Feature Article – GP Tampa Report *26th*
Posted by Lucas Siow
November 3, 2009 | 
23 comments
GP Tampa Report
I want to start with the tournament report since I think there are actual lessons regarding play, and then I will end with some general thoughts on the format. My Day 1 recaps are pretty brief, but that is mostly because I think the draft portion on Day 2 was much more interesting.
Day 1 at the GP. I have 3 byes from Austin and I get passed a nice little RB Aggro Deck, which is definitely my favorite in this format.
I chose to leave 2 Bog Tatters, 1 Crypt Ripper and 2 Goblin Ruinblasters in the board. The only card I wasn't comfortable with was the Goblin Guide, but I thought he might be good in a deck as aggressive as mine. I was choosing to play first any chance I got, and tried to trade damage as much as possible, since I figured few decks would be as aggressive as mine.
Round 4:
Game 1: He is playing a super aggressive deck off of only 1 bye. His opening draw is pretty nuts, featuring 3 Surrakar Marauders and 2 Oran-Rief Survivalists. I have a Vampire Nighthawk. Turns out that card isn't very fair.
Game 2: His draw is much less aggressive and this time I have double Geopede to put an overwhelming amount of pressure on him.
4-0
Round 5:
My games in the match loss went a little something like this:
Hideous End, [card Day of Judgment]Wrath[/card], [card Gatekeeper of Malakir]Gatekeeper[/card], [card Sorin Markov]Sorin[/card], World Queller.
In Game 2 he has the same except Kortographer + Disfigure instead of Wrath. Unsurprisingly, this opponent would end the day at 8-1.
4-1
Round 6:
I don’t remember much about this round (Day 1 was pretty long), but one of the games he mulled to 5, and while the other two games were very close due to his multiple Trusty Machetes, I was able to win one of them.
5-1
Round 7:
My opponent seems generally unhappy and I have no idea why. We both lose games to mana, but I pull the third one out.
6-1
Round 8: Lucas Blohon
He seems like a competent player with a bad deck, which is good for me. He is playing UG Landfall splash for removal (which was very popular among pros). Unfortunately for him, that means I don't have to play around Marsh Casualties or Day of Judgment.
Game 1 I lose when we are in a topdeck situation and he draws fatties.
Games 2 and 3 are relative blowouts with turn 2 Geopedes running amok. Nice card.
7-1
Round 9: John Cuevelier
Game 1 he has to mulligan twice. His hands is nuts, but can't really beat my stream of dudes when he is down so many cards.
Game 2, I just do my thing and rock the turn 2 Geopede.
8-1
I am very happy with my record, since it’s the best I’ve ever started at a Grand Prix. The [card Goblin Guide]Guide[/card] was pretty awful all day, but that's probably because I never turn 1ed it, and it also always hit for my opponent.
I ended the day with some Catchphrase, which for the uninitiated is basically like charades/pictionary, except you have to describe the word without using it. To get an idea of the game I'll leave with you some clues that were actually given during the game. I am leaving out the names of the parties involved, but suffice it to say that they included much better magic players than me.
Clues:
1. "Like pretty"
2. "He wrote mysteries"
3. "Jewish Courage"
4. "I have no clue what he did" + "First Name is Nelson"
Answers:
1. Cooties
2. Edgar Allen Poe
3. Chutzpah
4. Nelson Mandela
———————————————————————
My philosophy in Draft is simple. Its basically something I distilled from Cedric Phillips and my friends from Berkeley. I don’t play Blue and I avoid White/Green.
Draft 1 is terrible for me as I end up RB with few playables. Luckily the packs were just weak in general and the good players (Michael Jacob, Ben Lundquist, Ben Stark) were on my left.
Draft 1:
Pick 1 I faced the choice between Mind Sludge and Blazing Torch. While my preferred archetype is Mono-Red in this format, Mind Sludge has more potential to be part of a broken deck. At this point I was aiming for a Top 8, so a high variance strategy was more desirable then it might otherwise have been, leading me to take the Sludge.
Second pick I went to time choosing between Heartstabber and Plated Geopede (taking the Black card again), before getting a 3rd pick Sludge. It soon becomes clear that Red is extremely open on my right and Black is a bit open.
Honestly I have no idea what happened in pack 2. I know that to my left were R/W, U/R, R/B, and I got close to zero Black cards (except Feast in Bloods) and the only decent cards I got in the pack were Red.
Pack 3, I pick up a Marsh Casualties and am forced to take Guul Draz Vampire over Disfigure and Blood Seeker over Crypt Ripper to buff my vampire count. The final deck has exactly 22 playables (with 1 Grim Discovery in the board).
