Originally Posted by calosso
What is Team Calosso, you ask? Team Calosso was formed some time ago with the great Calosso Fuentes taking myself, GRAH, and Elventitz under his majestic wings. Our original name was Team Mongoloid, but GRAH was concerned about offending so we deferred to our fearless leader for a namesake.
Several months ago I asked The Guardian of The Source, "What should I play at The Mana Leak?" He sagely replied, "Red. But not Joblins. Only I can play Joblins, dumbass." So I began work on a non-Joblins Red deck. It took some time, but this is the awful pile I finally settled on.
4 Ancient Tomb
4 City Of Traitors
10 Snow-Covered Mountain
4 Arc-Slogger
4 Magus of the Moon
4 Simian Spirit Guide
3 Gathan Raiders
3 Sulfur Elemental
2 Rakdos Pit-Dragon
4 Chrome Mox
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Trinisphere
3 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Seething Song
2 Demonfire
Sideboard
4 Pyrokenisis
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Blood Moon
2 Icefall
1 Trinisphere
1 Sulfur Elemental
1 Rakdos Pit-Dragon
Unfortunately, Lord Calosso was unable to accompany us on our journey. It seems that his Day Two ratio at Grand Prix had dropped to an unaceptable level for a member of Team Calosso. Being an honorable man, he summarily kicked himself off the team, and promised to say a prayer for us.
The Hatfields along with Machinus, were kind enough to pick us up on their way to Stratford. Jesse and I enjoyed many hours of tormenting Chris with arguments over Semantics, Economics, and Pedophillia. We arrived at Ewokslayer's near Midnight, and were treated to The Sexy Rector Show. After consuming an entire bottle of Grey Goose, Mr. Rector regaled us into the wee hours with stories of how Threshold was the worst deck in the format, and how he could break Legacy with Faerie Stompy. Good Times.
The event site was spacious, and packed with video games and snacks to boot. Scouting was difficult, as without my mentor to guide me, I didn't understand what many of the cards I saw actually did. Also, since he was not there to assist, my memory of the following events is patchy. Please forgive me, as my puny intellect is nothing without the support of The Source Guardian.
Round One: Nick Schacter; U/R Phid
Game One: I open with a first turn Magus, but as it turns out, Nick is running only four non-basics. And Mountains. I get in with a Radiers sans Hellbent once before he is bolted. With his countering most of my threats, I have to cast SSG to block his Ophidian. Unfortunately for him, my next two plays were a Jitte, and an Arc-Slogger that finished him.
Game Two: Nick Forces my first turn Trinisphere on the draw, and proceeds to burn, or counter every threat I have. My only mana sources were two Tombs and a Mox, so my life dwindles quickly. Finally, I cast an Arc-Slogger. Nick sighs, looks at the four cards in his hand, and allows it to resolve. "Wait!", he says, noticing I had yet again tapped the Tomb to cast him. "You're at six?" Umm..yep. "Fire you, Fire you, Fire you." Mise well.
Game Three: Again, Nick burns my smaller threats, and counters the larger. I do land a SoFI, though, which is somewhat decent against a U/R deck. After exhausting his hand, I land a Pit-Dragon. He has one turn to draw a burn spell before the Dragon gets in for sixteen.
1-0; 2-1
Round Two:Joseph Bernier; Affinity
Game One: I open with an awful first turn Chalice, having no idea what I am facing. He luckily has no first turn play, so I follow it with a Magus to narrow his options. After seeing a Frogmite, I land a third turn Trinisphere, and this slows him down enough that I can get in with Pit-Dragon after Demonfire clears out a 'Thopter.
Game Two: I keep a creature heavy hand, but cannot keep up with the two Frogs, one Enforcer, two Ravager beats.
Game Three: He lands a first turn Disciple, second turn Top. I get the third turn Trini to slow him down, but he eventually gets a pair of Workers and a Ravager. With me at ten, with Magus and a SoFI equipped Pit Dragon that had killed his Disciple, he swings in. I block the worker with Plating, and roll the dice. He has nine damage on the table and does to flip/sac Top trick, but doesn't find an artifact in the top three. Dragon finishes him off.
2-0; 4-2
Round Three: Bryant Cook; TES
To quote David Gearhart.....
"Game One:Game 1: HAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA. God, I'm so fucking unbelievably awesome at magic. Dear Jesus, do I beat the shit out of him game 1. He tries to do shit and I don't care, blah, blah, blah."
Acutally, it was more like first turn Magus, second turn Chalice for one, third turn Chalice for two. Then a Trinisphere later on. He did Spree the Trini and a Chalice away, but still coudn't go off due to Magus.
Game Two: I open a hand with no Red mana. But I have first turn Tomb, Chalice for one. Second turn Tomb, Chalice for two. Third turn City, Morph, Trinsphere. Fourth turn SSG and mana burn, pitch to unmorph, swing. Bryant draws, then scoops.
