San Antonio 8/2/08 Mox Ruby tourney

Well, it was another successful tourney with a turnout of 15 players. The meta was completely random as could be expected. There was food chain goblins, bomberman, 2x oath, survival.dec, red burn, WU weenie, mud, sui-black, and some other randomness. The tourney started around 2:10 (about 2 hours after scheduled) due to low attendance at start and slow submissions of decklists. Finally, we had enough to guarantee the ruby prize and started. The following report is from my perspective. I was playing my version of tyrant oath.

Round 1

Game 1, I get paired against the oath mirror YAY! As we know the oath mirror is totally about who draws the orchards. I win the roll and play land, mox, duress. He reveals and I pull his brainstorm, seeing he has land/mox/oath and no orchard. I am holding orchard and he doesn't know what I am playing yet, so I let him cast oath on his turn. I play tormod's crypt and orchard on my turn, and my tyrant hits soon after. Unfortunately I have a tyrant in hand, which I pitch to force in a FoW war over my 2nd duress. When I oath up my 2nd tyrant, I cast mystical tutor to grab cunning wish for the win and he chain of vapors it in response(so that's why he didn't want duress to resolve :p). I end up fetching yawgwill with mystical and cast it on my main phase, since i milled away 2/3rds of my deck to get the 2nd tyrant. I go apeshit with moxen, duress, gush, brainstorm, ancestral, etc., into rebuild, replay moxen and build up to 23 storm, then cunning wish for brainfreeze. As he is oath, I fear he runs blessing. Luckily I had crypt in play, but it turns out he had no blessing anyway, and I win.

Game 2, I boarded in a SSS, extirpate, and an altar of dementia, removing rebuild, a c-wish, and something else random. I open with 5 decent cards and double orchard. He plays orchard, mox, AK. I play orchard, mox, tormods, oath. He does something and passes. I drop orchard #2 and it gets ugly. I then flip tyrant and combo him out again after leading with a duress to clear the path.

2-0 (1-0-0)

Round 2

Game 1, I win the roll again (I almost always lose the roll). Kevin Binswanger is playing bomberman. I keep a hand of sensei top, duress, 3 orchard, mox, land. I figure I'll duress and play top and then next turn find oath or something good in the top 3 and play it. Not to happen. His hand is decent and the duress pulls a mox, keeping him off leak mana for 1 turn. He then proceeds to play mana, critters, etc., and swing for the win while I find nothing.

Game 2, I mull to 6 and have oath. I drop it, which he blows up quickly with EE since I have no orchard. I then proceed to get 10 mana in the top 20 cards (in a deck with 22 sources) even after I have top in play and portent myself. My best play is sacing lotus to hardcast leyline so he can't just go off on me. He proceeds to drop trinkets and mindscensors and I am toast even after MisDing his ancestral onto me...drawing yup...land, Force, and merchant scroll. He has 8 damage on the table and I'm at 7. I top, reveal 2 lands and krosan reclaim. I vamp (midscensor in play), and my 4th card deep is another land. I shuffle thanks to mindscensor, and draw for my turn, then top. I need oath and timewalk to be in the top 2 cards even to have a chance, and they are our old friend MANA. I end the game with a popped lotus in the yard, 7 mana sources in play and 3 in hand with 20 cards seen. He swings for lethal.

0-2 (1-1-0)

Round 3

Game 1, I lose the die roll . He goes plains, wayfarer. I play fetch/island, portent me. He plays something not importent. I play sea, duress. He brainstorms in response and I pull his aether vial. He wayfarers for strip mine and takes out my sea. At this point, I forget but i think I orchard, drop oath, and proceed to win with combo.
Game 2, he plays land, go. I play mana and portent him, since i think he may be at low mana (no moxen) and try to screw him. It doesn't quite work, my oath gets etruthed and then forced. Then he drops a few critters and mangara of condor making oath impossible to stick. He swings for wins.
Game 3, I have a good hand and play a fast orchard, mox, oath, which he attempts to force, and I pitch c-wish to MisD his Force. A tyrant comes into play quickly, timewalk, and then another, and then a blazing archon, and before you know it I have swung for lethal and he has no permanents in play except 1/1 spirits.

2-1 (2-1-0)

Round 4

Game 1, I don't know who won the roll. Mike (madmanmike) is playing MUD. He starts off with sphere, and I play island, into mox into mox, go. He lays thorn, waste. I play orchard, 4 mana for oath, go. He lays a tangle wire, I oath, play nothing great, and another orchard into more moxen i think. He follows with tangle #2. After much math and fading making me have enough mana open, I tap my two tyrants and have enough to play duress, bounce mox and sphere, then mox and orb of dreams, play mox bounceing other mox and thorn, and finally can cast yawgwill to go off.
Game 2, he gets me under sphere, smokestack (killing my resolved oath with no orchard), and eventually goes crucible, karn FTW while i have 0 permanents and 3 orchard/2 oath in my hand.
Game 3, he gets a fast chalice 0/chalice 2. I never draw my rebuild and he wins with juggernaut 1&2 9 minutes before time.

1-2 (2-2-0)

By luck of numbers, my tiebreakers get me in 8th

Quarterfinals

Game 1, I play vs bomberman (who 0-2ed me round 2). I get lucky and win the roll, and he mulls to 5 (makes up for my 11 mana game :p). I open with sea, sapphire, duress. He has island, emerald, mindscensor, trinket mage, and salvager. I pull his emerald. I then portent targeting him. His top 3 are mindscensor, thirst, tolarian academy, which I put back in that order. Having effectively 3 timewalks, i get to oath into tyrant. He misplays and lays tolarian and then casts a drawn jet. In response I brainstorm and bounce his academy. He never gets past 2 mana and I combo him out.
Game 2, he has a subpar hand and keeps, playing land, duress. I have mox, orchard, fetch, force, MisD, portent, muddle the mixture. He yanks muddle, assuming it can eventually fetch oath. No need, cause i top deck one and play orchard, mox oath, and MisD his force pitching force. He draws, plays aether spellbomb, and passes. I oath up tyrant and portent him, bouncing the spell bomb and ensuring he doesn't get a 2nd mana for the next 2 turns. I cast duress bouncing his land and pulling spellbomb. I then proceed to get out more critters and swing for 20.

Semifinals

Game 1, I play vs Mike with MUD. I win the roll (1 higher than he rolls AGAIN) and open with a fast orchard/mox/oath. He tries to tangle me and stuff, but my guys come out fast and I combo off on him.
Game 2, by far the most exciting and excrutiating match of the day. He plays ancient tomb, mana vault, chalice at 2, then follows with chalice 0. I am up shits creek or so it would seem, except he has powder keg and sphere in his hand and can't play them. I have no moxen in my hand, but go fetch for island, sol ring, sensei, activate top. He plays ancient tomb #2, pass. I play ancestral, followed by brainstorm, followed by sensei top. He casts smokestack, which i counter. I then play sea and extirpate his smokestack, knowing that his powderkegs are stuck behind chalice2 and with no smokestacks he has no way to kill my critters or oath. He eventually plays a crucible, serum powder, and finally a juggernaut in a few turns. I have pondered, gushed in response to his waste on my sea, and FINALLY top into mystical tutor. He swings, bringing me to 7 and has a tangle wire faded to 3 (I have 4 lands and a sol ring). I mystical EOT for rebuild. I then tap 3 lands, rebuild, play mox, sol ring, orchard, oath. He has nothing but a token and 2 lands in play and drops a sphere, mox, mox, tangle, chalice 0. I easily tap 4 lands and oath into blazing archon (his only win now is double trike to take out the archon). Via double tomb damage and mana vault pings, he is at 7 life when archon would be able to swing. He does the math and scoops. This game went like 20 turns and I drew/saw a good 35 cards of my deck before i could finally dig up the rebuild and win. I was contemplating extirpating his wasteland which i knew he'd use on my sea, but having fought him for 5 games now, I knew he had no answer to oath other than smokestack/powder keg, and the keg was luckily pinned by his own way to keep oath off the board.

Finals

The guy (forget his name) and I decide to split. He wants the card, I want the cash. We play it out. Turns out he, nor anyone he knew had the cash on hand to split, so the prize went to the winner of the match.

Game 1, I play someone playing food chain goblins. He wins the die roll and goes first turn mountain, lackey. I have opened with 2 land, mox, oath, ancestral, cwish, top. I play tropical, mox, oath. He swings and plops a piledriver with lackey. I oath up tyrant, which he REBs. I draw something and ancestral myself into goodness with a second mox. He plays taiga, casts recruiter or something and stacks his deck, but is tapped out. I oath up tyrant #2 and juggle moxen with a cwish, drop a 2nd land and brainfreeze him out.

Game 2, I have the NUTS hand. Orchard, Mox, Oath, ancestral, ponder, force, fetch. He plays land, lotus, piledriver, piledriver. I counter the 2nd one pitching ponder. I topdeck LOTUS, which made the nuts even more nuts. I pop it for green and fetch sea, ancestral myself and drop mox for drawing c-wish and another mox. I lay that mox and pass. He plays skirk prospector and city of traitors and plays goblin sharpshooter. I oath up tidespout and combo him out on my 2nd turn.

Overall, it was a very fun and exciting tourney. It was great to meet MadmanMike and play against Kyle and Kevin Binswanger as always. Thanks to all who showed up, and look for the next tourney to be somewhere around mid-september. It will most likely be an emerald for prize. If we can get 20+ to show up, we may start getting sapphire/jet prizes or at least a 2nd place prize. I hope everyone had fun. See you next tourney!