The WEEK That Was Genon

[TK]

The Week That WAS GenCon



So I have been looking forward to going to GenCon all summer and the time to leave had finally arrived. Spooky, Nighbor, and I were busy sitting at my house play testing various formats and getting ready for the trip. At about 5am I decided that we should just get on the road seeing as the other group staying with us had left the night before. I run upstairs to print off directions only to find my mom’s computer is being stupid and doesn’t want to let me go online for some reason. We decide that we can probably figure out how to get there on our own so we hit the road.

Hours later..... We finally arrive with no real incidents and head over to GenCon. Of coarse when we get there the line is wrapped around the building and we get ready for a long wait in the heat.


Once we are inside we meet up with all the other members of the team that came down. In all we brought 8 members (I@n, James King, Nighbor, Spooky, Owen, Jeremy Sauld, Dave Carhart, and Ben Carp)

Now let’s just skip ahead to the vintage prelims....

I decide to give DEEZ NOUGHTS a test run. The deck has put up great numbers in testing but has yet to see any tourney play.

DEEZ NOUGHTS – A Tommy Kolowith creation

4 phyrexian dreadnought
2 illusionary mask
4 stifle
1 trickbind
1 tinker
4 force of will
4 brainstorm
4 duress
4 dark confidant
2 dimir cutpurse
1 ancestral recall
1 vampiric tutor
1 mystical tutor
1 demonic tutor
1 time walk
2 spell snare
1 echoing truth
3 waste land
1 strip mine
4 polluted delta
1 bloodstained mire
4 underground sea
2 islands
1 swamp
1 mox ruby
1 mox jet
1 mox sapphire
1 black lotus
1 mana crypt
1 lotus petal

Do to the long time since the event I don’t remember how most games went individually

Round 1 (Canadian with flash,  James I think)

Great match up for me and between him mulling to 5 game one I win 2-0 relatively easily.

1-0-0

Round 2 (Guy with Gat) 3 color

Good match up I win in 2 or 3 can’t remember.

2-0-0

Round 3 (Collin with w/b/r home brew hide/seek deck)

Played against him in charlotte and figured he would be playing some kind of similar deck. Game one I get the naught in play and am able to protect it for the win. Game 2 he balances my turn 2 double naught and gets his angel attacking for the win. Game 3 he balances my first turn double bob. Then the game drags on for a while with him resolving moat and me having no out for it since he had already hid my echoing truth. We draw for the second time.

2-0-1

Round 4 (Guy with Gat)

Game 1 he goes first turn Fastbond but I am able to waste his first 2 lands and keep him from going broken. I basically win the SS way.

Game 2 he goes first turn Fastbond and has too much for me.

Game 3 I keep a hand of 2 dreadnoughts, 3 lands, 1 mox, and 1 stifle. Figure ill go balls to the wall since the deck is called DEEZ NOUGHTS. I go for the first turn dreadnought and my stifle gets forced ouch. He plays a turn one Fastbond again... but doesn’t do a whole lot. I draw vamp and pass the turn. He plays a gush and a land or 2 and passes. I vamp for trickbind at EOT. I untap and play dreadnought number 2 he says ok and I play trickbind. He reaches for the force in his hand and then mutters F*** I laugh and pass the turn. He draws and passes. I bash him down to 4 and pass the turn back. On his turn he draws a land and is able to play mystical and some gushes into a smother for my dreadnought. We play draw go for a turn or 2 until I fell ready to put some pressure on again. My hand is duress, will, and brainstorm. I play duress which he decides to drain. I then play will which he forces putting himself to one life. I pass the turn back to him. He accidentally reveals his draw which is gush. I reply with something like that seems good right now. He taps his 2 lands and plays gush and then a dryad. I quickly say seems good done with turn??? He thinks and quickly says go. I say good game and point out that he just burned for one off his drain.

3-0-1

Round 4 I get paired up vs. Steve he scoops me in

4-0-1

Round 5 I draw

4-0-2

Top 8 Jesse with Gat

Game 1 I don’t remember but I win.

Game 2 I threads his dryad and he scoops shortly after.

