|
PTQ Kobe – Carlow, Ireland Red Hot Love at Christmas Time I was unsure of what to play, but after reading Dan Cote excellent report, I decided upon Red Deck Wins. Testing showed that the 4 Chrome Moxes didn’t work out. They were wasted draw after turn 3. Maybe two is the right number. Surprisingly, testing also proved that this deck needs a lot of mana. You need to keep mana spare for Wasteland and Ports, to flash back the Firebolts, and to be able to play around Tangle Wire. This was before the bannings, so there was plenty of Tangle Wire around. As it happened, I was only able to get 1 Chrome Mox on the day. This is what I played RED HOT LOVE AT CHRISTMAS TIME 4 Slith Firewalker 4 Grim Lavamancer 4 Blistering Firecat 4 Jackal Pup 4 Firebolt 4 Seal of Fire 3 Fire/Ice 2 Lava Dart 4 Tangle Wire 3 Pillage 1 Chrome Mox 4 Wasteland 4 Rishadan Port 4 Bloodstained Mire 3 Wooded Foothills 8 Mountain SIDEBOARD 2 Rack and Ruin * For Tinker 2 Shattering Pulse * For Tinker 1 Viashino Heretic * For Tinker and RDW 1 Pillage * For most match ups! 1 Lava Dart * RDW, Goblins, Hermit 3 Cursed Scroll * RDW and Goblins 3 Fledgling Dragon * RDW 2 Scrabbling Claws * Reanimator decks and RDW I use Fire/Ice over Volcanic Hammer. Two reasons for this. In the mirror match up, you can sometimes get locked down under Tangle Wire and Port. Fire increases your instant removal count. The second reason is that against Goblins, it’s often better to kill two goblins at once. As it was, not once all day did I kill two creatures, but I did several times do one damage to a creature and one to my opponent. I only got to use the Heretic once all day, every time I cast him, he got killed! Still he usually soaked up two damage spells. BOARDING TACTICS A lot of your cards are useless in the mirror. All of your main deck creatures have one toughness; so one Lava Dart can really hold you up. Tangle Wire doesn’t do much when your opponent only needs one mana spare! Pillage is very useful if you are going first, but not so handy going second. -4 Tangle Wire, -4 Jackal Pup, - X Blistering Firecat/Pillage +3 Cursed Scroll, +1 Viashino Heretic, +3 Fledgling Dragon, + 2 Scrabbling Claws, + 1 Lava Dart I’m still undecided on the Pillages, hence the X for the Firecat. Remember to use your sorcery damage on
the Lavamancer and Jackal Pups, try to keep your instant damage and Seals of
Fire for the Firecat and Slith Firewalker. AGAINST TINKER Doesn’t matter much now, but bring all
the artifact removal. AGAINST GOBLINS Lava Dart and Scroll for Jackal Pup.
Very tough match up, hope to top deck a Firecat for the win. AGAINST ROCK This version wasn’t built to beat
Rock, so I didn’t do much testing against it. I imagine in the future, replace
some of the artifact removal with either Price of Progress or Molten Rain.
