FEINSTEIN'S FINAL MOX TOURNEY- RESULTS!!! Photos + T8 decklists! *43 People*

[Dxfiler]

Hello and happy holidays.   43 people showed up during the holiday weekend to compete for the title of 'feinstein's final mox tournament winner.'  A title that means absolutely nothing but sounds good :p 

After 6 rounds of swiss the final standings before Top 8 were:

1.  Rich Meyst                 16 points
2.  Andy Probasco           15 points
3.  Stefan Ellsworth         14 points
4.  Marc Tuttle                13 points
5.  Dana Renfrew            13 points
6.  James Hangley           13 points
7.  Rich Shay                  13 points
8.  Eric Dupuis                12 points

9.  Nick Rodriguez              12 points
10.  Jeff Carpenter             12 points
11.  Eli Hannon                 12 points
12.  Jeremy Barcello          10 points
13.  John Longo               9 points
14.  Daniel Gagooch          9 points
15.  Jeff Roucoulet           9 points
16.  Ross Merriam             9 points
17.  Austin Pollack            9 points
18.  Matt McNally              9 points
19.  Dan Rix                     9 points
20.  Rob Moreau               9 points
21.  Lowell Hillman            7 points
22.  Pat Broderick             6 points
23.  Jason Healy               6 points
24.  Justin Timoney          6 points
25.  Jeremiah Rudolph       6 points
26.  Joe Roy                    6 points
27.  Rob D'Alfonso            6 points
28.  Chris Thoms              3 points
29.  Ryan Marek               3 points
30.  Chris Van Dijk            3 points
31.  Gregory Reelitz          3 points
32.  Warren Mackenzie      3 points
33.  Raymond Robillard      3 points
34.  Brad Ruxton              3 points
35.  Kevin Peterson          3 points
36.  Jonathan Morawski     3 points
37.  John Putrino              1 points
38.  Jeff Kowalczyk           0 points
39.  Chester Li                 0 points
40.  Sean Orcutt              0 points
41.  Louis Gentile             0 points
42.  James Tamulevich      0 points

43.  Joe Bernier      *voluntarily dropped to assist in judging* 

Let me explain that last one.  There were some problems with DCI reporter early on (I.E. it exploded :p) and Joe voluntarily dropped to help assist... and assist he did.  Joe and my head judge Jeremy Smith were able to get reporter up and running in relatively good time.  Players were very understanding about it.  I danced a jig in the mean time.  Thankfully that was not caught on camera :p  Here are some moments during the swiss rounds that were:


               

Round 1 is underway.  Sundering Jerk fully embraces the holiday spirit.



Let's see here, we've got some mountains, a wasteland, and... what in the blue hell?! 
A Dave Feinstein Needledrop token?!  Who made these?  My head doesn't even fit in the frame!  :p




Random Doorprizes were given out every round.  This is round 1's Winner... Chester Li!
Look at how excited he is over winning a signed vigor print.  It's almost like I told him to act excited :p




Round 2 random doorprize winner Rob D'Alfonso.




Random Doorprize winner Eli Hannon showing off foil swag.




Random doorprize winner Rich Shay not trying to show off his foil swag :p 

John Longo and Dan Rix (matrix) also received random doorprizes during the swiss of misdirection and foil DCI regrowth, but I forgot to take photos of those.

I did not forget to get a photo of this...



This was a reunion photo of last Waterbury's top 4.  From right to left we have Me trying to be funny, Rich laughing at whatever unfunny thing I said, Brassman boogeying down and...                 O for Outlaw.

Oh that crazy Outlaw and his mask wearing.  At least he didn't wear it while he was playing...



Alright he's officially out of his mind :p

After the swiss the top 8 was set.  To the victors went glorious spoils...




QUARTERFINALS:

Rich Meyst Vs. ELD: Winner Meyst

The battle of the first seed versus the 8th seed was quick and merciless.  ELD fought mightily but found himself under extremely clogged boards both games with various lock pieces.  Rich Meyst appeared to have a good matchup having beaten ELD in the swiss, but his draws appeared to make the match look more lopsided than it is.  Although he dispatched Eric in fairly quick fashion, would his luck against GAT hold up?

Andy Probasco Vs. Rich Shay: Winner Shay

This is not the first rodeo for these two... and it probably won't be the last.  The standard fairly epic 3 game match occured with Rich ending on top.  I don't have details of this one but Rich seemed to cover it pretty well in his report.

