Small EDH Tourney

Being pretty sleep deprived I decided to attend two tournaments this weekend - Legacy and EDH. On Saturday I felt really down, depression was the feeling with which I came to play in the tournament. I picked up Stoneblade and played with it. In the first round everything seemed great for me but then I struggled to find an answer to one threat and I lost quite some time later. The second game ended up in a draw but still it meant a loss for me. In the next round I could have won, but not anticipating my opponent to have 2x Swords to Plowshares I lost once again. Even Affinity beat me. In the deciding game I played some Brainstorms, Ponder and Stoneforge Mystic in order to shuffle my library but I couldn't find a third land. In the meantime I was attacked by 10/1 Vault Skirge that I couldn't deal with. In the last round I played against Storm. I was like...'ok one more loss and I can go home' but I won the match. Seeing my opponent's first hand I knew I would simply die when he puts all the pieces together. In the second game I was stripped of my Force of Will and Surgical Extractions, that did not seem good but I also discarded some key cards. With Jace, the Mind Sculptor or on the table I felt relatively safe. When Brainstorming though my opponent played Notion Thief O_O. I was surprised quite a lot by it. I started to fate seal and was prepared to lose as Jace was my only win condition. In order to win I would need to bounce the Thief and counter him which I couldn't do for quite some time. My opponent was attacking me though and when Jace was at 13 counters he also attacked me. I used his ultimate ability, bounced the Thief later and countered the card. In game three I discarded all tutors and LEDs I could and started swinging with Snapcaster Mages and Stoneforge Mystic. My opponent did not draw another land in order to take care of the creatures and died. That was certainly weird.

I spent the rest of the day and most of the night translating a book. When I finished it I had to build a deck for today's tournament. So I grabbed my Mimeoplasm deck and my Magic Cube 'Offline'. I took out cards I would want to play in a Necrotic Ooze-Phyrexian Devourer-Triskelion combo and placed them in front of me. I was trying to think hard of cards that search the library, draw cards and allow discard from hand and in the end I build a deck.

I had pretty clear idea about what cards I would play and I guess anyone wanting to play similar deck in similar way would choose them as well. I was considering playing counterspells and slowing down the deck a bit but I decided that I don't want that. Either I'll win or no, so I went for discard. As for reanimation spells I just grabbed those in the cube and my former EDH deck. I put there my combo and some creatures I really wanted to play or rather cheat into play somehow - Griselbrand, Jin-Gitaxias, Rune-Scarred Demon, Woodfall Primus, Terastodon, Sylvan Primordial, Primeval Titan. I just couldn't play without Terastodon so I took out Natural Order out of my binder and add it to the deck as well...Whatever...two hours later I had a deck that lacked 14 cards so I added some random removal like Abrupt Decay, Go For the Throat, Dismember, Toxic Deluge, Maelstrom Pulse and Pernicious Deed. To be honest I would rather not play them at all, but I couldn't come up with anything else I'd like to play. For sure Dismember and Toxic Deluge will STAY in the deck no matter what. The remaining cards were some random creatures, Peek, Flash and Strategic Planning.

In the first round I played against Kaalia of the Vast. She's a dangerous human cleric...mana acceleration wasn't anything I wanted to see as my deck can hardly kill ANY creature. I fought valiantly ^_^ against Kaalia and Rakdos, the Defiler but my mana base got wrecked and do to that I couldn't win in the following turns. I managed to cheat Sylvan Primordial in play but Kuro killed him and attacked me for lethal (looks like I'm schizophrenic - but I guess you know what I'm talking about). Game two was decided by my turn 4 Natural Order that wrecked my opponent's mana base along with finding me a big body. In game three I decided to let my opponent live past turn three and that resulted in me losing the game. But I could have killed him on turn 3. He though managed to cheat into play Iona on turn 4. That was nice^_^. I felt happy even though being the loser.

In round 2 I killed my opponent on turn 3 by playing mana dork turn 1, intuition turn 2 and thoughtseize + reanimate on turn 3. In the second game I destroyed my opponent's only lands early game. She already got some creatures in play but these could hardly kill me. My bigger problem was actually a Nihil Spellbomb that landed there turn 1. Without it the game would swiftly end, but with it on the table...I had to wait and hardcast my creatures. Hardcasting these creatures got easier when I managed to draw two mana dorks in a row. These were followed by Primeval Titan. I could then finally play Woodfall Primus targeting the Spellbomb and turn later kill her with the combo (at that time she was at 46 life, so killing her in a fair way would take quite some time).

