Tournament Report: ReapLacement Killers (T1)

Beyond Dominia: The Type One Magic Mill: Tournament Report: ReapLacement Killers (T1)

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By Azhrei (Azhrei) on Saturday, February 23, 2002 - 09:11 pm:

*Disclaimer* Some results might be slightly
different from what actually occurred, as I am
doing this all from memory and embellishing at
times for the sake of storytelling purposes.

So, since my metagame is ALWAYS all aggro, I
brought a combo deck this time-- right smack dab
into a field of Islands, which had been
completely absent three weeks before. I love my
store, but our metagame is bizarrely diseased.

The deck:

ReapLacement Killers

4 City of Brass
4 Underground Sea
4 Tropical Island
3 Bayou
1 Savannah
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Balance
1 Sylvan Library
1 Timetwister
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Regrowth
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Deathlace
2 Prismatic Lace
4 Reap
1 Fact or Fiction
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Intuition
4 Force of Will
4 Duress

Sideboard:

3 Tangle
3 Bind
1 Morphling
1 Disenchant
1 Aura Fracture
1 Perish
2 Defense Grid
3 CoP: Red

My SB was worthless: Disenchant and Morphling
game in when I expected Null Rod, and that was
it. Those Defense Grids need to change, but the
rest was nice enough.

So I'm feeling pretty good, as my local Suicide
metagame is my FRIEND. Ritual Carnophage
Sarcomancy Sarcomany? Please do! Of course, out
of the 14 people there about 5 are running heavy
blue. Boooo!

Naturally, in round one I get paired against the
only Keeper deck.

Round One: Abe Corson, one helluva cool guy.

Game One: I see two land in my opening hand and
then no more the whole game-- 15 cards down. I
actually could have won this game with a third
land, but it wasn't meant to be.

Game Two: My opening hand is Sapphire, Ruby, 2
FoW, and 3 Intuitions. Why not a land drop? I
have to dump both FoWs to stop his Lotus Gorilla
Shaman, but whatever. I draw a land and Intuition
back into the game. He beats the crap out of me
until all I have left is Academy and Balance in
my hand. Here is when I topdeck Black Lotus, and
bring him to one land and no cards. I did the
"Diesel" taunt from circa 1995 at my amazing
topdecking ability. From here, I start to set up the combo and he concedes a few turns before I could go off, but he lacked countermagic so I was in the clear.

Game Three: I get manascrewed almost as bad as game one and lose. Boooooo to insufficient randomization!

Matches: 0-1 Games: 1-2 Points: 3

Round Two: Jonathan Tyldsley; Suicide. Getting
paired up to the 1-0 bracket is great, and it's even better when the guy who beat you round one goes into the top four 3-1 having only lost in round four.

Game One: He gets mana screwed for black sources,
and ends up Wastelanding his own Factory in a
futile attempt to stay alive. I deck him shortly
thereafter.

Game Two: He's playing Suicide, so he gets the
gawd draw-- for me. Carnophage is my friend, as are black Swamps and no real disruption out of the box. So I win in short order with more Intuition zaniness. :)

Matches: 1-1 Games 3-1 Points: 9

Round Three: Steve Barkley, fellow UR student and
chum, playing Pox

Game One: He drops out some Chimeric Idols and
gets me low on life, but I am able to cast my
Intuitions and make permanents black. I was at
about 10 when I won.

Game Two: I get a mudhole stomped in me by two
Idols and a Pox. I never got off the ground and
was dead almost immediately. FAST game.

Game Three: This was a pretty close game, but
Steve stalls a little and I manage to do some
crazy multiple Intuition madness for the win.

Matches: 2-1 Games: 5-2 Points: 15

Round Four: Jay Coffman, UB Zombie Infestation

Game One: I was nervous about this game, but he
was playing an Extended deck souped up for Type
One and I was playing Broken Combo Madness. Well,
actually, my second turn SYLVAN LIBRARY won me
the game-- I went down to 4 off it and dropped to
2 by the time I won, but it was on maybe the
fourth turn by JUST enough mana. The Library let
me see maybe 9 extra cards.

