I'm still in disbelief guys. I can't believe there's an actual real life lotus sitting in front of me. I got home at 3 AM last night and coudln't fall asleep until 6 am. I was gonna write the report at around 5:30 because I ran out of things to do but then I started feeling how tired one gets after being awake the last 20 hours.
This was another excellent tournament run by Ray (iamfishman) and although I said I was quitting Magic after I won a Black Lotus, I've changed my goal. Now, I'm quitting after I win the whole set of power 10 (or until I find a life.. lol).
Saturday morning, Team Dubya says they'll come pick me up at around 9:30, which of course means they'll get lost on the way to my house and arrive around 10 (I was wrong, they found my house at 9:45).
We get to the hotel, talk to a few friends and then sit down to fill deck registration sheets. People are running around constantly asking us "Do you guys have Null Rods." Apparently, there's two types of decks. Decks that run alot of artifacts and decks that run Null Rods (or damp matrix).
Two of my friends from Dubya are playing EBA and the other is playing some Clamp-Affinity-Ravager-Deck. I tell them they should play goblins because the mana base is more consistent. They have told me before Goblins and fish are a joke deck, they just get lucky. They're half right on that (you will witness throughout the course of the day exactly how lucky I am).
Karma and Luck willl play a huge role in today's game.
Round 1: Carl Winter (with keeper)
Ok, I'm a bit more confident with my slaver matchups now. Last time at Newington I was able to very luckily beat Carl and make top 8. Today however, he plays Keeper. Keeper..... ugh. Why can't he play Hulk instead.
Game 1: Turn one Lackey meets Swords to Plow. He drains my 2nd Piledriver and wastes a taiga, he scryes for 4. He drains a food chain, forces a food chain, and then I die. I had three food chains in my hand, all I needed to do was get past the combo wall and I would have combo'ed out right there.
+2 mazes, +2x naturalize, +4 REB, -stuff
Yeah I don't know what I was thinking. Naturalize because keeper likes to side in moat, humility, and COP: Red. Maze of ith? Iuhno.
Game 2: I drop a mountain, emerald, and say go. He plays a Gorilla shaman and eats my mox. His gorilla shaman takes one chunk out of my life total and then I drop a maze. Ahahahahaha! Take that monkey. He drops an angel but I drop another maze. I do realize now that he IS playing Keeper and not Hulk, which means he's got wastelands. Ugh... Why can't more peoplee play Hulk. it's obvious a faster and better deck. It's also alot easier for the goblins. Unless it's the Carl Winter factor, I hear he's pretty good. Good enough to beat the winner of the Lotus today.
It was the first game. I'm not thinking right. So I go around to do some trades for my type 4 collection. I also pick up a Tropical Island today. I'm a trading fiend.
0-2-0
0-1-0
Round 2: Eric Young (with Old-SKool Stomp)
Game 1: Wow, another turn lackey? Doesn't matter because he goes Vine Dryad, Vine Dryad EOT. Rancor swing. I swing with a lackey to trade with a Skyshroud Elite, then play a wasteland. I get beatdown for a while until finally I hit my 3rd land which needed to be a Taiga as well. I drop a Food Chain. The only way for him to win is if he topdecks one of his 4x Rancor, 4x Bounty of the Hunt, or 4x Giant Growth. He reveals his top card, it's a river boa. He concedes.
Nothing to sideboard.
Game 2: I combo out on the 4th turn.
Yup.... FGC beats aggro. I have him sign a Goblin Striker and then I realize I need to find Carl WInter because I forgot to ask him to sign one. He did beat me, but that doesn't matter, these are memorabilia. Carl is at the top tables and I didn't want to feel like a sucker, weeding through the crowds of spectators to say "Carl can I have your autograph, sign my cheap lame goblin token" so later on in the day I find him and ask him to sign one.
2-0-0
1-1-0
Round 3: Kent (With Underworld Dreams/Isolock)
Ahhh.... I thought I saw this guy before. Sometimes he stops at my local card shop to trade and play. He and his brother? like to play weird decks. They're still pretty good decks and they own full power, but I guess they're against netdecking.
Game 1: He opens with brushland, duress. Takes out my food chain. What is he playing???? Rector? Kobolds? He plays a hymn a few turns after. Then he makes a really good play. I have 1 card in hand, 3 goblins on the table that are lethal, 2 lands. EOT he goes CUnning Wish for a Brainstorm with untapped island, he doesn't play it. On his turn he brainstorms and balances. Nice play. I get beats on the table and he gets me in isolock. Topdeck the Gempalm Incinerator, cycle it away to topdeck a wasteland, kill his white mana. He dies to attacks next turn after he drops an underground sea.
