Hi to all,
Here is a report of a T1 Tourney that happened yesterday at rama llama comics in Plano Texas USA (Plano is Suburb of the Dallas Area). Oh, now regarding the Topic, it is true by the way, I hate blue decks, but I have to admit, B2B, Morph and FoF are really really broken in T1. Anyway, here it goes:
we were 15 players (not that many...we are a dying breed), so we played 4 rounds of Swiss, cutting to the top 4.
Also, I already played at this tournament 2 weeks ago with teletubbies (I ended up in 3rd) and I kinda knew what the metagame was. I knew there were several Non Basic Land decks, so I followed MP suggestion and put 2 B2B main deck and 2 in the board.
Anyway, Round 1: Got my worst match up, OATH.
I lost the roll, he chooses to go first. We drew and I got a horrible hand. 1 land. But we both paris and go down to 6 cards. My hand, 2 islands, 1 mox 1 mana drain, 1 misdirection, 1 mana leak. So I keep this hand. He goes first, drops a Tree Top village, and says go. I draw my card and it is a B2B. Play and Island and say go. He drops a Glacier and says go. Draw, got another island, played the mox, another island, b2b he says doh. He plays Karn, I got Morph, game.
2 game, I got the B2B early, he counters the first one, he was able to play the oath, I had Morph in play, he had karn, he turns my sol ring into a creature during his upkeep, and gets the morph. He lets me oath, and he was hoping for a Masticore, but I got on the second card another morph, so he scoops.
1-0-0
Game 2: Mono Green Elf beat down deck.
This was tough, believe it or not, a lot of 1 cc drops and I didn't got masticore or powder kegs first game, he kills me. Out goes the B2B, and brought in 2 more Cores.
Game 2, he gets some creatures down, he deals some damage, played keg, got rid of several creatures at the same time, got masticore out, and I was able to control the game. I won.
Game 3, I get flooded with lands, and didn't draw any answers. I brings me down to 4 life, he has 3 creatures I play, one with rancor. I played at his end of turn a FoF, and got 1 keg and a morph. Keg came late, so I grabbed the morph, played it, say go, he has 2 cards in hand after his draw, he tried to play a rancor on the other elf, I misdirected to the morph, and I go only 1 counter left. He attacks with both of them, I block with morph. the rancor guy, waiting for the giant growth on the unblocked one, but he doesn't have it. I go down to 3 life, and that's game. Close.
2-0-0
Game 3: I played vs. Keeperish Zoo deck.
Game one, got B2B in quick, that's game. 2nd Game, I also played B2B quick, he plays mox monkey, he deals some damage, U play Keg to kill his z.orb (plus my 2 moxes. I got him on land luck until he plays wheel of fortune, he blasts my b2b in response, I had 4 counters and some other stuff, but no will, let the wheel resolve, plays another red land for the next pyro, and I got lotus, and 2 more b2b. Wheel helped me. Played lotus, he pyro the 1st b2b, I played the 2 one, he says ouch, locking down, played morph afterwards, game.
3-0-0
Game 4: R/G beatdown with LD.
B2B wins it again for me.
4-0-0
Made Top 4, undefeated.
Played the best player ( I think on the semis). Keeper. Game one, was close. He had 4 basic lands including a Plains. I Fact or Fiction, got a strip 2 islands, morph and force of will. He stacks the strip on one stack everything else in the other one, and I got the Strip Mine to get rid of his plains. Battle for the Morph with counters, I won, game.
Again, back in 2 B2B and 2 Wastelands. Game 2, We both get a play land go turns, I'm tapped out, with 6 cards in hand, no mana open, he tries to play a MINDTWIST (and I know I have been part of the discussion about the been able to play misdirection on a Mindtwist, called the judge to see his ruling, he pulls out a 4th edition Mindtwist, he is says it is possible), so I misdirected his mindtwist to him, getting rid of all his cards, I played Morph later, I won. Close Match again.
I go to the finals, vs. Oath. Bad Last match.
Finals:
I play some counters, was able to get down a B2B, I won. Second game, same thing, but he got mana doesn't drop land for 2 turns, I got ahead, able to play another b2b, and Morph for the win.
WOO HOO.
Conclusion, even though I still hate blue, in this env, and if you know the metagame blue decks kills a lot of other decks that depend on the Non Basic Lands. I was also luck I think to not play vs. Hatred or Sligh. Probably the worst matched for this mono blue deck, and also a good thing, no mirror match.
