http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/expandsub.php?Article=1691
A few comments here... The Undiscovered Paradise was, without a doubt, a powerhouse. A few times it saved me from 'discard death' due to Masticore, and Back to Basics couldn't deal with it at all. Make no mistakes: This is my sideboard, as I don't know anyone playing this kind of changeup in Classic. You may find much better 'hoser' choices, but this one simply works to perfection for me; it's just the way I play. The Relearn proved effective a sum total of one time, and otherwise that ended up Force food, so I can't make any fair comments about it either... But on with the report! (I should also point out that life totals are somewhat twisted by the use of my own four painlands.)
Hey some of those typos aren't mine! (I live in a world of denial, enter at your own risk.)
Hooray to the Undiscovered Paradise.
Wasn't this posted on here on BD a while ago? I know I have read it somewhere before....congrats anyway! I play this deck too (although a little different - 3 Maindeck Duress), and I believe its the best deck I've ever seen.
Yay for OSE.
What level was that judge? Horrid decision; the Oracle is wrong, this has been cleared by the netreps. *sigh*
--
Chris
He 'says' he was an L3, and claimed that Paul B. was/is in no way shape or form able to make calls in that regard. Yes, I'm fully aware of the fact that he was wrong, but that's the way it goes. Bottom line is as it says in the floor rules, the Judge makes the ruling and that's the way it stands for that tournament, at the very least.
By the way, if the judge hosting should happen to read this... You're the biggest moron I've ever seen daring to call themselves certified, and easily the most pathetic L3 I've ever seen.
Damn, I wish I had put THAT in my report for Star City...
Oh yea, and for the record, of course it's the same damn tournament report I posted here... Don't you guys know I'd let you all have the first look? I mean come on, I do have some loyalty to my board friends.
But it looks so much more awesome along with those articles by other esteemed Type I writers...
I have to defend the judge. He's put in a position that some people know about the Mindtwist decision and most people don't. It's also been forever and counting that Oracle hasn't been fixed. He's either going to take heat from disagreeing with Paul Barclay or from disagreeing with Oracle, which is supposed to be the official wording. Judges are supposed to overide Oracle when they believe that a mistake in it would abuse the rules, as was the case with Yawgmoth's Will and Dark Ritual. Direct your anger at the guy who can't open up his Oracle file, change "opponent" to "player", and save it.
The official ruling is: The oracle is always right, even when it is wrong.
The other official ruling is: The head judge is always right, even when they disagree with the rest of reality.
Nameless, I just finished reading your tourney report and noticed:
1) That you often sided out timetwister.
2) Ditto with vampiric tutor.
3) You also almost always sided in the duresses.
4) You mentioned that you think a main deck Teferi's Response would be good.
Have you altered your deck since Origins to reflect these 4 points? Can we see your current decklist if you have?
BTW, the report is really good. You should write a primer on sideboarding, You have insane sideboarding skillz!!!!
Quote:You should write a primer on sideboarding, You have insane sideboarding skillz!!!!
On a sidenote, if nothing less crucial presents itself I will often side out my Vamp tutor in a control mirror since it is an off-color and a card disadvantage (I still have 3 tutors left). I don't think it's a bad idea at all.
I can't help but think the Serendib/Negator idea goes better in a deck with all 5 moxen, but oh well it worked so I won't press the issue too hard.
--Matt
I have removed Vampiric from my OSE decklist altogether. To be honest, I havent really missed it either. I have considered removing Timetwister, but it has the potential to get you out of some really tight spots, or let you do some really fun crazy stuff.
Heres my decklist:
Land
6 Island
4 Underground River
4 Underground Sea
3 Mishra's Factory
2 Wasteland
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Strip Mine
Artifact
2 Powder Keg
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Masticore
1 Zuran Orb
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
Black
3 Duress
2 Diabolic Edict
1 The Abyss
1 Mind Twist
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
Blue
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
3 Fact or Fiction
2 Morphling
1 Teferi's Response
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Misdirection
1 Timetwister
1 Time Walk
1 Capsize
Sideboard
4 Chill
2 Misdirection
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Capsize
1 Duress
1 Hibernation
1 Teferi's Response
1 Jester's Cap
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Bribery
1 Powder Keg
I only post that because it probably looks something like what Nameless's deck looked like after adding Duress and taking out Vamp.
I have removed Vampiric from my OSE decklist altogether. To be honest, I havent really missed it either. I have considered removing Timetwister, but it has the potential to get you out of some really tight spots, or let you do some really fun crazy stuff.
