- Delver is seeing much less play, and most lists abandon Geist of Saint Traft making the match up much, much better.
- Green decks can't interact favorably with you in any way, and they are hugely popular.
The List:
TurboBlunt (** indicates slots I'm changing going forward, this is the exact list I played this weekend)4x Rites of Flourishing
4x Snapcaster Mage
4x Ponder
3x Temporal Mastery
4x Fog
1x Clinging Mists
2x Blunt the Assault
1x Blue Sun's Zenith
2x Negate
2x Beast Within
3x Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
1x Jace, Memory Adept **
1x Otherworld Atlas**
2x Pristine Talisman
1x Witchbane Orb
2x Evolving Wilds
4x Hinterland Harbor
1x Reliquary Tower **
1x Alchemist's Refuge **
10x Island
7x Forest
Sideboard:
1x Beast Within
2x Witchbane Orb
1x Clinging Mists
2x Flashfreeze
1x Negate
1x Dissipate
2x Autumn's Veil
2x Lunar Mystic
1x Surgical Extraction
1x Steel Sabotage
1x Visions of Beyond(**?)
About the Deck
I've been playing versions of TurboFog ever since Pyromancer Ascension rotated from Standard. During that time, I've also run U/W Control, U/B Control, U/W Delver (also Delverless), W/R Humans and Mono-G Aggro. So while I have my FNM deck that I'm loyal to, I'm certainly not afraid to take a netdeck to a big event if I'm not confident with my brew. However, I put this deck back together for a final PTQ run and some Game Day events this weekend, and its better than ever. So much so, that I'm considering going back to Arizona for another PTQ this weekend, even though I had sworn off the entire state after my last two visits. (You think I'd learn after twice, but we'll see)
** The Changes I'd make going forward
+1 Jace, Memory Adept, -1 Otherworld Atlas
I hate Jace. I hate hate hate him. In many previous versions of this deck I'd leave him out, or board him out a significant portion of the time. But now that the deck runs Temporal Mastery (a huge boon to the deck), you can no longer rely on Rites of Flourishing to deck your opponent before you. There are other solutions to this issue, but Jace is the right one. I've been resisting adding a 2nd one for some time, but I now have no doubts it's correct. It's good in all the same matchups as the Atlas, and I've been boarding out the Atlas in every single game over the last 20 matches this weekend. Atlas is a decent engine, but it's so slow and clunky you need a few fogs of value before it does much for you anyway, and by then Jace would have just won the game. When you're behind, the Atlas can't draw you a card immediately, and Jace can. While that's not his ideal usage, it happens, and it works. I've even used Jace's +1 to fix my deck after a ponder, milling away the card i didn't want and drawing the one i did.
+1 Reliquary Tower -1 Alchemist Refuge
The Refuge was cute. I've used it to some benefit, by flashing in Rites EOT, I've even hard cast a temporal EOT, Pondered into a miracled Temporal EOT, and much much more. There's certainly value here. The problem is, most of these things are just fine in your mainphase, and worth it to save the mana. Rites is the exception, but you rarely can wait till 6 mana to cast it EOT, and even if you could, you need some of that mana for fog/counter and then you end up not able to cast your engine. Some might add a colored source, or another Evolving Wilds, but I really want a 2nd Reliquary Tower, because you want it every single game, and also, having it be Ghost Quartered in your End Step when you weren't prepared to make discarding decisions can be somewhat brutal. I had mine Beast Withined after drawing 6 with a Tamiyo, casting another one and drawing 6 more, and promptly had to discard 10 cards. Being the only colorless lands in the deck, 2 is fine.
