T1 Tournament Report, Stupid Green Deck
Castricum, The Netherlands 9-9-2001
I don't really have power cards, except for some black ones, so I normally play Pox, but
last 2 tournaments I wanted to play something else. I played Oath last time but I got
beaten by mono blue decks packing Back to Basics. So this time I wanted to play something
else again. Now I've always liked Survival decks. I used to play Green/Blue
Tradewind-Survival in Extended, months before it became popular at the Masters in 2000,
together with Rinke Koopman, who had the idea in the 1st place.
This time I checked the BDominia T1 RecSur Primer and I saw the Stupid Green Deck and
figured I could play that for a change as an online-irc friend, Cantu, used to play it with
great success in Extended. I changed some cards from the original version of JP Meyer.
His version was like this:
Stupid Green Deck, JP Meyer
Creatures (25)
4 Fyndhorn Elves
4 Wall of Roots
4 Wall of Blossoms
3 Stampeding Wildebeests
2 Elvish Lyrist
2 Spike Feeder
1 Spike Weaver
1 Blastoderm
1 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Cartographer
1 Deranged Hermit
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
Utility (18)
4 Survival of the Fittest
4 Eladamri's Vineyard
4 Cursed Scroll
4 Creeping Mold
2 Gaea's Blessing
Land (18)
10 Forest
4 Wasteland
4 Gaea's Cradle
I immediately changed the 4 Eladamri's Vineyard for 4 additional Forests. I felt 10 Forests
was way too less. I even calculated it. There is a 25% chance of getting no forest in your
opening hand when you play 10. This is a bit too risky, I figured. And even though Vineyards
are pretty nice, I just couldn't find any room for it and Elves are just better because they
can attack too and are Survival-food.
I cut 1 Lyrist, because I didn't really fear any enchantments in my metagame and the deck
has 4 Creeping Mold already. I added a Weaver because there is a lot of weenie here and it
is bound to get Sworded or Bolted, so an extra back-up copy is very useful. I also added a
Blastoderm which also was very useful because it is immune to targeted creature destruction
and because it's my favourite creature For those 2 cards I cut Gaea's Blessings. I
understand it's use, but well, I expect to win before I'd need to re-use creatures. Then I
cut 2 Gaea's Cradle for a Strip Mine and a 5th Llanowar/Fyndhorn Elf. Cradle is good but I
wanted this to be a consistent deck so I figured an Elf is better to have more early
acceleration, while Cradle only gets useful in like the 4th turn after you played some
Walls. I must confess that the 2 Cradles were amazing when I drew them so I probably need
to cut some creature or something for a 3rd. This is the deck I played:
Stupid Green Deck
Engine (5)
4 Survival of the Fittest
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
Mana Creatures (9)
4 Llanowar Elves
1 Fyndhorn Elves
4 Wall of Roots
Utility Creatures (11)
4 Wall of Blossoms
2 Spike Feeder
2 Spike Weaver
1 Elvish Lyrist
1 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Cartographer
Beats (6)
2 Blastoderm
3 Stampeding Wildebeests
1 Deranged Hermit
Utility (8)
4 Creeping Mold
4 Cursed Scroll
Lands (21)
2 Gaea's Cradle
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
14 Forest
Sideboard (15)
4 Lifeforce
1 Elvish Lyrist
1 Dawnstrider
3 Uktabi Orangutan
2 Tsunami
4 Choke
The 4 Lifeforce because I expected lots of black weenie packing Perishes. I think I would do
Thran Lens next time, so I don't have to keep mana open. A 3rd turn Perish, while I'm
building a solid mana base of Walls and Elves is also pretty good, because I don't have
much lands and will struggle to rebuild, even with Survival in play. Further a lot of stuff
vs Blue because it was popular last time I played. On to the tournament!
64 people showed up, including a lot of familiar faces. Hero, a.k.a. Pyroman was also there
with his friends. I went there together with Dirkjan, who was playing a very cool
Earthcraft-Enchantress deck.
Round 1, vs Floor Van Domburg playing mono red burn, didn't see any creatures!
My Wall of Roots, Wall of Blossoms and Stampeding Wildebeests survived the burn, so I won,
2nd game even without Survival. Easy matchup.
1-0 (2-0)
Round 2, Robbert v/d Outenaar playing a Keeper deck with the usual Keeper cards without Moxes, but with Ancestral and
Time Walk.
Game one I think I'm set when first I play some counter-baits, then manage to resolve
Survival when he tapped out for Thieving Magpie. So I think I'm settled, then after beating
him a bit with Stampeding Wildebeests and a Feeder, he end of turn Dismantling Blows with
Kicker my Survival, main phase Mystical Tutors for Balance and Brainstorms, OH MY GOD!!