+2 Naturalize
He must be playing funny keeper. Scepeter Keeper doesn't run alot of scepters.
Game 2: I see all three of his scepters. One with chant, one with drain, one with fire. I don't concede because I try to draw both my naturalizes in time but I don't. And I wanted to see his kill condition. Underworld Dreams???
+2 R&R, +2 Artifact Mutation
I think I'm gonna need all of it. What I really need is 2 drivers.
Game 3: Land, Lotus, double driver action. Something like that. I start beating him for 6. He's down to 7. I cast a warcheif. If he doesn't counter it, he'll die, if he Mana Drains it, he has to use Underground River and take 1 damage and die. If he Force of Wills it, he has to take 1 damage and die.
Kent is cool and wants to sign one of my goblin tokens too. Yay. Pretty much everyone else is a good guy in type 1 and will sign stuff. By the end of the day I'll have 12 tokens. Thank god there's no type 2 jerks around. We had an ante-draft once and this guy loses to me so he covers in the entire card with marker.... those type 2 guys .... whoops, I have an english report to write and a tournament report to write.
2-1-0
2-1-0
Round 4: Corey (With Hulk)
Game 1: Drain tinkerer, drain matron, drain warchief. Ok he drained all my good guys but he's played no force of wills. Double driver action takes him all the way. He draws no outs.
-2 Food Chain, -2 recruiter, -3 stuff, + 4 REB, +3 Crypt
In the past I side out 4 food chains for for REBs. That was it. I had nothing else in my side. He lost that game because of my incredible luck. He was draining all my random goblins.
Game 2: He drains and counters. He misplays off a yawg will. He mystical tutors for a card. Then needs to fetch so he can play ancestral. Doesn't matter cuz he has the Demonic Tutor in hand next turn to time walk and smash with lethal tog.
Game 3: he gets a broken yawgmoth's will and overextends. He has 4 lands, plays a brainstorm and he's used up all his forces and 2 drains. I play matron which he drains, thusly my tormod's crypt resolves. Draw.
1-1-1
2-1-1
My next few match results are rather brief. Team Dubya and myself are STARVING.
Round 5: Chris (With control slaver that got mana screwed)
Game 1: He mulls a few times and has a poor opening. He fetches for a voclanic which is wasted and then the goblin beats ensue.
Game 2: He mulls, I mull. I top a lotus and goblin beats. He resolves a desperate yawgmoth's will to buy some time.
2-0-0
3-1-1
Round 6: Phil (Work shop Slaver)
Game 1: Turn 1 lMountain Lackey. Mox Ruby Lackey..... that's all you need to know.
Game 2: I have a lackey and stuff out. He tinkers his mox into a trisk. I go mountain, crypt, R&R my crypt and his trike. I have more lackeys and wastelands in hand. Strangely, he shoots lackey for one, myself for one, and the trike for one. Ok.... The ringleaders and drivers come and it's game.
2-0-0
4-1-1
We go with our non-team dubya friend, Nick, to get food (damn he has such a nice ride, I don't get shotgun though
). We grab food from the golden arches and head back to feed people. That one fish-filet was enough to last me naother 8 hours after eating nothing in the past 12 hours either. I write this report as I indulge myself in donuts, cookies and milk, chips, and everything that's edible.
Round 7: Ryan (gay/r)
Game 1: I see factories and I see my combo. he's got no forces.
Landstill or fish? Little kid so he's gotta be reckless and without patience. Must be an aggro player. Must be fish. Either way 4 REB's go in.
Game 2: I play a strip mine, I go to fetch and he stifles. I sit there with no land.
Game 3: Drawing and playing 4 ringleaders.... yeah. This was a pretty cool game, sorry I don't have the play-by-play. You'll get lots of it later though.
Round 8: Rich (u/r/g landstill)
I'm not sure if the Tropical Islands are from his side or not, but he played them.
Game 1: I waste and he strips. I combo, he doesn't have counters.
i assume he is playing landstill, control slaver, or fish. 3 REB's go in because I haven't seen him play anything except a land.
Game 2: Trop island Go. Goblin Go. Island, Oath of Druids Go. Land Go. Wait a second... did he play Oath of Druids???? Here comes the colossus. I take 11 to the face. I just die horribly. He time walks the next turn but doesn't need to.
+2 Naturalize
Game 3: I get early fast mana and play ringleader which puts away a naturalize (my next card) doh! On his second turn he plays and resolves oat hof druids and has no counters in his hand. I don't combo out but with food chain I am able to go through about 3 ringleaders to fetch enough guys to do exactly 18 points of damage to kill him. He took one previously from driver and from a fetch.
