[Report] Seth's Games and Anime, where competition doesn't exist.

Ok, so long story short, I recently moved to the west coast and am checking out this game store.

I find out they hold sanctioned 1.5 tournaments once a month on Sundays.

I go down with the following list last Sunday:

//Mana (27)

3 Scrubland
1 Godless Shrine (I really need to replace this)
3 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Plains
9 Swamps
4 Dark Ritual
4 Wasteland

//Creatures (12)

4 Hypnotic
4 Confidant
4 Shade

//Blow the hell out of stuff (21)

4 Sinkhole
4 Vindicate
4 Duress
4 Hymn
4 StP
1 Darkblast

//SB

4 Null Rod
4 Engineered Plague
4 Withered Wretch
2 Phyrexian Negator
1 Darkblast

I get there way early (ie the store isn't open yet), go grab food from a nearby donut shop, walk around...

The store opens, I go in, give the guy my DCI #, start looking to trade cards with people. The first guy has a playset of Welders, I want exactly 1 Welder to finish my set, he doesn't want to break. =/ I understand it. Anyways, the store apparently has a stupid rule about having to put your bags and folders away in between rounds (to keep people from stealing merchandise and/or cheating?). Pairings finally go up.

Round 1, Jesse with... Elves.

I win the role.

Turn 1: Hypnotic
Turn 2: Sinkhole
Turn 3: Vindicate the 2nd land.

The game is more or less over at this point. By the time he finds any more land, I've found another Sink and Vindicate. No SB (although I obviously should have brought in Plagues, I simply didn't think I needed to board whatsoever seeing the one creature he played and what he discarded).

He opens Llanowar Elves, I find the only MD Darkblast and it's more or less game over from here (Darkblast is an absolute house against Elves, Goblins, Fish, Suntail Hawks, Savannah Lions, etc).

I wish him good luck for the rest of the tournament. 1-0 (2-0)

Round 2 Someone Else (not good at remembering names if I don't have something to right them down on) with.... Elves...

I win the die roll again.

I open with Duress if I'm not mistaken, and then play Confidant on turn 2. I figure I'll StP a mana Elf (Priest of Titania I think), Sink a land and swing with Confidant into his other mana elves, he's already go me a card at this point. He doesn't block... Holy COW, I quickly play out my 2 more Confidants with StP back up to cut them off with one of their upkeep triggers on the stack if I ever get low on life (I never go below 8, there's a turn where I go Ritual Land Land, and the next is Land, Land, Land). He doesn't ever actually swing at me the entire time (A Duress reveals a Coat of Arms at some point, I realize he's focused on comboing). The 3 Confidants make short work of him as I blow up lands with the Sinks and Vindicate and Swords his mana elves since they double as blockers/attackers.

I board in the E Plagues and Darkblast over Hymns (I figure if he's on the play, he could have a fast enough draw to simply get all his mana elves out by the time I cast it) and 1 Sink (I think).

Game 2, he opens Llanowar (I think?). I Darkblast it. Plays out more mana elves, I dredge the Darkblast. He eventually plays beacon of creation at for 3 1/1s. This time he's attacking and gets me to about 9 before the dredged Darkblast and 2 StPs and Vindicate from my hand take down all his guys. I've also managed to Sink and Vindicate all his lands. I eventually slap down a Specter and a couple turns later Shade comes down and ends the game. He ends the game with no permanents in play. I may actually have the order of these games confused, but I do remember game 2 I got third turn E Plague that he Naturalized.

He asked to look at my deck later saying he was thinking of making a BW deck similiar to it. I tell him the Sinkholes are the hardest to get (even harder then the Scrublands) but that they can be replaced with something else if hen can't get them, should he be on a budget.

2-0 (4-0)

Round 3 against Rob (I believe) with WGB control.

His deck is weird, but I've finished both my matches in under 15 minutes easy so I think I've got a good match up against his 6ish duals (I figure he's probably one of the more competitive guys, just likes building his own decks) and cycling lands from what I've seen of his deck. His win conditions are on the high end (Exalted Angel and Eternal Dragon) so if I control his land, I shouldn't have a problem. Win the die roll. Again.

I open Duress and take Funeral Charm because I have a Confidant in hand. He wastelands my waste after I play the turn 2 Confidant. I get a land in the 2 cards for my turn and Hymn a Chainer's Edict (I think) and something else out of his hand. I continue to try and blow up his lands, but he keeps blowing my guys up, eventually, I get a Specter out (he's got LftL online at this point which I hadn't seen in his deck so I'm holding back Vindicate for his creatures instead to buy more tempo with the Specter, but should have known better when I saw a cycling land earlier in the tournament). A couple turns later I got another Confidant as well. He hardcasts Dragon, I Vindicate it. I swing in to put him at 4 I think and he doesn't topdeck removal.

