SCG Richmond. Finally, I got to attend on of these, and it was a blast. I had a great time. I haven’t had the chance to play this game all that much lately because of grad school devouring my time. I wasn’t even planning to attend this tournament, but I realized on Wednesday that I would feel really bad if I didn’t go to it. At home in Massachusetts for Spring Break, I decided to go. Brass Man agreed to give me a ride down and a place to crash there. JD offered me a ride back. And so, I went.
The trip down was with Brassman, Nefarious, and T00L. We spent quite a large portion of the ride discussing Magic theory, and another large portion discussing the best way to construct Slaver and Gifts. Brassman drove for around ten hours, all while making brilliant observations about Type One control decks. I wish I had his insight.
Once there, we met up with some friends, and worked on lists for the next day. Among them was Outlaw, who would like you to know that he has a girlfriend. There comes a point when my ideas get really awful, right around when I become too tired to think rationally. After being talked out of running Predict and Spark Spray by Brassman, I constructed the following deck.
Mana
5 Moxen
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
4 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
2 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
3 Island
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Library of Alexandria
Permission
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
Draw
4 Brainstorm
4 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Fact or Fiction
Engine
3 Goblin Welder
2 Mindslaver
1 Triskelion
1 Darksteel Colossus
Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Demonic Tutor
Broken
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Tinker
1 Time Walk
Metagame/Control
1 Echoing Truth
1 Fire/Ice
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Rack & Ruin
SB:
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
2 Rack & Ruin
2 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Duress
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Lava Dart
2 Massacre
3 Chalice of the Void
Note:
If I have your Ensnaring Bridge, please PM me. Sorry I forgot to return it before going to Indiana.
On the decklist:
While I did predict Gifts, Control Slaver, and Workshops, I incorrectly guessed that there would be quite a few Confidants and Akromas running around. The Fire/Ice was there to stop Wizards as well as Goblins. And as for Tormod’s Crypt, if you’d like to understand why I run that card, just read any of the many posts I’ve made about it since last June. Merchant Scroll was strong. It leveraged the control elements and the permission elements of the deck, while allowing me to get Ancestral Recall or Thirst for Knowledge. In the end, it seemed better than including Gifts Ungiven in the deck because it is useful when you have very little mana in play. Staring at a bunch of expensive, uncastable cards in your hand happens with Control Slaver, and adding another four drop wouldn’t help all that much.
My memory isn’t that great, so I won’t go into individual matchups. My one loss in the swiss was against Hi-Val. I got MeanKicked. (No, I'm positive I wasn't actually drop kicked). After convincing Hi-Val not to concede, while making his Gifts deck “go off” under Slaver, the person sitting next to me noticed that my Tinker was under his boot. That wasn’t very wonderful. After that I piled my deck in six piles before every game. I'm just glad I didn't drop any pieces of power under someone's boot.
Overall, while I didn’t play against Combo or Oath, there were plenty of Control Slaver and Gifts decks. I even played against Red/White Sligh, BS, and Ophidian in the swiss.
In the top eight, I faced Outlaw with Gifts. Outlaw is starting to clean up around New England in my absence. And, he wanted me to mention that he has a girlfriend. We had quite an epic battle, but I won in the end.
In the semi-finals, I played against Force Field You with Control Slaver, a variation that he likes to call “Burning Slaver.” It was an epic battle of Gorilla Shaman against Library of Alexandria, and Brian drew a lot of cards but didn’t find much. In the second game, I believe, Brian tapped out on his turn to cast a draw spell, and I went off and won.
I faced Samite Healer in the finals. Samite is a great player, but I managed to win a close two games.
That night, we went to Denny’s for dinner. There is something wrong with any restaurant that has guards posted at the doors to keep you inside until you’ve paid. Really adds to the atmosphere. As I posted in Brian’s report, my table ended up waiting a good 45 minutes for our food. And it came out not all at once, but in bits and pieces. So, when it all arrived, it was cold. And my milkshake wasn’t too great. I brought up the matter to the waitress, who informed me that our order had been “lost.” I spoke with two people behind the counter, and was told that we might be entitled to free drinks, but couldn’t have the meals paid for. I appealed to the head judge – I asked for the manager. She was polite, and after I explained the situation to her, she agreed that we shouldn’t be charged for the meal. Just before we left, as we were gathering our coats, our waitress was complaining about us within our earshot, saying that waiting for forty-five minutes wasn’t that bad a wait. And so we saved money further by not leaving a tip.
Having about two hours of sleep, we headed back to the tournament center for the second day. I made sure to get a good breakfast with T00L. If you learn nothing else from this report, remember that eating a big, good breakfast will do more for you in a tournament than fixing the 60th card in your deck just right. Too tired for anything like “thinking,” I played the same list as the day before. Randy was playing Grim Long, and was my first round opponent. Randy did the whole “Stack Demonic Tutor, Sacrifice LED, Get Yawgwill, Cast Yawgwill” play. I responded by using Tormod’s Crypt.
However, this tournament didn’t go so well for me. Evenpence beat me with Uba Stax. In the first game, his first turn Workshop into Trinisphere made me pitch my only draw spell to Force, and left me with a hand that didn’t work so well. A few Wastelands and we were on the second game. In the second game, Force of Nature once again had ruined my manabase by his second turn. I had a chance one turn if I drew a mox, but didn’t, and became buried under a Crucible lock.
My other matchloss was to Steve. It went to three games, but two of those games involved my not getting a turn. Chalice of the Void and Duress and Tormod’s Crypt are all perfectly good cards against Grim Long, but not so good if you don’t step foot inside your mainphase. Steve played the “many amazing cards” in his hand well, and mainphases became nothing more than a dream for me. As did making another top eight.
Then is when the fun began. Several of us went out to dinner at a diner. Randy Bueller went with us. Despite his awesome position of authority in the Magic world, it turns out that Randy is a great guy to hang out with. He really has a passion and love for the game. After that we did a single-elimination draft with Randy. I won, using awful cards in my deck. Anyone who knows my draft style won’t be surprised to learn that I had a Blue/White deck with double Rune Boggle. And a Remand. And six defenders. And about three cards that were actually capable of winning the game.
Then, as Brassy, Nefarious, T00L, and myself went back to the car, we learned that the garage we parked in had decided to close. And heavy metal gates prevented our entry. So, we waited in a nearby hotel lobby and slept for an hour. When I woke up, I learned that Brass Man had gone off to find a security guard to get into the garage. And so, back at our hotel, I slept for an hour before Brass Man again drove me to JD’s hotel, from which I got a ride home.
I’m really happy I went to this. I got a chance to see people I haven’t seen in a while, and had a great time playing. The Type One community is wonderful, and something I’m very happy to be a part of.
Props:
JD: for arranging a ride back for me back into the Cornfields of Indiana.
Tormod’s Crypt: for beating every deck that Meandeck makes
Jacob: For donating an Orange to me. An artifact Orange, of course.
My Opponent in the Last Round of the Side Event: He let me have some packs, despite my being in bad shape against him. Thank you.
Breakfast: for making people better at playing Magic.
The Type One community: For being Awesome.
SCG: For putting on a great event.
Finally, Brassman -- his Magic theory is top-notch. Moreover, without a single word of complain, Brassman spent twelve hours behind the wheel of a Goblin War Wagon, arranged for me to get a place to crash, got a locked-up car out of a lot in frigid weather, and woke up early Monday to drive me to where JD was. Massive Props.
I’ll give myself slops for not remembering to take match notes. Hopefully, next time I will so I can write a more in-depth report.
Rich Shay
The Atog Lad
Edit: Added to Props
