Subject: Grand Prix Boston -- Necrologia Date: Sun, 06 Sep 1998 15:31:14 -0400 From: Chad Ellis To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com Hi Everyone, Well, I'm recovering from Grand Prix Boston, where a promising start turned into a 4-3 finish, which I'm not unhappy about since I think I got pretty bad matchups. In the second Exodus prerelease I got a chance to try out Necrologia, and was amazed at how quickly it turned games in my favor -- yes, card advantage is a good thing. Ever since, I wanted to build a Rath Necro deck, and while I don't get much chance to playtest with my work schedule I've basically brought my Necro deck with me wherever I went. Most of the ideas are fairly straightfoward. Shadow weenies provide early pressure, and Corpse Dancing Bottle Gnomes can block and provide life to fuel Necro. Mindless Automatons can get big, but their main use is when you'd rather Whisper than Healing Salve. Then, Gravepact was a natural addition -- if you have Gravepact in play, every buyback Healing Salve or Whispers includes a Diabolic Edict. Thrull Surgeons help get rid of any nasty counters (as well as providing good intelligence about when you can Necro), and Dancing Doctors is possible late game, with about the same cost as Mind Peel anyway. The original model was mono-Black, with 4 Horrors, 4 Slayers and even 2 Cutthroats. Edicts and Gravepact were the removal, and the only "trick" was a single Brush with Death, which was unexpected enough to win a few games. The problem was, the deck was too vulnerable to early beatdown and to control...and I had reason to think that a few people might be playing one or the other! Basically, all it won consistently against was Black and White weenie, because the Gnomes and Automatons held the main board and Gravepact was too big. Sligh lost if and only if I got dancing Gnomes, or enough quick shadow to force Sligh to use its burn. The real problem was that the deck was totally helpless against a lot of archetypes -- anything using Ensnaring Bridge, Humility/Prayer, Awakening. Living Death wasn't an automatic loss -- Gravepact and self-sacrificing creatures help -- but I couldn't really stop the LD player from setting up, getting an Eagle or two in the graveyard and then going off. I decided to splash Red for a bit more spot removal (basically just 4 shocks main deck), and to use Diamonds for speed instead of Rituals. Rituals just weren't working, because without the 1 cc Zombies I wasn't going for the Suicide Black start. With a Diamond I could still put out a first turn 2-power Shadow creature, and with 4 Shocks and 4 Edicts I could often support that creature for a number of turns, until it was time to Necro, Dance or whatever. With this, I found that my matchups vs. beatdown were very good -- I was beating almost every Sligh deck I saw in game 1, and games 2 and 3 were even better as I was bringing in Wall of Souls. Control, however, was still a problem. I could sideboard Boil, but that wasn't enough, and certainly wasn't enough vs. Living Death. Last week it occured to me that the answer might be one of Necro's classic weapons -- remember when LD stood for Land Destruction? With 4 Wastelands and 4 Rain of Tears, I could slow down the Awakening, Prayer and other control decks, and hopefully give myself a chance. I didn't have much time to test this out, but I removed the Strongholds (4 colorless mana is enough -- I really don't want to sit there with Gravepact in my hand), added an extra land (reducing the Automatons to two from three), and took out some of the less useful spells, like the Cutthroat, Brush, and Volrath's Dungeon (which went to the sideboard). Since beatdown looked like a good matchup, I also adjusted my sideboard to be a bit more anti-control. Here's what I finally went with: 4 Dauthi Slayer 2 Dauthi Horror (not being pingable makes Slayers better, despite Soltari Monks) 4 Shock 4 Diabolic Edict 4 Rain of Tears 4 Mox Diamond 4 Bottle Gnome 2 Thrull Surgeon 3 Corpse Dance 2 Necrologia 2 Gravepact 2 Mindless Automaton 4 Wasteland 3 Mountain 16 Swamp Sideboard: 3 Perish 3 Jinxed Idol 2 Shattering Pulse 1 Gravepact 1 Necrologia 1 Flowstone Flood 1 Volrath's Dungeon I only went with two Necros main, since the deck can win comfortably with Gravepact/Dance or through weenie pressure, and against a lot of decks you are just not going to Necro more than once. Gravepact is expensive