3-0; 6-2
Round Four: Brandon Lepage; 4C Thresh
Game One: I play second turn Chalice for one around Daze and it gets there. I basically stall him from there until I can assure a Dragon through countermagic, and swing for the win.
Game Two: Another hand with no Red mana, but I've optimized the deck to play through this. I take five on turn two to play a Trinisphere, then drop two unmorphed Raiders after a Mox the next turn. Brandon drops a 6/6 Enforcer, then passes the turn with a Red open. I have two cards in hand, and unfortunately for Brandon, he waits until my draw step to Bolt a Raiders. I pitch two, and cast Sulfur Elemental in response. If he had done it during upkeep, one would have died the moment I drew. Anyhoo, I swing in for ten, and he considers blocking until he finds the other benefit of Sulfur. :sadface: Whatever he draws can't deal with another 13 damage coming at him, and he concedes.
4-0; 8-2
Round Five: Rich Meyst; 3C Zoo
ID
Round Six: Brian Ewokslayer; Survival
ID
Quarterfinal: Jeff Folinus; 3C Goblins
Game One: I win the roll, and drop first turn Slogger. Jeff plays optimally as usual, but without mistakes on my part, there is little Goblins can do to keep up.
Game Two: I stupidly keep a hand of Mox, Magus, Mountain, Slogger, 3X Pyrokenisis. I do get a second turn Jitte which allows my Mox to dode a Tin-Street long enough for me to cast a couple of creatures, but Jeff's triple Ringleaders beat out my trip 'Kenisis, and he rolls me after rebuilding for a turn or two.
Game Three: I mull a decent hand on the play. Sigh...what can I say. You really want either a first turn Jitte, SoFI, or Slogger against Goblins. The matchup is still good otherwise, but they usually can't recover from these. Sorry, Jeff; I got the turn one Slogger again, and it goes much like game one.
Semifinal: Rich Meyst; 3C Zoo
Game One: I don't remember may plays, but Rich's were Kird Ape, Watchwolf, Watchwolf, Bolt, Helix, Helix. I lost badly.
Game Two: I mull into a first turn Chalice for one. I follow it up with a Raiders who trades, then a Slogger. He mistakenly doesn't block my second attack with Slogger, and I take him down from eight afterwards with the help of an SSG, and milling forty of the forty-three cards left in my library.
Game Three: Rich had to mull to five on the play. I waited two turns to drop a Magus so that I could protect it with Chalice for one. He didn't drop his second land until then, so all of his burn was shut off, and the only creature he could cast was Kird Ape since he runs no basics. It was bad luck on Rich's part.
Final: Ewokslayer, again
ID
The tournament was a lot of fun I met some ultra-cool people, and won a nice prize.
Props:
The Hatfields for facilitating both my ride and housing. And for a lot of good advice. I love you guys.
Machinus for splitting Day Two with Ewokslayer using a quite new Threshold build. And for beating Folinus playing Goblins with it. Jeff is cool as can be, and is amazing with Goblins, so that win shows tremendous skill.
Ray for his amazing tournament, attitude, and sick prize support for a sub-par tournout.
My opponents for all being very friendly and sporting.
Zach Tartell for trading for cards to make my awful deck, and having me sign them. You are a silly guy, Zach.
And a super-extra huge thank you to Brian. First, he puts all of us up for the night. Then, he wins both freakin' days of the tournament. I kind of wish that he didn't have a life,(wife, job, etc.) so he could play more often. He was that dominant. Our draw in the Swiss made sense, as he had the highest tiebreaks. But aside from fatigue, he had no reason to split in the finals. I have little doubt that outside of some serious bad luck, he would have crushed me as he did the rest of his opponents this weekend. Sincerely. Thanks, man.
~ Team Unicorn Motto
I'm curious, did you actually build and test this before the event, or was it mostly thrown together the day of? I'm wondering because I was thinking about a deck like this a while back, but some things look... strange (no Slith Firewalker or Tangle Wire, to be specific).
If you did test it beforehand, what's the landstill match-up like?
Grats on the win regardless.
What happened in game 3?Semifinal: Rich Meyst; 3C Zoo
Game One: I don't remember may plays, but Rich's were Kird Ape, Watchwolf, Watchwolf, Bolt, Helix, Helix. I lost badly.
Game Two: I mull into a first turn Chalice for one. I follow it up with a Raiders who trades, then a Slogger. He mistakenly doesn't block my second attack with Slogger, and I take him down from eight afterwards with the help of an SSG, and milling forty of the forty-three cards left in my library.
That third game was brutal. Pit-Dragon all in for 16. Gah. Oh well, you played really well and had an awesome deck, so hats off to you. I'm glad to see you were able to go all the way in the end, but, was there anything in either the Maindeck or the SB that you would change if you had to go through the tournament again a second time?
