Eldrazi Green for Chinese Nationals

[Peter Dun]

well, with nationals coming up soon, and the new bannings, I've gone from being 100% certain that I have the right deck, to very very uncertain and even slightly nervous that the metagame will be unhelpful...

 

for reference, this is the deck I am playing now:

// Lands
    4 [ROE] Eldrazi Temple
    2 [ARC] Khalni Garden
    3 [WWK] Tectonic Edge
    2 [M11] Mystifying Maze
    14 [P2] Forest (3)
    1 [WWK] Eye of Ugin
    2 [SOM] Forest (2)                   <-- different art to test whether I want 2 or 4 khalni garden

// Creatures
    4 [M11] Primeval Titan
    2 [SOM] Wall of Tanglecord
    4 [ROE] Overgrown Battlement
    4 [ROE] Joraga Treespeaker
    1 [ROE] Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
    1 [ROE] Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
    1 [WWK] Avenger of Zendikar
    2 [NPH] Spellskite
    1 [MBS] Viridian Corrupter
    1 [M11] Fauna Shaman

// Spells
    4 [MBS] Green Sun's Zenith
    2 [ZEN] Summoning Trap
    3 [NPH] Beast Within
    2 [DDD] Garruk Wildspeaker

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [NPH] Spellskite
SB: 1 [M11] Fauna Shaman
SB: 1 [ZEN] Summoning Trap
SB: 1 [NPH] Beast Within
SB: 3 [M11] Obstinate Baloth
SB: 1 [NPH] Karn Liberated
SB: 3 [ROE] Vengevine
SB: 2 [MBS] Phyrexian Revoker
SB: 2 [NPH] Dismember

 

with the banning of stoneforge mystic, valakut surely must become the default best deck in t2, how would you attack such a deck, or such a metagame. I HEAVILY dislike valakut because you cannot really play zeniths as mana acceleration, however, with spellskites existing to stop act of aggression, I don't see how the deck loses easily any more, at least eldrazi green just sideboards into a  midrange green deck, with some number of karn (I won 21-24 packs at the NQ... can't remember, opening 3 karns and 1 batterskull, so I'm ok cost wise).

 

I would prefer not to splash black for the obvious memoricides, but I won't rule it out, even if it means I must play lotus cobras md... :S

 

so, some advice/feedback would be useful (even if you think you have little experience with the deck... just random thoughts even if they sound terrible would be welcome... I have no idea how to start).

 

My metagame thoughts are as follows:

1) Dismember will become more popular (ppl are only now understanding how good this card is for some reason). This is annoying, as it kills treespeaker for 1 mana. However, the ramping is less important than it was before because you don't need to race sword.

 

2) Koth will see a lot more play. Red decks are cheap, supposedly have a good valakut matchup (especially with act of aggression sb) and koth is by far the best card in the red deck. This means that at least 1 vengevine to tutor as an answer to koth is necessary. ulamog actually pretty good vs rdw, as they can't kill him (her? it?), and if they act, you easily have 5 permanents to sac (4 + 1 blocker) and then wipe their board over a couple of attacks. This means that I want 1 md viridian corruptor, and definately more sb for shrine.

 

3) Valakut will see more play. I have no idea what my solution is for this. This matchup is probably unfavourable for you as they can kill your mana acceleration with bolt, slagstorm etc., whereas you can't easily kill theirs. I want titans and karns for this matchup, but I don't know  how to make it heavily favoured. Maybe the 4th edge over 2nd maze is required md, but that will weaken the matchup vs mirran crusaders (especially if they sb in spellskites in the matchup).

 

4) Other assorted decks like UB control and twin will see more play. Both of these matchups are very very favoured, so not really concerned.

 

Cards under consideration:

1) Fauna Shaman. This card is already amazing, now, I think I want more.

2) Phyrexian metamorph. Can tutor it, makes a titan (too late) for 3 mana.

3) More dismembers/beast withins (the 2WW 3/4 flyer that shuts of activated abilities and fauna shaman will see more play).

4) More karns <-- this card is awesome :)

5) Terrastradon/avenger of zendikars/traps. Necessary vs valakut as the only cards that matter are titan + acceleration, terrastradon kills acceleration, trap gets you titans more consistantly (4 trap, 2 fauna shaman, 4 zenith, 4 titan) and avenger sometimes steals wins even if they get titan first (although your avengers are much worse than theirs)

6) All is dust....

 

Concerns

1) How to beat valakut?

2) How to hate on memoricide (not actually a huge concern), whether to play memoricide?

3) Whether to trade Karns (awesome!) for lotus cobra (bleh...) in pursuit of success (but not happiness)

4) What ppl will play in the new t2...

 

Little help? :)

[Daniel Royde]

All my appendages are crossed.

 

[Daniel Royde]

:'(

[Peter Dun]

well, as promised a summary of draft 2:

 

Draft 2:

R8 Yi Xiao (Wb)

My opponent is Yi Xiao, his deck is featured here: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/even...

