[SCG Philly] Top 16 - WTF?

[The Wolf]

I liked how both SCG Deck Techs had the person being interveiwed claiming jace was the best card in the format, but there were 0 in the top 8 and only 2 in the top 16.

Also, someone tried to play a land on their opponents turn (not of Burgeoning) 3 times and the judges didn't have a problem with this?

[RexFTW]

Judges are normally only concerned about insufficient randomization not playing lands on other players turns. LOL!

[Arsenal]

Judges are normally only concerned about insufficient randomization not playing lands on other players turns. LOL!

After Louis resolved Scapeshift, he didn't shuffle his library. He searched, got his lands, put them into played tapped, then set his deck down. His blind opponent cut it, and the even blinder judge didn't notice it. One could argue that everyone was distracted by the epic failure of Louis' Scapeshift and subsequent Vesuva ruling, but still, that's a pretty big error to simply overlook.

[Rico Suave]

People in the Philly and surrounding areas love their blue decks. Nearly 25% of the top 16 had CB/Top. Almost half had Force of Will.

It's not really a surprise that combo would struggle in such a metagame, nor is it a surprise that Zoo would thrive.

[Aggro_zombies]

One thing I'm wondering is why Portent is in the Hatfield list. Portent? Seriously?

[majikal]

One thing I'm wondering is why Portent is in the Hatfield list. Portent? Seriously?

It can Ponder or fuck up your opponent's draw so they don't draw what they need. Doesn't seem terrible.

[Valtrix]

Yeah. It seems as though he wanted maximal cheap card quality too, that's why he had 4 top, 4 brainstorm, and 4 ponder on top of the 3 portent. I'm not really sure if there's a better 1cc cantrip than portent at that point.

[Plague Sliver]

Did you attend? That is a along way from California to travel.

Also if your talking about the t16 it looks fine. Finally the more consistent decks I.E. Zoo, UGw Aggro control, and Ant reared their ugly heads for a completely dominating day of legacy. Oh, and when I say dominating I mean Lands is the 8th place deck, outside of that its a wrap. Pretty good indications on what up and coming decks like UWT need to do in order to survive.

Maybe he's referring to Max's article, "Attacking is miserable"?

[lep]

Though I did not play in the event I was there observing both days. Generally speaking reanimator was underrepresented across the entire event, not solely the top 16. Some chalked this up to lack of quality card supply and sheer cost of the deck. Entombs are not the easiest or cheapest things to find. Those I did see playing the deck made some fairly serious play errors most likely due to unfamiliarly with the deck since it is not the simplest of decks to blindly pilot.

[tyleredw]

Though I did not play in the event I was there observing both days. Generally speaking reanimator was underrepresented across the entire event, not solely the top 16. Some chalked this up to lack of quality card supply and sheer cost of the deck. Entombs are not the easiest or cheapest things to find. Those I did see playing the deck made some fairly serious play errors most likely due to unfamiliarly with the deck since it is not the simplest of decks to blindly pilot.

That's weird. I played in the Legacy event and played against reanimator 3 out of the 9 rounds. The first round of the tournament, when I looked around my table, there were literally 5 reanimator decks in the close vacinity. Each of the other three people I drove up with played reanimator at least once each.

There was definitely a significant amount of it, but due to the good results the deck has been getting the last few big tournaments, the hate for it was exceptionally high. It was pretty much public enemy number one for everyone's sideboard, and there was a LOT of Goblins and Bant at the tournament to keep the deck in check. It's not a really that huge of a surprise that it didn't survive to make it to the top 16.

[lep]

That's weird. I played in the Legacy event and played against reanimator 3 out of the 9 rounds. The first round of the tournament, when I looked around my table, there were literally 5 reanimator decks in the close vacinity. Each of the other three people I drove up with played reanimator at least once each.

There was definitely a significant amount of it, but due to the good results the deck has been getting the last few big tournaments, the hate for it was exceptionally high. It was pretty much public enemy number one for everyone's sideboard, and there was a LOT of Goblins and Bant at the tournament to keep the deck in check. It's not a really that huge of a surprise that it didn't survive to make it to the top 16.

Well I guess we wait for the meta breakdown that I hope is done this week. I saw a ton of goblins and zoo but I started really paying attention towards the 3rd-4th round so it is possible there were some drops before that.

Those you saw being played, how were the players? The builds now are fairly resilient to hate through a ton of disruption as well as alternative plays like Show and Tell.

[tyleredw]

Well I guess we wait for the meta breakdown that I hope is done this week. I saw a ton of goblins and zoo but I started really paying attention towards the 3rd-4th round so it is possible there were some drops before that.

