GP Shizuoka

I played in Grand Prix Shizuoka. Let me tell you about it.

First off...I planned to play Dredge at the GP.

Gitaxian Probe and Sensei’s Divining Top are banned. Doomsday isn’t good anymore.
I have some experience playing Storm, but not enough.
The most popular decks in Legacy right now are control decks. However, control decks are rare in Hachinohe.
Without experience against Miracles and Grixis Delver, I feel very disadvantaged.
In addition, without Deathrite Shaman in Legacy, control decks use their graveyard much more, and can draw a lot of cards.
Dredge is a combo deck that is very good against control decks.
Because BR Reanimator is very fast, people choose to play Turn 0 hate such as Surgical Extraction and Faerie Macabre.
Dredge beats one Surgical Extraction easily.

So, I borrowed my friend’s Dredge deck, and easily won one of the events here in Hachinohe.

However…when we went to Shizuoka...

I played in one Grand Prix Trial with Dredge. The opponent had 6 anti-graveyard cards. Everyone around me was playing Reanimator and Dredge. People had adjusted, and I am a coward, so I switched back to Storm.

This is the deck I played. It is the same deck Kai Sawatari played the Grand Prix.

4 Polluted Delta (汚染された三角州)
4 Scalding Tarn (沸騰する小湖)
3 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
1 Volcanic Island
1 Island (島)
1 Swamp (沼)
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond (ライオンの瞳のダイアモンド)
4 Lotus Petal (水蓮の花びら)
4 Ponder (思案)
4 Preordain (定業)
4 Brainstorm (渦まく知識)
4 Duress (強迫)
3 Thoughtseize (思考囲い)
4 Dark Ritual (暗黒の儀式)
3 Daze (目くらまし)
4 Infernal Tutor (冥府の教示者)
4 Cabal Ritual (陰謀団の儀式)
1 Tendrils of Agony (苦悶の触手)
1 Past in Flames (炎の中の過去)
1 Ad Nauseam (むかつき)

Sideboard:
1 Badlands
2 Cabal Therapy (陰謀団式療法)
2 Surgical Extraction (外科的摘出)
1 Xantid Swarm (ザンティッドの大群)
1 Daze (目くらまし)
3 Echoing Truth (残響する真実)
2 Abrupt Decay (突然の衰微)
3 Empty the Warrens (巣穴からの総出)

I hadn’t played Storm in a month, and I had no sideboard plan. There was no chance of a good result, but I did my best.

Round 1 - Miracles

Game 1 - The opponent played Counterbalance on turn 2. I couldn’t win through it. I was already unhappy because I decided to play Dredge to avoid this situation--playing Storm against Miracles with no experience.

Game 2 - The opponent cast another Turn 2 Counterbalance, but I responded with Ad Nauseam. I won.

Game 3 - The opponent’s lack of experience showed.
On his last turn of the game, he cast a Vendillion Clique, targeting me.
My hand was Infernal Tutor, Lotus Petal, Duress, Past in Flames, Lion’s Eye Diamond, and many rituals.
He told me to put the Duress on the bottom of my library.

I know his hand was Force of Will, Counterspell, Snapcaster Mage (and Flusterstorm is in his graveyard). He had three untapped lands.

I cast Lotus Petal, and he used Counterspell..on my Lotus Petal. Then I cast all of my rituals and cast a hellbent Infernal Tutor with 10 mana in my mana pool and Past in Flames in my graveyard. He let it resolve, and I searched for a Duress. He conceded.

He really should have taken the Past in Flames.
I was lucky to play against someone with less experience than I have.

Round 2 – Show and Tell

Game 1 - I kept a hand with one land, many draw sources, and many rituals.
Turn 1 I fetched a basic Island because I didn’t know the opponent’s deck. With Preordain, I saw Infernal Tutor, so I kept it and scried a nonland card to the bottom of my library.

The opponent’s Turn 1 was basic Island. Turn 2, I tried to cast Ponder, but it was countered by Spell Pierce.

The opponent’s Turn 2 was Ponder, Flooded Strand. I still didn’t know which deck he was playing.

