Great job avrid. I don't personally like Smallpox, but how did they do for you? Ad Nauseum is a pain, pretty much hand disruption can stall them hopefully. If I know I'm playing against ad nauseum, I try to hold a land in hand, in case they go all in on Lightning Storm.
Yeah, bigger tournament I would prob do 1 Spoil, 3 Fulminators, and maybe 1 Thoughtseize/Duress. Good call...I just had a pretty good guess with the meta after hearing what might be at this location.
So the deck isnt really all that different from the last time I played. Thats how I actually want it to be though. Main core of cards with maybe 5 cards at most that I'd need to switch around...Anyways, it would be 4 rounds with cut to Top 4.
Round 1: Brandon with Oath Tron? (2-1)
No clue if thats the name of the deck, but it's 4-5 color Tron usings Oath of Nissa to cast PWs other than Karn and Ugin.
Game 1: He's on the Play and goes Turn 1 Tron piece, Sphere. Crap...so my first play is Inquisition and thats when I see shenanigans with a new Tamiyo and Nahiri in his hand. Didnt have anything else that I'd take so I took Nahiri. Downhill from there because next turn he ripped an Oath and just started grabbing what he needed. Lasted long enough to fight through a Karn and Ugin, but the Tamiyo and an Elspeth Suns Champion was too much.
Game 2: Steal Oath of Nissas with hand disruption, land kitchen finks, Cloud for 2, ride finks to victory. WooHoo
Game 3: Same as game 2, but add a Hissing Quagmire attack and Garruk Ultimate to seal the deal. Oh thank God
Round 2: Steven with Affinity (2-0)
Game 1: Im on the play, but his turn 1 pretty much emptied his hand. I got down to 8 before I was able to Slaughter Pact and Cloud for 3 to wipe his board and hand completely away except for Springleaf Drum and Mox Opal. Got down a couple of Finks and they took home the win.
Game 2: Turn 3 Creeping Corrosion, Turn 4 Primal Command to gain 7 and search for Kalitas with kill spells in hand. I dropped to 8 life and 5 poison, but I honestly never felt like I was gonna lose that game.
Round 3: Anthony with Naya Zoo/Burn (2-1)
Game 1: Vexing Devil, Take 4. Vexing Devil, Damn it, take 4, Goblin Guide...And I surprisingly stabilized for a bit thanks to Scooze and some removal spells. He was light on burn until the very end where he needed just 3 damage. He whiffed, I pop Garruk's Ultimate with Scooze and friends that were played the turn before. Take the win
Game 2: I'm behind the whole time this game, he has the removal when he needs them and just burns me out.
Game 3: So I drop a Finks, take 12 the next turn to go down to 5. Crap I'm so dead. Next turn, play Kalitas. Stall the board for a bit and land Trinisphere, then go Primal Command, gain 7 and find Witness. Play Witness as blocker, get P Command back. Play Command, gain 7 and find Thragtusk and he scoops. Thank God.
Round 4 Matt with BG Infect (ID) Foooood
So the Cut to Top 4 had me, BG Infect, Naya Zoo/Burn, and Esper Control
Top 4 Anthony with Zoo/Burn again
Both Games I hit below 10 life, but stabilized after Primal Command plus search for Thragtusk. He was short on mana both games never finding a 2nd Red source or White Source. Had creature heavy hands which allowed me to gum up the board and gain life here and there. Plus Trinisphere in Game 2 locked him out until he found a 3rd land.
Finals Matt with BG Infect
He wouldnt be able to make it to any Invitationals so he conceded to me since we are buds. Sweeeet
So, great day of playing MtG and no issues whatsoever as far as drama concerns. Every card in my SB I did/could have used except for Surgical Extractions. Still don't know about those 2 spots as to what they should be yet. And the 3 Trinisphere were/are useful, but no clue if they will stay in or not. Thoughts on those 5 slots? Guess I will have to man up and start thinking about Standard after Kaladesh comes out. Damn dual format tourneys...
Won a 13 man IQ yesterday, so not that big of a tourney. Went 3-0-1 in swiss with cut to top 4. Hanging with family now, but will have a more detailed write up with decklist later today or tonight when kids are in bed.
