This report might be little long on things other than the actual play, because my actual games were pretty straightforward and some of the outside stuff is pretty funny. I suspect that some people who didnt finish as well as I did have more impressive reports, though I feel I should definitely write one since I won.
Raziel has been prodding the Matchplay owners to run a T1 tournament for a bit, so the store ran a $7 tourney on Saturday as an experiment. There was a lot of excitement from the two major T1 groups I know of in the Bay Area; the C&Js group and the Berkeley guys so I expected a pretty decent turnout. Ultimately we got 23 people, nearly all of whom were packing at least some power and had been playing recently to keep their edge.
Up until the last minute I was going to play GroTog because I believe its the best deck in the format right now. But ultimately I decided to break away from the expected pack of 'Togs and play Tangle TnT. (The decklist is posted in another one of my C&Js threads for those interested.) I think I probably have a slightly negative matchup against 'Tog, but the Tangle Wire closes the gap and I felt if the cards fell my way I'd be able to win. SB Blood Moon has to be good too.
Anyway, I start walking around the site, chatting with friends and scoping out the scene. The first thing I notice is that there is a lot of Combo, which is bad for me. The only 2 GroTogs are Zalfirin and AxeMurder, who are both solid players. Phoung (the best under-1600 T1 player in the world) flashes me an Illusionary Mask as I walk by. And, to my surprise, I see two other TnTs and a DuckTape. (Thats 16 Workshops in da House!) I decide my Mox Monkey is not the correct choice for the day and change him to a scruffy Uktabi from Emmanuels 5-color deck. I lend out a Legend Ankh Sligh to Arun and then settle down to await the first round.
Match 1: Gim Chu (Legend Ankh Sligh)
My matchup here is pretty favorable, and that turns out the be the story of my day. I'll face Sligh 4 times today an lose zero games to it. Thats not to say that they arent close games though.
Game 1: I get all my stuff going but make a mistake by being a bit aggressive laying land. I figured that the PoPs would start in the sideboard, but they dont. I get double-PoPed for 12 and drop to 1 life. Its going to take me a couple turns to finish Gim off and I grimly chant "Mountain-Mountain-Mountain" to myself each time he draws. My chanting pays off.
-4 Su Chi, -1 Uktabi, +3 Keg, +2 Bottle Gnomes
Game 2: He plays little 2/1 dorks and I lay out my first series of moves. I have the Survival, a Ruby, a Forest and a Sol Ring and I'm looking at the best way of getting the Angry Welder for Trike thing going, since that just destroys Sligh. I play out the Survival and burn for 1, trying to accellerate myself. He plays an Ankh. Now I make a series of about 5 subtle and not subtle mistakes: First, I look at the Fetchie my hand and remind myself that a good player would have played that first, fearing the Ankh more than the Wasteland. I decide to use the Fetchie and lose 5 points under the Ankh; I get Tropical Island because I am looking at my Time Walk and mentally setting up a turn that involves casting the Welder off the Ruby. I cast Welder and decide not to Time Walk so I can have GG open to Survival Anger and Trike up in response to any Bolt. But, this leaves my hard-earned Tropical open to Wasteland, which Gim plays. I am happy when he taps it to cast a 3CC spell, until that spell turns out to be Rack and Ruin. I try my little Anger-Trike play and try to Weld Trike up in place of the dying Sol Ring. Gim reminds me that I have no Mountain for Anger. Doh! Now I've screwed myself; my artifacts are dead and I'll surely need a Mountain before this game is over, despite the Ankh. And I'm facing Wasteland. I cycle TimeWalk and then fetch up a Bottle Gnomes to go with the Workshop I topdeck. I cast it and attempt to swing with it for 1 when Gim reminds me I still have no Mountain. Auugh. Gim gets Cursed Scroll and starts ripping at my life, but at the last possible second I get my Taiga and I am able to Weld up the win. Its a close thing; I have to sac my Gnomes and if he has the Bolt in response I die. But he has Mountain. Whew.
Matches 1-0, Games 2-0.
Match 2: Charles (MonoB Corrupt)
When I used to draft at Neutral Ground I would see Charles there. Its good to see him; though he is playing probably the only freebie deck in the whole field; an old Extended Corrupt deck updated with Hyppies and Hymns. He is in the winners bracket though, so I try to stay focussed.
Games 1&2: This is a quick rolling. He cant stop my Survivals and he needs 6 mana to get his game going. Tangle Wire really crushes any hope he might have; though his maindeck Contagions make life precarious for my Welders.
Matches 2-0: Games 4-0
Match 3: Louis (RGu TnT with Sharpshooter SB)
Louis works at Superstars which is a huge local card store. He apparently borrowed their T1 rack and built TnT off an older decklist. He plays sharply, but I think I have a bit more experience in the matchup.
Unfortunately, its not a hard matchup to grok, so I dont expect that advantage to last me long. These are the tightest games of the day, and in the end I learn a little something about the matchup anyway.
