by CMA-Flippi on 2007-01-24 10:50 MDT

4 Aggro Loam
2 UW Stuffy Control
5 Gifts Rock

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12 Boros
12 UW Tron
7 Goblins
7 Aggro Flow
6 TEPS
6 Affinity
4 Zoo
3 Beacon Opposition
3 WUR Solution
2 Friggorid
2 Aggro Rock
2 MGA
2 Scepter Chant
2 Panda Connection
2 Dump Truck
1 GW Slide
1 B Boros
1 Angel Stompy
1 Beasts Rock
1 Train Wreck
1 UB Tog
1 madness
1 Locket of Yesterdays
1 White Weenie
1 MUC
1 Life Combo

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by sgtpepper87 on 2007-01-24 10:57 MDT

1st! btw, what a trial, 12 tron + 2 stuffy = 14 tron and 12 boros lol

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by CMA-Flippi on 2007-01-24 11:11 MDT

I wanted to point out that 1 of the 2 decks played with Stuffy Doll top3'ed.

As the meta goes, Goblins were at the bottom mainly together with TEPS while most 1-offs were on top.

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by ElvenTitz on 2007-01-24 11:14 MDT

3rd.
tinefol gogogo

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by Goji on 2007-01-24 11:29 MDT

Why isnt my deck on there? I was playing the slow roll rock and flow... not aggro flow

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by aggroking on 2007-01-24 11:48 MDT

man the sb of the 2nd place deck is sooooooo bad

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by yavin1 on 2007-01-24 13:11 MDT

i think the gifts rock deck is a bit weak without the extra smothers and pernicious deed. It's Sb seems weak as well. Vindicate seems good though.

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by teejabadeej on 2007-01-24 13:42 MDT

What were your matchups TD?

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by Tinefol on 2007-01-24 13:56 MDT

yavin1 smother is unnecessary and there is PerDeed
Haven't had a problem with removal throughout the trial (Darkblast owns most of aggro decks + its recursive)
As for SB, yeah, I've composed the deck like 10 minutes before trial, so SB has problems (like twice I needed additional land via wish, or a techy creature)

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by Russell_Nash on 2007-01-24 14:07 MDT

Good top3
I really like that Aggro-Loam deck.
UW control: no surprise there, it’s a solid deck.
GJ with RockGifts, keep that deck rollin! Rock is my fav archetype and its been have problems lately.

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by ChristPunchr on 2007-01-24 15:45 MDT

The gifts rock sideboard is missing a few creatures that I see as no-brainers: Harmonic sliver and meloku.

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by ChristPunchr on 2007-01-24 15:47 MDT

The gifts rock sideboard is missing a few creatures that I see as no-brainers: Harmonic sliver and meloku.

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by petoria on 2007-01-24 16:41 MDT

i was wonderin if TD played against scepter chant at all, and how his match up is, because i love the tech in sideboard but im runnin krosan grip right now in those slots, and i need them bad.

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by bodomhack on 2007-01-24 16:42 MDT

kudzu instead wall of roots?? seems awful thye can dart or burn him with a lot cards.. in late game its hard to make something.. well but anyway grats tD.. That side in the stuffy sucks..

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by Eldariel on 2007-01-24 16:43 MDT

Maybe people will finally get off their crack and stop playing Boros again.

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by TD on 2007-01-24 18:06 MDT

My matchups were, in order, if I recall correctly:

Round 1: UW Tron (piloted by reqsamurai) – I 2-0ed a pretty bad matchup for aggro loam

Round 2: BG rock (piloted by luckychamp13), with a pretty aggro maindeck. His lack of graveyard hate in his board was his undoing. – 2-1ed the match, which is generally pretty bad for aggro loam but he didn't have the sideboard hate to bring in to really deal with aggro loam properly.

Round 3: Friggorid (piloted by calcano) – This was a pretty difficult matchup as I do not run any graveyard hate, but seismic assault works wonders. 2-1ed the match, not sure how typical that is. Seismic Assault was huge and annoying, and even with his hate for it G3 I still killed him with 8 to the dome from a Seismic Assault + Life from the Loam even though he had enchantment destruction in his yard.

Round 4: Ravager Affinity (piloted by Gnometown) – Ravager Affinity is a very favorable matchup for Aggro Loam, so it is no surprise I won. Seismic Assault, Devastating Dreams, and Burning Wish for Shattering Spree are all devastating against Ravager Affinity, and it doesn't help that I can also poop out very cheap 4/4+ creatures.

Round 5: Ravager Affinity (piloted by hellangel) – Annoyingly, I ran into Ravager Affinity twice in a row. Of course, I won both times as Aggro Loam absolutely destroys Ravager Affinity, but there's always the risk of raffinity drawing into really fast kills twice in a row. It only got the random "Oops, I win" hand once, and even that was recoverable had I played correctly, but I didn't so went 2-1 instead of 2-0.

Round 6: Bye. I've yet to lose a round to bye with this deck, and feel bye to be a horrible choice in this meta. :P

Round 7: UW Stuffy Tron (piloted by M4n4k1n) – Correct gifts piles and solid play won me this matchup; game one I had to mulligan down to six, but my six had three Cabal Therapies, an Overgrown Tomb, and two other cards I don't remember. It didn't really matter; I stripped his hand early, then finally drew into some lands and basically destroyed him, though him wiffing a Fact or Fiction certainly didn't help him any. Game 2 I managed to outplay him and split his FoF pile into lands (providing his much needed colored mana after I putrefied his only colored mana source) and spells (which he couldn't cast off of two tron pieces and an academy ruins). This basically won me the game, as he drew into more mana and, while he eventually got his stuffy doll out, I won by using Seismic Assault + Life from the Loam to deal him 16 damage in one turn (and I could have dealt him 2 more). I didn't lose a game to him.

