PTQ Hollywood 1st place report
Or “I hate Dredge”
First of all, I’d like to apologize for writing this report in English, but it’s much easier for me to write like this, and I’d rather not have to use a Hebrew dictionary while writing this report. Off to the report itself.
So it starts with me and Fernando trying to choose what deck to play on Friday. Eventually we narrowed down our choices to Counterbalance, Gruul (with Shrapnel Blast), Dredge, and TEPS. We both did not want to play TEPS, as it’s clearly an inferior choice. I wanted to play Counterbalance (Goyfs, no Wishes, Tom LaPille style), and Fernando preferred to play Gruul (sort of). Unfortunately, both the decks played Tarmogoyfs, and Fernando got to choose which deck got to play it. This was when Fernando told me we also have to give a deck to Niv Danieli, which made things even more complicated.
Luckily, he agreed to play TEPS (probably due to it playing what is probably his all-time favorite Magic card, Orim’s Chant
). Eventually we decided that Fernando will play Gruul, and I play Dredge. I then said to Fer that even if I won the event, I wouldn’t have fun due to the deck. FORESHADOWING!
Some last minute scrambling to get cards later, and I registered with the following decklist:
2 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
3 Watery Grave
1 Island
2 Underground River
4 Cephalid Coliseum
4 Breakthrough
4 Careful Study
3 Tolarian Winds
4 Putrid Imp
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
2 Golgari Thug
4 Stinkweed Imp
2 Darkblast
4 Bridge from Below
4 Narcomoeba
2 Ichorid
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Flame-Kin Zealot
3 Dread Return
3 Cabal Therapy
Sideboard:
3 Chalice of the Void
1 Pithing Needle
1 Cephalid Sage
3 Sickening Dreams
3 Tormod’s Crypt
4 Chain of Vapor
Here’s a few explanations regarding the decklist: First of all, I was missing a Watery Grave, and I didn’t want to add another fetchland because I didn’t like 6 fetches with 4 lands to bring (in hindsight, I could have easily ran another fetch). I played Underground River instead, which isn’t that terrible a replacement. It’s, um, even better against Sundering Titan! Cephalid Sage was relegated to the sideboard since he’s fairly terrible against aggro and control decks since Dread Return targeting Akroma or Grave-Troll is almost always enough to win the game. However, against combo decks, I want to win as fast as possible, and beating with Akroma/Grave-Troll is very unexciting there. Thus I play 1 Sage in the SB. I’ve seen others with the same plan running Zealot, and I think that’s incorrect since 1 Sage and 1 Zealot gives you a significantly better chance of winning on turn 2 or 3 than 2 Zealots. Chalice of the Void is significantly worse than Pithing Needle, I just couldn’t find any. Lastly, Tormod’s Crypt was for the mirror match, since I thought someone other than Shay and I would play it, but I ended up being wrong.
Thanks to Ron, Ziv, Fernando, and Niv D for lending me cards. You rock!
All of this is strictly from memory, since I wasn’t planning on writing a report. Expect mistakes, but I think I got the main points right. The things I remember are the interesting plays and things like that, and I probably don’t remember exactly which enabler I used each game.
Round 1 – Ron Mazuz with UW Tron
Game 1: His turn 1 play is Skycloud Expanse, go, putting me in a pretty relaxed position. I played a distinctive Dredge opening that I don’t remember (I think it was Careful Study), and he plays a turn 2 Tron piece into Meddling Mage naming Dread Return. Painful, but Tron isn’t in the position to capitalize on that, and soon enough Ichorids, Narcomoebas, and Zombie tokens force him to chump block with the Mage (removing my Bridges). I don’t think I actually did cast Dread Return this game too. This game also included Cabal Therapy stripping him of 4 cards (Wrath of God, Wrath of God, Sundering Titan, and Sundering Titan), which must have been painful.
SB: I board in Chalices and the Needle.
