The Ultimate Extended Tourney is winding down. It began with 32 of the most successful Extended decks of all time. It’s down to two now. I’ll cover the last Elite Eight match (Survival versus CounterSlivers), and the Final Four matches.
For the last time, I’ll recap the rules: We started with 32 decks, including 5 from the just-ended Extended season, with the rest being a mix of the most powerful Extended decks I could find. (Read about choosing them here and here.) Round 1 pairings were random, with a bit of a tweak (to prevent reruns of recent Top 8 matches, and so on – described here.) Matches include two unsideboarded games, with each deck playing first once. Post sideboard, if a deck is 0-2, it plays first, otherwise the decks alternate starts again. First deck to three wins takes the match.
And because everyone complained about the JarGrim / PT Junk matchup (and because I caved to the complaints) I advanced both PT Junk and JarGrim (and both decks then beat LLL and Academy to get to the T4.) As of last week, one Elite Eight match was outstanding. Here is the Top 4.
PT Junk and JarGrim verses the winner of Survival / CounterSlivers
Trix verses SuperGro
This time I’ll post the match coverage first, then the brackets. Per reader requests, I’ll also include the decklists with the coverage. The first match this week is the last game in the semi-final round. To keep things interesting, since I played a lot of extra games, I will just post the games involving the most debatable choices. People seem to enjoy arguing about misplays, and this will give them the opportunity. After all, everything is much clearer in hindsight.
CounterSlivers versus GB Survival
The contemporaneous decks have fought through. Years ago, I played GB Survival in a PTQ semi-finals against CounterSlivers. Ingrid was also playing CounterSlivers in that event, and missed Top 8 on tiebreakers. This weekend, we were both Timeshifted back half a century as we played the match out one more time.
I wished Ingrid luck, which was somewhat hypocritical since my whole game plan against Slivers is to mana screw my opponent out of the game.
GB Survival
Pete Jahn, PTQ Qualifiers, Jan. 2000.
4 Bayou
4 Wasteland
5 Swamp
10 Forest
4 Duress
4 Survival of the Fittest
2 Vampiric Tutor
2 Recurring Nightmare
1 Oath of Ghouls
4 Wall of Roots
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Quirion Ranger
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
1 Krovikan Horror
1 Phyrexian Plaguelord
1 Phyrexian Negator
1 Masticore
1 Deranged Hermit
2 Spike Feeder
2 Spike Weaver
1 Bone Shredder
1 Elvish Lyrist
1 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Yavimaya Ants
1 Cartographer
Sideboard
3 Emerald Charm
2 Ebony Charm
1 Oath of Ghouls
1 Thrull Surgeon
1 Carrion Beetles
1 Woodripper
1 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Dust Bowl
1 Simian Grunts
1 Bone Shredder
1 Elvish Lyrist
1 Living Death
CounterSlivers
Ingrid Lind-Jahn, PTQ Qualifiers, January 2000.
4 City of Brass
4 Flood Plain
2 Gemstone Mine
2 Scrubland[/author]“][author name="Scrubland"]Scrubland[/author]
1 Tropical Island
3 Tundra
4 Underground Sea
2 Undiscovered Paradise
1 Volcanic Island
4 Crystalline Sliver
4 Hibernation Sliver
4 Muscle Sliver
4 Winged Sliver
1 Acidic Sliver
4 Counterspell
3 Demonic Consultation
3 Duress
2 Disenchant
4 Force of Will
2 Misdirection
2 Swords to Plowshares
Sideboard
2 Disenchant
2 Honor the Fallen
3 Honorable Passage
3 Pyroblast
3 Perish
2 Swords to Plowshares
Game 1 saw Slivers on the play, with Survival mulliganing once.
Slivers: Gemstone Mine, go
Survival: Bayou, Duress (taking FoW, leaving CoB, Winged, Muscle, Hibernation, Acidic)
Slivers: City of Brass, Muscle Sliver
Survival: Wasteland, waste CoB
Slivers: (beat, go)
Survival: Swamp
Slivers: (beat, go)
Survival: Forest, Bone Shredder (killing Muscle)
Slivers: Undiscovered Paradise, Muscle
Survival: (don’t pay echo) Forest, Spike Weaver
Slivers: Winged, beat
Survival: Recurring Nightmare (beat with Weaver)
Slivers: (beat, Survival fogs with Spike Weaver)
Survival: Bayou, Deranged Hermit
Slivers: Flood Plain
Survival: (don’t pay echo) Forest, Recurring Nightmare, sacrifice one Squirrel to return Hermit, beat with three 2/2 squirrels, Recurring Nightmare, sacrifice the Hermit to fetch Bone Shredder and kill the Muscle Sliver.