Other stuff:
I'm certainly not tooting my own horn here, because I do understand that low level LGS tournaments aren't a big deal (and they aren't) but I've now developed some fanboys running my list (or close to it) at our store. They lose a lot. They watch my matches, and ask me for tips. For the most part, its their basic misunderstanding of what TurboFog is all about, and it really just takes grinding game after game after game to really understand it. If you've played it before in other builds, or have a decent understanding of the whole mindset of the deck (See: Not real MtG) you're probably okay in this regard. However, obligatory obvious tips: Don't fog until you have to. That means, don't go below 3 life against any non Red deck, unless you have no other option, and against red try not to go below 6. Until then, please do not Fog, unless your opponent gets a Sword trigger or threatens to kill a Planeswalker that is important to your current line of play, or something corner-casey. Also, know your matchup (i'll talk about the most of them below). What cards are dead against them? Do they have any marginal utility at all? If so, you have to save those cards for those marginal uses. absolutely have to. Negate is not expected to be a strong card against aggro, but against R/G aggro its 2 out of 3 of your maindeck outs to Bonfire of the Damned (the other being Witchbane Orb, if you already have that, you save your negates to protect your damned orb). So you grip your goddamned Negates for Bonfires, and nothing else (unless you'd otherwise lose). Clinging Mists is a wincon. Ideally you don't play it until you have to g1, when you can get the full pollen lullaby effect out of it and possibly gain two turns. Once they've seen it, treat it as a normal fog. You don't really want them playing around it by attacking with less creatures, as it makes your tamiyo much worse.
"Why aren't you playing White anymore?"
I used to play Bant for Gideon and Day of Judgement. There's a couple reasons why this isn't necessary anymore. Tamiyo is actually better at Gideon's job than Gideon, because when you have fogs, forcing attacks with gideon isn't really all that exciting, it's only amazing when he acts as your fog when you don't have one. When you fog with Tamiyo in play, it usually equates to draw 4+ cards the next turn (which should just win you the game, really). The consistency in the mana base is absolutely awesome, and there aren't any creatures I care about beyond my ability to Fog them in the format where Day of Judgement is neccessary. Especially in a world of Restoration Angels, Blood Artists and Geralf's Messengers, Day of Judgement is not the type of Fog you want. I understand White has a "better" fog than Clinging Mist/Blunt the Assault in Safe Passage. Safe Passage "counters" a Bonfire, which is nice, but it can't Fog for your planeswalkers. #awkward It's certainly not "better enough" to warrant playing lands that come into play tapped on almost all of your early turns. No matter how good it looks on paper, literally hundreds of games i've played have taught me otherwise, two colors, please.
"You mulligan a lot."
Yup. I mulligan a lot in general. This deck is certainly no exception. Especially Game 1, you must have action against an unknown deck. My hand should have some combination of the following, Ponder, Rites of Flourishing, Fog. You want two out of three. THere are some cases where I'd keep a 3fog 4 land hand, but typically if i have a good read on my opponent as to what type of deck they are playing. And yes, I trust my reads on this pretty strongly in paper Magic. I win games from 5 cards with this deck a lot. Don't be scared to mulligan. Once you get a Rites down, your hand will fill back up. You need to find it, you need action early.
"Why did you cast fog there when you could have snapcastered a fog. That way you save your "cheaper" fog option when you might need the mana later."
Two reasons. You always save the Snapcasters if you have another choice. Snapcaster is an instant speed demonic tutor in this deck, after ~turn 5, so use them later! Also, if i have so much mana that I have the option to snapcaster something, especially if i have a planeswalker in play, i'm not goign to have mana problems for the rest of the game anyway. I punted my way out of the PTQ making this elementary mistake on turn 4 of extra turns that turned a for-sure win into a loss->drop. Like i said before, this deck isn't easy to play. Often times you have lots of options, and it involves planning not only how to stay alive now, and next turn, but also as far as multiple turns after that, or as far as your current line of play to win would indicate.
"Why didn't you miracle that Temporal mastery?"
