I've seen him grab the artifacts he needs (Lotus, Spellbombs) in response to the Blessing trigger and then go off during his mainphase.

Sorry, I forgot to add the entry fee.  It has been added.  I imagine the pre-reg fee is the same as the entry fee.  Contact John (the store owner) at superstarsnet@hotmail.com for exact details.

Superstars Type One Tournament

Superstars in Cupertino, California is holding a 48-person type 1 tournament with excellent prizes.  All questions and pre-registration requests should be directed to superstarsnet@hotmail.com

Prize Structure:
1st Place: Unlimited Ancestral Recall
2nd Place: Library of Alexandria
3rd Place: Beta Demonic Tutor
4th Place: The Abyss
5th-8th Place: $35 Superstars Gift Card

Details:
* When: Saturday, February 26th @ 11:00am
* Where: Superstars
19700 Stevens Creek Blvd.
Cupertino, Ca 95014
Phone: (408) 777-8277
Web: http://www.superstarsnet.com
* Entry Fee: $25.00 (+$1 for each additional proxy over 5)
* Info: Standard DCI rules except each player will be allowed to use 5 proxy cards. Players may purchase additional proxy cards for $1 each.  6 swiss rounds, cut to Top 8 (single elimination) 50 minutes per round.
* Registration: Already started.  Seating is limited to 48 players, so pre-register today!
* Prizes: 1st Place Ancestral Recall is guaranteed.  Other prizes are based on 48 participants.

Edit: Added entry fee.

I posted the Top 4 in the Vintage Open Forum so non-full members can respond to the thread.[/url]

Stats:
28 people attended
5 Rounds of Swiss
9 Proxy
Cut to top 4
1st place got a mox emerald
Top 4: 4cControl, Stax, TnT, R/G Zoo

---

Decklists

1st: Eirik Aune (4cControl)

1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Mind Twist
1 YawgWill
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Crucible of Worlds
3 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island
3 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
3 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Island
1 City of Brass
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
1 Balance
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Fire/Ice
3 Cunning Wish
4 Brainstorm
3 Skeletal Scrying
1 Demonic Tutor
2 Exalted Angel
1 Fact or Fiction
2 Exalted Angel (listed twice)
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Decree of Justice

SB:
1 Stifle
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Disenchant
1 Swords to Plowshares
3 Rack and Ruin
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Flametongue Kavu
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Fire/Ice


2nd: David Ocha (Stax)

4 Goblin Welder
4 Smokestack
4 Trinisphere
4 Tangle Wire
4 Crucible of Worlds
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Sundering Titan
1 Triskelion
1 Razormane Masticore
1 Memory Jar
1 Fire/Ice
1 Rack and Ruin
1 Tinker
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mystical Tutor
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
2 Flooded Strand
4 Volcanic Island
2 Island
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire

SB:
1 Mindslaver
1 Memnarch
1 Duplicant
2 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Rack and Ruin
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Blood Moon
3 Chalice of the Void


3/4: Ken Johnson (TnT)

1 Black Lotus
2 Crucible of Worlds
1 Duplicant
4 Juggernaut
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Memory Jar
1 Masictore
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Platinum Angel
1 Sol Ring
4 Trinisphere
1 Triskelion
1 Forest
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Mountain
1 Strip Mine
3 Taiga
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Tropical Island
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
4 Survival of the Fittest
1 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Anger
4 Goblin Welder
1 Squee, Goblin Nabob

SB:
1 Elf Replica
1 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Sundering Titan
3 Tormod's Crypt
2 Artifact Mutation
2 Naturalize
2 Scragnoth
2 Rack and Ruin
1 Viashino Heretic


3/4: Jon Flores (R/G Zoo)

4 Wooded Foothills
4 Taiga
2 Forest
2 Mountain
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
4 Incinerate
4 Chain Lightning
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Mogg Fanatic
3 Gorilla Shaman
1 Black Vise
4 Rancor
4 River Boa
4 Kird Ape
4 Quirion Ranger
4 Land Grant
4 Blurred Mongoose
2 Artifact Mutation

SB:
1 Artifact Mutation
2 Oxidize
3 Ground Seal
3 Null Rod
3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Blood Moon

Cool, thanks for the replies.

I would think that Chris would update his column to avoid dissemination of incorrect information.

According to today's "Ask the Judge" corner on Starcity Games, Memnarch can only interfere with the Worldgorger Dragon Loop if Memnarch steals both the animating enchantment and the Dragon.

