June Tournament (tournament complete; scherbchen1 wins)

[monopoman]

Actually the best card would probably be Intuition this card goes in like 5 decks.

[scherbchen1]

so... any update on the finals? jatill has posted his deadline and some of us have to watch football games (no offense to the French people on this board).

just to make it easier on Jatill here are my wishes in descending order of oh-please-oh-please-gimme-gimme-gimme in order to sort out uncodeables right away:

1.) Gideon Jura
2.) Eldrazi Conscription
3.) Trygon Predator

[aww1979]

Bracket ABCD:
taron: +3 taron +3 scherbchen
serbitar: +2 taron +2 scherbchen
brandon: +0 taron +5 scherbchen
shantak: +0 taron +5 scherbchen
discoransom: +1 taron +2 scherbchen
aww1979: +0 taron +5 scherbchen
nyktorion: +4 taron +0 scherbchen
scherbchen: +1 taron +2 scherbchen
monopoman: +0 taron +5 scherbchen
cognis: +1 taron +2 scherbchen
juzamjedi: +2 taron +1 scherbchen
thedrigo: +2 taron +2 scherbchen
jatill: +2 taron +2 scherbchen
yggdrasil: +0 taron +5 scherbchen
TOTALS: TARON 18 vs SCHERBCHEN 41

Bracket EFGH:
taron: +1 cognis +2 yggdrasil
serbitar: +2 cognis +1 yggdrasil
brandon: +6 cognis +0 yggdrasil
shantak: +2 cognis +1 yggdrasil
discoransom: +2 cognis +1 yggdrasil
aww1979: +1 cognis +1 yggdrasil
nyktorion: +2 cognis +2 yggdrasil
scherbchen: +1 cognis +1 yggdrasil
monopoman: +2 cognis +2 yggdrasil
juzamjedi: +2 cognis +2 yggdrasil
thedrigo: +2 cognis +2 yggdrasil
cognis: +1 cognis +1 yggdrasil
jatill: +2 cognis +1 yggdrasil
TOTALS: COGNIS 26 vs YGGDRASIL 17

Sorry for not posting this a bit earlier, but I was out Monday night and I forgot that Monday was the deadline (I thought today was for some reason) so that's why there was a delay of almost a day.

Anyway, the final round will be SCHERBCHEN vs COGNIS. You have until Thursday the 24th to report that one. Congrats to Taron and Yggdrasil for making the semis, and you guys get to pick one card each for coding. Also note as jatill said a few posts back, if you have cards to pick, either from this tournament or the last one, let him know by the 25th. If anyone needs uh... help choosing a card, I have a few ideas, too

[scherbchen1]

yay! allow me to go first for once. btw, the name for my deck comes from my old magic buddies who'd snort at any turn one Forest in any format.

as me (2-0): FoW, Jace, Control Magic, Wall of Blossoms,lands and Garruk. uhm... not quite what I ordered but not too bad to ship back. draw into another Wall of Blossoms and cantrip into Jace number two. no play by the AI other than a Plains so that is good. AI discards and I draw into Tropical Island. hmm. cantrip into another FoW but I really just want a land to seal this one quickly. AI discards again and this report is not terribly exciting so I'll just say I won the game with the AI never getting more than one land. Jace helped with that.

game 2 mulligan. mulligan again and have Tropical Island, Brainstorm, Kitchen Finks, FoW and FoF. really need that Brainstorm to show me something good. not going to 4. at least I am on the draw. draw into Coiling Oracle and Brainstorm into 2 non-mana cards (another FoW though) plus a Noble Hierarch. gonna lose at least one FoW to protecting the Hierarch. life sucks. AI plays two lands (white and red mana available but does not frg the Hierarch). ok. I play Coiling Oracle just to cantrip and offer more targets for removal.

still no play by the AI. draw into non-mana and hit for mighty 2 damage with an exalted Coiling Oracle! AI finally drops a third land and goes for Imperial Recruiter on his turn. I got two FoW in hand and a Progenitus I want to eventually shuffle back into my deck but usually the AI just gets aanother Imperial Recruiter in my experience so he gets a 1/1 as well. I get rid of the Progenitus by discarding it after not drawing anything casteable again.

finally the AI plays a Path to Exile on my mighty 1/1^and I get a Forest to play Kitchen Finks next turn or something even better if I top-deck a land. well, just Kitchen Finks, then. the AI is a copycat and plays one as well. I need mana!

no mana comes forth but another Finks and I trade my first for his just because I can. coming back anyhoo.

luckily the AI is as screwed as I am and discards Ajani Goldmane! I draw a Forest! all is good and Garruk comes down to make token. then I have mana up for the 2 FoW with Control Magic and FoF backup and keep attacking with Finks and Beasts. AI got screwed both times.

rematch as cognis (2-1): keep 4 land, Eternal Witness, Wall of Reverence and Sarkhan Vol. I just love the wall in this match-up so I ain't throwing it away. AI plays nothing but a t3 Hierarch. lucky me because I just drew Forest after Forest. play wall, play sarkhan while AI does bugger all.

