Superstars' "Thursday Night Type 1" Results Thread: San Jose, CA

[Webster]

Tournament information regarding these weekly events can be found HERE.


Week 1: October 23, 2008


These tournaments have started to get rolling. There were some regulars missing, although we still got 8 people. I expect the numbers to increase once the word gets around.

Entry: $7  Payout (roughly): 1st: 37.5%, 2nd: 25%, 3rd/4th: 12.5%

Meta Breakdown:
2 Ad Nauseam Tendrils
2 Canonist Parfait
1 Control Slaver
1 TPS
1 Tezzeret Phid
1 Affinity


Standings after round 3:
Control Slaver 2-0-1
TPS 2-0-1
Tezerret Phid 2-1
Affinity 2-1


I ran TPS. Pretty stock list w/ a few minor changes that I wanted to try out. I beat affinity 2-0, parfait 2-0, control slaver 2-1 (for fun after we drew).

wins:
turn 1: 1
turn 2: 3 (1 with time walk)
turn 3: 2 (1 with time wak)

502.30
maindeck:
4 duress
4 force of will
1 chain of vapor
1 rebuild

2 grim tutor
1 demonic tutor
1 merchant scroll
1 mystical tutor
1 vampiric tutor

1 ancestral recall
1 brainstorm
1 fact or fiction
1 gifts ungiven
1 memory jar
1 mind's desire
1 necropotence
1 ponder
1 sensei's divining top
1 time walk
1 timetwister
1 tinker
1 yawgmoth's bargain
1 yawgmoth's will

1 darksteel colossus
1 tendrils of agony

4 dark ritual
2 cabal ritual
1 black lotus
1 lotus petal
1 mana crypt
1 mana vault
1 mox emerald
1 mox jet
1 mox pearl
1 mox ruby
1 mox sapphire
1 sol ring

1 flooded strand
4 polluted delta
2 island
2 swamp
3 underground sea

sideboard:
3 dark confidant
1 swamp
1 island
2 hurkyl's recall
1 massacre
4 leyline of the void
1 extirpate
1 yixlid jailer
1 tormod's crypt

I cut imperial seal for sensei's divining top because of the dark confidants in the sideboard. I have no idea if that's correct. I've had bob come close to killing me sometimes and wanted a way to stop that. That being said, it's not like I'd tutor for top in a situation where I had bob in play; that play is just a bit odd to warrant it. In theory, top seemed like it has enough synergy with vampiric/mystical tutor and fetchlands to make it _OK_. It's definately a bit underpowered compared to everything else, but I just don't really care too much for imperial seal. It's often one of the first cards I find when looking for stuff to sideboard out. I didn't really come to any conclusions about it either. I did take a 1-card pile of sensei's divining top over mox ruby, mana crypt, swamp, dark ritual versus control slaver in game 2 (stupid sphere of resistance). More testing with this configuration is necessary.


See you next week.

[Webster]

Week 2: October 30, 2008


Ten people this week.

Meta Breakdown:

2 TPS
2 ichorid
1 4-c tezzeret with mind twist and dark confidant (list #3).
1 MUC with isochron scepter and augery adept.
1 control slaver with master of etherium and courier's capsule (seen here).
1 Uw artifact aggro (seen here).
1 mono red shop aggro
1 oath (I saw wasteland so I'm assuming it wasn't tyrant oath)


Standings after round 4:
TPS 3-0-1
control slaver 3-1 (I think)
TPS 2-1-1
Uw artifact aggro 2-1-1

I played the same TPS list from last week. Sensei's top was ok (probably better than imperial seal). I used it once on a mull to 5 game 1 against Uw artifact aggro and found lotus which let me timetwister. That doesn't make me completely sure yet. Tolarian academy or misdirection could easily go in that slot.

I played against 4-c tezzeret (concession), ichorid (2-1), control slaver (2-1), Uw artifact aggro (1-1).

The Uw artifact aggro deck is interesting. It attacks from multiple angles in the form of fow, thorn, canonist, meddling mage (sb). The control slaver deck is also interesting though it still has problems against dark rituals.


Round 1:
We weren't impressed with the 4-c tezzeret list. There were lots of mana problems. Mind twist and repeal were subpar.


