1st Place With Berserk Stompy in Brighton, MI

[umbowta]

KC: Are you seriously going to play that deck?
Me: Yeah.
KC: Play Threshold.
Me: I just can’t wait to drop a turn one Beta Scryb Sprite just to see the look on my opponents face. Seriously. They’ll be like, “Noob”, and I’ll go turn 2 Might, Invigorate, Invigorate, Berserk, swing for 26.
KC: (laughing) Whatever. You’re not really playing that deck are you?…

Yeah, I could have played, Eva Green, Thresh, Painter’s Stone Combo, TES, or any number of actually “good” decks. However, I was in the mood to have fun, end matches quickly, and try to have time to log on to The Source with some updates. Berserk Stompy gets the call.

The List:

18 Land
11 Forest
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Windswept Heath

24 Creatures
2 Scryb Sprites!
4 Jungle Lion
4 Skarrgan Pit Skulk
4 Skyshroud Elite
4 Kavu Predator
4 Silhana Ledgewalker
2 Tarmogoyf

18 Pump spells
4 Berserk
4 Invigorate
4 Might of Old Krosa
4 Rancor
2 Seal of Strength

Utility/Removal
Fuck that.


SB
4 Rushwood Legate
4 Seeds of Innocence
3 Viridian Zealot
3 Tormod's Crypt
1 Gaea's Blessing

I got lots of laughs and friends giving me shit when I handed in that registration sheet. Who cares. Umbowta have a lot of fun and I don’t care what happens anyway. One way or the other, matches will be over quickly and I’ll be able to go outside to enjoy the contents of the cooler.

Round 1: Vs Joel playing Landstill

Game 1: I come out fast and his life total goes 20, 18, 9, 5, 1, scoop.

Sideboard –2 Jungle Lions, -2 Seal, +4 Rushwood Legate.

Game 2: He’s on the play and starts out with a fetch. I go fetch, crack for a forest, Scryb Sprite. He responds by cracking his fetch getting Tundra, Brainstorm, and then FoW’s the damned Sprite. Best Hymn ever. Legate comes down…gets Rancored…his life total goes 20,16, 8, scoop.

1-0


Round 2: Vs Dan O. playing Affinity

Game 1: He wins the roll and proceeds to vomit his hand onto the table, form of land, thopter, thopter, frogmite, frogmite. I go fetch-a-forest, Jungle lion, (sniffle). The tears really began to flow when he Cranial Plated the damn thopter and stuffed a whole bunch of metal up my ass.

-2 Lions, -2 Seal, -3 Ledgewalker, +4 Seeds of Innocence, +3 Viridian Zealot
Game 2: I keep a two land grip with Elite, Kavu, Seeds, Sprite, Rancor, and lead off with the Elite. He is a lot slower this time with just a land and a Worker so I’m feeling real good. Turn 2 I drop Rancor on the Elite and Swing in for 4. Post combat, the Sprite comes out to play and I pass the turn. He gets a Frogmite and a Cranial plate out before I manage to find my third land and wipe his entire friggin board with Seeds. Kavu gets big and it only takes a couple of turns to end it.

Game 3: He comes out fast again but this time I don’t have to wait for the third Forest. My opening grip had 2 fetches and a Forest, Kavu, Invigorate and I luck sacked into Seeds on my turn 2 rip. So I go turn 2 Kavu only to watch him go nutty on turn 3 chaining into a Myr Enforcer while muttering something about being fearful of what I might do on my turn. Needless to say, he was a little disappointed when he watched the third forest hit, followed by Seeds and Invigorate. Yep he just gained 15 life…and then I swung with my 21/21 Trampler and beat him back down to 14. The game was over on my next turn.

2-0
Round 3 Vs Chris Walton playing Enchantress

I’ve known Chris since the first Legacy event I promoted at Pandemonium. Realizing at this point that 3-1-1 is probably going to get it…duh, we decide to ID and proceed to Draft Lorwyn/Shadowmoor/Shadowmoor for fun.

2-0-1


Round 4 Vs Caleb playing BWG Something

Game 1: He does some shit, while I get myself down to 17 with fetchlands. He Vindicates one of my doods but can’t do anything about a double Rancored Ledgewalker.

