Duel Commander - The Mimeoplasm adventure no.2

Random blah blah you don't need to read^_~

My calendar was showing two events on 11th October - an EDH Tournament in Hradec Kralove and Machinae Supremacy concert in Prague. The concert got the priority but there was a condition. If I would get enough money for it out of Khans of Tarkir I would go. Otherwise I'd attend the next one that could possibly happen in 3 years time^_~. If I would get at least some money from the tournaments I'd go to Hradec Kralove to play EDH. My last chance to open or win something was at Najada's League Top 8 draft. As expected...I managed to open nothing worth enough money to help me go to the concert. During that week I borrowed some money so I could survive through the week and send out all orders. On Thursday I needed to return the money and still have enough money for another batch of orders. Going to Hradec Kralove started to look unlikely as well.

On Friday my plan was to go to Beroun where I would vote and return to Prague so I could possibly go to Hradec Kralove. That day my mother called me and mentioned that my father is in Prague and could take me to Beroun and that by the way he is about to go to Hradec Kralove the next day. Long story could be told here but let's skip that. The next day we left for Hradec Kralove. I arrived on time and went to register.

During the registration time we played few games with Martin so I had some time to remember what cards were actually in my deck. I managed to screw up few times even though I won those games *facepalm*. Something like that should not be happening to me during the tournament.

EDH Tournament Report

Round 1 - Doran, the Siege Tower - Petr Stefan

In game 1 I kept a hand that was actually good but would become completely useless if a discard hit me. It would also totally die to Aven Mindcensor or Scavenging Ooze. All of this was quite probable from a Doran, the Siege Tower player but I did not expect that to happen and well that is what killed me in the end. My opponent played Mother of Runes on turn 1 followed by Aven Mindcensor and Scavenging Ooze. That was too much for me to handle because my only out was Toxic Deluge. These creatures were joined by Doran itself which was beating me pretty hard. After several blank draws I lost the game.

In game two my opponent opened with Deathrite Shaman. He was so kind to actually attack with it though so I killed him with my Phyrexian Devourer+Triskelion+Necrotic Ooze combo a bit later.

In game three I kept a hand with a fetchland and Wasteland which was not a good idea, those were all the lands I saw during that game. At that time I did not know that Sinkhole would be the most played card against me that day and there wasn't anything I could do with colorless mana...

Round 2 - Sen Triplets - Miroslav Vana

After this terrible loss I did not really expect to finish in top 8 but I could still try. I checked my opponent's hand so I could get rid of counterspells or discard but instead of that I saw a hand full of enchantments. One of them was Rest in Peace that really had to go. There was also Mystical Tutor but I wasn't really sure if that card could look for anything reasonable. I probably won soon after this. I did not write much information during this match except my opponent's cards in hand and life totals. The life totals were like 29 -> 26 and 29 and game over. I remember that the last game I won thanks to Survival of the Fittest because my tutor and reanimation spell were discarded. I did not have a creature in hand but I top decked Brainstorm thanks to which I managed to find a creature. I could discard it then and tutor my combo pieces and play Necrotic Ooze from my hand to win the game.

Round 3 - Rafiq of the Many - Viktor Coufal

When my opponent started with a tapped land followed by another one and playing a mana dork on turn 3 I did not expect much of resistance. My life totals I wrote down during the match were 29, 21 and 8 (the second attack was actually pretty brutal). It was my opponent who lost though. In the second game I reanimated Griselbrand which was pretty much the end of the game.

Round 4 - Kaalia of the Vast - Martin Vlnas

This round is were all the fun began. I lost game one. Kaalia of the Vast -> Rune-Scarred Demon -> Ravages of War wasn't any good.