Game 1: I get a hand with no Survival, but 2 Workshops a Juggy and a Tangle. I think about throwing this back since I feel that the matchup is all about the Welder and I have no way of getting one. But I decide to keep and hope to start swinging with 5/3 guys. He strips one Workshop and drops his Survival. He establishes Welder and neutralizes my attack, but I topdeck Welder and establish it also. He swings with his Juggy and I have to take it. But then he makes a mistake and Welds my Juggy away for a Tangle Wire when I attack back. I have topdecked Uktabi and I destroy his Juggy while his Welder is tapped and then leave him pinned under Tangle Wire. Now, its the Welder stalemate; neither of us dare make a move lest the other counter with their Welder. But I play fat off my Workshops while he struggles to control the game with Welders. Its not good enough and I overrun him.
Game 2: He rolls me this time with a good draw. I have Survival also, but he Wastelands me and I end up stuck at 2 land. He shows a Goblin Sharpshooter in this game, but has 2 Workshops and a Forest; he cant use it Angrily to kill me that turn as he had planned. Still, I cant stop that threat and the Trike with only 2 land.
Game 3: This time I am control; I take a lot of damage early from unblocked Su-Chi while I set up Survival and Sylvan. I start welding Su-Chi, but he has Grim and knows to sink the mana. He hardcasts Trike and my Welder dies trying to change it into Su-Chi. Before long, I am at one life again and am just on the cusp of control. My next Welder dies to a Masticore, but the Masticore dies to a Survival'd Uktabi. I am chumping and Welding like crazy to stay alive here. He taps 6 mana and I resign myself to dying to a topdecked Trike. But, miracle of miracles, he hardcasts Karn and eats my Moxen. Ok, still not good, but at least I am not dead. Time is called somewhere in here, but by turn 4 of overtime I have 2 active Angry Welders and am able to Weld away my Su-Chi to cast additional Juggs and make a massive final strike.
Matches 3-0: Games 6-1
Aside: Usually I dont play in big tournaments because I dont like the rules lawyering and general asshol-ish-ness that takes place there. I figure I want to go and have some fun, and thats the overarcing principle that guides me. Hopefully. But after this round my more tournament-oriented friends tell me I can just draw into the T8 since I am 3-0. Corrupted by the promise that there will be prizes, I agree to 2 IDs. Considering how things work out, I probably would have been just as good to go ahead and play.
Match 4: Jun (Legend Ankh Sligh)
We agree to the ID, even though I feel confident about the matchup. We agree to play for fun and I smash him in the first game with the usual Trike. Then Psyduck walks by; apparently Psyduck is lending Jun the Sligh deck. Pysduck starts laughing and telling me that post-sideboard Jun's gonna smash me. Jun sides in like 12 cards and I start to worry. But Sligh just cant stop the Survival. I clear his board with double-Trike and he shows me a Rack & Ruin to set us both back. Thats how Sligh punishes you for overextending - they spend a card to destroy two of yours, and in response those two destroy their entire board and deal 3 damage to them. Not good for Sligh. Jun triumphantly plays Blood Moon when I am at 3 mana; I shrug and play my 4th. The game rapidly gets silly as his hand fills up with Rack & Ruin and other non-creature, non-burn stuff while I draw land after land after land. He has 3 Blood Moons out by the time I draw my basic Forest and wreck him one artifact at a time to avoid R&R.
Match 5: Spevack (Academy)
Oh, this is so terrible. Max accepts my offer of draw though and we both advance to T8. Another lucky break for me.
We play two games post SB and I lose both horribly. He has the FoW for my Blood Moon in one and a FoW for my ReB in the other. Once he starts untapping Academy and drawing cards I concede.
Now its time for the T8 and I sit around chatting while its getting set up. Right about here things start to get pretty strange. Conan reads off the T8 pairings and I am paired with Min, who I dont know. Zalfirin runs up to ask why he is not in the T8 despite being 3-1-1 and it is discovered that he filled out his scorecard wrong and gave the victory to the mighty Gim Chu. The error cannot be corrected and I am told I will play David Ochoa (see his reports under -webster- in the unregistered forum). David looks up and reminds Conan that he dropped after the 4th round. Ooops. I go back to playing Min.
The Top 8 ends up being:
1) Robert (GroTog) (AxeMurder)
2) Me (Tangle TnT) (Fishhead)
3) Max (Academy) (Spevack)
4) Jun (Ankh Sligh)
5) Emmanuel ? (Dragon)
6) Dave (ABM) (NaChlv)
7) Min (Slivers)
8) Gim (Ankh Sligh)
Quarterfinals: Min (Slivers)
OK, I didnt buy a box of Legions because its such a terribly unuseful set - I dont even know that there are new Slivers available.
