I start hitting with large Goyfs' and big Mongoose as soon as turn 3, and never looked back. A Deed hit, but I was already holding back enough to replenish as soon as it blew.

Game 2 was a complete and utter failure on my part as a player. Let me give you an idea of what WASN'T left in my deck by the time this match was over:

4 StP
4 Goyf
2 Enforcer
4 Mongoose
Lands
etc
etc
etc

I had 7 cards left in the deck by the time I just gave up to GigiddyPede and a Chainer's Edict vs my Goose and Enforcer. I know there were a number of mistakes, and again, I'm a sideboarding genius.

There's 1 card in his deck I feared, and rightly so: Pernicious Deed. Hm, an enchantment that has to activate in order to do something. This sounds very, very familiar to something that had just happened before, getting my ass handed to me by permanents that activate......Hey, why don't I NOT side in the same 5 cards I forgot to last time. That'd be SWELL.

Also, being a Rock variant, there is a pretty stable graveyard reliance with the Witnesses and Genesis Tricks, as well as the wishable Chainer's Edict flashbacks. So, while I'm on the topic of my amazing sideboarding plans, I shouldn't have to remind you all I play Crypts. But I kinda would have needed that reminder myself, as it was ANOTHER option I completely overlooked. I even went as far as to say in game 2 "I have no idea what to side in against you". Man, did that bite me in the ass.

Now, let me set you the scene in which I realized I had made a mistake in continuing (which was pretty obvious by the number of people whispering near our table, us being the last to finish). A very long, long time before that last Deed activation, he had wished for a Chainer's Edict. Now let me give you all some insight: I have played this card since it came out. My buddy and I both ran 4 in our MBC casual decks, and he still has them. In fact, I had played them the night before. So, I knew they had flashback, and would hit me later. What I hadn't planned on, was that "later" was nearing 40 minutes, and my constant decline in conscious thought. So I forgot, you wanna fight about it?

Long story short, Gigiddypede beats my face, and I want nothing more than to find the nearest brick wall and put myself through it.

Now here's the insult to injury. I scooped because we had a "5 minute warning", and he remembered the Edict. That warning was down to 3 minutes by the time the 3rd game started. We both want to get this done asap, not wanting to tie. So I quickly side in my Grip and Needles. Game starts with 2 minutes, and here's my opening hand:

2 Tropical Island
2 Nimble Mongoose
1 Goyf
2 Force of Will
1 Ponder
1 Flooded Strand

DEAR GOD GIVE ME TIME TO FINISH THIS!!!

We both keep. I go Trop, Goose, pass. He plays Forest, Bird, pass. I drop fetch, snag land, Ponder (seeing Mental Note, Goyf, and Top) draw Goyf, and drop Goose. Swing. Pass. He drops land, and tries for a blocker, which I Force. I draw into Mental Note, play it, and see random card. Fetch out Tundra, drop Goyf, and swing with 2 Mongoose, now threshed. He's currently at 13.

Here's the catch. Time was called. His play is game (turn 5). He's staring down a 3/3 Goose, a 3/3 Goose, and a 4/5 Goyf, with a Bird in play, and possible outs on my side (all I needed was an StP).

The moral here: REMEMBER THINGS. Had I been playing better, I would have scooped turns before I did. I had no creatures left, was completely relying on him forgetting the Edict as I did, and had no answers to Pede other than blocking with the Goose. Had I given myself the leisure of playing game 3 with a correct sideboard plan, more time, and maybe not being an idiot, I more than likely would have won the match. My sideboard options were strong, and cheap. My cantrip base was stable. My threats were fast. However, it all comes down to the pilot, and I just wasn't up to par.

0-1-1, and prime for drop candidacy.

Now, I'm going to say this. The deck is strong. While I, along with many other people, completely and utterly wish curses upon all of Wizards R&D for giving the world Goyf, I will sing praises as long as he continues dropping as a 4/5 for me. That's just silly. The rest of the deck (sans the Counterbalance, which actually would have been rather sub-par in these 2 matches) was working like clockwork, other than the times I just didn't hold fetches back so I could shuffle and Top into better draws. Again, the pilot makes the flight crash and burn.