You play until the winner is determined by: first to 2 wins (2-0 or 2-1), whoever has most wins when time is called(1-0-1), draw when time is called(1-1 or 0-0), or someone concedes. Even if you and your opponent drew multiple times, as long as there is time left in the round, keep playing until one of the 4 things happen. You more than likely won't have time for a 4th game while playing Death Cloud though.
Also, nothing more gut wrenchingly depressing than having your Tron opponent have natural turn 3 tron after you thought seize and decay their artifacts.
Also, do you have any advice on how to deal with RG Titanshift?
Honestly, from my experience, all you can do is disrupt the ramp spells with discard or kill Azusa asap or Prime Time before he attacks. Death Cloud for a couple here and there to slow them down can help as well but its not reliable since they have way more land ramp than us. I don't know which version is more standard now, but he was running through the breach as well. So maybe just rg through the breach wouldve been more accurate? Not sure...Just straight scapeshift, just hope you can DC enough to stall them till you find your end game. Game 3 I had 2 Treetops, a Kalitas and a thragtusk attack with Garruk's ultimate and put him to 1 with me at 27. He still could've won if he had gotten a through the breach with just a Titan swing and Valakut triggers. It's always been rough matchup for me.
I did 2-2 drop for the infinite badge at Charlotte. I didn't even get full use of it as I wasn't coming back Sunday since I dropped. So I just got into 1 sealed event, got my packs and dropped to go home to my family. I wasn't 100% anyways after long week at work but all the downtime from the software issues wasn't helping me at all.
Anyways I went 2-0 against Bant fog, 0-2 against Esper Thopter Combo, 0-2 against RG Tron and 2-1 against Titanshift. Didn't help that I got paired up in round 4 either. I could tell that even though they were fun games on both sides of the table, he (like many others) didn't like getting screwed by WER.
Yeah, I remember those matchups. I'd still rather play against those than UG Crystal Witness. At least the games were quick one way or another. UG was Such a damn grindy matchup....and now I feel old after you said 10 years of Death Cloud lol
Good luck xBattleSpawnx, Hope to see both of us at the top tables through the weekend. I won't be able to do any grinders, so I'm gonna hit up FNM and tweak some things before the GP.
@BucChoy surprised you have 3 Tec Edge in your Junk list. No issues with mana? Also, yeah just switching out creatures to try them out. Haven't tried Kalitas yet and the coursers go in and out of the list from time to time. Bigger butt and sometimes card advantage depending on meta.
@BucChoy:
1) To me, Quarter and Tec Edge are pretty much the same for the function I want it to serve. Even later in the game where it may not matter as much, I don't want to spend the mana for Tec edge where the basic land from Quarter isnt that big a concern. Just there to hit Tron lands and man lands with some corner cases of bottlenecking the opponents mana.
2) First time I've put Trinisphere in the side and I'm just trying cards out. Seems like it should help in the aggro/burn matchups to slow them down though.
3) Availability issue aside, I like my opponent being hit only with -1/-1 and not me. I wanna swing with 3/3s and not 2/2s.
4) Yeah, those 2 have been enough for me. I switch surgical with nihil spellbomb from time to time because I like to draw the card as well. Depends on meta whether it's more snapcaster control or combo/fast decks that I'd bring surgical in.
Vraska is a decent catch-all card. She helps with nom creature permanents and can potentially provide a clock after you stabilize. And yes, I have won with assassins in modern before. It can happen... other than that, it's just more of a feel whether to have her main or side for me. She typically stays in my 76 in one way or another.
Alright guys, so a little backstory first. Haven't been able to play for the past few months due to buying a new home and picking up a 2nd job. I knew most of everyone that played and it is something, being in a community such as this, where everyone genuinely misses your presence at the LGS and wishes you best of your future endeavors. Made me appreciate the friends I have and the camaraderie we have at our store. Anyways here's the deck I used to Top 8 a 23 man GPT on Sunday.
Fairly stock list except for Vraska and the Trinispheres. Was Expecting more burn than what actually showed up, but overall still diverse field.
