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LordHomerCat
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« on: November 13, 2007, 08:23:35 pm » |
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Our journey begins just a few days before the tournament. A plan has finally been agreed on, and I am to meet up with all the other Ohio guys in Toledo at Twaun’s place, and then we are going to take the Trog-van into Chicago.
I still don’t have a deck picked out, and have heard good things from Lyle about his team’s “Super Long” list, and have been bugging him for a list. I also am very heavily considering Goblins, but am worried that there will be a lot of Gro around and I do not want to play Goblins in a field of Yawgmoth’s Will decks. Since I don’t actually own power, I spend Thursday night driving around Dayton borrowing cards from friends and eventually end up with a full set of power, a library, 2 drains, and playsets of Tarmogoyfs and thought seizes. I load all my vintage playables into a box, grab my Gro and Goblins decks, and pack up. As soon as I get home from class on Friday, I head out for Toledo still without as much as a list to play.
In Toledo I get to Twaun’s house and people trickle in until it’s me, Twaun, JC, Dave Daugherty, Smennen, Nat Moes, Jerry Yang, Mark Trogdon, and Juan Rodriguez. We hang out for a while and Twaun grills up some tasty brats and hot dogs. After we eat, its time to get on the road. 7 of us load up into the Trog-van (minus Twaun and JC) and we begin the 4-hour trip to the College of DuPage.
On the way, I spend a lot of time discussing deck choices with Jerry, Steve, Nat, and Juan. Eventually Steve convinces me that Long is not a terrific choice in a field of Spheres and Merchant Scrolls, and I’ve already all but decided to drop goblins. That pretty much just leaves Gro, so there is much discussion of new cards and slots.
That evening is relatively uneventful. Willie shows up cold and exhausted from riding the trains and his bike from his place of residence all the way out to our hotel, and complains and bitches about how he basically hates everything. We order some food and end up getting a Panini.
Now, if you paid close attention to the Community forum, you might remember a thread on Sandwich Punch. In fact there is a whole forum devoted to the game on the NE Ohio gamer’s forum, and there were a number of people in on the game for this trip. Upon receiving my sandwich, I make a very dangerous misstep: I first remove some veggies that I don’t like, and then get up to get some napkins from the other room. When I return, I see a strange look on JuanRod’s face, and he says to Dave “Is he in?” I immediately turn to Dave, who looks at me, and then dive over just in time to save my sandwich from certain death. Juan is defeated yet again, and continues his streak as basically the most inept sandwich puncher in history. However, he would learn from this experience…
Anyway, I work on my list, tweaking counts and sideboard slots trying to fit in all the things I want, and hoping that the cards I am playing are good since I have not tested any of them. I eventually settle on a list, but when I wake up in the morning I end up switching 2 or 3 sideboard slots at the last second. Here is what I went with:
Maindeck:
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Psychatog
3 Quirion Dryad
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Fastbond
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
1 Cunning Wish
1 Echoing Truth
1 Fire / Ice
4 Force Of Will
4 Gush
1 Misdirection
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Spell Snare
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
2 Duress
4 Merchant Scroll
4 Ponder
2 Thoughtseize
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth's Will
2 Island
2 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
2 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
Sideboard:
1 Pithing Needle
2 Tarmogoyf
4 Leyline Of The Void
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Berserk
2 Oxidize
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroclasm
I had not yet played with Ponder, Thoughtseize, or Tarmogoyf in Gro, so I was anxious to see just how good they were.
We load up all 8 into the Trog-van (Willie was now with us) and depart for the College. We drive around for a while and ask a couple people for help, and Trogdon drives up into what we thought was a drop-off zone but was actually a sidewalk, and a rather friendly public safety officer arrives and tells us how to get to our destination. We finally arrive and it looks like a good crowd: ICBM, GWS, Ogre, lots of RIW people, some Colorado Crew, Becker, and many more that I don’t recognize. All told there were 126, which is a pretty awful number and meant the last round had basically everyone playing to get in.