However, doesn't stealing the enchantment stop the loop (the repeated process of the dragon bouncing from the graveyard to play and back)?  If I steal the animating enchantment, doesn't the opponent end up with a lonely Worldgorger in play?

Unfortunately, yes.

Pictures are up.

I apologize to all the C&J'ers I missed.

Btw, these pictures give a face to some of the more famous/controversial characters (TheLegendOfMagic & Random-Miser) from TMD.

Enjoy!

I'll post my full report (with pictures) in a couple of days.  In summary, I piloted Smmenen-Blue to a 7-1-1 in the swiss (7th seed), but unfortunately lost to Roy Spires (Random Miser) in the quarters.

Overall, I thought the field (decks & players) was great.  IMO, the top8 decks were very solid and deserving of their placement.  It is too bad that the lists were lost, because there were some interesting card choices.

More later ...

Notes:

1) In the quarters -
Pat beat Ken
Joe beat Christiaan

2) Ken was running TriniStax/CrucibleStax

3) A DCI banned player (Derek) made Top 4 with Turboland!

Edit: IMO, TriniStax = CrucibleStax.  I think every good stax deck should run at least 2 Crucible main.

 Of course.  Duh!

So if Transmute Artifact made the player sacrifice the artifact on resolution of the spell, then the player could not use Su-Chi's mana.

Thanks.

Let's say I have UU in my pool and no other mana available.  I then play Transmute Artifact, sacrificing Su-Chi as the additional cost.  I then find Sundering Titan via Transmute Artifact.  Will I have the 4 mana from Su-Chi going to the graveyard to pay the additional mana to get Titan into play?  Or will that not have resolved?

In short, does Su-Chi's "to graveyard from play" trigger resolve like a mana ability (immediately) because the effect produces mana or does it wait to resolve like any other trigger?

@Smmenen + Wollblad:

I found that Stax can almost ignore Null Rod.  Having a crucible in play (I ran 3) meant that Fish's mana denial strategy would simply not work.  Moreover, I found that Fish had a hard time getting a Rod into play when I was disrupting them with Trinisphere/Wire/Wastes/Stack.  As for the strongest play against Fish, I think it is 3Sphere -- it stops their tempo game plan.

I agree with you on the Time Walk issue: it is generally at its best on turn one or two.  After that, its usefulness can range from:

1) Draw a card
2) Strip/Waste another land
3) Dead card
4) Extra Welder activation

I won't even include "extra swing" because Stax doesn't win with beatdown.  Frequently, #3 is where Time Walk falls due to counters on Smokestack/Tangle Wire.

As for Mystical, I have liked it a lot.  The gained access to Tinker has been quite useful, especially when I really need Trike, Angel, or (post-board) Memnarch.  I would not rather have Sphere of Resistance in this slot.  I don't think Stax wants SoR in play because it makes all of the Stax player's spells more expensive to play.  The great thing about Trinisphere is that it is basically assymetrical.  Most of the Stax player's spells won't be affected by it (Thirst, Wire, Stack, Jar, Angel, Trike, Titan, Crucible, Tinker, Wheel, Twister, 3Sphere), but it will likely wreak havoc on your opponents game plan.

Many moons ago, I was discussing deckbuilding theory with somebody.  He told me this heuristic about the number of a card in a deck:

4: You want this in your opening hand.  Multiples are even better.
3: You want this in your opening hand or soon thereafter.  Multiples might suck, but your deck needs the card.
2: You want this card sometime down the road (e.g. 2 Upheaval in old T2 Tog).  Don't expect having it anytime soon.
1: Don't expect this card unless you have a tutor, or, in the T1 case, it's restricted and is just too good not to run (e.g. ancestral).

As you can see, Crucible fell in the 3 category.  I think 4 would definitely be overkill.

How does Humility work with Meddling Mage?  Meddling Mage says "As this comes into play, name a card."  This happens before Humility's effect takes place, right?  However, once the Mage comes into play, it loses the "The named card can't be played" ability and becomes a 1/1.  What happens if Humility leaves play while the Mage is in play?  Does the named card suddenly become unplayable?

