Report - Twister.dec in Dülmen (2nd place)

Beyond Dominia: The Type One Magic Mill: Report - Twister.dec in Dülmen (2nd place)

-->
By Carl (Carl) on Thursday, April 18, 2002 - 03:23 am:

Hello,
I've been for the first time to the Trader Classic tournament held in Duelmen,
Germany on 14 April.
I managed to convince 2 other players from Brussels, Shadi Torbey, who played
the Type 2 tourney and Geoffrey Siron aka Swap, who played in the Sealed
tourney. Our plan was simple: take first in the 3 tournies :)
I picked them up at 7 am, since Duelmen is 300 km away and we didn't know where
it was. The first problem was to find the right highway getting out of Brussels,
the second one that we got lost near Essen. Fortunately, a random exit was our
savior, as it turned out it was ok. Then, we almost ran out of gas. Finally, we
arrived 10 minutes before the registration closed. Phew.

My initial plan was to play twister.dec to see how it fares in another big
tournament. Benjamin Rott told me that the metagame was various flavours of
Workshop decks, Mono-blue and U/b control. Since I had had problems against
Miracle Grow, I was a bit reluctant to take twister.dec. But when I got up at 5
am in the morning (thanks to my lovely daughter), I didn't feel like building
another deck. I just pulled a Pyroclasm in the sideboard for a Kill Switch to
fight Su-Chi and Juggernaut. Speaking of the latter, Kai Budde played in the
Type II and even lost one match, even though it was on a Sunday ;)

Here is my decklist, for those who don't know it:
1 City of Solitude
1 Fastbond
1 Holistic Wisdom
1 Regrowth

1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Kaervek's Torch
1 Mana Flare
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Wheel of Fortune

1 Ancestral Recall
1 Braingeyser
4 Force of Will
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Time Spiral
1 Timetwister
1 Time Walk
1 Trade Routes
1 Windfall

1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will

1 Black Lotus
1 Horn of Greed
5 Moxen
2 Scroll Rack
1 Sol Ring
1 Zuran Orb

4 City of Brass
1 Glacial Chasm
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
1 Undiscovered Paradise
3 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland

Sideboard:
1 Balance
1 CoP Red
2 Seal of Cleansing
1 City of Solitude
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Mind Twist
4 Phyrexian Negator
2 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Kill Switch

On to the report.

Round 1: Albert Schwartz - mono-blue man lands
With such a name, I would have expected another deck, but he started with
Island. We don't do much besides laying lands in the first few turns. I bait
him, then, when I have 6 mana, I think for a long time before casting City of
Solitude. It goes through, so I follow with Yawgmoth's Will to get back Lotus,
Fastbond and play the Wheel of Fortune in my graveyard. I combo him.
I sideboard in 2 REBs, 2 Seals and the 2nd City of Solitude.
Game 2, he plays several man lands (Mishra's Factory and Faeries Conclave), but
I draw multiple Wasteland to get rid of them. I even have to Regrowth one to
nail the last Factory. Then I pull the combo again.
Albert tells me that he made several mistakes, it's not his day.
2-0, 3 points.

Round 2: Friedrich Kopper - U/r
Game 1, I cast Merchant Scroll to get Ancestral Recall. I cast it in his upkeep.
He drains. Then he plays Morphling, I REB it, he forces, I force back. Then in
the middle of the resolution, he says he skipped his draw phase. I don't know,
so we call a judge who says we don't do anything. Friedrich is upset, he says he
lost his concentration and concedes a turn or two after the incident, before I
pulled the combo.
Game 2, I have in my initial hand City of Brass, a Mox, Time Walk and 4 spells
(going second). I keep it and cast a first turn Time Walk to get mana. I don't.
I even discard 3-4 times. Friedrich doesn't do much, he is setting up his
Morphling, which hits, since I've been discarding REBs and stuff. I can't come
back.
We have only 5 minutes left, time for a Negator outting. I get a hand with
Negator, Mox, Sol Ring and lands. Unfortunately, I don't have a black mana
source. So, when I get it, Friedrich happily counters it with FoW #1. He then
plays a Morphling backed up by FoW #2 and #3. A quick kill ensues.
1-2, 3 points.

