There are just some cards that cannot be handled with abrupt decay that you can with echoing truth. Frequent situations are multiples of things, such as cage or rip, humility (granted this is alittle more fringe, but without echoing truth you can just lose to this card), Marit Lage tokens or any indestructible things, and Jace the mind sculptor. Also you have no idea how satisfying it is to echoing truth multiple narcomebas during dredge's draw step. Overall, I just cannot justify weakening myself to wasteland and bloodmoon to help smooth over a matchup like miracles, especially when I run needle and fluster storm in my board. As far as flusterstorm goes I normally always board in my two against counter heavy decks when on the draw or when the have access to a lot of mana (aka miracles). It's also nice just having another answer to storm.
Keranos is just plain old good against white decks, for it cannot be swords or containment priest'ed. As far as splashing green goes, I find it worse then straight UB ( budget limitations is not an issue for me either ). I find that just about everything can be handled with needle, echoing truth, and a show and tell package.
4 Brainstorm
4 Careful Study
4 Daze
4 Entomb
4 Exhume
4 Force of Will
4 Lotus Petal
2 Ponder
4 Reanimate
1 Show and Tell
2 Thoughtseize
1 Island
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
4 Underground Sea
3 Verdant Catacombs
SideBoard
2 City of Traitors
3 Show and Tell
2 Echoing Truth
2 Flusterstorm
2 Pithing Needle
1 Blazing Archon
1 Empyrial Archangel
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
I unfortunately did not take very good notes, for I wasn’t actually planning doing well (which I tried really hard not to). I also wandered down the street to a local bar a couple times throughout the tourney, so outside factors will also be deterring from this being an at least adequate report. I am also not going to give a good detail on my sideboarding every time, but I’ll let you in on a bit right now. I normally always board into the show package, except against other decks trying to cheat fatties or expensive enchantments into play. When doing that I normally take out 1 careful study, 2 reanimation effects (usually reanimates against burn, exhumes against combo, and one of each against everything else), and the 4th card I take out 100% depends on my opponents deck, what hate I think they will bring in, play or draw, and what mood I’m in. If you’re slightly good at math and have been paying attention, you will notice that I am boarding in 5 cards while only taking out 4. This is one hundred percent intended and I normally always board up to 61. I understand the math, or lack of, behind it and I have my reasons for it, but this isn’t the place for my views on that. On that note, the rest of the board feels straight forward to me, but I’m also just reeking of seat time with this deck. If you have any questions about sideboarding just ask, I promise I will only be slightly condescending.
Round 1 – Burn
Friend of a friend, so I knew he was on burn. I won the roll and kept an opener with an Iona and some cantrips. He led with a grim lavamancer then promptly started to bring the pain train with a lava spike and chain lightning (or some other bolt effect, they’re all essentially the same to this deck) on turn two. I finally drew the careful study on my turn 3, which got me my reanimate. I decided to go for it, as long as he didn’t have the fireblast I would be fine. Lo and behold he had the fireblast, which thankfully I had the daze for, but that didn’t matter because that pesky grim lavamancer now had all the fuel he needed. I quickly went from 3 to dead after one attack with Iona on Red. Game two was involved the single most enjoyable thing about this deck. I got to start with a turn one entomb for Iona, then as my opponent went for the top of his deck I got to say my favorite line “Oh, I’m not done yet.” And drop a petal and reanimate that Iona. He continued to play though, so that clearly meant he had the ensnaring bridge. I also can do basic math, so as long as he didn’t have simian spirit guide my daze in hand would be able to stop the bridge and get in the final attack. To be safe though I exhumed a Griselbrand on my turn 3 and promptly won by dazing the bridge on his turn. Game three I mulled into a hand with a delta, entomb, exhume, force of will, and 2 careful studies. I bottomed a show and tell on the scry. He lead with a goblin guide, which showed me another show and tell. I play delta and pass. He follows with a goblin guide and then another goblin guide. I heavily considered forcing here, but all I needed was one more land off of a guide and I could exhume on my turn and I was worried about surgical extraction. First guide trigger revealed a show and tell (yes that’s number 3 I’ve seen), so I crack delta with the other two guide triggers on the stack. Second guide revealed another show and tell (holy bouncing jelly beans!), so I entomb a sphinx of the steel wind. I went sphinx because lifelink, vigilance, and pro red are pretty awesome against 3 goblin guides and an opponent with a pretty full grip. Now the third and final guide trigger resolved and guess what it revealed, that’s right it was a brainstorm. Now it’s my turn, I’m at 11 life, I have a sphinx in the yard, an exhume in hand, and only 1 mana available. So I embraced the decks motto, said “F*** it” and jammed a brainstorm, knowing I would need to hit a land and a petal to avoid almost certain death next turn. I drew 2 petals and a Griselbrand, put back a careful study and the Griselbrand, and proceeded to windmill slam a sphinx into play. My opponent drops a mountain and a grim lavamancer, and I breathe a sigh of relief knowing I just won. The next couple of turns was just me beating with a sphinx and informing my opponent his double indeed does not kill Robo-Akroma. I spend the rest of the round talking with judges and scouting the field, which looked pretty favorable to me if I could avoid the couple miracles players, d&t, and the fine gentleman that rode with us to the event that was packing maverick.
