Manalink Tournament (May) (tournament complete)

[jatill]

So did I win?

[Shantak]

Here are my results with some commentary. I was short on time, so I just played best of 1 gauntlets, making some results a bit more random.

Stroggoii's Swift

-Burn. Easy won thanks to Kor Firewalker
-Redforce. Pretty close.
-BR Discard. Swift victory
-Tramp. Knowing my deck, nothing got through with Kor Firewalker and Blood Knight blocking
-Tarmogeddon.
-Lost: Stall. Walls slowed me down and I was then Baneslayered to death. 5 victories.

Salbei's Stall

-Zookiller. Would have lost if not for Balance dealing with Inkwell Leviathan
-Swift
-BR Aggro
-Wweenie
-Burn
-Lost: Tarmogeddon. Not enough mana after a strip mine, then Armageddon + Terravore. 5 victories.

Enigma73's Tarmogeddon

-Lost: BR discard. A bit embarrassing, actually. Good beginning, but after emptying my hand AI got two Nyxathids into play, leading to the loss. 0 victories

Nyktorion's Bant

-Tramp
-Lost: Stall. When I Mana Drained Kelda, I lost control of my Qasali Pridemage. Maybe I should have replayed against Stall after such a bug, but I didn't. Later in game, Tawnos' Coffin dealt with my Tarmogoyf, and when I countered a Path to Exile, I was unable to stop a Baneslayer Angel. 1 victory.

scherbchen's TinyAngryMen

-Burn. Had mana problems but was in no danger.
-Burn. Again. AI blew its lands in a Fireblast, so not much problems here.
-Swift
-Tramp
-TinyAngryMen. A mirror match, but AI put no lands to play on first two turns, so it wasn't really a fair game
-BR Discard
-Wweenie
-Vampires
-Tarmogeddon. Figure of Destiny became 8/8 on turn 3 thanks to a Black Lotus, leading to my victory. Otherwise might have been hard.
-Bant. My Loam Lion and second turn Baneslayer were StoPped, but after Eos Ranger gave me two Figures of Destiny, the road was clear. 10 victories.

jatill's ZooKiller

-Swift
-Lost: Burn. Magus of the Moon slowed me down, and I was killed with burn some turns later. 1 victory.

Yggdrasil's Vampire

-BR Aggro
-Wweenie
-TinyAngryMen
-Wweenie
-Redforce
-Vampire. Mirror match could have been difficult, but AI didn't put any mana into play until third turn.
-Vampire. A chance for revanche, but AI didn't cause much problems. Noticed that Vampire Nocturnus gets its boost from Mox Jet.
-Wweenie
-Tarmogeddon
-Zookiller. Maybe the toughest fight, or at least AI had most answers to my vampires. Did no damage to me however. 10 victories.

Kakodrilo's Burn

-Tarmogeddon. After denying AI's mana with Wasteland and Gorilla Shaman, the rest was easy.
-Tramp. No challenge.
-Vampires. A really close game. Would have lost without flashbacking a Reckless Charge
-Tramp. No challenge.
-Wweenie. This looked bad as I had to mulligan and AI began with a Black Lotus and two Figures of Destiny, but Countryside Crusher grew big and won the game for me while AI had land problems.
-Redforce. Began with a Slith Firewalker that hit every turn and survived to tell the tale.
-Wweenie
-Lost: Stall. I had to mulligan twice and still ended up with little mana. I emptied my hand but couldn't do enough once Stall really started to roll. 7 victories.

Cognis' BR Aggro

-Bant. Very close game, but Patriarch's Bidding enabled my victory.
-Lost: Vampires. The bloodsuckers were just stronger than my goblins. 1 victory.

Juzamjedi's Monowhite

-MonoWhite. We seemed to have similar hands, but only I had Baneslayers.
-Vampire. AI started with playing two Dark Depths, losing both. After that it played two swamps and a Hexmage. Better this way... Won with a Baneslayer and managed to make my permanents indestructible with Elspeth.
-Zookiller, but the game crashed when I was at 35 life and AI at 13.Could have turned out either way. I'll forget this game and start a gauntlet of 8 more games.
-Wweenie. Baneslayered to death.
-Lost: Tramp. Crap. Had an high mana-cost start, put a Worship out but had no creatures. Then comes Hellspark Elemental with two Giant Growths and a Berserk (took a Spark Elemental earlier). I have little doubt Monowhite would win this if it was best of three, but best of one is so much more random. 3 victories.

