Ok guys here is my report from eternal weekend, but first some preliminary stuff. I walked into the event knowing that it was going to be large and there were going to be a variety of decks, in fact i drove down with a painter player (thank god i didnt see him or any of his ilk during this event) and felt fairly good about my chances given my choices to keep ghost quarter in the main, the ashen riders in the board for omni tell, as well as a zuran orb in the main to fend of the pesky burn players (which i didnt see all day, they must have known what i was up to). my final record was 9-2 and i lost my top 8 position to another lands player by 4% breaker points. so here it is round by round.
ROUND 1 Jeff Racan on OMNI TELL
I knew this deck was going to be here, its popular, linear, and very very strong. i lose game 1 as i should. i dont have a turn 2 kill and he opens with only islands into the show and tell. game 2 i rip into a hand that is a turn 2 choke and tabernacle and it sticks. he scoops a few turns later after a put a rishadan port on the field. Game 3 my opponent mulls to 5 and i go turn 2 trinisphere into the crop rotation for the 20/20. He scoops. RESULT 2-1 WIN
ROUND 2 Harry Corvese on SHARDLESS BUG
This was sweet sweet revenge after losing to this deck at the open in DC. game 2 i turn two a 20/20 and he scoops on the spot. Game 2 he mulls to 5 and i open up with a trinisphere on turn 3 off of taiga forest thespian stage which goes uncountered and drop the dark depths on turn 4. he scoops and my blood oath against shardless bug goes fulfilled. RESULT 2-0 WIN
ROUND 3 Brad Neikowski on RUG DELVER
Pretty typical round 3. i rip him in half with a turn 2 20/20 and he scoops game 1. Game 2 he puts 2 goose in play and gets them threshold very fast and i die quickly. Game 3 i assemble maze of ith punishing fire lock for his delvers and goyfs he has out and then i rip a dark depths off the top of my deck to end the game with the crop rotation in my hand. RESULT 2-1 WIN
ROUND 4 Devin Reilly on MIRACLES
This was the big bad slow game that i didnt want to play early on in the day. While the match is in my favor i dont want to spend my mental capital in an 11 round event this early. To add to this we get deck checked before we start which makes me think about did i register everything correctly. Game 1 he opens up with island into ponder and i put in land exploration which resolves into fetch. he lays down a plains which makes me sink in my chair as i have the dark depths thespian stage in hand and im dead sure he has a swords in his. i put the dark depths thespian stage in play to put him on tilt. he puts karakas into play which i meet with wasteland. 2 turns later he has top but no counter balance. i fish up a ghost quarter with crop rotation on his second main phase and eat his plains. he in response floats a white and gets an island with the ghost quarter search. he uses the island to top and then we go to his end step and i make a 20/20 and kill him the next turn. Game 2 was something out of a fairy tale for me. He puts counter balance up on turn to and for 11 turns doesnt flip a 2 cmc to respond to my punishing fires that i am using 1-2 times a turn. he finally finds a top and i k grip his balance in response. He had to swords his own snapcaster to stay alive an extra turn to try and dig farther into his deck. RESULT 2-0 WIN
ROUND 5 Alex Cadieux on MONO BLUE OMNI TELL
Whats worse than an omni tell player? An omni tell player who plays lotus petal and turn 1 kills me on game one. Alex wins the die roll and has git probe on turn 1, sees im on lands and goes land, petal, petal, S&T omniscience, enter the infinite, C wish, release the ants. I feel like im on the wrong end of a Mike Tyson fight after game one. Game 2 i almost had him, i had sphere of resistance and trinisphere in play he cast S&T for 4 mana and i didnt have an ashen rider to put into play. he drops omniscience and casts emrakul for 3 mana. i talked with him afterwards and it turns out there is a lands player he tests with and he has played this matchup quite a lot. I am demoralized but not dead and i tread on to round 6. RESULT 0-2 LOSS
ROUND 6 Mattew Long on U/R DELVER
Game 1 was very close he had me at 6 life and had 3 delver of secrets up and flipped and i had a 20/20. he swings putting me to 3 becuase i have a maze of ith. i dredged my loam at EOT with thicket and flipped another, off of that. my turn i dredge and get a punishing fire, kill his untapped maze delver and punch him for 20. Game 2 i turn 2 him and we go on to round 7. RESULT 2-0 WIN
ROUND 7 Louis Neiman on RUG DELVER
Im going to preface this round report with my own personal comments on it. I played against a very skilled and very technical player and the way in which i won this round should not make anyone think otherwise. Louis at any given point in the round had a very large amount of control of the game and was able to put significant pressure on me very early all three games we played. Game 1 he gets goose online very fast and rides it to victory. i was prepared for any other creature and 3 punishing fires in yard and 2 maze in play. Game 2 i have tabernacle in play and an active loam and exploration. i have a very technical turn with using thicket to bring back a loam to save it from a surgical on my upkeep. then i draw a second loam. i cast the first loam and it is countered. i cast a second and louis brainstorms and it eventually resolves. i dredge off thicket and cast a third loam on my turn and i got to his turn. on his turn he untaps with 2 goose online and two flipped delvers. he says "draw for turn" and i say "sure." he draws his cards and point out that the tabernacle wipes his board. he calls a judge over to clarify that i don't have to announce the triggers as he knows how tabernacle works but was unsure if i had to announce the triggers or not. I get a 20/20 on board a few turns later and he scoops. Game 3 he assembles an armada of goyf x2, insect