[Waterbury REPORT] Tales from the great white north... 23rd

I didn't win Waterbury. We drove like 1700 kilometers, and none of us won. And yet... it was one of the best experiences ever.

"This is why we came here. Not just to play in a tournament, but to chill at a bar with these people." Richard Mattiuzzo, at TGI-Fridays.

Unfortunately, this continues the great tradition of Canadians just coming short at making the cut, or winning, at big events.

Richard - 19th place
Me - 23rd place
Matt Locke - 24th place
Peter Olszewski - 29th? place

I think Rich, myself and Matt had as many points as the 12th place finisher, just with lower tie-breakers.

Either way, let me regale you with a story of travel, wizardry, and a hell of a lot of wings and fun.

Friday, I wake up to a window of heavy snow. Merciful God, that would suck to drive 850 km's in that. It'll take days. Luckily, the snow abates, and after a few errands, and driving all around the stupid city (Toronto traffic sucks on most days), we finally assemble a crack team (more of an emphasis on crack than there should be):

cast of characters

Canada:

Peter Olszewski (dicemanx)
Richard Mattiuzzo (shockwave)
Wayne Oickle (moridar)
Matt Locke (carthain)
Jon Smithers (jcokn)
Eric (not sure about more)
Myself (duh)

America:

From Adam to Zherbus, a lot of good people.

Either way, we are off. We get detained at the border, since Jon, apparently, as an American citizen, needs to be fingerprinted for some reason. That takes one hour. I briefly considering doing the Homer Simpson ("I'm in Australia, America, Australia, America, Australia, America..." *get punched*) routine, but that probably would only cause more trouble than we should have.

Saturday, we get to Waterbury at 6am, lounge in the van until 9am, go to McDonalds for some "food", and finish building our decks. Or start building them, who knows... Since I barely touched my cards in two months, and there's really only one thing I know how to play....

Welder control. That's right. Whether tapping Workshop mana or Mana Drain mana, my magic knowledge is probably limited to playing a Volcanic Island, tapping it for Red, playing a Goblin Welder, and taking it from there.

The deck is the same as the November Lotus 401 tourney. With some changes, mainly in the SB.

Main deck

4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain

4 Brainstorm
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will

3 Blood Moon (a bomb in Toronto, bad in Waterbury)

4 Goblin Welder
1 Pentavus (Protoss Carrier)
1 Mindslaver
1 Platinum Angel
1 Sundering Titan

5 Island
5 Mox
4 Volcanic Island
4 Polluted Delta
2 Underground Sea
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Library of Alexandria (I never drew this in the tournament... EVER)
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Ancient Tomb (Chinese, and I drew it almost every single bloody game)

Sideboard

3 Chalice of the Void (because there's supposed to be combo, huh?)
3 Anti-Oath Tech (good vs. Oath)
3 Rack and Ruin (good vs. stax, slaver, affinity, whichever)
3 Lava Dart (good vs. so much)
2 Ancient Tomb (good vs. Trinisphere, and if Black is sided out)
1 Triskelion (this will go maindeck so fast, it will make your cumber-bun spin)

Anyhow, I build that, we have a good laugh (we were choking mostly), and the tournament is about to start. I am on table... lost my bloody notes, so this might be a shade sketchy.

Round 1: Adam Tanner, playing Mono-blue with MD Chalices, Powder Kegs and Annul

He gets a turn 1 Chalice for zero, and I curse. I have no moxes, but that shuts me off good when I get some. I draw a Mox Jet, and play it.

Bang head against table I am so good.

Either way, we play for a while, get lots of mana going. I draw the Darksteel citadel (mental wohou), and wait for a welder. I play it, and Adam doesn't call my play, since Chalice is holding me down. I play the citadel, and weld in Titan.

Sadly, he has a Morphling, with LOTS of mana, and easily races me. Curses

I think he has a MD Blue Elemental Blast, but I am so tired, and thinking back on it, maybe I was wrong. Either way. Sad

In game 2, I go first, and trounce him. Trounce him good. Broken goodness.

In game 3, I start with 3 Moxes, Land, Welder, Rack and Ruin, and something else. I play the moxes, and welder. He gets a Keg out. Crap. In my head, I evaluate the need for a Welder, or the Moxes, and Rack his Keg. 5 artifacts, 3 Welders left in the deck. I need the welder. He kegs away the moxes.

