Mixing Mike's Lenox Report

Well, I did much better than I did last time. I know smaller events aren't really cared about to mcuh, but I'm writing this anyways to help promote how awesome the event was, and how good the player pool was for such a small event. Purple Hat, Mykeatog, Moobuis, ctthespian, IvanTheTerrible, and lots of other people who's TMD names I didn't even get were there. I'm short on pre-toruny fun, but oh well... I played Rich Shay's Control Slaver build, card for card. I was going to run my uber awesome Lim-dul's Vault tech, but decided I needed the third REB after seeing the metagame.

Round 1
Mokoto with SurvivalBeats.dec

I win the die roll. He gets out double Mongrel fast off a Lotus for some heavy early beats. I made sure to keep Survival off the table, while steeign myself up for an Angel. After 2 TFK's, I grab a Tinker and grab it out. He attack, I drop to 0. I play Walk, and he double Edicts me in respone. I can counter one of 'em, but the second one kills the Angel.
In game 2 I jsut ignore what he does because he didn't get early quick beats out, so I had enough time to overrun him with card advantage. I ended up locking him.
Game 3 I Mystical for Ancestrall with a risky 1-land hand on the draw. I drew DT, Walk, and a mana source. The game was effectively over from then on out.
1-0-0

After I finished my game, I overheard someone say something along the lines of losing to a Masticore. I said "What's a Masticore?!?!?"

Round 2
Keith (ctthespian) w/ Turboland.dec

I won the die roll again. My life gets to 18 from some fetching/FoWing action, and I get an early Tinker, and grab out Pentavus. I TFK into a Blood Moon, and he doesn't have Rifstone Potal to give him any hope. I take a few of his turns for him, and he concedes at 9 life.
Game 2 I ended up losing. He gets to much tempo on my via turn 1 Walk, and an early Ancestral. I don't rip lotus and Will, so I lose.
Game 3 has little on the notes side. I got an early Blood Moon, and then got out Pentavus and went beatdown. He didn't scoop to moon, so he had some hope that he was looking for, and didn't get it.
2-0-0

Round 3
Ethan (IvantheTerrible) with DryadHate or GAT

Game 1 he gets the nuts draw with a Crucible, Fetch, Fastbond, STRIP lock. It was his third turn, and I was on the draw. I wait for him to find a win condition, and he Tinkers up a Colossus and I pick up my cards.
Game 2 kinda sucked. I mulled to 6, and kept a hand of Recall, Ruby, Welder, BStorm, TFK, and FoF. I pray I can mize a land, and I don't. To make it worse he had Strip Mine too.
2-1-0

I herd of Mykeatog's crucial decision. He said..."Wait, green things don't have haste, Welder beats! ::turns Welder to the right::" It was pretty funny after about 4 minutes of thinking about it.

Round 4
Rob w/ CloseToTheMirror.dec

Game 1 he gets an early TFK, which was bad news bears. I play a Welder which gets Duplicated. I was out of this one from the start. He welds in a Platinum Angel and proceeds to win.
Game 2 I keep a no land hand that gets a LoA. I ride the heavy card advantage to victory fairly easily.
Game 3 was me sucking folks. I'm looking in a really good position. I've got 2 Volcs out, and a Mox. I didn't have any plays that turn, but next turn was a Welder/Walk turn, then a hardcasted Pentavus/TFK Pentavus if I was lucky enough to draw TFK. Anyways, I knew I wasn't doing much that turn, and passed it without taking my time. He Tinkers out Colossus the following turn and I lose. Here's the unseen mistake, I passed that turn without playing my Mana Crypt to be able to hardcast FoW. I asked him if he had any countermagic, and he said no. Oh well, that's what I get.

2-2-0

Round 5
Chris (Moobius) w/ MUD Variant.
It's do or die. I was 8th place at 2-2 going into the round, and all I had to do was win to get in. He was in 10th, and had the same hopes...
He had been playing some sort of Enchantress/Nest.dec earlier. I know he's well known for doing well with decks like those (read: MysticSnake.dec, AoS, etc...). I expected this, so I keep a very slow and controling hand assuming I was the control in the matchup. He opens with a Workshop and a Metalworker and I pee myself with a very bad hand to beat him with. He wins with a Staff of Domination lock, and shows me Trisk for the win.
Game 2 was intersting. I have no notes as we were running low on time, but by the looks of it, I just fetched a few times, and he hit me with Metalworker twice, and I get him slave-locked.
Game 3 was the nut. We've got 14 minutes or so. He Tinkers, I FoW. I get my ouwn Tinker off Mystical. He Fow's, I FoW, he FoW's again. He playes a Duplucant off a Chop, land and Crypt, and I drain it. I had no sink, but I did have a Brainstorm. I draw a land in my draw step, and Brainstorm into a Pentavus. I tap and land and put it on the table. It resolves and gets me into Top 8.
3-2-0

Chris is my favorite opponent to play against. He's very humorus, and makes losing the game worthwhile. He needed a coin for Mana Crypt. Me playing my own brought one. The following took place:
Chris: Is that 'the lucky coin'?
Me: No.....................yes
Chris: WHA?!?!!?!11?!!?

Top 8
Mykeatog with TheGame.dec

Apparently, this is Hadley's new sekret creation. I'm not going to write to much about it, because it was way more fun to play by the skin of my seat. He tells me before the match that he was hoping I lost against Chris so he didn't have to play C.Slaver, the one deck he really didn't want to play all day.

Game 1 ends with him playing a Desire for 5 spells. He shows Platy, TFK, Duress, Delta, BStorm. Platy beats down while a Mindslaver makes sure I can't stop him.
Game 2 was very hard. There's no notes, but I can remember it being mostly in my favor when I Tinker->Mindslaver. He Rack and Ruins it on his next turn, and proceeds to get his own Slaving action going.

After the match, he complimented me on how it wasn't an easy 2-0 win, and that I played it very well. I gracefully accecpt the compliment and my booster pack of Gernan Revised (whatever it's called). I ended up opening a Birds of Paradise AND Lightning Bolt both of which I traded back to the store for an Old Man of the Sea.

Now to promote the store....
21 people showed up. It was a strong field of players and a good metagame considering Kowal and Kl0wn's main event was today. The store owner actually knows his rules unlike the majority of T1-DCI judges. The local players were awesome, and very very kind. My friend Alden actually was going to scoop becasue he wasn't going to untap his Mana Vault and then die from it. His opponent reminded him of this, and Alden actually went on to combo his opponent out that turn. They drew the round, but for someone to point that out is just amazing and unheard of to me.....

Props:
-The store for holding the tournament with a guranteed prize structure; Tourney=excellent^1,000,000.
-All the good players who went for the 'free' Pearl.
-The guy who told Alden about the Mana Vault.
-Purple Hat for the 3 Sphere's of Resistance, and for showing why Sligh has no place in T1.

Slops:
-Alden and Purple Hat for scrubbing out with combo, and showing why Sligh does have a place in T1.
-Me for my most excellent play mistake.
-The old woman working at Subway (for being closed at 9:30 PM).