EDIT: As promised, some theme music, courtesy of Twaun!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4oDDmoWf1MI’ve been back in Milwaukee (from Dayton, OH) for a couple months now but literally have not touched a magic card or played a game since December 14th. All my cards are in boxes and I just hadn’t found the motivation to play since leaving Ohio and all the awesome people there. So, when I saw that Twaun was interested in driving up for the ICBM Lotus tourney, it was pretty exciting, because it would give me an excuse to play again with some of the OH vintage crew. Sadly, after a few days, it seemed like Twaun and Jerry were the only ones with a chance of making it, and Twaun wasn’t sure he wanted to go with less than a full car, so I kind of wrote off the whole thing.
However, the Thursday evening before the tournament, I logged onto the NE OH gaming forums and saw that Twaun had decided he was in and just needed to hear back from me if they could stay at my place for a night or two. I posted, he posted back, we got everything set, and the plan was on!
So Saturday rolls around and Twaun and Yangtime are due in around 5pm, so I get to “work” and write out some deck lists that have done well, like Outlaw’s latest Flash build, Paul Mastriano’s last Flash build, Rich Shay’s Tyrant Oath list, and Grand Inquisitor’s 4color Tog deck. These decks all seemed a) very powerful and b) like something I could pick up reasonably well with 3 months of rust. Tyrant Oath was basically the closest thing to GAT I could find, and I love playing GAT; Flash was just straight up the most powerful; and the Tog list looked like it wasn’t that far off GAT but allowed me to play a little bit slower, more controlling game. However, not having any cards (and having an abundance of hatred for MWSPlay), I didn’t actually test any but just looked at the list and decided on how I would change sideboards and stuff.
Twaun and Jerry arrived right on time and we hung out and played for a couple hours before dinner. After discussing with them, they suggested Tyrant Oath or Flash just because they’re both extremely powerful, and after I stated how much I loved playing GAT, we decided to sleeve up Tyrant Oath. I played 5 preboard games against Jerry with Manaless Ichorid (going 3-2, pretty good for game 1) and then we played and split a couple postboard games before having to leave and fulfill our 7pm reservation at Saz’s (which has some incredible barbecue sauce and makes the best ribs I’ve ever gotten in a restaurant). Everyone enjoys the food and after dinner we head back and do some more testing.
I should also note that at this point, neither Jerry nor Twaun has a deck picked either, but I have pretty much settled on Tyrant Oath since it plays pretty close to GAT and it feels powerful enough. I test some games against Flash and realize that man, that deck is disgusting.
Earlier in the day, Mike Solymossy had IM’ed me and told him to give him a call when Jerry and Twaun got there, and after many calls back and forth we finally met up with Soly and some of his friends at like 11:15pm to hang out and try and get a bit more testing in. We initially go to George Webb’s, but just as we arrive I remember they just built a Steak N Shake down the road, and since all Steak N Shake’s are 24 hours, we can go there and have more room and such (this is foreshadowing).
So, we go to Steak N Shake and it’s rather empty, which seems kind of odd but who am I to complain. We sit down and play for a bit, some people order food, and good times are had. However, as we are sitting and gaming, a waitress comes up and says “You know we close at 12 right?” Well, we did not know, because when we were seated at 11:30 the man who sat us failed to mention such a thing, so we were rather upset at this turn of events. When all the food was finished, we packed up and paid and left, angry at the Steak N Shake people who neglected to tell us they would be closing in like half an hour when they sat us.
Since it was late already and Jerry and Twaun had had a long drive, we decided to just go home and get some rest. We stayed up and tested some more, and Twaun (playing his pseudo-Empty Gush deck that he’s been using recently) played like he was trying to lose against me. It was not a good sign, but he assured us he would play fine tomorrow (this is foreshadowing too). Jerry declares that he is going to flip a coin, and I should silently assign Ichorid to one side and Flash to the other, then after he flips but before he looks, I should declare which is which, AND THEN we will look and see which deck he’s going to play. Long story short, Jerry will be battling with Flash with his own goofy sideboard tech (which I believe he got from Rich Shay).
Man, can you believe we STILL haven’t gotten to the tournament? Well, hold on a little more, you’re almost there!
