Hi everyone guys, I'm back from Ovino Spring in Milan, around 210 players, yesterday.
I wake up at 5:05 in the morning, dress up and take my bag, to join my "car mates" at 5:25. We were worried about the traffic near Milan due to being the second day of EXPO. Luckily nobody was on the road, and we arrive at the location at 8:40, earlier than the organizer. I have all the time to have breakfast and solve my last doubts. In the end, this is the 75 i registered:
2 Underground Sea
1 Bayou
1 Tropical Island
1 Volcanic Island
4 Polluted Delta
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Swamp
1 Island
4 LED
4 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Ritual
3 Cabal Ritual
1 Rain of Filth
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
2 Preordain
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Duress
4 Infernal Tutor
2 Past in Flames
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Abrupt Decay
3 Dread of Night
2 Chain of Vapor
2 Flusterstorm
2 Xantid Swarm
I was really happy with both the maindeck and the sideboard. The deck felt so good, every time I used Ad Nauseam, it never got worse due to the second PIF, as you can find ways to win even if you flip PIF, looping all your rituals thank to it. The sideboard was perfect to me, even if I never got to play against Miracles. The room was infested with it. Every round I saw Miracles all around me when I was shuffling my deck or my opponent's one. I escaped all of them. At round 6 I played an ANT mirror, a match-up that I hate, because it's no fun to me, and would rather have played Miracles that round. Just to see if my sideboard works.
Before you start reading the report I have to say that I dropped as soon as I lost the second match, on turn 6, because my friends were going bad in the tournament, and I was the one keeping them still in Milan. We were all so tired, as we were awake since more than 12 hours, and we had a 3 hours car trip back to home in front of us, so they asked me if I could drop and go back to our car. So I gave up the possibility to make top16 and win 100 euros. That's not a problem for me, 4-2 is still a good result for me
Let's go!
Round 1: Sergio, a friendly Italian guy with Elves.
I win the dice roll, keep a good hand (don't rimember what I had, sorry), play Sea, Ponder and pass. He starts with Forest into Quirion Ranger. I Therapy him turn 2 naming Glimpse of Nature, but he has nothing. He plays another Elf, I untap and win via PiF loop.
I bring in just 2 chains for the Top and a land. I keep a quite good hand, that could win as soon as turn 2, but he wins on his turn 2.
In game 3 I start with a Probe and see Thoughtseize, Cradle, Wooded Foothills, Glimpse of Nature, Symbiote, Quirion Ranger, Forest. So I play a Sea and pass, to keep my Brainstorm up if he Seizes me. He does, I hide a Duress and a Tutor. Untap, play Duress, strip his Glimpse and win on turn 3.
1-0
Round 2: Can, a German (I suppose) guy with AggroLoam.
He wins the dice and starts with Grove of the Burnwillows, go. I immediately put him on Jund and feel happy in my hand, as I kept a good hand with cantrips and rituals, that is just lacking a business piece and discard, that I don't need any more. I start with Probe and see Knight of the Reliquary, Quasali Pridemage, Devastating Dreams, Burning Wish, Bojuka Bog, Nomad Stadium. I have to adjust my thoughts about that deck, and I suppose this one is Aggro Loam. I never played against that deck but I feel confident. I Ponder for land drops to play around his Dreams. On his turn 2 he play Quasali Pridemage. I keep playing cantrips to find every land drop and the Tutor I needed. On his turn 3 he destroys 2 of my lands, but I still have a Volcanic into play and a Sea in my hand, plus the kill hand. He passes and I PiF loop him.
As I said I never played against this deck, so I don't know what to expect. I put him on some sort of permanent hate, so I bring in just 2 Chains of Vapor.
On game 2 I kept a mediocre hand with rituals, Duress and some cantrips. He starts Mox Diamond, land into Thalia. Ok, we need to find that Chain. I keep on cantripping and find the business but not the Chain. He beats me down quickly with Thalia and a big Knight.
I bring in also 2 Dread of Night to shut Thalia down.
