I strongly believe that responsible consumers should make purchasing decisions based, at least in part, on rewarding merchants and businesses that put in extra effort to act in the best interests of the community, whether that community is the United States, Massachusetts, your local town, or even just the Vintage community. For that reason, I reserved a spot on my calendar for BatterUp's second foray into the Vintage scene, despite having a housewarming party and my girlfriend's birthday celebration both set for the same day.
My initial plan of devising a method for cloning myself to cover all bases didn't come together in time, and my backup plan of recruiting the other Chris B rown (of domestic battery fame) didn't work out the way I was hoping it would. And so, I came into Tewksbury knowing I needed to take care of business as fast as possible and get to my other commitments.
Now, a word on my deck choice. As some of you my have heard, in the latest
trashtalking thread for Hadley, coming up on 10/11, I had some unexpected trouble with G/R beats last month in Tewksbury when I was running Phid. My Phid list was very much a metagame innovation-- Glen Elendra Archmage was a huge advantage against Tez, Chalice at 2 was an endgame spell against Fish, and Magus of the Moon obliterated most of the manabases in the format. However, one card that I very obviously did not sufficiently plan for was Thornweald Archer. In fact, thanks to my dry spell in Limited during Time Spiral and Lorwyn, I never knew the card existed. Suffice to say, I was caught off guard, and the best laid plans of Phids and men did not pan out as hoped. Dejected at my loss, the familiar choice presented itself.
GAME OVER
Give Up? Retire?
Start training, make a comeback!
Unwilling to allow myself to be counted out, I started back from square one, determined that this time, the element of surprise would be on my side. Reaching back into the mists of history, with the aid of teammates on Team R&D, I found an old favorite that was also waiting for its chance at a comeback run. Hybridizing a relic of the old school with some tech from the new school, I arrived at the following list, which I named "Minus Six:"
4x Force of Will
4x Duress
4x Dark Confidant
3x Worldgorger Dragon
2x Intuition
2x Read the Runes
2x Animate Dead
2x Necromancy
1x Dance of the Dead
1x Oona, Queen of the Fae
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Echoing Truth
Ancestral Recall
Time Walk
Demonic Tutor
Vampiric Tutor
Brainstorm
Merchant Scroll
Thirst for Knowledge
4xBazaar of Baghdad
4x Polluted Delta
3x Flooded Strand
4x Underground Sea
2x Island
1x Swamp
5x Mox
Lotus
Sol Ring
Mana Crypt
Sideboard:
4x Mana Drain
1x Tezzeret, the Seeker
1x Volcanic Island
1x Fire/Ice
1x Sphinx of the Steel Wind
Ponder
Yawgmoth's Will
Time Vault
Voltaic Key
Gifts Ungiven
Tolarian Academy
Tinker
As the old saying goes, if the left don't get you, the right one will. Let's put that theory to the test.
Round 1 vs. Arik Pogrebinsky, Tezzeret
Game 1. I lead off with Duress, taking his Mana Drain, and follow up with Bob. By all indications, I'm playing another iteration of Tezzeret. Boy does that change on my next turn. I drop Bazaar of Baghdad, discarding Dragon, and play Animate Dead. He Brainstorms into a Force. I follow up with Necromancy with counter backup on my next turn. In Arik's words, "My mind is officially blown." That would be a common theme throughout the day.
SB: Transformation into Tez.
Game 2. He mulls to 6 and keeps Leyline of the Void, which effectively a mull to 5 against the alternate configuration of the deck. I mull to 6 and keep another hand with Bob. I drop Bob and Duress him at some point to see very little business, my Ancestral gets stopped at another juncture, and I draw into Vault/Gifts. Gifts wouldn't have been as lethal due to the Leyline, but Arik sees the writing on the wall and scoops 'em up.
Round 2 vs. Travis LaPlante, Deck With Workshops
Some of you may have remembered my offer to concede a game to Travis to give him a fighting chance against me if he made it out of the 0-2 bracket for the first time in 2009. Well, being so impressed with his tenacity, I actually just gave him the whole match. I figured he needed the win more than I did. God bless him. What a trooper.
Round 3 vs. Chester Li, Tezzeret
Game 1. I mull to 6 and keep a shaky hand with Duress and Bob. I Duress him to find the absolute nuts waiting for me in his hand. Tinker, VT, Bob, and other ridiculousness. He's a little shorted on mana and has no control elements, so I take the VT in the hopes he doesn't draw into acceleration and gives me the chance to come from behind and steal the win with Dragon. He draws a Mox, plays Tinker on turn 2, and destroys my lands with Sundering Titan. I remember when I used to do that. Welp, game 2.
