Tournament report-2nd place

So I read the many tournament reports at C & J collectables in Newark, CA. Thanks to you guys posting, a few of the fellows from Berkeley got interested and decided to go down to the south bay for a night of sanctioned type 1 games. Since Fishhead is a regular at games of Berkeley who also plays at C & J collectables, I just got the directions and details from him, and we all arranged to meet there. Since so many people from Berkeley showed up, I felt pretty comfortable playing at C & J's, even though I had never set foot in the store before.

The turnout was apparently "pretty good" by the standards of the regulars of the tournament, with 19 people showing up. We played 4 rounds of swiss, with no top 8. Apparently, they usually play 5 rounds, but since there was a single winner after the 4th round, there was no need for the fifth round.

Approximately a third of the players had power cards, and there was a lot of random decks running around, as you'll see from the tournament report. I couldn't really see any strong "trends" in the metagame, it was so random.

I was playing my "A Beautiful Mind". The decklist is as follows:

5 islands
5 plains
2 undiscovered paradise
2 city of brass
3 gemstone mine
1 mox sapphire
1 mox pearl
1 mox diamond
1 sol ring
1 library of alexandria
22 mana sources

4 land tax
3 scroll rack
1 trade routes
1 zuran orb
9 draw engine

2 mystic enforcer
2 werebear
2 whirlpool warrior
2 devout witness
2 meddling mage
10 creatures

1 ancestral recall
1 fact or fiction
1 time walk
1 mystical tutor
1 mind twist
1 yawgmoth's will
1 demonic tutor
1 regrowth
1 balance
9 restricted brokenness

4 force of will
2 back to basics
2 powder keg
1 swords to plowshare
1 fire/ice
10 control elements

60 cards total

Sideboard:
3 swords to plowshares
2 seal of cleansing
1 aura fracture
2 meddling mages
2 misdirections
2 back to basics
1 ivory tower
1 tormod's crypt
1 propaganda
15 cards total

From my previous post, the deck has changed as follows:
In the maindeck, the black lotus became a gemstone mine, since I don't own a real lotus. Normally, I just play with a proxy lotus. Also, the 2 misdirection/2 fow became 4 fow's, since I expected to face a lot of un-powered decks. When we play in Berkeley, everyone proxies. There are ancestral recalls flying around everywhere, and control is the deck of choice. Hence the 2 mis-D / 2 fow configuration. But since I expected this tournament to be lower in power level in comparison, I went with the more conservative 4 fow configuration.

In the sideboard, a few cards were changed around to emphasize artifact/enchantment destruction, due to my fear of combo decks. As it turned out, I didn't run into any, but I think I still like my new sideboard better than my old one. It seemed more well-rounded overall.

Well, on to the tournament itself.

Match 1: Vs. Fishhead playing german tubbies.
Fishhead is one of the players at the tournament who 1) knows my deck well, and 2) has a fully-powered deck. I know that he'll probably be playing german tubbies, and although I've never actually played with or against it, this is a deck that I fear in principle. The idea of dealing with both welders and survival, while there are fat creatures beating me down, seems to me a daunting task.

game 1: I keep a pretty bad hand which has no "action" until at least the third turn. Fishhead does what I should have done, and mulligans. He keeps a relatively slow hand as well. At first, I counter a tinker and keg away a welder. It seems like I'm getting control, but Fishhead soon reaches 4 mana with the help of a sol ring, and starts droping creatures. I manage to play a devout witness, and she does some good work, but there's just too much fat coming my way. Devout witness holds down the beats to only 4 a turn (as opposed to 9 a turn) for a few while, but eventually she has to chump block. At this point, I finally get zuran orb and scroll rack in play, and land tax in hand, but it's too little, too late.

game 2: Much to my delight, all the things that I put in my sideboard for the dragon matchup are good against the german tubbies matchup as well. I side in extra swords, more back to basics, seals of cleansing, and propaganda.

I keep a hand with a relatively slow start, since it had some very nice cards once I got to 3 mana. I just play lands for a few turns. Fishhead, on the other hand, drops two workshops, and plays a triskelion. But before it can do any damange, I drop the first of my bombs: Propaganda. With the two workshops as his only mana source, he finds himself unable to attack. Soon he draws more lands, and drops a survial of the fittest, as well as a second triskelion, while tapping out. That's when I drop the second bomb: Back to basics. These two cards completely shut off the tubbie's attack, and gives me plenty of time to find the tax/rack combo, as well as a zuran orb. With tax, rack, zorb, propaganda, and b2b out, Fishhead concedes.

