I'm posting this on behalf of my good friend, Vincent Forino (v4ino). Congratz again on your stellar performance at Boston, Vin!
-Ro Chang
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Vincent Forino's 4th Place Report
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I would like to apologies for forgetting just about everyone's name, I did know them at the time we played though. If you recognize yourself in the report give me a shout. Everybody I played was cool so no need to mention that in the body of the report. On that note I would like to say that everyone (except for a few scum bags) in the Vintage community that I've met is cool, however when people communicate over the internet they tend to treat others in an inhumane way - lets show why we are better than the other formats and act like men (even the women of the community).
The Deck
FSB (Forino Sui Black)
Mana
6 sack lands
4 Swamps
1 Underground Sea
1 Cabal Pit
3 Wastelands
1 Strip Mine
1 LOA
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Rituals
3 Cabal Rituals
Creatures/Kill
4 Dark Confident
3 Gators
2 Tendrils of Agony
Broken/util
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Echoing Truth
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Necropotence
Tutor/Draw
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Demonic Consult
1 Vamp Tutor
2 Grim Tutor
3 Night Whispers
Disruption
4 Duress
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Null Rod
Sideboard:
1 Massacre
1 Dark Blast
1 Hurkly's Recall
1 Rushing River
1 Tormod's crypt
3 Chalice of the Void
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Grim Tutor
1 Cabal Ritual
2 Ill Gotten Gains
1 Underground Sea
First of all the reason for the ridiculous name is as follows.
1. SCG never rights the proper name of my deck - I've listed Xanta's Robbery (let's see who figures out why) as the deck's name for every event and crap like Confident Combo or IGG is written.
2. Every one is throwing their name in front of a deck; it has gotten Ridiculous; you can't read more than two posts without seeing people's last name or teamnanes in front of everything - if you play small Black and Blue creatures with disruption your U/B fish. Hopefully a named Sui deck will be ridiculous enough for everyone to step back and end the insanity.
Now without giving too much back-story - I had no intention of going to Boston and haven't played Magic in over a month however my Brother Raffaele talks me into going b/c we will hit up a nice restaurant on both Friday and Saturday (I did back to back tournaments in Virginia and swore never to do it again). I deceived my usually deck needed some pizzazz so I threw in the N-rods and Gators from the board and decided to have some fun. My play testing on Thursday with Roland and his friend (sorry forgot name) who was playing Grim went well aside from me getting crush 80% of the games however I seen what plays I needed to make differently and what my SB needed to comprise of to be successful.
So after a long wet drive from NY we (Brother, Mike Lupo, and I) eat a good meal at Fire|Ice (no we didn't eat the card as Jiggly puff did during our match), and got lost finding the Hotel.
Morning of - feeling O.K. then Mike hands me a pill and says take this.... I'm not one for drugs so I say I'll pass. He then tells me that it is a Gingko Biloba pill and helps with mental something or other so I pop it and we proceed to get lost going to the place b/c we were following Roland (Roland - next time do not use googlemaps)! Thanks to the coolness of Jeff Anand who signs us up we get to the place just in time as the judges are collecting decklist - after scribbling it down we start...
Round 1 (Enter the Dragon)
I had a feeling I was going to play Dragon round 1, I don’t' know why but I did. Normally I feel fuzzy in the morning, loose early and win through the afternoon to end up in Top 16 however I was feeling exceptionally clear minded today, maybe the stupid pill worked.
My opponent wins the Die roll; we shuffle up and start playing.
He leads with Tropical Island, Mox Jet, Duress (pulling D-Rit). So it seem
my gut is confirmed. I go sack, swamp, Duress (pulling FOW) seeing E. Witness, Deep Analysis, and not much else. He goes and plays Sol Ring, I go and play waste, N-Rod. I see the grimace on his face as I knocked out most of his mana. He goes drops bazaar and discards Dragon, E. Witness, and Deep Analysis. I play Confident and waste the bazaar. At this point he's stuck not finding mana or a bazaar and the Confident backed by disruption and a small tendrils brings it home.
Board
Out - 1 Cabal Pit, 1 Gator, 1 ?
In - 1 Underground Sea, 1 Rushing River, 1 Tormod’s Crypt
Game 2 - it's over fast, he leads with a Duress, then Bazaar round 2 for a
3rd turn win.
Game 3 - I lead with D-Rit Duress (FOW), Confident. He leads with Bazaar putting a Deep Analysis and I don’t' remember what else in the yard. Confident brings me into a waste that is crucial. He doesn’t do much else as I C-Rit out a Confident & Null Rod followed up by a Gator who ends it.
