Hi everyone,
There's a sanctioned Type 1 every Thursday night at C & J Collectibles in Newark, CA -- easily accessible from pretty much anywhere in the SF Bay Area. Brian (Gizzard from the old bdominia site) was there as well -- he finished 2nd.
This is the second week that I've gone. Last week, I had no idea of what sort of metagame to expect, so I played Keeper, and piloted it to a 3-1 record, with a loss to Sligh, and 4th place out of 14 people. Having a chance to see the metagame a bit, it turned out that probably 1/3 of the players have power, and the field was actually very varied between control, aggro, and combo.
This week, 20 people showed up for the tournament, which meant 5 rounds of Swiss, with no playoff. The tournament has no entry fee, so it's free to play, but I suggest you buy something while you're there to support the store. However, pretty much anyone who plays T1 in the area should come by.
Anyway, given what I saw last week, I decided that this week I would play Academy, since I felt like it could do okay in the metagame and I find it much more fun to play than Keeper.
Here's my decklist:
4 Force of Will
3 Meditate
3 Impulse
1 Braingeyser
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Frantic Search
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Timetwister
1 Time Spiral
1 Windfall
1 Capsize
1 Tinker
1 Mind over Matter
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
2 Abeyance
1 Crop Rotation
1 Regrowth
1 Fastbond
1 Wheel of Fortune
5 Moxen
3 Helm of Awakening
2 Candelabra of Tawnos
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Grim Monolith
1 Memory Jar
1 Lotus Petal
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
2 Undiscovered Paradise
2 Underground Sea
1 Tolarian Academy
Sideboard -- Still looking for a better one. See the long thread on the other T1 board for some discussion on this. The board worked fairly well, though. I just think there's something better out there waiting to be discovered.
4 Misdirection
4 Phyrexian Negator
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Seal of Cleansing
1 Mind Twist
1 Balance
Round 1 -- Tom, playing Sligh
I win the roll and play first, and my draw is very good. I don't remember exactly, but I believe my play was land, Mox, Ancestral during his upkeep.
He does the standard Pup, go.
I play land, Fastbond, Academy, Timetwister, and poor Tom never sees a second turn.
Sideboarding -- Nothing. I considered bringing in Seal of Cleansing, but chose not to alter my deck.
Game two was more interesting, only because I kept a slower hand, giving him a chance to start some beats. He has a first turn Pup, and that, coupled with a bunch of burn to the head have me down to 5 life when I'm starting my 4th turn. Tom has only two lands out, however. I've finally had a chance to set things up, and I'm ready to play a draw 7 (with Academy out), and I Abeyance first. He fireblasts, sacing his only 2 mountains, and I choose not to force, since it puts me to 1 and I feel confident that I can win without needing City or Fastbond. I am correct, because Mind over Matter comes down, and I generate about 80 mana and Stroke him for his deck.
1-0 Matches, 2-0 Games
Round 2 -- Peter, playing Keeper
Game 1 was more or less all about 1 turn, in which I made a decent play and also got rather lucky. Peter played first, and had Zuran Orb, Mox, Mishra, and some other land by his second turn, so he didn't have too many cards left in his hand.
Eventually, as we build things up and he slowly realizes that he probably isn't going to win by attacking 10 times with Mishra, he tries to twist my hand away. At this point, I'm holding a land, Mystical Tutor, Crop Rotation, Force of Will, and Impulse. He 3 cards in hand after playing Twist. What I want to do is crop rotate out Academy and play Mystical Tutor in response to his Twist. To draw countermagic out of his hand, though, I Force the twist, pitching Impulse. He Forces back, and then I Rotate out Academy and Mystical for Ancestral. I wanted to get Timetwister, but I wasn't guaranteed to have the mana to play it.
All of this resolves, and on my next turn I Ancestral into land, Sol Ring, Timetwister -- so lucky! -- and manage to go off from there.
Sideboarding -- I bring in the entire package, boarding out 3 Helm, 3 Meditate, 1 Wheel, 1 Fastbond, 1 Crop Rotation, 1 Memory Jar, 1 Tinker, 1 Mind over Matter, 2 Candelabra, and 1 Time Spiral.
Peter plays first in Game Two, and keeps a hand such that his only play for the first 2 turns is Black Lotus. As he waits for mana development, I'm playing some artifact mana and Tutoring for Negator. Finally, he sacs his Lotus to drop Ivory Mask, but I follow that up with a Negator on the next turn, with Force backup. The game ends shortly thereafter, as I swing in for the kill.
2-0 Matches, 4-0 Games
Round 3 -- Clinton, playing Mono Black
I get paired down for this round, and Clinton is playing an unpowered mono black deck that can issue some beats, but isn't quite as aggro as the standard suicide build.
My notes from Game One aren't many, mainly because it wasn't very close. He had some 2/2 dude who swung once or twice, but there was never any disruption pressure on me (Duress or Hymn) and once I realized that I was going to win, I slowed down a bit and decked him on something like turn 5, with 10 life to spare.
