Amazing Cards and Comics held it's 4th P9 tourny this Saturday. This one was for an unlimited timetwister.
Here is the decklist, it is important to note that we were playing no land and even 1 land mulligans.
2 Karn, Silver Golem
2 Juggernaut
2 Fireball
2 Land Equilibrium
2 Armageddon
1 Memory Jar
1 Well of Discovery
1 Jaymade Tome
1 Soothsaying
1 Mirror Universe
1 Tawnos’s Coffin
1 Jester’s Cap
1 Grinning Totem
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Timetwister
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Regrowth
1 Gaea’s Blessing
1 Disenchant
1 Aura of Silence
1 Balance
2 The Abyss
1 Crop Rotation
1 Tinker
1 Voltaic Key
1 Candelabra of Tawnos
3 Copy Artifact
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Grim Monolith
1 Bloodstone Cameo
2 Tigereye Cameo (Alternate 1 and 1 City of Traitors)
2 Seashell Cameo (Alternate 1 and 1 City of Traitors) 3 Cities are placed in for
2 Drake-Skull Cameo (Alternate 1 and 1 City of Traitors) Paris version
1 Mana Prism
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
5 Moxen
3 Mishra’s Workshop
1 Tolarian Academy
The 4 Round qualifier:
Round 1
Myself vs. Jared playing Delusions Donate
1st game:
Quick Cap removes 3 of the 4 Delusions.
Karn and artifact beatdown quickly follows till a peacekeeper gets dropped.
That gets taken care of by an Abyss.
2nd Game:
Took a little longer, same road to victory. DT - Disenchant took care of one delusions.
Luck with a Twister removing the Delusions, donate and a VT helped seal the victory.
Round 2
Myself vs. Oli playing Living Death.
Game 1:
Early Land Equilibrium Leaves us locked at 1 Land.
He gets lucky with having all 4 Ashen Ghouls early, but the Abyss is also in play quickly leaving him with a recycle ghoul combo. Not to fear, I have a kar in play with cameos.
Eventually the early beatdown he gave me allowed me to mirror his life down and let karn in with and artifact barrage of creatures when he had only one ghould left in play.
Game 2:
Very similar, however Oli's deck works a little less effectively and he goes down to a quick Karn artifact swarm.
Round 3:
Myself Vs. Joe Playin speed dreams
1st game:
These games felt close. Joe's deck has the potential to do that 20 points VERY quickly.
I managed to keep the dreams off the table with a disenchant, and won with the karn beatdown.
2nd game:
Not so lucky. Started off pretty good. Joe ends up dropping 2 dreams and I can only get rid of 1. He ends up draw burning me to death with the aid of a Memory jar, tutor and wheel.
3rd game:
It was looking really close. I had the Karn out but things got bad when Joe ended up with 3 dreams on the table! Luckly I drew the grinning totem and was able to totem his timewalk to come in a do the extra damage to kill him.
Round 4:
Myslef vs. Mike Navia playing BW control
Game 1:
Quick mana start, capped out a morphling a disk and a Mindless Automaton (missed the second morphling in his hand) Sure enough he mana drains the GW cameo and boom morphling next turn. Well an Armageddon used as bait takes the counter the the balance reduces him to 1 land and no morphling. Game over soon after that.
Game 2:
The best victory. With an Abyss in play mike has a mother of runes and quite a bit of land. I drop the totem and end up getting HIS morphling ;-). He counters with his own soon ofter, but the Balance wins it again. He goes down to no land and I have the cameos to keep my morphling alive. Then to top it off Karn comes out next turn. Beat down by his own morphling. Now that's justice ;-)
Finals:
Round 1:
Playing another mike with a straight white creature.
Game 1:
1st turn karn with a Workshop, candelabra, grim monolith. Then a second turn Mirror universe after dropping a mox to power the candelabra. Quick beatdown!
Game 2:
Saw some destruction of a quick juggernaut. Then Karn is back on the board for bit. He gets kill off soon after. Mike ended up at 10. With 5 artifacts a candelabra, tolarian and a fireball finished him off.
Final match:
Myself vs. Mike Navia again with BW control
Game 1:
I'm going to chalk this game up to being tired. I wasn't doing that well to begin with. Mike had a meddeling mage with Karn's name all over it. And had some factories out. I was setting up a good comeback placing a balance and an abyss on the topdeck with a soothsaying. Of course I was going to draw these with the ancestral I top decked, forgetting that I was only at six with 2 mishras and a meddler out, I forgot to mirror. Of course Mike forces the ancestrall and waltzes in for the kill.
