By Rob Catton
Hi everyone, this is the first article I've written for this blog, and hopefully it wont be the last! For those of you who don't know me, my name is Rob Catton, a Leeds WNM regular. I started playing Magic back in Morningtide (not too long ago!) and have played in multiple PTQs and GPTs since, with a single top 8 at Coventry last year.
A couple of weeks back, I ran Pat Chapin's UW control deck at the Newcastle nationals qualifier; the first of the season. I knew the deck to beat was Jund, and as such I knew my deck had to have a decent game, and a hopefully positive postboard matchup. With a few amendments to the sideboard, including the somewhat 'janky' Telemin Performance for the mirror, I was set. In the second last round, where I had to win out, me and my Polymorph opponent came to a stalemate after extra turns where he had me dead on board, with me having few outs. Completely forgetting there was another round after this, I caved in to his pressuring and gave him the 2-1 win. I was later informed that I could have still made it with a draw and a win.
Meh.
I decided to take a postive mindset after this disaster; my deck had performed pretty well up until the later stages of the tournament, where my concentration had took a turn for the worst, and I had effectively crapped out. This was later to be known as 'doing a Catton'.
Not happy with how slow my list was, I scoured the internet for a better list, more ideas. GP Brussels saved me here, as hiding in the undefeated decklists for day 1 was a neat UW list. This list was a mere 5-6 cards away from my prior list and I was comfortable with trying this out. For reference, here is the deck list.
3 Day of Judgement
2 Martial Coup
2 Mind Spring
1 Path To Exile
3 Cancel
2 Essence Scatter
2 Flashfreeze
4 Treasure Hunt
4 Baneslayer Angel
4 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
3 Oblivion Ring
4 Everflowing Chalice
4 Celestial Collonnade
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Halimar Depths
2 Island
5 Plains
4 Tectonic Edge
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Marsh Flats
1 Arid Mesa
===
Sideboard:
4 Kor Firewalker
2 Elspeth, Knight Errant
3 Negate
2 Flashfreeze
2 Celestial Purge
1 Mind Control
1 Perimeter Captain
After a lot of intensive testing against Jund, piloted by Rob Wagner, I was confident the matchup wasn't terrible, which therefore made the deck a lot more viable for the metagame, as the only decks I think I lose to are Mill and Time Sieve. But that is a small price to pay as those decks lose to Jund (despite all this editor's efforts).
Me, Andy Devine, Kier Teasdale and John Ingham drove up to Manchester early on the Saturday morning, sharing fruitful stories as ever; you who know Andy will know what I'm talking about (editor: 'fraid so :p)!
Round 1 : Esper Control
I haven't seen this guy around tournaments before and he says he has just recently started again, which makes sense; you never quit magic really. Game one takes quite a while, going back and forth as 3 of my Baneslayers get path'ed. Sadface. I end up taking the first, after a Treasure Hunt for 7 (!), and the help of my Celestial Collonnades and Jace keeping him from drawing anything relevent. We have about ten minutes left, and the option of playing defensively goes through my mind, to end up with the 1-0 win, but i dont think I have that option as he starts beating down with Creeping Tar Pits quite quickly. Unable to find a Tectonic Edge, despite Jace's best efforts, I decide I have to race him with my Collonnades too. I eventually get overwhelmed by his army of creatures which I can't Oblivion Ring. Game 3 goes to time and I'm relatively OK with the draw - it's not a loss!
1-1
0-0-1
Round 2: RW Jundkiller
My opponent complains about not being paired against Jund round 1 and losing to UW control. I mental fist-pump, and start the match. He gets a fairly good start going with Stoneforge Mystic and Kor Firewalker beating me down, but he cant dodge the DoJ, and I clean up easily with a Baneslayer Angel, helped along by a Cancel for his Path to Exile. I sideboard in 3 Kor Firewalkers as I saw some burn in game 1, and manage to draw all three (how lucky) against him. I beat him to death with a pair of them and Jace makes sure he draws lands every turn.
2-0
1-0-1
Round 3: UW tap-out control
I ask my opponent what his record is, and he tells me he's 2-0, which is surprising as I was paired down last round. I figure this is good for me as my tiebreakers will be better if I beat him. Anyway, the game starts as I would like - him doing nothing for ages and me having counterspells in hand. He Paths something like 3 of my Baneslayers and I slowly start to run out of gas. He goes for a huge Mind Spring, for 8 I believe, and my Essence Scatters in hand feel stupid. That just about ends game 1, as he Martial Coups my Martial Coup soldiers for 9 and I can't find an answer. I bring in 3 Negates and 2 Elspeth. I ponder over bringing in a Mind Control, but figure his Jaces can just bounce the creature back to his hand anyway. I feel like I'm about to win in this game, as I manage to win a counter war over my Mind Spring for 7. The 7 I drew were 6 land and an Everflowing Chalice... Wish I had a Treasure Hunt right there. He gets a little nervous about my 6 card hand to his 3 cards, but his Iona totally caught me off guard, and the Negate for my Jace sealed the game. Should have brought in that Mind Control.
0-2
1-1-1
By this point, Team Leeds are doing exceptionally well, with Andy Edwards on 3-0, and hardly anyone else with more than 1 loss.
Round 4: Naya Allies
I don't know what my opponent is playing, but I put him on allies because of the seemingly casual appearence of him... OK he flashed me an Oran-Rief Survivalist during shuffling. I feel good about this matchup as a Day of Judgement wrecks them and they have only a few outs to Baneslayer. Game one he gets the ball rolling with turn 2 Hada Freeblade turn 3 Akoum Battlesinger, but then walks right into my Wrath, even though I revealed it to him with my Treasure Hunt. Awkward (editor: love the 1-1-1 bracket). Baneslayer comes down a few turns later meaning he can't attack with his Bloodbraid and pals. He looks happy when I attack with my Angel, perhaps he had a sick turn to pump all his allies or suchlike. He wasn't happy to see the second Baneslayer. Game 2 was a little anti-climatic, as i got a turn 3 Jace and stopped him from drawing his third land.
2-0
2-1-1
Round 5: UW tap-out control
I know my opponent is playing UW tap-out as I saw one of his earlier games. I think this matchup varies on draws, as it is usually going to be decided on Celestial Collonnades or one of the X spells in the deck. His turn 2 Spreading Seas on my Collonnade was awkward, I kinda needed that blocker as he proceeded to later in the game beat me down with his Collonnade while ignoring my Jace. I went right down to 6 life from the Serra Angel beats, only to land my third Baneslayer unopposed. Needless to say, Baneslayer wins when it is unopposed. I end this game with 21 mana on the table, I drew all 4 of my Everflowing Chalices, and wonder if Banefire and a Mountain should be in my sideboard... Anyway, I learn from my past sideboarding against UW tap-out, and bring in the Mind Control. This game was pretty nuts, and in my favour. All I have written on the notepad is that I go to 19 from a fetchland, and he goes 20 to 12 to 0. Thats 2 attack steps ladies and gentlemen. I manage to land an early Jace again, as he taps out for a turn 3 Borderpost (hard cast). My Jace stops him from drawing any land, which was my plan in this matchup. I Tectonic Edge him off his second blue mana, and resolve an Elspeth, which is usually good enough. This leaves him a small window to resolve his Baneslayer, and from the look on his face it might be his last out, as the Knight of the White Orchid he got down earlier is just getting chumped every turn. I end the game with a Baneslayer of my own, and Mind control on his Baneslayer.