I SB out the Darkblast for a Wretch.

Game two I don't really remember, which means it's likely I blew up everything and just smashed face with shade. I do remember opening Ritual Specter into StP even though I had a Duress in hand, so I'll be playing Duress first from now on against control. Again, these 2 games could have been in different order. During the first game the guys sitting next to us were hysterical. They were fairly loud and fun to listen to, which is good because most of the louder guys that try to talk up their opponents to throw their game off are annoying to play nearby but not against.

3-0 (6-0)

Round 4 (someone else, again bad with names) with Burn.

I near auto lose this match up from the testing I've done.

It appears he's running the mandatory 12 bolts and 3~4 Fireblasts. He's running 4 Fanatics as opposed to Seal of Fire or Spark Elemental as his last 1 drop. Also I've seen he's playing Magma Jets, Incinerates, Price of Progress and Chain of Plasma as his 2cc slots.

I win the die roll to make it 4 die roll wins if I'm not mistaken.

We both go to 6 (which is better for me, by far). My hand is:

Swamp
Plains
Sinkhole
Vindicate
Duress (?)
Confidant

I keep, go Duress, take Magma Jet over Browbeat (which I hadn't seen, seeing 1 other land). He goes with Fanatic. I play Confidant. He swings with Fanatic, no blocks. He... lets me untap with Confidant?? I wasn't expecting this whatsoever. For the third time on the day (the first two against the elves players) my opponent chose not to take down Confidant when they could have. Now I understand my opponent is playing burn. I understand he needs to play a little greedy sometimes and hope I rip some Specters so his bolts just did double essentially. But, I don't think I'd ever let Confidant sit around and allow my opponent to rip more lands, vindicates, and sinkholes to screw my 2 land hand out of existance and out resource me. Anyways, I rip a swamp, take nothing, draw Sink number 2. I Sink his first land. He goes land, swing with fanatic, Chain you. I get a second confidant, and a land as the draw. Sink his second land, have Vindicate for the third when he finally does draw it. Eventually I find Nantuko Shade, and have 2 StPs in hand. I go to StP his Fanatic, he does the damage to me again (I'm at like 6?). I drop the Shade, he finds a mana but has no 1 cost spells (Duress and Hymns took them out earlier). I untap, swing with Shade and Confidant, and afterwards Swords the Shade for 5 life to get to 11, out of reach of any possible Incinerate+Fireblast stuff. The game ends 2 turns later.

Game 2, I board the same as last match I think. I go turn 1 Ritual Specter, he bolts it on his end step. I never draw another threat all game.

Game 3, I get multiple Shades (I need a shade to race and having a second as back up against a bolt is nice), Duress, Sink, Vincidate and can cast everything in my hand so I keep. This game is similiar to game 1 except quicker, without confidants, and the shades just smash face.

I told him before that I thought I'd lose. Afterwards he said: This is why I don't listen to the stuff I read online because you can either get lucky or be a good player and know the match up to control my lands so I can't cast anything. I tell him my testing against burn its 75% in his favor. I wind up with 10 packs as prizes for my $5 entry fee.

What was good:

Darkblast. Holy God was Darkblast ever good. Although I did have an argument with Pikula on the SCG boards about him using the dredge in the last game of GP Philly (thus reducing the chances of him drawing a second land to zero), I do think this card is stellar and have always thought so. I don't think it's worth going up to 4, but in the matches its good in, it's ridiculous. I may considering going to 3 in the board, and replaces it MD with something useful against combo.

4 MD StP. Combo was nowhere to be seen (with the exception of a Full English Breakfast deck with Shapeshifters). I kept it in against burn to blow up my own Shade in the event I needed the life. Swords is the best spot removal spell ever printed and Legacy is predominately aggro.

Blowing up my opponent's land. Much of the field it seemed was not playing enough land, and were playing without draw engines. A few games ended with my opponents without a permanent in play. If you suspect your metagame isn't playing with enough lands, bring the Sinkholes and Vindicates.

What was bad:

Godless Shrine. I need to replace this so bad.

Wasteland, sorta. I got paired with 2 elf decks, and a burn deck. Guess what's making colorless mana for Vindicate, Specter, and Confidant. In round 3 it would have been good if I'd seen another copy or two (I probably didn't as round 3 my Confidants were actually blown up, thus no draw engine to find the Wastes).

Basic Plains, I should get a Tainted Field to replace one of those, and go with 1 white fetch.

First turn Ritual Specter against white when I have Duress in hand to nab swords.