Game two was a catastrophe for both of us. I kept a hand with a fetchland that could not fetch Underground Sea which was a HUGE mistake because I needed to play some cantrips to get to another land. I fetched for Tropical Island facepalming myself (showing my opponent that I'm completely screwed if he destroys that land...). I peeked at my opponent's hand seeing a hand full of rocks, Orim's Chant, Hymn to Tourach and Toxic Deluge. My hand consisted of two tutor spells, reanimation spell and Entomb. I couldn't really play those though because I couldn't draw a black source. I managed to draw or tutor Flash and put Woodfall Primus into play this way. In order to survive I needed my opponent to be also mana screwed and be drawing blanks. In this case rather color screwed so I destroyed his two sources of red and hoped that Kaalia would never hit the board (not that there would be anything that my opponent could put into play with it). I hoped that the Primus would be enough for me to win. My opponent destroyed my Tropical Island so I couldn't play anything (obviously) when I finally drew a land it was ... wait for it... Boseiju, Who Shelters All. My opponent drew a card, played a Swamp. I drew another land. It was Wasteland. At least I could destroy another red source if it would ever hit the table (and would be a non-basic LAND). In the meantime I was swinging with Woodfall Primus. When I drew another land I really started wondering how many lands produce colorless mana in my deck. I played the card I drew - Cavern of Souls - and named Ooze. When I couldn't really come up with other lands producing colorless mana in my deck, to my surprise I drew Flooded Grove which in this case was yet another colorless source. At that moment I was glad I cut Twilight Mire and replaced it with Mana Confluence. My opponent was down to 7 so he played Orim's Chant to earn at least one more turn to draw Swords to Plowshares. Then I finally drew Cephalid Coliseum. My opponent killed my only creature with Toxic Deluge because he wouldn't be able to do it a turn later. Then I drew Survival of the Fittest. I discarded Phyrexian Devourer and Triskelion keeping Necrotic Ooze in hand (finally Flooded Grove was a land I appreciated!). No matter what though I still needed a source of black. The next card I drew was a Forest or Island I do not recall but it allowed me to use Cephalid Coliseum and look for something in three cards. The last card was Marsh Flats so I finally killed my opponent (I was glad that I won at least once) at 30 life this time. I could have tried to tutor a mana producing creature but that would most probably die (I actually used Birds of Paradise to look for the combo pieces, those poor Birds were removed from the game for quite some time - Mesmeric Fiend).
Game 3 was pretty boring - I killed my opponent on turn 3.

Round 5 - Horde of Notions - Zbynek Boltek

These two games went pretty badly. I Thoughtseized my opponent discarding Reanimate leaving him Sword of Fire and Ice, Garruk Wildspeaker, Dust Bowl and Eternal Witness. After seeing his hand I was ready to shake his hand but I continued playing. I had a plan but it would most probably be wrecked by Dust Bowl and that is also what happened. Then Fauna Shaman with SoFaI equipped killed me. I could have destroyed the Sword but then Reanimate, Eternal Witness and Shaman's ability would kill me instead. In the second game we were changing control of Woodfall Primus for quite some time. In the end it ended up on the wrong side of the table for me and I lost. Losing this match most probably meant no top 8 for me so I wasn't really happy about that. Especially knowing that intentional draws would mean that I would not even get the chance to get into top 8 with 4-2 record. After this we played two more games in which ones I just killed my opponent very easily. It was fun though and I hoped that this player would make it far in the tournament. He lost though a mirror match in the first round of the top8.

Round 6 - Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon - Jiri Ponikelsky

My next opponent as I learned later is the owner of the restaurant where the tournament was held. He played a monoblack infect and that scared the hell out of me. Black has discard, graveyard hate and a 4/4 body that can be 10/10 Infect Flying creature quite easily. I 'poisoned' quite a lot of players with Skithiryx so I knew how evil this creature could be. Anyway it was me who played the first discard spell. I saw a hand full of lands and Lashwrithe + Coalition Relic. I discarded the Relic, let my opponent swing with a creature for 7 and then I just killed him with my combo.

In game two I reanimated or Show and Tell'ed Griselbrand into play. I also had Dryad Arbor in play (since my opponent had Diabolic Edict in hand) and that was pretty much it. He wasn't aware that Dryad Arbor is a creature so played the Edict, no matter what I expected Griselbrand to die. Griselbrand was a target of another removal spell later so I drew 14 cards and found a another win condition there. I spent some time explaining how the Ooze combo works - I should prepare some text for that...

