Posted by
BTsume
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Posted On Monday, August 24, 2009 at 2:01 AM
Alright then, this'll be my first FMN report on this blog, and my first, in general, so it'll be a little rough. I didn't manage to capture every move exactly, so you'll all forgive me if this a bit miscewed, right?
Round 1 vs Andy playing "Men in Black"
Game 1:
Andy's deck was a simple mono-black aggro/control list with a lot of M10 cards, and when I asked him how long he's been playing, I somewhat understood when he said about 3 months. I won the roll and went first, playing a Savage Lands and passing. Andy played a Swamp and passed back. Land go came from me as his turn two saw him playing a second Swamp and a Sign in Blood targeting me. I dunno' about that...My turn three was another land, the last in my hand, and a Noble Hierarch. His third turn saw a Looming Shade come into play and he passed the turn back. I didn't draw a fourth land, but the Hierarch allowed a devistaing Chamelion Collosus to came down with a thud. Andy had to read it, and seemed rather unaffected even though at this point he should have known it destroyed his deck. His third turn saw a Looming shade come into the red zone, and two pump to make it a 3/3. Not sure why only two, but I untaped, and beated for ten via the exalted and pumping CC. I passed it back, and he left the Shade on the D. even though it was black. The pointing out of said Pro-blackness won me the game at my next attack step.
Sideboarding: I didn't side for this match as I figure any amount of CC or Stag would get me the two oh.
Game 2:
Andy chooses to go first, and I choose to mull a hand with one land. I keep my six, and the first play of the game is his turn two Child of Night. I get beated for a turn, sticking a third turn Kitchen Finks. His following attack send the scores to 22 to 24, with Andy leading, but me still having a creature. Andy fixes that but playing a Warpath Ghoul after I attack for two with my Finks. The scores stands at 19 to 21 with Andy's attack, but CC comes down on turn five or so to do a little something. Attacking him with Finks, the score was 19 all when, I assume, he ran his Ghoul into my Colossus. I end up playing a Hierarch and an attack for five with CC playing another Main phase two should have been the game, but instead, the next attack of ten with him doing nothing was good enough.
1-0
Round Two vs Zakk playing Time Seive Combo
Game 1:
Apparently Zakk is posting his side of not only this game, but the entire FNM on his Facebook, so if you know Zakk from El Dorado (I think) make sure to check his stuff too. I know Zakk is a tight player and I'd honestly never played the combo deck until this game, needless to same, this was going to be fun.
I won the roll and played a first turn Llanowar Elf, while he played a CIPT land in a boderpost. My hand was ery sausy, so a second land didn't do anything crazy as i just beat for one with Llany. I wasn't sure what deck he was playing at this point, so another Boarderpost or so and a go kinda confused me...isn't Lark suppose to do stuff? Of course, I can talk because I rip a Stag like a champ. and play it much to the delight of my no third land. He played some more artifacts (I didn't write them down, though I assume a Howling mine and a Flask or two were among them) and passed back. I ended up going to attack phase and hitting for four with Llany and Stag before playing my third land with little else to do. Of course, my lack of activity allowed him to combo off in my face the following turn. I made him play it out because I wanted info on his deck as well as to see how the combo worked in it's entirely. Who know just drawing seven cards a turn worked that well...
Sideboarding: I did a few swaps, but I ended up bringing in my Duresses, Pithing Needles, Guttural Responses, and Haunting Echoes. I took out my removal in the form of my Profanes and Eyeblights, as well as a guy I didn't think would be of much help at all in Cloudthresher.
Game 2 was a spot on riveter as I go first keeping a six card hand of Land, Land, Land, Land, Duress, Pithing Needle. I'm not sure why I kept, but a turn one Duress saw a hand of Boarderpost, Tezzeret, Jace, Time Sieve, Open the Vaults, Howling Mine, and something else. His dialog at this point was burned into my mind as, out of the blue in my eyes there, he said "If you picked the right card, we can go to game three right now." Of course, I think and think for a while, figuring finally that if I take the Tezz and Needle Jace, he couldn't win (who runs more than one Tezzeret anyway?) He picks his hand back up and says I picked wrong. I'm still happy with my choice, but a drawn card during his draw step initiates scoop mode anyway.
In retrospect, obviously, taking boarderpost was the right play, but I guess I just didn't see it. He also didn't have a land in hand so I should have picked up on that very quickly, but didn't...
