[Deck] Thopter Sword / Urza Thopter

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FoodChainGoblins
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Location: Riverside

Post by FoodChainGoblins » 4 years ago

Two tournament reports, both pretty terrible. I played at a 24 person 1K and a 13 person MNM at the same store. The store that I was playing at is a lot less competitive than most stores I go to; quite possibly the least of the bunch. But I've done terribly here in at least the last 4-5 tournaments.

1K -

Round 1 vs. Eldrazi Tron. I get Emry on turn 1 and Urza on turn 2. This game is only close because she finds Karn, the Great Creator on the play on turn 3 and considers what to "wish" for. I think she should have gotten Ensnaring Bridge, as I have no answer to that and she had turn 3 Tron on the play, so not many cards in hand to get rid of with infinite mana. But she doesn't and I win. In the next game, I face a turn 1 Chalice of the Void on the play, which surprisingly slowed me only by a Mox Opal. But the Mox Opal would have allowed me to cast 2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and Oko, Thief of Crowns that rotted away in hand while she curved me. In the next game, I face Karn, the Great Creator on turn 3 and I am unable to get Black mana to cast 2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas because I can't use Mox Opal or Arcum's Astrolabe. 1-2.

Round 2 vs. Esper Control. This was a hilarious match, although I did get a slow play warning (I wish the Judge had seen my round 1 when my opponent thought for at least 5 minutes about what to Wish for, consulting the SB 3 times). I get stuck on 1 land and an active Mox Opal, but go until turn 9 before finding a 2nd land. Then on turn 11, I find a 3rd land, or 4th mana source and start crushing. He got supremely flooded and mana screw beats mana flood because I have gas while he cannot even counter anything. In the next game, he counters Teferi, Time Raveler with Force of Negation and I don't get much after that. On my Emry mill, I milled both colored mana sources, then didn't find Astrolabe. In the final game, I made several punts, but was able to draw a land on the card drawn AFTER 5 cards drawn from Paradoxical Outcome to force through a Construct and Saheeli an artifact for another Construct to swing for 1 over lethal (because of Urza too) on turn 2 of turns. 2-1.

Round 3 vs. Burn. There was not much to see here. I kept a 1 land hand and had Mox Opal, Mox Amber, 5 lands in play (5 fetchlands got them) with Mox Opal and land in hand. Drew only lands I believe. In the next game, turn 2 Cindervines slows me down and when I Collective Brutality when I drew it, he Boros Charm in response, had no Sorcery/Instant in hand, saved the Monastery Swiftspear, and then drew Lava Spike for lethal next turn. It didn't matter much. This seems like a terrible matchup and terrible draws don't help much. I literally was resigned to drawing 0 land in game 1 and being stuck on Mox Opal and 1 land, but instead peeled only land. 0-2.

I dropped.

MNM -

Round 1 vs. UW Control. Same guy from Round 2 of the 1K. I went through a lot of the removal that he had and eventually got value from a late Urza to find Sai and swing Thopters for game. In the next game, I had a lot of gas, but was constrained with the 3 mana that I started with. Eventually I found the 4th land and started playing a bunch of haymakers. I won this game with 2 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, and Oko, Thief of Crowns still in hand. I played a lot better than I did the previous day. 2-0.

Round 2 vs. Bring to Light Scapeshift. My clock stalls out on a few Constructs and an Urza and I can't find non Mox Opal artifacts. In fact, I drew all 4. So my clock is small and he has 1 card in hand and 6 lands in play. He draws, then plays a land and Bring to Light for Scapeshift for 6 lands (leaving a Valakut in play). He finds Valakut and 5 "Mountains." He tells me it's 30 something. I tell him to read the card. I take no damage, but am still swinging with a slow clock. I end up finding a good card the next turn and fully comboing out. In the next game, I play 2 Collective Brutality and Thoughtseize, but he finds Bring to Light for Scapeshift on the top, mostly because my clock was slow again. I found 3 Mox Opal this game too. Damn, this card is bad! In the final game, I also take apart his hand and am very much ahead in this game, but he finds land drops to be at lethal next turn. This was mostly because my clock was Urza with a small Construct. He has a land in hand (known info from discard) draws for the turn and it's Worldly Counsel for 5. What's the chance this hits Scapeshift since he only has 4 lands untapped? Pretty high as he finds it and kills me. I think if I had declined to play Emry 2 turns before and NOT milled Disdainful Stroke, I would have had game easily. But I did cast the Emry since I wanted lethal through a chump block and the 1 would be enough. I lost with all 7 Snow-Covered Islands and Watery Grave in play. Can't Thoughtseize the top of the deck. GGs. 1-2.