Game Two: I made a really dumb mistake here: I
don't side in Morphling, and then I Ancestral
instead of AK to save a mana. He uses that lame
ass black card that Caps the graveyard on me, and
while I could get infinite turns next turn, I
can't win. So I learned a valuable lesson here:
win game one so losing game two doesn't matter.

Game Three: I have a great start, and his sucks.
He Intuitions for 2 Squee and a Swamp-- I give
him the Squee and Duress him the next turn, where
I see Horror, 3 Squee, and a Winter Orb. I take
the Orb and relax because the top four is MINE
NOW! He topdecks Zombie Infestation and starts
cranking out tokens since he can't win any other
way.... I hear Reaping for 4 eot is "good." Game
over, all me.

Matches: 3-1 Games: 7-3 Points: 21

TOP FOUR:

Shane Stoots, playing the Funker. Shane's a good
buddy of mine and the playtesting of this matchup
has been about 25-3 in my favor, and the losses
were one ultra broken Funker hand, and two times
I just kept crap to see if I could come back from
adversity.

Game One: He gets a decent start, but nothing
amazing. Basically, unless he can do something
incredible, I win. Incredible is not a word to
describe Shane at this time, so I win.

Game Two: This was really a tough one, as Shane
pulled out all the stops and finally got out a
Karn with one black permanent. However, his
staunch belief that he will lose causes him to
concede when I was in fact quite screwed with 5
Laces in the graveyard-- I was planning on
Reaping up Lotus and then Timetwistering and
hoping for the best, but Shane scooped when IMO
he probably would have beaten me this game. I got
yer Jedi Mind Trick RIGHT HERE! There's a lot to
be said for a demeanor of confidence.

Matches: 4-1 Games: 9-3

Finals:

Abe Corson, Keeper.

Abe's semis match took well over an hour, so he
wanted to draw and drive the four hours back to
VA Tech. I said fine, and we ended up with him
taking more packs and me getting the recorded
win. We had a very close game when we played before barring my heinous mana development, so I think this one would have gone my way. Of course, it'll be a while before I bring this deck again. Too much blue.

My secret tech in this matchup: not really wanting any Torment packs.

COMBO WINS AT RICHMOND COMIX!!!

P.S. Can you tell from the formatting that I cut and pasted this from an email? :P


By Triple S (Sssmwc) on Saturday, February 23, 2002 - 09:29 pm:

I stand behind the decision to concded given the appearance of 2 reaps, lotus, and ancestral. While Az did have 5/6 laces in the graveyard, my lack of food from the day and experience w/ this match (which depends on an excrutiatingly broken draw usually) made my decision for me. One valuable lesson: crypt in board is a must.


By Meteor Man on Sunday, February 24, 2002 - 12:20 am:

Wow, its good to see that Azhrei copied Legend's deck name "The Replacement Killers" from his NY States Top 8 Deck.

You'd think Azhrei would at least have the class to admit that he blatantly copied the deck name from Legend's tournament report that appeared on BDominia and Neutral Ground.net. Hmm......ReapLacement Killers.....Replacement Killers...thats not borderline plagiarism...thats just outright stealing of a deck name.

Next time, at least try to do a better job of concealing your complete lack of creativity.


By Razor (Razor) on Sunday, February 24, 2002 - 12:26 am:

I thought he borrowed Matt's name for this deck.

BTW, why is no one using Touch of Darkness? Doesn't this deck go off all in one turn anyways?

Razor


By jpmeyer, keeper of ur mom (Jpmeyer) on Sunday, February 24, 2002 - 12:28 am:

That only works on creatures. And if you want that for your SB, you're better off with Darkest Hour or Shifting Sky.


By Giovanni (Gio) on Sunday, February 24, 2002 - 01:13 am:

Az did use Matt's ReapLace deck name. Nice report, good to see a little combo once in a while.


By egget on Sunday, February 24, 2002 - 08:57 am:

first of all, excuse my bad english.. have i missed something, the deck looks solid and everything but i can't find anything that wins the game, just a lot of broken cards who will give you infinite turns..

please- someone explain for stupid me..


