Hadley Tournament for Alpha Sapphire

[BillTheDuck]

Hadley MA, 39 people
First Prize Alpha Sapphire

I played a pretty standard rOSE deck.

Round 1, playing against spin13 (Eric Spinelli) playing Reaplace

Game 1: He does his stuff, I ancestral into Morph, Morph, land and cant counter him going off

Game 2: I'm able to duress his reap and pull morphling through, he has 2 usable forces to out counter my 1 mana drain, but he doesnt draw anything to force through.

Game 3: I got him to low with morphling and factories and he had to win on a certain turn but his recall drew him nothing.

Games: 2-1
Matches: 1-0

Round 2: playing against Antonio A. playing Suicide

Game 1: He wastes my LoA and My second land, but I have plenty. I keg away some guys and beat him down with 2x factories while he mana floods.

Game 2: I drain a shade into a FTK targeting Negator. I win.

Games: 4-1
Matches: 2-0

Round 3: playing against Isac ? playing Sligh

Game 1: I have a Mis D in hand and end up wishing for a second, I can keep his side clear with his own burn cards and I get Morph out and win.

Game 2: He recovers from a second turn full hand mind twist (somehow) and comes at me with little dudes. I get mana flooded to hell with no tutor for zorb.

Game 3: I FTK a pup early and use it to bring him to 4, finish up with factoires.

Games: 6-2
Matches: 3-0

Round 4: playing against Mike Pratt playing Oath

Mike got thrown out of the mall for doing dumbass shit with laser pointers so he didn't play me. I probably woulda won anyway, but whatever. He has some of my cards too.

Games: 8-2
Matches: 4-0

Round 5: playing against Brian Phelon playing Mask

We decide to ID and go into top 8 both as 4-0-1 as the 2 top seeds.

Games: 8-2
Matches: 4-0-1

Top 8:
#1 Brain Phelon (hulk3rules) mask
#2 Nick Tourloukis (BillTheDuck, me) rOSE
#3 Ray R. (IAmFishMan) sligh
#4 Eric Spinelli (spin13) reaplace
#5 Dan Richardson (pernicious dude) u/r fish
#6 Jared Demick (wicketsnatcher) donate
#7 Scott L (no TMD account) tnt
#8 Chris K (no TMD account) AoS mono-g

Quarter Finals: playing against Scott L playing TnT

Game 1: I'm able to force his first turn survival and merchant into recall. I never let him abuse welder by letting it resolve then dropping abyss. He hardcasts fatties but I have edicts for his artifacts and let his others die to abyss. At one point I twist his whole hand (2 cards) and they are both squees (and foil ones too). I play morphling and have no problem pushing him through.

Game 2: I play a turn one shaman and he plays a turn 2 karn. My monkey is smaller than his, but my FTK hits his monkey and I end up mana screwing him a bit. I hit him down to 4 with my  FTK/Shaman. Then will for the time walk only and win.

Games: 10-2
Matches: 5-0-1

Brian took Chris out
Jared took Ray out
Dan took Eric out

Semi Finals: playing against Jared Demick

Game 1: He plays a turn 2 bargain with all kinds of crazy acceleration. I have no force of will. Onto game 2.

Game 2: He plays a quick grid which I can work around, then catches me off gaurd with a second, which I cant really. I draw lands non stop and get my shaman about 10 turns too late. He has to Illusions me twice because of my zorb but he can anyway. He forces my 7cc REB and Im about 8 short to cast my own. Whatever, good games jared.

Games: 10-4
Matches: 5-1-1

Dan took Brian out

Brian and I decide to split the third place prize and take it in Legions credit (8 each)

Matches: 5-1-2

My Deck:
rOSE
1 strip mine
1 loa
1 dustbowl
2 wasteland
3 blue sacs
2 city of brass
4 underground sea
3 volcanic island
3 factories
2 island
1 UP
3 mox
1 lotus
1 sol ring

1 gorilla shaman
2 morphling

1 ancestral recall
1 fof
1 stroke of genius
1 geyser
1 scrying

1 mind twist
1 will
1 time walk

1 demonic tutor
1 mystical tutor
1 merchant scroll
2 cunning wish

4 mana drain
4 force of will
1 mis d

2 powder keg
1 zorb
2 chainers edict
1 abyss
1 fire/ice

sideboard:
I thought it was a little wierd, but no one really commented

1 diabolic edict
1 smother
1 pulse
1 response
1 mis d
1 recoil
3 reb
3 ftk (HELL YES!)
2 duress
1 furnace

Fun day overall
We had a hell of a lot of players there from TMD there today:
BillTheDuck, hulk3rules, wicketsnatcher, ctthespian, pernicious dude, IAmFishMan, spin13, Big Chuck, Maligorct, Master Tap, Kerzkid11, mezzir, Zhindel, and I know im forgeting someone (or several)

Props:
FTK, for being my favorite card and doing well today.
T&T, for holding a good one.
Me, for running it (hehe, it annoyed my opponents, but they can deal, right?)
Chuck and Eric, for lending some friends of mine cards

Slops:
(I just did this so I could slop Chuck)
Chuck, for dropping. At 1-3 you can still turn it into a semi respectable 2-3, but no
Um, furnace, because I dont have a charm and I didnt wanna bother proxying. Never got played, but never got needed either really.
Steve, for not being there (yes this was said for one of you, then I remembered the other couldn't make it either so now its for both of you).

