note: I'm obviously incapable of making the distinction of Delver of Secrets and Insectile Aberration so there's flipped and unflipped Delver in the following text...
Power Nine Challenge
On the last Saturday in a month Power Nine Challenge can be played on Magic Online. My last attempt did not end up well due to technical problems (like 7 sec lag, it was unplayable) but I knew at that time that I could play way better than last time so I wondered how the next P9C would go.The Wednesday before January's P9C brought a huge change to paying costs because colorless mana became distinct mana. With updates like this it was sure that something would go wrong. The new update seemed to fix some cards like Firespout or Generator Servant and possibly even Mishra's Workshop and Cavern of Souls (but those two cards at once in play that's a completely different story) but it also broke other cards (even the cards that were supposed to work). That was not all. Force of Will when played when Sphere of Resistance was in play cost an extra life and what was even worse was that Containment Priest and Grafdigger's Cage stopped working altogether (it was nice that Priest stopped removing itself from play but if it did not prevent Griselbrand entering play...that was way worse!). It was time for me (and others) to write to Wizards of the Coast and hope that all this would be fixed till Saturday's Power Nine Challenge.
WotC managed to fix those problems which meant downloading modo quite often during those few days (and accepting all the legal stuff) and on Saturday evening I was one of the 103 players that joined the event as well.
The first good thing was that I managed to enter the tournament with a correct deck - URw Delver (last time I entered with a deck I did not pick myself...)
by STsung
1 Brainstorm
2 Dack Fayden
4 Delver of Secrets
1 Dig Through Time
1 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Gitaxian Probe
3 Gush
3 Lightning Bolt
3 Mental Misstep
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Ponder
4 Preordain
1 Stony Silence
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Time Walk
1 Treasure Cruise
4 Young Pyromancer
1 Strip Mine
1 Polluted Delta
2 Island
2 Flooded Strand
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island
2 Containment Priest
2 Grafdigger's Cage
4 Ingot Chewer
1 Mountain
2 Pyroblast
2 Rest in Peace
1 Stony Silence
1 Wear // Tear
Round 1 - DPS
I found out what I play against after playing Gitaxian Probe revealing Dark Petition and Yawgmoth's Will. I had Flusterstorm in my hand and drew Force of Will so I felt save for a while (till first Duress/Cabal Therapy would be played). In the meantime I played two Delvers, flipped them and won soon after. I sideboarded in graveyard hate, Pyroblast and even Ingot Chewers so I could get rid of Defense Grids. My opening hand was Force of Will, Mental Misstep, Scalding Tarn, Preordain, Lightning Bolt, Ingot Chewer and Treasure Cruise. I decided to keep because that seemed ok. But opponent's turn one aready made it worse since he played Cabal Therapy that I countered losing the Misstep I wanted to keep for a Ritual if possible. I drew Cage that I played, later I drew FoW and Flusterstorm. Everything seemed fine till my FoW was discarded. I countered Dark Petition with my Flusterstorm then because I did not want him to look for Echoing Truth or Yawgmoth's Will but erm it was obviously something I wasn't supposed to do. He then played those cards (Will and Echoing Truth) anyway and I lost the game. I lost the third game as well. My opponent decided for an overkill so I had the chance to take this screenshot ->
Round 2 - Dredge
My opponent started with using Serum Powder so I knew what I was facing already. That did not change much since I can't imagine winning game 1 anyway. I played the whole game though. My opponent got two Bridges and a Narcomoeba, played few Therapies and then played Dread Return. I tried playing Gush if by a chance I wouldn't hit Fow + blue card. Stony Silence and Black Lotus was certainly neither of those^_^ so I conceded (t3 kill for dredge). I boarded in Rest in Peaces, Cages and Containment Priests. My opponent mulled to 3. I played Cage t1 and passed the turn. My opponent played Bazaar and used it but couldn't really do much with it till t4 when he destroyed my Cage and managed to get a Zombie in play. But I already had Pyromancer, Delver and some tokens in play and I added Containment Priest to that lot as well. My following draw was Grafdigger's Cage and my opponent conceded when I played it. G3 I managed to have Cage in my opener. My opponent used Bazaar but did not get any dredgers. So I decided to play Ancestral Recall first to see if my opponent counters that instead of my Cage. He let me draw some cards including Containment Priest and Force of Will. The next turn he played Therapy that I countered. I played my Cage that he tried to destroy then, I Forced that and played my Priest and that was pretty much it.