Round 3: Andreas Stroiczek - Keeper
Andreas has some funky cards like Vindicate and Scroll Rack, but otherwise, it's
a classic Keeper, killing with Morphling.
Game 1, we both drop a turn one Library of Alexandria, but don't have any
Wasteland. Andreas Vindicate mine. He let me have Horn of Greed and Trade
Routes, but counter Fastbond. I regrowth it, he regrowth his Vindicate.
My Yawgmoth's Will is unmatched and I combo him.
Game 2 is quite long, I think he capped me. When time is called, he doesn't kill
me in 5 turns. With more time, he could probably have stroked me to death.
1-0, 6 points.

Round 4: Thorsten Dachrodt - U/b
Yet another control deck. Where are the Workshop decks?
Thorsten plays red for Fire/Ice, that's all the red I see main deck.
Game 1 is sealed after I managed to get Holistic Wisdom in play when he runs out
of counters. Then I Ancestral, play City of Solitude followed by Time Spiral. I
go into combo mode.
Game 2, I get out a City of Solitude, Thorsten plays a Disk while I have a
Shaman and 6 mana out. I am holding the Lotus, which I crack to kill the Disk.
From there on, things go downhill for Thorsten, he can't deal with the City of
Solitude.
2-0, 9 points.

Round 5: Oliver Daems - Super Grow
Benjamin Rott and Oliver have worked hard on porting Super Grow to T1, with
special attention to their metagame (Seal of Cleansing and Swords to Plowshares
main deck). Creatures are Quirion Dryad, Werebear and Wild Mongrel.
Game 1, he drops some dorks and my life is dwindling. Thanks to Land Grant, I am
almost sure he doesn't have a counter for my Yawgmoth's Will. I have in play
Zuran Orb, Fastbond and Horn of Greed, so I sac all my lands to go back to 24
life, then cast the Will and play the lands from the graveyard, drawing 6 cards
in the process. That's enough to get going and I kill Oliver with a Torch.
I side in Balance, Seal of Cleansing and 1-2 REBs.
Oliver plays an early Rootwater Thief which is annoying. I switch in land
destruction mode with Shaman (which eats 2 Moxen for lunch) and multiple
Wasteland, but Oliver takes out Torch and Geyser. I REB Mike Long, but Oliver
has Force of Will and Misdirection to protect it. I have to counter another of
his spells with a Force of Will, pitching Stroke of Genius. I block with the
Shaman to set up my Balance, which slows him down for several turns as I sac all
my lands and keep only a Force of Will in hand. I tutor for a City of Solitude
to protect any topdeck I could make to stop the pressure (I am below 10 life). I
then top deck a Wheel of Fortune :) Type I is great! He rebuilds, but time is
running and when time is called, I can hide myself behind Glacial Chasm since he
isn't playing any Strip Mine or Wasteland.
1-0, 12 points.

Round 6: Michael Wiese - mono-black Bazaar of Baghdad
Michael looks like a good guy, this will be an entertaining match :)
I didn't take enough notes, so I might mix both games.
Game 1, he gets an early Hyppie in play, I get out a Scroll Rack to hide good
cards. I strip his Bazaars. He casts Yawgmoth's Will with three Dark Ritual in
his graveyard. Nether Shadow joins the Hyppie to hit me for 3 a turn. I then get
my own Yawgmoth's Will when I am at 4 life and kill him with a Torch.
I side out REBs and City of Solitude for Balance, Mind Twist and a Seal of
Cleansing.
He gets another Specter out in game 2. I Mind Twist his hand away and his 2 Pox
from the sideboard. He cast a 3rd one, but it's not too bad since I have Trade
Routes out, I can control the number of lands and cards in hand. I get out of
the Specter lock with a Time Spiral. I sweat a bit more, then combo him again.
He feels a bit cheated because both games I make a huge comeback. But that's why
I play twister.dec. I have 24 restricted cards main deck and 2 in the sideboard
:)

I finish 2nd, the winner is playing Workshop and managed 5-0-1 (drawing with a
friend in round 2).

Shadi, playing in the T2, managed 5-2-0 and a 12th place and Swap, in sealed,
went 0-2-0 drop. So, our plan didn't work out as planned, but I am happy with my
2nd place and the Nether Void I got.

We get back home in 3.5 hours without problem, except that Shadi would have
liked a German wurst and that we couldn't find a restaurant on the highway.
This was a great tourney, quite well run. Thanks to Trader and the judging
staff. I am looking forward to coming back.

