3rd Place at Myriad Games: A Scrub's Report

The number eight appears on my clock. The alarm sounds, resounding with a very prolonged and angry BEEP. I hit the clock, for unlike most days, I am already awake. Today was the day of the tournament at Myriad Games, and I can never sleep in before a tournament.

Being the organized individual I am I had put my card collection in order the night before. Looking at it, I realize that it really is quite expansive, despite my reluctance to buy packs over the years. I had just been given my brother’s collection, which had resided under his bed while he was at college. I intend to sell my collection to Dan, as I too have hopes of attending college soon. I plan to keep a deck though, to not rule out playing in Vintage tourneys.

All that is left to do before Adam arrives is print out my deck list. I had bought Seth’s deck only recently, modified it, and played a few games with it. This is what I came up with:

“Shanghai Noodle Factory”

Maindeck:

4 Sphere of Resistance
1 Trinisphere
4 Smokestack
3 Crucible of Worlds
3 Tangle Wire
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Sundering Titan
1 Karn, Silver Golem
2 Juggernaut
2 Goblin Welder
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Seal of Cleansing
2 Duress
1 Tinker
1 Ancestral Recall *
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Crop Rotation
1 Black Lotus *
1 Mox Pearl *
1 Mox Emerald *
1 Mox Sapphire *
1 Mox Jet *
1 Mox Ruby *
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Barbarian Ring
3 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra’s Workshop *

* All cards with the adjacent name are proxies. There are 11 in total. I opted to pay one additional dollar to play Ancestral Recall.

Sideboard:

3 Pyroclasm
2 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Ray of Revelation
2 Juggernaut
2 Duplicant
4 Chalice of the Void

The only cards in the deck that could use elaboration, in my opinion, are the Duress. This is my logic:
“If my opponent had two open blue lands untapped during my turn, and my hand consisted of expensive artifacts, and no Wastelands, I would fall upon hard times. In fact, times would be so hard, that, by falling on them, I would bust a kneecap and lose. In this circumstance, I think Duress is pretty good to draw from my library. Also, no one expects a Stax deck to play Duress, so the surprise factor can be good at times.”

All the other questionable card choices, besides and/or including Duress, are obviously mistakes. I have just begun playing Stax, so please excuse my inexperience.

At ten o’clock, Adam arrives. We load up his car with my boxes of cards, and then drive towards the tournament. After a little under 30 minutes we arrive at Myriad Games. Dan hasn’t opened the store yet, so we converse with the other players that have arrived early. Luckily, the conversation is just appropriate enough that the small children were not offended. Upon Ray’s arrival, our circle becomes one of hacky-sack, a game I have never played. Coincidently, most others in the circle had not played the game either.

Dan arrives. I make several trips between the car and the store, transporting my collection inside. After everyone has registered the tournament begins.

Match Information Starts Here:

Round 1: Mike, with the Mystery Deck

I refer to Mike’s deck as the Mystery Deck because Mike tells me before the match that he doesn’t know what’s in his deck. He tells me that a friend asked him to play it. Unfortunately, he has never looked through it.

Game 1:

Mike wins the die roll and opts to play first. He drops a Gemstone and passes the turn. I look at my hand. My deck likes me. On my turn, I play Mox Ruby, followed by a Mana Vault. I then tap the Vault to play the Trinisphere, master of the random 1st turn lockdown. I play Strip Mine and destroy his land.

Mike and I drop lands on and off for a couple of turns. He has Great Furnaces and Gemstones, but plays nothing, so I don’t know what his deck is trying to do. I’m not sure if he knows either though.
Eventually, I get out a Sphere of Resistance. Shortly afterwards, I untap my Mana Vault and attempt to destroy another one of Mike’s Gemstones with a Wasteland. Mike responds with an Entomb for Platinum Angel.

