*Top 8* Game Master in New Jersey

This is my first tournament report for TheManaDrain...

The torunament was 5 rounds of swiss, cut to Top 8.
I think there were only 24 or so people...

Top 8, Game Master in NJ - Black Lotus/Mox Sapphire Tournament

Urphidian played by me...

4 Force of Will
4 Mana Drain
4 Mana Leak
2 Misdirection

4 Ophidian
3 Morphling
1 Gorilla Shaman

4 Fire/Ice
2 Powder Keg
1 Capsize
1 Merchant Scroll

1 Fact or Fiction
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall

7 SoLoMoxen
7 Islands
4 Volcanic Island
4 Shivan Reef
2 Wasteland
1 Dust Bowl
1 Strip Mine
1 Library of Alexandria

Sideboard:
4 Flametongue Kavu
4 Pyroblast
3 Blood Moon
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Scrying Glass
1 Shattering Pulse

1st Round vs.Mike (Chunk, Chunk???) playing Sligh

Game 1: I get down to a pretty low life total, and am able to stabilize by first getting two of his Jackal Pups with a Fire/Ice, and chumping his Mogg Fanatic. I get Morphling out, and kill soon after.
-I side in 4 Flametongue Kavu and side out 1 Capsize, 1 Merchant Scroll, 1 Fact or Fiction, and 1 Mana Drain

Game 2: Again I stabilize at low life, but I let myself get too low, and an uncounterable Barbarian Ring finishes me off. (I saw Ankh of Mishra and it was pretty annoying, but I was able to work around it mostly because I already had a lot of land out when it resolved.)
-Because I saw so many artifacts this game, I side in the Shattering Pulse, and side out another Mana Drain.

Game 3: I have to work around a resolved Black Vise and Ankh of Mishra. But I end up getting the Shattering Pulse and a Gorilla Shaman to deal with them. Also, his only Red source for the beginning of our game was a Mox Ruby, which I got rid of with the Shaman. The clincher of this game is when he Wheel of Fortuned himself into a 7 land hand. Again Morphling comes out to play and its all over.

Match Record 1-0-0 Game Record 2-1-0

2nd Round vs.Rob playing Sligh

-I knew what Rob was playing because he is one of the Binghamton guys that I came up with.

Game 1- Sligh beats me down fast, I am unable to draw enough counter to stabilize.
-In goes 4 Flametongue Kavu, out goes 1 Capsize, 1 Merchant Scroll, 1 Fact or Fiction, 1 Mana Drain.

Game 2- I get to Flametongue his Jackal Pup, but between a Fork and 2 Pyroblasts, he is able to slow me down while Price of Progress for 4 two times did me in.

Match Record: 1-1-0 Game Record 2-3-0

3rd Round vs. Justin playing White Weenie

Game 1- When he plays his first turn plains, my heart skipped a beat. I'm already 1-1-0 and I have to play parfait??? My chances in this match up are not good. When he tapped his two lands, I was expecting Scroll Rack, but instead he plays a Soltari Monk! I breathe a sigh of relief, and proceed to draw lots of Fire/Ice and Powder Kegs to deal with his creatures while I beat down with Morphlings. (The most interesting and fun part for me in this game was I got to Misdirection an Empyrial Armor to my Morphling.)
-I side in 1 Flametongue Kavu taking out the Gorilla Shaman.

Game 2- Again I get lots of removal, and get Morphling out to finish up.

Match Record: 2-1-0 Game Record 4-3-0

4th Round vs. James playing Urphidian

-I've never playtested the mirror matchup, but I know the hands it can draw, and even though I have a 50/50 chance, I really didn't want this matchup at all.

Game 1- I get out a first turn LoA, which is promptly wastelanded. The pivotal point came early in the game. He casts a Powder Keg, I tapped out for Powder Keg instead of leaving my mana open. He casts Ophidian, and I am unable to deal with it, another one joins in on me and after a resolved Morphling, I scoop.
-In comes 4 Pyroblast and 1 Scrying Glass Out goes the 4 Fire/Ice and 1 Capsize.

