Well, this was a rather small tourney. I'm quite disappointed that the Iowa crew didn't show up. Maybe it's because they're scurred. In anycase, there were only 14 peeps, but Dan being the PIMP he is, decides to give out a mox anyways. Everyone there had powered decks except for 1 person. The field was everything.
I decide to play Grim Long cause I've been playing the same deck for the past few months. I play Menendian's exact Maindeck with a board of:
3 Hurkyl's Recall
3 Xantid Swarm
2 Shattering Spree
1 Cabal Ritual
2 ESG
2 Tormod's crypt
2 Chain of vapor
Round 1 – Sui Black
Game 1: He has turn 1 negator, turn 2 waste/duress/duress, turn 3 sinkhole. I windfall and Wheel into nothing of relevance.
Game 2: I play turn 1 bargain.
Game 3: I draw7 into a turn 2 kill.
1-0, 2-1
Round 2 – Scotty Limoges playing Co Dragon
Game 1: I have recall turn 1 that scott lets resolve. I play a mox sapphire, mana vault, and LED and pass. He plays duress and sees duress/tinker/wheel. He thinks a long time and take duress. I rip ritual, I play tinker. He forces. I play wheel, crack LED for UUU with BBB floating and win easily from there.
Game 2: I have turn 1 tinker, which finds jar. I crack it on the spot with B floating and a lotus petal. I draw into a tormod’s crypt, play it, and cast vampiric tutor, setting up for a next turn win. Limoges discards 2 dragons off the jar. He draws, and casts a null rod. Frowns. I crypt him in response and we’re in topdeck mode (only he has bazaar). He can’t seem to rip dragon or animates, so it gives me plenty of time. I rip academy, ritual, tinker, and will for the win (yard was HUGE and had 3 rits/2 tutors).
2-0, 4-1
Round 3 – Brandy playing Flame vault.dec
Game 1: Is a blowout. His hand is juice, but he has no blue mana. I cast recall twice (thanks to regrowth!) and win on my turn 3.
Game 2: He goes lotus pass, which must mean he had turn 1 drain. That’s fine. I duress. He forces. I play xantid swarm off ESG, and he drains, and brainstorms. He lays a land and passes. On my next turn, I play out my moxes from my hand and timetwister. My hand of 7 contains duress, bargain, lotus, grim tutor, ritual, land, mystical. Broken.
3-0, 6-1
Round 4 – Travis
ID
3-0-1, 6-1
Semi-finals – Rus playing IT
Game 1: He has turn 1 duress for my imperial seal. My hand is land, land, mystical, mind’s desire, mana crypt, mana vault. I draw hurkyl’s recall. I play land, sol ring pass. On his turn, he does nothing of relevance and passes. On my upkeep, I cast mystical for demonic, play a land, and cast demonic. He remands. On his turn, he draws ritual, plays necro, plays seal, and takes 8 from necro. I draw into bargain. I figure at this point, a desire for 7 (not having played a land) is better than bargain at 13 life. I demonic for lotus, play it, hurkyl’s, replay my shit, and cast desire for: duress, jar, rit, tutor, and some other crap. I duress away his Tendrils (RFGed from necro) and he scoops.
Game 2: I mull for the first time. I play land brainstorm pass. He does nothing of relevance. On my turn 2, I cast demonic, which he let resolve. I then play LED and Lotus, both of which he lets resolve. I cast necro off lotus, he remands, I crack LED in response for BBB. He has FoW and blue card to make sure it doesn’t resolve. He extracts me for my tendrils, but it’s okay, because he has a mana crypt on the table, I have tormod’s crypts to prevent him from doing shit, and I have 4 ESGs in the deck. He draws nothing and takes 6 consecutive mana crypt hits. This is why I don't play combo decks with few bombs.
4-0-1, 8-1
Finals – Split with Scotty Lucksack
Short tourney, though it was mad fun. Grim Long is such a broken deck, and MAD fun to play. It's refreshing to play something other than Gifts!
Anyways, Iowa peeps, pls pls pls pls pls show up next time. It would suck if Dan had to stop these tourneys because of a lack of interest.
Props:
-CO crew, 3 of 4 in top 4 again. Wooo!
-Scott Limoges, for Splitting with me TWICE with the same freakin' deck! and, you know, for driving the entire way.
-Travis. Tough beats dude. maybe next time?
-Dan. Seriously, it's so cool that you gave out a mox even though we didn't hit 15 peeps. Mad props.
-Team Meandeck, especially Steve, for tuning GrimLong into the monster it is.
-All my opponents for being mad cool.
Slops:
-Lou. Way to sack it up dude. Get your damn weight up!
-That random shady lookin' dude who kept standing over my shoulder touching my cards.
-Nebraska. When you gonna start representin'?
-Bob