My Turn 3, I tried to cast Brainstorm, but the opponent cast another Spell Pierce, fetching another Island with Flooded Strand. I made a mistake here. I had Daze in my hand, and I didn’t cast it. I thought the opponent was Miracles, so I had time. There are two things wrong with this: 1) Why would a Miracles player fetch two Islands against an opponent playing Preordains? 2) I’m not used to Daze…Daze wouldn’t do anything after that turn because the opponent had three lands.

The opponent played Ancient Tomb, and cast Show and Tell. I lost.

Game 2 - I mulliganned to a six card hand. The only thing the hand could do was make 8 Goblins, and I had no discard.

I made 8 Goblins, and the opponent had Echoing Truth, so I lost. I don’t know if I should have mulliganned again to look for discard.
(I sideboarded in Empty the Warrens because I was afraid of Leyline of Sanctity, after all.)

Round 3 - Red Prison
Game 1 - The opponent played Turn 1 Legion Warboss.
He had no anti-combo cards, so I thought it would be an easy game.
This game, I was punished by my inexperience.

I took a long time to plan out my combo turn, so I got worried I was taking too much time and just ended my turn because I had a 100% Past in Flames win next turn.
The opponent drew Chalice of the Void and cast it (X=1; I also made a mistake here and I didn’t respond with Brainstorm). I was forced to use Ad Nauseam to win…no remaining mana in my pool, Tendrils of Agony was in my hand, I already used 2 Lotus Petals, and I couldn’t cast 1 mana spells.

I had the craziest Ad Nauseam of my life. I revealed my remaining 2 Lotus Petals, 2 Lion’s Eye Diamond, and my last card was Infernal Tutor to win the game with 1 life remaining.

Game 2 - The opponent cast Turn 1 Chalice of the Void (X=1).
My Turn 1, I cast Empty the Warrens for 10 Goblins.
The opponent cast Kozilek’s Return on Turn 2. I lost.

Game 3 – Turn 1, the opponent played Ancient Tomb, Chrome Mox, Chalice of the Void (X=0), Chalice of the Void (X=1).
I couldn’t Daze any of these cards. I lost.

Round 4 - Death and Taxes
Game 1 - The most memorable game all day. The opponent’s battlefield had Thalia, Phyrexian Revoker (naming Lotus Petal) and another Phyrexian Revoker (naming Lion’s Eye Diamond). I still won the game.

My combo turn, I had 5 lands, 4 Cabal Ritual, Past in Flames, and 3 Infernal Tutor in my graveyard.

Game 2 – This was similar to Game 1, but I also had answers to the creatures.
I made a mistake and forgot to cast Echoing Truth at the end of one of the opponent’s turns, but it didn’t change anything.

Cabal Ritual and Past in Flames were very important this match.

Round 5 – Pox

Game 1 - The opponent started the game with Snow-Covered Swamp.
I thought it would be an easy game, and I was right.
When I did my combo, I cast Duress to see the opponent’s hand, and he had Nether Void in his deck.

I don’t know how to sideboard for this matchup.
I didn’t want to lose to Nether Void, but I didn’t want to sideboard in Echoing Truth. I sideboarded Empty the Warrens just in case of a possible fast win.

Game 2 - The opponent played Turn 3 Lost Legacy (naming Tendrils of Agony).
I double check my sideboard…I’m not sure that having Empty the Warrens was correct, but thank God I did.
I continued playing. This game was very long but I lost. Turn 1, the opponent cast Thoughtseize and made me discard a Lion’s Eye Diamond. Many turns later, not having access to Lion’s Eye Diamond #4 stopped me from making red mana to cast Empty the Warrens on my combo turn.

Game 3 - Another long game.
I didn’t draw good cards, but the opponent didn’t draw anything good either.
Eventually, I lose this game to Nether Void and a Liliana, the Last Hope emblem.

My final result was 2-3. Overall, I’m not unhappy.
I could have made better decisions.
The Show and Tell round is the only regret I have.
With more experience, I can calculate my combo turn faster and prevent myself from getting nervous and ending the turn too early.
Also...Daze wasn’t useful in any of my games. Not one. I didn’t Daze a single spell.
The one time Daze would have been useful, I didn’t even cast it.

I should probably try to play regular ANT for the moment.