Round 2:
Ichorid did what it is supposed to game 1. He had chalice on turn 1 which made the sapphire in hand and lotus petal I drew on turn 1 bad. He had a second bazaar on turn 2 but no dredgers. I had dark ritual, rebuild, demonic tutor, and 2 grim tutor in hand on turn 2 with 2 land in play. I was 2 mana short from going off with: ritual, rebuid, sapphire, petal, grim, lotus, demonic, will. I played demonic for lotus and passed. EOT he used the second bazaar and hit a thug and imp and dumped his deck into his yard on turn 3, hitting 3 therapies so I lost.

Game 2 wasn't very close. I have turn 1 emerald, mana vault, underground sea in play with vampiric, cabal ritual, force of will, and polluted delta in hand. He has chalice again. I vamp for bargain and pass the turn because he doesn't have anything still. I go off turn 3 easily.

Game 3 I keep: leyline, jailer, force, jar, grim tutor, fact or fiction, mystical tutor. He scoops to leyline. After the match, he said that he had taken out the sideboard plan when he didn't see anything during game 2 so the leyline caught him off guard.


Round 3:
Game 1 I am on the play and have pearl, sapphire, delta, dark ritual, cabal ritual, grim tutor, mystical tutor. I decide to play necro unprotected. The sequence was greedy, but he mulled to 6.

I win on turn 2. Game 2, my judgement call ends up being wrong. It's my turn 2 with delta in play. In hand I have: emerald, mana vault, lotus, gifts, force, time walk, dark ritual, tendrils. The opponent has ruby, island, volcanic. I lead with lotus instead of emerald, vault, gifts. I was playing around drain + fow/reb. I could have tried to bait with gifts in order to draw out counters and to get enough storm to a lethal tendrils (grim tutor, demonic tutor, mox sapphire, chain of vapor). The play would have been: emerald, vault, gifts, opp counters, I fow, lotus, dark ritual. From there, I have 5 black mana and any combination of the gift cards gets me 3+ storm. The hardest route would be grim tutor and chain of vapor. I can grim for a land or lotus petal and chain my emerald and mana vault. As it turns out, my opponent had force and thirst. I passed the turn and played gifts in response to his EOT thirst and my force traded for his. Then he tinkered for titan on his turn and I died.

Game 3 was the same as game 1. I played a turn 1 necro but wasn't able to draw into a blue card for my force so he resolved a sphere on turn 1. I duressed him to see sphere, welder, welder, delta. I necro'd into hurykl's and some stuff. I win on my next turn after bouncing his sphere.


Round 4:
The games against the Uw artifact deck were a frustrating. Game 1 I mull to 5 and he follows suit in game 2. I felt that I should have won 2-0. In game 1, my hand is delta, vamp, dark ritual, fact or fiction, darksteel colossus. I opt for necro over ancestral because that hand is pretty bad and the skull is the only card that's going to really save me. Necro resolves but I find no lands and only 1 mox. I have sensei's top which I use to look at the top 3. I see delta, lotus, and something not as interesting. I opt to draw lotus with it and play timetwister for lack of a more one-sided play. My options aren't very good at this point. I can tinker for DSC via petal, dark ritual, grim tutor for lotus, lotus, tinker for DSC, tinker for jar, or pass the turn. He has etherium sculpter in play and I would not be very fond of him playing a thorn or canonist because I don't have a bounce spell or force in hand. I find DSC and pass at 3 life without necroing. He plays a second sculpter and passess. I attack, pass. He plays sword of fire and ice and slays me.

Game 2 he mulls to 5 and I have delta, mana crypt, tinker, time walk, timetwister, dark ritual, something. I decide to time walk first even though I have tinker because it's far less 'all-in'. If I tinker for DSC first and then time walk, I have to draw a mana source to be able to play it. I play time walk. I draw sol ring and tinker away crypt for DSC. He plows it. I draw an island which lets me play dark ritual before timetwister. I duress him and see sensei's top, 2 thorn, 2 meddling mage, swords, and master of etherium. I take sensei's top. He draws a second tundra and drops a mage on tendrils. It's ok. I still have chain of vapor and the massacre I boarded in. I scroll for recall over gifts because I don't have enough mana to leverage a lethal will. Then play ritual, petal, demonic, will, ritual, petal, timetwister, time walk with mystical, ponder, brainstorm, demonic, dark ritual, delta in hand. Upkeep I mystical for massacre, massacre, ritual, demonic for desire, ponder-> dark ritual, dark ritual, desire for 7 and kill him.