We wake up Sunday morning and shower and write out deck lists (well, two of us do, Twaun chooses not to for some reason). My mom makes us French Toast and Sausage which are excellent and provide plenty of fuel for the coming day of wizardry. Eventually we head out, and when we get to the intersection where the store should be, we spend literally 15-20 minutes just driving around strip malls and shopping centers looking for the store, before finally driving back a few blocks the way we came and going address by address until we finally found the entrance to HobbyTown USA hidden in the back of a building (with the main sign saying like The Learning Shop or something, and a hobbytown banner hanging in the window). The sight of magic players outside confirms it, and we are ready to go!
We talk to the locals, and notice a pretty tough field (see Ben’s TO report), which was to be expected. Ben does a great job at starting on time and the tourney gets underway with very little delay.
I apologize if these accounts aren’t perfect, I’d like to think I have a pretty good memory for the game but it’s by no means perfect and some games kind of blur together.
The Tournament
Round 1: Mark with UBg Deez Noughts with Trygon Predator main
Mark looks to be a little younger but is definitely a solid player, as he made top 8 or top 4 at one of the previous ICBM tournaments with this deck (he said). Game one, I start off with a land and Thoughtseize him, taking his Dark Confidant and leaving him with only one land and a bunch of pretty much useless spells. Next turn I resolve Oath without and orchard (off Ruby and Underground), but he draws brainstorm into wasteland and leaves me with just a mox and enchantment. I then do not draw a land for the rest of the game and he resolves Ancestral and like 3 brainstorms, and eventually Echoing Truth’s my Oath and plays a bunch of dudes. I die.
I can’t remember one of the games (I oath up a Tyrant at some point), but in the other game, we played back and forth but I drew a million cards and he could not resolve a creature (his mana was kind of short and he had no green source and only one blue source), and so eventually I just cast Tidespout Tyrant with a petal up for my Reb. He draws for the turn, and says he’ll scoop if I show two counters, and my hand of Force-Force-Reb-lands is good enough.
1-0
Round 2: Chris Nighbor with Counterbalance Control
So, this round got repaired because Soly and Endress’s records has been mis-entered. Initially I was going against someone I had never seen before who sat down and said “Oh god, I really didn’t want to play Oath.” However, instead, I get repaired against the excellent Nighbor. Sadly for him, I just drew way too broken for him to compete. In game one, I start off by duressing him and seeing Spell Snare, Tormod’s Crypt, 3 lands, Trinket Mage, and Dark Confidant. I take the snare and pass it. He plays land go. I do some setting up (ponder and/or brainstorm and such) and pass, and he plays another land and Dark Confidant, which I don’t care about. Note that he chooses not to play Tormod’s Crypt here. I untap and play fastbond and a bunch of draw, and tutor and play Yawgmoth’s Will and kill him real dead. If he had played the crypt, I would have had to play a lot fairer and would not have won on the spot (although I would have still been way ahead).
Game 2: This game also involved me going crazy. Nighbor started with a land and a brainstorm and then laid a mox. I had 2 moxes and maybe an Oath which got forced, and an ancestral with resolved. Chris did something irrelevant, and I spent another turn setting up. On his third turn, he tapped out for Trinket mage for Explosives (I had 2 moxes and petal out) and passed. I had pondered the turn before, and left Gush and Lotus on top. So, I take my turn, lay my third land (6 mana out), Gush floating UU, play Lotus (9 mana), and hardcast the Tyrant with Reb up off my orchard. When he resolves, I look and notice that the one unknown I drew off Gush was Brain Freeze, so I Reb his Trinket Mage, bounce a mox, and go infinite and storm him out. Nice deck, eh? There was not much of anything Nighbor could have done to these hands, and you will see this again later in the day.
2-0
Round 3: Brandon with Goblins (Rgb with Wastes and Ports)
Brandon seems like a nice guy, although I don’t think he was team-affiliated so I wasn’t as worried as last round. Game one, I resolve and Oath and he has creatures who are not nearly fast enough, so I just oath away my whole deck and combo him out. Game two, he has wastelands for my first two lands, and I never find a fourth to cast my Oath. However, this is misplay no. 1 which cost me a game. I had pondered on turn 1 (with a trop and Oath in hand) off an underground and seen 2 nonlands and a mox, and had shuffled away (since I didn’t have an orchard for my Oath), hoping to dig for more lands since I expected wastelands. However, if I had just kept the mox on top, he would waste my land and I would untap into Land Mox Oath, and he would be stuck (he only had blood moons for the match, no enchantment hate). I would then Oath up giant monsters and beat him to death. Instead, I can’t ever get 2 mana in play and die to goblin beatdown.