Slivers: blow Flood Plain on upkeep for Scrubland[/author]“][author name="Scrubland"]Scrubland[/author], draw, concede
Survival played first in game 2, and kept. Slivers had some amazingly bad draws (no land, then all land), but kept five. (And, yes, Ingrid shuffles thoroughly. However, as I wrote in my tournament report years ago, against Slivers, I have the Cut of Death.)
Survival: Bayou, Duress (taking Counterspell, seeing Tundra *2, Scrubland[/author]“][author name="Scrubland"]Scrubland[/author], Winged Sliver)
Slivers: Tundra
Survival: Forest, Survival
Slivers: Scrubland[/author]“][author name="Scrubland"]Scrubland[/author], Duress (taking Duress)
Survival: Bayou, survival away Squee for Krovikan Horror, Horror for Birds of Paradise, play Birds. (My opening hand was lands, Squee, Duress, Survival – I love it when a plan comes together.)
Slivers: Winged
Survival: Negator, survival Squee for Bone Shredder
Slivers: Hibernation Sliver, beat with Winged
Survival: Wasteland, waste Tundra (this was a misplay on my part – I somehow thought I could avoid a counterspell here. If she floated mana, I could play Bone Shredder post combat – but I needed to kill slivers before beating, so that doesn’t work. I also could have trapped Horror under the Wasteland, but I remembered to survival Squee first.) I played Bone Shredder and Ingrid bounced both Slivers back to hand in response. That meant that my Bone Shredder killed my own Birds, but I could still beat for five.
Slivers: replay both slivers
Survival: Swamp, Yavimaya Ants, beat for ten. Winged blocked Ants, Hibernation blocked Negator. I sacrificed two lands to the Negator, but Ingrid was at 3 life.
Ingrid drew and scooped.
Sideboarding: Survival brought in Simian Grunts (surprise factor), Dustbowl, and Living Death (the only answer to Crystalline Sliver), and took out an Oath of Ghouls, an Uktabi Orangutan, and a Duress. CounterSlivers took out the dead Misdirections and the nearly-dead Duress (although great against Recurring Nightmare) for Honor the Fallen, Swords and Perish.
Slivers: Volcanic Island
Survival: Bayou, Duress (took Counterspell, seeing FoW*2, Winged, Hibernation, CoB)
Slivers: CoB, Hibernation
Survival: Forest
Slivers: Flood Plain, Winged (beat)
Survival: Swamp, Recurring Nightmare
Slivers: (Flood Plain fetched Tropical Island) Muscle, beat
Survival: Spike Weaver
Slivers: beat for 7, Duress (whiffed: Wasteland, Forest, Dustbowl, K. Horror)
Survival: Wasteland, waste Tundra (beat), Survival (Slivers: FoW removing FoW)
Slivers: Flood Plain (beat / fog)
Survival: (beat for 2) Dustbowl, bowl Volcanic Island
Slivers: (beat / fog), Crystalline
Survival: Forest, bowl Tropical Island
Slivers: (beat, fog)
Survival: Spike Feeder, gain two life, Recur Feeder for Weaver
Slivers: (beat, fog)
Survival: Birds of Paradise
Slivers: (beat, fog), CoB
Survival: Bowl CoB
Slivers: (beat, fog) Scrubland[/author]“][author name="Scrubland"]Scrubland[/author]
Survival: Recurring Nightmare, sacrifice Birds for Weaver (Slivers: Honor the fallen with return on the stack)
I conceded, since Ingrid had lethal damage on the table.
Game 4 had Survival on the play, and both decks kept their opening hands.
Survival: Bayou (no Duress!)