aberation x2, and online goos x2 and plenty of lands to pay for the tabernacle i have on board. i am at 5 and playing tricks with my thespian stage and glacial chasm to try and stabalize. i go to 3 by paying the upkeep of chasm so i can assemble a 20/20 and try and get something going. This was the only game i saw my zuran orb and it was dredged into the yard. after i make a 20/20 i continue to play tricks with the thespian stages and chasm. at the end of one of my turns with less than 6 minutes left in round he asks me if the thespian stage i have out is a glacial chasm. i confirm that my only thespian stage on board is a glacial chasm as i sack the real one during upkeep after making a copy. He looks at his hand and untaps and draws for turn. i announced that he has missed his tabernacle triggers and i kill him the next turn with my 20/20. This was a grueling game for me and it showcased how uncertain our delver match up can be post board. RESULT 2-1 WIN
ROUND 8 Ed Demicco on GRIXIS DELVER
Game 1 i put a 20/20 on board and swing for the win. Game 2 i had the worst draws of my life. 6 turns. no lands. and nothing but a sphere of resistance and mox diamond draws. he surgicals my punishing fire in response to me trying to bring it back to my hand and kills me with delver. Game 3 he assembles 2 deathrites and 2 flipped delvers in the first 4 turns. i cannot compete with it and i lose. RESULT 1-2 LOSS
ROUND 9 Andy Markiton on MUD
I recognize andy from some of the vintage events that i go to (i play dredge in vintage, what a surprise) and he recognizes me. i am fairly demoralized from round 8 and i take some deep breaths to calm myself down. Andy is on the play game 1 and leads with cavern of souls naming construct. i look down at my hand and it is mox, mox, waste, waste, forest, exploration, loam. Game one ends after i demonstrate wasteland lock for 3 turns. game 2 begins with ancient tomb and chalice on 1. this is a little annoying but my hand is mox, tabernacle, port, loam, stage, depths, waste. we replay game 1 and my spirits are lifted again. RESULT 2-0 WIN
ROUND 10 Jun Yin Loke on OMNI TELL
Ive been playing magic for about 17 years. in that time ive seen some decks with almost all foils and then some beta or alpha to fill in the blanks. This was the first time ive seen a deck in all foils in an eternal format. every single card. judge promo when available and the glare from the lights actually made me think some cards were others. Game 1 i lose because i cant interact with him at all. Game 2 he goes S&T and i put down trinisphere. i follow with krosan grip on his omniscience on that same turn. on my turn i draw into ashen rider and cant help but smile. we do draw go for 2 turns because im sand bagging the ashen rider in my hand and i cant find a crop rotation to make the stage in play a 20/20. i also am porting him and wasting when appropriate because i also have a choke he knows about. he goes S&T again and i put in ashen rider. by this point he was at 14 and was on only 5 lands. he was aggressively fetching and probing throughout the game as he should be. he puts in omniscience and it gets RFG after he realizes he doesnt have the mana to do anything through the trini because of the porting and wasting. i go to my turn put him to 9 and then play the choke which he cant counter as he only has 2 mana up. Game 3 i land a trinisphere and sphere of resistance. he is stuck on lands and eventually has 8 lands up one of them being boseiju. he show and tells emrakul on his turn and i put in the depths to make the 20/20. EOT i waste his boseiju bring him down to 7 lands. i go to crop rotation on my turn with the intention of getting karakas and he knows this. he has a choice to make cunning wish to get the wipe away for his next turn and let the emrakul go back to his hand and die or force the crop rotation and block with the eldrazi. he goes to block because otherwise he is dead. he needs to draw a land next turn to stabilize and doesnt get one. RESULT 2-1 WIN
ROUND 11 Das Anuraag on MIRACLES
This was the final round and my opponent leads game 1 with island and i am dreading that i am going against omni tell again. he plays ponder and passes. i open with mana bond, he forces pitching snapcaster. i dont think anyone has ever said this in real life but i think to my self "thank christ its miracles." he plays another island and passes. i gamble on my turn for another mana bond and pitch the loam into the yard that was in my hand. mana bond resolved into port, maze, karakas, thespian stage. two turns go by of me tapping him down and him missing land drops and he scoops and we go to game 2. Game 2 was the text book way we want a miracles game to go. he mulls to 4 and i keep a grip of 7 with loam, thicket, choke, crop rotation, taiga, exploration, stage. he goes island pass. i draw the depths of the top and decide to sand bag it until i have some real control over the game. my turn one epxloration resolves and i drop the stage. my opponent goes plains pass. on my next turn i rip grove off the top and decide to put loam in the yard to bait something out. he attempts to surgical and i thicket in response. next turn i drop choke on him and crop rotate my extra forest out for boseiju. i get to do some uninteractive loaming for a few turns while he misses every land drop except a volc that i wasteland, i have the depths in play by this point and im waiting for a port or ghost quarter to show up. he finally taps his island for a brainstorm and then plays top off of his plains and i make a 20/20 at the end of his turn. RESULT 2-0 WIN
Every card in my deck played like i wanted it to except zuran orb. that will most likely turn into another fetch land for the deck if not something else. i was finding myself to be on the lucky end of a lot of events during the day; people missing land drops, people misplaying, people not knowing what ashen rider was (answer: its the nut). if you guys got questions or comments, shoot.