Peace.

[BigChuck]

Eh, whatever. I had more losses then I had oath's drawn for the day, so whatever. 8 games, two oaths. Screw that.

On another note, Nick apparently didn't feel it was important to include who actually won the tournament, but Jarad(Wicketsnatcher) took some more power back to CT. That's what, three in a row for CT?  

[pernicious dude]

After playing my Little Black Deck since forever, I thought I'd take something else out for a spin.
I went with a U/r Fish deck.

Match one I had Scott (from Rhode Island?) playing TnT.
Survival never hit the table either game.
Game one Psionic Blast met his early Su-Chi after it swung a couple of times.
Then he had Welder and Triskelion out to face off my several Fish.
Unfortunately, when he unloaded the Trisk to clear my board Fire/Ice cleared his.
I recovered first.
(4 Manta Riders out, 3 Viashino Heretics and Maze Of Ith #2 in)
Game two he got another ferocious start with Su-Chi swinging several times, and then Viashino Heretic came out to play.
A couple of nail-biters, but the fish held their own.

Match two I faced Wicketsnatcher's Donate deck.
I had a hard time figuring out which parts to Thief (is he only running 3 Donates or is he already holding one?)
The fact that he was running several foreign cards I wasn't familiar with didn't help.
Yawgmoth's Bargain figured heavily.
His Hoodwink finished both games, once bouncing an Illusions and the other time bouncing my active Nevy's Disk.
Game two I sided out Psionic Blasts for Viashino Heretics.
I don't know what I was thinking, but I was bummed when he Bargained down to four life.

Match three was against BigChuck's Oath.
Game one he got an Oath, but I played only manlands and killed him.
(Nevy's Disk and Maze Of Ith out, Null Rod #3 and Fire/Ice #4 in)
Game two he got turn two Back To Basics off a land and some jewelry.
I answered with turn two Null Rod.
Turn three I brilliantly Strip Mined his tapped Tropical Island, (what does Back To Basics do again?)
trying to keep him from playing the Oaths he'd sided out for the Back To Basics.
I recovered my self esteem slightly by playing Rootwater Thief.
He played Powder Keg.
Lord Of Atlantis joined the party at this point.
He let it through and got his Keg up to two counters before he remembered my Null Rod.
The Thief proceeded to take a Morphling and all four Ophidian.
I think he ended the game with his other Morphling, two Force of Will and two Misdirection in hand,
but he never got enough non-artifact mana to cast the Morphling,
and I didn't cast any spells for him to counter.
A pair of single shot Mishra's Factories (Look at me, I'm an uncounterable Shock) finished the job.
Bebe always said his deck could play around BTB. He's right.

Match four I played Jeff.
He's a local, been playing a really interesting black disruption deck with a green splash for Deeds,
but this week he played a net deck with proxied Nether Voids.
Game one he got down an early Nether Void and a Shade and smashed face.
He hadn't seen any of my deck, and he'd beat me handily, so he didn't side.
I took out the two Null Rods for Fire/Ice #4 and Maze Of Ith #2.
Game two started the same, but I put down Maze of Ith and multiple manlands and ran him over.
This time he got a good look at my deck, so I figured I'd see Masticore and Powder Kegs.
I sided out the Disk and a couple Psionic Blast (6 mana under Void? not.) for the three Null Rods.
Game three he put out a Masticore turn two or three, but I answered with Null Rod and then both Maze of Ith.
He discarded one Void to the 'Core, Curious Rootwater Thieves took two, and a Misdirected Hymn got the last one.
His deck didn't really have a plan B.

Match five I played another local, Jimmy, playing some kind of black deck.
Playing his Grinning Demon face-up turned out to be a bad idea when I answered it with Maze Of Ith.
Two 2/2 Curious Manta Riders went the distance.
He was never really in it either game.

Top eight I started with Spin13 playing ReapLace, a deck I haven't studied enough.
I got out an early Thief and again couldn't figure out exactly which parts he needed.
I think I started with Ancestral Recall and then the Cunning Wishes.
Little critters reduced his life total to zero before he got what he needed.
Game two was pretty odd.
My deck gave me all three Psionic Blasts and a Mishra's Factory.
Spin paid life to keep cards off Sylvan Library once or twice and I Blasted him twice when he was tapped or nearly so.
The Factory finished the job.
This may have been the game when he tried to Ancestral Recall.
I Ice'd a land to keep him from casting what he drew, pulled a Misdirection, and got the Recall for myself.
Over the course of the day I drew more cards from other people's Ancestrals than from my own.

