Thanks for the response. I think the guy was trying to be vague to fish a response or try to cover up he failed to maintain priority.
In tournaments players are assumed to pass priority after casting a spell unless they explicitly maintain priority. Since the first player failed to do that (trying to be vague instead), then they didn't maintain priority (but like I said, I don't see how that affects the legality of the plays as described).
I'll keep this mind in the future so I won't be subject to shady plays myself.
I was visiting a friend at his local LGS's weekly legacy event. They normally have a core group of 16 people every week and it's normally a very chill experience.
However last week they had a couple of new guys, they seemed like the extremely competitive type not really saying much and very much into the game.
I was sitting next to a Storm vs some blue combo deck in U/R colors but didn't scream Sneak and show. Storm player trying to do his combo and casts Infernal Tutor, doesn't say anything kinda looks like he's thinking.
His opponent goes: "Are you maintaining priority?"
Storm player simply goes: "It's on the stack."
This exchange goes on for about 1-2 more times before the non storm guy attempts to counter it but the storm guy tries to crack the Lion's Eye Diamond as if he maintained priority.
They start to get into an argument to the point where the storm player goes: "I had priority, I did not pass it to you, I merely said it's on the stack."
Turned into a shouting match and both of them were asked to leave. Kinda left a sour note on our day at our quiet shop in
How would you handle this situation if you were in this game?
I'm not a judge so I'm no rules expert. I'd imagine though this entire problem would have been avoided if the storm player had clearly stated he had priority. Would the lack of stating maintaining priority act as tacit passing of priority?
Back again. After GP Pittsburgh I realized I hate using Midrange decks in longer events. Modern Jund feels way too slow vs it's Legacy Counterpart.
I like to play competitively, money is not an issue at this point since I own most of the major staples. But I want a deck that wins pretty fast or my combo gets disrupted I can attempt to put it together and attempt to combo off again or just lose slowly.
The closest thing I can think of is Legacy Reanimator where it's very powerful and can win fast but it's sensitive to hate and I can get blown out.
I decided to use KMC Hyper Mattes double sleeved for my vintage deck. After the end of the tournament my hands were hurting and I actually had a papercut or two. Does anyone else find these sleeves a tad sharp?
I've posted in the forums a couple of times. However now I want to play Modern in a more competitive sense due to GP Pittsburgh coming out.
Jund has been the deck that introduced me to both Legacy and Modern however it's not a deck I like to use in longer events due to mental fatigue. In Legacy I used Reanimator and Painter in that role in tournaments. I was originally going to use Pod but I found out it was banned.
I guess I'm saying I want to avoid Midrange/Control decks and leaning towards Aggro/Combo.
Two catches:
Horizon Canopy seems to be the only card that has staple like qualities I do not own and am not willing to buy at the moment. Anything else is fair game.
No Delver Variants. I already loathe delver in legacy.
I had my on and off times with Magic. Back in 2001 right before I quit I bought at my LGS a "grab bag" for $45 bucks, I never opened them until 2013 because I was so fed up with Magic it just stayed in my closet. When I saw the grab bag it was filled with booster packs of different sets, most notably it had 2 P3K packs in it. I opened them up and it had an Imperial Seal and an Imperial Recruiter. I feel horrible for trading the recruiter I opened up for a playset of Promo ones but I actually got to play Imperial Painter doing so. And that very same Imperial Seal I opened is going to see play at Eternal Weekend.
A group of friends are planning to play in Eternal Weekend including the Vintage event itself. All of them are playing actual Vintage decks, I was the holdout for until now after playing MTGO Vintage it was pretty fun. I'd love to build Stax but for Sanctioned Play that's out of the question.
I own for vintage:
Black Lotus
Ancestral Recall
Time Walk
Mox Emerald
Imperial Seal
Tutors
I can build basically most of the major decks in Legacy including fringe decks like Lands. Of the major archetypes, what decks would actually benefit from the Power I own currently?
This is why I don't trade with people I don't know. I've already encountered a fake Guru Island at the LGS, the counterfeiters cannot fake the foilstamp on the set logo.
The delver variants basically play the same except you get cantrips to help flip delver faster.
BG(x) would play very similar depending on what era of Jund you played in. After DRS's banning I noticed Modern Jund had a lot more red cards. In Legacy Jund the amount of red spells are minimal besides punishing fire, BBE, lightning bolt, and random sideboard hate cards such as Ancient grudge.
