[Results] GPT Austin

[Matt]

Well I was sick, sleepy, and had a prior comittment to watching UT crush OU in the manly sport of football, so I didn't enter the tournament myself. I arrived in the middle of of round four. We apparantly had 52 players, but by now many had dropped. What was left was this assortment:

RGSA
RGSA
RGSA
RGSA splashing black
ATS
BG Survival*

Goblins
Goblins
Goblins
Goblins
Goblins
Goblins
Goblins

RDW/g
LED Madness
Reanimator**
Stacker?***

BW Control
MWC
MWC feat. Mishra's Factory
UW Landstill
UW Landstill
UB Landstill

WW
WW/u
UW Fish
UW Fish
UW Fish
3cThreshold
BR aggro-control****

Belcher
Trix
Solidarity
Solidarity
Solidarity
Solidarity

* Someone actually netdecked off me, but he junked it up by running Deed and Smothers, and later I found out he had only one Krovikan Horror.
** Modified Jacob Reanimator, he took out Burning Wish for Lim-Dul's Vaults
*** A VERY interesting deck, a list of cards I saw between MD and SB included Welder, Masticore, Mishra's Factory, Ancient Tomb, City of Traitors, Firestorm, Jitte, Volcanic Island, Solemn Simulacrum, Isochron Scepter, Force of Will, REB, and Chalice of the Void. In rond five he was at table four versus one of the Tide decks
****I saw burn and Acidic Sliver but no duals besides Badlands

Round four included the MWC mirror, which actually manage to not finish a single game!

The BG Survival guy got Belcher early on and then High Tide rounds four and five, knocking him out. Too bad! I did pick up some insane tech for the deck, though.

The top four was Goblins, Goblins, RDW/g, and something unknown. The finals saw RDW and Goblins facing off, with RDW taking home the win. Here's his deck:

4 Kird Ape
4 Jackal Pup
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Grim Lavamancer

1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Isochron Scepter
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Fire/Ice
4 Shock
3 Fireblast

4 Wasteland
4 Rishadan Port
3 Taiga
5 Mountain
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Bloodstained Mire

SB: 2 Umezawa's Jitte
SB: 3 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 1 Pyroblast
SB: 3 Pyroclasm
SB: 4 Naturalize
SB: 2 Tormod's Crypt



Later on I did a Ravnica draft (my first limited event EVER) and had a blast. I got a great pile of cards:

//1cc
1 Elves of Deep Shadow
1 Votary of the Conclave
//2cc
1 Courier Hawk
1 Watchwolf
1 Selesnya Guildmage
//3cc
1 Shambling Shell
1 Golgari Brownscale
//4cc
1 Dimir House Guard
2 Greater Mossdog
//5cc
1 Sewerdreg
2 Golgari Rotwurm
1 Grave-Shell Scarab

//Spells
1 Clinging Darkness
1 Last Gasp
1 Disembowel
1 Brainspoil
1 Gaze of the Gorgon
1 Golgari Germination
1 Fists of Ironwood
1 Strands of Undeath
1 Scatter the Seeds

//Lands
1 Vitu-Ghazi, The City Tree
1 Selesnya Sanctuary
1 Golgari Rot Farm
6 Swamp
7 Forest
2 Plains

but I eventually lost to an even better pile in the same colors, featuring Auratouched Mage-fetching-Pollenbright Wings (twice!) and that ridiculous Vulturous Zombie. Notable cards I didn't include were Mortipede (which should have made the cut over Gaze of the Gorgon) and Leave no Trace (a good SB card). I could really have used a Signet for acceleration, because I had a bunch of great cards at four and five mana.

[Bardo]

You watched football instead of playing in the GPT? :eyebrow:

Re: RDW/g. It only looks like there are 8 imprint targets for Scepter. What happens when you imprint Fireblast? Do you have to sac two mountains every time you activate it or do you get a free ride?

[Matt]

You can't imprint Fireblast, as it has a CMC of six. The eight imprintable cards are 4 Bolt 4 F/I.