I keep a hand with 4 lands, Infernal, Ponder and Dread. I kept it because it's resilient to mana denial and I had some good business. He thinks a lot about keeping his hand, which made me think he has a really good hand with no hate or a hand with tons of hate but other problems, like color screw or no business. He keeps. I start with Tropical, just to make him do a bad play in Wasteland-ing it turn 1, into Ponder. Ponder is great as it finds me Dark Ritual and LED, plus a useless card. He starts Wasting my Tropical, and I'm so happy, that's a Time Walk. I draw both LED and Ritual and fetch away the bad card for a Sea, and pass. He Wastes again, and, again, I'm happy. I draw a Brainstorm, play a Delta and pass. He plays a land, Mox Diamond into Loam and take back the 2 Wastelands. I draw Cabal Ritual, play Brainstorm which finds Ad Nauseam, fetch, go Ad Nauseam with B floating, flipping Tendrils at some time. Stop at 5 life, play Brainstorm to put Tendrils on top of library, play LED, Gitaxian into Tendrils and win.
2-0
Round 3: an Italian guy (don't remember your name, sorry!) with Lands.
He wins the roll, and starts with Taiga into Manabond into fetchland, Bayou, Rishadan Port (I don't remeber well this one), Thespian's Stage, Dark Depths. I have a normal hand, can't win on turn 1 and he has a 20/20 on my EOT.
I brought in 2 Chains and 2 Decays for 2 Preordains, Cabal Therapy, Cabal Ritual.
He mulls to 5 and when I Probe shows me Mox Diamond, Exploration, Rishadan Port, Thespian's Stage. I have business, mana artifacts and Chain, just lack some rituals. I play something like 7 cantrips to sculpt a hand while he just taps some of my lands. But I was safe as long as I had both Decay and Chain. Finally I find a Ritual and win with my Chain bouncing 2 Petals and a LED, generating alone +4 storm count.
Game 3 is really similar, just he has some more lock, 2 Ports, but no action. Again I'm always safe, holding Chain and a Decay. On turn 2 I Duressed away a Chalice of the Void, then he Gambled for another one, but he had just 3 cards and it got discarded. Anyway, I had the Decay ready. I cantrip for sculpting a hand, and when I find Ad Nauseam I play it in my upkeep in response to Ports' activation, and go for the win.
3-0
At this point I feel I got quite lucky with the pairings, at the top tables there were tons of Miracles, and I just had 3 good match-ups. I hope to keep on doing well.
Round 4: Fabian Moyschewitz with Canadian Thresh.
I didn't know Fabian before, but after the match my friends said me he his know for being an outstanding player, an expert of RUG Delver. And in fact he was. I knew he was on Canadian after seeing him next to me round 2, and, after the match, he said he didn't notice me. I keep a really good hand, with 2 lands, Top, Infernal, and Rituals. I start with Scalding Tarn fetching Island into Top, to let him think I'm on Miracles. He thinks a bit and lets it resolve. We both play some cantrips and I sculpt an even better hand, while he plays Delver only on turn 2. The first turn doesn't flips, on the second it does (with a Ponder), and he also plays a Tarmogoyf. I take a hit from both and finally find a Cabal Therapy. He wins next turn, but I'm ready. I play Dark Ritual, resolves, Duress, he Forces with the Ponder. Right now he is with just 1 card in hand, and I put him on Stifle. So I would like to go Cabal Ritual for the PIF Loop and then strip it with flashbacked Therapy. Unfortunately the card left is Spell Snare and he Snares my Cabal Ritual. Right now I am 1 mana short for Tutoring Tendrils and stay alive, and I loose. Well played from both of us I think.
I bring in 2 Flusterstorms and a Top for 2 Preordain and 1 Cabal Ritual.