I drop Dragonmaster Outcast (6 lands) and goyf with Sarkhan Vol at 6 loyalty when the AI goes Jace -> Jacestorm -> NO. not scared. make dragon army, get dragon token, Eternal Witness for Sarkhan Vol and attack with hasty dragons for 31.

game 2 mull to 5. run into t3 NO. try to fog with Ajani and gain an extra turn with the +2 life ability. AI kills Ajani. but I just can't race 10 a turn.

game 3 I finally get to go beatdown with Nacatls and Kors while the AI does Brainstorm and Coiling Oracle stuff.

[taron]

Hm, Polymorph or Chalice of the Void seems good, especially if somebody else is asking for Emrakul, get some bitchin 'morph decks going

Edit: Or Hivestone...

Hmm

[monopoman]

Well you can Oath Emerakul into play . But sure if you love T2 combos then go go Polymorph lol.

[taron]

I'm happy to Channel Emrakul into play, shame we don't have lich's mirror

[monopoman]

Cognis vs. Scherbchen Final!!!

Playing as Scherbchen (Scherbchen wins 2-1)
Game 1: I get a 3rd turn Progenitus with Control Magics in hand to help slow him down I draw more Control Magics and win easily.

Game 2: I get a much slower start forced to mulligan into a mediocre hand. I am forced on the defensive early and try to get some factor of control. The force overwhelms me though because my control magics and any creature I get to defend with is easily removed.

Game 3: This game the AI stops me from using Natural Order for quite a while thanks to 3x Path/Swords. Eventually I do get Progenitus out though. Prog seals the game in quick order despite the beats the AI has.

Playing as Cognis (Cognis wins 2-1)
Game 1: Get out some early beats trying to get the AI low ASAP. AI has a ridiculously bad hand and can't even get out a forest so I easily win thanks to a lot of early beats.

Game 2: AI gets 3rd turn Progenitus via Order which I can't stop at all. No way to stop Progenitus I lose quickly.

Game 3: I try to keep green creatures out of play for as long as possible to stop Natural Order shenanigans. AI does some stupid crap like Natural Ordering a Progrenitus for a 2nd one. AI attacks my Ajani with his Prog for the first attack since he Natural Ordered the other one away before attacking. Thanks to this extremely stupid mistake I finish off the AI.

[taron]

Playing as Cognis:
I'm on the draw, t1 nacatl, with obvious view into a t2 nacatl and a swords if needed. I swords his wall of blossoms and then bash for 3. He double casts coiling oracles, accelerating himself 1 mana and getting a brainstorm in hand. I bash for 6 with 2x nacatl and swords a coiling oracle, playing a scute mob before passing. He gets proggy out on the remaining oracle. I try play kitchen finks, but it gets FoW'd. Pass for the attack this turn, since I would needlessly lose my guys. He bashes me to 8. I play witness getting back swords. I swing him down to 4, then swords my nacatl to get me to 11 life, hopefully he doesnt get an exalted source. No exalted source, I'm on 1 life vs his 4. Damn, spike weaver. Bloodbraid into path on his spikeweaver, and he forces my BBelf. Swing out for the win. Life totals are 1 to -3.
1-0

Scute mob, swords a finks. Witness to get back swords, he plays spike weaver. I bbelf into path to get rid of spike weaver and bash. Lots of trade back and forth, he fact or fictions, I give him 2 fow's and a heirarch, or 2 finkseses. He takes the former and fow's my bbelf, but not before i bounce one of my bbelves to my hand with skyfisher. He plays a jace, it gets beaten up in a turn due to my playing swords and path in the one turn. Played BBelf, rolling into skyfisher, bounced that skyfisher into my hand so I can bounce bbelf next turn and bash. One more turn of bash and its game for me.
2-0


Playing as Scherbchen:
Mulligan twice for having terrible off-colour hand / no land, into a hand with a t1 heirarch, t2 wall of blossoms and more mana. Wall of blossoms draws me another wall of blossoms, and all he has done at this point is drop a mountain, bash for 1 with Heirarch. He paths a wall of blossoms, I search for a forest, then play another wall of blossoms, bashing with Heirarch again. He plays out a nacatl, damn, no more bashing with heirarch. I brainstorm into No, dumping proggy back on top of the deck, cast NO and bash for 11. He tries an attack, gets 1 damage through then drops a skyfisher. Bash for 12 with Proggy and it's game.
1-0

Decent opening hand, keep. Hand wasnt as good as I thought, he swordses heirarch and gets early 9 damage with nacatl. But I stabilise on 11. I get out NO and progenitus comes out. Garruk comes out as well, board is well and truly stabilised with me at 11 and him at 9. He swings out, redirecting all damage to Garruk, so I leave garruk to die. Progenitus bashes for 11 again next turn and it's game.