Time gets called and we draw unfortunately. I'm not sure where the time went. I had been playing slower than I thought. I'm out of practice. I was the only 3-0 going into the round and the draw ensures that I am still ranked first afterwards.


See you next week.

[Webster]

Week 3: November 6, 2008


Eleven people this week.

Meta Breakdown:

3 UWB fish
2 TPS
1 MUD
1 R/b goblins
1 capsule CS
1 oath
1 UW/r aggro painter
1 R/b aggro burn


Standings after round 4:



I played TPS again with the following changes made from the list in the original post:

MD: -1 island, -1 swamp, -1 sensei's divining top; +1 snow-covered island, +1 snow-covered swamp, +1 misdirection.
SB: -3 dark confidant; +3 dimir cutpurse.

I wanted to try something other than dark confidant for the mirror/control matchups. The problem that I have had with dark confidant is that while he is a source of card advantage which is untouchable by duress effects, he conflicts with the effectiveness of TPS to utilize its life total. Dimir cutpurse fits in the role of being able to create card advantage like dark confidant as well as put the opponent into the situation of not being able to defend themself after a hit or two. After/while both decks expend their duress and force of will trying to stop each other, a permanent source of card advantage significantly helps leverage wins. While it's true that dimir cutpurse has no applications while comboing off other than being able to be pitched to force of will and misdirection, it gets you to that gamestate of being able to win. Simply put, it is a unique setup card. They worked out better than I thought they would. I was very happy with them.

The misdirection was added to increase the threat resolution percentage.

With the removal of dark confidant from the sideboard, I saw little reason to keep sensei's divining top in the main. Its applications are rather limited.


I played against Rb goblins (2-0), capsule CS (2-0), and TPS (2-0). I got the bye in round 1.

Round 1:
I get the bye. Talk about justice.


Round 2:
Goblins. Beyond the standard goblin shell, I saw thorn of amethyst and earwig squad main. Game 1 I duress him turn 1 on the draw and he has earwig squad and thorn, which I take. I ponder seeing tendrils and 2 moxes but decide to shuffle despite him having earwig squad in hand along with fanatic in play. His 2 mires would have put him down to 18 which means I could have merchant scrolled for rebuild with 3 moxes to generate lethal storm. That plan would have taken an additional 3 turns to execute. I draw necropotence which makes the jet and ritual in my hand a lot better. I win next turn.

Game 2 he plays vial and passes. My hand is: island, lotus, cabal ritual x2, ponder, timetwister, ancestral recall. I draw yawgmoth's bargain and pass. He cabal therapies me for dark ritual and then I win on my turn.


Round 3:
I'm playing against capsule CS. I think it's the same list as last week. I have a good opening hand with swamp, duress x2, force, ancestral, time walk, jet. He mulligans to 6. I keep because I should be able to draw into blue mana while I decimate his hand with the 2 duress. He is on the play and opens with volcanic, mox, go. I duress him and see thirst, force of will, misdirection, underground sea. I take his thirst. He plays his sea and passes. I go to duress him again and he thirsts. I force removing time walk and take his force. My hand had enough gas to where taking force was better than misdirection even though I had ancestral in hand. I think I had fof+gifts or something like that. Eventually, the card quality on my side catches up with him and he loses.

Game 2 my opener is: delta, swamp, duress, dimir cutpurse, merchant scroll, mind's desire, fof. He plays volcanic, mox, sol ring, go. I duress him and see demonic tutor, 2x extirpate, force. I take demonic tutor even though he can't cast it because I really don't want to be able to resolve tinker if he draws a black source. He just draws and passes with 5 mana open. I draw mox jet and run out cutpurse into his force. I could have waited to merchant scroll for force, but that didn't seem like it was as good. He passes again. I pass also with swamp, jet, underground sea in play. EOT, I play cabal ritual, fof, which he drains. On my turn I resolve ancetral which draws into lotus, ritual, twister. I am short on mana to desire and don't really want to play timetwister just yet so I'm forced to pass. He draws and plays tinker --> mindslaver --> slaver me. On my slaver turn, I draw and have lotus, timetwister, mind's desire, brainstorm misdirection in hand. I brainstorm into force of will, dimir cutpurse, dark ritual. I put back misdirection and dark ritual in that order. I play timetwister, force it removing mind's desire, break my lotus, and tap out leaving me with dimir cutpurse in play. He doesn't draw a black source to extirpate my cutpurses like he had planned which means I resolve cutpurse next turn and go to town. The mindslaver turn should have been a lot different. Playing ritual, lotus, timetwister would have let me with enough mana to probably lose the game while refueling his hand. I was fortunate there.