I suppose at this point I will get to the actual report. So, here goes:
Round 1: Jake from ICBM (he would also make top8)
Jake is playing the new ICBM tech deck, featuring Trinket Mage, Dark Confidant, Tarmogoyf and a set of Stifles so they can trinket for Dreadnought. I apologize for not remembering all the details, but 15 rounds is a lot of Gro-ing. In game 1 I think he pings away at me with 2/2’s for a while before I finally resolve some giant monsters and kill him. Game two I bring in my red blasts and Tarmogoyfs, along with the smother and pyroclasm. We scuffle early and I’m able to resolve a little draw but we are both very low on cards. I have a 4/4 or so Dryad out and he has just played a second Dark Confidant, threatening to bury me. However, I’m holding my Clasm so all I need is a red source. I draw brainstorm and find ruby and wipe out his team and Dryad kills him from there.
Round 2: Mat Endress of GWS
Mat is a very interesting guy. This match was definitely the most fun I had all weekend, and he was very enjoyable to play against. He is playing the GWS tech deck of the day, a Ravager artifact deck with lots of little dudes, skullclamp, cranial plating, and Brass Gnats (seriously). Game one he plays out some random little guys and I think not much disruption, including a Brass Gnat (which I initially thought had to be a proxy or something). I play a bunch of draw, find fastbond, cast Will and annihilate him. Game two he has to mull and has a very threat-light draw. However, he resolves 2 Spheres (or thorns, I don’t remember) and an Ankh of Mishra. However, lucky as I am, I make my first 6 land drops (taking 14 points along the way since one was a fetch). He plays a couple blinkmoth nexus’s, and eventually resolves a cranial plating. When he equips and attacks with the first, I Ancient Grudge it. The same thing happens to the second. I don’t think he resolves another creature and I get a 2/2 or so Dryad who just attacks until Mat doesn’t have any way out since his own Ankh keeps him from getting out from under the spheres.
Round 3: Ben Perry from RIW
Ben was playing Tendrils combo with Duress and Force of Will. I knew these would be some tough games and indeed they were. Game one, I have to blow my hand on casting Force of Wills and trying to keep up with him, and eventually he draws something insane and blows me out. Game two, I don’t really remember for sure, but I think that I duress him or something and then get to cast will and it’s my turn to combo out. In game 3, we are low on time and my hand is really defensive. His hand is not very fast either, especially when I Red Blast a brainstorm or two. Eventually we get to turn 4 of turns and my hand is 2 Leyline, 2 Force, 2 brainstorm, and a Misdirection. He decides that he might as well go for something, and tries Ancestral. I respond with Misd. He responds with Force (I think). I brainstorm and draw a Red Blast and another blue spell, so I blast his force of will and draw 3. He is out of gas and we end the game in a draw.
Record: 2-0-1
Round 4: Juan Rodriguez
Juan is playing Goblins with maindeck Pyrokinesis and Thorns in the board. Game 1, I start with a Tarmogoyf who gets to 3/4, and is then Pyrokinesis’ed. Juan removes a SSG to cast a lackey and passes it to me. I play a dryad and like a ponder and ship it back. Juan draws, Pyro’s another guy and hits me with lackey, putting in Ringleader and finding a tinkerer. However, he still has no land so his board is just two goblins. I untap and cast yet another dryad, and this one actually sticks. I believe I trade it up with his Lackey and we kinda sit around for a while. Eventually he finds some lands and eats my 3 moxes, but I manage to draw Psychatog and resolve him so Juan can’t really attack. He resolves a matron for stingscourger, and I draw Will. However, I need to wait a turn for some reason so I ship it. Juan draws, and chooses not to do anything (which seems odd to me, I expected him to bounce my tog and hit me for like 5). I untap, tutor up lotus, cast will, tutor up Fastbond, play it and go crazy. I duress him eventually and he has drawn Pyrokinesis to go with his Scourger, but that doesn’t really phase tog. I go crazy and kill him with a gigantic trampler of some sort. Game 2, he goes first and plays Wasteland, Vial, go. He doesn’t get another turn. I start with fastbond, lotus, and cast a ton of gushes, play a dude, and time walk. I untap and Yawg Will and do it all again and destroy him. That is why I don’t like Goblins against Gro: you don’t really have any recourse against them just going crazy.