Round 3 - Dredge
My opponent started with Bazaar with the original illustration and had 6 Zombies in play by turn 2 so I scooped and hoped for a better game. I mulled into Volcanic Island, Preordain, Force of Will, Containment Priest, Strip Mine and Gitaxian Probe. It seemed as an ok hand since I could destroy Bazaar number 1 and possible find a source of white for the Priest. I Probed my opponent to see one Bazaar and destroyed it on the following turn. On t3 I top decked Tundra even though I was ready to look for it so I played the Priest to stop Ichorids from crawling out of the grave. I then tried to Bolt a lone Zombie so I could start swinging with the Priest. I knew that my opponent had one Misstep but did not expect two. The counterspell battle filled my graveyard though so I drew RIP, Preordain and Cage with Treasure Cruise. My opponent played Cabal Therapy naming Priest and Rest in Peace so I was left with Cage if the Priest would somehow die (not sure how? except that it would get blocked). Later I drew Young Pyromancer so my clock was faster. G3 After mulligan I kept a hand without any sideboard card but I could play Preordain and Delver on t1 and I had Time Walk to try drawing even one more card. I drew Ancestral Recall out of the Preordain so I tried that and drew Lotus, Delver, Cage. I played the Delver and Cage that my opponent tried to counter but I had Misstep of my own and played the Time Walk then. Flipped my two Delvers and won the game soon later.
Round 4 - White Trash
Seeing my opponent's username I expected to play against White Trash. He started with puting Leyline of Sanctity in play before the game started and skipped his turn 1 by accident (I was there too). I almost managed the same since I pressed the same key on the keyboard not expecting my opponent to skip his turn (I wanted to skip his turn, since there was no possible play for me). It did not register though so I played my land and hoped it wouldn't get Wasteland'ed in the upcoming 2 turns. I got Gush so if that would happen I could return my lands and keep them (my draw was horrible so this was a good thing to do). After staring at 3 Gushes and Force of Will (that seemed useless due to Cavern of Souls) in my hand for a while I finally managed to play something - Delver of Secrets. Second Gush brought some removal spells (2 STP, Lightning Bolt). My opponent was playing creatures and putting some pressure on me with his uncounterable clerics. My 1/1 Delvers couldn't even race back. Then finally my opponent played a Pegasus that I could counter and my Delvers finally flipped and in two swings I won the game.
I put Ingot Chewer and Wear//Tear in my deck to deal with Batterskull and hoped for the best (for Pyromancer and some instants). My hand wasn't any good. 3x Force of Will and Time Walk and bunch of lands. My lands got destroyed which filled my graveyard and I could play Dig Through Time that found Dack Fayden and Delver. I played both and countered my opponent's Misstep, Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile targeting my only creature (now my three FoWs proved to be good afterall^^). My opponent kept a 'control' hand and me as well so in the end it worked out well for me. My opponent's last attempt at doing something was playing Ethersworn Canonist into my Dack Fayden. So I stole it and wondered if my opponent would Abolish it. He did not have any plains in play or his hand though so this would not happen anyway but it was a funny thought and brought smile to my face and my flatmate's. My flatmate was there giving me moral support and I hope he had as much fun as I did.
