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Highlander tournament in Helsinki 19.07.2009

Started by Sephiron, 20-07-2009, 12:28:13 AM

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Sephiron

As a side event for nationals in Finland there was a highlander tournament. Around 24 players came and it was very fun. Most likely judges from the even will write some kind summary of the event, but here's my report on tournament:
After not getting thru LCQ to nationals I traded cards for highlander and played some side-events and got most of the cards for the deck during friday-saturday (was so busy didnt even sleep  :-\ ). At 10 am i played some test games and realized dark confidant didnt belong in the deck (i got it in three games durning testing, and it got me venser, miscalculation and fact or fiction so opponents made lethals pretty fast after that). At 11 am registrations started and organizers confirmed that there will be decklists, so half of players started writing them (me included). At 12 o'clock tournament was starting and I made last minute change (confidant to solemn simulacrum, though jace or crime//punishment would be better). Not without difficulties (99 cards in decklis which one is missing :o ) i got to table.
I played 5c survival missing some cards (like redcap insead of ghitu gslinger and court hussar instead of that drake)

Here's the decklist i played:
misdirection
remand
brainstorm
mana drain
swords to plowshares
condescend
thirst for knowledge
intuition
fact or fiction
putrfy
gifts ungiven
force of will
eldamari's call
regrowth
deep analysis
demonic tutor
life from the loam
vindicate
mind twist
back to basics
recurring nightmare
Aluren
Survival of the fittest
blood moon
Pernicious deed
oblivion ring
sensei's divining top
sword of fire andice
chrome mox
scrabbling claws
aether vial
engineered explosives
trinket mage
genesis
mystic snake
body double
hermit druid
tarmogoyf
looter il-kor
murderous redcap
stonecloacker
squee, goblin nabob
aven mincensor
magus of the moon
shadowmage infiltrator
harmonic sliver
eternal witness
trygon predator
birds of paradise
ravenous baloth
court hussar
kitchen finks
Solemn simulacrum
llanowar elves
venser, Shaper savant
spike weaver
wall of roots
merfolk looter
bone shredder
reveillark
sakura tribe elder
vampire aristocrat
lorescale coatl
knight of the reliquary
quasali pridemage
gemstone mine
swamp
taiga
flooded strand
barrenmoon
island
volcanic island
4 forest
3 island
grasslands
tranquil thicket
tundra
bayou
volrath's stronghold
wasteland
lonely sandbar
bloodstained mire
windswept heath
tropical island
vesuva
underground Sea
wooded foothills
plains
polluted delta
mountain
plateau
badlands
mountain valley
bad river
rocky tar pit

Round 1: Opponent had sleeves from 2 different sets with slightly different colours so i asked him to change them so that they would match and judge agreed. In first game he got hellkite overlord in grave on turn 2 i got trinket mage for scrabbing claws (slow start) and he played necromancy on t3 gg. In game 2 he tried to reanimate empyrial archangel turn 5 i remove it with stonecloacker, get double with survival few turns later, we laugh at situation since he just dumped some big dudes in his grave, next turn i combo out with reveillark from survival. In game 3 i got turn 2 looter il kor and he duressed me revealing few counters and gifts, taking gifts and playing some 1/2 with irrelevant ability. After that i dont get 4th land for 10 turns and here starts damage race: my looter beats im to face for 10 turns (no lands) and his 1/2 is pinging me for ten turns (cant reanimate because of counters). Opponent then notices that he forgot to shuffle exiled empyrial archangel and left it out of the deck, after some discussing with judge he gets off with warning and we continue with the game. Then i play trinket into scrabbing claws and opponent is very troubled. After few turns he gets rid of claws and hardcasts kederekt leviathan returning all my guys to hand, next turn i topdeck aluren and at his EOT play finkel, looter, witness and trinket mage, killing him next turn.