I keep a medium hand, with Gitaxian, Duress, Probe, a cantrip, 2 lands and a Ritual. I start with Gitaxian and he shows me Volcanic Island, Fow, Fow, Snare, Snare, Daze, Daze. That's a lot of counterspells, but at least no pressure. After some turns I find Infernal and a Therapy, but he found 2 Tarmogoyfs. I play my Duress first to take a Fow. The turn before I Therapy but he can double Daze, and that's a trade I don't want to make. I'm unable to strip his hand before the Goyfs kill me.
After the match we talk about the games, about choices we made, and he said he thinks Top is really good against RUG, but isn't the same for Flusterstorm. I really had fun playing against a player like him, both games were close, and he is really a polite guy, sharing ideas after the match.
At the end of the swiss, Fabian made top8.
3-1
Round 5: Alessandro Della Queva, a good Italian player, with OmniTell.
I don't know what he's playing, I keep a hand with PiF, rituals and cantrips. After some turns of him playing Islands and cantrips I put him on OmniTell. I Duress him and see Show and Tell, Impulse, Cunning Wish, Fow, Fow, Ponder, Misty Rainforest. Discard Show and Tell. I proceed to Duress a Fow after some turns, and I also found Tendrils. This way I can win with a Pif loop from hand and then Tendrils him. Unfortunately I still know about a Fow in his hand (he had 2), and I am 1 mana short of flashback PiF. He will find the 2 pieces before me finding a discard or 1 more mana.
I bring in 2 Flusterstorm and 2 Xantid Swarm for the Top, Swamp, Preordain, Cabal Ritual.
In game 2, I play a Therapy on turn 2 naming Fow, because I have a Flusterstorm for Show. He shows me Island, Show and Tell, double Cunning Wish, Surgical Extraction, Omniscience, Lightning Bolt. We both keep playing cantrips until he plays a Gitaxian Probe and sees my Flusterstorm. So he delays his combo, to play around it, I can cantrip again and assemble an Ad Nauseam with a ton of rituals. I wait for him to tap out because I don't have a discard to deal with Cunning Wish into Pact of Negation or Flusterstorm. He finds a Sol land and thinks he's safe, plays Show. I have to waste a Cabal Ritual but I can counter it. Next turn I feel he has not drew Fow from last turn, go for my Ad Nauseam, and in fact all he has is a Spell Pierce.
In game 3 I have a perfect hand with 2 Dark Rituals, LED, Infernal, lands and Petal, just lacking a discard spell. I play land go the first two turns, and naturally draw a second Infernal and LED. On turn 3 in my draw phase he plays a Vendilion Clique. I show him my hand ready for the kill, he leaves me with it, and that's a clear tell he has the counterspell. On turn 4 I topdeck Cabal Therapy and manage to kill him without any engine, just using the storm count he gave me with Spell Pierces and Surgical Extraction.
4-1
Round 6: Matteo Facchini, a guy I know quite good, with ANT.
First of all, Matteo made top8 at the end of the swiss, so my best congratulations to him. We know each other, we discuss often about ANT, even if we have different ideas about some points. We both know it will be an ANT mirror, he knows pretty much my sideboard because he was watching my previous game against OmniTell. I know that he could have Confidants because he usually plays them. The games are really short, so I have to say that I was really getting tired, been awake since 12 hours already, and that I hate playing ANT mirrors. They aren't any fun to me. It feels most of the game is about lucky and taking the correct decision whether to mulligan or keep your hand. So, game 1 I take a good hand, I have LED, Dark Ritual, double Infernal, Duress, lands. He won the dice, lands a Petal, plays land and a cantrip. I play Duress and see Past in Flames, Delta, Delta, Infernal. Take Tutor. On my turn two, knowing he had nothing, I double my Dark Ritual with an Infernal, ready to win next turn. He chains cantrips and finds a Cabal Therapy to strip my Tutors. The turn after that he was able to win.
I boarded 2 Flusterstrom and a Top for Swamp, Preordain, Cabal Ritual. I keep a borderline hand, with Top, Tropical Island, Rituals, Duress and PiF. I think a bit and believe that if there's a black land in the top 4 cards of my deck that's a strong hand. I play Tropical and Top, spin in upkeep. No land. Pass, spin again, no land. He won easily after. Maybe I should have mulliganed that hand, I wasn't at my mental best, being so tired, and that may had influenced that, I don't know.