Round 2 – Maverick
So this was the moment that I dreaded. The moment I saw a fellow Wisconsinite’s name scrolling next to mine, I knew I was about to lose. Phillip is the dreaded Maverick player that rode over with the group (I loaned him the karakas, damn my generosity will be my downfall!). I won the roll and kept an opener with multiple exhumes, an Elesh Norn, and some land. The plan was to discard it the hard way, but that was rendered irrelevant with Phil’s turn one deathrite. I then drew a careful study, but I without a guarantee of a petal I just couldn’t go for it. The turn two scooze though is what sealed the deal and I was unable to play around it. Game two I kept a hand with Sphinx, Elesh, two careful, a couple exhumes, an entomb and a land, so I was rather excited going into the game. Long story short after having to play very sneakily around a scooze and deathrite with a combination of careful study and entombs with exhumes on the stack, both my Elesh and sphinx met their demise to swords. I couldn’t be too angry though, for bad matchups are bad matchups and I played to my outs.
Round 3 – Rug Delver
As soon as the pairings went up I heard laughter from a familiar voice and I knew I was in for another round against a friend. This time however it was against my playtest buddy. These games went fast, for we were trying to be done before the match slips. The best part about playing against friends is you get to eliminate a lot of bluffing and leveling, for there’s just no reason in trying to fool people who can just read you like a book. I got it in two and Mike and I promptly went down the street to attempt to correct the tilt.
Round 4 – Ant
This round I got the pleasure to play against an amazing judge with an even better sense of humor, needless to say we knew what the matchup was. I forget who won the roll, but I was able to reanimate a Griselbrand putting myself down to eleven. I unfortunately did not have the force in hand when he started to go off the next turn. Due to a mistake in sequencing, I was able to pull ahead game one. The crucial point was when he cast a dark ritual with only a lotus petal up. I drew seven, going down to four life, but the only piece of counter magic I found was a daze. Forcing him to jump through the hoop however allowed me to win the game, for he was supposed to cast the rite of flame in his hand first. Game two I kept a hand where I would have to force myself to discard an Iona in order to get a creature in the yard. Unfortunately, he went off a turn too soon for me and I did not have the force of will to stop him. Game three I got an early Griselbrand and got one swing in before he tried to stop me. Unfortunately for Marc, my witty (influenced?) banter caused a slight miscalculation again when decided to dark ritual, which I countered with my known force of will, then with his last mana he attempted to chain of vapor my Gris. I drew seven and found the daze for it. After the game we went over the lines till we decided to take another stroll. Plus I figured the least I could do for Marc was to buy him a cold one, especially after having to play against me.
Round 5 – Grixis? Show & Tell
Finally a name I didn’t know and we were at table 2. Thankfully, I had seen him play against my friend in round one, so I knew he was being pretty sneaky. It was a really cool deck with deathrites, bolts, and a show and tell package. Now from here I don’t remember things all that well, at least not all the specifics, so this might get a little vague. Game one I start the banter pretty hard, straight up daring him to cast the show and tell, which got quite the response from him. Afterwards he told me he thought he had accidently flashed me cards (he hadn’t, unless you count me watching his first round). Either way, I got an early Elesh Norn into play off of a careful study and exhume. The careful study also drew me a daze, which I promptly forgot about when he tapped out turn 3 to cast the show and tell. I had been bluffing hard about having a relevant card in hand (well except the daze I forgot about until my draw step). After he put in a 5/5 Griselbrand, I managed to get an Iona on blue. Iona found no solace in double bolt after blocking the Griselbrand the following turn and I was unable to beat his choice pick of fourteen new cards. Game two we both keep awkward hands and he ends up unable to play magic for a couple turns. Finally he slipped up and accidently discarded a young pyromancer that I am able to reanimate and run away the game with. Game three I countered an early deathrite and reanimated it. It was a super tight game, but I finally was able to show and tell in a tidespout tyrant and ride him to victory in turns. I really enjoyed playing against this fellow and I was disappointed he wasn’t able to make it into the top eight.