After this I signed up for a booster draft because I did not expect to get into top 8. While waiting for the draft to begin we started playing some Legacy. During one of those games few players came rushing in to tell me that I made it to the top 8.

Round 7 - Doran, the Siege Tower - Martin Pelikan

My opponent had to go so I practically got a bye. Good for me.

Round 8 - Horde of Notions - Jakub Havelka

These games were interesting. Kumano's deck is actually a combo deck. I'm not sure if he wins via something else other than Deceiver Exarch/Pestermite/Zealous Conscripts and Kiki-Jiki/Splinter Twin combo or not. In his hand he had Mystical Tutor, Eternal Witness (oh man how she was annoying during the whole tournament) and Stoneforge Mystic. He played Phyrexian Arena early and was drawing extra cards. I managed to Flash Woodfall Primus into play destroying some lands - usually hitting green and red sources. I was attacking with Primus killing some creatures in the process and dealing some damage as well. At one life my opponent wanted to finish me off -> Mystical Tutor -> Enlightened Tutor -> Splinter Twin on Exarch but I ruined his plans by killing the blue creature. I won't lie, I was lucky.
Game two was quite similar for me, because I had Mystical Tutor and Woodfall Primus in hand. That seemed crucial actually because I needed to destroy some of his lands in order to slow him down. His turn 2 Dark Confidant wasn't anything I'd like to see. Zealous Conscripts, Treachery, Dark Tutelage, Eternal Witness and Deceiver Exarch were in his hand. So I destroyed some lands and once again tried attacking with the Primus. Later on I managed to put in play Rune-Scarred Demon with which I tutored Toxic Deluge. My opponent looked for Chord of Calling the turn later and played it during the attack. He looked for Phantasmal Image, chose Rune-Scarred Demon to tutor and block the original Demon. I was down to 18 life which wasn't much because he could steal one of my creatures and deal 12 damage but those six life would still be enough for me to win. That is most probably why he tried a different plan (he was down to 6). He played Kiki-Jiki, I killed the goblin so he wouldn't go infinite. On my turn I played my general copying Kiki-Jiki that made a EOT copy of Woodfall Primus destroying another land hoping that this would be enough (because alpha strike wasn't enough). I won.

Finals - Cpt. Sisay - Jan Kousal

This was the deck I wanted to end up playing against as it seemed the easiest one to beat. There were 2 other Mimeoplasm decks in the top 8, Elves, Doran, Cpt. Sisay and 2 Horde of Notions. I certainly did not want to play against any blue deck. Anyway game one seemed pretty bad at the beginning for me. My opponent played Aven Mindcensor and one more creature (Mother of Runes?). I had Toxic Deluge to get rid of those creatures but before I managed to play it Safi showed up wrecking my plan (killing the Mindcensor). Anyway I was forced to play the Deluge. After that I was facing Aven Mindcensor alone. My opponent decided to play Armageddon then. He wasn't aware that on top of my library I stacked 3 lands and Duress (with shuffle effect in my hand) - Lim Dul's Vault is awesome^_^. So I played my three lands, shuffled my library and looked for anything that could help me deal with that annoying bird. My opponent had Kor Haven in play and later managed to play two other lands. I destroyed one somehow. Later on I reanimated Terastodon destroying Kor Haven because it was most probable that I would need to deal some damage with creatures in order to win. (so my own lands were a necessary target as well) I was facing three creatures, was down to 4 life and my opponent had Swords to Plowshares in hand. One creature wouldn't really do... Later I drew and played Primeval Titan. I attacked with it few times, thinning my library so I could draw something better. Later I hardcasted Griselbrand and started swinging with more creatures I had in play (knowing that Griselbrand would gain me 7 life no matter what). I was afraid something would go wrong but it did not and I won this game.

I hoped for the second game to be really short because I was starving. My opponent had 7 mana available on turn 3 so I was forced to look for a removal for his general. I was afraid that something would happen to my combo so I rather killed the general first before trying to kill him. When thinking what could instantly screw me up I only came up with Crop Rotation. I wouldn't be able to do anything with it anyway so I tried...and I won.