Game 2: This game I get a slow start, but I have a turn 1 Chalice for 0. He doesn’t realize he can play Explosives with colorless mana and still have a sunburst of 0, and that may have cost him the game. On turn 3, he plays a face down Exalted Angel that gets countered by Chalice. Ouch. I can’t capitalize, and he eventually plays two Fact or Fictions, and lands two more Exalted Angels in play. However, on the turn before I’m about to die, with the life totals being me at 3 life and him at 32, I manage to Dread Return back a Flame-Kin Zealot who enters the red zone accompanied by 11 Zombie tokens, dealing 36 damage in one attack.
1-0
Round 2 – Yohai with Flow
Game 1: Pretty slow hand from me here. Eventually he gets a Troll Ascetic equipped with Umezawa’s Jitte, and it’s looking bad for me. I could have Dread Returned a fat Golgari Grave-Troll, but he played creatures that regenerate. Who’da thunk it? Eventually we’re at a position where I have a Zombie token and a fairly full graveyard with no Bridges (two removed), he just played a Troll Ascetic tapping out, and it’s my turn. On my upkeep, I bring back Ichorid, and then I dredge a Grave-Troll, hitting two Narcomoebas, and 2 Bridges. Absurd. I Dread Return back a ~13/13 Grave-Troll, who is accompanied by a large amount of Zombies. Somehow I pull this one out.
SB: I considered boarding in Sickening Dreams, but decided to just board in Chain of Vapors.
Game 2: I keep a one Island hand for reasons unknown, don’t draw a land in time, and die quickly. He did Cabal Therapy for Tolarian Winds (definitely the right call, why else would I keep?) and whiffed, but Tarmogoyf did me in. To add insult to injury, on the turn before I was about to die, he hardcasted Leyline of the Void. On another note, he missed a Dark Confidant trigger, and when we called the judge (Yuval), he revealed the card with the highest converted mana cost in his hand and took that much damage, then drew a card for his turn. I’m pretty certain that was incorrect due to the new penalty guide, but it didn’t stop me from getting beaten fairly badly.
SB: I board out Tolarian Winds for Sickening Dreams.
Game 3: I don’t remember anything about this game except that I won with a Grave-Troll with Zombies, and that he played a Cabal Therapy for Tolarian Winds. Whee.
2-0
Round 3 – Rafi with TEPS
Game 1: He mulligans to five. I go off on turn 2, but with 4 Bridges in my graveyard and 3 creatures in play (Putrid + 2 Narcomoebas) I get 0 Dread Return. I Therapy three times, empty his hand, and get 12 Zombie tokens. This left me open for a topdecked Burning Wish into Pyroclasm, but what can you do. I also learnt later that he didn’t play Pyroclasm in the sideboard, so that was sort of good…
SB: -1 Akroma, -2 Darkblast, -1 Ichorid?, +3 Chalice (for Chrome Mox and Lotus Bloom), +1 Cephalid Sage
Game 2: He has an early Tormod’s Crypt without a Chalice on my side, and I have to go with the man plan. I put him on a three-turn clock when he decides to sack the Crypt in order to get rid of my Therapy that I just dredged into my yard (digging for Ichorid food and Narcomoebas). I discard the Grave-Troll in my hand, and the turn later hit a Bridge, a Dread Return, and a Zealot, which was enough to win the game on that turn.
3-0
It can’t be this easy, can it?
Round 4 – Niv Danieli with TEPS
Game 1: On the play, he makes 14 Goblin tokens on turn 2. Normally a great hand, but when I went off on turn 2 for 12 Zombie tokens, it didn’t look quite as exciting. My tokens were larger!
SB: Same as last round, although this time I knew for sure there were no Crypts.
Game 2: On the play, he suspends two Lotus Blooms, and I respond with a Chalice. He passes on his second turn, and I go off, Dread Return a Cephalid Sage, dredge my entire library, and win on turn 2 with a blazing army of Zombies.
4-0
I still hate this deck.
Round 5 – ID with Michael
4-0-1
Round 6 – ID with Ron Rechnitz
4-0-2 and top 8
Quarter Finals – Gideon with UW Tron
Game 1: I went off on turn 3 this game, and Therapy took out his Wrath of God while a mass of Zombies joined Akroma in play. While I was thinking what possible outs he had and which card would be best to discard, Gideon asked me to just pass since he had no outs. I asked for him to scoop, he refused, I kept thinking, and then he scooped. I guess that works.