Like many of my compatriots (fellow Meandeckers and friends at C&J's), I hated seeing Fish doing so well. I hated seing the Type 1 landscape being ruled by 1/1s and creatures whose type were Faerie.  I mean, who loses to Faeries?!?  So, Ken (TMD:KiL0), Brent (TMD:UnstableCornBread), and I conspired to keep Fish from running rampant at the Who's on First (Dublin, CA) Library tournament on July 24th.  We all ran Stax with Crucibles to crush Fish's soul.  Unfortunately, there was not as much Fish in the metagame as we had anticipated, but fortunately the deck was still good against the rest of the field.  Out of 24 participants, the metagame breakdown was approximately:

3 Fish
3 Crucible-Stax
2/3 Dragon
2 U/G Madness
1 Tog (is the toothy monster scared of little fishies?)
1 Control Slaver
1 7/10
1 4cControl
1 FCG
1 Welder Mud
1 Landstill
1 SlapJack
1 Reanimator
1 Sligh
3/4 Other

---

Here is what I ran:

1 Sundering Titan
1 Platinum Angel
1 Triskelion
4 Goblin Welder
4 Smokestack
4 Tangle Wire
4 Trinisphere
3 Crucible of Worlds
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Tinker
1 Memory Jar
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Timetwister
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
2 Ancient Tomb
4 Mishra's Workshop
3 Shivan Reef
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Volcanic Island
4 Wasteland

SB:
4 Rack and Ruin
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Fire/Ice
1 Memnarch
1 Triskelion
1 Platinum Angel
1 Duplicant

I expected a lot of artifacts -- hence, the 4 RnR.  I also ran Chalice for combo, Fire/Ice for Goblins & Fish, and some utility artifact creatures.  I think my decision to have redundancy in my side really paid off.

---

Round 1: Brandon with Welder MUD

Game 1: I lose the die roll and he lays Trinisphere.  Unfortunately, I kept Volcanic, Sol Ring and brokenness and fail to topdeck any more mana sources while he lays smokestack and other lock components.  I scoop before he can see what I'm running.

Out: 4 'sphere, 2 Wire, 1 Angel, 1 Titan, 2 Draw7
In: 4 RnR, 1 Trike, 1 Memnarch, 3 Fire/Ice, 1 Duplicant

Game 2: I get the first welder out while he lays wire after wire.  I get Memnarch into the grave via Thirst with wire on the stack.  I then weld in the artifact thief and we're off to game 3.

Game 3: He gets first turn metalworker.  I'm scared for the next turn.  I lay something inconsequential, and luckily for me he can only follow it up with two more workers on turn 2.  I get Crucible/Strip online, find Triskelion, and that's game.


Round 2: Don with Shop Slaver

Game 1: Great, another workshop match.  These are fun!  This game takes forever, but he finds welder before I do and then gets Mindslaver.

Out: 4 'sphere, 3 Wire, 1 Titan, 2 Draw7
In: 4 RnR, 1 Trike, 1 Memnarch, 3 Fire/Ice, 1 Duplicant

Game 2: With little time left, I am playing as fast as possible.  It keeps going back and forth with welder fights, Rack and Ruin, Triskelion, but get angel into play after I have left him with little.  I win on turn 5 of extra turns.


Round 3: David Ochoa with Fish

Game 1: This was the match I was ready to fight.  Unfortunately, I lose the die roll for the third straight match.  He lays volcanic and says go.  I draw Mana crypt which enables my first turn brokenness. Mox, Crypt, workshop, Trinisphere (he forces), Trinisphere (it sticks).  He misses his land drop and says go.  I timetwister, find crucible and strip his land.  He scoops.

Out: Mystical, Jar, Wheel, Twister, Thirst
In: 3 Fire/Ice, 1 Trike, 1 Angel

Game 2: This time, he drops fetch->volc, and shaman.  I play land, vault, sphere (it sticks).  He had mulled to six and wasn't able to find land to do much while I drop land and get angel into play.  After the match, he mumbles something about how sore his ass is.  I don't blame him as he was never in either game.


Round 4: ??? with Reanimator

Game 1: I again lose the die roll.  He casts buried alive and then gets reya into play.  Next turn he gets akroma via reya and swings for 10.  I manage to get platinum angel into play, but he swings and deeds for 7 via YawgWill.

Out: Jar, Wheel, 2 Crucible
In: 4 Chalice

Game 2: I start slowly, and he is threatening to get Molder Slug into play.  I use Jar and find a bizillion artifacts to feed welder and then eat his board with smokestack.