Above all this he sacs his land in response to Balance with Zuran Orb, to leave him only
with a Thieving Magpie in play and I decide to keep my Llanowar Elf. Because I Survivaled
a lot there is much land left in my deck, After 4 consecutive turns of playing lands, I play
a Deranged Hermit, which of course is countered and I concede.
In game 2 I get a Wasteland, manage to get a Survival in play, get Cartographer, Wildebeest
and I screw him and win.
In game 3 I get 2 Wastelands and a Strip Mine! I destroy his non-islands (City, Reflecting
Pool etc). After beating a bit with a Spike Feeder I play Survival, he counters, but I had
4 mana left and I played Tsunami while he was tapped out. Now, with him having no land in
play, while I was attacking with an Elf and a Feeder, it is needless to say that I won.
2-0
Round 3 vs Alec De Groot playing Black/Red Scuta-Hyppie-Burn.
I play Survival as soon as I can, fearing Duress. I Survivaled for a Wall, then soon the
Blastoderm beatdown began. He had a 1st turn Hypnotic Scepter, but well, if I have Survival,
that doesn't really do much anyway. And he had a lot of Incinerates and 1 Terminate, that
are almost dead cards vs me when I have Survival.
2nd game he is a bit mana-screwed while I play Lifeforce as soon as possible. This prevents
him from Perishing and soon Blastoderms do him in again.
3-0
Round 4 I play vs Chris Blokker playing a deck called 'Knives'. Mono Black with Discard,
Scuta and Hyppie.
1st game he Hymns me, but I can get Wildebeest and Wall of Blossoms combo into play. A Scuta
slows me down a bit, but the draw engine did its work and I won.
2nd game I get an early Lifeforce and a Survival, He gets a Scuta, but I search for Wall of
Roots, to be able to use Lifeforce properly and I get some Wall of Blossoms first to chump
the Scuta, while solidifying my mana base and keeping GG open. I finally get to 4 mana,
including 2 Wall of Roots, so I can play that Blastoderm. He Mind Twists and Drain Lives and
I all let it go because he had 3 mana left and I feared Perish. Cards in hand didn't really
matter. I waste his land, save my Derm from die-ing with Wildebeest and the 5 power
creatures beat him.
4-0
Round 5 I play vs Arthur Lindemans with a 5 color creature deck, Zoo.
Game 1 I just manage to beat him in the damage race when I Survivaled for a Spike Weaver.
This is where the Gaea's Cradle showed to be very powerful as I first played a Deranged
Hermit with an Elf and Forests, then tapped Cradle to play a Stampeding Wildebeest, Survival
for and play a Weaver and a Wall of Roots.
Game 2 he got Ancestral, Moxes and beat me with Shadows and Flyers in 4 turns.
Game 3, I Uktabi-ed some Moxes. Got the Wildebeest-Wall of Blossoms combo and I won without
playing a Survival.
Going into the final round I am the only one that is 5-0 and I play vs someone who ID-ed
with a friend a round before.
Round 6 vs Vincent van Leeuwen playing black weenie. Black again!
I paris, he Hymns, and I still win with an Uktabi, Feeder and a Scroll. He got too much land,
and my creatures beat faster than his Hypnotic Scepter.
Game 2 I get a decent draw but he gets Contagion, 3 2-power weenies and Perish, so I lose.
Game 3 I get a Life Force and a Survival but as land I only get 1 Forest with 2 Wastelands,
which are completely useless vs his basic swamps. On top of that, he topdecks Strip Mine,
Perishes and I still have a Survival in play, but it's not doing much with no forests and
only 2 Wastelands, so I lose vs weenies. :P
5-1 ends me up being tied for 3rd together with Pyroman and some other people, while I had
the highest breakers of course. I got 4 Packs for this finish. You might think that's not
much, but well, it was cheap to participate as well.
Props:
- The TC, Teun Zijp, for running the touurney very smoothly and knowing the rules very well.
- Me for playing a deck I like, despite people advising me to play Tradewind-Survival.
- BDominia and especially JP Meyer for mmaking the cool RecSur primer.
- All #mtg.nl visitors on Innernet.
- All cool people at the tourney which I like a lot better than the average online magic
player on innernet. They are among others: Dirkjan, Rudy van Soest and Pyroman.
Slops:
- People advising me to play something else.
- People playing Perish in their sideboards. But I'll forgive you, I would do same :P
Greetings,
Koen