*Winner* Hadley, MA - Mox Jet

[hulk3rules]

posting this for a friend who isn't privledged enough to get an account  

  
Hi, my name is Ray Robillard…and you have no idea who I am.  I’m a magic player from the worst city in the state of Connecticut, Waterbury.  I have been attempting for the past two years to get the level of my game up to the pro level.  Along the way PTQs were my life, often losing more then winning but playing in almost every one from Maryland to Boston, even qualifying for Pro Tour Boston.  At any rate, I recently have been more interested in playing Magic for the reasons I used to many years ago: playing with my older cards, less pressure and money commitment, playing against non-cutthroat, must win at all cost, pompous losers, and most of all having fun.  I picked up a type 1 deck for the first time in years a few weeks ago and since then have top 8ed at the Black Lotus Gamemaster tourney in NJ and winning the last two mox tourneys in Hadley, Ma.  What follows is a tourney report for the most recent of those tourneys.  Here is the crappy deck I played:


4 Tropical Islands
4 Tundra
4 Islands
4 Flooded Strand
1 Strip Mine

4 Quirion Dryad
4 Werebear
2 Mystic Enforcers

4 Gush
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Force of Will
3 Brainstorm
3 Daze
3 Counterspell
2 Armageddon (MVP)
1 Sol Ring
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Time Walk (Borrowed from the one and only Wicketsnatcher – Jared Demick)
1 Black Lotus
1 Balance (LVP)
1 Misdirection
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Cunning Wish

SB:
4 Meddling Mage (I am brand new to Type 1 and am using a card that requires an extensive knowledge of the environment to be anything more then a bear…go figure)
4 Powder Keg
3 Seal of Cleansing
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Capsize
1 Counterspell
1 Misdirection


Before the tourney starts, I continue on my tear about how it takes a blood sample, photo id, $50 deposit and promise of first of kin to get a Mana Drain account, however if you are reading this Bill the Duck was persuasive enough to get me a hook up.  I entertain (actually, probably annoy) the participants by referring to everyone by their Mana Drain names for the remainder of day.

 

(Side note- not only is my memory regularly fuzzy but I am still quickly learning about type 1 so I apologize for any inconsistencies in advance.)


Round 1: Bill the Duck A.K.A. Nick Tourloukis

Nick is playing a many color deck based around Ophidian and Hystrodon.  I have no idea if this a known archetype or Nick exclusive.  

Game 1: Nick gets the early jump on me with quick ophidians and counters all my attempts at defense.  I don’t see enough to think at this point that the deck is anything more then grow with ophidians.

Game 2: I side in Meddling Mage and Kegs for Ophidians because I have no 3 cost permanents.   This game is quite the opposite of the previous game as I gain quick advantage.  I believe I armageddoned, totally giving me board advantage with a thresholded Werebear.  At one point he plays a morph guy and I do a double take.  At this point I have no idea what it would be but go through the list in my head of morph guys I had memorized for the Onslaught Block Sealed PTQS.  I then remember a deck Jared Demick had in type 2 based around Hystrodon and Thieving Magpie and the Phid/Hyst combo of his deck becomes clear.  When I have him down to the wire and he has to block my Meddling mage with his morph guy, without GG1 I say, “sure I’ll trade a Meddling Mage for a Hystrodon”.  He seemed surprised that I knew and I think that gave me a psychological advantage.  All match he was saying he would get beat easily.

Game 3 was the nuts: By this point my friends and others had come over to watch the match.  I parised to 5, to which my friend, Dave, assured me that I never lose when parising to five.  The game was insane, involving a Flametongue coming out of left field, some savage topdecking on my part, appropriately named Meddling Mage, and a late brainstorm into the two Mystic Enforcers with Threshold.  He attacked with Morphling into my first Mystic Enforcer.  I didn’t block because I thought he might have another Flametongue Kavu.  At this point his hand was 7 cards to my 2.  I took and went down to 11.  A second Mystic Enforcer joined the crowd and when my opponent untapped Morphling, blocked, made his morph 0/6, then let damage resolve, thinking Mystic was 5/5 when thresholded, the game swung miraculously in my favor and along with it the match.

1-0

Round 2: Steve H A.K.A.

Steve has a regular Grow deck to my Super-Grow

Game 1 I remember getting the upper advantage and the Super aspect of the deck keeps him reeling.  Swords and Armageddon are too much for him.

