(warning, this post is long, perhaps approaching novel length)
First off, here's the list I played: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=52841
Or, if you prefer, text format:
Maindeck
5 Island
2 Plains
1 Mountain
4 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Arid Mesa
1 Karakas
1 Vendilion Clique
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
2 Counterbalance
1 Counterspell
4 Force of Will
2 Enlightened Tutor
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Terminus
3 Rest in Peace
2 Energy Field
1 Helm of Obedience
1 Entreat the Angels
Sideboard
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Ethersword Cannonist
2 Meddling Mage
1 Counterbalance
1 Humility
1 Porphyry Nodes
1 Seal of Cleansing
2 Flusterstorm
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Vendilion Clique
I switched back to a Helm / Rest in Peace / Energy Field plan a few weeks ago after having decreasing success with various other lists, mostly with stoneforge and more counterspells. I was crushing combo, but couldn't ever beat decks with Abrupt Decay and Liliana of the Veil, so instead of fighting decay, I decided to overload it. I realized that while the stone forge package had solved the goblins matchup, it was not where I wanted to be otherwise, as tapping out on turn 2 is not a great place to be in a deck with pierce, snare, and counterspell, and if you lead with top it is often a priority to use it on the second turn. I played a bunch of test games, and one local tournament with something close to this, and moved the Blood Moon main after that.
Explanations of numbers:
Manabase - I played a basic mountain because the second volcanic was often a liability against stoneblade decks where I wanted access to Red Elemental Blast, but could not afford to be vulnerable to Wasteland. I try to play the maximum amount of basics I think I can get away with, as I hate losing to wasteland. I don't have huge color commitments outside blue until the late game (Elspeth, Entreat, Humility), so I am still able to cast the spells I want when I want, and played enough duals to make sure I can fetch the right colors against decks without disruption. I played 0 utility lands, as I am a bit more 'fully' 3 colors, and the two lands I would consider (dust bowl and academy ruins) are invalidated by Blood Moon and Rest in Peace anyways.
4 Force of Will
1 Counterspell
2 Counterbalance
I felt like there was going to be less combo in this event, and I've never been a hug fan of Spell Pierce. I decided that I was likely to tap out early and often with Rest in Peace, and wanted Counterspell late and force early. I cut down on Counterbalances due to the prevalence of Abrupt Decay, with Enlightened Tutor allowing me to find it in the matches I needed to.
2 Enlightened Tutor
These make the RIP / Helm / E Field plan function without taking up too much deck space. I wouldn't want to play more due to the card disadvantage, but the bullets are very powerful to have access to.
3 Rest in Peace
2 Energy Field
1 Helm of Obedience
I felt like Rest in Peace would be good against almost everyone in game 1, but the second doesn't have a huge impact. I felt like 2 Energy Fields was enough to find them when I needed, but not flood on them otherwise. I only played the one Helm because drawing a second copy of a 4-mana sorcery that does nothing by itself is miserable, and I have enough expensive spells in the deck already. Having access to an 'Oops, I win' is very valuable though, and I don't think I'll play without it anytime soon.
1 Entreat the Angels
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
I wanted access to several endgames, and these are the most powerful ones available. Playing essentially no creatures blanks a ton of my opponents' cards in game one as well. I played Elspeth over a 4th Jace because she is much better vs the various non blue fair decks that are cropping up, and is still a fine answer to Jace in a heads-up fight.
1 Vendilion Clique
I like having access to hand information, a way to interact with Planeswalkers, and another 3 for Counterbalance. This is definitely the most random-looking card in the main, but it is a good role-player and having lots of different plans makes opponents' decisions more difficult.
4 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
4 Sensei's Divining Top
I would never leave home with a UW Miracles list without 4 tops and 4 brainstorms. The one ponder is a bit of additional dig for lands early and action late, as well as helping you assemble one of your mini-combos, and making up a shuffle if your fetches are turned off by Blood Moon.
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Terminus
Sometimes people play creatures. We should remind them that this is a bad idea.
1 Detention Sphere
A good catch-all to have access to. It is very close on whether this should be an Oblivion Ring to dodge REB and friends, but the added utility and ability to pitch to force in a pinch makes up for it in my opinion.
1 Blood Moon
I have an unhealthy love for this card, and playing 8 basics makes it very one-sided. With how greedy people's manabases are getting these days, It seemed good for a free win or two.
Sideboard:
1 Pithing Needle
Deals with deathrite shaman, liliana, and a lot of other troublesome permanents.
