[TMD Open Report] Josh Osche

Josh Ochse here
I have never written a tourney report before, and I don't read very many of them. I'm just going to wing it. First of all, I had a great time. Ray really runs a good tournament. Type 1 players are far better to spend the day with than say PTQ players. The atmosphere is more relaxed, and people are more friendly, even though there are very valuable prizes. This says a lot about the type1 community, and is just another reason why attendance is so strong.

I decided to play TNT because of it's better than average chances against control. It is a mean and disruptive aggro deck. It may be the most consistent and effective aggro deck, but a case could be made for Ninja Mask. I fear the combo finishes of Ninja Mask along with even a crappy variety of combo deck. TNT is trusty, but I need a couple of turns to set up, and combo will probably finish me off in the first few turns. Aggro/control decks such as Fish or Grow can also be a problem. They can use their counters to disrupt you while they beat you in the face.

Anyone who has tested Solemn Simulacrum should notice how good it is at solving a lot of the problems of playing TNT. The advice I got from other players is mixed on the subject. It only beats for two is the most substantial argument,but a first turn simulacrum is often met by force of will; even by those who tried to dissuade me from running it. I get dirty looks when I draw too many of them, as if to say "How lucky". At the last minute I kind of chickened out and only ran two of them along with three Su-Chi to hedge my bets. Given a second chance I would probably run three or four.

My match ups were as followed:
Round 1- A bad Sligh deck, I saw hollowing mine and a series of bad plays before I won 2-0.

Round 2- A fish player that smashes me. I won game1, and the other two were close, but he had counters available, and fast flying dudes were everywhere.

Round 3- A true suicide deck, I saw Shade, Negator, Coffin Queen, Sorcerous Queen. It looked like a lot of fun.

Round 4- I get the daylights beat out of me by a goblin cadet. He goes land, mox, cadet, reckless charge. Turn two he has two more charges With plenty more to flash back in the coming turns. By the time I got a creature on the table he grenaded me to death. It was one of the biggest beatings I ever got. He wasn't so lucky in games two and three.

Round5- Finally a tog player. My hands were great against him, and his were unimpressive. Three main deck blood moon and four pyrostatic pillar is bad for him.

Round6- Land still- I get a good hand against this guy, and win game one. Game two I'm feel pretty good until he casts ACID RAIN on me. Somehow I pluck like a champ into some more mana and win. I have to say I have never seen any one cast acid rain much less get wrecked by it. He should have gotten a prize for that.

Round7- Another tog player, and the match was over in ten minutes. I drew survival, pillar,and blood moon both games catching him without counters.

Round8- Being 6-1 I decided to agree to a draw. I knew my opponent was playing tog, but I was almost positive I would make it in with a draw. My opponent couldn't't have been much older than twelve, and I think it was his first top eight. A very good performance for someone so young. In the end he makes sixth, and I make eight. Congrats

I lose horribly in the first round of the top 8. I play against an EBA kind of deck. It also resembles an extended deck known as Dump Truck. Both games he plays a turn one Duress, and a turn two Meddling Mage shutting down my hand. I think the deck is a pile, but he was certainly a good player. He went on to beat Eli Kassis too, whose Slaver deck I thought was going to go all the way.

I ended up winning a Moat and everyone there seemed to have a lot of fun. Thanks to all for a good time. Thanks Carl for posting for me.

Josh Ochse