THEDRIGO's Wweenie

-MonoWhite
-Lost: Wweenie. AI startedbetter than I, and was at about 40 life with me at 3 when I finally managed to cast Worship. Some rounds later AI destroyed it with a Pridemage and attacked with a Paladin en-Vec while I was unable to block with two Figures of Destiny (one 8/8) and a Soltari Priest. 1 victory.

aww1979's BR Discard

-Tramp. Without an early Mind Twist from a Dark Ritual, I would have likely died to Berserked Ball Lightning, but now managed to beat AI once its hand was emptied.
-Bant. Tarmogoyf would have killed me had I not topdecked a Hymn to Tourach, killing AI with two Racks. Whew.
-Burn. First turn Hymn, second turn Blightning. Nyxathids soon finished the game.
-Lost: Monowhite. I think I should have used that Mind Twist earlier with 3 or 4 mana, but AI still topdecked a Baneslayer angel that killed me. 3 victories.

Brandon's Redforce

-Lost: Stall. Not enough burn in my hand to deal with a few 5/5 threats. 0 victories

My own Tramp

-Stall
-Tarmogeddon
-Tramp
-BR Aggro
-Tarmogeddon (only won due to AI stupidity)
-Tramp
-Zookiller
-Lost: BR Aggro. Lost access to green after Blood Moon. 7 victories.

I'll PM the score sheet to aww1979, but number one was Salbei's Stall, due to the 4 times it managed to beat me. This was really enjoyable, though I was little short on time to spend on testing. This was also apparent in how I had no idea AI sucked so bad playing my deck.

I also didn't spend enought time building my own deck. If any of you have good ideas for changes or other ideas how to make a working Groundbreaker +Berserk deck, I'd be glad to hear them. What I've figured so far is:

-A bit more mana in some form. Though the spells are cheap, the chance of a bad opening hand seems too big.
-More destruction. 4 x Lightning Bolt might be a start, but I'm not sure what other spells would fit.
-Get rid of Spark Elementals. They were a relic from the time before Hellspark Elemental was in Manalink, and they really are a bit underwhelming in most cases.
-Maybe lose Forcemages? They're fun when their synergy works, but often little useless.
-Maybe splash White to enable tutoring for Oaths? Then again, like challenge mode has taught me, whenyou play with Oath, there are better creatures than Ball Lightning.

So my deck was a little undertested and maybe a bit casual, but it was a design I've played with since starting with Manalink and I'm glad I submitted it here.

It’s a shame this deck didn’t make it to the end because I thoroughly enjoyed playing it. It’s very fun and fast that’s just phenomenal. The most fun deck I tested so far in this tournament.

Just this made it all worth it!


If someone's taking note of ideas for future tournaments, I think someone already suggested EDH tourney, but I'm all in for it too. In addition, I think that making a tournament with some restrictions in deck building would be interesting. Like a Zendikar constructed tournament using the Limited version of the cardpool...

[thedrigo]

I suggest a Legacy Tournament or a Highlander Tourney, that would be AMAZING!

[aww1979]

I need Yggdrasil's scores for enigma73, stroggoi, salbei and scherbchen, and Stroggoi's scores for aww1979 and shantak to calculate the final scoring. I stated earlier (several pages back) that anyone who did not submit a complete scoring record would not have any of their scoring record counted, to be fair to the other people. I'll give them a day or two to get that in, since the website was down yesterday. Otherwise, I'll add up the scoring for those with complete records.

[juzamjedi]

Aww1979, you are right and I incorrectly gave the win to Jatill against my own deck. Nyktorian should get that win; sorry for the error.

[Stroggoii]

My first results are in

Aww1979 BR Discard vs:

...

This post, your first, on page 9, has me a bit confused, as I think you were testing single duels instead of gauntlets for these two decks. Could you explain just what you meant in this post?

Yeah I did it 1 on 1 because I found the gauntlet unfair but since you later told me that was not the way I did everyone else different, I'll do it like the rest (5 round best of three gauntlet) and see how it does.

As for shantak, I'm sure I had those, must've been deleted when my game and firefox were chashed by jatill's deck.

I'll post both in a while.

[aww1979]

Aww1979, you are right and I incorrectly gave the win to Jatill against my own deck. Nyktorian should get that win; sorry for the error.