Round 6 – Omni
At this point there were two 4-0-1’s (way to go Andy!), four 4-1’s (that’s me and Phil!), and three 3-1-1’s, so I was safe to draw in. Offered the draw, signed the slip, and then played a game of “I’ll show you my deck if you show me yours”. I spent the rest of the round clearing my head and learning the rest of the top eight. It was this point that I realized a high variance, horrible banter, and a lot of experience with saying **** it had delivered me to a top eight.
Quarter Finals – Maverick
Unfortunately Phil was number four and I was number five in the top eight, so we got the opportunity (that’s the sugar coated version) to play again. Game one I was able to play around a deathrite and scooze with a combination of a careful study putting two creatures in the yard and an entomb with an exhume on the stack, which got me an Elesh Norn to kill everything but the scooze. Game two involved me playing very sneakily with a careful study, exhume, and entomb to get a Grave Titan and an early scoop.
Semi Finals – Death & Taxes
Game one I got an early Elesh Norn and rode her to victory. Game two, I was careful studied and got an Empyrial Archangel early. Sadly though he was able to get a Sword of Fire and Ice into play and in combination with a flickerwisp, mirran crusader, and a Thalia with mom back up I was unable to get the win. I did however draw all four of my entombs, so that was pretty neat. Game three was extremely short, but it all came down to a critical careful study on my turn one. The choice was what did I want to discard, for I knew the first discard would be a Griselbrand. First option was the pithing needle, which if he had the karakas in hand I would need to stop. Second option was a mana source, I had a petal and land in hand, but if I wanted to be able to exhume and use needle in the same turn I would need to keep the petal and hope to rip a land. The third option was the other careful study (aka the only other blue card in hand for FoW), this option was the safest, unless he had something like surgical. In the end I choose to discard the careful study and was rewarded when his first land drop was a karakas and my draw was a show and tell. After playing needle naming karakas and exhuming Griselbrand, I was able to reveal the two remaining cards in hand to force the swords to plowshares and take home the win.
Finals – Shardless
At this point first was $400 and second was $200 plus both got an invite, so we agreed to a split and me being the gentleman I am, plus I was super hungry for Five Guys, I scooped it up and took second place. I’m definitely confident that reanimator is favored in the matchup, but I also know that it could be a long match and time was the determining factor when we had an hour and a half drive ahead of us and work in the morning.
There you have it. I can never complain when my pet deck delivers a win, so overall I would say it was a good day. Once again if you have any questions feel free to shoot them and I will do my best to answer them.
I brought back Ashen Rider about 6 times throughout the tourney and only once was it not enough and it was in the above image. Though Tidespout Tyrant wouldn't have been enough there either, for I was drawing mostly lands. What would've worked is Admonition Angel, but that would have only been that one game.
Sorry, you guys will have to wait a bit longer on the report. Like a smart person I've been writing bits and pieces of it when I have the chance since Monday and never saved it at any point. The real kicker is that my computer restarted while I was at work and I lost everything. Hopefully I can get everything rewritten by this weekend. Until then here at least is my list http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=72582
edit: here's a little taste of my loss in round 6 to jund depths
I cannot deny that I would rather present another threat then try to answer every attack they have. As for keeping awkward hands, odds are you will eventually hit a creature and getting to three mana is not an issue with this deck due to the number of cantrips we run. There are also very few decks that we just lose to if we Show and Tell against, but if you run ashen rider you don't have to worry much about it. Plus all of the decks that use Show and Tell to the fullest are decks we already have good matchups against. I also think that if you're not running Show and Tell you need to be running some number of animate dead in order to keep at least 10 ways of cheating a creature into play on the deck, but I do not feel good having anything I bring back be able to be hit by abrupt decay. I guess it all comes to how aggressive you want to play the deck. Would you rather wait and try to have some sort of control before going off or just throw your ***** on the table the first or second turn and say can you answer me in three turns or do I just win? Which if you choose he aggressive style I whole heartedly recommend lotus petals and Show and Tells.
