29/01/2024
Chopped the finals with Francisco Pawluszek at Knight Ware in Studio City, CA today with trusty GW Enchantress, which was good enough to squeak into Top 4 and ultimately win a Dreadnought!
R1 vs GW Cataclysmic Oath 🥀🥀 (Can't beat Cataclysm w/o Sacred Ground)
R2 vs Deadguy Ale 🥀🌿🥀
R3 Bye
R4 vs Welder MUD 🌿🌿
R5 vs Sligh 🌿🥀🌿
SF vs Sligh 🌿🥀🌿
Finals 🤝
**Matchup Breakdown**
**R1 vs GW Cataclysmic Oath**
G1 I clawed my way through Ports and Spheres to a point I was coming out ahead and everything got undone with a Cataclysm. I chose to keep a Seal and take out his Sylvan Library to make him draw the honest way. Unfortunately he hit running lands into a Sylvan into a Terravore while I drew cards I couldn't cast.
G2 He had another Mox Diamond start and E Tutor'd for Aura of Silence T2. I did nothing for several turns, finally clawed my way through this, and then he Cataclysm'd again.
**R2 vs Deadguy Ale**
G1 He had an early Nantuko Shade into Hypnotic Specter. I had 2 Enchantresses out but had flooded out with 4 lands and 1 Wave in my hand. He hits me with Specter, we roll a die, and he's got a 20% chance to hit the only card in my hand that matters. Of course, he hits it. He plays 2 more Specters. I draw an Enlightened Tutor which I can use to get another Wave. He attacks for 8 but has a dark Ritual to pump the Nantuko Shade for exactsies.
G2 He Rituals out a Morph T1 while I play a T1 Wild Growth, T2 Enchantress, and STP the Morph after attacks. My thought process here is he's either on Bane of the Living or Exalted Angel, and if he goes to Ritual into a Bane of the Living flip, I can STP the Morph in response. I let it deal 2 to me, and STP it end step (it was an Angel). I eventually chain ahead, build a huge board, and Opal Wave him.
G3 I mull to 6, keeping Plains, Heath, Enchantress, Presence, Grass, Exploration, putting back Brushland. My thought process here was that I wanted to keep the Presence as a backup in case he has T3 Engineered Plague. It turns out my Enchantress lives because he actually had T3 Vindicate on my Forest, and I never draw another land again. Had I kept the Brushland, I easily chain Exploration and Grass giving me a better chance to find more lands.
Definitely punted this. We also won every game we were on the play, coincidentally.
This is the first time I've ever lost to DGA, and at this point I'm pretty discouraged and highly considering dropping and going home.
**R3 - Bye**
I decide to stick it out because I just want to play Premodern anyway. There's only 11 players so maybe there's a snowflake's chance in hell that I can squeak into top 4.
**R4 vs Welder MUD**
G1 He has a strong start of Welder into Fire Diamond into Port with Tangle Wire. I make land drops while he plays another Welder and a Masticore. I'm slowly building mana up and run out a Sylvan while letting the Tangle Wire count down. I get a Seal of Cleansing, but I can't use it because of Welders. Eventually I get two Presences out, and Enlightened Tutor for Parallax Wave, taking out Masticore, prompting a Welder tap to swap Masticore for Masticore in his GY, then exile the untapped Welder going to 3 counters. I go back to my turn, down to 2 Fading counters, and play Opalescence. I exile Masticore, and he shoots down Sylvan in response, and I use the last counter to have Wave blink itself, blink Sylvan, blink Wave, bring back both, let Masticore get exiled, take out both Welders. He scoops next turn.
G2 involved a good early start by him with Diamond, Port, Winter Orb, and Sphere. My start was good too with Exploration, some Wild Growths, and a Sylvan. I get a Seal down. He plays a Metalworker, which I Seal. I play another Seal. He plays another Metalworker, and I Seal the Winter Orb end step. I play Sanctum, Grove, Replenish both Seals again, take out Metalworker, and Fire Diamond. He plays a City and a Karn. I find a 2nd Replenish and take out Karn, then play Words of WIlding to make bears. He scoops.
**R5 vs Sligh**
These games were quick.
G1 I almost stabilize with 2 Sylvans and a Words of Wilding making 5 Bears, but he has the Fireblast and double Bolt.
G2 He can't beat Worship
G3 He can't beat Sphere of Law into Confinement.