Merfolk similar style of play but you get Forces! I feel like it's better in Legacy than it is in Modern unlike Affinity where its the other way around. Caverns and Chalice on 1 is backbreaking for your opponent.
Burn is the same except it's pure Red and it's probably faster as well. Though the lack of the r/g splash means leyline can still hurt. Eidolon has helped burn a lot.
Zoo...I think has been dead.
Affinity the Legacy version is okay but Delver is the better aggro deck a lot of the time. Tezzeret serves as a scary ass clock.
Reanimator is a completely different beast in Legacy. Modern has the Goryo's vengeance builds and Tin Fins is the only deck I know of that runs it in Leg.
Jund, Merfolk, or Delver are solid bets. If you play more Modern I'd recommend Jund and Burn. Legacy I'm more inclined to recommend the Delver variants.
Winning can only get you so far vs a foil Termagerf
I did something similar at a recent draft. I ended up running Mono-R but I had a foil Kozilek I raredrafted. Someone pointed out that someone did that in GP Chiba or something with an Ulamog.
Sire might be good mainboard for that T1 back breaking play, I keep him sideboarded.
Elesh usually is worth a mainboard slot as a lot of critters can be fried with her out.
Grave Titan I can only warrant mainboard if BUG or decks packing edict effects are rampant. Yes, Grave Titan is the fastest clock in Reanimator's typical creature repertoire but the effects of the fatties are stronger than simple P/T. It's sideboard material for me.
I keep Tidespout mainboarded as he serves as a way to react to some MB gravehate that you typically don't see coming, also helps with DnT's game 1.
I don't really like Dig Through Time. Game 1 you are supposed to be comboing out fast as possible making the card rather bleh. Then on games 2 and 3 you are dealing with grave hate further nullifying the card. Abrupt Decay is a great card for the sideboard so you might want to consider cutting the EE (too slow) for some kind of bounce spells. Bounce spells serve as a backup against hate you cannot deal with AD alone.
I was teaching Magic to a friend at the mall with some boosters I opened up. Comes this guy drops his damn bag on our playing surface and asks if we want to play. I put his bag on the floor and politely ask him to leave. He then proceeds to put down his FRF gameday mat saying: "I win a lot of my Magic games, do you even play in tournaments?". I told him yes I do and point to the GP Kyoto mat he dropped his bag on, he scoffs saying that it doesn't prove if I won or placed. I explain to him AGAIN that I'm trying to teach my friend magic and I'm not looking to play. The guy just keeps bragging and saying I'm no fun and scared. My friend is about to leave then I say: "Ok if I play and beat you will you go away?" The guy agrees.
I only have my Legacy Reanimator deck on me so I play with that. He's playing some...modern/standard deck I'm not sure what it was but obviously I curb stomp him. He then goes "it's not fair that deck uses cards I've never heard of." I tell him to piss off and kick his bag other way, going back to teaching my friend Magic. His whining and yelling actually attracted the attention of mall security and witnesses basically backed up our course of events and he was asked to leave.
I went to GP Kyoto with my cousin and we got to play 6 rounds before we had to get back to his place. I didn't play Reanimator since...I actually left the deckbox at the hotel when I was doing my last minute card count. Luckily I still had Jund in my bag, maybe it was fate that I use my old steadfast deck. I was relieved my Japanese was passable enough to get through the day.
Game 1- A slugfest in a half. I did not know he was the Dark Depths combo until I did a hymn and saw the dark depths get discarded. Ultimately punishing fire opens up the field for a BBE into Lightning bolt for lethal. This game takes up nearly 30 mins. Lingering souls is a friggin pain in the ass, I only have one maelstrom pulse!
-1 Sylvan Library (I'm not sure if this was the right call or not)
-3 Thoughtseize
-2 Hymn to Tourach
+2 Pernicious Deed
+2 Pithing Needle
+2 Ensnaring Bridge
Game 2- He mulls to 5. I have a hand set up for T1 DRS, T2 Lili, and T3 BBE (BBE, Lili, DRS, Wooded Foothills, Swamp, Abrupt Decay, Ancient Grudge). Unfortunately for me he pops down....Leyline of the Void x2. And a Mom. I manage to kill Mom through Lili but he brings down SFM and tutors up a sword of feast and famine (is this better than batterskull? I can abrupt decay the thing). I drop down a pernicious deed and my opponent pauses for a moment asking a judge what it was (I have the promo versions), he responds by pithing needling it. He gets a KotR and drops the sword on it. Before combat I decide to abrupt decay it so he only hits me for 4. I'm using Deathrite Shaman to keep me alive until I get ensnaring bridge which locks the game up as I only have 2 cards in my hand. Game ends on turns....as he was about to flash back a lingering souls.
