August Tourny (monopman wins with M11 deck)

[aww1979]

My thoughts on group B:

Looking at shantak's deck and my own, the differences are:
shantak:
+4 Serendib Djinn
+4 City of Brass
+3 Sorceress

me:
+2 Erg Raiders
+1 Swamp
+4 Cuombajj Witches
+4 Stone-Throwing Devils

That leaves 49 cards in common. I definitely considered Serendib Djinn and City of Brass, but I felt that the AI would do poorly with them. I was surprised to see that it did play City of Brass properly in my matches; often it just keeps all lands in hand if one is a City. I really do wish I'd put in more Sorceress Queens, though. The main differences were that shantak added 3 more land and had a slightly higher mana curve, while I had less land and a slightly lower curve.

Arabian Nights sure had some powerful creatures, but most of the spells are poor.

Jatill's deck: I think that this is the best of his three submitted decks, even though I haven't played Group D yet. I'm still wondering whether you intended this to be an Alpha deck or a Revised deck. I'm assuming Revised, since there are no Psionic Blast or Sinkhole, two cards I'd have strongly considered in this style of deck. It was also a very good deck against both arabian nights creature decks, as those Control Magics were deadly. I will be shocked if jatill's deck doesn't get first place in this group; between me and shantak it'll be the toss of a coin. I think my version might be slightly more AI-friendly without the serendib djinns and cities, though.

[aww1979]

Thoughts on Group C:

Stroggoi's deck: I don't know much of what's in Rise of the Eldrazi, so I don't know what cards to suggest, but I found the lack of removal (besides All is Dust) and early game plays to make things very difficult. If there are any Llanowar Elf type cards or other mana accelerators, those would've helped a ton, as would more low mana plays.

The first game against brandon for instance, I hit the first seven land drops and yet I cast one spell all game, a Nest Invader on turn 2, because my spells all cost more than 7. In the games I won, I had lots of Awakening Zone and Growth Spasm to accelerate things.

Juzamjedi's deck: Wow, is all that stuff seriously in one set? Monoblack must've been king that year. Again, I don't know what set this is, and the only suggestion I'd make is you do not need 29 lands in this deck :p You don't need more than 23-24 here, though it did well enough even with the extras, because the cards are very strong and the mana curve is fairly low.

Brandon's deck: This worked quite well. I was worried that having so many basic mountains might screw up the early turns where you need WW so badly, but except for one of the mulligan hands, I never had this issue, so either I got lucky or you designed it just right. I have no idea what set this is either or what's in it, so I have no suggestions, but in general it seems pretty good.

I'm incredibly tired now, so I won't play Group D until later.

[monopoman]

Jesus christ I can't stand the AI when it gives up sometimes. Oh noes the game took more then 15 turns the AI better hang it up even if it has game winners in hand.

[aww1979]

Thoughts on group D:

jatill's deck: This deck actually felt similar to the titan one in a lot of ways. The Plated Geopede was the star; the wins mostly came from getting one or two of those out and then fetches/harrows for the win. At least one game I did have a beast army, though. Lavaball Trap was worse than useless, it was uncastable in every game except one, where I would have nuked all my own creatures had I played it. Also, Oracle of Mul Daya was bugged in that even when I reached my land limit, I could have still played more lands if I'd wanted to cheat. (Sorry, jatill, I didn't get my bribe this month, so I was honest!)

salbei's deck: I had no problems at all against jatill, as I was able to kill the geopedes easily with whatever was at hand and then win with spitfires and dragons. Against cognis, his deck was just too fast, and I got overwhelmed in two of the games. The game I won I had a johnny paradise with two 16/3 spitfires on the winning turn; Triskelion combos amazingly with those! So does Chandra Nalaar The mazes were also a nice touch, and surprisingly the AI uses them. The whispersilk cloaks were dead cards, though, and I'd probably have made them into triskelions. Manic Vandal is a great card, but was horrible in the metagame of this group.

cognis's deck: if this deck doesn't win first in group D, I'll be shocked. It was really fast, and both the other decks were more mid-lategame decks, especially jatills, and couldn't stabilize in time to survive. The one thing I really wish, though, is that there had been 4 Armored Ascension. Every time I got that card, I won within 2 turns. I never saw Ajani's Mantra in any of the games (on either side) and I got goldmane only once I think, but the AI kicked my ass with goldmane a couple times. I'd probably change the mantras into two Armored Ascension, and one of the fatties for another pacifism. (archon maybe? I had him in hand once but won at 4 mana so I never cast it)

@monopoman: Yeah, I can't stand when the AI gives up, either. The only consolation I can give for that Day of Judgement discard it did when I played it, is that this kind of thing is happening to everyone, and often without us even knowing it, unless we use Telepathy/debug mode or see it discarding. Several games I'd see the AI with oodles of mana and 5-6 cards in hand, and wonder wtf it was keeping, but never found out.

[jatill]

Round2 starts now. Matchups are:

Round 2 pairings are:
Bracket Alpha: jatill vs jaill3 (boo...)
Bracket Beta: jatill2 vs brandon
Bracket Gamma: juzamjedu vs aww
Bracket Delta: cognis vs monopman

[aww1979]

Crap :p The two decks I felt were the strongest this time around were juzamjedi and cognis, and I have to play juzamjedi

[jatill]

Crap :p The two decks I felt were the strongest this time around were juzamjedi and cognis, and I have to play juzamjedi

At least you didn't have to play yourself!
After playing the match out, I was surprised to find that your deck is the favorite. The only way you can really lose is if they get Bloodwitch and you don't have Oubliette, or you get color-screwed.

My predictions at this point would be:
jatill beats jatill3
jatill2 beats brandon
aww beats juzamjedi
cognis beats monopman

Then
jatill2 beats jatill
cognis beats aww

Then jatill2 beats cognis

Anyone else have a prediction?

[monopoman]

So wait if Jatill wins you just add 10 cards of your choice?

lol.... that is hilarious.

[Stroggoii]

So how many new cards we get from the non-zendikar non-core advances?

[aww1979]

So how many new cards we get from the non-zendikar non-core advances?

One card I think. Pick a good one!

[aww1979]

For the bonus card, I'd like Future Sight, if possible. If that is not possible, I'll ask for Dwarven Miner, which I'm sure is possible, so I won't name a third one.

[Brandon822]

Funny, I thought Dwarven Miner also. Well my pick is Radha, Heir to Keld - if not possible then Dawnstrider.

[jatill]

For the bonus card, I'd like Future Sight, if possible. If that is not possible, I'll ask for Dwarven Miner, which I'm sure is possible, so I won't name a third one.

As long as you don't mind the same bugs as Yawgmoth's Will, I think I can do Future Sight.

Re: if I win with my titan deck, I pick the 10 cards. Otherwise everyone else gets 1 pick.

[aww1979]

I'd be good with that :p With your more recent changes, the only bugs I can remember on YawgWin is that you can't pay alternate costs or some of the hybrid costs.

[juzamjedi]

Sorry I could not report for the first round. I just returned from vacation. I will be testing for the second round and look forward to playing some games!

Aww, for what it's worth I built an Arabian deck as well that I almost submitted; the blue and black creatures in that set are pretty good. Also my Zendikar deck had some illegal cards which Jatill replaced with Swamps, so, um, you'll probably take the match