Honestly, I think stuffy tron really sacrifices its game against aggro loam – normal tron is a much harder matchup, as all I really have to worry about is the full combo, so if I can chew up either half of the combo I can still win easily. I've yet to lose a match to stuffy tron, even though normal tron is a pretty bad matchup for aggro loam.

"i was wonderin if TD played against scepter chant at all, and how his match up is, because i love the tech in sideboard but im runnin krosan grip right now in those slots, and i need them bad."

I did not have to play against any scepter chant in the trial, but I have tested against it. It rather varies on what build of it they're running in particular, but the real issue is basically sneaking Seismic Assault into play, as once you do so, you pretty much cannot lose. Yes, you lose to chant on a stick, but let's face it, what doesn't? I don't think there's space in the sideboard for them; at best, I could see one slot (the one currently occupied by Sowing Salt) going to it, but meh. I'd rather run Duress or Pithing Needle, which is much more general hate, than run a card which is only really good against one deck. In any event, Pithing Needle is probably a better hate card anyway, as it can shut down the stick and has the added advantage of working against Mindslaver and similar.

By the way, this sideboard I'm running is excellent.

1 Life from the Loam
1 Devastating Dreams
4 Ravenous Baloth
2 Duress
1 Chainer's Edict
1 Shattering Spree
1 Nostalgic Dreams
1 Hull Breach
1 Demonfire
1 Sowing Salt
1 Cranial Extraction

Obviously the extra life from the loam and devastating dreams are necessary, as running 7 copies of those spells is much better than running only 4. The Ravenous Baloths are excellent against Ravager Affinity, BDW, and other aggro decks. Duress is necessary for the Tron matchup; you absolutely need the extra discard, and I'm thinking Sowing Salt is going to go in favor of yet another Duress. Chainer's Edict is not often necessary, but when it is, you absolutely must have the card and it is never a bad thing to randomly be able to use Burning Wish to get rid of an opposing creature or two. Shattering Spree is absolutely essential; not only does it destroy Ravager Affinity and take out their only real threat (ravager itself), but its useful against Tron, Trinket Angel, and a number of other decks. Nostalgic Dreams is probably the most rarely used card, but it does occaisionally save your bacon late game and randomly turn your fistful of lands into a fistful of business spells. Hull Breach is much-needed enchantment destruction. Demonfire randomly comes down if a game goes long and wins you the game, and sometimes its nice to be able to burn out an annoying creature. Sowing Salt is almost never tutored for, and I'm thinking it is going to get cut for another Duress; it occaisionally wins you a game against tron or 8-post, but I think the discard hate would be better. And Cranial Extraction is just a nasty surprise; they tap out, thinking you don't have enough cards in hand to do anything bad to them, and suddenly whip out an extraction and things just get bad. Sometimes people will side out other kill conditions to bring in additional hate, and when they do, this card can win you games – I've more than once won games by totally depriving my opponent of win conditions from this card (or a single recursion of it, via Nostalgic Dreams).

And Vinelasher Kudzu is way better than Wall of Roots. You simply don't need more green mana, and having a threat which has to be dealt with right away or becomes utterly unmanagable is wonderful. Yes, it is the worst card in the deck, but I'd not run Wall of Roots over it; the only real other option would be Wild Mongrel, and frankly I find that Mongrel's eating of your hand, combined with Dreams and Seismic Assault, just is excessive; including the Burning Wish for Devastating Dreams, I've got 11 cards already which cause me to discard cards, and I'd rather not go up to 15.

And yes, people need to play Boros; it is a very good deck. However, I think Aggro Loam and Trinket Angel are two of the best decks in the format, and agree with Karsten's most recent analysis of the top four decks. I think running Aggro Loam or Trinket Angel is good because they're so good at dealing with such a large number of decks, and have no matchups you just can't win.

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by hellangel on 2007-01-24 18:41 MDT

yeah, it's favorable for you
but I would've won game two if I sacced one of the spellbombs before. anyway, I couldn't expect to draw another one and randomly sac it to take you from 10 to 8 :P

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by Vodka_7up on 2007-01-25 00:18 MDT

excellent post, have you considered werebear for your deck? I heard it's nice in aggro-loam since it can thresh quick and easy.

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by TD on 2007-01-25 05:07 MDT

Vodka, Werebear is already in my deck. Or are you talking to someone else?

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by Ownj00 on 2007-01-25 05:31 MDT

as little credit i give these t8's, the constant t3's by stuffy doll tron is starting to make me curious... compared to other decks by numbers of people playing it to t3's, it seems ridiculous. this is m-l and all, but damn, is this thing for real?

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by TD on 2007-01-25 06:31 MDT

No, its just ML I think. Also, according to Karsten, UW Tron is actually a good matchup for Aggro Loam, so go figure.

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by TD on 2007-01-25 06:36 MDT

Then again, according to Karsten, the only deck which aggro loam has a bad matchup against is Trinket Angel, so...

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by BigShow on 2007-01-25 08:56 MDT

Karsten doesnt play test FYI

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