Round 5 - Mentor
In the next round my opponent played Mox Ruby and Flooded Strand so I finally played against a blue deck (meaning it would be more difficult to win). I looked at my opponent's hand seeing Flusterstorm, FoW, FoW, Misstep and Tundra. My hand was similar^_^. I played my first Preordain and it got countered by Flusterstorm which was good for me. Next my opponent played Demonic Tutor -> Ancestral Recall that I tried to counter. It resulted in this ->
After this I was the lucky one because I still had Preordain in my hand^_^. I drew Gush and the Gush hit two Delvers. Opponent hit Gush and Mentor. My lucky top decks continued because I flipped my Delvers showing my opponent Lightning Bolt. I got rid of the Mentor, then we played few more spells and I won. G2 my opened was Delver, Dig Through Time, Gush, Gush and mana sources. That did not seem too exciting but I kept it. On t4 my two unflipped Delvers were staring at Monastery Mentor and two tokens. On t5 it was 6 tokens in total. But I managed to play Young Pyromancer and hoped to produce some blockers if my Delvers would finally decide to turn into Insectile Aberration. On t6 they flipped I swung with them leaving behind Pyromancer and one elemental facing 7 tokens and Mentor. It did not look good but my opponent did not manage to kill me after he played Dig Through Time. I played mine on my turn finding Bolt and FoW I couldn't play. My opponent cast FoW targeting the Bolt but that meant he went down to 6 and my Delvers finished him off. So I forgave my Delvers for not flipping and hoped to win the next match but I ran into the future winner of the tournament and it was the first game I completely messed up because exhaustion started to show and it showed first on misplayed Gush.
Round 6 - Mentor
I kept a hand that seemed good. I had both Delver and Pyromancer and some card draw. Delver go counterspelled, Pyromancer sticked and created a token but my Gush was countered. Mentor landed on the other side and I knew I'm screwed. I top decked Bolt but that card was countered as well. My remaining chance was playing Dig Through Time and getting a Bolt/STP. There wasn't much of anything except Brainstorm/Probe. Another Misstep awaited me. I drew Ponder though so I tried that again and hit Bolt and Misstep. I tried plowing Mentor and that worked but then I swung with majority of tokens and I died next turn since my opponent managed to draw 6 cards and played enough spells to kill me with his tokens. I was pretty angry about this because I could have (possibly) won this game. Not only I managed to mess up Gush, but I also did not keep more blockers and then I'm not sure if drawing the Misstep was the right thing to do since my opponent already played 2 of those... It seemed so at that time when I played the game but now looking at the replay...I could have just tried playing the Bolt instead since my opponent went down to 2 that turn. But I was so focused on getting rid of the Mentor that this idea did not really came to my mind. At this point I was so distracted that I wasn't sure if I can play any more games.
Game 2 did not seem good right from the beginning but it was totally winnable if I wouldn't mess up my plays so badly. My opponent started with Pyromancer that I STP'ed (and countered Misstep) but at that time I did not know what awaited me. I saw my opponent's hand on my turn - two Flusterstorms, Force of Will, Gush and Mentor. This seemed impossible to beat since I had no threats and my Flusterstorm could hardly counter Mentor. I tried playing Treasure Cruise knowing that I could counter FoW with Blast and Flusterstorm with Flusterstorm and Misstep. This would leave me without anything to counter Mentor or the next FoW but I could hope to draw something knowing that my opponent would have only 1 counterspell left. I found FoW and STP. Later Time Walk and Preordain. The next time I looked at my opponent's hand I saw two Mentors, Bolt and Gush awaiting me. I played my two Delvers hoping they would stick. One did not survive as expected but the other one got also targeted with Bolt. I Forced the Bolt which wasn't a good idea since I still had two Mentors to deal with. One of the Mentors sticked and produced two tokens. I still had the flipped Delver and my opponent was down to 6 life but I had nothing in my hand nor any blockers. My following draws were Force of Will, Pyroblast and Stony Silence (in reverse order) and I lost the game. I was VERY embarassed after this game because it did not really look like that a 4:1 player played it and this sent me out of top 16.
