The Big 1.5: January

My own experience at the Monster Den's big 1.5 yesterday was less than stellar. I piloted Merfolk to an unimpressive 0-3 ending, losing to Canadian Threshold, Dredge, and the Merfolk Mirror (my buddy Matt Skinner.) So instead of sharing my dismal performance, my buddy Joe Barthel is sharing his (a top 4 finish and split for the main prize!)

Top 4 splitting with Scapeshift combo
A tournament report by Joe Barthel.

I wake up late as usual due to the girlfriend turning off the alarm before I can hear it. I consider not going and just getting more sleep, but the inner nerd is stronger than my laziness. So fast-forward through a quick shower and cramming food into my mouth, and I get to the Den as he’s putting names in the computer. Whew, showing up late is worse than not showing up so I was lucky.

No time to mess around with my deck or sideboard, so off to the races!

Match 1: Tom with Fishies
Game one he mulligans to 4 against my decent hand. He makes a few mistakes and lets me Intuition into Life from the Loam, Tabernacle, & Mishra’s Factory. I get the Tabernacle in play shortly and he decides to keep some mana open instead of paying for his Cursecatchers. He can't stop my herd of manlands and I bash him to death.

SB -1 Summer Bloom / +1 Engineered Explosives

Game two I stall for a while and with 5 mountains, a Tabernacle, and some Factories. He drops a Back to Basics. I drop two Valakuts and he amasses some lords. When he swings in I crack a fetch, bolt two lords, and pump a factory to kill another. He loses his team and my Crucible lets me play a few fetches even through his attempt to keep me off a graveyard with Relic. I crack 3 fetches for 18 mountain damage and win. 1-0

Match 2: Gene Richtsmeier (Hi!) with his red deck: GCG Sligh
Game one: I know what he’s playing and know the gameplan: race to 8 lands and Scapeshift ASAP. I try to mitigate damage and on turn 4 intuition into 3x Exploration to try to dump lands faster. He Price of Progresses me down from 12 to 3 when I crack a fetch, but I have 8 lands on the table and can Scapeshift into double Valakut + 6 mountains. I think for quite some time making sure I have the appropriate number of mountains in my deck. I only have 5 left but luckily double valakut would hit him for 30 damage anyway. After plenty of thinking I cast Scapeshift, which is responded to with a Fireblast, nullifying my thinking and my life.

SB: -2 Horn of Greed, -1 Summer Bloom, -1 Intuition, -1 Crop rotation, -1 Boseiju, -1 Engineered Explosives / +4 Zuran Orb, +2 Serum Powder, +1 Riftstone Portal

I mulligan aggressively, first for free with Serum Powder, then a real mulligan to 6. I keep a Scapeshift and Crucible. I really need a Zuran Orb for this. My deck laughs at me and I top deck a Serum Powder. Then it's kind enough to give me a Zuran Orb. The life totals tell the story of this match. I hit Gene once with a Manland and he cracks fetches for 2, and my life total looks funny due to Crucible + Exploration + Zuran Orb. It is 20 > 19 > 16 > 13 > 10 > 7 > 6 > 2 > 4 > 6 > 16 (price of progress made me sac all my non basics out of fear) > 13 > 11 > 8 > 6 > 8 > 10. I win with Scapeshift.

Game 3: Game 2 took so long we don’t have much time left. I keep a hand with double Zuran Orb and Exploration. I only see 3 lands in my first two turns, but I Crop Rotate into a Maze of Ith and time is called before he can deal me 28 damage (4 lands + Zuran Orb). 1-0-1

Match 3: Ben Stepka (Hi!) with Countertop Bant
(Progenitus? I didn’t see it so maybe.)
I forget the details of this game. I believe some hijinks happen where I have Tabernacle and he gets a Trygon Predator out. I waste his lands and tap the basics after he pays for the flying manta ray. He can blow up my Horn of Greed, Exploration, and Crucible of Worlds, but doesn’t see backup for his 2 power annoyance and I have enough time to Scapeshift him for 15 when he’s at 15.