I felt kind of bad after that game, mainly because I felt like a jerk who was stomping people with Power. I apologized for my deck, and fate was sure to get even in Game 2.
Sideboarding -- No changes.
He plays first, and drops Carnophage. I keep a decent hand, with a few permanents Turn 1 and some card draw. He rituals out 2 more dudes on his second turn, so I'm definitely on a clock now, but I feel like I should be able to go off. That's when the deck just gives up on me. I Twister into garbage and Ancestral, and then Ancestral into Meditate and more junk. Meditate gets me nothing useful, so I've looked at 14 cards and managed to stall out, and with the extra turn from Meditate, he kills me.
Sideboarding -- Again, no changes.
Game 3 was more of the same bad luck, though this time things ended up better. Again, the deck provided me with Academy and all the artifact mana that I wanted, but no tutors or actual business. However, with the ability to generate about 20 mana through Academy and Candelabra, I just Capsized all his permanents back to his hand every turn and locked him at 1 land while I waited to draw something useful.
3-0 Matches, 6-1 Games
Round 4 -- Andrew, playing Mono Blue
Andrew's one of my good friends from Stanford, and he came up to the tournament with me and some other buddies of ours. He's playing my mono blue deck, powerless (since the power is in my deck) except for the Mana Drains that I'm not using, Sol Ring, and Library as the only non-basic land.
We joke that this is a very bad matchup for me, but we always have fun playing against each other.
Game 1, maybe he didn't have the best draw and I did manage to get a few Force of Wills. We fight over a bunch of stuff, and I get a Memory Jar on the table, jar away our hands (the hand that I Jar away consists of only Braingeyser), draw Timetwister, play that, and get 7 more cards. Andrew thinks I should win from here, as does our friend Jeff (who wanted to play but got out of work late, and just came by to watch). But, once again, the deck delivers up very little, and I stall out, with the only thing I can play being Mystical Tutor. Now, I know that I'll be getting back Braingeyser, and Andrew will be getting 2 cards as well. So, I Mystical for Abeyance and say go. He draws, go. I draw Abeyance, resolve it, Geyser myself for a ton, and manage to go off. This was Andrew's only game loss of the tournament.
Sideboarding -- The same 15 card package described in the Keeper matchup.
Game 2 was crazy. He's countered 3 of my Negators, and I'm hoarding countermagic, getting ready to fight one last big war. Time is called for the round with me at 10 life and him at 8, and neither of us have creatures in play. The way the 5 turn rule works means that Andrew will get two more turns, since time was called after he just started his current turn. Given this, he looks at my life total and says, "Well, I guess I'd better resolve Morphling now." He plays Morphling, and here is what the stack ended up being after we both emptied our hands completely:
Andrew -- Morphling
Me -- Red Elemental Blast
Andrew -- Force, pitching Morphling
Me -- Red Elemental Blast
Andrew -- Mana Leak
Me -- Misdirection, pitching Timetwister
Andrew -- Misdirection, pitching Impulse
Me -- Misdirection, pitching Windfall
Andrew -- Force, pitching Force
His Morphling resolves and serves twice. We draw the match and laugh for the next ten minutes about the epic war. I also chastize him for not scooping to me, given that he was using all of my cards.
3-0-1 Matches, 7-2 Games
Round 5 -- Tom, playing NecroDonate
Tom is another one of our friends who came up for the tournament, and we're a bit disappointed to have to play against each other.
Game 1 was interesting for two reasons. His first turn play of Swamp, Ritual, Duress x 3 drew several laughs, but he was unhappy because I had a hand of 2 Force, 1 Geyser, 1 Jar, 1 Mana Crypt, and something else that was pretty good.
This game gets difficult for Tom when he consults for Donate, and blows away almost his entire deck, except for 15 cards, when the consult goes poorly. Now I don't even try to combo him out, and instead just hold my countermagic and wait. Once I Force Yawgmoth's Will and show him Capsize, he scoops.
I was very uncertain as to whether or not to sideboard, but I choose to do the 15 card package, which ended up being a mistake.
In Game 2, we both play TurboNegator, but he gets his first and just beats me down. Time is called while we're deciding on mulligans for Game 3, and given that the round was almost over and I'm playing first, I should have gone back to the main deck and tried to win on turn 1, but I didn't, and neither of us had a hand that could win in time, so we drew.
3-0-2 Matches, 8-3 Games
Final Standings:
1. Andrew (round 4 opponent) 4-0-1, 13 points
2. Brian (gizzard from BD, playing Welder/Survival) 4-1, 12 points.
3. Max (me!) 3-0-2, 11 points.
4. Tom (round 5 opponent), 3-1-1, 10 points.
It was a ton of fun for everyone, and most of us are going to try to make it a regular event. I know this was kind of long -- thanks for reading.
Props to Andrew and Tom, who are the two best Magic players that I know.