I didn't play for a host of reasons. In decreasing order of importance, they are:

1. I had already promised my dad I'd watch the game with him.
2. I am sufering from a cold brought in by the cold front and was tired from staying up late with friends the night previous - I wouldn't have brought my 'A' game.
3. I was worried about my Goblins matchup, though I had a good plan for beating it.
4. I was on the fence over justifying the $25 entry fee (I am currently unemployed and this would have been a not-minor expense).

[Spynal]

Let it be known that the "Stacker" list was none other than the infamous Roy Spires. I saw him playing in round one and looked through his deck, and said:

"Roy, did you just port Control Slaver?"

"Yes"

"You ARE aware CS is a Drain deck and Drain isn't legal, right?"

"Shut up"


Roy called the deck Invincible Control Slaver Fish ... featuring an homage to his t1 ICT, and the fact the deck had Cloud of Faeries in it. I have NO idea what he was thinking, but he managed to t8.


Greatest play of the day.

RDW: Mountain Jackal Pup, Go
Roy: Strand, Go:
RDW: Beat for two, Jackal Pup, Jackal Pup, Go.
Roy: Eot, Break strand for Volcanic, Firestorm for 5 (Roy, Opp, 3x Pup), GG





The BR Aggro Control was a deck played by a friend of mine. He had no other deck besides food chain elves. I know the deck had Lightning Bolt, Diabolic Edict, Hymn to Tourach, Acidic Sliver, Mogg Fanatic, and Lavamancer. Interesting, yes, but he finished 3-3.

I played the MWC deck featuring Mishra's Factory, and yes the mirror was the ultimate headache. Even though what I view as a bad judging call cost me the win.

I attacked with my last two soldier tokens and two factories (he was at 6). In response he announces he's cycling Decree of Justice .... so he draws his card ... THEN announces he's going to make soldier tokens, doesn't announce "x" for the tokens, just starts tapping mana. What?

So I call the judge who lets both abilities resolve in opposite order, and him make enough tokens to kill my dorks. Bad judge, bad. So I wrath post combat and stall him out for the last 6 or so minutes.



During Rd 5, I was informed my keys were locked in my trunk (and I'm from Houston) so I went on hardcore tilt. Rd 6 was some of the worst magic I've played in my life. I was playing against Tygre's RDW deck, and manage a second turn Rop: Red BOTH games and still manage to lose. After I get extremely pissed, I meet the locksmith outside to get my keys, and found out I made top 16 and go claim my lowly 5 packs. There's NO way I lose to that thing if I play correctly. I'm pretty sure I was holding E. Dragons in my hand and forgetting to plainscycle in response to ports and preventing damage from Mogg Fanatics instead of Lightning Bolts while in at like 15-16 life. Just stupid errors.

[Bardo]

You can't imprint Fireblast, as it has a CMC of six. The eight imprintable cards are 4 Bolt 4 F/I.

Ah, I forgot about CMC/imprint. Thanks. In any event, it's hard to argue with success, but 4 Scepters and 8 imprint-able spells seems very sketchy in a deck with no means of drawing cards outside of the draw step.

1. I had already promised my dad I'd watch the game with him.

Nevermind then. Family >> Magic.

During Rd 5, I was informed my keys were locked in my trunk (and I'm from Houston)

Man, that sucks. Sorry to hear about that. Locksmith's aren't cheap either. In a perfect world he could just accept your packs for barter.

[Matt]

Roy Spires! I THOUGHT he looked familiar!

[cosineme]

RDW: Mountain Jackal Pup, Go
Roy: Strand, Go:
RDW: Beat for two, Jackal Pup, Jackal Pup, Go.
Roy: Eot, Break strand for Volcanic, Firestorm for 5 (Roy, Opp, 3x Pup), GG

nice...just...amazing

[Squares]

The list seems to be missing 4 MD cards.  –What they be son?

I’ll assume that they were 2cc instants, as only 8 with 4 scepters seem low. 

Was it just me or did anyone else feel like the judge rulings were pretty “meh� that day?


For the record:
That was my absolute worst tournament performance.  Well, expect for when I just started playing Legacy back when it was very much 1.5.
I felt very much like a scrub that I am not.

I did manage to play against the Trix Deck, and rolled it fairly quickly with my little green men. 
His build was UGB, which I thought was pretty odd.