Last edited by Croprot; 08-24-2015 at 01:23 PM.
Hey folks, I made 24th at EW. Now that I'm home in front of a computer I can write a report. It'll be a little while but I'll write one up.
Grats to Croprot for the 9th place and missing top8 on breakers.
♀
Congrats on your finish Barcode. Look forward to seeing your report. i was happy to see so many lands decks in the top 32.Originally Posted by barcode
With all the respect that is due, fuck you all for living in the US.... I am jelly right now. Also fucking good show. Hats off to the lot of you.
It is better to ask and look stupid then keep your mouth shut and remain so.
I hope your afterlife is filled with eternal torment.
Fuck. Which one of my quotes do I drop for this?
With all the respect that is due, fuck you. I am jelly.
That ever so clever and always fresh quip out of the way, I'd just like to cheer on all of the Lands players from this past weekend. It was everywhere you looked, and I'm only slightly ashamed to have plowed David Long in.
http://magic.wizards.com/en/events/c...sts-2015-08-22
Decklist (60):
4 Gamble
4 Life from the Loam
4 Punishing Fire
3 Crop Rotation
4 Mox Diamond
4 Exploration
1 Manabond
4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
4 Thespian's Stage
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
3 Tranquil Thicket
3 Taiga
3 Maze of Ith
3 Dark Depths
1 Forest
1 Karakas
1 The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Glacial Chasm
Sideboard (15)
4 Krosan Grip
2 Trinisphere
2 Primeval Titan
2 Chalice of the Void
3 Sphere of Resistance
1 Choke
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
Round 1: Paul, UR Omnitell
We sit down at our table and realize neither of us can understand the head judge announcements. We can tell the HJ is making noise but not what that noise means. I win the die roll and then do something irrelevant and die. Paul is playing UR Omnitell and shows me in game 1 that he has Lotus Petal and Griselbrand. Okay, that's an older build.
Game 2 he casts Show & Tell and I put in Trinisphere and hope to draw the K-Grip or Choke but I don't hit anything. I am able to port him for several turns but it's getting to the point where he'll have 6 mana no matter what so I go for Primeval Titan and force him to Have It Or Die. He has Burning Wish for Void Snare and then I die.
0-1 [0-2]
Round 2: Ben with UG Enchantress
Ben is sitting next to his buddy (playing Manaless dredge). I win the die roll again and do some stuff. Ben starts off with Forest into one of the Wild Growth effects and gets ahead but can't find Words of Wind to do anything relevant and then I kill him.
Game 2 goes weird when I have a very mana light hand with Sphere of Resistance and Chalice of the Void on 1. I've already deployed 2 or 3 Exploration and then stumble more on lands. Ben is able to develop his board before I get the Chalice on the table and eventually is able to go over the top of me with Words of Wind. I return the Sphere instead of the Chalice and then rack up a bunch of GRVs as I: Gamble AND play Exploration. Ben's buddy catches the Exploration but it was too late to rewind the Gamble. I scoop my cards up since I needed the extra land drop to even have a chance on his turn. There's like 13 minutes left and I need the time to win. He tells me he could have gone infinite on his turn anyways.
Game 3 can be summarized by: "I have more Rishadan Ports than Ben has lands"
1-1 [2-3]
Round 3: Joe on BUG Delver
I win the die roll but it doesn't matter since Joe never sees more than 1 land in Game 1 and is severely punished for it.
Game 2 he has a very commanding lead with 2 DRS and a flipped Delver. He forces a Punishing Fire on that Delver and then immediately extracts it before I can get a Grove in play. Then he wastes my Thespian's Stage (no forest to copy ugh) and extracts that, too!
I keep the Delver at bay with a Maze of Ith and can't give the DRS fuel since I haven't seen a loam! He's been attacking with them chipping two points away at a time since his mana was pinned for Tabernacle payments. He Forces a Titan and then I'm left with 4 win conditions left in my deck (the second Titan and 3 Dark Depths going manual style).