2-0
3-1-1
It's around about now I get a text from Fu, as is customary during events. "Ornithopter?" was all the text said. It took me a couple of minutes to figure out what code Fu was talking in; Ornithopter is a 0/2. So the question was, am I 0-2? I send back "Goblin Deathraiders.. and a draw!" It's funny 'cos it's Fu (editor: :D).
Round 6: Naya (Andy Devine)
It's always going to happen, playing a fellow Leeds player. I think this is like the 6th time I've played Andy in a non-WNM sanctioned tournament. Anyway, got to treat it like any other matchup, and I get my game face on. Andy wins the die roll, and starts with a Raging Ravine, a good card vs control. I match his man-land with one of my own and pass the turn. He gets to land a Trace of Abundance here and I worry that will cause me trouble later in the game. See, a manland that gets incrementally larger every time it attacks and I can't Tectonic Edge it because it has shroud? Awkward. Anyway, I play an Everflowing Chalice for 1 and pass. He doesn't draw a land, characteristic of playing against me; Andy usually gets mana screwed. Anyway, he gets a Knight of the Reliquary down and gives the turn back to me. Oblivion Ring takes care of the Knight and Halimar Depths sorts out my next draws. The game goes quite long, and Andy starts attacking me with the Raging Ravine. It gets to a point where the only creature he has is the ravine, and I'm on 4 life. I can't play baneslayer and block, the Ravine will be a 6/6 by then. So I do some maths, and calculate that if I play Everflowing Chalice for 2 and chump block with my Celestial Collonnade, I will have 10 mana next turn for double Baneslayer. Unfortunatly, I don't factor in that I will lose a land in this process and end up with 9 mana! I have to turn to the Jace I have in play and Brainstorm up a Martial Coup, which buys me enough time to win this close game. I don't have many cards in my sideboard for Naya, but I decide that the Perimeter Captain, Perry Metre (ed: yays!), will match his Wild Nacatls quite nicely,and bring in just him. I land good ol' Perry turn 1 and he did a good job fending off the Cats and Bloodbraids that could potentially come my way. Again, Andy got the turn 2 Trace of Abundane on Raging Ravine, but you just can't race Baneslayer.
2-0
4-1-1
Round 7: RB Burn
This is it, final round; win and in. My opponent seems calm about the match, but I think it's more because he doesn't mind either way, win or lose. He also flashes me a Hellspark Elemental during shuffling, and I feel good about this; I have 9 cards to bring in! Game one I lose to a very quick draw, Turn 1 Goblin Guide, T2 Hellspark Elemental, T3 Ball Lightning, T4 and T5 Hell's Thunder. I bring in 4 Kor Firewalker, 1 Perimeter Captain, 2 Flashfreeze, and 2 Celestial Purge. I ditch all the slow cards, like Day of Judgement, Martial Coup, Essence Scatters and 2 of the OblivionRrings. I mulligan to 6 in game 2 and keep a somewhat dodgy hand of Misty Rainforest, Tectonic Edge, Treasure Hunt, Baneslayer Angel, Flashfreeze, Everflowing Chalice. Luckily, my Treasure Hunting was good on turn 2, finding me 3 white lands and a Perry Metre. The Perimeter Captain blanks my opponent's Goblin Guide and he has no plays for a while, allowing me to land double Baneslayer. He plays an unkicked Goblin Ruinblaster, despite having the mana to kick it. After I block, he happily plays Searing Blaze on my Baneslayer that blocked. I announce I'll take the 3 damage from the searing blaze and he looks confused as to why my Baneslayer is still alive; first strike? Game 3, my opening hand looks pretty sweet, with Perry Metre staring back at me yet again. He ends up only playing Goblin Guide, as my turn 3 Jace stops him from drawing his third land, and I end up ultimating him with 3 counter spells in backup.
2-1
5-1-1
And that's it! After a lot of pats on the back and collecting my £25 store credit prize, I've qualified for Great British Nationals. I feel pretty good about this and that my work in testing has paid off.
Props
To Kier for driving all the way there and refusing payment for doing so!
Andy Edwards to playing despite being on crutches.
To the +80 points I'll get to my rating.
The staff at Fanboy3, Manchester.
Slops
Nothing (editor: how lame, he'll learn)
Showing posts with label Nationals Qualifier. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nationals Qualifier. Show all posts
Monday, 5 April 2010
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
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
Monday, 18 May 2009
Faeries for regionals.....really bad!
By Jim Marlow
Hey everyone,
So after building and attempting to test a few decks for the weekend i settled on faeries. It is a fairly hostile environment at the moment for the blue menace, because standard at the moment is currently two types of decks.
1) decks with windbrisk heights and spectral procession
2) decks that wrath the tokens and play fat men
The problem is that both of these types of decks are quite good against fae, because obviously the current favourable wrath effects (jund charm, volcanic fallout) are pretty good against me too.
However, i am pretty good with the faeries deck, and it certainly can contain any deck that falls into the above categories, because i was pretty sure i knew how to beat them.
The spectral decks are pretty tough and i think broken ambitions is key in containing the spectrals if you can, but if one resolves it is not the end of the world, because i think jace is good here as digging for the mistbind cliques which are just ridiculous against all the white deck. If a spectral procession resolves then you can not let ajani or glorious anthem resolves, because as soon as tokens are out of infest range you pretty much have to scoop.
The other decks around, jund, 5cc, are a little bit easier to play i think because they are slower, which makes jace a lot better, and by not commiting to much to the board their jund charms etc are worse, its not the end of the world to let them charm some tokens away. Scion isnt at his best here, but obviously serves to support the sowers and bitterblossoms from getting maelstrom pulsed, which is fine.
So overall i thought that a combination of probably being on top of the way i want to play faeries today and that the field on the whole wouldnt be too strong i felt quietly confident that i can get a couple wins, and if i can dodge some bad matchups there was no reason why it wouldnt get me there.
Here is the list i played
4 x mistbind clique
4 x spellstutter sprite
3 x scion of oona
3 x vendilion clique
4 x bitterblossom
4 x cryptic command
4 x broken ambitions
3 x peppersmoke
1 x terror
3 x thoughtseize
2 x jace beleren
4 x secluded glen
4 x sunken ruins
4 x mutavault
2 x underground river
8 x island
3 x swamp
S/b
4 x infest
2 x deathmark
2 x scepter of fugue
3 x sower of temptation
2 x puppeteer clique
1 x loxodon warhammer
1 x jace beleren
Round 1) - Daniel - Boat Brew
Game 1 - The only game of the day where i got turn 2 bitterblossom, but my hand was pretty much the nuts here, as i also had a broken ambitions for his spectral procession, which i knew put me well ahead. His ranger of eos got him 2 figures, but my hand was double spellstutter sprite and double mistbind clique, so each of his figures met a sprite, and then i time walked 2 turns to bash some face.
