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This seemed like one of the most competitive tournaments in the history of Vintage. There were most of the best Vintage personalities in North America present and many other very competent players. To make the final table in this event, never mind winning it all, was quite a feat. Many well known players were absent from the final tables in the later rounds. That's just a testament to how strong the field was.
The Canadians got a good, old fashioned shit kicking at this event. It was quite a beating. I went 0-2 drop and then went to sleep in the one of the vacant rooms, as I had been awake all night driving. When I woke up, a group of the Canadians came up to the room and it was 8:30pm. Peter O went 1-2 drop, Lam Phan went 2-2 drop, and Dave Caplan went something like 3-2 drop. Sad times.
I played UR Landstill, which, according to the Top 8, was an absolute gem of a metagame choice. Unfortunately, Ichorid placed highly in the prelims, which seemed bad for me, but I decided to play it anyways. So yeah, I was paired against Ichorid in Round 1, which pretty much implied doom for the rest of my day. I remember losing the first round in last year's championships and then winning 6 straight to make the final table, but the odds of that happening twice in a row seemed very unlikely. What made things worse was that I was paired against Chris Nighbor in the first round, so any hopes of my opponent misplaying and giving me a window of opportunity pretty much vanished. Interestingly enough, I drew an almost god-hand in the first game, but even with the perfect "anti ichorid" hand, I would still need at least one misplay on my opponent's behalf to win. Chris made every point of damage count, dredged and therapied at all the appropriate times, and eked out what was a very losable game for him. I have to give him props for that, because I'm fairly certain 9/10 Ichorid players would have lost that game. Game two was an absolute wash, which is generally the case in that matchup. Props also go to Brain Demars for not losing his cool at the final table when it looked likely that judge shenanigans were about to ruin his day. What nonsense. Thankfully, it didn't happen because Brian was ever the patient diplomat.
Congrats to the entire Top 8, and an extra congrats to Paul for taking it down. You gots you a meeeeeeeeeeeean deck there sir
The Canadians got a good, old fashioned shit kicking at this event. It was quite a beating. I went 0-2 drop and then went to sleep in the one of the vacant rooms, as I had been awake all night driving. When I woke up, a group of the Canadians came up to the room and it was 8:30pm. Peter O went 1-2 drop, Lam Phan went 2-2 drop, and Dave Caplan went something like 3-2 drop. Sad times.
I played UR Landstill, which, according to the Top 8, was an absolute gem of a metagame choice. Unfortunately, Ichorid placed highly in the prelims, which seemed bad for me, but I decided to play it anyways. So yeah, I was paired against Ichorid in Round 1, which pretty much implied doom for the rest of my day. I remember losing the first round in last year's championships and then winning 6 straight to make the final table, but the odds of that happening twice in a row seemed very unlikely. What made things worse was that I was paired against Chris Nighbor in the first round, so any hopes of my opponent misplaying and giving me a window of opportunity pretty much vanished. Interestingly enough, I drew an almost god-hand in the first game, but even with the perfect "anti ichorid" hand, I would still need at least one misplay on my opponent's behalf to win. Chris made every point of damage count, dredged and therapied at all the appropriate times, and eked out what was a very losable game for him. I have to give him props for that, because I'm fairly certain 9/10 Ichorid players would have lost that game. Game two was an absolute wash, which is generally the case in that matchup. Props also go to Brain Demars for not losing his cool at the final table when it looked likely that judge shenanigans were about to ruin his day. What nonsense. Thankfully, it didn't happen because Brian was ever the patient diplomat.
Congrats to the entire Top 8, and an extra congrats to Paul for taking it down. You gots you a meeeeeeeeeeeean deck there sir
UR Landstill seems good.. how did your list look?