Those you saw being played, how were the players? The builds now are fairly resilient to hate through a ton of disruption as well as alternative plays like Show and Tell.

A lot of the reanimator players were quite bad, I definitely agree with you there. There seemed to a lot of the whole "I just borrowed this entire deck from my friend and played it" going on.

I was playing RB Goblins yesterday, and during one round an opponent dazed my turn 2 piledriver, dazed my turn 3 warchief, Force of Willed my turn 4 piledriver, and then continued to Show and Tell a terrastadon when he had no other cards in hand. I put a seige-gang into play with it, and he gave me 2 elephants, and himself the third one. Since he decided to waste all of his counters on irrelevant stuff, i was free to incinerator his elephant, weirding his big boy, and thank him for the beatsticks :)

[lep]

RB Goblins is one of the more difficult matches for the deck but they were some interesting choices.

I saw a ton of people dazing without floating mana, reanimating Iona blindly (she is not always the best option), as well as running straight into relics.

[Vacrix]

A lot of the reanimator players were quite bad, I definitely agree with you there. There seemed to a lot of the whole "I just borrowed this entire deck from my friend and played it" going on.

I was playing RB Goblins yesterday, and during one round an opponent dazed my turn 2 piledriver, dazed my turn 3 warchief, Force of Willed my turn 4 piledriver, and then continued to Show and Tell a terrastadon when he had no other cards in hand. I put a seige-gang into play with it, and he gave me 2 elephants, and himself the third one. Since he decided to waste all of his counters on irrelevant stuff, i was free to incinerator his elephant, weirding his big boy, and thank him for the beatsticks :)

Yeah, I haven't met too many reanimator players who actually know what they are doing. Its like ANT. A few steps above Belcher..

[Artowis]

At least one of the Zoo players in the top 8 said he played Zoo purely because he felt his opponents couldn't possibly win with how they played / what they brought to the table. It was free game wins for him all day because his opponents piles either fell apart on their own or couldn't beat a 3/3 cat.

[voltron00x]

For those who are interested, this was my tournament in brief. Next week will be in detail on SCG.

Rd 1 - Win 2-0 vs Merfolk
Rd 2 - Win 2-0 vs NO Bant
Rd 3 - Win 2-1 vs New Horizons
Rd 4 - Lose 1-2 vs Zoo (Asher)
Rd 5 - Win 2-0 vs Zoo
Rd 6 - Win 2-1 vs Landstill (Feature Match)
Rd 7 - Win 2-1 vs NO Bant
Rd 8 - Win 2-1 vs U/W Tempo
Rd 9 - ID
Quarters - Win 2-1 vs Zoo
Semis - Win 2-0 vs CB/Top (with EIGHT PLOW!)
Finals - Win 2-0 vs NO Bant

I literally didn't touch 10 / 15 SB cards outside of the times I pretended to SB in the Zoo mirror (although I did bring in Grips in the Quarters)

[dahcmai]

GJ on the tournament. Even better top deck of the frigging century! : ) That Path couldn't have come at a better time.



Louis admitted he was dead tired during that feature match. I can give the guy a little leeway, though not counting his own mountains before Scapeshift was painful. What a way to lose.

[atropos]

Yeah ripping the Path off the top was really something to see. Even though I'm a blue player it was really nice to see a non-blue deck win the tournament. Congratulations!

[freakish777]

For those who are interested, this was my tournament in brief. Next week will be in detail on SCG.

Rd 1 - Win 2-0 vs Merfolk
Rd 2 - Win 2-0 vs NO Bant
Rd 3 - Win 2-1 vs New Horizons
Rd 4 - Lose 1-2 vs Zoo (Asher)
Rd 5 - Win 2-0 vs Zoo
Rd 6 - Win 2-1 vs Landstill (Feature Match)
Rd 7 - Win 2-1 vs NO Bant
Rd 8 - Win 2-1 vs U/W Tempo
Rd 9 - ID
Quarters - Win 2-1 vs Zoo
Semis - Win 2-0 vs CB/Top (with EIGHT PLOW!)
Finals - Win 2-0 vs NO Bant

I literally didn't touch 10 / 15 SB cards outside of the times I pretended to SB in the Zoo mirror (although I did bring in Grips in the Quarters)

Out of curiosity did you find that Sylvan Library was just getting in the way of tempo during your testing?

[jrsthethird]

I liked how both SCG Deck Techs had the person being interveiwed claiming jace was the best card in the format, but there were 0 in the top 8 and only 2 in the top 16.

IIRC, Lewis only said it was the best card in his deck, not in the format. I played against him and it was a total house.