Ok, so after missing the last Eudemonia tournament and losing in the top 8 of the last tournament with GAT/r at Adventures, I decided to go back to the drawing board. I'll be the first one to admit that there's been a lot of magic for me this summer and that "not winning" a type 1 tournament isn't something that happens to me a lot. With that in mind and also the fact that I'd been deprived of type 1 for a few weeks, I decided that I needed to rebound and crush this next tournament. I tossed GAT and went back to the drawing board to explore the options of the format with respect to my metagame.
Jeff Huang (JeffTheFob) and I decided to meet up for an afternoon of testing since he was in town so we went down to a local card shop. We played with flash, GAT, ICBM goblins, and Spooky stax. After testing DI, we came to the conclusion that:
1. goblins is loose.
2. stax generally has two opponents in any given match; the actual opponent and its own mana base.
3. flash is a really nice card.
4. blue cards are still good.
5. GAT kinda just "....IS!!!!!"
Going into testing I had been wanting to play stax. However, despite having decent games against flash and GAT, losing because I didn't draw a rainbow land to unlock 3 cards or not drawing a shop to make my lock come into play before their gameplan is executed was not something that I wanted to deal with. I didn't really feel like playing flash because I felt that if I were to play a merchant scroll deck, I'd rather take my chances with GAT because the likelyhood that I'd lose in the mirror around here is pretty slim. So after abandoning GAT for a better, stronger, more streamlined deck with a cool name, I arrived at ..... GAT. Congratulations. You've just won a new car!!!!!
So the new secret GAT list that I personally developed and couldn't possibly be linked to that of
Rich Shay's list from Waturbury in any way is the following:
4 merchant scroll
4 brainstorm
4 gush
4 force of will
2 misdirection
2 mana drain
2 opt
1 ancestral recall
1 cunning wish
1 echoing truth
1 mystical tutor
1 time walk
4 duress
1 demonic tutor
1 vampiric tutor
1 yawgmoth's will
4 quirion dryad
1 fastbond
1 regrowth
1 psychatog
1 black lotus
1 mox emerald
1 mox jet
1 mox sapphire
1 library of alexandria
3 flooded strand
3 polluted delta
3 tropical island
3 underground sea
1 island
1 snow-covered island
SB:
1 berserk
1 blue elemental blast
1 hurkyl's recall
1 oxidize
1 snuff out
1 engineered explosives
1 threads of disloyalty
2 smother
2 energy flux
4 leyline of the void
Coincidently, there is only a 1 card difference between my list and Rich's which is that I used 1 island and 1 snow-covered island instead of just 2 islands. After the first hour of testing with Jeff, I found that the addition of the snow-covered island raised my win% both pre and post board by no less than 20%. Rich's maindeck is absolutely solid. I wouldn't change much at all unless there is a new devlopment in the format that demanded attention. The sideboard had to be customized for my meta so Luis and I talked over AIM/modo about it for a while. The sideboard that we came up with ended up working out quite well for us.
So Jeff and I were going to carpool up to Davis then make an even bigger carpool with Luis and the rest of our entourage to Sacramento. The tournament wasn't scheduled to start until 3PM so Jeff and I leave at noon. Normally it takes 90 minutes to get from my house in Hayward to Davis but since apparently EVERYONE with a car decided to hop onto highway 80 at the same we planned to be on it, we got delayed and barely managed to make it. The traffic only compounded the problem that when we got to Davis there had been an apparent miscommunication amongst us about having a complete flash deck for our friend Matt which was not the case. After we sorted that out and got onto the freeway, there was even MORE traffic.
We got there though.
The tournament had been rescheduled from the 18th of August to the 11th because of a PTQ happening that day as well as the Eudemonia timetwister tournament. I'm not sure how many people who were planning to go to the original scheduling of the tournament on the 18th didn't get the news about the bump up but we ended up with only 16 people planning to throw down their gauntlet and quarrel for the rights to the unlimited mox jet. We were informed that we'd be playing 4 rounds with a cut to top 4 which meant that one 3-1 wouldn't make it because of tiebreakers assuming that there were no draws before the last round. I thought that playing 5 rounds and cut to top 4 would have been better but I wasn't running the show and had to respect the decision of the head judge as final.
So we're off....
Round 1: Ricky with GATI lost to Ricky in the top 8 of the last Adventures tournament; we were both playing GAT. I got pretty unlucky draws in game 2 and was very displeased. I figured that he'd still be playing GAT/r this time and my guess ends up being correct. I win game 1 with a turn 3 fastbond into gush and other various draw spells into yawg will. Game 2 he leads with jet, duress, go. At the time I put him on having a nutsy recall + fow hand but that'd be hard for me to keep on the play with no lands. His duress shows him my hand of 2x duress, gush, scroll, brainstorm, island, underground sea. I duress him back on my turn and he forces pitching time walk. His turn included playing a delta and doing something. I duress him again and see a second delta and some stuff. For those of you readers at home and abroad that are adding 2 and 2, you guessed it; he passed turn 1 without playing a land when he had one in hand. At 26, senility is really starting to get to me. All the GAT mirror games are melting into a single murky puddle "dryad" "scroll for recall" "so many insane plays" "5 minute brainstorms" *shakes head*. Needless to say, I maneuver the game drastically into my favor and hash round 1 into the win column.
1-0
Round 2: Luis Scott-Vargas with GATN-i-c-e P-a-i-r-i-n-g-s
We seem to get paired against each other in round 2 more often than not which is very odd but that's life. He scoops to me and we go get lunch. There was an eastern europe ethnic market a few shops down so we went in there looking for some refreshments. There were a lot of interesting items in there: various feta cheeses, sausages, whole unsliced bacon, product brands that I've never heard of but look like normal US products missing a letter here and there (MALK, now with vitamin R!!!!) including a drink called Kefir which is like drinkable yogurt. "Kefir defeats thirst just like Jack Bauer defeats terrorists" or something like that. Heh. I wouldn't have been suprised if I had jumped the counter and gone into the back room to find a group of Armenians in track suits who would agree to have someone killed for me. I guess that's a wierd tangent but that's the impression that I got. After a brief visit to a chinese general about some chicken we were back in action for round 3.