Round 2 OATH
The 5C Oath has been catching on lately (I was going to bring a cool 5c Oath but opted not to). I win the die roll and keep. I lead with a C-Therapy calling B-Storm (he doesn't have an oath in hand but I see the Orchard which led me to believe it was Oath). I resolve a confident and beat with tokens till he finds an Oath at which point a small Tendrils takes him out.
Board
Out - 3 Gators, 1 mana
In - 1 Underground Sea, 1 Rushing River, 1 G. Tutor; 1 Tendril
Game 2 - He pulls bad and has to paris down to 6 (and doesn't seem excited with the 6). He give me a few tokens while draw/digging for OATH, I beat with the tokens (then flashed them back to kill tutors that he doesn't have the mana to cast) while resolving a confident (I see he has Razia in hand). I stress wasting non Orchard lands just to get more tokens. I get a second Confident down and bring myself to 7 life, I rip the Tendrils and pop a small one for the win.
Round 3 Pitch Combo
This is the one I've been looking forward to all day, I didn't make T8 at Virginia b/c of Grimm so I brought a little something for "fancy" combo. If I remember correctly his name was Adam.
He wins the die roll and goes down to 6 cards, he plays a fetch and passes. I D-Rit, Duress - he Fetches Underground and b-storms which shows me a broken grim he's holding (I can imagine what he's hiding). I pull something (?) and drop N-Rod after seeing all the zeros in his hand. This takes allot of gas out of his engine, I resolve a confident, waste away and pull all the bounce and rituals I see. I establish my LOA and start drawing 3 a round - I even cast a confident just to flashback him back. By the 5th round he's at 12 from 2 sackland and 3 hits from the confident so I throw a mid-range Tendrils and proceed to game two.
Out - 1 Cabal Pit, 1 V. Tutor, 1 D. Consult, 1 Gator
In - 3 COV, 1 underground
He starts at 6 cards again and lays a sack before passing the turn. On my turn I play C-therapy naming D-Rit and nail one - in the hand was a lotus and some other sexy 0's (I was dead next turn). I then lay chalice 0 and pass the turn. He gets off an A-recall round 2 but doesn't get anything to put me away with, I Duress (C-Rit) and waste on round 2. He passes and I cast a Gator off a D-rit. He continues dropping land and passes. On turn four I cast Y-Will which I topdecked, play a D-Rit, Duress, C-Therapy to nearly clear his hand while the Gator is beating on him. He passes the turn and I lay a N-Rod and beat with the Gator, he EOT mysticals for a Y-Will and I start sweating, thankfully he can't get any artifact mana through the n-rod, COV and has to settle for setting himself up next round. I continue to beat with the Gator and I'm not pulling any juice. He Timetwisters on his next turn but doesn't turn up any juice so after a brainstorm he extends his hand.
Round 4 CombOath
I'm up against my first Canadian - Jacque.
He wins the die roll and goes first. He drops a mox Ruby, Orchid, D-Rit and Wheels us seven new ones. He lotuses out a necro… at this point I take my beating like a man. I do see that he is playing some funky 5C Oath Combo deck, which is good unlike GOAT, which sucks IMO (I do not like to talk down or discredit decks however when I heard the premise of Goat I was repulsed - and have beaten it pretty solidly).
Out - 3 Gators, ?
In – 1 Rushing River, 2 IGG, 1 Tendrils, 1 Grim T.
Game two - Thankfully he doesn't go completely broken, the team of a confident and tokens bring him to 12 before he has a big ugly flying non-targeting creature on the board. Since I have the life lead and the other big ugly is in his hand he has to sit on the creature. I tendrils him next round.
Game Three - He has to Paris down to 5 cards and doesn't look happy at the five he ripped. I later learned that he only pulled one mana source (an orchad). I proceed to IGG him to death.
Round 5
I will let our neighbor to the north tell the story for me...
Round 5 : (2-1) on the play
Vincent avec IT-Ish combo (Maindeck Confidants, moins de cartes bleu)
Game 1 : Je Duress quelquechose, il go off tour 3 ou 4 avec random spell,
DRitual, DRitual, Cabal Ritual (threshold) Tendrils de 10, Tendrils de 12,
gg.
Game 2 : Tour 1 Chalice @ 0 + Bob, Cutpurse plus tard for the win.
Game 3 : Il mull a 6, je rip apart sa main avec Duress/ Cabal, drop tormods
crypt, cast Trinket > Lotus et je gagne en comboant tour 5-6.
First of all aside from it being in French I am insulted by this (JK… it’s a great language) b/c it compares me with IT. I had performed strongly in Waterbuy way before IT's sideboard strategy was used. I would have a hard time believing that my deck wasn't referenced when that sideboard was created (of course people in vintage only mention certain names). For reference here is the list (and I lost in Waterbury b/c of a consult for Y-Will in the elimination round, great match Seth)
http://sales.starcitygames.com/deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=15572So with my first loss I'm sitting 4-1 with great tie breakers so I win and
I'm in (so I'm told).