Sometimes I do early game, sometimes I don't. When I'm setting up with ponder, its not a "OMG A TEMPORAL LETS MIRACLE THIS NEXT TURN" all the time. Sometimes, of course, but not always. You want temporal because you play Rites of Flourishing and Planeswalkers. Taking an extra turn without those, acts as an explore, and that is sometimes absolutely perfect for what you want, but if its turn 2, and you ponder, perhaps you have the option to set up a miracle for turn 3, but that would preclude you from casting rites of flourishing. i set the miracle one card farther down, so I can cast rites turn 3, and miracle turn 4 with the rites in play. Same goes for a blind miracle turn 3, if you have the rites, you're better off just casting the rites; you'll get to 7 mana soon enough, and the extra card+extra land drop and the likely planeswalker (and corresponding activation) you'll have by then is often worth the wait. If you don't have the Rites or a planeswalker that you plan to play in the coming turns, feel free to miracle as an explore, and enjoy it. I'm not bagging on that line, but look for more value if possible.
"Why didn't you miracle that Temporal mastery?"
Sometimes I do early game, sometimes I don't. When I'm setting up with ponder, its not a "OMG A TEMPORAL LETS MIRACLE THIS NEXT TURN" all the time. Sometimes, of course, but not always. You want temporal because you play Rites of Flourishing and Planeswalkers. Taking an extra turn without those, acts as an explore, and that is sometimes absolutely perfect for what you want, but if its turn 2, and you ponder, perhaps you have the option to set up a miracle for turn 3, but that would preclude you from casting rites of flourishing. i set the miracle one card farther down, so I can cast rites turn 3, and miracle turn 4 with the rites in play. Same goes for a blind miracle turn 3, if you have the rites, you're better off just casting the rites; you'll get to 7 mana soon enough, and the extra card+extra land drop and the likely planeswalker (and corresponding activation) you'll have by then is often worth the wait. If you don't have the Rites or a planeswalker that you plan to play in the coming turns, feel free to miracle as an explore, and enjoy it. I'm not bagging on that line, but look for more value if possible.
General Gameplan
So, you use our face as a shield as long as possible while you amass permanents like Rites of Flourishing, lots of lands, and hopefully a Planeswalker. Surprisingly enough, people still don't really know what's going on with your deck for the most part, and you get tons of free wins from people just being bad. I'm ignoring that. Otherwise, you want an early rites, and you want to be drawing more fogs than they have attack steps. Once you get a 2nd rites in play, this shouldn't be an issue at all, and Pristine Talisman, Tamiyo and Beast Within can all act as tools to buy you additional time if you don't have fogs. Manage your lifetotal very carefully. Blunt the assault is a life gain spell, and clinging mists wants you to be at 5. If you have the luxury, use these correctly to both stay alive, and maximize value. Remember, the later you cast your fog effect, it's likely fogging more stuff, and hence, inherently more powerful/efficient. Fogging 20 damage on turn 10 for a single Green mana is much better than fogging 7 damage on turn 3 with the same card/mana. Eventually they'll be locked out of the game as you collect snapcasters preparing to re-play fogs and counters as you hardlock them with either a tamiyo ultimate (holding a fog + counter) or protect jace for 2-3 turns depending on how many cards they've drawn. You'll also often have the option to simply X them out of the game with Blue Sun's Zenith. If it takes you a while to find Jace, or perhaps they all get countered. You will deck out before them thanks to the extra turns. As a result, don't forget the Rites of flourishing all trigger separately, you can cast blue sun for 0, shuffle it in to your empty deck, cast it again, draw it, cast it draw it etc. depending on mana availability and cards in library you can also try to X them a bit with each cast. Overalll, your Game 1 win% is fairly high. Depending on their board options (which will be limited, and they may not realize what tools they have are good agianst you) game 2 will also be fairly swift. The scary part is losing game 1, ESPECIALLY, if the game runs long. Winning both games 2 and 3, especially after a long game one is nigh impossible. This means, scoop up promply g1 if you're certain you don't have a way out. An example of this, is that if ou go to our draw step where you have no Rites or extra "draw" spells, and you MUST draw a fog to survive, you basically lose. You'll fog next turn if ou draw it, but then you MUST draw another fog, so on and so on. It's going to depend on the composition of our hand, sometimes a top decked tamiyo can draw you enough cards to catch up, but just be aware when you're beat and scoop. This being said, NEVER board out ANY Jaces if you lose game 1. Jace is your only mechanism for actually ending a game quickly if needed. Sometimes, especially in Game 3, you need to take a riskier line and slam a jace and hope to just race them in order to finish in time. Going to turns is very rarely in your favor (unless you're up a game, and its only Game 2).
