Off to LA

I'll be leaving Seattle around 3, getting into LA around 6. I might play in a trial just to get my feet wet. (By the way, I'm going to play Gavin's Loam deck.) Expect Twitter updates during the day Saturday and Sunday, and maybe posts after each day of play. By the way, no Twitter = don't wanna talk about it generally, if you're waiting for updates.

Cactus Aggro?

Testing at First Pick with Peter, Joe, and Zaiem plus some help from Dwayne, Chris Lawson, and Charles Wong when they were not drafting, I decided to try the Blue Zoo deck. Here's what I tried:

22 aforementioned lands

4 Wild Nacatl
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Kird Ape
2 Figure of Destiny
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Kitchen Finks

4 Tribal Flames
4 Lightning Helix
3 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Bant Charm
2 Flame Jab

Sideboard:
3 Proclamation of Rebirth
3 Duergar Hedge-Mage
3 Kataki, War's Wage
3 Stifle
3 Gaddock Teeg

I thought about sideboarding on the bus to First Pick, and I identified the decks where you are the beatdown and where you are not, and sideboarded accordingly. I.e. if you are the beatdown, avoid taking out one-drops. Mogg Fanatic can still be good for 2-3 damage on turn 1. Adding Proclamation in those matchups makes it okay (those are generally the matchups where they have Wrath effects.)

So I'll try to run-down what I played against:
A couple against Dwayne playing Zoo - Played only a couple preboard and I drew excellently. Sideboard is where I get an edge because their Hedge-Mages are really bad. I can bring in Hedge-Mages, one or two Procs, and the Stifles. I have not tested this matchup thoroughly enough at all.

A set against Pete playing Faeries - Yuck, I have no idea where the edges are in this matchup at all. I got wiped 0-2 preboard, but we split 5-5 postboard. Combine this with a set we played before where I think I was up, and you have a pretty even matchup. The Stifles come in and shouldn't hit lands generally, only Engineered Explosives or counters. Proc is pretty saucy too. Teeg's a little worse against just Explosives, but I guess you have to fight Chalice. Bant Charm is great. Shackles is Bad News Bears for us. Couldn't tell you how to beat this deck. Just draw well. Flame Jab is not as good as I thought it would be in this matchup.

A set of preboard of Chris playing GB Loam - I tested this last night and got beaten pretty badly 0-2 pre then 3-5 post. I think this actually came out even, and the Flame Jabs were actually great against Tribe-Elders and then sitting there waiting to do more damage. I need to play around Death Cloud better. This is still a poor matchup, especially losing Jund Charm. Kitchen Finks is surprisingly good as they have to two for one to get rid of it, whereas you can trump their Finks with Bant Charm.

A few against Charles playing Mono Burn - About the same as I thought. Two Nacatls will win you the game. Otherwise, don't take damage from lands and just look to soak up damage. Bant Charm saves you from Magma Jets that set them up and Shrapnel Blasts for the win, but doesn't save you from Sulfuric Vortex like Oblivion Ring does. Maindeck Finks are really good too.

A few preboard against Charles playing Affinity - I think I won once. Bant Charm helps, but still slow. This matchup is still atrocious.

Those are my thoughts. I will probably play this deck, but GB is a back pocket deck if I chicken out still.

I am such a coward

Spent the past thirty minutes at work thinking about Zoo... I independently thought up that Bant Charm is better than Oblivion Ring in the mirror by a mile because it can't be Duergar Hedge-Maged.

Bored at work, I went to Brainburst hoping to see a tournament report by Alex but instead happened on a little guide to Zoo with some ideas that may be worth trying.

Here's what I want to try:

4 Wild Nacatl
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Kird Ape
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Figure of Destiny

4 Tribal Flames
4 Lightning Helix
3 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Bant Charm
2 Flame Jab

4 Flooded Strand
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
1 Steam Vents
1 Temple Garden
1 Breeding Pool
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Stomping Ground
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Overgrown Tomb (I think you play this instead of Blood Crypt because it makes Bant Charm colors)
1 Plains
1 Forest

SB:
2 Proclamation of Rebirth (Probably better than Ranger, because you can bring it in against decks with board sweepers like Faeries, where you'd like to run out 3 one-drops but you know you will get wasted by Engineered Explosives.)
3 Duergar Hedge-Mage
4 Kataki, War's Wage (maybe three of this and one more Hedge-Mage...)
3 Stifle
3 Gaddock Teeg

I'm about to chicken out of playing GB Loam because I think Engineered Explosives will cost me an arm and a leg at the event site (neither of the main shops that sell singles in Seattle has them, and Star City doesn't have them either). It will be easier for me to borrow or buy Flooded Strands, too.

No live testing tonight, but maybe some MWS, so I'll be giving this a spin to see if I like it or not. One thing I am considering is the difference in metagame between Day 1 of the Grand Prix with three byes and a PTQ. Less Mono-Red burn starting 3-0?

Can't stop The Rock

So I tested last night with Zaiem and Dave Derrickson. I wasn't expecting to test because my apartment was (and still is) a mess and needed to be cleaned, and I was on-call (luckily I was not called), but who am I to turn down testing?

