Decklist:
The exact same list as last week, nothing new to report there. Let's see how we fared in our matches.
Round 1 VS: Counter Helm
G1: I lose the roll and we both decided to keep our opening 7. Villain plays some lands, and I play a Deathrite Shaman, followed by a bitterblossom the next turn. I notice that Villain writes down "Jund" on his notepad, and wonder how long that impression will last for. A few turns later, Jund has a big scribble through it. The game from here on was a lot of back and forth. Abrupt decay and lilly were able to stabilize things fairly well, but the Blossom had been destroyed, and I was searching for a clock. Villain was protecting a Rest in Peace in the top 3 of his library with a Sensei's Top while digging for the second piece of the combo. I carelessly throw away an abrupt decay on something not important so that I can use Liliana's ability to empty Villain's hand. This was a very bad choice. Villain finds his Helm, plays his RIP, and kills me, when I should have been able to protect myself...*facepalm*
G2: I have a fairly decent hand, with a turn 2 Bitterblossom, and an abrupt decay. I get the bitterblossom into play, and turn 3 I IoK. Villain e-tutors for a blood moon in response. I look at my 2 untapped lands (one of which is the karakas), the abrupt decay in my hand, and sigh. Villain plays the blood moon, and gets control of the game from there with counterbalance, and top lock. To make things worse, Turn 4 I draw the fetch, which would have been a lot better to have in play than the karakas. Villain disenchants the bitterblossom, and takes the game from there.
0-1
G2: I have a fairly decent hand, with a turn 2 Bitterblossom, and an abrupt decay. I get the bitterblossom into play, and turn 3 I IoK. Villain e-tutors for a blood moon in response. I look at my 2 untapped lands (one of which is the karakas), the abrupt decay in my hand, and sigh. Villain plays the blood moon, and gets control of the game from there with counterbalance, and top lock. To make things worse, Turn 4 I draw the fetch, which would have been a lot better to have in play than the karakas. Villain disenchants the bitterblossom, and takes the game from there.
0-1
Round 2 VS: BGW Dark Depths
G1: I Lose the roll. Villain assembles the dark depths combo with Hexmage. I'm unable to draw an answer, and get 1 shot...
G2: Villain mulls to 6. IoK takes a chalice of the void. Villain plays some sort of green creature I've never seen before, and the card was Japanese. I called a judge for oracle text. It was some kind of green human wizard 1/1 that can give a creature shroud. Villain gets a Dark Confidant into play, and my engineered plague on Humans takes care of his board. I follow up with an eplague on vampire. I take the game from there with an active factory and cursed scroll.
G3: Villain again assembles the dark depth combo. I have a wasteland in play, and punt just about as hard as I've ever punted before. In my head, I've already lost the game. I attempt to waste the depths, and as expected he hexmages in the DD token. If there's anything to take away from this it's that wasetland IS your out to the DD combo. Correct play is to wait for hexmage to go on the stack, and you wasteland DD in response. This will work the same way for the Thespian stage combo (when it's legal) as well. Needless to say, the 20/20 killed me.
0-2
G2: Villain mulls to 6. IoK takes a chalice of the void. Villain plays some sort of green creature I've never seen before, and the card was Japanese. I called a judge for oracle text. It was some kind of green human wizard 1/1 that can give a creature shroud. Villain gets a Dark Confidant into play, and my engineered plague on Humans takes care of his board. I follow up with an eplague on vampire. I take the game from there with an active factory and cursed scroll.
G3: Villain again assembles the dark depth combo. I have a wasteland in play, and punt just about as hard as I've ever punted before. In my head, I've already lost the game. I attempt to waste the depths, and as expected he hexmages in the DD token. If there's anything to take away from this it's that wasetland IS your out to the DD combo. Correct play is to wait for hexmage to go on the stack, and you wasteland DD in response. This will work the same way for the Thespian stage combo (when it's legal) as well. Needless to say, the 20/20 killed me.
0-2
Round 3 VS: Combo Elves
G1: I lose the roll. Villain leads off with some elves, go figure. I have answers for the elves, and his lands. I eventually blow up all of Villain's lands, and slam a Tabernacle. The remaining elves on the board weren't invited to Pendrell Vale, and disappear. Nether Void against an empty board locks the game out, and villain scoops.
