After making the last Pittsfield tournament me and my teammate Austin had been thinking about making the trip again, but had decided that the trip was way too long, and we had no place to stay in Pittsfield or reasonably close to Pittsfield, as we had done last time. Then I get this PM:
Posted: Tue Jul 20, 2004 10:08 am
Subject: Yooooooooooo
hey you comming down to the dual mox tourny in pittsfield this comming saturday the 24th? It'd be sweet if you guys could make it down, Lemme know
After some correspondence we had a place to stay, and since New Hampshire was on our return trip we decided it would be so sweet to hit the Nashua tournament on the way back. I decided to bring my newly built fish deck.
So we make the drive to Pittsfield on Friday, a mere five hours from Maine, and after deciding we were lost multiple times we found that we actually were in the right place and made it to Pittsfield. At our Justin’s, one of the guys from Team Savage Tech, house we quickly get to play testing, and after losing multiple games in a row to first turn trinispheres versus Jim’s workshop deck, I think I play a few games against 4CC, and lose in straight games to that as well. Thoroughly frustrated I begin to think that the trip was a waste already, but I decide to go with it. We stay up until four (is this the time that everyone stays up until before a tourney?) mocking people at our local card shops (especially someone named happy hacksaw), and trying to get a draw7 deck we had brought to work.
So we get up the next day and hit up dunkin’ doughnuts, the tech pre-tourney meal. Head to Jim’s for awhile to meet Rob, who basically supplies everyone in Pittsfield with borrowed power. Then off to the tourney.
deck list:
Deck name: U/R Fish
4 Force of Will
4 Standstill
4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Curiosity
4 Spiketail Hatchling
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Volcanic Island
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Flooded Strand
4 Wasteland
3 Null Rod
2 Island
2 Faerie Conclave
1 Voidmage Prodigy
2 Daze
1 Strip Mine
1 Misdirection
1 Stifle
1 Echoing Truth
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Polluted Delta
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
Sideboard:
1 Stifle
2 Energy Flux
1 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Unsummon
2 Maze of Ith
2 Fire/Ice
3 Rack and Ruin
1 Null Rod
Yeah, I’m a tool, I net-decked fish and I hate myself for it, but it’s so dam good. The big differences between PTW’s build: none. Small difference: I added echoing truth and dropped a voidmage. I dropped the voidmage because he’s so mana intensive that its often difficult to use him effectively. I got the echoing truth idea from Pernicious Dan. He used it in his blue red fish build, and the card makes so much sense for fish. Fish has a hell of a time with fatties, yes you have disruption, but you don’t always have the solid counter like force. And if they drop something huge first turn, and you didn’t mull for the force, echoing truth is a good answer. Other minor differences being I only run two red blasts, and I put in another energy flux, which was unnecessary.
So the tournament starts, pairings go up.
Round 1
I play Tim with FCG. Neither mulls, he wins the dice roll. He opens with a lotus, ouch, and pops it for warchief, I force it. On my turn I drop lavamancer, say go, he drops a goblin, I drop another lavamancer, burn his goblin. On my next turn I drop standstill. And he scoops soon afterwards.
SB: +1 stifle, +2 fire/ice, +1 BEB, -misD,-3 null rod
I keep a hand with two forces, and I get board advantage, he tries to play a few goblins I use the forces and draw into another. He drops a warchief and I force that stupidly, he combos on me next turn.
Game 3 I keep the sideboard, and the game goes pretty much the same way as the first except I attack his mana a little more. I waste a taiga and abuse dazes. An early lavamancer keeps goblins off the board as well. Curious faeries go broken (can you do that?) for the win.
Round 2
H. Scott with belcher
He mulls to six, and duresses me turn 1 pulling out a standstill. Then he vamp tutors and passes the turn. I play a land and say go. He plays a lot of artifact mana and a belcher, he passes the turn and I play null rod. I win after a bunch of turns of little beats.
+1 energy flux, +1 null rod, -1 curiosity, -1 voidmage prodigy
I mull to five keeping a hand with an energy flux, he duresses me on his turn for the flux and belches me on his next turn.
He mulls to 6, I keep a solid hand, but nothing too special. I get a turn one standstill off a mox. He passes the turn, I cycle two faeires looking for a rod or a flux. He breaks stand still with chrome mox, mox diamond and dark ritual to lay belcher, I don’t see a force of the standstill cards. He passes the turn, and I topdeck nullrod, basically saving my ass and winning the game in one spell. In a few turns I get energy flux and play that, this clears his board and faerie conclave beats win the game.
