Post by crazedferret on Jun 18, 2013 18:29:35 GMT -5
I took fourth in a 1k over the weekend with my version of the omniscience combo woo brew - Rite Aid.
My version has a few quite notable differences from Travis Woo's list that shored up some key matchups.
First and foremost, Elderscale wurm...
This huge wurm crawls out of the graveyard turn 4 or 5 to make aggro throw fits. What do they do? It nullifies attacking and locks my life total against most decks. So I played 3 main over things like borborygmos and the red tyrant.
Second, I played breaking and Entering over forbidden alchemy- This card was key in setting up a consistent turn 4 angel of serenity or elderscale wurm. If I had a rites or wurm/angel in hand, izzet charm and faithless looting were enough. Often enough though I found that I was missing either the unburial rites or the big creature in hand to make that work out. Milling myself 8 cards meant I got to see a solid chunk of the deck which more often than not allowed me to find the 4 rites to get to a turn four reanimation. Plus it is reanimation spells 8-11 which also as gives your giant creature haste. This allowed me to steal a game or two that the opponnent thought he had locked. With an angel and another dude or two in play, their army vanishes and yours crush on through. You can also rip something out of their yard if yours is a little empty.
Third I cut one omniscience, one obzedats aid (hence only 11 reanimation spells), turned the one remaining tyrant into a dinrova horror and added one archaeomancer. This put the focus more on reanimation with the possible oops I win via omniscience which still happened often enough to warrant play. The dinrova horror acts like an angel in the sequence of free omniscience angels, a way to bounce a sphinx to play it again as well as a way to bounce all of your opponnents permanents. It's targeted where the red tyrant is not. The Red tyrant may accidentally hit more, but it cannot target what you need to get rid of. Archaeomancer enables an immedeiate win via breaking and entering and the free omniscience angel loop.
Fourth and MOST important... HAD A SIDEBOARD PLAN.
This is probably the most crucial thing I did to shore up aggro matches. I can't say my side was perfect but it definitely won me games by just having a plan. When there was a blitz speed quick deck that I was playing against I dropped the omniscience pack and sided just about my entire side board to slow them down just enough to get out an elderscale wurm or an angel. My board consisted of
4 pillar of flame
3 ral zarek
3 syncopate
2 oblivion ring
2 cyclonic rift
1 cavern of souls
SO
R1 against green black control
G1 He had main deck cremates for my turn 4 omniscience. Luckily for me he had no solid answer to my turn 5 griselbrand which netted me life, drew me some cards and was joined by 2 angels. It's nice when angels and demons work together.
G2 Appetite for brains stole an important card from my hand and I didn't recover from his desecration demons.
G3 He hit both of his cremates and an appetite for brains. Thouroughly wrecked my hand that game.
So started out poor...
Round 2 paired against gates control.
Game 1 I choose to mill him with breaking to see if I can get rid of one of his win conditions - by far his quickest win con. I'm not sure I even saw what the other win cons were. I'm pretty sure I actually cast Omniscience in this game. Then combo for the win.
Game 2 I believe I sided out a couple of faithless lootings and I think a wurm for some ral zareks as this was going to be a slow match where Ral could just take over. I was for sure right on that one. Ral zarek ulted, I flipped coins, then proceeded to play a second ral zarek and start taking my extra 4 turns. He slaughter games my breaking enterings but it didn't matter. I found an omniscience combo'd off and played another creature or 7 to attack with. I had I think 2 extra turns left and an obzedats aid in hand which really made me wonder, how many extra turns could I take?
Round 3 verse bant midrange
Game 1 he'd never seen this deck before and I managed to get a relatively quick omniscience, I think turn 6 or so. I did just enough of the combo for him to realize the angel loop and the win condition.
Game 2 He had lots and lots of countermagic for me to contend with. I just could not over come it.
Game 3 I found some of my own countermagic. Managed to go to 1 stick a wurm go to 7 lose the wurm to selesnya charm go to 4 and then stick another wurm and that's where we ended up tying.
So 1-1-1 in games not great but not bad. Relatively small crowd could turn around.
