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Highlander Nationals in Finland, Helsinki

Started by Sephiron, 05-10-2009, 12:51:58 AM

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Sephiron

Played finnish highlander nationals with UGB control deck, shamefully didnt get library of alexandria in time but in the end it wasnt needed.

Decklist:

Lands:
2x Swamp
3x Island
4x Forest
Academy Ruins
Bayou
Bloodstained Mire
Breeding Pool
Flooded Strand
Barren Moor
Lonely Sandbar
Maze of Ith
Misty Rainforest
Overgrown Tomb
Polluted Delta
Scalding Tarn
Volrath's Stronghold
Wooded Foothills
Windswept heath
Wasteland
Vesuva
Underground Sea
Tropical Island
Tranquil Thicket
Tolaria West
Snow-Covered Swamp
Snow-Covered Island
Snow-Covered Forest
Watery Grave
Marsh Flats
Verdant Catacombs
36 in total
Mana Fixation:
Birds of Paradise
Chrome Mox
Coalition Relic
Garryk, Wildespeaker
Hermit Druid
Llanowar Elves
Lotus Cobra
Mox Diamond
Nature's Lore
Noble Hierarch
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Solemn Simulacrum
Wall of Roots

Counters:
Condescend
Cryptic Command
Force of Will
Glen Elendra Archmage
Mana Drain
Misdirection
Miscalculation
Mystic Snake
Venser, Shaper Savant

CA:
Fact or Fiction
Frantic Search
Future Sight
Jace Beleren
Mind Twist
Thirst for Knowledge
Sword of Fire and Ice
Sensei's Divining Top

Recursion:
Body Double
Eternal Witness
Genesis
Life from the Loam
PRegrowth
Recurring Nightmare

Removal:
Damnation
Engineered Explosives
Krosan Grip
Maelstrom Pulse
Pernicious Deed
Shriekmaw
Slaughter Pact
Sower of Temptation
Treachery
Vedalken Shackles
Wickerbough Elder
Tormod's Crypt
Primal Command

Tutors:
Demonic Tutor
Gifts Ungiven
Intuition
Trinket Mage
Survival of the Fittest

Guys:
Grazing Gladehart
Kitchen Finks
Looter il-Kor
Vendilion Clique
Tarmogoyf
Worm Harvest
Spike Weaver
Ravenous Baloth
Rampaging Baloths
Psychatog

101 cards in total

Round 1 (some rgb survival goblins):
Games werent too interactive, in first he played 1 goblin and had 3 lands (seems needed more) while i got some guys pretty fast to beat him to death.
Game 2 was interesting: first turn llanowar elves into 2nd turn wall of roots + Survival of the fittest, at end of opponents turn search for rampaing baloths just in case, while he Demonic tutors if i recall correct, then i play land and pass, he krosan rips survival, after which few turns later i play rampaging baloths + land and it becomes fast too hard to handle.

Round 2 (4c survival):
This game is interesting in that i won in situations in which one usually loses. First game i get second turn lotus cobra, while opponent got 2 fetches -> loam -> fetch some more + beats from cobra get him fast in 12 life where he casts mind twist for 5 to clear my hand, i condescend for one, to clear my topdeck, and let it resolve (would have gotten future sight next turn), and he kills my cobra, but is left with no cards in hand, but with loam in grave, while i have not enough lands and genesis in grave after twist, after few topdecks, genesis and cobra prove to be too much and we go to game 2. Here we both dont do anything relevant for first turns, he then resolves gifts getting loam and library of alexandria in grave, academy ruins and volrath stronghold to hand, later on my turn i mind twist him leavng with 2 cards in hand. Few turns later i get survival he has trinket mage + top and casts wickerbough elder answering top, next turn i cast only goyf, his turn he makes epic blunder: goyf is 6/7 (thanks mainly to my grave) and he equips sword of fire and ice to elder and attacks without checking goyf's size, i block kill his (he had tormods crypt in hand, which he could have played precombat to shrink goyf) guy topdeck sword of my own and proceed to demolish him.