Round 3 was even swifter. I started with turn 3 kill game 1 and followed with turn 4 kill game 2. My opponent did not draw a counterspell and the only card that would destroy my plan I discarded with Duress.
In the last round I horribly died. I Thoughtseized my opponent discarding his only discard spell leaving him Gatekeeper of Malakir that won him the game later as the Gatekeeper killed my mana dork so I couldn't play Natural Order. I could have tutored Reanimation spell in order to reanimate the poor elf and then play Natural Order (in this case two turns later) but I thought that the game is already lost. I would have found Terastodon hitting Cabal Coffers and Urborg. I was hit by Skithyrix though and lost. It wasn't well played from my part, I have to admit that...In the second game I pulled of yet another turn 3 kill. My opponent tapped out so I did not need to worry about Shred Memory or something. In game 3 I mulled and my keep wasn't any good. The first discard spell hit my reanimation spell and later was followed with two more discard spells. And yes this deck is not good at top decking. So I watched my opponent play land each turn and waited till the time he would cast his general and kill me with it. This happened relatively soon, unfortunately for me.

The players were nice and kind, so I hope we will meet again. Thanks for the opportunity to play this weird format and the opportunity to play big fatties that cost 8 and more mana^_^.

The Mimeoplasm combo
Main Deck:
1 Arbor Elf
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Elves of Deep Shadow
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Griselbrand
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
1 Liliana of the Veil
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 Sphinx of Uthuun
1 Sylvan Primordial
1 Terastodon
1 Triskelion
1 Woodfall Primus

1 Abrupt Decay
1 Animate Dead
1 Brainstorm
1 Buried Alive
1 Careful Study
1 Compulsive Research
1 Dance of the Dead
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Dismember
1 Duress
1 Entomb
1 Exhume
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Flash
1 Frantic Search
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Go for the Throat
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Intuition
1 Lim-Dul's Vault
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Natural Order
1 Necromancy
1 Peek
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Reanimate
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Show and Tell
1 Strategic Planning
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Sylvan Library
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Thoughtseize
1 Toxic Deluge

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 Dryad Arbor
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 Twilight Mire
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

Playing more Legacy

During the last month I decided to play Legacy a bit more seriously than before. I sleeved UWr Miracles, Death and Taxes, Canadian Threshhold, Esper Stoneblade, Jund (already had that) and ANT (also had that). I wanted to know what I do wrong against Miracles when playing Jund. After beating the Miracles deck like 20 to 1 I just did not figure it out^_^. Then I spent quite some time playing ANT against blue decks. After that I picked up Jund and tried to play against Death and Taxes and Canadian Treshhold. I don't know why but it seemed miserable. I wasn't losing that much but when I lost it was really bad. My deck was torn apart in a such way that I did not even think that possible. After side boarding it gets far better but still...the Jund deck could die horribly. I even tried playing with DnT but it seems that it is not a deck for me. After a miserable 2:2 at local tournament with it I decided not to try again.

This month there were quite some big Legacy tournaments in the world so I watched the coverage. I'm not entirely sure if I learned something but it was sometimes fun to watch and sometimes it was really bad. The commentating was mostly bad and some people managed to do such misplays that I did not think possible at such tables. When watching Grand Prix Washington coverage I discovered something though (not about legacy). There is something like Walking the Planes, it's fun. Watch it if you haven't already.

So prepared this way for more legacy I decided to give Jund last chance to prove itself.

