I made some slight modifications to the list from the previous week. I was tired of having Mana Crypt and Null Rod together, so I turned it into a City of Traitors. I pulled down a copy of Revoker and Metamorph from the main for 2 Thorns. I believe I lose Round 3 because of this, as Thorn is terrible against BUG fish and either of the above cards would have allowed me to fight back harder. The Thorn's were good elsewhere, namely against the 2 Standstill decks so who knows which would have been better. Lastly, I popped a Pithing Needle in the board for the Metamorph. That was critical to winning several matches.
Neo-Espresso:
Non-Mana Artifacts: 34
4 Smokestack
4 Tangle Wire
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Lodestone Golem
4 Sphere of Resistance
3 Phyrexian Revoker
3 Null Rod
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
2 Crucible of Worlds
2 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Duplicant
1 Trinisphere
Mana Artifacts: 7
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
Lands: 19
4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Wasteland
4 Ancient Tomb
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
1 City of Traitors
Sideboard:15
4 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Ghost Quarter
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Pithing Needle
1 Duplicant
2 Triskelion
Round 1: Mike Eckert on Espresso Workshops 2-1
Game 1: He mulligans but has 2 shops and 2 wastes w/ his LSG's and there isn't much for me to do in this game.
Game 2: I lock him out with Null Rod and Smokestack, and finish up with some Golem.
Game 3: Ghost Quarter + Pithing Needle on his Wasteland spell doom. I eat his Workshops while building a board with mine. I land a Smokestack off the top, and he playshis Tangle Wire into my Smokestack. Phyrexian Metamorph copies his Tangle Wire and he is stacked out of the game despite drawing a Tolarian Academy. If he doesn't play Wire or sacrifices it to the Stack he may have had a chance.
Round 2 Nick Coss on Burning Long 2-0
Game 1: Null Rod in my mulligan to 5 beats his 2 Mox mulligan to 4
Game 2: Null Rod and Grafdiggers Cage eventually get followed up by a few Strip effects and he loses his Tolarian Academy which ends the game when I find a Trinisphere.
Round 3 Mike Hejduk on BUG Midrange 0-2
Game 1: He leads out with an innocuous Deathrite Shaman, but follows it up with a Dark Confidant and then Jace. Sitting behind counter magic allows him to build a board with all 4 Deathrites, Bob and Jace. He keeps losing 1-2 life on Bob flips while making land drops, so I get him down to 3 and just need to find a Duplicant to get back into the game. Unfortunately he just suicides Bob and I don't find what I need and the game ends to Deathrite Shaman's and Time Walk.
Game 2: His hand is very fast with counters to back it up. My Crucible plan is destroyed as he keeps me off Phyrexian Revoker for his DRS.
Round 4 Keith Seals on UR Landstill 2-1
Game 1: He mulligans and when I have mana denial and then build up with spheres and a chalice 0. Lodestone Metamorph(Lodestone) ends the game.
Game 2: He has turn 1 Welder and turn 2 Heretic, I have Revoker for both but he blows me out with removal.
Game 3: He forces a Tangle Wire early and has no counter for a Stack that locks the game out.
Round 5 Brian Kelly on Cavern Humans 2-1
Game 1: I stack him out with a Crucible. Wire makes its presence felt.
Game 2: He has Stony Silence which beats my Sol Ring dependent hand.
Game 3: I Metamorph another Sol Ring and ride it to victory with a Crucible and Tangle Wire package. Lodestone with 1 mana available for him was followed by Chalice 1 to protect a Phyrexian Revoker.
Round 6 Bryce Menard on Burning Long 1-2
Game 1: I have Rod but he finds Oath before I can play enough prison, his Duress was solid.
Game 2: I have Rod and Cage then a Chalice 2. After i Waste lock him under a 3 ball he concedes
Game 3: Mox Orchard Oath and removal > Shop.
Round 7 Scott Hughes 2-0
Game 1: He plays a Standstill, but he used 2 wastes on my shops and I used 1 waste on his factory. I eventually win the top deck war, so when he pops it my hand gets stacked while he's almost dead.
Game 2: I land a lotus into 2 Revokers and ride Wastelands the rest of the way to lethal town.
I acquired a Mishra's Workshop for the day, so it was pretty sweet to miss top 8 for once.
Great event. Security was spectacular. Yoohoo was solid. Would definitely make it out again. I also won a random give away which was pretty sweet. Thanks to Nick Detwiler for organizing such a sweet event.
KrauserKrauser, was great having you here at the house. Thanks for picking up my tab at Friday's - which was awesomely nostalgic for me as I remembered the after parties that used to happen out in Selden from the original NYSE events.
Pokey and Matt Murray, thanks for hanging out as well. Glad we got to go to the Sunday event, sorry that we didn't take it down. Hope to see you guys in the future in some more events. Thoroughly enjoyed our discussions and back and forth regarding blue control.
BC, hope everything worked out alright for you on Monday.
