The Mountains Win Again - Double TMWA Top 8

The Mountains Win Again!
Double TMWA Top 8

   Our tale begins on Friday, November 10th while preparing for another fine Vintage event at Myriad Games on November 11th. I would be playing at Myriad Games for the first time. Derek McAtavey would be judging so that I could play. After testing and discussion on Thursday and Friday, a few modifications transformed the deck into the following configuration.

The Mountains Win Again version 23.4

1x Mountain
4x Plateau
1x Badlands
2x Scrubland
3x Bloodstained Mire
3x Flooded Strand
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Pearl
4x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
4x Mishra's Factory
4x Jőtun Grunt
3x Goblin Welder
2x Grim Lavamancer
2x Kris Mage
3x Dark Confidant
4x Swords to Plowshares
4x Magma Jet
4x Hide and Seek
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Enlightened Tutor
1x Darkblast
1x Seal of Cleansing
1x Sacred Ground
1x Pyrostatic Pillar
1x Null Rod
1x Crucible of Worlds
1x Goblin Bombardment

Sideboard
4x Red Elemental Blast
4x Duress
4x Goblin Vandal
2x Grim Lavamancer
1x Tormod's Crypt

A current point of discussion in The Mountains Win Again development is the number of Confidants and Grunts in the deck as well as the amount of black in general. My thought is that the more black you add into the deck, the more unstable the deck becomes, with more times when you’ll be able to cast something due to mana screw, or need to mulligan because of off color combinations. Without going crazy 5-color like Zorro, I feel the need to keep the solid R/W base and the ability to play without black entirely when necessary. I love the four Grunts since there are so many other Grunts running around as well. At the last minute on Friday night, I added the third Confidant, dropping a third Lavamancer to the board. The Duresses in the side were a focused test against Gifts and Combo. I was ecstatic with their proactive performance. When combined with Hide / Seek, REBs, and the variety of potent singletons in the deck, along with the two tutors, it provides a very reasonable suite of impediments to Gifts, Control, and Combo. Without much new testing, I felt confident and determined to have a good time.

Tournament: Myriad Games, Salem, NH
Saturday, November 11th, 2006

Sara and I donned our Saturday-best and stylishly arrived at the event shortly after 11 PM. Having already registered our decks and enrolled the night before, we were all set to help others get prepared. After about an hour of preparation all 26 players were ready to begin.

Round 1 – Bill Copes with 5 Color Stax

Bill usually plays Stax and is always a friendly opponent, so I was happy to see his name across from mine on the 1st Round pairings sheet. Bill lead with a City of Brass and Gorilla Shaman. I drop a Bloodstained Mire and pass back to him. He drops a Barbarian Ring and taps it to play a Sol Ring, following up with a Sphere of Resistance. I have two more land in hand, so I’m fine with that. I take a couple of mini beats from Mox Monkey before Mishra’s Factory shows up, threatening an Assembly Worker uprising if he should attack again. Bill takes some more damage from his lands as he plays a Mox Pearl. I Magma Jet away his Gorilla Shaman and play my fourth land to drop Crucible of Worlds! Next turn I Hide his Sol Ring and he E Tutors in response, getting a mana source. I drop a Grunt and start swinging with Mishra’s Factory. He concedes when he’s at 6. Game 2 begins with Bill playing a 1st turn Crucible followed by a 2nd turn Trinisphere and a 3rd turn Chalice at 2. I play a Flooded Strand, another Flooded Strand, and a Bloodstained Mire, E-Tutoring at the end of his turn to land a 3rd turn Crucible for myself. He gets a bunch of mana and drops Sundering Titan, blowing up my lands. I keep replaying lands from my graveyard each turn, send the Titan farming, get a Welder on board and start swinging with Mishra’s Factory. He takes some damage from City of Brass and Imperial Seal. I slowly eat away at his life total while he’s locked under his own Trinisphere. Goblin Vandal shows up and starts eating artifacts like it’s his job and that concludes the match. I wish Bill the best of luck and prepare for the next round.