The way I look at show and tell is that is necessary, for we can only run so many reactive cards before we dilute the combo too much. There are plenty of other decks that run way more counters then we do and can bring in more then their fair share of grave hate. Nothing feels worse then having to counter a piece of grave hate with your only fow them try to reanimate the next turn. I run show and tell for the same reason that some people run abrupt decay, it can answer nearly all the hate. Only difference is that city of traitors hurt the mana base far less than green duals and show and tell doesn't need to wait for them to play their hate. I personally could never imagine myself playing the deck without show and tell.
I believe that SCG uses a metal frame now. Either way as Pops said our group just uses a tripod with a webcam. Best buy sells some pretty nice ones that record in hd and have some nice built in mics. As for the tripod we bought a crappy one from Walmart that seems to be doing fine. The important part is the set up. If you put the tripod on the table just make sure it doesn't shake when people put their elbow on the table, take a card from your deck and slide it slowly around your recording area and see if you can read it in every spot, and finally do a quick record to see how the audio will be. Also if you plan on streaming make sure your computer can handle it, for the labtop we tried to use couldn't and it was a nasty surprise. Either way just do a quick google search and you can find everything you need to know.
Trying to revive this thread as i'm taking a pause from ANT and starting playing Shardless BUG.
Talking about the new kid in town: TNN vs Tarmo, who needs a spot?
I'm pretty biased toward TNN so i don't explicit my point of view before listen to your opinions...
- L
I still believe tarmogoyf is still the best beater of choice, solely for the reason that its CC is 2. It's called shardless bug for a reason and as such we need to build around it. Also it wouldn't be better then any other true-name deck, for we don't use equipment and we have no way to pump him. Plus nothing feels better then cascading into a goyf against an empty field with a full graveyard. I would need pretty compelling results to play true-name in this deck. If I want to play true-names I would run it with stoneforge, not here.
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Grave Titan
3 Griselbrand
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
2 Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy
1 Tidespout Tyrant
4 Brainstorm
4 Careful Study
4 Daze
4 Entomb
4 Exhume
4 Force of Will
4 Lotus Petal
2 Ponder
4 Reanimate
1 Show and Tell
2 Thoughtseize
1 Island
1 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
4 Underground Sea
3 Verdant Catacombs
SideBoard
2 City of Traitors
3 Show and Tell
2 Echoing Truth
2 Flusterstorm
2 Pithing Needle
1 Blazing Archon
1 Empyrial Archangel
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
I unfortunately did not take very good notes, for I wasn’t actually planning doing well (which I tried really hard not to). I also wandered down the street to a local bar a couple times throughout the tourney, so outside factors will also be deterring from this being an at least adequate report. I am also not going to give a good detail on my sideboarding every time, but I’ll let you in on a bit right now. I normally always board into the show package, except against other decks trying to cheat fatties or expensive enchantments into play. When doing that I normally take out 1 careful study, 2 reanimation effects (usually reanimates against burn, exhumes against combo, and one of each against everything else), and the 4th card I take out 100% depends on my opponents deck, what hate I think they will bring in, play or draw, and what mood I’m in. If you’re slightly good at math and have been paying attention, you will notice that I am boarding in 5 cards while only taking out 4. This is one hundred percent intended and I normally always board up to 61. I understand the math, or lack of, behind it and I have my reasons for it, but this isn’t the place for my views on that. On that note, the rest of the board feels straight forward to me, but I’m also just reeking of seat time with this deck. If you have any questions about sideboarding just ask, I promise I will only be slightly condescending.