Game 2: Weird Game.  This guy seemed really cool and I think I cared more about a crazy game like the first then winning or losing.  I was told later I played as though I was trying to lose the match because of the time left.  Not only did I play insanely fast but I made several mistakes because of it.  We didn’t get into game 3 cause when time was called it was my turn with 15 life and him with a  Morphling.  First I tried to Time Walk to soak up a turn.  Then. I tried a turn 4 Mystic Enforcer to Block.  Neither went uncountered.

1-0-1

It was in between these two rounds that I was informed by an anonymous source that there was a savage cheater in the room.  I was told that this particular person entombed against a previous opponent, then when the person wasn’t looking, the Dragon player put a card from his deck right into his hand.  

Round 3: I just happen to get paired against the person in question.

Game 1 and 2: I was the polar opposite of who I was in the previous two matches.  Gone were the corny jokes.  Gone were the smiles and friendly play.  I was very serious.  I wanted this player out of the tournament.  I watched every card this person drew, asked him multiple times questions about his hand and mana several times a turn, and in general was suspecting of anything.  I even made a joke when he entombed about if he had the same number of cards in hand while and after the entomb resolved.  He either didn’t get it, or showed no signs of guilt.  Then, he never took damage from any pain lands unless I personally reminded him.  EVER.  I mean, during the previous rounds, I missed a point of damage for BOTH me and my opponent once or twice, but even after being reminded three times he still made no attempt to remember.  Of course, a deck with 4 Swords, 3 Daze, Misdirection, 3 Counterspell, 4 Force of Will, 4 Seals after Sideboarding, and 4 Meddling Mage after Sideboarding, this matchup was like going through the motions, and I win easily 2-0.

I have chosen to leave this person’s name out of this report to prevent any bad blood and because I am perhaps to trusting of people hoping that this warning to the player that he is being watched will cause him to change his ways.  To others I warn you to watch out for your opponents very carefully.

2-0-1

Round 4: Wicketsnatcher A.K.A Jared Demick

GRRRRRRRRR…a good friend from Ct.   Jared is the quintessential cool Magic Player.  He builds fun decks as well as competitive decks.  He doesn’t get mad if you beat him fair and square, EVER.  He is mellow, and cool with almost everything.  I wish I was 3-0 instead of 2-0-1 so I can offer him the draw, but we both need the win as he is 2-1.  I wish him the best of luck and off we go.

(My lack of Type 1 knowledge of type 1 almost cost me here as Jared was playing a Stompy deck with the Mask combo built in.  I never countered Mask once because I didn’t understand its power to make creatures uncounterable, specifically River Boa, which is BAD for me.)

Game 1: Quick game.  Jared thinks turn 2 Mask, Double Dreadnought, Berserk the one I don’t Swords to be pretty freakin good.  Unfortunately my less then 24 life didn’t agree.

Game 2: Scary again because of face down creatures but these ones turn out to be just green weenies.  Two of them were River Boas however.  Jared taps his one forest though to play a Quirion Dryad.  I counter and now he is tapped out.  Next turn I blow up Keg on two counters and when he removes a Spirit Guide to regenerate one Boa I follow up with a Swords.  Victory for me followed.

Game 3: Again with the Boas.  Again with the swords.  Somehow managed a victory against a bad matchup.

I wish Jared the best and prepare to draw in to the top 8

3-0-1

Round 5: Tim Shore A.K.A.

Tim is another cool guy from the Meriden, Ct. crew.  He tells me that he is here despite his girlfriend Liz not wanting him to come.  He hopes to win the Mox to give to her.  We agree to draw.  He wants to play anyway for fun to try the matchup against my deck(see definition of Foresight at end of article.)

We play 3 games without sideboarding and I win 2 of 3.

3-0-2

Top 8

Quarter Finals: Jeff Green

Jeff seems like a really cool kid from our little bit of small talk before the match.  He is with G/B Beats.  It sports such beaters as Shade and Tempting Wurm along with discard and Deeds.

Game 1:  He draws a Deed to sweep my Dryad, Werebear x2 army of the board.  When he play Will, and I Brainstorm in response I set myself up for a nice Geddon the following turn.  The problem was that I made the mistake of keeping the Geddon in hand instead of on the top of my library for next turns draw.  I showed I was visibly upset when I saw this.  He hymns me from the grave and after 2 of my 3 cards go away.  I am quite pleased to find that I still have Geddon.  How lucky.  Next turn all I leave on the board is my sole Thresholded Werebear to smash face.

My friend Dave realized the same mistake I did.  After the game, he said sarcastically to my opponent.  You can’t beat this guy, he draws Armageddons of the top.  My opponent didn’t realize I was being mocked about my poor play and 1 out of 3 luck.

