Rg Lands #5: Epic Loot
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Krosan Grip
2 Thorn of Amethyst
2 Dark Depths
1 Trinisphere
1 Pithing Needle
1 Seismic Assault
I at first wanted Choke to be in the Trinisphere slot, but then I remembered that the Epic Loot meta includes two or three guys who regularly play Storm. Since I still wanted a card that would be reasonable against blue midrange, I opted for Trinisphere, hoping it would act both as a seventh stax effect and as a pseudo-Choke against Miracles, Bug Midrange, and what-have-you. I'll let you know my thoughts on Trinisphere at the end of the report. Since I decided to play Seismic Assault, as well as two other one-ofs, I changed the maindeck slightly to accommodate. These changes, from my last list, were:
-1 Tranquil Thicket
-1 Dark Depths
+1 Taiga
+1 Karakas
Karakas and a single Depths simply traded places between main and board, while I opted for a third fetchable red source over a third Thicket to ensure the ability to cast Assault. Again, thoughts on these choices will conclude the report.
Round One: Death and Taxes
Game One: I keep a hand with Gamble, and some utility lands in the form of Wasteland and Port, and mana producers. I Gamble for Loam, which gets discarded, and Taxes plays an Aether Vial. Later, Taxes, Wastes me just to set me back a turn, while he gets a couple of creatures to beat me into submission. I continue Loaming, looking for Punishing Fire or Maze of Ith. I find Fire with enough life left to take care of a Mirran Crusader, two Flickerwisps, and a Revoker. When Taxes runs out of creatures to attack with, I’m at four life. I have a bunch of lands in hand, so I decide to take a few draw steps to find an Exploration effect. I find a Gamble, and with a total of ten cards in hand, Gamble for Manabond and promptly have to discard Manabond. Ouch—but it ends up not mattering, because I draw an Exploration and play it. Taxes, out of gas that can fight through P-Fire, concedes upon seeing it.
I board out: 1 Karakas, 1 Bojuka Bog, 1 Tranquil Thicket, 1 Rishadan Port, 2 Manabond
I board in: 4 Krosan Grip, 1 Pithing Needle, 1 Seismic Assault
Game Two: I keep a seven-grip of Mox Diamond, Dark Depths, Crop Rotation, Wasteland, a Pithing Needle, a Krosan Grip, and a fetch. Taxes plays Wasteland, turn one Aether Vial, and passes. I play my Wasteland, play the Needle, and name Aether Vial. I don’t play the Mox since I don’t have a follow up play and since I’d really like to drop it the same turn I plan to Crop Rote for the win. Taxes plays a Rishadan Port and taps out for a Ratchet Bomb. On my next turn, I draw an Exploration. No reason to play it just yet, so I drop a fetch and pass. Taxes bricks on land and plays a Revoker naming Mox Diamond. I draw a Tabernacle, play it, and pass. Taxes bricks on land, pays for the Revoker, plays a Needle naming Wasteland. I take small beats. I draw mana land, play it, and pass. Again Taxes bricks on land and just comes across with small beats, never popping his Ratchet Bomb since doing so would be worse for him than me. Eventually, I just naturally draw a Stage and combo out on Taxes’ end step. He scoops and shows me a hand of creatures that would have been great for him to Vial in and a Rest In Peace that he couldn’t cast. Still, it seemed like a keepable hand as long I don’t follow his Vial with a Needle on Vial.
1-0
Round Two: Uw Stoneblade
Game One: I keep a seven-grip of lands (one of which is a Depths), Gamble, Exploration, Crop Rotation. On the play, I attempt Exploration, which meets a Force of Will. Stoneblade plays fetch, fetches for a nice Beta Island (my one-of Forest is Alpha, so I appreciate the old cards), and then plays Ponder. Seeing that opening, I’m like, Oh *****, Sneak and Show. I Gamble for Loam on my second turn and discard a Port. Turn two he plays another Beta Island and Ponders again, so I’m preparing my lines for a Show and Tell. On my third turn, I could cast the Loam in my hand, but since I’m pretty sure he’s gonna Show in some terrible monster to mutilate me on his next turn, I decide that instead I’ll Crop Rote in response to his Show and Tell for a Stage and then Show in Depths to combo out EOT. Instead of playing Show and Tell though, Stoneblade plays True-Name Nemesis. I shrug, take some small beats, and then assemble Stage Depths at the end of one of his turns. He plows my witch, and I go up to thirty-six life. He plays another True-Name and I begin to take six per turn. However, I still have Loam, so I leisurely assemble to combo again for the win.
