Daily Dose of Standard - Ep. 16

Daily Dose of Standard

KrazyCaley

18 December 2011

1292 views

vs. Counterhell

Please note - No Daily Dose of Standard tomorrow. I will be moving stuff.

Caley's deck - The Doom That Came To Sarnath - This deck brought to you by Cthugha- "Wheel in the sky keeps on burnin'."

I picked this opponent solely because of his name.

Game 1

Enemy wins the toss and plays first. He keeps his opener.

Caley mulligans a hand of Ghost Quarter, Birds of Paradise, Ambush Viper, Moldgraf Monstrosity, Garruk, Primal Hunter, Acidic Slime, and Volition Reins.

C keeps a hand of Island, Forest, Mayor of Avabruck  ^Flip, Stoic Rebuttal, and 2x Dissipate.

T1

E plays Island and passes.

I would be disappointed at any other first play from a guy with the name "CounterHell."

C draws Garruk, Primal Hunter, plays Island, and passes.

T2

E plays Copperline Gorge and passes.

Not sure what is U/R/G. 5-color control usually wouldn't have green out this early. Maybe a Birthing Pod deck?

C draws Birds of Paradise, plays Forest, casts the Birds, and passes. End step, E casts Desperate Ravings discarding Island.

A delver deck? But why the green?

T3

E plays Island and passes.

C draws Forest and plays it. He passes. End step, E casts Incinerate on Birds of Paradise.

It's not Mayor time until I can get my counterspell mana arranged. Sadly, my opponent knows that two blue is needed for most good counterspells, and burns my Birds.

T4

E plays Buried Ruin and passes.

C draws Moldgraf Monstrosity. He plays Mayor of Avabruck  ^Flip and passes.

I'm in land trouble, but at least I have a threat to keep him busy for a turn, perhaps.

T5

E plays Geistflame destroying the Mayor, then passes.

C draws Viral Drake, does nothing, and passes.

T6

E plays Island and passes.

C draws Acidic Slime, does nothing, and passes.

Heeellllp.

T7

E casts Burning Vengeance and passes.

Heeeeeellllllllp.

C plays Forest and casts Viral Drake, then passes.

T8

E plays Island and casts another Burning Vengeance, then passes.

But Caley, the odds of successfully duelling Burning Vengeance decks after they have out two copies is approximately 3,720 to 1!

C draws Rampant Growth and casts it. In response, E flashes back Desperate Ravings, dealing 4 damage to Viral Drake, killing it. He discards Ancient Grudge to the Desperate Ravings.

Is that why the green?

The Rampant Growth resolves and C gets an Island. C passes.

Finally.

T9

E plays Drowned Catacomb and passes.

Necessary for Forbidden Alchemy as usual, but note that he is now one color shy of having 5-color Delver.

C draws Island and plays it, then passes.

My plan is eventually to deploy Acidic Slime to blow up a Burning Vengeance, but I'll need some time to set up what I consider to be enough mana.

T10

E plays Mountain and passes.

C draws Forest, plays it, and passes. End step, E casts Think Twice.

I luckily have a bit of time since he hasn't thrown too much flashback into the graveyard yet.

T11

E casts Spellskite and passes.

I could Dissipate this, but I would prefer to counter another Burning Vengeance or other pressing threat. Plus, I would really prefer to counter Spellskite, if I'm going to counter it, after he cooks a land or some such on it using Buried Ruin. I suspect he will grow impatient with not having any artifacts of mine to target with Ancient Grudge, so he might use it on the Spellskite just to get the Vengeance damage, then cook a land on Buried Ruining back, THEN I'll counter it after he wastes all that effort.

In the meantime, though, Spellskite effectively guards the Burning Vengeances from my Acidic Slime. I normally don't think Spellskite is a good idea, but it makes a lot of sense in a delver deck that simply HAS to have Burning Vengeance survive.

C draws Forest and plays it. He casts Garruk, Primal Hunter.

Obviously, this will not survive if it resolves, but I intend to draw out counterspells, and as an incidental benefit, make him use a flashback card to kill Garruk, hopefully Ancient Grudge.

