Daily Dose Ep. 17 - Modern

Daily Dose of Standard

KrazyCaley

20 December 2011

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KorApprentice - "mtkinsac" on MTGO vs. KrazyCaley - "IdealistCynic" on MTGO

Today, tender lumplings, we bring you a Modern matchup instead of Standard, and since both users are Tappedouters, we give you a rare look at BOTH sides of the table. Comments from KorApprentice are in bold, comments from KrazyCaley are in italics.

KorApprentice's deck = Ad Nauseam Unlife.

It's a Modern Unlife - Brought to you by NetDeckFTL - "Sometime's it will have to do."

KrazyCaley's deck = Grinding With the Alien - Cascade/Sanity Grinding deck.

GRINDING DECK - GRIND HARDER

Game 1

Caley wins the toss and plays first.

Caley keeps an opening hand of 2x Island, 2x Crumbling Necropolis, Jwar Isle Refuge, Telemin Performance, and Sanity Grinding.

Fine by me.

Kor mulligans his an opening hand of 2x Island, Swamp, Telling Time, Spell Pierce, Simian Spirit Guide, and Mystical Teachings.

No combo pieces, but the Teachings will grab one and the sifting should net some more land. Seems like a workable hand.

T1

C plays Jwar Isle Refuge and passes. (Caley 21, Kor 20)

K draws Serum Visions. He plays Island for the Visions, drawing Terramorphic Expanse, then putting Simian Spirit Guide on bottom and Spell Pierce on top. K passes.

T2

C draws Cryptic Command *list*, plays Crumbling Necropolis, and passes.

K draws Swamp, plays it, and passes.

T3

C draws Magus of the Future, plays Crumbling Necropolis, and passes.

No good to rush to the win card ( Sanity Grinding ) when I know I'll have to blow by a Spell Pierce. The best idea against this deck is to try and counter its win condition once and then hit him with a Grinding.

End step, K casts Telling Time, drawing Phyrexian Unlife, putting Ad Nauseam on top of the deck, and Mystical Teachings on the bottom.

Score! It's not often that one sifting spell will net you all of your combo pieces.

K draws Ad Nauseam and plays Terramorphic Expanse. K passes.

It should be a 2 turn clock from here, but knowing Caley, countermagic is always at the ready.

T4

C draws Overbeing of Myth, plays Island, and passes. End step, K sacrifices Terramorphic Expanse for a Phyrexian Unlife.

No spells cast and this much blue mana available can only mean countermagic. Spell Pierce, don't fail me now.

K draws Spell Pierce and casts Phyrexian Unlife. C tries to Cryptic Command *list* it (and draw a card), but K uses Spell Pierce and Unlife resolves.

This was actually quite a suspensful moment for me, I found myself praying that Caley's counter spell would cost more than 2 mana. I'm sure Caley found himself wishing his trustworthy Counterspell was legal in Modern.

Occupy Renton, WA! We DEMAND an affordable hard Counter! I did not expect the Cryptic to resolve, but I did expect it to take his last mana so that I could have free rein on my turn.

T5

C draws Overbeing of Myth.

I have a choice here. I can cast Sanity Grinding, which mills for about 20 on average. Every card I take away is half a damage I don't suffer later, so milling about half his deck puts me firmly on safe ground. 20 makes me uneasy. I could use Telemin Performance instead. I know that this deck usually runs at least 2 Simian Spirit Guides to power Conflagrate, but I do not know where they are, or if there are more than 2, or less than 2, or if this build is using other creatures. I decide to take a shot with Telemin Performance.

C plays Island and casts Telemin Performance. This mills 10 cards to the 11th, a Simian Spirit Guide. C passes.

Well, darn.

Caley was hoping to deck me out, unaware of the Spirit Guides. It would have been a game-ending play, but ended up leaving him... TappedOut.

K draws Island and plays Swamp. Then K casts Ad Nauseam, revealing his entire library and putting him at -47. K uses 3 Simian Spirit Guides to cast and flashback Conflagrate, discarding his hand to end the game.

Sideboarding

Kor boards in 3x Duress and removes Lightning Storm, Dimir Machinations, and Telling Time.

You might be wondering why I have Lightning Storm in the deck with Conflagrate. I love combos, and what's better than a combo that has 2 win-cons you can pick from as you please? Probably not the best move, but the 1 of slot was an acceptable sacrifice for my joy. And it's 1 card I can sideboard out automatically each game, sometimes it's hard to remove cards from your deck. See the Telling Time that had to go? It's a dog eat dog world and you gotta make room somehow.

Caley boards in 2x Time Stop and removes 2x Magus of the Future.

Only a slight loss of blue mana symbols for Sanity Grinding, and I need counterspells very badly in this match.

Game 2

Caley plays first and mulligans an opening hand of Island, 2x Sanity Grinding, 2x Cryptic Command *list*, Time Stop, and Dominus of Fealty.