SB: -1 Summer Bloom, -1 Horn of Greed, -1 Crop rotation / +1 Firebolt (for Gaddok Teeg; can be grabbed with Intuition), +2 Engineered Explosives

Game 2: We tangle around with creatures for a while. He gets out a Pridemage and 2 Goyfs, but I have manlands stopping his attack. Goyfs remain 2/3s and I have 2 Factories and a Treetop Village in play. I land an EE at 2, having paid 4 through his counterbalance and blow up his world (2 goyfs, a Pridemage, and a Counterbalance.) I'm at 13 to him at 9 from the manlands at which point I get a Scapeshift through for the last of his life total. 2-0-1

Match 4: Dylan with Enchantress
Game 1 I crop rotate into a Tabernacle to make his 2 land 1 Argothian enchantress hand pretty bad. He keeps it alive for a couple turns while I Rishadan Port his second land on upkeep. He takes 36 from a Scapeshift after a judge call confirms his blow-outedness.

SB: -2 Horn of Greed, -1 Boseiju / +2 EE, +1 Riftstone Portal

Game 2: he keeps a 1 land 1 wild growth 1 Argothian hand and I drop a Tabernacle. He lets it die and tries to find more lands, but my Port quickly shuts down his double mana land. He drops a solitary confinement but I Wasteland his Serra’s Sanctum and he doesn’t fetch land so I take him down 20 with a Scapeshift. 3-0-1

Round 5 - ID (Intentional Draw) into Top 8. 3-0-2

T8: Luke with Bant something.
I never saw a NO all day, but possibly due to opponents lack of 4 mana.
Game 1:
This game takes for ever. He plays turn 1 Noble Hierarch, which my turn 1 Tabernacle responds to nicely. I get a Port going and he gets a Top out, but my Maze of Ith really really hurts any deck that tries to use Exalted. I keep him locked down but he gets a Counterbalance and can float a 3 cost on top. I hit 3 Wastelands keeping him relatively low and he counters 3 Crucible of Worlds. I eventually go manland beats and one gets Sworded as expected. They work him down until he drops a Goyf, which is a good enough stall tactic. I drop 2 Crop Rotations (responding the second one to his top activation) but they get FoW and Counterbalanced. So much for Boseiju. I keep trying to sneak by an Intuition but he has the 3 cost. I ramp up to enough lands and Scapeshift. He hopelessly looks for a FoW in the top 3, fetches, and misses a FoW. I blast him with mountains, but he was at 7 life anyway.

SB: -3 Crop Rotation, -1 Horn of Greed / +2 Firebolt, +2 EE

Game 2: He double mulligans and I keep a hand with double Maze of Ith, Vesuva, Port, Summer Bloom, and something. He plays a Trop and passes. I play a Factory. He drops an Island and summons a Top. I Vesuva his Trop and next turn drop a Summer Bloom into double Maze, Volcanic Island. He pulls a Noble Hierarch which gets mercilessly Firebolted for fear of Natural Order. I beat him down to 11 and test the waters with a Scapeshift. He tops and draws into double Daze, which is enough. Next turn I Intuition into 3 more Scapeshifts and he doesn’t find an answer. 4-0-2

Top 4 decide to prize split and the other 3 have divided it into piles that they want: Bayou + Plateau, Bayou + Savannah, Volcanic Island x2, & 4 FoW. They left me the double Volcs if I accept, which I do because that’s the only one I could use more of. The 4 FoW guy got a lot more value-wise, but I don’t mind too much. ~Joe

Tourney Recap: The Big 1.5

I ventured to the Monster Den in Minneapolis Saturday along with 44 other players including a handful of close friends for the monthly "Big 1.5" tournament. It was my first time going and from checking with friends I was told to expect 40-60 people and high competition.

I packed up my Merfolk deck, paid $15 entry and got ready for some M:TG. We were competing for "4 duals, a foil fetch, a from the vault: exiled, and store credit" - though I have no idea which duals and fetch, or how much store credit.

My Deck
http://www.deckcheck.net/deck.php?id=30566
(SB Modifications: +2 Mind Harness / -1 Divert, -1 Spell Pierce)

Round 1
I'm facing Chris Clark. I met Chris in a sealed event at Dreamers in St. Louis Park a few weeks ago where he had to face my unfair double Vampire Nighthawk deck. He's a good player with a high rating (around the top 15 in Total rating in Minnesota), but he unfortunately fits into what I label as the 'Sigler' player category after Jesse Sigler who sold all of his own cards to infinitely mooch off others for "borrows" so he could still compete in constructed events. "Got Borrows?" "No Jesse, I don't - get a life." Alright, that's unfair - no offense to either Jesse or Chris; they're both alright guys. I even lent some "borrows" (a Malakir Bloodwitch) to Chris at States a couple weeks ago, though I still have to get it back from him. :-)

Anyway, Chris is piloting Goblins and though I start off well in game one with him having mull'd, I only manage to get him to 5 before his deck goes nuts and crushes dreams. Game two I mull on the play and we trade damage again but I'm wrecked once more. Goblins is a fairly bad matchup for Fish and I really need some clutch counters and a strong draw to get there.