After the tournament I was left alone. Everyone just ran away from our 'feature match' and I could finally eat my dinner. I ordered chilli noodles with spinach and chicken steak. I have to say that it was delicious. During my meal the organizer of the tournament came to me and gave me my two prizes. With my belly full I went to watch the ongoing draft matches. Majority of the players were drunk so it was quite fun to watch sometimes, sometimes it was sad to look at. In general we had quite some fun. Seeing players counting to eight or six trying to figure out how many cards in their graveyard they need to remove from the game and how many lands to tap was funny. The rest of the night we played legacy.

I'd like to thank everyone for everything, Dominik for writing report from the last tournament (reason why I participated in the tourney), my parents for their support and the ride, Martin for the ride back and accommodation and the other players for chatting with me, playing etc. Cheers to the organizers and judge for everything. It was awesome experience.

I'd love to write more but I cannot convert my feelings into words right now. This post looks pretty dull to me compared to the good time I spend there.

As I did not really expect myself to actually show at the tournament I did not really make any changes to the deck. There are cards I'd like to try out like Sultai Charm (another draw a card/discard a card effect but it can also deal with this deck's nightmares - Linvala, Scavenging Ooze, Aven Mindcensor...etc) and Dig Through Time (7 cards? that's a lot) for example. These cards are quite expensive for the deck but they are good. Cutting something though is difficult. Recurring Nightmare and Jace, the Mind Sculptor are the first cards I would take out.

Thanks for reading
S'Tsung

The Mimeoplasm by STsung Creatures 1 Arbor Elf 1 Birds of Paradise 1 Deathrite Shaman 1 Elves of Deep Shadow 1 Elvish Mystic 1 Fyndhorn Elves 1 Griselbrand 1 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur 1 Llanowar Elves 1 Massacre Wurm 1 Necrotic Ooze 1 Phyrexian Devourer 1 Primeval Titan 1 Rune-Scarred Demon 1 Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon 1 Sylvan Primordial 1 Terastodon 1 Triskelion 1 Woodfall Primus 1 Dryad Arbor 20 cards Instants 1 Abrupt Decay 1 Brainstorm 1 Dismember 1 Entomb 1 Fact or Fiction 1 Flash 1 Frantic Search 1 Go for the Throat 1 Intuition 1 Lim-Dul's Vault 1 Mystical Tutor 1 Peek 1 Thirst for Knowledge 1 Diabolic Edict 14 cards Sorceries 1 Buried Alive 1 Careful Study 1 Compulsive Research 1 Diabolic Intent 1 Demonic Tutor 1 Duress 1 Exhume 1 Gitaxian Probe 1 Green Sun's Zenith 1 Inquisition of Kozilek 1 Maelstrom Pulse 1 Ponder 1 Preordain 1 Reanimate 1 Show and Tell 1 Strategic Planning 1 Thoughtseize 1 Toxic Deluge 18 cards Enchantments 1 Animate Dead 1 Dance of the Dead 1 Necromancy 1 Pernicious Deed 1 Recurring Nightmare 1 Survival of the Fittest 1 Sylvan Library 7 cards Planeswalkers 1 Liliana of the Veil 1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor 2 cards Land 1 Bayou 1 Bloodstained Mire 1 Bojuka Bog 1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All 1 Breeding Pool 1 Cavern of Souls 1 Cephalid Coliseum 1 City of Brass 1 Command Tower 1 Drowned Catacomb 1 Flooded Grove 1 Flooded Strand 2 Forest 1 Hinterland Harbor 2 Island 1 Llanowar Wastes 1 Marsh Flats 1 Misty Rainforest 1 Overgrown Tomb 1 Phyrexian Tower 1 Polluted Delta 1 Scalding Tarn 2 Swamp 1 Tropical Island 1 Mana Confluence 1 Underground River 1 Underground Sea 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 1 Verdant Catacombs 1 Wasteland 1 Watery Grave 1 Windswept Heath 1 Wooded Foothills 1 Woodland Cemetery 1 Yavimaya Coast 38 cards