4-2
So, after I lost the possibility to enter into the top 8 my friends wanted so bad to start travel back home as we were all awake from too many hours, so I never asked them to let me play the last 2 rounds trying to enter in the top 16 and win 100 Euros. They looked as tired as I was and didn't want them to stay more than two hours waiting for me. So I dropped and we went back to our car.
Anyway I'm quite happy with my result, both my losses were to guys who made top8, so, at least, good players. I feel I'm getting better at every tournament, and those big events make me grow so much as a player. I'll keep working to finally get to top 8 one of them.
Thanks all of you for reading guys, sorry for how long the post is.
Last edited by Ghiwo; 05-04-2015 at 11:45 AM.
"You must believe you are the best, and then make sure you are" Bill Shankly
Originally Posted by sawatarix
Seemed interesting, so I ran something similar in yesterday's local (1 ToA, 1 PiF, 1 EtW, 2 Massacre as wishable cards, with 1 ToA,1 PiF,1 AdN, 1 BW, 4 IT main). Wasn't so great as I didn't meet UWR control/miracles where I wanted to transform into Grinding Station, but the idea seems okay if you expect a meta for it. The extra slots are basicly bought by running 2 Massacres over 4 DoN's, but that only hurts one MU really. Went undefeated (beat Elves, BUG Delver, BURG Delver & UWR Delver and drew with D&T) in the swiss but lost in the top-4 (same UWR guy).
Also ran a singleton Rain of Filth over discard#7 to see if my opinion changed, but I still don't really like it.
Nice to see so many recent reports btw :)
@Ghiwo
I didn't really like Flusterstorm vs RUG either, it's better against BUG because it hits Hymn.
37th GP Ams'11 | 80th GP Stras '13 | 5th BoM Paris '13 | 12th GP Lille '15
I got 3rd at the Legacy PIQ in Portland today! There were 3 storm decks in the top 8, and more at X-2. But yet again, Miracles took the entire finals.
Tournament report to come.
Languages and dates for every set. For all you true pimps.
3 Storm Decks, two of them with 2 Past in Flames and one with Rain of Filth, made my day !I got 3rd at the Legacy PIQ in Portland today! There were 3 storm decks in the top 8, and more at X-2. But yet again, Miracles took the entire finals.
Tournament report to come.
By the way, I guess we need more miracle practice :D
@Phaz: Congratulation on your 1000th post here
6 rounds into standings?
that drink... not sure if funny or not... save one for next weekend for max flavor... kind of schizofrenic, as German, with your name...
pity you did not play on, loss with Fabian is unfortunate I recall him playing S+T last year(s), nice comeback on Thresh
Interesting you don't like the Mirror, it's one of the most entertaining things in mtg for me, real thriller beyond T3, yet ends fast =)
Nice! I like your list the most, bad losing to Losset, I'm really looking forward to your report! ...hopefuly 2 pif doesn't become the industry standard...I got 3rd at the Legacy PIQ in Portland today! There were 3 storm decks in the top 8, and more at X-2. But yet again, Miracles took the entire finals.
Tournament report to come.
How was it running 6 discards spells instead of the usual 7?
Thanks! That's perfect, my 1000th post is about doing well in a tournament with a deck I love. Tristan (5th finisher) and I were talking a bit about your list, I think we both based ours on your list from Kyoto. You're internet famous
Haha agreed. I'm going to ask Shawn Yu (lordofthepit) to sit down with me and jam games until I start winning.
It's getting more likely. Prosak dominated the American mindshare for how to build ANT for a while, but since he's been working at WotC, more people have done well with European-influenced builds. Prosak was hanging around the tournament and birded some of my matches. We got a change to chat about builds, and to no ones' surprise he's still a fan of the two-Island, four-Preordain build even after seeing me win with Grim Tutor
Yeah I'm still upset about losing to Joe. I didn't play the best I could have, and there were many different decisions that I could have made - I feel like all 3 games were winnable if I found the correct line.
