Here is my report from The Mana Drain Open. First, the decklist:
//Threats
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Arrogant Wurm
3 Roar of the Wurm
//Incarnations
3 Anger
2 Wonder
//Engine
4 Careful Study
4 Bazaar of Baghdad
3 Deep Analysis
1 Ancestral Recall
//Utility
4 Fiery Temper
1 Time Walk
//Mana
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Taiga
4 Tropical Island
2 Volcanic Island
1 Forest
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
//Sideboard
4 Red Elemental Blast
4 Artifact Mutation
3 Waterfront Bouncer
2 Krosan Reclamation
2 Ray of Revelation
Round 1: Ashok (MethodXL), playing TNTAshok won the die roll. As it would turn out, I won every match that I lost the initial roll, and lost every match where I won the roll. Fortunately, I only won two rolls
.
Game 1:
I start with a first-turn Wild Mongrel courtesy of a Taiga and Mox Emerald and pitch Anger, sending for 3. I had a Fiery Temper for an eary Juggernaut and soon after resolved a Roar of the Wurm. He tried to stall by casting a Duplicant on my Mongrel (since ROTW is a token creature, he couldn't imprint it) but eventually the Wurm does him in. I win this game at 18 life. Unfortunately for Ashok, he could only find 1 non-Workshop mana source (his other two lands were both Workshops) so if he had any tricks up his sleeve with Survival he was never able to employ them, but I was not sure if he was playing TNT or Stacker at this point because of that. In any case, it did not affect my sideboarding, which was
-3 Deep Analysis
-1 Careful Study
+4 Artifact Mutation
Game 2:
I have a hand with Wild Mongrel, Basking Rootwalla, a fetchland, a Tropical Island, and the rest was artifact mana. I resolve a first-turn Mongrel again, using the fetchland to get a Forest to avoid getting locked under Blood Moon. He gets an early Goblin Welder and Solemn Simulacrum, which chumps against the Rootwalla for a turn. Ashok plays a Juggernaut soon thereafter and gets in one hit with it. I drew a....Roar of the Wurm, and played it, then drew an Artifact Mutation but had to sit on it because Ashok had an active Welder and I had no red mana. He had also resolved a Karn by this point. Fortunately for me, he cast a Blood Moon soon after, and I waited until he tapped the Welder to blast his Karn for five Saproling tokens. I won by virtue of the Wurm soon after that.
Games: 2-0
Matches: 1-0
Round 2: Guy, playing monogreen LD.Guy wins the die roll.
Game 1:
I get a first turn Wild Mongrel for the third game in a row with a Mox Jet (I think) and a Forest. Guy plays some Elves and drops an Ankh. I'm sitting on a couple Arrogant Wurms, Time Walk, and a Wonder so I know that if I can find another mana source I should be able to run him over. Eventually I draw a fetchland, but not before Guy plays a second Anhk...so finding the Volanic Island is a bit painful since I take 9 life from it (however, since I know Guy's deck is really too slow to apply much pressure to me, I just play through it). I resolve Time Walk, swing with the Mongre pitching Wonder and Arrogant Wurm, and win the game fairly easily despite being at 7 life. All thirteen points of damage were from his Ankhs.
-3 Deep Analysis
+3 Waterfront Bouncer
I side out Deep Analysis because even though his deck is slow, these are risky to play if he's running Ankhs. I bring in Bouncers for additional discard outlets in case I can't keep Bazaar on the board and to handle random stuff like Terravore or Argothian Wurm that he might be running.
Game 2: I keep a hand with Bazaar, Careful Study, and mana, which is ideal against an LD deck. I Study and Bazaar into lots of mana at first and take some damage from Elves and a Treetop Village, and I think an Ankh, but eventually start finding some business spells. I hit his Village with a Fiery Temper after it's activated and drop a couple Arrogant Wurms to win this one fairly handily.
