Crazy Card Type 1 4-13 Winner report

[Dante]

It’s one of the last tournaments before Crazy’s closes at the end of the month.  With the nice weather out, we don’t really get a big turnout, only 8 people.  I was going to play Tangle Wire TnT, but the Wires I had traded for hadn’t shown up yet...so I went with more or less the same deck from Crazy Con (I replaced a Q. Ranger for more fat, the 4th Su-Chi).

4 Juggernaut
4 Su-Chi
1 Phyrexian Colossus
1 Masticore
2 Triskelion
1 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Waterfront Bouncer
1 Anger
1 Squee
1 Quirion Ranger
4 Goblin Welder
4 Survival
2 Blood Moon
2 Naturalize
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Sylvan Library

4 Mishra’s Workshop
7 Solomo
1 Grim Monolith
5 Fetchlands (Wooded Foothills and Windswept Heath)
4 Taiga
3 Tropical Island
2 Forest
1 Strip Mine
1 Wasteland

Sideboard:
3 Red blasts
2 Bottle Gnomes
1 Genesis
2 Blood Moon
1 Naturalize
1 Artifact Mutation
1 Uktabi
1 Keg
2 Tormond’s Crypt
1 Llawan, C. Empress (the blue legend.  Genesis + Llawan is not good for U/r Phid, Keeper (who should side out abyss), or other non-GAT blue control decks)).

The last few tournaments had featured 2-3 sligh decks out of 12-15 people, so I added the extra bottle gnome.  I was also expecting 3+ control decks (GAT, Umesh and his OSE-ish deck and a phid deck or two) and another TnT deck that didn’t show up.

Instead the field looked like:
White Weenie
Full English Breakfast
Academy (ugh)
Holy Tommy Gun
Goblin Sligh
Enchantress of sorts
PT Funk
TnT (G/R/u, me)

Academy is not exactly the best matchup, I really need Bloodmoon to win.  FEB is tough also as it’s hard for me to breakup their combo without trike-ing a bird (I only run 1 strip 1 waste).

Round 1 – Emmanuel, White Weenie
Game 1: Not too much interesting here, I get a slow start, but still my creatures are bigger than his and some of his have shadow.

Game 2: Not too much for me to side in, but I remove the bloodmoons for Uktabi (he might have an artifact or two?) and Genesis.  He gets a horde (3) 2/1 shadow guys out, but I had a su-chi and a juggernaut and he didn’t see any plows/disenchants.

1-0

Round 2 – Mike, Goblin Sligh

Game 1: Standard TnT vs Sligh, he gets a few goblins, I survival up a Trike and go to town.  I win

Game 2: Side in Genesis, Keg, 2 Bottle Gnomes for Bouncer, 2 Bloodmoon, and something else (probably a Su-Chi).  I mulligan down to 5 cards, but have an ancestral and a fetch.  I get 2nd turn Survival, but I have no creatures in hand and draw only land or artifact mana for like 6 turns.  I lose.

Game 3: I do my thing with bottle Gnomes and Trikes.  Not a lot interesting as I don’t drop below 12 and then I have multiple-Gnome recursion.

2-0

Round 3 – Tom, Academy.
Game 1 – I have a fast hand and keep it (no survival or blood moon but 1st and second turn fat) because with only 2 maindeck Blood Moon, mulliganing into one isn’t the best plan like if you have four.  I play fat, draw survival, get welder going with Trike in graveyard all by turn 4, but I can only get him to 1 when I get stroked for 9999.

Game 2 – side in 3 REB, 2 Bloodmoon, 1 Keg (Keg for zero is good), 2 Crypt, and 1 Naturalize for Bouncer, Masticore, 2 Triskelions, 1 Forest, Anger, Q. Ranger, and 2 Su-Chi.  (I should have left Anger in and taken something else out).  I get a third-turn Blood Moon that wrecks him.  For some reason, he sided his FoW out.  He sided them back in for Game 3.

