Anybody have results from this?

I wanted to come, but I decided to stay in Columbus and protest Scientology instead. I'll be sure to make the next one for sure though!

Hopefully I can get off work for this. I'm long overdue for a Thurmanator!

I agree that this discussion is kind of sad. Flash hasn't experienced format-breaking dominance yet, and it should probably be left alone until it does. If we're calling for restrictions based on potential dominance, or the lack of playskill needed to win with a deck, I'll make a case that tapping Forbidden Orchard and casting Oath of Druids takes the intelligence of a chimp, and has put up better numbers than Flash in the last two months.

People seem to think that every game with Flash goes "Mox, land, Flash, Hulk, Pact, Pact, Pact, I win." As a Flash player, I can assure you that that's not true. At the Meandeck Cash Bar tournament, I played about 16 games and had the nuts once. There are several games where I have to shape my hand with Brainstorms and Tutors, while trying to clear their win condition and/or Force of Will out of their hand with Thoughtseize. Flash is so fun to play because sometimes you get the nuts, and it feels like you're cheating, but also there are times you really need to work for the win. Some of my favorite games with Flash had me playing out Virulent Slivers and bashing like I'm playing Time Spiral Sealed. In the last two five-round tournaments I've played in, I've won three matches with hardcasted Slivers. The deck can be very interactive at times, and it's kind of sad that there are so many Chicken Littles crying about Flash when it hasn't been able to win anything relevant since the combo became available almost a year ago. I enjoy playing Flash. It gives me a warm feeling. There's no reason to spoil my fun 

Is this real!? Don't tease me!

I would sacrifice GenCon if it meant we could get a tournament like this here in the States. I hope I can save enough money up to go to this. If the economy doesn't collapse I think I can afford to go.

Not sure if I cant get the day off, but if I can, I'm certainly there (pending convenient carpool configurations, of course). Not sure which will be more fun, a day of slinging cards from the gentleman's format, or seeing Twaun down a bottle of Hennessey.

Prediction: Flash makes it to the finals, but the statistics implode on them and they lose to Tyrant Oath.

Anyone want to ride up from Columbus for this? I loved my last experience at the Hero Zone, but I can't make the trip solo every month 

I had a really good time. I've played two Vintage tournaments and I have two top-8's so I think that's a nice start. I think I may have made a mistake or two against Steve that could have maybe tipped the match in my favor, but I'm never ashamed to lose to my mentor. The guy practically taught me how to play Magic in my early days

I just hope the meta keeps shifting towards a Flash friendly format! But I will be bringing some technology to the next tournament, so look out! 

Ohh, I see what you did there. You and Steve are trying to make it sound like a ton of people are going to show up so other people will think it's worth it to go. I did not see what you were doing there. I'm just a very honest person, and I don't think lying is very nice 

Well that was completely uncalled for.  Warning for flaming.
-Klep

Why do you think that? Many people only went to the last few tournaments to prepare for the GP. There are maybe only 5 or 6 people in Columbus who actually care about the format, you and I included, and I have to miss this for work. Sure, you'll get a few guys from Michigan, and Trogdon and his crew out of Cleveland, but I'm putting money on this event only getting 15 people. Still a good number though.

I'm not sure how many people on my team are going, but I'm going Thursday through Saturday. Probably leaving Saturday night because I have to work Sunday afternoon. But I'm getting a hotel room and leaving my door open those three days 

Damn, I work on Sunday nights, so depending on what time these things end, I might not be able to make it. Don't worry, I'll loan one of my teammates my deck, so I'll at least be there in spirit 

QFT. It was my friend's first Legacy tournament, and he decided to play Hanni Fish. I told him to add Smother to the board, and he said it was the best tech ever. I tried a similar idea in Threads of Disloyalty, and it was awesome as well. Every creature in the format is 2cc or less.

Which time? The Boros player in round 4 who not only could have scooped me in, but ended up beating me after I punted the match by forgetting to block? Or my opponent in round 5 who wouldn't scoop me in because his friend (who had literally no chance to top 8) asked him not to? I'm not upset, because both of the guys who wouldn't scoop me in were awesome guys, but I was a little disappointed in both of their decisions.