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Tormod's Crypt
More graveyard hate, but nor more RIPs. There was a lot of talk about reanimator before this tournament, so I wanted to be prepared. Relic is good vs the slower decks with Punishing Fire, Deathrite, Goyf, etc. Crypt is good because you can tutor for it and use it immediately given a draw of some sort, and I wanted access to this kind of speed against dredge and reanimator.
1 Counterbalance
I like having access to a third for blue mirrors and vs combo.
2 Meddling Mage
Meddling Mage was an all-star all day, turning off Abrupt Decay and acting as a disruptive beater vs combo.
1 Ethersworn Cannonist
A tutorable combo hate piece that is good on its own, unlike Counterbalance, which has minimal value without a top.
1 Porphyry Nodes
Tutorable early interaction with creature decks, does not target so it deals with Mother of Runes and Nimble Mongoose just fine. If you time it right, it is almost always a 2-for-1 or a kill spell and a time walk.
1 Seal of Cleansing
Tutorable Disenchant. Mostly for batterskull and choke, but it has good general utility.
2 Flusterstorm
More combo hate, the most efficient single card to have in most scenarios.
2 Red Elemental Blast
For blue mirrors where Force of Will is bad, and another answer to Show and Tell.
1 Vendilion Clique
Another disruptive beater against combo, and a good answer to planeswalkers.
Ok, with that out of the way, on to the matches:
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Round 1 - Goblins (2-0)
I kept a hand with a ponder, jace, a terminus, and a brainstorm - a pretty good general hand. My opponent won the die roll and let with cavern, lackey. *sigh*. I draw, play island, ponder, shuffle away 3 lands and draw a top. I guess he gets to make another man. He puts out a piledriver, plays a mountain, and passes. on my turn I play a top, a second island, and pass. he attacks for 3 and puts in a ringleader, revealing matron and another piledriver before playing a vial and passing. I brainstorm on my turn to put back the terminus, finding nothing of note. After wrathing him 3 times and playing out a rest in peaces, I get down to 6 and look with top and fin a Helm, which he cannot answer.
I board in Prophyry Nodes, clique, meddling mages, humility. taking out forces and a counterbalance. I quickly put out a rest in peace, followed by a meddling mage on REB, not knowing what answers he has. He cycles to kill it, and pyroblasts (well, I was close) the energy field, then attacks me to 2. I lucked into the second energy field off of my top activation though, and managed to hold him off a few more turns, d-sphere-ing a pair of vials, until I found an elspeth, which he for some reason declined to attack with his 40+ power of men, so I made my lock indestructible, and he scooped.
1-0 (2-0)
Round 2 - Threshold (URG with stifle, main deck scavenging ooze) (2-1)
Game one he aggro-ed me for a while, countering a terminus and stifling a land or two. I put RIP in play, then played E Field at 5 life. He double bolted me in response, but I was able to force the second bolt and go to one. After fetching and confirming he had no outs, he conceded game one.
I boarded out 4x FoW, 1 Jace for Porphyry Nodes, Counterbalance, Relic, REB x2, V Clique
Game two I lost to fast nimble mongoose and a lot of disruption, as well as red blast.
In the final game, I managed to slow him down enough with Prophyry Nodes (Yes, it does not target, and will kill that mongoose) and REBs for his delvers, and resolve Elspeth at a healthy 15 life. He declined to attack Elspeth for a turn or two, so I was able to hold him off with a combination of tokens and terminus.
2-0 (4-1)
Round 3 - Lands (2-0)
Game one, I landed an early RIP and was able to tutor for and resolve Blood Moon, which my opponent was quite surprised to see in game one.
I boarded out 3 Terminus, 2 STP (Need the others for Dark Confidant out of his board), 2 E Field for 2 Meddling Mage, 1 Relic, 1 Seal of Cleansing, 1 Pithing Needle, 1 Tormod's Crypt, Clique. In game two, I managed to land both mages quickly, naming EE (which already killed a RIP), and something irrelevant (I don't remember what, but it didn't matter), as I countered his confidant and beat him to death with mages.
3-0 (6-1)
Round 4 - Esper StoneBlade (2-1)
Game one we trade jaces, and I managed to resolve RIP / Field vs his stone forge and batterskull. Assuming he can't have a counterspell, or field would never have resolved, I go for it, tutoring for Helm, flip my top (shuffling entreat away as well as the top), and try to kill him. Counterspell, followed by him stating he should have countered the field. *sigh*, shouldn't have been greedy. He manages to find a Jace before I can do much of anything, and gets there.