2-0

[jatill]

scherbchen (human) 2-1
cognis (human) 2-0

Playing as Cognis, I had an extremely challenging endgame. Can you figure out how to win? The AI has 2 Blue cards plus 2 Force of Will in hand, and his next draw is Tarmogoyf.

@scherbchen
Gideon... ug. Probably doable, but I've been avoiding it I guess I get no sleep tonight!

[Cognis]

I just had two great matches against Progenitus and actually lost to my deck when playing against it when I realised that there were no FoW in it. Yap, I played against Taron's deck instead of Schrebchens, moron, I have to replay it again. Although, the first match was so close I have to report it

Game 1: I kept a hand of 2 removals, Kor Skyfisher and Wall of Reverence which saved my ass. I was able to hold of Progenitus till turn 4 and topdecked Imperial Recruiter which went for Scute Mob with 5 lands in play. Wall of Reverence gave me enough life to survive. Even if I hadn’t gotten Scute Mob I would be at 1 life instead of 2 but had the match progressed further Scute Mob and Wall of Reverence would make Progenitus inconsequential.

Well, I'm back to playing again

[Yggdrasil]

Playing as Cognis, I had an extremely challenging endgame. Can you figure out how to win? The AI has 2 Blue cards plus 2 Force of Will in hand, and his next draw is Tarmogoyf.

You played Ajani Goldmane and used it to pump your creatures. Then you summoned Eternal Witness in order to regrowth the fetchland, played it, sacrificed it for a plain card, cast Path to Exil on the Finks, and finally attacked.
Was hot !

Edit : I totaly forgot the 2 forces of will.
You target the Finks with a path to exil (AI countered), then try to sword the finks (AI countered again). Then you summon the witness, regrowth the fetch, sacrifice it for a plain, use it for swording your Scute Mob (you're at 12 life). In your combat phase, you attack with the skyfisher (AI's life = 7).
AI's turn, it attacks with the Progenitus (your life = 2), then casts its tarmo. Your turn : you use the second path against the Finks, then cast Ajani, pump your dudes, and attack with all your army.

Edit 2 : didn't see the JudamJedi's solution. More elegant than mine.

[discoransom]

Wow Jatill, that's a very decent little puzzle. I would lose by not playing around 2 Force of Will


We actually lose this game if the opponent assumes every white source represents a one-mana removal spell, and if he counters Ajani. I bait out as many counters as possible with Path on his Finks, and Eternal Witness back the fetch land to Swords my Scute Mob. Swing with the team and he's unavoidably dead next turn and we are at about 2 life.

The opponent must keep us dead to one Progenitus swing, and he can. Objectively it's a lost position, but it could go either way over the board.


Scratch all that, I forgot about the Force of Will life loss. (LOL dammit)

[juzamjedi]

I see a different line of play.

Swords the Kitchen Finks -> countered (AI 10). Path the Finks -> countered (AI 9). Eternal Witness returning fetchland, crack it for white source. Path the Finks -> resolves, attack for 10.

If by some odd chance the first STP doesn't get countered and AI gains life you still have an STP you can aim at your own Scute Mob to gain some life and get in an additional turn / attack.

My gut reaction was "play Ajani" though because the AI doesn't seem to counter planeswalkers.

[Cognis]

Final

Schrebchen vs Cognis 2-0
Cognis vs Schrebchen 2-0

Cognis: 2 points
Schrebchen: 2 points

Match 1 (Schrebchen AI)
Game 1: A really quick match. 2 Wild Nacatl and Eternal Witness for fetch land put Elspeth, Knight-Errant into play which sores over the defense.
Game 2: It was a tough match that went on for a while where we were both stalling and building an army. But thankfully the AI considers Wild Nacatl a bigger threat than Dragonmaster Outcast, so it doesn’t counter the latter. In the end one attack from a dragon was enough since the 2 Kor Skyfisher already dealt a lot of damage to the AI.

