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jeffthefob
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« Reply #10 on: July 31, 2007, 07:11:54 pm » |
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Title: Operation Fish. Failed!
Subtitle: It Felt Like Last Week. (Beta Ruby @ Sacramento)
Description: So close, and yet, so far away.
Okay, the two of the guys that I play Type 1 are at Nationals, so that makes me a sad little Fob. For the Ancestral Recall Tourney, I went up with Eirik and Mike P., some interesting things happened after the tourney when we are on our way to Denny’s, and… I figured, I could write even though I didn’t do all that well.
I hate Type 1 right now, I just do. I don’t like Flash, that deck is just stupid. I don’t mind losing, but when I lose to players that make constant questionable plays, it makes me a little bit awkward. And Flash is a perfect example of my worst nightmare. Flash doesn’t take much skill, and I honestly am willing to say it is more luck-based deck. The presence of the deck doesn't make magic fun.
From the Sacramento Tourney and the last Eudo tourney, I figured there would be a lot of Flash. Couple local players IM’ed Luis for my Flash SB and even remarked, “I can make that deck!” after seeing my performance at the Sapphire, my first intuition was: Oh, god, there would be DI Flash. Not to mention it won Waterbury.
I didn’t want to play Flash mirror. And after playing it at Sacramento last weekend, I feel like; Okay, I am done flipping coins.
I agonized over and over on what to play, IM’ed Web, Veggies, and more. Ranting at them how I dislike current type 1 and don’t know what to play. I even made the GAT /w for Mindcensors and didn’t like it that much. Well, I did get something out of playing GAT /w; Mindcensors are great. It stops Flash in its tracks and it is very decent against GAT. So at this point I know I want to play main Leylines and Mindcensors. And I read Dave’s 4th place report… then… it all came together~~
So, I played the good old Fish, with black!
// Lands
3 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
3 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
1 Island
3 Tundra
4 Underground Sea
// Creatures
4 Dark Confidant
3 Jotun Grunt
4 Meddling Mage
3 Aven Mindcensor
1 Psychatog
// Spells
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Duress
1 Mox Jet
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Mox Pearl
2 Swords to Plowshares
3 Stifle
// Sideboard
SB: 3 Kataki, War's Wage
SB: 3 Pithing Needles
SB: 3 Energy Flux
SB: 2 Swords to Plowshares
SB: 2 Threads of Disloyalty
SB: 2 Spell Snare
This Fish list is nowhere similar to the old list I was playing. No more cat and dogs, big sad face actually and no Null Rods. I think the reason for the change is pretty obvious, Null Rod aren’t good right now and cat/dogs doesn’t do anything against Flash and gets eaten by Dryads and Dr. Teeth L Oh, I had that one random Psychatog there and I loved it, Bob and him is a pretty good combination I hear :-p So, I was pretty happy that I am playing Fish again, because I haven’t done so in a while ^_^ And off we go!
I played a couple games with this, it feels pretty Fish-tastic. It is Fish skeleton deck, but need to be played differently. Stifle is really good in this Fish deck, but needs to be played at the right time and situation. Can’t just randomly fire it out. Psychatog is good against creatures, having that one is really good, Dr. T and Grunts are my finishers; also Dr. T was in there for the blue card count for FoW. Leyline is actually pretty good against the GAT /w because it stun their Dr. T. Though it is still dangerous, but Dr. T can be handled more easily.
Round 1- Someone who is playing his first tourney.
First time, that I am playing someone in the Mox Series that is playing his or her first tourney… Okay. I think of it as a sign for me to get there with Fish, like how Luis did with the U/G/w Pickles in Nationals. (On the side, that Pickles deck is really hard to play, not a deck you can just pick up and do well. The deck is like Fish :-p) I had a feeling what I said was more interesting than my first round ^^
I scouted around and almost threw up, I want to beat myself up pretty bad. So I walked in with the assumptions of DI GAT and Flash, some workshop decks because I know for sure 2 players are playing it; Lotushead and Mike. But, good god, after round 1, I see like one goblin deck, workshops everywhere, some good number of GAT, and only a small handful of Flash. My maindeck Leylines were so bad. Okay, maybe workshop isn’t anywhere, but I am sure there were at least 5 workshop decks. Kevin, Nate’s friend, two I mentioned, the guy I lost to in 3rd round (do’h), and maybe more. Anyways, I feel, “god damn, Fish is SO not good of a choice right now. There is one goblin running around and like… >__<”
Round 2- Nate /w Mysterious Deck because he got a bye first round.
