Well, I wasn't even sure if I was gonna be able to make it to this tournament, because my car had to be put in the shop earlier in the week. However, on Saturday night my dad said I could borrow his car, so I was good to go.
So I took off from Hadley at 9am expecting that I'd hit some traffic on the way, but the roads were clear all the way down. After driving past the shop twice, I made it to GameMasters at around 12ish, ready to represent the Hadley crew by myself (billtheduck and mezzir aren't allowed to ride w/ me cause their parents don't know me )
Name: The Mask
3 swamp
4 snow-covered swamp
3 underground sea
1 underground river
2 city of brass
3 mishra's factory
1 sol ring
1 black lotus
1 mox emerald
1 mox jet
1 mox pearl
1 mox ruby
1 mox sapphire
4 dark ritual
4 illusionary mask
4 phrexian dreadnought
3 hypnotic spector
2 phyrexian negator
4 duress
3 unmask
1 hymn to tourach
1 mindtwist
3 tainted pact
1 demonic tutor
1 vampiric tutor
1 demonic consultation
1 necropotence
1 yawgmoth's will
1 recoil
1 time walk
1 ancestral recall
Sideboard:
2 cursed totem
2 phyrexian negator
2 diabolic edict
2 dystopia
2 contagion
2 phyrexian furnace
1 timetwister
1 lord of tresserhorn
1 zuran orb
I've been playing mask for about 3 weeks now, with this being my first major tournament with it. The 2 city of brass are there because I only have 1 underground river, and I didn't want to be the guy that proxied pain lands. I didn't really take great notes, just a few things here and there, so I apologize if some details are a bit off.
Round 1:
Jason (leviat) playing TnT variant
Game 1: I believe I got to go first, and duressed a card drawer from his hand (meditate or wheel i believe.) I ended up with a dreadnought on turn 2 or 3 and attacked him down to 7 (he took a pain from a land) and then dropped dreadnought #2. I won the next turn.
Game 2: He plays land-go, and I duress him. I remember him having a tangle wire, and a smokestack! I took the smokestack, and he was able to play the tanglewire next turn. I sat around for a bit, and he was able to hit me a few times with a su-chi. I was able to duress away all his smokestacks that he drew, and after the tangle wire was gone i played mask and 2 dreadnoughts. Game over.
Later Jason would describe his deck as TnT meets ducktape. Seems quite interesting.
Round 2:
Tom (molotdet) playing mono U trix
Game 1: I think I ended up keeping a poor hand after mulliganing once or twice, and Tom was able to cast a lot of card drawing. He got the combo after drawing something like 20 cards
Game 2: I sided in the 2 negators and zuran orb. Tom was hesitant to keep his hand, but he did. I duressesed first turn, and he had twister, island, mox, mox, mox, intuition, and illusions. I took the twister. He did his intuition for AK, and I vampiric tutored for mask. On my second turn I played them both, and he drew his cards on his turn. I hit him down to 8, and played factory. Tom played illusions bringing him to 28. I knocked him down to 14, and he played illusions #2 to go to 34. I hit him to 20, then he had to tap all his lands to pay the upkeep, meaning there was no way he could win.
Game 3: I was able to play a first turn negator, and started beating him down. When I got him to 9 (I believe he burned for 1 using sol ring for something,) he played illusions. I hit him to 24. Tom need to play an island to be able to donate to me, but he didn't get one, and only had an academy as mana in his hand, but had 0 artifacts. So he scooped.
Round 3:
James (Piggy, part of team goat) playing u/r phid
Game 1: I draw crap two hands in a row, and I had to keep a crap 5 card hand (I refused to draw 4.) James got going really quick, with a phid and a very quick morphling. I quit after he hit me to 10. I knew I was going to lose so I didn't want him to figure out what I was playing.