SB: Transformation.
Game 2. At the outset, I Duress him and take a Mox as his only colored mana source. Things follow the natural course from there. I see that he sided in Extirpates against me.
Game 3. Midway through the game, he hits a ridiculous FOF of Force, Drain, Mana Vault, DT, Tinker. I split the piles DT/Tinker vs. Vault/Control cards. I have Key in play, Vault and a land in hand, and a Bob on the table. I have 2 lands and 2 artifact sources. I very much want him to take the control cards, as my Bob plus 12 control spells postboard will get me to the point where I can punch them through before he can muster any offense, especially losing two of his deck's biggest bombs.
He mentions that he wants to be greedy, and takes the broken cards, ending the turn with Titan in play, me with no lands, and him with Will in hand. I find acceleration off Bob and use the colorless mana to fuel a win.
Round 4 vs. Bill Copes, Tezzeret
Game 1. Things follow the normal course, with me structuring my plays to disguise myself as another boring Bob-Tez deck, until I find my hand clogged with mana and animate spells. I play the Read the Runes. This intrigues Bill, who lets it resolve. That finds Bazaar of Baghdad which, eventually, dumps Dragon into the yard. I have 2 animate effects in hand, and he's used 2 Forces with no UU up for Drain and 3 cards in hand. I go for the Animate, and he has the Force. Well, that was unlikely, but I've got Necromancy to go for it again next turn.
Now here's where I get overconfident. I know from a Duress that his last card is Mystical. For some reason, it doesn't register with me that my opponents get to draw card on their turn. So, thinking that Bill has no way to interact, I triumphantly throw out the Necromancy on my turn, figuring I don't even need to catch him with it at instant speed. Well, that card he drew? That was Mana Drain. At that Mystical, well now that's going to end the game with the help of my generous contribution to the Bill Copes Yawgmoth's Will fund.
SB: Transformation.
Game 2. The fates further punish me for my presumptuousness the game before in the following way. The gamestate reaches the point where Bill his one card in hand and no black sources. He has Vault in play. He expresses frustration and passes the turn. I have a Bob and 4 cards in hand, one of which is Duress. I Duress him and take Demonic Tutor. I now have completely dominant board position, outdrawing him 2 to 1, with a clock, and more unused restricted cards left in my deck, plus 5 dead sideboard cards left in his.
He draws and plays Voltaic Key. Missing from this equation is any sort of counterspell in my hand. Them's the breaks.
Round 5 vs. Sam Best, Tezzeret
Game 1. He opens with Welder and follows up with Time Vault. I'm very scared for a while until I can Duress him and take away an Intuition, seeing little else in the way of gas. Soon after, I punch through the Dragon win.
SB: Transformation.
Game 2. I mull to 6 and open with the absolute nuts. Land, Mox, Lotus, Duress Scroll -> Ancestral, Bob. The game reaches a point where I can drop Mana Crypt and Vault/Key him with counter backup from the extra mana, but I decide not to risk trying to get there in infinite turns with 2 potential clocks working against me. The Vault gets stopped, but Bob goes the distance.
Top 8 vs. Dan Cunningham, Tezzeret
Game 1. I open with the Even More Absolute Nuts. Bazaar of Baghdad, Lotus, discard Dragon, hold Duress, active Force, land, and animate. He plays Bob. That doesn't get there.
SB: Stay Dragon.
Game 2. I go through the motions of sideboarding, but keep the deck as presently configured since I've played 2 of his teammates and I'm sure he's wise to my trick. That plan pays off inasmuch as he brings in Tezzeret sideboard cards, but doesn't insofar as I never see more than 3 mana souces and get mauled by Dan.
SB: Transformation.
Game 3. We both mull to 6 and he opens with Leyline, Pithing Needle. I pretend to agonize over the Needle, as I act dejected, not too dismayed, over the Leyline, but let it resolve. He names Bazaar of Baghdad. That's an effective mull to 4. I get Bob, he gets Key/Top. I have DT and Tinker in hand. I wait until he can't interact and drop Sol Ring, DT, Tinker, win. I drew the Sol Ring that enabled that amazing series of events, but I felt good about my long game chances since it was looking like I was starting out ahead and only improving my position through Bob. Oh, and I had Academy, too, so no more mana troubles like last time.
Remembering my other commitments, I agree to a split and quickly exeunt for Andover. A good time was had by all, both at the tournament and afterwards.