Jund
By STsung

3 Bloodbraid Elf
4 Dark Confidant
4 Deathrite Shaman
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Liliana of the Veil
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Hymn to Tourach
2 Lightning Bolt
3 Punishing Fire
1 Sylvan Library
4 Thoughtseize
3 Badlands
3 Bayou
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Forest
4 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Wasteland

1 Ancient Grudge
2 Duress
1 Engineered Plague
2 Golgari Charm
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Krosan Grip
2 Pithing Needle
2 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Surgical Extraction

I went 3:1. What was different that I won one more game than usual? Most probably it was because of not playing against Show and Tell, ANT and Elves. But anyway I added Pernicious Deed to my sideboard ditching Umezawa's Jitte and Engineered Plague, put Life from the Loam to main instead of Hymn to Tourach and this helped me against all the decks I played against later so I'll keep it that way. First I encountered MUD at the tourney. I managed to discard cards I did not want to see on the table before Chalice of the Void forbid me to do so. Later it was Liliana of the Veil that did the rest of the job. In the second game I got overrun by 2 Golems and couldn't deal with them as I simply did not have enough mana even for a Lightning Bolt. In game three I won once again (my hate against MUD was actually quite big to my surprise).

In the second round I played against Tomas Vlcek and his Miracles. For some reason I just never managed to beat him with my Jund deck at a tournament (I could beat Miracles 20 to 1 but not at a tourney^^). This time I was prepared against his Blood Moon after boarding but I still lost (even though it took a really LOONG time for him to find a Plains card and later Entreat the Angels).

After that I played against Death and Taxes. I wasn't actually looking forward to this because it really depends on my and my opponent's draw. My hand consisted of a land and Deathrite Shaman so it seemed ok. The game took quite a long time and it seemed my opponent would kill me with his flyers. But then I managed to kill majority of his board and land Liliana that didn't die. She managed to kill the remaining creatures and later empty my opponent's hand. In game 2 I sided Pernicious Deed in and hoped for a hand that would allow me to play it. I got enough land and basics helped so I swept his board and won.

In the last round I played against a fair deck running all the good creatures and managed to win. Liliana of the Veil shined.

Esper Stoneblade
By STsung

3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Vendilion Clique
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Batterskull
4 Brainstorm
1 Counterspell
1 Engineered Explosives
3 Force of Will
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Intuition
3 Lingering Souls
2 Ponder
1 Supreme Verdict
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Thoughtseize
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Vindicate
4 Flooded Strand
2 Island
1 Karakas
2 Marsh Flats
1 Plains
3 Polluted Delta
1 Scrubland
4 Tundra
3 Underground Sea

1 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Cabal Therapy
1 Disenchant
1 Force of Will
2 Notion Thief
2 Spell Pierce
1 Supreme Verdict
3 Surgical Extraction
1 Thoughtseize
1 Zealous Persecution

The next week I brought Esper Stoneblade and went 3:1 because I managed to lose one game due to 'not wanting to win'. The board was overwhelmed with creatures on the otherside and I just couldn't see a way how could survive at my 3 life or so. But that was a wrong thought, I had everything I needed in order to win but my brain just couldn't switch to the win mode and I lost like 15 minutes later^^.

Round one I played against Enchantress combo. I wasn't really sure what I would do with it but Force of Will in my opener seemed good enough. My opponent wasn't really lucky I either countered what he needed or discarded it. Lingering Souls and Snapcaster Mage were beating him down in the meantime. In the following game he could hardly draw anything good. When he finally tutored what he needed I disenchanted it and that was game.

In round two I had this unfortunate game against Death and Taxes. I lost the first game I don't even know how. But the second game I could have won, I was just too afraid of losing that I did not realize that I can win.

In round three I played against Canadian Treshhold. I was quite surprised how easily I managed to win. My manabase got wrecked and I was facing Delver and Mongooses but Engineered Explosives backed up by Force of Will destroyed them later and then it was Stoneforge Mystic time. I struggled with three basics the other game as well but apart from having 1 blue mana less than I wanted I had everything I needed. I played Intuition into 3x Lingering Souls and the game ended quite soon after.

In the last round I was pretty tired and managed several serious misplays (I couldn't Brainstorm correctly). My opponent played some kind of Esper Control as well but did even worse misplays than me. He could have killed my Jace in two turns and Sword a Spirit token with Jitte. He did not do that and that resulted in me beating him.

After looking back at me trying to play Jund I have to admit that I like the control deck many times more than Jund. It felt much better playing Stoneblade and I did not get that frustrated because of bad draws. So next time it's going to be Stoneblade time once again. Last legacy tourney I played Jund because I knew my brain wouldn't be able to play Stoneblade. I played four times against a Delver deck what a luck^^. I tried winning what I could but even first turn Wasteland -> Tropical Island, Surgical Extraction -> Tropical Island did not win me a game^_^. I went 2:2 *sniff*.