E Negates Garruk. C Stoic Rebuttals the Negate. E flashes down Snapcaster Mage, but then realizes that there are no counterspells there for him to target, and gives Incinerate flashback. Garruk resolves and makes a Beast token.

I would imagine this is a common error when running Snapcaster Mage. It must feel like he can always give you a counterspell at times.

T12

E plays Drowned Catacomb. He casts Geistflame targeting C. He deals the 4 Burning Vengeance damage to Garruk and the original 1 from Geistflame to C. (Enemy 20, Caley 19). E passes.

Amazingly, this is the first damage of the game. Usually this would be a bad sign for a Burning Vengeance deck, but my opponent is in a very nice position.

C draws Mayor of Avabruck  ^Flip. He casts it and passes. End step, E flashes back Think Twice, using the 4 Vengeance damage to kill the beast token.

I've been able to keep him occupied with small threats, keeping him from bringing down a ton of damage on my head.

T13

E plays Sulfur Falls. He flashes back Ancient Grudge targeting his own Spellskite. He deals 2 damage to Mayor, killing it, and 2 damage directly to C. (Enemy 20, Caley 17). He attacks with Snapcaster Mage, who hits. (Enemy 20, Caley 15). Then he sacrifices Buried Ruin to retrieve Spellskite, and casts it again; it runs into a Dissipate from Caley. E passes.

According to plan. Now let's see if I can't shut down one of those Burning Vengeances.

C draws Cudgel Troll. He casts Acidic Slime. E responds with Dissipate. C responds with his own Dissipate. The stack clears and Acidic Slime resolves.

If you have a counterspell....and I have an Acidic Slime......but I have a counterspell, there's the counterspell, you see. Are you watching? And my counterspell reaches.....accrrroooooooooossss the stack.....and counters your counterspell.....I. COUNTER. YOUR. COUNTERSPELL.

Acidic Slime blows up Burning Vengeance. C passes.

Yet another advantage of waiting to counter Spellskite until he tried to recur it was that the machinations associated with flashing the spell back, paying mana to use Buried Ruin, and then casting Spellskite again left him with only enough mana for one counterspell, which I could burn through.

T14

E casts Forbidden Alchemy discarding Geistflame, Copperline Ridge, and Sulfur Falls. Then he casts Spellskite and passes.

Not really a huge deal now.

C draws Moldgraf Monstrosity and casts it. He attacks with Acidic Slime. E blocks with Snapcaster Mage and both die.

I, for one, am happy with this trade, since I believe Acidic Slime would die shortly anyway to Burning Vengeance damage, and this way I get to take Snapcaster Mage with me. I had expected to have to cut through some counters to resolve my Moldgraf, but all the petty squabbles from earlier have apparently drained him of his counters, and now the game will swing in my favor for at least a while.

C passes. End step, E casts Desperate Ravings discarding Ancient Grudge. Then he casts Think Twice.

T15

E does nothing and passes.

C draws Ambush Viper. He attacks with Moldgraf Monstrosity, which hits. (Caley 15, Enemy 12). C casts another Moldgraf Monstrosity. E flashes back Forbidden Alchemy in response, discarding Island, Negate, and Dissipate, and dealing 2 Vengeance damage to (Caley 13, Enemy 12). Then E casts Mana Leak to stop the second Monstrosity. C passes.

The good side of that is that he had to scrap two counterspells to do it.

T16

E plays Drowned Catacomb and passes.

C draws Mayor of Avabruck  ^Flip. He plays Cudgel Troll. Then he attacks with Moldgraf Monstrosity, which hits (Caley 13, Enemy 4) and passes. End step, E casts Think Twice and Forbidden Alchemy discarding Blackcleave Cliffs, Mana Leak, and Hinterland Harbor.

This guy has paid a lot of money for the mana base just to include Ancient Grudge.