Fledgling Dragon also worth trying out. AGAINST TOG Bring in the Cursed Scrolls and any land
destruction. Take out some of the direct damage. THE PTQThe famous Paddy “Cannon” Walsh kindly drove. He was played Hermit Druid. The rest of the car (me, Cormac Smyth, Ian Desmond) were playing RDW. Travelling in Paddy’s magical car brings plenty of luck, as will be revealed later. Jim Brophy always runs a great tournament, so things went smoothly throughout the day. ROUND 1 Steve Thompson – PonzaIt took me a while to figure out what he was playing! Plus it was nearly 11am, so Steve was well on his way to meet his maximum blood to alcohol mix. Turns out Ponza was tough enough for the mini ponza that is RDW. His 4 main deck Pyroclasms slowed me up a lot, and then he got Rorix out! This got me to 8 life, and I was worried. Luckily I top decked a Blistering Firecat for the win. Phew! Next round I got turn 1 Mox, Jackal Pup, and used Wasteland on his land. I still had a 2 mountains and a Firecat in hand. 4 turns later a second Firecat finished him off. ROUND 2 Cormac Smyth – RDWI hate playing a team mate this early on, but what can you do. In a long game 1, neither of us was dealt creature damage! I ended up taking 5 from my own fetchlands, and Cormac wisely flash backed his firebolts from turn 7 on to kill me. By turn 3, I had Scrabbling Claws, Cursed Scroll and Heretic in play. But sneaky Cormac soon put a stop to that. Heretic was killed, Scroll was pillaged. I drew loads of mana and no burn. Sacrificing the Claws just got me more mana. A firecat took me from 15 to 8. This proved to be decisive and he burnt me out soon after. ROUND 3 Dan Conroy – Some home brew deckI think this was Dans first PTQ. Or something. Because he was certainly very enthusiastic. I had an opening hand with two Jackal Pups. He won the dice roll, played swamp, said go. I drew, played mountain. Before I could even tap it, he had drawn a card. “Hold up” I said. So we went back and I played the pup. Two turns later I drew, and he untapped and drew! I realise it was nerves, but still. So I give him one last warning before I would call a judge. After that he played at a more reasonable, not to mention legal, pace. Anyway, I played a Slith Firewalker who made him eat feet for another two turns. Next game, turn 2 Slith, aided by a firecat, went all the way. “Eat Feet!” :) Dan was a good guy, he wasn’t trying to cheat, just new. ROUND 4 Michael Newry – Mono Black ControlAnother young player. Nice guy. I knew I was fairly safe when he played Royal Assassin. Once again, Firecat wins the day. Slith and Firecat in game 1, turn 4 and 5 Firecats in game two. ROUND 5 Elaine Galvin - RDWHey, another exciting mirror match! Game 1 was slow, until Elaine sneaks through a Firecat. She used direct damage to finish me off. Game 2 was even more exciting, dragging out for 30 minutes until I gained control with Cursed Scroll. Time was called just as started game 3. ROUND 6 Gary “Wookie” Cosgrave – TinkerWookie is a great guy, and we had a great game. Game 1 I destroy some land and Sliths win the game. Game 2 was very interesting. Wookie gets a turn 2 Chill. Oh oh. I manage to waste two sources of Red, which proves vital when Bosh comes down. Oh oh oh! Hes on 18 life and I’m starting to worry. As you do. Between his Tangle Wire and chill, I can do nothing on my turn.Wookie attacks for 6, taking me to 13, and then uses Mindslaver to take my turn. This is not good! I sac a fetchland at the end of his turn. Wookie sees my hand of 3 Pillages and 2 Lavamancers. I have 6 mana available, so fortunately he can only Pillage one of my lands. Bosh then attacks again to take me to 6. I then Pillage the Bosh and play Lavamancer.Wookie gets out Plantinum Angel and another Tangle Wire. Between the Tangle Wires and Chill, I have enough mana to play either Pillage or Lavamancer. I play the second Lavamaner. Plantinum Angel takes me to one, before I untap and pillage it. I’ve drawn Viashino Heretic. Wookie playes another Tangle Wire, but I just keep using the two Lavamancers during my upkeep to kill him. Whew! TOP 8It turns out everyone from Paddys magical car made the top 8. Even luckier, Paddy, Ian, Cormac and I weren’t paired against each other. Magic car! There are 6 RDW decks in the