This would be a great opening hand if I could add two Islands to it.

Kor keeps an opening hand of Island, Swamp, Plains, 2x Inquisition of Kozilek, , Mystical Teachings, and Terramorphic Expanse.

Caley mulligans a 6-hand of Crumbling Necropolis, Island, 2x Kathari Remnant, Godhead of Awe, Overbeing of Myth.

Sanity Grinding hunt.

Caley keeps a 5-hand of 3x Island, Sanity Grinding, and Dominus of Fealty.

Bingo!

T1

C plays an Island and passes.

K draws Simian Spirit Guide, plays Swamp, and casts Inquisition of Kozilek. K eliminates Sanity Grinding.

A-Are you sure? I would leave that card in my hand, to, uh, give me a false sense of confidence.

I cast the Inquisition hoping to see what was so good he mulled to 5 to get, and I have to say that what I saw made me wet my pants. I was happy not to have seen this last game.

T2

C draws Sanity Grinding, plays Island, and passes.

Jackpot. This has actually turned out ideally for me. Having cleared my hand to his satisfaction, he will likely not bother to keep his blue mana open for Spell Pierce for a while and instead use it on one of his draw spells, nor is he likely to cast another Inquisition for a bit if he has one, and by my calculation, I should break his deck most of the time with one Sanity Grinding cast.

K draws Serum Visions and plays Island. K casts Serum Visions drawing Plains and putting Terramorphic Expanse on bottom, Isolated Chapel on top. K passes.

Green light. Take the shot. I repeat, green light.

T3

C draws Deny Reality and plays Island. He casts Sanity Grinding and mills 19 cards with it.

Kind of a weaksauce Grind, but hopefully it will be enough given that he has no Phyrexian Unlife out yet, and three turns to go for Ad Nauseam.

I was saving the other Inquisition to eliminate counter spells later on, but if Caley had drawn that last turn, the Inquisition would have stopped him cold. Just some wistful thinking on my part.

There was no way for K to know that I had had the incredible luck to draw another Sanity Grinding. No play errors on his part for that decision.

K draws Swamp, plays Terramorphic Expanse, and passes.

T4

C draws Cryptic Command *list*, does nothing, and passes.

This draw likely eliminates the possibility that I will be able to do anything else before he tries Ad Nauseam. I'm just going to have to hope that I did enough damage.

K draws Swamp, plays Plains and passes.

T5

C draws Kathari Remnant, does nothing, and passes.

This is at least perhaps spooking him into thinking I'm being a paranoid counterspell player.

End step, K casts Mystical Teachings finding Ad Nauseam

K draws Serum Visions, plays Swamp and passes.

T6

C draws Godhead of Awe, does nothing, and passes.

K draws Spell Pierce, plays Island and passes.

I believe I now have bought enough time to survive.

T7

C draws Overbeing of Myth, does nothing, and passes. End step, K casts Ad Nauseam drawing Gemstone Mine, 2x Serum Visions, Plains, Island, Duress, Dimir Machinations, Inquisition of Kozilek, 2x Spell Pierce, Phyrexian Unlife, Isolated Chapel, and Simian Spirit Guide. (Caley 20, Kor 5).

K plays Phyrexian Unlife and concedes.

In hindsight, this was a rather premature scoop. However, the situation was extremely unlikely for me given that I had only 24 cards left in my library, meaning that a Sanity Grinding or enough stall would make it impossible for Conflagrate to deal lethal damage.

A victory is indeed pretty unlikely for the Ad Nauseam deck in this situation.

Sideboarding

Neither player makes any changes.

Game 3

Kor plays first and keeps an opening hand of Simian Spirit Guide, Spell Pierce, Serum Visions, Dimir Machinations, Island, Swamp, Ghost Quarter.

Caley mulligans an opening hand of Island, Crumbling Necropolis, Cryptic Command *list*, Oona, Queen of the Fae, Kathari Remnant, Overbeing of Myth, and Godhead of Awe.

Not gonna happen. Got to go right for the throat against Kor's deck, and I don't have time to luxuriously wait for those lands to show up.

Caley keeps a six hand of 2x Island, Crumbling Necropolis, Time Stop, Deny Reality, and Overbeing of Myth.

Unfortunate. Still, with 3 lands, including one that will give me black, this is better than going to 5.

T1

K plays Island and casts Serum Visions, drawing Phyrexian Unlife and putting Serum Visions second from the top, and Island on top. K passes.

C draws Crumbling Necropolis, plays it, and passes.

T2

K draws Island, plays it, and passes.

C draws Dominus of Fealty. He plays Crumbling Necropolis and passes.

I hate drawing the damn Eventide bastards with this deck. They are so useless in most games and drawing them means I've watered down my Sanity Grinding.

T3

K draws Serum Visions and plays Ghost Quarter. K sacs Ghost Quarter targeting his Island and floats a blue. K grabs a Plains and casts Phyrexian Unlife. K passes.