Round 10: Ben Stark
Game 1: I lose when I forget a Blood Seeker trigger because I was asking a question about life totals when he played a dude. Getting distracted is definitely one of things I need to work on for the future. The game was still interesting because he cast Conqueror's Pledge into my Blood Seeker, but the one point ends up mattering.
Game 2: He keeps a pants-heavy hand (pants is the collective name of permanent creature buffs such as equipment and enchant creatures). My hand is heavy on removal and he can't recover from the card disadvantage.
Game 3: He rolls me pretty quickly.
8-2
Round 11: Michael Jacob
He was flanked on both sides by Red drafters, so his Blue/Red deck seems a bit underpowered. Game 1 we both flood but I have more powerful dudes, and in game 2 I simply nut draw him. He does mention that the reason he lost round 1 (to Ben Lundquist) was because of Marsh Casualties.
9-2
Round 12 Ben Lundquist:
Another person who is in Red Black. Game 1 I know about his Marsh Casualties and I suspect he might have Seismic Shudder, since I cut him pretty hard for Packs 1 and 2, so he is probably scraping playables (just like me). I play around the Shudder, but it’s still pretty good, slowing my board development and eventually 2 for 1ing me. I stick a Bog Tatters and continue to race.
After Bog Tatters hits twice, the board state is very interesting. He has two cards in hand, a Bloodchief Ascension with two counters, and a Ruinous Minotaur in play. I am at 9 with Punishing Fire in hand. He is at 6. I figure at this point the safe play is to Fire his Minotaur and prevent his Bloodchief from flipping. Alternatively, I can go for the kill by Firing him in his second main. On his turn he draws and plays Bushwhacker with kicker. I was already leaning towards trying to kill him (since I assume he would of killed Tatters if he had anything). I take seven, then he second main plays Marsh Casualties. Perhaps killing his Minotaur would have been better there, but I really felt that he would of killed the Tatters if he had the removal; it's a tough call.
Game 2 I choose to draw so that I can try and withstand his removal-heavy deck. His deck hiccups on mana and I win it quickly anyways.
Game 3 isn’t very eventful, and I end up winning.
10-2
Draft 2: I first pick Guul Draz Vampire over a Welkin Tern and a Windrider Eel. I proceed to cut Red very hard (hoping for mono-Red) but it just isn't coming. Pack two I again don't see much Red, but am able to pick up some okay black cards. Pack 3 I open Malakir Bloodwitch, get passed Obsidian Fireheart 4th and then a stream of Red cards, making a small mispick of Bladetusk Boar over a Geopede. Despite the kind of awful mana (3 black 1 drops + a Fireheart), I am much happier with this deck.
During construction I had 3 slots and the following cards (2 Magma Rift, 2 Feast of Blood, 2 Unstable Footing). I ended up running one of each, but sided out the Footing for a Magma Rift because I usually felt my deck had better long game. Even with 6 vampires, Feast continued to disappoint me.
Round 13:
He is playing Red/White, and we quickly trade games 1 and 2.
Game 3 I have a Feast of Blood in my opener, so I don't want to trade my Lacerator for his two drop, which would otherwise have been a good idea. He sticks a Shepherd of the Lost, and I know I basically have a couple of turns left. I swing in with a Crocodile and the Lacerator, seeing Bloodwitch on top with my [card Explorers Scope]Scope[/card]. He is deciding what to block when I just pick up my Crocodile and put it in the yard. I need him not to block my Lacerator here, so I am trying to convince him that it’s safe. Bloodwitch + Feast wrap up the game pretty quickly.
11-2
Round 14: Tom Ross
The winner here gets to draw into Top 8.
Game 1: He is kind of stuck on lands and I have turn 4 Fireheart. I have the option to kill him with Fireheart or Unstable Footing. Normally I wouldn't want to reveal tricks that he hasn't seen, but in this case I was already planning on siding out the Footing, so him seeing the Footing might convince him that I was more aggressive than I actually was.
Game2: We are both stuck on mana early (though for me it’s amount and for him it’s colors). I am at 6 with a decent board position, but I can't kill his Raptor. He plays another Raptor post-combat (potentially adding a turn to his clock) and I am so happy about this, that I forget another Blood Seeker trigger. I peel a Torch Slinger and then realize that my missed point means I have to give him an extra turn. On his turn he rips a Mark of Mutiny (to use on his Raptor) and gets me for exactsies. Overall I was so focused on how to win with limited mana (my hand was clogged with plays), that I was missing little things (which can obviously mean the game).
