Star City Games Day 1 Tommy Kolowith

[TK]

I dont know if anyone else had this problem but the night before we decided it would be a good idea to go and find the stre so we wouldnt have to worry about it in the morning. Sooooo after about an hour and a half of driving around looking for the store we finally stop at an arcade and ask some 12 year old kid where the hell the store is. We find it and realize that we drove around for an hour and a half trying to find a store 8 minutes from are hotel. So we wake up and run the store and grab reg sheets then head over to burger king for breakfast and make out are lists. We make it back to millenium games with aabout 45 minutes until the tourney starts. I can hardly wait to start palying since i havent been able to sttend any of the star city for a while since i always seem to be on vacation.

Many people were very curious to where the deck design came from. the deck was designed by adrian sullivan and i@n degraff and was given the name of the SS which stands for the sullivan solution. The deck came into my hands because of i@n he was looking for someone on the team to run it at rochester and he decided i would be the best person for hte job. he showed me the list 3 weeks or so before rochester and i immediately agreed to play it. the more testing i did the more ridiculous the deck seemed to be. Even though the deck may seem easy to play there is a lot of strategy behind it. so here is the exact list that one me starcity games.

Land/artifact mana
3 wastes
1 strip
4 delta
1 strand
2 island
1 swamp
4 underground sea
5 mox
1 lotus
1 petal

Creatures
3 erayo
4 dimir cutpurse
4 dark confidant

Instants
4 brainstorm
4 force of will
1 mystical
1 vamp
1 recall
4 stifle
1 shadow of doubt
1 dark blast
1 chain of vapor
1 rusing river

Sorcery
4 duress
1 hymn or tourach
1 time walk

Artifats
1 engeneered explosives

Sideboard
4 dibolic edict
2 energy flux
1 hurkyls recall
2 skull clamp
4 planar void
1 shadow of doubt
1 darkblast

Anyone that wants to despute card choices im not the one to due it with this deck was created by adrian sullivan and if u have questions about the deck i suggest you read his article on starcity. me and I@n made one last minute change to the main off cutting a shadow of doubt for the hymn and otherwise the deck is how adrian designed it. o and there was a massacre int he board day 2 but not day one we decided we didnt need it but it should be in there.

well here is what happened


I cant remember most of my opponents names so sorry for that but i do remember most everything else

Round one (cool guy with gifts talked with him and his brother several times between days one and 2. From Buffalo)
Game 1. I dont remember exactly but i have a bob in play and an erayo that eventually flips. He manages to break erayo with a mox and play will but there is jsut not enough he can do and his life is relatively low bob goes the distance.

Game 2. this wasnt even a good game really i managed to mana screw him with wastes and stifles for most of the game. my favorite play of this game was when i had erayo in play and i passed the turn he eot brainstorms then try to crack his fetch i stifle he forces my stifle then i just stifle again erayo flips and the game doesnt last much longer.

2-0

1-0-0

Round 2 (Guy with gifts oath)

Game 1. Before the game starts i ask him what he beat round one and he says oath im like good i hate that deck. then on my first turn i duress him and see two gifts other stuff and a tropical island. i realize that he is probably palying gifts oath and im not two worried about this match. I Get a bob into play when he rips oath and plays it. He only has one card in hand which i know is a gifts and i have vamp and chain of vapor in hand. i end of turn vamp trying to figure out how i want to deal with his oath seeing as there is several ways i could. i decide to grab wasteland. i reveal waste with bob swing in then i chain his oath and waste his trop. This leaves him only a library and a underground in play and bob rides me to extreme card advantage and i win easily.

Game 2. We starts out with mox orchard oath i force of will and he doesnt have the force him self. i draw and play duress to see him with a hand of four land. the game ends up with me having 2 cutpurse in play each with a skull clamp on them. he did at one point hard cast akroma this game which i answered with a edict the game was never even close.

2-0

2-0-0

Round 3 (Guy who jsut beat I@n playing staxless stax)

Game 1. i realize that this is a bad matchup for me but i have a strong hand and know how to play against stax more than others. he leads off with city, welder, emerald, solring. i answer back with lotus, explosives at 1 blow it hitting welder and ring, then waste his land. he seems unfaised plays shop and whatever else i never really seemed int he game after that.