Heres my decklist:
Land
6 Island
4 Underground River
4 Underground Sea
3 Mishra's Factory
2 Wasteland
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Strip Mine
Artifact
2 Powder Keg
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Masticore
1 Zuran Orb
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
Black
3 Duress
2 Diabolic Edict
1 The Abyss
1 Mind Twist
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
Blue
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
3 Fact or Fiction
2 Morphling
1 Teferi's Response
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Misdirection
1 Timetwister
1 Time Walk
1 Capsize
Sideboard
4 Chill
2 Misdirection
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Capsize
1 Duress
1 Hibernation
1 Teferi's Response
1 Jester's Cap
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Bribery
1 Powder Keg
I only post that because it probably looks something like what Nameless's deck looked like after adding Duress and taking out Vamp.
Sorry for the double post, my browser is acting up. Please delete one of them.
Ok, let's see if I can come up with anything...
A SB'ing primer? I don't think anybody in the world wants to take SB'ing lessons from me. Most people think I make insane choices, but what the hell they work.
Duress was a machine vs. the decks I was playing. You have to take note of what else I sided out vs. the basic content that I had to face, too. See the thing is my tutors are the 'swap' cards in the deck. It's so fine tuned as it is that little else can come and go as I please. Tutor's get me a card I need at the time, but Duress takes a card from them that they need. To take that one step further an early Duress just plain wins games. Since people pick a 'keep or paris' hand based on the current content, and you can alter that hand drastically very quickly. Combining this power with my countering and you can see why I made some of the choices.
Yes, the deck has changed actually, and as of right now it looks like this:
1 Black Lotus
5 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
4 Mishra's Factory
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Strip Mine
4 Underground River
4 Underground Sea
1 Undiscovered Paradise
3 Wasteland
3 Masticore
1 Morphling
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
3 Powder Keg
1 Demonic Tutor
2 Diabolic Edict
1 Mind Twist
1 The Abyss
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Counterspell
3 Fact or Fiction
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Misdirection
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Teferi's Response
1 Time Walk
SB:
1 Capsize
3 Dodecapod
3 Duress
3 Phyrexian Negator
3 Rootwater Thief
1 Timetwister
1 Zuran Orb
So this is my current deck of choice, complete with SB. Many of the changes I've made over the last 5+ months of playing this deck have come through a lot of talks with Azhrei. Him and a few others have finally managed to sell me on the idea that there should be 4 Mishra's and only 3 Wastelands, and that's fine with me right now, mainly because of the now main deck Response.
And just to give credit where credit is due... The Rootwater's are all about Azhrei.
Personally I have always felt that the biggest problem I have is facing Discard decks, and to this end I've clammed Dodecapod in the house. I think many of you know here by now just how the hell I play, so you should be able to reason out why I have 9 creatures in my SB. On the off chance that you don't though read my report.
I still maintain that the best possible SB is one that can dramatically change your deck from one type to another, while still allowing for consistancy. You think I won't side in a Dodecapod when I'm not playing vs. Discard? You think I won't cast a 3/3 for 4? Think again...
well that's pretty much the reason I'd want to read your sideboarding article...your choices are insane but apparently they're like butt'ah. If not a general sideboarding primer how about just an OSE sideboarding primer? Maybe you and Az could write an OSE primer together...
I played in a local tourney (14 players in all) today and got second with OSE, Butter Knives took first. It was a very diverse field with stompy, parfait, keeper, rubefacere, tool box, legion land loss and a bunch of others, not a single deck was the same. I played very poorly because the tourney was my actual play testing grounds for OSE. I like the deck a lot, but could really use a primer to make sure I was doing things correctly. And I agree, Rootwaters do own!!!!
Well, I'm sure I could work something out, but me and Azhrei have VERY different sideboards. I think we both play the deck quite differently, too.
I play out my cards and attack with stuff while using counter backup and card drawing. What do YOU do? :P
He psychs out his opponent and turns his deck into the Invincible Control Deck (tm) as shown on Wizards and Mtgnews, and recently deleted from this forum. ;)
Both of you (Nameless and Az) could cooperate on a general OSE primer. Then write your own sideboarding primers for it; Nameless' would concentrate on a more aggro type sideboard and Az's being a more of a control one. The fact that the deck can switch strategies by switchin only 5 or 6 cards with the sideboard is amazing. Most "transformer" decks don't usually do that well (from what i've experienced anyway).
Az, do you find you sideboard out timetwister much?
Nameless's isn't a real sideboard, IMHO.
Oh, now them's fightin' words!
Wait... Hell, I guess it isn't a real SB is it... Ah well, lucky me, I guess I'll just have to start calling it 'My Deck Expansion Pack' or something, since SB is not out.