Semifinals I faced Hulk3Rules' B/U Mask deck.
Topdecked Null Rod makes him very unhappy, especially after he's Duressed and Unmasked a couple of times.
Game one he took it back off the table with his lone Recoil, but it was too late.
Game two Null Rod came down and my Thief took the Recoil and all the Hyppies.

Finals I sat across from Wicketsnatcher again.
It took me until game three of this, our second match, to realize that he was actually playing a Bargain Deck.
The way he went for Academy Rector or Show and Tell into Bargain first thing every game should have been a clue, but I'm a little slow.
By the time I took the Bargain, he already had City Of Solitude on the board with Enlightened Tutor and a Donate in hand.

I took home 20 packs for second, and had a bunch of good games against great people.

Mad props to Bebe and Phantom Tape Worm for the source decks, Curious Fish and Gay Fish.

One Fish, Two Fish/ Red Fish, Blue Fish

Real Estate
6 Island
4 Volcanic Island
3 Flooded Strand
4 Faerie Conclave
4 Mishra's Factory
1 Strip Mine
1 Maze Of Ith
1 Library of Alexandria proxy

The Fish
4 Manta Riders
4 Rootwater Thief (MVP)
4 Razorfin Hunter (never did get to make him Curious, but he killed several people)
4 Lord Of Atlantis

Cards For Me
4 Curiosity
1 Ancestral Recall proxy

I Vote No
4 Force Of Will
2 Misdirection

Bad Thing, Go Away
2 Null Rod
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
3 Psionic Blast
3 Fire/Ice

Game Two
4 Sea Sprites (unused, never played against red)
3 Blue Elemental Blast (unused, never saw Blood Moon)
3 Viashino Heretic
1 Null Rod
1 Nevinyrral's Disk
1 Fire/Ice
1 Maze Of Ith (this rules)
1 Extract (Thief #5, this replaced Rod #4 that morning after thinking about combo matchups. It was great, and 3 Null Rod was plenty.)

[wicketsnatcher]

Well I suppose it's my duty to post some kind of report, though for some reason my mind was pretty blank yesterday and many details and cool plays will be lost but at least I can give a feel for my matches.

I played L[ich]D[onate] which uses a Donated Illusions of Granduer or Nefarious Lich for the kill.  A decklist is somewhere else on here.  In fact, it's here.  I made a couple changes - the City of Solitude and Donate #4 got taken out for Yawgmoth's Will and Balance.  The sideboard also changed and looked something like: 4 Compost, 1 City of Solitude, 3 Defense Grid, 1 Aura of Silence, 1 Propaganda, 1 Powder Keg, 2 Chill, 1 Hydroblast.


Round 1 vs Tom(?) playing Academy

Game 1: Academy starts doing it's thing of playing 20 million cards in 15 minute long turns.  Unfortunately, it stalls after two Meditates.  3 turns in a row were more than enough to set up the kill and win.

Game 2: I keep with a hand that I shouldn't have kept with.  I am holding a Mox Diamond, 1 land, some tutor magic, and a dark rit.  I figure my hope is to get out a super early Bargain to give me the advantage.  Unfortunately, the awesome power of Elvish Spirit Guide was not enough to stare down Force of Will.  His turn goes on and on and on and on and I decide to scoop after he resolves a Mind Over Matter and Memory Jar (I tried to FoW the MOM, but he had a Force to back it up), he would have killed me in another couple seconds cause he had the Tutor for the Braingeyser.

Game 3: My first turn is beautiful, and I drop a Lotus followed up by Aura of Silence.  He plays a City of Brass and says go.  I Hoodwink his City and lay another land, smiling at the Timetwister in my hand.  I drop the Twister next turn and draw up the Hoodwink again.  Again I Hoodwink his City of Brass and drop a couple more cards.  He finally casts a Mox Saphire for 2 colorless mana and I explode and kill him.


Round 2 vs Dan (Pernicious Dude) playing u/r Fish

Game 1: I slap out some early mana artifacts.  He throws down a turn 2 maindeck Null Rod.  I cry a little.  I build up enough steam so that I Hoodwink his Null Rod, making all my good artifacts active and win.

Game 2: I see a Nevineryals Disk staring me in the face.  My bringing out an Illusions just wasn't cutting it, so I end up Demonic Tutoring for the Hoodwink, Hoodwink the disk (forcing him to use it) and then winning because I was able to resolve an Illusions.  Both games were very good and I was impressed by the carefulness of Dan's Rootwater Theifing - what with counting the numbers of each card I had in the deck.