2-0
Round 3: Eirik Aune with GATAgain, N-i-c-e P-a-i-r-i-n-g-s
Eirik is one of Luis's roommates so I am presented with a bit of an awkward situation. Jeff, Luis, and myself are already splitting so a 4-way split is not something that I really care for. At some point I have to draw the line. So I look over at Luis:
Me, "Luis, what do you want to do?"
Luis, "Do whatever."
Ugh, ok time to phone a friend again.
Me, "Fob (Jeff) what do you want to do?"
Fob, "Do whatever."
Sigh, ok. So Eirik is in the split now as well. A 4-way split on a jet isn't much less than a 3-way so it's alright I guess.
3-0
Round 4: Sam Smith with UR Phid w/ magus of the moonWe are the only 3-0's so we ID.
3-0-1
At this point Luis walks up to me.
Luis, "You're gonna have to win this Web because it's only you in the top 4."
Me, "Alrighty then."
Top 4: some kid with GAT:
Like I said before, senility is getting the best of me. This matchup is a bit unfair. He didn't play like he was experienced with a GAT mirror and I was able to handily win. I'm sorry I forgot your name.
Game 1: He plays a tog which I let resolve because I don't really want to trade my force and other good card for it. He runs a demonic tutor into my mana drain on turn 2 which lets me power out a turn 3 dryad + tog. I could have let the tutor resolve but I figured that I'd rather not take the chance of him getting a spell that he'd want to cast later which would have let him escape the turn without giving me a serious tempo advantage due to drain. I start casting draw spells, find fastbond, and grow my dryad to the point where I don't care if he eats it with tog because he'd have no hand and no graveyard.
Game 2: Again his lack of experience with the mirror shows as I am able to bait out a hardcast force of will on my mana drain which had been aimed at his dryad. He knew I had mana drain in hand from an earlier duress and I figured he had force because of the way he had been playing. I EOT cunning wish for vamp which I cast to find fastbond. I had yawgmoth's will in hand already against a tapped out opponent with 1 card in hand. The rest was rather elementary.
Finals: Sam Smith with UR Phid w/ magus of the moon:
Sam, AKA Banks, was moving off to college in Airzona the next day so this was his last tournament in the area. He's pretty decent. I know that his gameplan revolves around making sure his men stick to the board. Outside of ophidian and ancestral recall he has no draw so it's very important to make sure his guys don't enter the red zone.
Game 1: We throw some spells back and forth, trading counter and what not. The game comes down to the point where he has an ophidian in play against my fastbond, jet, library of alexandria, tropical island, island, snow-covered island, mystical tutor in hand. He draws, attacks, draws a card, plays pearl, ophidian #2 with 2 lands untapped and 1 card in hand. I know he has mana leak and drain as possible foils for my plan. However, I think I am at the point at which I have to go for it and play the odds. So EOT, I mystical for yawgmoth's will, untap, cast it. It resolves. I win. End of story.
Game 2: I duress him and see: magus of the moon, polluted delta, red elemental blast, force of will, mana leak, ophidian. At the time, I thought his next play would be to try to resolve ophidian so I took the REB instead of the force since he would have been able to play the phid next turn with REB backup. Instead he opts for magus and I don't draw anything relevant afterwards despite having an island already. I get welded to death by his bloody 2/2 and ophidian because my 2 dryads died to engineered explosives.
Game 3: My opening hand is: island, tropical island, mox jet, blue elemental blast, merchant scroll, gush, smother. I can accept this start. He mulls to 6. I open with island, mox jet, merchant scroll for ancestral. He plays island, ancestral recall, black lotus. Frowntown for me. I draw duress, "mise", and look at his hand of: force of will x2, mana drain, mana leak, red elemental blast, ophidian. Ugh, super frowntown. So many insane choices. I ask the judge if i can choose the black lotus in play. I cannot unfortunately and take his mana drain. After some deliberation, I decide that I have to start bashing through his counters. The best way for me to beat the deck that wants to trade 1-for-1 is to make him trade his-2-for-my-1. So I fire away my ancestral and he forces pitching force. OK, down to island, REB, leak, ophidian. His turn is island, sac lotus to play ophidian go. I play dryad which he leaks. He attacks and scrolls for force. I smother his phid which he forces going down to 1 card in hand which I know is a REB. He attacks and passes. I demonic tutor for smother have have to pass. EOT I brainstorm which he REBs which I in turn BEB. I draw some stuff, untap, smother his ophidian and he is out of gas. He does nothing. I play a dryad and start casting draw spells. The game is slowly getting out of hand for him. He plays meloku the clouded mirror which meets my force of will. I untap with drain open and it's over shortly afterwards. I counter his engineered explosives and wish for berserk to kill him.
Afterwards we decide to get some dinner. It's almost 10 PM so the choices are limited. We settle on Applebees because it's the "best" place that's still open. The bruschetta burger was quite good along with the accompanying garlic sage fries. The burger was a standard burger served on foccacia bread with mozarella cheese, diced tomatoes, and a light pesto sauce. Quite delicious. After that we headed to Sudwerks (a local brewery) and had "one beer". If the beer you order is served in a 1-liter glass, does that count as one? I guess it technically does. On-tap hefeweizen is pretty good.
I don't usually write reports but since Lotushead wasn't there to start a tournament report thread, I figured I'd give it a whirl and lay it out the way I saw it.