After this very painful defeat that wasn't even supposed to happen if I played correctly I was frenetic. I couldn't concentrate or do anything. In the morning I was supposed to arrive to Czech Vintage Series to Najada store so I decided to put my deck together and write the decklist. This kept me busy for the rest of the round. But since I couldn't even figure out what cards are missing I knew that the following game wouldn't be any good either. In a way I did not need to care since this game decided that my standing would be somewhere under the top 16 probably anyway and my tiebreakers were the worst since the beginning of the tournament^_^.
Round 7 - Dredge
Hopefully I played the last round against Dredge. I scooped game 1. G2 I kept Delver, Bolt, STP, Brainstorm, Volcanic Island, FoW so I could at least Bolt my Delver to get rid of too many Bridges in the graveyard. It got countered and I decided to keep my Brainstorm and hope for another creature and blue card. I hit Delver so I played it. My opponent played Depths and had 3 Bridges in the graveyard by t2. I flipped the Delver, attacked and bolt it post-combat main phase. Now it was time to concentrate on the Dark Depths. I top decked STP and hoped it would stay in my hand. My opponent played Cabal Therapy the next turn but did not name STP but Force of Will. Flashbacked Therapy discarded my STP. My Rest in Peace got countered but a second one I sticked and my Pyromancer had plenty of time to win the game - not really, I still could die to Marit Lage but I got rid of three Ichorids in the graveyard. Before the final attack my opponent sac'ed his Black Lotus and played Stinkweed Imp. I had STP to deal with Marit Lage so I used that on the Imp instead and won the game.
Emotions started to well up. I was glad I placed 18th but not messing the game against Princess_Power could have meant I could possibly top 8. Since I did not really feel well during the whole tournament I came to the conclusion that I was more glad than sad^_^. When I finally managed to set aside my emotions and the horrible embarrassment from round 6 I recounted my (physical) deck twice. I still came to 41 nonland cards and 14 lands (what I counted during round 7). Since my brain was incapable of figuring out what was missing I clicked on collection and looked at my deck (the one I played those seven rounds^^). Nothing came to my mind so I took the deck and piled it in front of me to find out that I'm missing Young Pyromancers (how could I miss that?) and Scalding Tarn (I expected that).
I panicked a bit because I couldn't recall in which deck I left them but then I figured out that they are in Legacy and Modern Grixis Delver so I took the first ones I encountered (Korean ones which were an oddity in a deck full of Japanese cards as someone noted).
After this I finished the decklist that I started during round 6. Processed remaining orders and went to sleep. I hoped to sleep for a while but it was clear I wouldn't be able to since the game against Princess Power haunted me in my bed.
Czech Vintage Series
At 7:20 I just couldn't bear it anymore and got up. I ate something (successfully) and headed for the Czech Vintage Series tournament in Najada. I took my time to get there because I knew I would be too early for the tournament. Soon after I got there 4 players arrived. More players followed later. The tournament started with 12 participants.In round one I played against Jiri Nitsche. I've been seeing this player play Vintage in other tournaments so I knew I should wake up and try to play well. We both mulled to 4. I was the more fortunate in the end though. I had no lands after my keep. My hand got Duress'ed (and also hit by Cabal Therapy) so I was left without anything I could possibly play even if I drew a land. The Therapy would be an obvious signal that my opponent plays Storm or something but I was too exhausted to actually make a mental note about this. Few rounds later after my opponent played few mana sources I finally drew few lands myself. I top decked Pyromancer, played Probe and finally saw my opponent's hand full of Hurkyl's Recalls and Tendrils of Agony^_^. I won soon after. Sideboarding was a problem as I managed to completely forget about cards Storm usually sides in. It did not really matter since I did not managed to get RIP or Cage and my only counterspell was Pyroblast that couldn't target Yawgmoth's Will. Third game was close but it wasn't enough from my side.
