Hey all.. I'll start the report with the manditory pre-tourney shenanigans.
On friday night, I give up going to FNM and/or Ray's Party to go to a highschool basketball game with a girl. In the end, I did miss Ray's awesome-sauce filled amazingfest of a party, but it was pretty worth it.
Anyways, I get home and playtest with fellow team RI member Mike D (who doesn't have an account
). Coinciding with what everyone else has been saying, we expected a near 100% control metagame, with small amounts of TPS, maybe a little Neo-Long, and some Oshowa Stompy. So according to this, we metagamed our list (we both played the same deck).
Well, here is what we both played:
Team RI Tog
//Counter/Disruption
3 Duress
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
//Win
3 Psychatog
//Tutor/Search
2 Intuiton
2 Cunning Wish
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
//Draw
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Brainstorm
2 Deep Analysis
1 Ancestral Recall
//Other
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Mind Twist
//Land/Mana
3 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
2 Tropical Island
4 Island
1 Swamp
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
//Sideboard
2 Naturalize
2 Coffin Purge
1 Berserk
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Back to Basics
3 Xantid Swarm
1 Smother
3 Pernicious Deed
Well, so we get to sleep around 4-5 AM, and wake up at 7:00. We meet up with other friends ('Matrix' and Asian James for those who play in the NE tourney circuit) and start the 2 and a half hour drive. Somewhere near the RI/CT Border, we pass 2 RI State Trooper cars after accelerating over a hill. We hear sirens and do the whole simultaneous "FUCK!" thing. We pull over and he tells us he clocked us at 91 MPH in a 65 zone. The driver busts some sweet talk, and we wiggle a $300+ ticket into a $75 one. (He only put down 10 MPH over). But, the cop took his time writing the ticket so we are now destined to arrive somewhere around 10:30 instead of the planned 9:45.
We jet up to the Hotel, and fill out some deck reg sheets, and chill before the tourney, making my "Hey, I know you from TMD" rounds. 191 people show for this, and Ray decides to use another room, in addition to the already HUGE one that we were in. This tourney is shaping up to be the biggest ever.
Round 1 gets called, and I am playing against someone named Brendon, with Gay/R.
Game 1: He plays early curious stuff, but I play Intuiton and AK for 3 into AK for 4. I play a tog and put him in chump block mode. He runs out of guys and dies.
Sideboard: -1 Brainstorm -1 Deep Analysis +2 Pernicious Deed
Game 2: He plays 1st turn Maze of Ith. 2nd turn he taps it and an Island to cast Standstill. I explain to him what his cards do and he says go instead. I go for the turbo tog on turn 3 with FoW back, and I cunning wish for Zerk soon after Wasting the Maze. I had a turn 5 kill.
2-0
Round 2, I see a familiar (ugly) face in the form of Brian "hulk3rules" Phelon, and I know he is playing Tog, even before the round.
Game 1: I am establishing pretty well, but after I fetch for all duals he resolves a maindeck b2b (sigh). I have zero lands for more than 2 turns and he just has too much advantage for me to win.
Sideboard: -2 Cunning Wish -1 Brainstorm +3 Xantid Swarm
Game 2: He mulls to 5, and I get turn one swarm which he can't deal with.Intuiton --> lots of deep anal happens, and I have shitloads of advantage. After a mull to 5 he can't keep up and I win.
Game 3: This game goes on forever, with control moving back and forth a lot of times. At one point, after he drains 2 Deep Analyses which were my only gas, I am left with 1 Island to his FULL grip after he uses drain mana to go nuts (he sided in 2 more DA in addition to the MD 2). I was told by onlookers than he had 5 land in his hand at the time, but i dono. I play the topdeck game, while he checks with a draw-go also. This goes on for a few turns untill I get a Xantid Swarm, and then topdeck Mind Twist. He had 5 cards in his hand. He discards 5 mana sources. :-/ The game is still in topdeck mode when time is called, and I cant find 1 of 3 togs left in my <20 card deck. We draw.
1-1
Round 3 gets called, and I am in the 1-0-1 bracket. :-/. I see another familiar face, Steve "Grand Inquisitor" Houldette. He has a notourious record of beating me, which doesn't help. But I stay confident. I
did beat him last week in Hadley, but he wasn't playing his famous GAT build.
Game 1: He casts mystical early, and plays mox emerald, Recall. I FoW, he FoWs back, and I FoW back. The next turn he demonic tutors for Lotus, and the turn after that he plays the last card in his hand, a Future Sight. I play FoW #3! Unfortunately, I have spent my hand also. He rips some lands, then a Morphling (??!?!) which I don't have a counter for (how many can I ask for in one game.. lol) He rides the fling to victory whilst I draw decently, but he has a few more counters.
Sidebaord: -2 Brainstorm -1 Merchant Scroll (shitty sidebaording, but i wanted wishes main to enable me for the combo kill and let me also kill dryads) +3 Xantid Swarm
Game 2: I see another decent amount of counters, and a very early tog while keeping dryads off the board. Tog gets very, very mad.