Round 2- Miracles
Ok is the Miracles bracket seriously a thing? I've heard it as a joke amongst friends but I didn't think my first R1 draw would lead to this deck.
Game 1- I lose the flip and it's...well Island-Go. Could be any damn deck. I thoughtseize him and he forces ditching a counterbalance which leads me to assume...it's Miracles! Turn 2 he drops counter balance. I drop my land, DRS, and then pass. Then he drops the top, I respond by nuking his counterbalance. Poor bob cannot stick in this game, he gets STP'd twice and the last one gets hit by a blind counterbalance. Sylvan Library hits the field which lets me dig a little harder for something. I drop BBE into a 4/5 goyf when he tapped out. Only for his next turn to terminus them. I manage to kill him with two DRS for the next 3 turns just exiling sorceries and instants. I noticed as the game dragged on he never casted a single snapcaster mage, clique, or venser. This gives me an idea for game 2
-2 Hymn to Tourach
-2 Thoughtseize
-1 Jitte
-1 Punishing Fire
-2 Tarmogoyf (yes I sideboarded out two Goyfs)
+2 Pyroblast
+2 Extirpate
+2 Pithing Needle
+1 Chains of Mepis-That expensive card
+1 Pernicious Deed
Game 2- I suspect his only win cons are Jace/Entreat so I boarded accordingly. And as I figured his turn 3 move was a rest in peace. My opening hand was rather clunky I kept Chains, Top, extirpate, pyroblast, deed,and bayou. I drop a land and cannot answer the RiP (I really had no intention of doing much against it). For some reason I drew all three of my wastelands and not a creature related threat I manage to lock him out of extra blue mana. Amazingly my Chains resolves and my opponent for the rest of the game doesn't cast brainstorm. I got Pithing Needle on Jace. He entreats on his draw step putting down 4 angels. My next turn I throw down deed and he responds with a swan song and I pyroblast it. I deed for 0 as I want to keep my needle in the game and wiping his angels, then came my revenge I extirpate his entreat and I get to look at his deck. After extirpating his entreat his only way to beat me are two cliques and 3 jaces. All I got on the field really is a DRS, Goyf (lol 0/1), needle on Jace, and Chains. He has his lands, top, needle on Lili, and a Jace. I finally draw an abrupt decay after what seems like 10 turns to blow up his RiP. This lets goyf get bigger and this eventually kills him. It was basically draw go for the poor miracles player after that extirpate, I guess he was looking for those cliques.
Round 3- R/G Lands
As soon as I saw the exploration I knew I was in for pain.
Game 1- I thoughtseize him and see...gamble, gamble, taiga, dark depths, loam, tranquil thicket, and a tabernacle. I know this is not gonna end well. His tabernacle is taxing the crap out of me then I actually misplayed one turn and forgot to pay the tabernacle trigger causing me to lose both Shamans. I stick a Liliana fully ready to deal with his Marit Lage. He responds with punishing fire and gambles for something I don't know exactly what gets binned is a thespian's stage. His 20/20 gets to kill my as my his punishing fire engine was online killing my Lili.
-3 Punishing Fire
-1 Lightning Bolt
-3 BBE
+2 Extirpate
+2 Pithing Needle
+2 Ensnaring Bridge
+1 Life from the Loam
I keep an iffy hand of Extirpate, Bayou, Ensnaring Bridge, and Hymn. Lo and behold it was an incredibly iffy hand my bayou gets wastelanded. Thankfully the next two draws were fetches and I fetch up my basic swamp and forest. He drops down sphere of resistance and manabond. He dumps down Dark Depths (ugh), Maze of Ith (ugh), and a Horizon Canopy. I extirpate his Life from the loam when he dumps it to manabond yay! Bad news for me is that I really don't have any threats or lands at the moment to fight him. He drops a ghost quarter and nukes my swamp but luckily for him I have a 2nd swamp that I fetch up. I get a 3rd land and deathrite shaman and cast my ensnaring bridge. I feel pretty secure at this point. Then here comes the one thing to ruin my day. He Krosan grips my bridge leaving me utterly vulnerable. My best chance is to draw another bridge, loam, or pithing needle to stall. But luck wasn't on my side he gambles for a crop rotation I can only imagine and brings in the Stage. I had no lili's and I get 20/20'd.