Once I hit a Loam I'm able to bring back Wastelands and Tranquil Thickets (to protect the Loam). I start attacking his black sources while he's pinned on mana thanks to the Tabernacle.
On a critical turn he tries to DRS my Loam with the only shaman able to activate (due to lacking black sources) and I protect it with Thicket. He is disappointed with himself but plays on. He makes the same mistake when I'm at 6 life and then is out of black mana and unable to pay for his creatures through Tabernacle. He scoops up his cards and doesn't make me kill him manually (thankfully!)
2-1 [4-3]
Round 4: Scott on Burn.
I lose the die roll and in this matchup that matters a lot. He has the god hand of Goblin Guide into Eidolon. I take a risk when I'm at 16 life which will give me an opportunity to assemble the 20/20. I fetch my Forest and play an Exploration (going to 13 life). Then he hits me to 9 and then on my next turn I try to assemble Merit Lage. He responds with Price of Progress but I waste a land and only take 4 damage down to 5. He attacks, I block and ask if he has it. He does.
For game 2 I have an early 20/20.
Game 3 starts with Scott playing only Monastery Mentor. I smile inside. I play Mox Diamond, land and Sphere of Resistance. The sphere buys enough time for me to wipe him out with Merit Lage. He laments my draw.
3-1 [6-4]
Round 5: Elton on MUD
I win the die roll.
I don't have many notes from this one but I'm pretty sure I loam lock him in game 1 (except for the weirdo Darksteel Citadel) and game 2 is the more memorable one.
After he mulligans once he has Metalworker and powers out the old 7/10 Sundering Titan to kill a Taiga and a Thespian's Stage (copying forest). I eat a hit and he gets out a Platinum Emperion through Forgemaster! He's forced to pay the Tabernacle tax but can easily do so with Metalworker. I try and rebuy Punishing Fire with Grove to make this simple but Emperion makes his life total static! NO LIFEGAIN=NO P.FIRE. I had a Maze in play to deal with the Sundering Titan and then resolve Primeval Titan and fish up another Maze and make a 20/20 to block any attacks. I can't attack him for lethal and he can't attack me. We have a weird standoff with me attacking with my titan and mazing it before blocks so I can thin my deck. I need to draw one of my Krosan Grips or another Punishing Fire to end it. He has no lands to pay for Tabernacle so killing the Metalworker wraths him.
I find my Fire before he finds a Darksteel Citadel (which forces me to find a Grip).
4-1 [8-4]
Round 6: Tian on Merfolk
This is one of the few matches I lost the die roll.
I know this is a great match for me since I've played it a lot. I crush him easily game 1 after he forces my turn 1 Mox (??). He constantly laments how bad the matchup is for him throughout the match.
Game 2 I mulligan to 5 and he gets two TNN's online and I die.
Game 3 is the opposite: He mulligans to 5 and then I kill him.
5-1 [10-5]
Round 7: Kerry on Bant Thopter Sword
This could not possibly be a bad match. Their entire strategy is to go wide and Tabernacle naturally keeps that in check. All of their relevant creatures die to Punishing Fire. The only real way to win is with Jace or Humility (game 1). I win the die roll again, obviously.
That's basically how it went. He E-tutored for Humility but with such a greedy manabase (2 island, 1 plains) he never has enough lands to cast the powerful Enchantment (or planeswalker) once I go after his dual lands with Loam and Wasteland.
I make my 20/20 and dwindle his lands and then he scoops all of his cards up for game 2.
In game 2 he gets Rest in Peace in play and Needle on Stage but my hand is all gas. I've got him choked and he can't ever cast spells (his only non-island lands are plains and savannah). I keep porting fetches to induce use and then waste the land they get, or porting the basic. This keeps up until I have enough lands to port his only Plains, K-grip his Needle and make my 20/20 all in the same end step. (I imagine people behind me at like table 10 were wondering wtf I was waiting for). He dies.
6-1 [12-5]
Round 8: Michael with UB Omni
I win the die roll and do my thing. Then he plays Underground Sea and Thoughtseizes me. I could have used Crop Rotation from hand but I didn't want to sac the land and have it get dazed and then he play a fetchland to save the Sea from waste. He takes the rotation and then plays islands and duresses me. The duress tips me off to him being a combo deck. I had no idea what he was doing until the S&T. I couldn't assemble my combo fast enough or pin his mana down enough (he had almost infinite fetches).
For game 2 I sideboard my usual and get the 3-ball and Choke in play. He can't cast spells and then scoops to a couple ports but not before wishing for Surgical Extraction to see how I boarded.
Game 3 I take a mulligan to a great hand. Trinisphere, chalice. Unfortunately he has a lot of discard spells and I can't deploy my hate cards. Since I couldn't play my hate cards I had no way to interact with his combo and I died, thus making me dead for top 8 due to my round 1 loss.
6-2 [13-7]
Round 9: George with UG Infect
I don't have great notes for this match.