Round 4 was GW humans
Game 1 was mana screwed after a mul and lost pretty quick. Could not find a white source for the unburial.
Game 2 bring in the side board I created for quick aggro and dropped the omniscience package. Proceeded to burn, counter and destroy all of his creatures and let the wurms and angels play cleanup.
Game 3 more of the same. Big stuff out of the yard remove all other threats.
Round 5 verse a very good friend of mine for contention to top eight - John with red deck wins.
Game 1 John got an extremely good start curving perfectly as that deck does. I izzet charmed his two drop which bought me at least a turn. He used his burn, to my face. Then I believe my turn 5 I managed to find a wurm drop both unburial rites and wurm into the yard via faithless and recur the wurm to take over. I believe I was at 3 or 4 life before that.
Game 2 I board in some removal and counters for the omniscience package manage to stick the wurm and then lose to a stolen wurm.
Game 3 on the play I decided boarding in ral zarek would help with the creatures. I'd get to turn 4 and be able to play one to pick off a guy. The removal helped me survive quite a while. I managed to stick an angel of serenity and then stick a wurm. He had double traitorous blood on five land and me sitting on an izzet charm. The wording on wurm as well as how intense the tournement was resulted in a big misplay that may or may not have swung the game in his favor. He stole the angel and then realized I didn't have to do anything with the wurm. He meant to take the wurm and swing into my angel. Thus putting me at less than 7 which would mean the wurm would no longer protect my life total. That would have given him I think 2 guys back on his side of the board which may have made the difference. My turn I had an izzet charm and a land. I kept the land in hand and swung with both which was also a misplay. I should only have gone in with the wurm. He traitorous blooded my wurm again next turn with 2 land open. I mentally smack myself as izzet charm does nothing. Then I decided to draw with it on the off chance that I would hit a syncopate. I got so incredibly lucky. Syncopate for four which stunned John. He didn't believe I'd brought that in.
That put me in top 8 (small tourney no?) 3-1-1 in games
I played my round one opponnent again.
GB control
I know what he has he knows what I have.
Game 1 he hits double cremate again (the only two in his deck) and I lose.
Game 2 I board out the omniscience combo as it wasn't likely that I'd get to it and appetite for brains was a real threat. I board in Ral Zarek which manages to take a swing from a desecration demon which kept the pressure off of me and allowed me the opportunity to get an angel out onto the board. I had wurm in play but it didn't matter as lose life is different from damage. He did however tap out for demon. I manage to enter in an angel and finish up.
Game 3 I tried very very hard to throw...
I managed to hit angels and wurms and oblivion rings for his creatures. I kept bouncing his life gain dudes and demons and card drawing guys that I never remember the name of. I get him to eight by breaking and entering in an angel to remove all his dudes and swing in. He rips a mutilate to wipe my board and starts recovering life. I stick griselbrand. He sticks demon. Move to my turn. Precombat chose to draw cards, set my hand down. Start drawing in twos. 2-4-6 but for whatever reason I kept going... 8-10 cards...... I can't believe I did that right in front of the judge. We spent probably the next half hour hunting down rules trying to figure out if there was anything that would save me from this horrendous misplay. It would have sucked bad as I was about to pull back out ahead. I was about to accept the game loss when John, thank god, noticed the one card that was seperate from the 10 card pile. I had set my hand down and apart from the mess that I drew. That alone kept it from a game loss and turned it to a warning. Three cards got put back on top and I continued in a shakey and an incredibly careful way, making sure I only drew 1 card at a time from then on. Oblivion ring out of that seven cards got rid of his demon and allowed me to swing in with riselbrand.
Another mutilate and we had no creatures on board. He kept drawing cards and drawing cards from then on that it was only a matter of staying alive long enough to find breaking to finish it up. He was a very good sport and a very good player. It would have sucked to go out with a game loss but at least I'd give the game to a decent person.
The last round I lost horribly to a real quick red green deck.
Game one was hardly a match. I died because I couldn't find a white source or many creatures to recur.
Game 2 I stumbled on lands hitting multiple come into play tapped lands which resulted in a turn too late unburial rites angel in the yard. Had it not stumbled I would have had a turn four angel.