Game 2: Was similar to game 1 except that my opponent drew 3 deeds.  Fortunately, I sided in Seals and drew 3 myself.  We were again on equal footing, but I played pretty good and got a little lucky and squeezed out the game and match.

At this point I come and see how Hulk3Rules(Brian Phelon) is doing in his match.  I see they are just starting the third game.  “Good,” I announce, “I have to take a massive dump!” Laughs were had by all.

Semi-Finals: Adam Bowers

Adam had old school beatdown type 1.  Birds, Ernhams, Mongers, Hippies, Bolts, and lots of 1 ofs including a Channel Fireball combo mixed in.  Me and Adam chatted and laughed all throughout the match.  I couldn’t have asked for a nicer opponent.

Game 1: I draw Swords and counters for his big creatures and at one point I think he had 10 mana but nothing to do with it.  Eventually I draw a Mystic Enforcer and start beating down.  He goes from 19 to 13 to 7 chumping with birds along the way.  He then taps out including taking one from a city going to six to play a Hippie.  I attack, he tries to block, I point to three words starting with “P” ending in “K” and having “rotection from Blac” in the middle.  He scoops.

Game 2: I mulligan to 4…yes FOUR…cards.  I stabilize very slowly and regain card advantage with Gush, Brainstorm, and Ancestral.  My thresh guys can never grow up because he plays and uses two Tormod’s Crypts, one each time I reach 7 cards and threaten and attack.  Eventually, late game comes and I am getting beat down by a Monger with a bunch of little Werebears.  I brainstorm into Cunning Wish to get Capsize with 10 mana in play.  I keep bouncing the monger until I get a solution and draw a Dryad.  By the time I got to threshold for the third time I no longer need it.


Finals: Tim Shore

As mentioned, Tim is a good guy.  I think I have the advantage in this matchup though, specifically after boarding.  Tim is with control black sporting Shades, Sinkholes, Powder Kegs, Hippies, Hymns, and Contagion and Dystopia after boarding.

Game 1:  I see Armageddon blowing up our land.  We each have some moxen but I have a huge guy and he is forced to chump until he dies.

Game 2: AKA THE CRAZIEST GAME IN THE WORLD-  We battle and find solutions for each other’s threats for about 8 million turns.  I geddon twice this game and he always seems to draw Wasteland after I draw Gush with one dual in play.  Bad for me.  Contagion and Dystopia leave him at one life.  At one point I realized there was a way I could have one by dealing 3 with a brand new Dryad by Swordsing it then Dazing Swords.  Later I found out this would not have worked as he had  Contagion and mana to cast it.  Alas, I realize that I have no more green mana sources in my deck to play win conditions with leaving my opponent at 1 life.  I keep playing just for the hell of it.  I die shortly after to Tim’s creatures.

Game 3: For all the marbles.  Not terrible exciting, some bad luck is made up with a Werebear and geddon for game.

So I win Mox number 2 in Hadley.  We get Taco Bell. Drive home.  Get pulled over by a cop who was trying to meet a quota, but who lets me go when he can’t find me on anything.  Then, I watch many episodes of Aqua Teen Hunger Force, followed by the best episode of Saturday Night Live Ever, with musical guest PHISH!  If you don’t know what Aqua Teen Hunger Force is don’t ask questions, just download Episode 4 – Moonites.  If you don’t know who Phish is, download a song called You Enjoy Myself.  I promise you will be hooked.

 

And that, my friends, was my Saturday.

[Zherbus]

Congrats on the wins in Hadley.

However...

Quote Before the tourney starts, I continue on my tear about how it takes a blood sample, photo id, $50 deposit and promise of first of kin to get a Mana Drain account, however if you are reading this Bill the Duck was persuasive enough to get me a hook up.  I entertain (actually, probably annoy) the participants by referring to everyone by their Mana Drain names for the remainder of day.

Since everyone has been so nice as to bombard me on AIM to get you an account, I feel the need to address this. You were giving the rejection letter for answering all 'Yes' to the questions. All you had to do was fill in the application with some degree of elaboration so I can get a half decent feel for who I am letting into my site. That is hardly a blood sample, a photo ID, first of kin, or $50...let alone all four.

I still dont have have a completed application OR a desired username and password.

[spin13]

Wait, you mean that urine sample I sent you wasn't actually for the application?