I lose the die roll and then lose a quick one to a double invigorated exalted infector.
Game 2 I have myself at 9 infect before I'm able to stabilize and kill him.
Game 3 I get to 6 infect before the game ends in my favour.
Either game 2 or 3 he leads with a forest and a Noble Hierarch. I have Tabernacle in my hand and I don't know if I should play it or a mana land. I didn't have acceleration so this lead off play would truly dictate the course of the game. I decide against Tabernacle and play a fetchland for Taiga in the hopes of Punishing Fire the Hierarch and following creatures.
I always felt a turn behind George. Mana acceleration is SO important in this match and it's important to have a delicate balance between ways to interact, mana to interact, and ways to win.
7-2 [15-8]
Round 10: Russell with BUG delver
As the day goes on my memory and notes fade. 11 rounds is a long time! Luckily these last few rounds are routine.
I win the die roll again.
Crush him game 1 and then game 2 I lose. Game 3 he extracts something from my deck, probably loams, and then I comment that my early opponent extracted my fires and stages and I still won. Like that match, I win this one.
8-2 [17-9]
Round 11: James with MUD
I don't know what he's on but the math is clear. If we ID we both are a lock for top 32 and $150. I offer the draw immediately and he says no.
And so I lose the die roll but win the game in easy fashion: He plays Ancient Tomb into Chalice for 1. I play a Wooded Foothills. He plays Trinisphere. I play Forest. He does something irrelevant. I play Thespian's Stage and copy Forest. He does something really irrelevant and then I make a 20/20. Casting spells is for suckers.
He takes game 2 after going infinite with Staff of Domination and Metalworker.
Before game 3 he offers the draw and I accept. We sign the slip 1-1-1 and write ID to prevent scorekeeper confusion (we really did play 2 games so they MUST be recorded) and explain it verbally just to be sure.
8-2-1 [18-10-1]
My record is good for 24th place and $150 credit with Card Titan.
A note on my 75 cards.
I never played Miracles so I never needed Boseiju. The 75 cards felt good. Bojuka Bog is disappointing in the main deck but I'm always glad it's there when I need it. It feels like the 23rd card in a limited draft: your deck is incomplete without it but you don't like playing it.
Both of my losses were to Omni and that highlights a problem. First, the deck is busted. Please ban Dig Through Time. Second, I need more hate cards. It is a winnable match but I need to access that win better. I hesitated before the tournament between the 4th Sphere of Resistance and the 2nd Titan. I expected to see decks where Titan would be great but maybe that second titan should be something else entirely. Or maybe they ought to be Terrastodons. Or maybe Choke, or Boil or Angel of Despair, or Trinisphere...
p.s. I live in Canada, not the US. ;-)
♀
Omni-Show is obviously a big concern. I think there are many cards that are pretty good against the strategy, but you hit on the fact that you need to board in so many cards since you desperately need to have like 2 hate cards to have a chance (and we can't Brainstorm into them or even Enlightened Tutor for them).
I have some experience playing the 4-color loam list against Omni-Show: the 4x Chalice of the Void are pretty good (on 1 usually) if they don't already have everything in their hand. Heck, X=3 should knock them out completely if you find a 2nd one (no S&T and no Cunning Wish). Spheres are likely better than Thalia Guardian of Thraben and/or Ethersworn Canonist, but Gaddock Teeg is another interesting card--completely shuts off Dig Through Time/FoW. Choke really isn't stellar against them (it's fine, but useless off a cast Show/Tell).
The most important card to mention is SLAUGHTER GAMES (lights out when you name Show and Tell). I'm pretty certain it would be worth it to run 2-3 Slaughter Games in the board. It's slightly less amazing against a few other matchups (spheres are nicer to have vs storm), but you can randomly hit important cards vs several bad matchups (and if we're running 2x Ashen Rider, we're already into narrow land). I like the Ashen Rider tech and all, but you can die at instant speed. If it's your only piece of hate, you very well might still lose--or just get re-comboed the next turn. Slaughter Games ends the game on the spot. It does mean you can't dredge all that aggressively, so you are playing a slightly different game, but those are my thoughts. The problems with the Sphere effects is they get to (albeit slowly) keep casting their cantrips. And then you have to combo kill them as quickly as possible. With something like Chalice and Slaughter Games in your deck, you slow them to a crawl (no cantrips) and then you have more ways to close the game out. I would love to get others' thoughts (obviously an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and probably a Bayou would be considerations for the Slaughter Games plan).
Last edited by haymaker18; 08-24-2015 at 07:54 PM.
Paragraphs, dude.
I've thought about Slaughter Games but worry about the black mana. Right now there's only the moxes and Bojuka Bog. Urborg may not be good enough since it would be a one-of and which slot does it take? Bayou doesn't cast red our eight very important maindeck spells and is vulnerable to Wasteland so that's not a real ideal card. I'd rather retain the 3 Taiga since Punishing Fire is so important.
