Second Place at 21 player Lone Star Lhurogoyf full proxy event September 9 2017
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So for this event I was playing BUG. I had been testing a Paradoxical list, but I was unhappy witht he performance of all of it, so I just went with something I knew a bit better.
List:
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
3 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Managorger Hydra
1 Manglehorn
2 Ramunap Excavator
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Trygon Predator3 Abrupt Decay
1 Ancestral Recall
2 Flusterstorm
4 Force of will
2 Mental Misstep
1 Snuff Out
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Ponder
1 Time Walk1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
2 Null Rod
1 Sylvan Library
1 Jace, The Mind Sculptor1 Bayou
1 Library of Alexandria
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Polluted Delta
1 Strip Mine
3 Tropical Island
3 Underground sea
4 WastelandSideboard
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Dismember
1 Mindbreak Trap
2 Nature's Claim
3 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Null Rod
2 Energy Flux
4 Leyline of the VoidApologies, but I forgot to write down all the names in my notes.
Round 1: vs Oath Win 2-0
Lost the die roll. This match was not particularly notable. Game 1 I had an early pair of deathrites, and forced 2 Oaths, then decayed 2 more and the game was ended rather rapidly.
Game 2 was even more lopsided. I sat on a library on the draw for several turns until I could find a decay+force, then played a Deathrite and Ramunap Excavator+strip mine on turn 6-7 and just countered or killed the one oath he found before I strip mined away all of his lands and landed a null rod to turn off his fast mana and he scooped.
Round 2 vs Shops (Ben Kennedy I think?) loss 1-2
Lose the die roll again. Game 1 turn 1 he plays a foundry inspector, sphere of resistance, and hangarback walker. Follows it up with a hangarback walker. I'm never really in this game at all.
Game 2 I start with lotus+wasteland into Green Sun's Zenith for Ramunap Excavator. I force his first sphere then start the wasteland train until he scoops.
Game 3 was pretty crushing. We traded wastelands early, and he ended up with a hangarback and a sphere and 1 mox to my 1 land for many turns. Eventually I draw no gas, and he finds a ravager and just kills me with his random extra artifacts.
Round 3 vs Mono-White hatebears Win 2-1
Game 1 was incredibly weird. In the first 5 or so turns we each had around half a dozen creatures in play, none of which could profitably attack leading to a ridiculous stalemate, including a Dryad Militant on his side making my deathrites worthless. However, I had a Ramunap Excavator and eventually got a strip mine and started wearing down his lands. He scoops to zenith for Trygon Predator to start swinging in for lethal overhead.
Game 2 I just got crushed beneath thalia, vryn wingmares, and spirit of the labyrinth.
Game 3 we trade several wastelands each early, leaving him with just a stoneforge mystic and a single plains in play, with batterskull in hand, and me with a single mox jet for mana. Eventually I play a Deathrite and start to recover, where he never draws another land for a long time. Game is sealed up when I find strip+ramunap excavator and he scoops.
Round 4 vs UR Delver Win 2-0
Game 1 I play a DRS turn 1 and fight a misstep fight over it which I win. Then I play a leovold turn 2 and force his force. After that the game purely revolves around him trying to remove Leovold and me drawing a million cards off it and keeping it in play with the stream of counterspells I draw. He finally concedes when I find Ramunap+strip and remove all his lands, with his only mox being held in check with null rod and being down to 1 pyromancer token.
Game 2 I get an early ramunap Excavator and leovold and strip mine comes into play really early sealing this game up by turn 5 or so.
Round 5 ID with Painters Servant (win 2-0)
Draw into top 8, but played for fun. Game 1 he plays grindstone then time vault. I have DRS+ Null rod, then play Ramunap+DT for strip. He never gets an out to any of that and game is over really fast.
Game 2 was even more lopsided. Decayed a Painter's Servant, played Null Rod, then followed up with Leovold. Countered 2 removal spells and then skillfully drew all 4 wastelands and the game was over.
I was in the top 8 as seed 6
Top 8: vs Shops (ben Kennedy again) win 2-0
This was a rematch of my only loss from the swiss. Game 1 was a complete blowout. He went Workshop, sol ring, which I misstepped. Then he went to cast thorn, which I forced. I played lotus->Ramunap Excavator-> wasteland for his workshop. He only had factory, I untapped played mox, replayed wasteland from the yard, and played null rod. He scooped.
Game 2 he had a turn 1 Foundry Inspector. I wastelanded his Workshop and played a jet and DRS. He followed up with a sphere, but I time-walked on my turn, then wasteland him and DT for Energy Flux. I cast it the next turn and he scoops.