[Matt]

Yeah, the Trix guy had Shadowmage Infiltrators too. I've seen him play the deck before but to my knowledge he never wins anything with it.

I assume the missing carda re Incinerate but I don't know for sure.

The judging was indeed poor. I think it was Mason who said Genesis was an activated ability (there was an issue with Pithing Needle in the RGSA vs. UB Landstill matchup). I corrected this, and he tried to say it was a "triggered ability which puts an activated ability on the stack", or some such nonsense.

[Neonico]

RDW: Mountain Jackal Pup, Go
Roy: Strand, Go:
RDW: Beat for two, Jackal Pup, Jackal Pup, Go.
Roy: Eot, Break strand for Volcanic, Firestorm for 5 (Roy, Opp, 3x Pup), GG

nice...just...amazing

Most savage kill ever .... Thanx for the laugh.

[Geet]

I played the MWC deck featuring Mishra's Factory, and yes the mirror was the ultimate headache. Even though what I view as a bad judging call cost me the win.

I attacked with my last two soldier tokens and two factories (he was at 6). In response he announces he's cycling Decree of Justice .... so he draws his card ... THEN announces he's going to make soldier tokens, doesn't announce "x" for the tokens, just starts tapping mana. What?

So I call the judge who lets both abilities resolve in opposite order, and him make enough tokens to kill my dorks. Bad judge, bad. So I wrath post combat and stall him out for the last 6 or so minutes.

I have to say that this tournament has largely turned me off to competitive magic.  It was absolutely clear that my intention was to make soldiers in order to block your soldiers.  You were simply consumed with greed for a cheap win.  The whole day I saw many similar calls to the judge just to try to catch their opponent on some minor technicality.  I started playing magic because it was a fun game to play with my brother and eventually my friends.  I miss those days.  I mean really, how good would you feel about yourself if the only reason you won was because of a technicality.  I'd rather win through my own play skill and why not make some friends in the progress.  For example, during the tournament an opponent of mine brainstormed during my main phase, and forgot to put 2 cards back.  I cast a spell, then went to end of turn step and noticed that he had too many cards in hand.  My understanding is that this is potentially game loss worthy, especially if I had waited til his draw step.  But I'm sorry, a Mox Jet isn't worth my being a bastard.  I'd like to give my opponent the benefit of the doubt, point his mistake, and continue on with the match, especially since in this particular instance, his mistake had not caused him to have any unfair advantage.

I know some of you strongly disagree with what I'm saying and think you should take a win any way possible outside of cheating, and that opponents should be punished for not knowing every little detail of the rules.  But that's fine with me, if that's the way you want the magic scene to be, then you can have it.  Before this tournament I was ranked 2nd in Austin, and I was looking forward to seeing how far I could go in competitive magic, with plans to start strong in Philly.  I have to say that after this tournament, I have a bad taste in my mouth for the competitive magic scene, and I am disappointed with all the unsportsmanship.  You will not be seeing me in any more of the larger tournaments; I have had enough.

[Bardo]

I know some of you strongly disagree with what I'm saying and think you should take a win any way possible outside of cheating, and that opponents should be punished for not knowing every little detail of the rules.

For the record, I completely agree with you. Having not been there in person, I can only speculate in the abstract, but I'd much rather lose honorably than win cheaply. Yes, winning on technicality is part of the design of the game, but it's dirty and unseemly.

In the end, as fun as the game is, it's just a fucking card game. And the value of a power card in no way compensates for a the loss of self respect and decency -- even if it is a Black Lotus [which it wasn't].

[Skink_123]

The masticore pile, how did it go?