Game 3 was pretty exciting. I start on the play and live the dream, playing Orchard Mox Oath. However, his hand was not bed either. Brandon responds with Lotus, mountain, Mana Crypt, Warchief, Lackey, Matron (after much deliberation, he goes with stingscourger), and attacks me for 5. I oath up Tyrant, and play Fastbond (bounce chief), Scroll (bounce lackey), Gush (bounce matron), Oath #2 (bounce mountain). He stingscourges my tyrant, but I just oath up the other one and empty my deck and put Time Walk and Will back in. I then brain freeze him to death.
3-0
Round 4: Jamison with Rb Goblins
Jamison won SCG Chicago with RG Beats, so I know he’s gonna be a tough aggro player. I also manage to badly punt game 2 multiple times, and I probably could have won game 1 if I had played well too. Instead, I play like a total idiot and Jamison plays extremely well and beats me in two. Game one, he starts with Leyline Land Lackey. I do nothing useful and he attacks with lackey, brings in matron, fetches a Piledriver and plays that. I think I play Oath here but he gets to attack me for a bunch and plays more dudes. I am able to get Tyrant into play but it costs me most of my library (to the RFG pile) and I have to use all my spells bouncing goblins instead of the leyline (since I can’t block or bounce Piledriver; that guy is a very annoying problem). I get close to pulling it out but he has an Earwig Squad to force my hand and make me burn my Force (and more importantly, pitch my ponder). I attack him to 9 (I’m at 3), but he has the war chief saved up and I have no answer and die.
Game 2, he was much slower and had no leyline, but I just made a bunch of terrible errors. I cast Oath with orchard up on like my 3rd turn, and so he plays goblin bombardment, and I disregard the most important piece of strategic advice ever given in this game (‘Focus only on what matters’) and I counter it, thinking I am an Oath deck and not a Gush Combo deck. I go on to lose a very close game where I Oath my whole deck away (one Tyrant got Rebbed) but I don’t have the mana to Krosan Rec and Will on the same turn, and he hits me with a goblin and then has the Earwig Squad to steal my last card. These games were really close and really exciting, and it was frustrating as hell to give away the second one for sure and probably the first as well. However, I silently swear my revenge and vow to play better should fate smile on me and give me another shot at him (I don’t have to tell you at this point that this is obviously either foreshadowing or just terrible writing which will disappoint you greatly in the end).
3-1
Round 5: Derrick with UWg Landstill
Game 1: Derrick’s deck seemed to be pretty slow (I didn’t know what he was playing before we started) but eventually a Fact or Fiction reveals a Mishra’s Factory and a Landstill. I am able to duress him and resolve some good stuff (although I have to give him 3 spirits with no Oath), and eventually I go for it with a bunch of Gushes and Fastbond into Will. He tries the desperation fact but it turns up 2 blue cards and no force, so I split the piles blue-or-no and he takes nonblue, and I don’t give him a chance to untap. After we present for game 2, I ask him to count his sideboard out for my face down (saves me the trouble of 3-pile shuffling his deck to count it again) and he gets to 16, so I call over the judge and he gets the game loss for presenting an illegal deck. I know some people would feel dirty about something like that, but it was announced that this would be Competitive Level rules enforcement and I’ve played enough PTQ’s and stuff to pick up sound habits like always shuffling the opponent and counting decks and stuff. I feel bad for Derrick, as this pretty much put him out of Top8 contention, but I don’t really want to lose to an illegal deck either (as that’s not fair to me).
4-1
Round 6: Andy with Slaver
At 4-1, if I got paired with any other 4-1 or a 4-0-1 I could have drawn in, which of course means I pulled a 3-1-1 and had to play for it. Lucky for me he was playing Slaver. As Twaun and Jerry said during one of the car trips: “Leave it to Rich Shay to take both of Slaver’s worst matchups and combine them into one monster deck.” So, I was feeling like I was in good shape here.