enough to stick to two main, but the third comes in vs. slower creature decks (i.e. Tradewind/Spike and Living Death). The Perish are essential (I think) both to keep Tradewinds from getting active (most Tradewind decks seem to rely on the green creature base of Flagpoles, Weavers and Feeders) and so that I don't have to concede if someone gets a Verdant Force into their graveyard. The Flood gives a bit of extra LD, and the Pulses can also put on mana-pressure if my opponent uses Diamonds, as well as taking care of Scroll Racks, Bridges, or whatever. Jinxed Idol can be used vs. slow creature decks (since with Gravepact and Corpse Dance I'll have "more" creatures than almost anyone) but was really put in for Humility Prayer...although a better solution is clearly needed. Volrath's Dungeon wasn't working too well in the pre-land destruction version -- it's just not as good with Necrologia as Necropotence because of the 5cc. With the Land Destruction, however, it can be huge, as you can make an opponent wait a long time to build up land while you draw threat cards. I might go to two in the sideboard next time. One choice that surprised some people was not using Boils, especially since landkill is a central weapon vs. control. In testing, when I splashed red a lot of blue players brought in Chill against me in sideboarding. I also felt that Blue players had to deal with the possibility of Boil, which made it easier to force through other threats, because they dare not tap out. After the Grand Prix, however, I think Boils definitely deserve another look. OK, on to the tournament. Round 1: Michael, playing WW with splash blue for Leaks and Propaganda. This isn't a great matchup for me -- and I admit I was hoping for an easy round one. The early version of the deck was huge against WW, but the lack of Cutthroats hurts, and Propaganda (with Cataclysm) is a real problem. Game 1, however, was easy. Michael kept a one land draw, and I cast a second turn Rain of Tears. I took two points from his Soul Warden and seven from my own Necro. Game 2 saw the first real mistake of the day. I've gotten used to the idea that when you have an Edict in your hand it's often good just to use it (if you don't have anything better to do with the mana), since if your opponent gets out a better creature, the Edict is still going to kill the inferior one. Thus, Wall of Blossoms, etc., often die to Edict. The clear exception, however, is when you have another removal spell that can kill what's on the table but might not kill what comes next. To make a painful story short, I edicted his Soul Warden (instead of Shocking or ignoring her). Next turn he cast a Soltari Priest and put Hero's Resolve on it, and I never had an answer. He was still at 20 when I died. Game 3 I made another serious blunder with Diabolic Edict, although he might well have won anyway. I'm at 4 mana with 11 life and two Gnomes. He has over 20 life, with an armored Priest and a Warrior en-Kor. Sounds grim, but I have a couple of turns to draw a fifth mana at which point my Dancing Gnomes can keep me stable until I draw more threats or a Gravepact, so I have a real chance. The main threat is Cataclysm, so the smart play is just to take the damage and hope for the fifth mana, knowing that if he gets greedy and casts Cataclysm I can put mana in my pool and Edict away his only creature after it resolves. Instead I edict away the Warrior so I can get in a few points of my own...and sure enough he Cataclysms a couple of turns later. So, not the start I was hoping for...I guess this is why I don't get any byes based on my rating? Round 2: Mark, playing Tradewind Awakening Mark is a semi-regular at Your Move Games, and this is going to be my first chance to see how the anti-control changes would help. Game 1 is another gift to the Rain of Tears. I think Mark may be new to the deck, since I don't understand keeping a one-land draw. His thinking was that with two Legacy's Allure he'd be in good shape once he got the second land, but I would have Parised in a blink. Game 2 he gets land, but I get two Rains to keep him below four mana. When he doesn't play a land or cast a spell after I knock him down to two Forests I slap down the Dungeon and discard my remaining four cards. I drew no threats over the next few turns so it wasn't a total rout, but he never really recovered. Round 3: Brian, playing Tradewind Awakening Yuck, where is