In looking at the Mud lists that dominated the tourney, I think that they both made the right choice in cutting black lotus.

They had to make room for 4 serum powders to assure a fast opening hand that would control thier opponent.
What to cut?  Chalices,Thorns,Crucibles,Trinisphere,Kegs,Stacks,Golems,Wires,Vault or Lotus.

What opening hands do you wish to get constantly?  Workshop and lock (or) Lotus and lock.

     Hi everyone, this is my 1st attempt to write a tourney report. With what little skill and memory that I have left I ask for your forgiveness in any errors and misquotes that might occur, Thank you.

     First, off I like to thank my friend Jerry Yang for all the hours spent play testing and discussing the game of magic. His love for this game truly matches mine. He has helped me the most in developing as a player. Also, thanks to my brother for introducing me to this game in 1998/1999 and hopefully he returns to playing.

     Second I want to thank all the Team Serious members for there love of the game and the many hours of testing, playing, and discussing. You included Bob Davis.

     Thirdly, thanks to all the top players for there encouragement in playing this game. I wish not to name you all for fear of forgetting just one name. But you know who you are and thank you very much.

     So off we head to the Gencon Wend. Jerry is the driver this time. We try to figure what decks to play and when, and which places we are going to eat at!!!!! After arriving and standing in line for hours to register we realize that Matt Hazard was very wise to pre-reg and next year that’s what we’ll do. Then we head off to Acapulco Joe’s for dinner which Nat Moes suggested.  The food was pretty good and priced reasonably. Jerry decides to blow up the Team Serious board with humor of us all getting anal leakage after eating there.

    Thursday arrives and I let Hazmatt use my Merfolk deck for pre-lim legacy. It was already sleeved so he didn’t have to put one together. By the way he did top 8. I was planning to play my Red Shop Aggro deck this evening but I asked Jeremy what he was playing and he said that he wasn’t playing and didn’t want to reveal any tech. So I decided to play my Mud deck from Steel City with a few changes and keep the Red Shop off the radar. Jerry and I head off to Houlihan’s for dinner and bring back leftovers for Matt who was still playing legacy. Also after the tourney starts I find out that Jerry is playing the Steel City Vault.

Finally Pre-lim starts:

Round 1     win 2/1      Doyle Bledsoe ----Bob Tendrils
We split the first 2 games which I don’t remember much. The third game Drew starts off with fetch for swamp, dark rit, black lotus, strategic plan, mox jet, mystical for will, then tendrils for12. I’m at 8 and he’s at 31. I play shop then thorn pass. He drops sea then pass. I waste play metalworker pass he plays mox and passes. I play trike karn tomb and eat moxen. He draws nothing and next turn I swing for 10. He draws no land again and then scoops. At the end of game I point out to him it would have been nice if he mystical before the planning which I thought he kept from the planning, cause that could’ve been a 1st turn kill. He says OMG I got the mox off planning. Luck was on my side.

Round 2   win 2/0      Chris Boomer ----Oath
Both games I locked him out with Chalice/waste/spheres for win with my creature beat down. I ask what he was playing and then he showed me the oath

Round 3    win 2/0      Mattea Alberati ----TPS I think
Game 1 he plays remora then pass. I strip and pass. He lands and passes. I play shop and metalworker and pass. He lands and passes. I waste and play staff for win.
Game 2 he plays a Bob and I waste and play lock pieces still I beat down for the win.

Round 4   lose 2/1      Dave Williams ----Tezzerett
Game 1 the hand looks good but I draw all mana sources mostly. What few threats I play Dave takes care of and eventually tinkers Inkwell for the win.
Game 2 I get some early lock pieces and small threats and again draw a lot of mana sources but thankfully his deck poops on him too. I eventually beat down with factories for the win.
Game 3 Dave plays mox and jet and pass. I play land and lock piece which Dave forces and I pass but he vamps for mox or tinker and precedes to his turn. He tinkers for Inkwell for the win.

