Opeth...Blackwater Park.

Coheed and Cambria....Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV Vol. I.

Lamb of God... As the Palaces Burn.

The Mars Volta... Deloused in the Comatorium.

@Nataz
I fully agree with your statement regarding using the Bazaars to find mana sources. I played through 5 rounds of the swiss (Seattle Vintage Champs) and was not mana screwed even once. The Bazaars were amazing all day long, always helping me find what I needed... The Spheres also were great and even packing as many Null Rods as I was, I was never short on mana to cast threats. Crucible/Bazaar is great at helping to stabilize the mana quickly and it is retarded with Fastbond. Not only does the Fastbond/Crucible make it easy to combo kill with the Barbarian ring, but you are also able to ramp Smokestack higher and wipe their board more quickly in exchange for a few points of life and still be unaffectetd by your Sphere or Null Rod. I also would like to hear from b-tings 'cause he is smart young lad and we used to play occasionally when he lived here in Van.

I used to run Uba Mask in my deck, pre 5c, but I would never win the game with it in play. Everytime I got it into play, my opponents were able to play their cards regardless and combo kill me (here in the Northwest, there is a hell of alot of Gifts,Oath and Dragon). The list I won with was thrown together, with the basic game plan of a. locking up the board as quickly as possible with Sphere,Rod and Crucible/Waste/Strip b. Cleanup whatever slipped through early via Smokestack/Stp/Balance c. Mop up the opponent with Trike/Dupe/Karn. I didn't have any issues with the anti synergy between the Rod and my activated win conditions... I was always able to control the Rod with Welder or Smokestack for the win (or just not even cast it if I had Sphere/Striplock anyway). It has already been pointed out that my list is suboptimal, but it sure ran like a well oiled machine for the duration of that tournament. Lucky me

Thanks Bauerkrieg  I haven't experienced any problems with the mana base as of yet and basically I dropped TFK for the 3 Bazaars. I am not sold on the Monkey yet because I really really hate leaving my Combo playing opponents (well any opponent really) the opportunity to win for the turn they get to actually use the mana from moxen before the Monkey has his munch. I am 100% certain I won this tournament on the back of the Rod. I only got to Slave someone once and the game was basically over anyway because I had complete board control at the time...as fun as it is, it really doesn't belong. The card I used least throughtout the day, was Balance. I really didn't need it due to all the combo I faced. I will be changing up my list to put Crop Rot and 3sphere back in. Thanks for all the input everyone and Happy Holidays

Thanks for your input Vroman 
The Swords is there because of the absolutely retarded amount of Oath and Gifts running rampant in the Northwest. I am sick of being being beat down by the big man. Yes, I know Dupes is a 'better' answer...I am not really a fan of Mox Monkey in the deck, I think Null Rod does his job better except when I would want to eat an opposing chalice for some reason... I disagree with Karn being too expensive for the deck...barring Null Rod, alot of the time he just wins the game. I agree that Crop Rotation is great in the deck. I also agree that Mindslaver is not right for the deck, but I am known for just playing with cards I like for 'fun'....thanks again

Yes it does seem like a pain. Yes there is no synergy. Yeah the deck is a random pile of good cards. I guess I just got lucky in this tournament I literally tweaked the deck like 15 minutes before the tournament 'cause I was busy helping a half dozen other people finish their decks before registration closed. The sideboard was actually very good to me despite being thrown together at the last minute.
Basically the way it works out is that the Null Rods are such a beating VS most of the decks, that it doesn't matter that you can't activate your Trike,Slaver or Karn abilities. They simply beat about the face while the opponent does absolutely nothing. Often I dump the Slaver to the Bazaar and weld the Rod out for it later. It's not that hard to play around your own Null Rod between Welders and Smokestack.

H**YSH*T!! :shock: :shock: :shock:

LolzorZ!