Game 2. i have an erayo in play that is beating for a bit while my opponent is mana screwed. i finally get a flux into play but he draws shop and then palys eon hub which i couldnt believe. The next few turns he plays a choke and a tangle wire which both due ntohing at the moment. i finally build up my hand and get my hurkyls. i hurkyls his board and flip erayo int he same turn he cant due anything the rest of the game and scoops shortly.

Game 3. he plays barbring sapphire welder go. i play an island and pass. he play trini on his turn which is fine since i have 2 more ways to get basice already in hand. i draw waste and hit his ring. this paly turns out to be the game winn jsut about it locks him under his own trini for the game. i paly a few creatures and he finally discards down throwing titan into the yard with a active welder. he attempts to weld his sapphire and i chain it and he choses not to sac his waste and chain his own trini. i then brainstorm into a darkblast which seals the game for me.

2-1

3-0-0

Round 4 (odd black white red fish varient)

Game 1. he plays bob and then serves me with a pyrostatic pillar.

Game 2. i get early double bob and waste his colored sources he scoops quickly.

Game 3. he plays first tunr kris mage. i play first turn edict and bob i win this game relatively easily as i destoy his mana base and get to much early advantage with bob.

2-1

4-0-0

Round 5 (Guy with GAT that tells me he used to be on the pro tour)

Game 1. is a ridiculously close game it comes down to this i have bob erayo cutpurse and a flipped erayo in play and am at 2 life. he has a large dryad in play and is at 4 life. i reveal brainstorm putting me to one life. i swing with erayo to put him to 3. he draws and passes i brainstorm puttin back a mox i had in hand reveal it and he scoops.

Game 2. this game didnt really feal right i had an early bob, but it was his own mana crypt that won the game for me i think he lsot almost every role.

2-0

5-0-0 At this point im pretty sure im guranteed a top 8 spot

Round 6 (Nam playing uba stax)

Game 1. I cant just draw seeing as nam is nto 5-0 and i dont want to sccop risking i get paired down next round. i know coming into the match what he is playing already and joke with him that i should probably just scoop game one and go into the board. he has no idea what im playing but likes the fact i just told him id lose game one most likely. As i expected he ends up resolving welders uba and has bazaar i play for a while then eventually scoop when he plays a second bazaar.

Game 2. i kept a risky hand with jsut sapphire recall needing to draw some mana sources. i recall into nothng but i have some brainstorms and fow so im not 2 worried. i eventually get some land and energy flux which wrecks him. cutpurse then goes the distance.

Game 3. he resolves a chalice for 2 on second turn but i dont care seeing as i drop cutpurse on my turn and have better threats to save my fow for. cutpurse generates such great card advantage then i decide to finally go for the game ending paly. i mystical for vamp during my upkeep. i then vamp for erayo, swing in with cutpurse draw erayo  paly him and one other spell to flip and lock the game.

2-1

6-0-0

round 7 i get paired up against one of the candians palying slaver which is such a great matchup for me i almost want to play it out and go 7-0 but we decide to draw and go get food.

I go into the top eight as the number one which is crazy because we knew the deck was good but we didnt expect it do this well. I@n the only other person playing the deck and one of the decks creators ended up losing the last round and going 5-2 he would have been able to draw in but his breakers were not very good.

TOP 8 ROUND 1

Ben kowal with slaver

Game 1. I look at a hand that has lotus duress jet double bob and cant remember what else. i play lotus and jet sac lotus and duress and play bob. i draw a waste and hit one of his lands. the next turn i draw another land and play my other bob. i end up with so much card advantage and he never is really even in the game.

Game 2. i mull to 5 and keep a hand with 2 land bob force and blue card i try and play bob turn 2 he drains i force he force the game doenst last much longer. i think i scoop to a will or something.