Roun 3(UW fish):
Lost my notes on this match, so dont remember this clearly. this was pretty back and froth, seems he kept bad hand in second game and i controlled him pretty heavily, both games killed him with rampaging baloths (one game aso included ravenous baloths and recurring nightmare alongside them)

round 4 (UG survival fish):
he had only some force spike 2 mana 1/1 drake on turn 2 and winter orb with totem, which slowed himdown more than me since i had noble hierarch and enough land to cast 4th turn deed and blow it at the end of his 5th turn while still having enough life. In second game we both get totally manascrewed, but he gets the islandwalkind-card-drawing-selkie, and 6 turns later sword to it after finally getting lands, he then proceeds to destroy me. Game 3 started like this: mox diamond, land noble hierarch, on second turn play land and jace with 1 mana open and overwhelm him with card advatage he generates and tempo advantage mox and druid generate.

Rouns 5 and 6 ID with opponents for slot in top 8 and first place in swiss standings.

TOP 8 (Zoo):
too exciting games so not much notes here. In first game he killed me fast, didnt have much to say about it (finks came too late), in game two he had me hanging on the ropes and i was sure i was going to die, but ravenous baloth and next turn rampaging baloths + land but me outside of his range pretty fast. Game 3 he got few dudes pretty fast and started attacking me with them, killed my blocker and played tangle wire, in response with 4 lands and survival i cast fact or fiction, got rampaging baloths and maze of ith to hand and goyf, wall of roots and something random in grave. Maze stalled him enough so that tangle wire faded, and he was forced to overextend (though he played all of his cards in hand, although he didnt havre to) so after damnation on my turn, next turn rampaging baloths ended game in a hurry.

TOP4 (RB burn-aggro):
In first game opponent played some pinging guy, later he got magus of the moon to my island, tropical island, academy ruins and underground sea (color screw, so forced to fetch nobnbasics), then EOT Gifts -> Swamp, Slaughter Pact, Solemn Simulacrum and Chrome Mox(maelstrom pulse in hand), got swamp and solemn, next turn kill magus ramp mana with solemn simulacrum, next turn glazing gladehart + land, then nature's lore and he is forced to kill gladehart. After primal command i got out of reach and got some dorks to finish he game. Game 3 he rushed with 2 1 mana shock dudes, while i got only birds of paradise and no relevant lifegain, few turns later got garruk + token with goyf protection while he burned me down to 10, next turn he tries to kill garruk with 3 mana burn, which i mana drain, next turn after my draw he plays instant that lets him choose card type and deal to me 3 for every card of the chosen type, in response i vendilion clique his burn, and get 3 for 1 creature in hand, on main phase garruk untaps and is at 4, so i cast rampaging baloths off of mana drains mana and untapped lands, next turn opponent is forsed to use his burn on garruk so that he wouldnt die to overrun next turn, but he doesnt topdeck anything relevant in 2 turns that baloth kills him.

FINAL (UW fish i defeated in round 3):
Nothing much to say here he is tired, didnt read needle properly and named birds of paradise on it, later returns it to hand and names psychatog + geddon, from which i recover with land few turns later (had 1 birds and sychatog on my side while he pinged me for 2 with tapping morph rebel) killed his only threat with shriekmaw and got goyf with few friends on field to kill him fast. Game 2 wasnt even close with me having tempo advantage and having rampaging baloths twith lands to get tokens + recurring nightmare to get killed baloth back.

So first place for mana drain, some great commons and 50 store credits.

Few notes:
- you dont get to tap survival to tangle wire
- glazing gladehart is one of best commons of zendicar
- survival is busted
- rampaging baloths are busted
- Landfall is busted, very powerful mechanic for highlander
- needle DOESNT shut down mana abilities so RTFC

so_not

Quotethen EOT Gifts -> slaughter pact, swamp (maelstrom pulse in hand), ravenous baloth, rampaging baloths, got swamp and rampaging baloths

Gifts was for Swamp, Slaughter Pact, Solemn Simulacrum and Chrome Mox.

Zephyr

That deck is really nice imo. Have you tested Ob Nixilis, Fallen?

