I forgot, I also play all the other formats as well, btw METHOD all that I said is true, you have no idea what your talking about, since at the time I was pioneering magic you were stillwatching power rangers....

Before you judge, recognize.......



Thelegendofmagic's accomplishments:

1) was at mtg 1st release in bay area ...and?[/color]
2) oldest and most experienced player of vintage...because Type 1 hasn't changed since 1995, right?[/color]
3) kept vintage alive in the S.F and the east bay10 player tournaments = alive?[/color]
4) 1 of the early innovators of the original control deckCongrats! Power10, Mana Drain, and hot spells = broken![/color]
5) played with the real legends of magic, real veterans knows who I speak ofClearly, Zak and Weissman are relevant today.[/color]
6) Purse in tournament prizes: 1 case of unlimited from back in the days. Modern value of prizes $50,000. Mods and Admin purse winnings= $50 bucks if that.That's a blatant lie.[/color]
7) was one of the first people to develop a Lestre type zoo deck variant for type 1More lies.[/color]
8) is one of two real experts on "the Deck", its not called 4cControl or Keeper, its called "the Deck".  The mods and admins are only capitalizing on others peoples work and accomplishments. I have literally played "the Deck" since the day it was developed.You mean Control decks with 4 colors cannot be called 4ColorControl?[/color]
9) played at the first PTQ qualifierYou didn't make the tour, now did you?[/color]
10) has the guts to stand up to the Mods and Admins of this site in not wanting to put up with their Bull Shit. BtW the mods and admins are nothing more than nerds pretending to be gods because they control the site.You aren't the first and won't be the last. Our regime is tough to bring down.[/color]


<---Innocent man defamed from envious Nerds.....

Edits by Zherbus[/color]

Drawing time walk is only good in two scenarios. Scenario 1: It allows for you to set up the combo and combo off next turn thanks to time walk. Scenario 2: time walk is awesome if you got the squee/bazaar engine going, thus time walk is like another ancestral recall since it allows for another turn to abuse the draw engine.

However, these scenarios are the optimal scenarios we would always want to see, but that is only wishful thinking...

I cant even count the multiple times where I draw timewalk in the opening and forced to mulligan since time walk by itself is garbage. I would almost always welcome a Lim Duls vault in place of walk in most cases. Or even a 4th duress, at least that allows for you to disrupt your opponents plans for the time being. Having another card that allows you to dig for the combo is better than wasting the slot for time walk. As of now Lim Duls vault seems a better choice for the Time Walk Slot. This is my oppinion Im sure other people can justify walk, but it just seems too dubious of a card to hold a maindeck slot.

I agree with Lyhrrus, sliver queen is to slow you have to have a direct winning condition that allows you to win now and not next turn. Sliver Queen has the same problem as Laquatus, which is it doesnt kill your opponent immidiately...

Greetings all, after the strong finish at the Library of Alexandria tournament at Who's On 1st, Ive decided to start a thread on how the current metagame effects dragon and how to modify dragon to help against these bad match up's.

TheDecklist I took to LoA tourney was this:

4 bazaar of baghdad
3 necromancy
3 animate deads
2 dance of the dead
3 compulsion
4 intuition
4 Force of Will
1 ancestral recall
1 time walk
1 demonic tutor
1 vampiric tutor
3 duress
1 ambassador laquatus
1 shivan hellkite
4 squee goblin nabob
4 world gorger dragon
4 polluted deltas
3 underground seas
1 bayou
1 volcanic
1 tropical
1 swamp
2 gemstone mine
1 mox jet
1 mox sapphire
1 mox emerald
1 mox ruby
1 mox pearl
1 black lotus
1 mana crypt

SideBoard:

3 pernicious deeds
3 chain of vapors
2 stifle
3 tormods crypt
4 xantid swarm

Ill start off with the unfavorable match up's.
Decks you would hate face:
1) Prison
2) Fish
3) 4cControl
4) Crucible control
5) dragon mirror
6) draw 7.dec

This is just a short lift of decks that I've played against and have found to be quite a problem for dragon.

Versus prison decks: Sphere of resistance, trinispheres, smokestack and even tanglewires can spell trouble for dragon. The die is so important versus prison I cant even begin to start listing how many matches versus prison were decided on the die roll. No matter what the build, if dragon loses the die roll, the threat of a turn 1 sphere can almost force the issue of aggressively mulliganing until you get a FoW. On the other hand, if the dragon player is playing first, the threat of a turn 1 sphere isnt as bad since, you can either duress early, play early moxen or establish a stable mana base for a turn 3-4 attempt for comboing out.

Versus fish decks: The threat of stifle, daze, FoW, 5 strips and a active library can spell trouble for dragon. Some people would argue that null rod can be a factor versus dragon, but I have found that null rods are only moderately anoying and often times the fish player boards them out game 2. Idealy the hand you would want versus fish would be something like: Duress, delta and bazaar, but that is only wishful thinking. Often times you can get iffy hands such as: FoW, Compulsion, Squee and the rest mana. When I play versus fish I often take gambles of mulliganing until I get bazaar, through my own experience I have discovered that unless you have some way of digging through your deck via Bazaar or compulsion, you will most certaily be out drawn and outcountered when you attempt to combo off. In essense the longer the game drags on without any card drawing the worse it gets for dragon.

Versus 4cControl: Like any other control deck, this deck has the potential of totally destroying you with a stifle(via wish), a StP, strip effects and counter-magic. I have found that in this match up, the dragon player has to play a control game through attempting to get the squee bazaar engine active long enough to establish a safe window to combo off. OTOH, there are the occasionally turn 1 kill that is always worth gambling on.

Versus Crucible Control: The die roll is crucial. The main two reasons I can think are: Either attempting to combo off turn 1 if granted, or at least hitting them with a early duress to see whether they have a prison card in hand such as a trinisphere or even a chalice, then after seeing their hand you can decide whether to go for a stable mana base for the next few turns or attempt to combo off in the next few turns. If you lose the die roll, it is almost forced that you must mulligan to a FoW hand, since a turn 1 trinisphere is pretty much game over, since the Crucible Control player may drop a crucible and wasteland at anytime and you cannot FoW because of trinisphere.

Versus the Dragon Mirror: This is dumbest match up you can ever expect to face. In this match up he who drops dragon in yard first loses. Or perhaps whoever has the most necromancies wins the war of animation. This is where I think the Shivan Hellkite can be a house, simply because you can bait with the hellkite seeing if they will animate it, then you can go for the combo after they have burned an animate spell on hellkite. The hellkite can create a window because you can always threaten to animate the hellkite and simply beat them to death with it. Game 2 I would probably board out some worldgorgers and some animate deads, since this match up is revolved around necromancy.