Okay, that's what I have recorded now.

@Stroggoii: Okay, thanks I haven't heard back from Yggdrasil yet, but I've had trouble connecting to this site lately, so maybe he hasn't been able to get on to post his results.

And yeah, in some ways, the gauntlet is a bit unfair in format; if you feel strongly that the gauntlet format sucks, vote for something else in the polls I set up this morning. Once I have all the numbers in, I'll do some adding up and see just how much of a luck factor there was (or not) in the gauntlet. For instance, if one deck got twice as many AI plays as another, that isn't fair. I'm expecting them to be fairly close, though.

Due to the unreported matches, I cannot be certain yet who has first and second place, but, barring a miracle, third place is most likely Jatill.

[Yggdrasil]

scherbchen - 3 wins
1) scherbchen 2-0 (Match 1 : easy win. Match 2 : a trench warfare. Dragonmaster outcast and scute mob were the key)
2) Cognis 2-0 (Match 1 : an army of tarmos, figures of destiny and rangers of eos crushed the goblins, Match 2 : a boosted Kavu was the beater)
3) Aww1979 2-0 (Match 1 : AI had only 1 land, easy win. Match 2 : tarmo is wonderful against a discard deck)
4) stroggoi 1-2 (Match 1 : a blood knight was troublesome until I played a baneslayer. Match 2 : had to mulligan twice, a 8/8 flying kithkin killed me. Match 3 :had to mulligan twice again ! Had no forest nor mountain and was killed by a blood knight. Frustrating.)

stroggoi - 4 wins
1) jatill 2-0 (Match 1 : I exiled two baneslayer and killed AI with a lot of burn spells while his sphinx and a stolen 4/4 kithkin rule the board. Match 2 : again, I burn AI to death. Direct damage was the key against Jatill's deck)
2) kakodrilo 2-0 (Match 1 : magus of the moon annoyed me, but I had just play a kor firewalker the turn before and it was enough against a red deck. Match 2 : easy win, AI made several mistakes)
3) Cognis 2-0 (Match 1 : a fast victory. I burn everything in the path of my army. Match 2 : AI was short on lands)
4) Cognis again 2-0 (Match 1 : Kor Firewalker was the king. Match 2 : AI played only one land. I won on turn 5)
5) Nyktorion 1-2 (Match 1 : tarmos and rhox monks beat me. Match 2 : AI had no forest which helped me a lot. Match 3 : A fierce battle. I had 14 life and 2 firewalkers in game, AI had only 4 life left, no cards in hand and no creatures on the board. I thought victory was mine, but AI topdecked a rhox monk, then Elspeth the next turn. The flying giant monk kicked my ass while I draw only lands.)

I still have to achieve Enigma73 and Salbei's gauntlets. I'll post the complete results tomorrow without fault. Sorry for the delay.

[Stroggoii]

Shantak Tramp. VS

Yggdrasil Vampires 2/0 WIN
Round one 1/0
Wished for living wish, then for Aswan Jaguar who kept killing AI's vamps.
Round two 2/0
After a long creature-trading game I topdecked bolt the turn after AI got Marit Lage in play, threw it at it's 2lp face for the win.

Brandon Redforce 2/0 WIN
Round one 1/0
Hellspark elementals did a lot of damage and kept coming back for more.
Round two 2/0
Oath is extremely violent in this deck.

Juzamedi Monowhite 2/0 WIN
Round one 1/0
Holy fuck, a 60/10 ball lightning (three forcemages + two berserks), love oath.
Round two 2/0
Played first and second turn oath, and facing an orchard spirit and a finks, I wished for The Tabarnacle, keeping AI completely dominated.

Jatill Zookiller 2/0 WIN
Round one 1/0
Oath + Berserker and forcemage for a 35 attack on a sphinx and a wall, Oath is the "draw engine" this deck needs to face zookiller's sick removal.
Round two 2/0
Fast, huge creatures aided by AI fixing your manabase by pathing everything you put in play (and easily baited as such).

Mirror 2/0
Round one 1/0
Oath doesn't work much in this deck, but forcemage does, wonderfully.
Round two 2/0
Well, Oath does work once you play forbidden orchard, and one 1/1 spirit doesn't compare to free groundbreakers.

10/0 Perfect gauntlet, this is the kind of deck I like to play.

