6th place at FREE Time Walk tournament in Colorado.

I have been really looking forward to this tournament for a long time and had a mind set focused on winning the whole tournament. I honed that focus and made Top 8, but sadly did not win the tournament. I am the only person in the whole world who can cast 8 Gushes via Yawgmoth's will go to 1 life and still just lose the game outright, but more about that later. My good friend Scott Limoges put up his Time Walk, Tropical Island, and Savannah for 1st-3rd. Originally there was going to be an entry fee of ten dollars, but Scott had decided the night before that he was going to make the tournament free and give out other free door prizes from his rare binder for various categories such as: most original deck, first vintage tournament ever, best looking proxy (Never got around to doing this one), first person to beat a Colorado Crew member, first person to beat Carl (aosquirrels, the owner of Black Gold). Everyone was shocked at Scott's generosity. This man is a great friend whose reasoning for doing this was "Giving something back to the community." This was an amazing act of charity on Scott's part. So first I would like to thank Scott for one of the best tournaments I have ever attended. Now on to what I played, I played the GAT deck Scott and I have been tweaking for months.

GAT:

3x Psychatog
3x Quirion Dryad

4x Merchant Scroll
4x Gush
4x Duress
4x Brainstorm
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Imperial Seal
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk
4x Duress
1x Echoing Truth
2x Misdirection
3x Sleight of Hand
1x Fastbond
4x Force of Will
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Regrowth
1x Cunning Wish

1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Sapphire
3x Tropical Island
2x Island
3x Underground Sea
4x Polluted Delta
2x Flooded Strand

Sideboard:

1x Berserk
1x Echoing Truth
1x Oxidize
1x Smother
1x Hurkyl's Recall
2x Energy Flux
1x Spell Snare
1x Submerge
4x Leyline of the Void
2x Pithing Needle

Round 1 Eric Van Laetham with Empty Gush

Game One: I get an early Dryad and some Duress', but he is eventually able to resolve Yawg's Will against me and I just lose from numerous Gushes and Mystical Tutor for Time Walk followed by Empty for enough to kill me next turn.

Game Two: I get another early Dryad and start beating him with it and counter relevent spells, and Duressed away various tutors. My first Duress saw: Land, 2x Force of Will, and Mystical Tutor. I took the Tutor and forced him to counter Psychatog. One point in this game he had no cards in hand top decked Demonic Tutor I can't remember what he Demonic Tutored for, but I am pretty sure it was Echoing Truth. I had MisD in hand, but no other legal targets on the field. I played the Dryad and passed with MisD and Echoing Truth in hand. He ripped Will of the top and that's all that is said about me in these two games. He was the first person to beat someone in the Colorado Crew and his prize was a Yawgmoth's Will how perfect. I asked if I could sign it since he just wrecked me with the card both games when I had Dryad out eating away at his life. He let me sign it and I wrote Gush on there, but what I meant to write was restrict Gush.

Record: 0-1

Round 2: Daniel Hayes with Stax

Game one: He mulls to six and keeps a hand he isn't particularly happy with, but he says he doesn't like to go below six. I Duress him on the draw and I see 2x Crucible 2x Tangle Wire 1x Stifle 1x Platz I take the Stifle because my next land drop is a fetch and I want to cast my dryad in hand quickly before he draws anymore business. He never drew another land and quickly lost to my Dryad that was pumped by Brainstorms, Gushes and multiple Duress.

Game two: Very similar to game one he mulls plays land Sol Ring, go. I drop Dryad and Recall in the same turn and counter every other relevant spell he played which was a total of two: Tangle Wire, and Crucible of Worlds. He didn't see any mana this game either so it was over rather quickly.

Record: 1-1

Round 3: Jeff Kokx with GAT

Game one: I am on the play and I Duress away his Yawgmoth's Will and play Brainstorm. He had no other relevant spells at the time other than Brainstorm which he cast his next turn. He passed the turn and I cast Dryad and he tried to Force, but his Force met mine. I stuck the Dryad and started casting many blue spells Sleights, and Merchant Scrolls. I scrolled up Ancestral which he Misdirected and he drew nothing, but I should have played it safe by getting Gush. He can't recover and I beat him down with Dryad.