Versus Draw 7.dec: The die is important as always. If you hit with a turn 1 duress you can see whether how explosive or how crappy his hand is, thus allowing you to plan your course of action for the next few turns. If the player playing draw7 doesnt kill you within a timely manner, the scales will tip in favor of the dragon player. Since the longer the game drags on the more the dragon decks starts to do what it is suppose to do, which is eventually get the squee-bazaar engine going thus spelling game over for the draw 7 player very shortly.

Maindeck modifications:
-1 timewalk, +1 lim dul's vault. I have found timewalk to be very useless for most occassions when I draw it. It simply does not seem good or useful, I would rather have another card that can dig for my combo, which is why I am opting for the lim duls vault instead. Stacking your deck, looking for your combo is always nice.

+1 badlands -1 swamp. This is to add another fetch target that gives you another red source to power the shivan hellkite. The swamp is useful versus bloodmoon or wastelands, but I feel that the addition of a badlands helps stablize the mana base in the deck.

SideBoard modifications: Optimizing the the board

1 shivan hellkite
4 stifles
3 pernicious deeds
2 chain of vapor
4 xantid swarms
1 BEB

I feel that this experimental board can help against many of the decks I explained above. The shivan hellkite in the board is to brought in versus the Fish match ups and the goblin welder match ups. The mana modifications with the +1 badlands will help get an active hellkite more consistantly versus heavy strip effect decks. Having an animate being stifled that was targeting a hellkite is much an easier gamble than the hard gamble of trying to go the gorger combo.

The 4 stifles is crucial to having good winning chances versus crucible control, since it may buy you the window of stifling a chalice for 2 or 3 in order to win. Or even to protect an early bazaar or your early mana sources from their strip effects. The stifles can also help greatly versus Draw 7.dec as it it will neutralize their storm spells.

The 1 blue elemental blast seems irrelevant, however it can be very life saving versus a blood moon or even if your lucky enough hitting a early lackey game 2 versus Food Chain Goblins.

The alterations in the Maindeck and Sideboard are very minimal, which is a consequence of a combo deck as if take too much out the combo in the deck itself maybe destablized. I know even after this changes in the deck itself, certain problems just cannot be completely fixed. Versus 4cControl or any control deck, there is nothing more I can think of to add that can assist in those match ups other than: FoW, Duress and xantid swarms. Certain bad match ups depend on how well you know what your playing against and how confident you are about your ability to play against unfavorable match ups.

I hope this analysis helps otherwise, feel free to add your thoughts on the current state of dragon.

Ill admit the truth, I am not a total expert on dragon, however I would suspect that having a direct win by direct damage via a shivan hellkite can prove to be very useful in cases of suspecting whether or not your opponent my have a geae's blessing after board. Another case where a hellkite is the only way to win would be if, your opponent has an active welder that he can weld something to put a Platinum Angel into play thus defeating the laquatus tech. Or in the case of fish where they might have done enough early damage where they can kill you during their upkeep with a grim lavamancer. In my oppinion having a hellkite is better than having a sliver queen in those examples above...

Sorry, Brent Jeff asked if I could do a complete report with decklist of the top four...

I was under presure from a welder , crucible of worlds and a smokestack, I was getting my mana sources destroyed, I had no draw power and could not get to a stifle before the smokestacks became too much to handle.

Oh yea, I left out 3 animate dead spells from ym decklist...
Versus Christiaan last round, he got the lock on me with chalice for 2 and 3, I couldnt cast my animate effects.

This Week Who's On 1st held a large type 1 tournament that had a large field with various strong tier 1 fully powered decks(5 card proxy). Crucible control, dragon, 4cControl, U/G madness,7/10 split, mono brown,Food chain goblins and fish, were some of the decks that were present. I played dragon this week.

My decklist:

4 bazaar of baghdad
3 necromancy
2 dance of the dead
3 animate deads
3 compulsion
4 intuition
4 Force of Will
1 ancestral recall
1 time walk
1 demonic tutor
1 vampiric tutor
3 duress
1 ambassador laquatus
1 shivan hellkite
4 squee goblin nabob
4 world gorger dragon
4 polluted deltas
3 underground seas
1 bayou
1 volcanic
1 tropical
1 swamp
2 gemstone mine
1 mox jet
1 mox sapphire
1 mox emerald
1 mox ruby
1 mox pearl
1 black lotus
1 mana crypt

Round 1: Dragon vs. Fish

Game 1: I get beat down by early lavamancers, strips and mishra's factories. I finnally attempt to go off with triple FoW back up, despite breaking his standstill. I get out countered and lose

Game 2: turn 1 kill

Game 3: turn 2 kill
2-1

Round 2: Dragon vs. Food Chain Goblins

Game 1: My opponent plays first and drops a lacky, I FoW. He draw bazaar but I keep drawing crap. He casts many more goblins and I die shortly after.

Game 2: -3 duress,+3 deeds. Turn 2 Kill

Game 3: He plays double tormods crypt and blood moon, I lose.
1-2

Round 3: Dragon vs. Mono-Brown

Game 1: I play first, he plays a metal worker turn 2 and smokestack turn 3 and I kill him on my turn four.

Game 2: -3 duress, +3 deeds. He drops trinisphere, I scoop.

Game 3: Turn 2 kill.
2-1

Round 4: Dragon vs Fish

Game 1: I get an insane draw with squee and bazaar. My opponent starts off with turn 1 lavamancer followed by cloud a fearies and spiketail hatchling turn two. I dig for 16 cards and is unable to find world gorger and I lose with a hand full of animates.

Game 2: -3 duress -1 squee, +4 xantid swarms. I drop an early swarm, he FoW's it I pass. He he wastes my bayou. I drop land and pass. He drops lavamancer. I dance my swarm. He taps out to cast spike tail. I untap swarm. I swing and go on to win.

Game 3. Turn 2 kill.
2-1

Round 5: Dragon vs. U/G Madness.

Game 1: I win the die roll, cast ancestral , he FoW's it. He drops man after man, and I am on a short clock. I die while digging for the dragon that never came.

Game 2: -3 duress,+3 deed. Turn 1 kill.

Game 3: turn 3 kill.
2-1

Top 4
1) Brent
2) Devin
3) Christiaan
4) TheLegendOfMagic

Pairings before final match: Brent (Crucible control) vs. ThelegendofMagic(Dragon). Christiaan (Crucible Control) vs. Devin (food Chain Goblin)

Christiaan defeats Devin.

Brent (crucible control) vs. ThelegendOfMagic(Dragon)

Game 1: I combo Brent out as I am able to force his early trinisphere.

Game 2: -3 duress, +2 stifle +1 deed. Again I am able to stop his early threat with a FoW. However,I lose the war of attrition as he forces the issue by playing a smokestack  on turn 4 threaten to eat up my mana sources. Out of desperation I animate and lose to a BEB.

Game 3: Brent mulligans down to 5 and is pretty much out of it for most of the game. He eventually dropped trinisphere and duplicant for beats later, but I had already had the bazaar engine going and it was only a matter of time before I got the combo.

