Tarmotog's picture
By: Tarmotog, Naoto Watabe
Jan 17 2009 12:35pm
4.5
Login to post comments
2501 views


Welcome to One Double O #5 - The Second Weekend Premier Event!

This time, attendance was a record breaking 46 players! There were almost 10 players more than the last Weekend Premier Event.
Very big congratulations to SICKSICKSICKSICKSICKSICK piloting a blue-black control to win the event.

Here was how the top 8 advanced:

Blade
StiLLiRise
Gainsay
SICKSICKSICKSICKSICKSICKSICK

Lundstrom

iceage4life
Samwise_GeeGee
Ace of Drafts
Blade
SICKSICKSICKSICKSICKSICKSICK
Lundstrom
Ace of Drafts
SICKSICKSICKSICKSICKSICKSICK

Lundstrom

and here are their decklists, courtesy of magicthegathering.com, for easier viewing rather than flood the article with lists:

http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/events.aspx?x=mtg/daily/decks/mol154418

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Top 8 Trend

Here is a summary of what the top 8 comprised of:

2 UB control
2 WW
UG Tempo
Monored
RB+G Goblins
UWR Control

This is a nice well rounded top 8 with a good variety of decks, showing 6 different archetypes.
3 of the decks were control decks, 4 of the decks were aggro decks and one was aggro-control. This proves that the format is one in which any good deck can be taken to a good finish on the back of good playskills.

However, the rather significant variations in the lists show that the format is still indeed very young and each deck has a big room for customization to cater to individual preferences. I hope that more archetypes spring up in time, especially combo but the effects of the bannings are quite significant for them and I think more time is needed before they can rise up into a higher tier.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tarmotog's Deck Tech

Here is the deck I played: 

Singleton 100 - Neolark.dek

 

Creatures
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Nekrataal
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Eternal Witness
1 Greater Gargadon
1 Imperial Recruiter
1 Qasali Ambusher
1 Body Double
1 Murderous Redcap
1 Farhaven Elf
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Wood Elves
1 Trygon Predator
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Siege-Gang Commander
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Wild Nacatl
1 Ranger of Eos
1 Ravenous Baloth
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Flamekin Harbinger
1 Duergar Hedge-Mage
1 Saffi Eriksdotter
1 Shriekmaw
1 Mulldrifter
1 Pestermite
1 Loxodon Hierarch
1 Reveillark
1 Civic Wayfinder
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Doran, the Siege Tower
1 Mogg Fanatic
1 Trinket Mage
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Tidehollow Sculler
1 Wall of Roots
39 cards

Other Spells
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Compulsive Research
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Daze
1 Ajani Vengeant
1 Eladamri's Call
1 Brainstorm
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Tithe
1 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Nature's Lore
1 Repeal
1 Coldsteel Heart
1 Force of Will
1 Ponder
1 Pact of Negation
1 Safewright Quest
1 Prismatic Lens
1 Remand
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Living Death
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Ancestral Vision
1 Interdict
25 cards

Lands
1 Windswept Heath
1 Vivid Meadow
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Flooded Strand
1 Tundra
1 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Flooded Grove
1 Mountain
2 Island
1 Forest
1 Yavimaya Coast
1 Underground Sea
1 Savage Lands
1 Taiga
1 Savannah
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
1 Badlands
1 Vivid Creek
1 Vivid Marsh
1 Polluted Delta
1 Vivid Grove
1 Arcane Sanctum
1 Breeding Pool
1 City of Brass
1 Vesuva
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Crumbling Necropolis
1 Seaside Citadel
1 Murmuring Bosk
1 Krosan Verge
1 Jungle Shrine
1 Vivid Crag
36 cards

Deck Description:

This deck was designed to abuse Living Death (!!) to the fullest. The main idea behind it was to use Living Death as a wrath effect and Twilight's Call all at the same time. Casting this spell would allow me to have a very big reversal in the flow of the game. Therefore, the main concern of the deck should be to:
1) Find and cast Living Death
- For this, I have Merchant Scroll (which of course can find other targets) into Mystical Tutor into Living Death, which is essentially 3 cards of 100.
2) Have more creatures in the graveyard than the opponent and have a stronger board position than the opponent.
- The creature count in the deck should therefore be very high.

Living Death is very strong in the late game but can be used as a Damnation if the situation calls for it. With only 3 of it in the deck, it is best not to heavily rely on it.

Next in the deck, there is the "tarmotog's special lark creature engine" of:

Ranger of Eos into Mogg Fanatic/Wild Nacatl and Flamekin Harbinger which then finds Reveillark (mainly) or Mulldrifter/Shriekmaw. This chain sets up a very strong Living Death.

If you notice, both Ranger of Eos and Flamekin Harbinger have very limited targets (3 each) but this is not important as the goal is not to have a large toolbox of creatures but find the strong creatures.

Ranger of Eos into Wild Nacatl and Flamekin Harbinger is a very strong play against aggressive decks like how Siege-Gang Commander is good in the matchup. Multiple threats are good both aggressively and defensively.

