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By: Tarmotog, Naoto Watabe
Sep 05 2012 2:47pm
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Continued from:
Tarmotalk - Classic Revived: CQ League 2012-13 #1 Round 1
Tarmotalk - Classic Revived: CQ League 2012-13 #1 Round 2

I am back again in my running towards the CQ invitational. The past week has been an interesting week with spoilers and more spoilers from the upcoming Return to Ravnica set. I hope to find something usable in Classic but new Jace is much worse in Classic than Jace Beleren.

Still, something caught my eye...

Tarmotalk: New Cardz

Izzet Charm

Recently spoiled, scheduled to appear in the Duel Decks: Izzet vs Golgari, is this very peculiar card which gives you a reason to play a small creature removal spell maindeck without trying. 

The strength of this card would be in slow decks where all 3 modes would be relevant since you want a Spell Pierce, creature Shock and card filtering even at a net loss of 1 card. UR Landstill or the Delver decks I would suppose could try out this card.

Cavern of Souls and Delver decks have made creature removal acceptable card choices in the format.

I suppose its main contention would be against the slot of Fire/Ice (both are accessible via Merchant Scroll and I would have to say that it does have its merits. This versus Lightning Bolt versus Fire/Ice would be my next dilemma going into the near future, heavily metagame dependent.
(Better against Mental Misstep, worse vs Spell Pierce, better pre-Jace but worse post-Jace, needs colored mana etc)

Tarmotalk: Round 3 Prematchup Analysis 

So in round 3 I am paired against Belcher that I have very little confidence of winning (for its "non-mainstream classic"ness).
Here is the said deck:


Coming from a Legacy point of view, belcher's main strength is against decks that do not pack Force of Will.
However, my deck as a whole is, as I have been saying from the start, a relatively slow deck and is more suited to go into the mid-game and mid-game is not a very likely situation with Belcher.

Belcher has a relatively simple game plan: ritual out mana and spit out either Empty the Warrens tokens or cast and activate Goblin Charbelcher. Game 1, I would much rather prefer to meet Goblin Charbelcher than Empty the Warrens as I don't have outs against it too early unless the count is not high and I can follow up with a Blightsteel Colossus and survive 2 hits, or if I assemble Time Vault + Voltaic Key but it doesn't get that lucky all the time.

My gameplan would be to have a stockpile of countermagic and hold them forever and try to inch out damage slowly without ever tapping out. Games would come down to two main factors:
-how eager my opponent is to win (and play out the sequence prematurely)
-what both of us have in hand

I lose my advantage of Baleful Strix but have a natural mild disruption with Goblin Welder which can turn his Lotus Petals into removal for key artifacts such as Lion's Eye Diamond or Goblin Charbelcher (if unable to activate on the same turn). Dark Confidant is generally crappy but I do have some possible blowout plays. The presence of Force of Will should buy me some time to go for something but I guess I will need to try to assemble the wins as fast as possible without dropping my guard.

This particular build runs a full set of Pact of Negation which can thwart my basic Force of Will plan.
I see myself winning on pact triggers more so than damage unless if I assemble my game ending sequences.

Post sideboard, I have Flusterstorm and Trinisphere although Flusterstorm is unable to beat a resolving Goblin Charbelcher. I foresee difficulty when it comes down to choosing when to cast Flusterstorm.
I see that Ingot Chewer could be mildly relevant if my opponent has a slow hand and tries to get Lion's Eye Diamond or Chrome Mox without trying to go off.

Somehow my opponent was online throughout the week but didn't seem to respond...

Tarmotalk: Round 4 Prematchup Analysis 

Going into this round, I had no idea I was already in round 4 as I was waiting for my round 3 opponent who apparently conceded to me via the forums while I kept voicing out to him in vain over the client over the week. Some people say reading is tech.
Anyhow, I am more than thankful for the concession and I try to get myself prepared for my opponent who was already waiting to play against me.

 

I told him to give me some time which I used to skim through the deck and tried, in a short timeframe, to absorb the essence of the all-so-familiar archetype.

Enric was the other successful pilot of the RUG delver deck at the end of last year going into the start of the year (the other person also in the picture being me of course) so I don't think he would be an easy opponent.
The key features of the deck are as follows:

2 Vendilion Clique
4 Tarmogoyf + 1 Scavenging Ooze
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Mental Misstep
1 Trygon Predator
1 Fire/Ice
Ponder
0 Fastbond

This configuration is not common in Classic for many reasons but basically because it is slightly more suited against the mirror and mainly the mirror.
Its build is pure "no brokenness" and no Jace, the Mind Sculptor which is actually easily guarded with the high creature count. The various counts of 4x cards make the deck more exposed to some strategies in the format which I find difficult to fully grasp other than being dedicated to winning the mirror which is the most natural conclusion. I find that Ponders could be something else but I shall respect the configuration as what it is.

Now, comparing the matchup, I find that Baleful Strix would still be the key determinant going in and my advantage would be the interaction between that and Goblin Welder. The high Lightning Bolt count would be a problem here as many things can go wrong.

In the deck, I find that there are zero outs to a resolved Blightsteel Colossus and I put that plan as a high priority going into the matchup. If my opponent had Jace, the Mind Sculptor, I would put less emphasis on it. Voltaic Key + Time Vault is usually the more common go-to plan in this matchup depending on how much artifact hate my opponent runs. Triple Snapcaster Mage is also a troublesome card in the face of 4 Lightning Bolts but I generally should have enough time to assemble my victory conditions with this deck because my opponent is void of any unexpected game changing situations that cannot be accounted for unless Vendilion Clique is in the picture.

With 2x Wasteland present, I may have to make conscious effort to avoid Wasteland via searching out basics since my deck is capable of doing so.

Post sideboard, my opponent has Red Elemental Blast, Nature's Claim and Trygon Predator.
I would have Flusterstorm, Lightning Bolt and perhaps some Nihil Spellbomb to combat Tarmogoyf and Snapcaster Mage.
Still advantaged on the virtue of Baleful Strix being just awesome against the archetype. It is a big bonus that my opponent is not running Ancient Grudge but I suppose that is because of a different balance the build is trying to reach (more against Oath).

Recording of the Round

I made a big mistake in game 1 by not cracking my fetchland (just plain distracted) and I manage to scrape out a lucky victory in game 3 with one of my only outs in the deck that could turn the game around from such a position. Just to note, I did want to crash Dark Confidant into a Snapcaster Mage game 3 turn 3, which I tried to bait, because of my opponent's unusually high Lightning Bolt count which I felt would be more detrimental to me if played twice and leaving a creature behind to shore the beats. It is also incredibly difficult to manage life totals with 3 damage per turn + 2 damage from the ground. I originally found that Snapcaster Mage was really good vs Dark Confidant when it first made its debut because of its attacking capability and honestly, I'd rather trade upfront than let my opponent get his blue Bloodbraid Elf.

-To be Continued-