Tied for 1st in Boston

Sorry for the wait...Here's my tournament report from the Type 1 Tournament held in Boston, MA at Your Move Games on Saturday, December 7th, 2002

Urphidian (metagamed for Tnt/Mask matchups)

4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Mana Leak
2 Misdirection

4 Ophidian
3 Morphling

3 Fire/Ice
3 Powder Keg
1 Capsize
1 Shattering Pulse

1 Fact or Fiction
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall

7 SoLoMoxen
6 Islands
4 Volcanic Island
3 Shivan Reef
2 Polluted Delta
2 Wasteland
1 Dust Bowl
1 Strip Mine
1 Library of Alexandria

Sideboard:
4 Flametongue Kavu (MVP)
4 REB's
3 Blood Moon
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Shattering Pulse
1 Scrying Glass

Round 1 vs. Todd playing Zombie Infestation

Game 1: He sneaks out a Zombie Infestation and I cannot get to a Morphling or a Capsize so I die about 10 turns later. (He uses Squee and Krovikan Horror's along with Bazaar of Baghdad.)

-I side in +2 Tormod's Crypt, +1 Flametongue Kavu
   -2 Misdirection, -1 Shattering Pulse

Game 2: He mulligans down to 6 and keeps, I keep a hand with no Force of Will, he plays a first turn Goblin Infestation. I try to race him by tapping out to cast two Morphlings in a row, but as I am tapped out, he pyroblasts one and vindicates the other and I die shortly after.

Round 2 vs. Bill playing an Elf Deck.

Game 1: I end up having to hold back a horde of elves with two morphlings and two ophidians, but between his Skyshroud Poacher getting lots of elves and also a resolved Overrun, I take like 50 damage in one turn.

-At this point I am thinking that I have no chance to make Top 8, but I decide that I am not going to lose to an elf deck!

-I side in +4 Flametongue Kavu
   -2 Misdirection, -1 Shattering Pulse, -1 Ophidian

Game 2: I get out a fast Morphling and a Flametongue Kavu joins in for the win.

Game 3: Flametongue and Fire/Ice keep his guys off the board, while Morphling and Flametongue finish him off again.

Match Record: 1-1-0 Game Record: 2-3-0

Round 3 vs. (a name that I couldn't pronounce or spell) playing Sui.

-I spent these two games looking away from my opponent, as I feel really bad that I drew such god hands against him...

Game 1: He goes first and plays swamp, dark ritual, Negator.
I don't Force of Will it because of the Fire/Ice in my hand. I go, play a mox ruby and a land and Kill his Negator and Swamp with it. He draws more land, but can't get out another creature to save his life. I get a Morphling out and ride it to victory.

-I side in +4 Flametongue Kavu
   -2 Misdirection, -2 Mana Leak

Game 2: The gods are with me as they give me an opening hand of 3 Flametongue Kavu, I keep. He doesn't get an early creature, but he goes to work on my land, keeping me pretty land light for a while. Eventually he plays a Negator, followed up by a Shade, when I get up to 4 mana sources, I play my Flametongue, taking out all his permanents but the Negator and Shade. The next Flametongue seals the game.

Match Record: 2-1-0 Game Record: 4-3-0

Round 4 vs. Scott playing TnT

Game 1: I keep a hand with possibilities of second turn Shattering Pulse with buyback. He draws no land or artifact destructions as well as no Survival or Welder. Even though I am stuck at 5 mana, Shattering Pulse does him in. The only chance he had was when I went to Shattering Pulse his Triskellion, he could of "Fizzled" it by killing the Triskellion in response. Instead he did 3 to me. All he draws for like 10 turns is artifacts, and eventually I start drawing more land. After Morphling hits, he is dead 4 turns later.

-I Side in +4 Flametongue Kavu, +2 Tormod's Crypt, +1 Shattering Pulse
   -2 Misdirection, -2 Ophidian, -2 Mana Leak, -1 Powder Keg

Game 2: He again plays first turn Juggernaut, and I waste a Shattering Pulse on him. He then gets out Su-Chi as well as another Juggernaut. I top-deck Flametongue Kavu and play two-for-one with him. Another Flametongue and Morphling later, and it is all over.

Match Record: 3-1-0 Game Record: 6-3-0

Top 8, in no particular order...

Bryce (klOwn) playing Trinity-Keeper
Myself (thombligh) playing Urphidian
Todd playing Zombie Infestation
Jacob Orlove (j_orlove) playing TnT
? (wicketsnatcher) playing a Rogue version of Illusions-Donate
Jason (leviat) playing TnT
Aaron playing OSE?
Lou playing Stacker?

Round 5 vs. Bryce (klOwn) playing Trinity Keeper

-At this point I am feeling bad because we both know that the Urphidian vs. Keeper matchup tends to favor Urphidian especially post-sidebord.

Game 1: We get into multiple counter wars that leaves me with a Morphling in play, and no counterspells in hand. Bryce ends up getting out a Grim Monolith with Power Artifact on it. The one card left in my hand is a Capsize, and I Capsize the Monolith at the end of his turn. It turns out that his next card was a Stroke of Genius!!! He draws nothing to stop my Morphling and we move onto the next game.

-I Side in +4 REB's, +3 Blood Moon, +1 Scrying Glass.
   -3 Fire/Ice, -3 Powder Keg, -1 Shattering Pulse, -1 Merchant Scroll

Game 2: This game, we both quickly drained each other's hands of counterspells. I top-deck a Blood Moon, and He has no cards in hand so it resolves. He can't stop drawing mountains, so he eventually loses.

Match Record: 4-1-0 Game Record: 8-3-0

Round 6 Semi-Finals vs. Todd playing Zombie Infestation

Game 1: His early Infestation gets countered, by the time a second one hits it is too late as I have some major card drawing going on between active LoA and 3 Ophidians. I get Morphling out and able to keep him low on Zombies, while I race for the win.

-I Side in +2 Tormod's Crypt, -2 Misdirection.

Game 2: He sneaks out an early Defense Grid, along with a Zombie Infestation. Again I get LoA working, and he only gets two squee's, which isnt enough to help him with his Infestation. I draw the Capsize somewhere around turn 8, and begin returning and countering his Defense Grid and Zombie Infestation. The Capsize also takes care of about 3 zombie tokens. I have so much counter left over in my hand from when the Defense Grid was out, that he is never able to get another Infestation out, and Morphling does his Job.

Match Record:10-3-0 Game Record: 5-1-0

Round 7 Finals vs. (wicketsnatcher) playing B/U/w Illusions-Donate

-He offers a split in the money prize. I personally want to do it, but I check with the rest of the crew first. Since we still have to drive to Steve's (Zherbus) house in New Hampshire, we decide it's the best course of action. Unfortunately Jason's (leviat) truck guzzles gas, so the $65 bucks we won didn't even cover all the gas on our weekend trip from Binghamton, NY-Boston, MA-Concord, NH-Binghamton, NY.

-If I got anything wrong, please feel free to correct me! (I'm not sure what wicketsnatcher's real name is so if anyone knows, I will add that.)

Props go out to:
  -Todd and (wicketsnatcher) for doing so well with their Rogue decks!
  -Bryce (klOwn) and Jason (leviat) for making Top 8
  -All my opponents for being very sportsmanlike!

Slops:
  -Money-hungry people all over the world!
  -Horrible one-way streets all over Boston.
  -Long car rides in cramped spaces...