Tuesday 11 August 2009

Tournament Report - Nationals LCQ standard

By Jim Marlow

Hey everyone,

The TLM blog repot on the past week's festivities begins sadly with my failure to grind into nationals last wednesday with 5 colour control. Im afraid that after a promising 3-0 start i ended up dropping at the slightly dissapointing 4-3, which was a huge shame. This is another example of me getting getting a good start of stringing wins together then for some reasons proceeding to lose a succession of rounds, which is a bit worrying as i need to work on capitalising the promising starts which i can produce at magic events.

My notes on the matches are a little hazt because i am usually to engrossed to make any solid notes, especially when losing (maybe this is a reason for losing and not because im losing....), and its proved hard to decipher what i mean by scribbled words a week of intense magic playing later where almost all recolection of the tournament has left my minute brain.

Here is the list which i ran for the LCQ, following a hugely successful and solid 2 day testing period before the event.

2 x broodmate dragon
1 x baneslayer angel
3 x plumeveil
2 x mulldrifter

4 x cryptic command
3 x broken ambitions
2 x negate
4 x esper charm

2 x ajani vengeant
1 x jace beleren
3 x cruel ultimatum
1 x obelisk of alara

2 x volcanic fallout
2 x firespout
2 x hallowed burial

4 x vivid creek
3 x vivid marsh
2 x vivid meadow
2 x vivid crag
4 x reflecting pool
3 x sunken ruins
2 x mystic gate
2 x cascade bluffs
1 x exotic orchid
3 x island

S/B

3 x runed halo
2 x identity crisis
2 x jace beleren
2 x firespout
2 x volcanic fallout
4 x great sable stag


The list i ran was totally solid, with the only minor alterations i would make being that i would run all 3 baneslayers as finishers, because it's just sick, and i would run a 3rd hallowed burial in the board over a firespout, as well as reintroducing a couple of thought hemorrhage's into the board, which i was undecided on the night before (although as it happened the choice to leave them out was irrelevent)

Here's my sideboard plan for the list

Vs 5cc

Out
2 x volcanic fallou
3 x plumeveil
2 x broodmate dragon
2 x firespout

In
2 x jace beleren
2 x identity crisis
4 x great sable stag
1 x runed halo


Vs UB Fae

Out
2 x hallowed burial
1 x cruel ultimatum
2 x firespout
2 x broodmate dragon
1 x obelisk of alara

In
4 x great sable stag
2 x jace beleren
2 x volcanic fallout


Vs Kithkin / combo elves

Out
1 x obelisk of alara
2 x cruel ultimatum
1 x broken ambitions

In
2 x volcanic fallout
2 x firespout


Vs Jund / Blightning

Out
2 x negate
1 x jace beleren
2 x cruel ultimatum

In
2 x firespout
3 x runed halo


Round 1 - Chris - Doran

Game 1 - I lose the die roll and go to 6, which is exacerbated by a turn 1 thoughtseize from my opponant, which strips the esper charm from my hand, the only other spell im holding being cruel ultimatum (loose keep amirite?), i draw an esper charm to draw some more and manage to find a hallowed burial for chris' doran and chameleon colossus, which is nice. Chris finds more gas but i have my turn 7 cruel waiting, and thats a pretty lucky win from a bad spot.

Game 2 - turn 1 thoughtseize rips a hallowed burial this time, and another turn 3 doran hits me for 6 with a heirarch on board. More gas and no immediate answer makes this game a quick blowout for my opponant, crap

Game 3 - Chris again finds action with doran, and gets in for 5 putting me to 15. My sable stag seems like a sweet answer, although the chameleon colossus is annoying. My plumeveil envokes a pump leaving me able to cast ajani to keep the colossus tapped with stag on defense......no maelstrom pulse draw means im pretty safe here. Eventually chris finds more creatures but right on cue i can firespout and helix meaning my cruel ultimatum leaves Chris cardless, creatureless....and very shortly thereafter....lifeless!

Round 2 - Lewis - 5cc

Sadly i cant remember a lot from this match because lewis is a pretty awesome guy, who beat me last year with RDW in this very competition. Sadly all this chat means i didnt really write anything about the match down, although i basically got on top via superior card draw, made lands which resulted in the resolution of cruel ultimatums....something which sadly evaded me for the many 5 colour mirrors which followed.

Round 3 - Peter Rodway - Kithkin

Kithkin is a pretty good match for my deck and this was a nice surprise after the mirror the last match. No mulligans from me and 10 wrath effects post board made this round a pretty simple affair. I later saw peter win a feature match against Neil Rigby so i dont think for one second that i faced a bad opponant, so i think i could have dodged a potential bullet by winning this round.

Round's 4 and 5!!!! two subsequent 5 colour mirrors....


These two rounds were both losses for me, basically through a combination of bad mulligan decisions (debatable really, but certainly still one of my flaws as a player) and, certainly in the 5th round a bad reaction to the round 4 loss having felt unbeatable in the first 3 rounds even though i was behind in some of the matches.

In round 5 i had to mull to 4 in the first game, keeping a hand of just cascade bluffs and 3 spells, including cruel ultimatum. I made land drops on turns 3 and 4, and a draw spell. From here, i managed to resolve a turn 7 cruel ultimatum and lose the match....as turns 6 and 7 broodmates made it difficult. I find out my opponant kept a 5 land and broodmate dragon 6 as his opener, urgh!

More mulligans in game 2, but this time my opponant had gas and i didnt have a chance......


In round 6 i beat another kithkin deck before losing my 3rd out of 4 mirrors in round 7 and dropping from the tournament.


Overall i was hugely disappointed because my modifications to other decklists around was meant to ensure i had an edge in the mirror but sacrificed some percentage against random aggro decks such as jund and kithkin by not packing spot removal. It was really annoying to lose 3 mirrors, as i was well on top of my deck but i was forced to mulligan and missed important lands drops when the top of my deck offered little help.


So that was it, all hopes of nationals dashed by the deck i came to beat, ironically. Overall i think i probably didnt recognise that as much maindeck hate for 5 colour you put into your own build, the matches are still very much decided by drawing more cards and playing more lands. In one 5 colour mirror i kept a game 1 hand of double plumeveil, firespout, hallowed burial and 3 lands. If i was playing any other deck than 5 colour control im in fantastic shape here i am basically a huge favourite.....luckily for me my opponant makes turn 1 vivid, i miss my 5th land and lose the game, the BEST!

overall, if you expect 5 colour, dont play 5 colour yourself, just beat it with another deck.

Hope you enjoyed this, more stuff to follow.


See you all soon


Until then,


Jim


As always, feel free to comment on this article, or on anything related or unrelated to magic whatsoever. If you would like to contribute to the TLM blog, please email any ideas, pictures, articles or anything else to ss07jm@leeds.ac.uk

3 comments:

  1. I think in your second match I was watching and you played really tight. You Identity Crisised him with double Cruel still in hand if I remember correctly. Sickness.

    Also, Island Ornithopter Tome Scour you, go!

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  2. iv consulted with some pro friends of mine (antti), and he agrees that island, ornithopter, tome scour is probably the strongest play in multiplayer winston.

    Also, yeah, first 3 rounds felt so tight. I think i need to be able to take a loss on the chin, as it seems when i lose it tends to lead to more losses.

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  3. Defo. The ability to smile, congratulate your opponent and shrug off the match is a good thing to be able to do. Still need to learn from mistakes but not letting them get you down is the key.

    ReplyDelete