Game 2 - I kept a 3 land hand with double infest and jace, and 1 other. I made my turn 3 jace and drew, and my opponant made spectral procession, which was ok..but i hadnt drawn another black source yet and if he made ajani i needed to deal with them pretty quickly. Another draw from jace still didnt get me there, but my opponant got stuck on 3 lands luckily, and turns 4 and 5 he played spectral processions!! Facing down 9 tokens was a bit poo, especially when he found a windbrisk heights on turn 5, so i tried a mistbind clique to at least stop the heights. Luckily for me, my opponant let the champion happen then path to exiled my clique, so although i got bashed down to 6 life i could untap and infest his guys, with the mana for my newly drawn broken ambitions to stop the 4th spectral procession of the game being played. From here i gained control, and my opponant didnt get the top decks he needed.
Round 2) - Stephen - RDW
RDW round 2, crap. Obviously winning round 1 is pretty good, but i was more happy that i would probably not face red, and almost definately not if i won round 2. I only had the warhammer as any kind of out against red, and i dint see it and was never in either of the games i played. Game 2 i kept a dodgy 6 which would have been awesome if i drew a 3rd land, but sadly i didnt draw this in 4 turns, and having to broken ambitions to clash for a land and fail isnt great, especially when you mill a demigod and 2 hellspark elementals into your opponants graveyard.
Sorry i dont have more information on the games but they were both pretty much blowouts, heres all the notes i have for game 2.
Im on the play, keep 7. Opponant mulligans to 6.
ME
16
5
Loss.
Round 3) - Dan - g/w overrun/aggro
Dan's deck was a bit weird, i cant remember if i saw a spectral procession of a cloudgoat ranger, but he was definately playing overrun but it seemed he was playing it with a g/w aggro deck with quasali pridemage, knotvine paladin and kitchen finks.
I would have been much happier to be facing g/w tokens because my infests are pretty much no good against Dan's guys as soon as he gets either a wilt leaf liege or an ajan goldmane in play. Sadly for me i could not stop turn 4 ajani goldmane in either game 2 or game 3, and this pretty much had me boned.
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So 1-2 drop certainly wasnt the droid i was looking for, and it wasnt to be 3rd time lucky. I felt a little bit unlucky because my two losses were to very hard matchups, but then again maybe it was down to my (partially known) illogical metagame choice of faeries for the day.
Congratulations to Kier for qualifying with you hilarious land destruction ramp deck, deus of calamity and especially lavalanche pulling their weight all day. I watched Kier's last round and when he won the game his opponant had ZERO permanents, awesome.
After dropping i manged to draft a pretty sick jund deck in my first Shards/Conflux/Reborn draft, sadly only managing 2-1 with it (cheers guy to my left for passing double vithian stinger, branching bolt, 2 executioners capsule, then darting into R/G late in pack 1). However, i did manage to play bituminous blast cascading into terminate, which felt pretty damn good.
Im currently investigating the 5 colour decks, with or without the use of cascade, if i manage to make it to any more regionals. I recently got my filthy hands on some bloodbraid elves and bituminous blasts, and cascade is so much fun, and it has to be said is ridiculously powerfull.
If anyone is planning on going to newcastle or london for the remaining regionals, please get in touch and we can maybe arrange getting there.
There will be another draft report coming in the next few days as well as the development of the deck that im going to play if/when i go to newcastle for the regionals up there.
Until then,
Jim
As always, feel free to comment on anything about this article, or anything unrelated to magic whatsoever. If you would like to contribute to the TLM blog, please email any ideas, articles, pictures or anything else to ss07jm@leeds.ac.uk
Monday, 11 May 2009
Tournament report - Regionals, Phoenix Games, Leicester
By Jim Marlow
Hey Everyone,
Another regionals has come and gone, and another, albeit slightly improved, disapointing result for me, but overall a good day for Team Leeds, that saw Nick Doropolous and John Ingham take the first and 2nd place spots, and it was great to not only see some friends from Cambridge, but also to see Darran and Ben pick up 3rd and 4th, and give me some advice on how to improve my jund deck.
A couple of you will already know but i decided to make a last minute switch to a g/w token/aggro deck. I am almost certain that switching decks last minute is not a great thing, regardless of the power levels of either deck. I think if i had changed to a Type 1 deck for regionals i still wouldnt have won it.
So why the switch?
Well i have always had a problem with the Jund deck, i think despite the strength of each card, its much like reveillark in that you need to draw them in the right order, otherwise your deck just craps out. I thought something like a g/w deck could at least ut up a fight through bad draws and mana problems.
The deck i ended up playing was this (with special thanks to Mick, Wagz and Kenny for last minute card lending)
4 x noble heirarch
4 x steward of valeron
4 x quasali pridemage
4 x wilt leaf liege
4 x cloudgoat ranger
2 x dauntless escort
4 x spectral procession
3 x garruk wildspeaker
2 x ajani goldmane
1 x elspeth, knight errant
4 x path to exile
4 x treetop village
4 x windbrisk heights
4 x wooded bastion
4 x brushland
4 x plains
4 x forest
s/b
4 x kitchen finks
3 x martial coup
2 x wrath of god
1 x behemoth sledge
1 x elspeth, knight errant
4 x burrenton forge-tender
I was expecting a lot of b/w tokens, which would have made the pridemage a good inclusion in the main, but as it was, and being primarily a token type deck and not a g/w little kid aggro deck i would certainly play finks over the pridemage if i played this deck again.
So i had about 4 hours with this deck before playing with it in regionals, which i can tell you is just not enough time, i wish i could tell you my sideboarding for each match, but all my sideboarding was very haphazard throughout the day. I think i was under the illusion that this type of aggro deck is simple to play, being primarily a control player, and i soon found this to be very wrong.
Round 1) - Nick - b/w tokens
So Nick Doropolous is not the 1st round pairing i was looking for, and im pretty sure almost all the leeds players were paired against each other too, i know that Beard played Keir for sure.
Game 1 - Game 1 wasnt particularly long, i think i played 1 spectral procession but soon Nick's guys were too big for mine, and his double ajani draw was too much for me to handle.
Game 2 - in come the 5 wraths, the sledge and elspeth for the lieges and ajanji's and a steward of valeron. I think after sideboarding i have a decent matchup here, seeing the behemoth sledge in my opening hand gives my a good reason to think this game will be fine. I get the sledge on a dude and soon start gaining 3-4 life a turn. Still, all this time, Nick is developing a board and soon starts cracking back, meaning despite giving myself time to draw a wrath, i actually DO need to draw the damn thing. Double cloudgoat ranger gives Nick a huge board, and although im still over 20 life, i need to draw a wrath or martial coup in 3 turns. Sadly for me this doesnt happen, and an Ajani from Nick means i only had 2 turns anyway.
O well.
Round 2) - James - u/w reveillark
James is one of the guys i played against in an extended ptq here earlier in the season, he is a nice guy, i defeated his elves on that occasion, and i would need to do the same here to give me some chance.
Game 1 - I play out a few guys, leaving James no choice but to wrath away his own wall of denial that was soaking up some of the damage each turn. I had spectral backup and a cloudgoat from under the heights was all i needed to get there. Despite the win here i was really annoyed at trying to path his shroud wall, and i really felt like not sleeping the night before this tournament wasnt the best idea.
Game 2 - I got pretty good stuff going this game, multiple spectral processions and cloudgoat rangers, unluckily for me my opponant played 3 wrath of god's and 2 auster commands during this game, and despite keeping stuff back to combat wrath, there was a lot i could do to stop 5!. He eventually gets mistmeadow witch and mulldrifter going.