Game 3. i get out a turn 2 and turn 3 cutpurse and begin to gain card advantage. when he had 2 cards in hand i paly erayo hoping to put the lock down he drains it and plays an old man with the drain mana. my next turn i draw and skip my attack. he draws and passes i attack i assume he will try and steal one of my guys to block the other. he does and i stifle. i play a bob and pass the turn. he draws and passes i eot brainstorm and hit my rushing river. my turn i enter my attack step he trys to use old man i rushing river it. i then say that seems good bouncing your oldman and making you discard it. the game ends shortly after.


ROUND 2 TOP 4

Canadian palyer with bomberman fish.

Game 1. im on the play and go land jet hymn or tourach. it hits hits a land and a drain. his turn he draws plays no land and syas go. i realize the hymn destroyed him. i duress him to see tfk x2 leak x2 and drain i play bob and the game doesnt last long.

Game 2. he play a first turn aether spellbomb. my hand is lotus land petal which allowed me to play first turn cutpurse but i had to wait a few turns due to the spellbomb. i managed to paly around it and eventually get 2 cutpurse into play. they generate so much card advantage that the game never gets close.


FINALS JIMMY WITH GRIM LONG

He offers me the split but after me and my teamates talk aobut it i decide to say no and play for it all.

Game 1. i keep a hand with force prainstorm explosives some land and a bob. i play land go. he plays dark rit i brainstorm in response but hit no blue cards. i put back 2 lands. he plays duree takes my force and then palys a windfall for 4 with 2 black floating. my hand is land land bob and sometihng else. i draw and paly bob. he draws and passes i draw and duress to see he has a hand with lots of mana but no real threats. card advantage and creatures fianlly ride me to victory.

Game 2. my opening hand is fow x3, chain, peta,l walk, erayo its risky but i decide to keep. he plays land crypt and tiker i think for a while and let it resolve. People had been saying isnt this a mistake but there were several reasons i did this. one i knew he ahd dsc in the side and would bring it in against me. 2 he already palyed his land for turn and probably woundnt sack jar if he got it. 3 he knows i play 4 stifle so jar is kinda risky to get. he passes the turn i draw an island whihc is amazing at the moment. i play it and chain his dsc. and pass. he draws plays recall i fow removing erayo. it goes draw go a little but until i have an erayo in play and duress him. he has vamp, demonic, fow, rit, cabal, wheel, and, emerald. his mana base hasnt been good all game so i decide to take the demonic. his next turn he draws and plays cabal ritual. at this moment i knew the match was over, i knew he would flip erayo for me and i could fow anything he tried to do. he palyed cabal, then grim, then rit, then necro which i force. he then vamps and passes. i know he vamps for lotus seeing as his hand is emerald and wheel and he can simply cast emerald into erayo. i draw and decide to paly my lotus i had been holding so i dont have to remove time walkt o force. he does the paly i excected and i force wheel. my tuen i draw paly walk draw again and paly confidant. he seal the game in a couple of turns.


in all it was an absolutley great day. the whole day long people coudnt believe what i was playing and how easily i was desposing of my opponents. i cant tell you how many people had to read erayo or jsut didnt understand that they were in a lock that is almsot impossible to break.

I end up walking away with a very nice looking lotus and a very nice twister that two of my teamates are already trying to get from me the lotus that is. the even was very well run except for the poor judging over the two days. i never ran into a problem with them but there were several bad rulings by the judges day 2 in the finals.

Starcity games was great as usualy i managed to upgrade my beta sapphire to a nicer one and also upgrade my unlimited recall to beta.

It was well worth the long 12 hour drive down there and it was great to show the east cost that the midwest is much better than they usally give us credit for.

[Kowal]

Game 1. I look at a hand that has lotus duress jet double bob and cant remember what else. i play lotus and jet sac lotus and duress and play bob. i draw a waste and hit one of his lands. the next turn i draw another land and play my other bob. i end up with so much card advantage and he never is really even in the game.

Game 2. i mull to 5 and keep a hand with 2 land bob force and blue card i try and play bob turn 2 he drains i force he force the game doenst last much longer. i think i scoop to a will or something.