Slivers: Underground Sea
Survival: Swamp, Survival
Slivers: Scrubland[/author]“][author name="Scrubland"]Scrubland[/author], Disenchant
Survival: Survival (Slivers: FoW removing Counterspell), Quirion Ranger
Slivers: Undiscovered Paradise, Hibernation Sliver
Survival: Swamp, Krovikan Horror
Slivers: Winged
Survival: Swamp, Wall of Roots (beat with Krovikan)
Slivers: (beat – Survival: throw Ranger at Winged, block with Wall of Roots)
Survival: (beat) Birds
Slivers: go (Survival: EoT Vampiric Tutor for Deranged Hermit)
Survival: Hermit (Slivers: Counterspell) (beat)
Slivers: go
Survival: Spike Feeder (beat for 2)
Slivers: (spent a long time pondering) —
Survival: beat
Slivers: concede
Slivers had a Consult in hand at this point, but I had the mana to move counters onto the Horror, then throw the other creatures at Ingrid’s head. Her only out would have been to draw either Perish or Swords, Consult for the other, then Perish and, once I started to move the counter, Swords the Horror. Even then, we would both be playing off the top of our decks, with her at 3-4 life and me at twenty plus. In the event, she did not draw either the Perish or Swords.
G/B Survival, the deck that the forums dissed so heavily, makes it through to the final four.
JarGrim versus Survival
The Survival list is above. JarGrim follows. I once called JarGrim Public Enemy Number One, and it is the broken monster that forced emergency bannings in Standard. Yes, it does win with Megrim. Once again, Survival is fighting a broken combo purely with Wasteland, Duress and a secret weapon – Elvish Lyrist. If a Lyrist resolves, JarGrim has to kill it, or it can disenchant Megrim with the discard effect on the stack.
JarGrim
Randy Buehler, GP: Vienna 1999
4 City of Brass
2 Gemstone Mine
4 Underground Sea
3 Underground River
3 Ancient Tomb
4 Memory Jar
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Mana Vault
4 Defense Grid
4 Lotus Petal
4 Mox Diamond
4 Tinker
4 Vampiric Tutor
4 Brainstorm
4 Dark Ritual
2 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Megrim
Sideboard
2 Sand Golem
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Abeyance
1 Disenchant
2 Pyroblast
4 Force of Will
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Perish
1 Gloom
1 Chill
Game 1: Jar mulled once, Survival was on the play.
Survival: Forest
JarGrim: Underground Sea, Vault
Survival: Swamp, Duress (taking Megrim)
JarGrim: Gemstone Mine,
Survival: Wasteland, waste Und. Sea, Wall of Roots
JarGrim: City of Brass, Ritual, Ritual, Memory Jar (blow jar) Vault, LED, Mox Diamond, tap both Vaults, Tinker Vault for Memory Jar, Mystical Tutor for Yawgmoth’s Will, blow jar, blow LED in response, Yawgmoth’s Will, replay LED, blow LED, Megrim. Win
That’s what my notes say. Something in that is wrong – you can’t blow the LED to play Megrim. I’m guessing that JarGrim played a Petal or Mox Diamond and a Ritual, but I don’t know. We didn’t see a misplay at the time, and since Survival had nothing to do but watch for those, odds are my notes are wrong.
Game 2 JarGrim mulliganed a no land hand, while Survival kept its seven.
Survival: Bayou, Birds
JarGrim: Und. Sea, Vault
Survival: Swamp, Wall of Roots, Survival
JarGrim: Brainstorm, Underground River (Survival for Squee EoT)
Survival: Forest, survival Squee for Uktabi Orangutan, Uktabi (JarGrim: Brainstorm in response) killing Vault
(thoughts while editing: I can’t remember why I didn’t get and play a Lyrist in here – probably worried that the Lyrist was too slow if JarGrim was ready to go off.)
JarGrim: Ancient Tomb, Defense Grid (Survival: Vampiric Tutor for Wasteland EoT)
Survival: Wasteland, waste Underground Sea, Survival Squee for Krovikan Horror, survival Horror for Phyrexian Negator, Negator (Jar: Brainstorm, then Vampiric Tutor EoT)
JarGrim: Mox Diamond, Tinker Defense Grid for Jar, (blow Jar) Lotus Petal, Underground Sea, Vampiric Tutor for Ritual, Brainstorm, Mox Diamond, Yawgmoth’s Will, Petal, Ritual & Vault from graveyard, Tinker Vault for Memory Jar, (blow Jar) Mox Diamond, Ritual, Ritual, Memory Jar & Vampiric Tutor (for Megrim) from graveyard, (blow Jar with B floating)
JarGrim draws: Megrim, Ancient Tomb, Lotus Petal, LED *2, Vampiric Tutor, Defense Grid.