Match 2 (Cognis AI)
Game 1: Oppening hand – 2 Forest, Island, 2 Natural Order, Wall of Blossoms, Control Magic. I draw first

Turn 1: AI – Savannah
Draw Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Play Forest
Turn 2: AI – Forest, Kor Skyfisher (Forest)
Draw Noble Hierarch, Play Island, Wall of Blossoms (Kitchen Finks)
Turn 3: AI – Forest, Swords to Plowshares
Draw Forest, Play Forest, Kitchen Finks
Turn 4: AI – Plains, Path to Exile (Island), Kor Skyfisher (Plains)
Draw Forest, Play Forest, Noble Hierarch, Natural Order
Turn 5: AI – Mountain, Imperial Recruiter
Draw Island, Play Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Turn 6: AI – Forest, attack Jace, Wall of Reverence
Draw Coiling Oracle, Play Forest, Coiling Oracle (Noble Hierarch), Noble Hierarch, Control Magic (Wall of Reverence)
Turn 7: AI – Mountain, Ajani Goldmane
Draw Noble Hierarch, Play Progenitus attacks for the win

Game 2: Oppening hand – 2 Island, 2 Coiling Oracle, Kitchen Finks, Control Magic, Garruk Wildspeaker. Ordinarily I would have taken a risk, but since I’m playing against my own deck and I’m in a conflict of interest I mulligan to 6 hoping for a more favourable draw. I get Tropical Island, Island, Kitchen Finks, Spike Weaver and 2 Fact or Fiction. Not a great draw but I hesitate to mulligan to 5. I draw first.

Turn 1: AI – Forest
Draw Force of Will, Play Tropical Island
Turn 2: AI – nothing
Draw Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Play Island
Turn 3: AI – Forest, 0/1 Tarmogoyf
Draw Noble Hierarch, Play Noble Hierarch
Turn 4: AI – nothing
Draw Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Play Kitchen Finks
Turn 5: AI – nothing
Draw Coiling Oracle, Play Coiling Oracle (Wall of Blossoms)
Turn 6: AI – fetch land, Swords to Plowshares (Kitchen Finks)
Draw Brainstorm, Play Brainstorm, Wall of Blossoms, discard Jace
Turn 7: AI – Kor Skyfisher (Savannah), Savannah, attack with Tarmogoyf, block with Coiling Oracle, Tarmogoyf
Draw Progenitus, Play discard Progenitus
Turn 8: AI – Kitchen Finks
Draw Island, Play Island, Garruk Wildspeaker and make a beast
Turn 9: AI – FoW (Fact or Fiction) on Kor Skyfisher (I don’t want another flier which I can’t block), they all attack Garruk as planned
Draw Forest, Play Forest, Spike Weaver
Turn 10: AI – Plains, Wild Nacatl, attack with everything, spikey fog effect
Draw Island, Play Island, Fact or Fiction, I pick a pile with Coiling Oracle and Noble Hierach opposed to Forest, Progenitus and Wall of Blossoms, Noble Hierarch, I attack with a double exalted beast; AI 8, Me 16
Turn 11: AI – Mountain, Imperial Recruiter, spikey fog effect
Draw Forest, Play Forest, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, I try to activate it but the game freezes so I load the autosave, I play the same thing again and Coiling Oracle puts an Island into play
Turn 12: AI – all attack Jace which I let die so spikey could have a fog waiting for me, Wall of Reverence
Draw Island, Play Island, Woodfall Primus (Mountain)
Turn 13: AI – Mountain, attack with Kor Skyfisher, Wild Nacatl
Draw Natural Order, Play attack with Woodfall Primus and take out one Tarmogoyf, Natural Order (Woodfall Primus which doesn’t return to the field for the second time); AI 13, Me 14
Turn 14: AI – Plateau, Ajani Goldmane which pumps but only Kor Skyfisher attacks
Draw Garruk Wildspeaker, Play Garruk Wildspeaker makes a beast, attack with Progenitus
Turn 15: AI – Sarkhan Vol, Ajani pumps, Kor Skyfisher takes out Garruk
Draw Control Magic, Play Control Magic (Wall of Reverence)
Turn 16: AI – both planeswalkers pump but no creatures attack
Draw Kitchen Finks, Play attack for the win

The first 3 games were straight and no problem. The fourth one was great. After both of us being mana screwed in the beginning the AI got an upper hand, but luckily I foiled it with spikey. Wall of Reverence is really good against a Progenitus deck, especially if you can pair it up with Scute Mob or Ajani avatar. AI should’ve destroyed me or at least put some more pressure on but the AI’s stupid and that is a known fact. I also made a few really stupid mistakes so I guess we evened out. I think we’re currently equal in points so it’ll be a real tough one to call although I still believe Progenitus has a slight advantage (I know I’ve saying this against my opponents since the 2nd round so I’m hoping I’m wrong yet again

@Jatill: great game