Game 2: I have really no idea what he’s playing at this point aside from some BWG board control deck. Either way I’m in no mood to get 2 for 1’ed so I happy to see another Ledgewalker come up early. It lands on turn 2 and I go nuts on turn 3 for 30 trample. After losing, Caleb shows me the 3 Pernicious Deeds in his hand. I say something like, “I figured that’s what you boarded in”. To which he replies, “No. Deeds are maindeck.” Lucky me.

After the match, someone asks, “What was he playin?” I told him honestly, “I have no idea. I killed him too quick.”

3-0-1

Round 5 Vs Paul Nicolo playing Affinity

Before we begin the match, Paul and I briefly discuss taking a draw, however, Paul wants to play for the points so off we go. I figure I’ve got a pretty even shot at him anyway, and no matter what happens I’m in top 8.

Game 1: I lose to Ravager and two Disciples

Game 2: I lose to Ravager and two Disciples…yep twice in a row. I hate Affinity sometimes.

3-1-1

Top 8 Vs Phil Cape playing Rb Goblins

This is just great. Another team RIW member. For those of you who may not know, Phil is definitely one of the better players in the area. Catching this guy making play errors in like seeing Bigfoot; it just doesn’t happen. I start thinking about how I should have tested against Goblins more…and by that I mean some, because I didn’t.

Game 1: He wins the roll and gets a turn 1 vial. I get turn one Jungle Lion. He untaps, drops Rishadan Port, and passes. On my upkeep he taps down my Forest. I swing in and he vials in Fanatic to kill me Lion and sends one to my dome. Post combat I play my second Forest and bring out the Elite. The next few turns blur together as he gets Warchief, another Warchief, Ringleader, and Boggart Mob. He’s at 14 and swings in with Mob, knocking me down to 9. On my turn, I turn all 4 of my guys sideways. He does the math and says “no blocks” (I think he had 2 tokens to chump with). I go off with the pump spells and Phil just says, “Am I dead? Is that enough?” “It’s 15”, I say.

Game 2: He’s on the play and leads out with a Vial again. This time I lead out with the all mighty Scryb Sprite. He gets Warcheif and Boggart Mob on the table and is Porting me down again but I kept a 3 land hand and drew into a fourth so I’m all good. I managed to get a bloodthirsty Pit Skulk thanks to the Sprite getting in there and I’ve also got a Lion and a Kavu out. At 11 life he passes the turn. During my upkeep, one of my forests gets ported but he leaves his other port and a mountain untapped so I figure Incinerator for sure. Before combat, I target the Pit Skulk with Might of old Krosa. He responds with the Incinerator. I respond with yet another Might. I then coolly turn the unblockable duo of death, Skulk and Sprite, sideways for 11 and the win.


Top 4 Vs Josh Bettens playing Dragon Stompy

Holy crap this is a nightmare for me. Maindeck Chalice and Trinisucks. I choose to ignore that fact while point out how awesome his moon effects are going to be against basic Forests.

Game 1: I’m on the play and go 1st turn Pit Skulk. He proceeds to drop turn one Chalice at one. Great. Of course my hand is full of one drops. Anyway, I get a Kavu Predator down on turn 2 and get in there with the little Skulk. I do my best to beat him down to 7 but I can’t get any more through a Jitte wearing Magnus and yet another Chalice set at two.

-some shit, + 4Seeds, + 3 Viridian Zealot

Game 2: I keep a solid hand with a Zealot and a couple Berserks while he mulls down to 5. I go turn one Elite and he follows with turn one Chalice for one. Cheat Sack! I drop a Kavu Preadator on turn 2 and I’m now holding the Seeds I jut topdecked and my third land. Luck Sack! He does some shit I don’t care about on his turn (Trinisphere) and I proceed to rip another Berserk off the top. Of course I cast Seeds, he gains some life, and my Kavu gets big. I swing in and knock him down to 14. His turn passes uneventfully and now I get to have some fun. I Invigorate the Kavu Predator up to 15/15, turn him sideways, tap 3 Forests and lay down my three of a kind. Berserk, Berserk, Berserk. Oh yeah! Swing for 120 on turn 4.