I board out 2 forces, 2 STP, 2 terminus for 2 REB, 1 seal of cleansing, 1 clique, 1 counterbalance. He gets an early SFM + Skull, but is stopped by my RIP / Field. He vindicates the field, but I find another after taking a hit. He detention spheres this one, and gets me to 8, but I seal of cleansing his sphere. We trade jaces and I find the Helm to kill him.
Game three my opponent gets an early SFM that eats a swords, followed by Geist of St Traft, but it is stopped by my RIP / Field. My opponent spends all his resources fighting Jace, but I had the Helm to finish him off.
4-0 (8-2)
Round 5 - Omnitell / Show and Science (2-0)
Game one the only cards my opponent sees from me for a while are island, mountain, volcanic, 2x scalding tarn, counterbalance, top, fow, brainstorm, so he puts me on stiflenaught. After I force his early SNT and assemble CB/Top, he does nothing for a few turns, and is very surprised when I play plains, fetch Tundra, play elspeth, putting him on a quick clock. He manages to play 4 Islands and 3 Tombs to hard cast Omniscience, and my top is dry, so I assume I'm dead, but he just passes afterwards. Fortunately, I had found a detention sphere and was able to remove omniscience and beat him down over two turns with my soldier, thanks to his aggressive use of Ancient Tomb.
I boarded in 1 humility, 2 fluster storm, 2 REB, 1 cannonist, 2 meddling mage, seal of cleansing, taking out my seven removal spells, an energy field, and elspeth
Game two, I resolved and early top and RIP, and had a mana open when he cast show and tell. It resolved, but my Helm beat his omniscience. After he cast Enter the Infinite, I removed his library from the game.
5-0 (10-2)
Round 6 - Threshold UGR (with Punishing Fire) (2-1)
We both knew what the other was on, as we had been playing near each other a few times on the day so far. Game one he has an aggressive start and I'm unable to find enough removal or resolve an energy field, so his mongoose and burn finished me off.
Boarding was the same as my previous match against thresh - Out 4x FoW, 1 JTMS for Porphyry Nodes, Counterbalance, Relic, REB x2, and Vendilion Clique
Game two he had a slow punishing fire draw, so I was able to lock up the game with RIP / Field and close it out with Jace.
Game three was a close one, but after fighting over a lot of removal and creatures, he brainstormed in response to my enlightened tutor (for helm) leaving himself with just one card in hand. I decided to risk it, and tutored for helm, flipped top, and played it, assuming he didn't jeep a pierce in his hand, as he had already used 2 copies. His card was krosan grip for my RIP, so I passed in case the top card he put back was a man to kill the helm. After a few turns, I was able to find another RIP and finish him off.
6-0 (12-3)
Round 7 - Elves
My opponent has a quick start, and is able to Natural order for a second Craterhoof behemoth on turn 3 or 4 after I forced the one he hardcast. Can't do much about that.
I boarded out entreat, elspeth, all the Jaces for meddling mage, humility, counterbalance, porphyry nodes, and v clique. Game two I'm able to stick a RIP after he decays the first field, a counterbalance, and something else. I manage to follow up with humility and go to 4 from his attacks before landing an Energy Field. He looks at his graveyard, sees 3 decays, confirms with a judge that he can look at his sideboard, does so and scoops. Forgot to bring in the pridemage?
He boards in one more card, so I have to assume it is either Teeg or pridemage, probably pridemage. I'm able to land an early meddling mage on abrupt decay, and another on natural order (should have been GSZ in retrospect), while he is stuck on one land. I manage to slow him down and remove most of his guys while sticking CB / Top. I show him a one and a two, but he keeps playing it out. I should point out at this point that he told me he has been playing the deck for 2 weeks and is quite slow. I ask him a few times to play faster, and there's a judge nearby, but nothing seems to change. He never does find a land, while I find a force and a counter spell while stopping all of his plays. I find a clique, look at his pile of nothing that will resolve and start beating for three when time is called. I am turn one, and he is at 14 life with 2 elves and a wire wood symbiote. I attack with clique and the mage on natural order, and he blocks with one elf and picks it up. Ok, works for me. He goes to 11, and gets a zenith for 1 countered. I draw another land and attack with all my men, knowing if he plays correctly and blocks the mage on decay and trades, I won't be able to kill him in time without somehow finding RIP and helm with my top. Fortunately, he does the block, pick it up trick again, and takes 5, going to 6. I counter his elf on the way back down, and plow the symbiotic before attacking for lethal on turn 5 of turns. whew.
7-0 (14-4)
I am able to ID the last two rounds of the swiss, and enter the Top 8 in 3rd place at 7-0-2.