So with that, I've given you all that want to be better players some insight, and hopefully you learn from some of the atrocious mistakes. I personally couldn't even recall all of them, these were just some that I knew caused me to lose, in addition to showing up in the first place XD


Props:

- Pinder and his buddy that came down from Seattle as said, and all the others who showed up. It was good to get some names associated with faces, and I look forward to seeing you all again.

- Myself, for being the idiot that actually showed up, against all better judgement. I might throw away $10 at a tournament just to scrub out, but at least I'm supporting a damn near dying breed out here in the NW, unlike some of the more prominent members here.....

-Chris for loaning me damn near half the deck on the spot, Goyfs included.

-Nick as well for spotting me the lone 4th Daze I was missing, thinking it was already there.

- Mike and the Batcave for actually giving a damn and hosting the tournaments on a steady bases, AND the awesome cash payout for first place.

- Thresh, for just being so damn classy. I will fully admit I still hate the deck, as it stands for all I oppose (I'm a combo enthusiast, after all), but still able to keep a top spot for a reason.

- Bardo, for spoiling a list that was much stronger than the one I had planned on bringing, and a good test in seeing if it would work

Slops:

- People with blue cards (myself included) not having Counterbalance. I really wanted to test the list as much as possible as it was, but alas I needed to replace with Counterspells. They did well, though, so I can't really complain that much.

- Myself, for being an idiot, the whole damn time.

- Myself again, for not playing something I was more familiar with. No clue wtf it would have been, but hey, Cephalid Breakfast would have even been 100% more my style, even without any practice or full knowledge of the deck. The fact that 2 TES decks showed and got 3rd and 4th is a pretty good indicator that combo can survive there as well.

- Northwest slackers. When even I, the one man "Team 0-2 Drop" can show up to a tournament (which rarely happens), none of the rest of you can have a good reason for not showing, short of a death in the family (and no, grandparents and pets don't count).

Bardo: bring your damn family along next time. At least then the kids can play some arcade games while you and your wife get sloshed across the parking lot in between rounds. Shame on you for not giving Thresh a top slot it deserved.

Zilla: Words cannot fathom the amount of rage I have fully knowing your one of the best players we've got, and you never show up. Screw you and your "life". You're a Magic player, yo!

Frogboy: I don't care what excuse you have. If you were in Seattle, you coulda come with Pinder. If you were in Portland, three of us that I know of could have gotten you. So if you miss the next one that I make, you can drown in a prairie, sir.

LinkXwing: Bullshit excuse about going out and doing important things, and he didn't even leave his house until 4pm to do them, all the while being a Dennys until 5am+ that said morning. Next time, he's getting his ass dragged out again, much like times before. Chris and I have both agreed on this.

Joe (dunno his source name): For not answering his damn phone. The guy has like 16 some Goyf's, multiple decks built at once, and constantly talks about tournaments. Then doesn't show. HATE.


With that said, this seems like a good time to conclude this PSA. May the rest of your tournament days not turn out like this one :D

[Cavius The Great]

If you love combo so much, why didn't you just play "Peach Garden Lich"?

[DeathwingZERO]

If "Lich" implies I'd have to play the card by the same name, that might be why. I wouldn't be able to borrow it from friends, and if I'm tossing out $80-100 on a deckset of something, it'll be duals, FoW, or Goyf's only XD

I was actually looking forward to Cephalid Breakfast, as it would have had great game in the meta that's currently there. But my only friend that had it was Joe, and I couldn't get a hold of him in time.

[Volt]

lol. Entertaining report. Many millions of thanks for showing up, Ryan. I really think we'll do better, attendance-wise, next month*. Btw, I really think Thresh needs to run 2-3 Pithing Needles in the main. In my testing against Thresh with Vial-Countersliver, I found that I pretty consistently got my Vials Needled, even if the Thresh deck was only running 2 Needles.


*Actually, I think we're going to move "next month's" tournament to Dec 2, to avoid Thanksgiving weekend.