Lightstorm

Quote from: Sephiron on 05-10-2009, 12:51:58 AM
Roun 3(UW fish):
Lost my notes on this match, so dont remember this clearly. this was pretty back and froth, seems he kept bad hand in second game and i controlled him pretty heavily, both games killed him with rampaging baloths (one game aso included ravenous baloths and recurring nightmare alongside them)

My deck was more like UW control than fish since I didn`t play a single merfolk. I`ll post deck list later.

About our games on round 3. I won first game quite easily, don`t remember anything more. In second game I kept bad hand and didn`t draw anything helpful. Third game was a bit longer but your Baloth was way too much with resurrections.

In final I was tired and did lots of bad moves. Not sure if I could win anyway, in first game I got you to low health (3?) and you had nice top decks over there after Armageddon. Second game was just horrible and you overrunned me. Congratulations once again!

ps. I`ll send that picture to you later today or tomorrow.

Vazdru

Thx for your input! Deck looks nice indeed. I gonna play your deck tomorrow at our TNM-tournament as I liked my UG much and I'm now believing B could offer some improvements  ;D
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.

Nastaboi

I failed miserably (see round 2) in the tournament due to constant lack of sleep because of my work. I will post my list nevertheless as I am not interested developing it further this time.
Quote0:13:51 [Nastaboi] Nastaboi plays Invincible Hymn from Hand
0:14:25 [Nastaboi] Nastaboi's life total is now 221 (+213)

Sephiron

#6
Quote from: Zephyr on 05-10-2009, 01:32:02 PM
That deck is really nice imo. Have you tested Ob Nixilis, Fallen?
Yeah, i have, it always got bounced to hand, and it essentially takes the same slot as rampaging baloths. In testing tokens were more relevant than life, since baloths + tokens kill in 1-2 turns thanks to trample, while ob nixilis gets chumped pretty often.

QuoteGifts was for Swamp, Slaughter Pact, Solemn Simulacrum and Chrome Mox.
Well after long day and no notes didnt remember everything exactly, thnx for correcting, edited report.


Vazdru

#7
I've played your deck at TNM yesterday (see here: http://www.magicplayer.org/forum/index.php?topic=186.msg2798#new) with a few modification:

1) + Squee - Frantic Search

Survival + Squee = "duo infernale" - i can't see any reason not to play that little red nabob

2) + Shadowmage Infiltrator - Psychatog

imo you don't need any additional finisher also you do not want to remove cards from your gy
your cards all have a high power-level so card-advantage = win

even Lorescale Coatl > Psychatog
with cycle-lands, sensei's, Thirst, SoFI, Jace that coatl grows quite fast (had T5 kills with coatl in UG)

3) + Back to Basics - some nonbasic lands ;)

imo Back to Basics is still one of the strongest cards in that format and your deck could be able to run it, in TNM I've won instantly twice when i dropped that card (vs WGB-Survival and Staxx)
I've played 5 duals, 17 basics, 8 fetchies, 3 cycle lands + wasteland (2 moxes + Relic)

4) + Edge of Autumn - nature's Lore

Edge offers more opportunities (reaction to Wasteland, pump tarmo, save lftl when tapped out...) imo its one of the best cc2-acceleration (played it quite a while in UG)

5) Trygon Predator > Mystic Snake

just my personal point of view, try to lower your mana curve, Snake is too reactive
have some matches vs goblinpiledriver's Naya Zoo and you'll understand my point - CC4 counter is nothing you wanna draw facing his aggro deck

and some "minor" changes:

+ Furnace - Crypt (no Tolaria West)
+ Tsabo's Web - Land (play LoA or kick its ass - there is no other way for control! b2b, Tsabos, Wasteland, Mind Twist, Thoughtseize, Cabal Therapy)
+ Thoughtseize - Mana Drain (do not have any  ;), imo your worst mu is vs combo like firestarters aluren-swans multi-combo)
+ Cabal Therapy - Body Double (see above - need hand disruption to have a chance vs T3-4 combo kills, btw. b2b helps in that mu too)

btw you are absolutely right!
- glazing gladehart is one of best commons of zendicar
- Landfall is busted, very powerful mechanic for highlander

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

Quote+ Squee - Frantic Search

I was thinking about doing the same thing, its just that card advantage provided by squee didnt feel that relevant in contrast with card selection provided by frantic search (i found it very useful to cycle my hand in faster match ups for free), since i nearly never found CA to be of any issue, but ill try fitting squee in my list again

Quote+ Back to Basics - some nonbasic lands ;)

I would would usually play B2B myself but i was gearing my deck more in anti-fish direction, and they play B2B themselves, so it doesnt hurt them, it also doesnt hurt most aggro decks i tested against or expected to face, so i cut it, but i agree that it wins some games outright, so i think i will try to fit it in the deck.