Game 1- I thought to myself, Nate IM’ed Luis for my Flash’s SB list as it wasn’t posted at the Eudo site for some reasons. And I figured, he GOT to be playing Flash. My hand was: Underground Sea, Tundra, Ancestral Recall, AVEN MINDCENSOR, Polluted Delta, ANCESTRAL RECALL, and LEYLINE OF THE VOID. I am like, HOLY JESUS, I am keeping! Going to bash his brain out.
So we both are keeping and… Both of us put Leyline of the Void in to play instantly.
Oh, my god, what the f*ck, is, going, on, here. Whatever, I led up with his upkeep, Ancestral Recall. He started off with… Lotus, Sac. Goblin Lackey x2, vial, and waste my land.
Me at this moment: *#)(*R()#*)(^&(*&#@&(*#@&()* Oh, wow, he is playing goblins, I am going to get SO BENT. 2x Lackeys, I figured I am dead. But to my surprise, he doesn’t have another goblin in his hand! And I was lucky enough that top of his deck didn’t deliver any goblins while I dropped a couple Bob and Mages (Mage sucked because he can either run Lackeys through my guys or use vial ^^). I wasn’t in a good shape; at this point I figured, I got to keep my Bob on board. If he resolves a Ringleader, I would be in trouble. We traded a couple guys here and there, and I played an extremely tight game. I Stifled his Lackey activation at one point knowing he drew the an un-vial-able goblin, and I ultimately overwhelmed him with 2x Bob on board and with it only revealing one Leyline of the Void as a “bonk.” Lucky? Yes, but that is the only way I can beat him, outdraw and out power him through life. Oh, I stifled his Vial on 5 for the win, after Duress him knowing if he didn’t top deck I would win via Stifle.
I brought in Kataki, Needles, Swords, and Spell Snares. Took out some Duress, Leylines, and Mindcensors.
Game 2- He played a land and passed. I played turn 1 Bob looking good. Then he Sudden Shocked my Bob; I realized I am in for a long day. But a 2nd Bob came down and got stuck for a while before I believe I have to trade it with either a Warchief of a lackey >.< I Snared a Piledriver (Ya---Y!) Then I played the big man; Jotun Grunts, he got in once before he was taken out by…. Pyrokenesis. At this point, I am like, I need to be really damn lucky to win this. He was, however, trading one for one this whole time, I don’t think he resolved a Ringleader ever this game, so both of us were playing off from top of our decks. I then resolved a 2nd Grunt after finding him with Brainstorm and toward the end the board was my Grunt with Mage in hand (and I am drawing dead for two turns) vs. his two lackeys. Then I played mage, thought for a while, named Pyrokenesis. Reason was: he can cast a lot of other goblins and I honestly don’t know which one hurts the most (maybe, all of them hurt DI :-p). And with him at 8, I attacked with Grunt and Mage, he double blocked the Mage. I am like… woha… I have an “idea” what he drew… Hope his next card isn’t that good (or red). His last draw wasn’t something red or enough for him to cast the dreaded red instant in his hand, and I escaped another close game.
Memory was blurry, good thing Eudo “feature matched” me, so when I am reading that feature match, I will be writing a more accurate version on a later post.
At this point, I am like, “PLZ let me get there.” One more till top 8! And Fish will be making another appearance!
Round 3- Mono Brown. (Staff and Metalworker Combo)
Game 1- I have no Null Rods. I have no Kataki. I drew 3 Leylines. I tried to beat him down with Mindcensors as a Charging Pegasus with no first strike. 2 turn before he die, he combo off and killed me DI. I wasn’t expecting to win, but I was hoping my draws to be bit better.
I boarded in Kataki, Energy Flux, and Needles. Thinking, okay, I GOT TO DRAW Kataki or Energy Flux. It seems like he can’t really handle those really well.