Round 2: I get paired against my friend with whom i tested but didnt play any games with current version of the deck so he knew my gameplan but didnt know what to expect from red splash which i added two days ago. Game one i played mirage fetch land tapped and he wastelanded it turn 2 + bop and it went downhill from there: i get stuck on 3 lands he gets treefolk harbringer into doran, then i get 4th mana for aluren into boneshredder, stonecloacker in response to volrath stronghold and knight of the reliquary. Next turn he attacks with doran, i block with knight using his ability to get fetch so that he would be 6/6, in response to me fetching (i went to 4 life) he psionic blasts me for exactly lethal. Game 3 i start with looter il kor which he sends to topdeck, i replay him turn 3, then add goyf while he gets colossus, i play then aven mindcensor his EOT. For a few turns i fix my hand and eat his life with looter and mindcensor, while chumping his colossus with some small dudes. Turn 6 he makes fatal mistake: he plays white instant that fetches equipment and then we get reminded about mindcensor when he is about to fetch (turns out he thought mindcensor's ability worked for one turn since i used russian copy he didnt check and i just forgot about mindcensor). So he just attacks with colossus i block with 5/6 goyf forcing him to spend mana on pump. Few turns later using squee to combo with looter I get recurring nightmare for goyf, he gets needle for nightmare and rhox warmonk. During my next turn time is called and i attack trying to to kill in time, he attacks with his guys, i chump colossus. My next turn after some thinking i play trygon predator, attack and pass turn with him being at 5 with some guy to block colossus. He attacks, i chump colossus, he goes to 8. EOT I play intuition with which judge is unsatisfied since ours was the last game, and it took me some time to decide on the three i wanted from intuition: redcap,reveillark and sword of fire and ice. He gave me redcap, my turn attack with my evasion guys for 5 destroying needle with predator, play redcap shooting to face, and for last three mana I play recuring nightmare to sac redcap and deal that last 1 poin

Round 3: Again one of guys from my town with a good BW aggro deck which is usually bad matchup  :'( . First game he gets fast start, but i get boneshredder killing one of of his guys, next he gets nearly kills me, but redcap + recurring nightmare into boneshredder and he scoops. Game 2 he gets 3 guys during first 2 turns + armaggeddon on 4th turn, so pretty uneventful. Game 3 we had discussion with judge how highlander mulligan works with new mulliganing* rules and nobody was sure, so in the end I didnt want to bother and just took my highlander mylligan and kept that. He was forced to mulligan to bad hand not getting any guys first 2 turns, and i removed all the guys he got, though in the end he discarded what was left of my hand. I then topdeckced genesis andplayed it on field with 2 guys on both sides. Genesis then proceeded to kill him.

*I would be glad if anybody could explain how new order of deciding when her to mulligan works with highlander mulligan rule

Game 4: Again aggro, white weenie this time, but he got bad hand first game with manascrew (wasteland one of my lands gets stuck on 2 one of which i vindicate), on turn 10 he gets 3rd land to cast 3 mana 2/2 first striker which i couner with hardcast force of will. When he finally gets something I just kill him. Game 2 im still unsure whas he playing and keep medicore hand which he punishes by getting lots of small dudes + exalted angel and flying over mine for lethal (now i understand why wonder is needed in this deck). Last game started with him playing some dudes and me getting aether vial and wall of roots + getting screwed on mana thanks to wasteland hitting tapped fetch, but vial into ravenous baloth is hard on weenie (he had 3 ww first strikers) + fact or fiction into putrefy and lands, then on my turn I dont know what i was thinking (most likely brainfreeze) and attacked with baloth into 3 2/2 first strikers with which he blocked i then had to putrefy 1 and venser from vial into other one, he then stopped baloth (sacced in response). Few turns later he has 3 guys in play and i have few manaproducers topdeckced senseis divining to and knight of reliquary, with only squee in hand. For 2 turns i repeat this process draw card, play fetch, use top, see only crap, fetch, top, EOT Knight's fetch into fetch, top, fetch, top. After a few turns i play deed for 3, leaving venser and persisted finks for me and jotun grunt from under o-ring for him (using sensei's divining top and then putting it on top). On upkeep I return squee from grave draw top into survival (which i topped for), then  I realize I used 2 of my 3 green mana and have only 1 left, so I pass a turn. On his turn he played ronom unicorn destroying survival, in response i fetch withness. On my turn time is called and I just return squee draw play witness + survival and pass, opponent watches his hand and plays some creature. On my turn squee->Body double->Vampire aristocrat->Reveillark with exactly six mana to evoke, but no redcap to kill, so i just bounce all his permanents and kill him on my last turn. Later opponent revealed his hand and it turns out that he could have played winter orb during his first turn when the time was called so he could have gotten the draw.