Round 4- Burn
Another nightmare matchup kill me now, it was fast at least I was even able to write down everything of this whole match. I recognized the player from as he was in the same table area as me in round 2 so this changes my opening hand significantly. This is the only match I was able to do turn by turn notes.
I mulled for my Jitte to 4.
I keep a DRS, Jitte, Wooded Foothills, and Goyf.
T1 O: Mountain, Lava Spike
T1 M: Wooded Foothills, DRS
T2 O: Arid Mesa, Lightning Bolt I'm down to 13 he's at 19
T2 M: Badlands, Goyf at 3/4
T3 O: Mountain Chain Lightning down to 10 and Eidolon(ugh)
T4 M: Wasteland Cast and Equip Jitte down to 8 on Goyf he's down to 16. Use counters to go up to 12
T5 O: Lightning bolt he's down to 14 I'm down to 9, Eidolon attacks down to 7, and fireblast down to 3.
T5 M: DRS ability to 5, swing with goyf opponent is at 11, Jitte counters to 9. Punishing Fire to Eidolon down to 7 in retrospect should have killed eidolon first to make goyf bigger.
T6 O: Goblin Guide attacks down to 5. Revealing Thoughtseize (gee thanks)
T6 M: DRS up to 7, Goyf 4/5 now swings opponent down to 7. Counters up to 11.
T7 O: Mountain Searing Blaze killing my deathrite shaman. Down to 8. Goblin guide (leads to grove) leads me to 6.
T7 M: Grove, Grove ability opponent to 8 life. Punishing fire kills goblin guide. Opponent down to 4. Counters up to 10 life. Opponent concedes
-1 Thoughtseize
-1 Bloodbraid
-1 Dark Confidant
+2 Pithing Needle
+1 Ancient Grudge
I mulled down to 4 with no Jitte in sight. Keeping Bob, Bayou, Grove, and Goyf.
T1 O: Mountain Lightning Bolt down to 17
T1 M: Grove
T2 O: Mountain Lava Spike down to 14
T2 M: Bayou into Goyf 2/3
T3 O: Mountain into Searing Blaze killing goyf. I'm down to 11
T3 M: Wasteland, Bob
T4 O: POP I'm down to 4. Lightning bolt down to 1
T4 M: Bob reveals Goyf. Dead
I change nothing in the board.
I keep a Jitteless hand, my notes just said it had 2 basics in it. My notes get sloppy here as I was getting nervous
T1 M: Swamp Thoughtseize removing fireblast. I see mountain, fireblast (removed), goblin guide, lightning bolt, mountain, fireblast, lava spike. Down to 18
T1 O: Mountain Goblin Guide goblin guide attacks down to 16 revealing bayou.
T2 M: Bayou into Hymn. Removes a fireblast and Mountain
T2 O: Lava Spike down to 13. Goblin Guide down to 11.
T3 M: Forest, Lili -2 on Goblin Guide
T3 O: Mountain Lightning Bolt down to 8
T4 M: Grove BBE into Jitte (!!!!) opponent down to 17 with BBE
T4 O: Mountain, Grim Lavamancer
T5 M: Equip Jitte on BBE and DRS. Opponent down to 16 Jitte counter to kill Lavamancer.
T5 O: Lava Spike down to 7.
T6 M: DRS up to 10. BBE does 5 with a jitte counter. Up to 12 with jitte.
My notes stop here but it ends up winning due to Jitte.
Round 5 Painter
Abrupt decay is gonna be working hard here.
Ensnaring bridge lock is up but he has no grindstone to kill me with. So I'm staring him down with Goyfs and Bob. Eventualy Bob gets me Abrupt Decay and I murder him hard.
-3 BBE
-2 Sylvan Library
-2 Wasteland
-1 Punishing Fire
+2 Ancient Grudge
+2 Extirpate
+2 Pyroblast
+2 Pithing Needle
City of Traitors into Painter on Blue. I immediately blast his painter with my own pyroblast. That seems to put a damper on his plans as he drops a grindstone. I extirpate his painter the next turn and he concedes. Apparently he was a Mono-R build with wurmcoil engines.