Round 3
Ahren Paulson with 7/10
He mulls to 6, and lays first turn trin. I go land go. He plays and land and passes. I play a manland. He gets some artifact mana and another land. I go land spiketail or cloud. He tinkers for titan. I actually hold the titan off for a bunch of turns. I get him down to eleven but I don’t see the echoing truth I needed and we go to game 2.
+2 rack and ruin +1 energy flux, not sure what I took out but it was most likely a curiosity a voidmage and a spiketail.
I say island go, he goes land artifact mana, go. I lay a land and timewalk. On my timewalk turn I lay another land a spiketail. I basically get him in the standstill lock and when he breaks spiketail is joined by faeries for the win.
The third game is just ugly, first turn trin with no response leads to a second or third turn crucible and that’s all folks.
Record: 2-1
Round 4
??? with bazaar madness
He talks a little smack about smoking fish so I new he’d be happy when he knew what I was playing. He mulls to five. He goes first and drops a couple moxes and a land. I go land go. He draws, isn’t too impressed and passes the turn. I lay land null rod, and that’s basically the rest of the game. As I get the tempo and spiketails with standstill he drops a couple lands. He tries to play mongrel breaking standstill, I force or daze it.
I think I side in stifle, normally against madness I would have sided out the null rods, but he seemed really dependant on the moxes. The second game he gets some early beats, but null rod does the same trick again, and once I get control of his tempo and clear the board I get standstill down. He tries to flashback roar of the wurm which had been pitched early to mongrel, this gets a force in my hand and I obviously counter, off the first standstill I get another and basically the same thing happens the next turn, except that I lay some creatures in between. Beats for the win.
Record 3-1
Round 5
Sam Best with GAT
I lay an early null rod shutting down his moxes. I get an early spiketail, and some faeries which peck at his life total. He ends up drawing a bunch of cards and eventually resolves a dryad. I get a grim on the board and he answers with tog. He timewalks and yawgwills for the win, but strip effects killed all of his green sources. He forgets null rod is on the board so he can’t use his lotus for green, and therefore can’t berserk. I have him at 7 at this point and I can deal him a possible 6 damage, bummer. I leave the grim open as a chump blocker because I’m certain he can go leathal with tog without berserk. I bring him down to 3 and pass the turn. He scoops because he’s going to lose and we only have 25 minutes in the round and its still game 1.
I side in the unsummon the mazes and the REBs.
I counter a first turn dryad and he doesn’t really do much after that. I get spiketail and lay standstill. And eventually get factory for the big beats (2 instead of 1) for the win.
Round 6
Draw into finals.
Finals Round 1
I get paired with the kid I drew with, Sam A. playing dryad hate.
My notes aren’t so great here. I know he plays and early dampening matrix which renders my lavamancer useless. I do get him down to seven, but to do this I leave too few blockers. He takes advantage of this and cunning wishes for the berserk for the win. I didn’t see any counterspells all game which really hurt the team.
Game 2 I side in REBs, 2 maze of Ith and the unsummon, I sided out the null rods and the gorilla shaman and the voidmage because I didn’t really see any moxes or artifacts of any sort. He surprises me with any early back to basics, which resolves after a vicious counterwar of force force REB force. I rip a basic island off the top to join my other basic island and echoing truth his dryads which had grown fairly large. I get him to four, and he fetches bring him down to three he goes to two when he forces something. He tries to fire storm my faeries and spiketail and me, which would have meant game cause he could attack with big beats from the dryad. A combination of sacking the spiketail and daze counters this. With the firestorm clearing his hand I attack bring him to one. I lay maze of ith and pass the turn. Before he draws I unssumon a dryad, basically giving me game, but he rips strip mine off the top of his deck, strips my maze and wins. What a topdeck.
Sam goes on to win the tournament off a number of other amazing topdecks and opening hands. Mad props to him, cause hes like 14, and not only did he nail the metagame with his deck list and sideboard he destroyed everyone he played in finals. He was also impressed by the echoing truths.
I get out another dryad, but they both get echoing truthed. I think that card deserves a spot in all fish decks.
His report and the top 8 are here:
http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=18039Austin finished up 9th in the field, a bummer for him. Team savage tech got Rob into the finals. We go back to Justin’s house and chill for a bit. After awhile we get to metagaming for the next day. Nashua was a 5 proxy tourney so we were certain that the field would be the budget decks, fish, madness, and foodchain.
After some play testing I decide to work on my sideboard.
