C&J's tourney report (a quicky)

[NaClhv]

C&J's in Newark, California has a type 1 tournament every Thursday night.  It's free and sanctioned.  If anyone is in the SF bay area, they should check it out.

This time, we only had 3 rounds, so this will be a pretty quick report.  

Round 1:  Sean playing a type 2 madness deck.
Games 1 and 3, I don't remember much.  I get tax/rack going, then win.  I do remember saying "I rack for 11" or "I rack for 7" several times, though.  I also remember a couple of time walk - regrowth time walk - yawgwill time walk plays, tax/racking all the while.
Game 2, I actually lost.  Somehow, I faced a basking rootwalla, and couldn't deal with it.  I think I made a ton of mistakes in this game, as I simply couldn't think of a way to deal with that rootwalla efficiently.

Round 2:  David playing suicide black.
In the first game, my deck completely melts down on me.  There were a series of maybe 5 or so turns, where I needed to just topdeck a 5 color mana source.  Eventually, I manage to finally get a city of brass - when I was already at 1 life.
In the second game, I have 2 land taxes, David has 2 dystopicas, but I have a FoW.  So, in the end, one land tax makes it onto, and stays on, the table.  Eventually I get tax/rack going, and win.
In the third game, my deck makes up for the horrendous performance of the first game.  I start with plains, land tax, mox diamond, ancestral recall - all with FoW backup.  Next turn, I cast time walk, then on the time walk turn, I mind twist.  That was one of the nicer openings that I had with my deck.

Round 3:  John playing suicide black
I note that suicide black seems to be a popular deck at C&J's nowadays.  I may have to adjust my deck accordingly.
I don't remember much about the first game.  But I seem to have established tax-rack somewhere, and won the game with a mystic enforcer.
In the second game, John plays a null rod, which shuts down my mox pearl and scroll rack.  For a while, I had a devout witness but no white source to kill the null rod with.  Eventually the devout witness gets edicted.  After a frustrating series of topdecks, I lose.
In the third game, my deck once again makes up for its poor earlier performance (in this case, game 2) by going absolutely nuts.  I open with mox pearl, mox sapphire, undiscovered paradise, tax, rack.  That's first turn tax-rack, with no lands on the table at the beginning of my second turn's upkeep.  I follow it up with a meddling mage naming null rod, and win from there.  There was a time walk-regrowth time walk-yawgwill time walk sequence in the process of winning, which made the game wrap up quickly (in terms of the number of turns, not in terms of total time taken) after I gained control.

So I get 1st place once again with ABM.  This makes it so that my sanctioned tournament record with A Beautiful Mind is now 19 wins, 4 losses, 3 ties.  Clearly, A Beautiful Mind is proving itself to be one of the best decks in type 1.

For reference, this is my decklist.

5 plains
5 islands
2 undiscovered paradise
2 city of brass
2 gemstone mine
1 city of traitors
1 library of alexandria
1 mox pearl
1 mox sapphire
1 mox diamond
1 sol ring

4 land tax
3 scroll rack
1 trade routes
1 zuran orb

1 ancestral recall
1 fact or fiction
1 time walk
1 balance
1 demonic tutor
1 mystical tutor
1 yawgmoth's will
1 regrowth
1 mind twist
1 merchant scroll

2 meddling mage
2 devout witness
2 whirlpool warrior
2 mystic enforcer
1 gorilla shaman

4 force of will
1 misdirection
2 back to basics
1 powder keg
1 fire/ice
1 swords to plowshares

60 cards total

Sideboard:
1 misdirection
1 powder keg
2 back to basics
2 seal of cleansing
2 meddling mage
3 swords to plowshares
1 tormod's crypt
2 extract
1 orim's chant

[MikeR-]

Quote (NaClhv @ Dec. 20 2002,03:27)So I get 1st place once again with ABM.  This makes it so that my sanctioned tournament record with A Beautiful Mind is now 19 wins, 4 losses, 3 ties.  Clearly, A Beautiful Mind is proving itself to be one of the best decks in type 1.

i think since u only play in a certain area, calling the deck one of the "best" in a format is quite narrow... Seeing that u are the only person posting any type of wins, and reading ur last report before this one, the competition doesnt seem to sturdy...now if u went into the Mana Drain inviatational, or a NeutraL Ground event and won some sort of significant tourney other than 3 rd casual sessions..then maybe u could go make those claims...

thats just my 2 cents.

roche-

     
Fear the Goat Ninjas...

[Fishhead]

Quote Seeing that u are the only person posting any type of wins, and reading ur last report before this one, the competition doesnt seem to sturdy...

I believe MattDog has won his area twice in a row with an ABM build, yes?  

Also, while the competition hasnt been at its peak for the last couple weeks (heck, its december, Xmas is here, of course the turnout is thin) NaChlv's many previous reports show him beating a good cross section of top-tier decks.  That 19-4-3 record is way inflated by beating up on bad decks, but he has a decent record against good decks and good players as well.