Round 6- Esper Deathblade
I got a headsup from my cousin we would be leaving after this round. This matchup ended in a draw. Game 2 lasted longer than normal due to batterskull being a thing and my Jitte just gaining life.
After what I heard about GP Kyoto's meta I dodged the Omnitell matchups that would have eaten me alive.
There's a pretty funny Top 8 UR SneakShow vs UB Reanimator vid where they are in a disruptive standoff, the Reanimator player is hoping to exploit opponent's Show and Tell to go off, and the SneakShow player actually boarded out SnT for counters and digs into SneakAttack FTwhoops.
I learned that the hard way as well, I used to sideboard Gilded Drake against Sneak and Show then realized, they don't want Reanimator plays potentially dropping a fatty that can stop them also.
Back to the topic at hand. Reanimator has a toolbox based approach on their fatties and Sneak and Show is raw power.
I'll keep this mind in the future so I won't be subject to shady plays myself.
However last week they had a couple of new guys, they seemed like the extremely competitive type not really saying much and very much into the game.
I was sitting next to a Storm vs some blue combo deck in U/R colors but didn't scream Sneak and show. Storm player trying to do his combo and casts Infernal Tutor, doesn't say anything kinda looks like he's thinking.
His opponent goes: "Are you maintaining priority?"
Storm player simply goes: "It's on the stack."
This exchange goes on for about 1-2 more times before the non storm guy attempts to counter it but the storm guy tries to crack the Lion's Eye Diamond as if he maintained priority.
They start to get into an argument to the point where the storm player goes: "I had priority, I did not pass it to you, I merely said it's on the stack."
Turned into a shouting match and both of them were asked to leave. Kinda left a sour note on our day at our quiet shop in
How would you handle this situation if you were in this game?
I'm not a judge so I'm no rules expert. I'd imagine though this entire problem would have been avoided if the storm player had clearly stated he had priority. Would the lack of stating maintaining priority act as tacit passing of priority?
I like to play competitively, money is not an issue at this point since I own most of the major staples. But I want a deck that wins pretty fast or my combo gets disrupted I can attempt to put it together and attempt to combo off again or just lose slowly.
The closest thing I can think of is Legacy Reanimator where it's very powerful and can win fast but it's sensitive to hate and I can get blown out.
Jund has been the deck that introduced me to both Legacy and Modern however it's not a deck I like to use in longer events due to mental fatigue. In Legacy I used Reanimator and Painter in that role in tournaments. I was originally going to use Pod but I found out it was banned.
I guess I'm saying I want to avoid Midrange/Control decks and leaning towards Aggro/Combo.
Two catches:
Horizon Canopy seems to be the only card that has staple like qualities I do not own and am not willing to buy at the moment. Anything else is fair game.
No Delver Variants. I already loathe delver in legacy.
I own for vintage:
Black Lotus
Ancestral Recall
Time Walk
Mox Emerald
Imperial Seal
Tutors
I can build basically most of the major decks in Legacy including fringe decks like Lands. Of the major archetypes, what decks would actually benefit from the Power I own currently?
BG(x) would play very similar depending on what era of Jund you played in. After DRS's banning I noticed Modern Jund had a lot more red cards. In Legacy Jund the amount of red spells are minimal besides punishing fire, BBE, lightning bolt, and random sideboard hate cards such as Ancient grudge.
Merfolk similar style of play but you get Forces! I feel like it's better in Legacy than it is in Modern unlike Affinity where its the other way around. Caverns and Chalice on 1 is backbreaking for your opponent.
Burn is the same except it's pure Red and it's probably faster as well. Though the lack of the r/g splash means leyline can still hurt. Eidolon has helped burn a lot.
Zoo...I think has been dead.
Affinity the Legacy version is okay but Delver is the better aggro deck a lot of the time. Tezzeret serves as a scary ass clock.
Reanimator is a completely different beast in Legacy. Modern has the Goryo's vengeance builds and Tin Fins is the only deck I know of that runs it in Leg.
Jund, Merfolk, or Delver are solid bets. If you play more Modern I'd recommend Jund and Burn. Legacy I'm more inclined to recommend the Delver variants.