The Matchups
Traditional U/W Delver:
This is your very worst matchup. The reason being, a Delver, into a Geist presents enough damage that you may need to fog on turn 4, and you can't fog through double mana leak on turn 4 without Fog+Fog+Negate, which is obviously narrow. Even if it doesn't kill you, sitting at 1-3 life against them is scary when you can't afford to cast Snapcaster Mage without dying to Vapor Snag, or god forbid the Gut Shot->Snapcaster-> Gutshot for the win from 2 life. Luckily for us, this deck is disappearing. Your main goal is hope they don't flip a delver, or at least can't threaten lethal until turn 6+. If you can get to this point in the game, things are going to end fairly well. As with most Matchups you want a Rites of Flourishing, followed by a Planeswalker, and then start fogging. Sideboarding, in general, -1 Witchbane Orb, -1 Atlas (or the 2nd Jace if you make the reccomended switches), -1 Beast within (DO NOT SIDE OUT BOTH, they will bring in ORings if they have them, and you need that out to it in your deck and later to snapcaster), -1 Blunt the Assault -1 Pristine Talisman, +1 Negate, +1 Surgical Extraction, +1 Dissipate +2 Autumn's Veil +1 Visions of Beyond. Sometimes I'd board in Visions of Beyond, sometimes not. If they are a pike deck, it comes in for sure. What you take out for it depends on your read on the player and how they attack your game plan. It's usually the 2nd Talisman.
Mono U Wizards/Delver/Talrand whatever.
This is a much much easier Delver matchup. They cant apply enough pressure early to be too scary. Both of you durdle around mostly during the early turns. It's like the U/W matchup, but you get a free pass to turn 5-6. Sideboarding is mostly the same, but you can typically afford to board out all your Beast within's here as they are very unlikely to have ORing in their board.
R/G Aggro
Matchup is nearly a bye if you have some experience with it. Game 1, they likely have no way to interact with you other than to bonfire, potentially an acidic slime main, but not usually. If you manage to find your singleton witchbane orb G1, things look pretty good for you, otherwise, you want to manage your life total carefully if you don't have a negate for their bonfire at the ready. This means using blunt the assault proactively to gain life to stay out of bonfire range. Sideboarded games: Bring in 1 additional witchbane, not both unless you feel naked without it. Flashfreeze comes in of course, and i usually board out at least one negate. The extra Clinging mists comes in. Talismans go out. THe atlas/Jace slot goes out. Beast Within usually comes out too. Post board, you're protecting yoru permanents from acidic slime (and green sun) using flashfreeze. Nothing is worse than casting a rites of flourishing, your opponent drawing an extra card from it and then destroying it before you get yoru cards form it. Don't. Let. This. Happen. If you manage to do that, you should be fine. Just don't draw bricks :P
Zombies (all varieties)
This is a pretty tough matchup game one, which is dependent on finding the singleton witchbane orb. If ou can slam one of these, their creatures just aren't exciting enough to race yoru fog plan. The trigers from the messengers and blood artist aren't foggable, so this is an important piece. You will lose G1 to this deck, fairly frequently, but you also will steal some with an orb early. G2, all the orbs come in, and so does the extra fog, i usually cut a negate for a dissipate, and board out a Jace/atlas, some number of beast within and perhaps one talisman if i need the slot. Mulligan aggressively to a strong rites start or a castable witchbane orb and this matchup gets easier. just protect yoru orbs, or resolve multiples (barring a ratchetbomb sighting) and this matchup because laughable. If they are R/B zombies, i bring in flashfreeze just to combat the artifact hate, especially if tey saw the orb g1.
