Throughing moxes away like homelands commons. 2nd place in Sandusky.

This tourney was a blast and by no means a walk through the park. All nine players were seasoned Magic players and every match was like taking down a spider monkey with a tooth pick. I have alot of respect for Dave giving out the full prize with such a low turn out. It is for this reason that I will go out of my way to make it to every single one of there tourneys.

Alright on with the tourney report......

Twaun-Tog 2K6.

Land

4 Island
3 Underground sea
2 Volcanic island
1 Tropical island
3 Polluted delta
2 Flooded strand

Artifacts
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Ring Of Sol

Creatures

2 Psychatog

The protection

4 Force of Will
4 Banana Drain
2 Duress
1 Mind Twist(Yeah, I pulled the trigger and got a twist for 6 against gifts. Misdirection where you at?)

The draw engine

4 Brainstorm
3 Intuition
4 Accumulated Knowledge
3 Deep Analysis
1 Ancesrtal Recall

Utility

3 Cunning Wish
1 Repeal
1 Echoing Truth
1 Time Walk
1 Smash (I love asking people if I can Smash there null rods and Pithing Needles)
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Yawgmoths Will

Side board of Control and Stax Destruction

2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Pyroblast
1 Misdirection
1 Rach “n” Ruin
2 Tormod's Graveyard removal service.
1 Artifact Mutation
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Darkblast
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Smother
1 Choose your form of the destructor, Berserk

I work the Midnight Shift at UPS and get off at roughly 3:30 am. It's the night before a mox tourney so of course I feel like a 7 year old at Christmas and can't go to sleep. I surf the net for ever and build up TwaunStax to play. It hits me that at the last tourney there were like 6 or 7 Stax decks in top 8 and I was not looking forward to playing the mirror. I quickly audible and pull a JDizzle. I scrap Stax and pull the ol' F-14 out of the hanger A.K.A. Tog. I go for the nutzors artifact hate build since my good buddy Adam Budweg is not going and he always play's U/W fish. This comes back to scissor kick me in the back of the head since there was not a single Stax deck there. Still can't sleep. 10:30 slowly comes around and I ship out to Sandusky for the tourney. I arrive and see only like 12 people there and a few of those people where playing Ledgends Stratigo, not Magic players. Deng, nine people. Dave delays the tourney for about a half hour and no one shows up, so we start and get are game on.

Round one. JR

Game 1
It's Good ol' Dr. Teeth vs Bomber Man. Halfway through game 1 we find outthere is no time limits in the rounds since the low turn out. This seems neat at first. Then everyone starts hating on the A-train cause it is running at full speed and thats apparently not fast enough for the passangers. Oh yeah, game one....I draw the Gasoline with a had full of drains and wishes. We play draw go for a while and than JR starts tossing Salvagers out like they were candy on Halloween. Salvager 1 Drained......During my turn I missmanage my drain mana since I have left my dice bag at home. Salvager 2 Drained....
During my turn, once again I take burn from drain, but resolve a tog and still missmanage drain mana. Salvager 3, JR ask C'mon another drain. I think.....hmmmmm...... Yeah. I responed by pumping tog, removing a land and a drain from the graveyard. Cunning wish for Mana Drain. JR respnse with a “Wow I did not see that coming!”. I Drain and next turn I missmanage my stupid free mana again, but it doesn't matter cause I Yawg Will and get the Berserker

Game 2
I keep a alright hand. JR goes first and lays down an island then Brainstorms on his turn or mine I can't remember. He resolves the dude that is on the picture of Thirst for Knowledge and gets a pithing needle for the Mr. Tog. He resolves another one and gets T-crypt and procceds to take my life down to zero with Mr. Trinket Mage.