Round 3 vs Brian Phelon (hulk3rules) playing Masknaught

Game 1: My hand has no black sources, but I am looking at a Mox Sapphire, Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, Yawgmoth's Bargain.  The thing about that is he went first and had an AMAZING hand to the effect of Swamp, Lotus, Dark Rit, Mindtwist for 5.  The turn 3 went Yawgmoth's Will, Mindtwist for 4.  Yeah... his hand was friggin amazing and even if I HAD a black source I couldn't have done any good.

Game 2: A cruel twist of fate brings turn 1 Mox, Mox, Swamp, Negator staring me in the face.  Four turns later I'm toast.


Round 4 vs Scott playing Anhk Sligh

Game 1: He drops Barbarian Ring, Lotus Petal, Black Lotus, 3 weenies.  I play The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale.  He picks it up and looks at it, so I think to myself "Fine, he read it and knows what he does".  I say go, he draws his card.  I mention to him that his three creatures are dead.  Apparently he misread the Tabernacle.  Anyhow that gave me the advantage I needed and combo him out Bargain-free (because Bargain doesn't play nice with Sligh).

Game 2: My hand is Mox Jet, Chill, and some other non-mana cards.  I keep just for the hell of it.  I draw into the City of Brass, drop a Chill, and go on to win in the following turns.

Game 3: Well, I'm not sure if there was a game 3.  I played Sligh later on and my memory is fuzzy.  Maybe he won game 2 and game 2 was really for game 3.  I don't know, sorry.


Round 5 vs Nick's Little Brother playing U/G Weenie Aggro

Game 1 and Game 2: Maybe it was something about this time of the day, but I just started to blank out on the current happenings.  And due to that, I have no clue if there were 3 games or 2.  Nor do I know any cool plays.  Needless to say, I won at least one of them, and the Tabernacle was a pain in his ass - then again, his Winter Orb was a pain in mine was well.
 
Game 3: My memory is kinda slim here too, but I remember he had me with my back up against a wall.  I end up using Scroll Rack after his Timetwister for 6 cards.  Things are looking good for me, but I know he's holding a Force of Will.  So I cast the Ancestral Recall that I drew up and mutter something like "If this resolves, I win" so he counters it.  Unfortunately, I was full of horse cockey and drop down an Illusions then Donate it to him.  Cumulative Upkeep finishes him off.


Top 8 vs Ray Robilard (IAmFishMan) with Sligh

Game 1 and 2: The horse cockey I spoke of against Nick's brother invaded my memory, and I don't recall the details of these match(es).  I know I won game 1.  I don't know if I remebmer the details of game 2 or 3.  Alls I know about this match was it was INTENSE.  There were amazing plays on both sides, and I really like playing against Ray because he's a really good player.  For two people who like to have stupid side conversations during important games, this was the most serious I was all day.

Game 3:  I get out an early Chill.  I follow it up a couple turns later with another Chill.  I have an Academy Rector holding off his weenies.  I have 6 land on the board, an Illusions, Donate, Show and Tell, Enlightened Tutor, and Mox Diamond in my hand.  I debated casting the Tutor for the Lotus and playing it safe, but I decide to cast Show and Tell instead to kill him that turn.  I lay down my Illusions and he stuns me with a Blood Moon.  Suddenly my situation ain't so hot as I am without blue mana.  Anyhow I end having to say go, and pay the upkeep of 2 on my turn.  I peel a land off the top, letting me drop the Diamond and cast a Donate.  HOLY CRAP that struck me off guard and I complimented him many times on the play.  Apparently it was going to hit the board right before my second Chill.


Top 4 vs Nick (BillTheDuck) playing rOSE

Game 1: Have I ever mentioned how cool it is that the "r" in front of OSE makes it "Rose".  Damn that's cool.  I would tote around pictures of flowers or something if I loved that deck.  Anyway, my turn 2 Bargain (thanks to Land, Land, Dark Rit, Mox, Elvish Spirit Guide) pretty much ended the game.

Game 2: Turn 1 I drop a Sol Ring and Defense Grid.  A few turns later I sneak out another Grid.  The Zuran Orb he played made me realize I have to work harder and more carefully.  I attack with my Rector for a handful of turns as I spend my time building up.  Finally I decide that the time is right and I go off.  I manage to Donate 2 Illusions and that was that.


Top 2 vs Dan (Pernicious Dude) playing u/r Fish

I just now notice that he named the deck "One Fish, Two Fish / Red Fish, Blue Fish.  Holy crap that gets props.  I'm a big Dr. Suess fan.

Game 1: Who'd have thought that my memory would also lapse about these next two games?  I don't remember many specific plays, unfortuantely.  I know that I won game 1... or maybe I am confusing game 2 with game 1.  Oh well, don't really matter.

Game 2: Some stuff happens early game, and comes to be that I have a Yawgmoth's Bargain out, 10 life, and a ton of mana.  I have some fishies beating me down (I think one was in a little car).  I decide to just go for it and draw 9 cards.  Who'd have thought that my top cards consisted of lands, 2 Dark Rituals, and an Elvish Spirit Guide.  So I Donate a mox or something to him and call it a game.