I change my sideboard to:
1 stifle
1 Null Rod
1 Energy Flux
2 Rack and Ruin
2 REB
1 BEB
1 Sword of fire and ice – so sweet in aggro matchups
1 Suq’Ata Firewalker – equally sweet in the mirror matchup
2 fire/ice
1 unsummon
We stay up until 4 again, playtesting, and I get to lose for another night straight, seems to be my thing. DD’s in the morning and we hit the road, we end up getting on the road late but we call ahead to make sure they know were coming, and they said they’d wait for us. It turns out the tournament is in a convention, which no one seemed to know about. So they charged us to get into the convention, and then charged the entry free. The entry fee wasn’t very steep so paying the extra cash to get in wasn’t a big deal; it’s just that we didn’t know ahead of time. Oh well.
The tourney gets going and first round pairings are up. Jim and Justin get matched up together, which totally sucks, but at a small tourney the chances are higher that it happens. I get matched up with Matt playing FCG
Game one I have to let a first turn lackey resolve. I go land go, he goes attack, warchief piledriver piledriver. It goes downhill from there and we go to game two.
+1 BEB , +1 stifle, +2 fire/ice, -1 voidmage prodigy, -1 curiosity, -1 standstill, -1 something else
Going first I say land go, he plays lackey which meets BEB. I lay faerie conclave and pass, he goes waste conclave, plays a lackey which meets force. I lay a land, he plays recruiter and stacks lackey lackey recruiter passes the turn, I land cloud standstill, get the beats going. He lays lackey which I let resolve, on my turn I fire the recruiter and the lackey and keep the beats going. Lavamancer sees the board and beats for the win.
Game 3 I keep the same board, he goes mountain lackey, which I force, then he plays lotus warchief, I have no response and realize that sucks a lot. I play land lavamancer, say go, he lays another 1/1 goblin which is apparent from my life shift, but I’m not sure what. I play factory pass the turn, he lays another goblin but I burn the chief, and stabilize the board. Eventually I get his board clear and I get the lock going for the win.
That was too close, that really scared me that I’d lose round 1. It turns out Jim beat Justin and the round ends. The pairings go up, and I get paired with Jim, we were like wow what is going on.
Jim- mirror
He wins the roll and have to mull to 6. He goes factory mox standstill, He follows this up with factory factory factory, I broke the standstill between then but he countered whatever a I played and he played a spiketail, to further secure his board. We go to game two.
-3 standstill, -3 null rod, -1 mox monkey, +1 suq’ata, +1 sword, +2 fire/ice,+1 maze,+1BEB,+1REB
Game 2 I resolve a turn three suq’ata firewalker. He basically won the game alone. With him down I just locked Jim out of the game and we went to game three.
He opens with land go, I open with fetch, he stifles. With a hand of grim, fire/ice,fire/ice, island, curiosity, he totally puts me out of the game with the stifle. He then plays spiketail hatchling to further lock me, and proceeds to take the game.
Record 1-1
After an upsetting defeat, sucks more to have to play teammates, I get paired up with Nick, playing some black/green deck, it has a name, it’s basically sui with green for spiritmonger.
He wins the roll and opens with dark rit, duress, hymn, a strong start against fish. I lay volcanic, and pass the turn. He goes land, withered wretch and passes. I lay another land and play lavamancer. And pass the turn. He lays down another wretch and beats for 2. On my turn I grim one of the wretches and pass. On hist turn he attacks and then uses the wretch ability to remove all but one card in my yard. I play fetch land sac to get volcanic and burn the wretch. I take control of the board and the beats ensue. I side out the null rods and side in the sword and two mazes
Game 2 has to be my worst game of magic all summer. He basically does the same thing, during this game I play cloud and pass the turn without untapping, WTF???/ eventually I get three 1/1’s to meet his two wretches, and I lay standstill thinking I’d topdeck a manland, again WTF????? I have to break my own standstill because he’s beating me down, fortunately broken with a timewalk. I get another 1/1 to match his wretch and topdeck another standstill, which I play. I think he attacks and I clear the board with blockers. Then we go draw go for awhile until breaks standstill with spiritmonger. With no active counter abilities drawn off the standstill I cant counter. But I had a strip mine which I hadn’t used yet and an echoing truth in my hand. At the end of his turn I strip a land and bounce the monger. I then play waste and strip his bayou. Obviously set back he goes to his turn and lays wretch and still with no active counter I cant do anything. I don’t topdeck any creatures and we go to game three.
Game three I am actually thinking this time. He plays a wretch and beats me down to twelve, I stabilize with grim and he goes for spiritmonger off a lotus. Again I have the truth in hand and bounce the monger. This time he has no follow up play and I take control of the board for the win.
Record 2-1
With only 25 or so people the tournament had five rounds, so I had to win the next game.