Game of Thrones Intro attempt no.1

One of my dreams is getting a digital piano one day. But well that means that I'll have some spare money in the future. So from time to time I play on the piano in my parent's house. It sounds terrible but still it feels great playing the piano. I want to start over...simply things first, more complex later. But mastering even simple scores would make me happy. Long way to go. -> GoT Intro

Brainstorm #3

During the night I produced yet one more Jace Brainstorm.

Highlander Series #2

After the success at the first tournament I decided to go to the second tournament of the series. But I wanted to change my deck a bit. My BUGw Aggro conrol sometimes has hard time killing my opponent with its 1/1 mana dorks so I wanted to try something a bit more agressive. The week the second tournament took place there was another highlander tournament at a different game store. A friend of mine asked me to prepare him a deck so he could play. I took out my Cube and chose all the good cards of all colors I could possibly use for the deck.

I added some lands, but I needed to cut quite a lot of them (as 10 dual lands, 10 shock lands and 10 fetch lands is already 30). In the end I added few more cards like Dryad Arbor, Fleecemane Lion (not going to play this anymore) and Loxodon Smiter.

1 Ajani Vengeant
1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Blade Splicer
1 Dark Confidant
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Delver of Secrets
1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
1 Eternal Witness
1 Falkenrath Aristocrat
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Fleecemane Lion
1 Geist of Saint Traft
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Loxodon Smiter
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Putrid Leech
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Restoration Angel
1 Reveillark
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Shriekmaw
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Thragtusk
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Wild Nacatl
1 Young Pyromancer

1 Abrupt Decay
1 Brainstorm
1 Chain Lightning
1 Daze
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Eladamri's Call
1 Electrolyze
1 Evasive Action
1 Fire // Ice
1 Force of Will
1 Force Spike
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Izzet Charm
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Lightning Helix
1 Lingering Souls
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Mana Drain
1 Mana Leak
1 Miscalculation
1 Path to Exile
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Remand
1 Spell Snare
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Thoughtseize
1 Tribal Flames
1 Unearth
1 Vindicate

1 Arid Mesa
1 Badlands
1 Bayou
1 Blood Crypt
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Breeding Pool
1 City of Brass
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Flooded Strand
1 Island
1 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Plateau
1 Polluted Delta
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Savannah
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Scrubland
1 Steam Vents
1 Stirring Wildwood
1 Swamp
1 Taiga
1 Temple Garden
1 Treetop Village
1 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
1 Underground Sea
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wasteland
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills

My friend made 4:0 at the tournament. The day before the tournament I wanted to play in I was asking people on facebook if I should go 5c or show up with my old deck. Those who answered were for the 5c deck so I went with it.

During the tournament I played against a staxx deck that beat me. Trinisphere in all the first turns was simply wrong for me. In the first game it is something that actually won me the game but otherwise I just couldn't do much with it. In one of the games my opponent could't draw a card that would kill me. So I was there stuck with nothing to play and sometimes dealing 1 damage to Ajani so I could keep my lands for few more turns. But then Armageddon decided it all. The other game I lost was pretty short as I couldn't deal with early Tezzeret. The other deck that beat me was mono white. The pilot of the deck went 6:0 and beat me in the final round. I could have won. The only thing I needed was a flipped Delver of Secrets^_^. But no instant or sorceries followed in the next five turns unfortunately for me...

Anyway during the tournament I did not really have so many problems with my mana base - that's something I feared the most. Those problems I had were caused by the fact that I did not recall what shocklands I put in the deck and that resulted sometimes in having wrong lands in play. But with the knowledge of the lands in the deck everything would be fine. Draws with something like Mountain + Badlands as my only lands were really discouraging but usually one mulligan solved the problem (I got once Bayou + Forest instead of even worse combination but it worked fine). Once it took me three turns to play Falkenrath Aristocrat as I couldn't get Black or Red but I won the game no matter what...but it meant finding Sakura-Tribe Elder and surviving one more turn (which could mean I could lose pretty easily). Anyway the deck is agressive, it can counter and occasional burn helps a lot. I'll probably try playing with this in the following tournament as well. (this deck could hardly beat my EDH though o_O That WAS discouraging...)