I board out: 1 Karakas, 1 Bog, 2 Manabond, 1 Thicket
I board in: 4 Krosan Grip, 1 Pithing Needle
Game Two: I keep a hand with a Crop Rotation, an Exploration, a Stage, and lands. I play Exploration on my first turn, which resolves, and then another land. On my second turn, I play two more lands. On Stoneblade’s turn, he plays a Pithing Needle. In response, I Crop Rote for a Depths and make a witch.
2-0
Round Three: Dreadstill
I’m facing Kurtis, a friend of mine, who usually plays his awesome, pimped-out Monoblack Pox deck but who today has decided to bring with him a deck he likes to call Monoblue Old Cards. It plays Dreadnought, Stifle, Vision Charm, Mishra’s Factory, Standstill, Wasteland, and a bunch of old counters like Force Spike and Counterspell. In the deck he refuses to play any card with the modern card frame (because, let’s face it, the modern card frame sucks a lot and I’m still salty about the change and fantasize about an anti-Modern format in which only old-bordered cards are allowed). So I wish that he’d decided to bring Pox, since that matchup can be likened to an all-powerful nihilist facing a tiny rat trapped in a bog, but instead I’ve got to try to figure out to beat this old combo deck that can Waste and Stifle my Maze of Ith effects.
Game One: I keep a good Lands hand with Loam, Crop Rote, and some mana deniers. I Port Kurtis’ basics and Waste his Factories, but he still accumulates enough lands to go Dreadnought-Stifle. I Crop Rote for a Maze, but the Maze effect gets Stifled and I find myself at two life. On my final turn, I have two different lines. I can either play a Stage and attempt to combo with the Depths already on board, or I can play a Glacial Chasm. I don’t have an Exploration effect though, so it seems to me that playing Chasm only delays the inevitable and could still lose to Wasteland. I decide to go for the combo, but that gets Stifled and then my Maze gets Wasted. If I’d have played Chasm, assuming I didn’t sacrifice Maze, I still would have lost.
I board out: 1 Tabernacle, 1 Karakas, 1 Bog, 1 Glacial Chasm, 4 Punishing Fire
I board in: 1 Trinisphere, 4 Sphere of Resistance, 2 Krosan Grip, 1 Pithing Needle
This boarding strategy is obviously flawed; I should have boarded all four of my K-Grips and not bothered with the Needle.
Game Two: I keep a bad hand of one Maze, one Sphere, and lands. I reason that I’m on the play so Sphere has a reasonable chance of causing Kurtis problems, and hey, there’s always Maze of Ith to fall back on. Of course I lose because Sphere isn’t anywhere near good enough against this type of combo and because a Stifle and a Waste take care of my Maze again. Definitely should have mulliganned.
Since Kurtis is my buddy, we intentionally draw, since if we do we’re guaranteed store credit and will still have a chance, in the final round, to win and get even more. So my tournament results at this point are
2-0-1
but for match-win percentage purposes, I’ll record it as
2-1.
Round Four: Bug Countertop
I’ve scouted this guy earlier, and it’s a matchup I don’t really want to face. It seems only slightly better than Miracles, since it runs fewer copies of CounterTop, but it still has plenty to be worried about.
Game One: Countertop does some set up, while I get try to get Loam going. Unfortunately, he plays a Scooze and eats my Loam. I find a P-Fire to end the ooze’s life, but a Tarmogoyf on the other side beats my face down. A naked Counterbalance keeps a newly played Deathrite Shaman alive for a turn by countering my P-Fire, but I eventually deal with the Shaman and find myself at low life when I topdeck another Loam and then get Maze, followed a turn or so later by the combo. I can make the witch at instant speed, but Countertop concedes on his upkeep when he forgets a Tabernacle trigger for his Goyf.
