Suicide Black! A tournament report from Eudemonia.
Last weekend I got my hands on The Duelist #1, and I intended to write a post about that magazine. It has been a hectic week though, so I'll save that one for a little later, and instead get to present Heiner Litz tournament report from Eudemonia two weeks ago :) Thanks a lot Heiner!
Round 1. Steven with UW-Control
Steven goes first with Tundra. I play land, rit, Specter who goes farming immediately, second turn I drop Strip Mine, rit, Juzam. Steven plays some more land Juzam attacks for five. Steven drops Moat which is pretty much game although I have Gloom next turn. Would I have stripped his tundra to deny him the second white, gloom would have come down shutting of Moat which probably would have won me the game as I followed up the Djinn with 2 Pumpknights. Steve gets his draw engine going and that's game.
Second game I sideboard 2 more Gloom and 2 Energy Flux for some Djinns. I start with a strong hand that has first turn ancestral and some moxen, then second turn Ritual, Greed, draw 2. I draw another 3 on turn three but then Steven finds his Disenchant. Again I was to greedy, I should have played Gloom instead of drawing 3 to keep alive my Greed. Still I am in good shape drop some creatures and start beating. I also drop 3 Gloom taking out his white cards completely. However, Steven plays Ancestral, gets ahead and slowly stabilizes. He chaos orbs a flyer, drops Maze of Ith and control Magic on one of my creatures. I drain life one stolen Knight but he steals another one and starts beating with it and a factory. I am at 5 life or so and finally draw Demonic. There is no single card that could help me so I go for Timetwister. Its a good one. I play Serendib go. He attacks with his 2 creatures and untaps one of his with Maze. I play Drain Life for 6 or so and attack with Efreet. Next turn I have Psi Blast to finish him off. 3rd times out so we draw.
Round 2. Eliott with Zoo
I start with some Specters and Knights which both eat a lightning bolt. I get one Serendib Efreet to stick but he plays Juzam+Crossroads and immediately attacks. I have 2 Juzams in my hand and only need a fourth mana to easily win the game but I don't draw one for 3 turns and his Juzam wins the race.
Second game, I have a first turn specter and he doesn't have the bolt. He turns sideways 3 times before he plays Hurricane to take him out and one of my Serendibs but I drop 2 Juzams in the following 2 turns.
Third game I drain life 2 Kird Apes and he bolts one of my specters. We play draw go and he gets a Juzam down and handles all I have. I am still confident as I have lots of mana and Timetwister. I something like twister, time walk, then Mind Twist him for 5 and then drop huge creatures the next turn.
Round 3. Blaine with Monoblue-Artifacts.
He has 4 counterspells and counters everything I have and then drops a creature. I was pretty low on life already.
Second game I get first turn Necropotence and in the next 3 turns I draw 2 extra cards every turn, drop at least 2 mana, have a couple rituals and beaters. He can't cope with that.
Third game he keeps a one lander with ancestral that does not draw him a land. I have first turn Specter and 2nd turn Greed and a couple turns later I have the game under full control with 6 mana against his 2, 2 creatures, 7 cards including drain life against his 3 and I am at 6 life. Now epic things happen with Specter discarding Psychic Purge, putting me to 1, I drain life, he mana drains, I drain life again for one and Efreet finishes me off two turns later. I misplayed this again as I could have demonic tutored for Strip Mine the turn before taking out his second land for drain.
Round 4. Adam with the Machine
He starts with library but I get down a Specter so although I cant get him below 7 cards it slows him down as he can only play one card per turn. I increase the beatz and at some point he goes for it dropping 2 Hell's Caretaker and Bazaar. He bazaars twice and puts 2 Trike in his yard. I take out one Caretaker but he can get one trike out to ping my Specter, I then drop Juzam and finish him off with 2 Psi Blasts soon thereafter.
Second game he has a lot of mana and drops Trike and Pentavus. I take out Pentavus with Psi Blast ignore Trike and beat him to death quickly with Serendib Efreet+Serendib Djinn.
Round 5. Dustin with Weissman Control
I mulligan to 5 both games while he has first turn Library one game and ancestral+tome the other.
Apart from game five I was really happy with the deck. Without my mistakes I should have easily made 3:1:1 or 4:1. The deck plays the format's best creatures ignoring bolts/trikes and runs a great draw engine. Greed is awesome but the deck needs to be constructed around it. In control, it just doesn't work but in this deck its super broken. 4 Greed is an absolute must to stand a chance against control. White weenie can be a problem but it can be well handled with Gloom and Jovian Evil which is usually 8-10 damage for 3 mana. Another broken card (at least in this artifact heavy meta) was Energy Flux. I sideboarded it 3 games and it usually took out 3+ moxen and other artifacts.
I didn't have that much fun at a tournament for a long time, the format is great and has more depth that one would think. Many games were really tight and its just super fun to play an undeveloped format which holds so many surprising decks albeit the small card pool. I am definitely looking forward to the next one!