[cosineme]

I have to say that this tournament has largely turned me off to competitive magic.  It was absolutely clear that my intention was to make soldiers in order to block your soldiers.  You were simply consumed with greed for a cheap win.  The whole day I saw many similar calls to the judge just to try to catch their opponent on some minor technicality.  I started playing magic because it was a fun game to play with my brother and eventually my friends.  I miss those days.  I mean really, how good would you feel about yourself if the only reason you won was because of a technicality.  I'd rather win through my own play skill and why not make some friends in the progress.  For example, during the tournament an opponent of mine brainstormed during my main phase, and forgot to put 2 cards back.  I cast a spell, then went to end of turn step and noticed that he had too many cards in hand.  My understanding is that this is potentially game loss worthy, especially if I had waited til his draw step.  But I'm sorry, a Mox Jet isn't worth my being a bastard.  I'd like to give my opponent the benefit of the doubt, point his mistake, and continue on with the match, especially since in this particular instance, his mistake had not caused him to have any unfair advantage.

I know some of you strongly disagree with what I'm saying and think you should take a win any way possible outside of cheating, and that opponents should be punished for not knowing every little detail of the rules.  But that's fine with me, if that's the way you want the magic scene to be, then you can have it.  Before this tournament I was ranked 2nd in Austin, and I was looking forward to seeing how far I could go in competitive magic, with plans to start strong in Philly.  I have to say that after this tournament, I have a bad taste in my mouth for the competitive magic scene, and I am disappointed with all the unsportsmanship.  You will not be seeing me in any more of the larger tournaments; I have had enough.

Don't be ridiculous. Neither of the plays that you listed are harmless. In both instances a significant advantage was had by the "cheater." First, by drawing your cycle card before paying additional costs, you had full knowledge of what you were going to draw. What if it was some ridiculous instant like..Wing Shards maybe? Then you really wouldn't need to tap out for soldiers that would die. Rather you could tap just enough for both actions, insuring your win.

The second example is even worse. Saying a free ancestral recall during my turn is ridiculous. He could have pulled 2 fow, 2 anything, blah blah. sure, he didn't use it, but the knowledge that he gained of your actions while holding his options are significant.

[Anusien]

You're both right.  I hope I have the decency to be honorable when there is actual money on the line (instead of scooping from 1-2-1 to 1-3 because the other guy could T8 a FNM, or calling a judge on myself at 2-2).  However, if you play it wrong you can draw into Wing Shard, ESG for more tokens.  Not announcing X isn't sketchy, and I'd never call the judge for that except at a high event, but it's still a little sketchy.  And that's why I watch my opponents Brainstorm or draw cards.  You should to.  I can easily draw 3, not put 2 back and when you Duress or play something important, then I 'remember'.

[Spynal]

I asked Fletcher (one of the judges) about the missing cards.



add 4x Shock to the list.
Done.
-Matt[/color]

[Spynal]

Sorry for the pseudo-double, but I just finished up my Report from the tournament.

You can find it here

[Akki]

(cross-posted from The Source)

I'm a judge, for those of you unfamiliar. I regularly work at Pro Tours, Nationals, Grand Prix, etc in addition to local tournaments.

The judge handled the situation excellently.

I activate both Factories and swing for the final 6, he thinks before cycling Decree of Justice, DRAWING HIS CARD, then tapping mana and saying he was going to make soldiers.

WHAT? So you want to see an extra cards and then just make soldiers until you think you have it figured out? No way, JUDGE!

...

Then he claims that since this was downgraded to REL 2, it was his obligation to determine the intent of the play. He asks the guy if remembers what card he drew, he says "No ... wait, I THINK it was this one". Judge says "I'm not allowed to reveal what he drew, but I believe it was his intent to make the soldier tokens". He doesn't even make him put the damn card back before creating 12 tokens, Quadruple blocking each Factory and putting 2 guys in front of the soldiers. What a lame ass call.

... For example, during the tournament an opponent of mine brainstormed during my main phase, and forgot to put 2 cards back.  I cast a spell, then went to end of turn step and noticed that he had too many cards in hand.  My understanding is that this is potentially game loss worthy, especially if I had waited til his draw step.  But I'm sorry, a Mox Jet isn't worth my being a bastard.  I'd like to give my opponent the benefit of the doubt, point his mistake, and continue on with the match, especially since in this particular instance, his mistake had not caused him to have any unfair advantage.

Neither of these attitudes is good.

You call a judge when something goes wrong because the judge is the only person that can decide the best solution to the situation and issue appropriate penalties if necessary.

You do not get to decide how much advantage something has given someone, and you do not get to decide penalties for your opponents.

