GP Philadelphia Record 4-4 Lessons Learned, Definately

Hello everyone,

I’m officially on spring break and I now have a bit of time at my disposal to write up my results from GP: Philly. A little bit of background, I was not planning on attending the GP until a week and a half before the event. My schedule opened up and I figured I’d take a shot. The deck that I was originally planning on playing was Aggro Loam, but on the Wednesday preceding the tournament, I decided to switch to a more comfortable build. A friend of mine always says that it is not about playing the best deck in the format, it’s about playing a deck that you are fully comfortable with. For example, hand any scrub a deck like U/G Tron in extended and watch them piddle around inefficiently, using gifts for the wrong things and not getting the mana base online correctly. Here’s the issue, U/G Tron is a competitive deck so it would behoove someone wanting to play a competitive deck to learn the deck. Alas, less than a week before the tournament, I had to concede to my own inability to play Aggro Loam. Oh well, I got to play a build called the Baltimore Zoo. If you’ve seen any of the Zoo builds lately they tend to be a bit greedy with the mana as it tries to power up wins with tribal flames and gaea’s mights. This build winds back the abuse of onslaught lands and ravnica duels in order to form a more perfect union.

• Land:
  • 4x Bloodstained Mire
  • 4x Wooded Foothills
  • 4x Stomping Ground
  • 3x Sacred Foundry
  • 2x Barbarian Ring
  • 1x Snow covered mountain
  • 2x Mountain
  • 1x Forest
• Creatures
  • 2x Isamaru
  • 3x Gaddok Teeg
  • 4x Kird Ape
  • 4x Mogg Fanatic
  • 4x Grim Lavamancer
  • 4x Tarmogoyf
• Spells
  • 4x Lightning Helix
  • 4x Incinerate
  • 4x Firebolt
  • 4x Molten Rain
• Sideboard
  • 4x Ancient Grudge
  • 2x Krosan Grip
  • 3x Honorable Passage
  • 3x Temporal Isolation
  • 3x Tormod’s Crypt

So what you’re probably thinking is “No Bob?” and “No Vindicate?”

Actually yes. Bob is pretty much a liability as I am looking to hit a Foundry and a Stomping Grounds by turn two, mostly using sac lands, so I’m starting at -25% life anyway, why add black, another land to sting me, and Bob, another guy to deal me damage. I might as well just roll over and die to a random shrapnel blast. Even Tom Lapille admits that if he doesn’t draw into lightning helix with his greedy build he’s pretty much lost the game. You can’t race if your opponent starts halfway there.

Molten rain becomes a less flexible vindicate, and incinerate replaces tribal flames because it’s just better when I’m in only three colors. The gaea’s mights become firebolt, the ever present flashback burn that seems so clutch and manages to ensure that I get there. I think the build really shines with its sideboard. Good creatures are big right now. Goyf, Doran, Baloth, cranial plating+thopter, you get the point. These are all very affluent in the environment right now and so it seems that handing these great cards that my opponents are relying on a big old nerf bat is in my favor. The one thing about the board that I didn’t like was the 4x ancient grudge to 2x krosan grip. Enduring ideal, destructive flow, armadilo cloaks all fall to a well timed krosan grip, but what amazed me was how I never felt the need to bring in 4x grudge, but then again I didn’t get to play affinity. I would also like to point out that the honorable passages are primarily a trick against piledrivers, winning the game as an out to an attacking force that is not quite lethal without that big guy hitting. I would however run orim’s chants in the board as this deck has zero protection from combo storm. Note in round 5 I got stormed out on twice around a gaddok teeg. That’s where my day started to get a bit frustrating.

Now for the rounds.

Round 1, Game 1:

I’m on the play and I lead with a 2/3 Kird Ape. Opponent plays river of tears for duress on my molten rain. I drop a mogg fanatic and isimaru on turn 2 to apply the pressure, swing with the ape. Opponent plays plains and duresses me a second time taking my lightning helix. He sees double firebolt in hand. I draw on a lavamancer. Swing for 5, play the lavamancer and double firebolt in case he’s playing cabal therapy, this brings my opponent to 9. Next draw is a molten rain on his river of tears crippling his already wailing mana base, and this seals it.

Round 1, Game 2:

I have no forests and an ape and a fanatic in a one land hand. I lead off with mogg fanatic. He plays Azorious Guildmage (I know really?) I magma jet it and scry up land I need. Swing with fanatic. He goes Counterbalance which I begrudge because I’m expecting him to lay a land and play top which he does not. I try and goyf blind and he gets it on the balance. He plays Azorious guildmage again and I try to play isimaru which is balanced by a duress but I’m not scarred because I’ve got goyf coming down uncountered. Goyf hits board and with a barb ring on his blocker and second to the dome, and my team I swing through.