Rd1 Bogles (2-1) 1-0
Games 1 and 3 were pretty much me on the play, taking his hand apart with targeted discard and killing Spirit Dancer. Game 2 he got a Gladecover and Bogles out and just Voltroned them up.
Rd2 RG Tron(2-0) 2-0
I got really lucky this round. He was on the play both games, but after mulliganing and keeping land light hands, I abrupt decay his maps to keep him from getting lands that he needed.
Rd3 Jeskai Thing in Ice Control (1-1-1) 2-0-1
Game 1 takes about 35 minutes because of the back and forth grindfest. Had an opportunity to DC for the win, but he had 2 mana up. I didnt want to risk losing due the all in approach, so I Damnationed his 2 Things he had in play. Turned out he didnt have the counter that turn and proceeded to burn me out. Game 2 was all about killing blockers and attacking with Thrun. For Game 3, we went to extra turns and I mightve been able to win if I had 1 more turn. But whatever.
Rd4 Jund (2-0) 3-0-1
Game 1 he was off of Black mana for a bit, while I chip away at his hand and his life total. Won with Elder beats with help of Garruk's Ultimate. Game 2 played some mind games with him that caused a Baloth to come in for free. Beats ensued then used Garruk ultimate.
Rd5 ID 3-0-2
Food run
Top 8 consisted of 1 Affinity, 1 Big Zoo, 1 Naya CoCo Zoo, 1 DC Control (me), 1 Gb Elves, 1 UW Thopter/Swords Control, 1 BG Infect,and 1 UW Delver tempo list. Love Formats this diverse.
Top 8 Naya Collected Zoo
pretty much a Big Zoo list with CoCos in it.
Game 1 Finally see my luck run out as I had to mull 5. I was just about to turn the corner on turn 5 with a Damnation, but he gets a Smiter and Goyf off of a CoCo and beats my face in.
Games 2 I mull to 6 and have plenty of removal, but just 2 lands. I decay the first couple of critters that he plays, but hitting land number 3 on turn 6 doesnt do much when he swings in for the win.
Good thing was that my Top8 opponent made it to the Finals, but Affinity ended up beating him...good times all around though, being able to see old friends again had helped my stressful life a bit easier to manage. Now, hopefully being able to make GP Charlotte with a few weeks to tweak the list a bit. Right now, Gaze of Granite will be gone. Might put Obnixilis in instead of Vraska. maybe do 2 Finks and 2 coursers, and possibly take out both Thragtusks to put 2 Kalitas in. Thats all I'm thinking of as of right now. I usually keep the list close to what it is now without major changes. Any questions, just shoot away.
Lol I don't have a great list. It was just a combination of experience with DC and experience against the people I played against. Luck is always involved as well...
Alright, so like I had said, small turn out for a tournament. Havent played in a while so it didnt bother me, just wanted to play.
1 Marsh Flats
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Ghost Quarter
3 Treetop Village
1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Temple of Malady
2 Twilight Mire
3 Swamp
3 Forest
3 Overgrown Tomb
1 Hissing Quagmire
Creatures
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Eternal Witness
3 Kitchen Finks
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
1 Thragtusk
1 Grave Titan
2 Liliana of the Veil
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
Spells
1 Slaughter Pact
3 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Victim of Night
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Damnation
1 Dark Petition
1 Primal Command
2 Death Cloud
3 Trinisphere
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Kitchen Finks
2 Obstinate Baloth
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Curse of Death's Hold
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Creeping Corrosion
So the deck isnt really all that different from the last time I played. Thats how I actually want it to be though. Main core of cards with maybe 5 cards at most that I'd need to switch around...Anyways, it would be 4 rounds with cut to Top 4.
Round 1: Brandon with Oath Tron? (2-1)
No clue if thats the name of the deck, but it's 4-5 color Tron usings Oath of Nissa to cast PWs other than Karn and Ugin.