2-1

Final Match: Christiaan (Crucible Control) vs TheLegendOfMagic(Dragon)

Game 1:I duress him turn 1, taking ancestral recall, he top decks mana crypt drops trinisphere followed by crucible and waste next turn I lose.

Game 2: -3 duress, +2 stifle +1 deed. Chalice for 2 and a chalice for 3 , me with FoW and no blue card, I lose shortly after to smoke stack double welder.

Final Standings:
1) Christiaan
2) TheLegendOfMagic
3) Devin
4) Brent

Top 4 Decklists:

1st Place Crucible Control(Christiaan)

1 sundering titan
1 platinum angel
1 triskelion
4 goblin welder
4 smokestack
4 tanglewire
4 trinisphere
3 crucible of worlds
1 ancestral recall
4 thirst for knowledge
1 tinker
1 memory jar
1 mystical tutor
1 wheel of fotune
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 tombs
4 mishras workshop
3 shivan reefs
1 strip mine
1 tolarian academy
4 volcanic island
4 wastelands

2nd Place Dragon

4 bazaar of baghdad
3 necromancy
2 dance of the dead
3 compulsion
4 intuition
4 Force of Will
1 ancestral recall
1 time walk
1 demonic tutor
1 vampiric tutor
3 duress
1 ambassador laquatus
1 shivan hellkite
4 squee goblin nabob
4 world gorger dragon
4 polluted deltas
3 underground seas
1 bayou
1 volcanic
1 tropical
1 swamp
2 gemstone mine
1 mox jet
1 mox sapphire
1 mox emerald
1 mox ruby
1 mox pearl
1 black lotus
1 mana crypt

3rd Place Food Chain Goblins

4 food chain goblin
4 goblin recruiter
4 goblin lackey
4 goblin piledriver
4 goblin ringleader
4 skirk prospector
3 gempalm incinerator
2 goblin matron
3 goblin warchief
1 goblin sharpshooter
2 siegegang commander
4 wooded foothills
4 taiga
5 mountains
4 wastelands
1 stripmine
1 elvish spirit guide
1 lotus petal
1 mana crypt
1 black lotus
1 mox emerald
1 mox ruby
1 sol ring

4th Place Crucible Control (Brent)


Props: To Jeff the store owner for holding this tournament and putting up a library as the prize. Hopefully in the near future, Jeff plans to maybe hold a tournement for a mox as the prize.

Nice report , hope to see you in futre type 1 events.

This is not your first post. Please familiarize yourself with the rules. -Dr. Sylvan

Sorry, I dont have grammer check while typing my post, max vintage K value= 16 in any given tourney, Ive only played 16 k most of the time, if they had been full K value I would well be over 2200+ rating, 1860= 2200, since the K value is lower for our vintage events.
 And I agree, this thread was just a tournment report and should remain about discussing about GAT...

Sorry Mr. Pink, in the bay area I am the oldest and longest playing magic player here, if you go to all the Cons, people will tell you about how many tourneys I've won and how I was the one that kept vintage alive around here, while everyone coverted to type 2, of course I am much older than you, when I was doing all this you were probably watching power rangers still.  Hence, I earned the name TheLegendofMagic, since my carreer in magic has its roots at the FIRST PTQ, and of course I've even played with other legends, such as Zak Dolan, you are pretty young, if you dont know who his is he was the first magic the gathering world champion. Oh yea you totally missed the "triple crown analogy" so I wont go into that with detail, since that was something me and Kilo were kidding about which did not concern you. I am part of a very small circle of pioneers of magic  or legends, and right now membership is closed so I guess you can claim to be a legend, but you lack any great accomplishment or any influence that has changed the game of magic... Anyhow further attempts at a personal attack will be ignored, since you and I are not in the same level.

TheLegendofMagic(putting newbies in there place)

I personally think that the new updated version of GAT wont be able to survive any of the prison decks, since tanglewires, wastes lands and even maindeck trinispheres can spell autowin vs GAT. I think against any prison deck in general , the match up is unfavorable for GAT. I havent tested the new GAT deck versus any prison decks, but I suspect my hypothesis to be correct in concluding that the match up versus prison, is dependant on the die roll and whether or not u can get an early FoW or 1st turn dryad.

TheLegendofMagic(Beating the best since 1993)

Misdirection was good only 50% of the time, I had hoped to face more control decks, however I did get paired up versus a TNT variant and a Combo deck, which made the misdirections a dead draw. But, having them did help a bit versus the one control deck and one sligh deck I faced.

In response to Kilo, yea I finished 2nd for two weeks straight, however this past weekend I did win two type 1 tourneys in a row at Who's on First and at Eudemonia, I missed "The Triple Crown of Vintage" by finishing 2nd last thursday. Oh yeah, I havent lost a match in a month, I have discovered that the best way to survive a metagame is to switch decks week by week, I havent played the same deck back to back, so I kept my deck choices secret and random. The one thing I learned is not to be predictable with deck choices, otherwise following weeks other players may modify there deck to hate out your deck , leaving you with a bad metagame since as this week shows, the example I am referring to is the maindeck 8 blasts in sligh, which I found to be suspect.

In Response to UnstableCornbread, I dont know about the board choices, the oxidize does seem a little better, but I went with double naturalize since I can hit multiple survivals and maybe a necro. The whispers seemed okay, however they nearly cost me a game vs. sligh. I am not convinced totally that the whispers makes GAT a whole lot better, however OTOH, they would have gave me a better game vs. Hulk.

Signing off,

              TheLegendOfMagic (playing vintage since 1993)

Lotushead did pretty well, I think he finished with 2-1-1 score tonight. His last round was rough, he had to play against fish and null rod is a house versus combo.

Greetings vintage addicts, this is yet another report from the "Legend", and this week at C&J's the quality of players and decks were at a all time high. This week alot of tier 1 decks were present for example, 4cControl,  R/U Fish, 1 Land Belcher, TNT and GAT. This week I played the 5th dawn updated version of GAT, with some of my own modifications.

Decklist

Spells:
4 fow
4 daze(I ran these over duress)
4 brainstorms
4 serum visions
4 night's whisper
3 cunning whish
3 misdirections
1 ancestral recall
1 timewalk
1 mystical tutor
1 yawgmoths will
1 demonic tutor
1 gush

Win Conditions:
4 quirion dryads
3 psychatog

Mana Sources
5 moxen
1 black lotus
4 polluted deltas
1 flooded strand
2 islands
4 underground seas
4 tropical islands

Sideboard:
2 BEB
2 groundseals
2 smothers
2 naturalize
1 berserk
1 vampiric tutor
1 pernicious deed
3 tsabo's web
1 stifle

Round 1: GAT vs TNT (Dennis)

Game 1: Dennis wins the die roll and plays. He keeps a no land hand, but does have a turn 1 black lotus into survival and birds of paradise, the survival and birds resolve as I do not have a FoW. I play land and pass. Eventually Dennis survives my early dryad beatings to go on and survival into madness, via 2 active welders and a trike to recurse, I lose to trike shooting me, while I had a huge dryad in play.

