ToC 6 Top 8 report

I ended up 2nd seed at 5-0-1. Not bad considering the poor outcome most people predicted for Sui at the start of this tournament. On the other hand, with 7 Sui decks in the tourney one was bound to get good pairings/draws. On yet another hand, I don't think I had easy opponents. 3 of my opponents ended up in the Top 8 and my tie breakers were sky high (around 80%). A brief recap (my round reports are on the board).

Round 1: def. wuaffiliate's reanimator 2-0
Round 2: def. someone's (sorry) Nether Void 2-1
Round 3: def. Psyduck's ducktape 2-1
Round 4: def. Radagast's U/B keeper redux 2-0
Round 5: vs Keeper, they drop before we play, default win
Round 6: ID with Matt (I wanted to play since we were both in Top 5 no matter what but it turned out he wanted to draw and I ended up very busy that week so a draw was best for me as well in the end. I wouldn't have forced someone to play who really wanted to draw, you should have told me at the start Matt!)

Quarters vs. kirikiyamura (sp?) and his Keeper.

Game 1: I win the roll and open a hand of Swampx2, Wasteland, Lotus, Hymn, Edict, Will. What an absolutely great hand...if I had a threat in it. I have a lot of creatures but I think it would be insane to keep that hand and assume there were a couple threats in the top 2 or 3 cards of my library. I throw it back and get 6 cards with no land or jewellry. Crud. The 5 card hand is about as good as I can hope for from a double mull (2 Swamp, Duress, Hymn, Hyppie) but if Ancestral is good for U, how good it is when you let keeper cast it for free? I'm not optimistic. I Duress and take a Mana Drain (over Time Walk, Lotus, or Sylvan and land). In retrospect, the Sylvan would have been a better choice since the Hymn likely would have draw the Drain so my Hyppie might have had a chance. He walk's and drops Sylvan with the Lotus and land, drops another land and passes back. I hymn two land away. He then Will's (or maybe it was next turn) and gets an Abyss from Lotus mana. Shiiiiiit. Down to 3 Warbeasts as a win condition and no cards in hand. So you lost that game right? Christ yes, but I did make it a little bit interesting.
I am ready to pack it in right then and there but I peel Necro. Well, I guess that is about the only card that could give me a chance right now. I drop it and it resolves (he only has 1, maybe 2 cards in hand anyway although he has Sylvan). I Necro for a pile over the next couple turns and do manage to get 2 Warbeasts, A Negator and a Shade down, planning to sac Gator so the Shade and fatbeasts can come in for some love next turn. I am tapped out though and he Fire/Ices the shade for 1 and Gator for 1. A curious play given that with the Shade gone, the Gator dies to Abyss so why not do 1 to me? Furthermore, I was down to about 6 from heavy necroing, so I was happy to sac my Necro to the Gator at that point so I could keep drawing cards. It doesn't matter anyway, I get in a hit or two with Warbeasts but he plows one and hits me with a crushing balance (he had a zorb out). I knew I was walking into a balance but I had no choice with Abyss out.

Side out 2 Edicts and Vampiric, Side in 1 Warbeast, 2 Masticore. My reasoning was the Edicts are dead since if Morphling hits I'm losing anyway and he was siding in a COP black as well as Abyss so colourless damage was a good thing. Perhaps an over reaction.

Game 2: I have to mulligan another no swamp hand away but I get an excellent 6 card hand of Swamp, Ritual, Wasteland, Duress, Shade, Negator. I ritual, Duress (hit Plow, leaving not much else) Shade. Next turn, draw another wasteland, Waste his land, hit for 3. Draw a Swamp, drop other wasteland, waste his land, hit for 3. He lays land, I drop swamp, hit for 2 and drop another Shade. He plows one, but the other finishes him off with a couple hits for 5.

Game 3: I keep a hand of land, Hyppie, Negator, Consult. I am a little fuzzy on how this went but he dropped turn 2 (or maybe turn 1) Cop: Black and then an early Abyss via mana drain mana. So now I'm staring at Cop: Black and Abyss? Even worse than game 1 but this time he has missed a land drop and I wasteland one land so I might have a chance. I tutor for Necro and fill my hand again. I drop some Shade and Gator and he does the same Fire/Ice of one to each with Abyss on the table. I still don't get it. However I get to drop a 'Core next turn and it hits two or three times and I start to think I might steal this one when he Will's and gets a Plow and some other good stuff off and then drops Morphie. I actually get out 2 Warbeasts again and a Shade and a Hyppie with insane necroing but it puts me low and I can't punch past the tag team of Abyss AND Cop: Black AND Morphling for the last damage (he was down to 2 I think) before Morphling finishes me. I saw a Consult and Demonic Tutor, so if I had left even ONE edict in I would have won that game anyway since I could have gotten Morphling out of the way.

It was a good match and good tournament. Interestingly you may note that I got Necro on the table in games 1 and 3 vs keeper and lost those games, while winning the game I didn't get necro. Heh. A testament to my bad play (or bad sideboarding anyway).

All my opponents were polite and a pleasure to play against, I hope to make the next ToC as well.

Tony