Stefan Ellsworth Vs. James Hangley: Winner Stefan

Stefan told me he had fairly broken starts and won in 2 games.

Marc Tuttle Vs. Dana Renfrew: Winner Tuttle

In the battle of the budget red decks, Marc's goblins ended up surprisingly running over Dana's Mono red.  Tuttle also won in the swiss, but I thought the rematch could go either way.  Apparently goblins has a good match versus burn, which I would have not guessed beforehand.

SEMIFINALS:

Rich Shay vs. Stefan- Winner: Shay

Yet another 3 game mirror involving Rich that ended up with him on top.  Whoever had the more broken starts appeared to win each time.

Rich Meyst Vs. Marc Tuttle: Winner Meyst

Another mono red vs mono red match for Tuttle with 2 completely different decks once again.  Tuttle fell in short order to the Meyst monster, which again surprised me because goblins traditionally does well against workshop decks... but not ones packing swords main :p 


Finals: Rich Shay Vs. Rich Meyst: Winner Rich.   

...Shay :p

A very exciting match between the two former Waterbury winners occured with back and forth games.  Magus of the Moon proved very problematic for Shay early in the games but later fire/ice and pyroclasm proved their worth in gold.  Rich again details this in his report, but after 3 very exciting games Shay takes down the title of FEINSTEIN FINAL TOURNEY WINNER!

And now... the top 8... photos + decklists!


Rich Shay mailing in his victory pose :p

1st Place- Rich Shay: Gat

4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Force of Will
4 Duress
4 Gush
4 Merchant Scroll
2 Mana Drain
1 Echoing Truth
1 Beserk
2 Psychatog
1 Time Walk
1 Fastbond
1 Yawg Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
3 Tarmogoyf
1 Fire/Ice
2 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
2 Island
1 Volcanic Island
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Black Lotus

Sideboard:
4 Energy Flux
3 Red Elemental Blast
3 Pyroclasm
2 Yixid Jailer
2 Pithing Needle
1 Volcanic Island




Rich Meyst (with a Brassman lurking in the backgroud)


2nd Place- Rich Meyst: "Danza Slap"

3 Goblin Welder
2 Gorilla Shaman
4 Magus of the Moon
4 Juggernaut
4 Solemn Simulacrum
3 Triskelion
3 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Trinisphere
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Thorns of Amythyst
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus
4 Mishras Workshop
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
7 Snow Covered Mountain
2 Ancient Tomb

Sideboard:
3 Shattering Spree
3 Pyroclasm
3 Pyrostatic Pillar
3 Viashino Heretic
3 Razormane Masticore



Stefan, trying to look as emo as possible in the presence of his hull, Brassman (lurking in the foreground)
3rd Place- Stefan Ellsworth: GAT

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Demonic Tutor
3 Duress
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Gush
4 Merchant Scroll
3 Mana Drain
1 Repeal
2 Misdirection
1 Mystical Tutor
3 Ponder
1 Time Walk
4 Quirion Dryad
1 Psychatog
1 Beserk
1 Fastbond
4 Flooded Strand
2 Island
3 Polluted Delta
3 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea

Sideboard:
3 Tarmogoyf
1 Thoughtseize
2 Yixid Jailer
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Tormod's Crypt
4 Energy Flux
1 Duress


Behold... THE FUTURE.

4th Place- Marc 'The Future' Tuttle: Crappy Goblins (made and lent out by yours truly :p)

1 Goblin Tinkerer
4 Goblin Lackey
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Siege-Gang Commander
3 Wasteland
1 Mox Ruby
4 Leyline of the Void
4 Aether Vial
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Goblin Piledriver
1 Stingscourger
4 Goblin Warchief
4 Goblin Matron
4 Goblin Ringleader
1 Gempalm Incinerator
1 Strip Mine
4 Wooded Foothills
6 Mountain
2 Barbarian Rings

Sideboard:1 Shattering Spree
1 Stingscourger
2 Rack and Ruin
3 Gempalm Incinerator
4 Red Elemental Blast
1 Siege-Gang Commander
3 Magus of the Moon
1 Shattering Spree

5th Place- Andy Probrassman (taking on the role of where's Waldo, I have no shot of him alone but I bet you can spot him in many others :p)
GAT:

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Demonic Tutor
3 Duress
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawg Will
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Gush
4 Merchant Scroll
3 Mana Drain
1 Repeal
2 Misdirection
1 Mystical ttor
3 Ponder
1 Time Walk
1 Fastbond
4 Quirion Dryad
1 Psychatog
1 Beserk

4 Flooded Strand
2 Island
3 Polluted Delta
3 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea

SB:
1 Duress
1 Thoughtseize
2 Engineered Explosives
3 Yixid Jailer
1 Tormod's Crypt
3 Tarmogoyf
4 Energy Flux



One way or another, this man is going to burn you.  The lucky ones just lose their match.

