[Report] Making Top 8 in Maine

Alas, my last tournament on this side of the country.

Farewell, East coast, I hardly knew ye.

In any case, I managed to go out with somewhat of a bang... well, I guess it was less of a "bang" and more of a "pop" or something along those lines.

So, without further adieu...

Pre-tourney antics:
Four of us had planned on going: myself, John, Chris, and Matt. John was the main reason we had decided to make the trek, but the previous night, when we got together to "playtest" (i. e. make fun of Chamberlain and not sleep at all), we questioned ourselves as to whether or not we really wanted to do this. To be honest, I really doubted that it was going to happen; we were going to wake up late or wake up and not care.

Lo and behond, however, we woke up and were out the door in a rather timely fashion at roughly 7:30.

For some reason, I'm thinking: "Wow, Maine is pretty far North, eh?" I expected that, as soon as we reached the "Welcome to Maine" sign, it would become a brisk 30 degrees and the car would begin to swerve on the fleshly falled snow that was packed into the pavement.

The weather was awesome, though. A good ride, without a doubt.

Nearly four hours later (I drove), we arrive on site at "Choose Your Own Adventure Games." I must say, this was a pretty awesome place. Very unique and simply a cool place to play, not to mention the excellent staff and judge.

We quickly filled out some deck-reg forms (except John, he e-mailed his... who does that?).

This is what I played:

Deck: (no name... yet)
4 Flooded Strand
4 Scrubland
3 Swamp
3 Plains
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
3 Ancient Tomb

4 Juggernaut
4 Exalted Angel
2 Sword of Fire and Ice

1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Duress
1 Mind Twist

4 Nevinyrral's Disk
3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Vindicate
1 Balance

1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
4 Night's Whisper
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Sideboard:
1 Swords to Plowshares
2 Diabolic Edict
2 Perish
2 Unmask
2 Rule of Law (proxies)
3 Disenchant
3 Planar Void

It's a sort of B/W control that I've been working on for a few weeks. So far, it has proven to be very cool.

NOTE: I apologize profusely, but I don't remember anyone's names except for the person I met in the Top 8. I don't know why, but I can't recall a single bloody one. Please, if you read this, remind me of your name via PM or something so I can fix it. Again, I apologize, and thank you.

Round 1: Versus Four Color Control

Game 1: He simply doesn't see enough mana sources and I'm able to take this one.

Game 2: This was one of the coolest games I've ever played. I got a pretty excellent draw, and this is what went down:
Turn one, I play a Mox Jet, Duress and Wasteland his Volcanic Island.
Turn two, I Duress again, play a Swamp, and end of turn Vampiric Tutor for Lotus.
Turn three, cast and sacrifice Lotus, Yawgmoth's Will, Lotus, Duress, Duress, play Wasteland and tap it for mana, sacrifice Lotus and cast Juggernaut, which goes in for the kill.

Round 2: Versus Elves

Game 1: Say all you will about Elves, but the damned things are really annoying. With no less than six elves in play, he uses Quirion Ranger and Wirewood Lodge to untap his Timberwatch and annihilate me in five turns.

Game 2: I throw down an early Juggernaut to lure out the use of his Viridian Zealot, then clear the board with a Disk and fly over with an Angel a few times for the win.

Game 3: This game was pure tempo. Turn one: Swords his guy, turn two: Diabolic Edict his guy, turn three: play a face-down creature, turn four: morph up Exalted Angel, turn five: play and attach Sword of Fire and Ice. It was neat.

Round 3: Versus Control Slaver

Game 1: I don't remember much of what happened, but I ended up taking this one.

Game 2: This one was a little tougher. He didn't see much counter, and I was able to keep his permanent count down with Disks and Vidicates. Eventually, though, he tosses down a Sundering Titan, taking out a Volcanic of his and a Scrubland and Plains of mine. Next turn, I have two Swamps and Mox Jet in play, I play the Pearl I'd kept in my hand and Disenchant the Titan, he kills one of my Swamps, but he also has to blow up his remaining land. I eventually win with a face-down 2/2 equipped with a Sword of Fire and Ice.

Round 4 and 5: ID with Eric (ELD on TMD), then with Mike (Meddling Mage on TMD).

I make it with a 3-0-2 record. Not bad for a first run with the deck.

Top 8 match: Versus Mike with Control Slaver.

Game one: A Duress reveals two Slavers, Sol Ring, Mana Vault, and some land. I take the Vault and pass. I throw down a face-down Angel and eventually two Juggernauts (not so bad against Slaver, they must attack), but he digs up a Pentavus and kicks my plan in the dome. I thought I had that game. I was wrong.

Game 2: I keep a hand with a Plains and three Wastelands. Eventually, it comes down to this: he has a Platinum Angel and a Goblin Welder in play and is utilizing Moxen to Slave me on multiple occasions. The last time he was able to Slave me, I had two Plains in play and I drew a Swords off the top. Without any targets on my side of the board, he taps me out and takes his turn. I'm at six, he swings with Platinum, I'm at two.

This is where it got interesting. I drew a Scrubland off the top and played it, and he asked me: "If I show you a hard counter right now, I assume that the game is over, correct?" He has two cards in hand and reveals Force of Will to me. He has the mana to pay for it. I give my hand a quick lookover and drop it on the table in a motion of concession.

"Wait!" I realize that I have Mind Twist and Swords in my hand and Scrubland, Plains, Plains in play. I explain and he, being the really awesome guy that he is, allows me to go for it. I Mind Twist for one, and through an stroke of luck, pull the Force. I Swords the Platinum Angel and pass the turn.

He draws and says "Go." I draw a card, then Vindicate the Welder. After a few turns of nothing, he draws Yawgmoth's Will and proceeds to play four Mox, a Lotus, a Welder and plenty of card draw from his graveyard. He passes. I draw and pass. To finish things off, he attacks with Welder, putting me to one, then plays a ten-to-cast colorless Time Walk (a. k. a. 'Slaver) and proceeds to hammer me with a Welder for the game.

--

Overall, I had a blast. John was wicked funny and everyone I met up there was an absolutely great.

The deck worked just fine and I was very glad that it did.

I'll be trying this thing out against the likes of California in roughly ten days, but I truly had a good time playing Type 1 out here and this was a beautiful way to end it. Thanks.

Props:
Chris, for top 8ing as well.
The words "sketchpad" and "bombo".
The store; it was awesome. Seriously, a really cool place in general.
Pirates and Elves; neat decks.
Everyone who showed up and made the tournament possible.
Mostly, though: my car. It's the best car in the universe. Made it to Maine and back with no trouble. Man, it is awesome. Seriously, the best vehicle there ever was. 'Jeez, I love that thing.

Slops:
Me, for not winning a Lotus.
Me, for getting lost like three times because I kept thinking that we were going the wrong way when, in fact, we were right on track all the time.

Thank you very much.