I get matched up with Patrick playing 4cc. I recognized him from New Hampshire and he’s a cool guy. He fetches for volcanic and I think I’m playing the mirror. I play volcanic and a grim, pass the turn. He plays another volcanic and a mox ruby, this play confuses me because I still think I am playing mirror, but the ruby could almost be played in fish so I’m like that’s weird but alright. I think I get a mox at this point because I play standstill and manage to waste his land. He breaks standstill with a mox. I go, play cloud, waste his other land, and standstill again. He sweeps and we go to game 2. Between games I mention something about the mirror, and he says its not the mirror. Confused again, I don’t side anything but a stifle which I think I pull curiosity out for.
He plays a underground sea and says go, I realize he’s playing 4cc. I play a land and says go. He goes land mox go. I go land null rod. He shakes his head. He go land sol ring. And passes the turn I go factory spiketail and pass the turn. He casts something that costs three, I think It was a cunning wish or a combination of demonic and a 1cc spell. Then he tries to tap sol ring and paly a facedown card, the only card left in his hand, I remind him that null rod is on the table and he shakes his head and passes the turn. I lay Grim standstill and he sweeps. He’s a little disgruntled about this, but later he came up to me and apologized which was really cool, he explained he was just pissed cause he preferred to have played the deck he was playing last week which was more fun and more adjusted for the fish budget dominant metagame.
In 6th place I draw into finals.
First round finals I get matched up with Jim, which really sucks yet again.
Game 1, I win the roll and he plays first. I was expecting a land grim go, but he just went land go. Scared that he would stifle my fetch again I play a non-red land and pass the turn. He fetches and plays a volcanic island to drop a grim. He gets board control on me but hasn’t found a red source after a couple turns. I strip lay a waste and strip his volcanic island. He doesn’t come up with a red source and I drop my own lavamancer. I pass the turn he draws and passes, and I burn his grim with my own. Having stabilized the board I use the grim to keep his creatures off the board while playing my own. I get the lock going and use some factories and faeries to beat him down.
Game 2 I side the same as I did the first time we played.
I get going really quickly with a pair of lavamancers. He gets some factories and a couple of faerie conclaves. With the extra mana he has he plays crucible of worlds. I keep the beats going but he strips away my red sources and my factories. I fetch out every single volcanic island I have in the deck and I am unable to cope with the attack on my lands.
Game three I side in a rack and ruin to prepare for the crucible. Luckily he doesn’t see it the entire game. I resolve an early spiketail and a factory which I use to get quick damage in. I get board control extremely quickly and he is unable to keep up.
Semifinals versus Kowal with his crazy workshop deck. He talks a little smack before and during the match, mentioning that I’ve got some karma with him because last time I played him I went 2-0 on him with goblin sligh, sealing game 2 with goblin lookout. Read about that here:
http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=17362&highlight=lookout and here:
http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=17354&highlight=lookoutHe wins the roll…did I win any dice rolls this weekend? Prob not. I have to mull to five, but I keep a sweet hand of fetch, strip, factory, ancestral, null rod. He plays land and maybe some artifact mana go, I draw something, then ancestral into FOW and another null rod. On his turn He goes land go. I play factory and null rod and pass the turn. That’s basically what happened game one. I pretty much control the board after that, stripping his workshops, and playing standstills. He tries to resolve a pentavus which I think gets dazed.
Game two I side in the flux, 2 rack and ruin and 2 maze of ith.
I think I mull once and pull up a land of fetch factory strip null rod echoing truth and something else.
Kowal plays mana crypt and sol ring off the crypt and burns for one. I play a volcanic island and pass the turn. He takes three from the crypt and lays a shivan reef. He tinkers, I don’t really react because I have the truth in my hand. He drops sundering titan and destroys my only blue source…bummer. I play factory and pass the turn. He swings 7, ouch. I topdeck an island, play it and bounce the titan destroying my island. He does nothing and passes the turn. I play strip mine and null rod shutting down his mana completely. I go for the factories beats as he fails to draw a land for like 6 turns. By then I’ve got wastelands ready and standstill to force anything he plays. He tries to resolve a chalice for 0, which was a really strange play, I think he was just doing it so I would force it, which I do just to be safe, I have force and daze backup so I’m not scared. He refuses to let the factory beat for the win and plays something, forces it, and burns for two.
I split finals with ELD from the manadrain. I get the mox he gets cash and a lot of my binder. This is my first big tournament win and is especially sweet because it’s the last tournament I can play before I can go back to school…not that I can’t play tournies during the school, it just caps a string of seven big tournaments this summer. Chalk another victory up for Team Maine, with special help from Savage Tech. Everyone should make the next Pittsfield tourney because word on the street is its going to be a power draft for the top 4.
Props: happy hacksaw
Door to nothingness
DD’s breakfeast tech
[/url]
Poll