Heiner's Suicide black deck |
Steven goes first with Tundra. I play land, rit, Specter who goes farming immediately, second turn I drop Strip Mine, rit, Juzam. Steven plays some more land Juzam attacks for five. Steven drops Moat which is pretty much game although I have Gloom next turn. Would I have stripped his tundra to deny him the second white, gloom would have come down shutting of Moat which probably would have won me the game as I followed up the Djinn with 2 Pumpknights. Steve gets his draw engine going and that's game.
Second game I sideboard 2 more Gloom and 2 Energy Flux for some Djinns. I start with a strong hand that has first turn ancestral and some moxen, then second turn Ritual, Greed, draw 2. I draw another 3 on turn three but then Steven finds his Disenchant. Again I was to greedy, I should have played Gloom instead of drawing 3 to keep alive my Greed. Still I am in good shape drop some creatures and start beating. I also drop 3 Gloom taking out his white cards completely. However, Steven plays Ancestral, gets ahead and slowly stabilizes. He chaos orbs a flyer, drops Maze of Ith and control Magic on one of my creatures. I drain life one stolen Knight but he steals another one and starts beating with it and a factory. I am at 5 life or so and finally draw Demonic. There is no single card that could help me so I go for Timetwister. Its a good one. I play Serendib go. He attacks with his 2 creatures and untaps one of his with Maze. I play Drain Life for 6 or so and attack with Efreet. Next turn I have Psi Blast to finish him off. 3rd times out so we draw.
Juzam at the wrong side of the Moat. |
I start with some Specters and Knights which both eat a lightning bolt. I get one Serendib Efreet to stick but he plays Juzam+Crossroads and immediately attacks. I have 2 Juzams in my hand and only need a fourth mana to easily win the game but I don't draw one for 3 turns and his Juzam wins the race.
Second game, I have a first turn specter and he doesn't have the bolt. He turns sideways 3 times before he plays Hurricane to take him out and one of my Serendibs but I drop 2 Juzams in the following 2 turns.
Third game I drain life 2 Kird Apes and he bolts one of my specters. We play draw go and he gets a Juzam down and handles all I have. I am still confident as I have lots of mana and Timetwister. I something like twister, time walk, then Mind Twist him for 5 and then drop huge creatures the next turn.
Moments before the Psychic Purge. |
He has 4 counterspells and counters everything I have and then drops a creature. I was pretty low on life already.
Second game I get first turn Necropotence and in the next 3 turns I draw 2 extra cards every turn, drop at least 2 mana, have a couple rituals and beaters. He can't cope with that.
Third game he keeps a one lander with ancestral that does not draw him a land. I have first turn Specter and 2nd turn Greed and a couple turns later I have the game under full control with 6 mana against his 2, 2 creatures, 7 cards including drain life against his 3 and I am at 6 life. Now epic things happen with Specter discarding Psychic Purge, putting me to 1, I drain life, he mana drains, I drain life again for one and Efreet finishes me off two turns later. I misplayed this again as I could have demonic tutored for Strip Mine the turn before taking out his second land for drain.
Round 4. Adam with the Machine
He starts with library but I get down a Specter so although I cant get him below 7 cards it slows him down as he can only play one card per turn. I increase the beatz and at some point he goes for it dropping 2 Hell's Caretaker and Bazaar. He bazaars twice and puts 2 Trike in his yard. I take out one Caretaker but he can get one trike out to ping my Specter, I then drop Juzam and finish him off with 2 Psi Blasts soon thereafter.
Second game he has a lot of mana and drops Trike and Pentavus. I take out Pentavus with Psi Blast ignore Trike and beat him to death quickly with Serendib Efreet+Serendib Djinn.
Serendib beatdown. |
I mulligan to 5 both games while he has first turn Library one game and ancestral+tome the other.
Apart from game five I was really happy with the deck. Without my mistakes I should have easily made 3:1:1 or 4:1. The deck plays the format's best creatures ignoring bolts/trikes and runs a great draw engine. Greed is awesome but the deck needs to be constructed around it. In control, it just doesn't work but in this deck its super broken. 4 Greed is an absolute must to stand a chance against control. White weenie can be a problem but it can be well handled with Gloom and Jovian Evil which is usually 8-10 damage for 3 mana. Another broken card (at least in this artifact heavy meta) was Energy Flux. I sideboarded it 3 games and it usually took out 3+ moxen and other artifacts.
I didn't have that much fun at a tournament for a long time, the format is great and has more depth that one would think. Many games were really tight and its just super fun to play an undeveloped format which holds so many surprising decks albeit the small card pool. I am definitely looking forward to the next one!
Sweet deck! 8D
SvaraRaderaJust a question, I can't spot the Necropotence you mention in round 3. Do you mean that you played a first round Gloom? Sorry for being slow 8P
/axelsson
I assume that he refers to Greed as Necropotence ;)
RaderaGreed feels a lot like the old Suicide Necro decs. You just draw 3 cards every turn, pump out creatures and overwhelm the opponent. Its super mana intensive thats why rituals are still great in the mid/late game. I think Greed is completely underrated in this format, its really good.
RaderaDoh, that's what I meant. Good thing I excused myself for being slow to start with ;)
SvaraRadera/axelsson
So, next time I expect some Old School players from the US at our World Championship here in Gothenburg. =D
SvaraRaderaAwesomeness!
SvaraRaderadamn nice! // Jhoval
SvaraRadera