The most important part of the deck is probably the prototype mana base I'm running which consists of:

5 vivid lands, 5 fetchlands, 5 Alara tri-color lands, 5 MEDII duals, 6 basics, some shocklands and a few others.

The idea for the mana base originates from here, the "singleton" deck that won states in Alaska.

I wanted to make a daring mana base that could support 5 colors using lands that came into play tapped so that I would be able to go all out with the card choices and also so that I could estimate my draws properly.

This mana base is far from complete by it is the one that can hold up my deck at the moment even though I do have to admit that I am not fond of it still.

I would say that while ridiculous mana costs can be supported, I know that it is possible for it to backfire. An example would be a rare situation of having all 5 basic lands in play and no non-basic lands. Even with access to all 5 colors of mana, I would not be able to cast a good number of my main spells. It is funny how this would actually reflect how vulnerable my deck is to moon effects and I have experimented with some ways to overcome them with not much fruit. If I had to name a card that could save the deck, I would name Coalition relic as it can churn out double anything on the next turn but I had to reject it in this build as I felt that I had too many cards at 3 casting cost even though the 2 man alternatives can be considered very horrible for what I want to accomplish.

To protect the mana base, I employed a few key cards like Interdict to buy time against miners and to counter Wastelands, Repeal to disrupt a moon effect.

Also, against red, there had to be a new playstyle to adapt to such hate. The main idea was to get a Forest down first so that the deck could run a few of its mana fixing effects but the deck had not adapted to that concept fully as there are still cards that find "a Forest" or "Plains". I intend to brainstorm about this as this can be very counter productive but that is for a later time.

The final but most crucial element of the deck comes from its counter magic. Counter magic are crucial because they allow me to force key cards down at the critical moment. Otherwise, my games would degenerate into casting 1 spell a turn and I would have very bad chances against many decks because of my inactivity. Counter magic force unwanted interaction at the best timing which is why my deck has Force of Will, Pact of negation and Daze as the key counter magic.

Countering mana disruption cards is very important as well and I can safely say that Force of Will and Daze have been successful at that.

Other important interactions I should mention are the Greater Gargadon + Body Double + Reveillark and the Pestermite + Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker combo which can generate free wins out of nowhere.

My final changes to the deck before the tournament included putting in Nekrataal to answer cards like Arc-slogger which have 5 toughness and putting in Prismatic lens and Coldsteel Heart. The 2 artifacts are there so that they can be cast post-moon. Coalition Relic is for sure better at that but I have too little 2cc cards so these went in. They can be considered "under-testing" but they are definitely not the cards I was looking for. My main concern with the mana fixing is how to fight miners and moons that attack the mana base and I still have not found the "perfect answers" which I hope to find before Ruination comes online in Stronghold.

Another change I made was the removal of Fathom Trawl which was a very strong card against control but I had a gut feeling that I would not be needing it much in the tournament.

After the tournament, I think that increasing the number of lands in my deck could help as I was found to be mulling hands to 5 cards (due to 1 land hands) for quite a few games but I'm not very sure yet how to fix it.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tarmotog's (sad) Tournament Report

Overall, I performed really horribly but I do think that it was greatly contributed by my worn out brain in the wee hours in the morning (the tournament began at 1am). I made a good number of mistakes that totally wrecked my games and I plummeted after that. Somehow, I scraped into 31st place at 2-4 (still in the prizes thankfully) so it was not totally gone for me.

So why a tournament report?

I certainly don't think people enjoy reading about how a deck goes 2-4 but losing is part of the game as well I suppose. I do have some videos up without any audio commentaries. The first is a 15 second one in which I find myself losing and the other 2 contain 2 games each for those of you who have the time. The report would probably provide some information as to how the deck works and how it is capable of pulling off wins.

Round 1 vs Stone Rain (monored + BG) 2-0

Game 1, Stone Rain gets mana screwed and I play stabilizing plays, following up with mana using Ajani Vengeant to seal the game.

Game 2, we play long and he declines to Wasteland throughout the game and I drop good blockers from siege-gang commander to Reveillark and back into Siege-gang commander, kitchen finks followed up with Greater gargadon resolving and doran, the siege tower. Mono red can't beat towers of fatties and I win.

Round 2 vs Ace of Drafts (Monored) 1-2

Game 1, he tries to survive on 1 land and he remains at one land when I have 4 and sees the inevitable loss with my side having good pressure.

I lose games 2 and 3 to play mistakes.

In game 2, I get brought down to 4 life and I topdeck Living Death and can Living Death into a strong position against Ace of Drafts. He has Grim Lavamancer in play but with only 1 card in the graveyard. Blinkmoth nexus leaves my thought processes and attack with my Reveillark into it, giving Grim Lavamancer food to deal me 2 damage and I will lose to a Sulfuric Vortex in play which I would be able to remove with Trygon Predator in the graveyard and stabilize with Force of Will and Loxodon Hierarch next turn if I simply played Living Death unless he draws a burn spell in his next draw. I start to notice a drop in my concentration at this point in time but I had to play on for the win.

Here's the last 15 seconds of that game where I attack and see how I lost:


15s of one bad play from Tarmotog on Vimeo.