13th place. TOP 16! Yay for cutting to top 16.
By now, everyone knows what everyone else is playing. My side of the 16 people is mostly aggro while the other side is all the keeper, dragon, and GAT. Thank god.
I've also offered Chinese food to team dubya and nick later at my house and also as a joke I told Pete (captain of dubya) I would give him $50 if I won a lotus or a mox. Thank god I didn't say $500. Nick hangs around to see me make it to the finals but the other brackets are taking so long (damn control decks) that he decides to leave. While we wait for the next 2 hours, we get a little type 4 action going. Curse that Rainbow Efreet!!!
Top 16: Mike (Broodstarrunner.dec)
Game 1: I win the die roll and for my 100th time today I open with mountain-lackey-go. My opponent had to mull to 5 and he laid an early wire. No big deal because I have around 5 permaments on the table. I waste his lands and he's done.
+2 R&R, +2 AM, +2 Nat
And now, because Micah Herman ("second-in-command" of "team dubya") is bored, he will be taking notes and writing commentary. Everything in the following is exactly what he has written ver batum. I may have added a few punctuation marks and corrected several spelling errors. Everything in parenthesis is what I've included and that he didn't write.
Game 2: Micah calls me Hung Small everyone laughs at me. Waste, called a commie bastard. First turn I play Land Lackey. He top decks land for metal worker. Incinerator + Lackey metal worker dies. he takes 3 off the roll (mana crypt). Metal worker is played. Warcheif smashes face for 2. (then we have trouble counting mana and everyone around offers their fingers to help count but he manages since he's only using metal worker to get 8 mana. I don't know how he counted 8 mana and hold the cards in his hands at the same time though.) Sleeps for an hour -> *yawn*. Shows myr....* 4 eight mana Jizzle Juggernaught Triskelion Myr. 2 Removed bye bye chief. Wasteland played. Piledriver. Played tokes 3 go mana crypt. Here comes the Har. I take 6 after blocking. Juggernaught Twister Yay I have life age in. Oh no!!! I quiT! AHHHHH! The hurt! Like 5 ,000,000 million to the face!
Game 3: Dun Dun dunnnn..... Lackey on first drop. (Of course micah leaves out all the important plays. He goes Land, mox, mox, tinker his pearl for a masticore.) The mutate (artifact mutation) on Masticore. take the lackey and know your role. Warchief on the fly. Twister takes my big racks DAMN!!! (i had 2 rack and ruins and a incinerator in hand. But I get to exchange it for a whole new 7 which isn't bad) Waste volcanic. Frustration sits in. Food Chain hits. On the ropes with ther tinkerer. I kill emerald (i think I lay some beats....). OOOOOO! DUBYA!!! O O O !!!! O O O!!!!!!
We're done. Thank god. I think Micah does a pretty good job writing commentary so he writes for all my other matches except for the finals match. To many people were crowding around the table and he couldn't squeeze in.
Since we're done. We go around to take a look at my next matchup. Can my dream be true? Oshawa vs FCG and they're on their third game! Wow! Oshawa can take it home. We all start rooting for oshawa and The Atog Lord sitting close by wonders why. Cuz I'll be palyong the victor of FCG or Oshawa and guess what I'm playing? FCG. We all start laughing and realize how much it sucks for "memnarch with his type 2 deck".... after he defeats his opponent, he plays me. As for the other FCG player, we didn't really wanna upset you or hurt your feelings (if we did) by rooting for the other guy, it was just more favorable. He didn't seam upset at all really and we talk a bit about FCG and I share with him my decklist. He didn't netdeck 100% either and made changes to his deck. I tell him some of my changes and he's shocked (my decklist to come later).
Top 8: Wouldn't give his name. Just call him "Memnarch with his type 2 deck" (oshawa)
Game 1: (he) takes the cheese burger break. Ok random guy w/ green deck YAY I am favored. "Oh god I am going to get my fucking salad tossed" (we also sit around waste time doing the memnarch shuffle, latest dance craze, and saying funny stuff and making fun of each other). I smile, watch for random oxidize. 12 trumps my 6 so he goes first. Ok bazaar, I play lackey. Hung Small comes out and everyone laughs again. tear almost shed. He pitches a bunch of crap. Warchief and driver come out. He is in soooo much trouble. Then lackey plays matron and chief and stupid boaa. The chain comes out he gets crushed. Dubya game one.