[kl0wn]

Quote (Zherbus @ Dec. 15 2002,18:52)All you had to do was fill in the application with some degree of elaboration so I can get a half decent feel for who I am letting into my site. That is hardly a blood sample, a photo ID, first of kin, or $50...let alone all four.

Does that mean you're sending that Dixie Cup full of my boys back?

I'm really curious as to whether or not the savage cheater in the room was the same unsportsmanlike Dragon player that showed up in Concord. No names are necesarry, just a simple "yes" or "no" would suffice.

[hulk3rules]

@klown- if you are referring to the certain teamacademy person that got into an argument with myself, and then later nick (billtheduck,) then no, it was not him.

@everyone- what ray said about the diffuclty of getting an account was no more then a joke.  when ray was talking about it to us in person; he seemed sarcastic.  i highly doubt he was trying to take a cheap shot here or insult zherbus; and if i felt he was i wouldn't have included that part of the report

[MolotDET]

Quote I'm really curious as to whether or not the savage cheater in the room was the same unsportsmanlike Dragon player that showed up in Concord. No names are necesarry, just a simple "yes" or "no" would suffice.

I am also wondering if this is the same person that showed up in Concord last week.  Once again no names needed, yes or no is good.  After you get back about this, I have a story.

Also even though I was unable to attend, I heard I was there in spirit.  Appearantly someone netdecked my Sligh build.  I was wondering how he did overall.  I couldn't get BilltheDuck to tell me to much about it, because he was too pissed that he lost to it.  

sorry Bill,

[BigChuck]

Well, I don't know who you are referring to, but the guy that wrote this report definitely was not in concord.

[BillTheDuck]

No they are referring to the dragon player, not Ray.

Anyway, I do have my doubts about this cheater. He was a local, and he does get really into the game and might forget to take land damage, but I do doubt about him entombing to his hand. I know the person well, very very well, and I think a lot of people probably know who it is, and I would like to say that it would be best not to bring up names.

The unsportsmanlike dragon player was just a rules lawyer that argued about wordings and didn't actually know his rules that well.

Anyway, good report.
Congrats on the mox, hope you come to our next one.

[Grand Inquisitor]

as the hulk already mentioned, no, it was not the punk dragon wielder (who i dispatched twice) from concord.  however, as a regular at tnt, i would appreciate it if someone there saturday would make the cheater known (even if its by pm).  i can't see any good in hiding his identity, it will just make it easier for him to cheat again.

on a better note, congrats to ray on his second power tourney win.  zherbus willing, his revised member application will make it through.  also, thanks for the draw in the 2nd round.  i know you weren't trying to lose, but you did play fast, which was extremely gracious.

does anyone (billtheduck) know what january's power tourney is for?

[BigChuck]

On a somewhat similar note:

I seriously think we should have deck registrations at these tournies. I have seen and heard of instances of people changing their boards, etc., and its really not fair to their opponents. It wouldn't be that much trouble, and its not like people aren't going to come if they have to write their deck down. You wouldn't even have to do much deck checking, just for when opponents question legality and such, and most definitely for the top 8.

[Radjammin]

Quote (spin13 @ Dec. 15 2002,20:04)Wait, you mean that urine sample I sent you wasn't actually for the application?

This is a Joke.  This is not entened to be truth.


This message may contain humerous information that is intended only for the humerous uses. If you are not an intended recipient or have no sense of humor, you are hereby notified that any dissemination or copying of the information contained in this message, or the taking of any action in reliance upon the information, is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete the message. Thank you

[Paxton]

hello, my name is tim shore and i placed 2nd at said tournament.

i was dragged to this tourney against my will by jarad and todd (todd was unmentioned in this report because his buried alive and EVERYONE else's first turn planar voids weren't playing nice.  he was playing a very complicated zombie infest deck which i had some success with in random pairing teams the week before).  i chose to play textbook void against my better judgement, first because i know that sui black is big in this environment and second because i usually like to play original decks.  my sideboard was:
1 tormod's crypt
3 negators
1 masticore
1 spinning darkness
1 powder keg
3 contagion
2 dystopia
3 diabolic edict

round 1 v. sam richardson playing 5-color turboland.  sam is a young kid whom i've seen at several tournaments before, so i'm expecting a sligh-type deck.  i know he's a good player so i'm bracing for a brutally fast game.

game 1 was fast, i emptied his hand and some clever tutoring/brainstorming/gushing on his part resulted with an exploration and a horn of greed on the table.  he dropped glacial chasm and paid upkeep on it a few times, but when he had to let it go i swung hard with a shade.  my sideboarding was limited, i think i took out sinkholes for a pair of dystopias, since sinkhole and gush don't play nice together.

