(I'm too scared to post this in the Open Type 1 Forum
)
Pre-game Magic Fun: I play my "Grow-a-thopt" Mirroden Block deck. It is jank but fun. It has maindecked March of the Machines to hose net decks. I also play my Sliver deck versus a kid with his elf deck. I play my Squirrel Farm from Unglued because it is Fun and not broken and turn after turn ask the kid to name the artist of each Sliver. The fun is when you ask the name the artist of the same Sliver you asked last turn. Eventually, he broke my Squirrel Lock. It is just fun to play those cards so people can see them at work.
On with the report:
I took my Auriok Salvagers/Lotus/Spellbomb Combo Control deck with same build as last week, but with a new sideboard. (check last report, or the SlapJack thread in Newbie Forum for deck build.)
Sideboard:
Last Word
Entomb
Orim's Thunder
Blue Elemental Blast
Balance
Necromancy
Swords to Plowshares
Sacred Ground
Rebuild
Reanimate X2
Misdirection
Stifle
Hurkle's Recal
Brain Freeze
Round 1: Jay playing U/G Madness
This is the same deck I faced first last time I was here (Tim borrowed it), but for some reason, the Strips are not in the deck. I won 2-1, but due to the deck lacking it's full resources, I won't go into much detail.
Round 1: Christian playing Keeper (4CC with Exalted Angel and Decree of Justice)
I was more than a little nervous playing against Christian, as he is an excellent player playing an excellent deck. I have only played against it in real life once last May. It stomped me.
Game 1: He goes first, drops a Library of Alexandria and says go. I mulliganed down to six, looking at 2 Ertai's Meddling, Force of Will, Land, Land, Demonic Tutor. I drop a Mox Monkey soon after, and it resolves. I might have chewed up a few moxes.
The monkey did the beatdown thing for about TEN TURNS as we both just filled our hands with blue cards. My hand was Ertai's Meddling X2, Force of Will X2, Misdirection, Cunning Wish.
At one point I Ertai's his Swords to my monkey for 3, then re-Ertai it for 2, then attempt to Stifle the Ertai's "when" effect. We calmly discuss it and agree that it doesn't work that way, and he lets me take it back. (Props to Christian. I guess I better get the full Errata on Ertai's on this).
He was down to about 9 with a fat graveyard full of goodies when he drops Lotus and does the Will thing. He wins the counter war, Will resolves and I die 2 turns later. That's Keeper.
Game 2: By this time, there was 5, maybe 10 minutes left in the round. I tell him that if I don't beat him within those five minutes, I will conceed the match. (I really want to play this game!). He agrees. We sideboard and start to play.
My notes are kinda vague here (non-existant) but I get a nice board position, and Time is called. That means there are 5 turns left, and Christian gets the first turn (and third and fifth). I must beat him on turn 4 or I lose.
I resolve a Salvager (don't ask me how. I just did), and on turn 4 top deck INTUITION!!! I cast it, and he thinks about it, and then says "go for it." I think he had Wish for Purge on his mind, but after I show him Lotus, Tolarian and Pyrite Spellbomb, he realizes that he had the option of Wishing for a Red Elemental Blast, stalling me long enough for turn 4 and five to end, thus winning the match. However, he did let Intuition resolve and failed to make the correct play. Time was on us, mistakes happen. I was able to combo off for the win.
For the record, Keeper did not fail. It was human error. Christian is a scholar and a gent. We drew. 1-1-0.
Round 3: Dennis with a rogue Survival of the Fittest type deck.
I win both games because he doesn't have Force of Will. Dennis is a great guy and played against my deck several times with his "real" type 1 deck. He knew what my deck does and knew it was a bad matchup. 2-0
Round 4: Joe playing Fish.
Game 1:Fish does what it is supposed to, but I am setting up my combo for the win. I had Salvagers in hand from a resolved Intuition, and a Misdirection, and 5 lands in play (2 were fetches). All I needed was another blue card in my hand. ANY blue card. Then I could play Salvagers with 1 mana availiable for Daze and a Misdirection for his Force. A few turns later I draw a Trinket Mage! Excited, I pop my Flooded Strain, go digging through my deck, notice the Lotus, Explosives and got myself sidetracked.
I, for some gawdawful reason, play my Trinket Mage. Even though I had been waiting to cast Salvagers ALL THIS TIME, I cast Trinket Mage. Stupid Me. After Trinket Mage resolved, I remember that I was supposed to play Salvagers! Not Mages!!!
I die a few turns later. As we were sideboarding for game two, I asked him if my Salvagers would have resolved had I cast it instead of Trinket Mages. He though about it and said "yeah, just Daze, Force and something blue."
Game 2: He turn 2 Null Rods me. I Force, he Forces, I Force back, HE Forces back. Null Rod resolves, Wastelands waste and I die fair and square. Joe wins the tournament. Congrats to Joe!
He agrees to play a grudge match against me. Thanks!
Game 3: We fight over Null Rod, and he wins. I resolve a Salvager (Reanimate!) and start administering walking beats as he administers flying beats. I do 2 to him versus his one to me for about 4 turns (he had a head start) when he drops Mishra's Factory. I stop the assault, thinking it was futile to attack his 2/2 could be 3/3 manland. His flying beats (eventually, bi-curious Fairies) continue their assault and I scoop when all hope is lost. He beats me fair and square.
As I was driving home, I realized that I could have continued to poundage and had he blocked with his Factory, it couldn't pump itself up. Null Rod. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! That's how we learn lessons, folks. Had I made the correct play game 1 and game 3, maybe I would have taken home the gold! It did not turn out that way.
For the record, I sided in 2 Reanimates, Misdirection, Stifle and Hurkyl's Recall against Fish. Best I could do under the circumstances.
(Edit: Also, for the Record, pointwise, Dennis and I were tied and our records were identical (2-0. 1-1-0, 0-2 and 2-1). I guess I placed 4th and he placed 5th because I won my first match and he drew. That's all I can figure out.)
Props the C&J's for having free weekly tournaments.
Props to Christian for being a very fair and skilled player, and for allowing game two to play out in a timely fashion.
Slops to Null Rod.
Slops to Trinket Mage for making me forget to cast Salvager.
Slops to my sideboard for being weak and for some reason not having Tormod's Crypt in it.