the Sligh??? Well, if no Sligh, maybe I can keep getting opponents with one-land hands? Game 1: You guessed it -- but this time it was after Parising twice. Better lucky than good. I Rained the first land and drew another Rain before he drew a second. Game 2: One of the toughest in the tournament. I think I killed one of his early lands and put on some mighty Gnome beatings, followed by some Shadow threats, but he cast a Vineyard, so he was OK for mana and I had to be careful about burning. He was meanwhile using his Scroll Rack to hunt for good stuff, with the help of a Rampant Growth. Then he finally finds what he's looking for...Oath of Druids! Ouch, this could be bad, as I have two Shadows in play as well as two Gnomes. I figure my only hope is to hit as hard as I can and hope his Feeders and Weavers can't keep him alive. He gets out a Tradewind, to go with a Weaver and Feeder, so I Perish (and, I think, Edict). Later I have to Perish again. Each time he gets to gain life and/or Weave, but I'm still getting some damage through. Then he gets out Big Sexy, the Silver Wyvern. Is that what they call beatings? I look at my Necro-reduced life total and hope I can race. I have to sac one of my Gnomes, and he's pulled out a Weaver and a Feeder. I'm sure at this point he was ready to go to game three... Fortunately, I had one more Perish and one more chance. During his upkeep I sac my Gnomes and activate his Oath. Now, he could have won if in response he'd sacrificed his own Feeder so that we'd each have two creatures and the Oath wouldn't work, but his position looked so strong I don't think it even occured to him. I get a third Shadow guy. I then use up the Vineyard mana casting my last Perish. I'm at three life, though, so Big Sexy will kill me easy. He gains 4, putting him at six, Weaves, and puts the last Weaver counter on Big Sexy. I then cast the Gnomes that were waiting in my hand, meaning that when Big Sexy attacked he couldn't get me below one. It all came down to his Oath and draw...but in his graveyard there were already three Feeders and a Weaver. The Oath gave a Tradewind, the draw and Scroll didn't come up with Capsize, so I killed him next turn. Hmmm...two Tradewind Awakening decks, two 2-0 wins, but both with more luck than I want to rely on and some mistakes by my opponents. We'll have to wait to see how this does in the future. Round 4: Terry, playing mono-Blue Bridge This is a really cool Brooch/Bridge deck designed by Darwin Kastle. Although many of you probably assume Darwin was always going to play Living Death, he had two other serious contenders, a slighish WW deck with splash red for burn and Bombardment and this, a counterless mono-blue deck, using Dominating Licids, Legacy's Allure, Tradewinds, Keepers of the Mind and Merfolk Looters, along with the Brooch/Bridge semi-lock. It's very tough to play against if you're not familiar with it, and I'm sure that was part of it's appeal. I didn't know it too well, but I knew some of the key ideas, as well as that it had no permission besides the Brooch. Terry is a great guy and a YMG regular. We weren't psyched to get paired, since a second loss would be close to elimination from the top 64, but there you are. Game 1 was extremely close. I got out early beatdown, Necroed, got in some more beatdown, and was doing a pretty good job of dealing with his creature base so he couldn't start Tradewinding stuff. Unfortunately, my main deck can't deal with artifacts, so when he had out the Bridge and Brooch, I conceded. (He was at 2 life, but with Gnomes on the table, so I would have needed to get all 4 shocks -- one getting countered -- before he got a single Gnome or Brooch or just killed me.) Game 2 I brought in the Pulses and the Flood, and possibly the third Gravepact, since I was 99% sure Darwin hadn't taken my idea of putting in Steal Enchantment. I slowed him down enough to get out some good threats, and then got my Pulse. He was at five mana, so instead of going after the Bridge right away I took the time to kill his Diamond so that he couldn't cast a Brooch and protect it in one turn (4 to cast, 2 to activate). He cast the Brooch next turn and immediately realized what had happened. I killed it, then the Bridge and then the Grindstone, and there was nothing he could do. I felt good about my good play, he felt understandibly bad about giving away the Brooch, but I doubt it mattered much