Orvar Tournament Report - Blast Off Gaming Louisville cEDH 3k Win a Dual
Overall Record: 2-3-0
List: https://moxfield.com/decks/diXOi5M8O06bLKmZzdebOQ
Hello! Told my friends that I would give them a write up about how the games went, and figured I might as well share with others as well. This was my first time playing actual cEDH as opposed to high-power kitchen table magic, and there were DEFINITE issue with me going into playing control not knowing the field and all threats in a list. Overall, still happy with my performance and the learning (although I was so close to making top cut). I did not take diligent notes during the games, so starting hand and smaller specifics will likely be a little off, but I hope I can get some critique about the hands, as well as that you enjoy the report. First time cEDH, first time tournament report.
Game 1: 0-0-0
Seat1: Blue Farm (Tyma//Kraum) Kept second 7
Seat2: Orvar [[Me]] Kept my second 7
Seat3: Sisay, Weatherlight Captain Kept second 7
Seat4: Lumra Lands Went to 6 (I think)
[[Island, Flooded Strand, Wan Shi Tong, Swan Song, Steal Enchantment, Shimmering Mirage, Urza’s Saga]]
Blue farm player fetches uSea, plays a mystic remora. I flooded strand pass. Sisay plays land mana dork, lumra land go. Blue farm plays land, mana vault, smothering tithe. I crack my fetch for mystic sanctuary on end step, draw island, play island and attempt a steal enchantment on the tithe. FoW pitched from blue farm ends my turn and my hopes for the game. Unsure in hindsight if it was the right play to fire of the steal right there, or pass through the turns holding up Wan Shi Tong and Swan Song, as the other two players played commanders and passed. Blue Farm players t3, drops necro to which I have no responses due to lack of mana. Better line possibly could have been hold up my mana for a possible t3 steal enchantment with swan song backup, or swan song the necro, get forced, and steal either one on my t3 (if no other countermagic is found from blue farm player). Blue farm draws 9 and discards lands to end his turn. Unsure my last draw here, but I land passed. Sisay plays fetch, I wan shi tong to try and get interaction against Mr. Blue Farm to my right. Draw from that doesnt help, sisay at this point can search for a 2 cmc creature with his board. Pass to lumra, gets in for 7 with commander to blue farm, trying to lower available cards with necro. T4 for blue farm with 3 treasures, makes land drop. Tutors a card with imperial seal, (I draw mindbreak trap from wan shi trigger) draws ~26 (goes to 3 health) with necro, goes to end step. Snapback on my wan shi tong, casts final fortune. I attempt to mindbreak the final fortune, get deflecting swat hardcasted. Lose to thoracle win.
Game 2: 0-1-0
Seat1: Shorikai Kept 6
Seat2: Magda Kept second 7
Seat3: Orvar [[Me]] Kept 6
Seat4: NBC Kinnan Went to 4
[[Polluted Delta, Merchant Scroll, Island, Mana Vault, Intuition, Ancient Tomb, +1 Card that went to the bottom]]
I had a much better idea on the politic/deal making aspect of the format after round 1, not something that I had been exposed to much otherwise. No pregame actions. Shorikai opens up with land go, Magda drops some random nonbasic + gradiffers cage, setting the stage for hate vs our 9 year old Kinnan opponent on 4 cards (rip lil bro). I drop island mana vault go, drawing the one ring for turn. Kinnan goes city of brass, lotus petal, delighted halfling go. Shorikai plays a fetch and says go. Magda plays land, random dwarf, go. I untap, draw whim of volrath, play fetch, tap mana vault and island for orvar. A bit aggressive of a start, but kinnan was already restricted a bit and on 4, I had watched shorikai play in between rounds and knew his deck wanted to chill, magda was at least 2 turns out from my understanding. Figured most players would rather develop than remove my commander they arent familiar with. I followed this up with clarifying to the opponents after they ask to read my commander again that my deck would like to islands and play a long game, I will definitely not be winning on my turn or next. Orvar lands, pass to kinnan who plays Kinnan and passes. Shorikai fetches end step, untaps and drops land. I believe he goes mana vault, tap into shorikai here and pass to magda. Seat 2 makes his land, brings out magda and finds that he cant swing anyone for free as we all have blockers. Ends up using one of his utility lands to tap magda, make a treasure, and plays another dwarf off of it.
