Its somewhere in July when I get some advertisement for a highlander tourney near me; it will be on October the 10th and the admission price would be 5 Euro. I’m interested in it, especially after I read an old tourney report from Samite_Healer where he finished first in a Hadley tournament. I proxy the deck up and proceed to kill some random scrubs with it. I soon forget about it and move on with my life. I’m reminded a few times afterwards, but I’m not really caring.
Then, on the 5th of October I read a post on a Dutch site from someone who is asking help for his highlander deck. Another guy says he thinks combo is really strong in this format, I say it isn’t with quotes from Bryce’s primer. (Well, you know me!)
I have interest in it again and on Saturday the 9th, I decide I’m going. I PM someone I know he’ll be attending the tourney too, Niels, if he could lend me some cards. Alas: I don’t receive a PM back. So I call another friend if I can lend some stuff like a Glimmervoid I knew he owned. He said I can so I put a Glimmervoid and a Phyrexian Arena in the deck too.
At 9 PM I thought of a pretty standard new tactic in regular vintage: Tinker + Colossus. I had been trying to assemble the most important parts of the restricted list a few weeks back and of course had the staple called Tinker. Luckily: I traded a DSC the day before so I had that too. I put in those 2 cards, some other tutors, lands and random hate in a deck and go to sleep after I watch Collateral, the new movie with Tom Cruise where he plays a hitman. Talking about Collateral: still have to finish watching it, which reminds me that I have to see Resident Evil 2 soon too. What a busy life I have, busy, busy, busy me.
So like, whatever! I present you;
Tinker into Colossus.dec1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Sundering Titan
1 Goblin Welder
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Tinker
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Lim-Dul’s Vault
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Memory Jar
1 Catalog
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Fastbond
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Compulsion
1 Rhystic Study
1 Serum Visions
1 Brainstorm
1 Windfall
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Lotus Petal
1 Grim Monolith
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Fire / Ice
1 Balance
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Dark Banishing
1 Mind Twist
1 Duress
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Naturalize
1 Disenchant
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Ancient Den
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Great Furnace
1 Tree of Tales
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Glimmervoid
1 City of Brass
1 Barbarian Ring
1 Strip Mine
1 Polluted Mire
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Drifting Meadow
1 Remote Isle
1 Sulfurous Springs
1 Adarkar Wastes
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Underground Sea
1 Barren Moor
3 Island
2 Swamp
1 Forest
Total cards mainboard: 61. (61 in Highlander? Well, its just some random crap I threw together.)
Total cards sideboard: 00. (No time really.)
How am I planning on winning? Well obviously search for Tinker, sac an artifact and commence the savage beats. In goldfishing: it had a pretty stable turn 3 DSC, and sometimes turn 5. Turn 1 land, random, turn 2 land + tutor, turn 3 artifact land + tinker = gg. Well.. that was how it was supposed to be. I didn’t know the metagame and had no idea how many people were going so I just based my preparation on goldfishing. What a terrible mistake that was. The infinite random non basic lands were there to protect me versus my own Titan; the second Tinker target if I had DSC in hand. And the random stuff like Balance and Dark Banishing? Don’t ask.
So I went to sleep.
Next morning: I showered and stuff like that, check my PM-box again to make sure I couldn’t lend some stuff. No pm. So I eat breakfast and get on my bicycle to ride for 3 miles or something to the place where the tourney is held. First: I have to drive trough a very dark wood, where nothing happens except for me realizing I forgot paper and a pen and get the shit scared out of me because of a trespassing squirrel. Hate squirrels, stupid fuzzy creatures. No, seriously though: they’re cute. (Insert random cute emoticon.) For example; I would never play a sharpshooter in old t2 to shoot them squirrels. Point stays though that it did scare the shit out of me, so I hate that one particular squirrel.
Driving trough the city center, I see lots of fences. I was hoping for screaming blonde girls behind them while I ride trough the center. Then I realize there is a marathon this day and the fences were there to keep stupid people off the road, more on this later. So I drive some more, search for the tourney spot and wave a little to the imaginary hot blonde girls. An old man looks at me strange, I look back. I meet up with the guy who I was hoping he could lend me some stuff, he says he did send me a PM. Whatever; its too late now.
I write down my decklist on a
borrowed paper with a
borrowed pen, goldfish some and listen to the pairings:
The TournamentRound 1: Malcolm with R/G Beats.
Before we started playing, I didn’t know what he played. Neither did he know what I was played; he would soon find out.
I play land, say go and hope for the best. He plays a forest and passes the turn. I played a land, and cast Demonic Tutor, wishing it would not meet a FoW. It resolved and I found a tinker. Another forest joined the lonely one on his side. I play some artifact land, tinker for Colossus and say go. On his turn, he looks at his hand and scoops. Yay, that was a good begin of the day!