Game 2: -3 misdirection -1 mystical tutor- 2 daze , +2 ground seals, +2 naturalize,+1 pernicious deed +1 vampiric tutor. I keep a lotus only mana source hand, with a compliment of a ground seal, brain storm and serum visions. I manage to brainstorm into mana and drop ground seal turn 1. Dennis apparently kept a 6 land squee hand and passed his turn after playing a land. I resolve dryad and pass. Dennis drops a turn 2 grim monolith and passes. I drop psychatog and hit him with dryad. Dennis's next turn he drops quirion ranger and maze of ith! So my plans of killing him next turn are thwarted. I attack with both, he mazes tog and all I can do is set up for DT into time walk for win. Next turn he lays down a workshop and drops a masticore. I EoT vampiric for time walk. I attack he mazes and I cast time walk. I topdeck yawgmoths will and he loses this turn. We are unable to go to game 3 since time was called

1-1

Round 2: GAT vs. Sligh(variant)

Game 1: I feared this matchup, since the nights whisper would bring me to low life very fast, so I had to becareful of getting burned or getting Price of progressed to death. I win the die roll, I play a turn 1 dryad with daze to protect it. He drops skirt prospector and passes. I drop a psychatog, he sacks the prospector to REB, apparently he maindecked REB, I daze and his game goes down the tubes a few turns later as tog became an abyss to all his creatures and I out draw and out tempo him. However, he did get me down to 5 life, he tried to goblin grenade for the win, which I misdirect back to him.

Game 2: -2 dazes, +2 BEB. He plays a land and passes( he kept a slow hand). I drop two dryads turn 1 via a black lotus in my opening hand. He EoT bolts one of them, I daze. Eventually my men get big enough to crush his weenies as he is resorted to chump blocking and I go on to berserk my dryad for the win.

2-0

Round 3: GAT vs. 4cControl(Christiaan)

Game 1: I win the dice roll and play first and cast a serum visions and end my turn. Christiaan starts off with turn 1 wasteland and killing my tropical and ended his turn. I brainstorm  and pass my turn. Nothing happens until turn 3, when on Christiaan's turn, he attempts to play a morph (angel), which resolves, I EoT wish for smother, and smother it during my turn, he doesnt forces so I assume he does not have FoW. I set up a yawgmoths will which resolves and I win shortly after with a psychatog and timewalk. On a side note: the turn before I yawg will'd, Christiaan tapped out to cast mindtwist for 4, which I dazed. Go daze!

Game 2: Nothing boarded. In this game I get completely massacred as I cannot answer his face up angel as Christiaan out draws me and kills all my men with STP and REB, I was never in this game and I lose shortly after.

Game 3: I mulligan down to 6. My opening hand is Ancestral, FoW, tropical island , nights whisper and dryad( and 1 other card I cant remember). I contemplate whether to drop a turn 1 dryad or cast a blind ancestral with no FoW back up. I opt to go for the ancestral gambit, and it works, Christiaan does not have the FoW. He plays land and passes. I drop dryad, mox and underground to resolve a nights whisper. I hit him for a few turns with a small dryad, until Christiaan is forced to tap out and play an exalted angel, I FoW it, and cast yawgwill for the win. Very close match I think this match favors 4cControl, but I havent played many games against 4cControl to be sure.

2-1

Round 4: GAT vs. 1 Land Belcher.

Game 1: I lose the dice roll. My opponent keeps an iffy hand and loses fast, as I am able to counter the crucial spell that would of let him get belcher into play. I countered his mystical and the game ended, on my next turn.

Game 2: -3 misdirections, +1 stifle, +2 naturalize. He plays first, drops his tropical island and lions eye diamond and passes his turn. I play an undeground and a mox emerald and resolve a night's whisper. Next turn he still has no business and passes his turn. I top deck jet and cast 2 night's whisper and pass my turn. My opponent tries to resolve a goblin welder, FoW and he ends his turn. I cast Nights whisper #4 and he loses shortly after as I have massive card advantage and he has nothing, I drop my men after establishing control and my dryads go on to pound him him to death.

2-0

Despite finishing 3-0-1, I could only take second place as the person playing fish went 4-0, but I still think that taking second place is still a strong indication that GAT cannot be taken lightly.

Nights whisper? Im not totally sold on this option over A.K., but perhaps if I ever face a hulk smash deck I can perhaps better appreciate the alternate card drawing vs hulk.

Keep playing and testing your Slapjack deck, disregard anyone who criticizes your deck, your deck can be very strong and cannot be taken lightly, during our match I had to play every precisely in order to win, it was not easy our match could had gone either way.... It was good to play you I hope to play you again!!! Keep Representing SlapJACK!!!

Greetings vintage addicts, this week was a very busy week for me, as I entered and played in 3 type 1 tournaments within these past 4 days.
Today I entered the weekly unlimted type 1 proxy tourny at Eudemonia in Berkeley, Ca., this week the level of competition was strong due to the fact that , alot of the tier 1 decks were present this week. For example, there was a fish deck, draw 7.dec, 2 madness decks, 1 dragon deck and 1 7/10 split deck played by me(TheLegendofMagic). Also this week, Lotushead was present, I was eager to play Lotushead as we were suppose to play each other for 1st place on thursday at C&J's, but due to the last round and having so many people drop, we could not play each other in the final round.

My Decklist(7/10 split)

Spells:
4 FoW
4 thirst
4 brainstorms
1 timewalk
1 timetwister
1 ancestral recall
1 tinker
1 memory jar
1 FoF
1 wheel of fortune
4 chalice of the void

Win Conditions:
4 goblin welders
3 Titans
1 triskelion
1 duplicant
1 platinum angel

Mana Sources:
7 SoLoMo
3 gilded lotus
1 mana crypt
1 mana vault
4 shivan reefs
3 glimmervoids
1 city of brass
4 workshops
2 ancients tombs
1 tolarian academy

Sideboard:

4 REB
3 trinispheres
1 duplicant
1 triskelion
2 rack and ruin
1 chain of vapor
1 jesters cap
1 memnarch
1 gorilla shaman

Round 1: 7/10 Split vs 10 Land Stompy

Game 1: I lose the die roll , my opponent starts off with a first turn Ghazban Ogre, then pitches elvish spirit guide to cast a blackvise and then casts land grant by revealing his hand and passes the turn. I lay a glimmervoid and play a turn 1 welder and drop chalice for 0 and pass. My opponent rancors ogre and swings for 4 and drops a quirion ranger and wild dogs , and passes. I drop a mana crypt, workshop and cast gilded lotus. Next turn: My opponent swings for alot and saids go. I EoT thirst pitching memory jar and weld my chalice for 0 to put into play. My turn, I draw a card and decide to crack the memory jar, that hand I draw is worthless so I again cast a chalice for 0 and switching it for jar and cracking the second jar hoping for a better hand. I draw into a triskelion, which I play and pass the turn, one of the hands I discarded had angel so I was in good shape. I shoot his men, with trike after I block his next attack, then when I welded the trike for angel he naturalizes my angel , I am now at low life, but despite being brought to negatives eventually, I somehow draw into the duplicant lock and the game ends quickly after that.