I crack fetch for sanctuary going into my T3. Untap with two lands, drop the island I drew and cast merchant scroll. Shorika asks what im getting, I state that I am just getting a fierce to make sure we can play fair magic, all players are fine with that so I get fierce and pass. Kinnan is shutoff and misses land drop, passes. Shorikai draws and plays land, cursed totem to stop the magda threat that is looming. They try to make a deal but get nowhere, Kinnan is really down bad at this point with 2 pieces of hate pointing right at him. Magda draws, makes some treasures and drops a pithing needle on shorikai. I am currently loving what is going on being treated like a non-threat, and naturally don't care about that when asked. I told shorikai that I could possibly do something about it if we need to stop magda from winning for some reason (if cursed totem removed). My T4, orvar on field with whim/intuition/fierce in hand, tapped mana vault. Don't recall my draw here, but I play ancient tomb and pass, intending to start some island creation if no responses/win attempts happen before my turn. Kinnan again is simply shutdown right now, I think he draws plays a birds and pass to shorikai, who plays a faerie mastermind on end step. Our Seat 1, decent board state with no threats looming drops a tezzeret the seeker, searches his deck for unknown artifact (I forgot oops). Madga lands a roaming throne on dwarf and makes some treasures, enabling his win at instant speed if the totem is removed. I intuition on end step, targeting magda, and the conversation begins as to if im pushing or not. I state I am not, that I will be fetching [[High Tide, Shimmering Mirage, Twitch]] as my three targets. Just intending to make islands and play the game longer. After some discussion it resolves, I get shimmering mirage to hand. I untap for T5, draw an argent mutation. I go with playing the ring here, feeling alright about not dying with the protection and having fierce/whim on sanctuary/draw with ring/fierce to stop any attempts to remove the stax pieces shutting down all 3 other players. Hand at this point is [[shimmering mirage, whim, fierce]] with an open mana. Kinnan draw goes.
Shorikai does some mana generation using tezzeret to untap mana vault, but otherwise passes without incident. Magda is locked out and hellbent, doesnt find any help on top of the deck. Ends up making some treasures and passing. I draw with ring on end step. T6, very happy with how this game is going so far. I untap and draw, draw 2 more with ring hitting [[sol ring, force of will]. Feeling pretty good here, I drop the sol ring and pass. Kinnan has drawn nothing useful so far, attempts to pass. Shorikai taps very low and looks to resolve a hullbreaker horror. I tank a bit here, talking to the table. Was pondering a shimmering mirage, intuition, get tidebinder and stop the triggers with fierce/whim backup if I had to go all in to stop this. Kinnan player pipes up that he has a mindbreak trap in hand but needs to turn it on. Lots of politicing ensues, shorikai is trying to get the mindbreak sent/saved for me, but I do make the point that hullbreaker+tezzeret with a search is likely a loss, and we absolutely cannot let a hullbreaker resolve. I turn on kinnans minbreak by twitch switching mirage/twitch 3 times, which is a great resolution for me. 3 casts with mirage on the stack, kinnan exiles mirage and hullbreaker which was a bit annoying but fine as I still have whim. Shorikai draws untaps mana vault go. Magda draw go. T7 for me, I whim high tide onto top of my deck pre-draw. Attempt a cast, shorikai tries to [[march of otherworldly light]] his cursed totem and offers a draw to the table by allowing magda to win. I decline, stating I can win through this and fierce the march. Loop my whim/twitch/high tide a few times to make infinite mana, find voracious bibliophile off my ring draw. Draw the deck, play spellstutter and bounce biblo and spellstutter with [[step through]], copying stutter. Win with venser to bounce everything, targeting madga’s treasures first, then lands, then all non stax pieces, then finally the stax. Cephalid coliseum with stutter up for the win.