I did something similar at a recent draft. I ended up running Mono-R but I had a foil Kozilek I raredrafted. Someone pointed out that someone did that in GP Chiba or something with an Ulamog.
Sire might be good mainboard for that T1 back breaking play, I keep him sideboarded.
Elesh usually is worth a mainboard slot as a lot of critters can be fried with her out.
Grave Titan I can only warrant mainboard if BUG or decks packing edict effects are rampant. Yes, Grave Titan is the fastest clock in Reanimator's typical creature repertoire but the effects of the fatties are stronger than simple P/T. It's sideboard material for me.
I keep Tidespout mainboarded as he serves as a way to react to some MB gravehate that you typically don't see coming, also helps with DnT's game 1.
I don't really like Dig Through Time. Game 1 you are supposed to be comboing out fast as possible making the card rather bleh. Then on games 2 and 3 you are dealing with grave hate further nullifying the card. Abrupt Decay is a great card for the sideboard so you might want to consider cutting the EE (too slow) for some kind of bounce spells. Bounce spells serve as a backup against hate you cannot deal with AD alone.
I was teaching Magic to a friend at the mall with some boosters I opened up. Comes this guy drops his damn bag on our playing surface and asks if we want to play. I put his bag on the floor and politely ask him to leave. He then proceeds to put down his FRF gameday mat saying: "I win a lot of my Magic games, do you even play in tournaments?". I told him yes I do and point to the GP Kyoto mat he dropped his bag on, he scoffs saying that it doesn't prove if I won or placed. I explain to him AGAIN that I'm trying to teach my friend magic and I'm not looking to play. The guy just keeps bragging and saying I'm no fun and scared. My friend is about to leave then I say: "Ok if I play and beat you will you go away?" The guy agrees.
I only have my Legacy Reanimator deck on me so I play with that. He's playing some...modern/standard deck I'm not sure what it was but obviously I curb stomp him. He then goes "it's not fair that deck uses cards I've never heard of." I tell him to piss off and kick his bag other way, going back to teaching my friend Magic. His whining and yelling actually attracted the attention of mall security and witnesses basically backed up our course of events and he was asked to leave.
I went ultimately 3-1-2.
Creatures (15)
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Dark Confidant
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Lightning Bolt
4 Thoughtseize
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Sylvan Library
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Hymn to Tourach
3 Punishing Fire
1 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Liliana of the Veil
1 Wooded Foothills
2 Bayou
2 Swamp
3 Badlands
3 Bloodstained Mire
3 Wasteland
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Extirpate
2 Pithing Needle
2 Pyroblast
1 Chains of Mephistopheles
1 Life from the Loam
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Engineered Plague
2 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Pernicious Deed
Round 1- VS Dark Maverick
Game 1- A slugfest in a half. I did not know he was the Dark Depths combo until I did a hymn and saw the dark depths get discarded. Ultimately punishing fire opens up the field for a BBE into Lightning bolt for lethal. This game takes up nearly 30 mins. Lingering souls is a friggin pain in the ass, I only have one maelstrom pulse!
-1 Sylvan Library (I'm not sure if this was the right call or not)
-3 Thoughtseize
-2 Hymn to Tourach
+2 Pernicious Deed
+2 Pithing Needle
+2 Ensnaring Bridge
Game 2- He mulls to 5. I have a hand set up for T1 DRS, T2 Lili, and T3 BBE (BBE, Lili, DRS, Wooded Foothills, Swamp, Abrupt Decay, Ancient Grudge). Unfortunately for me he pops down....Leyline of the Void x2. And a Mom. I manage to kill Mom through Lili but he brings down SFM and tutors up a sword of feast and famine (is this better than batterskull? I can abrupt decay the thing). I drop down a pernicious deed and my opponent pauses for a moment asking a judge what it was (I have the promo versions), he responds by pithing needling it. He gets a KotR and drops the sword on it. Before combat I decide to abrupt decay it so he only hits me for 4. I'm using Deathrite Shaman to keep me alive until I get ensnaring bridge which locks the game up as I only have 2 cards in my hand. Game ends on turns....as he was about to flash back a lingering souls.
Round 2- Miracles
Ok is the Miracles bracket seriously a thing? I've heard it as a joke amongst friends but I didn't think my first R1 draw would lead to this deck.
