Highlander Nationals Finland 14.05.2011 (2nd Place)

[Sephiron]

So after some testing i decided that i want to play with most broken cards in highlander in this tournament, which means following: JtMS, bribery, Stoneforge Mystic, recurring nightmare, demonic tutor, natural order, primeval titan and birthing pod. Which meant i had to play something like 4c goodstuff. After a lot of testing i was happy with my list (and i still wouldn't change anything in this deck) and went to tournament, here is how matches went:

Round 1 - Bant

Game 1
opponent started with landdrop, while i got fyndhorn elves. Second turn he again just played a land, on my turn in upkeep i played worldly tutor to put stoneforge mystic on top, and then after making a land drop i casted it, which to my surprise resolved, so i got batterskull. Next turn opponent played finks, while i passed after playing a land. On his next turn (fourth) opponent tried casting sword of feast and famine to which i had FoW and then put batterskull into play with mystic EoT. After 2 turns opponent scooped (couldn't cast anything since he didn't draw any green sources) and we went to second game.

Game 2
Game started with both of us having noble hierarchs on first turn. Turn 2 opponent played worldly tutor in upkeep to get mystic on top, after which he casted it to get sword of feast and  famine. After untapping i played my own mystic getting batterskull. Next turn he played teeg which was pretty bad since i had Garruk, green zenith, but i still got to cast sylvan library to smooth my draws and knight of the reliquary to try getting maze of ith next turn. After equipping sword to teeg he attacked next turn making me discard zenith, but at least i had some exra life thanks to batterskull attacking previous turn. Since i was still at 15 life with batterskull i took one extra card from library, played land and attacked with batterskull which opponent couldn't block. Opponent tried attacking with teeg, to which i tried activating KotR to get maze of ith, opponent played aven mindcensor in response, luckily i at least got Creeping Tarpit, but i still had to discard garruk to sword. Next turn i finally got removal in form of vindicate to get rid of sword and attacked. Opponent tried bouncing teeg with Karakas to discard it to fauna shuman, but he didn't have any outs anymore.

About matchup: matchup is good since i practically play best cards from bant but instead of counters i have more tutors and threats, making this deck somewhat upgrade over bant. The fact that this deck is 4 colours doesn't matter since there isn't enough hate for it to be serious drawback (you can afterall get basics when you need)

Games 2 - 0

Round 2 - Hulk combo

Game 1
Nothing much to say here i just got some beatsticks in form of Acidic Slime and random mana dudes, while opponent only got gyus that fetch lands (yavimaya elder, sylvan ranger), with help of some disruption game ended quickly.

Game 2
This game was a bit more interesting since neither had much of action, but i got to resolve 4th turn gifts which got me bribery. Next turn opponent got natural order into terastodon,
breaking my only blue sources, but thanks to fetch i got tropical island to untap it with arbor elf getting his protean hulk with bribery. Now he couldnt attack me and after few turns I overwhelmed his board and got rid of terastodon and game ended.

About Matchup: this is usually good matchup since this deck disrupts everything opponent is trying to do (path+stop remove creatures, vendilion+exarch hand disruption, slime+pridemage land and artifact/enchantment removal and ton of tutors to get the needed cards), so comboing is hard, and without combo it's just worse version of this deck, because blue gives better cards.
 
Games 4 - 0

Round 3 - Oath

Game 1
I got goyf on t2 but opponent had removal to it. T3 I tried casting birthing pod, After some thinkin opponent said: "I assume since you're playing it, it's dangerous to let it resolve, so I'm going to counter it". After a few turns i got acidic slime breaking his land. He then transmuted muddle to get oath (i didn't know he played oath before so i had slime and dryad arbor in play). After he played oath i played my bribery which got me Emrakul. Opponent got blightsteel colossus from oath (no other creatures in the deck) and played control magic on my slime trying to survive, but i had stop to put him at six permanents making him sac them all after attacking with Emrakul.