Since it could not cast the Megrim, that was game. Survival would be beating for twelve next turn (survival for Yavimaya Ants, cast Ants, beat), which would have been lethal. Back in the day, people laughed at my hasty bugs, but Yavimaya Ants won a lot of matches. It served the same purpose as Giant Solifuge does today: fast damage post Wrath or when your opponent tapped out. The Ants are strictly worse than Capt. Tickles, but in 2000, you took what you could get.
Sideboarding: JarGrim does not work well if you take out too many combo pieces, especially the mana pieces. JarGrim’s greatest weakness is fizzling (see above), through not drawing the mana and tutors to keep going. Therefore, it took out the Defense Grids for two Force of Wills, a Disenchant, a Mystical Tutor, and a Perish. Survival took out the anti-creature package: the four Spikes, the Masticore, the Bone Shredder and the Plague Lord. It brought in another Uktabi, another Lyrist, two Ebony Charms and three Emerald Charms. (This creates some risk that it will not have creatures to begin the Survival chain, but that’s the best configuration it can get.)
Post Sideboard game 1: JarGrim was on the play, and neither deck mulliganed.
JarGrim: Mox Diamond, Ritual, Ritual, Memory Jar, blow jar, City of Brass, Brainstorm, LED, Lotus Petal, blow Lotus Petal for Vault (Brainstorm put a Yawg. Will on top of library)
Survival: Wasteland, waste CoB (desperation – nothing else helps)
JarGrim: Ancient Tomb
Survival: Bayou
JarGrim: Yawgmoth’s Will, Petal from graveyard, Ritual, Ritual, Memory Jar, go
Survival: Bayou, go (I could have played Survival of the Fittest, but I had no creatures to Survival for Squee, and I wanted mana open.)
JarGrim: Tinker Vault for Memory Jar #2, (blow jar #1, blow LED in response for UUU), LED, LED, Brainstorm, (blow Jar #2, blow both LED’s in response for UUUBBB), Lotus Petal, blow Petal, Yawgmoth’s Will, play LEDs, Vault, Tinker (from graveyard) Vault for Memory Jar, Memory Jar from hand, Megrim, etc. Go to EoT.
Survival did not have an Emerald Charm in either extra hand, so it lost.
Post sideboard game 2: Survival was on the play and kept. JarGrim mulliganed three straight non-land hands into one with Tinker, Mox Diamond, Yawgmoth’s Will, and Vault.
Survival: Bayou, Duress (taking Tinker)
JarGrim: Lotus Petal
Survival: Forest, Wall of Roots
JarGrim: Mox Diamond, blow Petal, Yawg. Will, play Petal from graveyard, Tinker Vault for Memory Jar, blow Jar (no mana floating), Lotus Petal, Underground Sea, Vampiric Tutor (for Brainstorm)
Survival: Survival (keeping Bayou open)
JarGrim: go (Survival Vampiric Tutors for Squee EoT)
Survival: survival Squee for Elvish Lyrist, Lyrist, go (JarGrim Brainstorms saw Gemstone Mine, Mox Diamond, V. Tutor, V Tutored for Perish, both because of Lyrist and to shuffle EoT 2 Survivals were already in the bin from the earlier Jar, so Disenchant was tempting, but Lyrist had to die.)
JarGrim: Perish
Survival: Wasteland, Negator.
JarGrim: —
Survival: Duress taking Megrim (lucky hit), waste Underground Sea, (beat).
JarGrim: —
Survival: (beat), survival for Lyrist, Forest, Lyrist
JarGrim:: — (Survival: Ebony Charm removing Megrim EoT)
With no possible outs, JarGrim conceded.
Postsideboard game 3: JarGrim was on the play and mulliganed once. Survival kept.
JarGrim: Mox Diamond, Underground Sea, Vault (holding land, Tinker.)