SB: In come Chalice and Needle.
Game 2: This game, I made some bad mistakes. The worst one was when I had Bridge from Below in hand and forgot to discard it before sacrificing a creature to Cabal Therapy. Later, on the turn I was about to go off with my graveyard all ready, I dredged Golgari Grave-Troll instead of Golgari Thug, who would have made me lethal. Instead I passed the turn to him at 2 life after attacking with Zealot and tokens. If I had the earlier Zombie token, that would also have been enough. Fortunately for me, even when a Dredge pilot makes mistakes, it’s quite hard to lose to Tron.
My plan on the day was to make the finals no matter what in order to go to a Pro Tour, and I was only one match away from it. Naturally, when Fernando (who’d play me in the semis if he wins) said he is going to concede after the quarters, I was hoping for him to win. Unfortunately, Spell Snare on the deciding Shrapnel Blast meant Michael was going into the semis, and I’d have to play it out.
Semi Finals – Michael with CounterTopTog
Good news! Yuval came around and informed us that due to invites being awarded to first place and second place, we were allowed to negotiate a prize split in the semi finals, with boosters vs. a place in the finals. I asked Michael for the split, but he said he might fly, so we shuffled up to play.
Game 1: I start with a few enablers, and on my third turn, I’ve got two lands, Watery Grave in hand, and Michael has an untapped blue land and a fetchland. I was going to play Breakthrough, and the question was what the X should be. I played Breakthrough for 2, since I wanted to keep in my hand the Narcomoeba I had. 1 is clearly impossible, since I know he runs Spell Snares, and 0 doesn’t let me keep anything. I won the game through that play, but everyone watching said I should have gone for 0 since he might have Force Spike. Clearly this was ridiculous, since I know he has Spell Snares and no one plays both. Of course, I then asked Michael if he played Force Spikes, and he said yes… At least Spell Snare was indeed in his hand!
After game 1, Michael decides to offer the split again, and I accept, since the boosters aren’t worth nearly as much as the invitation to me, and it’s just not worth the risk.
I DID IT! Yes! Mission accomplished.
I guess I have to play the finals though?
Finals – Yosef with Jugan Blue
Game 1: Here I just go with a classic Dredge opening, and he concedes before I even realize I hit the 3 creatures, Dread Return, double Bridge, and Zealot. This is the first case where I just was completely unfocused in the match, since my goal of the day was complete.
SB: Chalice and Needle again.
Game 2: I start with a turn 1 Chalice, but I get a slow start. He manages to get Meloku down, and he completely stalls my offense. By this point I have a few creatures and a couple of zombies, but if I attack I lose most of my creatures and the Bridges in my graveyard. My plan was digging for Cabal Therapy and Akroma at this point, but I couldn’t hit either and I couldn’t do a normal Dread Return since I knew he had Cryptic Command in hand to counter the Return, or maybe do other ridiculous things. Eventually he plays Command to bounce my Chalice, untaps, plays Tormod’s Crypt, removes my library, and I concede.
Game 3: I don’t remember what I did on turn 1, but on turn 2 I played Careful Study, he counters it with Counterspell. I tap my second mana and play a second Careful Study, which gets me a Stinkweed Imp in the graveyard. Somehow, I didn’t dredge it on my next draw phase and drew a card, but I still won this game on autopilot.
And then you have me taking a terrible picture with the trophy. Eh. I don’t like photos
Also, I had to go home on the bus. Meh. </whining>
Turns out, I did have fun winning that day, despite Dredge being an annoying deck, and the mission was indeed accomplished. I’ll try and take PT Hollywood a bit more seriously, despite lucksacking my way through the PTQ. On the other hand, I might be too harsh on myself.
Requests for improvement on future tournament reports? As my first one, I think I did alright, but clearly I’m missing tons of information on the games. How bad was writing this in English for you, and did you bear through the terrible, terrible jokes? Split each game into more paragraphs?
I hope I was mildly entertaining, so for now, over and out.
