Amherstberg, Ontario Ancestral Recall Tournament

Here's what I ran:

UWb Fish

3 Stormscape Apprentice
4 Meddling Mage
4 Voidmage Prodigy
3 Kataki, War's Wage
3 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Dark Confidant

4 Force of Will
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Aether Vial
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus

4 Flooded Strand
4 Tundra
2 Underground Sea
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
3 Mishra's Factory
1 Plains
1 Island

Sideboard:
2 Disenchant
2 Annul
2 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Silver Knight
2 Crucible of Worlds
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Energy Flux
1 Tormod's Crypt

Basically it's my old Fish deck, close to its initial debut at last year's Star City Chicago. Standstill has become Dark Confidant, adding a better draw engine and more threats to the deck, but reducing the number of blue cards for Force of Will. Other casualties include Karakas and the one Hallowed Fountain I've been running in UW Fish, but Dark Confidant is powerful enough to warrant the slightly worse mana base and slightly worse Force of Wills.

The Enlightened Tutor was added so that I could have more answer cards in my board. It basically takes the place of one of all of the artifacts/enchantments in there and is pretty flexible.

There are 15 people, so 4 rounds and top 8.

Round 1: UW Fish

Game 1: I lead with Lotus, Tundra, Aether Vial, and Chalice zero, which would be strong, but I'm playing a Fish mirror. He gets an early lead on damage, with a Factory, but I stabilize with a Wasteland for his Factory some 2/2 trades. We Waste each others Factories for a bit, until I draw into Dark Confidant and eventually win by having more 2/2s than him.

Sideboarding: -4 Chalice, -3 Kataki, -4 Voidmage. +2 Crucible, +2 Jitte, +4 Silver Knight, +1 Enlightened Tutor, +2 Disenchant.

Game 2: I don't exactly remember the details here, but I win by having more cards that are good in the mirror than him, turn one Vial, 3 Silver Knights, multiple Wastelands and Factories, and 2 Swords to Plowshares. I start ahead and he is never able to keep up.

Round 2: UG Fish/Threshold thing.

Game 1: I lack a Vial, so I have to play all of my creatures. He spends a Daze and 2 Force of Wills countering my first 3 creatures, and then he plays 2 Hidden Gibbons, leaving me way ahead on cards (he basically played 4 dead cards, 2 with the FoWs, and the 2 Gibbons.) He has a Werebear, and eventually a Mongoose, which beat my guys in a fight, so I built up my board with 2 Dark Confidants. They begin to threaten my life total (I'm at 8 or so, I could flip Force of Will and die) so I bash with everyone hoping he'll make a bad block or something. He blocks both Confidants, I play another blocker and pass. He does nothing and passes back, and I can't attack again. I play a Ninja of the Deep Hours leaving up UU and one Factory to use Voidmage. This was quite poor, he's able to attack with Werebear and I can't block with Factory and pump with both, since I tapped the other one for mana. I end up double blocking the Bear, and he runs out of guys and I'm able to win.

Sideboarding: -4 Chalice, -3 Kataki, -4 Voidmage. +2 Crucible. +2 Jitte, +4 Silver Knight, +1 E Tutor, +2 Disenchant.

Game 2: He gets an early lead with Mongooses or something, I find myself with a lack of mana. He messed up my tempo by bouncing my Vial, and he keeps hitting me. I get in some damage and get some cards with a Ninja, but he is still ahead in the race. He has a Serendib Efreet and a 4/4 Bear, while he is at 12. I have a Stormscape Apprentice, and a Swords to Plowshares. I get really greedy and take out the Bear, hoping that I can tap the Efreet every turn and win with the damage it deals. This plan was terrible, though, since I can't chump block a flier ever. He Stifles my Apprentice activation once, and gets me to 1. Next turn during my end step he Chain of Vapors my Apprentice, I copy it at the Efreet, and he Force of Wills my copy. I ask everybody in the room if I can copy it again (I really don't know these things,) and they all say no.

