[Report] Waterbury top 8 w/ One Fish Left

Some months ago I had a $700 ebay card buy go horribly wrong.
At the same time all the little power tournaments went up in price.
Pissing away $15 to come home with nothing
wasn't working for me and I quit playing.

Still and all, Waterbury is Waterbury,
and Eastman said my old deck, Fish, was good again.
I read up on this Gay/r thing PTW built
and incorporated what I liked into One Fish, Two Fish.

Team Hadley did a bunch of playtesting the last two weeks.
Last playtesting was Thursday,
and I lost to most of what I sat across from.
7/10 dudes on turn 2.
3 color Tog with invincible basic lands.
Freaking Ophidian and his pal Morphling.
I was really disillusioned, and decided I probably wouldn't go.
Friday, though, I decided, what the hell, Waterbury is Waterbury.

One Fish Left

SOURCES (24)
3 Island
1 Mountain
4 Volcanic Island
2 Wooded Foothills
1 Flooded Strand
4 Mishra's Factory
2 Faerie Conclave
3 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Library Of Alexandria
1 Black Lotus (proxy)
1 Mox Sapphire (proxy)

MEN (13)
4 Spiketail Hatchling
2 Flying Men (gotta love the plural name)
3 Razorfin Hunter (the one fish left)
2 Suq'Ata Firewalker (old sideboard tech now maindeck)
1 Grim Lavamancer
1 Gorilla Shaman

JUST SAY NO (8)
4 Force Of Will
3 Stifle
1 Misdirection
0 Daze

DRAW (9)
4 Curiosity
3 Standstill
1 Ancestral Recall (proxy)
1 Time Walk (borrowed)

ANSWERS (6)
3 Null Rod
2 Fire/Ice
1 Echoing Truth

SIDE (15)
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Maze Of Ith
2 Viashino Heretic
1 Gorilla Shaman (1 main)
1 Fire/Ice (2 main)
1 Wasteland (3 main)
1 Control Magic
1 Sigil Of Sleep
1 Black Vise

ROUND ONE - Ross - Workshops, Trinisphere, Welder, Memnarch

Game One he died to my turn 2 Null Rod.
IN 2 Heretic, 1 Shaman, 1 Wasteland, 1 Fire, 2 BEB, 1 Maze
OUT 3 Standstill, 2 Spiketail, 1 Flying Men, 1 MisD, 1 Echoing Truth
Game Two something large (Sundering Titan?) happened.
Game Three pingers took charge and the spells he did cast didn't resolve.

Matches 1/0

ROUND TWO - teammate Matt Snow - GroStill
As I sat down across from him, I realized that
not testing against my own teams new pet deck was not tech.
Really close-fought games. Curiosity ruled the day.
IN 3 REB, 1 Sigil, 1 Control Magic, 1 Vise, 1 Maze
OUT 3 Standstill, 3 Null Rod, 1 Gorilla Shaman
I swept him.

Matches 2/0

ROUND THREE - Robert The Swordsman - For The Glory
Game One I mulliganed to five.
Standstills back to back made up for it.
He got Sylvan Library, kept an extra card.
I think he resolved a Boa and Rancor, but pingers kept it down.
I kept looking at his lands. Every color except U and R.
When he died, he showed me his hand, with Sphere oF Resistance.
I couldn't figure out what he was doing.
IN Sigil, Fire, Wasteland, Heretic
OUT 3 Null Rod, Shaman
Game Two Boas kicked my butt, and I found out who my opponent was.
OUT Heretic
IN Control Magic
Game Three Choke and Boas kicked my butt.

Matches 2/1

ROUND FOUR - Jacob Orlove - WTF
I had seriously considered playing his deck, U/g unfish,
but I decided without playtesting that U/r should wreck it,
what with more pingers, Fire, and REBs.
More fool me.
One of us won the first game, I don't know which.
IN 3 REB, 1 Fire, 1 Vise, 1 Waste, 1 Sigil
OUT 3 Rod, 3 Still, 1 Gorilla
The other one won the second game.
He won the third.

Matches 2/2

ROUND FIVE - Elliot - TnT
Game One I won the roll.
Without having any idea what he was playing,
my deck handed me land, Lotus, Null Rod, Razorfin.
I obeyed.
He couldn't do anything, and scooped at 13 life.
I still had no idea what he was playing.
I sided for 7/10, out the Echoing Truth and not bringing in Sigil.
Titan's leaves play ability makes bounce non-wonderful.
Game Two he surprised the heck out of me by playing Survival.
TnT? I thought nobody played that any more?
I didn't take notes, but my life total says 20, 10, .
Probably a pair of Juggernauts with Anger in the yard.
I brought in the Sigil and the Truth.
Game Three curious pingers happened.
Maze Of Ith held off a Jug forever.
Mishra's traded with a second Jug.
He pitched Wonder as defense,
but pingers don't attack anyway.
At one point, he put Platinum Angel on the table.
I shot it with three different kinds of pingers at once,
and it went away again.
It was a heck of a fight, and then Sigil came out.
Null Rod joined the party and it was all over.

