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| 4 Wasteland 1 Karakas 4 Marsh Flats 1 Plains 4 Scrubland 6 Swamp 3 Vampire Nighthawk 4 Dark Confidant 3 Gatekeeper of Malakir 4 Stoneforge Mystic 4 Swords to Plowshares 1 Go for the Throat 4 Thoughtseize 1 Umezawa's Jitte 1 Sword of Body and Mind 1 Batterskull 4 Vindicate 2 Inquisition of Kozilek 4 Dark Ritual 4 Hymn to Tourach | Sideboard 3 Engineered Plague 3 Phyrexian Revoker 1 Relic of Progenitus 1 Enlightened Tutor 1 Serenity 1 Manriki-Gusari 1 Sword of War and Peace 1 Ghostly Prison 3 Bitterblossom | ||
Turnout: 32
Format: 5 swiss rounds with cut to T8
prizes: dual lands and wastelands for T4, sets of knight of the reliquary for T5-8.
report by: Jonlim
Match 1: thopter sword/scepter chant (w/u control shell)
Game 1 (I was on the draw)
Opponent keeps 4 lands, 2 scepters and 1 spell snare.
Turn 1 he plays a land and passes. I dark ritual, hymn to tourach eats spell snare, thoughtseize resolves and sees TWO Isochron Scepter and a bunch of land so I discard scepter.
The big turn was when my opponent topdecks orim's chant on turn 3 and pulls off the combo. Game over as I have no instant speed artifact removal or Krosan Grip effects.
SB: -4 Swords to Plowshares, -1 Go for the Throat, +3 Phyrexian revoker, +1 Enlightened Tutor +1 Serenity, opponent none (thanks to opponent for telling me this after the match, he claims he didn't see green so assumes I had no instant speed answer like Krosan Grip, which was correct)
Game 2 (I was on the play)
Opponent keeps 5 lands, Swords to Plowshares and Isochron Scepter. I mull to 6 due to no land hand.
Turn 1 only lands by both players.
Turn 2 dark confidant resolves but eats a Swords to Plowshares. Turn 3 vindicate a basic plains and play Umezawa's jitte. I was hoping to keep him down to 2 lands, which was successful in that aspect.
Turn 4
a timely Thoughtseize sees a grip of Isochron Scepter,Tezzeret, the Seeker and Thopter Foundry as notable cards. Several turns of wasteland activations and draw go, then opponent pulls off combo.
0-2 (0-1)
Thoughts:
My opponent admitted he got lucky with topdecks (pulls off combo despite all the disruption). He expected me to sideboard Leyline of Sanctity which i did not have, but I sheepishly pretended I did because I was embarrassed at being blown out so quickly without much of a response.
My friend who was spectating pointed out that in G2 I should not have vindicated the plains and saved it for Isochron Scepter instead. However, a good opponent would just wait for counterspell mana up as he knows my only answer is vindicate. No answers to combo in MD/SB (instant artifact removal may have helped). I really didn't expect to lose to this deck.
Match 2: u/g/b/w psychatog + life from the loam a.k.a loam-a-tog
Game 1 (I was on the play):
T2 Umezawa's jitte eats force spike,
T3 vampire nighthawk resolves. Opponent intuitions for 3 accumulated knowledge.
T4 a second vampire nighthawk eats a 2nd force spike, opponent plays psychatog. EOT I shoot a swords to plowshares which sees mental misstep, but I have a 2nd
swords to plowshares which resolves.
T5 he passes the turn without a play and my Hymn to Tourach eats a hardcast Force of Will (I didn't see that coming).
All this while my Vampire Nighthawk has been beating down dilligently as a lone clock. He uses Cunning wish for Fact or Fiction with 2 cards in hand in response to my topdecked Hymn to Tourach which I was intending to discard his hand with. The flipped cards were Life From The Loam, counterspell, force spike,lonely sandbar, cunning wish. I split counterspell and force spike on one side and the rest in the other. He picks the counterspell pile and uses counterspell so I know his hand only contains force spike. I thought i was in good shape as long as he didn't get a Vedalken Shackles or Engineered Explosives because he has both Life from the Loam and Academy Ruins in his graveyard which could spell trouble. And as luck would have had it, he topdecked a cunning wish which finds Enlightened Tutor for vedalken shackles, and despite a topdecked Vindicate which bought me a turn, the Life from the Loam/lonely sandbar/academy ruins/
vedalken shackles engine wins with him at 5 life left.
SB: + 3 phyrexian revoker, +1 relic of progenitus, +3 bitterblossom, -1 Go for the Throat -3 Vampire Nighthawk -3 Gatekeeper of Malakir, opponent none as he was using a Cunning Wishboard
Game 2 (play):
T2 Stoneforge Mystic resolves and gets batterskull.
Next turn I "Vial" in batterskull, and then attempt a relic of progenitus that forces a mental mistep. Confidant eats a
counterspell.
I hardcast a Sword of Body and Mind which resolves. The Stoneforge Mystic picks it up and goes to town hand-in-hand with Batterskull. The combined beatdown eventually gets me there.
At this point there was 10 minutes left in the round.
Me: 'We might not be able to finish the last game'
Opponent: 'Of course we will'
Me: *uneasy look*
Game 3 (play):
Opponent keeps a slow hand apparantly, has no answers to the T2/T3 Stoneforge Mystic/batterskull combo, despite an Accumulated Knowledge in response. Eventually I stick a Bitterblossom and a Umezawa's Jitte. Thoughtseize reveals a hand full of land. I must say there was good sportsmanship on my opponent's part because he could have time-wasted and it would have ended in a draw.