Round 5    win 2/1       Valerio Passeri ---Mud
Game 1 I combo for the fast win.
Game 2 He Locks me and beats for the win.
Game 3 I play metalworker and empty hand for quick beat down.

Round 6    Draw 1/1/1     Bernie Parisi-----5color stax
In the standings I’m in 5th and he is in 6th and the top 4 draw in. Bernie and I both think that we have to play or else we’re both out.
Game 1 Bernie plays a land and sphere and pass. I play waste and mox and pass. He plays land and sphere 2 and pass. I play tomb and ravager and pass. He wastes both my lands and keeps me lock from lands and never answers the ravager for the rest of game.
Game 2 Bernie establishes a light lock with 2 welders and tangle wires. I do my best to stay in the game but am always a mana or permanent short. The game takes the majority of the clock but he finally wins the race and beats with welders.
Game 3 I get a fast start and just don’t have enough turns to win and it ends in a draw.

When the standings come out I make the top 8 and Bernie gets 9th I think.


Round 7    win 2/1     Manuel Fernandez-----Mud
Game 1 he wins very quickly.
Game 2 He beats me down to 10 but I stabilize with tangle wire and stacks because he lacks permanents. Then beat down with trike and metalworker for win.
Game 3 I mull to 5 and he mulls to 6. He leads off with a 1st turn shop black lotus mox  razor mane and thorn . I play shop and pass. He discards smashes for 5 and passes. I play shop and pass. He discards and swings for 5 and pass. I draw trike Yeah, play factory Crypt Trike and ravager and pass. He discards and shoots trike and I block with ravager sack crypt and ravager dies with 2 mods going to trike. He passes. I play waste on his shop and swing for 6 and pass. He discards and then I shoot his razor mane. He draws and passes. I play land and swing with trike as a 1/1 for the next 7 turns as both Manuel is locked under his thorn and I don’t play another threat till then and finally win.

Round 8    win 2/0      Mitchell Gardenier------Painters?
Game 1 Mitch mulls to 6 and I start with lock pieces turn 1 and metal worker on turn 2. Turn 3 I empty hand and game ends quickly.
Game 2 Mitch mulls to 4 or 5 plays land and pass. I follow same route as game 1 and the game ends very quick.

Final round it’s late and Steve Houdlette wants the Vault box and we agree that He gets what he wants and I get the Byes. It must be 4 or 5 in the morning, Twaun and Jimmy waited to see the finish and we all head back to the hotel. Before I know we are all at breakfast at 10am. I ask everyone at the table what I should play because I intended to play my Red Shop Aggro deck for Champs. The majority said I should stick with the same one as Pre-lims and Jimmy was adamant as to me playing it. Decision made Mud it was and off to sign up by 11:00am.

The tourney starts on time and I happy I get to go take a nap and rest this old body for the first 2 rounds. I get back to the site just in time to start playing.

Round 1  Bye  My opponent lets me sleep

Round 2  Bye  ZZZZZZZZZZZZ

Round 3    win 2/0     Chad Behre----- Null Fish
Game 1 Chad gets a couple Confidants in play in the first few turns and I resolve Metalworker and empty hand of trike and karn. I ping the Bobs and smash for the win.
Game 2 Chad gets 2 Bobs on line followed by null rod which locks us both out of mana in between all the waste effects. Needless to say the 2 Bobs decided to help me win the match by doing all 20 points of damage to Chad for me in just 5 turns.

Round 4   loss 2/0     Jesse Speers----Painters
Game 1   Jesse sculpts his hand while I smash him down to about 4 life. Then he combo’s for the win and decks me.
Game 2   Jesse combos early but I have the blessing to survive and he changes to aggro mode and takes me down. I was mana flooded and just couldn’t get there.

Round 5   win 2/1    Paul Mastriano------Steel City Vault
Game 1  I mull to 6 and wittle his life total to 9 before Paul shows me the POWER of the Vault and Wins.
Game 2   Paul mulls to 5 but all my lock pieces don’t allow him to recover to get back in the game. Within 12 turns the game is over.
Game 3   Paul mulls to 6 this game but, still dominates the beginning with all his artifact hate. Finally by about the 7th turn I land a Jester’s Cap and snatch all his win conditions. The factories go for the win.