Game 2: -4 chalice-1 timetwister ,+3 trinispheres +1 duplicant +1 trike
My opponent plays first and drops a Scavenging folk, perhaps he knew I had boarded in trinispheres. MY hand was amazing, I had workshop ,lotus, 2 trinispheres a welder and shivan reef and timewalk, I draw into a mox and play land, mox and cast timewalk. Next turn I drop welder lotus and two trinispheres. Nothing happens for 5-6 turns, then I draw into thirst , which nets me really big men and the game is over.

2-0

Round 2: 7/10 vs R/U/G madness (Andrej)

Game 1: I win the dice roll , I cast black lotus, mana crypt , into gilded lotus and then into wheel of fortune. The wheel is not countered and I see Andrej's hand, and let me say that, had he played first he would of completely destroyed me as his hand was insane. I draw into an early welder and pass the turn holding a chalice in hand. Andrej plays a bazaar and bazaars then ends his turn. I drop chalice for 2 and the game goes down his after that , since my active welder and thirst is helpping dig and bring into play my titans or trike and the game ends shortly after.

Game 2: -4 chalice, +3 trinispheres +1 trike. Andrej starts off with a careful study netting him an early rootwalla. I drop my hand cept for 1 card and play a turn trike , since my hand was mostly mana sources and shoot his rootwalla. Andrej continues to bazaar and I believe he drops a wild mongrel. I top deck timetwister and cast it, I attempt to cast chalice for 3(which I felt was bad but I was baiting since I had a welder in hand), Andrej FoW's, I FoW, he FoW's back and I drop welder. Next turn he draws a bunch a cards from bazaar and passes the turn. I drop Titan, he loses some land, and then games ends two turns later.

2-0

Round 3: 7/10 Split vs SlapJack ,Jeff (Lotushead)

Game 1: I lose the die roll, Jeff plays a land and passes the turn. I kept an iffy hand with two workshops, a chalice and a bunch of red and blue cards, I drop workshop and chalice for 0 and passes the turn. I plays a land and passes. I eventually end up not drawing colored mana which allowed Jeff to combo me out , the game ended turn 7-8(yes that many turns without colored mana).

Game 2:-1 trike -1 duplicant -1 timetwister -1 timewalk ,+4 REB
I start off with welder and chalice for 0 and pass. Nothing happens for the next two turns until Jeff Vampiric tutors at my EoT for energy flux, attempting to take advantage of the fact that I only have a gilded lotus and mana crypt to pay for 3 artifacts, thus hosing me down. I plays the Energy flux which I REB at EoT. I drop sundering titan, game over.

Game 3: He plays a underground sea and mox sapphire and passes. I keep a no land hand, but I do have a black lotus and mana crypt, I drop those and cast gilded lotus and pass. Jeff plays a land and passes. I EoT thirst, now Jeff asked if Thirst for knowledge is targeted so I suspect he had a misdirection in his hand, in any case thirst resolves I pitch titan. I top academy cast welder and thirst and pass the turn. Jeff casts timetwister and passes his turn. I drop chalice for 0 and chalice for 4 to hose his combo ( Aurioc Salvagers + Lion' eye or Black lotus + any spell bomb) I end my turn. He drops a energy flux, I EoT REB it. I drop Sundering titan( I topdecked) he stifles, I weld titan away and kill all his lands and he concedes. Good Game    2-1
(At least we played finally)

Final Standings:
1) TheLegendofMagic 3-0
2) Jeff (Lotushead) 2-1
3) Andrej 2-1

Props: to Eudemonia for holding type 1 and being so generous in adding a free dual land for an 8 person tourney at only 5 dollars a person. The prize was essentially 20$ in store credit plus an 18$ dual land for First place , second place recieved 10$ store credit and third got 5$ in store credit. Hopefully, if more people come perhaps the prize will even be bigger. So come out to Eudemonia and support unlimited proxy type 1 tournaments!!!

Well, 2 of the games where people have said boarding out slaver was incorrect was probably the Fish and Void match ups, here are my reasons for boarding out slavers:

1) Versus Fish, slavers can be good, however the effectiveness of slaver is to situational as a null rod would ruin the entire set up. However, that is not why I boarded out the slavers. The main reason is because, despite for it being difficult to see, the match up with fish is really revolved around  the Platinum angel and removing the lavamancers before they become a threat. Thats my first priority in that matchup, the second priority is to have an active triskelion and pentavus thus thwarting any offence the fish deck may have. No offence to anyone, leaving slavers in against fish is INCORRECT, for instance true a null rod will shut down my other artifact creatures, however having a 5/5 body and a 4/4 body is much better than a stagnant slaver that is utterly useless with null rod in play. Game 2 no matter what, against fish you must board in removing, i.e a duplicant(I did not own 1 prior to thursday) to recurse or maybe a secondary triskelion (my board had room for both once the FTK's were replaced). Also bloodmoons are a must if the "real" metagame is control/multi color control decks, like hulk or even fish hosing manlands is just as good as killing them. Remember slavers are good, but against Fish, you much rather have one of your artifact creatures, the game revolves around whether or not you can get to your men before you get nickel and dimed to death by weenies. Game 2 vs fish is a toss up, most of the time the null rods stay in the deck, however there occasional cases where the opponent attempts to call my bluff that I indeed boarded out slavers. In any case I could go on with more reasons why slavers are not great vs fish, but all I can prove is that Ive played this deck at least 50 tournament games with 15 of them being vs fish, so I experienced that match enough times to know what you MUST do in that match in order to win.

Versus Mono-black Void, The slavers are not great here either, remember Void has many creature and can sometimes just go all aggro i.e, ritual hypnotic or negator. Again, this match up was once again decided on whether or not I can get to my men before I either get hosed from void or get run over by his horde of black creatures. Unless your opponent has refilled his hand, when you slaver them it usually late in the game and most of the time it accomplishes fogging your opponent for one turn from attacking you. Especially in control slaver, you only get late game slavers, at that point I would much rather drop a angel or a triskelion and clear his board while swinging at him. Once again its a toss up, some decks run null rods main, while other run them in the board, regardless of the variant Game 2 IS ALWAYS -2 SLAVERS +2 REMOVAL CARDS, the optimal board in now is triskelion and a duplicant. Slaver is a powerful card, however it take correct play to determine whether to keep them in or not. Ive played every tier1 -tier3 deck that has made its way to the C&J's metagame, I've come to be very alert on what to do versus which match up , again I am only speaking through my own experiences, if anyone disagrees with my reasoning about slaver, you can try to prove me wrong and tell me how you decisions worked out....