Game 3 - I get stuck on lands for pretty much the entire game, i played a heirach and a couple guys who get wrathed. My back up guys stick, but i dont have the mana to drop the liege in hand, and i can get there. Eventually i drop the sledge to keep my life good, to at least ensure a draw against an increaing flying army made by my opponant. I eventually get 2 lieges down, as my only creatures, but these are'nt going to enough. My opponant cast austere command resetting the board, and neither of us have enough to finish the game in turns, i finish the game with 2 spectral processions and 2 cloudgoat rangers in hand.
so 0-1-1 is not the best start, and i have to win out to get in to nationals, which i am almost certain i will not happen, given my fatigue, and the new deck, but at least i can get a few wins under my belt so why not.
Round 3) - Chris - Jund Ramp
This was my only match against the deck i almost played, and Chris kindly informed me that he had been given the deck to play by the pilot who took it to a 5-0 record yesterday in Birmingham...great!
Game 1 - Chris ramps and i play spectral procession and a liege, we race and i win, there was sadly very little interaction in the game.
Game 2 - I get the sledge out and start bashing, im not really sure why i put it in, but the life totals in my notes suggest that i did. Most of my things get wrathed away by jund charms, but i am left with 2 treetop villages, 2 beast tokens to Chris' Lord of extinction. I send the guys in and something gets eaten, and after combat i play burrenton forge tender. Sadly Chris didnt have a blocker, and his double jund charm was no good here with forge tender about. He did reveal and infest in hand but of course he needed 2 spells to kill my other guys.
Chris was a really nice guy, i had heard his name before, and turns out he is a TO from Lincoln, and was kind enough to give me details on a really lucrative magic tournament going on over there in a few weeks, so hopefully we can get a car down there...especially as there is a CASE!!! of boosters for 1st place. Also, did some good trades with Chris afterwards too, which was cool, finally someone wanted all my textless cards.
1-1-1 - yipee a win, but still a have loads of work to do to give myself a chance, but im not in the strongest bracket so i can probably eek out another win or 2, then maybe get lucky.
Round 4) - Andrew - Swans
I really dont know if swans is a great matchup, but it feels like 6-7 main deck pyroclasm effects are good against me. I think i just get hyper aggresive and see lieges or ajani.
Game 1 - Andrew mulliganned on the play and i got turn 3 spectral procession which met volcanic fallout. Sadly i had turn 4 procession too, and a few more guys got there for me.
Game 2 - With the forge-tenders in i felt a bit better, especially a game up, and when i make turn 2 spectral procession, turn 3 ajani goldmane i feel a lot better. my guys get sick big and Andrew can only chain cryptics for a couple turns before scooping.
It felt good to have a comprehensive victory under my belt, despite not thinking it was a great match i always had backup for the sweepers and i played round the counter magic well.
Round 5) - Bryan - Shorecrasher bant control
This is the first time i had seen this deck, and i didnt really know what was going on, so i was kind of in the blind here.
Game 1 - I go to 5 on the draw against Brian's full grip, and despite putting up a bit of a fight with finks, it gets snakeformed and it didnt take a lot more for me to roll over.
Game 2 - i get early pressure on, which i think is the key in this match, meaning brian has to chump with his turn 2 mimic. Brian uses a cryptic or 2, which i fail to capatalise on by getting in with treetop village (a mistake i made throughout the day), but when i get to 5 lands a post combat cloudgoat ranger seals the deal when the cryptics run out.
Game 3 - I finally feel like i have my game face on and mull the sketchy hand to a half decent one on the draw. I get turn 3 spectral procession with a windbrisk heights in play with a cloudgoat ranger underneath it. Brian makes a mimic on his turn. I attack with the 3 guys on my turn, trading a spirit for the mimic. I think for a while then play Garruk, thinking that untapping and playing the cloudgoat ranger surely puts me in a game winning position. Sadly the Garruk get negated, which i hadnt anticipated. Brian then untaps and plays Jenura. I Dont have any guys in hand that i can play, and never have the chance to use the windbrisk heights, and Brians next play is a rafiq....shame.
I feel like the game 3 could have gone either way, and i dont know whether the garruk was just a greedy play, especially because i dont know whether the overrun is that great against any cryptic command deck that has the mana available. Either way i dont know about the play, maybe someone can enlighten me, although seeing as it lost me the game it doesnt feel that strong. O well.
I decide to play the last round because Kenny is doing pretty well and can make 4-2, and there is a strong possibility that me and Beard can get paired, which we decided would become some sort of drinking game. Sadly we dont get paired, but sit next to each other against the bad guys.
Round 6) - The mighty Barry Dilly - Tezzerator?
Yeah pretty much Barry is playing with the win condition of tezzeret and borderposts. Barry asks me to scoop to him because he is close to the rating cut off. I know Barry is a strong limited player, but i am a bit bemused by how he thinks his 3-1-2 day will push his presumably 1870 ish rating up above the required amount, but i cant really be arsed to play and decide why the hell not. I probably should have dropped before the round, i only wanted to play if it was against andy. I do hope Barry gets in, because i would like to think that people in similar positions would scoop me into contention for a tournament....but probably not.
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So all things considered it wasnt quite the disaster that Leeds was, playing against 6 different decks in the 6 rounds, quite a few of them unknown, and of course not having any experiance with my own deck and on zero hours of sleep was never going to produce a 6-0.
I feel, however, that i only performed at my best during round 5, and possibly 6, when i really concentrated, i think i am going to write an article on the importance of being in a good mental strength when going to a tournament, because i simply wasnt 100% in it at Leicester, and as i said before, i think i could have had the best deck in the room and still not won.
Nevertheless, i am still really glad i went. Before the last few weeks i have had a really good run of magic tournaments, and although winning is great and it shows you are playing well, i am glad that i have had a couple of bad results recently, because i have been able to learn lessons about magic and myself every time, which i think is the most important thing.
Also, i really did have the most hilarious day out, it was great to have such a strong showing from Leeds, and also i hadnt seen some of the guys and gays from cambridge in ages so it was great to see them, i cant wait to go back to Inner Sanctum in the summer, those guys are awesome.
Highlights of the day!!
1) Andy's game against 'puntington bear', who literally made the worst play i have ever seen in my life, handing Andy the game, and then thereafter defending his play and saying that he had examined all other options.
2) Rakka Mar! For some reason we decided to cheer loudly when all the Leeds players got called out for prizes, which was pretty funny, and Beard (obv getting biggest cheer of the day), having said he was probably going to get a Rakka Mar in his pack opened it to find none other than our favourite 2/2 haste bear.
3) Me getting hit in the balls by the shop owner carrying deck boxes before i left to go home. Luckily for me i got a similar treatment by several of my opponants during the day but what more of a souvenir for the day could i have asked for than a severly swolen scrotum.
4) Kenny for being so kind to drive us there, im pretty sure i owe you some more money as your lunch wasnt too expensive.
5) Whitley Bay winning the F A Vase.
Lowlights of the day
1) Path to exiling (only card in hand) my rnd 2 opps shroud wall.
2) The Jabberwocky piri-piri chicken. Delicious as it was, my mouth was on fire for round 4 and 5
3) Not being worse than 49 other people in the room on the day. Yes thats all it took for me to get to nationals, sadly it wasnt to be this time round.