Hey Guys, thanks for all the comments  

@Sean...wazzup dawg! Bazaar was absolutely fantastic all day long. I've tried playing four copies before, but to tell you the truth, I only decided to play the Bazaars at the last minute replacing TFK in the list. Synergy was insane with Fastbond/Crucible. Uba mask has always been absolutely horrible for me... I guess I just don't have the skill to really make it work. I definitely liked Fastbond over Crop Rotation, though I might try cutting something else to run both next time.7 5c lands worked just fine for me. I didn't have any mana issues the entire tournament and Crucible/Bazaar always helped me stay on top. I didn't miss the Mox Monkey AT ALL. I much prefer playing with the Null Rods. Basically my thoughts were that Rod shuts off the mana permanently and doesn't give the opponent the extra turn they need to play more spells with their artifact mana before the Monkey has lunch. As far as playing with the extra Trike VS Titan and the whole Rods + Mindslaver, honestly I just figured on locking up the game early, giving my opponents no breathing room, and then beating in for the win... I was always able to weld the Rod out to activate artifacts for the win, or just sack it to a Smokestack when it no longer was relevant.. I didn't bother with the Titan plan because I saw a sheize load of Gemstones and Cities in the meta for that day I don't like Chalice in my maindeck, maybe it's just personal. There are so many ways for opponents to play around CotV and I've been having better luck with SoR. As for Tanglewire, lately it just has not been working for me. It seems whenever I play the wire, my opponents just cast all their spells in their upkeep/draw...and then somehow they win :shock: As for the 3 Chokes in the board, they have been absolute gold for me everytime I board them in. Quite often it means the game if it resolves at the right time. In the Eye of Chaos is nice, but I think Choke is more punishing. As for the mirror match, I usually side out most of the lock components, banking that my opponent will leave his in and I board in more creature control. StP is just a very permanent answer and Trike control is pretty key. I've beaten lots of opponents who RnR'd my board and I think that the StP plan is more flexible against the Northwest field seeing as how everyone and their dog is either playing Oath or TinClossus. I probably won't be able to attend Geoff's Walk tournament due to the fact that it is on PreRelease day...hard to say no to making thousands of $$$ selling as a dealer at a PreRelease event. I'll be rooting for you

@Vroman...I appreciate your criticism. Could you please be more specific? Perhaps you could offer some advice on what would make for a more optimal list? I actually ran the Fastbond after reading something in one of your posts about it. It was very good to me. Thanks.

@Gabe,JDizzle(our hero!) and Smmenen...LOLZ. I've got two of Buehler's feathers in my cap and if he wants them back, he knows better than to mess with 'the Prison Warden'. He's just got to quit dropping the soap..... :shock:

Thanks again guys

I didn't see much Fish at the top tables, just lots of Gifts,Oath and GrimLong. That doesn't necessarily mean there wasn't a boatload, jjust that whoever played it didn't do very well(except for Josh, who seems to always manage to T8 with Fish). Gabe didn't get to play because apparently his ride from Olympia crapped out on him.Thanks for the gratz

Would mods please move this to the appropriate forum( as per Sean Ryans request sryan0079)


So I figured if I play in enough of these tournaments I was bound to win one of them...

I pick up the Baloth in his native Maple Ridge at 7:40 AM after much road rage VS the totally retarded early Saturday morning traffic, and then head over to New West to pick up the remainder of my enthusiastic passengers, Vanderstar and Seb. With everyone accounted for and a brief breakfast stop at the SubWay in Tyrell's 'hood, we proceed to the border, whereupon determining that we in fact are not 'sleight of hand' magicians, but card flopping geeks, they let us into the good ole USA.

***Aside*** I always get a chuckle when the US border gurads ask if we are carrying any 'fruit or beef', as if they were dangerous goods and that we might be intending an assault on the homeland with apples or delimeat sandwiches... when returning to Canada it is always 'alcohol, tobacco or firearms' they are looking for... go figure.

We arrive at the Seattle Center around 11 AM ish, and proceed to hobknob with the usual suspects...Matt Jones, Michael Gurney, Brett Allen, James Lincoln, Sol Ossa, Kevin and JT, Cory McElroy, a long lost Adam Wargo, Josh Flickner, Sean Ryan, Pedro Margate, Chris Vanmeter, Chris Scudder....the usual.... lots of other people I am unsure of their names...dude who loves running around yelling how great Canada is...(that dude is hilarious!)... some of the Seattle area 'pro's are there as well like the much 'feared and revered' Randy Buehler, Mike Turian and a soon to be transplanted to Vancouver Alan Comer (what a cool cat).

As usual, I get bombarded at the last half hour of registration by people who need cards to complete their decks and get within the proxy limit, making it a tight squeeze for me to finish my own list and get my sideboard and deck changes sorted out and registered before last call. This is the deck I registered...Feel free to tell me how shitty it is:

$T4XX0rs!