I would love to have access to black spells but fitting them may make the deck worse overall. :(
There's also the consideration to play Red Blasts. I've done it before and it's really good, however, it makes Chalice on 1 much worse. There's also the consideration for a Blue splash instead for Flusterstorm and Spell Pierce. Blue brings us back to our BUG heritage anyways and gives us access to Academy Ruins, Tolaria West and Intuition. But it's a different deck.
♀
I've played blasts before in RUGx while trying to hedge against omni and it wasn't the worst but it still felt the same as other sideboard cards where you needed at least two of your sideboard cards in combination to make a difference. A single blast on it's own wouldn't turn things around.
I've never tested with slaughter games in Lands but I have a lot of doubts about it's effectiveness without massive manabase changes. I don't think a bayou and an urborg get you there consistently on turn 4 and that's already pretty much too slow for omni. It's a hugely powerful card when it works though so if anyone has any luck please share.
Eternal Weekend was definitely a blast and I played two Lands mirror matches, it was not very lucky for me and I was quickly run over both times. I definitely need more practice in the mirror match I think.
Other than that I ended up going 5-2-1 with the draw due to a Reanimator player who took 5 minutes just to decide to lose win I did beat him. Slow play is a huge problem and I certainly have to stop being a nice guy and start calling my opponent's out on it and getting a judge involved if need be. My wins were nothing special, in fact they were pretty standard since 4 were the same deck, or at least near enough. Grixis splashing for deathrite using Young pyro to swarm just isn't a good strategy against The Tabernacle and wasteland. The 5th win was against an Esper stoneblade player who basically succumbed to the same fate and decided that giving me 20 life to keep removing my threat just wasn't a good idea. All in all I ended up 21st, not the best but certainly not horrible.
Highlight of the day was definitely teaching the second lands player some tricks with Thespian stage he wasn't aware of.
Bayou could also be Badlands, which may be more correct. My thinking was I'd rather cast the green spells early than worry too much about the late red spells (especially in this matchup, P-Fire is terrible), but it may be a toss-up as neither land casts everything that matters. 2 Wooded Foothills and 2 Verdant Catacombs can still fetch Badlands so there's no real damage to the manabase. The Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth doesn't help cast Slaughter Games a ton, so I'll concede that may not be worth it.
One Badlands plus the 4 fetchlands plus the Moxen should be enough to reliably cast Slaughter Games. Add 4 Crop Rotations to the mix and it's over 20% of the deck that is black mana or can find black mana. Percentages get a bit better with a Bojuka Bog and/or Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. The Badlands could begin in the board if there's a worry about the mana in the maindeck (and there are certainly cuttable lands post-board against Omni-Show).
Turn 2-3 Slaughter Games are quite possible, so the benefits are worth a bit of work.
I'll test the red blasts too as they might very well be solid. My fear is that they will probably keep in almost all of their counters since they have a wish-board and not much to bring in. That means they can likely just win a counter war over our red blast since so few of our cards are actually counterable and/or threatening spells.
That was one of the funniest and most memorable games I ever had playing against lands. I was really banking to find one of my two Voltaic Keys, so I can untap Metalworker on upkeep and start playing some Magic again, but it never came. lolRound 5: Elton on MUD
I win the die roll.
I don't have many notes from this one but I'm pretty sure I loam lock him in game 1 (except for the weirdo Darksteel Citadel) and game 2 is the more memorable one.
After he mulligans once he has Metalworker and powers out the old 7/10 Sundering Titan to kill a Taiga and a Thespian's Stage (copying forest). I eat a hit and he gets out a Platinum Emperion through Forgemaster! He's forced to pay the Tabernacle tax but can easily do so with Metalworker. I try and rebuy Punishing Fire with Grove to make this simple but Emperion makes his life total static! NO LIFEGAIN=NO P.FIRE. I had a Maze in play to deal with the Sundering Titan and then resolve Primeval Titan and fish up another Maze and make a 20/20 to block any attacks. I can't attack him for lethal and he can't attack me. We have a weird standoff with me attacking with my titan and mazing it before blocks so I can thin my deck. I need to draw one of my Krosan Grips or another Punishing Fire to end it. He has no lands to pay for Tabernacle so killing the Metalworker wraths him.
I find my Fire before he finds a Darksteel Citadel (which forces me to find a Grip).
Agreed! That was such a WEIRD game!! I was so surprised with the Grove of the Burnwillows not giving you life. Dang that Golem!
♀
Hey all. Long time lurker, 1st time contributor here.
Went 3-4-1 drop at eternal weekend. Although I might not have the best record to boast, but I'll give a little tournament report anyway; forgive me for the lack of detail but i'm going by memory on this one.