Round 3 vs. Grixis Shadow. In the first game, he has Gurmag Angler and Death's Shadow join to make Snapcaster Mage on Temur Battle Rage lethal. In the next game, Temur Battle Rage on only 1 Gurmag Angler is not enough as I actually find a few tokens, activate Urza and hit Urza for another Construct. In the final game, I do as much as I can to protect myself from Gurmag Angler, Death's Shadow, and the Snapcaster Mage that I assume is 1 of 2 cards left in his hand. He starts the turn by doing Island. I'm thinking, "whew, no fetchland." But then he plays the Thoughtseize that he drew and Temur Battle Rage, which was the last card after Snappy did Stubborn Denial the turn before. I lose 2 Constructs, Sai, and Urza to the Death's Shadow. I'm not sure why he didn't swing with all of them. I calculated lethal if he had Temur Battle Rage no matter what blocks I did, but I guess his play was safer against some random Fatal Push or Echoing Truth. I assumed he didn't have TBR since he only attacked with Shadow. I was wrong. I also got slowed a bit, stuck on 2 land and Mox Opal that were all in my original hand. Had Urza and Tezzeret in hand in the end. It's tough to beat an opponent that has Temur Battle Rage all 3 games, fetchlands on turns 1-3 with Thoughtseizes and Street Wraiths. Gurmag Angler is a tough boy to beat since he can't be answered by Engineered Explosives on 1. 1-2.

Round 4 vs. Eldrazi Tron. Same girl from Round 1 of the 1K. She actually didn't get Tron on turn 3 all 3 games this time. She only had it in game 3, where her original hand had 5 lands. But Chalice of the Void on the play on 0 into turn 2 Thought-Knot Seer gets it done. I would have been fine this game if I had drawn Sai or Saheeli, but I guess I could have said that about any of the games I played against her. I get swung a bunch of times, even while Emry is doing Mishra's Bauble each turn. In the next game, it is not close. I draw an Urza to protect my Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas from Matter Reshaper and I actually drew some artifacts this game. Got there with the ultimate. In the next game, I turn 1 fetch, shock, Thoughtseize. I think I should have waited until turn 2, but if I drew a 4 drop and she didn't have turn 2 Chalice of the Void on 0, I would have dropped Everflowing Chalice to make turn 3 a reality. Instead, a Matter Reshaper beat me down and I made her discard a few key things, but she had 3 draw steps, 1 of me countering a Karn Liberated with Disdainful Stroke, then Grafdigger's Cage, which was odd, then finally a Walking Ballista, which killed me because her first 3 land drops were Tron pieces. I tried to bluff Disdainful Stroke, but she was dead on the crack back and she had already survived 3 turns while I had Urza in play because I didn't draw anything else to kill her yet. But I started getting some Thopters going, so she was in fact dead next turn. She made the right play of making me have it and I didn't. She had drawn Warping Wail to remove Urza from play so that Matter Reshaper swung me to 3 life, but the Walking Ballista could have been for 6 anyway. 1-2.

So, 2 tournaments of 1-2 and 1-3. I don't think this reflects on the deck, unless mana screw and mana flood are a big problem for this deck. I found those 2 things to be the problem and Emry milling multiple Urzas, Paradoxical Outcomes (which I dont' mind as much with Mystic Sanctuary), and both colored mana sources while also not drawing Arcum's Astrolabe to be the main problems of this deck. Just like any Arcum's Astrolabe deck, it always feels much better doing turn 1 Arcum's Astrolabe and getting other ones whenever you have extra mana. It's just an amazing card and I attribute the lack of me finding those partially to my demise with the deck. The rest of it is just me misplaying and not knowing if I'm going to draw 0 lands in a game before it matters or only lands in a game before it matters.

*On another note, when you Mishra's Bauble yourself to find a land/non land that you want, shuffle the unwanted card away, and then draw it for the Bauble trigger, it makes you feel like an idiot (or an MTGO bug). In my testing and at FNM, I seemed to usually get a different card, but I need to get used to that not happening, even after a (perhaps too much?) thorough shuffling.
Standard - Will pick up what's good when paper starts
Pre Modern - Do not own anymore
Pioneer - DEAD
Modern - Jund Sacrifice, Amulet, Elementals, Trollementals, BR Asmo/Goryo's, Yawmoth Chord
Legacy - No more cards, will rebuy Sneak Show when I can
Limited - Will start when paper starts
Commander - Nope

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