Under current philosophy, both players are held responsible for the gamestate. Something happens that shouldn't, it's both of your faults.

"Missing" your opponent making a mistake (like drawing two cards) so you can call a judge later is more likely to earn you a DQ than any penalty for your opponent. You think judges aren't wise to that?

Also, badmouthing judges on forums generally makes people lose all respect for whatever it is you're complaining about. There is a difference between a call not in your favor and a bad call.

If you have a problem with a ruling, you discuss it privately with the judge later.

Honestly, if you expect people to not want to win, you should be playing a different game. If you're playing for a large amount of prizes you have to be expected to play by the rules, and my guess would be that anyone who says that they're turned off by competetive play either A) is not happy with their relative skill or B) didn't want to play competetively in the first place.

You win by playing Magic. You do not win by attempting to get your opponent a loss from a rules infraction.

Some seem to confuse "playing competiviely" with "being a complete and utter asshat".

For the record, I completely agree with you. Having not been there in person, I can only speculate in the abstract, but I'd much rather lose honorably than win cheaply. Yes, winning on technicality is part of the design of the game, but it's dirty and unseemly.

In the end, as fun as the game is, it's just a fucking card game. And the value of a power card in no way compensates for a the loss of self respect and decency -- even if it is a Black Lotus [which it wasn't].

No one should "win cheaply" or "lose honorably" in a tournament, at least in the way you're implying. You shouldn't try to get a win out of a problem, and you shouldn't ignore a problem because it might involve penalties.

"Winning on technicality" is not part of the game.

Sweet report, Spynal. You get my respect for your effort. And as for Derek: I won't be arrogant and say nothing in his "speech" was true, but he can't (nor can you) deny this simple fact: you're playing in a fucking tournament. Expect competitiveness, of all kinds.

He's expecting to have fun. This is not an unreasonable expectation.

Competitiveness and fun are not mutually exclusive, despite what many of you seem to be assuming.

The unsporting sort of competitiveness should not be welcome at tournaments.

Particularly at a GPT, which is a bridge between casual tournament play (REL 1) and PTQ-level play (REL 3). In fact, REL 2 is nearly identical to REL 1. There is a strong emphasis on education rather than penalization.

This does not mean you don't call a judge, because you won't learn anything if you don't call a judge. Judges are there to facillitate play, not to hand out penalties.

[Spynal]

(cross-posted from The Source)

I'm a judge, for those of you unfamiliar. I regularly work at Pro Tours, Nationals, Grand Prix, etc in addition to local tournaments.

The judge handled the situation excellently.

I activate both Factories and swing for the final 6, he thinks before cycling Decree of Justice, DRAWING HIS CARD, then tapping mana and saying he was going to make soldiers.

WHAT? So you want to see an extra cards and then just make soldiers until you think you have it figured out? No way, JUDGE!

...

Then he claims that since this was downgraded to REL 2, it was his obligation to determine the intent of the play. He asks the guy if remembers what card he drew, he says "No ... wait, I THINK it was this one". Judge says "I'm not allowed to reveal what he drew, but I believe it was his intent to make the soldier tokens". He doesn't even make him put the damn card back before creating 12 tokens, Quadruple blocking each Factory and putting 2 guys in front of the soldiers. What a lame ass call.

... For example, during the tournament an opponent of mine brainstormed during my main phase, and forgot to put 2 cards back.  I cast a spell, then went to end of turn step and noticed that he had too many cards in hand.  My understanding is that this is potentially game loss worthy, especially if I had waited til his draw step.  But I'm sorry, a Mox Jet isn't worth my being a bastard.  I'd like to give my opponent the benefit of the doubt, point his mistake, and continue on with the match, especially since in this particular instance, his mistake had not caused him to have any unfair advantage.

Neither of these attitudes is good.

You call a judge when something goes wrong because the judge is the only person that can decide the best solution to the situation and issue appropriate penalties if necessary.

You do not get to decide how much advantage something has given someone, and you do not get to decide penalties for your opponents.