I definately want to write about the changes i have made to my Jund deck, and i want to write somehing on the important of having your game face on when playing in important tournaments, but this article is really long so ill do those separately.
Just a final note, i want to say i was pleased to see some of the guys from Leicester who i played in the ptq there remembered me, they were all great guys over there. Also, i was great to see one of them had read the report of our game on the blog, its great to see people from outside Leeds are reading too.
Ill see everyone on THURSDAY!!, for magic at Tj's, its standard this week, ill see you all then.
Until then,
Jim
As always, feel free to comment on anything about this article, or anything unrelated to magic whatsoever. If you would like to contribute to the TLM blog, please email any ideas, articles, pictures or anything else to ss07jm@leeds.ac.uk
Another regionals has come and gone, and another, albeit slightly improved, disapointing result for me, but overall a good day for Team Leeds, that saw Nick Doropolous and John Ingham take the first and 2nd place spots, and it was great to not only see some friends from Cambridge, but also to see Darran and Ben pick up 3rd and 4th, and give me some advice on how to improve my jund deck.
A couple of you will already know but i decided to make a last minute switch to a g/w token/aggro deck. I am almost certain that switching decks last minute is not a great thing, regardless of the power levels of either deck. I think if i had changed to a Type 1 deck for regionals i still wouldnt have won it.
So why the switch?
Well i have always had a problem with the Jund deck, i think despite the strength of each card, its much like reveillark in that you need to draw them in the right order, otherwise your deck just craps out. I thought something like a g/w deck could at least ut up a fight through bad draws and mana problems.
The deck i ended up playing was this (with special thanks to Mick, Wagz and Kenny for last minute card lending)
4 x noble heirarch
4 x steward of valeron
4 x quasali pridemage
4 x wilt leaf liege
4 x cloudgoat ranger
2 x dauntless escort
4 x spectral procession
3 x garruk wildspeaker
2 x ajani goldmane
1 x elspeth, knight errant
4 x path to exile
4 x treetop village
4 x windbrisk heights
4 x wooded bastion
4 x brushland
4 x plains
4 x forest
s/b
4 x kitchen finks
3 x martial coup
2 x wrath of god
1 x behemoth sledge
1 x elspeth, knight errant
4 x burrenton forge-tender
I was expecting a lot of b/w tokens, which would have made the pridemage a good inclusion in the main, but as it was, and being primarily a token type deck and not a g/w little kid aggro deck i would certainly play finks over the pridemage if i played this deck again.
So i had about 4 hours with this deck before playing with it in regionals, which i can tell you is just not enough time, i wish i could tell you my sideboarding for each match, but all my sideboarding was very haphazard throughout the day. I think i was under the illusion that this type of aggro deck is simple to play, being primarily a control player, and i soon found this to be very wrong.
Round 1) - Nick - b/w tokens
So Nick Doropolous is not the 1st round pairing i was looking for, and im pretty sure almost all the leeds players were paired against each other too, i know that Beard played Keir for sure.
Game 1 - Game 1 wasnt particularly long, i think i played 1 spectral procession but soon Nick's guys were too big for mine, and his double ajani draw was too much for me to handle.
Game 2 - in come the 5 wraths, the sledge and elspeth for the lieges and ajanji's and a steward of valeron. I think after sideboarding i have a decent matchup here, seeing the behemoth sledge in my opening hand gives my a good reason to think this game will be fine. I get the sledge on a dude and soon start gaining 3-4 life a turn. Still, all this time, Nick is developing a board and soon starts cracking back, meaning despite giving myself time to draw a wrath, i actually DO need to draw the damn thing. Double cloudgoat ranger gives Nick a huge board, and although im still over 20 life, i need to draw a wrath or martial coup in 3 turns. Sadly for me this doesnt happen, and an Ajani from Nick means i only had 2 turns anyway.
O well.
Round 2) - James - u/w reveillark
James is one of the guys i played against in an extended ptq here earlier in the season, he is a nice guy, i defeated his elves on that occasion, and i would need to do the same here to give me some chance.
Game 1 - I play out a few guys, leaving James no choice but to wrath away his own wall of denial that was soaking up some of the damage each turn. I had spectral backup and a cloudgoat from under the heights was all i needed to get there. Despite the win here i was really annoyed at trying to path his shroud wall, and i really felt like not sleeping the night before this tournament wasnt the best idea.
Game 2 - I got pretty good stuff going this game, multiple spectral processions and cloudgoat rangers, unluckily for me my opponant played 3 wrath of god's and 2 auster commands during this game, and despite keeping stuff back to combat wrath, there was a lot i could do to stop 5!. He eventually gets mistmeadow witch and mulldrifter going.
Game 3 - I get stuck on lands for pretty much the entire game, i played a heirach and a couple guys who get wrathed. My back up guys stick, but i dont have the mana to drop the liege in hand, and i can get there. Eventually i drop the sledge to keep my life good, to at least ensure a draw against an increaing flying army made by my opponant. I eventually get 2 lieges down, as my only creatures, but these are'nt going to enough. My opponant cast austere command resetting the board, and neither of us have enough to finish the game in turns, i finish the game with 2 spectral processions and 2 cloudgoat rangers in hand.
so 0-1-1 is not the best start, and i have to win out to get in to nationals, which i am almost certain i will not happen, given my fatigue, and the new deck, but at least i can get a few wins under my belt so why not.
Round 3) - Chris - Jund Ramp
This was my only match against the deck i almost played, and Chris kindly informed me that he had been given the deck to play by the pilot who took it to a 5-0 record yesterday in Birmingham...great!
Game 1 - Chris ramps and i play spectral procession and a liege, we race and i win, there was sadly very little interaction in the game.
Game 2 - I get the sledge out and start bashing, im not really sure why i put it in, but the life totals in my notes suggest that i did. Most of my things get wrathed away by jund charms, but i am left with 2 treetop villages, 2 beast tokens to Chris' Lord of extinction. I send the guys in and something gets eaten, and after combat i play burrenton forge tender. Sadly Chris didnt have a blocker, and his double jund charm was no good here with forge tender about. He did reveal and infest in hand but of course he needed 2 spells to kill my other guys.
Chris was a really nice guy, i had heard his name before, and turns out he is a TO from Lincoln, and was kind enough to give me details on a really lucrative magic tournament going on over there in a few weeks, so hopefully we can get a car down there...especially as there is a CASE!!! of boosters for 1st place. Also, did some good trades with Chris afterwards too, which was cool, finally someone wanted all my textless cards.
1-1-1 - yipee a win, but still a have loads of work to do to give myself a chance, but im not in the strongest bracket so i can probably eek out another win or 2, then maybe get lucky.
Round 4) - Andrew - Swans
I really dont know if swans is a great matchup, but it feels like 6-7 main deck pyroclasm effects are good against me. I think i just get hyper aggresive and see lieges or ajani.
Game 1 - Andrew mulliganned on the play and i got turn 3 spectral procession which met volcanic fallout. Sadly i had turn 4 procession too, and a few more guys got there for me.
Game 2 - With the forge-tenders in i felt a bit better, especially a game up, and when i make turn 2 spectral procession, turn 3 ajani goldmane i feel a lot better. my guys get sick big and Andrew can only chain cryptics for a couple turns before scooping.