Game 3. i get out a turn 2 and turn 3 cutpurse and begin to gain card advantage. when he had 2 cards in hand i paly erayo hoping to put the lock down he drains it and plays an old man with the drain mana. my next turn i draw and skip my attack. he draws and passes i attack i assume he will try and steal one of my guys to block the other. he does and i stifle. i play a bob and pass the turn. he draws and passes i eot brainstorm and hit my rushing river. my turn i enter my attack step he trys to use old man i rushing river it. i then say that seems good bouncing your oldman and making you discard it. the game ends shortly after.

Game two you scooped to Will as you remember, but it wasn't a terribly impressive or explosive will.  I just had an Old Man on the table and a solid grip, so you weren't going to be able to dig your way out of it.

When you tutored in game three, I knew the match was over.  My mana just didn't want to cooperate the whole time, but my sideboard was also ill-prepared.  You played tight and the deck was pretty solid for a fish build.  Kudos.

[LordHomerCat]

Stifle didn't even figure into my decision to get DSC, more the fact that if you didn't have force and chain in hand, I would win the game when I untapped (vamp for force with blue card in hand), and I only had a pearl to make mana going into jar so it would have been pretty junky.  Drawing that island was pretty savage =]  Nice job TK.

[warble]

I only had a pearl to make mana going into jar so it would have been pretty junky.

I've popped jar turn 1 with 0 mana floating while playing Control Slaver.  Just getting that extra mana usually will turn the game.  I did end up drawing lotus 2 mox ancestral walk and vampiric tutor that round...which was savage...but anyway for your reference if you're playing against control and have a pretty solid hand aside from mana development (from the report it seems that's exactly what you had) please dear LORD pop that jar if for mana development only.  I swear it is the right move to go balls to the walls...because the mana's not going away next turn and a cabal ritual with threshold is way different than one without it.    DsC wasn't balls to the wall that was the safe play, man.

[Madchemist]

Intead of the 1 Hymn, would mind twist be better?

[SonataOfTheCathedral]

I'm the round five player, I haven't been on the tour in a while since my rating dropped a year back, so I shouldn't have title of pro player.

Game 1 was extremely close and well played from both of us. Game 2 was a bit silly. Good job and unique list, hope it won't fade away like everything in this format seems to do.

[TK]

mind twist is two mana intensive hymn is way more effective in a deck like this.

Yeah game 1 was amazingly close with both of us darkblasting creatures back and forth. game 2 your mana crypt destroyed you fitting you for like 12 or 15 damage it wasnt really a fair game.

[Juggernaut GO]

The single most greatest thing about rochester day 1 was:

In the top 8 when you were playing kowal, there was a kid who had C&C music factory as his ring tone "EVERYBODY DANCE NOW!"  and he got laughed at by the whole room.

[Shock Wave]

The single most greatest thing about rochester day 1 was:

In the top 8 when you were playing kowal, there was a kid who had C&C music factory as his ring tone "EVERYBODY DANCE NOW!"  and he got laughed at by the whole room.

ROFL!!! Now *that* is funny.

[ramon]

Tk...Which cards from your main deck did you change to put your side cards?

Thanks

 

[TK]

its hard to say because obviously some cards in the main are way better in some matchups than others. cards that were most commonly taken out were stifles and the shadow of doubt. There was also mathups like stax though in which the duress some out. it obviously depends all on matchups. if you have any specific matchups in mind let me know

[LordHomerCat]

I only had a pearl to make mana going into jar so it would have been pretty junky.

I've popped jar turn 1 with 0 mana floating while playing Control Slaver.  Just getting that extra mana usually will turn the game.  I did end up drawing lotus 2 mox ancestral walk and vampiric tutor that round...which was savage...but anyway for your reference if you're playing against control and have a pretty solid hand aside from mana development (from the report it seems that's exactly what you had) please dear LORD pop that jar if for mana development only.  I swear it is the right move to go balls to the walls...because the mana's not going away next turn and a cabal ritual with threshold is way different than one without it.    DsC wasn't balls to the wall that was the safe play, man.

