I wasn't planning on writing a tournament report if I did poorly (ok, maybe I was), but one single turn justifies the whole thing. For the impatient, skip to round 3.Originally Posted by @OsypL
alphastryk and I drove up to SCG Nashville on Saturday in time to play in the Challenge because screw T2. I played against Thresh, crushed him because he was bad, played against Junk, crushed him because he was inexperienced against storm, and then lost 2 matches in a row to Miracles. I made a strictly incorrect "judgement call" in one game that I know, but otherwise feel like I didn't have a whole lot of control over the outcome. Both were competent players. Determined to not let that be an indicator for tomorrow, I snuggled into my moth-eaten blanket in the mildewey-smelling room at the Super 8.
I'm going to abbreviate cards when I list my hand contents because it's easier. Quick guide:
IT = Infernal Tutor
BW = Burning Wish
DR = Dark Ritual
RoF = Rite of Flame
LP = Lotus Petal
GP = Gitaxian Probe
CoB = City of Brass
LED = obvious
Round 1 - Kyle Hoel with Canadian Thresh
This match was pretty frustrating because I genuinely felt just outdrawn, although I did make some close calls that may be incorrect. The guy was not a terrible player, but I was pretty damn sure that he wasn't going to win the open if you know what I mean. The guy did mulligan to 6 each game though, so at least he knew enough to mulligan bad hands.
Game 1 - I kept IT, IT, BW, CoB, DR, Gemstone Mine, Therapy. It's a fine hand, although perhaps a little slow. I passed after playing Mine, he Wasted, and then I never drew a second IMS while he played a couple of duders and kept up his double Stifles, then drew Force, Daze, Pierce in subsequent turns. I did make a mistake just running my Therapy out there with no hand information though. He Forced a Wish when it wasn't immediately relevant, but it didn't matter.
Boarding -1 IT, +1 Cabal Therapy
Game 2 - He kept a hand with Force, Daze, and a few men, but I had the Duress then a turn 2 Empty.
Game 3 - I kept CoB, CoB, BW, GP, Duress, Ad Nauseam, Gemstone Mine. I typically value land-heavy hands against Thresh, but I think I might be overvaluing hands with Ad Nauseam against them. By the time I drew protection and mana, I was at 7 it was too late. He had a hand with double Delver, Goyf, but only Daze for protection, but drew a couple useful blue spells.
0-1
An auspicious start.
Round 2 - Moe with Shardless BUG
I watched a friend from Atlanta play against him next to me last round, so I knew what he was on. Fortunately for me, he was oblivious.
Game 1 - I kept a hand with plenty of fast mana and one cantrip, but no tutor. When I finally drew a IT, I had 3 LP in play, 2 DR in hand, 2 Silence in hand after getting Hymned. It was exactly 1 mana short of emptying my hand and finding lethal Tendrils, so went for Ad Nauseam from 9 and bricked.
Boarding -1 Infernal Tutor, +1 Cabal Therapy
Game 2 - He keeps a pretty bad hand with Deathrite, Agent, Agent, Goyf, Jace, and only 2 lands, but I also have a slow hand. Eventually I'm able to Silence him then Diminishing Returns from 4 life and 2 mana floating, got there.
Game 3 - Another grindy game. Deathrite and Goyf take me to 9 before I'm able to win off of an Empty for 12.
1-1
Round 3 - Hive Mind
Wow. This round. This round was equal parts frustrating and vindicating and certainly is the most memorable match I've ever played.
Game 1 - I had a fast hand and Ponder into at turn 2 Ill-Gotten Gains loop for 22. Along the way I saw that he's playing Hive Mind but wasn't able to find disruption with his Brainstorm. I also instructed my opponent that despite my IGG being Chinese, no, you cannot go back and change what you picked because you thought that it put the chosen cards in play.
Boarding -1 Empty the Warrens, -1 Infernal Tutor, -1 Silence, +2 Xantid Swarm, +1 Chain of Vapor (it looked like he was boarding Leylines).