MANA:
4 Mishra's Workshop (SHOCKING!)
4 Gemstone Mine
3 City of Brass
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Barbarian Ring
1 Tolarian Academy (stay in school kids!)
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl

DRAW:
3 Bazaar or Baghdad (sorry forgot to include on the list -thanks Rob)

SPELLS(non creature):
1 Swords To Plowshares
1 Balance
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Tinker
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Fastbond
3 Crucible of Worlds
3 Null Rod
1 Mindslaver
4 Smokestack
4 Sphere of Resistance

CREATURES:
4 Goblin Welder
2 Triskelion
1 Duplicant
1 Karn,Silver Golem

SIDEBOARD:
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Hurkylls Recall
1 Razormane Masticore
1 Duplicant
1 Null Rod
3 Choke
3 Chalice of the Void
3 Ray of Revelation

****I did not take actual notes for the commentary. All of this was gleaned from memory. I apologize for any inconsistencies and please feel free to correct me if I misrepresent any of the facts.

OK so, apparently the computer program Wizards has developed for running tournaments knows how to screw Canadians. Out of 43 players, only nine are Canadian. Here's how I got matched up:

Round 1: VANDERSTAR!!!w/ Belcher (*hic!*) - Canadian
Game 1 - Vanderstar should have won this game, but gets screwed royally in his math calculations involving D.Rituals and Yawgwin while a SoR is in play. Much tears for him and much relief for me 

'Board in extra Rod and Chalices

Game 2 - Vanderstar puts up a good fight, but can't beat the hate of Rods and Spheres even after L.Wishing for Scavenger Folk.

1/0 2/0

After the match I find out that 6 of the 7 Canadians that came down had to play against each other in round 1. Conspiracy? You be the judge...

Round 2: BALOTH!!! You've gotta be kidding me!!! (I knew it was a conspiracy!) W/Combo Oath. - Canadian!

We get the big DECKCHECKS from the head Judge as well as some sort of sly warning about taking less time to shuffle????Bizzarre

Game 1 - I don't really remember much, but I won.

'Board in Rays and Swords and Duplicant.

Game 2 - I locked up the board pretty early and the only mana he could use involved Forbidden Orchard. I ended up doing enough damage with the tokens to kill him. He managed to resolve Oath at the end of the game, but it was too late (Ray of Revelation took care of the first Oath). Since when do Spirit tokens eat the Baloth and not the other way around?

2/0 4/0

Round 3: Brett Allen (Also Canadian)WTF! W/GrimLong.

Game 1 - Brett plays first and leads with Gemstone and a Mox. I lead with Land/Mox/Lotus/Karn! Brett doesn't relly do much for the rest of the game as I Waste his land and Karn eats his artifact mana...I even animated his Mana Vault and STP it!

'Board in extra Rod and Chalices.

Game 2 - I really don't remember much except that it was a much slower game due to the fact that I locked up the mana pretty early and Brett spent a lot of turns discarding.

3/0 6/0

I think either round 3 or maybe round 4, I notice that Cory McElroy is playing against Randy Buehler and so I ask that Cory please beat Mr. Buehler so as to put more space between myself and 'THE BUEHLER ZONE'!!!

Round 4: Josh Flickner W/WTF (U/W Fish w/G) (Finally..a Cardtard!!!)

We get deckchecked.

Game 1 - Again I am kinda foggy, but I remember a little bit of Wasteland wars and an Extract from him...I get Crucible and Barbarian Ring combined with Wastelands and he scoops...

'Board in Razormane,Plows and Choooookesssssssss!

Game 2 - I resolve an early Choke, which gets EOT Naturalized. He drops a Meddling Mage (naming Pyroclasm wheee!) and some other creature w/2 power...Mongrel I think.... after which my Bazaar finds me another Choke!!! Choke locks down his four lands... eventually Triskelion shows up and kills his creatures and the game is over in short order. Josh did put up a valiant effort against the Choke though, using Daze to get a land back in his hand so he could play STP on a Welder...

4/0 8/0

Round 5: Mike Bell W/GrimLong

Mike and I are about 50/50 playing against each other, and he always plays something new. I didn't know what he was playing this time, and I guess the traditional thing to do at 4/0 is to ID round 5, so we ID'd.

4/0/1 8/0/1

Round 6: OMG it's 'THE BUEHLER ZONE'!!!! Randy Buehler sporting GrimLong.

Apparently Randy could not afford to ID because of his tiebreaks or something, so as scared as I was of losing to Mr. Buehler of much Power winning fame, we were going to have to play.

I win the die roll....