I get a Welder into play. The tiny goblin grins, brandishes his various welding tools, and begins to work on Mike’s life total. Mike cannot get enough mana on the board to break free. He begins discarding cards at his discard phase, some of which include Triskelion and Sundering Titan. I eventually find a Smokestack and cast it. He scoops.

Game 2: Sideboard: I have no idea what I did, if I put anything in.

Mike decides to go first again. He casts a first turn entomb for artifact fat. I play Mox Sapphire and Tolarian Academy. I then cast Sphere of Resistance. Mike enthusiastically plays a Bazaar of Baghdad. I play a Wasteland, tap my mana sources, and cast Crucible of Worlds. Mike begins activating his Bazaar and discarding cards, including Squee, Darkblast, and Ray of Revelation.

I find a Smokestack and cast it. Mike then tries to cast Ray of Revelation on my Smokestack. I remind him that he can’t cast the Ray on artifacts. I guess he forgot.

I cast a Juggernaut. Mike begins playing moxen and passes the turn. I luckily draw Tinker off the top of my library. I tap Sapphire to float a blue mana, tap Tolarian, and sacrifice the Sapphire to cast Tinker. I put Karn, Master of the Inanimate Masses into play. Karn decides to eat one of Mike’s moxes. My Juggernaut is urged to attack Mike. Mike can’t cast anything, so Karn makes my artifacts grow legs and trample him.

I asked Mike after the match if he was playing Dragon or Cerebral Assassin. He didn’t think so. I never figured out what he was playing.

Round 2: Tim, with slightly altered Extended Ichorid

There wasn’t a lot of cool stuff in the games I played with Tim. His deck is designed to dredge and attack, so that’s what it did. Also, his deck was only slightly altered from its extended form, as he played Watery Grave. However, he also played basics.

Game 1:

I deplete Tim’s mana sources. He dredges for multiple turns, but he gets bad luck and fails to flip any Ichorids for a long time. I Tinker for Karn, who makes my artifacts angry.

Game 2: Sideboard: I put in Juggernauts and Tormod’s Crypts, taking out the Duresses, Seal of Cleansing, and something else.

I play a Juggernaut first turn, and then destroy Tim’s mana sources. Tim begins dredging and finds Ichorids. We begin to race to see who can deal the most damage, as Juggernaut doesn’t have much choice. Juggernaut needs to talk to a counselor about his anger problems.

Eventually, after one of my attack phases, he is at 1 life, and I am at 8 life. I have Swords to Plowshares, Crop Rotation, and some other cards in my hand. I have just drawn a Black Lotus, my first colored mana source for the game.

I play the Lotus and pass the turn. Tim removes his 3 non-Ichorid creatures from the graveyard and attacks with 3 Ichorids. He expects me to concede. Instead, I sacrifice my Lotus, and cast Swords on my Juggernaut. I then take mana burn and beatings, leaving me at 4 life.

I take my turn and pass. I ask Tim how many black creatures he has in his graveyard. He says that he only has the three Ichorids. He does not send any into play. He begins dredging again, and finds three Psychatogs. I have colored spells in my hand that I can’t cast. He animates his Ichorids, removing the Psychatogs, and attacks for more than enough damage.

Game 3:

I cast a very early Karn, who animates artifacts. His deck isn’t fast enough to keep up.

After the match, Travis, who had been watching the match, points out my important play mistake in the second game. He points out that I could have cast Crop Rotation first off the Lotus, then cast Swords. That way I would have had colored mana to cast the spells I had in hand.
Travis also points out that I could have cast my Tangle Wires as well, stacking the abilities during Tim’s upkeep, so that he would be forced to tap his Ichorids. Tim points out that that doesn’t work, as the active player has priority. Well, at least I won the match.

Round 3: Pat, playing what looked like Control Slaver

Game 1:

Pat wins the die roll and plays first. He drops a Library of Alexandria and passes the turn. I play a Mox Pearl, followed by Sol Ring, and then a Sphere of Resistance. I play a Strip Mine and destroy his Library. All the small children of Alexandria, having no place to study, become illiterate. Pat can’t play anything. I find Crucible and Tangle Wire soon afterward. He scoops.