Game 3: I am mana screwed despite Scope and fetching when Scope doesn't show me a land. Unfortunately, the game isn't very close.
11-3
Round 15:
I concede to David Ochoa who has an outside chance at Top 8, but more importantly can make a run at a high level with a good finish here and at worlds.
11-4
Zendikar Limited:
The format is aggressive, which you every writer in the world is telling you. But that means you have to adjust to the format and adjust to the ways that people are adjusting. For example, many players have started to play more [card]
Pillarfield Ox[/card]es, and Makindi Shieldmates to stave off aggression. That means things like Slaughter Cry have gone up in value, because you need to be able to break through walls. Similarly, many drafters try to have a Seismic Shudder in their board when they play Red (and in my case many opponents had it main), so you might want to have a Spidersilk Net to protect all your guys.
Many pros think sealed is different. I don't have a huge amount of experience with sealed, but I continue to hope for an aggressive deck. Ior Ruin Expedition or Khalni Heart Expedition, don't magically become playable just because the format slows a bit, and it's a lot easier to race with flexible removal (unlike Paralyzing Grasp). This is generally why I don't play Blue. There is a lot of races going on so, trading power, toughness, or mana cost for evasion isn't even that useful. You don't really want to block their dudes anyways. Like I said, nothing particularly ground-breaking, but people still haven’t fully gotten into the aggressive mindset (at least not that I have seen).
I might end up going to GP Minneapolis, so hopefully I will have another report in a few weeks!
23 Comments Leave a comment
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
Leave a comment
Retail Store Hours
- Mon to Thu: 5:00pm - 10:00pm
Fri: 3:00pm - 11:00pm
Sat to Sun: 11:00am - 7:00pm
Copyright
Fin says: November 3, 2009 @ 10:57 pm
I watched the games against Bill Stark on ggslive or whatever it was called. Those were some pretty brutal losses. Good job though, and I liked your ‘deck tech’ in Austin. How good is Blood Seeker if you don’t have Feast In Blood? Obviously not as good as Crypt Ripper, but what pick would you not mind taking it? Do you need multiples? You also need new teammates for catchphrase.
Seeker says: November 3, 2009 @ 10:57 pm
I am surprised that you say “even with 6 vampires” when I would consider seven the bare minimum for Feast of Blood. Am I just overly cautious?
Hell, this is an aggressive format blah blah so you have fewer turns to draw them. Should I be saying eight and not seven?
GyantSpyder says: November 4, 2009 @ 12:13 am
The round 13 play with the crocodile seems highly sketchy if it happened the way you describe it.
If that isn’t illegal, it should be.
GyantSpyder says: November 4, 2009 @ 2:55 am
The round 13 play with the crocodile seems highly sketchy if it happened the way you describe it.
If that isn’t illegal, it should be.
Oops…forgot to say great post! Looking forward to your next one.
Guy Southcott says: November 4, 2009 @ 3:07 am
No, it doesn’t sound sketchy at all, simply a smart play. From his opponent’s point of view, he’d probably see Lucas as trying to speed things up by making the obvious block. Well played.
MaximeL says: November 4, 2009 @ 4:42 am
“I swing in with a Crocodile and the Lacerator, seeing Bloodwitch on top with my Scope. He is deciding what to block when I just pick up my Crocodile and put it in the yard. I need him not to block my Lacerator here, so I am trying to convince him that it's safe.”
-> Is that legal?
whatisfgh says: November 4, 2009 @ 4:42 am
“The round 13 play with the crocodile seems highly sketchy if it happened the way you describe it.
If that isn't illegal, it should be.”
It’s an easy sped up to the game… there is nothing stopping his opponent from saying “No I want to block the other one”…
It’s basically the same as grabbing your pen and holding it over your lifepad while your opponent is thinking about what to attack with, giving him the impression you have nothing.
Someguy says: November 4, 2009 @ 5:01 am
Unlike other cheats, i.e. “Your bloodchief ascension gets a counter, right? ok… so my turn, right? No, you have to be done you put a counter on your ascension…”, the play described in this report seems legal.
MaximeL says: November 4, 2009 @ 5:47 am
Trying to convince the oppenend to make a special block by playing magic (like for example tap your lands and play a spell so that no trick is possible) is correct for me.
Trying to convince the opponend to make a special block by putting a creature in the graveyard befor even the opponent has declare any block seems incorrect for me. Maybe it is legal but I seems just wrong.