Congrats on your finish if I was gonna get knocked of the top 8 I'd prefer it to be at the hands of Arc-Slogger. As a huge fan of Big Red in standard I thought your approach to Legacy was very creative.
There was one play in our match that was a little risky you had a morph which was Gathan Raiders and Magus of the Moon with 2 cards in hand. It was the turn I split a Pyrokinesis 3@ Gathan and 1@ Magus + Fanatic to finish him off. If you would have had an instant there I would have got wrecked and probably lost the game. I'm still not sure if it was the correct play but if I don't go for it then 2nd main phase you can drop some guy or land and then be 100% able to get hellbent.
One mistake I made for sure was over-boarding for the matchup I decided to bring in Krosan Grip, in addition to Pryokinesis, to hit SOFI. I don't think that is reason enough I should have just tried to keep the creature count higher so that I could survive to the late game where I have a better shot of winning. I make a lot of small mistakes against decks that I haven't played against which I think is a big advantage of rouge strategies.
It was good talking to you and I look forward to hanging out at tournaments in the future.
I think I'm going to throw up.
Team Unicorn is too hetero for me.While this is close it's still wrong. Every one knows it's an orgy of unicorns.******s?
TeaM NOVA for life.
I like Covetous Dragon over Rakdos in this particular deck because:
A.) You play Seething Song, which is a perfect 5 for Covetous Dragon.
B.) You play an ample amount of artifacts to negate it's minor drawback.
C.) The clock in general should be faster with Covetous - I suppose you can pump Rakdos, but that is mana intensive as it is including Trinisphere on board.
Some thoughts.
Despite the levity of my report, I actually have been testing this deck on and off for two months. It doesn't run enough permanents to support Tangle Wire, and really doesn't need it . Firewalker seems bad in a format filled with creatures and removal, but this deck can't support double red for an early drop in any case. Landstill is weird. 3+ color is a bye with 7 Moons. U/W is considerably more difficult. Worse still is non-Blue based control. This is the reason for Demonfire. As most Aggro-Tempo decks, this will usually deal 12-14 damage to these before the gain complete control. You just keep adding mana to the board, and casting out your hand. Either they deal with the threats while keeping themsleves alive and you burn them out Hellbent, or they run out of answers and it doesn't matter.
@Ewok: Fixed. It wasn't a memorable game.
@Kadaj: The third Dragon should be in the main for certain. The sideboard is a bit janky, but it is extremely difficult to find cards that fit both tis deck's needs, and it's mana requirements. The reason it was successful where other versions have not been is that I even with no Red at all, I could always cast out every threat. This not only overwhelms the opponent, but facilitates Hellbent, which doubles the power level of these sub-optimal cards I ran due to mana considerations. Other than that, I would need more time to think over the changes that are needed.
@Jeff: Thank you. Beating you knid of shows both the power and consistancy of this deck, as I sure as hell know that I can't ouy-pilot you when you're running Goblins. And the rogue factor was a certainty. Even the NOVA guys didn't know my exact list. That's why I passed on the deck day two. Plus, it is very meta dependant.
~ Team Unicorn Motto
It's strangely bizarre to see a deck I created hitting some serious T8 action. (The deck's called Dragon Stompy, for those keeping track, and has been around for a longass time. The -only- card this build plays maindecked that mine doesn't is Trinisphere, and in the current metagame Trinisphere might be a good idea.)
How was Icefall? It seems like a little bit of a bizarre choice, and it's not something Phantom or I have ever tried. What was it there for?
Is the Recover ever really that good? Would Pillage be better?
Negative. The deck is called CDW (Calosso's Deck Wins)
Honest to god, if you look back a loooooooooong time (on these boards, even) there's a deck that I've played that had many of the elements herein. You know where I got the list from? Mike Glow.
No, I'm not kidding.
Thanks for the report and congrats on the win.
And I guess I should add that I didn't already build this deck.
FUCK YEA!!
Congrats on finish.
Great report! Well written, funny. Thumbs up. :)
As awful as that deck looks, it'd steamroll anything I'm likely to play.
Awwww, do we have to? Really? Can't we just call it something clever and non-Calosso, like 'Sloggy Cereal' or 'SLOGDOR!' or something?
Please?
Team Info-Ninjas: Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.
My Videos: Chiron Beta Prime, Flickr, Re: Your Brains
Winnar!
I hate you. I had to go back and rewatch that email and I just barely avoided getting sucked into the endless void of emails.
Team The Copenhavers - CAN'T SEE THE GOBLINS FOR THE GOYFS
Scragnoth149: I SHALL RIDE INTO TOP8, AND SOLIDARITY SHALL BE MY INSTANT SPEED STEED
Edinger NO!
The name is perfect the way it is. Pinder stop trying to take my thunder away.
Your thunder is largely irrelevant for a deck I created.
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