T17

E flashes back Geistflame targeting Moldgraf Monstrosity and hitting the Monstrosity with 2 Vengeance damage. Then he flashes back Think Twice, dealing it another 2 damage. Then he flashes back Desperate Ravings discarding Hinterland Harbor for another 2 damage. Then he flashes back Ancient Grudge destroying his own Spellskite again for the last hit required to finally kill the Moldgraf Monstrosity. With Ancient Grudge still on the stack, the Monstrosity returns Mayor of Avabruck  ^Flip and Acidic Slime to the battlefield. C targets Burning Vengeance with Acidic Slime, which resolves. Then Ancient Grudge resolves, killing the Spellskite. E passes.

Misplay. He should have paid the mana to redirect the Acidic Slime's ability onto Spellskite. Not that it really matters, most likely

C draws Hinterland Harbor. He attacks with everything and hits, dropping the enemy to -3 life, and winning the duel.

Sideboarding

Caley boards in 3x Autumn's Veil and 3x Bramblecrush, removing 2x Viral Drake, 1x Cudgel Troll, and 3x Ambush Viper.

One thing I did notice is that my opponent played very few Burning Vengeance - he may be running less than 4x, especially since he's had to make room for Spellskite and Ancient Grudge somehow. Increasing my Burning Vengeance hate might cripple his deck.

Game 2

E plays first and keeps their opener.

C keeps an opening hand of Island, Forest, Hinterland Harbor, Birds of Paradise, Dissipate, Bramblecrush, and Garruk, Primal Hunter.

T1

E plays Sulfur Falls and passes.

C plays Forest for Birds of Paradise and passes.

T2

E plays Island and casts Incinerate on Birds of Paradise, then passes.

A wise move to ensure he can resolve Burning Vengeance.

C draws Dissipate, plays Hinterland Harbor and passes.

T3

E plays Hinterland Harbor and passes.

Or maybe not.

C draws Acidic Slime, plays Island, and passes. End step, E casts Forbidden Alchemy discarding Island, Blight Mamba, and Hinterland Harbor.

A couple of things to say here. First, it's surprising that Blight Mamba was sided in. I'm not sure what he removed for this, but it doesn't seem particularly good against my deck, especially given how mana-thirsty his deck is. Second, if he had Burning Vengeance in his hand, the correct play would have been to cast it before I had three lands up rather than reserving mana for a Forbidden Alchemy. I don't know if he did have the Burning Vengeance in hand, though.

T4

E plays Buried Ruin and passes.

C draws Rampant Growth, plays Island, and passes.

T5

E casts Forbidden Alchemy discarding Sensory Deprivation, Mana Leak, and Sulfur Falls. E passes.

Interestingly, he discarded a land, but did not PLAY a land this turn. I wonder what was more important. Also, whether it was boarded in or mainboarded, Sensory Deprivation does not seem like a good idea at all.

C draws Island, plays it, and casts Rampant Growth finding a Forest, then passes. End step, E casts Forbidden Alchemy discarding Geistflame, Hinterland Harbor, and Shimmering Grotto.

T6

E plays Island and casts Spellskite. C Dissipates it. E passes.

With more counterspells, a Bramblecrush, and an Acidic Slime in hand, and given that he has not yet even cast a Burning Vengeance as motivation for him to flash back an Ancient Grudge (which he probably sideboarded out anyway), I feel confident about this play.

C draws Hinterland Harbor, plays it, and passes.

T7

E does nothing and passes.

C draws Birds of Paradise, casts it, and passes. End step, E hits it with Geistflame, then casts Forbidden Alchemy discarding Snapcaster Mage, Think Twice, and Blackcleave Cliffs.

Again, very interesting choices.

T8

E does nothing and passes.

C draws Island and plays it. He casts Garruk, Primal Hunter. E Flashfreezes it. C passes.

I could try to resolve Garruk by using my last Dissipate, but I'd rather save it for Burning Vengeance. If I can shut down all instances of that card, I will win this game by default regardless of how many threats I can or cannot develop.

End step, E flashes back Think Twice.

He has burned through half his library without casting a single threat! He is now on the clock for actually doing something before he mills himself with his delving tools.