Game 1- I lose the flip and it's...well Island-Go. Could be any damn deck. I thoughtseize him and he forces ditching a counterbalance which leads me to assume...it's Miracles! Turn 2 he drops counter balance. I drop my land, DRS, and then pass. Then he drops the top, I respond by nuking his counterbalance. Poor bob cannot stick in this game, he gets STP'd twice and the last one gets hit by a blind counterbalance. Sylvan Library hits the field which lets me dig a little harder for something. I drop BBE into a 4/5 goyf when he tapped out. Only for his next turn to terminus them. I manage to kill him with two DRS for the next 3 turns just exiling sorceries and instants. I noticed as the game dragged on he never casted a single snapcaster mage, clique, or venser. This gives me an idea for game 2
-2 Hymn to Tourach
-2 Thoughtseize
-1 Jitte
-1 Punishing Fire
-2 Tarmogoyf (yes I sideboarded out two Goyfs)
+2 Pyroblast
+2 Extirpate
+2 Pithing Needle
+1 Chains of Mepis-That expensive card
+1 Pernicious Deed
Game 2- I suspect his only win cons are Jace/Entreat so I boarded accordingly. And as I figured his turn 3 move was a rest in peace. My opening hand was rather clunky I kept Chains, Top, extirpate, pyroblast, deed,and bayou. I drop a land and cannot answer the RiP (I really had no intention of doing much against it). For some reason I drew all three of my wastelands and not a creature related threat I manage to lock him out of extra blue mana. Amazingly my Chains resolves and my opponent for the rest of the game doesn't cast brainstorm. I got Pithing Needle on Jace. He entreats on his draw step putting down 4 angels. My next turn I throw down deed and he responds with a swan song and I pyroblast it. I deed for 0 as I want to keep my needle in the game and wiping his angels, then came my revenge I extirpate his entreat and I get to look at his deck. After extirpating his entreat his only way to beat me are two cliques and 3 jaces. All I got on the field really is a DRS, Goyf (lol 0/1), needle on Jace, and Chains. He has his lands, top, needle on Lili, and a Jace. I finally draw an abrupt decay after what seems like 10 turns to blow up his RiP. This lets goyf get bigger and this eventually kills him. It was basically draw go for the poor miracles player after that extirpate, I guess he was looking for those cliques.
Round 3- R/G Lands
As soon as I saw the exploration I knew I was in for pain.
Game 1- I thoughtseize him and see...gamble, gamble, taiga, dark depths, loam, tranquil thicket, and a tabernacle. I know this is not gonna end well. His tabernacle is taxing the crap out of me then I actually misplayed one turn and forgot to pay the tabernacle trigger causing me to lose both Shamans. I stick a Liliana fully ready to deal with his Marit Lage. He responds with punishing fire and gambles for something I don't know exactly what gets binned is a thespian's stage. His 20/20 gets to kill my as my his punishing fire engine was online killing my Lili.
-3 Punishing Fire
-1 Lightning Bolt
-3 BBE
+2 Extirpate
+2 Pithing Needle
+2 Ensnaring Bridge
+1 Life from the Loam
I keep an iffy hand of Extirpate, Bayou, Ensnaring Bridge, and Hymn. Lo and behold it was an incredibly iffy hand my bayou gets wastelanded. Thankfully the next two draws were fetches and I fetch up my basic swamp and forest. He drops down sphere of resistance and manabond. He dumps down Dark Depths (ugh), Maze of Ith (ugh), and a Horizon Canopy. I extirpate his Life from the loam when he dumps it to manabond yay! Bad news for me is that I really don't have any threats or lands at the moment to fight him. He drops a ghost quarter and nukes my swamp but luckily for him I have a 2nd swamp that I fetch up. I get a 3rd land and deathrite shaman and cast my ensnaring bridge. I feel pretty secure at this point. Then here comes the one thing to ruin my day. He Krosan grips my bridge leaving me utterly vulnerable. My best chance is to draw another bridge, loam, or pithing needle to stall. But luck wasn't on my side he gambles for a crop rotation I can only imagine and brings in the Stage. I had no lili's and I get 20/20'd.
Round 4- Burn
Another nightmare matchup kill me now, it was fast at least I was even able to write down everything of this whole match. I recognized the player from as he was in the same table area as me in round 2 so this changes my opening hand significantly. This is the only match I was able to do turn by turn notes.
I mulled for my Jitte to 4.
I keep a DRS, Jitte, Wooded Foothills, and Goyf.