It felt good to have a comprehensive victory under my belt, despite not thinking it was a great match i always had backup for the sweepers and i played round the counter magic well.
Round 5) - Bryan - Shorecrasher bant control
This is the first time i had seen this deck, and i didnt really know what was going on, so i was kind of in the blind here.
Game 1 - I go to 5 on the draw against Brian's full grip, and despite putting up a bit of a fight with finks, it gets snakeformed and it didnt take a lot more for me to roll over.
Game 2 - i get early pressure on, which i think is the key in this match, meaning brian has to chump with his turn 2 mimic. Brian uses a cryptic or 2, which i fail to capatalise on by getting in with treetop village (a mistake i made throughout the day), but when i get to 5 lands a post combat cloudgoat ranger seals the deal when the cryptics run out.
Game 3 - I finally feel like i have my game face on and mull the sketchy hand to a half decent one on the draw. I get turn 3 spectral procession with a windbrisk heights in play with a cloudgoat ranger underneath it. Brian makes a mimic on his turn. I attack with the 3 guys on my turn, trading a spirit for the mimic. I think for a while then play Garruk, thinking that untapping and playing the cloudgoat ranger surely puts me in a game winning position. Sadly the Garruk get negated, which i hadnt anticipated. Brian then untaps and plays Jenura. I Dont have any guys in hand that i can play, and never have the chance to use the windbrisk heights, and Brians next play is a rafiq....shame.
I feel like the game 3 could have gone either way, and i dont know whether the garruk was just a greedy play, especially because i dont know whether the overrun is that great against any cryptic command deck that has the mana available. Either way i dont know about the play, maybe someone can enlighten me, although seeing as it lost me the game it doesnt feel that strong. O well.
I decide to play the last round because Kenny is doing pretty well and can make 4-2, and there is a strong possibility that me and Beard can get paired, which we decided would become some sort of drinking game. Sadly we dont get paired, but sit next to each other against the bad guys.
Round 6) - The mighty Barry Dilly - Tezzerator?
Yeah pretty much Barry is playing with the win condition of tezzeret and borderposts. Barry asks me to scoop to him because he is close to the rating cut off. I know Barry is a strong limited player, but i am a bit bemused by how he thinks his 3-1-2 day will push his presumably 1870 ish rating up above the required amount, but i cant really be arsed to play and decide why the hell not. I probably should have dropped before the round, i only wanted to play if it was against andy. I do hope Barry gets in, because i would like to think that people in similar positions would scoop me into contention for a tournament....but probably not.
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So all things considered it wasnt quite the disaster that Leeds was, playing against 6 different decks in the 6 rounds, quite a few of them unknown, and of course not having any experiance with my own deck and on zero hours of sleep was never going to produce a 6-0.
I feel, however, that i only performed at my best during round 5, and possibly 6, when i really concentrated, i think i am going to write an article on the importance of being in a good mental strength when going to a tournament, because i simply wasnt 100% in it at Leicester, and as i said before, i think i could have had the best deck in the room and still not won.
Nevertheless, i am still really glad i went. Before the last few weeks i have had a really good run of magic tournaments, and although winning is great and it shows you are playing well, i am glad that i have had a couple of bad results recently, because i have been able to learn lessons about magic and myself every time, which i think is the most important thing.
Also, i really did have the most hilarious day out, it was great to have such a strong showing from Leeds, and also i hadnt seen some of the guys and gays from cambridge in ages so it was great to see them, i cant wait to go back to Inner Sanctum in the summer, those guys are awesome.
Highlights of the day!!
1) Andy's game against 'puntington bear', who literally made the worst play i have ever seen in my life, handing Andy the game, and then thereafter defending his play and saying that he had examined all other options.
2) Rakka Mar! For some reason we decided to cheer loudly when all the Leeds players got called out for prizes, which was pretty funny, and Beard (obv getting biggest cheer of the day), having said he was probably going to get a Rakka Mar in his pack opened it to find none other than our favourite 2/2 haste bear.
3) Me getting hit in the balls by the shop owner carrying deck boxes before i left to go home. Luckily for me i got a similar treatment by several of my opponants during the day but what more of a souvenir for the day could i have asked for than a severly swolen scrotum.
4) Kenny for being so kind to drive us there, im pretty sure i owe you some more money as your lunch wasnt too expensive.
5) Whitley Bay winning the F A Vase.
Lowlights of the day
1) Path to exiling (only card in hand) my rnd 2 opps shroud wall.
2) The Jabberwocky piri-piri chicken. Delicious as it was, my mouth was on fire for round 4 and 5
3) Not being worse than 49 other people in the room on the day. Yes thats all it took for me to get to nationals, sadly it wasnt to be this time round.
I definately want to write about the changes i have made to my Jund deck, and i want to write somehing on the important of having your game face on when playing in important tournaments, but this article is really long so ill do those separately.
Just a final note, i want to say i was pleased to see some of the guys from Leicester who i played in the ptq there remembered me, they were all great guys over there. Also, i was great to see one of them had read the report of our game on the blog, its great to see people from outside Leeds are reading too.
Ill see everyone on THURSDAY!!, for magic at Tj's, its standard this week, ill see you all then.
Until then,
Jim
As always, feel free to comment on anything about this article, or anything unrelated to magic whatsoever. If you would like to contribute to the TLM blog, please email any ideas, articles, pictures or anything else to ss07jm@leeds.ac.uk
Saturday, 18 April 2009
A brief report on regionals
By Jim Marlow
Hey everyone,
Im writing this fresh of the back of going 2-2-1 in a pretty hurrendous day that involved going 1-2-1 in regionals, then 1-2'ing a draft that was a total cockup.
I did some last minute testing before regionals, and some less than perfect results made me feel a bit uneasy about my deck. I have heard a lot of people say that reveillark is just not good enough. I still think its one of the best decks in standard, but my realization is that it kind of needs to all come together, and in a tournament where a loss and a draw probably meant no spot at Nats, this was a worry.
Hilarious, my first 2 rounds i ended up 0-1-1 - losing to one of the guys playing a G/W token deck that i like quite a lot, and also drawing against matt kitchen's kind of odd deck. I was forced to mulligan in 4 out my first 6 games, which annoyed me, and the odd matchups which i felt could have gone my way just didnt this time around. I was pretty bummed about these 2 matches, but i thought i would play to 2 losses anyway to maybe stem a ratings bleed.
Round 3 i played against red deck wins, forgive me for forgetting the name of the opponant, but i had played him this year at Sheffield champs, and remembered him as both playing red deck wins, and making lots of mistakes. Luckily, well not so much on the RDW front, neither had changed, and when he decided not to attack with a demigod of revenge because i had a stillmoon cavalier, my sower of temptation made light work of him.
My fourth round was against a hilarious noggle (yes noggle!!, amused - jim) deck, which he told me only contained commons and uncommons because his deck got stolen from Fanboy 3 in Manchester (which comes as a total suprise, the shop is probably the nicest in the north, and Dave is a hero). Game 1 i stabilised on 1, and managed to turn it around. Game 2 he managed turns 2 and 3 hellspark elemental, turn 4 unearth them. I was on 8 for a long while. After this i managed to get him to 0 cards, had some guys, i think some reveillark, sneaky ninja says: i have a small penis, shanagens went on. I let an end of turn shock resolve to put me to 6, he draws and banefires me for 6.....urgh.