Game 2: Sideboard: I remember putting in at least one Tormod’s Crypt. I don’t remember what I took out though.

Pat plays Mox Ruby and a land. He passes the turn. I play a Tormod’s Crypt and Duress him. Pat’s hand is full of land, an Echoing Truth, and a Thirst. I take his fuel and remove Thirst. He commented later that he did not expect Duress.

I cast a Trinisphere with Swords in hand. He Finds a Goblin Welder and casts it. I find at least one Wasteland and a Strip Mine and begin destroying his ecosystem. I find a Sphere of Resistance and cast it. I then play a Crucible. Pat has kept a constant stream of lands, so he casts Tinker. He thinks a little and puts a Crucible into play. I continue destroying his lands to keep him off his mana.

After much repeated land destruction, I decide to wait until I have a Wasteland, Strip Mine, and a land drop. I kill three of Pat’s four lands and activate Tormod’s Crypt to remove his graveyard, in hopes that it will buy me enough time to win. After I activate Crypt, Pat activates his Welder, and turns my Trinisphere into a Tormod’s Crypt. I then cast Swords on his Welder.

Soon afterwards, I cast a Juggernaut. My Juggernaut can’t help himself, so he attacks Pat a couple times, leaving him at 1. Pat has a fair amount of mana on the board again, so I fear that he’ll cast a bounce spell at the end of my turn, or do something ridiculous, or both. Luckily, I have Demonic Tutor to find Barbarian Ring. I have threshold, so I fling the land at him for the final points of damage.

Round 4: Dan, with Gifts

Game 1:

Dan receives a game loss for not registering his deck list properly. So, I start the round with one game already under my belt.

Game 2:

Dan plays first, dropping mana from his hand and passing the turn. I cast Duress and take his Force of Will. I then proceed to play Smokestack and Welder. Dan Gifts during his upkeep, finding Recoup, Tinker, Will, and Rack and Ruin. I let him keep Recoup and Tinker. At the end of his turn, I play Vampiric Tutor for another Tangle Wire. I then proceed to get a lock for the remainder of the game, as my Welder welds in and out Tangle Wires while my Smokestack controls Dan’s permanent count. Drawing lots of artifact permanents, a Juggernaut, and a Sphere of Resistance was pretty nice too. My deck likes me.

Round 5: Travis, with 5-Color Stax

I am in 1st place at the beginning of this round. This hasn’t happened for me at a tourney since I went undefeated at Friday Night Magic with Mono-Black Beats, which was a couple years ago. Travis is a close 2nd. I ask Travis if he wants to draw, but he wants to play it out.

Game 1:

I win the die roll and play first. I cast Juggernaut and say go. Travis casts a land, a Mana Vault, and the Metal Worker. On my turn I cast Tangle Wire. Travis points out afterwards that I win because of this card alone. He had a Staff of Domination in hand, allowing infinite everything the following turn. I apply Juggernaut beats to get Travis down to 1 life in the time my Tangle Wire gives me. I then use Barbarian Ring for the final point of damage.

Game 2: Sideboard: I put in all my Pyroclasms, Duplicants, and Juggernauts, taking out Duresses and other stuff. I think I took out my Spheres.

Travis decides to play first, dropping a first turn Metal Worker. I have Pyroclasm in hand, along with Crucible, Strip Mine, and Wasteland among other things. I don’t have any fast mana to cast a first turn Pyroclasm. On my turn I luckily draw Black Lotus and cast Pyroclasm. My deck gives me nice things, sometimes.

On his turn, Travis casts a Crucible. On my turn, I cast a Crucible. Travis then finds a Gorilla Shaman and beats and eats moxes. This is followed with many turns of a Monkey slapping me. We both continue putting mana into play, except for my cheap artifact mana, which I hold for fear of Monkey shenanigans. I draw a Pyroclasm at some point, but hold it back in case he gets a Welder out. If Goblin Welder and Gorilla Shaman combine powers, they can destroy an entire chemistry lab.

