I'm really sad I can't make this, but I wanted to say that I am extremely impressed by the prize support for this event and I am rooting for you to get a huge turnout. Hopefully I can make one of your events early next year

Good luck!!!

this should be my first tourney in over a year. i am looking forward to it!

i havent played a game of type 1 since the top four of the august blue bell, but assuming i can find a place that installs a carseat on a weekday i will be able to make this! it's going to be my last chance to play in a tourney for a while, so i am excited.

last i heard nick coss (flash) and AJ Grasso (Gush tendrils) had both made top 4

I started 4-0 then drew the next two rounds. Swiss is kind of a blur. I know I played against Flash in the Top 8 and in Swiss. In the swiss, I got lucky twice. The first time he played flash was around turn 4. I had an active welder and a jar in the yard, so I jarred in response. In additon to not finding a Hulk he also lost 2 poison slivers. In game 2 he needed to use a pact to resolve a flash. he had 2 poison slivers in his hand, so i only took 8 (he played 2 haste sliver). Then he died on his next upkeep. In the top 8 match he beat me game 1, but I had insane draws game 2 and 3 that involved lotus, card drawing, and turn 1 sphere.
This was 100% luck and generally Flash is a horrid matchup

I dont remember the rest of my swiss rounds, except that 2sphere came in every round (except against Ray obviously). I dont know if i won a game 1 all day, but I do know every time I drew a sphere I won. I cannot say enough about how important that card is. I probably should have played leylines, but I had fun fooling opponents into siding in dead card answers to it. I like the matchup vs gush decks (with the spheres, submerges, and extirpates) and shop decks. I think I also beat a bomberman deck and I assume sphere was key there too

In top 4 we did a split on the sapphire and played it out for the Taiga and duals. Game 1 vs Jeremy I kept a hand I definately should have mulled but didn't because I overvalued Library in the matchup. Game 2 I won with sphere and a hardcast slaver. Game 3 I mulled down to 5 and fell way behind in card advantage when he resolved ancestral and maybe a fact or fiction... and I still had a chance to get back into the game if I could have drawn a black source to Extirpate gush after he vampiric tutored (for will). Either way though, I never mind losing to Jeremey. He is on an absolute tear right now.


This tourney was fun and I always look forward to Blue Bells because I enjoy everybody I play against. However, I really disliked the new location. It was incredibly hot and loud, and I don't know how much I want to play there in the future. I know Mike is in a pinch because he can no longer host tourneys at the college, but hopefully he can find somewhere better.

I haven't seen deck lists or anything, but just from walking around the room I would be shocked if more than 1/3 of the room had leyline. I don't recall seeing more than 2 out the entire day. At the last Blue Bell I think there was only 1 flash deck, so I dont think any of us expected 7 at this one. oops.

I twice lost to flash within the first 2 turns with double force in my hand. In the side event tourney, I only had one turn in two games. The deck is crazy when you don't have leyline to stop it

Awesome job Shawn. It was fun getting your updates throughout the day and I am glad we could help with the Bomberman match!


I think it's more of a "Holy crap where did this kid come from" than a hot streak. Shawn only started playing magic during Rav block and I dont think he's even been playing type 1 for a year yet. It's amazing that he is doing so consistently well this quickly.

Mike-
I'd prefer good prizes for 1st and 2nd then smaller prizes for all of the top 8. Honestly though, I'm gonna come no matter what the prize structure is because it's a Type 1 tournament thats always fun.

Also, I am going to repeat this because it was cool the first time you had it

Khahan (or Mike if you read this)
I know this has been said before, but the only flaw I see with the Blue Bell tourneys is a lack of a head judge. Especially as the attendence grows I think we really need somebody with some kind of authority to make rulings, etc...

I also think you should bring back the Type 1 side event. If people are really going to continue to travel from long distances, it would be cool to have another chance to play if you scrub out

Shawn I only played 3 drains. You probably didnt notice that because it was really stupid and totally wrong

Good job on the finish and nice report!

Thirst during my upkeep to surprise pay Grunt won me at least 2 games at Waterbury and possibly a 3rd

How did you like the E-tutor and artifacts? And how was null rod? The deck is so mana light that I am always sad to see it on the other side, so I am surprised you would want to play it.

Did you ever miss the drains? I really like having those extra counters and rarely have ever not been able to use the mana

Why was Mana Vault excluded from this deck? Did Dark Ritual directly take its place or was that choice separate from not playing Vault? Is it ever something you miss having?

Its Sigman, but thats ok. I think Colby messed it up somewhere too.

I really want to echo Dave's thoughts here. Like Dave I was playing Meddling Mage and was given a HUGE advantage (especially in my 2 matches in the losers bracket), but I also feel that I lost some of that advantage when people were able to see I had no Trickbind, see my count of stifles, drains, and e-truths main, etc...
I understand that the judges were just trying to make scouting more fair, but I think in the end it becomes unfair to the players who work hard tuning their lists to have that element of surprise that makes Magic so interesting.

Dave, thanks for the always entertaining report and congrats on yet another T8

I look more like I am napping than analyzing the game state

These tournaments are always a blast.  One day i will actually break my recent habbit of not losing a game in swiss only to get slaughtered in the 1st single elim round, but even so its still fun. Congrats to Tom for splitting in the finals in only his 2nd tournament in the format!

I played EBA (not ubw fish) with lots of echoing truths (everybody loves Etw) and Grunts in the Negator slot. I think it was a good choice because of the amount of drain decks that generally show up at Montco, but I did not realize just how bad the Ichorid matchup was.