Tournament Report #1, Threat

Vodka_7up · Joined: 06 Oct 2004 Posts: 188

This is a tournament report for a 12 (roughly) man extended tournament. I toke a mono red rogue deck I call Threat. The philosophy behind it is every card must be as threatening as possible, and hopefully able to take the game by dealing lots of damage. Keep in mind I'm building on a budget so that'll explane the jankiness of the list. The matches are written in rough note form. So here's the list and after it will follow the report.

//NAME: Threat
2 Pulse of the Forge
4 Sulfuric Vortex
4 Magma Jet
4 Volcanic Hammer
1 Firebolt
4 Pyrite Spellbomb
1 Arc-Slogger
2 Blistering Firecat
4 Hearth Kami
4 Slith Firewalker
4 Frenzied Goblin
4 Genju of the Spires
22 Mountain
SB: 2 Jinxed Choker
SB: 4 Blood Moon
SB: 4 Ensnaring Bridge
SB: 3 Bottled Cloister
SB: 2 Pyroclasm

My first match was against boros deck win against Ian, who is a new player to the game.
noteables about his deck/match up
-ran no kataki's
-he's newbie
-a scattering of 1 of's, like Sword of Fire and Ice for instance

Game one
I kept a bad hand of four lands, vortex, and random card, lost in quick order to creature flood
-vortex sucks vs boros
-mully agressively, give yourself a chance and don't keep bad hands hoping to draw action
0-1

Game two
It resulted in a silver knight for him holding of my genju, he swang one turn, Pyrite spellbomb might have taken out a knight, while kami toke out a jitte, but both got replaced, he made a mistake and swung with the knight, allowing me to swing with genju and frenzied goblin, next turn I got out arc-slogger and did an alpha strike of genju, goblin, slogger and finished him with slogger shots
sideboard
-4 vortex
-2 lava cats
+3 cloister
+2 clasm
1-1

Game three, he went and I stopped his assults for a while, until he got out silver knight, in which i was forced to take some dmg before pyrite toke it out. Jitte made an appearance, he used a counter to kill a creature while let me hammer the creature that had it. Clasm was used to kill a creature, which got a pump two pumps, then died to hammer. Anotehr hammer bought me time, but things where looking grim until bottled cloister came out, kami toke out jitte, but another one came, along with silver knight. things turned when i got two more cloisters out, which allowed me to draw 4 a turn,
eventually i got kami broke the lock and swang for the win with slogger and genju + bburn
sideboard
-same
2-1

notes from the match
vortex and choker are horrible, he's the better aggro, slogger and pyrites are needed, possilby culling scales as well, you're the reactor, even consider going second all the time for the extra card
-against a better list I'd probably lose harder due to care superiroity, like lavamancer and lions/hounds, goblin legionare, would really need arc-sloggers, flametounges would generate card advantage, as well as more clasms or possibly culling scales
-lava cats suck vs this deck, dart and instant removal kill it
possible cards to consider for the board vs this
-culling scales
-more pyroclasm's
-flametounge kavu's

MATCH 2 Alex vs Christain, Threat vs Tings

Game one
Early beats take him down, along with genju, shortly followed by vortex which got the last damage in despite the grasshoper in play
notes - beware of wish for clasm, could have happened but christian is running shitty list
-fire/ice is run and can seriously hurt you, as it happened to me

Sideboard
-1 firebolt
-4 hammer
+4 bloodmoon
+2 chocker
-1 slogger
was hoping to disrupt mana base with blood moon and get a quick clock with choker, slogger was to slow, and burn was to weak for this match

game two
he had mana problems, I used genju to get lots of damage in, forced him to crack his lands for moments peace, he only could balancing tings for me keeping a slith, gg
notes-moments peace is usually in most lists with green
-shattering spree would take out all of those eggs(mana fixerss) and solve the affinity match up, and that would cause him to pitch lands to do stuff
-blood moon would have REALLY hurt him, but didn't pull it off

notes about the match up
I think genju is a great preasure card, it puts him on the defencive. blood moon creates mana issues for sure, and choker does what vortex does
over all the matchup seems okay if i get some early beats with some follow up, genju is ideal, but vortex and chocker do the job alright
fire/ice and moment's peace and burning wish for the solutino are problems though

MATCH 3 Alex vs Jesse, Threat vs No Stick
Game One: He keeps a one lander, I win in short order
sideboard
-2 firecat
-1 firebolt
-1 hammer
+4 bloom moon
i saw him run a lot of non basics, hoping to mess him up

Game Two: He gets no stick going, I don't get a kami to stop it, I keep it gogn for as long as possibly to see his deck and get some practice on ForF. I make him think I can do 5 dmg in instant speed so that's alright.