In the following round I knew that things would go wrong if I won't eat and drink soon. Too bad for me because we took 50 minutes to play the match and that resulted in me losing the game. I lost one game because I just couldn't deal with Painter and Grindstone in one turn which was fine. I won another game because I had 3 Bolts for Painter against 2 Blasts which was ok. The last game though was taking ages. I had no land, my opponent was flooded. I played Delver of Secrets though relatively early. After few counterspells the card resolved. Later though I tried Bolting Painter and the card got Misdirected to my poor Delver. After this things did not look good...When I finally managed to draw some other cards I could play I screwed playing Gush (I will note that the first sign of exhaustion is "messing Gush" obviously). There were other players watching the game already and they had the urge to tell me how I messed up and how I should have won (they were right, but should have kept that for themselves). I knew that myself and I was very upset about it already and even more because of them - if it weren't for them I could have probably not messed the damn Gush and won the game in the additional turns. But honestly I was too exhausted to even realize that my opponent had Yawgmoth's Will even though I made a mental note about it. But I forgot about it 5 minutes later (actually 11 minutes later when it was relevant because the deciding moment came in the game and I messed it up because I forgot about the Will. Making the right play - playing Gush - would result in me winning the game either way, but this was a huge mistake anyway. It changed my point of view on the game state which was bad).
Also during one of those games something rather strange happened. I played Stony Silence and my opponent looked at the card puzzled asking me what it does. I was surprised that he did not recognize the card. At this point I did no really think about this much, but when each other opponent asked me what the card does I was quite surprised. Obviously it wasn't a good idea main decking it for this tourney, since I got really strange looks after I explained what the card does^_^. I could use that slot for something else obviously... (Mentor deck would be better suited for the "meta")
After this match I was so upset that I wanted to drop but I was already paired against someone who was already waiting for me. It was another player I knew but I haven't seen him play well yet and I hoped I wouldn't need to explain anynthing. I expected a more or less mirror match. He was playing some Jeskai Mentor/Pyromancer deck. I kept few Missteps, removal, FoW and Pyromancer. I managed to play my Pyromancer, counter some of his spells and win later. In game two I did not really care about the match result anyway so I kept a sketchy hand. I either would be lucky and it would work out or not and I did not care. I played Pyromancer t1 and countered two attemps of getting rid of the Pyromancer while listening to my opponent complaining about my Missteps and FoW from previous game.
I used the Strip Mine on my opponent's land and hoped it would slow him down at least by a turn. It worked because he couldn't play Dack that early. He tried blocking and dealing with my tokens and stole my Mox but I was lucky and managed to win - he tapped out in order to find an answer to my token, was down to 1 life and I found Bolt with Ponder. So I played that and he extended his hand. I did not expect to win the game but I calmed down a bit during it because I was more interested in how the game would end up than feeling my emotions.
I did not drop even my mood was not any better (slightly it was). My following opponent improved my mood though a bit even though he started with shuffling my deck and I did not really liked that^^. After I mulled the player sitting next to him told him to be at least a bit of gentleman. He shuffled my deck anyway. He started with Arid Mesa which was a shock for me. He fetched for Plateau which was even more strange. I had no idea what he was playing. Next he played Badlands, that was even weirder. Next land was Volcanic Island so I knew that he played some blue at least but why were all his lands mountains? It is possible that not being so tired I could have possibly figured out why (maybe not) but that day (during the day) I couldn't figure out even simply things. I faced Jace, later Jace and Dack but still I couldn't see why there were all those mountains till Koth joined the team, I facepalmed myself and started to swear because there was no way for me to deal with this particular planeswalker in time (not that I could deal with Jace or Dack anyway). After Badlands dealt four damage to me I started franctically looking for Bolt or Pyromancer plus cantrip but I did not find either and scooped. I sideboarded in Containment Priests then to help me deal with Koth and I they helped. Actually this card was MVP during all the matches even though it was just a 2/2 creature with Flash. I won the following games since I already knew what to expect and the 2 damage the Priest could deal were pretty relevant (since Bolt does not kill Koth)