Omer
Or “I hate Dredge”
First of all, I’d like to apologize for writing this report in English, but it’s much easier for me to write like this, and I’d rather not have to use a Hebrew dictionary while writing this report. Off to the report itself.
So it starts with me and Fernando trying to choose what deck to play on Friday. Eventually we narrowed down our choices to Counterbalance, Gruul (with Shrapnel Blast), Dredge, and TEPS. We both did not want to play TEPS, as it’s clearly an inferior choice. I wanted to play Counterbalance (Goyfs, no Wishes, Tom LaPille style), and Fernando preferred to play Gruul (sort of). Unfortunately, both the decks played Tarmogoyfs, and Fernando got to choose which deck got to play it. This was when Fernando told me we also have to give a deck to Niv Danieli, which made things even more complicated.
Luckily, he agreed to play TEPS (probably due to it playing what is probably his all-time favorite Magic card, Orim’s Chant
). Eventually we decided that Fernando will play Gruul, and I play Dredge. I then said to Fer that even if I won the event, I wouldn’t have fun due to the deck. FORESHADOWING!Some last minute scrambling to get cards later, and I registered with the following decklist:
2 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
3 Watery Grave
1 Island
2 Underground River
4 Cephalid Coliseum
4 Breakthrough
4 Careful Study
3 Tolarian Winds
4 Putrid Imp
4 Golgari Grave-Troll
2 Golgari Thug
4 Stinkweed Imp
2 Darkblast
4 Bridge from Below
4 Narcomoeba
2 Ichorid
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Flame-Kin Zealot
3 Dread Return
3 Cabal Therapy
Sideboard:
3 Chalice of the Void
1 Pithing Needle
1 Cephalid Sage
3 Sickening Dreams
3 Tormod’s Crypt
4 Chain of Vapor
Here’s a few explanations regarding the decklist: First of all, I was missing a Watery Grave, and I didn’t want to add another fetchland because I didn’t like 6 fetches with 4 lands to bring (in hindsight, I could have easily ran another fetch). I played Underground River instead, which isn’t that terrible a replacement. It’s, um, even better against Sundering Titan! Cephalid Sage was relegated to the sideboard since he’s fairly terrible against aggro and control decks since Dread Return targeting Akroma or Grave-Troll is almost always enough to win the game. However, against combo decks, I want to win as fast as possible, and beating with Akroma/Grave-Troll is very unexciting there. Thus I play 1 Sage in the SB. I’ve seen others with the same plan running Zealot, and I think that’s incorrect since 1 Sage and 1 Zealot gives you a significantly better chance of winning on turn 2 or 3 than 2 Zealots. Chalice of the Void is significantly worse than Pithing Needle, I just couldn’t find any. Lastly, Tormod’s Crypt was for the mirror match, since I thought someone other than Shay and I would play it, but I ended up being wrong.
Thanks to Ron, Ziv, Fernando, and Niv D for lending me cards. You rock!
All of this is strictly from memory, since I wasn’t planning on writing a report. Expect mistakes, but I think I got the main points right. The things I remember are the interesting plays and things like that, and I probably don’t remember exactly which enabler I used each game.
Round 1 – Ron Mazuz with UW Tron
Game 1: His turn 1 play is Skycloud Expanse, go, putting me in a pretty relaxed position. I played a distinctive Dredge opening that I don’t remember (I think it was Careful Study), and he plays a turn 2 Tron piece into Meddling Mage naming Dread Return. Painful, but Tron isn’t in the position to capitalize on that, and soon enough Ichorids, Narcomoebas, and Zombie tokens force him to chump block with the Mage (removing my Bridges). I don’t think I actually did cast Dread Return this game too. This game also included Cabal Therapy stripping him of 4 cards (Wrath of God, Wrath of God, Sundering Titan, and Sundering Titan), which must have been painful.
SB: I board in Chalices and the Needle.