(post game note: going for Tinker here and blowing the Jar, having played a land already and being able to float only one colorless mana, is very risky. Tinkering and burning for one is not exciting. Odds are that Survival does not have the Duress, which would let Jar Tinker, float the mana and Jar away.)
Survival: Swamp, Duress (taking Tinker. Hey, I would have mulliganed to find Duress.)
JarGrim: Underground Sea, go
Survival: Forest, Wall of Roots, Lyrist, go
JarGrim: Ancient Tomb
Survival: Forest, Uktabi killing Vault
JarGrim: Lotus Petal
Survival: Forest, (beat with monkey)
JarGrim: —
Survival: Bayou (beat with monkey)
JarGrim: Mox Diamond
Survival: Yavimaya Ants, (beat with bugs & monkey)
JarGrim: —
Survival: pay upkeep, Recurring Nightmare, (beat with bugs & monkey)
JarGrim: Vault (holding two Dark Rituals and nothing to do with them), concede.
Yes, these matches are close. It’s like any control verses combo deck – control has to draw the counter, or Duress, or Wasteland, at the right time. I did so. However, to verify that this result is correct, we played a lot more games. Survival is something like a 60-40. maybe 65-35, favorite.
Survival wins. That leaves only the lingering mess involving PT Junk. I didn’t have a chance to hook up with Adrian to play these matches (since it is his deck), but I did play him, back in the day, with Top 8 on the line. I won that match, just like I did playing it out at home. However, I am so sick of typing out play by play, I’m not going to list them. Maybe in the forums. Instead, here’s coverage of two Junk versus Survival matches from my tournament report on the Dojo:
Round 2: Kurt Hahn, Junk
It was the inventor of 5color himself, and another nice opponent. I congratulated Kurt on finishing second at 5color worlds, and we shuffled up. He was playing Junk – Negators, River Boas, Plows, Tithe, Cursed Scroll, Duress, Elites, etc. Unfortunately for Kurt, Junk has a fragile mana supply, like CounterSlivers, and I drew Wastelands all over the place. Then I got Cartographer, which allowed me to pull Wastelands from my graveyard and my library. I even got Oath of Ghouls down, so if he killed my Cartographer, I would get it back in hand and fetch another Wasteland. Game one the life totals looked like this: Me, 25 (plow Negator), 23, (Vampiric Tutor), 27 (sacking Feeder), 25 (Boa). Kurt: 20 (Cartographer), 18 (ditto), 16 (ditto), 14 (ditto), concede. Game two was similar. The only creature that did damage all match was the Cartographer. After the match, I overheard Kurt (it’s not hard to overhear Kurt) tell someone that “Of course I lost – he drew about 14 Wastelands.” Kurt also Consulted away all but one plains one match – then kept drawing Tithes.
Round 5: Adrian Sullivan, Junk
… we talked and laughed and things were going pretty well until we actually started playing. Then, suddenly, Adrian’s side of the table had Elites, River Boas, and Negators all over the place. I floundered around for a while, but I didn’t even have enough mana to Survival up a Spike Weaver and start delaying tactics. My game looked like a plane being shot down – first I faltered, then I stalled, then the wings fell off and I bailed out just before the fuselage exploded.
Someone commented “It’s a game between two Dojo authors. We’ll get to hear both sides.” I’m was thinking “not a chance. Hopefully Adrian will gloss over this match. Man, I’m playing badly.” And I was.
Game 2 and 3 were better. Adrian had one nice play – I had the Horror on the table, and he tried to Swords it. I threw it at him for one damage, and he responded with an Ebony Charm that nailed both the Horror and Squee. But by then my land destruction and control elements had kicked in and Adrian was pretty much reduced to trying to topdeck land faster than I could kill it. I was drawing Wastelands like crazy, with Cartographer helping out. Eventually, the match came down to Adrian, with Wax and Wane in hand and nothing but a single Negator on the board, trying to draw something that produced green mana and keep it [in play] into the attack phase so he could pump his Negator, block my Negator and clear the board. I drew too many Wastelands, and he conceded. Adrian is amazing. He was mana screwed for turn after turn, but the whole time he was smiling, laughing – just a great opponent. In his place, I would probably have been somewhere between grumbling and throwing chairs.