In the last round I wished to play against something normal (that is competitive) but after seeing with whom I was paired I knew I would be facing some Jund Blue deck with Death's Shadows and Tarmogoyf and 4x Illness in the Ranks. Game 1 I couldn't deal with Sylvan Library. Even dealing with 2-3 Goys and Death's Shadow was difficult but my opponent was a bit helpful with that since he managed to misplay rather often and that gave me some time to deal with the situation. I lost anyway though. Game 2 I sided those Priests in once again, along with Rest in Peace and Wear//Tear but I couldn't even find Tundra to play those (or rather fetchland). So the question was Force of Will Illness in the Ranks and face something like 4 Decays and Missteps or try keeping the FoW for Library and try my luck with 2/1s facing 5/5s and 5/6. Since I did not find Tundra I was forced to counter Tarmogoys which were followed by Library and I knew I was done for. I could have tried to chump and bolt Goyf and deal with 7/7 Death's Shadow later but that wasn't a good plan either. My opponent though drew Abrupt Decay, Death's Shadow (and something else...DRS?) and played all those cards the turn I decided to kill the Goyf. I don't need to say that I died the turn later. A sad game...and not sure if my decision making would make it any better^_^. (my chance of winning this game were only if my opponent would be drawing just lands^_^)
After this I felt pretty down even though my last opponent was the only one that actually tried talking to me and seemed to be glad to see a new face at the tournament. He tried to cheer me up that it was a good start for my first tournament but that did not help since it was hardly my first tournament. He also asked me if I borrowed the deck from someone which certainly felt strange (but thumbs up and thanks to all those let others use their Power Nine and Vintage decks and notably thanks to Zuzy for keeping the scene alive and organizing this series). I felt utterly defeated and exhausted but I was still up for some Vintage. I tried asking few of the players for a game but they all declined or did not even talk to me. But then I found out that one of the players wouldn't be participating in the Old School tournament so I asked him if he would be up for some games since he had to stay there till the end of the tourney. Since he was German I suspected that I would have better luck convincing him^_^. That wasn't even needed and in the end time spent with him made my day. Because we had a lot of fun playing and chatting about stuff.
I did not know what Andreas was playing so I just took my URw Delver first to see what I would play against. I found out soon that he played a Shops deck and laughed a bit about his comment about being lucky not encountering me in the tournament (well, yes my first thought when playing against him was that I really SO wanted to play against him in the tourney). Later I found out he was running the Forgemaster version of the deck. We played many games and I have to say that I was getting lost even more than during the tournament (for example forgetting that one of my Revokers named Steel Hellkite) but I tried to focus on the game and get the most out of the games and learn something about the Shops matchup that I could use in the future (it also meant that we ended up in situations we shouldn't have but I don't see this as a bad thing since I can see where bad decisions can take me and if there are chances to actually turn the game in ones favor once again). I took Aggro Shops and tried to figure out how this MUD (kinda)mirror match looks like. I did not expect pleasant games but in the end we had lots of fun playing this matchup even though Kuldotha Forgemaster seemed the card that simply meant 'I lost'. The decision tree for me as a Shops player is completely unknown for me so figuring out what was the correct play took some time to show. Few photos from the games follow...
I kept a Mountain, Black Lotus, 3 Delvers, STP and Ancestral Recall. I drew an island and for some UNKNOWN reason I decided to play that instead of the mountain which obviously meant that I couldn't play the Ancestral Recall a turn later. But it was fun playing 3 Delvers T1^_^.
What one Metalworker can do if not destroyed or 'needled' (the needled cards were Hellkite and Forgemaster)
Something like turn 10?
Apart from my mood being spoiled quite soon the tournament was calm and the games were nice. I'd like to thank Zuzy for everything once again and I hope that with the help of other players and local game stores' support the series will once again have many players participating in the tournaments and everyone will be happy playing Legacy, Vintage and Old School. So see you next time at next Czech Vintage and Legacy Series and Prague Eternal (and Legacy GP^_^)!
BTW my last opponent had really cool proxies of Power Nine and other cards like Library of Alexandria so he wouldn't need to play with his beta power in a pub (or other non-tournament environment). I found those pretty cool so I took a picture of some of them.
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