Games: 4-0
Matches: 2-0
Round 3: Ben, playing Urphid with Nevinyrall's Disk and Grim Lavamancer (I do not know if Lavamancers were maindeck or sideboard but assume the latter)Ben wins the die roll.
Game 1:
Ben opens with Island, Sapphire, Ruby but I have no first turn play of significance (maybe I didn't have anything at all...don't remember for sure). On Ben's second turn he resolves Blood Moon. I have no green mana sources so I start to get a little worried, but I have a couple Fiery Tempers in hand to deal with his Phids in case he drops them. I try to resolve a Rootwalla by building up to 8 cards in hand then discarding it during my discard step, but it gets Stifle'd. After a couple turns of doing nothing much except hitting a Phid with a Fiery Temper, I topdeck a Black Lotus. I had been sitting on an Arrogant Wurm and Basking Rootwalla, so I try to resolve both off the green Lotus mana and am successful. Ben doesn't find any answers to them and I manage to win this game despite the early Blood Moon.
-2 Wonder
-2 Fiery Temper
+4 Red Elemental Blast
Game 2:
Ben starts with a Grim Lavamancer, which I was surprised to see. I have a Bazaar and a Rootwalla but nothing else of significance at this point, so I build up my mana base for a couple turns and then drop the Bazaar. He had been swinging for a couple turns with the Lavamancer so my plan was to Bazaar away the Rootwalla after he attacked so I wouldn't have to worry about it impeding my future plans--and this plan is successful. I resolve a Wild Mongrel a couple turns later and have an Anger in the yard, so I start swinging right away. Ben drops a Disk so I am content to just swing with the Mongrel until he's forced to Disk it away. By this time I have several Bazaars in play. Once Ben uses his Disk, I activate all of my Bazaars on the end of his turn and resolve a couple creatures to win the game.
At one point I saw an FTK, but don't remember at what point it was during the game nor what he used it on. I believe it was after I tried to resolve a threat that was countered by Mana Drain, but am not sure beyond that.
Games: 6-0
Matches: 3-0
Round 4: Steve (Smmenen) playing Smmenen.decFrom talking to him earlier that day, I knew that Steve was playing Long.dec with Death Wish, so this was a matchup I was hoping to avoid. I told him I might be writing a report and asked him what he wanted me to call the deck in it, hence the name "Smmenen.dec"
. Needless to say, I knew that I would have to get really lucky to win this match, whether it be by getting a really fast start, his deck stalling out on him, or some combination of both.
I won the die roll.
Game 1:
I start with a Tropical Island and a Sol Ring. Steve opens with a land, casts Brainstorm, then drops a Mox and uses it to play a Chromatic Sphere. Steve started getting really excited after the Brainstorm (he does NOT play with a poker face) so I get the sinking feeling that my next turn might be my last. I play a Forest and resolve two Wild Mongrels and pass the turn. Steve then takes out a piece of notebook paper and informs me it's time to start the storm count. He thinks about how he's going to play it out for a while then drops 2 more artifact mana sources (one of which was an LED), Tolarian Academy, plays Memory Jar and sacrifices it (saccing the LED in response), I think uses the Sphere to get a black mana, plays Dark Ritual, plays Death Wish to get Hurkyl's Recall, generates a lot of mana and boosts the storm count, then tutors for Tendrils of Agony to win.
-2 Wonder
+2 Red Elemental Blast
I had nothing of significance to bring in against non-Dragon combo because I didn't expect it would be played enough to devote sideboard spaces that I could have been using for matchups that WOULD be more prevalent. However, in some metagames I'd SB Pyrostatic Pillar, and it would obviously have been brought in here if I had it. Instead, I exchange the useless Wonders for REBs in the hope of catching him off-guard by hitting a draw spell, Timetwister, or Hurkly's Recall.