In game 3, I use Repeal early to deal damage via Kitchen Finks. That was so wrong. Repeal is one of my anti-moon measures and I had a basic Island in play. Unfortunately enough, I get Blood Mooned and struggle to find a way out but lose to a barrage of burn before I can find answers. If I had kept Repeal until later on, I would have been in a really strong position. Should have sticked to trying to play the long game here and not fret when facing small pressure.

Round 3 vs Neoshinji (4c Rock) 2-0

His deck is not one I'd like to face as I don't have a very good streak against him. My deck is stronger against attrition and slightly weaker against quality cards followed by more quality cards.

Here is our match, my only non-red matchup throughout the course of the tournament:


vs 4c Rock from Tarmotog on Vimeo.

Game 1, we both empty our hands and he drops Necropotence. I know I'm finished, especially since I have 1 useless card in hand. I drag the game a little longer and he goes to 2 life. I topdeck the miracle Living Death which returns murderous redcap for the (immediate) win. Nobody expected that.

Game 2, we get into a stall and I charge up Ajani vengeant to pull off a one-sided Armageddon. I do not automatically win there as he has a Rhox war monk with a Sword of fire and ice equipped to it but cannot attack into my blockers which would kill it and leave him without creatures. I control the board a little more and I win with Sower of temptation beatdown.

Round 4 vs MyNameWasBoB (RG beatdown) 1-2

Game 1 I start with a mull to 5 and don't have a strong hand against beatdown. I simply lose after awhile. Nothing much to see there.

Game 2 I struggle and pull off a win using the infamous Pestermite + Kiki-jiki, mirror breaker combo. I think that randomly winning with that combo is so sick.

Game 3, tiredness sets in and I Shriekmaw a Radha, Heir to Keld instead of iwamori of the open fist and my game spirals out of control from there. I personally think that the game would be in my favor if I did the correct play but I can't go back in time can I?

Here are games 2 and 3:


Kiki win and misfired shriekmaw from Tarmotog on Vimeo.

At this point, I figure that I was out of top 8 contention but I would definitely play on. 2-2 due to bad play felt so horrible.

Round 5 vs silvin (monored) 0-2

Game 1, I mull to 5 and I hoped not to meet a mountain and I don't. I see a turn 1 Snow-covered mountain instead. Definitely not good for my 5 card hand. I have Saffi eriksdotter and tidehollow sculler but I made a bad play that involved how the stacks work as the Tidehollow sculler's "remove card from the game" trigger resolved before the "return the removed card" trigger resolved when coming back into play using saffi eriksdotter and end up getting mopped up by Arc-slogger.

Game 2, I keep a dubious hand but I topdeck Bloodstained mire which would save me. However, instead of getting Taiga, Steam vents popped out (I needed green mana for Sakura-tribe elder and Wall of roots)... Forget it. I couldn't even get the land I wanted. This huge slowdown proved to be very costly. Later on, I made another mistake by laying a land into (Zo-zu, the punisher) before Nekrataaling it while set on a clock via Sulfuric vortex. It's no wonder I lost that game. Urgh... My mind was just so far from the game.

1 more round. Just one more round... I could do it.

Round 6 vs Lanicor (RG beatdown) 0-2

Game 1, I mull to 5 after seeing 2 single-land hands and end up having Saffi eriksdotter and Mulldrifter but I do not get a chance to Tidings back into shape and I lose the game with a 4/5 Tarmogoyf up against a Viridian zealot, a 4/2 Phantom centaur, a Spectral Force (!!) and both the red and green manlands ready to beat me into submission.

Game 2, we play a long game and I make some subpar searches using Imperial recruiter. We trade threats and he ends up pressuring me with Kumano, master yamabushi an mana for 1 ping with me at minimal life (4). I miss an important point of damage while attacking into Chandra Nalaar by assigning the wrong attackers before this. I end up making a very very bad attack (No idea how I ended up doing that until the attackers turned sideways and I saw what happened), leaving a 1/1 when he can cast Kumano, master yamabushi, which I Repealed back, ping the blocker for 1 and beat me for the win. It definitely ended there.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Last Words

I have no idea how I ran into 5 decks with red in 6 rounds which led me to think that red was probably the most played color in the tournament unlike how the top 8 was represented. I was definitely in no shape to play in that tournament and probably would have done much better if I could play more decent Magic. I hope never to post such a horrible tournament report ever again. My story aside, I was quite happy to see the nice turnout for the event which might bring us more of such events in the future, hopefully some time soon.

Once again, do join the myMTGO.com's Singleton100 group and do add more decks and discussions while you're there.

Until next time, this is Tarmotog still talking about the Singleton 100 format.

tarmotog@hotmail.com

1 Comments

Thx for the article, Tarmo. I by Lost but Seeking at Tue, 01/20/2009 - 09:38
Lost but Seeking's picture
4

Thx for the article, Tarmo.
I was surprised to see a lot of decks other then Mono-Red and RG in the T8 as I somehow had to face them all day long too. Thankfully the meta isn't that lopsided and I really like the fact that skill matters so much. Now the trick is to improve mine. ;)