Game 2:
Another 1st turn Karn and successful beatdown with cameos and a howling mine.
Game 3:
This game was long. Mike ended up a 11 cards to my 15. I'm at 31 life thanks, I think, to his numerous plowshares removing a juggernaught, karn, and a cameo from the game, mike is at 3. I have a Tawnos's Coffin and a copy of it out, as well as a ton of artifact mana and a soothsaying. I have a twister in my hand in case of major problems, and just waiting things out. Basically the game ending turn was Gaea's blessing back in the Karn and tinker that were in my grave yard. Out of the 16 cards I drew the tinker. karn comes out with out a counter to stop him. Game over.
in the first round, you meant illusions, not delusions, right?
Where is the store? Do they have a website? I will be coming home to CT for Christmas and maybe part of the summer and need a place to game.
What a strange metagame. I haven't seen most of these cards in ages.
Meh: Yes, my mistake, Illusions
Azhrei: The store is in Tarrifville, that's right next to Simsbury or Granby. They have bi-monthly T1 tournys and if things keep up one of them will be a P9 card every month.
CooberP: It may be a strange metagame, but it's sure very fun. I'd rather not know what my opponent is playing when he drops his first land. The game is really boring like that. And if your refering to my deck, thanks. I think it's pretty original myself. I haven't seen many similar decks in the past years.
Critiques on my deck are welcome.
Nice report, Keith. You might want to take out the Tome & the Well of Discovery for a VT & a Stroke of Genius. That's all I can think of that I would change.. the deck seems to be working pretty well for you as it is. Here's my deck in case anyone is interested:
//NAME: dreams
4 Underworld Dreams
4 Dark Ritual
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Impulse
4 Force of Will
3 Arcane Denial
1 Memory Jar
1 Windfall
1 Time Spiral
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Boomerang
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Regrowth
1 Fastbond
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Diamond
1 Time Walk
4 City of Brass
4 Underground River
4 Underground Sea
4 Badlands
3 Bayou
3 Volcanic Island
1 Gemstone Mine
I'm open to suggestions too. I considered Winds of Change, but I don't think anything in the deck is worth taking out for them. And I know Boomerang is janky but it works wonders for this deck.
As for the tournament, I went 3-1 over the first 4 rounds but missed the semi's by 2 percentage points. Oh well, I've got a chance to redeem myself this Friday. See you then Keith(& Lou if you see this).
-Joe
Is there a website for the store or something like that?
Nope, no website. It's a great store though.. very casual, lots of fun, and plenty of rogue decks. It's on 39 main street in Tariffville. If you tell me what area of CT you'll be in I can try to give you some terrible, vague directions.
Where is this store? What state?
connecticut
If anyone wants directions, I would try using www.mapquest.com because yahoo maps doesn't seem to list Tarrifville.
ctthespian, is this Achademy? I have never seen a achademy decklist.
And that Jayjumaye Tome should be a Scrying Glass.
Hmmm. I remember somebody mentioning Amazing Cards at the last DJs tournament, but I couldn't find Tariffville on a map. Is it a township or something? I might come up for some P9 events, though its a long drive for just a few casual games. Anyway, nice report.
Any of you Tariffville guys coming down for DJ's tourny? I believe its this coming Friday, though I have yet to double check. If it is, I think its for a Time Walk, and I plan on showing up.
-Eric (Hartford, CT)
Raven: No this isn't realy Academy. Academy is usually just speed mana to stroke you opponent's deck. And as far as the jaymade tome is concerned, it's a 4 casting cost artifact as opposed to 2. Therefore it's a 4/4 creature with the Karn. Not to mention the fact that for 1 more mana I always get to draw a card. Plus there's a nostaligia factor to dropping an Alpha Tome and having Karn "throw the book at them" ;-)
-Keith
Were coming to DJ's, there shold be at least three of us if not more stopping in.
Here's the # for Amazing in case anyone is interested in their Tournys (860) 658-2122
Thanks for the number. And random question, did you win the tourny? Also, whats the reason for the 1 land and no land mulligan. I can see trying to make it a more casual atmosphere, but that would put randoms like me at a disadvantage (I actually have to play land...silly me!) and it IS $75+ on the line....Any reason?
-Eric
Yes I did win the tourny ;-) (I guess I have to make my reports a little better, next time!)
And as far as the mulligans go. They have played that way for quite some time. I've been the only person to take "advantage" of the mulligan. I personally don't see it as that much of an advantage. If I mulligan my opponent can choose to as well, allowing him to get a better hand. I sometimes can mulligan 4-6 times before a presentable opening shows. Of course with the 7 land version for parising, I've been know to have almost all 1st or 2nd turn opening hands.