About the same honestly. Past in Flames allows you to play through counterspells. It's a very different way to approach going off from the normal plan of making sure they have nothing, but it makes the games very interesting! You can often sequence to turn anything into a Duress - I used a fetch as a Duress (for Stifle), Dark Ritual often is a Duress, etc. The time that's not true is the combo mirror, and for that I have Flusterstorm and Surgical in the board.
Languages and dates for every set. For all you true pimps.
Nice finish Greg - I like your list, particularly with Ad Naus in the board. Seems like you read the meta-game well with that and the extra PiF maindeck. Looking forward to your report, and interesting in testing your list. :)
Find me on Twitter: @beanaman
You're welcome, buddy. And gratz for the result, obviously.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.
TEAM MtG Berlin
"Dredge isn't a deck, it's public masturbation with graveyard triggers."
Congrats Greg! Didn't even realize the tournament took place in Seattle this weekend. How was grim tutor? How often is not having to be hell bent to use it to full effectiveness mattering?
@wonder
Nice you end up beating the lucky top deck chalice tezz player.
Also you should just screen shot and put in paint the hands of your opponents so you can remeber it. I use to then mark the card when they are gonne.
That's okay, neither did SCG.
Thanks! With less Deathrite than before, Past in Flames is even better than it always has been. Normally I'm a little unhappy about some part of my list after a tournament, but this one is pretty good. There's an argument to be made for swapping Grip to Decay, Top, or Massacre, but Grip is fine.
Portland unfortunately. But it's ok, top 8 had 2 Seattle players and at least one Canadian. I won a couple games where I cast it without being hellbent to either bait a counter or get a lethal discard spell or ritual. It's not a good card, but it's very good to have a 5th Tutor in the deck.
Here's my tournament report: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...622#post880622
I'm going to update it with pictures and hopefully more detail about the semifinal match when I get home from work.
I forgot to say it earlier, but congrats and nice reports Ghiwo and CabalTherapy!
Languages and dates for every set. For all you true pimps.
I tend to track hands on Notepad, just because I also use it to take down sideboarding, how a sequence works out for mana/storm, that sort of thing. Though, one of the notes that I think is worth discussing is sideboarding plans. On my stream today, I decided to try a Grinding Station build similar to Pascal Wagner's a few pages back. I'm going to post some matchups and boarding and see what people think of it, I could use some ideas. First the list:
I went in hoping to pick up easy wins against UWR Blade/Miracles decks, and hoping to dodge tough matchups of discard and DRS. I seemed to have split the difference, I played against UB/UBx control decks each round.
R1: Esperblade
Game 1 was easy. The opponent was at 16 on turn 5 or 6 and I decided to move in. I ramped to 6 black, Tutor'd to duplicate Tendrils and sent a lethal string at the opponent. The opponent Plowshare'd their own SCM to stay at 2, but I had 5 lands, a PiF in the yard and a Tendrils in my hand. No problem.
I figured that an easy way to lose this would be to get blown out by Surgical or Meddling Mage, but I really wasn't worried overall. I saw no Lillianas, or even Jace, just the occaisional Thoughtseize and a bunch of blue, so I decided to just stay on the Grinding Station plan and not use Ad Nauseam. I decided to bring in 2 Decay and a Chain of Vapor to take out problem permanents, the latter also being a neat storm engine when you're just rolling Tendrils out of the hand. I also brought in Wish as an anti-Extraction measure. I decided not to board in the Duress, given that I had 6 protection as is and, at worst, it enables Wish to find discard. I boarded out a Past in Flames in case of possible Rest in Peace, and a Tendrils for enabling Wish. I cut Preordain as a generic flex slot, Petal may have been an equally valid choice, given that Wishing for Preordain is a very marginal benefit. I also boarded out an Infernal Tutor because it's weaker in a slow Grinding Station plan, and it also serves to play around Extraction mildly, again, Petal may well be better.