Game 3: An early City of Solitude makes me very happy.  My deck is going pretty good, and I balance away his critters and 2 of his land (thanks to Despotic Scepter eating my own ... at least I think that was this game).  His creatures come back pretty quickly and I am soon on a couple turn clock.  I have mana and a Scroll Rack out, and I scroll away 3 land and get up a Force, Land, and Donate (which is good because he is hammering me with a Rootwater Theif).  Anyhow he attacks again and pulls a card (which I am thankful for, because it shuffles my library).  I end up drawing into garbage, then scrolling 3 cards again (holding the Donate) into the Illusions.  I drop both Illusions and Donate then use my Despotic Scepter for the kill.  It was an amazingly tough game, and a whole lot of fun.  

Oh yeah, also sometime during a game against Dan I end up paying 5 mana for an Academy Rector.  Funny, because it only costs 4.  Anyway, that situation was quickly resolved as I called out "Anyone got a sharpie?!" and proceeded to make the Rector cost 4W.  Heh.  Afterwards Dan also signed the card at my request, which I was very happy with.


All and all it was a wonderfully fun day.  I had many games that were a WHOLE lot of fun, even when I was getting my ass handed to me by certain unnamed mask players who enjoy kicking my ass every time we meet in Hadley.  Bastard.  Also, I really like that Terry (the owner of TnT) gave out some good supporting prizes - and is especially cool for allowing people to hold off til Legions.

Good showing all!  Hope to see some of you in Waterbury for Ray Robilard's Type 1 for a Beta Mox (oooh - shameless plug!).

Pax.

-J:tD

[CrazyCarl]

Yeah, just you boys wait till March.  We be keepin some powah in NEW FRIGGIN YORK REPRESENT BABY FO SHIZZLE IN THIS HIZZY!!!


Mk, now that we've established how not-ghetto I am, it's CLOBBERIN TIME.

[pernicious dude]

Quote I was impressed by the carefulness of Dan's Rootwater Theifing - what with counting the numbers of each card I had in the deck.

That'd be a polite way of pointing out that every time I attacked anyone, I had to spend 15 minutes looking at their deck.

What can I say, the cards have lots of pretty pictures on them, and I'm easily distracted.

[IAmFishMan]

Hey all.  I figured that the cool thing to do was to write a tournament report, and not being the type of person to have a unique identity but rather pride himself on his factoryesque conformity, here goes:

(This thread isn't long enough after all.)

Where do I begin.  First let me shamelessly plug my tourney, a Type 1 for a Beta Emerald or $150, winner's choice.  Here is the info:

http://www.themanadrain.com/cgi-bin....;t=3687

Well, as a representing member of a state full of strong Type 1 players(CT), I was faced with the battle of people plotting against the deck I have had previous success with.  I decided to switch up what I was playing to Ankh Sligh.  The next step was to set the subliminal message that Dragon loses to the deck I normally play so no one would play Dragon, a horrible matchup for Sligh.  This plan worked flawlessly as not one of fourty people at the tourney was with Dragon (as far as I saw).  I also joked around with some people about playing mask with life gain cards and Life Chisel for Dreadnought in order to win with Test of Endurance.  Anyway, enough hijinx on to the deck.

MAIN DECK:

1 Strip Mine
4 Wastelands
3 Wooded Foothills
4 Barbarian Rings
9 Mountains
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Ruby

1 Black Vise
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Fork
3 Gorilla Shaman
3 Fireblast
4 Ankh of Mishra
4 Cursed Scroll
4 Jackal Pups
4 Goblin Cadets
4 Chain Lightning
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Price of Progress

SIDEBOARD:
4 Red Elemental Blast
3 Pyroblast
4 Rack and Ruin
4 Blood Moon

Prior to the event, I did everything I could to make people laugh or be horribly annoyed by me.  Todd was there for the former so I achieved both goals. Also I eat A LOT of Taco Bell.

Round 1: Adam Boyers with BRG BIG SPELLS
Cards seen: Birds, Hippies, Underworld Dreams, Ritual, Factory, Bolt, Wheel, Jar, Burning Wish, Twister, Sylvan Library, Hymn, Monger
I played Adam in the semi-finals of the last tournament.  He is a great guy to play against or even just talk to.  He is the kind of guy I can't imagine being mean.  We had a really exciting match.
Game 1: I bolt early Bird, fearing Monger.  He gets a first turn Dreams in play with tons of mana sources.  On turn four I deplete my hand by tapping four for POP for 6, Fork It, and Fireblast for a total of 16;the same number as his life total.
Game 2: The most exciting game.  Having not seen red Game 1, I side in Blood Moon.  He plays a Hippie but I have burn for it.  He has Underworld Dreams early again.  He also shows me red spells in the form of Bolt and Wheel of Fortune and wins the game when I have him at 1.
Game 3: The least exciting game.  He has two lands and a Sol Ring, I believe.  I Shaman the Ring and he never gets past three lands.  It was anti-climatic.
I wish Adam good luck in the rest of the tourney and eat more Taco Bell.