SB: - 4 Standstill / + 2 Mind Harness, + 2 Propaganda

0-1

Round 2
Joe Barthel with Merfolk. Wow, what a matchup. For those that missed my SCG Open recap, Joe is the guy that gave me my Merfolk list and helped me with the meta allowing me to pilot my way into the $525 finish. I feel like Ralph Machio vs Mr. Miyagi.

Game one I'm on the play. We trade blows and I take Joe down to 5 but he gets me. Game 2 I play again and blow him out of the pool while staying at a healthy 20 life. Joe is on the play game 3 and I believe this is where he drops an early Lord of Atlantis giving all of our swimmers evasion. Unfortunately I drop more of them than he does and finish him off fairly quickly.

SB: +2 Propaganda, +2 Divert, +3 Spell Pierce / - 3 Stifle, -2 Kira, -2 Standstill

1-1

Round 3
David Lebedoff with ANT (Ad-Nauseum Tendrils.) I connected with David on Facebook recently and didn't recognize him at the tournament. Largely because he told me he hadn't been playing for some time so I fully didn't expect to see him there. It was cool to run into him in person. He had to scrape his cards together along with some from friends to make his deck so he didn't have the optimal build. He's also unfamiliar with the deck which is tough with a fairly complex combo deck (ok so you just play a bunch of spells and storm for the win, but you need to know what you're doing when playing against counters.)

Thankfully David isn't running Orim's Chant or Silence and I'm able to counter the right spells to keep him down to minimal cards in hand. I win both games fairly swiftly - especially game two where he tries to go all-in on an Ad Nauseum only to be blown out by my counters.

SB: +4 Relic of Progenitus, +3 Spell Pierce / -3 Merfolk Sovereign, -2 Merrow Reejerey, -2 Kira

2-1

Round 4
Jared Brown with Merfolk. My 2nd mirror match of the day. Jared wins the first game but I get him in the others. He's sporting a different list than Joe and I featuring Wake Thrasher main along with Relic & the wizard-bouncing land (seems pretty good with Silvergill Adept.) I can't recall any other specifics so we'll leave it at that.

SB: +3 Spell Pierce, +2 Divert, +2 Propaganda / -3 Stifle, -2 Kira, -2 Standstill

3-1

Round 5
Corey Giuld with 1-land-Belcher. Unfortunately I'm not well versed in scouting prior to a match and not knowing that Corey was playing Belcher stung me game 1 as I keep a hand with 0 counters. He just dumps his hand after a couple turns to stick a Belcher then waits a couple more turns until he gets enough mana to belch me out. Game 2 I'm watching out for both Belcher and Empty the Warrens and I go with the plan of countering his 2nd mana ramp spell whenever it's opportune to do so. I'm pretty sure he sticks 6 tokens but I drop propaganda then spend a few turns playing fish and eventually roll over him. Game 3 I'm going with the same plan. I hack away at his life total putting him at 6. He gets his Belcher in play but untaps with only 2 mana sources available and needs to get a 3rd mana to belch me into oblivion. I should mention at many points Corey was looking Queezy at best and I could tell that he knew he was in trouble. Anyhow, he draws into a Wraith that he cycles for 2 life putting him at 4 with me having the win on the board. Unfortunately for me he draws into a Tinder Wall which nets him the 3 mana he needs putting him in the Top 8 and me out.

I'm pretty sure I had a propaganda in hand so I shouldn't have been too concerned about him ramping up tokens on an Empty the Warrens (even though he was running Red Elemental Blast that he could remove the Prop with), so maybe I should have just focused on countering that Belcher. Live 'n learn.

3-2.

Corey goes on to make top 4 and some sort of prize split. I'm pretty sure Michael Bearmon was in there too (a top player from the Den that often puts up top finishers) but I'm not sure who else. I also never learned what the 4 prize duals, fetch, or store credit consisted of - and I don't know if the "from the vault: exiled" was a sealed item or some singles therefrom.

I had about 6 close friends at the event as well but none of them made it either, mostly ending with the same 3-2 finish as me. It was a fun time and I'll definitely check it out again - it's the biggest payout for a recurring event in our area and I'm eager to battle next time.