I squeak into Top 4 in 5th place by 1% point on breakers. Whew!
**Top 4 vs Sligh**
G1 I'm on the draw as he's 1st seed. I have T1 Wild Growth, T2 Enchantress and a Plains. I E Tutor for Worship to set up a T4 Worship. I play a 2nd Wild Growth and draw a 2nd Enchantress, play a land. Next turn I'll have 6 mana with a land drop. He attacks for 9 with a Pup, a Mogg Fanatic, and a Ball Lightning while I'm at 14. If I take 9, he has 1 damage with Fanatic putting me at 4, which is in Fireblast range. I chump the Pup with the Enchantress, going to 7, and he passes. I play my 4th land, Enchantress, Worship, and he shows me the Fireblast, saying he was hoping I'd get greedy. Whew!
G2 Is quick, and I'm 1 turn away from Stabilizng with Sphere of Law when he has Fireblast and Bolt for the win.
G3 I have a slow start with Grass while trying to draw more lands. He holds back Pup so he can point burn at my face. At some point I get a Wild Growth on a land, and I get 2 Enchantress's down and STP the pup. He plays a Grim Lavamancer, another Pup, and a Fanatic. I play a Sphere of Law off a Brushland, and ask him if he wants to Fireblast me while he can get full value, which he does, going down to 1 mountain; he forgets to Fanatic me. I play a Sanctum and put a die on 1 above it indicating that's my land this turn (thinking I might draw into an Exploration), tap Plains w/ Wild Growth for Grass, E Tutor for Solitary Confinement. Then I immediately forget my die and try to play a Brushland for a Presence before playing Confinement, which we immediately catch, and prompts a judge call. He gets a bit upset saying my Sanctum was my 2nd land drop, and I played the Brushland first. We have an awkward back and forth where I apologize for the Brushland snafu but assure him I played the Sanctum first so that I don't take damage off the Brushland. My reasoning here is that Sanctum for sure gives me white mana to cast Solitary Confinement without taking damage, which Brushland would do. Even though I'm hungry and not playing at 100%, I at least know that my sequencing here was correct. I don't like feelbads in my matchups though so I try to explain this as best I can to my opp, but it doesn't feel entirely resolved. The die ultimately plays a part in the judge decision, and my opp says "Honestly I've lost this game anyway from the Sphere of Law, so I'll just concede."
Fran wanted the Replenish, and I wanted the Dreadnought, so we chopped and I got to get ramen for dinner.
Overall a really weird day for the deck. My Top 4 opp found me before leaving, shook my hand, said that while he remembered the land sequence differently, he could be wrong and there's no hard feelings and said GGs, which made me feel super relieved that the feelbads were resolved.
**Lessons of the day**
1. Use a die for land drops, always counting up from 0. No matter how many Explorations you do or don't have, you're always going in one direction and it's easy to keep track of. My choice of having the die on "1" above the Sanctum w/ 0 Explorations in play helped the judge determine my intention. Never encountered this before til today but I'm glad I did this.
2. I never felt like I needed COP: Red for Sligh. Aegis of Honor might be okay as an early way to keep burn damage off you. Sphere of Law was an absolute MVP as always.
3. I tried 3 Sylvans today w/o Guile and obviously this was not great vs my 2 Sligh opponents. There was an instance vs Cataclysmic Oath where I drew a Sylvan with only 2 lands in play under a Port after Cataclysm, and if it had been a Mirri's Guile, I would have been able to cast it. I think I need to test 3 Sylvans more before making a call, but I did miss Guile at times. Maybe 2 Sylvan 1 Guile is the right balance.
4. WoWilding was fine. It only ever really did anything once I was already winning, and I'm trying to remove these types of cards from the deck. Decking isn't a concern if you stop at 3 Enchantress effects, which should be plenty in most situations. WoWorship helps the pillowfort plan and would have been insane vs Sligh R5 since I would have gained 25 life instead of making 5 bears. Swapping WoWilding for WoWorship leaves only Opalescence as a wincon though and that's too low. I think I'll try a Decree of Justice or Nature's Revolt next.
5. Perhaps the biggest takeaway today was that a discouraging start doesn't always mean you're out of contention for the elimination rounds. I didn't let my bad start to the event get to me and I pushed through anyway, and got rewarded for it. Shaking off those negative thoughts was key to pulling through for the rest of the event. Going 0-2 into 3-2 into Top 4 into the finals was a helluva comeback.