He then asked me how the rating system worked, so i guess i well and truly got my ring busted opened then, so much for a ratings salvage.
I got a bit annoyed at the results, but im not too much of a hard loser, because i know winning unwinnable matches is the stone cold nuts. I signed right up as the 8th man in a draft, and so i thought i might be ok to do well at something today.
The draft was stupid!
Well im pretty sure everyone i spoke to was well aware, but my first 4 picks of pack 1 put me into esper, with good red cards going left...so imagine my suprise when i found myself shipping red cards back right pack 2. Luckily for me the guy to my left had tried to force epser after opening a scourglass. We both did badly as a consequence, and i guess its testimony to the importance of well given and recieved signals, in both directions. Never mind, i made play errors as well and went 1-2, what you gonna do, eh?
Well my reveillarks are almost certainly put away for the rest of the regionals series, and i will most likely be playing something with spectral procession and cloudgoat ranger. Having said that, i think i accidently put my playsets of both in the bin today when i was binning some commons from the draft, so thats a shame (if anyone has either for trade, im looking for them!)
This is my latest concoction, based upon the g/w deck that got a nationasl invitation today
4 x figure of destiny
4 x noble heirarch
4 x knight of meadowgrain
4 x kitchen finks
4 x wilt leaf liege
4 x cloudgoat ranger
4 x path to exile
4 x spectral procession
2 x garruk
2 x ajani goldmane
1 x loxodon warhammer
4 x windbrisk heights
4 x treetop village
4 x mutavault
4 x brushland
2 x woodedbastion
5 x plains
Sideboard
Burrenton forge tender x 3
Martial coup x 3
Stillmoon cavalier x 4
Celestial purge x 3
Cloudthresher x 2
This is pretty janky, and im still wondering if there is any reason at all to be playing this over b/w or just ordinary kithkin. That said, i think the manlands provide a huge problem in a format defined as those decks with wrath, or those that hope their opponant doesnt draw it. What do people think?
Until next time
Jim
As always, feel free to comment on anything about this article, or anything unrelated to magic whatsoever. If you would like to contribute to the TLM blog, please email any ideas, articles, pictures or anything else to ss07jm@leeds.ac.uk
Im writing this fresh of the back of going 2-2-1 in a pretty hurrendous day that involved going 1-2-1 in regionals, then 1-2'ing a draft that was a total cockup.
I did some last minute testing before regionals, and some less than perfect results made me feel a bit uneasy about my deck. I have heard a lot of people say that reveillark is just not good enough. I still think its one of the best decks in standard, but my realization is that it kind of needs to all come together, and in a tournament where a loss and a draw probably meant no spot at Nats, this was a worry.
Hilarious, my first 2 rounds i ended up 0-1-1 - losing to one of the guys playing a G/W token deck that i like quite a lot, and also drawing against matt kitchen's kind of odd deck. I was forced to mulligan in 4 out my first 6 games, which annoyed me, and the odd matchups which i felt could have gone my way just didnt this time around. I was pretty bummed about these 2 matches, but i thought i would play to 2 losses anyway to maybe stem a ratings bleed.
Round 3 i played against red deck wins, forgive me for forgetting the name of the opponant, but i had played him this year at Sheffield champs, and remembered him as both playing red deck wins, and making lots of mistakes. Luckily, well not so much on the RDW front, neither had changed, and when he decided not to attack with a demigod of revenge because i had a stillmoon cavalier, my sower of temptation made light work of him.
My fourth round was against a hilarious noggle (yes noggle!!, amused - jim) deck, which he told me only contained commons and uncommons because his deck got stolen from Fanboy 3 in Manchester (which comes as a total suprise, the shop is probably the nicest in the north, and Dave is a hero). Game 1 i stabilised on 1, and managed to turn it around. Game 2 he managed turns 2 and 3 hellspark elemental, turn 4 unearth them. I was on 8 for a long while. After this i managed to get him to 0 cards, had some guys, i think some reveillark, sneaky ninja says: i have a small penis, shanagens went on. I let an end of turn shock resolve to put me to 6, he draws and banefires me for 6.....urgh.
He then asked me how the rating system worked, so i guess i well and truly got my ring busted opened then, so much for a ratings salvage.
I got a bit annoyed at the results, but im not too much of a hard loser, because i know winning unwinnable matches is the stone cold nuts. I signed right up as the 8th man in a draft, and so i thought i might be ok to do well at something today.
The draft was stupid!
Well im pretty sure everyone i spoke to was well aware, but my first 4 picks of pack 1 put me into esper, with good red cards going left...so imagine my suprise when i found myself shipping red cards back right pack 2. Luckily for me the guy to my left had tried to force epser after opening a scourglass. We both did badly as a consequence, and i guess its testimony to the importance of well given and recieved signals, in both directions. Never mind, i made play errors as well and went 1-2, what you gonna do, eh?
Well my reveillarks are almost certainly put away for the rest of the regionals series, and i will most likely be playing something with spectral procession and cloudgoat ranger. Having said that, i think i accidently put my playsets of both in the bin today when i was binning some commons from the draft, so thats a shame (if anyone has either for trade, im looking for them!)
This is my latest concoction, based upon the g/w deck that got a nationasl invitation today
4 x figure of destiny
4 x noble heirarch
4 x knight of meadowgrain
4 x kitchen finks
4 x wilt leaf liege
4 x cloudgoat ranger
4 x path to exile
4 x spectral procession
2 x garruk
2 x ajani goldmane
1 x loxodon warhammer
4 x windbrisk heights
4 x treetop village
4 x mutavault
4 x brushland
2 x woodedbastion
5 x plains
Sideboard
Burrenton forge tender x 3
Martial coup x 3
Stillmoon cavalier x 4
Celestial purge x 3
Cloudthresher x 2
This is pretty janky, and im still wondering if there is any reason at all to be playing this over b/w or just ordinary kithkin. That said, i think the manlands provide a huge problem in a format defined as those decks with wrath, or those that hope their opponant doesnt draw it. What do people think?
Until next time
Jim
As always, feel free to comment on anything about this article, or anything unrelated to magic whatsoever. If you would like to contribute to the TLM blog, please email any ideas, articles, pictures or anything else to ss07jm@leeds.ac.uk
Saturday, 28 March 2009
Ziggurat.dec and the Manchester Nats Qualifier
By Wagz
Hi all! Good attendence from Team Leeds (tm) today at the Nats Qualifier in Manchester. 50 players registered for round 1 and from Leeds came Andy Edwards, John Ingham, Kier, Andy Devine & pals, Kenneth Hall, Craig Stevenson and myself. To spoil the ending, Craig made top 6 (the spread for qualifying) and I came top of the rest of us at 9th. My decklist:
4 Ancient Ziggurat
4 Reflecting Pool
3 Yavimaya Coast
3 Brushland
2 Karplusan Forest
3 Forest
1 Mountain
1 Plains
4 Noble Heirarch
4 Birds of Paradise
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
4 Gaddock Teeg
4 Rhox War Monk
4 Woolly Thoctar
2 Ranger of Eos
3 Rafiq of the Many
4 Wilt-Leaf Liege
4 Realm Razer
3 Path to Exile
1 Loxodon Warhammer
SB:
2 Burrenton Forge-Tender
1 Path to Exile
1 Ranger of Eos
1 Briarhorn
3 Scattershot Archers
4 Caldera Hellion
3 Pithing Needle
A tournament report:
Round 1 vs. Andy Devine (Doran)
Having discussed the round how our decks were diverse in that his was tuned for game 1 mirror and mine was tuned for control decks all around, I wasn't happy with the pairing. I see an opening hand of 3 lands, Noble Heirarch, Burrenton Forge Tender, Gaddock Teeg and Loxodon Warhammer, my instinct is to chuck it. I override this instinct after looking closer at the Warhammer and realising it's the only way I'm actually going to win this matchup. We went back and forth for a long time, playing Rafiq wars to drastically change life totals (each of us having a warhammer in play). I eventually am swinging for 16 with my Rhox War Monk to 9 with his Doran and he scoops with the life totals at 98-23 and 9 minutes of the round left. Game 2 was much quicker but I had the tempo advantage and sneaked a win.