either way. If I'd gone for the Bridge first and he was therefore able to cast the Brooch, I would have just dumped creatures into play and he was at least five draws from the next Bridge. Same thing if he'd waited a turn for his next land. For Game 3 I decided that the direct route wasn't reliable enough -- he would certainly bring in Chills now (I knew there were four, since both Terry and Darwin had mentioned that the first game vs. Sligh was very tough), and two Pulses was a lot to rely on. So, I brought in my Idols, figuring that with Dance and Gravepact I could force him to keep it most of the time, and he had no early ways to damage me. My opening hand includes Mountain, Swamp, two Rain of Tears. I just know my deck will give me a Swamp in one of the next three draws. It doesn't...but it does give me a Horror for the second turn pressure, and Terry is dropping turn two and three Chills (told ya!) but not playing a third land. On turn four or five I get the Swamp, and then my deck apologizes for the wait by giving me my third and fourth Rain of Tears just when he draws his third and fourth lands. Ouch! I actually took 14 points of damage that game, but it was all from my own Idol and I was happy to have it. At five mana with a Shock in my hand and doing more damage to him each turn than the Idol does to me, I knew that if he played a creature I could just Shock, attack, and then play Indiana Jones (Throw me the idol, I throw you the whip!) to finish him off. Wow...do you get the feeling that Rain of Tears feels neglected, so when it actually gets in a deck it's determined to show off? Round 5: Fran Burke, playing U/b control This wasn't too challenging a matchup. Remember when Necro always beat control? Fran's deck is full of one-for-one cards and creatures. He's also using cards like Mind Peel and Reanimate which I would call sub-optimal. Game one I make him tap out to deal with threats and necro twice for seven each time. Game two I pound on his lands a bit and beat him down with a Slayer, killing all his creatures with Edicts and/or Gravepact. Round 6: Randy Beuhler, playing Counter-Phoenix All right, an easy opponent! :-( I've never met Randy before, and he was very friendly. We chatted a bit about his Dojo article on the Rath metagame and agreed that it made more sense to look at the decks played by the top players instead of just at the ones that did well that day, since some of them (like Mike Long) may be due to a low standing at the time rather than the decks being strong relative to the field. I ask him if he found the "grenade" he was looking for, and he said, "It's hard to say, I'm 1-1 today -- ask me in a few hours." D'oh! Gotta love having three byes. Game one, I feel OK about my start -- I'm putting on pressure and once I see he's playing with Phoenix I concentrate my efforts on his red mana (I think one Wasteland and one Rain). He keeps drawing red sources, though, and in the few times I can get him to tap out on his turn I never have an Automaton (which, if it gets big, could be tough for him to deal with). He slowly but surely takes control of the game. I finally force him to tap out by Whispering during his discard phase after he cast a Phoenix (OK, it's Corpse Dance with an Automaton on top of the graveyard), so on my turn I can Necro. With one card in hand, and 13 life, I Necro for six...bringing me to seven life, seven cards...seven...seven...seven...I draw seven cards. Randy says, "That's one too many," I realize my mistake and suggest we call a judge, knowing that I'm going to get a warning and a game loss. (The Grand Prix was at whatever the highest level of enforcement is, but my record is squeeky clean, so I had little worry that I would get anything worse.) The judge came over, and we told him what happened -- Randy made it clear that he thought it was an honest mistake, which I thought was cool. As expected, a warning and a game loss. Afterwards, Randy said he thought he was still in good shape, since at seven life he might be able to win by going into beatdown mode, Forbidding my threats -- but that the Necro had certainly put the outcome back into doubt, while without it I was dead. Game 2 my landkill did its best, but as I found out afterwards, Randy was playing with 30 lands, so even the heroic efforts of my Rains couldn't stop him. He soon got to where he was Dismissing rather than just countering, and when he did that