I board out: 2 Manabond, 1 Karakas, 1 Bog, 2 Tranquil Thicket,
I board in: 3 Krosan Grip, 1 Pithing Needle, 1 Seismic Assault, 1 Trinisphere
Game Two: Things are looking real good for me. Countertop hasn’t found any of his grave hate, and I’ve got Loam going. Countertop has a Top, a Goyf, and three lands. I make a witch at his EOT, he puts a V-Clique in front of it, I try to Fire it, the Fire gets countered, and the V-Clique blocks. On his turn, his only out is to draw a fourth land for the Jace in his hand. He doesn’t draw it and flips his Sensei’s Divining Top blind to get a second chance at that fourth land. The fourth land happens and Jace bounces the witch. I try to return the combo with Loam, but the Loam gets countered. Next turn, a Counterbalance comes into play and I’m locked out of the game with a two-drop on top of his library. Jace makes sure I don’t draw anything good and after a while I concede.
I board out: 1 Trinisphere (since I’d seen it and it had done nothing to help the board)
I board in: 1 K-Grip
I think I should have boarded out some number of Crop Rotation in favor of two more Dark Depths.
Game Three: This epic grindfest goes back and forth. At some points, it looks like I’m going to pull ahead, but Countertop always seems to have an answer. Eventually, we arrive at a point where a Maze on my side keeps misdirecting the path of a Goyf, while a Surgical Extraction has exiled my Wastelands and my Punishing Fires (on account of the fact that a Snapcaster has snapped it back from Countertop’s yard). I drop a Seismic Assault, and when I finally Gamble for a third Loam (the first two having been swallowed by a Nihil Spellbomb), I feel real good. However, just as I’m about to get Loam-Assault going, a second Surgical exiles my Loams. I land a Needle naming Top (since I know it is on top of his library), but then Countertop plays Jace. When time is called for the round and Jace doesn’t have enough time to ultimate, Countertop shows me the Echoing Truth in his hand and says there was no way I was going to win that game. At first I hem and haw, but then I agree that I would not have won the match had we played it out. Still, I tell him, I can’t concede because if I do I’ll get four bucks less in store credit.
Tournament Results
2-0-2
Good for $11.25 at the store. I’m happy but also feel like I should be less greedy.
Match-Win Results
2-1-1
Analysis
On Seismic Assault: I’m not sure it has a place on the board. It does seem good against Blood Moon, but Blood Moon isn’t too prevalent in the meta right now. Since it gets hosed pretty good by grave-hate, it might be best as card number 76 or 77. I wouldn’t board it in against Death and Taxes again, because of RIP and Pro Red effects, and boarding it in against control or midrange strategies doesn’t seem too good since they’ll be playing grave-hate also. It would have been excellent in that final game against Bug Countertop had it not been for Surgical, so I feel like having a card on the board that makes the opponent’s board cards better isn’t the way to go.
On my match against Dreadstill: I should have mulled my seven-grip the second game, and I should have boarded in all four K-Grips. Nothing else to be said really. Dumb and Dumb.
On the Control / Midrange matchup: I’d like to switch out the Assault and the Trinisphere for cards that will shore up these matchups. To that end, and since six Sphere effects is probably reasonable for the combo matchup, I’m going to lose Trinisphere for Choke. Choke can have a real effect on the board, whereas Trinisphere can’t. I’d also like to have a real trump card for these matchups that’s a must-counter but can’t be hated on by the graveyard, so for next time, I’m going to drop the miser Seismic Assault for a miser Primeval Titan. Seems like the Titan could be reasonable against the midrange strategies that I believe are going to reemerge now that Treasure Cruise has been (rightly) banned.
Results
[Aggro]
UR Delver Cruise: 0-2
Napoleonic Delver: 1-0
Merfolk: 1-0
Bug Delver: 1-0
Rug Delver: 0-1
[Combo]
Storm: 1-1
Solidarity: 0-1
Infect: 0-1
Dreadstill: 0-1
[Midrange]
Bug Midrange: 0-0-1
Maverick: 0-1
Shardless Bug: 1-0
Uw Stoneblade: 1-0
[Control]
Death and Taxes: 3-1
Pox: 1-0
Loam Pox: 1-0
Miracles: 1-0-1
Mud: 0-1
Bug Countertop: 0-0-1
So, if we count draws as half-wins, I'm at 13.5-25, or 54%. Definitely like to improve that ratio. Peace out everyone.
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