Hope this helps, and I'll let you know what happened on the next one. I assume, everyone now is going to be ready to play something vs. B2B, so I will switch to POX. ;)
Arex
PS: MrParrot, thanks again for the deck and suggestions.
Arex, way to go.
And by the way, Sligh is really easy. Do not fear them. Hatred is very tricky, and your chances vary greatly with the different builds. The worst matchup is really Patriot/WW with maindeck Null Rods, and that's pretty much a bd exlusive, thank God.
So you CAN Misdirect a Mindtwist? And what exactly does B2B do that makes it shut down all non-basic land decks?
Back to Basics-2U
All non-basic lands do not untap during their controllers untap phases.
Raven, if you go to a tourney, ask the head judge what ruling he will use about that. This judge could have said no at his own discretion. It really is his choice.
I'll say it again ... Restrict B2B!
FoF is great, but it only helps you SOOOO much (and it is a lot of much). B2B is just so unfair, and punishes anything other than mono-colored decks.
I guarontee (mispelled for emphasis, bonus points if you know the reference!) WoTC wouldn't let this card live in the current T2. Bring back multi-color decks in T1 ... restrict B2B.
Heck, I'd be happy just to see they're even looking at T1 again, but I honestly believe they don't care about it. Just not enough profit.
Oh well, as always, I reserve the right to be wrong.
DPR
(Now on a single-minded crusade to make the DCI pay attention to T1 again!)
Restrict B2B?
B2B punishes players for playing non-basics. No one forces you to play non-basics. B2B is one of the few TI-hate cards that gives newer players the chance to fight fully powered decks.
The power of mono-blue is not B2B. Mono-blues rules because of it´s many gamealtering, carddrawing, librarymanipulating restricted spells and the power of a game mechanic called "countering".
AREX: Congratulations! You have done something very important and difficult and I do not mean winning the tournament. You have won a fight with yourself and tried a hated concept - and succeeded!
In order to beat an opponent you should be able to beat yourself first.
Puschkin
in your third game, what kinda stuff was in the keeperish zoo deck? cause i've been looking to build a deck called zookeeper for so long just cause it's a cool deck. First i tried one with a transformational sb from zoo to keeper, but it didn't work.
"
Morph in play, he had karn, he turns my sol ring into a creature during his upkeep, and gets the morph.
"
If you both had one creature out, and he made sol ring a creature on his upkeep, he could not use oath, as oath only triggers if the condition is met, and can't trigger once he starts announcing effects. Just a heads up so you don't get cheated in the future.
Yes, restrict B2B.
From Puschkin:
B2B punishes players for playing non-basics. No one forces you to play non-basics. B2B is one of the few TI-hate cards that gives newer players the chance to fight fully powered decks.
The power of mono-blue is not B2B. Mono-blues rules because of it´s many gamealtering, carddrawing, librarymanipulating restricted spells and the power of a game mechanic called "countering".
Back from quote ...
Yes, that's exactly what Blue does. B2B keeps anyone except from mono-Blue doing it.
Many decks run splash-blue duals and painlands to use the Blue power cards. Those cards define T1, and B2B allows construction of a deck archtype that keeps anyone else from having the same access to them.
In short, it's mass land destruction for Blue. A color that should not have it, and it stays in play! It should have been green or red.
Anyway, as always, I reserve the right to be wrong!
DPR
Okay, maybe B2B should be green or red. But that proves that the card itself is okay but the great amount of restricted blue stuff is not. Restricting B2B is like bannig Dark Ritual to stop Trix: "fix" some support cards in order to avoid messing with the real problem.
Restrict FoF, restrict -or ban!- Morphling, restrict Mana Drain but do not restrict a harmless support card. Don´t make B2B the next Crop Rotation.
Why should B2B be banned? how many cards in the type 1 environment destroy enchantments? At LEAST 20. That's the beauty of such a wide open format. You don't need to ban as much stuff because somewhere, there's an answer to it!
Carl: Why should Ancestral be restricted then? or Mind Twist? I mean, there are TONS of cards that can counter them.
Ancestral Recall did so much for its casting cost, as well as Mind Twist. With all the power in T1, its not rare to see a Twist for 7 on the first turn. AND THAT'S JUST EVIL. And who allows anyone to play 4 copies of a card that lets you draw 3 cards for 1 mana?
Dread Pirate Roberts, now that FoF is restricted,and BBS is going downhills, do you still think that BtB should be restricted? BtB is on of the best hosers for Keeper, the deck that is considered the most powerful now. Too bad if ya could pack only one of them.