Elves/MonoG
Another amazing matchup. I would be holding counterspells for GSZ where X is 5 or more. The elf deck does a lot of ramping in the first few turns, which doesn't affect you at all. Maybe they attack for a little bit but that means they aren't using their mana dorks to progress their plan. I'll beast within a land in this matchup if htey miss drops, or perhaps a mana dude, but just try to avoid the acidic slime debacle. Some play a singleton as a gsz target g1, and you just dont want them gaining huge tempo by blowing up your rites or even a land. Post board, flashfreeze is enough along with the extra fog to combat the additional artifact/enchantment hate, removing the 2ndjace/atlas and at least 1 talisman. Keep in Beast within here. They will likely have either Grafdiggers Cage or ground seal, both which are annoying enough to want to hit with a beast within.
Control/Ramp
Do these decks even exist anymore? Meh, not really, but there's a gameplan here. The have the most permission/relevant non-creatures, but our negates really shine here g1. Not to mention Witchbane Orb stops a lot of planeswalker abilities, as well as Bonfire of the damned. Against these decks the clinging mist comes out as well as one blunt the assault, and the lunar mystics come in. Against most of these decks you'll want to board out some nubmer of rites, as you don't really want to cast one until you have a nicely sculpted hand, and allowing them the tempo of getting first free land off the rites (and the higher likely hood of ORinging it or otherwise destroying it before ou draw) is not ver beneficial to you. Lunar mystic does a nice job of this, and these matchups give you plenty of time to abuse it. Depending on how deep they go on their sideboarding (remember? somepeople are really bad) you can actually go on the offense with Snapcasters, Mystics and Beast Within tokens if the stars align. I once chained together a win usign temporal masteries using tamio to tap their blockers and just attacking with Mystics and Mages. not ideal, but it's a win. The sideboarding here is tough to give a good guide because the builds vary so much since the decks just aren't played much. For the most part the matchups are good with the exception of esper. Sun Titan recurring ORings and ratchetbombs is just about the biggest nightmare onth eplanet. Extraction has to come in, and dissipating an oring out of the board is like the bes tfeeling in the world. Same can be said for nihil spellbomb, but remember witchbane orb protects you there. Witchbane orb also stops mindslaver from the trading post decks, and various other Control type wincons. you'll essentiall always want the maximum counters, and autumn's veils too (at least against blue) and simply look at what part of our deck list least helpful. Remember, don't get greedy and board out too many fogs, most of these decks still actually win by attacking, and you'll need a way to interact with that. The exceptio nis the old U/B control that ran drownyard, but they really cant do much about witchbane orb.
Zombies (all varieties)
This is a pretty tough matchup game one, which is dependent on finding the singleton witchbane orb. If ou can slam one of these, their creatures just aren't exciting enough to race yoru fog plan. The trigers from the messengers and blood artist aren't foggable, so this is an important piece. You will lose G1 to this deck, fairly frequently, but you also will steal some with an orb early. G2, all the orbs come in, and so does the extra fog, i usually cut a negate for a dissipate, and board out a Jace/atlas, some number of beast within and perhaps one talisman if i need the slot. Mulligan aggressively to a strong rites start or a castable witchbane orb and this matchup gets easier. just protect yoru orbs, or resolve multiples (barring a ratchetbomb sighting) and this matchup because laughable. If they are R/B zombies, i bring in flashfreeze just to combat the artifact hate, especially if tey saw the orb g1.
Elves/MonoG
Another amazing matchup. I would be holding counterspells for GSZ where X is 5 or more. The elf deck does a lot of ramping in the first few turns, which doesn't affect you at all. Maybe they attack for a little bit but that means they aren't using their mana dorks to progress their plan. I'll beast within a land in this matchup if htey miss drops, or perhaps a mana dude, but just try to avoid the acidic slime debacle. Some play a singleton as a gsz target g1, and you just dont want them gaining huge tempo by blowing up your rites or even a land. Post board, flashfreeze is enough along with the extra fog to combat the additional artifact/enchantment hate, removing the 2ndjace/atlas and at least 1 talisman. Keep in Beast within here. They will likely have either Grafdiggers Cage or ground seal, both which are annoying enough to want to hit with a beast within.