Record: 3-0-1
Round 5: Tommy Kowolith of ICBM
Tommy is also playing the ICBM deck of the day. We sit down and get deck checked, and it turns our he registered 2 emeralds and so he gets a game loss to start. Game one goes pretty long but eventually I run out of gas and he is able to kill me. Game two is also very hard fought. Eventually, he has a Goyf out facing my Psychatog, 3/3 dryad, and Goyf. However, I have no hand and he has like one card. He plays Demonic Tutor, and I’m pretty scared at this point since Tog is not big enough to survive a Goyf double-block. He gets threads as expected (I saw it from Jake round 1), and steals my dude. However, I was definitely having a good day, and I draw, cast Ancestral off the top, and cast Echoing Truth on the goyfs and then attack and kill him. Since he got a game loss, I get the match, and I am very excited to have pulled it out against a very tough opponent.
Record: 4-0-1
Round 6: Don’t remember his name
My opponent this round was playing straight up UB Mask-Nought. He is 5-0 and I ask if he’ll scoop, but with the number of people he can’t really afford to. So we play it out, and it is rather uneventful. Game one goes on for a while, but I’m in control the whole time and kill him rather convincingly. Game two is even less interactive, and I spend the entire game with pretty much 7 cards in hand while he can’t really ever get anything to stick. I play some giant monsters and crush him.
Record: 5-0-1
At this point, I’m really excited, but also a bit nervous. Ian DeGraff and Jamison had drawn last round, and there are 3 16-pointers. I like my odds to get paired against one of them, but am worried about having to play it out and get screwed. However, pairing go up and I get Ian, so we draw and both get a break.
Top 8: Jerry Yang
Jerry is a great guy, and one of the people I came with. He is playing a Mark Trogdon-designed Workshop Aggro deck featuring Wirecat, a card that I honestly did not even know existed until he showed it to me. I am a bit nervous, as I had been testing against Jerry the night before and he had been crushing me no matter the matchup (I think it was 10-1 combined against my Gro and Goblin decks). It sucked to get paired against the only guy in the top8 I came with, but at least it guaranteed one of us a top-4. Anyway, Game 1 he plays a bunch of sphere effects and some giant monsters and beats me down. Game two is pretty close I think, but I resolve Will and take like 3 turns in a row and make a huge creature. Game 3 is kind of anti-climactic, as he has to mull on the play and has to keep a hand with 2 shops, trike, and all red cards. I counter his trike and that’s it, as he doesn’t draw a mountain before I kill him.
Top 4: Manual
Manuel is the only other Gro deck in the top 8. This match, however, was really frustrating for me. Game one, I play just a single draw spell the entire game, and draw literally 8 mana sources in 10 draws (plus an E Truth and a Wish that gets countered). I get killed by some pretty small monsters and can’t do anything.
Game 2, he gets an early critter and gets some tempo. However, I’m ahead on cards and am just building up to a huge Will. He eventually hits me to 8 with a big dryad out (like 6/6), and I tutor up a misdirection and play a small goyf. He tries to kill me and leads with ancestral. I play misdirection, and he tries a force of will. I have Red blast, and he tries smother on my goyf in response. I have another Force for that, chump block his dude, and then untap and cast Demonic for Lotus into Yawg Will and he doesn’t get to untap again.
Game 3 was awful. I try very hard to make the most of my cards, but I draw approximately 6 lands in a row to end the game as he plays multiple gushes and ancestral and then resolves will.
This was a really really frustrating match, as I thought I was way ahead on deck (since he didn’t have red). He also boarded in a ton of smothers, which could not matter less to me since my plan is to just resolve Will for the win, and not get into Tarmogoyf fights or something. However, fate was not on my side this day. I get a sapphire which is a little worn, and trade it to Dan Carp for the Walk he won (which is very nice). I’m happy to win, but in all honestly I’m very disappointed that I didn’t walk out with a Lotus.
I’ll get to the day 2 report tomorrow or something, but I’ve already been typing this for over an hour and I’m hungry. So, for now:
Props:
The whole Ohio crew for making this a great trip
Steve and Jerry in particular for helping me tweak my deck
Fuckin’ Lou for taking home some power Day 2, there probably wasn’t a nicer or more deserving person there
Giordano’s Pizza for being the most amazing pizza in the world
All the Dayton people who lent me power so I could play
Wizards for unrestricting Gush so that I can annihilate people with Yawgmoth’s Will all day
Juan Rod for just powering through it
Slops:
My deck in the top 4 for not even giving me a chance to play
Tarmogoyf for being $30+, I need a set now so I can run them in Gro (probably over dryad)
Sphere of Resistance: Man do I hate that card
Nat Moes for playing fish: seriously, why would you do that?
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