T9

E does nothing and passes.

C draws Forest, plays it, and passes.

The fun here is that I don't have to do anything. I essentially have board position even though neither of us has anything out. I can just sit back and wait for him to try anything at all, then jump on it.

T10

E does nothing and passes.

C draws Island, plays it, and passes.

T11

E casts Geistflame targeting C and passes. (Enemy 20, Caley 19).

Probably not going to get you there by itself.

C draws Forest and passes.

Land draws are actually very nice here, since I can get set up for a big bomb with mana to spare later if I need to. That said, I am holding onto this Forest because I already have 10 lands out and the Forest is currently more valuable to me as a counterspell decoy than an actual land.

T12

E casts Burning Vengeance. C Dissipates it. E passes.

One down.

C draws Chancellor of the Tangle. He plays the Forest and casts the Chancellor, then passes.

Though I have no counterspells left, I am showing counterspell mana.

T13

E does nothing and passes. He discards Desperate Ravings because he has 8 cards.

C draws Ghost Quarter and plays it. He attacks with the Chancellor, who hits. (Caley 19, Enemy 14). He passes. End step, E flashes back Desperate Ravings, discarding Burning Vengeance.

Oh, that has to suck when that happens. Two down!

T14

E casts Blight Mamba and passes.

C draws Cudgel Troll. He attacks with the Chancellor, who hits. (Caley 19, Enemy 8).

He only has one green mana out, which he used to cast the Mamba, so he can't regenerate it right now. I really think that four colors is a bit much for this delver deck.

C casts Cudgel Troll. E flashes in Snapcaster Mage giving Flashfreeze flashback, then casts it to counter the Cudgel Troll. C then passes.

T15

E plays Drowned Catacomb and passes.

C draws and plays Forest. Then he activates Ghost Quarter on own Forest, getting another Forest with it. C passes.

Thinnin' out the land draws here, boss. I can no longer attack because he can just regenerate Blight Mamba on me, but I'll draw my trampler sooner or later.

T16

E casts Spellskite and passes.

A little problematic since I'll now have to ace a Spellskite to use my Bramblecrush or Acidic Slime on a potential Burning Vengeance, but not a huge worry.

C draws Stoic Rebuttal and passes.

Now it's really not a problem. My enemy is down to 18 cards in the library.

T17

E plays Island and casts Typhoid Rats, then passes.

C draws Forest, does nothing, and passes.

Technically he can now likely get through 1 a turn since he has defenders than can stop my Chancellor. However, that gives me more than enough time to draw a better answer than prematurely bringing down Acidic Slime, so I'll wait it out. I have enough time because I would draw 19 or so cards in the meantime, one of which would almost certainly be an answer, and also because he only has 18 cards left to draw.

T18

E does nothing and passes.

He should probably be attacking with the Typhoid Rats or Blight Mamba here. No reason not to.

C draws Moldgraf Monstrosity. He plays Forest and casts it. E responds with Snapcaster Mage. C Stoic Rebuttals Snapcaster Mage. E flashes down another Snapcaster Mage in response, but finds that he has no counterspells except Mana Leak to flashback. Everything resolves, leaving C with a new Moldgraf Monstrosity, and E with a new Snapcaster Mage.

Bad play from both of us. We both did not realize that he had no hard counters left.

C passes. End step, E flashes back Think Twice.

T19

E casts Sensory Deprivation on Moldgraf Monstrosity. Then he casts Burning Vengeance and passes.

C draws Bramblecrush. He casts Acidic Slime to destroy Burning Vengeance. In response, E flashes back Forbidden Alchemy discarding Drowned Catacomb, Sulfur Falls, and Copperline Gorge, dealing 2 Vengeance damage to the slime, killing it. The slime's triggered ability then destroys Burning Vengeance. C passes.

Again he neglects to save his Burning Vengeance by using Spellskite. I have more answers once that Spellskite is dead, but still, it does no good to give me free hits like this.