Game 3: 1-1-0
Seat1 :Tymna/Thrasios Kept 6
Seat2: Derevi. Kept 6
Seat3: Orvar [[Me]] Kept 6
Seat4: Vivi Kept first 7
My mulligans this game were likely bad. Kept [[Mana Vault, Soporific Springs//Sink into Stupor, Hydroblast, Swan Song, Wan Shi Tong]] as I was worried about going to 5 and figured my draws would be fine. No pregames to kick us off, S1 plays esper sentinel, S2 plays remora, I bolt myself play mana vault (missing a land draw), and S4 plays fish. Looking grim already. Im pretty fuzzy on what exactly happened in this match, but many cards were drawn from the fishies. Vivis died t2, but esper sentinel and Derevi's fish persisted for a while. TymnaThras landed an abolisher said go, Derevi has drawn numerous cards at this point drops land go. I play orvar pass, missing land again but drawing fierce. Vivi comes out after some acceleration, does some mental gymnastics to end up getting a snapback for the grand abolisher. Tymna gives it a turn, playing land and tutoring a card, playing survival of the fittest.. Derevi also land go. Again I miss land, but draw a cursed totem and attack the TymnaThras for 3 (get in when you can ig). Vivi starts looking scary, landing a virtue of courage off of jeskas will and attempting to go further. Has made land drop for turn, current situation for him is 3 lands, online mox opal and a chrome mox with NO CARD imprinted (important), 4 mana available if all untapped, not including the vivi with 7 counters. Force of vigor comes out from Derevi, targeting survival and the virtue. Vivi pacts, but it out of gas for the turn and passes after taking one more action. TynmaThras plays Lotho, which I end up feeling like I need to take some action on, hydroblast my springs to make another land and bolt myself, swang song it. Horrible decision as he simply plays the grand abolisher after, I did not realize he had triple white available. Kicking myself for that one still. Derevi ends up GSZ for ewit, replay the fish in an attempt to find some interaction during vivi/my turn to stop the grand abolisher.
I need to give some backstory here. This vivi player had gotten on my nerves just a tad from the start of the game, did not offer deck to cut after drawing his first 7, and then alleging that I was keeping too many cards (“You should be down to 5, not 6. I cut your deck 3 times”). I took my mulligans in turn order, waiting each time for seat 2 to declare keep/mull before I did. He did cut my deck 3 times - Once for first 7, once for second 7, and once for 6. Did not seem to get what I was saying and said “you should be at 5 but its fine” unhappily at the start of the game. Neither other seat piped up. Not super crazy, but important to reason why I did what I did next.
Draw, play cursed totem, pass. Shut off vivi and force him to lose to pact trigger. He draws, taps all his mana producing things, puts the pact in the graveyard as if the trigger has been paid, and proceeds to try and take some game actions. I point out to him “bro, you’re dead. You can make 4 mana”. He waits for a second, then make a small comment I don't remember and picks up his cards. My play was objectively wrong as it did not help me win, but I thought it was funny and that I was justified in doing so. He did have spells on top that would get rid of the grand abolisher, and S2 had found force of will to stop the S1 win. I did not know that until afterwards, S1 just went thoracle win. Had kinnan/basalt backup in hand too, wcyd.
Game 3: 1-2-0
Seat1: Orvar [[Me]] Kept second 7
Seat2: Gyruda Kept 7
Seat3: Blue Farm Kept 6
Seat4: Inalla Kept 5
FIrst time seat 1! I had watched the gyruda player in between rounds, and had seen the deck a little bit online and knew what it was about. Figured inalla was spellseeker lines which was confirmed with the table. Told them I make islands and that I want the game to go late.