Round 1 Analysis: (1-0)

I think I played everything correctly. I may have had an error playing the first goyf blind into the counterbalance, but I had a second and an isamaru to test out the second one next turn. Also, I was clocking him despite the goyfs so I don’t think it was that impactive. What really sucked was that he got so mana screwed both games, but then again, if you go on your heels to an aggressive deck, it’s gonna get you.

Round 2, Game 1:

This deck comes out with ancient furnace and darksteel citadel. I’m thinking affinity but he suspends rift bolt and I know it’s burn poaching shrapnel blast. He goes double rift blot, double magma jet. I sat patiently through the burn before throwing my guys out and I dropped 3 guys in one turn and he just didn’t have responses for them. Apes and the team get through.

Round 2, Game 2:

I was considering boarding heavily against the artifacts by bringing in 4x ancient grudge, but I only brought in three for gaddock teeg because in this match he’s an awkward bear that dies when my opponent needs him to. The grudges didn’t show up and I was bemoaning that as my opponent rips double sun droplet. I tested against that card and it must die inorder for me to win. I just can’t race him when he’s gaining 4 life a turn.

Round 2, Game 3:

I bring in the 4th ancient grudge and the krosan grips. My hand is Stomping Grounds, Sacred Foundry, Goyf, Goyf, Goyf, Helix, Ancient Grudge. I cannot lose this race. I slow play a bit to make sure the goyfs have asses of 4 before they hit and one by one they dominate his life total. There’s a reason why everyone plays him and that’s because despite not drawing another land for the game, I win over heaps of burn. Game ends with him at 1 and only a Barbarian ring for red mana.

Round 2, Analysis: (2-0)

The deck is drawing gas and land in happy conjunction. I did make a boarding mistake as I should have brought in the 4th ancient grudge but oh well, I’m not well tested in extended and I don’t like boarding in 4 of something unless I know I will want to see multiples. I wasn’t guaranteed to see it anyway and I came out on top with sick rips game three.

Round 3, Game 1:

Now I’m with the 1900 plus rating guys coming in off of buys. I play a guy named Duncan and he’s cheery. He’s running a zoo build as well and leads with rift bolt. I get guys on the board and sting myself A LOT with my lands in a very greedy way. My guys are better gas than his burn. He says that he play mistaked in this game as he should have suspended rift bolt and then double burned next turn thus killing my guys faster with less damage on him overall. I see what he means and bring in my honorable passages for my teegs.

Round 3, Game 2:

I drop turn 1 Isamaru. He gets in for I believe 8 damage. I get to honorable passage a rift bolt which feels pretty saucy. He ends up Sulfuric Vortexing at a very bad time for him as I had him clocked twice as fast with that sinkhole on the board. We end the game with a second on the board but it is irrelevant as he’s tapped out.

Round 3, Analysis: (3-0)

I like this deck a lot in the mirror. My guys beat hard and I didn’t seen many creatures from him but he was running fanatics and lavamancers. I saw white and green mana on the table but nothing to show for it in his cards. I’m pretty sure he had some rough rips but I’m not concerned as I am playing well and the deck is drawing well.

Round 4, Game 1:

So there’s something about playing someone who’s got three buys, I know that they’re more experienced than me. What do I like in this matchup? I get to tell Jake Van Lunen (one of the PT San Diego Sliver Kids) that I’ve played my way up throughout the day to which he immediately treats me like a clueless noob. He wasn’t rude or spikey, rather he just didn’t seem daunted by the matchup. We roll and shuffle up, he leads off with a Chrome mox and swamp for Bob. I mogg fanatic Bob. He plays Doran. I make 2 one drop guys. He plays destructive flow and I look at my land and say “wow don’t I regret playing so few basics” He crashes my door with doran all day.

Round 4, Game 2:

I bring in temporal isolation, krosan grip, and ancient grudge. His chrome mox is what saved him in game one so I want to kill it in game two. The grips are for flows, and the isolation is for his doran. I end up drawing mountain, mountain, forest for land so I’m not worried about a D flow. I get guys, I play burn, he’s very behind blocking with eternal witness and birds. I get critical combat damage on the board and he last ditches a tarmogoyf and an armadillo cloak. At EOT, I temporal isolation the goyf and crash through for the win. He comments on my tech and says that he’s sad that he has to take out his armadillo cloaks. My board isn’t going anywhere though.

Round 4, Game 3:

I have a great hand, but I seem to have forgotten game one entirely as I search out non-basic land unnecessarily. I miss land drop number 3 and he plays destructive flow. I lose with no lands on the board and a goyf coming through for massive damage.

Round 4, Analysis:

This is where I start to make play mistakes on the day. I was running on less than six hours of sleep and no food other than a few granola bars gracefully given to me by good friend Brian. I don’t think I was doing myself any favors. Most importantly, I’m missing the subtleties necessary to compete with the pros. This is of course why I’m not winning any money and they are, well, pros.