Round 2: Anthony Fiore with GWU Control/Gro
Cards seen: Library of Alexandria, Land Tax, Ancestral, Back 2 Basics, Scroll Rack, Sol Ring, Mystical Tutor, Werebear, Swords, Trade Routes, Fire/Ice
I felt bad.  Anthony seemed really nervous.  Actually, he said he was just really cold.  My friend Jason lent him his coat.  You are a kind soul Jason.
Game 1:  He plays Double City of Brass to start.  Yeah for me.  I saw little of his deck as I burned him quickly and won in next to no time.
Game 2:  I know so little I side nothing in.  I always feel like have advatage but somehow Anthony stabilizes despite many missed Land Taxes when he had Trade Routes in play.  Anthony drew Zuran Orb and suddently things look grim for me.  He plays a 6/6 Mystic Enforcer and on to game 3 it is.
Game 3: We have 3 minutes left of play.  Being a PTQ regular and given that with 40 people Bill the Duck(Nick) decided to have 5 round of swiss instead of 6, I knew a Draw=a loss for both of us.  He has potenial 4/4s for two as well as the four turn clocks of Morphling (I assume) and Mystic Enforcer.  He was playing slow in the other games so I explain quickly why I think we should play fast and he agrees.  It came to no contest, he just didn't draw the cards he needed for a quick win, and I did.  I might have parised a non-aggressive hand if I were him but he didn't.  Afterword, Hulk3Rules(Brian) told me he felt I was being cheesy.  I explained my stance to him, but I don't think he agreed.  Maybe he just wanted to see a Cter (or maybe me personally) out of top 8 contention.   It is okay as you will see he got the best of me l8r.  I trade WicketSnatcher for a taco and eat it with a smile on my face.

Round 3: Codi Papineau with Mono Blue Control
Cards seen:  Force, Capsize, Ophidian, Counterspell, Mana Leak, Merchant Scroll, Divert, Mystical Tutor
I saw this guy playing early and Divert scared me.  Overall, he seemed not prepared for Sligh.  I saw no Powder Kegs.
Game 1:  I play creatures and Ankh , he counters my spells.  The creatures beat him down.
Game 2:  I side in eight Blasts.  I play creatures, he counters my spells.  The creatures beat him down.

Round 4: Brain Phelon (Hulk3Rules) with Mask
Cards seen: Mask, Dreadnought, Unmask, Factory, Demonic Tutor, Skittering Horror, Tainted Pact, Vampric Tutor, Ritual, Hippie, ConFUKINtagion, Zuran Orb, Yawgmoth's Will, Time Walk, Lord of Tresserhorn.
Brian is a good player in the area whose skill I respect.  I hope he can make it down to my tourney as it is on his Birthday.  He won the Lotus at Game Master in NJ.  Literally, the entire week prior to this event my entire deck and 11 cards of my sideboard were set in stone.  All that was left were figuring out what 4 cards I would play against Brian and his Noughts even knowing he was probably gonna be the only one with Mask.  Rack and Ruin made the cut over Powder Keg, Heath Charm, Shattering Pulse, Meltdown, Ensnaring Bridge, and even Artifact Blast.
Game 1: I play first turn Mountain, Shaman, and Lotus.  Brian Unmasks me and asks why I didn't play other Ankh and a spell with the Lotus.  I reply that I am a Good Player.  Maybe, I shouldn't have said anything cause he clearly realized I was gonna blow up a Mask the second I could.  As a result, he didn't play mask until he had three land. The third of which was a basic that was left untapped to be protect from the Wasteland I had in play.  Very nice Brian.  I die to Dreadnought shortly after.
Game 2: I bring in the Rack and Ruins.  When he Vamprics, I Fork it.  When he plays a masked creature, I bolt it, see it is Dreadnough, then Rack and Ruin.  This game gets crazy.  I try to hold him down with wasteland.  We get parity going.  Then, I get more creatures and burn his hippie.  Then I get him to 7 with two 2 power guys on the board.  He says go.  With no card in hand I draw and am disheartened when I draw none of the billion cards I have that could deal 3 or more to him.  I draw stupid freakin Barbarian Ring.  I attack him to 3.  Then I take out my pen, pull the ring out of the sleeve and change the 2 to a 3.  This was very similar to what Jared (Wicketsnatcher) did in the finals later.  He goes and casts Yawg Will.  People laugh about him playing the Sac Land.  He says he will.  When he plays Zuran Orb and plays the Sac Land and uses it we all laugh.  He wins shortly after that by killing my guys with Contagion and playing Lord of Tresserhorn with his Mask.  Sigh.