After playing magic for 7 hours, the two hour break makes me really start to feel the fatigue, which unfortunately affects my play in top8.
Quarterfinals - Punishing Jund (1-2)
As the higher seed, I got to be on the play, which is a huge help. I also get his deck list for this one, and quickly notice his lack of basic lands, as well as the 3 pyroblast, 4th BBE, and 2 duress he will be boarding in.
Game one I'm able to use RIP and swords on his shaman to keep his awkward multiple-wasteland draw from generating two colored mana, playing / fetching out 7 or 8 basics, then resolving Blood Moon and a second RIP before eventually finding Jace to seal the deal. I'm super pumped at this point, and definitely not 100% mentally.
I board out 4x FoW, 1x Counterbalance, 1 Terminus, 1 Jace for 1 Humility, 1 Relic, 1 Porphyry Nodes, 2 Meddling Mage, 1 Pithing Needle, 1 V Clique. (In retrospect, I should have brought in the cannonist to answer cascade) I draw my opening hand for game two, which has a top, both mages, swords, and 3 lands, which I *think* are Island x2, Arid Mesa. Unfortunately, the 'arid mesa' was the mountain, and after he thoughtseizes my top I never really get anything going.
On tilt from my poor keep game two, I can't find much beyond a RIP which gets quickly decayed, and I'm unable to find a non-wasteland-able white source, or a replacement 3rd land after my tundra is wasted to keep myself in the game.
Final record: 7-1-2 (15-6)
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Final thoughts:
The deck felt really solid all day, and feel like I had a decent shot at winning if I could have won that final match, as my next opponent would have been belcher. Ah well, can't win 'em all. I did manage to game one Blood Moon a lands player, and to win off my opponent's Show and Tell, so I can't really complain.
The mountain was very solid, as was the Blood Moon plan, and I would not consider cutting them anytime soon. The sideboard was a bit too focused on beating graveyard decks, which I managed to dodge, but I couldn't think or another card I really wanted there over the crypt.
People trying to read German cards is hilarious. One player tried twice to read my clique before realizing it was not in English.
Last edited by alphastryk; 02-05-2013 at 03:17 PM.
...Originally Posted by alphastryk
and you weren't even borrowing my koreeeen Energy Fields ... Imagine Victory!
Yes, in fact Energy Field was one of the few English cards I played in that matchup. Another was Elspeth. Hmm, reading cards might be a good thing to do....
He may have been confused about the rule where if he had bolted the Planeswalker, you could have applied the Energy Field effect first, and extrapolated the rule out to include combat....
I think you give the average SCG legacy competitor far too much credit ...
You have no idea (actually, you probably do now based on your report)I think you give the average SCG legacy competitor far too much credit ...
T: @feingersh
Congrats on the finish, Brian. We were all rooting for you.
Also:
Well said.
Tusk up.
I knew going in ... I've lost games to people on SCG sundays who have done stuff like
- Red Blasted my Daze
- Cast Hymn to Tourach when I had Leyline of Sanctity
- Attacked with Goblin Tinkerer into Baleful Strix
Agreed. He seemed to have given up, hoping to draw his remaining REB or singleton Krosan Grip (Which I could answer by cliquing him in response to his fetch, as he had not yet found a green source, perhaps fearing a wasteland). It felt like he was just waiting for me to have something, and Elspeth seemed like something. There is definitely some value to just doing things confidently and hoping your opponent does not know how they work.I think you give the average SCG legacy competitor far too much credit ...
Grats on the finish, Brian!
Thanks Tony, same to you.
Congrats Brian.
One question, Will you change the crypt for a pyroclasm ?
Thanks
Well, it's been a while since this tournament, and my list has changed by a few cards main and side. What would I want Pyroclasm for?
basically for creature based decks like elf, goblin, affinity, lingering, bob, deathrite shaman, delver, mongoose (without threshold), teeg or even dredge as a mass removal. it is an alternative mass removal. is ti worth?
It seems fine if I wanted another mass removal spell, but I'm not clear that I do. I've seen it show up a lot in lists on TC decks, so it definitely has some potential.
In your RUG matchups you board 5 cards out and 6 in all the time :P? What am I missing?
Thanks for the good report! Still happy with 2x Energy Field?
Haha, thanks for pointing out that with RUG. I obviously misremembered or mistyped that boarding, and I don't know what I did back then anymore, but if I had to guess probably a second JTMS came out as well.
I'm down to one Energy Field now, as drawing multiples is awful, and tutor lets you find it when you need it. I've added a Portent (testing this still, might end up with a second ponder) to help consistency instead.
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