[Report] Split for 1st with 3 Color 'Tog

[Kerz]

Hey all..yestarday I went up to to tourney for a Mox Emerald in Hadley Mass and, wanting to test for waterbury, played Blue-Green-Black Tog. I'm trying to keep my exact decklist on DL untill after Waterbury, but I'll write up a report otherwise. I split for 1st place with Adam "iLL_DaWg" Bowers, each of us taking $100. (Splitting with Adam is always good, so far we've done this whole thing twice, once before at Cape Cod).

The night before involved playtesting untill about 4, with a random taco bell run somewhere in between. At about 1:30 in the Taco Bell lot, we decided to clean the car... All i have to say is that when we left there was a solid pile that could be seen from 500 feet away. Illegal Dumping 4L.

In testing my only very hard matchup was TPS, because dealing with a resolved Xantid Swarm is near impossible.

Well, we take the 2 hour drive up to Hadley and get there around 12:10 (the tourney was supposed to start at 12:00) and I borrow some much needed stuff from Ben Kowal.

Well, the rounds are called and I am paired with a Hadley Local who is pretty new to around there, and I forgot his name. He is playing Ugr Control deemed "Snakes" my the Creator, Moobius.

Game 1: I see all 5 strips, and just win from him being manascrewed.

Game 2: He musters a few REBs and River Boa's but I race him with Psychatog and tons of draw. His draw engine (Phid) doesnt work at all against Tog, so these games were realitively easy.

2-0

Round 2: Dan Richardson (Pernicious Dude) playing Landstill

Game 1: I keep a mediocre hand and brainstorm into nothing. He establishes a good position with tons of standstills and manlands. I have one turn to live, and topdeck a timewalk. At this time I have a couple lands in my hand. I swing for 1 with tog, timewalk, and topdeck will. I am so landlight I will back just a walk. After a swing for 1, I take my third turn in a row and rip Cunning Wish. I get berserk and squeeeeeeeeeak by a win.

Game 2: I lock him down with an early b2b and counter his REBs; Tog comes down for the KO.

Round 3: Ben Kowal (Summensaugen) with Oath feat. Tog draw engine

Game 1: A b2b catches me off guard and I lose badly.

Game 2: He keeps a 2 lander.. I keep a 2 Waste-lander.  He doesnt see anymore lands.

Game 3: My turn for landscrew.. he sees some wastes.. I lose.

Round 4: Steve Houldette (Grand Inquisitor) playing Keeper (much like Zherbus's)

Game 1: I go first turn duress and see his hand with not a lot of business spells, and resolve Intuition--> lots of Deep Anal. I get tons of advantage and win.

Game 2: Again, my draw engine is too much for him and I play togs aggressively, winning rather quickly.

at 3-1, I draw with AndyStok into the Top Eight.

Top Eight Match: Matrix with Keeperish.dec

Game 1: I get him land-light with wastes, and resolve a game-breaking intuiton. I lay a tog and go all the way.

Game 2: He sees 12 counters and I am land-light. I lose badly.

Game 3: I duress to see FoW, MisD, Drain, REB, and some lands. Great, as I am holding recall. I take misD, and try to resolve an ituiton after a lot of draw-go turns. He drew a ton more counters and during his turn casts decree for 2 4/4s when i have 1 card in hand. I topdeck some draw into a Tog, and I win with 1 life.


Top 4: Dan Richardson with Landstill (w00t)

Dan is a notoriously sloooow player. This whole match takes an hour and a half. Sighhhh..

Game 1: He gets down to 2 cards fighting a war over a standstill, but wins. I am down to 2 also. Stanstill pops, and he plays another next turn. Tons of stuff hits table --> me losing.

Game 2: He starts with an early standstill which I break with duress. I have 3 Wastelands on the board while he plays no manlands. He puts down one, lets it get wasted.. then lays another with stifle backup. He plays a conclave and starts the beats. Late into the game I set off with AK into AK into AK. I Demonic and see i have nother but 2 Drain, 3 FoW, and 5 lands in my deck. I have to wish--> naturalize an active disk.. then play a tog. Next turn he plays a crypt which I FoW. Tog turns sideways.

Game 3: Dan cuts me into one of the best hands ever. He plays volcanic, I waste and play lotus. During his upkeep, I ancestral (drain backup) and he lets it resolve. I also cast brainstorm. He land-go's. During my turn I play land, mox, Walk. Next turn I topdeck WILL. I play land and cast Will. I play a tog soonafter and win.

"Yeah.. It's been crazy so far.. might as well" - reaction by Dan

FINALS: Adam Bowers with Owasaka Stompy

We decided to sell the mox and each get $100. I'd rather get $100 than play it out and risk getting nothing at all.

Well.. good times.. fun tourney.

