This is the tournament report for the Collector’s Corner Unlimited Mox Jet tournament on Thursday 8-22-02
Recently there has been a large shift in my local metagame towards graveyard recursion. This has taken shape in worldgorger.dec, survival (with squee’s) and a touch or replenish mixed in.
I am by far a keeper player at heart, but as any of you know once recursion starts to get rolling, it can be quick difficult to stop and can sometimes be fatal. I originally considered just running a crypt main deck, but I really didn’t know what to cut, and generally there is allot of anti control MD and SB at these sort of tourneys, so I was in no rush to fall into that trap, unless I felt completely prepared to dig myself out of it.
Don’t get me wrong, IMHO Keeper is still the best deck, it is a bit difficult to win with it if the whole tournament in pre SB’ed against you.
I decided to play "Everyone’s worst matchup" (quoting Matt Reitz)… Parfait.
At large events I am afraid of running such a slow deck, but Collector’s Corner hardly observes time limits. The rounds are all staggered in a way that if you had a bye in the 1st round, you could be playing your 2nd round opponent while the rest of the tournament is still in round 1.
This makes it really difficult for the T.O. to rule with timing, since there are matches ending and beginning as soon as the 2 players are available.
After I tweaked, or "metagamed" parfait for the night, I was off to the ultra cool, way tasty Chipotle, for an awesome Burrito, and Lemonade. I have said it before, if you do not have a Chipotle in your area, I suggest you go to
http://www.chipotle.com and request that they build one in your area… it’s worth it.
When I arrive at the tournament, there is a pretty good turnout, with a total of 19-20 entering the tourney. There are people playing friendly and ante games, and others just scouting the field, and making last minute "bitch ass" adjustments to their SB and MD. I say "bitch ass" because that is borderline cheating IMHO, and if nothing else it is pretty gandy, underhanded, annoying, and down right dishonorable.
The difference between scouting / pre SB as opposed to "metagaming", is that with metagaming you are making all your decisions based on what you anticipate at the tournament, and make the judgement calls based on that, well before the tournament. With pre Sbing, you are intentionally manipulating you deck after scouring the tournament as much as possible, thus making you a bitch ass… but I digress.
Since I didn’t play any casual or ante games, and no one had seen my deck yet, there were like 3 people that asked what I was playing, WTF would I tell anyone what I was playing so they could SB and MD against me in the last moments before the tourney begins?
I was hoping that I would get the Worldgorger Dragon/ graveyard recursion bracket, were I spin out every player in the tourney with that sort of deck, just one by one, lining them up and shooting them down… come to find out I didn’t face 1… not even 1! Figures.
On to the tournament, as always Decklist and SB @ bottom of post.
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Unfortunately there was not enough room inside for all the matches, and I had to sit outside in the muggy stank ass weather… sweating all over, and causing me some head ache action.
Round 1: Bye
Round 2: Kevin Greene, (1894) powered mono Black Void
Greene is a really good player, he and I fight back and forth points wise to be #1 in the state of Kansas. Right now I am ahead of him, but I know it will not last forever. Greene usually plays keeper, but I think he picked up on the same anti control vibe as myself. He was trying something new… really new in fact; it was the first time ever playing that sort of deck before that night.
Game 1: He wins the die roll, and plays first. He lays a 1st turn Hyppie, and asks if it is ok… assuming I was playing control. I look at what I thought was just an ok hand Vs control hand, but with 2 plow and a story circle, I feel quite a bit better, about this matchup. I plow his hyppie, then get the land tax scroll rack combo going, I eventually lay a story circle, and 4-5 turns later he concedes.
SB: -2 Tormod’s Crypt, -1 Orim’s Chant, -1 Cursed Totem, +1 Light of Day, +2 Replenish, +1 Story Circle.
Although I did not yet know that he was playing Void, I left in the seals, because he had factories, and I was anticipating distopia, or disk from his end.
Game 2: I get the tax rack combo going again, and eventually get out a story circle, Greene just can’t do anything, but eventually plays a void, I tax rack for a while and find a wasteland for his mishra’s. Then I find a seal and enough mana to cast in under the void.