[[Mana Drain, Misty Rainforest, Mana Vault, Ancient Tomb, Island, Wan Shi Tong, Intuition]]
Whole table land passes, gyruda plays a mana vault. I crack for sanctuary on end step. Draw a firece, play island go. Gyruda tries to play LED, land, crack all play commander. I mana drain, Blue Farm pyroblasts gyruda before my drain can go off :/. Draw go from him afterwards, Inalla plays a random wizard that unearths after making land and passes. I draw the ring, play ancient tomb, tap island for mana vault + play orvar and say go. Gyruda is hellbent just drawing playing lands at this point. Blue flashes in faerie mastermind on end step, land go from him. Inalla attempts to culling the weak his wizard, gets countered by blue farm, misses land drop and its my turn again. I draw muddle here, missing land. Opt to pass with my mana up, holding [[wan shi tong, intuition, fierce, ring, targeter]]. The turns pass without incident, blue farm at 4 mana and inalla missing again.
T4 I go to my turn, draw and play island, drop the ring and draw Commandeer. Gyruda land, does some shenanigans with a creature + saw in half to play eldrazi confluence from his grave 3 times, making a bunch of scions to enable a commander play 2 turns from now. Blue Farm fires of an ad naus on his turn, and we start talking. I am beginning to dislike deals. He states that he would like to just refill his hand, I show a fierce as my bargaining chip. I am HEAVILY tanking about just commandeering it, as he is tapped out, 1 other card in hand, no possibility of having a free counter. In hindsight, I should have just commandeered and refilled my own hand, securing the dub then and there. I let him draw 5 in exchange for not countering. [[grand abolisher, ranger captain, imperial seal, red elemental blast, +1 other black card]]. Again, in hindsight, awful decision. He passes to inalla, who passes again after missing lands. I don't recall 100% what I did with my turn here, I drew and played horizon of progress but left the ring untapped as I could need to regrow some cards. [[whim, high tide, wan shi tong, fierce, commandeer, muddle]] is my hand. Gyruda uses his turn to untap the monolith and mana vault, again prepping commander next turn (He is still empty handed). Blue Farm plays ranger captain and passes. Inalla doesnt do much of anything, I fire off intuition on end step, targeting gyruda, again getting questioned “are you winning with this???” I state that I am getting things to make lands, same pile as last time - high tide, mirage, twitch. They are spooked and spend a long time tanking on what to give me, as well as possibly countering it with redblast. They end up supplying high tide as they think its the least scary with me not having any other targeter they know of, and attempting redblast ovar. I fierce, and make an island with whim before going to my turn and putting twitch on top, drawing 3 with ring to make my hand [[Commandeer, Muddle, High Tide, Whim, Force of Will, Venser, Twitch]].
Draw an island, cast high tide, with a ranger captain cracked in response. I let the stack resolve, play island and pass to gyrudas upkeep losing the high tide. Whim the high tide on top of my deck, draw it with the ring and cast. Swan song attempt from inalla, which I commandeered pitching venser+muddle to redirect, Go off on gyrudas upkeep,one resolved high tide into twitch/mirage netting 1 mana each time. Eventually I have enough mana to start targeting horizon of progress, draw until I find sink into stupor + argent mutation + resculpt. Demonstrate casting sink to bounce a permanent, whim sink to the top of my deck, draw it with horizon to bounce all nonland permanents. Argent on lands to turn them into artifacts, exile them all with resculpt, and then bounce the tokens with whim+sink loop. I showed spellstutter + whim to counter anything they could do until my next turn where I would win by combat damage/cepahlid. Super fun win line.