Ahhh... Crap in a hat... not = now OK? So I can't type, so what? You got a problem with that? Well? Do ya? Huh? Punk!
Heh, Expansion Pack is a pretty cool name for the deck!!! Now stop wasting time and do the primer already
I'm still wondering about the Duress thing. Every single matchup you sided it in. Even Sligh. Well, I know it was 4cSligh and it probably had some decent SB cards to steal, but still? You've still decided to only go with 3 and keep them in the sideboard? Any reason for this?
-Eric
I have to defend the judge as well. The lvl 4 judge running the event stated going into the weekend that the Oracle would be his final reference. Our lvl 3 was going by this. All of his other rulings that I saw were pretty good. Wizards just needs to get of its butt and update the Oracle. What good is a final word, when it isn't the final word?
Well, for one thing he wasn't an L4. I spoke with the B&W's (Black and White shirts) that were running the PTQ's and they said they were the highest in attendence, with both being L3's. And for another thing... Paul Barclay IS on the rules team, and is partially responsible for the new rules clarifications soon to be released. He in fact DOES have the right to make the call, and that Mind Twist is target player. The problem here? The 'head judge' that I spoke with specifically brought this issue up, siting Paul Barclay as "...not an official rules represenative...", and thus had no right to make the ruling he did.
I know we've all talked about the Mind Twist issue many times on here, and the threads have drawn out quite long, but I'm just trying to point out that this looks more like a case of 'who's right and who's wrong' to me. Not to mention the fact that the guy who was supposed to be judging the games in the T1 wasn't watching very carefully at all. I had to correct a few players myself on what were obvious rules violations. To be honest, I caught several people cheating. It's unfortunate that they didn't even require deck lists for this event. I wonder how many people cheated that I didn't catch...
Oh, BTW Boltbait, thanks for bitch-smacking my rating. The one loss you gave me took the entire tournament to make up for. No yummy ratings points for me. So I hope at least yours was better for the run.
Nameless and Azhrei, I would like to get in on the dialog with you guys about OSE. Do you guys use ICQ or AIM? If so, I would apprecaite it if you would contact me so we could talk strategy about this deck. Im taking my OSE to a T1 this Sunday, so Ill let you know how I do.
My info is:
ICQ: 6146369
AIM: SlimDGoon
I'm on #bdchat all the time.
I dont use IRC much...what network are you guys on? EFnet?
newnet
Heh, Sorry about the rating. My last matchup really killed me, and I ended up breaking even, myself.
Our judge was a lvl 3, but . I was referring to Mike Guptil with Professional Events Services. He's a lvl 4 judge, and he confirmed which way the Mind Twist ruling was going to go before the tournament. The best way to go is to ask until they actually update the Oracle, as it seems to vary from tournament to tournament.
BTW, you actually caught people cheating?! What were they doing?
Yea, that's what I did actually, as I pointed out in the report I asked before we even started about Mind Twist.
Mainly I caught people shuffling with thier libraryies face UP for christs sake, just happily shuffling away and rearanging cards as they saw fit, then they flip it over while they are talking, riffle shuffle once, and present the deck. In my book that's flat out cheating. I also saw some people not pointing out very obvious mistakes that were in thier favor that an opponent didn't realize, like when one guy cast Balance to kill a Morphling. I mean it's all well and good to cast Balance when you kill a Morphling, it's NOT well and good when you don't discard down to 2 cards from 6 like he should have though. I even saw somebody using Necro and putting the cards right into his hand, now it would be OK to me if he said something like 'I'm just skipping to my Discard phase and I'm going to Necro for 4.' or whatever, but he was just using it like Yawgmoth's Bargain, and then gave an 'Opps.' saying it was an honest mistake, he thought he had Bargain out. Ok, sure I'll buy that... I have two problems with this oneL: 1) I saw him do the exact same thing later. 2) He wasn't even playing Bargain! Now come on... By far THE best of the best though... I found some guy playing a forgein card, and honestly I don't recall what it was, saying it was Ancestral Recall. It looked like it might say Instant, and it sure was blue for U casting cost... I just walked up and asked him when the hell they printed foreign alternate art Ancestral Recalls. At that point his opponent called a judge over and it cost the guy a game loss, which I think should have been a DQ myself, for such blatant cheating... Apparently the judge bought off on the story that he had picked the supposed AR from a trade outside. Whatever...
The real thing that bothers me is that when I approached our wonderful and all knowing head judge about these things he simply replied with, "Well, unless we catch them there isn't really anything we can do about it." Neat... That woulda worked too if our judge had actually been around the playing area at any point aside from the start and end of each round.