DAVE FEINSTEIN... WON A TOURNAMENT... SORT OF. *Myriad Games Report- T4 split*

The following conversation took place shortly before this tournament. AIM handles have been modified to protect the innocent:

IM LOUD AND OBNOXIOUS: feinstein you would have been happy, i almost got stabbed
ToDaveFeinstein!: ?
IM LOUD AND OBNOXIOUS: in allentown pennsylvania
ToDaveFeinstein!: that doesnt make me happy
ToDaveFeinstein!: did u piss someone off
IM LOUD AND OBNOXIOUS: at the bus station
IM LOUD AND OBNOXIOUS: in the ghettto
IM LOUD AND OBNOXIOUS: no but i hid in some bushes
IM LOUD AND OBNOXIOUS: to avoid stabbing
ToDaveFeinstein!: lol
ToDaveFeinstein!: i cant picture that
ToDaveFeinstein!: how do you know you were getting stabbed
IM LOUD AND OBNOXIOUS: because there was an impressive amount of drug dealers around
ToDaveFeinstein!: did shit go down
IM LOUD AND OBNOXIOUS: i saw 3 deals
IM LOUD AND OBNOXIOUS: i had to wait for a fucking shuttle to get me
IM LOUD AND OBNOXIOUS: then one of the crackheads came over to me and asked me for a fucking lighter
ToDaveFeinstein!: LOL
ToDaveFeinstein!: you should have kicked him in the balls and ran

I had no real reason to post that as my lead in for this report other than sheer entertainment value.

So our tale begins the night before. I ask the Brassman if he'd like to go to Myriad. He says yes. I am shocked and quickly jump on the opportunity to go to a tourney with the reclusive brass man. He decides to sleep over my house. Unlike the last time he stayed over, I smartened up and locked all the doors to prevent him from leaving in the middle of the night.

Saturday morning rolls around and I go downstairs to find Brassman in my basement. A puddle of tears collected by the sofa he slept on. No escape this time, bwahaha.

I am not a nice guy.

I unlock the door to the garage and we get into my car. As I open the garage door, I find Stefan Barnsworth waiting anxiously. He immediately runs at my car, seeking the life force of his hull inside. Before I can lock the doors, Stefan makes his way into the car and immediately attaches himself to Brassman's leg. That's what Barns do.
They cling to their hull.

An hour and a half later we go to Myriad. It is packed. Lots of new faces. I decide to run the fish based on one factor and one factor only:
I didn't feel like borrowing another 5 grand in cards to play Stax. I honestly felt going in that Stax would be a better call, since Myriad is home of the EVIL (I cannot stress that word enough) deck known simply as The Mountains Win Again. I just don't like UW fish in a field full of angry hate fueled red mages who prey upon fish. More importantly, it's typically a small tourney...and I like the raw power of Stax in smaller tourneys. As I've mentioned previously, Fish is a deck that really wants big giant tourneys with long rounds. Its consistency is why it succeeds. Stax on the other hand just wants to smash you over the head quickly. The less rounds, the less chance it has to unravel and lose to its own inconsistent starts. With 35 people I think my odds with fish are better than normal, so I didn't feel badly about running it. Without further ado:

TEH LIST

4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
2 Island
4 Flooded Strand
4 Tundra
1 Polluted Delta
1 Windswept Heath
2 Plains

// Creatures
4 Meddling Mage
3 Kataki, War's Wage
3 Jotun Grunt
3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
2 Savannah Lions

// Spells
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Black Lotus
1 Ancestral Recall
3 Null Rod
1 Time Walk
3 Daze
2 Misdirection
2 Trickbind

// Sideboard
SB: 1 Kataki, War's Wage
SB: 4 Seal of Cleansing
SB: 3 Threads of Disloyalty
SB: 3 Umezawa's Jitte
SB: 3 Orim's Chant
SB: 1 Swords to Plowshares

Oh look. It's the same list I always run. What a surprise. The only notable change is dos trickbind maindeck. I noted a high concentration of very good gifts players in the room, and I wanted that little edge game one. I went with this over orim's chant primarily because orim's chant is not blue. With 4 force of wills and 2 misdirection, the blue count for this particular version was of great concern to me. Three swords is very un-feinsteinlike, but I just didn't feel the need for three maindeck. Cutting down on daze and plow was extremely painful, and probably won't be done in the future. It was just a last minute decision I chose based on the metagame. The tricky thing about last minute decisions are that sometimes you make very questionable decisions... like sideboarding Ancestral Recall. I heard someone did that once. What a n00b.

ROUND 1- J0N /W GIFTS/BELCHER *?!METAL GEAR?!*

Game 1: I lead with some guys. He drops a gorilla shaman. He tries for a gifts. I daze it. I win the game.