Round 4:
I'm playing against the mirror. I keep a hand with duress, force, delta, blue card, plus stuff. He wins the roll and plays swamp --> mana vault. I duress him and he forces. I don't force back. On his turn he plays dark ritual, cabal ritual using 2 black. I could have played it safe and force the cabal ritual but I have the definate read and let it resolve. He plays demonic tutor and yawgmoth's will tapping his mana vault, leaving him with 1 swamp in play and 1 card in hand. I force pitching gifts over brainstorm (because I have a fetch in hand and not much acceleration.) and he burns for 2. I brainstorm into memory jar and a few moxes. which stay in my hand as 2 lands go back on top of my deck. He passes. I play jar and pass. I jar on my turn. I draw into a lot of accel but not many real spells and only have 2 options: play darksteel collosus with misdirection backup and pass or timetwister and try to do stuff. Considering he only has 2 swamp in play with 2 cards in his RFG hand, I decide to play DSC. DSC goes the distance.

Game 2 I am forced to mulligan a hand similar to game 1. I had force, blue card, duress, mana crypt, emerald, tendrils, ponder. It's not quite there in terms of what I need so decide to draw 6. I don't have force, but I have duress, jet, swamp, grim tutor, and some blue spells that I can't cast including cutpurse. He plays swamp, ritual, ritual, memory jar. I guess I'm glad. It could have been a lot worse. I duress him and see force, cabal ritual, and yawgmoth's will. I take yawgmoth's will. He jarsduring his upkeep and plays lotus, timetwister. The timetwister gives him no plays and he has to ship the turn. I duress again and take his cabal ritual leaving him with force. He plays jar again and activates it right away which I'm more than fine with. He can only play jet and delta. I had a force waiting if he tried anything else. We are just passing. A few turns later, I draw a ritual which lets me play grim tutor --> lotus --> cutpurse --> ancestral --> land --> duress. Winning doesn't take much effort from there. I could have just played ancestral first but I figured having cutpurse on the stack would draw out a slowrolled force of will if he had one.


I'm sure some of the games were slightly different because I don't really remember them as well as last week. The general structure is there though.


See you next week.

[LotusHead]

Thanks for these updates. I'd be there (as you know) but I work Thursday nights.
It's nice to see at least 1 deck packing shops!

[tomjoad]

I cannot express how amazed I am to be learning that I took 4th in this event...

[Webster]

Week 4: November 13, 2008

Unfortunately there were only seven people so the event didn't fire.



Week 5: November 20, 2008

Nine people this week.

Metagame breakdown:
2 tezzeret (U/br and G.I.'s U/bg list)
2 TPS
1 MUD
1 UWB fish (lions + isamaru + factory)
1 MUC
1 capsule CS
1 unknown (I forgot >< I'll edit later when I find out)

I played TPS (shocking). I lost round 1 to UWB fish, conceded round 2 to MUD (won playing for fun in 3 games), won round 3 against the bye, and won round 4 against the mirror.

For the record, I'm probably never going to drink 3 venti black coffees in the same evening ever again. I was up all night  .

502.30
maindeck:
4 duress
4 force of will
1 misdirection
1 chain of vapor
1 rebuild

1 demonic tutor
1 grim tutor
1 merchant scroll
1 mystical tutor
1 vampiric tutor

1 ancestral recall
1 brainstorm
1 fact or fiction
1 gifts ungiven
1 memory jar
1 mind's desire
1 necropotence
1 ponder
1 time walk
1 timetwister
1 tinker
1 yawgmoth's bargain
1 yawgmoth's will

1 darksteel colossus
1 tendrils of agony

4 dark ritual
2 cabal ritual
1 black lotus
1 lotus petal
1 mana crypt
1 mana vault
1 mox emerald
1 mox jet
1 mox pearl
1 mox ruby
1 mox sapphire
1 sol ring

1 tolarian academy
1 flooded strand
4 polluted delta
1 island
1 snow-covered island
1 snow-covered swamp
1 swamp
3 underground sea

sideboard:
3 dimir cutpurse
1 swamp
1 island
2 hurkyl's recall
1 massacre
4 leyline of the void
1 extirpate
1 yixlid jailer
1 tormod's crypt


See you in 2 weeks after Thanksgiving.