Props
- PSYCHA mofuckin TOG
- d00ds at TNT collectibles
- eastman, the only remotely cool guy in hadley, for showing me how good the archetype of 3 color tog is

Slops
- Any punk hadley member who talked smack to me\
- bitch

Kerz



The top eight was:
Adam Bowers with Oshawa Stompy
Aaron Kerzner with Hulk
Me with Oath
Dan Richardson with U/R Landstill
Keith Johnson with U/W Landstill
Dan Rix with U/R/W Control
Brian Phelon with Deep Anal Dragon
Andy Stokinger with Mindslaver Control

[Kowal]

Ganked straight from the old thread is my report as well.

I played Oath, with a couple tricks. I'm going to keep it a little shady until Waterbury so it still catches people off guard, but the basic premise is that it has a stable enough manabase to run Back to Basics.

Round One: Dan Rix with U/R/W Control
Matrix, as we call him, always poses a new challenge as he tends to make some strange card choices that catch a lot of players with their pants down. Today was no exception.
Game one dragged on really long, and I got restless after resolving AKs for four and five. I dropped a Morphling, he swordsed, I made it untargetable, he swordsed again, and a counter war ensued, leaving my morphling RFG since Matrix has a hand full of pitch. I eventually reduce my library to zero cards, and begin recurring Time Walk with Blessing. I beat him down with Weaver without letting him have a turn.
Game two he cycles decree early off a lotus, and I can't find my awesome sideboard tech.
Game three drags on really long, and I find Time Walk on turn five of the five turns. Had I been able to take the time walk, I'd ancestral in to the juice to kill him right there and enter the winner's bracket, rather than draw in round one. Sigh.

1-1-1, 0-0-1

Round Two: Dana Renfrew (Master Tap) with TPS
Game one, I kick the crap out of him and counter draw sevens.
Game two, I put some sideboard tech on the table, and he timetwisters in desperation to find seven cards that don't win the game when I have double force backup.

3-1-1, 1-0-1

Round Three: Aaron Kerzner (Kerz) with TriColorHulk
Game one he fetches lots of duals figuring I don't run wastes. He's right, but B2B is better than wastes. I never take any damage other than those from fetches and forces.
Game two we fight insane counterwars over everything. At the end of my turn, he Mystical Tutors, and my only counter is Mana Leak. Seeing he has two untapped, but will have more than six next turn, I take the chance to leak it now, saying "this sure won't counter Will." He rips the will off the top anyway.
Game three he opens with the Lotus, Emerald, and Sea, and I get a Keg for the artifacts. He AKs in response hoping for a land, and doesn't see one for turn two. He makes the rest of the land drops, but by starting the AKs first he allows me to draw a ton of cards and just win.

5-2-1, 2-0-1

Round Four: Chris Kitzmiller (Moobius) with Snakes
Game one, the Oaths just win me the game. He has a tough time drawing as many cards, and he doesn't really have much for answers to morphlings.
Game two is much closer, I think. We played four for kicks, but I believe two was the one where he nearly killed me with Mystic Snake beatdown before I got my engine going solidly. It was a pretty desperate game, but the deck gave me the love it needed.

7-2-1, 3-0-1

Round Five: I ID with Brian Phelon (hulk3rules), who's playing Deep Anal Dragon

7-2-1, 3-0-2

Top Eight: Keith Johnson (ctthespian) with U/W Landstill
Keith playing with Tundras kind of weirds me out, as he usually packs something with Workshops and beats. Game one I land an early B2B, and horde countermagic to protect it. Eventually I poop out a morphling and he can't deal.
Game two he sees three Standstills, and I see poop.
Game three I plant some early sideboard tech (that's getting annoying by now, huh?) and by the time he finds a disk it's way too late.

9-3-1

Top Four: Adam Bowers (ill_dawg) with Onikage Stompy
Game one I'm in total control when the combination of no sleep and a fever begins to rear its ugly head. I attack with Morphling and don't wait to see him declare no blockers before making it 5/1. He tosses out an Arrogant Wurm, and I freak, searching for pitch counters. Then I remember blockers aren't declared yet, and I make the morphling fly. Then I realize I'm tapped out, and his beats kill me while Weaver sits there impatiently with three spike counters on it.
Game two I draw two oaths, and he draws three naturalizes and a strip mine, as well as bazaar triple squee nigh immediately. I can't deal and I scoop.

An embarassing defeat in the end, but it did allow me to use Michael Broughton's quote once again.

When you split, nobody wins. You just get two pussies.

Props:
Matrix, for being a cool guy and hooking me up with some stuff
Ryan the store owner, for buying my crap and holding a great tournament
Steve Houdlette, for loaning me a bunch of stuff to play a deck I only really had written out last week

Slops:
Adam and Kerzner, for splitting in the finals. Fuckin women.
Me, for my godawful play mistakes in the top four
Time Limits, for disallowing me time to hit the facilities between rounds.

[Eastman]

Congrats Aaron. I'm glad to see that for the third tournament in a row, 3 color tog can make the finals in Hadley, even if I couldn't pilot it this third time. Good Job.

Oh and splitting in the finals does make two pussies instead of one winner.