Game 3:
A turn one Pithing Neddle seemed to put a quick nail in his coffin vs his lowly land, but for the second time this tournament, a clearly devastating play didn't even seem to phase him. After our big turn one last game Zakk was a little more chummy with me and we bantered about the best Needle target. I stuck to my guns, saying that if I Pithed the Sieve, his combo was ka-put. He retorted that was the Cryptic commands have two mode, and, at that moment, I knew what the Guttural Response in my hand was for. The decks played out like they should, with a few artifacts for him and a turn two Putrid Leech into turn three Stag for me. The beats in-sued and the only play that really matter was when he was dead on board but had to try a Cryptic bouncing the Needle. A Guttural later and I was reporting a match I shouldn't have won (probably) as a 2-1 in favor of me. About Zakk as a player, he's probably one of the nicest guys you'll meet, but don't mess with his money. You know who you are, and he's still waiting.
2-0
At this point, I was feeling extreamly sick, straight vomit sick after beating an unwinnable match with sideboard cards for 5CC. And reliving the experiance is making me a little nausious now, so instead of finishing the tourney report all in one post, I'll simply pause it here, half-way between our seventeen man, four round FNM, and I'll catch you up in a little while with the rest of the swiss, as well as the top four. Untill then, here's a quick vid acting as a primer to future MWS videos I'll be posting starring myself on bottem and a rotating cast of my friends up top. This is BSA playing 1.5 B/W Pallies, but there's no commentary on it...yet.
Well, I guess I've dodged a new topic long enough, now, eh?
To start off with, GGs did a wonderful job of bringing us about ten tournaments from GenCon, and to them, I and say thanks. I know I, for one, was zombied out for hours while my woman yelled at me for "still watching Magic". Guess I can't really blame her. I never thought so many people played Stax/Shops in Vintage/Legacy...it's kinda' redonkulous. Maybe I'd still be the Counter/Top/Goyf dude (see the Japanese vintage tourneys put up by T2MTGume), course, I like honest decks...
Moving on from eternal formats, GGs gave a good selection of Standard and Block, even showing Gerry T, one of my regular reads, in action. If I remember right he won his match 2-0 vs Jund while piloting 5CC in Block...I could be making it up though...anyway. On block, I wish I could play Japanese G/W...nuff said? I mean, Thornlings, Angels, Sleges, and "good stuff" is fine by me and I might play it in standard if G/B just wasn't so darn pretty...
Now, standard. Well, I plan on trying my luck at not only theStarCity 5K in Dallas next weekend, but also the PTQ the following day. Should make for an interesting weekend. I'm wondering if 5CC is really the top deck, though. I mean, I'm sure everyone is going to be running with it, and I'm sure that the top echelon of players will pilot it all the way to the Top 8, but it just seems that "so and so stomps 5CC" and "this wrecks CIPT ((CIBFT??)) land decks". Well, if so many people can beat it with sure a wide variety of decks, why doesn't it die like, say, Scarecrows...I guess I shouldn't bite the hands that feeds me, but I'm just making some observations.So, while I'm making observations, why not some decklists?
Time Sieve Combo by Tobias Gräfensteiner; 4th German Nationals
2 EtherswornCanonist
2 Cryptic Command 3 Path to Exile 4 Pollen Lullaby
Time Seive, as everyone who's played against it before, will induce insta-vomiting from many different decks, including 5CC. I recently played against a list very similar to this one recently at an FMN (which, btw, i will have a full write up about soon), and while I was able to pull out two wins in the swiss, I felt sick and I couldn't imagine how a control player would feel as his lands, precious to him so, let him down. I believe this monster of a combo list, though attackable on it's own level, is so technical it should win by default. Of course, the eight hate cards don't hurt either. Let's move on, as there's little to be said here right now, but more to come on this beast.
Giantbaiting(aka Weekend Warriors) by Ben Rasmussen; PTQ Gen Con Top 8
Team "I Ain't Gay" did some testing with this list recently, and it kills 5CC probably 90% or more. It's crazy. I was amazed how well the deck beat the new menace, seemingly with any random hand it could draw...With that said, it did loose all the other games we tried it against, specifically against my Rock, and we *may have gotten some 4C Cascade in on the action, but I don't remember. Apparently, thought, Kithkin is a tight match for this deck as well. At least it fist pumps to vivid lands.