Game 3: Early in the game, I see from fishhead's land grant that he has a REB in his hand. So while he's tapped out, I mystical for the ancestral, and when he's untapped I cast it to bait the REB. After the ancestral is countered, I drop the back to basics that I was holding in my hand. This slows him down somewhat, and I'm eating away at his life total with a meddling mage naming goblin welder. But he manages to find a emerald charm and gets rid of my b2b. In short order, the game turns around, as he plays a masticore with the board free of back to basics. At this point, I'm afraid that he'll shoot my mage, then bring in a welder, then just run me over. I cast a whirlpool warrior, and luckily, find a seal of cleansing before he can untap and have mana available to regenerate masticore. Over the next few turns, we both play some pretty fat creatures, with mystic enforcers on my side, and juggernauts and triskelions on his. Eventually, I barely manage to get threshold by blowing up a powder keg for no good reason (well, it killed a squee), and swing for 12 in the air with my 2 enforcers for the win.

We talked about the game after it was over, and I seemed to have benefitted greatly from some of Fishhead's small mistakes. First, he could have REB'ed my whirlpool warrior, but he let it resolve. With that "whirl", I put away 5 useless mana sources, and drew into the crucial seal of cleansing for the masticore. Also, in response to me kegging to gain threshold, he could have shot one of the enforcers with the triskelion, killing it and giving himself another turn to live. At this point, I had a fow and a seal of cleansing in hand, so I could have probably dealt with whatever other threats he pulls out in that one turn, but on his side of the board he had a juggernaut and a survival, so he could have also done some nasty things in that turn. All in all, it would have been a more interesting game if he had seen that triskelion play sooner.

All in all, I'm unhappy to have to play someone from Games of Berkeley in the first round, but it's a match that I'm happy to have escaped from with a win.
Match: 1-0
Games: 2-1

Match 2: Vs. David Ochoa, playing a highlander deck.
I see my next opponent, and his deck size really confuses me. Way more than 60 cards, but not big enough to be a battle of wits deck, or anything else that I can think of off the top of my head. I mention that, we talk about it a little, then we play.

Game 1: I play island on the first turn, then undiscovered paradise, scroll rack my second turn. On the third turn, the undiscovered paradise returns to my hand, I draw, then I give myself a brand new hand by scroll racking using the island for 8 cards. I drop a plains, then land tax, and fow David's counter. With the tax-rack complete, the rest of the game is pretty much wrapped-up. I drop a back to basics somewhere on the way to winning, counter his attempt to disenchant it, play some creatures, and win.

Game 2: I side out two meddling mages, since I have no idea what his deck is like at this point, and board in two back to basics. My first turn consists of mox pearl, land tax, zuran orb, go. David, afraid of the tax and a potential back to basics, decides to discard a nonbasic land rather than play it and let me tax. On the second turn, I play a land, then a trade routes. Eventually, David has to play lands (all basic this time. This really confused the heck out of me, after seeing a lot of nonbasics in the first game), and I start tax/trade routes. I eventually draw into scroll rack, then tax/rack into everything, and beat with creatures for the win.

Afterwards, he tells me that his deck is a highlander deck. I felt like I'd used up my deck's good luck in an easy matchup. But I don't really believe in luck like that anyway. Oh well. I still don't know what I'd sideboard against his deck.
Match: 2-0
Game: 4-1

Match 3: Vs. Gim Chu, playing straight burn.
Gim was playing with mountains, burn, cursed scroll, and ball lightnings. "Ignore everything and go for the head" seemed to be his strategy.

Game 1: He plays first turn mountain, bolt to the head, and I know that I have my work cut out for me. My strategy is to get land tax+zuran orb into play, and then winning should be a cakewalk from there. He follows up the first turn bolt with a second turn flame rift. I play some meddling mages to slow him down (naming fireblast, so that he has to direct some of the burn at them so that he can use the super-efficient fireblast on me). The mages, combined with Gim having a little trouble getting to 3 mana for the cursed scroll and ball lightnings, gives me enough time to get tax/rack set up and running. I soon have a force in hand for anything he tries to do, and use a demonic tutor for the zuran orb. From there, I gain a steady 2 life a turn, draw a steady 4 card a turn, and eventually kill him with some creatures.

Game 2: I side in a ivory tower, and two misdirections. My opening hand contains a demonic tutor and the mana to cast it. I tutor for the ivory tower, play it, and gain a steady 3 life a turn. That probably sealed the game. But we play the game out anyway. I get tax/rack somewhere along the line, and cast some creatures and beat with them for the win.

At this point, I'm feeling pretty good because the top two players at the moment are me and Timw, who is another player from Berkeley. At this point, we eat (there's a pizza place right next door, and they sell drinks in the store. Very convenient), and I get ready for the next match.
Match: 3-0
Games: 6-1

Match 4: Vs. Timw playing a beautiful mind
So we actually got to play the mirror. We've played the mirror match a couple of times before, and since we know each other's deck very well, it's usually a pretty good game. Of course, there was that one time where it got really stupid, when we both had tax/rack/zorb out. (I'm not gonna leave a land out! I lose if I let him tax! I draw, play a land and sack it to zorb, and say go.) But that's the exception to the rule, and most of the mind vs. mind mirror games are both challenging and fun.