G2: This game starts out similar to the first one, but I'm unable to blow up all of villain's lands, and to make matters worse, he gets a Gaea's Cradle in play to counter my Tabernacle. He's eventually able to muster up a force large enough to kill me.
G3: Villain combo's off and plays an Emrakul. He swings for lethal on his extra turn.
0-3
G2: This game starts out similar to the first one, but I'm unable to blow up all of villain's lands, and to make matters worse, he gets a Gaea's Cradle in play to counter my Tabernacle. He's eventually able to muster up a force large enough to kill me.
G3: Villain combo's off and plays an Emrakul. He swings for lethal on his extra turn.
0-3
Round 4 VS: Dredge
G1: Villain Dredges his entire deck and kills me.
G2: Extirpate and Deathrite Shaman is able to keep any decent dredger out of the yard. Game goes on for a while, but I eventually take it.
G3: I manage to get two deathrite shamans on board and they were quite busy throughout the course of the game. Extirpates and surgicals added to that, and Villain literally has no way to win. However the previous two games were quite long. I'm unable to finish villain off (who's at 12 life) when we go to turns, and end up drawing.
In all honesty, my opponent was a pretty terrible dredge player, I had no business being alive games 2 or 3, but I guess I'll take my tie at this point.
0-3-1
G2: Extirpate and Deathrite Shaman is able to keep any decent dredger out of the yard. Game goes on for a while, but I eventually take it.
G3: I manage to get two deathrite shamans on board and they were quite busy throughout the course of the game. Extirpates and surgicals added to that, and Villain literally has no way to win. However the previous two games were quite long. I'm unable to finish villain off (who's at 12 life) when we go to turns, and end up drawing.
In all honesty, my opponent was a pretty terrible dredge player, I had no business being alive games 2 or 3, but I guess I'll take my tie at this point.
0-3-1
Round 5 VS: RUG Aggro Loam
G1: This was a very very long game. Villain took a long time to kill me. I'm pretty sure he could have done it faster, but I'm not 100% sure. Punishing fire deaths are slower than cursed scroll for the most part. Villain stabilized at 4 life, and eventually killed me with punishing fires.
G2: I have this game pretty well locked down, but we go to time. I'm one turn short of being able to kill villain and he walks away with a win. Perhaps it's my fault for not scooping game 1. Perhaps I got slow played. Either way at this point I'm in a haze somewhere between disappointment and not caring anymore. Out of sheer stubbornness I carry on, seeking my win.
0-4-1
G2: I have this game pretty well locked down, but we go to time. I'm one turn short of being able to kill villain and he walks away with a win. Perhaps it's my fault for not scooping game 1. Perhaps I got slow played. Either way at this point I'm in a haze somewhere between disappointment and not caring anymore. Out of sheer stubbornness I carry on, seeking my win.
0-4-1
Round 6 VS: Jund
Before the game starts a guy comes up to my Opponent and says, "Hey, you're the guy that turned in the lost deckbox right? That was really awesome. It belonged to my friend, we'll have to buy you a beer or something. Did you even look to see what was inside the deckbox?" To which my opponent replied no. What was in that deckbox was Kurt's (who was sitting only two tables away from us) pimped out mono B pox deck. We're talking multiple tabernacles, the abyss, nether voids, alpha dark rituals and sinkholes, etc. He's very lucky that there are good people left in this world. I have the utmost respect for my opponent.
G1: I have answers for most of villain's Tarmogyof's and Cofidants, but he is eventually able to get a decent amount of threats on the table. Unable to stabilize vs Jund's raw advantage, I die.
G2: I'm able to keep all of the nasty jund creatures off the table and attack villains lands at the same time. Villain gets stuck on 1 land for a while and when he draws a 2nd I have answers for his plays. Mishra's beats down, for the game.
G3: This game is very much the same as the previous, except with an early deathrite shaman into bitterblossom. The curse scroll elf and fairy rogues beat my opponent down who's locked by void.