Record: 1-0

Round 2 – Rob Moreau with Control Slaver

Moving up to Table 1 from Table 9, I meet up with a face I’m not familiar with. I jovially introduce myself to one Rob Moreau and we shuffle up and play. We both keep our opening hands and I’m on the play. I Waste his Volcanic and drop a Kris Mage that trades with a Welder swinging in from his side of the board. He gets two basic islands on the board and I Waste an Underground Sea. He Mana Drains Dark Confidant and plays Crucible. I Hide his Crucible while he’s tapped out. He Merchant Scrolls and then Tinkers for The Big Man™ and Forces my Swords. I take a hit and Magma Jet into another Swords, which resolves. I Magma Jet a Welder and he drops another Welder. He top decks an Ancestral and Demonic Tutors for something that can’t be good for me. I’m at 4 from mini beats courtesy of Welder and he Yawgmoth’s Wills something ferocious, killing me with Fire. A fitting end, I think, and shuffle up for game 2, unbuttoning my suit coat since I’m down a game. We both keep again, and I lead with Duress taking Mystical. I drop a Confidant and he counters it. He Thirsts, discarding Colossus. I cast a Jotun Grunt, he casts Brainstorm in response. The next turn he drops Flametongue Kavu and kills my Grunt. He Strips my Badlands and Force of Wills my Crucible (with Wasteland in play). He has a Mana Crypt on the table and proceeds to lose the first four consecutive flips. He comments about his generally terrible luck with Mana Crypt. I drop a Pyrostatic Pillar. He Forces another Confidant and goes to 6
He Brainstorms a couple more times, takes 18 total damage from Mana Crypt and 1 from a Polluted Delta. In desperation, he Ices my Scrubland to draw a card, putting himself to 4. He takes the penultimate three damage from Mana Crypt and then scoops on his next upkeep when he misses the roll again. I believe he made two successful Mana Crypt rolls and failed 6. We have about 15 minutes left in the round and we shuffle up for game 3. I keep and Rob mulls to 6 on the play. He casts a Mox Emerald, a Mox Ruby, and plays a Volcanic Island before stepping into the future with Time Walk. I feel as if I’ve missed something – a turn perhaps. I play a couple of fetch lands and attempt to resolve a Dark Confidant. He Mana Drains. I Seek out his DSC and gain 11 life. I play a Jotun Grunt and swing with it and Mishra’s Factory a couple of times. I then forget to pay Jotun Grunt’s upkeep. I compensate for this error by Seeking out his Triskelion, leaving him with only 2 Flametongue Kavus as win conditions. I drop a Pillar and Mishra’s Factory takes out a Kavu. He plays Ice into Pillar, bringing himself to 2 and I pull it out from there. I finish his game at 34 life. I wish Rob the best of luck and he says he’ll see me in the finals.

Record: 2-0

Round 3 – Andrew Fox with EWA (Everything Wins Again) aka 5 Color Fish

I was privy to Andrew’s list prior to the tournament, so I knew that it was a crazy concoction. Just how all the various and sundry elements of his deck blended together I could only guess. I was about to find out. We head into game 1 and I mull to 6 on the play. My opening Kris Mage meets Swords to Plowshares head on but her replacement, Grim Lavamancer, swings in and starts beating. Meanwhile, on the other side of the board, a Gorilla Shaman appears and becomes Curious. Andrew proceeds to drop a Plains in addition to the City of Brass he already had on the table, and then follows up with a Swamp and an Island. I’m stunned by these three basic lands in play from a 5 color deck. He casts Demonic Consultation to deal with my Grunt and grabs STP. I Hide Curiosity to get enough cards in my graveyard to Lavamance his Meddling Mage. At this point Andrew exhorts me to play faster since he realizes he needs to win next two games. He puts my Jotun Grunt on Ice for a turn and sends a Dark Confidant to more agricultural pursuits. The Jotun Grunt seals the deal. Game 2, Andrew plays first, leading with a City of Brass and Sylvan Safekeeper. I Waste his City and take some beats from Ollë, followed up by Dark Confidant. I attempt to Magma Jet the Confidant away, but I’m Dazed. I take some beats from a Jotun Grunt before I send it to the fields. Shortly after, I’m overwhelmed by little dudes. Game three we both keep and I lead with an Enlightened Tutor for a Sacred Ground. He drops a Meddling Mage naming Lavamancer and I convince him that a more bucolic existence would be preferable, gaining Andrew 2 life. I then play a Grim Lavamancer which gets removed from the game as well. He drops a Grunt. I Vampiric Tutor for a Swords for the aforementioned Grunt. I take some beats from Jotun Grunt before sending it farming as well. Some Children from Korlis show up and start punching me in the face, repeatedly. I Waste a City and draw out the Spell Snare in Andrew’s hand with a Dark Confidant. He casts, of all things, Gifts!!! with five minutes left on the clock. He reveals four cards including Darkblast, Call of the Herd, and Ancestral. I give him the Darkblast and other card, putting the Call of the Herd and Ancestral in his graveyard. On the next turn, I remove the Call of the Herd from the graveyard with Jotun Grunt and swing. We go to turns and he wins handily on turn 4 with a Grunt of his own. This was an epic match, but a lot of fun. I wish Andrew good luck and continue straight into Round 4.