Game 1: He's on the Play and goes Turn 1 Tron piece, Sphere. Crap...so my first play is Inquisition and thats when I see shenanigans with a new Tamiyo and Nahiri in his hand. Didnt have anything else that I'd take so I took Nahiri. Downhill from there because next turn he ripped an Oath and just started grabbing what he needed. Lasted long enough to fight through a Karn and Ugin, but the Tamiyo and an Elspeth Suns Champion was too much.
Game 2: Steal Oath of Nissas with hand disruption, land kitchen finks, Cloud for 2, ride finks to victory. WooHoo
Game 3: Same as game 2, but add a Hissing Quagmire attack and Garruk Ultimate to seal the deal. Oh thank God
Round 2: Steven with Affinity (2-0)
Game 1: Im on the play, but his turn 1 pretty much emptied his hand. I got down to 8 before I was able to Slaughter Pact and Cloud for 3 to wipe his board and hand completely away except for Springleaf Drum and Mox Opal. Got down a couple of Finks and they took home the win.
Game 2: Turn 3 Creeping Corrosion, Turn 4 Primal Command to gain 7 and search for Kalitas with kill spells in hand. I dropped to 8 life and 5 poison, but I honestly never felt like I was gonna lose that game.
Round 3: Anthony with Naya Zoo/Burn (2-1)
Game 1: Vexing Devil, Take 4. Vexing Devil, Damn it, take 4, Goblin Guide...And I surprisingly stabilized for a bit thanks to Scooze and some removal spells. He was light on burn until the very end where he needed just 3 damage. He whiffed, I pop Garruk's Ultimate with Scooze and friends that were played the turn before. Take the win
Game 2: I'm behind the whole time this game, he has the removal when he needs them and just burns me out.
Game 3: So I drop a Finks, take 12 the next turn to go down to 5. Crap I'm so dead. Next turn, play Kalitas. Stall the board for a bit and land Trinisphere, then go Primal Command, gain 7 and find Witness. Play Witness as blocker, get P Command back. Play Command, gain 7 and find Thragtusk and he scoops. Thank God.
Round 4 Matt with BG Infect (ID)
Foooood
So the Cut to Top 4 had me, BG Infect, Naya Zoo/Burn, and Esper Control
Top 4 Anthony with Zoo/Burn again
Both Games I hit below 10 life, but stabilized after Primal Command plus search for Thragtusk. He was short on mana both games never finding a 2nd Red source or White Source. Had creature heavy hands which allowed me to gum up the board and gain life here and there. Plus Trinisphere in Game 2 locked him out until he found a 3rd land.
Finals Matt with BG Infect
He wouldnt be able to make it to any Invitationals so he conceded to me since we are buds.
Sweeeet
So, great day of playing MtG and no issues whatsoever as far as drama concerns. Every card in my SB I did/could have used except for Surgical Extractions. Still don't know about those 2 spots as to what they should be yet. And the 3 Trinisphere were/are useful, but no clue if they will stay in or not. Thoughts on those 5 slots? Guess I will have to man up and start thinking about Standard after Kaladesh comes out. Damn dual format tourneys...
Honestly, from my experience, all you can do is disrupt the ramp spells with discard or kill Azusa asap or Prime Time before he attacks. Death Cloud for a couple here and there to slow them down can help as well but its not reliable since they have way more land ramp than us. I don't know which version is more standard now, but he was running through the breach as well. So maybe just rg through the breach wouldve been more accurate? Not sure...Just straight scapeshift, just hope you can DC enough to stall them till you find your end game. Game 3 I had 2 Treetops, a Kalitas and a thragtusk attack with Garruk's ultimate and put him to 1 with me at 27. He still could've won if he had gotten a through the breach with just a Titan swing and Valakut triggers. It's always been rough matchup for me.
Anyways I went 2-0 against Bant fog, 0-2 against Esper Thopter Combo, 0-2 against RG Tron and 2-1 against Titanshift. Didn't help that I got paired up in round 4 either. I could tell that even though they were fun games on both sides of the table, he (like many others) didn't like getting screwed by WER.
1) To me, Quarter and Tec Edge are pretty much the same for the function I want it to serve. Even later in the game where it may not matter as much, I don't want to spend the mana for Tec edge where the basic land from Quarter isnt that big a concern. Just there to hit Tron lands and man lands with some corner cases of bottlenecking the opponents mana.