Game 2
I started my game trying to get card advantage from sylvan library (since life didn't matter much) and some guys which he killed. On turn 5 i had some pressure and he played bribery, but i had primeval titan in hand, so he couldn't find any6thing better than got acidic slime destroying sylvan library. After few turns of going back and forth he played discard to make sure i didn't have anything relevant in hand, i had FoW but nothing to pitch with 4 mana, i just attacked on my turn. Then he played show and tell with 1 card in hand, he got emrakul and i put topdecked sower of temptation killing him with his own emrakul again.

About Matchup: didn't test much but from what i saw, unless i draw well and have answers in time he is favoured since he has better removal and card advantage.

Games 6 - 0

Round 4 - Goblins

Game 1
He started only with land, I think I had llanowar elves, he then played vexing shusher, but i got mystic for batterskull and thoughtseize, he played tangle wire. I put batterskull into play on upkeep, that got to attack one time after which he destroyed it with topdecked tuktuk scrapper. Afterwards i continued beatdown with finks and some random guy, while he got recruiter. I played acidic slime to make deny him some mana, but he still had enough for ringleader. I played jace to filter topdecks, but he just killed it. Afterwards he tried playing goblin lord and mana producing goblin (the one that gives red for sacrificing a goblin), but thanks to jace i had oblivion ring and vindicate for them. Thanks to my beatdown he was at nine, so while trying to get enough goblins i just killed him with tarpit.

Game 2
He got vial into warchief into ramgang wastelanding one of my lands, while my first relevant play was finks on turn 4, at which pioint he killed me.

Game 3
After killing my lanowar elves it turned out he was color/mana screwed (balck two drops and red three drops with only mountains), but so was i, but i got land faster,
enabling me to get birthing pob into acidic slime denying him access to mana, at which point he scooped.

About Matchup: Goblins isn't bad matchup since i have a lot of removal and he has combo and reach, so it mainly depens on the luck of the draw (though if opponent isn't skilled enough with goblins then it's easy)
Games 8 - 1

next i just took 2 ID:s to get to top8

Top 8:

Quaterfinals - Bant

Game 1
Game wasnt too exciting, he got gideon, while i had volrath stronghold and venser, shaper savant. Turn six i played primal command putting gideon on top of his deck and searching mystic, which i immediatly played to get batterskull. Afterwards it was few turns of him +2:ing gideon and me attacking with my creatures, but opponent drew only land, while i got some tutors and we went to second game.

Game 2
After seeing mana drain with batterskull in my opening hand I had my gameplan set, so after he played land and some mana guy, i played tropical island into arbor elf. Turn 2 he tutored Stoneforge mystic, while i just played a land into ponder. Next turn he tried garruk which i mana drained getting mana for batterskull next turn. He tried to get back into the game with trygon predator and stoneforge mystic into his own batterskull, but i responded with vendilion clique which revealed he had fact or fiction and batterskull. I cycled his batterskull away. Now i had blocker for his predator, so i just attacked with batterskull again, which got through. EoT he played Fact which revealed: Glen-elendra archmage, spellsnare, Force of Will, noble hierarch and counterspell, i divided: elendra and spellsnare into one and Fow, counterspell and hierarch into second pile which he took (I think I might have made a mistake here, but it was alredy a long day at that point so i was a bit tired). On his turn he played noble attacking with predator that i had to chump block with vendilion clique. Over the next few turns i got some guys into play (i had arbort elf, llanowar elves, acidic slime and court hussar in game) while he finally got through with predator (making me bounce batterskull), played gideon. At this point I had around 30 life (thanks to batterskull), vindicate in hand (only scrubland to provide black or white) and recurring nightmare which he countered with counterspell. After few turns of me attacking gideon he finally died while he was attacking me for 3 in the air. I topdecked worldly tutor which i played his EoT, which he decided to FoW (hardcast), then i topdecked bribery which got spellpierced. Opponent then proceeded to topdeck a sun titan to return mystic fetching batterskull, while i got Eladamri's call with six mana to spend, so i tutored sower to get his sun titan and passed, opponent played land and attacked with predator putting me at 21. On my turn i drew land played it and attacked with sun titan (he was at 9) to get quasali pridemage from grave, opponent put batterskull with mystic into game, which i destroyed with pridemage, but he chumped my titan with his elf. He  proceeded to get mini-jace and attacked me with predator, which put me at 18. On my turn I drew land again and attacked with titan, getting pridemage from grave, which then tried destroying batterskull opponent put with mystic into play, but opponent bounced it back again. He then finally found elspeth, but couldnt swing with it since i had too much board presence, so he just made token and attacked me with predator to 12 (he still had noble in play). I attacked with sun titan and sower returning recurring nightmare to play (he didnt have mana to use mystic), he chumped titan with token from elspet putting him at 7 life. I used nightmare to sacrifice my guy (i think it was court hussar) to get some guy from graveyard (i think it was acidic slime). Opponent drew card for tourn and with jace, played top, topped and then made token from elspeth. On my turn I topdecked treachery. I then cast treachery to predator and vindicated his token to finally kill him.