Game 2- My hand gave me 2 Needles, Bob, Grunt, and some lands. I am like, okay, this is good; 2x Needles and Bob will get me there. I led off with Needle on Wasteland, and then he played turn 1 Metalworker. So I played turn 2 Needle to shut off his Metalworker. But next turn he went broken was he dropped something and Chalice on two. Okay, I am dead, so dead, unless my draws will serve me good. Then, for the next 5 draws I drew 4 lands and a Jotun Grunt. Handshake, pack up, and leave.
Oh, Needle on Metalworker. Tight play eh? Well, I am actually loose enough to name it. I guess it is more of his fault that he doesn’t know his cards too well.
Round 4- Michael K. with Goblins.
I remember I played Stax on the last Ancestral tourney, and I think I faced two Cerebral Assassin decks (dragon combo variant? :-/) as my two only losses. There were only two Cerebral Assassin decks >_< And today, there were only 2 Goblin decks, and my dreams are so crushed right now. Knowing the fact that the chance for me top 8’ing is…. >_< makes me sad.
I ended up scooping to Michael. He was nice enough to do this favor for me, I know I can’t beat two Goblins. My chances are too slim, and beating Nate on round 2 was EXTREMELY lucky already. There is no way I am going to fight off two Goblins. I was really bummed actually, 3-2 can’t top 8 and… sigh. T__T or ~~~~~~>.<~~~~~~~ Why did I have to lose the last round, and why do I have to get paired against Goblins, TWICE.
Top 8 matches. I didn’t want to watch any of the games Mike was playing because of couple reasons. I feel stressful, if they misplayed or I see their opponent top decks I would be pretty disappointed. So I was practicing block with couple friends. The next thing I knew is, Mike made it to the finals.
This is when things went nuts. Both players in the finals are interested in splitting, and both know that the store is ripping them off by offering only 300 store credits for the Recall. Both KNOW that I wanted to buy the Recall. But due to their unfamiliarity with the rules and whatever reasons, they ended up playing. This ended up bit… annoy, because now, I either buy an much cheaper Ancestral or not buying one at all, I hate risk taking, I am not a big gambler, I am really GLAD to pay.
And……..
Mike ended up losing the match in an interesting way. Maybe it just meant to be this way. Sucks, I was like able to buy a discounted Ancestral Recall and didn’t, ends up with 35 credits. Believe it or not, I am still grateful to Mike K. Because he did me a favor, and I walked out with more then I walk in. I am really simple, if I walk out with a positive ‘profit,’ I am happy. At besides, I can’t really complain.
A little flashback, the Beta Ruby tourney at Sacramento, Luis was in the finals. He lost in 3 games, and it was a little frustrating. Props to Paul with mono B, but honestly, a lot of things were… rather interesting. Not to mention, I got paired with Luis on the final round, knowing only one of us can top 8, sort of like me 2-1’ing and got paired with Goblins; destined not to top 8 on the elimination round. (Luis would had a better chance than me in the top 8 of that tourney, and it did turn out that way) I just see too many similarities between the last two tourneys; the elimination rounds, final results, and… me doing à T_T
Regarding the tourney. Fish was an okay call honestly, I felt like everyone ended up playing something they like all along, something that suited them. Though, some of the card choices were certainly… not that good. Of course, everyone had an answer to Flash, and not a lot of players played Flash. Maybe Flash won’t do well in here anymore. GAT on the other hand, I think will be played more, so is Stax. Goblins just completely slipped my mind, I know Goblins took 2nd place at Day 2 Waterbury but it just didn’t cross my mind. I ended up playing Fish because of… my love for Fish style decks…
I still, dislike vintage right now, because I can picture the meta shifting DI by the time of next tourney. DI Goblins? GAT? I don’t know, but it seems to the meta here at Eudo, is to respond to whatever is happening at East Coast. Waterbury results CLEARLY had a huge impact on it. But from this point on, I think the Twister (or Jet) Tourney before the Lotus, any other huge East Coast event is going to shift this. Sorry if this seemed obvious, but sorry, NONE of these were happening at Eudo before Future Sight and the damn restrictions. I don’t mind change, but this change is way too erratic.
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