Great tourney overall and awesomely fun deck to play.
My version has a few quite notable differences from Travis Woo's list that shored up some key matchups.
First and foremost, Elderscale wurm...
This huge wurm crawls out of the graveyard turn 4 or 5 to make aggro throw fits. What do they do? It nullifies attacking and locks my life total against most decks. So I played 3 main over things like borborygmos and the red tyrant.
Second, I played breaking and Entering over forbidden alchemy- This card was key in setting up a consistent turn 4 angel of serenity or elderscale wurm. If I had a rites or wurm/angel in hand, izzet charm and faithless looting were enough. Often enough though I found that I was missing either the unburial rites or the big creature in hand to make that work out. Milling myself 8 cards meant I got to see a solid chunk of the deck which more often than not allowed me to find the 4 rites to get to a turn four reanimation. Plus it is reanimation spells 8-11 which also as gives your giant creature haste. This allowed me to steal a game or two that the opponnent thought he had locked. With an angel and another dude or two in play, their army vanishes and yours crush on through. You can also rip something out of their yard if yours is a little empty.
Third I cut one omniscience, one obzedats aid (hence only 11 reanimation spells), turned the one remaining tyrant into a dinrova horror and added one archaeomancer. This put the focus more on reanimation with the possible oops I win via omniscience which still happened often enough to warrant play. The dinrova horror acts like an angel in the sequence of free omniscience angels, a way to bounce a sphinx to play it again as well as a way to bounce all of your opponnents permanents. It's targeted where the red tyrant is not. The Red tyrant may accidentally hit more, but it cannot target what you need to get rid of. Archaeomancer enables an immedeiate win via breaking and entering and the free omniscience angel loop.
Fourth and MOST important... HAD A SIDEBOARD PLAN.
This is probably the most crucial thing I did to shore up aggro matches. I can't say my side was perfect but it definitely won me games by just having a plan. When there was a blitz speed quick deck that I was playing against I dropped the omniscience pack and sided just about my entire side board to slow them down just enough to get out an elderscale wurm or an angel. My board consisted of
4 pillar of flame
3 ral zarek
3 syncopate
2 oblivion ring
2 cyclonic rift
1 cavern of souls
SO
R1 against green black control
G1 He had main deck cremates for my turn 4 omniscience. Luckily for me he had no solid answer to my turn 5 griselbrand which netted me life, drew me some cards and was joined by 2 angels. It's nice when angels and demons work together.
G2 Appetite for brains stole an important card from my hand and I didn't recover from his desecration demons.
G3 He hit both of his cremates and an appetite for brains. Thouroughly wrecked my hand that game.
So started out poor...
Round 2 paired against gates control.
Game 1 I choose to mill him with breaking to see if I can get rid of one of his win conditions - by far his quickest win con. I'm not sure I even saw what the other win cons were. I'm pretty sure I actually cast Omniscience in this game. Then combo for the win.
Game 2 I believe I sided out a couple of faithless lootings and I think a wurm for some ral zareks as this was going to be a slow match where Ral could just take over. I was for sure right on that one. Ral zarek ulted, I flipped coins, then proceeded to play a second ral zarek and start taking my extra 4 turns. He slaughter games my breaking enterings but it didn't matter. I found an omniscience combo'd off and played another creature or 7 to attack with. I had I think 2 extra turns left and an obzedats aid in hand which really made me wonder, how many extra turns could I take?
Round 3 verse bant midrange
Game 1 he'd never seen this deck before and I managed to get a relatively quick omniscience, I think turn 6 or so. I did just enough of the combo for him to realize the angel loop and the win condition.
Game 2 He had lots and lots of countermagic for me to contend with. I just could not over come it.
Game 3 I found some of my own countermagic. Managed to go to 1 stick a wurm go to 7 lose the wurm to selesnya charm go to 4 and then stick another wurm and that's where we ended up tying.
So 1-1-1 in games not great but not bad. Relatively small crowd could turn around.
Round 4 was GW humans
Game 1 was mana screwed after a mul and lost pretty quick. Could not find a white source for the unburial.