Game 2: I sided in my totems, and negators (bad move here.) I was about to drop a negator on my second turn (2 lands and a mox out,) but then remembered my tech. I had let him believe I was playing sui, so he had to have sided in the FTKs. So I held off on negator, and drew and played hippie next turn. I was able to hit him twice with the hippie, then I got demonic tutor. I got my yawgmoth's will, and then willed, (no notes, but i believe i was able to edict, ritual, then tutor) and played my necropotence. I drew 8 cards, finding my nought which would then win me the game. (on a side note, he did have an FTK which would have cleared my board)
Game 3: I took out the negators and put in the hippies (i had taken 1 out I believe) and lord of tresserhorn. James played first turn library. I duressed him, hoping to slow down the LOA, but he had 5 lands and an FTK. I got out necro next turn, and drew into my combo right away.
Round 4:
Rob from Binghamton playing Sligh
Game 1: Unfortunately, lightning bolt only does 3 damage rather than 12, so sligh has a tough time dealing with a turn 1 dreadnought.
Game 2: I was very retarded and kept a shitty hand. I believe this was my worst mistake all day, as there is no way I should lose to sligh
Game 3: I was smarter with the hand I kept, and played dreadnought turn 2 or 3, rounding up a very quick round
At this point I was talking to Ray. Ray was the crazy guy walking around telling magic jokes and trivia all day. Ray was 3-1, and there was a good chance we would get paired together, he asked if I would ID with him so he could make the top 8. I agreed, since the other guy who was 3-0 lost in the last round, so I was the only one with a 4-0 record, meaning I'd still rank #1 if I drew. Sure enough I got paired with Ray, so I finished the swiss at 4-0-1.
So the top 8 looked something like this, although I may be wrong:
1. Me playing mask
2. James playing u/r phid
3. Josh playing keeper
4. Alex playint TnT
5. Ray playing gro
6. Rob playing sligh
7. Carl playing
8. Tom playing u/r phid
Quaterfinals:
Tom (thombligh) playing u/r phid
Game 1: I again get bad draws, and he plays a quick phid. He ends up having two phids and an active LOA, and all I have done is play underground river and try to cast ancestral recall. There is little to no chance of me pulling this one off. Tom had told me earlier that he had no clue what I was playing. So I scooped before he could find out.
Game 2: I put in the totems, edicts, and lord or tresserhorn, siding out the negators because i still fear the FTK. This game is much better for me. I get a very fast nought, and he does his job in 3 turns after being chumped by 2 ophidians I believe. It turns out my game 1 trick worked perfectly. Tom sided in 4 pyroblasts and a scrying glass.
Game 3: I am able to get a first turn hippie, but it then gets fired. I unmask, then play necropotence, and draw like a mofo. I get out mask, totem, and then dreadnought, winning the game.
(I really don't remember too much from this match, but you can check out his report for better details)
Top 4:
James vs Josh
Me vs Alex
Semi-Finals:
Alex (lordofthegoats) playing TnT
I played next to Alex during the first round, and he had been paired against white weenie, which seems like TnT's worst nightmare. So he lost, but was able to win the rest of his rounds, even when he was paired up. He kept telling me how he hoped to be paired against me, and he finally got his shot. As we were all shuffling for the matches, Alex turns to James and says, "Let's see what we can do to make this a Team Goat Finals," to which I turned to Josh and said, "Let's see what we can do to keep that from happening."
Game 1: I had some nice disruption in my opening hand, and got his hand down quick. Alex had a welder out and 2 lands, and I knew he was holding workshop and something else (forgot the other card, but I knew because of an unmask.) I had out negator, and drew vamp tutor, I went for hymn, and emptied his hand. He had taken 1 pain from a sacland, and I got him to 9 and played my necro. I drew 7. He drew, then passed the turn. I attacked him down to 4, then cast demonic tutor into time walk.
Game 2: I sided in my totems, edicts, and furnaces. Alex got out a quick survival while i had out a hippie. Needless to say, survival works wonders, and after my furnace got welded I decided next time they're gonna be charms. Alex pummled me w/ his flying, hasted creatures.