Game 2: Here comes lackey (again). Bout to be chumped by zealot. Da boey. Oh boy chief is coming. Second lackey dies to the snake. Stupid snake. Here comes ring leader on the flop. the recruiters. Oh no the recruiter. He is in all kinds of trouble. I can't wait for my poer. Here comes the hurt. Green creatures get the shit kicked out of them. (unfortunately my opponent couldn't cast a mongrel or an arrogant wurm, his x/1's and x/2's die to my weenies) Hahahahaa. Oh yeah. He is on the ropes. DUbya is coming.
Top 4: Jon (gay/r)
I lose the roll. He's playing fish? Sweet.
Game 1: Waste volcanic under the standstill. Lackey snaps the standstill. Resolves. Faeries comes in 2 manlands. I hate fish. I fetch in a panic that he has upper hand. Ring Food Chain resolves. he swings with the faeiry with curiosity. Sucks! Go null rod. Pile into ringleader I sack ringleader to war chiefs. Should I attack. Nope guess not (I should have). I take one curiosity gets me again. I cycle targetiing curiosity 4 4 damage. The kills c of he 4 goblins, spikey comes out, 3 mishra, blue men land, losing interest still hate GAY FISH!!!!. Walking takes another turn. I take another 3, standstill. Draw say go. I beat 4 4 his mistake. I take another 3 flyin. Where are my wastelands. yay I see one. Losing interest game lost but yet I play it out. Snap one standstill. Drop hand with lotus lackey mountain. In all kinds of trouble. Yup I quit. Standstill comes out. Yup draw fancy card I quit. Stupid Mana flood.
Game 2: Mountain go. taiga go. Waste after faeires. he has fishy out. I play fetch, stupid stifle. (we call a judge because I wanna respond to stifle after I put the fetch in my yard) REB owns stifle yay. Standstill. I REB, he forces. I play lackey he draws with a smile. Standstill pops cloud. (he had 2 factories, a cloud. I broke standstill last turn and this turn he wants to get greedy so he plays another standstill leaving one factory and the faerie. I cycle his faerie and lackey gets through). Lackey brings out the beats of siege gang. he plays the spiketail. I smoke it out with incinerator for 6. Smashes warchief comes out. Then the scoop. Nice me.
Game 3: Oh shit first turn grim. Strip then waste b out. I build mana base. Pile dazed. Poked 5 times now with the grim (attacked me 5 times). Pile now resolves. Food chain resolves. I go into combo with war chief, ringleader, comes out. I sac into siege gang. Spike is minused curiosity on the fairies. Then red land siege gets shocked. Fetch into recruiter. FOW, REB. Combo is coming. I combo for the Dubya.
We wait for about 2 hours. Get some type 4 in.
Also lemme know if you guys prefer my reportings of each match... or if you want Micah Herman to continue in future matches.
Top 2: Steve (gat)
He beat Carl Winter in the semifinals. Thank god. But GAT isn't a good matchup either.
Game 1: Turn one lackey. He AK's. It resolves. He drops a factory. I topdeck a black lotus and waste his factory. Lackey goes in and drops a gang bang commando. I try to play Food Chain twice to combo out but he counters. He dazes my piledriver. Doesn't matter. He is set back from land drops and my 1/1's beat him up.
The cameraman, rooting for the other guy, decides to come around to stand behind me. He calls me "dude" alot and makes comments to his camera such as "oooh bad hand will he keep", or so I'm told. He says this in a hushed whisper, but it would have still been best if he said nothing.
Game 2: Turn 1 dryad. My lackey dazed. Force warcheief. Had combo kill in hand. Was waiting for my 4th land so I could REB and resolve food chain after I managed to get some goblins on the table. Waited for that 4th land that never came. I drew a matron, had ringleader, and recruiter in hand. So I baited counters with a ringleader and warchief. In desperation I play the food chain and he counters it. I lose.
Game 3: Turn 1 lackey is forced and Crypt is ok. Won't matter. I waste his land and drop a lackey. He plays dryad while I have lackey and chief on table. I swing, he blocks lackey, I cycle his man. On two lands, he plays a plaguebearer, not enough to kill a lackey even. I play mana crypt and a matron. If he dazes, I can fetch up a driver and swing for lethal. If he doesn't I can get a driver or just get a cycler to kill his man. I get the cycler, kill plaguebearer. Steve extends his hand and congratulates me on the win.
And that was the tournament.... I walk out with Team Dubya with a Black Lotus, and we head for home. What a day.... Did it really happen? Are we really walking away with a lotus.
My luck must be running out. I predict on the way home, fatal car accident. Everyone in cars survives, Jason Zheng dead. lol.
On the drive to my place to drop my off we have a few laughs, then at my house we eat some old chinese food. Despite being on my counter for 2 hours it was still hot. Team Dubya leaves my house t around 3:30 AM after I start foaming from the mouth. Ok I wasn't really foaming at the mouth, I was choking on Sprite.