game 2, he played first.  second turn he droped a spiritual focus.  ouch.  i ignored the 2x hippie and 2x hymn in my hand for the rest of the game.  either turn 3 or 4 the rest of his sideboard hit and he added sacred ground to my headache.  i attacked for a few turns and then he tutored for the chasm.  unfortunately the upkeep got too heavy and he couldn't bounce it so i took the game.

games record 2-0
match 1-0

round 2 v. ?? playing unpowered void

our match went fast.  i saw no power in any game so the field was mostly even.  there were some comments about black-on-black action which we tried to ignore.  we traded wastelands often.  after game 1 i sided for sui but an early duress revealed void so i knew i made some mistakes.  i took it 2-1.

games: 4-1
matches: 2-0

round 3 v. phelon playing multicolored mask.

i don't remember game one.  sorry.

game 2 was horrible.  he parised to 4 cards and i kept with 7 full of discard and landkill.  the explosive start he was counting on couldn't happen and i took the game in a few turns.  he was a good sport about it, and you'll see later in this report he was given the chance to tell me who was boss.

games: 6-1
matches: 3-0

round 4 v. adam playing 3 color aggro.

sidebar: gotta respect this guy's deck.  as ray mentioned he was sporting channel/fireball, but he also had berserk, fork, grinning demon, ernham djinn.  very classy.

game 1:  an early keg of mine holds 2 factories of his at bay ALL GAME LONG.  then his grinning demon beats me down right after i play necropotence.  not pretty.

game 2:  (i neglect to side out necro) we went back and forth for a while, he dispatched a shade with a well-timed bolt and beat with another demon for a few turns (i chumped a LOT to it).  because i'm a retard i chose to cast necro again.  we're both at really low life and i've got a factory on the board.  he drops yawg will and i figure that's game, but he tapped both cities of brass to play it (and adjusted his life total) and can't dark rit with only an emerald untapped.  he asked me nicely if he could retap his mana and i had to be the dickface and tell him no since he adjusted his life from the cities.  plain and simple, that was the reason i took the game.  i felt dirty inside after doing so, but that was the choice i made.  karma kicked my ass in the tourney i played the following day so adam, if you're reading this, it came back to bite me.

game 3:  an early ernham for him faced off against my 3 factories.  he plowed a hippie on me (white cards out of left field), then i dropped void with a shade on my side and a sylvan library on his.  he successfully bolted the thing into oblivion.  later on his only hope was to drop one of 2 ernhams i saw with duress earlier.  unfortunately, dark ritual sucks under void and he can't drop one in time.  match goes to me.

games: 8-2
matches: 4-0

i find out that my last swiss pairing is with ray robillard.  we went to the same school and i've seen him around where i play weekly a few times.  i also played in 1-2 of the tournies he's organized in waterbury, so i know the guy pretty well.  we discuss our course of action and decided to draw the match, but play 3 unsideboarded games quickly.  he took 2 of them.  i see armageddon and develop a healthy fear of it, prophetically.

quarterfinals are announced and i'm ranked #1.  this is good since the fellas that came with me finished a disappointing 10 and 13.

quarters, me vs. the other void deck.

game 1: he goes swamp go, i dropped a duress and keg.  we traded hippies and he wasted and sank my 2 factories.  advantage swung both ways at times but i ended the game at 20 life.

game 2:  can't remember what i sided.  he duressed a hymn out of me and i returned the favor off my draw.  he dropped a shade and beat me with it, i drew up a keg just in time.  he drew about 7 swamps in a row and that was the match.  we shook hands and allowed each other to see our decks.  i found out he was running 16 swamps over 14/jet/lotus and he also subbed in a vamp tutor for the 3rd void which he didn't own.  seemed like a fair choice to me.   then i sat down to watch game 2 and ensuing sideboard mindgames of the 5th/4th matchup of phelon v. grow deck.  mask took it in 3 games, somewhat to my surprise but much to my pleasure.  force of will and counterspell displease me, and he was running gush too.

semifinals, me vs. phelon.

game 1 was a joke.  he played first and unmasked me, followed by mask and (obviously) dreadnaught.  silly me, i chose to play no maindeck diabolic edicts, and we all know the keg won't go the distance.  3 turns later i'm toast and the massachusetts crowd is on its feet.

game 2 started with me holding off a negator with a pile of factories.  i edicted away the negator and dropped a shade.  that was about all i remember.  he was pissed at the negator, let me tell you.