Game 3: I took out the furnaces, and saw lord of tresserhorn in my board. I can't believe I left him in there. So in he went. I go first, and unmask, revealing the following hand:
2 Wooded foothills, squee, welder, survival, lotus, su-chi
Holy shit
My dreams of taking the lotus looked like they were over. I took the survival, and hoped for the best. Alex dropped his su-chi, then passed the turn. I played city, and took a pain to play mask. He attacked w/ su-chi, then timewalked and I was at 11. I paid 4, and played a face down creture. Alex didn't attack in fear of the nought, and passed the turn. I vampric tutored for a dreadnougt, and played it. On Alex's turn, he had a choice. He still only had 2 lands, and had welder, squee, and artifact mutation in hand. So he could either play welder, take the 12, then weld it next turn (I believe I had a ruby in the yard,) or he could wait and cast artifact mutation when I flipped over the nought. He held off for mutation, but I drew tainted pact. I cast it, found duress, so he mutated my mask in response. I then attacked with the nought. He chumped w/ the 2 tokens, and then scooped next turn. I fucking pulled it off
Alex was a great opponent, and I believe that if he had played a bit less agressively and dropped welder first turn, he probably would have taken the match from me. Also, had I not found that duress on the pact he would have beaten me too. Either way, I hope to play him again sometime in the future.
The Finals:
Josh (from Binghamton) playing keeper
As we're shuffling for the first game, we both mention how we're glad we got this far, and either way we get at least a mox. At this point I didn't care if I won, because I already had a lotus, but no sapphire. Then Jason, the store owner, drops the lotus next to us. It was the nicest lotus I have ever seen, the front is basically mint and the back has very little whitening. Needless to say, I now did care if I won.
Game 1: Josh plays land, shaman. I play land, mox, mask, and it resolves. He plays another land, and eats my mox. I play my nought next turn, and win the game despite an ice slowing me down one turn.
Game 2: I put in my totems and 1 dystopia. I also decided to swap 2 hippies for 2 negators, because I feel that he's gonna side in all his creature control, so I'd rather have negators since they get the job done faster. Well, my plan kicked me in the junk, as Josh got out moat on turn 2. I duressed away a balance and he later willed off a drain for just a strip mine, as to not take burn. I got out a hippie and picked away his life and hand. By the time he swords it, I had necro in hand, and got it into play. I drew 5, got nothing, drew another 5, and I got vampric tutor. I spent 3 life to get my dystopia (2 for tutor, 1 to draw it.) Next turn, I played unmask, grabbing his last card. I then casted dystopia. Josh was at 12 life, and I had two face down creatures that had been sitting on my side for a long time. He had to sac moat, and the game was over.
So, after a 3 hour drive and seven hours of magic, I emerged victorious and got the Lotus. However, the drive home was a fucking nightmare. It took me an hour and a half to find my way to the fucking garden state parkway. This was due partially to me being on only 4 hours of sleep, and partially because all NJ gas station employees are not english and can't give directions to save thier lives. The first guy looked like Apu and I couldn't understand what he was saying, and the second guy I asked looked like Osama Bin Laden's brother, and he didn't even know what the Garden State Parkway was. I asked the hot girl who he was pumping gas for, and she seemed to think I had to drive 15-20miles south to find it, when I wanted to go north. So I just found the nearest highway leading north, and lucked out that it led to the parkway.
So, the props go to:
-Gamemasters for putting on a great tournament
-LordoftheGoats, he was a cool guy and a fun opponent to play against
-All my other opponents, I must say that I didn't play a single douchebag at all
-Sorry, forgot to add this: props of course go out to CF, since this deck was basically his build, plus he helped me out when I was building it about a month ago.
Slops to:
-Nuetral ground NY for putting 0 players in the t8
-Apu and Osama's brother
-billtheduck's parents
It was cool seeing so many ppl from themanadrain, and I'll be seeing a lot of you this weekend too
Oh, and one more thing:
Quote
FUCK Binghamton.
sunday night, the lotus WILL be in Hadley, MA
EDIT: fixed the double spacing issue, and added my sb. edit 2- fixed the details of game 3 vs TnT, and added to the props