5-0-2

Top 4 Spooky with flash

Game 1 I turn one duress which brakes up his turn one win with double backup pact and Misderection. I slowly start to beat him with bobs while his whole hand is counters. I play demonic at some point which he lets resolve. I grab trickbind with it and Jeremy is basically done for.

Game 2 spooky mulls to 5 and my turn one involves starting with leyline in play, jet lotus, duress into a first turn cutpurse. Game was a blow out.

6-0-2

Finals vs. Steve with 4 color gat

Game 1 he has an early dryad that I ignore and just work on tearing his hand and mana base apart. I finally go for my naught when he has 2 in hand a 5/5 dryad and only a mox and library as mana sources. The game ends shortly after.

Game 2 I play a duress around turn 3 and see Steve’s hand is 2 land, 2 opt, vamp, duress, and scroll. I take scroll since he doesn’t have a black source. He draws a fetch of course. Then he opts into lotus. Then vamp into will then opt into the will I scoop them up.

Game 3 I turn one duress Steve to see a hand of 2 duress, 2 dryads, 2 lands, 1 opt. I take duress. Steve draws library and says go. I play another duress taking Steve’s other duress. Steve draws and says go. I play my third land and think for a while. I decide to play cutpurse rather than trying to brainstorm into another duress and or waste. Steve draws for turn than activates library. He plays mox land dryad. I’m not too concerned about that play until he still follows it up with lotus scroll for recall. So the 3 cards he drew that I didn’t see were lotus, mox, and scroll. So he passes with a full hand again and a 3/3 dryad. I draw and have to not attack with cutpurse. I set up a play for next turn though that will although me to time walk and tinker then will and tinker on the walk turn. Unfortunately I do not get another turn with Steve playing Fastbond and killing me with double dryad in play.

So I was pretty happy with how the deck played out, the only thing I really didn’t like was the board I had for the deck. I threw it together in about 2 min once I realized I was going to drop from legacy and play in the prelim.

Here is the board
4 leyline
1 darksteel colossus
1 yawgmoths will
2 shadow of doubt
1 hurkyls recall
1 rebuild
1 trickbind
1 diabolic edict
1 threads of disloyalty
2 dimir cutpurse

If I was to play the deck again here are some of the changes I would make to it.
I would cut tinker from the main and replace it with the 3rd spell snare, 3rd cutpurse, or imperial seal.

And a would run a board that looked like this
3 jailers
1 will
1 hurkyls
1 rebuild
2 trickbind
1 tinker
1 dsc
2 dimir cutpurse
1 threads of disloyalty
2 diabolic edicts

So after a successful prelim event for the whole team pretty much im feeling good about the main event. I decided several days ago that no matter how well I did with anything else that I would play a version of gat in the main event. It just seemed far too powerful at the moment not to play.

Jeremy sauld had a 4 color version he had been playing that looked probably pretty close to Steve’s list. So i@n, Jeremy and I sat down and worked on the deck until we found a list that we were all happy with. One of the first things done to the deck was cutting the quirion dryads this was one card that I@n absolutely hates and I don’t care for as well.

Here is the list we came up with

1 mox ruby
1 mox jet
1 mox sapphire
1 mox emerald
1 black lotus
1 library of Alexandria
4 polluted delta
1 flooded strand
3 underground sea
2 volcanic islands
2 tropical islands
2 islands
4 force of will
4 brainstorm
3 duress
4 merchant scrolls
4 gush
2 opt (hate this card)
3 mana drain
1 psychatog
1 empty the warrens
1 time walk
1 demonic tutor
1 ancestral recall
1 mystical tutor
1 vampiric tutor
1 yawgmoths will
1 Fastbond
1 regrowth
1 echoing truth
2 misdirection
1 red elemental blast
1 pyroblast
1 cunning wish

Side board
1 pyroblast
1 tinker
1 darksteel colossus
1 smother
1 snuff out
1 dark blast
1 berserk
1 threads of disloyalty
2 pithing needle
1 rack and ruin
1 hurkyls recall
1 ancient grudge
1 fire/ice
1 shallow grave

Here is a real quick overview of how the day went.