Game 2: he opens with a pretty threatening (Asian) Basking Lootwalla. I just play a land. He plays a land, attacks with Lootwalla and I go to 17. Next turn: a Wild Monglel joins his party. I don’t do much, and he gets me to 10 or something while I have a Tormod’s Crypt and Goblin Welder in play. I topdeck a Memory Jar which gives me Tinker, the next turn because of tapping out for the Jar. So I go for Tinker into Colossus next turn, and pass the turn. He somehow managed to get me to 4 or something by now, but he had to discard lots of good stuff like Rancor and Eternal Witness to the Twist I played earlier. No twist would have meant he could attack me for lethal when I didn’t have a DSC yet, he thought he could play it safe. Needless to say: I win the game.
At this point: I’m pretty confident about my deck, although I don’t think it has what it takes to beat every deck I will meet.
I scout the area because my game versus Malcolm was over pretty quick. A short look at the other tables and I see: powered Tendrils combo, white weenie, B/R discard/destroy, mono white control, R/G beatdown and 3 Blue-Based Control. I see the Tendrils play a Mox Diamond and directly sacrificing it because he didn’t have a land in his hand. I say he can’t because it has an errata that says it should be done as an additional cost to play. Another player said so too, and then the judge ruled he couldn’t play it. Does anyone know if I was allowed to say that? In short:
Johan – Hulk Smash (Control)
Mark – UB Permission (Control)
Andy - UB Permission (Control)
Niels – Parfait (Control)
Jasper – Mono U control/weenie (Aggro-Control)
Malcolm – RG Beatdown (Aggro)
Allard – BR Beatdown (Aggro)
Ivo – White Weenie (Aggro)
Erik – Fully powered Tendrils (Combo)
Me – Tinker into Colossus.dec (Combo control)
A little note on Johan’s deck, Hulk Smash: it was mostly blue based control but he had a Psychatog and Cunning Wish for Berserk so I just named it Hulk Smash.
1-0-0 in matches, 2-0 in games, 3 points.
Round 2: I’m at table 1 versus Allard and his B/R discard/destroy. A deck from which I thought it wouldn’t be too hard too beat. Oh, so wrong I was.
He goes to town with Duresses, Hymns, Wastelands, Strip Mines and Hyppies and finally a Gorilla Shaman to make my life miserable. I didn’t do anything this game except for land and some random things. This pretty much summarizes the match.
Funny part in the game: I got beat down by “Mr. (IC)T�. Also known as Sedge Troll!
1-1-0 in matches, 2-2 in games, 3 points.
Round 3: I moved to table 2 where I see Johan with his blue based control.
He counters my Tinker the first game and I can’t do much. He swings with Psychatog for lethal. Next game is about the same, although I did get a Tinker trough. He follows with a Upheaval and Tog, to swing for lethal again
I hope I would meet the white weenie or white control guy now; blue based wasn’t my strongest matchup, so to say.
1-2-0 in matches, 2-4 in games, 3 points.
Round 4: Mark blue based control from I just lose. Play of the day must have been made in this game though: I hardcast a Mind’s Eye and hope it gets trough to sit next to my Rhystic Study. However: he Mana Drains it with the 4 lands he had in play, note the 4 lands. I ask him, grinning, what he was going to do with the 9 available mana. He answered with tapping the four lands for mana from which one was black followed by a Upheaval and a land which gets him a Psychatog. And for the informed reader: yes, that is the old t2 Psychatog technique. Funny thing was: I’ve seen this happen 4 (!) times in the whole day. Mind you: its highlander!
After this round, I see lots of people in front of the building. I ask myself who the one mofo in the door opening is, and just listen again to the pairings.
1-3-0 in matches, 2-6 in games, 3 points.
Round 5: Yay, another blue based control deck! I battle Jasper this game. This summarizes it pretty much. Interesting note: he managed to get an Ertai, Wizard Adept online. This is very important because it sealed the game and made me see how important cards are that lock by themselves. See the final part of the report for more on this matter.
1-4-0 in matches, 2-8 in games, 3 points.
Round 6: I finally get to battle the guy with White Weenie. But its already too late: everyone else already had more than 6 points so I was 10th. I still play it out. So; Ivo with White Weenie.
I combo turn 3 and he can’t kill the big guy. Next game: he beats me because of me doing not much. And the third game; I kill him again with DSC and Sundering Titan. The third game was pretty close though because he did manage to get a lot of creatures online. He also didn’t surrender when I tinkered for Colossus turn 3 because he sideboarded some answers in, like Arrest and Pacifism. (Too bad, I need to play more frenchies with this deck.)