T20

E casts Sensory Deprivation on Moldgraf Monstrosity, which is now a 2/8. E passes.

True, I can't push through damage, but he's down to 10 cards.

C draws Forest. He does nothing and passes.

T21

E does nothing and passes.

C draws Bramblecrush. He casts Bramblecrush destroying Hinterland Harbor and passes.

This play deserves some explanation. Reviewing his graveyard, I see that he has to have thrown most or all of his green land in the garbage. Killing the Hinterland Harbor this way strips his Blight Mamba of any ability to regenerate. Second, I am not worried about saving answers for Burning Vengeance with this play because I still have two answers in the bank, plus three Burning Vengeances are already gone, plus even if he DID resolve Burning Vengeance, he has too few cards left in his library to kill me with it before he mills himself, especially since a lot of his flashback cards make him draw cards.

T22

E does nothing and passes.

C draws Acidic Slime. He casts it blowing up Sulfur Falls. Then he casts Bramblecrush blowing up the other Sulfur Falls. C passes.

Again, he has thrown most of his red land in the trash at this point. I have now deprived him of the ability to cast the last possible Burning Vengeance unless he draws a red land first, in which case I'll have bought that much time toward milling him.

T22

E plays Mountain and passes.

C draws Island. He plays Forest and casts Bramblecrush on Mountain. He passes.

Thought he might be holding one back on me, but this deals with that.

T23

E plays Copperline Gorge and passes.

Well darn. Still, all these shenanigans have brought him down to 6 cards left.

C draws Hinterland Harbor, does nothing, and passes.

T24

E plays another Copperline Gorge and passes.

C draws Island, does nothing, and passes.

T25

E flashes back two Geistflames to kill Acidic Slime. Then he attacks with both Snapcaster Mages and the Typhoid Rats. C blocks a Snapcaster each with Moldgraf Monstrosity and Chancellor of the Tangle, killing the Snapcasters. Rats hit. (Caley 18, Enemy 8). E passes.

He realizes he has to try something, but it is too late. And Sensory Deprivation is an AWFUL card.

C draws Acidic Slime. He plays Hinterland Harbor. He attacks with Chancellor of the Tangle and hits. (Caley 18, Enemy 2). C passes.

A consequence of leaving no defenders but the unregeneratable Blight Mamba. As an added advantage, he can now no longer pay life for Phyrexian mana.

End step, E flashes back Think Twice.

T26

E plays Blackcleave Cliffs and passes.

This game is over. He can't possibly kill me before he mills.

C draws Stoic Rebuttal, does nothing, and passes.

Even more over.

T27

E casts Burning Vengeance, but C Stoic Rebuttals it. E casts Mana Leak on Stoic Rebuttal, but C has way more than 3 mana to spend, and pays the Mana Leak cost. Burning Vengeance is countered.

As I was saying in my and miinor_threat's Top 10 Counters list, Mana Leak is a sucker's counterspell against other control decks. That's 4 dead Burning Vengeance, and he has 1 card left to draw.

C draws Autumn's Veil. He plays Island and passes.

T28

E plays Blight Mamba, then another Blight Mamba, then attacks with the old Blight Mamba and Typhoid Rats. C blocks the Mamba with Chancellor and the Rats with Moldgraf Monstrosity. The rats, mamba, and monstrosity die. Monstrosity fetches Birds of Paradise and Cudgel Troll

Why didn't he play those other Mambas earlier? These might have made a difference.

C draws Garruk, Primal Hunter. He attacks with Cudgel Troll and Chancellor of the Tangle. They are blocked by a Mamba each, killing the Mambas. C casts Acidic Slime blowing up Buried Ruin and passes.

T29

E draws on an empty library and loses. Caley wins the match 2-0.

Thoughts

1 - Pretty good performance by my deck against Burning Vengeance delver. The opposing deck was a bit of a janky build, and my opponent made some gameplay errors, but his deck was never really able to put too much pressure on me.

2 - I like the versatility that I have with Acidic Slime and Bramblecrush. There are few single-card threats that my deck can't answer with ease.