Game 3

Both of are hands are the pure heat. We lead of with the normal draw go for the first few turns then someone throughs a boiled chiken into a torpedo heater. Over the next few turns JR starts resolving the hate Trinket Mage for crypt(this was crypt#2 by the way), and gets 3 Aether Spell Bombs, Deng. It looks grim, but you can never count the Tog out. I give him a quick duress then LATR.(Look Around The Room). This guy is holding a Trinket Mage, 2 Trick Binds and Toliet paper(1 Wipe Away). Wow I have my work cut out for me. I get rid of his a T-mage that was in play, which took me down to 5, with a reb and resolve a tog.
The crowd gathered and I think that by the look on there faces that Dr. Teeth was going to get demoted to nurse status. In my next few turns I slowly start playing plinko with JR's life total. He begins to use his hate bouncing Tog twice and trick binding him once. In my head I figure out how to get rid of the hate left in his hand. I have Yawg Will in hand so I find my last duress with Mystical tutor “I think”. JR peels a merchant scroll and I know that he has not cast Ancestral Recall so I drain it. Here comes my turn of destruction. I Duress, get Yawg Will to resolve, missmanage drain mana once again, duress two more times, cast Time Walk, Tog, and Cunning Wish for the green scary dude holding 2 swords. JR packs it up. This match was a prime example of iron man magic. I think it lasted an hour.

1-0/2-1

Round 2 Matt Hazard

Matts a gamer that I have seen at the Meandeck opens, but have never really talked too. It turns out that he is really cool and I enjoyed meeting him.

Game 1

We shuffle up and begin to cast magical spells. To my suprize he opens up with a tundra and 2/2 hound. Oh man U/W fish. I thought I was about to get dumptrucked right out of the tourney. I get the beats for a few turns and his army of hounds and lions get me down to 3. It is at this point that I stabalize and get a Tog to resolve and Will for the win.

Game 2

Matt opens up with another army of puppy's and lions. Matt resolves a Jotun Grunt on his turn. That guy is good. On my turn I resolve a tog and block some of his guys. He swords my Tog so I remove cards in the yard so he can't pay the upkeep on the grunt. Still not enough. I get clawed to death by cats and dogs.

Game 3

I have a mana heavy with Intuiton, AK, and some moxes. I play around Daze and start to get my draw engine on. During the course of the game Matts hounds and lions get me once again down to 3. I set up a busted Yawg Will for the win with a Duress and wish for the Berserk.

During these matches Matt only got a meddeling mage to resolve once and I got pretty lucky being able to pull out a win at only 3 life twice. During the match everyone starts talking about how life is a resource. I agree.

2-0/4-2

Round 3 MuzzonoAmi/Brendan playing gifts. Another drain vs drain match. I ask him if he would like to draw. He replies no. Deng.

Game 1

This game was quick. I keep a hand with Tropical island, Ancestral Recall, Drain, 2 Brainstorms AK, and something else. My A-call gets countered and not misD'ed. Great. I dig with the two Brainstorms and can't find mana sources. He resolves Tinker turn three or four I think. I can't find a bounce spell so I get stepped on by big ol' darky.

Game 2

I side in the hate and shuffle up. My opening hand is pretty nutz 2 reb's, drain, force, and AK, and land.
This was another game of epic Iron Man Magic status. As the game progresses I cast a Tormods crypt and a turn later MuzzonoAmi Gifts. He gives me a strang pile with tinker in it and some other irrelevant cards. I put the Tinker and something in the grave yard then call T-crypts graveyard removal service. Good by Tinker. As the game steamed ahead my hand became depleted of counters while Brendans hand was six cards strong. JR asks me what I got and I say “I'm debating on pulling the trigger”. He looks at my hand of land, land, Mox Emerald, and Mind Twist. He says do it. So of course I listen. Brendan looks a little bit worried right now not knowing what is going on. So I decide to through the game away and go land, Mox, tap 6 and Mind Twist. In response Brendan casts Mystical Tutor for gifts. Then Twist resolves. Since his deck is depleted of resources he gifts for junk + Will He can only Storm out for 6 and puts me to 3, so he falls back on hardcasting colossus. We play draw go and he rips colossus I counter it with a force that I drew, he counters back, I also drew a reb. Darkey gets countered then I rip Dr. Teeth with a graveyard the about three fourths of my deck deep. This game lasted about an hour and the crowd was not pleased since there were no time limits.