Travis eventually casts Tinker, putting Memnarch into play. At the end of his turn, I cast a Vampiric Tutor for a Swords and cast it during my turn, targeting Memnarch. Travis then finds a Triskelion. I draw Karn, and play him.
I decide to be cool and turn Travis’ Sol Ring into a real boy for good measure, then cast Pyroclasm. Travis responds by shooting Karn twice with his Triskelion and aiming one point right between my eyes. On his turn, he plays Welder, and I can’t find an answer. He changes one of his less stellar artifacts into a Triskelion. He then proceeds to change my Karn into an ashtray. I die shortly afterwards.

Game 3:

I once again elect to go first. I play a Mana Crypt, a mox, and a colored land, and cast another first turn Juggernaut with a second in hand. Then I say go. Travis plays a Monkey and eats my artifacts. This is soon followed by a Welder and a second Monkey. My Juggernaut is then turned into an ashtray, which is then eaten by a Monkey. I never recover, but hopefully Travis’ Monkey got indigestion from eating an ashtray.

Round 6: Adam, with Oath

Adam drove me down to Myriad Games earlier in the day. Adam has recently returned to play Magic after a long retirement, and selling all his cards. This is his first tournament in a long time. He used to dabble in Vintage, back in the day. Back when Blue-White Stasis was near unbeatable, even after sideboard, when four Reverent Silence would come in. That deck was sick.

However, this is his first competitive Vintage tourney, and I’m very happy he did so well. We draw because Adam complains about the crippling pain in his arm from flipping cards for oaths all day. Not wanting send him to the hospital, I agree to draw. I think I get a match loss if I purposely cause my opponent injury. Also, we’ll both get into top 8.

Top 8 Starts Here:

Author’s note: I start making lots of little mistakes, and forget to take notes in some matches. Most of the mistakes were really dumb, but not really big or game altering.

1st Round of Top 8: Yokomoto, with Storm Combo

Yokomoto had a tough time during our rounds. He was tired, stressed, and as he said, in need of a cigarette. On top of that, his deck just plain pooped out. I suppose everyone has a bad game of Magic at some point, his just happened to be while he was playing me in Top 8. Considering the circumstance though, Yokomoto showed above average self-restraint and was respectful during the entire match.

Game 1: Author’s note: I did not take any notes during this round, other than life. Please bear with me.

Yokomoto mulligans. Electing to go first, I put out Spheres and Wastelands pretty fast. Yokomoto can’t get up enough mana in the beginning, so nothing happens for a while. I play Juggernaut, who starts swinging. While Juggernaut is attacking Yokomoto, I try to untap Mana Vault during my main phase.

Yokomoto reminds me that I can’t do that. I then take 4 damage from my mana pool, which is angered that I have insulted it so. At this point, I think it was obvious at that I had not played with Mana Vault very much. Looking back on it though, I think it was a pretty funny mistake. In the long run though, I didn’t matter much. When at 3 life, Yokomoto removed Spirit Guides in order to cast Hurkyl’s Recall, targeting me, with more than enough stored fuel to cast a fatal Tendrils of Agony.

Game 2: Sideboard: I put in Chalices, Tormod’s Crypts, and Juggernauts. I think I took out Titan, Swords, Seal of Cleansing, and some other things. I really wish I wrote this down.

Yokomoto mulligans to five cards. I chose to go first, playing a Chalice at one and zero. Having mulliganed to five, Yokomoto can’t do much on his turn. I drop a Sphere of Resistance shortly afterwards. I also draw a lot of Wastelands. Yokomoto cannot draw enough fuel in time.