Round one – Mirror match

I win in 3

1-0-0

Round 2 – Teammate in card for card mirror

I win 1-0

2-0-0

Round 3 – Ryan mayrand Flash

I win in 3

3-0-0

Round 4 Scott limoge mirror match

1-1   with Scott winning game 2 in turns

3-0-1

Round 4 pat Chapin flash

I win in 3

4-0-1

Round 5 I get worst luck ever and get paired up against the 5-0-0 ichorid player

I lose in 2 after multiple judge calls and some interesting plays

4-1-1

Round 7 5c stax

I win in 3

5-1-1

Round 8 me and Steve get paired up as we fear would happen

Game 1 comes down tot the fact that he was on the play. He resolves turn one recall and Fastbond. If I was on the play I had trip counters up on turn one.

Game 2 I mull to 6 and keep a hand of jet, demonic, recall, force, brainstorm, and scroll I think for only a second and decide to keep. Mulling to 5 in this situation usually just seems like conceding anyways so I keep. I don’t draw a land the whole game I lose.

4-2-1 I end up coming in 15th place.

I tell Steve after the match that I was sure the winner of is match would win the whole event and as I predicted Steve went on to win the whole thing. I said this because we were the only 2 in contention paying 4 color gat which I consider to be the strongest deck in the format at the moment and has a considerable advantage in the mirror.


So after another long day and still only having 6 hours of sleep over the past 4 days I decide tonight is a good night for drinking. So back at are hotel room later that night there is plenty of drinking and a little drunk drafting that me and neighbor split for first in.

So Sunday comes around and the week that is GenCon has come to an end. I look back and am quite surprised with the showing ICBM put up.
James king top 8 in legacy worlds
Owen top 8 in time spiral championships, split for first in 1000 sealed and 1st in 1000 extended
Nighbor 10th in time spiral championships, and 3rd in block PTQ
Then there were several other respectable finishes by us along the way. The only disappointment was that we didn’t put someone in the vintage championship top 8 but I had my chance.

My car of Nighbor, Spooky and myself decide to hang around until Sunday night before we hit the road. We start driving back right about 11p.m, after about 10 miles I realize that my dashboard lights as well as my headlights seem awfully dim. Moments later my dashboard lights completely go out leaving me with no idea of how fast im going. I manage to pull off the highway and park my car at a gas station. This is basically the last thing I needed to happen but I guess having your car break down is always the last thing someone needs. So I decide to call AAA....... This is where my week begins to go down hill.

AAA comes and tows my car to a garage near by called hills garage. The tow driver says that they will be able to take care of my car in the morning for sure. He then drops us off at are hotel for the night. While we are unloading are luggage it begins to hail outside. So on top of the lightning and rain it’s now hailing. I take this as some kind of sign that maybe my car was meant to break down so I didn’t have to drive home in the terrible storm. So we get are luggage in the room order some pizza and sit around and play cards.

The next morning we wake up check out and give the garage a call. They say that are just about done with an estimate for me and will call me right back. 30 min later they call me back with the estimate of around $500. It sucks but I can’t do much about it at the moment. We decide to make the 2 mile walk to olive garden to get some lunch and burn time until my car is ready to go. By the time we finish eating and walk to the garage it’s about 2:30 and has just begun to pour outside. We get inside only to find out that the alternator has apparently just arrived and they haven’t started to work on my car yet. Due to the rain we are stuck waiting inside the auto shop. It gets to be about 6 o’clock when the mechanics finally come and talk to me. They inform me that they have not been able to get my alternator out of my car as of yet and that they will have to do it in the morning.
As you can imagine im already more than fed up with these guys since they have had my car in there shop since 8a.m. I tell them that Ill just call AAA and have my car towed somewhere else since I don’t think they have any idea what there doing.
At this point one mechanic storms off muttering “I don’t care I get a pay check either way”

I Call AAA for the second time now and get another tow truck sent out to my location. This time though it takes 2 hours for some reason. Finally the tow driver makes it there and we decide to take my car to a PEP boys right next to the hotel were staying at for another night now. So Nighbor, Spooky, and I end up ordering pizza from the same place again and playing some more cards for another night.