game 3 began with him playing first and i chose to keep a hand with no land.  i believe it was:
lotus
dark rit
dark rit
duress
hymn
shade
keg

i (unbelieveably) peeled a third rit and took "the first turn that lasted forever", developing an advantage that he couldn't recover from.  he was a great sport and he sure showed me how it was done in game one.  unfortunately, i have to play robillard in the finals, which i'm not looking forward to.

finals, me vs. ray:

game 1 was as ray described.  i chose to side out necro, a pair of hippies, a shade, and a void for 2x dystopia, 3x contagion.

game 2 was the worst 6 hours of my life.  i beat him to 5 with a shade and then he stabilized.  then a timely dystopia took me to single digits, i chose to let it go with another in hand and drew up a wasteland for his only trop on the board.  we sat and furrowed our brows at each other until i was at 4.  then we traded some beatdown and it was ray at 2 and me at 1 (must remember not to force of will anything...).  we each asked to see each other's graveyards, and i saw 4 trops, 1 emerald in his, then a duress showed me enforcer, bear(s), dryad(s), all sorts of green casting costs staring ray in the face and mocking him.  each of us had ~1/3 of our libraries left and i knew i was still sporting 2 shades, 2 hippies, factories, and i was in good shape.  let this be a lesson:  don't get too fetchland-happy.  had ray decided to include 1 basic forest or even a savannah in his deck and had the timing been just a tad different, i could have been scrizewed.

ray won game 3 by a topdecked armadeddon, plain and simple.  i love that card ordinarily but holy crap, i almost lost my cool and ripped that thing to shreds.  i had jet, sol ring on the board with a factory in hand and i chose to play it, to my ultimate demise.  them's the breaks.

i kicked one of my 20 prize packs to todd for driving, from which he pulled aggravated assault.  i did slightly better with a foil quicksilver dragon, a polluted delta, and a whole handfull of white rares.  i had fun and ray and his crowd greatly enjoyed my meatwad impression, and $10 for 20 packs is always a good trade.  here's hoping that the next hadley tourney sees more mass guys in the finals.

paxton, aka tim shore

[IAmFishMan]

Hi, it's ray again...First and foremost I wish to thank all those who asked politely for an account for me.  It feels good to have support from guys like you... Just wanted to let everyone know where I stand on the subject of my previous comments, this was included in a letter sent to Zherbus

Quote I actually must say...in thinking it over I have really put my foot in my mouth.  Here you are trying to provide a quality website, of your own time and money no less, and on one hand i'm saying that you require a blood sample, $50 deposit...etc...just to be funny.  However, the application I sent in was really nothing in terms of the time i put into it.  I apologize if you took that comment harshly, talking to Bill the Duck made me realize that your restrictions is a good thing.  You may may quote this as a post in the tourney report strand or if I end up with a membership I will

I hope all is well.  Also, again, in regards to the cheating issue, I regret to say I will not devulge who the particular player or the person who saw him do it were, so please don't ask.  It seems stupid for me to appear to be protecting a cheater, but at the same time, as a tournament organizer, local player, and new forum voice, I wish to protect myself from slander and flaming as well.  I hope you all understand.

[Skelbo14]

Great tourney overall at T&T, I just wanted to comment on a couple things before this thread dies...

Fishman:  Congrats on the win.  I had no idea at all that you were new to Vintage by the way you played.  Someone made a comment after you drew against Grand Inquisitor that you shoulda taken a quick dive and tried to play for a game 3 once you knew you were in trouble.  I didn't catch your reply, but I was wondering what you thought of that strategy in hindsight.

Everyone:  Though I did not bear personal witness to the accused act of cheating, I strongly doubt that the player in question would have knowingly cheated.  I think that Ray would be correct to question this player and play carefully, but I think a lot of people here know who this person is, and I hope those people agree that this was unlikely.

Hulk:  WTF!  Anyone who goes back on taking an ID deserves a swift kick, but oh well, I was running your deck so I guess I'll let it go.  

BillTheDuck:  I hate your computer.  Aside from the "loss" I took to Phelon, I only lost to one player.  Unfortunately I got paired with him twice and lost to him in the T8 as well as in Swiss.  You all say to yourselves "So what, that happens all the time"  and to that I definitely agree.  It also happened to Phelon.  He lost to Tim Shore in the Swiss and then in the semi-finals as well.  A little hate for the Hadley players?   Oh well, sour grapes.  

Zherbus:  Thanks for the nod on the account.  Will we be able to expect you at the Jan tourney at T&T?