I never said that my opponent attained an unfair advantage, as I do not know what he drew, I DO however know what deck he was playing and how many relevant cards could be drawn off "misunderstanding" the way cycling works. The fact he could not, with confidence, tell the judge what card he drew (I stopped him immediately) is pretty shady IMO.

I do not have a problem with the judging determining his intent, but he should at least be made to put the card back so as to gain a proper understanding of how his abilities resolve. He was not even CLOSE, and didn't even bother to announce an "x" when cycling. If a call is going to go against me, at least make the other player resolve everything in order and properly, otherwise the presence of a judge is useless. That was what pissed me off more than anything. I mean, the emphasis is on education, right? [/sarcasm] I mean, this IS the segue to a Grand Prix, at which such a call would not be so moderate.

From what I've heard, there were more than enough shady calls that day. Some were corrected (i.e. Pithing Needle naming Genesis was allowed to stop recursion), some were not (I'll not go into those since I don't remember them offhand).


For the record, he wasn't saying that he allowed his opponent to forget the extra 2 cards to call him on it later. He was basically saying that he is too nice of a guy to call a judge when Brainstorm = Ancestral Recall. Hell, if that's the case, I'm going to start playing Islands @ competitive events, card advantage vs. Derek FTW!


I ALWAYS feel like dirt when a judge informs me my opponent has a deck registration error, and therefore a game loss, or my opponent forgets to shuffle in a Goblin Lackey after getting Swordsed in game 1, or they manage 2 lands to my 17,4356, and one creature to my 20,000 relevant removal spells, but it's part of the game. If you want to talk about honesty here, I remember a Pro Tour where one of the players in the finals looked at his opening 7 in game 2 and saw an Echoing Truth, he turned towards the Table Judge and said "I get a game loss, this is supposed to be in my sideboard".

I know when I misuse a card, I don't attempt to take it back and use it to my advantage. That's not my style. That shouldn't be ANY players style. I believe it was Menendian who was at 2 life, with fatal damage on the board, who drained his opponents spell, untapped, and swung ... at which point his opponent informed him he died from mana burn off the Drain. If I remember, Steve had multiple sinks for the mana, but got caught up in the excitement, misplayed savagely, and shook his opponents hand.

I'm not the complete rules jerk I seem to come across as. If this were some regular Saturday match @ Thor's/Horizon/anywhere, I would have explained it to him and let him play it back properly, since the worst that happens there is I stall him out as I did here and go about my business, and probably still t8 and win a few packs. However, this is a much more competetive setting, with a much larger prize structure. If you want to play competitively, you should have a working knowledge of the rules. I mean that's how it works right? Learn the game, THEN turn pro. I'm not going to claim to know every rule ever, but when I expect to play a deck at a tournament of this size, you can guarantee I know how the CARDS IN MY DECK WORK (except Humility, but only GOD knows how Humility REALLY works).

[Geet]

I never said that my opponent attained an unfair advantage, as I do not know what he drew, I DO however know what deck he was playing and how many relevant cards could be drawn off "misunderstanding" the way cycling works. The fact he could not, with confidence, tell the judge what card he drew (I stopped him immediately) is pretty shady IMO.

Everything I told the judge was true.  If you remember, I gave a lot of thought during that turn before I decided to cycle decree.  I was trying to remember if there was anything better in my deck to answer your soldiers.  I determined that cycling the decree was my best option.  That is why when I cycled, I put the top card of my library into my hand face down, because I really didn't care what it was.  I never even looked at it until we were waiting for the judge to come over.  I really WASN'T sure which one it was, because I didn't look at it when I drew it (I think it was probably Secluded Steppe, btw).

For the record, he wasn't saying that he allowed his opponent to forget the extra 2 cards to call him on it later. He was basically saying that he is too nice of a guy to call a judge when Brainstorm = Ancestral Recall. Hell, if that's the case, I'm going to start playing Islands @ competitive events, card advantage vs. Derek FTW!