6th Place- Dana Renfrew: Trogdor the Burninator

2 Gorilla Shaman
2 Goblin Vandal
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Magus of the Moon
3 Fireblast
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Price Of Progress
3 Pyrostatic Pillar
4 Black Vise
4 Ankh of Mishra
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Ruby
1 Lotus Petal
4 Simian Spirit Guide
15 Mountain

SB:
1 Pyrostatic Pillar
3 Tormod's Crypt
3 Shattering Spree
4 Fractured Loyalty
4 Pyroblast



James Hangley... Big Pimping.

7th Place- James Hangley: 5C Stax

3 Smokestack
3 Tanglewire
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Goblin Welder
4 Wasteland
3 City of Brass
4 Mishra's Workshop
4 Sphere of Resistance
3 Crucible of Worlds
1 Crop Rotation
1 Sundering Titan
1 Powder Keg
1 Pithing Needle
1 Balance
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Sol Ring
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Karn, Silver golem
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus
1 Gorilla Shaman
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mishra's Factory
1 Tinker
1 Strip Mine
1 Mox Jet
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Memory Jar
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Coalition Relic
1 Trinisphere
1 Triskelion

SB:
3 Chalice of the Void
3 REB
3 Leyline of the Void
1 Razormane Masticore
1 In the Eye of Chaos
1 Fastbond
1 Powder Keg
1 Darkblast
1 Viashino Heretic


ELD in disguise as his mild mannered day persona... ELD :p

8th Place- ELD: GAT A.K.A. "Ron Paul Revolution"

2 Island
3 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
3 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
1 Psychatog
4 Quirion Dryad
1 Mystical Tutor
4 Gush
4 Duress
1 Echoing Truth
1 Time Walk
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Fastbond
4 Merchant Scroll
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawg Will
1 Cunning Wish
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
4 Force of Will
1 Black Lotus
4 Ponder
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Misdirection
4 Brainstorm
1 Mox Emerald

SB:
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Hydroblast
3 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Snuff Out
1 Smother
1 Beserk
3 Pithing Needle
3 Tarmogoyf


In addition to random doorprizes and the ones offered to top 8, there were also two 8-man $5 side tourneys.  The first was for a DCI foil textless damnnation AND 2 Polluted Delta, the second was for 4 Flooded Strand.  There were splits in both side tourneys.  I don't remember who won them so if you ended up splitting in either one feel free to post here.

At the end of the day I felt the tourney was a success.  Anyone who talks to me on a regular basis knows how much it meant to me to get this thing finally off the ground.  I really didn't know what kind of turnout I'd get given I was forced to postpone and ended up rescheduling right before Christmas.  I knew the new weekend was tricky for people so I wanted to go all out for those who ended up showing and I thank every single person who did show.  Also a giant thanks to my judges Jeremy Smith and Joe Bernier.  Also thank you to my dealer, Josh Smith, who I felt enchanced my tournament greatly.

I have an entire photo albulm that includes photos not posted here, as well as my photos from my previous two events viewable here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11764968@N07/sets/

I'm very happy to have this tourney labeled as my final one.  My hope is those who attended had a great time.  I appreciate the interest and the support people have shown in my tourneys and you are the reason why I ran these.  <3

Thank you again and Happy Holidays.

- Dave Feinstein

[Zherbus]

Seriously awesome TO report.

[Outlaw]

O that Outlaw... O wait.  Great report and great tourney Dave.  Congrats to all!

[Shock Wave]

Great report, great feedback. Well done! The community is appreciative of your efforts.

[nataz]

<3 DAVE
i miss magic.

[Smmenen]

Dave, now that you ran this tournament and two others, what is your final impression of the format and metagame as we end 2007.   Is it as bad as you once expressed or do you feel that there is some sort of silver lining.  You long campaigned for the restriction of Gifts and it happened.  Do you feel that the metagame is better now?  Do you think that your top 8 was healthy or unhealthy.

You gave a wonderful tournament report, but I'd like to know your feelings of the format too.

Stephen

[desolutionist]

<3 Stefan's shirt

To Dave Feinstein!