Game 3: Ray calls time while we are drawing our 7 cards. Steve doesn't play a land and says go. I do my thing, and pass the turn. He passes back without a land again. Eventually, I draw a duress and see a hand of Ancestral, Demonic, Will, AK, AK, Dryad, and some other ridiculous gas. I won the game because he doesn't see a land early enough. His reasoning was that he hates draws, and it was going to be over early either way (if he drew a land, he would have smashed me but if he didnt I would win easily)
2-1
Round 4 I am playing against the 3rd Hadley member in a row, Jeff Greene playing Oshawa stompy.
Game 1: He goes turn 1 Bazzar, Mox, Lotus, Cast Gibbons, tap bazzar and Maddness an arrogant wurm. He beats me down too hard before I can establish anything.
Sideboarding: -2 Deep Anal -1 Duress +3 Pernicious Deed
Game 2: He doesn't get an extremely early start and I get a deed to stick and blow up his world. I play a tog and he loses.
Game 3: I have turn 1 Intuition--> AKs AND cast the AK for 3. I draw 2 Deed and I am confident I can win. He plays shitloads of beats while I still dont see a single Mox emerald, Lotus, Fetch, or Trop. FUCK ME.
1-2
Round 5, I am dissapointed after my first loss and I'm happy I get to take it out on Glenn, playing Booby Trap.
Game 1: I dont see what his deck does at all, I go combo tog again and kill turn 5 with FoW back.
Sideboard: None
Game 2: He starts off with: Land, Mox, Lotus, Petal, Tinker Petal away for Booby trap (naming AK), and copy artifact on the Trap. I was like.. hmm.... that sucks ass. I play a turn 2 tog, and live life on the edge with a brainstorm seeing no AKs. Turn 3 I get a Deep Anal + Flash, and Swing with a tog which I make 14/15. He is at 3, and has a Mana Crypt on the board. I also have a card in GY, so If he doesnt lose by the flip, I can still topdeck, discard, and remove for the last 3 points. He doesn't lose to the flip, and draw-go's. I win.
2-0
Round 6 I see a new face, Justin. He is playing Sui.
Game 1: He spends his hand playing a shade and negator. The next turn a topdeck tog and lay in it front of his team. We stalemate for awhile untill I get a cunning wish. I trample over 2 Negators and a 2/1 Shade for the win.
Sidebaord: -2 Deep Analysis -1 Duress +3 Deed
Game 2: He has the classic sui play of Ritual, Duress, Hymn. He gets me landscrewed by taking a land with Hymn and Seeing a Sink and Waste.
He plays a hypnotic specter and I just lose.
Game 3: I keep a hand with a Deed, and play it turn 2 in the face of his Shade. A few turns later I pop deed. He plays 3 guys and says go. I play another deed and pop it. He frowns, and draw-go's. I play a Tog and say go. He does another draw go, and things got crazy.
2-1
Round 7: Jacob Orlove with O. Stompy
Game 1: He plays the 1st turn gibbons, which I FoW. I strip his land and he plays Bazzar soon after into Arrogant Wurm, and other stuff. I am constantly on the defense, and lose.
Sideboarding: -2 Deep Anal -1 Duress +3 Pernicious Deed
Game 2: He has another 1st turn gibbons, but I have no FoW. He runs out of gas with only a rootwalla and ESG on the board. I can't find a green mana for the Deed in my hand (AGAIN) and lose.
0-2
Round 8: Gavin playing Landstill
Game 1: He doesn't seem to concerned because we both can't top eight, but I get a godhand and by the time he plays 2 lands I have taken 4 turns and drawn 1.1 million cards.
Sideboarding: -1 Brainstorm -1 Merchant Scroll +2 B2B
Game 2: I play swamp, Duress and see 3 wastelands. I fetch for Island next turn, and he gets pissed. I fetch for another island and play b2b, leaving him tapped out for a few turns. While he is draw-go-ing I setup a tog kills that was nothign short of spectacuar.. 50/26 togs 4L.
Well, I finish 5-2-1 in 25th place. I only lost to O. stompy, which we didnt expect a lot of when we were building. I am going to reinforce the deck to beat Stompy, and then I think it will be the best deck in the format. I didn't have any trouble with any other decks. If I wouldn't have played my worst matchup twice, I would have top eighted. Oh well.
Well, now time for the props/slops.
Props
- Ray, obviously. He deserves to win the lottery, twice, while receiving oral sex from Jenna Jameson AND Pamela Anderson.
- Everyone who I met up with there who I had never seen before. TMD people rock.
- Smmenen, for flying in, and playing a very broken deck.
- Scott Limoges, for winning it and taking one home for team RI.
Slops
- Myself for not considering O. Stompy when deckbuilding
- Subway, for running out of bread around round 5.
Kerz