Shantak +5

Aww1979 BR discard VS

Yggdrasil Vampire 2/0 WIN
Round one 1/0
AI got brutally manascrewed after I mined one of its two swamps turn three, never played another thing.
Round two 2/0
Destroyed AI's hand with a very good opening hand (two rituals, two hymns and rack), then the AI kept killing my creatures and hitting me with gatekeepers instead of avoiding being racked to death.

Jatill Zookiller 2/0 WIN
Round one 1/0
Very long game, managed to avoid top-decked removal untill one hyppie and one vice killed AI.
Round two 2/0
Three racks against a sphinx, I was at 5 life (could keep a hyppie long enough to block with it) when the racks killed AI.

Stroggoii Swift 2/0 WIN
Round one 1/0
Ruined AI's manabase avoiding white the whole game, wich allowed my nyxathid to kick in.
ROund two 2/0
Racks did more damage than bushwakers.

Jatill Zookiller (again) 2/0 WIN
Round one 1/0
Ruined AI's hand then managed to keep two nulls and a hyppie to keep it clean and do some damage.
Round two 2/0
Turned into a damage race between Nyxathid and a Sphinx, I had a great advantage thanks to blightning and the fact AI sworded a 7/7 nyxathid before the damage race started.

Scharbchen Tiny Angr. 1/2 LOSE
Round one 0/1
Got horrybly manaflooded.
Round two 1/1
After an extremely long match I managed to get the win, AI had 5 life, 1 card in hand, one loam lion, one FoD and mana to make it a 4/4, I had a hypnotic specter, a rack and a damn lot of lands, the specter didin't get removal and gave me the win.
Round three 1/2
First turn lotus, then two lions and a palladin, I couldn't survive.

Aww1929 +4
Scharbchen +5

And that's it folks

[aww1979]

Okay, thanks for the posts. Also, it's looking like I jumped the gun calling Jatill in third. I didn't notice Stroggoii was so close to him and that Yggdrasil hadn't tested him. With the latest report, Stroggoii passed Jatill, and unless Jatill defeats both the decks Yggdrasil has left to test, it will stay that way, since stroggoii currently has 5 more points than jatill.

Those in the running for top 3 and prizes:
stroggoi, salbei, jatill, yggdrasil

Regardless of how anyone does in yggdrasil's final two tests, three of those four are guaranteed to win. There is also a definite possibility for ties, in which case others might get into top 3

[Yggdrasil]

Here's the missing results.

enigma73 - 4 wins
1) Brandon 2-0 (Match 1 : an armaggedon followed by a werebear and 3 black vise did the job. Match 2 : an early blood moon let me without green mana source. But a diamond mox helped me and two big tarmos were the beaters)
2) Aww1979 2-1 (Match 1 : a 6/6 terra and a big tarmo rule the board. Match 2 : Two racks were too much for me. Match 3 : the rack came too late)
3) Stroggoii 2-1 (Match 1 : A 12/12 terravore was the beater. Match 2 : Lost. Had 3 black vises useless against a fast deck. Match 3 : Armaggedon was the key)
4) Enigma73 mirror match 2-0 (Match 1 : bad start but a wrath of god gave me a good tempo advantage. Match 2 : again, wrath of god was the key)
5) Nyktorion 0-2 (Match 1 and Match 2 : Force of Will countered my armaggedons. Wrath of god tamporarily saved me each round, but my creatures were just not as good as AI's army)

Salbei - 10 wins
1) stroggoi 2-0 (Match 1 : an early balance removed 3 little creatures, easy win after that. Match 2 : started with a hand full of defensive cards, had a long wait until I draw a baneslayer)
2) aww1979 2-0 (Match 1 : 2 baneslayers rule the board. Match 2 : the rack came too late, I already had a baneslayer and a controled nyxatid in play)
3) Nyktorion 2-0 (Match 1 : started with black lotus, mox emerald and a plain in hand. Good start, but I didn't draw an island until turn 7. Fortunately Nyktorion's deck is the defensive type. Match 2 : baneslayer rules)
4) Shantak 2-0 (Match 1 : two early walls of denial were useful against pumped elementals. Match 2 : Again, baneslayer was the beater)
5) Kakodrilo 2-0 (Match 1 : 3 moxes and an island in the starting hand, duel was sealed. Match 2 : sorry I forgot to take notes and I don't remember the match )
6) Brandon 2-0 (Match 1 : I was at 10 life and AI played Hidetsugu's second rite. Fortunately I had a sword in hand and a welcomed target on the battlefield (poor Keiga). Was hot. Match 2 : blood moon and shatterstorm delayed the issue.)
7) Nyktorion rematch 2-0 (Match 1 : was a long and boring fight. Match 2 : opening hand with island + mox + sol ring + black lotus = Keiga on turn 1. Easy win)
8 ) thedrigo 2-0 (Match 1 : baneslayer. Match 2 : baneslayer)
9) Shantak 2-0 (Match 1 : Keiga. Match 2 : had to mulligan 3 times. After that it was attack/defense until I have enough mana. Won with 104 life after an endless match)
10) Stroggoii 2-1 (Match 1 : AI won the toss, I started with 3 lands in hand. Turn 1 AI played black lotus then a kicked bushwacker and blood knight (15 life left for me). Turn 2 another blood knight (12 lifes left for me). Turn 3 AI played another kicked bushwacker and a lightning bolt, I was dead. Match 2 : baneslayer. Match 3 : baneslayer)