T1 O: Mountain, Lava Spike
T1 M: Wooded Foothills, DRS
T2 O: Arid Mesa, Lightning Bolt I'm down to 13 he's at 19
T2 M: Badlands, Goyf at 3/4
T3 O: Mountain Chain Lightning down to 10 and Eidolon(ugh)
T4 M: Wasteland Cast and Equip Jitte down to 8 on Goyf he's down to 16. Use counters to go up to 12
T5 O: Lightning bolt he's down to 14 I'm down to 9, Eidolon attacks down to 7, and fireblast down to 3.
T5 M: DRS ability to 5, swing with goyf opponent is at 11, Jitte counters to 9. Punishing Fire to Eidolon down to 7 in retrospect should have killed eidolon first to make goyf bigger.
T6 O: Goblin Guide attacks down to 5. Revealing Thoughtseize (gee thanks)
T6 M: DRS up to 7, Goyf 4/5 now swings opponent down to 7. Counters up to 11.
T7 O: Mountain Searing Blaze killing my deathrite shaman. Down to 8. Goblin guide (leads to grove) leads me to 6.
T7 M: Grove, Grove ability opponent to 8 life. Punishing fire kills goblin guide. Opponent down to 4. Counters up to 10 life. Opponent concedes
-1 Thoughtseize
-1 Bloodbraid
-1 Dark Confidant
+2 Pithing Needle
+1 Ancient Grudge
I mulled down to 4 with no Jitte in sight. Keeping Bob, Bayou, Grove, and Goyf.
T1 O: Mountain Lightning Bolt down to 17
T1 M: Grove
T2 O: Mountain Lava Spike down to 14
T2 M: Bayou into Goyf 2/3
T3 O: Mountain into Searing Blaze killing goyf. I'm down to 11
T3 M: Wasteland, Bob
T4 O: POP I'm down to 4. Lightning bolt down to 1
T4 M: Bob reveals Goyf. Dead
I change nothing in the board.
I keep a Jitteless hand, my notes just said it had 2 basics in it. My notes get sloppy here as I was getting nervous
T1 M: Swamp Thoughtseize removing fireblast. I see mountain, fireblast (removed), goblin guide, lightning bolt, mountain, fireblast, lava spike. Down to 18
T1 O: Mountain Goblin Guide goblin guide attacks down to 16 revealing bayou.
T2 M: Bayou into Hymn. Removes a fireblast and Mountain
T2 O: Lava Spike down to 13. Goblin Guide down to 11.
T3 M: Forest, Lili -2 on Goblin Guide
T3 O: Mountain Lightning Bolt down to 8
T4 M: Grove BBE into Jitte (!!!!) opponent down to 17 with BBE
T4 O: Mountain, Grim Lavamancer
T5 M: Equip Jitte on BBE and DRS. Opponent down to 16 Jitte counter to kill Lavamancer.
T5 O: Lava Spike down to 7.
T6 M: DRS up to 10. BBE does 5 with a jitte counter. Up to 12 with jitte.
My notes stop here but it ends up winning due to Jitte.
Round 5 Painter
Abrupt decay is gonna be working hard here.
Ensnaring bridge lock is up but he has no grindstone to kill me with. So I'm staring him down with Goyfs and Bob. Eventualy Bob gets me Abrupt Decay and I murder him hard.
-3 BBE
-2 Sylvan Library
-2 Wasteland
-1 Punishing Fire
+2 Ancient Grudge
+2 Extirpate
+2 Pyroblast
+2 Pithing Needle
City of Traitors into Painter on Blue. I immediately blast his painter with my own pyroblast. That seems to put a damper on his plans as he drops a grindstone. I extirpate his painter the next turn and he concedes. Apparently he was a Mono-R build with wurmcoil engines.
Round 6- Esper Deathblade
I got a headsup from my cousin we would be leaving after this round. This matchup ended in a draw. Game 2 lasted longer than normal due to batterskull being a thing and my Jitte just gaining life.
After what I heard about GP Kyoto's meta I dodged the Omnitell matchups that would have eaten me alive.
Split Second is always nice.
I learned that the hard way as well, I used to sideboard Gilded Drake against Sneak and Show then realized, they don't want Reanimator plays potentially dropping a fatty that can stop them also.
Back to the topic at hand. Reanimator has a toolbox based approach on their fatties and Sneak and Show is raw power.