[Report] One man's Death is another man's Dream

[AnwarA101]

So its been over a week since The Mana Leak Open 2, but I just got a reasonable amount of time to write a tournament report. I'll spare you the details about how our bedroom on Friday night was probably one of the worst rooms I've ever stayed in my life, but hell I was tired and at least it had a bed in it. I decided to roll with the usual, Red Death.

Red Death

4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Sinkhole

4 Lightning Bolt
3 Chain Lightning

4 Phyrexian Negator
4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Nantuko Shade
3 Rotting Giant
1 Wretched Anurid

4 Dark Ritual
4 Polluted Delta
3 Bloodstained Mire
3 Badlands
7 Swamp
4 Wasteland

Sideboard
4 Engineered Plague
4 Dystopia
1 Darkblast
3 Jitte
3 Cabal Therapy


Round 1 - UWB Fish (Sorry I don't remeber your name I didn't write it down)

Game 1 - I keep a reasonable hand on the play, it has Ritual, Shade, Hymn, some lands and I think a bolt. He fetchs for Underground Sea and plays Duress, taking my Hymn. I'm not sure what I'm playing against but I rit into Shade. My opponent drops an Island and passes. At this point I'm not sure what's going on, but I swing with Nantuko Shade and pumping him for 2. Next turn he passes without a land drop or any type of play. The next turn I attempt to play a creature, but it gets dazed (I'm still swinging with Shade). He replays the Island and he seems upset as he as no other play. I Duress him and find out his hand is full of white cards, 2x STP, 1x Mother of Runes, and I think 1X Isamaru and maybe something else. I take 1 STP, but he never finds the white source and well Shade goes all the way.

Game 2 - I keep a reasonable hand with some creatures and disruption. I believe he has a better hand as he plays Serum Visions on turn 1. I play a land go. He gets a Mother of Runes down and I play a Giant followed by a Shade. He gets Jotun Grunt down and starts beating in. I'm using my mana to disrupt him with Sinkhole/Hymn and so I'm taking damage from Grunt. I felt so bad for my opponent that I actually reminded him about Grunt's upkeep as he was reaching for his card for the turn. Grunt eventually was chumped by Giant, but then he disappeared. By then I had a Negator and well Mother of Runes can only prevent 1 point of damage from Negator and the game ended like that. Also I remembered throwing a wasteland in there just for good measure that seemed to give him some trouble as well.

Wow, I didn't know the UWB Fish matchup could be that lopsided. I truely felt bad for my opponent as I felt that he was playing a poor deck.

1-0

Round 2 - Faerie Stompy played by James (made T8)

Game 1 - He's on the play and goes Island go. I play fecth go. He plays Ancient Tomb and plays Sea Drake bouncing his lands. I attempt to Bolt at the end of his turn but he has Force of Will. On my turn I play Giant and pass. He plays Ancient then Chrome Mox pitching something to play Sword of Light and Shadow. What? Sword of Light and Shadow? Was this guy expecting to see me today? Well He equips and its all over.

Game 2 - I go busted all over him with my Ritual Negator and I think I waste his land and then drop Jitte. This game was over very fast.

Game 3- This one was close. We both keep slow hands (yes I know these are suppose to be stupid fast decks!). He plays Island go for awhile and I drop swamps and get a giant out. He has only a Cloud of Faeries, but on turn 3 he drops Sword of Fire and Ice, but is unable to equip. On my turn I'm able to play Jitte but I'm not able to equip. He equips Faeires and does some serious damage to me. I'm also running out cards to feed Giant and did I mention I haven't hit the second play source (Don't ever keep these hands and unless you have some mind altering reason to!). I just fall behind on the damage race as he gets another creature and I think I eventually miss an attack with Giant and I can't play any of the rest of my spells as they require double black. I made a bad decision to keep this hand. This matchup is always tough, but making poor mulligan decision can only make it worse.

1-1

Round 3 Iggy Pop played by freakish777 (David)

Game 1 - I keep an average hand of burn and some creatures. He drops some artifact mana on the table and passes the turn. I'm like not Iggy Pop. I have no disruption!!! Well I think I get a Duress eventually and I'm able to take a critical spell. I'm beating with Shade and throwing bolts at his head. I find a way to kill him before he combos off. I don't know if there were other disruption spells perhaps a Hymn, but I rememeber being light on disruption. I guess it sucks for people to know what you are playing and they just drop artifact mana on the table as soon as they can.

Game 2 - I mull to 5 with 1 land and well he goes off turn 2.