Greene shows his inexperience with this decktype and casts a 2nd void, while the 1st one was still in play, as a pre-emptive way to keep me under the void, but I inform him that the 1st one was killed "Cloud Chaser Eagle Style" (quoting the Zhberus).
I seal the void, tap 4 mana in my pool, sac all lands, balance, then planar birth, as soon as Greene sees the birth, he concedes… that combo is just so powerful.
At some point in this match I Orim’s chanted Greene on the stack of his ritual, and he had to burn, but I cannot remember were and what game, but it was way cool, and it was fun to see his shoulders slump when it happened.
Green wishes me luck and it is on to the next round.
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Round 3: BI Zhao, (1703) powered mono Red burn/ sligh.
Bi is really new to the tournament scene, but has been doing awesome with his mono red deck; he is already ranked with in the top 20 in the state. He is also a really cool guy, nice, and really eager to learn as much as possible about magic.
Game 1 I get an early tax and rack, Zorb and ET for a cured totem to stop any shamans that he will draw… He is working my life total with bolts, and chains, ect, but I top deck an Ivory mask.
I had not ET’ed for the Ivory Mask, since I was more in fear of Bi killing the Scroll rack, and the Zorb, plus the sol ring, and mox diamond… decimating my board would have sucked!
Bi is amazed that parfait has so much stuff maindeck that just shuts him down, he waits it out long enough to see what the kill is, then concedes.
Sideboard: -2 Tormod’s Crypt, -2 Orim’s Chant, -2 Argivian Find, -1 Moat, +1 Story Circle, +2 Replenish, +2 Karmic Justice
I know that he runs at least 2 Anarchy in the Sb, and if he followed my advice from about 3 weeks ago, he is running 3, and possible 2 disk, thus the Karmic Justice, and extra Replenishes.
Game 2, he has a really fast start, with both a lotus and a ruby, and 2 count them, 2 ball lightning.
He stalls on damage, but topdecks 2 anarchy and kills off story circle #1, and #2, but then I replenish, and it is all over from there.
I eventually (and I stress eventually) create a bunch of tokens and apply the beats, under the protection of 2 story circle, 1 zorb, 1 cursed totem, and a bunch of misc shite, He tells me he hates horseys now… and we all have a good laugh, he wishes me luck in the rest of the tourney, and it is off to the semi’s
Finally enough players were spun out that there were tables free inside were it was cool, so that is were I migrated to.
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Round 4: Pat Giles, (1843) fully powered U/g/w Super Grow
Pat is one of the best player that I know, he is the best aggro player, but his control is a little weak, but this sort of deck is the kind to get him going in the right direction with that. He is a sort of prodigy of mine, and I have a great deal of respect for him.
I was a bit nervous about this matchup, since I helped pat build the deck, and let him borrow like 95% of it. I knew that it had 2 seal of cleansings and 2 tranquil domain’s in the SB… plus just the # of counters, made me nervous, and at this point that headache was throbbing the back of my head.
Pat and I shuffle the hell out of our decks, and wish each other good luck like 3 times… and we begin.
Game 1: I get an ass hand, and he rolls all over me, countering a moat 4 times, I cast it, argivian find it back, cast it, argivian find it back, then replenish… all no-go.
Sideboard: -1 Ivory mask, -2 crypt, -1 cursed totem, -1 chant, -1 seal, -2 Argivian Find, +2 karmic Justice, +2 Abeyance, +2 Replenish, +1 Story Circle, +1 Moat.
I leave the seals in the deck, witch was a bad idea in hind sight, I was just thinking that I could seal one of his seals, before I dropped moat or something, but I should have just kept in an argivian find and a chant… oh well.
Game 2: I get a good start, and plow a few bitches, then drop a story circle, for some retarded ass numskull dumbass stupid headachey reason, I name "white, uh um green." Then I pause and sigh, drop my head and go "I am sorry I named white", Pat says "It’s Green." I go, "No I am sorry Pat, I did say white, that was the 1st color I named" and he says "No, I heard Green, its ok."
Even now I really regret allowing myself to backup… as I don’t think that I would have allowed anyone else to do it.