Game 2 - It gets grindy and he ends up declining to cast Hive Mind to leave up hard-cast Force for several turns. After baiting out the Force with an IT, I left up a LP and Silence with the intention of killing him next turn. I knew that he has nothing but Hive Mind, Pact of the Titan, and something else in hand. He Show and Tells, I Silence, he asked if that counters Show and Tell. No. Put in Hive Mind. I go to my turn and carefully put Tendrils (storm 6 once I cast Tendrils) on the stack with him at 12 (of course after informing him that his copy of Burning Wish cannot find the Misdirection he chose). At that point we had what was formerly called a "failure to agree on reality" - he claimed that he was at 14 and that he didn't use Ancient Tomb to pay for an Intuition 2 turns ago and we argued with each other and the judges for 10 minutes. It was decided that he is at 14 and has 2 lethal Pact of Titans in hand. It's certainly possible that I accidentally marked down 12 on my sheet (although I very loudly and clearly announce every life total change), and it was upheld on appeal, so whatever. For the astute reader, yes, that Tendrils wouldn't have killed him. He seemed to have no idea how Hive Mind actually works though, as we'll see next game.
We start game 3 with 3ish minutes on the clock and a 9 minute extension.
Game 3 - I misevaluated what the bottlenecks in my hand are going to be. I had BW and Ad Nauseam as well as Chrome Mox, DR, Cabal Therapy and a couple lands. I imprinted the Therapy on the Mox and BW for IT for DR to guarantee mana for Ad Nauseam, but then realized that he has to have protection in hand if he's passed for 2 turns with no plays. I ended up drawing a couple more rituals but no protection or cantrips. At one point I cast GP and saw he has Force, Flusterstorm, Flusterstorm, Hive Mind in hand. When he got to 10ish mana, he decided to play Hive Mind and just pass. Well into our extension, I have by this point 3 LEDs in play and a handful of rituals, an IT, and Ad Nauseam as we continue to play chicken playing draw-go. A few turns later I found a Chrome Mox to have 5 permanent mana sources in play and he has been playing out lands - I decide that he's likely to draw multiple pacts or an Emrakul soon, so I need to do something. That something happens on his end step as time in our extension is called and 3 judges and half the room are watching. I cast Ad Nauseam. This is going to get messy.
He immediately slams Force, pitching some card and going to 13. I target his Force, he moves it to the bin. He then casts Flusterstorm, and I ask for targets. He starts to say my copy of Force of Will, gets confused, somehow convinces the judge that it's an acceptable shortcut to place a spell in the graveyard while it's on the stack and moves Force back onto the stack, then spends 30 seconds trying to figure out what the hell the judge and I mean when we ask him to stack his Hive Mind and Storm triggers When he finally figures it out, he targets my Force, I crack one LED to pay, and target his original Flusterstorm with my copy, which he pays. I use the 1 floating to pay for the original Flusterstorm. Alright. He Flusterstorms again. I ask him for target, and how are you stacking the triggers. He's confused. A minute later we figure out he's doing the same thing, and I crack both remaining LEDs to pay. He sighs and says Ad Nauseam resolves, and I just say, "You first."
It slowly dawns on him what that means. As he goes to flip the first card, I call on all the gods I don't believe in and furiously say a prayer that goes a little something like this. "Emrakul"
He flips.
Emrakul.
Everyone just went absolutely nuts. I was yelling, my friends were yelling, random people were yelling. My opponent just kinda looked a little stunned, but had the courtesy to shake my hand and wish me good luck, a gentleman at heart. I was covered in sweat and my hands were shaking for a solid 15 minutes, which was unfortunate, because I had to immediately go and play more magic!
2-1
Round 4 - Scott Ruggiero with Prosak-ANT
I had met and eaten dinner with Scott the night before so we both knew what each other were on. He had picked up ANT a couple of weeks before and had been doing well at his locals so decided to come to Nashville to play it on the big stage.
Game 1 - He won the die roll and Brainstorms into a turn 1 kill. That was unfortunate, my hand was good with a Duress and a Silence as well as some business, but it happens.
Boarding -1 Empty the Warrens, +1 Cabal Therapy
Game 2 - I mulligan to 6 and keep a mediocre hand. It has GP, Ponder, a couple BW, IT, and a land. I Probe and see a nutty hand, then Ponder into another land and a Duress. Unfortunately he drew the Past in Flames for another turn 1 kill.
Yeah. I got turn 1'd by ANT twice in a row. That's some bullshit. After the excitement of last round and having a good conversation with the guy last night, I didn't have it in me to be angry about it though.
2-2
Round 5 - Mike Ivy with 4c NO
I was pretty bummed about the loss, so I think I didn't play very well this round, but I'm not sure what specific mistakes I made.
Game 1 - I kept an awkward hand and he had a dude to beat me down while I was trying to find protection and IMSs to get through his Wasteland, Force, and Pierce.