Game 3: My turn 1 Apprentice resolves, my turn 2 Dark Confidant gets Spell Snared. He doesn't do much, I look at my hand to try to figure out what threat to play. I decide on Umezawa's Jitte, which resolves. He plays a 1/1 Goose and passes. I Equip and attack, he has a bounce spell for the Jitte. I'm stuck on 3 lands, and have no Vial, so my plays are limited. I try to build up my board as best as I can, but his creatures are all bigger than mine. I eventually draw a Vial, which should allow me to make 2 guys per turn, but at this point his 3/3 Gooses and hitting me, and he has a Waterfront Bouncer. I bait him into using it during his turn, allowing me to get Jitte counters to kill it. I'm at 2, with one counter on Jitte, the creature carrying it died in combat to a Goose. He attacks, and I make a critical mistake.

I decide to Vial out Meddling Mage, naming Chain of Vapor, to try to guarantee that I can double block a Goose. He has Echoing Truth for both of my Mages. Had I Vialed out something else, the Mage would still be in my hand to play Force of Will, since the mage was my last blue card. I also could have named Echoing Truth... Anyways, I block with my other creature and gain 2 life with my Jitte counter and go to 1. Next turn I don't draw a land, so I have to settle on Vialing a chump blocker for one Goose and trying to trade the other with my Factory. That happens according to plan, leaving him with one Goose and nothing else on the board (except for Hidden Gibbons, that's never happening, though.) I draw a Stormscape Apprentice and another Factory, which leaves his Goose back. He draws a Trygon Predator. I tap it with Apprentice, take my turn, and have to pass (I can't equip Jitte and swing, I don't have enough mana to do it with Factory and I need the Apprentice to live.) I pass, he has no cards and draws for the turn. I tap his Predator and he plays Time Walk.

Sigh.

Round 3: Affinity

3 Aggro decks in 3 rounds. Just like day 2 of Waterbury. Sigh.

Game 1: I go first and lead with Tundra, Vial. He plays Seat of the Synod, Sol Ring, Arcbound Ravager. I Force of Will it for some reason. I draw Chalice and play it for zero, and Waste his Seat. He can't do anything, I Vial out Meddling Mages naming Frogmite and Arcbound Ravager (I assume he doesn't play Myr Enforcer, I mean, how could you play Myr Enforces in a foramt with Mana Drain?) He draws a Mana Vault and plays 2 Myr Enforcers. I have no cards left, and my board is the Vial, Chalice, 2 Mages, and a Factory. He attacks with both Enforcers, putting me to 8, then plays Myr Servitor. I Vial out Voidmage Prodigy and think about Swordsing his Servitor. This would put him to 10, my attacks would bring him to 2 and he'd go to 1 with the Vault. I untap and draw Time Walk. How lucky...

Sideboarding: -4 Chalice, -4 Voidmage. +2 Disenchant, +2 Annul, +1 E Tutor, +1 Flux, +2 Crucible.

Game 2: My opener is something ridiculous: Black Lotus, Mishra's Factory, Flooded Strand, Energy Flux, Enlightened Tutor, Ninja of the Deep Hours, Meddling Mage. He plays some mana on turn one, I decide to go with turn 1 Ninja. He plays out his hand, but doesn't have much damage in his creatures. I Enlightened Tutor for Mox Sapphire and play a 2/2 and pass. He doesn't really do anything, I play Energy Flux, his stuff dies.

Round 4: Some sort of combo deck with Gifts and Dark Rituals.

The whole top 8 IDs.

Quarterfinals: Ichorid.

Game 1: He dredges on turn 2, but doesn't hit any Ichorids. He doesn't really do much, I build up a board with Dark Confidants and Mages naming Darkblast and Cabal Therapy. He casts a Golgari Thug, blocks with it, and gets a Putrid Imp. I Meddling Mage Putrid Imp and pass. He still has no Ichorids, and plays out a blocker of some variety. I bash with everybody.

Sideboarding: -4 Chalice, -4 Voidmage +4 Silver Knight, +2 Jitte, +1 Crypt, +1 E tutor.