I board out something I don't remember, prob daze, for a plow and some chants

Game 2: I lead with null rod. He leads with belcher. He cunning wishes for an echoing truth and eot bounces my belcher. He has four mana available to him before drawing with one card in hand. I have a chant. He untaps and draws. He plays a mox... I think for a long time but let it in. He then casts mana severance... meaning he ripped the 5th source. I lose because I did not chant. I actually thought the charbelcher was just in the deck randomly, as he had shown lots of different win conditions prior to it. Also, the odds of him having that one card in hand be mana severance were slim to none. It was still a gigantic misplay on my end, since chanting him means he just re-plays the mox and passes. I'd replay the rod and the game would once again heavily favor me. Instead I died.

I bring back dazes on the play as well as kataki #4. Seals cross my mind but I don't really want to make room for them.

Game 3:

I lead with kataki. He leads with some artifacts. He untaps and draws. I inform him that both moxes were unpaid. He explains he didn't know about the kataki ability and should therefore be allowed to pay.

Mini-rant: This excuse just doesn't fly in a tournament. I'm never thrilled to call people on this kind of stuff, but I'm not going to sit there and allow takebacks on game changing misplays either. If he hadn't seen his next card, I would have no problem with him paying. I bring up the Kataki scenario because its something that players need to accept responsibility of if they screw up. At SCG VA on day one, an opponent forgot to pay for rod on his upkeep with a jitte on my side. A judge was called over and asked why I didn't inform him of the upkeep. I explained to that judge that with Kataki, the opponents artifacts gain the ability... hence the choice to pay or not pay lies squarely with the opponent. If you draw your card, you choose to not pay. The judge then read Kataki and agreed with me. Something important to note, and cannot be stressed enough, is that this is not the same thing as ignoring an incorrect game state for self benefit. For example, if you're at 10 but your opponent has you marked at 12 and you say nothing, that's cheating. Kids, Don't Cheat... it's bad.

THIS PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT BROUGHT TO YOU BY DAVE FEINSTEIN... ONLY YOU CAN PREVENT FOREST FIRES!

Anyway, presiding judge and myriad games owner Dan comes over, asks if the card was drawn... we both agree agree it was... artifacts are buried. Again, not something I'm big on enforcing, espcially in type one... but players shouldn't expect takebacks on upkeep costs they are responsible for. His misplay ends up not mattering, since he's still able to drop an artifact and cast tinker. I force it, he misD's, I MisD back... with 2 cards left he forces again.

Must Be nice. :p

I'm forced to topdeck a plow. I untap, draw... plow.

I must practice. :p

I plow and win shortly thereafter.

1-0

Round 2- Keith /w Goblins

Keith is relatively new to the scene and I had talked with him and his friends prior to the tourney starting. He was very friendly.

Game 1- We both lead with some creatures, then trade plows back and forth. He's splashing for blue and white, which while giving the deck varied answers, makes it VERY prone to wastelands. I take out his lands and he eventually drops vial, but it's too late by then.

I side out dazes, trickbinds and rods for jittes, threads, plow, kataki, a partridge and a pear tree.

Game 2- he leads with vial early and keeps it at 2. Piledrivers start dropping faster than you can say 'Nice threads noob.' When he drops creatures that I can finally cast threads on it's far too late, and he has pyroblast anyway.

I board in dazes for threads, since threads actually suck in this match and I'm on the play.

Game 3- I keep an ok hand with one creature, some dazes and a misdirection. Any long time reader of my reports knows what happens when I keep iffy hands containing misdirections. On his first turn he states he has to gamble. Two seconds later I'm drawing 3 cards :p The game was basically over after that. I had kept the misdirections in only because I knew he had volcanics... volcanics usually lead to ancestrals. It's like alcohol leading to hangovers, but less graphic.

2-0

Round 3- Brandon /w Confi-tog

Brandon was another face I didn't recognize, but he said he saw me at ptq's alot back in the day. He informs me he recently q'd for Geneva. Based on that information, I'd normally peg him for something like Gifts. He was playing next to me earlier however, so I knew his deck was an EBA/Psychatog hybrid... this would be tough.

Game 1- I lead with Ancestral with force backup... he misdirects with force backup. Guess who wins that war? I'll give you a hint, not me. :p As with all games where ancestral recall gets hijacked, I lose shortly thereafter.

I board out dazes for threads and a plow.

Game 2- I lead with mage on confidant and an Isamaru. He draws alot of lands.

Game 3- I lotus out kataki and isamaru first turn. He leads with bob but I have the plow. My little weenies go all the way.

3-0

Round 4- Arik /w 3 color fish

I've seen Arik around all the new England tourneys and he always plays fish. His version is very similar to mine but he enjoys confidants alot so squeezed them in his maindeck. That's the only black card he plays main, but I can understand wanting to play with Bob. It's a very strong card. Arik and I have talked alot prior to this and have a mutual respect for each other. He informs me he has a game loss for misregistering, so we go straight to game 2.