-Keith
Hmmm....I think I would have a lot of fun playing Academy there. I could cut down to maybe 10 or 11 lands (plus Academy). That would mean you usually only have one land in your hand so I could just mulligan until a broken-ass hand presents itself. Muhahahahaha!
---MAtt
Actually to hell with that. I'd retool the deck to have only one land in it (Academy) so I could mulligan until the perfect hand presented itself.
--Matt
You would just make them switch to paris version rules after that deck arrives. I've tried not to totaly exploit the decision to go with mulligans vs. parising.
We went the mulligan route so that players would not die to having bad mana draws.
Maybe I should not make this tore too well known, huh? I'd really hate drawing in people like you that could harm the easygoing competitive environment of the store.
-Keith
Yeah GOSH MATT PEOPLE LIKE YOU!!!
lol
pault
Yeah GOSH MATT PEOPLE LIKE YOU!!!
lol
pault
Yeah GOSH MATT PEOPLE LIKE YOU!!!
lol
pault
oops sorry bout that.
pault
Paul, yes "people like you"! The mulligan rule in the store is a friendly one allowing for decks to function better by taking away random mana screwing. Yeah I knot that I AM taking adavantage of the rule to allow me to run fewer lands. But I'm not planning on tuning it so I can get the perfect hand after 12 mulligans and win on turn 1 or 2. My deck can be really fast, but I don't think it's possible for it to win on turn 1 or even 2.
Despite the fact, I'd love to see and academy deck come up and try to be some of the BW control decks. After the mulligans needed for the adacdemy to get his had, the BW is bound to have at least 1 force in his hand.
This is just my ranting about the current state of magic. Players that hate T1 hate it for just the reason Matt up there stated. They still believe, albiet cluelessly, that T1 is all P9 st turn kill decks. Maybe he was just kidding, but that type of play killed interest in T1.
-Keith
There are really no 1st turn kill decks left atleast none that work consistantly. But by holding to those mulligan rules and offering a Mox as a prize I would do my darndest to win that prize under the rules. I wouldn't play 1 land academy as wasteland by an opponent = game over.
In any case I can understand you wanting to keep it casual and all but.. damn a Mox for a prize should constrew the tournament to be pretty competitive. I really would hope that you wouldn't try to pigeon hole and generalize all the people who attempt to build the most competitive deck possible a detriment to the game.
Perhaps to guard against people trying to take advatnage of your mulligan rules you should mess around with the B/R list to stop combo fully. But then again maybe it's more trouble than it's worth.
Like at the only type 1 shop in portland they discourage doing any type of "stall" deck as they call it, these are pretty uneducated players who don't really understand that a control deck wants to fully take control before it wins. They also have some other problems that I don't think I need to go into here.
Anyways good luck to you,
pault
Geez. If they dont' like "stall" decks, they would have hated my old Rec/Sur deck. Its amazing how many games I won simply because I could recur 2 Spike Feeders for like 16 life during my last turn (winner was the one with the most life if you ran into the time limit, with 1 extra turn each).
And would this be Portland, CT or some random other Portland?
As for abusing the Mulligan rule, its a mixed bag. I would do it because $100 was on the line, but then again, if you can do it, you most likely already have the Power 9, in which case its pointless. I would still rather play under uniform, tournament rules. Oh well, I'll still try to come up once in a while, since playing under any rules is better than not playing at all.
-Eric
Yeah, I agree playing some type 1 is much better than playing none at all. No it's not some other random scrub portland it's Portland Oregon. :P
pault
ctthesipan, how exactly would you modify the deck for standard T1 play?
I can't really see the deck working without these odd mulligan rules. How do you think you would go about modifying the deck for a standard T1 tourney. No offense to all the OSE players out there, but playing OSE has taken it's toll on me. Anytime I play a Blue-Heavy deck, I can only withstand it for so long, then I need a change of pace.
I grow bored of the deck itself, and want to make something alittle more "random" if you will. Something that isn't so focused on competetive play but more for a casual fun enviroment. And try my hardest to keep it counter-free.
I was thinking along the lines of my old Wildefires deck, but I think it's to suseptable to the deadly CoP: Red, and don't want an exact teletubbies deck per-say. Something that can withstand the common Tier 2-3 decks (Void, Pox, Stompy, ect..) and doesn't exactly lose horribly to the Tier 1 OSE, Keeper, and BBS. So to avoid Void (a heavily played deck here) I need something with extream mana excell, or some land protection. So it's either a heavy Brown deck, or parfait, or Rec/Sur (played this awhile back, and it losses to any deck with 4 wasteland and 1 strip).