Sideboard
-4 Blood Moon
+stuff back
Realized he had a good balance of normal/non lands so decided lbood moon sucked since W is needed for perma no stick.

Game Three:
I play and get genju out, he doesn't draw helix or fire/ice and I win shortly.

Math analysis
He's got some good answers to me, genju seems critical. Also being able to deal instant speed dmg to a unmorphed angel and instant removal of no stick are nessecary. Force Spike makes the match up very difficult, since my g3 genju would have been stopped by it. Hard counters combined with good removal and card drawing and threats make for a hard match, play expecting pain.

Solution cards
-Overload
-Blinkmoth Well
-Pithing Needle
-price of glory

MATCH 4, Alex vs Ryan, vs Ichorid

Game one: I get lucky and his deck flops on him. Early genju beats keep things going well.

Sidebaord:
-4 Vortex
+4 Bridge
I figured I'd go the defence route and hope it would work

Game two: It was a slow war, but zombie infestation really hurt. He recover's with an flying ichorid army. The token hold back my genju at almost no cost to him.
note- WODNER EFFECTS ALL CREATURES

Game three: We both keep one landers and I come out on top. He fails to find one of 14 black sources for mana. I used Genju's and Frenzied goblin beats, I stall on one land for three turns.

Here are the deck changes I'm planning on doing.
Maindeck
-1 firebolt
+1 Arc-Slogger
Keeping true to the theme of the deck, Firebolt doesn't do as much for me as Arc-Slogger does. The Slogger acts as a machine gun attached to a tank against Boros decks, can hold it's ground against a lot of the fat in this format. I always found myself siding out firebolt so I thought why not replace it with a card that I won't side out EVERY MATCH.
Sideboard
-1 Blood Moon
-1 Ensnaring Bridge
+2 Overload
My encounter with Boros and No Stick really showed me how bad I was lacking instant speed artifact removal. Contrary to my belief low casting artifacts are still used in 1.x, from mox, jitte, scepter, to even balancing tings mana fixers.

Now's a list of cards I'm contemplating including in the deck, any feed back will be appreciated.
Blinkmoth Well(MD): Stops no stick, do I run it main? How many? Is it worth risking missing a turn 2 slith over? This would definately be an inclusion if I was running Chrome Mox, as RR isn't hard to get with that combination out.
Shrapnel Blast(MD): Requires me to add a lot to the deck, and makes me weak against the anti affinity cards. Would need great furances, moxes, and another artifact, probably jitte or top. Though the lure of five damage to the face and luring A removal into a wiff sounds tempting.
Flametounge Kavu (SB): I really don't want to run it MD since 1.x isn't that creature heavy, the sideboard seems like a splendid place. It nets you a 2 for 1 against anything with creatures, which is awesome, and is a valid threat in itself.
Jitte (SB): No one can argue the power of the Jitte, MD seems a little cluncky, but I could be HORRIBLY wrong on this. It would have good synergy with Shrapnel Blast if included.

So there we have it, a mono red rogue deck going 4-0. I admit there was a luck in almost every match up though, but I feel the deck has potential. I'm looking for any feedback on alternate card choices or any suggestions. I imagine I'll eventually invest money into this deck, so I'll be getting fetch lands and more expensive cards. Thanks for reading and any responces.

DJTech · Joined: 19 Dec 2004 Posts: 74 Location: ROVA

h0m3r · Joined: 05 Sep 2004 Posts: 114

As long as Wonder is in your graveyard, creatures you control have flying as long as you control an island. or something.

Vodka_7up · Joined: 06 Oct 2004 Posts: 188

Sorry I meant it effects ALL of the controls creatures. True you need the island for it. For some reason I thought it only effected the Ichorid's, I don't know.