BRG Tokens-- An Ohio States Report

windfuryftw · Joined: 10 Nov 2008 Posts: 2

I also posted this on StarCity's forums, and as I'm too lazy to write a completely different report, I've just copied that one, and made a few changes.

4 bitterblossom
4 nantuko husk
4 dragon fodder
4 sprouting thrinax
4 marsh flitter
4 torrent of souls
3 shriekmaw
3 kitchen finks
3 magma spray
2 grave pact

4 sulfurous springs
4 savage lands
4 reflecting pool
3 twilight mire
2 graven cairns
1 fire-lit thicket
1 llanowar wastes
1 karplusan forest
5 swamp

Sideboard:

4 Thoughtseize
3 Mind Shatter
3 Infest
2 Resounding Thunder
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Magma Spray
1 Grave Pact

I'm sure to most of you this list looks wierd, so I'll explain some of the card choices. During testing we found a few surprising things. Dragon Fodder was surprisingly good enough to play 4 copies, and in some instances was a better turn 2 play than Bitterblossom. Furystoke Giant was horrible in 90% of the games we played, and there was almost never a point where we wished we had one. Every time he got cast, it was either a win-more card, or it really didn't affect the game state. He's obviously horrible post wrath/firespout, and with all the cryptic commands running around, he's not so hot. The only reason I can see running this guy is if you are playing 0-2 Torrent. Torrent of Souls is the best card in the deck. The card is so sick, I'm never ever dissappointed to draw it. Goblin Assault, Siege-Gang, and Sarkhan Vol were all in the deck at some point and were underwhelming. Also, I can't understand why many of the lists for tokens i've seen don't run grave pact. Grave pact is the one card i want to see against kithkin and demigod red, and its not so bad against faeries either. I played 2 copies main, 1 board, and never regretted it.

Round 1-Lance Cooper with 5cC

Game 1 was a relatively quick game where finks and thrinaxes got wrathed a couple times. He was playing Twincast main, and copied a bant charm at some point, but back to back torrents on a marsh flitter post wrath/firespout ended things quickly.
Game 2 was a 25 min game where I thoughtseized 2 cryptics, had wrath cast against me twice, got austere commanded, had an early triland killed by poison the well, cruel ultimatumed, violent ultimatumed, and firespouted twice... and still almost won. He got there with a cloudthresher with me at 2 life, when i would have been able to torrent for the win the next turn.
Game 3 was a quick and easy game where my opponent mulled to 6, got double thoughtseized for esper charm and firespout, and i dropped double bitterblossom and finks.

Round 2--Robert Cramer with W/G Elves

Game 1 he came out strong with turn 2 vanquisher, turn 3 and 4 cavaliers, and turn 4 leige. Bitterblossom played Forcefield and Diabolic Edict, with a grave pact in play, and I simply ammassed a large number of guys and cast torrent. Robert might have possibly been able to pull this one out, if only he would have attacked with his liege. I'm not sure what he was afraid of.
Game 2 I cast double grave pact early(first one got O-ringed), with a husk and many guys in play. I did almost throw this one away though, as at one point, I needed a token for my dragon fodder, and when reaching for my box of tokens, I instead picked up my deck and flipped it over to grab the bottom card to use as a token. As soon as i did it, I acknowledged my mistake and called a judge. A warning was given, I shuffled my deck, and I slapped myself for almost giving my opponent a free win. I chalk this mistake up to having about 2 hours sleep in the previous 30.

Round 3--Jacob Shapiro with Demigod Red

Game 1 I won the roll and shriekmawed his figure on turn 2, played a thrinax turn 3 to block his stigma lasher. Grave Pact came down on turn 4 with 3 saproling tokens in play from my thrinax that died in combat, followed by a finks on turn 5. I took 0 damage until turn 5 when a demigod hit me, then was forced to play defense. Jacob had a really good draw, but unfortunately i had the nuts draw against demigod red, and jacob was playing hell's thunder over the magma spray that i was afraid of.

Game 2 was a very close game, but again, Grave pact allows me to 2 for 1 with all of his team, and Kitchen Finks gives me a large life buffer against a deck with only 8 burn spells. When my turn 4 pact came down against his board of 2 ram-gangs, jacob knew the writing was on the wall. His redcap went straight to my dome, both times, and he just tried to push as much damage as he could thru before i could stabilize. Grave pact ended up killing 7 or 8 dudes this game, and i stabilized at 6 life, with a husk and 2 unpersisted finks in play, against an opponent with 0 cards in hand. From that position, winning was elementary.

Jacob was an incredibly nice guy; we talked a little about the metagame, and our specific matchup, among other things, and I look forward to playing him again.