Game 3:

Yokomoto mulligans to five cards again. Going first, he has absolutely no play 1st turn, not even mana. My hand is once again, very good, and full of locks. However, I fail to find a win condition outside of Barbarian Ring recursion for a long time. After a lot of drawing and passing turns, Juggernaut shows up to finish the job.

After the round, Yokomoto finds a cigarette, takes a breather, and comes back to offer his moral support during the remainder of the tournament. Truly, Yokomoto is the Mike Jones of Magic, and a very cool guy. Yokomoto says, “Don’t do drugs!”

Semifinals: The Brassman, with Gifts

Before our match, I remind Brassman of the infamous “Grayscaled Gharial… Go” match, from the last, and only other time we played each other in a tournament. I think it is great that someone else thought it was funny.

Game 1:

I try to lockdown Brassman’s board. I get Strip Mine recursion on the board, but he names Strip Mine with a Pithing Needle. I can’t stop him fast enough, resulting in a Flame/Vault combo to my dome.

Game 2: Sideboard: I take a really long time sideboarding, which tells me that I need to understand my sideboard. Brassman was very kind and lets me take my time. I think I sided in my Chalices and at least one Tormod’s Crypt. I believe I took out Vampiric Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Engineered Explosives, Trinisphere, and one Swords.

I start off with some pretty good disruption, including Tangle Wire. I manage to get a Welder into play, in hopes of recurring Tangle Wire. Brassman plays a Needle naming Welder. My hand is depleted, so I have to rely on luck. My deck is nice and gives me decent cards. However, the important ones get countered. Eventually, Brassman casts Mystical Tutor at the end of my turn. He gets a Yawgmoth’s Will, goes broken, and uses the Flame/Vault combo again. Respect Pithing Needle or it will destroy you.

Round deciding who takes 3rd place: Nate, with Gifts

Nate asks me to concede 3rd place before our match. I think about it, but then decide to play it out.

Game 1: Authors note: Once again, I didn’t take notes during this match. Sorry for the lack of detail. If people couldn’t tell during this match by my mistakes, my memory is selective at best. At worst, it is just plain terrible.

I can’t shut off Nate’s mana base fast enough. He tutors for cool stuff and I take a fatal Tendrils with over ten storm count.

Game 2:

At some point in the game, while I have a Seal of Cleansing on the board, Nate casts Energy Flux. I should destroy his Flux at the end of his turn, but I temporarily forget I have Seal in play. On my turn, I pay the upkeep for my Chalice with 1 counter. At the end of my turn, Nate has an effect, which reminds me that I have Seal on the board. For some odd reason, my mind is set in mana-denial mode.

At the end of my own turn, I say “I target…” While saying this, I pick up my Seal of Cleansing and move it towards Nate’s Mana Crypt. I pause, and then remember the Energy Flux. I do not finish the sentence, or say a card name, and instead move my Seal towards the Energy Flux. Nate, seeing this, states that I have already made my decision, and targeted his Mana Crypt. The judge overseeing the match declares that since I have not yet chosen a target, I may still choose one. However, since I said that I was targeting something, I must choose a target. I choose the Energy Flux.

Nate is not happy with the decision, and argues with the judge. The arguing does not lead anywhere, and the ruling stands. Understandably, Nate is discouraged with the decision. Unfortunately, he allows this to develop into a negative attitude during the remainder of our match.

I went on to draw multiple lock components and win the game.

Game 3:

This game, my deck pulls out all the stops. I somehow draw into a Crucible lock, and then follow it with four separate Chalices. I then play Karn and Sundering Titan.

It’s Over!!! I Receive 3rd Place and an Italian Manadrain!!!

If you take any lessons away from this report, please take these:

* Always know how to sideboard. Also design your sideboard with certain plans in mind.
* Know all common applications and rules of the cards in your deck.
* Above all else: Have fun. This probably seems self-explanatory, but I’ve seen all kinds of people forget to do this.
* Nobody is perfect.

Thanks for reading any part of this report. I wrote for ten hours straight to produce it.

- Fox