= = =
The Deck:
FGC (Food Game Coblins)
(organized in a group of 20, and then ten sets of 4)
The Mana (20):
6x Mountain
4x Taiga
4x Fetch
4x Waste
1x Strip
1x Lotus
More Accel Mana (1):
1x Mox Em
1x Mox Ru
1x mana Crypt
1x Sol Ring
Combo fast (3):
4x Food Chain
4x Recruiter
4x Ringleader
Beatdown Now (2):
4x Warchief
4x Driver
Util/Other (4):
2x Matron
2x Vandal
2x Tinker
2x Gang
4x Cinerator
4x Lackey
SB:
4x REB
2x Art Mutate
2x R&R
2x Naturalize
3x Tormod's Crypt
2x Maze Of Ith
Discussion:
Wha...??? This isn't the typical netdecked FCG? Where's the sharpshooter, where's the prospector? OMG< he runes 4 incinerators and 2 matrons? What a bad deck. Yeah ok.
I'll admit, it's been tough trying to fit cards in. Mana denial is VERY necessary. You really do need to run wastes. It helps the "aggro" plan so much. It's also good to run in the current metagame because few people are palying with wastes. FCG's land count is very low I'll admit. Popular decks like Hulk, EBA, and Control SLaver don't play wastes so it's ok. When you play against Fish or Landstill, you roll right over them so it doesn't matter that they have wastes. Worse case scenario, you have colorless mana and can't play a warchief.
I've been thinking about writing a deck discussion thingy jingy mathingy on FCG, but I wanted to keep FCG on the low. FCG has alot of potential and is indeed a "tier 1 deck." It's consistent beats with a combo kill. It can go off on the 1st turn or 2nd turn barring any counters/disruption. Now that I've won a lotus and shown everyone what FCG can do, it's time to let the secrets out the bag. Why? Because every budget player is gonna be netdecking this pretty soon and so it's best if I told everyone how to play against the deck and how the deck works.
I ran 2 vandals and 2 tinkerers, expecting to see lots of workshop decks. None showed up. I'm still looking at my build, playtetsing, and trying to find room for 1x Gang, 1x SS, 2x Prospectors, 1x LED. The prospectors and SS are very handy in certain situations but I don't think they're that helpful, so I cut them.
Goblin Bidding in type 2 only runs 3x Bidding. Why FCG should run 4? Cause this is type 1 and people play duress and force of will. It's also needed for more consistency. In type 2, people don't care about drawing the bidding, it's not as crucial. Plus clamp lets them draw so much anyway.
Matron? Wtf? Ok so the primer says they wanna cut the matron. Yeah right. Demonic Tutor for a goblin? Cut the prospector and sharpshooter. Ok, so if they drop a moat I'm dead, but who plays moat, or keeper for that matter. Matron is so useful. It's basically a tutor and a +4/+0 to yur drivers because it'll probably fetch out another driver. It also helps to grab your incinerators when you need them most, helps thin out the deck, and helps to combo. (note: play matron for ringleader before playing your cruiter recruiter)
Incincerator? yeah. He basically reads "Draw a card, kill target welder." But he's taken out the occasional Dryad, Tog, or Angel. Stack your deck with recruiter, cycle to draw the ringleader, combo out that turn.
Sideboard choices. 4 Maindeck artifact hate, 6 sideboard ones. REB is obvious.
The last 5 were tough. I needed cards to deal with Tendrils, slaver, belcher, dragon, rector, 7/10 guy, 11/11 guy, 12/12 guy, and anything big. Let's bring back an old classic, Maze of Ith! Yay! Hulk doesnt play wastes, tinker for a colossus? Sure. Drop a 7/10 guy? Sure. (btw, Atog Lord who played 7/10 confirms that the deck completely sucks and will never see play again). I had choices between Ground Seal, Root Maze, or Crypt. I decided to cut slaver out of my list because it wasn't that bad of a much up anymore after more playtesting. I decided that the crypt would do best. Crypt takes care of dragon and rector. No one plays belcher and crypt will slightly hurt tendrils decks (against their draw 7 reshuffling and yawg will stuff). Maze of Ith and Crypt are also bonus hate cards against Hulk Tog which I was expecting to see more of.
Worst Matchups for FCG: GAT, Keeper, EBA (if they name recruiter and ringleader), White Weenie (with pro red, pariahs, worships, first strike, etc)
Mediocre matchups: Anything not listed above and below
Best Matchups: Random scrub, Oshawa, Any aggro deck
If there's anything I forgot to mention or discuss... lemme know?