Game 3: I don’t remember much about this game because I was still geekin out over Berserk trips. I know he got another friggin Chalice and Trinisphere out which I had to blow up with Seeds of Innocence. I think that card actually says ‘target lucksack wins the game’ because I managed to pull out the win.

Finals VS Caleb playing BWG Rock

Well I got lucky the first time around, having not seen a Deed hit the table. The deck gods would continue to smile upon me in the Final match.

Game 1: I win the roll and keep a hand full of gas missing only the Berserk. He keeps too and off we go. I lead off with a Windswept into Forest and drop Skyshroud Elite making sure to point out that its only a 1/1. Caleb drops a Scrubland and casts Cabal Therapy naming Berserk. Ooops. On turn 2 I crack a Foothills for another Forest and land a Kavu Predator with Invigorate in hand. He drops another land on his turn and passes. I know damn well he’s got to be holding Swords to Plowshares. I untap, draw, drop a land a proceed directly to attack step. I turn both guys sideways and target the Elite with an Invigorate for ‘free’. With the Kavu’s trigger on the stack…he StPs the friggin Elite. Ooops! I beat him down with a 5/5 Kavu for 2 turns before he hits his fourth land and casts none other than Loxodon Hierarch. OOOPS!! Kavu is happy today. My 9/9 wins out. NO DEED FOR YOU>>>MUHAHAHA

Game 2: He mulls down to 6 and elects to keep a one land hand. I’m thinking this is over quickly. His life total goes 20-19-15-10-1.



At the beginning of this debacle, KC was poking fun at me for paying $25 just to show up with a pile of jank. Now, after 8 matches, he was handing me the Mox Ruby. What can I say? Luck of the Irish comes out a little bit more when playing a mono green deck I guess. I had so much fun just seeing the other players standing around the table when doods got Berserked. That card just has a really high Holy Shit factor that excites Timmies, Johhnies, and Spikes alike.


Obligatory Props and Slops

Props:

-KC for putting on a great tournament with killer prize support.
-Pate for loaning me some Jungle Lions
-Caleb for taking out Aluren and Paul Nicolo for me.
-The Great Harvest Bread Co. for hooking everybody up with free cake. Your store is now entered in to the annals of awesomeness.

Slops:
-Everyone who laughed at my deck choice.
-The douche bag who stole my Polluted Deltas.
-Cheat Sack for making me play through Chalice in all three games of the top 4. Cheat sack.
-Wallace for bitching about Legacy the whole tournament. I promise I’ll never make you come to another event, Jon.
-Isamaru for coming in 9th. Should have had more Scryb Sprites. Lolz

[Michael Keller]

It looks like you were the beneficiary of some questionable plays. Good job, anyways.

[Nihil Credo]

Nice tournament, and entertaining report as well.

[umbowta]

It looks like you were the beneficiary of some questionable plays. Good job, anyways.

Yeah. I think I got into Caleb's head with the turn 3 kill in the swiss. He all but bent over for me in the finals. Im not complaining though.

[GreenOne]

Why didn't you play Tattermunge Maniac? When it came out I thought this shit was good in berserk stompy
Lovely report!

EDIT: and just to clarify: Was it Viridian Shaman or Viridian Zealot in side? You mssed up those sideboardings in the report

[Brushwagg]

Ya seeing people lose to Berserk is classic. Just ask Garvman (not that he posts anymore). Congrats on the win.

[xsockmonkeyx]

Game 1: He wins the roll and gets a turn 1 vial. I get turn one Jungle Lion. He untaps, drops Rishadan Port, and passes. On my upkeep he taps down my Forest. I swing in and he vials in Lackey to kill me Lion and sends one to my dome.

Thats a hell of a Lackey.

Congrats.

[freakish777]

Thats a hell of a Lackey.

Congrats.

Pretty sure he meant Fanatic.

[Liek]

Congrats on victory. Also, the tournament was awesome.

I'm the only person that could take this deck down? I had 4x Perish in my board, boarded them in obv, but they didn't show up. Shrug.

[raharu]

Oh yeah! Swing for 120 on turn 4.

Oshi- *gets hit for 120 with trample*

[Willoe]

Wow, you lucksacked a lot of times :)

But with such a deck, that thing's allowed :)

Congrats on the finish.