This list is really tight. I see so many four of, I almost want to play it myself. But...you, know,I don't actually remember if Blightning beats 5CC...hmm. Maybe someone can enlightning me. Other than that bad joke, how 'bout them Demigods? Oh yeah, the dude's back, and instant spell removal is truly needed again. Hooray! No more Doomblade though? Boo.
Okay, that was a quick rundown of the decks I *think could be a blowout against 5CC. In the next post, I should respond to stuff I've read this week, as well as *maybe an FMN report...only if you're good.
Until then, keep Rocking. ~BT
((This post was brought to you by very little sleep, 3:16 am, and tracks 4-11 off "Want" by 3Oh!3. Thank you.))
Well, it looks like at Gen Con we were treated to some Zendikar spoilers via the Planechase decks. Here's the lists from Mr. Evan Erwin
Beast Hunt Sorcery Reveal the top three cards from your library. Put all creatures revealed in this way into your hand and the rest into your graveyard. Artist: Kieran Yanner
Kor Sanctifiers Creature — Kor Cleric Kicker When Kor Sanctifiers enters the battlefield, if it was kicked, destroy target artifact or enchantment. 2/3 Artist: Dan Scott
Hideous End Instant Destroy target nonblack creature. That creature’s controller loses 2 life. Artist: Zoltan Boros & Gabor Szikszai
Whiplash Trap Instant — Trap If an opponent had 2 or more creatures enter the battlefield under his or her control this turn, you may pay rather than Whiplash Trap’s casting cost. Return two target creatures on the battlefield to their owner’s hand. Artist: Zoltan Boros & Gabor Szikszai
So, it looks like kicker is back, as well as a new subtype "Trap". Yes, yes, I know. Yugioh. Doesn't matter to me. Please god just give me something good to play once my manabase goes out the window...
In other news, GGs Live is going to be streaming a few of the matches from Gen Con, hopefully starting today with the Shards block championship. Here's hopeing for more Magic, more of the time.
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For all thoes wondering about my manabase problems, here's a list of my deck. Feel free to comment on it as well.
Posted by
BTsume
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Posted On Wednesday, August 12, 2009 at 11:26 PM
Welcome one and all to a blog by me, for you...This is Titus's Advantage, a Magic: The Gathering strategy and news blog written by yours truly, a Titus. What is a Titus you say? Well, in the next few mins, let's find out...
"On May 07 in the year 2007, Mark Rosewater introduced us to Melvin and Vorthos. If you haven’t met these two, please read Melvin and Vorthos by Maro. Even if you have, it is still an enjoyable read. It is my belief that there is a third demographic to complete this triad. I call him Titus. If you haven’t ever recognized the third, it is perfectly understandable. The presence of Titus is subtle and difficult to pin down. If you have a moment, I would like to introduce you to our neglected member of the Magic family.
Ever watch the show Frasier? When I think of Melvin and Vorthos, Dr. Niles and Frasier Krane come to mind. These TV characters dive deep into the philosophy of about anything on the show. I like to think of them as intellectual junkies. They must continually analyze and inspect every thought-provoking question to get their continual fix. It can be anything from the complexities of the human mind to the subtleties of a fine wine. In the show Frasier, Titus would be Mr. Martin Crane. Starting to get the picture? Titus is the blue-collar psychological aspect of the Magic Community, in a sense. "
from Off Topic: Meet Titus, MTG Salvation
Well, long story short, a Titus is a magic player who, for our definition, runs the most straightforward cards, build on power because just that: They're powerful. It's not a Spike type of thing, as Titus doesn't need to be a high level tournament player, but rather it likes to take on everything.
Another example. My deck of choise has always been The Rock. Currently it's build is G/B elvsish with Putrid Leech, Maelstrom Pulse, Collosus, and Great Sable Stag (a note on this card. Titus doesn't normally like hosers, but GSS is so powerful it's crazy. Try Bit blasting him, and I'll laugh.)
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Of course none of that really matters, right? I just wanted to explain the name choice. As for the blog itself, this will be a catch-all. I photoshop a bit, Role play on an awesome forum called Anime Redux, and play alot of Magic. We'll all see how much I can improve my play as well as write interesting peices over the next so often, and to everyone reading this. Make sure you comment to give positive or negative thins about my blogging...I migt not change for you, but at least I'll know you're out there listening.
