Shortly before the beginning of the finals match Ray mentioned that he needed somebody to take the notes for the finals between the recently advanced Rich Shay (shocking the world by playing control slaver) and the winner of the match between Crazy Carl Winter (Playing Death Long) and Aaron LaKarz (hope I spelled that right). I had written finals reports before for one of Rich's finals matches and felt confident that I could do so once again. After one of the longest combo v. combo matches I have ever seen Carl emerged victorious. After a prize split agreement was made and buyers for the power cards found these two sat down to determine who would be crowned the next Waterbury champion at around 3:30 AM. I was sitting next to Carl and was able to monitor his hand reasonably well throughout all three games. Rich Shay's draw for game 1 will remain unknown but I enlisted the help of Mixing Mike for monitoring Rich's hand for games 2 and 3.
Game 1:
Carl's opening hand consists of:
3x City of Brass
Dark Ritual
Death Wish
Ancestral Recall
Timetwister
Carl won the die roll and chose to go first:
Turn 1:
Carl Drops a city of Brass and taps for blue casting ancestral recall, rich counters with Force of Will pitching brainstorm. Carl then passes the turn.
Turn 2:
Rich plays an underground sea and passes the turn.
Turn 3:
Carl Plays city of Brass and passes the turn.
Turn 4:
Rich play polluted delta and passes the turn. Carl plays brainstorm end of turn, then follows it up with a vampiric tutor to put duress on top of the library.
Turn 5:
Carl casts dark ritual which Rich counters with mana drain. Carl drops a sol ring and a mana crypt then casts timetwister which resolves. Carl draws into this hand:
2xDark Ritual
Mana Vault
Chrome Mox
Time Walk
Gemstome Mine
Mox Diamond
Carl then plays mox diamond pitching gemstone mine then plays timewalk.
Turn 6 (Carl's Timewalk Turn):
Carl wins the crypt game and then draws Elvish Spirit Guide and passes the turn.
Turn 7:
Rich plays mox pearl, darksteel citadel then casts goblin welder. Rich passes the turn.
Turn 8:
Carl wins the mana crypt game once again and then draws Mind's Desire off the top. Carl casts Mana Vault, Dark Ritual and then another Dark Ritual and then a chrome mox imprinting elvish spirit guide. Carl casts Mind's Desire for five total. Rich responds with a Thirst for Knowledge after this resolves the Mind's Desire reveals this:
Brainstorm
Death Wish
Wheel of Fortune
Mox Jet
Hurkyl's Recall
Carl casts the wheel of fortune off the desire which meets Force of Will pitching tinker from Rich. Carl then casts the brainstorm off mind's desire which shows up tendrils of agony and two dark rituals, carl opts for the tendrils. Carl then floats the necessary amount of mana, casts hurkyl's recall on himself, replays all his artifacts then casts tendrils of agony for the win. Rich scoops up the cards and they head into game 2.
Board In:
4x Xantid Swarm
Board Out:
Mystical Tutor
Tinker
Vampiric Tutor
Hurkyl's Recall
Game 2:
Rich chooses to go first.
Carl's hand has:
Gemstone Mine
City of Brass
Lion's Eye Diamond
Xantid Swarm
Death Wish
Tendrils of Agony
Time Walk
Rich's hand has:
Force of Will
Mana Drain
Goblin Welder
Voclanic Island
Underground Sea
Mana Crypt
Island
Turn 1:
Rich drops Volcanic Island, taps for goblin welder and then plays mox sapphire and passes the turn to Carl.
Turn 2:
Carl draws mox ruby then plays gemstone mine and then taps it to play Xantid Swarm which meets a force of will pitching Mana Drain from Rich. Carl passes the turn.
Turn 3:
Rich draws Thirst for Knowledge then plays island and a mana crypt, then casts Thirst for Knowledge into land, Ancestral Recall and Mindslaver. He pitches mindslaver to the yard and passes the turn.
Turn 4:
Carl Plays city of brass and a mox ruby, then casts timewalk and moves to the next turn.
Turn 5 (Carl's Timewalk Turn):
Carl plays a mana crypt and lion's eye diamond, then casts death wish, responding by popping his LED for blue mana. He then gets tinker with his death wish, sacrifices his mana crypt to play tinker and finds Memory Jar. Carl pops the jar to reveal this hand:
2xGemstone Mine
Elvish Spirit Guide
Yawgmoth's Bargain
Glimmervoid
Duress
Mox Diamond
Rich Drew into this hand off the jar:
Thirst for Knowledge
Mana Drain
Goblin Welder
Polluted Delta
Underground Sea
2xVolcanic Island
Carl then plays glimmervoid, a mox diamond imprinting gemstone mine, carl then hardcasts the Elvish Spirit Guide and passes the turn. End of turn Rich welds the Mox diamond into a mana crypt.
Turn 6:
Rich plays an island and casts ancestral recall into sphere of resistance, yawgmoth's will and mana drain. He then brainstorms, then plays mox emerald tapping it then moving it out for a mindslaver and slavering carl. After this he passes the turn.
