-or- How quitting GWS was the best thing I ever did....
As always, this will be short, not very detailed, and probably not exciting for the reader.
Pre-battle:
I wake up Friday morning and catch Breakfast with my Girlfriend at Panera Bread. We say our goodbyes, and I meet LordHomerCat himself, Jimmy McCarthy, as well as SuicideKing James. We head out slightly behind schedule to pick up Jaco. We arive at Jaco's right at 3. He speaks highly of this resturaunt in Chinatown, so we check it out. The name eludes me, but it was the Nutty McFlush. We head to Joliet, and Reach Brian Fisher at about 6:20. Yes, that's right, we fit 5 people into a Prius.
The drive was a blast, and as always, talk of Magic and other things (MMA, women, etc) takes place. We arive at Anthony's (Twaun007) at about 12:30a.m., and were greeted by his girlfriend. I hadn't even had a chance to introduce myself before she asked if we wanted a beer, so I was in heaven. Nam Q. Tran joined us for awhile, and we ended up cashing out Twaun's bottle of Jose Cuervo Tequilla. It was amazing, and helped me sleep.
We wake up in the morning and meet up with the rest of the Ohio crew: CJ, Trogdan, Jerry Yang, and a slew of other people I can't remember at a Eat n' Park. The food was reasonable, but not too expensive. We get to the tournament site and to my dissapointment after 12 hours in a car, we only have 33 people.
This is what I registered:
[Confidant Tezzeret]
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox pearl
2 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Time Vault
1 Voltaic Key
4 Dark Confidant
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Duress
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Ancesetral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Echoing Truth
4 Force of Will
1 Gifts Ungiven
4 Mana Drain
1 Mechart Scroll
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Ponder
1 Rebuild
1 SPHINX OF THE STEEL WIND
1 Tezzeret, the Seeker
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
2 Flooded Strand
2 Island
4 Polluted Delta
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Volcanic Island
4 Underground Sea
SB: 3 Tormods Crypt
SB: 1 Hurkyls Recall
SB: 2 Sower of Temptation
SB: 1 Meloku, The Clouded Mirror
SB: 1 Darkblast
SB: 1 Planar Void
SB: 2 Yixlid Jailer
SB: 1 Rack And Ruin
SB: 3 Red Elemental Blast
The maindeck is -1 Lotus Petal, +1 Underground Sea from my ICBM Open 3rd place finish.
Straight to the point:
Round 1: Chris Lapay (Painter Time)
Game 1: I remove sphinx to Force of Will something, and he plays an explosives early to blow up my time vault. I cannot compete with Academy Ruins + Explosives and Die when I can't beat down with Confidants, go infinite, or use Tezzeret because he has Trinket Mages in play.
Game 2: I have complete control of the game early, but unfortunately, with 5 cards in hand (2 Duresses), I had no counterspells, and he's completely empty with only mana and Voltaic Key in play. Unfortunately for me, he plays tinker off the top and I just lose.
0-1, 0-2.
Round 2: Jeremy Beaver (Tezzeret)
Game 1 was ridiculous. He wins the die roll and plays Duress, and I show Lotus, Jet, Polluted Delta, Ancestral Recall, Mana Drain, Demonic Tutor, Brainstorm. He takes Lotus, and I draw a Dark Confidant. I play Jet and Polluted Delta, fetch for an Underground Sea, and Demonic tutor for Force of will. On my next turn I resolve Dark Confidant, and grind it out. He almost pulls it off, but I have too much advantage from Dark Confidant.
Game 2 was not really a game. I'll try and sum it up. We get into a situation where I have a Force he knows about from a prior as well as Time Vault, and a Reb he doesn't know about that I just drew . He duresses me, and I show him my hand (andI can hardcast both counters) and he Takes force, and then taps out to Thoughtseize takingthe REB I had just drawn. I draw, and go "sweet" and play Vault and then Key. He forces removing the Ancestral Recall he was trying to clear the way to play. I'm quite estatic about it, as he draws deadand I draw top. Top finds me recall, andthen I fetch and recall into 3 new cards. It gets to a point where he Thirst For Knowledges and I can't really recall but he talked about how if he wasn't as agressive he still would have won. My Yawgmoth's Will ends the game.
1-1, 2-2
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Round 3: Stephen Z. (PersonalBackfire on TMD) (Tezzeret)
Game 1 he just smashes me. I can't recall whathappened but he just won.
Game 2 I grinded Confidant and the advantage just wasn't fair. I killed him with 6 counterspells in hand to his 3 cards in hand.