Game 1: He gets a shaky start with Undiscovered, Bird of Paradise. I sense his weakness and Waste the Undiscovered. He plays a Tundra and then plays out the perfect Sliver setup over the next few turns - Crystalline, Muscle and Winged. But he never draws another land and I am able to race him. Its a brutal race though; I spend forever thinking about my last turn and am able to take him from 16 to zero in one massive swing by attacking with 2 Trikes, throwing 5 tokens for damage and using the 6th to kill off a Trike. One Weld later, I've done 16 (8+5+3) points. I knew I might not get another turn, so I went all out. Afterward it turned out that he had a Quick Sliver in hand and therefore could have killed me with 11 points of flying damage next turn.
+3 Powder Keg, +2 ReB; -1 Uktabi, -1 Tinker, -1 Masticore, -1 Trike, -1 Tangle Wire
Game 2: He doesnt get the perfect Sliver setup this time and I roll him quickly. I was expecting CounterSliver, but I chat for a bit afterwards and Min's not familiar with that archetype.
My game is over pretty fast and I wander around looking at the top 8. Academy is raking ABM over the coals; Dave manages to double FoW an Abeyance, but Max has another draw card and eventually breaks through.
Meanwhile at the other end of the room I hear Robert scoot his chair back and say, "I must have an illegal deck, and that means a game loss." Apparently someone found a Gush on the floor or table and asked who it belonged to -- and Robert realized that he tossed it to FoW in the previous game and therefore had a 59 card deck for game 3. He was literally one turn from winning the match at that point. Care to guess who the recipient of this gift game is? Gim Chu, who is only in the T8 because Zalfirin cannot properly record a match result. Lol.
Semis: Jun (Legend Ankh Sligh)
Jun sits down and says that his matchup is so bad against me. I say that I will accept his concession if he wishes to concede. He asks if we can talk about prize splits and I say that is absolutely forbidden. Its the same extremely lame situation that Zvi discusses in his recent article; if you are part of a team then you have a prize split arrangement already in place, but if you arent then you have to do a little dance where you resolutely don't promise anything. I talk to him a bit about the article and how silly the whole thing is and assure him that even if he concedes to me I have the right to be a big dickhead and run away with any prizes all for myself. That would probably dissaude anyone who doesnt know me, but since Jun knows me he elects to concede anyway. Besides he will get a 12 pack prize for making it here, but a 75/25 split of a box has been mentioned for the finals. That would be 9 packs for the loser, which would be kinda sad.
We play the two games for fun and the horrible smashing ensues. He knows not to SB in the Blood Moon after our Round 4 games, but I know to be more careful about Rack and Ruin. In the second game I get the Lotus-Workshop-Trike draw and that pretty much sums up the matchup.
I watch NaChlv and Tim play pack-war with their Legions prize packs. They declare this to be the most horrible format they've ever seen. During the day I see people trading Legions packs for Onslaught packs at favorable rates. Even then, people only seem to be accepting trades so they can get draft sets. That cant be good news for Legions as a set.
Anyway, on the other side of the room I see Gim's Sligh is facing Max with Academy. This is grim for me, it might be optimistic to think I have a 10% chance against Academy. When your best hope is for your opponent to mull to 5 then you are in serious trouble.
I look over across the table and can see that Max is facing 3 2/1s but he has a bunch of artifact mana and a Fastbond and he seems to be shuffling his deck. Bad for me. But when I turn back 30 seconds later he is extending the hand. Suddenly very good for me! Not to mention Gim, who has to be blessed by the very gods themselves this day.
Finals: Gim Chu (Ankh Sligh)
So, the circle is complete. My day begins with Gim and it will end with Gim. As I've said 100 times before in this report, I am confident in the matchup. I'm not so confident I can break through whatever karmic presence is guarding my opponent though. He mentions the 72/25 split was suggested for the finals prize and I say that 50/50 is fine with me. He is surprised, but gladly accepts. I pile shuffle to make sure I have 60 cards and begin.
Game 1: The same drill. Survival for Welder, Weld up Trike and clear the board. He draws a lot of land and I am at 9 at the end of the game, with about half of that being a Fetchland under Ankh.
-4 Su Chi, -1 Uktabi, +3 Keg, +2 Bottle Gnomes
Game 2: I end the game at 23 life due to Bottle Gnomes+Survival.
.......
So thats the day. One thing about looking at this report is that it shows how much luck there is in winning on any given day. TnT wasnt a bad metagame choice; though if I had faced any one of the 5 combo decks it certainly would have been. I had good matchups all day and didnt screw up enough to lose them.
The tournament was a lot of fun overall. I talked to Conan afterwards and he was pretty pleased with the way things had gone. There werent any attitude problems, everyone was mellow and just there to play some cards. Thats a good thing in my book. Conan said that the turnout was good enough that he'd be willing to run some more of these, which is also good. And perhaps best of all, he said that he was impressed by how well rounded the environment looked. There were lots of different types of decks represented from relatively inexpensive like Sligh and Void to fully powered TnTs, Keeper and Dragon.
As always, comments & questions are welcome.