Game 2:
I open with Careful Study, discarding Basking Rootwalla and ROTW, and digging into Ancestral. Steve starts with a first turn Lotus, resolves Necropotence off it, sets aside 10 cards then thinks for a while before pitching a few draw-7's and a couple other spells I don't remember. My next turn I play Ancestral, drop Bazaar, and hope for something like a Lotus/Ruby and REB on the offchance I might be able to stall him out. Steve plays out his hand, which includes Academy *again*, casts a Mind's Desire for 5 revealing Demonic Tutor and I think a couple tutors/wishes but don't recall for sure. He tells me how he can kill me with the hand and I see it but I ask him to play it out on the small chance he might make a mistake, but to no avail. He shows me FoW and a random blue card afterwards in case I had Null Rod, which he assumed I sided in against him and was probably the only card that could have saved me.
Games: 6-2
Matches: 3-1
I was pretty discouraged after getting clobbered this round, but knew that I was taking the chance of that happening with the deck I decided to play. Fortunately I didn't see any more combo for the remainder of the tournament, and as long as I won the rest of my matches I could still make Top 8.
Round 5: Patrick, playing Scepter KeeperPatrick won the die roll. I did not take good notes on this matchup but I'll try to recount it as best as I can.
Game 1:
I resolve an early Basking Rootwalla and get a couple hits with it. This was a pretty uneventful game...I think I may have resolved another Rootwalla at some point but didn't do (or need to) do much else. This game ended with me at 20 life.
-2 Wonder
-2 Fiery Temper
+4 Red Elemental Blast
Game 2:
Patrick opens with a Scepter imprinting Fire/Ice. He Fires me a couple times before I'm able to resolve an Arrogant Wurm.It gets StP'd after hitting him twice, and a second Arrogant Wurm gets hit by Swords a few turns later. However, I've found two Bazaars by this point and am able to just run him over with a Basking Rootwalla and a ROTW that I force through with REB.
Games: 8-2
Matches: 4-1
Round 6: Dan, playing Parfait splashing redI knew from watching earlier rounds what Dan was playing, and was, needless to say, surprised to see a Parfait deck do so well up to this point - especially given the control-heavy metagame. Dan told me that he faced three Landstill decks in a row before this matchup. I'm guessing that he was able to just force through Charbelcher with Orim's Chant/Abeyance and kill them in a turn or two. I never saw any red cards during our match (only the Mountain that he fetched with Land Tax) but assumed he was running it for Blood Moon and to boost Charbelcher.
Game 1:
Dan wins the roll and opens with Mox Pearl and Land Tax. Fortunately, I have a Mox Emerald and two Rootwallas, and wait to play any lands until he's forced to do so so he doesn't get to trigger Land Tax (until he later found a Claws of Gix). Once he does, I resolve a Wild Mongrel and soon after I am able to do the final 11 damage in one turn by swinging with both Rootwallas, Wild Mongrel, and pitching Fiery Temper and a couple ROTWs/Deep Analyses. Dan hit one of my Rootwallas with Charbelcher (ended up being for 9 damage I think) because he knew I was sending with lethal damage if I pumped both Rootwallas and pitched my hand to Mongrel, but did not/could not anticipate the Fiery Temper so I won this one before he could Belch me out.
-2 Wonder
-1 Anger
+3 Artifact Mutation
The cards I was concered with were Isochron Scepter (imprinting Orim's Chant or StP) and Goblin Charbelcher, so I sided accordingly. Mutation turned out to be really strong in the face of the Humility he dropped in Game 2.
Game 2:
I resolve an early Wild Mongrel and Basking Rootwalla or two and I think am able to do about 6-8 damage before he imprints Orim's Chant on Scepter and keeps me at bay for several turns. Fortunately he only had enough mana to "Chant me with kicks" that he couldn't do anything else. He also found a Wasteland but opted not to use it on the Bazaar I drew a couple turns later. I was skeptical of this course of action, but I don't know what he had in his hand and he risked losing the game if he didn't draw another mana source (and for a long time, he did not). I used Bazaar for several turns in earnest to find Artifact Mutation, dropping three Deep Analyses along the way but nothing else of signifcance because I was locked by Chant each turn. Eventually I found the Mutation, hit the Scepter, found a blue mana source, flashbacked all three Deep Analyses, drew a bunch of cards, and won swinging with a bunch of 1/1's because he found Humility.