Game 2: This game I get a slow start, but I have a turn 1 Chalice for 0. He doesn’t realize he can play Explosives with colorless mana and still have a sunburst of 0, and that may have cost him the game. On turn 3, he plays a face down Exalted Angel that gets countered by Chalice. Ouch. I can’t capitalize, and he eventually plays two Fact or Fictions, and lands two more Exalted Angels in play. However, on the turn before I’m about to die, with the life totals being me at 3 life and him at 32, I manage to Dread Return back a Flame-Kin Zealot who enters the red zone accompanied by 11 Zombie tokens, dealing 36 damage in one attack.
1-0
Round 2 – Yohai with Flow
Game 1: Pretty slow hand from me here. Eventually he gets a Troll Ascetic equipped with Umezawa’s Jitte, and it’s looking bad for me. I could have Dread Returned a fat Golgari Grave-Troll, but he played creatures that regenerate. Who’da thunk it? Eventually we’re at a position where I have a Zombie token and a fairly full graveyard with no Bridges (two removed), he just played a Troll Ascetic tapping out, and it’s my turn. On my upkeep, I bring back Ichorid, and then I dredge a Grave-Troll, hitting two Narcomoebas, and 2 Bridges. Absurd. I Dread Return back a ~13/13 Grave-Troll, who is accompanied by a large amount of Zombies. Somehow I pull this one out.
SB: I considered boarding in Sickening Dreams, but decided to just board in Chain of Vapors.
Game 2: I keep a one Island hand for reasons unknown, don’t draw a land in time, and die quickly. He did Cabal Therapy for Tolarian Winds (definitely the right call, why else would I keep?) and whiffed, but Tarmogoyf did me in. To add insult to injury, on the turn before I was about to die, he hardcasted Leyline of the Void. On another note, he missed a Dark Confidant trigger, and when we called the judge (Yuval), he revealed the card with the highest converted mana cost in his hand and took that much damage, then drew a card for his turn. I’m pretty certain that was incorrect due to the new penalty guide, but it didn’t stop me from getting beaten fairly badly.
SB: I board out Tolarian Winds for Sickening Dreams.
Game 3: I don’t remember anything about this game except that I won with a Grave-Troll with Zombies, and that he played a Cabal Therapy for Tolarian Winds. Whee.
2-0
Round 3 – Rafi with TEPS
Game 1: He mulligans to five. I go off on turn 2, but with 4 Bridges in my graveyard and 3 creatures in play (Putrid + 2 Narcomoebas) I get 0 Dread Return. I Therapy three times, empty his hand, and get 12 Zombie tokens. This left me open for a topdecked Burning Wish into Pyroclasm, but what can you do. I also learnt later that he didn’t play Pyroclasm in the sideboard, so that was sort of good…
SB: -1 Akroma, -2 Darkblast, -1 Ichorid?, +3 Chalice (for Chrome Mox and Lotus Bloom), +1 Cephalid Sage
Game 2: He has an early Tormod’s Crypt without a Chalice on my side, and I have to go with the man plan. I put him on a three-turn clock when he decides to sack the Crypt in order to get rid of my Therapy that I just dredged into my yard (digging for Ichorid food and Narcomoebas). I discard the Grave-Troll in my hand, and the turn later hit a Bridge, a Dread Return, and a Zealot, which was enough to win the game on that turn.
3-0
It can’t be this easy, can it?
Round 4 – Niv Danieli with TEPS
Game 1: On the play, he makes 14 Goblin tokens on turn 2. Normally a great hand, but when I went off on turn 2 for 12 Zombie tokens, it didn’t look quite as exciting. My tokens were larger!
SB: Same as last round, although this time I knew for sure there were no Crypts.
Game 2: On the play, he suspends two Lotus Blooms, and I respond with a Chalice. He passes on his second turn, and I go off, Dread Return a Cephalid Sage, dredge my entire library, and win on turn 2 with a blazing army of Zombies.
4-0
I still hate this deck.
Round 5 – ID with Michael
4-0-1
Round 6 – ID with Ron Rechnitz
4-0-2 and top 8
Quarter Finals – Gideon with UW Tron
Game 1: I went off on turn 3 this game, and Therapy took out his Wrath of God while a mass of Zombies joined Akroma in play. While I was thinking what possible outs he had and which card would be best to discard, Gideon asked me to just pass since he had no outs. I asked for him to scoop, he refused, I kept thinking, and then he scooped. I guess that works.