Game 1 - I lead w/ SoR and Randy gets a Mox into play by pitching ESG. Not much else happens as I lock up the mana with another SoR and control his board with Wasteland and Smokey.

I think at this point Randy asks for the draw, but to which I refuse seeing as how I am pretty confident my deck DESTROYS his especially after 'boarding.

'Board in Chalices and extra Rod.

Game 2 - I get Welder, 2 SoR, Smokey, Chalice at 0 and 1 and probably a Rod in there too, utterly destroying Randy's ability to play spells...Wheeee! Randy concedes from an insurmountable board position on my side.

SO now that I have completely destroyed him, Randy pipes up that he will graciously accept my offer of an ID, and I'm like 'when did I ask for an ID?'....whoops....so upon consulting the rerst of my team mates and the rest of the T8 potentials it was decided that I P.Wned Mr. Buehler 2/0 and a match slip was signed and there was much rejoicing upon the fact that there would be no Power Winning Buehler Monster to contend with in the T8...Sorry Randy, you know we FEAR, uh I mean love you.... 

5/0/1   10/0/1

Upon defeating Randy Buehler, to the cheers and fist pumps of 'the people', the top 8 ends up looking like this (not in order except for myself):

STAX (me)
CONTROL SLAVER(Gurney)
GRIMLONG (Mike Bell)
OATH (?)
GIFTS OATH(Sean Ryan)
TPS(Seb)
WTF(Josh Flickner)
STAX(Ben?)

Again, not the exact order of T8, just the composition.

Round 1 of T8: Ben STAX mirror.

Game 1 - He wins the die roll and I get destroyed by early Crucible lock plus sphere of resistance and chalice at zero... lets move on to game 2.

'Board in Razormane,Dupe,more Swords and Chalices....out go all the lock components except for like 3 Smokeys.

Game 2 - I get the Crucible lock turn 1 followed by Welder plus Razormane who only sticks long enough to discard and then go 'FARMING'. I follow with Trike and that's all she wrote.

Game 3 - I keep double Crucible,double Waste,Gemstone,Swords,Shop hand. He drops a Gemstone mine,Ruby and Pearl on the play, casting Seal of Cleansing. I Waste his Gemstone mine. Apparently this ends up being his most important source of Mana as he doesn't get back in the game for quite some time. My board develops with Bazaar,Crucible numero deux(first one got Sealed),Welder,Barb Ring and Slaver... We play Swords Wars over Welders and Heretic(on his side), but he never gets above 2-3 mana sources('cause I Waste them when he plays them)...I Slaver him a couple of times, but to no real consequence and then Karn shows up for the kill.

Props to Ben for putting up a good fight(this was his first Vintage tournament), being a really great guy and providing me with a sobering 'first game loss of the day'.

Round 2 of T8 : Seb TPS

Seb concedes to me 'cause he is such a great guy(and a teammate) ,matchups with the other contenders is also very much in my favor.

Josh Flickner (FISH) defeats Michael Gurney (CONTROL SLAVER).

Josh concedes the match to me(at his behest) for $300 and some cards :shock: , leaving me with the Emerald AND Lotus  I sell out the Emerald to pay out Josh and get some more $$$ to give to Seb and Kurt.

Sorry it didn't get any more interesting than that.
 
Props to everyone who participated in the tournament...everyone I played against was a great sport and a gentleman.
Props to the Judge who did a great job keeping everything on the up and up. Props to MtG:SoldHere for the absolutely INSANE prize structure - lets get more support for their tournaments!!!Props to Canada for putting 3 Canadians in the T4.

Side props to the Californians who drove 17 hours to play in the tournament!!! Sound off hardcores!!! I wish I had met them.

And last, but certainly not least, props to all the Rogues(Roguegaming.com) out there and their undying support and camaraderie. 

I have been playing STAX for several years now and it is the only deck I play in tournaments(regardless of metagame), but I would really appreciate any thoughts or criticisms of my deck or single card choices.

Truthfully, Ross had a 20% split with me going into the 5th round after we agreed to ID. We upped the split to 30% before playing in the semifinals to cover our bums and in the end Ross won out and I got 4th place. After prizes were awarded Ross made the deal to give me an EX UNL Ancestral Recall plus the LOTUS he won for my NM BETA Ancestral Recall, 70 bux and an upgrade of condition on 3 Mana Drains(plus I kept the full 50 credit I won). Seems fair. Good times all around and congratulations on winning Ross. See you at the Recall tournament in a couple of weeks