He can't goldfish me anywhere close to the speed of DSC, and his draw engine is pretty slow, so unless he has his only bounce spell (frown) he won't find it in time, and I would have a Force if I got to untap.  I hear 11/11's against aggro-control decks are pretty good =/  But really, it might have been a misplay, that was just my thoughts at the time.  As it turned out, there was like 1 off color mox in my next 7 for mana anyway, so I would have been sunk against his 3 Forces when he got his hand back whatever I did.  Man this is hard =/

[ramon]

its hard to say because obviously some cards in the main are way better in some matchups than others. cards that were most commonly taken out were stifles and the shadow of doubt. There was also mathups like stax though in which the duress some out. it obviously depends all on matchups. if you have any specific matchups in mind let me know

Thank you for your answer! It's what I want to know

[dicemanx]

Hi Tommy, congrats to you and team ICBM for an excellent showing. From watching you play you seem like a very solid player and you're hard to read, which I'm sure contributes to your success. Also, the deck was a joy to see do well - I like to see new takes on archetypes emerge and at the same time silence the critics that dismiss ideas or cards way too quickly.

I just had one question - is this a deck tailored for this one event that exploited the surprise value, or do you think it has some staying power? Would you be confident trying it again at another big event, even after admitting you need a little fortune avoiding some of the bad aggro decks in the early going? Even in the later rounds there might be the odd Fish deck or Madness deck that can fight its way past the top tiered archetypes, as happened to Ian on day 1. Thoughts?

[TK]

i do think that the deck has plenty of power to stick around, but you do have to be careful what kind of an enviroment you decide to play the deck in. rochester was a great spot for this deck since its always been a control heavy enviroment and we figured if we could win are first few rounds we would run into most of our good matchups the rest of the day.

I would deffanately consider playing this for another large event but i would be careful what large event i would run it at. Anything in the midwest more would probably be a risky place to run this deck seeing as there is usually a heavy workshop presence in the midwest.

All in all the deck really has a lot of stregth and can beat just about anything as long as you know what your doing and how to attack each matchup.

An example of this would be when i@n had to play agaist one of the meandeck guys with u/w fish. they play more creatures which are all just as big as ours. So this really is a poor matchup if you dont know what to do. i@n found the best way to beat u/w was to flip erayo asap because they have a relatively mana light deck that has trouble often laying multiple threats at one time.

The deck really showed to me how powerful it was in the swiss rounds day one. i played six rounds and id say 4 of the rounds were against decks that id consider bad matchups. stax twice, gat, and b/w/r fish. all of these matchups were relatively close but with the testing i had done i was able to figure out the best meathod to fight each deck. the only 2 good matchups i really had int eh swiss was rounds one and two where i played against gifts and gifts oath.

It was also great to meet you at the event, and as a antoher who really loves dragon i was happy to see you and noah have so much success with the deck.

[Redookie]

Hey, I believe I played you a while back in Wisconsion a month or two ago, but anyways I like the build, the deck seems unique and hot.

I was just wondering why you run stifles over counterspell or mana drain or even less Stifles for one of the other two? And also Why you didn't play the deck on day two???

[orgcandman]

Game 3. he resolves a chalice for 2 on second turn but i dont care seeing as i drop cutpurse on my turn and have better threats to save my fow for. cutpurse generates such great card advantage then i decide to finally go for the game ending paly. i mystical for vamp during my upkeep. i then vamp for erayo, swing in with cutpurse draw erayo  paly him and one other spell to flip and lock the game.

Just wondering how you got erayo into play with a chalice for two on the board.

Good job with the win.

-Aaron

[M.Solymossy]

EOT bounce spell or some form of bounce he forgot to mention, most likely.

[TK]

im guessing i had played a flux or someting and jsut forgot to mention it, or possible river i donno for sure


um its quite possible you could have played me before in wisconsin. what tourney do you think it was at? as far as stifle goes it just has limitless possibilities for usage. people say that they can jsut be careful with there fetches and play around them but the truth is i usually dont care. stifle just has so many different uses in different matchups.

[Jeffrey2d]

Congrats cuz', I was very impressed to see your name at the top of the list like that.

[Redookie]

True, Stifle does rock, and I guess that after you get an Erayo to flip you really don't need many more counterspells.

But I'm still wondering what made you change decks to stax for day 2???


Oh, and the tournament was http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=27869.0

I believe it was round 2, and you destroyed my ass with Gifts/FlameVault. (back when it was legal to do so)