SB: In come Chalice and Needle.
Game 2: This game, I made some bad mistakes. The worst one was when I had Bridge from Below in hand and forgot to discard it before sacrificing a creature to Cabal Therapy. Later, on the turn I was about to go off with my graveyard all ready, I dredged Golgari Grave-Troll instead of Golgari Thug, who would have made me lethal. Instead I passed the turn to him at 2 life after attacking with Zealot and tokens. If I had the earlier Zombie token, that would also have been enough. Fortunately for me, even when a Dredge pilot makes mistakes, it’s quite hard to lose to Tron.
My plan on the day was to make the finals no matter what in order to go to a Pro Tour, and I was only one match away from it. Naturally, when Fernando (who’d play me in the semis if he wins) said he is going to concede after the quarters, I was hoping for him to win. Unfortunately, Spell Snare on the deciding Shrapnel Blast meant Michael was going into the semis, and I’d have to play it out.
Semi Finals – Michael with CounterTopTog
Good news! Yuval came around and informed us that due to invites being awarded to first place and second place, we were allowed to negotiate a prize split in the semi finals, with boosters vs. a place in the finals. I asked Michael for the split, but he said he might fly, so we shuffled up to play.
Game 1: I start with a few enablers, and on my third turn, I’ve got two lands, Watery Grave in hand, and Michael has an untapped blue land and a fetchland. I was going to play Breakthrough, and the question was what the X should be. I played Breakthrough for 2, since I wanted to keep in my hand the Narcomoeba I had. 1 is clearly impossible, since I know he runs Spell Snares, and 0 doesn’t let me keep anything. I won the game through that play, but everyone watching said I should have gone for 0 since he might have Force Spike. Clearly this was ridiculous, since I know he has Spell Snares and no one plays both. Of course, I then asked Michael if he played Force Spikes, and he said yes… At least Spell Snare was indeed in his hand!
After game 1, Michael decides to offer the split again, and I accept, since the boosters aren’t worth nearly as much as the invitation to me, and it’s just not worth the risk.
I DID IT! Yes! Mission accomplished.
I guess I have to play the finals though?
Finals – Yosef with Jugan Blue
Game 1: Here I just go with a classic Dredge opening, and he concedes before I even realize I hit the 3 creatures, Dread Return, double Bridge, and Zealot. This is the first case where I just was completely unfocused in the match, since my goal of the day was complete.
SB: Chalice and Needle again.
Game 2: I start with a turn 1 Chalice, but I get a slow start. He manages to get Meloku down, and he completely stalls my offense. By this point I have a few creatures and a couple of zombies, but if I attack I lose most of my creatures and the Bridges in my graveyard. My plan was digging for Cabal Therapy and Akroma at this point, but I couldn’t hit either and I couldn’t do a normal Dread Return since I knew he had Cryptic Command in hand to counter the Return, or maybe do other ridiculous things. Eventually he plays Command to bounce my Chalice, untaps, plays Tormod’s Crypt, removes my library, and I concede.
Game 3: I don’t remember what I did on turn 1, but on turn 2 I played Careful Study, he counters it with Counterspell. I tap my second mana and play a second Careful Study, which gets me a Stinkweed Imp in the graveyard. Somehow, I didn’t dredge it on my next draw phase and drew a card, but I still won this game on autopilot.
And then you have me taking a terrible picture with the trophy. Eh. I don’t like photos
Also, I had to go home on the bus. Meh. </whining>
Turns out, I did have fun winning that day, despite Dredge being an annoying deck, and the mission was indeed accomplished. I’ll try and take PT Hollywood a bit more seriously, despite lucksacking my way through the PTQ. On the other hand, I might be too harsh on myself.
Requests for improvement on future tournament reports? As my first one, I think I did alright, but clearly I’m missing tons of information on the games. How bad was writing this in English for you, and did you bear through the terrible, terrible jokes? Split each game into more paragraphs?
I hope I was mildly entertaining, so for now, over and out.
Omer
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