Round 1 – Burn
Friend of a friend, so I knew he was on burn. I won the roll and kept an opener with an Iona and some cantrips. He led with a grim lavamancer then promptly started to bring the pain train with a lava spike and chain lightning (or some other bolt effect, they’re all essentially the same to this deck) on turn two. I finally drew the careful study on my turn 3, which got me my reanimate. I decided to go for it, as long as he didn’t have the fireblast I would be fine. Lo and behold he had the fireblast, which thankfully I had the daze for, but that didn’t matter because that pesky grim lavamancer now had all the fuel he needed. I quickly went from 3 to dead after one attack with Iona on Red. Game two was involved the single most enjoyable thing about this deck. I got to start with a turn one entomb for Iona, then as my opponent went for the top of his deck I got to say my favorite line “Oh, I’m not done yet.” And drop a petal and reanimate that Iona. He continued to play though, so that clearly meant he had the ensnaring bridge. I also can do basic math, so as long as he didn’t have simian spirit guide my daze in hand would be able to stop the bridge and get in the final attack. To be safe though I exhumed a Griselbrand on my turn 3 and promptly won by dazing the bridge on his turn. Game three I mulled into a hand with a delta, entomb, exhume, force of will, and 2 careful studies. I bottomed a show and tell on the scry. He lead with a goblin guide, which showed me another show and tell. I play delta and pass. He follows with a goblin guide and then another goblin guide. I heavily considered forcing here, but all I needed was one more land off of a guide and I could exhume on my turn and I was worried about surgical extraction. First guide trigger revealed a show and tell (yes that’s number 3 I’ve seen), so I crack delta with the other two guide triggers on the stack. Second guide revealed another show and tell (holy bouncing jelly beans!), so I entomb a sphinx of the steel wind. I went sphinx because lifelink, vigilance, and pro red are pretty awesome against 3 goblin guides and an opponent with a pretty full grip. Now the third and final guide trigger resolved and guess what it revealed, that’s right it was a brainstorm. Now it’s my turn, I’m at 11 life, I have a sphinx in the yard, an exhume in hand, and only 1 mana available. So I embraced the decks motto, said “F*** it” and jammed a brainstorm, knowing I would need to hit a land and a petal to avoid almost certain death next turn. I drew 2 petals and a Griselbrand, put back a careful study and the Griselbrand, and proceeded to windmill slam a sphinx into play. My opponent drops a mountain and a grim lavamancer, and I breathe a sigh of relief knowing I just won. The next couple of turns was just me beating with a sphinx and informing my opponent his double indeed does not kill Robo-Akroma. I spend the rest of the round talking with judges and scouting the field, which looked pretty favorable to me if I could avoid the couple miracles players, d&t, and the fine gentleman that rode with us to the event that was packing maverick.
Round 2 – Maverick
So this was the moment that I dreaded. The moment I saw a fellow Wisconsinite’s name scrolling next to mine, I knew I was about to lose. Phillip is the dreaded Maverick player that rode over with the group (I loaned him the karakas, damn my generosity will be my downfall!). I won the roll and kept an opener with multiple exhumes, an Elesh Norn, and some land. The plan was to discard it the hard way, but that was rendered irrelevant with Phil’s turn one deathrite. I then drew a careful study, but I without a guarantee of a petal I just couldn’t go for it. The turn two scooze though is what sealed the deal and I was unable to play around it. Game two I kept a hand with Sphinx, Elesh, two careful, a couple exhumes, an entomb and a land, so I was rather excited going into the game. Long story short after having to play very sneakily around a scooze and deathrite with a combination of careful study and entombs with exhumes on the stack, both my Elesh and sphinx met their demise to swords. I couldn’t be too angry though, for bad matchups are bad matchups and I played to my outs.
Round 3 – Rug Delver
As soon as the pairings went up I heard laughter from a familiar voice and I knew I was in for another round against a friend. This time however it was against my playtest buddy. These games went fast, for we were trying to be done before the match slips. The best part about playing against friends is you get to eliminate a lot of bluffing and leveling, for there’s just no reason in trying to fool people who can just read you like a book. I got it in two and Mike and I promptly went down the street to attempt to correct the tilt.
Round 4 – Ant
This round I got the pleasure to play against an amazing judge with an even better sense of humor, needless to say we knew what the matchup was. I forget who won the roll, but I was able to reanimate a Griselbrand putting myself down to eleven. I unfortunately did not have the force in hand when he started to go off the next turn. Due to a mistake in sequencing, I was able to pull ahead game one. The crucial point was when he cast a dark ritual with only a lotus petal up. I drew seven, going down to four life, but the only piece of counter magic I found was a daze. Forcing him to jump through the hoop however allowed me to win the game, for he was supposed to cast the rite of flame in his hand first. Game two I kept a hand where I would have to force myself to discard an Iona in order to get a creature in the yard. Unfortunately, he went off a turn too soon for me and I did not have the force of will to stop him. Game three I got an early Griselbrand and got one swing in before he tried to stop me. Unfortunately for Marc, my witty (influenced?) banter caused a slight miscalculation again when decided to dark ritual, which I countered with my known force of will, then with his last mana he attempted to chain of vapor my Gris. I drew seven and found the daze for it. After the game we went over the lines till we decided to take another stroll. Plus I figured the least I could do for Marc was to buy him a cold one, especially after having to play against me.