Game 3 – This was a tough one for me.  My hand was good, with 1st turn fat plus blood moon.  I get an early blood moon, but he’s got the jet for tutors and lotus (and lotus petal I believe) for capsize.  Again the turn before I kill him, he strokes me, despite me wasting and striping his Academy.  He had a couple of great topdecks to get going in that last turn.  Future sight was some good for him.

This whole matchup was mentally draining, with constant looking graveyards, counting things, figuring probabilities in my head…

2-1

Round 4 – Steve Bala, FEB
Game 1: I have a good start, but so does he.  I’ve a survival out with Colossus and Juggernaut out and he is at 6 life.  He has a shapeshifter, 2 birds, and a wall.  I’m at 11 life and am going to survival away the Su-chi in hand for a Trike, untap my colossus (paying 8 life), trike the birds and attack for the win.  Except like a moron, I had just CAST the Su-chi.  Ugh, he gets Akroma in the graveyard and I don’t draw a creature.

Game 2: side in crypts, naturalize, and bloodmoon (I didn’t see any basic land in his deck, though he claims there are multiples).  Again, I mess up, forget to Karn a Mox when I should allowing him to cast things.  I lose and am playing like a scrub.

2-2

I manage to sneak into the top 4 (there were only 8 total) on tiebreakers.  Top 4 is Academy vs PT Funk and FEB vs me (both repeats of round 4)

Top 4:

Game 1: My hand is sweet against him: Fetch, Workshop, Mox, Survival, Blood Moon, 2 Triskelion.  He wins the die roll and lays land, Mox Jet, casts Cabal Therapy naming Survival.  He sees my hand, casts Ranger and flashbacks the Therapy naming Blood Moon.  I draw another Survival and go Fetch, Mox, Survival.   Next turn, he Cabal Therapies again for Triskelion!?!  WTF..<sigh>  I draw land/mana for several (i.e. 7 in a row) turns and get Phaged to death.

Game 2: I get an early colossus and beat him in the head with it before he can do anything.  His life looked like 20-12-0.  I believe I cast a Blood Moon, but I didn’t take notes this game as I was still on tilt from the 3-cabal-therapies-in-two-turn raping that I got last game.

Game 3: Again, I get my game going, survivaling and naturalizing his survivals.  The only damage I take is 1 pt of mana burn from turn 1.

Finals:
Tom, with Academy.  Damn.

Game 1: See losses from Round 3.  Hard fought, but the turn before I kill him, he kills me.  I probably should have won this game as one turn he Abeyanced me, then I cast Karn.  I completely forgot to kill his Mox during his upkeep which allowed him to cast time spiral and go silly (he had the academy, so even if he draws land or non-mana producting artifact, he’s stuck on 5)….I deserve to lose.  I knew right away once he went into his main phase that I had blown that.

Game 2: same sideboarding from round 3.  I mulligan a 7-card hand with 4 land and 3 fat, then a 6 card-hand with 2 bloodmoon, but only mox jet for mana.  My five-card hand is something like Workshop, Ruby, Fetch, BloodMoon, and Juggernaut.  I get a 1st turn Juggernaut, which he FoWs.  He must not have had much gas in his hand…I get a quick Blood Moon after that and get Karn into play.  At one point I’m looking for Anger so I can get extra beats in, but realize that I’ve sided it out…duh!  Leave Anger in (extra turns of damage are key) and take out Squee instead since if you have time to abuse him you’ll win anyway.

Game 3: I have a good hand with REB, Bloodmoon, plus some pressure.  I draw into more blood moons and that’s that.  Whew!

Despite the low turnout, there were some decks there that really were tough matchups for me (PT Funk, Academy, FEB), not being made any easier by my boneheaded plays.  This is the only time I've ever played against Academy in a tournament and it made my head hurt.  Tom, the Academy player, said he was never playing it again as his head hurt after round 2.

Dante