Round 6   win 2/0   Todd Taylor------Red Shops
Game 1   We get a deck check and about 27 minutes later we can start our first match with 25 minute extension. The judges ruled that Todd’s sleeves were a problem and He got a game loss. Todd was completely on tilt.
Game 2   Todd starts with shop crucible pass. I play shop Metal worker pass. He plays a tangle wire and wastes my shop. I am locked under 3  wires for a few turns then finally get to start a turn with a active metal worker and drop my hand for the win.

Round 7    ID with Brandon Jones and we both make it in to the top 8!!!!!!!!!

Round 8   loss 1/2     Itou Hiromichi----Tezz
These games were podcast live!!!!!
Fantastic tournament!!!!!!! 

Congrats to the new World Champion  Itou Hiromichi !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the fast posting Ben. You always run great tourneys.

Just curious about Hellkite Overlord. When did this card become legal to play? I thought it was being printed in Shards of Alara.

What happened to all the Ohio players? Did they show up?

That deck looks like fun. I will build it to play this Wend. coming up. I will offer it to your teammate Nam Tran to play and test with. I am so fortunate that I get to play test against Nam because he lives so close. If he decide not to play it , then I will play it.  I'll post my / his results for you. Again thank you for your insight.

It would be so cool if you could make the Pittsburg tourny on Aug. 30Th.  Three reason for you to show up   1) None of us get the chance to play against DT   2) None of us had the chance to play against the play skill of you with DT and  3)You are only three hours away.  I think you would add another dimension for the Ohio crew and Meandeck crew to test against. I can say for all of us it would be a blast .

 PS :Primanti Brothers for dinner after .SOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!!

Hey Jimmy you are one of the greatest. Thank you for that link!!!

Rikimaru75: That deck list looks really good. Let me know how the gifts ungiven and night whispers work for you.
The memnarch plan against shop is so sweet. Test it and let me know watch you think. The reason I ran the thirst for knowledge was to filter thru my cards to set up the combo. Please let me know how your testing is going.

Rich Shay suggested splashing red for welders and Mindslaver to call it" slaver the moment". This would  be another form of a slaver deck, which is a great idea.. He also suggested changing personal tutor for ponder, which is a great idea .Because of his thoughts I also thought of switchting to 4 impulse and only 3 thirst to filter faster thru the deck. Thank you Rich for your helpful insight.

I couldn't reply to your email.

Hi Cody ,How have you been? The Serra is in there because she the only blue creature that works with savor the moment. I go to every event that I have a chance to. I will be attending Pittsburg on Aug. 30Th with Jerry and the Ohio crew and maybe RIW in Detroit on the Aug. 31st. Also we are trying to do a back to back tourney between Cleveland and Sandusky in Sept.. I hope to see you at one of these events soon. Keep smashing the south with DT, it's such a sweet deck!

PS: next time I will attack with welder!!!

Thank you for your interest in testing. This is very true for the deck because all good opponents do not want to loose to the combo. (Infinite turns so humiliating) They will do anything to prevent your combo, so the resiliency to win another way is clutch.  If would read Jimmy's (lord homercat) article on his success at Vintage champs you will find out that the majority of his wins were via a different route than mindslaver.(Infinite turns so humiliating)  Nobody likes to lose that way so they focus on preventing it.This concept is also true when the good LONG or SLAVER players face off.

Time Vault is a good thought but it would add another unnecessary piece to the combo.

Also if your meta is heavy shops a good sideboard option would be to include Memnarch. Sooooo sweet to steal there artifacts!!!!

Cody this was a very good article. Thank you for all your insight. Your point #8 is a very insightful gem.((((8) Be able to write down all 75 cards in your deck without any trouble))))))   The great players such as Steve ,Rich, Brian, Jimmy and Paul adhere to this concept religiously.

PS: This list was not exclusive , there are many others that can be added in!!