[DeathwingZERO]

Personally, I'm thinking that's a better plan than maindecked Counter-Top in our metagame. Counter-Top is awesome, but overall terrible vs those random rogue decks we see showing up. Needle would be amazing vs Thresh's largest threats, being Vial, Manlands, EE, and Deed. I'm sure I'm going to be testing this over the next few weeks, just so I'm familiar with the matches. If you have any free time, give me a call, and we can meet up for testing. I need to get more than just playing against Brett's Landstill builds.

And I will be doing my best to continue showing up from now on. I'm going to start picking up cards again, once I actually land a job. You'd think someone with 5 years of self-employment experience as well as another 4-5 in retail, I'd find a place willing to hire me at more than minimum wage.

[Bardo]

Damn, nice report. Sorry to hear you scrubbed out so brutally. I don't think I've ever attended any MtG tournament in a Clear State of Consciousness (it adds to the drama/challenge/pleasure), but it does help to test beforehand. :)

Bardo: bring your damn family along next time. At least then the kids can play some arcade games while you and your wife get sloshed across the parking lot in between rounds. Shame on you for not giving Thresh a top slot it deserved.

Yeah, I regret not going. Sorry. I pretty much did nothing all day (some late-afternoon food and Halloween costume shopping, but not much else), and was a completely lazy bastard.

I should be able to commit to the Dec 2 tournament (good idea on moving the date, Chris) and will hopefully see you all there.

[DeathwingZERO]

Thanks on the compliments about the report. Usually I reserve my words, but this was such an utter defeat and a rookie could have pointed out the mistakes, I figured it'd serve as at least a good "what not to do" segment.

I do hope to see you at the next one Bardo, that way I'm actually able to see some plays by someone who actually advocates the deck by playing it tight. Playtesting is one thing, but I really like being able to see results from real games, to see if I would have done things differently.

As per the layout of the tournament and the comments from Volt and I, what would be your suggestions on the maindeck alterations? I fully believe it's possible to add in the 2 Needles over Counterbalance, and then cut those back to the sideboard. What's your thoughts on that?

[Bardo]

As per the layout of the tournament and the comments from Volt and I, what would be your suggestions on the maindeck alterations? I fully believe it's possible to add in the 2 Needles over Counterbalance, and then cut those back to the sideboard. What's your thoughts on that?

Well, hindsight is always 20/20, and the last few Batcave events seemed like a good field for maindeck Counterbalance.

As for the version I've been playing, the maindeck CB slots were Pithing Needles, until 2 weeks ago.

Thresh has quite a few "modular/metagame slots" so you'll always need to do a little tuning. There's no 'Ideal, Always Play this Exact List' version that never changes. Here's what I see as flexible--in my list anyway:

Cantrips:
3 Divining Tops
3 Mental Note

I think the maindeck Top slots should only be run if you've got CBs in the main or side, and running them main (regardless where the CBs are) let you conserve your sideboard slots.

Mental Note has always been a pet card, and is mainly helpful in maximizing the face bashing potential of the deck. 'Not so good in the slower, more control-ish builds.

The 4 Brainstorm / 4 Ponder slots are keepers and shouldn't be touched.

Counters:
3 Spell Snare
2 Counterbalance

These are both like archetypal "bad against Goblins, good about just everything else." But yeah, against an active Vial, both are junk.

Removal:
1 Engineered Explosives

Another pet card that has saved my ass many, many times.

Creatures:
2 Mystic Enforcer

The more aggro and aggro-control you're likely to face, the better Enforcer becomes. Against Control, Enforcer is just another warm body to help win a war of attrition; and they're crap against combo in all forms.

Land:
1 Land

I like 18, but most people run 17. This is another personal prefence, as you can occasionally salvage a game you're losing to flood (if you play tight, careful management of resources), but you'll just flat out lose the games that you're mana-screwed.

So that's 15 slots are up for grabs. The basic shell:

4 Nimble Mongoose
4 Tarmogoyf
(0-5 other guys)

4 Force of Will
4 Daze
(2-5 other counters)

4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
(3-7 other draw spells)

4 Swords to Plowshares
(0-4 other removal; Pithing Needle, EE, Krosan Grip)

17 Land

(15 open slots)

I'm still testing the maindeck CBs slots and am undecided if all are parts of the package should be in the sideboard.

