Dueling Doomsday: Clash in Cymru

Setting the scene

One week prior to the event our local Legacy Judgette suddenly fired out info of a GPT, one of those hasn't been seen in ages, but it's Legacy and it's local.

Saturday the 7th of April: 19 players converged into Firestorm games despite the short notice and terrible weather (like wow it was bad). Five rounds of swiss with cut to top 8. Thanks to the lovely judges we gave the full metagame breakdown:

• Standstill
• Lands x2
• Doomsday x2
• Infect
• ANT
• Aluren
• Turbo Depths
• Death and Taxes
• Grixis Delver
• Golgari Prison
• Elves
• Miracles
• BUG Delver
• Omnisneak/tell x3
• Maverick

No Chalice decks (yay) and only one Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V out. As you can see Doomsday made up a significant portion of the metagame (10.5%!) with myself (Doishy) and ApeOfJustice representing.

Let's get into it. Reports written by their respective pilots:

Round 1

Player: ApeOfJustice
Opponent: Ben (the eventual tournament winner)
Opposing Deck: ANT
Result: 1-2

Playing against Ben (the eventual tournament winner), who I knew was playing ANT even before going into the match. On the draw.
G1) I get killed on T1, oh well, what you gunna do. Can’t help that’s just how it sometimes goes.
G2) This game was quite grindy, with lots of hand disruption thrown between each player, Ben does a mini Tendrils against me quite early on. I soon draw a Surgical Extraction, and target his Tendrils of Agony; Ben concedes in response. Obviously didn’t side in or maindeck any Empty the Warrens.
G3) On the draw I keep a hand that is solid with some disruption, mana and DD, but no cantrips. Ben kept a 7 so I didn’t feel I could justify going below with this serviceable hand. Ben just Ponders on his turn, shuffles, then passes. I feel somewhat confident with the shuffle, and draw another Doomsday for turn. I Duress him on my T1, and take a Brainstorm seeing a hand of Flooded Strand, Lotus Petal, LED, and 2 Cabal Rituals. Then with no cantrips, I don’t feel confident letting this game going long, so I set up a pass-the-turn pile with Laboratory Maniac, going straight to 10 life. If he draws a tutor, or the Tendrils I die, but that is only a 5 outer, so Im quite happy playing against those odds. Ben hits a Ponder, shuffles, and hits the Tutor. GG

Player: Doishy
Opponent: Sammie
Opposing Deck: Miracles
Result: 0-2

Round 1 vs Sammie on Miracles. I have played him before and he was on a UW Delver brew so I suspected counterspells et al. I have an early combo but he has maindeck fluster! I rebuild and try to find things but a Mentor gets going and I get pressured. I have the kill ready but after checking the coast he has counterspell, SCM x2 and that first Fluster in the yard. I manage to bait the CSpell, Thoughtseize a Snappy but he still has the last. Here I had a line whereby I could bait the Fluster with a DD and then grab a second DD off the top to then win (or maybe it was BW into ToA or something?) basically I go to bait with DD and he lets it resolve... Oh dear! I have to go for it but he has the Fluster and hits something and Mentor tokens kill me because I don't have enough resources to make a pile involving a CT first or anything ( not that it would help). Game 2 I have a really nice opener with a Trop and Xantid. He starts T0 with Leyline of Sanct. Huh, well should be fine if Swarm hits. I T1 Swarm and we stick it. He T1 goes land and Brainstorm. I cantrip and set up a T3 kill. He flips a Terminus (SALT ALERT SEGWAY: WHY THE FUCK DOES HE STILL HAVE THIS CARD IN HIS DECK? LIKE COME ON, REALLY... FFS).

Sidenote: turns out he thought he did not have enough good cards to board in so had to keep some bad ones and had one Terminus left in the deck.

So anyways I go for it anyway and meet and Flusterstorm for my troubles. Again I try to rebuild but cannot interact meaningfully thanks to Leyline and not having boarded in any Bounce spells. I die to Mentor tokens and feel pretty angry.

Round 2

Player: ApeOfJustice
Opponent: Morgan
Opposing Deck: Sneak and Show
Result: 2-0

Playing against Morgan, who seemed to be somewhat new to the format. We all start somewhere. On the play.

G1) Morgan mulligans to 6 cards and scrys to the top. I keep a pretty solid hand with cantrips, mana and a burning wish. I T1 probe him, for information and see a pretty weak keep with Volcanic Island, Island, Mountain, Flooded Strand, Lotus Petal, and Force of Will. Seems pretty clearly on some UR Show and Tell variant. Draw a duress from the probe which I use to take that Force and pass. Morgan just plays a land and passes, I draw a therapy and take that Petal, seeing the scry to the top was a Griselbrand; confirm my assumption of SnT. I DR, BW, DD into a pass-the-turn pile. Kill him the next turn.