I would also like to point out that this was a hairy turn with lots of instants flying around (opponent was playing Solidarity).  I do not believe my opponent was trying to cheat, I think he honestly just forgot.  If the Brainstorm had been one of the first spells played, obviously I would have called a judge to straighten it out, but in this case, it was his last spell played, and nothing of significance happened before I noticed the extra cards in his hand.  Calling a judge would have only served as a way for me to get a penalty on this guy.  During the match, this guy was talking trash about how MWC has no chance whatsoever of beating Solidarity (which is mostly true, but not totally; I found I had 55% chance after boarding during testing).  It was very important to me that I beat him straight up due to my card choices and play skill.  Otherwise, I would have proven nothing to him.

I'm not the complete rules jerk I seem to come across as. If this were some regular Saturday match @ Thor's/Horizon/anywhere, I would have explained it to him and let him play it back properly, since the worst that happens there is I stall him out as I did here and go about my business, and probably still t8 and win a few packs. However, this is a much more competetive setting, with a much larger prize structure. If you want to play competitively, you should have a working knowledge of the rules. I mean that's how it works right? Learn the game, THEN turn pro. I'm not going to claim to know every rule ever, but when I expect to play a deck at a tournament of this size, you can guarantee I know how the CARDS IN MY DECK WORK (except Humility, but only GOD knows how Humility REALLY works).

Just so you don't think I care nothing for the rules, I'd like you to know that on the night before the tournament, I actually looked up Decree of Justice in the Oracle, Scourge FAQ, Saturday School, AND Ask the Judge on Starcitygames, because I wasn't sure the order of the triggers was supposed to go.  The Scourge FAQ says, "When you cycle this card, you choose X and pay when the cycle trigger resolves."  I took this to mean when the card draw happens, then you make your dudes.  Also, the starcity judge seems to indicate that making your dudes and drawing your card can happen in either order (not that starcity is the ultimate authority or anything).  My point is, I was neither trying to gain an unfair advantage nor was I totally oblivious to the rules. 

Spynul, I'm not trying to get into an argument with you, and frankly, my post wasn't really aimed specifically at you, it was just my starting point.  My intention was to point out that I did not enjoy the tournament in the least bit, even when I was winning, due to the attitude of the players.  As a matter of fact, the only match I really enjoyed was against Tygre, which I lost, just because he was a friendly guy and wasn't trying to steal a win.  I even saw him let several of his opponents take small plays back, yet he still won the mox.  It just goes to show you that you can be competitive without being a jerk.

Let's face it, almost none of us can say we play magic to feed our families.  It is, even on the competitive level, still just a hobby; a game.  So why don't we at least have a good time while we're doing it!

[Bardo]

No one should "win cheaply" or "lose honorably" in a tournament, at least in the way you're implying. You shouldn't try to get a win out of a problem, and you shouldn't ignore a problem because it might involve penalties.

"Winning on technicality" is not part of the game.

And yet it happens all of the time. There's even a term for it, "Rules Lawyering," which I'm sure you've heard of. The fact that the term exists and people have had negative experiences with people trying to "win cheaply" (as I stated) on technicality, should be nothing new to you. To clarify, floor rules and comprehensive rules are part of the game, and those can be abused for the purpose of winning.

In any game or contest, one can play "honorably" (i.e. with integrity and honesty) or not. This is an aspect of competition going back millenia, it's not isolated to just our dorky card game.

Let's face it, almost none of us can say we play magic to feed our families.  It is, even on the competitive level, still just a hobby; a game.  So why don't we at least have a good time while we're doing it!

Because to some people, winning is more important than playing. That's why. But I agree with you, it's just a freaking hobby, and there's not even a lot of money at stake.

[Skink_123]

Lets get back to the decks! The masticore pile, any decklist?

[Spynal]

Just released:

Roy Spires: Invincible Control Slaver Fish

3 Fire / Ice
3 Umezawa's Jitte
4 solemn Simulacrum
4 Misrha's Factory
3 Firestorm
4 Accumulated Knowledge
1 Deep Analysis
4 City of Traitors
3 Ancient Tomb
3 Firestorm
1 Pentavus
1 Memnarch
2 Masticore
2 Mindslaver
4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Island
1 Mountain
2 Wooded foothills
2 Flooded Strand
3 Volcanic Island
4 Intution

Sideboard
1 Mana Leak
4 Force of Will
4 Red Elemental Blast
2 Rack and Ruin
4 Chalice of the Void