In Round 5 opponent proposed ID since he was unsure of matchup with my deck (he played mono g elves), while i was very tired and had to drive home 150 km later so I agreed since prizes werent too different (around 10 boosters for 5-0-0 and 8 for 4-0-1). We then played a game for fun and i won with him not even having a chance (he got lots of elves and wellwisher while i got spike weaver + recurring nightmare which he couldnt annswer), though I did get pretty good hand agains his slower one.

So in the end the weekend was great especially highlander tournament was fun, here are some things that came tomind during weekend:
- genesis can win games even in play
- reading cards is a tech
- having foreign cards is tricky
- be sure to remember names for cards you have foreign versions of, because writing decklist in half an hour with lots of foreign cards isnt something you ever want to do
- Exalted angel is good :D
- sleeping before tournament is tech
- releases are crap, they are expensive and have very bad prizes (1st place 7 boosters  :( )
- nobody ever has crappy commons with them even though you NEED THEM SO MUCH  ;)
- hardcasting force of will on 3 mana 2/2 to get moral victory
- survival is unfair 1 card combo, though im glad its not banned since its fun to play it  ;)
- playing first legacy tournament with teps which you dont know how to play and getting the deck 5 minutes before the tournament can be a bit tricky  :o

Comments on decklist and feedback are welcome

EDIT: btw forgot to mention metagame had actually pretty much "control":
top 3 (4-0-1): 5c survival, mono green elves and staxx (if i recall correct), there were one goblin deck i think, few white based aggros, quite a few midrange decks some of which were survival decks (at least three 4c survivals without red), I saw one oath deck and one 4 color total control (my friend played it; nearly full foil; plays best enchantments, counters and CA cards) in top tables

Sturmgott

Thanks for your report! Looks like you had some pretty funny games, especially with that Redcapping Nightmare for the last one damage. Games to remember!

TeKo

Is there any way to get that Elves! list?
I am always interested in Elf builds ;)

pyyhttu

QuoteIs there any way to get that Elves! list?

If it made top-8, then yes. I'll link you to the deck lists and final standings once tournament organizer gets them online.

QuoteOpponent then notices that he forgot to shuffle exiled empyrial archangel and left it out of the deck, after some discussing with judge he gets off with warning and we continue with the game.

Good thing I'm lazy and didn't bother to cut that last one card: I got simply a warning as had 101 cards in my deck, otherwise it would have been 'Deck/Decklist Mismatch' resulting as a game loss.

Here's the post leading to build.

P.S. The player count for the tournament was actually 31 as I recall it.

Nastaboi

Elves went 4-0-1 with intentional draw and was #1 on final standings. I could not attend as was judging the main event, but my cards did as several players I knew or did not knew borrowed them or whole decks from my boxes.
Quote0:13:51 [Nastaboi] Nastaboi plays Invincible Hymn from Hand
0:14:25 [Nastaboi] Nastaboi's life total is now 221 (+213)

Vazdru

#5
First of all thx for for input!

The deck list is nice but well-known cause it looks quite similar to firestarter's continous-winner-deck in the last few weeks (-> http://www.magicplayer.org/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=1722) - the 5C-approach with Back to Basics, Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon feat. Aluren-Combo can't be accidentally ?!  ;)


Just a few minor remarks:

Plz post an alphabetical deck-list next time - the randomness makes the list hard to overlook

Phyrexian Furnace > Scrabbling Claws

Noble Hierarch > Llanowar Elves

No Cavern Harpy? -> Enables some nice Aluren-Combos


But like i've said - deck looks already quite strong to me - no big surprise to me you've made it to the top. But also nice to see that there are lots of archetypes in the top ranks. Just like it was supposed to be  ;D

Looking forward to some decent T8-decklists  :)
Far below the earth
Where the demons hunt the souls of those that sleep
In the city of the Vazdru and the Drin
Where the black flame burns inside the palace fountain.

Sephiron

i didnt claim it was my design  :P
seems i forgot to put noble hierarch on the list, while furnace and harpy i dont own.
What do you think about venser and mystic snake, i didnt see them in decklist, but they fit pretty well (though double U is troublesome sometimes)?
P.s. sry about confusing decklist, will post in alphabetical order next time

TeKo


pyyhttu

They've been requested and are coming at mtg.bore.org, once the tournament organizer gets back from summer holiday. I'll let you know.