2) First time I've put Trinisphere in the side and I'm just trying cards out. Seems like it should help in the aggro/burn matchups to slow them down though.
3) Availability issue aside, I like my opponent being hit only with -1/-1 and not me. I wanna swing with 3/3s and not 2/2s.
4) Yeah, those 2 have been enough for me. I switch surgical with nihil spellbomb from time to time because I like to draw the card as well. Depends on meta whether it's more snapcaster control or combo/fast decks that I'd bring surgical in.
1 Marsh Flats
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Ghost Quarter
4 Treetop Village
1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Temple of Malady
2 Twilight Mire
3 Swamp
3 Forest
3 Overgrown Tomb
Creatures
4 Sakura-Tribe Elder
2 Scavenging Ooze
1 Eternal Witness
3 Kitchen Finks
2 Thragtusk
1 Grave Titan
2 Liliana of the Veil
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Vraska the Unseen
Spells
1 Slaughter Pact
3 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Victim of Night
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Damnation
1 Dark Petition
1 Primal Command
2 Death Cloud
3 Trinisphere
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Gaze of Granite
2 Obstinate Baloth
2 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Duress
2 Curse of Death's Hold
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Creeping Corrosion
Fairly stock list except for Vraska and the Trinispheres. Was Expecting more burn than what actually showed up, but overall still diverse field.
Rd1 Bogles (2-1) 1-0
Games 1 and 3 were pretty much me on the play, taking his hand apart with targeted discard and killing Spirit Dancer. Game 2 he got a Gladecover and Bogles out and just Voltroned them up.
Rd2 RG Tron(2-0) 2-0
I got really lucky this round. He was on the play both games, but after mulliganing and keeping land light hands, I abrupt decay his maps to keep him from getting lands that he needed.
Rd3 Jeskai Thing in Ice Control (1-1-1) 2-0-1
Game 1 takes about 35 minutes because of the back and forth grindfest. Had an opportunity to DC for the win, but he had 2 mana up. I didnt want to risk losing due the all in approach, so I Damnationed his 2 Things he had in play. Turned out he didnt have the counter that turn and proceeded to burn me out. Game 2 was all about killing blockers and attacking with Thrun. For Game 3, we went to extra turns and I mightve been able to win if I had 1 more turn. But whatever.
Rd4 Jund (2-0) 3-0-1
Game 1 he was off of Black mana for a bit, while I chip away at his hand and his life total. Won with Elder beats with help of Garruk's Ultimate. Game 2 played some mind games with him that caused a Baloth to come in for free. Beats ensued then used Garruk ultimate.
Rd5 ID 3-0-2
Food run
Top 8 consisted of 1 Affinity, 1 Big Zoo, 1 Naya CoCo Zoo, 1 DC Control (me), 1 Gb Elves, 1 UW Thopter/Swords Control, 1 BG Infect,and 1 UW Delver tempo list. Love Formats this diverse.
Top 8 Naya Collected Zoo
pretty much a Big Zoo list with CoCos in it.
Game 1 Finally see my luck run out as I had to mull 5. I was just about to turn the corner on turn 5 with a Damnation, but he gets a Smiter and Goyf off of a CoCo and beats my face in.
Games 2 I mull to 6 and have plenty of removal, but just 2 lands. I decay the first couple of critters that he plays, but hitting land number 3 on turn 6 doesnt do much when he swings in for the win.
Good thing was that my Top8 opponent made it to the Finals, but Affinity ended up beating him...good times all around though, being able to see old friends again had helped my stressful life a bit easier to manage. Now, hopefully being able to make GP Charlotte with a few weeks to tweak the list a bit. Right now, Gaze of Granite will be gone. Might put Obnixilis in instead of Vraska. maybe do 2 Finks and 2 coursers, and possibly take out both Thragtusks to put 2 Kalitas in. Thats all I'm thinking of as of right now. I usually keep the list close to what it is now without major changes. Any questions, just shoot away.