I tinker for Titan, but he tinkers for Colossus... Bloody hell! I was so tired at this point, even if he cheated and drew 10 cards a turn, I wouldn't have noticed. But instead, he chose to play really well. And I made a zillion mistakes.

0-1

I am despondent, but whatever, it's all good, I am still in the game. I try to find the others, and the only one still playing is Peter. His opponent is Liz. As I walk by, I glance at her hand of all-counter magic, and then at his hand of all-animate spells. Well, the result is predictable. Animate-Counter. Animate-Counter. Animate-Counter. Draw. Geez! Anyhow, pairings are announced.

After finally meeting Zherbus, I sit down and meet my next opponent.

Round 2: Jason Pare, Control Slaver mirror

Jason and I have a chat before we start. The games we played were pretty casual, which was odd for such a supposedly important tourney. It seems that a lot of the people there weren't cut-throat about the non-essential things, which was a nice thing to see.

Game 1 is just weird. I start with an Ancient Tomb and Undeground Sea, no moxen, 1 Welder, 1 Thirst for Knowledge.

for (i = 0; i < 4; i++)
{
Play Thirst for Knowledge;
Draw no Land or mana
Draw Force of Will
Draw Thirst for Knowledge; // not the last one
}

I also Brainstormed twice and Ancestralled once. Still no bloody land.

But the Forces allow me to be in the game. I finally get land, cast the Welder, and get the Pentavus/Mindslaver reoccurence going with one of his Welders. Whoa.

Game 2, he mulligans into a Mox Sapphire/Lotus hand, but doesn't get any land for a while. This allows me to overwhelm him again, with Thirsts.

Jason was a great opponent, and despite the fact that his deck really didn't help him in game 2, he was still very gracious and polite.

1-1

Round 3: Peter with Oath

His last name was complicated (like Olszewski, except with no O). I was still ridiculously tired, and couldn't even read it completely. He had a RedvsBlue shirt on, which was awesome. Out of all my opponents, he had the most serious demeanor going, but it's understandable, sitting there at 1-1. He did allow me to briefly take something back (It wasn't really taking it back, more like: "cast this... err... before the card actually hits the table, and on second thought, let's not be morronic").

1-2

Yep, that's right. I can't remember how he stomped me, but early Oath, ridiculous counters, and that Ancient Hydra did me in. It was just messy. Garh.

At this point, we do a headcount.

Peter is 2-0-1. Wayne and Matt are 2-1. Rich and myself are 1-2, while Jon is 1-2 or 2-1. We are all still in it, but it's getting bad. I start lamenting a lot, but Peter gives us a pep-talk about how to play better and not make mistakes. Alright, let's do this then.

Round 4: Food Chain Goblins

I sadly forgot his name, but I remember he's one of Andystok's friends.

Game 1, he swarms me with Goblins. Goblin Tinkerer (geez), Goblin Lackey, Siege-Gang Commander, the works. I am hit like a ton of bricks.

I side in the Lava Darts and Triskelion, and take out the damnable Blood Moons.

Game 2, I just Tinker into a Pentavus fast, I believe, and the Protoss Carrier just takes care of everything. Still no Food Chains to be seen.

Game 3 is more of the same. I make a HUGE Yawgmoth's Will, for like 10 minutes of intensive moving and shaking.

2-2

This was by far the fastest round all day. We chat for a bit more, and then I go seek out Peter and Rich. They both won, so we go get some fresh air.

Round 5: Joe with Oath

Joe sits down across from me, and takes his sunglasses of. He has bright cyan contacts, a shaven head with a long ponytail, and lots of odd items like pagan/demonic pendants and a count/vampire outfit. He also has these demonic dice, which are just about the coolest thing I have seen yet. He is a very nice guy though, and since we have to wait for Ray to do something or other (like 10-15 minutes), we chat about paganism and symbolism and similar. Finally, we get down to business.

Game 1 is wrongery. He gets a triple Orchard hand, but no Oath. In order to get his game going, he is forced to give me 3 spirit tokens, which I beat him down with. That's essentially how it goes. 20, 17, 14, 12 (I think he fetched at this point), 9, 6, 3, 0. It's just weird.