Anyway, has monoG stompy ever achieved DTW or even DTB status? What has it won?

[YuanTi]

Anyway, has monoG stompy ever achieved DTW or even DTB status? What has it won?

I don't think it's even in Established Decks.

Congrats on the win. You're braver than I taking Berserk Stompy to a Mox Tourney. A bit of lucksackery on the way is probably necessary with it.

[Eldariel]

How the heck did those Goblins lose to you again? It seemed like the board position was a lock for him both games. It just...seems like he didn't block aggressively enough.

[Nightmare]

This is the most important part of this report:

Umbowta have a lot of fun and I don’t care what happens anyway.

It took me until right now to get what your name means.

[DeathwingZERO]

Umbowta have a lot of fun and I don’t care what happens anyway.

Oh man, was that intended? Cause if it was, major props on that name. I never even realized what it was until Nightmare pointed it out.

EDIT: Seriously, I can't stop laughing at that. Hilarious quote.

[Shriekmaw]

Wallace for bitching about Legacy the whole tournament.

Wow, I simply can't believe this statement.

You have a Wallace to that bitches?

[detroitpro]

Congrats on the win.

after 10 years away from the game this was a good event to be my first back. I had fun, meet some good people and Melee is a cool place, except for the heat?.....

[Jaynel]

Very entertaining report. Congrats on the finish!

[KrzyMoose]

Congrats, Dan!

Did like...no one there play Counterbalance?

In that game against Phil, do you know why he didn't block? It seems to me that there was no reason not to block, since he has to know you're playing some pump spells. He also had you dead on board even without his tokens. I'm going to assume you just employed your Jedi mind trickery. Well done.

[umbowta]

Thanks for all the congrats guys. It feels really good to take the win. I got a little down on myself for always making top 8 only to get knocked out in the first elim. On to the question answering...

Why didn't you play Tattermunge Maniac? When it came out I thought this shit was good in berserk stompy
Lovely report!

EDIT: and just to clarify: Was it Viridian Shaman or Viridian Zealot in side? You mssed up those sideboardings in the report

No Tattermunge because Jungle Lion is better, and waaay cooler too. Tattermunge has the same drawback, can't block (other than the turn you play it), as the Lion does. Jungle Lion however lets you choose when to turn it sideways.

It's Zealot. I phuck that up all the time. It's fixed now.

Thats a hell of a Lackey.

Congrats.

Lolz. Fixed.

Anyway, has monoG stompy ever achieved DTW or even DTB status? What has it won?

No. It hasn't even hit established, let alone DTW or DTB. However, it has achieved some recent sucess.

For example:

1st Place, 9-8-07, 35 player event
1st Place, 10-13-2007, 186 player event, Legacy Open at PT Valencia
3rd Place, Legacy Championship Spain, 2007
1st Place, Beta Bash...duh

Taking first at the Legacy Open at PT Valencia is what made me give the deck a shot. There were almost 200 players there.

How the heck did those Goblins lose to you again? It seemed like the board position was a lock for him both games. It just...seems like he didn't block aggressively enough.

It seemed like I was one turn ahead of him in both games. Just about the time he got his board position straightened out I swung for the kill. Even in the case where he let me in unblocked while failing to chump with his tokens I was ready for the win. His chumps would not have saved him...otherwise I would not have swung all in. He too did the math and knew that I was either bluffing...or winning. He made the right play.

Congrats on the win.

after 10 years away from the game this was a good event to be my first back. I had fun, meet some good people and Melee is a cool place, except for the heat?.....

Welcome back! Which deck were you playing?
Yeah, the heat thing kinda sucked. KC said something was wrong with the air conditioning and they couldn't get it fixed in time. At least he was able to get a big ass fan in there.

Congrats, Dan!

Did like...no one there play Counterbalance?

Actually...No. It was friggin weird. Usually this area is flooded with Thresh to the point of me wanting to claw my eyes out over yet another mirror match. I was glad to see no Counterbalance even though testing revealed the ability to play through it. It gets harder when Top and CB are out but it's not an impossible situation.

[EDIT] Here's a link to some decklists and other stuff for your comparison. http://www.deckcheck.net/list.php?ty...&format=Legacy [/EDIT]