2-4-0 in matches, 4-9 in games, 6 points.
Post Tourney ThoughtsWell, that was about it. Some things I’ve learned:
-Land drops are very important. The only play errors I made were wrong land drops, the opponents let me replay them though.
-The deck’s worst matchup in it’s current shape is control. And there was a lot of it, so I have to prepare to meet a lot of control next time.
-Highlander is a really fun format and I hope lots of TO’s follow this one’s, Malcolm, example. Highlander is the shizznit!
-The most important thing however was that I learned how incredibly good mini combos/locks were. For example: my opponent played a quite early Ertai, probably turn 5 so he had counter backup. That Ertai finished the game because he countered every spell I played. The same goes for the Hypnotic Specter in round 2. Really, I can’t state this enough: cards that lock by themselves are VERY good in highlander.
Props:
-Highlander for being an awesome format.
-The TO for hosting a tourney with an awesome format.
-The dude from Den Haag, Erik, (About 300 km from my hometown.) who came to an unsanctioned tourney without a prize support just for the fun of it.
-Bryce, for writing an awesome primer and holding a tournament that looked like the awesomest ever. Alas: it wasn’t available for a poor 16 year old boy from Holland.
Slops:
-My deck, for having such a bad matchup versus control.
-Me, for not preparing for a tourney.
-The hot blonde screaming girls, for not appearing when I was driving into city center.
-The squirrel. Evil being, to the abyss with thy!
-Me, for forgetting pen and paper.
-Me, for not remembering most of the last rounds and blaming matchups for not writing much on it.
All in all, it was a very well run tournament and very fun to play in. However: I’m planning on attending the next one too, so I have the following list for next time. Ready to battle blue based control!
So:
Tinker into Colossus.dec v2.01 Swords to Plowshares
1 Balance
1 Stasis
1 Duress
1 Mind Twist
1 Black Vise
1 Icy Manipulator
1 Tangle Wire
1 Smokestack
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Trinisphere
1 Mindslaver
1 Sphere of Resistance
1 Winter Orb
1 Static Orb
1 Fire // Ice
1 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Goblin Welder
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Sundering Titan
1 Masticore
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Juggernaut
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Windfall
1 Tinker
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Memory Jar
1 Voltaic Key
1 Talisman of Progress
1 Talisman of Indulgence
1 Talisman of Dominance
1 Lotus Petal
1 Grim Monolith
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Ancient Den
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Vault of Whispers
1 Great Furnace
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Glimmervoid
1 City of Brass
1 Gemstone Mine
1 Undiscovered Paradise
1 Blinkmoth Nexus
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Adarkar Wastes
1 Shivan Reef
1 Underground River
1 Sulfurous Springs
1 Drifting Meadow
1 Remote Isle
1 Polluted Mire
1 Smoldering Crater
Sideboard
SB: 1 Disenchant
SB: 1 Coffin Purge
SB: 1 Gorilla Shaman
SB: 1 Shattering Pulse
SB: 1 Defense Grid
SB: 1 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 Razormane Masticore
SB: 1 Triskelion
SB: 1 Terminate
Total cards mainboard: 60.
Total cards sideboard: 09.
The basic principle is the same; its still about searching Tinker and then getting Colossus for the win. The deck has changed a lot though, the most important changes shortly summarized: removed a few tutors, removed basic and dual land and the most important change is of course the increase of artificial lock cards like Trinisphere. Well… and the sideboard but I wouldn’t call that a change.
I removed a few tutors because that way, I could add more artificial lock cards to make sure the Tinker resolves. There are still 3 cards that fetch Tinker, including Tinker itself. And I think that is sufficient because cards like Merchant Scroll or Mystical Tutor don’t fetch important artifacts. The addition of Lim-Dul’s Vault might be a good idea, but I’m rather afraid of the UB cost.
The removing of basic lands is obvious, and the dual was removed for the same reason. No dual lands at all is due to my rather limited budget. No Chains of Mephy, Mana Crypt and stuff like that relates directly to my limited budget too.
And then: more artifact lock cards. As stated above, mini lock cards are very good. So I figured: why not put in a lot of those mini lock cards? Its good versus almost every deck, and if I configure my deck to make myself less vulnerable to my own locking cards: I have enough time to resolve a Tinker. Which is still obviously the main strategy.
Just 9 sideboard cards? Yeah, to be honest: I can’t think of anything else to put in.
Well, the end!
I hope there will be much other highlander tournaments in the future and people will start seeing it as a serious format. And of course I hope people can help me out with the deck’s second version so I can perform better next time.
Oh, and a little map for those interested:
Edit; spelling errors... more to come probably.