Game 2- This is a long, long game. Basically, we throw haymakers at each other with meddling mages, grunts, forces and plows flying back and forth constantly. A key moment arises when I'm able to Ancestral for the second time after putting it to the bottom with grunt. Multiple fetches allowed this. He manages to hang in there and actually has the life advantage. It's 13 to 5 favoring him. We've traded about 12 creatures each by this point. He had a meddling mage on Grunt out at one point and it seriously backed me up. I was growing an army of grunts in my hand. while he's beating in there with the mage. I finally get a kataki out, which other than confidant is the only creature that we do not share in our decks. The kataki is big, as it eventually trades with mr. mage, and I stabalize with multiple grunts at the 40 minute mark.

I would have liked to play a 3 game set, because I find fish mirrors to be both skill intensive and very fun. Then again, winning this meant top 8...so I wasn't complaining either. Arik is a very solid player so I expected him to make it in anyway.

4-0

Round 5- TEH BRASSMAN /W BRASS GIFTS

Brassman... my only weakness! We draw and go to the mall for food. And stalk some young girls. Oops that last line wasn't supposed to be typed out.

4-0-1

Round 6- Mark Matthes /w gifts

With brassman and I being the only undefeateds, I knew the pair down was coming. I had no idea who Mark was, but I'm in the camp of pretty much always drawing my opponent into top 8 with me.

It's the nice thing to do. I'm a nice guy. One of those statements is true. One is false. You figure it out. :p

4-0-2

Top 8 looks absolutely vicious... I know virtually everyone in it and they are all good locals. Then again, It's New England. I don't expect anything short of very hard top 8's.

Top 8- Arik /w UBW fish

Here we go again. At least I can get a full match this time.

Game 1- He leads with two confidants. He flips over back to back forces. This is why I don't play with the card in my version. Although the odds are you won't get bonked by them, once in a while confidant flips turn super ugly...and they cost you the game. He took a total of 16 from his confidants. Despite being up on me by tons of cards, it wasn't hard to deal the last four damage.

I board out dazes, rods and trickbinds for jittes/plow/kataki/threads and 1 seal of cleansing.

Game 2- He leads with rod. We trade some guys. I drop jitte, it goes uncontested. I brainstorm into the lone seal and setup for it. we have a brief counter war that I'm able to win off misdirection. Jitte goes wild. He edicts various targets but I just keep playing creatures. As long as jitte gets counters I can't lose.

5-0-2

Arik took the loss well and we revamped his list together. I basically suggested maindeck duress. It's just better than stifle if you have access to black.

Teh Brassman won his match, and Demonic Attorney (demonic attorney) eeked out a ridiculously close match against ELD. The other person in top 4 is Mark. I get paired with Mark and Brassman is against Demonic Attorney. I'm fine with playing it out, but Brass and Chris both look at me with that look on their face that just screams 'Hey noob, let's split.' I get the prize payouts from Dan and it makes absolutely zero sense to play it out. We're offered $127.50 each. If you play out top 4 and lose you get $30. That just isn't a choice as far as I'm concerned. Brass, Chris and I agree a split is best and we ask Mark if he's fine with it. He mulls it over but ultimately decides on it. I don't blame him for thinking about it, the allure of winning power is nice. The problem is that with many mox tourneys, the payouts are extremely top-heavy... so if you don't win the mox it's pretty much a loss. The split worked out for all four of us.

Mark and Chris took the cash equivalent, while Brassy and I went shopping! That doesn't sound right. He gets a foil strand and a bunch of little cards. I get a box, some foreign factories and save the remainder for free entry to next months tourney. Dan does a great job with these tourneys, so chances are I'd be back anyway... but with free entry next time it's a no brainer for me. The hike to these tourneys is very far for me, so I usually jump at the chance to split. That and I play fish :p

So yeah, it's been a pretty good run for me lately. I'm just enjoying the ride. I expect to crash and burn sometime soon, probably TMD 10 :p I don't know what I'll play at that, but I suspect UW fish to be very popular. Quite frankly, for that sort of tournament I feel it's a fantastic choice. Its consistency is very hard to match.

Whatever you play, make sure you're comfy with it. I can't stress that enough. Success doesn't come off just copying a deck. Playing a known deck is fine, just make sure it fits your playstyle and you practice the holy hell out of it. I think the best deck in the format right now is unquestionably gifts. That does not necessarily equate into 'play gifts.' Fact of the matter is, the overwhelming majority of players just shouldn't touch the deck with a ten foot pole. It's ridiculously complicated and I've seen plenty of GOOD gifts pilots make many game losing mistakes. If you're willing to put the time into the deck it pays good dividends, but most people don't have that kind of time or dedication. I know I don't.

Me? I'll more than likely stick to some sort of aggro deck. The fun of swinging across the table with little men is just too much. I like my matches quick and dirty.

Oooh baby.

- Dave Feinstein
- Dave Feinstein