Round 5 – Grixis? Show & Tell
Finally a name I didn’t know and we were at table 2. Thankfully, I had seen him play against my friend in round one, so I knew he was being pretty sneaky. It was a really cool deck with deathrites, bolts, and a show and tell package. Now from here I don’t remember things all that well, at least not all the specifics, so this might get a little vague. Game one I start the banter pretty hard, straight up daring him to cast the show and tell, which got quite the response from him. Afterwards he told me he thought he had accidently flashed me cards (he hadn’t, unless you count me watching his first round). Either way, I got an early Elesh Norn into play off of a careful study and exhume. The careful study also drew me a daze, which I promptly forgot about when he tapped out turn 3 to cast the show and tell. I had been bluffing hard about having a relevant card in hand (well except the daze I forgot about until my draw step). After he put in a 5/5 Griselbrand, I managed to get an Iona on blue. Iona found no solace in double bolt after blocking the Griselbrand the following turn and I was unable to beat his choice pick of fourteen new cards. Game two we both keep awkward hands and he ends up unable to play magic for a couple turns. Finally he slipped up and accidently discarded a young pyromancer that I am able to reanimate and run away the game with. Game three I countered an early deathrite and reanimated it. It was a super tight game, but I finally was able to show and tell in a tidespout tyrant and ride him to victory in turns. I really enjoyed playing against this fellow and I was disappointed he wasn’t able to make it into the top eight.
Round 6 – Omni
At this point there were two 4-0-1’s (way to go Andy!), four 4-1’s (that’s me and Phil!), and three 3-1-1’s, so I was safe to draw in. Offered the draw, signed the slip, and then played a game of “I’ll show you my deck if you show me yours”. I spent the rest of the round clearing my head and learning the rest of the top eight. It was this point that I realized a high variance, horrible banter, and a lot of experience with saying **** it had delivered me to a top eight.
Quarter Finals – Maverick
Unfortunately Phil was number four and I was number five in the top eight, so we got the opportunity (that’s the sugar coated version) to play again. Game one I was able to play around a deathrite and scooze with a combination of a careful study putting two creatures in the yard and an entomb with an exhume on the stack, which got me an Elesh Norn to kill everything but the scooze. Game two involved me playing very sneakily with a careful study, exhume, and entomb to get a Grave Titan and an early scoop.
Semi Finals – Death & Taxes
Game one I got an early Elesh Norn and rode her to victory. Game two, I was careful studied and got an Empyrial Archangel early. Sadly though he was able to get a Sword of Fire and Ice into play and in combination with a flickerwisp, mirran crusader, and a Thalia with mom back up I was unable to get the win. I did however draw all four of my entombs, so that was pretty neat. Game three was extremely short, but it all came down to a critical careful study on my turn one. The choice was what did I want to discard, for I knew the first discard would be a Griselbrand. First option was the pithing needle, which if he had the karakas in hand I would need to stop. Second option was a mana source, I had a petal and land in hand, but if I wanted to be able to exhume and use needle in the same turn I would need to keep the petal and hope to rip a land. The third option was the other careful study (aka the only other blue card in hand for FoW), this option was the safest, unless he had something like surgical. In the end I choose to discard the careful study and was rewarded when his first land drop was a karakas and my draw was a show and tell. After playing needle naming karakas and exhuming Griselbrand, I was able to reveal the two remaining cards in hand to force the swords to plowshares and take home the win.
Finals – Shardless
At this point first was $400 and second was $200 plus both got an invite, so we agreed to a split and me being the gentleman I am, plus I was super hungry for Five Guys, I scooped it up and took second place. I’m definitely confident that reanimator is favored in the matchup, but I also know that it could be a long match and time was the determining factor when we had an hour and a half drive ahead of us and work in the morning.
There you have it. I can never complain when my pet deck delivers a win, so overall I would say it was a good day. Once again if you have any questions feel free to shoot them and I will do my best to answer them.
edit: here's a little taste of my loss in round 6 to jund depths
http://www.twitch.tv/sirbuehler
I still believe tarmogoyf is still the best beater of choice, solely for the reason that its CC is 2. It's called shardless bug for a reason and as such we need to build around it. Also it wouldn't be better then any other true-name deck, for we don't use equipment and we have no way to pump him. Plus nothing feels better then cascading into a goyf against an empty field with a full graveyard. I would need pretty compelling results to play true-name in this deck. If I want to play true-names I would run it with stoneforge, not here.