Game 3 he mulliganed to 5 and just wasn't in it.
2-1, 4-3
Round 4: Steve Lapin I think his name was? (SS)
Game 1: We both mulligan to 5. I draw a ton of lands and am quite psyched about it when he is trying to survive off one land. Unfortunately, he draws a second land and resolves guys who kill me.
Game 2: I keep a sick hand, and end up playing a Sower on his Tarmogoyf and blasting him with it + Sower.
Game 3: I play a confidant and grindit, and then Sphinx of the Steel wind joins the party. He can't beat my counterspells.
3-1, 6-4
Round 5: Stephen Menenenenenenenendian (GWB Tezzeret-hate).
After looking at the standings, I realize there is no way I win this, and Steve offers the Draw. I take it, thinking I should get in in 8th. I do, Steve gets 9th. I offer to split (which everyone but Jerry Yang disagreed with) because I know if he would have played, he would have smashed me.
Top 8: Doug Linn (HiVal) (Draw-7 Tezzeret)
I promised them I wouldn't write too much about it. Game 1 I have duresses and Force of wills, and land a confidant and he doesn't do anything. Game 2 he blasts me turn 2. Game 3 he casts a draw 7 that gives me Drain, Drain, Fow, Recall, Vampiric Tutor, Reb, Key. I counter a couple things, and then Vamp for Time Vault with confidant down and Win.
Top 4: CJ Mortiz (Sea Drake Control)
Game 1: I hand him a game because I know he has Hurkyls Recall, so I don't hardcast my sphinx because I know he has more counters than I do. Unfortunately, I also forgot to subtract the counters he had used from the equasion, so I was playing around more counterspells than he actually had. So basically:
Game 2: I play a confidant after duressing him and leaving him with tinker. He plays a Sea Drake and I sower it (he has a drain hecan't cast). My Mana Crypt unfortunately has not been nice to me, so I'm taking some damage. He casts tinker, and gets DSC. I eot spin top, and don't find Red mana for my reb, or a black mana for my duress. Fuckin' Mana Crypt domes me f or a 4th time, and with confidants, I'm at 6. He swings with collossus, and I block with Bob, Sower, and Sea Drake to put me to 1. I finally win my first Mana Crypt roll, and then findmy red mana to reb his drain after playing my second sower. Mana Crypt kills me withhim tapped out after I drain his last spell, with him at 13 with me having 13 Damage on board. I have died to Mana Crypt too many times in top4s.
So I get an underground sea. Yup. I travelled 10 hours and got 3rd, to get an underground sea.
After the event, we went to the Starlit Lounge. The food was NUTSO! Getting into several discussions with Jimmy McCarthy, James King, Doug Linn and Brian DeMars was quite interesting.
Afterwords, we all lodged at Brian Kiels, who I never got a chance to thank, so thank you so much for the hospitality,Brian. We had an insane Type 4 game where we Rochester'ed Pauls whole deck.
Brian K. and Paul are battling. Brian resolves Kaervek the Merciless, and I ahve a Bringer of the blakc dawn in play. I find Gleemax, and paul takes ONE MILLION DAMAGE
Doug Molder's my Gleemax. Brian DeMars, Doug and I are the only three left. I'm at ONE. Brian is at TWO. Doug is at ONE MILLION AND TEN. I end up using Planar Portal to find Forbid, and start countering Doug's Relivant plays. I then Tutor up winding canyons and then Arcanis, and hard-lock doug. Brian uses some stupid lantern and Doug scoops, knowing he is locked. I then use my Portal and find cloudthresher to kill us both.
Props:
-) Everyone who came out to play. The tournament was still stacked.
Names you might recognize at the event:
AJ Grasso, Jeff Folinus, Brian Fisher, Twaun007, Jerry Yang, Mark Trogdan, Steve Menendian, Francis Hart, Paul Mastriano, Jimmy McCarthy, Jason Jaco, Jeremy Beaver, Doug Linn, and a ton others I'm forgetting right now like Steve Golenda and Stephen (PersonalBackfire).
-) Brian Kiel for holding the event.
-) Jimmy McCarthy for driving.
-) Stu Somers for taking a Knee to the ribs and still buying me a mountain dew.
-) Brian DeMars. I like this guy more every time I speak with him.
Slops:
-) Darksteel Colossus
-) Mana Crypt
-) Harris Bank
-) Jaco and Pierce for blasting my sandwiches twice in 12 hours.
-) Justin Droba