Game 3

As I looked at my opening seven cards a beem of heavenly light ripped through the Gamer's Lounge sealing and shined upon my deck of greatness while a chorus of angels sang. I drew the nutz, to this day I still do not realize how my play mat did not catch fire. Island. Sapphire. Drain, Drain, Mystical, Intuition, and an AK. Brendan goes and dumps his hand with a first turn gifts. He states that he is going to win if I do not have a force. I tell him that my hand is the nutsorz and he then goes to my disbelief “ Do you want to Draw?” I almost fell out of my chair. I wanted to draw in the first place and we could have been playing the finals already. I think about it and say sure. I mean I'm in a win win situation, no matter what cause I will have to play Ray next round and he'll draw so I just say Ok. WOW! Some wizard just tapped two white and two colorless to cast Angry Mob. All I heard was you played all that time for nothing. Deng. I wanted to draw from the beginning......

2-0-1/5-3-1

Round 4 Ray.

Quick number crunch = draw to the finals!!!!!!!!
2-0-2/5-3-4

We cut to top 4 and its Brendan, Ray, Matt, and Me.

Game 1 Matt Hazard

U/W fish “O” Lord not again. I squeeked by Matt in the swiss and now I meet him in the finals. I guessed it was time to get dumptrucked in the finals.

Game 1

Matt once again unleashes his hounds and lions on me. I play around daze and build up my hand and graveyard. Grunt gets on the table, I C-wish for Smother and send him packing. Null Rod gets cast and more of my life is getting clawed away. Not looking good. Matts dogs and cats get me down to 1. I Smash his Null Rod and set up a YawgWill for the win. I duress, take a Swords, Will, Walk, Tog, and get berserker.

Game 2

This game felt like I was on the Western front in 1917. A complete battle of attrition.

Matt opens up with a lion that starts to bite away at my life total. Ten turn clock, not good. I find Darkblast and send the lion back to savahnna. I start to develop my mana base to play around Daze then I AK a few times. Matt's board position looks pretty strong with a Grunt, Kataki, and another 2/2 hound. I get a Tog to stick, so I can block some of his duders. He keeps delivering the beats, I block the 2/2 hound and take the beats from the grunt and Kataki. Dropping me to 2. Oh dear. During my turn I do a quick number crunch on how many cards I need to drop him to zero. In my hand I have an Intuition so I think I can do it. I run through the killing proccess a few times and come up one card short. Matts at 19 and I can only do 18 points. In actuality I was not one card off. After the game Ray pointed out that I made a mathimatical mistake. When I was running through the numbers I forgot to count the card that replaces Intuition. Deng, I guess that what happens when you have been up for around 28 hours straight. This is where the game gets interesting. During Matts turn when his Grunt and Kataki triggered I floated a B,U, and R through my upkeep. I neglected to pay for the 3 moxes and sol ring I had out so I could fuel up my tog again. I Repealed his Grunt, with the cantrip I dredged back Darkblast to kill Kataki. Saucy I thought to myself. Matt cast Grunt I force it and went down to one again! Here comes the attrition part. I'm at one and Matt is at 19 with no creatures out. I still do not have enough cards in the yard or my hand to kill him. I swing for one a few times then Matt gets a creature. Deng. I can't swing anymore. As soon as I get enough cards to go in for the kill Matt would swing or block forcing me to discard and remove cards from my graveyard. At one point when I had enough cards for the win Matt cast another Grunt. I have to swing and force him to block which results in me loosing more of my Togs food. Matt casts a few lions and stuff every turn, but I keep dredging Darkblast back and take them down. Finally there comes a turn where he doesn't rip a creature off the top and my tog is allowed to come in for the win.