[Campee]

Can't make it this Thurs, going to Disneyland. Really wanted to test some new homebrew action too :/

[Webster]

Week 6: December 4, 2008


Nine people this week.

3 TPS (2 MD, 1 other)
2 Tezzeret (1 MD, 1 GI)
1 control slaver
1 UW fish
1 UB fish w/ dreadnoughts
1 ichorid

I went 3-0-1 playing against control slaver (2-0), UB fish (2-0), MD tezzeret (2-0), and GI tezzeret (draw). After drawing in round 4, we played for fun and I got crushed. Nice hands Brent  .

I played the same TPS list from week 5.

[Webster]

Week 7: December 11, 2008


Fifteen people this week.


Metagame breakdown:
5 tezzeret (1 meandeck, 1 MUC, 3 other)
3 ichorid (1 7th-IPA-OTJ budget extended)
2 TPS
1 control slaver
1 UWb bomberman
1 UW fish
1 UB SS nought
1 suicide black

Standings after 4 rounds of swiss:
TPS
Tez, other
ichorid
Tezzeret, MD

Round 1: tezzeret, other.
I win the roll but only have a brainstorm for his EOT. His turn is LOA, draw, sapphire, go. My brainstorm yields very little and forces me to timetwister on turn 2. I use lotus petal to duress him but he brainstorms in response. He shows me a hand of gorilla shaman, 4 lands, platinum angel, and a mox which I am forced to take. His turn 2 is uneventful and on my turn 3 I go off with force backup via will. Game 2 is far more one-sided. Duress breaks him in half as I scroll for ancestral and go off again with double force backup.


Round 2: TPS.
I win the roll again. I know I'm playing against TPS and have a borderline hand of underground sea, lotus petal, mana vault, mox pearl, memory jar, rebuild, yawgmoth's will. There are a few things wrong with this hand. First, it has yawgmoth's will in it. I'd be happy to have yawgmoth's will in my opener with a normal hand. However, memory jar makes the play line a bit different, effectively excluding yawgmoth's will from my victory path if I am to win on the same turn that I use jar as opposed to playing something like desire, bargain, or necropotence. The second problem is that my hand doesn't have a force of will to ensure that memory jar resolves. This hand is very 'all-in' because it uses lotus petal and mana vault. I decide to run it anyways because it's probably on par with a 6-card hand. My memory jar gets forced and then he duresses my yawgmoth's will on his turn. I draw gifts ungiven and pass. He mysticals for ancestral and draws more cards. I cycle rebuild, draw for my turn, and play a land. He draws and passes. I draw a fourth land and pass with gifts and force in hand. He vamps. Excellent. My hand should be very good at breaking him if he tries to go off unprotected which is what happens. He plays dark rituall, grim tutor, lotus, yawgmoth's will. I gifts in response for force of will, demonic tutor, merchant scroll, and fact or fiction. He gives me merchant scroll and fact or fiction. I force his yawgmoth's will keeping scroll in hand. I draw three with ancestral but have to pass the turn with time walk, dark ritual, mana crypt and brainstorm because I have no more blue mana to cast time walk. He draws and taps out to play a monster fact or fiction, revealing cabal ritual, demonic tutor, duress, gifts ungiven, and memory jar. I seperate memory jar, gifts, cabal ritual from demonic tutor and duress. He takes the duress/demonic tutor and ships the turn back. I brainstorm into tinker, bargain, and delta. I play time walk and tinker away my mana vault for DSC. I hit him to 1 life, play bargain, and finish him off with 2 rituals, grim tutor, and tendrils.

Game 2 I have duress, duress, mana crypt, time walk, necropotence, night's whisper, underground sea for my seven. He plays island, mana vault, go. I draw island and duress him. I see mox ruby, dark ritual, cabal ritual, yawgmoth's bargain, timetwister. Seeing how I don't have a force, I probably lose if he draws a black source and I don't make him discard bargain. However, my hand is pretty solid which makes timetwister worse for me. I decide to take timetwister and leave my fate to probability. He has 5 fetchlands, 3 underground sea, 2 swamp, black lotus, mox jet, lotus petal, tinker to get black mana along with ponder, brainstorm, and ancestral recall. He draws and passes. I duress him again, see his new mox pearl, and take his bargain. He passes and I play mana crypt, time walk, cabal ritual, necropotence and kill him on my time walk turn.