And if I play parfait, I risk getting banned from all the local T1 places. They can't stand the deck and get really mad when people play it because games take sooo long.
So its either Achademy, Tubbies, or some random creation with heavy artifact mana production. Wildfires (been there done that) is not an option.
I like your deck alot ctthespian. But I can see it needs alot more land to perfome under standard ruleings. Could you help me makeing a standard version?
If so, Email me at: e***e@h***h.com
Oh yeah, I think those 2 Fireballs should be either Urza's Rage or Kerverks Torch.
play no land lotus mox mox channel torch
tyger
I belive that would spoil the entire casual enviroment, and force them to take away the Mulligan rule.
But hey, if you really wanna win a P9...
Matt: If you ever read this don't take that attack personally. I'm just a little protective of the environment I play in. It's really enjoyable. I cant stand what I call "DCI" protouring zealots who play only for the rankings and stick "too" much to the rules. Magic is fun and I enjoy playing competitively. But, I can remember a month or two ago when I went to the NG $150 tourny there were two incidents: A player blowing up about a game he lost and some other little fiasco durning another game about someone watching it or somesuch. That's too much stress for me. I worry enough about getting past that Force of Will ;-)
PaulT: I wasn't attacking your statement. I agree a twister was on the line and to build a competitive deck, but I still believe that my deck isn't "breaking" the mulligan rule in the store. It is sad to hear the people try to ban cearting types of decks at your store though. We had only 13 players in this tourny, and I don't think there were 2 similar decks there. I like that kind of variety.
Raven: Actually if you look at the list the sets of 2 cameos that I run I substitute 1 each for a City of Traitors. That brings the land count up to 7 and the free mana drop up to 14. Then you still have the mana vault sol ring and grim monolith for fast early turn mana to get the deck rolling. Granted this could be a gamble, but I played it around 30 games now that way and only got totally screwed about 2 of the games. Usually I can expect to paris about 5-10% of the time. Still the deck functions well without much land, that's the way it was designed.
-Keith
Oh, I forgot to mention that I don't have power. So maybe 7 land is good if you run 5 moxen and lotus, but I don't have those
There was another deck I've seen that ran a full compliment of lands and used metalworkers for quick mana. Then used things like Mishra's Helix for land control and Xanthic Statues for big damage. Unfortunately without Moxen the deck is much harder to run "land-carefree". That's why even with 7 lands I run the City of Traitors which I may have to ditch. That keeps my land count low for the equilibriums.
-Keith
I'v made a sucessfull turbo-artifact deck by running 4 Workshops and 4 Metalworkers without any power at all. So it is possible, I'm just wondering how I would go about doing it. And my version was wildfire based, so it only have red in it. Your version is almost like a keeper deck for artifacts.
I'm wondering what kind of land I would have to use. City of Brass? Or just run all those diamonds? Or Cameo's? And should cards like Temporal Arpeture, and Masticore earn a position?
Please email me...
Here is a quick thought, but it's a little mana heavey. If you have 2 abyss I would sub out the temporal apeatures for it, other wise maybe covetous dragons if you need better creature speed. Land eqs are incredibly powerful if you can survive with the artifact mana you produce. Also if you have a mirror universe it is extremely powerful either as a 6/6 or to swap and burn.
2 Karn
2 Jugg
2 Fireball / torch whatever
4 Metalworkers
1 Sword of the Ages (If you have one) Karn makes artifacts creatures you sack them all - ouch!
2 Geddons
2 Land Eq
Balance
2 Temporal ap / The abyss / Covetous dragon
DT
VT
Yawg Will
Tinker
Regrowth
Blessing
Stroke of Genius
Wheel of Fortune
1 Well of discovery
1 Jayemdae tome
1 Howling Mine (remember karn animates it becomes tapped and opponent doesn't draw ;-) )
Candelabra of Tawnos (really important! allows for second turn mirrors and first turn karns)
Voltaic Key
Crop Rotation
Sol Ring
Mana Vault
Grim Monolith
2 Drake-Skull Cameo
2 Seashell Cameo
2 Tigereye Cameo
1 Bloodstone Cameo
1 Mana prism
2 Thran Dynamo
1 Mox Diamond
1 Lotus Petal
4 Mishra's Workshop
4 City of Traitors
4 Gemstone Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
This is just a quick thought and will need tuning I'm sure. But it ran pretty well testing it out on the magic suitcase.
-Keith