three times and had over 12 lands in play it was clearly over. Technically you can't resign a match...but if the DCI wants to come after me, they can. This was a horrible match-up for me, and if (as I suspect) it is now one of the Rath decks to beat, I'm going to have to think what to do about it. Static Orb is a possibility (I just love that card), as is sideboarding Boil. Considering that six out of seven decks I played ran Islands and only one person brought in Chill against me, Boil might not be a bad idea at all... So, one round to go, and some of the 5-2s will make it in. Surely now I'll get my long-awaited matchup vs. Sligh? Round 7: Bob, playing Humility Prayer Um...this isn't Sligh. This is my worst possible match-up. Sure, I can Necro for a lot (19 in game one), but Humility/Prayer is a permanent Wrath of God, so who cares? Both games were actually somewhat close, with Landkill and his fear of Hatred making it hard for him to go for the combo. In the second game I got him down to one life, and almost forced through a Jinxed Idol, but even if I had he had a Disenchant. Boil would have been extremely useful here...*sigh*. So, 4-3, but not too bad a showing, considering I think I had only one easy match-up all day and quite a few hard ones. Props: Rain of Tears -- they came early and often, and were absolutely key. I think landkill is better now for one of the same reasons that Force Spike is -- people are building better (tighter) decks. I had test matches against Sligh where a second or third turn Rain took out their only mountain -- because to be aggressive enough they were running 15 or so lands and accepting one-land draws routinely. Tradewind Awakening decks just rock once they get going, but they need to hit four mana to make it, and first-turn Shadow/second turn Rain, third turn Wasteland can be game. Terry -- lost a critical game in part because in sixteen cards I drew all four Rain of Tears, and took it in stride. Michelle Bush -- 'cause she's the Bomb and because she's the only Sligh player at the tournament I wouldn't want to get paired against. Tony, the Gray Matter judge -- I wrote a Dojo report a while back where I gave Tony a hard time for being rude to players (he'd demanded to see our hand stamps three times in less than an hour when none of us had moved from a table, and snapped at players). I suggested, I think, that someone should send him flowers or something, so he'd be in a better mood. Well, Tony was great at the Grand Prix, friendly and helpful, and he happily took the time out to check my sleeves before round six when I'd just seen two players get game losses for worn sleeves. Strict Rules Enforcement -- I was quite happy to get my game loss for drawing an extra card, because that's what we need. The pendulum may have swung too far -- sleeves wear out, and playing mistakes do get made -- but it probably has to go too far so we can find a sensible balance. If Wizards kept inching forward we'd never fix the problem. Slops: Byes -- I already posted about this, but the automatic byes are rediculous. I think 5-2 with good tiebreaks was enough to make it to the second day, which means that top players only have to go 2-2 in the rounds they actually play, or 2-1-1 to be 100% safe. Sure that's against a tougher field than overall, but the odds are stacked incredibly high in their favor. It's one thing to have invites to a tournament based on bad performance, but to say that past performance should give such a big advantage to top players is sending a strong message to solid players that they shouldn't really hope to win big tournaments. This is made even worse if what I'm told about tiebreaks is correct -- that they tend to be favorable to the players with byes because since they start playing against other 3-0s their opponents all have better-than-average win percentages! If the system is really such that someone who starts in round 4 with a perfect score actually has an additional advantage over someone who won the first three rounds, that is just wrong. Nothing else -- remember, this is me. I love everyone. Chad (cellis@hbs.edu) Candidate for advancement from "Strong among the Weak" to "Weak among the Strong" Has beaten Darwin Kastle twice -- once with Static Orb (draft) and once with Stupid Flying Blue Weenies...proof that if you wait long enough (and Darwin gets really sick) anything can happen. Champion of unloved cards.