ReAnimator says: November 4, 2009 @ 7:27 am
Congrats on the finish Lucas
One stylistic comment, in the future could you put up all the names of your round opponents? it seems sort of weird to only include certain opponents, it should be easy enough to find them on your ratings history.
Bill Wexner says: November 4, 2009 @ 8:55 am
Loved the play with the croc. Completely legit IMO. Like your play faking the cryptic in your last report. Those are little things I’d never think of, so reading them serves as both inspiration and warning. Keep the articles coming and good luck at Minneapolis!
Killer Bee says: November 4, 2009 @ 11:23 am
Yeah, Nelson Mandela is someone most people should at least know something about. Were like, all your teammates American?
Chu says: November 4, 2009 @ 7:31 pm
I’ve seen similar plays to the croc all the time in the Midwest, judges never call it. The difference though is most people just pick it up and wait. Actually putting it in the g/y might get a different ruling.
Kenseiden says: November 4, 2009 @ 7:35 pm
your round 5 opponent had Journey to nowhere and much other bombs too. I saw his game against saitou.
PV says: November 4, 2009 @ 7:57 pm
Sorry to break it down to you Lucas, but…
Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. ->>> Best known for his tales of mystery <<<– and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_allan_poe
I’ll take a formal apology in your next article, thank you
I’ll give you Cooties, though – I had no idea what the word meant (still dont) and was trying to get someone to say “cute” to say it sounded similar to that, though it actually doesn’t sound very simillar
@ Nelson Mandela: lol,yeah that was pretty bad . @Killerbee: no, one of his teammates was brazilian, but the one who did not know who Nelson Mandela was was american, I do know that. Are you implying that one must not be american to not know who Nelson Mandela? If you were, well, you’d be surprised
Also what’s wrong with “jewish courage” for chutzpah? That wasn’t me either, but it seems good enough
Catchphrases aside, congrats on your latest results, and I hope you make it to Minneapolis!
Isn’t Chutzpah
PV says: November 4, 2009 @ 8:00 pm
hrm they transformed all my tongue sticking smiles into happy smiles : (
toor says: November 4, 2009 @ 8:13 pm
@Seeker
I wasn’t sure what the number of vampires needed for feast was. Small ones count less since you will often want to trade them. I was always running a soul stair or grim discovery, so I thought 6 was enough (and the people I polled tended to agree).
@gyantspyder et al.
Just to exposit a bit more on the Rnd 13 situation. He was lining up his blockers with his angel in front and was thinking. I binned my guy and said "take 2 and my guy dies". While this is certainly leading behavior, it isn’t cheating. I didn’t misinform him or misrepresent anything. I simply used a common shortcut which was beneficial to me.
Also to my opponents credit, blocking the 5 power plays around a lot more plausible cards (such as unstable footing).
@killerbee
My opponents and teammates were pretty universal. I find it interesting that the game certainly seems uncorrelated with Magic Ability.
@PV
I think that the use of mystery is used in the sense of describing his stories’ plots. For example, you might say Isaac Aasimov is best know for his tales of adventure and thrilling cliffhangers.. But you wouldn’t describe him as a mystery writer (or at least it would be more accurate as a SF writer.
That being said I would take you over most of the Magic Players in the world for high stakes catch phrase any day.
Rob Anybody says: November 5, 2009 @ 12:16 am
Not a good article by any means: No new insights into the format; the draft walkthroughs are not detailed enough to glean any value out of it; the game situations, along with the writing style, are simply bland.
Oh, and I consider the croc play highly questionable, too.
Nate says: November 5, 2009 @ 7:10 am
Hey Lucas, do you draft at a store in the Philly area? I recently moved here and am looking for some competitive, serious players.
jpat says: November 5, 2009 @ 9:07 am
Nerdy English Major interjection: Poe is obviously credited a majority of the time for his suspense/horror stories. However, he did pretty much invent the archetype of the “brilliant investigator.” Does that mean that anyone, even people who have read “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” or “The Purloined Letter” would guess Poe based on the “mystery writer” clue? Of course not: it just means that PV is freaking smart.
Trackback MTGBattlefield says: November 5, 2009 @ 12:42 pm
Feature Article – GP Tampa Report *26th*…
Your story has been summoned to the battlefield – Trackback from MTGBattlefield…
calebD says: November 6, 2009 @ 8:52 am
Also, Toor, Asimov wrote a buttload of mysteries. Caves of Steel was probably his most famous, but he also wrote stereotypical (that is, non-sci fi) genre pieces.
toor says: November 8, 2009 @ 9:21 am
@nate
I play at Redcaps Corner.
Another store you might want to try, is Alternate Universes.