Games 10 - 1

Semifinal - Oath (the same one from swiss)

Game 1
He started with duress revealing a few lands llanowar elves, tainted pact and gifts. He took pact since it was too dangerous (if i had fetched correctly it couldn't fizzle and i could get sower in response to show and tell or slime for oath). t2 lotus cobra, t3 he force spiked my gifts, t4 mulldrifter (I played  creeping tarpit). My hand had skinrender (dead card), Stop (if he got blightsteel colossus i could use this), fauna shaman and tarmogoyf. After attacking him he was at 12 and i played fauna shaman, he played shockland untapped (to 10) and damnation. I played goyf to which he responded with smother (which was a mistake, since he should gave killed it with ghastly demise, because now he couldn't use it to kill my tarpit). Afterwards i proceeded to kill him in 3 turns with my tarpit.

Game 2
He got Sensei's divining top, but on turn 2 he used it to draw card and play watery grave, so I thought he was mana screwed and proceeded to vindicate his tropical island turn later. And later i used acidic slime to hit another land. He proceeded to draw some lands, but it still slowed him down enough so i could start beating him down. Next turn he didn't do much, but i had eladamri's call into glen-elendra archmage with 2 open blue mana (had to play shockland untapped for that). He played merchant scroll and personal tutor that i countered with archmage (couldnt let them resolve, since he most likely alredy had some piece of como). After 1 turn he tried tapping my guys and draw card in my upkeep with cryptic command (he was at 6 or nine, i hit him for 3 per turn), which i mana drained and played sun titan from drained mana.

Games 12 - 1

Finals - Grixis control
before games we agreed on prize split, so we practically just played for title. Game one he inquisitioned my mystic, and after some FoW wars (he had mystical teachings into gifts, and then pitched it to Fow trying to counter my recurring nightmare, but i FoW:ed it pitching treachery he knew about, he resolved inferno titan which got shriekmaw) he got to resove wildfire leaving me with 1 land, and then proceeded to draw 2 lands and JtMS. Game 2 he just cast treachery on my knight of the reliquary and followed it with burning of xineye leaving me with no lands again.

About Matchup: I didn't test against this deck so cannot say much, but matchup doesn't seem too good, it seems to moslty depend on whether he has enough disruption to kill/counter my threats in time. Wildfire/xineye is definitely MvP for him, since everything else i can deal wiht, but he has troubles with fast primeval titan/birthing pod.

Games 14 - 3

Decklist can be found here: http://www.magicplayer.org/forum/index.php?topic=618.0

Comments are welcome

[MMD]

Thanks for your report which I have enjoyed even if the report is not one of the most objective ones I have ever read. In some situations there is a lot of luck involved (e.g. Show and Tell into Sower) for the win.
However, luck (and bad opponent plays) is required to play 14-3 in games.
I also agree that 4C goodstuff is Tier1 if your meta is not non-basic hate orientated.