G2) I keep a very solid hand with Probe, Therapy, Therapy, Thoughtseize, Fetch, BW, LP. Morgan on the play plays a land, lotus petal, ponder (shuffle) and passes. I draw a LED. Probe him seeing Boseiju, Flusterstorm, Show and Tell, Spell Pierce, and Brainstorm. Draw a Dark Ritual off the Probe and go Dark Rit, Thoughtseize, Double therapy, leaving him with the Brainstorm, and Boseiju. I go a couple more draw-gos with Morgan. I manage to brainstorm into Probe, Probe, Duress. Duress him see the coast is clear, play out my mana, and probe into the Probe then BW I put back ontop (With him on 19 and my storm currently 6), to go for an Empty the warrens for 16 goblins, and then flash back the 2 therapies from T1. He draws nothing relevant and concedes.

Player: Doishy
Opponent: Justin
Opposing Deck: BUG Delver
Result: 2-1

Round 2 I face Justin on BUG Delver. I get the play and probe seeing a classic BUG hand. I Duress away a Force of Will and T2 therapy away a Daze. He drops a Goyf T2 and I respond with 16 Goblins and a Flashbacked Therapy hitting Abrupt Decay T3. He scoops to my superior creature base!
Game 2 I have the T1 unprotected. I jam it, he has a Surgical. Ah well.
Game 3, We trade some resources then somewhere I find the spot to go off with Doomsday but cannot hit the needed storm count so I manage to build a DD EtW pile with at least two turns left of draw steps with 18 Goblins in play. He scoops. DD EtW pile. WUT?!
This round I also enjoyed watching the lands mirror occurring to my left XD

Round 3

Player: ApeOfJustice
Opponent: Josh
Opposing Deck: Turbo Depths
Result: 0-2

Playing against Josh, running Turbo Depths. On the Draw.

G1) In the blind, I keep a fair 7, with a BW, DR, LP, Island, Fetch, Ponder, Brainstorm. Josh leads with Urborg, then Needles Wasteland primitively. I draw another land, and feel obliged to Wish for a Therapy to name Vampire Hexmage as a response to the threatening T2 Marit Lage. Therapy reveals 3 Lotus Petals, 1 Elvish Spirit Guide, and a Crop Rotation. Josh topdecks an Expedition Map, tutors a Dark Depths and plays it, leaving a LP in play and ESG and a Rotation in hand. I know I’m dead next turn. Hope he misses it. I Brainstorm into cards to set up a PTT pile, attempt to set it up, but Josh makes a 20/20 in response to the Doomsday, and I concede.

G2) Josh mulligans to 6 and scrys to the top. That scry feels a little threatening, I keep a solid hand with a T1 Thoughtseize, T2 Kill. I Thoughtseize him, seeing Dark Depths, Stage, Karakas, Snow-covered Forest, Catacombs, and my only option of a Duress. Feel quietly hopeful. Turns out his scry was a Thoughtseize as well, and he takes my Doomsday, and I proceed to cast my only cantrip (ponder) find 3 lands, shuffle draw a land, then continue flooding out. He Marit Lages on T3 with a petal he drew.

Player: Doishy
Opponent: Mark
Opposing Deck: Copy Paste
Result: 0-2

Round 3 was against Mark on Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V. He is a Bristol local so both of us know the score. G1 we manage to strip each other of hand resources but I have a good stable manabase and CB in play (perfect start in the matchup). I need to find one last piece so have to aggressively cantrip. I get rewarded by drawing lands three turns in a row to then find the kill (unprotected) in the face of lethal on the board and of course he has the force (I cannot Goblins due to double Flying Delvers).

Game 2 starts off with an early Carpet (yay) and him getting manascrewed (WHAT?) so his one land, T1 Delver, many Dazes hand does serious work as I cannot leverage my Carpet advantage, get beaten by the bug and then get into another turn where I have either the deterministic kill unprotected or a YOLO CT + blind AoI what I think needed to be either an LED or DR to win? (It might have had to be two cards maybe...) basically I went for it (deterministic kill) because I knew his hand was a R blast that I could ignore and 2 unknowns and hey, the unknowns were of course FoW and blue card. Blergh.

Round 4

Player: ApeOfJustice
Opponent: Mark
Opposing Deck: Infect
Result: 2-1

Playing against Mark who I knew is on Infect. I feel it’s a bad match up, and know that losing this would put me out of top 8 contention. Unfortunately for Mark, he shows up a tad late to the match and received a game loss, so the match started 1-0 in my favour. On the draw.

G1) I keep a slow grindy hand. Mark sticks a T1 Glistener Elf, and I die on T4 due to not hitting the action in my disruption and cantrip heavy hand.