Round 5, Game 1:

I get ape, Teeg, and Isamaru on board. My opponent off of two lands manages to storm double grapeshot for critical. I’m thinking “God rip right” the teegs stay in because I know that he can’t be running a storm deck entirely based off of sub 4 mana spells.

Round 5, Game 2:

I get ape, teeg, lavamancer on board. My opponent plays quiet speculation for triple lava dart. He say, i move to my discard phase. I should have let the turn pass as declaring the discard phase would have put him in cleanup with no priority passes in his turn. Instead, I try and magma jet him to set up my turn. He responds with final fortune and next turn hits me for something like 36 on swath+grapeshot. This is what frustrated me. Storm was never an issue, but I can’t even touch this deck. It’s damage threshold is very high and I have to play tight and it still might just goldfish against me. This threw me off tilt, which is really bad.

Round 5, Analysis: (3-2)

I’m on the out rounds, if I lose again I’m probably not making day two. I’m hoping that I don’t have to play against storm because I’m really frazzled by that last matchup.

Round 6, Game 1:

I sit down with a Mike Ward who I’ve seen at a Qual Lampur PTQ in Rockville MD. He’s running rock shenanigans and hits deed to which I roll over and die, especially when he follows it up with a Garruk into Goyf.

Round 6, Game 2:

He mulls to something like 4. I think, great, maybe I’ll just roll him. I get 3 one drops on the board beating face and he hits his third land and plays deed. I suck it up, swing in and then watch all my guys die. That’s fine because I was holding Isamaru and Fanatic in hand which should get me there. He untaps and plays deed #2! I’m like, wow, that’s a good hand against me, two lands and two deeds. He’s a nice guy and tells me that he topdecked double deed, goyf, garruk, and ravenous baloth. I just can’t beat draws like that and it was an ugly beating.

Round 6, Analysis (3-3)

I’m basically dead in the water. My pipe dreams from the beginning of the day are crushed. How could I play so well and then lose so badly? The answer, the byes ran out. I was playing scrubs with rating sub 1800 like myself. I can beat those guys, but I can’t beat the really good guys, so when round 4 hit, I was a much smaller fish in a much bigger pond.

Round 7, Game 1:

Awesome matchup in this round. I play against Aggro loam, the deck I was originally planning on playing. He ends up devastating dreams twice for two and manages to stick a terravore. That guys wins it for him.

Round 7, Game 2:

This is my crowning glory of numbskullery. I tap a sac land, consider my hand, grab land and then poof my hand was two cards smaller. The incinerate that I thought was in my hand I assume is on the bottom of my library (because when I was searching my deck I saw one there) I think that I’ve made a mistake and just thought that I had the incinerate. My opponent lands a small terravore, and then follows it the next turn with a countryside crusher. I’m just drawing lands and I’m thinking what the hell I know I had an incinerate. The game next to us is finished and a guy looks at me and hands me a purple sleeve face down. I’m using purple sleeves, I look at it (probably deserving a warning) and it’s my incinerate. After recounting the cards on the table, I find my barbarian ring under my chair. At this point, the incinerate is too small to kill crusher and he hits a land pocket of 5. I lose to the overwhelming trample damage from the terravore.

Round 7 Analysis: (3-4)

Fatigue is like a bad girlfriend at these events. You aren’t sure if you’ve got a bad girlfriend until after she posts naked pictures of you on the internet. I got screwed by not paying attention and assuming that I was wrong when I should have counted up the cards on the board to double check. I got lazy and lost the match.

Round 8, Game 1:

At this point I’m trying to recoup points and I figure one more loss will be manageable after the debacle of the previous round. My opponent leads off with burn and guys, I respond with burn and guys. Eventually my goyf gets through for the win. He had played an orim’s chant during the game, but I’ve seen other people using the chant without the scepter today so I don’t board in the grudges.

Round 8, Game 2:

Sure enough, he gets a lightning helix on a stick. I can’t keep pace with a turn by turn 6 point life swing for 2 mana. He is going to win the race and so I scoop to get to game three.

Round 8, Game 3:

I have the nuts draw on 6. This is the first time all day that I mulligan and it’s because my only land was a forest. This is a prime example of why playing this kind of deck is advantageous. Mulligans are few and far between, and I know that I’m keeping this six lander with ape, goyf, helix, helix, stomping grounds, sacred foundry. I eventually rip two more lightning helixes which put me way out of range and clear the way for my guys.

Round 8, Analysis: (4-4)

After 8 rounds, I’m not looking to play the 9th. Everyone I know is gone and it’s getting late and being in Philadelphia, and seeing as I have no where to stay but my parent’s house in Massachusetts, I decide to call it quits. Good thing as I crashed as I got into bed when I finally got home aroun 2:45 AM. I’m happy with closing out the day with a win and earning an even keel for the day. My rating has gone up about 20 points so I’m pleased, and I feel like I will be much more prepared for my next big tournament. Look out GP: Indy