1-4-1
G1: I have answers for most of villain's Tarmogyof's and Cofidants, but he is eventually able to get a decent amount of threats on the table. Unable to stabilize vs Jund's raw advantage, I die.
G2: I'm able to keep all of the nasty jund creatures off the table and attack villains lands at the same time. Villain gets stuck on 1 land for a while and when he draws a 2nd I have answers for his plays. Mishra's beats down, for the game.
G3: This game is very much the same as the previous, except with an early deathrite shaman into bitterblossom. The curse scroll elf and fairy rogues beat my opponent down who's locked by void.
1-4-1
Round 7 VS: Esper Stoneblade
The memory is getting hazy. My notepad is filled with life totals and hand contents seen through thoughtseizes and IoK's. Very little in the way of actual notes. At this point in the tournament most people in the 1-4-1 bracket (mostly the 1-5 bracket) are only still playing because they have friends who are doing well who are their rides home. Either that, or some sort of devout stubbornness to extract as much value from your $40 entry fee. I suppose I'm the latter. In the 1-5 bracket you and your opponent aren't exactly being competitive anymore, but you are hoping on clinging to any hope that you might win and improve your terrible record.
G1: I lost. He ended up getting me with a Jace Ultimate.
G2: Smooth curve and draws for the deck make it work like a well oiled machine. I remember the villain complaining about all the lands I blew up. Nether Void sealed the deal.
G3: Much of the same as game 2. Abrupt decays, deathrite shaman, and nether void.
2-4-1
G1: I lost. He ended up getting me with a Jace Ultimate.
G2: Smooth curve and draws for the deck make it work like a well oiled machine. I remember the villain complaining about all the lands I blew up. Nether Void sealed the deal.
G3: Much of the same as game 2. Abrupt decays, deathrite shaman, and nether void.
2-4-1
Round 8 VS: Maverick
I was matched against a very cheery curly haired fellow who appeared to be just having a great time being there and playing magic. I enjoy opponents like this. They're fun and carefree and goofy. Sometimes magic players are too serious. My fun loving curly hair villain mopped the floor with me though. I'd say this is the only match of the entire tournament where I didn't even put up a decent fight. His creatures were better than my answers, and many in number.
2-5-1
2-5-1
Round 9: VS Esper Stoneblade
I would love to give you the details of this match because all three games were very close. The only thing I can tell you is that I lost the die roll, and I also lost the match. The two are possibly related. I had actually only won a single die roll the whole tournament. I've been on a pretty good streak of bad rolls recently.
2-6-1
2-6-1
That was a marathon. Here are my overall impressions of the deck now that I'm a bit more familiar with it. Deathrite Shaman and Bitterblossom are fantastic cards. Combined with the mox diamonds they can really put us where we want to be turns 1 and two. I wouldn't play the DRS without the blossoms though. The blossoms act as a buffer for our smallpoxes so we can protect the DRS. In a BG list like mine I do not like Life form the Loam at all. In every situation where I had LFTL I would have preferred a crucible. If you play LFTL, make sure you can get advantage from the dredge with cards like bloodghast, wurm harvest, etc. Otherwise it's just a waste of mana.
I like this list, but I'm not in love with it. I'll definitely use the tech in this list in other decks, but it might be a little while before I jump back on BG pox.
Small tournament highlight: I managed to pick up a Chains of Mephistopheles
I have Local Legacy tonight, and I'm excited for the report, because I have new super secret tech for pox to share with you!
Thanks for reading!
~TheJGits
The worse matchups were agro loam and maverick. Everything else is fairly even. I'd like to tweak the SB though for a little more versatility.
DRS, bitterblossom, and mox diamond were probably the best parts about the deck (like a rug that brings the room together). When I revisit the list, I'm probably going to find room for another blossom. DRS is just way too good. You get 3 fantastic things with him; Early ramp and synergy with wastes/ sinkholes/other LD, Cursed Scrolls 3-6, and maindeck graveyard hate. All of this at turn 1 is better (at least I think so) than tombstalker. The downside is not playing innocent bloods. Adding more BitBloss might help with that.
Thanks!