It’s now Tuesday morning and we walk over to PEP boys to see how things are going. They say that the car should be done in 2 hours or so.... sounds kind of familiar but im optimistic about it and we decide to walk to red lobster this time. We make the long walk back and forth only to hear bad news from PEP boys. They inform me that the other shop had rounded off one of the bolts on my alternator and that they will need more time to finish my car. But he says the worst case scenario is that it’s done in the morning. We all laugh a little bit because we aren’t surprised by anything at this point.  So we decide to walk to the movie theater nearby. We get there and Nighbor insists we see invasion. About 3/4th the way though the movie PEP boys calls informing us that they are finally done with my car. We finish up the rest of the terrible movie (Nice pick Nighbor) and walk back over to PEP boys. I get the bill that is over a $100 cheaper than what Hills garage had quoted me. We run back to the hotel to grab are luggage and are finally able to make it home. With all of us still having are jobs somehow. Apparently my boss likes me enough to not fire me after 3 no shows and  2 call ins. Either way my 4 day vacation ended up turning into a full week vacation that you could say had its ups and downs, And that’s the week that was GenCon

[Phele]

First of all: Congratulations on your good performance especially in the prelim tournament. Very well done!!

One the other side: It would be really nice from you to give other people at least a little bit credit, who work on UB Mask build for a very long time. I am developing a  similar build for over a year now - even before the stifle erata happened to be. Even in that at max tier 1.5 status I got some ome great results with it and won a Library of Alex, which can be seen here:

http://www.morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=396&highlight=1#place1

and later on I went on with the deck here:

http://www.morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=415&highlight=6#place6

But it was first with the new erata, that UB Mask became a real top deck with great matchups against a big part of the field,  more consistant and redundant than any deck I ever played before, even though it stayed very powerful.

That led to another tournament win and a Mox Jet, which can be found here with a list very close to yours:

http://www.morphling.de/top8decks.php?id=617&highlight=1#place1

what was presented on TMD here:

http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=33774.0

which was in parts discussed on TMD before here:

http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=33645.0

what led to some more discussion on the decklist on Starcity here:

http://www.starcitygames.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=302648&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=50


Don't get me wrong: I don't want to put some bad light on your success or to dishonour your interesting innovations in the list. I neither want to start any forbidden deck's name discussion: If you want to call it Deez Noughts, I am totally fine with it. I called it DARK ILLUSIONS, as I though it is a good way to describe, what this deck is about, what gives a hint to some of the strongest cards in the deck and at last sounds nice.

Thats not the point: But I already was asked on MWS, if I played the Tommy Kolowith deck, while I just played my deck. So to see you call this now a Tommy Kolowith creation without any hint on further tries with this deck frame doesn't seem very fair to me.

If you totally disagree with what I just said, I won't continue this discussion here any further. I think I made my point on the most used Vintage forum, so I am totally fine with that. Otherwise I would love to take this as a starting point for a fruitable discussion on this imo top deck. It would be nice to discuss with you and others the new choices you made, which I in parts really like - like the Spell Snares maindeck - in other parts I would question - like the strong presence of Cutpurses. More on that maybe later.

Peace, thanks for the nice report and more fun with this great deck. Excuse my bad english, I tried my very best.

Philip

[Anusien]

The runner up creature in Mask has been considered Hunted Horror now, and it works well with Trickbind and Stifle as well.  Did you even consider it?  What are your thoughts?

[Dante]

Some sideboard questions - when are you going to side IN Yawg will?  When are you bringing in the 2 Trickbinds?  7 stifle effects seems like a lot.  Same withe the sideboard cutpurses - seems like a maindeck choice and that there would be more specific sideboarding choices you'd bring in over 2 more cutpurses.

Nice job!

[TK]

In response to Phele's post

I am aware that there have been other mask naught decks in the past, and i know i havent been the only one working on the deck since the new errata on dreadnought. I only called the deck a creation of my own because i did build the deck from scratch without the use of any other build of the deck as a sarting base. the real base for the deck was SS which i then tailored to fit in the dreadnoughts and masks. Ill have to take a look at the lists that you ran as of late because maybe i can get some good info from your lists. I still plan to call the deck as my own because i do see it as being quite unique from other lists of nought.