Control/Ramp
Do these decks even exist anymore? Meh, not really, but there's a gameplan here. The have the most permission/relevant non-creatures, but our negates really shine here g1. Not to mention Witchbane Orb stops a lot of planeswalker abilities, as well as Bonfire of the damned. Against these decks the clinging mist comes out as well as one blunt the assault, and the lunar mystics come in. Against most of these decks you'll want to board out some nubmer of rites, as you don't really want to cast one until you have a nicely sculpted hand, and allowing them the tempo of getting first free land off the rites (and the higher likely hood of ORinging it or otherwise destroying it before ou draw) is not ver beneficial to you. Lunar mystic does a nice job of this, and these matchups give you plenty of time to abuse it. Depending on how deep they go on their sideboarding (remember? somepeople are really bad) you can actually go on the offense with Snapcasters, Mystics and Beast Within tokens if the stars align. I once chained together a win usign temporal masteries using tamio to tap their blockers and just attacking with Mystics and Mages. not ideal, but it's a win. The sideboarding here is tough to give a good guide because the builds vary so much since the decks just aren't played much. For the most part the matchups are good with the exception of esper. Sun Titan recurring ORings and ratchetbombs is just about the biggest nightmare onth eplanet. Extraction has to come in, and dissipating an oring out of the board is like the bes tfeeling in the world. Same can be said for nihil spellbomb, but remember witchbane orb protects you there. Witchbane orb also stops mindslaver from the trading post decks, and various other Control type wincons. you'll essentiall always want the maximum counters, and autumn's veils too (at least against blue) and simply look at what part of our deck list least helpful. Remember, don't get greedy and board out too many fogs, most of these decks still actually win by attacking, and you'll need a way to interact with that. The exceptio nis the old U/B control that ran drownyard, but they really cant do much about witchbane orb.
The weekend
I played in a PTQ Saturday, me and some buddies drove up to Riverside to game. I brought Fog as i hadn't tested much else, and I loved its place in the meta. At FNM the night before I decided to increase blunt the assault to 2, and changed the deck name to TurboBlunt :).
I played an awful Delver player R1, and beat him handily. he simply didn't know what he was playing against, even after i beat him game 1. He seemed to think that i won like that accidentally and my deck was actually trying to do something different. i dont expect he made it much farther in the tournament than i did.
THe next round I played a zombie deck. I lost a very quick G1 on a mull to 6 where I had a good keep, but didn't get a witchbane orb down in time to beat a killing wave + blood artist.
In game 2 i slammed an orb and since he didn't see it game 1 he didn't have an answer and i locked him out of the game almost immediately as i was gaining life with a talisman. Game 3 he smelted my first orb, when i was forced to tap out to cast it having missed some land drops on a rough mull to 5. I drew another one, but i couldn't afford to cast it and not hvae mana to fog. I ended up losing to double brimstone vollye that turn.
In Round 3 I played a strong Delver player I know from SoCal grinder scene of days past. We played a long G1 that I won fairly handily, and it was apparent to me he quickly adjusted his lines once he realized what deck i was plaing. He was attacking carefully to mitigate cards i would draw with tamiyo, and trying to collect a fist full of counters to fight one big war over a fog lategame, a war in which negates trumped mana leaks and i won. (this is however, the best hope for him once the game goes longer)
G2, I had a nice keep with a rites and a ponder, but he revoked my first rites and i didn't get another good engine going to keep up with his geist.