Games: 10-2
Matches: 5-1
Round 7: Sam, playing HulkYou can find Sam's coverage of our matchup here:
http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6407He was a really nice kid and I enjoyed playing him.
Game 1:
I won the die roll and went first (Sam mulliganed his opening hand) and played Tropical Island, Lotus, and Careful Study discarding Arrogant Wurm (which resolved) and Wonder. Sam Duressed me and took a Deep Analysis, which was the only nonland, noncreature card in my hand. My next turn I resolved Wild Mongrel. Sam Brainstormed on his next turn, hit my Trop with a Wasteland, but didn't find anything and conceded soon after. I won this game at 19 life, and did not get a chance to see what he was actually playing but saw the Duress and Brainstorm so I assumed it was either Hulk or GroAtog.
-4 Fiery Temper
+4 Red Elemental Blast
Game 2:
This is the only game that I had to mulligan in all day, but I had to mulligan twice and it cost me dearly. My opening hand was: Mox Pearl, Mox Jet, 2 Wild Mongrel, 2 Arrogant Wurm, and I believe a ROTW. My second hand was: Tropical Island, 2 Arrogant Wurm, 2 Roar of the Wurm, and either a Deep Analysis or Wonder (don't remember). I was able to keep a hand with a Mox, fetchland, Rootwalla and Bazaar but was never able to get anything going in this game. I made an incorrect play by using my fetchland to get a Tropical Island in response to his first fetchland because I was trying to play around Stifle, but clearly should not have done this because the odds of him dropping a Wasteland were probably better than him finding a Stifle. Sam then Wasted my Tropical Island and drew three more Wastes (or two Wastes and a Strip, don't remember for sure) and nuked everything I dropped within a turn of me playing them. Later into the game I had two Moxen, a Taiga, and a Rootwalla after he had Wasted a Bazaar but he resolved a Pernicious Deed and at X = 1 wiped out 2/3 of what was left of my mana base and my Rootwalla, and I eventually lost to a huge Berserked Psychatog.
Game 3:
I had a strong hand with Basking Rootwalla, Arrogant Wurm, Anger, LED, 2 REB, and a Taiga. I resolved the Rootwalla and LET first turn. My plan was to slowplay the game and use my REBs to counter his first two draw spells, then pop the LED to hopefully resolve an Angry Arrogant Wurm. Sam AK'd for 1, which I let resolve; next turn he AK'd for 2, which I countered, then he tapped out to resolve a Psychatog. I attempted to REB it during my main phase but he Forced it, pitching a FoW, leaving him with 2 cards in hand. I reasoned that the odds of him having a third FoW were pretty low, so I used the LED to play out Arrogant Wurm (which resolved) via its madness cost. I attacked into the Tog because Sam had a small hand and graveyard (2 AKs, FoW, and two other cards I don't remember) and I assumed that if he had to pitch FoW to FoW he would be reluctant to discard either of those other two cards and might let it through. If not, I would still be able to make him eat a lot of his graveyard and hand, making Rootwalla much more of a threat and putting me in a good position to resolve another threat and overwhelm him. Sam did in fact block the Arrogant Wurm, removed all but the 2 AKs, and pitched one of his two cards - a Swamp - to kill the Wurm.
Unfortunately for me, the last card in his hand was Ancestral Recall! Sam untapped, cast Ancestral, drew into his THIRD AK (!), cast that, and hit my Taiga with a Wasteland. I drew nothing else but flashback spells and another Anger and died again to a Berserked Tog.