Round 6
U/B fish
It's every one's favorite deck with the Confidents and Stifles. I haven't tested vs. this specifically however I have fought so many similar decks since Bob has been printed that I felt comfortable with it.
Game 1 - He wins the Die Roll and plays Underground, Lotus, Duress (I think he pulled D-Rit), and Confident (good round). For me Land Go. He reveals a mox, plays it swings and says go. I drop another land, a N-rod (which I'm questioning but turns out to be a great play) and pass. Well for the next few rounds he doesn't pull any land off the Confident and is taking some significant damage. I play a Gator which gets sacrificed to an Edict. With our life about equal I pull out the FOW and stifles with Duress/C-Therapy and Tendrils for the win.
Board
Completely forgot what went in/out.
Game 2 - He leads with Lotus (again), confident, Planar void, Underground. Pretty good. I have 9 storm in hand and figure he only has a 40% of having a stifle, so I go for it.... and it gets stifled so we go to game 3.
Game 3
I lead with Land, mox, Confident. He doesn't pull his Lotus so I have the tempo on him. He resolves a confident and they stare at each other till I break his hand up and Tendrils for the win.
Round 7
Green and I decide to draw, I try to find Mike at one of the many bars just on this block (Boston's local culture is interesting).
Round of 8
I'm paired against jigly (I think) playing Gifts, If people don't think skill is important in Vintage they should of watched this match which was well played on both sides.
Game 1 - He wins the roll and goes land, mox, merchant scroll for A. Recall. I have a good draw and play lotus, N. whispers, Duress (FOW), land, C-Therapy (A. Recall). He lays a land and passes to me, I resolve a confident and start drawing and beating, I attack his mana drains and have a hard cast FOW counter my Gator
( Eventually confident damage plus extra cards = mid range Tendrils for the Win.
Board.
I don't exactly remember however I pull some gators in favor for some combo pieces.
Game 2 - when he lead with a main phase Brainstorm I was concerned b/c I knew something savage was coming. I was right - 2 moxes and a chalice @ 1. Normally not a big deal but when he tinkered the next round I was thinking of my game three strategy.
Board - I pull some N-rods out for additional bounce after seeing a chalice (and more
Importantly being crushed by DSC).
Game 3 - A good draw however complicated to play - I lay a sack and pass, he plays a land and passes, I EOT Sack for an underground and Vamp for a duress. On my turn I play a swamp, duress (FOW), then A. Recall into a lotus amongst other things. I pop the lotus for black and play Necro drawing 7 cards. I keep 1 land, 1 H-recall, 3 C-Ritual, 1 duress, and G. Tutor (I discarded some land and 2 C-Therapy). He has a strong turn two and plays Land, Mana Crypt, double merchant scroll for FOW x2. My turn I drop a land and launch a Duress that gets a FOW. I draw 5 (DT and Tendrils were kept). He Recoups a merchant scroll fetching another FOW and passes. He calls me on having 8 cards even after I counted out 7 for him multiple times (the ship was sinking I understand his trying to un-nerve me). On my turn I play a non Threshold C-Rit, DT that gets FOW’ed (but now giving me Threshold) and another C-Rit that gets FOW’ed. I Necro down to 1 life and I'm happy to see some more hand disruption. He know he has one more round to live and he top decks DT and thinks about it... when he cast it the judges give him a hard time and says he only has less than a minute to find what he wants which upsets him. With only one black on the board he couldn't do the DT for BLK lotus, recoup, DT for Tendrils kill - he was 1 or 2 mana shy so he gets T. Walk and then recoups it and draws into A. Recall! Finally he passes the turn and is down to 8 life b/c of some savage Mana crypt damage along with FOW and sack lands. I lead with a C-Therapy calling Mana drain and I see the life leave his eyes. Past that it's C-Rit, D-Consult for D-Rit and a tendrils to end it.
Next round is bob-bomberman which ends with some average draws (paris down to 5 game 2) on my part and good solid plays by my opponent. This is a deck I need strong pulls to win.
Props:
-Ralph for talking me into going (and for forcing me to put COV in my SB)
-Mike for giving me the magic pill
-Jeff Anand for signing 4 people up and shelling out the money for us
-Gators in the semi-finals
-Good food in the North end
Slops:
-Bob-Bomberman for being the only deck to beat me (twice)
-Josh Meckes for being in Milan which is infinitely cooler than Boston
-Canadians for much overdone deck masturbation
-No parking in the North end
-GoogleMaps