Top 4 vs Oath (Ben Kendrick) Win 2-0
Game 1 was incredibly close. He had a slow start, and I had Library on the draw. On turn 3 he played a show and tell into Dromoka, I put in DRS. On my turn I tried to cast Jace, TMS. He forced, going hellbent. He then proceeded to beat me down with dromoka for 4 turns (I gained some life off DRS to prolong my life) and on the last possible card from library I find DT and tutor for and cast snuff out with mana to kill his Dromoka with flusterstorm and force backup. He plays time vault, and I null rod, then he casts oath and I decay it and then find Strip Mine and zenith for Ramunap Excavator and he concedes after I take him below 2 lands.
Game 2 I keep a hand with decay and nature's claim, he has to give me like 5 tokens off Orchard because I keep wastelanding his other colored sources. He is constanly 1 land away from being able to play something to win, but then Ramunap Excavator comes down and keeps him out of the game entirely.
Finals vs Pitch Dredge Chris Loss 0-2
Game 1 I have a decently close match because he mulliganed 28 cards with Serum Powder and exiled most of his bridges. I have an active DRS, but he manages to get an elesh norn into play along with 2 prized amalgams threatening lethal and I have no outs.
Game 2 I have to mulligan to 5 just to have a hand with spells in it. It has no colored mana, but does have Leyline so I keep. Turn 2 I find a Cage and play that as well. He just filters with Bazaar until he finds a Hollow one and beats me to death with it while I sit on no mana and no useful spells. I didn't even think about the possibility of hollow one so I didn't bring in my claims to possibly kill them. I eventually draw a couple creatures, but it is significantly too late. I still walked away with a Bayou for my troubles, and a good number of other cards (many provided by Team Tusk) from the raffle during the event:
Overall I was pretty happy with the deck. Ramunap Excavator overperformed significantly. I think 2+ 1 green sun's zenith was the correct number. I cast DT ~10 times today, and 7 of those it was for Excavator or Strip. The other 3 were snuff out, Energy Flux, and once for Lotus to cast the Excavator. The fact that it was a 2/3 was incredibly important and it was a massive upgrade over crucible in this particular list.
Jace Vryn's Prodigy however was godawful today. Nearly every time I drew it I wished it was anything else. I would probably rather play another Sylvan Library or another removal spell over it. Honestly, I'm strongly considering an edict of some sort, maybe Diabolic Edict, or a Liliana of the Veil.
Snuff Out was awesome. Having a 'free' removal spell was very relevant in several games. It not being able to hit black creatures was a serious drawback though. I would consider running more if the hefty life cost wasn't there. There were several situations where I wished I could have had a Toxic Deluge today, so perhaps that should be something to work in later.
Managorger Hydra was decent, it was a large body for reasonable cost, but was not as good as I would have expected.
One thing we kept joking about during the day was that I should be playing an Azusa to combo with the Excavators, and I honestly think I will try that instead of the Managorger or JVP.
@thecravenone did a great job running the event, and I had a blast. The venue was also excellent, 4th Tap Brewery in Austin TX.
Thanks for reading!
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The turnaround on this report and your performance makes me suspect you didn't drink enough, Stephen.
Congrats on the run, and glad you liked the event - we were pretty pumped about how it all went. It was good to see you, and hope you can start making it out to Legacy again.
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@stuart Of course I didn't drink enough. My one loss was right after drinking my one beer for the day. Its why I did well.
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@l0cke17 No worries. @Stuart made up for it by winning drunkest and also giving me the rituals he won.
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@thecravenone said in Second Place at 21 player Lone Star Lhurogoyf full proxy event September 9 2017:
@l0cke17 No worries. @Stuart made up for it by winning drunkest and also giving me the rituals he won.
love those rits but i never use them, glad they found a good home
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This post is deleted!
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@nedleeds I assume the boseijus were yours? Also I was shameful and chose the wasteland over the sweet altered Tusk on the prize board.
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@thecravenone said in Second Place at 21 player Lone Star Lhurogoyf full proxy event September 9 2017:
@Stuart made up for it by winning drunkest and also giving me the rituals he won.
In retrospect this was dumb, as my lovely new Glucksfall makes me wanna play some TPS. That's what I get for drinking IPAs for 9 hours without eating anything.
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@l0cke17 No need to worry, the SS Tusk found a good home with the Goyf's.
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Azusa seems bad in the deck because it's useless outside of turn 1 or Ramunap combo. And seems to me Ramunap can win by himself without Azusa's help at all, which makes her a win-more that does nothing on her own.
2 Jace could become +1 Snapcaster +1 Diabolic Edict/Fatal Push.
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One of my pals was trying out a BUG Leovold build that used JVP, Squee, and Survival. It was very grindy and did a lot of work once survival hit. You can tutor up Squee, then get as many other creatures as you want until grave hate hits. Getting out Leovold shut down a lot of options in my experience. Squee with JVP was also a nice touch.