Response to Anusien

I was aware of the interaction between hunted horror with mask and stifles, but i just dont feel that its needed in the deck. for one the casting cost isnt the best and with having only 2 masks in the deck i wouldnt want to count on having to have double black and a blue up to be able to cast it and stifle it.

Response to Dante

As far as brining in yawg will and the 2 dimir cutpurses i have been pretty much brining them in against any type of control matchup. cutpurse has always been good vs control and the will gives me a late game bomb that helps me catch up or pull way ahead in a close game. The trickbinds are mainly for the flash matchup after i cut the leylines from the board i decided that i would like to add a second trickbind to keep that matchup as being almost a bye. I also was bringing in the trickbinds vs tog so i had more ways to destroy there week mana base.

[Smmenen]

your mask deck is pretty sweet.   although many people have done mask decks similar in the past, none had quite the innovative edges you put to it nor looked like yours.  It really looked like you just found strong synergies with 'naught and ss.   'naught + Stifle is pretty good.

the same thing that happened to you re: car happened to me at Roanoke.  My battery alternator died the night we rolled into Roanoake and it took several days for them to ship the rare part in and get the car fixed.   It cost me alot more than it cost you to replace too!   And I was in the winter and in a much smaller city!

nice report and nice job. 

steve

[Phele]

your mask deck is pretty sweet.   although many people have done mask decks similar in the past, none had quite the innovative edges you put to it nor looked like yours.  It really looked like you just found strong synergies with 'naught and ss.   'naught + Stifle is pretty good.

I guess, you didn't even try the link, I provided, right?

For the record: This is the deck I played weeks before. I won a tournament with it and made it public right here:

4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Stifle
2 Mana Leak
2 Merchant Scroll
1 Daze
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Echoing Truth
1 Psionic Blast

4 Dark Confidant
3 Duress
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor

4 Phyrexian Dreadnoughts
3 Illusionary Mask
1 Explosives
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Lotus Petal
1 Black Lotus

4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
3 Island
1 Swamp
3 Underground Sea
3 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine

Board:

2 Anull
2 Old Man of the Sea
1 Hurkyl
1 Echoing Truth
3 Yixlid Jailer
2 Chains of Mephistopheles
1 Extirpate
2 Pithing Needle
1 Engineered Explosives

Cut the Psionic Blast as the 61th card, which was just for surprise reasons and then we have decks that are very, very close:

-2 Spell Snare
+ 2 Mana Leak

Just a metagame call as we do still have a big amount of Staxx and Storm and not that many GAT and Flash

- 2 Cutpurse
+ 2 Merchant Scroll

I leave it to you, which choice for card advantage is the better. I think in a field full of creatures/blockers and in a deck, that very often operates just with two mana on the table, I don't like the cutpurses that much. If they worked out for Tommy, great! I just think as close the disruption package is to SS: In the end this deck plays out different than just SS with Noughts. While SS is a pure control deck, this is much more aggro control. And for instance, if there is a Nought on the board, I would rather see a Scroll than a Cutpurse.

- 1 Duress
+ 1 Daze

Sure, four Duress is a great threat against any Combo. But I prefer a good mix of disruption spells, what is good just alone for psychological reasons. But Daze can also be a handy tutor target in some situations.

- 1 Trickbind
+ 1 Illusionary Mask

This can be for sure a good move in Flash heavy metagames. But Flash is a deck I don't fear with this at all anyway, and again: Mask can be very good against Staxx and sometimes against counter heavy decks as well. But Trickbind is for sure a great card.

- 1 Tinker
+ 1 Explosives

Tinker cost more than Mask, cost you an extra card in form of an artifact you very often don't have, is REBable and finds you in Tommy's build just Mask or Lotus or Dreadnought, which you then have to stifle. That all for the Collossus in the board and sometimes to go around Chalice Two, I am not sure, if I like that. You can go around Chalice with Stifle anyway, to bring in Dreadnought or bring in Mask. But the Collossus in the board might have good uses against heavy artifact removal decks. But I often tried to force Tinker in this deck as well, as I thought it's impossible to leave this powerful card out. But in the end, it never seemed to fit.