By Razor (Razor) on Sunday, February 24, 2002 - 09:44 am:

egget,

He goes infinite and Ancestrals his opponent to death I believe.

I wonder how he goes off againsts permission?


By Thorme on Sunday, February 24, 2002 - 10:15 am:

Az: Be glad that you did not have to face the power of Land Tax! Alas that I got Ritual-Negatored out of a chance at top-4. Have you broken 1700 yet?


By Azhrei (Azhrei) on Sunday, February 24, 2002 - 01:12 pm:

I don't know-- I'm getting there though. It's hard to do with us all starting at 1600 and not having anyone to steal points off. I might have pulled it off this time though, or gotten very close. Too bad my NG experience last summer left me at an even 1600. :P I'll have to go back sometime this year so Matt can get a chance at revenge.

It is Matt's name for Reap/Lace from at least six months ago and it's basically his build with some minor changes on my part. As far as "creativity" goes, it's named after the MOVIE "The Replacement Killers," which is where I am going to assume Paltzik belatedly got the name from as well. "Replacement" and "ReapLacement" sound almost the same, so it's like a homophone, see?


By egget on Sunday, February 24, 2002 - 06:44 pm:

Azhrei:

I have to say that this is the most fascinating and new deck i have seen in a looong time, but can you explain how you win with just brokeness. it seems to risky to multi-ancestral a control-deck to death.


By Triple S (Sssmwc) on Sunday, February 24, 2002 - 07:19 pm:

Having been on the receiving end of the combo several times during playtesting, one of the great things of the deck is its ability to reap Duress and FoW repeatedly to defeat the control player. The key is really having just the lotus and 2 reaps.


By Azhrei (Azhrei) on Sunday, February 24, 2002 - 07:34 pm:

This is actually an old deck idea but with more modern cards. I can't take credit for the idea, nor most of the current list-- it's mostly Matt D'Avanzo's. I think I have one different land and more Deathlaces than Prismatics as the only difference. The SB, which I almost never used, was the only thing I can take credit for. :)

Generally speaking, if I have 10,000,000,000 green mana in my pool and 2,000,000 mana of every other color, I can easily Duress them 3 times with four FoW backing me up for every time I Ancestral them. It's sometimes complicated to explain, but there's really no way around it once the combo starts going. I mean, really, unless they can somehow get more than eight counters in their hand after I start going off plus my ability to Reap back used counters... well, it's just not happening.


By Razor (Razor) on Friday, March 01, 2002 - 10:40 pm:

Az,

So the control player's only chance to stop you (once your graveyard is loaded) is to counter every Reap you cast.

Failure to miss one is fatal.

Cool.

I wonder where Hannibal is? I'll post the most recent copy I have of his version:
//NAME: ReapLace Mustang Cobra 5.0
// By Hannibal Lector
// 01-12-16
1 vampiric tutor
1 demonic tutor
2 deathlace
4 reap
1 regrowth
1 fastbond
1 balance
1 dismantling blow
1 2 orim's chant
1 abeyance
1 wheel of fortune
4 intuition
1 time walk
1 ancestral recall
1 timetwister
1 windfall
1 mystical tutor
1 fact or fiction
4 prismatic lace
1 interdict
1 black lotus
1 mox Emerald
1 mox ruby
1 mox jet
1 mox pearl
1 mox sapphire
1 zuran orb
1 sol ring
4 tropical island
3 underground sea
4 city of brass
4 tundra
3 wasteland
1 strip mine
1 library of alexandria
1 undiscovered paradise
1 tolarian academy

I see that you use Duress and FoW whereas he uses Chants to interfere with control. I believe he enjoys repeatedly Chanting in peoples' upkeeps with kicker so they cannot effectively do much to hurt him.