 

G1

My opponent is on the play, he curves out with skyhunter-souleater-dismember+gremlin mine-golem artisan-sensor splicer. It's actually a very close game, as I can trade with his guy, however, the souleater tapping one guy in my end step and 1 in his turn over 2 turns is enough for him to just take it before I can stabilize.

 

G2 (-1 Island, -1 Silver Myr, +1 Mountain, +1 Ogre Resister)

I get an aggressive curve, and although he plays phyrexian rebirth AND enslave I am able to take the game by just making sensible trades and not overcommiting into an expected wrath.

 

G3

My oppening hand on the draw is 4 mountain, 1 island, neurok replica, viridian claw. This hand is not a great hand as any removal spell blanks it, and vs. the aggressive fliers and bombs I have seen it doesn't do anything. I'm also on the draw, so it's easier to mulligan.

I mull to 6: 3 mountain, 2 impaler shrike, 1 neurok invisimancer.

I mull to 5: no lands (I'm a little upset at this point and slam the table in frustration. I just want to play magic... how is it fair that my opponent gets bombs and 3 more cards... My opponent is a little surprised as I have shown no emotion to this point, but I quickly gather myself together, and was lucky not to get a warning to be honest)

So... 4 cards... 2 mountain, 1 island, 1 blisterstick shaman... could be worse.

In this game, I trade 2 for 1 3 times, with shaman, pith driller and spire monitor to get back to parity on cards. However, he draws a souleater and manages to slow my defence. I've been trading aggressively to weaken cards like enslave and phyrexian rebirth so his topdecked souleater is actually pretty good. The next turn he topdecks a sideboarded glistening oil and it kills all my 1 toughness guys essentially ending the game.

 

R9 Jin Zilong (RW Metalcraft)

G1

He plays some irrelevant metalcraft guys, I just attack him to death...

 

G2 (-1 Island, -1 Myr, -1 Soliton , +1 Ogre Resister, +1 Mountain, +1 Disperse)

He plays some more irrelevant metalcraft guys, but after trading some removal he kills me with a shrine of burning rage drawn the turn after I shatter a chrome steed)

 

G3

7 Cards: 6 lands + disperse (would have kept 6 lands + soliton his deck didn't seem that good...)

6 Cards: No lands

5 Cards: No lands (I don't even get angry at this point, I just laugh a little inside)

4 Cards: 2 Mountains, 1 Island, Impaler Shrike

I fight hard in this game, drawing blisterstick, mountain, impaler shrike, pith driller. However, I keep drawing more mountains after this (the mountain I drew on turn 3 is the one I sided in for an island... I can tell by the artwork). It's possible I sided incorrectly. Anyway, this game plays turn 1 flayer husk, turn 2 myr (which I kill) then 2x the WW double strike metalcraft guys over the next 2 turns. Then 2 artifacts (I think perilous myr + ... can't remember). I trade 1 for pith driller, the other for disperse + blisterstick, but eventually he wins off flayer husk + 2/2s...

 

So... back to standard... I can feel myself a little on tilt here... but I want to vindicate my testing and get some pre-testing done for the ptq in reading (hint hint, lift?). This is a very very bad idea... my record from doing this over several pro tours and ptqs is 1-16 but they have no side events except 32 player gpts for shanghai (not even drafts)

 

R10 Zhun Zhang

We take a long time shuffling and I look around the tables. UB is EVERYWHERE, there are some vampires, mono red, and 2 valakut decks. A fair amount of twin too, so pretty balanced (except for the excess of UB and UW)

 

I lose the die roll and my opponent plays:

Turn 1 mountain (ok, so mono red... unfortunate to lose die roll, but at least he has no goblin guide. Stage 1: Ignorance)

Turn 2 explore -> evolving wilds (ok, so some sort of ramp strategy, lots of people play ramp cards, maybe he'll go turn 3 garruk, good thing I have a beast within. Stage 2: Denial)

Turn 3 explore, khalni heart, green fetchland + terramorphic. (ok... so valakut, it's fine, I will beast within his titan, then play my own. Stage 3: Acceptance)

Turn 4 titan (do they ALWAYS have it turn 4), fetch 2 valakut. (bleh, ok that khalni heart can hit me for 12, but I'm ok, he probably doesn't have any more ramp spells after playing out his whole hand so quickly. Stage 4: Despair)

Turn 5 titan (Stage 5: FML)

 

I win g2, g3 he wins by mark of mutiny on my titan after he plays his own.

 

R11 Zhang Meng

I lose the die roll.

Turn 1: Valakut (....)

Result 1-2.

 

DROP, MAXIMUM POSSIBLE TILT.

 

In all honesty, I made friends with a fellow foreigner playing in Chinese nats: Roger Gao. He did no testing but played valakut, in the last round he played (and lost) for t8, but got his first pro point and some money for a 13th place finish. So I supported him instead of raging. We have an interview in both print and video for the Chinese coverage somewhere (he had to translate for me...). With no side events, I watched t8, and fellow Shanghai player Lu Jiachong play his quarter final before taking an earlier train home.