- 1 Preordain
- 1 Infernal Tutor
- 1 Tendrils of Agony
- 1 Past in Flames
+ 2 Abrupt Decay
+ 1 Chain of Vapor
+ 1 Burning Wish
Game 2 I kept Delta, 2x Probe, 2x Dark Ritual, Tendrils of Agony and other cards. The opponent drops a Meddling Mage on Infernal Tutor and I'm feeling fine with my Tendrils in hand and 1 Tutor boarded out. On my turn 2 I don't have a 2nd land so I fire off both Probes to look for one - I hit two Infernal Tutors in a row. Ok. Not wanting to waste Storm, I ramp both Rituals into a Tendrils for seven storm and then kill the opponent a bit later. Easy, albeit unluckily so.
The main thing I'm thinking is that I may have been way too scared of Extraction, but it's probably the only card outside of Flusterstorm or a hatebear that I actually had to care about.
R2: Grixis Control
I ended up losing this one to some fine draws from the opponent off of their initially non-threatening hand of mostly lands. They hit a key Therapy into a cantrip chain with Pyromancer, though, and the game pulls away from me. The matchup is naturally close and so the person with the better variance is probably gonna take it. I couldn't stream round 1, but 2-4 all were broadcast, so the play-by-play here will be lighter. The key point being I saw no Delver or even Tasigur and did see Preordain and Counterspell, so this is a slower Grixis deck.
Part of the tension in dealing with Grixis, BUG, and 4-color Delver is that discard makes me want Ad Nauseam, but obviously the fast clock makes Ad Nauseam terrible. In spite of how fast a clock Young Pyromancer can represent, I decided that Preordain makes for a slow deck and that I would take my chances that it was slow enough that my Ad Nauseam would be a good card. It also makes sense that the Grinding Station plan is less good when the opponent can roll you with Cabal Therapy as a laser-guided Hymn to Tourach. To accomodate Ad Nauseam, I boarded out PiF and 2 ToA, though I did opt for Wish as an anti-Extraction measure as well as increasing business density mildly. Preordain came out as a generic flex slot, and I boarded 2 Abrupt Decay as a catch-all for Graffdiggers or Null Rod, as well as a way to nip Pyromancer in the bud. As I'm bringing in Decays to circumvent some hate, I decided to leave Duress in the board, idk if I should be boarding it more. A big problem I see with these Grixis list is that they can often be teched with a variety of one-ofs and disruptive elements, there's very little standardization in their Storm hate, so there's lot of ways to get "gotten" by the opponent.
- 1 Preordain
- 2 Tendrils of Agony
- 1 Past in Flames
+ 1 Ad Nauseam
+ 2 Abrupt Decay
+ 1 Burning Wish
Game 2 is pretty much just me having the better draw this time around. I had a perfectly proportioned hand and strung some Rituals into a Wish for Tendrils. Neat to a 5th Infernal Tutor, I guess. The other thing of note was that I saw no particular graveyard hate, Extraction, or any permanents to be concerned with. I did see a SCM though, which underscored a slower build of the deck.
Given that I saw no particular hate cards, I decided to shave a single Decay, keeping the miser's singleton "just in case". I have no idea if that's a good idea, but I do bring in the Duress here as I'm expecting more stack-based hate.
- 1 Abrupt Decay
+ 1 Duress
I mull to 5, but the opponent does me the favor of doing nothing a while. I still lose, though, so that's sad.
R3: Shardless BUG
I fumble around for a while, misplay my cantrip sequences, and then still win anyway. Shardless isn't too hard game 1, I did see a Lilliana and Wasteland.
Against Shardless, especially with bulk discard like Lilliana, I opt for Ad Nauseam. I also swap Duress in over Thoughtseize because I just don't see it being that valuable to nab a DRS or something.