Game 2 bring in the side board I created for quick aggro and dropped the omniscience package. Proceeded to burn, counter and destroy all of his creatures and let the wurms and angels play cleanup.
Game 3 more of the same. Big stuff out of the yard remove all other threats.
Round 5 verse a very good friend of mine for contention to top eight - John with red deck wins.
Game 1 John got an extremely good start curving perfectly as that deck does. I izzet charmed his two drop which bought me at least a turn. He used his burn, to my face. Then I believe my turn 5 I managed to find a wurm drop both unburial rites and wurm into the yard via faithless and recur the wurm to take over. I believe I was at 3 or 4 life before that.
Game 2 I board in some removal and counters for the omniscience package manage to stick the wurm and then lose to a stolen wurm.
Game 3 on the play I decided boarding in ral zarek would help with the creatures. I'd get to turn 4 and be able to play one to pick off a guy. The removal helped me survive quite a while. I managed to stick an angel of serenity and then stick a wurm. He had double traitorous blood on five land and me sitting on an izzet charm. The wording on wurm as well as how intense the tournement was resulted in a big misplay that may or may not have swung the game in his favor. He stole the angel and then realized I didn't have to do anything with the wurm. He meant to take the wurm and swing into my angel. Thus putting me at less than 7 which would mean the wurm would no longer protect my life total. That would have given him I think 2 guys back on his side of the board which may have made the difference. My turn I had an izzet charm and a land. I kept the land in hand and swung with both which was also a misplay. I should only have gone in with the wurm. He traitorous blooded my wurm again next turn with 2 land open. I mentally smack myself as izzet charm does nothing. Then I decided to draw with it on the off chance that I would hit a syncopate. I got so incredibly lucky. Syncopate for four which stunned John. He didn't believe I'd brought that in.
That put me in top 8 (small tourney no?) 3-1-1 in games
I played my round one opponnent again.
GB control
I know what he has he knows what I have.
Game 1 he hits double cremate again (the only two in his deck) and I lose.
Game 2 I board out the omniscience combo as it wasn't likely that I'd get to it and appetite for brains was a real threat. I board in Ral Zarek which manages to take a swing from a desecration demon which kept the pressure off of me and allowed me the opportunity to get an angel out onto the board. I had wurm in play but it didn't matter as lose life is different from damage. He did however tap out for demon. I manage to enter in an angel and finish up.
Game 3 I tried very very hard to throw...
I managed to hit angels and wurms and oblivion rings for his creatures. I kept bouncing his life gain dudes and demons and card drawing guys that I never remember the name of. I get him to eight by breaking and entering in an angel to remove all his dudes and swing in. He rips a mutilate to wipe my board and starts recovering life. I stick griselbrand. He sticks demon. Move to my turn. Precombat chose to draw cards, set my hand down. Start drawing in twos. 2-4-6 but for whatever reason I kept going... 8-10 cards...... I can't believe I did that right in front of the judge. We spent probably the next half hour hunting down rules trying to figure out if there was anything that would save me from this horrendous misplay. It would have sucked bad as I was about to pull back out ahead. I was about to accept the game loss when John, thank god, noticed the one card that was seperate from the 10 card pile. I had set my hand down and apart from the mess that I drew. That alone kept it from a game loss and turned it to a warning. Three cards got put back on top and I continued in a shakey and an incredibly careful way, making sure I only drew 1 card at a time from then on. Oblivion ring out of that seven cards got rid of his demon and allowed me to swing in with riselbrand.
Another mutilate and we had no creatures on board. He kept drawing cards and drawing cards from then on that it was only a matter of staying alive long enough to find breaking to finish it up. He was a very good sport and a very good player. It would have sucked to go out with a game loss but at least I'd give the game to a decent person.
The last round I lost horribly to a real quick red green deck.
Game one was hardly a match. I died because I couldn't find a white source or many creatures to recur.
Game 2 I stumbled on lands hitting multiple come into play tapped lands which resulted in a turn too late unburial rites angel in the yard. Had it not stumbled I would have had a turn four angel.
Great tourney overall and awesomely fun deck to play.