Game two: He plays fetch, go. I Duress him and take Will again! This guy always had Will, but I always had Duress. I don't remember much about this game, but his draws were terrible and I just beat down with Dryad. The finishing blow was Mystical for Time Walk, Gush, Swing, and then win.

Record: 2-1

Round 4: Misty Brown (My girlfriend) with Death Makes an Artist (Her title) or B/G Goyf

Game one: She mulls to six and keeps a one lander with lotus petal land Chalice for 0 and Sphere of Resistance. I Force the Sphere, she passes. I draw play a land Sleight of Hand into land and Dryad, I take the Dryad. Next turn she just says draw, go. I play Dryad and pass. Draw go for my lovely girlfriend once again. I play some Merchant Scrolls for Gushes and Recall, and she eventually gets Maze of Ith out, but I drop a second Dryad and pump it for the win.

Game two: This game went a lot like the previous one. She mulled and saw no land while I just played Dryad and kept hitting her with it. One point in the game she tried to cast Diabolic Edict and I countered it along with anything else she played with her minimal amount of land. I eventually get Dryad big enough to win. The sad thing about this match was she is my girlfriend and if she would have won this would be her first Vintage top 8 and also what is sad is that her deck is designed to beat GAT almost all of the time.

Record: 3-1

Round Five: Noble with Goblins

We ID I don't need to get beat senseless by Goblins and not make top 8.

Total swiss record: 3-1-1

Round one of top 8: Conelly Woods with Counterbalance Top Salvagers.

Game one: I have seen what he is playing so I had an idea how to play against it. I first turn Brainstorm into lands and a Dryad. He plays island, go. I play Dryad and it sticks which gives me a good indication that he doesn't have counters! He plays a few spells that I counter and plays Lotus and it resolves. I grew my Dryad quite big, but ended up with no cards, he draws Salvagers casts it and Trinket Mage and I just lose to him comboing of with Aether Spellbomb and Brainfreeze.

Game two: I drop turn one Fastbond and it resolves I play two fetches take four get Trop, Sea, and cast Gush floating two mana and then I cast Tog which resolves as well. He goes Lotus, Counterbalance and I Force it which was a huge misplay because he then played Pithing Needle naming Tog. My hand next turn is pretty busted because I have Merchant Scroll and Demonic Tutor. Next turn I start to Gush and just go crazy drawing mostly lands and no relevant spells except Yawgmoth's Will. I cast will and Gush four more times. I draw four Brainstorms and four Duress and a bunch of lands. I tutor up a Truth for his Needle and swing, I calculated wrong on my Tog damage and took him to nine life without drawing any Force of Wills or relevant spells except Vamp. Tutor which did no good because I was at 1. He plays Trinket Mage and beats me down and that's the end of my story.

Overview: I must be the only person who can resolve will Gush 8 times and then just lose the game because I suck with Tog apparently. I slunk off with my tail between my legs with Travis Spero, Zach Gable, Scott Limoges, and my girlfriend Misty to a usual hangout after we have won a tournament, The Draft. We ate and went back, but we missed Goblins smashing its way to the top AGAIN. The exact same deck with the exact same cards. Chances are I probably couldn't have beat Goblins. My fellow teammate Scott Limoges was the only other Colorado Crew in the top 8 and he lost first round as well. He lost to the same Gush Empty player that wrecked me. Despite my loss in top 8 this was still one of the most fun tournaments I have ever played in. Scott is an incredible human being for giving away over 300 dollars.

Props:

Scott Limoges for being a great friend and a crazy person at the same time.
Zach for always giving me rides down to Black Gold.
Carl for holding the event.
The Draft for always being there for good eats and good friends.

Slops:

Yawgmoth's WIll I can't win with it and apparently I just lose to it.
Carl for talking so much shit about the Colorado Crew, just kidding Carl you're cool.
For me being sick at this tournament.
Bob Yu for being a sandy vagina and watching football instead of chillin' at the tournament.
Carl's computer for pairing my girlfriend and I against each other.

Brennen Cook

I wish I would have taken pictures, but I forgot Misty had her camera.