Round 3: Brent with ichorid.
He is from the collective and scoops.


Round 4: JefftheFob with Tezzeret, other.
We draw because being 3-0 and from the collective has its advantages.


Sidenote: Tournaments on Sunday in the early afternoon may replace or be held in addition to the Thursday night tournaments to. Stay tuned.


See you next week.

[rologa]

What list do you play this week? I see you use at least 1 night's whisper you didn't play before.

Thanks for your updates.

[Webster]

What list do you play this week? I see you use at least 1 night's whisper you didn't play before.

Thanks for your updates.

TPS; the same maindeck as last week. The night's whisper was in the sideboard. I actually never cast it.

[Dnine]

Week 7: December 11, 2008


Sidenote: Tournaments on Sunday in the early afternoon may replace or be held in addition to the Thursday night tournaments to. Stay tuned.

Is there going to be a tournament this thursday?  I actually have a free night and hope to dust off my type 1 cards for one last go before the baby comes. 

Dan

[Webster]

Week 7: December 11, 2008


Sidenote: Tournaments on Sunday in the early afternoon may replace or be held in addition to the Thursday night tournaments to. Stay tuned.

Is there going to be a tournament this thursday?  I actually have a free night and hope to dust off my type 1 cards for one last go before the baby comes. 

Dan

Yep, the Thursday tournament is still on.

[jeffthefob]

Week 7: December 11, 2008


Sidenote: Tournaments on Sunday in the early afternoon may replace or be held in addition to the Thursday night tournaments to. Stay tuned.

Is there going to be a tournament this thursday?  I actually have a free night and hope to dust off my type 1 cards for one last go before the baby comes. 

Dan

Congrats Dan, no wonder I haven't been seeing you everywhere.  Going to bust out your Painter.dec? XD See you there.

[LotusHead]

Week 7: December 11, 2008


Sidenote: Tournaments on Sunday in the early afternoon may replace or be held in addition to the Thursday night tournaments to. Stay tuned.

Is there going to be a tournament this thursday?  I actually have a free night and hope to dust off my type 1 cards for one last go before the baby comes. 

Dan

There's a tourney this Saturday, yes? For an actual prize! Look in tourney thread!

[Webster]

Week 7: December 11, 2008


Sidenote: Tournaments on Sunday in the early afternoon may replace or be held in addition to the Thursday night tournaments to. Stay tuned.

Is there going to be a tournament this thursday?  I actually have a free night and hope to dust off my type 1 cards for one last go before the baby comes. 

Dan

There's a tourney this Saturday, yes? For an actual prize! Look in tourney thread!

Yes, in addition to the normal Thursday night tournament, there is a mox tournament this Saturday (the 20th), at 4 PM. Check here for details.

[Webster]

Week 8: December 18, 2008


Seventeen people this week.
Prizes also went down to top 8. It was something along the lines of: 32, 21, 14, 14, 5.5, 5.5, 5.5, 5.5


Metagame Breakdown:
4 Tezzeret
3 TPS
2 ichorid
2 SS-stifle nought
1 Ad Nauseam
1 UW artifact aggro
1 crushing chamber affinity
1 UR aggro painter (goblin welder, magus of the moon)
1 oath
1 UB faeries (standstill)


Standings after round 4:
Jeff Huang, Tezzeret
David Ochoa, TPS
Eric Campusano, UW artifact aggro
Stan Gin, UR aggro painter
Brent Peterson, ichorid
Mark Santos, SS stifle-nought
Devin Nambiar, Tezzeret
Mike Klemic, Tezzeret

I forgot to get actual standings so I might have gotten some placing/names wrong.

I played TPS and got paired against ichorid (2-1), Tezzeret (2-0),  UR aggro painter (2-0), Tezzeret (ID).

Round 1: Ichorid
I lose the die roll. I also know he's ichorid. He mulligans to 6. I mulligan this hand: black lotus, force, demonic tutor, island, polluted delta, darksteel collosus, X (some non-blue, non-accelerant spell). The reason is that I can't stop chalice or unmask from wrecking me. My 6 is unplayable. My 5 is good, except for being a 5-card hand: dark ritual, ponder, misdirection, rebuild, polluted delta. He plays bazaar and chalice on his turn. I draw a land and ponder into timetwister plus merchant scroll. His turn 2 is pretty good, involving drediging a lot. He dredges 2 narcomoebas, 2 bridges, 1 therapy, 1 dread return, 1 cephalid sage, 1 flame-kin zealot. He plays dryad arbor and goes for dread return immediately instead of using therapy first, although he would have missed on force of will. His play would have killed me because he would have been able to hit for 21, but dread returning cephalid sage would have been better I think. I misdirect his dread return to a stinkweed imp and he's force to pass. I play ritual, timetwister with a black floating. I draw vamp, sol ring, mox, force, 3 lands. Not very good. I vamp for ancestral because I have to draw multiple perfects to win. I don't so I lose.