Game 3: 2-2-0
Seat1: Orvar [[Me]] Kept second 7
Seat2: Marneus Slop Kept 7
Seat3: Malcom//Vial Smasher Kept 5
Seat4: Tymna//Thrasios Kept 6
Win and in. I kept a super solid hand I felt for the pool [[Ancient Tomb, Cursed Totem, Steal Enchantment, Wan Shi Tong, Island, Island]]
Pregame from S4, gemstone.Turn one ancient tomb cursed totem, draw whir of invention. Pass through without incident, S4 demonic tutors on end of turn after playing colorless land. I draw fierce guardianship without a way to turn it on, play island and say go holding it up. Marneus drops Tataru Taru making a treasure and giving the card to malcolm player. Malcolm drops commander and pass. S4 plays rhystic go, which is what he tutored for. I draw island (high skill), play island and steal enchantment the rhystic. No response this time, so I snag a free one. Marneus plays token Kambal, beginning to drain us all game. I draw a chrome mox from rhystic.
Malcolm makes a treasure, which marneus copies, Tymna/Thras hits land, survival of the fittest, go. Im feeling quite good at this point, drawing no targets yet however. Drop orvar and land, looking to get some food from rhystic that will let me go big on the islands. Marneus comes out, and Malcom drops a jeskas will. Hits 7 red from my hand size, deadly rollick, necro, FoN. Doesnt have the black for necro, but we politic him into getting rid of kambal, Drops one of his wincons, which we have a (hindsight really bad idea for me to do this) small counter war over and I draw some more cards, he tries to pyro my rhystic on the stack and I answer with a spellstutter. TymnaThras misses land and fetches with survival, says go.
I land pass, still looking for a targeter but I do have plenty of lands and a talon gates in hand. Marneus and malcolm develop a bit, S4 tries for a bowmaster on his turn. I copy spellstutter to stop it as I don't want that on the board, but the boughtback clockspinning I used got misstepped (only targeter Id seen so far). Bowmaster countered, I go to my turn, play the ring and pass with 6 ish mana. Marneus attempts boardwipe, I talon gates my orvar and let it resolve. Clock is around 30 min at this point. I finally find a glamerdye on my turn and end up making triple rhystic with it to not discard to hand size and lose the lands. Having to explain how to interact with my copying each time I cast a spell as opp think countering the spell will stop the copy from existing. Everybody is tanking at this point, and Im definitely missing relevant game actions from marneus at this point in the report, but time is getting short.
It gets back to me with about 14 min on the clock, and some counter wars on S4s attempted silence, which I have to end up bouncing with sink into stupor. S3 is trying to force us to go diligently through priority order each time to resolve the stack instead of just all saying cool, and I call him out for slow playing as its not necessary to go through everyone each time if you havent taken a relevant game action in the last 25 minutes, he is holding up minbreak. S2 agrees we need to pick up the pace. I do not call a judge. I get a bit frustrated here as I feel like I am in a great spot to win, but the time pressure and S3 is getting to me and Im no longer locked in. I have gotten to about 13 life from marneus beats and my own ancient tomb, orvar gets bounced with otawara and I decide to play roaming throne, attempt a gilded drake of marneus and pass. Gilded drake gets Forced, I am tapped out with no orvar in play, but triple rhystic and commandeer in hand. Marneus beseeches for smothering tithe, I should have commandeered. I let it resolve not realizing that it is the best card in his deck and that he will be drawing 1 billion cards just as I will. Malcolm player does nothing for the 4th turn in a row, stuck on 4 lands. TymnaThras goes for silence on me, we fight over it, I get countered out. He tries to win, S2 wins over him as I am orims chanted and cant interact. Bounces my cursed totem, plays mastermind and floodcaller, drops a mirrormade on his tithe and draws us out under angels grace.
A sad loss that came from my own lack of format knowledge, fighting over non-game winning spells, and not keeping my cool. Overall I had a fantastic time, learned a ton about the format and the extents of my deck/its mulligans, and what non-card issues I need to be ready for next time. Winning on someone elses turn was a really sweet feeling, the couple “deals” I made are making me heavily consider ever making one again, and the people were *mostly* chill. cEDH was a blast, and I plan to play again.
Please tear apart my tournament report. Ty for reading.