2-0
My Boarding: -4 Realm Razer, -2 Burrenton Forge-Tender, -1 Gaddock Teeg, +4 Caldera Hellion, +1 Path to Exile, +1 Briarhorn, +1 Ranger of Eos.
Round 2 vs. Kenny Hall (Fae)
Great, how many of my friends do I have to play today? Do I just know too many people? Erm, anyway, his was a "control" deck, the sort I'm tuned to beat. So game 1 a turn 5 Realm Razer yields the concession of course. Game 2 involves some sideboarding I wasn't sure about since he wasn't playing with Cryptic Command or Broken Ambitions, making Gaddock Teeg less than awesome. I keep a bad hand of 4 lands and 1 of each 4 drop, but it pulls out and I get 2 Scattershot Archers out to help me push through my big guy advantage.
2-0
My Boarding: -2 Burrenton Forge-Tender, -3 Path to Exile, +3 Scattershot Archers, +1 Ranger of Eos, +1 Briarhorn.
Round 3 vs. Chris Allsopp (Elementals)
Apparently a long time TO and a short time player, some mistakes are present in this match but my deck does its thing regardless. Game 1 I get attacking for 10 and we're off to game 2. He makes a turn 3 Horde of Notions and I have only a Burrenton Forge-Tender to help me. He kills my Lieges and Rafiqs until I get down a Caldera Hellion as a 4/4 to leave me that and the BF-T versus the Horde. He attacks and I double block, before damage he aims a Nameless Inversion at the Hellion, awkward. I forget to sac the BF-T to save the Hellion as I'm amazed I killed the Horde and I proceed to make Liege and another Forge-Tender ftw.
2-0
My Boarding: -4 Realm Razer, -2 Ranger of Eos, +4 Caldera Hellion, +2 Burrenton Forge Tender.
Round 4 vs. Noel Bresland (Kithkin)
I'm feeling pretty good at this point. I attended the event to gain rating but now I feel like I have a chance of taking one of the top 6 spots. I know that many people still don't know me so I am sometimes able to act like a noob for my own gain. With that in mind, I have been setting up the bottom card of my deck as I take it out of the box before shuffling as Reflecting Pool, and this game after shuffling and presenting I take two beads out of my bag of dice and set them aside. Noel immediately knows I am playing 5cc and I act like I'm annoyed I gave it away but ask him about how much of a tell it was. He plays first and I make turn 1 Noble Heirarch. Evidently confused, he Path to Exiles this and then when I make turn 2 Woolly Thoctar he clicks that he's been duped. He takes game 1 anyway and we side for game 2. I keep a good hand and get somewhere but a Stillmoon Cavalier keeps me at bay. I draw a Pithing Needle set to Figure of Destiny the turn after he taps out to play 2 and lay his hand down. He draws Ajani the Elder and makes counters. I haven't drawn a Caldera Hellion at this point so I lose :(.
0-2
My Boarding: -4 Realm Razer, -2 Burrenton Forge-Tender, -3 Path to Exile, +4 Caldera Hellion, +3 Pithing Needle, +1 Ranger of Eos, +1 Briarhorn.
Match 5 vs. Craig Stevenson (Doran)
Another Leeds player, srsly? Craig has friends in very high places and has a decklist provided by Patrick Chapin. Of course. I'm sworn to secrecy of the details but Pat might write about it in his article on Monday or else Craig might do it on Friday. Needless to say, I got horrifically spanked and was out of contention. Mise well play the last one for rating though, since that's what I came for.
0-2
My Boarding: -4 Realm Razer, -2 Burrenton Forge-Tender, -1 Gaddock Teeg, +4 Caldera Hellion, +1 Path to Exile, +1 Ranger of Eos, +1 Briarhorn.
Match 6 vs. Ross Silcock (5cc)
Good matchup for me I think, but Ross is a decent player. Excellent at Legacy - ask Andy Edwards. Erm, anyway, after mulls from us both I get turn 1 Birds, turn 2 BF-T and Gaddock Teeg. I make some big guys and press my soft lock until he deals with stuff and the board is clear. I topdeck a Gaddock Teeg (what else) and he can't stop me from getting in ftw. Game 2 I get stomped on, since my deck really likes going first. Hence game 3 I get turn 2 Thoctar, turn 3 Thoctar, turn 4 Rafiq and some stuff. I empty my hand of 2 Noble Heirarchs after he plays Broodmate Dragon and he is forced to chump my 4/5 Double-Striking Birds. He plays another Broodmate and I make some other guy. He spends a turn Cruel Ultimatuming me even though I have no cards in hand since he needs the life and really needs a Wrath. I of course topdeck a Realm Razer and he scoops.
2-1
My Boarding: -3 Path to Exile, -1 Loxodon Warhammer, +2 Burrenton Forge-Tender, +1 Ranger of Eos, +1 Briarhorn.
So, 4-2 overall but the results will have raised my rating in the Constructed, Composite and Total departments, putting me fairly firmly in the top 75 range for Nats Qualification. As Ben says below, I hope to see as many Team Leeds players as possible in Nats, and our own qualifier will help that, whenever it is (waits for Rik to announce it, even though I've already booked the room :p). Good luck to anyone playing in further Nats qualifiers - I would certainly recommend this deck, but the Chapin decklist looks even stronger. Thanks to anyone who actually read all this - let me know and I'll give you a kiss on the cheek.
Wagz
Wednesday, 18 March 2009
Nats Qualifiers
By Wagz
Hi all. Noticed today was a list of Nats Qualifiers:
https://webapp.wizards.com/tournaments.aspx?gamecode=0&eventcode=51&status=Future&startdate=&startdate=&startdate=&enddate=&enddate=&enddate=&countryid=246®ionid=&marketingareaid=&city=&postalcode=&distance=&action=search&brandid=1
Or, for the lazy:
03/28 - Manchester
03/29 - Southampton
04/04 - Sheffield
04/11 - Oxford
04/19 - Plymouth
05/09 - Richmond
05/09 - Birmingham
05/10 - Leicester
05/10 - Bristol (not on the list)
05/16 - Reading
05/16 - Cambridge (not on the list)
05/17 - Ipswich
05/17 - Cardiff
05/23 - London
05/25 - Gravesend
This is the full list plus super secret tech Bristol and Cambridge qualifiers (my sauce is a Cambridge player).
Wagz
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