Game 1: I get a first-turn library, and start gaining a lead over Timw. His opening hand is only mediocre, and he can't match the library's drawing power. He plays a lot of artifacts and then tries to balance; if it resolves, I not only lose a lot of the cards in my hand, I'm also left with no lands in play. Fortunately, I have a force, and I'm safe for a while. But then Timw casts regrowth to get the balance back. With no countermagic in my hand, I cannot stop the balance, but I manage to delay it for a turn by casting ice on Timw's mox diamond, his only white source, and hope he doesn't have another white source in hand. And that crucial one-turn delay allows me to see three more cards (one from ice, one from library, one from the draw phase), and among the cards drawn is a meddling mage. I happily cast the mage, naming balance. I draw another mage and name land tax (I already had 3 in play at this time. Timw had scroll rack and trade routes, but no tax). From there, I just ride the library's draws to victory.

Game 2: I side in more swords and enchantment/artifact kill, and take out back to basics and some other stuff. Timw draws a very aggro-ish hand, goes first, and he starts off with land-lotus-enforcer. I have a slow but sure control hand, so I let the enforcer hit me for a while. I swords it eventually, and stablize at a low life total. I've got the game under my control, and it looks like I'm certain to win. But here, I make the most bone-headed mistake in the entire tournament: I cast meddling mage, and thinking that the mage will go all the way, name swords to plowshares.

Now, to fully appreciate how stupid that play was, we must go back and look at what happened in previous conversations between me and Timw. As I said, we'd played the mirror before, and we discussed how we would sideboard for the mirror. My sideboard choice is to go more controllish: Extra countermagic, more disenchant effects, more swords, etc. Timw believes that the aggro approach is better for the mirror: so he actually sides out the tax/rack combo, and brings in an extra enforcer, extra meddling mages, and some disenchant effects. His reasoning goes like this: Since it is known that super/miracle grow is a bad matchup for mind (this is something that we found out earlier, by playtesting), the mind deck should try to make itself more like grow in the mirror.

Now, in the light of the fact I KNEW ABOUT Timw's sideboarding philosophy, it can be seen that naming swords to plowshares with my own meddling mages was a colossal mistake. I'm the control in this matchup: I'm the guy that needs to swords his threats. But just because I had stablized and was fully in control, I thought I was going to just win by pulling out more creatures and swinging with them, and I didn't want to be interrupted with a swords.

Of course, I lose the game a few turns later, due to Timw's newly cast mystic enforcer bashing my head in. Of course, this is all happening while I held a swords to plowshares in my hand, which was being named by my own meddling mage. Timw, of course, knew better than to block my mage when I tried to send it into the enforcer so that I could balance.

Game 3: I keep what seems like a pretty strong opening hand, and I go first turn island-sol ring-scroll rack. I scroll, and see a lot of good cards... swords to plowshare, seal of cleansing, land tax, mox diamond... but no land. Each turn, I scroll 2 cards deeper, looking for land, but none show up. As it turned out, I had the island and sol ring in my opening hand, and no other mana sources for the next 10 cards or so. When Timw seals my scroll rack, I know that I'm going to be without white mana for the next 7 or so turns, and I concede because he has 4 points of creature damage on the board. Mana screw is very rare with a scroll rack on the table, but this was just one of those rare times.

So I lost the mirror, but I don't mind too much since losing to my own deck isn't too bad. Since Timw is the only one with a perfect record at this point (4-0), the tournament ends without a need for a fifth round.

So, overall,
Match:3-1
Games: 7-3

I felt that I actually lucked out and dodged some of the harder opponents in the tournament. The only really interesting matches for me was the 1st and the 4th round. I wished for more competition, but I'm happy with how the tournament went overall. Timw will be writing a report also, and his matchups were more interesting, so look out for his report.

Overall rankings (out of 19 people):
1. Timw 4-0 (a beautiful mind)
2. Me (NaClhv) 3-1 (a beautiful mind)
3. Brent Peterson 3-1 (keeper)
4. Fishhead 3-1 (german tubbies)
5. Thomas Cavasos 3-1 (mono-blue)
6. Leshrac 2-0-2 (keeper)

At this point, I believe tradition calls for a section called "props and slops". So, without further ado;

Props to:

The Berkeley crew, for high finishes overall. People from Games of Berkeley took 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 6th place. Leshrac should really be placed higher, since his two ties were due to time running out when he had pretty much won the game already and was just mopping up. Also, these four people, taken together, lost only 2 matches total... and only to each other. My first and forth match covers those two intra-Berkeley matchs.

Everyone who posted tournament reports from last week, for letting us know of a place to play sanctioned T1 in the bay area. I hope to see you the next time we go to a C & J's tournament.

C & J's collectables, for providing a place for sanctioned type 1 tournaments. And for free, no less!

Me, for picking up a second library of alexandria. I hope I can trade it for a piece of the p9 that I don't have yet...

Slops to:

Psyduck, for not coming. Man, you would have wrecked house! You should have definitely come. Oh well, next time, right?