This is alarming, but Kor has sacrificed some time to make this play. I will need to get lucky and draw some more threats to back up that Deny Reality safely through possible Spell Pierces. The Deny Reality will either hit Sanity Grinding or a Cryptic Command *list* to buy me some more time.

C draws Island, plays it, and passes.

T4

K draws Telling Time, plays Swamp, and passes.

C draws Spreading Seas and casts it targeting the lone Swamp. C draws Godhead of Awe.

At worst, this is searching for a card I actually need. At best, this will slow him down some more. I have so many Kathari Remnants and Sanity Grindings, and none of them are showing up.

C passes. End step, K casts Telling Time, drawing Mystical Teachings, putting Terramorphic Expanse on top, and another Terramorphic on bottom.

T5

K draws Terramorphic Expanse and plays it. K casts Serum Visions, drawing Phyrexian Unlife and putting Phyrexian Unlife and Duress on the bottom.

I would have kept the Duress, though of course I realize that there are valid reasons for throwing it to the bottom. My deck is very vulnerable to [[Duress] and other hand tampering, and my deck quickly becomes untenable if I don't have the particular cards I need in hand.

C draws Kathari Remnant.

This is not ideal. Sanity Grinding with 2 extra lands and only one Island out for him would have been excellent. Now I have to decide whether to try to force a Sanity Grinding right away and power through Spell Pierce for a likely Deny Reality later, or exercise caution and patience. I choose the latter. One more land and I will be able to cast Kathari Remnant with two mana available. I will also have Time Stop mana available, an excellent happenstance.

C plays Island and passes. End step, K sacrifices Terramorphic Expanse for a Swamp.

T6

K draws Telling Time, does nothing, and passes.

This is very, very good. Now he needs to draw a black land before he can do anything. Hopefully I will squeeze through in time.

C draws Dominus of Fealty and passes. End step, K casts Mystical Teachings for Ad Nauseam.

T7

K draws Serum Visions and casts it. K draws Simian Spirit Guide and puts Plains on bottom, Duress on top. K casts Telling Time, putting Duress into his hand, Plains on bottom, and Mystical Teachings on top. K casts Duress. K eliminates Time Stop and passes.

This was a poor choice. Time Stop would certainly stop me from going off, but it is a big spell that can be Spell Pierced. Deny Reality was the more immediate threat.

I concur. For a combo player, removing a counterspell is very tempting, but Deny Reality is the more serious problem, as KorApprentice says. In Magic, as in life, it is usually better to take away the other guy's gun than it is to take away his armor. I am also unsure of the wisdom of tapping out and going shields down- in any case here, Kathari Remnant OR Deny Reality is a likely Sanity Grinding, and Kor has no mana left open, enabling me to grind without fear. Still, there would be no way to even HAVE the Duress without doing all these machinations, so the correct play is a bit foggy.

C draws Oona, Queen of the Fae. He casts Deny Reality, bouncing Phyrexian Unlife. He cascades to Cryptic Command *list*, bouncing Plains and drawing Jwar Isle Refuge. He plays the refuge and passes. (Caley 21, Kor 20).

Even though Deny Reality does not always cascade to Sanity Grinding, I felt that, given how many blue mana symbol creatures I've been drawing, two Sanity Grinding casts will likely be necessary now to be decisive. Deny Reality buys me more time, possibly gets me Sanity Grinding number one, and if it doesn't, will draw me a card, at least, with Cryptic Command *list*. As it turned out, the Command drew a nice land that will let me power through Spell Pierce with Kathari Remnant.

T8

K draws Mystical Teachings, plays Swamp, casts Phyrexian Unlife, and passes.

C draws Island and plays it. He casts Kathari Remnant cascading to Sanity Grinding, which mills for 20.

Crippling my deck completely.

Take it away, deck namesake.

K concedes. Caley wins the match 2-1.

This is indeed decisive. 20 is a pretty good grind for all the previous draws, and in this situation, it works very well, as with all the drawing Kor has done, there are now only 18 cards left in his library, not nearly enough to kill me with Ad Nauseam.

Thoughts

1 - Overall, it was a fun and thrilling match. It had me on the edge of my seat at times, which is the essence of a good Modern match. Even though I lost, I was not disappointed.

2 - My budget sideboard just doesn't cut it. The sideboard is something you cannot skip or skimp on in Modern, so it is certainly worth investing in sideboard cards.

3 - Absolutely a fun match. It felt like the tense global thermonuclear war standoff that every good Modern match should feel like. I felt like I benefitted from some exceptional good luck in game 2, though.

Your turn!

If you want to submit your own games for featuring on the Daily Dose, hit up KrazyCaley on his wall. Any constructed format, from standard to casual to modern. It can be against a friend, against a random person, or against KrazyCaley. Just let him know on his wall. DO IT.