G3 I punted in a very sad sad manner. We go to extra turns on my Turn 0. I had just cast a Jace as time was called, and multiple Snapcasters in play. I didn't have a rites, as he had just removed it the previous turn, and he had 33 cards in his library. If you're doing math at home, that's just enouh cards for me to mill him 10 on turns 0,2,4 and him to draw 1 card each on 1,3,5 and not lose the game. At this point i had a fog, a snapcaster and a negate, i didn't expect losign to be a factor at this point, just avoiding the draw. After i did some math, i asked my opponent directly, "If you have no cards in your library and you can't kill me, would you concede?" He said no, he'd be okay with the draw, and i started tanking as quickly as i could about possible ways to win this game. Obviously a blue sun's zenith or a rites of flourishing would do the trick, so would a temporal mastery on any turn but turn 4, and ponders (or snapcaster to repla ponders) are very very live. Keep in mind i have under 20 cards in my library, so there's really i high density of outs here. I mill 10 this turn, fog on his turn Turn 1, he passes back, I draw a brick mill 10 ship. He draws, swings, i fog, he mental misteps, i'm staring at a land, a negate and a snapcaster mage. I tank for what seemed like only a moment when the judge asked me to make a play. This actually disrupted my thoguht process pretty severely as I eyerolled at how slow my opponent had been, and how unfortunate that one turn might cost me a draw here. I ultimately let the misstep resolve, snap my fog back, leaving negate up for another counter if needed. Fog resolves. I draw a land on turn 4, double check his library.... 11. I look at my hand. Negate + land. "Wait." I thought. "How am i going to survive next turn. Shit. I needed to save the snapcaster to fog on turn 5 considering i haven't drawn another yet. Now i really need to win this turn, or at least draw a fog somehow so i can at least force a draw." I look at the board, tank a bit. Decide my only hope here is to + my jace, and pray to hit a fog to draw, or hit a blue sun's zenith for the win. That's what i do, and whta do i draw? Rites of Flourishing. In disgust i sign my slip, drop and walk out of the room.
I'm sitting out side the venue kinda tilted, and a friend says, yeah if you had negated that misstep, you could have snapcaster-fog on turn 5 and draw. And i said, yeah, that was obviously better than what i did, but i would have likely dropped with a draw anyway. I'm pissed because i missed an auto-win. Had i negated the misstep, i can play the snapcaster mainphase on turn 4, to ponder into the rites of flourishing, cast it, mill 10, and he has to draw 2 on turn 5 and would lose the game. Not to mention, even if the rites wasn't there, the likely hood o fme hittin ga fog or another snapcaster or a blue sun instead is really high, and i still get a shuffl eif they are all bricks, and even then i can plus my jace to get a 2nd blind card post shuffle and still force a draw. I basically chose the only method i could to lose that game, but in the 20 seconds to think i had in the moment the options seemed really close. For someone who designed this deck, and has played it a lot, it's moments like this that make me actively love this deck. The decisions trees are deep. new interactions come up all the time, and you get to play on a plane that no one else does.
If there's interest in even MOAR turbo fog info, i could possibly record some games on MTGO. I'm not set up for this very well, but in an effort to promote Johnny's everywhere, i'd be happy to do it if anyone is trying to learn the true ins and outs of this deck and doesn't just want a list to play around with.
The real question is... do i go to another ptq next weekend.... in ARIZONA... *sigh*
I played an awful Delver player R1, and beat him handily. he simply didn't know what he was playing against, even after i beat him game 1. He seemed to think that i won like that accidentally and my deck was actually trying to do something different. i dont expect he made it much farther in the tournament than i did.
THe next round I played a zombie deck. I lost a very quick G1 on a mull to 6 where I had a good keep, but didn't get a witchbane orb down in time to beat a killing wave + blood artist.
In game 2 i slammed an orb and since he didn't see it game 1 he didn't have an answer and i locked him out of the game almost immediately as i was gaining life with a talisman. Game 3 he smelted my first orb, when i was forced to tap out to cast it having missed some land drops on a rough mull to 5. I drew another one, but i couldn't afford to cast it and not hvae mana to fog. I ended up losing to double brimstone vollye that turn.