Game 1: I manage to get Oath out and get ahead a bit, but don’t have much of a hand left. I oath up the first Tyrant and get some beats on, but when I oath the second one, he turns out to be the LAST card in the deck. I flashback Krosan Rec (with no counter in hand) and it resolves, getting me Will and Time Walk (I should have gotten Will and Force). I draw Will and play it, which he responds to with Force (whaa?). Later, I ask why he didn’t Force the Krosan Rec and kill me, and he says he didn’t have it then, but I don’t know where he would have drawn it since I played Rec and Will on the same turn. Anyway, I instead just attack with my Tyrant (putting him on 10) and pass after bouncing all his permanents but one token (a dumb mistake). He gets to Oath and pulls up sundering titan, nuking my useless lands. He plays lotus and Thirsts, but he doesn’t hit chain of vapor and I attack for 10 with no cards in my deck for the win.
Game 2: He mulls to 6 on the play, and then starts with 2 leylines. I ponder turn one, and then resolve Oath (with a Reb for his drain), Ancestral, and Gush on turn two and blow him to pieces. His hand just gave him no shot against my monster.
5-1
This puts me in first place in the Swiss going into the top 8. There were rumors and an X-2 might sneak in, and TK was X-2 with Mana Ichorid, so I was rooting pretty heavily against him (as I wanted to play him for the Lotus but not really in the quarters). Instead, I get paired with another former SCG P9 champ, Matt Fisher.
Round 7 (Quarterfinals): Brian Fisher with Empty Gush
If I got insane hands against Nighbor, these were about a half step behind at most. I don’t remember the details exactly, although in game two, he led with Fetch, Sapphire, Jet, pass. I then opened on Fetch, Emerald, Lotus, crack Lotus for UUU and play Oath off emerald, and then cast scroll for ancestral after that resolved. On my end step, Fisher cracked his fetch, and I responded by fetching and Recall-ing myself, forcing his FOW. He then krosan gripped my oath, so I drew a bunch more cards and played another. He gripped that one too, and so I spent a turn or two pondering, eventually setting up FOW FOW Reb in hand, Will on top. He duressed me, but it didn’t matter because I drew and cast Will and he didn’t have a counter to worry about. I cast a bunch of stuff and got out Orchard Oath, duressed away his third Krosan Grip and ended the turn with 2 Forces and a Reb active. I then just oathed up a giant monster and killed him. He took it pretty well, and he played as well as he could have but these games were mine to lose and I managed not to.
6-1
Round 8 (Semifinals): Shawn with Bomberman (with red splash)
Game 1: Shawn wins the die roll and starts with Library, go. However, today is my day and I rip Thoughtseize and take his brainstorm, leaving him with 3 lands, Jotun Grunt, and Time walk. He plays a land and walks, but I resolve Oath and just beat him down with giant flyers.
Game 2: He resolves an early Mage on Oath and I proceed to draw 2 Oaths, Krosan Rec, a tyrant, and like a hundred lands and he has a counter for every attempt I make to kill the mage. He literally drew as many counters as I drew relevant spells (more in fact, since he drained a useless lotus at one point too) so I just couldn’t keep up.
Game 3: This game was the most fun I had all tournament. It was like back in the old days (well, not that old, think SCG Rochester with Grimlong and WGD X). I get ahead pretty good but he has Seal of Cleansing for my first Oath. I untap and play a second one, and when it resolves, I decide I’m not done. I play Fastbond and go through all 4 gushes, and cast a tutor. I am about to grab Will when I notice his Tormod’s Crypt that I had almost forgotten about. Well, I guess I’ll just do this the old fashioned way. I storm and storm and play a ton of spells, and eventually get to a point where I am close but not quite there. I have 4 lands, a mana floating, a brainstorm, a merchant scroll, and a REB in hand. I need to generate 4 more storm to deck him, but I need one more mana (or one more blue card, I could have had a force instead of REB but I put it back on another BS) to get there. I don’t want to leave him with 3 cards in his deck because he could have Jotun Grunt and then I can still lose the game. So, I decide to go for it. I scroll for Freeze to shuffle the deck, and cast my brainstorm. I chant “Come on Mox!” and draw my 3, and what do I see but my long forgotten friend CHAIN OF VAPOR! I shout in joy and pump the fist, resolve the brainstorm, and then chain both my moxes, replay them, and Brain Freeze him for his top 57 cards. Epic, if I do say so myself.
