Roy Tang

The tournament was yesterday, May 03, Standard at Robinson’s Galleria.

I was planning to play Green-White midrange, as documented on Deckbuilding for an Unknown Metagame.

Due to card availability issues, the final list I played is:

Round 1: WG versus UG Savor the Moment

Game one saw him with a bad hand, his only lands were islands and two mutavaults, while I had out Finks and Cavs early. His first four turns, his only plays were suspending three Ancestral Visions. Eventually he drew a Yavimaya Coast, and managed a Scryb Sprite. but I was too far ahead so we shuffled up for boarding.

I mistakenly assumed he was UG Faeries, so I went -2 Loxodon Warhammer, +2 Squall Line

Game two, he gets out a Scryb Ranger, a Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers and a Garruk. Eventually he declares, “Here comes my combo!”, and plays out Spectral Force, untaps two lands, then plays Savor the Moment. He takes the extra turn, untaps two lands with Garruk, overrun and I’m dead.

I board in Condemns, deciding to take out the Squall Lines again.

Game three is close. Even though I’m playing a defensive game he takes a lot of damage from having two Yavimaya Coasts as his only blue sources. He manages to get Garruk out again and I’m dangerously close to dying. He has out a a Beast token and a Wilt-Leaf cavs and I’m at two life. My only creature is a Spectral Force that won’t untap until the next turn. I draw my sixth land; my hand is Oversoul and Condemn. Quick math: Oversoul can block a six-point trampler and I can cast Condemn to stay alive at one, so that’s what I play. As expected, he overruns and swings and then I realize my last land is a Horizon Canopy!

What a moron. I didn’t consider the alternative play – sac’ing the Horizon Canopy to draw a card, which turned out to be Oblivion Ring. O-Ring on the Beast, then Condemn on the cavs and I’d be alive. Sigh, not paying attention is the bane of my existence.

I found out while unboarding that I really should have lost that game, as I did not actually board out the Squall Lines. In short, I had boarded out 3 cards but had boarded in 5, so I had an illegal deck! That’s my karma for being careless.

Games: 1-2, rounds: 0-1

Round 2: WG vs Monoblack Bitterblossom aggro-control (?)

Opponent’s deck is hard to describe. Bitterblossom, Oona’s Blackguard, Mutavaults, Thoughtseize, Damnation, etc. Only thing sure is that he’s all black. In game one I Primal Command for Oversoul, but he Thoughtseizes it before it can be cast. I just hit him with Chameleon Colossus and Wilt-Leaf Cavs instead. His deck doesn’t have enough gas to counter, and I win.

My boarding was -2 Loxodon Warhammer, -3 Sunlance, -1 Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers, -1 Primal Command, -1 Birds of Paradise; +3 Condemn, +2 Squall Line, +3 Wispmare

Game two he has an early Inkfathom Infiltrator, and he uses it to prowl out two Earwig Squads which removes most of my heavy threats. However, I still manage to bring out a Liege and the Earwigs have to trade with big Kitchen Finks who just come back. I still manage to overwhelm him and win.

Games: 3-2, rounds: 1-1

Round 3: WG vs GBU Mannequin

Another unique deck, courtesy of the open metagame. The deck combines features of the traditional UB Mannequin with green acceleration and life gain via Kitchen Finks. I manage to trade evenly with him most of the time, but his card advantage is too difficult to overcome. I lose in game 3 without even dealing damage to him.

My boarding plan here was -2 Loxodon Warhammer, -1 Birds of Paradise, -1 Primal Command, -1 Wilt-Leaf Liege, +3 Tormod’s Crypt, +2 Stonecloaker. None of my graveyard hate came out.

Games: 3-3, rounds: 1-2

Gah, I’m performing so poorly! I decided not to drop and try to salvage it into a 5-2.

Round 4: WG vs UBR Reanimator

He went first. Hellkites, Akromas… I pretty much knew what to expect after the second turn Merfolk Looter. Hellkite on turn four killed my mana producers and I got stuck on three lands with no O-Rings to save me.

My boarding plan here was same as the previous round -2 Loxodon Warhammer, -1 Birds of Paradise, -1 Primal Command, -1 Wilt-Leaf Liege, +3 Tormod’s Crypt, +2 Stonecloaker.

This time the hate came out, and I won game two due to a Tormod’s Crypt turning his reanimation spells into dead cards.

In game 3, we go into topdeck mode without him reanimating anything. Finally, he attempts Dread Return and I show him the lone card in my hand: Stonecloaker! I RFG the Akroma he wanted, but he keeps all other creatures off the board with removal. He’s at three so even a single Llanowar Elves gets hits with a Damnation. I manage to play another elf; he attempts to Dread Return again. He still has four mana open so I assume has the Mannequin to respond to Stonecloaker. I take the bait, knowing I had an O-Ring in hand for the Hellkite that would come. He plays Mannequin in response as I expected. I clarify: “Is the Stonecloaker in play?” His response: “No, still on the stack.” Perfect! I let Mannequin resolve, taking me down to sixteen. We resolve Stonecloaker and I bounce the elf. On my turn I play O-Ring and swing for the last 3 damage.

Games: 5-4, rounds: 2-2

Round 5: WG vs WG Aggro

His deck is more aggro and less midrange, focusing on the WG hybrid creatures: Safehold Elite, Kitchen Finks and Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers and Lieges. He also has the Shield of the Oversoul backing up his creatures. The rest of his deck seems to be a smattering of elves, including Imperious Perfect.

My creatures are naturally bigger, but that doesn’t mean much to an Oblivion Ring. In game one I have him on the defensive, and eventually manage to get a Spectral Force or two to stick, and we shuffle up for game 2.

I’m boarding: +3 Wispmare, +3 Condemn, -2 Loxodon Warhammer, -2 Cloudthresher, -1 Chameleon Colossus, -1 Oversoul of Dusk.

In game two, I keep a hand with white lands and green spells believing that I will surely draw green lands eventually. A recipe for loss obviously! Note to self: Never do that again. I lost to two Wilt-Leaf Lieges and a Safehold Elite.

In game three, I play out turn four Spectral Force, turn five Spectral Force and he’s forced to lose his guys chump blocking as he has no Rings. Eventually he manages an Oblivion Ring, but I have a Wispmare. Eventually I have out two Lieges, a Birds, a Wispare, a post-persist Finks and two Spectral Force versus his ground based force of 3-4 elf tokens, Llanowar, Treetop, Safehold Elite, Wilt-Leaf Liege and Imperious Perfect. I just chip away in the air with the 2/3 Birds and 3/4 Wispmare. He knows he’s going to lose the next turn so he just goes in alpha strike mode hoping I don’t block well. Also, he apparently thought the Liege gave his green elf tokens +2/+2 instead of +1/+1 so he thought he had enough to take me down from 20. He only had sixteen, and I won the game.

Games: 7-5, rounds: 3-2

Round 6: WG vs UW Reveillark

I sigh inwardly when I see the pairings, since I know I’ll be facing Reveillark. From experience playing the blue-white combo-control deck, midrange green has close to zero chance of winning. I’m not even going to bother with my mistakes here, though there were many. I lost in two games.

Games 7-7. Rounds: 3-3

I think I’ve lost enough rating points for today and tick drop in the slot. Damn, performing poorly saps out a lot of my energy.

Next week: Block!