No worries though! I fully plan on going to the next Mox event! 

I predicted the "Tarmogoyf Invasion" and packed 3x Threads of Disloyalty in my board, which were king! They stole Confidants, Tarmogoyfs, Jotun Grunts, et al.

I had a ton of fun at this one. Looking forward to the next one in September!

Do a barrel roll!

Nice, we can ID round 5 again 

Oh, I'm bringing part of my team along, so add 4 to whatever number you have so far.

Oh yeah, someone is paying for me. Now it would be a crime for me not to go. Expect me there.

Why are you rescheduling? That's lame.

Oh Smenendian, you spoil me 

I found out more about the event on the Source. $25 entry for a Pearl + mediocre prize support for the rest of the top 8 = we won't be able to make it. Maybe it will be worth the drive/entry when you guys hold another Lotus tournament.

The 22nd is my birthday. If Paul and Steve are willing to hoist me in the air and sing Hava Nagila, then I would be fine with a tournament on that day. 

Last place gets a Revised Tundra? So if you lose your first match you just drop to get a dual for $10?

Any weekend is fine. July 15th perhaps?

Team Sparkle Motion will be there

Nice job! I really like the list. How would you change it if you had to run it in a pre-Flash meta? I noticed the lack of the following cards, and was wondering your reasonings for omitting them:

Portent
Predict
Magma Jet
Fledgling Dragon
Tarmogoyf (I know it wasn't legal, but would you have run it over Bear?)
Sensei's Top/Counterbalance

Also, do you like Loaming Shaman in the SB? Or is Crypt a better choice?

I'm trying to make a list following your general theme, but with a few personal changes. I just wanted to get your input to help me shape my list. Thanks!

He had a sliver, and I had an Enforcer and a Grunt on the table with us both pretty much handless and him low on life. I wanted to kill him before he could get nutty with more slivers. I think I kept the Stifles in game 2 to LD his Fetches in the early game, or to pitch to FoW in the late game. I happened to find myself with two Stifles in my hand in the late game and no cards in either of our graveyards, so I decided Grunt could smash face for a couple more turns.


Very much so.

Thanks. Also, check out the DCI reporting. That's insane!

07-05-1232081, 20221 Columbus Trials 07: 2007-05-05   2   
8   Richard T. Stachurski   Win       1693
7   Zohar N. Bhagat           Win       1682
6   Gerry W. Thompson   Tie             1666
5   Steve Simon            Win        1663
4   Brian J. Keil                Win        1649
3   Nicholas M. Krall      Win          1639
2   Mike F. Haley             Win         1628
1   Sean L. Walsh            Loss        1617

1617 to 1693? DAMN!

I forgot that I haven't posted my report on the Drain yet. I promised the Creator I would post one here, so here goes:

On Sunday morning, my team (Jacob, Eric, Richard, and Anthony) made the almost 4 hour drive to Pittsburgh. Without our GPS navigator, we would have never made it. We got lost about ten times. Once we arrived, I saw several familiar faces, including Zohar Bhagat and Paul "Cot4" Mastriano. We settled in, and I made a couple savage trades before the tournament started.

Pairings came up, and we were notifed that we were at 36 people. The next step up in prize support kicked in at 37. Ugh, sometimes you get dicked. 

Round 1 - 4c Landstill AKA BHWC Landstill

I simply cannot beat Landstill with my Threshold list. I always put up a valiant fight, but I don't think I've ever beat them in a tournament. They have answers to EVERYTHING! Anyways, I drop good cards, he deals with them, while keeping insanely better CA. /lose

0-1

Round 2 - UGR Threshold (w/ Counterbalance & Top)

I don't think that the Counterbalance plan is very good. He was just never able to take control of the match. He lost before he got thresh game 1, and Jotun Grunt ripped his yard away game 2. I'm glad I've been ignoring people's advice to play the red splash.

1-1

Round 3 - Homebrew Combo (Griffin Canyon shenanigans)

I really admire my opponent's originality. He was really nice, and was having a great time playing his rogue combo deck, even though it's not that great. I easily wrecked him, but he did some cool stuff, and he gets props.