So of course I didn't bring any decks with me to the office as I left straight from work to U-District, but Zaiem luckily had Gavin's GB Rock deck that I was considering, so I try it.

This was all pre-board, I played some games against TEPS and won maybe once (Gavin said that matchup was indeed very bad), I played against Faeries and I seemed like a favorite, I played against some of the fringe decks from the PTQ Top 8 (GW Haterator... only took one game off of that, what a beating, and GWU control which seemed similar to the Faeries matchup).

I like the deck. It does powerful things. I think I will play it some more.

What to play at Grand Prix Los Angeles

If you came here looking for what deck you should play next weekend at the Grand Prix, you came to the wrong place because I have no idea.

I went a very frustrating 3-3-2 at the PTQ with Zoo. I was mulliganing infinitely. Maybe I'm being too greedy with my sevens, is it wrong to send back hands with no one drops? What about clunky hands involving Steam Vents and a Blood Crypt, stranding a Wild Nacatl or leaving you with a bad Kird Ape? Here's what I played against:

Round 1: Zoo W
Round 2: Zoo L. Frustrating Game 2 when he peels Duergar Hedge-Mage for my Jitte and my Ring that was hiding a Tarmogoyf), then Game 3 a little rushed I pitch a controlling 7 and keep what may have been a bad 6.
Round 3: Faeries D. G2 I get a gift and he Cliques me after knowning the contents of my hand (double Jitte) from a Clique.... that was still on the board.
Round 4: Zoo L. Mull to 4 game 2. He kept a bad hand too but it took me too long to get there.
Round 5: Slide L. I blame myself for this not being a draw because I had called a judge twice on him for forgetting to draw and drawing off a cycle that he did not have the mana for, and in extra turns with a judge sitting at the table I miss my chance to nail him for forgetting to draw off a cycle but him remembering at end step. I knew I could probably nail him because I watched him play Round 1 and he was very slow and not as sharp with his operations.
Round 6: Martyr (Cactus Control) D. He was a slow player copying Zaiem and Jon's deck from BDM's article, but I wasn't going to push a slow play warning in the champions' bracket. That being said, this match is very bad and I managed to steal a game.
Round 7: Scrub, W. Bottom table.
Round 8: Dredge, W. Second to last table.

I went to time four times which I can pin on myself. In Limited I was speeding up too much then slowed it down and played better, but now I'm getting too slow presumably because I haven't tested as much Extended as I had Shards Limited with MODO and three paper drafts a week.

I tried running a modified Zoo (with Mana Tithe in the main) in the Magic-League master and was out of contention after round 4 and didn't win a single match in the following two rounds either. I'm not sure if I want to try Mana Tithe for more, (Think about it: how often does someone tap out against you for Firespout or Damnation or Thirst or Vendilion Clique or for pretty much anything? And what deck would you hate to be on the back foot against because you have to play an additional land to cast your spells?) but I still feel like I'm getting outclassed in power level:

Round 1 vs. Zoo L (I played G3 poorly, all my fault)
Round 2 vs. GB Loam W
Round 3 vs. Dredge W
Round 4 vs. All In L (terrible matchup)
Round 5 vs. Bubble Hulk L (pretty bad too if you can't stop Footsteps)
Round 6 vs. GB Death Cloud L (close but Krosan Grip gets me)

I played the deck in a couple of minis too. In one I beat Faeries then beat TEPS, and in the other I beat the same TEPS and I lose to the Burn Deck.

I hate blaming things on luck or mulligans or stuff like that, because I feel like I'm not good enough or flawless enough to complain about luck. Maybe the deck really isn't powerful enough to win a PTQ. Maybe I haven't put in enough hours.

Our Top 8 was 3 Faeries decks, 2 Affinity decks, TEPS, WG Haterator, and Uwg Chase Rare-ish kind of thing. (Call it Gifts Ungiven without Gifts Ungiven? That's what it looked kind of like.) Affinity beat Faeries in the final. A Pokemon World Champion won the spot over a man who has to date lost three matches in three events this season.

At the other PTQ this weekend in Louisville, Zaiem and Jon's Cactus Control creation took down a Blue Envelope beating Faeries. The rest of the top 8 was Burn, Affinity, GB Loam, Zoo, another Faeries deck, and TEPS.

So looking back.... maybe Zoo can still get there? I thought about Gavin's GB Loam deck. Even though Faeries is the best deck, that mirror would be mindnumbing and I don't think I could have it down pat in less than a week. I toyed with Affinity last week, but I'm also not comfortable running that deck, especially since you randomly scoop it to Turn 2 Kataki. GB is pretty good I hear against Faeries (better than Zoo is), so it made it tempting.

Twitter

I set up a Twitter feed and widget for this blog. This way if you want to know how I'm doing in a tournament, I only have to text Twitter and not everyone who would conceivably want to know. I think this will be especially cool in Los Angeles, especially if I manage to make a run.

I think you can even it up to have Twitter text you with friend updates, so for right now, my user name is fourouttheforty.

Cactus Control

Sooooo... the deck is out, but I don't like the name. Get A Life? I didn't think I'd say it, but I like Gavin's name: Cactus Control.

"Because when has a cactus ever betrayed you?"