2-1 (1-1)
Thoughts:
Due to recursion engine in this matchup, discard is less effective. G1 was lost due to a lack of a fast clock, Vampire Nighthawk is too slow. Combined with Swords to Plowshares on his Psychatog (which he made into a 3/4 to gain 3 life), the clock is even slower.
The Life from the Loam/Academy Ruins/Lonely Sandbar/random artifact recursion engine is scary, he had so many outs apparently, I learnt that Engineered Explosives, Vedalken Shackles, and Pernicious Deed (if i recall correctly) were all present in his deck afterwards.
In other words, I should have lost this match.
Match 3: ubg landstill
Game 1 (I was on the play):
T2 An attempted dark confidant eats Force of Will pitching a Brainstorm, T3 vampire nighthawk resolves. T4 and attempted 2nd vampire nighthawk gets counterspelled, and then opponent has T4 jace, the mind sculptor bouncing nighthawk. Subsequently a gatekeeper of malakir unkicked and a dark confidant resolve, a thoughtseize gets
mental misstepped and I got to see what he was hiding: a pernicious deed 3-for-1s and kills dark confidant, gatekeeper of malakir, and vampire nighthawk. Jace, the mind sculptor cleans up.
SB: -3 vampire nighthawk, -3 gatekeeper of malakir, -1 go for the throat, +3 phyrexian revoker, +3 bitterblossom, +1 enlightened tutor
My opponent said he didn't sideboard as he decided his MD was equipped to deal with creature strategies well.
Game 2 (I was on the play):
I kept what i felt was a god hand. Swamp go, Flooded Strand go.
T2 swamp, dark ritual (resolves), hymn (spell snare), dark confidant (Force of Will pitching Spell Snare). I slumped in my chair.
To make things worse, T3 he played mishra's factory and standstill and i broke it with a hymn to tourach which eats a Spell Snare after the Standstill trigger on T4. He then proceeds to play another Standstill and at this point there was an air of inevitability. Several wastelands hit and another mishra's factory eats my topdecked Swords to Plowshares, but my opponent draws into lands and lands jace, the mind sculptor with a full hand. Scoop.
0-2 (1-2)
Thoughts:
My friend pointed out that my opponent's list was exceedingly similar to PV's list from the GP.
2 back to back standstills was game-changing in G2.
Match 4: Artifact Stompy a.k.a MUD
Game 1 (I was on the play):
My opponents mulligans once.
T1
Swamp into dark ritual into Inquisition of Kozilek on turn 1 seeing a grip of ancient tomb, mishra's factory, lodestone golem, ancient tomb, island, chalice of the void) and picked chalice of the void. Finished the turn off with a Hymn to Tourach (I wish I had pulled this off in G2 of the last match).
He lays land and passes.
T2
I lay a Scrubland and pass, he lands mox diamond pitching mishra's factory, city of traitors and a Lodestone Golem. EOT Swords to Plowshares on the Lodestone Golem.
T3
His board is now left with ancient tomb, mox diamond, city of traitors. I vindicate the ancient tomb with another vindicate waiting in my hand.
He sees that I'm trying to blow out his mana base and plays an ancient tomb which he just topdecked, killing his own city of traitors.
T4
I show him my second Vindicate on the new Ancient Tomb, he mana screws.
T5
Stoneforge Mystic fetching Batterskull. He scoops.
SB: +1 ghostly prison, +1 Enlightened Tutor, +1 serenity, -3 vampire nighthawk.
After the match he tells me he just brought in more Chalice of the Void.
I would have brought in Engineered Plague but I didn't see any Goblin Welder.
Game 2 (I was on the draw):
I kept a land-heavy slow hand but with Serenity in it.
T1:
Ancient tomb - Phyrexian Revoker naming Stoneforge Mystic.
I lay land with no play.
T2:
Mishra's Factory lands for him. Phyrexian Revoker crashes in. (me @ 18 life)
I lay land with no play.
T3:
Adaptive Automaton naming horror enters play, he attacks with Mishra's Factory and Phyrexian Revoker (me @ 13 life)
I lay a land and kick a gatekeeper of malakir, he thinks for a bit and sacrifices the Phyrexian Revoker.
T4:
He goes for broke this turn. Lodestone Golem + Phyrexian Metamorph copying the golem. Now he has a total of 14 power on the board (5/3, 5/3, 2/2 (Adaptive automaton), 2/2 (mishra's factory)) while I have a lone gatekeeper of malakir.
I decide to drop my serenity now, and tap 4 lands to do so.
T5:
All in swing! 5/3, 5/3, 2/2, 2/2. Gatekeeper of malakir trades with mishra's factory and I fall to 1 life.
Serenity Resolves and 3-for-1s.
I then land back to back Vindicates on his lands while his hand has no gas. I stoneforge mystic into batterskull and he scoops before I even get to 'vial' batterskull into play.
2-0 (2-2)
Thoughts:
Despite the score I would say the games are rather close. I won G1 on the back of fast discard to take out all his gas, and G2 i kept a slow hand with serenity and fell to 1 life before stabilizing. I'm glad i cast that enchantment at exactly the right time.
Outcome:
Following this I dropped from the tournament as there was no chance of making T8 at 2-2, even if i won the next match at 3-2 it wouldn't be enough.
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