NOVA Duel 4 Duals Report: 1st w/ Solitaire

[SpatulaOfTheAges]

"I take it back to the old school, cause I'm an old fool."

My life has, of late, been mostly a blur of sleep, traffic, work, more traffic, school, and more sleep, with small bouts of eating spread throughout. So I've had very little time for Magic, much less driving to Conneticut or NY for a Legacy tournament. So after last year's Fudd's tournament where I went 3-3, I was looking forward to the next local major tournament.

I decided to go back to my roots; previously I'd played either something that wasn't Enchantress, or something very similiar to the current popular Enchantress lists. With no way to do any real testing and a distrust of the direction most Enchantress lists seem to be headed, I spent a while musing on a list.

Thought #1: Enchantress mulligans a lot.
Thought #2: Enchantress needs an Enchantress and cheap spells to make a keepable hand, given an unknown opponent.
Thought #3: Moat, Oblivion Ring, Hoofprints of the Stag, even Sacred Mesa, do not fix these problems.

Conclusion: The list needs to be more streamlined so that I can mulligan more aggressively.

Sub-Conclusion: I need more acceleration and fewer tricks.

So the list:

ENGINE:
4x Argothian Enchantress
4x Enchantess's Presence
4x Ground Seal
3x Replenish
3x Sterling Grove
1x Sylvan Library

ACCEL:
4x Utopia Sprawl
3x Elvish Spirit Guide
2x Gaea's Touch
2x Exploration
1x Wild Growth

PROTECTION:
4x Elephant Grass
2x Solitary Confinement
1x Karmic Justice
1x Choke
1x Aura of Silence

KILL:
1x Words of War

LANDS:
1x Taiga
2x Savannah
2x Serra's Sanctum
4x Windswept Heath
10x Forest

SIDEBOARD:
4x Exalted Angel
4x Enlightened Tutor
1x Karmic Justice
1x Compost
1x Chalice of the Void
1x Sacred Ground
1x Aura of Silence
1x Seal of Cleansing(or maybe it was Primordium. I don't remember)
1x Dovescape

[SpatulaOfTheAges]

MATCHES:

Round 1 - Alix Hatfield (ObfuscateFreely) - 5c Threshold.
Game 1 I go first and my Enchantress play is thwarted by City of Brass -> Thoughtseize. We go back and forth with a few answered threats when he gets a Goyf out and I play an ESG, thinking to chump with it. This thinking leads me to miss a swing that might have changed the outcome. I only get one swing in, and don't play the WoWar in my hand, and he wins at 3 life from double City and multiple Thoughtsiezes.
Game 2 I SB wrong because the Cities throw me off. Is he playing some weird Breakfast deck? I'm really not sure. I have some stuff get countered and discarded, play a morph.

Me: I'll play a morph.
Alix: Game?
Me: Is it ok?
Alix: Wait, you're serious?
(awkward silence)
Alix: You know if it gets revealed and it's not a morph that's a game loss?
Me: I know.
Alix: I'll Force it.
(reveal Angel)
Zach(sitting at adjacent table): That's hot.
Alix: Don't encourage him.

I don't draw anymore threats that'll save me and I get beat by Goyfs and Geese.

0-1(0-2)

Round 2 - Eric Krieger - Eva Green
Game 1 - I survive the discard barrage and get the engine online. Elephant Grass does its job and I get out of control quickly. A Replenish gets played at some point and brings back all the discarded stuff, sealing the deal.
Game 2 - Similiar to game 1.

1-1(2-2)

Round 3 - Eric - B/G (Rock)ish.

Game 1 - I mull to 4. I remember getting Hymned a lot, but the Enchantresses come online and the extra Replenish and 4x Elephant Grass really help this match a lot. The Karmic Justice helps a lot against the Deed that I still suspect he was packing, though I think I saw it.
Game 2 - There's a point where I have no cards in hand, an Enchantress on the board, and he has beats. I not only topdeck an enchantment, I topdeck Elephant Grass. It gets pretty one sided after that.