- 1 Preordain
- 2 Tendrils of Agony
- 1 Past in Flames
- 1 Thoughtseize
+ 1 Duress
+ 2 Abrupt Decay
+ 1 Burning Wish
+ 1 Ad Nauseam
Game 2 I keep a sketchy hand off the allure of a Brainstorm which gets immediately Thoughtseize'd turn 1. It's ok though because I rip Ad Nauseam off the top for a protected turn 3 kill. It's good to be lucky.
R4: Tezzeret
Game 1 I opt to be bad at this game and spend turn 1 Therapying Force instead of cantripping, under the logic that I wouldn't be able to beat Force is he lands a Chalice. That's not even true given that I have natural Tendrils, but even with ANT I think, in hindsight, that it's just terrible reasoning because if I had cantripped more aggressively I could likely have just won this game. I die to Chalice off the top that is then turned into a 5/5.
I decide that a long-game string of Tendrils is probably my best bet at winning, especially since all the Decays and Grips will sour my Ad Nauseam. I rotate out a Past in Flames in anticipation of Leyline or Relic or something. I drop both Preordains because they're low power cantrips and Chalice is a thing. Given that there are all kinds of 1-of artifacts as well as counterspells or planeswalkers that I might need to be afraid of, I decide to drop most of the Therapies and bring Duress for targeted discard. I probably should have considered bringing in Xantid Swarm, but I panicked and rushed to submit a deck as MTGO often won't register sidedecking at all if you let the clock run out and I didn't want to risk having no answer to Chalice.
- 1 Past in Flames
- 2 Preordain
- 1 Rain of Filth
- 3 Cabal Therapy
+ 3 Abrupt Decay
+ 2 Grip
+ 1 Duress
+ 1 Chain of Vapor
I open a turn 1 kill and decided to YOLO it as I wasn't sure if I had side-boarded or not. Not only did my side-boarding register, my t1 kill worked as well. I ended up flashing back an extra Tutor to Duress the opponent for info in case they didn't concede in response. The opponent obliged and showed me their hand of Sol Land, Lodestone, other cards, and triple Chalice. Yahtzee.
Given that I saw nothing of the opponents post board hate, other than confirmed Lodestone Golem, I didn't have a lot to go on for game 3. Given that Chalice on zero might be more likely if the opponent is scared on the play, I decide to rotate out 2 Petals for Therapy and Rain of Filth as a hedge. The latter is a better mana source against Chalice on zero, the former gives me more chance of stopping Chalice on 1.
-2 Lotus Petal
+ 1 Rain of Filth
+ 1 Cabal Therapy
I then win game 3 pretty easily as my hand was excellent and the opponent took a mull to five. The predicted Chalice on zero was a thing, though. Anyway, that was my Grinding Station adventure. I'll be playing the deck a bit more as I try to get the hang of it, but if anyone has any suggestion for Grixis or BUG matchups, or any of the sidedecking, feel encouraged to bring something to the table.
Those of you that are on the 2 PiF plan with a Bayou over Badlands, why do you choose that land configuration, and also do you ever have issues casting PiF since your only red land source is Volcanic?
I chose Bayou because it makes my Xantid Swarms and green business a lot better, and I often cast PiF off LED/Petal which reduces the need for additional red sources, imo
I have got sometimes problem casting pif with nullrod when my red source was wastelanded.
Still havent moved me to play 2 red lands.
Also you almost always need to fetch the green source to cast a spell on a turn before you go off in matchups where it's relevant. You can wait to fetch the Volcanic until you go off, so it's protected.
Languages and dates for every set. For all you true pimps.
Unless Volcanic is in your opener and/or you want/have to do some value PIFs. Just for the sake of being mentioned ;)
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I am having issues with red mana when I run the usual fifteen with Bayou instead of Badlands. But I don't see myself cutting a green source for more red since I have 7 green slots in the SB.
Also worth mentioning when mana is discussed, the recently hyped Rain of Filth. So far I always wish it was a Dark Ritual instead, either I don't have enough swamps in play (hate Trop and Volc in this scenario), or I can't use it the same way as Dark Ritual when playing PiF.
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