Game 2 is long, tedious, harsh and unforgiving. Joe gets down a quick pair of Ground Seals, which essentially seal my fate. I get a Platinum Angel in play, and get some Pentavus thing going, slowly damaging him, but he plops down 2 Energy Fluxes. That kills all, except the Angel. He then puts me at something like -200 life, all the while recurring Wastelands with Oath triggers. However, he doesn't do this fast enough, and time just runs out. In a long enough game, I think he could have killed me. Alas, I got lucky.

3-2

At this point, there's more delay for some strange reason, so Rich, Peter and I go and find us some TMDers. We (at least me, for the first time) meet Marc Perez (Phantom Tape Worm), Steve (GrandInquisitor, I think), Kowal, and a bunch more Meandeckers. I think I met one every round or so, Carl, Kevin Cron, whichever.

The next round is announced, and I find out I am playing against a very powerful opponent.... the winner of the second last Waterbury, Jason Zheng.

Round 6: Jason Zheng (Nantuko Rice) with Food Chain Goblins

I sit down, and who gets to sit next to me... none other than Steve Menendian. Handy. We chat a bit, and I congratulate him on his crazy new deck. Steve is very animated, and it was fun talking to him before Jason arrived.

Jason sits down across from me, while I was mentally preparing to deal with FCG. I bested it already today, but this time, I expect a lot worse. I am not sure why that is, I think I was a bit intimidated. I also was approaching 30 hours of no sleep, so it was getting harsh. Jason's playmat is very cool (the story on how he got it is good, too), and we start playing.

Game 1, he starts off with a Goblin Tinkerer, and I curse it's existance. Does every FCG player start with a turn 1 tinkerer (off an ESG)? He follows it up with a Lackey, and I am staring down certain death soon.

I get a Black Lotus, and then do a bunch more stuff, including a Tinker for the Pentavus. It takes quite a while, but in the end, I think I am still dead. He kills the welder, kills the Pentavus (I make a token), then attacks. We think I take lethal damage, so I start scooping, and it dawns on me that I still have the Pentavite. Jason and I un-scoop... he then kills the Pentavite and still kills me (but this time, he just barely had enough to do so). It was still a class act for him to let me unscoop, even if it didn't matter.

Game 2 was fast. I have a turn one Welder. Jason starts off with a Lackey. I do a bunch more crap, and finally set myself up for a Tinker. I have to think what to get. It takes a while, but I choose Sundering Titan. I swing (-7), and he counterattacks with the lackey. I sacrifice my Welder (I had a backup welder), and swing again (-7). He casts a piledriver, I force it, and it's on to game 3.

Game 3 was brutally intense, and one of most exciting and scary ones I have ever played.

He starts off with a Piledriver and a Ringleader (which nets him that cycling Goblin Gempalm, and 3 non-Goblins). He smacks me for 5. I tinker for Lotus. He smacks me for 5. I Yawgmoth's Will into madness. I ancestral, re-tinker (another 5 minutes thinking, finally settling for Titan again), a Welder, a bunch more stuff. I think I am gold, but he Naturalizes my guy. Ah, crap on a stick. However, the Titan left him with only colorless mana (Ancient Tomb and either another Tomb or Crypt or Sol Ring). He attacks for 5 again, putting me at 5. I Lava Dart his Piledriver (with a Fetch). He attacks again, putting me at 2. I fetch again, lava darting the Ringleader. I am at 1. He is still at 20, more or less.

Now, I comment on him having a Fanatic. Jason replies, jokingly, that he thought it was bad, because everyone said so. We both look over to Smmennen, who, during a rather intense turn in his game, just comments that he didn't say anything about FCG. We have a good laugh, and we continue.

I snag a Welder and an artifact, and re-weld in the Titan at the end of his turn. Attack. Jason gets no mountain. Attack again. He gets no mountain, and extends his hand.

I collapse in my chair. I simply said that I couldn't believe I won that. It was just intense. I sign a card for Jason (goblin striker), and am off to get some air. I need it. I think if I had to pick my favorite game this whole tournament, this probably would be it. And this says something, since I had 8 great rounds.