G2) Mark mulligans to 6 and scrys to the top, I keep a T2 kill if I draw a cantrip or LED. I have a Thoughtseize but decide to play a land and hold the thoughtseize, since I have the mana to cast it and combo next turn if I can draw the cantrip. Mark plays a T1 Pithing Needle on LED and I inform him that it is infact a mana ability – feels bad man. (Editor's note: Mark knows better than this and I did slap him after because he's a pillock) I get the cantrip, Thoughtseize him, and see his only interaction was a Flusterstorm, which I take, then proceed to standard pile ToA kill him.

Player: Doishy
Opponent: Rosie
Opposing Deck: Lands
Result: 2-0

Round 4 I get the bye aka Lands.
Game 1 she plays lands, I cantrip. As she ends her second turn she says "I know you're on Doomsday, but how does it actually work" to which I reply as I draw for turn "Let me show you". I do my thing explaining each step then stack a Tendrils of Agony with 11 copies about to appear when she states she has a response. I know she has nothing in hand other than a Crop Rotation so I wonder what she plans to get. She rotates and grabs a Glacial Chasm and smugly puts it into play. I say okay and ask if Storm triogger may resolve. She says yes so I point 12 Tendrils at her. She then points at Chasm to which I inform her regarding the wording difference of Damage vs Lifeloss. She looks confused and queries it so I helpfully call the Judge to explain.

Game 2 I probe to see a Choke in her hand (oh boy!). So I play a weirdly aggressive non U fetch game getting basic Island, Swamp and Badlands into play. She actually drops a T2 Sphere of Resistance so cannot cast Choke until T4 because she also blocks a Mox Diamond she draws with the Sphere. I CT the Choke and manage to find a CoV. I enter T4 with four lands, the kill and CoV in hand. She drops a second choke. On her end step I QUICK MATHS (man's not hot) and work out I don't need my Island to win so Chain and Kill her.

Round 5

Player: ApeOfJustice / Doishy
Opponent: Doishy / ApeOfJustice
Opposing Deck: THE MIRROR!
Result: Madness

ApeOfJustice:

I played against Doishy.
It was a wonderfully fun game and I couldn’t do this game justice with regards to the report.

Doishy:

Round 5 is something truly special. Round 5 vs ApeOfJustice on Doomsday.
The 100% mirror.
James on James, Doomsday on Doomsday action.
It was everything everyone dreams of.

Ape (front) feeling the pressure as Doishy (back) gets super serious

Game 1 he displays superior die skills and both of us wreck the hands of the other. He manages to Doomsday first but it's a bluff and he sets up an easy PTT pile. I school him by being excellent at casting brainstorms and combo him out with a Storm pile and LM beats (did I mention I had a LM beating down during this game?).

Game 2 he once again tries to imply foul things about my heritage by throwing 10 Goblins and a flashbacked Cabal Therapy my way. I take a hit and, after checking what was up, state my inability to combat maths to then proceed to then Throw 14 Goblins down in response. (I think I managed to CT two Doomsdays this game at some point). I am on 6 life at this point but find a Doomsday so ignore the board because urgh, creatures and cast it setting up a CB ToA loop stack. He draws and SURGICALS ME, WHAT SORT OF DAMN PERSON BRINGS SURGICAL INTO A FIGHT BETWEEN GENTLEMEN?! It's probably fine as I now look at my five randomised cards. I draw the Tendrils first which then gets hit by Discard. Thankfully the next one drawn is AoI so I then storm him some and flunge with SUPERIOR CREATURES for the rest. I then write down my 2-0 as an 0-2 because breakers and wanting Doomsday in the Top 8 over personal glory but alas it was for naught because there was a big tie of people on six points and who even knows how that shit works anyways?.

9 Goblins stare down 14 business-cards-Goblins as a Doomsday resolves

Ending Thoughts

ApeOfJustice:

I went 2-3 in actual matches. I feel that my opponents had a couple of particularly fortunate draws, but I was somewhat pleased with my overall play. I certainly still have some space for improvement, especially seeing the play from Doishy with his CB piles (something I very rarely do). Either way, I had a tremendously fun event in Cardiff, and am glad to meet some of the people of this community.

Doishy:

3-2 overall but a fun day nonethless. Nice gloating point to note: My Standstill deck piloted by my friend Alex came second. His Semi finals match was so glorious with Game 1 of it (vs Maverick) ending with his Opp having 0 permanents on the field and 2 cards (one was Teeg) in hand. Maindeck Crucible + Ghost Quarter + EE is so beautifull! ANT won the event so gratz to Ben :)

It was great meeting ApeOfJustice (though it transpires we had met before in years gone by) and I look fowards to schooling any other Doomsdayers in superior combat maths at GP Brum (look forward to my 0-8 drop report).

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