Game 2: He gets a pretty good opening and has Ichorids going. I have a turn 1 Vial, but my lands are a Plains and a Wasteland. I Swords an Ichorid somewhere in here. He Oxidizes my Vial, which sucks, and bashes me. I draw a Underground Sea play Dark Confidant, Mox Sapphire, and Jitte and pass, unable to cast Silver Knight. At this point his board is: Putrid Imp, 2 Nether Spirits, and 3 Ichorids in the yard (he's found all 4.) He upkeeps his Bazaars, finds Darkblast, and dredges up Darkblast for the turn, killing Bob, and bashing me down to 8.

I draw Tundra (How. Lucky.) play Silver Knight, equip Jitte, and pass. He makes all 3 Ichorids again, draws for turn (his library is getting low,) discards to make the Imp fly, and attacks with 3 Ichorids and the Imp, but not the Nether guys. I block one Ichorid, resolve first strike damage, and use Jitte counters to kill the other Ichorids before they deal regular damage. I take 2 down to 6. My turn I bash with the Knight, play another Knight, and move the Jitte to it. He makes all three Ichorids, attacks with everybody, I block and Jitte decimates his board. A couple more turns and it's over.

Semifinals: Oath.

Game 1: We both mull to 6. My hand is Black Lotus, Factory, Voidmage, 2 Swords to Plowshares, and a Vial. I lead with Lotus, Voidmage Prodigy, then Aether Vial, which he Force of Wills. I play Factory and pass. He Wastelands it. I draw a land, and attack for 2. He Wastes my land (makes sense that he Force of Willed the Vial, I guess.) He tries an Oath, but it turns out I drew a Force of Will and a blue card. He Duresses me at some point and gets a Swords to Plowshares. Neither of us do anything, I attack with the Voidmage get him down to 2. He draws, plays a land that taps for green and plays Oath. He gets an angel and I lose.

Sideboarding: -3 Kataki, -1 Voidmage. +2 Disenchant, +2 Annul

Game 2: I'm stuck on one land for forever, due to his Wasteland. I Annul an Oath, he Force of Wills, I Force of Will. I beat for 2 with apprentice and spirit token for awhile, he transmutes a Muddle for another Oath. I peel a land and play Meddling Mage and name Oath. He concedes soon after.

Game 3: I mull to 5 and complain about mulling to 5. He goes first and plays a Strand and a Mox Pearl. I draw, and my hand is:

Black Lotus, Chalice of the Void, Mishra's Factory, Voidmage Prodigy, Force of Will, Swords to Plowshares.

I play the Lotus, land and Chalice for 2. He Mana Leaks, I Force of Will. "Nice 5 card hand," I think to myself as I recall the time where I beat Josh Franklin in game 3 of the finals at an RIW power tournament, where I played Chalice against his "turn 1 Tendrils you for 20 hand." Good times.

Anyways, he Wastes my Factory and I'm unable to do much of anything. I draw Dark Confidant, and sit. I eventually draw the best 4-of in my deck, Aether Vial, which makes creatures. I get him pretty low on life, and he draws Black Lotus, allowing him to play...

Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind.

I tap it with Stormscape Apprentice and swing him down to 1. He untaps, draws and shoots my Apprentice. He sits and thinks, and eventually activates it to shoot my Dark Confidant. He didn't find Brainstorm, or anything to do anything, and my three 2/2s are good enough to win.

Finals: UG Fish/Threshold thing.

We split the prize, I go home.

And, of course,

Props:

-Pam Willoughby and RIW Hobbies, for being awesome.
-Mitch Cowles, for letting me use his shiny cards, including Japanese foil Meddling Mages, Ninjas, and Apprentices, and English foil signed Strands, Crucibles, and Swords to Plowshares.
-Ed, a regular at RIW's Vintage tournaments, for convincing me to play Dark Confidant and to cut the Mox Pearl.
-Everyone at the tournament, and the store for running the tournament.
-Black Lotus, for being in my opening hand a lot.

Slops:

-Me, for forgetting everybody's names.
-The customs people, for randomly searching my vehicle and finding nothing but Magical cards.

I hope to see everybody August 5th and 6th at RIW.