4-2

Richard, Matt and I are 4-2. Peter lost a game, so is 4-1-1. Wayne is 3-3, and Jon, I believe, is 3-3 as well. I think Zherbus joins us, and he's 4-2 (I am not sure if it happens this round, or the next) as well. A lot of 4-2's. At this point, I start realizing that I will not be among the higher % 6-2 players, even if I win my last 2 games. It sucks, but we trod on.

Round 7: Robert Fung with Workshop/Control Slaver hybrid

Robert is a very polite opponent, and we chat on the merits of slaver decks all throughout our games. I completely lost all notes, so this might be hugely inaccurate, but I will try to be as precise as possible.

Game 1, he just out-muscles me. He gets a lot of mana, really fast, and FoW's my Welder, while I cannot counter his. He gets a huge advantage, and finally locks me down with Pentavus and Mindslaver. I think I do spot a mistake in his play.

The mistake is his lack of aggressiveness, especially with a Workshop deck. He goes very slowly (not playing, just actually trying to win the game), and on several occasions, if I would have drawn better, I think I could have broken out of the lock. He almost let me off the hook, but in the end, finished me off.

Game 2, he gets mana-screwed, while I get early Welder interactivity. I win in short order.

Game 3 is wrong. We both draw a huge ammount of welders, but I kill his with Lava Darts, and FoW the Fire/Ice he throws at mine. I beat him down with it. Every turn, I draw into Counter-magic, while he draws into threats I counter. It's slow, painful, but purposeful. His life goes down in chunks of 1 and 2s (3, once), and finally, I kill him with Lava Darts.

5-2

Jon is sitting next to me and just shakes his head at the welder beats. So much for playing a control vs. prison game. Smile

I also think Robert was distracted by the good chinese food that was brought in the room. As was I.

I go and find the posse. Wayne's dropping at 3-4, since he wants to get sleep. Jon's at 4-3, Rich's at 5-2, Matt's at 5-2 and Peter's at 5-1-1. Rich, Peter and I discuss the disastrous possibility of all 4 of us losing and not making top 16. I take a short walk, and run into Rich Shay (The Atog Lord). We chat for a bit, discuss the tournament and Control Slaver. He wishes me luck for the next round, hoping to make top 16. At this point, I know my chances are so low, if none, but still...

Round 8: Matt with Stax

Game 1 involved a lot. We each get one Welder, and he breaks off with mad stax components. I am forced to Yawgmoth's will really early, and get a Mindslaver active on him. I tinker for a Platinum Angel (I had the Pentavus in hand, and no Thirsts), and do welding tricks with his 3 Smokestacks. This game last about 30 minutes or so, and my description of it sucks. Both Matt and I play this like a chess game, and I think the Mindslaver allowed me to win. It's like having a second queen, right off the bat.

Game 2 is short. He mulligans into a Workshop, Trinisphere hand, and I start with Sapphire, 2 fetches, and Rack and Ruin (and welder/thirst). He starts predictably, but his only other play is a turn 4 Lotus Petal, while I lay down Island (drawn) and 2 fetchlands. When he gets the Petal, I rack and ruin both of them, and just go crazy.

6-2.

I run and go watch Peter's game. Disaster strikes, and he loses to a lucky top-deck and massive Yawgmoth's Will. Rich and Matt and Jon all win, but our chances are low.

Top 16 gets announced, and I am not in it. Big surprise. Nor is anyone else in our group. That sucked. Either way, we lament.

But, it was a great achievement. Total, between the 6 of us, we were 31-15-1 (not sure where Eric ended up). That's a pretty good overall record. It would have been nice to top-16, but that's what the next Waterbury will be for. Smile

Round 9: TGI-Fridays, with Team Meandeck and Marc Peres

Game 1, we order drinks and wings. Sidenote: I have had most of the 64 flavor of wings that Wild Wing Restaurant has. Anything from their 5 kinds of Thai to their Croatian Wings. However, Marc suggests that TGIF has these "Jack Daniels" wings. They were good... oh, man, so good, I wish I had more right now...

Either way, we have fun, and it really made the trip worth it. We sadly had to leave, and decline the invitations to an after-party, and steeled for another 8 hours on the road. I drive about a third of the way, switch with Wayne, and then finally Peter takes us all home. The border guard is bored to hell, and doesn't even check our ID's. He just waves us through. Handy.

I finally get home at around noon. Have some wine, chill with some people, and finally just pass out... Uptime = 50 hours or so.