The 7/17 is the correct thread  can someone fix it so there is only 1 thread for the 7/17 tournament report for who's on first?

Greetings vintage addicts, this week me and a few C&J regulars attended the weekly saturday T1 at a fairly new card shop called Who's On First?
This week in attendance were, TheLegendOfMagic, Ken (Kilo),and Tom Sr.(Raziel). Since many people were not fully powered, the players agreed to a non-sanctioned (5-card proxy)5 round swiss tourney, with the winner being the person with the most points after round 5. This week I played a deck that I am totally new at which was 7/10 split. Despite the inexperience in playing the deck, I felt it was neccessary to test this deck out and to learn the deck better through playing.

Deck List:

Spells:
4 FoW
4 brainstorms
4 thirst for knowledge
1 ancestral recall
1 timewalk
1 timetwister
1 tinker
3 chalice of the void
1 wheel of fortune
1 FoF
1 memory jar

Win Conditions:
3 sundering titans
4 goblin welders
1 duplicant
1 triskelion
1 platinum angel
1 memnarch

Mana Sources:
7 SoLoMo
3 gilded lotus
3 glimmervoids
1 city of brass
1 tolarian academy
2 ancient tombs
4 workshops
1 mana vault
1 mana crypt
4 shivan reefs

Sideboard:

3 trinispheres
4 REB
1 Duplicant
1 triskelion
1 jesters cap
2 rack and ruin
1 BEB
1 gorrila shaman
1 chain of vapor

Round 1 Bye

Round 2: 7/10 vs. Venguer Mask  (Melvin)

Game 1: I lose the die roll, he plays first. First turn he plays underground and duresses my brainstorm out of my hand. Nothing happens for a few turns, then he drops a illusionary mask and plays 3 face down creatures, EoT I cast thirst pitching a trike and welding into play sacraficing my tapped mana vault. I top deck Titan and drop it and destroy all his dual lands. Next turn he swings, I make a paly error I should have shot his 3 face down creatures forcing him to reveal them , but I dont and foolishly block blindly as he indeed had two dreadnaught coming in with only a trike blocking 1, while the other breaks through, I concede since it would be lethal, however I missed the fact that I had FoW an earlier mask  which I could have switched with a dreadnaught, sigh Ill be more aware of his yard nextgame.

Game 2: -1 memnarch-1 timetwister,+2 rack and ruin. I play first and keep an iffy hand, as I keep a hand with a ancient tomb , lotus and workshop as my mana source, while having FoW and ancestral. I play Ancient tombs and lotus and pass the turn. He  plays birds and passes. I topdeck welder drop it and pass the turn. He attempts to resolve survival, which I hardcast FoW. My next turn I draw FoW and pass the turn. He attempts to resolve a shapeshifter I FoW pitching ancestral, he FoW's back , shapeshifter resolves. I topdeck duplicant and duplicant his shapeshifter. I eventually got the combo off with shapeshifter and Titan and he concedes.

Game 3: He plays a land and passes. I drop workshop, lotus and cast a gilded lotus, EoT he oxidizes the gilded lotus. He draws quirion ranger and passes. Many turns pass with me with a welder and him beating me down with a ranger, until I topdeck jar and jar into big men which I drop into the yard. He drops withered wretch ,I weld in response  putting trike into play and clearing his board. I win next turn as I have the recursion combo with titan and trike.

2-1

Round 3: 7/10 vs Monobrown (Brandon)

Game 1: I lose the die roll, he plays chalice for 0 and trinisphere, which I FoW. I play shivan reef welder and pass. He drops Trinisphere and passes. I draw workshop which I play and pass the turn. He draws a metalworker, I EoT weld it to put trinisphere into play. My next turn I drop lotus by using workshop to pay for trinispere and I weld his chalice for 0 back by switching one of his two trinispheres. He tries to do what I did, except that he forgot I switched the chalice during my turn, he pays 3 with workshop plays a lotus which got countered by his own chalice. I draw into titan and the rest is history as he is locked down by his own pieces.

Game 2: -1 timetwister -3 chalice -, +2 rack and ruin +1 trike +1 chain of vapor. He plays first and has no early threats. We both say draw go for a while and then I draw memnarch, which got active and stole all his permanents and the game went downhill fast for him. He did have a smokestack but with equal permanents and a active memnarch I think I had the advantage.

2-0

Round 4: 7/10 vs. Powered Madness (Tom aka Raziel)

Game 1: He drops a bazaar and bazaars into two rootwallas and passes the turn. I drop almot my entire hand as I get a welder and lots of mana, I have 2 threats that are coming in the next two turns, the first being a trike and then followed by a Titan. He takes his turn an swings with his root wallas lays a volcanic and passes. I take my turn cast trike, it resolves, I shoot his rootwallas and pass the turn. He drops a mogrel after bazaaring and passes the turn. I drop titan and he loses 3 turns later as titan goes nuts.

Game 2: -3 chalice +3 trinispheres. Tom being a strong player I had to think awhile at what his plan was in game 2, I figured the trinispheres would be more effective than the chalices. He plays a turn 1 careful study and drops a rootwalla. I take my turn I drop ruby into welder and play a trinisphere , hoping to slow him down. He draws but is lacking in green mana, he swings and passes the turn. I draw , lay a workshop into a gilded lotus. He draws a waste land and hits my workshop and swings with his rootwalla. I gain enough time to thirst pitching titan and welding it into play, however I only hit a volcanic sine he has a 2 wastelands and a bazaar as his other lands. He takes 2 hits from titan and goes down 6 life. Then on hit turn he has the choice of flashing a DA or flashing a Roar of the wurm token into play, he takes the DA route hoping to draw a solution, however he does not and the game is over. Very Good Game

2-0

Round 5: 7/10 vs 4cControl (Adam)

Game 1: Opponent concedes.

2-0

So the final standings were:

1) TheLegendofMagic  4-0
2) Brandon 3-0
3) Melvin 2-0
4) Tom(Raziel) 1-0
5) Adam 0-4

Props: to Jeff the owner for letting us do a Type 1 unsanctioned tournament and providing prizes for everyone!
For all the good players that came and played, hopefully we can get come more people in the future to help support Type 1 on Who's On First?

Im hoping in the new future I can play this deck better, but on the first outing I think I did okay despite my many play errors. Heh, I guess in the end I enjoy playing new decks that I am not familiar with whenever I have the opportunity to do so.

Feel free to post comments on this thread....