Round 4--Ryan Ruth with Revellark

Game 1 ryan evoked a mulldrifter on turn 3, which i hit with magma spray to keep it from hitting the yard. At this point, the only cards I had seen from him were 2 vivids and a reflecting pool, so I originally had him on 5cC, but in the 50 or so games i played against 5 color in testing, i couldn't remember my opponent once ever evoking a mulldrifter on turn 3. Usually this turn is where they hold open mana for bant charm on a thrinax, or negate a bitterblossom. I immediately put him on lark, and made the decision to magma spray the mulldrifter. This turned out to make a bit of a difference when he sowered my turn 3 and turn 4 thrinaxes, but he had a pretty nuts draw so i doubt I could have won anyway.
Game 2 was a really long game where he topdecked wrath of god the turn after i thoughtseized him, then drew a story circle for black, then another for green. About 10 turns later he drew a third for red. Meanwhile, he's taking about 2 or 3 damage per turn because of painlands(having run out of vivid counters) to prevent much more from my growing horde. I almost scooped when he dropped the third story circle, but a quick look at my hand saw 2 marsh flitters there. i realized that if i could continue dropping more creatures than he could possibly make white mana i would win. And I did, on the back of a torrent of souls, with about 13 creatures in play, for exactly lethal damage.
Game 3, i thoughtseized a story circle on turn 1, and he drew 2 copies off his turn 3 mulldrifter. His first story circle named black blind, and i played kitchen finks and thrinax in quick succession. his 2nd story circle of course named green. As I did in game 2, i continued to just attack him with everything every turn, making him tie up his mana in holding my team off till he found a wrath, which he did after a couple turns. At this point, i had double marsh flitter and a torrent sandbagged that came down post wrath, and in a few turns he was dead from a large torrent of souls.

Round 5--Ryan Devlin with 5 Color Control
Game 1 was a tight affair where I may have eked out a win had i drawn a single land in a span of about 5 turns. Game 2 my opponent mulled to 4, and i had a quick bitterblossom and double thrinax to close it quick, even after being wrathed. Game 3 was simply lost to mana problems. I kept a hand of 2 Finks, Bitterblossom, Thoughseize, 2 Twilight Mire, and Llanowar wastes. Thoughtseize takes esper charm, bitterblossom makes a couple guys before 5c drops ajani and locks down my painland making me essentially manaless. The land i topdeck is of course, another twilight mire. Having drawn a resounding thunder, any red source that isn't graven cairns pulls me out of ajani after i attack him with blossom tokens, but that didn't happen. I die after ajani blows up my lands and still lives with 1 loyalty, and my bitterblossom has been bounced back to my hand.
Dissappointed at a loss to the one deck I was hoping to play against all day, i prepared for round 6.

Round 6--Rich with Planeswalkers.dec

Game 1 was over in about 3 minutes. on the play, i cast a turn 2 dragon fodder while rich opened with vivid lands. My turn 3 Nantuko husk was countered by remove soul. turn 4 i cast a marsh flitter which resolved, and rich cast a jace belaren. turn 5, I untapped and cast torrent of souls to get in for 19 damage, with rich at 14.
Game 2 I sideboarded wrong and left my magma sprays in the main deck. Having not seen much from rich except a jace, remove soul, and a vivid land base, i assume he is 5color, and leave the magma sprays in for his finks. This game is over fairly quickly as i get stuck on 3 land for about 8 turns, and rich plays a turn 4 ajani that locks down my triland. bitterblossom tokens manage to kill the ajani, but he has a 2nd copy, along with a 2nd copy of elspeth (first one was thoughtseized).
Game 3, I fix my sideboarding, and again get stuck on land, this time, missing my 5th land drop that would have allowed my team of bitterblossom tokens to kill a total of 3 planeswalkers, and hit him for a small amount of damage. With 2 losses due to mana problems, I decide to just drop rather than fight 3 more rounds to possibly win 6 packs. My buddy, his girlfriend, and I drown our sorrows in some prime steaks from Hyde Park Steakhouse, which is just across the street from the convention center.

All in all, I had a really great time. It was unfortunate that I lost to mana problems intead of play skill, but it happens to the best of us sometimes. On the plus side, one of the players from our group ended up winning the whole thing. Congratulations, Steve! I'm not sure if he ended up in the top 8 or not, but a former Toledo area local, Craig Wescoe, was also in the running for top 8.

grendel_mtg · Joined: 18 Oct 2008 Posts: 10

What are you siding out for Thoughtseize? Also, why do you prefer Magma Spray over Lash Out?

windfuryftw · Joined: 10 Nov 2008 Posts: 2

magma spray is for finks, and a turn 1 play against random dorks like figure/lasher, and also came in handy more than a few times against lark

several cards can come out for thoughtseize, depending on what matchup you are playing against, but usually is - 2 grave pact -1 dragon fodder -1 torrent for the 4 thoughtseize