top 8. QUARTER FINAL Dave Coughlan – Black/Blue Re-animatorDave has played nothing but RDW all day! He gets a round 1 buy, beats 3 RDW, then Ids rounds 5 and 6. He plays Underground River which I promply Wasteland. This throws his mana a bit, then I play turn 3 and 4 Slith. Combined they do 1,3,5,7 damage, and I burn him out. In come the two Scrabbling Claws for two Firecats. My opening hand has a Claw so I’m pretty happy. Of course Dave plays a turn 1 Duress to take it out of my hand! I play a Pup, and he plays a turn 2 Chill. I draw a Wasteland, but realise I’ll need to keep it to get around Chill. Turn 3 I play another pup. Dave doesn’t draw any business cards, and the pups and some firebolts finish him off. That’s twice I’ve got past a turn 2 Chill. SEMI FINAL Alan Meaney - RDWGame 1 is always a bit random, and this was no exception. I haven’t written down how I won, but Alans life goes from 9 to 0, so I’m guessing Blistering Firecat. Game 2, I’m short of mana for a long time, end up discarding, and Alan kills me with Cursed Scroll. Game 3, Alan gets 4 Cursed Scrolls out very quickly. I get Viahshino Heretic down, but it dies to Seal of Fire and Lava Dart. However, Alan is stuck at 4 mana, while I have 9. He can’t use his scrolls reliably with his full hand, and I get a Cursed Scroll out myself. I have 2 Fire/ice in hand and two Lava Darts in the graveyard. He taps out to play Fledgling Dragon. He has Threshhold. I debate about killing the Dragon but decide to wait. I scroll Alan down to 18 at the end of his turn. I top deck Blistering Firecat. Hurrah! I attack, Alan doesn’t block. He goes to 11. He attacks, pumping by 2 to bring me to 8. I scroll him to 9 at eot. I untap, then draw the third Fire/Ice. I scroll, then use the 3 Fire/Ice and a Lava Dart to kill him. FINAL Stewart Shinkins – RDWAccording to the trusty Nemesis Program ( http://dcinem.5u.com/ ) Stewart is my number one Nemesis. I’ve only ever beaten him once. Time for revenge! Stewart is playing a version of RDW that would only work for him. Hes playing main deck Burning Wishes, and Mogg Fanatics instead of Grim Lavamancers. Also, playing I’d heard he has Raithi Dragon instead of Fledgling Dragon, and Pulverise. God only knows what else he has in the board. In the quarter final, Paddy got out Steely Resolve, with a Hermit Druid in play. Stewart cast Burning Wish for Cave In! Game 1, I get out a Seal of Removal, then draw moutain after mountain. Stewart has a Jackal Pup in play, but I have no other damage so I keep the Seal in case he plays a Slith. After 2 turns I use it to kill a Slith. Eventually, I draw a non land card. That’s right, Chrome Mox! Two Jackal Pups kill me after a while, despite my grumbling. Now would have been a good time for Fire/Ice! Game 2 is a lot better for me. I don’t bring in the Claws , just take out Pups and Tangle Wire. Stewart has two Chrome Mox in play when I get Viashino Heretic active. I finally get to use it! He kills Stewart Moxes, before going under, but by then I have a Fledling Dragon in play. Toasty! Game 3 is really funny. Stewart starts to destroy my land, but I get 3 Seals of Fire into play. He Burning Wishes for a fourth Pillage, and I go 6 turns without any mana in play! I discard a Dragon and a Firecat, but Stewarts first few creatures get Sealed. He gets a Fanatic into play. Things were looking bad. Then suddenly things turn around. I get land, firebolt the Fanatic. Stewart had a Rishadan Port available though. Then I get Chrome Mox, (just when I needed it, much to the laughter of my friends) and more land until I’m able to gain control with Cursed Scroll. I burn Stewart out with Fire/Ice and Lava Dart. I really enjoyed the day, thanks to everyone who attended. PROPSPatrick “The Driver” Thanks man! Kindly dropped my off first after the long drive home. Stopped me getting killed by my wife for leaving her alone with the baby for 16 hours. Cormac for calling to my house when I was babysitting to help me playtest. And for the all important idea of taking the Pups out in the mirror. Ian, Daragh, Conor , Sean and all the Gingerbread gang for the playtesting. Paddys Magic car! SLOPSThose people who threw things at the car. You know who you are! Don’t mess with the cards mojo. J Diarmuid Quirke Team 5FU |