2-2 (4-2)

Round 4 - Ben - Angel Stax
Game 1 - He opens with Ruins, Tomb, Crucible. Expecting Wasteland shennanigans I pass on an Enchantress to play an Aura of Silence. He drops Trinisphere and I have to hit that instead, so I play an Enchantress and start drawing cards to try to race. I draw a fair bit of land and it gets close with a Giant and Magus beating down with Smokestack back up, but eventually I get going and pull out the Confinement.
Game 2 - He drops a couple Chalices for 1 and we have to call the judge to confirm that Enchantresses still draw cards for countered enchantments. I put down a Sacred Ground with Sterling Grove protection just before he draws Geddon.

3-1 (6-2)

Round 5 - Trevor(Getsickanddie) - Garvish Aggro
Game 1 - Straight aggro can't really do much against turn 1, 2, and 3 Enchantresses with Elephant Grass back up.
Game 2 - He Seizes one Presence, then Extirpates the other one from my hand and the other two from the deck. I draw an Angel and hoping he sided out Bolts, morph it. He didn't and it fries and gets Extirpated. He gets beats on and I die.
Game 3 I play Utopia Sprawl, and he plays turn 1 Therapy. He spends a minute thinking about which to hit, and guesses Presence when I have Argothian. That probably decided the match. I proceed to go crazy-go-nuts.

4-1 (8-3)

Round 6 - Jesse (Mad_Zur) - 5c Thresh

ID

T8 - Kevin - RGBSA

Game 1 - I was erroneously told that he's playing Canadian Thresh, but the 1st turn BoP kind of fills me in on what's happening. I play Argothian and stuff, he Wishes for Tranquility, clears the board. I drop Ground Seal and prevent his Witness from being svg. I gradually accumulate CA and win.
Game 2 - I think this is the game where I have one land and a Sprawl and the Sprawl gets Thoughseized. His gamble doesn't work and I draw another land and play threats. I kill off his Survival and get rolling.

T4 - Kenny - Aggro Loam

Game 1 - I keep a hot 7 with Ground Seal and an Enchantress. He has a strong opening but Ground Seal steals his thunder with a Crusher in play. He plays beats but I use Elephant Grass to slow him to a crawl as he's trapped on 4 mana(3 lands 1 Moxen). When I hit the Mox with Aura and double Grass out it's pretty much over.
Game 2 - I mull myself out of the game. Literally. We go to G3.
Game 3 - I open strong with Ground Seals aplenty and Enchantresses, dig up Sacred Ground and go silly. He does some stuff and blows up the world with Justice out and plays a Terravore. I had dug for the third Replenish the previous turn in case this happened, so I play it and win.

T2 - Copenhaver(Bovnius) - Ichorid.

It's late. We rock-paper-scissors. Scissors carries the day and I get technical 1st.

Props -

Fudds for the food and locale.
Zuhair and Team Brown/Unicorn for hosting.
Akki for judgin'.
Hatfields, Bryant, and Zach for cards.
All my opponents for being relatively good about having to play Enchantress.
All the awesome people that make Legacy the best format, and who make these tournaments a blast.
Elspeth for the Hello Kitty upkeep reminder.
Mario Mushrooms for making me 12 feet tall.

[Deep6er]

SCISSORS CARRIES THE DAY!

Always nice to see you do well man. Unless of course you beat me. Then you suck. But hey, that hasn't happened in awhile. BURN! Kind of. What with you not playing at all recently it's mostly true. Hm, that kind of steals my thunder. Man, I wish somebody would make a delete button. That way, I could go back and make sure that I could erase things that sounded awkward after I typed them out. Unfortunately, the river of time flows in one direction... where was I?

Oh yeah, congratulations.

[calosso]

Congrats Matt.

[Soto]

Where the 2 Gaea's Touch there because you were missing two other Explorations or did they work really well?

[SpatulaOfTheAges]

They worked out pretty well. I mainly wanted to test them. 4x Exploration is unnecessary, and Touch guarantees mana parity, unlike Exploration, which requires a land, and can offer mana advantage that turn. It's also hot with Replenish.

[Kadishack]

Team E-Z Flo 4 LIFE!!!

Congrats Bro!!!

[Ebinsugewa]

I proceed to go crazy-go-nuts.

You went to CGNU as well? I got my degree in 'Sending Strongbad a Dollar,' how about you?

[zulander]

Congrats on the finish, glad you had a good time!

[nopausenogain]

Congrats on the finish...I had a good time too. no doubt