In my first try with Salbei's deck, I was stuck in the mirror match (experienced a freeze on every attempt). I was unable to predict the winner, the match was totally deadlocked so I chose to restart Salbei's gauntlet.

So we have :
1) Nyktorion - 30 pts (10 wins and 4 AI's victory)
2) Jatill - 20 pts (10 and 2)
3) Stroggoii - 14 pts (4 and 2)
4) Salbei and JuzamJedi - 10 pts (10 and 0 for Salbei, 0 and 2 for JuzamJedi)
6) Yggdrasil - 8 pts (8 and 0)
7) Thedrigo - 6 pts (1 and 1)
8 ) Enigma73 - 4 pts (4 and 0)
9) Kakodrilo and Scherbchen - 3 pts (3 and 0)
11) Aww1979 - 1 pt (1 and 0)
12) Shantak, Brandon and Cognis - 0 pt(sorry guys )

AI played :
- Nyktorion's deck 10 times
- Aww's deck 7 times
- Stroggoii, Kakodrilo and Brandon's decks 6 times each
- Scherbchen's deck 5 times
- Enigma73, Jatill and Shantak's decks 4 times each
- Yggdrasil, Cognis and Thedrigo's decks 3 times each
- Salbei's and JuzamJedi twice (and won twice with JuzamJedi's deck )

[aww1979]

Okay, here are the FINAL SCORES:

1st place (TIE!) - YGGDRASIL and SALBEI - 140 pts
2nd place - STROGGOII - 129 pts
3rd place - JATILL - 124 pts
4th place - juzamjedi 118 pts
5th place - nyktorion - 116 pts
6th place - scherbchen - 104 pts
7th place - enigma73 - 81 pts
8th place - thedrigo - 68 pts
9th place - shantak - 67 pts
10th place - aww1979 - 62 pts
11th place - cognis - 38 pts
12th place - kakodrilo - 37 pts
13th place - brandon - 23 pts

I'll put up some further statistics in a bit, once I compile them. Yggdrasil, Salbei, Stroggoii and Jatill may pick cards in accordance with the first post. (I think 3 for 1st place, 1 each for 2nd/3rd was what we set up) Thanks to the tie, we get 8 new cards instead of 5

[Brandon822]

Wow! Again last one Another day at the office for me. I promise guys that next time my deck will be better

[Broolex]

Pleeease, someone pick Cavern Harpy !!!


Hahahahaha

Hail for the great champions !!!!

[scherbchen1]

well, I improved, so that is a start. Kavu Predator / Fiery Justice can be a beast as a combo or on its own and got some AI wins so I am happy about that choice. the deck started out with some Eternal Dragon copies which the AI could not play/cycle well and 4 Knight of the White Orchid which really do belong in Standard. the only reason I did have Loam Lion was to block 2/2s and Kird Ape. another Baneslayer and 1-2 more pridemages and a better mana base would have been nice.

one of the nicest ways to hose zoo in the next vintage tourney (if that is what is what will be aggreed upon) is, probably, Gideon Jura btw. so you might consider that in your wishes

if it is codeable, heh.

PS: it seems wrong to grant jatill the prize of implementing a card he will most likely code. he can do that whenever he pleases to do so. I say let him chose the next format. and I say make it whacky! proposal: X number of cards from Y expansions. was always my favourite invitational event. disregard restricted/banned lists or not, your call.