First off, of arragance you asked me to concede before our match began , talking about how Fish owns control slaver , and saying something about how I have no chance. That sounds like you were being arrogant. Plus you chose not to concede game 1 when you had nothing, during my report I was just reporting what happened and nothing more. Game 2 happened exactly the way I described it you lost to blood moon and my islands and mana drains oeverpowered you. Game 2 you kept a horrible hand knowing that more than likely my board wrecks yours more than yours does mine. You were ranting about your 15 card side board against me, obviously you are not experienced enough to realize if you did side in 15 cards game 2 , your deck will become diluted with crap thus making your deck even more worse than in game 1. It's sad that you are immature and a bad sport, and please if you decide to "bash" please do it in the newbie forum and do not dilude thus thread with your pointless personal attacks for your short comings, since you were outplayed and outskilled....

First off, the deck only splashes black for DT and Will, Mindtwist is a busted card, however it does work with the decks synergy since I want to slaver them eventually. Drawing Mindtwist is this deck is often a dead draw most of the time. The match up versus Fish, slavers are horrible in that match up, the key to winning that match is triskelion and angel, the slavers are easily hosed with null rods. Game 1 versus fish is revolved around having a active trike,pentavus or angel(and protecting them). You have absolutely no right to criticize my board since it is apparent you do not know the metagame at C&J's. Mystical is better than vampiric, because of the light black mana source in the deck. The point of the wishes is not to get a card drawing card from board but rather, the wishes are to help me deal with certain cards, for example chain of vapor or rack and ruin to remove null rods or to mystical for tinker or ancestral.

Blood moons not neccessary? Blood moons are key to winning tough match ups and unfavorable match ups, for example Fish and Hulk Smash , perhaps even 4cControl. The moons can help against dragon as well depending on the dragon variant.

And finally, Mixing Mike, until you have over 1000 matches in vintage tournament play, please leave your outburst for the newbie forum, it is apparent through my many strong placings in tournaments that I indeed know what I am doing.....

Greetings vintage addicts, this weeks report consists of the usual stuff, strong players, tier 1 decks, a good turn out with the usual people who are regulars at C&J's. This week in attendance were: TheLegendOfMagic, Brent, Christiaan, Ken and a newcomer Lotushead. This week I played Control Slaver.

Decklist:

Spells:
4 manadrains
4 force of wills
3 brainstorms
4 thirst for knowledge
2 cunning wish
1 demonic tutor
1 yawgmoths will
2 fire/ice
1 memory jar
1 tinker
1 ancestral recall
1 time walk

Win Conditions:
4 goblin welders
1 triskelion
1 pentavus
1 platinum angel
2 Mindslavers

Mana Sources:
7 SoLoMo
1 mana crypt
1 mana vault
1 Library of Alexandria
6 islands
4 volcanic islands
2 underground seas
4 polluted deltas

Sideboard:
2 REB
2 FTK
1 BEB
3 Bloodmoons
3 Tormods crypts
1 Stifle
1 mystical tutor
1 rack and ruin
1 chain of vapor

Round 1 Control Slaver vs. 10 Land Stompy

Game 1: I lose the dice roll he plays a first turn rogue elephant with a land grant to follow. A few turns pass as I have welder but no good targets in the yard, while he is constantly beating my head in with big green men. I eventually thirst into the doulbe welder pentavus lock with mindslaver , after I point out that this is an inifinite lock with slaver he concedes, I end the game with 2 Life!!!

Game 2: -2 Mindslavers +2 FTK, I get owned this game as he plays a early Hidden Ancients which got activated since I needed to play a mox as my land for turn to thirst into some more land, I draw into FTK but his had full of +3+3 instants were too much for my welder and FTK to handle and I go on to lose.

Game 3: I establish early control as I counter a crucial land grant that bought me enough time to get the pentavus token beat down lock on him and loses shortly after.

2-1

Round 2: Control Slaver vs. Duct-Tape(variant?) Christiaan

Game 1: I lose the dice roll and must mulligan down to 6. Chritiaan plays first and drops a first turn trinisphere. I look at my hand, if I had palyed first I could have dropped my lotus and island with two manadrains in my hand that I could have  casted, however I played second and the trinisphere prove to be too much as Christiaan win turn two as he drops a smoke stack , I save us both trouble and I concede game 1.

Game 2: -2 cunning wish, +1 rack and ruin +1 chain of vapor.
I play first, I lay a land and mox and pass, Christiaan goes insane and drops a tangle wire, this hurt alot. So a few turns pass as I am thirsting during my draw step because I am forced to float mana to my draw step because of the tangle wires. I eventually draw into yawgmoth's will which broke the stalemate.

Game 3: Christiaan commented after this game that his hand was questionable, but during the match he kept this hand, he starts off with workshop and passes the turn, I am relieved since I feared trinisphere. Turn two he continues with a darksteel ingot and drops a tangle wire. I tap out play a land and say go. He plays a second tanglewire and casts meditate. I somehow managed to get out of that lock, but was not able to pressure him until I topdeck yawgmoths will and once again winning by topdeck.
2-1

Round 3: Control Slaver vs. U/R Fish (Gim)

Game 1: I win the dice roll, and keep a god hand that allowed me to play mana crypt , island and tinker with force of will and blue card to back up my first turn platinum angel. He loses 5 turns later.

Game 2: -2 mindslavers-2cunning wish-1demonic tutor,+2 REB +3Bloodmoons. This game was pretty bad for Gim, as I resolved a bloodmoon and him with no islands, but he did have a grim lavamancer that got me down to 2 life, then I draw yawgmoths will and the rest is history since he cannot challange my islands and manadrains with bloodmoon in play.
2-0

Round 4: Control Slaver vs. Mono Black Void with crucibles (Riz)

Game 1: I lose the dice roll, Riz plays a mishra's factory, mox jet and plays a powder keg. I play land , jet and demonic to put Ancestral into my hand. He duresses me and takes the ancestral, and rituals out a hypnotic spector. Next turn I topdeck fire/ice and fire the hypnotic. Riz swings with his mishra's factory and passes. I draw, play a land and pass the turn. riz top deck nether void which, I mana drain. My turn, I play a land and drop memory jar and cracking it I play thirt, ruby and welder and pass the turn.He kegs for 1 killing my welder, drops another hypnotic and passes. Im in trouble now since I do not have anything in hand and his hypnotic is going to destroy my hand. He does that, for the next few turns he contiunes to rip my hand apart with the spector while hitting me with a factory. I am down to 2 life , everything looks grim and behold I top deck yawgmoths will for the win!!!

Game 2: -2 mindslavers, +2 FTK ,He plays firsts and duress a jar out of my hand and passes. I play jet, sol ring and welder , thinking I can stablize. Next turn he diabolic eddicts me and I lose the welder and the game.