Turn 7 (Rich's Slaver turn
)
Carl (Rich) draws into Hurkyl's Recall and plays it killing the gemstone mine, taking pain from the city, and at end of turn step killing the glimmervoid.
Turn 8:
Rich draws into land and plays land, then recurs his slaver for his mana crypt and passes the turn.
Turn 9 (Rich's slaver turn #2)
Rich has carl lay all his artifacts and tap out.
Turn 10:
Rich casts Yawgmoth's Will which resolves.
He replays Mox Emerald, Volcanic Island, Mana Crypt, Ancestral Recall, Goblin Welder, Brainstorm. The ancestral gets him into Mana Drain Mox sapphire and lava dart. Rich's brainstorm gets him Fetch land, brainstorm and Force of Will, hiding sphere of resistance and a fetch land.
Turn 11:
Carl draws demonic tutor, Rich shows carl a fist full of counters and carl decides to move along to game 3 in the face of about 4 more slavers.
Game 2:
Sideboard in: Vampiric Tutor
Sideboard out: Demonic Consultation
Carl Mulls his opening hand and decides to keep the hand below.
Carl's Opening Hand:
City of Brass
Mox Jet
Lion's Eye Diamond
Brainstorm
Death Wish
Hurkyl's recall
Rich's Opening Hand:
Library of Alexandria
Time Walk
Brainstorm
2xThirst for Knowledge
Tinker
Mox Ruby
Turn 1:
Carl Plays city of brass and passes the turn.
Turn 2:
Rich draws Force of Will and plays Library of Alexandria and then passes the turn
Turn 3:
Carl Plays a main phase brainstorm into Mox Sapphire, Xantid Swarm and Sol Ring. After this he passes the turn.
Turn 4:
Rich Plays volcanic island, mox ruby, draws off his library, then casts timewalk.
Turn 5 (Rich's Time walk turn):
Rich Plays Mox sapphire, underground sea, Mox Jet, Brainstorm then tinkers sacrificing mox jet to find sphere of resistance to the surprise of all in attendance. Rich says, "I'm really tired. Must be playing badly."
Rich then passes the turn.
Turn 6:
Carl taps to play mox jet, which he taps to play mox sapphire, after that he passes the turn back to Rich.
Turn 7:
Rich draws and passes the turn
Turn 8:
Carl plays a sol ring which rich counters with a 6cc force of will. Carl then taps his library of alexandria to play Lion's Eye Diamond which resolves.
Turn 9:
Rich casts a main phase thirst for knowledge pitching LAVA DART and goblin welder. He then plays an underground sea and passes the turn.
Turn 10:
Carl draws and plays a brainstorm which meets a red elemental blast from Rich. After that Carl passes the turn.
Turn 11:
During his upkeep Rich casts mystical tutor to find ancestral recall and then successfully casts ancestral recall. Rich then passes the turn.
Turn 12:
Carl draws an underground sea off the top and then drops it and plays duress, yanking Rich's yawgmoth's will. Carl then drops Xantid Swarm and passes the turn. End of turn Rich flashes back the dart that the ditched to his thirst for knowledge earlier in the game to put Xantid Swarm out of it's misery.
Turn 13:
Rich draws and passes the turn, end step carl pulls out a Hurkyl's Recall to return rich's sphere back to his hand.
Turn 14:
Carl Draws and plays ancestral recall, which gets mana drained by Rich. Carl casts burning wish for primitive justice, Rich fetches in response and then allows the burning wish to resolve.
Turn 15:
Rich draws and passes the turn.
Turn 16:
Carl draws and passes the turn.
Turn 17:
Rich draws and passes the turn.
Turn 18:
Carl draws and plays memory Jar which meets a hardcast force of will from Rich.
Turn 19:
Rich draws and passes the turn.
Turn 20:
Carl draws and then casts death wish which resolves, Carl goes for balance and casts it, and balance resolves. Rich loses a huge number of lands and cards. Rich admits to have been owned by this balance and proceeds to his turn.
Turn 21:
Rich casts brainstorm followed up by a goblin welder, then passes the turn to Carl.
Turn 22:
Carl plays mana vault, then casts Death Wish popping Lion's Eye Diamond in response. Carl gets Yawgmoth's Will and casts it with the Lion's Eye Diamond Mana. The Will resolves and he immediately plays and pops the Lion's Eye Diamond in the graveyard for blue mana. He then casts ancestral recall for Vampiric Tutor, Necropotence and Xantid Swarm. He then casts sol ring followed by Hurkyl's Recall floating mana. He replays the vault, the sol Ring, the sapphire, the jet then casts vampiric tutor. Rich stops Carl from digging into his library and says "In response I'll kill you" putting one of his volcanic Islands in the graveyard and removing the lava dart that got pitched to Balance earlier. Carl realizes the mistake he's made and with no counters in hand loses the game to lava dart. Waterbury finally ended at 4:12 AM as Ray proclaims, "Waterbury ended with a fucking lava dart?"
Rich Shay wins the finals 2-1 Congratulations.