Game 3- My hand is full of disruption. It can't be better except that it doesn't have a threat. I start off with Duress on the play and I see something like this Dark Ritual, 2x Cabal Ritual, Mystical Tutor, Death Wish (1 of), 1 Flooded Strand, and I believe Infernal Tutor. I debate the play here for a long time, but I see that he isn't able to combo off so I take mystical to prevent him from finding the missing acceleration. Ofcourse in hindsight this is a big mistake as he can rip into LED or another Ritual and basically win the game. By taking the Dark Ritual I limit his plays severly as he only has 1 land in hand. On his turn he makes the critical mistake of trying to go off anyway, and gets to about 5 storm and then has to cast Death Wish which doesn't allow him to continue the combo and he burns for some amount as well. On my turn I'm not able to play any of my disruption because his hand is gone. A turn or two later I find a shade that kills him quickly as he's already below 10.

2-1

Round 4 Affinity played Ebinsugewa (I'm sorry I don't remember your name)

Game 1 - I can't tell you how afraid I am off Affinity especially since I cut the Null Rods from the board. Well this game is probably one of the worst games of magic ever. We both start with some standard openings with his Aether Vial and I think I have like a Giant or something. Eventually we trade off creatures and I think I Bolt an early Ravager. We both do nothing for several turns. Then I get some creatures down and he ends up scooping. Before he scooped I was wondering whether he was about to beat me with something explosive. I duressed him at one point and saw that he couldn't play anything. His spells were all 2 or more and he didn't have the mana to play them even though he had vial.

Game 2 - This game was the game of the day for me and perhaps what gave me the inspiration to go on. He goes something like Land go. I look at my hand and I have the double ritual hand and I'm so excited. Ofcourse my ritual play is Negator. I make a mistake with my double ritual play. I'm so excited I ritual into both Negator and Jitte and pass the turn. On his turn he Sharpnel Blasts my Negator!! YES YOU ARE READING CORRECTLY, HE SHARPNEL BLASTED MY NEGATOR. I sacrifice my board. The mistake was obviously playing the Jitte for no reason as on my second turn I could have both ritualed into it and equipped it to Negator and gone from there. But I decide I'm not throwing in the towel, hell sometimes Negator has a drawback. He kind of stalls after that with lands. I also stall for awhile, but that's because I just sacrificed my board. I eventually get up to two lands and drop a Giant. Ofcourse I'm getting beatdown with a Myr Worker and the damage is getting significant as many turns have gone by. I think he gets another work which dies but eventually moves its counters to a Ornithoper. I have my Giant as well as 2 more Negators I've just played. Yes you are reading right, I played 2 more Negators in the same game as my first Negator was sharpnel blasted. He gets me down to 2 life and he can swing for the win next turn. He also has a Frogmite down to block. This turn looks like the loss for me as I can swing for 13 damage (2 Negators and a Giant), but he's at 12 but he can block one of the creatures and go only to 2. I draw for the turn and its Lightning Bolt. I swing in he blocks and then I bolt him. Wow!! To all those who doubted Phyrexian Negator this game is dedicated to you.

3-1

Round 5 Goblins played by Max (I don't remember your last name)

Game 1 - I mull my first hand, but my second hand has a nice mix of creatures and disruption. He starts with Mogg Fanatic go. I drop a land and go. I think he plays land go and swings with fanatic. I sinkhole his land and he plays a wasteland and swings with Fanatic. I get a Hypnotic Specter while he stalls on lands. Then I get a Giant and then a Negator. My opponent gets to 3 lands and plays Warchief, but by then I have the bolt. I swing in with Hyppie, Giant and Negator, but before I do that I play another Negator. He takes a ton and is basically dead next turn as he only has 3 mana to work with.

Game 2 - I don't remember this one as well, but I know that I didn't have a great hand, but Goblins did their thing. I fell behind and didn't draw any of my sideboard cards to help me through this one.

Game 3 - This game was savage. I was on the play with fetch go. He plays Lackey go. I ritual into Plague. He winces and passes back to me. I get a Giant down. Then followed by Jitte. I get an active Jitte and he tries to Kinesis my Giant, but I respond by pumping him with my counters. He's basically dead and he scoops. He told me afterwards that he had no real out to plague.

4-1

Well I'm 4-1 and at this point I'm hoping to draw in, but as my loss was pretty early I'm not sure I'll be able to do that. As it turns out I'm not able to draw and not only that but I have to play against the Legacy World Champion, Roland Chang. The funny thing is earlier in the day, Roland and his friends needed a ride from the train station so that they could get to the tournament. Urabahn offered to give them a ride and tagged along to give him directions. I'm fairly scared about this matchup as PowerGamer1003 was knocked out of Worlds by Roland Chang and he told me the matchup isn't good for me.