Game 3: He throws back a hand that would have killed me if he had mana on top of his deck (which he did, whew)!  His six are okay.  I chalice for 2 early (almost all his reanimation was 2CC) and he says, "Hmm, I think that might be game."  He drops damping matrix when I have trike on the board, and then plays putrid imp.  I win the damage race when backed by trinisphere.


Round 5: Ken Johnson with Crucible Stax

Story: Ken was 3-0 after round 3, then got paired against Brent (2-0-1) and scooped to him so he and Brent could both get in the the T4 if they both won their final round match.  Unfortunately, Ken got paired against me in the final round of Swiss.  We both knew the winner would make T4 and the loser would not.  Knowing the likely field, Ken felt I had the better chance of winning, so he scooped.  His decision was definitely not wrong!


The top 4 were:

1) Brent with crucible-stax
2) Me with crucible-stax
3) Devin with FCG - report
4) Brian with Dragon - report

Semifinals: Devin with FCG

Game 1: I win the die roll for the first time today!  Actually, this would be the one match I would want to win the die roll in all of the matchups I played if I could choose only one.  Unfortunately, my 7 are Reef, Waste, Tomb, 2 Crucible, Titan, Angel.  I throw it back.  In my 6, I find Workshop and Trinisphere.  I really don't care what the rest are (though it does include a crucible).  I play Shop and Sphere.  Devin lets out a sigh and accepts not doing anything for several turns.  I then draw smokestack.  I am left with a decision to go for gold with Stack, then follow it up with crucible for the win, or play crucible to ensure I have mana.  I assume he won't draw a waste, so I go for the former plan and he doesn't draw waste.

Out: 2 Crucible, 1 Jar, 1 Wheel, 1 Twister
In: 3 Fire/Ice, 1 Trike, 1 Angel

Game 2: He thinks for a really long time about his hand while furrowing his brow.  I can tell he likes something about the hand but dislikes something else.  He keeps it and lays, Mountain, Prospector, Lotus (ack!), Food Chain, sac prospector to FC to play recruiter.  He shows me a bazillion goblins.  I know I'm dead next turn if I don't disrupt him in some way.  I ask him how many cards he has in hand, and he has 2.  I assume his furrowed brow means he has no more mana sources in hand and he is relying on the recruiter as another black lotus via FC.  So I fire him and his dude and pass the turn.  He hides his utter disappointment pretty well.  Unfortunately for him, he passes the turn without playing another mana source and knows he won't draw another mana source for like 20 turns.  Not too surprisingly, he extends the hand when smokestack hits play.  Whew!

Brent loses to Brian after drawing land after land after land after ...


Finals: Brian with Dragon

Game 1: Of course, I go back to losing the die roll.  He mulls to 6.  I keep a shaky hand, but it has ancestral so after some long deliberation, I decide, perhaps incorrectly, to keep.  Unfortunately, he has the duress first turn.  I play land go.  He doesn't have much action for turn 2.  I topdeck mana crypt and drop trinisphere, then I waste his land.  I follow that up with crucible and proceed to lock him.  He scoops.

Out: 1 Jar, 1 Wheel, 1 Trike, 1 Titan
In: 4 Chalice

Game 2:  He drops Land, Mox, Compulsion.  I drop Chalice at 2.  He Compulses and fails to drop a second land.  I lay Crucible and Welder.  He finds another land and passes.  I topdeck Chalice #2 and see I don't have enough mana currently to pay it for 3.  Then I see the lotus in my grave and my active welder!  I weld out crucible and cast Chalice for 3.  He has the Force, but no blue card.  Nothing of interest happens for some time except some welder beatdown.  Eventually, he hardcasts Dragon because he can't find his Hellkite.  I already had Smokestack so I just eat his Dragon the next turn.  He knows the Smokestack/Crucible/Strip Mine/Chalice lock is in force so he scoops up his cards.

Woo Hoo.  My first T1 big prize victory!

Props:
Anna: for being an angel and allowing me to pursue my Magic interests
Brent + Ken: for being awesome teammates.  We killed that metagame!
Jeff Ferreira: for hosting an awesome tourney.  I look forward to the next one
Magic Players: for voting to create a really broken card.
BK (Derek Flores): for testing Food Chain with me
Devin: for scooping to Brent to guarantee his place in the T4

Slops:
Dublin: for being so far away from Mountain View and being really hot on the 24th
Ricky Williams: for abandoning his team and his fans at the height of his career

Moved as requested by author.

Hyperion

I am 99% sure this is how it works, but I just wanted confirmation:

1) If some spell/ability divides something (damage/counters/whatever) among a set of targeted permanents, the controller of the spell/ability must announce that division when the spell/ability goes on the stack, correct?

2) On a side note, if the spell/ability is NOT targeted, then no division is announced, correct?

Actually, I have heard rumors that Jeff (the store owner) is considering running major tournaments ocassionally that would be unsanctioned and allow proxies.  Also, there is an upcoming library tournament at Who's On First that is unsanctioned and allows proxies, so there are some events in the SF bay area that will help grow the type 1 scene.

Minor nitpick: you can tap lands for mana (or use other mana-abilities like that of birds of paradise) during the resolution of a spell/ability if it calls for a mana payment (e.g. mana leak).

Prize splits are fine and happen all the time in Magic.  Prize splits combined with concessions, however, will likely result in a DCI investigation!

Prize splitting: determining the percentage of winnings between players regardless of the outcome of matches.

Example of prize splitting: In round 1, players A & B decide that they will take home 25% of the others prize (money/cards/etc.).  Note that this arrangement in no way affects the outcome of matches.

Bribery: Offering something other than gratitude in exchange for fixing the outcome of a match.

One might think that s/he can circumvent the bribery limitation by offering a prize split of 0% to the winner and 100% to the loser (this prize split alone is perfectly legal) and then asking for a concession.  The DCI rules state that conceding when a prize split has been established is bribery because the concession involves a monetary reward.

The one exception is the finals: players may discuss any split of the prizes offered by the dci in exchange for one player conceding  to the other. The concession usually comes in the form of dropping out of the tournament so there is no loss of rating.

I purposefully left out of the middle-of-the-spectrum answer because I'm curious which direction people lean toward.

I am running this poll because I believe each strategy has a downside.  What do you think?

Btw, in game one of our match (Dragon vs. Draw7), Brian (TheLegendOfMagic) went first and drop land, mox, DT -> Force.  Had I won the die roll, I would have resolved first turn Bargain and won.  Gotta love the die roll when it comes to the Combo vs. Combo matchup.

It was also interesting to note that despite running "fast" combo decks, our matches took forever as we both managed to stall on game 1.  It's sad when the combo mirror ends in draw due to time.

Also note that if you cast Duplicant, then target the Triskelion with Duplicant's CIP trigger, the opponent can shoot the Duplicant once (not killing it yet), and then use the remaining counters to shoot somewhere else.  When the Duplicant's CIP trigger resolves, the Duplicant will become a 1/1 creature and will die as a state-based effect (by having one damage on it).

Lastly, I think this bears repeating (though others have already stated this in the thread): the Duplicant's power/toughness is the imprinted CARD's power/toughness.  So even if Null Rod is on the table and you cast Duplicant, hitting a Triskelion with 3 +1/+1 counters that can't be used for shooting, the Duplicant will still be a 1/1.

Situation: I have Memnarch in play.  My opponent has Beloved Chaplain with Animate Dead on it.  Obviously, I cannot gain control of Beloved Chaplain directly from Memnarch due to its protection from creatures ability.  However, if I gain control of the Animate Dead with Memnarch's ability, will I gain control of the Chaplain?

Here is the latest oracle text on Animate Dead



The gaining control of the creature happens when Animate Dead comes into play (once its CIP trigger resolves).  Animate Dead doesn't seem to have any static ability that says you control the creature, so I don't think gaining control of Animate Dead will gain you control of the Chaplain.  Am I correct?

@Jhaggs (& others in the Bay Area):  There are sanctioned (i.e. no-proxy) weekly tournaments at C&J's in Newark.  The field is a nice mix of powered and budget decks with the occasional casual deck.  If you haven't attended, I strongly recommend it, for it is a nice place to play with good people.

For Reference:

C&J's Collectables
5454 Central Ave # C
Newark, CA

Edit: The tournaments are held on Thursdays and start at 6:30.

So let's say I attack with my Pristine Angel.  During my post-combat main phase, I then equip my Angel with Skullclamp.  I then cast some other spell, choosing to untap my Angel.  Does the Skullclamp fall off?

My gut tells me yes.  Moreover:



I assume the Angel becomes an illegal permanent when it gains protection from artifacts?

Yikes!  55%??  I sure hope that was a hard test!

The passing level to become a level 2 judge was also 85% on the A1 (the one I took), so perhaps the passing standard for level 1 judges was raised.  Any other judges know about this?