Game 3: I crush him with 3 ancestral recalls, thanks to yawgmoths will and cunning wish and Riz was never really was in the game.
2-1

Round 5 Control Slaver vs. Hulksmash (Dennis)

Game 1: I lose the dice roll and allowing Dennis to duress my brainstorm out of my hand, this really hurt as now I am stuck with a angel in my hand with no way in getting rid of it. I hold for a while, but Dennis eventually out draws me and comes in with a psychatog for lethal.

Game 2: -2 cunning wish -2fire/ice -1 triskelion,+3 bloodmoons +2 REB
I play first and my hand is amazing, all I have in had is a REB like two lands and the rest are threats. I bait with ancestral and welder to eventually resolve a blood moon and winning as he cannot cast any of his spells.

Game3 : This was an equal fight as both were trying to kill each other fast as time in the round was running out. In the end I got him down to 5 with 5 pentavite tokens , I needed another turn but it was not to be.

1-1-1

Lotushead won the tournament with 5 points, I finished 2nd undefeated with 4-0-1, due to tiebreaks I had to have played and beaten Lotushead to win, so even if I was able to beat Dennis in the final round I would had still finished second to Lotushead because his tiebreaks were better than mine due to an early bye for him. I feel 4-0-1 in this weeks strong tournament proves that control slaver is a juggernaut in the type 1 arena.

In hindsight: The 2 flametongue Kavu's will be duplicants now, since its better synergy with the deck. Finally Good Game to all my opponents that I played this week and congradulations to Lotushead for winning....

Sorry I missed the 3 null rods in your maindeck hehe

Props to Lhyrus(Jasper) for winning the tourney, unfortunately I could not attend I would have came with my GAT deck and smash you lol(just kidding) But congrats though, Ive toying with Madness, similiar to your build but with null rods maindeck, Ill post a deck list when I finalize my build. Yea so come one come all and support Eudemonia's unlimited proxy t1 tournament if we get more people to show up maybe we can get larger prizes!!

Actually game took alot of time, I was watching the clock during me and Kilo's first game, the first game took 25 minutes as neither of us were winning immediately, since I found ways to delay the inevitable, I eventually got squashed game 1, Game 1 Estimated game duration was about 23-25minutes of actually play. Game 2 I mulliganed down to 6 and was holding for dear life for most of the game, after being disrupted by waste effects and naturalize of my mox, with an active survival on the board, so when  the time came to calculate and set up a yawgmoths wills, these where my decisions: I had the option of playing the following cards from the yard; Lotus, 2 Brainstorms , Ancestral recall, 1 mox Sapphire , 1 mystical , 1 naturalize , Force of will, Gush, 2 Ak's and a polluted delta. My mana is tight ,as I can only have I beleive 6-8 mana avaliable to cats all the spells I want this turn, with no dryad or tog in play or the yard, so I took about 10 minutes to calculate and draw into a dryad that turn to go on to win, while also sacraficing 3 cards I would have gotten of the AK's by deciding to use the mana to naturalize the survival  and mystical for time walk, which in response Kilo pitched a creature to put platinum angel in his hand, so I had to do essentially 4 things that turn in order win but the cards I needed were not yet in my hand until I ancestraled and gushed, for example I had to draw a counter for the Angel,I needed a threat(the longer the game drags on with survival the worse it becomes for me), Destroy survival and timewalk. So I took about ten minutes of so, and note this was late game already many turns have passed before this, so we ended up running out of time. I do admit this match up is not great for GAT, facign TnT, tying the match by conceded game2 and going to game 3 would probably have been the correct move by Kilo, since the yawgmoths will would either gain me control of the game by the elimination of survival while refilling my hand, hence at that point the game was resignable. Game would probably been in his favor.

Well, Im sure there are a variety of builds for GAT, especially now with 5th dawn being introduced.
First, Counterspell vs. Manadrain: In general manadrain is better, however the GAT build I played lacked in filterable heavy colorless based spells. This made counterspell the better choice, if I am attempting to add more solid counter magic.  I chose to play a version that had a very tight mana base and cheap cantrips to support my dryad. This is perhaps why I chose not to play serum visions as because despite being a very good cantrip and drawspell, the fact that it is a sorcery that required mana mainphase makes a big difference at the metagame at C&J's, since often times tier 1 decks such as Dragon, or Draw7.dec can be part of the environment. So my strategy was all cheap instant speed draw/cantrips and 12 counter-magic spells, part of my plan and reasoning is that, I want to do if possible all my cantripping and drawing at the EoT of my opponent, while leaving mana open during their main phase to threaten to counterspell.  Another sidenote, after deck testing a while back, I found that manadrain often makes you mana burn once to often, which also lead to my choice of counterspell.

Second, Duress vs. Daze, Duress is a very good card to use to disrupt combo or control, however I feel that daze has a higher potential in my build because, with the 5 moxen to accelerate to high probabilities of a first turn dryad, Daze can be used as trick counterspell that your opponent may not support when tapping out prematurely thus often times allowing me to daze a crucial spell while also growing my dryad, check out my game versus fish in this thread for more highlights of daze. Daze is also far supperior to duress when you have 3 back to basics in the board to help against man-lands and maze of iths, even control decks have a problem with back 2 basic, with dazes main this allows you to free up your underground seas and tropical islands. Daze can be very effective against workshop based decks, since you can daze there 2 drops and they cannot use there 3rd artifact mana floating from mishra's workshop to pay it, since because the mana produced from workshop isnt a generic mana.

Third, Fastbond: with the restriction of gush, fastbond seem pretty useless as a maindeck choice. Fastbond in my oppinion remain a combo peice in a combo deck.

Fourth, Proxies being allowed:Currently Eudemonia in Berkeley, Ca. runs weekly unlimited proxies tournament which I support, however the attendance has been quite low. If anyone wishes to support proxy tournements come out to Eudemonia, for more info visit Eudemonia.net

BtW, Kilo:underfloor rules established by the DCI, under there quota for what is slow rolling or stalling for time, It does not apply to my case, as in the case of the 10 minute yawgmoths will, Ive asked a level 3 judge and level 2 they both agree with me that its within reason. As for the 2 minute demonic tutor(not 5) it was an honest mistake since I was searching for yawg will, but I forgot it was in my hand. Slow rolling has to be with malice intent of drawing with no relavant plays in hand. And extra time was given for our match since I told the TO ahead of time about the game I played for fun that took 5 minutes.  About the 3rd game we palyed for fun to see "what if" there was more time to play, yea you could have perhaps won, "maybe". Then again amatuers can always beat a Grandmaster chessplayer, in skittle games, if you anyone is unfamiliar with "skittles", it just means a irrelevant game for fun, which was essentially game 3 for Kilo and I. BtW, tiebreaks are to determine prize disbursement, at higher level tourneys, there are no tiebreaks for first place, since there has to be a diffinative winner by points or concession.  Kudo's for Kilo for winning though (through tiebreaks)