[DeathwingZERO]

I had a feeling talking to you would clarify pretty much everything that I had questions-wise.

As for what you've said for flexibility, it would seem I've come to the same conclusions.

I'm a huge fan of Mental Note, just because it's able to work to speed up Thresh with a 3 card drop, and combos with Top to basically turn into an engine of ditching what I don't want for good, rather than just throwing it back a la Brainstorm style awaiting a shuffle effect. This just saves me the need of shuffling, which I find very nice. Pretty sure I'm going to keep both.

Spell Snare is a definite 3 or nothing from what I've played/seen. It's not really good with only 2, as you won't draw it early when you really want it, but 4 is overkill, as both Daze and FoW in most cases are better, since they aren't so narrow.

The singleton EE was very nice in playtesting, but I cut it at the last minute just to get that 3rd Counterspell shoved into the deck, since I wasn't able to do the Counter-Top plan. I figure worst case scenario I wasn't going to be seeing much as far a tokens are concerned, and if given a good enough hand I could race Goblins and Slivers to the punch. Seemed an ok choice for this time around, but it could very well be back in next time.

The original list Brett and I had at initial times of testing against Ichorid had 3 Enforcers in the deck. Cutting to 2 seemed to hurt an already shallow threat density, but half of the time I found myself just shuffling him back into the library, so I think it's a good number to be at. Only a few times did I really want him, when either Goyf's blew up or were too small (it happens), or I was out of creatures against something Enforcer would wallop.

I found personally that 18 lands to me felt tight as it was. There was only 1 time that I drew a hand of 6 mana sources initially, two hands that gave me 3, 1 hand with 4, and the rest were all 1 with cantrips. While that might have been a bad play on my part to keep the 1 land hands, they all seemed strong enough to make up for it, and almost always I was able to cantrip into the second on or by my second turn. I'm thinking I'm going to stick with 18 then.

So I guess with the version I want to run, that pretty much leaves it down to either Needlex2, EEx1 in maindeck and 3 CB in board, or vise versa. Either way, I think the list is very good for what we have at the Batcave, as long as it's a good showing.

[Pinder]

But something just never ticked. I PLAY THINGS THAT STOP VIAL.

Wow, I'm so glad you didn't side in the Grips or the Needles. That made things a lot easier for me in games 2 and 3.

Match 2: Zach? (forgot the name, forgive me for my psuedo-inebriated state) RGB "Burning Rock" (don't know the name, but this seems to fit)-

Actually, his name is Jay. He's registered here, too, his username is Durahan. He just never posts. And I like the name Burning Rock.

Props:

- Pinder and his buddy that came down from Seattle as said, and all the others who showed up. It was good to get some names associated with faces, and I look forward to seeing you all again.

Awww, thanks.

Slops:

Frogboy: I don't care what excuse you have. If you were in Seattle, you coulda come with Pinder.

Yeah, and if you can stand being in the same car with me for 3 hours, you become a better person. It's true. If not, Jay always brings a portable DVD player, you know. If you ever need a ride, let me know.

[DeathwingZERO]

I think "Burning Rock" or "Meteor Shower" would fit very well for that deck. With the whole "I play threats AND answers you need to worry about", it seems that you either face getting hit by that one flaming ball of doom, or multiple streams of little things that just annoy the hell out of you.

Oh, and ya, you should be thankful. Had I played smart, you would have been the one with a 0-2 for round 1 :D

[Pinder]

I think "Burning Rock" or "Meteor Shower" would fit very well for that deck. With the whole "I play threats AND answers you need to worry about", it seems that you either face getting hit by that one flaming ball of doom, or multiple streams of little things that just annoy the hell out of you.

Ooh! Maybe if he stuck a Rolling Earthquake in the board as a Wish target, we could call it Rolling Rock!

[DeathwingZERO]

Oh man, I think your onto something. It even makes sense, because Rolling Rock tastes like what you'd get mixing Red, Black, and Green together: (brown) shit.