I am quite happy about my main deck. The 60th card, Holistic Wisdom, is worth
the slot: against mono-blue, if it hits, it's game.
The sideboard is not yet optimal, I don't like the Negators that much. Any idea
to improve it?

Carl


By Green Knight (Greenknight) on Thursday, April 18, 2002 - 10:16 am:

Good report, thanks for posting Carl. I am glad you managed to put your deck back together, do you still have that Fastbond I sent you in there?
How many people were in attendance?

Take care,

Z


By Gnu, the Lightbringer (Gnu) on Thursday, April 18, 2002 - 10:25 am:

Congrats with the result


By DefiantVanguardVs.PhyrexianInvasion (Puschkin) on Thursday, April 18, 2002 - 01:22 pm:

Note how many times Y@wgmoth´s Will decided games!


By Matt D'Avanzo, the Sylvan Librarian (Matt) on Thursday, April 18, 2002 - 05:05 pm:

My friend Eric plays your deck (and loves it) although we've made a one modification to it--Tinker/Jar replacing one Scroll Rack and something (I don't think he has a Holistic Wisdom...that's new tech isn't it?). Tinker has been really good to the deck since it can be a scroll rack, draw 7, or Horn of Greed, as needed. Just wondering why you don't use it, becuase I'm sure you've already tested that.


By Teletubby (Teletubby) on Thursday, April 18, 2002 - 09:01 pm:

As I was there, too, I can say, that Carl used a Timetwister that quoted "For Carl! Keep T1 alive!" So, Green Knight, it´s probably yours.


By Carl (Carl) on Friday, April 19, 2002 - 08:35 am:

Thanks for your comments.

Zach: yes, I still use your Fastbond.
Some people found it neat.
It seems it brings me luck :)
I don't plan to replace it any time soon.

Matt: yes, Holistic Wisdom is new tech: it's great vs control.
About Jar/Tinker, it might work, but Jar is too expensive at 5 mana, so I don't use it. Of course, no Jar, no Tinker. I should try it again instead of 2nd Scroll Rack and Wisdom. I am not sure I'll find time to do it though.
Does Eric play it in tourney?

Puschkin: 4 games out of 13. Not bad. But who didn't know that Will is broken?


By Petrus, the Snow Giant (Petrus) on Friday, April 19, 2002 - 11:20 am:

I've allways liked your reports and the deck itself :)

good job


By Green Knight (Greenknight) on Friday, April 19, 2002 - 05:25 pm:

Glad to see it could bring you some luck:) I hope you win the next type one. How often are there type one's in Belgium or your neck of the woods anyhow?


By Carl (Carl) on Saturday, April 20, 2002 - 06:13 am:

Thank you Petrus, I'll keep writing them. I can't promise I'll play twister.dec next time though.

Zach, the Belgian T1 used to be held monthly (http://zongo.be/revival/), but I don't feel like organising them right now, as I prefer to go to Duelmen where there are many players, and plenty of them with power cards.


By Matt D'Avanzo, the Sylvan Librarian (Matt) on Sunday, April 21, 2002 - 01:18 pm:

>>>Does Eric play it in tourney?

Not lately, but for a while he was on a big Twister.dec kick. He played it on Fridays at NG (the Friday tourneys have a lot less control decks) and at this place in Jersey which has a MUCH less control-heavy field. I'm not sure how many (if he did win any) he won at NG, but he won a lot at the other place with it. It's cool to be ableto switch to a combo deck when everyone starts shoving ten tons of keeper hate in their board as soon as they see you walk in.

I'd tentatively recommend killing Mana Flare and one Scroll Rack forthe Tinker/Jar combo. I never really get a good use out of manaflare myself, but then again, in general your deck jsut hats me.

--Matt


By Carl (Carl) on Sunday, April 21, 2002 - 01:39 pm:

I know about the Mana Flare, but sometimes it allows me to be faster than my opponent who plays beatdown. I think it made me win once in Duelmen. It's quite bad against control if you don't have CoS out, as you try to get more mana than them to tap them out so they only have Force of Will. Also, if you don't have Academy out, you can get 'infinite' mana with Fastbond, Trade Routes and Glacial Chasm. It's also quite good with Spiral. But I admit it's one of the weaker slots.


Add a Message


This is a private posting area. A valid username and password combination is required to post messages to this discussion.
Username:  
Password: