Blue Bell - 8/23/08 - 1st Place for a Black Lotus with TPS

So Friday night I meet up with a few friends to playtest for the event. We go out to dinner, play some games and just chill. Around 330 we decide we should get some sleep since we have to get up around 7ish. So 7 am rolls around pretty fast and we get up and were on our way, we stop to get breakfast at wawa and head to the tourney. When I get there I start socializing with some friends and write down my decklist. We end up getting a record showing 61 people, pretty insane. So anyway here is the list I played.

The Perfect Storm

4x Polluted Delta
1x Bloodstained Mire
2x Underground Sea
1x Bayou
2x Swamp
2x Island
1x Black Lotus
1x Lotus Petal
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Jet
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Pearl
1x Sol Ring
1x Memory Jar
1x Darksteel Colossus
4x Duress
4x Force of Will
1x MisDirection
1x Chain of Vapor
1x Rebuild
4x Dark Ritual
2x Cabal Ritual
1x Brainstorm
1x Ponder
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Imperial Seal
2x Grim Tutor
1x Gifts Ungiven
1x Merchant Scroll
1x Tinker
1x Timetwister
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Minds Desire
1x TimeWalk
1x Necropotence
1x Yawgmoth's Bargain
1x Tendrils of Agony

Sideboard:
3x Tarmogoyf
1x Chain of Vapor
2x Hymm to Tourach
2x Extirpate
2x Tormods Crypt
1x Yixilid Jailer
2x Hurkyls Recall
1x Massacre
1x Bayou

I will apologize in advance, I dont not remember most my my matchups before Top 8 because I wasn't taking notes.

Round 1: John Janek - Oath

John is a friend and we always manage to get paired up at these tourneys. I'm pretty sure I win the die roll and i lead with duress. I instantly know he's playing oath but he never sees an oath either game. G1 I tinker out DSC and he rips demonic off the top after a duress shows me he has nothing...DSC goes back to my hand, I win shortly after with bargain. G2 i dont remember much either but he concedes to a Grim tutor for Will for a lethal tendrils.

2-0

Round 2: Nick Coss - TPS

Nick is also a friend, However I have never gotten to play against him in a tournament. I have a bad feeling he is playing shops. He plays Polluted Delta and i know hes playing the mirror. G1 he resolves recall turn 1 after mulling to 6, then resolves bargain turn 2 i think. I lose. G2 I win but i do not remember how. G3 we go to time and we get a draw.

1-0-1

Round 3: Juan Sanchez - Painter

G1 i duress and i dont see a whole lot. I pass the turn, he topdecks Ancestal, I have the misd. I draw no business so i decide to hardcast darksteel colossus. Two turns later its over. G2 he ends up rebing a bunch of my stuff and combos me out via grindstone since i have colossus in my hand again. I do not remember how i won g3, whether it was colossus or tendrils, I am not sure.

2-0-1

Round 4: Ed Carrey - Aggro Shopsish

Ed is also a friend that always does well at these tourneys. He smashes me game 1, which i expect. Game 2, a lone goyf goes the distance while hes stuck on wasteland and another mana source. Game 3, two goyfs seal the deal again.

3-0-1

Round 5: Dan Herd - Strategic Slaver

Herd is a guy who I used to play test locally with very frequently. Game 1 hes on the play leads with land go. I duress taking his force of will ( his only counter), setting up bargain with force back up on turn 3. However on Dan's turn 2 he casts Planning getting a drain. Then casts another planning on turn 3 getting a force, giving him drain + force backup for my bargain with force backup. Just a perfect example of why strategic planning is so nuts. He wins afterwards with titan. I think he gets me g2 with tinker>titan as well.

3-1-1

Round 6: Roman ? - Guilided Claw variation

I am pretty sure Roman wins game 1 with lock pieces followed up with Juggs. Game 2 I play goyf and he plays juggs, I rip goyf, He rips juggs. So hes at 10 im at 8. 2x goyf vs 2x juggs, he swings with a juggs i block. they trade. I say " i need ponder", i rip ponder on my turn, pretty nuts. I pass. He eventually swings into my goyf i block, juggs dies, I win. Game 3 he mulls a hand that we decide he probably should have kept, I keep a hand of Black lotus,3 moxes vamp,force,bluecard. He goes for turn 1 sphere or thorn i force. I drop my hand, including the land i topdecked and eot vamp for bargain and almost fizzle but I pull it off with Will and he concedes.

Standings are up and im seated 7th going into top 8

Top 8

I dont remember the kids name - Belcher

I open with merchant scroll for force on the draw after i mull to 6. He plays land grant go. I scroll for force. I force his bomb then i win shortly after via tendrils. G2 I whiff a hymm taking a Land grand and an ESG, leaving hiim with yawgmoths will,bargain,memory jar, dark rit. I force the bargain, hoping to get another force or a duress, i dont. He plays will replays bargain and wins. G3 i have Double force along with bargain. Force 2 bombs then resolve bargain and win with yawgwill>tendrils.

Top 4

Ici - Mono Red Stax

Ici seems like a solid player, hes just being very arrogant towards me, so I'm like whatever. I'm on the play and i draw my opening 7. Black Lotus, Sol ring, Cabal ritual, mox sapphire, timetwister, x,x. I play twister with BBBB floating and i draw, Tinker,force of will, bluecard,cabal ritual, duress, tendrils, bluecard. Cabal ritual, tendrils for 14 turn 1 pass the turn. He goes bazaar chalice @ 0 i think. I play tinker>dsc with force backup, its over. Game 2 i have 2x goyf in hand but cant find my 4th land since he has 2x sphere out. the turn before I draw my 4th land he gets strip lock, I lose. G3 Goyf takes it home.

Finals: Dan Herd - Strategic Slaver (same as in swiss)

I keep a solid hand of Brainstorm,Misdirection,Duress,2 lands,mystical,x i think. He gets down to 4 cards in hand and i duress his seeing, force,walk,ancestral,tinker. I take the tinker pass. He draws a land and plays it, plays the walk, then goes for recall, i have the misd. Hes out of this game. I ponder seeing force, will,x. draw force setting up will for next turn...he top decks tormods crypts with a welder out, with 1 other artifact out, NICE. I play will, He crypts me, Iet the crypt resolve then play rit, crit. He lets them resolve then welds his pearl out for crypt again and crypts me again, then Will resolves. Somehow i get memory jar into play via tinker, which i could have gotten dsc because he could not weld it out because i was on my Will turn. Upkeep i crack jar and play some spells, with grim tutor as the 6th spell on the stack and Herd at 17 he force of wills my GT putting him at 16, im holding tendrils with enough mana to play it for exact lethal. Herd correct me if Im wrong here, as I dont remember much as we were both very tired. Game 2 Herd takes me down. He gets strip lock and thoughtseizes me, i respond with hurkyls, he replays his sphere and then passes with crucible in hand. I rip duress and think for a second and then laugh., Herd rips tinker and laughs and its over. Nice. Game 3 I duress Herd and dont see much. a few turns later i resolve will and tendrils for 14 when hes at 17 however he has a mana crypt out so I only need to win 1 roll off mana cryp to win. He wins roll number 1. He wins roll number 2. And roll number 3 does it, he dies. Good games Herd (Although we both played like shit)

So after 12 hours of Magic, we head out to go home. Just when I think I'm having a great night, we get pulled over on the way home for a broken tailight. I wasnt wearing my seatbelt so im struggling to get it on without the cop seeing it. Well he seeing me moving around he thinks im hiding something from him so he asks if we have anythting in the car that we shouldnt and we all say "no". He says if your lying you are all going to jail. I wont mention any names but someone in the car appearantly had something he should not have and he said he was going to search all of us. However after patting me down he lets us go with a warning for the tailight and sends us on our way. What a day.

Mike will be posting decklists and pics at some point in the TO BllueBell thread

Thanks for a great event Mike