GB Survival is very consistent, and both punishes and creates mana screw. PT Junk has an inconsistent manabase. Survival wins, and advances to the finals.
Trix versus SuperGro
Trix was unstoppable early in its reign, both because a lot of the other deckbuilders did not understand how to combat Trix and because the tools to fight it just were not in print. By the time SuperGro was created, the tools were there. Meddling Mage, Foil, Thwart and Wax / Wane were all printed after Trix first appeared. With a lot more pitch counters, combo control elements and the absolutely crushing Winter Orb (the card Blood Moon wishes it was), SuperGro was beating the Trix of its time fairly readily. Of course, the Trix in this tourney was not the version SuperGro usually fought – by the time SuperGro thrived, several cards from the original Trix list had been banned.
Trix
William Jensen, GP: Philadelphia, Feb. 2000.
4 Badlands
4 Peat Bog
4 Underground River
4 Underground Sea
4 Gemstone Mine
2 Volcanic Island
4 Necropotence
4 Illusions of Grandeur
4 Donate
4 Force of Will
2 Hoodwink
4 Demonic Consultation
2 Vampiric Tutor
2 Firestorm
4 Duress
4 Mana Vault
4 Dark Ritual
Sideboard
3 Contagion
4 Hydroblast
4 Pyroblast
4 Phyrexian Negator
SuperGro
Ben Rubin. Fourth, GP: Houston, 2002.
4 Tropical Island
4 Tundra
4 Flood Plain
1 Grasslands
2 Island
1 Savannah
4 Meddling Mage
4 Werebear
4 Merfolk Looter
4 Quirion Dryad
3 Mystic Enforcer
4 Land Grant
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Gush
4 Swords to Plowshares
2 Foil
Sideboard
1 Winter Orb
2 Mind Harness
3 Legacy’s Allure
3 Annul
2 Wax / Wane
3 Hidden Gibbons
1 Submerge
Let’s get straight on to match play. For game 1, Gro was on the play and both decks mulliganed twice.
Gro: Flood Plain
Trix: Peat Bog
Gro: Flood Plain got Tundra, Land Grant for Tropical Island, Meddling Mage naming Necro (Trix slumped in its seat in response. It had Necro in hand)
Trix: Badlands, Mana Vault
Gro: Looter (beat with Med. Mage)
Trix: Gemstone Mine, Mana Vault
Gro: Werebear (beat, loot)
Trix: Illusions, Badlands
Gro: Meddling Mage naming Donate, (beat), Gush returning lands, Tundra
Trix: pay & go
Gro: Dryad, (loot, beat), Tropical Island,
Trix had to topdeck Firestorm this turn or next, to kill Meddling Mage on Donate, then Donate before the upkeep makes it impossible. Trix failed to draw the Firestorm.
Game 2 Trix was on the play, kept a hand with Vampiric Tutor, Duress, Ritual, and lands. Gro mulliganed a marginal one-lander, then mulled a five-land and Swords hand, then another no-land hand. Gro kept its four.
Trix: Underground Sea
Gro: Tundra, Land Grant (revealing FoW, Foil, Mystic Enforcer, Quirion Dryad. Trix: Vampiric for Necro EoT)
Trix: Badlands, Duress taking Foil, Ritual, Necro, (necro 7 cards)
Gro: Tropical Island, Meddling Mage (Trix FoW removing FoW)
Trix: Volcanic Island, Duress taking FoW, Mana Vault, (Necro 6 cards, which left it just enough life to Vampiric Tutor for a card and draw it with Necro, if necessary)
Gro: Dryad, go (drew Tropical Island, held it in case it drew another Foil)
Trix: Illusions, Donate
Gro: pay, draw, concede.
Sideboarding is tricky. Both decks have lots of cards they would like to bring in. Trix wants to bring in Firestorm, Pyroblast, and even Contagion. Gro wants the Annuls and Wax / Wanes – even the Hidden Gibbons. Neither deck has all that many cards it wants to take out. For example, while Swords to Plowshares might, at first glance, look like a dead card for Gro, if it can Swords its own creature, Gro’s life total will be over twenty and a single Illusions cannot kill it. (Although an Illusions and a Firestorm with enough targets can.)