Game 2- I mulligan down to 6, and keep a hand with 1 land. This was my biggest mistake of the tournament. He ends up running rampant on me with Library of Alexandria and Ophidian Card drawing, and even though I am able to stop the first two Morphlings, the third one hits with nothing left for me to do but scoop.

Match Record 2-2-0 Game Record 4-5-0

5th Round vs. Sui w/o Negator or Flesh Reaver replaced with Grinning Demon and Dauthi Horror

Game 1- He dark rituals out a Grinning Demon first turn, but I am able to get a Powder Keg out and stall with my creatures (Ophidians and Gorilla Shaman) and with a Fire/Ice until I can blow the Powder Keg. I end up taking a total of three hits from this monster putting me at 2. Luckily I stabilized with counter and Capsize, and Morphling beats again.
-In comes 4 Flametongue Kavu out goes 4 Mana Drain

Game 2- I get a really cool hand which I probably shouldnt keep, but I do anyway. It is 1 Black Lotus,
2 Moxes, 1 Volcanic Island, 1Morphling, 1 Force of Will, 1 Mana Drain. He plays first and gets first turn duress, I Force of Will removing Mana Drain cause I don't want him to take my Lotus. I go and play first turn Morphling. I get a second turn Phid, and between the card advantage and the Morphling beats, it is too much for him to recover.

Match Record 3-2-0 Game Record 6-5-0

Top 8

Quarter Finals vs. hulk3rules playing Mask

Game 1- He mulligans and keeps a one land hand...By the time he draws a second land, I have out 2 Ophidians and have a Powder Keg out. He scoops without showing much of his deck, in fact all I got to see was his Underground River and an Ancestral Recall.
-At this point, since I havent been scouting, I dont know what the hell he is playing, the only decks I had played before with Underground River was Illusions-Donate and U/b Control both which are heavy blue decks. I sided in 4 pyroblasts and 1 Scrying Glass, taking out 4 Fire/Ice and 1 Capsize.

Game 2- He draws Mask and plays it before I have a second Land, followed by a 'morphed' Phyrexian Dreadnought on his turn three which ends up killing me three turns later.
-Now that i know what he is playing I side back in the 4 Fire/Ice and 1 Capsize as well as adding the 1 Shattering Pulse.

Game 3- He gets first turn duress, second turn Mask, Third turn Phyrexian Dreadnought. I am able to get out an Ophidian and a Gorilla Shaman at this point. I tap his Phyrexian Dreadnought with Fire/Ice two times and he plays Cursed Totem! This shuts down all the creatures in my deck and gives me no hope of killing his Illusionary Mask with my Shaman. I really only have four cards that can deal with the Dreadnought permanently, and those were Merchant Scroll, Shattering Pulse, and two Powder Kegs. I drew as much as I could, but I couldn't make it to one in time. I ended up dying around 8th turn to the unstoppable Dreadnought.

Because my closest friends didnt make Top 8, we had to leave as soon as I was finished, so I didn't get to see exactly what happened for the rest of the tournament, hopefully someone elses report will fill in the holes left in mine.

Top 8 in no particular order...
-Urphidian played by thombligh from Binghamton
-Urphidian played by James ?
-Keeper played by CrazyCarl from Binghamton
-Keeper played by Josh O. from Binghamton
-Sligh played by Rob ? from Binghamton
-TnT played by ?
-Mask played by hulk3rules (I'm not 100% sure, but I think it was him) from Hadley...
-? played by ?

When I left, the only Binghamton person in the Top 4 was Josh playing keeper. On a side note, he was offered an intentional draw into the Top 8 when he was 3-1-0. Josh chose not to go for the I-D, and as a consequence I was able to make Top 8 because I had the best tie-breakers of the 3-2-0's, thx Josh!!!

Props go out...
-To Game Master in New Jersey for running a smooth Type 1 tournament.
-To the other Urphidian player who made it to the top 4 right before I left.
-To 100% of the Hadley players for making Top 8.
-To klOwn for really showing his 'humility'....sorry a little pun I couldn't help but put in here...

Slops:
-To the hour waiting in a traffic jam on the way back to Binghamton...

If I made any mistakes, ill try and edit them later as I am too tired to continue writing any more...7 hours of riding cramped in the back of a pickup truck will do that to you...