In Round 3 I played a strong Delver player I know from SoCal grinder scene of days past. We played a long G1 that I won fairly handily, and it was apparent to me he quickly adjusted his lines once he realized what deck i was plaing. He was attacking carefully to mitigate cards i would draw with tamiyo, and trying to collect a fist full of counters to fight one big war over a fog lategame, a war in which negates trumped mana leaks and i won. (this is however, the best hope for him once the game goes longer)
G2, I had a nice keep with a rites and a ponder, but he revoked my first rites and i didn't get another good engine going to keep up with his geist.
G3 I punted in a very sad sad manner. We go to extra turns on my Turn 0. I had just cast a Jace as time was called, and multiple Snapcasters in play. I didn't have a rites, as he had just removed it the previous turn, and he had 33 cards in his library. If you're doing math at home, that's just enouh cards for me to mill him 10 on turns 0,2,4 and him to draw 1 card each on 1,3,5 and not lose the game. At this point i had a fog, a snapcaster and a negate, i didn't expect losign to be a factor at this point, just avoiding the draw. After i did some math, i asked my opponent directly, "If you have no cards in your library and you can't kill me, would you concede?" He said no, he'd be okay with the draw, and i started tanking as quickly as i could about possible ways to win this game. Obviously a blue sun's zenith or a rites of flourishing would do the trick, so would a temporal mastery on any turn but turn 4, and ponders (or snapcaster to repla ponders) are very very live. Keep in mind i have under 20 cards in my library, so there's really i high density of outs here. I mill 10 this turn, fog on his turn Turn 1, he passes back, I draw a brick mill 10 ship. He draws, swings, i fog, he mental misteps, i'm staring at a land, a negate and a snapcaster mage. I tank for what seemed like only a moment when the judge asked me to make a play. This actually disrupted my thoguht process pretty severely as I eyerolled at how slow my opponent had been, and how unfortunate that one turn might cost me a draw here. I ultimately let the misstep resolve, snap my fog back, leaving negate up for another counter if needed. Fog resolves. I draw a land on turn 4, double check his library.... 11. I look at my hand. Negate + land. "Wait." I thought. "How am i going to survive next turn. Shit. I needed to save the snapcaster to fog on turn 5 considering i haven't drawn another yet. Now i really need to win this turn, or at least draw a fog somehow so i can at least force a draw." I look at the board, tank a bit. Decide my only hope here is to + my jace, and pray to hit a fog to draw, or hit a blue sun's zenith for the win. That's what i do, and whta do i draw? Rites of Flourishing. In disgust i sign my slip, drop and walk out of the room.
I'm sitting out side the venue kinda tilted, and a friend says, yeah if you had negated that misstep, you could have snapcaster-fog on turn 5 and draw. And i said, yeah, that was obviously better than what i did, but i would have likely dropped with a draw anyway. I'm pissed because i missed an auto-win. Had i negated the misstep, i can play the snapcaster mainphase on turn 4, to ponder into the rites of flourishing, cast it, mill 10, and he has to draw 2 on turn 5 and would lose the game. Not to mention, even if the rites wasn't there, the likely hood o fme hittin ga fog or another snapcaster or a blue sun instead is really high, and i still get a shuffl eif they are all bricks, and even then i can plus my jace to get a 2nd blind card post shuffle and still force a draw. I basically chose the only method i could to lose that game, but in the 20 seconds to think i had in the moment the options seemed really close. For someone who designed this deck, and has played it a lot, it's moments like this that make me actively love this deck. The decisions trees are deep. new interactions come up all the time, and you get to play on a plane that no one else does.
If there's interest in even MOAR turbo fog info, i could possibly record some games on MTGO. I'm not set up for this very well, but in an effort to promote Johnny's everywhere, i'd be happy to do it if anyone is trying to learn the true ins and outs of this deck and doesn't just want a list to play around with.
The real question is... do i go to another ptq next weekend.... in ARIZONA... *sigh*