Game 1 - I keep a reasonable hand. We both play land go. Then I start with Sinkhole which he dazes. I play another Sinkhole, which he also Dazes. I'm really okay with this at this point since he's missing land drops anyway. I get a Giant down, but he eventaully gets his Mongrel down and then he follows it up with a jitte later. We've both kind of depleted our hands as he had to Force something. I'm able to bolt the Mongrel with no cards in his hand. I also make a pretty good play as he had 2 cards in hand (no Mongrel) and 3 lands untapped. I was going to play Hymn to Tourach but I didn't want him to be able to Madness out Arrogant Wurm so I attempt to wasteland his Trop and he responds by Stfling it. I'm okay with that as now he only has two lands untapped. I Hymn the last card out of his hand and its an Arrogant Wurm. He top decks another Mongrel, but I topdeck another bolt. My Giant keeps swinging and I'm able to play another creature to kill him. He doesn't draw another creature as an active Jitte would have kiled me.

Game 2 - This game was completely wild. We both try to accomplish our usual strategy. We both try to play creatures and I try to disrupt him but he counters some of my stuff. The interesting part comes when he gets both Mongrel and Arrogant Wurm (equipped with Jitte) swiniging in. I take the damage and I only have a Negator that didn't block this turn. I have 2 Jittes in my hand, but only 4 lands in play, but I draw Dark Ritual for the turn. I play first Jitte and he responds by gain life. I play Dark Ritual and then Jitte and equip it to my Negator and I swing in. He takes the damage and I use the counters to kill his Mongrel. He had no cards in hand so he couldn't counter any thing. On his next turn he swings with Arrogant Wurm putting me at pretty low life. Next turn I swing back with Negator, but I keep the counters for life gain. He swings in, but I use Jitte to gain life. I draw a bolt for my turn and I make a mistake as I should bolt the Wurm and then use 1 coutner to kill his Arrogant Wurm, but I decide to hold the Bolt. I may have forgot to mention that I some point I lost most of my lands as Negator was either blocked or had to block ( I have 1 baldands in play). Next turn I decide to bolt the Arrogant Wurm and use Jitte to kill it. At that point the game is over.

5-1 and I believe first going into T8

Top8 UGWR Threshold Brandon (I hope that's right)

Game 1- This game goe pretty badly at some point he is able to bolt my Negator taking down most of my board. But not only that but he gets Threshed Mongeese and Werebears down. I think I have a decent number of creatures but I'm too far behind to do much of anything.

Game 2 - I think I mess up here as someone mentioned after the match and apparently Brandon's draws were incredible. I start with Ritual Duress seeing a diverse hand but with only 1 land no real cantrip outside mental note. I take Daze, but I should have played Therapy hitting Bolt, but instead I decide to use the rest of the ritual on Shade. Shade gets Bolted, but I sinkhole his only land. He apparently rips another Volcanic Island. I play a Giant and he rips another Lightning Bolt for my Giant. I think he find another land, Trop and is able to play some cantrips as my clock has slowed to a crawl as he took out 2 of my threats and I don't have any more creatures. He eventually finds creatures even though I find my creatures as well, but he overwhelmes me with his Threshed creatures and I don't see a Dystopia.

So I lose again in Top8. I'm pretty disappointed in the manner I lost to Threshold. I felt crushed in both games. But overall it was great and Red Death was pretty amazing to me. I couldn't ask for anymore

Props
Phyrexian Negator for not even losing me the game where you got Sharpnel Blasted
Red Death for doing its thing
Machinus for not letting me audible out of Red Death
Ray for running a great tournament
My opponents for being nice guys
Urabahn for offering to bring me back on Sunday night because I had to be at work on Monday morning
All those who made Top8
Wastedlife for winning with TES
Mr.Nipples for having someone to talk on the ride home

Slops
Finding Princeton, did it have to be so hard?
The long ride home
The tolls they really suck
The crappy hotel room on friday night
The drunk girls for not shutting up

[foursquare]

The drunk girls for not shutting up

Dude, so true. I wasn't there, but drunk girls talk too much during sex. You just want to yell at them and tell them to shut the fuck up.

[Obfuscate Freely]

Round 3 Iggy Pop played by freakish777 (Brandon I think, sorry if this wrong)

...

Round 4 Affinity played Ebinsugewa (I'm sorry I don't remember your name)

I got a kick out of this, since Ebinsugewa's name is Brendan (I believe), while freakish777's name is David.