I have to say that are matches were unreal. These were some of the closest games I have ever played in a tourney. Matt wishes me luck in the finals and I once again thank him for such a crazy game of magic.

My brain has melted and I'm starting to really feel the affects from my lack of sleep. I go out and smoke a cigarette. Me and Ray talk and I hope he wants to split so I can go home.
Ray gives me a speech like it was straight out of Braveheart, talks about the heart of the cards and that we play for the gloy of it all. I buy it and get ready to game.

Game 1

I'm on the play and I have a strong hand that includes a Force, Tog, Mana Drain and some other buisness. I cast Tog and get him to stick with a Force. Few turns go buy and Ray tries to find some buisness. He cast Deminic Tutor and I drain it. I Intuition Ak it up and swing for the win with drain back up. Since Ray has only one card in his hand I tell him whats up and he says play it through. Shit. I think to myself what could he possibly be holding. I go through the steps and get the berserker and what does Ray do. He trumps my white boardard Berserk by slapping down a beta Berserk on my Tog. We all have a good laugh and he states that thats the first time he got to use it today. Awsome!

Game 2

Ray gets his Grow-a- thing working while I'm trying to get some card advantage. Ray resolves Pithing needle on Tog. A few attack phases go by and I some how get to that magical point where I am below 5 life again. In my head I do a quick number crunch. I have a drain in my hand, Yawg Will, Echoing Truth, Force, Brainstorm and two Cunning Wish's for the berserker and something else if I need it. All I have to do is drain anything and I can swing for the win with counter back up. So what to I do! During Ray's second main phase he cast Dyrad #2. Yeah, Dryad #2 primed for a drain, right, wrong. I zone out and say end of turn Fetch placing my land in the yard, yet did not search for it. Upon realizing my blunder a scene from Predetor goes though my head. The one where Billy realizes that everyone is going to die, and he excepts his destiny like a god damn champion. I do not ask to go back to his second main phase or say “Hold on, I need to drain that.”. I suck it up and take it. Next turn I do some crap and lose.

Game 3

I open with a hand that is mana intensive and with 2 AK's and a drain I believe. I drop a land and 2 moxes. I cast AK twice in the next 2 turns and get my Intuition on with some Deep Analysis. Some how I get a Tog to stick, but with Ray dropping needles and mages like how B-52's drop bombs, I find myself at 7 life. I Smash his needle. Then try to Smother a mage which meets a force. I Intuition and draw a gozillion cards. He drops another needle. I do a quick number crunch again and cannot find a solution for the equation that is infront of me. I explain that there is nothing I can do and scoop it up.

Congratz on Ray winning the Sapphire, he played some damn good Iron Man Magic!!!!!!!

These were some really great games and from the looks of it everyone had a “smashing” good time.

The props:
-Dave, for being the man.
-The venue, It is so nice and there is a ton of room.
-The return of Dr. Teeth, top two decks having togs in them. That is a statistic that I love to see:)
-Being able to pilot Tog like how Mavrick Fly's F-14's in Top Gun.
-Getting to know people that I have only really ever seen, but never talk too. Making cool friends = Sweet!!!
-Not having to play Nam, we play vs each other like at every tourny.
-Ray's Game face. Expressionless, seriously, trying to read this guy is like looking at a brick wall. I never had a clue how good or bad his hands were.

Slops:
-Nine people showing up. Seriously this place is awsome and close to Cleveland and Michigian. Could have been because of the holidays and finals but who knows.
-32 hours with no sleep was not the greatest. It showed in the end.
- Forgeting my dice bag at home. Which resulted in some bad miss use of mana drain mana.
-No time limits.
-6 Stax decks being in the top 8 last time and none being there this time. My sidbourd was usless the entire day
And for the big one!
-Drain vs. Drain matches. Seriously you guys try to pilot tog through 2 Trick Binds, 1 Wipe Away, 3 Aether Spell Bombs, and a few Tormods Crypts. It's not easy.