7-1
Just Jamison and I remain from this monster of a tournament field. We agree to split the prizes (a Lotus and a beta Volcanic) and play one last game for the glory. He wins the die roll but starts out on Fanatic and Leyline (thank god it wasn’t Lackey). I just have a land and a ponder. He follows it with attack, petal, Piledriver, Lackey (“Nice topdeck”). I play the big one, Oath of Druids, and brace for a beating. He attacks me for 7 and lackey’s in another piledriver, but doesn’t have anything else relevant and has to pass. I untap, bring in the big boy (5th card in, so nothing good gets RFG’ed by the leyline), and play a land and ship it. He declares the attack, and I respond to the Piledriver triggers by chaining his Lackey and Leyline (hooray tyrant) and Vampiric Tutoring his Matron away (fetching Time Walk), taking 6 damage and going down to 4 after the vamp. He just plays a third piledriver and sets down his hand, leaving it up to me to win or lose. I untap, and with the oath trigger on the stack I brainstorm to draw the time walk. I oath up the second Tyrant and attack for 5, then play Time Walk. I am left with 4 lands in play, 2 Tyrants, and Oath, and nothing but a thoughtseize in my hand. I untap and oath my deck away, and think (It is later pointed out to me that I could just Reclaim Time Walk and kill him, but for some reason I kept thinking that I couldn’t get walk again and needed another out). Eventually, I Krosan rec for Will, bouncing one of my tapped lands, draw Will, play the land, and slam it down. I play two moxes and go nuts on storm and Brain Freeze for the win, and that’s it!
I get my revenge on Jamison (although he will only tell you of crushing me in the swiss), and bring the Lotus home (in spirit: someone at the venue offered cash for it on the spot and I was glad to sell it, especially since it let Jamison and I settle up immediately instead of having to meet up later and get him a check or something) to Ohio. Twaun started off Phyrexian Walker (0-3) but climbed back up to Hill Giant status by the end of the day, and Jerry ended at 3-2-1 but could have made top8 if he had made a few different choices. Twaun, Jerry and I had agreed that if one of us won the Lotus, he would take the others out to dinner at Eddie Martini’s (an excellent Steak and Seafood restaurant that my younger brother works at), but we didn’t get out of there until 10:45 and it was too late by then, so instead we went to George Webb’s and got dinner, then sat around discussing magical things for an hour or two. Jerry and Twaun decided to drive back that night so Twaun could make his morning classes, and I went home to get some sleep.
And now, the best part: props and slops…
Props:
-Jerry Yang and Anthony Michaels (Twaun) for making the trip, as I would not have even attended were it not for them.
-Ohio Magic for plundering power, no matter the level of competition.
-Rich Shay and his whole team, for making one hell of a powerful deck.
-Ben Carp for running an excellent tournament, at a very fair price with generous prize support.
-All the Milwaukee and Chicago guys (especially the ICBM and GWS guys) for being tons of fun to play with and for providing some fierce competition.
-WOTC for unrestricting Gush, because I love casting it.
-All the OH magic guys for just being the most awesome group of wizards I’ve encountered. You guys better make the trip up for the next one!
-The SWASHBUCKLER
EDIT: Forgot to mention Props to Soly for being tons of fun to hang out with, even though I still have never played him in an event.
Slops:
-Flash. That card is stupid, and I’m glad I didn’t have to play against it.
-Jeremy Seroogy for losing the first round of top 8 and defusing our epic showdown in the finals
-TK for sucking and not making the finals, I want another shot with a Lotus on the line.
Thanks for reading, and I highly recommend these ICBM tournaments to anyone looking for lots of fun and some of the toughest competition in the country. See you all next month when I write my report for taking down the Mox/Ancestral/whatever other piece of power Ben wants to donate to Ohio Magic.
-Jimmy McCarthy