Anyway, congrats. This deck just keeps putting up results, but isn't it about time you crack into the semifinals? :cP

[Ewokslayer]

Anyway, congrats. This deck just keeps putting up results, but isn't it about time you crack into the semifinals? :cP

I keep trying to tell Anwar that the Tournament isn't over after the Swiss but he just won't believe me.

[Firebrothers]

Great job, affinity and madness both put this deck on the ropes but you pulled out wins against both.

Anwar is just waiting until Columbus to get first place cut him some slack.

[Zach Tartell]

The drunk girls for not shutting up

At least they weren't crying. That shit gets annoying.

BTW, I hope you're at Kadilik's thing, because I reckon your good luck rubs off onto me so a janky deck like enchantress top8's 3 times in a row. Maybe you should lay off shaking hands with jews for a while.

[nitewolf9]

Way to go in that affinity matchup, and in getting top 8. By the way, dystopia is there to be drawn. So do more of that in the future.

[Caboose]

I truely felt bad for my opponent as I felt that he was playing a poor deck.

That's kinda like saying "I truly felt bad for that homeless man, because he was a poor ass bitch, with thrift store clothes, and was masturbating to a Victoria Secret catalogue."

Props to your finish, though. I've always loved Red Death, but me not owning Sinkholes has prevented me from picking it up. But it kinda sucks you beat my homeboy Roland

[Changster]

Nice report, a match well played Anwar! Many thanks to your navigational skills and Urabahn's driving that weekend. I'm actually glad I didn't have to take the wind out of your sails and let you move on into the top 8. My day was filled with a startling and upsetting first round vs. Threshold, where I kept a dumb hand. Things were definitely looking up for the rest of the day, going 4-0 after my loss there. Then your bud had to root for you, not his fellow Asian ;)

I'll get ya next time...

-Roland

[hi-val]

Dude, so true. I wasn't there, but drunk girls talk too much during sex. You just want to yell at them and tell them to shut the fuck up.

Virgin alert.




Nice deck, do you care to comment on the sideboard? The obvious things that come to mind with a red board are Price of Progress and Blood Moon. Did you consider either in, perhaps, the Dystopia slot?

[AnwarA101]

Nice deck, do you care to comment on the sideboard? The obvious things that come to mind with a red board are Price of Progress and Blood Moon. Did you consider either in, perhaps, the Dystopia slot?

I have not actively considered Price of Progress for the board. I'm not sure what matchup I would want it against other than a multi-color control deck like BHWC Landstill or some Loam based deck. I've considered Blood Moon as an answer to BWHC Landstill, but it didn't seem like it did enough to help my strategy or enough decks where it would come in against. I would not cut Dystopia its versatility and power are too great to not sideboard in this deck.

Thank you all for the kind words.

[jamest]

Another friggin top8 finish? It boggles my mind that you ever played 9-land Stompy.

Props to Dave Price as well. Quietly top8'd in two recent major tournaments with a really underrated deck.

[Machinus]

Finally, I get to read this report! Good work with the deck, obviously. Now everyone knows about Shrapnel Blast!


All I heard about your room was some complaining about water and lights. But I bet they made your beds and cleaned it before you got there. This was in our room when we opened the door:



Brandy, cigarretes, and after consulting a Landstill player I was told the bag likely contained crack.



And of course the obligatory ruffled and stained sheets.

[Peter_Rotten]

This was in our room when we opened the door:

Brandy, cigarretes, and after consulting a Landstill player I was told the bag likely contained crack.


And of course the obligatory ruffled and stained sheets.

HELL YEAH! You guys scored big! Where is this mystical hotel that hands out free brandy and crack?

[hi-val]

The red bull in the background makes it legit and the Newports make it classy.

[Hanni]

Wow, I didn't know the UWB Fish matchup could be that lopsided. I truely felt bad for my opponent as I felt that he was playing a poor deck.

Do you mean that he was playing a bad list of UWb Fish or that UWb Fish itself is a poor deck? I'm not really worried about it either way, I'm just curious as to what you meant.

Anyways, congrats on your Top 8 finish.

[URABAHN]

And of course the obligatory ruffled and stained sheets.

I offered to get one of those UV Lamps like they use in CSI, but everyone said no. There probably would've been stains on the ceiling.

[Brushwagg]

Congrads, but you really need to make it too the Top 4 one of these times.

[Citrus-God]

He'll probably break that curse too. Wait and see...

Anyways, awesome job. I love this deck, and I especially love your views on this deck in general. It's awesome that you made Top 8 with it finally. Expect Top 4 soon.