Round 5: Aaron Kerzner with Mono Blue Control
Cards seen: Mystical Tutor, Cunning Wish, Force of Will, Time Walk, Ancestral Recall, Ophidian, Braingeyser, Psionic Blast.
Aaron is a really good player who came up all the way from RI.  Winner is in top 8.  Loser is just that.
Game 1:  I get an early Pup.  We trade Force of Wills for Ankhs, Chain Lightings for Ophidians, and when my Pup and second dude threaten his life, he Cunning Wishes.  I imagine all the bad things he could get but only see him Psionic Blast my pup.  He goes to 5.  With one card in hand and tapped out I finish him off with burn.  Wastelands and Price of Progress were minimal in showing their ugly head here.
Game 2:  In come 7 Blasts.  It is the same scenario exactly as game 1 except Blast make things a little easier.  I am wondering where Powder Keg is when my two 2/1s are eating at him.  At 4, he tries a Time Walk which I ask the Judge about Forking.  After what seemed like hours of deliberation and arguments between him, me and many judges/players it is agreed correctly that he would get a following turn then I would gain two.  As I said, he is a smart player and realized this was to his advantage.  He tried leading me into it with a  "you better play that now that you wasted our time" but I didn't bite.  He saw nothing of help on his time walk turn and died next turn.  We talked after the match and he seems like a pretty nice guy.  I hope he can make it down to my tournament.  I found out he did have Kegs.  We play a few games after and he smashes me as each game I drew 6.2 Price of Progresses each game.

CT places 3 of it's eight people in the top 8(and Keith Johnson finished 9th.) YEAH CT.  WE ROCK

Also the top 6 seeds were all Mana Drainers;GO WWW.THEMANADRAIN.COM!!!!!!!

Top Eight is

Top 8:
#1 Brain Phelon (hulk3rules) mask
#2 Nick Tourloukis (BillTheDuck, me) rOSE
#3 Ray Robillard (IAmFishMan) sligh
#4 Eric Spinelli (spin13) reaplace
#5 Dan Richardson (pernicious dude) u/r fish
#6 Jared Demick (wicketsnatcher) donate
#7 Scott L (no TMD account) tnt
#8 Chris K (no TMD account) AoS mono-g

Quaterfinals: Jared Demick with Donate
God I enjoy play against Jared Demick.
Cards seen:  Illusions, Donate, Show and Tell, Demonic Tutor, Sol Ring, Lotus, Enlightened Tutor, Chill, Bargain, Academy Rector, Yawg Will
As said before Jared is a Fun Player, but at the same time a Good Player.  We have similar attitudes about the game.  Play solid, and make the game entertaining for all those around you.  The match, as Jared said, was intense.
Game 1:  Jared beat me game 1.  He had the perfect combo in hand.  I only got him down to 14 before he though 34 was a cooler life total to be at.  Show and Tell Illusions followed by Donate was game.
Game 2:  I side in 11 cards! 9 Blasts and 4 Blood Moons.  I play very slow and cautiously.  Moutain, Pup, go, then don't play anything where I have to leave myself unable to blast.  I had to blast Enlightened Tutored Chill.  I don't see the moon.  The Pup and it's brother brought Jared down to 11 after a Bolt to Academy Rector whom made Bargain, but 6 life later Jared just didn't have the pieces and the game was mine.
Game 3: Also nuts.  Again I play very caustiously.  First turn pup then hold out to Blast.  I forget the first thing I blasted, maybe Ancestral.  I get two Lands on board and Blood Moon in hand when Chill resolves.  I get to 4 mana and Chill number two resolves.  GRRRRRRRRRRR.  Jared goes for the gold.  He plays Show and Tell with three other mana in play and three cards in hand.  Donate and Illusions obviously, but also 2 mysteries, one of which I find out later is Mox Diamond.  He plays Illusions.  I play Blood Moon!!!!  He starts to try to float mana but realizes he can't.  I clench the fist.  So what happens.  I go attack.  He goes, upkeeps, topdecks the land, pitches to the Diamond and Donates.  I am stunned.  And thus the might Jared relives me of a third attempt at the gold.  I root Jared on for the rest of the tourney and applaud like a mad man when he wins.  Go Jared and Go CT.  Jared is gonna give the Mox to a friend.  How savegly nice.  A more deserving person could not have won.

7 of the CT Crew (Me, Eric(Spin 13), Chuck(BigChuck), Scott, Jared(Wicketsnatcher), Keith(CTThespian), Todd(???)) go to Ground Round for dinner.  (Jason(Zhindel) left early.)  Scott and I each eat the most insance Chicken Nachos ever.  Eric flirts with 13 year old girls, Jared and Keith share a whopping 8 Chesse Sticks and we practically drive every other customer out with our loud gross conversations.  