8^)

Razor


By Amos, Defender of the Moxless (Amos) on Saturday, March 02, 2002 - 12:58 am:

Can you (azhrei or razor or anyone) go through and explain step by step how the combo goes off and what a typical go off turn looks like? i really like combo and have most of those cards already so i'm interested in the deck.
Amos


By Matt the Great (Matt) on Saturday, March 02, 2002 - 02:28 am:

Step 1a: Get a Reap, and Ancestral, and a Lotus either in hand or in the graveyard.
Step 1b: Make at least two of the opponent's permanents black with the Laces.
Step 1c: Get a second Reap.

Step 2: Reap for the Lotus, and another Reap.

Step 3: Sac lotus for GGG, cast Reap getting a Reap and the Lotus.

Demonstrate that you can do this as many times as you want, and then choose a number. One billion works well - you now have one billion green mana in your mana pool. Now when you Reap, sac the lotus for UUU each time. Choosing another number, say twelve billion, you now have 12 billion blue mana. with all this mana you may now Reap a Reap and an Ancestral each time, and proceed decking them.

This is, of course, easier if they have more black permanents.


By Gzeiger (Gzeiger) on Saturday, March 02, 2002 - 03:00 am:

Speaking of Shifting Sky, did you try it? What is the reason for not including it?

I still think I'd want a Stroke in there someplace simply because I'd expect somebody to not understand the combo, and it would be such a pain to walk through the full Ancestral kill.


By Razor (Razor) on Saturday, March 02, 2002 - 10:34 am:

Yes, I like Stroke for the same reason Gzeiger. Also, for those without the Power, Lion's Eye Diamond is the next-best-thing. Simply follow MAtt's directions up until Step 2 then cast Reap responding with effects like sacing the Diamond(s). A Fire/Ice, or L.Bolt could be just as much fun. City of Solitude is a natural consideration.

Razor


By Azhrei (Azhrei) on Saturday, March 02, 2002 - 12:19 pm:

Stroke is totally unnecessary. What you do is once going off (2 black perms + 2 Reap + Lotus + any draw or tutor card that puts a card in your hand) is first you use AK to draw every single card in your own deck, one at a time. Then you show four FoW and four Duress and say "I am going to Ancestral you 20 times now. Every time you draw three cards, I am going to Duress you four times, just because I can. If you try and counter anything, I am going to Force of Will whatever you do, counter my own Force of Will, and still counter your spell twice. Then, I get them all back at instant speed, and you will continue to lose."

I prefer to have a googleplex of green, and a google of each other color. That's a LOT of mana, let me tell you, and it's so fun to just start casting things and not even need to keep track.

FYI, it takes 2 green to produce one of each other color, so if you make a billion green, you can only make 500 million blue-- a smart opponent will fuck you if you make a mistake and you'll have a ton of blue mana and no way of Reaping back the Ancestral and you'll die from mana burn, so pick your numbers carefully. I use the ones I do because a googleplex is 1 + one thousand zeroes, and a google is 1 + one hundred zeroes. Basically, it's more mana than there are grains of sand on a beach, and losing 8 google to make 4 google of each other color is almost unnoticeable from such a large initial number.

Stroke is bad because it's a dead card before you start going off and I'd always rather have Intuition or another Lace.

Hannibal's version looks okay but it has some dead cards I'm not too fond of, like Fastbond.

Shifting Sky is cute, but too expensive and not necessary.


By hannibal lecter on Saturday, March 02, 2002 - 03:54 pm:

the reason i include fastbond is because my version is more of a combo deck than others... fastbond is there because of all of the draw sevens... it basically allows me to start with 0 parts of the combo and have enough of an engine (lands played via bond) to develop it in one turn... the chants and abeyance are there as a secondary combo that buys infinite time to get a win condition... actually, i didnt look over the pasted decklist above... but i think ancestral is the ONLY win condition in that deck... so my version can go both ways... it can delay with chants/abeyance until it gets that last piece of the puzzel to win, or it can drop 007 (bond) and start twistering in hopes of putting it together... its really just a fun deck... but it wins and it makes people ask "what is it that you are doing, and how are you going to win"... if ever there was a type 1 pro tour, i would play keeper over reap lace... but hey, more power to you.

H


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