Explosives rounds up the disruption/removal base perfectly, as It handles Welder and Moxen very smooth.

- 1 Mystical
- 1 Mana Crypt
+ 2 off color Moxen

Yes, Mystical is great in this deck, and I included it meanwhile as well, as it finds Time Walk (and meanwhile Yawgmoths Will as well). Mana Crypt can be good to bring in the first round Mask + Nought. But I rarely go for this move. I think the best move you can do with this deck first turn is to play a Confidant, which functions well with the whole set of Moxen. Beside the first turn Mask + Nought I don't see really an overwhelming reason to play Crypt instead a Mox, as even in that deck with such a low average casting cost life loss summs up, especially in a field full of attackers. But Crypt is ok, if you want to run it, but I don't think it's really necessary.

- 1 Bloodstained Mire
+ 1 Flooded Strand

Against the decks, I need Basics the most - Fish and Staxx - after boarding the basic Island get even more important, as the main weapons out of my board against them are blue, and Duress gets out. Tommy plays Edicts. And Confidant is also a good move against both decks, so his choice of Bloodstained might be the correct one for him. I prefer to have more possibilities to get basic Islands.

I don't look at the sideboard, as these are usually even more metagame calls, but I do questions Rebuild (?) and the extra Cutpurses in this deck.
 
And here we are! That are the differences of the decks. They don't seem that big to me

So I'm sorry Steve, I don't want to be offending: But I see no reason to say, that no deck before had Tommy's innovative edges or even looked like hims. Thats just not true and disappointing for me, who put much effort in this creation, presented it on TMD and didn't get any attention at all from any one of the established TMD members. And now, that there is some player of the US team circles coming around with such a similar deck, it shall be new and innovative. I don't understand that.

I totally believe, that Tommy created his deck just as he described and didn't use any other build. It's very important for me to underline that, as I don't want to accuse Tommy for anything at all. That it came out that similar way has an obvious reason: He must be a good deckbuilder and these lists are already very close to an optimum. But to me it seems to be a tough call to say it's unique and it would be very nice if these "scrubby" european metagames get if not respect at least a little bit more attention sometimes.

Thanks, peace and again: Well done Tommy and very interesting card choices!

Philip

[Dante]

As far as brining in yawg will and the 2 dimir cutpurses i have been pretty much brining them in against any type of control matchup.

So what's control - Bomberman and Landstill?

[WhiteWolf]

I think many people are independently working with Mask decks, especially with the new errata. A teammember and myself have been testing some stuff too. He with U/B and I with MonoBlue.

My friend plays with Mask and Stifle so I suggested Standstill to him because it has some nice synergy with Mask. Aside from this synergy following up a 12/12 with a Standstill is always nice. Another nice one-off in these decks could be Academy Ruins to keep the Dreadnought pressure up.

Like I said I'm going to test a MonoBlue version. This way I can use Back to Basics, a card that seems pretty powerful right now. The utility is provided by 4 each of Trinket Mage and Merchant Scroll accompanied by the usual assorted utility artifacts and blue instants. Trinket Mage is just too good in this deck, grabbing answers as well as win-conditions. I play no Mask but 4 each of Stifle and Trickbind. I honestly don't know if Trickbind is better than Mask in this version but Trickbind seems to be more all-around useful.

This is the list at the moment:

MonoBlue Dreadnought

4 Phyrexian Dreadnought
4 Trinket Mage

1 Time Walk

1 Pithing Needle
3 Back to Basics

4 Brainstorm
4 Merchant Scroll

1 Ancestral Recall

4 Stifle
4 Trickbind
4 Force of Will

1 Engineered Explosives
1 Aether Spellbomb
1 Echoing Truth
1 Dominate
1 Rebuild

8 Island
3 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring

Sideboard

1 Engineered Explosives
1 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Aether Spellbomb
1 Pithing Needle
2 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Echoing Truth
4 Propaganda
4 Leyline of the Void

WhiteWolf

[TK]

response to dante

You could consider both those control decks but i would also add slaver to the list for sure. I also was bringing the will in against gat most of the time. Ive tried maindecking it several times in the list and have never been happy with it.