2-1

Round 4 - Faerie Stompy

Wow. These were some hardcore games. All I know is, he played Chalice for one and two game two and I still won the match 2-0. Krosan Gripping his Crypt while having 3 Mages naming Efreet, Drake, and Jitte is good, I hear. He also forgets to draw from his SoFaI twice game 2, and when he calls a judge, he gets a warning. I was assuming he was drawing from it, so it was news to me. Poor guy. He gave me a favorable trade after the event, so I'll always remember him fondly.

3-1

Round 5 - Hulk Flash

I've been testing against Hulk Flash a lot lately, and I own it with Threshold. Post FS, only Fish can beat it, but for now, Thresh owns it quite well. I ask a teammate what he's playing before the match starts, and although he doesn't hear me and tells me to "Stomp him", I interpret this as "Stompy". Thinking I'm playing some 9-land Stompy jank, I keep a hand with two StP and a Mongoose. I lose the first game handily.

After I realize what he's playing, I own him, but not before he drops three Massacre's in one turn. I managed to counter the first two, but a third came, and I could hear the angels singing behind him. Irrelevant though, I still won. Stifle is my best friend.

4-1

Round 6 - ID

Drawing this round would guarantee me a spot in the T8. We do. I'm happy.

4-1-1

Top 8 - Hulk Flash

I get matched up against my friend Zohar. Like the previous opponent, I just seem to win vs Hulk Flash. The deck needs to address the Thresh matchup if it plans on winning the GP.

Top 4 - Counterslivers AKA Meathooks

I have to play my teammate Richard. I consider scooping to him, because I feel like he has a better matchup vs the winner of the other game (Goblins vs Landstill). However, the idea of winning the event is very tempting. I shuffle up against my friend and play it out. I get early tempo both games and get pretty lucky with my topdecks (I had two guys out, no cards in hand, and 4 cards in my graveyard. I call a Mental Note off the top. Wins!!). I also Stifled my Jotun Grunt's upkeep two turns in a row to win game two.

Finals - Goblins

There's some controversy over what happened in the top 8 match between this guy and my teammate. Some people in attendance believe the goblins player misrepresented the game state and caused my teammate to lose. Others believe no foul play occured. The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. I'm not going to throw any accusations around, but I was hesitant to play against this guy.

I decided to split with him for several reasons. One, I literally got zero hours of sleep the night before, and I was very tired. Two, I was getting bored of Magic and wanted to go home to see my girlfriend Dana. Three, I either crush Goblins or get crushed by them. It wasn't worth the risk of not drawing Tivadar's Crusade and losing. Four, if I got the byes, my tiebreakers would keep matching me up against other people with byes, and I'm not good enough to roll with the professionals. I figure it would be easier to manually win all my rounds at the GP.

So we split and I got over a box and a half of packs. 60 boosters is insane! But still, if we had that 37th person, I would have won like 3 boxes, lol.

PROPS:
- Paul Mastriano, for being the most awesome dude ever.
- Team Lucksack, because we came *this* close to putting 4 out of 5 guys in the top 8, and we really should have put three guys in the top 4. Oh well, we had some old fashioned fun.
- Car rides, because they're absolutely hilarious.
- Meddling Mage, for earning the right to be in Threshold. I loved-ed you Pikula!!
- The store owner, for being honestly the nicest guy I think I've ever met.
- Zohar, for reminding me that Predict is the greatest card EVER against Hulk Flash.

SLOPS:
- The judges, because they kept having to look up simple rulings.
- Pittsburgh, for being further away that I thought.

LIST:
4 Tundra
4 Tropical Island
4 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
2 Island
1 Plains

4 Nimble Mongoose
4 Werebear
4 Meddling Mage
1 Mystic Enforcer

4 Force of Will
3 Counterspell
3 Daze
3 Stifle
4 Brainstorm
4 Serum Visions
4 Mental Note
4 Swords to Plowshares

SB:
4 Hydroblast
3 Tivadar's Crusade
3 Jotun Grunt
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Krosan Grip
1 Mystic Enforcer


Anyways, I'm very glad with how Threshold performed. It kept the streak of Top 8's alive (I've never taken Thresh to a tourney and not Top 8'd). I think I'm going to take Zohar's advice and test the Predicts over Note. They own Hulk Flash's face even more!

Kyle