He looked like Bant with Deathrite Shaman, so I figured he'd have Meddling Mage or Canonist. Boarding -1 Empty the Warrens, -1 Silence, -1 Infernal Tutor, +2 Abrupt Decay, +1 Cabal Therapy
Game 2 - His hand looked very beatable - 2 lands, Ponder, Clique, Bob, Force, but my draw failed to develop. I don't remember specifics because I had checked out.
2-3
Round 6 - Super Awk with Dredge
This guy was a mega barnacle and after the match insisted on talking at my friend and I as we walked outside to talk. Dredge guys, I'm not a hater, but this sort of person gives you guys a rep.
Game 1 - I made a quick turn 1 Empty for 10. That was enough to get past his slowish draw.
Boarding -1 Cabal Therapy, -1 Silence, +2 Chain of Vapor
Game 2 - Another good draw. I Ad Nauseamed for a mere 5 cards before stopping. Yeah they were pretty good. I was super tempted to Wish for Past in Flames and Grapeshot him for extreme daggers, but I actually wanted to just not be in his presence any more. Alas, he insisted.
3-3
Round 7 - Jarrett Aaron with Dredge
Can't complain about facing Dredge twice in a row. It's a favorable matchup - it's a race, with me being the faster deck and him being the more disruptive deck. This guy was extremely nice, so I take back all the bad things I said about you dredge players.
Game 1 - I open up a sweet hand with my friend watching. LP, LED, LED, LED, DR, IT, Silence. I was going to go for Ad Nauseam, tanked for a bit, then found the IGG-loop kill. He even let me resolve IGG before conceding!
Boarding same as before
Game 2 - He had a slow start with Study discarding Dakmore Salvage and Bloodghast, and I set up for the turn 2 natural Ad Nauseam by imprinting Empty and Tutoring for a second DR. It's a risky line, but I feel like it was warranted because the alternative is to just sit there for a couple of turns and let him strip my hand. He found the Therapy and a couple turns later killed me.
Game 3 - I Pondered turn 1, he Studied. I then Silence-walked him and killed off Ad Nauseam on my turn 3.
4-3
Round 8 - Ben Powell with Jund
I'm tired, but can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Game 1 - On my turn 1 I cast GP twice then Emptied for like 16. He scooped immediately.
No boarding.
Game 2 - He Wastes me and beat me down to 13 with a Bob before I found the cards to cast Ad Nauseam with nothing floating going all the way to 2 life. I didn't flip an LED for the Infernal Tutors I drew and two Brainstorms (fetching in between) couldn't find it. Imprinted GP on Chrome Mox, cast Ponder, shuffled, found LED, and desperately tried to figure out a line. All I could come up with is IT -> BW -> Grapeshot to nuke his board and take him to 3, but he dropped Deathrite Shaman next turn and killed me.
Game 3 - Apparently he kept a hand with Swamp, 2 Grove of the Burnwillows, Abrupt Decay, Punishing Fire, and Engineered Plague. After the match, alphastryk floated the idea that he might have thought that I was a Belcher-style deck with no Tendrils? Not sure. Anyway, he led on Swamp and I cantripped and prayed he didn't Hymn me. He didn't, so I Silenced him, then cast Ad Nauseam for the win.
5-3
Overall, I'm less enamoured with TES than before. Watching multiple people that have never played ANT before go deep in the tournament really makes me wonder if my belief that TES is the better deck is true. After thinking about it, I've come up with a truism that the ANT people may already believe - ANT loses to its opponents more, while TES loses to itself (either consistency issues or pilot error). When things go well, TES is an unstoppable juggernaught and can shrug off Wastelands, discard, and permission (although usually not all at once). Sometimes though you have a couple of kill conditions or a bunch of protection and tutors in hand and you do nothing. Maybe it's not the right deck to take to a long tournament, or maybe it's just not the right deck for me personally. Maybe I'll wake up tomorrow and be in love with it again.
I do feel like I was legitimately outdrawn with not much I could do to affect the outcome in rounds 1 and 4 (although I did discuss a possibly sketchy keep round 1); and certainly didn't draw well but probably also played poorly in round 5 when I was dragging. Perhaps it's time to join the legions playing Shardless BUG or break new ground with Lejay's Infinite Cunning deck.
I want to say a big thank you to the Source community for being such a great group. I hope that you all enjoy this report as much as I enjoy reading yours.
Props:
- Steak
- Called Shots and mindfucks
- Foreign cards
- Diminishing Returns (aka the most fun card in TES)
Slops:
- Barnacles
- Hive Mind
- Flusterstorm
- Hive Mind + Flusterstorm
Languages and dates for every set. For all you true pimps.
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