(It is now 3:48 in the morning.  Guess I'll end this report now)

Props:
Jared for winning.
Scott for working hard at improving on your game.  You be tops before you know it.
All my opponents for being good sports.
PHISH!!!;for being Phish
Todd for putting up with me.

Slops:
Chuck for not staying in for the fun of it.
Zherbus for not coming down; I want to finally meet you.

Bye 4 Now
Ray

[wicketsnatcher]

Quote (pernicious dude @ Jan. 13 2003,01:28)That'd be a polite way of pointing out that every time I attacked anyone, I had to spend 15 minutes looking at their deck.

Well, for the record, that actually wasn't a veiled sarcastic comment.  Every time I was Theifed it didn't take forever, and when I had other people do that in the past, they just pulled cards without careful observation.

[pernicious dude]

Quote actually wasn't a veiled sarcastic comment

No sweat, I didn't think it was.
I am a notoriously slow player, though.
I can time out with standard black deck.

Quote Round 2: Anthony Fiore with GWU Control/Gro

I hadn't seen Anthony before, but he was playing ABM, Whirlpool Warrior and all.
I'm pretty sure Mssrs. Dryad and Morphling were not in attendance.
He seemed like a pretty new player, tried to MisDirect Price Of Progress and suchlike.

I don't think you were being cheesy, myself.
First two games took forever and a draw wasn't gonna cut it for either of you.

Todd's Elf deck was pretty cool.
Needs Biorhythm.
I got beat by an Elf deck running Biorhythm last week.
It was like turn 3, I had only manlands on the board, and I was tapped out.
Awesome.

Quote #8 Chris K (no TMD account) AoS mono-g

He hates it when people call it that.
AOS is a blue deck splash green for a Squirrelcraft kill.
His is a mono green Squirrelcraft running 12 Enchantresses.
Great deck, wildly explosive.
He regularly Top 8's with it, but he just doesn't quite seem to be able to push on through.
He should really be online here.
Has Zherbus opened up memberships again?

[spin13]

As I commented at the actual event about Dan's Thieving; there are only two cards in my deck that need to be Thieved for me to lose and he hit neither of them.  In real life this caused a bit of laughter at Dan, until I added that he still beat me.  ::Annoucing Misdirection, targeting laughter and myself::

Wow, I'm a dork.

[Zhindel]

First off, had a great time in Hadley even with my less than glorious 3/2 showing.  Looking forward the next one.

Quote (pernicious dude @ Jan. 13 2003,12:07)

Quote Round 2: Anthony Fiore with GWU Control/Gro

I hadn't seen Anthony before, but he was playing ABM, Whirlpool Warrior and all.
I'm pretty sure Mssrs. Dryad and Morphling were not in attendance.
He seemed like a pretty new player, tried to MisDirect Price Of Progress and suchlike.

Secondly, I drove up with Ant, and he indeed was playing ABM.  Good pull pernicious dude.  While not a new player, he has been playing catch up with 6th ed rules changes,and lack of set knowledge.  He actually started around the unlimited/AN/legends time,  stopped playing shortly after that but kept his cards.  He then played a little during Masques block, then stopped playing again.  Even though Mis-D was in MM, he didn't own one, he had proxied them.  He likes how ABM plays so we will be trying to update it, the list he used was from last August.  He had fun and learned a lot, like leave the BtB SB, not main.

[Mith]

Nice to see a report with U/R Gay Fish doing so well  Congrats on the 2nd place Pernicious. How well did having the Maze of Ith work out for you? I've been thinking of trying them out...but I wasn't sure just how good they'd be. Glad to see you're running Razorfin...he's racked up the most kills in my deck. I also see that you didn't run Standstill...did you miss them at all?

[pernicious dude]

Quote there are only two cards in my deck that need to be Thieved for me to lose

Lotus and Time Walk.

I couldn't remember how the infinite mana part worked, so I was focusing on the kill.
All I remember is that every turn, I was sure you were about to go off.

I'm going to have to start writing notes on my Extract.

Quote How well did having the Maze of Ith work out for you?

Maze Of Ith was neck and neck with the Thief for MVP.
There's so much aggro out there right now.
Saturday it figured heavily in 4 matches, stopping Hyppies and Su-Chi,
and once it did a little dance on my opponent's life total when it locked down a face-up Grinning Demon.
I was holding the Maze in hand when he played it.
The deck used to roll over to Quirion Dryad, Mystic Enforcer, Spiritmonger, any fat that hit the table.
Now you put down the Maze and they groan.
What's one or two more targets for Wasteland when you already have eight manlands?

I quit using Standstill last year in my mono blue build after having it be dead too often.
There's no slots I'd want to give up to it right now.
I think it's a win more card, and I'd rather have more business spells in the deck.

Quote even with my less than glorious 3/2 showing

Ain't nothing wrong with 3/2.
What were you playing?
How'd Anthony end up doing?