[Dxfiler]

At Steve-  The top 8 was a little more diverse than I honestly thought it would be.  I expected total gush dominance and but it only took up half of the top 8, with the 4 non gush decks being varied and 3 of them red.

With that said, I'm not at all surprised that GAT once again came out on top.  I think the format could just flat out be healthier if they restrict either gush or merchant scroll.  Just one of the two at this point.  I think scroll would make the most sense but either one going would be fine with me. 

To me, the format is not broken... but at the same time it is not in some form of 'golden age.'  It's healthy enough where a good player can pick up a decent variety of decks and compete, but the difference between one good player overcoming the other in the key matches appears to ultimately come down to who has the gush/scrolls.  I think the top 8 reflected that well. 

Take Rich Meyst for example.  He's easily one of the top 5 players in the New England meta.  He's extremely creative and his results throughout the years have shown that.  Time after time he's taken totally rogue things and won big with them.  He took down a Waterbury with Vinlasher Kudzus.  :p  Now if gush was unrestricted for that Waterbury, that simply wouldn't have happened.  Since gush has been unleashed once again, the amount of competitive creative leeway he can take has certainly decreased.  He's taken the same creative approach to deckbuilding since gush has been unrestricted, but the framework of cards that he's able to work with is far more narrow than it used to be. His results have still been good in the gush era, but at the end of the day I've seen him lose in finals to gush decks multiple times... in many cases where there's no doubt he was the better player.  As for this particular tourney, both Rich's are just about evenly matched in my opinion, and while they had a great and epic match, I just can't say I'm surprised that the gush deck came out on top.  If the roles were reversed in some alternate universe and Rich Shay was the workshop deck and Rich Meyst was the gush deck, my money would again be on the gush deck.  When you have two players at that level, the best deck is going to win out over the hate deck more often than not.

I feel a hell of alot more strongly about restricting Gush or Scroll than I ever did Gifts.  Gifts at least took some setup/thought where these two cards really don't.  Gifts stifled my deckbuilding only slightly where the gush meta just makes me completely not want to play.  I've dabbled in multiple archtypes since the unrestriction and results-wise I've still done ok, but it's just so frustrating for me personally to deal with the fact that if I'm not playing a gush deck then I'm not winning the tourney. My best result since the unrestriction came at the last Waterbury... where incredibly enough I did not hit a gush based deck the entire tournament.  I do not consider this a coincidence. :p   

Again, that frustration is just personally me and I speak only for me.  There's plenty of people who enjoy playing this format.  This isn't a restriction thread so I don't want to go into a giant debate with anyone, but to me format health is the chief concern and if you restrict gush or scroll the format will absolutely and instantaneously become healthier.     

Those are my updated thoughts to those who care.  They basically mirror how I've felt for the past going on 9 months.

As for me, I'll probably just sit out the little tourneys from this point forward.  The passion I once had isn't there and I'm up in the air if I'll even go to the bigger stuff.  My gut says yes but I'm firmly entrenched in other formats and card games right now, plus at some point I need to get a career... soon :p

In any event, it meant alot to me to get this tourney out of the way because I wanted to do this a 'thank you' to those who I've encountered over the years in vintage.  So again to those who showed I thank you very much.  To those who couldn't show because of the rescheduling thanks anyway for the interest.

So thank you all again for the feedback.  It made the effort and obstacles preparing for this tourney worth it and I believe people enjoyed themselves... that's all I wanted.  =)

- Dave Feinstein

[Morphling420]

Who is that extremely good looking bearded man with the foil atog? A sign to come in the future perhaps... Thanks for the fun Dve the tourny was awesome.

[sorcutt]

Thanks for the awesome tournament Dave.  I had tons of fun playing in the 1st side tourney.  I ended up playing Staxless Stax against Chester Li who was piloting Ichorid.  Chester ended up winning in game 3.  I won a textless foil Damnation for my troubles and Chester took home a Delta. 

thanks again

-Sean

[Myriad Games]

It's heartening to see that Mountain was the most played card in the Top 8!

 

[TopSecret]

Undoubtedly, Mountains will need emergency restriction if they prove to be more broken than Islands!

[Madpeep]

Undoubtedly, Mountains will need emergency restriction if they prove to be more broken than Islands!

haha, I was just about to post something simliar to that at the same time you were.

[Nefarias]

Mountains will need emergency restriction

Kai's skills at understanding metagames even pertained to the future!

Check out December 16th