[Peter Dun]

Some thoughts about Chinese nats:

 

Nice and diverse t2...

Some stats and figures from chinese nationals:

Matchups: Valakut vs rest of field: 5/0

% of valakut at nats: 22%

% of valakut in top 8: 25%

Results vs Valakut: 1-4

Die rolls won vs Valakut: 1-4

Games where the deck on the play won in the mirror: 13/15 (I won one where my opponent made an avenger instead of titan, and lost one where I drew eye of ugin into khalni garden needing 6 mana to cast titan)

Turn 3/4 titans seen in 15 games.... no idea... 25?

 

Thoughts: PLAY LOTUS COBRA + MEMORICIDE + GB Fetchlands IN PTQS

 

Draft:

Without being arrogant, I think I could have 6-0'ed draft on a more normal day. I think I won at least 2 game due to my opponent's bad mulliganning decisions (I mulled a lot on the 2 days, often as a strategic decision, my opponents mulled once in draft, and zero times in t2). People tend to like archetype cards (dispatch, glistener elf) and take them a lot higher than just solid guys like impaler shrike and porcelain legionaire. Of course, maybe my valuations are off... but when ppl start picking echo circlet, golden urn and whitesun passage (!) over stoic rebuttal/scrapdiver serpent there must be something up.

 

Props:

Everyone on DT for their support

Judging staff for dealing with a foreigner at a non-english speaking nats so well

Lu Jiachong for making Chinese national team (4 shanghai players in tournament, 5 including me... one in team, not so bad :P)

 

Slops:

Bannings... remind me why playing magic with cawblade is more fun than not playing magic against valakut.

Lack of side events (no draft? seriously?)

Mulliganning to 4 (be careful if you play me in ptqs, karma is coming to get you to keep world in balance)

 

Peter

[Paul Hodgson]

Great report pete, shame about hitting the new bogeyman so often though! I cannot wait for Valakut to rotate :)

[Glenn Goldsworthy]

really sorry to hear that luck basically kicked you right in the jewels, but thanks for the great report

[Daniel Royde]

That sucks.

You'll just have to win Reading.

[Gary Lynch]

Bad luck, really enjoyed the report though.

 

Are you still going to play that deck at the PTQ despite the bad Valakut results?

 

Are the Mono Red/Twin/Control match ups good enough that you can just hope to dodge Valakut and win the rest?

[Peter Dun]

I will look to play this deck against in the ptqs. I won 5/6 games I was on the play vs valakut. Maybe I will sb some extra hate... swamp + memoricide with cobras and fetchlands... but I will see if anyone will lend me some as I basically bought the deck from scratch for around 80 pounds and I don't think I can really think I can justify spending another 100 or so just to improve my valakut matchup 10%. I like this deck because it gives you the ability to outplay your opponents, and interract in a way that valakut does not. I REALLY like ramp decks and will always play ramp when I can.

 

I'm also not scared about losing to a generally accepted "best" deck, as I played lark in a faeries metagame, and would have played rg snow ramp in a similar metagame if I wasn't rated 76th that year. It's often possible to win if you come up with a gameplan and you opponent just assumes he has a good matchup without knowing why (and you shift the focus of the matchup). A good example of this was running a more aggressive lark deck that played win conditions for 2 mana or at instant speed (mistmeadow witch/knight of the white orchid/vendilion clique) to work around the typical lark problem of playing everything at sorcery speed for lots of mana.

 

The "answer" vs valakut I had was to play lots of traps and ways to tutor titan, and just fight over just that card. Unfortuneately every time my opponent was on the play he had turn 4 titan without mulligans (so the playing all the extra traps was not important for consistency), and the backup plan was not good enough to swing tempo back in the way that playing a cheaper kill condition would have been (because nothing for under 6 mana trumps primeval titan). Round 3 (when I won g3 on the draw vs. avenger) shows that this plan was a good one in theory, if not execution.

 

Fighting over titans will be easier when you can just win the fight for 4 mana with memoricide. My r2 opponent and I played a lot of test games on day 2 waiting for t8 to work on a joint plan for ptqs (he first pointed out how good this plan was to me... although I think I first mentioned it on page 1), and I think this is the way to go (or just win die rolls....)

 

I am back in London on the Friday 22nd of July (Reading PTQ is 23rd, my birthday is 24th ;) ).

 

Look forward to seeing you all there :)

[Daniel Royde]

Gah, and when do you go away again? I'm away until 5th August ish.

[Peter Dun]

I'll stay for uk nats so no worries

[Raymond Wat]

Gosh, 3 days of awesomeness.  What a way to deal with jetlack, playing magic, I guess.  Bad luck regarding Chinese Nat, particularly, day 2, horror story....but entertaining one though.  Thank.

Peter Dun said:

........I am back in London on the Friday 22nd of July (Reading PTQ is 23rd, my birthday is 24th ;) ).

 

Look forward to seeing you all there :)