Quote
+ Shadowmage infiltrator - Psychatog

imo you don't need any additional finisher also you do not want to remove cards from your gy
your cards all have a high power-level so card-advantage = win

even Lorescale Coatl > Psychatog
with cycle-lands, sensei's, Thirst, SoFI, Jace that coatl grows quite fast (had T5 kills with coatl in UG)

well removing cards was never an issue and him being black, he dodges many removals quite nicely, but he wasnt that relevant so i will cut him too, but somehow after a lot of testing coatl wasnt god enough either (dies to everything, gets bounced, and doesnt grow fast enough), and shadowmage didnt connect often enough, so i think ill try testing with squee instead of this.

Quote+ Edge of Autumn - nature's Lore

Edge offers more opportunities (reaction to Wasteland, pump tarmo, save lftl when tapped out...) imo its one of the best cc2-acceleration (played it quite a while in UG)

Somehow for me cycling was irrelevant while getting land untapped was always helpful, so i like lore more

QuoteTrygon Predator > Mystic Snake

i try to be more tempo oriented, and mystic snake adds disruption against combo decks

I play quite often against aggro/fish/burn decks and expected them to show up, so I geared my deck more against them, I think thats the main difference in builds.

p.s. thnx for input :D

Nastaboi

I would never play Squee in a deck with less than four Survivals unless it has infty Looters and similar effects. Drawing into it sucks so much compared to minimal gain: with Survival, you'll win by couple of turns with or without Squee. Witness and Genesis exist and they actually do things even without Survival.

Nature's Lore and Three Visits are infinitely better than unreliable Edge of Autumn unless you're in desperate need for early non-forest basics.
Quote0:13:51 [Nastaboi] Nastaboi plays Invincible Hymn from Hand
0:14:25 [Nastaboi] Nastaboi's life total is now 221 (+213)

GoblinPiledriver

What do you think about Remote Island, Polluted Mire, Slippery Cast for this Deck(would improve LftL)?
Are such Land and the Onslaught-Versions affected by Tsabo's Web?
Throw enough goblins at any problem and it should go away. At the very least, there'll be fewer goblins.

pyyhttu

Lands with Cycling are affected by Tsabo's Web. And bringing in inferior cycling lands in this build just for loam wouldn't make the deck any better.

Nastaboi

In the end, I cutted all cycling lands from my 4c control with Loam going just Waste, Library, Academy Ruins, Stronghold as my Intuition targets. Playing Loam into three mana-producing lands is good enough, you can use your draw step drawing spells and the lands you got doing something relevant and game-affecting instead just cycling through your deck.
Quote0:13:51 [Nastaboi] Nastaboi plays Invincible Hymn from Hand
0:14:25 [Nastaboi] Nastaboi's life total is now 221 (+213)

Derflo

#13
Hi , This deck seems really nice but have you also thinked about
Dark Confident, Brainstorm, Tainted Pact, Liliana Vess or Ruhsing River?

Sephiron

yeah, i have:
Confidan hurts too much, it kills me.
rushing river is more of a tempo card, it doesnt provide me with CA, removal or threats, it just slows opponent down a bit.
barainstorm was initially in the deck, i just cut it for some landfall guys, not sure if it was correct, but it was useful
tainted pact was cut night before the tournament (left snow-covered lands in the deck, because didnt want to bother adjusting manabase), it just didnt get me anyhing relevant, since it just removed good stuff =)
vess just costs too much, for 5 mana i want cards that win me the game when resolve, or just cover some holes in the deck (like primal command for gaining life)

P.s. the whole point of me choosing this deck was going for 3 colors for consistency and so that opposing nonbasic land hate wouldnt hurt so much (expected lot of fish/burn), because 4c decks usually roll over and die to good burn decks