Matches 3/2

Between rounds I was talking to Josh Ochse.
We had an epic battle last Waterbury during which
I'd Acid Rained on his entire manabase.
This deck runs no such tech, and fears TnT greatly.
But what the hell, who still plays TnT?
"I do."

ROUND SIX - Josh Ochse - TnT
Oh, crap. Josh's build is way better than Elliot's,
and he's a really good player.
This is going to be a beating.
Game One he ran me over with Welder rotating a pair of Solemn Simulacrums.
IN 2 BEB, 2 Heretic, 1 Shaman, 1 Fire, 1 Control, 1 Waste, 1 Sigil.
OUT 4 Spiketails, 2 Flying Men, 2 Still, 1 MisD
Shaman came down, perhaps turn one, and ate his manabase.
Then it got Curious. Twice. When I made it an Ancestral monkey, he scooped.
I showed him the fourth Curiosity, two Forces and another blue card in hand.
Game Three has a long string of slowly reducing life totals.
Really close-fought game, but I prevailed.
He won the chance to go out to dinner, so he wasn't too upset.

Matches 4/2
I'm hanging on by my fingernails.

ROUND SEVEN - Yushuo Low - Ms.YeeYeeChong.dec
I've got some lands and little guys down,
He's got Mana Vault, Mana Crypt and a land that doesn't make red,
and he's not drawing any more sources.
I'm puttering along, minding my own business,
drawing cards, Forcing a couple of spells.
He resolves Masticore.
Oops.
Where's my Null Rod?
He's only got one card in hand.
He's only got three mana available,
and if he drops a land or plays a spell, it'll die.
He kills my guy, and swings me to 14.
He finds Squee. OK, it won't just die.
He swings twice more while I dig and drop lands,
my hand full of unplayable weenies.
I find Stifle, and drop Firewalker and Razorfin.
He swings again, bringing me to 2.
I don't draw Null Rod, and pass the turn.
He swings again.
I activate Faerie Conclave and block with it and the Razorfin.
Razorfin shoots it as he dies and it's got lethal damage.
Yushuo taps the Crypt and, instead of regenerating it,
shoots the Firewalker.
I fetch, bringing myself to 1, and Stifle.
Core goes away, and the team of Mana Crypt and Firewalker finish the job.
IN no notes, but as before, BEBs, Waste, Fire, Heretic, Shaman
OUT Stills and weenies.
Game Two along about turn two he Metalworkers out Grid Monitor and Lightning Greaves.
If I blocked with every creature in my deck, it might die.
I only have one Echoing Truth, and that can only bounce the Greaves once.
I scoop for time.
It occurs to me that I haven't seen Welders, or, for that matter, red source.
OUT 2 BEBs, IN probably Mazes
Game Three he resolved Trinisphere and Chalice for 2.
I played Null Rod straight into it. Damn.
He played Chalice for 1.
A turn later, someone pointed out that the first Chalice countered it.
That made us even.
Heretic stepped in, picked up Curiosity and Sigil and just took charge.

Matches 5/2
Whoa. I might make it.

ROUND EIGHT - teammate Ben Kowal - Slaver with 4 Triskelions
These games were a blur, but his own Mana Crypt killed him both times.
IN - 3 REB, 2 BEB, 2 Heretic, Shaman, Wasteland, Fire
OUT - 3 Still, 4 Spike, 2 Men, 1 MisD
Game Two was a battle.
He resolved three Triskelions that game.
The first one ate my (turn one?) Heretic.
I lured the other two down from beefyness by playing cannon fodder.
The last one had no counters on it when he resolved Blood Moon.
Unfortunately, BEB nailed the Blood Moon a few turns later,
and a Factory jumped in from the roadside to eat the Trisk
two turns before it would have killed me.
Mana Crypt did him 15 damage that game.

TOP SIXTEEN - Eli - Dragon
Game One he comboed out in short order.
I don't know how I sided.
Game Two he scooped to mana denial and a Sigiliant pinger.
Game Three we both built up cards for a while.
He Duressed while I had Stifle, Echoing Truth, and irrelevant stuff.
He took the Stifle.
I drew a card, and Wasted his Bazaar.
In response, he dropped Necromancy.
I responded to the Dragon's CIP with Echoing Truth.
He Forced. The card I'd drawn was REB, and his all stuff went away.

TOP EIGHT - teammate Grand Inquisitor - GroStill
Steve showed me just how not tech my lack of playtesting this match was.
I did get him down to 2 game two, but that was it.

I came home with a lovely English Mana Drain, completing my playset.

I had a great time all day, and it looks like I'll have to start playing again.

I'll be starting a thread in the open forum,
in case anyone wants to discuss the build.

Props to
Chris T for convincing me to put Walk and MisD back in the deck the day before the tournament.
Ben K in particular and Team Hadley in general for convincing me to come back.
Special props to Mana Crypt for frequently doing more damage to my opponents than my guys did.