Trix took out two Hoodwinks, a Mana Vault, and a Duress, for two Pyroblasts, a Contagion and a Firestorm. Gro took out the three Winter Orbs (good, but not enough) and two Looters, for three Annuls and two Wax / Wane.
Game 3 started out tapped, but with both sides keeping their opening seven and playing comes-into-play-tapped lands. After that, the balance shifted.
Gro: Flood Plain
Trix: Peat Bog
Gro: Tropical Island, fetch Tundra, Meddling Mage (Trix FoW removing Illusions), Gro Gushed, then Force of Will removing Brainstorm. (Meddling Mage resolved and named Necropotence.)
Trix: Badlands (once again, Meddling Mage on the play on turn two stopped what would have been a turn two Necro.)
Gro: Tropical Island, (beat ,Trix Firestormed discarding Mana Vault & Vampiric Tutor, targeting Meddling Mage & Gro player)
Trix: Necro (Gro: Annul), Underground Sea
Gro: Tundra, Dryad
Trix: Gemstone Mine
Gro: Tropical Island, Brainstorm, beat, Werebear
Trix: go
Gro: Mystical Enforcer (pumping Dryad, beat)
Trix: go
Gro: Mystical Enforcer #2, (pump, beat)
Trix: Underground River
Gro: beat for the win
Game 4: Trix had a tough choice to make in this game. Its opening hand was Consult, Pyro, Gemstone Mine, Peat Bog, Underground Sea, Vampiric Tutor, Firestorm. Trix had to decide how defensively to play this – to play the Gemstone first, to allow the Pyroblast, or go straight for Necro. All the openings are debatable. (Gro also had a strange hand, but kept.)
Trix: Gemstone Mine
Gro: Flood Plain
Trix: Peat Bog
Gro: Tropical Island, Quirion Dryad (Trix: Vampiric EoT)
Trix: Underground Sea, Necro, (necro for four cards)
Gro: Wax Necro, Merfolk Looter (Trix: with the Dryad’s gain-a-counter on the stack, Firestorm targeting Looter & Dryad.)
Trix: Volcanic Island
Gro: Dryad
Trix: Ritual, Illusions, (with Donate and Pyroblast in reserve), (Gro: Wax Illusions with life gain on the stack.)
Game, set and match. Gro takes it in four. (Gro also won the vast majority of the test games, both sideboarded and unsideboarded.) Sorry, Trix, the rabbit done died.
With those results, the finals will be SuperGro verses GB Survival. I’ll be playing Survival in all the matches, and I sure hope I win.
| Enchantress | Enchantress | Trix | Trix | Supergro |
| UW Tron | ||||
| Trix | Trix | |||
| Twiddle / Desire | ||||
| Stasis | Stasis | High Tide | ||
| CMU Gun | ||||
| GobVantage | High Tide | |||
| High Tide | ||||
| Maher Oath | Maher Oath | Maher Oath | Supergro | |
| Angry Ghoul | ||||
| Turboland | Beat Stick | |||
| Beat Stick | ||||
| Benzo | The Clock | Supergro | ||
| The Clock | ||||
| SuperGro | SuperGro | |||
| Affinity | ||||
| Legion Land Loss | Legion Land Loss | Jar Grim and PT Junk | Jar Grim and PT Junk | Survival |
| TEPS | ||||
| Jar Grim | Both, see above | |||
| PT Junk | ||||
| RDW2k | RDW2K | Academy | ||
| Aggro Loam | ||||
| Academy | Academy | |||
| Cephalid Life | ||||
| Gaea’s Might Get There | Pandeburst | Counterslivers | ||
| Pandeburst | ||||
| Counterslivers | Counterslivers | |||
| Psychatog | ||||
| Free Spell Necro | Balancing Tings | Survival (yes, Survival) | ||
| Balancing Tings | ||||
| George W. Bosh | Survival | |||
| Survival | ||||
Next week, I’ll have the finals play-by-play, an analysis of why decks won throughout the tournament and some discussion of what this all means. Two weeks from now I’ll have to find another topic.
I’ve had a blast playing this out. I just hope that lasts one more week.
PRJ
“one million words” on MTGO
pete {dot} jahn {at} Verizon {dot} net