Games 2 and 3 were not very eventful. I had good hands with leyline in my opening 7. I won without much opposition.


Round 2: Tezzeret
I lose the die roll and keep a borderline hand: fact or fiction, dark ritual, mana vault, mox pearl, tolarian academy, 3 other lands. If he has duress then I'm in toruble, but I wasn't sure which deck he was playing. Any business and I should be fine since I've got a decent amount of permanent mana. He duresses me and takes my fof. He's got nothing going on. I duress his 3-card hand and see 2 force and darksteel collosus. I force his thirst. Eventually I clear his hand and play necro. I win next turn after setting aside many cards.

Game 2 I keep mox sapphire, ancestral, tolarian academy, memory jar, night's whisper, cabal ritual, force of will. He plays library of alexandria, go. I play sapphire, ancestral (resolves) and draw mox ruby, mox emerald, darksteel collosus. I play both moxes, tolarian academy, and memory jar (resolves). He starts his turn, draws with library, plays mox jet, duress taking night's whisper, and passes. Upkeep I crack the jar (2 dark ritual, mind's desire, swamp, lotus petal, necropotence, ponder) and draw polluted delta. I ponder and keep mox jet with merchant scroll and rebuild on top. I didn't really want to try for rebuild because him having 2 forces would have been bad. Drawing jet makes 2 forces not enough. Jet resolves as does my first dark ritual. I play my second dark ritual and lotus petal. I bait with necro. He forces. I play mind's desire for 8 and flip over grim tutor, 2 duress, a force and win.


Round 3:
I lose the die roll. He busts out of the gates with mox sapphire, brainstorm, ancestral, volcanic island, goblin welder, painter's servant. I duress him and see tolarian academy, mox emerald, triskelion, and goblin welder. He plays a second painter and the second goblin welder. I mystical for ancestral and play it. He plays trike. I duress him and see land and magus of the moon. I brainstorm, putting DSC and yawgmoth's bargain back. I play mox, fact or fiction with grim tutor and cabal ritual in hand. I reveal DSC, yawgmoth's bargain, timetwister, gifts ungiven, demonic tutor. Demonic tutor and DSC get thrown away. Unfortunately I only have 1 mana let and can't continue so I have to pass the turn. He hits me to 10 and plays magus of the moon. I have 2 islands in play along with mox jet so I'm relatively safe. I play cabal ritual with threshold, gifts ungiven for black lotus, cabal ritual, dark ritual, chain of vapor. I want him to give me chain but he doesn't. I get the 2 rituals. If I had gotten chain, I would have been able to bounce my vault, jet, and his trike. If he had not shot me twice and trike in response, I would have won because I would have been able to play grim tutor for yawgmoth's will. It was not meant to be though. The trike could have done 7 to me so I couldn't play grim tutor. I play both rituals and timetwister with 6 black mana floating. I draw into duress, cabal ritual, demonic tutor which is enough to tendrils him for 20.

Game 2 he plays volcanic island, mox sapphire, thorn of amethyst. I should be fine. I kept rebuild in and I have sol ring in hand with 3 lands, night's whisper, mana vault, and yawgmoth's bargain. I draw sapphire and play it off a swamp. He plays chalice for 0 and no land. I play a land and night's whsiper. The game degerates from there. He has no lands and I play do along with spells. I duress him taking REB, leaving him with force, thirst, rack and ruin, viashino heretic, mox runby, mox emerald. I play bargain and force his force. I win on my next turn.



Round 4: Tezzeret
JefftheFob and I are the only 3-0's. We draw. Mise.


Don't forget to come to the Mox tournament this Saturday at 4 PM!

[hauntedechos]

Congrats on the Mise Ocho.

I'm enjoying reading your posts on the tournys.  I find that it's helping me in learning how to play TPS.  Even though I am forced to sub in suboptimal cards, I am still able to pull off some similar plays.

Keep up the god work.

Haunted.