Games: 11-4
Matches: 5-2
I was VERY frustrated after losing in the manner that I did, but Sam was a great opponent that would go on to make Top 8--certainly a very impressive performance at the tournament, especially given his age! At this point I knew I was out of it with an X-2 record at 23rd place, so was resigned to just winning my last round to save face and hopefully move up to the top 16 so I could win a Morphling.
Round 8: Jared, playing SlighThis was a rather one-sided matchup and both games were pretty uneventful. I lost the die roll though.
Game 1:
Jared resolves an early Goblin Cadets, and I get a first turn Wild Mongrel. He plays Ankh of Mishra and a couple other guys but I find a couple Arrogant Wurms soon afterwards and win this game without him putting up much of a fight. He resolved a Scepter imprinting Incinerate but never got the chance to use it.
-3 Deep Analysis
+3 Artifact Mutation (for Scepters and Ankhs)
Game 2:
I get an absolutely ridiculous hand with: Wild Mongrel, Arrogant Wurm, Tropical Island, Mox Emerald, Ruby, Jet, and LED, then draw into a ROTW durning my first turn. Jared gets a Shaman and a couple other small dorks but after I play all my fat and find a Wonder I win this game at 20 life.
Games: 13-4
Matches: 6-2
I ended up 21st overall, and must have had bad tiebreakers because the player in 10th place was also 6-2 in matches. I won a Mirrodin booster pack.
Madness turned out to be a fantastic metagame choice because of the control- and O.Stompy- heavy metagame, so I was frustrated that I wasn't able to T8 with it. If I had gotten a little luckier by not getting paired up against a matchup that is virtually an autoloss that no one else was playing (Smmenen.dec), it might have happened, but I had a great time and can't complain about my deck's performance. The only game I wasn't able to keep my opening hand in was Game 2 of Round 7 against Sam. Contrary to what many people believe, Madness just as good against the field as it was prior to LED's restriction and in some matchups even better by virtue of its more consistent mana base. I will discuss the build I played further in an update to the original Madness primer, which I hope to have finished up in the near future. It is underrated and underplayed and with Dragon on the decline and the monogreen Madness/Stompyish builds on the rise, it will hopefully start seeing more play in the future.
Props:Ray Robillard (iamfishman), for all the work he put into this tournament, making it run smoothly, and changing the prize structure as a result of the higher-than-expected tournout. I have never seen another TO do anything like that. This was Ray's first tournament that I've been to, and I hope to make it to more in the future.
Rich Shay (The Atog Lord), who rode down to the tournament with me and played Control Slavery (i.e. like Kim Kluck's U/r/b build) to a 6-1-1 record and 9th place overall. He was the only 6-1-1 that didn't T8. He almost chickened out of playing it a couple days before the tournament, but I talked him into sticking with Slavery and he turned in a fantastic performance with it.
Team Reflection--Brad Granberry (Rico Suave), Jeff Rieck (Methuselahn), and Al Dubuc (wuaffiliate)--for working on and fine-tuning post-January Madness with me. In particular, props to Brad Granberry who has been working on it with me for months and deserves more credit than he gets for what he's put into it. Also, to Matt Hargis (Matt the Great) and Josh Silvestri (Vegeta2711), and to several other people that I will acknowledge in the primer update.
Steve Menendian (Smmenen), for making it to the TMD Open. I don't know anyone else who would fly out from the Midwest to make an unsanctioned tournament. Steve was also by far the most entertaining opponent I played all day, even though I lost miserably.
The person (didn't get his name) who had the balls to play the Lodestone Myr/Time Vault deck
. That got major style points from me.
Everyone who showed up at the tournament to have fun and that made it fun for everyone else with their enthusiasm, maturity, and great attitude.
Slops:All of the restaurants/stores/etc in Waterbury that close stupidly early. I went to find dinner between rounds at about 6:30PM but Subway and Dunkin' Donuts were closed! What gives?
Steve O'Connell (Zherbus), for not making it to the tournament :-/.