As for the comment about Neutral Ground; I thought that scene has been dead for 9 months now?!  Why do people keep talking about Neutral Ground?  Certainly the reports I see sporadically posted from there are more pathetic that the christmas-decimated metagame I see in this report! Lol.

[Mattdog]

Well done again and some times it happens when you lose to a T2 Deck yes this shouldn;t happen but it can happen do to a strong game one and keeping a bad hand for game two thinking "I Rocked him last game I'll draw into goodness;
I was wondering how is extract working for you and Chant? What matches are they good in?

Have you tested any of the wishes? I play the Cunning wish and it works wonders.

Also I was thinking of playing a Solo Swamp in the deck for when I land tax have you done any testing of this kind? It might fix the sometimes, long weights the deck haves to draw in to a 5c land.

Congratz, for the win and Keeping the deck alive.

And to all those who don't think that this is a deck to contend with, in DCI events I'm
32-5-1 in games with the deck and I have played Vs. fully power Keeper decks to Academy.

     

EDIT:

Quote I believe MattDog has won his area twice in a row with an ABM build, yes?  

Actualy its up to 3 times in a row!

[NaClhv]

Timw also has a 1st place finish under his belt with ABM.  And Psyduck says that online (for what that's worth), he has a virtually flawless record.

I don't think that the 19-4-3 record is inflated.  At least, not way inflated.  In a tournament, you expect to have some free wins, and you expect to have some tough matches.  I've had maybe 2 free wins in the last 2 tournaments, which is about what I'd expect.  If you didn't count those, then my record would be artificially de-flated, since it wouldn't represent the typical one or so wins that you'd get for free at a typical tournament.

Oh, and now that I think about it, I got a bye recently too.  So that's an inflation.  But out of 26 matches, one is expected to get a bye.

Anyway, fishhead, I probably won't be seening you until next year, with Christmas upon us and all.  But next semester, Leshrac shouldn't have band duties anymore, and I'll try to make FNM more often too.  I think we can all look forward to it.

Mattdog:  Thanks.  And you know, I wanted to test the wish, but for the life of me I cannot trade for a cunning wish.  (but I recently picked up a berserk and a bazaar of bagdad, so I'm pretty happy about that.)  As soon as I get one, I'm going to test it.

Chant, I side in versus mono-U.  Extracts should be good against academy and turboland, if I understand those decks correctly.  Unfortuantely, I haven't had the chance to play against those decks recently.

Oh, and where in the country is Crazy Cards & Comics?

[Mattdog]

Crazzys is just outside of Chicago. If you ever in town and looking for a T1 game just stop in.

[MikeR-]

when i get my car back in order..maybe team goat will road trip

roche-

[Fishhead]

Quote In a tournament, you expect to have some free wins, and you expect to have some tough matches.

Heres what I am trying to say.  Lets say that DeckX is truly 40/60 against the top decks in T1.  But I go to every week to a 4 round tourney where, generally, two rounds are against second tier decks or players.  For simplicity, assume I autowin these rounds; then I go 40/60 whenever I play the big dogs.  So, after 25 games, I have a relatively decent looking 18-7 lifetime record, despite having a substandard deck.  

The record, in that case, is inflated from the true 40/60 to something that looks more like 72/28.  I agree with you though that good pairings and good luck (along with bad pairings and bad luck) are just parts of tournament life, but I wanted to point out why to take the 19-4-3 numbers with a grain of salt.  

On the other hand, NaClhv has been forthright enough to put pretty much every one of his tournament experiences up here for the rest of us to see and critique.  That shows an intellectual honesty that a lot of people who criticized ABM havent matched.  For instance, I've seen people on this board claim to be experts in Keeper, TnT and Zoo; and I've never seen a tournament report from them or even someone who knows them.  Lol.  Whereas if you've been following the ABM saga, you know exactly what has been achieved with the deck over the last year or so.

Quote ...but for the life of me I cannot trade for a cunning wish.  

I have a spare one.  My current want list includes Visera, Dreadnaught, Glory and Tainted Pact among others.  Perhaps after the holidays...

[NaClhv]

Quote
Heres what I am trying to say.  Lets say that DeckX is truly 40/60 against the top decks in T1.  But I go to every week to a 4 round tourney where, generally, two rounds are against second tier decks or players.  For simplicity, assume I autowin these rounds; then I go 40/60 whenever I play the big dogs.  So, after 25 games, I have a relatively decent looking 18-7 lifetime record, despite having a substandard deck.  

The record, in that case, is inflated from the true 40/60 to something that looks more like 72/28.  I agree with you though that good pairings and good luck (along with bad pairings and bad luck) are just parts of tournament life, but I wanted to point out why to take the 19-4-3 numbers with a grain of salt.  

That's certainly true.  I'm certainly not saying that I have a 80+% win ratio against other top decks in t1 (which the 19-4 would indicate).  But as long as we keep clear what's a tournament record, and what's a win ratio vs. other decks, I think we're safe.