The story circle protects me for a long time, until I get out a messa and end up winning.
I apologize like 3 more times as we both look at our SB’s again… he was so cool about it though, it made me feel even worse.
Game 3: I am trying to set up a replenish, and get my only 2 mesa’s countered, then he casts crypt… I poop.
I abeyance hoping that he will not catch that it will keep him from crypting, but he sees it and kills my only 2 reliable win conditions.
My only victory condition is to deck him… crap.
After a horrendously long game, I ended up plowing like 6 creatures; since I was able to get the digger working, and had recursive plows and strip-mines…
I finally win, with him ancestralling himself at the end for the big finally. Pat is gracious, and wishes me luck.
Round 5 Brian Pierce, (1809) powered G/w Enchantress with Squirle craft combo.
Pierce is the best player in our environment, his rating would be way higher, but his affinity for playing rogue, less tested decks, as opposed to defined archetypes (namely keeper) keeps him from sky rocketing in the points. When I first met Pierce he was playing a 5c oath/ keeper, mix that was awesome, but he just got tired of that sort of decktype.
I always try my best against Pierce but have only about a 45% - 50% record Vs him.
Game 1: He has land mox earth craft, 2nd turn land, squirrel nest, (tapping out), and I cannot see a seal to stop the infinite dudes next turn, what a game.
Sideboard: -1 Ivory mask, -4 Plow, -2 Story Circle, -1 Cursed Totem, +1 Crypt, +1 Seal, +1 Divine Meditation, +1 Moat, +2 Karmic Justice, +2 Replenish
Game 2: I get a really good start, and out draw him, 2 turns before he would have killed me, I divine Meditation, with threshhold, then replenish… he cannot recover, a few turns later I do the balance, and planar birth thing and he concedes.
Game 3: I get a horrible ass hand, and mull, then get a hand with 2 moat in it, and a lotus, so I keep, I do ok with what I have to work with, but he goes infinite. Pierce tutors for a seal to kill the moat, and I die die die die die die die die die die… when he kills me moat, I had a karmic justice out, and I used it to kill his mox emerald… I feel I won a moral victory since his beta emerald cost more then the moat…
As always Pierce is a really good sport (win or loosed he always is), it has been a really long time since we were both in the finals of a power card tourney, so it was pretty cool, I am glad that he won it.
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Aftermath: Everyone curses me for playing such a slow deck, since it was past 11:00 PM when we all got out of the shop… but, hey if time limits are not enforced, why not!
Here is the Deck list and Sideboard:
Parfait ala Freddie:
White: 28
Land Tax: 4
Swords To Plowshares: 4
Orim’s Chant: 4
Seal of Cleansing; 3
Story Circle: 2
Sacred Messa: 2
Argivian Find: 2
Replenish: 2
Moat: 1
Ivory Mask: 1
Enlightened Tutor: R
Balance: R
Planar Birth: 1
Artfacts: 9
Scroll Rack: 3
Zuran Orb: 2
Cursed Totem: 1
Soldevi Digger: 1
Tormod’s Crypt: 2
Mana: 23
Library of Alexandria: R
Pearl: R
Diamond: R
Ring: R
Lotus: R
Strip: R
Waste: 2
Plains: 15
Sideboard: 15
Replenish: 2
Abeayence: 2
Karmic Justice: 2
Tormod’s Crypt: 1
Moat: 1
Light of Day: 1
Story Circle: 1
Seal Of Cleansing: 1
Cleansing Meditation: 1
Wrath Of God: 1
Spiritual Focus: 1
Sacred Ground: 1
Props:
Pat Giles: He ain’t "Crackah".
Brian Pierce: For being a hell of an ambasitor for the game.
Matt Reitz: For creating the ultimate catch phrase for Parfait.
Chipotle: Bass ass burritos
Mike Miner: For getting me an unglued pegasis token to put my dice on to keep trak of all the little bitches.
Slops:
Outside: For being so hot and stinky with bugs everywere.
Collector’s Corner: even though the tournaments are cool, no 2nd place prize???
Me: for naming white on a story circle, like a dumbass.
Thanks for reading
-Freddie\n\n