Record: 2-1

Round 4 – Crossman Wilkins with Gifts by Crossman

We begin at 6 cards a piece and I lead with a Plateau and Welder. He leads with Polluted Delta for Underground Sea and a Brainstorm. I beat down with Welder and he drops a Library. I Waste it and cast a Grunt which sticks around for a couple of turns before evaporating. Another Welder shows up and joins his fellow mechanic in the beatdown. I get him down to 3 and he Yawg Wills for the win. He mulls to 6 before I Duress away a Mystical and the following turn Seek out his Colossus, going to 29. He Mana Drains a Confidant and takes two mana burn. He Ancestrals and I drop Pillar followed by Null Rod. He stops the Null Rod and I’m nervous that he has the bounce for the Pillar, but he concedes while at 7 and goes to the next game. I was very aware of the clock in this instance as Cross seemed to be very thoroughly considering all his options in what is a very complex deck. We both keep and he Mysticals for Ancestral. I Duress away his Duress and see that he has a couple of Repeals and a Lotus and Recoup. He plays a Needle on Wasteland and I play a Pillar. He Vamps for something sinister and Tinkers away his Needle for a Darksteel Colossus. I play a Grunt and Swords through the Pillar and he gains a nice buffer of life. Luckily his graveyard is nice and juicy so I put back some of the more dangerous targets with Grunt to avoid another massive Will. I Vamp for something good and drop a Goblin Welder to help in the beatdown. A Dark Confidant comes online as well and I start losing life. We’re both getting down in life totals, around 7. He’s one swing away from death and I’m at 5. He Gifts, I Red Elemental Blast, going to 3, he looks for a Tendrils or bounce and waits with baited breath as I flip my card for Confidant, hoping it’s either a Crucible or Hide and Seek. It’s neither and I swing in for the win. I wish Cross the best of luck since he can still get in at 3-2 on tiebreakers.

Record: 3-1

Round 5 – Jeremiah Rudolph with Dread Returns Ichorid

I’d played three matches in a row without a break, so I was all too happy to draw with Jeremiah (who had lost to TMWA in Round 1) to ensure getting into Top 8. I took this time to take care of some administrative necessities and refresh myself for the Top 8.

Record: 3-1-1

Top 8 – Dan Perovich with Reverse Clown Fish aka Mono Blue Fish

We joked about Dan vs. Dan and Dan-Dan for a while and then shuffled up and played. I knew that Dan usually plays Fish, so I was very happy going into this matchup. I was enthusiastic to the point of being overconfident and lackadaisical and that was to be my downfall. He led with a Sapphire and a Mishra’s Factory on the play, followed by a Rootwater Thief. I cast a Jotun Grunt and swung. He Dazed my STP for his Ninja and Forced my STP directed at one of his Mishra’s Factories. At this point, I had exactly four cards in my graveyard to feed my Grunt, one of them being Wasteland. Dan had 1 card in his graveyard and I didn’t see a way to get another one in there before my upkeep. At this point I made a crucial misplay in not letting my Grunt die and dropping the Crucible in my hand. This would have allowed me to deal with his 2x Mishra’s Factories which would later become three! I paid for this insolence by losing to Flying Men, Mishra’s Factories, and Ninja of the Deep Hours. I was disheartened and distracted. We began game 2. I mulliganed to 6 after seeing one land and kept a weak hand with one land. I then drew accidentally and immediately called the judge on myself. He enforced a forced mulligan to 5 which left me with one land again. I Vampiric Tutored for a Mountain to power out my Grim Lavamancer and he Force of Willed it. He dropped a Mishra’s Factory and started swinging. It was joined my another Mishra’s Factory shortly thereafter and I continued to draw four cards that were not land. I blame myself squarely for his defeat, but I wished Dan good luck and went off to play some T-Shirt Challenge matches, bemoaning my misplays. I resolve to do better in the future and to never take anything for granted.

Record: 3-2-1

I ended up in 7th place overall. Craig Dupre played a slightly different blend of TMWA and made Top 8 as well, ending up in 5th place. All in all, I had a great time. At the risk of sounding self-aggrandizing, I’ll repeat what many others have said, that Myriad Games is a very comfortable and enjoyable place to play. I was disappointed in my terrible performance in the Top 8, but took solace in the fact that two copies of The Mountains Win Again had made Top 8 and I’d had fun playing. While waiting for the Top 8 to complete, I played T-Shirt Challenges and gave out a few shirts. After prizes and congratulations were awarded, we headed out to dinner, another fine Vintage event complete.

Until next time, may The Mountains Win Again!