Here's my list:
4x Mox Diamond
4x Exploration
4x Crop Rotation
4x Gamble
2x Manabond
4x Life From the Loam
4x Gamble
4x Grove of the Burnwillows
2x Taiga
1x Forest
1x Verdant Catacomb
1x Windswept Heath
1x Wooded Foothills
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Tranquil thicket
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Karakas
1x Glacial Chasm
1x Tabernacle at pendrell Vale
3x Maze of Ith
3x Dark Depths
4x Thespian's Stage
4x Rishadan Port
4x Wasteland
SB
1x Boseiju, who shelters all
1x Dark Depths
1x Chalice of the Void
1x Pithing Needle
1x Molten Vortex
3x Sphere of Resistance
2x Trinisphere
1x Choke
4x Krosan Grip
Round 1: Esper Stoneblade
G1: My important spells get forced or thoughtseized. Stoneforge Mystic finds a Jitte and Lingering souls hold it well, punishing fire can't come online once that thing gets counters. I lose this one and it took way too much time. Mental note: pick up the pace.
G2: I grip his batterskull, he tries to return it to his hand but I politely tell him that will not be possible, punish his lingering souls, bog his graveyard, make a lage and punch em for 20 and finish the job with a punishing fire to the face
G3: We have 8 minutes left, I'm not terribly confident that this game will end quick enough and I joke that we might both go the miracles bracket. We end up going to time and drawing as I could not push through all of the lingering souls tokens, navigated around a jace TMS, and wasteland and port didn't show up much in any of these games. This draw didn't feel too good.
Round 2: Jeskai Stoneblade?
G1: I see a bunch of basic plains and Islands with a sensei's divining top so I put him on miracles early. He makes a True Name Nemesis; I'm somewhat relieved. I aggressively loam into the combo kill.
G2: See Game 1
Round 3: Grixis Delver
G1: Delver beats and young pyromancer lay the smack down while I fail to find much of relevance.
G2: Punish your guys, find combo, nothing else to go over
G3: Now this was memorable. I keep a hand of 2 Crop rotations and some useful lands. He Gitaxian probes me and follows up with cabal therapy and suddenly my hand is a lot more embarrassing. I try to stabilize but 2x monastery swiftspear was too mucIh to handle. Lesson learned, I should have mulled that last one.
Round 4: Tin Fins
G1: I make a questionable keep with crop rotation but very few lands. I thought he was on reanimator when he dumped a griselbrand in the yard with entomb, I desperately attempted to crop rotation into bog but he had the daze for it. He then plays goryo's into triple lotus petal, draws 14, swings, and kills me with a tendrils for lots
G2: Side in all the sphere effects, chalice, pithing needle, the other DD, and none of it mattered. I draw 7 and theres a chalice and a crop rotation. I think it might get there and I dread the thought of mulling into jank when I could have done something relevant. I slam the chalice for 0 so casting tendrils off of free mana becomes harder. He fetches basics around my wastes and casts a goryo's on his own grisel. I respond with crop for bog, it resolves but he responds to the exile trigger with another instant speed reanimate spell and I lose to triple dark ritual into tendrils. Chalice was moot, should have mulled into a sphere.
Round 5: U/W death and taxes
G1: Plains into aether vial. I think I like where this is going. He deploys some stuff, I fetch up a tabernacle and force him to play all of his stuff through aether vial and only keep a modest posse of weenies. except one of those weenies was meddling mage, I don't like where this is going... punishing fire off line. he pressures me a bit but I rotate into a glacial chasm. I guess he knew there was no way to get around that with 2x exploration of field and loam in yard, he put his cards in a pile and we move to game 2
G2: plains into aether vial. good start. vryn wingmare, mom, meddling mage on PF, and phyrexian revoker on mox diamond round out the troop that would be the death of me
G3: 2 moms online and a wingmare provide him with a blocker that lage can't get through. I gamble for a pithing needle and it pays off. Mother of Runes becomes Eager Cadet and he puts his cards into a pile before lage even got to swing.
Round 6: Reanimator
G1: I felt bad about this one. He cantrips a bunch, all i see are underground seas, ponders, brainstorms, misty rainforests and polluted deltas. I put em on BUG control, very little give aways from this game. I make a 20/20 and end it.
G2: Its the same story as game 1, except for a thoughtseize on T1. He shows me his hand at the end and its 3 reanimates and 2 griselbrands, he just couldn't find a way to dump the fatties. Even as his opponent, I have to say that's a cruel set of draws.
Round 7: BUG delver
G1: I open with wasting him 3 straight turns but he continued to draw into lands, courtesy of nice brainstroms I suppose. I did my best to fight off delver and Co. but my glacial chasm couldn't buy me enough time and I feed the tarmogoyf.
