[Report] Losing with style - A Myriad Games Report(TM)

So, with only 15 minutes at work to use for writing this report, I'll have to choose my words carefully. Words such as prodigious and splendidness simply take up too much typing time for me to actually consider using them. Therefore, I'll have to settle for more banal expressiveness.

I haven't played in a vintage tournament in almost a year. I think I went to Stratfordbury in the spring (there's probably evidence to that effect anyway), but after an opponent cheated and lied to a judge causing me to drop from the main event, I decided I was done with magic permanently. I was on the way out anyway. It had been months since I had been to a tournament anyway, and even though GroATog was just coming back, I decided that too many "in it to win it at all costs" types were in the scene for the game to be fun.

Fast forward to Dec. 1st. I had been so busy with work lately that I didn't have much fun time. My wife was going to be doing some Mary Kay thing, and Christmas shopping, so I'd have the house to myself. Normally, this would mean that I would sit on the couch drinking beer, and fiddling with some neat technology. This time, however, I decided it was only right for me to play some magic: especially since a particular Man Of Brass would not be around to spoil my ticket to the top.

I consulted with a few sages (and forced my opponent to discard two cards) and decided I'd take GAT to the party. My reasons were pretty simple:

- GAT has a very solid gameplan. It can play any of a number of roles, and has no really terrible matchups.
- GAT was originally designed by Chuck Norris. This cannot be stressed enough.
- GAT did your mom. Twice. Last night. Your dad cried in the corner.
- GAT won the Superbowl already. The Patriots gave it a good game and all, but even Moss can't catch the whip wielding she-hulk.

So, I went with an almost modern list sans a few choices:
1 - I only ran 4 fetches. Lands are important when there's lots of stax / staxless stax decks in the area.
2 - I had no ponders. I'm almost a year behind the deckbuilding curve. I went with Sleight. It was good enough, I think.
3 - I ran 2 togs. Yeah, I said it. 2 TOGS. Tog comes down, and other players go crazy because even 1 gush is good enough to go right to the domeski for 6.5 dmg + whatever else you have. Tog is so amazing, it actually beats Ron Paul in the polls.
4 - I always run some insane card. I ran two. Stifle (crappy), and Stupor (amazing). We'll get to that later.
5 - No Cunning Wish. Honestly, it's a 4-6 mana spell (the spell you get + the wish). That's a lot for a deck that runs on empty a lot. I've since put it back in because there are too many times where wish->berserk wins it on the spot, but I was trying something. C'mon.

Round 1 - Flash
Game 1: I keep a decent hand. Flash gets down a tarmogoyf, but I build up my resources, and go crazy putting him in a position where he either _has_ to block a tog with goyf or lose. Little did he know I was holding will + walk.
Game 2: I get an amazing hand, and do more of the same. This time, a dryad wins it after a good counter war.

Round 2 - Goblins
Game 1: I got paired down. Vs. goblins. He opens with a lackey. Lackey lets a warchief in next turn, and I'm busy trying to catchup to the goblin rush. I end up stalling him out, but can't get the gas to get there (I had a stifle in hand, but had already dealt with his lackey).
Game 2: I brought in my berserk, and smothers and ditched duresses. I'm an idiot though and forgot to also board out my stifle. When push came to shove, I missed a critical play opportunity to mystical for a berserk and win. I lost, by passing the turn. Stupid me.

Round 3 - GAT
Game 1: He blows me out of the water. I scoop when I find out we only have 35 minutes in the round.
Game 2: We go back and forth for attrition, each gaining advantage. I end up resolving stupor (can't be misdirected back to me) and winning the game with will.
Game 3: He opens with ancestral. I force. He forces back, pitching force. Since he dumped some other stuff, and only had 4 cards in hand, I figured I was free to open my turn 1 with ancestral. He has a 3rd force in his hand, but also happens to have a misdirection. We go to time, and I try to jedi mind trick him into thinking he doesn't have enough mana. If I topped a second land at all that game I would have stalled it into a draw (I had a grip full of gas, just needed a second land). He wins it in turns after ignoring my jedi tricks.

Round 4 - Concession
Game 1: He concedes.
Game 2: He concedes again. How Laucky!

Round 5 - Bomberman
Game 1: I control him throughout the game. I make a critical play at one point. He mysticals for ancestral, and passes it. I have regrowth and duress in my hand. In the yard, I have misdirection. I've read before about this awesome play where someone regrowths a misd or force in a similar situation and gets the bluff. I try it out, since I figure, eh, what the hell. I regrow misd. He assumes I have the other blue card. I proceed to stomp all over his face with dryads.
Game 2: I open with some artifact mana, and a time walk. I have mana drain and stupor in hand. He drops a bunch of good cards, and I drain one of them. On my turn, I dump the drain mana into a stupor. He is at one card, and doesn't recover, as a tog goes in for lethal over the next few turns.

Standings: 14th.

NEXT TOURNAMENT - Tumblin' Dice
In order to prepare for the Tumblin' Dice tournament, I had to make sure to scope out the metagame. I watched a few rounds of Liar's Dice to determine what my matchups would be. As a former Tumblin Dice pro player, I used this opportunity to work on what my plan would be, given the metagame. I eventually settled on running the awesome tech of humble beginnings followed by a round of insane trouncing.

Match 1 - White Dice
Game 1 - I position my dice on edges. A small wall of white dice block my opponents from scoring without knocking me into better positions. I don't take this round, but am in second.
Game 2 - I make a followup strategy of keeping off the radar by not knocking into any pieces, while my opponents are busy trying to screw each other over. I win this one and take the edge by a few points.
Game 3 - My opponents make fatal mistakes: They forget that I'm a tumblin' dice pro! I tumble up 40 points in a single round (not my best)

At this point, I'm guaranteed a position in the top 4. I scope out the competition. It'll be tough, but luckily my plan involved crushing. So I decided I'd stick with it.

Match 2 - Black Dice (aka pivot position 1)
Pivot position is an often misassigned role. Most players choose to be the beatdown, using one die to wreck someone's board position, and a second die to score a few points, since you get uninterrupted access to the field. However, this role is incorrect, as you are better poised to make strategic die positioning. For instance, posting at the edge of the 2x point tier is a strong position for a black player. I used this to my advantage.
Game 1 - I come out guns blazing. Knowing how to stick to my role, I accumulate 52 points. This puts me in a clearly dominating position, as I was 18 points ahead of second place.
Game 2 - Being in the crush your face position incurs a lot of hate. But again, I stuck to the plan of keeping on the 2x tier and as expected, was knocked into better positions by the other players. Knowing when to be the beatdown is important.
Game 3 - I went on the offensive with my second tumble, but when that knocked a portion of the players from the 2x tier into the 3x tier, I decided that shifting to the control role was not the best plan. My recovery was to crush with a huge 4x pointer (16 points on that die alone).

I ended that match with 110 points. Enough to nab me the title. WIN! I got 3 packs of russian time spiral. Win again!

And so ends my tournament report.