G2: My opening 7 are Exploration, Exploration, Choke, Verdant Catacomb, Punishing Fire, Rishadan port, Mox Diamond. No matter what if I draw into a land I have a T2 choke so I open with fetching a forest and casting exploration. He Forces pitching stifle. I pass, he plays a deathrite, I rip a taiga off the top, play port, cast mox, it resolves, I pitch the taiga and cast Choke. IT RESOLVES! This is the first time I ever resolved it and I feel pretty comfortable behind this thing while he's forced to eat some stuff with his deathrite but he finds an abrupt decay for my choke. He untaps and casts a goyf and wastes my maze of ith... I dredge life trying to find another maze and flip a pithing needing into my yard which sped up the clock by a turn. I die with 2 punishing fires in my hand an not enough mana to punish the goyf to death.
Round 8: Miracles
Since we were out of contention for any prize, my friend and I agreed that we would drop after this round and finish out with some buying and trading. I play loose and carelessly since I'm salivating over foiling my sideboard and my opponent was pretty chill [as were all of my opponents, really great competitors all around].
G1: make a marit lage and swing though some entreat tokens over several turns. I get there
G2: He entreats twice and has a jace and I keep recurring lages. I made a poor sideboard call: pulled out some loams expecting rest in peace, and sided in molten vortex. Its a good thought but less loams is less ammunition for the vortex. It didn't matter, he surgically extracted my loams when my vortex was online anyways. I only killed one angel token with the vortex (at this point, I'm not sure how I feel about this card outside of blood moon matchups). I concede after some attrition and offer the game 3 concession so our crew can leave.
Some things I need to improve on are recognizing when to start the slow burn of PF, and when to crop rotate and what to search for. This deck has so many lines of play that I find it hard to decide between lands when I crop rotate, especially on defense.
On sideboard choices, I brought the fourth dark depths in pretty often, so I would consider moving it to the main board and side out a punishing fire or the karakas. Molten vortex has been lackluster but I can't bring myself to cut it since I feel more confident having a 3rd win condition in the sideboard since surgical effects on depths and PF totally stops this deck from winning. Pithing Needle was an all star as was K-grip. I've been considering bringing in CotV against any player that might run StP just to make the witch kill less cumbersome. I might not have played against ANT but my game against tin fins really shook me and i think I need at least 1 more sphere effect in the board, if not 2 or 3 for the fast combo matchups (max out Sphere of Resistance, 1 more 3Sphere, 1 more CotV? no idea what to take out and move around for it though).
Hopefully this info will be helpful for some of you going forward. I'll try to take better notes at the IQ this weekend in NJ.
All,
I recently picked up, most of the cards needed for RG Lands online. Looking at a few of the recent lists, it looks like some have dropped sphere of resistance for 3ball. Can anyone explain the switch? Is it personal preference or does one have a specific use over the other.
Thanks in advance!
If Omnitell plays Show and Tell and drops Omniscience while you drop Trinisphere, they can't play a spell unless they have 3 mana up, so you have the time to play Krosan Grip. The same goes if they drop Emrakul, if they don't have 3 mana to play anything you can play Crop Rotation, Loam or Gamble to find Karakas without getting disrupted.
Formerly known as Bierbaron.
At FNM this week I'm going to be trying a few changes to see if it will help the Omni matchup.
The maindeck loses a Tranquil Thicket and 2 Taiga and the Bojuka Bog. Add in a Bayou, Badlands, Urborg, Riftstone Portal. Fetches become Verdants or Wooded Foothills
Sideboard cut all the artifacts and add 3 thoughtseize, 4 slaughter games, 2 bob. keep the 4 k-grips, choke and boseiju.
We'll see if these cards are good enough. So far in goldfishing the mana post-board is awful.
♀
Hmmm, I'm not sure I like where you are going. Don't see the upside of your proposed changes at all. Looks like different deck all together. Also, combo in different shapes is still a deck
"Be it ever so crumbled, there's no place like home."
RGCL (GQ)
Youtube-playlist dedicated to RGCL
I think my experimental board would be something like this:
3x Sphere of Resistance
3x Trinisphere
1x Badlands
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All (you want this vs Miracles, but it seems only OK against anything else...would almost rather have a 3rd Slaughter Games)
2x Slaughter Games
4x Krosan Grip
Against Omni-Tell, I would cut something like:
3x Maze
1x Tabernacle
4x Punishing Fire (maybe you leave 1x in for an additional win condition, but it's pretty bad here)
2x Manabond (you can't afford to discard your hate cards in this matchup)
1x Wasteland (maybe 2...pretty bad against all the islands)
Karakas is only relevant if they S&T in an Emrakul, but it probably has to stay
Tranquil Thicket isn't great, but I do think you want more insurance against getting your Loams Surgical'd. Also you don't want to cut too many lands for things like Mox Diamond.
In come:
3x Sphere of Resistance
3x Trinisphere
2x Slaughter Games
1x Badlands
(maybe 1x Boseiju)
3x Krosan Grip
I've been able to cast a good number of Slaughter Games on turn 3 (thanks Gamble). If they have the nut draw, sure that's too slow, but if they do have the nuts, your Sphere effects and/or Grip are going to have to do the heavy lifting anyway. It feels like we've got game though...
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